Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Halsin Romance, Expectations and Obligatory Poly

No. The vast majority don't want a fling. I know some people in these forums pine for the asinine idea of replacing him for Kagha or Helia, but he's a very popular pick as a male love interest because he's a male archdruid, we don't need a second female druid when there's Jaheira, and the writing for companions already tilts heavily in favor of the female companions in terms of content and support. He's also the single male love interest without previous emotional and relationship baggage, and he's stereotypically manly and rugged which many people who prefer men would like as a love interest.

And let's not forget that straight women and gay men have the right to exist as Larian players, right now we have the same number of options. Halsin's profile is tremendously attractive for romance (tall, strong, kind, sweet, tough, with a manly voice...) he is our fuck bear, and I doubt that most people would want him for an adventure because of those characteristics.

Larian fix us our bear, we deserve it and we've already waited a long time

Agreed, I don't think most people wanted just a fling either, which is why I find it odd that Larian went in that direction. To me, Halsin is more like the strong, mature, gentle giant, kind of man that many would fall for in a romantic way, and not this manipulative "sex-without-strings"-king of guy. Personally, I'm ace/aro, but I still want this giant bear to hold me until forever and then some. There's just too little of him now, and what we have is presented in a way that doesn't even fit his own personality (a mature and stable leader who's also calm and gentle).

Yes, in the romance part it seems like it's another person, it goes from being in love to I'm fine but I want YOU to sleep with other people, your opinion doesn't matter, or best of all the ending: I can't imagine life without you now but Hey baby, let's be free like the wind and each one for themselves without choice on your part. If you say to cut off you break his heart, if he leaves you in the end nothing happens... and you have practically no choice in any important part of that relationship except in sex.


Nor does he have great advances in his personal history like the rest of the characters in act 3, that is to say: I prefer Halsin to Astarion, without a doubt, but right now I don't see making the investment of time in that romance, and that Larian leaves us to people who want male romances without an option that was also requested a lot. I really hope you listen to us, because you don't know how disappointed I ended up in the game I deleted from Halsin

Hi, I made an account because I was very disappointed with the Halsin romance and wanted to share.

I'm just a casual gamer and before buying the game I didn't know a whole lot about the world of Baldur's Gate, DnD and all of that. I try not to spoiler myself before, so I didn't look up anything before playing and didn't know that Halsin was a late addition and practically a bear-sex-joke.
I played a Druid because I like nature, wanted to be able to talk to and turn into animals. In games like Dragon Age I absolutely loved the romance aspect and how this affected the outcome of the game. So you can imagine how happy I was, that BG3 gives me romancable companions.
I liked my companions but I didn't see my character with any of them. I mean, I'm a druid, and none of the guys gave me the impression of caring about nature at all. They are all city boys.
Imagine my happiness, when Halsin comes into the picture. Against my own rules, I looked up if he was romancable. Yes, awesome!
He is kind, caring and when I flirted with him at the party he wants to take it slow. I loved that. Here I am thinking: yes, a slow burn romace with a good hearted druid is more than I could have asked for. AWESOME.
I didn't lift the curse in my first playthrough, because that guy got killed in the Tavern. When I noticed that mistake (second time I broke my "no looking up stuff" rule) I had to reload a save from 12 (!) hours ago. It was so very frustrating, but I wanted my happy ever after with this awesome guy.

I don't want to spoiler anything else but I invested so many hours in this game, in Halsin. I don't have a problem with him being poly. Not at all. But I feel manipulated by him. He says things like "you would have made a fine addition to the grove" but does not ask me to come with him at the end. After all that slow building romace, we finally go and spend the night together. The turning into a bear thing was a little silly for my taste, but he turned back so thats ok for me. Calls me "my love" all the time, says the sweetest things - but calling this a relationship? No way. Bears may do it like that but he should realize that my character is not a bear.
I have the feeling most of the companions have arcs where their beliefs are tested or changed. But I can't even ask Halsin to think about us in a more serious way. That was very disappointing for me.
So I tried to find out if I missed something else. That was when I found out about the bear-sex-jokes and how he is a late addition. Makes sense now, but leaves a bitter taste for me. I didn't know that.

He gives me no choice, I can't challenge his beliefs and at the end he leaves. Does not sound like the man he seemed to be at the beginning. Don't get me wrong, you can do a romace without a happy ending. Like with Solas in DA or Anders. But with Halsin it does not feel planned like that. It feels like the romace was just not taken seriously from the beginning. And I feel like an idiot for not getting that.
He started out as the most awesome companion for me but at the end I wish I hadn't romanced him at all. Too many hours were invested for a joke.

Anders doesn't have a happy ending but he loves you deeply and you can commit to him. What's more, being a mage, my favorite romance was the elf because of the arc there was, and even that character would commit to you and you would go with him. I'm a big fan of DAO, and the romances are great.

