Edit 2: There actually is one Astarion-related approval scene, but like Gale's it's sort of difficult to trigger. You need to use your illithid powers only once the first chance you get, get his approval to medium/high very early on, and NOT talk to Zorru with Lae'zel in the party until his approval is around medium. After having spoken to Zorru with Lae'zel, there should be a scene with him looking at the stars. Usually the tadpole dreams replace this scene I think, which is why using it only once is important.
That scene is not approval bound, I always speak with Zorru the first chance I get, and that scene always triggers, regardless of approval, the only prerequisite for it speaking with Zorru, don't need to use illithid powers (like I mentioned many times, I go out of my way to not use them - unless I'm testing something). But there is also little fun extra line if you trigger that scene AFTER Astarion's grand vampire reveal. What I don't understand is, why we don't get any approval with him during the stargazing, I mean, if can heavily flirt with him for crying out loud, he normally enjoys any flirts, so how come there is no approval? Another thing for Larian to fix. So, like I said, as of now, Astarion has NO APPROVAL bound conversation's whatsoever, which is sad. His stuff is usually triggered by events...
I don't think that Minthara romance is a good reason for Halsin, but he could potentially fit the role to romance at a party if he gets drunk/emotional about Kagha. At least I could see that making sense.
This honestly makes me feel bad for the lack of "good" female companions to romance, none of them will make the guys feel like Astarion
I don't really see why Halsin would be emotional about Kahga, unless they had a bang I wasn't aware of.
And yeah, dudes have it real bad as of now: a choice between a nymphomaniac or an edgy girl who seems to regret the kiss afterwards. I mean, tough luck.
RE: Shadowheart, they just used the base cleric stats basically, believe it's the same for all the companions, but with her it's extra inconvenient and quite unfortunate.
True, they should've tweaked every companion... still, the most
hilarious offender is Astarion. 9 INT. And there I thought he was smarter than that.
Speaking of which, I do want to experiment one day and make him an arcane trickster... thing is, he would need to wear that INT circlet 24/7, and on a lady, it's a fashion statement, on a guy though... it looks kinda ridiculous. Even as gorgeous of a guy as Astarion.
RE: "unleash the animal line" - also not a fan. I am not sure in the intention is to make us not want to choose it, because he doesn't want it at that point, or because that would somehow make his character more evil or controlling.
I think the voice over dialogue would need to change because I sure as hell want some bitey business going if he literally says "You want to be tasted."
There is some double signals going on, but iirc he says something along the lines "This is not about hunger but about passion..." if you tell him you will smite him with your holy power if he "tastes you".
Just some genius at Larian decided to replace the '
bare your neck inviting him' to... the monstrosity of '
unleash the animal', interestingly it still functions as the neck line... I am still hoping it'll get reverted. And 'it's not about hunger' line also appears if you play any other class capable of incinerating him, so wizards, warlocks, clerics (indeed) - and in the future I'm certain sorcerers will have that line and druids. Astarion's answer to that line is always the same though, regardless of class.
Couple of days ago I even made a whole forum topic about it, that change is triggering my OCD so badly, for it doesn't belong there.
RE: Astarion approval gain; I actually though it would make sense, if we could get approval from feeding on the MC so I did it for science . Of course if didn't work. It could be a dialogue option in camp for all I care, I will sleep it off anyways. He really doesn't need to feed on nasty gnolls, am I right?
You mean using the 'vampire's bite' special ability of his on yourself? Yeah, I tried that too. All it does is make your character 'bloodless' (applies some stupid penalties). I mean, it makes sense tho, you get approval with him via your actions and dialogue choices.
RE: Astarion & Cazador and
lying. We can only really theoretize about that at this point. Personally I think that Astarion is definitely not lying how much of a monster Cazador is. I think he might be lying either about his involvement with him or how much of a monster he wants to be. How much he wants the control he was not allowed for so long. I think he is hiding something.
This is what Hunter says in the swamp, if you meet him without ever meeting Astarion -
for reference.
Astarion claims he is hunted by the Gur Hunter because of Cazador,
I find it interesting that the Gur mentions he is bringing him to his people; when you meet him with Astarion, the conversation is swayed, because he will chime-in; (
he also knows that the guy is Gur right away, how?)
for reference.
Gandrel also says
this. Seems that he has been already hunting him for a while (was Astarion on the run)? There is writting shenanigans going on, or the hunter is just not honest - which I find more unlikely.
Don't you think Cazador, if he is as controlling as he is, would tell the guy exactly how the vampire looks and got Astarion on sight? It's weird enough he got so close to Astarion so soon "after the crash", but has to ask Hag to help flush him out and doesn't know how he looks. Maybe it's just a weird plot hole that will never be explained.
Also, the entiru Gur encounter can go "wrong" if you question Astarion and there seems to be a missing cutscene where Astarion just kills him if he hasn't told you that he is a vampire yet.
Oh, Astarion is definitely hiding something, but I wouldn't call him a liar for it, he's just not really forthcoming with information, just like some of the other companions... *cough* Shadowheart *cough* Wyll *cough*. The only 2 ridiculously honest ones are: Gale, altho it takes him a while to get there, and Lae'zel - she wants to become a dragon rider. That is all she wants. Oh, and
creeeeeche.
Well, about gur and Astarion, I just assumed he had an uncharacteristic, for a 9INT character, strike of 6th sense.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Gur Maybe he just guessed by Gandrel's appearance that he's a gur or all that scented crap has given him away. Speaking of which, I wonder how strong is a vampire's sense of smell. Well, Astarion does say that he was attacked by gur on that fateful night when Cazador had found him, maybe he has the same obsession with gur that Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer series) has with killing slayers? Who knows?
