#And before anyone gets upset about Gale... I'm doing one for Shadowheart too and I love her.

[shadowkira]

Baldur's Gate Text Posts:

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[sakiofwaterdeep]

(lowercase intended - tw: hints to abuse)

majority of the time when astarion gets all sassy and snappy, you ignore his remarks and his words, letting him have his drama and get it out of him. but sometimes, he can go far - too far. "astarion, im sorry i was just trying to help-"

it's evening at camp, and it's been a long day. exploring from where the goblins are you had come across a swamp in which there was a gur. astarion dealt with him of course but he'd been an absolute grump ever since then.

"Oh of course! It's always the same, you trying to help and be some hero - some sort of legendary tale in the making!" he snaps at you, turning to face you as the two of you stood by his tent.

"i'm not trying to upset you Astarion-"

"Oh, hells! give it over already! Acting like you're a saint-"

"im sorry, alright-"

"You're sorry? for what?" he stares you dead in the eye, a look you haven't seen on him yet, his eyes bore into you, almost cowering over you.

"for the monster hunter, i understand-" he's not letting you finish your sentences and it's getting too frustating.

"you understand now do you? You haven't lived for years and years in absolute pure shit - how in the hells could you ever understand?! You are nothing but- but a small pathetic wannabe saviour-" he's breathing heavy, and there's fire in his eyes but the stern look on his face stirs ever so slightly upon seeing the way you're looking at him right now. almost scared of him, tears brimming in your eyes. "you. know. nothing" you spit at him through a whisper before turning hot on your heel and storming away through the camp. all eyes are now on astarion, shadowheart and gale looking up from their books, glaring at astarion having heard everything. lae'zel pretending to not have heard whilst karlach and wyll are both looking a bit worriedly in the direction you left.

astarion just looks down, ignoring everyone and going back into his tent.

a few hours pass and others are asleep, but both you and astarion aren't. he finally gets the courage to find you, to which he does, not far from camp, sitting on the edge of a cliff rock, feet dangling, staring straight ahead - with tear stained cheeks.

"...may i?" your head snaps to astarion, and you quickly look away again, shrugging but moving slightly for him. he gingerly sits down next to you with a sigh, "darling, i-"

"you know i thought about what you said and yes, you lived through so much horror for almost 200 years but that doesn't mean that i didn't suffer" you say quietly with a big breath, eyes staring straight ahead, hands in your laps. the words rolled off your tongue quickly, like you'd been practising what to say for the past few hours.

"i know" astarion replies, pausing for a few moments, looking at you but you still looking away from him, "I think i got scared"

his words cause you to finally look at him, a bit confused, "scared?" you repeat, eyes a little furrowed. astarion can now see your red, almost swollen eyes from crying, you feel a bit embarrassed noticing his eyes flicker.

"yes, scared" he nods slowly and breathes out, his knee up - wavering at little, hands resting behind him resting on the rock, "i haven't had anyone care about me the way you did back there with that wretched gur. no one has stood up for me like that in well...years...maybe not ever. I didn't know how to react and now, i realise that perhaps maybe I didn't react correctly"

you raise your eyebrow at him, making a small face when he mentions 'maybe' but it is a fact that he reacted the way he did.

"okay, I didn't react correctly" he corrects himself, he's silent for a second, looking away and then looking toward you, his face softer than you'd probably ever seen it, "I'm sorry"

not once have you ever heard those two words slip out of his mouth before, you're not sure if he even had the ability to say them but he does, and his eyes repeat the meaning. you pause, nodding slowly, looking away for a few moments, "thank you"

the minute or so of silence that follows is comfortable, until astarion reaches over to the bottle of wine that sits next to you and takes a sip, quickly pulling a face. "gods, this is awful! remind me to never let you chose our drinks ever again"

you let out a small chuckle, "im sorry not all of us have such a refined rich palate. i just drink anything"

"yes, darling, i can tell" astarion replies, still drinking the wine he'd complained about seconds ago, nudging you with his shoulder lightly.

