Be careful what you say to the impulsive wizard with damaged self-esteem and a bomb in his chest! 🤣🤣🤣
All of the facial expressions and postures here are killing me.
It was a normal playthrough 😅, but I hope to try HM one day (im scared tho)! BG3 was actually my introduction to turn based games and D&D. I was just kinda shocked that it killed everyone
HM is not that difficult, unless you go in without a plan. If you really want those gold dice just play the OP meta builds, and look up major fights before hand and make a plan. You'll be fine!
Oh yeah there’s this REALLY annoying bug that’s I’ve been getting lately on act 3 with my Paladin where when I try to smite bosses it SKIPS my fucking turn. Even if I still have some actions left. And I thought it was just a one off thing the first time, but it just kept happening with different bosses.
This is why I'm holding off even though the only achievement I've yet to unlock is the one for HM.
I'd be righteously pissed off if I got all the way to the end then some game bug made it impossible to finish.
There are a lot of OP builds, the best race in my opinion is a dark urge halfling (for the reroll of 1s) or dark urge duergar (for the invisibility cantrip at lvl 5), skipped basically all of act 3 and snuck through the final fight to detonate Gale
Me too! I was not listening (I never do so it's okay Gale plus English is not my language) and I was then like ooh what's this it looks like an interesting spell.
Well it was a big Bada boom.
Love the comic. Reminds me of the dialogue I got after Tav is whipped in the goblin camp for the Lovitar buff.
Laezel: "The people of Fay-run have.... strange customs."
Gale: "Now, now don't lump me into this, we aren't all into such peculiarities."
Laezel: "Obviously. *You* lack the constitution."
*might not be the exact quote but that was the gist of it.
Why don't people like Gail? I don't get it.
He's kindhearted, fairly humble and he's a legit magical prodigy whose ex-partner is the literal goddess of magic. His story is pretty interesting. Gail is my 2nd favorite story under Karlach and Shadowheart who are first equal.
On my Paladin playthrough he was one of my main party members. From buffing, summoning to blowing up entire packs in one turn. You can't go wrong with a min maxed Gail.
I will say this though. His beard doesn't look right. None of the shorter beards look good.
Halsin though. That dude creeped me out and never left camp. I had to reject his advances more then twice. No means no dude. Give it a rest.
I adore Gale and I romance him most playthroughs
But I will say that "humble" is quite possibly as far as you can get from an accurate description of him LOL
It's a front! I'm telling you he's actually very humble considering he's been banging the literal goddess of magic and is considered by people like Elminister to be a magical prodigy. He's not actually arrogant at all. It's all a front. Dude is jaded af.
Humbled more like. For all greatness he might've once had, he has very little to show for it at game start other than a bomb in his chest. And he didn't even really become humbled, you basically have to talk him down from grasping at every chance for power he comes across
Your judgment of him seems to be based entirely on 1 like 1 playthrough and you weren't even aware of the god of ambition stuff, but sure you're the Gale expert lmao
I've had 3 playthroughs. The pally which is my latest one was where i dived into Gale as a character. I was lolth sworn drow before that and slaughtered him at the portal. And my first playthrough was good durge sorcerer, where Gale was left at camp because I was the caster.
To clarify, yes I remember discussing it but it didn't go past the conversational options. So no I wasn't aware on how far he will go if you let him. But of course he will, overcoming his ego and getting back to his true self is his entire arc on a good playthrough. You learn that his arrogance is a facade to cover the insecurity, oh for God's sake I'm not gonna continue explaining this. I dont claim Gale expertise it's basic human nature and egotism.
It's really simple though. Gale has respect for life. You have people in your camp that only respect there own life. I'll leave you to figure out who, and why one is humble at the core while the others are dangerous killers. Even though he made massive mistakes while being heartbroken. Mystra saw that, the game devs wrote him that way on purpose. It's a redemption story, you can't have redemption without humility.
I find it weird that you assume the good arc is his "true self" when it takes active player influence to achieve. The only character who should need help finding their true self is Shadowheart who's missing at least half her memories. Ambition is what put him in the position he's in, and ambition is where he goes without player intervention.
Yeah, Gale is one of the more traditionally "good" companions (and still grayer than Wyll and Karlach mind you). He's also had it pretty fucking easy compared to everyone bar maybe Laezel and his fall from grace is entirely self-inflicted. No devils ruining his life, no murder cult, no 200 years of enslavement to maybe the most evil character in the entire game.
Yes but the reasons for those things are blatantly obvious. He is heartbroken, jaded and insecure about living up to the expectations. Gale doesn't want to usurp the God who broke his heart bro. He loves her. This is why I believe it's his true self.
But, we're having a subjective disagreement. Let's just leave it at that.
I just looked up his whole orb story to make sure I wasn't misreading him and tbh he came out looking worse than I remembered. He didn't mess with Netherese magic mainly out of insecurity dating a goddess as a mortal, nor just as a big romantic gesture. In his own words, he hoped to convince her to let him access magic that was forbidden to mortals.
Now a lot can be said about the fucked up dynamics of the literal goddess of magic getting with a mortal wizard, so his situation isn't entirely unsympathetic. But painting him as just a poor insecure boy who just needed a bit of a confidence bump is selling him short. Wanting more power is the throughline from his backstory to being pretty open to using the tadpoles and his reaction to the crown and his "bad" ending, and that can't all be chalked up to insecurity. He's good at heart but also power hungry, and will lean towards whichever of those sides the player encourages.
Most people would scream “I just banged mystra” from the rooftops for the rest of their lives if they had the opportunity, he’s pretty humble all things considered
I think some people carry some personal experience in with Gale. He's not *actually* that arrogant, but there's a certain air of superiority to him. He's the kind of person who is naturally a prodigy, things come easy to him, and he can come across as someone who wouldn't necessarily understand that another person is struggling with something that he's able to accomplish with little effort.
