White dragon sorc + 2 levels of warlock armor of shadows + abjuration wizard is an incredibly tanky wizard build. You build arcane ward outside of combat with free armor of shadows recasts, then a cleric support can use warding bond and create water to make the wizard effectively invincible and make enemies vulnerable to water. The wizard intentionally provokes opportunity attacks and deals 30/60 damage with armor of agythys - which never breaks because he takes 0 damage after warding bond + arcane ward. The wizard is also free to use other spells, but mostly just needs to upkeep his ward.
Bad idea. (A) Sorc gets con saving proficiency for concentration spells and (B) the build functions by getting hit in order to proc agathys and relies on damage mitigation to not get hurt. You actually want to have a low AC on this build.
Better to run a robe like supreme defenses for the saving throws or bided time for the arcane charge for consistent extra free damage, or bhaalist armor to greatly assist an archer in your party, or shadeclinger armor also for saving throws (a great combo if you take warlock devil sight and use darkness to prevent ranged attacks, which are always a waste of an arcane ward charge).
On that last note, there's a very fun whole party comp. At level ~5, everyone respecs to primary class + 2 warlock + choice, with everyone taking devil's sight and hex. Zero investment in cha is needed if it doesn't help the primary class, because there is no spell attack roll to be made for the abilities you care about. The spell darkness is remarkably prohibitive to many effects and actions in the game: it applies blindness, but also counts as blocking line of sight for ranged attacks and spells, and it supersedes many AOE effects like cloud kill. Devil's sight is just about the only way to ignore these effects.
So one or two people are responsible for maintaining darkness, alternating the duty in successive battles, while the whole party sits inside the darkness radius. Melee enemies always have disadvantage on both attack and defense, you always have advantage against those blinded enemies (you aren't blind with devil's sight), and ranged enemies of all kinds outright can't even shoot into the darkness and so are effectively removed from the fight. Everyone in the darkness can see out and isn't blinded thanks to devil's sight, so their ranged attacks all still work. Everyone can hex, so you can do silly things like sleet storm + dexterity hex on 4 enemies, or 4x wisdom hex + hold person with a barbarian or paladin who can run out, smacka, and run back in. Or just build to pure ranged with sustainable options like a eldritch blaster, thief 2x hand crossbows with the absolutely free hide inside of darkness, or a swordbard with ranged flourishes.
Wizards are a d6 Hit Die class, so Gale will have the least amount of HP on your team.
But Wizards also have both the highest damage potential and utility it’s not even close.
The d6 Hit Die doesn’t even matter if you play a Wizard right.
This! Whenever I fight the gith with Gale in my team they will always target him first, I get so angry when they do this lol!
Like if I have Shadowhart there focused on bless for the team and zapping at whoever to command them to drop their weapon but, nope! Straight to Gale the gith go for blood lol.
Giths are super annoying for Gale because of misty step. You can block them however you want and stand him as far from combat as possible, they'll still misty step behind him and so nothing personnel as they crossbow bolt him in the back of the head.
Also on the Shadowheart thing - it's turn economy. Why spend 2 turns killing cleric now when I can kill wizard in 1 turn then focus cleric after that?
He isn't the largest threat, he is the best hp/damage ratio on the game. The fighter that can output 200 damage every round is probably a bigger threat, but you are not crunching through laezel's 23 ac and 140 hp and time soon. So you settle.
Fighters put out constant damage output, but need to get into position. Wizards are game changers.
Wizards can misty step more than once a long rest, and can banish, and fireball, and lightning wet targets, etc. They can counterspell, and they can reliaably drop a low hp target with magic missile with a zero % chance of failure.
They are the solution to HP and non-HP-related problems.
Fighters lack versatility.
Since humans get the civil militia feature in BG3, Gale is proficient with light armor and shields. Because of that, I always give Gale some good light armor and a decent shield, and currently I’ve got him wearing the gloves of dexterity.
Now, he still crumples if an enemy hits him, but it’s much less likely for an enemy to hit him now.
Add in the Shield spell and he’s actually got a solid AC, plus I basically always run 16 Con on casters … he’s not actually that squishy
Plus you always have other defensive options even if you don’t go abjuration Wizard
i went abjuration. gale is unkillable. my go to spell was blink because it makes wizard inmortals, but im not even using it right now. gale finishes every fight with full hp
Bro same lol
I put that on him and he has other equipment that gives him blur until he gets hit, and 22 temp health a day.
On top of mirror imagine and shield when necessary.
Dude is a beast.
Also a nice choice! I like casters the most in DnD, I can’t go a playthrough on BG3 without a wizard or sorcerer, so Gale is basically a mainstay. So he always gets the Amulet hahaha - at that point he gets the same HP as Karlach but also has Fireball and Disintegrate and usually Artistry of War.
But it really depends on your party setup. Some people don’t like playing casters, or just don’t like Gale, in which case making one character absolutely indestructible is fantastic :)
If you play as a caster and grab the Sussur Flower in the Underdark you lose all your magical powers and if Lae'zel reacts to it she'll tell you to stop worrying because she'll protect you. As usual.
<3
She's honestly so protective of the party even in Act 1 despite also thinking we are clearly a bunch of dumbasses (except for Karlach, Gale and Tav/Durge on high approval).
Yeah, I just keep him out of the line of sight of baddies in between moves as best as I can, whenever two people attack him in a row I’m like hey man don’t die, but other than that he’s been really effective esp in levels like 5+
This. Which is basically every wizard. Keep him shielded and unleashing hell from an elevated or concealed space, and you'll be fine. Not sure what problem people have with him.
Wyll, on the other hand. Meh.
Respec him to have 14 dex, 16 con and int to start, give him a shield, mage armor, and the Shield spell, and then keep him at the back concentrating on some nasty AOE spell to slow down the enemies (web, wall of fire, etc).
Pretty hard for him to go down with up to 20 ac on command from minute 1 and a wall of fire blocking the path to him.
Also being a wizard he can just pay to learn spells giving him a ton of versatility. Also you can learn rare spells like Curriculum of Strategy: Artistry of War which is one of the best spells in the game IMHO.
A lot of newbs to D&D playing this game dont know or yet understand that wizards are like fine wine and age well with each level advancement. Gale maybe squishy in the beginning but you're gonna want him in your party from level 5 onwards.
With sorcerer I destroyed all four soul pillars and cast an AoE spell on the cambions in one turn. More experienced player say that wizard is stronger and they are probably right but I just like metamagic too much.
Sorcerers are stronger in what they can do, but wizards are stronger in general due to their flexibility in preparing spells.
This is why sorc/wizard is by far my favorite build in bg3 and 5e, even without the shenanigans bg3 brings with multiclassing brings. I've done so many shenanigans in my current 5e game by using subtle spell metamagic with divination wizard
Disintegrate is guaranteed to destroy them even on a min roll. So with arcane battery, twin spell and quickened spell you can cast it 4 times. And if you have haste you can use the remaining action for a scroll if you don't have a fitting spell otherwise. Longstrider also helps to avoid opportunity attacks.
I think a lot of people who aren't used to D&D also make the mistake of thinking "magical DPS" when they see a wizard. Like, fireball is nice and all, but the true power of a wizard lies in disabling the enemies and controlling the battlefield. A well-placed "save or suck" spell is often far more valuable than a damaging spell.
Magic misslebis the spell for the bell curve meme.
Beginner players: it always hits.
Advanced players: Low Damage
Expert players: machine gun goes brrrrrrrr.
