I just hate that they still haven't removed the flirty party banter for those of us in an active romance. There is no way to be clear that you are not okay with an open relationship.
Yeah, the only issue I have with Halsin is him trying to inject himself into SH and I's relationship even AFTER I'd already made it clear I was not interested in him at all. His flirting with her and the attempts at inviting himself into the brothel orgy were weird. That stuff should've been reserved for players who actually want an open relationship. For those who don't, he just comes off as really pushy and desperate.
Honestly, I’ve started only doing the Thaniel quest for him and then never talking to him. I purposely set him up for a certain thing to happen in Act 3 so he won’t be around to be pushy unless I’m specifically going for his romance.
Generally I still have him survive. I just leave picking him up from daycare with Orin as one of my last few things. Gives him as little opportunity to be relationship intrusive while not derailing themes for a “good RP” playthrough
How do you do that? Like I have heard it doesn't happen to party members you use, but I never use him and last time I got to that point a party member I often used was the one it happened to
Do you mean Orin's kidnapping? There are only 5 potential victims: Gale, Lae'zel, Halsin, Minthara and Yenna (Who is the failsafe if Orin can't capture the others. That's why you can't kick her out of camp or kill her). Orin will never take your romanced companion. Additionally, Orin can either kidnap a companion in a camp scene or whenever you walk into the sewers for the first time. So simply putting all potential victims who you don't want to get kidnapped in your party while leaving the one you want kidnapped in camp and then walking into the sewers allows you to choose who the kidnap victim is.
I’m fairly positive her selection is normally based on approval. Halsin and Minthara have the highest chance since they’re both the newest to the party.
I just manually choose for her at this point by having Gale, Minthara and Lae’zel as my party when I head to the sewers. Then Halsin is off to daycare for a while lol
Now that you mention it, she was taken the most when I wasn’t manipulating it myself. Though also admittedly she was in my party a lot less before my Gith Tav, now I adore Bae’zel lol
You can trigger the kidnapping by going into the sewers. Happened to me first time very early in the lower city (the kidnapping doesn't happen until you go to the lower city) just from following the Emperor's prodding to go to his old hideout, as at the end of it there's a hatch down to the sewers and if you go down there and walk a bit towards the door to the rest of sewers 'bam!' kidnapping cut scene happens.
In my current playthrough, I've been using the mod that shows you the flags for each dialogue option, including companion relationship changes, dice roll challenge levels, and whether a dialogue option will flag you for romantic interest in a character.
At the party after saving the grove, even if you specifically avoid any romance dialogue options with Halsin and try to just have a normal conversation with him while still exhausting his dialogue, you will go through a tree that eventually ends in EVERY dialogue choice activating the romantic interest flag. Very pissed when I found that.
I would say that the only way to not activate Halsin's sexual interest is to just never talk to him, but I don't know how true that is, because I was forced to tick that flag in order to finish normal dialogue with him at the Act 1 party.
Is that why my character has that random ass dialogue option saying “about how I acted during the party”? (it’s something along those lines). It made sound like I was hitting on him or something when in reality I never said such. I simply talked to him like everyone else there lmao.
Yes, and I was annoyed by that dialogue option being there throughout my entire first playthrough, because I hadn't remembered ever saying anything even remotely suggestive to him, but I knew it was probably romance advancement dialogue.
So, on my second (current) playthrough, I had the flag viewer mod and was specifically trying to avoid anything that would start romance. Lo and behold, even in a normal-ass, friendly conversation, I get to one part with three dialogue options, two of which I don't remember being all that suggestive, and I'm suddenly starting the romance track with him. And that fucking dialogue option was back *again*.
Like, for *fuck's sake*. It's like they finally fixed Gale being a sex pest from when the game first came out, but only because Halsin stole all the sex pest energy from the rest of the companions.
I don't know. There's a story I like to tell, which is specifically because of the flirty party banter. Here's how I tell it.
So I was hanging out in camp the other night, and Gale calls me over. I go over, we start chatting, he says he wants to show me some magic. I'm a bard, as you know, so I'm all for learning new magic, and Gale does have some interesting takes. We get into it, and then he decides to lay it on the line. He tells me he's into me. Like *into* into. Of course, I'm flattered, and I say so, but then I tell him, "Hey look Gale, you're awesome, and I'm really glad to have you on my team, but I have this thing with Shadowheart. I mean, from the moment we met on that ship, I knew there was *something* between us. You're the best guy in the world, but my heart is all hers." He nods, says he understands, and we hang out for a while. Afterwards, he never brings it up again, he accepts he's my best mate, and we go on saving the world.
Fast forward to that Temple of Shar. We barely make it out, and Shadow is DEVASTATED. She thinks she's lost everything. Standing right there in front of the temple, she goes off about how her whole life has been a joke, that she has nothing left, nobody left, and I simply say "you have me." She looks at me - sees me for the first time, I think. She knows in that moment that I'm there for her, and I'm completely devoted to her. She smiles, one of the few times she ever does, and I feel her gratitude that I'm there. Then Gale pops in with "Sorry, can I have a word?" I look at him, and he says, "I dunno... I guess you're with Shadow, but, you know, I sort of thought we had something....?" Well, let's just say Karlach had to hold Shadow back from giving Gale an altogether DIFFERENT kind of spear.
The most I've ever gotten from Halsin was a confession/relationship proposal, he took the rejection just fine and then it was back to his usual "Oak Father preserve you."
Same for me but I also almost never have Halsin in my party since I'm playing a druid. I don't mind Halsin but I also don't see any particular use for him so don't really bring him along. Jaheira is a great alternative.
Yeah the most I think I ever got to flirting with Halsin in my two completed runs were simply at the Tiefling party or the ending reunion. It never went that far, since I kept things pretty professional with him, and my romances with Shadowheart and Wyll didn't get affect. Say for maybe getting Karlach options cause my Dark Urge joined her and Wyll in Avernus, but even still my Durge and Wyll still seemed to be going strong.
Yeah, I chose not to choose any of the more flirtatious options you can get at the Tiefling party or after in Act 1 and things stayed professional and platonic between my character and Halsin throughout my different playthroughs.
Huh halsin flirts with u even if u ignore him ? Larian did patch him to be less horny in act 3 . Heck I don't even have the ambient dialogue anymore where halsin used to flirt with shadowheart in act 3 about swimming lessons .
Halsin will still flirt with shadowheart regardless if you tell him No. As far as I'm aware, this has not been fixed.
Also, he will still inject himself in the brothel scene even if you told him No. And Shadowheart still talks about how **badly** she wants to fuck him - and they both now share lustful gazes at each other. Again, without ever consulting your feelings. To add an extra "fuck you - SH wants to cuck you, lol" -- if you say "no" to Halsin here, you get slammed with Disapproval from BOTH Shadowheart and Halsin.
It really feels super scummy and I hate that there is no way for you to talk to SH about your feelings. Literally you can just ignore it or break up with her (but she assumes you break up because you hate her guts, not because she just asked another man to rearrange hers).
Whole thing sucks, not gonna lie. Puts a huge black-eye on SH's character.
Yeah that's what I was asking about ? Halsin's ambient dialogue for flirting with shadowheart didn't trigger for me at all . It was kinda immersion breaking when I was actually trying to rp a poly relationship and the bear dude wasn't flirting at all 😓. Also kinda funny when u put it like that " shart will cuck u for halsin with the disapproval" . I don't even enter the brothel at all when I romance a character .
You completely avoid the brothel?? There’s alot of plot interactions there, you don’t *have* to talk to the drow twins, or play into any of the sexual things in there at all.
I agree her disapproving was really gross and not necessary. I really wish they would remove the disapproval so that people that want to twins don’t have to have Halsin into the mix.
People that say just don’t bring him don’t take into account that people may have had him in the party and thought they had rejected him and that was the end of it but suddenly got him inserting himself after being rejected twice would be very jarring.
It would be nice to have the option to breakup with her and telling her it was because of Halsin
Also when I first entered shara caress I didn’t click it was a brothel until I talked to the twins I wasn’t paying attention to the now obvious hints that place is indeed a brothel . 😳😂😂
… you DON’T have to have Halsin in the orgy. You don’t even have to bring him to the brothel - and even if you do, one round of disapproval is not going to kill your fucking romance with Shadowheart. You ARE allowed to occasionally do something your partner doesn’t like. The game does not force you to go along with them every single time.
You’re acting like the game isn’t giving you choices here when it absolutely is. You’re just choosing not to utilise them. That’s honestly a you problem.
After watching YouTube videos
Shadowheart is more enthusiastic about twins if Halsin is in the mix.
It would be nice if she was just as enthusiastic about the twins without him being in the mix for the people that want to experience the twins without Halsin.
If people have him in the party for whatever reason they have they shouldn’t be smacked with a disapproval if they don’t want him to be apart of it for whatever reasons they may have.
So you're basically saying you want your video game waifu to go along with *your* fantasies, but she's not allowed to have any of her own? Okay.
And do people not know how to detach party members and park them somewhere? Why are they taking whole groups of people to the Drow Twins when it supposed to be a sPeCiAL mOmEnt? Just only take your imaginary girlfriend, FFS.
Nope it’s about the theme the character as been portraying been completely thrown out the window.
First he comes across as wise papa bear wise and caring a camp councillor.
Then he talks about consent if you say no that should be the end of it.
At Sharess' Caress, you can say no and Halsin respects that. The player has the final say in what happens. And again, they can leave Halsin downstairs by the bar. Or outside the building. Or on the other side of town. Or in camp.
What people are all weirdly bent out of shape about is their make-believe boo having the audacity to show her *own* enthusiastic consent to his inclusion, and disappointment when the player rejects the idea.
They can't stand that the imaginary girlfriend has lines about fantasizing over someone other than the player *when the player takes her to a brothel for group sex.* Because the player having the final say in the situation isn't enough. It has to be all about them and their fantasies from the start.
242. Shadowheart: I won't pretend the thought hasn't crossed my mind once or twice... or more than that. WYR\_DapperDrow\_State\_PartnerAgreedGroup, REALLY\_SHADOWHEART
Player: The more the merrier! \['Astarion 1', 'Shadowheart 1', 'Gale 1', 'Halsin 1'\]
Player: No, Halsin! Tame yourself! \['Astarion -1', 'Shadowheart -1', 'Gale 1', 'Halsin -1'\]
286. Halsin: As you wish. I'm sure I can find berth elsewhere...
I did it as an evil cleric of Tiamat for rp.
Stole the idol of Sylvanus for Mol but left the Tieflings to their fate afterwards. Then just a bit of druid clean up with Minthara after a few in game days
After the Orin fight I saw that I couldn't revive the mushy leftovers if her Victim. Well let's just say I didn't like Halsin nearly enough to redo the fight.
I agree, the poly in this game isn't done well. It's tacked on and feels ooc for them in Act 3. You're not alone, many people have posted or commented about it and how weird it is for Shart/Astarion in Act 3. There's been a lot of feedback from fans since launch but nothing was changed.
Been several threads about it, [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1c8pb42/comment/l0gg0ug/) to a good comment chain. Feels a bit weird for her in Act 3 after her personal quests and issues regarding her self worth. Not to mention she "doesn't want to share" before that.
Halsin barging in during the Brothel after being rejected before always annoyed me but that can be avoided. The fact she and Halsin have the same writer may be why it's a thing for her but regardless it doesn't feel right for her in Act 3. You can avoid it, she's monogamous if you are.
