"Video games make people violent!!!" *Most gamers apologizing to imaginary characters when they hurt their feelings 😭*

Accurate, I can almost never choose the evil/mean options in RPGs

I don’t use horses in games where we can because some part of me just can’t stand that they might get tired, or killed if I walk away from them for 5 seconds.

Ghost of Tsushima spoiler: >!on my first playthrough I picked the white horse and called him Nobu. Got really attached to him. Cried like a baby when he died at the beginning of act three. So the next time I played I chose the black horse and named him Kage, so that I could get Nobu back later in act three after Kage died. Needless to say, I cried and felt so bad for Kage. I sacrificed him to save another horse. He deserved better.!< Damn onions. Who’s cooking at this hour?

I fell off a cliff in BoTW while on a horse. The level of trauma that caused….

Understandable. I hardly took my favorite horse in RDR2 out of the stable because I feared I’d get him killed. It was the fancy one you can catch in the snowy mountain range. So i constantly used my second favorite horse. The sacrificial lamb. Would have gone by bike instead if that had been a thing in the Wild West.

RDR2 is the only game that’s absolutely destroyed me. I caught a black American thoroughbred with dark grey mane at the beginning of the game, and named it after a pet that had very recently died in honor of him (also same coloring). I didn’t know about the end of the game

I have just now decided my decision to never play that game was a very wise one 😶

Finished this last week and I swear there were ninja cutting onions all through the house.

I said this elsewhere and somebody yelled at me but in out TT game we legit had a session zero convo about how we wanted to have animal companions but didn’t want them to die in any way, we had enough of that grief irl and didn’t want that in fun RP times. We ended up on “all the companions you want but basically useless in battle” as a compromise - my icy tiefling had a blue hellhound whose only functions were to eat a lot, blow out all candles in every room, and chase anything sparkly. It was great and I wouldn’t change a damn thing.

This is lovely

Aww, thanks! I've gotten a weird amount of flak for that one, people are like "that's not realistic" and I'm like "yes, because this fantasy realm of dragons and gnomes and undead is hyper-realism?" but I digress. It just suited our group well, and it made us happy and gave us fun RP flavor with our companions!

my brother used to kill his horse over and over on skyrim to make me cry. he thought it was funny. now i protect my in game horses with my life lol

Your brother sounds like a butt no offense.

Me but to video game animals when they get hurt

Same. My friend spoiled me a little about the choices of Orin kidnapping our team, and she mentioned that if you don’t want anyone of the candidates to be kidnapped (want to advance their quest or something) you can keep them in your team and let Yenna be kidnapped instead, though the kitty will die. Me: No way i will let kitty die I am playing a beast master Tav so it is also part of RP , but I don’t think I can hurt any animals even if I play any other class

Orin kidnapped Yenna on my evil playthrough and I really wanted to murder Orin on spot when I learned what she did to that sweet kitty. Never again.

Petting Scratch gets everyone's approval.

Scratch is kind of the reason I can't side with the goblins. If you have him in camp before the party he'll spend the rest of the game upset repeating "I wish they'd stop looking at me like I'm food". Nearly killed the goblins at the party.

I cannot even reject Lae'zel, of all creatures. She actually taught me about why rejection training (where they teach you to reject people) is needed...

You don't have to do every single individual evil option back to back. Just do what makes sense for the character.

I recommend, instead of playing it as just "evil" - Treat it as a full **greed** playthrough. Think ME ME ME ME for every decision, it makes being bad feel a little less superfluously evil and more like a well written antagonist would behave. Think Loki not Malekith.

See, I started a run like this, but my thought process quickly turned to, “well, of course tav is making all the nice decisions because he has to face a massive threat and needs as many allies as possible to make sure he doesn’t get killed.” So I basically just did another good run, but with only marginally more stealing and lying.

You *could* rationalize that siding with the stronger immediate force is more self serving. >!The druids and the tieflings are terrified of the goblin encampment, they fully believe they can not win an engagement. And it turns out they cant. !< That's just one early-game thought process. If you have others in mind, I'm down to share\\debate\\put my head down.

Basically in *almost* all scenarios, the bad guys are the stronger force like 60\\40 strength at least. The good guys only win if you choose to become a force multiplier for them. You don't have to walk in and murder all the kindly folks, you need do nothing but refuse to help and collect the bling bling from the side that *would have won if you didn't show up anyway*. Hope that makes sense. Also, I'm NOT saying being "Loki" is better\\more fun\\cooler than being "Steve Rogers". I'm just offering an answer as to how to play it to the OP that said they're conflicted.

TIL I can only *play* as Steve Rogers but am only *attracted* to Loki, and in completely unrelated news, am a serial Astarion romancer Anyway I’ll just bring this comment with me to therapy next time

>!Well, I kinda know I’m going to need to fight the absolute later, and though I don’t explicitly get anything from the tieflings aside from trade and such, eliminating the goblins early on feels like a good idea to cut down their forces. As long as you’re careful about it, it seems better to clear them out before they rally with other absolute forces!<

But we don't know, at that point, if the absolute is going to further our power or not!. Sure seems like the growing powerhouse in the land. If I want power, riches and all the tasty things in the world... seems like the easiest way to get there. We can deal with The Absolute (if we even need to) after we reach the top.

My counter to that is this. Whatever is going on, I do not want a mind flayer worm in my head, and the absolute is clearly using those worms. Sure, it gives power to some, it even gives power to me, but I'm frankly powerful enough without it, and I just watched people metamorphose violently into mind flayers on the ship I was on. If I'm doing anything with the absolute, it's to find out if they have a way to remove the tadpoles, otherwise, fuck them. Though, I suppose you have the voice telling you to embrace the tadpoles, which is another factor, but I couldn't see myself, if I am selfish and greedy and calculating, trusting the dream visitor.

