Ok, so I'm kinda having a hard time understanding the ask here for some of these comments. Like, yes, the options are overly assumptive about the players motives, but his behavior post ascension is legitimately abusive. A character who's going to stay with him needs to reconcile that in some way unless you're a doormat who wants to be walked over.
Astarion's clearly experiencing some regret / guilt post ascension, and from his behavior we can see that he's projecting his anger at himself onto the PC. He's not trying to win the PC over in that moment. His goal is to provoke them into showing their "true colors" through a love-test designed to be impossible. He wants the PC to lash out at him and call him a monster. If they do, he can write them off entirely and absolve himself as the victim in this situation for having been manipulated by a PC who supposedly "loved him".
So, that's kinda the issue. There isn't a way to smooth things over. His goal is to hurt you, plain and simple. No amount of agreeing with his decision or reassuring him should necessarily be able to change that. The only way to prove it to him is to become his spawn, an act that is essentially surrendering your boundaries and control as a show of loyalty.
Given all that, what is missing? A character who is happy with the outcome and wants to maintain the status quo should probably be calling out his negative attitude / demeanor, but if you want to ignore it, fine. Either way, it should still run up into the same ultimatum: become my spawn or we're done. I could see some attempts to reassure him that what he did shouldn't weigh on him or promises that you're loyal no matter what, but those are all gonna run up against the "prove it by becoming my spawn" test still.
I think what would really help is a:
So, tell me what you desire. What can I do for my favorite pet?
> 5. "What is this really about Astarion?"
that can quickly get us to some version of "You made me this, if you really love me, prove it! Become my spawn!"
Last edited by Yharmeru; 27/11/23 04:27 AM.
