In an attempt at doing something different, I'm thinking about playing through the entire BG series and massacring everyone I come across. No particular reason for doing this other than sheer bloodlust and novelty value but I figured it might be quite interesting. So...

As far as the SOA portion of the game is concerned, what's the best way to go about killing everyone. I want to complete as many of the quests as I humanely can so vital NPCs that give quests or move the storyline on in any way are off the kill list (at least until they've served their purpose). I obviously need to side with Bodhi because that way I get to kill the vampires AND the shadow thieves. And I'm hoping to get all the paladin quests from the Order, though I realise this might be tricky because I'll have a reputation of 1 at the time and they might refuse to have anything to do with me.

Also, which NPCs do I take with me? All the goodie types are out because they'll throw a hissy fit once I start dismembering the locals so I guess this leaves me with the likes of Korgan, Viconia, Yoshimo, Jan and...


So... opinions. Anyone done this before and succeeded? Failed? Got so cheesed off with the cowled enforcers jumping them every five minutes that they gave up?

Hm... isn't everybody hostile towards you if your reputation drops below a certain point? If you really wanted to do it, you could either wait until the end of chapter 6, after you've finished all the quests, to do it, or you could just start gating in a lot of demons and letting them do your dirty work. But then, what's the fun in that?

Sounds like a great idea for a screw around run through the game. Wonder how much XP those small children give...

Does everyone turn hostile if my rep's bad enough? I thought it was just certain characters (like the goodie two shoe soldiers and knights of the order). I've never had a reputation lower than 5 or 6 before so I couldn't say for certain.

Might still be worth a try provided the quest-giving NPCs stay neutral. I'd imagine there's a failsafe built into the game that stops them turning hostile because that would wreck the whole game for you.

Just do all the 'good' quests excluding Bhodi then slaughter everyone once you hop on the ship to spellhold apart from the elves. As far as I know the elves at the underdark exit can only only be killed once you have revealed the way to the elven city.

Once in the elven city you can kill everyone and anyone.

My party once got attacked by Cowled Wizards in the Slums District because I accidentally clicked on a Stoneskin spell.

There were at least a half-dozen commoners around, and three children.

My party did not kill a single commoner but the Cowled Wizards, with their errant fireballs, lightning bolts, ice storms, etc wiped the entire area clean of all the puny 3-5 hp peasant cattle.

Bhaal was pleased that day. :evil:

Or at least he would be... if he was still alive. Methinks Beshabba, Talos or Cyric would have enjoyed that reckless destuction and slaughter of innocents a bit more than something that is already dead...

This is definately an interesting idea, and sounds FUN. And I would suggest if you want to keep your reputation up so that you don't get into too much trouble, donate money. You can be evil and take advantage of the rep you gain from donating, (it's like 5k gold to go from 1 to 12 I believe!). I might try this later :D

As far as the SOA portion of the game is concerned, what's the best way to go about killing everyone. If you start killing people in Athkatla while your characters are at low-level, you will certainly be visited by Cowled wizards and they will slay you easily. I don't know whether you were thinking on this but you need higher levels (or cheat) to face the cowled ones. By the way, this playing style is extremely boring and stupidness IMHO.

If you want to succeed with this I think you´ll need to play the game pretty much like you usually do. So that you get all the questexperience. And then start killing everyone in chapter 6. You might want to start killing everyone in Brynnlaw and forward though. Although, be sure not to kill Elhan until you get into Suldanesselar...

Maybe alittle off topic...
I´ve played like this in both Fallout 1 and 2 cuz I heard you´d complete the game if you killed everyone. It sure was pretty boring, as Baronius said. And add to that the fact that the overseer couldn´t be killed in #1. Guess if I was pissed since he was the one I tried to kill last.

So, go ahead m8, but dont count on having to much fun.

Cowled wizards aren't that difficult to defeat at low level. You just have to run off from them and keep running till they exhaust their spells. Then run back and pound 'em.

As to whether it'll be "boring" and "stupid" - who knows? I've only just got out of Irenicus' dungeon so the only people I've brutally massacred so far are evil anyway.

And it certainly makes a change from playing a holier-than-thou character. ;)

Haha, true, and if you wanna modify it a little, you can make it a slaughter of anyone you see, rather than everyone. Killing 'everyone' would end up being boring, cuz you would have to walk around and literally... kill everyone! :p

But if you just walk around and kill people that stand in front of you, it'll sure as hell be funny, (get out of my way Harlet *WHACK*). :rolleyes:

... Hilarious

Someone lock this person up! ;)

But honestly, haven´t you all felt more than once:

"I´d like to kill this arrogant bastard, but I dont want to loose any reputation so he get´s to live."