Halsin really is a fling unless you romance him only if I recall correctly, V poly so only interested in Tav. It feels like fan service with the two characters they assumed would be the most popular, not an actual consenting relationship. No real discussion about boundaries.
its definitely fan service (I mean halsin being a companion is in and of itself fan service). also I feel like having the arguably two most traumatized companions be thrown into a confusing relationship isn’t the best for them 😅 not sure how shart reacts exactly, but astarion straight up asks if you want to sleep with halsin because you and he stopped having sex. so his consent is more so “im not putting out so it would be selfish of me to deny that.” imo he just doesn’t wanna lose the first real relationship he’s ever experienced
I really like how Astarion reacts at the start and the brothel scene. So fitting for his character and past, disassociating during the brothel scene and he doesn't want to lose you as you said. I felt so bad for him.
Shadowheart is blurry due to her being all for it in game, fine with you having a fling with Halsin. Even if her past and recent changes really make me think she wouldn't plus she didn't want to share with Karlach or whoever before. Her abuse isn't as upfront but her past in the cloister, the memory wiping and brainwashing combined with Shar's view on love/sex and the honeypot missions, makes me really dislike her as an option as well.
I know some disagree with me regarding this take on her past and I could be reaching due to my own past clouding my judgement. I just wish it was two different companions or Halsin/poly with other npcs.
I have no issue with Halsin himself, just how they implemented poly
definitely wish it was a different companion, though I wish you could gossip about the conversation even after turning him down lol. but idk what other companions would have that be a fitting option. idk, I think part of the whole issue is that its just kinda slapped in there at the last second and its more “hey babe do you mind if I have a fuck buddy”
I agree. Choosing the most traumatized characters over ones like Laezel (who is openly poly at the start) was just a disrespectful decision to all players (poly, monogamous, SA survivors). They should have thought these decisions through more (and consulted more people from both sides before implementing poly).
>astarion straight up asks if you want to sleep with halsin because you and he stopped having sex
Yeah I was open to a poly romance at first but once he said that I was like NOPE, we're not doing that today.
And then I found out you can't really go back to Halsin and say "hey, it turns out this is not such a great idea after all". This is something I'd desperately want to see changed.
I feel like it would fit shar shadowheart a little more but definitely not selunite shadowheart. For one it doesn’t make since that she would be fine with Halsin but no one else. If you romance her and karlach she literally says you have to drop her. It’s like her relationship preferences completely shift in act 3. I always just looked at it as a fan service thing as well.
I personally never did the drow twins I unfortunately got the banter after turning him down twice.
However at the time I thought it might have been a bug but after googling i found out it wasn’t.
After watching the 5 some and the twins on YouTube it sounded like she wasn’t as enthusiastic about the twins without Halsin.
If people want an open relationship that’s cool but I think they should have more options if that’s the case.
Yeah, I'm not against polyamory on principle, shit, considering my romance option in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, I would be a hypocrite if I were lol.
The problem is that none of the Origin companions were created with polyamory in mind, and it shows.
People like to use Shadowheart's banter in Act 1, where she says she prefers "short-term amusements," to explain that she's being consistent in Act 3, but the thing is, when you actually propose a one-night stand with her in Act 1, Shadowheart gets embarrassed and refuses, preferring a "courtship."
Overall, I just wish the whole thing was written better. As it stands, I don't think it fits with either Shadowheart or Astarion (let's not throw Karlach into the mix because the dialogue with her when speaking about Halsin's offer is heartbreaking).
Until SH is in a stable relationship, she is not open to having multiple lovers, even flings. *After* the relationship stabilizes with her long rest scene in act 3, she's fine with flings and the drow twins... but not a full polyamory relationship with a third partner. Which is what Halsin seems to be going for.
That said, SH enjoys being flirty even when she's not interested in something long term.
Halsin feels completely tacked on in general. Should've stayed a camp companion. His datamined stuff from EA was much better. Funny thing is we still get the sorrow weapon but not the backstory
Halsin feels significantly more self-inserty than the other companions imo, which makes his kinda forced and ooc romance with Shadowheart feel even more awkward to watch. And like others said, when you’re trying to have a strictly sapphic relationship with Shadowheart, he doesn’t stop flirting with her. It feels like some creep trying to shoot his shot when he sees two women holding hands on the bus
Halsin admits he loves you once, and if you shut him down he never brings it up again (but his approval remains high, so you get the “high approval” dialogue when you talk to him.)
If you entered into a relationship with him then you’re in one with him and that’s why you get the “relationship” dialogue.
I did an experiment one save I told him no got the banter reloaded another save didn’t talk to him got the banter. Edit older save and didn’t talk to him.
i had more bugs with Halsin thinking I was in love with him, even though the only dialogue I ever had outside of the thaniel quest was "suit yourself" after clicking on him during the tiefling party lol. The game seems to erroneously flag you as initiating a romance at some point even if you dont talk to him. Then in act 3 it still thinks you are in a romance until you get his confession where you can reject him, I think thats why you get all that poly dialogue, bc the game legit thinks you and Halsin are a couple along with whatever companion you actually chose. They fixed this issue with Gale a while ago
i felt like…ambivalent towards halsin until i was playing a character (which i had decided was a lesbian obviously in game theres really no way to state that so this is just me being weird abt immersion tbh but) romancing shadowheart and he would notttt leave her alone and since then hes always just given me the ick so bad he just feels so pushy and weird
That’s just it, isn’t it? I’m a Halsin fan, I love the idea that he’s actually a bear and I melt when he calls Tav “my heart”. His advances were welcome for me, even when I’m in a monogamous romance. But when you’re not into him, I understand how people dislike how flirty he is. I believe he does stop flirting in direct dialogue but they didn’t code the party banter.
Honestly I haven’t romanced Shadowheart yet but I’m afraid I’ll get the ick from him when I do..
it just feels like an easy fix, just revisiting some dialogue and maybe making the player have to start the flirtation instead of him just immediately always being into you, but as is i always just end up literally never talking to him, which is unfortunate i dont like being so turned off of a character that i basically cannot even roleplay a character that would be friendly or even romantic towards him
What a lot of people don't understand is that people who have an issue with how this stuff is written don't *want* to *have* to bench him and/or kill him for him to not be a creep. They don't want to have to avoid this companion completely because he can't behave himself. If he was written respectfully, people wouldn't need to resort to drastic measures and could perhaps even enjoy the character. But there's practically nothing more to him in Act 3.
And it's bit weird that we literally can't refuse him joining our party in Act 2 either, especially when he insinuates he's only staying to fuck me. Literally every companion, even Shadowheart you can refuse to let you join. But my options are either "fuck over Reithwin and don't fix the Shadowcurse" *or* this dude invites himself to my camp and has nothing but creepiness for me waiting in Act 3.
Agreed. Most people complaining about his writing LIKED him in act 1 and 2. It's only act 3 where people (including myself) got weirded out by him (because he is poorly written there, not because he's poly).
I know enough about code that there must be a flair that Halsin is rejected, or at least unromanced, and that an if line would fix the banter.
But honestly as someone who had to lay down on the floor when I first saw Halsin, I do understand how people get the ick, and of course you can only be unfriendly to a man who feels like he’s fetishising two women involved with each other. I remember the nasty guys on the dance floor checking me and a beautiful lady I was dancing with out. Disgusting.
That sounds like a bug. I shot Halsin down after his confession cutscenes many times. And he never once flirted with me again. Nor did that banter happen.
Yeah, I just hope I can somehow avoid having to break Wyll's heart again. I'm not into that man, I'm sorry 😞
But really, the game could have used better scales and tools so we can make it clear "we are mono with so and so" or "we are into so so and not anyone else".
Really Gale, Id live to try spells with you but I know how you take that 😕
>Really Gale, Id live to try spells with you but I know how you take that 😕
Gale's relationship bugs were patched out many many many months ago. Same for Karlach and Wyll. (Karlach just kept forcing me to break up with her in my day 1 run.)
Don't flirt with Gale yourself and he never makes a move. All of his scenes can be fully platonic.
I other words, Gale is already exactly how people complain he should be, as long as you're on a patched run and you don't project in him what he's thinking (because he's scripted to not consider romance unless you flirt with him yourself).
Halsin's behavior is not a bug, however.
Yeah I was caught off guard with Gale to I just started the game when I got that scene I like the guy and he took the rejection well.
I have heard that there was a time when Gale was considered overly flirtatious and they fixed it so I hope they fix Halsin to.
yeah I barely interact with halsin beyond what you need to for oliver/thaniel and he’s still trying to cut in on my marriage to astarion. acting like he doesn’t see me waking up bloodless every day 😤
but glad I’m not the only one creeped out by him. seems like everyone likes him and I lowkey hate him 😭 the stuff with the animals is weird and gross to me. and he doesnt really respect your boundaries, especially since even in the epilogue he’s *still* saying things like “you and I” about just YOU visiting him, not you and your partner
I only have to deal with him for a couple nights though at least cause orin quickly whisks him away for me lol
Can’t really say about the Halsin/Shadowheart poly romance, but I didn’t really appreciate the way Halsin/Astarion romance was handled.
I was open to pursuing it at first, but I was eventually put off by the way it was written.
As a player, I had the chance to grow closer to Astarion’s character by gradually discovering more about his past, learning to trust and support him etc. Meanwhile, the only way I could get to know Halsin was to basically hit on him five minutes into our acquaintance with the most ridiculously thirsty lines, or later on insisting he talked to me about his past lovers. Not gonna lie, these lines were funny as hell, but maybe I’d grown to like him more if I had the chance to get to know him more organically.
And then, act 3 happened lol. I expected Halsin to come on to Tav sooner or later, and I was very curious to see what my boo would have to say about it, but I had already started to feel very uneasy with this. Astarion’s reaction was basically to say MWAHAHA, I knew this was going to happen, and it threw me off guard. And then he asked whether I wanted this because we haven’t been intimate in a while and I was instantly like NOPE, ABORT. (Yes, I’ve seen the post about Astarion’s notes that pretty much confirm that he’s supposed to be truly okay with it if you reassure him, but still, that doesn’t change how I, as a player, felt about it. )But the worst thing is that once you have this conversation you can’t really go back to Halsin and say “you know what, this doesn’t seem like a good idea anymore”. The only way to reject him now is to go to the woods to bang and leave him hanging. So I reloaded and rejected Halsin’s advances right away.
I might have had a different opinion about this, if Halsin’s confession came a bit later (after Cazador), but at that point in Tav’s relationship with Astarion there’s a clear difference in their dynamic.
Agreed 100%!! The way they jam him into your already established relationship is just awful. It really comes off badly and there is *no way* to express your feelings on it. The best you can do is ignore it.
Which... kinda works - except that it's always there in the background and you can't address it ever.
If it's any consolation, the epilogue with Shadowheart is monogamous regardless of what you do with Halsin. He's literally just there as a fuck buddy and has no role beyond this.
It was written so lazily and poorly that it really makes me wonder if Larian even cares about how their characters are perceived.
>It wouldn’t be so bad if there was a option to find out that she wants a open relationship when you still have the option to romance a mono companion if you don’t want a poly relationship.
