Tarlonniel

You get a mobile stronghold in the form of a ship.

Not if the choice isn't available. If you're playing a pure good (or evil) character and the game devs have decided to remove pure good or evil choices for the sake of "thinking" or reflecting "real world choices," then you've just been screwed over. The choice you made to play that character is no longer a vaild one in that game. Either you have to change your concept or quit. I'm on the side of more choices for roleplaying in roleplaying games, not less. It's absolutely a choice. Just because you think it's easy doesn't make it invalid, or any less fun to play. If you want to play a morally grey character and choose between morally gray options, that's fine; I'm not going to go around advocating that such choices be taken away. And if I want to play a morally black or white character and have appropriate choices available, I'd appreciate the same accommodation.

I don't understand why so many people think this is a bad thing. Isn't this a roleplaying game? Aren't we supposed to be making choices that match our character sheets? Why take the ability to make that choice away?

Someone needs to try bribing Maia with cookies. That will definitely confirm if she's the Sten equivalent.

Two female - Xoti and Maia. All the LIs are available to both genders, though (and you are aware that "female audience" includes non-straight females?). I'm not sure what you mean by goes "nowhere." It's a full romance, like all others but Serafen's.

The pigeon-mother and the pigeon-murderer? It would be epic.

We'll have to wait for the DLC to get a Shale-equivalent in the party, I guess. Which is appropriate.

I'd switch Aloth and Maia. And the name you're looking for is Oghren. What about Shale and Dog? Don't they get to play in the Deadfire party?

Dude, she has, like, a hundred thousand kids. You really wanna deal with that?

Well, those head... tentacle... things of his do have a mind of their own.

Heh, yeah. When I got to the ending slides in my Tekehu run and saw "He has work to do in the Deadfire, but his heart - and, he insists, the rest of him - is yours," I couldn't help a sneaking feeling of disbelief. Are committed relationships even a thing with the Huana? The game seems to imply they're not.

Best. Comic. Ever.

I'm not sure how much there is to the -2 romance; I've been waiting for them to fix the suppressed Iselmyr version before I try it out. I'm curious about which ending slides you end up with, romanced or non-romanced.

Speaking of which, if anyone has links to good Aloth fanart, do share them. I like these ones.

You're purposefully making it hard on yourself. There are exploits, console commands and the Unity mod - any would get you to max approval, despite the bugs. Or you can just wait for the patch.

I've completed the game seven times now (not 100%, most times it was critical path with a few sidequests), going on eight, and I always recruit Aloth.

Me neither, which had me dreading the Tekehu romance (though I still had to try it, of course, for science). I think it's significant that Aloth doesn't make any advances and that his romance doesn't actually start until the +/-2 conversation, not +/-1. If you want him you have to be patient, turn down the other LIs who are probably trying to get in your pants and seize the opportunity when it comes. It's an interesting dynamic.

Yup, that's the strategy I've ended up using in my games. I'm not sure if Obsidian intended that as a work-around, but it's handy. Oddly enough, the only faction leader who doesn't ask my Watchers to do something which I consider flat-out wrong is Furrante. Well, he wants you to deal with slavers, but even if you dismantle their operation (which I always do) he continues working with you. Still not giving him Ukaizo, though.

For me, the problem isn't so much that the various factions are doing (IMHO) horrible things. It's when they ask the Watcher to do some horrible thing for them that I dig in my heels. My characters don't go around imposing their personal moral code on others (unless the opportunity arises via persuasion check), but they're also not going to violate that moral code. For anyone. And where most factions step over that line is in their final quest.

That bit is amazing. I still listen to the whole thing each time I recruit Aloth. "In a fire."

I 500% agree. My Watcher fell for Aloth way back in Gilded Vale and it's so nice to finally be able to do something about that. I think the romance is wonderfully written and I especially appreciate that he and the Watcher can remain together in the end. Of course, since I adore the grumpy elf I'm always going to want more interaction with him, which is why I created the above mod, but I'm not in any way dissatisfied with the official version. It's darned near perfect. And feel free to continue squeeing, gushing, etc. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who fangirls over Aloth

But only until the ending slides.

Don't worry, the mod will still be there when you finally accept Aloth the Two-Faced as your lord and savior. Maybe.

Nothing happens except a few changes in flavor text.

Adding skulduggery as a positive trait and fixing the autonomy/stewardship thing seems like the way to go. If it were me, I'd replace his anti-tradition thing with something else too, because I don't think that one makes much sense on a pro-Key path. Too bad we won't see the next patch until early June. I loved Morrigan, but I couldn't take her anywhere.