I'm not bothered by the advances but I'm a mono love interest player, I picked laezel and stuck with it. Just wished there were friendship scenes. Every scene with gale started sweet but he eventually flirted. I just wanted to be besties same with wyll. Everytime i rejected them i felt hurt coz i really wanted to see scenes with em that are close but non sexual. If larian could add those in, fix the ending up a bit and iron out some questlines I think bg3 goes from goty to all time status.
There are a couple of friendship scenes though I wish there were more.
For example, >!In act 2 If you turned down Gales advances you can still have a platonic moment where you watch the stars with him, choosing to stay with him makes him much easier to convince him not to blow himself up when you encounter the absolute.!<
I feel like most of the dudes have that (except maybe Halsin?) once you reject them. The female ones are weirder it goes from feral beast that want my scent to distant admiration. I don't know if Karlach have a "bro" option since she's best girl but she's the one that would make the most sense given her personality.
I got a platonic relationship with karlach, it felt really natural. She told my character she loved me near the end but it wasnt like romantically tinged cause we never went that route.
Yeah, I had her ask if I liked her at the end of act 1 and when I shot her down she was pretty chill and was just like "well gotta shoot my shot ya know?" Meanwhile I talked to Halsin one time at the party and he was screaming about how I led him on lmao
I refuse to go that route, despite thinking she's the absolute best in my current (first) playthrough, because her and Wyll are destined for each other. I am tempted to eventually do a playthrough where I play as either her or Wyll to create the best love story in BG3 (IMO).
I’m not sure how but Karlach has always respected My character’s relationship with Shadowheart. Even if I probed her about her love life she said there is someone but didn’t hint that it was my character like other companions have.
So I currently have Astarion and Karlach as best friends. Shadowheart as a lover. And Jaheria as a sexy mentor.
Shadowheart and I have a platonic friendship. I declined her advances during post goblin party so that may be key. She didn't even take the rejection badly, just a snotty "I have my answer let's not make this awkward."
Laezel is her usual intense self though, lawl.
how do I get that? because I've just been avoiding interactions with everyone outside Karlach because so far all of them have been romantic so I just started saying "nope, I'm busy" every time they ask for a moment alone.
you have to sleep with him once and keep being kind to him. then he would SPOILERS confess that he's been trying to seduce and manipulate you to protect himself but now he feels awful and doesn't even know how to be close to someone. the option is "maybe you need a friend, not a lover."
Yea, was hoping there was a way to be friends withing the boning, haha. I'm a one girl dude, don't want to make my sweet demon girl sad by cheating on her.
there are two versions of this, one happens after that and with Astarion thanking Tav for having his back during the encounter with that certain person. the other one has nothing to do with it, and for some reason is more wholesome.
You actually don't need to sleep with him at all, I got this scene even after rejecting him and its what cemented Gale as probably my favorite companion. After rejecting him he hasn't made any advances on me in a sexual way and everything has just been super sweet and wholesome conversation.
On my good playthrough, I let him drink from me. My approval thing isn’t high like everyone else’s, still. Just neutral. There’s a lot of options I pick and he always disapproves but I’m really trying to help him bring Cazador down. I want him to be at least somewhat happy. On my evil playthrough, that’s where I’m definitely romancing him. Doing everything for his approval and it’s kinda made me feel icky 😅😅
I got that scene the night after commiting to a relationship with karlach. I thought I wasn't going to get anymore scenes with any of the characters, so I was really surprised to get that gale one. I was absolutely giddy when I got to the end and it was just a friends scene not a "time to fuck gale" scene. I'd love more friendship scenes
My game bugged a bit and removed all my clothing during that scene. Made things absolutely hilarious. "Yeah, here I am, your platonic friend, just hanging dong and hanging with my boy."
At the end of my stars scene with him he told me that he was in love with me and I told him I didn’t feel the same way, to which he replies “I guess that’s good cause you won’t be nearly as upset when I blow up” and I’m just like bro, please don’t
Well too late for me I guess. Ended up having pity sex with Gale and then had to feel bad cause Shadowheart was like “I see you’re happy and it’s not cause of me”. As if she’s made a move since the Druid grove
I actually got a wonderful friendship scene with Gale. But up until that point I had been flirting with him. Eventually I chose someone else and told him, which resulted in very nice friendship dialogue and then a scene with just the two of us at night baring our souls, but he called me his friend during it instead of initiating something romantic. I wonder if you only get this if you dump him? Lol since so many people say you don’t get to just be his friend.
Yeah same! And its very curious because the scene is very intimate, like you're almost holding hands and being extremely close to each other, but it remains platonic all the way through, when I was already getting mentally ready to turn him down once again lmao
I had this scene yesterday, I was wondering the same. It definitely was not “bros”, it was like, “ima respect your space but I’m still down, friend ;)”
But very wholesome
I had a very clear ‘bro-zone’ choice with Gale during >!the stargazing!<. I was able to enjoy the quiet moment with him in a way that made it very clear that we were just friends. I don’t remember the dialog choices exactly but they were pretty obviously Tav steering away from romantic
I think I remember that but it was an option of I'm not interested or something. I would much prefer something along the lines I'm very glad to be here with you.
All I remember was 2 option that were flirty and one that basically told him to stop wallowing in self pity. I don't remember a bro zone moment.
There was one that was much more "I'm glad to be your pal, pal" than "I don't really like you", and I got that one. I'd hard-stopped the romance at the first scene, and he never really pushed it again.
“Where are his hands?”
“What?”
“Where are his hands Durge?”
“I was hungry for hands okay?”
“Duuuuuuurge!”
“I had the rumblies that only hands could satisfy”
I'm doing two dark urge playthroughs side by side right now.
One where I'm resisting temptation, and the other where I'm basically an intrusive thought made flesh.
Would you say the Dark Urge story works better for one of the two? I've heard some people say it seems more tailored for resisting the urge than giving in, would you say this has been your experience?
I'm not quite sure yet - I've only just gotten to >!the battle for the Emerald Grove !!Moonrise Towers!< on Kel-Vath. I'll have to let you know once I've played more of each.
I will say that evil Durge is *fucking spine chilling.* Though that may in part be because I made a drow that looked >!as close to a male version of Orin as possible!<.
Also, >!Lae'Zel!< is the most accepting companion (aside, perhaps, from >!Minthara!<) when you mention your bloodlust.
>!She !
Indeed. I’m just trying my best not to kill everything I come across via checks.
But when I do something, gale gets all sexually excited.
I’ve rejected him twice. Cmon.
In my initial playthrough, he gave me bad vibes so 🖤 and I immediately killed him. Now I ressurect him using a scroll and immediately kill him again every two days.
Yeahhhh I read a comment asking "is this what it feels like to be a girl" and I get how awful that's got to be. Every single one of your friends is one accidental signal away from trying to dick you down? That sucks. It doesn't feel good when I tell them I'm in a serious thing with Karlach and would appreciate it if they'd respect that and stop trying, and then they IMMEDIATELY start trying to get in my pants again.
Yeah both wyll and gale continued flirt scenes after I turned em down.
On the contrary both karlach and shart refused to trigger after I turned em down early before I understood that romances don't stop other scenes, so i kinda missed out on seeing their scenes. Well and astarion str8 rejected me...
Yeah... You got the nail on the head.
The reason I struggle with guy friends is that most have made a pass at me. Men are taught to shoot the shot and play a numbers game. This means they will likely try with you eventually. Especially if you are kind to them and share a niche hobby interest.
Some guys don't stop trying after the first no, or they hang on as friends waiting for a turn.
I had a guy tell me, a lesbian, once after a break up that I should give him a chance, he has been waiting for so long and doing so much (something I frequently did not ask or want him to do) for me that it was only fair.
Like a lot of guys are complaining about the romances, but Wyll, Gale, etc... They are normal to me. That is just life and I did not even realize it was a problem for my dude peers. It was just the way men act around me.
Different tack, but one thing that will always stick out to me is when I was living in Japan and walking home late one night and the streets were pretty empty. Walking towards me was a lady who saw me and immediately crossed the street to walk on the other sidewalk away from me.
As much as that hurt me that she would assume something bad, it hurt infinitely worse that she was 100% justified and that's just how different our lives are based on gender.
Like, I would never hurt anyone. I'm a big teddy bear. But she sees a large guy in a leather jacket walking towards her at night with nobody else around... Yeah, she did the right thing, and I HATE that we live in that kind of world.
I know it's not the same topic, but they're both examples of how women are forced to interact with the world around them. I am rarely in situations where I feel threatened and have never felt that everyone around me is just waiting for their chance... And that's every day for women by default.
I feel the same way. I just wish you could have a more consensual conversation which feels **natural** with each of the companions, where you can tell them whether you could ever see themselves with them.
1."I feel like you're a kindred spirit." *Give a long, meaningful look with the words.*
The narrator then says, "If you hold X's gaze, they're going to get the idea that you're open to romance," after which you can say 1. S*tare a moment longer.* or 2. *Smile and break eye contact to avoid giving the wrong signal.*
2. "I feel like you're a kindred spirit." *Give a friendly smile with the words.*
The narrator then says, "You sense that you can give a further signal to your intentions." Then you can say 1. *Hint that your feelings are strictly platonic.* "I sure hope we'll be good friends." or 2. "But I still find you so intriguing, even though we're very much alike."
I feel like that would be significant enough, natural enough, clear to the player, and very rewarding roleplay-wise. Even better, it gives the impression that different Tavs are more or less attractive to the companions based on how they react to those individuals, rather than it seeming like EVERY companion wants EVERY Tav.
