Light sided Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent

vs

Dark sided Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper, and Smuggler.

While doing some research I came across the following comment:

"Nobody really notices you're dark side as a Jedi, while a lightside Sith pretty much every NPC talks about how strange and different from 'other' Sith you are."

Without spoiling anything, could you tell me which of these classes work and which do not work? If I go with an unorthodox alignment, I want stories to be impacted by that choice and NPCs to recognize my deed and react to my choices. It also has to be interesting/or the devs must have put some efforts to make the unorthodox alignmnet playable.

I can't speak for the other classes, but I would say Lightside Sith Warrior is very interesting in Chapter 1. As a Lightside Sith you get many opportunities to toy with the emotions of your opponents rather than killing them outright. Chapter 1 also involves a lot of interaction with Jedi. These Jedi can often detect your alignment, and they are very surprised when you don't act like a typical Sith. The storyline calls into question whether or not you are weakening yourself by not fully embracing the Dark Side, and your Lightside/Darkside choices have a major impact on the fate of one of your companions.

Unfortunately, after Chapter 1 all of your Lightside/Darkside choices seem to stop having an impact on the story. You stop getting options to spare people, and instead the Lightside choice boils down to choosing to talk to your enemies a bit before inevitably killing them.

Lightside Bounty Hunter works really well. It's less about being a Hired Killer and more about being an Honorable Professional.

I loved that part when you spare the security officer, you say ''Why would I do that? Do I look like a maniac?''.

Of course you say this while putting away the blaster covered in his friends blood.

Agent works with either affiliation and if fact I found it hard to get past neutral until mid way through arc 2. The decisions you have to make as an agent are pretty tough.

Light side Warrior is nice actually. Some really interesting extra conversation every now and then.

It's better to go mostly netural with a slight lean towards one side such as light 1 or dark 1. Here are my experiences:

Jedi knight feels very anakinish. Not in full control of emotions though wants to do the right thing, protect people, defeat enemies of the jedi/republic. Quick to enter a fight, forms emotional attachments with companions but overall a good guy. That is light 1 while dark 1 would be killing imperials/sith despite there being other options and agreeing with republic military ideas when it comes to war and weapons as opposed to the jedi council's position. Playing full dark doesn't sit well with me since no one ever calls you out on it until the end and even then they should have outright kicked you out of the order.

Sith Warrior- Honorable, pro empire over sith power. Not a mindless brute who kills everything and anything. If played like a light 1 the sith warrior takes advantage of defeated foes by turning them into assets as opposed to body bags and rewards helpful allies. Not a complete slave to your master. Dark 1 can play more like an honor-bound samurai, still have a code and pro empire but anyone who disobeys you or your master get taken care of.

Smuggler- Playing darkside or lightside full really works. Lightside is a wandering hero cowboy and darkside is a greedy deceitful criminal. Playing a smuggler who wants to make lots of credits and understands the republic's cause even if not fully patriotic i've found the most fun to play it which combines dark and light.

I generally agree with the last post. Going "full lightside" or "full darkside" is almost always irrational to an extent. I've found most classes play better if you hover between Darkside 1-2 or Lightside 1-2 depending on your characters leaning.

For example, when I initially made my Sith Inquisitor I wanted to make an "evil" Sith that was trying to not only gain personal power but was also loyal to the Empire and wanted to see the Republic/Jedi suffer. Well, by not selected every darkside option I only ended up being Darkside 2 by the time the story ended. Some of the darkside options available were blatantly anti-Empire or even self destructive. While some of the Lightside options actually helped the Empire, which would help achieve my character's ultimate goal. (Republic/Jedi suffer)

I generally agree with the last post. Going "full lightside" or "full darkside" is almost always irrational to an extent. I've found most classes play better if you hover between Darkside 1-2 or Lightside 1-2depending on your characters leaning.

 

For example, when I initially made my Sith Inquisitor I wanted to make an "evil" Sith that was trying to not only gain personal power but was also loyal to the Empire and wanted to see the Republic/Jedi suffer. Well, by not selected every darkside option I only ended up being Darkside 2 by the time the story ended. Some of the darkside options available were blatantly anti-Empire or even self destructive. While some of the Lightside options actually helped the Empire, which would help achieve my character's ultimate goal. (Republic/Jedi suffer)

Agreed. Personally, though, I find that many of my characters end up quite a bit more LS than that (if so inclined). A fully-DS character is a lot more irrational, indeed self-destructive than a fully-LS character. And I found playing the SI and the JC almost fully LS made for very compelling characters.

