Roleplaying or Powergaming?

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Whilst playing Baldurs Gate: SOA, which do you prefer to do? I was just wondering, since I used to powergame; Killing whatever I could, using SK (Eurgh, won't be doing that again), activating cheats, and using every cheater's friend, CTRL-Y; I rushed around, and skipped merrily through any text that came up. But, since I've reinstalled it since I last played (Admittedly a long, long time ago), I have been having a hell of a lot more fun taking my time to go through and explore every part of the game; I talk to nearly everyone I meet, I act like a LG Sorcerer should, I have homes ('Liberated' buildings, such as the Harper Hold), and I even mark things on my map, and colour-code places (Cyan for exits, green for taverns, etc). I even let my characters take a holiday in Umar!

If you've never roleplayed before, I seriously reccomend giving it a try. A little imagination can go a long way.

Sooooo, which do you prefer doing?

 

I tend to do abit of both really. Like, I have never and will never attempt to solo through the game, I always use a 6 member party for the interactions and rarely take any actions that disagree with my principles. But at the same time I wont use classes i know are crap and won't take 'good' actions if i know ill be missing out on something major . In other words I like to be powerful

So a bit of both here.

 

I always play good, primarily because I find playing evil to be too dangerous (pickpocketing always has that 1% chance of failure, and if you kill too many innocents, you're dead) and in that sense I role-play.

But sometimes I also like to get all the items and stuff that I can, and I tailor my party along powergaming lines, so I'd say a little of both. Sometimes, I just want to rush the game, so I hack everyone up to the max, equipt them via the console with a Crom Faeyr apiece as well as other goodies, and then I rock and roll! I usually do that if I want to test out a romance or a player interaction or a kit I've never tried before.

 

I always roleplay, as some people may have realised. BG2 is great if roleplayed, so I applaud you Grim Rippor!

 

I also roleplay, I'm DM in pen&paper and so I like to interact with everything, speak to everybody and explore everywhere.

I have a bad guy. To play selfish and looking for my benefit doesn't mean not doing "good" tasks, only profiterable ones. Also doesn't mean to kill everybody headless.

I destroyed the cowled wizards because I wanted to demonstrate that I had de power to challenge a society of mages and that nobody tells me what to do.

I rescued Imoen because I felt her important in my character's childhood and so he will consider her as a friend (nothing to do with killing her right away!!"

I dostroyed both Keldorn's and Anomen's life (not killing them, but leaving them mourning and sensing their foolishness) because I couldn't bare thier false kindeness and damned proud.

I slaughtered Irenicus with my character alone and lonely in a toe-to-toe combat "this is our bussiness, Joneleth..). Both transformed in the Slayer ripping each other (by the way, I counted it took me 500 hitpoints before he fell..)

And so on, the relationships with your party, and the person you romance with (hurray, Vicky!!). All this makes the game more enjoyable.

Two things; one: To maximice the stuff of your party isn't powergaming, it's there, after all

Two: to go through "the bad guy's" path is worst than the good. For example, you are given MUCH less xp if you kill Adalon than if you give her the eggs... not fair (well, after all, we got a nice stone statue..)

 

I'm a real RP'er.
I RP'ed through the game about 6-8 times with an assassin. Yeah, I know, that's a lot for one single character, especially considering that the last three games sorta went the same. I just like assassins Besides that, I guess finished the game with every character class while Role Playing. Power Gaming just isn't my thing.

@Maincarast'è
Yeah, it's really too bad that they've made the evil way less rewarding.

 

I found the evil way just as rewarding. But then again, I roleplay totally. I've played evil through twice, once with a LE Mage who delighted in torture and tricking people, she was good at that. The second a CE Beserker who regrets what he has become but cannot turn back his evil path.

 

When I first got BG1, I powergamed my way through, and thought the game was too easy(maybe because all my characters had AC -8 at the time, and everyone were with their best weapons). After that, I didn't play BG for a while, but next time I picked it up I thought it might be fun to roleplay, since that "IS" IMO what you are supposed to do with an RPG. And since then, I've been RP'ing to the max
End of story...

 

Really? I also roleplay totally, roleplayed my assassin six times through just because I liked (and still like) the character. But that doesn't really make a difference.

1. There are some situations in which the developers kind of push you in the "good" direction, with dialog options which are all either good or neutral. That's just too bad.

2. There are also situations in which the developers push you in the good direction because otherwise it would be bad for your character development. Making the evil way hard(er) by sending Cowled Wizards at you (not that hard actually) is understandable but making the evil way hard by rewarding it with less exp or items isn't fair.

 

I'll do some powergaming - roll stats, go for the best equipment, etc. But I also do some roleplaying - stay true to alignment (although personally I find it difficult to play evil - it's just not my style), use NPC's, avoid cheats/cheese, and so on. So a bit of both.

 

I powergame the very first part: I insist on the best possible stats for my PC. Other than that, I roleplay. I doubt I could make it through a game with an evil, or even neutral, character. I do create occasional items and give them to my characters, which could be "powergaming" -- but there's always a roleplaying element to it (like, Gorion gave you this ring). They're all PC/NPC specific. If I could program, I'd make my characters complete quests to get these items.