Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Does Astarion have to be a creeper tho

Final post, and then I’ll let y’all get back to the dogpile 😂

I’m not offended, thx! Nor (obviously) do I have a problem with murderous goblins, M rated games, or the existence of fictional vampires. These all seem like straw-man arguments to me tbh, but let’s pretend they’re real.

Mostly it matters because he’s a companion. I kick him out or kill him and I’m down a rogue, y’all! I think it’s a better game if you have access to all your peeps.

Another difference is in the intent of the scene. After I kicked Astarion out, Gith Lady suggested that I view what happened as equivalent to the other characters’ dark secrets. She was referring to his vampirism, which I could care less about. I didn’t kick dude out for being a vampire, I kicked him out for climbing on me in my sleep, which seems like a normal human reaction the writing didn’t account for.

If the intent of the scene was to force a possible confrontation, and the writers knew they were potentially squicking people out and felt it was worth it, that’s their business. In that case, I would agree that this game isn’t for me and bow out.

But I don’t think the writers took that into account. You could argue that they wouldn’t care about my reaction here, and there’s a 90% chance you’re right! But I see the potential for improvement, and I know for absolute sure that, passionate defenses of goblin atrocities aside, this is exactly the forum to raise such concerns.

How do I know? Because the creators literally asked for it 😂

How you draw a connection between any of this and censorship is beyond me, folks, but the internet is a wild place. Enjoy it!

The problem isn't how many people it offends or not and how many people get triggered by slavery (which I remind you is still very much alive in America).

The problem is just all the nitty gritty stuff including this are optional.
You can punish the offending character and even stop them before they even have a chance.

The game is no forcing you down any road which is amazing.
If it was I would agree with OP but it isn't and it isn't glorifying it.

Giving feedback is fine but lets be consistent and fair.
If you want to be technical about it then this is a biased and inaccurate feedback so the community is calling it out.

+100000000

I meanm you created said dogpile, so it's kind of your fault, isn't it?

This is not rape. This is bloodsucking. Do you feel raped when a syringe take your blood for a medical exam?

Censoring the game because someone gets triggered is going too far. Different people get triggered by different things, If those things were all removed there wouldn't be a game left. Add an additional warning if you must, but it's already there with the M rating.

The scene definitely needs some work, similarly to his introduction scene.

While I only viewed it once, I do recall being disappointed with the lack of dialog options to essentially tell him off. The crux of the issue was the lack of consent, which I could not expressly address, and did not receive an apology for or even an acknowledgment from Astarion.

Why should he apology or acknowledge anything? he is not bound to your main party member by anything but a mutual objective. remember : he tried to kill you in your first encounter, and didn't apology either. Its just the character writing. he doesn't give a damn about you. he doesn't care about the feeling of your main character.

Its just his personnality, the way he is written. See it from a role playing point of view and don't get offended by minor slight like that. If you're still dissatisfied by his behavior, you can still kill him.

I feel like you take everything too personally . Its just a selfish, evil character in a video game.

QFT! 100% this.

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I meanm you created said dogpile, so it's kind of your fault, isn't it?
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This. Exactly this.

I don't remember exactly his position in the scene but if he climbs on top of the pc to bite him/her, that can easily be changed to him reaching for the neck, sitting beside the pc. Such a simple reanimation wouldn't change the narrative but would lessen the trigger for some victims of sexual assault/rape. Which, btw, is an horrible experience and is not something that should EVER be taken lightly on or trivialized, fantasy video game or not.

OP simply gave his/her feedback on a part of the game that didn't feel right. Just like people are discussing other topics that can feel nit picky but that is important to those that raise their voices about those topics.

It's completely unnecessary to call OP a troll or devalue his/her opinion in this matter.

Ofc everyone that liked the scene can argue for it staying as it is but be civilized people. Show that you guys and girls actually learned something from Me too. As someone stated, the game is rated M- for mature. So let's be just that.

I just kill Astarion on sight now. I can't stand his character.

The option to kill him or boot him out of the party is right there. A vampire doing vampire things seem to be pretty spot on target imo.

He's definitely a pompous ass who excuses everything he does. One easy way to get him to apologize for his behavior is to agree to let him suck your blood if he apologizes to you. And when he inevitably scoffs at your request and does a half-assed apology complete with an eye roll, another dialog choice should pop up that allows me to pick, "I need you to mean it." I think it's a great way to still show off his personalty, but also evens the playing field a little bit. They can even go the extra mile and have his responses based on his current approval rating. If he hates your guts he can storm off and get blood elsewhere.

I read the boar as exactly that; he's shifty, and if you pass dice rolls you work out it's been drained of it's blood by two puncture wounds in the next. Pair that with the fact this elf obviously doesn't look like a normal elf, and I saw the midnight snack scene coming like a train with it's horn blaring. If it's not hard coded to be before the midnight snack, it should be to clue players in. It can be tweaked, so he approaches and asks, but that both loses the drama of the scene and (from what I've seen of him in action) undermines Astarian's character.
To say nothing of the character splash on the sight, the live demo earlier this year where sven played as him and the origin option players will be able to click on and read about him.

I'm regret it upsets you and OP, however I'm not sorry this scene plays how it does. The game is rated mature, there are clues to his nature, and as others have said, you can immediately punish him for his attempt. The next time you start the game from the beginning you can 'forget' to recruit him too.