"such a dick" you laugh lightly, obviously joking, causing astarion to look amused in response.

and that's the night astarion goes to bed and realises that you're not like the others, you're not like cazador, you're certainly not out to get him - you actually care. and oh gods, maybe he cares for you in a different way.

[oops-all-concrete]

I'm doing another BG3 companions headcanons dump, since I enjoyed the last one a lot! So please enjoy;

BG3 COMPANIONS REACT TO; TAV IS SCARED!

(For further context, companions reacting to Tav having to be around something they don't like, eg; water, small spaces, fire, undead etc, or they're just jumpy in general. Also, romance is not established, but implied!)

Wall of fluff below, enjoy

Lae'zel -

It depends on the fear. If it's something like a cave that's barely holding up or the group is sneaking past a hoard, she'll agree the situation is critical, but encourage focus. "I'd also like for this to be over. But it won't be if we hesitate and dally" but if it's something like heights or rivers, she doesn't understand...but she will become a githyanki barrier between Tav and whatever is causing them stress.

Shadowheart -

She's pretty understanding of most fears. She freezes at the mere howl of a distant wolf, so if Tav flinches at the crackle of fire or the smell of blood, so be it. She keeps an eye out and tries to find work arounds if the group is about to enter somewhere Tav is going to hate. If it's unavoidable, she's as gentle as possible. "We've got this. It'll be over before you know it, I promise you. Then we'll never have to do this again."

Wyll -

He'll make it as tolerable as possible, but will encourage Tav to face their fears head on. "I'm not scared. I have no reason to be and neither do you, because I won't let anything happen to you" he'll promise. Won't push, won't complain. Just keeps Tav in arms reach and stays calm. He's proudly Tavs dedicated rock. And sheild. And blade. He sasses anybody has anything to say about it.

Karlach -

"Don't worry. Mama K is the best teifling sheild around, from here to Avernus! Stick close" She smiles, confident as ever. Even if she is scared too, she'll pretty much forget about that while Tav is scared. Tav is her main priority, and she let's them know proudly. Anyone else says anything? She's reaching for the greataxe.

Gale -

Doesn't want you to be embarrassed, so he tells you about a silly fear he has. Has a knack for rambling Tav into distraction, so he takes advantage as best he can of their attention. Of course in a moment of panic he'll drop the 'I did something stupid' fake laughter and immediately stop everything. "We can go, right now. I'm sure we can find another way to do this, we always do. I don't care if it takes longer, it's got to be better than watching you shake like that"

Astarion -

He pretends not to notice. Not because he doesn't care, but comfort has never been his strong suit. He worries he's going to make it all worse if he addresses Tav about it. Instead he occupies himself with laughing about whatever situation they're in. If he knows anything, its how to be disarming, and laughter works like a charm...but if it doesn't and nobody else steps in to comfort Tav, he'll do it- granted the words are coming out before he can think too hard; "Look at me. You have survived a goblin camp of cultists, an entire githyanki creche- we met after crashing from a nautaloid ship with illithid worms in our heads. This is nothing. You're stronger than this."

Bonus! (the elders)

Halsin -

He can tell they're nervous before Tav can. He checks in regularly and asks repeatedly if there's anything else he can do to make it all easier. Once it gets to be too much, he calls it for Tav. "I understand if you'd rather myself and a few others handle this. While I'm proud of you for staying, I can promise you no disappointment if you wish to leave. Your wellbeing isn't worth sacrificing for this"

Jaheira -

Similar to Halsin, she's very quick to pick up on when something upsets Tav even if they don't say anything. She subtly keeps an ear out for how well they're holding up, and will make excuses for Tav to take breaks and get further away from the thing they're scared of. "Apologies, but this old druid needs to rest her old lady hips. Tav, it would be safer if we both went to that safe spot there, come on." Jaheira won't bring it up, but its easy to figure out what she's doing.

