It absolutely does. Anything related to the Grove inhabitants specifically. It also offers very little in “new” content aside from some dialogue options and scenes. But not really any new quests. When I did my evil run, this was fine since I had just finished another ‘standard’ run so the abbreviated state of things was more feature than bug. I enjoyed some of the dialogue and how it handled stuff but there was definitely “less”.
Oh, you also lose out on some nice gear. This isn’t the end of the world since I end each game with a chest full of perfectly good stuff I’m not using but it’s another downside to an evil run.
Agreed but it was a deliberate choice by the writing/development teams.
Yeah, but that was one of the things that people talked about with the Last Light Inn. If you make the deliberately evil decision, you lose a huge amount of content.
AS: Yeah, huge.
SV: Yeah. That’s a consequence.
AS: I think the alternative would be that we just sub in new content, and the choice wouldn’t be meaningful anymore. Letting you desolate and devastate entire parts of the world, that’s true reactivity, it’s real agency. So yeah, I love playing evil, and also in a very just simple-minded way because an evil playthrough is often the second play-through, meaning it’s also a lot quicker. It is quicker because you get less sidequests along the way because a lot of people are dead. But you also get stuck into combat a lot more. So you have all these big meaty combats that you didn’t necessarily see the first time around.
Apparently Act 2 has some fairly large differences, depending on what type of evil run you do. However, if you’re planning on Shadowheart staying with Shar, the content you have is the same as a good run, you just have like a 25% of it. It’s basically “1) follow drider to Moonrise 2) go to shadowfell 3) go back to Moonrise” and you’re done.
And yeah, you miss out on a lot of gear. Dammon alone has 7 items that pretty much every party would want during a run.
Arguably the single best item in the game is for evil characters though, so that makes up for it. (ignore the fact that anyone can get it if they ignore they’re good for 5 minutes).
I got out into the forest and called the drider then went to Moonrise. Chatted with with Ketheric, got Minthara (and the goblins) off the hook and then headed over to Last Light. Convinced Jaheira to let me in (no tieflings around, just the Harpers) and then sided with Mr. Trash Wings to let Isobel get captured. The shield around the Inn shattered and everyone became undead. Came down and told Jaheira “The Absolute got Isobel, oh no!” right before the undead Harpers attacked. Defeated them and told Jaheira that this was her fault for being weak and she failed her friends so she needed to hang with me if she was going to succeed.
From there, we went back to Moonrise, released the Ironhand Gnomes (who went on straight to Baldur’s Gate, I believe), assassinated Zrell in her office then did all the local haunted town stuff before the Shar temple. Encouraged Shadowheart to murder Aylin then came back and fought Moonrise.
(If you allow Balthazar to take Aylin, you lose Shadowheart immediately, then skip the Moonrise fight upon returning and just get donked into the mindflayer colony below.)
The only significant “missing” content from Shar Shadowheart (and evil standard PC) was tiefling related and the Halsin Shadowcurse nonsense.
I finished my first playthrough last week. It didn’t feel like a BG game to me. It felt like 3D Divinity. Which is fine, but not as good as BG I or II.
Hit Act 3 on my honor mode run and am debating how to proceed. If I had Gale, I’d use him and just get the achievement. The ways I’m debating are basically skipping as much content as possible or doing as much as I can to get BIS gear. For the former: if I side with Raphael and Gortash I skip those two fights, the Iron Throne, and the Iron Watch foundry. I would also skip Sarevok after becoming an assassin of Bhaal. I think I’d then abuse scrolls of globe of invulnerability and blow up the netherbrain with rune-powder and fireworks. .
Been playing Minthara as a paladin / swords bard as it’s apparently considered one of the best builds, but really not feeling it. Probably going to respec her into a sorcerer. Chain lightning goes brrr.
I agree. It’s an unlimited turn based system where you get to plan things out and suddenly it’s a six turn HARD limit. (One run saw me dying at the base of the ladder to the exit.) I certainly ran it multiple times. However, I don’t think I ever knew the Duke was there! I didn’t get that quest on my first play through. In my second, I stopped in Act 3 before getting to that mission.
I have looked at Warlock in the TTRPG and I don’t get it. It’s exactly the same there as you describe here, a blaster character. The picked abilities are so specific that I don’t know how well they would play, either. However, I do like that there is a cost for not following orders, which is how I think warlock pacts should go. It’s annoying to me that the TTRPG glosses over that all but two pacts are with an evil patron and they don’t talk about that.
I started another recently but then trailed off. Not that it wasn’t fun but too many other things pulling at me.
