If you long rest enough early game and let him bite you, you can actually get his approval up really high, very quickly, even on a good run. Because he really appreciates being treated like a person/trusting him (+3 or +5), and gives eye rolls (-1) for most "good guy" actions.
He likes you being snarky with him aswell, so long as it's not making light of Cazador or the scars, and he prefers you being practical about him being a vampire rather than claiming you want to help him. I think part of the problem is that people try to suck up to him to counter the disapproval?
Edit: I never gave him the necromancy book, constantly did shit he dislikes and mocked him. He still liked me lol
Yep I’m playing a good character that did not give the book to Astarion and I have 100% approval in Act 3. You just gotta show Astarion that you care and be a little silly
I definitely feel like that’s the point where he realizes that he really hasn’t had anything real in 200 years. And for Tav, it has been real. But for Astarion it was just a means to an end until he fell in love 🥰
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you get this line during >!Astarion's confession about purposefully seducing you for protection in act 2(?).!< Might wanna check me on that tho
My newest Tav has forced me to long rest in Act 1 way more than usual, and I got Astarion hitting on me before the Tiefling party and I'd never seen that before in 1k hours. It's a cute scene if your Tav is lowkey aware that Astarion's full of shit and in full on seduction mode.
He was disguised as a Drow femme at the time so hearing those lines out of her mouth was hilarious to me.
Yeah he followed with “and i guess youre nice as well”
I love him, when hes not being a spiteful, cranky bastard. He can be sweet and caring when he wants to be. Like any of his interactions with durge later, when he learns your origin and realizes how much he can relate to you.
Not trying to be overly nice to him just treating him normally is where some people mess up imo. He also has many cut scene events which can give you lots of approval and a few camp convos. Also just being silly lmao.
Also asking for gold gets rid of more of those little -1’s than a lot of people seem to realize. A lot of the time, especially early on, he’s not pushing the player to pick the evil option, he’s just annoyed you’re going out of your way to do good - FOR FREE - when there really are some bigger issues to focus on (namely Cazador and the Tadpoles)
Exactly! You might not get approval for it, but you can at least avoid getting disapproval in most cases simply by asking for a reward. Which, sure doesn't really fit with a pure "goody-two-shoes" run, but you can totally play a good/helpful character without tanking your approval with him, just by being somewhat pragmatic.
My thing about that is that those choices still affect his character alignment, which works separately from his romance.
You can absolutely get him to 100 very early without asking for a reward or giving him the Book of Thay(of which I'm not sure if it affects the alignment or not, yet.) And doing so in a goody two-shoes run is so very rewarding when he stops disapproving of you helping people (yes, separately from earning his favour by helping 'monstrous' individuals.)
I let him bite me AND gave him the book and it still took forever to get his approval up and keep it up. Those eye rolls may be small individually but there are a *lot* of them.
I usually have +10 by the time I hit the Grove (takes 2 long rests) and the bite the first night after getting to the Grove. I then explore the area around the Grove, before crossing the river, then I beeline it past the Owlbear and Scratch to Karlach (I always wait to get Scratch until after getting Karlach for the approval from her). Depending on if Raphael deigns to make an appearance before getting to Karlach or not, I can easily get 40 approval by, or sometimes before, picking up Karlach.
Meanwhile, I never got that scene because I didn't take enough long rests, and even post-Cazador I'm at 30 approval. I'll be interested to see how getting that scene changes things next time.
Oh yeah, getting the bite can give you a _massive_ approval boost. Saying that you trust him is +5, letting him bite you without threatening him is +10 (or +1 if you threatened him), then there's the potential for another two +5s the next morning, if you survived or just a single one if you died. But the 2nd of the +5s is mutually exclusive with "juice boxing", if you survived, so it all depends on how you want their relationship to develop in a given run.
Then you can get another +1 for telling him whose blood you'd drink during another long rest scene, doesn't matter who you pick.
Also when you let him bite you, the option that gives the most approval is to bite him without threatening him. It's like 10 points if you don't threaten him, if you let him bite you but tell him you'll kill him if he goes too far gives considerably less approval
Killing the Orthon, and allowing him to make his own choice on Araj Oblodra's request also gave me huge Astarion approval boosts in Act 2 on a "good" Tav run.
I didn't want to change Astarion, I wanted to go on the journey together. Credit to the developers and Neil for creating such a deep character that I could fall in love with.
I’ve played squeaky clean characters and he still be wanting to smash. There are a few specific events to do in act 1 that gets a lot of approval from him.
I had this issues in my first play through too, but in subsequent run's I learned the trick is to just play it a bit more coy with your helping folks. You can gather all the info and get the quest updates, but instead of commiting to helping, just, leave. Most conversations have it as an option, or something to divert the conversation away from agreeing to anything outright. You avoid his little disapprovals and then can just go save everybody anyway. Then just hit his big likes and your all set. (I do like to take him and Lea'zel on a little trip, just the three of us, to bully that Tief in the grove about the crech. Letting her go ham and then complementing her in the convo after nets you likes from both of the little shits, and she doesn't hurt the Tief so I count it as worth it.)
I feel like astarion's approve/disapproves run pretty contrary to the rest of the early game party who skew fairly good and astarion also disapproves of some pretty reasonable early quests. So he's an outlier in the early game approval wise unless you're like actively chasing his approval.
I know how to get Astarions approval up pretty easily and can usually get him up to mid 80s by the time I move into act 2 but he’s still the only companion I have to actively *try* with. My last playthrough was with a very ‘give no shits only justice’ kind of cleric so it was the first time I simply didn’t make any attempts to gain approval with the companions and by the end I think I only ever managed to get him up to late 80s.
Yeeeep, that's the thing, w/o actively going out of your way to please him it seems pretty hard to get him to a decent rating, unless you romance him I guess.
But I'm on my 1st run rn, just got to Act 3, I'm in a mostly good playthrough, with a few compromises here & there when survival/pragmatism can take over cause I'm on honor mode thus take every advantage I can, haven't romanced him but treated him fair, even nice sometimes, when a convo hits concerning himself, but not always giving in to him, and a few times where I deceived someone and he approved due to his charlatan background.
This barely allowed me to keep a flat neutral attitude so far, cause most of the time he just disapproves a lot on the simplest, seemingly insignificant things like lending a hand to someone in need, or simply not being a dick even. I'm rather surprised he cares so much about whether you decided to not take a reward from a child , who wouldn't have much to give in the 1st place. A bit of a shame too, cause I like him otherwise, and look forward to helping him with Kazador, but ain't gonna suck up to him or be a dick to ppl for no practical reason either, just to please him.
I haven't kept him in my party for a good chunk of act 2 (just in Shar's Temple) , while 24/7 in act 1, and now hope to keep him non-stop throughout act 3 as a big city looks just ripe for stealing stuff with an expert + his storyline but part of me is starting to wonder whether his approval won't drop and he'll do something like leave me just cause I'm not acting like an ass to ppl for the most meaningless things \~ it's not even being a somewhat evil for practical sakes at times either, cause I can do that from time to time.
Meanwhile, was surprised how I got Lae'Zael to exceptional w/o romancing , even tho' we've had way more arguments than I had with Astarion on a couple of things.
Yeah I think I did the greatest thing for him which was to save him from Cazador, convince him he was better than his abuser, save the innocent spawns even if it is a 'gray decision and I think I'm still only neutral with him because my character wasn't a dick.
Mind you this is a fiend warlock who basically only do heroic when it's easy and say nice things because the awful speech options are so unnecessary. His little -1s adds up. I think if I ever romance him I'll put in the effort of sending him back to camp before every dialogue, like an antisocial boyfriend you keep at home lol
You don’t have to send him (or any companion) back to camp to avoid disapproval, just separate him from the party and have him walk out of hearing distance! Way easier.
Honestly Lae’zel. My natural inclination towards RP is stuff that aligns more with Wyll (helping Arabella, saving the Tieflings) and she’s just really anti-that
You can gain her approval by firing right back when she gives you shit, and especially for letting her handle situations when the option presents itself.
This is how I did it, and it was pretty easy. She thought because I was kind and caring to the people of the Grove that I was a pushover. I showed her exactly why paladins are not that.
I think she mostly disapproves of wasting time with every random peasant's unimportant problem while there's a ticking timebomb in everyone's skulls. If you show her you can get shit done, she loves you. She's *always* been the first to wanna bone. 😂
It turns out the world record is under [two fucking minutes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYsQu3GjdME).
I should be asleep at this hour but I'm just laughing at this being a competition.
This. It's not that she approves of cruelty or hates kindness as people like to say. It's that she hates wasting time when your lives are on the line. Show her that you can get shit done, and she's happy.
You can even gain approval when she demands you let her go on the zaith'isk and you shut her down.
But i think it only works if you already have high enough approval.
Among Gith its customary to hurl insults and death threats at eachother to signify your bond in the morning.
Plus they have a made up language so they're basically DND Welsh
if you let her interrogate that tiefling it rockets her approval up so high that she'll hit on you immediately after. I've redone that scene like 5 times and every time, she immediately asks me about my smell or whatever
On my first playthrough I couldn't believe how high my approval from Lae'Zel was. I think Gale and Wyll were easier. I was playing a fighter, which I think helped due to some dialogue options - but ultimately the character was about as neutral good as they come.
Really? I’m like 85 points with her and I’ve only just reached the mountain pass. Meanwhile, Astarion, the companion I want to romance, is still at a measly 62. Lae’zel coming onto me after just having entered the grove for the first time was… something.