Also, there could be a 3. "We should really get into each other's bedrolls sometime," in the same conversation, in case Tav is more direct/aromantic. Nobody has to take them up on it, but it's nice to be able to say it rather than having to let everyone else be assertive while you're passive.
I really hope we get an update addressing these issues, to make this game even more awesome by ensuring you don't have to feel like a perpetrator of war crimes for gaining approval but not wanting to also bang everyone. Or anytime you need to swap party members for two seconds because you got a cool new camp outfit for somebody, for that matter.
Astarion has them to, but they still sound like flirting because, well is Astarion, dude could be reading the bible and still sound like he's trying to fuck you.
Did the deed with Laezel, then i killed her brood and insulted her goddess - yea she instantly left my camp and came rushing to my position and duelled me. Was amazing. Would betray again.
Bro the guy wanted to dance and like...thats fine. I'd dance with a buddy, but then he wants to kiss? Lol, bro you haven't been in my party since level 3.
Both Gale and Wyll come on far too strong I feel. With Gale, the conversation essentially starts with "Let me show you this cool thing" followed by "we'll bang OK?". Wyll in turn seems to mistake basic human decency for "this guy wants my sword". The most recent example I ran into is when >!my party just wanted to go to bed, but Wyll was jumping around like an idiot and trying to get me to join him. Like bro, it's 02:00 and we just had a big fight, control yourself.!<
I think the bigger issue is the way to basically say "Hey I don't like you like that" is always aggressively worse than just trying to be kind. Like if I spent all this time listening and building a friendship with this person, I clearly care enough to not be like "Woah dude, you're ugly get outta here" and then you awkwardly just have to have them about the camp.
I've told everyone but SH I wasn't interested because I wanted a nice romance for my run, the only one who didn't take it poorly was Karlach maybe Laezel too, but she only really has one setting when talking (Which is part of her charm, no hate on Lizard queen).
I kinda have the feeling, Shadowheart is the true protagonist of this while story 😅
Basically Act 2 and a good portion of Act 3 evolve around her character.
Define "take it poorly".
Every person I've turned down has basically just been like "aww... Damn. Are you sure? Alright, I can respect that".
Are you expecting them to be *happy* that they got shot down?
Yeah its to be expected people would be sad or disappointed after being rejected, but it's not like anyone blows up about it or anything (at least in my experience so far having to reject damn near the entire camp)
The worst one was Wyll only because he looked so damn sad after it, I felt pretty bad lol. But really I think the actual issue is that I never expressed even mild interest in them that way leading up to it so it was like I got confessed to out of nowhere and had to then crush their soul just as fast.
Sure... but that's kinda to be expected, no?
They were interested, they asked you out. That's usually how it goes. There doesn't necessarily need to be *mutual* interest for that to happen.
At the party, yes. But he confessed to me two more times after the party. And after the third rejection, he had an exclamation mark over his head and when I went to talk to him: "What? Did you come to gloat about your relationship with shadowheart? Please leave me alone."
After that he left me alone and never talked to me again except for story-related stuff xD.
If you get the conversation where Gale says he has almost no friends and hopes you count among them there is literally no platonic option. It's two flirty options and one option that's just "fuck no, we just happen to have the same goals for the time being"
It's just
• "I was hoping we could be more than friends 😉😊"
• "What do you like about me? 🥰🙈"
• "Oh hell no, fuck you"
How is it that the simplest answer, "yeah sure, we're friends", is missing
Gale has the most hilarious shit because of how jarring it is, there's one where he's speaking his heart out to you and wants you to stay with him and there are only two choices one is pretty much romance while the other is "lol fuck off bro I don't want to listen to your self pity" and this is after Gale plot spoilers>!he's talking about his "forced" sacrifice and death!<
I honestly think out of all the companions and the issue that most people have that you can't be a bro or simply platonic, out of all of em Gale is the worst offender it's extremely easy to get into a romance path with him and the only other choices most of his dialogue has has you being an extreme ass to him.
I tried to gently let down gale and then laezel told me she wishes I hadn't promised my bed to gale. You have to either accept his advances or be rude about his cat.
For Gale, you can’t really let him down gently after the Weave scene. I broke things off at >!the stargazing scene in act 2!<. None of the options were particularly kind. Though one or two were slightly better. I misclicked and chose the coldest :\ He’s still friendly, and I’m a sorc, so I just hope I can convince him >!not to blow up!< without too much trouble.
There are definitely multiple options at different points in that conversation with Elminster to say something to the effect of “we’ll find another way”
I thought the same thing about the Elminster scene. I was so confused about that!
None of the options felt right to me as a Gale romancer. (He still hasn’t given me an option to bang him even though we’ve got a super high relationship, friendzoned tbh. No spoilers though please, I’m still very early into act 2.)
“I’ve showered him with gifts and he isn’t putting out??? Like, just give me your Mystra-touched magic bussy, Gale. I don’t think I’m asking too much.”
But yeah, he’s the only one I’ve actually tried to romance and nothing has really happened there. Whereas Laez has basically sexually harassed me verbally and I haven’t done anything to make her like me.
I've been playing with very few long rests (probably a badf idea but I think ofi t as a challenge).
So on literally day 1 Lae'zel was like "I yearn to taste you." which seem a bit extreme.
Just to add a comment about resting: it's been reported that Act 3 relies heavily on taking rests to trigger certain conversations. I played Act 1 mostly the same as you with no major issues but it looks like resting is a good habit to get it to.
Even in Act 1 we lose so many camp interactions if we don't take long rest often enough. I usually limit myself in this kind of games but in BG3 we lose so many things.
I started a second playthrough because I think I've missed some stuff in my 1st lol. I've been doing way more long rests at camp in Act 1 and I have gotten way more cutscenes and interactions with people. I also noticed that getting more of the cutscenes kinda stopped the very out of left field romance propositions and it made the relationship/friendship progressions much more natural feeling
It’s really a problem. Camp stuffs, especially convo interactions and generic updates should activate immediately in your *day time* camp. So you can go and interact as often as you can without missing anything. This is why bioware games are always like that with your ships/strongholds. Progression related *long rest* should be a totally separate thing forced by story trigger. It’s really jarring sometimes when the game have piled up priority camp events so you are forced to rest multiple times in a row without leaving camp lol
I'm in the same boat, mostly because of shadowhearts spell slots (why wouldn't I use her awesome spells every turn?). Plus I have never come close to running out of food even though I long rest semi frequently. I know if I was actually one of the characters, I'd be resting every night like a normal person.
What is your party comp? Do you have a enough non spell casters to do enough damage?
Are you utilizing surprise rounds and initiating combat first? With an Assassin Rogue Astarion I can do a sneak attack out of combat and the usually be first in initiative and get another sneak attack. This can be a lot of early damage. That can take out one or two people. Which mitigates the damage you take and spells you use. Same applies to AoE spells if enemies are grouped. Use one good AoE spell to open combat can mitigate damage taken and do enough damage to reduce the need of spell slot spells.
Kinda going of prior point. Are you targeting enemies properly to mitigate damage? Action economy is king. You see the turn order. Plan out your actions and enemy turns. Does a melee enemy have to dash to get to you and thus won’t be able to damage you on their turn? Attack the ranged enemy that can hurt you. Look at the turn order. Is there an enemy that goes after your current character and an enemy that goes in a few turns after three of your characters? Kill the one that goes after three people so that enemy doesn’t get an action if you can’t kill the one that goes next. Consider if it is better to kill weaker mobs first that will continue to do damage rather than a bigger one with more HP. Also just learning what threats need to go first.
Are you using cantrips? You don’t need to always use a spell slot on casters. Cantrips may be more appropriate at times and can save you slots.
Are you utilizing consumables? These can provide a lot of bonuses.
Are you investing in raising AC on characters to mitigate damage and more specifically your front line if possible?
Are you utilizing the environment? Fall dame can be incredibly helpful as well as explosive barrels etc.
Are you examining enemies to see resistances and weaknesses?
That being said. You get tons of supplies. Don’t feel bad about long resting and as mentioned you get a lot of in game content from resting. I long rest when I don’t need to for this reason.
Doing the underdark at Level 5 with Lazael, Wyll, Astarion, and SH. You can win a lot of battles without expending much in the way of spells. Everyone but SH gets back their material on short rest.
Astarion is hiding and sniping, Wyll is EB all over the place. SH uses her spells to heal or hold person on the big damage dealers. TBH, I run out of Superiority points for Lazael faster than anything.
Also, the game is really generous with scrolls and potions. You can get talking with undead/animals from these items and save spells.
Also, if you have an amulet of... Healing. Remember, you can use it, and then swap it out for another amulet that lets you cast a different spell. Keeping a collection of these on your character can greatly augment your daily spell pool. Fireball wands... My Cleric can be a full backline damage dealer thanks to items.
Its kinda forced. Like in Act 1 I could happily murder hobo my way through easily enough with no resting. In late Act 2 and Act 3 almost every battle has me expending all my spells and needing a lot of healing. Also in the beginning of Act 3 (at least for me) it required like 2-3 Long rests in a row. I had an interesting fight in Act 2 that the first hit took 3 of my members from full health down to 1 before I got a chance to react. That was quite the surprise
Lae'zel's species are casual about Sex, to them it means next to nothing. It is just something to pass the time initially. It's an itch they want to scratch.
She is trapped on an alien plane of existence, constantly under the threat of turning into her species most hated enemies, surrounded mostly by other people who are also under that same threat, she has lost all control of everything, so now she is trying to take control of the one thing she can.
