Glad you like the thread. It’s making me realize that I probably dislike the characters that I do because I haven’t given them enough of a chance (i.e., Halsin, Wyll). But I doubt I’ll be giving them a whole ton of a chance because I just love the others too much already. And I want THEM in my party. Like I said, I adore Shadowheart and Lae’zel. And I’m pretty fond of Gale and Astarion. They both have their moments when they’re annoying, and Astarion can be quite callous toward Shadowheart, which grinds my gears, but overall I enjoy them.

Epilogue spoilers
I really like Gale’s ending where he becomes a professor and spawn Astarion becomes a heroic assassin. And Gale invites my character to come give a lecture, that was cool.

I haven’t played with Karlach too much, but she seems fun. I wish that we could have more than three companions in our party so that we could get to know everybody more. That would help.

I love the teeth-ling kid NPCs too, they are all great. It’s so cool being able to buy a newspaper from Silfy every day and bolstering her self-confidence. I couldn’t find Arabella in Act 3, I’ll have to look around more next time. Mirkon and Mattis are always good for a laugh, yeah, the tiefling kids are all great.

Mol Act 3 spoilers
Mol annoys me at the end though because when I told her that I had freed her soul from eternal imprisonment in Raphael’s house, she threatened me and told me she would get her vengeance on me! Like girl, you escaped from Moonrise and got a new eyeball for free, seriously?

Shadowheart Epilogue spoilers

I think that what Shadowheart’s “best ending” is may depend to some degree on what the main character hopes for after the events of the game are over? I still think that for Shadowheart, from her perspective as a character, it would be better for her to have her parents around. But if the player character wants to have a life of adventuring, then they might choose to sacrifice her parents for that ending.

That would not be my choice. Because my character would want that peaceful life after all of the hell that she went through as the Dark Urge. I’m extremely happy with that ending. My playthroughs are very much centered on Shadowheart and Lae’zel, though, so your playthroughs being more centered on Gale and Astarion may be part of why we have a difference of opinion. Meaning, your ideal vision for her future centers around Gale and Astarion. And that’s fine, we all have our preferences!