Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Why is the 'yellow exclamation mark' limited to one character at a time?

I have noticed that every time when something interesting has happened during my adventures, or someone wants to speak to me in camp, only one of my companions shows me that they want to talk to me with a yellow exclamation mark. This happens even when I know that multiple companions have voice lines for this scenario. I give you an example so you better understand what I mean:

In the blighted village there is the fight with Grukkoh the bugbear and Buthir the ogre, if you open the door of the shed. After the fight, both Astarion and Shadowheart theoretically have something to say (as I know because I had both happen once), but it never happens that these trigger for both of them at the same time/in the same playthrough (Shadowheart complains that you opened the shed; Astarion thinks its funny). It's always only one them who has the 'yellow exclamation mark' over their heads.

I'm wondering why? It seems these mini-conversations can give you more insight into how your companions are thinking, and an opportunity to bond with them, so it seems strange that these scenes are always limited to one companion at a time. Why not have all the possible exclamation marks trigger whenever possible? Possibly a bug?

No idea if it is also intentional or an early access bug, but I too would prefer getting to hear everyone’s comments.

I think this is a bug. DOS2 has exactly the same interactions for all of your companions. I really, really, really hope this gets fixed.

It feels intentional to me, but it kinda is janky, I also think it might be why some don't get Gale night scenes cause something else overrides it?

But it also really could just be a bug that needs fixing.

It seems to me it is intentional. All companions have something... interesting to say in response to this scene (Bae'zel's in particular - heh). Any "in-field" scene where a companion has a ! to react to it, that also means that all other companions have lines of their own for that scene. There are game files associated and named for each companion.

The way these dialogues are currently written would make them incompatible for more than one occurring at once because often they are saying the same thing - just in their own way. Or they are spoken in a way to be voicing their opinions to Tav rather than written like party banter. This could change however. Astarion and Shadowheart have joint interjections in the Crusher and Abdirak scenes. They occur within the scene however and aren't reactions.

At the moment, if you really, really want to make sure you hear a companion's lines for a scene, you can dismiss all the other companions right before that scene starts.
If the scene triggers immediately after a fight, you will have to do that fight with only that companion. Which is what I have to do to get a lot of Lae'zel's reaction scenes.

This highlights the problem really well I think. The fact that I never got Lae'zel's conversation to trigger, even though I did this fight half a dozen times with her in my team, speaks for itself. Shadowheart and Astarion just always override her dialogs with their own. I think all these 'exclamation mark dialogs' should always trigger for everybody (unless they clash in some way). Sure, they all say something about the same event that just occured, but so what? Everybody can have their own opinion, and it's not like they are repeating themselves. Every companion has their own stance on the matter. Whats more, if you're not interested in what they have to say, you're not forced to speak to them.

Please don't restrict the opportunities for getting more insight into a companions character, and gaining approval with them. It really feels like I'm missing out on bonding with them.

Oh wow. I literally had no idea that - in the example of the barn ogres scene - anyone other than Astarion had something to say about it. I have also probably missed out on so much other dialogue... in particular with Lae'zel, because my focus was on Astarion most of the time.


Yes, yes it does!!!

I definitely want to be able to talk to each of the companions in turn, or be made aware that they each have something to say. Not have one companion's lines override the others'.

I dont belive everyone have something to say in this particular situation ...
More like just Shadow and Astarion, since they give you "agree" and "disagree".

But either others dont care, or i also avoided it somehow in all my plays.

AvatarOfSHODAN has said that Lae'zel also has a reaction to this scene. Gale might also have one, but I personally haven't seen it. But it's not about this scene in particular, that was just an example.

In that case, i stand corected.

Of all the scenes to cite for this issue in the game lol... Here's a compilation vid from youtube of all companion reactions. It's a scene that's funnier when you stumble on it organically though. Hidden behind the cut below:

When in doubt, check youtube if you're ever curious about a scene. Or even try a one companion run.

It was also videos like these that made me realize its not always Shadowheart who has a reaction or Gale that reacts to the Sazza scene. They all have a reaction unless its character specific (Wyll with the Windmill, Lae'zel with the Patrol). It's also why I say there is A LOT of companion content in the game and why I think even with tweaks, you will never be able to see every companion's scene in one playthrough. Hell, even your party composition matters. For example, the night you would normally get Gale's Mirror Image scene, if you don't have him in the party, you get a similar scene with Lae'zel instead.

Their goal is to make it so everyone's playthrough is different and takes on different flavors. It also means that if you do want to replay the game, your own playthroughs can be vastly different from each other. I feel it's less about forcing replayability and instead about hitting the magic middle area between an on-rails narrative and fully tailored experience. It's trying to make your "choices" matter without needing the narrative complexity of a game like Detroit Become Human. (Say what you will about that game, but it did branching narrative right.)

Yes. I am also sad that someone is entering the dialogue. and you have to restart the game and come up with the composition of the squad. to watch their dialogues. once with me, after rescuing a goblin in the druid grove. both Gale and Liz wanted to talk to that. After the scene with the ogres in the barn. with me, only SH wanted to talk. and these dialogues after you refuse to give Astarion to the hunter ... they are beautiful. but they must be specially run
Oh. I also forgot about the camp scenes. after the first sleep. when you cannot speak to all companions. and Astarion's personal dream. which blocks Sh

I also believe it would make the companions feel so much more alive if they voiced their opinions about our actions regularly, compared to the compliant puppies they are at the moment.

Well, when I first time played the game, 90% opinions was from Shadow and Lae, so for second time I had to play game ONLY with ASTARION to hear his replicas on each situation. And I will tell you honestly this is upsets me. After all, he really had an opinion on every situation. I'm not saying that need to combine all dialogs into one dialog. But the opportunity to approach and get everyone's opinion is very valuable.

They all have an opinion in every situation. I wonder if they could make it work like at camp where usually one companion will have the little ! exclamation mark, but you can ignore them to give priority to your fav and speak to them first.

So in the field, a companion might have the ! exclamation mark, but you could talk to another companion to get their reaction instead. This could work if they wanted to keep the 1 reaction per scene thing.

In DOS2 the exclamation points were mostly triggered by proximity to a particular trigger. So, if a character wasn't close enough you didn't get to see their response.

I always hated this as it felt like we (I played in a multiplayer group) were missing some of the story and flavor when someone just happened to be too far away (for whatever reason.) If fortunate and we'd had a recent save we could reload and make sure everyone was closer together... but we shouldn't have had to savescum to get flavor content like that.

If that's what's happening in BG3 they need to fix this and make any exclamation point be equivalent to the trigger that triggered it... so you can walk up other characters and get them into the scene.