Evil protagonist biography (spoilers)
longjo83
Member Posts: 14
Back when BG1 came out in the 90’s my very first playthough was with a Lawful Good Paladin who only did good deeds. He even gave money to the poor and ran errands for anyone who asked. After I completed the game I realized that I liked Sarevok more than my own character, so I mostly played as evil fighters or evil clerics after that. I branched out to play as necromancers or evil sorcerers, but the good characters don’t suit me very well.
I’m not sure if anyone is interested in this, but I like reading other people’s thoughts on their characters and justifications for their actions. This time I am playing an evil Dragon Disciple protagonist and thought I would share my biography. I think playing as a power-hungry murderer is the most fun because you don’t have to show much restraint. You miss out on some side-quests and have a limited choice of party members, but it is still fun. This is how I explain myself in-game:
Raised in Candlekeep, my Dragon Disciple noticed early on that she had natural magic abilities that she did not need to learn from Gorion’s books. It came easily to her and she finally discovered she was a sorceress who could breathe fire. This made her feel somewhat superior to other mages trained in Candlekeep who spent years scribing “infravision” or “friends” in their spellbooks. Still, there is not much damage one can do in a secluded library so my sorceress did not have an opportunity to rebel. She learned how to behave around others (Lawful) but always felt she deserved more power and respect.
Spoilers for BG1, SoD, and BG2 follow:
Fast-forward to the events in the story, she was upset about Gorion’s death because she saw him as a powerful ally who might introduce her to other powerful people. She felt unprepared for his death but since she was outside of Candlekeep she could finally seek adventure and personal development to get the power and prestige she deserved. Her quest to solve the iron crisis was not for justice, it was just an attempt to learn more about the world and grow in strength. Over time she started to resent the constant assassination attempts and wanted to get revenge against her opponents. She never suspected she was a child of Bhaal until she read Gorion’s letter. She thought she was special because of her dragon lineage and natural talents. Now that she was a Demigod she became a truly evil, power-hungry monster. She was willing to do anything to become a god. When she understood Sarevok’s plans she admired his ambition and wanted to usurp him. “Saving” Baldur’s Gate was just a convenient excuse to steal his knowledge and influence.
One interesting thing happened in Durlag's Tower. The Succubus tells the character she is going to see her in the Nine Hells one day (because she was evil and tricked a human into taking the Succubus' fate trapped in the tower). My character shrugged off the warning.
The Dragonspear campaign was just a chance to follow in Sarevok’s footsteps. She was leading the army that Sarevok might have led against Amn. She didn’t have any loyalty to the cause and only became emotionally invested after her enemies put up too much of a fight. She had a chip on her shoulder from the Hooded Man’s interference, and all of BG2 is spent trying to get revenge against him. She made a lot of mistakes and got captured a few times. She did some good deeds here and there, but only to make money or earn the trust of future victims. Visiting the Nine Hells in SoD was a bit of a wake-up call for my protagonist with the screaming torments of the damned souls all around her, but rather than deterring her from her evil deeds she doubled down and decided that becoming a god is the only way to avoid eternity in the Hells.
I’m starting ToB now and met up with Sarevok. My character wants him to join the party so she can benefit from his knowledge of Bhaal and also to use him as a minion. Since he was the one who pushed her toward her destiny and she admired his plans, she wanted to lord over him that she succeeded where he failed. Soon she hopes to be the last Bhaalspawn and ascend to godhood, but hearing Sarevok tell stories about the afterlife in the Nine Hells scares her because of the Succubus' warning. She resolves to avoid that fate no matter what.
