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***SPOILERS***


After many patches, fixes, updates, and plays through the game, tonight I encountered something I'd never seen before. There in camp, at the post-goblin-wipeout party, my OC is sizing up her romantic prospects, as you do. I knew Gale was a non-starter because I can never land those approval points just right and once again never got the Weave Scene. (I do hope they fix that soon.) So, I talked first with Astarion.

Now, so far, the Astarion romance has always been reliably easy because Astarion himself is, to be blunt, easy. But this time, while waxing poetic about maybe having a metaphorical 'little death,' HE SHUT MY OC DOWN COLD saying the following:

"Not with YOU of course. Ugh! Can you imagine?"

Then he sent me off to (if I remember correctly) "Go sniff around one of the others."

Really, Astarion? REALLY? I let you drink my blood, save you from the Gur, resurrect you countless times, and you brandish your hat at me thus? YOU VILLIAN! YOU CAD!


Seriously though, this one is either new since Patch 4, or it's a rare, random (admittedly hilarious) response. And before anyone asks, his approval of my CO was medium. Though, before now that never seemed to matter much.


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Interesting, seems like Larian took to heart when players said it felt odd being jumped by all companions at the same time.

It seems like a lot more recorded responses has been added (as people have noted in a few posts around here) and this would probably be one of them (I certainly never heard of it before)... How intriguing! Thank you very much for sharing!


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Yes, I've seen some of those other posts. Glad to know it wasn't just new to me!


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He's turned my characters down before, but only if they asked him for a little fun instead of waiting for him to ask. I wasn't sure if that was a bug or a feature - apparently it was a bug? It's interesting how willing the companions are to bed each other, but get all picky with the PC.

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My OC didn't even ask. He just said what he wanted then made it clear he didn't want it with her.


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That line is one of the highlights of the patch. I lolled.

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That line, once we're playing as Gnomes, is going to kill me with laughter.

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Huh. I got to the party, had Astarion at medium approval, was ready to enjoy the fun rejection line... and he came on to my character just like he always has. I went back, took a different path through the conversation and got the rejection. Still bugged in spots, apparently.

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So, it's possible to get propositioned AND the rejected at the same approval level. Yeah, that's gotta be a bug.


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Originally Posted by ArcanaJayne
So, it's possible to get propositioned AND the rejected at the same approval level. Yeah, that's gotta be a bug.

Or he's just fickle...

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With Astarion, that really could be intended. Or it matters, where you are in the medium range.


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Originally Posted by Tarlonniel
He's turned my characters down before, but only if they asked him for a little fun instead of waiting for him to ask. I wasn't sure if that was a bug or a feature - apparently it was a bug? It's interesting how willing the companions are to bed each other, but get all picky with the PC.

I thought this was a feature - not a bug. I thought him thinking you're playing hard to get made things more "fun" and seemed true to his character. I had him at Neutral (or perhaps somewhere under Medium Approval) and I had my character act uninterested and he propositioned me and I took him up on it to see his romance scene. I figured if you act too eager it throws off the balance of power for him.

Originally Posted by Tarlonniel
Huh. I got to the party, had Astarion at medium approval, was ready to enjoy the fun rejection line... and he came on to my character just like he always has. I went back, took a different path through the conversation and got the rejection. Still bugged in spots, apparently.

After Astarion says his line about a little fun, I think what you choose in response determines if he'll turn you down or not. I don't remember 100%, but I think the bottom option plays on disinterest which can lead to him propositioning you regardless.

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It would be a great bit of characterization if it was intentional, plus it would leave a path open for goody-two-shoes type characters to romance Astarion in spite of not having earned massive amounts of approval.

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If Larian changed it and now getting Astarion romance is more harder this is great. Cuz now u must play rly 'evil' way for this. But unfortunately, I was not able to get this phrase even with an average level of approval.


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Yeah, I just can't play evil, not even for Astarion. I can play a little on the OC is self-interested side, but not outright evil. It sets my anxiety meter to max and I start having palpitations.

Once, while playing BG 2, I decided I wanted to see what would happen if you help Anomen get revenge for his sister's murder. Once it was done, and I saw FALLEN PALADIN listed as my new character class, I had a panic attack and could not exit without saving fast enough.


