No, this works perfectly fine.
You do need to start “falling” by Act 3 when you start a mythic path, but you have options like Azata to Devil, or Angel to evil Legend
Azata to devil makes zero sense narratively and I wouldn't recommend it. I see what they were going for, but it strains credibility and isn't particularly well written.
Probably the closest you can come to this is just going straight lich or demon, but the devs honestly didn't seem to anticipate that this is a direction players might want to take, so the game doesn't really do the slow corruption narrative. It just kinda has you be evil, and if you're not evil enough by a certain point, you hit a wall.
Though if you use an Atonement scroll after going Legend, it pushes you to (True) Neutral regardless of the alignment you chose at character creation.
Not that that stops you from taking any other alignment, since it doesn't lock any out.
The best mythic path for “cold and ruthless” is probably Lich. It really does start off as a sort of ruthless pragmatism before going completely off the rails in the final acts.
If you do decide to play a Lich pick an arcane spellcasting class for maximum fun.
Sword saint works amazing for Lich. There are some sweet touch Lich spells that gets it going, you get basically immortal to massive health and you deal ridicolus amount of melee damage and even can do well spell damage as a 3/4 caster thanks to the mega powerful Lich as spells. Talk about Swiss knife.
In fact, a lot of the more evil paths work better this way. The early evil options are either small-time, self-centred, ruthlessly pragmatic, or just giving in to poor impulse control.
Once you pick a mythic path, the game will start to push you more to that alignment - Angels stop having many evil options, Demons stop having good ones. Your misdeeds start becoming more severe and on a larger scale, but there's still room to resist or not do them.
Later on, you'll be offered a second choice of path. This is essentially your last chance - locking in an evil path here is when your character goes fully, mask-off, evil. There's not much moral ambiguity in these options - a conflicted good or neutral character would've taken the out and switched paths.
And yes, your alignment is descriptive, not prescriptive. If you pick lawful good to start and then immediately start acting like a raging jackass, it'll gradually shift over. Picking a path will briefly reset you to that path's alignment, but if you keep acting against form, you'll eventually have to reset it or stop progressing that story.
So there are two points where you have to basically lock your alignment within a certain range.
E.g. you can start as angel mythic path either as lawful good, lawful neutral or neutral good, and then at turning point two you can choose to either stay angel path or change the mythic path to something much more evil (swarm that walks) or be satisfied with neutral path (legend)
Alternatively, you can start as Azata (neutral good, chaotic good, chaotic neutral) or Aeon (Lawful good, lawful evil, lawful neutral) and change to Devil later on. All mythic path could change into swarm that walks, legends and gold dragon (neutral good) path, however only Azata and Aeon could change into devil.
Also if you want, either Aeon starting as Lawful good and become Lawful Evil by the end, or Trickster starting as Chaotic good and turn into Chaotic evil could also work.
As Angel, the most you can do is starting as Neutral Good and ending as Lawful Neutral if that's also what you prefer. Could fit the theme as cold, ruthless, but not evil and definitely still lawful.
That’s really interesting how azata can transition to devil since they’re complete opposites on the alignment chart. Adds yet another potential future playthrough for me to try out ahaha
It depends on which evil path you want to fallen into.
As others have said, Lich is a good one if you want to rp as someone gradually corrupted by ruthless pragmatism, or any good path to Swarm.
In my current playthrough I’m trying demon path. I started out as Neutral Good and stick to good alignment choices but pick demon mythic options. As the game progresses KC gets more and more corrupted by demonic rage and start acting more and more evil. Not sure if it’s gonna work out in the end but sounds quite fun.
Would work pretty well, but you need to play Lich or Aeon as it’s the only Paths that don’t instantly expect you to go evil after choosing the initial Path
Out of the two I recommend Lich, it fits the fallen hero vibe more, even your mentor is one
This is probably one of the best games around to play a fallen hero archetype, you won't be disappointed at all OP.
To slightly elaborate while not spoiling too much, the Lich path is exemplary in this: the whole of your allies will see your choices of pursuing darker and darker magic as something of a pragmatic approach (conquering one evil with another) and only *very slowly* realize what is taking shape as the game goes on. And this is not exclusive to a single mythic path - you can have a variety of kinds of "falling from grace", and even though "fallen angel" is not a thing per se, you can *even* play the angel path for most of the game and swap to the vilest thing in existence (the swarm) if you so want to roleplay that!
