Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Overwriting conversation triggers.

Gah! I don't understand. I just had reason to reload my save from just before the branch between 1a and 1b mentioned above and rest multiple times to try to check out a different bug. And this time, despite the fact Gale hadn't died and I was still level 4, I got Astarion's mirror scene, then Gale's deer stew scene, then the Mystra scene and then the scene in which he tells me about his loss of power, all interspersed with some owlbear cub interactions. And then I had the chance to spend the night with him at the party. I don't understand why it panned out differently this time. User error, I imagine, but I guess it's good news that Gale will in some circumstances progress his quest with high early approval and without dying.

There's still something seriously wrong with the pacing here, though, as he didn't even tell me about his problem until two nights after the goblin leaders were already dead, so the party could already have happened if I'd gone back to the grove. I guess in the full game there might be opportunities to progress a romance later if you've not got to that point before the party, in which case it wouldn't matter so much. Though both the weave and loss scenes are nice ones and it would be a pity to miss out on them, but they would need to progress slightly differently if Gale had already told you his bedtime story after the party.

I had to kill him in camp and the resurrect him via his easy 123stepz lol to get the scene to progress. Zevlor was prolly getting impatient as they were wanting to party at my camp.

Edit
Oh and yes it finally progress after about 700 owlbear and doggo scenes. So many long rests… ugg

Either that ...
Or you just talked to him before different trigger overwrited it ...

Dunno, its really hard to gues when we are in the dark here.
Would be so much easier if someone from Larian would care enough to tell us how is it working, if nothing else ... then at least so we know wich one is bug and wich one is really bad design. :-/

My game is bugged, in... a lot of ways. Noteably in this case, Gale knows everything I do.

I first triggered the artefact scene on day 1. He said "he's been watching me" pointed out how I stopped the fight between that human and Zevlor. And confessed his crimes just like that

I thought that's how it works now, but apparently not?

Anyway, Gale is very, very glitched! My entire companion progression seems wonky, but not omniscient wizard wonky. I can't even see anyone's approval notifs outside camp because the one and only observer is of course GALE. Yet the sliders move. So they must know, right? I never get ! prompts or comments, but they must know, surely? It's maddening...

That's just what you get for using a glitch to travel with custom party members I guess

I think the scene normally kicks in when you first rest at some specific approval level - maybe medium? Or high? But given his approval can easily jump from neutral to very high on a wander through the druid grove with him, it’s possible to miss triggering the scene by just not resting at the appropriate approval level.

It looks as though there is (now?) some contingency programming to trigger the scenes even at very high approval, but the logic of when this happens is unclear and the pacing still wonky.

Hopefully once Larian have the full release to play with, they’ll make it possible to spread this companion content out more rather than having to cram so much in before the party or lose it, given the party could easily happen after just two or three days. I don’t need companion interactions to come quite so thick and fast, and what we have early in EA feels like a pace it would be hard to keep up through the whole game. We already see companion interactions die down dramatically after the party if we’ve maximised them before it. I do expect Larian to add new interactions in this post-party period for full release, but would also be more than happy if they also adjusted some of the current ones so they could happen on a free night later in the game. In principle, I’m happy with forcing us to pace companion interactions to one major one per rest rather than spending ages in camp to run through different interactions one night and then have deadly silence on other nights. But I do think that approach should be limited to interactions that feasibly could have a variation appear at any point in the story, rather than ones that are timebound and will not happen at all once other plot points have been reached.

EDIT: Again testing something else, I had reason to load my save before the party at level 4 with no Gale quest progression. This time, I triggered the romance with Wyll, and didn't talk to Gale at all so he never offered his bedtime story. Then over the next few nights I got his deer stew, Mystra and loss scenes (and was able to "share an intimate moment" with him, despite having romanced Wyll), but I then rested a fair few more times but he never offered the bedtime story so perhaps that only comes at the party, or perhaps there is or will be another trigger later. This makes me think that the romance arc still might work but over a longer period come the full release if we don't spam rest early, but that there are still some bugs in the conversation triggers, such as the one that had Gale tell me his bedtime story as though he'd previously told me of his problem even though he hadn't (possibly because I'd had him read the Necromancy of Thay).

His approval was neutral(ish?). I fought at the gate, went to the crypt with Shadowheart to grab the spear and rested. Nothing else. Maybe I messed my scenes up a bit by not using the tadpole. Lae'Zel still hasn't tried to kill me. Will she even if you don't?

I don’t think tadpole use makes any difference to Gale’s scenes, though it is hard to be sure. In the playthrough I was testing above, my main character never used their tadpole, but on the game day just before the chain of dialogue mentioned in my 12 Jan post, the Flind warlord had accosted Astarion rather than my druid, and he had used his tadpole to force her to turn on her pack, so I wouldn’t rule it out. In fact, what I was trying to test by repeat resting again was whether I got the “Where are you?” dream voice in this case, which Larian support had said I should but I didn’t. Which could well have been because it was overwritten by other triggers.


She won’t. She’ll only do this when everyone starts feeling ill, which will only happen after some tadpole uses. This one, I think, does make sense!

the first time you use the tabpole triggers the "where are you" at next rest... you must use it again to trigger the Lae'zel attack and get sick
after that you can use it once more to get the 'lests not do that again" scenes + not using the tabpole = you don't get these but some of the other cut sences 'assume' you did

p.s, all these cut scenes give you options to gain or lose points with your party but most of the outcomes are pretty obvious

Interesting. Will I not even get Raphael without use?

Raphael should still turn up, I believe.

his script triggers on hitting level 3... it may take a few rests before he shows up but its not tabpole use related

Oh, that's neat. Thank you! I rested rarely with this party until midgame because Gale already demanded an artefact. Though, I guess no Raphael means he shouldn't be able to sell his soul? Dubious, didn't quite want to find out.

One assumes selling your sole to Raphael means it goes into a coin after you die... What I want know is do we get the chance to resurrect BEFORE that happens or perhaps we can buy it back with another soul coin?

No you are no longer a candidate for raise dead, resurrection, or reincarnate if you have lost your soul - you would have to bargain with the devil or demon to get permission for a rez spell to be cast on you.

Generally though you would immediately be reincarnated as a Lemur, Dretch or Mane and begin your long slow journey up the demonic hierarchy. Thankfully most of your memories would be lost in the process of becoming a Dretch, mane, or Lemur - although you would have occasional flashes of your former life which would just fuel your rage.


Enjoy eternity fighting the blood war.

Don’t worry! I’ll win this blood war in my lemur form!😜