Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Astarion romance improvements

I am also in agreement with the above posts.

Patch 6 ruined the whole romance with Ascended Astarion. The kisses were a complete miss in my personal opinion. I think they were attempting to do BDSM but as with many movies, games, and other forms of media, that also failed the BDSM community. The top rules about BDSM are consent and trust. There is no fear or pain or sad emotions associated in there and why that was put into the kisses, is not something we like.

I would like to see an official response from Larian to explain what they had in mind. I had a great time in the game up until the release of Patch 6, as far as the romance. The kisses were a miss. Even a Vampire Ascendant Elf can have empathy for his consort and show love and passionate kisses. Since he only trusts one person in the world, supposedly my Tav, I do not want to see those kinds of faces on my Tav.

We are not teenagers in need of lessons in real life. I simply want a passionate romance with my Vampire Lord Elf. I would like to return to the game that I was enjoying and having fun in, not this. I hope they will change the kisses. The modders are not responsible for having to fix Larian's mistakes. Even with what they have done, they have been harassed for it constantly, just like anyone who has been an AA enjoyer on the internet, even more so when this patch went live on Valentine's Day. Please Larian, fix your mistakes. Bring the romance back and give up on the notion that we need to learn some kind of lessons, I already had real life lessons in this long life, and I do not need or want a game teaching these things to anyone, not even teenagers.

Please show us that you do actually hear us and want us (grown women and gay men) as your future customers by saying that you will fix your mistakes and bring back the romance that was in the first 5 patches of the game. Otherwise, as many other studios that proceeded you, it will follow your company for the rest of time. I really hope that you are listening to those who ACTUALLY play this particular path and not to those who want something different for our characters.

Otherwise, the romance is gone for a great number of people and I do not know if anyone can fix the problem without replacing the kisses completely.

Hugs and sensual kisses for Astarion are a must.

Please make the story and animations make logical sense.

Having zombie Astarion join his favourite book club is mild compared to people dragging Karlach's severed head and Gale's severed hand throughout the game and staging them (mostly the head) - especially since both have nasty implications that aren't just gameplay oddities.

I will never be able to call an agonizing death by torture by repeatedly skinning alive, which is what leads to Astarion's �zombification�, �mild �.

Of course, I'd be all for it if the ability to do such things with Gale and Karlach wasn't in the game. Their fans may be worried about it and may bring it up in their threads, but unfortunately if it's written into the plot, it's unlikely to be changed now.

I, on the other hand, am asking the developers to fix a bug that can be fixed.

I believe the path that leads to Zombie Astarion doesn't include flaying. The notes I read in Cazador's diary said he found his corpse ditched somewhere in a sorry state and brought back what he could for the ritual. I think this is what his diaries said whether you staked him, ignored him altogether, or gave him to Gandrel.

What other people do in their game is whatever. It does not have anything to do with the romance. So, can we get back to the romance part of the discussion, please?

Want to agree with this.

Why leave positive, happy lines in the game if *every kiss* is fearful? It's so inconsistent.

If you've made a dialogue path to build a story of being happy with Astarion, one that has existed since the start of the game, trying to negate that suddenly, half a year after release, by forcing the character to not enjoy something the player does and already has for more than a few playthroughs is so beyond silly, it's horrible writing.

Honestly, end of the day, Larian has failed to make me feel bad for ascending. All they have done is irritate me as the devs (not at the character) and wish to not buy anything from them. His spawn route is not happy to me. It is depressing to me. He seems unhappy and disingenuous, and trapped in fawn response to me.

If your goal is to make AA a no no lesson for adults, maybe try to making spawn actually *feel* like his happy ending. Don't lock his "I love you" confession behind agreeing to have sex with him. Give him lines that make him sound happy to see the PC. That make him sound sure of his feelings for them. And like he actually enjoys them. Not just like his "fate is sealed".

Don't just sour the grapes of another writer with bad expressions on the PC half a year after release. AA is going to draw dark romance enjoyers. No matter how one writer or another may *feel* about the players for that. It's not the writers job to judge their audience.

You're not going to make AA unattractive to people who already enjoy him. You're just going to make your own audience dislike you as the creator for trying. And not buy things from you in the future for judging them so harshly.

Controlling what a player likes in a RP game isn't possible. This isn't a static fiction novel or a movie. This is a story built on the players personal preferences. Acknowledge their view point. That is what makes satisfying RPG writing. Making the players feel seem by integration into the game.

This meme pic:
^I read through some older posts and this meme post by @Ametris is just too good not to re-share!
It's so accurate and really made me laugh! But this is honestly what this whole situation feels like. It seems like AA was retconned because we were enjoying this romance too much and didn't care enough about the consequences (7k souls of random NPCs).



^I agree. If they're trying to make him out to be this abusive and hateful partner now, well they'll have to throw the whole character away. There are too many other things already established in the game that tell a different narrative and conflict what they're depicting in those kisses. The fact that they did this 7+ months after release makes it that much worse.

