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.

My plan on all future playthroughs is to just completely avoid the drow twins and Halsin in Act 3, and I think that should solve the problem for me personally.

I think part of the issue is, that if you are seeking out a threesome or foursome as a player, the game assumes that you’re okay with an orgy in general, and it just kind of slaps Halsin in there. Like the writing assumes too way much. So, my character is just never going to express an interest in the drow twins.

And some of the male companions can certainly be a bit creepy hitting on the women, which is why I typically play with an all-female party with maybe one of the less creepy guys splashed in. Meaning, Gale or Astarion.

I don’t like the whole foursome/fivesome thing anyway, because I agree with some of the other posters: once you’ve developed such deep and meaningful relationships with your romanced companions, then it just feels weird to be forcing them into something they aren’t necessarily comfortable with, i.e., Gale or Astarion with the drow twins.

And it feels really weird and out of character, honestly, for Shadowheart, who has asked you to be with her now and always, to start talking about being with other folks. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It feels like a “sexy shock value” thing that flies in the face of the writing up to that point.

Since I doubt they’re going to fix this, avoidance is probably the best solution and pretending that you never saw any of the stuff that bothered you? In new playthroughs I mean. As problematic as it may be for some of us, the nice thing is that you can completely skip that content and pretend that it doesn’t exist.

I will emphasize that I think they do make Astarion and Shadowheart available for a fivesome in this way because they’re two of the more popular romance options and they’re doing it for “sexy shock value.” It is not consistent with how those characters have been written up to that point. I think it’s less about who those characters are as people and more about Larian wanting to make their game flashy and sexy, same thing with the whole bear sex deal.

There are “metagame” reasons, in other words, for these choices. Not internal character writing reasons. All the more reason for me to avoid it!

Nah but, unlike "true poly" Halsin or w/e, who stright up says it to your character upon relationship start, they are not "true poly". They never say it, because they are only ok with an open relationship and treat Halsin as side fun(even in their dialogues they state it clearly) for Tav. No way they share emotionally, it's pretty clear in act2. I think the issue is with Halsin's writing and how they try to shove him in your face(I blame writer of Halsin for this). You don't have to go far to understand this, take Shadowheart for example, at no point in the game she asks Tav herself to open up relationship, at no point in the game she suggests side fine herself, she just goes along if you want it. Look at epilogue, game still forces you to choose in the end with whom to stick(game itself treats Halsin as side-fun, as Ast/Lach/SH romance always takes higher priority). So basically they were right and Halsin indeed was just a "side fun"(I guess this wooden elf/high elf lore also worked there).

Where does she even say that? If you are talking in general with her being ok with drows, it's fine I guess, she just follows Tav there, no? Mizora thing pretty sure she is not that fine with whole situation.
Halsin shit is obviously not fine, because it is too forced, but I blame Halsin writing for that more.

Polyamory is a form of consensual non-monogamy, in which all parties are aware of and consent to practice non-monogamy. Being okay with some side fun is also a form of polyamory. Your examples are just about how it's not implemented well in the game. They just added for sexy reasons, choose the characters for meta reasons and never bothered to do it well.

Well yes, you can call it I guess. I meant SH specifically can be full monogamous if you want(I guess it is default) or ENM type "monogamish"(google it I guess, Killerrabbit provided information on this while ago).

Thanks, part of that is exactly what I’m trying to say! Do you feel that Larian using a fivesome as a flashy selling point in this game does a disservice to the actual practice of polyamory by sensationalizing and very poorly implementing it? (E.g., Gale is semi-coerced.) I’m thinking that this could be another way in which the scene is problematic. Sorry if this has been mentioned before, I haven’t read through all of the thread.

I played a drow so of course I went to see what is up with two drow working at a surface brothel. And after Araj everyone who mentions Astarion is on very thin ice with this character, so I asked them some questions and the rest is history lol.