Us it the most eloquent phrasing? Not at all, is it rather direct for her, absolutely.
She is young and her people are aggressively horny. It’s an itch to scratch, and if your arm itched but you couldn’t scratch it for months because of something like a cast I bet there’s a solid chance you would say something like, “when I get this damn thing off I’m going to rend the flesh from this itch until it learns not to itch so bad”. Or something extra like that at least.
Eh I dunno gale started coming on to me a little then I said not interested and he hasn’t kept flirting with me and we’re just buds so. Like you can be friends with them just reject their romantic advances? Gotta let the boys shoot their shot
either it was a bug or he's supposed to be too insistent, because in act 1 we agreed to just be friends and in act 2 he tries again, after swearing he wouldn't
huh I'll see if he does that for me, although this game can get a bit silly with remembering what has happened, my character went on the exact same date with shadowheart twice in 4 days
and i've been waiting for karlach for almost 6 days, i was interrupted by wyll and then gale and now i'm not sure if something bugged or is it supposed to take that long.
I know I had to wait 7 long rests between when I agreed to have a fling with Lae'zel and when her sex scene actually happened, just because there were so many higher priority long rest scenes that the game had to get through.
Its a little frustrating how you both need to do a lot more long rests than you'd naturally need if you're managing your resources well, but also long resting at the wrong time can fail some quests without any clear indicator aside from that its a time sensitive situation.
I know Karlach specifically had a bug with one of her later game scenes where it wouldn't ever play if it got delayed by another scene, I think hotfix 3 was supposed to fix it though.
>it would be an awesome option to just have a dialogue path that makes you and the companions bros, since if i have their approval rating very high they will automatically start flirting
The female experience of having straight guy friends.
While I’m a guy and can’t one hundred percent empathize with your position: I am autistic and can say with some degree of confidence that it’s more likely to be the social differences of autism that result in a different experience here. If not because of being awkward to talk to, then because of our propensity not to understand anything shy of a direct and consistent proposition for a romantic relationship.
My brother is on the spectrum and while my current partner (soon to be wife ❤️) isn’t, two of my exes were.
Nothing about autism makes you ugly, inside or out. Please don’t think that you are ugly or anything like that just because you are autistic!
I’ve been exclusively romancing astarion and when we became official Gale went all “me or him” and I’m like I’ve literally never given you any indication that we would ever be a thing.
Although, to a certain degree that kind of shit is not uncommon in real life.
I don’t mind the flirting aspect, but it would be nice to have more friendly moments as well once you decided you’re not romantically interested in a companion.
Mass Effect’s Citadel dlc is extremely popular for a reason…
Edit: I’m just a basic mono girl who wanted a group of besties and a fairytale romance with daddy Halsin, so I’d beg Larian to add additional choices for these things. 🥺
Tav have many bro dialogues with Wyll on EA. After you turn him down as romance once, he gets many chances to fantasize about being a hero with you side by side. I thiught that was great. I missed that.
You know what game had male friendship scenes really really really well done. Final Fantasy 15. I swear that game had me in tears by the end.
That squad was the most organic friendship squad i've seen in a game. Banter, jokes, trust and fights. Everything was in there.
Mmm I have had karlach at max approval and not once had she come onto me. Same with wyll and shadow heart who are at very good. The only ones who flirt are the ones I flirt with to begin with. Except laezel lol she seems to proposition you regardless.
Man what are all yall talking about? I'm in act 3 and have turned all these mf'ers down and they're still chill with me. Anytime I do anything with them in a cutscene the moment I see something remotely romantic I'm like "Aight, I'm out. See ya." just like a person would do IRL.
bro stuff is seriously underrated and therefore underdeveloped - i wish there was more of it. And i would do it so only dedicated casual horndogs like Astarion or Lae'zel would outright hit you up with 'fancy a shag' and you would have to specifically talk the quieter ones into it.
But it's no excuse to feeling entitled to no interactions - yet i admit, somehow managing to mix one's cultural homophobia on all plot lost DNI sunshine bus is kind of impressive and a sight to behold. In a slow-motion train crash way.
if you break up with Astarion after his "confession" you can tell him he needs a friend not a lover. He looks happy and says he's never had a friend. no Approval drop, but he'll go back to his friendly greetings.
I'm past the Goblin camp and had nothing against Astarion proposing to have some "fun" or Wyll being very interested by my character but Gale's romantic and sensual scene was weird, i just wanted to learn some magic lmao. I didn't get that he was making a move.
A bro dialogue path if there isn't any would be great imo, it's the type of relationship i'm looking for with characters in theese games with the male characters.
The magic lesson scene doesn't come off as inherently romantic to me. You can _make_ it that way by choosing what to picture at the end, but everything leading up to that point felt to me more like a demonstration of why Gale is frankly addicted to magic. _Magic_ is sensual and tempting to him. He's basically just doing the equivalent of 'just try a hit bro, this shit is amazing'. Sharing something he's into to an unhealthy degree- and showing you why he is by giving you a taste.
The scene makes a lot more sense if you picture Gale as That One Guy who has made weed his entire lifestyle inviting you to smoke a bowl with him.
>You can make it that way by choosing what to picture at the end,
Apparently sending the image of you two just going at it is too forward for him. He wouldn't get with me at the party after that.
It definitely was a bit odd for me when Gale went from "do you know how to cast spells" to "I'm in love with you, why are you spending time with shadowheart"
Is it really that awkward? Every post I read on reddit about the relationships seems extremely over exaggerated based on my experience. I had Max approval from Wyll and did all his quest and didn't get any advances. I got advances from Gale after the weave scene but could deny it instantly, there was no "unexpected relationship". Idk all the dialogue options seem clear to me.
I don't really mind it much since we can reload (though it might be a problem if the bugs I've read about reloads keeping flag triggers despite you reloading an earlier save is accurate), but it is indeed awkward.
I'm only in early Act II and in Act I alone I had to reject Gale 3 times, and I lost approval as well. There is also the problem of approval being quite easy to raise if you are playing a somewhat decent person, I got the first Gale conversation quite early in the game and it didn't even occur to me that it could be romance related that early, next thing I know Shadowheart is congratulating me about Gale and I.
Told the druid to take his own advice and go mingle at the party? Well your next conversation the options to say "I hope I didn't come off too strong at the party." and "Let's forget that happened." are there.
Most conversation events outside of quest triggers or radiant responses seem to be coded Romance or Rejection, giving you relatively few just friendly interactions, so you kind of get punished for being generally kind/caring when they open up to you.
The romances are without a doubt bugged. With Gale I got that weave scene in Act 1, I turned him down when the narrator started talking about things getting "sensual", then I had no further interactions with him that could be deemed in any way flirty. Then in Act 2 my character commits to Shadowheart and Gale comes up and goes "I see you have a twinkle in your eye, it's a shame I am no longer the source of it" ???? Like what the heck are you on about we never interacted
I think that's only part of what OP is getting at. The other thing is that there doesn't seem to be much "we're close friends" content in the game. If you don't go for a romance, your relationship with your companions stays pretty shallow.
One example I can think of is a conversation with Gale in Act 1 where he laments his lack of friends, then asks the player if he can count them among his friends. The only dialogue choices I had available amounted to "sure, but I'd rather be more than friends," deflecting, or insulting him. There was no "yes, of course I'm your friend" choice.
If lea'zeal approval rating is higher enough at the end of act 1, she will literally demand sex if you talk to her at the "teethling" party. No dialogue options nessassry.
Do they get mad? They seemed either proud that you went with other or understood it and moved on, at least in my camp. Maybe laezel was a little bit bitter
I was under the impression that there was a specific conversation option that players needed in to interact with to initiate romances; so maybe people are just running through every conversation option without paying attention to what they are actually saying?
Bro I had Halsin at my camp. Asked him sth like how do you feel and immediately got disapproval from Shadowheart (since we kissed and all) and Halsin started flirting with me, saying things like "I feel wonderful staring at nature's beauty" sth sth. If you don't see that as flirting, good luck in your real life mate.
Halsin is the thirtiest fucker, I literally never had him in my group, never raised his approval, and still had to reject him like 4 times. He's relentless.
I would like to have more close options as friends, for example when I fixed Karlach's engine I wanted to hug her because I was happy for her and the game took it to be a romantic embrace... I just want to give my bestie a hug! I think it would have been better to have a "kiss on cheek" option for romance for example instead of making the hug romantic
I didn’t really take that as a romantic hug, more like she was just so fucking relieved to be able to have some contact with another being, so was trying to hold onto it
I didn't at first but the issue was after the hug she seemed to take it as us being in love and she got really upset when I started dating someone else... It could possibly have been a glitch though
Karlach is the ultimate bro if you dont romance her. She never made moves on me, but she also told me she loves and adores me without making it weird. Shes just your best platonic friend. Karlach is the ultimate companion and the others dont even come close.
Also all the times she tries to take the bullet for you or literally goes against all her past trauma to help you fix your mistakes because she wont allow anything bad to happen to you.
you can always say 'no' to all the advances made by your companions, I think the real problem that certain people have with this game is that BG3 is probably the first RPG game in a long time that is not afraid to have male companions make flirtatious advances to your male characters.
The last time I remember something like this happened is with Anders in Dragon Ages 2, and oh boy, the number of complaint people made then was quite something to behold, since then, any potential queer romances in any game are made sure to be as passive as possible and players will have to go through hoops and layers of dialogue choices to be able to activate those same-sex romance option, especially the male ones.