Although I'm very grateful for the amazing modders and all the work they've done to make it more bearable, I still worry for new players who aren't yet aware of those kisses and will blindly click for a kiss with him, expecting something sensual and enjoyable but getting hit with those victim-Tav/DUrge scenes. I want the devs to do something to avoid that happening so that more people don't get triggered. New players may even click for a kiss right after the ritual and before the Turning scene, which would be even more jarring and awful.
Edit: I'm imagining having to see the kneeling kiss before you even got the chance to see the kneeling scene during the night when he turns you. :'(

Very well said. And where the authors managed to realistically and genuinely make me feel bad is on the spawn route. It feels very heavy, and I will only agree to make that choice if I suddenly need to test some antidepressants and see how they work. But I personally don't take that as a minus, but as a plus. It was realistic. I was not able to go all the way through with this option, but the feelings I had while doing so were a real reaction to the story when immersed in the game. Ascension made me feel great. Only some noticeable script problems that immediately stick out specifically as script problems, spoiled roleplay, inappropriate lines, etc. But everything else made me feel happy. The kisses with bad expressions hurt a lot the first one, but then... Bad scenes, scenes that are clearly incongruous with the story and script of the game. The face of someone made up victim instead of my character's face.

AA is not going to be made unappealing to his fans. Fans want the real story of AA, and will make it mods, and really just never buy anything else from you in the future. Sadly, already many AA fans have simply abandoned the game and bought other studios' games, such as praising Rogue Trader for the fact that the authors approached "dark romance" much more intelligently there. The only thing that can be achieved by "edifying" the player is to alienate the player and cause criticism on their part. But the very image of Astarion has turned out to be so hooking that I don't want to just abandon him, please don't try to ruin that! Why? Don't loyal players deserve the right to a happy game? I don't like the "good" option, but I have no beef with it, just give the option to go the "evil way" with enjoyment! It's an RPG, an RPG should allow different walkthrough options for players. And the game itself, a great game, doesn't deserve to be seen by a portion of the fandom solely as a platform for modding because their romance in the original is badly written and contains traumatizing content.

Game characters can be forced to make certain choices. Players themselves cannot be forced. We are living people, and the "persuasion" test doesn't work on us (although what we saw in patch 6 is more like "intimidation", but that doesn't work either). Players are adults and are quite capable of judging the quality and realism of a story. The player in an RPG has to be included in the story, otherwise no one will believe the story. "Abusive Relationship Novel" is completely unnecessary to me, I would never buy this by choice. I bought a AAA class RPG. Please take into account those players who expected to see something in the game that fits its genre. Especially when players are already used to a normal game, to introduce such a distortion of history six months after release is just not fair, because people paid money for this not for this. And it's not the game they voted for, and it's not what they recommended to their friends either. Please bring back the romance of Ascended Astarion!


I agree. Not all people follow gaming events, some people buy games a considerable amount of time after release just by looking in the store and picking something that might give them a few nice hours of enjoyment. These scenes for such a person will be unexpected. And yes, it can happen before the conversion scene. It's worth it to just not immediately go to the camp after the ritual, but decide to go somewhere else and kiss Astarion as usual. I myself have no idea how I would have reacted if this had happened in my first game without spoilers. Even after watching the video and having time to be upset, knowing what was going to happen, still for the first time "on my own" - for me it was the worst gaming experience, the likes of which I have not felt yet in any game. Dear developers, this just needs to be fixed!

Checking in on the Happy facial expressions for Ascended Astarion kisses, it has over 3600 unique downloads right now. Give us happy expressions for our romance please Larian!

Also there is an update to the Nightingale's Lord Astarion mod that includes "new" kisses for spawn Astarion as well. I just tested it on a savefile before Ascension and it works right there.

Also for anyone wanting to use the Happy facial expressions for Ascended Astarion mod + the Nightingale mod; use this that combine the two mods.
The combined mods are found on the Happy facial expressions for Ascended Astarion mod Nexusmods page if you want to do it without clicking links!

This caught my eye in the new community update:
I'm hopeful this means that we'll get the ascended Astarion romance party banter that we haven't been able to trigger in the game before.
These are the dialogues I'm talking about:
https://www.tumblr.com/egooppidum/7...y-banters-with-romanced-ascendedastarion

Yes I'm really looking forward to those as well. They are soooo good.

Thank you! Maximum romance and a complete set of kisses is perfect! <3

Also recently released is the gorgeous “Re-live your final night” mod, which makes for a much more passionate and beautiful night after Ascension. Includes edits to the dialog options leading up to the cut-scene (you can choose between a romantic approach, a cautious but still caring approach). Improved Tav's facial expressions, Tav's emotions are now fully in line with the romantic story and roleplay. There are more interesting changes, but since this is adult content, I'll keep the intrigue and suggest you read about it in the description of the mod itself on its page.


