Reason of State - Novigrad
Area: Novigrad
Location: Novigrad
Quest Giver: Dijkstra during Blindingly Obvious
Other Requirements: Complete the following quests; A Deadly Plot, An Eye for an Eye, Redania's Most Wanted, A Matter of Life and Death and Now or Never
This quest can be accepted during the Blindingly Obvious Story Quest, a quest which is part of the Final Preparations Story Quest. When you and Phillipa are talking to Dijsktra, choose non violent dialogue options and bribe him with information about the Nilfgaardian Emperor. In order for this quest to be available to you, you must first complete all of the quests listed above.
What happens during this quest and the decisions you make will have an impact on your games ending. Note: The Warehouse of Woe Side Quest takes place in this same area and it also will fail if you get out of range once you get close enough to start the quest. It's recommended you do this quest now if you haven't already, as you'll get within its range while doing this quest.
After talking to Dijkstra and Roche to come up with a really shitty plan to kill the king head outside to see Philippa (pictured above). She'll give you something that should help you convince Radovid, her ring. With this in hand you'll need to head over to Radovid's boat which is currently parked in Novigrad.
Tip: Unequip your weapons/equip different ones before getting on the boat with Radovid. He takes your equipped weapons but not the ones in your inventory.
There will be a brief scene once you've spoken to Radovid after which you'll find yourself on the southern portion of the bridge to Temple Isle. Here you're going to be basically running a gauntlet up the bridge, occasionally bumping into story characters like Roche or Ves that are fighting.
It is very important you take it slow on this bridge and wait for the scene to trigger with Roche (and get the scene + objective for you to follow him) before heading up to where Radovid is. Rushing through this part of the quest will cause it to bug out and fail to complete.
Reason of State Common Bug & Fix
This is one of the more common bugs in the game and one of the more annoying ones. If you make it to the end of the street and Radovid is just standing there and nothing happens (like pictured above) it means that one Redanian Guard is left alive. Specifically back at the start of the bridge by the Signpost - and he isn't hostile.
Return to the start of the bridge and Aard, Igni, punch, whatever the guard to make him hostile then defeat him. When you return to Radovid Roche and Ves will be battling two Witch Hunter Officers (usually) defeat them for to progress the quest forward/get the scene you should have gotten originally.
Once everything is over and Radovid is dead there will be some more scenes. During the scenes it will be revealed that Roche and Thaler want to strike a peace treaty with Nilfgaard. Dijkstra doesn't feel the same way, he finds the peace treaty questionable and he wishes to be Chancellor of Redania.
To fulfill this goal, Dijkstra surrounds Roche, Geralt and Thaler with soldiers and gives Geralt the option of walking away from this (pictured below). If you choose to walk away, Roche and Thaler will end up dead and Dijkstra will become the Chancellor of Redania. If you choose to help Roche and Thaler then you'll have to kill Dijkstra.
The choice is up to you, but I chose to kill Dijkstra. I'd actually have let him become Chancellor if that's what he wanted, but killing Roche and Thaler was a step too far. Regardless of your choice the quest will conclude here. Additionally, if you had the quest Gwent: Big City Players in your log and you hadn't played Dijkstra yet, you'll receive the cards from Dijkstra you would have won and the quest will complete/end.
