Raedric's Hold - Stupid to sneak in?

[Reaper]

As the title says, I'm wondering if there's any benefit of actually sneaking in as opposed to clearing out the entire castle of hostiles. Won't I be missing a lot of loot and XP if I just sneak past all monks and take the sneaky route with the help of Nedmar?

I managed to finish the final fight with Raedric with 4 guys, but it really feels like I'm missing a lot of potential by skipping most of the guards on the ramparts and in the rest of the castle. All I killed was the undead in the sewers.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Well, you quickly reach 100% for the bestiary entry of the enemies, and then you don't get any XP for killing further ones. Looting the keep is worthwhile though. There are a couple of hidden loot areas, too.

Sneaking in and making a deal with Raedric is a nice alternative option. And then killing Kolsc and Raedric is a fun option, especially for Cruel/Aggressive Watchers.

[Reaper]

Ah, so that's how it works with the XP and the bestiary. So sneaking in isn't too bad then as long as you've maxed out the bestiaries. Looting can be done after the keep is cleared as well so that's nice.

Thanks for the tips man! :)

[Batbro]

You'll reach max level WAY before you run out of quests to do in this game, and the overwhelming majority of it comes from completing quests, not kills. There's not really much opportunity cost to finding non-violent solutions to your problems.

[Reaper]

Alright, cool. That's quite different from other RPGs, where killing is often a good way of earning experience, beside quests of course.

Thanks for the tips and the info, both of you, really enjoying the game so far. It's challenging, but it always feels like you have an option to go somewhere else to improve in one way or another.

[Batbro]

I'm a big fan of the "no wrong choices" approach to RPG design. As long as you don't die, you can continue to progress. Really helps get you into the roleplay, and adds a lot of replay value.