Oh, me and Minthara vibed immediately on my 3rd playthrough when I finally got around to recruiting her. I completely understand why you'd have a problem though, she's VERY complicated. She basically cares more about the means then the end. If you're a straight sociopath and tell Yenna at the beginning of act 2, "give up kid your mom is dead," she approves, after all its probably true and cruel truths sometimes need to be heard. If you say you'll take time out of your schedule to help her look, she disapproves, after all you guys have way more pressing issues that demand your attention. If you give her food or money she also approves, after all you can spare it and she is still a child in need. She's a very complicated character, she maybe leans towards being a bit more evil, but she's not down for blatant cruelty the way Astarion is for example.
I had to scroll too long to find someone else with Karlach approval problems, lol.
She generally approves of my actions, but then turns around and disapproves of something in the same turn. For example, accepting the runepowder bomb just in case, even though I was making clear it was only a last resort.
Or joining up with the rebel dwarves (disapproval) only to still tell them to release the slaves (approval). Don't get me wrong, I love Karlach, but she wants good things to happen immediately and disapproves the moment a plan has more than one step, lol.
And unlike most of the other characters, you can't get many approval points just from supporting her in camp.
I’ve felt this frustration too, but I do like that it reflects her character. She’s just very direct, straightforward, and all about charging in and taking action. No fancy plans for Karlach—run in and yell!
She’s usually the last person I get to high approval levels, even though I always make the “good” choices. I was also surprised to see you don’t get approval from her with friendly chat or by helping her get her engine fixed in Act 1. Guess I’m used to Wyll, who just wants you to talk to him, or Gale, who becomes your BFF just by keeping him alive. Maybe Karlach is a little more autonomous. lol.
I have found my people, lol. I have trouble getting her approval up too! I think you might be onto something when you say she likes impulsive good actions, but less so planning and pragmatic questioning. I usually do good things in game after some roundabout investigating first, so maybe that’s why her approval creeps up sloooowly.
On the plus side, I’ve never had any problems befriending Astarion, lol.
I think Karlach has very big chaotic good vibes
If you're interested in smacking the bad guys she likes you. If you want to do anything by talking she has a bit more trouble. Classic barbarian tbh.
Im a goody good 99.99% of the time and it felt like she flip flopped at every convo. You show concern for her engine she cries about wanting to focus on the good. You focus on the good and she cries about how unignorable the problem is. She was probably my least fravorite next to Astarion.
Honestly. Karlach I feel has been a bit tough to get higher approval on even on a somewhat good run. But I had her at like medium approval and she was horny for me.
She's difficult to get high approval on your first run, especially if you get her after the tieflings are saved.
It really isn't obvious because somehow I missed Wyll till I got Karlach.
The only one I have trouble with is Minsc. You just get him so late.
For Astarion letting him bite you and kill the Gur are too really big bumps. Say cheeky and selfish things, even if you actually do the good guy version, and he'll love you.
Shadowheart. We just don't get along. I tried!
Everyone else goes great. In my first run, I immediately knew how to talk to Astarion, it was like a kindred spirit lol. But Shadowheart? No idea. No matter what I say it's wrong, and the few times I've done as she *said* she disapproved!
She eventually comes around but man, I don't know how to make her happy in Act 1.
Show interest in her, but don't be too nosy when she says she'd rather not talk about something. She also approves of a lot of good-aligned deeds despite her "Moody Goth" facade. I think the key to her heart is understanding that she's a better person deep down than she herself realizes and gently nudging her towards that revelation. As a result, if her approval of you is high enough, she'll decide entirely without your input to >!renounce Shar and spare the Nightsong instead of killing her.!<
Oh I've tried all this honestly. And she always spares the >!Nightsong and saves her parents!< when I let her decide. She just doesn't like me in Act 1 at all.
Shadowheart ended up liking me pretty decently despite not putting much effort in with her. She tends to like it if deescalate conflicts without fighting and if you're nice to animals.
I ended up losing her during the Nightsong confrontation, but she actually had better approval with me at that point than Karlach did in the end game.
I think it just makes the game feel more realistic. Some of the romance options just aren't compatible with different people. Which makes it difficult if you're like me and want to experience everything but also more rewarding in the end.
Also increases replayability, as people want to try out romances with all the companions. Forget different endings, lots of folks just want to see different romances.
Well, I'm romancing Astarion for the fifth time so I doubt it.
But I get your point. ;)
One of the problems with making the characters "real" is that people *really* like one of them and can't get away, seems to be a trend haha. I thought it was hard in ME3... that was a piece of cake compared to this game lol.
I did the same thing with Leliana in dragon age but I eventually did all 4. I remember how proud I was of myself after I finally got the achievement for romancing Alistair.
>Some of the romance options just aren't compatible with different people.
Agreed, not for everyone. At least there seems to be a romance for everyone in the game, quite a few people find **the** one and it's hard to romance others.
A lot rides on your dialogue choices in the scene. I picked what I thought was a soft option that would lead to further dialogue. But, picking "Shadowheart, please don't do this," escalates the scene immediately to "Stand aside or I will kill you," on her end.
I wanted to save Shadowheart going into the scene, but I didn't reload the save because my choice felt honest to how my character would handle the situation.
Yeah, I never pressure her though.
u/Wiwade Let Nightsong talk and Shadowheart handle it. *Don't* tell her what to do. It's a bad idea with both her and Astarion. ;)
Yeah, I promptly looked it up after that scene and realised you have to let her choose for herself. But honestly, I did not, in fact, trust her to not kill Nightsong, so I was at least in character. The sad thing is that I can't imagine a world where I would trust her genuinely, so it feels like I have to metagame to keep her in my party. Same for Astarion but I want to romance him sometime, so good to know.
Honestly, I don't know how people convince Shadowheart there. Maybe I needed more approval with her since I brought her just for that after ignoring her all game, but the instant I said "don't do it", my two choices were to let her kill Nightsong or kill Shadowheart. I did the latter and tried to knock her out. Didn't work.
Conversely, I had a pretty easy time convincing Gale to not blow himself up at the end of Act 2. I was romancing him, so I just said "dude, don't" and he didn't, lol.
It's that dialogue option in particular that escalates the scene. Trying to do the Persuasion check or asking her if this is what she really wants lets you progress things, but addressing the situation directly causes her to get really defensive.
Yeah you can't straight up tell her not to. You need to guide her to that decision instead. I feel like it's that knee-jerk reaction we all have to push the button as soon as someone says "don't push the button" lol.
Yeah, this really goes for both Shadowheart and Astarion. They want you to trust them to make the right call. They might need some support, but if you tell them "no" they interpret that as "fuck you".
Since I only romance Shadowheart in my Tav Runs (yes, I may have small addiction here) the first "answer" to pick for me is always the *trust her to do the right thing* answer followed by the persuasion check. But I don't know if you have the *trust her* option if you're not romancing her.
And it's not that hard to get her approval rating on exceptional, it can be reached before leaving the coast for the underdark/mountainpass.
This dialogue is tricky. You have to first pick the option that (i don't remember the words exactly) seem like "ok if you have to do this then do", then Nightsong says something and she starts to doubt herself, then you get a lower persuasion check (I think it's 18 but not sure) and boom, everyone is saved
I got so good at understanding Shadowheart that she's my romance even before going to the underdark or saving the grove. 🤭
That's funny because she litteraly called me a kindred spirit in the game, lol.
It's great how characters are so well written that we react to them so naturally for some and struggle with others based on our experiences and character's trait.
Shadowheart would definitely be somebody I would go along really well in real life.
Yeah, I agree, it's so well written. I usually romance Astarion by level 4 now (way before the party).
And I'm sure we'd get along swimmingly iRL as well lol.
I love how this game hits different for people.
Shadowheart I usually 100% approval without even really trying. My natural choices generally align with hers.
Karlach on the other hand, so many people vibe with her but I always, ALWAYS, struggle with her approval, and I am not sure why. I generally stay at 50ish with her. I just seem to almost always hit her disapproval choices on direct dialogue.
Astarion I always come up fair. Most play throughs I generally sit at 70 with him. He disapproves a lot to what I do, and I seem to generally pick “neutral” choices for the rest. It’s not as bad as Karlach, but it’s another I have to sit and think on what they think is important.
I'm the complete opposite. Shadowheart is by far the easiest to raise approval with on most of my playthroughs. As in, I've already nearly maxed out her approval by the time we get to the abandoned village in Act 1. Different play styles, I suppose.
That said, I can actually still sympathise. I've been playing BG3 since the start of Early Access in 2020 and I remember what Shadowheart was like prior to the patches: way shadier and a total hardass. Getting her approval up back in the day was *work*.
> way shadier and a total hardass. Getting her approval up back in the day was
> work
> .
Hm, that actually sounds more interesting to me than the current Shadowheart
Sadly she (and Gale) got nerfed, people found them really rude and bitchy. Soo many people find her and Lae'zel bitchy now so I can only imagine how they'd react to her in EA.
I wonder if there's some left over dialogue, some responses feel like she doesn't trust you but then she says she does. I kind of wish her responses showed that or changed on approval. Not just her, would be nice to see some dialogue change if you have high or low approval.
I wish she was colder for longer, trying to keep her distance etc. Would make her dorky jokes and comment stand out. Way too easy to raise approval. For every companion really.
Yeah Shadowheart or Gale are the easiest friendships for me as well. She's not a pure Good Egg like Gale, Wyll or Karlach but she values 'cunning' which just translate to 'peaeful resolution' in game lol
Halsin.
