After I talked to the mayor to finish the mines quest this appeared in that box -- Branwen: I have nothing to say to any of you.

What the heck does this mean?!

Annoying isn't it? Brawen is Neutral. Your reputation must be above 18 now, correct? You just completed a quest where your reputation increased, and so you are getting too good for her. I got so sick of her complaining "Our actions are not those of warrior born.", that I dumped her for Yeslick. He's Lawful Good.

Always keep and eye out on your reputation. It affects how much things cost to buy (or even if they'll sell to you at all) and more importantly it affects the NPC's that you "pick up" along the way. Check the table in the back of the manual, and try to recruit like-minded people. Of course that may mean having less than six for some time, but that depends on your style of play.

Heck yeah it affects how much things cost! An interesting little example of this is that guy Obulek (or however you spell it) who has the bounty of finding those emeralds....from the Gate House website it says if you sell one emerald back to Obulek and then the other you'll get like 500 gold or something for each emerald. But I think, since I accepted that 200 gold reward earlier from him that wasn't mine and he found out about it, my reputation with him went down so he gave me less (only 150 gold apiece!) for those emeralds.

At least that's MY theory as to why he gave me less.

Btw, my rep is 14 right now...is there a theoretical limit as to how high it goes. And do certain items at stores (like say at the smity in Beregost) appear once your reputation is at a certain level (all my characters are neutral good or better...except for Branwen who is true neutral I think).

Your reputation can range between 1 and 20 (villain to hero respectively). However, this only covers the affects such a reputation will have on NPC interaction. Or to put it another way, it probably good go higher or lower, but the result will most likely be the same as having 1 or 20.

Any item in a store can be bought if you have the correct money - or you steal it. If your reputation is really bad, then they may not sell to you at all. Or even worse you might...have to find out for yourself. :D

As for the emeralds, you may be right. I've never explored that option (sad isn't it) so he may have the proverbial ache with you!

Oh btw, what stat is it that affects your probablility for stealing stuff from a store? And does it depend on how expensive the items is? (like stealing 15000 gp shadow armor lol)

Presumably Dexterity. As to how the actual mechanics work in the game I'm afraid I cannot say. There isn't a "Steal from the powerful wizard" skill unfortunately. Pick Pockets might be the one. However, I should imagine it works something similar to the PnP version: your skill-target's level*5%. Which in real terms means don't bother trying it in this game probably. All the shopkeepers seem to spot my lot a mile off. Then again, my present team is mildly conspicuous to say the least!

Reading these posts explains many things that I didn't understand why they were happening. In my party I have Khalid and Jaheria Who I believe are both neutral good. Myself as Chaotic good, Branwen at true neutral, Danyheir at Lawful good, and Xzar who is either lawful or chaotic evil. I will say that this mix leads to a ton of interesting conversation in the party (with Xzar being right in the middle of most of it). Also I have to save constantly now to keep Xzar in the party as my rep is 19 or 20 and occasionaly he gets the urge to just up and leave me. This seems to have stopped since I learned of his mission to keep an eye on me from the wizards on the top floor of the magical shop in Baldur's Gate.

A happy medium is the 8-15 Rep. band. You can steal things and attack people to lower your Rep., and just pay some money to a temple to get it back up again. Of course you could dismiss the idea altogether and just have people of similar philosophies. Neutrals will only break with your party if your Rep. is one - or so the manual says.

The second time I played through with an evil party and I was evil. My reputation got really low and if I stayed in any town for to long the flaming fist guys would track me down. Not your normal flaming fist guards either but a really powerful mage and some other powerful fighters. It made playing the game a little hard since I couldn't rest in Inns or it made getting to shops difficult. Eventually I did some quest to get my rep up a bit and eventually thay left me alone. However the flaming fist to the south didn't cool off until after I completed the mine quest although they didn't chase after you into buildings.

Has any one ever killed this elite group of flaming fist? I tried but my party got toasted. I guess it can be done at a higher level but I didn't decrease my reputation that low at that point of the game. I take it they are worth lots of experiance but will decrease your reputation as well.