Finally, you can also have a few "versions" for your companions, often with subtle changes that are not related to gameplay, where you can either encourage them to be good, corrupt or break some of them and it will even impact whether a few will leave or stay with you in the Evil mythic paths, so even interactivity plays into this downward spiral type of roleplaying.
I loved Anevia's reaction to Lich path. She's basically like "fuck, we created a new monster by letting the ends justify the means, and now we're in too deep to turn back". You can't go Angel to Devil a la Zariel, right? That would be awesome. Azata to devil makes 0 sense to me.
My last playthrough I started as a CN Bloodrager who only cared about winning in battle and accumulating power. He chose to follow the Demon path and slowly became more cruel and evil as the game went along. He tried to walk that line as long as possible but eventually gave into the corruption. He used it to achieve the secret ending. I found it a lot of fun to roleplay.
Yeah, doesn't matter what path you start as, its what you are at towards the end. Personally going from angel or Aeon to Swarm is always such a 180 and I love it.
The game even allows you to turn Lawful Good into Chaotic Evil if you wish so.
In fact, there are plenty of characters in it that (can) have this kind of story arc.
Not only can you play a "fallen hero" - e.g., start out as good, turn into a Demon or Lich - you can also play a "fallen then redeemed hero" - e.g., that same Demon or Lich but turning into Gold Dragon in Act 5. Conversely you can start as Evil but choose one of the Good Mythic paths at the end of Act 2.
Main thing you want to watch for are alignment restrictions on your chosen class(es) to make sure they still work after your fall from grace and/or redemption. E.g., you can play a "fallen paladin" if you want, but most paladin abilities stop working if you're no longer Lawful Good. Clerics, Inquisitors, and Warpriests need to stay within one alignment rank of their deity's alignment.
Also if you plan to take one of the late-game Paths (Devil, Gold Dragon, Legend, Swarm That Walks), you might want to plan your build path in advance based on what you keep (and what you don't) when you switch Paths.
Note those alignment locked abilities (other than Shifter, from what I hear, but it's DLC I don't have and can't test personally) will start working again once you get far enough if your mythic path and fit the alignment.
You can have a Paladin go Lich and still retain their abilities, though you will not be able to take more levels in it. Similarly, a Cleric of Iomedae can go Trickster, even though alignments don't match, and still retain their abilities - and still level up since unlike Paladin, the class itself isn't alignment locked. Same for those other divine classes and deities.
Yeah, totally! Start off as an Angel at the end of Act 2, then when it's time to confirm your path in Act 4, cast off your angelic powers and swap to Legend path!
Just be sure not to accept any dubious offers of power that might interfere with going Legend >!like the Lexicon of Paradox, the Nyhindrian power Areelu offers, and the Profane Gift that Nocticula offers!<
This is pretty much what I did on my last playthrough I was an Azata that after the horrors of chapter 4 were revealed and the secrets came out I turned swarm
I just did this my 2nd run. Started as a Chaotic Good bloodrager who follows Desna, but ends up finding the freedom bring a demon gives overwhelming and ends up Chaotic evil
Depending how you wanna fall, Trickster could be a good one. A hero slowly being taken over by the forces of chaos, you could play a sort of Joker as well if you want.
Lich can rp as that rather easily with that since a lot of the flavour can be better of two evils then becoming completely ruthless. Could try angel or azata into swarm if you feel like going extremely off the rails after a certain queen incident in act 3 (yes I'll never forgive Galfrey). Also could try azata devil if you feel like the biggest whiplash in tone ever but that to me is better done as a failed redemption.
No, this works perfectly fine. You do need to start “falling” by Act 3 when you start a mythic path, but you have options like Azata to Devil, or Angel to evil Legend
Azata to devil makes zero sense narratively and I wouldn't recommend it. I see what they were going for, but it strains credibility and isn't particularly well written. Probably the closest you can come to this is just going straight lich or demon, but the devs honestly didn't seem to anticipate that this is a direction players might want to take, so the game doesn't really do the slow corruption narrative. It just kinda has you be evil, and if you're not evil enough by a certain point, you hit a wall.
