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.

And he probably just invited you to dinner at his home to properly meet Tara about one long rest before Halsin's proposition and maybe half a gameplay hour before the brothel. At least he gets to threaten you with exploding when Halsin tries to wedge his way in, which makes the whole brothel episode worse still because he isn't even allowed to have vicious replies there.

In case of all these weird encounters - Halsin, Mizora, the Squid - it's odd that you cannot refuse them and then talk with your partner about them. In Astarion's case he is obviously aware that Halsin was going to try something sooner or later and has his sets of worries about it, in Gale's case what he says about children mirrors what he says when you invite Yenna to join the camp and I could imagine that he has some thoughts on Arabella's situation too. I assume the other companions also touch on some topics that might be interesting to discuss even or especially if you are not interested in Halsin.

If you get the Emperor to tell you what really happened to Duke Stelmane, I would also really love to talk to my companions about it, since it is implied that they witness the whole conversation. (At least if you give them a tentacle show, they do.)

Or maybe everyone's experience and perception is different. I've had Halsin in my party the first playthrough, admittedly not that often because I don't like shapeshifting in combat. Never got the brothel dialogue, I guess because I didn't propose them. But after the creepy dialogues I've got from Astarion and Gale, by the time Halsin made his advances I didn't care.

I imagine the requirements for the characters' writer have been like:

Halsin: Nature, Sex, Sex, Sex, I can't emphasize this enough: SEX. Oh, also a bit of story. We need variation. Add bear sex to the list. And sexual offers at different points. And he is really horny.
SH: Emo, Shar, Shar, Shar, Halsin Sex, a bit of story (make 2 different paths that have other hair colors)
and so on.
Gale, maybe: Lots of jokes. On him, of course.

Sorry, let's be honest: How could they think this is enough for such a huge game? It feels like this writing is the first game of some teenage kids with c*mstained fingers who learned writing via 30 min YT guides. It just lacks so much.


The problem is, that players that fall for that marketing don't even care for the story, they don't pay attention to it or they have their headcanon.
All they use the game for is to lust for the 3D models and the voices and ultimately for the VAs themselves - Dave (Halsin's VA) once said that he got a good bunch of horny posts.
Even Jennifer (SH's VA) once said (what sounded a bit like a joke, tbf) that males could stop sending her nudes.

And I don't even think that Larian is the (only) one to blame, it's more like the community, especially on all those social media pages/apps. They bring their own fetishes, headcanons and such into it and as a game studio, you just serve what the market asks for.

Pff thanks, that actually made me laugh.


Yea, I know, I just wish they had chosen to be more mature about the serious topics they themselves made their characters represent.

Yup - I even told Orin she could kill him if she wanted to.

Halsin: SEX SEX NATURE SEX, I was a sex slave to the drow and I liked it (and I like ducks) oh look, I'm such an incredibly deep and complex character.

Selunite Shadowheart: sex shar sex, I went swimming with my true love to cleanse myself of the impurities from the cult that ruined my life, except for the orgies they forced me into. I actually enjoyed each and every one of those. I'll dye my hair white so people think I've changed, but secretly at night, I think of Halsin SEX SEX.

You got this from the official script, right? It's point on, Larian really delivered it.

You will understand why we call some of this behaviour extremely OOC and feels like fanfic after you see her epilogue.



John Corcoran genius writing hehe

Well, at least now I'm more interested in seeing their epilogue. Currently, I'm on Shadowheart's mission in Act 3, and I was seriously thinking about whether to betray her or not, haha. But I'll wait and see what happens in the epilogue to see if it at least somewhat fixes this mess

I would recommend saving her parents. The epilogue is much more substantial in her romance route if you save her parents. Much more reactivity and branching dialogue paths. Dead parents epilogue is like 4 lines of dialogue and that's it.

Both versions are fine, I just can't stand her being hurt for the rest of her life personally...

I've also done both and I'd say the save her parents ending is just straight up better in every way. I was really disappointed in how little she has to say if her parents die and on the other hand in the epilogue with her parents alive I had to reload multiple times to see all the branching dialogue paths. Whether it's right or wrong is irrelevant I'm just saying if this person wants the full romance epilogue experience then saving her parents is going to get you significantly more dialogue in the epilogue for her.

This thing with Shadowheart bothers me partly (then again, you wouldn't need to be a fireman to point out a house is on fire) because I indirectly know people who talk about how their partner is their soul mate and apparently put up a convincing act too. But apparently they ended doing things behind their partners' back. So the epilogue and almost every moment of her romance reminds me of those people, because they experienced a lot of things together with their partner and somehow managed to screw them up.

Shadowheart isn't that extreme case, but this whole Halsin thing raises questions. What if instead of trying to openly flirt with both Tav and Shadowheart out in the open he instead tried to sneakily flirt with Shadowheart? He won't do that because he probably wants to have more sex, but what if he did? What if he was more conniving? Logically, if Shadowheart thought she could get away with it, would she accept?

With that being said, John is Rian Johnson. Have them focused on writing a good story and they can do very well (Shadowheart's story), let them loose then they'll create the Last Jedi (Halsin's inclusion). Semi-unrelated to what I was talking about earlier but I think it's funny.

There is something similar happening with Astarion too. Lots of people have an experience when they couldn't perform sexually for whatever reason (SA, asexuality, illness, etc) and their partners opened up the relationship. It's super messed up since both SH and Astarion allude to Halsin being some harmless fun, while Halsin clearly has deeper feelings.

If it was a better-written situation, all of this could be avoided.

Wouldn't their reaction to the Mizora thing, where the PC is cheating on them, be an indication to that?

I am not really sure if Astarion isn't only downplaying Halsin as harmless fun, while dreading he might be more.

Since there is only one short dialogue about the Halsin situation and no follow up, it's hard to say one way or another. Based on other Astarion lines about the importance of Tav/Durge and his insecurity about sex, it does give the impression he's not really okay with Halsin. And yes, I know that the writers want me to climb Mount Halsin, but it's not what people take away from the game.

There is also this little thing that it's only Tav/Durge, who gets two partners. There is no dialogue option to tell Astarion he is also free to search for new partners.

Mr. "I've had many lovers, but my heart doesn't stir lightly" will have the same deeper feelings for someone else two weeks after the final battle lol.


Astarion pre-Cazador sees himself as pathetic, worthless, and someone who has nothing to offer apart from extra complications. Break up with him and he'll say he was waiting for it to happen. Not sure he can see anyone as harmless fun, because everyone is a better option than him.

Yeah I don't really buy that. She practically worships the ground you walk on in her romance route she would never do anything to ruin your relationship. If this wasn't a video game you'd talk to her about it and that would be the end of it.

Tadpoles exists though, no? as shitty as it sounds XD.
But like her is the all about trust(she "gently" reminds it if you cheat on her with Mizora KEKW). I think Halsin's banter is more targeted at Tav anyways, but ye. No need to headcanon much things I suppose.

He has spent almost as much time with Tav as the other companions. At the end Withers said they spent 3 months together. Rather soon for anyone to find the love of their lives.


This is a great point -- so I went and looked up the devnotes in the dialogue about the tryst with Mizora. For Astarion, they indicate he is being sincere saying he doesn't care about someone else getting a "nibble." Shadowheart is non-chalant and doesn't care. Unsurprisingly, Halsin is truly supportive of Tav's adventures.