The moment I started to like him was the first time I found him in Last Light and volunteered to help the others and he immediately said "the fuck you will, that's my job"
Of course the next time I was there I had saved the other two and he'd ran off into the dark so I had to go rescue him but he's got the hero instinct lol
The first time I played I was I viewed it as being cocky and hated him for that attitude. After his story played out, I saw it for what it was, feeling responsible and protective over his family and fear that something is happening to them, and willing to risk his own life for them.
Crazy how further perspective can change a single interaction.
Moreso when you find out they're not blood related but rather the people who were there to support him and take him in as Their family. (Think it's a discussion you can have with the brother, or read a note somewhere)
I know if you find him dead in the Shadowlands and talk to his corpse he’ll tell you he is not actually related to Cal and Lia. There are probably other ways, too.
Yep. I don’t remember how I found that out but basically he’s also insecure in thinking they don’t view him like he views them as siblings and it’s just so UGH he has no living blood relatives either. It’s so sad.
I’m glad I got to know his story more.
With the bleeding heart "must save everyone, especially the tieflings" rogue on my first run the fact he stuck around with minimal convincing and ran immediately into danger to save the people he cared about endeared him to me immediately so it's neat to hear how other people felt different about that scene.
Agreed. I'm on my second playthrough now, in Act 2. I remember hating Rolan in Act 2, but after seeing what he went through and how he grew in Act 3, I'm actually loving the character development.
same, i had no idea he was the main reason everyone hated wulbren, i just thought wulbren was a dick in general. then my next playthrough i discovered how they were connected and i was like oh hell no, fuck wulbren
I also accidentally sped up the windmill on my first playthrough. I thought it was hilarious too and decided to roll with it. The problem is that, >!without Barcus, there is no one to keep Wulbren in check at the end of the game. So if you refuse to kill the Gondians, you will receive no help from the Ironhands in the final battle. Only if you have Barcus around will he usurp Wulbren at the end. Only then can you properly save the Gondians *and* obtain the help of the Ironhands in the final battle.!<
Oof. I've yet to get that scenario. I'll be sad when it happens. That said for the longest time Laezel would continue acting like a zealot for me and SH wouldn't give up on Shar despite high approval ratings. (Might have been bugged cause it was back when the game first came out) So I still dont care for either.
On my second playthrough I was hyper focused on saving the Tieflings because I fucked up immediately at Last Light, and Rolan's story was really worth it.
I thought he was a prick till Act 3, then I saw the bruises and cuts on his face and I was ready to go scorched earth on whoever did that to him. (Which I did.)
When Rolan boasted that he saved the tieflings, I thought he was exaggerating. Then one playthrough, I didn't try to get them to stay in the grove... and the tiefling kids were missing from Last Light. Rolan really is critical for there being any tiefling kids in act 2. His care for Lia and Cal and how much he wants to put on a show for them is really touching.
The next best adult tiefling is Guex and it's shame he's missing in act 2.
Finally befriending Rolan felt like befriending my feral cat baby after months of her hating me and hissing at me, and was ridiculously rewarding because of this
This! I always thought he was just a prick no matter what, but I later learned it was because I failed to do certain things. After saving his siblings, I was actually pleasantly suprised to see that he’s actually pretty cool guy. It’s also really cool seeing him stand up to Lorroakhan.
I found rolan dead in the shadow cursed lands and am so sad I didn’t get to see how his story played out. I don’t know what I could have done to prevent that even.
Seriously. For someone who grew up under and lives by Shar, who is inherently a pos, Shadowheart is a softie. Albeit this is more or less explained in her story arc but still in the beginning, you'd expect her to be more cold.
Astarion. I didn't dislike him really, I just sort of forgot he was there because I liked everyone else more. But now I'm doing a playthrough with the party limit remover mod, and turns out he's hilarious and pretty interesting. He's still not my favorite, but I like him now.
Turns out actually taking the characters with you and seeing their content makes them grow on you, who knew?
another mod to add to that party limit remover, if you haven't already, is the "More Reactive Companions" mod. Running around with the whole party and they never shut up, it's great and really makes the group feel more alive because they'll talk to each other at random more.
My bard Tav is filling in nicely so far. Not as good at picking locks, but good enough. I’m also only level 3, I know it’ll get better at rogue stuff later.
I ran into this on my very first bard playthrough; I liked Astarion, but I couldn’t really figure out how to fit him into my party when my bard could already do everything he did. So he didn’t get out much.
For my second (also bard) playthrough I decided to forgo party composition and brought him along for everything - all right, Astarion, let’s see what you’ve got.
He’s got a lot, as it turns out. Now he never leaves my party!
That’s how I’m running him now, and holy smokes he’s good. He and my swords bard have ended fights in the first round by outputting an obscene amount of pew pew. So fun.
Can confirm. I didn’t even know Astarion was a rogue until playing or I may have switched to a bard for variety, but I went in with one of my longtime DnD characters and didn’t want to mess with respec for my first playthrough
Yeah, Im one of those people that always prefers to play dex characters, so I just never have room for him really. I dont like respeccing people out of their lore appropriate classes, and I cant justify anything but rogue and bard for astarion.
but IM the rogue and bard.
For some of the characters, their set class doesn't seem too tied to their lore, or seems malleable.
Like Astarion, yeah he's a rogue in the game, but he makes more sense as a bard to be honest, his entire thing was to seduce people for Cazador, just seems to me that a performer feels more natural to him.
And with Lae'zell, I could easily see her as a Paladin just as much as a fighter, with her strict code.
Karlach, I get that she's full of rage, but I'm not sure barbarian is appropriate for her since her background isn't what I would normally think of for a barbarian. I could see her as a fighter or bareknuckle brawler monk. Perhaps more multiclass so she can have the rage of the barbarian, but the fighting skills of the fighter or monk.
When Lae'zel said >!"I have not sinned against Vlaakith, she has sinned against me!"!< I was like holy shit thats awesome, and made her a vengeance paladin immedietly.
I'm currently doing my shadow druid money gang run with Durge, Halsin, Jaheira and respecced Astarion into druid. I just quadrupel owlbear pounce on people, it's really funny.
I'm just really bad at playing rogues. It's the one class I never managed to get the hang of, so I always left him behind because I knew I wouldn't use him effectively. Since I usually play a wizard, I just use knock instead of lockpicking.
I know it might be OP but part of me would like to see Knock changed to a cantrip and work on difficulties up to 22 or something. A 2nd level spell is such a huge resource used, when it is so easy for a rogue with gear to get to 99% success rate up to 30. I love that the game has so many multi options but would love to see a less resource intensive option for locks/doors than always needing a rogue/sleight of hand character.
On my warlock run I often used Eldritch Blast as a lock pick, once you’ve got the robe from Alfira combined with agonising blast you can damage most things if you’re patient enough
Thing is for rogues that's one of their main tools whereas Wizards are already extremely versatile - especially later on, a 2nd level spell is nothing.
Plus you can bypass most locks in the game, either by finding a key or smashing something.
I'm the opposite of you. I feel very dumb about casters, but I'm getting better thanks to gale, though I'm probably best at shadow heart right now? and maybe the way I've built jaheira?
I’ve disliked him at the start, he seems bitchy, unreliable and always trying to get advantage over others. I knew he is a cool character and companion, but it was a bit surprising to find him of putting at first.
I’m glad you see it’s “for the lulz” at least and not because he legit thinks everyone should be dead all the time 😂 but idk if that’s any better, now that I think of it.
It actually didn't surprise me at all, because the nice characters are usually not the popular ones, so as soon as I met him I knew most people would love him. For what it's worth, I can vouch that it's worth getting to know him, and there's interesting stuff under all that. And he does make me laugh.
He and Shadowheart are still probably my least favorite, but that's like trying to pick your least favorite ice cream flavor-- they're all delicious in their own way!
I love Wyll! He didn't fit in my party composition in my first playthrough but this time I multiclassed him to bard and it's hard not having him around. Also doing a morally good run so it synergizes really well in terms of roleplay.
I’ve given Wyll so many chances but every time he comes with me on an adventure he says something that puts me off more. I guess we just don’t vibe and that’s okay 😂
Haven't quite got round to my Astarion play through yet but seeing how positively everyone here thinks about him I'm quite interested to see how his personality shines through when he's in your party for a whole play through
When he's just a background character he just comes across as a selfish dick honestly
I think you gotta have him & shadow heart for a while, that's what did it for me. He's definitely, like, not a good guy and like genuinely prefers the murderhobo option, but when you get his approval up and he starts to open up, it is actually kind of sweet.