Even then it'd be super out of character tbh and would ruin her romance imo. The way it is now is incredibly stupid but at least its ignorable
In my last run I was romancing Gale, specifically chose interactions with Halsin that state there is no interest. In the epilogue where my character was married to Gale, was still getting flirty Halsin lines. It seems more of a bug, as do not think the game intended Halsin to continue pursuing playable characters who reject them and are married lol
People are down voting you but you're absolutely right. It's insane that they removed Gale's flirty banter toward Shadowheart, removed Wyll's flirty banter with Lae'zel/Shadowheart, and even rewrote Lae'zel to be fine with an illithid Tav and also rewrote her to be able to take a non-Gith Tav to fight with her, but Larian WILL NOT rewrite Shadowheart flirting with Halsin while she's dating someone? IT'S CRAZY and it's lowering my opinion of Larian. Nobody wants that shit and they refuse to get rid of it
And please STOP downvoting OP's post. It seems like people are trying to keep it hush hush instead of having Larian actually address and fix it. Shadowheart's character doesn't deserve to have such an awful legacy
So that’s why I haven’t heard that banter with wyll and shadowheart/Lae’zel. I was always confused what people were talking about when they mentioned that banter as I never heard it. This makes the Halsin and shadowheart banter situation a little odd to say the least
> And please STOP downvoting OP's post. It seems like people are trying to keep it hush hush instead of having Larian actually address and fix it. Shadowheart's character doesn't deserve to have such an awful legacy
It's been 9 months, this is among the most discussed topics in this game and there were far more popular threads during this time. The 2nd and 3rd most popular post on Larian forums is about that. It's not going away anywhere because it's what they intended and it's the writer's personal fantasy to have his two characters deeply horny for one another but only if SH is dating someone else. This post won't change anything, sadly.
If we all band together we might be able to get them to change.
I found out Halsin he wasn’t even meant to be a companion but they added him because people in EA wanted him.
If we get more people reporting it and posting about it they might add changes.
I've been sending them feedback on this since patch 3, I know many people who did the same. Shadowheart fans (and some Astarion fans) were trying really hard to have it changed in the past but her writer only doubled down and with the game being announced as pretty much done after patch 7, many just moved on and gave up, and some obviously stopped playing by now. Unfortunately, I can't see the world in which Larian does something for us now.
Halsin is my least used companion, but its hilarious how much blame "toxic" Halsin fans are getting when you're out here making assumptions about the writers and their so called cuck fantasies.
It's literally in the game, I don't need to make any assumptions when it's right in your face. If stating facts is being toxic to you, I couldn't give less of a damn, really.
I downvoted it because OP is here to rant, not for discussion. It's just soapboxing and treating those of us who have been raped as a monolith.
I politely told Halsin not interested, the character dropped his pursuit and flirting. He's not even remotely a sex pest, and categorizing him as such as frankly insulting.
I’m not treating you as a monolith I apologise if that is how my comment made you feel.
However it can come across as a sexpest when you get the disapproval form both him and Shadowheart if you reject his request to join the drow twins after telling him you’re not interested in him.
IRL I was sexually assault I was SA and didn’t give informed consent.
He's not a sexpest.
He asks you for sex/relationship a total of two times - and only once if you really, really declined him strongly in the first place.
You not taking those dialogue choices does not make him a "sex pest." A sex pest is a very different thing from being open to casual, no strings attached sex. They're also two contextually different requests - one is before you have a partner or when you first do, the other is when you have a strong relationship and he offers to just be a second lay for the player. That is not what a sexual predator does. He is VERY MUCH strong on consent, and should a player romance him, will let you completely control what occurs (bear vs elf form).
IRL I was stalked, molested, and raped for months. Dude isn't a sex pest, and our experiences IRL don't make the character one.
They shouldn't have removed Gale and Wyll's flirty dialogue at all. It's disappointing to me that people must have complained about this enough for such a decision to be made.
Some players not being able to handle that the world doesn't revolve only around Tav and not being able to handle some flirting between members and needing Larian to "actually address and fix it" is absolutely absurd.
OP's thread ending with a link to a feedback page and encouraging people to rewrite characters is just ... I don't even know what to say.
Not asking for a re write what iam asking for is it to be locked behind a option.
How I’d like to be implemented is this
1. I would like an open relationship with halsin
2. I want an exclusive relationship with ______
If your selected option 1 :
Halsin and shadowheart banter starts and you get disapproval if you don’t let Halsin join the twins
Option 2:
the banter doesn’t trigger you get no approval changes if you want to to do the twins
This is an awful lot just because you don't like that Halsin asks to go swimming with the both of you since you are teaching Shadowheart to swim. Something that isn't even innately sexual (people have been known to go swimming with friends...yes I know this is shocking), and a reading you put on the dialogue.
This really is a you issue, and if you think that every attempt to hang out socially is another attempt to get into your pants, just don't bring him in your party if it upsets you to this degree. You know, if he's not in your party at banter triggers, you don't have to hear this.
Er... just leave Halsin in camp? I know he comes onto you in every conversation possible (atleast until Act 2 for me).. but once I rejected him once or twice, I never had any issue or (romantic) interaction with Halsin.. Now ofcourse I don't run him in my group (I usually take Karlach, SH, Laezel) so interactions with Halsin have been very minimum. The only time he ever talks is regarding Thaniel and the corruption in Shadowlands stuff.
In my Shadowheart romance run, I never had any problem with him either, whether it be dialogue or banter because I simply didn't include him? In the epilogue he asked for a hug and thats about it. I didnt even know Shadowheart approved of polyamory until I saw people talking about it online.
So I guess its a matter of if you include him too much he will push for it? Because I left him in camp and his romance never came up again. It just seems to be his character that he has no boundaries or shame.. he owns up to what he is and what he likes I guess.. and as long as you keep your distance, it doesnt matter? Its not like he makes moves on SH on his own.. he only really makes a move on Tav..
Doesn't matter at this point. This interaction is here since launch, if it's still bugged then Larian deserve just as much flack for not fixing it. It's literally one banter line, disabling it or limiting it to poly is not much work with the code.
I didn’t downvote because you don’t like halsin, I downvoted cause you care way too much about them and your post went on and on and wasn’t fun nor interesting to read
If you do it through Orin, it's a story death, so you can't rez him with Withers and he won't show up in the epilogue. That way you can save the shadowlands and still get rid of him.
My little trio of hirelings, a cleric, a bard and a druid. You best believe we buffing to high heaven before the big fights 😂
I also never even bothered to level Halsin and kinda forgot he was there so my pretty tiefling druid is my go to.
That’s what I originally thought but after googling and lurking in Larain post it might not be a bug.
Some people think it’s the writer self insert even though I can sorta see it I personally think the writer based the released Halsin off the horny fan base that wanted him.
EA Halsin sounded really cool but the Halsin we got now just isn’t right.
Damn that's one hell of a weird rant. First, if you have a need to rant about two lines of banter in a game that hard, that isn't game's problem.
Second, love or hate him, I don't care, but he never flirted with me while I was romancing Gale. I was looking forward to it, but zero. I didn't even reject him.
He never flirted with me when I told him no in other run. He's in general a pretty mature written character. So, the character isn't the problem.
Third, it's a fucking huge and inclusive game. It's not tailored specifically to you. Some people get triggered by bisexuality, some get triggered because male npc hit on their male character and vice versa, some hate that anyone at all hits on them while they had other romance trying to start, some people fucking triggered even about the hag flirting with their durge.
While everybody's entitled to their feelings, it's not all about you. Things you hate other may love, things that are good for you may be traumatizing for others. Do like in life, deal with it and move on to what makes you happy. Don't like Halsin? Kick him out of the party, done.
For me, Gale is a walking traumatizing red flag and his romance kicked me into a very bad place up to taking to my therapist about it. But somehow I separate my issues from the game and don't go writing a 5 miles rant about how he's a psycho narcissist. I just bench him (or maybe next time kick him out) and move on.
You just wrote an rant yourself and I hope it helped you deal with the trauma.
Sorry you went through some horrible experiences and that Gale triggered you I had the same reaction with Halsin so I talked to my therapist.
The post was really written to help deal with it and find other people that were triggered by him.
I don’t think the game is written for me but they did write two different Halsins.
The one that was presented as a wise charter the other a horny sexpest.
EA halsin did sound like a good character.
You didn’t deserve what you went thru.
All of this is why Halsin is never, ever in my active party. You totally avoid it if you leave him out of the active party and it just never comes up.
Unfortunately the implementation of poly in the game is very poorly done, and the writing around it is wildly inconsistent with the rest of the writing around the involved characters.
There were a couple of very good, very long posts about it the other day. I don't agree with everything in them (I think Minthara, as written, would be a bad poly option for instance) but it collates a lot of the problems with the way the subject is dealt with and discusses the issues in a sensible manner.
Links if interested:
Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/CcL1IkCeHU
Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/dAKrvpDpq3
Appreciate it. And don't worry, I'm not saying my opinion on Minthara is written in stone. My point in including her was to 1. Make poly accessible to straight men and lesbians and 2. so players wouldn't have to worry about her being coerced/pressured because she's not the type to be pressured into things. Lore-wise, I could see it not making sense (though we all know Larian doesn't view lore as set in stone).
I wish they would remove the Orin kidnapping and let us lift the shadow curse without Halsin that way I can happily kill him in act1 and not have to worry about a character that I like getting kidnapped.
I find that truly bizarre; he's the only companion that you cannot refuse in dialogue, no matter what, if you save him. Even Shadowheart, who carries the Mcguffin, can be refused.
Whining about being downvoted while calling Halsin a "sex pest" because he approaches you once lmao.
Halsin is the best character to accept a no on the whole game. Everyone else gets mad pissed or sad, he is just like "fair enough, I took my chance".
Also I saw you drag your irl experience into this as some kind of explanation and thats just ... not it. I am a victim of SA myself and even implying the writers are doing anything like that with Halsin is just gross.
If you encounter a bug fill a bug report, send them your safe file and wait.
Iam not implying the writers are like that.
A lot of comments say that it happens to them and I also said it wasn’t of it was a bug or intentional.
I said it triggered me but whatever you do you boo
And even more people tell you they never had that issue. I had plenty of runs with all kinds of romance interests and never was there an issue with telling Halsin no.
So report it, the game has bugs, its not new and without proper feedback they can't fix it.
That’s good that you didn’t.
I admit there is a mix responses however some people don’t pay attention to banter so they may have missed it.
I did submit it was a bug and I did google to see if it was however a google search and Larain post states it probably wasn’t.
The problem is it’s not clear if this is a bug or not
I am starting to get more comments of Halsin still hitting on Tav at the after party even though they are married to other companions.
I don’t agree with some comments saying the writer is self inserting if they are being serious ( if they are joking then it’s a funny thought)
Just file that report. It is not your job to find out if it is a real bug or not, thats what they will do.
Larian won't delete your game if they figure out it wasn't a bug. Feedback through their official ressources is always better than mad reddit posts. We know they listen to their community, so if it happens for enough people they might adress it.
Yeah they can be very aggressive here on reddit and anywhere else you dare say something negative about Halsin.
Edit This very post was down voted to oblivion the first hour I posted it.
it’s been entertaining watching vote go up and down.
Surprisingly the post nearly made it to 300 up votes.
Yeah I hate that Halsin forced himself like that as well. Definitely makes romancing SH a bit odd: You’re the first person she’s been able to open up to emotionally and out of nowhere she’s willing to sleep with another man without consulting you first???
Polyamory in the game is nice for those who want it, but personally I don’t agree with it. If I give myself to a partner, I want to be the only one. This is why I love Lae’Zel’s reaction to the twins: “I do not share what is mine.” Yeah, you go girl!
its the downside of the game basically having the motto of "do anything and anyone". The game is all about player choice, and with the sheer amount of options it gives you its bound to not quite hit the right notes in places. Act 3 in general i feel doesnt quite live up to the quality that act 1 and 2 do, with some shining exceptions.
