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

Every forum caters to different folks. The subreddit is different from here, for example, and while it is certainly more popular (obviously), it still hosts only a small portion of people that have played the game. And I think people that frequent there don't care much about a good story as much as they do about shock value moments - things to talk about - regardless of how little sense they make. And more power to them, they're free to express their opinions. I do think, however, that the majority of people playing a D&D CRPG care about a well flowing consistent story.

As it stands, Halsin's romance story, and those involved in it during it, are not written well. They don't flow with his overall writing leading up to that point and give far too little to develop him into what they wrote him as for act 3. The amount of suspension of disbelief required to have it work out is a big ask and it'll cause plenty of people to lose immersion and personally I think the silent majority (of those that dabbled in Halsin's romance) did not like the direction it went in because of this. That's not to say that people don't like the idea of a poly or an open relationship. That's to say that people don't like it when it doesn't fit the given narrative. If anything goes in the story and it doesn't flow anymore, the writer will lose the reader's attention.

So it's purely an assumption but I think that there are a lot more players than it may seem that are disappointed by these inconsistencies, because people in general just don't like inconsistent writing if they're invested in the story.

Yeah, I think you got it spot on. I thought I was being very respectful, but then again, Romantic relationships are very personal things in people's lives, and so you're bound to upset somebody anyway. I think it's a very sensitive topic that should be handled with care if you want your grievances to be addressed by larian.

At the same time, there were people in my post saying that there was no beastiality in this game because it was mutually consensual, so it isn't actually beastiality guys. I had sex with a magic shapeshifter, not a bear I swear. Like I'm not gonna argue whether having sex with a bear is beastiality or not over the internet, that's actually so bizarre.

I think though, The way they handled polyamory in this game definitely made people uncomfortable (for those who even find out it's in the game). What's more likely is that people simply choose to ignore it, likely just not that big a deal to them. While these writing inconsistencies are there and do bug me too, at the end of the day, it is a pretty silly thing to make a whole lot of hoopla about, hence why it's not talked about THAT much

and remember that these people (the ones that are into the shocking moments as you put it), they're not the ones submitting feedback, it's people in this forum and discord that have been repeatedly making noise. people who don't care about the game aren't interacting with larian through official channels and submitting feedback. Wanting horny stuff at the expense of writing is a somehow even more silly position, I doubt there are many.

I think we all need to step back and just wait for larian to do something, they've been given PLENTY of feedback already, and there's nothing new to add anymore lol

You were more than respectful enough. But some people just don't want to have it changed because well, without these shocking moments the romance would be more plain. Not as interesting to talk about for those who don't get that invested in the story in the first place. "Halsin loved me and was very supportive in our relationship while my Dark Urge went through shit and wanted children in the epilogue, expected and boring." vs "Bear sex and fivesomes, sounds exciting, what do you mean does it make sense? Who cares!"

And it adds another issue with places like reddit: the fact that it's more or less moderated by the community. You get downvoted into oblivion for having an opinion, then you won't go back to share it the next time. And thus, it becomes an echo chamber, because all it takes is a majority to bully the rest away.

True enough. It's mostly up to them to do something about it or ignore the feedback now. Never hurts keeping the conversation going of course, so long as we don't get into repeating too much. More feedback's always good!

Oh, I need to check this guard too.
During Neil's stream Dave mentioned he voiced three (if I am not mistaken) more characters excluding Halsin.

I'm not surprised - there's a lot of voicework to be done in this game and VAs often play several parts. I've spotted some of the other actors doing side characters, but somehow I missed this one until yesterday (maybe because he's doing a bit of a different accent; the timbre of his voice gives him away, though).

After not reading this thread for a week (needed a break from reading Halsin's writing flaws to the point I'd get sad because I love my strong wise kind druid from Act 1+2) I finally caught up

Just want to say I read somewhere on here I think that there's a banter between Halsin and Wyll talking about family stuff? Apparently Halsin said he has regrets not starting a family or something. I couldn't find this banter so if this actually happens and someone came across this please let us know what the lines were At this point I'm just grasping whatever positive Halsin content I can get for my poor heart.

