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

That's super confusing... do you have a video of it or a screenshot?

Sorry, no. And I don't want to go through the whole ending again to get a screenshot. It's the morning after the ending on the docks and it's like the game can't tell which version of Astarion I have.

This is is a Dark Urge specific line no matter the LI. I guess it simply means that even if you rejected Bhaal you are still a Bhaalspawn and are for example not free to sire children/get pregnant because they'd become Bhaalspawn, too.

Mmm. Could have sworn I didn't have it with spawn Astarion before, but my memory is as good as Durge's.

Baldur's Gate 3 Developers Explain ...racters, and Making the Best RPG of 2023

"So we knew it wasn't that complete, it was very abrupt, but we wanted to finish and so now it's better."

At least they admit it's bad.

That would at least be an improvement.


Well, they have their priorities sorted out. I guess, lol.


Haven't had an epilogue with just Astarion and my Char yet. It sounds ridiculous. Each of my characters and I would certainly feel the need to make sure he's safe and accompany him.


While Astarion's "big moment" is with Cazador, the sun is brought up during the whole game, not only in dialogue. You get the scene of him basking in the morning sun, he talks about the colors he sees for the first time in centuries. The moment on the docks shows the consequences for his decision to not ascend. It could have been an incredible moment that shows the extent of his sacrifice. Instead it turned out extremely tasteless.

I believe his arc is about trauma, bodily autonomy and so much more than that. It's about freedom and healing and trust to name a few.
Even if he can protect himself (and in hindsight we know that he can), that's not the point. As I told you before, the point is, my Character is forced to act as if she doesn't care about Astarion. Despite the promise she made.
They added a cut scene for the sharess caress orgy, they surely can at least add my character running after Astarion. If they'd switch his and Karlach's moments, he could even go to Avernus if the player feels like it.

It would be nice if the companions were friendlier to each other and were more lively in act 3 in general.

This above all. In general I am starting to get a Karlach problem that gets worse every play-through, the amount of effort the game puts into making you and all the companions like her, is disproportional to the attention the other characters get, especially those who share similar problems to her's. I mean look at the drama her exploding gets compared to the way Gale goes out, if you choose to blow him up. Besides the whole Astarion burning in the sun issue.

Yep, she gets special treatment. If it works it works, but if it doesn't it can be really annoying. As a result she's never in my camp.

The more the game blatantly attempts to make me care for her, while not giving the same attention to other characters who also have these problems, the more I get put off by her character.


I would do the same in my future second playthrough with my Tav, were she not the perfect candidate for the heroic sacrifice, because she became expendable to me after taking Gortash's deal and her story makes her look like a cannon fodder character in the first place. Funnily enough, I cared more about the guy who I could finally chat with for the very first time (through Lae'zel's story) than someone who had been with me since act 1. Even that epilogue tries to make her as likeable as possible.

Same. Not going through that again therefore not going to recruit her anymore. It's a shame because I really liked Karlach.

Quoted to keep this thread active and noticeable They need to swop the Karlach dock scene and the Astarion dock scene in the running order. A while back there was a poster (not sure if it was this thread or another) who played as Astarion and romanced Karlach, that must have been the most disappointing ending imaginable. You run away from your lover cos you're burning she starts to burn up as well and either dies or goes to Avernus (possibly with someone else) while you are forced to lurk behind some crates and can't comfort your love interest or go with her because you are out of dialogue range. Did larian really think that would never happen or something?
If they did that, following Astarion off the docks (if he didn't go to Avernus) would be the most natural thing in the world

Meanwhile if you play as Karlach you get Astarion's whole romance adapted to her situation. Don't know about the ending though, it probably still sucks.

Well, in that article they did admit that they just couldn't be bothered to figure it out.

Again, not so much for other people with poisonous blood. But I'll take those extra approval points, for letting him nibble, thank you very much.

Well, it should be different for Gale too, especially since he's been in development longer.

Another thing that was disappointing in Astarion's origin was that the game never acknowledges how well he understands what Minthara's been through with the worm, and her need for revenge.

I haven't had the pleasure with Minthara yet, but I was in general surprised how few reminders of his past with Cazador he gets. In Gale's Origin, whenever something pops up that Mystra might have an opinion on, the narration reminds you about it or prompts you to consider your own position on the matter - usually this also coincides with one of Astarion's little manipulation attempts. It is a good representation of how important Mystra still is to him and creates a nice (percieved) dynamic between the characters.

Astarion's past before Cazador was cut and they didn't give him a new one. Cazador related stuff changed too. That might be why there's nothing in his origin and why the narrator says things that don't make sense sometimes, like "your master's coven is close to Baldur's Gate" when the palace is in the middle of the city, or how sunlight on his skin feels like "a caress of a lover who doesn't know better yet". 5 patches and they haven't figured out that maybe they shouldn't imply that he enjoyed being used that way.

Makes no sense whatsoever. A huge chunk of Act2 and the Act 3 (up to when you go to the palace) is him being celibate (and so are we of course) to get over his trauma.
They wrote that, then ignored it on multiple occasions.
It's not only Spawn Astarion, Ascended Asatarion has some diabolical voice lines for Tav that show at least one of the writers hadn't done any homework.

You're really left doing the thing I was hoping I wouldn't have to do with Larian - which is wait for modders to fix it (when did Bethesda take over?).

One modder has thankfully dealt with the worst of Ascended Astarion and Tavs dialogue (oddly it isn't what he says that's the issue its what Tav says - so no idea what Larian was thinking by that point).

But that damn dock scene is the absolute pits and should be cut out of the scene altogether and consigned to an incinerator.

Which lines? And what mod? Got me curious.

https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/5037?

Encountered soon after Ascension. Basically 'Make me a vampire too', 'Have sex with me', or scolding him like a teenager (Hope you've learned something from all this).

Sooo the entire thing was cos I wanted my Tav to be a vampire, or I view Astarion as a sex object, or he's a kid in need of admonishment.

Very poorly written , and none of the options have a hint of affection.

Modder just softened the edges a bit

Ah, that one. When the writing is so bad you need a mod to make it make sense.

Tho to be fair the player's dialogue in the graveyard scene isn't masterclass of writing either.

If I could mod I'd mess around with his Act 2 convos a bit. Araj was a good idea, but the implementation sucks in the romance version.