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

Indeed, great take

I suppose that's what Halsin would've been if they didn't change him last minute to be a joke romance. Only in a good run, of course, but I don't think an evil run deserves a friend!

People that say this type of content is not for you if you go monogamous route with SH or ,,just leave him at camp,, are missing the point, it is about writing, not about having feelings hurt because your fictional girlfriend is attracted to another man. There are a lot of dialogue options that most people would never choose in ironman playthrough, but they choose it out of curiosity to then f8 after. How many people would quick save and then choose the meanest dialogue option just to see npc reaction? And then actually liking (or disliking) character more , based on their response? Or not even liking, but actually learning something important about that character background/personality?

Having an ability to see ,,what if,, scenario is the greatest advantage that video games have when it comes to story telling over any other media type, so having an attitude that everything is fine when some characters do something completely contradicting to their previous behavior just because that dialogue option is not often choosen is kinda silly

What a shame, I thought Shadowheart's romance was so beautiful and well written, but after finding out about this you can't help but feel disappointed. They should reward the player for following a monogamous route with some additional conversation with Halsin or Shadowheart.

If they fix Halsin it will be much much better. Its really just Halsin thing.
Without rewriting I think Larian could do "bandaid" fix, something like that:
1.SH/Halsin banter removed (swim banter).
2.SH doesnt disapprove when Halsin is rejected at drow event. Or remove his self-insert(which is harder I guess).
3.SH disapproves(minor) when you cheat with Mizora. This would help with immersion a bit.

I could see my half wood elf Ancients paladin being bros with Halsin, if he kept his nose where it doesn't belong. But that just adds further frustration to this whole situation, because it could have been cool to get to know Halsin more and become good buds. It's just that most people aren't cool with their friends trying to bang their girlfriend.

He could have been the Varric we needed.

Disapproval system in this dialog in should be changed for sure. Gale and Astarion also suffer from approval system. Also one line in intimacy scene with drow twins and Halsin could be removed:

Agree on this. Also maybe Mizora cheat dialogue where she says about moments that were encouraged(for consistency), unless its intended as sort of coping mechanism(which I doubt).

They can't get rid of the Mizora dialogue though, because then their whole excuse for SH being down with casual sex (Halsin, drow, all of it) goes out the window.

I mean it's a weak excuse as it is, because it directly contradicts what she has said throughout the rest of the game. But they needed plausible deniability for the poly stuff to appear like it works.

I meant 1 line where she says: "The way I was raised, the way I was trained ..."
They could cut it.

But that's what I mean though. Throughout the game she says "I was taught to reject anything that didn't revolve around Shar" which would include casual sex and relationships, everything. She would have been expected to train and pray basically all day everyday.

But then with Mizora, they turned it around and made it sound like sharran teachings encouraged casual sex. It's like everything they said in the first 2 acts, suddenly is irrelevant, just to make room for her interest in casual sex.

I guess without rewriting this cannot be resolved at this point(Mizora excuse).

Well I just hope to at least get this:

Definitely agree.

I don't see why this can't be done. I imagine they'd be easy fixes for the devs.

We will see. there is also option to submit feedback: https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3#modal

Yeah I've already submitted a bug report. That was a couple patches ago mind you, so I should probably submit another one.

I can't believe all these patches they've done and it's never gotten fixed. I really really hope it'll be in one in the near future.

Given her personality around people she thinks are attractive as early as Act 1, removing lines and interactions that again are dynamic based on the individual player, because the origins can be different versions of themselves based on what you choose to do, this kind of "remove content because I think only a specific version of the character should exist" is just wildly against the design paradigm the character development is based on. It is far simpler to just... not do the things you find objectionable as a player, so that the character based on your choices is the one that matches those values. That's why Halsin's interjections are a huge problem, while her reaction about Mizora is... honestly totally fine.

I think some people may be reading the Mizora reaction wrong, honestly. It's not an excuse, and it if we wanna get into it, it actually does fit with Shar's training*. She's saying she understands your indulgence because she was trained to do the same, but still chastising you for pulling shit behind her back because you're supposed to be in a more serious relationship than that. It's a very forgiving stance yes, but definitely not the cheap excuse for her poly dynamic (or if I'm reading the posts wrong, whatever it's being called an excuse for) some are making it out to be.

*Like yes Shar wants everyone to be obedient and devoted to her above all but the gods mostly aren't able to take direct control over their subjects/worshippers like the Illithid can. To get entire communities, even brainwashed, to reject serious attachments and still be effective there's gotta be a lifestyle to support that. From Shar's perspective it's probably along the lines of sure, have casual sex, in fact do it as much as you feel like you need to as long as at the end of the day, you know when to stop and serve.
And I'm sure there's a big ol' argument waiting to happen about Shar's lore here but we're talking about why she doesn't smite every single person that's ever worshipped her on the spot here (especially one of her past champions) at this point because Shar IS that petty. The gods of Faerun aren't omniscient but they also aren't naive. It's also totally possible that the content of the training is the responsibility of the one providing/inflicting it, in this case a character at least passingly familiar with a society scale casual dynamic using more base treachery rather than direct memory manipulation to discourage attachments.

Personally I find her reaction about Mizora fine. I stated 1 Mizora line to be removed because somewhere in earlier acts she says the opposite(Personally I dont remember that dialogue or line) and thus creates inconsistency.
Pretty much everyone agrees here that the main problem and "catalyst" is Halsin.

Is it better to send it as bug report or feedback?>

My guess feedback is more suitable. But sending it as a bug won't hurt either.

You make some good points, however there's still a lot of confusion here. When SH says "I was taught to reject anything that doesn't revolve around Shar" I took that literally, with both casual sex and relationships. Why would Shar even allow casual sex when it could likely lead to more serious attachments, potentially causing them to stray from her or lose sight of their mission? I could imagine her followers sneaking around sometimes in secret though, but being fearful of being caught. Not because Shar (using Viconia) would kill them, but with mental torture, manipulation tactics, mind erasing or even just simply the humiliation of losing focus on Shar.

When you say "she understands your indulgence because she was trained to do the same" are you suggesting she was literally trained to have casual sex? Why would she be trained to do that, like for what purpose? To seduce selunites or something?

And I've never done the Shar SH path. But from what Ive read about it and seen on YT, I thought it was implied that Shar gave SH a bit of a pass as reward for her devotion. So that's why the player can still sort of be with her minimally at end. Had she not been given that pass, she wouldn't be allowed even a casual relationship with the player.

[Edited] i just rewatched the video and the sharran ending has SH breakup with the player completely. So Shar won't even allow a casual sexual relationship. This just reinforces everything I've been saying.

I could totally be wrong here, but this is how I interpreted the sharran stuff.

As for different versions of the character, that works for anything from the present (start of the game) onwards. Her back story should logically stay the same. We only learn of this casual sex training thing if we specifically cheat on her with Mizora, which is optional and not tied to SH's main story. So if they really wanted this to be part of her canon back story, why not add it in somewhere to her main story? Otherwise it gives the impression that it's specifically added in as a way to wave off cheating and encourage casual sex. But nowhere in her main story is this stuff even remotely suggested...

I think post Mizora scene lacks reactivity in general. Only Wyll disapproves. Romanced Karlach and Gale are broken but approval doesn't change. Romanced SH and Astarion could have slight disapproval as well.