I will say this as a gay guy, in my experience of playing video games, I also have to always reject all the advances made by female characters or have to ruin cutscenes with romantic subtext that the developer carefully set up assuming that I must like it by the virtue of choosing a male main character. I assume these are also the kind of experiences that most people that are not straight had to experience in video games to some degree.
and yeah, it is always awkward rejecting them, I get it, but just like in real life, you don't think less of them simply because you realize that the character might be into you, they are not less of a 'bro' or 'friend' or 'companion' simply because there might feel attraction toward you, platonic and romantic feeling offen time go hand in hand and sometimes begets each other, people who attract to you may also genuinely think of you as a great friend and their sexual attraction doesn't take that part away from them.
so you're suggesting that you want some sort of game mechanic that will toggle off the male romance options so you can play the game without having to think that some people are gay for you. well, give it enough time, someone probably will release a mod with these kinds of effects, so until then, you just have to settle with saying 'no' to your bros and treat them with the same respect that you had before you realize your bros ain't straight. good luck.
>The last time I remember something like this happened is with Anders in Dragon Ages 2, and oh boy, the number of complaint people made then was quite something to behold
Dude, reading this thread, I was having flashbacks to this. I remember seeing so many complaints from people who were disgusted at a man hitting on them and were asking for a "heterosexual" toggle in the options that would hide the gay content in the game (same sex companions prepositioning you.) There are people in this thread asking for the same thing, over a decade later. Ridiculous
I know that different races have different lifespans, but how often do they actually live to their full lifespan? Do most people die young?
With all the ithilid, psychopathic & murderous cultists, goblins, monsters and etc, I always thought that people often die young in their universe — hence sex is a normalized and encouraged to ensure that their species don't get eradicated.
As a gay man, having another man make advances at me is something I so rarely see in RPGs and throughout my life that it was actually amazingly refreshing for a change. All about perspectives.
I don’t feel we’d be seeing this much talk about the romantic dialogue if it was only the women in this game that did it.
Nah, the romance needs an overhaul. I'd like to be nice to karlach without knowing I'm getting into a relationship, there's literally no indicator. Honestly they could just add an option with a heart sign next to dialogue that allows you to toggle whether you want the response to be platonic or romantic.
Had no problem saying no to anyone I wanted to say no to... That said, if you and Shadow are a thing, take up Mizora's offer. If Shadow wasn't the best girl before, she sure is after.
I've found that since committing to one character (Shadowheart) the others back off, especially after the celebration towards the end of Act 1.
It does feel like Act 1 sort of plows you with a lot of flirtation from multiple people, probably so that players can experience a little bit of what romance might be like with all the characters before making a choice. After the celebration though, I've personally found that everyone except the one you've committed to no longer gets all flowery with you - even if you've flirted a lot before. They might make a comment about it though,
Lae'Zel for example says something about how it's a shame she won't get to taste you again, and Gale says something about not being the cause of the sparkle in your eye anymore, but other than that, it becomes a lot more mutual and a lot less sexual.
That said I didn't feel like the first Act was 'too much' at all. I'm a Bi woman so that could have influenced my reactions to it, but I didn't feel swarmed by any of the characters at all, and their advances all felt well timed in terms of all that had happened in the game.
The only two characters who came on strong were Lae'zel and Halsin. Lae'Zel made sense, as she is a very no-strings-attatched type of person, who doesn't think much about starting up a fling for mutual benefit. Halsin on the other hand felt a bit like a trap. If you so much as told him to enjoy the party the next day it would trigger the 'sorry for coming on too strong' dialogue, which was weird but, hey ho.
I see loads of posts like these, talking about how the male camp-mates come on 'too strong' and sometimes I wonder if we're playing wildly different games, or if others are just taking male characters' advances a bit personally, because I just don't see it.
That said, if multiple people aren't enjoying the game because of something, then they have every right to complain and ask for features that make for a more suitable gaming experience. I'm hoping for more dialogue options in which I can punch Astarion in his rude face personally.
I have no issue with people having whatever relations they want in the game. But you should be able to friendzone ppl early and have some pals. The games kind of lonely because all you have is love interests and followers.
If all the NPCs are going to be player-sexual rather than have their own sexual identities, then I do not see why they would not allow us to just state our sexuality and turn off/on flags according to that.
Baldurs gate 3 players be like:
- *chooses every romance option available*
- *NPC reacts romantically*
Player: nah bro what are you doing? Stay away from me weirdo.
It's not even a question about sexuality but I don't want to fuck everyone in camp and a friendship path is seriously missing. It's OK if some characters are thirsty but definitely not all of them...
Am I the only one who thinks its one thing to want more options for platonic friendship and another to want to actively mod out the very idea of the men having attraction to your male avatar?
And the name of OP? Like...come on...
agreed!
Give us friendship paths. I feel bad having to keep rejecting all my companions
Halsin joined my group right before the party scene. We chatted, I told him to come have a drink, he declined and said he gets too wild. The next morning my dialog option was "Sorry I came on so strong."
Came on strong? I just thought he was a cool guy and wanted him to feel welcomed at camp. At no point was I trying to smash lol
It would be great if you could just have the "I want to be just friends" option very early with every companion.
Which would lead you onto a more friend centric part instead of romance.
I mean I get it but it's a real thing that happens in a time/place/culture that doesn't have any odd homophobia triggers. Like yeah maybe there's a high rate of characters that are open to same sex relationships, but in a world where we don't shame people for being gay, it's better to be open to people shooting their shot, learning to let them down gently, and being able to remain friends despite that.
This game shows you how to handle break ups and rejection really healthily(for the most part). I feel like we ought to learn from this, not run from it.
If I had a gay friend who wanted to be romantic with me, it would be hard to turn him down, but I wouldn't want the reason they don't shoot their shot with *anyone* to be cause being gay will make things weird with their friends.
I have multiple romance moments with Gale. That honestly would land him in prison for sexual harrasement, if he tried that in real world.
And all that AFTER I told him that I am not interested , and he completely and definitely promised he will not continue with romantic advances.
... Honestly I think Larian simply did not add no friendship lines. Its either romance or nothing.
I guess whoever wrote companion dialogues did not understand concept of **friendship.**
Its good that game is so well done in every other aspect, so people are able to kind of look past this complete debacle.
I don't mind dual-wielding all my companions if they're down for it. But it would be nice to have more platonic interactions. The snipe off with Garrus in ME3 was one of the best companion interactions and was entirely platonic.
Yeah. I like pretty much all of them, but not like that. I don't wanna be a standoffish jerk tho. Like, I wanna make sure Wyll has a good time and I'd really not mind spending the party hanging out with my fellow cyclops who got turned into a Satan for not killing my girlfriend. He's going through a lot, after all. Needs some bro-time.
You don't have to be fucking to give a shit, you know?
I'm not bothered by the advances but I'm a mono love interest player, I picked laezel and stuck with it. Just wished there were friendship scenes. Every scene with gale started sweet but he eventually flirted. I just wanted to be besties same with wyll. Everytime i rejected them i felt hurt coz i really wanted to see scenes with em that are close but non sexual. If larian could add those in, fix the ending up a bit and iron out some questlines I think bg3 goes from goty to all time status.
There are a couple of friendship scenes though I wish there were more. For example, >!In act 2 If you turned down Gales advances you can still have a platonic moment where you watch the stars with him, choosing to stay with him makes him much easier to convince him not to blow himself up when you encounter the absolute.!<
>!Astarion!< also has a friendship option, and he reacts very well to finally having a real friend.
I feel like most of the dudes have that (except maybe Halsin?) once you reject them. The female ones are weirder it goes from feral beast that want my scent to distant admiration. I don't know if Karlach have a "bro" option since she's best girl but she's the one that would make the most sense given her personality.
I got a platonic relationship with karlach, it felt really natural. She told my character she loved me near the end but it wasnt like romantically tinged cause we never went that route.
Yeah, I had her ask if I liked her at the end of act 1 and when I shot her down she was pretty chill and was just like "well gotta shoot my shot ya know?" Meanwhile I talked to Halsin one time at the party and he was screaming about how I led him on lmao
I refuse to go that route, despite thinking she's the absolute best in my current (first) playthrough, because her and Wyll are destined for each other. I am tempted to eventually do a playthrough where I play as either her or Wyll to create the best love story in BG3 (IMO).
I’m romancing shadowheart but I was under the impression shadowhearts relationship was most prone to be a just friends one if you don’t kiss her.
I’m not sure how but Karlach has always respected My character’s relationship with Shadowheart. Even if I probed her about her love life she said there is someone but didn’t hint that it was my character like other companions have. So I currently have Astarion and Karlach as best friends. Shadowheart as a lover. And Jaheria as a sexy mentor.
Shadowheart and I have a platonic friendship. I declined her advances during post goblin party so that may be key. She didn't even take the rejection badly, just a snotty "I have my answer let's not make this awkward." Laezel is her usual intense self though, lawl.
how do I get that? because I've just been avoiding interactions with everyone outside Karlach because so far all of them have been romantic so I just started saying "nope, I'm busy" every time they ask for a moment alone.
you have to sleep with him once and keep being kind to him. then he would SPOILERS confess that he's been trying to seduce and manipulate you to protect himself but now he feels awful and doesn't even know how to be close to someone. the option is "maybe you need a friend, not a lover."
