Party Reputation

stramoski · Post by **stramoski** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 1:35 am

I feel like a bit of a putz asking this, but I keep seeing people telling to keep my reputation below 18 to hold onto Virconia. How do I keep my rep down? I seem to get rep points automatically in certain game events, and can loose them by slaughtering a little indicriminately. Is there anything else I can do?

Incidentally, I'm also asking because Jaheira keeps whining about "maintaining the balance". I'm a little afraid she'll stop romancing me. I'm I worrying needlessly about that?

Blue Boo · Post by **Blue Boo** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:21 am

Well, slaughtering people is always an option(my personal favorite is to take out the nobles since the peasants already have enough troubles but it is your choice), though you should try and limit it by trying to get isolated people so that you don't get a few dozen people turning red or that will shoot your rep. down to nothing fast since they will all come and jump on your sword.

Another option is changing into the Slayer(though I suspect you are still in chapter 2 or 3, so that probably won't work)

You could try stealing stuff unsuccessfully too.

Also, there is that quest where you can free that hostage in the Bridge disctrict or go and collect the ransom yourself. I think that knocks off two points or so.

Finally, you can just cheat and download one of the mods for keeping everyone in the party happy.

stramoski · Post by **stramoski** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:35 am

Ok

Thanks for the advice... You're right that I'm chapter 3 with this incarnation... Do I just sound that naive?!

I'm trying to keep my BG2 mod-free, just because I've a very addictive personality, and I think I would spoil the game by going nuts with them...

I like the idea of killing some noblemen... Maybe I should donate the spoils to the Ilmater temple to ease my aching conscience...

Thanks for responding so quickly... I thought everyone who wasn't working graveyard would be asleep by now

.

Numinor · Post by **Numinor** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 5:28 am

The people browsing this forum come from all over the world, so there are a lot of different time zones... for example, it's early afternoon here in Germany now

To stay on topic, you can also donate to a temple to raise the reputation if it's too low. For example, your rep is 18 and you kill an innocent. This will lower your rep to 9; now you can donate some gold to a temple until you reach a value you like, say 15 (it's not that expensive, I think there's a table with the costs in the manual).

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 6:43 am

Easiest way to lower rep: find someone in an isolated area whose opinion of you doesn't matter (ie, no merchants), and pickpocket 'em. Do it with a non-thief, so you're caught. Then leave. Alternatively, you can kill 'em, but I frown on the murder of innocent coding.

Second easiest way to lower rep: Turn into the Slayer. I would resist using this if you're a fighter/barb type, since the desire for the steroid advantages of the Slayer will prove irresistable in a number of situations.

Easiest way to raise rep: Donate at temples.

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 9:45 am

Reputation...

If memory serves me correctly, you can also keep Viconia & other evils if the PC has high Charisma (i.e. ring of Human Influence) on when reputation changes - otherwise characters may grouse, but won't leave - except for things like the Keldorn/Viconia fight.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:04 am

I'm not into cheating at all. But one of the (very few) things I don't like about this game is the whole reputation system. I just use a game editor (Shadowkeeper) to keep my rep however high or low I want it.
Also, I don't like Jaheira whining about balance because I don't feel she's a neutral character at all.

Your reputation won't influence your romance.

stramoski · Post by **stramoski** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:01 am

Thanks everyone!!

I appreciate everyone answering so quickly...

I forgot that this was the WORLD-WIDE web, and that this game had an international following.

Also, I completely agree with COOT, but I sympathise with the writers some. I've only seen one book that really shows the Harpers as True Neutral, and that was by Elaine Cunningham. She has some pretty scary depictions of LG Paladins as overly judgemental fanatics.

But I digress...

Jaheira is definitely Chaotic Good.

Thanks again everyone! This is definitely the nicest Forum I've ever run across.

Skuld · Post by **Skuld** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:04 am

I've never tried it before but if you're not romancing Viconia you should be able to drop her and pick her up again. That'll give you a -2 to rep each time I think. I could be wrong though.

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:53 am

[QUOTE=Skuld]I've never tried it before but if you're not romancing Viconia you should be able to drop her and pick her up again. That'll give you a -2 to rep each time I think. I could be wrong though.[/QUOTE]

No, you get the rep points back when you drop her.

Skuld · Post by **Skuld** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 12:21 pm

Like I said, never tried it. But now that I'm thinking about it who would have Viconia in their party and not romance her? Provided your race/sex allows is of course. Oh well, worth a try.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 12:25 pm

I also hate the reputation system. I like to keep a rounded party of neutral, good, and evil characters, so keeping my reputation in the 9-12 area can be tedious. The game itself is more focused for "Good" parties, I feel. You have to save Imnesville and the Umar Hills, rescue Trademeet from the Druids and recover the caravans, kill the evil Firkraag and liberate an innocent he's kidnapped, destroy the Unseeing Eye for the Temples, and do all these quests for the good of Athkatla that bump up your reputation, and it really isn't fairly distributed for parties of different alignments.

