Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Gale should call for help sooner

I missed Gale entirely, and this seems to be a frequent occurrence. The player is discouraged from touching the “dangerous” portal. We are given no good reason to touch it. Unless you want us to skip this companion, start dialog as soon as we near the portal. Have Gale call for help then, rather than hiding him behind a nonsensical player decision.

"It looks dangerous."

"I touch it!"

At no point was I ever "Discouraged" from touching the portal.

I saw a wierd portal thing and was actively curious about it. The fact that it is marked on the map as one of the fast travel portals (But is unavailable while the strange portal is active) makes it even more obvious that it's not a threat.

The DM says it looks dangerous. You have two options. Leave or touch it.

I'd call that discouraging. Who in their right mind goes around touching things that look dangerous? Why is this even a topic of debate?

I get where the OP is coming from. It's valid feedback, and I've felt the same way every time I've come across Gale. I just kind of overlook it as a part of the game. I know Gale is there so I suck it up and recruit him.

I feel like we should just be able to recruit Gale out of any fast travel point, that makes sense to me. Also this is a video game, I'm shocked anyone wouldn't just go and poke everything to see what happens. I genuinely never imagined people would actively avoid the circle, I thought they only missed it by accident. Especially since it'll trigger just if you get close enough.

Literally everyone says the Goblin Camp is dangerous too.

Yet everyone goes there.

The Shadow-Cursed Lands are also mentioned to be dangerous. So I guess everyone stays in Act 1 forever?

Besides, it only looks "Slightly dangerous".


Because it's a video game?

The portal is mentioned to "Look slightly dangerous" but at this point in the game, you've just survived a crash on a space ship after being infected by a Mind Flayer parasite. Dangerous is relative.

Not to mention when you interact with it, you immediately get Gale's arm sticking out and him asking for help.

Add in the fact that the map indicates it's not dangerous via the fast travel marker.

The end result is it seems illogical to be deathly afraid of the portal to the point of never even interacting with it. Even more so if you've played the game and know that the DM REALLY makes sure you know when something is dangerous (Like the Zaith'isk where you get multiple prompts saying how it's killing you/Lae'zel. Or when interacting with the dying Mind Flayer where you have multiple prompts telling you not to kiss it. Or when you insult Vlaakith and dare her to kill you).

A simply warning of it looking "Slightly dangerous" is not a particularly noteworthy way of discouraging interaction with it.

There's a difference between going to a goblin camp for a reason (which happens to be self-preservation) and touching a random dangerous looking thing for no apparent reason.

And sure, plenty of players do it because it's a game.

But "it's a video game" doesn't factor into some people's decisions when they're roleplaying.

I don't have a "pure" perspective on this since when I played full release I already knew Gale was there, because back in EA the scene would just trigger when you walked by it.
I do think it's a fair assumption that it should be a bit more obvious, I do have several friends who left Gale behind because the game says the portal is dangerous.
I think that kind of stuff is quite common with newbie gamers too, I've recently played most of BG3 with a non-gamer friend and she had really interesting conclusions. She would see that a portal is dangerous and think "well then I guess I shouldn't touch it" while people who game a lot deduce there's at the very least something worthwhile there, otherwise it wouldn't be in the game.

And if that "Slightly dangerous" thing happened to lead to self-preservation?

Honestly, such logic of not touching a random "Slightly dangerous" looking thing for "No apparent reason" precludes a lot of things in the game.

Blood of Lathander? That looks dangerous, ominously floating there in its pedestal with bunches of defenses before it.

The random switch that opens the area where Withers is? That could be dangerous and there's no reason to push it.

Absorbing power from tadpoles? Literally told by people it's dangerous. No reason to do it (Depending on how much you believe random dream visitor).

Activating the Grymforge? Is explicitly mentioned to be dangerous. No reason to do it.

Etc.

The fact that there's "No apparent reason" to do so gives way to "No apparent reason" to not do so. Yes, it *Looks* slightly dangerous, but that's why it's prudent to find out more about it (If at the very least, to stop it from becoming MORE dangerous. Like what if ignoring the portal caused it to expand? What if it opened a gateway to another realm like Avernus?).