About Cazador hunting Astarion, I do think it has something to do with those big scars on Astarion's back. Just a guess.
And Astarion wasn't on the run, when you mind meld with him for the first time you get a vision that he's been prowling dark busy streets (presumably for Cazador), then he got snatched away by the illithids and the rest is history. We don't rightly know how long Astarion has been held captive by the mind flayers, it could be a day, a week? I daresay it's safe to assume it's been long enough to get Cazador angered though.
But whatever the case might be, I do agree, it requires some further explanation.
@Nicottia;; As long as you have minor obsession for Astarion you are good.
I honestly thought I'd do one playthrough of BG3 when I bought it. I knew that we could have a vampire companion and loading screen promptly reminded me, as I was creating my first MC.
With my past interests with vampires everywhere I knew I'd want to have him on full-release in almost every part and thought I might sour the experience with bug and all that...
I had a lackluster 1st gameplay, learning the ropes, but after about 10 hours I created another character:
Male drow fighter, promptly stole Lae'Zel's armor and went on to siding with Minthara with other choices I considered "evil", I guess. I took Astarion, ShadowHeart and Gale with me. I honestly felt bad for Gale and thought he'd rather turn into mindflayer at some point, than be with my party. Astarion in the meantime happily approves of my choices and enjoys the occassional genocide. Anyways... the day of the exquisite carnage comes, I get backstabbed by Minthara because I question her and try to find any sense in her, as she is seemingly unaware of the freaking tadpole in her head. I get salty, but this damn elf has been stealing my heart and on I go to create another character, to finally romance him.
The character writting is good of course, but what brings it to amazing level is his voice acting is top notch.
He makes my legs spaghetti; and he is the reason BG3 has single-handedly gotten me through these past few weeks as my looming job-loss came.
I propably owe Larian a small thank-you letter for that one and I am sure my husband would have his thanks to say as well ;D
My first run was with a seldarine drow female cleric of Eilistraee, and of course I did romance Astarion on that run... although... for a 'good aligned cleric' it makes little to no sense to romance an undead creature... so my roleplaying skills were shit that day.
My 2nd full run was with a high elven female wizard, I was curious if Astarion's lines would change at all for her being a high elf and a noble, but nope. 0 recognition aside from them both being baldurians... Larian, please fix, make backgrounds matter!
On my 3rd run I tried a warlock, but I haven't finished that one... I may have gotten a nasty case of rerollitis (it's what I call constantly creating new characters and deleting them later). Honestly? I am waiting for sorcerer to be implemented. I absolutely love that class. Oh speaking of warlocks, I was shocked when I found that Astarion does recognize you being a warlock for once, after Raphael's little visit, he confronts with something along the lines of 'you are a warlock, you know the importance of making a bad deal'. Makes me wonder how come he doesn't recognize a goddamn cleric on spot. Especially considering clerics have turn undead, heals (which technically should damage undead creatures like... errr.. vampires maybe?). I blame his 9INT.
Long story short, I haven't romanced another character but Astarion in BG3. Send help.
And yes, Astarion's voice actor is amazing. And sorry you lost your job. ;(
Ha I suppose we might as well start "Ladies of Faerun" guild right now
I'm actually having a hard time picking between Gale and Astarion - it's why I hooked my Wizard HE up with Gale and Seldarine drow Ranger with Astarion (even made her a "dream Astarion" as I was already using Alana's mod).
To ne however Astarion seems to be at least heavily influenced by Zevran. Love the sarcasm though.
Gale is actually pretty amazing once you manage to get all those scenes (I made a project out of it, deciding not to move on until I get it) so from what I've seen so far I think Larian deserves some praise in that regard.
Of course I miss some additional banters and flirts - yes exactly the way it's done in DAO (I had really hard time deciding between Zevran and Allistair too - usually hooked humans with Allistair and non-humans with Zevran). Hope we don't get the "one cutscene per chapter + one before final fight" approach.
Still I really wouldn't mind some Halsin - I'm willing to trade him for Minsc and Wyll (who does nothing for me)
Oh and here's Astarion's dream from "Play as Astarion" mod - heavy spoiler obviously
https://youtu.be/D5U7cWMyz3I+1 to starting a massive romance thread, or even better, Ladies of Faerun guild.
And oh, I generally make my 'dream' dudes look as close to Astarion as possible, I wish I could make an exact replica, but eh, gotta wait for full release before installing any mods honestly, cause I cba constantly refreshing mods, redownloading them if a patch/hotfix makes them unplayable. Too much hassle.
I don't know if you played NWN2 Mask of Betrayer, but Astarion is indeed somewhat influenced by Zevran, without a doubt, but also by Gannayev of Dreams (yes his full name is freaking ridiculous) who's a ''handsome'' hagspawn. Add some Haer'dalis to the mix, sprinkle some Spike (from Buffy) and you've got yourself Astarion. At least that's my opinion.
And yes, that's the vid I was talking about.
And oooh, speaking of Wyll's romance. I have not been able to trigger that one at all. So far my reddit scouring has pointed to the fact that his 'approval' dialogues are buggy and don't always trigger. If I find some reliable way to get them working (like with Gale) I will share it. And ye, I've seen that one YT vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHOSGhC8Efo even that person doesn't really know how it happened lol.
PS: I'm sorry for all these quotes and massive post. I just had to compartmentalize all I wanted to say and reply to.
