[Kayless]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mathurin First off I want to state that Kayless Im not picking fun, I think your group is cool. And being a computer game this means very little but from a roleplaying perspective how would you get around the Paladins Code of Conduct? A paladin can't knowingly work with people of evil persuasion, and unless your drow wizard has something that would give him permanent undetectable aligment, which would raise eybrows anyway, your paladin would know he was evil the first time he detected evil regardless of whether the drow was actually the target or not. Just wondering how you justified this.

I love getting into the intricacies of characters. Generally, when I make a party I don’t assume they’re a group of guys who met in a tavern one day and decided to start adventuring together (or are all Luskan mercenaries, as IWD2 says). Everyone of them has (perhaps needlessly ) complex reasons for doing what they're doing.

The mercenary group that heroes arrived with originally had a mage amongst them, but he was killed during the attack on Targos. Now in my mind, the party needs a mage with them in order accomplish their mission. There are magical perils that lie ahead and to walk blindly forward without proper support would be suicide and endanger all the ten towns.

Nebuchadnezzar, for all his subtle insults and veiled threats, is not an overt danger to the group. As I stated before, he's is a follower of Vhaeraun (a background I came up with long before actually playing the game, so I was very pleased with myself when Malavon turned out to be one as well) and is at odds with standard drow. So he's only too happy to aid the group if it'll help the followers of Vhaeraun or stick it to the Lloth worshipers. He’s scum, but he never does anything blatantly evil in Durnkrag’s (the dwarven paladin) presence – Though that may be because Krag keeps a very close eye on him. Durnkrag’s hardly an idiot, and knows that Nabucco is a rat bastard, but he's too smart to let his personal code jeopardize thousands of lives (Lawful Good does not equal Lawful Stupid). Just as Malavon and Nym make persuasive cases to aid them, so does Nebuchadnezzar (in my mind they’re all part of the same cadre anyway) and since he generally tows the line, Durnkrag is content to let him live (for the time being). Also, Nabucco is slick enough to use Krag's paladin code and dwarven honor against him.

Nebuchadnezzer: "I am offering you my aid, hargluk. You cannot do this without me. Where is the honor in letting thousands die because you have a grudge?"
Durnkrag: "You invoke the name of honor but you have no conception of what it truely means."
Nebuchadnezzer: "Perhaps not abbil, but you do."
Durnkrag: *Sigh* "Very well. But know that should you step out of line even once, you’ll be dead before you hit the ground."

If their collaboration was long term they probably would end up killing each other (as Keldorn and Viconia of BG2 do, if left in a party together), but their mission is thankfully short enough that they can tolerate each other for its duration (even Keldorn and Viconia can stand each other for a little while). Eventually I believe they do end up enemies in the far future (they have a great history for two old foes), but that's a tale for another time.