It's also not like you have to jump head first into the portal, you just touch the sigil (Not the swirling, dangerous looking magical vortex coming from it). Which then causes Gale to stick his arm out and ask for help (At which point you have the option to deal with the portal itself using magic, ignore it or just pull Gale out)

In terms of apparent danger, what you do is very low on the list before figuring out about Gale. The game is not very discouraging about it with the single prompt to touch the sigil or not, with no visible signs of actual danger (If all the goblin corpses from down the road were instead strewn before the portal, then it would be a more convincing danger for example) and no build up of unease within characters whom are driven by self preservation (There's a single comment about the portal upon walking up to it)

If with all this, someone still thinks it's far too dangerous to interact with... Then having Gale yell for help beforehand would not change anything. Lest they think that saving Gale is too dangerous too (Which it could be considering the bomb inside him) especially given the situation where you still don't know anything about the portal malfunction, who Gale is, what happened to cause the malfunction (Was Gale trying to do something evil? Is he simply trying to lure you into a trap? Is he simply an illusion made by a Mind Flayer or Devil to cause you to release them? etc)

The point of self-preservation is that it's an active plan to get to Halsin, hoping, praying that he might be able to offer a cure. It's not tripping into something that happens to lead into self-preservation.

The danger has to be weighed. You bring up the Blood of Lathander. Obviously, this is presented as a powerful artifact. It's going to entice people because people like powerful artifacts. Thus the danger is weighed versus the possibility of retrieving the mace.

Pressing a button. Buttons are meant to be pressed. There's no narrator telling you the button is dangerous. So again, you weigh the perceived danger versus--in this case--curiosity.

It's not about using meta knowledge. It's about what folks are likely to do in certain situations. Certainly adventurers are less risk averse than most, but generally there's rhyme and reason behind decisions. Assuming the decisions are being made by people who are serious-minded and sane. And to reiterate: without meta knowledge.

You see a swirling mass of chaotic magic. It looks slightly dangerous. What do you do? "I touch it!" <--it's ridiculous on its face.

Between arguing meta points about "knowing how the DM is" and painting everything as "dangerous" regardless of the motivation, I don't think you're engaging in a fair manner.

Again, technically, you don't touch the swirling mass of chaotic magic. You touch the sigil. The sigil your character knows about (As you're aware that it is malfunctioning ergo you know what its correct function is), that your character understands as a fast travel method. That your map indicates is a fast travel method.

Touching the "Slightly dangerous" portal only happens AFTER you touch the sigil and expose Gale and only if you pick certain magical based options to deal with it.


At this point in the game, you've already had time to experience the DM. If you've interacted with the dying Mind Flayer only a few yards away, you've had the option to see something actually dangerous (In which companions will tell you it's dangerous during dialogue, where the DM will make sure you know it's dangerous multiple times).

You've also likely interacted with dangerous things... Like Lae'zel. Astarion. Possibly some bandits.

Again, at no point was I ever "Discouraged" from touching the sigil. A simple reference to the swirling magic looking "Slightly dangerous" never came across to me as particularly discouraging. Not like when the DM is actively being discouraging with aforementioned scenes like the dying Mind Flayer, Zaith'isk, Vlaakith etc. Where in those scenarios I actively felt like those options were not supposed to be taken.

I agree that if you want to play a very cautious character you probably don't touch the creepy portal, but I wonder if this really is a frequent occurrence.

In a similar vein, if you play as Astarion, the narrator tells you that Lae'zel smells tasty after you free her and she rules out controlling the tadpole as an option. So in one play-through I took this as encouragement to kill her, while in another I simply took it as a description of my character's state of mind and resisted the temptation in order to keep a strong ally. The narrator offers descriptions to create an atmosphere and it's up to you to react to them. For some the portal might feel too dangerous too to touch, for others the slight danger might feel exciting.

The moment I heard my character say "I'm cursed to put my hands on everything" I knew it was the kind of game where you're supposed to just click click click no matter what the narrator says.

Do I like being "forced" to roleplay this way? Not at all.

I tend to agree with the OP regarding this. I suspect many new players lacking Meta knowledge would avoid the portal.