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

I don't think that a vampire cure is available in dungeons and dragons unless a god fulfills a wish, which from my understanding AO will NOT allow the current set of gods/goddesses to do. So that is why God Gale can not cure either the sunlight curse or vampirism. What Boo is talking about is things used on other worlds within the universe but I am not sure that Larian will use it, tbh? Due to the fact that it isn't even in the game at all. You can ask God Gale for the sunlight cure, not a vampirism cure. There is no dialogue about curing his vampirism at all. The magic required to do the vampire cure is rare for materials, items, etc and that is why it is extremely expensive. You would also have to travel to another planet to get the items, so that is beyond difficult for sure due to the power needed just to travel to another planet is EXTREME magic & performed by very few individuals in the universe. In all honesty, I don't know if Astarion himself would want it though....that would break his character that much more. Just my humble opinion backed up with lore knowledge.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page

One thing I do like is how they animated Tavs face when Astarion says: "First we'll take Baldur's Gate then we'll take the world. We'll dominate it until the sun itself melts and then give ourselves over to the night."
It then pans to Tav who is smiling wickedly and nodding slowly. Looks like someone do get this romance.

Also when AA bends over Tav in one of the kisses it sounds like he is doing a growling-hiss, which if that is true is very well done. Makes it feel like Tav is kissing a Vampire Lord.

Kind of makes it more infuriating that Tavs face is like that and ruining the moment totally.

I apologise I specifically mean a cure to the sunlight not necessarily his vampirism.
I'm thinking more along the enchanted armor or spell path
hypothetically Tav is his one and only most likely will continue feeding him and on their enemies if Tav is a High Elf they could be together for a further couple of centuries when Tav's time is up
and has not tried Jaheiras Immortality ritual Astarion can remove the enchantment and walk into the sun.

You don't have to worry, you did nothing wrong. Thank you for expressing your concerns and feelings, I know, some people are afraid of it, to get bullied. We want you, not to feel alone.



Unfortunately. But this has to be praised, of course, again:

Astarion's animation and facial expressions are so incredible well done: self-confident, proud, sadistic, enjoying
At the end of his new voice lines, when he lifts up his face and looks down on Tav (as he already did in other acts) - wow, i love it.
His sadistic smile, just before he starts the bite kiss - adorable, you sense, he has something on his mind
The way Astarion looks at Tav and examines him in all the kisses - perfection
His Poster smirk, after shoving Tav away(<-- love it) , with his head shaking (<-- love it) - incredibly attractive, my Tav could eat him up and would be very arroused

Ergo I am personally more than happy with Astarion and his animations and can't say enough thanks to the Team.

For me, it shows, that someone had good knowledge of portraying these character traits. But even this person or someone else did a great mistake with a) not balancing these scenes and b) Tav (and the weird voice line "favourite") and gave the kiss or the whole scenes this sexual violence and sexual deviation/SSD/SPD context, which is triggering, included a bad illogical, insensitive, unempathetic rewrite. So it's a real pity, also for the Larian Team.

My Tav would enjoy everything, he would be incredible happy and incredible shy and aroused. He would never ever in his life be sad, disgusted, angry or showing contempt toward his partner or rejecting him (he doesn't do it in any of the other scenes). My Tav kneeled, chose "Come on, let it hurt" and submitted to him. And both are happy, with the arrangement as Astarion himself said this in a "banter". So showing a Tav being sad, digusted and rejecting in romance kisses, they themselves are happily asking for, is really bad roleplay understanding/writing, triggering and not worthy of this almost* masterpiece (at least in 2023) of game. So I hope the Larian Team recognize the issue and solve it.

*almost = besides of bugs, several bad writing & bad roleplay options to answer (Inconsistency, OCC), mostly in act 3. Also bad rewriting of good stories instead of good improvements is the worst what an RPG could do, it destroys the game and the enjoyment of the players. An RPG writer should not impose his/her/their own lack of understanding of the story/romance or impose their own opinion/view/feeling like a dictation on the players. The story of a role-playing game is one of the most sensitive things; so it's the best to hire good (and not bad), creative and empethatic writers for it.

If the player chooses an Elvish race, yes.....they live for around 750 years. A human: 50 years at most, maybe a little more if they had a cushy life. Tiefling lifespans are the same as humans. I can not remember the Dragonspawn lifespans. Half-elf/add other race is too big of a range that I dare not guess. I am sure it is all on that Wiki if you want more exact lifespans, but I am trying to remember them off the top of my head after being awake too many days in a row with only an hour nap somewhere in there.....LOL. <3 The only one I know for definite is Elvish lifespans are 750 years.

There was a post on tumblr with screenshots from this forum recently. I wouldn't be surprised if they saw the screenshots and felt the need to come rushing over to defend Larian against the "deranged fangirls." Not saying that's definitely what happened but the timing seems to coincide.

Oh really? And what did the post say?

I'll PM you. It might hurt someone's feelings if I post it here.

Well could be. You could assume and call it like that or assume they want to defend the harm, which were causing, to the AA fanbase. I read a lot of comments lusting for it. Also victim blaming. I have never seen so much toxicity, narcissism and everyday sadism in a game community.
Maybe someone should write a research paper about it. In any case, there is enough material.

Their comments make alot more sense if they did come from a Thumblr post.

It would not surprise me if they have taken something completely out of context and twisted the words, AA bullies seem to love doing that. And I have to say it's very cowardly of them making a post somewhere else so they don't have to defend themselves. No spine in their cruel husks.

Thanks. It was an adorable read. I especially liked the part where someone claimed I was trying to spread a false rumour when I merely answered someone's question in one post and mentioned what I'd heard, which everyone was free to disprove and then, when I was corrected about a thing that was not right (thanks again, jinetemoranco), I admitted I didn't know the whole story.