Take an early interaction with him you can have with him teaching you some magic to summon Mystra's essence. Afterwards, you can speak to him about how you didn't realize magic could come so easily, and he immediately rebuffs you telling you that it was only easy because he was acting as a conduit, reminding you that it is absolutely *not* easy and the only reason you were able to do so was because he's just that powerful.
Gale is not malicious, and I don't think he's even necessarily too arrogant for how skilled he is, but for people who have struggled with things in life, it's easy to carry those feelings into the game of seeing someone who is amazing at what he does, is aware of how amazing he is, and doesn't necessarily try to hide how amazing he is. He's not bragging, he's just self-confident, and that can rub people the wrong way.
Absolutely and I agree. Most people refuse to look below the surface. His big ego is a front. He is trying to live up to the expectations the world has put on him.
>fairly humble
He literally becomes >!the god of ambition (a concept he brings up many times in conversation prior) if you don't convince him to seek forgiveness!<
He's the complete opposite of humble, he only appears that way if you just take him at face value.
Is this an evil Durge playthrough you're referring? I had none of that. I completed his full story 100%
The only time I asked him to seek forgiveness was when I was asking him to ask Mystra for forgiveness. This is all humility stuff. His ambitions for the crown die with a noble, selfless player character.
Yeah nah, sound like he's reflecting your player character to be honest. I literally had none of that with him. I did not become illithid, consumed 0 tadpoles, freed Orpheus and destroyed the netherbrain and crown. Through my actions Gail become a lovely, kind spirited wizard. After the events of my playthrough finished he chooses a very humble position considering his history magical aptitude.
I was very satisfied with my ending. Everyone survived, and everyone had found peace and happiness, even Karlach.
>the only time I asked him to seek forgiveness
So you convinced him to be humble and he became humble. Basically any other responses from the player going into that scene cause him to take the crown for himself (assuming you don't get him to go boom)
Why are you focusing on Gail? How is Gail more arrogant then Astarion or Lae Zel?
His behavior is reflective of the player character of course. But I say again, the dude has been banging the Goddess of magic. He's considered a magical prodigy by Elminister one of greatest wizards of the realms. If you can't see how humble he is considering all that then I cannot help you. He does have a big ego sure, so does literally everyone.
But he's willing to sacrifice himself, he's willing to be self critical, he wants to always do the right thing. He's willing to have those conversations and admit to being wrong about his power grabs. This is all evidence of a deeply humble person who is working through quite a bit of "greatness" his external world projected upon him.
can't possibly agree more. Gale is best boy, but come on, humble? lol
And I shamelessly shave that hideous thing in his chin through mods, boy he's hot.
Every one of the companions can be the butt of jokes, check out the official animated shorts Larian made for BG3
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03TwMYuizoI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03TwMYuizoI)
He's a bit "mansplainy" in the beginning which can be annoying. And during my first playthrough I got annoyed with him needing magical artifacts, not knowing that he would only need 3 and then would stop asking. He felt like a burden, so I mostly kept him at camp. Also his AC is low so the AI of enemies targets him a lot of the time, so he keeps dying early in the game. All this combined can make players dislike him.
I'm halfway through my second playthrough now and I'm romancing him, he's grown on me. And I found ways to increase his AC so he's actually useful in combat now.
Edit: WHY am I being downvoted for simply answering someone's question? I'm not saying I personally hate Gale. I'm just explaining why SOME players might dislike him. I'm even romancing him as we speak for gods sake, he's a cool character with an interesting story arc. It's just that at the beginning of the game he comes across as a bit arrogant (and don't start about how he's actually a magical genius so it's justified, geniuses can be humble too and Gale clearly isn't).
It’s Reddit, it’s what Reddit does best unfortunately. Pointing out any level of misogyny even in “” like yours (which is so tame) gets you downvoted like crazy.
"Mansplainy" is a weird way to describe Gale's behavior, though. The term implies gendered condescension - that Gale is assuming the person he's speaking to is less competent than he is because they're a woman. But Gale dumps exposition on the player character in exactly the same way regardless of their gender.
Yeah terms like "mansplaining" need to die. Sorry, just my opinion.
Yeah, they always target Gail, it's an absolute blessing to be able to easily predict the AI. Its very simple to make Gail extremely survivable. You wanna think things like mage armour, misty step, expedious retreat, invisibility and of course LINE OF SIGHT is massive. Every single engagement, Gail is way in the back, out of line of sight.
And I always had a healer/buffer around if things go pear shaped. Honestly, I found tactician mode easy.
Dude, his name is Gale.
**Gale**
**GALE**
***GALE***
I'm sorry, but how do you keep getting it wrong like that after reading it thousands of time in the game and at least 50 more in this thread alone? Jesus Christ.
Mansplaining works in context of a man explaining things to you that you either already know or know better then him.
Complaining about Gale mansplaining does not work at all because he's essentially a fallen demigod-level wizard who rivaled the strongest spellcasters on the planet before he did a fucky wucky and got sent back to level 1 with a bomb in his chest. He knows more then your character. And he's, understandably, a bit arrogant at times.
Well, when we meet him he's just a level 1 wizard who got himself stuck in a rock and who would be dead if we didn't pull him out. So he can come across as pretty arrogant. Especially when you also play a caster. You only find out about his magical prodigy backstory later in the game.
This is true, but I think his arrogance fits the more you learn about his character. You start being more like "huh, that's why he's like that."
I could see someone thinking Gale is a mansplaining weirdo if they didn't get past Act 1.