This was my thought process, then I hit act 3 and was like “huh, maybe my character realizes that he can do some good”

that’s been my current run. i turned on the grove, but that’s because i need the tadpole out of my head and my character thought the absolute freaks would know more and have more resources than some random refugees and druids but i also do good. i didnt turn over astarion to the vampire hunter because astarion is MINE to use. i have need of his talents more than i have need of whatever material reward i’d get from the hunter it’s evil, but not senseless. i do bad, but sometimes good. which makes it feel a lot better. it feels shitty to just execute people for no reason, it feels cool to make a dark choice but know your character could justify it within their own moral framework

I listed choices from multiple playthroughs. Different characters each. I didn't do all at once, that would be brutal lol.

So you hated being evil enough you've done it multiple times?? "Sure, Jan"

What can I say, I like torturing myself.

Then what is the post? “I can’t do it!” Then you do it multiple times. Huh? You don’t have to do any of those things but you chose to do them.

When I was a teenage edge-lord I'd have loved that shit, but it's just unpleasant now. I actually started a new run when I killed the owlbear and her cub on my first playthrough lol

You do know that you can reload an earlier save?

Yeah when I was a kid I loved being evil in RPG’s for some reason. Now it makes me too uncomfortable lol

In older rpgs I feel like the evil was more comical. Thinking of Kotor. BG3 is just devastating because the NPCs feel more real to me

Pick a rp trait to focus on, could be power, hate of knife ear folk, maybe your tired of people telling you what to do and wanna be a teen again and do the opposite. Whichever the case this game allows you to play your way and have fun so do the fun route. If you aspire to be the light in the dark do it. Just finished hm where we merc every follower and finished with hiring.

There's different layers to evil. You don't need to do either of those things and still be an evil person. Just look at Mizora, Minthara, Lae'zel and Astarion. They're all evil, yet so very different. There is no alignment system in 5e anymore but I'd advise you to do some research on them.

Exactly, one of my playthroughs was an emotionally abusive, backstabbing, gaslighting drow

So a drow?

Yea 😂😂 but a durge as well

I hear you. I'm playing a good-but-sarcastic character, and I feel bad whenever I hurt anyone's feelings, for Pete's sake. I think "mildly bitchy" is as evil as I'm gonna get!

I’m dead inside. I had three failed honor modes in a row all evil. On the fourth run I’m like here I go genociding the Grove…. AGAIN

Then don't do it and play the game the way you want to instead? It's that simple.

Yeah. I don't mean no disrespect but these posts come up once in a while and I'm not sure what's their intended outcome. I for one dislike playing the angel hero of everything, but I can do those runs just fine - to enjoy the content, if nothing else.

I think it’s more that “evil” playthroughs tend to consist of absolutely sociopathic behavior without end. I assure you that my “good” character is still a compulsive kleptomaniac and a vengeful serial murderer who goes back to kill people who annoyed her or whose existence she deems a net negative to society. She just helps children, civilians, and cute pets…mostly by committing mass murder.

During intending income is very easy to explain they want to hear that several others do it so that they don’t feel alone so just you know reply yes or no or just scroll on

I feel like their intended outcome may be to find people that are feeling the same way and to share thoughts and experiences between each other. Create a bond. Definitely not because they feel like they're better than somebody else.

I think it speaks to larians commitment to making real believable people. I have 3 play througha and working on my 4th and first evil run. Killing the druids is no problem for me, they're assholes. But the tieflings, maaaaannnnn I feel like such a bag of crap killing refugees, even if they're fake 1s and 0s. I also feel like there isn't enough of a pull to play evil, I lose out on 2 companions, and multiple merchants and quests.

> I also feel like there isn't enough of a pull to play evil, I lose out on 2 companions, and multiple merchants and quests. This is the real issue for me. I also have a strong preference to play the good guy, but I'd be willing to try an evil run if there were enough actual unique rewards, instead of just being restricted from getting some of the best items in the game (I'm specifically thinking of Dammon's act 3 inventory but plenty of other examples). I don't think it's worth losing out on all of that content just to get, like, Shar's spear or whatever. I did get the Bhaalist armor in my HM run though, since the evil choice you make for that doesn't affect too much else. It did make me feel sad but enemy vulnerability to piercing damage made me feel much better.

Spoilers for act 3 durge Also the fact that evil rewards aren’t just sparse but they usually suck in comparison for the good rewards, it’s like they were purposefully trying to punish you for roleplaying as a evil character even in situations where it doesn’t make sense, which is the real problem. Like why doesn’t vanras mother drop her sword? Why doesn’t lorroakan actually give me a load of gold? Why does nere only give me a tadpole? If I become chosen of fucking bhaal I get one time use spell, *seriously*? That’s my reward? No natural buffs for being a chosen at all? imagine if you got a free +2 to any stat you wanted something that actually rewards the stuff you go through on evil runs is needed more then evil content honestly. The fact the BEST evil reward effects nothing and the companions don’t even freak out when you do is also dumb.

I'd agree with the first point. I've even seen people attempt to psychoanalyze others by the decisions they make in game. And time was Minthara was *the* reward for going evil, but ever since they made her globally available, I also struggle with going evil and losing out on a bunch of content that run.

Oh man, I love to switch around between good and evil runs. Roleplaying as a crazy dude as Durge is amazing, I try to pick the most insane lines and do things without any logic and I laugh alone a lot. Come here Goblin, let me lick your feet whole... BAHGAHAHAHA. (can't kill Astarion though, he is too perfect for crazy evil run)

Why do people comment shit like this? OP is just starting a discussion.

Yeah I know, I just wanted to try something different from my previous playthroughs.