Minsc -

He doesn't notice for a while, even if its obvious, but once it occurs to him, he draws an obnoxious amount of attention to it. Granted he's also asking people to get between you and the source of discomfort and will tell anyone who so much as sighs to politely shut the fuck up. If he thinks it will help, he will put Boo on Tavs shoulder. "Boo is a war criminal! Everything fears Boo. He'll protect you from all the nasties, won't you Boo?"

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know if you guys have any prompt ideas, I'd LOVE to write more ^^

[malicedafirenze]

I unintentionally skipped a lot of the romance content in Baldur's Gate 3 and I want others to learn from my mistakes:

So: I managed to lock myself out of romance entirely and ended up alone, which was a huge bummer and a serious crack in my motivation to play the game. I finished my playthrough (because I was already close to the end of Act 3 when I realized it), and plan to do another one eventually. I'm making this post in hopes of a) keeping others from making the same mistakes and b) to possibly get some additional insight re. what to watch out for in my next playthrough.

PSA: Pick a Partner before Act 3

The key learning here for me was this explanation from the poly mod

In BG3, romance is divided into 2 steps: dating and relationship(also called partner). Dating is basically where you are at after the 1st romance scene. Relationship is where you are at after the 2nd romance scene (relationship also unlocks the kissing menu). BTW, If you enter A3, all dates will break up with you (partners won't, ofc).

I hadn't realized this until well into Act 3, at a point where going back to a save to properly fix it would have meant replaying large parts of Act 2 as well - I decided to finish my run instead and then start a completely new one later.

Note: lots of spoilers below. (click here to read this post on reddit instead)

My Romance Woes

I read in advance that you couldn't romance multiple people (except for the specific Halsin combos with Shadowheart and Astarion) and therefore turned down Gale and Lae'Zel early in the game (not realizing you could just date/bonk them without fully committing or getting anyone upset)

I didn't take approval all that seriously, thought I'd have more opportunity to fix things later. I was playing pretty good guy, and ended up with high approval for Karlach and Shadowheart, but low for Astarion. Weirdly, I don't recall an option to romance Shadowheart (no clue what I missed?) and the only option I had for Karlach was at the Tiefling party, where I went with Astarion instead. I had a scene or two with him, but then didn't progress further in the relationship, without really realizing what I was missing.

I wanted to romance everyone, sat on the fence for too long, and ended up not romancing anyone at all, by missing a thing or two in act 1 and 2 and being too late to fix it in act 3. Don't be like me, it feels bad man.

Early Act 3, I got Astarion's breakup dialogue ("we haven't spent a night together in some time" --> him explaining it was just transactional and he doesn't see the value in it anymore) and got super worried, but when trying to look up if I'd messed up, I didn't find a clear answer for without more spoilers, so I just continued playing Act 3, including all of the companion quests.

I later learned that I missed out on at least one important Astarion romance interaction by not going to Moonrise Towers until after freeing Nightsong. (when the Towers are already on high alert, i.e. I could only fight and not have a lot of conversations)

After realizing I had messed up companions romance, I instead fucked everyone it was unwise to fuck (Emperor, Mizora, Harleep...) for fun and to see what would happen... but chickened out and reloaded after Emperor and Mizora. Still, got to enjoy some fun content that way!

The ending I got (going to Avernus with Karlach) was really cool and made me cry a lot. I then did try to reload my last save though, to see if I'd get any other epilogue content if I didn't go to the Hells, but... apparently that scene on the docks (Astarion goofily running off, everyone kinda agreeing to go party after this, no other conversations with anyone again.... is just... it?

Idk how much of this is the lack of romance, but I really felt like something was missing there. I at least wanted to talk to everyone again one last time.

This is a post about my romance failures and regrets so I'm not gonna talk about everything else that I loved about the game, but just in case this is getting a bit too negative: I had an absolute blast with the whole game regardless, I'm stoked to give it another go the "proper" way (i.e. with romance). I also generally think it's really fucking cool that this game's romance options depend on how you behave, and that you can't just e.g. give someone the right kind of gift 20 times in a row to make them love you, like it works in games like Stardew Valley.

