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

And get rid of the unnecessary comments.

Yes, that would be much more appropriate. That would also be a nice throwback to the dialogue where you can say you want to break up because you are afraid you might kill him.



Ouch, that was very hard to watch. Poor Astarion. Not that I would ever not kill Cazador in a run, but now I'm very sure I won't leave that quest undone.

They can direct all their thoughts at my rapidly retreating back.



If you think about it, Durge should go to sleep every night wondering if they'll wake up standing over a fresh corpse again. At least Astarion is always willing to tie them up.

Also, I find it really funny how noone, especially the vampire, wakes up during the Act 1 incident. You'd think Astarion would smell the blood.

I completely agree how the characters react to Astarion burning up feels a bit off base. This is huge moment and adjustment for Astarion. If you romanced Astarion as I did it feels even worse, you just stand there and do nothing when you should be there for him in that moment. If they want to keep it so he is running away/hiding from the sun, you should have the option to follow and help him find shade, chase after him, or find him later, especially if you romanced him! Or change the scene all together and have him leave before he burns up and explain where he is going and catch up later.

The scene “romance” afterwards is pretty lack luster for good Astarion as well. After they have the convo they could hug, cuddle, kiss or something! Or be sitting and holding each other while they have the convo, something!!

Yeah, actually, tying Durge up every evening should be a fun little ritual of theirs. The Act 1 incident always needs a lot of suspension of disbelief with it happening right next to everyone. I always headcanon that he does wake up, but just shrugs and turns around again, ha ha. Also, the morning after talk if you have Astarion as the only companion in camp is hilarious.


I wrote in another thread that one quick fix could be that the after docks romance dialogue could be placed by the crates he took shelter behind. It would indicate that Tav actually ran after him and kept him company until sunset. Both cuddled up next to each other (we know those animations are in the game) would also feel more intimate. This does not fix the scene for the people who were on a friendship path though.

"Can't be too careful, darling."

And same. I pretend he just decides not to bother. This is too messy for his tastes. I love that conversation if he's the only one in camp, every word out of his mouth is gold.

Just saw the new afterparty epilogue and personally I am very happy with it. (I got issue with textures not being loaded corectly, but that was not bothering me much, because the reunion with my friends was still worth it! )

So far, I have only saw the epilogue in my playthrought where i did not romanced Astarion but still... (despite the awful dock scene, which is still there)... taking into consider just the new camp party epilogue, he just seems SO happy and content!

Yes the dock scene should still be handled better, but since it is now followed by the afterparty, the ending left in me so much better feeling and I cannot wait to see it also for the romanced version.

Thank you, Larian, I kept hoping you will get us some nice ending, and my hope was rewarded.

After playing all the endings last night, also add:

Agreed, the eplilogue party is indeed incredible and we're all thankful for it. This thread is about how atrocious the docks scene (still) is and we'd like to see it fixed.

We specifically ask for a choice to follow Astarion (especially if he is your romantic partner) instead of being forced to ignore his pain.

I romanced Astarion and did his spawn ending and I thought his ending scene was fine. The only thing I would change is adding a line from one of the recruitable non-origin characters about checking on him. I honestly just assumed it was one of those "you have to go through it alone" moments for him.

Lae'zel, Karlach, Wyll, and Gale still have some pretty huge character-defining moments left and I liked how the game emphasized them in those moments.

It is great for you that you thought it's fine. It's a RPG though and I should be able to choose how my character reacts when the love of her life is about to turn to cinders. She'd make sure, he gets to safety and healed. Instead my character is forced to ignore him. That is in no way, shape or form how any of my characters would ever react. Astarions pain and fear are just brushed aside.

That's why I ask for the option to choose: either follow him or ignore him (for the people who are fine with the scene or don't care about Astarion).

Besides, the other companions get their huge moments handled with dignity. Imho Astarion loosing immunity to sunlight is a huge character-defining moment as well (let's not forget, Larian has him say that perhaps the changes were permanent. They had him get his hopes up). Why is his huge character-defining moment turned into a tasteless joke?

Sorry for causing you emotional distress, that wasn't my intention.

It's not that kind of moment, it's just rushed. It's a roleplaying game. The writing shouldn't decide for me what my character chooses to do in a moment with two very clear choices.

And when the dude is the only companion I recruited and there isn't even anything else to do, the narrator/DM shouldn't start telling me what my character is thinking. The narrator/DM should never decide for you what your own character is thinking.

I appreciate that but you didn't cause me emotional distress. Everyone involved in the development of the scene did.

First of all, sorry if I have caused you any emotional distress.

Secondly, it is a roleplaying game, but it's not an unlimited roleplaying game. It's a vastly different experience from real life roleplaying, and to be able to write a story and create a reasonably sized game, there have to be interjections by the narrator/the game itself.

Thirdly, sometimes I feel like it gets forgotten that millions of people play this game, with different tastes and opinions. We have no idea if out of those millions of players enough feel the need for an alternative ending to make it worth implementing it in the game. A lot of the Astarion discourse happens in bubbles.

Doesn't mean people can't ask for it.

Would it hurt anyone if an option was added? No.

I play the game quite a lot and it still has some serious performance and bug issues, there are issues with other companions' content (Wyll, Minthara, Halsin) and Larian seems to add originally planned but ultimately cut content for now.

Sure you can ask for things, but there are a lot of things asked from Larian I wouldn't be surprised if most of it is lower priority for now.

But anyway, have a nice day

How would Larian know what we want if we don't ask?

It's not like they haven't already proven, they are more than capable to work on all sorts of different changes simultaneously. Just look at the patches, each includes a wide variety of changes.

We have good reasons to ask for the dock scene to be changed. People avoid to actually finish the game because Astarion is treated like a joke there. It's not pleasant to watch.

Larian, please change or remove companion remarks and give the player an option to follow Astarion.

Edit: typos

Please don't misinterpret my words. I didn't say you shouldn't ask for it, I just tried to highlight that the game has some technical and story issues, which hopefully are prioritized. Based on the statistics Larian released, most players are still Ethan, the human paladin, who probably struggles with different issues while gaming.

From a game development perspective, some problems are easier to solve than others, some features can be implemented "in isolation" while others can't.

I thought, my answer did reflect that I understood what you said.

Obviously some things are easier to implement than others and some issues are (probably) prioritized. I am not asking Larian to stop working on everything else.

• But Larian wants our feedback / suggestions and I am incredibly grateful for it.
• They work on different changes simultaneously instead of addressing one issue at a time with their whole team.