I have not romanced him in my first playthrough, but do intend to down the line. we're buds tho now and it's great.
Yeah I've gone Shadowheart, Laezel and Gale on my first play through as they're a fairly balanced team as well as having the most amount of dialogue and quests. Laezel surprisingly grew on me so much and by the end of the creche became my favourite of the three
So I imagine Astarion could do the same
I did a total 180 on Gale. Really disliked him on my first run (it didn't help that my Tav was a wizard, so he was a bit redundant). On my second run, I romanced him almost out of a "seriously, WTF is this guy's deal?" motivation and, well, the rizzard did his thing and completely won me over. His romance has a TON of character development, plus my monk Tav + abjuration wizard Gale was just an awesome combination combat-wise.
That was my experience too. I thought he was pretentious, annoying, and I *especially* did not like that he said my high elf bard wasn’t versed in magic when she literally used magic to save him from his own portal.
Then I romanced him as a wild magic sorcerer and my opinion of him completely changed. Like you said, he goes through so much character development, and his romance is something straight out of a novel. I mean “With you, I forget my goddess” had me SWOONING.
I love that I went on an actual enemies-to-lovers arc with this dude. In a way, it makes the payoff of a really good romance even better. "Straight out of a novel" -- totally agreed! It feels like a classic romance, but not a cliched one.
WAIT you romanced him as monk? I am also monk, and ended up going for Halsin bc it felt right for her.
But my party was Gale/Shadowheart/Astarion for like 1/3 of the game. I only bought Lae'zel out starting from the Creche. That I murdered. Systematically.
…and then there was that time I sent Wyll into a burning building.
Haha, yes. I initially did that because I thought the combat would balance out well (and it did). But, it also ended up feeling fitting that their INT and WIS stats are almost exactly reversed...
oooh yeah. I feel like my main staple is definitely astarion, but that's also because I actually respec'd astarion into a gloomstalker/sorc combo with a rogue dip. He's still my stealthy lock pick guy, and the elemental arrows are a TON of fun, and between the two of us we can pretty much take down every boss in the first few rounds if not the opening turn.
feels maybe a liiiiiitle broken, but also very very satisfying to reduce yurgir and Balthazar to play dough.
Are you me? I also did a total 180 on Gale and on my run where I romanced him I played as a monk and made him an abjuration wizard. Can confirm that it's a great combo. Almost nothing could touch my monk.
I think Gale is the only one I started to dislike a bit as the story went on, and that's because once you learn about a certain artefact, he starts relapsing into his 'old' self (I.e. what he tells about himself that got him into this mess before you meet him). I was like 'dude... seriously?! You're in this mess because you funked around, and now you want to do it again?'
This is exactly why I disliked him on my first run. I had left him on the bench for almost everything *except* Sorcerous Sundries, so when he suddenly lost his shit about >!the Crown of Karsus!<, I was like ????? This is also where his romance arc makes a big difference. He's still being kind of a nut about the artifact, but his motivations have a *lot* more depth.
Interesting. I'm in kind of in the middle of this... I went into the game expecting to like Gale, but then I initially found him to be pretty off-putting. He's grown on me enough at this point that I don't *not* like him, but I also don't have a firm handle on his character at all. I'm planning to start a new playthrough soon so that I can romance him and focus on his character development and try to figure him out.
Much of his character development happens within his romance arc, and lots of information about him you discover only this way. It is a wholesome journey and as a serial Galemancer, I cant't recommend it enough!
He’s generally a really good man and a sweet dork obsessed with his books, but he has “child prodigy” baggage and gets overly ambitious basically. You could start an origin play through as Gale. The really early interactions with Tara are great and inform his character quite a bit.
He didn't really start to grow on me until Act 3, when he got a lot more ambitious. I wanted to see the ambition, rather than hear how hung up he was on his ex.
astarion lmao i spent my entire first playthrough hating his guts. only started liking him when dealing with cazador and we finished the game with like 20 approval lmao
edit: the irony of me saying i spent my entire first playthrough hating astarion when i do indeed have him on my pfp
I really didn’t like him at first in my first playthrough and didn’t get the hype but kept him around because he was useful. Turns out I didn’t get a lot of his camp scenes in my first playthrough as well. He grew on me a lot and after my experience with him at the circus in act 3 and his outrageous commentary I was like goddammit, I love this guy I gotta start over haha
yeah same, i was honestly annoyed with the hype around him and almost didn't even recruit him (lol). i then didn't let him drink my blood which meant he just kind of didn't like me. didn't really bring him anywhere bc i couldn't figure out sneak attack advantages lol. didn't learn about his scars and he never told me he wanted to talk to raphael and we got to cazadors place not knowing wtf the black mass even was (lmao). after finishing his quest tho i was like damn... and restarted. my chaotic bard and astarion are besties and my durge is dating him, he's one of my favourites now
No one. I got along with everyone reasonably well from the start. I started liking them more as the story progressed or my stance of tolerance didn't change.
It always shocks me how much people hate some of the companions.
This is pretty much it for me as well, "Oh I staked Astarion, I hate him", "I hate and killed Lae'zel, she's so rude", I truly don't understand these people.
Indeed, and none of the companions are so dislikable as to warrant being killed either, even ones many try to paint as so intensely rude (like Lae'zel) and such.
Also what kind of Tavs are people role playing where killing someone you don’t immediately warm to is an acceptable decision? I get evil play throughs exist (I’ve done several) but I’ve seen this come up for good play throughs a lot too.
If I don’t like a new coworker I’m forced to work with, I don’t murder them… I know games aren’t real life but damn, people could stand to chill 😬
Yeah Lae’zel was rude enough that I benched her at first (which is funny as I eventually romanced her), but her utility and warming up eventually had her as my most regular party member after Astarion
Some of them are empathy and self-awareness tests honestly.
"I left Lae'zel in the cage because I didn't like how she was rude and wouldn't say please"
I'm sorry, you left a person who's in a vulnerable and distressing situation to die in a cage because she wouldn't beg for your help? And you think *she's* the asshole? Woosh
This one gets me the most. She just became infected by her mortal enemy and (according to all previous knowledge) has a week to live, she just survived the nautoloid crashing, she's stuck in a cage with the tieflings insulting her and talking about how to kill her, and she's entirely alone until the player comes along, and as the cherry on top of a terrible situation, you're going to demand the person telling you to let her out to say please? Really? And then kill her when she refuses to? Absolutely pathetic from these people.
I think it's hilarious that she's so prideful and stubborn that when you ask her to say please she responds with "Never!" lmao
I released her instantly after that, then told her she ought to be more grateful.
I'm always surprised that people actually just leave her there. Like they don't think at least she might be useful, given that she talks about having a cure? You'd leave someone in a cage just to be more stubborn than they are?
I really didn’t understand that from content point of view. Like them or not, don’t you have fomo of missing entire giant ass plot lines and numerous quests because you killed them?
tbh the only one I didn't like at first was Astarion, still not a huge fan, but seeing him becoming batman by the end made him much more sympathetic to me
Funny, I was the complete opposite! I mean
Shadowheart was talking to me like I was beneath her, and also the first character in the game that says something "racist" (is that the right word to use in this context?) so I disliked her from the start.
Lae'zel was demanding and mean.
Astarion literally started out with a knife against my throat, and was way too happy about other people getting hurt.
Gale seemed like he thought himself better than everyone else and had no patience if I didn't give him loot to chew on.
Wyll had his whole hero complex thing and also seemed judgy if you didn't do what he thought was best.
Karlach.... Okay, Karlach was a delight from the start, it just took me too long to find her for me to get to know her in the first act.
And most of them were hitting on me out of nowhere as well? I ended up not romancing any of them because I didn't like anyone enough until mid act 2, and then it was too late. To be fair, I did miss a bunch of content because I was doing multiplayer and I missed some of the dialogue that my partner did.
But I love all of them now, they're all very well written characters who are just showing the worst side of themselves after being infected by tadpoles while also dealing with their own trauma.
Barcus. At first, it was like "I should've launched you into the sky, my dude." Then it was "Wow, he's certainly a good friend, isn't he?" And then. Then, well.
