Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Suggestions for writing and storyline

I can see cases where evil NPC's might want to stay in an otherwise good-aligned party. If the evil or neutral NPC is motivated strongly by greed, then maybe from time to time certain amounts of gold, or maybe some magic items, might mysteriously go missing from the team inventory, heh heh. Or if the evil NPC is out for revenge against some other story character, perhaps when that other character is finally encountered, the evil NPC drops out of the party to attack. There are lots of situations where evil (or good) NPC's might suddenly decide to do their own thing for a while, and then maybe even come back to the party. Edwin does this a little bit in BG1 ... if you don't kill Dynaheir he gets mad and leaves, but then later you run into him and he offers to rejoin. And don't get me started on Narlen Darkwalk, the greatest independent NPC of them all!

I like that kind of complexity in the NPC behaviors because it makes them more real, and it lets the player know that not everything in the game revolves around the protagonist.

Why should a neutral NCPs have issues being in a good party? Just because they are part of the group doesn't mean they have to agree with everything the others do. Even Evil characters, if they are clever, can be part of a party as long as the party doesn't do anything that is clearly against the evil characters interest.

Yeah even "good" characters can have disagreements with one another on some issues. Ultimately, it really isn't about good and evil per se but rather about whether or not you have some common interests/goals, and a weighted decision on whether those common interests/goals outweigh your differences.

I find it admirable that Baldur's Gate does not shy away from touchy issues such as usury, money-lending and devious financial schemes. For instance, the iron shortage in BG is not a natural occurrence and then if your character becomes lord of Nalia's keep you have to deal with usurers at some point. Also, there's a kobold in the sewers beneath the city of Baldur's Gate that bears a name strikingly similar to one of Europe's most famous banking bloodlines. I am certain the foregoing can make for some powerful writing. Some of those themes are very easy to identify with in this day and age.