A lot of the appeal of Shadowheart to me was the mystery around her story. After discovering it all the first time around, I was less interested in having her around.
I still think she’s a fine character, well written and interesting, but she needs the mystery to get the full effect.
Only on an evil run. You sacrifice Last Light in the process, if you haven't already. So it works really well on a Durge where you've already killed Isobel >!for Slayer form!< and the Tieflings never made it there to begin with.
I haven’t done this yet, but I’ve considered doing a durge run where I deliberately get everyone’s ‘bad’ endings (DJ Shadowheart, God of Ambition, Ascended Astarion, etc). I don’t know how it would work out bc I’ve never played durge before but it seems fun to just totally go all out for an evil run
Evil Durge is fun. Resist Durge is also good (and my go to for "custom" characters). You'll probably have a lot easier time going into full embrace Durge blind, than you will resist Durge, as there are a few instances where you might "ruin your run" if you don't know what's coming (though obviously you can always reload, unless you're also doing Honor Mode).
I almost wonder if having done the genocide route in undertale makes an evil durge run easier? Obviously they’re very different games but I wonder if someone is able to do an evil run in undertale, if they’d also be emotionally able to do an evil bg3 run
I like her better as a DJ... not sure I want to know what that says abt me.
She killed NS yesterday playthrough and LLI falls BUT I was so happy to see Mattis and Mirkon in Rivington.
If you like shart as a character it's nigh unbearable. She doesn't really grow or become a different but still nuanced being.
She's like a husk and you play knowing that all the aspects of her personality you enjoy have been thoroughly snuffed out.
So on a very evil playthrough it can fit well but IMO it's not that enjoyable.
I once cleared the gauntlet of shar while I left her in camp. Holy shit she got hot. Like understandably so, but I was surprised they put that in the game.
I honestly found Shadowheart mostly insufferable. She’s just so whiny about literally anything that isn’t Shar-related. She’s the BG3 equivalent of that overly zealous Christian girl we all knew in high school.
She has main character syndrome. Good for when you’re playing origins, insufferable if you’re not romancing her as Tav for the first two acts at least. I usually avoid and kill her in my playthroughs now. Not out of hate, but because the constant “I’ve been chosen by Shar blah blah blah” gets annoying after the first three times. I also hate how she demands you get rid of Lae’zel if you prolong meeting her, like why would I do that just so I can have *you* lmao
It's the opposite for me. First playthrough thinking she's an obnoxious zealot of a dumb religion, I felt like I had to tolerate her. Knowing the full backstory of how she got there, and the various ways she can change makes me actually like her.
My thoughts exactly. I romanced her on one of my early runs also (second I think) so by the time I got to my 3rd I was just sick of her because I had her always there in the second. Combined with constantly trying to figure out her “secrets” in the second run, which I already knew the mystery of from the first (and because they were incredibly obvious) made a lot of her early conversations boring.
So my third run I left her at home as much as I could, even though I had limited options because it was my first evil run, and I slaughtered all the tieflings, losing Karlach Will and nearly Gale as a result.
I have to say I'm the opposite - I've ended up caring more and more about each and every companion as I've gotten to know them. This is the reason I wouldn't enjoy playing evil, I don't think I could ever let him just Ascend because I didn't care, for example. Same with Nightsong/Shadowheart. I've had a run where I couldn't convince Lae'zel to reject Vlaakith (it was an oversight on my part) and I felt terrible about it.
Yeah, I agree here. On my previous run Karlach died because I screwed up something with Will quests, I was so heartbroken this time I am just taking her everywhere and gonna do everything right with Wyll just so no harm comes to my favorite girl.
For me it’s Wyll. I recommend to play with him at least once. But after that one playthrough blud was sitting in the camp all day. No slight on his character or nothing. And I still always save his pops and pull a double on mizora. But unfortunately boy sits in camp all day long.
My HM run is as origin Wyll because - as others have said - he’s just not that compelling as a companion character, and I’d otherwise likely never use him.
Didn’t bother using him in my first run, just wasn’t interesting to me. I’ll have to give him a try on the second run and probably multi class him into bard or something
Yeah, unfortunately the more I have interacted with him the less I like him. I mean, I don’t *dislike* him, just can’t find a role for him to fill (other than Orin bait) when I like all the other companions so much more. And I tried his sex scene a couple of times but always undo it bc my characters have just not vibed with him that way
It’s been kind of the same with Gale, just not as strongly. But I’m much *less* interested in Gale and his story since I romanced him, which I’m really surprised about and is the opposite of what I expected 🤷🏻♀️
For context, I was having an issue with my power supply not giving enough power to my GPU, so during intensive games (BG3 and Helldivers so far) my GPU would literally crash. Monitors would turn off and fans would go crazy, but could still hear the sounds of the game. Cutscenes tend to do it more than anything else.
My Halsin died at the beach fight because he walked through my Wall of Fire after the fight, and I had just hard saved and hadn’t learned the lesson of quicksaving. I had tried that fight like six times (failed it twice and crashed four times), so I just said fuck it, he’s dead. He just wasn’t a very interesting character beyond his obvious sex appeal/focus. They really toned down his story and involvement in certain plot elements.
Gale was the same way for me, kidnapped and died at the Bhaal altar and I hadn’t done any of his stuff cause of the romance bugs at the beginning (I will be returning to do his stuff eventually).
How did you fix that issue with the power supply? New supply? That sounds SO similar to what's happening to me right now! Clearing CMOS often fixes it but not always and I don't want to have to keep doing that regularly.
Yeah I haven’t actually. I’ll be replacing the PSU itself soon, but things are expensive you know.
I’ve taken it to my repair shop twice and they can’t seem to replicate the issue but I put it on another separate surge protector and it’s still happening. What’s “CMOS” and how do you clear it?
The CMOS battery is part of your motherboard, I'd look up your model if you know it for it's location. You take it out after unplugging your tower, hold down the power button for 30 seconds (try to get close to exact on that if you can, the point is to hold it for long enough) to drain the remaining power from the system. Put the CMOS battery back in, turn on the PC. It clears your BIOS essentially, and it's how I've been limping mine along.
We just tried a new surge protector for mine last night and it's staying on tentatively but I'm not holding my breath just yet. We think there's a small chance it might be that the cord running from the PSU to the graphics card might be the problem cause at least for me, this build isn't even a year old, I put it together in early April with all new pieces.
I hope the tech gods bless the both of us and the problem is easy and cheap to fix!
I ended up straight up disliking Halsin around the middle of Act 3 on my first play through. His constant criticisms of the city and how superior living in nature is and how much better off everyone would be if they’d just live in the woods really grates on me. I appreciate that my Baldurian Tav has a dialogue option to be like “hey man I live here can you stop talking shit about my home?” Halsin will hem and haw about how it’s more that city folk don’t have community. And Laezel, bless her, will say something to the effect of “it’s pretty hypocritical for a bear, who hoards his food and sleeps all winter, to chastise others for how they take care of their community.”
