Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Tav vs Dark Urge for a 'good' playthrough

Thank you for this link, snowram!

It's good to know this in advance - I thought there wouldn't be a moment where we would completely loose player agency. It's very dark, but I think it could be very interesting to try this with a "good" character, trying to resist the urges whenever possible, and reacting with horror whenever they realize what they have unwillingly done.

I wonder if we can actively try to find a way to break free from whatever compels us to commit these acts of violence (although we might not succeed), or confide in a party member and asking them to keep an eye on us. Maybe we could try to minimize the risk by mostly staying away from everyone.

It would be interesting to fathom what this character would do, trying their best not to harm others, and how they would feel about all of this.

Most likely, this will end in tragedy, and it will be very dark, but I think it could be a compelling story nonetheless. It reminds me a bit of a werewolf or a Jekyll and Hyde story.

I will definitely try this at least once, to see which possibilities we have with a Dark Urge character.

For my first playthrough though, I will play a custom character, the wild magic sorceress I've already played before. She is my most fleshed out character, and I love playing her.

The squirrel situation is worrying. I was hoping for a Dark Urge palladin run.

That might be the way to do it, but avoid the Internet for spoilers because you’ll be progressing at half the speed.

From the following from the Community Update, I'm guessing that conquering the Urge might be possible, if not an easy path:


I'm also planning to go into my first DU play (which won't be my first run) with the intention of resisting, but without being certain if it will work. That feels like half the fun of this character, and I expect to enjoy the ride. Though I'm very glad I also have the option of a custom Tav I have more control over!

Oh, much less than half speed. I am so busy that even with one playthrough I’d be crawling along long after everyone else is finished. I won’t have a problem with spoilers though. When you don’t have social media, don’t visit Reddit (or many websites at all, actually), and condition the YouTube algorithm to not show you any gaming content, avoiding spoilers is really easy. I won’t need to come here anymore. I’ll have the game to play, and because I’ve roped in my friends to playing with me, I’ll finally have IRL people to talk about it with.

Yup. It's hilarious the mental gymnastics people are pushing out to try and spin being able to play the DU as good. No. The DU is inherently evil. Trying to claim "the voices in my head made me do it" doesn't fly. You kill innocent people, you are evil. There is no good path with the DU.

What I especially don't get is why people are even bothering with the spin. If people want to play evil, Larian has made *the* perfect game for you. At least be honest that playing evil is what you want to do.

Respectfully, I disagree. All we can do is speculate before the game is actually released, which includes speculation both that you can play a DU paladin with no problem, and that DU will force you into evil. However, I guess I'm putting some faith in Larian that when they say you can play good-aligned DU, you actually can. The urge inside the character's head may be inherently evil---as is the tadpole---but this doesn't mean the character themself will agree with it or stop trying to resist it. Seems like trying to resist an evil entity/instinct is a pretty "good" thing to do, even if you fail sometimes.

It really depends, I guess, whether you see the urge and the character as one and the same, but if you can resist the urge, that implies they are not the same person. The black and white thinking that the urge must be inherently evil with no hope of redemption actually reminds me a lot of that evil Harper in BG2 who tries to imprison your Bhaalspawn just because they're a Bhaalspawn, regardless of what they are like as a person. Also, consider that the Bhaalspawn in BG2 almost kills their love interest when they turn into the Slayer the second time. Does that make them inherently evil?

I expect the DU to take the "I have a darkness inside me" angst way past what the Bhaalspawn in BG2 dealt with, because it seems you will have even less control at times, but still, the idea stands.

On a philosophical level, no, if something takes control of your body and forces you to preform actions against your will you are not aware of then you are not evil. That does not fit any philosophical definition of evil, as the ontology of evil requires consciousness and free will, both of which are stripped away in the scenario. Legally, you aren’t culpable, either, though magical mental domination would be difficult to prove in court.

Second, don’t accuse people of being disingenuous. That’s obnoxious. Playing as an evil character holds no interest for me, but playing as a good character with no memory and beset by an evil voice in their head sounds like the most interesting, badass opportunity to roleplay that I’ve come across since The Nameless One.

I fully agree.

Personally, I'm not interested in playing as an evil character either, but I think playing a good character who would go to any lenghts to prevent terrible things from happening would be very interesting and challenging (I doubt this character would even have the possibility to end their own life as a desperate last measure - I don't think this someone/something behind all of this would want to loose their puppet.)

Like I said, I wouldn't choose this as my first game, because I prefer to have control over my player character, but I think it's such an interesting roleplaying opportunity that I will try it at least once.

I find the Urge utterly compelling. Classic Baldur's Gate had this thematically, but outside of a "No I will not give into the Taint" line you could choose once or twice - The Divine Blood of Murder that courses through you doesn't really factor into your character. I would *love* to go all in Lawful Good Paladin of Torm, holier than thou Cleric of Selune and just see how far I can get resisting and refusing. I play these sort of things no-reload - so it'd be quite the exciting experience, win or loose.

By the same token, I often find it difficult to play truly evil, because it's just not in me. And, games rarely give you scheming and conniving options other than 'I will kick your kitten'. This will allow me to have a reason for it, and am looking forward to go with a more and more corrupted Druid or something that just becomes this terrible brutal, conniving witch taht sacrifices everything and everyone around her in a quest for lust and bloody power. Yeah, I'd love to see that. Let's see if Halsin's so into me while I'm in Spider form.

But. Just a regular Tav first, Shadowheart second and then it's time.

I think the DU is simply the main character that was meant to be from the beginning. Clearly, he is connected to Bhaal and ties in well with the previous two chapters. Additionally, Tav has zero background, zero interaction in the game world (except for the class, but that applies to Origin characters as well), and is the least special character within the party. The DU, at the very least, has amnesia which justifies the lack of references to his past life and could/should have strong connections to the plot's ending.

That’s more or less what I am trying to decide for myself. I feel like I will gain nothing by playing as Tav. At the same time, if I ever decide to do 2nd playthrough Urge might be a good choice for evil path. I worry that if I do good run with dark urge I will simply miss out on its better aspects.

I understand the challenge ...
But it still feels like bathing in mud in order to get clean. O_o

I’m not gonna play as a Bhaalspawn
I’m going to play as a BOOOALspawn

Some good news from Fextralife : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1870771122 (at 22m08s)
It sounds like not playing the dark urge at a murderhobo is a valid and actually interesting path to follow.

I never doubted. Good to have confirmation though. I can’t wait. This is actually what I am most looking forward to in this game.

It almost is giving me The Nameless One vibes, but instead of finding out you did terrible things in the distant past, you might wake up out of a dissociative state and find out you did terrible things 5 minutes ago. For a serious role player, this is a treasure trove of potential.

It's actually kind of awesome to start a multiplayerr session where everyone is a Tav, but you draw straws as to who plays the Urge. It'll be clear sooner than later - but fun nonetheless.

Small tangent, I actually played an amnesiac character in a tabletop role playing game. It was imposed to me and I had the hardest time making my character interesting as my DM didn't set hooks for me to grab. I really think playing this kind of character is only as interesting as the story allows it. Let's hope for an interesting one in BG3!

I've been thinking of playing an Oath of the Ancients paladin. If I do, I'm unlikely to play Dark Urge, just because I anticipate that worrying about breaking my oath will be quite enough added maintenance for the playthrough. If I play something else, I might or might not play Dark Urge, although I am concerned that Dark Urge will add images I won't enjoy to my game.