Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Problems with Halsin's character, advances, LI and general character interactions, etc.

Sure they might still do one, but as long as we don't get any use on that, I will expect them not to do so, just because Larian has disappointed me way too often for now.
If we get a DE, then I hope we will see the changed made that we asked for (like some changes in Halsin's writing).


I guess this explains the state of the Fandom to some degree. We shouldn't abandon all hope, but keep the cautious optimism. More could be bad for our own sanity.
The feedback on here is nothing that seems to be huge or crazy, it can be done with some work - maybe even less than adding many new kissing animations and such.

So, I'm officially doing my Halsin solomance playthrough, post patch 6.

I saved the grove, and Ive been save scumming and playing through all the dialogue options at the tiefling party and afterward into the mountain pass.

I am no longer getting the option to talk to him about giving up his position and if he will miss being arch druid. This is/was a seperate conversation from him talking about his replacement, Francesca. I dont know if the flags have changed, or if its been removed.

But I wanted to express my sadness about it because this was the conversation that *really* made me fall for him.

Do you mean the one in which he talks about many small decisions being more important for a leader &c ?

If its the same conversation, I dont remember that part specifically. Its been several months since I last heard it.

But the one Im talking about ends up with him saying people who seek out positions of power are the ones who probably shouldnt have them. And that he was happy to be back out amongst the Oak Father's creations, or something like that. It made me swoon so hard the first time, especially with the scenery of the mountain pass camp.

So... been a while since I've played. Have the disapproval bugs in the brothel been fixed yet?

They are not bugs, they are WAD.

The lead romance developer has explained that a lot of the Halsin content post early-access was simply written as a nod to horny shitposters on Discord and validation of crackfic. So they are just silly stuff for shits and giggles. If you find it funny, have a laugh at it and play along, if you don't, just ignore it.

Yeah, at this point I'm not too pressed on it anymore. I've accepted it as something around the level of people writing fan fiction around the vampire and werewolf dudes in twilight being together.

Turning him into a Poop McDinglefart is perhaps not the choice I would have made, but that's what they ran with.

My larger grievance with it is that they also threw the poly relationship into this basket. I would have been interested in exploring a poly relationship in a rpg on a deeper level. But since Halsin is the only character that I can have a poly relationship with, all I get in terms of reactions and responses are some silly Mt. Halsin memes.

Hey, nothing against Poop McDinglefart, who sacrificed his life so noble for the group.

This is basicaly what all of his threads so far have boiled down to and its heartbreaking.

Forgive me if I'm dubious, because what kind of professional writer does this?

I assume this refers to Baudelaire Welch's panel about Romance Design in Video Games at Nordic Game. The video is linked in the thread about BG3 being overly sexualised in general or you can just look it up on yt.

I suppose providing information about the quote and person who said it will be useful to those who don't follow every other discussion on the forum:

Baudelaire Welch is the romance feature lead and narrative designer for Baldur's Gate and they said this about Halsin:

So that proves that specifically the bear scene was written as a joke. Which we all knew. It was never in dispute that the bear scene was a joke. He said nothing about Halsin as a character/companion, Halsin's elf romance, or anything else being a joke for shitposters. This is literally nothing we didn't already know.

They state that the bear scene and "a series of scenes" were written in the tradition of CrackFic and horny shitposting. There really aren't that many other scenes to choose from that they could be referring to, is there? An orgy that incorporates taboo fantasies about twins, the highly popular sexualization of drows as well as voyeurism and non-consent kinks - could that perhaps be one of those series of scenes that they are hinting at? Or do you think they mean Wyll's proposal scene?

But yes, not everything else about Halsin is a joke. The sex scene in elf form is really good and very serious and filled with great communication and care. If you do a solo romance with him and leave out some "series of scenes" the relationship is also portrayed seriously and not just as some horny bear crackfic. And I am not against shits and giggles anyway, you can enjoy one or the other or both. I think the bear scene is funny and I love a lot of the nods to queer culture. My reference to him being a Poop McDinglefart is not meant as saying his character is just a joke, just like Poop McDinglefart he ends up being one of the most beloved characters with great story moments, despite also being about shits and giggles.

