Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Can we be Kind?

While I understand the desire to be kind and gentle to everyone, this is a game about murder where you get a majority of your experience from killing things. There are probably better games out there for you if this isn't the tone you are looking for. I'm not trying to be dismissive here, but honestly something like Undertale may be closer to the tone you are looking for. It has the option to both be a murderer and be extremely kind. If you haven't played it, give it a try. It's a modern classic.

Regarding the fallout comments, 1 and 2 definitely had some of the best dialog and impactful options of any game, with New Vegas right behind them. But 3 and 4 had maybe 5 consequential choices between the two of them.

Id argue that investing in thieves is a bad thing to do.

And i'd also argue that letting Evil murdering goblins escape is maybe not directly evil, but it will definitely lead to some bad consequences for some other poor schmuck that may happen to come upon them.

Yes but most of the game is about "murdering" the bad guys.

They are refugee kids giving them money isn't a bad thing.

Kid goblins are still kids

Not sure if you mean BG3 or Undertale.

If you mean BG3, then yeah. Like most triple a games (that aren't sports related) the primary gameplay loop lots of murder. That being said, BG3 has more options to be kind and non-lethal than a majority of the triple a games market.

If you mean Undertale, then no, you can absolutely play pacifist beginning to end.

Part of me is a little bummed they toned Shadowheart's reactions down so much around patch 7 or 8.

The difficulty in trying to be good when the folks around you have other ideas was really compelling to me. She doesn't think we should help not out of maliciousness, but because we don't have a pony in the race and have our own urgent concerns. I really liked that.

Very few games create negative consequences for doing the right thing, and having that here makes it feel more real to me.

It's easy to be kind by making those choices, it's just less easy than we're used to in games

I mean, I've never had this issue with Dragon Age, mass Effect, Pathfinder or Pillars of eternity. Its only this game that comes up short for me in this area. And I'm talking about just engaging with non-hostile people in a reasonably polite way, not smothering every person with kindness and compassion, even though I do tend to like being good and compassionate most of the time. Look at the examples I gave. Those were just regular conversations. It seems reasonable that you have options to engage with them that aren't being an asshole.

Also I have played Undertale. It was definitely fun.

Yeah, that is always a tough moral argument from both perspectives. Would you kill baby Hitler(?) being the debate that most people fall back to as the core of this type argument.

I'm not sure there is a right answer, just different answers based on your values and beliefs. Is Murder wrong no matter what? Is murdering a murderer wrong? Is murdering someone who you know will murder if you don't kill them wrong? Different people have different combinations of answers to those three questions, and again, I don't think there is a right or wrong combination.

Interesting, I found the pathfinder games to present choices more as benevolent than necessarily kind. Maybe one of the other posters was on the right track when he brought up tone of voice. BG3 seems to provide a good chunk of the 'nice' choices more snarkily than many other games. If the snark vs. gentle tone is your key point, then I think you make a good point.

For me, the intent and end result is more important than the exact tone, but I can understand being frustrated if you aren't a fan of snark.

On a good note, non-voiced text replies are some of the easiest things to mod. Maybe play an evil/neutral run on your first go and see if any modders make a snark-less mod for a second playthrough?

If it helps them to stop stealing yes, but that doesn't sound like something they are interested in.
Kid roaches are still kids? They are vermin and should be eliminated.

You hit the nail on the head the. I don't mind some snsrk and playful banter, but a lot of the times I feel it crosses from being playful to just plain dickish for no reason without an option to... not be a dick.

Something I am hoping for is that once the full game is released a few people here in the forum who I can trust will choose to play a completely good run through the game and then provide a report on how things went on their run. That would make a big difference for me in deciding whether I want to play this game or not.

I will definitely be playing a chaotic good playthrough, helping everyone I can (but also not afraid to steal from the rich/hurt the powerful if I think they're taking advantage of the less privileged), and trying to convert SH, and whomever to a more positive worldview, etc, so I'll be able to give some feedback on that sort of playthrough.

edit: Oh, and my first playthrough will NOT be the Dark Urge

I'll definitively do a good playthrough without Dark Urge and other nonsense.