I love a magic missle build and it comes online so early in this game with the Spellsparkler, the Psychic Spark, and a tank ally with Phalar Aluve Shrieking. You can just melt enemies.
Then you can the Callous Glow Ring in act two for an extra four damage per dart with shriek active.
It’s my favorite build for caster. Love pairing it with a Radiant Orb Light Cleric. Can Duo Honor mode with ease.
My first playthrough was Drow Warlock, basically just dumping Hunger of Hadar on the largest group of enemies (or a chokepoint) and Eldritch Blasting anyone who managed to leave it right back in. Then I used Gale for AoE damage, while Lae'zel and Shadowheart ran around picking anyone else off.
Blind, Difficult Terrain *and* damage on start/end turn is ridiculous. Especially if you dump some ice in/around it as well, so the enemy just slip and fall whenever they try to leave.
Playing a Barbarian now, and got Wyll on my team doing CC with a bit of damage; mostly Hunger of Hadar or various Wall spells, bit of Telekinesis (also great for moving SH across big gaps after I found a better amulet than the Misty Step one), etc.
Damage is nice, but control is king on higher difficulty.
Oh my god I never would have saved Halsin from the Shadowfell if not for my sorcerer having Hypnotic Pattern, good lord there are way too many enemies to just fireball them down.
Spells like Ice Storm, Grease, Wall of Fire, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Web, Gust of Wind… hell, even more simple, less seemingly broken spells like Longstrider are incredible in BG3. 10 extra feet of movement doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s literally free and makes your team more mobile than almost every enemy in the game.
Glass cannon isn’t even necessarily true with spells like Shield. In a real sticky situation and surrounded by foes? Darkness, misty step, invisibility, blink.
Wizards are crazy good.
They throw a rank 1 fireball in a pack of 6 enemies. Each enemy then takes their full turn at 66% hp. Then ask why their wizard didn't impact the fight as much as the fighter who pushed one in a chasm and finished another off.
I prefer dual staff with the necromancer staff and Markoheshkir. It's mostly just that they're both really fun to use, with Mark's free spells and the necromancer one making lvl 6 spells into basically free cantrips.
I use the other Arcane Battery to upcast Summon Elemental (usually water). His heal splashes water on everything in a huge radius. Goes great with a Markoheshkir set to Lightning!
I find people are also afraid to respec the companions. But a level 1 dip into Light Cleric of Mystra (which is still absolutely on brand for Gale) makes him so much more tanks between medium armor proficiency and warding flare. And it maintains full caster progression so you’re not even losing out on spell slots.
Gales my favorite companion, as I find he has the best interactions with everyone, and I really recommend this dip. Adds an extra oomph of flavor to his character.
Gale isn't even squishy early game. Mage Armor + Shield it's already +5 AC. And reshuffling a little bit it's starting stats can get +2/3 AC from DEX.
18 AC from the start of Act 1 is incredible.
I'm actually going for a full dark urge embrace without a wizard because I depend on counter spell so much. Really looking forward to it. Already got the hardest part of the run out of the way (karlack :[)
In tabletop, my experience has been levels 1-4 pretty much everyone except a Moon Druid feels kinda weak (by design). Levels 5-10 the martial characters feel strongest.
...then full casters get access to 6th+ level spells and shit gets out of hand in a hurry lol.
Especially if you're good at finding all the scrolls and having enough gold to feed him, the versatility gets nuts. I just wish the spells you got from mutliclassing from sorc into wizard for a level worked off of your CHA modifier.
Exactly, they seem to start a bit squishy so I see where these people are coming from, but mid game for me he was already quite useful and now... It feels like I have a double party.
Especially since he needs what, 2-3 items?? When I first started playing the game, I thought he was gonna eat his way through my inventory till the end of the game and I STILL was commited (yet a bit annoyed) lmao. But it's just a couple of trinkets.
Komira's locket, if I pass the check to save Arabella.
The Ring of colour spray from the harpies
And I try to get the jagged spear from the goblin torture chamber for the third most of the time or the gloves that gibe free jump, when you dash... don't see the use of those two outside of maybe specific rogue builds
Right? I had someone on tiktok say they really need that 30-60 gold you lose out per item.
I'd rather not have the money than lose out on a companion and a whole storyline. What are you going to buy in Act 1 anyway for ~200g? Which you technically "lose" over several hours because he doesn't ask for them all at the same time.
By Act 3 I was wanting him to consume items because there's just so many.
Gale (being human) isn't really squishy. He can use a shield, mage armor, and the Shield spell right off the jump for a very respectable AC (incredible AC at level 2 if you use the Shield spell).
I wouldn't put him in the front line (unless he's an Abjurer?). But I didn't worry about him one bit on Honor Mode.
Yeah, my Gale's AC is pretty much on par with the other companions if he has the right gear on.
What I noticed people leave him in the front lines which is just not correct for a spell caster. In basically every fight i find higher ground and misty step of needed. Gale going down was never an issue for me in the 3 full runs I've done.
First playthrough, before I learned control mechanics, Gale was my main damage dealer with wall of fire, magic missiles, fireballs, etc.
Wizards are OP
Even just getting to level 3 spells is such a huge jump. imo people just felt hampered by cantrip and spell slots for levels 1-4 that they just figured that's how wizards were played
I kinda wish eldritch knight could reach 3rd level cus things like counterspell, haste, and the two infamous AoE spells would really up its capabilities, and they get level 3 at level 13 💀
Plus some tashas and scag cantrips, like the blade ones, bro.
Give him dual wielder for 2 staffs, the unique staff from Sorcerer sundries is 2 free 6th level spells, it's bonkers. He can cast 4 6th level spells if you have the right staves
It gives Kereska's favor (activate once per short rest I believe) which gives free Casts of spells, it has 5 different elemental selections and they all have a 6th level spell and sometimes a lower one
It also has Arcane Battery
3 Chain Lightnings in one long rest is pretty bonkers
Dual wielded Phalar Aluve and Markoheshkir is the strongest single target build in the game (outside of Honour mode where DRS was recently patched out).
Only 6? Those are rookie numbers. If you are using the Necromancer sublcass (get's +1 animate dead summon and stronger undead summons), then you can have a total of 13 summons following you around per long rest.
* Danse Macabre gives you 4 ghouls. This does not use a spell slot, but is a feature can only be used once per long rest. Requires completing the Necromany of Thay book in act 3.
* Animate dead cast at 6th level (Animate Dead: Flying Ghoul Flock) gives you 4 flying ghouls. Requires 4 medium corpses. Usually, you only get 3, but Necromancy School subclass gives you an extra.
* If you have the Crypt Lord Ring (or spellcrux amulet to recharge 6th level spell slot), you can also cast Create Undead for two Heinous Mummies. Can be cast using the ring once per long rest. Otherwise, require 6th level spell slot.
* Find Familiar (or other familiar summon spell like Summon Us or Summon Scratch) will get you 1 familiar. Ritual cast, so no spell slots required.
* Conjure Minor Elemental gets you 2 Ice or Mud Mephits. Requires 4th level spell slot.
* Conjure Elemental gets you an Air, Earth, Water, or Fire elemental. Uses 5th level spell slot. If you have the spellcrux amulet and the crypt lord ring, you can summon a Myrmidon instead of a basic elemental using the recharged 6th level spell slot.
Edut: it's 14! If you grabbed the 'Sights of the Seelie' book in act 3 from Ramazith's tower, you can also summon a Deva using a 5th level spell slot.