My trick for not getting sick of characters is to just multiclass them into all kinds of clases to see if it effects things (it does).
Sure a multiclassed Wyll into Warlock/Bard or Warlock/Sorcerer, Wilheart Barbarian Halsin, or Astarion into Monk/Rogue is fairly popular, but you can even toy around with it more.
I did a run where I gave them the weirdest class changes for fun. Honestly seeing Gale go into Rage was the funniest thing ever 😅
My current run I made a point to use the characters I hadn’t before, and changed jahera to a fighter rogue, which actually felt amazing in act 3 dealing with all
of her harper stuff. It totally made sense, and ended up being one of my favorite builds.
My “canon” Tav is a Druid so when I play her route I change Jaheira to a Monk and I really like that fighting style for her. It just somehow fits she’d be all centered while beating the shit out of a baddie with her bare hands lol
After my evil Durge run, shadowheart was so whiny whenever I did anything remotely evil, like you are a dark justiciar to one of the most evil goddesses in existance, and you get bent out of shape about a little murder? It got to the point where I'd make a game out of figuring out how she'd show her disappointment next.
Careful not to offend mother shadowheart, her hipocracy may be contageous.
Yeah, loved Astarion for my first playthrough. He was even my first romance and it was perfect for my resistant Durge. But for some reason, on my second playthrough and as a evil neutral Durge, it almost feels like I’m carrying him. I didn’t sleep with him hoping we can be evil friends but it doesn’t even feel like it.
It’s like that annoying stereotypical character trope who butters up to you because you’re strong and dependable but will toss you away once your usefulness ends despite giving them a crown to wear at the end of the day.
It’s weird. I didn’t expect it. At the same time, it’s brilliant how much your choices matters.
I’m going through the character romance stories like a bingo card and Minthara is next on my list. I’m excited for her dialogues. Originally I was going to for this current run -Male, Drow, Neutral Evil, Fighter- but our first encounter didn’t go that well lol
I’m playing a neutral good Drow Paladin on my second run, romancing Shadowheart, and I’m kind of loving friendship with Astarion? I do think you get a lot less of his story if you’re not romancing him and some stuff gets revealed at weird times. Like for some reason he was just hanging out shirtless after Mizora showed up in act 2, and that’s how I found out about his scars that run? But doing Cazador’s palace in a non-romance run is really different in a good way.
I agree with you that the impressions between characters and Tav/Durge in terms of friendship vs romance and alignment changes. And it’s amazing.
On my first run (Male, Half-Elf, Neutral Good, Paladin) I didn’t care much for Gale but we were friends at least. Gale was arrogant and surprisingly quiet on that run. Now on my 2nd run (Male, Drow, Neutral Evil, Fighter), I’m unexpectedly romancing Gale. Also unexpectedly, I didn’t realize how pragmatic he can be on my neutral evil choices. He’s definitely more open and have a lot more dialogue/quip during this run. He’s softer and so damn sweet. He makes me want to turn this run into another Good Neutral run in fact lol
On the other hand, Astarion on this current run is a lot more closed off. There’s more manipulative vibes and his delivery of the same lines he has from my first run are now colder or distant. I’m still in Act 2 about to do the Shar Gauntlet and just met with Raphael. When I asked Astarion about the Orthon, he kinda brushed me off and gave some attitude along the lines of “Be a dear and don’t get in the way.” Astarion, my dear, I’m about to let you fight the Orthon by yourself if you keep giving me attitude. But maybe it’s to be expected from an Evil Neutral run? Maybe being evil doesn’t always mean close friendships? Anyways, I can’t wait to reach Act 3 for the Cazador palace and experience the scenes differently. Especially how different an Ascended Astarion will be
Astarion, actually. I was definitely an Astarion fan the first playthrough but after learning more about him and his story romancing him in a second playthrough gave me the heebs. I know that's the only way to progress the relationship with him, but I couldn't do it.
Instead, Gale, who I thought was dorky and boring the first go round, has captured my attention. Oh don't get me wrong, he's still dorky, but so unbelievably wholesome and his stability is a nice change from the emotional rollercoaster that is the pale elf.
I loved playing as Shadowheart on my first run, but as a companion she really didn't do it for me the 2nd time around. She just was a lot more bratty and adversarial as an NPC, and I found her pretty meh until the Nightsong decision where she became much more likable.
That’s the thing with Shart for me. It took far too long to get to a point where she wasn’t being a brat the whole time. By the time we get to the Nightsong decision, I’ve already picked my main party. I wasn’t about to switch out one of my ride or dies at that point.
This probably depends a lot on the approval level too. She has more variety than any other character depending on approval. Laezel says "speak" literally no matter what the rating is, but shadowheart has multiple dialog options for EACH approval level. If she was bratty the approval was probably low.
Shadowheart. I've had her with me throughout half my playthroughs and I just cant like her. I brought her with me on my current one and omg this girl talks non stop about shar 24 7. People tend to give Gale grief over his talking about Mystra but man he ain't got nothing on shart with shar/selune it's driving me crazy lol. I was determined to check out a D.J shart or I'd have benched her in act 1 and never looked back.
I got so fed up with her will bang for shar attitude in shadow fall I ended up pushing her into the chasm where night song was she embraced shar via dying in her domain.
I felt bad because she is a victim of grooming so I ended up reloading a save prior to killing her.
Definitely Halsin. Especially since there's no way to stop him from following you into ACT 3 unless you keep the shadowlands cursed. He has the most boring reactions to everything and is basically a dead weight, especially since we get a MUCH better druid in ACT 3. Trying to see if it's possible to keep him neutral to my tav/durge, to avoid the awkward/annoying ACT 3 confession but it might actually be impossible - Seems like everything flags as flirting.
Shadowheart. I liked her during the first run, but not now. After knowing what exactly worshipping Shar means (torture and murder), Shadowheart's whining about becoming a DJ sounds annoying as hell.
Which is strange because her and shart are intended to be foils of each other that have far more in common than they would ever admit.
I think a big part of it is just that people generally focus on shart on their first playthrough.
Shadowheart first and foremost.
I know many people love her but for me she went from “kinda like” to “meh” during the first run. (Lae’zel was the opposite funnily enough… disliked her at first but she grew on me a lot)
Maybe also Wyll to an extent. I still like him but he didn’t receive a super compelling story arc and feels lacking in other aspects unfortunately. Really wish he had a bit more oomph emotionally, e.g. Astarion’s story hits hard every single time.
Yes. My first playthrough ruined Gale for me and I'm just getting to like him again (maybe this time I can *fix him*). I'm also getting mildly tired of Karlach, other companions keep outshining her.
It depends greatly on the Tav I'm RPing. Sometimes they vibe more with these characters, other times they can't stand them.