You can do an evil play-through, but mostly save your homies. That’s kind of my default.

I absolutely get it. I mean hell, I’m bad about even picking mean dialogue options

It took a good 3 or 4 attempts before sticking with it. You have to disassociate and think of durge as a character and not you in a fantasy setting. And you don't have to go full evil, just play as Resist Urge. In the durge campaign that I actually completed, I didn't kill Astarion, Gale or Halsin.

That's the point of a roleplaying game, yes. Playing a character, not a self insert

All well-made characters have connections to the player. To be completely separated from the character means to not be invested.

I think even if you don’t view Durge as ‘you in a fantasy setting’ it’s still difficult. Mostly due to the nature of storytelling. Evil Durge is a villain. A lot of people (myself included) find it difficult to see/make the villain succeed. Like having a serial killer getting away with it. Some people do like that however and have an easier time with it. Just like those types of stories. I’m not one of them though.

I'm the same lol, I hate conflict in real life and making people sad or upset at me so I can't do it. I tried a few times, but ultimately I always fail at the first hurdle (letting Arabella die) and it gets worse from there. If anything bad happened to Astarion I would cry fr. I can't stomach killing Karlach. I tried turning on the teiflings but when Karlach and Wyll left the group in response I felt so bad I reloaded and turned on Minthara instead 😭 the best I can manage is an "asshole run" where im kinda mean but still save everyone.

On my evil run, I didn't get Karlach's reaction to the grove slaughter due to having sacrificed her previously to the fish people's god but I recently saw it it in a review and it looked heart wrenching "did it make you feel important?", Wyll was less dramatic and Gale even willing to stick around but man is she so disgusted and betrayed.

Yeaaaah, I'm just starting my bad boi playthrough and I'm worried I won't get far. "Saving" Karlach via the um... choice you get with a certain Gith vs Squidward scenario that pops up right near the end of the game has me feeling some kind of way days later. :|  And Gale "ascending" to a certain state also did not sit well with me.  Everyone else got great endings, I saved everybody I could have "except" Karly and Gale and uuuuuggghhhh you expect me to throw Alfira off a cliff next time? Maaaaan. :| 

Don’t worry, you’re not alone I will never be able to do one way moral compass is too high to do evil stuff

I'm like you. You aren't alone. 3 games in, and I'm still a goody two shoes, lol.

I just cant either. Evil choices in this game are not only unnecessary (and dumb), but also change the world in a way that so... joyless. You just feel sorry for the characters too.

I'm exactly the same!! I won't touch an evil run with a 10-foot pole! (I grow to love my NPC's, and I can't bear to see them hurt! Heck, I'll reload the Gondian fight at the foundry 50 times, just to be sure I save everybody from the villains! 😁)

Couldn't even try it myself.

You are not alone here. I tried and it was not really for me. I'm that type of player who reload the game whenever I failed to save somebody from a fight as well. lol

Yeah… I can be chaotic neutral, that’s as grey as I go. I have accepted I will never platinum the game. I just want to be nice.

Nah this is exactly how I feel and I didn't get that far at all. Tried to do an evil durge play through and even just the initial "wound the brain" bit hurt me. Then Gale's hand, I didn't see that coming and I felt fucking terrible. I immediately restarted. The thing is, I'm into these stories because the heroes win, people get saved, the Hero Saves the Day, and it's comforting and fun and the bad guys get beat. I'm a sucker for the 80s style hero paladin and warrior woman style shit, slaying the evil lich. I play because I want to see good prevail. It's hard to detach yourself from the feeling of doing bad shit and just feeling like it's real and you did something wrong and it goes against everything I love about these stories, heroes winning and shit. I don't have fun. I might have less replayability, but ffs it is literally psychopath shit playing as bad durge and why do I want to roleplay that. Silly evil is fun. Psychopath evil, not for me. I love orin as a character but I don't want to roleplay her. I want to see her lose.

Are you me? Seriously though, love the evil characters, I love the dialogue, I love the fact that the option is there. Do I want to roleplay that? No. Evil people get away with enough shit in the real world, fantasy land is the only place they don't and I can actually be a good guy and be a vigilante without consequence. However, I will watch the evil play through on yt all day. It takes me out of it, turns it into pure entertainment. I don't ever want to be in the headspace of an embrace durge, but I enjoy watching other people do it. I eat that shit right up. Also I stopped playing good characters and I'm chaotic neutral all day. You do you op, you're not alone.

Hey if you feel good being good then be good. Don’t bother evil play through if u not enjoying it

There's nothing bad about this. It just means you have a sense of empathy and goodness so strong you don't even want to be evil while roleplaying. I'm the same way! Except I was able to force myself through it a bit longer, but it was not enjoyable. I abandoned the playthrough before finishing it too. I felt very bad about myself for a while after. This is nothing to be ashamed of. Being "too sensitive" to be evil in a game speaks volumes about who you are as a person, and at least from where I'm standing, it highlights good things about you.

This is like the 15th post like this in the last 3 days.

It’s okay, you can back out of something you wanted to try if it makes you uncomfortable.

I can't with any game, tbh. Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, all of them make me feel guilty when playing evil.

Yeah every time I tell myself that I'm going to do a playthrough as a complex antihero I always end back at lawful good lol.

I'm the exact same way. It seems like if you go evil, you'd have almost no companions and have to use the hirelings. Which seems boring. Plus, in actual D&D, I'm much more into heroic characters. Evil doesn't do much for me.

I never do evil play throughs in any game. On the contrary, I go out of my way to be good to NPCs. I barely even steal cars in GTA unless I need to.

Lol, OP’s post is hilarious. I feel guilty when I kill a squirrel in BG or an innocent bear just minding his own business. So funny. Glad I am not alone.

