Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Why scaring off from Dark Urge?

I might be misinterpreting your post and I do apologize if I am but this is a discussion board/forum is it not?

As long as people don't start insulting and harassing each other I don't see any issues with people disagreeing.
People have different views/opinions they like to share and if someone disagrees they like to know why.
As for me, I'm genuinely curious. I appreciate when someone takes the time to respond and explain to me as to why the think the way they do.

But I don't want to derail this thread so lets stay on the Dark Urge topic.

Aha I didn't really enunciate my take that was nestled in-between the lines.

I worded it the way I did specifically to participate in the existing discussion. It just bothers me when I see so many posts demanding change when there are so many people on both sides of the love it/ hate it argument. I felt like, again directly related to the discussion at hand, someone needed to speak up and state the obvious that people enjoy different things and it's okay for this title to cater to all audiences individually. I didn't quote anyone specifically because I'm not interested in attacking anyone or coming off as such. My desire for a variety of experiences trumps any desire I might have for any specific character x to be made exactly for my tastes.

And to your point about focusing on the topic at hand in a less meta-discussion way, my pure take on the character as a whole is as follows:

I like that dark urge is a character with a mysterious backstory that you can't control as much as you might want. It's like being trapped in a car where the brakes have gone out. In a game where we are all time travelers that can quickload our mistakes away, durge provides a succinct antithesis to the status quo. The story selectively undermines expectations in an especially crafted way to provide a narrative that couldn't exist otherwise. I do not think this character is for everyone, but a game without them would be a game that failed to explore this meta-commentary - which would be a net loss by my estimation. I would hold this opinion whether I thought I would enjoy a playthrough of the character or not.

Hell yeah!

Dark Urge is amazing, great job Larian.
I have played the game with regular Tav, Good Dark Urge and branched out of my good DU character at the beginning of act III to complete the game with evil DU.
And I have to say, good dark urge is, in my opinion, the absolute best and "canon" way to play the game, a perfect continuation of the original series.
I encourage everyone to give it a try, to get past that Alfira moment because there are LOTS of decisions and roleplay potential to the character.

The moment they give me full control over my own actions i'll check out DU, until then it's just Larian forcing my character to act against my wishes, which is the antithesis of role-playing.

Gotcha, thank you for the clarification.

So it seems that I did misinterpret the meaning behind your post.

I do agree with you, people tend to become emotional when discussing things they like/dislike and end up demanding games exclusively cater to them. But damn you really got me excited about going off-topic and talking about just enjoying things as they are/experiencing variety as you put it or is there an argument to be made that there could be some room for improvement and not leaving them as they are. (maybe some other time)

As for Dark Urge?
I do enjoy it (more than Tav I would say) but I think that Larian could've done a better job in certain parts of Durges story.

Whether Durge is unique or not?
I don't think so. I would put it in the same category as DA:O and other similar games. Stories that have semi blank main characters (not an unknown entity like Original Sin 2 custom character but not fully fleshed out like Adam Jensen or Geralt)

The Dark Urge was made for murder-hobos and psychopaths to feel represented in game

The Dark Urge which is a quite interesting story

I do agree with this! Although I also loved it, nothing is immune to criticism and there is a lot there you could poke at


I think this is probably disingenuous or hyperbolic. Maybe both if you are speaking without having the experience. You certainly don't have to play it as a murder hobo and Many of those players would never be down to murder everything but would absolutely jump onboard for the spoiler reasons. I myself just enjoyed it for the reasons listed in my previous post, having nothing to do with murder!

This character, like the game itself, has a lot a of rough edges and areas that could improve to be sure, but I don't think that reductive comment on the characters purpose really does anything but dismiss any nuanced enjoyment someone might have.

TLDR: I don't fit into the box you created for me

Durge is very solidly tied into the main plot, so I can easily believe that Larian has had that idea for a long time. Tav is just another victim, Durge had it coming. Even so, you can sufficiently redeem yourself in the eyes of Withers.

Would this narrative exist if it's just for the murderhobos and lonewolf enthusiasts?

Thing is, CRPG still stays CRPG. In some remote future maybe we will get some powerful AI DMs, who can on-fly morph any pre-set story, based on parameters we've set. Basically playing REAL D&D, but with good graphics and fully voiced.
But right now CRPGs still limited to what actually is coded. And Tav in practicality is just little no-one, somehow get caught in whole story. No real backstory, as game never will tell you anything about it (rest of race and class election). And no personal quests.

Durge is tav. Tav is not durge. If you have people play the only finished story first, they will realize how much content is missing when they play the others. So Swen did the ceo thing and lied about everything. That is why i played durge first. Glad I did, maybe you should always do the opposite or what the ceo tells you .

Well calling it unique is a bit of a stretch - to me it's an upgrade on Darth Revan concept (KOTOR) which does not in my opinion diminish its narrative value in BG universe (murder and all included - I for one am quite happy to trade in some RPG freedom of choice for story reasons).

I do understand why people erase their saves after that murder though as it is quite graphical...

I played regular Tav first, so now I can see more of the story on a second run. And since I usually struggle to deliberately pick the most evil choices, it’s probably the best way for me to experience it differently.

I think it was definitely a good move to make it optional. Many people much prefer to role play characters with no backstory at all, let alone one with that kind of baggage.

Nah, it's a direct tribute to Baldur's Gate 2.

Unless you also think THAT is also a murder hobo and psychopath story.

Huh, wonder why I'm playing my Dark Urge as a chaotic good person who tries to save every innocent and hates herself then.

I inadvertently chose DU for my character. I was wondering why the narrator seemed to suggest evil actions. The unfortunate situation with the Bard was jarring... and there were other situations that were hard to unravel. I had to retrace a bit to resolve, which isn't great for new players. So unless you are clear you want to play a homicidal, poor impulse control character... better to avoid dark urge for first playthrough.

I'm happy to hear this, and yes for me as well playing a custom PC is the ONLY and proper way to play this game. I guess my issue is what you refer to as the trade-off of "losing a few interactions throughout the game." If indeed it is only a few interactions lost, and that too not particularly important ones, then yes I would completely agree with you. But that's a judgment that's going to be specific to each of us, so I can make that judgment only whenever I end up playing the game.

Well as I've pointed out in my previous posts in this thread,

And both of those things can be avoided