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

Ive been mulling over how exactly all of this can be fixed practically speaking. I want to post what I think Larian can do just incase any of the team may be reading this thread.

There seems to be no getting around it: rewriting has to happen, mainly in act 3. This is going to be time consuming and expensive for Larian to do. But I think it is possible. With some tweaking of what we already have they can minimize the amount of new content theyd have to produce. I wanna share what I think they could do as as far as narrative structure and flow and his character based on his dialogue and actions in acts 1 and 2.

Now for clarity, Im a little unsure as to where exactly act 1 ends and act 2 begins, so for convenience Im just going to talk about both acts either as a whole or based on their regions when necessary: crash region, mountain pass, underdark, grymforge, and shadowlands. Act 3 will just be act 3.

The only thing that needs to be cut entirely is the whole drow thing. The dialogue you get only seems to trigger if you bang the twins, which not everyone is gonna do anyway. It doesn't add anything to Halsin's character and wont be missed, Astarion trauma is more than enough for us to handle I think.

The whole poly thing is both an issue and not an issue. Halsin could still have the poly option, it really just shouldn't be a defining personality trait for him; it may be lore accurate for his race, but most of us agree its not very lore accurate for Halsin himself as an individual. And its even worse when you couple it with the predatory and promiscuity behaviors. The poly relationships really should center around Tav, not him. As I said before, when he offered it felt like he wanted to be mono with Tav but wanted Tav to keep the relationship they already had if that was Tavs wish. Him being "experienced" also conflicts with how he is portrayed in the first two acts, so this really needs to be pruned down significantly. Honestly the whole thing is so messed up though Id rather they just cut the poly thing all together along with his stupid bear form in the sex scene.

That being said, there does need to be a little bit added to acts 1 and 2. But it doesn't have to be a huge amount. I really liked the longing and anticipation Halsin starts up in the shadow cursed lands, promising interest but needing to wait until business is done and Larian can use this to monopolize on the lack of content in the beginning, but we do need more in some places and can easily do with less in others. Halsin is with us on too much of our journey for him to only open up AFTER we rescue Thaniel, romance or no romance. We need to be able to get to know him at least a little bit long before that. Maybe they can record new dialogue, maybe they can move some of his shadowlands dialogue over to before that and/or record some new dialogue where hes commenting on events that are happening along the journey. For example he didn't have ANYTHING to say after we talked to Gales Grandad when everyone else did.

We also need to have some sort of one on one cutscene with him after the party, just one at the bare minimum, that for narrative flow should take place in the underdark or grymforge, at some point. If they can do more than one Id like one in the Mountain Pass because the environment is begging for some Tav/Halsin admiring the scenery together. The only thing Tav and Halsin have to bond over is that Tav saved the grove, and is gonna help Halsin lift the curse, and in return Halsin helps with the tadpole. That's it. Its enough I think to spark an interest, and mutual physical attraction is established at the party, but they need some sort of small moment together, similar to the mirror scene with Astarion to add some meat to the narrative.

After this scene or even in it, then Halsin can start hinting at his romantic interest and his need to wait. If we cut some stuff from the shadow lands and simply move it to before this will make much more sense narratively. An interest is sparked at the party by asking him to drink with you (this is innocent enough so we can open the romance without throwing ourselves at him) develops through until the shadow lands, then in the shadow lands it can die down a bit because its time to focus on the task at hand. Then it can build further and peak in act 3 with more rewriting.