Alignment options or restrictions in conversation can lead to a lot of these due to a lack of consistency and the sometimes arbitrary nature of what alignment matches what decision.
As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Mediating between the mites and the kobolds in Chapter One requires a Neutral alignment for some reason, even though there's a strong argument to be made
that finding a peaceful solution should be a Good option (especially since it's obvious from the start that Chaotic Evil Tartuccio is manipulating them into war). Both races default to Lawful Evil in the lore, so if you're playing a "corner" alignment (e.g. paladins) you're left with making a choice based on little more than personal preference for one species or the other, or kill everyone.- The game notably seems to treat the Neutral alignment as one uniquely suited to resolving conflicts, as there are other examples of it used to mediate between people or play the role of a neutral peacekeeper. Adding to this, the reason the Mites and Kobolds are at war is because of the matters involving the player, pitax, and the barony, and so negotiating peace is restoring a status quo. Arguably, the issue is more that there is a lack of a compelling reason to side with one or the other compared to similar, later choices (Such as the Neutral-exclusive option to ally with both the Aldori and Surtova.)
- When dealing with Sartayne, Nazrielle's apprentice, you have to decide what to do with a criminal who knowingly created and sold cursed items to the people of your Barony in a revenge-driven plot to ruin the reputation of a weaponsmith and merchant who put his father out of business. While said merchant is a cutthroat businessman, blatant sadist, colossal Jerkass, and strongly implied to be
Lawful Evil, there's no evidence they've ever actually done anything wrong (or illegal at least) and they're never anything other than honest and fair with you. Compare this to the clearly Chaotic Evil criminal, who not only admitted to several dangerous crimes against people who had nothing to do with his target (one of which you had to clean up and may have resulted in an innocent man's death) but bragged about them to your face. Of the four options you're given, nearly all of them are given the wrong alignment by the game's own standards:- The first option is to let this Obviously Evil vengeance-seeker go because it's none of your business. This is classed as Chaotic Neutral and is the only one that's more or less consistent with other dialogue options. Selecting this one causes you to fail the quest, so you can never get Nazrielle's Masterpiece.
- The second option is to arrest him for his crimes. This is, for some reason, counted as Lawful Evil but is more in line with Lawful Neutral options from earlier quests. With only a minor change in wording this could even be a Lawful Good option.
- The third option is to break your agreement with the merchant and hire the criminal instead. This is counted as Neutral Evil but is more Chaotic Evil, as you're breaking a legal agreement (Chaotic) to hire a known criminal (Evil). This also causes you to fail the quest.
- The final option is to execute him. This is counted as Chaotic Evil, but keeping in mind that he is a dangerous criminal who just admitted to his crimes and showed no remorse at all executing him is more in line with Lawful Good choices from earlier in the game, which encourage you to kill bandits and other criminals without discussion (which is itself wrong: Lawful Good is a focus on justice, not merely law).
- Why isn't it possible to talk Kesten out of a suicidal charge in Chapter 3 without being Lawfully-aligned? Not only does Kesten realize he's being stupid after literally one sentence if you are Lawful, but Neutral and Chaotic characters should have absolutely no compunction taking advantage of another character's Lawful tendencies for their own ends.
- During the quest to get the two-handed Masterpiece weapon the artisan asks you to kill the person who murdered their family. This 'murderer' is not hostile to you and if you approach them does not attack, but instead greets you in a friendly way, but a wary one. If you attack them immediately there's no alignment impact, but if you engage them in conversation then attacking them becomes a Chaotic Evil act because now you know who they are. The headscratcher is why it's any less Chaotic Evil to kill a random non-hostile stranger on the dubious word of one guy for your own personal gain than it is to kill them once you know who they are.
- When you first approach Bartholomew Delgado you find he has a troll slave imprisoned in a cage that he's been using as a lab rat for his experiments. Making him free this slave is considered Chaotic Good since the troll was legally bought. But if you've already met Octavia and Regongar in the previous act, you'd know that slavery is illegal in the Stolen Lands, meaning freeing the troll should be a Lawful Good action. Even more oddly, if Octavia is with you she never brings this up in her objection despite her being the one to tell you about slavery's illegality.
- This one can be explained (though how well depends on your personal sensibilities); slavery of persons is highly illegal. But... trolls aren't considered people by anyone writing the laws. Therefore, Bartholomew Delgado's slavery of the troll is perfectly legal. This means that, because it's "within the law", Valerie will get upset with you and you'll lose trust with her if she's in the party when you elect to free or Mercy Kill the troll.
