[Balanor]

The quest system in the Thay PW is one of an unlimited number of quests of several different varieties. While the opening events for new PCs will direct them to the most (in)famous quest giver who is guaranteed to give them quests, it is actually not necessary to work for that person if your character so chooses. However, please note that he does give the easiest type of quests to start with and will give slightly better rewards, so it is recommended new players to the PW start with him.

Regardless of whether they work through his tasks or not, at any point a PC may decide to work for any citizen NPC who they can convince to hire them. Good charisma and negotiating skills will help convince NPCs to hire a PC. When a NPC hires your PC, quest details are put in a persistent journal entry for the PC, as well as in the Play Menu under Character Options > Current Quest Information. Only one quest may be performed at a time.

Upon successful completion of a quest, or stage of a quest, the PC and any other nearby PCs in their party will gain XP, a possible gold reward, and the PC completing the quest may possibly receive a useful item(s) from certain ‘special’ quest givers (see below for details and location). For each quest a PC completes, they also receive notoriety as their name becomes better known throughout the realm.

A quest may be declined at any time by either talking to the NPC from which you took it, or declining it through the Player Menu. Quests from certain individuals, such as your Red Wizard master (if you are a Red Wizard Apprentice), cannot be declined. However, declining or quitting a quest will result in a decrease to notoriety as the now-disgruntled NPC will spread word that the PC is not reliable.


Quest Tips
Certain types of people in Thay may always give one of the following available quest types. Just consider the places you can go where people may need a specific job performed.
For example, if you talk to a Slave Merchant they will send you after slaves. If you talk to someone in the Thieves Guild they will likely want you to 'retrieve' a certain object from someone. If you talk to someone in the Temple of Oghma they may want you to research something. If you talk to someone at the Caravanserai they will often want you to deliver something. And the list goes on.

Tips for Quest Type 1 - 'Fetch me this...’
-This is a quest commonly given in Thay as many are looking for magic trinkets to add to their collection, or for various research.
-The items available to be quested after are taken directly from the treasure tables of the Thay PW. This means any item you are sent after *can* be found through adventuring.
-If assigned this quest, there is an increased chance you will find the item by checking various treasure containers in the area the questgiver specifies. This chance increases further by 10% for every PC in your party who is adventuring with you.
-While you can certainly buy an item if you find it in a store, remember this is supposed to be a ‘quest’ - not necessarily a shopping trip! Buying the item will also likely result in lost coin for your character since very few quest givers will pay face value for the item they seek.
-As your character grows in power, it will likely be sent after more powerful items as well.

Tips for Quest Type 2 - 'Fetch me multiple copies of this...’
-All tips that apply to Quest Type 1 apply to this quest type as well.

Tips for Quest Type 3 - Message Delivery
-This quest type is typically a good way to learn the layout of towns and cities, and the initial (in)famous quest giver that new characters are directed to will primarily give this type of quest.
-It is recommended you buy a map of towns and cities, Tyraturos especially, to help you find your way around when delivering messages.
-As your character grows in power, it may be sent to distant locations. However, locations not in the same town or city will receive an increase to the gold and XP reward for a successful delivery.

Tips for Quest Type 4 - Research
-Wizards and Bards stand a good chance of being given this quest type, and receive a slight bonus to their research attempts. PCs with less than 10 intelligence will never receive this quest.
-After being given this quest, find the nearest library at which point your PC will do an automatic check for the answer. The PC’s intelligence and Lore skills will improve the chance at successfully researching the answer.
-You (as a player) may also want to try and Bing the answer or look through source material to find it.
-The NPC will be *very* picky about the spelling of the answer. When you type it in, it must be exact, however the answer is not case sensitive.
-When providing an answer, drop any preceding words like "a", "an", and "the". As a result, many answers will be only one word, and no answer will be more than three words.

Tips for Quest Type 5 - Assassination
-Good-aligned PCs will never be given this quest type. Other PCs must attain a relatively high level of notoriety before they will be given this quest type *unless* they have joined an assassin's guild.
-As your character grows in power, it may be sent on assassinations to distant locations. However, locations not in the same town or city will receive an increase to the gold and XP reward for a successful assassination.
-It is best to complete assassinations in the most discrete manner possible. Note that even if your PC is a member of a legionnaire or even Red Wizard faction; NPC guards, legionnaires, and commoners may react if they see an attempted murder in progress.
-Upon successful completion, the alignment of all PCs in the party will be shifted toward Evil.

Tips for Quest Type 6 - Capture a Specific Type of Slave
-PCs must establish themselves as slavers before being given this quest type. To become an established slaver, they must attain enough notoriety to capture and then sell slaves to a slave merchant.
-A PC becomes well known and more competent with every slave they sell to a slave merchant. As a result, every slave sold improves the chances they will begin receiving this quest more often.
-Those who give this quest type are only concerned with the racial type of the slave. They will not care if it is male or female, a foot solider or lord of its kind, at full health or nearly dead, etc.
-PC slaves may not be used to complete this type of quest.

Tips for Quest Type 7 - Freeing Slaves
-Evil-aligned PCs will never be given this quest type. Other PCs must attain a relatively high level of notoriety before they will be entrusted to this dangerous and secretive quest type.
-PCs charged with freeing a slave must protect it at all costs. If it dies or the PC logs off before the slave is freed, they fail the quest.
-Do not speak to others about this quest, or your character may end up being branded an outlaw and hunted by the legionnaires, slavers, and even the Red Wizards of Thay.
-Upon successful completion, the alignment of all PCs in the party will be shifted toward Good.

