Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback evil playthrough feels bad *****SPOILERS***

*****SPOILERS*****


i wanted to discuss the evil choices and it just seems like evil path is not worth it. i have finished 1 full good guy playthrough, its great, loads of side quest, lots of NPC, traders, items.
and BG3 is a low level game, most character customization comes from unique items ability. So i consider traders and specific quest reward unique items as the most important things to collects in the game.
as it opens up more option for you to build characters. the less items the less builds u can do.

now lets talk about why it feels so bad and unrewarding to be evil. now yes there are some cheese way you do to have a different outcome ( things like ppl just skipping the grove or rushing to moonrise tower etc )
but i want to focus on how the game normally or how the dev planned the game to be played. ( otherwise the discussion can never happen )

in Act 1, the main evil path you can take is recruit minthara and kill druid cove.
the pros: you get minthara as companion
the cons: you lose 3 companion, a ton of NPC / future quests, traders ( probably the strongest trader in game dammon )

in Act 2, theres 2 main evil path kill isobel and kill nightsong.
the pro: get slayer form and get spear of evening, ( this i think its a very cool weapon especially for evil / shadow / assassin theme )
the cons: all the NPC in last night inn gone except Jaheira, once again lots of side quest and some not as important trader gone.

so when you get to act 3, the gameplay content is so inferior compare to a good guy play through. all i got that i couldn't get from a good path was spear of evening and minthara. dammon items alone in act 3 is more valuable.

I really love spear of evening, because it fits very well as a evil character gameplay and role play wise. But the game need much more to balance it out, some evil trader for act 2 and 3, minthara side quest.

Yeah, the scales massively tip over to the "Good" side by so much that it's comically unbalanced to the point I even went to make a visual comparison during Early Access, hoping that it won't be the case in full release.

With full release this comparison is now even more absurd because of Karlach, Halsin and pretty much entirety of ACT 2.

Other than Minthara there is simply nothing of note on the "Evil" path. And I won't forsake 5 companions, slaughter over 50 NPCs and end all their stories & quests just to experience a story of one companion, at least not until the Definitive Edition arrives which hopefully fulfills the massive grand canyon gap between the two in some way.

Personally speaking Larian should have never went this route in trying to make exclusive paths. Should have been just a big merged path with intricate nuances and impactful differences along the way. Something that Star Wars KOTOR games are a prime example for in how to create a balance between Light Side and Dark Side playthroughs... or even both at the same time.

I'm doing the evil path now. I'm at then end of act 1, so not entered shadowlands yet.
You forgot to mention Mizora. I suppose when Wyll leaves you never get to know her.

I did a good PT before, and at the end of ACT 2 I was thinking how relative good and evil are. (Yes, a good game can do that)
You kill the druids and thieflings in the grove. Many will have to live through a few hours of terror and then be swiftly put to death.
But compare this to the fate of many in the "good" run. They perish in the shadow cursed lands and turn into shadows themselves. The terror of this land must be so much bigger than when they hide from the goblins.

Arabella's parents are tortured to death by an undead surgeon and his sadistic undead nuns. Can you even imagine a fate worse than that ?
Zevlor betrays his people and ends up in a mindflayer pod. If you can't save him afterwards, what fate would he have chosen ? A heroic death in the grove or this betrayal and serve as mindflayer host ?
Mol will sell her soul to the devil and become a merciless vilain in Baldur's Gate. How many innocent lives have you saved by killing her in the grove ?
The druids then, well, if Kharga's plan succeeded, maybe many would have preferred a fighting death later also.

Possibly the evil path in Act 1 did more good for the world, on the larger timescale.

Honestly, it doesn't surprise me that this is the case. The evil path in both BG1 and 2 are both underwhelming. Sure, you get a few of the most powerful companions in the game, but having to contend with the morality system just sux. And for what? you don't really get a different experience, much. Sure, you get to side with bandits and Vampires. But you still end up killing them.

Either way, I actually did most of my first play through as The Dark Urge. That turned out to be a mistake as I didn't know what was coming, nor when/how to do the evil stuff without messing up certain storylines. Still, it was fun as far as I got. I do plan on going back and doing a proper evil path. Now I know what to expect.

As a side note, I am glad that they didn't include the morality system (or something similar) in BG3. That was painful to deal with. You were constantly balancing on the edge of a knife. If you were too evil, all of the sudden you were getting constantly attacked by 'Bounty hunters', and were excluded from most vendors. At least BG3 doesn't do that.