Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Maximum Number of Concurrent Romances Before Choice Required

Hello, everyone!

First time posting here - if my title is too spoiler-ish (?), please let me know how to fix it!

If you want as much mystery as possible regarding male PC-to-female NPC romances, this thread is not for you!

Right up front --> Too long a post, don't wanna read? Familiar enough with male-to-female romances to be spoiler-proof?
Willing to read? Spoiler alert if you are!
Okay, so here's what I want to know/have confirmed: I have a save from my first playthrough in September 2023. During this campaign, I restarted a few times from certain points in the playthrough if I realized I missed something big or wanted to do something over from an earlier save. Over the course of this campaign, the game had 3 patches before I come to my point in question.

Potential plot-spoilers involved:
Between patches 3 and 4, I have a save where all quests are completed in Act II, except for three: Making a romance choice before talking to Dammon (for the first time (I held off on talking to him because it is the trigger for me making the romance choice)), and .

In my Act II "pre-act-ending save," as a male PC romancing all three female NPCs (Shadow, Laezel, Karlach, natch'), I still have all three romances viable:

Romance spoilers?
So I gotta clear things up before talking to Dammon.

There is a thread on this site, where Crimsomrider states that only two romances are possible at a time, but his post actually pre-dates my scenario which disproves it; in retrospect, Crimsomrider may ultimately be correct, as my playthrough may be a fluke. This is the link to that post on these forums: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=888975#Post888975

Finally (lol), my question: Having tried to replicate my romance and game progression choices from my first campaign in subsequent campaigns, I am always locked out of one female romance from the get-go. Can anyone confirm if it is possible to have all three female romances active at once at all anymore, or is this something has has been patched? Was my first playthrough a fluke?

Thanks!

Wasn't expecting to be mentioned

But yes, officially you can only flirt with two at a time up until ACT 2 and then you can only fully dedicate yourself to one since you'll be forced to choose.

Keep in mind that since release there have been numerous patches that have been fleshing out and solidifying romances while also covering up numerous cracks in their walls. Not all fixes are also fully retroactive in existing playthroughs due to numerous and extensive changes, so it's not surprising that you're able to flirt with all three simultaneously in your old playthrough. There were numerous issues with romances back when the game released, for example I was able to uncover Shadowheart's secret and trigger her romantic night before even leaving the intro beach. Talk about a fast hookup

So in short, romances have been drastically fleshed out since then and you can officially only flirt with two. Once you fully dedicate yourself to one in ACT 2, the other will try to break things off. For example because you mentioned Lae'zel and Karlach, if you become Lae'zel's zhak vo'n'ash duj, Karlach will try to break up with you. Same with any other.

Like Shadowheart yesterday auto-broke up with me in an instant as soon as I called Minthara my lover, didn't even give me a chance to speak

Thanks - was actually hoping to hear otherwise lol... How did you know this so soon after the full release? Was it something Larian put out there, or did you just figure it out on your own?

I just play the game too much

This particular limit I observed at launch when I was romancing Karlach and accidentally initiated one with Gale as well without even realizing it while creating the Weave, so at the camp celebration everyone treated me like a complete stranger because I was already "taken".

Really rubbed me the wrong way because I really wanted Lae'zel to be my second, so did some testing and that's how I found it was limited to just two. Which is also how I found out that triggering two romances too quickly will lock the player out of all camp scenes which may initiate a romance, but are not even strictly for it.

For example Gale's Weave scene is a romance initiator, but it also has tons of in-depth lore about him as a person. If you romance two companions before getting this scene, you will miss out on it permanently because of the limit. So to avoid this I always leave my 2nd romance open for as long as I can so I don't miss any scenes.