Evil Partys

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Originally posted by crymson77: Okay, Okay... I absoultley agree with most of you, but can at least someone back me up on the fact when you take a truely evil course the amount of XP you get, it is at least less, no matter how nominal the difference... And please remember I'm talking Chaotic evil no grey area stuff... If you choose to help the Dryads and get the acorns, gou get 9500 XP. Like I said the only other option is to not help them which gets you none... Now we agree that Good characters can can rationalize bad deeds and conversley evil characters can do the same, but that only works to a point. An evil character might do a good deed for the promise of gold but the dryads offer no gold and my guy dosn't care if the are pretty. The character I'm playing is chaotic evil to the bone. My dude dosen't want to help the Dryads... He's hell bent on gaining gold, magic items and control over his god given powers and he would much sooner kidnap them and keep them for his own, than help them... Obviosly there are different levels of evil and some characters might do things others wouldnt, but come on, a truly chaotic evil character simplely wouldn't give many of these quests the time of day especially when a measely 500 or 1000 gp is offered let alone when its for charity. Characters will do things for gold, but I dont personally belive they would do things just for XP. My dude has never heard of XP. Hes just chillin, wandering arould the Forgotten Realms. He only dose things that are in his nature, he acts on instinct alone. I maybe able to raionalize away anything but if I am to really role play correctly then I must do what he would do, not whats gonna get some decient XP. Now the big quests can obviosly be role played almost anyway with suitable solutions for any alignment, But I still believe that if you added up all the quests that evil charcters would do and all the quests that "most of them" wouldnt do, the number for quests they wouldnt do would be substatintialy lower... I'm willing to bet that if the entire game were set up to change you alignment based on your actions through out the whole game, an evil character would quickly see his alignment start heading up the good chart... Come on now Ive typed alot, some one has to at least see where I'm coming from even if they dissagree...

Wellll... I do agree that the game does steer you in a good-aligned direction. However, I am going to side with the "If you genuinely roleplay good, you won't get as much experience" camp. Think about it. Think about the fact that a real good-aligned character would have nothing to do with golden bones that "radiate evil like a foul stench" or breaking into heavily armed compounds and slaughtering the inhabitants for no good reason or slaying great beasts that radiate goodness like a silvery halo or aiding common folk in any way, shape, or form. I think it might be interesting to see which path reaps the greater rewards in terms of experience. Think of all the loot and experience you miss out on when you don't snoop and kill.
However... who cares? It's not like I haven't hit experience caps playing both good and evil characters. The paths are different, but they lead to the same power.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Why are you so fixated by the neligible loss of XP? Even if being Evil meant one million less XP( and this is a gross exaggeration), you will still be able to hit the XP Cap for the game anyway...

Whatever you may lose in XP( and again, I repeat, the difference is not noticable), you gain in other forms of tangible benefits. Nobody who ever completed the game by taking the Evil path ever said, "Oh noes, I failed to hit the XP Cap by 4000xp. This sucks." The fact of the matter is, you WILL hit the XP Cap, unless you purposely skip a lot of major quests.

It is a give and take situation. The path of Evil can't have all these other side-benefits with no penalties. If it did, then people will be complaining why the path of Good is no good( no pun intended).

No matter which path you take, there will be some constraints. 9500xp is what? Two and half Umber Hulks? 1.2 Vampires? Yeesh. An extra random encounter or two will basically solve the so-called XP difference.

Both paths have their pros and cons. The path of Good is not all "Wee! We have everything!" either, you know.

Cheers.

ADD] And just FYI. The big Silver A. alone is worth 54,000xp. Yeah sure... the path of Evil is so screwed in the XP department... Remember. Give and take.

[ 07-27-2006, 02:18 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

[Uruk'hai Gard]

Yes, but is it SO important to get every exp that is available? I think that your evil characters will easily get as high level as needed to complete the game even if you miss some exp. And its all the more rewarding to play without any compromises, its real role-playing. Yes, good characters may have more exp in the end but so what...

[crymson77]

Originally posted by Illumina Drathiran'ar: I am going to side with the "If you genuinely roleplay good, you won't get as much experience" camp.

Anyone can make the argument that the XP levels for good vs evil characters may be pretty similar but to say that role playing a good character get less XP, I think, is completely outragous. I agree the silver dragon is one of the few quests a non evil character misses out on and hes a nice chunk of XP, but I still think the quests that evil characters wouldnt even waste there time with are far fewer than the ones that they would. Good characters can do almost all of the quest. Now weve seen several lists of the quests good characters wouldnt want to touch, but lets see a list of quests that evil poeple wouldnt do, or the list of quests that good characaters would do. I'll bet the discrepency is large. I'd ramble off a bunch, but my short term memory is pretty fuzzy if you know what I mean...

The game is about being a hero and heros help people even when there is no gain to themseleves, and truly chaotic evil characters only care about themselves.
They arnt goning to help the dryads, there not going to help many of the random shleps around the city. They just dont care. I know the character I'm currently playing could care less about most of the quests around town.

[ 07-27-2006, 02:52 AM: Message edited by: crymson77 ]

[crymson77]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: Why are you so fixated by the neligible loss of XP?

Not so much fixated as I am just opening the discussion. Just an observation... And I'm feeling a little better now that a few poeple have validated my concerns of the descrepency albeit negligable...

[ 07-27-2006, 02:53 AM: Message edited by: crymson77 ]

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

You're still looking at evil from a static point of view. Evil folk would jump at the chance to be rewarded by the wealthy De'Arnise family or the wealthy town of Trademeet.

[Neo the Warrior Cat]

Here's the way I see it in a nutshell:

Good - Serve others/common good

Evil - Serve themselves.


I can see an evil character justifying helping the town of trademeet, the rewards are pretty high.

Look at it from a character point of view, not an "This alignment is a binding contract from which the character may not deviate, even if they have a valid RP reason to do so".

[Klorox]

So, just for discussions sake, what alignment will allow you to do every quest?

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Originally posted by Klorox: So, just for discussions sake, what alignment will allow you to do every quest?

I disagree with the nature of the question (again, alignment is a suggestion, not a rule). For argument's sake, though, let's say Chaotic Neutral. They can do whatever they feel like.

[ZFR]

Originally posted by Klorox: So, just for discussions sake, what alignment will allow you to do every quest?

For argument sake, every alignement can do any quest.

Name me any quest and any alignement and I'll tell how it can be roleplayed.