Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback The Failure of Astarion's Bite Scene

I have never experienced death by Astarion but what OP describes sounds about right. I think this is part of a larger problem that’s been plaguing BG3 and D:OS2.

I remember watching one of the talks about cRPG making (I think it was Tim Cain) and he was talking to each RPG has to decide on range of roleplaying choices it wants to support - those can be wide, those can be narrow but they all need to be designed, written and implemented by dev team, and more importantly ideally all of them should be satisfying for the player who chooses them.

Larian has been great I providing a wide range of choices and player freedom - but in my opinion that is for naught, if those choices are well supported, well written or well implemented. It is possible that there was an initial choice of “will you allow Astarion to feed or will you tell them to piss of”. And then someone said, “Oh, wouldn’t it be hilarious if Astarion (or player controlling Astarion) gave into its hunger and killed the PC?” But then can you properly support this choice?

Quality over quantity is what I personally value, and since D:OS2 I felt that Larian is in dire need of editing - someone looking through what they make with a critical eye, and cut things that don’t evolve beyond a cool concept. If you provide a range of out-there choices, the unfortunate reality is that those out-were choices will demand an out-there follow up. Even if you include small reactivity, bringing it back to status quo will be hard to pull off.