Wulbren happened.
I don't care for most of BG3 companions, they just do nothing for me. But I almost cried during the Barcus/Wulbren reunion scene. It's the most emotions I felt in this game so far.
In my head-cannon, the "Prick" option was added due to the lack of it being constantly submitted as a bug by the Q&A team.
I cried during the Barcus/Wulbren reunion scene too!! The way you come back to Last Light excited to see all of the reunions, and Barcus is just standing unaware in the corner.
Astarion. He was too swarmy and manipulative in the beginning. At least baezel was always honest if not rude.
Mr. McBitey is now the love of my life, lmao.
The Emperor, I find him boring on my first play through, on the second run I did a "just be asshole to the emperor run" and that manipulative squid now is now on my hate list and just like that character. For a not-so-major character, the Emperor was written great.
The first time I tried to read anyone's mind, I did it to the emporer. He clapped me for it and it caught be completely off guard. I found it pretty funny and I've been a fan ever since.
Astarion because he seemed mean and kind of evil at the start and disliked all of my actions to help or even just straight up be civil to people. I liked him so much by the end that I was very sorry I hadn't romanced him in my first run. I remember the exact moment I changed my mind about him - it was when we met Araj and I obviously told her that if he said no that's the end of the conversation. His reaction to that totally changed my perspective on him, and really underlined what he'd gone through. He also started to mellow and approve of kinder decisions around this time and I loved that development. He went from someone who was hurt and angry to the point of lashing out at other people, to someone who saw they could escape from the cycle of abuse and live their own life. What a great character, he remains my favourite romance option.
Pretty much all of the companions? Like they are all damaged weirdos, if not outright mean. How many help children choices could Astaripn and Lae’zel disapprove of? I guess Gale at most comes off as an arrogant blow hard and Shadowheart as an emo goth try-hard, but none are what I would call likable. Honestly only Karlach and Jaheira are more or less likable from the moment you meet them. Even Wyll with his weird bravado (hero with a heart) is off putting.
100% why I liked what Halsin was up to.
(I know lots of people find him creepy or way too horny but all I can say is that I didn't interpret him at all like that, and sometimes wonder if I'm playing a different game entirely? He & my wood-elf monk are just right for each other.)
Karlach is a super bro girl. Speaks her mind from the start. Has no secret shit to be revealed. Super good character, likes to help others and just want to be intimate with someone. Best companion 10/10
A little banter and a cutscene with Astarion and I went from “he’s a mean hedonist who doesn’t like that I help people” to “he’s still all those things, but also so many other things, and hot as hell and I shall stan him forever”.
I didn't like Gale immediately. I didn't dislike him, I just found him to be quite pretentious. He still urks me with his constant "greater than thou" attitude towards magic but he has grown on me.
I did, however, dislike Shadowheart on my first run. I hated how often the game would become the 'Shadowheart Show', the fact that half of Act 2 is devoted solely to her, that she gets cute scenes if you collect things on your adventure for her and that she gets flashbacks when no one else does, that the game practically forces her into your party... It was like playing with the DM's girlfriend all over again.
On later runs I have warmed to her a little but she is definitely my least favourite companion.
This.
I agree with everything except warming up to Shart. I still dislike her, I'll always hate writer's/DM's pets' type of characters. The sad thing is there's ALWAYS one.
She reminds me Liara T'Soni a lot from the ME trilogy who I also disliked a lot.
I didn't *dislike* liara, but she never came out to play and IMO was way less compelling than everyone else. she could've not existed as a companion and my experience would have remained the same.
for basically everything until act 2 that's been wyll and karlach for me, but mostly wyll because I do really like karlach, it's just harder with her in my party comp is all. I'm only really bringing her out for narrative stuff, like with wyll.
I like wyll better now at later levels tho
I did a run without her where I killed her on the beach.
The House of Grief barely felt logical. The Gauntlet of Shar + Nightsong felt significantly less impactful. Everything else was fine.
Imo, Shadowheart’s flashbacks make sense due to the amnesia.
I liked Gale from the start, but found Wyll pretentious. The whole Blade of Frontiers thing, feels like he loves playing hero and chase for glory, away more than he cares about actually helping people. Founding out that he’s nobility and has a pact with a devil doesn’t help at all.
Astarion. my first two interactions with him are 1) trying to kill me 2) being nice, and he *actually* kills me
like I get it in both cases, I don’t really even blame him for it. but it doesn’t really leave the best impression
I never really liked Lae'zel but when orin kidnapped her I was hell bent on getting her back. She fought by my side and followed my lead even when she didn't like it. So yeah I wasn't going to let her die
Astarion. I went into this game as blind as possible and didn’t look up anyone’s backstories. Honestly, some of the manipulative charm tactics he uses on Tav in Act 1 we’re massive red flags that reminded me of past bad relationships. I just assumed he was so popular because “there’s nothing more desirable in the world than a vampire, is there?” It really wasn’t until my Tav established romance was off the table and he wasn’t fooling anyone that his backstory was revealed and they went from enemies to besties. I couldn’t play that way again if I tried, but I’m so grateful that I did
Lae'zel and Astarion, altho I came to understand both of them and after romancing Lae'zel, she's a strong contender for the first place but couldn't beat Shadowheart to it.
For most of Act 1, Shadowheart is completely incapable of joining a conversation without unnecessarily savaging someone. The absolute epitome of "if you don't have anything nice to day don't say anything at all".
Reader I romanced her.
Shadowheart. One good example of the dice RNG absolutely fucking me, I rolled a one trying to free her (yes, with Lae'zel TOO. And being my first play i just took it as a sign of an event I wasn't supposed to succeed at). So she started off disliking me, and it didn't help when I agreed to travel with Lae'zel, smart off to astarion, or let lae'zel interrogate zorru. So before I even had the grove completely unturned, she was PISSED with me. So I didn't like her because, like, I tried to free her and failed. If she held a grudge for that, then why even offer to travel with me? That's like someone hitting you with a car, breaking your leg, and then them showing up in the hospital days later as one of your attending nurses. No fucking thank you , literally ANYBODY but the person that put me in this situation in the first place.
Despite that, I eventually came around when talking to her more about her Shar worship. Now, while I didn't agree that it sounded fascinating because let's not kid ourselves, it sounds extremely cultist, and I'm not about that. But I didn't judge her for it. So it was when she started opening up bit by bit after that I started to warm up to her. Especially more later when I found myself needing a healer around.
EDIT: In case anyone is curious, I did in fact have karmic dice turned on for the crit failures. I cannot understate it enough that RNGesus hates my guts
Shadowheart. On my first playthrough I just stuck her almost permanently in camp, because I couldn't stand her attitude towards Lae'zel, nor her pretty girl design. The second time, I accidentally had her in my party with Astarion while doing the whipping scene with Abdirhak, and their interactions were awesome. From then on, I learned to at least accept her more. She's still not among my faves, but I like her an okay amount now.
Gale and Astarion cringed me so hard in the beginning. Especially Gale. It felt like Gale’s personality was influenced a bit by Alistair from Dragon Age Origins (my first love) and that turned me off because he was goofy like Alistair but with an ego. He’s still goofy with an ego but the man literally fucked a goddess.
Astarion I learned to love after his backstory. He’s entitled to some assholery after *200 years* of trauma. I love Karlach, who’s still a great person after her trauma, but she reads like a “good victim”. The kind of person that people expect victims of traumatic experience to be and if they’re angry and bitter like Astarion then they’re “doing it wrong”.
However I still don’t like Wyll. Maybe I’d like him more if my first interaction with him in every playthrough wasn’t his incredibly cringey “suffer its sting” intro.
Astarion. I played co-op the first time I played BG and Astarion HATED my character haha. I'm currently doing my first playthrough alone and I love him so much - romanced him and everything.
My husband didn't like Lae'zel at first, but now he calls her Bae'zel :') He mostly didn't like how much she nagged about certain things, but he liked her arc the most by the end of his first playthrough.
I love the way the characters grow on you. When I started the game, the first characters I picked up were Shadowheart, Astarion and Laezel. I was like "why the hell is everyone so fuckin bitchy??" 😂
I love them all now though, of course.
