Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Shadowheart Romance and the Hidden Fetish - (Spoilers inside)

I think you'll find that the most common complaint by a long shot is that there is not enough act 3 content for origin companions, romance or not, including epilogues. But there's little more to say there other than "Hey, we want more." so it's not a point of discussion. Well, except the Karlach thread, which is bigger than the rest combined and talks specifically about her lack of content, not her sex scenes being out of place.

I also think the lack of racial diversity in the cast is unfortunate. Helia would've been a welcome addition. But to slight the personalities of the ones we have.. well, I find them to have great personalities, in no small part thanks to the excellent work of the voice actors/actresses. Them having a bad personality is a take I'd expect someone to have when they killed them all before reaching the grove because they question your decisions at the start. I like that, I want to be questioned. Give me pause to think about what I'm doing.

Ah, yeah, that much is true. It's just unfortunate that in some of those cases they add backstory to them, meaning that it's impossible to tell if it was merely there as a porn script to appease the hornies or canon. With that in mind I almost prefer the Emperor/Haarlep situations, where your companions don't even acknowledge it. Therefore those are completely ignorable as porn and nothing more.

I agree they are. I will tell you the story from my playthrough though.
So here I am at the start of act3 enjoying content here and there, exploring area. It happened that I found Sharess caress. After exploring this area I talked to drow twins and out of curiousity did conversation with them(Dont worry I saved just in case). Shadowheart responded that she prefers my character all for herself at least for the first time, I remembered that. Then there were 2 long rests. 1 I got Shadowheart romance scene and 2nd long rest Halsin "proposed" himself, I instantly declined him obviously(It was generally good playthrough with SH mono romance, I declined Mizora/Haarlep/Emperor/Halsin). Then I tried to return to Sharess caress and see what happens... Can you imagine what I felt when I got that conversation?And disapproval after that.

Yes, I have acknowledged that there is a mess there, several times.

Don't confuse my comments about things in general with dismissing specific situations.

The issue I have with the Halsin, SH and Astarion is how different it is if you romance Halsin only but neither of them. According to several ppl in the Halsin forum, Halsin shows no interest in SH or Astarion, nor they with him. But as soon you romance SH or Astarion, Halsin is suddenly interested in them, and they with him.

It makes zero sense. Why can't I just simply romance SH without the forced Halsin stuff? Like she doesn't care about him at all unless you are dating her. It is beyond bizarre.

That means she would have no interest flirting or having an orgy with him by herself. It's only when we're involved she wants this apparently...

None of the other companion romances come with this baggage. Which is unfair to those of us who wanna date SH or Astarion only. There's no reason they need to come packaged with Halsin.

So one can solo romance Halsin, but one can't solo romance SH or Astarion. How convenient.

Hmmm. Why aren't there more options for Poly? If Shadowheart is okay with Poly, why just Halsin?

I considered Karlach as a second partner, in part because, well, she's going to either die or go to Avernus, neither of which is great. Let's bring her in.

In fact, if you've had wine with Shadowheart and then let Karlach have you, you can actually offer Poly. But Shadowheart will step aside and say Karlach deserves your full attention.

This is tangential to this thread, but I discovered you can assassinate Halsin in Act 3 camp without repercussions.

I had Astarion the assassin mark Halsin with mark of piercing vulnerability before using the umbral shortsword's power to strike and remain concealed. Halsin was killed out of hand, 150xp, Gale grew temporarily hostile but calmed down after not finding the attacker.

Speak with dead is a bit broken, Halsin's corpse talked about a female Drow killer and unsolved mysteries at Moonrise towers??

Journal said we still had Halsin as an ally for the finale, maybe that'd update,? Or Halsin would resurrect. Who knows?

Packed Halsin in a barrel. Threw water to clean up...

And then reloaded. All a bit silly really. Still, nice to know there's a de-Helsinize camp option.

Which again proves how inconsistent this whole situation is. Someone claimed that Shadowheart is just attracted to muscular bodytype, thats why she "likes" Halsin, however Karlach is also muscular bodytype but she refuses to share with Karlach.

I wonder if you can hit Halsin to the point where he leaves camp because of low approval. I believe if you repeadetly hit companions they will disapprove. So lets say heal and hit heal and hit again until he reaches -100 approval and leaves, need to try that lmao.

Usually that would be because someone is Poly but also straight. But every companion in this game is bi, so that can't be it either. Shadowheart semi flirts when you get Karlach and mentions she's big enough to carry her off if it is needed. There seems to be some kind of interest. But you the player can't do anything with it..

Lol We shouldn't have to do all that though. They could just give SH and Astarion the solo option we deserve and that fits with their story.

It's just so disgusting to me that they reduced SH (apologize for my language, I don't know how else to put it) to a wh*re. But there are people who like it. I have no idea how many in comparison to those who don't.

I was a looking at the comments in the hotfix the other day on steam. One commenter was wondering if there's beastiality why there isn't rape and was asking for the option. Like some people are seriously so gross.

There is a bit of exaggeration, shes not like that, she wont cheat on you or anything like that. It's again just Halsin/SH shitty situation.
Dark justicar route fits poly though. Selunite obviously not.

Selune isn't Sune or Sharess, but there's no indication she's monogamous either. Aylin never mentions her father, and I bet she has half siblings.

I wouldn't necessarily say it fits poly, more so just casual sex. But that is in line with sharran teachings so of course SH would embrace it as a dark justiciar.

Shadowheart's behaviour implies that she is monogamous. She will deny any poly offer in act1-2 and act like she only needs your character anyway(specifics you can check in first post of this thread), selunite Shadowheart that is.
Its almost like she got shoehorned into all that stuff with Halsin(I think devs knew that majority of players will redeem her anyway or didnt separate shar/selune route for her or they forgot or it may be even bug).

My original point though was how we are forced into this situation with Halsin if we choose to date SH or Astarion. Halsin can be romanced without SH and Astarion.

So you can bring Halsin and SH to the drow twins and it won't turn into an orgy if Halsin is solo romanced. He doesn't offer her to join, neither does she try to join. Because she isn't interested in him. So why does it turn into an orgy if I date SH alone? It's so forced and gross, I hate it.

It seems player agency is respected with a solo Halsin romance but isn't respected in the slightest with SH.

Oh I know. I tried to open Poly with Karlach act 2 and reloaded when i realized it wouldn't work

Because she wasn't designed for Karlach, only Halsin. God forbid we got to actually choose who we have an open relationship with, if that's what is mutually consented upon by SH and the player. But nope, only Halsin. It's the Halsin show.

Karlach would have been perfect too. There's no female option for players who are straight men or lesbian.

Shadowheart and Karlach would make more sense and just be better overall. Doesn't feel shoehorned in, Despite herself, Shadowheart, saying that seems natural. Karlach does also come of with her as a battle sis (bro?) too, they bond, when entering the Blighted Village they speak about something etc.

Heh. Maybe in the event of a 3some you have to roll a con save to satisfy them both.

Not a fan of poly or sharing with Halsin or anybody else, i just hope they remove Halsin interactions if you are not romancing him.