Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback No mercy for tieflings? add a knowledge check first time we see tieflings

Hi everyone, this is a minor suggestion which may help players not familiar with Dnd

Problem:
Most players will meet tieflings for the first time when rescuing Laezel after the intro... right after the escape from the hells where we fight similar looking devils, and the game really hints that Laezel is an important companion and players are naturally inclined to save NPCs in distress=> Conclusion: new players can think that the 2 Tieflings are evil and should be slain, which can lead to regrets and a feeling of "missing something" when you finally arrive at the camp, and see that tieflings are actually nice and that you may have just lost of the opportunity to see how the 2 Tieflings will fit with the rest of the group...

This feeling can be a bit unfair to new players trying to roleplay as good as possible, because they may feel punished for trying to save an important character and felt for misunderstanding the game lore to which they have not been introduced .

A very easy and roleplay fix could be to add a knowledge check first time we meet tieflings.
If suceeded, our character would think "hey, tielfings are far descendants from hell but have nothing to do with evils we met in Hell."
If failed: "these evilish looking creatures have captured the gith you met earlier"

This would be a easy way to solve the problem because if players decide to kill the tieflings, this would now be based on logical decision based on the character knowledge of these creatures.
Do you also have this feeling? If yes, what do you think of this proposal?

Personally I didn't perceive them to be evil whatsoever nor did I attack them, despite not having any DnD lore knowledge prior to playing the game for the first time ever.

Their conversation and behavior clearly indicate who and what they are and that they're not hostile. They're only cautious towards a Drow or a Githyanki, but even then they're not outright hostile. So any player not paying attention and making rash decisions without thinking honestly deserves the consequences. Which is the whole point of an RPG, making choices.

Agreed with Crimsomrider ...

On the other hand, some small lore info would be welcomed for new players ...
After all "what is a Tiefling" is common knowledge and if you dont look at them in character creation, its a knowledge you will be missing.

I mean... have you met Lae'zel? Everything about her screams evil, so even when playing for the first time, I didn't thought, that her captors have to be evil. My thought was, that they were on the receiving end of Lae'zels 'charm'. I know, she was to be my fighter, but I was glad, that I just could convinced them with a deception check to let me take care of the problem.

In my adventure, I killed them, although I didn't really want to do it. They didn't seem evil, either by dialogue or by appearance. I just needed a fighter in my group, because I play for the Priest myself. Apparently it is possible to leave them alive, but I did not abuse save/load and on my first attempt I did not see an opportunity to release Lae'zeland not kill the Tieflings. And yes, I also feel sad about it.

Maybe just need to make more hints in the dialogue to keep them alive and at the same time to free Lae'zel?

I think that knowledge checks would be good for a LOT of things: Tieflings, Shar and symbols of Shar on Shadowheart armor especially since it's Dark Justiciar armor, tieflings, goblins, Netherese runes, mind flayers, intellect devourers, etc.

BUT... I think it should be done with a three second pop-up if you succeed. The popup indicates information was added to your knowledge log that you can check at your convenience.

+1 ...great idea

Thanks all for the feedback on the original idea, quite agree with most of them.
Maybe i was exagerating a bit that the first tieflings look dangerious (they indeed look more scarred) however, minor knowledge checks could be useful for lot of background info, beyond just the tieglings. The way these checks are implemented is already very solid (just a quick line of dialogue, so that wouldnt require much work). Also making some rolls like history or religion a bit more useful.