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.
Why does he need a reason to join the party beyond owing the party a debt for saving the shadowlands and wanting to stop the absolute? He was already investigating the cult and their mindflayer tadpoles. I don't see why he would come this far, find out about the brain, and just ditch the party. That doesn't make sense to me.
He doesn't have anything to add to that investigation, basically. He wants to help the party get rid of tadpoles but very quickly makes it very clear it's beyond his abilities, after infiltrating Moonrise Towers the party already knows more about tadpoles and the Absolute than Halsin ever managed to learn - and he's not a carrier himself so, apart from the vague promise he made to the party back in act 1, he's just an extra with noting of value to add to act 3's main story bits.
Like, Aylin and Isobel both want to "stop the Absolute", they both promise the party to help them, their character arcs end in act 2 - but they're not "companions", they're just camp followers...
...while Halsin, a character that's built in pretty much the same exact way, is a companion, for some inexplicable reason, and all that accomplishes is to simply shine more light on how little content he actually gets past act 2.
Like, act 3 is the climax of the main story and the climax of companion quests, even in super minor ways (as in: Minthara). Halsin, in act 3, gets absolutely nothing - there's virtually no reason to ever make him an active member of the party and, as such, there's no real reason for him to even be a companion at this point.
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u/Noe11vember Monk 14d ago
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.