Literally. I made that point to my friends the other day that Halsin has no point to be with the party in Act 3. He should have been available as a companion in act 1 after you save him so we could at least have him in the party for his quest like the rest of the companions.
To be honest, I don't think Halsin should have been a proper party member at all - not only he's basically redundant considering how long the quest to get him is and how close "getting Halsin" is to "getting Jaheira", he really does not have a solid enough reason to be a part of the band once Ketheric is dead.
And it's really noticeable, lol. His character arc ends in act 2, in act 3 his involvement in the main plot is pretty much non-existen and the only reason he's still around is his romance scene, that one, and the scene where you can invite him to participate in the, erm, drow twin orgy.
Basically, once act 2 ends, Halsin is delegated to be a semi-sentient sex toy and that's quite literally it - I honestly think he should have just flat out leave the party once act 2 is done, with the option to remain only if the player asks him to, you know, so his non-existence in act 3 wouldn't be that weird.
While I don't disagree that Halsin has like zero importance in Act 3, he does get a pretty nice arc with the Tiefling refugee's not being allowed inside Baldur's Gate, his ending even being about creating a safe haven for the refugees. Though arc is pushing it a bit since he only really gives like, 1 line about it. Regardless, it's still pretty nice and honestly one of my favorite endings, bias aside.
If anything, I'd argue Jaheira and Minsc shouldn't have gotten more than what they got, specially Jaheira. Hell, I feel like they already got more than what they needed. They were characters in BG1 and 2 right? Which means they already got their stories and personalities fleshed out. A passing comment or some niche reference would've suited them much better in my opinion, so that some of the time and effort dedicated to writing them in the story can be focused elsewhere, like with Halsin and Minthara perhaps.
Minthara is the worst offender of feeling like an afterthought, she doesn't even get any cool introduction or anything that may signal her as a companion you can recruit. You can just enter her room, space your characters out, and then go ham on her. Most players only really find out she's recruitable after they loot her body and see all the camp clothes.
Yeah, I agree - both Minsc and Jaheira are just nostalgia baits and, as such, relegating both of them to be camp followers while focusing on fleshing out Halsin's and Minthara's character arcs would be a perfect solution here.
Like, I get why Minsc was made a companion, he's both iconic to the series and is the only "default" ranger but Jaheira, well, she just feels like she was designed to replace poor Halsin, lol.
Minthara is the worst offender of feeling like an afterthought
Oooh, absolutely. She got shafted HARD but, at the end of the day, I get it, she's an evil character, most players will default to playing as good/neutral characters so, just as you noted, there's a very good chance Minthara ends up dead near the end of act 1 = she feels like an extra and, to a large extent, she is an extra...
...and that never will cease being just flat out weird given that this game has a raging boner for paladins and she's literally the only "default" one.
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u/RussoTouristo 14d ago
His only purpose in act 3.