Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback On why Gale dies too much

Lariasn has revealed that Gale is the character that dies most. Why?

In my opinion is because the tweaks that Larian has made to the game, have made the ranged combat much more important than the melee. This is especially bad for magic users as they tend to have fewer HP and CA than the other party members. The best way to get rid of a mage is via archers and the importance of ranged combat in this tweaked D&D/DoS makes spellcaster to suffer.

For comparisons, in BGIII I always use the bows with all characters but in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, I would never use ranged combat for "melee-designed" characters. In BG III, I don't always reach my enemy in melee, so sometimes I just shot and move. Besides, sometimes it's simply much better to "create a surface" using ranged combat than go to melee. 100% accuracy and usually more damage.

Did any one try mage armor on him to buff his AC?!

All they say he dies the most but not how and by what and you also assume that you deal with semi intelligent humans playing the game not idiots who will let there characters stand in aoe fier or acid areas until they are dead.
Did you ever play a MMORPG? When you start dealing with other "humans" and there "situational awareness" you start being surprised. I start ether feeling like a God because you made the connection Fier= hot = me + standing fier = bad = move out

While other cant make that simple connection or you simply loose all faith in humanity at all.

Unfortunately I didnt have the chance to play too many MMORPG, RPG a lot, but not MMORPG. All of the knowledge I have regarding MMORPG can ve summarized in "please do not call idiots to other players".

Besides, its irelevant, in RPG, you generally try to take the wizard first, so Mage armor on or not, i would always try to hit him. A moderate AC is irrelevant if you have advantage in a ranged attack, and its useless against AoE/surfaces.

With mage armour he should be at least, if not more survivable than, Shadowheart at the start (her stats are terrible). But even I often forget to cast it a lot, and there would be people who don't even understand how it works properly.

My theory is though that the AI tends to prioritise characters with low AC and HP, and as a wizard Gale tends to fall into this category (especially without mage armour).

Low level wizards are fragile in D&D.

Thought they fixed this for 5E I know the HP dice is not spectacular but I remember they gave wizards tools to not be complete dweebs doing birthday tricks during early levels

I mean they have tools to be survivable, but they're still the most physically fragile out of the box.

Yes, I get that mages are squishy in D&D.

The issue is that in D&D there is not so much ranged combat, so to kill the wizard you need to reach him, and the party will take care of this not happening.

besides, in D&D there is a cover mechanics, which makes wizards be able to protect themshelves.

(Spoiler Warning)

So I have pretty much only played multiplayer, and after while Gale will just straight up ambush the party at the camp, and then ask you to revive him.
If he is doing this in single player games, then I wouldn't be surprised that he has died that many times.

Having run Warlock as MC multiple times, first one pretty much perma Wyll in party as well, I've had no issue with survivability. Shadow Armour is cute but not really needed (it means giving up agonising blast, repelling blast or talking to your doge) . It's a class that rewards good positioning and with a lot of tools for taking, holding high ground. And as much as being stuck with Pact of Chain sucks it does mean you also have your imp to do some blocking and pummelling of the enemy squishies.

Actually I read Larian's comment to mean he did four times more damage than the other companions rather than he received more damage. If you look at the comment about Shadowheart being the only companion to die more often than the player character that would seem to confirm it.

Yeah, that's how I understood it. Shadowheart dies most often.

i think by party-member kill-rate 4 time higher than any npc in the game they mean that he killed his own party member more than any monster or boss in the game

due to necrotic aura on death most likely

I have to assume Gale dies too much because of how people are playing. Gale is a wizard and should be held back and protected. I have lost Gale only one time and that was a TPK due to an unexpectedly dangerous trap in the Underdark. I still haven't actually played through everything, but I think I'm getting there and at this point I don't really expect anything to get particularly harder.

i really dont think gale dies too much people are missunderstanding the larian statement... if shadowheart is the only companion to die more than the player character it means that the ranking goes like this

#1 most death = shadowheart
#2 most death = player character
rest of the ranking unknown

at WORST gale is 3rd on the list, which is nowhere near of an issue compared to shadowheart wearing a shield and being supposedly tanky and being number one on the death count, and we dont have any material to claim that "gale dies too much"

mine never died i had to kill him myself with party member just to get his quest

he is the caster so therefore he is focused more, do to sheer amount of damage. Shadowheart is healer so she is 2nd, sometimes first target target. Tank is last being hardest to kill even when focused, and if healer is up makes it even harder.

simply tactics that the AI in game seem to be actually using.

Shadowheart dying the most is probably do to fact she is healer of most groups. So when other people go down she heals them allowing them to get up, and also have more then one hp.

Lariasn has revealed that Gale is the character that dies most. Why?

Shouldn't listen to Lariasn.
Larian, who published the game, and has actual info, said Shadowheart was the NPC that dies most.

Yeah I’ll be honest he dies all the time for me but it’s because I’m not playing the game ‘for him’ he just happens to be the least durable of the people I don’t care about. But that’s 100% my fault.

I almost wish the other characters played their own turns like DnD. I have no interest in figuring out the min/max tactics for a character I didn’t build, class I didn’t like enough to choose myself. At least in the beginning so I could see what they’re supposed to do.

Like when they introduce Wyll, he jumps in and wrecks a bunch of goblins the first battle. He didn’t seem to have any of those abilities or competency Once I was in control of him. So I was just like ‘idk, cast witch bolt and stay out of my way, idc.’

Because you are not hiding him after every attack.

This lol


But seriousy a lot of people posting videos aren't even using mage armor on him XD. You can also put shield of faith or something else to up his AC, or his hitpoints so that every enemy doesn't B line straight for him every fight.