Bg3 Hot Take Edition

[u/Feeling-Classroom729]

I'm feeling spicy and I want to hear some of your hot takes about the game. Perhaps, I'll see the game from a fresh perspective and/or learn something new.

There's no limit to the hot takes you can share.

I'll go first.

Despite Araj's negative reputation, I think she's one of the best merchants in the game. In act 2, she carries the risky ring and the ring of free action, which is already amazing. But she also offers unique elixirs in act 2. In act 3, she sells sanguine explosives, which is basically a level 4 fireball that you can buy for less than 20 gold. Getting the unstable blood condition from her in act 3, can also be powerful if you build around it. The +2 to strength is super powerful if you're willing to torture Astarion, but even without that, she's still an amazing npc. She's a little pushy with Astarion, but she ultimately accepts his no. So, I don't stay mad at her.

I don't think completing a "good run" automatically makes your character good aligned. Basing your decisions around not making your favorite npcs sad is not a sound moral compass. I think there are more morally neutral people out there than people are willing to admit. It isn't a bad thing to be morally neutral. Jaheira is canonically true neutral in the older games, and people love her.

[u/Pandamonea_70]

My hot take. Auntie Ethel is doing the world a favour ridding it of Mayrina - who is one of the most annoying idiots ever to grace a quest. If I'm nice to the hag? She and I get on just fine. She's like Hannibal Lector. Be polite? She leaves you alone. If it wasn't for the hair hair? I'd never bother her.

Other evil NPCs who really do nothing wrong: The Zhentarium as a whole. Friendly, polite, fairly intelligent. I'd never bother them if it wasn't for them being on the wrong side of TWO companions -.-. Likewise, Glut - he's helpful and kickass in a fight. Unlike the shrooms who get irritated when I accidentally touch a mushroom.

In a real game? I'd never touch one of them. In reality? Metagame always makes me kill them because the hit of not doing so is pretty large.

Conclusion: Despite having wonderful 'evil' options, the game fails to reward evil play. It's almost ALWAYS negative. You lose companions, access to areas, power-ups etc. Example - sacrificing your companion to Bhool. For a cheap reward you can rip off his corpse. Now... if sacrificing someone gave you a +3 ability score? Boy... would that be a tough decision. As it is? Easy to ignore and just kill the redcap.

[u/GalleonStar → u/Pandamonea_70]

It's almost like there's a reason for why evil play isn't rewarded. Like there's a message behind it, or something...

[u/Pandamonea_70 → u/GalleonStar]

In my many years of playing games, I've never played an evil route. Hate it, feels awful and wrong. And I'm not alone. Years back, I worked on the Fable franchise and MS gave us feedback that the majority of the player base chose the 'good' gameplay. People, despite what the internet wants us to believe, generally much prefer being heroes to villains.

But.

If you put them in? They deserve to be developed and, well, tempting. Being good should be hard at times. Being evil should be rewarding. The more rewarding it is, the more alluring being a scumbag is - much like life.