Part 86: Act Three Chapter Twenty-Two - How It Should Have Happened

So we were unimpressed by the ending to NWN2. That's okay.



There is another way.





This option is only open to Evil characters. As noted previously, Good and Neutral characters end up going straight into combat - but Evil characters get the opportunity to parley first.

It helps if you convince Bishop to abandon the fight with Garius, which is what I've done here. This means that Construct is still in the party.




: Then it is in your best interests to cast off these tools and join me as an ally - you need not die, you need not be cleansed.
: Ally? Garius was your servant, but you let him die.
: Only the weak require servants. From you I merely require your willingness to sever your ties and protect something greater than yourself - a lesson Garius never learned.



Oh yeah, that's right.

We butchered Qara and Neeshka for selling out to the King of Shadows, and now we're about to do the same thing.

: As a demonstration of your commitment to our alliance, we ask you to eliminate those who followed you here.




: I'll do it.




Guess who came back to help us!

: Why you put up with these "allies" for so long I'll never know - idiots who can't do a thing by themselves, who follow you, even when they know it's wrong... that's a betrayal.






This is the alternate final battle for NWN2. It's also hard as all fuck.

It's you (and maybe Bishop, if you let him live) against the remaining members of your party. At a minimum, you'll be facing six, but if you had good Influence with everyone then there'll be eight of the assholes to beat down.

The numbers don't look good. Everyone's Level 20 and most have level-appropriate gear. They'll also be healed up to two-thirds of their health if they were badly injured before. It's two-versus-seven and two Fighters, a Paladin, a Bard, a Warlock, a Wizard and a Cleric have better synergy than a Rogue and a Ranger do.

But we have smarts on our side. How competent can the AI actually be?



Oh.

You can try gaming the system again here if you like. I cast out most of Zhjaeve's, Sand's and Grobnar's spells, but they're not the problem here: Khelgar and Construct are. I know everyone knocks on Fighters for being one of the weaker end-game classes, but that's only in comparison to the god-like power of your average Wizard-or-Cleric. Both Construct and Khelgar can take hundreds of hit points in damage, and dish out a roughly equal amount each turn as well. Also, although we can Feint Khelgar to take him down quickly, Construct is immune to Sneak Attacks.

And there's not a lot you can do to stop Grobnar's inspirations and Ammon's invocations.



So I enabled godmode.

It's cool that Obsidian included this extra 'evil option' for the end of the campaign - a little something for all the people that hated running fetch-quests for Nasher and Axle and Brelaina all the goddamn time. Unfortunately I don't think they had a lot of time to polish it - so you end up with an imbalanced fight that's comparatively uninteresting to the mainstream option and looks a little weird (King of Shadows just chillin' there... just hanging out you know?). And some of the scripting for the next bit is a little off as well.

Perhaps it's just me and everyone else strolled through it. Or maybe I shouldn't have tried to keep Bishop alive.



Bishop coming back to help us after betraying us to Garius doesn't make much sense, I know. Perhaps the only reason he left was because he hated everyone else so much?

Well, in that we agree. I'm glad to be shot of those idiots - about fucking time.



No don't-



Goddamnit.



He even resurrected the traitors from the Garius fight.

Thanks a lot, King of Shadows.



Huh... actually, I could get used to this.