Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Fixing Astarion's "Good" Ending

Yep they're all cardboard cutouts in Act 3. I hear Jaheira and Minsc have more to say, maybe I'll try taking them with me some time. But I get so used to my main party I don't want to change them. Ascending Astarion kinda helps because his power trippy comments when he has them are so entertaining.

But even then I just can't bring myself to do the final battle and everything that leads to it because it's so boring compared to Act 1. And I still remember the last battle and ending in my first playthrough when my laptop was melting like Astarion's face and Karlach, half the textures refused to load, and letting Karlach live bugged me out of Astarion's epilogue. Good times.

Yup, which is also why I prefer the high approval 'you are incredible', just flows soooooooo damn good I was kinda disheartened that I got the Araj one cause I wanted to buy some things. Well, next run I will rectify that and try to trigger Durge's 'romance' scene as late as possible, cause imho it makes so damn little sense to get the Durge scene before even establishing proper relationship with Astarion. Plus I wanna see how snitching on Marcus plays out (discovered you could snitch on him AFTER he was dead, kinda funny bug). Also, I have yet to let Gandrel live, NEXT run. Waiting for patch 4 to start a new run, will finish my current one I guess.

But yeah, I also think those should be 2 different conversations. I know a lot of people who fish for the high approval confession and then tell Astarion to suck her off for the potion. I mean... that should be a near break up moment for him, but no. Cause the way triggers work...



Jaheira & Minsc are fantastic if paired with a 'good' Durge. Jaheira basically kind of adopts you, becomes a kind of a mother figure Durge never had. Minsc is only cool if paired with Jaheira ofc. Add to that 'good' Astarion and well, you'll be smiling a ton. Especially when Minsc shouts his unhinged ideas at Astarion. Like sucking on fishes, cause they're all neck.

Until of course the ending hits and Minsc wants to let 'Boo bring him a sunflower!' and no, I won't stop ranting about this line. It's so ridiculously insulting I just can't. Every single time I hear it I hiss like a balloon letting out air. Or like His Majesty.

I SAY HISS!

Larian and their habit to overlook the obvious. I think ideally after the confession he should be even more angry if you try to make him bite her.



This is why Minsc never gets invited to our camp. But I might just do it for the sucking on fishes. This is the kind of unhinged that I appreciate. And then, well... he doesn't need to survive until the end.

I just created an account to boost this thread.

After all we've been through together, Tav devoting her heart and soul to help Astarion become a better person to just watch him burn and run away in pain. I was devastated and other companions mocking him just made me nearly fall out of my chair. What the hell...
Let me run after him and comfort him goddamit!
It hurts even more after learning that

the conversation before credits when you romancing him doesn't make things any better. It was more like I was talking to a friend, not a partner.

Its as if the writer at Larian who did the ending scenes has never played the game isn't it?

Sees 'Vampire' and writes an ending scene with no understanding of the character progression whatsoever and absolutely not one iota of empathy for either the player or Astarion himself.

I hate the end which is why I always stop my playthroughs before the final battle. Don't think anything regarding Astarion has been sorted in todays patch either, although apparently its your actual party who get priority on hurtful comments instead of people in camp. There are a couple of them who make slightly less hurtful remarks.
Still sucks though.

Or has very clear preferences and doesn't like Astarion (and Shadowheart). I'm still salty that the game didn't even give me an option to not run to Karlach when she started burning. But Astarion? Who cares, apparently.

I don't have a save with spawn Astarion that is close to the ending so I can't check, but it's not in the patch notes. However the fact that they added some new lines before his kiss animation also isn't in the patch notes, so who knows.

On a positive note: Today's patch fixed his ascended sex scene (no more sticking hands through the skin and kissing the air) and the problem with facial animations not playing from the beginning. On a negative note: His scar scene is still not fixed and now the epilogue romance scenes do not play at all anymore (neither spawn nor ascended) except for a very borked version of the dialogue with the camera hanging outside the inn. Not sure if it's a mod issue, I use a few.

His spawn ending at the docks is still the depressing mess it always was.

That's sad. Makes it all the more likely I will never get as far as the ending ever again.

Ha, I also got the broken epilogue, but I thought the save I have was just too old.

We need a mod that removes the stupid comments, gives a dialogue with an option "go after him" and fades to black and into the epilogue.

The kiss scene doesn't work for me at all. And I really liked this guy’s kisses after every victory in battle... Oh, these bloody splashes complemented his white hair so perfectly, and the chaste kiss created a contrast!

