Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Fix Romances!

Having friendship talk options, like in BG2 would of solved so much.

Yes, please.

That will sort it all out. I'm a female, I always play female character and I have no interest in other females. Let people choose during the character creation if they want to be locked to their preferred orientation or be bisexual.

I absolutely agree. The male companions are terribly written in terms of the fact that they are entirely unrepresentative of male friendship and companionship. There are so may weird implications of dialogue lines, longing looks in to your character's eyes and strange proximity. You may say that this happens between heterosexual man at points but this always in jest or as a manifestation of power plays not sincere as it is coded in this game. Larian has just decided to do away with male friendship in the pursuit of player sexuality. Halsin will not quit for me and it makes him so pathetic. Wyll's awkward dance scene is even more absurd than I expected it to be. Bring on mods and fully customisable hirelings because I'm not doing another run with these strange little puppy dogs.

I was going to say this same thing. Maybe it's because I'm a woman, but I'm terribly used to unwanted people insisting on flirting with me, and I just say no. In fact, some insist even when you tell them no, so in reality I see it as quite realistic and it doesn't spoil my immersion XD

If anyone's complaint is that the companion's behavior in regard to romance needs attention, that's fine, I agree, but making out like the current state of it is damaging to straight men in specific is going off the rails and turning this into a whole nother issue that is just full of nonsense that just seems to take away from the main point.

It made sense that Astarion tries to come onto you because it's quickly clear he's trying to enthrall you as a vampire, it made sense Lae'zel quickly comes onto you because she is an otherworldly alien with apparently different sexual come-ons, but anyone else coming onto you so quickly is especially off-putting and unwelcome in most instances. Personally, I found Gale's romantic route took a long time to work through, in a realistic way. I don't know why exactly people are finding he's coming onto them inappropriately but having experienced the same thing with plenty of the other companions from Shadowheart to Minthara to Wyll to Karlach, I get the complaints in that simple regard. Let's stop painting out like straight men specifically playing this game are at a special impasse that defies someone's perspective on real-world cultural behavior or offends in a way that deserves special catering to.

I disagree that a solid solution is limiting things like Dragon Age went about it. Why? Because the only way to make as many people as happy as possible is to avoid cementing strict sexualities to romanceable characters in a game. Because even though realistically most real people do have set sexualities, that completely defeats the purpose of a major aspect of this game being accessible to most anyone. That's like taking the routes you can go about in the main story and applying a bunch of overtly realistic limitations throughout any given path. It's far too discriminating despite potentially providing more immersion. It's not how a game like this should have to be played.

The suggestion someone made of you setting your Tav's sexual preferences makes more sense than the Dragon Age approach. But I still think just more properly handling of whether or not your path gets a companion character interested in them romantically is the most logical route.

Yea, I guess, it'S no wonder, it'S mostly men complaining here, because we women are sadly used to that in real life. At least Wyll and Gale get the hint (not Halsin though - he is the perfect despiction of a 'nice guy'). So if the game does one thing, maybe men playing it and are put off by the unwanted attention might think twice before hitting on a woman again, just because she is friendly

It's a way to teach a lesson to men, I guess, but I don't think BG3 should be a learning tool.

But yeah, men are more sensitive than women when it comes to the same sex relationships. It's not their fault though, it's in their biology. There have been studies made on the subject and the way a straight man's brains instinctively react to a picture of two men kissing isn't flattering. Doesn't mean it makes them hate gays, at least not the normal guys, but they can't help it if it feels uncomfortable and nothing in this world can change that which is deep in biology. We've got to just accept it and move on. Thus I don't act judgementally when I see guys complaining about things being forced on them (and I'm not saying you do either), because they have a right to do so and it doesn't make them bigots.

Games are supposed to be escapism, for women too, and if there is a good intentioned lesson included to normalize things that people might not be inherently used to, the way to do it is to show it in a normal light. Companions in BG3 doesn't seem to act normally, thus the apprehension. But I don't think any of it is intentional, it's just poor game design and people want Larian to fix it, rightfully so.

And lastly, if a game is supposed to be accessible to most anyone, then I think it should take in to consideration most of the people who are buying the game. I'd suspect that it's possible that players in BG3 might be close to 50/50 men and women, but about 99% of them are straight, or if we're being very very generous and take in to account only USA, and the supposed change in sexuality, even then the straight people make at least 92,5% of the player base and some of them are bound to be alienated by the same sex relations that the game is pushing, most likely unintentionally.

