@KidCarnival That's true, and Dorn's reasons for joining you in the first place are rather flimsy, regardless of stats. A lot of it comes down to how well they write Dorn's lovetalks in BG2EE, where the romance will begin in earnest. Hopefully they'll develop who he is and why he's interested and not just make him vaguely CHARNAME-sexual like has happened in other games.
I guess the problem with using stats specifically as a gating mechanism for relationships is that A) they're rather ambiguous, in that players will assign high stats in certain abilities for different reasons (Is that 18 Intelligence there because the character is a quick study, or because they're very logical? Is that high Charisma due to skillful elocution or intangible magnetism?) and because the characters can't see the character sheets, and so don't know precisely what your stats are, which makes it feel arbitrary to say "Only characters with a 15+ Wisdom have enough common sense to be appealing to this character." Is there really such a stark difference between 14 and 15 Wisdom that a character could detect it and be attracted/unattracted based on it? It gets worse if you use a physical stat, "Oh, I'm sorry, your carrying capacity is twenty pounds too light to satisfy me."
All that being said, I do agree with the idea that it seems like a cop-out to just have an NPC romance *anybody* who happens to be the PC. It means you end up with a romance written assuming that the PC will be one thing (probably male, heterosexual, and tall) and just flips a few words around if necessary to accommodate PCs who deviate from that.
I'd rather they flip some words around if the alternative is for people like me to be left with nothing.
Oh definitely, but we can hope (or better yet, ask) that they would address people like you directly instead of only making a token acknowledgement of your existence, can't we?
I do find it a bit problematic that Dorn has no restrictions at all. It can add to the personality who an NPC will romance, for example Aerie going for gnomes due her backstory (and hence being the only option for any shorty race) or Viconia, unlike all others, not going for elves. Dorn doesn't seem to be the "anything that moves" guy; he has trust issues and would certainly have some sort of "ideal mate" in his mind.
I find it too cheap to give Dorn absolutely no requirements and then point at him whenever someone asks for shorty/non-elf-caster/gay/whatever romance options. A single NPC shouldn't make up for ALL deficits.
As an aside, halflings have plenty of romance options. It is the dwarfs that are...well...whatever the opposite of boned is.
I agree with you on the restrictions. Of all the people to be universally accommodating of the romance options, I would think Dorn would not be that person. If you aren't attractive, I can't see his initial interest and if you aren't strong I can't see you winning his respect unless they are going to give the option to redeem/soften him.
I think a second redeemable evil NPC is one too many. It makes perfect sense that he has Viconia's gimmick of a rep drop, but giving him the "love redeems" thing is too much. If anyone should go in all directions - gender, race, alignment - it should be Neera. It fits her personality and class a lot better to (potentially) fall for a rather unlikely love interest.
I'd even prefer a randomized chance that a romance dialogue triggers, for all romancable NPCs, regarding all charnames.
Nah, that'd feel ridiculous. Almost all of us in the real world have a definite orientation, whichever one it happens to be, and it makes the story feel more believable if the same is true in the Forgotten Realms. An "everyone is bisexual, and no-one has any other pre-requisites for a partner either" solution wouldn't be credible without a major re-write of the backstory of the Forgotten Realms to explain the situation.
The secret to writing a credible and immersive alternative world is that everything is just like the real world except for all the things which are deliberately and explicably different, because that way the reactions of story characters seem natural and comprehensible to readers/players. (This is standard basic advice to writers, and most fantasy authors follow this formula.) When character reactions aren't readily comprehensible, immersion becomes much more problematic both for the writer and the reader/player ... it's not impossible, but it demands a real masterpiece from the writer, and even then it's much more work for the reader (and therefore risks being a commercial failure among game-players).
I'm happy to see the romance options in the game broadened to include some minority preferences, just like in the real world, but it ought to be done properly and believably or it's just a cheap insult. One character as a solution for all orientations (and even all species!) just doesn't work credibly (and perhaps especially not when it's a huge ugly brutal half-orc) - even if Dorn can fancy anyone (and I'm far from convinced about that, he clearly has "issues"), I'm darn sure that a lot of other characters wouldn't be even remotely attracted to him (even allowing for the sex-changing belt). This is an immersion-breaking blunder.