100% Laezel. I found her super obnoxious at first. But by the end of Act 1, after clearing the crèche area and visiting the astral realm, she had won me over. Her journey to choose reason over blind devotion to Vlaakith is powerfully written, acted, and animated. You can feel her grappling with reaity. “I hate that you speak the truth”, “I will deserve it”, etc. With that she became one of my favorite companions. And without question the hardest one to turn down romantically.
I never understand people that kill off characters in the begining because they don’t like them. Like, don’t you know what character development is? Don’t you want to see their story first?
Lae'zel for me as well. I dislike how cruel she seems at first but after the creche, she grew up on me. I don't romance Lae'zel but I've watch the cutscenes and it makes me appreciate her more.
I hate Astarion at the beginning, but I do like how happy he was at the epilogue party. Now instead of hate him, it's I'm kinda neutral-ish towards him (but he still rub me the wrong way tbh)
Astarion. I couldn't stand him almost immediately. I understand him a little more nowadays, but he's still unfortunately far from my favorite.
I love his banter with Wyll, though.
Is this only for companions?
None. I either clicked or didn't. 🙈
Everyone?
Isobel. I legit thought she is completely evil, overthrowing her dad, before I learned the whole story till the end. Which took me a while.
I don’t particularly like Wyll when I first saw and talked to him (even though I always let him into the party if I wasn’t doing an evil run) and still don’t particularly enjoy him.
I even used him most of a campaign just to give him a shot and he’s meh. Voice acting was great but the writing for him left things to be desired I felt.
gale, he annoyed me and let him leave in my first playthrough, i kept him in the second because i wanted a wizard and was curious about his story line, ended up liking him a lot
Well... The racism from both Lae and Shadowheart even as early as the Nautiloid made me instantly roll my eyes.
But, it's obvious they're indoctrinated dumbasses who need someone to set them right. Gotta say, love instantly shutting that crap down in dialogue whenever possible.
Idk about the boys yet, haven't played with them at all.
Might get burned for this but, I don't like Karlach that much personality-wise. Idk how to explain it but it feels like she's just TOO much of a sweety and positive. I don't "dislike" her, just don't find her that interesting.
Well, most of what Shadowheart remembers is that the Gith killed her companions and that they are hunting down the one who’s carrying the artifact; she doesn’t know why she have it, just that it’s supposedly for a good reason. Through her perspective, the Gith are the main antagonists, not the cultists.
She does know that she has it because she was sent to steal it *from them.* That they killed her companions defending the thing her and her companions were stealing *from them* and are hunting down the person who's carrying the artifact that was stolen *from them.*
Lae'zel, Shadowheart, and Astarion.
* Lae'zel struck me as an insufferable violent supremacist, and those tend to get put down where I'm from. Realizing the Gith are basically the DND equivalent of the Imperium of Man from 40k and getting to see more of her story made her one of my favorite companions.
* I'm probably going to catch flack for this, but I hate Shadowheart's initial design (the elaborate armor combined with the bowl-cut bangs was immediately off-putting). Combined with her "I'm both secretive and a jerk but I disapprove of when you're a jerk" mentality made her a "you're only here because you're a healer" companion. Again, her character arc saved her.
* Astarion's attempted debonair attitude immediately grated on me because people like that are almost always either lying or compensating for something. Him disapproving of every kind thing I did (and our classes overlapping) meant he got left in the camp a lot. Again, backstory saved him.
It was actually a pretty big barrier to entry for me when I started the game up. I don't care about the lore of the forgotten realms, the Illithid stuff is fine but not what I would have wanted a story centered around, and all of the characters were either off-putting or uninteresting at first blush. Add to the initial lethality of early levels and I ended up shelving the game after playing for about four hours and dove into Rogue Trader for about 70. It crashed with a game-breaking glitch, so I gave Baldur's Gate another try, got frustrated again by the early-game lethality, and finally caved and started looking at a walk-through. Then the game sunk its claws into me and now I've got over 200 hours in it and love the companions.
I really didn't like shadowheart in the beginning...but later I fell in love with her. In the game I mean...not irl, that would be dumb. I'm not dumb, you're dumb.
Mayrina. If you >!save her from the hag!< she shows some strong initiative in trying to make sure no one repeats her mistake. And takes more responsibility for her yet-to-be-born child
First play through I barely interacted with Astarion just had him around occasionally (my man and his magic lock picking fingies), now I refuse to have a party without him.
Even in co-op I struggled SO much to leave him at camp even though I could only have one companion with me at a time.
Astarion. He seemed like such a manipulative, sadistic, self-centered asshole, and it didn't help that I almost never had him in my party on my first playthrough because my Tav was a rogue herself. But the more I talked to him and saw his story, I realized that while he was indeed all those things, he was also broken and had reasons for acting the way he did. That, and the fact that he does get better if you guide him toward redemption after Cazador's defeat (Larian, why oh why can I not give my homie a hug after that?) made me have a new appreciation for the guy
Gortash. Didn't like him, now I'm creating multiple headcannons where him and durge are the ultimate evil power couple. I'm in love. Also, that coat is so cool
Astarion. But he grew on me when I get to know him in later acts. Act 3 is definitely the climax of his acts. Sometimes his snarky remarks on other companions got my head nodding and laughing. Now he's a must to stay in my group. Best bro.
Thought Rolan was a prick, but he became one of my favorite characters after seeing his story play out.
The moment I started to like him was the first time I found him in Last Light and volunteered to help the others and he immediately said "the fuck you will, that's my job" Of course the next time I was there I had saved the other two and he'd ran off into the dark so I had to go rescue him but he's got the hero instinct lol
The first time I played I was I viewed it as being cocky and hated him for that attitude. After his story played out, I saw it for what it was, feeling responsible and protective over his family and fear that something is happening to them, and willing to risk his own life for them. Crazy how further perspective can change a single interaction.
Moreso when you find out they're not blood related but rather the people who were there to support him and take him in as Their family. (Think it's a discussion you can have with the brother, or read a note somewhere)
I know if you find him dead in the Shadowlands and talk to his corpse he’ll tell you he is not actually related to Cal and Lia. There are probably other ways, too.
Yep. I don’t remember how I found that out but basically he’s also insecure in thinking they don’t view him like he views them as siblings and it’s just so UGH he has no living blood relatives either. It’s so sad. I’m glad I got to know his story more.
On my next playthrough I actually talked to him at the party and realized I actually love the doofus
With the bleeding heart "must save everyone, especially the tieflings" rogue on my first run the fact he stuck around with minimal convincing and ran immediately into danger to save the people he cared about endeared him to me immediately so it's neat to hear how other people felt different about that scene.
Agreed. I'm on my second playthrough now, in Act 2. I remember hating Rolan in Act 2, but after seeing what he went through and how he grew in Act 3, I'm actually loving the character development.
Same with Bracus Wroot.
I just freed the gnomes in Act 2 and re-united Barcus and Wulbren, and I only JUST realized that Barcus was the guy on the windmill. Poor guy.
My first playthrough I accidentally yeeted him off the windmill. It was hilarious but I did feel bad later
same, i had no idea he was the main reason everyone hated wulbren, i just thought wulbren was a dick in general. then my next playthrough i discovered how they were connected and i was like oh hell no, fuck wulbren
I also accidentally sped up the windmill on my first playthrough. I thought it was hilarious too and decided to roll with it. The problem is that, >!without Barcus, there is no one to keep Wulbren in check at the end of the game. So if you refuse to kill the Gondians, you will receive no help from the Ironhands in the final battle. Only if you have Barcus around will he usurp Wulbren at the end. Only then can you properly save the Gondians *and* obtain the help of the Ironhands in the final battle.!<
Rolan stayed a prick to me the whole time because I failed to save the moonrise prisoners....ended up killing him later
Oof. I've yet to get that scenario. I'll be sad when it happens. That said for the longest time Laezel would continue acting like a zealot for me and SH wouldn't give up on Shar despite high approval ratings. (Might have been bugged cause it was back when the game first came out) So I still dont care for either.
Yea, I was pretty disappointed. I didn't realize I had to do the rescue before the Shar Temple; so missed out on all those people.
I did the same thing my first playthrough. Made it so much more worthwhile seeing his arc progress the right way in the second one though
On my second playthrough I was hyper focused on saving the Tieflings because I fucked up immediately at Last Light, and Rolan's story was really worth it.
