Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Dark Urge - Disappointed By The Scripted Unavoidable Outcome

When I saw the Dark Urge, I really was interested in playing the character because;

• Non-origin characters usually feel disconnected and lackluster storywise compared to the Origin ones
• It does not become an actual companion if not chosen, so it misrepresents itself as an "Origin Tav" due to it being a fully customizable character with an actual backstory
• It had the backstory I was going to roleplay anyway; a soul with corruption within them which they are doing their best to resist while always trying to do the right thing

Haven't had any issues at all roleplaying my character the way I wanted to despite the ability checks and the urge constantly mentally nagging the character, in fact it was quite interesting... but what ruined the character for me was a particularly unavoidable shoehorned scripted Long Rest where;

I will admit; what the scene did phenomenally was shockingly bring to realization just how dangerous the Dark Urge is and raised the stakes up tremendously, hell it felt even more dangerous than the tadpoles. But unfortunately it did so at the expense of a prominent side-NPC with a whole story ahead of them. A story I was very much interested in seeing further develop. The issue is that Dark Urge has a unique NPC made exclusively for this scene, yet for some odd reason that unique NPC is locked away behind metagaming techniques, while Dark Urge is designed to kill off a prominent side-NPC which has nothing to do with him and prematurely ending their whole side-story, just for pointless shock value.

My question is why? Why is this unique lady NPC specifically made for the scene locked away behind meta-gaming procedures and not used as the actual primary element of the story that introduces the Dark Urge's curse? Why is the player punished for playing Dark Urge when the shock value can be achieved even better with the unique NPC specifically made for the scene. Makes no sense to sacrifice a prominent side-NPC and her entire storyline, when there is this unique lady Dragonborn NPC made specifically for Dark Urge's introductory scene with so much more compelling reasons to stay at the camp. She's brilliantly written, yet locked away behind metagaming.

Unfortunately in the end what I got from this whole scene was not the shock value, but rather the realization that Dark Urge will be abruptly ending prominent side-NPCs and their stories which I am very interested in seeing fully unfold, and for that reason ruined my interest in using it further to roleplay for a first playthrough.

Sven warned about this. Can you put a spoiler on which NPC you're talking about? I'm finishing my first playthrough and I'm not sure if Dark Urge will be my second or third

Hopefully I'm not misunderstanding you by asking me to put into spoilers which NPC it is, but it's;

But yeah, I was not aware of Sven's warning. I really thought Dark Urge is their attempt at making a fully customizable Origin character because in DOS2 non-Origin characters were not as fulfilling in terms of story, but unfortunately lack of roleplaying choices in certain events completely killed the character for me. So gonna save it for a psychotic evil playthrough instead. The character itself is pretty interesting, but definitely not to be mistaken as an Origin Tav.

Why is no one responding to my thread about this? Posters on reddit are saying you can save
I am a sad man with an Xbox so I haven't played it yet myself tbh and am frustrated at how badly written The Dark Urge guides online are. All I want to know is if you keep resting doing evil do you still

wait what even that character. damn.. i don't want that

The character should have come with a bigger warning label. If nothing else, it will be a big lesson to people unfamiliar with the underlying angle of managing a mental illness and the less noble suffering. Perhaps the dark urge can be good. Yet, they will fail, horribly and often, to an extent where the dark side may appear the only welcoming path.

Well that kind of meta-gaming is not fun for me, even if it does lead to the desirable outcome. Although I can't say it even is desirable because the character acts like an idiot in the scene by scaring her away so violently and also she no longer stays at the Grove even if she is saved, so it doesn't matter.

The choices as well are lackluster, because we get two good options and then the third one that literally is so extreme;

• Stay
• Maybe Stay
• LEAVE OR DIE

I enjoy roleplaying within the parameters and rules set by the game, but this particular scene is terribly executed in terms of story. There should be an ability check or the choices should be respected. It really baffles my mind why they'd make all three choices meaningless by leading to the same outcome, but then put in place a second outcome that the story recognizes through meta-gaming. Such a terrible backwards design.

And still my questions remain unanswered...

The game's only been out since Thursday. Give it time.

We don't know for sure, but probably not. Larian made a big point out of there being a price to pay. That's also visible in several companion quest outcomes, seemingly. On the slayer: no, definitely not. It's been explicitly stated that it's the "reward" of power. That is, it's what doesn't get you insta killed in some encounters because you're lonewolfing it. That doesn't mean anyone necessarily knows how many people you have to kill, though.

(Also note that the transformation happens on top of one such murder pentagram.)
https://www.gamepur.com/news/baldurs-gate-2s-slayer-form-makes-surprise-return-in-baldurs-gate-3

I was confused, I slaughtered all the tieflings and the goblins and druids. Yet somehow by killing the goblins last, it ret-conned my acts in the druid Grove and revived khaga, all the druids, all the tieflings and Alfira. The game is fully bugged. There may be way to resist durge urge to kill her, but it may just be bugged.

You could send her away you know, knowing who you are, and what you are capable of.

I personally loved that outcome. If anything decades of playing P&P RPGs taught me, is that you are never in control of the game. Nor meant to.
It's never about power fantasy. Shit happens, and you have to learn to deal with it... because ROLEPLAY. You picked a ROLE of Dark Urge, you have PLAY that role.

The Durge really doesn't sound appealing at all. I probably only try that with a character, I really don't care about to see the story.

Yes, I think it makes no sense to try to play a good character if you took Dark Urge. His unique roleplay is in the crazy killer like Orin the Red.
I really hope that there will be a sex scene with her for this character. They deserve each other

Found this on fextralife comments. might be worth a try. to save that npc lady

reading up more of it. i really doubt you get those rewards if you resist.

Thus the reason why there is "unavoidable scripted outcome" in the title. It does not matter whether you forcefully send her away because the Dark Urge still hunts her down during sleep. There is no way to avoid killing her through legit roleplay, unless the player meta-games, which no normal person will think of doing initially.

To make matters worse, there actually is a uniquely made NPC just for the purpose of this scene that shows up and gets killed, but it requires the player to meta-game and knock Alfira out before going to camp. WHY in the world the only way of saving Alfira or getting an actual unique NPC made exclusively for this scene... can only be obtained by meta-gaming the hell out of this scene I will never know. It's just terribly designed because the story recognizes these actions, but in order to get them you have to know in advance what to do.

As I said I don't mind roleplaying as Dark Urge and wouldn't be bothered at all if it was a unique NPC made specifically for this scene. But the fact that they killed a prominent NPC with her own story without any actual real input from me as a player, is why it's a serious problem. The fact that my choices don't matter whatsoever in this particular scene is why I lost interest in playing Dark Urge further as a first playthrough.

Yup. it's dumb. really the more and more i encounter and read about issues. the more and more i feel larian did such a damned lazy job with the full release. to the point im even questioning if they deserved getting their hands on baldurs gate in the first place.. it's bloody depressing and bumming me out atm.

You guys do see that you're /railroaded/ into this scene because you get an extremely powerful and important item, right? And to set up/expose your past? It's not just there to torment you, it's your first real "taste" of the Dark Urge. Of course Larian doesn't want players to accidentally miss it. "The Durge kills someone that night" is as hard a plot point as "Tav gets kidnapped by the Nautiloid".

I legitimately think the Dark Urge intro was a very bad idea because it will attract people with a saviour complex and those used to playing good aligned characters. There should have been more warning. The game isn't bad because it doesn't let you skip the character's main story. You just hate the main story.

Maybe they should have written the main character's story differently than? Honestly given everything I have heard, they are leaning into the 'bhaal bloodlust' thing waaay harder than they needed to for the character's story.