Hi, I am afraid this is going to be a bit of a long one as I have grouped two bugs that seem related. They occurred in all my saves with Avatar-Gale.
First: When playing as Avatar-Gale the companion comments for Elminster’s visit when entering the Shadow-Cursed Lands do not trigger correctly. At best, Lae’zel and Wyll comment on the situation.
Second: The dialogue for talking about Gale’s condition as Avatar-Gale seems to not register correctly, resulting in faulty memory and missing dialogue options for some companions under fairly ordinary circumstances.
- If you meet Elminster at the Grymforge exit, you can only talk to Lae'zel about the situation.
- If you meet Elminster at the Mountain Pass and have told Lae'zel or Wyll about your condition, you can talk to both of them about the situation.
- If you meet Elminster at the Mountain Pass and have NOT told Lae'zel or Wyll about your condition, you can only talk to ONE of them about the situation.
This seems to be directly related to the second problem: As a reminder, for Avatar-Gale, Arcane Hunger triggers for the first time after your first long rest, during which you have met Tara and she gifted you a magical item. If you have not recruited your companions at this point, only Lae'zel and Wyll have an option to talk about the orb later on. This ordinary chat option seems to be the only one that “counts” and I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that these are the two companions who have a potential reaction to Elminster’s visit.
If you have recruited any or all companions before consuming the first item, the ones present want to talk about where that item went. However, none of the dialogue choices made during this scene have any relevance. The prime example for this is Astarion. If you tell him about your misadventure with the orb, it will be treated as a secret during bite night. If you have told Lae’zel or Wyll about the situation however, you have dialogue to remind Astarion of the orb when he retches foul blood.
Shadowheart's dialogue is also bugged, you cannot confess your condition to her, the evasive answer will just end the conversation and telling her that you don't want to talk about it prompts a standard reply. She does not seem to have any dialogue for this situation.
I feel this whole situation needs some work. I have played both with Avatar-Astarion and Avatar-Shadowheart and their respective confession scenes were both much more simple (everyone knows what’s up if you tell one of them) and more dramatic because in both cases the dialogue gave me an option to worry how my companions would react to my horrible secret. Here, I feel this sense of trepidation is only present in Karlach’s dialogue, who has wonderfully written conversation for this scene that allows you to worry and get reassurance as she coaxes your terrible secret out of you. Unfortunately Karlach’s is also the dialogue you are least likely to encounter unless you rush over the map to reach her before your first long rest.
At the very least all companions should react to Elminster’s visit, and you likewise should have an option to talk to all of them about the orb - both within normal dialogue and during the special scene - and they should, of course, remember what you told them. Adding a few deception/persuasion rolls wouldn’t go amiss either - especially for the options in which you are flat out lying or bend the truth to the breaking point. I think it would also be nice, if newly recruited companions would be suspicious of any items they witnessed disappearing, not just the first. This way Karlach’s great dialogue could for example trigger if she witnessed you consuming the third item instead of the first.
Overall, a greater sense of suspense would be appreciated - but really, I’d just be happy if the scenes simply worked. Especially that nobody but Lae’zel and maybe Wyll has a reaction to Mystra’s expectations, is a huge disappointment. These scenes build the emotional basis of all Gale’s story and it really is such a pity that even a year after release, they still do not work at all.
