Rankings: Background Quests

[Acadiantri]

Did all the background quests. Here's my ranking:
1) Sellsword
2) Philosopher
3) Academic (in part because it's early)
4) Lowlife (in part because it's early)
5) Aristocrat (but only if you keep the inheritance)
6) Spy

[Acadiantri]

Oops, forgot two:
Acolyte (tied with Spy for worst)
Lawkeeper (tied with Philosopher)

[EricWisdom]

Interesting. I would like to hear your reasons for ranking Sellsword and Spy this way. Just curious, not judging.

[bbii]

Disagree, I like Spy. I wish it was longer.
I like that stealth is an important part of the Spy mission.

[Silverquick]

Well I don't know if I have a ranking per se,

But of the ones I've done.

Academic:
Was both the coolest in terms of the adventure side of it, and also the cheeziest. The sideways tower was really cool. And there was great gear in there too. Flipped side is, that professor... well... I'd rather have just dumped the selfish, pretentious SOB out the side of the tower. Who gives a damn about your chairmanship pal? Can't you at least extend the common courtesy and respect to your actual student?

Sellsword:
Great story behind this one, but also ... kinda cliche and convenient with the Potion of Memory loss thing, that was pretty cheezy. I would have thought they'd come up with a better trope than that.
Still setting that one thing aside... the overall story of it was the best of all the ones I did. This one really did have some actual emotion behind it, and a great backstory.

Low Life:
Actually this was a fun one, and if you do it right you get some great gear out of it. You can get two Rings of Darkvision which is great if you have two huiman characters in the party. The downside was, if you don't exploit the quest and keep the sword... the reward is ... lacking. So I think this one is intended for you to exploit the target and hold onto that sword until you get enough faction to buy your own. Otherwise you'll be going... eww why did I play nice.

Aristocrat:
This one was actually much better than I thought it would be. This one the intrigue is really good, and is maintained right up until the end, and even the ending surprised me. Rewards are good for Rangers/Rogues and it is worth a lot of money. Ironically the only one that really doesn't get much out of it is the actual Character with the Aristocrat background unless he's one of the mentioned classes.

[daredevilcheer]

I was stuck in tower and i couldn't go anywhere. said it was over. Will I be able to continue that game from there or start anew?

[Acadiantri]

Maybe your Spy quest went differently than mine, but there was no stealth involved. Had to discredit a certain person by planting an object. My Spy background character was a cleric, so she went to Daliat and made a deal to have it planted. Took down some folks at Daliat's request and that was that.

[Acadiantri]

I like Sellsword for the reasons Silverquick offers. Some real option there, even if a bit cliche. Also two battles with the real enemy of the game.

[bbii]

Originally posted by Acadiantri:

Maybe your Spy quest went differently than mine, but there was no stealth involved. Had to discredit a certain person by planting an object. My Spy background character was a cleric, so she went to Daliat and made a deal to have it planted. Took down some folks at Daliat's request and that was that.

My Rogue was a Spy. Had to go through the sewer to the embassy and sneak by three people to be able to plant it. I left my party behind to make it easier

[Acadiantri]

I redid it that way. Used the dust you find, took off everyone's armor, walked right by everyone, planted it, and walked out. Boring.

[wizard1200]

I have not played the background quests, but what happens if you select the same background two, three or four times?

[bbii]

Originally posted by Acadiantri:

I redid it that way. Used the dust you find, took off everyone's armor, walked right by everyone, planted it, and walked out. Boring.

OK. As I said I disagree with you. That is the wonderful thing about opinions.
I did mine in full armor too and didn't use dust. Just caution and one person.

[Acadiantri]

Cool.

[Kerynn]

Hi mate,

My ranking so far:
1 Aristocrat (because linked with the main story)
2 Sellsword (because meh... I like it)
3 Academic (the tower is cool)
4 Wanderer (the mines are cool)
5 Spy (because the diplomatic contacts and interaction in game)
6 Philosopher (because of the old geezer and his waifu)
7 Lawkeeper (don't like the slums)
8 Acolyte (wtf... seriously ?)

[Doombringer]

Lowlife is early and gets you a +2 sword you just keep until it is no longer useful, then finish the quest.
Also gives a ring of darkvision and random misc magic items (can save scum killing blow on boss enemy to roll a cloak of displacement or whatever).

Academic is early, have to have Fly or Levitate + Misty Step on 1 character to do.
Loot: random +1 weapon, random primed weapon/armor, a very random amount of gold, some drops that are usually 1g but can be a random scroll/potion/poison, 2-7? crafting recipes (usually poison/potions, gives 1 corrosive/flaming/flash arrow/bolt instead of those recipes because devs messed up on the loot table), 2-4? 5? random scrolls, plus mob drops.
(Skeletal Sorcerors have scroll of bane and both Art Objects have a small chance of being replaced by: Basic Poison, Dark Stab, Potion of Invisibility, Potion of Speed, Scroll of Black Tentacles, Scroll of Confusion, Scroll of Cloudkill, Scroll of Contagion) (rolled when killed)

Aristocrat give all 3 Arivad's Kiss recipes, ~350g, random +1 armor, random primed weapon/armor, random misc magic item (can save scum killing blow on arch mage during ambush to reroll what you get), scroll of fireball, and an item you can turn in to any faction for +3 rep.

Spy gives 4-6 crafting recipes (usually poison/potions, gives 1 corrosive/flaming/flash arrow/bolt instead of those recipes because devs messed up on the loot table), 2 gems, and primed weapon/armor in the sewers; outpost has random +1 weapon and mob drops.
You get the most loot by doing both (but leaving instead of finishing in the sewers or whatever).