The only one I can't seem to get rid of is Astarion, he worms his way into never leaving the party even if my Tav is a little "eh" about him. (He managed to save himself during my gith run; didn't care for him at all, then after the first night with Lae'zel he was like "omg how was it, spill the tea sis", which was very unexpected and I guess they're friends now)
Also Shadowheart is a constant, though I've noticed she's a lot more enjoyable to be around if you initiate her romance in Act 1, because she seems actually pleased to see you when you talk to her (rather than "urgh Lady of Sorrows guide me through this conversation, what do you want")
Yeah I don't get that greeting, the eyeroll and resigned tone even when her approval is high or more. Like, girl you're the one with the exclamation point over your head, what do YOU want? :/
astarion also wanted the tea when my tav slept with laezel! he didn’t say anything on my runs where i romanced shart or karlach, so maybe he’s just rlly into laezel?
I love all the companions in general. But I'm a bit over Shadowheart at the moment! I don't find her funny... Absolutely love her story, but it's the banter that I'm not feeling right now. Also non-romanced Gale on a Durge playthrough kind of put me off a bit (same goes with Karlach). But like you say, OP, for me it's all down to my own RP. Half of the camp are big no no's if I'm doing a slightly power hungry and morally ambiguous run.
I stopped liking Shadowheart after a few playthroughs and now just abandon her on the ship and ignore her whenever she pops up on Act 1 trying to join.
Honestly... karlach, don't get me wrong, cinnamon roll baby, but her quest is annoying and her wanting to just fistfight gortash on the spot is a little annoying, like wait 10 minutes baby you'll get your smash... oh wait she's being taken to the dungeons... sigh
I feel terrible saying this but Karlach. I’ve beaten the game with her on my final team twice and she’s a super cool chick for sure, but she has gotten a little tiresome for me personally. Like she kinda feels… gimmicky… after a while.
It's Karlach for me 😭 it's not even that I dislike her, it's just that I realised who she reminds me of in real life (someone who is very loud and excited all the time who makes me tired as a result) and then I couldn't un-notice the resemblance.
yay for competing mental illnesses I suppose
I used to really like Shadowheart and romanced her a couple times whilst hardcore hating on Gale. Then I started a Gale playthrough and realized I actually like him as a player character/companion and I don’t like Shadowheart as much. Also after romancing Karlach I don’t know how I can ever romance Shadowheart again. Karlach will always be my favorite companion/romance for sure.
I feel like karlachs story is pretty empty and after using her for one playthrough she lost a bit of her charm. Still an awsome companion just not quite as good as the first time.
She was my first romance in my first playthrough and after having done it… you can definitely feel that there was a lot if content cut for her. She’s not nearly as bad as Wyll on that front, but apparently there was a whole questline in the upper city that got cut and MAN can you feel it.
So much of the game is building up your relationship with her, finding what you need to help her, and then you get to the city, her home, and suddenly have nothing else to do with other than kill gortash, which you have to do anyway. She has some interactions throughout the city, but no quest like Shart, or Astarion, or even Wyll. It’s disappointing for sure
I kind of had the opposite problem, I played a teifling on my first playthrough and could not deal with lae'zels racism. I saved her ass from a cage and then left her and camp for the rest of the game, and didn't bother to save her from Orin.
On my second playthrough, I decided I was going to save the gith price from the get-go so I tried to use her but ended up turning her into it druid and keep her wild shaped most of the time so I didn't actually have to deal with her conversation. I don't know if that counts but she was a party member
As others have said, Shadowheart is far less interesting on a second playthrough when you know her story. On the other hand, I like Lae’zel and Jaheira more on my current playthrough
¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
probably unpopular but Karlach. i loved her the first time i played and she was almost always in my party but now i find her kind of boring. meanwhile, i didn't use Lae'zel much at first and now like her a lot more.
I kinda feel that way bout Shadowheart. She was snarky fun the first time, now I'm just kinda meh. God how I wish we could get the Act 3 companions sooner.
Astarion is on the expendable list now. In the first run it was great to learn his story and see what happened, but now I am tired of his BS. Lae'zel is in a similar position and I don't spend inspirations to save her anymore.
On the other side, I love Minthara and Jaheira more than ever.
I relate to it being Astarion. Could be that I never triggered his long rest vampire reveal because I didn't long rest enough - he basically told me "heh I'm a vampire", I responded "well, duh" and he said "oh ok" and that was it. So I didn't get enough approval points (I think you can get up to 20-25 for the long rest camp scene and the dialogue with companions afterward alone) and he never tried to charm me, I guess (lmao). He was still in my active party the entire playthrough, except in a fight or two.
Minthara as well, could be that the only other time I had her in my camp/team was as non-resisting Durge and this run was a good-ish githyanki (as far as githyanki go).
Jaheira and Minsc started growing on me though. It's a pity they join you so freaking late into the story, Minsc especially.
I actually made the effort to use Minsc on my last run. His banter is great and I ended up keeping him until the end. Even had him do the rallying speech before the final battle. Wish we could recruit him earlier.
I liked Karlach less on my second run — I was playing a melee/punch things character instead of a caster so I just ended up needing her less. Her story is also less compelling to me than Lae’zel’s. She ended up living at camp for most of Acts 2 and 3, except for situations that were directly relevant to her plot. I’m always going to bring her to kill Gortash if I’m playing a good guy.
Not really a second playthrough but in my third playthrough of the game I recruited Halsin and Minthara but I didn't cared a lot for them because they didn't have any sort of quest after that
Once you strip away the novelty, you start to realize how many lines are about self-pity. Karlach and Astarion are the worst offenders IMO (though I still love them). I actually liked Shart more because she’s so fun to hate.
A lot of my beef with Gale was from my second playthrough. He was fine enough in my first playthrough, just a dorky wizard I liked chatting with in camp. My second playthrough I decided to romance him, and he was just...... so cringe. Ultimately very sweet, but I really struggled with the ego. All resulting playthroughs he's been a friend and I just like him so much better outside of a romance.
I'm mad at astarion for breaking up with me when I ascended him and then didn't let him turn me into a vampire. He was previously my favorite. But since then I've been a Gale girly™️ and astarions been lugging around our camp equipment and setting the tent up for us 🤣
Karlach and Halsin, Halsin on most of my playthroughs has been way to horny and doesn’t really have much character ig he’s useful as Orin bait tho, Karlach I originally liked cause I thought her design was cool but her personality grates on me to no end
Astarion and Shadowheart. Liked and got along with them great in first playthrough (romanced Astarion), but in the second they seemed much more confrontational and prickly. Shadowheart finally came around, but Astarion has been difficult on this playthrough probably because I did romance him before and the relationship was very different. Complete reversal with Laezel, first playthrough did not like, second much better. I disliked Gale so much first round, I kicked him out of the party, but in second round realized he's not so bad. Although when he tried to treefrog me, it grossed me out big time.
I lost complete interest in Lae'zel. I enjoy the epiphany moment she has with Vlaakith, but then she just transitions her fanaticism to Orpheus. It's very one note. I guess it all works out, since in every single playthrough she ends up being kidnapped for most of Act 3.
