There are several evil choices to make in Baldur’s Gate 3, especially when running an evil roleplaying campaign. These actions drastically alter the world around your character, allowing them to witness how events unfold differently. Although some companions may disapprove or leave your party because of these actions, you are not punished beyond the natural narrative outcomes, losing some key subplots but creating memorable evil moments.

[Warning: Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3, Act 1.]

You can make multiple morally questionable decisions in the very first Act to start crafting an evil playthrough. These can vary from helping wicked villains to simply killing innocents – both of which are often intertwined as action and consequence. The benefits of choosing to be evil in Baldur’s Gate 3 revolve around seeing the world from a different and rather unusual perspective, and witnessing how allies react to decisions.

An evil campaign can also alter the ending of Baldur’s Gate 3, changing certain actions to get one of the game's many "evil" endings. This can be the perfect selling point for a second playthrough, especially if your first run was as good as it could be.

15 Give Gith Egg To Lady Esther

Such An Action Leads To Dire Consequences

Retrieving the Gith Egg from the Githyanki Crèche in Act 1 and giving it to Lady Esther may seem like a good deed, but it is quite the opposite. Although the player has no way of knowing the full scope of the outcome, allowing Esther to take the Githyanki Egg in Baldur’s Gate 3 can have dire consequences later in the game.

This decision is posed to look like a charitable action, but it is one that ruins the livelihoods of several different characters – some of whom deserve it, but arguably not to the point that it escalates. Some characters who will be affected by this choice will be people you haven't even met yet, so this is a choice whose scope is revealed over time.

If the party doesn't the Githyanki Crèche in Act 1, it's possible to travel back down the monastery path where it can be found from a connecting point in Act 2.

If this is a player’s second run with the game and they already know the outcome of giving Lady Esther the Githyanki Egg, it would be an especially evil choice to do so once again. Of course, it makes perfect sense if their intention is to lean into the dark side. Another possibility of keeping it evil but somewhat lawful is to deceive Lady Esther and give her an owlbear egg.

14 Break Your Oath (Paladin Only)

Betray Your Principles To Follow A Darker Path

For Paladin players, a surefire way to start an evil campaign is to break your oath as early as you can. Breaking your Oath in Baldur's Gate 3 depends on which Paladin subclass you choose, but any action that does betray your values is unlikely to be a good decision. Killing innocents, helping vile characters, or allowing someone else to do something awful are all evil enough actions to strip you of your oath.

The easiest Paladin subclass to Oathbreak from is the Oath of Devotion, which is broken if you harm anyone considered weaker than you in Act 1.

As soon as you break your oath, the Oathbreaker Knight will find you and give you the option to become an Oathbreaker like himself. Oathbreakers use dark magic and abilities, making it one of the best character options possible for an evil playthrough. Necromancy spells, auras of hatred, and other skills you gain while leveling up your Oathbreaker are the perfect flavor for a deliciously heinous character.

13 Hunt Down Karlach

Get Prizes For Being Bad

It is likely that players will meet Wyll before they get to Karlach and, when they do so, he explains that he is hunting down a hellion that matches Karlach’s description. A very vile thing to do is to take Wyll by his word and hunt down Karlach without giving her so much as a chance. In fact, Karlach may be the kindest of all the companions in the game, regardless if she is romanced or not.

Karlach is, however, heavily opposed to acts of intense evil, so she may not fit an evil playthrough in Baldur’s Gate 3. While you do lose an opportunity to recruit the Barbarian Tiefling into your party, your evil actions later on would likely have caused Karlach to leave your group in the near future.

If players want to ensure they are the most vile at their core during a specific run, they shouldn’t even give Karlach an option and try to kill her on the spot. Players can even side with the Paladins of Tyr and, after defeating her, behead Karlach and bring back her head so that they can receive their reward. Doing so will also grant Wyll a new and rare piece of clothing called the Infernal Robe , so there are good consequences of being utterly vile.

