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

Yes, now speaking about representation: why the hell do people who are only attracted to women not get this option?

If Astarion, Shadowheart and Karlach are fine with poly, they should have been so from the beginning and not just because it's Halsin.

It's discriminating as hell.

And I will always value player freedom over anything else. This just seems extremely limited.

Elves aren't supposed to age until nearly the end of their lives (which Halsin is not at, he's about mid-life for an elf). Could be Ketheric is really, really old, or all that death and resurrection is taking a toll on him (or he's just a half-elf, not a full elf, which seems likely given the beard).

I don't care if Halsin is poly, he can be whatever he wants, what bothers me is him forcing himself on other relationships (Shadowheart and Astarion) even after you reject him.

Didn't finish Astarion romance yet, but Shadowheart never mentioned she was poly, she even breaks romance in first 2 acts if you kiss somebody else, but that all changes after final romance scene in act 3, she is suddenly "poly" (but only for Halsin).

And this is exactly the problem. How polyamorous relationships are portrayed and gated. It's awful.

And there's no introduction to it. You are just suddenly ambushed and you can't open up a proper discussion about what you may or may not be comfortable with, like maybe later but can we put a pin in this for now because I need some time to consider. It's just instant disapproval, you are boring and don't want us to have fun.

Wow, thanks partner who I gave my unconditional support and love through your deep personal journey, really considerate of you!

the drow scene could've done without that disapproval from shadowheart. that feels so...intentional. since other companions don't disapprove of it, heck, on my romance playthrough with halsin he did'nt disapprove when i turned down the drow twins. yet if you're not even romancing him and have shadowheart as your romance option both shadow and an unromanced halsin will disapprove. that is wild.

It's bad writing, and i didn't even know about Shadowheart poly situation until i read it here and other thread.

In my first playthrough Halsin was in the camp, didn't use him, didn't visit drow twins, so relationship was 100% monogamous, no mention of poly anywhere.

So i really think Shadowheart poly thing was included just because of Halsin, and it really doesn't make sense.

Yes, anyway the discussion has been done to death by now and it's hi-jacking the discussion from the people who actually want to have anything to do with Halsin. I'll just let that dead horse lie. Like you I have no interest in having Halsin in my party, ever, and I am not into roleplaying scenarios involving sex trafficking so I will never have this issue.

This is a good point: elections. In theory, role-playing games are about the decisions you make and their consequences for you and the world around you. At the level of relationships too. It is normal for us to complain: there are no decisions here and no consequences. I understand that a person in a romantic relationship with Shadowheart cannot go with Halsin, or that she would not have certain dialogue options although she would have others with Halsin and Shadowheart. What doesn't make sense is that a person in a monogamous relationship with shadowheart gets certain lines of dialogue. Either the player can't have a monogamous romance with Halsin by getting the lines of dialogue from him, or it's the main romance of him with cop with appropriate lines of dialogue. And of course: with an appropriate ending in main or mono romance. They said that in this game decisions would matter and in this romance, as in other points of the game, the important thing is a straight line in which it does not matter what your character does, says or decides.

By the way: only of the opinion that if a character is not liked by 80% of the fans who had requested it, it is a failure, and a big failure.

Hello to everyone here!
As a fellow, who romances Halsin, I just wanted to share some thoughts on this romance and, thankfully, there is a topic on this forum about this.
First of all, English is not my native language so I am sorry for any mystakes I can make.

I am a person who likes romantic options in games, especially I like romances with "good guys". I haven't played BG3 much when it was at EA stage, so I basically met Halsin, spoke to him a bit and that was it (in my playthrough goblins attacked Grove, I haven't foung him in their camp, I was just "touching" game and decided not to stick my nose everywhere so I had no idea where he might be. So Halsin appeared after the attack).
I knew he is from "good guys" team and I heard he is polyamorous/polygamous (I personally am monogamous). That didn't stop me.
Currently I am stil in a proccess (Act 3), I am romancing Halsin and only him and on one hand I am in love with this character and I feel he is in love with my girl Tav ( I had sex scene with him and I just can't stop myself from a small ritual before going to ben in camp: pet Scratch and baby owlbear and kiss Halsin goodnight). But I find his romance progression to be messed up at some points (yes, I understand that writer(s) had to work fast with him because of all the love Halsin got from fans).
So, these are my thoughts:

