I've been running a little experiment with this romance based on the following questions:
- What would happen if you had Astarion in your party when speaking to Raphael at Last Light Inn (where he asks Raphael about the scars), but not have Astarion with you when Raphael appears outside Gauntlet of Shar? - What happens if we find out the meaning of the scars through the Necromancy of Thay/Tharchiate Codex instead? Meaning we have to wait until Act 3 to fully unlock it.
The below followed:
- Upon meeting Raphael outside Gauntlet of Shar without Astarion, Raphael never promises to reveal the meaning of the scars if we kill the Orthon; - I went to Astarion at camp and let him know I stumbled upon Raphael outside Gauntlet of Shar, which he bemoans not having been there for, but says that maybe we can still salvage this and have Raphael "owe us and be in his good graces" if we kill the Orthon for him; - I take Astarion with me and talk the Orthon into killing himself; - I never took Astarion to Araj Oblodra; - I spoke with Withers with both Astarion and my PC, who mentioned the "bosom companion" line. This confirms the relationship is still on-going AFAIK. - Raphael never appeared again for me in Act 2 and love confession scene never triggered.
Starting Act 3, that line "We haven't spent a night together in quite some time..." appears.
- If you pick it, breakup scene ensues. Quite a nasty one at that, well written Larian
I reloaded the save and avoided that dialogue option for a while. I also avoided looking for his siblings, as they will tell him about the ritual and I wanted Astarion to find out via the Necromancy of Thay book instead.
- I got Astarion to unlock the Necromancy of Thay with the Tharchiate Codex where he mentions he found Cazador's Ritual and needs some time to process the information. Some long rests afterwards, he has nothing to say about it; - We go to Cazador's Palace and stop the ritual with Astarion remaining a Vampire Spawn; - After a long rest, he thanks me for helping him with Cazador; - No graveyard love scene happens;
- I pick the option "We haven't spent a night together in quite some time..." - He breaks things off and even mentions how you failed to help him in return for his "excellent services".
This dialogue option also does not go away afterwards.
And he keeps starting any dialogue with the same stuff he says as if you're in a relationship still. ("Hello, my sweet. Hello, beautiful", etc etc)
It feels like the romance is buggy at this point?
Without resorting to murder, I feel like there is no way to kick companions out of the party after a certain point in the game. Not sure if oversight or if there is a reason behind it.
I sent a bug report to Larian already, I was wondering if anyone else has had this situation happen to them?
Last edited by IzzyCurls; 29/10/2303:56 PM. Reason: Added info about sending bug report and asking if anyone else has experienced the same.
"Without resorting to murder, I feel like there is no way to kick companions out of the party after a certain point in the game. Not sure if oversight or if there is a reason behind it." thats actually True.. there are a loot of options to get rid of someone in the act 1 and others in act 2 (wyll is one of then, if yu send mizora back to hells hes gone.) But from all of then as far as i Know Lae'zel is the Only one with a BUNCH of oportunitis to get rid of her. (i found at least 4,5 options when i could just Kill her easy. or let someone kill her.) and i always do nowadays becouse for me her quests from start to finish if yu follow what she wants;; yu will always endup F. locked out of quests and will shoot on your Foot. (gale is another one, yu can only get rid of him send him away becouse if yu Kill him.. my friend never try. or just never take him out the stone best option in my opinion. yeah i do hate him a lot..haha ) 1 note if they hate yu a lot they leave too.. but thats not a easy thing to do;; will not lie best to just let then die when time comes or get rid of then in act 1 if yu dont care for then. i always take then for the Xp then i get rid of the ones i dont like. (by the time i get to act 3 only 1 or 2 of then are alive.. xD)
astarion only have 2 options as far as i beleave in the first Night when he try to bite yu or in act 3 if yu dont want to make hin a vampire lord and dont convince him.. he will turn on yu and if he hates yu its asap.. he will turn on yu with no speach check that was actually what heppans in my first hero journey with him in the game.. i had to take him down at the end.. sorry i was a Pala. i could not create another moster i love heavy role play.
"Without resorting to murder, I feel like there is no way to kick companions out of the party after a certain point in the game. Not sure if oversight or if there is a reason behind it." thats actually True.. there are a loot of options to get rid of someone in the act 1 and others in act 2 (wyll is one of then, if yu send mizora back to hells hes gone.) But from all of then as far as i Know Lae'zel is the Only one with a BUNCH of oportunitis to get rid of her. (i found at least 4,5 options when i could just Kill her easy. or let someone kill her.) and i always do nowadays becouse for me her quests from start to finish if yu follow what she wants;; yu will always endup F. locked out of quests and will shoot on your Foot. (gale is another one, yu can only get rid of him send him away becouse if yu Kill him.. my friend never try. or just never take him out the stone best option in my opinion. yeah i do hate him a lot..haha )
It's really weird how this romance path seems to be bugged, to the point I felt like kicking Astarion out. The absolute disrespect he gave me, after I went through all that trouble to help him out? You can go sort the tadpole out on your own time "darling", because my PC isn't wasting another minute on you!