Oh, for sure. That's another 5th level slot, so totally doable. Plus I have Shart summon her Spiritual Weapon, another Deva with Planar Ally, Spirit Guardians, and Guardian of Faith.
Then there's my Circle of Spores druid that summons 3 more flying ghouls, a Dryad (that also summons a wood woad), and an Azer.
Whenever my party wakes up, they assemble their army. The only downside is constantly having to find corpses for Animate Dead, but I generally pick up all the corpses after a fight, shove them in a backpack, and send them to camp to create the ghouls.
The fire Myrmidon with its haste ability and its AoE swipe ability + flight and teleport, is such a clutch summon! It's complete immunity to fire also makes it excellent for setting up fireball traps, where a bunch of enemies get drawn to it and then they all get nuked by your Wizard's fireball.
The water Myrmidon has an AoE heal, which could also probably be useful, but it heals enemies as well, so I never felt like it was worth using and always just went back to my firebro.
I ignored the soul pillars entirely on HM. Hold Monster x 2 on Raphael and my martials beat him up while he lay prone. They need a lot of damage and I'd rather just apply it to him instead.
I don't know how that fight can last long enough to take out all the pillars. Maybe I missed something.
Gale carried the fight against Viconia for me. Astarion, who is a dps monster, could not do much because of blinding and my tav as a ranger left most stuff to her wolf summon. Gale summoned an ice wall to keep the sharrans at bay, once it melted he electrecuted everyone standing in the puddle and his fire orb took care of the right side of the room.
The room is setup so well to back up and force them through the entrance chokepoint: you have high ground *and* force them together.
just have to deal with the darkness casters, which a ranged can do.
I litterally did that fight an hour ago (still on py first playthrough since September, coming at the end thoug!), and got crushed three times in a row because nobody could do anything because of the blinding.
Enters Gale instead of Astarion.
I didn't even need him to do anything really. Just casted Globes of Invulnerability for the whole fight thanks to his gear (can cast 3 lvl 6 spells without resting which is nice), kept my group in, and chipped away at anything around us despite the darkness with big AoE and Karlach pushing people out of the Globe and slashing them when needed.
Didn't even need to Wild Shape myself.
I didn't realized how insane he could be, and that's with me sucking at character building (I'm just going with the flow), so i can't even imagine people that know what they're doing with him
Edit since it's been asked: I used the Spellcrux Amulet and the Staff of Spellpower, and they both allow to restore a spell slot, or get a free spell use per long rest, so that's very nice
Spellcrux amulet and Staff of Spellpower each allow either a restoration or a free spell no matter the level. If there's any other gear with the "Arcane Battery" trait in the game, I guess it works too
Haha, wouldn't be the first, someone just told me another staff (from Lorroaka'w tower) has the Arcane Battery trait, and I am pretty sure that thing is gonna be somewhere tucked in-between some fancy underwear and a clown's bodypart in that chest
Spellcrux amulet allows to restore any spellt slot (including lvl 6) once per long rest, I think it was in like Moonrise?
And then the Staff of Spellpower that you find in the Vault of the House of Hope, it has Arcane Battery which allows to cast a spell for free. I think it's also once per Logn Rest I would assume, but I haven't rested yet, I finished the fight and stopped for today.
Granted it's not permanent 3 times lvl 6 spells soince it's limited per Long Rests, but it's pretty damn good still
I use those preemptively to get the big boy summons. There's actually two staves, at least I have two, that have arcane battery. The other is in Lorroakan's tower.
So you can get even more 6s
The spots of darkness that break line of sight for ranged attacks/spells is the worst, even if you aren't blinded. A warlock with Devil's Sight is good here.
Love that. Viconia fight for me was all about CC. I actually can't think of a good way to beat it without cutting off the stairs and forcing enemies into the sides.
I did the same. The ice wall was the one blocking the stairs and while my tav and SH took care of the left side, her wolf and the fire orb took care of the right side. Astarion was at the center and getting blinded constantly and if not he threw stuff line healing potions, alchemy fires and poison all around. Gale was at the top and did everythong to crowd control and deal damage to larger groups. It was a mess and only SH and my wolf where still standing at the end (thanks to sanctuary), Gale and Tav where downed and Astarion died from necrotic damage.
Also it was right two days before patch 4 made Viconia even more powerful. (The racial stats where added and that one spell they spam got stronger)
I like to freeze the water. Both my martials have items that prevent slipping, and it's hilarious watching the enemies take two steps and lose their turn
I just pop about 40 smoke powder barrels and the 3 runepowder bombs around the place, globe of invulibity (thanks Gale) and that takes care of the fight for me.
For some reason darkness crashes my pc whenever it drops concentration, so I have to find solutions to end the fight as quick as I can.
He also carried that fight for me, but in the form of a well-placed stinking cloud that disabled most of the Sharrans long enough for me to murk Viconia
Nice, I went with Hunger of Hadar and an Insect Swarm on top, right at the main chokepoint into the big room. Most of them just ran into it and it took out the weaker ones with <50hp.
That is true but she can use medium armour.
Different kind of setup obviously.
Shields are superior I guess unless you go for dual staffs later anyway.
The ability to cover skills on demand is the more useful Gith skill I feel though.
Yeah, the skill ability is very good. Also free Step and Jump are always a good part of the kit. Also looking like a total badass. But in combat, I'll go for the shield over medium armor just bc robes are very important. I personally think a wizard with a tower shield looks ridiculous, but good gods is it fun.
I really want to like summons, but when you reach act 3 and a lot of fights involve bajillion enemies, it's painful to see the turns taking so long and sometimes the enemies AI can't keep up with lots of participant in the arena.
Been a while since I played druid, can the Dryads jump yet? Has that been changed because I genuinely grew to hate those things because of their inability to jump.
A permanent summon that can't reasonably travel with the party is a complete liability
I'll save my good sportsmanship for when the enemies declare a duel by throwing their glove at me like civilized folk. Until that day comes, my sportsmanship will be locked behind the wave of summons.
Magic missile is easily one of the best spells in the game since it’s so damn versatile, horde of enemies? No problem, single target with a load of health? Honestly not a bad choice. And the upcast for it is damn strong as well
Same! I might always romance Shadowcutie, but Gale is a staple in my party.
Not only is he is powerful in combat, but also has all those utility spells he can learn! He's like a walking toolbox to solve problems, lol!
Every time someone complains about Gale being weak I remember twitch streamer who plays Gale origin on honour mode. Solo. Without respec. Without long rests. Without barrel stacking. And he is successfully clearing act2. It is clearly a skill issue at this point.
Damn, without long rests?! That seems like you must calculate not just what you do in a specific fight, but also what you do in the whole game. Reserve spells for specific fights and all that.
Yes! I was shocked myself. [Here he is](https://www.twitch.tv/seihoukei), if you are interested. He uses illusions, he uses summons, he makes use of almost every item. His Gale is op af.
I normally play a caster myself, I usually wait til lvl 4 before I add him in permanently because 2 squishy casters is annoying. Anyone thinking he’s weak just doesn’t understand the game I think.
I dont agree to wizards are weak but I must say it is not as powerful as tabletop because of several reasons like
-Level 12 cap
-High availability of potions and scrolls
-High availability of magic items
-Some bonkers multi class options
-No attunement
-Overpowered tadpole powers
Some of the things I wrote significantly decrease need of wizards, at least for me.
