Summary
- A recent patch in Baldur's Gate 3 has restored dialogue for an often-overlooked companion choice.
- Taking the evil route in BG3 often means making strange decisions from a narrative and storytelling perspective.
- Despite the improvements to this key character, being evil in Baldur's Gate 3 can still feel unrewarding compared to a morally sound playthrough.
While playing as an "evil" character in Baldur's Gate 3 has technically been an option since the game's launch, taking a less moral approach to the game has struggled to be as appealing as the more popular "good" route. Fortunately, however, a recent patch to the game has introduced more compelling reasons to go on a less morally sound adventure in the form of additional interactions with the game's evil-exclusive companion, the drow paladin Minthara. Making selfish or evil choices in Baldur's Gate 3 can be an entertaining way to play the game, but at a certain point, evil playthroughs lose out on a substantial amount of content.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3.]
Siding with the goblin camp and helping them invade the druid grove, for example, will inevitably lead to Karlach and Wyll permanently leaving the party, Halsin being un-recruitable, and Gale potentially leaving the party as well, although he can be persuaded to stay. In return, an evil playthrough gains access to just one exclusive companion — Baldur's Gate 3's sole recruitable paladin, Minthara, a member of the Cult of the Absolute who, in most playthroughs, will usually serve as a boss fight in the goblin camp.
A BG3 Patch Restored Over 1,500 Lines Of Dialogue
Unfortunately, however, taking on Minthara as a companion and potentially romancing her was poorly implemented in the game's initial release. While her story had interesting aspects to it, she lacked the more comprehensive dialogue and character quests that most other companions had, making an evil playthrough especially light on companion-specific content compared to a "good" playthrough.
Luckily for fans of her character, however, it was revealed that Minthara's lackluster interactions and dialogue stemmed from a bug that locked out a huge amount of her story and over 1,500 lines of dialogue, which have since been restored in a post-launch patch.
Minthara's Restored Dialogue Makes Being Evil A More Compelling Option
Minthara's character, even without the restored lines, had enough interesting facets for her lack of depth to be disappointing. Aside from being Lolth drow — a culture that BG3 otherwise touches on very little, she is also the only Cult of the Absolute member that can be recruited to the party, which lends her character an interesting dimension later in the game. Since recruiting her removes her from the Absolute's control, and any playthrough, regardless of morality, will end up opposing the cult, Minthara is one of the few characters who provides a more in-depth look at what being under the Absolute's thrall is like.
Unfortunately, despite the interesting parts of her character, recruiting Minthara comes at a significant cost. The easiest, most straightforward way to get her in the party is to cooperate with the goblin camp and attack the druids' grove — a choice that can be hard to justify, as it locks off three (potentially four) companions from the party, questlines involving the tiefling refugees, and any associated merchants such as Dammon. Making matters worse, Minthara can't be properly recruited until the remaining party finds her at Moonrise Tower in the second act, which can potentially take hours of gameplay to reach after attacking the grove.
With her bugged dialogue restored, however, her character can shine in less moral playthroughs. Notably, once she's recruited, she has a unique perspective on the Absolute, and her decisions are more tactically-minded and less emotionally driven than those of most other Baldur's Gate 3 companions, which can make playing towards her approval a genuinely different experience. In combination with her unique background as a paladin of House Baenre, Minthara's backstory is interesting to discover and offers a legitimate reason to opt for an evil playthrough other than simply wanting to see more of the game's content.
Evil Playthroughs In Baldur's Gate 3 Still Need More
Despite Minthara's improved character, however, being evil in Baldur's Gate 3 can still often be hard to justify, and can easily feel unrewarding compared to a more morally sound playthrough. Even with the improvements to Minthara's dialogue, for example, she still lacks the story that many of the game's other companions have in the form of character-specific quests — which can be especially frustrating, as recruiting her means locking out several character questlines. Additionally, without knowing the eventual payoff of evil or selfish decisions ahead of time, choices like attacking the grove can be hard to justify from a narrative and gameplay perspective.
Heading into the Act 1 conflict between the druid, the tieflings, and the goblins, it's likely that the party will include every Origin companion, including Karlach, Wyll, and Gale, most of whom will favor siding against the goblins. Of the Act 1 companions, only Astarion takes a clear stance of siding with the goblin camp, with Lae'zel and Shadowheart remaining more or less neutral to the decision. Even after the patch that restored Minthara's dialogue, the option remains incredibly lopsided, and for most, the evil options will end up essentially relegated to subsequent playthroughs where less moral options are chosen out of curiosity rather than for any real benefit.
Late Game Choices Make An Evil Playthrough Less Appealing
Additionally, later into the game, the overarching storylines of both evil and good playthroughs will begin to converge in various ways — by the end of Act 2, for example, the party will end up in opposition to the Absolute and the Chosen regardless of which choices were made up until that point. While this is a reasonable limitation, as Baldur's Gate 3 already has a huge scope, it can make evil playthroughs feel like they're not different enough to warrant losing out on all the benefits that would normally be present otherwise.
While the many choices present in Baldur's Gate 3 can be interesting to play around with, including the option to play a villainous character, many of the game's alternative paths can end up feeling less rewarding than a good playthrough. Minthara's fixed dialogue goes a long way towards making evil a more appealing option, with her character being genuinely interesting to explore and well differentiated from the other companions, but Baldur's Gate 3 would likely need some other changes to put its evil route on even footing with a good one.
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