12/08/2019

Did I mention I'm a pacifist?

... is one of the voice lines of (not particularly popular) consular companion Tharan Cedrax. This post isn't about him though, it's about me. Yes, I've been trying out the pacifist life!

I first brought up the idea after visiting Dantooine during peace time, and got an approving comment from Charles Boyd of all people!
Well, now I had to do it. And thus, Pacis (pronounced "Paa-sis" in my head) the Jedi Shadow was born. It was obvious that a pacifist character had to be a Jedi, but the reason I chose Shadow was that I figured that the ability to go into stealth would come in handy when it came to avoiding combat later on.

The Pirate Incursion event wasn't actually on when I first created Pacis, so since I couldn't travel to Dantooine right away, I vendored my weapon and then walked around Tython a bit to see how far I could get without fighting anything. There were actually a couple of missions that I was able to do, such as the very first consular story quest to gather holocrons, and the side quest to visit the Twi'lek matriarch. Most of my XP had to come from simple exploration though.


Initially I was extremely paranoid about getting aggro on anything, but I soon realised that at least on the starter planet nothing really hurt very much. By the end I was happily charging through tunnels filled with hostiles twice my level and they would barely scratch me before I'd run far enough to get them to evade again.

I ran out of areas to explore by level five, but was still not allowed off the planet. I genuinely can't remember whether the ability to use the shuttle is gated by your class story or your level. The error messaging tied to that could certainly be more informative.


Anyway, I left it at that and waited for the Pirate Incursion event to come around again. Then I used the quick travel option in the activity finder to get to Dantooine and hid in a corner. The next time I logged back in the event was over and Pacis was able to explore in peace, only occasionally getting chased off by an Imperial spy or angry Kath Hound.

I was somewhat dismayed to find that the bonus mission to pet friendly Kath Hounds gives no XP, but of course I'm still doing it because why would anyone not do that one? However, I'm trying not to let the experience turn into a chore, so I'm not fretting about doing my two daily quests every single day. The goal is to slowly level up over time, and once the next Pirate Incursion comes around, to see if - being higher level - I end up being able to explore other planets and can find a few more non-combat quests to do. (The reason I want to wait until the next event is that without a ship of my own I won't be able to return to Dantooine otherwise.) I'll keep you posted about my progress.

7 comments :

  1. If you've got more credits than you know what to do with, Pacis can also complete the Yorvak heroic without fighting any mobs!

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    1. Nice idea that I'll file away for later! (Once she's a bit higher level and has more tools to get around and avoid combat). Seeker droid/macrobinocular missions come to mind as well, plus some purely "talky" quests spread around the galaxy... but for now, Dantooine it is!

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    2. I know there are at least two heroics that can be completed by stealthers without any combat: Jungle Fight on Belsavis and Starfighters of Corellia. Open Communications also on Belsavis can also be done without fighting if you vanish out on completion. Sadly you can't get to the non-combat Ossus dailies without fighting through the story, but I think there are some dailies on CZ, the Black Hole and Section-X that could be done without fighting but with some sneakiness and cc.

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  2. I'm definitely looking forward to your leveling reports. This is a cool way to level.

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  3. I have a very vague recollection of someone doing this soon after release of the game. There may still be internet discussions about this and some of it might even still be relevant.

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    1. I did a quick Google search before I wrote this post but couldn't find anything but a playthrough where someone was trying to make as many "no kill" choices in the story as possible. I don't think it was possible to level up as a complete pacifist in gameplay terms before Dantooine, surely? As there is so little you can do to gain XP without killing mobs on the way.

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  4. Interesting! I look forward to reading the tales of that adventure. :-)

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