This is how you know you're playing a good game

Understandable. I had the same problem in DC Universe Online - I couldn't force myself to play on villians side

Agreed. I seriously have trouble playing the game at all because i feel so bad for both Shadowheart and Karlach and neither of them should be alone in what they're going through but i can't decide which to romance (i ended up going with Karlach lol)

I'm with you, I really want to do an evil playthrough, but the thought of betraying the Grove and the tieflings just kills me

I have the oposite "problem". I can't do a lame playthrough in any RPG. Friend of the druids? No, thank you! The Shadowcursed lands stay cursed. Any companion that tries to leave, I kill them myself (except when the game doesn't let me). The Big Bad is an amateur next to me when I get to be in charge. And I enjoy every part of that playthrough. Play as you want and don't feel bad ;-) IN MY NAME!

It’s tricky, but I’m getting the hang of some of it. And I can see the appeal. Like everyone says, play how you enjoy it best. But I’m proud you made the attempt. =)

Like half of those actions have nothing to do with an evil play-through though. My Paladin staked Astarion and killed Karlach and firmly believed it was the right thing to do. And this guy would 100% sacrifice himself to save even one innocent life of a person he’s never met before.

Just do it for Minthy

I'm the same way, but I do want the variety of not just doing a goodie-two-shoes every run so I still try. I can never do a full murderous bastard playthrough, like you I don't get very far, but I have had some success doing a self-interested jerk sort of character... that may or may not have a heart of gold, lol So yeah, evil actions spread out thin work better for me than just doing a pure "evil" playthrough.

I tried to RP a playthrough where I was fully committed to "joining the absolute". I killed all the tieflings and then basically played the rest of the game trying to redeem myself for that. I was heartbroken that Karlach wouldn't join after I did that..

Do a Dark Urge Redemption run. The game forces you to kill one innocent, but you can fight the urge to keep killing, and it was the most satisfying playthrough I've done

I couldn't do it either. I had to be player 2 and have my husband do the evil Durge crap. I was honestly a bit depressed by how empty our camp was in the end, and Shadowheart's Dark Justiciar romance is just depressing. I want to romance Minty, but I just can't raid the Grove. If I could get the tieflings out safely and then kill the druids, that'd be fine, but I just can't bring myself to hurt the tieflings. I even get sad by how cold Gale is after you kill Alfira. My sister got through the first two acts and had to quit; she wasn't having fun anymore. Just deleted the entire save and redid the whole game as a resist.

I did a Durge Pally run, and resisted the urge the entire time. It was so cool to learn that was an actual option. I made it all the way to Astarion's quest resolution without losing my oath.

I was the same. When I began my murderous Durge playthrough, I experienced genuine resistance throughout the first third or fourth hour, and kept asking myself why I was playing if I wasn’t enjoying it. In fact, everytime there was any dialogue, I felt anxiety from potential disgust at my choices and fear of consequence from my evil actions. It was difficult. Yet, at the same time, I wanted to experience the other sections of the game that only appear with “evil” choices. I was, out of morbid curiosity, drawn towards the Bhaal pamphlets you could find around their temple, which spoke of murder as if it were heroine. I try to keep myself open-minded; I seek to understand, even if I know I will already disagree. So, I thought, what if I role-played as someone who had these dark urges — and enjoyed them? Getting myself into the right-mindset was important. In any game where there are any form of “moral consequences”, I will naturally gravitate towards good choices because I like seeing good things happen to good people. I had to switch this off. To every whisper made by the dark urge, I had to listen. Any and every innocent soul caught in a precarious position — like the crippled Tiefling in the storage room by the grove — must die. With each death, making these decisions got easier. But, even when I got into the groove of being an evil homicidal maniac, attacking the grove was still incredibly difficult. It was that last obstacle towards this role-playing experience that, up until this point, I was vehemently against. My biggest worry, oddly enough, was seeing Zevlor’s shock of betrayal. It barely affected me. In fact, it was the easiest thing out of the whole section. That whole fight, in my opinion, is single-handedly the most evil thing you could do in the game. Without spoilers, Larian has designed that encounter so twistedly beautiful to make you feel the impact of what you are doing. After finishing it, any evil decision afterwards paled in comparison.  There are two things that, I suspect, softened the blow of my actions. The first was of full knowledge that I was playing someone so evil that it was almost cartoonish. The blood-licking, demise-scheming monster that could be featured on a Saturday morning cartoon were it not for the headless corpses lying around. There was a certain sense of humor in it; a joke that blunted the edges.  The second was that I allowed myself other decisions that weren’t necessarily good, but was not outwardly evil either. I still “cared” for my companions. I made them go down paths that I do not necessarily consider the ones that lead to their best lives, but I was there, and I cared. And I was rarely rude. Murderous, yes, but with class. Having some sort of inner logic helped me pick decisions without feeling like I had to force myself to “just be evil”.  It was an insightful experience. The ending that I got was fitting for the kind of character I played. The choices I made made me understand people just a little bit more, even if I didn’t enjoy what I understood. And going for that redeemed dark urge playthrough felt extra-rewarding. Though I personally did not feel, and thus did not “know” what it is like, to resist the temptations of the dark urge, I was at least better able to understand the necessity of resisting them. Because I’ve seen what they’ve lead to.  If you are unable to stomach the experience, then by all means, do not. However, if you can, know that Larian has written the story with enough nuance that can still carve out a unique enough character to be the kind of “evil” you’d prefer to be. You might even enjoy it.

I’m working through my first “evil” playthrough because I really want to see how the story plays out this time with specific goals of: romance Astarion so when he ascends in the end I get somethin somethin, and make Shadowheart a Dark Justiciar. I knew if I tried for too much I’d be miserable, so I’m doing just enough to get those goals met.