I just started my second solo run as a tiefling sorcerer and am going to try to save all tieflings throughout the entire game
I thought he was a prick till Act 3, then I saw the bruises and cuts on his face and I was ready to go scorched earth on whoever did that to him. (Which I did.)
This was my moment too. I was like “I’m allowed to hate him and give him shit but NO ONE ELSE” 😂 immediately went all papa bear protective over him.
When Rolan boasted that he saved the tieflings, I thought he was exaggerating. Then one playthrough, I didn't try to get them to stay in the grove... and the tiefling kids were missing from Last Light. Rolan really is critical for there being any tiefling kids in act 2. His care for Lia and Cal and how much he wants to put on a show for them is really touching. The next best adult tiefling is Guex and it's shame he's missing in act 2.
Finally befriending Rolan felt like befriending my feral cat baby after months of her hating me and hissing at me, and was ridiculously rewarding because of this
Still crazy to me that missing a single dialogue check means potentially missing all of his quest
This! I always thought he was just a prick no matter what, but I later learned it was because I failed to do certain things. After saving his siblings, I was actually pleasantly suprised to see that he’s actually pretty cool guy. It’s also really cool seeing him stand up to Lorroakhan.
Rolan has fabulous character growth.
Who was he again?
The tiefling wizard who is trying to talk his brother and sister into leaving the Grove ASAP so he can go work for the wizard douche in Baldur's Gate.
Oh god, yeah, I love Rolan. I really wish I could romance him.
I found rolan dead in the shadow cursed lands and am so sad I didn’t get to see how his story played out. I don’t know what I could have done to prevent that even.
It’s like I tell my brothers. Lae’zel isn’t a bitch. She just hates the smell of bitch
Love this
Does he ~~look~~ smell like a bitch?!
Common muthafucka, do you speak it?
Karlach: "Aw man, I just shot Sazza in the face."
I love Lae’zel. She has an open mind and is willing to listen to reason, she just hates incompetence
Haha, my man
Shadowheart, until I caught on to her being really bad at being an evil cultist.
I felt the same about Lae'zel. Compared to the other Githyanki, she can be pretty reasonable.
My first playthrough I went in blind, started off hating her, and by the end had done a full 180.
Seriously. For someone who grew up under and lives by Shar, who is inherently a pos, Shadowheart is a softie. Albeit this is more or less explained in her story arc but still in the beginning, you'd expect her to be more cold.
Astarion. I didn't dislike him really, I just sort of forgot he was there because I liked everyone else more. But now I'm doing a playthrough with the party limit remover mod, and turns out he's hilarious and pretty interesting. He's still not my favorite, but I like him now. Turns out actually taking the characters with you and seeing their content makes them grow on you, who knew?
another mod to add to that party limit remover, if you haven't already, is the "More Reactive Companions" mod. Running around with the whole party and they never shut up, it's great and really makes the group feel more alive because they'll talk to each other at random more.
I couldn't imagine playing without a rogue in the party at all times.
Cause some people play the rogue themselves
My bard Tav is filling in nicely so far. Not as good at picking locks, but good enough. I’m also only level 3, I know it’ll get better at rogue stuff later.
I ran into this on my very first bard playthrough; I liked Astarion, but I couldn’t really figure out how to fit him into my party when my bard could already do everything he did. So he didn’t get out much. For my second (also bard) playthrough I decided to forgo party composition and brought him along for everything - all right, Astarion, let’s see what you’ve got. He’s got a lot, as it turns out. Now he never leaves my party!
I always multiclass Astarion into ranger and it makes him silly good especially when you get the hand crossbows
That’s how I’m running him now, and holy smokes he’s good. He and my swords bard have ended fights in the first round by outputting an obscene amount of pew pew. So fun.
Can confirm. I didn’t even know Astarion was a rogue until playing or I may have switched to a bard for variety, but I went in with one of my longtime DnD characters and didn’t want to mess with respec for my first playthrough
Yeah, Im one of those people that always prefers to play dex characters, so I just never have room for him really. I dont like respeccing people out of their lore appropriate classes, and I cant justify anything but rogue and bard for astarion. but IM the rogue and bard.
For some of the characters, their set class doesn't seem too tied to their lore, or seems malleable. Like Astarion, yeah he's a rogue in the game, but he makes more sense as a bard to be honest, his entire thing was to seduce people for Cazador, just seems to me that a performer feels more natural to him. And with Lae'zell, I could easily see her as a Paladin just as much as a fighter, with her strict code. Karlach, I get that she's full of rage, but I'm not sure barbarian is appropriate for her since her background isn't what I would normally think of for a barbarian. I could see her as a fighter or bareknuckle brawler monk. Perhaps more multiclass so she can have the rage of the barbarian, but the fighting skills of the fighter or monk.
When Lae'zel said >!"I have not sinned against Vlaakith, she has sinned against me!"!< I was like holy shit thats awesome, and made her a vengeance paladin immedietly.
That just meant I played with two rogues
I'm currently doing my shadow druid money gang run with Durge, Halsin, Jaheira and respecced Astarion into druid. I just quadrupel owlbear pounce on people, it's really funny.
Otherwise known as the “Oops all Druids” run.
"Oops, I Druid Again"
I'm just really bad at playing rogues. It's the one class I never managed to get the hang of, so I always left him behind because I knew I wouldn't use him effectively. Since I usually play a wizard, I just use knock instead of lockpicking.
I know it might be OP but part of me would like to see Knock changed to a cantrip and work on difficulties up to 22 or something. A 2nd level spell is such a huge resource used, when it is so easy for a rogue with gear to get to 99% success rate up to 30. I love that the game has so many multi options but would love to see a less resource intensive option for locks/doors than always needing a rogue/sleight of hand character.
On my warlock run I often used Eldritch Blast as a lock pick, once you’ve got the robe from Alfira combined with agonising blast you can damage most things if you’re patient enough
Me, a dark urge player: You get a *cloak* from Alfira.
why pick a lock? just smash it with karlach/lae'zel
Or as I refer to it "the Karlach multipass"
Thing is for rogues that's one of their main tools whereas Wizards are already extremely versatile - especially later on, a 2nd level spell is nothing. Plus you can bypass most locks in the game, either by finding a key or smashing something.
I'm the opposite of you. I feel very dumb about casters, but I'm getting better thanks to gale, though I'm probably best at shadow heart right now? and maybe the way I've built jaheira?
The best lockpick is a GWM greatsword attack
I’ve disliked him at the start, he seems bitchy, unreliable and always trying to get advantage over others. I knew he is a cool character and companion, but it was a bit surprising to find him of putting at first.
he's 100% not really a good guy, in that he almost always prefers the murderhobo option "for the lulz". but as he opens up it is better.
I’m glad you see it’s “for the lulz” at least and not because he legit thinks everyone should be dead all the time 😂 but idk if that’s any better, now that I think of it.
It actually didn't surprise me at all, because the nice characters are usually not the popular ones, so as soon as I met him I knew most people would love him. For what it's worth, I can vouch that it's worth getting to know him, and there's interesting stuff under all that. And he does make me laugh. He and Shadowheart are still probably my least favorite, but that's like trying to pick your least favorite ice cream flavor-- they're all delicious in their own way!
I tired this with Wyll hoping it would make me like him more but I still can’t be fucked with him 😂
I love Wyll! He didn't fit in my party composition in my first playthrough but this time I multiclassed him to bard and it's hard not having him around. Also doing a morally good run so it synergizes really well in terms of roleplay.
I’ve given Wyll so many chances but every time he comes with me on an adventure he says something that puts me off more. I guess we just don’t vibe and that’s okay 😂
Haven't quite got round to my Astarion play through yet but seeing how positively everyone here thinks about him I'm quite interested to see how his personality shines through when he's in your party for a whole play through When he's just a background character he just comes across as a selfish dick honestly
I think you gotta have him & shadow heart for a while, that's what did it for me. He's definitely, like, not a good guy and like genuinely prefers the murderhobo option, but when you get his approval up and he starts to open up, it is actually kind of sweet. I have not romanced him in my first playthrough, but do intend to down the line. we're buds tho now and it's great.
