In my current playthrough, I hit a bit of an edge case that doesn't seem to have been accounted for in dialogue options or NPC reactions:
- I stole the Idol of Silvanus at Mol's behest, triggering the druids to slaughter the tiefling refugees. None of the companions reacted (I'd recruited all Act 1 companions except Karlach).
- I met Karlach, who acted as if I'd carried out the grove raid and was personally responsible for killing "innocents and children". Which, well, that was the druids, not me - I fought the druids alongside the tieflings, who sadly perished.
- Karlach refused to join the party, and my options were to send her away or kill her. (There's a bit of a bug after this, where I can tell the "Paladins" that Karlach told me all about them, even though that wasn't true because she'd been too busy raging about the "slaughter".)
- We freed Halsin, but he couldn't help us.
- I led Minthara to the grove and carried out the "raid", even though there was no one left alive. (I did have an option to tell her that the grove was already decimated, and she commented on it after the raid.)
- Wyll had a meltdown and left the party.
- Gale had a meltdown and had to be convinced to stay.
None of those reactions other than Minthara's quite make sense; we made a mistake (stealing the idol), which caused a massacre. The raid was an empty gesture, or at worst, exacting vengeance for the slaughtered refugees. The companion reactions don't quite take into account
how the refugees died, just that they were dead.
Of course there should be consequences for actions, but - we were trying to help the kids and delay the ritual, we couldn't have predicted that the druids would go feral on everyone and we did our best to protect the refugees (who have no hitpoints or combat ability, so what could we do). And no one actually died in the raid, so it seems pretty minor in the grand scheme of things and not exactly evil, considering that the druids carried out evil acts. (And anyway, Nettie tried to kill us, the gith'yanki tried to kill us, and Halsin says the tadpole can't be removed, so at that point, why not go along with the Absolute nonsense until we can figure out what's going on at Moonrise Towers?)
How this should probably play out in this very specific scenario, considering that the druids are responsible for killing all of the innocents:
- Druids slaughter the refugees.
- Companions comment on the brutality of the druids.
- Karlach joins the party after commiserating about the brutality of the druids. (I had an option to tell her it wasn't our fault, but succeeding the roll only meant that she agreed to go our separate ways.).
- Minthara's fruitless raid on an empty grove doesn't cause companions to leave or have existential crises (Halsin never joins the party because we obviously didn't finish his quest).
If the idea is just that the raid will always be evil no matter what, then (1) if the raid hasn't been completed, Karlach should join the party even if the tieflings are dead, and (2) after the raid, Karlach, Gale, and Wyll's meltdowns should be about teaming up with Minthara and the Absolute, not about the raid itself.