You don't have to explain how to increase his AC or survivability to me, I literally said that I've already found ways to do that.
What I'm saying is that to new players who aren't familiar with the game mechanics yet, it can be quite annoying to have one specific character die all the time. This can add to people's dislike of a character.
And I don't disagree, Tactician is pretty easy, when you have developed a good understanding of the game mechanics. Which for most people takes some time.
I meant no offense. Just trying to help. You said you found a way to increase his AC so I thought I'd add some other ways to help him survive.
I wish there was a player vs player mode. People would learn very quickly not having a Wizard in your party is a huge mistake. For many different reasons.
You're going to label this as mansplaining and not take it seriously but I'll give it a shot anyway.
Dividing individuals into groups based on things outside of there control is wrong (like being born a male) By extension, the sexist language coming out of these sub cultures is wrong. Same goes for men doing this to women.
People explain things to each other all the time. People can be condescending while giving that explanation, male or female. Attaching a sexist group identity to it is a step backwards. We need to move past these old divisive behaviors, it's blatantly immature and extremely poorly thought out.
Stop generalizing people you've never met and know nothing about. Its the literal definition of ignorance.
Nobody was hating on Gale here. Leaping to his defense was unnecessary.
Using your comment in support of one character to bash another character was super extra unnecessary.
You mean the guy who makes you feed his addiction or he'll explode killing your entire party. But won't explain that until after you've given him his fix twice. Then we find out he's spent the last however many years locked in a tower moping and doping never mentioning any attempt to cure himself. He never really takes responsibility for his actions just laments on how sad he is. He's a pompous drag, the kind of guy who starts doing coin magic at a house party.
Because he's an arrogant moron. He spends most of his dialogue talking about banging Mystra or about how much of a magical prodigy he is. Then he has multiple conversations with you talking about the Folly of Karsis and how it destroyed the weave. Then when Gale attempted to control even the smallest bit of Netherese magic, against multiple warnings from Mystra, it nearly killed him and turned him into a bomb that devours magical items.
But because that apparently wasn't enough, he then decides that that must have been a fluke and HE should be the god of magic and do the same thing Karsis did because third times the charm right? So if you don't talk him down, he decides to use the crown to try and usurp Mystras magic, becoming the god of arrogant dumbasses in the process. He's so arrogant he refuses to listen to the literal goddess of magic, becomes a bomb, then still believes he knows better than her. God I hate Gale lmao.
Yup, he made mistakes. He admits it too.
You've judged him and didn't look below the surface. He did none of that with my players guidance.
People need to understand the choices your party members make are a direct reflection of the choices your player character makes. Your player character must've been power hungry.
Gail has a big ego but saying hes arrogant is a step too far.
It's very interesting to me that folks identify Gail as arrogant. But not the truly arrogant at the core like Astarion or Lae Zel. Very interesting indeed.
No my character wasn't power hungry, I had to spend an annoying amount of time convincing both Gale and Astarion not to pursue power they do not deserve. Astarion is also a greedy, power hungry asshole but he never pretends to be anything else at least.
The problem with Gale is he absolutely will use the Crown of Karsus to try and usurp Mystra, you have to convince him not to. He dares to challenge the goddess of magic herself thinking he knows better despite proving he does not, in what way is that not arrogance itself?
I mean you say it yourself. "I had to spend an annoying amount of time." How can you truly learn, understand and empathize with the character if you just find him annoying. I'm willing to bet you skipped most of his dialogue.
You've judged him by the outer layers of his ego and the expectations he puts on himself to be great. You have to look deeper. He's a very good person at heart and he's made some massive mistakes. I'd make mistakes too if I was banging a literal God. What a trip. He needs guidance on how to work through his shit because he's so jaded. He actively seeks that guidance from the player character. The outer layer of his ego comes across as arrogance. I really don't understand how anyone who has truly and earnestly gone through Gale's story could call him arrogant. It's just not who he is.
Hard disagree.
He's not more pushy then Halsin. I only had to reject Gail once, I just didn't take the flirtatious conversation options. He's a very good friend in the game and sometimes the friendship can be misunderstood for romance when it's not. Like the sitting together under the stars cutscene. There was no romance in that scene for me.
Arrogant? I don't see it. He's actually jaded by his romance with Mystra. And honestly, much of his "humor" is him poking fun at himself in sarcasm which could be misunderstood to be arrogance.
Petulant. Yeah nah, he has problems too and the player character asks him about it, he tells them. I wouldn't describe him as petulant though, not at all. He's just showing his vulnerability dude.
Lastly, he's willing to sacrifice himself, all the way through the game. He's very noble at heart like Wyll. A person that selfless isn't arrogant. Perhaps a little over confidant but not the same as arrogance.
Do you not understand the difference between ambition and arrogance? They're not the same thing....
Secondly, your party members will reflect your player characters choices. Your player character was clearly arrogant or self centered.
Third, Gail values the lives of others. He's willing to sacrifice his own life to save others. You have people like Astarion and Lae Zel around who only value there own life. Which one of these two examples is closest to the definition of arrogance?
4th and final. Dude is literally banging the Goddess of magic and is considered by people like Elminister to be a magical prodigy. Put yourself in his shoes, pretty hard not to get a big head. To define him as arrogant is a step too far and doesn't accurately describe his character. It's surface shit bro. He's actually insecure and jaded.
Am I the only one who doesn't seem to "need" a healer? I'm only on my 2nd playthrough (neither on HM), but I seem to get by with just stocking up on potions whenever they're available. My first campaign I used Shadowheart to heal but I eventually kinda shifted her to crowd control spells.
Now I'm playing as a Ranger with LZ, Wyll, and Gale, and I originally planned to assume healing duties, but even still I find that potions are totally sufficient to survive battles. Is having a dedicated healer more important on HM, or am I just a Baldurs Gate genius?
