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

He says more than that, please take everything into account.

Who? Me? Oh... I mean... thank you *^_^*

About adding extra concent/scenes. As I said before:
- Halsin's pipe. Give it to him as present and have a dialogue or (in case if player didn't take it from Grove) you can have extra dialogue when you want to know him better. He could say that he used to have a habit of smoking from time to time and then get him new pipe.
- I love idea with Halsin interactin with pets and Yenna. I had an idea in my head that all of them could sit in a circle and listen to Halsin's stories, for example, about Thaniel. It would be such a heart-warming scene.
And plus what I've already told about your ideas (like, conversation about his experience in the Underdark), fully support.

Not true. I romanced him without having other romances. You don't have to have another romance beside him, but it feels better to just have him as fling (in my opinion of course).

You can't tell me they care about adding specific romances for minorities - everyone else is pan/player sexual. Why is there no asexual romance? Or does Wyll count as such? What about all other sexual orientations?

They obviously wanted him to fulfill player fantasies to have him together with other romances, which is why they had to pick some of the existing companions to make it work, although it isn't great for Astarion (seeing what he makes through at the time) and for Shadowheart seeing how slow her romance progresses.

So it was fanservice first - we know that, it was fanservice to add him as romance in the first place. And I think they wanted to make it work for those who want him as primary romance but botched it.

But as I said, I am out. I submitted feedback to them, I posted here and on reddit. There is nothing left to do. We are running in circles.

He flirts with other companions when you're romancing them, that's what I mean

Poly is a minority, I don't have to tell you anything about it.
Everyone is everything, there isn't much left.

Yeah, he can be whatever he wants, but him interfering in other relationships, after you reject him is what bothers me the most ( maybe it's a bug, i hope so), also when you don't romance Shadowheart there is no flirting between them.

In first two acts she breaks relationship when you even kiss another character, and states she doesn't want to share Tav, but in Act 3 suddenly she is ok with Halsin, it doesn't make sense.

It was funny at first. The man turned my camp into a psychological horror movie. The way he shows up right in your face after the party (and the romance scene in some romances) is a legit jumpscare. Then a couple nights later I'm standing there with a shirtless Astarion, trying to figure out his scars, and Halsin's just there in the background, in his skin tight camp clothes, watching us. Then he starts dropping hints about wanting someone. He's in camp and I can't make him leave. Oh, that someone is me. And Astarion should join, he says. Astarion, who has trouble doing this with anyone. Not so funny anymore. Let's just say Halsin didn't come back from his trip to the Undercity.

Cowline, what you wrote would be perfect and it would only involve minimal changes.
You'll be aware of what Halsin's been through before you encounter the drow twins. You don't get this serious topic dropped on you after you decide if you want to get involved in this scenario.
And at the end of the game it adds something that's meaningful. Something that's true to Halsin's character. He won't be giving up his ideals and you'll still have a meaningful connection with him. The way it's portrait now is that those are mutually exclusive, while throughout the game Halsin shows you they are not. He'll stand by you during the things you have to face, while also being romantically involved with you. But currently, when then this chapter is done he'll suddenly be done with you as well. While there being no sign at all that you don't have a connection with him anymore. And if people come to the conclusion it's because he's poly, then this is just a cheap excuse as a result of bad representation.

I also romance him and only him and I had no weird conversations (during his confession I asked no question about his "many lovers" I just went straight ahead to make my Tav to be with him because that's what I wanted. When you're in love you just act). However, when you ask him about relationships, his phrase (the first part) sounds odd. I mean, "Dude, you want only me, and I kind of understand your "fluid" thing but don't you thing that what we have *IS* relationships? Not standart but relationships?" it feels like this term makes him to cringe a little which doesn't really match his personnality which we saw in Act 1 and 2, it kind of breaks the image of adult, kind-hearted, wise guy who cares about you and sincere about his feelings towards us. He could've explained his view on love, sex, preferences before, when Tav wants to know more about him, but all we get is "I am 350 years, of course I had lovers", and then suddenly we learn what we learn.
All the weird lines I saw watching other people asking him questions during his confession.