The thing with Halsin is... strange, strange, you have options with everyone except him. And the cop theme should have some option so that the player can influence, he keeps telling you that he doesn't need anything else now but that he wants everyone to enjoy you, which is fine for anyone who wants Halsin as just a sexual adventure, but you should have the option to say "me too with you" to be able to settle that issue and be able to have a relationship of 2 for whoever wants it. The thing is that my character did not ask to be a cop at any time, and it seems that the game automatically decides that he did.

Add to that the contradictions (it has those parts that are so sweet, so tender...until Halsin hayd-pervert appears) in the writing, it adds that there are really very few conversations and gestures of romance, too late. That ending, the lack of an epilogue...And the one that was destined to be my favorite romance or the second favorite was left in disappointment. It needs an urgent fix because we don't have many romance options either.

[url=https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3#modal]https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3#modal[/url]
i submitted another feedback towards halsin's romance since it's been sometime since the first. please, i implore everyone else to also submit feedback and suggestions to the larian support.

i would like it if we could tell halsin that our character loves him and will only pursue him. there's no i love yous in his romance route. tav does'nt get the option to do so, when i think about it, tav does'nt have many options to tell him anything. you can at least call gale an idiot, or talk back to astarion, but with halsin? nothing. he says something, and you quite literally have no way of addressing it (like when he tells us about the drow twins. the conversation just ends) i've no doubt they'll add to the epilogue, john is aware and liked our posts mentioning it, we're eventually going to go back to shadowlands with him, but before the epilogue, i would like it if they added more...to his romance, the beginning of it. after asking halsin about ducks and his lovers, the only thing we can look forward to is the sex scene in act 3. add more before the sex, yes, he's been holding in his urges to have sex with our character but there can be more to it. have cut scenes of halsin in the camp, more dialogue options.

I agree, only with the epilogue is still incomplete. You have no flirtations, I love you, conversations, nothing. You pass the missions and they cross out, you have sex and little else. Halsin needs work to be the character he deserves: more flirting before the romance, reacting to what happens (he's just there in the camp), more interactions with the Tav after the romance, some romantic event, missions in the third act or conversations that make you get to know each other better, intimacy gestures like everyone else... very important that you can choose or that you can move forward in the relationship: I love you, I don't need anything else either, to be able to decide to close the relationship from the beginning or any point, an ending where you can choose to go with it, an epilogue... reactivity, which right now it doesn't have.

I am happy and hopeful that John is listening to us, our favorite druid has a lot of potential and it is a shame that many of us who give this great character a chance end up frustrated and angry. Larian I want to see my elf druid with that bear, it's just that being a druid is fucking perfect. But not with the perverted flute dog that right now seems to be the being that owns him at times, please.

Yes, more interactions like this please, and to be fair he kind of needs more even if one doesn't want to romance him. Give him something to talk about that's not "roaming as nature intended" or whatever = give players the option to befriend him without it also meaning coming on to him.

Also, I think they've gone a little too far about the whole bear thing. I like druids and bears and nature, but come on, how they talk about his size and wildness and whatnot all the time. It turns him into a joke rather than a serious person. And he feels like a serious person, so I don't see why they would make him into a joke. Halsin is worth more than this. And I mean, I don't want to be that person, but did Larian even look up the physiology of bears prior to *that* scene (and the one with the drow twins)? Doesn't bears have those really long things that's thin like fingers? LOL. Don't even want to think about it really, but here we are, googling the size of bear genitalia. LMAO

Jajajaja,

Jajajaja,[/quote

Jajajaja they put it more for the players than for anything else, epecifically, I think that real Halsin fans have no interest in bear sex, only those who want to use the character as a sexual wild card. But the whole sexual wild card thing is precisely what makes us players who did want Halsin in the game and if we wanted him as a romance unhappy. Some jokes to relax the bear sex affair (which in my opinion is guilty of many evils): The question is: will it have spikes like cats? How do you prevent pregnancy in a medieval fantasy world if you dedicate yourself to having sex with a druid in the form of that? I see it complicated. So many unanswered questions.


I confess that it is an achievement that I will not unlock, I go through having hentay sex with cthulhu and his tentacles, it's disgusting but he has his audience (surprisingly). I went through the weird interracial group sex between elves and drow, for some reason drow dislike elves so much they need to fuck all of them at the same time. But not about bears, it's an animal that I like too much to put up with, not even in a video game, and yes, in my opinion it goes very, very far.

Edit to add: Larian give me my romance with my giant bear Halsin

Personally I liked Halsin a lot and thought he was very sweet and open about himself. I thought it was great that he wouldn't settle for a monogamous relationship.

The only thing that I would have wished is that he'd tell about his relationship preferences earlier in the dialogue (when he is too busy with his responsibilities to start a relationship), so players wouldn't end other relationships for him. Even that wouldn't be a problem in my books if you could remedy a relationship that you have said no before. I mean it's hardly his fault if I as a player go around ending my relationships in hopes of winning him over. :'D

Also I wished that there'd be more dialogue with him. In my playthrough he adored my Tav to heavens from the start, so there weren't much development other than the sex scene and a little chat in the end.

