gives her evil, violent compulsions" (As werewolf lycanthrophy is meant to do by realms lore)?
So is vampirism and we have seen how much Larian cared about that.
And considering how much Larian already reuses tropes for companions like "Duped by a superior" (Shadowheart, Leazel), Ticking Timebomb (Karlach, Gale), I find it very unconvincing that similarity to the durge was a reason.
I'm not that familiar with all things vampires in the DnD canon, I only know, that vampires are evil beyond redemption. But is it the same with spawns?
I know, that Astarion becomes really evil, if he ascend and become a fully fledged vampire.
Niara: I agree, that Durge might be the reason, they decided to scrap Helia, more at least, than Halsin ( though Halsin is a boring companion and not really needed with his doubling down on race and class). I would get that, but it still would be nice, to have a halfling bard. I played a lot of halfling bards in my days and just would love to see it in the game.
If they had stayed with Helia, maybe she could/ would have been tied to the werewolfs guarding Cazadors ritual. I always wondered, why he would employ werewolves and maybe they would have been from Helias tribe and we could help her to free them from Cazadors influence. Would not have been the first companion story tied to another, see Wyll and Karlach.
Are werewolves in DnD always evil? I remember there was a good werewolf in BG and a werewolf companion, Cernd, in BG2. And Cernd was pretty good for a neutral aligned druid.