But whatever, everyone's entitled to their own opinions.


Yes, apparently we don't like Astarion and suffer in act 1 and 2, lol. For the record, I'm fond of him in all the acts, I just dislike how the spawn path post-Cazador turned out (and said multiple times I wished it was better and made suggestions how to improve it) and how they're now messing with the ascension route.

It's funny they would say that when nothing could be further from the truth. Personally I love his story and character in Act 1 and 2, his comments always make me laugh so having him in the party is a given for a fun playthrough. I have only had time to do almost 2 playthroughs. Restaring with a DUrge specifically to do Astarion romance again from scratch. I would not do that if I did not enjoy the journey with him.

The funny thing is people who can't stand AA claim that he reverts to his act 1 behaviour. If I like AA how can I dislike him in act 1 then?

Anyways, I don't think there's any use discussing this any further. You can distort someone's words any way you want without context and with selective quoting.

HAHAHA. It was sooo funny to read their comments xD Thank you for linking this. "Also these two messages, coming from the same user, are flabbergasting." Oh yes, haven't you noticed? I am a schizoid psychopath, lol
Why don't you come here? We will have a lot of fun together! O wait...

In any case, it was an exciting excursion.

[Many people seem to forget that Baldur's Gate 3 is a rich fantasy role-playing game and not some kind of real-life simulator.]

The funny thing is that that same person on tumblr is now complaining that they changed something about Minthara in the update. Guess it's only a problem when you're unhappy with a change made to Ascended Astarion. People are so weird when it comes to him, but what can you do?

Okay folks, let’s talk about the game rather than individuals and have (friendly) debates with other community members based on what’s being discussed here, rather than importing drama from elsewhere to these forums.

Yes, let's try to avoid toxicity.


Regarding the improvements for Astarion romance I want to add some things for the epilogue:

1. More dialogue with Spawn Astarion, his conversation is very short when you romance him and I want to be able to choose more dialogue options without discarding the rest. Also add a kiss for him, would be perfect to have both options (Hug and kiss) Like other companions.


2. Ascended Astarion deserve at least a kiss. Would be nice to add a line of dialogue that says "I love you" and kiss him in the epilogue. In the entire game you can't tell him that you love him even once.

It bothers me how our character doesn't have any line of dialogue that shows our feelings for him (AA). There is only one option "I want you. I want your body" after the ascension and it's horrible. I remember choosing this the first time I did the ascension and feeling bad because there is no other option that would allow me to tell him that I love him. It's kind of sad they push the players to think this way, think of him as if he was just a piece of meat when in the narrative we have always supported the opposite, that he is much more than that. We don't care if hes an evil lord vampire, our feelings doesn't change.

Ascended romance is very interesting and complex but seems like they wasted the opportunity to do a dark romance between two evil characters who want to support each other in their way to rule the world. I think AA romance is not well developed. Clarify, I think he is well written and developed but not his romance interactions with Tav/Durge. And I can see the intention behind this. Again make us see that we have failed him (some people may feel that way, but other people don't) so I strongly disagree with that scene, it is not natural, Astarion has changed but our character and feelings remains the same. More dialogue options are necessary there to show him love, the game only allow us to show interest in having sex or becoming his spawn...I don't expect them to change that scene or the options but I want to highlight it because for me it is not a good way to develop their romance, player is just being controlled by a dialogue that does not fit the situation. That's my opinion and how I feel about it.

And again, for me it's a serious mistake to turn him into an abuser towards his partner. Astarion being evil it's okay but turning his romantic partner into a victim of abuse is not. Your character should be able to enjoy the kisses and their relationship. I think we all agree on that.

I am disappointed with AA romance but at the same time I am understanding that not everything can turn out well. Even so, I really hope for more changes and improvements for Astarion that can make everyone happy with the desitions they make in game and enjoy it. If we send constructive feedback and avoid hate I'm sure everything will be easier. This game is huge and I love it, that's why I'm in this forum, I want to be able to express myself and if it is possible they can continue improving it.

I like your suggestions so much, too bad I can't put a "+" on the post itself.

1. I also want to add that Spun's love interest should at least have the opportunity to run after him in epilog. I realize that maybe right now, Karlach's tug of war with TAB/Durge is that she's starting to burn and needs to be convinced to go to Averno. But maybe it would be possible to trigger a scene with Spawn later or later find him at the docks after Carlach.

2. Add a reaction to the statue/portrait so it could be given to Astarion. I think that would be nice. Like Sheduhart and the flower.

3. Add a reaction to Halsin. I wish there was an option to not only ask for "permission", but to tell Astarion that we don't need it. Gossip in general, he loves gossip, after all.

When it comes to AA romance I have always felt that "I love you" is unnecessary. That a vampire couple do not need to tell each other this. Their relationship is deeper and more intense than a normal love.

I think of AA as Dracula-love and UA as Edward-love. So "I love you" would fit more with UA.

I would agree that a kiss in the epilogue would be nice. It has been a hot minute since we last had that interaction when we reach that part. At least if you game on higher difficulties it can take a while. It was honestly my main gripe when finishing my first playthrough.

As a suggestion: It would be nice to see some changes with Tav after she becomes Astarions consort/spawn. Not only in conversations dialog options but like small comments around the world. "someone smells tasty" or something like that similar to Unholy Assassin comments about blood.
Showing Tavs fangs, would be amazing too.

If they fix Tavs expression in the new kisses they are a great addition to the romance in my opinion.

A meme explanation of what happened to the Ascended Astarion romance in patch 6



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