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

Preamble - I think Larian is trying to do several things, in general: make good games; please their fans; and keep within their budgets and deadlines. Not necessarily in that order, and the order is probably subject to change.

So! About three years ago now, Larian released BG3 into Early Access. Some time after that, they realized Halsin was getting a lot of positive attention from their fanbase. Some time after that, the green light was given to turn him into a companion and love interest. At this point I think they had several problems to deal with:

* Problem #1 - his personal story. Most likely his arc had already been written, recorded and basically completed. (My guess is that he originally didn't leave Act II/the shadow-cursed lands at all, except maybe to show up as an ally in the final battle.) It now needed to be expanded. Somehow.

* Problem #2 - his romance. They seemingly had a blank slate - nothing about his romantic background was established in Early Access - but they also had a rather complicated romance system going on between the various Origin characters/Tav/etc. They needed to figure out how he'd fit into it. I assume that Minthara has a similar problem over on her romance track, but I don't know how they dealt with it; I'll focus on Halsin.

* Problem #3 - as a druid, he's almost immediately redundant with Jaheira, class wise. Not much wiggle room here, it's an integral part of both their characters.

#3 is basically a gameplay problem and has a gameplay solution: Withers' ability to respec your companions into some other class entirely. Does it make sense as part of the story? Not a bit. It's just going to be shoved to the gameplay side of gameplay-story segregation while we continue forward. Problem #3 solved, more or less.

Problem #1, on the other hand, is almost purely a story problem. Halsin isn't infected - he has no built-in reason to join the quest for a cure (or world domination). Rewriting him to be infected would require a fair amount of resources. Is it worth it? Couldn't it just be that he's so attached to the party, or so determined to stop the Absolute, that he'll abandon the newly uncursed lands and journey on to Act III? Well, he's a good guy. The group did do a lot for him. Add a few lines about how grateful he is, and how well Thaniel is doing, and maybe it works. But then comes the next problem - Act III itself. There's no obvious thing for him to do; he was never meant to be here. Resources could be devoted to creating yet another personal quest for him, but it might just feel tacked on, and - crucially - resources are not infinite. There's still something else they're needed for, problem #2. So... maybe there's an opportunity here to solve two problems at once? Write a couple extra camp conversations, add some interjections in the open world, and instead of a half-baked new quest, concentrate the remaining resources on -

Problem #2. Hoo boy. The fans really want him! In all sorts of ways! But there's this massive mess of an Origin romance system slowly noodling its way along through the acts; only in Act III is one romance (possibly) left standing. Throwing extra noodles into the Act I/II mix might be a bad idea, but in Act III a little room opens up. Extra-pair copulations become easier to implement - a sex worker here, a devil there...

... and Halsin. The bear in the room. There's not enough time/money to give him the full romance an Origin character would get, but too much demand to just make him a one night stand. On top of that, if you do delay his big romance scene until Act III, many folks are going to get impatient and pursue someone else instead. From this perspective, the polyamory bit is brilliant. It solves a host of problems. He fits perfectly as a secondary partner who "joins" late, and having a free-wheeling sexual nature (ha) seems quite in character for a wood elf druid bear. Add a little flirtation to the earlier acts; explain how his "obsession" with the shadow curse has been an inhibition for many years; and then comes Act III, when he's suddenly liberated to start rediscovering the parts of himself which lay dormant for so long. His rejuvenation even mirrors that of the land around Moonrise. It all works beautifully.

Well, unless you wanted him as a primary/exclusive partner, in which case it abruptly stops working in spots. Or unless you didn't want him at all, and still find him poking around in your personal business. Then you start noticing more and more wonky bits - past abuse, boundary pushing, wild shape issues, reluctance to commit, etc. The rough edges of the solution are showing where there wasn't enough time or money or incentive or interest to sand them down. They even elbow their way into other characters, mostly Shadowheart.

Many players love what they got. Some definitely do not. As I've said, I think it almost worked - close enough that I can take the good, ignore the bad, and enjoy the game anyway (which is pretty much my approach to this game in general). Your mileage may vary.