I didn't play much of these D&D titles back in the days, but still decided to buy them all during the sale last weekdend.

Now, I remember reading many times that playing evil was somewhat broken in these games, and that the game really rewarded "good" characters. I hear there's even a point at which city guards will attack the party on sight if they are too evil. Is that true ? I prefer playing these kind of games as an evil cleric or something like that, but I won't play a broken alignement.

Yes you can play evil and it is very rewarding to do so.

Yes there is a point where the guards will attack you on sight if you allow your reputation to plummet but being evil and having low rep are not necessary the same thing.

IMO the evil Cleric has the edge over good Clerics because they can control un-dead the entire game and can ‘Turn’ Paladins once you get to TOB... having a pack of six Vampires on your side can give you a nice edge.

Your PC's alignment and the party reputation are 2 different things.

If you play an evil-aligned character, a few things will be different (like some cleric spells, effects of turn undead, what special powers your PC gets, what rewards you get towards the end of BG 2, etc...), but overall it has very little impact on the game.

OTOH, having a low reputation can make BG 1 almost unplayable (you'll be attacked endlessly by really tough guards), and make BG 2 much harder (items will cost a lot more, you'll be attacked by fairly weak guards a lot, good NPCs will leave).

So the best way (the only way, really) to play evil in both Baldur's Gate is to roleplay as a villain with good publicity, who'll help people for the rewards (without saying so), refrain from killing "innocents"and/or pay churchmen regularly to keep a good rep.
Even this way, the game is very much oriented towards good PCs, and while you can do some interesting evil actions, and you'll have evil dialogue options, your playthrough won't be much different from playing a lawful good character.

The main difference will probably be what NPCs you use, although you can use good NPCs as an evil PC and vice versa. Just keep in mind that good NPCs leave once your reputation is too low (below 3 or 4 I think) and evil ones leave once your rep gets too high (above 18).

The Good path and options are better developed than the Evil path and options. But, the Evil path is developed well enough that is it worthwhile to play if that is your interest.

The effects of low Reputation on buying items from stores, I think, is probably tougher to deal with in BG1 than BG2. By BG2, you have the opportunity to develop a thief with enough Pickpocket skills to steal the all most powerful and expensive items from stores. (I wouldn't do it with cheap stuff; I think there is always a 1% chance of failure, and you don't want to start a fight with a store merchant trying to lift a potion of healing.)

That's not true. Most of the good items sold in BG 2 are in the Adventurer's Mart, and it's impossible to steal items there IIRC.
Believe me, if you have low enough reputation to get store price increases in BG 2, your pocketbook will really feel the burn early on. Towards the end it won't matter much since you'll have tons of money anyway, but that just means you'll have to do the majority of the game without them.

I've done evil playthroughs in both games and it's certainly possible. I will say that as a general rule, Baldur's Gate 2 gives more options for evil players than BG1 (I'm especially thinking of BG2 Chapter 5) but it's still possible to do it in BG 1. The bounty hunters who come after you are pretty frail. The Flaming Fist are a different matter, however, but I think you can keep them off your back by making sure your rep doesn't fall too low.

Otherwise it's a little inconvenient in terms of having to pay higher prices from items, but still a lot of fun.

One bonus in BG2 is that the evil NPCs are probably the best in the game - although there aren't enough of them to fill a full party. This actually makes it easier, IMHO, because a smaller party means higher levels. BG1 has got some pretty good choices too. There you can actually fill a party of evil NPCs, and then some.


At the risk of spoiling the fun of discovering the NPCs for yourself, I will say that throughout the entire series, evil's options are fairly limited as far as thieves go, so creating a PC with some sort of thief skills added in can be beneficial. The "powergamer's favourite" here is usually a Human Thief dual-classed to whatever else, usually a Mage, at maybe around level 4 when you've got enough experience to disarm most traps and pick most locks. Multi-class options here are pretty great as well, though - a Mage/Thief (or even better, an Illusionist/Thief if you're okay with being a Gnome) and a Cleric/Thief are both pretty remarkable classes that open up some great combinations. A Fighter/Thief is incredibly versatile, being able to fill an abundance of roles, but doesn't hold up too well at higher levels (i.e. mid-late BG2).

Or, of course, you can do what I did and just play as a straight Thief, or with one of the kits.

I did forget that, Ribald and Deidre have the Steal options disabled, and Ribald does have some of the best items. That still leaves plenty of merchants from whom to steal, and stealing their best items can be quite profitable.