Next Playthrough Plans

I'll probably wait for another patch or two - considering how much got fixed and tweaked with the first three patches, I suppose it's worth to wait a bit and see what's coming

I'll play with the Poly mod next time and try to romance all of the Origin characters.

I plan to play with the camp notifications mod, as well as the approval ratings in dialogue mod. Both in hopes of being able to game the romance a bit better and get much of the romance in one playthrough

I'll play Dark Urge (haven't seen any of that so far!), but probably still go for a "good" playthrough mostly

I plan on equipping & levelling all Origin companions and switch them out more freely, in order to get approval from everyone and edit my party as makes sense depending on story events (e.g. take Lae'Zel to the Creche, take Gale to the Ketheric fight...)

I want to romance everyone. I already saw some tips for early game Astarion approval and assume the aforementioned mods will help in optimizing this

Am probably not gonna do anything all that differently otherwise because my heart can't take an actually evil playthrough

Aand that's about it. As mentioned, I'm mostly posting in case this helps anyone else.

I was really damn sad when I realized I had locked myself out of all romance, because the romance was a significant part of my motivation to start playing this in the first place. At the same time, I loved so much about the game that I still got a lot out of it in 110+ hours even with minimal romance content.

If you see any red flags about my plans for the next playthrough (or if you have experience with the mentioned mods!), I'd appreciate comments and insights. Other than that, here's hoping others can learn from my mistakes. Thank you for reading <3

[thedevilinherself]

So I finished the BG3 after doing every side mission I could find. And.... I have feelings

So I played with the poly mod, so I romanced everyone but Lae'zel and Shadowheart who I couldn't get the romance to start for. I also had the mod that lets me have all the companions with me, so I don't know how or if that changes the ending cut scenes.

But first off, the endings were way too short. I heavily dislike endings that have you fight the final battle, give you a cut scene, then end. Give us a little something after to come down from the high of the victory and see the happiness of the ending we fought so hard for.

Speaking of happiness; I can't say I'm happy with anyone's endings. I told Lae'zel she should go back to her people cause I know that's what she's wanted this whole time, so she left to free her people. This was in my opinion the happiest companion ending I got, even though it's still bitter sweet and doesn't feel like theirs closure cause she still has to fight to free her people with no time to rest.

Astarion just started to burn in the sun and ran off, then Shadowheart was like "poor guy, no more sun for him" then I never saw him again. Kinda shitty considering everything he fought for and the fact I was in a relationship with him. And it's not like the ending just picked one of my love interests to give the ending for, since all my other partners acknowledged me as their partner in their cut scenes (more on that in a moment).

Gale just stood at the edge of the doc and was like "the crown fell into the water. Guess I gotta find it" and then talked about his ex some more before saying we'll do it together. Didn't like that his arch was left open ended as well with him still afflicted with the orb AND wanting to return to Mystra who is terrible for so many reasons.

I got nothing for Shadowheart, and I don't know if Wyll can have his own scene, but his was lumped in with Karlach's for mine. Karlach is dying, her engine burning up, and she says she loves me and is glad we could be together. Wyll was really upset and yells "my love, we have to get her back to avernus! It's the only way to save her". Karlach didn't want to go back, but we convinced her and tell her we will be there with her and will protect her till we find a way to cure her. The three of us go to avernus and it ends with us about to fight imps and I guess I'm in a poly with the two of them, which I didn't know was an option, but them both referring to me as their love in that cut scene was a scripted thing so I don't think it was cause of the mod. Either way, I hated that at the end of the game, we haven't cured Karlach and now she's back in avernus. All her endings seem to suck as, spoiler, she either dies, returns to avernus, or becomes a mind flayer and has to live in hiding. So all of her endings suck.

