Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Is evil path more fleshed out now after a year of early access?

Hi,

Haven't played since the first EA launch. Then the evil path was somewhat bizarre (no real motivation to do it, some mysterious Absolute and arrghh we eeevuuul).

Does it make more sense now with Patch 6?

If you havent seen that reasons before, you probably dont see it now either.

It does not at all.

I really tried to understand why I should side with Minthara in my Patch 6 playtrough and really... I can't think about anything.
You know nothing about the tadpole and the absolute yet if you're playing the story but you should agree to become her minion... Definitely wierd.

On top of that she think the druid have an artefact you own but even if you side with her, you can't give it to her (or to the gith patrol, why not...)

So I tried to skip the Druid Grove gate battle to sneak over to the back entrance and free the goblin prisoner from the grove but it's hardcoded so you can not skip it.

As far as I am concerned, evil playthrough still an afterthought. Personally, if they are not going to do it right, I wish they would just focus on the good play through.

I would rather have just one amazing good story then several mediocre ones.

They gave Minthara (the drow) a new hairdo, that's about it.

Thanks. I guess that leaves us only one hope - after the good path is done, the evil path maybe gets some attention for replayability's sake.

So I decided to see can I attack the NPC instead of the goblins. Yes, I can but all that does in make the NPC attack me. Goblins are still hostile to me also. So I killed all the NPCs first to see I could get the goblins to stop attacking me. Nope, after I finished off all the NPC and Wyll, I had to kill all the goblins too.

I can't even loot the bodies of the NPC that I just killed.

Not really. Same complaints that were valid at the launch of Early Access are still broadly applicable in the current state. Even the much anticipated recent patch basically added nothing for the evil path, while good players got a sizeable chunk of new content to play with in the form of new allies, exclusive loot, a new camp follower, and another honorific title to go with the one you get for helping the grove. It's fairly disappointing in that regard.

I noticed that Swen brought up that thing where he praised the playerbase for majority playing through the good options and I'm starting to wonder if the 'evil route' is *ever* going to get a touch-up, because I'm majorly starting to get the vibe that the Larian leadership just doesn't like making evil content and the fact they keep bringing up that it's less popular....I just wonder if that's going to be the logic for just leaving it as-is. It's not encouraging.

But y'know, gotta try and stay thinking positively. Maye it's something they are holding in reserve until they figure out what to do with it, and they'll surprise us in a future update or in the final release.

It's likely a futile hope, but a part of me is really, really hoping there's a bunch of content in this vein that won't come out until official release. In the FfH, Swen said pretty explicitly, I thought, that there's content for Act I we won't see until official release. and (one), that's good, and as it should be, and (two), makes me at least a tiny bit hopeful in this regard.

Gets even funnier ... if you kill everyone but Zevlor, he thanks you for your help at gate.

The reason to take the evil path, should be a role-playing one.. But I do agree as far as that the evil path needs work. As it exists currently, it is too punishing on the player, since you lose access to all the merchants in the area, so you can't buy or sell stuff anymore. if you want to roleplay a cleric of Bhaal, who uses murder as a form of piety, and decide to kill the companions instead of recruit them, you cut yourself out of a tremendous amount of early game xp, and gimp yourself essentially.

That is why the evil path sucks in my opinion. Roleplay wise, its fine. game-play wise, it's not worth what you sacrifice. And what you sacrifice, makes the game less fun.

You have always access to the undead in your camp.

Is there another role to play than "I want to play an evil character" to side with the evil forces ?

I really tried, but I cannot think about ANY other reasons to side with Minthara at this point of the story.
You just heard a bit about the absolute and heared a bit (mostly in the goblins camp) about a cult with goblins and "true souls" leading them... you just don't know at all why you're not turning into a mindflayer, and the only thing Minthara suggest is that you become her minion.

Not saying that I think it's well written but it could be argued that Tav is intrigued by the power promised by the dream lady and the "authority". Asterion seems to think the same way, talking about controlling the power of the tadpole.

it's just so ridiculous why you would trust that this tadpole is going to give you super powers without completely controlling you and handing you over to the mindflayers. a playthrough that wants the tadpole isn't evil, it's just stupid. Siding with the Goblins is just as dumb.

The reason I came up with is "I'm a drow, I have no interest in whatever's going on with those tieflings, but I bumped into some goblins who gave me proper reverence. Then I find out another drow is leading them, I'm all in with this."

The dialog options did not make that rewarding in the slightest.

Even then there isn't that great of an incentive for Drow IMO. Minthara's a heretic and so far the singlemost Lolthsworn-drow thing you can do- is locked behind killing her. So even the nastiest of Lolthsworn drow, like a cleric of Lolth has a pretty good incentive to not touch the cult of the Absolute.

I suppose some of the origins might have an incentive? If I understood Laez well, the crèche is located in the “mist area” through which we will be traveling on evil path toward moonrise towers.

But yeah, overall evil path has a classic Bioware evil path problem - no matter what’s your character motivation not siding with goblins is just more beneficial. You might not care for grove or tieflings, but siding with the side that is actively looking to kill you, and then volunteering to slaughter entire grove - that’s a lot of hassle and danger, for no good reason.

Many ... depending on what would you accept ...

When i played my Drow character, the simple fact that all Goblins threated him as he deserved, while Tieflings reminded him at start of every conversation that they "dont thrust his kind usualy", also there are those situations when they dare to demand things for him, they steal things from him, and Nettie (to include Druids) even tryed to kill him ...
I mean that wasnt hard decision.

For another Minthara gameplay (non Drow, i believe that was Wood Elf, but im not sure)
I simply wanted to know more about the Absolute, since my character figured out that when all of them are tadpoled, but nobody is turning, their Goddes is possibly somehow protecting them ... later, when Hag told her that those Tadpoles were alterned by Shadow Magic, she was even more sure that source of this kind of magic is certainly worth examination.

And finaly, when i played my Githyanki ... even tho, this actualy is kinda "im an evil character" ...
There was litteraly no reason to join weaker side ... Tieflings and Druids was despicable for her, they were shaking with fear hidden in their Grove, while Goblins shoved the power ... that is something Gith can respect.
Sure Goblins are low and insignificant creatures ... but with proper training they can be used as cannon fodders ... Minthara do exactly what she would do with them, and she respect that ... she still see Minthara as her subordinate tho, but that is another story.

I'm really interested in what new content for this part of Act I drops after full release. It probably won't be much, but hopefully something that makes this path more compelling. A "(Warning! Spoilers!) AMA" with Swenn on full release to put these questions to them would be nice, see what they envisioned motivation for that path to be, and why we'd consider trusting the cult.


Good point.


That's reasonable, but why would a gith not abandon the conflict entirely and make straight for Lae's creche, given that they almost certainly fear a possible change as much as she does?