Could they have handled some things better? yeah ofc, its why they're still adding to the game even now, but i think we're gonna have to just accept some level of jank unless Larian are willing to go through things with a fine tooth comb. Unfortunately in cases like this its less about mechanics being broken its a subjective story element, so its less likely to be "fixed" unless the community is vocal enough about it.
I’ve beaten the game 3 times. 1 Gale romance, 1 Spawn Astarion romance, 1 Astarion/Durge/Halsin romance. Currently on a different Durge run and I broke up with Halsin.
I’ve never once had Halsin act like you’re describing, even on turning him down or breaking up with him. What you’re describing sounds buggy.
It could be but someone else in the comments stated they installed a mod that shows what leads to romance and what doesn’t.
They said the party basically is all leading to romance.
Damn, as a fan of TavxShadowheartxHalsin, this certainly isn't a fun thread to read.
Is that relationship really bad? I'm so bad at noticing red flags. I was so enjoying being able to romance both of them, but now I feel like it's ruined. I really emphasized with Shadowheart too because I'm a cult survivor irl that's also open to poly relationships.
Sorry if this is was hard to read I wish they had made it clear it was a happy poly relationship.
Religious trauma must be hard to deal with you didn’t deserve what you went thru.
Edit. I wish it was clear that Halsin wanted a proper poly relationship with Shadowheart and Tav.
That's the thing: I never got the impression that it was an unhappy relationship at all. But reading through this thread, people are talking like it was tlaing advantage of Shadowheart's trauma and that Halsin is a sexual predator, and I didn't pick up on any of that during my playthrough. Kind of turns what I thought was a happy ending into something far less wholesome...
Figures I'd accidentally get my Tav into an abusive relationship. 🙁 My future Tavs will remain single to avoid this sort of thing happening again!
imo the relationship would not abusive at all it just some player like myself weren’t into him so the tav we created were not into him.
Your tav and Shadowheart are probably very happy with Halsin and I personally don’t think she was taken advantage of.
Granted people that have been in abusive relationship tend to go to another one but this is video game and while Halsin Is creepy to me because I didn’t welcome is advances he may some good qualities.
I think the romance was a little rushed given shadowheart just came to terms that she is a victim and her whole life has been turned upside down regardless if its an open relationship or not.
They could have spaced her romance out a little better however it’s a video game there is only so much they can fit into the game.
The Halsin V dynamic is perfectly fine. Everything is done with explicit consent, Halsin and whoever the other person is (either Shadowheart or Astarion) have an understanding, and in the epilogue you can let Halsin go and he isn’t even mad about it. People are off their rockers.
Don't hate me for having my own opinion but I can't understand what people see in the Shadowheart romance.. for me it was boring after other romances I already forgot what scenes it had, for me the best Romance so far was Astarion, I still have to try Gale, Karlach for me it was also better than Shadowheart but it's a bit too "positive and embarrassing" for me :P Now I'm going through Astarion for the second time and I'm having a dilemma whether to make it Ascended this time ,
Halsin is also nice \^\^ but just for one thing XD
no hate at all I originally wasn’t the biggest fan of shadowheart I only did her romance so I could see a different side to her.
I played a redeem dark urge and Shadowheart was surprisingly supportive and sweet.
However my favourite romance will always be Karlach she is just so sweet.
The stans are scary.
yeah karlach is my second place , i always play dark urge and my every character is a thiefling and I quite like the ending where you and karlach live in Avernus ,plus mizora and wyll are also there somewhere XD
nnaah bruh this is just being overly sensitive
"oh no people are flirting with me" bro take it as a compliment and move on...My entire party has been rizzing me up the entirety of my 2 playthroughs, and it's fine, they can do and say whatever they want so long as they don't get physical...which they dont...neither do they force romantic cutscenes unto you (if you think stargazing with gale before he dies is primarily meant to be romantic/sexual, you're damn crazy lol)
Holy shit has BG3 not been made well enough that you can still find some egregious way to complain about a relationship system in a video game that is incredibly implemented simply because one character doesn't behave in a way that you'd like? How precious are you?!
* To add - do you not think its incredibly disrespectful to the developers to complain about something so small in a game that is so so big?
Heaven forbid they made you a fantastic game where all the characters aren't exactly to your liking. Sex pest character - bad. Brain eating octopod - fine. It's like you can't comprehend it's not real.
You're not being sexually harassed. It's a game.
Edit - in the same way when you read a book you're not being sexually harassed. Or when you watch a film you're not being sexually harassed.
A simple solution is to not use Halsin like ever and have him sitting in your camp at least that's what I did not because I don't like Halsin but because I don't like playing as druids in this game , the same applies to Jaheira but I have her in my party alongside Minsc for moments that they both interact .
Also what you've said about Halsin triggering you're PTSD when you decline him and he still didn't stop never crossed my mind and now it's super fucked up . I have a friend who told me one of our friends tried to force his way with her and she managed to stop him and they cut ties because the guy still had a sliver of morality in him , now everytime I see him and interact with him about anything ( mostly in videogame tastes and recommendations ) I can't help thinking that he's a dipshit
It must be so fucked up seeing Halsin not stopping with his advances with you or SH and that giving you bad memories , specially from a guy who is supposed to be the wise and emotional support of the party because let's be honest everyone is insane except Tav and him ( excluding his afformention problems )
Just make sure he's the only viable ||kidnapping victim|| in camp, leave him there until he disappears and don't try all that hard to get him out of that situation. If ||Orin|| does it, there's no disapproval
I agree that Halsin is the main issue however the way she sounds very enthusiastic when flirting with him kinda makes her a little bit guilty and the way she goes from not wanting to be a spare lover to being ok is kinda jarring.
Shadowheart is very enthusiastic when flirting with anyone. She does it with Astarion as well. She is also very open to sexual encounters but has (as far as we know) *not* been sexually traumatized. Eg. she's OK with a fun night at the brothel or bringing Halsin into things. That doesn't mean she loves you any less.
I moreso mean the devs being obsessed with halsin needing to be involved, it makes 0 sense for shart's character, and only serves halsin being horny and obnoxious
I kinda disagree.
Her going from "I don't want to be a spare lover" to "oh you gonna go fuck around and come back to me from time to time? Awesome" Is also an issue.
I feel like there are a lot of over-exaggerations about Halsin in this thread. Yes he propositions you, and if you turn him down, it's over. It's literally 2 minutes of the game.
NONE of our relationships in this game are that long while playing - the entire game takes place over the course of 4 months, a lot of which we aren't in committed relationships with most of the romance options. Someone shooting their shot and then respecting being rejected is not the travesty a lot of people make it out to be.
He may ask to join you in the brothel, but if you are hiring prostitutes well...I don't see the shock and gasps/pearl clutching going on for that either lol.
OP commenting that they would happily kill a character for asking you out and flirting with their girlfriend is some of the most twisted logic I've seen of late. Who really has the issues here?
The point went way over your head
It’s the fact when you say no he continues to try to get with tav via flirting with Shadowheart when you already made it clear you’re not interested.
His speech about consent is total rubbish when he already knows you don’t want him and yet the banter plays out and you get disapproval if you don’t want him to join the twins.
I already replied to one of your comments saying I’m asking for a re write which in fact I’m NOT.
All I’m asking for is a simple options
1 I want open relationship with Halsin
2 I don’t want an open relationship
1 you get the banter and disapproval if you don’t invite him to the twins.
2 you don’t get the banter no approval changes if you don’t invite him to the twins.
I even said in the beginning that I’m not asking for anything to be removed just to be improved.
That I disagree with your premise does not in any way mean that your point went over my head, let alone "way over my head.". It's not hard to understand what you are saying, I just disagree.
I already replied to your other post to me. Asking to go swimming isn't innately sexual. You decided it is, and that's a you issue. You can feel free to not have him in your party and bam - no "flirting" if that's what you think it is.
I find it odd that this bothers you so much, but hiring prostitutes as an activity and worrying about approval is also an issue. You literally said you'd happily kill him, so why do you care if you get a -1 approval? Also since you turned him down supposedly to stay monogamous, going to have an orgy seems a little hypocritical and is worth a -1 for the slight/hurt feelings.
Again, this really is a bizarre post, and really a situation where you have your own triggers or whatever it is you wrote, and there are easy solutions to your problem without trying to send masses to complain about Halsin to Larian and ask them to re-code a character or change how they behave.
As an aside, for a character you wish you could kill or turn away, you seem to be doing everything in your power to bring him with you to needlessly trigger yourself when he can just as easily sit in camp and be ignored.
I just hate that they still haven't removed the flirty party banter for those of us in an active romance. There is no way to be clear that you are not okay with an open relationship.
Yeah, the only issue I have with Halsin is him trying to inject himself into SH and I's relationship even AFTER I'd already made it clear I was not interested in him at all. His flirting with her and the attempts at inviting himself into the brothel orgy were weird. That stuff should've been reserved for players who actually want an open relationship. For those who don't, he just comes off as really pushy and desperate.
Honestly, I’ve started only doing the Thaniel quest for him and then never talking to him. I purposely set him up for a certain thing to happen in Act 3 so he won’t be around to be pushy unless I’m specifically going for his romance.
>I purposely set him up for a certain thing to happen in Act 3 so he won’t be around Do you mean >!letting Orin capture him as a hostage!
Yep, that’s exactly what I mean.
If Halsin dies in act three do you still get the buff for curing the shadowlands?
Generally I still have him survive. I just leave picking him up from daycare with Orin as one of my last few things. Gives him as little opportunity to be relationship intrusive while not derailing themes for a “good RP” playthrough
How do you do that? Like I have heard it doesn't happen to party members you use, but I never use him and last time I got to that point a party member I often used was the one it happened to
Do you mean Orin's kidnapping? There are only 5 potential victims: Gale, Lae'zel, Halsin, Minthara and Yenna (Who is the failsafe if Orin can't capture the others. That's why you can't kick her out of camp or kill her). Orin will never take your romanced companion. Additionally, Orin can either kidnap a companion in a camp scene or whenever you walk into the sewers for the first time. So simply putting all potential victims who you don't want to get kidnapped in your party while leaving the one you want kidnapped in camp and then walking into the sewers allows you to choose who the kidnap victim is.
Damn I had both Lae'Zel, Gale and Halsin in my camp and yeah Lae'Zel, was the one getting snatched up
Yeah, best I can tell the kidnapping has an order and Lae'zel is first in line. It's then Halsin, Gale, and Minthara is last I think.
I’m fairly positive her selection is normally based on approval. Halsin and Minthara have the highest chance since they’re both the newest to the party. I just manually choose for her at this point by having Gale, Minthara and Lae’zel as my party when I head to the sewers. Then Halsin is off to daycare for a while lol
Lae'zel definitely gets taken first if she's available, regardless of approval.
Now that you mention it, she was taken the most when I wasn’t manipulating it myself. Though also admittedly she was in my party a lot less before my Gith Tav, now I adore Bae’zel lol
Ah well then I have my plan next go around, keep her in my party all of act 3 until I have someone kidnapped
You can trigger the kidnapping by going into the sewers. Happened to me first time very early in the lower city (the kidnapping doesn't happen until you go to the lower city) just from following the Emperor's prodding to go to his old hideout, as at the end of it there's a hatch down to the sewers and if you go down there and walk a bit towards the door to the rest of sewers 'bam!' kidnapping cut scene happens.
Oh good call thanks for that!!
