Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion The romance with Astarion pulls you over to the "dark side".

And all the previous time (until he found out about the ritual) - he tries to get any power he can reach. Larvae, the book "Necromancy of Thay", even the idol of Silvanus he wants to steal in the druid grove (will definitely do this for him in the next playthrough, I wonder where it will lead). His wonderful scene with Tav's manipulation and "seduction by power". By the way, what I like most about this scene is the middle line, "How do we do this?". Astarion is "knocked off his posture", he obviously didn't expect such a turn, this speech is clearly not prepared, he has to improvise (this is where we find out that the "future lord" doesn't like to plan). In contrast to the reaction to the "good" line, when Tav refuses, he gives logical arguments (seemingly thought out in advance), the previous pose is retained, Astarion expected this and tries to "plant a seed of doubt" by manipulating the "good hero".


Yeah, that's what I had. I especially remember his response to "I just want you to be happy" - Astarion is briefly lost and thoughtful, and then explains to Tav that that's what will make him happy.


After replaying that scene, it seemed to me that Astarion was worried specifically about Sebastian, it was in the dialog with him, and near his cage Astarion has a truly anguished face, the Gurts children don't touch him like that.


Instead, Astarion gives his approval after this check, which makes it feel like the "right" choice. But after stabbing Kasador, he cries. Very bitterly. I can't believe these are "tears of purification", or that it's only related to his past. It has to do with his future too.


The two paths are really well shown and developed only by Shadowheart (if we omit the ugly behavior of Selune Shadowheart, which was discussed in the Halcyn thread). Gale makes a choice with the crown only at the end of the game (the choice to explode or not to explode cannot be called a choice, it's a manipulation of Mystra, and Gale himself doesn't want it at all). Will can kill Karlach and not get the horns, in which case he can sort of be accepted into Baldur's high society and become the heir to the Duke of Ravengard - that's probably the only more or less "evil" option for him, and he doesn't become "evil" anyway. With Mizora and saving his father, he doesn't want to decide at all, you just make the decision for him. Karlach - agonizing with how to save her for the players who love her, but where does she have two paths? Lae'zel- the only good option for her is the Orpheus path, I can't see how she can stay with Vlaakith. I think the "evil" Astarion, if that's what he was originally intended to be, might not be convinced, but would engage Tav in battle if he was denied the ritual.


The options for fixing it are just begging, they are in the player's eyes when you go through the game with a unascended, which is maddening, makes the player feel helpless and angry. "Crown", which glued in one of the patches on Tav's avatar is perceived as a mocking taunt - yeah, cool hero, only you can not do anything. Most obvious:

1) Daliria with her diary and description of her blood transfusion experiments. How could Tav even just let her go after that and not take her to her camp and continue her experiments? Very unrealistic, the first "roleplay breakdown" in the entire game (actually, with Astarion not ascended, roleplay breaks down very often). Until now, BG3 seemed to me the most realistic, most variable game in the history of gaming, which can only be compared in terms of variation directly to DnD itself.

2) Jaheira's "unfading body" ritual. This is much easier to implement than the first option, and besides, the whole story with her scroll looks like an unfinished work. Maybe they'll do it again, who knows, let's hope so! It can't be used in the game in any way, just dialog with Jahaira about it - that's all! If it would be possible to use this ritual on Astarion, if it could heal him, the only thing left would be to rewrite the disgusting "scene at the docks" - and that's it! The players are happy, the appeal of evil drops as the "good way" now becomes comfortable to play, Ascended Astarion is enjoyed by its connoisseurs, and the rest of the players - those who don't like it - no longer have such an incentive to change their worldview and "go to the dark side". With the Ascended Astarion, this ritual can be used for Carlach and save her this time (and how happy this would make Carlach's fans, I imagine). Jaheira even tells Karlach that "she's more worthy of it than anyone else", but to no avail... Zero. Why this is in the game, for what purpose, is unclear.