For me, it was Wyll. My first playthrough, I was trying to help everyone plus romancing Wyll. He was sweet, romantic, and on the same wavelength as my Tav. The second run, I'm playing a resist urge while romancing Astarion -seems fitting- and, overall, Wyll is ... really boring. There's not a lot of give for what is fun versus what is wrong, and he ends up being a stick in the mud.
Gale.
I was a bard on my first playthrough and wanted to romance Astarion, but really regretted not romancing gale cause he seemed sweet. Made the mistake of playing a sorcerer and he was an ass, just a complete turn off for the character.
Gale for me. He was one of my permanent companions for 2 runs, on 2nd I. romanced him and after that I just can't look at him. He's a great companion, but everything that made me alarmed about him in romance was like multiplied. It ruined him so much I can't even bring myself to listen to him. I still resqued him on my 3rd run, but he just chills in the camp in his pajamas.
Astarion is probably my ride or die guy, I don't get sick of him and he's always with me. Karlach and Halsin also very close.
If I'm gonna do 4th run probably gonna change the whole party just for kicks though. And it helps greatly to totally respec companions in something else not to get bored - now I run with cleric Astarion, wizard Karlach, and barbarian Shadowheart (until I recruit Halsin). Sun robe looks so cool on Karlach.
Astarion. First playthrough I romanced him as a criminal bard and became his spawn and we were beautiful murder husbands. His face...so kissable. And I kissed it a lot.
Second playthrough, my aristocrat warlock/wizard/fighter/cleric....can't stand him. I want to roll my eyes at everything he says. His face...so punchable. I punched him and it was fantastic. I haven't fought Caszador yet so his fate is still TBD but...it doesn't look good.
I was in love with Lae'zel in my first playthrough, both my character and myself. I still like her, but in an ex kind of way. Every time she tries to sleep with a new Tav it's somewhat off-putting.
Wyll was a regular in my first playthrough but he just stays in camp subsequent games since he doesn’t really need to be in any of his own quests (Karlach, Iron Throne, Ansur etc).
Edit: typo
Gale. i haven't had him in my party in ages. i dislike the way he speaks; it grates on me and it's the sort of behavior that would make me avoid someone IRL
i don't HATE him, btw. i feel for him, and i feel tremendous compassion for what he's been through. but i have a really hard time dealing with how flowery he is when he speaks
Yeah it changes with my character and how I do my roleplay. I romanced Astarion in my last game and really liked him. This round I don’t like him that much cause my character is very nice and Astarion is pretty mean and disapproves of everything.
I romanced Shadowheart my first game and really liked her. Second game I found her annoying and gave her away to Viconia >.>
Lae'zel.
Don't get me wrong, i rate her growth equal to shadowhearts, maybe a bit higher, HOWEVER
no matter how high your relationship she never stops threatening to kill you when you don't do what she wants, and even at the end of the game if you play as a Githyanki and refuse to go with her she will insult you and basically call you a traitor until prince orpheus steps in to stop her; it was really offputting, i went through all that trouble to save orpheus, SACRIFICED Karlach (mindflayer ending) all for Lae'zel who by the way DOESNT EVEN OFFER to become a Mindflayer to save her people, and i was still insulted for wanting to stay with my partner. (gale)
Wyll is a runner up i'll make this short, this man spends act 1 and part of act 2 needing to be reaffirmed by the Tav that he isn't a monster just because he has horns, only for him to turn his back on you if you become a mindflayer, even if romanced he will essentially leave you UNLESS you agree to be hidden away like his private Shame, his soul is given to Mizora every run now and his father is never saved.
Yeah, but it was only because I romanced Gale in my first playthrough, so I focused on him and had him in my party constantly. So, in my second playthrough, I didn't use him at all, and instead, Astarion became my boyfriend wizard.
Kinda. I did my first run with Astarion, always hoping he would become good. He did not become good. I’ve done 6 playthroughs now, and Astarion was killed on every run after the 1st. I was so disgusted with him by the end of my 1st run.
Minsc karlach and Jaheira are the best teammates for everyone who already finished the game, because the others are bit boring imo, all of them have a "secret" and a "reveal" and it seems forced, like irl would be a bit weird being randomly in a group where everyone had a secret seems plastic to me. Astarion was always awful to me since moment 1, why do we have this vampire side quest who matters 0 to the story and why people like him so much I will never know.
The best written character imo is Laeh'zel and I think her development is the only that is actually well written
I came to really dislike Astarion after romancing him and ascending him. He is a broken toy, abused by Cazador for centuries. He didn't even own his body.
And his wish is to have power so he can be worse. Even keeping him as a spawn disappointed me. I just came to not liking. He is a broken person who just wants to hurt other people even more because he is a pathetic and weak child who feels to need to be superior.
I think Astarion is extremely compelling because his trauma is pretty unique in that it has been so prolonged and constant. He IS broken and some people never become unbroken when they've been treated that way for so long. They only need to be better, even if it's small steps.
I think I enjoy that Astarion challenges someone's ability to not victim blame to an extreme, but still try to instill responsibility for their actions. And this is as someone that has 0 interest in romancing him but befriends him every playthrough.
A lot of the appeal of Shadowheart to me was the mystery around her story. After discovering it all the first time around, I was less interested in having her around. I still think she’s a fine character, well written and interesting, but she needs the mystery to get the full effect.
Is it worth going dark justiciar? I haven't been through that path yet.
Only on an evil run. You sacrifice Last Light in the process, if you haven't already. So it works really well on a Durge where you've already killed Isobel >!for Slayer form!< and the Tieflings never made it there to begin with.
That and when she’s Dark Justiciar House of Grief is easy AF
How come ?
Shadowheart can rally half the room to side with her vs Viconia and it’s a much shorter efficient battle
"Look at me. I AM YOUR MOTHER SUPERIOR NOW"
I haven’t done this yet, but I’ve considered doing a durge run where I deliberately get everyone’s ‘bad’ endings (DJ Shadowheart, God of Ambition, Ascended Astarion, etc). I don’t know how it would work out bc I’ve never played durge before but it seems fun to just totally go all out for an evil run
Evil Durge is fun. Resist Durge is also good (and my go to for "custom" characters). You'll probably have a lot easier time going into full embrace Durge blind, than you will resist Durge, as there are a few instances where you might "ruin your run" if you don't know what's coming (though obviously you can always reload, unless you're also doing Honor Mode).
I've set out to do that more than once but just can't do it. It is joyless to kill so many innocent NPCs.
I almost wonder if having done the genocide route in undertale makes an evil durge run easier? Obviously they’re very different games but I wonder if someone is able to do an evil run in undertale, if they’d also be emotionally able to do an evil bg3 run
It’s an interesting path for SH. Took it on my evil durge playthrough.
The weapon you get is soooo strong. Only do it on an evil run tho
I like her better as a DJ... not sure I want to know what that says abt me. She killed NS yesterday playthrough and LLI falls BUT I was so happy to see Mattis and Mirkon in Rivington.
If you like shart as a character it's nigh unbearable. She doesn't really grow or become a different but still nuanced being. She's like a husk and you play knowing that all the aspects of her personality you enjoy have been thoroughly snuffed out. So on a very evil playthrough it can fit well but IMO it's not that enjoyable.