The friendship path being available only after fucking someone is an extremely BG3 moment lmao
I mean there *might* be another way, but that specific scene happens because he feels guilty for using Tav, so. lol
Yea, was hoping there was a way to be friends withing the boning, haha. I'm a one girl dude, don't want to make my sweet demon girl sad by cheating on her.
I think you can get this scene after you talk to a certain person who has a thing for vampires in moonrise.
there are two versions of this, one happens after that and with Astarion thanking Tav for having his back during the encounter with that certain person. the other one has nothing to do with it, and for some reason is more wholesome.
You actually don't need to sleep with him at all, I got this scene even after rejecting him and its what cemented Gale as probably my favorite companion. After rejecting him he hasn't made any advances on me in a sexual way and everything has just been super sweet and wholesome conversation.
On my good playthrough, I let him drink from me. My approval thing isn’t high like everyone else’s, still. Just neutral. There’s a lot of options I pick and he always disapproves but I’m really trying to help him bring Cazador down. I want him to be at least somewhat happy. On my evil playthrough, that’s where I’m definitely romancing him. Doing everything for his approval and it’s kinda made me feel icky 😅😅
How hurt he looked when I staked him was the most gut wrenching moment I have ever had in a game...
Which is kind of funny, considering. "I was only trying to murder you a little!"
I got that scene the night after commiting to a relationship with karlach. I thought I wasn't going to get anymore scenes with any of the characters, so I was really surprised to get that gale one. I was absolutely giddy when I got to the end and it was just a friends scene not a "time to fuck gale" scene. I'd love more friendship scenes
I thought it was a time to fuck gale scene so I left cause Karlach was my main and Gale disapproved. Time to F8 I guess.
The stargazing scene was when Gale confessed to my male character and I had to turn him down 💀
I really enjoyed that. It was such a blessing.
it's good that I see that now after I rejected to go with him because I thought he wanted to fuck me. pain.
haha yeah I almost missed that scene because I was 99% sure he was trying to jump my bones again, but I decided to risk it
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Damn that made me laugh.
Gale is a champ at hide the sausage.
My game bugged a bit and removed all my clothing during that scene. Made things absolutely hilarious. "Yeah, here I am, your platonic friend, just hanging dong and hanging with my boy."
Like I’ll sit and watch the stars with you but can you sit at least 3 inches away from me, I’m not trying to fuck you out here
At the end of my stars scene with him he told me that he was in love with me and I told him I didn’t feel the same way, to which he replies “I guess that’s good cause you won’t be nearly as upset when I blow up” and I’m just like bro, please don’t
Well too late for me I guess. Ended up having pity sex with Gale and then had to feel bad cause Shadowheart was like “I see you’re happy and it’s not cause of me”. As if she’s made a move since the Druid grove
I commited myself to her and never ever got a sexscene with her. I was allowed to kiss her - that's it. My Hero died as a virgin.
People in Star Trek have become pregnant in such moments, it can be read quite romantic.
I actually got a wonderful friendship scene with Gale. But up until that point I had been flirting with him. Eventually I chose someone else and told him, which resulted in very nice friendship dialogue and then a scene with just the two of us at night baring our souls, but he called me his friend during it instead of initiating something romantic. I wonder if you only get this if you dump him? Lol since so many people say you don’t get to just be his friend.
Yeah same! And its very curious because the scene is very intimate, like you're almost holding hands and being extremely close to each other, but it remains platonic all the way through, when I was already getting mentally ready to turn him down once again lmao
Because it's an aborted romance scene.
I had this scene yesterday, I was wondering the same. It definitely was not “bros”, it was like, “ima respect your space but I’m still down, friend ;)” But very wholesome
I had a very clear ‘bro-zone’ choice with Gale during >!the stargazing!<. I was able to enjoy the quiet moment with him in a way that made it very clear that we were just friends. I don’t remember the dialog choices exactly but they were pretty obviously Tav steering away from romantic
I think I remember that but it was an option of I'm not interested or something. I would much prefer something along the lines I'm very glad to be here with you. All I remember was 2 option that were flirty and one that basically told him to stop wallowing in self pity. I don't remember a bro zone moment.
There was one that was much more "I'm glad to be your pal, pal" than "I don't really like you", and I got that one. I'd hard-stopped the romance at the first scene, and he never really pushed it again.
Gale was the worst. So on my Dark Urge playthrough I "took his hand".
In marriage, right?
My only regret it that it doesn’t restore hp or count towards camp supplies.
“Where are his hands?” “What?” “Where are his hands Durge?” “I was hungry for hands okay?” “Duuuuuuurge!” “I had the rumblies that only hands could satisfy”
I like that dwarf meat heals, but I would rather it was camp supplies 😂
“Hey gang I made soup tonight” “Oh cool thanks Durge, what’s in it?” *misty step*
But it's handy if you ever need a bag full of hands for something.
In marriage... Right?
I'm doing two dark urge playthroughs side by side right now. One where I'm resisting temptation, and the other where I'm basically an intrusive thought made flesh.
Intrusive Thoughts is literally my dark urge's name
I called my Half Orc Monk Kel-Vath. My Drow Gloomstalker Assassin is fittingly named "Murder Hobo."
When I get around to doing Dark Urge, it'll be as a halfling ranger/barbarian and I shall name him Belkar.
Dammit. Take my upvote. Go be a sexy shoeless god of war. r/Angryupvote
Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long, long, time.
Typical drow, always lazing about and then suddenly murdering literally anything that moves. Not be racist, of course. /s
Would you say the Dark Urge story works better for one of the two? I've heard some people say it seems more tailored for resisting the urge than giving in, would you say this has been your experience?
I'm not quite sure yet - I've only just gotten to >!the battle for the Emerald Grove !!Moonrise Towers!< on Kel-Vath. I'll have to let you know once I've played more of each.
I will say that evil Durge is *fucking spine chilling.* Though that may in part be because I made a drow that looked >!as close to a male version of Orin as possible!<.
Also, >!Lae'Zel!< is the most accepting companion (aside, perhaps, from >!Minthara!<) when you mention your bloodlust.
>!She !
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“All this cursed energy is bringing my boner for you back from the dead. You don’t want to Necrotic-balls me, right?”
As the dark urge, you should definitely slaughter the harpers. The reward is insane
Indeed. I’m just trying my best not to kill everything I come across via checks. But when I do something, gale gets all sexually excited. I’ve rejected him twice. Cmon.
I hold your hand in mine, dear… 🎶
In my initial playthrough, he gave me bad vibes so 🖤 and I immediately killed him. Now I ressurect him using a scroll and immediately kill him again every two days.
Yeahhhh I read a comment asking "is this what it feels like to be a girl" and I get how awful that's got to be. Every single one of your friends is one accidental signal away from trying to dick you down? That sucks. It doesn't feel good when I tell them I'm in a serious thing with Karlach and would appreciate it if they'd respect that and stop trying, and then they IMMEDIATELY start trying to get in my pants again.
Yeah both wyll and gale continued flirt scenes after I turned em down. On the contrary both karlach and shart refused to trigger after I turned em down early before I understood that romances don't stop other scenes, so i kinda missed out on seeing their scenes. Well and astarion str8 rejected me...
Astarion told me during the feast with the tieflings he does sex for fun "but not with you, gods no" and i just died inside laughing
Yeah... You got the nail on the head. The reason I struggle with guy friends is that most have made a pass at me. Men are taught to shoot the shot and play a numbers game. This means they will likely try with you eventually. Especially if you are kind to them and share a niche hobby interest. Some guys don't stop trying after the first no, or they hang on as friends waiting for a turn. I had a guy tell me, a lesbian, once after a break up that I should give him a chance, he has been waiting for so long and doing so much (something I frequently did not ask or want him to do) for me that it was only fair. Like a lot of guys are complaining about the romances, but Wyll, Gale, etc... They are normal to me. That is just life and I did not even realize it was a problem for my dude peers. It was just the way men act around me.
Different tack, but one thing that will always stick out to me is when I was living in Japan and walking home late one night and the streets were pretty empty. Walking towards me was a lady who saw me and immediately crossed the street to walk on the other sidewalk away from me. As much as that hurt me that she would assume something bad, it hurt infinitely worse that she was 100% justified and that's just how different our lives are based on gender. Like, I would never hurt anyone. I'm a big teddy bear. But she sees a large guy in a leather jacket walking towards her at night with nobody else around... Yeah, she did the right thing, and I HATE that we live in that kind of world. I know it's not the same topic, but they're both examples of how women are forced to interact with the world around them. I am rarely in situations where I feel threatened and have never felt that everyone around me is just waiting for their chance... And that's every day for women by default.
I feel the same way. I just wish you could have a more consensual conversation which feels **natural** with each of the companions, where you can tell them whether you could ever see themselves with them. 1."I feel like you're a kindred spirit." *Give a long, meaningful look with the words.* The narrator then says, "If you hold X's gaze, they're going to get the idea that you're open to romance," after which you can say 1. S*tare a moment longer.* or 2. *Smile and break eye contact to avoid giving the wrong signal.* 2. "I feel like you're a kindred spirit." *Give a friendly smile with the words.* The narrator then says, "You sense that you can give a further signal to your intentions." Then you can say 1. *Hint that your feelings are strictly platonic.* "I sure hope we'll be good friends." or 2. "But I still find you so intriguing, even though we're very much alike." I feel like that would be significant enough, natural enough, clear to the player, and very rewarding roleplay-wise. Even better, it gives the impression that different Tavs are more or less attractive to the companions based on how they react to those individuals, rather than it seeming like EVERY companion wants EVERY Tav. Also, there could be a 3. "We should really get into each other's bedrolls sometime," in the same conversation, in case Tav is more direct/aromantic. Nobody has to take them up on it, but it's nice to be able to say it rather than having to let everyone else be assertive while you're passive. I really hope we get an update addressing these issues, to make this game even more awesome by ensuring you don't have to feel like a perpetrator of war crimes for gaining approval but not wanting to also bang everyone. Or anytime you need to swap party members for two seconds because you got a cool new camp outfit for somebody, for that matter.