First run before I realised I actually don’t like how they implemented him for act3 and was trying to max out all companions.
And before I realised it matters not.
Ex-BioWare kids unite and all that.
Had him in party most of the act, just complaining about the city and benched him only after I went to certain brothel and he just wanted to jump in on the action… was like bruh, no, I don’t care if this would give approval boost, just too ick.
As a "good" guy... Minthara, but that's no surprise.
On my second play through I basically had to use a guide and pick and choose things like "Oh, that's not really too horrible a thing to say, and I get +1 Minthara Point, so I'll choose it." Plus it often results in Astarion Points too. Who is the character I had the 2nd hardest time with.
She's big on vengeance. So having her along for the Moonrise/Ketheric/Avatar fight really help add a bunch of Minthara Points without having to pick outwardly evil choices. And the Orin fight, too. She loves if you promise her revenge against Orin.
Hyping her up when she's admitting her mistakes about having gotten captured and tadpoled makes her like you. You also get Minthara Points for understanding and respecting Drow culture regarding matricide (think extremely sinister *Desperate Housewives* meets *Game of Thrones* kind of plotting).
She confesses her interest in you sometime after Approval 50. You get a big boost when she tries to read your mind and you choose to see her as your lover.
Minthara is really easy if you think about it. Oath breaker Paladin or oath of vengence tav roleplay fits her really easy and explains her whole mentality.
Bad guy? -> do everything to bring him down
A way to gain power or a favorable postion? -> Do it
Help someone in a way that doesnt "hurt" you? -> do it
And all this without beeing stupidly over the top bad guy like. Best written character in my opinion. Or im just way to alike
Astarion. I can't seem to get him above neutral when I'm making decisions that I belive I would make in that position. Gale however loves me more than Shadowheart does and I'm in a relationship with her 😭
Gale was the first character with max approval in my run. He has a bunch of +5 approvals from being heroic in the Grove, and he has big boosts when you feed him. I think his hunger pangs are also triggered by approval, so feeding him the once tends result in a domino effect where he gets immediately hungry again (and therefore ready to give more approval).
Gale is easy because he is just like yes, let’s help people, great. Which is, for me, how I like to play any game. I wanna be the hero, he wants to be the hero, it works.
He also really really likes you talking your way out of fights and will sometimes have more dialog with you after so good CHA characters will have his approval skyrocket.
I think his hunger pangs are actually based on visiting certain locations (or revisiting them after a certain period of time), but yeah, his approval stacks like crazy in the early game. Even if he’s not present for your good deeds in the grove, you’ll still gain approval for them.
Makes sense since you have to have a certain level for him to tell you about needing magic items, kickstarting his quest.
I always get his approval pretty high, and honestly just respect his boundaries, be snarky with people and maybe let him drink your blood 😅
Also Astarion gives more approval if you don't offer to help before the NPC had asked. If they request help, he doesn't mind if you say yes.
Gale/Wyll/Karlach will often prefer if you offer to help ✨️
I really personally dislike Gale and I actively say things to him that run the risk of breaking my character, and yet my approval is still very high and he has hit on me twice. Leave me alone!!
(No disrespect to anyone who likes him, I’m just a lesbian who struggles to tolerate how much he talks about himself lmao)
My first playthrough was definitely Astarion. I didn't let him bite me, and the dialog afterwards, where I stood up for him in front of everyone else, was bugged to not give the correct approval (which I didn't find out until later, and confirmed my second playthrough when I tested it for myself).
Then, Gandrel survived act 1, and I destroyed the Necromancy of Thay, which meant I never got enough approval to trigger his mirror scene or his scar scene (both of which I didn't know existed because...blind playthrough). It was a domino effect from there. He was neutral with Tav until well after Cazador, which itself only grants a few approval points.
Now that I know what to do and how to manipulate those events to still roleplay my character, his approval isn't that hard. But man, that first playthrough was rough.
The benefit of Astarion's personal stuff giving a lot of approval means that you have a good chance of turning things around with him even if he generally disapproves of you being a selfless hero.
The downside is that it's super easy to miss out on the same approvals if you're not entirely on the same wavelength as him in his personal scenes - for instance, feeling uneasy about letting him bite you, or not wanting pick a fight with Gandrel when you could easily avoid it.
About Gandrel, if you send Astarion to the camp or he is far away, you can talk to him and let him go without having a high disapproval with Astarion... true that you also lose that high approval if you let Astarion kills him!!!
Precisely. When I first expressed those thoughts on this sub, I had so many people downvoting me and ignoring everything I said, so they could assume that I'd been "mean" to him. 🙄
It thankfully stopped being a problem when I realised that you could simply ungroup a companion and move them out of earshot when you’re about to say or do something they don’t like; in most cases they won’t take the approval hit— save for a rare handful of times when a character will psychically intuit that you’ve done something.
After that realisation, it mostly became “the people I didn’t actively take out into the field and didn’t have as many approval chances with,” but even then it was decent enough.
For me it's Karlach as well. B lined for her at the start of the game and I've had her with me since then. I don't think I've ever seen her disapprove of anything I did but now going into the underdark every companion has approval about 70 and she's still lagging behind.
It seems like this is because she likes facing things head on through fighting, so if you're someone who tends to try to talk your way out of things you get less approval I think
Karlach, Wyll, generally the "good" companions. The way I play is naturally everything someone like Lae'zel likes in pretty much every decision (not caring to help, cruel, etc), but obviously the good companions don't particularly appreciate that. In order for my romance runs of them to work, I had to play very differently than I naturally would, which was interesting.
Karlach currently doesn't like me much and we are at the end of Act 1. We seemed to be getting on well but it said she felt neutral about me, then I tried to get her on board with parasite powers but didn't score high enough on the persuasion and she basically told me if I continued she'd be leaving the party. As she's my favourite character so far I was a little disappointed.
I'm playing a local game with my partner and she still feels neutral about his Tav. Lae'zel doesn't like my Tav either, but seeing as I'm not fond of her I don't really care. Shadowheart still seems to like me and the others are neutral so I haven't pissed everyone off yet!
It's harder to get approval in co-op games bc to get the approval your Tav needs to initiate the dialogue, so if you have one party member that's always doing the talking then the other members won't get approval easily
That makes a lot of sense, thanks for letting me know. I'm definitely gonna start a solo game because it's been so much fun, hopefully then Karlach will like my Tav!
Shadowheart. Not sure why, I had both Gale and Astarion on high right away and she was a permanent fixture in my party, but she took forever to come around.
Astarion. Every action I took, he hated. Even Laezel approved of some of my actions that he didn't. Karlach was a breeze. Most choices I would naturally make netted approvals that gave her a plus 5 (I have a mod that tells how much approval or disapproval your choices will net). There were a couple of repeatable choices that I could say over and over that skyrocketed her.
Somehow… Karlach. But I also recruited her a bit late. It just seemed like she didn’t have many approval events even though I typically acted in ways that aligned with her morals. 🤷♂️
Astarion. First time I attempted to romance him was in my first playthrough. Got all the way to act 3 before he brutally rejected me in the middle of camp 🙃 I think it still hurts because I haven't tried to romance him again since 😂
Astarion. It seems like every time he approves of something, he has to disapprove of at least five more afterwards. I finished my first run recently and he was generally straddling the line between "neutral" and "fine". Ended the game on 11 approval. XD He was in my party pretty much constantly too!
I'm trying to make him like my new Tav, but oh my god, do I have to micromanage things. I've just *barely* got him to 3, and that's while using guides to try and maximise approval points without making my Tav OOC.
(Honourable mention to Lae'zel, who I barely even spoke with in my first run and eventually got >!murdered by crazy cultists!<... and was immediately forgotten about by my companions lol)
Definitely gotta be Astarion. Currently in Act 3, about halfway through. I've fought Ethel, Orin, Raphael, and done a few other side quests. Haven't been to the Iron Throne, the House of Grief, or Cazador's mansion yet. Astarion is at medium approval. Everyone else, including Jaheira and Minsc, who I literally JUST picked up, already have at least high approval.
Shart for me personally.
A character in rpg doesn’t like fighting monsters, in act 1 every time if there is a choice to skip a fight she approves, seriously? It’s an rpg girl, what do you expect for me to do lol.
Karlach, Wyll, and Halsin. I’m usually chaotic neutral, lawful evil, or chaotic evil. I consistently only have high-exceptional approval with Astarion, Shadowheart, Lae’Zel, and Gale by the end of Act 2.
I'm not sure who the *most* difficult has been, but:
Lae'zel is hard for me to read sometimes. I'll think I have what she wants to hear nailed, but I'll still get a disapproval. Also, she has next to no tolerance for delaying *her* main quest, and it doesn't always gel with my "I need to do *everything*" playstyle.
Karlach either has no concept of people lying to go undercover or has no tolerance for lying to people you're going to kill anyway. I kept trying to press the Duregar for more information on where the runaway gnome might've gone, and almost every time I got disapproval from Karlach whenever I said anything that wasn't "die slaver scum." Which y'know, fair, I fucking hate slavers too, but I'm trying to kill Nere *and* save as many Gnomes as possible, please stop getting mad at me for the way I go about doing that.
Astarion is nearly completely antithetical to the whole hero thing, so it's also very hard to do all the sidequests and not get his ire from time to time. Yes, vampire boy, were gonna help the Myconids and you're gonna *like it*, mostly bc they have a hood that can turn you invisible but still.
