Yes, you can be good, help everyone and still romance Astarion (Act 1) Baldur's Gate 3

Do you want a vampire boyfriend but unsure if you have to sacrifice your morals for it? Fear not, for the answer is /”no/”. Astarion may seem like one of the harder companions to please in a goody-two-shoes playthrough, but starting a romance with him is not that difficult.

In this video we kick off the romance at the party after defending the Grove (at Medium approval), I am including all conversations with Astarion, as well as all approvals and disapprovals I got up to that point (he was in my party the whole time since I recruited him). This is not a guide, just an example. There are many other choices you can make to get more approval/disapproval.

General note: not all approvals weight the same, most /”world/” approvals are 1 or -1 while events personally related to Astarion can give extra 5/10 points of approval.

Biggest approval bumps in the video: 5 from picking how you want to be killed, 5 from saying you believe Astarion when he tries to bite you, 10 from letting him bite you, 5 from saying you’ll keep each other safe when discussing Cazador, and 5 from doing the Loviatar trial. Normally, you get 5 points from defending him to the party morning after the bite, but it is currently bugged as of patch 3… however, you can see it wasn’t really necessary.

You can also follow a different dialogue chain at the Grove party (I tested several & didn’t have issues). I picked that one for the video since asking what he means by /”fun/” will get you a rejection in case you don’t enough approval. There is one specific chain that lets you romance him on Neutral approval as well.

Potential spoilers for Act 1, obviously.

Chapters for your convenience:
00:00 – Recruiting Astarion
02:57 – He will keep watch (approval)
03:52 – How do you want to die? (approval)
05:17 – At the Grove (disapprovals)
06:48 – Finding the boar
08:00 – Stargazing
09:24 – More Grove (approvals/disapprovals)
11:22 – Using ilithid powers first time (disapproval)
12:08 – Rafael (approvals)
14:06 – Bite scene (approvals)
17:26 – Morning after the bite (bugged approval)
19:20 – Karlach & Wyll situation (approvals)
20:28 – Whom would you bite? (approval)
22:35 – Sunlit Wetlands/Putrid Bog (approvals)
23:55 – About past, how one becomes a vampire, about biting
26:26 – Gur encounter (disapproval)
28:59 – Post-Gur conversation
32:21 – Drunken bear talk
34:24 – Back at the Grove (disapprovals)
36:28 – Mirror scene (approval)
38:20 – At Auntie Ethel’s (disapprovals)
40:08 – About Cazador (approval)
41:59 – About Dream Visitor & tadpoles
44:10 – Goblin Camp (approvals/disapproval)
48:36 – Lakrissa’s bet (approval)
49:01 – Post-grove celebration
50:10 – The end 😀