Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback The secret of Gale's popularity

I would not say "like" ...
But i would be probably quite forgiving when someone would telling me about sharing a bed with goddess.

Its certainly better for me than man who constantly talk about himself ... even when he wish to honor mine deeds.

Also, i usualy focus more on girls.
But i must say that Astarion is good pal, not exactly potential "partner", but pal.

To be completely fair, the real data and true discussion would be possible only after release, when all the options will be here and the bugs will be fixed. I just hope they will look into system to smooth out approval.

I dare to say that this is something that should be concidered without saying ...
Its often not, but should.

Well, if you look broader, all of the companions have a figure in their life that they are fixated on, be it Mystra, Mizora, Cazador, Shar or Vlaakith. I think this is because of the origin stories being custom tailored to the main plot of the game. My guess is that the absolute will use that figure to try to bring the companions to its side.

So whether Gale talks about his goddess ex-lover while Shadowheart about her devotion to Shar, or Astarion about his hatred towards Cazador, they all might face the same turning point when the party confronts the absolute.

I just think all the romances are forced and unbelievable.

You just crash to Faerun on a mind flayer vessel. You meet these people and spend a few days with them. You do a few things they like and BAM. "Sleep with me."

Lae'zel is Gith, and though I don't think she's what she pretends to be, I would think that she would be WAY harder to romance than, "You killed gobbo leaders. Let's do it."

Wyll has been chained to some demon chick and obviously burned before.

Gale was/is potentially still on love with Mystra.

Shadowheart can't even fully remember who she is.

Astarion...well...maybe. He's free and maybe looking for a good time, but still...with you? In some scenes he acts like you're an insect needing to be squashed.

Minthara...well...ok...she's nuts, so...maybe her as well.

Either way, I still remember the first playthrough. It shocked the heck out of me when suddenly most of the party was propositioning me. There was not flirting, teasing, time spent together having fun or getting to know one another, nothing. It was like 0 to 60. No romance. Just pure sex.

So I wouldn't even called these romance options, just sex options.

Shadow sees a man in her dream, not Shar. Yes, they all have someone, but the level of relationships is clearly different. Astarion also has a "nightmare", not a "love dream".

Shadow in her romance does not talk about this man, Gale discusses about "goddess" constantly. You can even ask him, " do you still love her?" I don't like such romance, it reminds me story with Red Prince, do you know how it ended? Awful.




Shadow and Gale dont have sex scenes, their cutscenes look like the beginning of a romance. Astarion and Lae cutscenes look like just sex for fun, I agree with you here. That's probably why they're the easiest to get.

I think for Lae'zel it's not really romance. Your fate is unknown at this point and you might turn into a mind flayer any day,. At least to me her offer (and Astarion's) seemed more like "let's party now, because tomorrow we may die", so for them it is in character imo. I doubt the githyanki society is big on romance anyway.

Shadowheart is so secretive, I wouldn't be surprised if her dream lover turns out to be a fellow Sharran. Astarion has nightmares about Cazador, but at the same time he considers them a fair price for the tadpole powers. Gale I suspect is just lying about his dream. But ultimately the absolute uses those figures to convince the companions (and the main character) to join the cult, so even if one is a dream lover and the other a nightmare, the end goal is the same. I'd consider Astarion to be the most likely companion to betray the PC, even if romanced, to the absolute.

Getting on gales good side is blisteringly easy. Seriously, that man goes from zero to best bud at the speed of a few days just by doing run of the mil hero stuff that you were probably going to do anyways, unless you are playing as a sociopath that gets a kick out of torturing refugees and murdering children. Matter of fact, just running around like some sort of benevolent exp hoarding loot goblin (like the overwhelming majority of people seem to do in almost every RPG since the beginning of time.) will be more than enough.

First playthough: I used gale in my party a sum total of twice and my interactions with him were bloody limited. Despite this fact, he somehow ended up as having a pretty darned high approval rating. I think I spoke with him maybe less than ten times counting the two times I told him to get back to camp. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against the single most run of the mill generic wizard ever to wizard but, he didn't make the A-team
and so he ended up on the bench with shadowheart who I also had very few interactions with and seem to irritate just by existing....

