Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Can we get friendly female party members?

I will just put out there for the sake of the discussion:

Classically speaking, Evil alignments are defined by selfishness; to be selfish and self-motivated to the point that you and your plans and your needs or desires are all you really care about; to be self-interested in such a way that you don't care who or what gets hurt or left out in the cold, if you are pursuing your interests; to be the one who will always put yourself first and sacrifice anyone or anything else before your own self-interest; to value and utilise others only insofar as they serve your self-interest; this is the core of what it is to be classically evil.

Astarion is chaotic and destructive; he likes to poke the beehive just because it's there to be poked, and he wants you to do interesting things because they're funny. Alone this would just be chaotic neutral. He also has a bloodlust and enjoys seeing other people in pain and suffering - he wants to pursue that and doesn't care who gets hurt in doing so; that is the part that makes him evil. He also craves power for the sake of his own freedom and survival, and again, doesn't care who gets gutted in the pursuit of it - that is what makes him evil.

Shadow is entirely self-motivated and doesn't consider other people's rights, wants, needs or desires to be at all equal to her own; she has the right, in her mind, to demand things of others to suit her own ends, but they do not have any right whatsoever to ask or require anything of her. She is the most important person in her world, by a country mile, and she will leave anyone and everyone to rot in favour of pursuing what she views as her own needs and goals. She favours avoiding overt conflict - or anything else that might risk her life or wellbeing, isn't interested in justice, or following laws unless they suite her ends. She is classically neutral evil; evil with occasional pangs of regret and conscience, maybe, but still evil. Her locked memories may evoke a change in this - but it will be very poor writing if these personality traits magically flip when she gets her memories back; she's still the person that she is, after all, or should be.

Lae'zel has a doctrine and a code. It is the creed of her people, but it is a selfish, self-serving and brutal creed that devalues the lives of people who are of 'lesser' races - which is everyone. It also devalues the lives of anyone of their own race who is subordinate, and any course of action that does not follow the will of their ruler is considered wasteful at best and punishable at worst. Lae'zel follows this creed with absolute blindness and fury, and would (and has) killed even her own kin in the following of it, without thought or question, or remorse or conscience; Lae'zel is classically lawful evil.

None of these things dictate how they interact with other people, or how they have to behave at an interpersonal level; it doesn't require them to be obnoxious or objectionable people, overtly.

Wyll and Gale are trickier to place; they both strike me as originally good-hearted people who have made selfish choices in their past, and regretted them to varying degrees. Wyll hides the truth of where his power comes from and what his motives are behind the heroic image he is famed for, but he genuinely values helping and protecting those who cannot help or protect themselves. His motives may involve vengeance underneath it, but it would be disingenuous to suppose that he doesn't actively want to defend the people who need it as well, and isn't afraid to risk his own life for their sakes. Would he still be as adamant about ending the goblin threat if his vengeance target wasn't in there, and if another important figure to him wasn't involved? That's much harder to say. It probably wouldn't be his top priority, but he'd certianly still want to help them to some extent. He likely wouldn't choose to stay and help them if his patron's needs were pulling him in the complete opposite direction, however. It's harder to pin, but Wyll is somewhere in the spectrum of neutral to chaotic neutral, but one who wishes to be seen as good, and wishes to be good, if he can and it doesn't conflict with his personal goals.

Gale is definitely self-interested and puts his own needs as a high priority, but his actions and inclinations on the ground, moment to moment, are to help those in need, save those who need saving, and to do the right thing where possible, even if it is a personal risk. He will stress the importance of his need for magic items, but if you tell him you still need it, he doesn't insist - only stress the danger of denying him. His personal goals are for power, but for now it seems his reason for seeking that power is to undo his own mistake... I do not think Gale is evil, particularly. I think he is a highly intelligent archmage who did something very, very unwise, and I think he is a good person at his core; I read him as neutral leaning towards neutral good.

Now here's the thing: people will say that they might by lying to us or deceiving us. perhaps... but so far larian have shown no hesitation in stuffing ability checks into all kinds of places throughout our companion dialogues, gating this that and the other behind rolls.. which is a very stupid move... but it means that we can at least be sure that they aren't lying to us directly, since we don't get insight checks against them. If Larian later reveals that they were lying, and we didn't get insight checks, despite all of the other rolls they make us do for companion interactions, that will be a very black mark against hem, their game design and their story-telling.