Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Halsin leaving your party is terrible game design

Spoiler warning for act 2

So I just got to the part in temple of shar before nightsong, and you get the little pop-up that essentially tells you that if you missed anything, you should do that now because you can't go back. I don't know if this next part is a bug, or just bad game design but If you decide to go back and make sure you did everything, you'll get a quest update saying halsin has decided to split ways with you. Obviously I went back a save to try and prevent this and I added him to my partyinstead of just having him at my camp. So I do the same thing and try to leave back to the starting area, This is where he tells you that he is so close to defeating the shadow curse and cannot come with you but if you must go back, he'll stay here to keep working towards it. You can tell him to make camp somewhere and that you'll come back for him. But if you choose that option you get the same pop up. "Halsin has decided to split ways and will not be any help in the fight to come". This is awful. You are intentionally telling the player to go back and make sure they didn't miss anything, then punishing them for going back like you told them to. Especially after working so hard to get him to join your party with thaniel and the house of healing. This should never have been added to the game.

He'll be in your camp when you return to the shadow cursed lands, at least he was for me. I didn't have him in my party when I left to do the mountain pass with Lae'zel, and when I returned, I happened to see that message in my quest log "Halsin has left... etc". Got kind of mad because I'd just spend hours finishing the mountain pass and I didn't exactly want to redo it. Tried looking for Halsin, but his tent at camp was empty. But then I went to Last Light In and went to camp from there, and Halsin stood there on his spot. Some minor hiccups occurred, however, like the dialogue with him not really understanding that I had him in my party, meaning I couldn't really dismiss him without going through multiple different conversations. And while he was in camp (and not in my party) I kept being able to tell him to stay in camp. Kept him with me for the rest of the act because I was worried he'd go missing, and when I reached ACT 3, all was back to normal.

The only issue that seems to be left is that the quest log still says he's left the party and won't be helping, but he's still with us.

What basically happens here is that Halsin doesn't want to leave Thaniel alone, and he can't exactly bring Thaniel with him to other areas of the world. So if you do leave the Shadow Cursed lands after having found Thaniel, this will happen, not before. I also tried to have him in my party when leaving for the mountain pass, but then he told me he couldn't come, he had to stay behind, but that he'd be waiting for me when I returned (the message about him leaving us still occurred though). (the information about him waiting for our return wasn't provided when I left without having him in the party, he was still waiting in camp when I got back)

You are missing Halsin’s personal quest I think. You need to find Thaniel and restore him.

I already found thaniel. This is specifically about going back to the starting area in between the thaniel quest and the night song quest.

Okay, so it sounds like I just need to trust the process then. As long as I don't lose any story because of it.

+1. That's just infuriates

Did you restore Thaniel, or is he still catatonic?

It doesn't really matter at this point if you've found the other part because Halsin is going to want to stay with Thaniel after he's rescued him from the Shadow realm no matter what. If you want to return to previous areas and not lose Halsin, that needs to be done before you tell Halsin about Thaniel (in other words, before Halsin leaves to open the portal and bring him back). Halsin's quest was to find Thaniel and since Thaniel is in no condition to travel, Halsin will stay once he's found. Which sort of make sense, but I think it should have been implemented better with a clearer conversation about it as the party leaves, and also, make it clear Halsin will be waiting for the party's return rather than having the quest log say he left you and won't be helping.

I restored him.

Yep. All I wanted was to grab a few dyes from Esther, and my big druid buddy was like, "too rich for my blood. I'm out." Like, WHAT? I just wanted to go wear purple to maybe meet the dark lady and now you're... really? You're abandoning me for a 5-minute convenience store trip? WTF, bro?

In my experience, Halsin will leave your party both before and after you save Thaniel. It happened to me just today. I had saved Thaniel, and then proceeded to do the Creche quest with Lae'zel. Went to Shadow cursed land exit to Mountainpass, and got the journal notification about Halsin leaving me. Okay, downloaded a previous save (lost about 3 hours game progress, no biggie) where I hadn't woken Art Cullagh yet. Proceeded to Shadow cursed land exit to Mountain pass and same notification hits. Just for curiosity, I go to Last light Inn to see if Halsin is there. He is not, but when I start a conversation with Art, Halsin appears in the cut scene/conversation. Afterwards he disappears again and won't appear near the lake and there fore breaks the ques. Halsin is still present in the camp, but he can't be talked to.
Then I downloaded even earlier save, where I had told Halsin about Art, but not went to House of Healing yet. Tried exiting to Mountain Pass but no luck, Halsin still leaves.
My conclusions are that no matter what, Halsin leaves you if you try to leave the Shadow cursed lands in Act 2 when you chose the Underdark path.

That's odd. In my first play-through I had Halsin in my party when I left to do the mountain pass. Did it before waking Art, and Halsin just came along for the ride without question. Second time around, I was a little too effective and did everything but Shar's Gauntlet in the Shadow cursed lands before I left for mountain pass, which is when I realized Halsin wasn't coming along like last time. Tried many different things at that point, including loading earlier saves, and the only time I could get him to come with, was if I hadn't awaken/talked to Art.

UPDATE: I just got back to Shadow cursed lands from the Mountain Pass after finishing Lae'zel's quest and Halsin is back at the camp like nothing happened. The journal still says Halsin won't join us in the fight to come.

Actually, nothing bad except for this annoying quest log entry happens. This quest log entry should be changed, however.

I had exactly the same thing happening. No problem in the end, but the questlog is still saying that (although he's clearly in the camp). For me it happened, because I forgot make the weapon in act 1 and just wanted to get that quest out of my quest log. In a similar way if you recruit Minthara, and didn't do any of the stuff before the Shadowlands (which in my case was the Underdark part for that playthrough), she will also not go along.

I find that pretty bad. Even if it makes sense from a RPG POV, it would be great if you could bring the non-origin characters back to those areas too. Even if nothing much happens there with them.

In my current playthrough I went through the underdark first (from the trader/smuggler cave entrance) but didn't go up in the lift from Grymforge, (portal returned to the Grove area) then did the mountain pass and entered the shadow lands from the hill above the creche (my preferred route to get the lantern more easily).
Halsin was with my camp but not in my party before I went into the underdark (which was his apparently preffered route?) But I camped in there a couple of times and he wasn't there. When I came out of the underdark I went back to the Grove area to camp and he was there, I had the opportunity to tell him I'd found Grymforge etc. When I did the mountain pass part he vanished again.
At Last Light he simply didn't appear until we'd had 2 long rests, which was annoying cos I was waiting to do the Art quest so that I could start moving around the landscape without possibly borking something up.
I got a message he'd left my party but I am not sure when that landed as I wasn't looking (but I noticed it when he didn't show up at Last Light)
I have no idea what the game decision was that made him leave and then reappear later as Thaniel wasn't a thing at the time.