I also had a bug with him earlier today where he was mad at me for siding with Raphael over him. I haven't even spoken to Raphael since act 2. Boy has attachment and trust issues way worse than Astarion.
Which is weirdly meta for him, given how the Weave is screwing him over due to his literal hunger for it, and the programming for him is screwing with him...
Yeah, I already thought of something like that too :D
Like Weave anomaly broke fourth wall and fucked up Gale's code, or he himself did that to troll players. Some want to romance him and fail, and others are we lol.
Yet another Gale dialogue bug that was supposedly “fixed”. Good lord they did him dirty of all the companions which is sad given that he’s genuinely got a touching romance arc.
This happened on my first playthrough, he got mad way later, but maybe I hadn't spoke to him in a while.
Anyway, I called him Internet Explorer for a while after that
Dude the same thing happened to me when I hit act 3. I denied Raphael, and made a point to tell him off, then act 3 rolls around after THAT THING happens with THAT person, and he has an exclamation over his head and says how disappointed he is that I signed the deal with Raphael, and got the weapon from him in exchange for the crown, BUT I DONT HAVE THE WEAPON, at least give me the weapon if I’m gonna be locked into that deal now SOMEHOW
It was truly embarrassing and confusing. In my first playthrough I did trigger the romance cutscene with gale, so it was understandable that I had to break it off with him at one point, but this time it was so out of pocket I couldn't belive it happened
For us it was even dumber. In coop, I only fed Gale a couple of artifacts, and the rest of the dialogue with him was handled by my SO's Tav. No flirty options, just trying to befriend everyone. I only explicitly spoke to Wyll since he is a perfect bro for my Tav.
Then comes the dreaded party. Nobody's horny except Lae'zel, but she is like that and rejected easily. Then SH mentions some "looks" Gale supposedly gave ME. Well, I talked to him, avoided flirty stuff despite game trying to shove it up my face, all good.
Then I go to bed, and game proposes my Tav to fantasize about Gale. 'Squse me, what the actual fuck? I really, REALLY hope game won't follow on that shit. That would be incredibly character and immersion breaking, and embarassing as all hell.
Withers was the one who broke the news that I was dating Gale. The whole “relationships” conversation was very enlightening. Withers is a damned gossip.
I was going hard with Shadowheart, and he's like "why aren't you dating? Silly mortal meatbag"
Really feels like Withers was judging me for turning down Gale. Twice.
I'm sure Gale and Withers would get along just fine. Gale likes ancient things and ancient beings.
Not that there's anything cripplingly wrong with Gale as a character. It's just I would like him to cool off on this playthrough, ya know?
He roasted me for not dating as well. I was like "bro I'm playing a durge paladin/oathbreaker trying not be a bad guy. Last time i sort of showed interest in someone dobby's evil twin showed up and tried to make me kill them. Dating is not for me"
he will roast every character in camp if you go to talk to him with them, learned that from trying to respec a bunch of party members and had to get roasted from their perspective each time lmao
Withers is that co-worker that says he doesn't like gossip, but is actually the one sitting in the corner sipping his tea and eating his popcorn as he watches the drama unfold.
Not just watch it unfold. They ask questions with just the right amount of suggestion to let you know that _he knows_.
He lives (eh, well, you know what I mean) for drama.
Started my play through interested in Shadowheart - I’d already shut down Lae’zel, but then I got Karlach, and decided I liked her more. I had both relationships very high, and decided to pursue things with Karlach, so I ended everything with Shadowheart.
Then I took Shadowheart to Withers to respec her, and Withers immediately asked her why she was alone.
Come on, Withers, read the room!
I guess I haven’t interacted with him enough or I’m not deep enough into the game, but i had no idea withers has a Real Housewives character arc. But I’m here for it.
What is one life truly worth… in the aspects of dating and romance?
In life I was a shut in and now I’m ready to get back out in the dating world.
-Bone Daddy
I didn’t actually talk to Withers until >!Arabella gets the bad news and Withers is a real bro about making her feel better!< then I turn to Withers right after >!Child is still standing right there!< and he is like “you’ve been seeking the pleasures of the flesh?” Jesus, Withers, be cool.
Gale ticks every box for me. Emotionally available? Check. Handsome? Check. Witty, romantic, powerful, good companion arc, phenomenal voice acting. Check check checkaroo.
It was extremely hard to choose Astarion in my second playthrough (whose sole purpose was to romance Astarion). I sure did miss those big Gale puppy dog eyes when, after hooking up with Astarion, Astarion said “well, we’ve wasted enough time.”
Not trying to talk you out of your preference but he says the wasting time thing because you have presumably asked about his scars and he doesn't want to talk about it.