I hated how none of the characters felt like they got a good resolution or much closure. There wasn't a sense of happiness or real victory. That kinda thing can work in DND cause the campaign can keep going, but in a video game, where there is no way to move forward, it seriously sucks. I put 300+ hours into this game, made so many choices to ensure my companions were safe and happy, tried to get them each the best ending I could without looking up too many spoilers, and in the end, they each get 3-5 minute cut scenes where their main character quest is unfinished and left in limbo? That just feels really crushing and disheartening as a gamer. In my next playthrough, why bother trying to help Karlach? She'll still be uncured by the end. Gale's just going to go back to his abusive god or maybe still blow up. Who knows. Astarion will still be hiding in the shadows, stuck as a spawn forever.

Over all, it just kinda sucked that not one of them felt like their arch got wrapped up/resolved.

[kudzuoath]

Hello!

Based on a scenario with my friend where a camp dialogue ended in a wild magic cats and dogs situation, how do you think the companions would react to Scratch being a cat for a bit and/or the owlbear being a dog?…and in case you were wondering, after the magic wore off we had every companion nearby in a murderous fury so that was a hilariously unexpected reason to reload a save >.<.

That is so incredibly funny, omg. More and more my inner chaos gremlin wants to play a wild magic sorcerer!

As for how the camp would react...

Jaheira thinks it's funny, and comments on how much easier our Owlbear son will be to smuggle into the city. She probably also is coaching cat-scratch how to cat because honestly our poor dog is probably so confused. I picture him like a dog wearing socks on a kitchen floor.

Something something; "Nature's fury can wait for all of us to laugh ourselves sick about this for a little while."

(Owlbear son is both pleased and full of fury. Pleased because hey! He matches his dog brother! Only not right now. Full of fury because he's suddenly so much smaller and actually less deadly, boo. But on the flipside, he can now be carried like a baby because since he's a cub this means he's not just a dog he's a PUPPY)

Halsin is in a similar boat to Jaheira but also concerned about the mental health of the animals. I'm being so serious about this. The Owl-puppy finds him easiest to manipulate for the duration. In general he's the least amused by the situation, if not actually upset by it.

Wyll is immune to owl-puppy's manipulations, but is very amused by them. He babies the stressed out Scratch though, and has him calmed down and purring in his lap long before anyone else can manage it. If asked he'll just smile and say something like 'The Blade isn't just about hunting down the wicked, it's about providing comfort, too." And to Cat-Scratch something like 'No worries my fine friend, this is a temporary trial. You'll come out the other side all the stronger for it."

Astarion is groaning and pouting a little bit about his favorite murder-loaf (unless you're playing Durge) becoming a sweet little puppy. Right until those puppy teeth go for his ankles when the Owl-puppy realizes he CAN bite now without killing anyone. Then he senses the potential for chaos and encourages the Owl-puppy to go after Gale's things. On the flipside he's charmed to by cat-Scratch and dotes on him. Which is really just him being more open with how much he actually likes our dog.

Gale is busy fending off the Owl-puppy from his books, his boots, the ends of his robes, etc. But he's also entertaining the newly presented concept of polymorphing animals into other animals and probably have a one sided conversation with both animals about how the spell works, in particular 'true polymorph' and if the animal in question would choose their new form or their old one. He will also later question the wild magic sorcerer responsible for this why their magic so often turns everything small and fluffy.

Karlach laughs, but is fighting every ounce of cute aggression in her soul at the mere sight of the owl-puppy. Unlike an owlbear cub, the puppy is soooo much more fragile and soooo much tinier. Actually clutching at her chest. Cat-scratch is similarly tinier, and just as adorable as normal. Attempts to get cat-scratch to ride on her shoulder like a parrot.

Lae'zel sighs. Like Astarion she finds the Owl-puppy a disappointing change. Unlike him she does not have the chaos instinct. She laments his far less effective teeth and claws and size and solemnly promises to find him a set of metal claws and beak should his new state of being become permanent.