It is interesting to compare the reactions of the Ascended and the unascended Astarion - the lines are the same, but the facial expressions are different. The unascended one suffers a lot, his face is distorted by inner pain, the ascended one proudly holds his nose up. But the camera is on Astarion, you can look at him longer and notice that the Ascended Astarion is also overcome by gloomy thoughts, but obviously of a different kind - the corners of his mouth are slightly down, is he grieving? (About the victims, about Sebastian?) But it's as if he is trying to suppress it, to hide it, to hold back. Very realistic and lively animation transition after choosing the romantic line at this point - right from this position, Astarion smoothly transitions into the "You want to talk? That's very cute", the expression naturally changes, it's like he gets distracted from his thoughts and switches to you. It feels like you've lifted his spirits and helped distract him!

These two options could be workable, of course, but there are a lot of other options that come to mind, like "Why can't I demand from Raphael a cure for Astarion in exchange for the crown of Karsus?", "Why can't I trade this crown with any god that agrees to help me?", "Why can't I capture the brain without enslaving Astarion and use all the resources of the Absolute to find a cure?". This is already from the series of "the player's mind is going," except that in DnD such a thing could be performed, and it could lead to such consequences that 7000 spawns will seem like complete nonsense At this point, the player should realize that "you are no "good", but just a crazy "chaotic-Astarionist", and your "moral principles" have long smelled like a seven-day old corpse in the trunk of an old car abandoned somewhere on the Mexican border". And it's time to load up, ascend Astarion, and sleep well... Jokes are jokes, but the attractiveness of the path of evil is perfectly demonstrated precisely through the helplessness of good, and not just through the attractiveness of the Ascended Astarion.


Thank you! Actually, they should have subtitled it, but maybe it's on purpose, as a reward for "inquisitive" players.


Yeah, I must have played that scene too long ago (only patch 1 of the game came out then), then they added it. Then because of the lack of content, I thought it was a fiasco, I was greedy 200 coins for my resurrection (in the beginning of the game with gold is tight), I restarted and decided that Astarion will have time to eat before the second check I also did not have the line "You can drink my blood today if you want", which I saw in the videos of other players. Is this because I immediately agreed with Astarion on his offer to drink the blood of our enemies? There was also the line, "I don't mind feeding you sometimes". I didn't think about it at first, and then there was really nothing to feed him in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, thanks Vlaakith, at least the githyanki were attacking, most of the enemies in the Shadow-Cursed Lands are inedible.


Thanks, interesting! I had an romance before the party started, had another dialog with Astarion, which replaces his classic dialog at the party. He's very seductive in that dialog But no one discussed it, only SH noticed we were in a relationship.


Oh, that's very nice! For some reason, I had imagined that Astarion wanted to hide the relationship. Perhaps because of the line "You will belong to me, and I to you - but only for one night". It seemed to me that, having escaped slavery, he really valued his independence and personal boundaries. "Don't touch me" and "Keep your distance, darling." Doesn't want anyone, including me, to think I own him, so he keeps his distance. Otherwise, it was hard for me to realistically, within a roleplay, explain why I couldn't tell anyone about it. Astarion seemed to be watching and testing me while doing so, and I treated dialogues with companions when they hinted at anything resembling romance as walking through a minefield, wanting to prove my loyalty. When you don't read anything about the game, you can create some of your own, albeit flawed, opinions about the character, but it's also a very interesting experience.


You have the strongest and most reasoned position in favor of rejecting Ascension of anything I have previously read about it. This also explains the rare moments in Ascended Astarion's life when he seems to mourn the loss of this "human side". They are rare and pass quickly, but it gives his image a note of tragedy along the way as well.


Damn, indeed! The staff is linked to the marks on the bodies of the victims, Ascension is fine - it doesn't matter what's on the back of the one who takes the place of the master of the ritual, but if you kill all the spawn with the staff, then Astarion must die too! If you somehow make it so that you kill everyone except those wearing Astarion's mark, then there should be 999 spawns left, brought by Astarion. I guess the Larians just didn't think of that. But this option is the worst, it's "passable", just so it's "for choice". In this case, everything you wrote about in the previous abazatz loses its meaning. It's just making a mockery of Astarion. If the paladin doesn't want vampire spawns running through the sewers of the city, he can help Astarion ascended and justify it by saying that Astarion's powers will be useful in the battle against the most important evil, and this is the lesser evil, since the spawns will die anyway.


I read the guide - they say that the bite, the book and Gandrel's death are possible triggers for an early romance with Astarion (it worked naturally for me, interestingly enough). The bite is mandatory for an Astarion romance in general, the rest are just additional opportunities to raise approval and get Astarion early.