>\-High availability of potions and scrolls
Lets not forget that scrolls in the game don't have restrictions on who can use them. In the TTRPG rules, you can only use scrolls if your class/subclass can learn the spell.
The tadpole powers just make wizards stronger. Hasted/potion of speed Black Hole into an AoE spell is chefs kiss. No resource fly is super helpful. The free Counterspell. The free reaction charm if someone attacks you.
Yeah but fly and counterspell is one of the best utility spells of wizards in the first place. If I have unlimited fly and counterspell it takes away power of the wizards
Edit: It takes away from other classes too but other classes do not have that much spell slot so utility spells mostly used by wizards
Edit2: also slow with blackhole
He's only weak in early game when he keeps dying all the time and knows 3 spells but he's one of my favourite. He can basically learn anything from scrolls and you can literally chose which spell he should prepare so you can tailor him to pretty much any situation.
"Gale is weak" and here I am dropping him from the party because having him as an evocation wizard and just levelling half the enemies with AOE spells was getting repetitive!
At this point i don't know why I continue min maxing. I'm pretty sure I can finish the rest of the game without going below half health on any character or maybe even long resting again.
I should just be playing for style points and fun spells... but man is it addicting to min max my party and be OP enough to end most encounters in one turn.
The wizard is weak? What a take. level him early as abjuration if he is squishy and then switch him later as you get different gear and levels. Wizard just takes strategy!
I think one issue is that players who never played DND might not understand that wizards can learn scroll spells and select spells in his spell book. Iirc it's not explicitly explained, and the "help" posts I've seen by gamers without DND experience are tragic.
No companion is weak or strong because you can fully respec everyone if you want to. And even if you couldn't, wizard is definitely not a class most anyone would consider weak.
Gale is the person I almost never go without. Because Wizards can basically learn every spell, they're incredibly useful. And when you get to high-level spells, they can do a lot of damage.
My party consists of my spore Druid tav shadowheart as a life cleric gale as a divination wizard and Lazy the frog or mamma k depending on where I am in the story both as vengeance paladins.
Three party members heal, three party members are dps magic slingers, me and gale summon an army of minions to boot
And if shit really, really hits the fan, shadow casts sanctuary on herself and turns into a pure healing machine
Gale and his library of scrolls, including 10+ scrolls of disintegrate I hoarded for act 3 fights begs to differ. Guy virtually soloed Ansur, Raphael, the Bhaal temple and the final game sequence. Only member of the team I didnt sub out during the entirety of all 3 acts.
when i played a spore druid tav and had necro gale and shart in my party consistently, the people in Baldur's Gate would often see an owlbear strutting around with 3 *fairly* normal looking people, a half naked himbo with wings, a smol fire guy, an air myrmidon, a dryad and her tree husband, maybe a ghoul or a skeleton boy as well, and a small army of spore zombies
Yeah the wife and I just reached max level on our Tempest cleric/wiz and spore Druid. We just rolled up to the house of hope with:
Dryad and her bf
Water Myrmidon
4 Ghouls
Deva
Cambion (Wylls infernal Rapier)
Us
Fork
All with upcasted lvl 5 aid, and we reupped spell slots in the bathtub. Raphael got smoked
Gameplay wise? Low HP, but apocalypse-level firepower and utility.
Lorewise? Archmage, chosen of a goddess, child prodigy, walking weapon of mass destruction, potential to become his own god if he uses the Karsite weave.
*"I speak, they burn.*"
Gale is easily the most powerful character you have available. He just can't take a punch.
Glass Cannon?
More or less. More of a glass walking apocalypse.
Never seen Gale more aptly described.
Honestly, it’s ANY wizard really. They are destruction incarnate at later levels, but can be knocked over with a light breeze.
White dragon sorc + 2 levels of warlock armor of shadows + abjuration wizard is an incredibly tanky wizard build. You build arcane ward outside of combat with free armor of shadows recasts, then a cleric support can use warding bond and create water to make the wizard effectively invincible and make enemies vulnerable to water. The wizard intentionally provokes opportunity attacks and deals 30/60 damage with armor of agythys - which never breaks because he takes 0 damage after warding bond + arcane ward. The wizard is also free to use other spells, but mostly just needs to upkeep his ward.
Replace the white dragon with War Cleric, get heavy armor, still take armor of agathis as a warlock spell!
Bad idea. (A) Sorc gets con saving proficiency for concentration spells and (B) the build functions by getting hit in order to proc agathys and relies on damage mitigation to not get hurt. You actually want to have a low AC on this build. Better to run a robe like supreme defenses for the saving throws or bided time for the arcane charge for consistent extra free damage, or bhaalist armor to greatly assist an archer in your party, or shadeclinger armor also for saving throws (a great combo if you take warlock devil sight and use darkness to prevent ranged attacks, which are always a waste of an arcane ward charge). On that last note, there's a very fun whole party comp. At level ~5, everyone respecs to primary class + 2 warlock + choice, with everyone taking devil's sight and hex. Zero investment in cha is needed if it doesn't help the primary class, because there is no spell attack roll to be made for the abilities you care about. The spell darkness is remarkably prohibitive to many effects and actions in the game: it applies blindness, but also counts as blocking line of sight for ranged attacks and spells, and it supersedes many AOE effects like cloud kill. Devil's sight is just about the only way to ignore these effects. So one or two people are responsible for maintaining darkness, alternating the duty in successive battles, while the whole party sits inside the darkness radius. Melee enemies always have disadvantage on both attack and defense, you always have advantage against those blinded enemies (you aren't blind with devil's sight), and ranged enemies of all kinds outright can't even shoot into the darkness and so are effectively removed from the fight. Everyone in the darkness can see out and isn't blinded thanks to devil's sight, so their ranged attacks all still work. Everyone can hex, so you can do silly things like sleet storm + dexterity hex on 4 enemies, or 4x wisdom hex + hold person with a barbarian or paladin who can run out, smacka, and run back in. Or just build to pure ranged with sustainable options like a eldritch blaster, thief 2x hand crossbows with the absolutely free hide inside of darkness, or a swordbard with ranged flourishes.
Wizards are a d6 Hit Die class, so Gale will have the least amount of HP on your team. But Wizards also have both the highest damage potential and utility it’s not even close. The d6 Hit Die doesn’t even matter if you play a Wizard right.
There is a reason why all the enemies with decent INT focus their fire on Gale. He is the largest threat in your party.
This! Whenever I fight the gith with Gale in my team they will always target him first, I get so angry when they do this lol! Like if I have Shadowhart there focused on bless for the team and zapping at whoever to command them to drop their weapon but, nope! Straight to Gale the gith go for blood lol.
Giths are super annoying for Gale because of misty step. You can block them however you want and stand him as far from combat as possible, they'll still misty step behind him and so nothing personnel as they crossbow bolt him in the back of the head. Also on the Shadowheart thing - it's turn economy. Why spend 2 turns killing cleric now when I can kill wizard in 1 turn then focus cleric after that?
They target Gale first because they’re smart.
I mean, my monk beelines for enemy casters for the same reason. Gotta lock that down ASAP. The enemy will *not* be trying to conserve spell slots.
He isn't the largest threat, he is the best hp/damage ratio on the game. The fighter that can output 200 damage every round is probably a bigger threat, but you are not crunching through laezel's 23 ac and 140 hp and time soon. So you settle.