Dear lord you can NOT just dump that here, its teasing!!!

If its true my ovaries are litteraly going to explode

Right now I am in a process of listening of banters between companions (thanks to a kind soul who uploaded them to YouTube). I found this... kind of scandalous banter between Lae'zel and Halsin (I think it was mentioned in Shadowheart's thread) about hydra. Yikes. It was... kind of gross reading it ,and listening to it voiced by actors... Yikes again.
If I find the one you are talking about I'll post link to the video and timecode.

I wonder What kind of epilogue this thread has in mind for Halsin. if you were in charge of it?

I have a suggestion for SH Epilogue...

I won't consider this game a finished product until we have a farm epilogue. It could start with doing chores around the farm, teaching your gityanki child to hold a sword (egg from creche). When suddenly, cultists of Shar storm the farm. The only surviving member being the githyanki child, on a mission of vengeance. And no, I definitely didn't strip that straight from the Red Dead Redemption 1 epilogue, larian pls just hire me

But seriously, farm epilogue when, Larian

Any chance you could link the videos you are listening to? Maybe with timestamp to the hydra topic you mentioned.

I dont really super care about details, I just wanna be with Halsin. I dont want him to just leave me like he currently does.

They can work with his current ending, we go with him to help the orphans and refugees. Ive mentioned before that they could easily take them all to the now cured shadowlands and rebuild the town there. Halsin and Tav just help care for the children, teaching them things. They help out where ever thay can as the people establish their new settlement. My Tav is a Ranger so she can teach the kids archery and wilderness survival, Halsin can teach them about respecting nature. Maybe once the town gets more established Halsin may want to leave as it gets more and more civilized. But that just means he and Tav can travel, helping others and/or enjoying being out in nature together.

I really think a surprise pregnancy for Halsin if youre a female Tav would be amazing but it wont happen.

I stumbled on one of the videos a while back but I just remember Halsin was wondering out loud if a Chimera is still considered to have one head, or 3 since there are technically 3 heads. And then Lae'zal says something like oh I bet that must've been quite a difficult foe to kill Halsin.

It starts with Laezel saying something like:
"I bet you've bedded more enemies than killed", or something like that. Than Halsin says about 3 heads and Laezel responds with: "That must've been a difficult kill".
Ye and Halsin answers: "Kill... yea".
Too lazy to seek for full banter rn.

I cannot give the time code (I am on my phone right now, so it's not so easy to tap to the right point) but the video is this. I think the dialogue is closer to the end. A person who speaks is marked with a sign so it's not too difficult to find Halsin's lines.
Plus, there are more banter videos on this channel.

But it's funny, guys! Isn't it so funny?!

There was a little discussion on this earlier in the thread. Someone speculated that Halsin was joking/messing with Lae'zel's head. That works for me, gonna stop thinking about this now.

No way it wasn't a joke(well, if it wasn't, I have serious questions). Still implimentation is just horrid, it's not funny.

I don't need much. Just add some extra lines for Halsin to ask Tav to join him with helping orphans + an epilogue based on this decision. Like Cowoline suggested:




Well... I don't know. Maybe I am biased. Yes, I am sure he was joking, but knowing that some dialogues are based on his active sex life and preferences makes this joke not so funny. Halsin is more than just a sex machine.
However his dialogue with Minsk about squirrel was hilarious to me (I'm not sure if it is in this video or in another one).

So the lines you can hear in the video are actually in the game and not just datamined?

I think most of the lines are in game, but also there are detamined lines (dialogues between Minthara and Karlach for example).

Hopefully the Chimera one or the various sex offers (to Astarion for example) are hopefully the datamined ones. Or if they are, they might need to be a bit tweaked, especially the Chimera one to sound more like a joke.