He doesn't consider them a fair price, he just believes that you need to survive in any way. But this has nothing to do with the topic of our discussion. I have no idea what Gale is dreaming about, I know that in almost all the cutscenes he talks about his relationship with the goddess and even shows her projection. Wyll also has an "ex-relationship", but at least he talks about it with anger, and Gale with regret. So Gale's romance looks bad for me (for now). And if he's lying to us, it makes it even worse!

I agree with you about Astarion, he looks like someone who would throw you into the abyss to save his own skin.

It's certainly not romance. It's 115% carnal. And the abruptness of it isn't because of the impending doom of turning. It's cuz she got hot and bothered by all the (assumed) fighting and killing the party does when taking care of the Goblin quest. Both Lae and Astarion are hedonistic and self-interested, so them being wanton at the party made sense to me - especially making a pass at Tav because conquering the leader feeds their egos.


Once you recruit companions, you will gain approval and disapproval regardless of whether they are in your active party or just sitting at camp. So for all you do-gooders out there, Gale and Wyll will always have the hots for you if you recruit them. I'm of the camp that this is intentional due to the tadpole connection, since several hotfixes and patches have gone by and it's never been patched out. Though there is still the bug of companions approving even when dead... so who knows.

Very well said!

I do not worry that much about more sex than romance (we can hope that for Lae'sel and Astarion sex is the beginning of the romance) but agree that for others some flirtation first would not hurt. And this is mu major concern: may be there was some flirting but the scenes were eaten up and lost due to dialog system?

that's interesting, lol. I find Gale to be the least interesting character and don't trust him really. I find Shadowheart irritating and Lae'zel and Astarion are my favorites right now.

Gale is enjoyable company for sure. Very well acted, and when the Drama is minimized, he can smooth things out.

When Shadowheart reveled that she was a priestess of Shar I let her go on her merry. This made my party much more enjoyable (one beachy female is my limit). Gale began to exchange banter with Lay'zel which is so far...very amusing. Gale's only faults are that he is incredibly squishy, he eats blue items, and I haven't really learned to optimize a 5e wizard yet.

When we get multi-class, I will have to put some thought into this.

I would rank him as THE most enjoyable character so far.

Wyll is second...he is useful and not annoying...but replaceable if someone better written comes along.

Lay'zel is useful and interesting.

Astarian...annoying...kinda useless (rouges have been marginalized). I don't like him, otherwise I am sure I could make a multi-class solution.

Shadowheart...I didn't know just how irritating she was until she was gone...her stats are crap...and well...yea worst rolled priestess ever!...so nothing redeeming there.


Footnote: my first MMOs I played with some hard-core real life female players. I enjoy female company the best (when our interests are aligned). In single player games I will occasionally make a female protagonist and play her more 3rd person. Romance is out, but I like the pleasant voice (not grating) in the background and she is more like a companion.

So I re-rolled my main, created a noble background half-elf hex-blade female (Expanded Warlock mod at Nexus...which works nice), and role-played her as a good character. It is the missing piece of the puzzle for me. Just as I thought, having one well mannered female in the party rounds things out.

Stats for those who want to try a Hexblade:

Go half-wood-elf for mobility, stealth, darkvision, and resists...I chose Arcana and Investigation for class and Charisma and history from noble.
Now INT, Wisdom, and Strength are all my dump stats but the headband of intellect raises me to 18 for all the intelligence checks.

Str 8
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 8 to 18 with headband
Wis 8
Charisma 17 (waiting on Elven Accuracy to bump it to 18 at at level 8) ...actually there is a mod for that too, if you want to run multiple mods and a mod manager. Gonna try Great Weapon Master at 4 (since they fixed Devil's sight for advantage in melee.

I dual-wielded scimitars 'till level 3...then Pact Weapon Greatsword (which uses Charisma to hit and damage via Pact of the blade ).

The mod is easy to install..two pax files (one pre-requisit that you will see at download). Drop these in mods folder in documents.
Edit the modsettings.lsx file with notepad...replace everything with the script on the installation notes at nexus (copy and paste).

You even get a recolored sorcerer's robe that has chainmail stats...form and function...so 13 + 2 (from dex) = 15 AC Greatsword of Tyr for 17 AC ... Add Armor of Agathys for HP and more damage if you are struck in melee. Mirror image or Darkness for added strategy. Eldritch Blast (agonizing blast invocation) for the total package.

Grover approved (from Sesame street). He will hurt you both near and far!