Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Astarion Feedback (Patch 4.1.1)

Astarion is great and I like having an evil character in the group. However, I think his approval/disapproval system could use some work. Astarion is a slave to his vampire lords and it seems to be a big part of his character's personality. However, his opinion of me when freeing slaves is confusing. Whenever I save and free slaves, Astarion's approval of me goes down. I would think that since Astarion has been a slave for a long time, his approval of me would increase as I show that I will be willing to fight for his freedom. I'm totally fine if he is okay with me stealing and murdering too though

Maybe, but that's not necessarily how cults/brainwashing/human nature works. I could see Astarion believing that those other slaves deserve it, and it's not Tav's or his responsibility to help them.

Assuming that ^ is intentional writing, it would be cool to get a dialogue option to call him on why he disapproves of freeing slaves. Perhaps a chance to nudge him towards good?

Agreed ... this seems intentional to me aswell ...
Astarion is selfish, often sadistic and see himself abowe others ... wich kinda make sense, since he is "the ethernal vampire" ... i mean people often left out this aspect of personality for REALLY long lived creatures, they sooner or later stop to care about "lesser creatures" since they will die soon anyway so what.

That is why Astarion in my honest opinion disagree with freeing slaves ...
Since they are simply not worth of his time ... they are ugly, dirty, lowly, pathetic, boring and have nothing to offer in return ... why would he bother with them?

OH please no. -_-
Dont implement redeption arch, if you dont also implement coruption options for others. :-/

I think people tend to misunderstand vampire spawn, and so they don't fully get what's going on with Astarion.

Vampire spawn appeared as they did in life, though their features were hardened and appeared predatory. He doesn't seem to have this too much. Something has changed here because the tadpole. He seems more like a normal person, not hardened or predatory.

Spawn typically believed they were superior to other living or undead creatures, regardless of how powerful a creature actually was.

When it came to a life of adventuring, vampire spawn would seek vengeance on their creators, or penance for their new damnation. If these monsters could overcome their ravenous emotions, they might seek out knowledge, glory, or power. Pride was the true driver of the vampire spawn, since they believed themselves better than others.

He is definitely proud, so that holds true to his spawn nature. He also seems to hold true to the seeking knowledge and power bit. If he feels superior to other living, he wouldn't care one bit about anyone in the game. All that matters to him is his freedom. Everyone else is just a tool or pawn or slave to him. That holds true to a vampire spawn's personality. And, frankly, based on what we know of who he was before his vampirism, he didn't seem too nice then either.

His own freedom, not someone else's. Astarion doesn't show empathy towards others. Also, freeing the slaves puts you in conflict with the absolute forces, which he wants to align with, so you are acting against his interests, hence disapproval.

Yeah, Astarion hates being a slave, but he has no problem with slavery. What he learned from bring a slave? He learned that he wants to be the master.

Astarion is a complicated character as there are moments where he has no reaction even to things you think he may disapprove of. For example, he disapproves helping the Tieflings but is neutral if you save the Tiefling child at the Druid Grove at least during my gameplay. He approves of selfish acts which would go in part with him being a spoiled, rich noble. He also approves if you allow the Tiefling to kill Sazza, the goblin. There are other examples as well but this is why I think Astarion is Chaotic Neutral. His freedom comes first, the lines between good and evil come second to him.

I think Astarion likes kicking people above him and shitting on people below him. Selfishness is key to his character, likely because because he hasn't had control over his actions for centuries. Though there is some implication that he wasn't a great person before being turned, his captivity is also probably why he has a distinct lack of empathy towards others, even people in whose position he'd hate to be (such as slaves).

He's a classic example of Chaotic Evil, he doesn't instigate much, but his approval largely seems to be based on which decisions will cause the most conflict, and what will leave him with the least responsibilities. Bonus points if you can do harm without suffering any consequences.

I don't deny that he may have been a spoiled, rich, brat and can be extremely selfish, but there are moments where he doesn't seem like a chaotic evil or just plain evil character, he remains neutral. There is no affect on him. Based on my character's interaction with him, he just seems extremely selfish and all he cares about is his freedom. If he needs to help someone to further his freedom, he'll do it. The feeling I get from him is, the more loyal you are with him, the more loyal he is with you. Especially if you side with him a lot, he'll change the way he talks to you. Of course this goes with any other companion.

...so chaotic evil? Evil in 5e is basically defined as selfishness to the point of willingness to hurt others if it benefits you. And chaotic is essentially caring about personal freedom over societal rules/responsibilities. CE characters can certainly be loyal to and even care about individuals - they'll just add those individuals to the list of people they'll hurt others/break laws for. An evil character will certainly perform acts that help others...as long as it benefits them more.

I agree, Astarion is clearly the chaotic evil character in the group. I would put Lae'zel down as lawful evil and Shadowheart as neutral evil. Gale and Wyll are the two neutral characters.

I can agree with that.

I like it when characters don't become...caricatures. So having companions with multiple alignments, inherent and inherited makes them more interesting to me. I've thought this a little when people criticize Shadowheart for being 'inconsistent'; "wait so you want them to be more moustache twirling?" . I will say Astarion is the most murder-hobo character we get, but I'm still interested in how he got to that point, which is all I'm really asking for in an evil companion.

I feel the same about multiple alignments, that does make a character more interesting. Astarion to me, is a very interesting character and it's clear that Larian put a lot of work in his story. There are moments where I think that he will play a big role in the game because there is a level of mystery surrounding him, especially to do with the scar on his back. It's the same with Shadowhear's memory loss and her magic box.