I think the core of the evil playthrough at the start is solid. You decide Haslin can't help you, and decide it's better to directly seize the power of the Absolute. Unfortunately beyond that core there isn't much. I think it'd be great if there was more of a reason or a way to push back on why the Absolute needs to murder a bunch of refugees or someway to align yourself with the goblins without murdering them all. Like maybe they really want the Druid Idol or something and if you figure that out you can spare some of the bloodshed. It's fine to have a SUPER EVIL choice but it's a little too evil. Especially when you barely can do anything bad in the grove, like visiting the grove you're congenial and friendly to all these people then you decide to genocide them. Finding the little story the kid you saved from the Harpies on his corpse is a bit much. He even writes it when you tell him to stop sniveling because the Harpies will come back and eat him! Finding that really made me feel like shit.
Also anyone reading this spare me the "it's supposed to make you feel bad", it's not. I never felt bad doing awful shit in Pathfinder because the game never had me read lore about how that kid I murdered wanted to grow up like me. When I killed a silver dragon to sanctify my human flesh armor I wasn't treated to a cutscene of the hopes and dreams of everyone who went into it. It just feels excessive right now, and I think that's fine if there are some variety of bad things we can do as the game progresses. Though violently murdering a bunch of refugees with no real motivation or pay off is just too monstrous I think.
Meeting Haslin in the basement is pretty weak too. Either you want to torture a bear or you don't want to torture a bear. You just end up playing either a psychopath who'd rather trust some weird religion based around a parasite with his future OR a pragmatist who rescues Haslin because he promises he can treat you. You can't put the screws to Haslin or anything, you can't get mad at him for lying about being able to treat you. There's no motivation to turn away from Haslin, also I don't like that he breaks down his cage and immediately murders two goblin children. Is murdering orc and goblin children just acceptable?
Minthara isn't a bad character, but her trying to kill you seems kind of out of left field, It'd be nice to get advantage dice there if we probed her mind about her fear. I like that Shadowheart has some kind of issue with the slaughter and I'd like to see more of that. Lae'zel responds the same way as when you save the grove and Gale didn't even acknowledge what we've done. Wyll is INCREDIBLY unemotional when you side with the Goblins and literally get all the children he trained murdered, it feels insanely out of place. Maybe there's more to that at some point but I kind of stopped since I didn't want to do the Underdark again yet.
To sum it up, there needs to be more motivation to side with The Absolute. You have the power either way and it's a ridiculous 6 INT strategy to trust in this power. It's frankly stupid enough to even use it at all. We need some kind of story reason to side with The Absolute or something they can provide us that Haslin can't. You can't even really ask Minthara about anything, Gut is useless, the only reason you'd side with them is if you really hate Tieflings or love pogroms.
edit: Also isn't a Cleric of Lloth dropping her religion kind of a big deal? Are you able to confront her about this if you're a Lloth-Sworn Drow?
Last edited by Worm; 19/10/20 03:34 AM.