If we take in to account the 'openness' to new things factor, which again is about 50/50 in people, I'd say that about, at least, half of the men aren't going to be comfortable with the same sex approaches. That means at least 23-25% of the player base at minimum doesn't like it, which is more than double the people who might actually enjoy the same sex flirting. Ironically, unsatisfied people are much more than that, because many women don't want to be hit on by other women either, and I see no reason why gays would want women companions overly come on to them and vice versa for lesbians. So who are the romances for? Strictly bisexuals? How many of them are in the player base?


Obviously I'm not doing exact science here with my estimates of percentages, but they're pretty close to truth and I'm also not saying that a game needs to exclude anyone, in fact, I'm saying the exact opposite, and right now the game is kind of excluding most of it's player base. It won't stop people from enjoying the game, but it might stop them from enjoying romances, which I at least consider a major thing in today's RPG's.

Even if I do feel like having everyone hit on you is a little too much, most of them do take no for an answer, so I don't really feel like it's that much of a problem.

- Shadowheart had never bothered be after telling her no. Once I even allowed her to share wine with Tav one night at camp because she didn't exactly say it was a romantic thing, then I simply chose to toast to friendship, and there was clear disappointment in SH's voice then and there, but she toasted back and then that was it. We were friends.
- Same with Karlach, you can just chose friendship options.
- I told Wyll no, too, and he hasn't brought it up. First round I played, I recruited him quite late too, and he never even came on to Tav at all.
- Astarion has never bothered me after a quick "no" either.
- And Gale, well, Gale is kind of bugged a little in this matter I think. He's a bit pushy to be honest, but at least he's cute about it (not like Halsin). I told him "no magic" and still he returned at a later stage telling me how he'd read about how people could get horny after fighting or something, implying that he wanted something more with Tav. Then I had to break up with him, but that was probably my fault too because I just said "screw it" and chose "I could have written the book". Never mentioned being horny for him though, he just assumed. LOL.
- And Halsin, well, I haven't been able to tell Halsin no. *shame on me* But I will. Next time, I must do it. Unfortunately, I already know he, of all people, is the one who won't take it well.

Men are men as an excuse? Well, I'm not getting into what I'm thinking of it, because the mods are gonna cry.

But I wonder, why straight people are always feel threatened, if a game character of teh same sex makes an advance. As people pointed out, in most cases (apart from Halsin) you just can say no, problem solved.
I'm a not straight woman and I don't care for Wylls and Gales advances, I just tell them no and problem solved. People should relax a bit more, it's a game. Halsin, I just flat right ignore after his quest.
I said that comment with the learning curve with a smile, because I know, that most people wouldn't see it that way. But still , I have to laugh at all the comment about Gale coming at you, just because you are nice.

Men are men isn't an excuse though, it's a fact of life. I don't see it the way that people aren't relaxed. I don't think anyone is going crying to sleep, because a weird man in a game made advances on them.

People just want to enjoy a game, but as to your question why straight people feel 'threatened', I don't think it's like that. They're not afraid per se and calling them 'threatened' isn't accurate, and I don't think they secretly fear that seeing gays makes them gay either, it's just biology.

My point being, people are what they are, some are straight, others arent, some are more open, some aren't, but the way people are is the way they're born. Why would you want to change men? There are plenty of hostility towards men these days, but I don't see why. If people are blaming what some might call 'patriarchy', than in it should be taken account that it only constitues a miniscule amount of men in the world who are in power. Most men, in the western world at least, are quite accepting and they have no more power than women.

Here's a story. I have a gay friend. He looks like a biker, I don't mean Tom of Finland kind of 'biker' but a genuine one, beard, long hair etc. Didn't come out of the closet for a decade. When he did, guess what, no one cared, and these weren't your typical liberal men, they were the kind of men a sensitive person would look at and think toxic masculinity. Ironically women didn't like it and got mad at him, but that's neither here nor there. Point being, I don't see what an average man has done to anyone. There are assholes, but that's the way the world is, but most men mind their own business and I don't see why they shouldn't have a little romance in a game of make believe.

If something doesn't bother you, that's you, not everyone is like you. Should they be? Doesn't matter, you can't change people anyway.

Judging by some comments here and on other platforms, some people feel threatened. And as I said, I won't go into real life stuff too deep, since the mods asked to leave that out.

I just don't like the word 'threatened' because it implies that there is FEAR involved. Being uncomfortable doesn't involve fear, but that's semantics.

I don't want real world debates either, and I have no emotions invested in this matter. I stated what I stated as objectively as possible and there is hard scientific evidence that backs the things I said about human biology. I also don't have chip on my shoulder towards any group, but that includes straight males, so I felt a need to speak for a group that tends to get the short end of the stick these days, and I am sure you disagree with that sentiment, but we'd probably disagree on many issues.

If you can agree on the fact that romances in BG3 need a rework then that should be enough, or you can disagree, I don't care either way.

