POLL: Chose the trials

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Your foppish poll-meister back once again.

I was thinking that since most people play good aligned parties, they are forced into taking the good path during the trials in Hell to get the Tears of Bhaal. Doing otherwise would at the very least be very poor role-playing, and the alignment change can even cause a loss of class if you are playing a paladin, ranger or druid. (Do druids become evil clerics then?)

So, this poll asks you to consider what choice you would make based on the reward you would get. Pretend that there are no alignment changes based on your choices, and pretend that you don't have to role-play. Of course, if you were truly role-playing your PC wouldn't know what the rewards would be either, so obviously you aren't role-playing when making your selections. Simply chose which you would rather have based on what would be more useful to you in ToB.

I will describe the choices below in detail, because the poll limits the length of what you're asking, so I will have to abbreviate a lot of stuff for the actual questions. I will also tell you my opinion.

PRIDE - good (dagon gives you the tear)- immunity to +1 weapons and normal weapons.
evil (kill the dragon and take the tear)- +2 to constitution, Robe of the Evil Arch-Magi, 3 assorted 9th level mage scrolls.

My choice - No question - evil. Almost everything you fight in ToB has a magical weapon of greater than +1 enchantment, or in the case of dragons, hits as if it had a magical weapon of greater than +1 enchantment. So the good path really gives you nothing IMO. The magical treasures and the XP's are just a bonus as far as I'm concerned, and a +2 to constitution is extremely useful if you're playing a fighter or barbarian, and not so bad if you're playing anything else.

GREED - good (give the genie the sword) - +10% magical resistnace
evil - (kill the genie with the sword) - +2 bonus to armor class, and you get to keep the sword

My choice - good. Magic resistance is extremely important. And the magical damage and effects you will avoid by having it will far exceed the bonus you get for improving your armor class by 2. I would argue that resistances are far more important in ToB than what your armor class is. Unless you really want to use the sword, I don't know why you'd want the evil reward.

SELFISHNESS - good (sacrifice yourself) - +2 to saving throws, but lose 75,000 XP, 2 HP and 1 DEX.
evil - +15 hitpoints (assume you can resurrect the party member - just switch difficulty to easy)

My choice: evil - no question. I already have saving throws in negative numbers, so what's the benefit of getting a bonus of 2? An additional 15 HP isn't that great of a reward, but anything is better than losing experience, hitpoints, and a dexterity point.

FEAR - good (don't take the cloak) - +20% resistance to fire, cold and electricity
evil (take the cloak) - +200,000 XP and the Cloak of Bravery

My choice: good. Like I said before, resistances are so important in ToB, and 200,000 XP really isn't that much. It's the equivalent of not even one full level. I'll take the resistances any day. I usually cast resist fear, kill the beholders, and take the cloak.

WRATH - good (let Sarevok attack you) - +1 Wis and +1 Cha
evil (attack Sarevok out of anger) - +1 to strength, and +1 to primary attribute (which is wisdom if you're a cleric or druid, intelligence if you're a mage or sorcerer, dexterity if you're a bard or thief, and strength for everyone else)

My choice: evil. Because you always get a point in something useful. Unless you are a cleric or druid, the good reward is rather meaningless. The wisdom bonus won't help you, and you have items to raise your charisma. Especially if you are playing a fighter, barbarian or monk, the evil reward is much better, because you get +2 to strength (everyone gets +1 to strength, and a fighter's, barbarian's and monk's primary attribute is strength). But even thieves, bards, wizards and sorcerers would much prefer a bonus to either dexterity or intelligence, instead of a bonus to charisma and wisdom.

Poll Information
This poll contains 5 question(s). 35 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Chose the trials (35 votes.)

PRIDE (Choose 1)
* Immune to +1 and non-magical weapons - 26% (9)
* +2 to CON, 22,000 XP (killing dragon) and assorted magical items - 74% (26)

GREED (Choose 1)
* +10% magical resistance - 74% (26)
* +2 (bonus) to armor class, and Blackrazor - 26% (9)

SELFISHNESS (Choose 1)
* +2 saving throws, -2 HP, -75,000 XP, -1 Dexterity - 34% (12)
* +15 HP - 66% (23)

FEAR (Choose 1)
* +20% resistance to fire, cold and electricity - 89% (31)
* +200,000 XP, Cloak of Bravery - 11% (4)

WRATH (Choose 1)
* +1 Wisdom, +1 Charisma - 14% (5)
* +1 Strength, +1 to Primary Attribute - 86% (30)

 

Here are my choices:

PRIDE - Evil, becaust my constitution is usually low, and 9th lvl spells don't come by very often.

GREED - Good, I'd rather have the MR than a sword I never use.

SELFISHNESS - Good, XP is easy to get back, and my PC usually has around 18 DEX, so I think the sacrifice is worth it.

FEAR - Evil, look! I just regained my XP and then some, pluse, at this point in the game, my resistances are usually pretty high...not to mention a lot of items in ToB add to them.

WRATH - Evil, I'd rather have the +1 to strength and +1 to the prymary attribute.

Hmmm...since my score it 3/2, does this mean I should start playing evil every time I go through the game?

 

right aldeth, but i take the sword + the AC bonus. in ToB you need the AC bonus 10times more than some MR (if you are closecombatant). and i never had a party were noone could use blackrazor.