With Astarion it starts fine, he'll either say no or he'll want to try and see what happens, depending on where he is in his quest. The problem with him is that at the end of the thing narrator tells you he was dissociating and you apparently didn't notice, and it just feels bad. Halsin's whole "poly" thing is much more uncomfortable with him, he asks if it's because the two of you "haven't in a while" and the game pretends it's fine to have an open relationship when your partner has such concerns. And the thing is, I have a feeling the writers don't even realize what they did.

And then all of a sudden "An inriguing pair" (C) Halsin.
It is obvious that this is blatant fanservice for the sake of horniness. Thats why we ask for some changes here...

Halsin's going through midlife crisis. He quit his responsibilities, went on a trip with a bunch of younger people, and is trying to have sex with people he barely knows. Preferably at least two of them at once.

Yes, great points, thanks for enlightening me as to how this thing goes with Astarion because I’ve never seen that myself. But that does all sound so incredibly icky. Like your partner has PTSD, and you’re so busy with your orgy that you don’t notice that they aren’t feeling comfortable/dissociating. It reflects really poorly on the player character. Then, like you said, the whole thing about suggesting that it’s okay to open the relationship (or maybe if you follow that to its logical conclusion, cheat) If there’s been a dry spell… it’s just so incredibly icky and toxic. You’re right. Like why not focus on satisfying conclusions for actual romances instead of devoting effort to this?

I feel like act 3 is so out of character for Halsin too? Like up to this point he’s been this noble guy trying to help you out, etc., but then his character’s writing rapidly degrades in quality in act 3? I think this goes back to the fact that act 3 is simply lower quality than the first two acts. The character writing takes a hit.

Ye exactly. It just feels a few different kinds of wrong. A pixel man doesn't have actual feelings, but he can be very relatable, and just knowing that someone wrote this shit, and then someone else thought it was fine to put it in the game...eh.

I mean… you can find plenty of Astarions in real life. What happens in the game doesn’t necessarily stay in the game. The game is a cultural production that is relevant to society. So for me, the critique is less about pixelated feelings (although when you get so immersed in the game and attached to the characters, this definitely FEELS real, and matters!) but more about the messages it’s sending. And the inconsistent writing irks me.

Ye this is what I meant too.

I played as Shadowheart, but never romanced her. I only engaged with Halsin when I romanced Astarion, and that experience was very negative for me.

On the one hand, Astarion has this big story about trauma and a complicated relationship with sex, consent, and saying no. The game also slightly tilts the relationship in favor of the player (Astarion puts his love interest on a pedestal). So in this situation, Halsin is this guy, who has hung around your camp since Act 1, witnesses the player character fall in love with someone and start a relationship, learns about Astarion's trauma, and waits weeks/months to proposition them. It's just all types of icky. The actual dialogue is what it is, and it's not good. There isn't even an option to tell Astarion you changed your mind about Halsin or ask him if he'd like to be romantically involved with others. As a poly person myself, I wouldn't want to open up a relationship with someone like Astarion, except if they explicitly ask for it (after doing like 200 years of therapy).

On the other hand, polyamory is a relatively complex topic, not many people are poly, there is a lot of misunderstanding around it, and for sure, it's not for everyone. I don't know why Larian decided to include this in a video game, which has very few dedicated romance scenes and limited time for characters/themes. It's difficult to envision anything with Halsin, which starts in Act 3 and isn't slightly creepy. I think if they wanted it for the sex shock value, they should have kept Halsin as an early hook-up option. We know they had little time to write and implement the Halsin romance and I'm not sure if they fully understand what questions it raises.

The brothel scene is its own issue for me. It's coercive with Gale and sad with Astarion. I never even talk to the Drow twins anymore.

This is due to the lore of the wood elves, it's not that difficult to understand.

Being sexpest and no taking "no" for an answer? Pretty sure it's not their lore. Only that they are usually poly and non-possesive.

Pest mest, no, whatever is just boring.
If you come with stoning, then I have to disappoint you, after these "some countries" the MC and his/her troops, actually almost everyone in the game, would have had the same end...

For sure.
However, what is boring? What is pest mest?
Afaik there is not lore on wooden elves that say that they sex pests and don't take "no" as an answer. Am I missing something?

Unnecessary and boring, I don't like repeating myself anymore.