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Originally Posted by ArcanaJayne
Yeah, I just can't play evil, not even for Astarion. I can play a little on the OC is self-interested side, but not outright evil. It sets my anxiety meter to max and I start having palpitations.

Once, while playing BG 2, I decided I wanted to see what would happen if you help Anomen get revenge for his sister's murder. Once it was done, and I saw FALLEN PALADIN listed as my new character class, I had a panic attack and could not exit without saving fast enough.

Play Tyranny and purge the weakness. Evil is the only way forward.

Or, well, Lawful Evil is the only way forward. Neutral and Chaotic are drab and ambitionless.

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Originally Posted by Innateagle
Originally Posted by ArcanaJayne
Yeah, I just can't play evil, not even for Astarion. I can play a little on the OC is self-interested side, but not outright evil. It sets my anxiety meter to max and I start having palpitations.

Once, while playing BG 2, I decided I wanted to see what would happen if you help Anomen get revenge for his sister's murder. Once it was done, and I saw FALLEN PALADIN listed as my new character class, I had a panic attack and could not exit without saving fast enough.

Play Tyranny and purge the weakness. Evil is the only way forward.

Or, well, Lawful Evil is the only way forward. Neutral and Chaotic are drab and ambitionless.

Oh but chaotic and neutral can have ambition, maybe too much though... You may just be crazy if your ambition is godhood or lichdom and you aren't close, but others will rue the day when you reach it.

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Originally Posted by ArcanaJayne
I can play a little on the OC is self-interested side, but not outright evil.

I'm the same. I've tried playing evil characters in various games, but they just end up wandering around in neutral territory and attempting to look tough. Earning Astarion's approval has been a chore (usually I just mod it, I'm lazy).

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Originally Posted by Tarlonniel
It would be a great bit of characterization if it was intentional, plus it would leave a path open for goody-two-shoes type characters to romance Astarion in spite of not having earned massive amounts of approval.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is, though!

In most popular CRPGs of modern years, like Pathfinder, PoE and DOS2, your approval is not the only thing that matters - the way you approach your companions matters too (aka. "speech checks" or "dialogue checks"). A few examples that most people probably know of would be: Tristian (Pathfinder), Pallegina (PoE1 "romance"), Aloth (PoE2) and Lohse (DOS2) are great examples of NPCs that responds poorly if the PC is pushy - they need the PC to give them some personal space in order to be properly romanced, regardless of your approval levels. Other characters, like Tekehu (PoE2), Ifan (DOS:2) and Regongar and Octavia (Pathfinder) respond better to more straight-forward approach. In my opinion - and probably most peoples opinion - this makes perfect sense and it keeps the characters true to their nature.

I would be genuinely surprised if Larian chose to move away from this system completely and relied 100% on approval levels, considering they partly used this system themselves in DOS:2, although it is not as... Punishing to choose "wrong" as it might be in the other titles mentioned (maybe Sebille is a bit more picky, I have not had a chance to romance her yet since I ... Uhm, well I killed her :x Imma bring her on my next playthrough though). Most characters have some kind of more-or-less difficult / important "speech check" before romance can be triggered and Astarion and Shadowheart strikes me as two characters that probably would have a little bit more difficulties opening up emotionally, compared to the rest of our companions, and hence I'd imagine that they will have a couple of speech checks in order to progress our relationships properly with them at full release.


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Originally Posted by Dez
In most popular CRPGs of modern years, like Pathfinder, PoE and DOS2, your approval is not the only thing that matters - the way you approach your companions matters too (aka. "speech checks" or "dialogue checks"). A few examples that most people probably know of would be: Tristian (Pathfinder), Pallegina (PoE1 "romance"), Aloth (PoE2) and Lohse (DOS2) are great examples of NPCs that responds poorly if the PC is pushy - they need the PC to give them some personal space in order to be properly romanced, regardless of your approval levels.

I'm cool with that, it makes sense. In this case though, my OC was not pushy. He said he wanted some fun and she said that better not mean he wanted to kill something. It's not like she slam-tackled him and demanded that the mutual ravishment begin. (Though, if that were an option, I admit I'd try it at least once to see what happens.)


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