Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [Spoilers] Some observations on the Evil/Dark Justiciar playthrough

Good morning,

I'll try to avoid spoilers during this post but I will refer to choices.

I rather feel the game balance is a bit off if you go this route for the reasons outlined below:

1) Grove - your choice automatically removes 3 potential companions plus the heal the area that shall not be named
2) Going the Dark Justiciar path also of course removes 2 other characters - plus one possibly two more companions.
3) The above choices also remove many quests throughout acts 2 and 3
4) All of the above will have a significant effect on the end game content.

To me it rather feels that the evil route needs a lot more fleshing out with additional companions/alternative quests otherwise it's effectively a truncated version.

The evil route is just punitive and boring tbh. I tried once and got almost finished Act 2. In Act 2 already missing so much and then I was wondering what could've been left for Act 3 and I just gave up.

So, for now, for evil, you get one rushed unfinished companion. No rewards, nothing that justifies your actions except the good old. Oh, I'm evil, muhahaha, twirl my villain moustache.

Exactly - it rather feels like you're forced down one path.

Trust me, the ending going evil is probably the worst one and considering of the endings I've seen so far (3 of them, 2 durge) they're all pretty unsatisfying and not fleshed out, that's saying something.

It literally shocked me with how quickly it ends with no explanation and no closure. Also, I was left with 6 quests in Act 3 that I couldn't finish if I wanted to stay consistently evil. It's not worth it.

Even the companions you do keep aren't exactly happy with you.

Astarion's the only one chill about it.
Lae'zel doesn't give too much of a fuck, she's out for herself.
Shadowheart will be disappointed in you.
Gale will hate you (and can leave as well if you're not careful).
Minthara, the 'reward', will literally question why you acted the way you did, because she only did so since she was under Absolute control.

And the ending? Exactly the same, just different and fewer allies, and a slightly different epilogue as Dark Urge but you can get that one last minute even on a good playthrough, it just would be out of character.

you're right. In fact, what bothers me is that taking the evil path does not bring you any benefit.
"Oh you can take the evil path, you don't have to be a good boy" yes that sounds great. But it doesn't bring me anything, not even satisfaction of any kind. It's boring and kind of like being "chaotic evil" because it has no middle ground.