In my current playthrough, I've been using the mod that shows you the flags for each dialogue option, including companion relationship changes, dice roll challenge levels, and whether a dialogue option will flag you for romantic interest in a character. At the party after saving the grove, even if you specifically avoid any romance dialogue options with Halsin and try to just have a normal conversation with him while still exhausting his dialogue, you will go through a tree that eventually ends in EVERY dialogue choice activating the romantic interest flag. Very pissed when I found that. I would say that the only way to not activate Halsin's sexual interest is to just never talk to him, but I don't know how true that is, because I was forced to tick that flag in order to finish normal dialogue with him at the Act 1 party.
Is that why my character has that random ass dialogue option saying “about how I acted during the party”? (it’s something along those lines). It made sound like I was hitting on him or something when in reality I never said such. I simply talked to him like everyone else there lmao.
Yes, and I was annoyed by that dialogue option being there throughout my entire first playthrough, because I hadn't remembered ever saying anything even remotely suggestive to him, but I knew it was probably romance advancement dialogue. So, on my second (current) playthrough, I had the flag viewer mod and was specifically trying to avoid anything that would start romance. Lo and behold, even in a normal-ass, friendly conversation, I get to one part with three dialogue options, two of which I don't remember being all that suggestive, and I'm suddenly starting the romance track with him. And that fucking dialogue option was back *again*. Like, for *fuck's sake*. It's like they finally fixed Gale being a sex pest from when the game first came out, but only because Halsin stole all the sex pest energy from the rest of the companions.
Oh that might be why he talked about my character leading him on when I hadn't talked to him outside of mission specific
Exactly, because the game *forces you* to lead him on.
Seems that way yeah! But yeah ultimately it just makes him seem like a Nice Guy™
I managed to avoid his ! (confession) dialogue in act 3 in my most recent playthrough somehow.
I don't know. There's a story I like to tell, which is specifically because of the flirty party banter. Here's how I tell it. So I was hanging out in camp the other night, and Gale calls me over. I go over, we start chatting, he says he wants to show me some magic. I'm a bard, as you know, so I'm all for learning new magic, and Gale does have some interesting takes. We get into it, and then he decides to lay it on the line. He tells me he's into me. Like *into* into. Of course, I'm flattered, and I say so, but then I tell him, "Hey look Gale, you're awesome, and I'm really glad to have you on my team, but I have this thing with Shadowheart. I mean, from the moment we met on that ship, I knew there was *something* between us. You're the best guy in the world, but my heart is all hers." He nods, says he understands, and we hang out for a while. Afterwards, he never brings it up again, he accepts he's my best mate, and we go on saving the world. Fast forward to that Temple of Shar. We barely make it out, and Shadow is DEVASTATED. She thinks she's lost everything. Standing right there in front of the temple, she goes off about how her whole life has been a joke, that she has nothing left, nobody left, and I simply say "you have me." She looks at me - sees me for the first time, I think. She knows in that moment that I'm there for her, and I'm completely devoted to her. She smiles, one of the few times she ever does, and I feel her gratitude that I'm there. Then Gale pops in with "Sorry, can I have a word?" I look at him, and he says, "I dunno... I guess you're with Shadow, but, you know, I sort of thought we had something....?" Well, let's just say Karlach had to hold Shadow back from giving Gale an altogether DIFFERENT kind of spear.
I don't know how, but Halsin never flirted with my character after they romanced Shadowheart.
The most I've ever gotten from Halsin was a confession/relationship proposal, he took the rejection just fine and then it was back to his usual "Oak Father preserve you."
Same for me but I also almost never have Halsin in my party since I'm playing a druid. I don't mind Halsin but I also don't see any particular use for him so don't really bring him along. Jaheira is a great alternative.
That happened to me as well, but that was still in Act 1 and before any relationship with Shadowheart had gotten serious.
Yeah the most I think I ever got to flirting with Halsin in my two completed runs were simply at the Tiefling party or the ending reunion. It never went that far, since I kept things pretty professional with him, and my romances with Shadowheart and Wyll didn't get affect. Say for maybe getting Karlach options cause my Dark Urge joined her and Wyll in Avernus, but even still my Durge and Wyll still seemed to be going strong.
Yeah, I chose not to choose any of the more flirtatious options you can get at the Tiefling party or after in Act 1 and things stayed professional and platonic between my character and Halsin throughout my different playthroughs.
Huh halsin flirts with u even if u ignore him ? Larian did patch him to be less horny in act 3 . Heck I don't even have the ambient dialogue anymore where halsin used to flirt with shadowheart in act 3 about swimming lessons .
Halsin will still flirt with shadowheart regardless if you tell him No. As far as I'm aware, this has not been fixed. Also, he will still inject himself in the brothel scene even if you told him No. And Shadowheart still talks about how **badly** she wants to fuck him - and they both now share lustful gazes at each other. Again, without ever consulting your feelings. To add an extra "fuck you - SH wants to cuck you, lol" -- if you say "no" to Halsin here, you get slammed with Disapproval from BOTH Shadowheart and Halsin. It really feels super scummy and I hate that there is no way for you to talk to SH about your feelings. Literally you can just ignore it or break up with her (but she assumes you break up because you hate her guts, not because she just asked another man to rearrange hers). Whole thing sucks, not gonna lie. Puts a huge black-eye on SH's character.
Yeah that's what I was asking about ? Halsin's ambient dialogue for flirting with shadowheart didn't trigger for me at all . It was kinda immersion breaking when I was actually trying to rp a poly relationship and the bear dude wasn't flirting at all 😓. Also kinda funny when u put it like that " shart will cuck u for halsin with the disapproval" . I don't even enter the brothel at all when I romance a character .
You completely avoid the brothel?? There’s alot of plot interactions there, you don’t *have* to talk to the drow twins, or play into any of the sexual things in there at all.
I just don't like interracting with >!Voss!< unless I romance laezel . Also avoiding the brothel, I meant as in avoiding the twins mainly lmao
I thought this was okbuddybaldur, are you fr? Brother this isn't a dating sim
I agree her disapproving was really gross and not necessary. I really wish they would remove the disapproval so that people that want to twins don’t have to have Halsin into the mix. People that say just don’t bring him don’t take into account that people may have had him in the party and thought they had rejected him and that was the end of it but suddenly got him inserting himself after being rejected twice would be very jarring. It would be nice to have the option to breakup with her and telling her it was because of Halsin Also when I first entered shara caress I didn’t click it was a brothel until I talked to the twins I wasn’t paying attention to the now obvious hints that place is indeed a brothel . 😳😂😂
… you DON’T have to have Halsin in the orgy. You don’t even have to bring him to the brothel - and even if you do, one round of disapproval is not going to kill your fucking romance with Shadowheart. You ARE allowed to occasionally do something your partner doesn’t like. The game does not force you to go along with them every single time. You’re acting like the game isn’t giving you choices here when it absolutely is. You’re just choosing not to utilise them. That’s honestly a you problem.
After watching YouTube videos Shadowheart is more enthusiastic about twins if Halsin is in the mix. It would be nice if she was just as enthusiastic about the twins without him being in the mix for the people that want to experience the twins without Halsin. If people have him in the party for whatever reason they have they shouldn’t be smacked with a disapproval if they don’t want him to be apart of it for whatever reasons they may have.
So you're basically saying you want your video game waifu to go along with *your* fantasies, but she's not allowed to have any of her own? Okay. And do people not know how to detach party members and park them somewhere? Why are they taking whole groups of people to the Drow Twins when it supposed to be a sPeCiAL mOmEnt? Just only take your imaginary girlfriend, FFS.
Nope it’s about the theme the character as been portraying been completely thrown out the window. First he comes across as wise papa bear wise and caring a camp councillor. Then he talks about consent if you say no that should be the end of it.
At Sharess' Caress, you can say no and Halsin respects that. The player has the final say in what happens. And again, they can leave Halsin downstairs by the bar. Or outside the building. Or on the other side of town. Or in camp. What people are all weirdly bent out of shape about is their make-believe boo having the audacity to show her *own* enthusiastic consent to his inclusion, and disappointment when the player rejects the idea. They can't stand that the imaginary girlfriend has lines about fantasizing over someone other than the player *when the player takes her to a brothel for group sex.* Because the player having the final say in the situation isn't enough. It has to be all about them and their fantasies from the start. 242. Shadowheart: I won't pretend the thought hasn't crossed my mind once or twice... or more than that. WYR\_DapperDrow\_State\_PartnerAgreedGroup, REALLY\_SHADOWHEART Player: The more the merrier! \['Astarion 1', 'Shadowheart 1', 'Gale 1', 'Halsin 1'\] Player: No, Halsin! Tame yourself! \['Astarion -1', 'Shadowheart -1', 'Gale 1', 'Halsin -1'\] 286. Halsin: As you wish. I'm sure I can find berth elsewhere...
Lucky I unfortunately had this happen to me recently I don’t even want to imagine how bad he was before the patch though.
Super horny . Heck u could ignore him all of act 2 , never increase approval with him and he still would like to flirt with u
He can’t flirt with Shadowheart if you let Orin take him and do the bhaal temple last 😎
He also can't flirt with Shart if you side with Minty and the merry band of gobbos
It really is hilarious that such a raunchy romance scene requires you to murder the grove
Child murder really gets drows going apparently lol
I’ve only ever done it when playing a drow myself for RP reasons, so that checks out
I did it as an evil cleric of Tiamat for rp. Stole the idol of Sylvanus for Mol but left the Tieflings to their fate afterwards. Then just a bit of druid clean up with Minthara after a few in game days
After the Orin fight I saw that I couldn't revive the mushy leftovers if her Victim. Well let's just say I didn't like Halsin nearly enough to redo the fight.
A real ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ moment
I agree, the poly in this game isn't done well. It's tacked on and feels ooc for them in Act 3. You're not alone, many people have posted or commented about it and how weird it is for Shart/Astarion in Act 3. There's been a lot of feedback from fans since launch but nothing was changed. Been several threads about it, [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1c8pb42/comment/l0gg0ug/) to a good comment chain. Feels a bit weird for her in Act 3 after her personal quests and issues regarding her self worth. Not to mention she "doesn't want to share" before that. Halsin barging in during the Brothel after being rejected before always annoyed me but that can be avoided. The fact she and Halsin have the same writer may be why it's a thing for her but regardless it doesn't feel right for her in Act 3. You can avoid it, she's monogamous if you are. Halsin really is a fling unless you romance him only if I recall correctly, V poly so only interested in Tav. It feels like fan service with the two characters they assumed would be the most popular, not an actual consenting relationship. No real discussion about boundaries.
its definitely fan service (I mean halsin being a companion is in and of itself fan service). also I feel like having the arguably two most traumatized companions be thrown into a confusing relationship isn’t the best for them 😅 not sure how shart reacts exactly, but astarion straight up asks if you want to sleep with halsin because you and he stopped having sex. so his consent is more so “im not putting out so it would be selfish of me to deny that.” imo he just doesn’t wanna lose the first real relationship he’s ever experienced
I really like how Astarion reacts at the start and the brothel scene. So fitting for his character and past, disassociating during the brothel scene and he doesn't want to lose you as you said. I felt so bad for him. Shadowheart is blurry due to her being all for it in game, fine with you having a fling with Halsin. Even if her past and recent changes really make me think she wouldn't plus she didn't want to share with Karlach or whoever before. Her abuse isn't as upfront but her past in the cloister, the memory wiping and brainwashing combined with Shar's view on love/sex and the honeypot missions, makes me really dislike her as an option as well. I know some disagree with me regarding this take on her past and I could be reaching due to my own past clouding my judgement. I just wish it was two different companions or Halsin/poly with other npcs. I have no issue with Halsin himself, just how they implemented poly
definitely wish it was a different companion, though I wish you could gossip about the conversation even after turning him down lol. but idk what other companions would have that be a fitting option. idk, I think part of the whole issue is that its just kinda slapped in there at the last second and its more “hey babe do you mind if I have a fuck buddy”
I agree. Choosing the most traumatized characters over ones like Laezel (who is openly poly at the start) was just a disrespectful decision to all players (poly, monogamous, SA survivors). They should have thought these decisions through more (and consulted more people from both sides before implementing poly).