 

SELFISHNESS is the only one I choose differently.
To me, +15 to hitpoint isn't anything big.But with -2 to saving throws I feel much safer.Not that I fear the damages done by offensive spells but I fear being holded,charmed,confused or the likes.
Although it has a penalty of -75,000 XP,-2 HP and -1 DEX,its worth it.

 

Well, I would choose the same as Aldeth, provided that I was not going to use the old hasted kidnapped party member escapes sacrifice test before the hold person spell is cast ploy. Yeah it is cheesy but quite frankly I hate sacrificing stats and I don't like sacrificing party members from a role playing perspective even if I can resurrect him/her.

 

Same as you Skywind. My char only has 14 Dex, so it really doesn't matter...

But I should really take thos 15 HP's, they're needed.

 

For Selfishness test try the following.

1) Leave only one mage in your party.
2) Mage casts contigency set to dispel magic on self when helpless
3) Start test
4) Since you have no other members, mage will be held by the demon
5) Since mage is now helpless, dispel magic will be cast and mage will be freed.
6) Open last door with mage, losing only experience on the good path. Leave test area evil doors (would not matter anymore).

 

@ Bloodtitan

If you are using Blackrazor, then by all means go that path. However, I definitely disagree with the statement that you need 2 more points in armor class 10 times more than you need 10% more magic resistance. A bonus of 2 for armor class means you will reduce the chance of being hit by 10%. However, many of the boss's have THAC0's that are so low, you could be walking around with AC -15 and they'll still hit you almost every time. Just thinking of how much magic is used in ToB, and the fact that magic resistance reduces the amount of damage you take from direct damage spells, to me you save yourself more damage by taking the magic resistance than the bonus to armor class.

For those of you taking the saving throw bonus in selfishness, all I can say is do you really need that bonus? For most characters, at that point in the game your saving throws are extremely low (in fact most of the time they are negative numbers) meaning you'll make your saving throw every time. If you aren't going to fail anyway, does the bonus really help you? I've said 15 HP is no big deal, and I stand by that. But getting something that may help a little bit is better than getting something that won't benefit you at all.

 

with an imported char from bg1 and especially with the ease of use mod you can easily have ac -20, going to -22 then. only dragons will hit you constantly now.

 

Actually, it also depend on how each of us play the game. Maybe person(A) can handle physical combat easily but is not so talented for a spell-based combat, so he will most likely prefer the saving throws than the hit points. While person(B) can handle magical combat easily but is not so talented for a physical combat, so he will most likely prefer the hit points than the saving throws.

 

My char isn't good at any of those two, so I kinda have a problem...

 

@ Skywind and Bloodtitan

We just have different playing styles. Bloodtitan prefers to give all of his AC enhancing equipment to a single character at the expense of the others to have a single, nearly un-hittable character with an AC around -20. I spread my stuff around so that all of my characters are usually between -7 and -12 during ToB. If you're looking for one super character who is leading the way into every fight because it is unlikely he will be hit, then I totally support going for the to AC points.

 

PRIDE-evil. While the constitution means absolutely nothing (I always play characters where the extra 2 constitution won't give any extra health) the scrolls can be useful against the slayer if your mages are low level. I might take the good one because of the coolness factor and that I never need the items.

GREED-good. Let's face it, Magical Resistance is just plain cool and the AC doesn't help much.

SELFISHNESS-good. Dex doesn't matter much, as I tend to keep it high enough that my AC is unaffected by the change and unlike what Aldeth said, I never have saving throws in the negatives (at least not save vs. spells).

FEAR-good. The resistances are invaluable, especially if they make you immune to things.

WRATH-good. The good reward is actually much better if you're playing a sorcerer. I'd rather have a better shot at making my wish work than a point of strength that's irrelevant.

 

@ Rastor

You know, I never thought of that point with getting wisdom for your wish spell. Interesting. I would agree with that for a sorcerer, but with a mage, unless your intelligence was already 19, I'd probably go for the evil award to get strength and intelligence rather than charisma and wisdom. 19 intelligence allows you to memorize all of the spells for a certain spell level, whereas anything less you won't be able to get all of them. Also, you need an 18 in intelligence to cast 9th level spells.

 

Since I always roleplay a char that is just me in RL I don't care much for the rewards, I always choose the GOOD paths.

 

Oh! I'm just wondering what paths will I really go for if it's a real life situation?

 

@ Aldeth

Actually, if you're playing a cleric, the +1 wis and cha is pretty much the exact same as the +1 strength and wisdom (for wis being your prime stat, of course). Since if you're playing a cleric, you can make the safe assumption that he'll be weilding the crom feyr, his strength will be set to 25, so a +1 to strength is pretty meaningless. Of course, as far as I know, a +1 to charisma is pretty meaningless too, but I suppose you could get it up to 19 that way (20 if you went through BG1), and that would make your items cheaper. There are so many ways to augment your strength in BG2 that getting a bonus to it is not all it's cracked up to be.

 

I had an interesting experience with one of the tests. Can't remember which one it was, but I was a CG ranger. I chose the evil path by accident and became CE ranger . Not a CE fallen ranger. Is this right?

 

CE ranger? You mean NE?

Anyway, it's a bug.

 

No you don't.

I never found that I needed any more than 18 int, as quite a few spells at each level are basically worthless, so you don't need to memorize them all, and there's plenty of potions to help in memorization.

I'm honestly not sure which is better if you're taking a standard mage. I'd still take good for the wisdom bonus, but it's a much closer contest.