Considering how many players are complaining about the evil path in EA, I decided to write a detailed letter indicating exactly how to fix the evil path.
1. We need a choice when we first visit the Druid Grove. Have one of the goblins shout to us "Hey, True Soul, help us!" and the player will be able to help attack the gate if he chooses their side in the dialogue before the start of the battle. Now this scene shows the player that he has no choice and the goblins can only be enemies.
Accordingly, the assault squad will be forced to retreat. When retreating, one of the goblins will have to tell the goblins in the abandoned village and at the entrance to the camp so that they do not attack the player (if he is not a drow). Just like Sazza does. By the way, Sazza, whom many people liked (not me, but there were many people on the forum), will not be executed in this case!
2. There are many bugs along the evil path. Among them are the following:
2.1 No reaction if the player decides to destroy all tieflings himself, and begins to kill them. Tieflings behave as if nothing is happening. This is a very big flaw, I will not list all the moments where a reaction is needed, Larian just needs to plant one tester who will try to kill everyone in the Grove of the Druids and they will immediately see what I am talking about. Also, tieflings don't react in any way when I destroyed their gate to the camp. They're kind of stupid.
2.2. If the player has killed ALL tieflings and druids personally, he cannot surprise Minthara and tell about it when visiting the goblin camp. They still gather an assault squad into an empty grove. Wtf
There may not be any epic attack scene at the Druid Grove at all. My bug happened in the following ways:
2.3 - I came to the grove, and since the leader of the tieflings was dead either in a collision with the druids, or when I killed him in a knockout, I had no one to talk to. The game simply believed that the battle was over, and Minthara congratulated me on my victory. In the quest log there was a note that I did not interfere with the battle at all and missed it.
2.4. I came to the grove and waited for the goblin squad to arrive. To wait until nightfall, I went to camp, and could not use fast travel until morning. In the morning they tell me that I missed the battle. You need the option to wait on the spot, it shouldn't depend on whether Zevlor is alive or not.
2.5. Incorrect display of the task in the quest menu. The game cannot understand whether we will defend the Grove, or attack it.
3. Why can't I explain to Minthara what happened to me, and at the same time make it clear that I am on her side and ready to help, ready to learn more about the Absolute?
Even if the conversation with Minthara about tadpoles should take place later, in the next act, as planned by the game's writers. The player is never told, even in the voice of the narrator, that the Absolute can be a solution, that there is some logic in taking the side of Minthara. Add either an explanation or the voice of the narrator, now it is completely incomprehensible why a player with a tadpole problem in his head should kill druids who have an understandable solution. The game does not give any reasons, no hints that we can make such a decision and it may be interesting and useful to us. Helping goblins looks like an easter egg, or an idiotic act in the context of it.
4. Minthara dialogue with the question about Lolth is also needed, some evil players who played as Lolth Drow think that she has some kind of problem with Lolth, either don't want problems with Lolth themselves, and this is the reason for killing her and helping the tieflings (!!!). Let her say ... yes, at least something. It may even be a lie. So that we don't worry about it. I don't want the drow of Lolth to kill her, I want the option to betray Lolth himself in favor of Mintara and her beliefs.
5. We need to add a couple of small quests from Minthara so that acquaintance with her does not start with an epic final mission. For example, a great option for a quest is to kill the druid they took prisoner to prove our loyalty to her. Now this druid-bear is absolutely useless in an evil passage, there is no reason to find him and kill him. Perhaps we need to involve the other two leaders of the goblins, each should give us some kind of small quest so that we win their respect, and not immediately become their leader. Now these goblin leaders are only a problem, the same on good playthroughs and evil playthroughs.
6. Fewer situations in which all goblins become aggressive when we try to tread the path of evil, please. Traps await us at every step in the goblin camp, in this regard, some players might have the impression that the goblins will become aggressive in any case and the player needs to help the tieflings.
7. Let Minthara hint that she will be happy to join / see us after we pass the absolute test. Uncertainty is upsetting. She is a very interesting character and many people asked her to join the party.
Also, many people asked that she had the opportunity to abandon Lolth / Absolute under certain conditions and serve her own interests in our company in the future (neutral or law-evil passage).
I would also like to have the option to spare her or kill her when she has low HP on a good playthrough.
Okay, this is already offtopic.. Everyone already understands that I want more Minthara content.
Also missing is the hint that the goblins will become non-aggressive again if we pass the Absolute test.
8. The path to Moonrise Tower lies very close to the goblin camp, it is impossible to go without a fight. We need a charisma / ilithid ability check so that we can explain to the goblins guard that we are going to the Absolute test, and everything is ok. I don't want to kill goblins on principle. These are my future minions (?), plus Minthara asked not to come into conflict with them, and I don't want to create problems for her.
9. Make the ending with the video from the developers, the same as the players got with a good walkthrough after the Underdark.
For the "evil way" the ending comes when we try to go to the location where the drider should meet us and take us to the Moonrise Tower. We just see the map and nothing happens.
10. Regarding the "equipment of the Absolute" which only work if we are branded by the absolute, it is so unclear that I learned about it only from a post on the forum. Why can't we buy them or receive a reward for our wonderful quest, but have to get them from the corpses of cultists? Why doesn't anyone explain this and the meaning of the brand of the Absolute (I avoided the priestess because she really wants to kill us, and Minthara does not give any answers at all), and it looks like an Easter egg again? What the hell is the point in that?
You need to put on yourself the brand of absolute and kill cultists to get the power of the Absolute to fight the Absolute ... who in their right mind would do that? I thought that since I was helping Minthara, I was already completing the introductory quest to join the Absolute, and this is just a brand for goblins - not for leaders. Will this be a reason to show statistics that 1% of the players inflicted the stigma?
If it had been implemented from the beginning, the statistic would not have been 75 to 25.
If I missed something, please add an answer to the topic, I really hope that Larian will read this. If you do not agree with somehow point, I will be glad to reasoned criticism.
UPD: I would like to complement what was said in the topic with reasoning on why Lawful Evil is better than Chaotic Evil and is more tempting for the player:
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=724244#Post724244
