Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Focused Examination: Intimate Choreography with Small-sized Characters

I said only one more, but there's actually one other pose I want to look at first... major prop and support positions next, after this one. Last unassisted pose I want to look at is the lotus type position set.

This one isn't used as much as others when shooting sexual intimacy, regardless of tone or atmosphere, though it can lend itself to almost any style with about the same degree of aplomb. The main reason it's less used is because it's kind of hard to shoot well, in a way that is visually appealing to a viewing audience.



This position is all about closeness of physical contact; if you have a scene where you want to communicate an unquenchable need to be close and to be in contact – to press yourself to your partner and intertwine yourself with them until you lose one another in the sheer press of limbs and bodies locked together, then this is a position very worth considering, because that's what it's all about.

That said, mostly all either partner is left to do, in this position, is to hold, grip and stroke their partner in various ways. Face to face intimacy is easy here, and any amount of kissing and/or neck intimacy works well too. More romantic shooting may see the partners lean back from one another just slightly, to share kisses, nuzzle cheeks or press foreheads while they engage in slower, rhythmic love-making. Passionate scenes will generally call for a tighter embrace and more forceful body motion, lip-to-lip where kissing gives way to neck kisses and bites, and other similar play. For scenes all about the physical act and the rawness of the sex itself, and for shooting to show more action, the partners can lean back further, opening up the pose to show both bodies more clearly as they move – direct face to face intimacy can give way in turn to heated eye contact or impassioned head-throws.

In any situation here, the movement comes primarily from the receiving partner, and it tends to be less overt than in other positions; it comes from the cycling of the hips and the clenching and relaxing of the leg lock – these are the sources of your movement, while the giving partner can only usually assist in this by guiding and complimenting the motion with their arms and hands on their partner's back and waist; while supporting much of their partner's weight, they can't actually do much with their hips. Specifically in a more open shooting, the giving partner is well suited to having something to lean back against, while the receiving partner may support their upper body with their hands about their partner's shoulders, or the back of their neck if they're light (this won't look good with a larger or bulkier receiving partner). Alternatively, they can lean back substantially, plant their hands on the ground behind them, and really focus the scene directly on the movement force of their hips, and the sex act itself – doing so gives them much greater power to move and the angle of motion can be shifted substantially as needed here without it becoming strained or awkward.

While there are only a handful of considerations when adapting this pose for smaller partners, they nevertheless can change the dynamic of the scene greatly. Starting with converting this position for a smaller receiving partner.



A more or less direct translation works passably well, with a small receiver. After accoutningg for simple realignments, there are only a few major points worth taking into consideration. The first is that, due to the size difference, a proper leg lock is unlikely to really be feasible for the smaller partner here, and that needs to be adjusted to account; its' not actually a problem for the pose itself, however, since the small partner can still grip with their thighs and calves, even if they can't lock ankles all the way; doing what they can while still being comfortable should be the consideration here. After that, we find that the neck or shoulder embrace that was either fully enveloping, or else required leaning back, now becomes almost essential for the smaller partner – though using a finger lock around the back of the neck looks and feels much better in this configuration.

The most dramatic effect that the size change will have on the pose, however, is the style of motion that you end up with. While the motion can remain as it (most likely) was for the original choreography, with a smaller receiving partner it's much more naturally inclined to shift from a mostly horizontal with some vertical motion, into a rhythm that more keenly emphasises the vertical motion instead; don't ignore this. This is added to by the fact that the giving partner is now in a much better position to assist in the movement – they can feasibly guide, and potentially even lift and support their smaller partner, even to the extent that they can effectively take control of the movement and the pacing instead. Don't forget that having the giving partner take full control of the motion and rhythm of the scene will necessarily change the tone being communicated as well, since to do so they will functionally be man-handling their partner; regardless of intent, this has a tendency to come across a certain way, and will influence the feeling of the scene.

