Faction & Consider

Faction, when used as a noun, refers to a faction that one or more NPCs belong to. Not all NPCs belong to a faction. An example of a faction is the Freeport Militia, which include most of the guards in Freeport. Another example is Trakanon, which includes almost all monsters in Old Sebilis in Kunark.

Norrath contains hundreds of factions. Some of the most well known are in the old world and from the first few expansions, where race, class, deity and factions played a major part in where players could hunt, bank and gather safely. The concept has been simplified in later expansions.

Considering an NPC is done either by right-clicking on them, pressing the hotkey for Consider (default key: C), or typing /consider or /con with the NPC targeted. By considering an NPC, you receive a message in your chat log such as this:

Watchman Dreeb judges you amiably -- looks like quite a gamble

The message consists of two parts: Your standing (before the --), and an indication of the difficulty of killing the NPC (after the --).

The first part of the consider message, for example Watchman Dreeb judges you amiably, is your current standing against the NPC. The possible messages are:

Message Kill on Sight? ... scowls at you, ready to attack Yes ... glares at you threateningly Yes ... glowers at you dubiously No ... looks your way apprehensively No ... regards you indifferently No ... judges you amiably No ... kindly considers you No ... looks upon you warmly No ... regards you as an ally No

The message determines the following:

The lowest two tiers of standing (scowling and threatningly) means that the NPC will attack you if you get close enough. How close varies a lot, and some NPCs are also coded to not attack if their level is sufficiently below yours. Unattackable NPCs will also not attack you, even if they are scowling.

Merchants will not deal with you if you are dubious or below.

Many quest NPCs in the world require a certain standing for them to allow finishing the quest. This can vary from dubiously all the way up to ally standing.

Behind your standing with a faction is a simple formula that results in a number. It is unknown precisely how it works as this information has never been officially released, but a roughly agreed upon set of numbers are listed here. The values can also be judged fairly reliably by looking at how basic turn-in quests such as Bone Chips for Lashun Novashine appear to raise your faction 1 point per turn-in.

Message Number Range ... scowls at you, ready to attack < -701 ... glares at you threateningly -700 to -501 ... glowers at you dubiously -500 to -301 ... looks your way apprehensively -300 to -101 ... regards you indifferently -100 to 99 ... judges you amiably 100 to 299 ... kindly considers you 300 to 499 ... looks upon you warmly 500 to 699 ... regards you as an ally > 700

The number is influenced mainly by your faction standing with the NPC, but also several other factors.

Faction standing refers to the level of friendliness a player has against a certain faction. A new player starts at a certain level against all factions in the world, and can alter their faction standing, mostly either by killing NPCs related the faction, or by completing quests. The simplest example of gaining faction standing is by killing NPCs opposed to the faction. When you kill Crushbone Orcs in Greater Faydark, your standings are altered in the following manner:

Your faction standing with Crushbone Orcs got worse.

Your faction standing with Storm Guard got better.

Your faction standing with Faydarks Champions got better.

Your faction standing with Indigo Brotherhood got worse.

Your faction standing with Emerald Warriors got better.

Another common example is to complete a quest. For example, by turning in Crushbone Belts to the Dwarf Warriors in Kaladim, the following standings are modified:

Your faction standing with Storm Guard got better.

Your faction standing with Kazon Stormhammer got better.

Your faction standing with Miners Guild 249 got better.

Your faction standing with Merchants of Kaladim got better.

Your faction standing with Craknek Warriors got worse.

The factions you see improved or worsened, besides the one that the NPC belongs to, are the NPC's related factions. The factions of the old world are on an intricate weave of factions that hate or love eachother.

Your standing with a faction is most likely, behind the scenes, represented by an integer that goes from a maximum negative number to a maximum positive number, either end "maxing out" the faction standing, and giving the player the message "Your faction standing could not possibly get any better/worse".

The faction standing you gain from killing an NPC varies wildly. A measly orc pawn in Greater Faydark will likely only give you +1 faction point, whereas killing King Tormax in Kael Drakkal, the leader of the Kael Giants of Velious, will give you a very large faction hit, positive and negative, with his associated factions.

The stat Heroic Charisma slightly boosts your faction standing gains in content from newer expansions.

