Similar to previous Baldur’s Gate titles, players will be able to romance the companion characters found in Baldur’s Gate 3. This sort of feature has become standard with some modern RPGs. Like Western RPGs of a similar vein, all companion characters in Baldur’s Gate 3 are available to romance regardless of the player character’s gender, class, or race. That being said, not everyone will respond favorably to your actions in game, so I’ll be breaking down how to best court every currently available companion in Baldur’s Gate 3 below.
However, before we get into it, there are some things that are fairly important to mention. As it stands with Baldur’s Gate 3 in early access, you can currently only have one romance-related cutscene with one character. So players will need to choose wisely before they decide to pursue the companion of their choice, since you can also romance more than one companion at a time without much recourse. Additionally, this segment and scene will become available after you complete the story quest Rescue Druid Halsin. The Approval of your chosen companion must also be at a specific rank in order for this scene to trigger. You can be turned away if your rank is not high enough.
Companions that are currently available to romance include:
- Lae’zel – The Githyanki Fighter you meet at in the prologue of the game. After you are separated from her, you can find her again on the map that becomes available after completing the prologue.
- Shadowheart – A Half-Elven Cleric of Shar. You meet her in the prologue of the game, but are unable to save her. She can be found on the map after the prologue standing in front of the door to some ruins.
- Astarion – A Half-Elven Vampire Rogue. Like to Shadowheart, he is found on the map after you finish the prologue and can be encountered where you find the remains of the ship you were transported on.
- Gale – A Human Wizard. Like everyone else listed above, he too is found on the map with enough exploration and can be encountered around Netherese markings.
- Wyll – A Human Warlock. You can find him on the map after the prologue, but he is fairly easy to miss if you don’t explore the Druid’s Gove area.
I’ll be breaking the companions down into two segments below, these being companions that respond to helping NPCs favorably and those that aren’t as receptive. There are usually two camps characters ascribe to in these styles of games, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is no exception to this rule. Essentially, you’ll want to tailor your actions around this if you want raise the Approval of your desired companion. In conversations, you can tell how companions will respond to your actions if you look at the upper left-hand side of the screen. You’ll see an approval or disapproval message pop up depending on select dialogue options.
Characters that respond favorably to you helping others include Gale and Wyll, whereas Shadowheart, Astarion, and Lae’zal won’t exactly be moved by kindness. However, sometimes these situations are circumstantial and you’ll need to judge these encounters appropriately before proceeding. If you don’t get the outcome you desire, you can always reload and try another option to see if your select companion will agree with your decision. Keep in mind that you don’t need to tailor everything you do to their preference, you can still romance them while progressing in Baldurs Gate 3 as you’d like, for the most part.
If you’re looking to romance Astarion or Lae’zal, I’d suggest keeping them in your party since most of their motivations will align. Lae’zal doesn’t think too highly of Shadowheart, so interactions might become tense if the two are around one another while you are attempting to romance both of them simultaneously. Gale and Wyll are also two companions that work well together and will respond to your actions similarly. Shadowheart can be an addition to this party as, while she won’t always agree with your generosity and kindness, you won’t have to worry about any kind of infighting.
Not sure which class to pick in Baldur’s Gate 3? We’ve written guides highlighting the strengths, skills, and specialties of all six available classes. You can read about the Fighter, Cleric, and Ranger here. And you can read about the Wizard, Warlock, and Rogue here.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is immediately available on PC and Google Stadia.
Published: Oct 22, 2020 03:00 pm