Kissing is still possible, but as with other similar situations it now requires deliberate effort from both partners to achieve, rather than being something that one can simply do to the other, as with same-sized partners. For example: if in your original scene you have the receiver playfully kissing their partner by surprise or on their own, that sequence would need specific attention as they cannot really do that as a smaller-sized participant – instead they need to reach up or pull their partner down, and invite the action, which in most cases would shift the feel of the action from playful more towards romantic.

Alternatively, the smaller partner can support themselves by kneeling on their partner's thighs instead. This is similar in principle to the same adjustment mentioned for cowgirl poses before – it gives the smaller partner more control over the depth of penetration, and the pacing of the the scene.


In this situation, motion comes from flexing the thighs and knees, and it's going to necessarily be a mostly vertical motion. The smaller partner is a little more raised here, so kissing and similar intimacies are easier too. The giving partner can still attempt to guide the pace and rhythm of the scene, but the small partner is ultimately the one in control of it here. Tone-wise, this is the counterbalance to the effect caused by the larger partner carrying or controlling the smaller during the intimacy – this is a 'safer' position for the small partner. There won't be the same depth of penetration here, but without putting too crude a point on it, for a small-sized partner, that is not likely to be considered a problem.

Leaning back to open up the pose also works well enough as well, even with a smaller receiver, however they won't be able to plant their hands on the ground here and will have to use their partner's thighs instead.



While this lean back may risk looking a bit crude with same-sized partners, here it can subtly avoid that. If you want to keep control of the scene's rhythm and motion firmly with the receiver, this adjustment does so, as well as naturally maintaining the same innate motion direction of the original pose with same-sized partners, with room for alteration in either direction. This is complimented well if the giving partner has something to lean back against as well. The down side for this position, for the receiver, is that their hands will be necessarily occupied supporting their weight, and their upper body is apart enough that face-based intimacy, other than eye contact, is off the table too; this means that almost all of their contribution to the scene comes directly from what they are doing with their hips, and the focus will be naturally drawn there unless you counterbalance it with something else from the giving partner.

The giving partner, in this situation is free to appreciate their partner's body and the actions that they are taking, but they also have hands free to hold, touch, stroke or guide their partner too; one hand guiding the hips will keep them connected to the action and help them maintain a sense of contributing to it, and they can also touch their partner's chest, groin and face as desired and as the tone you want to set requires. Or they can just sit back, watch and enjoy, if that's what you want.

A major problem with lotus poses, when dealing with smaller-sized partners, is that it becomes very difficult to work in a satisfying way the other way around – let's look at a small-sized giver instead:



So, the main difficulty is that it's just really hard to make this position look or feel satisfying or good, with a small-sized giver. Assuming that we're all hale adventurers and there's no real danger of actually crushing anyone, the position is still awkward to convey in a way that translates into compelling visual media.

Pacing, rhythm and movement angle/direction is flexible here; it will be controlled by the receiving partner, and come from the hips directly, and the giving partner has little option but to hang on. Kissing is not really feasible any more – with the larger partner also being on top, the distance is just too great to manage – however, there are other things the small-sized partner might be able to do with their lips, if they are so inclined. Attention to the larger partner's chest and torso is much more accessible for this pairing than for other configurations, so it may be a good idea to make use of that if using this position; such activity first well with overtly sexual and intensely passionate scenes, but only really mesh to a lesser extent with slower or more romantically inclined ones.

One important point to note here is that unless the receiving partner has something to lean against, they are going to need to put weight back on their hands, removing their ability to use them in the scene. If you're going to make this adjustment, then giving the larger partner something to lean back on and support their body with is more or less essential unless you want the sole focus of the scene to be the receiving partner's front, and the movement of their hips alone.

Unfortunately, there just aren't any really viable other options for adjusting the pose, here; if this adjustment doesn't shoot well or feel satisfying, or doesn't match the tone intended by the original choreography, then your only option may be to scrap using this position and insert a completely different position instead, for this pairing.