But I didn't want to kill him though. Alas , there is no option to boot him out of the party whilst in Act 3, without bathing in his innards.
It's clear that his romance arc is bugged at this point, I mean, why wouldn't it, you intentionally did everything you could to screw it up . One would have to really try their best and meta game to get through his romance the way you did. What r the odds of anybody doing it that way unless you already know that the Necromancy book can tell him about the ritual? At no point in the game you'd know that the book contains the info for that specific ritual until you actually unlock the book at the vault in act 3.
You should sent a report to Larian about it, but I'm not sure they would even bother fixing it, the possibility of anyone going through his romance arc that way is remote.
This isn't a bug, it's just an oversight from Larian because they probably didn't expect anyone to go through the game this way. Though they should definitely make it so that Raphael translates Astarion's scars at camp after you take care of the orthon, regardless of whether or not Astarion spoke to him outside of the mausoleum.
This isn't a bug, it's just an oversight from Larian because they probably didn't expect anyone to go through the game this way. Though they should definitely make it so that Raphael translates Astarion's scars at camp after you take care of the orthon, regardless of whether or not Astarion spoke to him outside of the mausoleum.
That would the best solution. The thing though, is that OP deliberately wanted to avoid Raphael translating the scars so the ritual can be unlocked by the Necromancy of Thay in act 3.
When Withers spoke to you about a bosom companion, did you get a dialogue option referring to Astarion? Also, I have noticed that since patch 3 the option to choose the dialogue that implies you didn't pursue romance happens in act 3, even while you are actively in romance with that companion. At least this happened in my current playthrough. That might be the reason it did not go away after using it.
If Astarion mentions that you should still be able to have Raphael owe you, then the long rest scene should trigger regardless of deal. I'm surprised it doesn't, seems like oversight for sure.
When Withers spoke to you about a bosom companion, did you get a dialogue option referring to Astarion? Also, I have noticed that since patch 3 the option to choose the dialogue that implies you didn't pursue romance happens in act 3, even while you are actively in romance with that companion. At least this happened in my current playthrough. That might be the reason it did not go away after using it.
If Astarion mentions that you should still be able to have Raphael owe you, then the long rest scene should trigger regardless of deal. I'm surprised it doesn't, seems like oversight for sure.
I did get the option referring to Astarion, yes. I even went to speak to Withers with Astarion who also asked him the same question.
In the current game state, it is insanely easy to miss out on Act 3 romance content with Astarion (or have it bug out as it happened with me), if you have a steady rotation of companions in your main party as you are completing Act 2.
After showing Astarion's scars to him, he mentions that he needs to speak with Raphael. So, the next time a player sees Raphael, they should bring Astarion to him immediately:
- This will always happen at Last Light Inn because the scene with Raphael isn't triggered unless the player interacts with him.
- Outside Gauntlet of Shar, the scene with Raphael is triggered as soon as you come to the entrance of the building.
Looking at the map position and considering the amount of game content between Last Light Inn and the Gauntlet, you could have anyone in your party. Astarion being a party member at that point is completely based on chance.
You can always try and have the player lock-in the romance with the Araj Oblodra conversation, but there is nothing to clue-in the player that they even need to start a conversation with this random NPC vendor. Any player can very easily miss out and run past this NPC - the player won't have any objective/reason to stop and chat with her beyond shopping . Her existence isn't previously mentioned as a matter of curiosity by any party members either.
This isn't a bug, it's just an oversight from Larian because they probably didn't expect anyone to go through the game this way. Though they should definitely make it so that Raphael translates Astarion's scars at camp after you take care of the orthon, regardless of whether or not Astarion spoke to him outside of the mausoleum.
Definitely yes to this. I did several Long Rests and the scene never triggered.
They definitely also need to fix that "We haven't spent a night together in quite some time..." not disappearing after interacting with it in Act 3. It's still there even after finishing Astarion's quest.
Quite the slap to the face to hear it, after everything that went on at Cazador's Palace!
In the current game state, it is insanely easy to miss out on Act 3 romance content with Astarion (or have it bug out as it happened with me), if you have a steady rotation of companions in your main party as you are completing Act 2.
No, it's a lie and you know it. You have to go out of your way to not interact with Araj. If you talk to her without Astarion (or place him somewhere damn far so he's not a part of the conversation - so you could buy some things from her) she will ask you to bring him to her. It's impossible to miss. Especially considering the fact she's a vendor with some really good items in stock - risky ring being the star.