They should make an option, that shouldn't be difficult.

Haha, yeah. Same if you romance Shadowheart, he'll go like "I want you, and with her participation." The girl who hasn't even slept with you yet, because she's going through a lot at that point and wants to wait for the perfect time. So then you, with either Astarion or Shadowheart, decide to F5 and let your curiosity get the better of you and see how put off they are by this response. After all, it's fun to find out, right? Because they should really be disgusted by the idea.

Lo and behold, their characters do a full 180 from what you expected and they're okay with it. Nay, supportive, even. F8 pressed. Immersion ruined. Rest of act 3 you just want the game to end. That's how I imagine it'll be for any poor soul who finds out mid-playthrough.

This whole thing with Halsin has ruined my relationship with Shadowheart. She wasn't even okay with you kissing someone else before, but because Halsin is extra special I guess she's suddenly excited about sharing and even screwing him.

It's comes out of nowhere and is blatantly on forced on her.

See, this is what I don't get. They obviously put this in last minute as fanservice - we all agree. And if Halsin is supposed to be this epicly handsome polyamorous guy who believes in fluid "relations" and free love and sex with everybody, how come he and Shadowheart (or literally anyone else for that matter) flirt or engage in any kind of sexual act or relationship when you solomance him? Shadowheart doesn't even talk to him or look at him. So crazy.

I found out that he suggests a relationship with you and your other romance option solely from other people and YouTube videos because this never came up while I was monomancing him.
This is so weird, start to finish. They should have never implemented the option to have three way romances with Astarion and Shadowheart. Especially considering what they both go through over the course of the story.

After everything Shadowheart and Astarion went through, they are most (emotionally) broken characters in the camp, i would assume they need stable relationship, but no they are suddenly (out of character) into sharing and orgies with Halsin.

That curiosity made top 5 of my stupidest reasons to F8. I thought Astarion would find it funny and then be secretly happy to know I'm not actually planning to do it. Well, he did pretend it was funny. And then didn't look ok with it, just afraid to say no because of obvious reasons. And the game didn't give me an option to tell him that I just wanted to let him know this happened and wasn't actually planning to sleep with Halsin.

Well, that's better than the Shadowheart scenario, at least. She instantly knows you're talking about Halsin (probably because she's already said no about poly with ANYONE ELSE in act 2, lol) and unlike in those scenarios in act 2, she's supportive of it. If you say never mind, she encourages you to go through with it anyway.. and wants the details. The followup dialogue choices to that all lead to rather disturbing responses.

And as others said, if you only romance Halsin, none of this happens. Suddenly nobody is interested in him and he's not interested in anyone else. Yet still, he's not open for mono. If they really want to push this terrible narrative, they should've allowed you to ask all other companions to join in, if Halsin is your only romance at that point. But they didn't, because they didn't think it through at all, he's just added in as a meme romance.

Astarion and SH probably really like Halsin, that's why they shouldn't have any problems with it, that's how I read the reasoning.

If they like him so much they should reject Tav and romance him instead, or even better when you don't romance them they should hookup with him instead, but of course, that doesn't happen, he interferes only when you romance one of them

Shadowheart gets annoyed when you invite Halsin to camp after finishing the shadow curse quest. She says something about him taking up too much space and sounds more than annoyed. And if you bring him into the gauntlet of Shar they get into a spat. So no she doesn't like him and that's not going to suddenly change 3 days later.

Absolutely nobody that you don't actively romance likes him, including Shadowheart and Astarion.

If you romance only Halsin, as I said, you should then be allowed to ask the other companions to join in, if he wants only poly and you accept that. It'd actually make MORE sense for Lae'zel and Astarion to tag along in that case, since neither of them will have emotionally opened up to you if you don't romance them. Lae'zel was, after all, open for casual sex in act 1, so if you didn't indulge then, she might still be up for it, and Astarion was doing so in act 1 for protection; now he can get both you and Halsin to protect him.

But again, they didn't do any of this. It just ends there. Because again, he's not actually a poly romance option at all. Just a meme one.