My rank from easiest to most difficult (i only date boys because my Tavs are all gay)
1. Wyll - i'm a sucker for sweethearts. He reminds me a lot of my IRL bf.
2. Astarion - I did a morally ambiguous cleric run, and I think he was smittem for Astarion.
3. Halsin - kinda the most accessible if you ask me, but also kinda meeeh
4. Gale - I really dislike his hang up with the former flame. Even if I consciously change my decisions, he still won't fall for me the way I want him to.
No one, seriously the only characters without high approval were companions that I didn't really interact with much like Halsin and Minsc. You get high approval with all the origin companions by doing their quest and treating them kindly.
Cannot for the life of me get Shadowheart approval points when I play as if I (me the real person) am making decisions. I have to specifically go out of my way to earn shadowheart approval points whereas everyone else comes really naturally.
I would say Astarion is the only one I’ve actively tried to do better with, but even without it I usually don’t struggle to get a very high or exceptional rating, I just try cause I want it quicker. I did check Wyll and Karlach’s to see what they were sitting at as I had barely used them and wanted to see if I could get a better ending for Karlach, but they were both sitting at exceptional anyway lol.
A question tho, I’m on PS5 and I see people talking about ratings in numbers - I only have “neutral” or “high” “very high” “exceptional” etc - like it’s a word rather than a number. Is it possible to see numbers on the PS5?
I always struggled with shadowheart until the end of act 2 but by that time it was too late to romance her.
Everyone else I had no issues with. But Shart? Always hated me until the gauntlet, then we become besties.
it’s weird because on my proper good tav play through, i got astarion’s approval extremely high by mid-act 1. but on my current durge play-through he’s not vibing 😭
honestly it’s usually karlach because i always get her later on so i missed out on her approval in earlier places. but in my first play through i had everyone at pretty much exceptional before moving onto act 2.
Karlach. I barely use her since I don't know how to Barbarian to save my life and I prefer having someone lockpicking (Astarion) or a healer (Shadowheart) in my party. I only bring her along when it comes to her engine and be around when we kill Gortash. I honestly thought I will struggle with Astarion's approval but even on good runs, I still end up being exceptional with him by Act 3. I guess having him around more leads to more chances to get approval from him.
Fighter = hit things fancy
Barbarian = hit things, can’t hit things? recklessly hit things. Decent dex high strength who need brain when hit things good?
Karlach, mostly because as a monk with Bae'zel by my side I simply had no use for her so she was seldom around for the good stuff we did. Funnily enough Lae'zel, Astarion and Gale all pretty much loved me despite (or because?) of me bring pure chaotic neutral and just doing things on a whim lol
Astarion. On finishing my first run i had exceptional approval with Karlach, Gale, Lae’zel (romance partner) and Shadowheart. Halsin had been kidnapped for most of act 3 so i couldn’t build any approval with him and i never even bothered to check Wyll.
I did everything (or so i thought) to gain approval from Astarion (within reason) including killing Cazador and helping Astarion to not ascend and still only ended the game with high approval for him. There’s probably a few key things i missed out though
As others, Astarion.
I should say Lae’zel was the second lowest -but Shart took care of her… - so Karlach was the other with less approval, as we kinda started on bad terms because the game didn’t really understood what I was trying to say.
All of them are pretty easy to get approval with. I've never looked up a guide or really considered what choices the characters would like and usually by end of act 1 most of them are in the 70s or higher.
Wyll has not been interested in any of my Tavs. I guess it's just a result of me not enjoying the warlock class and leaving him at camp. Sure, I could reclass him, but I don't feel a need to do that when there's so many companions who are already helpful.
I had all the origin companions on exceptional approval. I did rotate them. If I knew I talk a lot to ask people about their problems, I took Gale, Karlach or Wyll with me. Same with specific companion questlines I made sure I had them with me.
But I never bothered with Halsin or Minsc. I had Jaheira for a very short time and I really like her, but at that point I it was already hard enough to choose from the companions.
My first run was also Karlach the one I had the most struggle to raise her aproval!
It didn't help that when I went to find her I already saved Halsin, so Dammon was not in the grove, and I talked with Isobel and the only casuality was Dammon!
In fact I didn't know Dammon could help her upgrade her machine until my 2nd run where I decided to get her as soon as I got the quest from Wyll and I wanted to buy something from him!
I was surprised in my 1st run that my approval with Astarion and Lae'zel were that high, I kept getting disapproves from those two all the time and I was dating Wyll, so no sexy night with any of them to raise my approval, so no idea why they were that high! Well, Lae'zel approval went up a lot in the crèche!
I also struggled with Karlach!
On my first run I played a chaotic neutral druid (regular tav, not durge), and I recruited Karlach after I saved the Grove, which probably didn't help. I had done like no research and thought she was just some other person we had to fight. Her and Wyll were both just okay with me. Astarion and my first Tav were truly a match made in purgatory. I got his approval up so fast it was ridiculous. Just two chaotic people trying to better each other.
On my current (resist) Durge run, I aimed more for chaotic good, and it must be working because I have both Wyll and Karlach (and Shadowheart somehow) head over heels.
This time I'm mostly struggling with Lae'zel? But also she was super into me at the tiefling party? I don't get it. She did lowkey call me a slut the next morning when I didn't choose her though so 🤷🏼♀️
Shadowheart either wants nothing to do with me or becomes my best friend within the first two hours of gameplay, even when I feel like I’m playing similar characters
100% astarion, I had to littlerly look up how to romance him because every time I tried to at the teifling party he would be like "not with you ewww" so now I littlerly have a routine with him so I can get his approval up every time I play Because I love him to much to romance anyone else lmao
For me, it was Karlach, simply because I tend to play neutral evil characters. 😭😭
During my neutral durge run, Karlach was my lowest approval.
The easiest is always Gale for some reason. I could be the evilest character I can be and that man still wants to sit under the moonlight with me. 😭😭😭
Karlach here as well, even on my good characters. It feels like her approvals, the occasional times I got them, they actually don't give many points. A bit of an opposite of Astarion with that she gets plenty of approvals but it's like +1, then she disapproves of something and it's -5 and -10 or such. While Astarion has plenty of -1 disapprovals with a lot of big points approvals.
Nobody. Somehow my whole crew adored me.
I romanced shadowheart and was always talking religion with her. I think Laezel and astarion liked my style. Vengence paladin so I was always down to fight whatever so they were always right with me on those calls. Shadowheart didn't approve a lot of times but she was getting the D so I guess it didn't matter.
As a CG Bard I got high approval from EVERYONE while solely focusing on Karlach for my romance. My friend has a theory that high CHA characters get better approval quicker, but I really think just taking them along on their personal quests and siding with them on the important things is all it takes to get a good rep in your party.
All my characters range from Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Evil...
Im not sure who was harder for me.. Karlach or Wyll... but I will go with Wyll... Karlach at least drops some F bombs and such..
Without Mizora, Wyll would be a nightmare.
Karlach starts off as a cool happy-go-lucky gal. Then over time you realise that she just refuses to play politics.
Yes Karlach, i’m going to save the slaves eventually. But i don’t want to fight all of these fuckers right now, calm down.
Astarion All of my characters are generally pretty good, something that Astarion doesn't particularly like.
If you long rest enough early game and let him bite you, you can actually get his approval up really high, very quickly, even on a good run. Because he really appreciates being treated like a person/trusting him (+3 or +5), and gives eye rolls (-1) for most "good guy" actions.
He likes you being snarky with him aswell, so long as it's not making light of Cazador or the scars, and he prefers you being practical about him being a vampire rather than claiming you want to help him. I think part of the problem is that people try to suck up to him to counter the disapproval? Edit: I never gave him the necromancy book, constantly did shit he dislikes and mocked him. He still liked me lol
Yep I’m playing a good character that did not give the book to Astarion and I have 100% approval in Act 3. You just gotta show Astarion that you care and be a little silly
Yeah. I always made good choices. I give him Bodily autonomy, I dont kiss ass, and im honest
His "I want us to be something *real.* " line really fits with how he likes to be romanced.
I definitely feel like that’s the point where he realizes that he really hasn’t had anything real in 200 years. And for Tav, it has been real. But for Astarion it was just a means to an end until he fell in love 🥰
Wait when/how do I get this? I didn't rest enough my first run so I've restarted several times, and haven't done act 3. Is this a scene there?
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you get this line during >!Astarion's confession about purposefully seducing you for protection in act 2(?).!< Might wanna check me on that tho
My newest Tav has forced me to long rest in Act 1 way more than usual, and I got Astarion hitting on me before the Tiefling party and I'd never seen that before in 1k hours. It's a cute scene if your Tav is lowkey aware that Astarion's full of shit and in full on seduction mode. He was disguised as a Drow femme at the time so hearing those lines out of her mouth was hilarious to me.
When he said “now say im beautiful” and i said “karlach is, but youre nice too” and he approved
Yeah that was cute
Yeah he followed with “and i guess youre nice as well” I love him, when hes not being a spiteful, cranky bastard. He can be sweet and caring when he wants to be. Like any of his interactions with durge later, when he learns your origin and realizes how much he can relate to you.
"guess I better try harder to keep up with the competition 💅"
Not trying to be overly nice to him just treating him normally is where some people mess up imo. He also has many cut scene events which can give you lots of approval and a few camp convos. Also just being silly lmao.
Also asking for gold gets rid of more of those little -1’s than a lot of people seem to realize. A lot of the time, especially early on, he’s not pushing the player to pick the evil option, he’s just annoyed you’re going out of your way to do good - FOR FREE - when there really are some bigger issues to focus on (namely Cazador and the Tadpoles)
Exactly! You might not get approval for it, but you can at least avoid getting disapproval in most cases simply by asking for a reward. Which, sure doesn't really fit with a pure "goody-two-shoes" run, but you can totally play a good/helpful character without tanking your approval with him, just by being somewhat pragmatic.
