Baldur’s Gate 3 romance bug gives players access to forbidden love triangle

Abigail Shannon
Image of Astarion and Shadowheart

Stuck choosing between Astarion and Shadowheart? Those experiencing this Baldur’s Gate 3 bug don’t have to.

Romance is a game mechanic that has totally captured the hearts of Baldur’s Gate players. Each of the eight romanceable companions in Baldur’s Gate 3 have rewarding relationship arcs that develop throughout your campaign. Added to that, they have complex, unique personalities and desires that you have to navigate to gain their approval.

Baldur’s Gate 3 even explores the possibility of polyamorous relationships between your Tav and members of their party. However, if you do have your eye on more than one of your companions, you have limited opportunity to romance them both guilt-free.

Some companions are entirely closed off to the prospect of your player sharing their love with another partner. They’ll consider the act infidelity and will express major feelings of betrayal. Others are open to non-monogamous relationships, but will only consider sharing their beloved with certain party members.

Baldur’s Gate 3 player exploits glitch to date Astarion and Shadowheart at the same time

While Shadowheart and Astarion are both fan-favourite companions, their personalities are at odds with each other. Given their conflicting moral standings, it can be incredibly difficult to build their approval ratings simultaneously. More importantly though, like any of the Origin companions, they will outright refuse to co-exist in a relationship together.

Normally, this would mean that any hope of a Tav/Shadowheart/Astarion love triangle would be out the window without the use of mods. However, one Reddit user has come across a bug that seems to result in a real change of heart for Astarion and Shadowheart.

Posting a recording of their PS5 gameplay, u/lauraxue explained that despite the absence of romance mods, they were able to maintain a romantic connection with Astarion and Shadowheart at the same time – seemingly without any hard feelings from either party.

In response, one user expressed that they were aware of the same being the case with Gale and Astarion. Another post on the same Subreddit corroborates this claim.

While this is a bug that may eventually be patched out, some players don’t seem too keen to lose their “cute goth gf and a cute vampire bf” anytime soon.

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About The Author

Abigail is a freelance games writer, with a passion for the biggest AAA games as well as indie titles. A big fan of Diablo, Baldur's Gate and Pokemon too.