First: It is so much more expensive, the sheer costs of doing this are absurd. I burned a cubic ton of restorative items, scrolls, barrels, grease bottles, alchemists fires, GOLD, and revive scrolls on just the fights alone.
Have you concidered that you probably did it wrong? o_O
I dunno where is the problem, i managed to wipe out whole groove with cantrips used only ... not single special arrow, not single scroll, not single potion, not single spellslot used.
Beyond that you end up butchering vendors so gold income and also takes a serious hit, on top of that you end up losing Wyll and Gale (if you don't pass a check that is, wyll leaves no matter what).
There is still at least 5 additional ventors, some of them you will loose too, as story goes ...
- Tollhouse paladins
- Zhentarim hideout
- Goblin camp vendor
- Volo
- Society of Brilliance vendor in Myconid colony
Ofcourse, if you decide to kill them all ... you are screwed, but that is just simple consequence of your own actions.
Second: The payout sucks! After everything I lost taking this especially dire path all I got in the end was the meager possessions of a bunch of refugees along with whatever you feel like prying off the druids sorry carcasses.
What did you expected? O_o
Zevlor specificly tells you that they dont have much, multiple times.
Also Minthara is willing to pay you (i mean gold, not the other thing), if you play your dices right.
OH! There's also a sex scene with Minthara but, that is a very fleeting "reward" indeed as she tries to murder shortly afterwards and tells you not to go back to the goblin camp even if she doesn't whack you, so thats one less vendor to buy and sell with. In short Drow boobs are fleeting, lost companions and vendors are forever. It's just a bad deal on the whole.
Have you ever heared the expression: "You have played your cards, and you played them wrong ... now you loose." ?
Also you cant possibly know if that was a bad deal, since you didnt get to the end yet ... not every step in our journey need to be superefficient, and profitable, that would be lame.
Third: It's bloody difficult.
Its not.
First you gotta pass a lot of checks in order to do the evil rout
And for every single check there is a way go get around ...
- Goblin guards on other side of bridge?
> Bring Sazza / use tadpole / be a drow / sneak around (three routes actualy!) / kill them all (yup, even if you kill them, and even if they use alerting drums ... rest of the camp is still friendly, when you get there) / and even if i think it would be exploit, and i dint try it yet ... i believe you would be able to fast travel to goblin camp using their own waystone, when you discover it with your familiar ... wich could easily get there if you are warlock, since they can turn invisible.
- Goblin guards inside the gate?
> Bring Sazza / use tadpole / be a drow / sneak around (only one route here, but its there)
What other checks you need to pass?
then you need to go very out of your way through a lot of dialogue, then you need to NOT take any of the two dozen outs they give you
Why is this an issue? How is this an issue? O_o
Every time you want something, you need to NOT take any other options.
in case you suddenly don't want to be an ABSOLUTE scumbag then after all that you ultimately get to be utterly wrecked by a swarm of very angry druids who will ABSOLUTEly beat the tar out of you and a handful of goblins.
Well, if you decide in middle of attack ... it is actualy kinda late.
But until then, even with goblin army before doors, you can simply turn out to be doublecrossing bastards, and betray Goblins at litteraly any time. O_o
If you get any other outcome, it was probably simple bug.
