I don't like astarion and kill him on sight with holy fire. he is a disgrace for the rogue profession and is so edgy, listening to him inflict slashing damage instead of thunder damage.
that being said, my problem is with the idea of him, the execution is absolutely perfect. but as I said somewhere else, the moment he draws his butter knife, roll initiative.
now that I've read the whole thread, I will go a bit deeper... - the whole torture thing isn't an excuse to be a jerk, it never is. you choose the way you are treating others and, well, his choices lead him to meet the sacred flame. it is ironically fitting for a mediocre rogue to die to a dex save. - having a bigger than life character in the party is fun, especially if it is just a facade to cover deep trauma, but if I have to travel and fight with someone, there is a bare minimum that he does not meet. not at first, not after. - at no point our character is allowed to shut him down and force him to be a bit more humble, my character have twice his intelligence, I'm still forced to go along with his nonsense
the fact that he never learn is just the icing on the cake, I guess I could try an "evil" playthrough to see if there is something to him but honestly, siding with the goblins seems way more like a lack of wisdom than being selfish ( which is the definition of evil in d&d ) you cannot gain anything by joining a cult which uses illithid tadpoles and thinking you can control it is naive at best
note also that by design, average 5e characters are barely more intelligent than a giant ape since intelligence no longer impacts your proficiencies and became a dump stat... I saw that shadowheart went from 8 to 10, maybe astarion got the same (and in that case, my character don't quite have twice his int) but I don't really care.