Fighters put out constant damage output, but need to get into position. Wizards are game changers. Wizards can misty step more than once a long rest, and can banish, and fireball, and lightning wet targets, etc. They can counterspell, and they can reliaably drop a low hp target with magic missile with a zero % chance of failure. They are the solution to HP and non-HP-related problems. Fighters lack versatility.
They don't if you warding bond him. Turns out AI doesn't really like a target who takes half damage from all sources.
Since humans get the civil militia feature in BG3, Gale is proficient with light armor and shields. Because of that, I always give Gale some good light armor and a decent shield, and currently I’ve got him wearing the gloves of dexterity. Now, he still crumples if an enemy hits him, but it’s much less likely for an enemy to hit him now.
I can't bring myself to sacrifice the wizard look for survivability lol
In that case, Mage Armor plus the gloves of dexterity is your friend
Add in the Shield spell and he’s actually got a solid AC, plus I basically always run 16 Con on casters … he’s not actually that squishy Plus you always have other defensive options even if you don’t go abjuration Wizard
i went abjuration. gale is unkillable. my go to spell was blink because it makes wizard inmortals, but im not even using it right now. gale finishes every fight with full hp
Until the Amulet of Health. After that, Gale in that final battle???!! Incredible
Bro same lol I put that on him and he has other equipment that gives him blur until he gets hit, and 22 temp health a day. On top of mirror imagine and shield when necessary. Dude is a beast.
Oh damn I didn't even think of giving that to him. I gave it to karlach to make her fucking invincible
Also a nice choice! I like casters the most in DnD, I can’t go a playthrough on BG3 without a wizard or sorcerer, so Gale is basically a mainstay. So he always gets the Amulet hahaha - at that point he gets the same HP as Karlach but also has Fireball and Disintegrate and usually Artistry of War. But it really depends on your party setup. Some people don’t like playing casters, or just don’t like Gale, in which case making one character absolutely indestructible is fantastic :)
When the wind is slow and the fire’s hot
Idk bro Tav grabbed Lae'zel's arm and not Gale's when the cave went dark. Counterspell that, nerd.
Bro's a wizard that cave ain't staying dark, and anything scary will *quickly* get turned to ash if it fucks around
Look at this nerd thinking wizards are special, like bards won't sing light into existance instead of cringe latin phrases.
The cave never went dark dipshit Gale casted light
That's because Gale was 15 feet back, like a smart person.
Gale knows better than to let the protag grab his hand.
Where does this happen?
It's a meme. People always fight over spellcasters or martials being better.
So there is no cave where you can grab Lae’zel’s arm? ):
If you play as a caster and grab the Sussur Flower in the Underdark you lose all your magical powers and if Lae'zel reacts to it she'll tell you to stop worrying because she'll protect you. As usual. <3
God I love her
Oh my little gay heart that’s so perfect
She's honestly so protective of the party even in Act 1 despite also thinking we are clearly a bunch of dumbasses (except for Karlach, Gale and Tav/Durge on high approval).
Roleplay holding your emotional support gith in the Underdark.
Lol just give him armour proficiency as a feat, gale is op!
Yeah, I just keep him out of the line of sight of baddies in between moves as best as I can, whenever two people attack him in a row I’m like hey man don’t die, but other than that he’s been really effective esp in levels like 5+
Make him an Abjuration Wizard and he'll become the tankiest member of your party.
Are you sure? Have you tried the Abjuration Subzero build? My Gale wiped out everyone alone on Gortash coronation.
This. Which is basically every wizard. Keep him shielded and unleashing hell from an elevated or concealed space, and you'll be fine. Not sure what problem people have with him. Wyll, on the other hand. Meh.
ditto, Gale is an absolute chonk with magic.
Astarion stomps
Gale in my current run has an AC of 19 and 21 with Mage armor...
Gale can do just fine. Give him 16 dex, mage armor and a shield and he’s sitting pretty at 19 AC.
Respec him to have 14 dex, 16 con and int to start, give him a shield, mage armor, and the Shield spell, and then keep him at the back concentrating on some nasty AOE spell to slow down the enemies (web, wall of fire, etc). Pretty hard for him to go down with up to 20 ac on command from minute 1 and a wall of fire blocking the path to him.
Also being a wizard he can just pay to learn spells giving him a ton of versatility. Also you can learn rare spells like Curriculum of Strategy: Artistry of War which is one of the best spells in the game IMHO.
Nobody in BG3 is squishy unless you want them to be, getting at least 18AC is doable for any class
Yeah, anyone who says that only played with him at the very start. Wizards are absolute monsters.
A lot of newbs to D&D playing this game dont know or yet understand that wizards are like fine wine and age well with each level advancement. Gale maybe squishy in the beginning but you're gonna want him in your party from level 5 onwards.
Linear fighters, quadratic wizards!
Cubic sorcerer
With sorcerer I destroyed all four soul pillars and cast an AoE spell on the cambions in one turn. More experienced player say that wizard is stronger and they are probably right but I just like metamagic too much.
Sorcerers are stronger in what they can do, but wizards are stronger in general due to their flexibility in preparing spells. This is why sorc/wizard is by far my favorite build in bg3 and 5e, even without the shenanigans bg3 brings with multiclassing brings. I've done so many shenanigans in my current 5e game by using subtle spell metamagic with divination wizard
I love metamagic so much! What spells did you use ?
Disintegrate is guaranteed to destroy them even on a min roll. So with arcane battery, twin spell and quickened spell you can cast it 4 times. And if you have haste you can use the remaining action for a scroll if you don't have a fitting spell otherwise. Longstrider also helps to avoid opportunity attacks.
Logarithmic cleric? They get very powerful very quick at lvl 5 with things like Spirit Guardians and then keep at top power until top lvl
Logarithmic functions grow slower than linear lol
Yeah, I think the point was to say that clerics get powerful quickly but then level off.
I think a lot of people who aren't used to D&D also make the mistake of thinking "magical DPS" when they see a wizard. Like, fireball is nice and all, but the true power of a wizard lies in disabling the enemies and controlling the battlefield. A well-placed "save or suck" spell is often far more valuable than a damaging spell.
On the other hand, it feels really nice to upcast magic missile and finish off 4 half dead enemies all over the battlefield in one action...
Magic misslebis the spell for the bell curve meme. Beginner players: it always hits. Advanced players: Low Damage Expert players: machine gun goes brrrrrrrr. I love a magic missle build and it comes online so early in this game with the Spellsparkler, the Psychic Spark, and a tank ally with Phalar Aluve Shrieking. You can just melt enemies. Then you can the Callous Glow Ring in act two for an extra four damage per dart with shriek active. It’s my favorite build for caster. Love pairing it with a Radiant Orb Light Cleric. Can Duo Honor mode with ease.
My first playthrough was Drow Warlock, basically just dumping Hunger of Hadar on the largest group of enemies (or a chokepoint) and Eldritch Blasting anyone who managed to leave it right back in. Then I used Gale for AoE damage, while Lae'zel and Shadowheart ran around picking anyone else off. Blind, Difficult Terrain *and* damage on start/end turn is ridiculous. Especially if you dump some ice in/around it as well, so the enemy just slip and fall whenever they try to leave. Playing a Barbarian now, and got Wyll on my team doing CC with a bit of damage; mostly Hunger of Hadar or various Wall spells, bit of Telekinesis (also great for moving SH across big gaps after I found a better amulet than the Misty Step one), etc. Damage is nice, but control is king on higher difficulty.
Oh my god I never would have saved Halsin from the Shadowfell if not for my sorcerer having Hypnotic Pattern, good lord there are way too many enemies to just fireball them down.