:confused:

Not really, more like:
"I want to kill this goodie two-shoes but I can't because he is a game-vital NPC."

Just how many game-vital NPCs do you think there are? I wouldn't have said that many. Sure, there are the ones who drive the game on and give quests out but sooner or later the part of the game they're necessary for will be passed and it'll be possible to kill them without fear of rendering the game impossible.

There are some NPC's I like to kill: Anomen, Nalia, Aerie, Jaheira. Can't kill imoen because she is vital to story. Interesting Idea. My party would be Korgan,Yoshimo (SoA), Haer'Dalis,Edwin, Viconia. Guess I'd have to play a fighter of somesort. :evil:

I have no problem at all with cowled wizards - I just make sure I fake talk them as soon as I see them appear. When your rep drops too low, a bunch of guards, wizards and such will appear because apparently they've heard of your bad behaviour and attack. I find them more problematic.

I like to kill Mazzy. She has NO sense of humour :rolleyes: I also like to kill that elf-hater in the Promenade. I like to kill Keldorn too, hehe! He's such a great guy, but a bit stuffy. Especially if I already have Anomen.

On a killing rampage, I'd take VIconia, Korgan, Edwin, Haer'Dalis and Jan. Or swap Haer'Dalis for Yoshimo, to be later replaced with Imoen.

Quote from david w:
Cowled wizards aren't that difficult to defeat at low level. You just have to run off from them and keep running till they exhaust their spells. Then run back and pound 'em.
I suppose you play at Easy or Normal difficulty level.

Most times I do, but I've played through once on Insane difficulty and didn't have that many problems with the cowled wizards. Granted, I didn't take them on till I was in chapter 6 and had a host of great items, but I never found them to be that much of a problem.

Of course there is no problem in chapter 6 and with good items... My advice referred to the low-level and poor party at the beginning of the game. Certainly one can make extra feats of daring or virtuosity which are fine but only until a level (I mean 'level' generally, not XP level): the game is for fun and not a competition in anything.

Progress report:

The slums are completely empty now. Hell, I even massacred a few cats and dogs I found wandering around. This damn halfling led me a merry run because I didn't have any missile weapons and Edwin had exhausted his magic missiles on some peasants but I got him in the end.

The Copper Coronet is gone, too, with just Unger Hilldark still alive and kicking in case I do the improved ore quest from the Unfinished Business mod. Funny how he just stands there calmly while I butcher everyone around here. Not a care in the world, that guy.

Waukeen's Promenade is looking more like a graveyard than a shopping paradise right now. Corpses left, right and centre. Ribald and co are still alive because I'm wanting the cool items you get after visiting the Underdark but he's certainly on my hit list and living on borrowed time.

Oh, and I've had a couple of run-ins with the cowled enforcers. Took two reloads for the first one because I wasn't expecting them but the second one I kind of expected was going to happen: hit 'em with cloudkill followed by several fireballs then sent the fighters in to mop up the survivors. All on Insane difficulty as well which certainly adds an edge to the fights that wasn't there before as these guys hit for some serious damage and a critical could wipe out either Viconia or Yoshimo.

Gold isn't proving as much of an option as I thought it would. Killing the Amnish Centurions that show up with the cowled enforcers proves quite profitable as they each drop a suit of full plate armour which nets 1,800 gold in the Adventurer's Mart. So a single fight with the Centurions got me around 8,000 gold (armour + other items). Not bad for a little mass murdering spree. Spent a few thousand bringing my reputation up from its lowly score of 1 so I don't get jumped every five seconds and the rest is pure spending money.

Tomorrow: clearing out the docks.

You must have such a dick low rep that you probably won't get much money and even if you do then you won't be able to buy much...

Though I would always wait until I was entering Suldenlassarlelresssednel (you know the elf city!) before going on a rampage. One fun thing that I once did was to smash Ribald (jerk plus!). I would run out of the shop and he'd follow, then going in again he'd have ressurected himself and I could do it all over again! I killed Ribald 4 times! Aaaaah warm fuzzies.

The good thing about TOB is that you can unashamedly smash every living (and non) thing in each area because it's a one way street...

No wonder Black Isle made you the spawn of the god of blood...

You must have such a dick low rep that you probably won't get much money and even if you do then you won't be able to buy much...From killing the groups of centurions that show up when my rep drops too low, I'm able to scrounge more than enough gold to bring my rep up to the level where I can afford pretty much anything. And if there's no limit on how many times the centurions attack, there's a limitless amount of gold out there. All I have to do is keep butchering a few innocent folk every time I'm short of cash.

[ February 25, 2004, 23:49: Message edited by: Taluntain ]