Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General How is Gale even alive?

He's first level yet says he's done this super powerful act and is now carrying around a curse inside of him that forces him to absorb artefacts in order to live? How is this guy even still alive? He's first level? He has to absorb artefacts? Where is he getting them all from that have allowed him to still be alive? Again, he's first level. Can anyone clear up this confusion for me please? I obviously don't know the whole story I am guessing. This is not a complaint, it's an honest and very curious question.

I think the implication is that he was once a very powerful wizard (perhaps even a Chosen of Mystra?) but that the orb, or the magic he needs to expend to restrain the orb, has drained him so badly that he's effectively been reduced to level 1.

EDIT: In the, probably unlikely, event of him having been an actual Chosen of Mystra during the Second Sundering, it is also possible that Mystra's turning from him was not merely a personal rejection but also involved removal of additional powers granted as the result of his status of Chosen. With the end of the Second Sundering, I believe many gods removed powers from their Chosen though I'm not sure if Mystra was one of these. But the timelines would line up I think, as that would have been a handful of years before BG3 takes place. Though if that happened, it would have been pre-orb, so he'd still need to have been powerful enough after that point to at least try to access the Netherese magic.

I have gotten the impression that he was a chosen of Mystra myself also. That's the way he makes it sound anyway. As for him being only level one due to the orb draining him that makes total sense. Thanks for pointing out something that should have been obvious to me. Lol.

Since it is implied that it is the tadpole that "leveldrained" all of your companions, i figured the same would apply to Gale. Don't really se why he would get a special treatment.

That's not the impression I'd got.

If we look at the companions:

• Shadowheart has been memory-wiped by Sharrans, that could explain why she doesn't recall how to use most of her powers if she was ever more powerful than she is now (which we don't know, though if she has some connection to Moonhaven then she might be significantly older than she looks and so it would make sense).
• Lae'zel is implied to be pretty young and experienced anyway,.
• Wyll is implied to have been a waste of space pre-Mizora, so with her captured and unable to help him he might have reverted to his pre-pact state. Or perhaps she withdrew her powers anyway after the falling out they'd had just prior to capture.
• Astarion has been kept as a lowly puppet of a master vampire for a couple of centuries. It's not clear if or how he'd have gained power in that time, and prior to that he was a magistrate which doesn't necessarily mean he was experienced in any particular class skills.

Which is not to say you’re not right, of course. There could easily be some clue that I’d missed! But at the very least I think it’s the case for every companion that there’s some other possible explanation for them being low level than the tadpole.

plot is how. I wouldn't overthink it too much.

I had the same impression. I think Gale is the only one who is implied to have once had significantly more power than he has now. Wyll mentions that he is now weaker than before, but I also think this could be due to Mizora being captured.

I'm guessing the curse feeds on his magic, but he's slowly building up a tolerance. Hence able to level up. The artefacts could help in theory, but he's not getting an xp boost for them. It would be interesting If we had to feed him an artefact for each level after a point.

As is, the relationship isn't really explained aside from "literal bomb feeding on magic". I'm personally very curious about how much of the truth he's telling. Some people think he's secretly evil, but that seems a bit too tacky

Wyll shouldn't be a warlock at all, If Mizora would have withdrawn her power. He shouldn't know Eldritch Blast or other spells anymore. I think, that the tadpole is at least partly responsible for the group to be weaker than before.
But I agree, that Gale was probably the most powerful person in the group.

Good point! If I'm right that any loss of power might not be tadpole-related, Wyll's weakness would need to be because Mizora's ability to help him has been compromised so she can't give him much power any more, but still some.

But where's the fun in that?!

fair enough haha, I guess I don't like putting more thought into something than the writers did, but I get it. Ignore me, I'm just a debbie downer

I think Gale is a bit overconfident (I think he was some sort of child prodigy, and maybe this got to his head), and he seems to be quite ambitious. This has led to reckless decisions in his past, and might lead to reckless decisions in his future. What he did to try to win back Mystra's affection was extremely dangerous - well, at least he seems to realize this now. But I am not sure if he has really learned his lesson from this: he is the only one in our group who does not approve if we reject Raphael's offer, because he thinks he could trick Raphael, since he is only a cambion.

As for every companion, I can imagine different paths for Gale. I particularly like that aspect of our companions' character writing.



Personally, I think the writers did put much thought into it, but even if they did not, we can still have a lot of fun here overthinking and overanalyzing everything

Wait, Raphael is only a cambion? Not a "true" devil? I missed that part somewhere/somehow. Where does it tell you that?

Wyll says it during the cutscene in The Middle Of Somewhere.

My far out 100% untrue theory is that Gale is actually a de powered Khelben Arunsun (aka Blackstaff)

I mean he did hint at recognizing Shadowheart’s “secret” Shar worship. Shar is using him to rebuild her shadow weave and Mystra left him because he was seduced by her BFF Shar. That little orb of magic will end up not being weave at all, but a sliver of shadow weave that jump time….

Gale has some banter with Wyll about them not being as powerful as they once were.

Perhaps Gale wasn't as nice as he likes people to believe he is ....

Gale also mentions it when you talk to him after Raphael's offer. He says "Raphael is a cambion, which makes him part human. And what is human, is fallible." (That is the patch 8 version of this dialogue, I don't now if this has changed in patch 9). That's why he thinks that he can beat Raphael at his own game.

I like that you can talk to each companion after this scene, and that they will all give their opinion. I wish there were more situations like that in this game - we are a group after all.

Astarion has been fed on rats and the like his entire undead life, and he flat out says that vampire lords wouldn't give up a servant for a rival, so it is very plausible that he's never really been much more powerful than he is now. His job seems to have been to seduce people to come see the master more than killing people, according to what he tells you.

Warlock Pacts are in a bit of a grey zone when it comes to withdrawal of powers. If the patron could do it that simply, why bother with the Pact? After all, if you can grant a Pact, shouldn't you be able to grant spells to Clerics? Much safer bet, since the withdrawal of Clerical powers is pretty well established and doesn't require you to personally invest in someone. Then there is things like the Great Old One Patron, where we have explicit flavor text in the Player's Handbook that the entity might not even be aware of you drawing upon their magic and knowledge, so you haven't really been "given" anything. You've taken it, intentionally or not.

My hypothesis is that Warlock Pacts aren't something that can be just taken back, nor does it work like the normal divine magic where you're granted spells. Rather, I think a plausible explanation is that you're given a tie to the source of power (the Hells in Wyll's case) and knowledge on how to channel that power. With Mizora captured and Wyll infected, his connection to the Hells is plausibly weakened, in part due to the Netherese (according to Auntie Ethel) magic tied up in these special tadpoles.


For our unconfirmed companions, Karlach and Minsc, we have some simple explanations too. Karlach says it herself; back in the Blood War, Zariel gave her what she needed to get the job done, but now she's back to relying on muscles and steel. And Minsc, I believe, has been petrified for 100 years between BG2 and now.