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Okay, I have to say I'm genuinely very annoyed for... maybe the second time in my 250 hours playing, and this time for an actually major reason.

I'm mid-act 3 of my second playthrough. I originally wanted to romance Karlach this time, found out in... late act 2 I think? that you absolutely need to have started that at the tiefling party. I decided to try and romance Shadowheart instead then, thought that should be doable much later, seeing how secretive she is for the first half of the game and how hard it is to get approval with her. Well, I just found out that you also need to start at the famous tiefling party, or at least in act 1.

The thing is, both times I did theoretically EVERYTHING that should trigger the tiefling party, but I am 90% sure it never happened for me. Both times I killed all the goblin leaders (knocked out Minthara the second time, killed her the first not knowing anything), saved Halsin and I believe talked to Zevlor which is required to mark the quest as complete.

I just went through my Act 1 saves and I cannot find that exact moment (I quicksave absurdly often but typically do manual saves in major moments or when quitting the game), but I am 90% sure I specifically long rested in the druid grove to try and trigger the party, but nothing happened. What I did find is that in all my saves up until the end of Act 1, the journal entry says "refugees are safe now, tonight we celebrate". And I actually tried going back to the druid grove and long resting, guess what? No party.

This is the second time something screwed up my immersion and this time really badly (the first time was but that took going back half an hour to fix, not be essentially impossible without replaying 2/3 of the game), plus the "you have to start romance in act 1 when you barely know them rather than, you know, when you've actually been through a ton together already" mechanic is just terrible, and besides not being even subtly hinted at in the game itself, seems to rely heavily on a buggy event.

So yeah, besides being a sort of vent/constructive criticism (as you can tell by being late into a second playthrough, I love the game to bits but god this sucks), question: what actually triggers the tiefling party so I can hopefully manage the third time around?

[EDIT: I forgot, only been using some cosmetic mods, mostly a megaton of extra hair and dice, the only "significant" mod I added very recently is the level 12+ unlock mod]

(on a side note, I wonder if this is the reason why I have no idea why some people complain about companions being too horny when the only "unexpected" romance moments I've had both times is the very very gentle first evening with Gale and Halsin in Act 3)

Honestly, I’d love it if a future game gave us a female companion who doesn’t even respect the player—someone who just uses and manipulates you from start to finish. We’ve seen characters do that to other NPCs, but for some reason, they always end up having this underlying, hardcoded respect for the protagonist. Why is that?

I don't always want to feel special, and I don't want to be forced into being the main hero or some macho leader. Let me completely rely on the judgment of stronger companions, avoid taking responsibility, and just roleplay as an absolute loser. Literally NO game gives you that kind of freedom. It’s always the same basic binary choice: you’re either the good guy or the bad guy. That’s it. No game lets you be a coward, pathetic, and utterly worthless.

Larian games are the only exception. Only in a Larian game could I literally kiss a goblin's foot! Only here could I smear literal shit all over my face while goblins laughed at me and my companions judged me. Only here could I strip naked and get whipped by a priest of Loviatar right in front of my party. That is what true depth and freedom look like, and I want more of it! I want the option to be nothing but a shadow to a strong, feminine, and ruthlessly manipulative woman.

Lae'zel did show up again when we found the githyanki patrol.

The dialogue with Voss was slightly different in some places, compared to all my other PT's.
I got into the fight after Voss left, and Lae'zel is only lvl 1 at this point, so she didn't live for 10 seconds. But I could revify her after the combat was done, even though she was not part of the team yet.

I can then dialogue with her, and this also gave some new lines.
So, if you've done a lot of runs already, you may want to leave Lae'zel in the cage, to get these lines when you finish act 1.