That being said, pleasing Wyll may only be useful for a while in a truly evil playthrough, as he's as much of a do-gooder as Karlach is despite their initial position as enemies. The Infernal Robe could still be useful for other spellcasters, however, so it's not a waste of time to acquire it. Allowing Wyll to involve himself in an evil act adds to the darkness, even if he never finds out just how much Karlach deserved to live.

12 Side With The Goblins & Attack The Emerald Grove

Hunt Down The Peaceful Druids

One of the main and most obvious evil choices to make in Baldur’s Gate 3 is to side with the goblins and its general, Minthara, to attack the Emerald Grove and its residents. The goblins want to take out those who do not follow the Absolute, and choosing to enable this is morally objectionable. The Emerald Grove is full of druids and refugees, with both sides containing innocents who deserve to be protected in both parties.

If players choose this disastrous path of terror, they will gain the disapproval of several of the Origin companions, though they may be able to eventually romance the fearsome Minthara. The character is a cruel and violently racist religious devotee who will stop at nothing to praise the Absolute, including slaughtering innocent refugees, so having her around as a friend and potential lover fits in perfectly with an evil roleplaying campaign.

Despite the lack of emotional depth, Minthara is a great character to romance in such dire circumstances – arguably the best evil lover in all of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Minthara has long been subject to an unfortunate number of bugs in Baldur's Gate 3, but patch 7 cleans up some of the lingering problems that could arise.

Another truly evil approach to Emerald Grove can be found in intentionally turning the druids against the refugees, taking advantage of the tensions in the grove to provoke a massacre. Stealing the Idol of Silvanus found in the grove and getting caught angers the druids against "outsiders" and kicks off the fighting. Any approach to Emerald Grove that ends with the refugees dead will cut off some later subplots, but evil comes with sacrifices.

11 "Accidentally" Get Barcus Killed

Oops, Wrong Lever

One of the many NPCs you can meet in Act 1 in Barcus, a deep gnome who goblins have captured and tied to a moving windmill. You can convince the goblins to leave or defeat them to gain access to Barcus. Now, many parties would choose to save this character to learn more about their plight, but those in an evil campaign can do something diabolical here.

To free Barcus, all you need to do is go to the back of the windmill and pull the lever labeled "Brake." However, there's another lever here marked "Release Brake," which is trying to deceive you to pull it on accident. Pulling the second lever causes the windmill to spin faster, throwing Barcus to his death by flinging him into the upper atmosphere.

While hilarious, this action is undoubtedely evil if done intentionally. Good parties can even do this on accident, mistaking the "Release" part of the lever as the right option to free Barcus. While killing this character does remove subplots seen in later Acts, evil groups will never get tired seeing if a gnome can fly.

10 Help Tieflings Kill Lae'Zel

Gain Trust, But At What Cost?

Near the very beginning of Act 1, you can encounter two tieflings who have captured Lae'Zel, the Githyanki warrior you encountered on the Nautiloid during the prologue. Although you already know this warrior has more information about the tadpole you have in your head, you can choose to kill her alongside the tieflings. Choosing to earn the tieflings' trust isn't evil, but knowingly killing someone who helped you before is.

Ironically enough, choosing to kill Lae'Zel earns you approval with Shadowheart, but don't expect this brief moment of camaraderie to keep the Shar cleric in your party for long.

Killing Lae'Zel will get rid of a prominent character tied to many story events, making it much harder to interact with Githyanki you encounter later. Evil parties may even use this as a jumping off point to eliminate every Githyanki they encounter, making permanent enemies throughout their journey.

9 Kill The Owlbear Cub

Exact Violence On The Innocent

While exploring the outskirts of the Blighted Village, players may stumble upon a small cavern in Baldur’s Gate 3, where they will meet an owlbear mother courageously stepping up to defend her offspring. Players can step away and leave it be or kill it on the spot – this choice really does not matter. The owlbear will be killed anyway, either by the player’s hands or by a goblin incursion.

Nevertheless, choosing to kill it is an absolutely dreadful decision to make, as there is no good reason to take the life of an animal seeking peace and shelter. That being said, your party can earn valuable experience to level up early in Act 1 by taking out the mother owlbear, so it's really a matter of perspective.

