Snoozing at inns...

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This is a bit of a general Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale question, but I'll stick it here as this forum is probably most frequented. A random thought that occurred to me: when you stay at an inn, do you always take the cheapest accommodation, or do you splash out when you have lots of money and take more expensive rooms? It just seems that there is no benefit of taking a royal room over the stable floor, as far as game mechanics go, and the (at least early) detriment of 16gp vs 1gp seems a no-brainer for powergamers. However lately I've been trying to ween myself off the powergaming attitude and into more of a roleplaying ethos, which I'm having fun with: part of my PC's personality involves enjoying the finer things in life, so I've started making the team drink plenty at the taverns and take the finest rooms to sleep in.

Thoughts on this?

 

...which is exactly the game mechanic that is actually starting to annoy me slightly. I think there ought to be a mod that makes it more meaningful to sleep in the best rooms, e.g., a chance some spells aren't memorised when resting, that increases according to the level of poorness of rest - camping out giving the greatest chance of not memorising, and sleeping royally giving 100% certainty they are memorised.

Furthermore, I think I'd advocate a mod including general 'Morale' score for each NPC (similar to Reputation or Virtue), dependent on factors such as how well-rested you are, the PC's Charisma, the social cohesion of the group (increasable by, e.g., drinking), Reputation (or Virtue, if playing with that mod, which you really ought to be!) and the in-party interactions (e.g. Keldorn fighting with Viconia, etc.). If the NPC's Morale drops too low, the NPC will leave the group!

 

Beren hit it on the head. With the into of mods and Tutu, spending more than a gold is pointless. In the vanilla BG1 release it is meaningful. I like to try play-throughs on a self-imposed Iron-Man typre run like the ToEE option. It makes every aspect of the game important and enjoyable, IMO.

MrMermaid, to create a mod of the type that you list would be a pretty big task. Granted I would love a mod like that, good luck tying all of that together.

 

Unless you enjoy role-playing it well.

I tried to do that for a while, but I'm still not a good enough player to ace every fight. Plus in BG1 there's every chance of a random stray crit ending your run-through! I do however generally adhere to the rule that unless the PC or romance dies, I will not reload.

I guess it would probably involve a pretty serious overhaul of the Infinity Engine to bring to fruition. Not exactly something I'd be up to, but maybe one of those big fancy modders might feel inclined...?

Anyway, the question I was mainly asking was, do you guys properly role-play staying at an inn, or do you just slum it whenever possible?

 

In BG1, if it makes the difference between waking up with full HP or not, I'll stump up the cash. In BG2 the availability of regeneration items makes fancy rooms redundant, but since you normally have way, way more cash than you need I'll often pamper my party if they've had a long/tough day. But I've never bought drinks for the purpose of learning rumours, at least not since my first couple of run-throughs.

 

Yea I don't remember many helpful rumors. Would have been nice if they gave you quests in your book or something. That might be an effective mod. Have some obscure quests that many miss be put into the rumors and if you get that rumor have it update your quest book so you can do it. That would actually be very helpful especially for new players (or older players who thought they have done everything but actually missed a minor quest).

 

I have my party take the Nobles accomodation after particular heavy fights or long treks through the wilderness, when rest is really well deserved for them. Before boss fights I often have them sleep in a peasant room so as not to get them too 'softened' before the fight, hardening them as it were on a straw matress. With cushions as a reward after the boss is defeated.