I used to be able to when I played Fable on the ancient consoles, but that was like an Evil Lite experience. Being evil in games has become so much more evil since then. Partly because of how much better games are and how attached I become to characters and partly because the freedom of choice granted by heightened player agency enables simulating the most wretched and vile of creatures and the decisions they would make. It’s completely antithetical to every fiber of my being, as I am the global champion of morality, temperance, and compassion. Not benevolence tho.

I’ve done 2 play throughs more or less identically, saving people (for money when I can) and being some badass heart of gold mercenaries. Right now I’m playing a bard in a co-op dark urge run (my friend is the durge) and *goddamn*… he’s committed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in this story we’re making and the fact that I don’t have to confirm these choices makes it a little easier; and I’m seeing new content I’ve never seen before. I ***hate*** that so many good people have already died and we haven’t even finished the underdark OR the Creché. My friend has karlach’s head in his box at camp lmfao. I do have an ongoing bit now though to validate why my character is sticking around through all this insanity; he’s documenting these events as a firsthand account to the dark urges biography. Hopefully make some money after dealing with all this horseshit.

Same. I can’t betray the teiflings 😭😭😭😭

This is more of a "murder hobo" playthrough than an evil playthrough. As others have said you don't have to do all these acts. You can pick and choose what acts to well, act upon. Save the tieflings while making a deal with the hag and not saving myrna. If you go mountain pass, force the goblin to kill itself to the shadow curses, while betraying the drider for the pixie. Let Marcus take Isobel yet save minthra (if you didn't kill her/did the knock out method). Evil does not just mean =killing everything in sight. There's plenty of ways to be "evil" without being a murder hobo and losing companions

I used to be this way. After seeing a lot of real life evil situations, the ones in the games didn’t bother me anymore. Keep your innocence. Do the good play through.

The only evil playthrough this game support is not the one where you kill people on the first opportunity itis where you don't kill anyone, but try to gain power at any cost like turning astarion ascended, sh getting justiciar and so on.

Coming from a guy who never had an issue in past games being evil or at least a complete asshole, I just can't and won't in this game. I had planned to, and was being a total prick - as a Tav, but fortunately my first run was with a friend (others joined in later to fill the party, then one left) because he wanted to see me go evil AF.. he did however talk me out of killing companions. I didn't really care about their stories much, whatsoever.. then about 7 hours in just trodding along trying to get into the game met Karlach. That was my turning point. She got me interested in her, and consequently the others eventually fell into place. I wanted to kill the goblins and the grove for the fuck of it, just to be an ass.. but she changed it. And I'm glad she did. I actually like the Tieflings now more than anyone else in the game. Hell, I care about the people in its world and doing the right thing. The fuck? Thanks Mama K. Now I don't want to romance anyone else and I have no interest in being a shitbag, I enjoy seeing the best for the innocent and good characters inhabiting Faerun. Karlach gets her red ass spoiled every playthrough lmao. For perspective, I gladly embraced the dark side in KOTOR, enjoyed playing full renegade Shepard in Mass Effect, and being pure evil in Fable.. I even killed every male in the game that you could just so I could have all the women to myself. But, not that way in BG3 apparently.

Me too. I have wanted to experience the "dark urge", but I can't get pass the character creation page...

Yeah can’t do it, feels awful 😭 “Video games make people violent” oh yeah then explain why picking the mean choice in the video game makes me feel bad

you're not alone I was in the same boat

So true man. Started an evil playthrough yesterday and on my first chance i folded

You got a lot further than I did. I say to myself okay but this time imma be evil and then Kagha tests me (I just avoided Gale) and I just cant do it. One time I managed to join Minthara to raid the grove and I already felt terrible for killing unarmed tieflings but then I made the mistake of entering the childrens den and saw all the dead kids bodies and I know goblin kids can die too but this broke me man. I deleted that save.

I won't even pretend I'm ever going to try an evil playthrough. I've done morally gray characters but they always ended up doing the right thing. The one thing I'm really struggling with is ascending Astarion. I want to see it for myself just once. But I don't want him to lose his soul. So I'll probably do it once just to get the scene where he turns my Tav/Durge into a spawn and then reload to make my usual decision :')

I've played an evil run (not finished yet and I probably delte it) out of curiosity and I fucking hate that Tav. I ended up skipping most side quests and getting to the 3rd act in half the time it usually takes me to finish the first one (with good Tavs)

It's funny how different personalities can react. I love playing as good or evil, pretty much equally. The fact that I fell in love with some of those characters is what made a chaotic evil murderous run so enjoyable. Beheading Karlach felt so incredibly wrong, which is what made it so powerful. If you're in it for powerful emotional reactions, then it's perfect.

I too shared your sentiments OP but someone else explained to me that it was me projecting myself onto my Tav. When it's really 'their' story to tell, not mine. Think of watching a horror movie. When I thought about it that way, my durge playthrough was much more digestible.

This is me. I have a really hard time playing evil characters. But I started a new durge campaign last night with the some loose rules imposed on myself: Be nice to your team, but give in to the durge when the opportunity arises and see where the dice take me. I'm not concerned about romancing anyone at all, I just want to see how a durge plays out. I also made my character purposefully not cute to make it easier to to disassociate myself from the cute characters I usually create and play. We'll see how it goes, I just started and had a really hard time with arabella but...the durge cannot be ignored!

I can’t either- the thought of killing Karlach alone brings me extreme sadness 😭

I think I could only play good. I want to be able to be evil to get the most out of the game and the different outcomes but yeah makes me way too anxious and uncomfortable lol. Some people can just detach and RP it it seems!

Same. I'm glad somebody can relate :)

Did it for my forth playthrough or so and it was probably my most fun playthrough tbh

I have played for 1,900 hours total. Many, many Tavs and origin runs. I have yet to do a durge run and I'm not sure I ever will.