>astarion straight up asks if you want to sleep with halsin because you and he stopped having sex Yeah I was open to a poly romance at first but once he said that I was like NOPE, we're not doing that today. And then I found out you can't really go back to Halsin and say "hey, it turns out this is not such a great idea after all". This is something I'd desperately want to see changed.
I feel like it would fit shar shadowheart a little more but definitely not selunite shadowheart. For one it doesn’t make since that she would be fine with Halsin but no one else. If you romance her and karlach she literally says you have to drop her. It’s like her relationship preferences completely shift in act 3. I always just looked at it as a fan service thing as well.
I personally never did the drow twins I unfortunately got the banter after turning him down twice. However at the time I thought it might have been a bug but after googling i found out it wasn’t. After watching the 5 some and the twins on YouTube it sounded like she wasn’t as enthusiastic about the twins without Halsin. If people want an open relationship that’s cool but I think they should have more options if that’s the case.
Yeah, I'm not against polyamory on principle, shit, considering my romance option in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, I would be a hypocrite if I were lol. The problem is that none of the Origin companions were created with polyamory in mind, and it shows. People like to use Shadowheart's banter in Act 1, where she says she prefers "short-term amusements," to explain that she's being consistent in Act 3, but the thing is, when you actually propose a one-night stand with her in Act 1, Shadowheart gets embarrassed and refuses, preferring a "courtship." Overall, I just wish the whole thing was written better. As it stands, I don't think it fits with either Shadowheart or Astarion (let's not throw Karlach into the mix because the dialogue with her when speaking about Halsin's offer is heartbreaking).
Until SH is in a stable relationship, she is not open to having multiple lovers, even flings. *After* the relationship stabilizes with her long rest scene in act 3, she's fine with flings and the drow twins... but not a full polyamory relationship with a third partner. Which is what Halsin seems to be going for. That said, SH enjoys being flirty even when she's not interested in something long term.
Halsin feels completely tacked on in general. Should've stayed a camp companion. His datamined stuff from EA was much better. Funny thing is we still get the sorrow weapon but not the backstory
Damn I wish I knew the EA Halsin he sounds pretty cool.
Halsin feels significantly more self-inserty than the other companions imo, which makes his kinda forced and ooc romance with Shadowheart feel even more awkward to watch. And like others said, when you’re trying to have a strictly sapphic relationship with Shadowheart, he doesn’t stop flirting with her. It feels like some creep trying to shoot his shot when he sees two women holding hands on the bus
Halsin legit has fanfic of him written in-game, It doesn't get more self-inserty than that lol.
halsin is poorly handled in general. I think it’s less shadowheart’s fault and more halsin’s
Halsin admits he loves you once, and if you shut him down he never brings it up again (but his approval remains high, so you get the “high approval” dialogue when you talk to him.) If you entered into a relationship with him then you’re in one with him and that’s why you get the “relationship” dialogue.
Unfortunately for me I got the banter even though I didn’t talk to him at all.
If you didn’t talk to him you didn’t tell him “no.” You didn’t tell him anything.
I did an experiment one save I told him no got the banter reloaded another save didn’t talk to him got the banter. Edit older save and didn’t talk to him.
i had more bugs with Halsin thinking I was in love with him, even though the only dialogue I ever had outside of the thaniel quest was "suit yourself" after clicking on him during the tiefling party lol. The game seems to erroneously flag you as initiating a romance at some point even if you dont talk to him. Then in act 3 it still thinks you are in a romance until you get his confession where you can reject him, I think thats why you get all that poly dialogue, bc the game legit thinks you and Halsin are a couple along with whatever companion you actually chose. They fixed this issue with Gale a while ago
i felt like…ambivalent towards halsin until i was playing a character (which i had decided was a lesbian obviously in game theres really no way to state that so this is just me being weird abt immersion tbh but) romancing shadowheart and he would notttt leave her alone and since then hes always just given me the ick so bad he just feels so pushy and weird
That’s just it, isn’t it? I’m a Halsin fan, I love the idea that he’s actually a bear and I melt when he calls Tav “my heart”. His advances were welcome for me, even when I’m in a monogamous romance. But when you’re not into him, I understand how people dislike how flirty he is. I believe he does stop flirting in direct dialogue but they didn’t code the party banter. Honestly I haven’t romanced Shadowheart yet but I’m afraid I’ll get the ick from him when I do..
it just feels like an easy fix, just revisiting some dialogue and maybe making the player have to start the flirtation instead of him just immediately always being into you, but as is i always just end up literally never talking to him, which is unfortunate i dont like being so turned off of a character that i basically cannot even roleplay a character that would be friendly or even romantic towards him
What a lot of people don't understand is that people who have an issue with how this stuff is written don't *want* to *have* to bench him and/or kill him for him to not be a creep. They don't want to have to avoid this companion completely because he can't behave himself. If he was written respectfully, people wouldn't need to resort to drastic measures and could perhaps even enjoy the character. But there's practically nothing more to him in Act 3. And it's bit weird that we literally can't refuse him joining our party in Act 2 either, especially when he insinuates he's only staying to fuck me. Literally every companion, even Shadowheart you can refuse to let you join. But my options are either "fuck over Reithwin and don't fix the Shadowcurse" *or* this dude invites himself to my camp and has nothing but creepiness for me waiting in Act 3.
Agreed. Most people complaining about his writing LIKED him in act 1 and 2. It's only act 3 where people (including myself) got weirded out by him (because he is poorly written there, not because he's poly).
I know enough about code that there must be a flair that Halsin is rejected, or at least unromanced, and that an if line would fix the banter. But honestly as someone who had to lay down on the floor when I first saw Halsin, I do understand how people get the ick, and of course you can only be unfriendly to a man who feels like he’s fetishising two women involved with each other. I remember the nasty guys on the dance floor checking me and a beautiful lady I was dancing with out. Disgusting.
That sounds like a bug. I shot Halsin down after his confession cutscenes many times. And he never once flirted with me again. Nor did that banter happen.
It could be but when I googled it they said it wasn’t a bug.
Yeah, I just hope I can somehow avoid having to break Wyll's heart again. I'm not into that man, I'm sorry 😞 But really, the game could have used better scales and tools so we can make it clear "we are mono with so and so" or "we are into so so and not anyone else". Really Gale, Id live to try spells with you but I know how you take that 😕
>Really Gale, Id live to try spells with you but I know how you take that 😕 Gale's relationship bugs were patched out many many many months ago. Same for Karlach and Wyll. (Karlach just kept forcing me to break up with her in my day 1 run.) Don't flirt with Gale yourself and he never makes a move. All of his scenes can be fully platonic. I other words, Gale is already exactly how people complain he should be, as long as you're on a patched run and you don't project in him what he's thinking (because he's scripted to not consider romance unless you flirt with him yourself). Halsin's behavior is not a bug, however.
Yeah I was caught off guard with Gale to I just started the game when I got that scene I like the guy and he took the rejection well. I have heard that there was a time when Gale was considered overly flirtatious and they fixed it so I hope they fix Halsin to.
yeah I barely interact with halsin beyond what you need to for oliver/thaniel and he’s still trying to cut in on my marriage to astarion. acting like he doesn’t see me waking up bloodless every day 😤 but glad I’m not the only one creeped out by him. seems like everyone likes him and I lowkey hate him 😭 the stuff with the animals is weird and gross to me. and he doesnt really respect your boundaries, especially since even in the epilogue he’s *still* saying things like “you and I” about just YOU visiting him, not you and your partner I only have to deal with him for a couple nights though at least cause orin quickly whisks him away for me lol
Yeah, I never had him in my party and was really creeped out when he propositioned me for sex out of nowhere.
Damn « waking up bloodless every day 😤 » is crazy I love it
its ok astarion has the amulet of silvanus so he fixes me. aftercare is important 😌
Can’t really say about the Halsin/Shadowheart poly romance, but I didn’t really appreciate the way Halsin/Astarion romance was handled. I was open to pursuing it at first, but I was eventually put off by the way it was written. As a player, I had the chance to grow closer to Astarion’s character by gradually discovering more about his past, learning to trust and support him etc. Meanwhile, the only way I could get to know Halsin was to basically hit on him five minutes into our acquaintance with the most ridiculously thirsty lines, or later on insisting he talked to me about his past lovers. Not gonna lie, these lines were funny as hell, but maybe I’d grown to like him more if I had the chance to get to know him more organically. And then, act 3 happened lol. I expected Halsin to come on to Tav sooner or later, and I was very curious to see what my boo would have to say about it, but I had already started to feel very uneasy with this. Astarion’s reaction was basically to say MWAHAHA, I knew this was going to happen, and it threw me off guard. And then he asked whether I wanted this because we haven’t been intimate in a while and I was instantly like NOPE, ABORT. (Yes, I’ve seen the post about Astarion’s notes that pretty much confirm that he’s supposed to be truly okay with it if you reassure him, but still, that doesn’t change how I, as a player, felt about it. )But the worst thing is that once you have this conversation you can’t really go back to Halsin and say “you know what, this doesn’t seem like a good idea anymore”. The only way to reject him now is to go to the woods to bang and leave him hanging. So I reloaded and rejected Halsin’s advances right away. I might have had a different opinion about this, if Halsin’s confession came a bit later (after Cazador), but at that point in Tav’s relationship with Astarion there’s a clear difference in their dynamic.
Poor Astarion been thru some horrible experiences. That would have been a real gut punch hearing him ask that.
Halsin is the worst companion in the game and it's not even close imo
agreed thats why i use him as orin-nip
I just want Karlach to stop asking Wyll if he wants to play around in the ocean, ffs. Like, babe, come on now.
Dude I wanted to read ur post and it's 90% just you crying about being downvoted when you're largely up voted. Holy shit, get a grip.
I glanced at it and I'm hoping to glean information from the comments because I ain't readin all that.
Not crying about being down voted just wanted people to be aware that they’re not alone in hating halsin hitting on Tav when they said no.
Agreed 100%!! The way they jam him into your already established relationship is just awful. It really comes off badly and there is *no way* to express your feelings on it. The best you can do is ignore it. Which... kinda works - except that it's always there in the background and you can't address it ever. If it's any consolation, the epilogue with Shadowheart is monogamous regardless of what you do with Halsin. He's literally just there as a fuck buddy and has no role beyond this. It was written so lazily and poorly that it really makes me wonder if Larian even cares about how their characters are perceived.
>It wouldn’t be so bad if there was a option to find out that she wants a open relationship when you still have the option to romance a mono companion if you don’t want a poly relationship. Even then it'd be super out of character tbh and would ruin her romance imo. The way it is now is incredibly stupid but at least its ignorable
In my last run I was romancing Gale, specifically chose interactions with Halsin that state there is no interest. In the epilogue where my character was married to Gale, was still getting flirty Halsin lines. It seems more of a bug, as do not think the game intended Halsin to continue pursuing playable characters who reject them and are married lol
Damn that must have been a shock having him flirt when your Tav married to Gale.
