taltamir

Personally, I got along just fine without the chainmail. There are other pieces of armor that grant that bonus, and I got by with those just fine

IIRC I sold it, too much armor is junk due to ridiculously high accuracy penalties.

But the rewards really just a cherry on the cake, its a hidden reward so it doesn't really affect any of my arguments at least

I keep on encountering non random groups of sophonts which are clearly hostile to me but are not looking for a fight, I get the option to attack or retreat.

I am honestly baffled whether that is there for:

1. Some are very tough fights so I wonder if those are there just in case you haven't saved for a while and want to retreat rather then die. - if so i would just wipe them out

2. Because there is going to be a quest about them later / they would end up stronger (finish building a fort or whatever).

3. Its meant as a moral choice aka an act of mercy (especially in cases where they are "too pathetic to kil" like those starving mangy nephil or very poor goblins, etc) - does this have any consequences?

4. To avoid boring fights that give 0XP ("too scared to fight you" type of encounters... its obvious on the random encounters but less obvious on the ones that appear to be scripted)

I keep on waiting for the option to forge lasting peace with the other races but it seems too many of them (nephil in particular) fall into the "always chaotic evil" trope and that any act of kindness towards them has no positive results. (due to lack of the game having programming to allow for such not due to my own personal beliefs on the subject of coexistence and peace vs total war and genocide.)

Unfortunately, in a true all-out war like that one that's been going on for generations, the option is probably realistic. This isn't a war between two groups of people who are fairly similar but are willing to kill each other over an ideological or political difference. This is a war between two different species who can't communicate and who are both trying to use dangerous, dark forces to get an advantage in the war.

Sure, the sliths may be at war with humans, but that doesn't excuse a crime of this magnitude. Just imagine what would happen if the sliths did a thing like that to a human village, the people of Avernum would be enraged and rightly so, but in reverse its ok? How is killing a bunch of babies going to be of any help to the war?

I have no idea what game you have been playing, but in Avernum: Escape from the Pit the sliths clans vary in ideology and the main difference as far as humans are concerned is the division between clans of two types.

Group A: Friendly folk who trade with the humans, are not at war with the humans, and whose villages you can visit (normal towns only with sliths instead of humans).

Group B: Vicious speciesists who believe non sliths sophonts (humans, nephil, etc) are to be hunted down for food and sport until they are all exterminated.

Group B is the one the avernites are at war with.

The tribe where the egg encounter occurs is led by an extra zealous shaman who has personally been leading raiding parties to terrorize the local humans. In fact, those humans he has captured he makes sure to have butchered for food (exact specifics left to our imagination) on the shore where the humans on the other side of the lake can watch and see but be unable to act (thanks to water superiority of the sliths).

Personally I want to kiddnap the eggs and take them to Gnass or lost Bhassikava where they could be raised as productive and peaceful members of Avernite society, it's non-violent but it would give enough incentitive for the chief to attack you, thus allowing you to take his stuff.

That I agree with, even if finding human adopters for them is hard they can just be delivered to the peaceful clans instead. I really think such a quest should be added as an option, as well as possible consequences with the peaceful slith tribes if you go for slaughter.

As some have pointed out though the "smash the eggs" thing is not as black and white.

Those are unhatched eggs in a village you just personally depopulated (or at least so you thought until the hunting party returns).

he young are going to be eaten by a predator, if by a miracle they hatch they will starve, if by a miracle they do not they will have no one to teach them even something as basic as language, totally feral like animals.

If however a hunting party survived, then they will instead raise said young with their ideology of slaughter as well... so given the choice between "do nothing" and "smash eggs" I go with smash eggs... although if this was real life I would have instead opted for "take them and find someone non evil to raise them" (heck, I'd raise them myself if I wasn't busy saving the world)