Astarion Disapproves

[Giganx]

Want to do my current playthrough with Astarion in my party, but his approval is tanking fast.

I'm not even doing an over-the-top good playthrough, but beyond just being nice he seems to disapprove even when your decisions aren't blatantly stupid.

It does seem like the options in this game aren't Good vs. Evil; they're Good vs. Braindead; hinder yourself at every turn by acting like a moron.

Anyways, more to the point, what happens if I bottom out his approval? Is he going to flat out leave the party or just be pissy and snarky the whole way?

[Sylvix]

if an approval gets too low he can leave.
but it never happend to me even when i wasn't trying to gain his approval, more often than not he'll stay neutral towards you for the entire game.

unless you do things that are personnal to him, in which case the approval points gained are higher.

[Jaeleth]

I have Astarion in my party, I am in Act 3 and although I get frequent "astarion disaproves" his approval ratings are not that bad.

Make sure you give him something to "bite on" (literally, lol) from time to time.
First let him bite your neck, you'll get a temporary debuff but he'll be happy and from there on he'll be able to bite enemies in combat (and become happy), I'm not sure that last action (biting enemies) increases his ratings with you anyway.
Giving him the necromancy of Thay also props up his ratings but I did not do it, I wanted the book for myself :D

Just be a little devilish... From time to time. Save before taking the option and test the options.

One last trick... If you let him go alone to meet Cazador he'll chose to spare the vampires and kill Cazador without you having to pass a difficult check if you want to convince him to do the very same thing :P or so they told me, which is weird...

[Giganx]

Well it's an Honor Mode run so I can't really save scum any decisions he doesn't like. I also plan to ascend him for the build I want for him; just need him to not leave before I get the chance, lol.

It sounds like he'll stick around as long as I'm careful to not do anything directed at him or his story line that would obviously piss him off, though, so I guess I'll just ignore the little disapprovals every time I'm semi-friendly for the sake of not picking a pointless fight or making life more difficult. ;P

[Carlos Spicywiener]

Originally posted by Giganx:

Well it's an Honor Mode run so I can't really save scum any decisions he doesn't like. I also plan to ascend him for the build I want for him; just need him to not leave before I get the chance, lol.

It sounds like he'll stick around as long as I'm careful to not do anything directed at him or his story line that would obviously piss him off, though, so I guess I'll just ignore the little disapprovals every time I'm semi-friendly for the sake of not picking a pointless fight or making life more difficult. ;P

Not sure if I could do honor mode the way the game is right now. I am finding too many bugs. From dialogue not triggering to companions disappearing or failing to follow. I have had spells just not do anything after casting them and had companions who could not join the fight even when standing with the group

[Giganx]

I finished an Honor Mode run on PS5 and now I'm doing a PC one. I already did have a bug almost cause me some potentially serious issues in this playthrough, though.

The Spider Karniss in Act 2 fell through the building and got stuck in a wall trying to attack some people on the roof of the building. Karniss was spasming but still technically targetable, but apparently wasn't lootable; and I'm not sure what happens if you can't get the lamp off of him.

Luckily a save and reload unlodged his corpse and placed it on the roof, but yea, bugs are probably the most dangerous part of Honor Mode.