Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Problems with Halsin's character, advances, LI and general character interactions, etc.

From what I've read Karlach's origin accounts for her not being able to touch people, it would be weird not to. I don't care about romances that much, it doesn't bother me.

The only origins I've disliked so far are Gale (and Laezel, but that is when playing gith). I think no companion, regardless of whether I like them or not, should be given the sort of game over mechanics like Gale. At least it should account for the boom radius and not make it into plot armor.

I really don't want to derail the thread too much so I'll keep it short and we can take it to another thread should that be of interest, but she basically has as much if not a bit more gameplay content as Gale (more because she actually has an emotional cutscene to end her quest, to which you have to take her along and she hijacks Elmister scene through her companion comments - just look what yt comments focus on for that scene), she usually gets the high ground in any banter she is involved in, you can rarely call her out for anything or be mean to her, then there is the whole dock scene issue and while her special condition was accounted for, Gale's isn't. He also shouldn't be able to have sex in Act 1 due to the unstable orb but more importantly, Astarion shouldn't be able to drink from him because he is poisonous. Still you can (unless this was changed recently) totally offer Astarion daily blood, let him bite during sex and become his spawn in Act 3. None of that should work, but it wasn't accounted for. But again, not the thread for it.

As for Gale's plot armour: Just don't recruit him, send him away or kill Elminster. That armour has big holes.

Well, why have the player to look into holes in Gale's plot armor in the first place? If the game over is supposed to represent an explosion, then the writer should keep it logical, and not change how it works depending on whether it is Gale's heroic scene or not.

On a side note, in the original BG games Elminster was involved in the Bhaalspawn lot starting from the first game, exactly the same way, approaching the party as they travelled. It is just weird how uninterested he is in this part of the main plot, considering it was personal for him back then. Then again, Viconia has been reduced to being a side character to Shadowheart, so perhaps that is how it is with Larian. Making old characters all about their companions now. Might be the reason why I only like Jaheira from the old cast.

While I agree, that the orb should only wipe the map you leave his corpse on, I think that generally you can get rid of him the way you like, once the orb is stable. But that's just theory. I recently had him die on me through Yurgir and did neither get a special notice nor the "In Case of Death" quest and there wasn't any necrotic aura either - despite this having been his first death in the save

With those words of maybe wisdom and potential murder incentive back to barely bashful bears.

After reading the last pages, I have to say, I always thought Larian is capable of making really good games (at least DOS2 was for me) but there are more problems and holes in this than in any cheese wheel.

I remember the last Panel from Hell, where they said the main focus of the game beside the main story are romances and relationships just to deliver... well, this. There are indie companies out there writing better love stories. It's not about a "give gift -> love each other -> marriage -> children" story, it's more about a relationship that's player driven, it should be about your choices, you decide who you want (or how many), how the relationship is handled and such. There could be dialogue choices for their behaviour, if you like your LI to be jumping from a pair of legs to another, you can encourage them to do so and so on.

I really liked the EA version, it has been a lot of fun, I was looking forward to how the relationships may develop and when I heard Larian talking about adult romances and how important they are, I was even more hyped. Right now, I feel like other games give me way more grown up romances.
BG3 was a big opportunity but I feel there is so much potential being left - potential that could've been used with more time.

Anska:

I mean since teh preface of this thread was, that op wanted to beat down a dev, I say, derailing it, is a good option, but you are right. And I think, the issues with Karlach and Gale are either very big or not there at all, depending on if you like the character or not (I happen to like them, I like all characters apart from Halsin). Halsin is a bit different: he seems to have a dedicated fan circle, but apart from that, he just doesn't seem to be well liked. A friend, who plays the game asked me, because he know, I'm playing BG3 since the beginning of EA, what the f.... Halsin is doing in act 3 and if they really couldn't come up with someone better than him - he gave Barcus as an example. And I said, that the only reason, he is there is a thirsty fancrowd and that is his story, nothing more to it. I mean, I literally couldn't give him a reason for Halsin being there, but horny players - and that is a bit sad.