In the current game state, it is insanely easy to miss out on Act 3 romance content with Astarion (or have it bug out as it happened with me), if you have a steady rotation of companions in your main party as you are completing Act 2.
No, it's a lie and you know it. You have to go out of your way to not interact with Araj. If you talk to her without Astarion (or place him somewhere damn far so he's not a part of the conversation - so you could buy some things from her) she will ask you to bring him to her. It's impossible to miss. Especially considering the fact she's a vendor with some really good items in stock - risky ring being the star.
She is tucked away in a side room to the main hall of Moonrise Towers. Without exploring the whole of the Towers and making it a point to speak with every single NPC and vendor, a player can absolutely miss speaking to Oblodra.
She is not mentioned by any other NPC on the main objective path as a point of interest either.
She is tucked away in a side room to the main hall of Moonrise Towers. Without exploring the whole of the Towers and making it a point to speak with every single NPC and vendor, a player can absolutely miss speaking to Oblodra.
She is not mentioned by any other NPC on the main objective path as a point of interest either.
She's in a side room, fine, but she constantly yaps about blood and you can hear her talking to herself from quite far away, most people would be curious enough to investigate. Now missing talking to the Absolute while in the Moonrise Towers is way more plausible (cause you gotta go up the ramps and parkour a little bit - I admit, I missed the Brain on my 1st run, but Araj won't freaking shut up about blood hence she is nearly impossible to miss - unless you do what you did and meta game).
Bad excuse.
Also, high approval Astarion confession USED to be impossible to miss too (all you had to do was enter MT and talk to Ketheric and if you were on very high you'd get the 'you are incredible' scene) but in patch 3 it was bound to killing Yurgir for Astarion (after having triggered the part of Raphael's deal with him which you on purpose didn't take him to).
The only thing I can agree on is that Raphael should come and translate Astarion's scars if he was spoken to about it in LL.
But the rest, sorry, no. You metagamed yourself out of the romance sadly.
Also, high approval Astarion confession USED to be impossible to miss too (all you had to do was enter MT and talk to Ketheric and if you were on very high you'd get the 'you are incredible' scene) but in patch 3 it was bound to killing Yurgir for Astarion (after having triggered the part of Raphael's deal with him which you on purpose didn't take him to).
The only thing I can agree on is that Raphael should come and translate Astarion's scars if he was spoken to about it in LL.
But the rest, sorry, no. You metagamed yourself out of the romance sadly.
Kinda wish the confession was still tied to high approval - but that's my personal preference and irrelevant for the current game version.
As for metagaming out of the romance, I don't agree that this is entirely accurate. During Act 3, the dialogue option "We haven't spent a night together in quite some time...", implies the relationship is still on-going at that point. After unlocking Necromancy of Thay fully, it's still there. After completing Astarion's main quest, after he expresses gratitude for the player's help with Cazador, the dialogue line is still there.
And even after you trigger that dialogue line, it doesn't disappear. You can repeat that scene over and over again.
After this many playthroughs, I'm at a point of exploring what the web of conversation and outcomes looks like and I believe I've found this path to be currently buggered. So I'm just making a note of it here and hopefully there will be a fix in the future
Just like I used to have a bug with Gale's line about Nightsong possibly curing his orb. It just wouldn't go away until the very end game (entering Morphic Pool), same goes for asking companions to use Astral Tadpole. Once they say no and you agree, or you fail the skill check. That should be it. But the only companion it works for that way is Astarion (probably cause you can trigger some memories of his and back out), but for the rest? Doesn't seem to go away. And I tested it thoroughly cause of my current no tadpole run, Emperor just gives it to you even if you say no. And I am keeping it in my inventory cause I have something very special planned for it.
But yeah, Larian's problem as of right now is if they fix one thing (eg. Gale's Nightsong line) something else bugs out, or old bugs return. On my current run I experienced the "Gale being mad for me signing Raphael's contract even though I told him to piss off" for the first time. Eventually I just decided to reload, sign it and see how breaking the contract will play out (cause I always refused signing the thing before, so I decided to do something different this run and had a very glorious interaction with the Emperor about it, pissing off the squid was worth signing that thing for).
Overall, the game just falls apart at the seams in act 3.
Just how I also found this bug:
The game is so damn full of bugs I just decided to list them all and compile one big bug report to Larian. I generally kept on sending smaller reports, but this time around I decided will finish my run and report every single bug I found in one big mail. See what happens.
. One would have to really try their best and meta game to get through his romance the way you did. What r the odds of anybody doing it that way unless you already know that the Necromancy book can tell him about the ritual? At no point in the game you'd know that the book contains the info for that specific ritual until you actually unlock the book at the vault in act 3. 
. 
