Gale's personal quest has, to my knowledge, been buggy for Avatar-Gale since release, because I discovered yet a new one recently, I thought I might as well make a thread about all of the bugs, sort-of-bugs and sprinkle in a few drops of wishful thinking at the end. Maybe listing all the issues in one place instead of (or in addition to) separate bug reports, can help fixing them.
The Bugs
1 - Telling your companions about the Orb
If you recruit the other tadpolees before Gale has consumed his first magical item, all of them will comment on Gale tending to his condition for the first time. Shadowheart's dialogue, however, is bugged: She is missing the line to confess the whole situation, simply telling her that you consumed the item ends the conversation without a reply, and telling her that you don't want to talk about it triggers a generic line. Most of the conversation feels like it is just a placeholder.
If you recruit the companions after Gale has consumed his first magical item, only Lae'zel and Wyll have an option to confess Gale's situation to them. In comparison to other confession scenes (e.g. Avatar-Astarion confessing his vampirism or Shadowheart confessing her Shar worship) both feel a little lacklustre. Without the narrator reflecting on your hopes and worries about how your companions might react to revealing your dark - and in this case very dangerous - secret, the scenes lack the suspense they should have - especially if you take the severity of Gale's secret into account.
A greater issue is that you have no chance to talk about the Orb to Astarion, Karlach or Shadowheart should you have recruited them too late. As Avatar-Gale's condition triggers after your first long-rest, there is a good chance that you have not recruited anyone by this time. While you have a second chance to confide in Astarion during bite-night, I can't see how anyone ever recruits Karlach before long-resting once when not rushing through the game on purpose. It's a shame, because I feel some effort was put into her version of the conversation, a chest-bomb shared is a chest-bomb halfed and all that.
There is also an oddity in how the confessions register. Usually you only have to confess something once in order for it to be known to everyone. For example if Avatar-Astarion confesses his vampirism to Gale or Shadowheart, and recruits Lae'zel and Wyll afterwards, both of them will already know that he is a vampire. If Avatar-Gale confesses his situation to Astarion or Shadowheart however (I haven't tried with Karlach), Lae'zel and Wyll will still be unaware of it and need to be told separately. This might be relevant for point 2.
2 - Elminster stabilising the Orb
When Elminster stabilses Avatar-Gale's Orb upon entering the Shadow-Cursed Lands, only Lae'zel reliably comments on the event. If you trigger Elminster's scene at the Mountain Pass, Wyll also comments on it. The comments of the other companions never trigger.
3 - Elminster inviting Gale to see Mystra in act 3
Wyll's reaction has the wrong dialogue. He talks about Gale in third person ("Mystra wants to meet Gale? Impressive.") instead of addressing him directly. It seems like his dialogue for Companion-Gale is playing.
Minthara's pep-talk doesn't trigger, she instead comments on Elminster's act 2 visit, at least when you KO-recruit her. (It is the same for Companion-Gale.)
4 - Companion reactions after the audience with Mystra
While the companion reactions for a rebellious or cautious meeting work as expected, no one will have anything to say if Gale promises to return the Crown to Mystra or vows to use the Orb to destroy it after all.
Minthara's comment never plays, no matter what you choose.
Astarion's comment when declaring you want the Crown for yourself is clipped. The "I didn't know you had it in you." doesn't play.
5 - Meeting Tara again in the Lower City
When Tara reappears at camp after Gale met with Elminster in front of Sorcerous Sundries, her facial animations during "Well then. No sense delaying a conversation like that. Who knows when she'll next demand you blow yourself up, after all?" do not play, he mouth doesn't move.
When Tara flies off after talking to her in the aftermath of Gale's audience with Mystra, she clips through the balustrade in Lower City Harbour Camp. She also reappears at her spot when the area reloads (if you pop over to Minthara and then return to the central area, Tara is back.) and the conversation is repeated eternally when clicking on her. The gravest error however is, that we cannot give her one last good pet to say good bye before she returns to Waterdeep. Really, we cannot let our best girl leave like this!
The above interactions are also very easily missed completely because they only play if you have found and interacted with Tara twice in the Lower City. Both of those interactions are disappointing since she treats Gale much like she would a normal Tav and her dialogue is very unfriendly compared to her other interactions with Gale. This does not exactly encourage finding her a second time after meeting her on top of the Devil's Fee, making you miss her camp scenes as a consequence. Her input on Gale's quest feels important to me because she has been our moral support throughout the game, so I think it would be good if she visited the camp even if you hadn't found her twice before. It would also be lovely if her dialogue at her two hunting spots would be a little more fleshed out for Avatar-Gale.
