I really dislike that in the scene where you free Halsin, there are two goblin children that you have to fight… Not a single option to scare them off or something like that. Evil route: you’re fine with children throwing rocks at a wild animal. Good route: you’re fine with murdering children in cold blood. What the hell is the logic here? That goblins are an “evil race” and don’t count as people? Fuck off.
I also teleported my ranged Tav to the cage door and wasted several turns on keeping it closed when the goblin kept opening it, we ended up with all the goblins dead or incapacitated and the worgs safely away behind the closed door… And then I had to open the door and kill them anyway because the combat refused to end.
@renee-niles replied to your post “I really dislike that in the scene where you free…”:
I mean, you DON’T have to kill them. They run away. The worst thing that happens if they escape is they summon three more low HP goblins as backup. You truly can just ignore them and still rescue Halsin.
No way?! The same encounter, as I complained, establishes that the combat doesn’t end until all hostiles are dead! Are the kids removed from the list of enemies when they escape?
Either way, this does not resolve my issue because the roleplaying decision is left to the player’s imagination instead of being present in the game itself. This conflict has a beginning, but no middle or end. There’s a cutscene introducing the situation in which some of the player’s enemies are children, but there is no dialogue choice that would allow the player to clearly decide what to do, and there is no way to react to the outcome.
Did you intentionally let children escape and call for aid, because you value their lives more than your safety? Did you try to stop them but fail, and if so, do you regret it? Did you intentionally knock them out instead of doing lethal damage? Did you kill them in cold blood? Did you strike them down without meaning to in the heat of the battle? Did you watch them get torn to shreds by a wild bear, only for him to transform into the famous benevolent leader who’s your best hope for salvation, and make pleasant conversation as if nothing happened? All of these are very different situations. Larian for some reason sets up this disturbing premise for a scene, completely different from most RPGs I’ve played (that either make children unkillable, or don’t have children at all), and then doesn’t even bother to capitalize on the dramatic potential.

