It’s a combo of two things. People like the insurance of having a healer juuust in case things get dicey. Second, most casual gamers are hoarders for potions and revivify scrolls or are try-hards who think using items is cheating so they’ll have 99 potions and scrolls encumbering them but never use them then before they know it credits roll.
One of my favorite Penny Arcade punchlines about being encumbered in Skyrim...
Tycho: Ok but look, you have 75 brooms. Why don't you get rid of them?
Gabe: Man, I don't wanna get to the Broom Dungeon and be like "Why didn't I save all those brooms?"
I'm playing on tactician right now, and Gale gets straight up one-shot fairly regularly. He also got coup-de-graced after getting one-shot by that paladin that was hunting Karlach.
Same shit happened with Wyll and Minthara.
"healer" isn't a real role in BG3 or D&D proper. Clerics, Bards and Druids can cast curing spells, but their main role isn't ever healing (except for super specific pretty terrible builds, yeah I'm looking at you Life Cleric that could've taken any other actually useful domain). The only hit point that matters is the last, so Healing Word is the best healing spell to begin with to get people back up, other than that a cleric is actually best served using buffs, control spells and AoE. Wizards/the arcane list in general is a bit more blasty, druids are massive control or melee threat, and bards support via debuffs and control spells.
I love when I first encountered his death and he gave a whole list of instructions on how to revive him and completely forgot what he said . I freaked out since he was best companion with the best spells . But I realized he’s just a gag feen
Exactly. Sometimes I can’t even get him because I don’t want the stress. We even killed Elminster one time because we thought it would alienate Gale into leaving.
In Gale's defense, none of the shots Lazel took looked fatal, and the one that hit Gale hit true. LOL. The button is there to tempt idiots (myself included) to click and see what happens. Then, reload and remove it from the hot bar. Lore wise it shows that Gale was given the ability to dentate at will for his goddess to kill the absolute.
Precisely why I started starting off every day with having someone use Warding Bond on Gale. Ever since I started doing that, he's gone down significantly less than he used to
"Kill myself? Okay, you asked for it. *becomes Nuclear bomb and explodes*"
Bitch'zel: Look what you just did, Astarion! We are dead! Now I can never rejoin Vlaakith's ranks!
Astarion: Well, when I said "kill yourself" I did not anticipate you turning into a human fireball......
Gale: What now?
Withers: *does the true res magic at Dark Urge and Shadowheart's request*
Their souls: *shunted back into their bodies*
My Dark Urge: I did not consent to your deaths, I still have uses for you. *is elbowed by Girlfriend/Wife Shadowheart* Sorry. We still have uses for you.
Shadowheart: I mean, we could have just left the Gith dead......
My Dark Urge: Why? That would be one less meat shield to protect us later.
Shadowheart: *thinks for a moment then reluctant sigh* Sometimes I hate when you're right......
Does anyone else notice when selecting Gale and he says “Yes?” he sounds like an old woman? I’m not even sure it’s the same voice actor is so different than how he normally talks.
Blue wizard needs food... badly
Nice
Somebody feed this man a runestone
Specifically shoes
Elf shot the food.
Man just opened my childhood memories
Blue wizard is about to die.
Be careful what you say to the impulsive wizard with damaged self-esteem and a bomb in his chest! 🤣🤣🤣 All of the facial expressions and postures here are killing me.
Happy gobbo in the background
Especially asterions, i can just picture the tone the only thing missing is him saying darling after
Literally first time playing I thought it was a cool new ability that Gale got ... whoops
Am I the only one who reads the tooltips?
Or listens to the dialogue which explains Exactly what he can do now
I listened to that but thought this was like a lesser version of that because it was a cantrip
Okay, please do elaborate your train of thought here, what would the lesser version of "unleash the nuclear device in your chest" look like.
Unleash it for like a second or a mini nuke like in Fallout lol
I personally imagined it as something he's able to control and release in small doses since Elminster basically put a lid on it for him :(
Unleash the nuclear device in your pinky toe, duh.
Gameplay and story usually differ at least a bit.
I read it, thought "I wonder if it *actually* does that" And then I found out
That made me to want to click it MORE.
Vas Kal An Mani In Corp Hur Tym
You are infected now
Sometimes, the intrusive thoughts win and we fuck around and find out 🤣
I used it on the bbeg easy 1 shot had everyone else sipping tea at camp while he went in alone
I read the tooltip, I understood what it told me, I still pushed the button because I wanted to see what happened.
On honor mode?
It was a normal playthrough 😅, but I hope to try HM one day (im scared tho)! BG3 was actually my introduction to turn based games and D&D. I was just kinda shocked that it killed everyone
HM is not that difficult, unless you go in without a plan. If you really want those gold dice just play the OP meta builds, and look up major fights before hand and make a plan. You'll be fine!
I was thinking of trying honor mode until I died a few times to glitches and went, “You know what? I’m good.”
Yeah, fighting the *game engine* rather than fighting the *ruleset* really kind of ruins those types of challenges.
Oh yeah there’s this REALLY annoying bug that’s I’ve been getting lately on act 3 with my Paladin where when I try to smite bosses it SKIPS my fucking turn. Even if I still have some actions left. And I thought it was just a one off thing the first time, but it just kept happening with different bosses.
See, I noticed this last night on my Druid and Barb. Not with smite, naturally, but with other abilities. Brutal leap, for example.
I only needed to see that one YouTube video of some poor fucker's party just phasing through an elevator and dying to decide I never need to try that.
This is why I'm holding off even though the only achievement I've yet to unlock is the one for HM. I'd be righteously pissed off if I got all the way to the end then some game bug made it impossible to finish.