This is true, but now that I know the full story, when she’s being snarky or mean i’m like but bby you’re so traumatised and u don’t even know 😭
I once cleared the gauntlet of shar while I left her in camp. Holy shit she got hot. Like understandably so, but I was surprised they put that in the game.
I honestly found Shadowheart mostly insufferable. She’s just so whiny about literally anything that isn’t Shar-related. She’s the BG3 equivalent of that overly zealous Christian girl we all knew in high school.
She has main character syndrome. Good for when you’re playing origins, insufferable if you’re not romancing her as Tav for the first two acts at least. I usually avoid and kill her in my playthroughs now. Not out of hate, but because the constant “I’ve been chosen by Shar blah blah blah” gets annoying after the first three times. I also hate how she demands you get rid of Lae’zel if you prolong meeting her, like why would I do that just so I can have *you* lmao
I was opposite but that's because I never used Shadowheart the 1st time and she left when I didn't take her to Shar's temple.
It's the opposite for me. First playthrough thinking she's an obnoxious zealot of a dumb religion, I felt like I had to tolerate her. Knowing the full backstory of how she got there, and the various ways she can change makes me actually like her.
I was meh on her the first run. Decided to try again on the second, liked her even less. Four more runs without her and she isn’t missed.
My thoughts exactly. I romanced her on one of my early runs also (second I think) so by the time I got to my 3rd I was just sick of her because I had her always there in the second. Combined with constantly trying to figure out her “secrets” in the second run, which I already knew the mystery of from the first (and because they were incredibly obvious) made a lot of her early conversations boring. So my third run I left her at home as much as I could, even though I had limited options because it was my first evil run, and I slaughtered all the tieflings, losing Karlach Will and nearly Gale as a result.
I have to say I'm the opposite - I've ended up caring more and more about each and every companion as I've gotten to know them. This is the reason I wouldn't enjoy playing evil, I don't think I could ever let him just Ascend because I didn't care, for example. Same with Nightsong/Shadowheart. I've had a run where I couldn't convince Lae'zel to reject Vlaakith (it was an oversight on my part) and I felt terrible about it.
Yeah, I agree here. On my previous run Karlach died because I screwed up something with Will quests, I was so heartbroken this time I am just taking her everywhere and gonna do everything right with Wyll just so no harm comes to my favorite girl.
Same. I will probably force myself through an evil run, but it will be tough. I grow more attached every play through.
For me it’s Wyll. I recommend to play with him at least once. But after that one playthrough blud was sitting in the camp all day. No slight on his character or nothing. And I still always save his pops and pull a double on mizora. But unfortunately boy sits in camp all day long.
For me I barely used him on my first run, so now I always multiclass him to either a sorcerer or a bard, and now he serves a purpose in my party.
Same. He's just kind of... Not that interesting.
My HM run is as origin Wyll because - as others have said - he’s just not that compelling as a companion character, and I’d otherwise likely never use him.
If I could go back I would play with him on my first play through because he's NEVER going to be a party member for me
Didn’t bother using him in my first run, just wasn’t interesting to me. I’ll have to give him a try on the second run and probably multi class him into bard or something
Halsin. Was horny for the bear the first playthrough but now I just ignore him
Yeah, unfortunately the more I have interacted with him the less I like him. I mean, I don’t *dislike* him, just can’t find a role for him to fill (other than Orin bait) when I like all the other companions so much more. And I tried his sex scene a couple of times but always undo it bc my characters have just not vibed with him that way It’s been kind of the same with Gale, just not as strongly. But I’m much *less* interested in Gale and his story since I romanced him, which I’m really surprised about and is the opposite of what I expected 🤷🏻♀️
For context, I was having an issue with my power supply not giving enough power to my GPU, so during intensive games (BG3 and Helldivers so far) my GPU would literally crash. Monitors would turn off and fans would go crazy, but could still hear the sounds of the game. Cutscenes tend to do it more than anything else. My Halsin died at the beach fight because he walked through my Wall of Fire after the fight, and I had just hard saved and hadn’t learned the lesson of quicksaving. I had tried that fight like six times (failed it twice and crashed four times), so I just said fuck it, he’s dead. He just wasn’t a very interesting character beyond his obvious sex appeal/focus. They really toned down his story and involvement in certain plot elements. Gale was the same way for me, kidnapped and died at the Bhaal altar and I hadn’t done any of his stuff cause of the romance bugs at the beginning (I will be returning to do his stuff eventually).
You can always revive halsin, lots of scrolls of revivify in the game. Also withers only needs 200 gold to bring him back
He wasn’t a party member at the time, you have to finish his questline to recruit him. So nope, he died!
How did you fix that issue with the power supply? New supply? That sounds SO similar to what's happening to me right now! Clearing CMOS often fixes it but not always and I don't want to have to keep doing that regularly.
Yeah I haven’t actually. I’ll be replacing the PSU itself soon, but things are expensive you know. I’ve taken it to my repair shop twice and they can’t seem to replicate the issue but I put it on another separate surge protector and it’s still happening. What’s “CMOS” and how do you clear it?
The CMOS battery is part of your motherboard, I'd look up your model if you know it for it's location. You take it out after unplugging your tower, hold down the power button for 30 seconds (try to get close to exact on that if you can, the point is to hold it for long enough) to drain the remaining power from the system. Put the CMOS battery back in, turn on the PC. It clears your BIOS essentially, and it's how I've been limping mine along. We just tried a new surge protector for mine last night and it's staying on tentatively but I'm not holding my breath just yet. We think there's a small chance it might be that the cord running from the PSU to the graphics card might be the problem cause at least for me, this build isn't even a year old, I put it together in early April with all new pieces. I hope the tech gods bless the both of us and the problem is easy and cheap to fix!
I ended up straight up disliking Halsin around the middle of Act 3 on my first play through. His constant criticisms of the city and how superior living in nature is and how much better off everyone would be if they’d just live in the woods really grates on me. I appreciate that my Baldurian Tav has a dialogue option to be like “hey man I live here can you stop talking shit about my home?” Halsin will hem and haw about how it’s more that city folk don’t have community. And Laezel, bless her, will say something to the effect of “it’s pretty hypocritical for a bear, who hoards his food and sleeps all winter, to chastise others for how they take care of their community.”
My trick for not getting sick of characters is to just multiclass them into all kinds of clases to see if it effects things (it does). Sure a multiclassed Wyll into Warlock/Bard or Warlock/Sorcerer, Wilheart Barbarian Halsin, or Astarion into Monk/Rogue is fairly popular, but you can even toy around with it more. I did a run where I gave them the weirdest class changes for fun. Honestly seeing Gale go into Rage was the funniest thing ever 😅
My current run I made a point to use the characters I hadn’t before, and changed jahera to a fighter rogue, which actually felt amazing in act 3 dealing with all of her harper stuff. It totally made sense, and ended up being one of my favorite builds.
