Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Companions don't acknowledge your LI

So I've done a few playthroughs and my go-to love interest is Shadowheart. I romance her and even Withers acknowledges the relationship. However, the other companions seem completely oblivious to the romance and keep on offering themselves as an LI as if they've never seen us kissing or sneaking off. I mean, it would be fair enough if they'd say something like "I know you have a relationship with Shadowheart, but I can't help but feel strongly about you as well" or something to that effect. But whenever they start their romantic sequence towards you, it's as if the relationship I'm already in has gone completely unnoticed by them even though they were only meters away from when I kiss her, for example. So that kinda breaks immersion for me because it feels like a start of a sequence that comes out of nowhere that was just shoehorned in there. I guess that it's because all companions have a starting point of their romance sequence but I can't help but feel that they shouldn't have been done completely parallel from each other.

For example, Halsin, because I remember him being devastated when I turned him down as if it was something he didn't expect. I didn't even have the option to say I was already in a relationship. And I'm used to games where you have to initiate romance and there being logical limitations, so companions could end up saying no, which is very normal in life. On the one hand I get that Larian wanted to do something completely different and reversed the process, but on the other hand I can't help but feel that they took it a bit too far with how "thirsty" companions are for your character and then being oblivious to other romances. You'd think they'd be fighting over you, but no, when you're in a relationship nobody is aware of that the moment their romance sequence starts.

Anyways, just some of my thoughts that I wanted to throw out there.

What your girl gotta do wit me?

I think part of it is that the game doesn’t recognize the Shadowheart romance as fully settled and official until act 3? So you still have all of these people propositioning you in Act 2 like Halsin, or Wyll with his dancing scene. Now as someone who also romances Shadowheart, being hit on by these guys is definitely unwelcome, but maybe other folks like that and want to see those romance scenes as well.

Some characters will acknowledge that you already have a romance if you choose to spend the night with someone else during the tiefling party. For example, Karlach accepts that you have a different romance interest (and she talks specifically about Shadowheart) and is very respectful from then on, not making any other suggestive comments. Lae’zel complains about you picking someone else but then she moves on so it seems. It’s the guys who keep hitting on you, and like I said, it may not be welcome for some of us, but other folks do want to see that. It would be cool to have an option to toggle romance specific dialogue on and off for certain characters, but that would be a lot of work for Larian.

I think adding a "sorry but I'm with somebody" response should be not that much work and very much add to the game.

Pretty Sure Astarion knows, Like if you have sex with Lae'Zel, he even mentions it the morning after like "How was your fun little romp with Lae'Zel.", Mind you, this is before you kill off the goblin leaders or raid the Grove.

It could be an issue with SH herself as someone has already pointed out. In my most recent save where I romanced Astarion, the other companions just backed off after I chose him in the tiefling party, high approval be damned. Then fast forward to Act 3 where I get propositioned by Halsin, Mizora, and Empy on three consecutive nights XD

In any case, I do think they need to add more options for the PC to react to the advances. It wouldn't be a lot of work to add a couple of lines for every companion.

I've always had the option to say I'm with someone else...that's strange.

I always romance Astarion and our romance officially triggers in Act 2 (with more official stuff happening in Act 3). So that might make a difference.

When I do, Gale gets upset cause he felt something between us and says "It's Astarion, isn't it?" And I can tell him yes.

From then on, the only people who proposition me are Halsin, Mizora, and The Emporer.
When that happens, every time I have the option to say "Sorry, I'm with someone else" and Halsin even says "Yes, I know you're bonded with Astarion..." And then he goes on to suggest he wants us both but ya know, that's Halsin for ya.

Either way, it might be different because of when you get your "official" status and since Astarion makes us a thing in Act 2, that sounds like it's a lot earlier than SH.

Idk, Halsin always acknowledges relationship with SH and proposes to join on next swimming session every playthrough KEKW

Sure, in that way they respond to it. However, when their own romance sequence starts, suddenly they seem to've forgotten it. Of course Astarion joins you way at the beginning, so you can tell him no right from the start pretty much. So then it doesn't interfere because he already started his romance sequence and got turned down early.

I think Halsin and Wyll are the main culprits here. Well there's Gale also. I remember him being turned down by my Tav and then somewhere in Act 2 he starts trying again. I feel that that was a sequence that was triggered outside of the romance sequence. I get the feeling that some things are triggered within the romance sequence and others are just triggering points to start the romance sequence throughout the game. It's like the previous playthrough I had where I got the convo option where you can say something like "we never really connected but there's something more to us" or something like that. And that was after going swimming.

So that's after the swimming session but he starts his romance sequence well before that and by that time I'm already kissing Shadowheart right in front of him sometimes (depending on the camp). I mean, he couldn't be that oblivious, could he?

That was a bit sarcastic comment on how Halsin always play his banter after SH's act 3 romance scene(doesn't matter romanced or not) and it is REALLY annoying to SH solomancers. I just find it funny that Halsin's banter always plays out(and how explicit it is and suggestive), but other companions banter is buggy and sometimes doesn't play out at all.

Yeah, it would be really nice to have some sort of "down boy, I'm already with someone" option for some characters (Wyll, for example). You have to be weirdly abrupt and rude to take the non-romantic path in some of these scenes, and I don't really understand why.

Totally agree. What's even funnier is that when we interact with our LI, literally everyone can see the interaction since the camp is very much open. Heck, they do know when you start flirting with a companion in act 1! So I don't see why everyone is suddenly blind in act 2.

Or at the very least, when you do choose the companion whom you want to be with for the rest of the game, it should lock you out of other advances. It's odd how we can't tell anyone that my character is already with someone else and because of that, we get awkward scenes such as Wyll's (I like Wyll but not in that way) only to see my character's 'sad face' like girl, why are you sad? I get that rejection hurts but it's precisely why companions should know beforehand that my character is already spoken for. Kinda trying to make you feel 'bad' for choosing someone else, even when it's not intentional.

It's certainly weird how nobody knows you are already taken especially when it's been known companions do know everything happening around the camp.