If it's too much work to do it properly (and I can see that it would be quite a lot of work), then I reckon it'd actually be a better answer to avoid the problem altogether, by deleting all romance options from the game and just leaving all such issues to the imaginations of the players. I realise that Overhaul have contractual obligations to preserve original content, but even so it'd be better to do nothing at all than to waste their development resources on ridiculous and implausible "solutions" which degrade the quality of the game.
I think a second redeemable evil NPC is one too many. It makes perfect sense that he has Viconia's gimmick of a rep drop, but giving him the "love redeems" thing is too much. If anyone should go in all directions - gender, race, alignment - it should be Neera. It fits her personality and class a lot better to (potentially) fall for a rather unlikely love interest.
Don't you mean a third redeemable evil NPC?
Remember that Sarevok is also redeemable in ToB!
And having two already, a third would definitely be OTT.
Going a little off-topic, what would make more balanced sense would be to have a corruptible Good character. As has been suggested elsewhere (and I think it's an excellent idea), a logical development for Rasaad would be to give him a quest in BG2ee where he meets Alorgoth (which is probably what Overhaul already intend), and in that quest he could either resist Alorgoth and re-commit to the Order of the Sun Soul (and therefore convert to the Sun Soul Monk kit) or be converted by Alorgoth (and therefore switch to Evil and convert to the Dark Moon Monk kit), or (perhaps) take a middle course and leave the Order of the Sun Soul without joining the Dark Moon (and therefore switch to Neutral and remain a generic Monk).
I'd even prefer a randomized chance that a romance dialogue triggers, for all romancable NPCs, regarding all charnames.
Nah, that'd feel ridiculous. Almost all of us in the real world have a definite orientation, whichever one it happens to be, and it makes the story feel more believable if the same is true in the Forgotten Realms. An "everyone is bisexual, and no-one has any other pre-requisites for a partner either" solution wouldn't be credible without a major re-write of the backstory of the Forgotten Realms to explain the situation.
The secret to writing a credible and immersive alternative world is that everything is just like the real world except for all the things which are deliberately and explicably different, because that way the reactions of story characters seem natural and comprehensible to readers/players. (This is standard basic advice to writers, and most fantasy authors follow this formula.) When character reactions aren't readily comprehensible, immersion becomes much more problematic both for the writer and the reader/player ... it's not impossible, but it demands a real masterpiece from the writer, and even then it's much more work for the reader (and therefore risks being a commercial failure among game-players).
I'm happy to see the romance options in the game broadened to include some minority preferences, just like in the real world, but it ought to be done properly and believably or it's just a cheap insult. One character as a solution for all orientations (and even all species!) just doesn't work credibly (and perhaps especially not when it's a huge ugly brutal half-orc) - even if Dorn can fancy anyone (and I'm far from convinced about that, he clearly has "issues"), I'm darn sure that a lot of other characters wouldn't be even remotely attracted to him (even allowing for the sex-changing belt). This is an immersion-breaking blunder.
If it's too much work to do it properly (and I can see that it would be quite a lot of work), then I reckon it'd actually be a better answer to avoid the problem altogether, by deleting all romance options from the game and just leaving all such issues to the imaginations of the players. I realise that Overhaul have contractual obligations to preserve original content, but even so it'd be better to do nothing at all than to waste their development resources on ridiculous and implausible "solutions" which degrade the quality of the game.
@Gallowglass If your PC isn't attracted to Dorn, don't romance him. He's attracted to your power and your leadership qualities. There's nothing incomprehensible about that.
@Schneidend As already explained, I reckon most PCs wouldn't realistically be attracted to Dorn. So sure, of course they can choose not to romance him. But then there are no alternative options for a great many PCs, it's Dorn or nothing, so this is a useless "solution" for many (I think most) of those players who'd like some believable romance option for a species or orientation which hasn't previously had such an option.