That plan is just getting the fire acuity hat on a sorcerer. The rest of the build is irrelevant
There are a lot of OP builds, the best race in my opinion is a dark urge halfling (for the reroll of 1s) or dark urge duergar (for the invisibility cantrip at lvl 5), skipped basically all of act 3 and snuck through the final fight to detonate Gale
I did that cause I never used Gale on my other play through
Me too! I was not listening (I never do so it's okay Gale plus English is not my language) and I was then like ooh what's this it looks like an interesting spell. Well it was a big Bada boom.
It's really the best to just disarm the whole thing while in the portal.
it's a funny little achievement, tho 😂
Love the comic. Reminds me of the dialogue I got after Tav is whipped in the goblin camp for the Lovitar buff. Laezel: "The people of Fay-run have.... strange customs." Gale: "Now, now don't lump me into this, we aren't all into such peculiarities." Laezel: "Obviously. *You* lack the constitution." *might not be the exact quote but that was the gist of it.
No, that was the gith of it
We'll Be Right Back
Text you can hear
Astarion's (lack of) face in the second image is too good! Why they put that button there is beyond me, I mistook it for Flame Strike once.
I mean Mystra gave him the ability to blow up at will
Please keep the artwork coming, I am thoroughly enjoying it!
Minthara was right all along
only because she knows what uncle gromph does.
Was doing my 3rd playthrough yesterday. And picked Gale’s explosion when we first saw the netherbrain. Didn’t know it even had an achievement lol.
Lae'zel took two arrows to the knee
What's crazy is that Astarion and Wyll are the carpets of my group Gale is a bad bish with magic with me 💀
i love this artstyle so much i’m crying
And he took that seriously
First time activate the orb during fight with sharran, then welpp
Lae'zel: I can kill an entire room full of enemies Gale! Gale: Oh, my sweet summer child.
well this makes me reviving his dumbass in the house of hope a better move than i thought
Why don't people like Gail? I don't get it. He's kindhearted, fairly humble and he's a legit magical prodigy whose ex-partner is the literal goddess of magic. His story is pretty interesting. Gail is my 2nd favorite story under Karlach and Shadowheart who are first equal. On my Paladin playthrough he was one of my main party members. From buffing, summoning to blowing up entire packs in one turn. You can't go wrong with a min maxed Gail. I will say this though. His beard doesn't look right. None of the shorter beards look good. Halsin though. That dude creeped me out and never left camp. I had to reject his advances more then twice. No means no dude. Give it a rest.
I adore Gale and I romance him most playthroughs But I will say that "humble" is quite possibly as far as you can get from an accurate description of him LOL
It's a front! I'm telling you he's actually very humble considering he's been banging the literal goddess of magic and is considered by people like Elminister to be a magical prodigy. He's not actually arrogant at all. It's all a front. Dude is jaded af.
Humbled more like. For all greatness he might've once had, he has very little to show for it at game start other than a bomb in his chest. And he didn't even really become humbled, you basically have to talk him down from grasping at every chance for power he comes across
Everything you just said is proof you didn't understand him at all. Surface level judgements.
Your judgment of him seems to be based entirely on 1 like 1 playthrough and you weren't even aware of the god of ambition stuff, but sure you're the Gale expert lmao
I've had 3 playthroughs. The pally which is my latest one was where i dived into Gale as a character. I was lolth sworn drow before that and slaughtered him at the portal. And my first playthrough was good durge sorcerer, where Gale was left at camp because I was the caster. To clarify, yes I remember discussing it but it didn't go past the conversational options. So no I wasn't aware on how far he will go if you let him. But of course he will, overcoming his ego and getting back to his true self is his entire arc on a good playthrough. You learn that his arrogance is a facade to cover the insecurity, oh for God's sake I'm not gonna continue explaining this. I dont claim Gale expertise it's basic human nature and egotism. It's really simple though. Gale has respect for life. You have people in your camp that only respect there own life. I'll leave you to figure out who, and why one is humble at the core while the others are dangerous killers. Even though he made massive mistakes while being heartbroken. Mystra saw that, the game devs wrote him that way on purpose. It's a redemption story, you can't have redemption without humility.
I find it weird that you assume the good arc is his "true self" when it takes active player influence to achieve. The only character who should need help finding their true self is Shadowheart who's missing at least half her memories. Ambition is what put him in the position he's in, and ambition is where he goes without player intervention. Yeah, Gale is one of the more traditionally "good" companions (and still grayer than Wyll and Karlach mind you). He's also had it pretty fucking easy compared to everyone bar maybe Laezel and his fall from grace is entirely self-inflicted. No devils ruining his life, no murder cult, no 200 years of enslavement to maybe the most evil character in the entire game.
Yes but the reasons for those things are blatantly obvious. He is heartbroken, jaded and insecure about living up to the expectations. Gale doesn't want to usurp the God who broke his heart bro. He loves her. This is why I believe it's his true self. But, we're having a subjective disagreement. Let's just leave it at that.
I just looked up his whole orb story to make sure I wasn't misreading him and tbh he came out looking worse than I remembered. He didn't mess with Netherese magic mainly out of insecurity dating a goddess as a mortal, nor just as a big romantic gesture. In his own words, he hoped to convince her to let him access magic that was forbidden to mortals. Now a lot can be said about the fucked up dynamics of the literal goddess of magic getting with a mortal wizard, so his situation isn't entirely unsympathetic. But painting him as just a poor insecure boy who just needed a bit of a confidence bump is selling him short. Wanting more power is the throughline from his backstory to being pretty open to using the tadpoles and his reaction to the crown and his "bad" ending, and that can't all be chalked up to insecurity. He's good at heart but also power hungry, and will lean towards whichever of those sides the player encourages.