I’m interested in this being another thread, because this is an issue of mine as well when I’m playing Gale origin

Wdym? I love Halsin's personality... I mean 2 huge hairy personalities

Halsin is in a tough spot. Since he is the less cool druid companion it was always gonna be an uphill battle for the writers. They also decided to go with a poly relationship option, which is going to alienate a ton of people. It doesn't help that SH and Astarion being poly/not minding some side Halsin seems to be an executive choice rather than anything connected to their main story arcs.

It's a sidenote but by far the weirdest choice is Ascended Astarion being chill with Halsin. He's the most possessive romance option by far.

Halsin even kind of has a plot, he is deeply distraught by how city life looks like and then takes some of the refugees back to Reithwin to build a better town there. At least that's what I have gathered from the epilogue, it just happens all of screen and you never learn anything about it.

But I shall take the bear as bait now and hope this time my game doesn't harm Yenna. At least we now know how Orin kidnapps him, she shifts into Shadowheart and he's too horny to notice the bad impression before it is too late.

More like into Tav that saying "yes, please screw me and my romanced companion right now daddy Halsin"

Ascended Astarion probably looks at it like lending out a toy to play with or something.

It's also an issue while playing Astarion's origin. Nothing is adapted to his "condition". You don't get to talk to anyone, not even your LI, about your scars or the fact that you may want to drink some blood. You never even get to think about biting your LI. You get to see more of his content and character when you play Karlach's origin than you do when you play his own origin.


i can justify it as "do whatever you want darling, because after the tadpole is gone I'll do whatever I want with you." And in any other case the game would rub it in your face. With all the special treatment they gave to his romance I'm almost surprised they didn't include the affair with Halsin in it.

I mean SH/Astarion don't take Halsin's relationship as serious, they even call it as "fun". Maybe again be explained with that forgidden woodelf/highelf lore where they don't take relationship with woodelves as serious(because of woodelven usual polygamy and non-possesivness) and they don't feel threatened about it.

The people who love/hate Halsin are probably a very slim portion of the playerbase. The fact there is any controversy at all is amusing to me. All of the companions (except Wyll) try to jump in your pants, all of them have relationship quirks or issues, and they all have Acts where they have major content and do not.

He's not even nearly as polarizing as the Emperor.

Only Halsin is that pushy though. Sh doesn't jump ur pants btw, like she has 1 trigger and that is tiefling party where she might invite you to a date based on approval, just like any companion does. Wyll dance scene almost always triggers though.
Most of the playerbase is silent anyway, we don't really know what they like or not, but we can judge general cherish/annoyance by vocal playerbase(I think for general playerbase % would be around the same). And yes, Halsin is very controversial so far whether you like it or not.

I have friends who don't play RPGs at all, and even their social media is full of people going "I want to kill Halsin."

I don't think most people truly give a damn about Halsin, as in they'll never take him in their party. I mean, where's the incentive to do so? That's why a lot of people don't notice all the exceptionally questionable crap about him. Maybe if the stars align, more people think: "Why not"? and include Halsin in their party while at the same time romancing Shadowheart, then maybe we'd see way more complaints. But as I said, there's truly no reason to bring him into your party so that's probably not going to happen for a good while.

True, I was surprised by the lack of insight into Astarion’s mind in his own origin playthrough. No monologuing like Karlach does either. He doesn’t even talk during the Cazador confrontation, which I feel was a cop out since it’s his big breakthrough moment. I romanced Gale and neither him or any of the other companions I had with me try to interrupt like we can do with a tav, or even say anything the entire time.

I was also shocked to see that there was no extra dialogue or insight into what Astarion might think with Halsin’s poly proposition and trying to get in on my relationship in his origin. In a non-origin Astarion playthrough, you can ask him and he seems “ok” with it (truthfully I don’t think he’s 100% ok with it but that’s another discussion and some companions kinda allude to that). Why don’t we get any special treatment for this situation with Astarion, knowing his whole story is about autonomy? I want to know what he’s really thinking playing as him. It doesn’t get treated with dignity and it feels icky all around.

I hadn't expected anything during the Halsin proposition but I would have expected some additional narration during the Araj situation. Like an autonomous Nature / Medcine role to tell that her blood is off along with the implications. The various torture chambers we encounter should also be points to explore thoughts.