6 - God-Gale's romantic ambitions
When choosing to become the God of Ambition during the final encounter with Mystra, the scene is currently followed by the normal romance scene in High Hall during which you plan a future with your partner. The romance is only broken afterwards.
7 - Missing Letters
Human Avatar-Gale is currently not receiving his letter from Elminster in the Chest of Grateful Words during the epilogue party.
The Inconsistencies
8 - Gale's tainted blood - part one
When you bite Gale with Astarion in the open world, Astarion gets poisoned, does not get a happy buff and Gale is fine and without a bloodless debuff. Neither Elminster stabilising the Orb nor Astarion ascending changes anything about this (though Astarion neither gets poisoned nor happy when using Ascended Bite - this maybe doesn't work as intended either). This is confirmed by the narration through Astarion's unpleasant experience during bite-night as well as through an act 3 romance banter (the one patch 7 is supposed to restore) during which Gale offers his blood and Astarion refuses it on the basis of its taste.
For Avatar-Gale this is forgotten halfway through act 1.
While Avatar-Gale cannot get Astarion's high approval romance scene (the one before the party) and has modified conversation when talking with Astarion about how the other companions might taste, Avatar-Gale can offer Astarion nightly blood like a normal Tav (Astarion isn't even snarky about it), from which Astarion gets happy and Gale gets bloodless. Astarion happily bites Gale during sex and later on, Ascended Astarion can turn him into his spawn without an issue. Under the previously established conditions, all of this shouldn't work or at least should provoke a unique reaction.
I understand that you probably don't have the resources to create special cinematics for every niche situation, but it would be nice to at least add an explanation for why drinking Gale's blood is suddenly ok. Maybe lemon-drop-blood is an acquired taste, maybe the joy of being allowed to drink outshines the disgusting taste. The way it currently is handled, though, makes it feel like a bug or at least an oversight.
9 - Gale's tainted blood - part two
When examining the tadpole, neither Halsin, Omeluum nor Ethel recognise that the tadpole is tainted by the same magic as the wizard who carries it. While Halsin and Omeluum probably simply do not care, Ethel has such a violent reaction to the Netherese magic imbuing the tadpole, that it is weird she does not comment on the whole wizard being affected by it.
10 - A lack of affection
While everyone opposes Gale's wish to follow Mystra's demand in act 2, they show hardly any such emotions in act 3. As far as I can tell from looking at the extracted dialogue, they don't react differently if Gale promised Mystra to sacrifice himself than when he simply promises her to return the Crown. At the end, during the reflective moment at the brain stem, when you can choose to have Gale send his companions away to safety, they similarly are pretty much ok with Gale blowing himself up and not even your romanced partner tries to make you reconsider your decision. This feels very cold and uncaring.
In act 2 you can lean into the self-sacrificial angle, because Tara, Elminster and your friends (well, at least best girl Lae'zel) urge you to reconsider. I wish that the corresponding situations in act 3 would offer similar roleplay opportunities. (By contrast, I think the comments when you simply express doubts before climbing the brain stem are all great.)
The wishful thinking
11 - A very short dock scene
Because Mystra initially had no chill, Avatar-Gale now has a super short dock scene which is missing the middle portion between him contemplating the Crown and Karlach burning up. It might not be much, but I feel the without this little moment of shared community when the future looks bright for all of them and they contemplate continuing their adventures together, something is missing from the scene, emotionally. It would be nice if Gale could get a complete dock scene.
12 - God-Gale's broken romance
It's sad that a romance which Gale broke by ascending, isn't addressed at all by his former partner in the epilogue. Take, for example, a version of him who had previously been Astarion's spawn. It's such a weird and interesting power dynamic that it's a shame this isn't touched upon in any way. (Unless this has been changed recently)
13 - Expressing Gratitude
And, to make it a lucky 13, It's maybe a personal thing, but it made me happy when I could choose to defy Mystra's orders because of Gale's new found friends and when later, during the audience, there was an option to confess that he met someone new who inspired his will to live. Player agency is a topic often mentioned in this forum, and I feel a part of this agency is the ability to show our pixel friends how much we care about them. Being able to hug Shadowheart after the completion of her quest was a popular request fuelled by this desire.
With Avatar-Gale I would like a few more options to somehow show or tell his companions how great they are. I felt this most strongly after Astarion's romance scenes in act 3 when he twice thanks you for believing in him and you have no option to return the sentiment. I know I am sauntering into "you need to write fanfiction" territory here but it is a moment that frustrates me a little - and it would be a very cool opportunity to make the Origin felt.
Last edited by Anska; 30/08/24 05:19 PM.