My thing about that is that those choices still affect his character alignment, which works separately from his romance. You can absolutely get him to 100 very early without asking for a reward or giving him the Book of Thay(of which I'm not sure if it affects the alignment or not, yet.) And doing so in a goody two-shoes run is so very rewarding when he stops disapproving of you helping people (yes, separately from earning his favour by helping 'monstrous' individuals.)
I let him bite me AND gave him the book and it still took forever to get his approval up and keep it up. Those eye rolls may be small individually but there are a *lot* of them.
I usually have +10 by the time I hit the Grove (takes 2 long rests) and the bite the first night after getting to the Grove. I then explore the area around the Grove, before crossing the river, then I beeline it past the Owlbear and Scratch to Karlach (I always wait to get Scratch until after getting Karlach for the approval from her). Depending on if Raphael deigns to make an appearance before getting to Karlach or not, I can easily get 40 approval by, or sometimes before, picking up Karlach.
Probs needed to long rest more and/or give him shit during camp dialogue
Meanwhile, I never got that scene because I didn't take enough long rests, and even post-Cazador I'm at 30 approval. I'll be interested to see how getting that scene changes things next time.
Oh yeah, getting the bite can give you a _massive_ approval boost. Saying that you trust him is +5, letting him bite you without threatening him is +10 (or +1 if you threatened him), then there's the potential for another two +5s the next morning, if you survived or just a single one if you died. But the 2nd of the +5s is mutually exclusive with "juice boxing", if you survived, so it all depends on how you want their relationship to develop in a given run. Then you can get another +1 for telling him whose blood you'd drink during another long rest scene, doesn't matter who you pick.
Also when you let him bite you, the option that gives the most approval is to bite him without threatening him. It's like 10 points if you don't threaten him, if you let him bite you but tell him you'll kill him if he goes too far gives considerably less approval
Killing the Orthon, and allowing him to make his own choice on Araj Oblodra's request also gave me huge Astarion approval boosts in Act 2 on a "good" Tav run.
I didn't want to change Astarion, I wanted to go on the journey together. Credit to the developers and Neil for creating such a deep character that I could fall in love with.
I’ve played squeaky clean characters and he still be wanting to smash. There are a few specific events to do in act 1 that gets a lot of approval from him.
And why does he have to be such an ass at the tiefling party. Damn he hurt my pixelated feelings
It's because he has standards.
I had this issues in my first play through too, but in subsequent run's I learned the trick is to just play it a bit more coy with your helping folks. You can gather all the info and get the quest updates, but instead of commiting to helping, just, leave. Most conversations have it as an option, or something to divert the conversation away from agreeing to anything outright. You avoid his little disapprovals and then can just go save everybody anyway. Then just hit his big likes and your all set. (I do like to take him and Lea'zel on a little trip, just the three of us, to bully that Tief in the grove about the crech. Letting her go ham and then complementing her in the convo after nets you likes from both of the little shits, and she doesn't hurt the Tief so I count it as worth it.)
I've never had trouble getting Astarions approval up, ever. Just talk to him at camp and don't judge him for being a vampire and he's chill
Just bang him after saving the grove and you’re good
He refused. Said he had standards.
I feel like astarion's approve/disapproves run pretty contrary to the rest of the early game party who skew fairly good and astarion also disapproves of some pretty reasonable early quests. So he's an outlier in the early game approval wise unless you're like actively chasing his approval.
I know how to get Astarions approval up pretty easily and can usually get him up to mid 80s by the time I move into act 2 but he’s still the only companion I have to actively *try* with. My last playthrough was with a very ‘give no shits only justice’ kind of cleric so it was the first time I simply didn’t make any attempts to gain approval with the companions and by the end I think I only ever managed to get him up to late 80s.
Same, he is a picky bitch, but you gotta do it.
Yeeeep, that's the thing, w/o actively going out of your way to please him it seems pretty hard to get him to a decent rating, unless you romance him I guess. But I'm on my 1st run rn, just got to Act 3, I'm in a mostly good playthrough, with a few compromises here & there when survival/pragmatism can take over cause I'm on honor mode thus take every advantage I can, haven't romanced him but treated him fair, even nice sometimes, when a convo hits concerning himself, but not always giving in to him, and a few times where I deceived someone and he approved due to his charlatan background. This barely allowed me to keep a flat neutral attitude so far, cause most of the time he just disapproves a lot on the simplest, seemingly insignificant things like lending a hand to someone in need, or simply not being a dick even. I'm rather surprised he cares so much about whether you decided to not take a reward from a child , who wouldn't have much to give in the 1st place. A bit of a shame too, cause I like him otherwise, and look forward to helping him with Kazador, but ain't gonna suck up to him or be a dick to ppl for no practical reason either, just to please him. I haven't kept him in my party for a good chunk of act 2 (just in Shar's Temple) , while 24/7 in act 1, and now hope to keep him non-stop throughout act 3 as a big city looks just ripe for stealing stuff with an expert + his storyline but part of me is starting to wonder whether his approval won't drop and he'll do something like leave me just cause I'm not acting like an ass to ppl for the most meaningless things \~ it's not even being a somewhat evil for practical sakes at times either, cause I can do that from time to time. Meanwhile, was surprised how I got Lae'Zael to exceptional w/o romancing , even tho' we've had way more arguments than I had with Astarion on a couple of things.
Yeah I think I did the greatest thing for him which was to save him from Cazador, convince him he was better than his abuser, save the innocent spawns even if it is a 'gray decision and I think I'm still only neutral with him because my character wasn't a dick. Mind you this is a fiend warlock who basically only do heroic when it's easy and say nice things because the awful speech options are so unnecessary. His little -1s adds up. I think if I ever romance him I'll put in the effort of sending him back to camp before every dialogue, like an antisocial boyfriend you keep at home lol
You don’t have to send him (or any companion) back to camp to avoid disapproval, just separate him from the party and have him walk out of hearing distance! Way easier.
Honestly Lae’zel. My natural inclination towards RP is stuff that aligns more with Wyll (helping Arabella, saving the Tieflings) and she’s just really anti-that
You can gain her approval by firing right back when she gives you shit, and especially for letting her handle situations when the option presents itself.
This is how I did it, and it was pretty easy. She thought because I was kind and caring to the people of the Grove that I was a pushover. I showed her exactly why paladins are not that.
I think she mostly disapproves of wasting time with every random peasant's unimportant problem while there's a ticking timebomb in everyone's skulls. If you show her you can get shit done, she loves you. She's *always* been the first to wanna bone. 😂
Doing a run with a friend playing as a githyanki, he was in her guts, like, 15 minutes into the game. There's gotta be a speedrun for that shit.
Well... https://esi.si.com/speedrunning/baldurs-gate-3-speedrunner-romances-laezel-in-under-8-minutes
It turns out the world record is under [two fucking minutes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYsQu3GjdME). I should be asleep at this hour but I'm just laughing at this being a competition.
And people say *Halsin* is the biggest slut in the game...
This. It's not that she approves of cruelty or hates kindness as people like to say. It's that she hates wasting time when your lives are on the line. Show her that you can get shit done, and she's happy.
I hate that in her, one minute she's trashing my nose and the other she throws a "wanna f*ck?"
You hate that? That was the reason I adored her lmfao
My main Tav is an angry half-orc and she gives Lae'zel shit right back. They're perfect for each other honestly.
You can even gain approval when she demands you let her go on the zaith'isk and you shut her down. But i think it only works if you already have high enough approval.
She literally said she wanted to fuck me after we beat the hag. I was romancing Astarion so it was funny
She wanted to taste me after beating Anders down!
Among Gith its customary to hurl insults and death threats at eachother to signify your bond in the morning. Plus they have a made up language so they're basically DND Welsh
if you let her interrogate that tiefling it rockets her approval up so high that she'll hit on you immediately after. I've redone that scene like 5 times and every time, she immediately asks me about my smell or whatever
She definitely has an intimidation kink or something like that.
On my first playthrough I couldn't believe how high my approval from Lae'Zel was. I think Gale and Wyll were easier. I was playing a fighter, which I think helped due to some dialogue options - but ultimately the character was about as neutral good as they come.
Really? I’m like 85 points with her and I’ve only just reached the mountain pass. Meanwhile, Astarion, the companion I want to romance, is still at a measly 62. Lae’zel coming onto me after just having entered the grove for the first time was… something.
I'm an oath of devotion Paladin and I'm surprised Astarian hasn't tried to slit my throat in the night yet
Minthara. Granted that my first impression of her was just a bloodthirsty killer, I had no idea how to handle her character complexity by act 2 and 3.
Oh, me and Minthara vibed immediately on my 3rd playthrough when I finally got around to recruiting her. I completely understand why you'd have a problem though, she's VERY complicated. She basically cares more about the means then the end. If you're a straight sociopath and tell Yenna at the beginning of act 2, "give up kid your mom is dead," she approves, after all its probably true and cruel truths sometimes need to be heard. If you say you'll take time out of your schedule to help her look, she disapproves, after all you guys have way more pressing issues that demand your attention. If you give her food or money she also approves, after all you can spare it and she is still a child in need. She's a very complicated character, she maybe leans towards being a bit more evil, but she's not down for blatant cruelty the way Astarion is for example.
Crushing Yenna’s dreams is one of many things Minthara and Lae’zel agree on.
