Is there some kind of buff you get for having relations in this game?

[Saki Bomb]

It's obvious the devs want us to use those genitals we had to pick out on our character sheet so what's in it for us? Is there an afterglow buff or something that raises your stats? Because all my party does is annoy tf out of me and I have zero interest in sleeping with any of them.

[Hellsteeth30]

Running around as a gnome with a massive dong is moderately entertaining.

No buffs for nutting though.

Companions are why I like being a Lich in WotR, undead don't produce walls of text or have opinions on things.

[Tenor Sounds]

I believe companion relations in the game are for the benefit of... what is that term again? It's kind of obscure, especially for this type of game...

Role...play?

Something like that. No stat buffs as far as I know.

[Dylan]

No buffs. Use your genitals as much or as little as you like

[Kal]

Closest would be the rapture buff at Sharess' Caress. Which oddly doesn't come from having sex.

[votadc]

Zero.
Persona and Yakuza 7 have bonus for relation.
Most companions aren't even humans, they are supposed to be your enforcers to beat your enemies. You are encouraged to do their personal questline: you get experience, good gear and in some case permanent buff.

[seeker1]

There ARE games which sometimes give the companions - or you - buffs once you reach a certain Approval level. Not this one. It's rarely tied to romancing them. Though you usually need high approval to romance them, including in this one.

Yeah, there is a buff called Rapture, but only from oddly NOT having sex with a Nymph.

Astarion can get Happy from vampire biting (as a buff) but not from getting down, alas.

Oh, and despite whatever randos are claiming, don't expect to see a lot of those genitals in the very brief "romantic" scenes. They had to keep the game's rating at M not AO.

[Lod101]

Well Astarion can get a Happy buff if he can nibble your neck.
Does that count?

[Saki Bomb]

Well Withers basically shamed me for being a prude and not sleeping with any of my party members so I briefly wondered if I was missing out on something.

[Aeriar]

No, the romances are only for story/role-playing purposes.

[kbiz]

Originally posted by Saki Bomb:

Well Withers basically shamed me for being a prude and not sleeping with any of my party members so I briefly wondered if I was missing out on something.

Just spam the spacebar and mutter - shut up, Withers. Then reclick him and respec your character.

[Jaeleth]

Originally posted by Saki Bomb:

It's obvious the devs want us to use those genitals we had to pick out on our character sheet so what's in it for us? Is there an afterglow buff or something that raises your stats? Because all my party does is annoy tf out of me and I have zero interest in sleeping with any of them.

No. You can just ignore them all...

[Jaeleth]

Originally posted by Lod101:

Well Astarion can get a Happy buff if he can nibble your neck.
Does that count?

I was thinkig of that one but no, not a relationship. By the way, Astarion gets the buff from biting other NPC's in battle from there on, is it because he bites the player before or would he get that buff anyway even if the player doesn't lets him bite him/her?

[Jaeleth]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Oh, and despite whatever randos are claiming, don't expect to see a lot of those genitals in the very brief "romantic" scenes. They had to keep the game's rating at M not AO.

Yes... I wonder why they gave themselves the trouble, and effort, and MONEY to include a genitalia design if it's not to be used throughout the game... ever.

They might as well spend that time and money on more productive and desirable game-stuff...

[Lani]

Originally posted by Jaeleth:

Originally posted by seeker1:

Oh, and despite whatever randos are claiming, don't expect to see a lot of those genitals in the very brief "romantic" scenes. They had to keep the game's rating at M not AO.

Yes... I wonder why they gave themselves the trouble, and effort, and MONEY to include a genitalia design if it's not to be used throughout the game... ever.

They might as well spend that time and money on more productive and desirable game-stuff...

They've served their marketing purpose by having tons of pearl clutchers tell people how naughty the game is and thereby helping spreading the word about it.
That alone made the dev time investment worth it.

[seeker1]

Dunno, game development requires a lot of different teams. The way people phrase this, it sounds like the art team creating custom genitalia somehow prevented whatever other feature another separate team didn't add to the game. Nah, doesn't work that way.

I will confess I've never seen a game where there is a choice for dongs or vulvas. I just smiled. It's one option I left at default, shrugged, moved on. It didn't bother me.

BTW, if you use the Everybody Nude mod/hack, you'll in fact find out a lot of NPCs are essentially Barbie & Ken dolls - no genitalia. But then, the developers never intended for them to be seen undressed.

Oh, and Astarion gets the Happy buff from vampire biting anything that can be bitten - some enemies can't cuz they don't have blood.