Baldur’s Gate 3has a ridiculous amount of content, but not everything that was planned for the companions made it into the final game. Whether it was cut for time constraints or because thewriters just took a character in a different direction, there are a bunch of unused conversations and scenarios that are still in the files, but typically inaccessible.
One such scene involvesAstarion, and was only accessibleduring early access. Back then, as long as you were not playing as Astarion, you would get an event during a long rest in which the vampire wakes up from a nightmare. After this, you can talk to him about the nightmare, giving you one of your first opportunities to learn about Cazador.
This Baldur’s Gate 3 Player Has Restored An Astarion Scene That Was Exclusive To Early
This scene has been restored by Nexus Mods user HyperspaceTowel, and you’re able to download it for yourselfif you’re playing on PC. I’m not seeing it on mod.io, so it seems like it isn’t available on console just yet.
Once you’ve installed the mod, you can get the conversation to appear during a long rest. It will play if you’re in the camp from the first area of the game, and as long as you have had one interaction with the Dream Guardian.
As HyperspaceTowel warns in the description, the dialogue will occasionally make references to plot points that are no longer in the game. We see this the most in how Astarion describes the dreams that everyone is experiencing, as in this version of the story, it sounds like everyone was just prone to having nightmares. In the final version of the story, everyone gets near-identical dreams in which the Dream Guardian encourages you to develop your illithid powers.
What is consistent, however, is that Astarion is very much in favour of exploring these powers. In the final game, that manifests in him trusting the Dream Guardian, and being up for absorbing more illithid tadpoles to grow stronger. The rest of the party is less enthused and requires more convincing.
In any case, this is all a whole lot better than another unused Astarion scene that was discovered. Here,we can see Astarion killing Shadowheartafter she spotted him about to feed on her. It’s unclear what the context behind this was, but it would hardly have won him any popularity contests.
