Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Suggestions for Halsin for Future Patches

So far there have been some great updates for Halsin! I especially like the epilogue and that his barks are fixed! His new kiss is also sweet!

Here are some suggestions for future patches or the definitive edition:

• Please add a path for people who romance only Halsin! His romance is really disappointing if Tav is romancing only him! I hope this can be added because he was my favorite character in EA!!!
• Please add the ability to have him as a playable companion when he joins camp in Act 1. It seems a bit broken that he is sitting in camp and can’t be a party member. It would be great if he gets some voice lines, but even if not, I would love to be able to have him in the party earlier!
• The first two are most important, but if possible, I would also like a short quest with Halsin helping the Druid save his tree in Act 3!
• For animations it would be cute to have a scene or idle animation with Halsin and the owlbear cub and/or other animals.

I definitely support this. I really want to create a Tav just for Halsin but there's just not enough content for him, it's not really worth it imo and if I want to romance him anyway I have to cheat on another romance, that feels really awful, I did that once or twice but felt very bad afterwards, even though Halsin supposedly don't mind it. I would love to see a full fleshed romance made for him.

I would like to share my thoughts on that matter, but first thanks to Icelyn for creating this thread.
I already wrote this in the other Halsin thread but I would like to specify it a bit more.

Starting with the most important stuff (imo):

- Less horny, more personality: Don't get me wrong, allow the man to be horny, but please add more normal scenes. I know, that's more work to do, but it's not like the game came out yesterday and people just started asking for the return of EA lines (or maybe the addition of them at later points in the story if they fit). Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Dave, the VA said, that they recorded way more lines than the ones present in the game, so there are unused ressources.

- Monogamous path: As already stated above me, Halsin's romance lacks content so you are basically forced to have a relationship with another companion just so you feel like your game isn't as empty. Larian said that romance is a huge part of the game, so a playthrough without content to that feels lacking. As for the whole monoship/polyship:
If the Tav doesn't even date another companion beside Halsin, you are in a somewhat monoship with Halsin, it's just never officially said, so why don't you just add some lines for the Tav to decide? Halsin doesn't even date someone else, so it's not like we're removing content. LIke Halsin could say "I've never wandered in such a garden you keep for yourself, but I'm willing to discover it together" or w/e. It should be obvious that we need more content for a monoship to happen.

- Epilogue: The epilogue itself is done really well, but there are two things I feel a bit sad about:
1) The replacement of the kiss where Halsin and Tav touch foreheads. Everyone really loved it, so I don't understand why it got replaced. While it's so nice to hear that the orphans changed Halsins way of life I was hoping to hear that it's not them alone. The epilogue lacks Halsin explaining how the Tav also changed his life (like offering him a spot at the campfire and especially lifting the curse), otherwise I don't feel like he would allow Tav to stay with him for months.

- Camp animations: In addition to what Icelyn said, I would like to see Halsin in his wildshape more often (not just for sex purposes or when incarcerated), like playing with Scratch or other animals or just to show more of this side to him. Imagine him napping or just eating some honey, this would be really cute. As someone who says he has been roaming as a bear so often, it feels weird to see him like that on such rare occasions (not counting fights).

- Brothel as bear: The drow twins ask Halsin about him turning into a bear and without asking the Tav, we have sex with him as a bear. It's the Tav who paid for the service, so it should be the Tav to decide about bear or not and definitely not the twins. And the additional cuddling scene afterwards shows Halsin as bear, so there is no excuse to it (more on cuddling later).


This is more nice to have (as it's mostly optional):

- Brothel 2: Just have a check if Halsin is in party, add a dialogue option to invite him (better: add a short scene where you ask your LI first if they are fine with it). Remove SH going crazy for having sex with Halsin if she is in a monoship with Tav, only allow it to happen in a polyship.

- Cuddling: It feels weird to me personally to cuddle with sex workers, that's not what I feel like should happen. You pay, you have sex, you leave. It would be nice to have cuddling after each sex scene between Tav und Halsin (and every other companion), maybe some sweet talk and so on. I mean, sure it would even be better to add a cuddling scene that happens every few long rests. That would include the Tav and their LI sleeping next to each other.

- Swimming banter: Just set flags for SH/Halsin polyship and only allow the banter to happen if flags are set (would need some rephrasing to fit a polyship but can also stay as it is)

- SA story: There are still people who feel uncomfortable with this being in the game, so there are just 3 options: remove it, keep it or expand it. Personally I don't mind the way it is in the game now, but it would be nice to go a bit deeper into the matter at a later stage. And please remove the Tav's cruel jokes (like bringing him back to the Underdark), that's just plain bad, inhuman and a lack of empathy).


More of a wish rather than a real expectation (especially after the changes made to the grave in act 2):

- The return of the whole backstory with Isobel, the weapon Sorrow and so on.

RE: the bear in the brothel- that is literally what happens. If you tell Halsin "no, down" or whatever the option is, he turns back into a human. If you pick either of the options going with it, he stays a bear. Halsin makes the initial decision to shift (which IMHO he should, it's his body) but the player can say they aren't into it.