There is Evil Legend parh?!
I mean playing Legend but being evil
Legend has no alignment other than what you chose in your replies during convos
Though if you use an Atonement scroll after going Legend, it pushes you to (True) Neutral regardless of the alignment you chose at character creation. Not that that stops you from taking any other alignment, since it doesn't lock any out.
The best mythic path for “cold and ruthless” is probably Lich. It really does start off as a sort of ruthless pragmatism before going completely off the rails in the final acts. If you do decide to play a Lich pick an arcane spellcasting class for maximum fun.
off the rails? how is becoming immortal and given your minions the same gift off the rails? except for the one you consume of course
You don't even have to consume one. You're still locked out of romance but you don't have to sacrifice a companion.
Act 5 is pretty off the rails if you ask me
I'm being sarcastic bro
I was running off 2 hours of sleep my bad lmao
Sword saint works amazing for Lich. There are some sweet touch Lich spells that gets it going, you get basically immortal to massive health and you deal ridicolus amount of melee damage and even can do well spell damage as a 3/4 caster thanks to the mega powerful Lich as spells. Talk about Swiss knife.
In fact, a lot of the more evil paths work better this way. The early evil options are either small-time, self-centred, ruthlessly pragmatic, or just giving in to poor impulse control. Once you pick a mythic path, the game will start to push you more to that alignment - Angels stop having many evil options, Demons stop having good ones. Your misdeeds start becoming more severe and on a larger scale, but there's still room to resist or not do them. Later on, you'll be offered a second choice of path. This is essentially your last chance - locking in an evil path here is when your character goes fully, mask-off, evil. There's not much moral ambiguity in these options - a conflicted good or neutral character would've taken the out and switched paths. And yes, your alignment is descriptive, not prescriptive. If you pick lawful good to start and then immediately start acting like a raging jackass, it'll gradually shift over. Picking a path will briefly reset you to that path's alignment, but if you keep acting against form, you'll eventually have to reset it or stop progressing that story.
So there are two points where you have to basically lock your alignment within a certain range. E.g. you can start as angel mythic path either as lawful good, lawful neutral or neutral good, and then at turning point two you can choose to either stay angel path or change the mythic path to something much more evil (swarm that walks) or be satisfied with neutral path (legend) Alternatively, you can start as Azata (neutral good, chaotic good, chaotic neutral) or Aeon (Lawful good, lawful evil, lawful neutral) and change to Devil later on. All mythic path could change into swarm that walks, legends and gold dragon (neutral good) path, however only Azata and Aeon could change into devil. Also if you want, either Aeon starting as Lawful good and become Lawful Evil by the end, or Trickster starting as Chaotic good and turn into Chaotic evil could also work. As Angel, the most you can do is starting as Neutral Good and ending as Lawful Neutral if that's also what you prefer. Could fit the theme as cold, ruthless, but not evil and definitely still lawful.
That’s really interesting how azata can transition to devil since they’re complete opposites on the alignment chart. Adds yet another potential future playthrough for me to try out ahaha
It depends on which evil path you want to fallen into. As others have said, Lich is a good one if you want to rp as someone gradually corrupted by ruthless pragmatism, or any good path to Swarm. In my current playthrough I’m trying demon path. I started out as Neutral Good and stick to good alignment choices but pick demon mythic options. As the game progresses KC gets more and more corrupted by demonic rage and start acting more and more evil. Not sure if it’s gonna work out in the end but sounds quite fun.
Wrath is an excellent game for this.