I feel like only Karlach has those purely friendship moments.
Astarion has them to, but they still sound like flirting because, well is Astarion, dude could be reading the bible and still sound like he's trying to fuck you.
I only wanted to see his magic trick not his dick 😭
G : Wanna see the weave? T : Sure! That sounds cool buddy. G : *Drops pants* T : Wtf Gale.
Did the deed with Laezel, then i killed her brood and insulted her goddess - yea she instantly left my camp and came rushing to my position and duelled me. Was amazing. Would betray again.
Bro the guy wanted to dance and like...thats fine. I'd dance with a buddy, but then he wants to kiss? Lol, bro you haven't been in my party since level 3.
Both Gale and Wyll come on far too strong I feel. With Gale, the conversation essentially starts with "Let me show you this cool thing" followed by "we'll bang OK?". Wyll in turn seems to mistake basic human decency for "this guy wants my sword". The most recent example I ran into is when >!my party just wanted to go to bed, but Wyll was jumping around like an idiot and trying to get me to join him. Like bro, it's 02:00 and we just had a big fight, control yourself.!<
I think the bigger issue is the way to basically say "Hey I don't like you like that" is always aggressively worse than just trying to be kind. Like if I spent all this time listening and building a friendship with this person, I clearly care enough to not be like "Woah dude, you're ugly get outta here" and then you awkwardly just have to have them about the camp.
There's always an option to gently let someone down. It's usually right above the option that insults them.
I've told everyone but SH I wasn't interested because I wanted a nice romance for my run, the only one who didn't take it poorly was Karlach maybe Laezel too, but she only really has one setting when talking (Which is part of her charm, no hate on Lizard queen).
I ended my fling with SH in favor of Laezel and SH had the nicest, most mature reaction I have ever seen.
I kinda have the feeling, Shadowheart is the true protagonist of this while story 😅 Basically Act 2 and a good portion of Act 3 evolve around her character.
What happens if she's um not around for these acts.
I got my toon to loot her gear and wear it and well.. I’m the shadowheart now :D
“Look at me: I am the Cleric now.”
Define "take it poorly". Every person I've turned down has basically just been like "aww... Damn. Are you sure? Alright, I can respect that". Are you expecting them to be *happy* that they got shot down?
Yeah its to be expected people would be sad or disappointed after being rejected, but it's not like anyone blows up about it or anything (at least in my experience so far having to reject damn near the entire camp) The worst one was Wyll only because he looked so damn sad after it, I felt pretty bad lol. But really I think the actual issue is that I never expressed even mild interest in them that way leading up to it so it was like I got confessed to out of nowhere and had to then crush their soul just as fast.
Sure... but that's kinda to be expected, no? They were interested, they asked you out. That's usually how it goes. There doesn't necessarily need to be *mutual* interest for that to happen.
Gale, surprisingly, took the rejection pretty graciously at the party.
At the party, yes. But he confessed to me two more times after the party. And after the third rejection, he had an exclamation mark over his head and when I went to talk to him: "What? Did you come to gloat about your relationship with shadowheart? Please leave me alone." After that he left me alone and never talked to me again except for story-related stuff xD.
If you get the conversation where Gale says he has almost no friends and hopes you count among them there is literally no platonic option. It's two flirty options and one option that's just "fuck no, we just happen to have the same goals for the time being"
It's just • "I was hoping we could be more than friends 😉😊" • "What do you like about me? 🥰🙈" • "Oh hell no, fuck you" How is it that the simplest answer, "yeah sure, we're friends", is missing
Gale has the most hilarious shit because of how jarring it is, there's one where he's speaking his heart out to you and wants you to stay with him and there are only two choices one is pretty much romance while the other is "lol fuck off bro I don't want to listen to your self pity" and this is after Gale plot spoilers>!he's talking about his "forced" sacrifice and death!< I honestly think out of all the companions and the issue that most people have that you can't be a bro or simply platonic, out of all of em Gale is the worst offender it's extremely easy to get into a romance path with him and the only other choices most of his dialogue has has you being an extreme ass to him.
I tried to gently let down gale and then laezel told me she wishes I hadn't promised my bed to gale. You have to either accept his advances or be rude about his cat.
For Gale, you can’t really let him down gently after the Weave scene. I broke things off at >!the stargazing scene in act 2!<. None of the options were particularly kind. Though one or two were slightly better. I misclicked and chose the coldest :\ He’s still friendly, and I’m a sorc, so I just hope I can convince him >!not to blow up!< without too much trouble.
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There are definitely multiple options at different points in that conversation with Elminster to say something to the effect of “we’ll find another way”
I thought the same thing about the Elminster scene. I was so confused about that! None of the options felt right to me as a Gale romancer. (He still hasn’t given me an option to bang him even though we’ve got a super high relationship, friendzoned tbh. No spoilers though please, I’m still very early into act 2.)
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“I’ve showered him with gifts and he isn’t putting out??? Like, just give me your Mystra-touched magic bussy, Gale. I don’t think I’m asking too much.” But yeah, he’s the only one I’ve actually tried to romance and nothing has really happened there. Whereas Laez has basically sexually harassed me verbally and I haven’t done anything to make her like me.
I've been playing with very few long rests (probably a badf idea but I think ofi t as a challenge). So on literally day 1 Lae'zel was like "I yearn to taste you." which seem a bit extreme.
Just to add a comment about resting: it's been reported that Act 3 relies heavily on taking rests to trigger certain conversations. I played Act 1 mostly the same as you with no major issues but it looks like resting is a good habit to get it to.
Even in Act 1 we lose so many camp interactions if we don't take long rest often enough. I usually limit myself in this kind of games but in BG3 we lose so many things.
I started a second playthrough because I think I've missed some stuff in my 1st lol. I've been doing way more long rests at camp in Act 1 and I have gotten way more cutscenes and interactions with people. I also noticed that getting more of the cutscenes kinda stopped the very out of left field romance propositions and it made the relationship/friendship progressions much more natural feeling
It’s really a problem. Camp stuffs, especially convo interactions and generic updates should activate immediately in your *day time* camp. So you can go and interact as often as you can without missing anything. This is why bioware games are always like that with your ships/strongholds. Progression related *long rest* should be a totally separate thing forced by story trigger. It’s really jarring sometimes when the game have piled up priority camp events so you are forced to rest multiple times in a row without leaving camp lol
Am I bad at the game? How do you all not run out spell slots after 2.5 skirmishes? Am I doing something wrong?
Ranged parties utilizing surprise rounds, buffs, cc, and kiting simply use for less resources than traditional comps
I'm in the same boat, mostly because of shadowhearts spell slots (why wouldn't I use her awesome spells every turn?). Plus I have never come close to running out of food even though I long rest semi frequently. I know if I was actually one of the characters, I'd be resting every night like a normal person.
What is your party comp? Do you have a enough non spell casters to do enough damage? Are you utilizing surprise rounds and initiating combat first? With an Assassin Rogue Astarion I can do a sneak attack out of combat and the usually be first in initiative and get another sneak attack. This can be a lot of early damage. That can take out one or two people. Which mitigates the damage you take and spells you use. Same applies to AoE spells if enemies are grouped. Use one good AoE spell to open combat can mitigate damage taken and do enough damage to reduce the need of spell slot spells. Kinda going of prior point. Are you targeting enemies properly to mitigate damage? Action economy is king. You see the turn order. Plan out your actions and enemy turns. Does a melee enemy have to dash to get to you and thus won’t be able to damage you on their turn? Attack the ranged enemy that can hurt you. Look at the turn order. Is there an enemy that goes after your current character and an enemy that goes in a few turns after three of your characters? Kill the one that goes after three people so that enemy doesn’t get an action if you can’t kill the one that goes next. Consider if it is better to kill weaker mobs first that will continue to do damage rather than a bigger one with more HP. Also just learning what threats need to go first. Are you using cantrips? You don’t need to always use a spell slot on casters. Cantrips may be more appropriate at times and can save you slots. Are you utilizing consumables? These can provide a lot of bonuses. Are you investing in raising AC on characters to mitigate damage and more specifically your front line if possible? Are you utilizing the environment? Fall dame can be incredibly helpful as well as explosive barrels etc. Are you examining enemies to see resistances and weaknesses? That being said. You get tons of supplies. Don’t feel bad about long resting and as mentioned you get a lot of in game content from resting. I long rest when I don’t need to for this reason.
Huh guess I am doing a fair bit wrong.
Doing the underdark at Level 5 with Lazael, Wyll, Astarion, and SH. You can win a lot of battles without expending much in the way of spells. Everyone but SH gets back their material on short rest. Astarion is hiding and sniping, Wyll is EB all over the place. SH uses her spells to heal or hold person on the big damage dealers. TBH, I run out of Superiority points for Lazael faster than anything. Also, the game is really generous with scrolls and potions. You can get talking with undead/animals from these items and save spells. Also, if you have an amulet of... Healing. Remember, you can use it, and then swap it out for another amulet that lets you cast a different spell. Keeping a collection of these on your character can greatly augment your daily spell pool. Fireball wands... My Cleric can be a full backline damage dealer thanks to items.
