While showing a co-worker Divinity: Original Sin, she had one very unexpected question about the game. Will we be able to kill the NPCs like in Sword of Lies? Apparently she liked killing the NPCs after getting frustrated with a few of the quests.

I'm not like that of course... I just liked to see how many of them could actually be killed and wipe the world away one person at a time.

I like questions to which I can give a simple answer: yes !

Yes !

Kill the Night Party Chocolate bars ...

And EAT them all !!

Um. Another grim tale of "there is too many people around there bragging with the lots and lots and lots and lits and lots of experience points they achieved by killing EVERYTHING within a game - poerlevelling at its best !

I hope there'll be at least be penalties for killing every living being there - like standing alone within the whole world in the end (like in Genesis ' "Watcher Of The Skies").

Since I read that NPC in Original Sin react if they notice you( the hero) (try to) steal their belongings I'm absolutely sure if you kill a NPC other NPC's that see you killing or have a relationship with that killed NPC will become very angry and/or start to attack you ... and if it's a merchant you can't trade with them etc etc .... !
It's indeed the best that killing (innocent) NPC's can have very heavy penalties ! I Hope your hero must be at least a overpowered hero to survive all attacks after killing many NPC's !

In DD you also can kill NPC's, even those who can offer you a quest ! So if it's simular in D:OS, think twice before you plan to kill a NPC !!

I must admit, I'm very boring when it comes to killing NPCs: I don't. Unless something actively attacks me, I tend to leave it be (Barring special circumstance, of course).

The only time I managed to "solo power level" in a divinity game was in Divinity 2 Ego Draconis. I went to the orobas fjords (IIRC) very early and just "sniped" out those easy 3K-4K experience per kill.

I don't kill NPCs. Most games I encountered that don't encourage NPCs being killed attached little experience reward for killing the NPC. Added with the negative reputation mechanic, it makes killing the NPC all the worse. Now as the OP stated, if the player's issue is killing NPCs out of frustration, then that's a different matter.

There are many different types of players, the ones who like puzzle solving, those who aim for the best killing machine (power playing), those who just hack and slash, and these are just a few.

I don't know if I recall this correctly but I think I remember reading from a manual of a Divinity game of the developer being proud that their game enabled the player to play the way he/she wanted to. I think that's the entire point why they made these things possible.

Yes indeed ! And that's the reason I say
"Yes ! "

And I was joking with Night Party Chocolate bars because I don't love killing innocent NPC's and prefer to eat a NPChocolate bar !

The more possibilities, the more different kind of players have Fun with the game
I can only make a Jump of Joy

This "excuse" mad me giggle, haha.

I like it for a different reason, and that is it reminds you to be careful. In Divinity, Gothic, Elder Scrolls, and The Witcher 2, you don't just go around town waving your sword around talking to people. They could get hurt, or be threatened. There are also consequences if you persist in threatening and attacking people.

It makes NPC's into real, mortal denizens of the game world and not just little talking environmental fixtures that give quests. It also makes your benevolence towards them mean more.

Divine Divinity and Baldur's Gate were actually very good concerning the penalty. You had the reputation system for example. In Divine Divinity a bad reputation would lead to guards attacking you on sight and merchants refusing to trade with you. NPC's never scaled with your character either (nor did enemies) which meant that killing them didn't really give you high experience later on during the game and the only real worth to killing an NPC was to loot their corpse.

Baldur's Gate had bounty hunters and NPC's actively hunting you down as you traveled and in towns you could also encounter them. Certain party members would also turn against you and refuse to be with you if you had a low reputation.

I'm guessing Original Sin will be like Divine Divinity where we get NPC's who refuse to talk to us and guards attacking us on sight. So long as guards don't give the player 100,000 exp upon death then there's no worrying about the player "poerleveling" via killing everyone. I found that the only benefit to murdering people in BG and DD was that you could get some good loot and items without paying but it's been problematic when there's no merchants to trade with and I need some potions.

So all in all I have no problem with how DD handled evil characters but I'm hoping Original Sin will also spawn in some NPC's who come to hunt us down like BG had.

+1 This sounds like a great idea. Not only will it increase the depth of the game, but it will definitely increase replay-ability. I would love to see the interactions between dark-aligned and light-aligned characters with the NPC's.

I agree! While I play games to escape the "real world" to some extent, there are some aspects of realism in games that make the gaming experience that much more satisfying.

sorry for the double quote but YES and YES..playing DD again (for the 3rd time -.-) and i love how you really need to pay attention (the little dialogue to sheet weapons),how you can antagonise (prolly not correctly written ^^) the npc's..I'm not a killing machine myself, heck if they'ld make an rpg where you have to kill nobody or just a very few people I would dig that too (Dreamscape:TLJ for example but that's adventure)..but as being said, it's more realistic that you CAN if you want to..and let's face it..sometimes there are these buggers that you just want to smack against the wall, like the dude selling you all the "fenomenal" items like a magic carpet and such ^^ =D

El'Gammon? He was named after El'Gammon, who calls himself just Elgi nowadays, and in the forums role-playing he sold almost anything - but only for a fixed price of 500 Gold.

There are more NPCs named after forum members ...

Elwho?

Wow never expected such a debate. The NPC killing in the Divinity: Sword of Lies offered hardly an xp and caused more problems quest wise. Some NPCs that you kill pretty much end your game so it is best to not save when doing such things. It was more like just something fun to do. Especially casting hell spikes on the NPCs that cannot move.

Then you get the NPCs that can really kick your ass....

Actually:

you could get some unique items only by killing some NPC. Like "Firefly" sword from that Paladin before th first village's gate.

Seth's sword was called Brightblade in the English version. If you asked him about the 'gaudy' name, he would tell you it was given to him by an old wizard, who said when he discovered the meaning for its name he would have reached his life's destiny. I wonder if his destiny was to wait 75 years (or so) to challenge a dragon knight to a duel on a bridge (in Divinity 2), or if he figured the name out before then? If the latter, that knowledge certainly didn't help him much.

Yeah, when I first time I played DD I had to use unofficial russian translation by fans, since my english back then wasn't that good. It is still not, btw, haha.