advice on taunting

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

With taunting coming up as an issue in several recent threads, I
thought I'd summarize some things I've gleaned over the last few
years.

1. It helps to have a high personality and high speechcraft if you
are going to try speechcrafty things like taunting. While it is
obvious to most people that it helps to be strong and proficient in
longsword to damage a creature with a longsword or obvious that it
helps to be intellegent and skilled at alchemy to mix potions, many
people still don't make a similar connection for taunting. Note, 5 is
not high speechcraft. 5 is tripping over the wastebasket while trying
to start a conversation. 50 is respectable in speechcraft and
personallity. 70 is high. Repeat, 7 is not high; 70 is high.

2. Taunting is most effective when the opposition is favorably
inclined towards you. It seems to work best if your relationship is
in the 50-80 range. This means you often have to alternate taunts
with bribes or admires to get their relationship back up so a taunt
can be effective. Note, if you cannot realiably improve a
relationship, then your speechcraft and personality are not yet good
enough to be good at taunting. There are magiks that can help you
here, but when they wear off the relationship plummets again. Note,
too, if you kill the tauntee, you usually get your bribe gold back off
the body.

3. There is a certain randomness to interactions, and you can always
take a sudden plunge downwards. So if you are iffy at taunting, you
may want to save your game before starting to interact with someone so
you can reload (if you are inclined to the reload style of gameplay).
If your game crashes to desktop as much as mine does, you already
know that F5 is your friend and constant companion.

4. If a quest (taunt, here) is too tough for you, go do something
else until your speechcraft and personality have improved. (Charming
the sox off someone is harder than it sounds. Well, unless you play
like I play most characters, where they make their living charming
merchants out of their inventory.) Or, try another approach. Big,
strong, dumb, oxen, for example, might be better served by an approach
that required lots of strength and endurance, but no significant
charm.

5. See 1.

6. See 1.

7. See 1.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

DeAnn wrote:

> 1. It helps to have a high personality and high speechcraft if you
> are going to try speechcrafty things like taunting.

Very true, good post.

I wish to point out that your initial choice of sign for your character
can help. The sign of the Lady gives you a whopping 25 point
personality boost. This helps with taunting, and other "speechcraft"
things, but it also helps with magic skills that are tied to personality
level. Many useful spells depend on high personality.

Many quests can be completed without violence and related complications
if you have a fair personality level. Many people will happily reveal
useful facts to a smooth talker that a grunt couldn't even kill to
acquire.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

> 2. Taunting is most effective when the opposition is favorably
> inclined towards you. It seems to work best if your relationship is
> in the 50-80 range. This means you often have to alternate taunts
> with bribes or admires to get their relationship back up so a taunt
> can be effective. Note, if you cannot realiably improve a
> relationship, then your speechcraft and personality are not yet good
> enough to be good at taunting. There are magiks that can help you
> here, but when they wear off the relationship plummets again. Note,
> too, if you kill the tauntee, you usually get your bribe gold back off
> the body.

This part never made any sense to me. It's like, the more the character
likes you, the more likely they are to respond to a taunt and attack you.
That makes no sense at all. You'd think that a character that hates you
would be far more likely to attack you than one that likes you. This is one
of the most utterly backwards concepts in a game I've ever seen.

"Here, have some cash!"
"Why thank you, that was very kind."
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"
"You bastard! You'll die for that remark!"

Totally unrealistic.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

If your character can learn the Frenzy Humanoid spell, they can then
have an item enchanted with Frenzy Humanoid 100 points for 3 - 4 seconds
on touch, which will get pretty well any NPC to Attack your character
allowing them to safely defend themselves...

If you do want to Taunt someone and your taunting skills are wanting but
you've got plenty of gold, 1000 gold bribes will get anyone's
disposition high enough for your character to continue taunting them.
Then when you kill them, all the gold you bribed them with will be found
on their body. ^_^ If you've got limited gold, save your game first and
try using 100 gold bribes...

On 17 Nov 2004 12:42:57 -0800, with the help of 10,000 Little Computer
Monkeys (LCM'S) von.sagrillo@verizon.net (DeAnn) wrote:

>With taunting coming up as an issue in several recent threads, I
>thought I'd summarize some things I've gleaned over the last few
>years.
>
>1. It helps to have a high personality and high speechcraft if you
>are going to try speechcrafty things like taunting. While it is
>obvious to most people that it helps to be strong and proficient in
>longsword to damage a creature with a longsword or obvious that it
>helps to be intellegent and skilled at alchemy to mix potions, many
>people still don't make a similar connection for taunting. Note, 5 is
>not high speechcraft. 5 is tripping over the wastebasket while trying
>to start a conversation. 50 is respectable in speechcraft and
>personallity. 70 is high. Repeat, 7 is not high; 70 is high.
>
>2. Taunting is most effective when the opposition is favorably
>inclined towards you. It seems to work best if your relationship is
>in the 50-80 range. This means you often have to alternate taunts
>with bribes or admires to get their relationship back up so a taunt
>can be effective. Note, if you cannot realiably improve a
>relationship, then your speechcraft and personality are not yet good
>enough to be good at taunting. There are magiks that can help you
>here, but when they wear off the relationship plummets again. Note,
>too, if you kill the tauntee, you usually get your bribe gold back off
>the body.
>
>3. There is a certain randomness to interactions, and you can always
>take a sudden plunge downwards. So if you are iffy at taunting, you
>may want to save your game before starting to interact with someone so
>you can reload (if you are inclined to the reload style of gameplay).
> If your game crashes to desktop as much as mine does, you already
>know that F5 is your friend and constant companion.
>
>4. If a quest (taunt, here) is too tough for you, go do something
>else until your speechcraft and personality have improved. (Charming
>the sox off someone is harder than it sounds. Well, unless you play
>like I play most characters, where they make their living charming
>merchants out of their inventory.) Or, try another approach. Big,
>strong, dumb, oxen, for example, might be better served by an approach
>that required lots of strength and endurance, but no significant
>charm.
>
>5. See 1.
>
>6. See 1.
>
>7. See 1.


That's my 2¢,

FTA


"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

-Martin Luther King Jr.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

ToolPackinMama <laura@lauragoodwin.org> wrote in message news:<10pnfpu25d2u8b5@news.supernews.com>...
......>
> Many quests can be completed without violence and related complications
> if you have a fair personality level. Many people will happily reveal
> useful facts to a smooth talker that a grunt couldn't even kill to
> acquire.

About 2/3rds of my games have been with sweet talking charmers who
finess their way through the game. One of the key things that makes
Morrowind such a rich game is that there really are many ways to
successfully play the game, and many ways to "solve" a lot of the
"puzzles". Personality may not help directly when you face those
atronarchs, but charming merchant after merchant out of all their cash
up until the time you reach the autronarch can mean you face them with
a very nice set of equipment for the stage of the game you are in.
And that does help against the autronarchs. 🙂

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

Darrel Hoffman wrote:

> "Here, have some cash!"
> "Why thank you, that was very kind."
> "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"
> "You bastard! You'll die for that remark!"

*sniff*... I've seen it all too many times


;P