If anyone should go in all directions - gender, race, alignment - it should be Neera. It fits her personality and class a lot better to (potentially) fall for a rather unlikely love interest.
I agree, @KidCarnival. If resource limitations leave no choice except a "one-size-fits-all" solution, then Neera would have been a more plausible choice than Dorn.
@Gallowglass Whether or not Dorn is believable is subjective. Me, I take him at face value. He is a bisexual half-orc badass. Nothing incomprehensible about that. Just because he isn't palatable to you doesn't make him an unbelievable character.
A romance novel with a lawful evil half-orc blackguard and a lawful good gnome priest of lathander is safely in the realm of crackfic to me.
If there are limitations, why not make Neera an "everything goes" option, too? The two characters are different enough to be at least a "more believable" and a "less believable" option. Neera also fits in more parties due to her alignment. Though, it is believable that Anomen would drive many charnames into the arms of evil, judging by his popularity.
I would be interested in seeing Dorn put some effort into corrupting Charname, with him possibly turning on you if it doesn't work out. You always see player-characters being able to sway and affect everyone around them in RPGs, but you don't often see the opposite happening.
Oh I just noticed... @Gallowglass: I meant that the romances trigger at random, not that all restrictions are dropped. Like, there's a 50/50 chance Viconia will romance your male human charname. Not "there's a random chance she'll romance you, whoever you are".
Whether or not Dorn is believable is subjective. Me, I take him at face value. He is a bisexual half-orc badass. Nothing incomprehensible about that. Just because he isn't palatable to you doesn't make him an unbelievable character.
Now you're just being obtuse.
The issue isn't whether he is comprehensible as a character (and I agree that he is, no problem about that). Nor is the issue whether you or I (as real-world people) find that character "palatable", that's not relevant to the in-game scenario.
This is all about whether romance with Dorn is credible for a wide variety of protagonists.
1) If I were playing an Evil half-orc, then of course it's easy to imagine that Dorn would be his or her kind of guy, so I'd have no roleplaying difficulty in proceeding with the game's romance options.
2) If I were playing an Evil human or a Neutral half-orc, then it'd already be getting a little more difficult to believe in the attraction (for the Neutral half-orc because we find out that Dorn is a pretty extreme Evil case once he's explained his history, and for the Evil human because half-orcs are repulsive by most human standards), but I could persuade myself that these difficulties could be overcome in some cases, and therefore could play the romance option without a total loss of believability.
3) For all other species or alignments, their history/alignment/training strongly teaches them that creatures like Dorn are their natural enemies. They wouldn't like him at all, and would only be working alongside him in the party with reluctance because they needed his skills. It's not readily comprehensible that they could ever be romantically attracted to him, because it wouldn't be consistent with what we know about the inhabitants of the campaign setting and our real-world experience of likely behaviour.
A romance novel with a lawful evil half-orc blackguard and a lawful good gnome priest of lathander is safely in the realm of crackfic to me.
I agree.
But could we not, nevertheless, imagine that such a romance could happen? Well yes, with enough imaginative effort, although it'd take a very considerable effort for some cases (such as the gnome mentioned by @KidCarnival). Of course fantasy gaming always takes some stretch of the imagination for immersion, that's intrinsic to the genre and we who like these games evidently enjoy that exercise. But a huge further stretch of the imagination to accommodate one particular side-issue which isn't even relevant to the main story? That'd not only be much more imaginative effort than most players want to make for peripheral issues, but would be a significant distraction from concentrating on enjoying the protagonist's story as it develops, so it's definitely immersion-breaking.
In a novel, it'd make it a more difficult read, but there'd still be some market for it from those who were willing to make the extra effort. In a game, the concept of anyone as a "universal romance" in such a diverse world is difficult and likely to be a fail, and the particular choice of someone so improbable as Dorn to fill such a role is surely an epic fail.
Note to Overhaul: epic fails are memorable and get talked about, so they damage a game's reputation in the marketplace. Even at the cost of effort and embarrassment, it's probably better for long-term commercial success if you reverse this blunder and change the romance development in BG2ee so that Dorn is restricted to plausible romantic partners; I suggest Evil humans and Evil or Neutral half-orcs only. If you really must have a "one-size-fits-all" romance option, then at least make it Neera, who could credibly have a romance with a much wider range of protagonists than Dorn.
From what I know, Haer'Dalis was originally planned to be a "one size fits all" romance option and he would be a credible one. As a tiefling, he likely has very different ideas of beauty or attractiveness than any of the playable races and therefore not see half-orcs the same way humans (for example) do. He's also neutral and except for the somewhat annoying speech patterns (which is subjective anyway), he fits in every kind of party. Dorn is neither of these things; he has no reason to have a different perception of beauty/be attracted to a wide range of races, and he isn't neutral and doesn't fit in that many parties. Granted, there is Rasaad as alternative to Anomen now, but if I really wanted to construct a discrimination case, I could argue that "gay = evil". I'm not going there, but I can still see how people who want a gay romance for some reason aren't happy with this. Especially since most people tend to play good aligned charnames/parties - and the romance quests open up extra quests, loot and XP in BG2. For that alone, I find it weird that another option is evil when there was a perfectly good neutral NPC who could have been given the "anything goes" gimmick instead. (Though, this certainly continues the irony that Dorn's BG1 quest is the key to one of the best weapons for Ajantis - who leaves the party if you recruit Dorn. Maybe in BG2, Dorn's romance leads to the best armor for Keldorn, who kills Dorn at sight.)
Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing how the writers handle the romances, and given the quality of the new writing so far, I have pretty high hopes that it'll turn out awesome
Does anyone know when Dorn's romance truly begins? I've reached the last chapter and there has been nothing of the sort, only that one bit where you get to tell him to never change. I read somewhere that one of the possible teasing remarks would have yielded a comment along the lines of "maybe with you..." but I never got that, just an instant conversation termination. I'd hate if I missed the whole thing because of a poorly telegraphed choice.
The whole 'romance' with Dorn is pretty easy to miss: it's basically the first two conversations you have with him, and that is it. And a substantial amount of the options in them lead to dialogue terminations (but they don't 'break' the romance).
Well, damn it. Does anyone know if you can modify the variables with the console to start the whole thing over?
I know romances, and dialogue in general, shouldn't be made too predictable but there really should be SOME indication as to where a dialogue choice will lead. That or at least implement multiple points where to start the romance.
More over, I dislike the fact that EE continues the fine BG tradition of character storylines that have one und precisely wun path that will lead to advancement (usually involves sucking up or conforming to the NPC's views) and every other option might as well read "Screw this". I noticed this in Neera's romance as well, it also crashed and burned with no saving throw to one innocent comment.
1) If I were playing an Evil half-orc, then of course it's easy to imagine that Dorn would be his or her kind of guy, so I'd have no roleplaying difficulty in proceeding with the game's romance options.
2) If I were playing an Evil human or a Neutral half-orc, then it'd already be getting a little more difficult to believe in the attraction (for the Neutral half-orc because we find out that Dorn is a pretty extreme Evil case once he's explained his history, and for the Evil human because half-orcs are repulsive by most human standards), but I could persuade myself that these difficulties could be overcome in some cases, and therefore could play the romance option without a total loss of believability.
3) For all other species or alignments, their history/alignment/training strongly teaches them that creatures like Dorn are their natural enemies. They wouldn't like him at all, and would only be working alongside him in the party with reluctance because they needed his skills. It's not readily comprehensible that they could ever be romantically attracted to him, because it wouldn't be consistent with what we know about the inhabitants of the campaign setting and our real-world experience of likely behaviour.
I agree that these are concerns that might interfere with suspension of disbelief with regards to a romance with Dorn. From my perspective, however, the onus is on the player-as-roleplayer to make the situation believable by applying a context that makes sense to them, as opposed to the developer-as-storyteller setting arbitrary restrictions. In other words, it is up to the player to decide whether their character is unconcerned enough with physical appearance to find Dorn attractive despite his orcish-features, or whether, as a result of their upbringing in Candlekeep, they'd be more inclined to view Dorn as an individual or a racial enemy. If it doesn't make sense to the player why their character would romance Dorn, all they have to do is choose dialog options that shut down the romance or prevent it from starting in the first place.
This is also taken into account by the use of dialog choices to drive the romance and the gating mechanism of reputation for keeping Dorn in the party. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that in BG2 it's going to be necessary to voice acceptance, if not outright approval, of Dorn's evil means and ends to continue the romance. If a Lawful Good Gnome is telling Dorn that he's a-ok with Abyssal pacts and might-makes-right philosophy, that's on the player's head for not roleplaying true to form (or, alternately, for being deceptive towards Dorn in order to get in his pants). And the necessity of maintain a reputationing below 19 means that the PC either has to avoid being too much of a goody-goody or has to perform questionable acts every so often to keep him in the party and the romance active, forestalling the "CHARNAME is obviously a saint, what in the Nine Hells am I doing here" response from Dorn.
If it doesn't make sense to the player why their character would romance Dorn, all they have to do is choose dialog options that shut down the romance or prevent it from starting in the first place.
Yes, of course, @Kaigen, but that's missing the point. Obviously any romance which doesn't seem believable for your character can be declined, whether that's Dorn or anyone else.
My point, however, is that I reckon most protagonists would decline romance with Dorn, yet a great many of them have no other romance option. I've no objection to Dorn being one of the romance-able NPCs, that's a playable (and probably even interesting) option for some choices of protagonist (of which I've already given examples). The objection is to Dorn being the universal option for all those protagonists who didn't previously have any romance option at all, because he isn't a believable choice of partner for most of them, so he isn't a credible solution. Additionally I don't find it credible that Dorn himself would have such broad tastes.
Therefore I reckon it'd make much more sense if Dorn were restricted to certain believable types of romantic partner (as are all other romance-able NPCs), and some other option(s) is/are created for those left out.
Probably one of the worst moves Overhaul could possibly make at this point is to restrict an option that's already there. I can't think of many things with more PR-nightmare potential than removing content to fit a character into a perceived stereotype.
I'm inclined to trust that the writers know the characters best and will see all new content through to a satisfactory conclusion with the story Although it would also be awesome if they expanded the options in BG2EE as well (which is why I'm eagerly awaiting news on any possible new characters for the sequel)
Comments
I guess the problem with using stats specifically as a gating mechanism for relationships is that A) they're rather ambiguous, in that players will assign high stats in certain abilities for different reasons (Is that 18 Intelligence there because the character is a quick study, or because they're very logical? Is that high Charisma due to skillful elocution or intangible magnetism?) and
All that being said, I do agree with the idea that it seems like a cop-out to just have an NPC romance *anybody* who happens to be the PC. It means you end up with a romance written assuming that the PC will be one thing (probably male, heterosexual, and tall) and just flips a few words around if necessary to accommodate PCs who deviate from that.
I agree with you on the restrictions. Of all the people to be universally accommodating of the romance options, I would think Dorn would not be that person. If you aren't attractive, I can't see his initial interest and if you aren't strong I can't see you winning his respect unless they are going to give the option to redeem/soften him.
The secret to writing a credible and immersive alternative world is that everything is just like the real world except for all the things which are deliberately and explicably different, because that way the reactions of story characters seem natural and comprehensible to readers/players. (This is standard basic advice to writers, and most fantasy authors follow this formula.) When character reactions aren't readily comprehensible, immersion becomes much more problematic both for the writer and the reader/player ... it's not impossible, but it demands a real masterpiece from the writer, and even then it's much more work for the reader (and therefore risks being a commercial failure among game-players).
I'm happy to see the romance options in the game broadened to include some minority preferences, just like in the real world, but it ought to be done properly and believably or it's just a cheap insult. One character as a solution for all orientations (and even all species!) just doesn't work credibly (and perhaps especially not when it's a huge ugly brutal half-orc) - even if Dorn can fancy anyone (and I'm far from convinced about that, he clearly has "issues"), I'm darn sure that a lot of other characters wouldn't be even remotely attracted to him (even allowing for the sex-changing belt). This is an immersion-breaking blunder.
If it's too much work to do it properly (and I can see that it would be quite a lot of work), then I reckon it'd actually be a better answer to avoid the problem altogether, by deleting all romance options from the game and just leaving all such issues to the imaginations of the players. I realise that Overhaul have contractual obligations to preserve original content, but even so it'd be better to do nothing at all than to waste their development resources on ridiculous and implausible "solutions" which degrade the quality of the game.
Going a little off-topic, what would make more balanced sense would be to have a corruptible Good character. As has been suggested elsewhere (and I think it's an excellent idea), a logical development for Rasaad would be to give him a quest in BG2ee where he meets Alorgoth (which is probably what Overhaul already intend), and in that quest he could either resist Alorgoth and re-commit to the Order of the Sun Soul (and therefore convert to the Sun Soul Monk kit) or be converted by Alorgoth (and therefore switch to Evil and convert to the Dark Moon Monk kit), or (perhaps) take a middle course and leave the Order of the Sun Soul without joining the Dark Moon (and therefore switch to Neutral and remain a generic Monk).
If your PC isn't attracted to Dorn, don't romance him. He's attracted to your power and your leadership qualities. There's nothing incomprehensible about that.
As already explained, I reckon most PCs wouldn't realistically be attracted to Dorn. So sure, of course they can choose not to romance him. But then there are no alternative options for a great many PCs, it's Dorn or nothing, so this is a useless "solution" for many (I think most) of those players who'd like some believable romance option for a species or orientation which hasn't previously had such an option. I agree, @KidCarnival. If resource limitations leave no choice except a "one-size-fits-all" solution, then Neera would have been a more plausible choice than Dorn.
Whether or not Dorn is believable is subjective. Me, I take him at face value. He is a bisexual half-orc badass. Nothing incomprehensible about that. Just because he isn't palatable to you doesn't make him an unbelievable character.
If there are limitations, why not make Neera an "everything goes" option, too? The two characters are different enough to be at least a "more believable" and a "less believable" option. Neera also fits in more parties due to her alignment. Though, it is believable that Anomen would drive many charnames into the arms of evil, judging by his popularity.
Dorn will romance hovering or flying CHARNAMES as well!
His mighty blade does not limit itself to those who walk!
The issue isn't whether he is comprehensible as a character (and I agree that he is, no problem about that). Nor is the issue whether you or I (as real-world people) find that character "palatable", that's not relevant to the in-game scenario.
This is all about whether romance with Dorn is credible for a wide variety of protagonists.
1) If I were playing an Evil half-orc, then of course it's easy to imagine that Dorn would be his or her kind of guy, so I'd have no roleplaying difficulty in proceeding with the game's romance options.
2) If I were playing an Evil human or a Neutral half-orc, then it'd already be getting a little more difficult to believe in the attraction (for the Neutral half-orc because we find out that Dorn is a pretty extreme Evil case once he's explained his history, and for the Evil human because half-orcs are repulsive by most human standards), but I could persuade myself that these difficulties could be overcome in some cases, and therefore could play the romance option without a total loss of believability.
3) For all other species or alignments, their history/alignment/training strongly teaches them that creatures like Dorn are their natural enemies. They wouldn't like him at all, and would only be working alongside him in the party with reluctance because they needed his skills. It's not readily comprehensible that they could ever be romantically attracted to him, because it wouldn't be consistent with what we know about the inhabitants of the campaign setting and our real-world experience of likely behaviour. I agree.
But could we not, nevertheless, imagine that such a romance could happen? Well yes, with enough imaginative effort, although it'd take a very considerable effort for some cases (such as the gnome mentioned by @KidCarnival). Of course fantasy gaming always takes some stretch of the imagination for immersion, that's intrinsic to the genre and we who like these games evidently enjoy that exercise. But a huge further stretch of the imagination to accommodate one particular side-issue which isn't even relevant to the main story? That'd not only be much more imaginative effort than most players want to make for peripheral issues, but would be a significant distraction from concentrating on enjoying the protagonist's story as it develops, so it's definitely immersion-breaking.
In a novel, it'd make it a more difficult read, but there'd still be some market for it from those who were willing to make the extra effort. In a game, the concept of anyone as a "universal romance" in such a diverse world is difficult and likely to be a fail, and the particular choice of someone so improbable as Dorn to fill such a role is surely an epic fail.
Note to Overhaul: epic fails are memorable and get talked about, so they damage a game's reputation in the marketplace. Even at the cost of effort and embarrassment, it's probably better for long-term commercial success if you reverse this blunder and change the romance development in BG2ee so that Dorn is restricted to plausible romantic partners; I suggest Evil humans and Evil or Neutral half-orcs only. If you really must have a "one-size-fits-all" romance option, then at least make it Neera, who could credibly have a romance with a much wider range of protagonists than Dorn.
Dorn is neither of these things; he has no reason to have a different perception of beauty/be attracted to a wide range of races, and he isn't neutral and doesn't fit in that many parties. Granted, there is Rasaad as alternative to Anomen now, but if I really wanted to construct a discrimination case, I could argue that "gay = evil". I'm not going there, but I can still see how people who want a gay romance for some reason aren't happy with this. Especially since most people tend to play good aligned charnames/parties - and the romance quests open up extra quests, loot and XP in BG2. For that alone, I find it weird that another option is evil when there was a perfectly good neutral NPC who could have been given the "anything goes" gimmick instead. (Though, this certainly continues the irony that Dorn's BG1 quest is the key to one of the best weapons for Ajantis - who leaves the party if you recruit Dorn. Maybe in BG2, Dorn's romance leads to the best armor for Keldorn, who kills Dorn at sight.)
I know romances, and dialogue in general, shouldn't be made too predictable but there really should be SOME indication as to where a dialogue choice will lead. That or at least implement multiple points where to start the romance.
More over, I dislike the fact that EE continues the fine BG tradition of character storylines that have one und precisely wun path that will lead to advancement (usually involves sucking up or conforming to the NPC's views) and every other option might as well read "Screw this". I noticed this in Neera's romance as well, it also crashed and burned with no saving throw to one innocent comment.
This is also taken into account by the use of dialog choices to drive the romance and the gating mechanism of reputation for keeping Dorn in the party. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that in BG2 it's going to be necessary to voice acceptance, if not outright approval, of Dorn's evil means and ends to continue the romance. If a Lawful Good Gnome is telling Dorn that he's a-ok with Abyssal pacts and might-makes-right philosophy, that's on the player's head for not roleplaying true to form (or, alternately, for being deceptive towards Dorn in order to get in his pants). And the necessity of maintain a reputationing below 19 means that the PC either has to avoid being too much of a goody-goody or has to perform questionable acts every so often to keep him in the party and the romance active, forestalling the "CHARNAME is obviously a saint, what in the Nine Hells am I doing here" response from Dorn.
My point, however, is that I reckon most protagonists would decline romance with Dorn, yet a great many of them have no other romance option. I've no objection to Dorn being one of the romance-able NPCs, that's a playable (and probably even interesting) option for some choices of protagonist (of which I've already given examples). The objection is to Dorn being the universal option for all those protagonists who didn't previously have any romance option at all, because he isn't a believable choice of partner for most of them, so he isn't a credible solution. Additionally I don't find it credible that Dorn himself would have such broad tastes.
Therefore I reckon it'd make much more sense if Dorn were restricted to certain believable types of romantic partner (as are all other romance-able NPCs), and some other option(s) is/are created for those left out.
I'm inclined to trust that the writers know the characters best and will see all new content through to a satisfactory conclusion with the story
I'm all for more options if it makes sense for Dorn and it's responsive to differences in terms of the PC.