RPGs with game-breaking exploits

[Mr. Magniloquent]

It’s not as cool as some of the stuff posted in here but I think it still counts. There’s a part in vampire the masquerade bloodlines where you need to fight/run away from a werewolf with is meant to be one of the hardest fights in the game. However there’s a nearby building you can go into that the warewolf is too big to fit into so he just stands at the entrance making him a easy kill.

Sounds like it is the player being smart. Or at least should be. In another CRPG make it not a simple door but some tight passage, hard to spot either by a skill check or by player, that your character can access only with high DEX/AGI or acrobatics skill. A big monster gets stuck there, profit. A good crpg situation where you can use both non combat skills and player's smarts to defeat a strong(er) oponent.

In the scenario he's refering to, the player can flee into the observatory, which the werewolf can only fit into through the dome shutter. The resourceful player can then close the shutters on the werewolf, slaying it and getting +2 points to allocate.

 

[Vic]

Ultima 6 has a rudimentary trading system where some goods are bought and sold at variable prices at different shops.

The balance of this system wasn't thought out too well. You can simply buy cloth at the clothmaker in Britain, walk across the street to the tailor, and sell the cloth for a profit of 5 gold per unit.

that's not an exploit but capitalism

 

[Daemongar]

In Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight, I used to go through the trial dungeon then immediately rush to a dungeon in another city - Philipi or such- and right inside the door you could fight illusionists who would summon illusionary dragons. Ok, I'd cast Disbelieve, and after about 20 rounds, on the C64 I could max out 65335 xps, no cap on the Amiga version. So, run from fight to fight and walk out a murder machine. However, I usually transferred chars from BT1, so it was kind of a moot exploit. Eh, going from level 149 to level 155 isn't all that noticeable.

 

[Deathhappens]

Does bucketing NPC heads to steal their stuff in Oblivion count?

Speaking of Oblivion, actually, the entire bribe/charm system was a giant exploit for everything if you had a small starting capital. Charm all the guards, get your own personal army and commit any crime with impunity.

 

[Daemongar]

Eh, there were also universal exploits in earlier RPGs that were goto moves. Adding NPCs, selling their stuff, then dropping them springs to mind.

 

[Funposter]

Morrowind.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Ultima Underworld
destroy potions to make them infinite

Deus Ex
quicksave exploits - but this one let you get past laser barriers.
Save->Load while holding forward-> get pass

Bind "USE" key to mouse scroll and pick stackable items to get more of them

Wizardry 8
train your Stealth skill on the roaches in the cell. Free AC which is nice at the beginning

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The main ethos of old school TTRPGs was exactly to overcome obstacles by thinking out of the box. Too bad cRPGs that are designed to reflect this ethos are basically zero.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Item cloning in Arcanum

 

[Eirinjas]

At around level 20 in Fallout New Vegas I got bored with the game and decided to storm the legion's Fort. I was able to pull Caesar and his ballistic fist-wielding guards outside of the tent to fight them in smaller numbers. Doing this I got the Platinum Chip. I then went to The Tops and killed Benny which earned me a second Platinum Chip.

 

[d1nolore]

BG 2 infinite trap exploit, and shop theft exploit. If I remember correctly for infinite traps you set your traps, go into character screen, click dual class, cancel, and you’d get your traps refreshed. Merchant one was easy, steal item from store, click pause, use talk action one merchant which would cancel the hostile action. You could also give any character a familiar by pausing using potion, switch summon familiar scroll with potion and unpause.

NWN not really an exploit but just the retarded implementation of resting. You basically can rest anywhere any time and it’s relatively quick. Use all your powerful spells, rest as soon as you run out and thus you never actually run out.

 

[Spukrian]

It’s not as cool as some of the stuff posted in here but I think it still counts. There’s a part in vampire the masquerade bloodlines where you need to fight/run away from a werewolf with is meant to be one of the hardest fights in the game. However there’s a nearby building you can go into that the warewolf is too big to fit into so he just stands at the entrance making him a easy kill.

Sounds like it is the player being smart. Or at least should be. In another CRPG make it not a simple door but some tight passage, hard to spot either by a skill check or by player, that your character can access only with high DEX/AGI or acrobatics skill. A big monster gets stuck there, profit. A good crpg situation where you can use both non combat skills and player's smarts to defeat a strong(er) oponent.

In the scenario he's refering to, the player can flee into the observatory, which the werewolf can only fit into through the dome shutter. The resourceful player can then close the shutters on the werewolf, slaying it and getting +2 points to allocate.

I thought the werewolf would break the walls of the observatory in scripted sequences but I might be misremembering.

 

[laclongquan]

NWN not really an exploit but just the retarded implementation of resting. You basically can rest anywhere any time and it’s relatively quick. Use all your powerful spells, rest as soon as you run out and thus you never actually run out.

Any game with feature of resting, really~ They really love their free-healing-anywhere feature.

Fallout New Vegas make a pioneer move by only rest-heal in owned bed and/or selected perks. Very pioneer, cause I dont know any games make such effort to curb free rest~

 

[Tavar]

In the release version of Gothic 2 you could get infinite money if you worked as Bosper's apprentice. To do that, you needed to get the hide of a Shadowbeast and sell it to Bosper. As you're his apprentice, he gave you more money than usual. You could then buy it back from him for roughly two thirds of the money he just gave you. Rinse and repeat. You can find a Shadowbeast hide early in the game, so you don't need to kill one to use this exploit.

 

[octavius]

BG 2 infinite trap exploit, and shop theft exploit. If I remember correctly for infinite traps you set your traps, go into character screen, click dual class, cancel, and you’d get your traps refreshed. Merchant one was easy, steal item from store, click pause, use talk action one merchant which would cancel the hostile action. You could also give any character a familiar by pausing using potion, switch summon familiar scroll with potion and unpause.