What can be even worse than that is to kill the small and helpless owlbear cub in Baldur’s Gate 3 after showing it the insides of its mother. Being cruel and villainous is vital for an evil playthrough, so such an action does have its merit inside a game. This is still certainly one of the worst things a player can do in Act 1, even if it does not have too many narrative consequences.

Alternatively, players can wait for the owlbear cub to be kidnapped by the goblins and then kill it after releasing it in what can be considered the ultimate act of spite.

8 Help Auntie Ethel

Aid A Literal Hag In Her Evil Deeds

While the first encounter with Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3 can be misleading, as she seems to be a gentle old woman, the NPC shows her true colors shortly after. While exploring the area of the nearby bog, they may encounter Mayrina’s brothers confronting her and may even choose to help her, not knowing what she really is.

The fact is, a few more minutes in she shows that she is actually a hag that has kidnapped Mayrina (even if the girl sought her out of her own volition). You can chase down Auntie Ethel by exploring more of the swamps in Act 1, defeating enemies and finding the hag's lair.

Exploring Auntie Ethel's domain shows exactly how cruel she is, proving that she takes pleasure in torturing and misleading those who seek her help, a deduction proven when the party discovers other characters who have been deceived. She twists the requests of characters and needs to her own delight, either killing them or sending them down a spiral of madness.

Auntie Ethel is a character that shows up in Act 1 and Act 3 of the game, so depending on how you interact with her, your evil aid in the hag's schemes could be felt later in your adventure.

Even after battling her, your party gets a chance to spare her life, but this choice is far from noble. Auntie Ethel is hard to keep down regardless, so it's possible to encounter her influence again later in the game once more evil has been allowed to spread. The Auntie Ethel scenario is a good example of how evil can often be more than meets the eye in Baldur's Gate 3, as helping an old woman could seem noble at first glance.

7 Allow Nere To Live

Side With The Slaver

Saving True Soul Nere in the Underdark’s Grymforge can usually be a means to an end. The righteous thing to do in Baldur’s Gate 3 is to take his life and rip his head off to present to Sovereign Spaw, who demands vengeance for the slaughter against his fellow Myconid circle. A great strategy to deal with him is to rescue him from the chamber in which he is stuck, thus saving a few gnomes – though Nere may kill one out of anger.

Alternatively, players can choose to save Nere and then side with him. The moral problem with such a decision is that Nere is terrible. He is a racial supremacist drow that actively participates in slavery circles, allowing this heinous act to continue occurring. Nere is also very cruel and will kill anyone that seems unpleasant to him. In addition to all of that, he is also a religious devotee who believes himself to be some sort of messiah, thus deserving of superior treatment.

A party bent on maximizing bloodshed can always side with Nere before later killing him, which makes it possible to get two tadpoles out of the situation.

Assisting him can be helpful in a later portion of Baldur’s Gate 3, but it is not worth it if players are looking for a righteous character. If they are tending toward an evil playthrough, however, this may be a fantastic choice to help build their character.

6 Help Sovereign Glut Kill Spaw & Become The Myconid Ruler

Overthrow A Harmonious Society In The Name Of Greed

Another evil deed to partake in while in the Underdark is helping Sovereign Glut in a coup against the current Myconid circle and overthrow Sovereign Spaw in Baldur's Gate 3. Spaw is a reasonable and kind character that accepts the presence of the character and generously rewards them for their help in the Grymforge. Glut lost his circle and was accepted by Spaw’s Myconid circle, even if he was still isolated.

Nevertheless, the choice he makes to overcome this loneliness is to kill Spaw and become the leader himself. Additionally, aiding the potential coup is also partaking in something of an imperialistic approach to the game, by interfering with politics that do not pertain to the character. It's easy to see Glut's perspective in the situation, but he's ultimately on a path of revenge that will benefit no one.

It is hard to measure evil, as scrutiny of choices can lead to various interpretations, but helping Glut is also one of the ways a Paladin can break their Oath, so it is certainly an evil choice to make in a Baldur’s Gate 3 campaign focused on villainous roleplay.