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Aribeth a bad shopkeeper? *SPOIL?*

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:12 am
by ladyblack
A small point. When I go to use sell items to Aribeth, her reaction is unfavourable. I don't understand why. Is it an automatic thing, like Paladins only like people with high Charisma or something? Other shop keepers seem to like me fine (not all of them) and I've refused her gold for all the regents (because I cheated slightly). I must be vewy, vewy good by now. I know I don't need the gold, I would just like to know what she has against me.

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 7:08 am
by Brynn
Relax, it's nothing personal :) A merchant's reaction depends on your Appraise skill points - the higher it is, the better. I believe she has scores in Appraise as well, and the combination of her and your skill points will give the reasult "favorable" or "unfavorable".

Btw, usually asking questions about certain places or quests is considered a spoiler --> which is best to hide in black text so it only appears when highlighted <--. "Technical" matters like this won't tell anything about the outcome of a quest or action, so it's safe to discuss it freely :) Still, better safe then sorry :)

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:14 pm
by Stilgar
[QUOTE=Brynn]Relax, it's nothing personal :) A merchant's reaction depends on your Appraise skill points - the higher it is, the better. I believe she has scores in Appraise as well, and the combination of her and your skill points will give the reasult "favorable" or "unfavorable".

Btw, usually asking questions about certain places or quests is considered a spoiler --> which is best to hide in black text so it only appears when highlighted <--. "Technical" matters like this won't tell anything about the outcome of a quest or action, so it's safe to discuss it freely :) Still, better safe then sorry :) [/QUOTE]
I believe that since apraise was added in one of the expensions, EVERY merchant in the original story has an unfaforable reaction towards you.
If i'm wrong someone please correct me.

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 9:09 pm
by DragonKin
I'm not sure, but I think that you need to improve your appraisal skill in order to get a shopkeeper to 're-roll' their reaction to you and hence have a chance of improving how you're viewed.

Of course, this could work both ways ......

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 10:33 pm
by Xandax
[QUOTE=Stilgar]I believe that since apraise was added in one of the expensions, EVERY merchant in the original story has an unfaforable reaction towards you.
If i'm wrong someone please correct me.[/QUOTE]

I would tend to agree with you on this.
I doubt appraise dose much in the OC, but only in SoU and HotU. although I've not tested it myself - it should be easy to figure out.

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:25 am
by Brynn
er... I'm playing the original game and I can change my Appraise skill points - I have the extensions installed - ...

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 3:18 am
by Xandax
Yes - the skill is there, but are the merchants responding to it? Does it have an effect? That is the question.

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:25 am
by Brynn
I can't tell for sure. But if I can change it... What sense would it make to allow the player waste valuable skill points on a skill that doesn't even work...? Now that I think of it Aribeth gives "unfavorable" most of the time, though... I'll have to go home and check it out...

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:48 am
by Xandax
[QUOTE=Brynn]<snip>But if I can change it... What sense would it make to allow the player waste valuable skill points on a skill that doesn't even work...? <snip>[/QUOTE]

Well - mostly because that the skill where added with the SoU, and to have it function with the merchants in NwN OC, you'd need to change the code in those modules.
That is why I doubt the skill works in NwN OC (it should naturally work in SoU and HotU).

It is similar with craft and you not finding any materials to use for crafting in NwN OC.

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:12 am
by Brynn
Oh! So that's the reason I can't change my armor appearance no matter much points I give to that skill! Well, that sucks... This is not fair... The skill description doesn't say it won't function. It should be inactive then. :mad:

Well, back to the topic - what should affect the merchant's reaction in NWN, then? Alignment obviously doesn't. (It was so easy to follow in BG - the better you are the less you pay, that's all :) )

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:20 am
by ladyblack
Wow! Discussion! I think I'll just put spoilers on every thread - even if I don't then other people can.... :-)

OK, her appraise skill is probably dreadful, not sure what it depends on, but all my points are going on Concentration. However, I did have one favourable reaction, I think it was the guy who isn't the magical smith in The Shining Knights and Amour (something like that). It was either him or Marok himself. So basically if your appraise skills are low, you percieve everyone as being unfriendly? I guess all adventurers are going to be semi-paranoid about everyone unless they've learnt to "read" them.

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:00 pm
by Admo
Well I guess it won't be Marok, since in game terms I don't think he's a "merchant" as such. You do all your deals through his forge and through dialogue.