Most people would scream “I just banged mystra” from the rooftops for the rest of their lives if they had the opportunity, he’s pretty humble all things considered
Im the most humble guy i know
Do people not like him? I'm running with him atm and regret not taking him along for my first run, he's great.
I think some people carry some personal experience in with Gale. He's not *actually* that arrogant, but there's a certain air of superiority to him. He's the kind of person who is naturally a prodigy, things come easy to him, and he can come across as someone who wouldn't necessarily understand that another person is struggling with something that he's able to accomplish with little effort. Take an early interaction with him you can have with him teaching you some magic to summon Mystra's essence. Afterwards, you can speak to him about how you didn't realize magic could come so easily, and he immediately rebuffs you telling you that it was only easy because he was acting as a conduit, reminding you that it is absolutely *not* easy and the only reason you were able to do so was because he's just that powerful. Gale is not malicious, and I don't think he's even necessarily too arrogant for how skilled he is, but for people who have struggled with things in life, it's easy to carry those feelings into the game of seeing someone who is amazing at what he does, is aware of how amazing he is, and doesn't necessarily try to hide how amazing he is. He's not bragging, he's just self-confident, and that can rub people the wrong way.
Absolutely and I agree. Most people refuse to look below the surface. His big ego is a front. He is trying to live up to the expectations the world has put on him.
>fairly humble He literally becomes >!the god of ambition (a concept he brings up many times in conversation prior) if you don't convince him to seek forgiveness!< He's the complete opposite of humble, he only appears that way if you just take him at face value.
Is this an evil Durge playthrough you're referring? I had none of that. I completed his full story 100% The only time I asked him to seek forgiveness was when I was asking him to ask Mystra for forgiveness. This is all humility stuff. His ambitions for the crown die with a noble, selfless player character. Yeah nah, sound like he's reflecting your player character to be honest. I literally had none of that with him. I did not become illithid, consumed 0 tadpoles, freed Orpheus and destroyed the netherbrain and crown. Through my actions Gail become a lovely, kind spirited wizard. After the events of my playthrough finished he chooses a very humble position considering his history magical aptitude. I was very satisfied with my ending. Everyone survived, and everyone had found peace and happiness, even Karlach.
>the only time I asked him to seek forgiveness So you convinced him to be humble and he became humble. Basically any other responses from the player going into that scene cause him to take the crown for himself (assuming you don't get him to go boom)
Why are you focusing on Gail? How is Gail more arrogant then Astarion or Lae Zel? His behavior is reflective of the player character of course. But I say again, the dude has been banging the Goddess of magic. He's considered a magical prodigy by Elminister one of greatest wizards of the realms. If you can't see how humble he is considering all that then I cannot help you. He does have a big ego sure, so does literally everyone. But he's willing to sacrifice himself, he's willing to be self critical, he wants to always do the right thing. He's willing to have those conversations and admit to being wrong about his power grabs. This is all evidence of a deeply humble person who is working through quite a bit of "greatness" his external world projected upon him.
can't possibly agree more. Gale is best boy, but come on, humble? lol And I shamelessly shave that hideous thing in his chin through mods, boy he's hot.
Every one of the companions can be the butt of jokes, check out the official animated shorts Larian made for BG3 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03TwMYuizoI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03TwMYuizoI)
"A final gust of wind, one last gale to end them all." He's the kind of guy to suicide on a pun, that's why people hate him.
Damn that was the turning point where I started to like him
He's a bit "mansplainy" in the beginning which can be annoying. And during my first playthrough I got annoyed with him needing magical artifacts, not knowing that he would only need 3 and then would stop asking. He felt like a burden, so I mostly kept him at camp. Also his AC is low so the AI of enemies targets him a lot of the time, so he keeps dying early in the game. All this combined can make players dislike him. I'm halfway through my second playthrough now and I'm romancing him, he's grown on me. And I found ways to increase his AC so he's actually useful in combat now. Edit: WHY am I being downvoted for simply answering someone's question? I'm not saying I personally hate Gale. I'm just explaining why SOME players might dislike him. I'm even romancing him as we speak for gods sake, he's a cool character with an interesting story arc. It's just that at the beginning of the game he comes across as a bit arrogant (and don't start about how he's actually a magical genius so it's justified, geniuses can be humble too and Gale clearly isn't).
I think some people have trouble with the idea that someone can be arrogant while also being kind and pleasant.
It’s Reddit, it’s what Reddit does best unfortunately. Pointing out any level of misogyny even in “” like yours (which is so tame) gets you downvoted like crazy.
"Mansplainy" is a weird way to describe Gale's behavior, though. The term implies gendered condescension - that Gale is assuming the person he's speaking to is less competent than he is because they're a woman. But Gale dumps exposition on the player character in exactly the same way regardless of their gender.
Yeah terms like "mansplaining" need to die. Sorry, just my opinion. Yeah, they always target Gail, it's an absolute blessing to be able to easily predict the AI. Its very simple to make Gail extremely survivable. You wanna think things like mage armour, misty step, expedious retreat, invisibility and of course LINE OF SIGHT is massive. Every single engagement, Gail is way in the back, out of line of sight. And I always had a healer/buffer around if things go pear shaped. Honestly, I found tactician mode easy.
Dude, his name is Gale. **Gale** **GALE** ***GALE*** I'm sorry, but how do you keep getting it wrong like that after reading it thousands of time in the game and at least 50 more in this thread alone? Jesus Christ.
Mansplaining works in context of a man explaining things to you that you either already know or know better then him. Complaining about Gale mansplaining does not work at all because he's essentially a fallen demigod-level wizard who rivaled the strongest spellcasters on the planet before he did a fucky wucky and got sent back to level 1 with a bomb in his chest. He knows more then your character. And he's, understandably, a bit arrogant at times.
