Baldur's Gate Factional Rivalry (Part IV)

Factional Rivalry Baldur's Gate

Companion-based Reactivity: Factional Rivalry

I've already covered companion-based reactivity in regards to reputation and reaction, but Companion-based reactivity also involves factions, personalities, game-time and plot progression. This post just covers factional rivalry.

In regard to companions, there are two factional rivalries in Baldur's Gate: the Harpers versus the Zhentarim and the Wychlaran versus the Red Wizard of Thay. Just as their factions are antagonistic to one another, these companions just don't get along at all. And when plonked into the same party, the results can be quite amusing.

Usually there are warning signs and "a build up" before any free-for-all ensues (solely voiceset and voiceset + text back-and-forths), but not always. Sometimes violence ensues within minutes of the mutually-exclusive being partied.

Let's begin with the Harper and Zhentarim duos respectively consisting of Jaheira/Khalid and Xzar/Montaron. First, we have the verbal warnings:

• You are amusing, in a "what the hell is wrong with you" kind of way. - Jaheira.

• Oh speak no more, lest ye gorge my sweet tooth! - Xzar.

• I don't want to seem c-confrontational, but could you be a little less . . . well . . . evil? - Khalid.

• Ye live longer if ye don't annoy me. Mayhaps even a week or more. - Montaron.

Now, the dialogue-based warning signs (which are fully voiced) are truncated versions of the breaking-point dialogues screen-capped below. Basically, just the two or three lines, semi-randomly picked providing they have a logical flow. From my tests, Khalid & Xzar can boil over as can Jaheira & Xzar and Khalid & Montaron, but not Jaheira & Montaron (probably just an oversight).

So! It's Harpers and Zhentarim duking it out! Who will win? It could go either way!

In this epic confrontation of the ages, Xzar casts Larloch's Minor Drain to gain the initial upper-hand.

In fact, he manages to knock Jaheira out with follow-up punches to the head!

However, Jaheira regains consciousness, gets back up, and whales away on Xzar's ribs with her quarterstaff. Having bludgeoned the mad wizard to death, Nature's Servant then turns around to help Khalid against Montaron, who has caused morale-failure in our most courageous stutterer. But Montaron is on his last legs, so in a final swing of her stick Jaheira purges the party of the Zhentarim.

Better part of valor!  Better part of valor!

Thus, the Harpers emerge victorious... this time.

Next up, we have the Wychlaran versus the Red Wizard of Thay. This pits Dynaheir and Minsc against Edwin, and is foreshadowed by the clashing quests of Minsc and Edwin covered in Part III of my retrospective (recap pic).

Of course, once partied, there are verbal hints as well:

• You travel with Minsc, you toe the line!  I'll not suffer slackers while I'm busy hero-ing! - Minsc.
• Watch your words when addressing me, lest they be fed to you on the end of my boot! - Edwin.

And then, as per the Harpers and Zhentarim, there may be shorter dialogues culminating in the following final exchange:

The three leave the party, duke it out, and don't stop until the other side is dead. Charname looks on in bemusement but can intervene in order to affect the outcome. Once it's over, the victorious auto-return to the party, and we loot the corpse of the loser/s. Which is usually the outnumbered Edwin.

In addition to the Entillis Fullsom encounter covered in Part II (which has some nice flavor dialogue if Jaheira has passed on), there are two other forms of factional reactivity that I can think of, off-hand. The first involves a potentially lethal encounter - involving no fewer than four Red Wizards - staged atop the ruins of the wilderness zone east of Larswood.

If we don't have Edwin in the party, they cannot be bargained with or reasoned with.

But with a Red Wizard in tow they'll have words for Edwin and then leave peacefully.

Quite the contrast.

The other example involves an encounter with Xzar's Zhentarim superior, Niemain, on the second floor of Sorcerous Sundries, in the city of Baldur's Gate.

Usually the convo goes like this, causing Niemain and three other Zhentish mages to attack:

And, while there is a peaceful solution independent of companions:

... it's a nice touch that, with Xzar or Montaron in the party, the aggro is avoided based on their presence. First:

If we inquire:

Inquiring without Xzar but with Monty still in-tow:

Of course, it is possible to learn of Xzar and Monty's faction long before this encounter. The rivalry with the Harpers is one way. Charming Xzar, another:

.

And we learn - as early as Chapter Three - that the Zhentarim would have reason to investigate false attribution:

cRPG Blog	1. Reactivity Baldur's Gate	4. Factional Rivalry Baldur's Gate
cRPG Reactivity	2. Reputation Baldur's Gate	5. Personality Clashes Baldur's Gate
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