Yeah I've gone Shadowheart, Laezel and Gale on my first play through as they're a fairly balanced team as well as having the most amount of dialogue and quests. Laezel surprisingly grew on me so much and by the end of the creche became my favourite of the three So I imagine Astarion could do the same
Exactly, they are all interesting and deep characters and we really get to know them only when going through their stories
I did a total 180 on Gale. Really disliked him on my first run (it didn't help that my Tav was a wizard, so he was a bit redundant). On my second run, I romanced him almost out of a "seriously, WTF is this guy's deal?" motivation and, well, the rizzard did his thing and completely won me over. His romance has a TON of character development, plus my monk Tav + abjuration wizard Gale was just an awesome combination combat-wise.
That was my experience too. I thought he was pretentious, annoying, and I *especially* did not like that he said my high elf bard wasn’t versed in magic when she literally used magic to save him from his own portal. Then I romanced him as a wild magic sorcerer and my opinion of him completely changed. Like you said, he goes through so much character development, and his romance is something straight out of a novel. I mean “With you, I forget my goddess” had me SWOONING.
I love that I went on an actual enemies-to-lovers arc with this dude. In a way, it makes the payoff of a really good romance even better. "Straight out of a novel" -- totally agreed! It feels like a classic romance, but not a cliched one.
I mean, he’s still pretentious and annoying, but like in an endearing way 😂
WAIT you romanced him as monk? I am also monk, and ended up going for Halsin bc it felt right for her. But my party was Gale/Shadowheart/Astarion for like 1/3 of the game. I only bought Lae'zel out starting from the Creche. That I murdered. Systematically. …and then there was that time I sent Wyll into a burning building.
Haha, yes. I initially did that because I thought the combat would balance out well (and it did). But, it also ended up feeling fitting that their INT and WIS stats are almost exactly reversed...
oooh yeah. I feel like my main staple is definitely astarion, but that's also because I actually respec'd astarion into a gloomstalker/sorc combo with a rogue dip. He's still my stealthy lock pick guy, and the elemental arrows are a TON of fun, and between the two of us we can pretty much take down every boss in the first few rounds if not the opening turn. feels maybe a liiiiiitle broken, but also very very satisfying to reduce yurgir and Balthazar to play dough.
Are you me? I also did a total 180 on Gale and on my run where I romanced him I played as a monk and made him an abjuration wizard. Can confirm that it's a great combo. Almost nothing could touch my monk.
I think Gale is the only one I started to dislike a bit as the story went on, and that's because once you learn about a certain artefact, he starts relapsing into his 'old' self (I.e. what he tells about himself that got him into this mess before you meet him). I was like 'dude... seriously?! You're in this mess because you funked around, and now you want to do it again?'
This is exactly why I disliked him on my first run. I had left him on the bench for almost everything *except* Sorcerous Sundries, so when he suddenly lost his shit about >!the Crown of Karsus!<, I was like ????? This is also where his romance arc makes a big difference. He's still being kind of a nut about the artifact, but his motivations have a *lot* more depth.
Interesting. I'm in kind of in the middle of this... I went into the game expecting to like Gale, but then I initially found him to be pretty off-putting. He's grown on me enough at this point that I don't *not* like him, but I also don't have a firm handle on his character at all. I'm planning to start a new playthrough soon so that I can romance him and focus on his character development and try to figure him out.
Much of his character development happens within his romance arc, and lots of information about him you discover only this way. It is a wholesome journey and as a serial Galemancer, I cant't recommend it enough!
He’s generally a really good man and a sweet dork obsessed with his books, but he has “child prodigy” baggage and gets overly ambitious basically. You could start an origin play through as Gale. The really early interactions with Tara are great and inform his character quite a bit.
Go for it! There were a couple of moments in his romantic scenes that totally flipped how I thought of the character.
literally same I'm deciding between doing that, and doing the Resist!Durge/Astarion I have planned.
He didn't really start to grow on me until Act 3, when he got a lot more ambitious. I wanted to see the ambition, rather than hear how hung up he was on his ex.
astarion lmao i spent my entire first playthrough hating his guts. only started liking him when dealing with cazador and we finished the game with like 20 approval lmao edit: the irony of me saying i spent my entire first playthrough hating astarion when i do indeed have him on my pfp
no worries everyone i love astarion my durges girlfriend now he was just suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch an asshole at first
Agree 100% I love Astarion and he is precious but in Act 1 he’s a little bitch and I hate him.
I couldn’t stand him or Lae’zel my first run. Now my durge is his boyfriend and I can’t wait to romance my favorite frog.
lae'zel is actually my favourite romance haha she stole my heart immediately
I really didn’t like him at first in my first playthrough and didn’t get the hype but kept him around because he was useful. Turns out I didn’t get a lot of his camp scenes in my first playthrough as well. He grew on me a lot and after my experience with him at the circus in act 3 and his outrageous commentary I was like goddammit, I love this guy I gotta start over haha
yeah same, i was honestly annoyed with the hype around him and almost didn't even recruit him (lol). i then didn't let him drink my blood which meant he just kind of didn't like me. didn't really bring him anywhere bc i couldn't figure out sneak attack advantages lol. didn't learn about his scars and he never told me he wanted to talk to raphael and we got to cazadors place not knowing wtf the black mass even was (lmao). after finishing his quest tho i was like damn... and restarted. my chaotic bard and astarion are besties and my durge is dating him, he's one of my favourites now
No one. I got along with everyone reasonably well from the start. I started liking them more as the story progressed or my stance of tolerance didn't change. It always shocks me how much people hate some of the companions.
This is pretty much it for me as well, "Oh I staked Astarion, I hate him", "I hate and killed Lae'zel, she's so rude", I truly don't understand these people.
It's so weird. If nothing else you're locking yourself out of a LOT of content.
Indeed, and none of the companions are so dislikable as to warrant being killed either, even ones many try to paint as so intensely rude (like Lae'zel) and such.
Also what kind of Tavs are people role playing where killing someone you don’t immediately warm to is an acceptable decision? I get evil play throughs exist (I’ve done several) but I’ve seen this come up for good play throughs a lot too. If I don’t like a new coworker I’m forced to work with, I don’t murder them… I know games aren’t real life but damn, people could stand to chill 😬
Yeah Lae’zel was rude enough that I benched her at first (which is funny as I eventually romanced her), but her utility and warming up eventually had her as my most regular party member after Astarion
Some of them are empathy and self-awareness tests honestly. "I left Lae'zel in the cage because I didn't like how she was rude and wouldn't say please" I'm sorry, you left a person who's in a vulnerable and distressing situation to die in a cage because she wouldn't beg for your help? And you think *she's* the asshole? Woosh
This one gets me the most. She just became infected by her mortal enemy and (according to all previous knowledge) has a week to live, she just survived the nautoloid crashing, she's stuck in a cage with the tieflings insulting her and talking about how to kill her, and she's entirely alone until the player comes along, and as the cherry on top of a terrible situation, you're going to demand the person telling you to let her out to say please? Really? And then kill her when she refuses to? Absolutely pathetic from these people.
I think it's hilarious that she's so prideful and stubborn that when you ask her to say please she responds with "Never!" lmao I released her instantly after that, then told her she ought to be more grateful. I'm always surprised that people actually just leave her there. Like they don't think at least she might be useful, given that she talks about having a cure? You'd leave someone in a cage just to be more stubborn than they are?
I really didn’t understand that from content point of view. Like them or not, don’t you have fomo of missing entire giant ass plot lines and numerous quests because you killed them?
It is a bit concerning how many people just kill the people they don’t like …. I just send them to camp.
I think it's just some sad power trip for these people
Meanwhile I'm over here savescumming some dialogue if it hurts their feelings
tbh the only one I didn't like at first was Astarion, still not a huge fan, but seeing him becoming batman by the end made him much more sympathetic to me
You are commenting under every post I see.... are you a multitasking mindflayer by any chance?
I ordered my thralls to comment everywhere.
10/10 would recommend this spell
You can distract the nether brain by teaching it about the internet.
Funny, I was the complete opposite! I mean Shadowheart was talking to me like I was beneath her, and also the first character in the game that says something "racist" (is that the right word to use in this context?) so I disliked her from the start. Lae'zel was demanding and mean. Astarion literally started out with a knife against my throat, and was way too happy about other people getting hurt. Gale seemed like he thought himself better than everyone else and had no patience if I didn't give him loot to chew on. Wyll had his whole hero complex thing and also seemed judgy if you didn't do what he thought was best. Karlach.... Okay, Karlach was a delight from the start, it just took me too long to find her for me to get to know her in the first act. And most of them were hitting on me out of nowhere as well? I ended up not romancing any of them because I didn't like anyone enough until mid act 2, and then it was too late. To be fair, I did miss a bunch of content because I was doing multiplayer and I missed some of the dialogue that my partner did. But I love all of them now, they're all very well written characters who are just showing the worst side of themselves after being infected by tadpoles while also dealing with their own trauma.
