Underdark question

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The trapped wizar in the Underdark (Vithal, IIRC) has a couple of items that he does not give to you (Time Stop,Incendiary Cloud,Infravision and a really good helm which casts some type of a death spell) you can kill him for it (20,00xp) or if you have a good thief and are fast enough you can steal them all off him

 

Githyanki as a race are Chaotic Neutral, in the same way that drow as a race are Neutral Evil. There are exceptions, of course. The ones in BG2 strike me as Evil as well, so maybe they're the exceptions.

The Silver Sword is a religious relic of the Githyanki. They want it back. Anyone remember the Crusades? You could hardly say that either side was "evil" in their attempt to hold control of a religious emblem.

 

I agree with Rastor on this. Because the blade is a religious relic, the Githyanki from their perspective are acting justly by trying to re-acquire it. In fact, if you are playing a good character (especially lawful good) the roleplay response would probably be to return in to them, as you only acquired it when Saemon stole it. In my last play through, I gave it back to them when they showed up in chapter 6.

I view it as repayment for helping me bust out of the Mind Flayer Dungeon in the Underdark. Say what you want, but escape was impossible without their help...

 

From another point of view, it's a pretty decent sword and would a party of adventurers in desperate need of pretty decent swords give it up just because a bunch of Giths asked them to? Highly unlikely unless they're lawful good. Chaotic evils would probably try to kill the Giths with said sword.

 

When you leave the Illithid city, you meet Giths, and even if you give them the blade they fight you. So why would you give it back in Athkatla (I can spell it!)?
And anti-paladins must be evil. If you are a paladin and detect one among those people, wouldn't you engage fight?

 

Getting a little

Yeah, the anti-paladins would make most paladins wig. On the other hand, chaotic neutral is almost opposite of lawful good (paladins), so it's not like they start off on a good footing.

I think their reaction right after the Illithid city is based on their being really ticked off about how hard it was to recover the blade, and how (seemingly) unhelpful the PC was. Yeah, bad call on their part, but since they're not good not completely out of the question. If they were actually CE, I'd expect them to be rather nastier. The Wildmage probably wouldn't let you live after he got the blade back, for example.

As far as the chapter 6 wildmage... well, I think the designers really wanted you to keep the blade, making getting both pieces a little bit of a stretch but not too much. From the point of view of roleplaying, I can see the PC having an attitude similar to the Giths in the Underdark - "We went through all that hell, I *tried* to be nice before & give it back, and you're still pestering me?"

Actually, the Giths & other critters I'm often surprised by how well their actions fit their alignments. Not perfect, and I can find some real slips here & there, but more dead on than not.

 

Y'all are getting Githyanki and Githzerai mixed up, and you know that always leads to a fight.

Githzerai are CN, although they have monks somehow and live in fortress cities in Limbo held together by their prodigious wills.

Githyanki are CE. They have red dragons as racial allies, and zoom around the Astral Plane stomping on planewalkers. They're the ones with the anti-paladins, "silver swords," and "special silver swords" that cause so much trouble/fun.

Both races stem from the same root, a race that was enslaved by the illithid.

"eh, those Gith are all the same..."

 

Ooh! You're right! I just looked in my c.1981 Fiend Folio and yes indeed, it was the Githzerai that were CN. The Githyanki are listed as "Variable but always evil", so you only get an A- in "Cryptic, Ancient ADND knowledge". That is, unless the newer D20 stuff covers this.

Definitely explains... oh, no, wait, that's TOB. Not appropriate here.

One more off-topic bit & then I'll shut up... I'd love to see something done with the Githzerai/Githyanki conflict in a game. Maybe BG3?

 

Another reason to give the sword back (at least in my games): Keldorn and Minsc can each get better weapons (who else uses greatswords?)!!!

Keldorn's got Carsomyr

Minsc is better dual weilding or with The Wave (I know, it's not a greatsword)

No other NPC starts out with the greatsword proficiency, but there are pretty good ones besides this silver sword. Anyway, don't you get a ton of XP for giving the sword back?


ON EDIT: Yeah, it's worth going with Saemon. It's only a small window, but you get a chance to paste him on his ship.

 

I gave the sword back once but I can't remember what XP I got for it. I don't think it was anything special.

But if you kill the Gith, don't you get more XP? The Anti-Paladin is worth 20,000 XP on his own which is probably as much as you get for giving the sword up.

 

Well, I like to give minsc both the Vorpal blade and the talking sword. He usually wears the latter, for the protection and the dialogue, but often swaps in melee.

 

The Gith Captain cannot be killed.

 

I meant the Gith who attacks you in the city (Kruin) not the one on the ship.