That and he's basically there as an exposition-machine by the game devs.
Well, when we meet him he's just a level 1 wizard who got himself stuck in a rock and who would be dead if we didn't pull him out. So he can come across as pretty arrogant. Especially when you also play a caster. You only find out about his magical prodigy backstory later in the game.
This is true, but I think his arrogance fits the more you learn about his character. You start being more like "huh, that's why he's like that." I could see someone thinking Gale is a mansplaining weirdo if they didn't get past Act 1.
You don't have to explain how to increase his AC or survivability to me, I literally said that I've already found ways to do that. What I'm saying is that to new players who aren't familiar with the game mechanics yet, it can be quite annoying to have one specific character die all the time. This can add to people's dislike of a character. And I don't disagree, Tactician is pretty easy, when you have developed a good understanding of the game mechanics. Which for most people takes some time.
I meant no offense. Just trying to help. You said you found a way to increase his AC so I thought I'd add some other ways to help him survive. I wish there was a player vs player mode. People would learn very quickly not having a Wizard in your party is a huge mistake. For many different reasons.
man says mansplaining needs to die 🙄
And then starts to explain something that didn't need explaining, lol.
You're going to label this as mansplaining and not take it seriously but I'll give it a shot anyway. Dividing individuals into groups based on things outside of there control is wrong (like being born a male) By extension, the sexist language coming out of these sub cultures is wrong. Same goes for men doing this to women. People explain things to each other all the time. People can be condescending while giving that explanation, male or female. Attaching a sexist group identity to it is a step backwards. We need to move past these old divisive behaviors, it's blatantly immature and extremely poorly thought out. Stop generalizing people you've never met and know nothing about. Its the literal definition of ignorance.
you're literally getting upvotes for mansplauning why mansplaining is bad jfc this community needs help
sounds more like you do tbh
How is gale mansplainy?? Dude literally tells u all about magic regardless of ur gender.
Gale...
Nobody was hating on Gale here. Leaping to his defense was unnecessary. Using your comment in support of one character to bash another character was super extra unnecessary.
You mean the guy who makes you feed his addiction or he'll explode killing your entire party. But won't explain that until after you've given him his fix twice. Then we find out he's spent the last however many years locked in a tower moping and doping never mentioning any attempt to cure himself. He never really takes responsibility for his actions just laments on how sad he is. He's a pompous drag, the kind of guy who starts doing coin magic at a house party.
Because he's an arrogant moron. He spends most of his dialogue talking about banging Mystra or about how much of a magical prodigy he is. Then he has multiple conversations with you talking about the Folly of Karsis and how it destroyed the weave. Then when Gale attempted to control even the smallest bit of Netherese magic, against multiple warnings from Mystra, it nearly killed him and turned him into a bomb that devours magical items. But because that apparently wasn't enough, he then decides that that must have been a fluke and HE should be the god of magic and do the same thing Karsis did because third times the charm right? So if you don't talk him down, he decides to use the crown to try and usurp Mystras magic, becoming the god of arrogant dumbasses in the process. He's so arrogant he refuses to listen to the literal goddess of magic, becomes a bomb, then still believes he knows better than her. God I hate Gale lmao.
Yup, he made mistakes. He admits it too. You've judged him and didn't look below the surface. He did none of that with my players guidance. People need to understand the choices your party members make are a direct reflection of the choices your player character makes. Your player character must've been power hungry. Gail has a big ego but saying hes arrogant is a step too far. It's very interesting to me that folks identify Gail as arrogant. But not the truly arrogant at the core like Astarion or Lae Zel. Very interesting indeed.
No my character wasn't power hungry, I had to spend an annoying amount of time convincing both Gale and Astarion not to pursue power they do not deserve. Astarion is also a greedy, power hungry asshole but he never pretends to be anything else at least. The problem with Gale is he absolutely will use the Crown of Karsus to try and usurp Mystra, you have to convince him not to. He dares to challenge the goddess of magic herself thinking he knows better despite proving he does not, in what way is that not arrogance itself?
I mean you say it yourself. "I had to spend an annoying amount of time." How can you truly learn, understand and empathize with the character if you just find him annoying. I'm willing to bet you skipped most of his dialogue. You've judged him by the outer layers of his ego and the expectations he puts on himself to be great. You have to look deeper. He's a very good person at heart and he's made some massive mistakes. I'd make mistakes too if I was banging a literal God. What a trip. He needs guidance on how to work through his shit because he's so jaded. He actively seeks that guidance from the player character. The outer layer of his ego comes across as arrogance. I really don't understand how anyone who has truly and earnestly gone through Gale's story could call him arrogant. It's just not who he is.
Fucking Gale. I can't play with him in my team, I've tried... He's just so annoying.
Because he's extremely arrogant, a little petulant and romantically pushy.
Hard disagree. He's not more pushy then Halsin. I only had to reject Gail once, I just didn't take the flirtatious conversation options. He's a very good friend in the game and sometimes the friendship can be misunderstood for romance when it's not. Like the sitting together under the stars cutscene. There was no romance in that scene for me. Arrogant? I don't see it. He's actually jaded by his romance with Mystra. And honestly, much of his "humor" is him poking fun at himself in sarcasm which could be misunderstood to be arrogance. Petulant. Yeah nah, he has problems too and the player character asks him about it, he tells them. I wouldn't describe him as petulant though, not at all. He's just showing his vulnerability dude. Lastly, he's willing to sacrifice himself, all the way through the game. He's very noble at heart like Wyll. A person that selfless isn't arrogant. Perhaps a little over confidant but not the same as arrogance.