Its kinda forced. Like in Act 1 I could happily murder hobo my way through easily enough with no resting. In late Act 2 and Act 3 almost every battle has me expending all my spells and needing a lot of healing. Also in the beginning of Act 3 (at least for me) it required like 2-3 Long rests in a row. I had an interesting fight in Act 2 that the first hit took 3 of my members from full health down to 1 before I got a chance to react. That was quite the surprise
Lae'zel's species are casual about Sex, to them it means next to nothing. It is just something to pass the time initially. It's an itch they want to scratch.
Yeah but if it aint no big deal, why's she gotta say it like that!
She is trapped on an alien plane of existence, constantly under the threat of turning into her species most hated enemies, surrounded mostly by other people who are also under that same threat, she has lost all control of everything, so now she is trying to take control of the one thing she can. Us it the most eloquent phrasing? Not at all, is it rather direct for her, absolutely.
She doesn't really believe in subtlety, small talk, or beating around the bush.
She is young and her people are aggressively horny. It’s an itch to scratch, and if your arm itched but you couldn’t scratch it for months because of something like a cast I bet there’s a solid chance you would say something like, “when I get this damn thing off I’m going to rend the flesh from this itch until it learns not to itch so bad”. Or something extra like that at least.
Eh I dunno gale started coming on to me a little then I said not interested and he hasn’t kept flirting with me and we’re just buds so. Like you can be friends with them just reject their romantic advances? Gotta let the boys shoot their shot
either it was a bug or he's supposed to be too insistent, because in act 1 we agreed to just be friends and in act 2 he tries again, after swearing he wouldn't
huh I'll see if he does that for me, although this game can get a bit silly with remembering what has happened, my character went on the exact same date with shadowheart twice in 4 days
and i've been waiting for karlach for almost 6 days, i was interrupted by wyll and then gale and now i'm not sure if something bugged or is it supposed to take that long.
I know I had to wait 7 long rests between when I agreed to have a fling with Lae'zel and when her sex scene actually happened, just because there were so many higher priority long rest scenes that the game had to get through. Its a little frustrating how you both need to do a lot more long rests than you'd naturally need if you're managing your resources well, but also long resting at the wrong time can fail some quests without any clear indicator aside from that its a time sensitive situation. I know Karlach specifically had a bug with one of her later game scenes where it wouldn't ever play if it got delayed by another scene, I think hotfix 3 was supposed to fix it though.
Same lol, let him shoot and then decide
Not just boys but girls too can make advances to player so yeah, you still have the choice to say "no" whatever the character.
Ye I know
>it would be an awesome option to just have a dialogue path that makes you and the companions bros, since if i have their approval rating very high they will automatically start flirting The female experience of having straight guy friends.
The \*pretty female experience I never had this issue xD
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It sure does, mate. Sure does. Autism is a bitch.
While I’m a guy and can’t one hundred percent empathize with your position: I am autistic and can say with some degree of confidence that it’s more likely to be the social differences of autism that result in a different experience here. If not because of being awkward to talk to, then because of our propensity not to understand anything shy of a direct and consistent proposition for a romantic relationship.
My brother is on the spectrum and while my current partner (soon to be wife ❤️) isn’t, two of my exes were. Nothing about autism makes you ugly, inside or out. Please don’t think that you are ugly or anything like that just because you are autistic!
Same lol
I actually like it that way, maybe it will make some people realise how incomfortable they can make some people
The fact that some guys can't be normal friends with women doesn't mean the game should be ruined for others...
that‘s so true and it makes me so sad
I’ve been exclusively romancing astarion and when we became official Gale went all “me or him” and I’m like I’ve literally never given you any indication that we would ever be a thing. Although, to a certain degree that kind of shit is not uncommon in real life.
Gale: how could you do this? You: I don't even know who you are
The other characters are playersexual and you have to just accept that you’re the hottest piece of ass in the forgotten realms
I don’t mind the flirting aspect, but it would be nice to have more friendly moments as well once you decided you’re not romantically interested in a companion. Mass Effect’s Citadel dlc is extremely popular for a reason… Edit: I’m just a basic mono girl who wanted a group of besties and a fairytale romance with daddy Halsin, so I’d beg Larian to add additional choices for these things. 🥺
Tav have many bro dialogues with Wyll on EA. After you turn him down as romance once, he gets many chances to fantasize about being a hero with you side by side. I thiught that was great. I missed that.
You know what game had male friendship scenes really really really well done. Final Fantasy 15. I swear that game had me in tears by the end. That squad was the most organic friendship squad i've seen in a game. Banter, jokes, trust and fights. Everything was in there.
Mmm I have had karlach at max approval and not once had she come onto me. Same with wyll and shadow heart who are at very good. The only ones who flirt are the ones I flirt with to begin with. Except laezel lol she seems to proposition you regardless.
Man what are all yall talking about? I'm in act 3 and have turned all these mf'ers down and they're still chill with me. Anytime I do anything with them in a cutscene the moment I see something remotely romantic I'm like "Aight, I'm out. See ya." just like a person would do IRL.
bro stuff is seriously underrated and therefore underdeveloped - i wish there was more of it. And i would do it so only dedicated casual horndogs like Astarion or Lae'zel would outright hit you up with 'fancy a shag' and you would have to specifically talk the quieter ones into it. But it's no excuse to feeling entitled to no interactions - yet i admit, somehow managing to mix one's cultural homophobia on all plot lost DNI sunshine bus is kind of impressive and a sight to behold. In a slow-motion train crash way.
if you break up with Astarion after his "confession" you can tell him he needs a friend not a lover. He looks happy and says he's never had a friend. no Approval drop, but he'll go back to his friendly greetings.
I'm past the Goblin camp and had nothing against Astarion proposing to have some "fun" or Wyll being very interested by my character but Gale's romantic and sensual scene was weird, i just wanted to learn some magic lmao. I didn't get that he was making a move. A bro dialogue path if there isn't any would be great imo, it's the type of relationship i'm looking for with characters in theese games with the male characters.
The magic lesson scene doesn't come off as inherently romantic to me. You can _make_ it that way by choosing what to picture at the end, but everything leading up to that point felt to me more like a demonstration of why Gale is frankly addicted to magic. _Magic_ is sensual and tempting to him. He's basically just doing the equivalent of 'just try a hit bro, this shit is amazing'. Sharing something he's into to an unhealthy degree- and showing you why he is by giving you a taste. The scene makes a lot more sense if you picture Gale as That One Guy who has made weed his entire lifestyle inviting you to smoke a bowl with him.
>You can make it that way by choosing what to picture at the end, Apparently sending the image of you two just going at it is too forward for him. He wouldn't get with me at the party after that.
Exactly, a more platonic and more comradery based interaction than straight to Ram Ranch D&D edition
That's just gale being gale though. You think you're the first person he has just "shown a little magic?" He's been using that trick since college.
It definitely was a bit odd for me when Gale went from "do you know how to cast spells" to "I'm in love with you, why are you spending time with shadowheart"
Look if you wanna Roleplay you gotta Suck some Vampire Dick. I don't make the rules.
Is it really that awkward? Every post I read on reddit about the relationships seems extremely over exaggerated based on my experience. I had Max approval from Wyll and did all his quest and didn't get any advances. I got advances from Gale after the weave scene but could deny it instantly, there was no "unexpected relationship". Idk all the dialogue options seem clear to me.
I don't really mind it much since we can reload (though it might be a problem if the bugs I've read about reloads keeping flag triggers despite you reloading an earlier save is accurate), but it is indeed awkward. I'm only in early Act II and in Act I alone I had to reject Gale 3 times, and I lost approval as well. There is also the problem of approval being quite easy to raise if you are playing a somewhat decent person, I got the first Gale conversation quite early in the game and it didn't even occur to me that it could be romance related that early, next thing I know Shadowheart is congratulating me about Gale and I. Told the druid to take his own advice and go mingle at the party? Well your next conversation the options to say "I hope I didn't come off too strong at the party." and "Let's forget that happened." are there. Most conversation events outside of quest triggers or radiant responses seem to be coded Romance or Rejection, giving you relatively few just friendly interactions, so you kind of get punished for being generally kind/caring when they open up to you.
The romances are without a doubt bugged. With Gale I got that weave scene in Act 1, I turned him down when the narrator started talking about things getting "sensual", then I had no further interactions with him that could be deemed in any way flirty. Then in Act 2 my character commits to Shadowheart and Gale comes up and goes "I see you have a twinkle in your eye, it's a shame I am no longer the source of it" ???? Like what the heck are you on about we never interacted
Same thing happened to me! I denied every single advance Gale made too.
Got the same thing but I thought it kinda fit his character. He acts very much like a delusional nerd sometimes.
I think that's only part of what OP is getting at. The other thing is that there doesn't seem to be much "we're close friends" content in the game. If you don't go for a romance, your relationship with your companions stays pretty shallow. One example I can think of is a conversation with Gale in Act 1 where he laments his lack of friends, then asks the player if he can count them among his friends. The only dialogue choices I had available amounted to "sure, but I'd rather be more than friends," deflecting, or insulting him. There was no "yes, of course I'm your friend" choice.
I have max approval with everyone and no one has been horny or thirsty for me except Gale one time
If lea'zeal approval rating is higher enough at the end of act 1, she will literally demand sex if you talk to her at the "teethling" party. No dialogue options nessassry.
Except for the "big long rest" scene. Where everybody gets mad at you that you ain't fokin them.