Shadowheart is in the same boat as Karlach (though she thinks both animals as just as cute normally) the only difference is her attempted act of indifference. Maybe a touch of concern -- mostly due to the fact that the Owlbear is going to need to learn not to bite all over again. Like Wyll, cat-scratch ends up purring in her lap. She rather likes both of them being smaller -- they're more portable. And easier to smuggle into the city.

[junkdrawernoggin]

Hey so fun little update. Spoilers up to phase two of the Ketheric fight. This is very free style writing so it's long and poorly written. Luckily I don't think I have any avid fans keeping up with my tav 😂

Been playing on my Talryne save. Went all the way back to right before I got to Grymforge. Back to act one and ran around doing all of the things. I realized why I can't get Vilara's meter with Astarion up. Even though they were only little moments, because I was switching partners out constantly in act one I accidentally missed a couple of dialogue moments with him. Plus, I had included him in a lot of disapproval scenes that dropped him.

Now that I'm back playing Talryne it's wonderful. I've only played her save for a couple days and I'm beyond where I was with Vilara. Plus, I accidentally got crazy high scores with every character. I hadn't even bothered to check anyone but Astarion for a while when I realized that both he and Shadowheart were at 75! I also explored A LOT more of the town Moonrise is in so by the time I got to the tower I was ready to get the artifact.

The big moment was after convincing Orthon to kill himself, which Astarion enjoyed a lot (So. Much. Savescumming.) This was all today so these might not be in the right order. I know that I got the dance scene with Wyll (I adore him, I'll make another Tav to go after him with) which led into making things "official" with Astarion. I think directly after Orthon I got the Raphael scene about the ritual. Then immediately got the scene where he fesses up to manipulating you. My only wish is that they let you get a little more upset about it without hurting your relationship with Astarion. Like if there was a "I need to think about what you did before I jump into a relationship with you" option that he respected. Because even though he is traumatized, manipulating someone to that extent is pretty awful.

Got Gale's last night of the world scene with her too, and while I do think he's a good character my god is he pushy. Like if you aren't actively seeking a relationship with him his behavior is so intense. However after that there was a little scene where he acted like a friend so give and take.

Also I actually almost cried when Nightsong was freed. I was completely unsure of how realistic taking Shadowheart off her course would be, especially since Talryne was pretty supportive towards her Shar worship. Seeing that scene healed something in me.

Now I'm in the creepy ass tentacle tunnels and I'm having a lot of fun. I'm just praying that I'm actually going to hit Baldur's gate soon. On one hand I know that there is not as much content in Act 2 as Act 1, but it *feels* longer. And I'm getting a little bored of everything being dark and impossible to see. Give me some lights!

SPOILERS UP UNTIL MOONRISE TOWERS

I adore Baldur's Gate. But it seems like every time I start a new save it gets infinitely harder to romance

My first save I didn't know anything. I didn't pick up Wyll, Karlach, or Gale even. Just kept going with the original crash crew. I had Astarion at high approval with EASE. But, I realized I had messed a couple of things up (mostly failing a combat sequence) and gave it another shot.

New Save. Explored i'd say 90% of the starting area, got every companion ASAP. Followed all of the guides. My first time getting the party scene in save one, EVERY character was high enough to get their scene. This time, NONE. Not one character. I had to go back and explore Auntie Ethel's area which I had originally planned on doing after the goblins. That got Astarion high enough to get at least his scene.

Swapped Shadowheart and Lae'zel for Gale and Karlach. Gale just loves that I'm a Paladin, I have not put in an ounce of effort and I'm at high approval. Karlach also immediately liked my character. Still, in after Astarion. I swear I have followed every guide, made my character make awful choices, and half the time he doesn't even react! He's been stuck at 35 since the party. He only ever seems to disapprove.

I'm at Moonrise now and I can't pick an option regarding the Goblins that Astarion will like and won't break my Oath. I'm just praying that after this I'll get more opportunities to raise his approval by big amounts like I can do with Gale. I know that going through the game faster is making this harder, which is why I'm excited to finish Moonrise so I can do content I haven't seen before.