Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Dial back the romance.

I laughed afterwards - it was pure horror show during. I will look for the other scene when I'm feeling masochistic. Maybe tomorrow, I'm usually masochistic on weekends.



I think that's part of it. On the other hand, "what romance is" for many people can't be offered by a game - from physical intimacy to ego security - so it will be reductive whichever society has a go at making it. You will always come up against the fact this is a virtual world created for you, and the more its made, the less satisfying it can be, as it reveals itself as empty. Better to leave some things to the imagination.

Was about to go on a massive tangent about the erotic significance of shadows/ the unseen but thankfully lunch arrived.

Well, for me, Astarion is the perfect option! :3 Although I guess he's lying. I'm only attracted to evil characters, so Astarion and Lae are the most interesting to me in every sense.
I don't understand why anyone here uses the word "pansexual", I would say that the characters are "bisexual" lol.



No thx. I don't think so.

The PC can be freely pansexual, as its your game to be attracted to whomever and what ever you want in the game, just being more inclusive is why I said it. As for the companions, I feel it more compelling if not all the companion characters were not like that, unless their character is like that, for example Astarion, it fits his character. They should have stricter character lore on who they are. By making everyone bisexual just feels like an easy cop out, and feels cheap on the story side of the characters.

First of all, of course players should have several romance options. On the other hand, they also need to be believable.

A githyanki would usually be "evil", and even if Lae'zel is not, it should be really hard to score with her, if you are not a gith. Maybe not outright impossible, but really hard.

Shadowheart is meant to be this evil cleric cult, right? So, maybe she should prefer evil characters.

Asterion could potentially work as a bisexual character, but as someone else pointed out, only do that if it is actually in character, don't blatantly invent characters to shove some ideology in the face of players.

Gale strikes me a womanizer, but otherwise easy to win over.

-> again, romances should be possible, but not forced. Don't try to desperately write a romance that's not in character.

I think the current romances are by and large fine.
Shadowheart's is obviously the sweetest, boy meets girl, the works, it seems intriguing because SH is this kinda vulnerable secretive chick. This could evolve into a romantic story with slow progress, but we will see what Larian does with it.

Astarion's really works because he wants to manipulate you and he really does strike me as someone who would just use people for his own pleasure. He has the superficial charm covered as well. Him being a vampire also has implications, he may ask you to be his bloodbank. His condition also triggers my saviour complex, and I imagine I'm not alone when it comes to wanting to "save" him. Of course I think Astarion expects me to want to save him so there's that, but his romance seems like the most solid so far. I actually approve of him hitting on everyone, because he IS a user. When he wants something it's never about you, it's always about him. Leaving him as a psychopath is just as compelling as saving him, if you get involved with the guy, drama is guaranteed and I love it.

And now to Lae'zel...
Well she's ugly (no I don't care that you disagree), and she has this obnoxious "raarh strong woman" attitude that is just very repulsive, HOWEVER, her sexuality fits that mold perfectly. She is basically an angry dude with breasts, fancy hair and a big sword, and frankly, the only thing that could make her character more repulsive is if she ended up finding a soft spot in her heart for you. Not only that but since Gith apparently lay eggs that presents some interesting problems about their anatomy. As far as I know, creatures that lay eggs have cloaca, both the males and the females, so that would mean that a male gith would only differ from a female one in the aforementioned breast area when it comes to sexual organs. This would also support the idea that sexual relations for gith are not romantically and emotionally involved affairs. As much as I hate Lae's romance, I just hope they don't make it emotional because it would just make it even worse.

Gale's and Wyll's are really not finished yet, so I can't really judge them beyond thinking that Gale's is boring, and Wyll's is uh... weird?

no body is forcing LGBT in you, if you don't feel like to have romance with any of those character, you don't!

Thanks god that he isn't a "real" Vampire then. ; )
I just try to remember any Vampire story in which a badboy Vampire wasn't also a horndog.
Nothing comes up.

It is somewhat forcing it on players when all companion characters, wil take your bromance as romance.