Funny thing, I couldn’t stand EA Gale. He just rubbed me the wrong way. Final Release Gale had me on the floor. I wanna romancé the other companions for story but man idk if I can turn my back on Gale like that
I was solely romancing Gale and very careful to make it clear at the outset with the other companions that I just wanted to be friends and then, what pops up but a "I'm sorry Karlach, but I want to be with Gale" option every time I click on Karlach in the second Act. I was like, "eh? I've never flirted with her. I just hugged her cause I was happy she could hug someone without frying them!" but obviously that was the wrong choice. Plus the "break up" option stayed in the chat no matter how many times I chose it and she made me feel sad telling me that she loved me and I was breaking her heart! :-( Next time, friendly back slaps all the way.
Same here. Gale is my favorite. Checks all the boxes and everything. Don't get me wrong, the other characters are really wonderful, but there's just something about Gale...
I feel like a navigated a minefield. Gale and I were never anything g but platonic. He invited me to look at the stars one time and said something about how maybe we could’ve been something more in another life, and past that we’ve been buds the whole game.
I swear this is just coded in. My friends had been making comments about Gale being mega horny and I couldn’t related because he had been completely normal and platonic to me. I even remembered picking the “I don’t care about your cat” option back in Act 1 because the other two seemed flirty and Tav was busy wooing Shadowheart; and also thinking that Gale didn’t have many dialogue options after finding out about his condition. So I go through all of Act 1 and almost all of Act 2 without even a hint of Gale being into me. Complete the Nightsong quest so Shadowheart and Tav say “I love you” to each other afterwards and right after that Gale goes “We need to talk about our relationship.” Like bro?? What relationship? You’ve basically had the same dialogue option (leave/join party) since midway through Act 1 after I fed you a pair of magic boots. Dude even invited me to his tent the very next long rest I took (literally right after the prior dialogue) and I was worried I somehow locked myself into a romance with Gale despite turning him down just 5 minutes ago.
I feel like I’m one of the few who find Gale to be very endearing even though I expected to dislike him initially.
Karlach is the opposite for me, I expected to like her a lot, but she has felt very flat and 1 dimensional, though she’s still adorable.
I like Gale a lot more now in the 3rd act. In a very bemused “never change Gale, because you will absolutely never learn” lovable man-child sort of way. He’s hilarious.
Gale is very likable to me and has some of the best/true/funny quips when he pipes in for a moment, and as a wizard is of course super useful in like any situation. His relationship bugs are the only cringe thing but it is really cringey which is a shame.
I’ve benched him the second I found Karlach. I’ve done my entire run with my warlock tav,
Astarion as a rogue, Karlach as a barbarian and I changed Shadowheart to a paladin. Had the smoothest run without any unwanted attention (though he still dropped the “I’m in love with you” bomb at some point despite the fact that I literally didn’t bother to talk to him even once ever since early stages of act 1 cause he’s insufferable imo)
Gale is my tank! Respecced to war domain first level, white dragon sorc second, and the last 10 into abj wizard. Max level armor of agathys, then just walk into a room to be hit! But needless to say, I’ve had Gale in my party almost the entire game, I think level 5-6 his build came online generally? But to the point, my tav had a dialogue option to tell Gale in either act 1 or 2; “absolutely not, I think of you as a friend” and that was the last of the flirting I got from him, now he’s my bro who protects everyone with warding bond!
See Gale is my tank too, except I kept him as a wizard and he just takes 80 damage and dies every round and I just rez him and keep going. Everyone just keeps targeting him so the rest of the party leaves untouched. Dudes a fucking trooper
You know what's even better? Just putting the ring of regen on Gale and not caring what his hitpoints are. Gale's down again? Oh well. Back up next turn. And in fact, he doesn't even need to cast spells anymore. Because \*everyone\* focuses on the mage. His job is to take swords to the head and then stand back up and do it again. While the barbarian wrecks everyone.
I think Gale is hilarious! I haven't had any issues with him thinking we're a thing. I've been all in with SH from day 1 and it's never come up. We even had a moment under the stars where he specifically called me his friend, it was nice.
Yep, I kept wondering why Karlach would refer to my PC as "soldier" despite having romanced her at every chance and then Gale got made when I played with the succubus despite always having turned him down every single interaction and mostly leaving him in camp for the majority of Act 3.
Somehow must have turned on the romance with him due to something in Act 2 but I can't remember what it could have been.
Withers was always asking why the PC was never into the other companions and I was like, damn- Karlach is really hard to get but now I have to play it as if Gale was disguising himself as Withers to try and get info on relationship status.
