Agree greatly with 5-6 of your points
- Gale: 'oh damn we forgot that option'
We have to transform someone into a mindflayer no matter what, even if we intend to let Gale sacrifice himself. We don't have the option of talking to Orpheus about this plan.
A funny bug is that even if he blows-up he still show up looking for the crown. (no one tested the various endings Larian? It took me an hour...)
Feels like last minute reshuffle for an option otherwise viable as early as act 2.
Or come up with a convincing explanation why it would not work on the netherbrain.
Or even better, let us take the risk and it doesn't work... oops.
For this one, I'm 100% sure you get a very small dialogue option with Orpheus, who will dismiss it because he doesn't trust you, and doesn't know what the Netherese Orb is. I think you need Gale in the party, talking with Gale within the Astral Prism isn't necessary
Should this have been a completely viable option? Probably, yes. Its one of the moments where a high difficulty persuasion check would have been highly appropriate, but Larian really didn't want it to be a true option.
- Withers: why?
- Ghithyanki people arc
Both of these are likely to create hype for a definitive edition, or a sequel.
