Do I have to have a "Talker"?

Remove all ads!

Right now my Sorcerer has 18 Charisma but thats the only diplomat based anything I have. Will I be able to get by if I take Magocracy?

 

Have to? No. You can get by without it, and it won't close off any significant opportunities.

Having a good talking does allow for more dialogue options which can result in your learning more information from others and even gaining more experience in certain situations. Most players include a good talker that at least has diplomacy, but again, you can get through the game without this.

On the other hand, with 6 characters you really should be able to plan 1 character that has some points invested in diplomacy (if not bluff or even intimidate as well).

Also, keep in mind that your talker needs to be selected for dialogues in order for their abilities to be used. You can't always choose who does the talking, like when you enter a new area and an NPC initiates dialogue with whomever in your party they see first.

 

Hmmmmm I am just not sure who can take Diplomat. I only have one sorcerer and Concentraiton and Spell Craft and supposed to be important. I guess I will try and squeeze it in maybe.

 

You could consider adding some CHA to one of your clerics, and taking diplomacy. If you end up doing the Paladin/Cleric of Lathander idea that I proposed, you could invest in CHA a bit with this character and also get the benefit of the saving throw bonuses.

It's ultimately up to you, of course.

 

It's maybe just something to incorporate into one of your parties one day to get a slightly different game experience. It's not essential. Also try doing the game one day with no diplomats and see the difference.

 

IMO having a paladin or monk as the diplomat is a terrible idea (unless you're RP-ing, I guess).

 

Best bonus: 18CHA 14INT for bluffing a store in the Underdark.
Otherwise, only CHA is important. If you have a human sorcerer that takes a few points in Diplomacy, you will do fine.

From cheating in items, I discovered that there are things which are probably bluffed and intimidated off of people, like a magic barrel hoop that summons treasure/monsters. But no one has ever reported how these dialogues work, or where they are. Suffice to say, there are some unconventional options out there, but you'll probably have to play a really cruel bastard in order to find them, and you'd still need to get lucky!

Good CHA and decent diplomacy are fine to traverse the game. Remember that Monks and Paladins sometimes don't accept quest rewards.

 

The difference between having a diplomat or not boils down to a total of few thousand exp, further diminished by the dynamic exp awards system. You'll never miss important loot or anything like that. It's mostly about getting things done "smooth" with the locals vs. slaughtering them on sight.

 

In IWD, you don't typically need them, as everything can be resolved by might & magic, so to speak.

I don't recall a lot of quests that even have the option.

 

This isn't to say that who does the talking can't affect the loot you get. In particular, you can get a special and quite nice crossbow (4 shots/round at +3 to hit/damage, IIRC) from the duergar outpost if you talk to Dragu with someone with high int, I think 17 or so.

-Max

 

Yes, but that particular conversation is all about INT, not your charisma nor your talking skills. Although it IS possible to play a party without anyone having maxed INT, it's a whole lot less of a requirement than having a dedicated diplomat.

 

Yes, stats and/or classes of your current talker (paladin levels!) can have a much bigger impact on dialog options/XP/items gained than the number of skill points he has in Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate.

Just wanted to mention that since some people don't realize that. Using a dedicated human fighter as your talker every time might still cause you to miss out on things, even if he has crazy-high talking skills. Try having different characters do the talking.

-Max

 

Oh, if you have a dreadmaster, make sure it is the one who speaks with Hiephierus when you first arrive at Kuldahar. It might be necessary to activate the dreadmaster quest.

 

In my experience, the key to getting the dreadmaster quest reward is to kill Hierephus last. If you kill him first, I think the scripting engine gets confused by all the other orogs around and can't find your characters to give them the bonus, but I've had consistently good results by saving Hierephus till last.

-Max

 

Well, I was talking about initiating the quest. When Oswald drops you off in Kuldahar, Hiephierus is the first dialogue. Only a dreadmaster can criticise him for being a bad dreadmaster, andthat may be necessary to activat the quest. I'm not sure if that dialogue is required to allow you to get the quest bonus later on, but it's best to be on the safe side.
As for getting the bonus: I had less luck with that. I killed him last, leaving no enemy alive, but it didn't matter. The game gives the +2WIS to my dreadmasters only half the time, and randomly chosen it seems. I had 1 cleric, and 3 other units with dreadmaster mixed in. Doing the batlle over time and again was taking too long, so I had to cheat to get my +2 to all 4 characters.

 

Hmm, too bad. I thought I had it figured out. Maybe I've just gotten lucky. Also, I have only 3 dreadmasters.

For sure though, every time I kill Hierephus first, I get nothing. I've tested that like 20 times.

-Max

 

Your sorcerer with 18 cha already has 4 in all 3 diplomatic skills even without spending a single skillpoints. As the game progresses you'll raise cha level ups and always have eagle's splendor cast on him for additional 2-5 cha so you can have up to 8 in all 3 diplomatic skills without spending a single skillpoint which is enough for most dialogue checks but spending more skill points won't hurt.

 

I think most dialog choices max out around 12-13, but I could be remembering wrong. So, you'll want to have at least 5 skill points in each plus your CHA bonus.

 

Top level skill checks are at around 17 for most skills, except for Knowledge: Arcana that requires 20 for the high end items. There's some mighty tough Bluff checks at the Fields of Slaughter, for example.