Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Act 3 is rushed -- Main story is lacking -- Feedback

You touched on companion lacking any type of reactivity to your actions and in act 3 it's blatantly obvious with Dark Urge's showdown with Orin and choosing to reject Bhaal. Aside from our romantic interests having absolutely no reaction whatsoever after Bhaal offs us like rushing to our corpse, shouting, crying, shaking our arms, trying to resurrect us, anything at all! I found something truly... not game-breaking, no. Something truly CHARACTER BREAKING.

It is known that companions who have 2 distinct paths react differently to events - eg. Sharran SH vs Selunite SH (during Astarion's quest Sharran SH will approve of ascension while Selunite will try to talk both Astarion and the player out of it, to make it stop). Same goes for Lae'zel - her 2 paths are Vlaakith-sworn and Orpheus-sworn and she will have exactly the same reactions as SH (worded differently of course) to Astarion's ascension. Wyll and Karlach are 'goody-two-shoe' characters that will always condemn Astarion for ascending, so does Jaheira and Minsc. Gale is more pragmatic but on the good path of his (siding with Mystra over usurping Karsus' power) he will be strongly against Astarion's ascension. Then there is Halsin who's against it too and Minthara who's all for it. From character standpoint and their alignments (and alignment shifts) it makes perfect sense.

Now that we got that out of the way, it's clear ascended-Astarion and spawn-Astarion have 2 very differing outlooks on life post Cazador. Best exemplified here - in Astarion's reaction to Ailyn vs Lorroakan.

Asended Astarion has this to say:

While spawn Astarion has this to say:


Perfectly in character, right? Astarion has these varying responses to many of the encounters and quests in act 3, if he doesn't pitch in during them, he certainly does have something to say afterwards - best examples are - Araj Oblodra, Haarlep the incubus among many many others. And I am sure SH and Lae'zel have some of path specific reactions too. But then comes the Durge's personal quest which if you reject Bhaal plays out the same no matter what Astarion (spawn and ascended say exactly the damn same thing, no differences) you've got with you:


Alright then, maybe in the conversation afterwards he'll have something special to say that depends on his current path, no? WRONG AGAIN, have fun spotting the differences between these 2 screenshots:



He doesn't even deliver any of these lines differently (like he does with Haarlep). Lazy, incredibly lazy Larian. Shame on you.

Now I encourage other Durge players to try and see if your LI reaction (especially SH, Lae'zel and Gale) to this event is any different on the path chosen. I will be laughing my ass off if it turns out Selunite and Sharran SH has exactly the same things to say, just like Astarion does here.

But yeah, I am sure as hell ascended Astarion would berate Durge for risking their life like that. Like legit, it's this moment I realized that Durge must've been a pretty late addition to the game and has not been properly playtested for different scenarios like that.

Would also love seeing companions enter romantic relationships with each other if not actively romanced by the player as long as you drag them places and their romantic banters fire off. Loved seeing Dorian and Iron Bull hit it off in DAI for example. Or Sera and Dagna. The most obvious candidates for that, imho, would be Wyll and Karlach, heck, they even flirt in banters in act 3 and then that goes nowhere...