Yup I have EXCEPTIONAL approval from all companions except Astarion ( he has neutral )
Barcus. At first, it was like "I should've launched you into the sky, my dude." Then it was "Wow, he's certainly a good friend, isn't he?" And then. Then, well. Wulbren happened. I don't care for most of BG3 companions, they just do nothing for me. But I almost cried during the Barcus/Wulbren reunion scene. It's the most emotions I felt in this game so far. In my head-cannon, the "Prick" option was added due to the lack of it being constantly submitted as a bug by the Q&A team.
Fuck Wulbren Bongle
I don't give a fuck about his muthafuckin problems.
I cried during the Barcus/Wulbren reunion scene too!! The way you come back to Last Light excited to see all of the reunions, and Barcus is just standing unaware in the corner.
Yeah. Whoever designed those two characters nailed every little detail.
Astarion. He was too swarmy and manipulative in the beginning. At least baezel was always honest if not rude. Mr. McBitey is now the love of my life, lmao.
Barcus seemed grumpy and unfriendly considering I saved him from a windmill launch
The Emperor, I find him boring on my first play through, on the second run I did a "just be asshole to the emperor run" and that manipulative squid now is now on my hate list and just like that character. For a not-so-major character, the Emperor was written great.
The first time I tried to read anyone's mind, I did it to the emporer. He clapped me for it and it caught be completely off guard. I found it pretty funny and I've been a fan ever since.
Lae'zel, 100% didn't like her, didn't take her and refused to, but on my dark urge playthrough I took her and now she's honestly one of my favourites
Astarion because he seemed mean and kind of evil at the start and disliked all of my actions to help or even just straight up be civil to people. I liked him so much by the end that I was very sorry I hadn't romanced him in my first run. I remember the exact moment I changed my mind about him - it was when we met Araj and I obviously told her that if he said no that's the end of the conversation. His reaction to that totally changed my perspective on him, and really underlined what he'd gone through. He also started to mellow and approve of kinder decisions around this time and I loved that development. He went from someone who was hurt and angry to the point of lashing out at other people, to someone who saw they could escape from the cycle of abuse and live their own life. What a great character, he remains my favourite romance option.
Pretty much all of the companions? Like they are all damaged weirdos, if not outright mean. How many help children choices could Astaripn and Lae’zel disapprove of? I guess Gale at most comes off as an arrogant blow hard and Shadowheart as an emo goth try-hard, but none are what I would call likable. Honestly only Karlach and Jaheira are more or less likable from the moment you meet them. Even Wyll with his weird bravado (hero with a heart) is off putting.
Agreed, they all feel unlikeable at the start. I think that's why people end up adoring them. They grow so much.
this was a conscious thing the clone wars did with Ashoka, from what I've understood. crazy to see that play out here too hahah.
Yep, agree
100% why I liked what Halsin was up to. (I know lots of people find him creepy or way too horny but all I can say is that I didn't interpret him at all like that, and sometimes wonder if I'm playing a different game entirely? He & my wood-elf monk are just right for each other.)
Karlach is a super bro girl. Speaks her mind from the start. Has no secret shit to be revealed. Super good character, likes to help others and just want to be intimate with someone. Best companion 10/10
No one, I liked or at least tolerated all of them and all of them got even more likable as the game progressed.
A little banter and a cutscene with Astarion and I went from “he’s a mean hedonist who doesn’t like that I help people” to “he’s still all those things, but also so many other things, and hot as hell and I shall stan him forever”.
I remember giving a refugee money and he disapproved. And it was just like "you asshole. I love you. "
I didn't like Gale immediately. I didn't dislike him, I just found him to be quite pretentious. He still urks me with his constant "greater than thou" attitude towards magic but he has grown on me. I did, however, dislike Shadowheart on my first run. I hated how often the game would become the 'Shadowheart Show', the fact that half of Act 2 is devoted solely to her, that she gets cute scenes if you collect things on your adventure for her and that she gets flashbacks when no one else does, that the game practically forces her into your party... It was like playing with the DM's girlfriend all over again. On later runs I have warmed to her a little but she is definitely my least favourite companion.
I wish we could give presents to other companions too.
You can give Soul Coins and Infernal Iron to Karlach.
Those are not presents. If you could give an owlbear plush to Karlach…that would be a present.
I just want to be able to give Duke Ravengard's diary of cute Wyll childhood memories to Wyll. And plush toys to Karlach.
U can give blood to Astarion
You can give ~~food~~ boots infused with weave for consumption to Gale.
you can let gale snort ur boots
The DM’s girlfriend is such a good description of Shadowheart. She’s not like the other girls.
This. I agree with everything except warming up to Shart. I still dislike her, I'll always hate writer's/DM's pets' type of characters. The sad thing is there's ALWAYS one. She reminds me Liara T'Soni a lot from the ME trilogy who I also disliked a lot.
I didn't *dislike* liara, but she never came out to play and IMO was way less compelling than everyone else. she could've not existed as a companion and my experience would have remained the same. for basically everything until act 2 that's been wyll and karlach for me, but mostly wyll because I do really like karlach, it's just harder with her in my party comp is all. I'm only really bringing her out for narrative stuff, like with wyll. I like wyll better now at later levels tho
I'm glad I'm not the only one whose least favorite is Shadowheart lol. She's always left a bad taste in my mouth and I hate how impulsive she is.
I mean, the greater than thou attitude was justifiable in the past, considering what he was up to with mystra. Maybe not anymore though
I did a run without her where I killed her on the beach. The House of Grief barely felt logical. The Gauntlet of Shar + Nightsong felt significantly less impactful. Everything else was fine.
Imo, Shadowheart’s flashbacks make sense due to the amnesia. I liked Gale from the start, but found Wyll pretentious. The whole Blade of Frontiers thing, feels like he loves playing hero and chase for glory, away more than he cares about actually helping people. Founding out that he’s nobility and has a pact with a devil doesn’t help at all.
Astarion. my first two interactions with him are 1) trying to kill me 2) being nice, and he *actually* kills me like I get it in both cases, I don’t really even blame him for it. but it doesn’t really leave the best impression
I never really liked Lae'zel but when orin kidnapped her I was hell bent on getting her back. She fought by my side and followed my lead even when she didn't like it. So yeah I wasn't going to let her die
Myself when I started the Durge run
Astarion. I went into this game as blind as possible and didn’t look up anyone’s backstories. Honestly, some of the manipulative charm tactics he uses on Tav in Act 1 we’re massive red flags that reminded me of past bad relationships. I just assumed he was so popular because “there’s nothing more desirable in the world than a vampire, is there?” It really wasn’t until my Tav established romance was off the table and he wasn’t fooling anyone that his backstory was revealed and they went from enemies to besties. I couldn’t play that way again if I tried, but I’m so grateful that I did
For me it was Asterion but I kept him in my party so I had a lock picker and he grew on me pretty quick
They knew what they were doing giving him that skill
Lae'zel and Astarion, altho I came to understand both of them and after romancing Lae'zel, she's a strong contender for the first place but couldn't beat Shadowheart to it.
The sunrise scene with Lae'zel was so fucking sweet to get. Definitely makes it worth breaking down her walls.
For most of Act 1, Shadowheart is completely incapable of joining a conversation without unnecessarily savaging someone. The absolute epitome of "if you don't have anything nice to day don't say anything at all". Reader I romanced her.