I keep Jaheira with just enough levels of Druid for flavor and then pump the rest of her leveling into making her a dex based fighter
My “canon” Tav is a Druid so when I play her route I change Jaheira to a Monk and I really like that fighting style for her. It just somehow fits she’d be all centered while beating the shit out of a baddie with her bare hands lol
After my evil Durge run, shadowheart was so whiny whenever I did anything remotely evil, like you are a dark justiciar to one of the most evil goddesses in existance, and you get bent out of shape about a little murder? It got to the point where I'd make a game out of figuring out how she'd show her disappointment next. Careful not to offend mother shadowheart, her hipocracy may be contageous.
Yeah, loved Astarion for my first playthrough. He was even my first romance and it was perfect for my resistant Durge. But for some reason, on my second playthrough and as a evil neutral Durge, it almost feels like I’m carrying him. I didn’t sleep with him hoping we can be evil friends but it doesn’t even feel like it. It’s like that annoying stereotypical character trope who butters up to you because you’re strong and dependable but will toss you away once your usefulness ends despite giving them a crown to wear at the end of the day. It’s weird. I didn’t expect it. At the same time, it’s brilliant how much your choices matters.
Go Minthara for your evil partner.
I’m going through the character romance stories like a bingo card and Minthara is next on my list. I’m excited for her dialogues. Originally I was going to for this current run -Male, Drow, Neutral Evil, Fighter- but our first encounter didn’t go that well lol
I’m playing a neutral good Drow Paladin on my second run, romancing Shadowheart, and I’m kind of loving friendship with Astarion? I do think you get a lot less of his story if you’re not romancing him and some stuff gets revealed at weird times. Like for some reason he was just hanging out shirtless after Mizora showed up in act 2, and that’s how I found out about his scars that run? But doing Cazador’s palace in a non-romance run is really different in a good way.
I agree with you that the impressions between characters and Tav/Durge in terms of friendship vs romance and alignment changes. And it’s amazing. On my first run (Male, Half-Elf, Neutral Good, Paladin) I didn’t care much for Gale but we were friends at least. Gale was arrogant and surprisingly quiet on that run. Now on my 2nd run (Male, Drow, Neutral Evil, Fighter), I’m unexpectedly romancing Gale. Also unexpectedly, I didn’t realize how pragmatic he can be on my neutral evil choices. He’s definitely more open and have a lot more dialogue/quip during this run. He’s softer and so damn sweet. He makes me want to turn this run into another Good Neutral run in fact lol On the other hand, Astarion on this current run is a lot more closed off. There’s more manipulative vibes and his delivery of the same lines he has from my first run are now colder or distant. I’m still in Act 2 about to do the Shar Gauntlet and just met with Raphael. When I asked Astarion about the Orthon, he kinda brushed me off and gave some attitude along the lines of “Be a dear and don’t get in the way.” Astarion, my dear, I’m about to let you fight the Orthon by yourself if you keep giving me attitude. But maybe it’s to be expected from an Evil Neutral run? Maybe being evil doesn’t always mean close friendships? Anyways, I can’t wait to reach Act 3 for the Cazador palace and experience the scenes differently. Especially how different an Ascended Astarion will be
Astarion, actually. I was definitely an Astarion fan the first playthrough but after learning more about him and his story romancing him in a second playthrough gave me the heebs. I know that's the only way to progress the relationship with him, but I couldn't do it. Instead, Gale, who I thought was dorky and boring the first go round, has captured my attention. Oh don't get me wrong, he's still dorky, but so unbelievably wholesome and his stability is a nice change from the emotional rollercoaster that is the pale elf.
Gale is so chill when you ask him to head back to camp too. He just goes and watches the cook pot. Like thanks bud
Gale is so chill when you ask him to head back to camp too. He just goes and watches the cook pot. Like thanks bud
I loved playing as Shadowheart on my first run, but as a companion she really didn't do it for me the 2nd time around. She just was a lot more bratty and adversarial as an NPC, and I found her pretty meh until the Nightsong decision where she became much more likable.
That’s the thing with Shart for me. It took far too long to get to a point where she wasn’t being a brat the whole time. By the time we get to the Nightsong decision, I’ve already picked my main party. I wasn’t about to switch out one of my ride or dies at that point.
That's funny to me because I'm on my first playthrough and I feel the same way about her
This probably depends a lot on the approval level too. She has more variety than any other character depending on approval. Laezel says "speak" literally no matter what the rating is, but shadowheart has multiple dialog options for EACH approval level. If she was bratty the approval was probably low.
Shadowheart. I've had her with me throughout half my playthroughs and I just cant like her. I brought her with me on my current one and omg this girl talks non stop about shar 24 7. People tend to give Gale grief over his talking about Mystra but man he ain't got nothing on shart with shar/selune it's driving me crazy lol. I was determined to check out a D.J shart or I'd have benched her in act 1 and never looked back.
In her defense, she was mind wiped often, so she literally doesn’t remember much apart from Shar
I understand. It just gets old for me
I got so fed up with her will bang for shar attitude in shadow fall I ended up pushing her into the chasm where night song was she embraced shar via dying in her domain. I felt bad because she is a victim of grooming so I ended up reloading a save prior to killing her.
🤣 🤣
Definitely Shadowheart, she feels too adversarial/abrasive and she’s always stirring things up
Definitely Halsin. Especially since there's no way to stop him from following you into ACT 3 unless you keep the shadowlands cursed. He has the most boring reactions to everything and is basically a dead weight, especially since we get a MUCH better druid in ACT 3. Trying to see if it's possible to keep him neutral to my tav/durge, to avoid the awkward/annoying ACT 3 confession but it might actually be impossible - Seems like everything flags as flirting.
Shadowheart. I liked her during the first run, but not now. After knowing what exactly worshipping Shar means (torture and murder), Shadowheart's whining about becoming a DJ sounds annoying as hell.
Happy to see no Lae'zel hate. She seems to just grow on people, and rightfully so.
Which is strange because her and shart are intended to be foils of each other that have far more in common than they would ever admit. I think a big part of it is just that people generally focus on shart on their first playthrough.
100%. They are two sides of the same coin. Playing as Lae and romancing Shart is actually the true Canon run.
Shadowheart first and foremost. I know many people love her but for me she went from “kinda like” to “meh” during the first run. (Lae’zel was the opposite funnily enough… disliked her at first but she grew on me a lot) Maybe also Wyll to an extent. I still like him but he didn’t receive a super compelling story arc and feels lacking in other aspects unfortunately. Really wish he had a bit more oomph emotionally, e.g. Astarion’s story hits hard every single time.