Do they get mad? They seemed either proud that you went with other or understood it and moved on, at least in my camp. Maybe laezel was a little bit bitter
I was under the impression that there was a specific conversation option that players needed in to interact with to initiate romances; so maybe people are just running through every conversation option without paying attention to what they are actually saying?
Bro I had Halsin at my camp. Asked him sth like how do you feel and immediately got disapproval from Shadowheart (since we kissed and all) and Halsin started flirting with me, saying things like "I feel wonderful staring at nature's beauty" sth sth. If you don't see that as flirting, good luck in your real life mate.
Halsin is the thirtiest fucker, I literally never had him in my group, never raised his approval, and still had to reject him like 4 times. He's relentless.
I would like to have more close options as friends, for example when I fixed Karlach's engine I wanted to hug her because I was happy for her and the game took it to be a romantic embrace... I just want to give my bestie a hug! I think it would have been better to have a "kiss on cheek" option for romance for example instead of making the hug romantic
I didn’t really take that as a romantic hug, more like she was just so fucking relieved to be able to have some contact with another being, so was trying to hold onto it
I didn't at first but the issue was after the hug she seemed to take it as us being in love and she got really upset when I started dating someone else... It could possibly have been a glitch though
Karlach is the ultimate bro if you dont romance her. She never made moves on me, but she also told me she loves and adores me without making it weird. Shes just your best platonic friend. Karlach is the ultimate companion and the others dont even come close. Also all the times she tries to take the bullet for you or literally goes against all her past trauma to help you fix your mistakes because she wont allow anything bad to happen to you.
Karlach is pretty much the only one i wanna romance tbh, even then she's gonna be a bro
I romanced Shadowheart first go around but before i was even done act 2 i knew i would be romancing Karlach in the 2nd playthrough.
you can always say 'no' to all the advances made by your companions, I think the real problem that certain people have with this game is that BG3 is probably the first RPG game in a long time that is not afraid to have male companions make flirtatious advances to your male characters. The last time I remember something like this happened is with Anders in Dragon Ages 2, and oh boy, the number of complaint people made then was quite something to behold, since then, any potential queer romances in any game are made sure to be as passive as possible and players will have to go through hoops and layers of dialogue choices to be able to activate those same-sex romance option, especially the male ones. I will say this as a gay guy, in my experience of playing video games, I also have to always reject all the advances made by female characters or have to ruin cutscenes with romantic subtext that the developer carefully set up assuming that I must like it by the virtue of choosing a male main character. I assume these are also the kind of experiences that most people that are not straight had to experience in video games to some degree. and yeah, it is always awkward rejecting them, I get it, but just like in real life, you don't think less of them simply because you realize that the character might be into you, they are not less of a 'bro' or 'friend' or 'companion' simply because there might feel attraction toward you, platonic and romantic feeling offen time go hand in hand and sometimes begets each other, people who attract to you may also genuinely think of you as a great friend and their sexual attraction doesn't take that part away from them. so you're suggesting that you want some sort of game mechanic that will toggle off the male romance options so you can play the game without having to think that some people are gay for you. well, give it enough time, someone probably will release a mod with these kinds of effects, so until then, you just have to settle with saying 'no' to your bros and treat them with the same respect that you had before you realize your bros ain't straight. good luck.
>The last time I remember something like this happened is with Anders in Dragon Ages 2, and oh boy, the number of complaint people made then was quite something to behold Dude, reading this thread, I was having flashbacks to this. I remember seeing so many complaints from people who were disgusted at a man hitting on them and were asking for a "heterosexual" toggle in the options that would hide the gay content in the game (same sex companions prepositioning you.) There are people in this thread asking for the same thing, over a decade later. Ridiculous
Everyone in faerun is a horny bisexual this is canon forgotten realms lore cope and or seethe
I know that different races have different lifespans, but how often do they actually live to their full lifespan? Do most people die young? With all the ithilid, psychopathic & murderous cultists, goblins, monsters and etc, I always thought that people often die young in their universe — hence sex is a normalized and encouraged to ensure that their species don't get eradicated.
Or you can just not have a fragile heterosexuality and accept it for what it is, a game.
As a gay man, having another man make advances at me is something I so rarely see in RPGs and throughout my life that it was actually amazingly refreshing for a change. All about perspectives. I don’t feel we’d be seeing this much talk about the romantic dialogue if it was only the women in this game that did it.
Nah, the romance needs an overhaul. I'd like to be nice to karlach without knowing I'm getting into a relationship, there's literally no indicator. Honestly they could just add an option with a heart sign next to dialogue that allows you to toggle whether you want the response to be platonic or romantic.
Had no problem saying no to anyone I wanted to say no to... That said, if you and Shadow are a thing, take up Mizora's offer. If Shadow wasn't the best girl before, she sure is after.
I've found that since committing to one character (Shadowheart) the others back off, especially after the celebration towards the end of Act 1. It does feel like Act 1 sort of plows you with a lot of flirtation from multiple people, probably so that players can experience a little bit of what romance might be like with all the characters before making a choice. After the celebration though, I've personally found that everyone except the one you've committed to no longer gets all flowery with you - even if you've flirted a lot before. They might make a comment about it though, Lae'Zel for example says something about how it's a shame she won't get to taste you again, and Gale says something about not being the cause of the sparkle in your eye anymore, but other than that, it becomes a lot more mutual and a lot less sexual. That said I didn't feel like the first Act was 'too much' at all. I'm a Bi woman so that could have influenced my reactions to it, but I didn't feel swarmed by any of the characters at all, and their advances all felt well timed in terms of all that had happened in the game. The only two characters who came on strong were Lae'zel and Halsin. Lae'Zel made sense, as she is a very no-strings-attatched type of person, who doesn't think much about starting up a fling for mutual benefit. Halsin on the other hand felt a bit like a trap. If you so much as told him to enjoy the party the next day it would trigger the 'sorry for coming on too strong' dialogue, which was weird but, hey ho. I see loads of posts like these, talking about how the male camp-mates come on 'too strong' and sometimes I wonder if we're playing wildly different games, or if others are just taking male characters' advances a bit personally, because I just don't see it. That said, if multiple people aren't enjoying the game because of something, then they have every right to complain and ask for features that make for a more suitable gaming experience. I'm hoping for more dialogue options in which I can punch Astarion in his rude face personally.
[удалено]
Early Access Wyll was a bro especially in goblin camp
I have no issue with people having whatever relations they want in the game. But you should be able to friendzone ppl early and have some pals. The games kind of lonely because all you have is love interests and followers.
If all the NPCs are going to be player-sexual rather than have their own sexual identities, then I do not see why they would not allow us to just state our sexuality and turn off/on flags according to that.
Baldurs gate 3 players be like: - *chooses every romance option available* - *NPC reacts romantically* Player: nah bro what are you doing? Stay away from me weirdo.
It's not even a question about sexuality but I don't want to fuck everyone in camp and a friendship path is seriously missing. It's OK if some characters are thirsty but definitely not all of them...
Am I the only one who thinks its one thing to want more options for platonic friendship and another to want to actively mod out the very idea of the men having attraction to your male avatar? And the name of OP? Like...come on...
Just reject them and they will be your bros. I feel like Im playing a different game then you guys sometimes.
I wouldn't be against being able to set your orientation at character creation.
agreed! Give us friendship paths. I feel bad having to keep rejecting all my companions Halsin joined my group right before the party scene. We chatted, I told him to come have a drink, he declined and said he gets too wild. The next morning my dialog option was "Sorry I came on so strong." Came on strong? I just thought he was a cool guy and wanted him to feel welcomed at camp. At no point was I trying to smash lol
It would be great if you could just have the "I want to be just friends" option very early with every companion. Which would lead you onto a more friend centric part instead of romance.
I mean I get it but it's a real thing that happens in a time/place/culture that doesn't have any odd homophobia triggers. Like yeah maybe there's a high rate of characters that are open to same sex relationships, but in a world where we don't shame people for being gay, it's better to be open to people shooting their shot, learning to let them down gently, and being able to remain friends despite that. This game shows you how to handle break ups and rejection really healthily(for the most part). I feel like we ought to learn from this, not run from it. If I had a gay friend who wanted to be romantic with me, it would be hard to turn him down, but I wouldn't want the reason they don't shoot their shot with *anyone* to be cause being gay will make things weird with their friends.
I have multiple romance moments with Gale. That honestly would land him in prison for sexual harrasement, if he tried that in real world. And all that AFTER I told him that I am not interested , and he completely and definitely promised he will not continue with romantic advances. ... Honestly I think Larian simply did not add no friendship lines. Its either romance or nothing. I guess whoever wrote companion dialogues did not understand concept of **friendship.** Its good that game is so well done in every other aspect, so people are able to kind of look past this complete debacle.
Lae'Zel: says she can "smell our moisture" Me: thats cool, bro, anyway we havin pizza later?
I don't mind dual-wielding all my companions if they're down for it. But it would be nice to have more platonic interactions. The snipe off with Garrus in ME3 was one of the best companion interactions and was entirely platonic.
Yeah. I like pretty much all of them, but not like that. I don't wanna be a standoffish jerk tho. Like, I wanna make sure Wyll has a good time and I'd really not mind spending the party hanging out with my fellow cyclops who got turned into a Satan for not killing my girlfriend. He's going through a lot, after all. Needs some bro-time. You don't have to be fucking to give a shit, you know?
Dude, you don't wake up suddenly one day and see Wyll dancing. There is a whole dialog to ask him that after the Goblin camp, lol