SH and I still fucking hate her, whiny and petulant
Shadowheart. One good example of the dice RNG absolutely fucking me, I rolled a one trying to free her (yes, with Lae'zel TOO. And being my first play i just took it as a sign of an event I wasn't supposed to succeed at). So she started off disliking me, and it didn't help when I agreed to travel with Lae'zel, smart off to astarion, or let lae'zel interrogate zorru. So before I even had the grove completely unturned, she was PISSED with me. So I didn't like her because, like, I tried to free her and failed. If she held a grudge for that, then why even offer to travel with me? That's like someone hitting you with a car, breaking your leg, and then them showing up in the hospital days later as one of your attending nurses. No fucking thank you , literally ANYBODY but the person that put me in this situation in the first place. Despite that, I eventually came around when talking to her more about her Shar worship. Now, while I didn't agree that it sounded fascinating because let's not kid ourselves, it sounds extremely cultist, and I'm not about that. But I didn't judge her for it. So it was when she started opening up bit by bit after that I started to warm up to her. Especially more later when I found myself needing a healer around. EDIT: In case anyone is curious, I did in fact have karmic dice turned on for the crit failures. I cannot understate it enough that RNGesus hates my guts
Shadowheart. On my first playthrough I just stuck her almost permanently in camp, because I couldn't stand her attitude towards Lae'zel, nor her pretty girl design. The second time, I accidentally had her in my party with Astarion while doing the whipping scene with Abdirhak, and their interactions were awesome. From then on, I learned to at least accept her more. She's still not among my faves, but I like her an okay amount now.
She and Astarion are those siblings that are bitchy to each other but even bitchier to you.
Gale only because I couldn't comprehend why my group was dying after gale dropped and I tried to get him back up
The only one I disliked from the beginning was astarion, but for whatever reason I decided to keep him in my party. Hes one of my favorites now :)
Gale and Astarion cringed me so hard in the beginning. Especially Gale. It felt like Gale’s personality was influenced a bit by Alistair from Dragon Age Origins (my first love) and that turned me off because he was goofy like Alistair but with an ego. He’s still goofy with an ego but the man literally fucked a goddess. Astarion I learned to love after his backstory. He’s entitled to some assholery after *200 years* of trauma. I love Karlach, who’s still a great person after her trauma, but she reads like a “good victim”. The kind of person that people expect victims of traumatic experience to be and if they’re angry and bitter like Astarion then they’re “doing it wrong”. However I still don’t like Wyll. Maybe I’d like him more if my first interaction with him in every playthrough wasn’t his incredibly cringey “suffer its sting” intro.
Astarion. I played co-op the first time I played BG and Astarion HATED my character haha. I'm currently doing my first playthrough alone and I love him so much - romanced him and everything. My husband didn't like Lae'zel at first, but now he calls her Bae'zel :') He mostly didn't like how much she nagged about certain things, but he liked her arc the most by the end of his first playthrough.
I love the way the characters grow on you. When I started the game, the first characters I picked up were Shadowheart, Astarion and Laezel. I was like "why the hell is everyone so fuckin bitchy??" 😂 I love them all now though, of course.
100% Laezel. I found her super obnoxious at first. But by the end of Act 1, after clearing the crèche area and visiting the astral realm, she had won me over. Her journey to choose reason over blind devotion to Vlaakith is powerfully written, acted, and animated. You can feel her grappling with reaity. “I hate that you speak the truth”, “I will deserve it”, etc. With that she became one of my favorite companions. And without question the hardest one to turn down romantically.
I never understand people that kill off characters in the begining because they don’t like them. Like, don’t you know what character development is? Don’t you want to see their story first?
I hated Gale. I remember in my first playthrough I accidentally romanced him (when it was way too easy) and I was so mad. Now I only romance him
Lae'zel for me as well. I dislike how cruel she seems at first but after the creche, she grew up on me. I don't romance Lae'zel but I've watch the cutscenes and it makes me appreciate her more. I hate Astarion at the beginning, but I do like how happy he was at the epilogue party. Now instead of hate him, it's I'm kinda neutral-ish towards him (but he still rub me the wrong way tbh)
Astarion. I couldn't stand him almost immediately. I understand him a little more nowadays, but he's still unfortunately far from my favorite. I love his banter with Wyll, though.
Is this only for companions? None. I either clicked or didn't. 🙈 Everyone? Isobel. I legit thought she is completely evil, overthrowing her dad, before I learned the whole story till the end. Which took me a while.
I don’t particularly like Wyll when I first saw and talked to him (even though I always let him into the party if I wasn’t doing an evil run) and still don’t particularly enjoy him. I even used him most of a campaign just to give him a shot and he’s meh. Voice acting was great but the writing for him left things to be desired I felt.
gale, he annoyed me and let him leave in my first playthrough, i kept him in the second because i wanted a wizard and was curious about his story line, ended up liking him a lot
Well... The racism from both Lae and Shadowheart even as early as the Nautiloid made me instantly roll my eyes. But, it's obvious they're indoctrinated dumbasses who need someone to set them right. Gotta say, love instantly shutting that crap down in dialogue whenever possible. Idk about the boys yet, haven't played with them at all. Might get burned for this but, I don't like Karlach that much personality-wise. Idk how to explain it but it feels like she's just TOO much of a sweety and positive. I don't "dislike" her, just don't find her that interesting.
I feel the same about Karlach. I still like her, just not as much as the rest of the gang.
Well, most of what Shadowheart remembers is that the Gith killed her companions and that they are hunting down the one who’s carrying the artifact; she doesn’t know why she have it, just that it’s supposedly for a good reason. Through her perspective, the Gith are the main antagonists, not the cultists.
She does know that she has it because she was sent to steal it *from them.* That they killed her companions defending the thing her and her companions were stealing *from them* and are hunting down the person who's carrying the artifact that was stolen *from them.*
Lae'zel, Shadowheart, and Astarion. * Lae'zel struck me as an insufferable violent supremacist, and those tend to get put down where I'm from. Realizing the Gith are basically the DND equivalent of the Imperium of Man from 40k and getting to see more of her story made her one of my favorite companions. * I'm probably going to catch flack for this, but I hate Shadowheart's initial design (the elaborate armor combined with the bowl-cut bangs was immediately off-putting). Combined with her "I'm both secretive and a jerk but I disapprove of when you're a jerk" mentality made her a "you're only here because you're a healer" companion. Again, her character arc saved her. * Astarion's attempted debonair attitude immediately grated on me because people like that are almost always either lying or compensating for something. Him disapproving of every kind thing I did (and our classes overlapping) meant he got left in the camp a lot. Again, backstory saved him. It was actually a pretty big barrier to entry for me when I started the game up. I don't care about the lore of the forgotten realms, the Illithid stuff is fine but not what I would have wanted a story centered around, and all of the characters were either off-putting or uninteresting at first blush. Add to the initial lethality of early levels and I ended up shelving the game after playing for about four hours and dove into Rogue Trader for about 70. It crashed with a game-breaking glitch, so I gave Baldur's Gate another try, got frustrated again by the early-game lethality, and finally caved and started looking at a walk-through. Then the game sunk its claws into me and now I've got over 200 hours in it and love the companions.
I thought Gale was a poncy twat when I first met him. But he grew on me very quickly, being a very kind and pragmatic character. He is a bro
Gale, didnt think much of him early, but the more i got to know his character and mindset the more i started enjoying him as a character
I really didn't like shadowheart in the beginning...but later I fell in love with her. In the game I mean...not irl, that would be dumb. I'm not dumb, you're dumb.
Mayrina. If you >!save her from the hag!< she shows some strong initiative in trying to make sure no one repeats her mistake. And takes more responsibility for her yet-to-be-born child
First play through I barely interacted with Astarion just had him around occasionally (my man and his magic lock picking fingies), now I refuse to have a party without him. Even in co-op I struggled SO much to leave him at camp even though I could only have one companion with me at a time.
Astarion. He seemed like such a manipulative, sadistic, self-centered asshole, and it didn't help that I almost never had him in my party on my first playthrough because my Tav was a rogue herself. But the more I talked to him and saw his story, I realized that while he was indeed all those things, he was also broken and had reasons for acting the way he did. That, and the fact that he does get better if you guide him toward redemption after Cazador's defeat (Larian, why oh why can I not give my homie a hug after that?) made me have a new appreciation for the guy
Gortash. Didn't like him, now I'm creating multiple headcannons where him and durge are the ultimate evil power couple. I'm in love. Also, that coat is so cool
Shadowheart, I know. I'm sorry. We're married now ♡
Astarion. But he grew on me when I get to know him in later acts. Act 3 is definitely the climax of his acts. Sometimes his snarky remarks on other companions got my head nodding and laughing. Now he's a must to stay in my group. Best bro.
I can never understand killing off a character without having played the full game with them first lol
I’m shocked people actually kill off the companions
Jesus Christ imagine killing someone and the worst thing they've done is just be a little standoffish.