Originally Posted by colinl8
Originally Posted by Boblawblah
You definitely can, which on a side note implies that nothing that happens in those locations matters THAT much to the overall narrative.

You'd be missing out on a bunch of experience and loot, as well a number of companion interactions, so your relationships with companions would be very neutral.

The only reason you'd want to is that you're dead set on remaining neutral in others' conflicts, or you're speed-running

for sure, gameplay wise it doesn't make much sense, but I always like to try to 'break' the game and do things the devs didn't expect. I'm curious to see just how big the main story is if you know exactly what is required and what isn't. This is all off-topic though, sorry OP!