Yes. My first playthrough ruined Gale for me and I'm just getting to like him again (maybe this time I can *fix him*). I'm also getting mildly tired of Karlach, other companions keep outshining her. It depends greatly on the Tav I'm RPing. Sometimes they vibe more with these characters, other times they can't stand them. The only one I can't seem to get rid of is Astarion, he worms his way into never leaving the party even if my Tav is a little "eh" about him. (He managed to save himself during my gith run; didn't care for him at all, then after the first night with Lae'zel he was like "omg how was it, spill the tea sis", which was very unexpected and I guess they're friends now) Also Shadowheart is a constant, though I've noticed she's a lot more enjoyable to be around if you initiate her romance in Act 1, because she seems actually pleased to see you when you talk to her (rather than "urgh Lady of Sorrows guide me through this conversation, what do you want")
Yeah I don't get that greeting, the eyeroll and resigned tone even when her approval is high or more. Like, girl you're the one with the exclamation point over your head, what do YOU want? :/
astarion also wanted the tea when my tav slept with laezel! he didn’t say anything on my runs where i romanced shart or karlach, so maybe he’s just rlly into laezel?
I love all the companions in general. But I'm a bit over Shadowheart at the moment! I don't find her funny... Absolutely love her story, but it's the banter that I'm not feeling right now. Also non-romanced Gale on a Durge playthrough kind of put me off a bit (same goes with Karlach). But like you say, OP, for me it's all down to my own RP. Half of the camp are big no no's if I'm doing a slightly power hungry and morally ambiguous run.
Shart.
I stopped liking Shadowheart after a few playthroughs and now just abandon her on the ship and ignore her whenever she pops up on Act 1 trying to join.
Honestly... karlach, don't get me wrong, cinnamon roll baby, but her quest is annoying and her wanting to just fistfight gortash on the spot is a little annoying, like wait 10 minutes baby you'll get your smash... oh wait she's being taken to the dungeons... sigh
I feel terrible saying this but Karlach. I’ve beaten the game with her on my final team twice and she’s a super cool chick for sure, but she has gotten a little tiresome for me personally. Like she kinda feels… gimmicky… after a while.
It's Karlach for me 😭 it's not even that I dislike her, it's just that I realised who she reminds me of in real life (someone who is very loud and excited all the time who makes me tired as a result) and then I couldn't un-notice the resemblance. yay for competing mental illnesses I suppose
Gale. Playthrough he was my homie until he turned into the God of Riding my coattails to victory
I used to really like Shadowheart and romanced her a couple times whilst hardcore hating on Gale. Then I started a Gale playthrough and realized I actually like him as a player character/companion and I don’t like Shadowheart as much. Also after romancing Karlach I don’t know how I can ever romance Shadowheart again. Karlach will always be my favorite companion/romance for sure.
I feel like karlachs story is pretty empty and after using her for one playthrough she lost a bit of her charm. Still an awsome companion just not quite as good as the first time.
She was my first romance in my first playthrough and after having done it… you can definitely feel that there was a lot if content cut for her. She’s not nearly as bad as Wyll on that front, but apparently there was a whole questline in the upper city that got cut and MAN can you feel it. So much of the game is building up your relationship with her, finding what you need to help her, and then you get to the city, her home, and suddenly have nothing else to do with other than kill gortash, which you have to do anyway. She has some interactions throughout the city, but no quest like Shart, or Astarion, or even Wyll. It’s disappointing for sure
I kind of had the opposite problem, I played a teifling on my first playthrough and could not deal with lae'zels racism. I saved her ass from a cage and then left her and camp for the rest of the game, and didn't bother to save her from Orin. On my second playthrough, I decided I was going to save the gith price from the get-go so I tried to use her but ended up turning her into it druid and keep her wild shaped most of the time so I didn't actually have to deal with her conversation. I don't know if that counts but she was a party member
As others have said, Shadowheart is far less interesting on a second playthrough when you know her story. On the other hand, I like Lae’zel and Jaheira more on my current playthrough ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
probably unpopular but Karlach. i loved her the first time i played and she was almost always in my party but now i find her kind of boring. meanwhile, i didn't use Lae'zel much at first and now like her a lot more.
I kinda feel that way bout Shadowheart. She was snarky fun the first time, now I'm just kinda meh. God how I wish we could get the Act 3 companions sooner.
Astarion is on the expendable list now. In the first run it was great to learn his story and see what happened, but now I am tired of his BS. Lae'zel is in a similar position and I don't spend inspirations to save her anymore. On the other side, I love Minthara and Jaheira more than ever.
I relate to it being Astarion. Could be that I never triggered his long rest vampire reveal because I didn't long rest enough - he basically told me "heh I'm a vampire", I responded "well, duh" and he said "oh ok" and that was it. So I didn't get enough approval points (I think you can get up to 20-25 for the long rest camp scene and the dialogue with companions afterward alone) and he never tried to charm me, I guess (lmao). He was still in my active party the entire playthrough, except in a fight or two. Minthara as well, could be that the only other time I had her in my camp/team was as non-resisting Durge and this run was a good-ish githyanki (as far as githyanki go). Jaheira and Minsc started growing on me though. It's a pity they join you so freaking late into the story, Minsc especially.
I actually made the effort to use Minsc on my last run. His banter is great and I ended up keeping him until the end. Even had him do the rallying speech before the final battle. Wish we could recruit him earlier.
Not at second playthrough, but after ten playtroughs Karlach went from my fav to my almost least liked, only Halsin below her.
I liked Karlach less on my second run — I was playing a melee/punch things character instead of a caster so I just ended up needing her less. Her story is also less compelling to me than Lae’zel’s. She ended up living at camp for most of Acts 2 and 3, except for situations that were directly relevant to her plot. I’m always going to bring her to kill Gortash if I’m playing a good guy.
Not really a second playthrough but in my third playthrough of the game I recruited Halsin and Minthara but I didn't cared a lot for them because they didn't have any sort of quest after that
No.
I think gale is great but only once
Lae'zel, I just can't get myself to care about the gith, and only see the Cresh as some murder based xp and that just doesn't jive with her story
Yeah gith culture for me ends up being too alien to really ever jive with.
Once you strip away the novelty, you start to realize how many lines are about self-pity. Karlach and Astarion are the worst offenders IMO (though I still love them). I actually liked Shart more because she’s so fun to hate.
Halsin. Always. I let him get kidnapped by Orin, and hopefully as Durge I can get the slayer form by sacrificing him
Don't think that's mizora's job bud
Shadowheart, Karlach, Wyll and Jaheira. On the other hand I like Minthara and Gale even more
A lot of my beef with Gale was from my second playthrough. He was fine enough in my first playthrough, just a dorky wizard I liked chatting with in camp. My second playthrough I decided to romance him, and he was just...... so cringe. Ultimately very sweet, but I really struggled with the ego. All resulting playthroughs he's been a friend and I just like him so much better outside of a romance.
I'm mad at astarion for breaking up with me when I ascended him and then didn't let him turn me into a vampire. He was previously my favorite. But since then I've been a Gale girly™️ and astarions been lugging around our camp equipment and setting the tent up for us 🤣
Karlach and Halsin, Halsin on most of my playthroughs has been way to horny and doesn’t really have much character ig he’s useful as Orin bait tho, Karlach I originally liked cause I thought her design was cool but her personality grates on me to no end
Astarion and Shadowheart. Liked and got along with them great in first playthrough (romanced Astarion), but in the second they seemed much more confrontational and prickly. Shadowheart finally came around, but Astarion has been difficult on this playthrough probably because I did romance him before and the relationship was very different. Complete reversal with Laezel, first playthrough did not like, second much better. I disliked Gale so much first round, I kicked him out of the party, but in second round realized he's not so bad. Although when he tried to treefrog me, it grossed me out big time.