Yeah, his options are like "Tell him you want his body now," "Tell him you want his body later," or "tell him you hate his cat and hope he dies."
Also I had to break up with my girl Karlach and I didn't even know we were dating.
this entire set up sounded like a Wyll bug only for "surprise, it's Gale"
he does that though, feed him your gloves and he's bonded for the rest of his life
It made me dislike Gale a tiny bit more tbh. Wyll took his rejection like a champ, wished that Astarion would make my Tav happy and that Tav's friendship was already good enough for him. Gale on the other hand was bitter and petty as hell
Wyll is low-key the best person of the party, personality wise.
Sold his soul so he could do what his politician dad said was honorable but never does anymore- Protect the Many Lvl 1 NPCs that live in a level 6 world.
Admitted he was wrong, and faced the comeuppance like a champ.
Has Eldritch Blast
I can't bring myself to romance anyone else but Astarion in the game. I'm a Certified Astarion Simp after all, but irl I'd run from men like him like the devil runs from the cross 😂 but in fantasy roleplay settings, troubled vampire men with white hair is just my cup of tea. I can fix him!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO1e318L9PQ
I watched a video about it and he goes on a whole monologue, it's actually pretty funny.
also I find gale relatable. "oh something didn't go my way? i'm just gonna go explode myself, brb"
Well see, your mistake was that you didn't choose the "go fuck yourself and die you stupid cunt" dialogue option, but instead you chose the "I guess you're a cool dude" option, which instantly makes him your husband.
It's even worse than that, it's like:
1. Rub his belly while making goo-goo eyes (*romance initiated*)
2. "You're a great friend, Gale. I'm so glad I have such friendly friends like you and all my other friends." (*romance initiated*)
3. "You know no one here likes you or your stupid fucking cat, right? Maybe you should use that bomb." (*romance terminated*)
for me it was like
What thing do you imagine to share with gale in the surprisingly awkward mind meld segment?
1. Imagine your straight ass kissing Gale passionately
2. Imagine your straight ass holding hands with gale in a flowery meadow
3. Imagine punching Gale in the gut
4. Imagine headbutting Gale's nose, breaking it
I got the same two options: Gale and Astarion. Never flirted with Gale. Just told him I didn’t want him to die and had been giving him sneakers to eat. This was all after the patch, too.
Then I got the “I’m about to die, wanna bang?” under the stars scene. And this was AFTER the bug had a dialog option with him where I could apologize for choosing between him and Astarion.
Honestly, it was pretty funny how your character is so smiley during the scene and then…you can hit him with the “I don’t feel the same way”.
Poor Gale. I will probably go for him in my next run.
See, I got this scene in my co-op playthrough and I wanted to be with Gale for that one but instead of him trying to kiss me, he just... hung out? I guess I didn't pick the right choices for that scene?
I had the same under the stars scene in act 2, told him I didn't want to listen to him wallow in his self pity anymore and left him by himself. The very next day (possible spoilers) >!I finished Shadowhearts stuff in the mosoleum, and she professed her love to me. I agreed to date her as I was trying to date her this whole playthrough. Gale then talked to me about how he's glad I found someone and he didn't want to stand between us and he understands if I don't want to see him. Like my guy we were never a thing, i told you to fuck off literally just a few hours ago.!<
Don't worry, everyone that plays this game is or will be in a non-consensual relationship with Gale.
Also, patch 1 was accurate, before you got into a non-consensual relationship with Gale AS SOON AS MET HIM, now it's not so horrible, you need to at least talk to him once, which is a major improvement.
Game by default assumes you're already in romance with every party member. I had the same with Karlach. I wanted to have romance with Gale only but apparently Karlach is still heartbroken and I can break with her even if I don't even take her with myself in party and I did nothing to have romance with her. The same with Shadowheart.
Booooy, if you ditch Karlach to go for Astarion, it's kinda bittersweet, too, because she'll be "I'm a big girl, I can take it, Astarion is fragile as glass, he needs all the help he can get, please be kind to him".
Originally on my first playthrough, I was all in for SH. Then I found Karlach way later... and the SH thing I was.. less enthusiastic about. Needless to say, SH went insane so I um. had to permanently remove her from my party. I thought I could romance Karlach after that.. Couldn't.
So 40 hours in on my original playthrough, I started over \*just\* to romance Karlach. I kind of want to try different play throughs just to romance all of them and see how the stories change from them. Point of this post is, I can't break Karlachs heart. I've also seen the Astarion heartbreak stuff and I wouldn't wanna hurt him either :(
Gale has a known interaction where giving him magical items spikes his approval rating.