Brynn, it is a little bit silly, but if you were, for instance, taking a character through all 3 games (make them all a bit easy, but hey) it might be worth chucking a few points in then. A few moody merchants in SoU at least! Guess they just forgot to update the OC merchants when they added it in the expansions. Not that much of a big deal though surely?! :)

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:31 pm
by Volk
In version 1.62 of NWN the apraise skill is active even if you dont have expansions installed, it cannot be increased but it still gets the charisma bonus to rolls, therefore characters with good charisma get a better chance at getting a favorabile reaction from merchants, i know for sure i got Aribeths disposition to favorabile with me before, im not sure if race itself has anything to do with that other the ones who get a - to charisma.

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:29 pm
by Xandax
Appraise is tied to Intelligence - not charisma. (according to the SoU manual).

Think I'll have to test "appraise in OC" out when I get the time :)

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:24 am
by ladyblack
Great, I have a choice, I'm either a very ugly Cleric, or a very stupid one. Actually, it *is* my intelligence. It's 10, so if I take a hit to it, I talk like The Hulk ("Me smash"). That would explain why even after having found ten lots of them and probably having been shot by them, she still can't recognise a Vampire regenerative arrow. Which I find annoying, I feel that the game could let you recognise them immediately if you have high intelligence, and take a while if you don't. Just not eight levels worth of playing. Psst! How about I just Flame-strike Aribeth to teach her a lesson? Oh wait, she's more powerful than me, darn it.

My Appraise skill has an incredible total of 0 points. I guess I'm going to be "Ugly" and "Unfavourable" for a while......

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:45 am
by Zel Greywords
[QUOTE=ladyblack]It's 10, so if I take a hit to it, I talk like The Hulk ("Me smash") That would explain why even after having found ten lots of them and probably having been shot by them, she still can't recognise a Vampire regenerative arrow. [...][/QUOTE]

*lol* Image Great point you have there. And those Vampiric Arrows -really- are the prime example. :D

As for talking... wasn't it a score lower than 9 that means your character cant talk properly? :D I still wonder about all the NPCs by the way... since according to the AD&D DM guide, compared to average townsfolk adventurers are already kinda special and superior by default. I.e. even the weakest adventurer with his 10-scores already is stronger, tougher and smarter than the average "level0" NPC. So that'd mean the average townsfolk would have devastating Int scores...

...then again, they always say the same things and -never- remember that you already talked to them about the exactly same things twenty times before... which WOULD speak in favor of that theory. Image ;)

-Zel

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:09 am
by ladyblack
I think it's below 8 you can't talk properly, but then you only have to have one creature get lucky with a spell, and you end up unable to string a sentence together. It very embarrasing! Here's my wonderful character so strong, so invulnerable, so able to kill with spells and a mace, and then some grunt comes along who happend to get through my spell resistance and....well, no wonder Aribeth doesn't like me!

I wonder why the villagers don't all talk in simple words? All the Druids, for example, talk really well and the guys in the inn can be forgiven as they are drinking some incredible brews :D . Yes, I always do the drinking challenge with those two guys who don't take advantage of the fact that I fall on my delicate derriere when I join in.....Anyway, perhaps we should campaign that we should all start with an Intelligence of at least 15 (and then get to add to it or not). Make it easier for the magic users too (I would be happy!).... :-)

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:18 am
by Brynn
Well, I made a huge mistake when generating my char and realized it only later - I didn't give ANY points to her Intelligence so she has 8. That's awful. At first I thought she was talking like that just for fun, but at the second conversation I knew sg was very very wrong :) So I keep wearing Intelligence boosting rings and helmets, that way I can talk normally, at least :) (Didn't want to recreate her).

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:28 am
by Zel Greywords
So there actually are "dimwit dialogue trees" in NWN!?

*lol* Sure I know that it is a given for paper&pen, but I thought ladyblack was just joking when she mentioned actual consequences within NWN...
Since in NWN, I always considered that INT thing as nothing more than a leeway for more roleplaying (and the dumb-talk note during char creation as a hollow threat), but that the developers actually went through the whole trouble of implementing Hulk-speech... priceless. :D

-Zel

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:44 am
by Brynn
But see how it helped the game. Withouth Hulk-talk it would've taken me even more time to realize that sg is wrong with my char :)

Btw, Zel, this name sounds strangely familiar for me :) Aren't you, by any chance, a spellcaster, who has a face of stone and skin? :) Zelgadis-san? :eek: