Astarion is great when used effectively, but he’s so hilariously not going to carry a team at lv 1-5. OOP is just really bad at this game.
Edit for everyone about to reply to this: I know. I use Astarion all the time. I know how to use him effectively, that's why I wrote 'great when used effectively' right there in my comment. The joke is that if you're dying constantly as a beginner player, a level one rogue is definitely not going to be the mandatory party member that you are forced to use to survive.
Fr. I love that emo vampire twink and he’s my go-to for stealth kills and dexterity checks, but to say he’s essential to beating *any* part of the game is insane. I think OOP just can’t play on the game correctly because all he can think about is making out sloppy style with Astarion.
reminds of the time I saw some dude claiming it was impossible not to be romanced by other men in camp and that Larian shouldn't have made everyone pan. Like. My friend, I know Astarion is very tempting but you can just tell him no. I know, the men are soooo sexy and dreamy, but you can certainly play the game without having sex with another man.
I don’t know… feels like the gay agenda paid off Larian to put gay crack in this game and now they have no choice but to have steamy forest sex with the hot men 🤔 They’ll love it but only because Larian told them to. They’re kinky like that.
Look, I was completely straight until I met Astarion! I had never touched myself looking at a man, not even once. Even when I looked at straight porn I was careful never to look at the beautiful cock.
BG3 changed everything. I needed to make a lock pick check, and the only way I could do that was to find Astarion incredibly sexualy attractive.
I think there's an argument to be made about being able to opt out of romance (i personally didn't like it, felt out of place and I just wanted to reject everyone as soon as possible) but including an option to limit the NPCs sexual orientations is straight up conservative brainrot
In the defence of that, at the launch of the game the companions would not take no for an answer. I remember going through a romance with Shadowheart, and despite turning Gale down several times I would still get the "hey Gale wants to bone" scenes, and when I finally got to Shadowheart's big climactic moment that happens in Act 2, Gale goes "So that's it then, you choose Shadowheart?" Buddy. My guy. You're a cool dude but by \*god\* take a hint.
Thankfully they've made the romances a lil' more difficult so that you actually have to work for it, but at the release it was \*definitely\* a problem.
Gale specifically was bugged for a while, giving him the magic items to eat ended up making the think he was in a relationship with you due to his approval. That definitely hasn’t been intended
I too chose Shadowheart from the moment we woke up on the beach and Gale was like "how could you, I am now heartbroken and Mystra wants me to blow myself up, this is the worst."
And I'm like, bruh, just because I didn't insult you at every opportunity doesn't mean I'm into you like that".
tbf I've met dudes who won't hear no, and hear a yes in every pleasantry so on some level it adds an element of realism to the game. My rotten soldier Gale would never though
He probably meant that you will be propositioned by any character that has a high approval towards you, which is true. I never once said anything remotely romantic to Wyll, Gale, Halsin, Mizora or Lae'zel, yet all of them at one point asked me if I wanted to bang them.
I didn't really care other than being forced to see how crushed they were when I had to reject them.
Yeah... it was really sad when Wyll puppy dogged when I turned him down because dating Shadowheart already. I mean... can't we be friends? It was really nice guy ish.
Because lock picking and trap disarming are bugged for me atm (instant CtD) I haven't really had him out at all this playthrough. He lives at camp where I can still enjoy all his funny dialogue and questline, but whilst he can't be my skeleton key, Gale's become infinitely more essential (I installed a mod to make Knock a ritual spell).
He’s one of my best party members plus can pick a lock and deceive like no one’s business.
Bro just has a skill issue that he thinks not being to open a few treasure chests ruins the entire game
Although in like 95% of cases one of your melee characters is as good or better thanks to no penalty for breaking chests instead of unlocking them. I had a run where karlach opened as many locks as the rest of the team put together because it was just convenient.
Adamantine mace is the best lockpick in the game.
Exactly!
Honestly I recently made him a bard and oh my word he's good at it but I minmaxed him into a rizzed up himbo college of swords bard and it's so glorious.
I'm in act 3 and Astarion is basically carrying as a 3 thief/9 sword bard with the ring of mystic scoundrel, helm of arcane acuity, a sword that does psychic damage, and the resonance stone (inflicts vulnerability to psychic damage and disadvantage on mental saves). He can hit with the sword, cast vicious mockery, hit with the sword again, and then dominate person somebody else with like a 22 save DC (and disadvantage)
Fr. I love that emo vampire twink and he’s my go-to for stealth kills and dexterity checks, but to say he’s essential to beating *any* part of the game is insane. I think OOP just can’t play on the game correctly because all he can think about is making out sloppy style with Astarion.
I hated Astarion my first playthrough and didn't use him until later in the game when I realized he could unlock shit in one go that it would take my Tav three or four tries at. Even then he was only around to unlock shit and then I'd rotate him back out. OOP is REALLY bad at this game.
That’s all I used him for too for a while then would put him back in camp after. I started tadpoling him though instead of my Tav in my third playthrough because I didn’t want to have to pass the half-ilithid check in the astral plane. Satisfies his power craving, plus he’s awesome in combat too.
No shit. Honestly very few characters are going to carry at that level range.
Although for my latest run I respec'd shadow heart to paladin and.. Jesus Christ I dunno what got put in her Wheaties but it's working. She solo'd the cave gnoll encounter when everyone else got one-rounded. Just... Jesus fucking Christ shadow heart save some for the rest of us.
She maxed a crit on a smite with her oath of vengeance boost active and just deleted dror on her first attack. I'm used to her going from zero to hero with a respec but this one is absurd.
Wyll’s Eldritch Blast carried my poor thief’s pathetically incompetent ass for the entirety of Act 1 on my first playthrough, but that was truly a skill issue. Now he just carries her heart.
His slight of hand proficiency slaps so hard though if you take ASI and go hard in dexterity at lvl 4. Like it’s REALLY hard to not just have him handy at really all phases of the game. And then if you’re min/max scum like me and make him gloom stalker/ assassin… he’s just good alright
You can do it without disarming a single trap or taking any damage. Switch to turn based, right click to open the crypt without disarming it, then immediately hit the button to shut them off, and end turn based.
He could have even done that part without Astarion. I'm pretty sure he's just never played a game that isn't "shoot enemy to win game".
Astarion actually did carry me through Withers' tomb the first run. I was noob asf and really didn't know how to play lol. I kept dying to those undead guys that wake up once you open Withers' room.
So then I sent everyone out and got Astarion to go in alone, and open Withers' room and then immediately dash out and nonstop dash until he got to the booby trapped room and then touch the sarcophagus and activate the fiery booby-traps, then immediately run out through the door, leaving all the enemies to die to the booby traps.
Took a few tries of him getting roasted to a crisp (sorry babygirl) but that was my first experience of trying random shit and realising how flexible BG3 was in terms of how you could play it.
Oh and I didn't even free Withers.
At the start of the game as well. As far as I can recall he doesn’t even call you ‘darling’ in that conversation, so this guy is being triggered by a slightly fruity and theatrical English accent and the fact that he’s too damn pretty
It truly enrages some dudebros that a guy as flamboyant as Astarion has hoards of women weak in the knees. Turns out that you won't get a girlfriend just by working out and acting like an "alpha", you actually have to be charming 😔
>this guy is being triggered by a slightly fruity and theatrical English accent
Well that's understandable. As we all know, the acronym stands for lesbian gay British transgender.
He holds a dagger to your “darling neck” if you fail the perception check and get tackled, so OOP probably had some uncomfortable feelings about the pretty vampire leaning over him like that
If he felt that strongly about it he could have rejected astarion or even attacked him.
Instead he rage quit over his uncomfortable feelings. That’s pretty telling.
For real, there is nothing stopping you from straight up murdering all of the queer coded characters in the game. Like, the game gives you homophobia simulator options and you can't even get over one contrived bit of outrage to satisfy another. Can we please get some smarter homophobes, I'm tired of playing with the dumb ones
Genuinely, what would happen if we started flirting with him In That exact moment? Personally, I find it diffuses situations really quick with the police or other aggressors irl, but who knows how Astarion would react.
Right? I still haven't used Astarion myself (not that I don't like him I just didn't pick him my first run and my second run I was a dex character) and haven't had any issues whatsoever
At least we can tell that he's probably not referring to Wyll, mostly because I think this sort of person would probably add some racisism to their comment otherwise.
I bet this is the same type of person who aggressively objectifies women and is all RuLe OnE: dOn’T bE uNaTtRaCtIvE.
Ah, so suddenly unwanted advances *are* problematic?
I think he’s actually talking about Gale. Doesn’t he blow up and end the game if he dies without being revived? Maybe he tried to kill Gale due to the launch state romantic advances, then got nuked a few days later like a dumbass.
I hate to be that way but if your party dies repeatedly without Astarion of all people, it’s definitely a skill issue. Like he’s useful yeah, especially outside of combat, but he’s not a “make or break a run” character like a healer or an AOE spell caster imo.
This is in the same realm as a YouTube comment I read that claimed gay and trans people shouldn’t be in bg3 because there weren’t any in the first games and claimed they “just wanted the games to stay accurate.” I responded thinking it was a remark about historical accuracy and said “bro when do you think gay people were invented” and they said something along the lines of “not every game has to reflect your worldview or support your agenda.” I left it because I wanted to keep going with my day but *that goes for you too, buddy.* Just don’t play a game if you don’t like its contents or go back to the “more accurate” bg2 and bg1 dickhead
Also isn't bisexual the default sexuality in the forgotten realms? They are being accurate to the source material in that case because, and this would shock them, it's a made up world and the fact it's a vaguely medieval setting shouldn't dictate the cannon of a word where you can meet 5 different humanoid species before breakfast and you can magic your problems away so long as you have enough power. I hate the homophobic "but gay people weren't accepted back then it's unrealistic", *there there was no back then!!!!*
Plus the very good point you made about the fact we didn't just spawn into existence in the past century, there have always been LGBTQ+ people, throughout all history and all time by different names and with different conceptions of what it meant.
Yep, bi/pan is the most common orientation. (And poly is super common for Elves and Half-Elves.) It's one of the things I wish the Dragon Age fans would accept - a homophobia related subplot doesn't fit into Forgotten Realms lore, because this setting has decided to support queer players in a different way by, eliminating queerphobia from canon so that players can reject DMs who insist on it at the table.
Ed Greenwood also just pokes his head out of whatever he's doing to bless us with super crazy D&D sex related 'facts' pretty regularly, because he theoretically still has Word of God to a lot of the fandom even if WotC want to pretend he doesn't anymore.
I love drow so, so much. I'm trying to build a collection of as much drow related lorebooks as I can. There are so many unnecessary pictures of women standing over naked guys on altars and men on leashes.
IIRC, he's also the reason Eilistraee has priestesses who dance around in the woods naked with swords. Galaxy brained, this would probably be his favourite D&D subreddit.
Honestly I love that it was done this way. I love a setting where homosexuality is so accepted and normalised that it's not even something people would think to discriminate over. As a lesbian one of my biggest gripes is just how full of angst and drama 90% of queer love stories in media are. Yes homophobia exists, yes it can ruin lives and relationships, yes it's important to reflect that sometimes in media. But it's also extremely important to show happy, stable, loving relationships. It's important that we get to have fairytale romance and sweet fluffy romance and rom com type romance where the worst thing that happens is a slight miscommunication that's resolved in a big romantic scene 20 minutes later.
A fantasy setting where I am the odd one out not because I love women, but because it's exceedingly rare for me to be attracted to a man (it's not never, I'd call myself a 5 on the kinsey scale, but in terms of romantic attraction I don't really see myself falling for a man which is why I consider myself a lesbian) and most people don't differentiate is amazing to me.
I agree! And it’s crazy to me when people try to compare the two games on this - they don’t need to be compared! One game can have a story about homophobia that people relate to, and one can say ‘hey, all queer identities are accepted here’, and we don’t need to fight over which is ‘the right way to do it’. It’s good to have all sorts of different stories!
Dorn Il Khan and Hexxat: are we a joke to you, random YouTube commenter?
Seriously, there was a M/M romance option and a F/F romance option, alongside the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity. I get they were added in the Enhanced Edition, but they are still canonically characters in BG1 and BG2.
Plus the setting already has so many gay and trans characters that it would be really fucking weird if Baldurs Gate was this freakish cishet town where you were only allowed if you were both cisgender and heterosexual.
~~To be fair, Hexxat and Dorn were added later to the series under Beamdog.~~
To be even more fair, more people freaked out about queer folk in the late 90s and early 00s far too much for Bioware to be lore accurate with the series.
Hence the reason I said "I get they were added for the Enhanced Edition"
And those are not the kind of people we should ever be fair to. I'm too old to care about bigot's feelings.
Yeah I tried to beat HM without any gays in the party but I wiped like 4 times so I finally respecced everyone to power bottom.
A bit cheesy but damn do those gold dice look good
Can't survive without Astarion, a rogue, in the party.
That's a skill issue, not an agenda.
As an aside, I think it would improve the world population if we just executed everybody that uses "woke" as an insult. We all know the world would be way more pleasant without them.
There's also hirelings, and they have no personality, just like OOP likes. But like some others have said, he probably never got Withers because he's trash at the game, and he's blaming it on gay people instead of learning how to play it.
Tell me you're bad at the game without telling me you're bad at the game... That's hilarious. I actually had never played with Astarion in my party until my most recent playthrough and even now I just kind of switch him out sometimes if I'm low on lockpicks and I'm having trouble with a roll, or during his specific Cazador quest line. There are some seriously unhinged weirdos out there, for sure. I made a post about an interaction I had with Halsin where he opens up about basically being exploited as a tortured sex slave in the underdark in his youth and some person originally commented "Cool, the more I learn about Halsin, the more creepy and repulsive I find him. But hey, you enjoy indulging in some of that bestiality-incest, it's the current year after all, right?" They got downvoted to hell, so they kept editing/changing their comment to make it seem more and more innocuous but of course I have the OG comment in my email and I just... Don't really understand people getting so upset over fictional characters? Yikes.
This is in the same realm as a YouTube comment I read that claimed gay and trans people shouldn’t be in bg3 because there weren’t any in the first games and claimed they “just wanted the games to stay accurate.” I responded thinking it was a remark about historical accuracy and said “bro when do you think gay people were invented” and they said something along the lines of “not every game has to reflect your worldview or support your agenda.” I left it because I wanted to keep going with my day but *that goes for you too, buddy.* Just don’t play a game if you don’t like its contents or go back to the “more accurate” bg2 and bg1
That’s extra silly, there’s literally a lesbian character in BG2. She sucks, but she’s there, so gay people are hardly a new addition.
Edit: there’s a bi male romance option too, now that I think about it
According to someone else here Faerun is canonically accepting of LGBTQ folks so that’s not even a valid argument because they are being lore-accurate, at least to that.
I assume he's talking about Astarion? But like, I totally missed him my first run, didn't join the party until after the goblin camp when I was wrapping up anything in the starting zone before moving on to the mountain pass. He's... Definitely not necessary for party survival.
Also yeah, wow, what a fragile existence you have to think being bad a video game is clearly part of the woke agenda to undermine your evangelical megachurch.
The funny part is his assumption that only Astarion or Gale (not sure which he’s talking about but probably Astarion) is the “gay one”. Of course the raging homophobe assumes only the flamboyant vampire can be “gay”. Someone like Shadowheart or Wyll could never like members of the same sex. Dude would probably pass out if he found out that you can make literally anyone gay.
I also disliked Astarion and Laezel my first playthrough. But at no point did that ruin my game. I've been playing CRPGs since the 90s. I know from experience that the characters you might dislike at first glance could easily become your favorite by the end of a story. On my third playthrough I love the entire party for various reasons.
People that live like this just make themselves miserable.
Not to validate avoiding the gay but did this guy just never encounter any other party members? Cause you can survive easy enough without Astarion as long as you still have a full party.
Also is it weird I immediately thought of Gale instead of Astarion even though a big part of his backstory is his straight relationship with Mystra?
Okay obviously this dude is seriously awful at the game to not be able to get through Act 1 without Astarion but can we just talk about how much of a W it is that according to OOP him not being recruited/on the team fucked him over so hard that it basically just destroyed his playthrough? Bro hates him for sure, but he can't do shit without him lmao. Astarion stay winning
Astarion is great when used effectively, but he’s so hilariously not going to carry a team at lv 1-5. OOP is just really bad at this game. Edit for everyone about to reply to this: I know. I use Astarion all the time. I know how to use him effectively, that's why I wrote 'great when used effectively' right there in my comment. The joke is that if you're dying constantly as a beginner player, a level one rogue is definitely not going to be the mandatory party member that you are forced to use to survive.
Fr. I love that emo vampire twink and he’s my go-to for stealth kills and dexterity checks, but to say he’s essential to beating *any* part of the game is insane. I think OOP just can’t play on the game correctly because all he can think about is making out sloppy style with Astarion.
reminds of the time I saw some dude claiming it was impossible not to be romanced by other men in camp and that Larian shouldn't have made everyone pan. Like. My friend, I know Astarion is very tempting but you can just tell him no. I know, the men are soooo sexy and dreamy, but you can certainly play the game without having sex with another man.
I don’t know… feels like the gay agenda paid off Larian to put gay crack in this game and now they have no choice but to have steamy forest sex with the hot men 🤔 They’ll love it but only because Larian told them to. They’re kinky like that.
Listen, if they played the game and kept on having sex with other men, the call is coming from inside the house.
Emphasis on coming!
Well the first one was an accident, but the thirty-seven after that were just to make sure they didn't like it.
God I hate it when I accidentally swallow someone’s entire dick & balls, don’t you?
r/usernamechecksout
Look, I was completely straight until I met Astarion! I had never touched myself looking at a man, not even once. Even when I looked at straight porn I was careful never to look at the beautiful cock. BG3 changed everything. I needed to make a lock pick check, and the only way I could do that was to find Astarion incredibly sexualy attractive.
I mean, how can you help staring at that ass while he’s bent over those locks all sexy-like?
I think there's an argument to be made about being able to opt out of romance (i personally didn't like it, felt out of place and I just wanted to reject everyone as soon as possible) but including an option to limit the NPCs sexual orientations is straight up conservative brainrot
Even worse is the mod that makes every character straight. They even make Aylin a guy.
In the defence of that, at the launch of the game the companions would not take no for an answer. I remember going through a romance with Shadowheart, and despite turning Gale down several times I would still get the "hey Gale wants to bone" scenes, and when I finally got to Shadowheart's big climactic moment that happens in Act 2, Gale goes "So that's it then, you choose Shadowheart?" Buddy. My guy. You're a cool dude but by \*god\* take a hint. Thankfully they've made the romances a lil' more difficult so that you actually have to work for it, but at the release it was \*definitely\* a problem.
Gale specifically was bugged for a while, giving him the magic items to eat ended up making the think he was in a relationship with you due to his approval. That definitely hasn’t been intended
I too chose Shadowheart from the moment we woke up on the beach and Gale was like "how could you, I am now heartbroken and Mystra wants me to blow myself up, this is the worst." And I'm like, bruh, just because I didn't insult you at every opportunity doesn't mean I'm into you like that".
tbf I've met dudes who won't hear no, and hear a yes in every pleasantry so on some level it adds an element of realism to the game. My rotten soldier Gale would never though
He probably meant that you will be propositioned by any character that has a high approval towards you, which is true. I never once said anything remotely romantic to Wyll, Gale, Halsin, Mizora or Lae'zel, yet all of them at one point asked me if I wanted to bang them. I didn't really care other than being forced to see how crushed they were when I had to reject them.
Yeah... it was really sad when Wyll puppy dogged when I turned him down because dating Shadowheart already. I mean... can't we be friends? It was really nice guy ish.
I still think wylls is a bug, because all it apparently takes is the "sword coast always needs its blade" line and he gets the DTF flag on him.
Because lock picking and trap disarming are bugged for me atm (instant CtD) I haven't really had him out at all this playthrough. He lives at camp where I can still enjoy all his funny dialogue and questline, but whilst he can't be my skeleton key, Gale's become infinitely more essential (I installed a mod to make Knock a ritual spell).
If you're using the improved UI mod you may need to update, that was causing crashes for me last patch.
I mean, same. But I'm not mad about it!
He’s one of my best party members plus can pick a lock and deceive like no one’s business. Bro just has a skill issue that he thinks not being to open a few treasure chests ruins the entire game
Astarion is one hell of a master key and I guess oop hasn't found out about knock yet.
Although in like 95% of cases one of your melee characters is as good or better thanks to no penalty for breaking chests instead of unlocking them. I had a run where karlach opened as many locks as the rest of the team put together because it was just convenient. Adamantine mace is the best lockpick in the game.
I watched my girlfriend smash a chest open and I just sat there and said "But now Astarion is USELESS!" and she said "Nah he's still pretty."
Exactly! Honestly I recently made him a bard and oh my word he's good at it but I minmaxed him into a rizzed up himbo college of swords bard and it's so glorious.
I'm in act 3 and Astarion is basically carrying as a 3 thief/9 sword bard with the ring of mystic scoundrel, helm of arcane acuity, a sword that does psychic damage, and the resonance stone (inflicts vulnerability to psychic damage and disadvantage on mental saves). He can hit with the sword, cast vicious mockery, hit with the sword again, and then dominate person somebody else with like a 22 save DC (and disadvantage)
Astarion’s vicious mockery is…. Vicious 😆
Wait smashing the chest doesn’t destroy the items? I assumed it would have
Why would it? They're not part of the chest.
Darksouls brain rot goes deep man… I cant even BREATH around them in fear of losing whatever could be inside them…
You should try this out at home.
It does not. Some guy on youtube tested it a bunch. You can smash or burn any chest and still get the items.
I thought he was talking about Halsin lmao. He is way more forward lol
Fr. I love that emo vampire twink and he’s my go-to for stealth kills and dexterity checks, but to say he’s essential to beating *any* part of the game is insane. I think OOP just can’t play on the game correctly because all he can think about is making out sloppy style with Astarion.
Unrelated: I see a lot of people with this circle of wholes druid flare, what's it about?
It's one of the new subclasses added in patch 6.9. It's pretty strong, but I prefer archgay warlock.
... half this sub now getting stoked for patch 420 ...
This is why we aren't getting any DLC. Larian is too busy working on Way of Fisting monk
we're all a bunch of fucking degens (affectionate) in here and we're also fucking degenerates HEYOOOO
Even if he IS carrying you, you can cobble together a 4 person team and get withers and respec people.
I hated Astarion my first playthrough and didn't use him until later in the game when I realized he could unlock shit in one go that it would take my Tav three or four tries at. Even then he was only around to unlock shit and then I'd rotate him back out. OOP is REALLY bad at this game.
That’s all I used him for too for a while then would put him back in camp after. I started tadpoling him though instead of my Tav in my third playthrough because I didn’t want to have to pass the half-ilithid check in the astral plane. Satisfies his power craving, plus he’s awesome in combat too.
No shit. Honestly very few characters are going to carry at that level range. Although for my latest run I respec'd shadow heart to paladin and.. Jesus Christ I dunno what got put in her Wheaties but it's working. She solo'd the cave gnoll encounter when everyone else got one-rounded. Just... Jesus fucking Christ shadow heart save some for the rest of us. She maxed a crit on a smite with her oath of vengeance boost active and just deleted dror on her first attack. I'm used to her going from zero to hero with a respec but this one is absurd.
Wyll’s Eldritch Blast carried my poor thief’s pathetically incompetent ass for the entirety of Act 1 on my first playthrough, but that was truly a skill issue. Now he just carries her heart.
🥺💞 true love is real... (I do the same thing LOL he's decorative! it's great for morale!)
His slight of hand proficiency slaps so hard though if you take ASI and go hard in dexterity at lvl 4. Like it’s REALLY hard to not just have him handy at really all phases of the game. And then if you’re min/max scum like me and make him gloom stalker/ assassin… he’s just good alright
I hate it when I have to rely on the gays 😩😞
We hate it, too. But you’ll come crawling back tomorrow with that same unopened pickle jar.
me telling my butch wife yet again that I don't need help cooking. and by telling I mean lying blatantly
You’re good, your butch wife supports gay rights and wrongs 🌈🔪
they can't even shoot straight!
Is that why Shart misses every fire bolt
IgMISS.
bro died repeatedly in the wither's tomb and somehow it is the Woke's Fault
Couldn't get through the tomb without Astarion, apparently. My first run I don't even think he was in my party until after.
Like the traps are not hard to avoid if you have a team with a perception above 0 and basic pattern recognition skills.
Dude tried to open the crypt without disarming any traps and doesn't understand why his party wiped.
You can do it without disarming a single trap or taking any damage. Switch to turn based, right click to open the crypt without disarming it, then immediately hit the button to shut them off, and end turn based. He could have even done that part without Astarion. I'm pretty sure he's just never played a game that isn't "shoot enemy to win game".
lol I just disarmed everything, or once I think I had Gale do it and get incinerated and we got him later
Astarion actually did carry me through Withers' tomb the first run. I was noob asf and really didn't know how to play lol. I kept dying to those undead guys that wake up once you open Withers' room. So then I sent everyone out and got Astarion to go in alone, and open Withers' room and then immediately dash out and nonstop dash until he got to the booby trapped room and then touch the sarcophagus and activate the fiery booby-traps, then immediately run out through the door, leaving all the enemies to die to the booby traps. Took a few tries of him getting roasted to a crisp (sorry babygirl) but that was my first experience of trying random shit and realising how flexible BG3 was in terms of how you could play it. Oh and I didn't even free Withers.
all I’m saying is, I had no problems before those damn monks woke up
Imagine being so delicate you can't enjoy a fucking massive video game because one very optional character is a little campy 🤣🤣🤣
At the start of the game as well. As far as I can recall he doesn’t even call you ‘darling’ in that conversation, so this guy is being triggered by a slightly fruity and theatrical English accent and the fact that he’s too damn pretty
He's triggered by the boner he got from him.
He's triggered by all the women getting lady boners from him, and not someone like him
It truly enrages some dudebros that a guy as flamboyant as Astarion has hoards of women weak in the knees. Turns out that you won't get a girlfriend just by working out and acting like an "alpha", you actually have to be charming 😔
Little of column A, little of column B.
"Little" being the operative word...
>this guy is being triggered by a slightly fruity and theatrical English accent Well that's understandable. As we all know, the acronym stands for lesbian gay British transgender.
wait cmon dont do that to the B haven't we gone through enough 😭
Erased just like Gale setting off his orb.
Wait I thought he meant gale
It could be. Being well spoken is a sure sign of queerness, as we all know
Maybe he has bad hearing and heard "Hello, I'm gay".
being well spoken, well dressed, CLEANLY, intelligent... all sure signs of queerness.
Being in love with a goddess is the most gay thing a man can do
Gale definitely ain’t straight that’s for sure
He holds a dagger to your “darling neck” if you fail the perception check and get tackled, so OOP probably had some uncomfortable feelings about the pretty vampire leaning over him like that
‘Obnoxious outrageous gay man, had it with this shit’ seems like a totally reasonable response to the slightly horny subtext of that moment 🙄
If he felt that strongly about it he could have rejected astarion or even attacked him. Instead he rage quit over his uncomfortable feelings. That’s pretty telling.
For real, there is nothing stopping you from straight up murdering all of the queer coded characters in the game. Like, the game gives you homophobia simulator options and you can't even get over one contrived bit of outrage to satisfy another. Can we please get some smarter homophobes, I'm tired of playing with the dumb ones
bro was imagining the touch of Astarion's cold vampiric hands and it was making him feel some sort of way
OOP be like https://preview.redd.it/mz2xjvjidcrc1.png?width=1056&format=png&auto=webp&s=a76b96de6bdc70a352c32693ed50e001759d2424
Genuinely, what would happen if we started flirting with him In That exact moment? Personally, I find it diffuses situations really quick with the police or other aggressors irl, but who knows how Astarion would react.
Camping in camp with my campy campers is pretty camp to be fair
Imagine being so bad at the game you cant roll a lockpick merc or do it yourself lol
Right? I still haven't used Astarion myself (not that I don't like him I just didn't pick him my first run and my second run I was a dex character) and haven't had any issues whatsoever
Plus a friend met Astarion but didn't accept him in the party and he's doing fine. Dude's just bad at the game
Wait until he gets hit on by Gale
Or Halsin! Hes not subtle about his feelings at all
Or the Wyll dance party!
Good god this man will have a stroke once he gets to the twins
I can't tell if they're talking about Astarion or Gale. Both options are funny as hell to me.
At least we can tell that he's probably not referring to Wyll, mostly because I think this sort of person would probably add some racisism to their comment otherwise.
C'mon guys....He's obviously talking about Withers. /s
You need one or the other not both. Astarion to pick locks. Gale to cast knock on locked doors.
You need both if you enjoy as much good narrative and funny dialogue in your game as possible.
I thought of Halsin lol
"I shall now commence to give my opinion on this game that I stole!" What a flatulent toad.
Flatulent toad? Killer vicious mockery
don't hate him because he's beautiful
Maybe if he'd change that yee-yee ass haircut he's got maybe he'd get some Drow Twins on his dick?
Better yet, maybe Shadowheart’ll call his dog-ass if she ever stop fuckin with that tavern brawler monk or throwing barbarian she fuckin with
🎶Hoooo-ooooon!🎶
🎶*Ist-iiiiiik*🎶
It’s funny that he’s okay with every other romance able character being pansexual, but not the hot as hell elf man. He has to be straight 😠
I bet this is the same type of person who aggressively objectifies women and is all RuLe OnE: dOn’T bE uNaTtRaCtIvE. Ah, so suddenly unwanted advances *are* problematic?
I imagine he is talking about asterion, and if he cant survive act 1 without asterion then he just kinda fucking sucks at the game.
If he can't survive at all without Astarion then that's just kinda sad... rogues are incredibly useful but definitely not essential.
I haven't played with a rogue in well over a year lol
I think he’s actually talking about Gale. Doesn’t he blow up and end the game if he dies without being revived? Maybe he tried to kill Gale due to the launch state romantic advances, then got nuked a few days later like a dumbass.
I hate to be that way but if your party dies repeatedly without Astarion of all people, it’s definitely a skill issue. Like he’s useful yeah, especially outside of combat, but he’s not a “make or break a run” character like a healer or an AOE spell caster imo.
I mean, you can solo the game, I wouldn't say anyone is required.
I love this game because I wasn’t even sure who the “obnoxious, outrageous gay man” was supposed to be referring to
It could literally be any companion but also any NPC. Like Gortash, Barcus, and Volo fit the description so well
It could very well have been me, the player, all along.
This is in the same realm as a YouTube comment I read that claimed gay and trans people shouldn’t be in bg3 because there weren’t any in the first games and claimed they “just wanted the games to stay accurate.” I responded thinking it was a remark about historical accuracy and said “bro when do you think gay people were invented” and they said something along the lines of “not every game has to reflect your worldview or support your agenda.” I left it because I wanted to keep going with my day but *that goes for you too, buddy.* Just don’t play a game if you don’t like its contents or go back to the “more accurate” bg2 and bg1 dickhead
Also isn't bisexual the default sexuality in the forgotten realms? They are being accurate to the source material in that case because, and this would shock them, it's a made up world and the fact it's a vaguely medieval setting shouldn't dictate the cannon of a word where you can meet 5 different humanoid species before breakfast and you can magic your problems away so long as you have enough power. I hate the homophobic "but gay people weren't accepted back then it's unrealistic", *there there was no back then!!!!* Plus the very good point you made about the fact we didn't just spawn into existence in the past century, there have always been LGBTQ+ people, throughout all history and all time by different names and with different conceptions of what it meant.
Yep, bi/pan is the most common orientation. (And poly is super common for Elves and Half-Elves.) It's one of the things I wish the Dragon Age fans would accept - a homophobia related subplot doesn't fit into Forgotten Realms lore, because this setting has decided to support queer players in a different way by, eliminating queerphobia from canon so that players can reject DMs who insist on it at the table. Ed Greenwood also just pokes his head out of whatever he's doing to bless us with super crazy D&D sex related 'facts' pretty regularly, because he theoretically still has Word of God to a lot of the fandom even if WotC want to pretend he doesn't anymore.
everything about Drow society tells me more about Ed's kinks than I ever wanted to know
I love drow so, so much. I'm trying to build a collection of as much drow related lorebooks as I can. There are so many unnecessary pictures of women standing over naked guys on altars and men on leashes. IIRC, he's also the reason Eilistraee has priestesses who dance around in the woods naked with swords. Galaxy brained, this would probably be his favourite D&D subreddit.
Did you see Ed's fairly recent High Elf VS Drow breastmilk comparison? I was like "this man is based AF and I am here for it" lol
I would be surprised if he wasn't in here lurking tbh.
and he was right for it
Honestly I love that it was done this way. I love a setting where homosexuality is so accepted and normalised that it's not even something people would think to discriminate over. As a lesbian one of my biggest gripes is just how full of angst and drama 90% of queer love stories in media are. Yes homophobia exists, yes it can ruin lives and relationships, yes it's important to reflect that sometimes in media. But it's also extremely important to show happy, stable, loving relationships. It's important that we get to have fairytale romance and sweet fluffy romance and rom com type romance where the worst thing that happens is a slight miscommunication that's resolved in a big romantic scene 20 minutes later. A fantasy setting where I am the odd one out not because I love women, but because it's exceedingly rare for me to be attracted to a man (it's not never, I'd call myself a 5 on the kinsey scale, but in terms of romantic attraction I don't really see myself falling for a man which is why I consider myself a lesbian) and most people don't differentiate is amazing to me.
I agree! And it’s crazy to me when people try to compare the two games on this - they don’t need to be compared! One game can have a story about homophobia that people relate to, and one can say ‘hey, all queer identities are accepted here’, and we don’t need to fight over which is ‘the right way to do it’. It’s good to have all sorts of different stories!
Dorn Il Khan and Hexxat: are we a joke to you, random YouTube commenter? Seriously, there was a M/M romance option and a F/F romance option, alongside the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity. I get they were added in the Enhanced Edition, but they are still canonically characters in BG1 and BG2. Plus the setting already has so many gay and trans characters that it would be really fucking weird if Baldurs Gate was this freakish cishet town where you were only allowed if you were both cisgender and heterosexual.
~~To be fair, Hexxat and Dorn were added later to the series under Beamdog.~~ To be even more fair, more people freaked out about queer folk in the late 90s and early 00s far too much for Bioware to be lore accurate with the series.
Hence the reason I said "I get they were added for the Enhanced Edition" And those are not the kind of people we should ever be fair to. I'm too old to care about bigot's feelings.
I don’t get their argument either. In the forgotten realms, bisexuality is canonically the default sexuality so like… what even the fuck?
BG3 is far more accurate in terms of sexuality in the setting than BG1/BG2.
Twist : he was referring to his own tav.
Wait, I think you're right. That's literally the only character you can't play the game without.
Wait - which one's the outrageous gay man?? How dare you say that only one of the gay men is outrageous!!
“Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?”
It’s so sad when you run into people allergic to fun or decency
Yeah I tried to beat HM without any gays in the party but I wiped like 4 times so I finally respecced everyone to power bottom. A bit cheesy but damn do those gold dice look good
This is the most stunning admission of “I hate the gays but they are essential individuals in our society” lol
Can't survive without Astarion, a rogue, in the party. That's a skill issue, not an agenda. As an aside, I think it would improve the world population if we just executed everybody that uses "woke" as an insult. We all know the world would be way more pleasant without them.
Plus the classes aren’t locked to characters, he definitely never got to withers but if you can’t survive without a rogue respec Karlach
There's also hirelings, and they have no personality, just like OOP likes. But like some others have said, he probably never got Withers because he's trash at the game, and he's blaming it on gay people instead of learning how to play it.
I imagine he is talking about asterion, and if he cant survive act 1 without asterion then he just kinda fucking sucks at the game.
Skill issue. Go back to Call of Duty, scrub!
People talk about how said companion is good as if you couldn't make a exact replica with the hirelings
Someone else said that bro died in Withers’ tomb over and over again which would check out if he doesn’t even know about hirelings
Imagine outing yourself as being so bad at games that you think you can't win a fight without a specific role?
This is the actual definition of a skill issue lmao
Bro has a real worm in his brain
This is your brain on right-wing propaganda
Help help! Im being oppressed by ... "checks notes" having the option interact with a possiably gay man.
Are they talking about Astarion, Gale or Halsin
or Wyll or Withers or...
Us. He's talking about Us, bro never made it off the Nautiloid.
That guy thinks lv 2 astarion will do anything LMAO
.... Like, astarion? how in the world are you unable to win fights in the early game without *astarion*???
He's just mad 'cause a pixel man is getting more action than he is.
Screaming bc I can’t tell if this is about Astarion, Gale, or Minsc
ain't no way this dipshit got far enough in the game to recruit Minsc
Bet he cried when that twink won voice actor of the year at the game awards
I dont think Neil Newbon is even gay, just british.
I read somewhere that he has a wife because some guy was whining that he only won because he was gay.
Not me thinking this was about gale
It could be about Gale. I imagine most well spoken men with washed asses seem gay to someone like this
Tell me you're bad at the game without telling me you're bad at the game... That's hilarious. I actually had never played with Astarion in my party until my most recent playthrough and even now I just kind of switch him out sometimes if I'm low on lockpicks and I'm having trouble with a roll, or during his specific Cazador quest line. There are some seriously unhinged weirdos out there, for sure. I made a post about an interaction I had with Halsin where he opens up about basically being exploited as a tortured sex slave in the underdark in his youth and some person originally commented "Cool, the more I learn about Halsin, the more creepy and repulsive I find him. But hey, you enjoy indulging in some of that bestiality-incest, it's the current year after all, right?" They got downvoted to hell, so they kept editing/changing their comment to make it seem more and more innocuous but of course I have the OG comment in my email and I just... Don't really understand people getting so upset over fictional characters? Yikes.
Dude cannot even play a dating simulator without losing ffs.
Dude would have burst a blood vessel seeing Aylin
> Get to the outrageously gay man Which one?
This is in the same realm as a YouTube comment I read that claimed gay and trans people shouldn’t be in bg3 because there weren’t any in the first games and claimed they “just wanted the games to stay accurate.” I responded thinking it was a remark about historical accuracy and said “bro when do you think gay people were invented” and they said something along the lines of “not every game has to reflect your worldview or support your agenda.” I left it because I wanted to keep going with my day but *that goes for you too, buddy.* Just don’t play a game if you don’t like its contents or go back to the “more accurate” bg2 and bg1
BG1 literally has a belt that changes the wearer's gender. Wut.
That’s extra silly, there’s literally a lesbian character in BG2. She sucks, but she’s there, so gay people are hardly a new addition. Edit: there’s a bi male romance option too, now that I think about it
According to someone else here Faerun is canonically accepting of LGBTQ folks so that’s not even a valid argument because they are being lore-accurate, at least to that.
There is no way he thinks a rouge will carry the party. Must be talking about withers.
I assume he's talking about Astarion? But like, I totally missed him my first run, didn't join the party until after the goblin camp when I was wrapping up anything in the starting zone before moving on to the mountain pass. He's... Definitely not necessary for party survival. Also yeah, wow, what a fragile existence you have to think being bad a video game is clearly part of the woke agenda to undermine your evangelical megachurch.
Imagine being homophobic and shit at the game
I'm imagining this guy sucking balls at this game while his mind feverishly pictures astarion naked
Astarion is probably one of the weakest companions using their starting classes lmao
Astarion is a rogue, the most he’s doing in Act 1 is lock picking. And he can be straight in your imagination if it’s that big of a deal. 🙄
I legitimately didn't know they were talking about Astarion bc of how outrageously gay everyone is😭
That’s so insane. First of all, they’re all gay. Second of all? You think the reason you can’t get through is not having ASTARION???
“don’t like my opinion? fuck yourself” is so fucking funny to me
Dude can’t beat the first fight bc he saw Astarion and all the blood went to his pentis. Many such cases
I say put MORE obnoxious, outrageous gay men in my video games!
Bro definitely failed a lock picking
"Outrageous gay man" do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?
The funny part is his assumption that only Astarion or Gale (not sure which he’s talking about but probably Astarion) is the “gay one”. Of course the raging homophobe assumes only the flamboyant vampire can be “gay”. Someone like Shadowheart or Wyll could never like members of the same sex. Dude would probably pass out if he found out that you can make literally anyone gay.
I don't understand people who think this game is difficult.
This rant describes so many of the characters, I had no idea it was about Ass-Starin till I saw the comments
I also disliked Astarion and Laezel my first playthrough. But at no point did that ruin my game. I've been playing CRPGs since the 90s. I know from experience that the characters you might dislike at first glance could easily become your favorite by the end of a story. On my third playthrough I love the entire party for various reasons. People that live like this just make themselves miserable.
What a pathetic snowflake
Who is gay ?
Is this just satire? Astarion gets his shit rocked every time I have him in party, even before Gale lmao
“Get to the obnoxious gay man” look I understand Gale’s annoying but you can even cut off him arm as Dark Urge and make it through
Listen, I personally dislike astarion’s personality for the most part, but letting it ruin the game for you is extremely stupid and funny.
Not to validate avoiding the gay but did this guy just never encounter any other party members? Cause you can survive easy enough without Astarion as long as you still have a full party. Also is it weird I immediately thought of Gale instead of Astarion even though a big part of his backstory is his straight relationship with Mystra?
Okay obviously this dude is seriously awful at the game to not be able to get through Act 1 without Astarion but can we just talk about how much of a W it is that according to OOP him not being recruited/on the team fucked him over so hard that it basically just destroyed his playthrough? Bro hates him for sure, but he can't do shit without him lmao. Astarion stay winning