Usually old saves are not a problem if they are made before a new cutscene starts. I tried different characters and saves at different stages and nothing worked, with or without mods.

But +1 for the mod idea - unfortunately I can't mod.


It's a mod problem. If you have even one mod installed, the kiss scene doesn't play. (On that note: I would love the Halsin-kiss as a template for the "let's make it count"-kiss during the finale instead of the chaste peck we got ...)

Yeah, so I checked my epilogues and that 'new kiss cutscene' and... well, spawn Astarion epilogues are entirely borked, dunno how it is for ascended, but spawn is just a bunch of black blocks and the cutscene won't play normally - gotta press space bar or right mouse button. Also, the 'new' Karlach epilogue is also broken (sent her with Wyll), it will play but hang up and you gotta space bar or right click to get it going, otherwise it freezes. Spawn Astarion is also broken on both my saves - Tav and good Durge. Tav had Karlach turn into a mind flayer so yeah. I wonder if Larian will fix these epilogues before I get to end game on my current run. Also, I am saving my saves in case of getting those 'promised' updated epilogues eventually. In hopes of them being compatible with old saves.

Oh and that new kiss is nice, still too short but nice, what isn't nice is that that cutscene also gets the infamous '(continue)' and some of his lines (and there are some new ones) won't play audio. Heck even a bunch of old ones cut audio now.

So yeah, classic - one step forward and 5 backwards. It's nice that our current endgame party set up sort of influences who speaks at the docks but eh, it would be nice if a bunch of other cutscenes didn't break. Astarion still runs away but at least now if the people I bring to the Netherbrain are of more gentle nature, so yeah, as long as I don't take Minsc or Gale with me I am gonna be gucci.

Still, dropping a cloak and running after Astarion and waiting the time until sunset out behind the crates with him would've been preferred but at least this is a very small step in the right direction.

PS: I forgot to mention, I don't use mods. At all. Call me mod phobic if you want, or mod-sist.

That did not work for me unfortunately. The saves I checked still used random people, especially Minsc, who I never take anywhere. *mutter*

Ooof ouch.

For me it used exclusively people I brought with me. So it seems to go from one extreme to the other. Oh and obviously Gale will have his little speech about the fate of the Crown and Wyll will speak about his warlock powers draining if he broke the pact (on previous good Durge I didn't break his pact, on Tav I did and on current good Durge I will break his pact again, basically perfecting a bunch of bad choices from my 1st good Durge). Also, funnily, cause I brought Lae'zel both times, when she went away with Orpheus/alone, that was one less person to talk during the docks cutscenes and more chances for Astarion to speak up (heard some new lines I never heard before too).

Pretty sure Larian will hotfix it soon.

Yes, hopefully. But this was a massive patch. I bet a lot of things that got fixed broke other things. Can't wait to find new bugged cutscenes!

About finding new lines: I did a repentant Durge/Astarion duo run just to hear all of his comments (can recommend it for just the post-Alfira dialogue with him, it's pretty funny, especially if you don't hide your deed). This made the docks scene hit even harder because you get to hear all of his lines in a row going from a happy "Look, I can still stand in the sun, even without the tadpole!" to "Let's celebrate!" to "Oh no, I'm burning up!". And Tav/Durge just stands there like "whatever" and does nothing, staring into the sunset with the narrator commenting on the whole moment inappropriately.

Patch notes #4

- Fixed a bug where Astarion's corpse was removed from your inventory upon entering Cazador's Dungeon -

.....So the haters can hate him more now.

But our spawn Astarion ist still lone in the shadows.

and my next playthrough which remains somewhere in act 3 because I can't manage to finish it.

I want my party at the docks where they all decide to go to Avernus.

probably needs those who don't use mods to send the save file to Larian direct through the proper bug reporting thingie. I can't cos I use mods. Well I did till this patch anyway.
Talk about 1 step forward 5 steps back though.
I had very few bugs in my first playthrough mostly ones I could get past one way or another but have had successively more with each patch. Not sure their testing team are being utilised properly

Damn Astarion enjoyer on life support now lmao.

Huh. He kisses you now? Interesting. I suppose it's in line with what the others do, but I kind of liked him being reversed. Silly thing to get picky over, I know.

I thought it was the mods that broke the kiss dialogue for me. Apparently they broke only the animation.

I honestly don't understand why we still can't have an option to run after him in the ending tho. All the other reasons aside, it's my character. I should be able to choose what they want to do.