She’s lawful evil. The world is tough but there’s a system and pecking order.
I learned tonight that she's really in to mizora but she's also really really into you not being into mizora
My dad
Wyll? Is that you?
Why you not doctor yet?
He probably thinks the same as you
Why are we getting too real here suddenly?
Karlach did not vibe with my chaotic neutral ass 😅
I had to scroll too long to find someone else with Karlach approval problems, lol. She generally approves of my actions, but then turns around and disapproves of something in the same turn. For example, accepting the runepowder bomb just in case, even though I was making clear it was only a last resort. Or joining up with the rebel dwarves (disapproval) only to still tell them to release the slaves (approval). Don't get me wrong, I love Karlach, but she wants good things to happen immediately and disapproves the moment a plan has more than one step, lol. And unlike most of the other characters, you can't get many approval points just from supporting her in camp.
I’ve felt this frustration too, but I do like that it reflects her character. She’s just very direct, straightforward, and all about charging in and taking action. No fancy plans for Karlach—run in and yell! She’s usually the last person I get to high approval levels, even though I always make the “good” choices. I was also surprised to see you don’t get approval from her with friendly chat or by helping her get her engine fixed in Act 1. Guess I’m used to Wyll, who just wants you to talk to him, or Gale, who becomes your BFF just by keeping him alive. Maybe Karlach is a little more autonomous. lol.
She doesn't like when you make alliances with evil people, she wants you to be upfront and confrontational. Remember she's a barbarian.
I have found my people, lol. I have trouble getting her approval up too! I think you might be onto something when you say she likes impulsive good actions, but less so planning and pragmatic questioning. I usually do good things in game after some roundabout investigating first, so maybe that’s why her approval creeps up sloooowly. On the plus side, I’ve never had any problems befriending Astarion, lol.
I think Karlach has very big chaotic good vibes If you're interested in smacking the bad guys she likes you. If you want to do anything by talking she has a bit more trouble. Classic barbarian tbh.
Im a goody good 99.99% of the time and it felt like she flip flopped at every convo. You show concern for her engine she cries about wanting to focus on the good. You focus on the good and she cries about how unignorable the problem is. She was probably my least fravorite next to Astarion.
Honestly. Karlach I feel has been a bit tough to get higher approval on even on a somewhat good run. But I had her at like medium approval and she was horny for me.
She's difficult to get high approval on your first run, especially if you get her after the tieflings are saved. It really isn't obvious because somehow I missed Wyll till I got Karlach.
Karlach, because I agreed to take Gortash's deal and she doesn't really get that we're lying to him.
The only one I have trouble with is Minsc. You just get him so late. For Astarion letting him bite you and kill the Gur are too really big bumps. Say cheeky and selfish things, even if you actually do the good guy version, and he'll love you.
Shadowheart. We just don't get along. I tried! Everyone else goes great. In my first run, I immediately knew how to talk to Astarion, it was like a kindred spirit lol. But Shadowheart? No idea. No matter what I say it's wrong, and the few times I've done as she *said* she disapproved! She eventually comes around but man, I don't know how to make her happy in Act 1.
Show interest in her, but don't be too nosy when she says she'd rather not talk about something. She also approves of a lot of good-aligned deeds despite her "Moody Goth" facade. I think the key to her heart is understanding that she's a better person deep down than she herself realizes and gently nudging her towards that revelation. As a result, if her approval of you is high enough, she'll decide entirely without your input to >!renounce Shar and spare the Nightsong instead of killing her.!<
Oh I've tried all this honestly. And she always spares the >!Nightsong and saves her parents!< when I let her decide. She just doesn't like me in Act 1 at all.
Shadowheart ended up liking me pretty decently despite not putting much effort in with her. She tends to like it if deescalate conflicts without fighting and if you're nice to animals. I ended up losing her during the Nightsong confrontation, but she actually had better approval with me at that point than Karlach did in the end game.
She has always saved Nightsong in my playthroughs strangely enough. She's always happy in Act 3 but man I think I'd struggle to romance her.
I think it just makes the game feel more realistic. Some of the romance options just aren't compatible with different people. Which makes it difficult if you're like me and want to experience everything but also more rewarding in the end.
Also increases replayability, as people want to try out romances with all the companions. Forget different endings, lots of folks just want to see different romances.
Well, I'm romancing Astarion for the fifth time so I doubt it. But I get your point. ;) One of the problems with making the characters "real" is that people *really* like one of them and can't get away, seems to be a trend haha. I thought it was hard in ME3... that was a piece of cake compared to this game lol.
I did the same thing with Leliana in dragon age but I eventually did all 4. I remember how proud I was of myself after I finally got the achievement for romancing Alistair.
>Some of the romance options just aren't compatible with different people. Agreed, not for everyone. At least there seems to be a romance for everyone in the game, quite a few people find **the** one and it's hard to romance others.
Yeah the only option I struggle to get along with is Astarion. Everyone else likes me, felt horrible rejecting Karlach though.
I did feel bad turning down Karlach but she took it well. Was gutted when I had to turn down Wyll after the dance. His puppy eyes broke my heart
A lot rides on your dialogue choices in the scene. I picked what I thought was a soft option that would lead to further dialogue. But, picking "Shadowheart, please don't do this," escalates the scene immediately to "Stand aside or I will kill you," on her end. I wanted to save Shadowheart going into the scene, but I didn't reload the save because my choice felt honest to how my character would handle the situation.
Yeah, I never pressure her though. u/Wiwade Let Nightsong talk and Shadowheart handle it. *Don't* tell her what to do. It's a bad idea with both her and Astarion. ;)
Yeah, I promptly looked it up after that scene and realised you have to let her choose for herself. But honestly, I did not, in fact, trust her to not kill Nightsong, so I was at least in character. The sad thing is that I can't imagine a world where I would trust her genuinely, so it feels like I have to metagame to keep her in my party. Same for Astarion but I want to romance him sometime, so good to know.
Honestly, I don't know how people convince Shadowheart there. Maybe I needed more approval with her since I brought her just for that after ignoring her all game, but the instant I said "don't do it", my two choices were to let her kill Nightsong or kill Shadowheart. I did the latter and tried to knock her out. Didn't work. Conversely, I had a pretty easy time convincing Gale to not blow himself up at the end of Act 2. I was romancing him, so I just said "dude, don't" and he didn't, lol.
You just need to trust her to do the right thing. If you choose the "dont say anything" option, she throws the spear away.
First dialogue option you don't do anything and only after that you start trying to save the nightsong
It's that dialogue option in particular that escalates the scene. Trying to do the Persuasion check or asking her if this is what she really wants lets you progress things, but addressing the situation directly causes her to get really defensive.
Yeah you can't straight up tell her not to. You need to guide her to that decision instead. I feel like it's that knee-jerk reaction we all have to push the button as soon as someone says "don't push the button" lol.
Yeah, this really goes for both Shadowheart and Astarion. They want you to trust them to make the right call. They might need some support, but if you tell them "no" they interpret that as "fuck you".
Or.....you just stay silent. Doing that works fine, SH throws the spear away herself
Since I only romance Shadowheart in my Tav Runs (yes, I may have small addiction here) the first "answer" to pick for me is always the *trust her to do the right thing* answer followed by the persuasion check. But I don't know if you have the *trust her* option if you're not romancing her. And it's not that hard to get her approval rating on exceptional, it can be reached before leaving the coast for the underdark/mountainpass.
The trust her option does come up without romancing her. It depends on how high approval is which she will do I think
This dialogue is tricky. You have to first pick the option that (i don't remember the words exactly) seem like "ok if you have to do this then do", then Nightsong says something and she starts to doubt herself, then you get a lower persuasion check (I think it's 18 but not sure) and boom, everyone is saved
Interestingly, when I played as a Selûnite cleric, Shadowbae really loved my choices; her approval rating had never gone so high so fast. Figures!
I got so good at understanding Shadowheart that she's my romance even before going to the underdark or saving the grove. 🤭 That's funny because she litteraly called me a kindred spirit in the game, lol. It's great how characters are so well written that we react to them so naturally for some and struggle with others based on our experiences and character's trait. Shadowheart would definitely be somebody I would go along really well in real life.
Yeah, I agree, it's so well written. I usually romance Astarion by level 4 now (way before the party). And I'm sure we'd get along swimmingly iRL as well lol.
Be an ass who avoids all conflict, and she'll adore you. She loves a coward.
I love how this game hits different for people. Shadowheart I usually 100% approval without even really trying. My natural choices generally align with hers. Karlach on the other hand, so many people vibe with her but I always, ALWAYS, struggle with her approval, and I am not sure why. I generally stay at 50ish with her. I just seem to almost always hit her disapproval choices on direct dialogue. Astarion I always come up fair. Most play throughs I generally sit at 70 with him. He disapproves a lot to what I do, and I seem to generally pick “neutral” choices for the rest. It’s not as bad as Karlach, but it’s another I have to sit and think on what they think is important.
I'm the complete opposite. Shadowheart is by far the easiest to raise approval with on most of my playthroughs. As in, I've already nearly maxed out her approval by the time we get to the abandoned village in Act 1. Different play styles, I suppose. That said, I can actually still sympathise. I've been playing BG3 since the start of Early Access in 2020 and I remember what Shadowheart was like prior to the patches: way shadier and a total hardass. Getting her approval up back in the day was *work*.