Man, you must be really desperate if you use such tactics.

 

[Anonymous Ranger]

It’s not as cool as some of the stuff posted in here but I think it still counts. There’s a part in vampire the masquerade bloodlines where you need to fight/run away from a werewolf with is meant to be one of the hardest fights in the game. However there’s a nearby building you can go into that the warewolf is too big to fit into so he just stands at the entrance making him a easy kill.

Sounds like it is the player being smart. Or at least should be. In another CRPG make it not a simple door but some tight passage, hard to spot either by a skill check or by player, that your character can access only with high DEX/AGI or acrobatics skill. A big monster gets stuck there, profit. A good crpg situation where you can use both non combat skills and player's smarts to defeat a strong(er) oponent.

In the scenario he's refering to, the player can flee into the observatory, which the werewolf can only fit into through the dome shutter. The resourceful player can then close the shutters on the werewolf, slaying it and getting +2 points to allocate.

I thought the werewolf would break the walls of the observatory in scripted sequences but I might be misremembering.

Lol maybe the games such a buggy mess I wouldn’t be surprised if it was supposed to do that and just glitched out and didn’t.

 

[MurkrLurkr]

You can call it tactics, but I claim it exploit: knowing where your enemies are hidden in fog of war in Infinity Engine games, than spamming Stinking clouds, Webs, Cloudkill and Fire balls (in that order as the first two don't hurt anyone, not turning red circled fckrs hostile to pursue you)

 

[Decado]

OG Baldur's Gate 2 (fixed in EE afaik):

1. Find a gem and a potion.
2. Go in the inventory screen, drink said potion.
3. Before unpausing the game, swap the gem and the potion's place in your inventory.
4. Game tries to consume your gem, causing a numeric roll-over effect and putting the stack-count of your gem to 99.
5. Sell gems to get filthy rich.

I'm still learning shit about BG2, over 20 years later. Heh.

 

[Decado]

It’s not as cool as some of the stuff posted in here but I think it still counts. There’s a part in vampire the masquerade bloodlines where you need to fight/run away from a werewolf with is meant to be one of the hardest fights in the game. However there’s a nearby building you can go into that the warewolf is too big to fit into so he just stands at the entrance making him a easy kill.

There were a few spots in BG2 where you could do this. For example, in the De'Arnise Keep you can get that Iron Golem trapped behind the doorway and position Minsc to hit it with Lilarcor (at the point in the game, likely the only weapon you have that can damage it since you need +3 to hit). You can cheese it from there, though it can still release Gas Cloud which is highly annoying. Anyway, you can get Frostreaver quite easily this way, and it's a great axe to have that early in the game.

Also, Protection from Undead scrolls can trivialize most Lich encounters. Armed with Lilarcor, you use a Protection from Undead scrolls on Minsc and then send him into the secret room of the Crooked Crane to buttfuck the Lich; it won't even see him and cannot attack while he is under the effects of the spell.

The reason this is "trivializing" is because that Lich is guarding Daystar, one of the best swords in the game which absolutely brutalizes undead with Sunray. You can get it in Chapter 2, which makes it nearly game-breaking early on --it has insane bonuses to hit evil and undead, and its +4 enchantment against undead lets you hit Demi-liches. A badass weapon all around, great for larping as a sword-and-board Paladin.

 

[MerchantKing]

You can call it tactics, but I claim it exploit: knowing where your enemies are hidden in fog of war in Infinity Engine games, than spamming Stinking clouds, Webs, Cloudkill and Fire balls (in that order as the first two don't hurt anyone, not turning red circled fckrs hostile to pursue you)

Is command+sleep at low levels an exploit?

 

[MurkrLurkr]

If used during the immediate fight then No, but if utilized in preconceived maner, as in knowing the position of the adversary in advance via save scumming for example, or familiarity then Yes...

 

[RoksCQ]

If it doesn't have a game breaking exploit, can we even still call it an rpg?

B-but think about the balance! Feelings of dominated npcs! No man should enjoy all that ~power~. You will be balanced and enjoy your Daedric equipped bandits throughout the land.

 

[RoksCQ]

This thread makes me sad that game designers are too proud and haughty now to allow the player to think outside the box and mess with anything. You can't even misbehave in the fantasy world. If you do find something cheeky, they'll release a patch to ruin your fun.

Is it any wonder why the dev talent pool dwindles when they patch out sandbox thinking instead of learning from their previous games and letting players inform developers in a synergistic competition of innovation. No, let's ban, nerf and act indignant instead t. modern devs

 

[King Crispy]

Murphy's Ghosts.

But it's not what you think. They exploited me.

 

[Iucounu]

This thread makes me sad that game designers are too proud and haughty now to allow the player to think outside the box and mess with anything. You can't even misbehave in the fantasy world. If you do find something cheeky, they'll release a patch to ruin your fun.

Is it any wonder why the dev talent pool dwindles when they patch out sandbox thinking instead of learning from their previous games and letting players inform developers in a synergistic competition of innovation. No, let's ban, nerf and act indignant instead t. modern devs

Reminds me of my second, aborted playthrough of The Witcher 3. The game's plot (and quest screen) makes it seem like you can choose between doing either the Velen or Novigrad missions first, so this time around I decided to start with Novigrad for a change. Soon I found Geralt and Triss locked inside a warehouse with some bandits that were impossible to defeat (due to Level difference), with no way of getting out without completing the mission. Only solution was to load an earlier save, and maybe level up somewhere else (say on the Skellige Island) before going back to the warehouse, but instead I just lost interest.