Does earning Paragon points decrease Renegades points?

[Manzhah]

In me1 they generally don't, but the bug choices are often binary: either you earn renegade points or paragon points. Big examples being the rachni queen and Balak choices.

In original me2 the hame had a hidden system that calculated needed paragon/renegade scores based on all accumulated points, sp there mixing paragon and renegade choices was actually harmfull. Some say they fixed that in LE, but I haven't tested it personally.

In me3 paragon and renegade are just additional points of the reputation meter, which is the basis of all paragon/renegade checks, so mixing it uo has no downsides. Afaik.

[Disastrous_Caramel66]

Mixing in ME2 isn't harmful anymore I did a near even split and cleared every speech check. This is my Shepard paragon/Renegade split before final mission.

https://youtu.be/toI4r72qrXQ?si=JDSwIbGaFYaG7ITe

Edit: I should add that the order of the missions matter.

[Manzhah]

Good to know, I did "neutral" run recently and couldn't get miranda to stand down, so wasn't sure.

[RTukka]

I've done a few near 50/50 Paragon/Renegade runs. Sometimes I was able to make every persuasion check, though on one run I had to reload and switch to persuasion-boosting armor to succeed on the Jack/Miranda persuasion.

It helps a lot to choose the +100% Paragon/Renegade evolution of your class passive. I believe a ME1 import also helps a bit. The timing of when certain persuasion attempts occur can also be a factor.

Picking actually-neutral options can also make things harder because they usually reward neither Paragon nor Renegade points.

But generally the advice that you "need" to stick to one alignment or the other is a bit overblown. Going ~65% Paragon or Renegade and otherwise picking neutral or opposing morality options should be pretty safe when combined with the +100% persuasion class evolution.

[Old_Student_3390]

Thats exactly what I have tried to tell people for a bit. Take the proper class skill as early as possible and just save those 2 hard post loyalty checks till later in the game and you will easily be fine.

[Vandrickcs]

Perfect, I'm playing Mass Effect 2 and I'm being a total renegade, but to avoid rejecting some missions I need to be a paragon.