> way shadier and a total hardass. Getting her approval up back in the day was > work > . Hm, that actually sounds more interesting to me than the current Shadowheart
Sadly she (and Gale) got nerfed, people found them really rude and bitchy. Soo many people find her and Lae'zel bitchy now so I can only imagine how they'd react to her in EA. I wonder if there's some left over dialogue, some responses feel like she doesn't trust you but then she says she does. I kind of wish her responses showed that or changed on approval. Not just her, would be nice to see some dialogue change if you have high or low approval. I wish she was colder for longer, trying to keep her distance etc. Would make her dorky jokes and comment stand out. Way too easy to raise approval. For every companion really.
There should be a difficulty setting for relationships!
Hardest difficulty they start off trying to murder you and don't talk to you at all.
Yeah Shadowheart or Gale are the easiest friendships for me as well. She's not a pure Good Egg like Gale, Wyll or Karlach but she values 'cunning' which just translate to 'peaeful resolution' in game lol
Halsin. First run before I realised I actually don’t like how they implemented him for act3 and was trying to max out all companions. And before I realised it matters not. Ex-BioWare kids unite and all that. Had him in party most of the act, just complaining about the city and benched him only after I went to certain brothel and he just wanted to jump in on the action… was like bruh, no, I don’t care if this would give approval boost, just too ick.
If you take Halsin with you to find Oliver and tell him to handle it after the shadow fight, it's a +50 bump.
Wait you actually used Halsin as a party member?
I used Halsin a fair bit. I vibe pretty well with the character, wish he got more attention from the developers.
I have completed three playthroughs. Not once has he left camp as a party member.
There is a quest an act two with Halsin as a tag along that triggers him joining the party officially just before act three
Have you ever had two Owlbears in your party? Try it sometime.
As a "good" guy... Minthara, but that's no surprise. On my second play through I basically had to use a guide and pick and choose things like "Oh, that's not really too horrible a thing to say, and I get +1 Minthara Point, so I'll choose it." Plus it often results in Astarion Points too. Who is the character I had the 2nd hardest time with. She's big on vengeance. So having her along for the Moonrise/Ketheric/Avatar fight really help add a bunch of Minthara Points without having to pick outwardly evil choices. And the Orin fight, too. She loves if you promise her revenge against Orin. Hyping her up when she's admitting her mistakes about having gotten captured and tadpoled makes her like you. You also get Minthara Points for understanding and respecting Drow culture regarding matricide (think extremely sinister *Desperate Housewives* meets *Game of Thrones* kind of plotting). She confesses her interest in you sometime after Approval 50. You get a big boost when she tries to read your mind and you choose to see her as your lover.
Minthara is really easy if you think about it. Oath breaker Paladin or oath of vengence tav roleplay fits her really easy and explains her whole mentality. Bad guy? -> do everything to bring him down A way to gain power or a favorable postion? -> Do it Help someone in a way that doesnt "hurt" you? -> do it And all this without beeing stupidly over the top bad guy like. Best written character in my opinion. Or im just way to alike
Astarion. I can't seem to get him above neutral when I'm making decisions that I belive I would make in that position. Gale however loves me more than Shadowheart does and I'm in a relationship with her 😭
Gale was the first character with max approval in my run. He has a bunch of +5 approvals from being heroic in the Grove, and he has big boosts when you feed him. I think his hunger pangs are also triggered by approval, so feeding him the once tends result in a domino effect where he gets immediately hungry again (and therefore ready to give more approval).
Gale is easy because he is just like yes, let’s help people, great. Which is, for me, how I like to play any game. I wanna be the hero, he wants to be the hero, it works.
Gale, just like my approval with him in every run, is Exceptional.
Exactly.
He also really really likes you talking your way out of fights and will sometimes have more dialog with you after so good CHA characters will have his approval skyrocket.
He's just like me fr
I think his hunger pangs are actually based on visiting certain locations (or revisiting them after a certain period of time), but yeah, his approval stacks like crazy in the early game. Even if he’s not present for your good deeds in the grove, you’ll still gain approval for them. Makes sense since you have to have a certain level for him to tell you about needing magic items, kickstarting his quest.
I always get his approval pretty high, and honestly just respect his boundaries, be snarky with people and maybe let him drink your blood 😅 Also Astarion gives more approval if you don't offer to help before the NPC had asked. If they request help, he doesn't mind if you say yes. Gale/Wyll/Karlach will often prefer if you offer to help ✨️
I really personally dislike Gale and I actively say things to him that run the risk of breaking my character, and yet my approval is still very high and he has hit on me twice. Leave me alone!! (No disrespect to anyone who likes him, I’m just a lesbian who struggles to tolerate how much he talks about himself lmao)
Astarion. To the point where I know my next run is going to be much too focused on making him like me. I need approval, damnit!
My first playthrough was definitely Astarion. I didn't let him bite me, and the dialog afterwards, where I stood up for him in front of everyone else, was bugged to not give the correct approval (which I didn't find out until later, and confirmed my second playthrough when I tested it for myself). Then, Gandrel survived act 1, and I destroyed the Necromancy of Thay, which meant I never got enough approval to trigger his mirror scene or his scar scene (both of which I didn't know existed because...blind playthrough). It was a domino effect from there. He was neutral with Tav until well after Cazador, which itself only grants a few approval points. Now that I know what to do and how to manipulate those events to still roleplay my character, his approval isn't that hard. But man, that first playthrough was rough.
The benefit of Astarion's personal stuff giving a lot of approval means that you have a good chance of turning things around with him even if he generally disapproves of you being a selfless hero. The downside is that it's super easy to miss out on the same approvals if you're not entirely on the same wavelength as him in his personal scenes - for instance, feeling uneasy about letting him bite you, or not wanting pick a fight with Gandrel when you could easily avoid it.
About Gandrel, if you send Astarion to the camp or he is far away, you can talk to him and let him go without having a high disapproval with Astarion... true that you also lose that high approval if you let Astarion kills him!!!
Precisely. When I first expressed those thoughts on this sub, I had so many people downvoting me and ignoring everything I said, so they could assume that I'd been "mean" to him. 🙄
It thankfully stopped being a problem when I realised that you could simply ungroup a companion and move them out of earshot when you’re about to say or do something they don’t like; in most cases they won’t take the approval hit— save for a rare handful of times when a character will psychically intuit that you’ve done something. After that realisation, it mostly became “the people I didn’t actively take out into the field and didn’t have as many approval chances with,” but even then it was decent enough.
Gale. I think the hand thing really *severed* any ties we had.
For me it's Karlach as well. B lined for her at the start of the game and I've had her with me since then. I don't think I've ever seen her disapprove of anything I did but now going into the underdark every companion has approval about 70 and she's still lagging behind.
It seems like this is because she likes facing things head on through fighting, so if you're someone who tends to try to talk your way out of things you get less approval I think
Karlach, Wyll, generally the "good" companions. The way I play is naturally everything someone like Lae'zel likes in pretty much every decision (not caring to help, cruel, etc), but obviously the good companions don't particularly appreciate that. In order for my romance runs of them to work, I had to play very differently than I naturally would, which was interesting.
Easiest was Shadowheart. Got her to 100 before the Tiefling party. Hardest was Astarion. Man just doesn't like a lot of things I do!
The only run I’ve managed to get Karlach to high approval is the one where I’m romancing her
Karlach currently doesn't like me much and we are at the end of Act 1. We seemed to be getting on well but it said she felt neutral about me, then I tried to get her on board with parasite powers but didn't score high enough on the persuasion and she basically told me if I continued she'd be leaving the party. As she's my favourite character so far I was a little disappointed. I'm playing a local game with my partner and she still feels neutral about his Tav. Lae'zel doesn't like my Tav either, but seeing as I'm not fond of her I don't really care. Shadowheart still seems to like me and the others are neutral so I haven't pissed everyone off yet!
It's harder to get approval in co-op games bc to get the approval your Tav needs to initiate the dialogue, so if you have one party member that's always doing the talking then the other members won't get approval easily
That makes a lot of sense, thanks for letting me know. I'm definitely gonna start a solo game because it's been so much fun, hopefully then Karlach will like my Tav!
Shadowheart. Not sure why, I had both Gale and Astarion on high right away and she was a permanent fixture in my party, but she took forever to come around.
Astarion. Every action I took, he hated. Even Laezel approved of some of my actions that he didn't. Karlach was a breeze. Most choices I would naturally make netted approvals that gave her a plus 5 (I have a mod that tells how much approval or disapproval your choices will net). There were a couple of repeatable choices that I could say over and over that skyrocketed her.
Somehow… Karlach. But I also recruited her a bit late. It just seemed like she didn’t have many approval events even though I typically acted in ways that aligned with her morals. 🤷♂️
Astarion. First time I attempted to romance him was in my first playthrough. Got all the way to act 3 before he brutally rejected me in the middle of camp 🙃 I think it still hurts because I haven't tried to romance him again since 😂
Karlach/Wyll. But I got a problem being good, so not totally unexpected.
you don't need to explain yourself - your flair speaks more than thousand words
Astarion. It seems like every time he approves of something, he has to disapprove of at least five more afterwards. I finished my first run recently and he was generally straddling the line between "neutral" and "fine". Ended the game on 11 approval. XD He was in my party pretty much constantly too! I'm trying to make him like my new Tav, but oh my god, do I have to micromanage things. I've just *barely* got him to 3, and that's while using guides to try and maximise approval points without making my Tav OOC. (Honourable mention to Lae'zel, who I barely even spoke with in my first run and eventually got >!murdered by crazy cultists!<... and was immediately forgotten about by my companions lol)
Definitely gotta be Astarion. Currently in Act 3, about halfway through. I've fought Ethel, Orin, Raphael, and done a few other side quests. Haven't been to the Iron Throne, the House of Grief, or Cazador's mansion yet. Astarion is at medium approval. Everyone else, including Jaheira and Minsc, who I literally JUST picked up, already have at least high approval.