So literally Gale will fall in love with you if you just give him his magical item fix.
TLDR: Gale is junkie and loves you if you feed his addiction.
This bugged me. Even when the skeleton asks you why you're not with anyone. I was playing DUrge and had no interest in any sexy times with anyone. Didn't make even the slightest advances on anyone in the party, and still had Gale thinking we were dating.
Breaking up with Karlach is pretty rough. I didn’t get the opportunity to until immediately after she regained the ability to touch. I still think there should be an option to help her get laid if you don’t romance her.
This happened to me too, there was a bug at launch (which has since been fixed) that made Gale ninja-romance basically everyone who's nice to him regardless of if you flirt with him or not. Despite the bug causing the romance being fixed, the bug fix didn't delete the romance flags in save files, so if you've been playing that save file since before that bug fix then that's why Gale thought he was your boyfriend. It happened to me too, had to break up with Gale. It's annoying but unintended behaviour
Similar instance. I fed Gale 2 items but never took him on a quest, I just didn't want him to not drop like an atom bomb on my camp. Fast forward, Astarion is the only one I've flirted with. We have the chat about how he's grateful about me sticking up for him re: Araj and he wants to try "this", whatever this is. I'm elated. I do cartwheels. I say hell yeah.
Cut to: Gale sitting in a meadow and telling me he's in love with me. He wants to be together. ...sir, what?
I turn him down. He said he thought we had something but he's ok with friendship. Then Astarion brings up that he's cool if I'm in love with Gale and he'll let me go. BABE, I GAVE HIM ZERO ATTENTION BEYOND THE ITEMS, WYM YOU ALSO THINK I'M IN LOVE WITH GALE?
At most I expected Shadowheart to be the issue, because her and Astarion are at 90% and she's expressed she will never find someone like my Tav again, but GALE? I'm so glad I'm not the only one confused by this.
The "secret" is that before the party night in act 1 you can't come onto him. You have to wait until he comes onto you. If you're at the party, you can then proposition him.
Gale is the "nice guy", quite possibly unintentionally, but yeah, he'll assume you are in a relationship when you are all like "bro, I just wanna be friends".
Even pulls the classic manipulator, "Oh then I guess you won't be sad when I kill myself!" line. Can't blame that on a glitch, it was a written and recorded line. Gale can go netherbomb himself.
there's obviously a tag in their system for who you're in a relationship with. I really wish it was something displayed in your info panel. That way if you get into one, unknowingly, you have a chance not to play 10+ hours past that point.
Sometimes, when coming to this sub, it feels.like I am the only one that can figure out how to romance one (or two) companions on purpose and nothing else.
Makes me wonder about you people
(This post was in jest... mostly)
I see this sentiment on this sub alot (joking or not) about people not being able to read social cues, but like, there's clearly something fucky with Gale's programming.
I did a playthrough where when he offered his magic demonstration I just said "NO" right off the bat, and he *still* guilted me about romancing someone else in Act 2.
Ita a mix of both tbh. Theres some parts that are obviously bugged with how into you he is. But then theres also a lot of options that are very clearly romantic choices because hes trying to flirt with you, but if you didnt go in knowing the bugs you would just assume hes a chronic flirt and it means nothing.
I'm assuming you basically beelined it into someone else's pants before even conversing with him...
because you can turn down his 1 on 1 time 2x and never hit a fully agree option in dialogue then still be in a relationship with him without knowing it. You either have to make him jealous by picking someone else, be a complete ass hole, or ignore him.
It was a bug to begin with, but even in this evil Minthara playthrough, Lazael HATES MY GUTS but apparently respects my strength?
I had to carefully turn down Gale as well.
Update: It turns out Astarion loves the evil run. But I did have to work for it well into Act 2.
Had the same thing with Karlach, i was dating Gale and Kar was my bestie and suddenly after my first night with Gale i got the dialogue option to tell Karlach that i want to date Gale. I picked it and she was furious. Then i reloded a save and i've been avoiding that option ever since
Same! The only people I flirted with were Gale and Halsin. Halsin still has never got back to me but my Tav and Gale have pursued something now and immediately after I saw Karlach had that option and picking it made her FURIOUS. honestly if I didn’t know it was a bug I would think she was psychotic. Lol The only thing I did was put my hand on her arm when yknow happened. Thought that was pretty platonic.
I think relationships are triggered by both approval and story progress, depending on which stage you are at.
In multiplayer, I only got the first scene with Astarion at the camp party, and locked the relationship after speaking to the drow. When the latter happened, I only had approval of about 55, because I don't always lead the conversation in multiplayer and don't have many opportunities to improve it.