Why shouldn't you cuddle with sex workers who want to cuddle? They're sex workers, not lepers. Do agree that there needs to be cuddling with Tav though.

I would like it expanded. Personally, I'm okay with Tav's evil options being there, because Tav has the option to be evil to damn near everything said in the game- what I would rather is a heavy approval hit, a more angry reaction from Halsin, and quite possibly him breaking up with the player. Of all the romance options in the game, Halsin is the only one who will not break up with the player in ANY circumstances- only if the player breaks up with him. Astarion has three situations where he can break up with the player- off the top of my head alone, there might even be more. If Halsin can have ONE boundary, it should be "I will not stay with the person who threatened to sell me back into slavery." Or if they can't bear to make it a hard line for him, it should at least be a fairly difficult persuasion roll; a success can convince him Tav was "just joking" or "just curious", a failure convinces him Tav means him harm and he either says he has no trust with them anymore and breaks up, or maybe even leaves the party entirely. I'd like that a lot, but even just a huge approval hit and a really angry reaction would be an improvement.

I wasn't aware of that option, never clicked on that because it sounded more like a playful talking to an animal. If you pick that option, does he still appear as a bear when they all cuddle?


Maybe this is up to personal preferences, but I feel like this is nothing I could ever do. I think as a professional sex worker, they should keep a distance to their clients, until they ask for cuddling. It feels especially weird, if you never cuddle within the relationship itself and it only happens with said sex workers.


I mostly agree with this, we need more situations where Halsin shows he can be angry or more serious. It seems like Larian will never add any consequences to whatever you say to him (beside the Minthara ultimatum), for whatever reason.
Let's say they add your idea about the persuasion roll, I would still want to see a disapproval hit even on success, because even a joke can hurt. It's like when you joke about breaking up with him several times and he gets angry because of that. He doesn't want someone to play around with his feelings and them topic at hand is even more dramatic and seems to be handled with lot of care. It's supposed to be a joke but still it hurts him and should lead to a larger disappoval or, as you said, him breaking up.

I'd also like to save the poor tree. More importantly though - romanced or otherwise - I think there needs to be a transition made from Halsin seeing the horrible conditions the refugees and especially the children live in, to him taking them along to Reithwin and starting an orphanage. I don't know if the romance addresses this at any point but for the unromanced player this comes out of nowhere during the epilogue, even though our characters have at least heard about it.

Yes, if you choose to have him revert to elf form, he turns into a bear just for cuddles after.

Re: cuddling- just because we don't see the cuddles before the sex workers doesn't mean they don't happen. Halsin mentions wanting to lie under the stars together in his confession scene- that sounds like wanting to cuddle to me.

Absolutely agree about wanting to see more of Halsin asserting himself, etc, and thinking the approval hit should come even if you pass a persuasion roll. I love the "Toy with his heart" thing, as much as I hate it, just because i get to see him going "dude you're an asshole what the fuck". I DO wish that after the fourth time, he finally says this is the last time and he breaks up with the partner then and there, but that seems a bit overly specific as a breakup trigger since, again, he stays after the threatening to sell him into slavery comment.

There’s the conversation before the epilogue about the nine wagons of children calling him Daddy Halsin , or did you mean you would want something earlier than that?

Something earlier than that! It feels like he has a proper quest somewhere, but he solves it on his own off screen.

To me personally, I expect that cuddles, kisses and sex is a normal part of a healthy relationship like we have in real life, that's why you usually don't need to talk about that or ask someone, it's supposed to be normal. But I think it would be nice to see a bit more of it in a game, not only for bonding reasons but there are lots of players who use camera mods, take screenshots and such and I think they would greatly benefit from such small scenes.


Exactly, every action the Tav does should lead to a reaction and the consequences can't be just "Oh how dare you? Anyway, lets move on." He is described as someone who is serious yet he can't stand up for himself? Would be nice to see more of that side, same as for his other qualities like being a mentor.
It would be nice to have some interesting banter with him, like if we pick up a flower, a mushroom or whatever, he could tell us a bit about it, I mean who knows more about nature than him?


I feel like there should have been a quest or at least a bit more in depth talking with several refugees and orphans, as Halsin reacted to seeing them. And it's not like something he just saw, it made him changing his whole life, so that's a really important thing fitting for a quest line.
On a side note: If I have romanced Halsin and keep him in a party all the time, then defeat the last boss, he is with me in the harbor scene and then I get the scene where we talk (the one before the epilogue). WHEN exactly did he make 9 wagons full of kids call him Daddy Halsin? Like did he just walk by and they were like "Yooo, Daddy Halsin, take us to Reithwin and let's settle down"?

As for the tree: It felt like there was supposed to be a quest and they decided to cut it. Like, you know, sometimes you hear a NPC talk and you are 99% sure "yep, that's a quest"? This is one of those moments.

Have you had Halsin in your party when Yenna asks to stay? He says "our little abode could use a child's laughter." <3

IMO there were lots of hints scattered throughout his story that he desperately wanted a child- I do wish there had been more, but I don't see it as out of left field at all.