The Mad God's Bargain - Should there be more quests like this? (SPOILERS!)

sionIV · April 2021

[SPOILERS!]

The Mad God's Bargain is one of my favorite quests in the game, and I wish that there were more quests like this. I can understand the frustration that this quest can bring, and as a min-maxer who often has to fight between the right moral choise and the rewards, it did take me a long time to decide what my choise would be. My latest character is quite the utilitarian, and he believed that the power from the book could help him do more good than saving one life.

This leads me to my questions.

1. Should there be more quests like this one? Where you have to make a choice, and there will be permanent consequences to the choises that you make?

2. Do you believe that they should introduce Valaste in a future expansion, and if so, give people who chose to save Valaste the chance to earn those two skills points?

1. I would like to see more quests like The Mad God's Bargain. In my opinion, it stands out as one of the best quests in the game, and that's mainly because of the consequences to our choises.

2. I can see how it would improve the cohesion of the story, as we get to return to those storylines and see what happened. On the other hand, I feel that it would take away from the consequences of the quest, and I would imagine that a majority of the playerbase would chose to save Valaste, if they knew that they could earn the skills points later on.

What do you think?

Nirntrotter · April 2021

I would absolutely like to see more hard decisions like this, but maybe not to the extent of something like skill points being involved. I personally enjoyed the quest a lot, but since you can't recoup those skill points any other way and you also don't necessarily know what's at stake as a new player, I find it a little harsh. A stack of XP scrolls, a noticeable sum of gold, a cosmetic... that'd be fun. Potentially.

sionIV · April 2021

Nirntrotter wrote: »

I would absolutely like to see more hard decisions like this, but maybe not to the extent of something like skill points being involved. I personally enjoyed the quest a lot, but since you can't recoup those skill points any other way and you also don't necessarily know what's at stake as a new player, I find it a little harsh. A stack of XP scrolls, a noticeable sum of gold, a cosmetic... that'd be fun. Potentially.

As you can earn XP scrolls, gold and such, it's not really a permanent consequence, and as such it wouldn't make the choise hard. I could see it work with cosmetics, if it meant that you got one of two cosmetics, and you weren't able to get the other one after you decided. If they did go the cosmetic path, those cosmetic would have to be locked to one character, as if you shared them, then there wouldn't be any noteworthy consequence either, as you could just get the other one on another character.

Sarannah · April 2021

On paper this sounds cool, but in practice it does not work out well. Some players want to play the story with how they, or their character, would behave. Others just want to min-max, and would feel bad to miss out on certain bonusses. Others are new to the game, and later find out they missed bonus x at some point.

Like me, I am still kinda bummed I missed out on the two skillpoints from this quest(on some characters). And there is no way to revert this. It happened when I was new to the game, and did not expect there to be a major difference in quest-outcomes.

So in my opinion, all questoptions should grant the same rewards.

PS: They can't make another story about Valaste. As some send her off, and some kept her safe.

oddbasket · April 2021

I saved Valaste, that's what my main character would do. 2 skill points be damned.

Araneae6537 · April 2021

I really love that quest! I like quests where I have the choice to do right or not and if there’s a real cost to me, so much the better. It would not always have to be skillpoints, but could include things like having to do additional quests/fighting, representing at least additional danger to your character and taking more time to complete.

As for the second, it is not necessary, no. Live with your choice. And there are more than enough skill points to min max your character and take additional skills as well.

Sylvermynx · April 2021

oddbasket wrote: »

I saved Valaste, that's what my main character would do. 2 skill points be damned.

This. In fact, I saved her half a dozen times so far.

Now, while I enjoyed the quest line (due mostly to Shalidor, certainly not Sheo) and don't really miss the 2 skill points: @Sarannah, there's no reason they can't do with Valaste exactly what they've done with Lyris, Sai, The Prophet etc. The devs are fully capable of retconning things like "I sacrificed [insert NPC name here] so I'll never see him/her again." In fact, I'd far rather they did something with her rather than leaving her standing like a light pole that breathes outside the Mages hall on Eyevea .

Hurbster · April 2021

Personally, I've always saved Valaste. It's what, 2 skill points?

GenjiraX · April 2021

No, fewer. There should be fewer quests that involve Sheogorath.

Elvenheart · April 2021

1. No.
2. Yes.

spartaxoxo · April 2021

No. Don't like this quest does this and yes to Valaste.