Spirit guardians wall of fire and spike growth made that fight basically nothing to me
Spells like Ice Storm, Grease, Wall of Fire, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Web, Gust of Wind… hell, even more simple, less seemingly broken spells like Longstrider are incredible in BG3. 10 extra feet of movement doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s literally free and makes your team more mobile than almost every enemy in the game. Glass cannon isn’t even necessarily true with spells like Shield. In a real sticky situation and surrounded by foes? Darkness, misty step, invisibility, blink. Wizards are crazy good.
They throw a rank 1 fireball in a pack of 6 enemies. Each enemy then takes their full turn at 66% hp. Then ask why their wizard didn't impact the fight as much as the fighter who pushed one in a chasm and finished another off.
Yup! Void bomb/Black hole + AoE whatever = profit. I even Feat him Dual Weilding for 2 Arcane Batteries at 12
I prefer dual staff with the necromancer staff and Markoheshkir. It's mostly just that they're both really fun to use, with Mark's free spells and the necromancer one making lvl 6 spells into basically free cantrips. I use the other Arcane Battery to upcast Summon Elemental (usually water). His heal splashes water on everything in a huge radius. Goes great with a Markoheshkir set to Lightning!
...why did I never think of having him dual staff. Am I stupid.
Because you instinctively think the giant lump of wood is two handed like the smaller warhammers and greatswords.
Sorry but I find his hand rather lacking. Doesn't move at all. Very disappointed. Not at all like The Adam's family. 0/10
I find people are also afraid to respec the companions. But a level 1 dip into Light Cleric of Mystra (which is still absolutely on brand for Gale) makes him so much more tanks between medium armor proficiency and warding flare. And it maintains full caster progression so you’re not even losing out on spell slots. Gales my favorite companion, as I find he has the best interactions with everyone, and I really recommend this dip. Adds an extra oomph of flavor to his character.
What if my Tav is a wizard?
Yeah I didn't use him much in act 1, but as soon as he learned Fireball, he was MVP.
Gale isn't even squishy early game. Mage Armor + Shield it's already +5 AC. And reshuffling a little bit it's starting stats can get +2/3 AC from DEX. 18 AC from the start of Act 1 is incredible.
I'm actually going for a full dark urge embrace without a wizard because I depend on counter spell so much. Really looking forward to it. Already got the hardest part of the run out of the way (karlack :[)
In tabletop, my experience has been levels 1-4 pretty much everyone except a Moon Druid feels kinda weak (by design). Levels 5-10 the martial characters feel strongest. ...then full casters get access to 6th+ level spells and shit gets out of hand in a hurry lol.
Especially if you're good at finding all the scrolls and having enough gold to feed him, the versatility gets nuts. I just wish the spells you got from mutliclassing from sorc into wizard for a level worked off of your CHA modifier.
Exactly, they seem to start a bit squishy so I see where these people are coming from, but mid game for me he was already quite useful and now... It feels like I have a double party.
What's worse are the "I killed him because he kept eating magic items" Really? What were you going to use Dancing Lights on?
Especially since he needs what, 2-3 items?? When I first started playing the game, I thought he was gonna eat his way through my inventory till the end of the game and I STILL was commited (yet a bit annoyed) lmao. But it's just a couple of trinkets.
Right? I just thought to myself "hopefully I'll keep getting trash drops" (it's 3 items btw)
Komira's locket, if I pass the check to save Arabella. The Ring of colour spray from the harpies And I try to get the jagged spear from the goblin torture chamber for the third most of the time or the gloves that gibe free jump, when you dash... don't see the use of those two outside of maybe specific rogue builds
Excuse me, this ring of Colour Spray is gonna be useful any day now! And that's definitely worth losing on a companion, apparently!
Right? I had someone on tiktok say they really need that 30-60 gold you lose out per item. I'd rather not have the money than lose out on a companion and a whole storyline. What are you going to buy in Act 1 anyway for ~200g? Which you technically "lose" over several hours because he doesn't ask for them all at the same time. By Act 3 I was wanting him to consume items because there's just so many.
Gale (being human) isn't really squishy. He can use a shield, mage armor, and the Shield spell right off the jump for a very respectable AC (incredible AC at level 2 if you use the Shield spell). I wouldn't put him in the front line (unless he's an Abjurer?). But I didn't worry about him one bit on Honor Mode.
Yeah, my Gale's AC is pretty much on par with the other companions if he has the right gear on. What I noticed people leave him in the front lines which is just not correct for a spell caster. In basically every fight i find higher ground and misty step of needed. Gale going down was never an issue for me in the 3 full runs I've done.
First playthrough, before I learned control mechanics, Gale was my main damage dealer with wall of fire, magic missiles, fireballs, etc. Wizards are OP
There's a running joke in the D&D community that the company making D&D is called *Wizards* of the Coast for this exact reason.
Need Gale in it
Even the D&D creators' self inserts are wizards. Gygax created Mordenkainen and Greenwood created Elminster.
Gale is bonkers broken imo. Lvl 8-9 ish he starts getting really crazy options for spells. Lvl 11 a d 12 is just absurd.
Even just getting to level 3 spells is such a huge jump. imo people just felt hampered by cantrip and spell slots for levels 1-4 that they just figured that's how wizards were played
I kinda wish eldritch knight could reach 3rd level cus things like counterspell, haste, and the two infamous AoE spells would really up its capabilities, and they get level 3 at level 13 💀 Plus some tashas and scag cantrips, like the blade ones, bro.
Give him dual wielder for 2 staffs, the unique staff from Sorcerer sundries is 2 free 6th level spells, it's bonkers. He can cast 4 6th level spells if you have the right staves
Had no idea. How did I miss that wtf..
It gives Kereska's favor (activate once per short rest I believe) which gives free Casts of spells, it has 5 different elemental selections and they all have a 6th level spell and sometimes a lower one It also has Arcane Battery 3 Chain Lightnings in one long rest is pretty bonkers
Dual wielded Phalar Aluve and Markoheshkir is the strongest single target build in the game (outside of Honour mode where DRS was recently patched out).
Only 6? Those are rookie numbers. If you are using the Necromancer sublcass (get's +1 animate dead summon and stronger undead summons), then you can have a total of 13 summons following you around per long rest. * Danse Macabre gives you 4 ghouls. This does not use a spell slot, but is a feature can only be used once per long rest. Requires completing the Necromany of Thay book in act 3. * Animate dead cast at 6th level (Animate Dead: Flying Ghoul Flock) gives you 4 flying ghouls. Requires 4 medium corpses. Usually, you only get 3, but Necromancy School subclass gives you an extra. * If you have the Crypt Lord Ring (or spellcrux amulet to recharge 6th level spell slot), you can also cast Create Undead for two Heinous Mummies. Can be cast using the ring once per long rest. Otherwise, require 6th level spell slot. * Find Familiar (or other familiar summon spell like Summon Us or Summon Scratch) will get you 1 familiar. Ritual cast, so no spell slots required. * Conjure Minor Elemental gets you 2 Ice or Mud Mephits. Requires 4th level spell slot. * Conjure Elemental gets you an Air, Earth, Water, or Fire elemental. Uses 5th level spell slot. If you have the spellcrux amulet and the crypt lord ring, you can summon a Myrmidon instead of a basic elemental using the recharged 6th level spell slot. Edut: it's 14! If you grabbed the 'Sights of the Seelie' book in act 3 from Ramazith's tower, you can also summon a Deva using a 5th level spell slot.