Dark Smuggler works extremely well for me. I am playing my DS Scoundrel as an AU Zenith, after his BalRes cell is crushed by the Empire and he goes on the run. No quarter to the Imperials and traitors. The ends always justify the means. Sniffling out every practical advantage for the Pub, no matter ethical or not. LS solutions only when Pub benefits or to reward resilience, stubbornness and determination to fight for the cause. Practical and efficient, so if credits is what he needs, credits he’ll get.

Dark Jedi doesn’t really work for me, but Gray makes a lot of sense for a Consular. Not sure about the Knight.

From what I have seen of a Trooper, DS Trooper is perfectly viable, in the same ‘ends justify the means’ & following the orders blindly way as the Smuggler. I enjoy an LS Trooper more though with limited DS choices that are unlawful rather than evil per se (i.e. kill a horrible, horrible man off without a trial).

Did not play LS Sith far enough to judge. BH is fine as LS, particularly as a male, since Mako comes early on. Tried to stay LS on the IA, but hate everyone so much in the story, that DS is far more appealing. But I know it is perfectly viable.

DS Knight is deliciously psychopathic. It always amuses me that the vilest option I've ever seen in the game was on a Jedi character.

As I mentioned before, LS Inquisitors are amazing, especially as a male character since you get many more opportunities to flesh out your character's philosophy when talking to Ashara (and, to a lesser degree, Thanaton). I don't think a purely LS Warrior works all that well, same thing about the pure DS Warrior. Completely LS Imperial Agent comes across as a bit incompetent.

Light Side inquisitors are amazing. The story's personal feel and philosophical tone really call attention to it several times.

yeah. i'm doing lightside inquisitor right now, and i agree. it seems to jive nicely as you go along. it's not like my inquisitor is truly "light side" right now she's neutral, i mean some choices you just feel stupid for taking the lightside option, but there are enough light side choices to not go evil. And it always seems to have some sort of some effect on the story to a point.

Everyone's gonna tell you lightside Sith Warrior is the best thing since sliced bread, and everyone's gonna be wrong.

A few of the lightside choices are intelligent and aid you and/or the Empire, but for the most part, it's random kindness to your enemies that makes no sense, and takes foolish and unnecessary risks. Furthermore, you basically take the biggest bad*ss of this game and turn him/her into the ultimate pansy.

I am playing a light side warrior after having done dark side the first run through. I find it pretty interesting and surprised at how much dialogue and story elements have changed and how people's lives I have spared have ended up showing up later on for various reasons. I don't always pick the wimpy choices which tend to be light side (usually there are also neutral options) as yes some of them do take my bad-assery down a notch, but overall it turns LS and its pretty darn good.

To me, the Warrior is a bit of a special case as neither my DS nor my LS warrior ever went fully towards one side. Both of them were, at the core of their being, honourable and dutiful. Sole difference is that one of them defaulted to bloodshed when all else was equal, the other to mercy.

Jedi knight feels very anakinish. Not in full control of emotions though wants to do the right thing, protect people, defeat enemies of the jedi/republic. Quick to enter a fight, forms emotional attachments with companions but overall a good guy. That is light 1 while dark 1 would be killing imperials/sith despite there being other options and agreeing with republic military ideas when it comes to war and weapons as opposed to the jedi council's position. Playing full dark doesn't sit well with me since no one ever calls you out on it until the end and even then they should have outright kicked you out of the order.

Emphasis mine, because although I feel this is mostly correct, it also colors the beginning part about 'wanting to do the right thing'.

Commenter is right that no one ever really calls you out for it until the end, and I've had a number of friends who did the Knight story DS talk about how much the ending pissed them off, I think mostly because of that.

That said, I've played a "mostly Light with a smidge of DS" Knight and another that ended up either Dark 1 or Neutral at the end, and I wouldn't say that it's completely ignored. There are people along the way who do notice and comment about playing DS.

Same goes for Consular, which seems to have been mostly overlooked. I played a straight-arrow Light V and a selfishly rude Dark Consular, and although the class does seem to favor going Light, there is plenty of disapproval from both Companions and several NPCs for taking the Dark route and, like the Knight, acknowledgement of that path at the end (although I feel that recognition was handled more gracefully at the end than the Knight story).

I really enjoyed doing a Light BH for the 'honorable warrior' concept someone else mentioned, a LS Warrior for how it blows people's minds, and a Dark'ish, greedy Smuggler. But I still think the Warrior works better as Dark and Smuggler as Light.