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

We are not in the business here of shouting down and shutting out other opinions, even when we think they’re in the minority. All forum members deserve civility and respect, and any opinions deserve to be heard as long as they’re expressed in accordance with expected forum standards. Though again I will encourage folk to recognise when their point has been made and not to repeat themselves. And also to not keep trying to get in the last word just because others still disagree. From the perspective of a neutral observer, there’s a fair amount of both been going on in this thread, from people on all sides of the debate.

And I say again, no personal insults. Any more such poor behaviour in this thread today will earn folk a bit of time away from the forum to take a breath and calm down.

SH wants Halsin, not everyone, it's just a game, don't be so angry.

Lmao you guys!

I don't think anyone has realized that you are being baited. Seho doesn't care, they got their fantasy fulfilled and anything you say is irrelevant.

(They are wrong but there is no point in getting angry about it, just give them one of these and move on)

To be fair it was quite obvious, but still a good opportunity to get some more points across.

Nothing better than crushing a troll with logic to convince those in charge, assuming they'll ever bother reading any of this let alone care about it, which is unfortunately highly unlikely.

Very funny... it's Larian's work and I think it's fine, that's all.

Folks, I’m getting a bit frustrated now.

If you don’t want this thread to get locked, or your account to be suspended, for a cooling off period, please treat your fellow forum members with civility and respect, understand that we will have different perspectives on the game and that’s fine, and try to engage in constructive debate that recognises the validity of different preferences. Try not to keep saying the same things again and again. And very definitely do not insult or pick on other forum members.

I'm not a troll and nothing was crushing.

Based on Reddit, it does seem like Larian correctly gauged the majority of their audience. I'll just keep holding out hope for a slightly changed epilogue scene, I don't think it's likely we'll get much more than that.

Not to sting the bee's nest, but does this rule include the above (I don't mean this quote) one-liner flame baits with practically no substance? Because there's a lot of them, all from the same person.

Either way, I do believe all that can be said has been said.

And by that same token nothing about Shadowheart's interactions with him will be changed either. One of the most top voted posts is praising it and it's so disgusting. I just wanted a monogamous relationship with her and it's what the game leads you to believe you're getting but Reddit begging for this worthless character to be added to the game has ruined her.

I'd wager a large portion of reddit users are not playing the game for roleplay but rather just run around with their characters naked doing random hijinks for shits and giggles. Which is fine; to each their own. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's also a large, quiet, less invested audience that just lost some immersion from this scenario and then went on to the next game after finishing Baldur's Gate 3. Those are not the type of people who tend to browse forums or reddit.

I mean its reddit

Remember entering a thread about the whole Shadowheart issue and clicking on a few posters there. Oh boy did I have a laugh. One of the user had a banner 'porn is life' and was asking for more 3d animated sex scenes in video games lol.

Reddit is an echo chamber that views the game through a positive lens and anyone that disagrees is downvoted. Then you have /v/ and /vrpg/. Those guys you can say view it through a negative one, seeing how for the past two months there were up to fifty threads daily about the whole Shadowheart/Halsin thing. RPG Codex, well they are RPG Codex lol. Steam was a battlefield so 50/50 and YouTube comments when it comes to sex scenes are also split.

So you might have some luck in getting what you are asking for but you never know.

ps. As loud and sometimes obnoxious these kind of topics/fights can get its good to remember that they are still a minority. Majority of players don't post on forums/reddit/4chan etc. they just play the game and move on. (or should I say they don't play the game seeing how the majority of them still haven't even finished act 1)

Yeah everyone. It's just a story that is meant to be enjoyed and everyone can experience it differently. There's no divine rule that governs how you imagine your own story and the characters within your game. Shadowheart is especially flexible and can be experienced in many different ways: dark justiciar Shadowheart, Selune Shadowheart, exclusive romance Shadowheart, open relationship Shadowheart, friend and companion Shadowheart, hostile enemy Shadowheart. There are clear pathways letting you steer the experience in these different directions (with one problematic caveat, see below).

Halsin having a much smaller role as a companion is not as flexible with all these different paths available for him.

