Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Shadowheart Romance and the Hidden Fetish - (Spoilers inside)

I haven't encountered this yet because I'm only just now getting into a playthrough where I'm taking Halsin along, but it does sound like it's in poor taste to force that on a player.

If I was in a monogamous relationship with someone who suddenly wanted a foursome with my buddy and a couple of prostitutes, I would be single. That is an enormous character flaw.

I suppose it's all a matter of taste. I think my enjoyment of the game would have been enhanced if it were slightly less preoccupied with sex and sexuality in every other moment and spent more time on other features of human relationships and interpersonal dynamics. The romances and moments of emotional intimacy are nice sequences to offer the player character as a means of developing both the PC and one or more companions, but outside of that, I felt Baldur's Gate 3 was a bit too horny for my tastes. If other people are enjoying it, however, more power to them.

That makes a lot of sense. I want emotional depth, comradery, sisterhood and companionship as well. Give me everything, including the naughty

I can see valid points from all sides when it comes to all of this, but I seriously don't know what game you all are playing if you're experiencing so much sex that it gets distracting. I mean, there's hundreds of conversations between companions, between Tav and companions, and plenty of scenes and I'd say more than 90% of companion interactions are non-sexual. I get that some people don't want romance, some want more, some less, some in other ways, some want more friendship, but really, it's not THAT much sexual content considering the amount of hours of gameplay there is in this game. Reading the threads around here make it sound like it's some sort of sex game.

So, like...can anyone tell me what game you're actually playing, asking for a friend

I’m probably not the person to make this point to, as my complaint is that it’s a slight annoyance, rather than a game breaking sexperience. Other folks in the general sub forum have bigger issues than I do.

But 10% is a lot not in itself, but compared to the historic norm it is. 20 years ago, it was 0%. 10 years ago, maybe 5%. I’d say the biggest issue is with the main way to relate to characters being locked behind romance sequences, and some rather on the nose script moments, but that’s more Larian writing lacking subtlety than anything else.

Characters hit on each other in banter more than other prior RPGs. Think you’re into them than prior RPGS. Come onto you more than prior RPGs. Some NPCs (even outside the brothel) prioritize sex in conversation when other plot points should take precedence (looking at Aylin, but Aylin also has a terminal case of Paladin-Brain, so it’s a bit better).

Sharess has 4-5 unique prostitute encounters, one involving multiple companions.

Ogre and bugbear sequence.

Emperor romance sequence, even if you decline.

Halsin being a sex slave for 2 years, casually.

Some of the goblins have pretty sus dialogue outcomes.

Trying to solve a murder? Get told you’re a sub in need of punishment.

Araj Oblodora being Astarion’s main character moment in Moonrise. Not overtly sexual, but definitely has undertones.

Mizora.

You are always free to say, "no" or to pick other dialogue choices making clear your intent to keep things on the 'friend' level instead of romantic.

Some want more, some want less, some want none. Can't keep everyone happy - personally I think they got it just right for the vast majority of those that will play the game.

You are of course free to hold your own opinions, but calling this game-breaking is a bit overstating the issue. You can always say, "no".

I didn’t call it game-breaking. I specifically said it wasn’t game-breaking, just slightly annoying.

Edit:
Also, I didn’t put down the list to say it was all horrible.

-I said it was a matter of personal taste and the game was somewhat too horny for me.
-Response to me said the game wasn’t horny.
-I provide examples of the game being horny.
-You said “Just say no.”

I AM saying no. Game is excellent, just slightly too horny for my personal tastes, and there are the examples.

I can't speak for others but for me the problem isn't in the amount of sexual encounters this game has but in the way it was all handled. When I play BG3 I cannot but feel its overreliance on sex/sexuality while not deepening other aspects of the game and human relationships/interpersonal dynamics like Zerubbabel mentioned in one of their previous posts.

Maybe it comes from Larians lack of subtlety mixed with not so stellar writing but outside of the main quest everything comes of as a joke. Its serious moments, its deeper moments are overshadowed by the constant barrage of sex jokes/sexual innuendos.

Add to that the mistake of making all of the companions player sexual and you've got yourself a sexually charged mess.

Romances have their place in RPGs but doing them the right way is not going to be easy, they are complex and if you ignore that you end up with what Larian gave us.

Papercut_ninja - I don't think the issue is with flirty banter or the player driven brothel scene in itself but more with that flirty banter happening after the relationship between the MC and the companion was already established and the words spoken during the brothel scene.

