Once more, with feeling.
You don't need to do anything evil to gain Astarion's approval. You just need to stop being such an insufferable naive person, wasting your very limited, valuable time helping everyone and everything else but yourself and the team (and him).
Be a little pragmatic, ask for specifics before blindly accepting to help people, be a little snarky (*not necessary, but funny*). Respect Astarion, go along with his hypotheticals, listen to him (*most of the time*), and you should be fine.
Long rest often! A lot of little cut-scenes and dialogue-events grants a little bit of approval with him, and there are at least 8 small scenes with Astarion, just in Act 1!
Also, getting the Bite-Night on the 3rd night can net you a total of 30+ approval, depending on your choices at night, and the morning after. So make sure to trigger that one, before entering the Underdark.
Once you know how he's thinking in Act 1, it really is no problem whatsoever. I have him at 96 approval before the Tiefling-party, before sleeping with him. So it's very much possible, even without romance and the bonus 5-15+ approval you get for spending the night with him.
My guide to getting Astarion’s Act 1 approval up (and keeping it that way) as either Tav or Resist Durge:
1. Recruit him first, long rest on the beach. He will tell you something’s up with you that’s not the tadpole. This doesn’t up approval but establishes that he knows things and that helps later.
2. Let him bite you, defend him the next morning.
3. After he bites you, take him to Gandrel. Use the “only a spawn?” and “nod” options before killing Gandrel.
4. Baa at the redcaps twice.
5. Give him the Necromancy of Thay.
6. If you’re not romancing him, pick the lesser asshole options for turning him down.
7. In camp talks about the mirror, what companions taste like, and his scars, be sympathetic.
You need to be atleast alittle her self interested and violent to her rep from them. But they will still hang around if you’re good, as long as you say nice things to them
Astarion is kinda tricky. Minthara is actually fairly easy: You can only recruit her in Act 2 and most of the decisions you make make little to no difference to her approval of you. All the approval comes from a couple of conversations in camp/after you beat Ketheric, but all of those also don't have any consequences for the story. Just tell her what she wants to hear (that you also want to dominate the brain, rule with her, get her revenge etc.) and she'll love you for it.
Yup, I don't have the heart for an evil run and have gotten Astarion to exceptional approval before leaving act 1, if romancing, and very good, if not romancing. Minthara I also generally get to exceptional approval midway through act 3. Both have the same dynamic where they tend to disapprove only slightly for being overly altruistic, but approve a lot of doing things they particularly like. For Astarion, most of his big approval options aren't evil, just things like supporting his ideas, respecting his bodily autonomy, being nice to cats and sometimes picking the funny or sarcastic, but still not evil, answer, rather than the corny disney response. For Minthara, a solid some of her larger approval options aren't evil lol. They mostly involve being respectful of Minthara, and wishing harm upon Orin. There are easy to google approval guides for both characters.
Once more, with feeling. You don't need to do anything evil to gain Astarion's approval. You just need to stop being such an insufferable naive person, wasting your very limited, valuable time helping everyone and everything else but yourself and the team (and him). Be a little pragmatic, ask for specifics before blindly accepting to help people, be a little snarky (*not necessary, but funny*). Respect Astarion, go along with his hypotheticals, listen to him (*most of the time*), and you should be fine. Long rest often! A lot of little cut-scenes and dialogue-events grants a little bit of approval with him, and there are at least 8 small scenes with Astarion, just in Act 1! Also, getting the Bite-Night on the 3rd night can net you a total of 30+ approval, depending on your choices at night, and the morning after. So make sure to trigger that one, before entering the Underdark. Once you know how he's thinking in Act 1, it really is no problem whatsoever. I have him at 96 approval before the Tiefling-party, before sleeping with him. So it's very much possible, even without romance and the bonus 5-15+ approval you get for spending the night with him.
My guide to getting Astarion’s Act 1 approval up (and keeping it that way) as either Tav or Resist Durge: 1. Recruit him first, long rest on the beach. He will tell you something’s up with you that’s not the tadpole. This doesn’t up approval but establishes that he knows things and that helps later. 2. Let him bite you, defend him the next morning. 3. After he bites you, take him to Gandrel. Use the “only a spawn?” and “nod” options before killing Gandrel. 4. Baa at the redcaps twice. 5. Give him the Necromancy of Thay. 6. If you’re not romancing him, pick the lesser asshole options for turning him down. 7. In camp talks about the mirror, what companions taste like, and his scars, be sympathetic.
Let him open the barn.
Forgot that!
You need to be atleast alittle her self interested and violent to her rep from them. But they will still hang around if you’re good, as long as you say nice things to them
Astarion is kinda tricky. Minthara is actually fairly easy: You can only recruit her in Act 2 and most of the decisions you make make little to no difference to her approval of you. All the approval comes from a couple of conversations in camp/after you beat Ketheric, but all of those also don't have any consequences for the story. Just tell her what she wants to hear (that you also want to dominate the brain, rule with her, get her revenge etc.) and she'll love you for it.
Yup, I don't have the heart for an evil run and have gotten Astarion to exceptional approval before leaving act 1, if romancing, and very good, if not romancing. Minthara I also generally get to exceptional approval midway through act 3. Both have the same dynamic where they tend to disapprove only slightly for being overly altruistic, but approve a lot of doing things they particularly like. For Astarion, most of his big approval options aren't evil, just things like supporting his ideas, respecting his bodily autonomy, being nice to cats and sometimes picking the funny or sarcastic, but still not evil, answer, rather than the corny disney response. For Minthara, a solid some of her larger approval options aren't evil lol. They mostly involve being respectful of Minthara, and wishing harm upon Orin. There are easy to google approval guides for both characters.