I play strictly female characters and I don't care if a female flirts with her, I actually had a lesbian romance in Dragon Age 1, but I do have a problem if everyone is after her. That breaks my immersion. I actually haven't yet played the game. I follow these boards in the hopes that the three issues I have with the game at the moment are fixed, so that I can enjoy it fully. One is romances, the second is game difficulty, the third is presets (though I found some mods, so it's not that important to me anymore.) Anyway, I think I've said everything I had to say on the previous posts. I've already writter more than enough, but I had nothing better to do at the moment.

I ask myself what exactly would have stopped Larian from implementing character sexual preference?

And the answer I get is the Emperor, who is an it. And the bear, which is a male kind of it. And difficult choices that make players squirm. I can appreciate these reasons and uncompromising design philosophy. And I can also appreciate avoiding yet more toggles so the game could actually be shipped.

The amount of male come-ons are still borderline ridiculous, 'Gale got shot down, Halsin flat rejected, but maybe my ballroom dancing will win him over,' and I've every right to say so. This is a critique for Larian.

I 100% agree.

And I don't appreciate someone telling me that my lack of enjoyment/entertainment in this regards means I feel threatened. It's unnecessarily insulting.

1. I'm not threatened.
2. I have zero interest in male/male relations.
3. I'm not bothered by people hitting on me without my consent. In real life or in a video game.
4. That said, I do not continue to engage with folks who do that. In real life or in a video game.
5. It ruins the companions for me because I no longer want to talk to them or even have them in my party.
6. I don't enjoy the way the scenes put the characters so close together and have them looking at each other with adoring eyes. It's entirely out of character in my playthrough.
7. Simply put, it breaks immersion. It's absolutely unrealistic.

Too many creators are tripping over themselves trying to showcase a world where everyone's open to whatever. The characters and the story and the setting all suffer for it. There is no moral feather in turning a blind eye from reality.

I truly care about the art of the story. And this remains my number one critique to Larian.

To add to the discussion. I like all the companions, some more, some less, as it usually is. I even want to do a playthrough of female Dark Urge/somebody else and then hook them up and I am straight white guy.

Having said that, the sheer number of gay characters in the game, which often feel forced or added just for the sake of it doesn't make me pleased to see that. It doesn't help that all companions are player-sexual. Would it be too much to ask for 1 or 2 characters that are not player-specific? For example making Shadowheart only attracted to men (though Half Orcs could have harder time, similar to Drow having a bit of a reputation), while Gale/Wyll/Halsin anyone really could only be attracted to females.

When I was romancing Shadowheart as a male Gnome and still had Wyll offer me a dance, I felt insulted. Because it felt like my choice of romance partner wasn't respected. It's something that companions should get. If you romance a character, other companions should get A BLOODY HINT!!!

It gets worse, as many important characters you interact with turn out to be gay for some reason: Isobel, One of the Deep Gnomes in the Grymforge, Omelum and his Hobgoblin partner, just to name a new. It often doesn't add anything to the game and only seems to distract from it. While I don't see Larian making preference specific versions of the game, would it be too much to at least add a setting: "Limited lgbttv content".

This isn't me bashing any gay people or having something against them, but in general I think that there is a way to add men-to-men, female-to-female romance without making it obnoxious or trying to score some points with LGBTTV community. Anyone remembers how Activision director came out on stage wearing a pride pin on his chest, before his news about Diablo Immoral or 4, can't remember at thin point?

As for good written gay characters, allow me to introduce Arcade and Veronica from Fallout New Vegas. Great characters first and foremost, who you only learn that they are not into opposite sex, by actually getting to know them better. Plus in 2010, they had plenty of characters like this, but if you wanted to interact with them in a bit of more romantic way, you needed a perk. So, it stands a reason, we should be able to toggle it in a setting.

Gay Men/Confirmed Bachelor:

Confirmed Bachelor Perk showcase

Gay Females/Cherchez La Femme:

Cherchez La Femme Perk Showcase

The irony of this scenario is that it encourages a reductive view of masculinity. Any interest in background or thoughts and feelings is misconstrued as romantic interest in the male companions. So the best option for a heterosexual is to not engage lest you be thought of as gay... pretty much the chief driver of men failing to engage emotionally made manifest in a video game.

So you fucks are the reason why my game is broken and I can't romance Gale, thanks a lot. You were so triggered over having to possibly be mean to a video game character that you had to ruin the game for real life people ugh. Thanks Larian for giving us the homophobia patch for these dudes.

Okay, just seen this last bad tempered contribution to this thread, and looking back I see it started off bad tempered.

Given its unpromising start and that it just seems to be treading ground already well covered in, eg, https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=905685, I’m going to lock it.

Folk are welcome to add new thoughts there instead, but not to be heated or insulting.