how much are you missing by not siding with druids? (act 1)

[spike in the punch]

i have been getting so conflicted about this game and the choices i am making. because theoretically i want to just be going along with no thought and doing whatever. but it is my first time and i especially want to get everything i can out of the romance companion storylines (in this case with astarion).

i went from siding with minthara to then back tracking with the druids due to some detail, then backtracking to go for minthara again when it seemed to make it easier to get the approval i needed to astarion. but now im reading that act 2 with the druids side opens up more story related quests for companions?? that you dont get if you sided with minthara??

im confused and annoyed, i dont *want* to go back and forth but the possibility that i will literally miss stuff with characters i am invested in seeing more of is NOT something i want to happen. i get having consequences to your actions but if that involves missing story things then i really dont want to deal with that being the consequence.

i feel dumb trying to decide if i even need to backtrack but man im not the kind of person to replay because i take so long with games, esp with the *same* romance option, so id love to not miss that stuff... please no spoilers regarding astarion of course, but feel free to just let me know if it doesnt matter with him specifically lol.

[Verde]

Don't bother with an Evil playthrough until Larian actually fleshes one out, right now an Evil playthrough has ~70% of a Good playthrough's content, if not less depending on how Evil you want to be.

Anyone trying to tell you that an Evil playthrough is just as fulfilling in terms of content as a Good one is straight up lying to you.

[Pimpin Pippin]

Do a good playthrough first, then an evil one - hopefully it will get some more dev time by then.

[michael199310]

A lot. You lose 3 companions and gain just 1. You lose a bunch of quests in A2. Few merchants, lots of items.

Right now it's not worth doing. You don't get the alternative evil options, they simply lock out stuff instead.

[Sister of Silence]

Evil path is not really viable:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3823047564748794072/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3823047564748060669/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/1/3812913198002191174/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3823047564750294152/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/1/3819669605968425276/

[Greb]

It's not that you miss things, you just don't get things. Spoilers ahead, I guess.

There's basically nothing to be gained by siding with the Goblins in Act I, they completely cease to exist in Act II for the most part. Sure, you end up with Halsin, Karlach and Wyll not wanting anything to do with you, that probably sucks, but it's the fact there's nothing to really gain that makes it worth doing, as I found out.

Act I will end making you feel like you've got the goblins at your back, and they look up to you now as one of their strong leaders, only to have them all vanish into thin air with only like what, 12 or so goblins existing in Act II lol, and none of them doing anything really interesting.

You get a "RDR2 intro" intro into Act II if you enter it from a certain location, where you meet up with some goblins and get brought directly to Moonlight Tower. After you handle Moonlight Tower, even if you play absolutely straight, working with the Absolute cult, the final section of Act II plays out exactly the same as if you had sided with the Druids.

The only real thing you get out of it is Minthara, who ends up basically being a Lae'zel with a bit of a clowny voice and with a whole act worth of missing approval. She's not worth it, in my opinion, unless you're trying to actively romance her anyway, after having already seen the story play out once before.

In fact, just about the only good thing that comes from siding with the Goblins in Act I is the fact Act II lets you save a hyena from Goblin cruelty and then potentially speech check him into running away from the goblins that have been cruel to him...but he runs off into the Shadowlands and probably dies anyway lol.

Even if you actively thwart the Absolute efforts at every single turn in Act I, you can still waltz into the Moonlight Tower and walk around like they're neutral / friendly to you anyway. Even if you helped them and slaughtered the druids, they still test you, they're still pretty awful towards you, etc. From a gameplay and story standpoint barely anything changes.

I guess it's fun for RP. I just wish it didn't kick you in the balls so hard and make it all feel pointless. You really should have the option to replace Khemlor (or whatever his name is) as the third champion and then get involved in some intrigue between the other two bad guys as you each vie for top dog position by outplaying the others...but alas.

It's worth doing at least once I guess, but as far as I'm concerned the superior play is just being "good" in Act I, it just fits better with the story and you get more companions to work with.

But that's just my opinion, of course.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Origineel geplaatst door Morry:

Origineel geplaatst door BeautifulFlowerField:

the approval system doesn't exist, it's like the exhaustion system. they cut the system but not the dialogue and all the UI elements - so you see approve/disapprove and have a screen to look at it but it has zero effect on anything as far as I can tell it's nothing but a gate to romance. Companions will only leave you if you do specific scripted things. I am pretty sure they just cut the entire thing. You don't have to worry for even a second what the approval levels are for any of your party companions. I can't wrap my head around why Larian left the UI elements for 3 systems that are completely cut from the game inside the game, it's confusing a ton of people.

im confused as to what you mean in regards to approval not existing....? like sure if the text that pops up on screen isnt totally accurate for every change in their relationship to you that can make sense. so unless i am very much misreading you, i dont understand what you mean about how there wouldnt be an approval system in place if it directly affected my game's outcome. i dont expect characters to straight up leave me if it gets really bad, but i have had the high or low approval start to affect some interactions with characters around me. but if you are saying that the approval system opens the door to the romances, i get that (i could write a whole other essay about the romance issues)-- but idk if i would say its like, nonexistent. obviously, i *do* to some extent need to worry about my approval, because i *am* doing it for the romance to trigger.

meaning it doesn't affect anything other than the romance, you can't get so much disapproval that you lose them or so much approval that something good happens. it just tells you if romance is possible or not it seems like it affects nothing else.

[spike in the punch]

Origineel geplaatst door Greb:

It's not that you miss things, you just don't get things. Spoilers ahead, I guess.

There's basically nothing to be gained by siding with the Goblins in Act I, they completely cease to exist in Act II for the most part. Sure, you end up with Halsin, Karlach and Wyll not wanting anything to do with you, that probably sucks, but it's the fact there's nothing to really gain that makes it worth doing, as I found out.

[...]

Even if you actively thwart the Absolute efforts at every single turn in Act I, you can still waltz into the Moonlight Tower and walk around like they're neutral / friendly to you anyway. Even if you helped them and slaughtered the druids, they still test you, they're still pretty awful towards you, etc. From a gameplay and story standpoint barely anything changes.

[...]

It's worth doing at least once I guess, but as far as I'm concerned the superior play is just being "good" in Act I, it just fits better with the story and you get more companions to work with.

ok yeah so, my initial assumptions seemed to be that-- not that you necessarily miss out on *existing* act 1 companions quests but rather the ones you would have gained if you didnt do evil? which i hadnt realized at all either, was sad to see it happened when i approached ones like Karlach, or thought i could still secretly rescue halsin or something but it makes sense lol.

but i guess that was my confusion when i played.... i had no clue i did the "evil" thing exactly. like i didnt realize that there was a strict good or evil route here, because even the druid stuff still felt wrong to do lol in some ways? i didnt like the druid's attitude's but also accidentally failed to save the teiflings because i attacked the druids, so, thats how that went for me on my first blind run... thought i was still justified haha

hearing yall say i went the evil route was starting to confuse me tbh! i heard people talk about evil choices not being as interesting right now and i thought that was more in reference to the evil things you did with that special Origin, because i started a profile seperate with that oirigin and the evil choices were blatant. thought the "evil" route was about that only.

i can say i wasnt super pleased with the minthara interaction when i did get it first try anyways, and wasnt thrilled to backtrack and do it once more just hoping id get the approval i needed for astarion, since it wasnt gonna add up with the druid route. but i *did* go straight to the end of act 1 quest without exploring the a lot of the act 1 map like... at all. so i dont mind the potential backtracking for a good route, especially because i realize i probably wont miss out on the approval needed for the end of the druid quest line if i make sure i do other ♥♥♥♥ before hand i guess.