No. i don't want restrictions. Restrain yourself

But I do want them, Restrain yourself from disagreeing with me (lol)

Ah, if only the companions could restrain themselves...

Always be mindful when practicing self restraint. Know your limits, make sure you tie the pull-out knots first and test them, and always arrange for a trusted friend to check on you at a fixed point if you don't contact them first. Don't practice self-restraints that leave your arms elevated above your head, except for short term adventures or with friends nearby.

Play safe, folks ^.^

Even if you don't romance the party members they all still act like they are in a romance with the player character forcing themselves on the player character imo.


Also I do not want the romance tuned down at all, the only thing I want is the NPC's acting like they are in a romance with you even after you say no or don't show interest in them like that.

During my first playthrough I didn’t take Wyll or Gale anywhere with me. So it was odd when they flirted with me at the party, because up until then I’d never travelled with them and they would have only seen me at camp. The only reason I got such high approval with them was because of how much time I spent petting the good boy Scratch. On the other hand, I did like that characters flirted with me first, it made it seem more like those characters had their own agency and it increased immersion for me. After playing games where I really had to grind approval and initiate all the flirt dialogues myself it was refreshing to be on the other end of a random flirtation.

Even if the other characters initiate romance themselves rather than the player character, it feels like there should be a certain level of approval necessary. Lae’zel seems like she’s just out for a single goal and any person will do, the forward manner she spoke to my ranger had me in stitches.

I actually want more flirtatious dialogue options and interactions interspersed throughout the game, what we have at the party is nice, but it also comes off as abrupt.

this is true, this thread has been a wild ride of incel vibes and alt right getting pissed off at 'LGBTQ things getting pushed into my video games'

all they've done is not added exclusion flags for certain race/sex combinations and some of these folks have been losing their marbles over it.

the realm of D&D and fae'rûn have been legendarily horny whenever a PC during any campaign wants to start a romance arc with an NPC and the amount of succubi/incubi type monsters in the manual like nymphs etc so all of this has been incredibly on brand so far as far as I'm concerned

But I'm LGBT and I don't want unrestricted romances either. Also I'm sorry, but I have to ask: Isn't it the most incel thing in the world to make demands about how all companions should have the hots for you no matter what? I would think that incels don't get any action IRL, taht's why they want everything to be omnisexual ingame. Correct me if I'm wrong, but sexual entitlement like that sounds very much like what an incel would have.

I'm with you here. I think excluding da2 Bioware did a much better job at this aspect of romance both in inquisition and me3. I think it's a matter of cleaver writing more than anything else that Larian lacks here

it's obvious you don't know any incels dude, plenty of them thanks to their own traumas won't be able to connect or even feel much during a sexual encounter, a lot of actual incels are bordering on suicide with genuine chronic touch deprivation, you can see their genuine distaste for sexuality and an almost puritanical christian attitude towards sexual promiscuity (the same sexual promiscuity that a lot of people in this thread seem to be getting upset over) as signs that they of all people would probably advocate for their strict and pure definitions of love and romance IE the exact opposite of what you just said

and I gotta add: campaigning in this thread specifically to exclude more characters from romancing folks is weird to me ngl, just leave it up to the players / approval of the characters really. if folks want to roll gnome or halfling and romance lae'zel let em, no skin of your backs surely.

The companions being playersexual is a reasonable compromise in terms of game mechanics. With the number of companions they offer, they can only present so many choices to each sexuality. My personal preference would still be a set sexuality for each companion, but I can see where Larian's design decision is coming from.

What is true, however, is that the character's attempts at "romance" are coming out of nowhere for the most part. Lae'zel is especially guilty of this. There is no real setup, no arc, it's not even tied to approval level or exploration of her dialogue tree. And the post-party scenes for of all of them are largely awkward and poorly animated on top. The entire experience is jarring at best.

The best out of the bunch is probably Shadowheart, because she doesn't immediately want to jump your bones after a few days and what is barely the beginning of your adventure.

It's actually genuinely surprising Larian went for this, considering that even in DOS 2 the sexy times were the culmination of the romance arcs for their characters.