The only companion, I often kill, is Astarion. I find his recruitment kind of difficult- do I really want the guy, who attacks me with a knife, around my camp?
Understandable, but I’ve always thought my characters would sympathise with him being jumpy, and he does back off and apologise before things get really serious. My nicer PCs would tend to be forgiving, and less nice ones know they could have done the same and aren’t usually going to automatically dismiss a potentially valuable ally just on the basis of a bumpy start. And given it’s never come to him seriously trying to hurt my PC in that scene, it feels more natural to just refuse to join up with him rather than actually kill him if my PC really doesn’t trust him.
Astarion’s second strike during the bite scene is another matter, but even there it feels a bit sudden to just kill him. If he goes for a third strike in the full release then things are likely to go far worse for him with some of my PCs though!