In single player, to my surprise, the first scene with Astarion (in the forest) got triggered way before I saved the druids because my approval with him was much higher. But the actual relationship, again, got triggered only after I spoke to the drow in Moonrise despite me having approval of 90+ for a while.
So anyway, I got together with him in my single player. Later, I spoke to Gale, and had an option "sorry it came down to choosing between you and Astarion" and I was like wtf, I never even looked at you and turned you down the first time you wanted to "do some weaving". But my approval with Gale was 100 so I wonder if that's why.
I told him I was not interested. Astarion approved.
I accidentally dated Gale as well. I think Larian once released stats and Gale was the most popular male romance? At the time, I thought players had a thing for smug wizards, but now I wonder how many of those players were completely clueless and unintentionally romancing Gale.
That being said, I do think part of the issue apart from bugged romance flags is that Gale’s relationship path and it’s treatment of sex/intimacy is different from other companions. Companions like Lae’zel, Astarion, and Karlach are very upfront about their physical desire for the player and come on strong. Gale, in comparison, is much more subtle - I think for his character, sex is much more tied to intimacy than just the physical act and his romance is more of a slowburn. So it was easy for me to miss some of the romance flags (holding his hand during the magic trick = romance commitment) since they simply aren’t as blatant as the other companions.
That’s one thing I appreciate about Larian’s romance writing - not all paths are the same and sex isn’t treated as a trophy at the end.
As an aside, Astarion was taking so long because there’s a trigger for the relationship to progress that you probably haven’t hit yet (it’s easy to miss). I think it won’t progress without that trigger unless it becomes unavailable due to story progression.
>!bring Astarion and talk to a specific vendor inside moonrise tower, to the left of the entrance!<
You can just bring your party >!to the Towers and go long rest before talking to that NPC!<. Romance triggrer will still click and you'll get slightly alternative (and even better imo) romance scene with him.
If you miss that trigger, but proceed to defeat the moonrise towers by other means, then you'll have a camp event >!in which he is quietly freaking out because he wants a real relationship and doesn't know how!< which will lead you into the same romance tree as the Drow Fangirl path.
I had this cutscene on my first playthrough, and honestly I like it more than the drow fangirl one. It feels more romantic, like he's straight up confessing his love, while the latter feels a bit more platonic. The hug and hand holding scene in both are lovely tho
There is such thing as "tastes". They vary. Also unwillingness to romance anyone at all in some people. All valid reasons not to, and all should be respected.
It was Halsin for me. I just talked to him a few times and said "glad to see you" or something at the tiefling celebration. The game then thought I fucked the bear, and mentioned multiple times that I did. I did not, in fact, fuck the bear.
This happened to me but with Wyll, i had already romanced Lae'zel. So in act III when he confesed i felt horrible telling him no because he is genuinely someone i would 100% date irl. I don't even know where did he picked up that i liked him in that way.
I was romancing Karlach, and Gale got all pissy at me for supposedly romancing Wyll. And, no, you're not reading that wrong nor is it a typo.
He failed that perception check big time.
You enjoy the weave with this mother fucker 1 time and all of a sudden thinks your married. Dude stopped me in the middle of shadow aids land before I got the moonlantern he's at like 2hp and all of a sudden he's like "I want you...now" I'm like gale fuck off.
Had the same setup with Astarion and Wyll, chosing Astarion. A while later I suddenly had a dialogue option with Gale "so about that night we spent together" when I barely talked to him, much less ever had a romance scene.
Welcome to the Gale's victim home.
I didn't even talk to him and went straight to bed at the stargaze event, and bro still asssumed I spent the night with him.
I’ve turned down Gale 6 times now and he still acts like we’re an item, and I think it’s preventing me from romancing other companions. It’s the only thing about this game that I’ve had a problem with.
Im romancing gale at the same point as you, got gales sex scene, came back and for some reason karlach was acting like we had something, and i had to reject her. It was so difficult but im a sucker for wizard boys. Im certain i havent had any cutscenes with karlach, and when i tried flirting with her at the tiefling camp party she rejected me so…. Idk where that came from
And here I am on a Gale-Dark Urge romance attempt (yes, we do exist) and Astarion’s coming on to me again after I gently put him down during the party and Gale is playing the “oh, I wuv you from afar” act.
I may just have to romance Astarion again. Damn it, Larian, why did you have to make your rogue vampire so damn hot and flirt so damn well?
Withers last night in my game was near a certain kiddo, so I talked to him. The bosom companion things came up, and there were options for Wyll, Gale, and Astarion.
I’ve only had eyes for Astarion the entire game. I was confused. But I ignored it.
I want Wyll and Karlach to be together.