Gale. Ended up married to him in my first playthrough. Came back to the game about a month later and found him pretty annoying
For me it's Gale 😅 I like him, don't get me wrong. But U definitely like him way less than in my first run...
I lost complete interest in Lae'zel. I enjoy the epiphany moment she has with Vlaakith, but then she just transitions her fanaticism to Orpheus. It's very one note. I guess it all works out, since in every single playthrough she ends up being kidnapped for most of Act 3.
Meanwhile on my first playthrough I found out Halsin was kidnapped and I'm like "who?"
For me, it was Wyll. My first playthrough, I was trying to help everyone plus romancing Wyll. He was sweet, romantic, and on the same wavelength as my Tav. The second run, I'm playing a resist urge while romancing Astarion -seems fitting- and, overall, Wyll is ... really boring. There's not a lot of give for what is fun versus what is wrong, and he ends up being a stick in the mud.
Gale. I was a bard on my first playthrough and wanted to romance Astarion, but really regretted not romancing gale cause he seemed sweet. Made the mistake of playing a sorcerer and he was an ass, just a complete turn off for the character.
Gale for me. He was one of my permanent companions for 2 runs, on 2nd I. romanced him and after that I just can't look at him. He's a great companion, but everything that made me alarmed about him in romance was like multiplied. It ruined him so much I can't even bring myself to listen to him. I still resqued him on my 3rd run, but he just chills in the camp in his pajamas. Astarion is probably my ride or die guy, I don't get sick of him and he's always with me. Karlach and Halsin also very close. If I'm gonna do 4th run probably gonna change the whole party just for kicks though. And it helps greatly to totally respec companions in something else not to get bored - now I run with cleric Astarion, wizard Karlach, and barbarian Shadowheart (until I recruit Halsin). Sun robe looks so cool on Karlach.
Wyll
Karlach for me shes kinda stupid, honestly. sometimes not in an endearing way
Wyll. Just sick of the mizora cut scenes and that I have to go to the iron throne
Astarion. First playthrough I romanced him as a criminal bard and became his spawn and we were beautiful murder husbands. His face...so kissable. And I kissed it a lot. Second playthrough, my aristocrat warlock/wizard/fighter/cleric....can't stand him. I want to roll my eyes at everything he says. His face...so punchable. I punched him and it was fantastic. I haven't fought Caszador yet so his fate is still TBD but...it doesn't look good.
Agreed on my second playthrough I suddenly found him incredibly obnoxious
Lazeal was my girl the first time. This run Orin has her and it's ok.
Shadowheart. My first run especially I was really into her, but I often leave her at camp and ignore her these days. Idk why exactly.
I was in love with Lae'zel in my first playthrough, both my character and myself. I still like her, but in an ex kind of way. Every time she tries to sleep with a new Tav it's somewhat off-putting.
I don't have this with companions but with one class and that's bard. Idk what it is but I'm just not that into it the second time around.
Wyll was a regular in my first playthrough but he just stays in camp subsequent games since he doesn’t really need to be in any of his own quests (Karlach, Iron Throne, Ansur etc). Edit: typo
Gale. i haven't had him in my party in ages. i dislike the way he speaks; it grates on me and it's the sort of behavior that would make me avoid someone IRL i don't HATE him, btw. i feel for him, and i feel tremendous compassion for what he's been through. but i have a really hard time dealing with how flowery he is when he speaks
Yeah it changes with my character and how I do my roleplay. I romanced Astarion in my last game and really liked him. This round I don’t like him that much cause my character is very nice and Astarion is pretty mean and disapproves of everything. I romanced Shadowheart my first game and really liked her. Second game I found her annoying and gave her away to Viconia >.>
Lae'zel. Don't get me wrong, i rate her growth equal to shadowhearts, maybe a bit higher, HOWEVER no matter how high your relationship she never stops threatening to kill you when you don't do what she wants, and even at the end of the game if you play as a Githyanki and refuse to go with her she will insult you and basically call you a traitor until prince orpheus steps in to stop her; it was really offputting, i went through all that trouble to save orpheus, SACRIFICED Karlach (mindflayer ending) all for Lae'zel who by the way DOESNT EVEN OFFER to become a Mindflayer to save her people, and i was still insulted for wanting to stay with my partner. (gale) Wyll is a runner up i'll make this short, this man spends act 1 and part of act 2 needing to be reaffirmed by the Tav that he isn't a monster just because he has horns, only for him to turn his back on you if you become a mindflayer, even if romanced he will essentially leave you UNLESS you agree to be hidden away like his private Shame, his soul is given to Mizora every run now and his father is never saved.
I hate astarion now that i have to have him in my party. I don’t care that you want to watch the CHILDREN die, you fucking prick
Wyll is incredibly Milquetoast. I like him, and I liked having him in my party, but there’s 0 flexibility to his character. Same with Karlach.
Yeah, but it was only because I romanced Gale in my first playthrough, so I focused on him and had him in my party constantly. So, in my second playthrough, I didn't use him at all, and instead, Astarion became my boyfriend wizard.
Yup, it was Gale for me, holy shit SHUT THE FUCK UP DUDE GET OVER HER ALREADY SHE GROOMED YOU.
I love Gale but fr. Why can’t we just outright point it out to him?!
Wyll is kind of boring
Kinda. I did my first run with Astarion, always hoping he would become good. He did not become good. I’ve done 6 playthroughs now, and Astarion was killed on every run after the 1st. I was so disgusted with him by the end of my 1st run.
Minsc karlach and Jaheira are the best teammates for everyone who already finished the game, because the others are bit boring imo, all of them have a "secret" and a "reveal" and it seems forced, like irl would be a bit weird being randomly in a group where everyone had a secret seems plastic to me. Astarion was always awful to me since moment 1, why do we have this vampire side quest who matters 0 to the story and why people like him so much I will never know. The best written character imo is Laeh'zel and I think her development is the only that is actually well written
I came to really dislike Astarion after romancing him and ascending him. He is a broken toy, abused by Cazador for centuries. He didn't even own his body. And his wish is to have power so he can be worse. Even keeping him as a spawn disappointed me. I just came to not liking. He is a broken person who just wants to hurt other people even more because he is a pathetic and weak child who feels to need to be superior.
I think Astarion is extremely compelling because his trauma is pretty unique in that it has been so prolonged and constant. He IS broken and some people never become unbroken when they've been treated that way for so long. They only need to be better, even if it's small steps. I think I enjoy that Astarion challenges someone's ability to not victim blame to an extreme, but still try to instill responsibility for their actions. And this is as someone that has 0 interest in romancing him but befriends him every playthrough.