Oh, one thing that was interesting was how other companions reacted if you proposed an open relationship with them.

Somehow at that point I had romanced both Astarion and Gale (which maybe was a bug, since I don't think that should have been a possible combo and the game seemed to get confused every time the story had to refer to a love interest). After Halsin told that he'd be happy to start a relationship if other partner was okay with that and I went and asked Gale's opinion... well let's just say it was interesting.

Nobody says that they take that option away from whoever wants it, but that they give the option either by dialogue or by time to those who do not want to have a monogamous relationship with him, as with other characters, neither more nor less. And that the reactivity is adequate, you can't tell me that Halsin has enough with you alone but he forces you to be shared, that is not romantic, it is a very strange and disturbing fetish. Halsin is very sweet sometimes and other times she has a split personality and that's annoying. Also the ending, letting you choose to go with Halsin as with other characters, even those who have the option to have sex with other people. Later, I have met people with relationships of all kinds in my life and this is not like a cop, it is like a request to fuck friends, that is not a romance in any case (there is no love, no commitment, no There are agreements, there is nothing). Did I say who thinks it's okay to fuck friends? That you have the option, but that there is also the option of romance as such for those who want it. I already told you that most of the fans are going to want a relationship, the same as most of Astarion's fans have an exclusive romance. And most of the fans are now unhappy

Content theme: real romance does not have to start before, many characters do not begin romance as such until the second act. The problem is that there is no flirtation, or hardly any romantic content. In addition, in general, the character suffers from a lack of important content in the third act, he does not react to the events of the camp, he does not have the same volume of conversations with Tav or the same possibilities for dialogue and interaction. Add in that really all the characters would benefit from some romantic improvements, like a couple of scenes sleeping together at camp, changing the phrases you can say about talking in your relationship at some point, a more appropriate ending and epilogue. If you put it all together you understand why people (including myself) complain to Halsin, they have pending the improvements of others and their own

Another thing that supports Halsin's bipolarity, are you seriously bothering me with my nature when in nature there is also monogamy and you are in a relationship and even have group sex with vampires? Is there anything more unnatural and hated by druids than the undead? It's seriously amazing.

I add and specify that obviously much of this additional content would be monogamous for Halsin, it doesn't make sense for you to go with Astarion and have those long scenes with Halsin, it would be more of a drag, the unicorn of the couple. Or monogamous love interactions

I complitelly agree with you on the matter that Halsin has too little content. I wished that he'd have more dialogue and cut scenes and that the relationship would have a fuller story arc.

I don't agree about the polyamory, if I understood your point correctly. He doesn't force you to be with others, but he demands that if you are with others, they have to be alright with you also being with him or otherwise he won't do anything with you. He doesn't want to cheat others with you and that's why you have to ask your other partner first. I think that's great. He also tells that he isn't going to live in a monogamous relationship, even though at the time you are the only one he loves. I think that's fair, too. Honest. I don't think it makes his feelings towards Tav any less valid.

To be fair, he basically says he doesn't want you to himself. He says he only wants Tav, but that he doesn't want them to limit themselves to just him. Which is odd, that should be Tav's choice (in other words, the player's choice). Halsin cannot decide that Tav should share their heart with others. It ends up feeling like some odd fetish of his that he only wants what others also desire. Yes, he says he want to "roam free", but that goes against his "I only want you" comment too. So why not make both version possible and let the player decide what they want. "I only want you" is basically saying, "I want to be monogamous" no matter how many times he throws around the "roaming free" lines. If he just wants one person, then he's monogamous. For how long, that's for time to tell, but there's nothing here that prevents the two of them to decide to be in a monogamous relationship for now.

Exactly, or to tell you: I can't imagine life without you, I'll leave you lying there Tav. And I say again: poly relationships have commitment, what commitment there with Halsin? None, just repeat flute dog phrases like: let's be free like the wind mixed with things as crazy as I only want you. It's insane.

As they said before, how Halsin is made is: either a madman with disturbing fantasies, or a mid-life crisis with legs, or a manipulator who plays with Tav's feelings to give vent to his lust.

On the other hand, all the characters that can be poli have the option of not doing it, in fact not doing it is the main romance. Why not Halsin? Most of us just want Halsin, as do Astarion fans, and we want to be able to walk away with him. The piece of pork doesn't even give you the option: I can't imagine life without you. I'm going with you Halsin. No baby, let's be free like the wind. Come on, don't fuck with me.

He ended by saying that this is not a healthy or desirable relationship for the majority, and I believe that the desires of the majority should be represented in a game designed to reach many people.

^you hit the nail on the coffin. halsin feels like they created him to be a fling, but then further down the development of the game they've decided to make him a full blown companion but unfortunately since he was first written as a fling,they did'nt have a lot of time to implement him being a legit romance option, so they ducktaped flinghalsin with romanceablehalsin and that is the halsin we have now. a halsin who talks as if he's fling, but his romance lines are what it is, romance lines. jesus, i'll put this feedback into my new ticket. @Chiquidmaster you got it right.