Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Alignment Exploration

Good Day All

For what it is worth I wanted to express how much I enjoyed the morality system of DOS 2 and i really hope that something like this will continue into BG3. I like having the world adapt significantly to the choices that I make and I like being able to explore my alignment in games of this kind. Having the option to play the range from lawful good to chaotic evil is something I would like to play a real role in this game.
I want to be able to be that Paladin of Light in a dark world making things better through the nobility of my actions and the strength of arms and I want the world to richly grow with me through the choices I make. I want to bring fear and suffering as the bloodthirsty vampire and I want the world to cower in fear at my coming. In games like this the world needs to be alive and I would like it to be alive to the moral choices I make.
That being said, I'm supper pumped about this game and I loved DOS2. Thank you for your excellent creative spirit and the love you obviously poor into the games you make. It has earned you a fan for life.

Bear, Paladin of the Light, Order of the Clover.

5e de-emphasizes the alignment chart but mostly as an acknowledgment that its not set in stone, 2 lawful goods are not the same as each other just like 2 chaotic evils are not. So long as there is a wide variety of choices to roleplay and people and companions act properally to the things and how it affects them it should be fantastic.

The only thing that stands not in the way but makes this weird is the way dialogue choices were written in the past tense, which i dont know if they addressed but swen did say that companions would react to your actions and may even leave which sounds awesome.

What morality system are you talking about in DOS2? I was expecting severe consequences for abusing source vampirism, as mentioned during the campaign, but nothing happened.

Morality systems are garbage by default, you cannot put morality into numbers. I love the fact that BG3 ignores the alignment chart which is something a lot of DND players do anywhere

Morality systems provide interesting opportunities tho.

I'm not particularly concerned about a morality system per se. There have been other things in games past that have had little to no impact on gameplay (choice of deity in Neverwinter Nights 2 for instance...choices limited by alignment, but beyond that had no impact, minus a line of throwaway dialogue).

I'm fine with alignments being present and having little impact/effect. BG1/2's Reputation system was a rough around the edges solution, but it did work fairly well (though being able to simply pay the temples to be "good" again did neuter it).

It would be nice to see some kind of good/evil yardstick that imparts some effect, but I'm not overly concerned about their inclusion or not (my imagination will pick up the slack should I find it necessary).

Morality systems are a guide line but how my character acts is more interesting imo. I like the idea of Softer systems that can have consequences.

for example i have 2 LN characters in my current campaigns (one pathfinder, one 5e mini campaign as a break from the big one) They have huge diffrences in characters and how they would act in a situation based on how their past and how it informs their actions. One of them had to undergo and alignment shift due to an action that still made sense taken by her being LN but was an evil act. because of it i had to deal with the consequences of loosing some powers until i realigned due to betraying a "natural order" (shes a druid)

To me this what alignment should do and it seems like it might be the case in this. Swen talked about how if you are doing actions that anger your companions they may leave, i hope it goes further and you can loose powers and everything but we will see and ill sure be advocating for that over just a strict alighnment system

Alignments gotta be there, i hope Sven reconsiders this.

one thing i love about older DnD editions is that alignment is a real tangible thing.
Fuck you, the world says youre evil so you are.

I like that. Moral relativism is for the weak

I truly can't understand if you're serious or trolling.

Swen said they were going to have an alignment system, but since 5e doesn't make the alignments that pronounced. WotC asked them to dial it back a bit.

@1:28:40

Alignment has many pros and cons. Take Pathfinder Kingmaker (Video game for PC) they lock your dialog choices by your alignment. That can be incredibly frustrating as a player, but the reason for it is to aim to keep you in character. As players we're very detached from our character and alignments are a way to help bridge that detachment. To help us better understand who our PC is. A lawful evil guy may pay a fine for jay walking and then kill the whole town. However it would be out of character (typically) for him to go around helping people and having them cry on his shoulder.

As much as I do love alignment and find myself to be a fairly neutral good alignment. I think reputation allows for greater freedom and allowing the turmoil that exists within the PC's heart in the players head. Because our motivations are often very complex. I'm playing Thane right now and my Thane is a very caring and kind person. However, this is simply so that he can better use people and avoid betrayal. Internally, as he admitted to Amadia, he does not care for the lesser races at all. Just as an example of how one can appear to contradict their alignment.

Therefor even though he's a neutral and possibly neutral evil character his "reputation" with people is that of Chaotic Good and the world ought to react to his chaotic good reputation rather than his neutral/neutral evil alignment.

I have mixed feelings on them not forcing on alignments I mean there have been in the dnd for a long time but I can live with them only putting in good evil and neutral than putting in the chaotic or lawful alignments also if I remember right dnd tried to do the same thing in 4th edition and it backfired on them it might be a good idea to just ignore dnd on the alignment advice to Larian Studios