UPD.
I’ve encountered a new form of the same bug in my current Honour Mode playthrough: some companions are now missing their initial (central) tadpoles.
Gale is missing his first (central) tadpole in the mind map.
Lae’zel, who I successfully convinced via dialogue to accept the tadpole, is also missing hers.
There are no extra tadpoles shown in the top-right counter or in the inventory — they are simply gone.
This effectively removes key progression for these companions unless I sacrifice tadpoles from my inventory to fix it manually. It clearly breaks both balance and narrative logic, especially in Honour Mode.
I also provide a couple more testimonies indicating similar bugs (there is no detailed description of the error, but it is clear to me that players encountered the same bug):
1.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3/comments/1duh6ti/no_first_tadpole_on_characters_bug/2.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3823047940153799271/It should be kept in mind that in different cases this bug manifests itself in different companions - not necessarily in Gale. Previously, a similar bug happened with Astarion.