I also go back and forth between FOMO and FIIDC anymore. I really want a mod or option to see all of the choice trees to know what branches I’m losing and gaining for choices. Actually, I want a clue book. I love those for RPG games and want the full list of magic items for my TTRPGs. I also like playing a game toward an ending, once I know them, without looking if I can. I want to see ending 5, whatever that is, and play toward it. I’m so worried that once off that branch, I can’t get back.
I also agree that I find new things every time I play. If there is anything about the role playing aspect it’s the time aspect. There is constant reminders about the slugs but that never comes up. It’s your choice. Further, I think there should be choice points where you lose NPCs. If you never go to the creche, I don’t understand why La’zel stays with you. Things like that. I don’t think I saw their ratings for my person until late in my first run and after doing a lot of things that they disapproved, never lost anyone. I think losing the main NPCs like that would be a better role playing experience.
It is very tempting for me. But after futzing around in Act I with a bunch of characters and choices I decided it just wasn’t fun to play that way. I think this kind of game works better if the number of companions is more limited, to discourage players from trying to do all branches in one playthrough. I’d rather see controlled characters limited to just the active party. But the best part is I can and did actually play that way myself. It’s just amazing how adaptable this game is.
For even more, I wish the characters who aren’t currently in your party should be more “alive”. They do that somewhat now, when if you don’t recruit initially, they pop up later a few times. I’d like to see them try to do stuff on their own. Make some skill checks to give them a level or complete a quest, etc.
And that way “evil” choices wouldn’t feel so much like they’re reducing content, because you wouldn’t be able to do so many of the good choices on a single playthrough.
I’ve seen very few single class warlocks in play at 5e tables and the ones who stay with it are really into the Pact story implications. More often, it’s a sorcerer or paladin who takes a couple levels for the Eldritch Blast cantrip, the Agonizing Blast invocation and paladins who take Hexblade so they can use Charisma as their melee stat and then pump everything into that. As you mention, the rules for Patrons are practically non-existent aside from defining subclasses and there’s no guidance for betraying/ignoring your Patron or what happens if your Patron dies. Campaigns either make a whole big focus out of it because the player really wants that or else handwaves it away until the DM needs a handy campaign hook.
In the next edition, they’re making Eldritch Blast a class feature that only gets stronger as you gain warlock levels (vs cantrips that scale to your total character level) and I expect a lot fewer people will be playing warlocks.
Yesterday I obliterated Lorroakan and Sarevok and was feeling pretty good about my honor mode run. I figured I’d knock out Cazador, get Astarion his ascension, then decide what to do next. Ok, start the fight, get him down to like 1/3rd health on the first turn, but then he kills both the Dark Urge and Minthara in one turn, from full health, with his legendary action. Not down, but dead! I use Shadowheart’s divine intervention to get them back up, but the adds kill both before they get another turn. I try to burn Cazador down before he ascends, but can’t do it with just 1 cleric. I managed to get away, but Astarion is permanently killed so I guess I need to tag in Karlach. Woof.
OMG. I had equipped a weapon I had just picked up. I was previously dual wielding, but the new weapon wasn’t “light” so I dropped the offhand weapon. Pretty sure that would have made the difference between a win and not…
I’ve been checking out videos and articles about the game. A couple of interesting things I’ve found.
If you cast silence on Raphael during the fight the music continues but the lyrics stop. Raphael’s song isn’t background music, he’s singing while he tries to kill everyone.
Someone made it through the game playing as a cat with interesting results.
When the music started I thought, “Oh, %#%! Lyrics? This must be a serious fight!” And then Raphael starts singing and it dawned on me that he’s singing to me. I am most definitely going to incorporate this into a table top game at some poing in the future.
Well, I already did…sort of. I had an encounter a few years ago where an NPC tried to engage in the PCs in an epic rap battle. But they didn’t want to play along and just murdered the guy.
Just finished my honor mode run. I was worried about messing it up at the last minute, but the last fight was pretty easy. I had a whole plan about what I would do on each turn due to the legendary action, but it only lasted one turn (after the portal). Finished it off with a power word kill, which I thought was fitting. I only had one option for how to end the game though. Thought that was weird and seeing some claims it was a bug.
Through the whole run there were three times I thought I might lose, had to run, resurrect at Withers, and give it another go:
Shadow druids at too low a level
The 2nd to last fight in the creche because I forgot about the fear mechanic
Cazador, because a lot of reasons, but mostly his legendary action was more than I was expecting.
Probably not picking it back up for a while if ever so dunno if I’ll see the gold dice in action.