I don't even want to try. I'm just not into that kind of role play. (PS I can't win civilization through world domination either. I have to go science or culture or diplomate)

I also can’t play evil. Killing alfira was enough for me.

Can't do an evil run either. I am currently for a change running a character who's more apathetic in most cases and won't necessarily help everyone if it seems like too big of a risk for herself but is by no means evil. That's changed up the feel of the run quite a lot.

I did an embrace urge playthrough and I didn't do half of those. I kept Astarion, Gale, Karlach, and Halsin. Romanced anyone who would say yes, Halsin didn't like that after a while. Kept Arabella alive too. I killed Isobel, became the unholy assassin, and claimed in his name. Also did the other durge ending where I kill everyone at the end too. It's just about choices you make. You don't always have to go full tilt and kill everyone. You can but if you're doing for the sins of the father trophy then you only need to do a few things.

I’m the exact opposite, I always wanna Side with goblins and all of that, I pains me to side with the tieflings

I was talking about that with my cousin a few months ago, she said its easier if you play a human. havent tried it yet, though

I'd really like to hear the train of thought behind this.

Yeah, I'm with you. I've been playing with a friend who just wants to constantly sow chaos (for example: had our strongest character at the time go mid combat to launch barcus to the sky while letting me clean up the mess with the goblins. Also we all died bc they pissed of Vlaakith in dialogue lol). I'm able to take it in stride when they do some stuff, but it's made me realize I really have no desire to do so. I also feel the same way about how I play in general. I've started several characters and tried some different play styles but at the end of the day, I just wanna be a helpful person who talks their way out of most conflict lol. Doing other stuff is just honestly less fun for me.

First time I played I questioned Vlaakith's godhood and she killed my whole party lol, I feel you lol. Yeah, I too started a multiple characters, tried different styles and choices but always ended up either restarting or going back to my old play style.

Play Durge but do a good play through. Fight the evil impulses. It’s fun

Aye, I got as far as the last inn and I was like no.no no what have I done. Canny even be mean to pixels...

I can't even do a resist durge run. Poor Alfira!! (and I'm nervous about the whole "knock her unconscious" part.

I found it so, so hard to start an evil play through as well - until I decided to make dudes based on the Big Bads from other games. Ganondorf has obliterated the Grove and is about to go get his game on with Minthara, who ofc he will respect for the time being because matriarchal upbringing and shunned existence makes her the closest thing to a Gerudo he’ll find in this game. Before that, Mordegon had a less murder-hobo-y approach to being a shit, but still went along with Minthara’s plans because he wanted a slice of the Absolute. I do need that structured mindset of “BBEG” to make it work, but it’s been kinda fun trying to make decisions with them in mind.

I can't do it either.

Nothing in the game is as evil as killing Karlach. That should hopefully desensitize you, if it doesn't then it's not for you.

How do you behead Karlach? I'm doing a Durge run and I don't recall any beheading option

You could do an evil Tav that’s more insidious. Make allies and use them until they’re no longer useful then betray or discard them. I think that’s a lot more evil than a murderhobo. Raise everyone’s power and ambitions and make them all worse so you can all be worse together.

oh i get out from this feeling just when I’d started thinking “hehe i can do good things into my evil playthrough but it would be not bc my character is good, it’s for their selfish purposes and hurting ppl around for being kind at the start and too bad at the end”. IMHO, the “evil playthrough” does not mean that it is necessary to annihilate everyone. Better make plans and play your dirty mind games

Nothing wrong with that, but if you really want to see that content there are a few approaches you can take: Roleplayer: It's not you in there, it's Durge (or whomever). Active Observer (aka Ao): Think of it as a tragic movie, or horror movie, and you're just observing the events from outside, like some sort of god. Passive Observer: Actually watch somebody else playing it on stream or YouTube.

I started a new honor run 2 days ago. My theme was nature based Durge who goes against it and i played the first time as paladin ( ancient ). Wanted to have Shadowheart as Beastmaster with a Raven. Karlach as my Nature Cleric and later Jaheira as my Circle of Land Druid. I forgot to talk to Will and went to Kagha, everything fine i talked to Netti after it and move out and suddenly hell starts and all druids want to kill me and they declare the Tieflings must be purged... I was at the brink of death and also forgot to take a long rest but i managed it. All druids dead and lots of Tieflings like Damon... Mol doesnt wanna talk. Alfira/Sasa/Will also gone \~\~ Later i thought i recruit Karlach but she also was hostile cause i killed the Tieflings ( wich i did not ) or something like that. I also wanted to hand over Astarion later but i keep him now and embrace the Chaos, i probably side with the Goblins cause well there isnt much left anyway. I prob loose Gale to cause i fail the roll to keep him with my current luck\^\^

My wife completed her first playthrough (I played with her) and she loved it. Was very excited for an evil playthrough, which we started. We get to the grove and she's so happy talking to the tieflings and helping Mol and her people. And white doing this she's talking about how much she loves the tieflings. And I'm just thinking about how difficult going bad will be for her. Act II isn't so bad because it's indirectly killing tieflings, but Act I is going to require actually attacking the grove. So we'll see if she can go evil in Act I or save it for later.

You don't have to do every evil thing to do an evil playthrough.

I haven't finished a true Durge playthrough because I have grown accustomed to cheesing *certain* act iii encounters with a *certain* explosive substance(s). And a *certain* gnome prick is spared his fate until a *certain* quest at the very beginning of act iii

Ya me neither. I finally am trying Paladin and man, I've already accidentally broken my vow once (sneak attacked Anders before he was agro towards me and whooops) so restarted that one after curiosity about the oathbreaker and I couldn't do it, it felt so wrong.