As for your statement of liking/wanting companions to be slutty and horny all the time lol, I think we're gonna disagree on that one but more power to you

I think Shadowheart it's okay with an open relationship (hooking up with other people) but not a polyamorous relationship (having relationship with someonelse).
We can argue that some thing should be said BEFORE starting a relationship (she is hurt if you hook up with Mizora because you didn't ask her), but I don't think she is written as "poly" because of Halsin.
The reason why only with Halsin you can have a sort of poly relationship it's probably because the possible combination among companions were too many. They could have handled it better, but I think they wrote SH as ok with open relationship... because that's who she is, simply enough.
But I agree that the player should be able to discuss this with the romanced partner (even just talking with SH and telling her that "You want to be 100% exclusive, no hook up or exception admitted" would be good. She seems okay either way actually).

The writers had no problem in writing strictly monogamous characters (Laezel, Gale, Wyll), if they wanted that for SH they would've done it.

I am over in the camp where in an imaginary world you can have both sexual tension as well as other deep story arcs and relationships. Whether the writing did that well or not I guess is up to personal taste. I can roll with having a character that is sensitve, romantic and horny at the same time.

I think some may be conflating Shart’s apprehension about emotional vulnerability and a committed relationship with a lack of interest in physical and social “exploration.” She has many lines indicating her interest in more creative experiences, but is slow to open up to the PC, as it is a more emotional experience she has in mind. I don’t think it is a contradiction of character. Poorly handled and lacking in consideration of player agency, maybe, but not a contradiction.

I think outside of a small minority, no one thinks it's game-breaking. But, as you can see on this and other threads some of us think it's not that well done. Some of the points the devs have addressed already, but basically it comes down to:

- Romance/sex giving you a lot of extra content in terms of scenes and dialogue you can't get otherwise. Friendship, group camaraderie, even banter is fa less well developed.
- At the start of the game it often feels forced/immersion breaking that literally everyone is hitting on you (you can decline, but it's still a bit weird). Personally for me - hitting on you half undressed was almost comically, cringe writing. It had to laugh. A real WTF moment.

It still love the game, I think it's great. I'm on my third playthrough (one Tav, one resisting Durge, and one evil Durge so far), but in my view it would have been better if they focused a bit less on romance and a bit more on other personal relationship types and group interactions. There is not telling if they got it just right for the vast majority of those that will play the game. It could be, but as long as we don't have data on that, it's hard to say either way.

I would have liked to see group camaraderie develop as you consistently picked companions for the active party.

Likewise, resentments develop as not picked.

Some stoic figures like Halsin might have higher threshold, and enthusiasts like Karlach, lower.

The thing that made me stop playing was Shadowheart and Halsin. I didn't even get to the part were she basically admits to you she likes him more than you (again, for what I've read, I haven't got that far), stopped mid act-2 after reading a couple of posts like this one.

Why in a ROLEPLAY game, where you're supposed to immerse yourself with your character and the story will something like this happen? Specially with those two characters. Most people (I assumed) will want to keep her on their party. Not just for her looks but also her storyline. Not to mention that after the prologue, she's (possibly) the first character you'll see. And Halsin is FORCED to join you. I never want him in my party. I play these types of games with a 2 people party set-up, so I did in DOS2 and so was doing here. It's a bit harder but is what makes it fun. Why would you force the interaction OP mentioned? I'm not supposed to explore the world (as far as I know, this happens on a brothel) to avoid this? It almost seems like a punishment for exploring to those who romanced SH and got Halsin on their party. Why put the polygamy shit to begin with? Those are very sensitive topics, not to be treated loosely on a videogame. At least in my opinion, of course.

Again, not to cry about a videogame but it kinda felt wrong, evil even. And I read she does that AFTER you finished her quest, is that real? Then is like, "I've used you and I don't need you anymore, F U". Doesn't seems to be a bug or a mistake, it's seems to be by design.

The biggest problem to me is that this is a ROLEPLAYING videogame, a niche. People who like this type of games like to immerse themselves in the fantasy, that's why you're roleplaying. And then she goes and do that, without the player consent? it kinda makes you not want to roleplay if you were doing it. It's a 180 to her character arc. The mistery and secretive character, who seems to guard her feeling from anyone. It's secretly a whore? lol. This outcome wasn't foreshadow (to my knowledge), otherwise I would't picked neither her nor would've saved Halsin.

Anyways, enough crying for pixels. lol. It even feels weird to complain about this. I need to touch some grass. Won't be playing the game in a long time (this type of games demand lots of your time). Sorry if somehow Ibsounded disrespectful. I was just annoyed that for what OP explained, I'll have to delete my save file.

