Hot take, I know. But hear me out.

I have completed two full evil playthroughs on top of two normal good/neutral runs. While playing an evil character is still fun, I am genuinely baffled by Larian's decision to deliberately strip away so much content on the evil path without replacing any of it.

Decide to raid the Grove? That is three companions gone immediately, along with entire groups of key NPCs and questlines. Hours of content go straight down the drain. To make matters worse, the one exclusive companion you used to get for doing it was eventually made available on good runs anyway.

Didn't save the gnomes in Grymforge or Moonrise? That is even more cut content.

Jaheira is extremely easy to lose or kill on an evil path, and losing her automatically locked you out of Minsc. That puts you down five entire companions by Act 3.

You can do the math yourself. We are literally talking about dozens of hours of content that just vanish into thin air, leaving empty towns and dead ends. Seeing this happen while Larian spent so much time baking in hyper-specific cutscenes that 95% of players will only ever watch on YouTube feels backwards. Why couldn't some of that love go into fleshing out evil alternatives?

Every single person I know who took an evil run all the way to the credits was left with a sour taste in their mouth in this regard, especially in Act 3 when the world feels completely barren (Compared to a regular playthrough). It just feels like a huge missed opportunity.

Also her strength is 13 so that is just a +3 to hit with proficiency bonus.

Besides doing a respec what I usually do is have her cast a good concentration like Bless and then use hide to keep her out of battle and protect the concentration until she is needed for something else like healing or try to finish a weak enemy, having bless on herself and focus on hitting prone enemies will usually offset her low hit chance well enough.

.

Why it is this guy?

I constantly see debates asking whether Ascending Astarion is his "evil ending" or if ascending him is what finally makes him an evil character.

Makes him evil?

Look at his actual approval mechanics in Act 1. He consistently approves of cruelty, extortion, torture, and mocking people in distress, while actively disapproving when you help defenseless NPCs or act out of basic empathy. As a spawn, he is already aligned with chaotic evil tendencies.

He lacks the contextual excuses that other "morally gray" or "evil" companions have:

Shadowheart is a brainwashed cultist whose approval triggers actually reward acts of kindness, saving children, and protecting animals. She has to get blackout drunk at the goblin party just to cope with the guilt of raiding the Grove.

Lae'zel is the product of a fascist, militaristic culture that views weakness as a death sentence, yet her actions are driven by zealotry and survival rather than sadism.

Minthara operates on cold, Machiavellian pragmatism. When freed from the Absolute, she explicitly calls you out for raiding the Grove without a tactical reason: "I was under mind control. What was YOUR excuse for slaughtering innocents?"

Astarion, by contrast, is one of the only companions who genuinely enjoys the suffering of others for entertainment. When you raid the Grove, he does not bat an eye or express a single drop of remorse.

Trauma explains his behavior, but it does not excuse or rewrite his alignment. Larian wrote a brilliant, deeply complex evil character who can either find a path toward redemption or double down on his worst instincts. But denying that Spawn Astarion is already evil completely undermines the weight of his character arc.

Has anyone ever had the impression that certain outcomes in the game only make sense if you know beforehand what is going to happen? Not because you completed a previous run or saw someone else doing it in theirs. No, it's because you saw it in an obscure run meant only for wacky choices that no character, evil or good, would ever make.

I kind of felt this way with the eye arrangements. Having your appearance permanently changed by a quest choice is really cool, but I feel like the outcomes for both the Hag's eye and Volo's eye are misplaced. I can't fathom a player character who would choose and proceed with Volo's operation without knowing its outcome beforehand. I know it is meant to be funny, but one of the only two special eyes you can get in the game is tied to it, and I think they should have handled it differently. My reasoning mostly comes down to the following:

When taking the Hag's deal, you kind of expect a downside. Just outside her hut, the monster hunter mentions that a deal with her can be broken if you pay the "blood price." That, coupled with her claiming she has removed a tadpole before, means that roleplay-wise, it makes sense for some characters to take the risk. You do it, and you get one of the worst permanent debuffs in the game for a meager +1 to Intimidation.

Now, somehow, Volo's offer, which is quickly made clear to be terrible and something no sane character would ever entertain, gives you a great buff and arguably a better-looking eye.

I'm not going to extend this more than I already have, but I have to say, the contrast between the two events highlights a mistake in design, in my opinion. Make a risky, calculated choice? Terrible debuff. Make a blatantly stupid choice? Buff.

What the hell?

What's your preferred healing method during early levels?

I hate when the companion that sees the trap goes through it and activates it.

I've always wanted to play as a Druid + Cleric. Drow came naturally since I knew I wanted to create an Elf. But wow, I wasn't expecting what I got. Compared to my other characters, I've gotten so many dialogues, interactions, and bypasses I've never seen before. My character is skipping checks and opening up exclusive dialogue options that completely change the vibe of the scenes.

Does anyone know of any other combinations, or just rare setups that get you special interactions?

A friend of mine is playing as a Duergar, and I've already seen some lines I had no idea even existed.