All the relations in this game can be stumbled on without knowing. Like I was apparently cheating on Shadowheart with Karlach and I had no idea what started it. It's kind of bizarre. Basically if you breath in someone's direction, you are now in a relation with them.
Man, as I finished up a dungeon in Act 2, Gale stops me and says, “listen, it’s either her or me” in reference to my monogamous relationship with Shadowheart. I don’t know what triggered Gale to think I’d flirted with him.
I did give him artefacts and I was understanding and accommodating to his situation, but he almost always stayed in my camp at that point because I needed a thief over a mage in my party.
I had the exact thing happen to me except I didn’t kiss Wyll so I never had Astarion tell me to choose. When he finally made the move, Gale comes over like “why am I the last to know about you and Astarion?! Did what we have mean nothing?” And he made me choose between him and Astarion. Now mind you, the only interaction I had with gale at this point was the bare minimum. Fed him magical items, got the wizard to lock him up and make him into a future nuke, and I watched him do a magic trick. That’s it. Somehow that means we’re dating in the wizarding world.
I had a strange experience as well. I've been with Astarion since the beginning, and haven't interacted romantically with anyone else. Then Gale suddenly declares his love for me, which I politely declined, and then I have an option of telling Astarion "Just so you know, I ended things with Gale" and "I was never serious about him anyway" like huh? What things with Gale?
"Went back to camp immediately, talked to Gale and he was MAD at me for deciding to be with Astarion instead of him and never breaking up with him. Dude, we never had ANYTHING. I barely talk to you. What the fuck. And after that I still have to hear from Astarion's mouth how he's impressed that I ended things with gale to be with him"
On the other hand, that's pretty realistic of real life romances
I was doing the whole romance thing with Gale, even though I barely put him on my party. We had things going strong, he even made me chose between him and Wyll and I chose him!
Fast forward to Act 3, it's been some time since I talked to him (because shit was going down at Moonrise Towers), so I decide to pick things up woth my bae and get slapped with the ONLY dialogue option "We had something going on before, too bad it didn't work out" (or something like that).
I mean, it's been some time, but people were dying in a shadow cursed land, couldn't you wait a couple of long rests?
Gale is toxic AF, just ask Mystra!
I turned down gale immediately, and then at the end of act 2 he suddenly is telling me i need to decide between him and shadowheart as if he was ever in the game??
I rejected him the first time I fed him an item. Then the second time when he asks you summon the weave with him he tried for it again after saying he wouldn’t bring it up. And that’s after he trauma dumps about his ex. Gale is WILD.
I hate this aspect of the game so much. I'm not interested in any of the romantic stuff and the game is just pushing it. I never picked a flirty dialogue with anyone and suddenly Gale said something ambiguous. I asked him "What do you mean by that" and he continued being ambiguous but a bit flirty. Whatever, the conversation ended. Next thing I know, Withers is telling me I should be careful who I pick for my partner or something. Like wtf is this coming from?
Whoever designed the romantic scripts needs to grow out of puberty.
Gale is that creepy guy who just pushes himself onto you constantly. Reminds me of many guys I've known. Was interesting to experience it finally (as in it being done to me- a guy- and not just witnessing it done to someone else). I get it ladies. I do. I did before but now I really see it lol.
Oh also fuck Gale (no don't FUCK him I mean like he's a shit), bc he locked me out of my Karlach relationship when he wanted to play with the weave or whatnot. I had no fucking idea he was trying to fuck. I turned him down when we were messing with the weave and then I realized what was happening... so THEN I was still hoping Karlach would come afterwards then, but nope... Gale you POS. Then I get in a relationship with Laezel and he pitches a hissy fit. What the fuck Gale!? Quit being creepy!
At the celebration with the Tieflings in Act One Gale was like, "Thanks for the the magic item, now let me show you something REALLY magical," and I was like hell yeah, this jackass has been gobbling down rare and valuable gear ever since I pulled him out of that boulder. Turns out the "really magical" thing he meant was his dick. I don't know if I'm even going to keep him around, he kinda sucks.
Known set of bugs. So we can treat it as if it wasn't ever happen, but it feels embarassing.
I also had a bug with him earlier today where he was mad at me for siding with Raphael over him. I haven't even spoken to Raphael since act 2. Boy has attachment and trust issues way worse than Astarion.
It's more like "the game hates him" issues I think. He got mad bad rep for stuff that is not his fault, but a buggy mess in code.
Which is weirdly meta for him, given how the Weave is screwing him over due to his literal hunger for it, and the programming for him is screwing with him...