To be fair, with all those bugs still in the game I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a false romance flag turned on that would only be active if your character is in a relationship with both Shadowheart and Halsin. It still sucks to read it, I don't think Astarion has lines like this where he fantasizes about Halsin. But you don't have to kill Halsin - you can just keep him in the camp and don't take him with you. Then the banter shouldn't come up. Yes, it is in the game, but like a lot of other dialog that you will only see under certain conditions it doesn't mean if you don't see it in your playthrough that it is still "canon" that it happened.

Still, nothing wrong in letting Larian know how this makes people feel. It will take a while but I still plan to romance Shadowheart in a future playthrough, but I will certainly not visit the brothel with her and Halsin....

Thank you for sharing your fan-fic with us. Very cool.

edit. awww you deleted it

Who knows but it doesn't looks like that. As OP showed, she's flirting literally after being with you, and that's another thing, characters flirting after being in a relationship with MC?

It doesn't seems to be a bug but bad/evil game design. Plus bugs doesn't work that way, they'll usually happen to a group of people, not everyone. In all the posts I've seeing people complaining about it, there's not even a single person that said they got a different answer or reaction. It's being made intentionally. Or so it seems to me.

I play games for entertainment, not to end up in a fetish/cheating plot. And as I said, is specifically cruel in a roleplay game.

But whatever, when I decide to play again she's gonna invade my camp and unfortunately die in the process and Halsin is gonna get killed by goblins.

I really thought this game would have been one for the ages, but I'm not so sure anymore (and not just for this situation with Shadowheart).

Some of the things you write seem to be not entirely true. Halsin isn't really forced onto you. You can kill him if you want as you write yourself, the game works just fine if you do.

Even if you have him in your camp, you do not have to have him in your party. I never took him along, so I never got the scene and dialogue between SH and him. If I'm not mistaken, you anyway would only get the scene for a foursome if you first ask for that yourself. If you shut down those drow from the start (or because seen from a PG POV, you are in a relationship as you say, maybe don't approach them at all, because it's clear they are prostitutes), you also wouldn't get that scene, even if you have Halsin in your party, or?

At that point of the story, Halsin's main part if over anyway, so even if you want a druid in your party, you can take Jaheira instead (who has more interactions in Act 3 anyway afaik).

If you romance SH, and you do not make a certain decision in the game to push her to wholly dedicate herself to someone else (but which is probably the most prior telegraphed plot point in the game, so no surprise there), she will not abandon you in the end. If I remember the ending correctly, it's the opposite, you kind of make plans what you'll do together after this is all over.

I also don't think it's ideal, but if you are bothered by it, you can avoid most of it.

Hey Man, I truly understand how you feel. I was romancing Shadowheart as well, and was so engrossed in her story that I really took my time to play and enjoy the game. I have seen so much crazy things in this world, relationship-wise that I for once want a good happy ending story. I also find gaming as a way to escape reality, and find solace from the fk ups of this world. Perhaps the ability to do that in game, based on the choices we the players make, is the driving force for me to continue playing the game and actually enjoy the game- to get the journey and ending we want. I did the same thing as you did, I save the game to explore other options, out of curiosity, but I always go back to my 'timeline', to pick the decisions I actually want. And let me tell you, when I was in that Brothel scene, and figured out there is no way to avoid that SH interaction with the drow twins or with Halsin, instead of probably not going to the Brothel, or even just killing Halsin. And the fact that it throws it in my face that SH is actually the opposite of what I thought she would be. Because when you do explore her story enough she becomes so loving and caring and will only want to be with you. And I imagine myself being with someone, who shares the same ideals, I would want to be with someone who cares and be as loving as her, in dark times, through thick and thin, fairy tail ending-stuff like that... But during that scene, everything just went out of the window and she did a complete 180. And I feel so betrayed. After that I could not bear to continue playing the game anymore. Like the desire I have to actually finish the game, and the enjoyment I get from it is no longer there. And yes, I am also glad I have somewhere I can post my thoughts about this, so I am glad to be in this forum, and seeing there are other people who have the same perspective as I do, makes me feel a bit better. But I am telling you, for 4 weeks now, I have not been feeling myself, anymore. I do not have the desire to do anything, my motivation just plummeted. I am not doing good at work. And at home I basically do nothing as well. I try to distract myself by playing other games or by entertaining myself with other media such as reading or watching movies, anime, but none are enjoyable to me. I guess one of the factors is that there are barely other games that can compare to BG3 as far as immersion, and I got too deep into the immersion part but got so disappointed at the end. I hope you find solace, the same way as I did, knowing that you are not alone, we are not alone. Hopefully, time will help us forget this, and that the future will hold something bright for us.

Well said man! I could not agree more. It's actually worse if you have been deep, and immersed, in her story already and figured it out too late. I wish I could do the same in game and "load" to an earlier time when I have not started playing or have known about this game at all, knowing it would turn out this way...