Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Will All Companions Be Evil or Tainted

My issue with Shadowheart's name is not that it is self made, but so obviously and plainly evil combined with her general demeanor. She's shady and logically I see little reason to have her in my party. I probably will if I don't play a cleric tho, but I'll still give her the side eye :P

In summation, my issue with her is that she is immediately untrustworthy. That said, I do like the voice actress and I am curious as well to see how her own story will progress and the possible paths to take.

Well, so far we have seen 4 companions, and I wouldn't trust any of them; but if that's all we have to choose from, I could be persuaded to give any of Gale, Lae'zel and Shadowheart a chance. Not Astarion, though.

Yep, that's kind of what I said! Gale is the only one that seems normal.

Except the bomb in his chest

I also honestly don't understand the discussion about names, and even things like the characters' appearances. My feelings about them are completely based on such things as alignment and backstory. As a good-aligned character, how could I possibly be okay with a vampire spawn or a priestess of Shar?

Viconia was also a priestess of Shar and she was far from being evil.

But she *was* evil. Only extremely late in the saga, towards the very end of the second game, do you get presented with a possibility to have her character change. But that still means you have to have her in your party as an evil character for like 80% of the story-arc. I'm glad you brought up Viconia, though, because I always liked her character except for the evil part. So it has long irritated me that you can redeem her and turn her away from Shar only so very late in the second game, which in turn meant I could never have her in my always good-aligned parties. So if Shadowheart is meant to be the Viconia-equivalent in BG3, I really hope they allow you to effect a change in her alignment and away from Shar at a relatively early stage of the game. Getting her to change towards the end of the game would be completely pointless from a good-aligned party's standpoint.

The only "evil" trait she has in the games is being arrogant for the most part. All the bad things she did were ordered by her parents when she was trained to be a priestess of Lolth, and when she went to the surface for refusing to kill a baby, she killed a bunch of farmers that kidnaped and raped her. She never did anything on her own initiative like Dorn does.
As I said previously, her evil alignment is mostly due to her personality, not her actions, this is true for almost all "evil" companions.

... and not only the evil companions. Faldorn the shadow druid is "True neutral" for instance ¿?

And in BG2 she is the leader of a cult that is sending wild animals to kill people in Trademeet and also functions on the basis of "trial by combat". Some of the alignments don't make sense.

LOL. YEAH this may prove challenging for those of at least trying to RP LG chars.

Also enjoyed the long, if somewhat arduous but ultimately rewarding tale of Viconia’s redemption in the original games.

A jester would be interesting, No hamster-wielding rangers?

By jester I mean funny, witty, messy, playful, light-hearted, always on the bright side chaotic good type of character. Any class or race will do!

Hey I hope my post didn't spoil anything for you with Viconia in the original games if you are playing for the first time. Did not intend that at all.

No, no at all, Kanisatha - but I appreciate your courtesy, sir.

I first played through them all when they first came out back in the day, currently playing thru again on Xbox as we wait - right now playing Dragonspear.

Ah, understood. When done well, humor adds so much to a good story. BlackIsle, Interplay and IE really hit some high notes back in the day.

I think we can get Volo as a camp follower (not that kind) and I am pretty sure he could be seen as a jester/bard-wizard hybrid.

While both Shadowheart and Astarian may have dark pasts, the moment we meet them in the story, they are at potential turning points.

Astarian was under the control of his vampire master and burdened with an insatiable hunger for blood. The tadpole seems to be helping him overcome this curse somewhat, and his story will likely involve confronting his master at some point. Would he still be "evil" if he were to break free from his master and gain free will? Who knows?

Shadowheart, meanwhile, was just sent on a suicide mission by Shar. We don't know what originally drew her to Shar, but when we meet her she seems to be having a crisis of faith. We may get a chance to turn her towards another God or something of the sort.

I feel like all of the companions are a bit malleable and multifaceted, and our choices in the story can help to shape who and what they ultimately become. Writing them off as completely evil simply because of surface level knowledge of their background is a bit harsh - I imagine that a good-aligned character would be willing to help them onto the right path.

She was also far from being in my party.

Seriously, edgy and interesting are not the same, and I really hope there are going to be some less "gimmicky" companions suitable for a good party. I don't want shallow or boring, but folks that it takes a little longer to discover what makes them unique.

Sorry I don't buy this. First of all, I'm a little tired of the trope of the evil characters can be "redeemed", and it's the job, nay the obligation, of the good characters to spend their life redeeming all the evil characters. And secondly, what happens in the meantime, before they're redeemed? From the first gameplay video, if my PC saw Astarian sucking the blood of another of my companions in the middle of the night, I don't care what the excuses may be, Astarian is immediately getting staked. Similarly, she can have all the crises of faith she wants, but if Shadowheart does anything, I mean even the smallest thing, that is in the nature of Shar while in my party (Shar being incredibly, horribly evil), she's dead. And as such, I really don't want that to be the nature of the relationship between me and my party companions. I know many people nowadays insist that no one is truly good or evil and everyone is just the same shade of grey, but that's all just hogwash to me.

Exactly! I hope Larian is reading this. It would be a shame for them to spend a lot of time creating companions that half the players just kill in the first act. Ha!