Race provides a fixed bonus or detriment to your standing against certain factions. For example, the good-aligned Wood Elves in Kelethin hate the evil Dark Elves, so when a Dark Elf considers a Wood Elf NPC, a number is subtracted from his standing. By default, he will be attacked on sight, but through faction work, such as by killing Crushbone Orcs, he can maximize his faction with the Wood Elves. Still, his race modifier will be subtracted from his total standing, and he may not be able to go past indifferent or around there. Race usually only matters against factions in the old world and Kunark.

Class provides a fixed bonus or detriment to your standing against certain factions. For example, Shadow Knights are an evil class, and will be seen in a bad light by the good-aligned Dwarf Clerics of Kaladim. Like race, faction work can improve standing, but the class modifier will always take effect on top of that. Class usually only matters against factions in the old world and Kunark.

Deity provides a fixed bonus or detriment to your standing against certain factions. For example, Innoruuk is an evil deity, and is seen upon negatively by good factions such as the Paladins in Felwithe (Clerics of Tunare). Like race and class, faction work can improve standing, but the deity modifier will always take effect on top of that. Deity usually only matters against factions in the old world and Kunark.

Standing can be temporarily modified in the following ways:

Using the Sneak skill and staying behind the NPC, a player will always be indifferent. Undead still see through Sneak, though.

Using an appropriate invisibility spell or ability, a player will always be indifferent. For Undead, players need a form of Invisibility vs. Undead, and many raid targets see through invisibility.

Enchanters can cast spells that enhance faction temporarily, while in the zone. Example: Alliance. These spells can also be found on a few select items.

Illusions can alter your standing against certain factions, as they hide your race modifier. Example: Wolf Form from Druids and Rangers.

Items with faction modifiers exist. Example: Aviak Spirit Totem provides a boost to the Blacksail Smugglers faction.

The second part of the consider message, for example looks like quite a gamble, is the estimated difficulty of killing the NPC. The possible messages are:

Message Common Name Note -- You could probably win this fight.

-- looks like a reasonably safe opponent. (below level 25) Grey or gray Yields no experience -- You would probably win this fight... it's not certain though. Green Yields significantly reduced experience -- looks kind of dangerous. Light blue or LB Does not appear until the player has reached level 25. Introduced with the July 10, 2001 patch; light blues were previously green. -- he/she/it appears to be quite formidable.

-- looks kind of risky, but you might win. (below level 25) Dark blue or DB -- looks like quite a gamble.

-- looks kind of risky... you might win. (below level 25) White or even con Fixed: Always the same level as you -- looks like he/she/it would wipe the floor with you!

-- looks like quite a gamble. (below level 25) Yellow Fixed: The NPC is 1-3 levels above you (1-2 at low levels). -- what would you like your tombstone to say? Red Fixed: The NPC is 4 levels or more above you (3 at low levels).

The level range for the messages below white/even constantly changes as the player levels, although dark blue is always one level below or more, until the threshold for either light blue or green has been reached.

The consider difficulty plays a large role in determining the amount of experience you get from killing the monster. As a rule of thumb, the best experience is gained by killing monsters that are between light blue and yellow. Green cons yield next to no experience, and red cons are generally speaking too difficulty and time-consuming to kill in order to make it worth your time.

When considering a raid target, you will receive an extra line of text in the same color as the consider, for example:

Herald of Druzzil Ro regards you indifferently -- what would you like your tombstone to say?

This creature would take an army to defeat!

Raid NPCs have a few special traits:

Certain spells, such as the Shaman "fast DoTs" (example: Stranglefang's Venom), will do less damage.

After finishing a battle, it will take 5 minutes for you to be able to enter the resting (out of combat) state, compared to 30 seconds against normal NPCs.

When considering a corpse, you will get a message about how long it will take for the corpse to decay.

Used on a player corpse, it looks like this:

This corpse's resurrection time will expire in 2 hour(s) 8 minute(s) 10 seconds.

This corpse will decay in 5 day(s) 14 hour(s) 3 minute(s) 19 seconds.

Used on an NPC corpse, it looks like this:

This corpse will decay in 7 minute(s) 56 seconds.

The corpse decay timer on NPCs below level 55 is 8 minutes, and 30 minutes for NPCs level 55 or above.