I apologise to Halsin fans as what I’m about to say may hurt your feelings.

I know it’s upsetting hearing someone post a negative view of a characters that you love however please keep in mind not everyone loves the characters you love.

The update hasn’t fixed the creepy nice guy vibes Halsin has going on right now.

I have a recent save from my resit urge play thru that I started after the patch and he still has the banter with Shadowheart with Very low approval where I hadn’t talked to him at all beside the forced conversion after the party and to get him to fetch Thanel.

I also had a play thru after the patch that I did turn him down and he still had the banter with shadowheart.

It’s bad enough IRL that we deal with the nice guy bs we don’t need this is the place we go to escape.

I’am just disappointed that there isn’t even a way to stop that banter between Shadowheart and Halsin without resorting to killing Halsin or benching him in the hopes a spoiler happens.

I really wished more care was put into the poly aspect because as it is right now as a monogamous player i feel like they’re locking us out of a romance with Shadowheart.


I just wished they had added a conversation with shadowheart to express wanting to be exclusive.

I would love for in game confirmation that Shadowheart / Halsin are Ambiamorous.


It’s really annoying that if you accidentally come across a YouTube video or a TT video with the banter you’ll find out that Shadowheart isn’t monogamous.


I really hope some of the websites that claim Shadowheart is monogamous update their website as she clearly isn’t when it come to Halsin.


It’s just a big f you and a waste of time for people that want a
monogamous relationship with shadowheart.

It’s a shame people called her shadowh*e that’s pathetic.

It’s NOT player choice that is why people are so angry.


I didn’t even talk to the guy and he would invite himself into the relationship via banter.

Shadowheart response enthusiastically to his advances so it feels like crap when you wanted a mono relationship.

What makes it worse is that In act3 you’re locked out of all the other relationships so you basically wasted 60+ hours of your life.

If the banter didn’t play out and you didn’t have to knock out Minthera in a good guy play thru to prevent Halsin auto join he wouldn’t feel so forced onto you and you wouldn’t have him muscle into the relationship.

This could easily be solved with an in game conversation with shadowheart locking her into a mono relationship or a poly relationship.

If you lock her into a mono relationship the banter doesn’t play out.

Shadowhearts writer didn’t write the romance.

The characters writers only wrote how they would react to a situation and the banter lines.

The banter has nothing to do with polygamy, it's just flirting (well, not even that) and doesn't change monogamy. Exaggerating this just shows the immaturity of some players.

The only reason why I want it locked behind poly is he is mentioning Tav after you turn him down.

I don’t want the banter removed I just want halsin to not come across as a creep when you already told him No.



I think the banter could be cute if you’re in a throple with Halsin because it shows a real relationship between the three not some cheap ass sex meme.



I honestly would have liked the guy if he didn’t hit on you twice then hint at a three way after you told him you don’t find him attractive.

Maybe it's a bit unfair to say, because there might be people, who put themselves into their character's shoes in an interactive relationship more than others. And being cheated on or the feeling that your LI is flirting with or interested in others, can be a very unpleasant feeling, which you're not loving to feel or experience in a game. For some people, it's enough to have experienced these unpleasant or harmful feelings in their real life. Plus, everyone feels jealousy differently. That doesn't necessarily mean they are immature. Just take a look on the lecture of the romance feature lead of Baldur's Gate:



I cannot say for Shadowheart, what was meant for her. But if people are feeling unpleasant, when she is flirting with Halsin, it can be understandable. People are often putting themselves in the shoes of the character and "feel this on a fundamental, instinctive, and interior level" in an interactive romance far more than in movies, and that seems to be intended in this game: