13 January 2026

After Baldur’s Gate 3’s Romances, This D&D Novel Has My Full Attention

By newsgame

I know that Baldur’s Gate 3’s viral romances aren’t for everyone. For some RPG players who are just there for the mechanics or the main plot, an NPC romance can feel less like a tempting detour and more like an awkward stumble toward rejection. But for me, they’re perfect. When they’re written well, romances offer a rare, vulnerable window into a character: one that exists outside the urgency of saving the world. They’re moments of softness, intimacy, or chaos that sit in the margins of the main story. Baldur’s Gate 3’s romances fill that role for me exactly.

Some of RPGs’ best-written romances have stayed with me for years: Yennefer in The Witcher 3, Tali in Mass Effect, and Dorian in Dragon Age: Inquisition. What they all share goes beyond chemistry, instead adding romantic tension alongside danger, secrets, and great emotional risk. In these romances, attraction grows in the cracks between quests and crises rather than in spite of them. And I know I’m not alone in this. Just as surely as I know Baldur’s Gate 3’s romances aren’t for everyone, I know there’s a subset of players who live and die by them. I’ve seen the TikTok thirst edits. I’ve seen the Canva graphics pledged in devotion to Halsin’s bear form. Some people didn’t just play Baldur’s Gate 3 because of the romances. They found it because of them.

So if you recognize yourself in this shameless camp, it’s worth keeping an eye on an upcoming D&D novel arriving in June. It promises thrills, adventure, and just enough romantasy chaos to feel very familiar. Like you’ve been convinced by a pale elf to indulge in a late-night “tryst.”

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The Feywild Job is a New Dungeons & Dragons Romantasy Novel

The Feywild Job, written by bestselling and Hugo-nominated author C. L. Polk, is described as a “cozy fantasy romance” that stars bitter exes. Saeldian, a non-commital con artist, is pulled into a heist with their ex, Kell. Like any good D&D breakup story, their relationship didn’t end on the best of terms.

This Bard and Warlock duo are thrust upon this heist for two reasons. Saeldian is on a fetch quest for their patron, while Kell seeks one final chance to return to the Feywild. As they are forced to collaborate in the search for a gem called The Kiss of Enduring Love, their heist attracts not only romantic feelings but also dangerous foes.

The Feywild Job releases on June 30, 2026.

Some Romantasy Tropes in The Feywild Job

Forced Proximity: Saeldian and Kell don’t want to be together. They just have to for the sake of the heist. Neither of them can pull out of the job, so they’ll have to find creative solutions to settle their differences, even if those “creative ways” are likely steamier than they should be.
Enemies to Lovers: Working with your two-faced ex seems like a tall order for anyone. However, Saeldian technically can’t help it. Their oath to their patron grants them a Warlock’s abilities with the promise that they can never fall in love. When a romantic past comes knocking at their door, they jeopardize their pact, their powers, and their orchestrated, noncommittal nature.
Second Chances: Saeldian leaves broken hearts wherever they go, Kell’s included. So as they navigate the Feywild’s high society and even couples’ therapy, they also have to deal with pesky rekindling chemistry.

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Baldur’s Gate 3’s Romances Prove that Romance in D&D is Not A Gimmick

For years, romance in RPGs was sometimes treated as an optional flavor at best and a marketing punchline at worst. It existed on the margins as something players could engage with if they wanted, but rarely something that shaped the emotional core of the experience. Baldur’s Gate 3 outright rejected that approach.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s character romances weren’t designed to shock or to check a box. They were written with patience, contradiction, and consequence. Companions didn’t simply flirt and fall in love; they withheld, deflected, tested boundaries, and sometimes made choices that hurt. Romance became another lens through which players understood these characters—not separate from the main story, but deeply entangled with it.

baldurs gate 3 character was nearly not romanceable

What made this feel especially resonant was how vulnerability functioned alongside heroism. Between mind flayers, gods, and looming catastrophe, the romances in Baldur’s Gate 3 offered moments of intimacy that felt earned precisely because the stakes were so high. Romances were pauses in the chaos, reminders that connection mattered even when the world was ending. For many players, those quiet conversations after a major plot beat were just as memorable as the battles themselves.

Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t invent romance in D&D, but rather was a great vessel to validate its presence at the table. It proved that desire, softness, and emotional risk weren’t distractions from epic fantasy storytelling. They were part of it.

The Feywild Job Takes That Same Energy Somewhere New

The Feywild Job feels immediately legible to fans of Baldur’s Gate 3’s romances, even before turning the first page. Rather than treating romance as a side plot, the novel places it front and center, using familiar D&D classes and archetypes to explore unique emotional tension alongside magical danger.

The Feywild Job’s setup is instantly recognizable to anyone who has watched their favorite BG3 companion guard their vulnerabilities behind wit, bravado, or outright denial. It’s in the rules that govern intimacy, and what happens when those rules are tested. The novel leans into romantasy tropes without abandoning its D&D roots. There’s danger, trickery, and spectacle, but the real tension comes from proximity and history: old feelings resurfacing in a place where emotions are already heightened and reality bends easily. It’s the same kind of emotional alchemy that made Baldur’s Gate 3’s romances compelling, where attraction isn’t safe, simple, or guaranteed, and that’s exactly the point.

lae'zel and shadowheart kissing in baldur's gate 3

By taking that energy out of a CRPG and into a novel, The Feywild Job suggests that what resonated with players wasn’t just interactivity. It was the willingness to let fantasy characters be messy, express desire, and become emotionally compromised while treating that as meaningful storytelling rather than indulgence. And, okay. I’m going to say it—there’s enough Lae’zel and Shadowheart enemies-to-lovers fanfiction out there to prove that *some* of you will be on board with this book.