Random thoughts since starting this playthrough:
I tried to kill as many characters as possible that did not impact my reputation too much. Sometimes I caused their deaths indirectly (like luring monsters to fight Flaming Fist guards so I could increase the overall number of deaths in the game, since that was Sarevok’s goal). This was much more fun in SoD where huge armies of people are clashing and you are supposed to help them. I just stood off to the side summoning animals and skeletons to join the fight to increase the destruction. I did this at the Flaming Fist camps by starting a fight, then retreating back to the camp. The soldiers would take the damage and weaken the enemies, then I would join just in time to steal the XP. I justify the ill-gotten XP not as experience learned from fighting, but experience in getting others to fight my battles for me. [Corwin and the F.F. Lieutenant died in one of these staged battles. I thought it might hurt the story in the game, but Corporal Duncan became the stand-in for progressing the missions. Congratulations to Beamdog for having a back-up plan for jerks like me who kill key characters].
I killed all of the good and neutral NPCs that I didn’t want in my party even though you don’t benefit much from killing them. Also, killing Imoen and seeing her again in SoD was kind of funny. I imagine that she had been resurrected somehow and forgot about me killing her. My character had a chuckle about that and waited until the time was right to kill her again in BG2.
For the “cannon party” I originally killed Khalid and Jaheria in Beregost just for fun, but they showed up again in SoD. There I allowed Jaheria to be killed by trolls on the way to Dragonspear but couldn’t find a convenient time to kill Khalid. Minsc and Dynaheir were killed in BG1 and again in SoD. That left me with just Khalid to show up at the final cutscene of SoD. Imoen calls out for “everybody” to come out of the woods, but only Khalid shows up. I felt guilty about that, considering his fate in BG2.
I had another fun thought when I found Sarevok in ToB. I have Dorn in my party wielding a two-handed sword. Now I have added Sarevok and I don’t want to have two guys with two-handed swords. There are too many good shields out there to let them go to waste. I decided to give Sarevok a shield and the Blackrazor sword and it looks pretty awesome. I pretend that the Blackrazor is his old 2-handed sword which he used to lift with one hand, but now he holds a shield because he learned his lesson after I killed him in BG1 with arrows. It goes with his new humble position as my meat-shield.
Maybe after this blood-soaked playthough I will finally go back to being a good guy, but this was a lot of fun. It’s not easy being evil at some points in the game, but I think it adds to the story and lets me use my imagination a little more.
I’m not sure if anyone is interested in this, but I like reading other people’s thoughts on their characters and justifications for their actions. This time I am playing an evil Dragon Disciple protagonist and thought I would share my biography. I think playing as a power-hungry murderer is the most fun because you don’t have to show much restraint. You miss out on some side-quests and have a limited choice of party members, but it is still fun. This is how I explain myself in-game:
Raised in Candlekeep, my Dragon Disciple noticed early on that she had natural magic abilities that she did not need to learn from Gorion’s books. It came easily to her and she finally discovered she was a sorceress who could breathe fire. This made her feel somewhat superior to other mages trained in Candlekeep who spent years scribing “infravision” or “friends” in their spellbooks. Still, there is not much damage one can do in a secluded library so my sorceress did not have an opportunity to rebel. She learned how to behave around others (Lawful) but always felt she deserved more power and respect.
Spoilers for BG1, SoD, and BG2 follow:
Fast-forward to the events in the story, she was upset about Gorion’s death because she saw him as a powerful ally who might introduce her to other powerful people. She felt unprepared for his death but since she was outside of Candlekeep she could finally seek adventure and personal development to get the power and prestige she deserved. Her quest to solve the iron crisis was not for justice, it was just an attempt to learn more about the world and grow in strength. Over time she started to resent the constant assassination attempts and wanted to get revenge against her opponents. She never suspected she was a child of Bhaal until she read Gorion’s letter. She thought she was special because of her dragon lineage and natural talents. Now that she was a Demigod she became a truly evil, power-hungry monster. She was willing to do anything to become a god. When she understood Sarevok’s plans she admired his ambition and wanted to usurp him. “Saving” Baldur’s Gate was just a convenient excuse to steal his knowledge and influence.
One interesting thing happened in Durlag's Tower. The Succubus tells the character she is going to see her in the Nine Hells one day (because she was evil and tricked a human into taking the Succubus' fate trapped in the tower). My character shrugged off the warning.