Tips for Quest Type 8 - Retrieve an Object
-This quest will be given by those in Thay who desire a specific object or item in the possession of another individual. You will find some people in Thay are very petty - especially when they demand you recover a book from someone else that could be found in the nearest library for only a few coins!
-There are a number of methods to obtain the desired object from the target NPC, and it is preferable to try using your charm, silver tongue, wits, or other means, instead of brute force.
-As your character grows in power, it may be sent to retrieve objects from others at distant locations. However, locations not in the same town or city will receive an increase to the gold and XP reward for a successful return.
-PCs with Charisma below 10 will never get this quest type. Those with high Charisma have an increased chance of getting this quest type.

Tips for Quest Type 9 - Arena Fight
-This quest will be the only one given to Thayan Gladiators.
-Those who are not gladiators must be strong martial characters to receive this quest and have a Base Attack Bonus (BAB) equal to their overall level.
-Those who are not gladiators must be fairly notorious before they will be given this quest.

[Balanor]

Updated as of 10/31/10 (Happy Halloween!) to provide information for a new quest type - Freeing Slaves.

[Balanor]

Updated as of 11/28/10 to provide information for a two new quest types - Slave Hunting and Retrieving an Object from another individual.
Additionally, the Quest Tips section in general has been revised as well.

[Balanor]

Updated as of 7/13/12 with changes to the tips for the 'Fetch me this...’ and 'Fetch me multiple copies of this...’ quest types.

NOTE: For anyone who currently has a PC with an item retrieval quest that has been sent non-specific area, or the quest area name does not specifically match a valid area (like "Bezantur Sewers" rather than "Bezantur Sewers - South"), contact a DM in-game and ask them to create the quest item on your PC via the DM menu so you can finish your current quest. Either that or you can decline it - however do note you take a small notoriety loss for doing so.

[Balanor]

Updated as of 1/5/13 to add the following tip to Tips for Quest Type 4 - Research:
-When providing an answer, drop any preceding words like "a", "an", and "the". As a result, many answers will be only one word, and no answer will be more than three words.


This update will also be provided in the in-game player guide 'Unlimited Quests' feature topic, after the setting reboot.

[Balanor]

Updated as of 7/14/13 to provide information for a new quest type - arena fighting.

[Balanor]

Until now, there has been a long occurring issue where people who have been sent on 'Fetch me this Item' quests (quest types 1 and 2 from the list above) could potentially be sent after items that they already possess, but they do actually want or need. A prime example of this are quests that send you after stones of recall. In those situations, if you returned to a questgiver it would take *all* your stones of recall - including those that you had already set for a specific location. Another example is where you modified a weapon or armor at the enchantment forge or tailor model, and then the questgiver takes that from you rather than the generic piece you may have successfully quested after.

Previously, the only solution to this is to drop or store any items that you possess which you wanted to keep *before* speaking to the questgiver. Obviously this leaves room for human error, and if you forgot to do so, or you did not know to do this, you could lose an item that your PC wanted to keep.

I provide the background information above because I am pleased to announce a significant change to avoid this problem. Now the questgiver will look at both the design tag of the item (important only to me as a designer) in combination with the name of the item, and then compare both of those to the tag and name of a copy of the item the system knows is unmodified. If both the tag and name match, the item will be considered valid to complete the quest and will be taken. If they do not match, the questgiver will leave the item alone. This really results in no change for how you might handle your quests; however, it does provide a new way for you to permanently mark an item as a non-quest-available so long as you rename it in some way.

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In summary, if you didn't read or don't really understand anything else in this post, this is the primary point I am trying to make:
If you have an item in your character's inventory you want to ensure NEVER gets taken by a questgiver, make sure you rename it at an Engraving Table or, in the case of Stones of Recall, make sure you bind them to a location (which changes their name as well). Otherwise, be aware of the items in your inventory and make sure you drop any items that a questgiver may have sent you after which you want to keep, before you speak to them to turn the items in.

[GypsyRogue]

I think this system is really interesting but I'm curious as to what is the impact on your notoriety or whatever it is when you take a quest and then decline it.

I thought I was being very clever at first level persuading an NPC to give me another quest after I delivered a message. but then the quest was to the graveyard and find some crossbows, which is an area that from the message that is given to you when you approach it at first level, as well as the OOC talk at the beginning about needing to go in groups and being careful, didn't seem like a good place for my first level character to go.

And then I realized that I couldn't get anymore messenger quests from the beggar until I finished or decline the graveyard quest. And having only 362 xp, it seemed better to decline the graveyard quest and keep taking on more messages until I at least reached 2nd level.

So lesson learned on my part. But I do wonder if a) there was a way to be more explicit and upfront about only having one quest at a time IG at the beginning (and if I missed it, then totally my fault), and b) is the loss to my notoriety at first level very significant?

Thanks. I probably rambled. I tend to.

[Sundraoi]

So lesson learned on my part. But I do wonder if a) there was a way to be more explicit and upfront about only having one quest at a time IG at the beginning (and if I missed it, then totally my fault), and b) is the loss to my notoriety at first level very significant?

Thanks. I probably rambled. I tend to.

a) I myself don't know if it's explicit as to having only one quest at a time but I'll look into it.
b) The notoriety drop from declining one quest won't be too bad for you at first level, just don't keep declining them. I will add that it's best to stick with the beggar until he's "done" with you. He's pretty good at sending new PCs on quests they can manage.