Now the caveat: I strongly oppose that there is a scenario involving Halsin where you can unintentionally trigger an experience with a very toxic and inconsiderate situation involving Shadowheart and Halsin that crosses the boundaries of informed and active sexual consent into (attempted) manipulated and coerced consent. That doesn't sit well with me and unfortunately Halsin is at the heart of this problem, because his presence is the catalyst to this uncomfortable situation. This is not a fair representation of Halsin or Shadowheart and very inconsiderate towards the player and I don't want any form of manipulated, assumed or coerced consent in the game.

Man, I hope this doesn't sound insane, but I made an account specifically to vent about this! I didn't know so many people felt the same way! I've been reading through this thread the last couple of days and I really agree with the majority here.
I went into this game completely blind (I knew the basics, of course) and I've had my heart set on Halsin since Act 1. I roleplay pretty conservatively and I thought a noble, kind druid would fit my Tav perfectly.

I'm giving you the perspective of someone who went into this game totally blind - I had NO idea that he was polyamorous and he didn't hint at it at all or give me any kind of "vibes". Matter of fact, I thought he was the type of guy to be super "obsessed" (think about his monologue where he says when he has his heart set on something, he can't forget about it, and such) and I was super excited to start the romance in Act 3. I was flabbergasted when he dropped the bomb on me! I turned down literally everybody else and didn't even engage in mild flirting because I though he would be mad at me! I'd just hit the 100 hour mark on my playthrough and I felt, to put it simply, bamboozled. It was like I'd been played by a fictional guy and I literally had to turn off the game for a while after this because it really stifled my enjoyment. It didn't match my Paladins attitude at all.

Worst of all, when you ask how the relationship is going, he absolutely refuses to properly define anything and doesn't even give you a proper answer? Like, "oh, I feel great" or something. Just a weird, disingenuous monologue about how relationships are a "civilised" term and how the word is foreign to him? I had to roll my eyes at that statement...

I don't have anything against a healthy polyamorous relationship in a game like this, but the way this was handled was too sudden and shoehorned. I agree that this seems either like on-the-nose fanservice or a personal kink being worked into this game because it doesn't fit Act 1 + 2 Halsin at all. I hope Larian sees the reaction that people have about this and at least patches in some kind of compromise-y line for your Tav to say. Felt odd to just agree without adding my Tav's 2 cents. Okay, rant over!

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Exactly. This is a majot issue. I have been asking for his romance as a "wholesome and longterm romance" for 3 years. And when he was added as fanservice I was so happy. I honestly feel cheated.

I'm usually the kind of player who finishes a game and moves on. I mean, there a reason I don't remember anything of the story or characters from BG 1-2 even though they are some of my all time favorite games. I just didn't care enough to pay much attention. I rarely do. Often times, if I like something, I can do a couple of searches on Google to see if there are any plans to make DLCs or what not, but that's about it. When I finished BG3 however, I had a profound sense of wanting more. There was something different about this game and I ended up on the forums and noticed that I wasn't the only one who felt both incredibly happy with the game, but at the same time disappointed of all the things that were lacking.

So, I'm also one of those who eventually made an account specifically to vent about my disappointment about Halsin because the way he ended up wasn't what I had expected. I didn't know much more about Halsin going in to the game than what I remembered from EA, and that was that I liked this dude and hoped to see more of him. For me, there was nothing at all that warned be about how he would turn out, and by the time I'd rejected everyone else and I finally advanced the romance with Halsin, I was just like "shit, I should have gone with Gale, after all." But by the time the game lets you know what kind of romance Halsin will be, well, it's too late to find someone else.

I'd say most players are still like I used to be, play and move on to new things, and those won't share their thoughts even if they didn't like certain things.

Actually, you can find just as many threads who show the opposite. Discord also have daily complaints about this, articles keep saying that Halsin is one of the most unsatisfying romances in the game. So, we just have to keep making noise, I suppose.

If they care about the 1%, then that applies to us. It applies to me as a demi-sexual as there are less than 1% demi sexuals in the world.

That's why I keep posting. LOL. Just want them to realize that this is something that many people are having issues with, and I hope they will at least acknowledge the feedback to begin with.

Most complaints are about the ending, Larian shouldn't listen to everyone.
It's refreshing to have a companion we can't manipulate.
It seems to me that people want to have their way, the companion's lifestyle doesn't matter.
Halsin is the only poly companion, he wants to be free and at his age they should respect that.
If they want monogamy, all other companions have it, they have enough choice.