9 Video Games That Reward Charity
The real gift was the friends we made along the way.
Sometimes it's nice to just be nice and kindness can absolutely be its own reward. But you know what's even better than that? An actual reward.
While plenty of gamers like to play the good guy out of the warm fuzziness of their hearts, a lot of us are in it for the stuff and if that last category includes you, then I've got just the list. There’s no pointless paragon points or gross gushings of gratitude here, just cold hard cash, sweet new gear, bumps in your stats, a lucrative guild to join, and a cool sword.
Alright, there is a bit of the ‘how nice did it feel to do a nice thing’, but it comes with a tangible reward too, I promise.
9. Keep Shadowheart In Your Party - Baldur's Gate 3
Many RPGs, including this one, give you seemingly endless NPCs and their medium-sized problems for which you appear to be the only person in the world equipped to solve them.
This isn’t so terrible though as you always get some experience for your trouble, but as I mentioned, we’re not here for basic experience, we’re here for a genuine reward (and being charitable... as long as the charity leads to something we want). Often when you hand in a quest in Baldur’s Gate 3 and refuse payment, the NPC in question says, “Oh that’s so generous, here, let me pay you with a priceless family heirloom,” but the reward we’re paying off is even better.
You’ll come across multiple characters who are after something called the Nightsong. It turns out Nightsong is not a thing but a person so handing her over is a bit unkind on your part.
Now, one particular character called Balthazar wants you to kidnap her and give her to him. You can do this and save yourself a big fight but doing the nice thing and not giving the woman over to a bloody-faced mage and his undead horde is the better call. This isn’t just because it makes you less crap, it actually is the only way to avoid Shadowheart leaving your party altogether. This is because Shadow’s storyline is tightly woven with Nightsong and whether or not she chooses to kill Nightsong. Once the encounter concludes, Shadowheart will permanently leave the party with some stinging parting words about how you robbed her of her moment.
So yeah, better to be nice at this juncture. And plenty of others, in fact, as you can certainly piss your companions off enough to make them leave at multiple points before or after.