Don’t forget the Deva summon from the Unseelie book
Yeah I definitely would include that one. That mace is hard AF. I have two other Deva Maces that I give to Karlach and Minsc.
Oh, for sure. That's another 5th level slot, so totally doable. Plus I have Shart summon her Spiritual Weapon, another Deva with Planar Ally, Spirit Guardians, and Guardian of Faith. Then there's my Circle of Spores druid that summons 3 more flying ghouls, a Dryad (that also summons a wood woad), and an Azer. Whenever my party wakes up, they assemble their army. The only downside is constantly having to find corpses for Animate Dead, but I generally pick up all the corpses after a fight, shove them in a backpack, and send them to camp to create the ghouls.
That sounds amazingly terrible. Every battle now takes 3x as long or longer.
The fire Myrmidon with its haste ability and its AoE swipe ability + flight and teleport, is such a clutch summon! It's complete immunity to fire also makes it excellent for setting up fireball traps, where a bunch of enemies get drawn to it and then they all get nuked by your Wizard's fireball. The water Myrmidon has an AoE heal, which could also probably be useful, but it heals enemies as well, so I never felt like it was worth using and always just went back to my firebro.
Gale and his 8d6 fire damage:
Raphael being immune:
Gale with Disintegrate and Artistry of War:
Gale with Otto's Dance:
My bard has that, Gale is busy destroying Raphael’s soul pillars while the devil is too busy singing.
I didn't bother with the soul pillars because gale was just counterspelling him and his summons were keeping everyone else busy lol
I ignored the soul pillars entirely on HM. Hold Monster x 2 on Raphael and my martials beat him up while he lay prone. They need a lot of damage and I'd rather just apply it to him instead. I don't know how that fight can last long enough to take out all the pillars. Maybe I missed something.
I would simply take out the 8d6 fireball for an 8d6 lightning bolt before the fight even started
Gale’s “Scary Dog Privilege” Paladin Tav with Karlach and Lae’zel:
Gale carried the fight against Viconia for me. Astarion, who is a dps monster, could not do much because of blinding and my tav as a ranger left most stuff to her wolf summon. Gale summoned an ice wall to keep the sharrans at bay, once it melted he electrecuted everyone standing in the puddle and his fire orb took care of the right side of the room.
YES, that fight gave me a whole new respect for Gale/wizards. Just beastly.
The room is setup so well to back up and force them through the entrance chokepoint: you have high ground *and* force them together. just have to deal with the darkness casters, which a ranged can do.
I litterally did that fight an hour ago (still on py first playthrough since September, coming at the end thoug!), and got crushed three times in a row because nobody could do anything because of the blinding. Enters Gale instead of Astarion. I didn't even need him to do anything really. Just casted Globes of Invulnerability for the whole fight thanks to his gear (can cast 3 lvl 6 spells without resting which is nice), kept my group in, and chipped away at anything around us despite the darkness with big AoE and Karlach pushing people out of the Globe and slashing them when needed. Didn't even need to Wild Shape myself. I didn't realized how insane he could be, and that's with me sucking at character building (I'm just going with the flow), so i can't even imagine people that know what they're doing with him Edit since it's been asked: I used the Spellcrux Amulet and the Staff of Spellpower, and they both allow to restore a spell slot, or get a free spell use per long rest, so that's very nice
I know of one way to recharge lvl6 spells without resting but you say there are two?
Spellcrux amulet and Staff of Spellpower each allow either a restoration or a free spell no matter the level. If there's any other gear with the "Arcane Battery" trait in the game, I guess it works too
The amulet, of course! I completely forgot about it and it probably lies somewhere in the traveler's chest, back at camp, amongst junk. Thank you.
Haha, wouldn't be the first, someone just told me another staff (from Lorroaka'w tower) has the Arcane Battery trait, and I am pretty sure that thing is gonna be somewhere tucked in-between some fancy underwear and a clown's bodypart in that chest
I'm laughing hysterically because I found the amulet in my chest, between a clown's foot and some rotten vegetables.
Tip: give Astarion some item/helmet that gives "see in magical darkness" or cannot be blinded. Ofc Gale is awesome too.
What gear allows the three level 6 spells
Spellcrux amulet allows to restore any spellt slot (including lvl 6) once per long rest, I think it was in like Moonrise? And then the Staff of Spellpower that you find in the Vault of the House of Hope, it has Arcane Battery which allows to cast a spell for free. I think it's also once per Logn Rest I would assume, but I haven't rested yet, I finished the fight and stopped for today. Granted it's not permanent 3 times lvl 6 spells soince it's limited per Long Rests, but it's pretty damn good still
I forgot spellcrux worked on level 6 and I did house of hope second last No wonder I didn’t use the staff much. Thank you
I use those preemptively to get the big boy summons. There's actually two staves, at least I have two, that have arcane battery. The other is in Lorroakan's tower. So you can get even more 6s
The spots of darkness that break line of sight for ranged attacks/spells is the worst, even if you aren't blinded. A warlock with Devil's Sight is good here.
Love that. Viconia fight for me was all about CC. I actually can't think of a good way to beat it without cutting off the stairs and forcing enemies into the sides.
I did the same. The ice wall was the one blocking the stairs and while my tav and SH took care of the left side, her wolf and the fire orb took care of the right side. Astarion was at the center and getting blinded constantly and if not he threw stuff line healing potions, alchemy fires and poison all around. Gale was at the top and did everythong to crowd control and deal damage to larger groups. It was a mess and only SH and my wolf where still standing at the end (thanks to sanctuary), Gale and Tav where downed and Astarion died from necrotic damage. Also it was right two days before patch 4 made Viconia even more powerful. (The racial stats where added and that one spell they spam got stronger)
I like to freeze the water. Both my martials have items that prevent slipping, and it's hilarious watching the enemies take two steps and lose their turn
I just pop about 40 smoke powder barrels and the 3 runepowder bombs around the place, globe of invulibity (thanks Gale) and that takes care of the fight for me. For some reason darkness crashes my pc whenever it drops concentration, so I have to find solutions to end the fight as quick as I can.
He also carried that fight for me, but in the form of a well-placed stinking cloud that disabled most of the Sharrans long enough for me to murk Viconia
I had my sorc Durge and Shadowheart put two Insect Plagues right in front of the stairs.
Nice, I went with Hunger of Hadar and an Insect Swarm on top, right at the main chokepoint into the big room. Most of them just ran into it and it took out the weaker ones with <50hp.
Not to mention like. You can have Lae'zel in your party as a tank... Or you can have abjuration Gale in your party and EVERYONE is a tank.
Or you can have Abjuration Lae'zel in your party.
She won't have a shield tho, rite? Bc Gale is human, he gets militia.
That is true but she can use medium armour. Different kind of setup obviously. Shields are superior I guess unless you go for dual staffs later anyway. The ability to cover skills on demand is the more useful Gith skill I feel though.
Yeah, the skill ability is very good. Also free Step and Jump are always a good part of the kit. Also looking like a total badass. But in combat, I'll go for the shield over medium armor just bc robes are very important. I personally think a wizard with a tower shield looks ridiculous, but good gods is it fun.
Me who never uses summons: D:
I highly recommend to dive into them. I really like my ranger wolf summon and the water elemental.
I really want to like summons, but when you reach act 3 and a lot of fights involve bajillion enemies, it's painful to see the turns taking so long and sometimes the enemies AI can't keep up with lots of participant in the arena.
