WARNING: Spoilers Ahead for Baldur's Gate 3.In the role-playing genre, players are expected to create their own characters, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is slightly different since it has the option for gamers to play through the perspective of Baldur's Gate 3's companions. Playing as a companion provides a fresh look at these characters and brings new insight that wouldn’t necessarily be seen in a standard playthrough.

The companions that have the option to be chosen as the protagonist are known as origin characters, and the popular vampire Astarion is among them. Astarion is one of the fan-favorite characters in Baldur’s Gate 3 due to a popular romance and many iconic scenes. However, despite an Astarion origin playthrough losing all these iconic moments, the case to play Baldur’s Gate 3 as Astarion is still strong.

Astarion as Thief Baldur's Gate 3
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Baldur's Gate 3: Why Astarion is One of the Best Companions

Baldur's Gate 3's roguish elven vampire, Astarion, stands above and beyond the other companions due to his usefulness and the complexity of his story.

Why Players Should Play Baldur’s Gate 3 From Astarion’s Perspective

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The Changes In The Playthrough

With every origin playthrough, there will be some changes and differences to a standard playthrough, from Baldur's Gate 3's Sceleritas Fel encouraging the Dark Urge to slaughter innocent people in a Dark Urge playthrough, to Tara staying in camp with Gale in a Gale playthrough. In Astarion’s origin playthrough, there are many changes and additions:

  • A New Personal Quest in Act 1: Act 1 has the most additions, and a new personal quest in which Astarion must decide if he should hide or reveal his Vampirism to his companions.
  • A Nightmare Sequence About Cazador: In Act 1, Astarion will have a nightmare about Cazador, and this nightmare will lead to him deciding whether to break one of Cazador’s rules and feed on one of his companions. Nothing bad happens if he is caught trying to bite his companions, they just get angry at him and tell him not to do it again.
  • A Short of Astarion Having a Nightmare About His Scars: In Act 2, there is a short scene that shows Astarion twisting and turning in his bed while the narrator is describing his nightmare. This is to introduce the player to his scars, because before this point, they had not been revealed yet.
  • A Different Side to Araj Oblodra: In Act 2, when encountering Araj, instead of being disrespectful to Astarion like she is in a standard playthrough, she is nice and respectful to him when asking him to bite her in exchange for a potion.
  • More Insight About Astarion in Act 3: Act 3 is roughly the same as a standard playthrough, but it does reveal more insight into Astarion’s past as a spawn and there are new dialogue options and skill checks within his personal quest.

A Different Perspective

Playing Baldur’s Gate 3 through Astarion’s eyes gives a different perspective and reveals more insight into his past. His personal quest also has new content and is called ‘Call of the Blood’ instead of ‘The Pale Elf’. When Astarion meets his siblings, there are new dialogue options, such as allowing Astarion to walk into the sun to reveal he’s immune, as well as having to pass a skill check to grab Petras. If players fail to grab Petras, he will call Astarion the runt of the litter, and the whole scene shows that Petras holds a lot of hostility toward Astarion, as well as showing that Astarion was the scapegoat of Cazador.

When Astarion encounters Sebastian, it is revealed that he doesn’t remember his name at first, and in an Astarion playthrough, players must pass an Intelligence check of 18 for him to remember. It also seems that Astarion may not actually care for Sebastian as much as it first seemed, because this time around, players must pass a Deception check of 20 to tell Sebastian that he cared about him.

Another interesting encounter is with the Drow twins in Sharess’ Caress. In this encounter, there is a new dialogue option that tells the twins that Astarion used to be in their position, but in a non-consensual way, in which they will express their sympathy for him before telling him that they wouldn’t want to be in any other profession.

Many players have been put off playing Baldur’s Gate 3 as Astarion because they won’t be able to hear his voice or get to see his incredible personality and character growth. It could be argued that missing out on these things is a good price to pay to learn more about Astarion and to get a better insight into his character that can only be attained by playing the game through his eyes.