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

100%.. the graveyard scene was simply breathtaking, his symbolic rebirth so to speak. Absolutely beautifully done - he carves the new birth year on his tombstone and says "it's time to try living again" when he's still undead.. (while as ascendant with a restored beating heart all he talks about is creating a nocturnal horde and melting away the sun. The storytelling in here is top-tier.)

And after all that great dialogue of Tav proving he's enough the way he is, he gets slapped in the face with that knight in shining armour BS. The man is incredibly strong and Tav has no means of telling that to him. This needs to be changed asap.

Honestly, Astarion's good ending should make the player feel good after everything that's happened but it doesn't.

Oh I hated that line, it's the complete opposite of what would make sense to say. Either have a number of properly written different options or nothing at all.

"We will protect one another" would have been a nice callback to Act 1 "you keep me safe and i'll do the same".

His writing in Act 3 is a mess thanks to whoever was "helping" with it.

That dialogue is pure cringe and totally makes him feel more insecure. It's in even poorer taste if we take into account what Cazador says about Tav if they go meet him without Astarion. He compares Tav to himself (an equal influence - basicly Astarion's temporary, alternative and kinder master) and implies that Astarion doesn't know how to be on his own and that he basicly needs someone above him.
Then there's also a line from Gandrel where he explains just how dangerous a spawn can be. Astarion can take care of himself perfectly fine, he's a survivor. That crappy dialogue should be changed.


This would be great!

I don't think they gave much thought at all to the endings. Its fairly obvious more was planned and got cut short in the later stages of development so what we end up with is basically a travesty of an ending that makes little narrative sense.
All the characters suffer from this but it seem to me that even for Karlach (horrible though her endings are and I am not excusing that at all) the writers at least tried to make it seem as if her friends care.
Whereas for Unascended Astarion he just beomes a joke, and that infuriates me.
People simply don't behave like that, esp a team that has fought alongside him since the beginning of the game, they may not like him individually but they wouldn't make fun of him.
It's squaddie humour (barracks humour maybe if not in the UK) but this group aren't an army unit and this type of comic relief is out of place in this setting and this story and it should never be a final scene in any setting.

That line bothered me as well, it made no sense at all. I did it once and he reacted exactly how I would have expected, not said as much but tonally his response said he didn't like it and why should he. I reloaded and just left the convo when that choice came up.

Yes please to those suggested changes

It absolutely goes against what the spawn ending is supposed to represent and this adds fuel to the fire as well:


It's terrible.

And I agree, I clicked on it once, was not surprised by his response at all. There is only one option for us to choose and THIS is what we end up with? Feels like Astarion's dialogue till his last lines about Cazador saying how he's free and him and Tav are equals was written by one person and this one dialogue including the scene at the docks was written by somebody else entirely.

It's as if they paid less attention to his good ending compared to the evil one..

This. The game makes you go to Karlach, but won't let you go after Astarion, and I hate that.


They did and it shows.

That line makes a little bit of sense to me as a sort of bookend to his romance. He approaches the protagonist in the first place because he wants protection; now we see he's moved entirely beyond that. But I don't normally pick the line either, it usually feels strange for my character.

It would make more sense if it wasn't the only option. For example if it was that line and the suggested "we keep protecting each other". Also, as Durge you can tell the butler "we're indomitable together" during that Act 2 scene. I'd like to be able to say that to Astarion himself. "You don't need the powers of the ascendant. Nothing can stand against us together" or something like that.

Hmm I'll borrow a couple of those sugestions (the ones about him needing protection - not!) and put a post into the suggestion channel on the discord - if thats ok with everyone?

Exactly. I love Karlach as much as the next person but I did not romance her. The fact that we cannot go after Astarion is just... absolute nonsense. To make matters even worse, you can choose to go to Avernus with her and effectively abandon him. Why would I pick that?!


Fine by me! The more Larian sees this feedback, the higher chance it will get changed.

Pretty much the dialogue needs to be expanded overall. Ascendant has so many options to pick from, the imbalance of content is infuriating. I get the appeal of toxic vampire fantasy but there still can be things said or done in the good ending...like blasting Cazador's mansion to smithereens. or LET US GO ON A PROPER DATE, LARIAN, PLEASE AND THANKS!

Tarlonniel approves

I look forward to burning that place down via fanfic.

Yeah go ahead.


You can abandon everything and everyone for her, but not for any other character. It feels like whoever wrote the endings had favorites and were writing for themselves (or just to finish it asap), not for the player. Because when you write for the player, you recognize that different players roleplay different characters and prefer different companions, and try to make things as fair as possible.

When I initially got the endings at the dock, other than disappointment, confusion was a good word for it.

Astarion gets to go burn up without a single reaction from me, the supposed love of his life, but Karlach, someone my character barely knew and barely used in that playthrough, starts burning up as well and my character starts panicking and offering to help.

I love Karlach, especially in my current playthrough, but what? Aren't these roles supposed to be reversed? In what world does my vampire lover get to burn while my acquaintance gets all my attention and concern?

It doesn't make sense.


Go ahead! The more notice to these problems, the better.

Honestly, I hope Larian spends some time (it's a long shot) combing through their lines for consistency and works with the original character writers to get rid of lines like the "I'll protect you" lines for the sake of tonal congruence. Astarion isn't the only one who deserves this, but he's been the most disserviced by this in all my playthroughs.

Apparently, when you play as a githyanki you can go back to the Astral and abandon your partner just like that too.

I've seen many suggestions for a cure for Astarion so he can be mortal again. Since he's never expressed interest in that, I think what could work better is being able to convince Jaheira to let Tav use her Rite of the Timeless Body scroll to perform the druidic ritual so Tav can slow down their aging and enjoy more time with Astarion.

And after choosing to spare all 7000 spawn I should be able to fuck off to the Underdark with Astarion even without romancing him. Especially as a drow.


Yeah he's never said he'd like to be mortal again, and it's disappointing that we can't ask. We can't ask what he wants to do in the future at all, unless I forgot something.

Jaheira is also supposed to be an expert on vampires, isn't she? It's such a wasted opportunity that we couldn't ask for her assistance regarding Astarion. Like about the cloak of Dragomir or other magical items.

Yeah, as Tav/Durge the player is choosing from that extremely limited number of options, not giving him the space to decide. Not to mention how sterile that whole dialogue scene looks, like two acquaintances talking, not partners. We should be able to stand much closer to him here, hold his hand, hug him or kiss him (in all romances obviously, not just him, as I mentioned before).

As for origin playthroughs,

Jaheira even (probably) knows about a potential vampirism-removal method. Lots of good, relevant things down in Amn, if we could just talk to her about them.

She ought to
It's a shame Larian does passing nods to previous games regarding some issues, but ignores them when it would help a companion,

Not so much a third album, more a tribute band.

This would be a nice non-romantic path for him and Tav. It's actually what the game is really lacking: proper friendship routes. It was the worst for me with Shadowheart when my Tav couldn't even hug her when she was crying her eyes out after respecting her parents' wish.


They really need to rework this for all romances. There's zero intimacy in that scene. My problem is not only him not being able to decide but also him being so insecure and not having any suggestions of his own. He just rolls with whatever Tav decides and even asks them for a confirmation if they wanna stay in the relationship as if the graveyard scene had never happened.

As for Karlach origin,