As a Chaotic Neutral fighter/mage I can't go to Trademeet and agree to help them, then turn around and begin working for Faldorn and the Shadow Druids to destroy the city as my character would do RP-wise.

Only a few quests actually take away reputation, and that's really if you only screw up. Korgan, my image of what would be a Chaotic Evil NPC, doesn't even lower reputation with his Kaza book quest while Anomen's quest involves killing a noble girl and lowering reputation if you take what was decided to be the "Wrong" path by the creaters of the game.

I think the folks at Black Isle were a bit biased and fell back to Good aligned parties. They focused the quests that way, most NPCs are Neutral-Good (Even Jaheira, a Harper and a Druid, is more Good that Neutral), and the fact that the party you had supposedly ended BG1 with - Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir, Imoen - was Good aligned really kind of unbalances the entire point of Role Playing, I think.

Luther · Post by **Luther** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 1:30 pm

[QUOTE=Coot]
Also, I don't like Jaheira whining about balance because I don't feel she's a neutral character at all.
QUOTE]

I agree. She's definetly Neutral Good. There should have been a point (like in her romance perhaps) that changes her to this alignment.

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 1:50 pm

I'm actually thinking of changing Jaheira from a fighter/druid to a Ranger/Cleric after I do the Druid Grove. (easily done with Shadowkeeper)

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 2:41 pm

[QUOTE=Nightmare]I'm actually thinking of changing Jaheira from a fighter/druid to a Ranger/Cleric after I do the Druid Grove. (easily done with Shadowkeeper)[/QUOTE]

Jaheira is a good fighter druid, but she's incredible as a Ranger/Cleric. It really suits her better, too.

hobitfromhell · Post by **hobitfromhell** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 10:09 am

Although the game is heavily biased towards being good, it does give you the option to do the evil thing in a lot of circumstances.

Probably some spoilers below, just a warning
I can't get that black ink to work like some other people use, so its down aways.

For example, you can betray Garren Windspear for the dead, then go back and kill Firkraag.

You can also side with Bodhi and kill the shadow theives (after doing the quest to help them for the exp.), then go back later and kill Bodhi and co.

In trademeet you can poison the druids font, the lord guy hates you after but you can still get the reward from the genie quest (And you end up with 2 shields of harmony, one from the guildmistress and one from the guy who gave you the potion.)

What else...You can betray the silver dragon, and probably also kill the greater demon as well (haven't tried to kill him yet, will once my evil party gets there though). There is also the evil option for the kidnapping quest to do.

You don't have to do the copper coronet slavery quest, although you can do it and betray Hendak, you only get a suit of plate mail though so its not really worth it.

So, yes, you can be evil, although it helps if you have a lev. 31 sorc (pc) in the party who's gone through the game several times. When your evil you have to fight a lot harder people because the game doesn't want you to fight them.[/color]

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 11:04 am

@hobitfromhell.
To place your message in black go to the menu that says "Color" and select black. it is the first choice on the list. A box will pop up and tell you to write your text in the space given.

If it is a large amount of text it is easier to just put any couple of characters down (like "XX"). When the coding appears in your message box, simply erase the random characters and replace them with the text you want written in black.

Or you can write the following: [color= Black] 'insert text here' [/color].
Note, I have deliberately left a space between the = sign and Black, otherwise it wouldn't show, normally the space should not be there.

Shadrach · Post by **Shadrach** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 11:17 am

Install Throne of Bhaal. Nobody in your party will ever leave, no matter how much they complain. Even when I was wandering around in the Bridge district fireballing the peasantry and Minsc was yelling at me about how he was going to go away... he didn't.

Note: Wandering around in the Bridge district and fireballing the peasantry, while fun and amusing, is not recommended.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 1:42 pm

@hobitfromhell:
About joining Bodhi being the evil path: It depends how you look at it. The Shadow Thieves are evil in their own right. If you join Bodhi, destroy the Thieves and kill Bodhi later you will have wiped out all of the major criminal elements in Athkatla. Not a bad thing.
Also, killing the Demon in the Underdark doesn't seem very evil to me.
Not doing the Copper Coronet slaver quest is pretty evil, but that goes for most quests... and it really doesn't get you anywhere...

Now, killing the Silver Dragon, yes, that's pretty nasty... and so is wearing the human flesh armor...

Shadrach · Post by **Shadrach** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 1:53 pm

You can't kill demons. Not here, at least. Extraplanar beings only die when slain on their home plane. If they're slain elsewhere, they return to their home plane instead of actually dying, and are trapped there for 100 years. Of course, 100 years to a demon or celestial isn't a very long time, so it's not that bad. That's why demons sink into the earth when you kill them, and devas, planetars, and solars turn into a puffy white thing and disperse. They're not dying, they're just going home.

So summoning the demon just to kill it doesn't serve any purpose, other than to waste time. It's a lot better to force it to do something for you. (Watch out, though, he's a pretty ornery guy. Some of the dialogue options lead to your death. Saving beforehand is good.)