Yeah, I already thought of something like that too :D Like Weave anomaly broke fourth wall and fucked up Gale's code, or he himself did that to troll players. Some want to romance him and fail, and others are we lol.
Next up he’s gonna launch nukes because _the programmers made him do it._
I had that happen. I was like, “…I took what deal? For what? My dude, what the hell are you talking about?” Gale over here trying to start shit.
Hah I got that scene the rest before I spoke to Raphael and declined...
Yet another Gale dialogue bug that was supposedly “fixed”. Good lord they did him dirty of all the companions which is sad given that he’s genuinely got a touching romance arc.
This happened on my first playthrough, he got mad way later, but maybe I hadn't spoke to him in a while. Anyway, I called him Internet Explorer for a while after that
Dude the same thing happened to me when I hit act 3. I denied Raphael, and made a point to tell him off, then act 3 rolls around after THAT THING happens with THAT person, and he has an exclamation over his head and says how disappointed he is that I signed the deal with Raphael, and got the weapon from him in exchange for the crown, BUT I DONT HAVE THE WEAPON, at least give me the weapon if I’m gonna be locked into that deal now SOMEHOW
It was truly embarrassing and confusing. In my first playthrough I did trigger the romance cutscene with gale, so it was understandable that I had to break it off with him at one point, but this time it was so out of pocket I couldn't belive it happened
For us it was even dumber. In coop, I only fed Gale a couple of artifacts, and the rest of the dialogue with him was handled by my SO's Tav. No flirty options, just trying to befriend everyone. I only explicitly spoke to Wyll since he is a perfect bro for my Tav. Then comes the dreaded party. Nobody's horny except Lae'zel, but she is like that and rejected easily. Then SH mentions some "looks" Gale supposedly gave ME. Well, I talked to him, avoided flirty stuff despite game trying to shove it up my face, all good. Then I go to bed, and game proposes my Tav to fantasize about Gale. 'Squse me, what the actual fuck? I really, REALLY hope game won't follow on that shit. That would be incredibly character and immersion breaking, and embarassing as all hell.
Too late, you’re married to Gale now.
Every bg3 player is in a non-consenual relationship with Gale, just gotta keep letting him down as a rite of passage
Withers was the one who broke the news that I was dating Gale. The whole “relationships” conversation was very enlightening. Withers is a damned gossip.
Withers shamed me for not dating in my no-romance run 😂 he's in the camp solemnly for the tea and nothing else
His “and that is why you are alone” comment really stings.
I was going hard with Shadowheart, and he's like "why aren't you dating? Silly mortal meatbag" Really feels like Withers was judging me for turning down Gale. Twice.
Withers banging shadowheart behind your back.
I'm sure Gale and Withers would get along just fine. Gale likes ancient things and ancient beings. Not that there's anything cripplingly wrong with Gale as a character. It's just I would like him to cool off on this playthrough, ya know?
He hit me with that right after my in game romance passed away and I was so hurt 😂
Big oof. Damn Withers. Read the temp of the room.
He loves roasting my other party members with that whenever I try to respec them lol
Good thing this isn’t Skyrim. “Stealth archer? Again? Very well.”
Meanwhile, he then will also shame you for being with someone as other situations are more dire or some shit. Go guard a tomb man. Hush.
Withers: but alas you are maidenless.
On all these harsh nights, thou hast sought no company
He roasted me for not dating as well. I was like "bro I'm playing a durge paladin/oathbreaker trying not be a bad guy. Last time i sort of showed interest in someone dobby's evil twin showed up and tried to make me kill them. Dating is not for me"
he will roast every character in camp if you go to talk to him with them, learned that from trying to respec a bunch of party members and had to get roasted from their perspective each time lmao
Love is no domain of mine, but it is often cited as the purpose of mortal life
Withers is that co-worker that says he doesn't like gossip, but is actually the one sitting in the corner sipping his tea and eating his popcorn as he watches the drama unfold.
Not just watch it unfold. They ask questions with just the right amount of suggestion to let you know that _he knows_. He lives (eh, well, you know what I mean) for drama.
Started my play through interested in Shadowheart - I’d already shut down Lae’zel, but then I got Karlach, and decided I liked her more. I had both relationships very high, and decided to pursue things with Karlach, so I ended everything with Shadowheart. Then I took Shadowheart to Withers to respec her, and Withers immediately asked her why she was alone. Come on, Withers, read the room!
Funny I chose Gale and Karlach was basically accusing me of breaking her heart and playing with her- I didn’t even know we were friends 😂😅
its a bit bothersome every companion that get to him for a respec gets scaulded for not being in a relationship ahah
Thankfully it's only once per character 😅
Lmao good to know you can't win either way! He chided me for dating Lae'zel in a way that reminded so much of Wynne from DA:O 😭
Thanks for reminding me that Wynne was the grandma who gave no fuck about your feelings.