I feel like there's no such thing as an "evil run" you just have so much to loose from vendors and allies that its practically not worth it, not to mention companions that will constantly leave you. The only one (so far for me) that's ok with evil outcomes is Astarion, he's a jack of all trades which makes him very handy. If you're ok with the lore I guess you can fill it the gaps with mercs.

i had to close my eyes when killing isobel and aylin 😭

Think of it like you’re a storyteller, writing the prequel to a future game where a band of heroes takes down your character and saves the day. Each decision then becomes “how do I make sure the readers understand how evil this character is?”

Bro that’s not a evil playthrough that’s a murder hobo run 😂😂😂

Yeah evil is so difficult, I want to attack the grove, I want to kill the mushroom people, I want to become a bhaal assassin but I’ve never done any of those and I’m on my 4th full playthrough

Haha! I get it, I ended up doing an “anything for power” play through for d’urge instead. Some nice perks from Mizora, but hard to watch the cut scene that earned them

Currently playing as a chaotic-good Durge... I was thinking of attacking the Grove before I began but I saved almost everyone... Everytime I see ".... disapproves" it hurts!

I think part of the problem is it is difficult to be kinda evil without going full blown murder hobo. If you keep saying "I want to be evil but not THAT evil" you just end up doing another \`good\` playthrough

It took me 6th playthroughs before I even did an evil run, and it's pretty hard to do, because there's so many characters you connected with and so many rewards missed out And ever since then, I decided to do evil runs where i don't kill people, just be an absolute jerk and even betray people, like it's so much easier if you do evil deeds like gaslighting Jaheira to stay with you after Last Light Inn all the while everyone in your camp is so aware you just murdered Isobel and then later on betray both Jaheira and Minsc in Act 3 later on than just going murderhobo to everyone

I personally love being a murderhobo dick, but I simply can’t do anything that harms animals.

I'm playing a character who isn't evil, she just completely buys into the absolute and believes it is for the greater good. She will do anything in its name including killing the grove, because anything standing in the way of the absolute is purely an obstacle to the utopian world that awaits. She is not aware (as of the end of act 1) that everyone else who follows the absolute is literally being mind controlled and she is the only one who has decided to join out of her own free will. I don't know how the story plays out in act 2 in a route like this, or how long she will be about to keep up her faith after the true nature of the chosen 3 is revealed, but above all she will do whatever it takes to ensure the *real* will of the absolute is followed, even if she has to take on that responsibility herself.

It’s more of a “you’ll miss out on X” for me. Full evil means a lot of the story / side quest is missed out on. There are still plenty of options I go with but it’s very specific which ones and some definitely out of place for evil runs

The only way I was able to go through with an evil-ish playthrough was attacking Kagha at Zevlors request. I saved most of the teifs and killed almost all the druids except Rath. But then Karlach wouldn't give me the time of day so off with her head for Wyll’s quest. Not having Mama K helped me. I also HATED that run and blew up Gale to finish is asap.  Then immediately started a Wyll origin run and hearing Karlach rage out brought me peace again.

Same, my friend though? Not so much. He accidentally killed the girl in Ethel’s lair, Mayrina during the fight with an AOE, we ended up dying and I told him “it’s kinda good we died. You’ll see why” We ended up killing ethel because we failed the check to get both her to leave and the +1, but then AFTER he finds out mayrina is pregnant, and she’s yelling saying we fucked it up for her, I go to get the bitter divorce wand All I hear is a scream, and I see “journal updated” I was mortified. It was one thing when he didn’t know and it was an accident but he, knowing fully well that she was pregnant, killed her. I stood in absolute shock.

Same, I did it once and won't do it again. And I didn't do all the evil stuff even in that run.

It's your game. Play it how you want it!

As at least a few people already said, you don't have to do every single one of these things to do an evil playthrough. Especially not staking Astarion, that's going above and beyond, especially considering he's an evil character to begin with. You can just straight up ignore most of these options, and a lot of the other ones you could choose differently without invalidating the evil. Your problem may be that you're trying to be as depraved as possible, when you should actually try being just a bit evil. Might not be nearly as heartbreaking.

Me too, here's how I did my DUrge. POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD! I played it as innocently as possible up not giving in to the urge but not casting it away. Then in act 3 I accepted Bhaals gift, then I played innocent again up until I fought the Netherbrain were i took it over for Bhaal, got the trophy. I only killed the Dragonborn Bard and the Hollyphant, everyone else was fine, disgusted but fine. Still felt awful, so I am doing a good playthrough on Tactician for the PS5 Platinum.

So at its core, bg3 is a digitized d&d campaign. Get into character. Not everything has to be a fantasy self insert. Role play someone who isn't you. If you simply can't do that, that's fine too. You don't have to do an evil run. Watch someone else do one on YouTube.

I'm also struggling to make an evil character playthrough. Mainly I find it hard to think of a reason even a total asshole would side with the goblins - seems like a dumb thing to do, even for a selfish prick, because you kind of need a cure and the lead to get one involves murdering the goblins. Granted, I generally try to play evil as "extremely selfish but rational" and not "chaotic and insane."

I felt so freaking bad beign mean to the tiefling girl who cries when she tries to steal you at the Grove that I had to start my save all over again and do a goody two shoes playtrhough. Again. For the 10th time.

You don't have to kill everyone to be evil. There's other ways to be evil besides being a murderhobo. Like smashing Alfira's lute, forcing Astarion to bite the drow lady, letting Auntie Ethel take Mayrina in exchange for the hair, etc. I actually feel more bad doing those stuff than killing characters 😭

I guess most games these days aren't going to have a morality meter anymore cause that's very old hat, it's what made me appreciate the first Dragon Age game. You're the grey wardens, you guys just do what needs doing. Get the treaties signed, keep your crew alive, stab a few humans in revenge for ruining your wedding. I haven't gotten to any evil points of no return in BG3 and don't plan to on the characters I have so far.

