He is a “Nice guy” but he isn’t a good guy.
He’s constantly overselling himself, his skills, etc. Talking like he is some master Gandalf or Dumbledore and it’s like… you’re level 1 dude. He has that narcissistic front and it’s like “oh yea I was in a relationship with a goddess” and it’s like Stay in your lane.
It doesn’t help that half of his romance building path dialog isn’t romantic at all. Talking about your cat doesn’t mean I want in your pants, Gale!
Yes, Gale gives me the feeling that the wasn’t “intended” to be a romance option and they show horned it in later since “everyone else is”. It’s fine to have companion that only allow platonic relationships. Gale is a weird one because you accidently fall into his romance but nothing tells you that you have. When you got the dialogue he asked me to choose and I had never committed myself to him, so I simply ended the dialogue.
The other champions seem a lot more obvious about romance paths, but I do dislike how nearly all the “no” paths are rude or mean in some way.
I mostly play on tactician because I find balanced too easy now haha. My ranger playthrough is balanced and that honestly feels more hardmode than tactician becsuse ranger just feels so bad. It feels like it does nothing good and is outclassed. Atleast rogue has out of combat use, but rangers don’t even get lockpicking/etc bonuses outside of your general dex bonuses. Plus summons based rangers are practically unplayable because of them counting towards the crime system, making you feel like mods are nigh on mandatory for that kind of playthrough. I did want to play a vanilla playthrough, though, but I keep gravitating towards my modded ones…
Fair,I do find that Rogue does make up for it though. Their versatility ( arrows can be a game changer as well as their spells if applicable.) And their usefulness outside of combat with lockpicking/trap disarming expertise, as well as their 3nhanced perception does help a lot.
When it comes to archery, I feel like Astarion either does a lot of damage or none. If you like dual hand crossbows you can have issues because there are only like 4 or 5 different ones in the game. Making you stuck with a normal one, or a +1 one for the majority of the game while the rest of your party probably has a kitted out weapon.
I feel like Larian did overnerf archers. It was the same thing in d2os. I didn’t like how archers felt at all and the damage felt very weak compared to the other classes. Sebille, the dual daggers rogue would practically one-shot act 3 mobs while Ifan feels like he is doing 10 damage. I always reclassed him to be more summons or magic based as a result, which has the added bonus of not making his wolf summon completely useless. (Though still outclassed by the incarnate, especially since wolf needs source points to summon.) I find archers a bit more useful in bg3, Astarion can get some pretty high hit %s compared with the rest. Hes steadily at an 80-90% chance to hit while everyone else feels like they are 60-80%. I do feel like they could use multi attack though. Arcane trickster feels awkward without bring able to cast laughter or grease and shoot with the arrows.
I haven’t really messed with melee Astarion but I feel like the game does not encourage the Sebille gameplay. There aren’t enough mobility options for that. It’s a shame too because I found the Sebille gameplay pretty fun.
Gale is a weird one. He’s an arrogant prick that acts as this powerful arch mage but you get him at level 1/2. I know part of it is becsuse of the whole mindflayer tadpole thing but I feel like he should have been a recruitable in act 2/3 but then he wouldn’t have much reason to join you.
I was romancing karlach and most npcs acknowledged that. I didn’t take a single romantic option with Gale, didn’t have a single romantic scene with him, and nothing anywhere gave the idea or impression we were a thing. I progressed with Karlach enough to get the polyarmory issue with Gale and its like, bruh. We are not a thing, we were never thing. Even when talking to you I didn’t have the “talk about our romance” option. Given what people say about Gale,this seems quite common. I can’t help but feel like he’s bugged a bit in this way.
I do see what people mean when they talk about how the npcs are really horny for your pc. I understand why but I wish they didn’t start coming onto you until you take at least one flirty option.
I’m not sure how I feel about his backstory, it fits his whole arrogant prick personality but again, it feels weird when recruiting him as a level 1/2 companion. It doesn’t help thst his voice actor did a very good job in selling his arrogance. Half of his dialogue is patting himself on the back and complimenting his talent with magic. He’s worse than Astarion when it comes to being narcissist and you expect that from Astarion.
Why don’t you fine rogues playable/useful ? I fight myself practically married to Astarion (and Shadowheart) In pretty much every playthrough because rogue is so useful/core. Not just for lock picking and trap disarming when needed, but also just for raw damage. In my first playthrough I had Astarion sneaking around and one shot nearly the entire goblin camp with stealth archery by himself. He killed everything with one arrow but the ogre and the two goblins next to it and the two goblins high up in their towers.
My ranger did not encounter that bug but beast summons and certain druid forms do count as crimes in the game. Maybe for whatever reason, the companion is bugging out the crime system, leaving the players faction and becoming part of its own? Summon and shape based Ranger and druid is honestly borderline unplayable without the mod that essentially removes it as a crime.
And honestly, having played ranger until probably halfish of act 2… ranger doesn’t only feel bad with no niche it excels at, no powerful feelings abilities, but also just unpolished. Want an archer that does lockpicking, etc? Roll a rogue. Want someone that has first aid and summons? Roll a druid. Want someone that can front line with swords and/or magic ? Go fighter and/or bladelock. I’m honestly thinking about remaking this character as something else but it would be yet another playthrough where I am married to Astarion because rogue is so useful.
It depends. Sometimes I’ll save scum a success if I rolled with a failure previously. Just to see the outcome. Usually I just roll with my failures, though.
Havent seen a single one of those