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

Just checked; I got Volume 2. One of the Emerald Grove logbooks is there as well that you find in the Grove itself.

And I got Volume 3. Weird. Maybe there are conditions to get Volume 4 in Act 3, like to find the other ones.

Maybe I am "lucky" but it seems Halsin now is more broken that before. I had a Moonrise Towers section yesterday with my second character, Hasin was in my party during battle and now he became even more silent - he doesn't "say" spells anymore, just casts them silently. Oh boy.

He won't even follow me again; this is relatively early in Act 2. I have another save where that plus lag made me shelf a run in Act 3.

I don't want to leave my boy in camp.

There's some chat about the Halsin not following bug over at https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=922017

Hello everyone. I'm sorry if this will seem off topic (I haven't used a forum since around 2009), but it is worth writing here what kind of improvements I want for Halsin and his romance? Does the info gets redirected to the team or is there a better way to let them know about that? That stands for other characters too, but so far, I have way more requests for Halsin since I love him just as much as I love Astarion.

These forums are principally for us gamers to chat with one another about the game, and while the Larian community management team do check in here, they won't read every post. You can use the feedback form on the support website to send directly to Larian (the "Report a Bug" link along the top of the launcher will take you to the right place, as it's the same form). But, and this is guesswork from me rather than anything that has been confirmed specifically by Larian, I'd expect that ideas are more likely to result in changes if they are broadly popular. Posting here and getting support from others might help demonstrate that. Though the downside of course is that others might also disagree

This has been a significant part of the conversations had here so I would say yes! If you have things youd like to say about his romance please do so here!

Well, this thread has been quiet for a good long while

Maybe people are busy for the holidays? I'm kind of glad- there was one person from here (I don't know who, unfortunately, but they specifically cited my posts on this forum disagreeing with them about Halsin as the reason why they did this) who kept making burner accounts on Tumblr and Twitter to harass and mock me for being autistic. So if that person has found something else to do to occupy themselves, I am happy... though it would be nice to have some engaging conversations about Halsin nonetheless.

Things are naturally going to wind down without new stuff to talk about. Unless we want to go back to repeating ourselves every three pages. The mods loved that.

Very late to the discussion. Like other people, I also think the romance is written in a confusing way. From my subjective point of view, it is not clear if is meant to be a fling (as in ethically non-monogamous) or poly, as in a relationship with more than 2 people. I think that since non-monogamous is not as common as monogamous, the dialog for Halsin should have taken that into account and show better where he stands in this. Communication and talk to make up for not being "standard".

The way I see it, even if Halsin is not a companion until you do his quest in Act 2, you do know Halsin since you rescue him in the goblin camp. And you can start flirting at the party after fighting the goblin. So the party is the first place where Halsin should show/say something that hints a his preferences poly/non monogamous. And to be fair, not only Halsin, but Shadowheart and Astarion too if they are meant to be ok with this or even like Halsin. Astarion commenting that Halsin is hot or experienced might be a hint that he has an interest in Halsin. Or even a comment that they have talked about. And Halsin being openly sexual with another NPC would be a good way to show early that side of him. Then in act 2, the same way that your character starts getting closer to Halsin, comments or scenes showing something similar with Astarion or Shadowheart might show something like that. Here, the OP should be allowed to tell Astarion or Shadowheart that they don't want poly and want to be exclusive. But if not, maybe let Astarion or Shadowheart bring the topic themselves. So by the time Halsin brings the possibility, the MC already knows if their lovers would be ok.

And in order to make sense, maybe Halsin shouldn't be the only one commenting that Astarion/SH joins, but they showing attraction or connection. I mean, I can imagine Astarion talking with Halsin about the time Halsin was a drow slave and how Halsin dealt with that in order to overcome his own trauma or try to.

But if they want to go with the "it is only sex" route, maybe they should get rid of all "my love" and other comments that show a deeper connection. The "I don't do relationships" while calling you "my love" and all the sweet talk don't work well with the non-committed sex. IMO they should choose if it is poly or simply sex without strings and then modify all dialog to fit that. Also, if they pick "poly" with 3 people in a relationship, then the ending should reflect that in a scene that shows the 3. They can't reuse the same ending scenes. To put an example, if in a relationship with Astarion and OC, when Astarion runs in flames, both Halsin and OC should run after him. And the final talk about orphans and what to do after should involve the 3.

But they should add scenes like the one about Laezel and SH fighting with the Astarion, Shadowheart, and Halsin involved to make the poly work instead of just popping out of nowhere. As for the drow twins, I think that it shouldn't be the only option for the poly to have sex together. If poly, a threesome between Astarion/SH, Halsin, and OC should be possible without having to use the drow twins. Specially for Astarion, it makes a lot more sense that he tried a threesome with someone he trusted first (or even only).

As it is Halsin romance/fling doesn't quite work for me.

Why Lae'zel? She clearly doesn't like the idea of sharing.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear. Laezel and SH fight each other. They get a scene to develop their non-romantic and non-sexual relationship. But the same way we get a scene for two companions to develop their friend-enemies relationship and settle their differences, we could get a scene between Halsin+Astarion to talk about their past trauma or bond. Or a scene between SH+Halsin where you can see that they are getting closer. So by the time the poly relationship is suggested makes more sense. It won't be out of nowhere, but because they were getting closer through the game.

By the same logic, I would have liked to see more scenes between Wyll and Karlach. And their relationship grows to be a strong friendship or even a romance on their own. Because it fits with the ending where Wyll goes with Karlach.

The fact that we only have a scene with Laezel and SH is probably because limited resources that they chose to spend on those 2 characters. But it is a resource that can improve all companions to flesh them up and show how they relate to others. In stories, when someone happens without showing first "hints", usually feels off or weird. But if you drop previous information, it would feel more believable.

I don't know if I'm making more sense now.

Well, I could repeat myself but I don't think the result will be different. We, "team Halsin", so to speak, already voiced our concerns, people hope for the best, people hope dev team read our critique. Also people use Discord to talk about issues with Halsin. Some people want his EA version to be brought back. I am in a process of playing EA version (thanks to the Internet for helping me with research), I wanted to understand what exactly people loved in Halsin during EA and why they are complaining about the present version of Halsin and I'd say I get it, I get what people dislike (aside from the obvious problems). I don't know if I shouls bring this topic up (since probably it will be another repeating of what was already said). Plus I'm researching any datamined info about previous ideas for Halsin's story, which is interesting.

I am so looking forward to the next big update tbh. I have put down my ps5 play through for over a month now. I just want to know if they let you go with him in the ending.

I have a run paused at That Conversation just after arriving in Rivington, ready to test drive any future new content. I hope at least for on-click lines to appear soon. Let me poke Halsin!

I wouldn't get your hopes up too high for the next update. New content takes time. It's not the same teams working on performance and many bugs, thankfully, but still many folks involved.

Personally, I'd rather get quality changes rather than fast changes.

I mean there are some dialogue leaks a while ago and one of them suggests that you may choose to go with him in the ending. I am only hoping for this to be added in the next update tbh but if we get more content for Halsin then I definitely will be all for it.

Oh, I hope for click lines too, Halsin is too silent. Also, I hope they will add spell cast lines which were recorded with Dave (yes, they exist, you can find them on YouTube) because now Halsin casts spells with an average NPC voice (well, after the latest patch he doesn't do even this, he is comepletely silent).