The Dragonspear campaign was just a chance to follow in Sarevok’s footsteps. She was leading the army that Sarevok might have led against Amn. She didn’t have any loyalty to the cause and only became emotionally invested after her enemies put up too much of a fight. She had a chip on her shoulder from the Hooded Man’s interference, and all of BG2 is spent trying to get revenge against him. She made a lot of mistakes and got captured a few times. She did some good deeds here and there, but only to make money or earn the trust of future victims. Visiting the Nine Hells in SoD was a bit of a wake-up call for my protagonist with the screaming torments of the damned souls all around her, but rather than deterring her from her evil deeds she doubled down and decided that becoming a god is the only way to avoid eternity in the Hells.
I’m starting ToB now and met up with Sarevok. My character wants him to join the party so she can benefit from his knowledge of Bhaal and also to use him as a minion. Since he was the one who pushed her toward her destiny and she admired his plans, she wanted to lord over him that she succeeded where he failed. Soon she hopes to be the last Bhaalspawn and ascend to godhood, but hearing Sarevok tell stories about the afterlife in the Nine Hells scares her because of the Succubus' warning. She resolves to avoid that fate no matter what.
Random thoughts since starting this playthrough:
I tried to kill as many characters as possible that did not impact my reputation too much. Sometimes I caused their deaths indirectly (like luring monsters to fight Flaming Fist guards so I could increase the overall number of deaths in the game, since that was Sarevok’s goal). This was much more fun in SoD where huge armies of people are clashing and you are supposed to help them. I just stood off to the side summoning animals and skeletons to join the fight to increase the destruction. I did this at the Flaming Fist camps by starting a fight, then retreating back to the camp. The soldiers would take the damage and weaken the enemies, then I would join just in time to steal the XP. I justify the ill-gotten XP not as experience learned from fighting, but experience in getting others to fight my battles for me. [Corwin and the F.F. Lieutenant died in one of these staged battles. I thought it might hurt the story in the game, but Corporal Duncan became the stand-in for progressing the missions. Congratulations to Beamdog for having a back-up plan for jerks like me who kill key characters].
I killed all of the good and neutral NPCs that I didn’t want in my party even though you don’t benefit much from killing them. Also, killing Imoen and seeing her again in SoD was kind of funny. I imagine that she had been resurrected somehow and forgot about me killing her. My character had a chuckle about that and waited until the time was right to kill her again in BG2.
For the “cannon party” I originally killed Khalid and Jaheria in Beregost just for fun, but they showed up again in SoD. There I allowed Jaheria to be killed by trolls on the way to Dragonspear but couldn’t find a convenient time to kill Khalid. Minsc and Dynaheir were killed in BG1 and again in SoD. That left me with just Khalid to show up at the final cutscene of SoD. Imoen calls out for “everybody” to come out of the woods, but only Khalid shows up. I felt guilty about that, considering his fate in BG2.
I had another fun thought when I found Sarevok in ToB. I have Dorn in my party wielding a two-handed sword. Now I have added Sarevok and I don’t want to have two guys with two-handed swords. There are too many good shields out there to let them go to waste. I decided to give Sarevok a shield and the Blackrazor sword and it looks pretty awesome. I pretend that the Blackrazor is his old 2-handed sword which he used to lift with one hand, but now he holds a shield because he learned his lesson after I killed him in BG1 with arrows. It goes with his new humble position as my meat-shield.
Maybe after this blood-soaked playthough I will finally go back to being a good guy, but this was a lot of fun. It’s not easy being evil at some points in the game, but I think it adds to the story and lets me use my imagination a little more.
4
Comments
I tried Evil playthrough, but it didn't feel right to me, from role playing standpoint.
Beside some moral reasons, game itself was in general built for a good character. Even when playing evil with very low reputation, you are still greeted as a hero and good person occasionally.
That just doesn't add up for me and as I said, doesn't feel right.
In my opinion, it can be overcome only with quite good imagination, as in OPs case.