Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback The arrangement of the camp cutscenes, in Act 1, reveals Astarion's secret too quickly

If my language is imprecise, please keep in mind that I am not a native English speaker.

After watching some videos and information on Act 1, I realised that I didn't have the opportunity to fully enjoy Astarion's storyline before knowing . There are actually dialogues and cutscenes adapted if you doesn't know Astarion's secret (Boar, Gandrel www.youtube.com/watch?v=KREtfQmWIVc , guard tower, banter).

I started Act 1 again to improve these points, but the scenes of Astarion's revelation camp are happening too quickly!

The course of my story:
]

-->It is almost impossible to prolong the secret, especially if you play a spellcaster.

Rational: In the South East of the map there is the ancient temple and the grove that cost players a few nights (especially for spellcasters). I think Act 1 is long enough to slightly delay the revelation of Astarion. How many camp rests will a common player have to spend before meeting Gandrel?
It would be more fun if the player, when talking to Gandrel, has only +/-75% chance of already knowing Astarion's secret, it seems that currently it must be more like 99%.

I think the scene where he goes hunting should be delay after, for exemple:

Leave the pleasure of investigating as a good dupe!

I'm not sure I fully follow, so apologies if this is tackled in your post: Finding the boar is what triggers the bite night. If you avoid it you should be able to postpone the reveal for quite a while. (Going to the Underdark or the Mountain Pass will also trigger his confession about his vampiric nature, so avoid those too)
I was actually able to blindly experience the Gandrel scene not knowing that Astarion was a vampire during my first Early Access run, because of the way I did quests.

In my case, during my first and second run, I had the biting scene before finding the boar. 1st run under patch 5 and 2nd under patch 6

Actually, the boar only triggers the extra cutscene where Astarion offers to stand watch at night, not the bite scene.
Usually, unless something pushes back his scenes (scenes with Urge for example), he'll come biting the next night after he's gone hunting.
It's unlikely you'll be able to push back his bite-recognition scene for long, unless you avoid a long rest (usually 3-4 nights). He's hungry, that's all the cards on the table right away))
So, if you see an elf sneaking into the forest in the night, he'll come to you at the next long rest.

In ye olden days (EA) this was the order the sequence followed, (it might have changed, I did notice some changes in the way scenes triggered but I didn't make note of it so it's possible):
1. There's a long rest where you see Astarion sneaking away
2. Now the boar's corpse is there
3. Inspect it, Astarion intervenes
4. Long rest and bite night ensues
It definitely didn't trigger if you didn't run by the boar back then, I remember my frustration at how low my approval was by the time of the party back then because of this.

I also remember that for my checking-dialogue speedruns I always did it in conjunction with talking to Zorru with Lae'zel in the party, as this would prompt a conversation that happened that same night right before the bite where he's doing some stargazing. I do recall they changed the way this specific scene triggers in full release, although not how. It could be in the way you mentioned.
My full release Astarion has somehow gotten bugged in about half of my runs so the only way I find out about his vampirism is when he confesses in the underdark/mountain pass.

As far as I remember, that's the order now. I usually rest a few times so I don't miss all the scenes and dialog. In the following order:
1. Found the companions and Astarion (a party of 4 characters) - rest: scene with Gale and the campfire, Astarion wonders are we staying here? (If you approach Astarion last on the first long vacation. He won't want to talk)))
2. Going through the ruins and picking up Laezel - rest. Scene knife, rope or poison? Astarion must go into the forest.
3. I run through the battle at the gate and run to the bridge to find a boar - rest: Bite.
4. Go into the grove with Laezel and go to Zorr, talk to him - rest: Stars.
I return to the grove, go around it.

If you can get the stargazing scene after the bite scene, then that's definitely a fuckup from full release, the devnotes fully state that this scene works around the fact he's thinking of biting you later. It's supposed to be a direct tie-in with the bite scene, this is the description for that scene:
"Astartion starts the dialog lying on his bedroll, looking up at the stars. He's somewhat pensive, reflective, thinking that he might lose the ability to walk in the sun - even if it means ultimately saving his life. He gets up and is complImentary towards us, but he gets uncomfortably close and his compliments have a hungry feel to them. Really he's thinking that later tonight he'll come back and drink our blood. He excuses himself, but he's sure that tonight's the night he's going to feed.".
IIRC, in EA it wouldn't trigger if the bite night had already happened, but I might be misremembering here. (Also, the file's called "Night3" which I guess means their design was for Astarion to reveal his vampirism quite early?)

Also, if you say the order is the same, then what do you mean by the extra cutscene where Astarion offers to keep watch? Do you just mean the conversation in front of the boar? In EA bite night fully relied on that conversation happening (or at the very least, fully relied on Tav noticing the boar and commenting on it in party banter)

The thing is, I probably had that order of scenes, because "stars" triggers either the conversation between Laezel and Zorru, or the search for Nettie.
But, if you go to the grove and search for Nettie, the boar's corpse spawns further away, and there's a risk of not finding it before it comes to bite.

I'm not 100% sure, I recall from the last playthrough, I'll check it out later.


Yeah, that. If he bites before we find the corpse, he doesn't comment on death pig.

New:
And so:
1. You can get bite on night 3, before talking about stars.If you sleep a lot before the grove, you get the stars after the bite.
2. "stars" - triggers by talking to Nettie or Laezel and Zorru.
3. The bite triggers the next night after going into the forest.
4. If you talk to Nettie or Zorru first, there will be a conversation about the stars, and then sleep, will come to bite.

Boar carcass - I don't know what it depends on where it will lie. I sometimes had one lying behind a bridge.

It's this cinematic I'm looking for, but I may have misunderstood its trigger. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhlRQKy2-eg

As a cutscene hunter, I take note of everything you say (thanks)... but managing to talk to the Gur without knowing Astarion's secret seems ... difficult.

That scene you posted should play as long as you long rest after you recruit him (you can recruit Gale as well and it shouldn't interfere) it's not related to the Bite Night, as far as I can recall.
I do maybe faintly remember him sneaking away during the first night where that conversation happens (thus killing the boar), but since back in EA the bite night was connected to you finding the boar by yourself it shouldn't be (or wouldn't have been, back then) a guarantee your "Not-knowing-Astarion's-secret" run is ruined.

I have done EA speedruns where I didn't long rest at all and just sprinted towards Gandrel, so that shouldn't be super difficult, although that kind of experience isn't very immersive.

This is interesting. I always thought he was internally debating whether or not to tell you he was a vampire in that scene.

If you play him as an origin character, there's a moment where he gets to consider admitting that he's a vampire, and one of the lines he says if he doesn't is the bit about his mind being leagues away. I associated that with the scene of him saying essentially the same thing in that scene as a companion.


This scene happens before the scene with Astarion sneaking off out of camp. You have to rest pretty early to get this one.

I always go for Withers first, always rest in the temple, and always get this scene. Also you can only get this scene if you talk to Astarion first. If you talk to anyone else first, he'll just say, "Do you mind? I'm brooding."

Which I think is hilarious because right before that you can tell Gale, "Brooding won't help us, action will."