1. I think his romantic/sex scene and his confession should be moved to Act 2 (end of act or early Act 3). I am a patient person, I was ok with waiting for Act 3 to at last be with handsome druid, but still I think things should happen sonner.
2. His dialogie about polyamorous/polygamous/fluid relationships must happen in Act 2 before romance, when we learn more about him (his family, his love towards ducks, etc.), so a player can be ready that this one guy can be with more than one partner. It was akward to learn about his preferences when you hear him confessing his feelings to Tav: "Hey, I want to be with you, but also "bla-bla-bla about wolves and bears". It felt like an avalance. When I was playing I didn't ask him about such stuff just because at this very moment I, as Tav, wanted to be with him. For other players, who decided to ask him other questions, this dialogue option, I think, was not very pleasant, especially if they didn't know Halsin is into poly.
3. We need to have options for monogamous people in his dialogues. For example, when Tav is already in relationships with him there might be a discussion about this and, depending on decisions or something else it would be nice to have two ways: either Halsin remains poly and Tav is ok with this (if Tav is not ok with this than, I guess, it might lead to the end of romance) or because of some dialogues, actions, whatever, Halsin realises he wants to be only with Tav.
Now, there is a moment: during his confession Halsin says he want Tav to share their heart with them. When we speak with Halsin about relationships he says something like "You are all I want but I don't want to tie to myrself". I think we need, as I said before, options and changes of these dialogues. Halsin respects Tav and want them to be happy and if they are in poly relationships he can say what he says now about sharing happiness, and if our story leads us to him accepting monogamy this is where he can say" You are all I want, and no one else" or something like that.
4. Story of him in the Underdark *may* have some extra dialogues at camp before sleep if, for example, Tav is drow or half drow. In my headcannon my Tav (she if a half drow) feels horrible after learning such detailes and feels some *responsibility* for actions of her kin. She may come to Halsin and share her feelings that bother her, and he may tell her that he processed these events many many years ago, he doesn't feel traumatized anymore and puts no blame on Tav, and then he comforts her and everyone is happy.
6. Halsin's pipe. It needs to be included in romance with him (and maybe not only). Something like "Oh, I got your pipe! I didn't know you are a smoker, tell me about it". Or he can tell about his pipe he left in the Grove and Tav can buy him new one. Plus, I think it would be nice (not only for Halsin but for others) to have an option to make gifts for your love interest and for them to make gifts for us too.
5. As I said, I am still playing my firts playthrough but I already heard that epologues are complete mess and romance with Halsin has no logical ending, so yeah, it must be fixed, as everyone said many many times. I heard something like that happened to DOS2, so let's just wait.

well, here are my thoughts.

Astarion is clearly non-poly when you replay games and see more story options. It is frankly cruel that they have put pressure on that character's dialogue for deciding to be the most transgressive in video games at the last moment. With shadowheart it seems that he doesn't do much either and then he has dialogues that are of dubious taste for the player who has dedicated hours of play to cultivating shadowheart's romance.

A friend has killed him and saved the Tiflins only pointed out possibilities

The gifts thing is something I missed in this game, especially because it gave rise to additional dialogue and getting to know your companions better. Would be great

See, I maintain that if Karlach, Astarion and Shadowheart are good with poly, then that poly shjouldn't be Halsin specific. You should be able to date at least two of those at once! But I do believe that Astarion was a HORRIBLE choice for poly.

Just want to chime in and say the Karlach is also against the idea of sharing and/or she's also non-poly. I believe she only says yes to Tav about Halsin but just for the sake of not losing Tav. But she shows she's really not for it. I guess in the end I don't know which character is actually legit okay with it if I ignore Shadowheart's sudden last minute change in Act 3.

No, she isn't. None of them are. In EA Shadowheart was alright with Astarion, but that was canned? They could have done it with grace and respect, and instead with get the BG3 soap opera

Gifts was a thing in, for example, Dragon Age Origins, right gift could start extra dialogue, so I think in BG3 such stuff would be nice.

The poly discussion with Astarion is so weird, I don't understand who and why wrote it like that. You can tell him what Halsin offered you and he's obviously not fine with it, but the game won't give you a single dialogue option to say "I'm not gonna do it, just wanted to tell you what happened." Was at the top of my stupidest reasons to F8.

Actually, you have it! Only with Shadowhwart, afaik, but you do. You can give her two special gifts and gett additional dialogues for that.

Technically three if you count the Noblestalk. And uh, if you give her the Statue of Selune in the Owlbear Cave she won't be happy either, but no dialogue if I remember correctly.

Would've been nice if all companions got that kind of interaction really. I'm surprised nobody asked for that during EA. Perhaps part of the reason act 3 is so devoid of romance content, since people didn't show enough interest?