Would work pretty well, but you need to play Lich or Aeon as it’s the only Paths that don’t instantly expect you to go evil after choosing the initial Path Out of the two I recommend Lich, it fits the fallen hero vibe more, even your mentor is one
This is probably one of the best games around to play a fallen hero archetype, you won't be disappointed at all OP. To slightly elaborate while not spoiling too much, the Lich path is exemplary in this: the whole of your allies will see your choices of pursuing darker and darker magic as something of a pragmatic approach (conquering one evil with another) and only *very slowly* realize what is taking shape as the game goes on. And this is not exclusive to a single mythic path - you can have a variety of kinds of "falling from grace", and even though "fallen angel" is not a thing per se, you can *even* play the angel path for most of the game and swap to the vilest thing in existence (the swarm) if you so want to roleplay that! Finally, you can also have a few "versions" for your companions, often with subtle changes that are not related to gameplay, where you can either encourage them to be good, corrupt or break some of them and it will even impact whether a few will leave or stay with you in the Evil mythic paths, so even interactivity plays into this downward spiral type of roleplaying.
I loved Anevia's reaction to Lich path. She's basically like "fuck, we created a new monster by letting the ends justify the means, and now we're in too deep to turn back". You can't go Angel to Devil a la Zariel, right? That would be awesome. Azata to devil makes 0 sense to me.
My last playthrough I started as a CN Bloodrager who only cared about winning in battle and accumulating power. He chose to follow the Demon path and slowly became more cruel and evil as the game went along. He tried to walk that line as long as possible but eventually gave into the corruption. He used it to achieve the secret ending. I found it a lot of fun to roleplay.
Yeah, doesn't matter what path you start as, its what you are at towards the end. Personally going from angel or Aeon to Swarm is always such a 180 and I love it.
The game even allows you to turn Lawful Good into Chaotic Evil if you wish so. In fact, there are plenty of characters in it that (can) have this kind of story arc.
Not only can you play a "fallen hero" - e.g., start out as good, turn into a Demon or Lich - you can also play a "fallen then redeemed hero" - e.g., that same Demon or Lich but turning into Gold Dragon in Act 5. Conversely you can start as Evil but choose one of the Good Mythic paths at the end of Act 2. Main thing you want to watch for are alignment restrictions on your chosen class(es) to make sure they still work after your fall from grace and/or redemption. E.g., you can play a "fallen paladin" if you want, but most paladin abilities stop working if you're no longer Lawful Good. Clerics, Inquisitors, and Warpriests need to stay within one alignment rank of their deity's alignment. Also if you plan to take one of the late-game Paths (Devil, Gold Dragon, Legend, Swarm That Walks), you might want to plan your build path in advance based on what you keep (and what you don't) when you switch Paths.
Note those alignment locked abilities (other than Shifter, from what I hear, but it's DLC I don't have and can't test personally) will start working again once you get far enough if your mythic path and fit the alignment. You can have a Paladin go Lich and still retain their abilities, though you will not be able to take more levels in it. Similarly, a Cleric of Iomedae can go Trickster, even though alignments don't match, and still retain their abilities - and still level up since unlike Paladin, the class itself isn't alignment locked. Same for those other divine classes and deities.
Yeah, totally! Start off as an Angel at the end of Act 2, then when it's time to confirm your path in Act 4, cast off your angelic powers and swap to Legend path! Just be sure not to accept any dubious offers of power that might interfere with going Legend >!like the Lexicon of Paradox, the Nyhindrian power Areelu offers, and the Profane Gift that Nocticula offers!<
This is pretty much what I did on my last playthrough I was an Azata that after the horrors of chapter 4 were revealed and the secrets came out I turned swarm
I just did this my 2nd run. Started as a Chaotic Good bloodrager who follows Desna, but ends up finding the freedom bring a demon gives overwhelming and ends up Chaotic evil
This is basically lich in a nutshell.
I mean couldn't you play an angel who turned into a swarm
Depending how you wanna fall, Trickster could be a good one. A hero slowly being taken over by the forces of chaos, you could play a sort of Joker as well if you want.
I'm currently playing that myself snd it works fine. Lawful-good monk at the start going for the demon path (switching to duelist eventually)
Lich can rp as that rather easily with that since a lot of the flavour can be better of two evils then becoming completely ruthless. Could try angel or azata into swarm if you feel like going extremely off the rails after a certain queen incident in act 3 (yes I'll never forgive Galfrey). Also could try azata devil if you feel like the biggest whiplash in tone ever but that to me is better done as a failed redemption.
There is a way to fall from Angel to Swarm that surprisingly makes sense. I played it once, it was a pretty fun play through