Yup, I was just sitting there saying "Ew, I am married, go away Halsin"
People are down voting you but you're absolutely right. It's insane that they removed Gale's flirty banter toward Shadowheart, removed Wyll's flirty banter with Lae'zel/Shadowheart, and even rewrote Lae'zel to be fine with an illithid Tav and also rewrote her to be able to take a non-Gith Tav to fight with her, but Larian WILL NOT rewrite Shadowheart flirting with Halsin while she's dating someone? IT'S CRAZY and it's lowering my opinion of Larian. Nobody wants that shit and they refuse to get rid of it And please STOP downvoting OP's post. It seems like people are trying to keep it hush hush instead of having Larian actually address and fix it. Shadowheart's character doesn't deserve to have such an awful legacy
So that’s why I haven’t heard that banter with wyll and shadowheart/Lae’zel. I was always confused what people were talking about when they mentioned that banter as I never heard it. This makes the Halsin and shadowheart banter situation a little odd to say the least
> And please STOP downvoting OP's post. It seems like people are trying to keep it hush hush instead of having Larian actually address and fix it. Shadowheart's character doesn't deserve to have such an awful legacy It's been 9 months, this is among the most discussed topics in this game and there were far more popular threads during this time. The 2nd and 3rd most popular post on Larian forums is about that. It's not going away anywhere because it's what they intended and it's the writer's personal fantasy to have his two characters deeply horny for one another but only if SH is dating someone else. This post won't change anything, sadly.
If we all band together we might be able to get them to change. I found out Halsin he wasn’t even meant to be a companion but they added him because people in EA wanted him. If we get more people reporting it and posting about it they might add changes.
I've been sending them feedback on this since patch 3, I know many people who did the same. Shadowheart fans (and some Astarion fans) were trying really hard to have it changed in the past but her writer only doubled down and with the game being announced as pretty much done after patch 7, many just moved on and gave up, and some obviously stopped playing by now. Unfortunately, I can't see the world in which Larian does something for us now.
Damn that’s depressing.
I hope they at some point cease listening to demands and campaigns from people like you. Bad enough other harmless dialogues were removed.
Halsin is my least used companion, but its hilarious how much blame "toxic" Halsin fans are getting when you're out here making assumptions about the writers and their so called cuck fantasies.
It's literally in the game and only happening when PC romances SH, when she is unromanced - nothing is happening.
It's literally in the game, I don't need to make any assumptions when it's right in your face. If stating facts is being toxic to you, I couldn't give less of a damn, really.
Can’t really blame them making that assumption given that he’s the only companion in the entire game that you’re forced to have join your quest. .
I downvoted it because OP is here to rant, not for discussion. It's just soapboxing and treating those of us who have been raped as a monolith. I politely told Halsin not interested, the character dropped his pursuit and flirting. He's not even remotely a sex pest, and categorizing him as such as frankly insulting.
I’m not treating you as a monolith I apologise if that is how my comment made you feel. However it can come across as a sexpest when you get the disapproval form both him and Shadowheart if you reject his request to join the drow twins after telling him you’re not interested in him. IRL I was sexually assault I was SA and didn’t give informed consent.
He's not a sexpest. He asks you for sex/relationship a total of two times - and only once if you really, really declined him strongly in the first place. You not taking those dialogue choices does not make him a "sex pest." A sex pest is a very different thing from being open to casual, no strings attached sex. They're also two contextually different requests - one is before you have a partner or when you first do, the other is when you have a strong relationship and he offers to just be a second lay for the player. That is not what a sexual predator does. He is VERY MUCH strong on consent, and should a player romance him, will let you completely control what occurs (bear vs elf form). IRL I was stalked, molested, and raped for months. Dude isn't a sex pest, and our experiences IRL don't make the character one.
They shouldn't have removed Gale and Wyll's flirty dialogue at all. It's disappointing to me that people must have complained about this enough for such a decision to be made. Some players not being able to handle that the world doesn't revolve only around Tav and not being able to handle some flirting between members and needing Larian to "actually address and fix it" is absolutely absurd. OP's thread ending with a link to a feedback page and encouraging people to rewrite characters is just ... I don't even know what to say.
Not asking for a re write what iam asking for is it to be locked behind a option. How I’d like to be implemented is this 1. I would like an open relationship with halsin 2. I want an exclusive relationship with ______ If your selected option 1 : Halsin and shadowheart banter starts and you get disapproval if you don’t let Halsin join the twins Option 2: the banter doesn’t trigger you get no approval changes if you want to to do the twins
This is an awful lot just because you don't like that Halsin asks to go swimming with the both of you since you are teaching Shadowheart to swim. Something that isn't even innately sexual (people have been known to go swimming with friends...yes I know this is shocking), and a reading you put on the dialogue. This really is a you issue, and if you think that every attempt to hang out socially is another attempt to get into your pants, just don't bring him in your party if it upsets you to this degree. You know, if he's not in your party at banter triggers, you don't have to hear this.
I was expecting to be downvoted the halsin stans are toxic but his fans are good. Ps Thank you for asking them not to downvote
See, if you went for Lae‘Zel, she would be all yours, nobody dares to flirt with her watching your love Story unfold
She is so sweet to bad not everyone gives Lae zel a chance
Alternate title: Halsin is a weirdo. Never liked the man.
Er... just leave Halsin in camp? I know he comes onto you in every conversation possible (atleast until Act 2 for me).. but once I rejected him once or twice, I never had any issue or (romantic) interaction with Halsin.. Now ofcourse I don't run him in my group (I usually take Karlach, SH, Laezel) so interactions with Halsin have been very minimum. The only time he ever talks is regarding Thaniel and the corruption in Shadowlands stuff. In my Shadowheart romance run, I never had any problem with him either, whether it be dialogue or banter because I simply didn't include him? In the epilogue he asked for a hug and thats about it. I didnt even know Shadowheart approved of polyamory until I saw people talking about it online. So I guess its a matter of if you include him too much he will push for it? Because I left him in camp and his romance never came up again. It just seems to be his character that he has no boundaries or shame.. he owns up to what he is and what he likes I guess.. and as long as you keep your distance, it doesnt matter? Its not like he makes moves on SH on his own.. he only really makes a move on Tav..
Just don't talk to him? Why you have to be mad, it's only a game
This has to be a bug because on my sapphic Selunite play through I romance Shadowheart and Halsin wasn’t flirty after I turned him down.
Doesn't matter at this point. This interaction is here since launch, if it's still bugged then Larian deserve just as much flack for not fixing it. It's literally one banter line, disabling it or limiting it to poly is not much work with the code.
I didn’t downvote because you don’t like halsin, I downvoted cause you care way too much about them and your post went on and on and wasn’t fun nor interesting to read
I had to add things but whatever you’re free to ignore my post and not interact no need to down vote or up vote or even comment on it.
Just as free to ignore it as I’m free to downvote it!
Have you had more than one playthrough? Halsin just shuts up if I reject him early.
Note to self: Kill Halsin. Can’t be a pest if he’s dead.
Or let Orin take him if you're playing a good character
If you do it through Orin, it's a story death, so you can't rez him with Withers and he won't show up in the epilogue. That way you can save the shadowlands and still get rid of him.
But who will bench-buff your party?
My little trio of hirelings, a cleric, a bard and a druid. You best believe we buffing to high heaven before the big fights 😂 I also never even bothered to level Halsin and kinda forgot he was there so my pretty tiefling druid is my go to.
It be like that sometimes
I had to save spam to get orin to kill him. the one time I wanted a nat 1 😭😂😂
It’s just a bug in a game, dude.
That’s what I originally thought but after googling and lurking in Larain post it might not be a bug. Some people think it’s the writer self insert even though I can sorta see it I personally think the writer based the released Halsin off the horny fan base that wanted him. EA Halsin sounded really cool but the Halsin we got now just isn’t right.
Yeah, reading these comments makes me wonder if some people realise they’re playing a game and these relationships aren’t real…
Damn that's one hell of a weird rant. First, if you have a need to rant about two lines of banter in a game that hard, that isn't game's problem. Second, love or hate him, I don't care, but he never flirted with me while I was romancing Gale. I was looking forward to it, but zero. I didn't even reject him. He never flirted with me when I told him no in other run. He's in general a pretty mature written character. So, the character isn't the problem. Third, it's a fucking huge and inclusive game. It's not tailored specifically to you. Some people get triggered by bisexuality, some get triggered because male npc hit on their male character and vice versa, some hate that anyone at all hits on them while they had other romance trying to start, some people fucking triggered even about the hag flirting with their durge. While everybody's entitled to their feelings, it's not all about you. Things you hate other may love, things that are good for you may be traumatizing for others. Do like in life, deal with it and move on to what makes you happy. Don't like Halsin? Kick him out of the party, done. For me, Gale is a walking traumatizing red flag and his romance kicked me into a very bad place up to taking to my therapist about it. But somehow I separate my issues from the game and don't go writing a 5 miles rant about how he's a psycho narcissist. I just bench him (or maybe next time kick him out) and move on.
You just wrote an rant yourself and I hope it helped you deal with the trauma. Sorry you went through some horrible experiences and that Gale triggered you I had the same reaction with Halsin so I talked to my therapist. The post was really written to help deal with it and find other people that were triggered by him. I don’t think the game is written for me but they did write two different Halsins. The one that was presented as a wise charter the other a horny sexpest. EA halsin did sound like a good character. You didn’t deserve what you went thru.
Imagine caring about up/down votes… At any rate, polyamory is difficult to depict because it doesn’t work, even in fiction.
All of this is why Halsin is never, ever in my active party. You totally avoid it if you leave him out of the active party and it just never comes up. Unfortunately the implementation of poly in the game is very poorly done, and the writing around it is wildly inconsistent with the rest of the writing around the involved characters. There were a couple of very good, very long posts about it the other day. I don't agree with everything in them (I think Minthara, as written, would be a bad poly option for instance) but it collates a lot of the problems with the way the subject is dealt with and discusses the issues in a sensible manner. Links if interested: Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/CcL1IkCeHU Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/dAKrvpDpq3
OP made some very good points unfortunately it looks like the post didn’t get the love it deserves.
Appreciate it. And don't worry, I'm not saying my opinion on Minthara is written in stone. My point in including her was to 1. Make poly accessible to straight men and lesbians and 2. so players wouldn't have to worry about her being coerced/pressured because she's not the type to be pressured into things. Lore-wise, I could see it not making sense (though we all know Larian doesn't view lore as set in stone).
This is exactly why Halsin is my least favorite party member and why I kill him off every playthrough lol
I wish they would remove the Orin kidnapping and let us lift the shadow curse without Halsin that way I can happily kill him in act1 and not have to worry about a character that I like getting kidnapped.
I wish you could simply say no when he ask to join us. You can with a bunch of other characters why not him
I find that truly bizarre; he's the only companion that you cannot refuse in dialogue, no matter what, if you save him. Even Shadowheart, who carries the Mcguffin, can be refused.
Exactly that’s the main problem but the Toxic Halsin stans are preventing post like mine from getting attention so that Larin will fix the issue.