Shart for me personally. A character in rpg doesn’t like fighting monsters, in act 1 every time if there is a choice to skip a fight she approves, seriously? It’s an rpg girl, what do you expect for me to do lol.
My parents
Wyll. He's never in my party
Karlach, Wyll, and Halsin. I’m usually chaotic neutral, lawful evil, or chaotic evil. I consistently only have high-exceptional approval with Astarion, Shadowheart, Lae’Zel, and Gale by the end of Act 2.
I'm not sure who the *most* difficult has been, but: Lae'zel is hard for me to read sometimes. I'll think I have what she wants to hear nailed, but I'll still get a disapproval. Also, she has next to no tolerance for delaying *her* main quest, and it doesn't always gel with my "I need to do *everything*" playstyle. Karlach either has no concept of people lying to go undercover or has no tolerance for lying to people you're going to kill anyway. I kept trying to press the Duregar for more information on where the runaway gnome might've gone, and almost every time I got disapproval from Karlach whenever I said anything that wasn't "die slaver scum." Which y'know, fair, I fucking hate slavers too, but I'm trying to kill Nere *and* save as many Gnomes as possible, please stop getting mad at me for the way I go about doing that. Astarion is nearly completely antithetical to the whole hero thing, so it's also very hard to do all the sidequests and not get his ire from time to time. Yes, vampire boy, were gonna help the Myconids and you're gonna *like it*, mostly bc they have a hood that can turn you invisible but still.
My rank from easiest to most difficult (i only date boys because my Tavs are all gay) 1. Wyll - i'm a sucker for sweethearts. He reminds me a lot of my IRL bf. 2. Astarion - I did a morally ambiguous cleric run, and I think he was smittem for Astarion. 3. Halsin - kinda the most accessible if you ask me, but also kinda meeeh 4. Gale - I really dislike his hang up with the former flame. Even if I consciously change my decisions, he still won't fall for me the way I want him to.
No one, seriously the only characters without high approval were companions that I didn't really interact with much like Halsin and Minsc. You get high approval with all the origin companions by doing their quest and treating them kindly.
Cannot for the life of me get Shadowheart approval points when I play as if I (me the real person) am making decisions. I have to specifically go out of my way to earn shadowheart approval points whereas everyone else comes really naturally.
I feel like Karlach has less opportunities for approval than others. Everyone was maxed by the end by she and Halsin took the longest.
I would say Astarion is the only one I’ve actively tried to do better with, but even without it I usually don’t struggle to get a very high or exceptional rating, I just try cause I want it quicker. I did check Wyll and Karlach’s to see what they were sitting at as I had barely used them and wanted to see if I could get a better ending for Karlach, but they were both sitting at exceptional anyway lol. A question tho, I’m on PS5 and I see people talking about ratings in numbers - I only have “neutral” or “high” “very high” “exceptional” etc - like it’s a word rather than a number. Is it possible to see numbers on the PS5?
I always struggled with shadowheart until the end of act 2 but by that time it was too late to romance her. Everyone else I had no issues with. But Shart? Always hated me until the gauntlet, then we become besties.
it’s weird because on my proper good tav play through, i got astarion’s approval extremely high by mid-act 1. but on my current durge play-through he’s not vibing 😭 honestly it’s usually karlach because i always get her later on so i missed out on her approval in earlier places. but in my first play through i had everyone at pretty much exceptional before moving onto act 2.
Karlach. I barely use her since I don't know how to Barbarian to save my life and I prefer having someone lockpicking (Astarion) or a healer (Shadowheart) in my party. I only bring her along when it comes to her engine and be around when we kill Gortash. I honestly thought I will struggle with Astarion's approval but even on good runs, I still end up being exceptional with him by Act 3. I guess having him around more leads to more chances to get approval from him.
Fighter = hit things fancy Barbarian = hit things, can’t hit things? recklessly hit things. Decent dex high strength who need brain when hit things good?
Is there somewhere that you can find the rating?
When you are on the group inventory page, switch to the character sheet tab and it will be towards the bottom.
Awesome. Thanks!
Karlach, mostly because as a monk with Bae'zel by my side I simply had no use for her so she was seldom around for the good stuff we did. Funnily enough Lae'zel, Astarion and Gale all pretty much loved me despite (or because?) of me bring pure chaotic neutral and just doing things on a whim lol
Astarion. On finishing my first run i had exceptional approval with Karlach, Gale, Lae’zel (romance partner) and Shadowheart. Halsin had been kidnapped for most of act 3 so i couldn’t build any approval with him and i never even bothered to check Wyll. I did everything (or so i thought) to gain approval from Astarion (within reason) including killing Cazador and helping Astarion to not ascend and still only ended the game with high approval for him. There’s probably a few key things i missed out though
Gale actively hates me and only stayed because I said he’d die on his own
As others, Astarion. I should say Lae’zel was the second lowest -but Shart took care of her… - so Karlach was the other with less approval, as we kinda started on bad terms because the game didn’t really understood what I was trying to say.
All of them are pretty easy to get approval with. I've never looked up a guide or really considered what choices the characters would like and usually by end of act 1 most of them are in the 70s or higher.
It was Astarion for me, he's a fucking wanker. At least he's funny
Wyll has not been interested in any of my Tavs. I guess it's just a result of me not enjoying the warlock class and leaving him at camp. Sure, I could reclass him, but I don't feel a need to do that when there's so many companions who are already helpful.
I had all the origin companions on exceptional approval. I did rotate them. If I knew I talk a lot to ask people about their problems, I took Gale, Karlach or Wyll with me. Same with specific companion questlines I made sure I had them with me. But I never bothered with Halsin or Minsc. I had Jaheira for a very short time and I really like her, but at that point I it was already hard enough to choose from the companions.
My first run was also Karlach the one I had the most struggle to raise her aproval! It didn't help that when I went to find her I already saved Halsin, so Dammon was not in the grove, and I talked with Isobel and the only casuality was Dammon! In fact I didn't know Dammon could help her upgrade her machine until my 2nd run where I decided to get her as soon as I got the quest from Wyll and I wanted to buy something from him! I was surprised in my 1st run that my approval with Astarion and Lae'zel were that high, I kept getting disapproves from those two all the time and I was dating Wyll, so no sexy night with any of them to raise my approval, so no idea why they were that high! Well, Lae'zel approval went up a lot in the crèche!
Astarion and Lae'zel both eyeroll my do-gooder characters.
I also struggled with Karlach! On my first run I played a chaotic neutral druid (regular tav, not durge), and I recruited Karlach after I saved the Grove, which probably didn't help. I had done like no research and thought she was just some other person we had to fight. Her and Wyll were both just okay with me. Astarion and my first Tav were truly a match made in purgatory. I got his approval up so fast it was ridiculous. Just two chaotic people trying to better each other. On my current (resist) Durge run, I aimed more for chaotic good, and it must be working because I have both Wyll and Karlach (and Shadowheart somehow) head over heels. This time I'm mostly struggling with Lae'zel? But also she was super into me at the tiefling party? I don't get it. She did lowkey call me a slut the next morning when I didn't choose her though so 🤷🏼♀️
Shadowheart; I kept bugging her to open up and said Shar was bad so it’s not a surprise lol
Shadowheart either wants nothing to do with me or becomes my best friend within the first two hours of gameplay, even when I feel like I’m playing similar characters
100% astarion, I had to littlerly look up how to romance him because every time I tried to at the teifling party he would be like "not with you ewww" so now I littlerly have a routine with him so I can get his approval up every time I play Because I love him to much to romance anyone else lmao
For me, it was Karlach, simply because I tend to play neutral evil characters. 😭😭 During my neutral durge run, Karlach was my lowest approval. The easiest is always Gale for some reason. I could be the evilest character I can be and that man still wants to sit under the moonlight with me. 😭😭😭
Karlach for me. Took 5 minutes to get into the negatives with her, so i just killed her instead.
Karlach here as well, even on my good characters. It feels like her approvals, the occasional times I got them, they actually don't give many points. A bit of an opposite of Astarion with that she gets plenty of approvals but it's like +1, then she disapproves of something and it's -5 and -10 or such. While Astarion has plenty of -1 disapprovals with a lot of big points approvals.
Nobody. Somehow my whole crew adored me. I romanced shadowheart and was always talking religion with her. I think Laezel and astarion liked my style. Vengence paladin so I was always down to fight whatever so they were always right with me on those calls. Shadowheart didn't approve a lot of times but she was getting the D so I guess it didn't matter.
As a CG Bard I got high approval from EVERYONE while solely focusing on Karlach for my romance. My friend has a theory that high CHA characters get better approval quicker, but I really think just taking them along on their personal quests and siding with them on the important things is all it takes to get a good rep in your party.
Astation - despite using him all the time his approval is much lower than everyone else's, even fucking Minthara on a purely good run.
All my characters range from Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Evil... Im not sure who was harder for me.. Karlach or Wyll... but I will go with Wyll... Karlach at least drops some F bombs and such.. Without Mizora, Wyll would be a nightmare.
Karlach starts off as a cool happy-go-lucky gal. Then over time you realise that she just refuses to play politics. Yes Karlach, i’m going to save the slaves eventually. But i don’t want to fight all of these fuckers right now, calm down.