Bandit Camp Infiltration, Baldur's Gate Reactivity (Part I: Choice-Based)

Bandit Camp Baldur's Gate

By cRPG Reactivity, we are referring to how the cRPG campaign reacts to the cRPG build, or the player's role-playing choices, in a meaningful or flavorsome way. It's when we feel like our character matters, or that our choices matter, in the gameworld.

Baldur's Gate's reactivity is focused primarily on gameplay (centering around combat difficulty, party composition and exploration) rather than build-based or dialogue-based reactivity, but there are actually a few solid examples of these latter two, and the purpose of these write-ups is not only to showcase them, but also to suggest ways in which they could have been improved.

Reactivity as it Pertains to a Role-Playing Choice

This first post covers the infiltration of the Bandit Camp in Chapter Three, which constitutes an example of reactivity as it pertains to a role-playing choice. So, Charname has already dealt with Mulahey in the Nashkel mines (recap pic) and is ready to take it to the bandits, who are disrupting trade by raiding merchant caravans, and whose headquarters are hidden away somewhere to the north, in the woods.

A note from Tazok to the mage, Tranzig - which points the way to Larswood and Peldvale - is found on the corpse of the latter at the beginning of Chapter Three. 

At this point the bandit camp is marked on the world map, accessible from the Ankheg-plagued farm to the west.

There is another way to get the bandit camp map-marked, independent of Tranzig. Thanks to Tuth for reminding me of the Deke encounter on the Coast Way. For more info, please refer to Tuth's comment and screencaps of the dialogues here and here.

Now, in the Baldur's Gate walkthrough, the player has three supported options in tackling the Bandit Camp: either storm the camp directly in a full-frontal assault (thereby slaying numberless murderers and highwaymen), stealth in by means of invisibility (unbeknownst to all), or infiltrate the bandit ranks by bluffing bandit NPCs Raiken of northeast Peldvale or Teven of central Larswood. In regard to this third, it doesn't matter which contact we go through, but the dialogue is slightly different depending on who it is. This is a nice touch when one considers the writers could have just been lazy and copy-pasted the Raiken/Teven dialogues, and certainly could have gotten away with doing so.

So, while exploring the forest of Peldvale, and fighting the bandits currently raiding merchant caravans there, the party bumps into Raiken, a non-hostile bandit:

The experience point reward for this bluff is a paltry 400 XP. While that covers what we would have yielded from the kills, it is not enough for bypassing a fight, imo. The reward should have been around 2,000 XP. There is no Charisma check for the bluff but there is a Strength one.

Anyway, having bluffed Raiken, the party is time-lapsed to the Bandit Camp in the north. Headed up by the half-ogre, Tazok, the camp is filled with human, hobgoblin and gnoll bandits of the Chill and Black Talon clans. The bandits are beating up captured merchants, cooking up others, and there is in-fighting and distrust among the ranks that would threaten to spiral out of control if they didn't fear their masters.

Upon arrival, Raiken's intelligence is immediately questioned for bringing the party to the camp:

The ogre enforcer for the Iron Throne then steps in:

Here is a breakdown of the array of dialogue responses offered to the protagonist in the above segment. First, Raiken:

Now, Tazok:

As you can see, it's pretty hard to stuff up our selections if we're going for an infiltration solution to the segment. Just tell the bandits what they want to hear. It's obvious that we shouldn't tell Raiken/Teven we're merchants: the bandits are raiding merchant caravans; merchants are their victims and they'd try and make us their next one. 

It's also obvious that we shouldn't mention Mulahey to Tazok: not many would know about Mulahey's recent demise, and a reminder of such a loss would sting Tazok at this point, and make him lose it. 

Many of the responses are pretty funny, too. Of course, provocation in the Tevin/Raiken dialogues results in the commencement of hostilities. However, in the case of insults thrown at Tazok, the infiltration option does not break:

-- Because, yeah, Tazok demands a duel with the party. Behold! Magic Missile spam!!!

Having knocked off about 70 of Tazok's hit-points, he taps out and takes his leave:

Thus, the party is permitted to explore the camp as they like, to come and go as they like. Unavailable to parties who simply stormed the camp or stealthed through it, this allows for dialogue with some of the bandits, namely:

Taugosz Khosann, human leader of the Black Talon (recap pic):

And Ardenor Crush, hobgoblin leader of the Chill:

"Tenhammer" spills the beans under the effects of Charm:

There are also a few other NPCs to talk to such as Tersus, a hobgoblin stockboy of the Chill...

... Credus, "a stinker"... 

... and Knott. With some encouragement, he reveals that a prisoner is being held in Tazok's tent.

Holed up in a cave to the north, Garclax the gnoll is the only one who will attack regardless of our dialogue selection. But it doesn't cause the bandit camp to go hostile because he's in the cave (and these particular gnolls are pretty low in the pecking order, it seems).

The above screencaps showcase most of the dialogue that comes as a result of infiltrating the camp (stemming from the reactive dialogue with Teven/Raiken) rather than just storming it or stealthing through it. But once we enter the main pavilion, the game's up:

Having slain Raemon, Venkt, Britik and Hakt, Tazok's prisoner, Ender Sai, is then interrogated and freed:

I think it would have been better if Ender Sai could have been rescued, and the documents retrieved, without facing off against Tazok's inner circle within the tent. This could have easily been done with a simple modification or two, and would have made the infiltration 100% bloodless and 100% diplomatic. 

That said, full stealth-based infiltration of the bandit camp is possible: we can sneak through the entire camp, retrieve the documents from the chest in Tazok's tent, and trigger Chapter Four without drawing aggro. However, we receive no stealth-based experience points for doing so, and would also miss out on some decent loot, including the "Dead Shot" (one of the best bows in the game). 

Still, for some people, power-gaming and maximizing itemization yield isn't everything. Some people just like to say, "I stealthed that segment. No one even knew I was there. How cool is that?"

It is also possible to slay Tazok with a backstab when we first infiltrate the camp through Teven or Raiken:

Tazok can be prematurely slain by taking severe burst damage before his post-duel dialogue can trigger (in my solo Fighter/Thief run, he was chunked by backstab). BioWare probably didn't anticipate Tazok's Chapter Three demise, the enforcer shamelessly reappearing alongside Sarevok for the final showdown in the Temple of Bhaal. 

Tazok is equipped with a pair of (droppable) Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise (two total in the campaign) and suit of Plate Mail. 

That's definitely a case of nitpicking, though. It's clearly not supported because the camp doesn't go hostile after his demise. Neither do the bandits flee in fear, which would have been funny if they morale-failed and became easy pickings. 

Note that Tazok will not even be in-camp unless we infiltrated it through one of the contacts in the forest. In that case, we will only meet him in the finale.

In conclusion, for the seminal Infinity Engine game by then-fledgling developer, BioWare, the options in tackling the bandit camp are pretty solid.

The pacing at this point of Baldur's Gate is impeccable. It spurs us on to keep playing. Who, after hearing what Ender Sai had to say, wasn't looking forward to taking on the Cloakwood mines? Overall, from Mulahey to Davaeorn, it's a good build up to the Irone Throne - it's cookie-cutter, but it's cookie-cutter done well.

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