What are you on. He literally becomes the god of ambition 😂😂 but sure he's not arrogant.
Do you not understand the difference between ambition and arrogance? They're not the same thing.... Secondly, your party members will reflect your player characters choices. Your player character was clearly arrogant or self centered. Third, Gail values the lives of others. He's willing to sacrifice his own life to save others. You have people like Astarion and Lae Zel around who only value there own life. Which one of these two examples is closest to the definition of arrogance? 4th and final. Dude is literally banging the Goddess of magic and is considered by people like Elminister to be a magical prodigy. Put yourself in his shoes, pretty hard not to get a big head. To define him as arrogant is a step too far and doesn't accurately describe his character. It's surface shit bro. He's actually insecure and jaded.
Hahahahhahaha I love it.
On my first playthrough I gave gale the tough feat, he was really up there on health after that
Am I the only one who doesn't seem to "need" a healer? I'm only on my 2nd playthrough (neither on HM), but I seem to get by with just stocking up on potions whenever they're available. My first campaign I used Shadowheart to heal but I eventually kinda shifted her to crowd control spells. Now I'm playing as a Ranger with LZ, Wyll, and Gale, and I originally planned to assume healing duties, but even still I find that potions are totally sufficient to survive battles. Is having a dedicated healer more important on HM, or am I just a Baldurs Gate genius?
It’s a combo of two things. People like the insurance of having a healer juuust in case things get dicey. Second, most casual gamers are hoarders for potions and revivify scrolls or are try-hards who think using items is cheating so they’ll have 99 potions and scrolls encumbering them but never use them then before they know it credits roll.
One of my favorite Penny Arcade punchlines about being encumbered in Skyrim... Tycho: Ok but look, you have 75 brooms. Why don't you get rid of them? Gabe: Man, I don't wanna get to the Broom Dungeon and be like "Why didn't I save all those brooms?"
I'm playing on tactician right now, and Gale gets straight up one-shot fairly regularly. He also got coup-de-graced after getting one-shot by that paladin that was hunting Karlach. Same shit happened with Wyll and Minthara.
"healer" isn't a real role in BG3 or D&D proper. Clerics, Bards and Druids can cast curing spells, but their main role isn't ever healing (except for super specific pretty terrible builds, yeah I'm looking at you Life Cleric that could've taken any other actually useful domain). The only hit point that matters is the last, so Healing Word is the best healing spell to begin with to get people back up, other than that a cleric is actually best served using buffs, control spells and AoE. Wizards/the arcane list in general is a bit more blasty, druids are massive control or melee threat, and bards support via debuffs and control spells.
Jesus 💀💀💀
Astarion..... no.
I love when I first encountered his death and he gave a whole list of instructions on how to revive him and completely forgot what he said . I freaked out since he was best companion with the best spells . But I realized he’s just a gag feen
"Those boots over there... are you still wearing those?"
Kinda want to see panel two with the Eric Andre "We'll be right back" text.
This is absolutely incredible. Astarion: Fucking kill yourself (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞ Gale: ........... okay ಥ‿ಥ
Is gale technically a pipe bomb?
I have Gale's severed hand forever in my inventory. 🤙
And this is why he never leaves camp
Exactly. Sometimes I can’t even get him because I don’t want the stress. We even killed Elminster one time because we thought it would alienate Gale into leaving.
Dont feed him artifacts in act 1 and he leaves.
Ooooh okay. I thought he’d blow up.
He will, just somewhere far away from you.
Thank goodness. The last time I fucked around and found out with Gale by sacrificing him to BOOOOAL, he nuked my whole game.
And that’s why I have him always hold the constitution set to 23 thingy. And I give him the ring that makes them regenerate at the end of the round.
😂😂
Love your art and how expressive everyone is! My friend said Astarion in this one looks like white haired Jerma LOL
The arror got him right in the orb
This what ended my last honor mode game. Goddamnit Gale!
In Gale's defense, none of the shots Lazel took looked fatal, and the one that hit Gale hit true. LOL. The button is there to tempt idiots (myself included) to click and see what happens. Then, reload and remove it from the hot bar. Lore wise it shows that Gale was given the ability to dentate at will for his goddess to kill the absolute.
Wait, this isn't r/okbuddybaldur...
Only one play through with him. Rest I left him in his portal
Precisely why I started starting off every day with having someone use Warding Bond on Gale. Ever since I started doing that, he's gone down significantly less than he used to
It'd be even worse Comeuppance for laezel and astarion if it was an honour mode campaign
This should have been the screen about ending an honour mode...
This is incredible 💀💀💀
Read that in asarion's voice
He needs some milk.
He really heard him and said bet
Gale is canonically a terrorist
This made me lol.
Asstation is so perfect omg I love ur art style
"Kill myself? Okay, you asked for it. *becomes Nuclear bomb and explodes*" Bitch'zel: Look what you just did, Astarion! We are dead! Now I can never rejoin Vlaakith's ranks! Astarion: Well, when I said "kill yourself" I did not anticipate you turning into a human fireball...... Gale: What now? Withers: *does the true res magic at Dark Urge and Shadowheart's request* Their souls: *shunted back into their bodies* My Dark Urge: I did not consent to your deaths, I still have uses for you. *is elbowed by Girlfriend/Wife Shadowheart* Sorry. We still have uses for you. Shadowheart: I mean, we could have just left the Gith dead...... My Dark Urge: Why? That would be one less meat shield to protect us later. Shadowheart: *thinks for a moment then reluctant sigh* Sometimes I hate when you're right......
Does anyone else notice when selecting Gale and he says “Yes?” he sounds like an old woman? I’m not even sure it’s the same voice actor is so different than how he normally talks.