@Blackheiffer woke up and chose violence.
Yes Gond taught it to the Lantanese but this was opposed by other gods. Which is why it was cursed to be unstable.
Ignoring whatever word salad that first paragraph was, but this is again wrong. You got the timeline mixed up. Mystra cursed smokepowder to make it non-functional and then Gond taught the Latanese how to get around it during the Time of troubles.
The point is that Smokepowder is not some rare and legendary thing in the realms but fairly uncommon but available.
Because I like DnD lore I do kill the vampire spawn in astarian's quest but the story absolutely does not confirm that as a good act. It's an that action causes Paladin of devotion to fall - in Larian's mind it is **coded** as an evil act (or at least not a lawful good act). Good Shadowheart tells you that sparing the lives of the spawn was the right decision because their deaths would weigh on you . . . Releasing the spawn is the good option - it's hard to argue otherwise. And it does turn out for the best . . . (which I think is silly)
The point is that both actions have negative and positive consequences and that YOU have to decide which one you can live with. There is no objective "good" black and white choice. This is the drum Larian has been beating since they started making this game but you don't seem to be able to dance to the rhythm.
As a Cleric of Lathander I can wipe out 7k Undead because that is part of my ethos, and in my eyes this is an act of kindness and charity - but if I was a Devotion paladin I would be forced to protect all life and acknowledge that the Spawn are victims as well.
In the case of the Circus I can exercise more discretion, and just not agree to help Lucretius put the clown back together. After all, I am not a Paladin and not bound by an Oath to act immediately and directly.
Who cares what Shadowheart thinks, or any of the companions? This was a flaw in the original games where people set their moral compass by chasing the approval of companions.
I get the feeling that KillerRabbit is advocating for his preferred version of Forgotten Realms rather than recognizing that what exists in BG3 has the WotC stamp of approval. It's not some crazy Larian interpretation. This stuff is canon now.
I think this is the truth of it. You, and a handful of others have an idea of what the Forgotten realms "ought" to be - when in reality it is a large sandbox and Larian got to choose what to utilize and you don't agree with that. That's fine, why do you think we have been banging the "mods now" drum so loud. Some of us want to make persistent worlds that conform to more traditional settings and allow people to explore that.
Although I do want to point out that Bg2 went pretty hard on the science bullshit when it came to Jon Irenicus* and his 'experiments' - his little Lab under Amn was chock full of Steampunk-esque nonsense.
*I call this the 'Because all mages are apparently fucking master engineers" foible.