I second that! Would love to have them!

I would very much like to be able to have an additional dialog with Astarion about relationships without the extremely unpleasant need to start a relationship with someone else only to abandon them for that dialog. I'm referring to that dialog with Astarion that you have with him in the case where you choose him while rejecting another companion. That being said, if you don't start a relationship with anyone other than Astarion at all, you are deprived of the opportunity to hear these wonderful lines of his.

Note that in both dialogs (the choice between Astarion and Gale, or the choice between Astarion and Karlach) only the line of dialog that mentions the rejected companion changes, the dialogs themselves are identical.

Tav rejects Karlach for Astarion:


Tav rejects Gale for Astarion:


If you change or simply remove the first line of dialog, the same dialog could happen if Tav chooses Astarion a priori and doesn't start a relationship with anyone else. This could happen after Tav has rejected everyone else and Astarion has noticed it, or Tav could activate this dialog by confessing their feelings to Astarion before the second act scene, to which Astarion could probably also respond: “Still, if you insist on adoring me, then who am I to stop you?”. After this dialog, the game could have considered the player to have made up his mind about his feelings and canceled the opportunity for the other companions to court them (or added the line “I love Astarion” for Tav, which would have been the most honest and realistic way of refusing). Also in this dialog, Astarion says, “Nothing that compares to you” in that tone of voice, and he has such an attentive gaze while doing so, it must be very nice. Somehow just for someone who has fallen in love with him and hasn't looked at anyone else, Astarion won't have words like that. I think it was only fair if all players who have a romance with Astarion could get that kind of dialog. After one line about the companion who was rejected, the further dialog is solely about Astarion and Tav's relationship, and it's a shame that this dialog is tied solely to a “love triangle” situation.

There's a lot of content in BG3 romance about cheating, choices between two companions, polyamory, etc. It's good that this satisfies those who are interested, but those who absolutely do not want to see any of this in their playthroughs also want additional dialog with their beloved. But some dialogs can easily be adapted for monogamous players as well, it requires very little changes. It's really a pity that in the case of being faithful to one's beloved we don't gain anything, we just get less content. This is all the more relevant for the Astarion romance - the romance with Astarion and the first night with him happens quite early on, and flirting with others in this situation is completely inappropriate and unwanted, it will break immersion and roleplay. Please add the ability to activate this dialog about the relationship with Astarion in a monogamous relationship with him!

This is great, thank you so much! Modders do such amazing work.
It's disappointing that this scene was censored/cut in an earlier patch. I never did get to see the original version.

Yeah, it's a disappointing, I didn't get to see the original version either... Just in case, read the mod description before installing it, as the mod changes how Astarion is dressed (pants) not only in this scene, but in other scenes too, if that doesn't fit you, you can install the mod just before the final night scene, after going through the ritual.

Maybe someone will release a mod that brings back the original scene. The worst offender in the censored and original scene is the candle, which the linked mod gets rid of. I'm curious what people will create. I'm sure the new mods will revitalise the game.

Since I created this thread, I've seen several of the points being added to the game, which makes me very happy, though it's still kind of sad to see other great suggestions in here and other threads getting ignored, hopefully the mods will give us what we're missing.

Before moving on from the game, I wish Larian would at least fix not being able to say "no" to Halsin without having to see him in the woods (and the game assuming you did the deed even if nothing happened), after asking Astarion for his opinion.

I would love it if Larian incuded a candle-remove fix in a future update.

The problem for me with the linked mod is that it adds so many other things I don't want, that Act 3 romance scene is so perfect besides the candle. For me anyways.

Can confirm: the AA romance party banter is no longer bugged in Patch 7! We will now have those dialogues

The only ones I haven't been able to trigger are the ones with Shadowheart or Lae'zel, no matter how much I walked around with them. I'll keep trying.

There's too much extra stuff in it for my liking too.


This is great! Finally! The reactivity to Tav's transformation was sorely missing. I'd still like there to be some camp dialogues about it, but it seems that's all we're getting.

What about these lines?



In my game I only heard him shout "get up, godsdamn you!" even at max approval.

Nope, I still can't get him to say those lines, sigh. I'll edit if I notice anything new, but so far he never makes a comment when he helps my character in or out of combat. I also have no idea how I'd trigger the sneaking ones. The point-and-click voice lines are a little tricky too because even if I set the dialogue frequency to "Always" in the settings, it doesn't always trigger a voice line when I click.

As a sidenote - I heard Minthy say "Your flesh will heal!" when she used Lay On Hands on my character once, which was cute. Meanwhile, I can't get Astarion to say anything.

Yeah, when Tav/Durge falls unconscious, he still only says "No you can't die, get up damn you!" / "No! My sweet bloodthirsty friend."