Geralt of Rivia is one of the more sympathetic heroes leading RPG games. He’s far from perfect, even Geralt sometimes makes mistakes, but generally speaking, Geralt tries to do his best. However, The Witcher 3 gives the players plenty of opportunities to make Geralt one of the bad guys, should they choose to do so.
Even though Geralt himself prefers not to dabble into politics and mostly tries to stay out of the way of kings and queens, he ends up influencing the fates of multiple characters in the game. Sometimes it can be for the best, sometimes for the worse. Depending on Geralt’s choices and actions, both good and bad characters can meet gruesome fates - and Geralt can do some truly dark things in the game.
10 Undermine Ciri’s Confidence
It might not seem like that big of a deal but if Geralt continuously undermines Ciri’s confidence throughout the game, he’ll end up regretting it later. Geralt needs to be supportive of Ciri and encourage her to be independent, not afraid to speak up for herself and face potentially unfriendly people alone. He should also try to cheer her up when she’s sad and asks him for a favor. If he doesn’t, Ciri will go to fight the White Frost, and will presumably die during the fight.
9 Let Cerys And Hjalmar Die
Even though Geralt prefers not to get mixed up in politics, he still has the power to influence who will become the next ruler of Skellige - whether Cerys, Hjalmar (who are both his friends), or the son of the former king, Svanrige. If Geralt doesn’t do Cerys’s and Hjalmar’s individual quest or ignores the succession quest, the two siblings will later die fighting Nilfgaard.
8 Letting Keira Metz Die
The sorceress Keira Metz is the first romantic interest Geralt can have in The Witcher 3 - and also one of the people he can decide to let die. During the quest For the Advancement of Learning, Geralt has to persuade Keira to go to Kaer Morhen. If he fights her instead or lets her go to Radovid, Keira will die. Geralt either kills her himself or Radovid will have her impaled on a stake in Novigrad.
7 Letting Lambert Die
Lambert is a Geralt’s fellow witcher from the School of the Wolf - and even though he’s snarky and sometimes downright rude, he and Geralt are still friends. If Geralt spared Keira (see above), she will save Lambert during the Battle at Kaer Morhen when the Wild Hunt attacks the keep.
However, if Keira’s dead, Geralt will be the one who has to save Lambert. And if he just stands in a distance and doesn’t assist Lambert, the witcher will die.
6 Breaking Yennefer’s Heart (And Triss’s)
Geralt has multiple romance choices in the game - but as far as serious relationships are concerned, he can only pick between Triss or Yennefer. He can end up with Triss, with Yennefer, reject them both… or he can try the foolish thing of romancing both, and end up with neither. While Triss takes Geralt’s behavior mostly in stride, Yennefer seems genuinely heartbroken when she realizes that Geralt was just playing her.
5 Letting Olgierd Von Everec Die
To be fair, Olgierd von Everec isn’t the nicest person out there. A bandit who made a deal with the Devil, was responsible for his brother’s death, killed his wife’s father, and let said wife die alone. Still, despite all of this, when Geralt can either team up with Olgierd or let him die at the hands of the Devil, Gaunter O’Dimm, it’s more moral to choose the first option. Unlike O’Dimm, Olgierd shows genuine remorse, and it’s possible he might turn his life around, change for the better.
4 Letting The Bloody Baron And Anna Die
Geralt meets the Bloody Baron when he’s searching for Ciri in Velen and learns she came to the Baron’s castle. Baron then asks Geralt to find his wife Anna. If Geralt does, he has the option to let Anna die.
All he needs to do is speak to the Crones and then defy their wish and let the spirit from under the tree go free. The Crones will curse Anna as a result, and if Geralt lifts the curse, she’ll die soon after. Heartbroken by the loss of his wife, the Baron then kills himself.
3 Letting Syanna And Anna Henrietta Die
In the best possible ending of the DLC Blood and Wine, Geralt can help the two estranged sisters reconcile. To do that, he needs to find Syanna in the Land of a Thousand Fables, be sympathetic to her, and then convince her to forgive her sister. But if Geralt’s rude to Syanna, doesn’t talk to her, or chooses to go see the Unseen Elder instead, Syanna will kill Anna Henrietta and die the next moment.
2 Killing Dettlaff
One could also argue that one of the darkest things that Geralt can do in Blood and Wine is to kill Dettlaff. Not only does it hurt Regis, Geralt’s dear friend, but it will also turn Regis into an outcast, hated by his own species (vampires). What’s more, even though Dettlaff ordered his vampires to attack Beauclair, Syanna started all this when she tricked Dettlaff, manipulated him, and toyed with his feelings. Both of them are guilty in a way, and it’s up to the player to decide whether they find Dettlaff or Syanna more sympathetic.
1 Killing Those Creatures That Don’t Need To Die
Finally, there’s also the case of Geralt’s choices taken during his witcher contracts. In multiple contracts, Geralt has the option to either kill the so-called beasts or let them go. If the player wants Geralt to be as ruthless as possible, they can have him kill even those creatures who don’t deserve to die - simply because they were attacked by humans, or abused by them. Such is the case of the succubus in Novigrad who killed a group of soldiers who tried to murder her, to name just one.
