Lucanis romance bug after Act 1 decision

completely agree with you, im going through a save minrathous + trying to romance lucanis run and doing my best to hopefully regain his trust fully and be able to romance him still. I PRAY that this is just a bug or it just takes a bit more time bc it makes 0 sense to lock lucanis while nevemancers still get to pursue her. it would be incredibly unfair if that were the case. i just saw on reddit that someone in late game was unable to unlock lucanis’ hero of the veilguard after doing everything for him and his quests in a minrathous save run. definitely smells like a bug 

Agree, I really hope it's a bug and it gets fixed!

It makes even less sense that if you don't romance him, he romances Neve after. Like how is he so angry at you for choosing Minrathous and then proceeds to date Neve? Does he just hate Rook? Especially if I'm making a Shadow Dragon, if he forgives her for going for her hometown and faction, why not the Rook? Makes no sense on the narrative.

But also, it just seems unfair, plus we have no warning in advance that his is going to be locked against hers being possible. If he wouldn't forgive, why make this choice? Why not make it equal? :(

I would also like to see this addressed. The implications of his romance being the one that is screwed over have soured me on the game, and I’m struggling to get through to the end. Add in the unstoppable background romance that’s hinted at as early as Inner Demons, and it’s a miserable experience.

His lack of content and the fact that he seems to care more about Neve than Rook is one thing, but the idea that they hard programmed him to shut down, but not Neve, would be an astounding kick in the teeth. I’m used to the male romance options getting shafted in other RPGs, but not by Dragon Age. I never expected it to be this bad. It makes me think that they didn’t record lines for that branching decision, so they just axed it entirely, but then why waste time pairing off a fan favorite at all?

I sincerely hope it’s a bug.

I held off on doing "Bidding Farewell" because I wanted to meet Davrin before making any more Lucanis romance decisions. Little did I know.

"Bidding Farewell" is marked as "failed" for me in the journal because I didn't do it before "A Warden's Best Friend" and chose Minrathous. I have had no flirt options for Lucanis since, so I'm sure that "Bidding Farewell" is key to Lucanis' romance. I get that the failed quest is my fault, I don't have the quest completely missing like others do. 

All of it is so convoluted and confusing. It's such a bizarre choice to force a monumental world and romance decision before even gaining all the companions and to lock in meeting a companion into a major world choice. All of that and the general romance lockout with Lucanis has frankly soured my entire first playthrough, arguably the most important one.

Also, I think it's flat-out incorrect - like literally misinformation - that this isn't a real quest or side quest and just a conversation, so it's getting muddy now on what is actually happening with Lucanis.

It's become a domino effect of sourness. I think choosing Minrathous makes a far more compelling romance with Lucanis, but even if he was still romanceable after, why would I want to romance someone who is now hardened to me and refuses to heal me? It would be different if Hardened was only temporary until you hit certain relationship levels, but I had to leave the immersion of the game to search this, and my understanding is that it's permanent.

I also blame the writing -- there are clearly implied dire political consequences if you don't save Minrathous. There aren't if you don't save Treviso. Treviso is already occupied, the stakes aren't raised. Do people die? Yes, but people will also die in Minrathous if you don't help AND it will supposedly make the world events even worse. I don't want to save Treviso just because it lets me continue to flirt with a hot guy.

Genuinely mind-boggling and infuriating.

I just made a post about this! I don’t think it’s that, but I might be wrong. I’m pretty sure his Bidding Farewell companion quest from Act 1 is not triggering as complete. Can anyone else verify this. I have checked both my character saves and neither marked the quest as complete. 

So, it's not a bug, Bioware really just thought locking out one of the most antecipated romance choices (by women and gay men especially, don't think we don't see you) with no explanation in game as to why that is the case only for him, therefore necessarily tying his romance to a harder time getting the best ending, was a good and interesting choice. And then, for some reason, they decided he should have better chemistry with Neve and romance her regardless of having "no time" for a relationship with Rook (SD Rooks especially were in the exact same situation as Neve and made the same choice). We were supposed to be able to romance any companion regardless of gender or background, as they said, but apparently you can only romance Lucanis as a SD if you compromise your roleplaying for the romance. And the reward is not all that, from what I hear. I've been seeing romance videos pop up and they're remarkably short for a game they said was so focused on characters and romance.

I would have preferred clear hard locks for romances like in previous games, based on the character's sexuality and background, because then at least I'd know straight away and understand. I wanted to romance Lucanis as SD, because they said any background was possible, but only possible if I'm willing to roleplay sacrificing my whole city, which is the better strategic choice, for the pretty boy, apparently. Meanwhile, Nevemancers get to make their choice and have a whole different dynamic/romantic relationship with her if they choose one or the other, which we should have gotten for Lucanis as well. It's like they didn't want us to romance him at all, like his whole romance was an afterthought despite him being so popular since Tevinter Nights. It's baffling to me.

I'm literally just here to say: I hate the the hard lockout of the romance with Lucanis for making this decision.

It would be so much more impactful and dramatic to rebuild the relationship between the characters, especially if the option to reconnect with Neve is there but not Lucanis. Please fix this romance option.

It absolutely does feel like bug. And I am lost... I want the best ending but I also want to romance Lucanis

agreed. if it's not a bug, it's a terrible decision they should change.

Unfortunately I think the romance being locked out is intended. I have 2 rooks, one a shadow dragon romancing Lucanis, the other a warden romancing Neve. Both of them completed all companion quests for the companions (Bidding Farewell wasn't shown in completed log)

It was difficult to tell since SD Rook has a largely different conversation with Neve when saving Treviso, but both Neve and Lucanis have a clear part at the end of the conversation where they ask about the other companions. Lucanis has a unique line added when you've flirted before (Rook... No more. Not after this. I don't have the heart for anything but helping my city...). To me, with his romance getting locked out after that, it reads as a break up line. I didn't notice a similar line for Neve when she was romanced.

To me, this reads that the romance is intended to be locked out, at least part of the time. The only thing that reads as potentially bugged is Bidding Farewell not showing as completed in the journal. I'll note that I also did a save with the SD Rook where I didn't do Bidding Farewell, it showed up as failed in the journal and I got the exact same dialogue with Lucanis