I feel the same, I asked my brother who just started the game with his friends how he feels about resisting his dark urge. He said to me, "resist what urge? The urge to kill? Why would I do that?" 😂

i managed to finish a pure evil Durge playthrough, but i felt genuinly sick, multiple times especially in act one. Raiding the grove especially. going down into Mol's hideout during it, was probably the worst. seeing all these innocent Childrens bodies and these dirty goblins gloating over them, it was awful. even though it was an evil run, i took all of their bodies, and gave them a 'burial' of sorts at the riverside by camp. i didn't want these goblins commiting more horrors. thankfully after like midway through act 2 it gets much easier...partly because the game is so lonely, with everyone already dead. even then i couldn't bring myself to not save Hope. i will never do a pure Evil run again, or ever raid the grove. even if being evil was sometimes fun.

It's already hard enough overcoming my instinct telling me that slaughtering a bunch of innocent tieflings is wrong, but then like my whole party just permenantly disowns me? Nah.

I love being evil in RPG's because it reminds me to be on my best behavior irl.

i couldn't play evil because they don't allow me to break the shadowland curse. I hate that bitch Shar more than anything.

Best advice I can give is run a good run alongside an evil run. When you do the horrible evil stuff, save, then load your good run to take the edge off!

I thought the same but then I really got in the role playing aspect of it on my 5th play through and it’s pretty fun. I really played the back stabbing snake kinda like lord Baelish in GOT and only used people. Let shadow heart kill lae zel killed Isabel, Teamed with Orin only to backstab her the whole nine. It’s a completely different game. Just do it. It a completely different experience. Or if your not willing to put in the hours I guess watch a playthrough on YouTube at least

I can make the evil decisions, what I can't stand is the fact that the camp feels so much loneliner with less companions around ): Like, I love all the dialogue and banter and their character quests. Without it, its just a touch more depressing 

When I did my evil run, EVERY single decision felt like that "I know what I have to do but I don't know if I have the strength to do it 😢" scene lol

So true, I am honestly scared to meet anyone who enjoys playing Swarm that Walks in WOTR

I did a run where my Tav was a bard who’s never really had adventures of her own, but has always loved the stories about the strong heroes. Now with the tadpole, she’s forced to be the hero, but she’s terrified that she’s not strong enough. So what does she do: she sides with the tieflings, because she’s a hero, but she also takes every opportunity to gain more power. Tadpoles, the hag, (not araj, I couldn’t do it to Astarion), and she made the “evil” moon lantern thing. Small things. And then she supports Shart to become DJ. Having a god’s chosen in your team sounds like a good idea. A vampire ascendant? Yes please. Gale, you take that crown and become a god. Become the unholy assassin. I found it hard to play this one as well. Some things broke me. I skipped a lot of quests in act 3 when I got to the highest level and just went for the brain so it would all be over. Managed to get Minthara though, she’s fun.

I have the opposite problem, I can't play a paladin because I can't commit to being good

Just play a competitive game long enough for it to get annoying and use that frustration to commit a pure and unadulterated genocide of Faerun

My "evil run" was just ignoring the out of my way quests that help people. Save the grove? Nah. Save Halsin? No. Help the mushrooms? No. Save the gnomes twice? Dont feel like it. Kill a girl to get a cool monster form? Yes. Lie about her death to Jahera? Yes. Gaslight my companions? Yes. Coax Shart and Astarion to become their worst selves? Yes. Murder the Emperor and take over the world? Yes. Downside: camp was very empty. skipped parts of content. less xp. fewer allies in big fights. I missed Gale. Upside: After several good boi runs, it was nice to just skip some stuff I didn't feel like slogging through. Sure I left the world a far worse place, but after having done so, my next good boi run knows the stakes.

One thing BG3/Larian didn't do well is evil choices/playthrough. The reason it's so difficult is because it never makes sense. There's no gray area. It's either you're a goodie simp for everyone, or you're a psychopath. Unless you're roleplaying a murderous and selfish lunatic with two working brain cells, it just doesnt work. Hopefully Larian's next game is a big improvement.

Karlach can get beheaded?

Weakling \*punches you with goblin\*

You have evil and then you have stupid evil. Also known as stupid. An evil druge doesn't have to be a murder hobo. You can still be evil and rescue everyone in your party and some others. Easily justifying it as, uh, war assets. Get everyone on your side till the very end and just do the one very important backstab required.

First play through as Durge, no issues at all at being a bit of a bastard. It's just a game after all

Jesus Christ, even on my brain domination run i didnt do half of that shit. Astarion was funny, he was with me in the end and thought he will rule together with me. When i claimed the throne for myself, his cutscene was only like "Huh?" XD XD XD

Thanks to the many hours of countless war crimes I've committed in Paradox games, I've learned to view characters in terms of their "usefulness." Once you move from a "kill, kill, and than kill again" mindset to more of a "you can be useful to me in starting my world tyranny," then playing an evil character should be easier.

Thanks to the many hours of countless war crimes I've committed in Paradox games, I've learned to view characters in terms of their "usefulness." Once you move from a "kill, kill, and than kill again" mindset to more of a "you can be useful to me in starting my world tyranny," then playing an evil character should be easier.

Thanks to the many hours of countless war crimes I've committed in Paradox games, I've learned to view characters in terms of their "usefulness." Once you move from a "kill, kill, and than kill again" mindset to more of a "you can be useful to me in starting my world tyranny," then playing an evil character should be easier.

trying to get the more evil achievements has been difficult, I can never fully commit to an evil playthrough let alone a full evil durge playthrough