You can say Astarion, it's okay.
(Seriously, any player who tried Astarion's introduction at my table would be told to go get a different character, because what the fuck?)
It would be great if there was another way he could meet Tav without pulling a knife, like if Tav had a high enough passive perception to say "Hey I can see that knife of yours mate. You pull anything and you'll be Eldritch Blasted into Avernus. "
He's supposed to be this charming rogue, but he can't try conning Tav into doing instead of violence
I kept an open mind despite the knife. What he did at camp, though: that was his death sentence.
One thing I haven't figured out yet: Is someone teleporting Astarion's body to each new camp we set up, or is he just playing dead and stealthily following us whenever we relocate?
imo Shadowheart was the most unbearable companion at the start. But I think the point was that they're all deeply flawed people that are forced to come together and face their trauma. Tadpole therapy works, I guess!
The fact that everyone has different characters that they love and/or hate suggests that the devs did a pretty good job.
The writing isn't stellar, but there's a wide range of character types, and one person's favorite is another's leaat. For me, Lae'zel and Astarion are insufferable (Lae'zel a little less so, but still annoying). But those are favorites of other people, so they're presumably not objectively bad, it's just a matter of taste.
My only wish is that there were one or two more, or at least that the others were introduced earlier in the game (hell no, I'm not changing my entire party dynamic in Act 3).
I mean, I hated everyone but Karlach at the beginning, and they rendered well the uneasy cooperation between the characters, then everyone just grew closer act by act and it was great.
Spoiler
Lae'zael describing her diplomatic plans in the epilogue was just great. Just like Astarion being happy about NOT becoming a vampire ascendant
I did my first playthrough as Karlach and romanced Gale for shiggles. After he abandoned her at the end. >!You know. Her last night alive before burning to death.!< Yeah. You can bet I left his ass in the portal the next time.
I recently started a Durge run and accidentally chopped Gale's hand off and killed him by clicking the wrong dialog option when I first ran into him. Was honestly happy to not have to feed him magical items all the damn time.
I gave him 3 items total I think, not a big deal
I relate with the dinosaur man but not with BG3. Mostly for other games with insufferable characters that don't let you kill them.
I'm glad Withers has backup companions
My friend, talking about hirelings: "They're just soulless followers! They don't have any sort of personality!"
Me: "I know."
I always make Laezel leap to her doom right after the first fight with the three winged turds so yes, completely relatable.
I want another character like Jan Jansen
I didn't like that they "grew better," tbh. I liked them the way they were when I met them.