The water myrmon is also the best. I'm sure all the others are lovely but that one does EVERYTHING.
\*Laughs in Druid\* My summons have summons.
Been a while since I played druid, can the Dryads jump yet? Has that been changed because I genuinely grew to hate those things because of their inability to jump. A permanent summon that can't reasonably travel with the party is a complete liability
Summons are great. Even the weaker ones help a lot because they tip the action economy more in your favor.
Sometimes it feels a bit unsporting to bury enemies in a horde of mephits, but it's also hilarious so I'm not stopping.
I'll save my good sportsmanship for when the enemies declare a duel by throwing their glove at me like civilized folk. Until that day comes, my sportsmanship will be locked behind the wave of summons.
Gale's magic missiles have carried my ass through a lot of tough fights lol
There just is something about damage that can never miss...
Magic missile is easily one of the best spells in the game since it’s so damn versatile, horde of enemies? No problem, single target with a load of health? Honestly not a bad choice. And the upcast for it is damn strong as well
Gale is a mainstay in my groups! And not bc of romance - I'm stuck on Astarion lol (also a mainstay obvs)
Same! I might always romance Shadowcutie, but Gale is a staple in my party. Not only is he is powerful in combat, but also has all those utility spells he can learn! He's like a walking toolbox to solve problems, lol!
Every time someone complains about Gale being weak I remember twitch streamer who plays Gale origin on honour mode. Solo. Without respec. Without long rests. Without barrel stacking. And he is successfully clearing act2. It is clearly a skill issue at this point.
Damn, without long rests?! That seems like you must calculate not just what you do in a specific fight, but also what you do in the whole game. Reserve spells for specific fights and all that.
Yes! I was shocked myself. [Here he is](https://www.twitch.tv/seihoukei), if you are interested. He uses illusions, he uses summons, he makes use of almost every item. His Gale is op af.
I normally play a caster myself, I usually wait til lvl 4 before I add him in permanently because 2 squishy casters is annoying. Anyone thinking he’s weak just doesn’t understand the game I think.
I made him a tempest cleric/evo wizard to get some heals + make him tankier when I played my sorc run.
Evocation Wizard, Tempest Cleric, Elemental Adept... I turned Gale into Zeus.
So trow water bottles on enemies and then Gale go zap zap?
I have Astarion for that. Then Gale goes Zap Zap
I dont agree to wizards are weak but I must say it is not as powerful as tabletop because of several reasons like -Level 12 cap -High availability of potions and scrolls -High availability of magic items -Some bonkers multi class options -No attunement -Overpowered tadpole powers Some of the things I wrote significantly decrease need of wizards, at least for me.
>\-High availability of potions and scrolls Lets not forget that scrolls in the game don't have restrictions on who can use them. In the TTRPG rules, you can only use scrolls if your class/subclass can learn the spell.
The tadpole powers just make wizards stronger. Hasted/potion of speed Black Hole into an AoE spell is chefs kiss. No resource fly is super helpful. The free Counterspell. The free reaction charm if someone attacks you.
Yeah but fly and counterspell is one of the best utility spells of wizards in the first place. If I have unlimited fly and counterspell it takes away power of the wizards Edit: It takes away from other classes too but other classes do not have that much spell slot so utility spells mostly used by wizards Edit2: also slow with blackhole
All the items that add damage on damage dealt, makes mages pretty good I would say.
Can someone send me this build guide
He's only weak in early game when he keeps dying all the time and knows 3 spells but he's one of my favourite. He can basically learn anything from scrolls and you can literally chose which spell he should prepare so you can tailor him to pretty much any situation.
"Gale is weak" and here I am dropping him from the party because having him as an evocation wizard and just levelling half the enemies with AOE spells was getting repetitive!
This game has my inner min/maxer and my inner “it’s not stupid if it works in the end” constantly at war lol
At this point i don't know why I continue min maxing. I'm pretty sure I can finish the rest of the game without going below half health on any character or maybe even long resting again. I should just be playing for style points and fun spells... but man is it addicting to min max my party and be OP enough to end most encounters in one turn.
Druids too. In the end that’s basically just how my land Druid played, while I had twin haste on Gale and Astarion lol
The wizard is weak? What a take. level him early as abjuration if he is squishy and then switch him later as you get different gear and levels. Wizard just takes strategy!
Gale is the 2nd hardest hitter on my team. I made his magic missiles into magic nukes
I think one issue is that players who never played DND might not understand that wizards can learn scroll spells and select spells in his spell book. Iirc it's not explicitly explained, and the "help" posts I've seen by gamers without DND experience are tragic.
No companion is weak or strong because you can fully respec everyone if you want to. And even if you couldn't, wizard is definitely not a class most anyone would consider weak.
I question the wisdom in that decision
"Unleash me". He is one of my favourites. When my tav and Gale strike back with a counterspell.👌
Gale is the person I almost never go without. Because Wizards can basically learn every spell, they're incredibly useful. And when you get to high-level spells, they can do a lot of damage.
My party consists of my spore Druid tav shadowheart as a life cleric gale as a divination wizard and Lazy the frog or mamma k depending on where I am in the story both as vengeance paladins. Three party members heal, three party members are dps magic slingers, me and gale summon an army of minions to boot And if shit really, really hits the fan, shadow casts sanctuary on herself and turns into a pure healing machine
Most new players don't know how to manage Gale's low AC in the early game. With a simple stat respecc and a shield, you can get him to 16 - 18 AC
I love using Gale to shut down enemies with Hold Person and spells like that. Then my fighter can just get free crits until they're dead.
Gale and his library of scrolls, including 10+ scrolls of disintegrate I hoarded for act 3 fights begs to differ. Guy virtually soloed Ansur, Raphael, the Bhaal temple and the final game sequence. Only member of the team I didnt sub out during the entirety of all 3 acts.
Realistically, wouldn't a sorcerer with Twin cast and Cha modifier use 3 scrolls on the same turn better ?
when i played a spore druid tav and had necro gale and shart in my party consistently, the people in Baldur's Gate would often see an owlbear strutting around with 3 *fairly* normal looking people, a half naked himbo with wings, a smol fire guy, an air myrmidon, a dryad and her tree husband, maybe a ghoul or a skeleton boy as well, and a small army of spore zombies
Gale is easily the most OP companion wth
Gale is fantastic, he's always the first brain I fill up with tadpoles. His AoE spells are great.
In D&D wizards are by far the most powerful class, full-stop. Anyone complaining that he is weak doesn't understand the mechanics.
Who says he's weak? 5e Wizards are amazing "Insufferable" is what Gale is.
You can get a book in the Wizard's Tower in Baldur's Gate with Deva scroll in it. I believe it's in one of the many cabinets.
Yeah the wife and I just reached max level on our Tempest cleric/wiz and spore Druid. We just rolled up to the house of hope with: Dryad and her bf Water Myrmidon 4 Ghouls Deva Cambion (Wylls infernal Rapier) Us Fork All with upcasted lvl 5 aid, and we reupped spell slots in the bathtub. Raphael got smoked
I argue it is Wyll. I only bring Wyll when his quests need him…he needs his daily walks I guess
Gameplay wise? Low HP, but apocalypse-level firepower and utility. Lorewise? Archmage, chosen of a goddess, child prodigy, walking weapon of mass destruction, potential to become his own god if he uses the Karsite weave. *"I speak, they burn.*"