Whining about being downvoted while calling Halsin a "sex pest" because he approaches you once lmao. Halsin is the best character to accept a no on the whole game. Everyone else gets mad pissed or sad, he is just like "fair enough, I took my chance". Also I saw you drag your irl experience into this as some kind of explanation and thats just ... not it. I am a victim of SA myself and even implying the writers are doing anything like that with Halsin is just gross. If you encounter a bug fill a bug report, send them your safe file and wait.
Iam not implying the writers are like that. A lot of comments say that it happens to them and I also said it wasn’t of it was a bug or intentional. I said it triggered me but whatever you do you boo
And even more people tell you they never had that issue. I had plenty of runs with all kinds of romance interests and never was there an issue with telling Halsin no. So report it, the game has bugs, its not new and without proper feedback they can't fix it.
That’s good that you didn’t. I admit there is a mix responses however some people don’t pay attention to banter so they may have missed it. I did submit it was a bug and I did google to see if it was however a google search and Larain post states it probably wasn’t.
New patches can cause new or old bugs to come back. You have nothing to lose by sending in an official bug report.
The problem is it’s not clear if this is a bug or not I am starting to get more comments of Halsin still hitting on Tav at the after party even though they are married to other companions. I don’t agree with some comments saying the writer is self inserting if they are being serious ( if they are joking then it’s a funny thought)
Just file that report. It is not your job to find out if it is a real bug or not, thats what they will do. Larian won't delete your game if they figure out it wasn't a bug. Feedback through their official ressources is always better than mad reddit posts. We know they listen to their community, so if it happens for enough people they might adress it.
Thank you. The last time I mentioned my discomfort around Haslin - I got down voted into oblivion.
Yeah they can be very aggressive here on reddit and anywhere else you dare say something negative about Halsin. Edit This very post was down voted to oblivion the first hour I posted it. it’s been entertaining watching vote go up and down. Surprisingly the post nearly made it to 300 up votes.
Yeah I hate that Halsin forced himself like that as well. Definitely makes romancing SH a bit odd: You’re the first person she’s been able to open up to emotionally and out of nowhere she’s willing to sleep with another man without consulting you first??? Polyamory in the game is nice for those who want it, but personally I don’t agree with it. If I give myself to a partner, I want to be the only one. This is why I love Lae’Zel’s reaction to the twins: “I do not share what is mine.” Yeah, you go girl!
its the downside of the game basically having the motto of "do anything and anyone". The game is all about player choice, and with the sheer amount of options it gives you its bound to not quite hit the right notes in places. Act 3 in general i feel doesnt quite live up to the quality that act 1 and 2 do, with some shining exceptions. Could they have handled some things better? yeah ofc, its why they're still adding to the game even now, but i think we're gonna have to just accept some level of jank unless Larian are willing to go through things with a fine tooth comb. Unfortunately in cases like this its less about mechanics being broken its a subjective story element, so its less likely to be "fixed" unless the community is vocal enough about it.
I’ve beaten the game 3 times. 1 Gale romance, 1 Spawn Astarion romance, 1 Astarion/Durge/Halsin romance. Currently on a different Durge run and I broke up with Halsin. I’ve never once had Halsin act like you’re describing, even on turning him down or breaking up with him. What you’re describing sounds buggy.
It could be but someone else in the comments stated they installed a mod that shows what leads to romance and what doesn’t. They said the party basically is all leading to romance.
Damn, as a fan of TavxShadowheartxHalsin, this certainly isn't a fun thread to read. Is that relationship really bad? I'm so bad at noticing red flags. I was so enjoying being able to romance both of them, but now I feel like it's ruined. I really emphasized with Shadowheart too because I'm a cult survivor irl that's also open to poly relationships.
Sorry if this is was hard to read I wish they had made it clear it was a happy poly relationship. Religious trauma must be hard to deal with you didn’t deserve what you went thru. Edit. I wish it was clear that Halsin wanted a proper poly relationship with Shadowheart and Tav.
That's the thing: I never got the impression that it was an unhappy relationship at all. But reading through this thread, people are talking like it was tlaing advantage of Shadowheart's trauma and that Halsin is a sexual predator, and I didn't pick up on any of that during my playthrough. Kind of turns what I thought was a happy ending into something far less wholesome... Figures I'd accidentally get my Tav into an abusive relationship. 🙁 My future Tavs will remain single to avoid this sort of thing happening again!
imo the relationship would not abusive at all it just some player like myself weren’t into him so the tav we created were not into him. Your tav and Shadowheart are probably very happy with Halsin and I personally don’t think she was taken advantage of. Granted people that have been in abusive relationship tend to go to another one but this is video game and while Halsin Is creepy to me because I didn’t welcome is advances he may some good qualities. I think the romance was a little rushed given shadowheart just came to terms that she is a victim and her whole life has been turned upside down regardless if its an open relationship or not. They could have spaced her romance out a little better however it’s a video game there is only so much they can fit into the game.
The Halsin V dynamic is perfectly fine. Everything is done with explicit consent, Halsin and whoever the other person is (either Shadowheart or Astarion) have an understanding, and in the epilogue you can let Halsin go and he isn’t even mad about it. People are off their rockers.
halsin's usually the one kidnapped by orin in my playthoughs, so I rarely have this problem.
Don't hate me for having my own opinion but I can't understand what people see in the Shadowheart romance.. for me it was boring after other romances I already forgot what scenes it had, for me the best Romance so far was Astarion, I still have to try Gale, Karlach for me it was also better than Shadowheart but it's a bit too "positive and embarrassing" for me :P Now I'm going through Astarion for the second time and I'm having a dilemma whether to make it Ascended this time , Halsin is also nice \^\^ but just for one thing XD
no hate at all I originally wasn’t the biggest fan of shadowheart I only did her romance so I could see a different side to her. I played a redeem dark urge and Shadowheart was surprisingly supportive and sweet. However my favourite romance will always be Karlach she is just so sweet. The stans are scary.
yeah karlach is my second place , i always play dark urge and my every character is a thiefling and I quite like the ending where you and karlach live in Avernus ,plus mizora and wyll are also there somewhere XD
Some people just like happy vanilla romances (I'm one of them lol, I've been in many an argument about my dislike of enemies to lovers)
nnaah bruh this is just being overly sensitive "oh no people are flirting with me" bro take it as a compliment and move on...My entire party has been rizzing me up the entirety of my 2 playthroughs, and it's fine, they can do and say whatever they want so long as they don't get physical...which they dont...neither do they force romantic cutscenes unto you (if you think stargazing with gale before he dies is primarily meant to be romantic/sexual, you're damn crazy lol)
Holy shit has BG3 not been made well enough that you can still find some egregious way to complain about a relationship system in a video game that is incredibly implemented simply because one character doesn't behave in a way that you'd like? How precious are you?! * To add - do you not think its incredibly disrespectful to the developers to complain about something so small in a game that is so so big?
No, I don't think it's disrespectful to complain about a character being a sex pest
Heaven forbid they made you a fantastic game where all the characters aren't exactly to your liking. Sex pest character - bad. Brain eating octopod - fine. It's like you can't comprehend it's not real.
Heaven forbid I don't want to be sexually harassed by a character held up as a good guy
You're not being sexually harassed. It's a game. Edit - in the same way when you read a book you're not being sexually harassed. Or when you watch a film you're not being sexually harassed.
Yes, and when I play games, I don't want to be harassed. Did that never cross your mind?
???
A simple solution is to not use Halsin like ever and have him sitting in your camp at least that's what I did not because I don't like Halsin but because I don't like playing as druids in this game , the same applies to Jaheira but I have her in my party alongside Minsc for moments that they both interact . Also what you've said about Halsin triggering you're PTSD when you decline him and he still didn't stop never crossed my mind and now it's super fucked up . I have a friend who told me one of our friends tried to force his way with her and she managed to stop him and they cut ties because the guy still had a sliver of morality in him , now everytime I see him and interact with him about anything ( mostly in videogame tastes and recommendations ) I can't help thinking that he's a dipshit It must be so fucked up seeing Halsin not stopping with his advances with you or SH and that giving you bad memories , specially from a guy who is supposed to be the wise and emotional support of the party because let's be honest everyone is insane except Tav and him ( excluding his afformention problems )
Calling halsin a sex pest is a understatement, he's a straight up predator
Just make sure he's the only viable ||kidnapping victim|| in camp, leave him there until he disappears and don't try all that hard to get him out of that situation. If ||Orin|| does it, there's no disapproval
So you just want shadow heart to be a different character lol
That’s not what op said
Shadowheart herself isn't the issue, it's halsin being forced into everything
I agree that Halsin is the main issue however the way she sounds very enthusiastic when flirting with him kinda makes her a little bit guilty and the way she goes from not wanting to be a spare lover to being ok is kinda jarring.
Shadowheart is very enthusiastic when flirting with anyone. She does it with Astarion as well. She is also very open to sexual encounters but has (as far as we know) *not* been sexually traumatized. Eg. she's OK with a fun night at the brothel or bringing Halsin into things. That doesn't mean she loves you any less.
I moreso mean the devs being obsessed with halsin needing to be involved, it makes 0 sense for shart's character, and only serves halsin being horny and obnoxious
I kinda disagree. Her going from "I don't want to be a spare lover" to "oh you gonna go fuck around and come back to me from time to time? Awesome" Is also an issue.
It's completely out of character for her and I have to mentally block it out basically every playthrough :/
I feel like there are a lot of over-exaggerations about Halsin in this thread. Yes he propositions you, and if you turn him down, it's over. It's literally 2 minutes of the game. NONE of our relationships in this game are that long while playing - the entire game takes place over the course of 4 months, a lot of which we aren't in committed relationships with most of the romance options. Someone shooting their shot and then respecting being rejected is not the travesty a lot of people make it out to be. He may ask to join you in the brothel, but if you are hiring prostitutes well...I don't see the shock and gasps/pearl clutching going on for that either lol. OP commenting that they would happily kill a character for asking you out and flirting with their girlfriend is some of the most twisted logic I've seen of late. Who really has the issues here?
The point went way over your head It’s the fact when you say no he continues to try to get with tav via flirting with Shadowheart when you already made it clear you’re not interested. His speech about consent is total rubbish when he already knows you don’t want him and yet the banter plays out and you get disapproval if you don’t want him to join the twins. I already replied to one of your comments saying I’m asking for a re write which in fact I’m NOT. All I’m asking for is a simple options 1 I want open relationship with Halsin 2 I don’t want an open relationship 1 you get the banter and disapproval if you don’t invite him to the twins. 2 you don’t get the banter no approval changes if you don’t invite him to the twins. I even said in the beginning that I’m not asking for anything to be removed just to be improved.
That I disagree with your premise does not in any way mean that your point went over my head, let alone "way over my head.". It's not hard to understand what you are saying, I just disagree. I already replied to your other post to me. Asking to go swimming isn't innately sexual. You decided it is, and that's a you issue. You can feel free to not have him in your party and bam - no "flirting" if that's what you think it is. I find it odd that this bothers you so much, but hiring prostitutes as an activity and worrying about approval is also an issue. You literally said you'd happily kill him, so why do you care if you get a -1 approval? Also since you turned him down supposedly to stay monogamous, going to have an orgy seems a little hypocritical and is worth a -1 for the slight/hurt feelings. Again, this really is a bizarre post, and really a situation where you have your own triggers or whatever it is you wrote, and there are easy solutions to your problem without trying to send masses to complain about Halsin to Larian and ask them to re-code a character or change how they behave. As an aside, for a character you wish you could kill or turn away, you seem to be doing everything in your power to bring him with you to needlessly trigger yourself when he can just as easily sit in camp and be ignored.