This is an excellent thread topic, it is the 'crunch' of the game, we are trying to judge which path to take of the three supposed endings yet there is deceptively another path - the ending of which i have yet to learn of. I have put "The Witcher" to one side for now and reverted to G3 with an optimism of hope to solve this hidden anomaly.
Arguably, the books of the eternal wanderer contain the solution to the fourth or unknown path....
http://gaoneng.googlepages.com/TheEternalWanderer.txt
Using the hinted storyline of the books to progress through the game one needs to be wary for it looks difficult to give a depth of meaning to parts of the path which the books suggest, there appears to be a paradox or a twist within the storyline....and there is, i have mentioned this elsewhere on these forums in the past re: Myxir the water mage. He suggests an interruption to the wanderers path when he reveals "but he went not to the temple" (this is the 5th temple) - now you see it is too late in the game to correct or revert. However, on restarting a new game you could perceive the path which now to take is indeed straight to Nordmar - but bypass the temple then return to Varant (if you see the twist)?
I don't want to kill the watermages to get the sceptre of Varant and the staff of the eternal wanderer, i don't want to kill Rhobar either, i must find another way - via the nomads maybe?
The most likely method to solve this strange but intriguing situation i suspect is to take the path of the druids, for it is said Innos gave the eternal wanderer (you) the power of the druid stones to solve and put right and redeem that which is wrong in the world.
In the last play through i spent much time with controlling the animals and indeed at one time had a large pack of wolves following under my direction (as the head wolf) via the white ripper transformation. There is in-game mention that the orcs fear something strange about the wolves.
It is fairly obvious, by noting the various positioning of wolves and packs that they can be used to complete various quests, so by killing wolves this solution would never work. On each kill of an orc the transposed wolf gains a level - can you actually have a level 100 white wolf? - i got to 20 then gave up - perhaps i should have continued?
On transforming back to human form from a wolf or any other beast (out of sight) the orcs know of this and attack, it doesn't quite fit, yet setting a pack of wolves onto the orc opponents works best - i will investigate further.
Just for now, i hope the 1.52 community patch doesn't negate any deep game code, perhaps waiting until the Jowood G3- v1.6 official patch becomes available would be a more accurate move to help with all of this deep stuff?
Greetings.