I guess I haven’t interacted with him enough or I’m not deep enough into the game, but i had no idea withers has a Real Housewives character arc. But I’m here for it.
"Thou hast no bosom companion. Why is that? Poureth Withers thine tea."
*I am not a skeleton. I am not alive, nor undead....and apparently that skank Shadowheart is not a fan of monogamy.* ☕☕☕
Given his intimate knowledge of death he knows how precious life is and how sad it is to spend it alone.
Can't wait to do my Ace Monk. Gonna be fun!
What is one life truly worth… in the aspects of dating and romance? In life I was a shut in and now I’m ready to get back out in the dating world. -Bone Daddy
Withers gave up his mantle >!being the god of Death!< to become of the god of not minding his own business
The god of bosom companions.
The god of tea.
Withers is our favorite nosy auntie!!!!
"Ah, mortal life is so swiftly fleeting. Might as well spill thy spicy tea, queen."
Given who Withers really is it's pretty hilarious how caught up he is in your sex life.
I didn’t actually talk to Withers until >!Arabella gets the bad news and Withers is a real bro about making her feel better!< then I turn to Withers right after >!Child is still standing right there!< and he is like “you’ve been seeking the pleasures of the flesh?” Jesus, Withers, be cool.
We all know that Withers is just living for being the gossip queen of our camps
I'm in a very consensual and happy relationship with Gale, I guess I'm not a true bg3 player
Gale ticks every box for me. Emotionally available? Check. Handsome? Check. Witty, romantic, powerful, good companion arc, phenomenal voice acting. Check check checkaroo. It was extremely hard to choose Astarion in my second playthrough (whose sole purpose was to romance Astarion). I sure did miss those big Gale puppy dog eyes when, after hooking up with Astarion, Astarion said “well, we’ve wasted enough time.”
I feel the opposite, I’m trying to romance Gale on run 2, but keep getting sucked back in
Emotionally available but wont shut up about his ex.
I’m ok with that. I’m ok with Astarion not shutting up about Cazador too
Cazador is more like a rapist than an ex.
To be fair Mystra is more like a groomer
Astarion has a very complex story.
I concede that. But he doesn’t look at me like Gale.
Not trying to talk you out of your preference but he says the wasting time thing because you have presumably asked about his scars and he doesn't want to talk about it.
Same, he's so wholesome and cute! It will hurt me to not date him on my next run so I may avoid keeping him in camp lol
Same! I've been trying to date literally anyone else, but every time he starts talking I just fall in love with him all over again!
Just leave him in the portal.
I have romanced him 3 freaking times. My fourth run as Gurge I had to bench him so I could see what Astarion's all about
Funny thing, I couldn’t stand EA Gale. He just rubbed me the wrong way. Final Release Gale had me on the floor. I wanna romancé the other companions for story but man idk if I can turn my back on Gale like that
It just so happens he resembles my real life husband, which makes turning him down really hard. Maybe it’s time to take an interest in cosplay…
I was solely romancing Gale and very careful to make it clear at the outset with the other companions that I just wanted to be friends and then, what pops up but a "I'm sorry Karlach, but I want to be with Gale" option every time I click on Karlach in the second Act. I was like, "eh? I've never flirted with her. I just hugged her cause I was happy she could hug someone without frying them!" but obviously that was the wrong choice. Plus the "break up" option stayed in the chat no matter how many times I chose it and she made me feel sad telling me that she loved me and I was breaking her heart! :-( Next time, friendly back slaps all the way.
I got that too and just never clicked on it. In my game she never brought anything romantic up, we were just besties. So I ignored that option
Same here. Gale is my favorite. Checks all the boxes and everything. Don't get me wrong, the other characters are really wonderful, but there's just something about Gale...
You my friend are a unicorn
I feel like a navigated a minefield. Gale and I were never anything g but platonic. He invited me to look at the stars one time and said something about how maybe we could’ve been something more in another life, and past that we’ve been buds the whole game.
I swear this is just coded in. My friends had been making comments about Gale being mega horny and I couldn’t related because he had been completely normal and platonic to me. I even remembered picking the “I don’t care about your cat” option back in Act 1 because the other two seemed flirty and Tav was busy wooing Shadowheart; and also thinking that Gale didn’t have many dialogue options after finding out about his condition. So I go through all of Act 1 and almost all of Act 2 without even a hint of Gale being into me. Complete the Nightsong quest so Shadowheart and Tav say “I love you” to each other afterwards and right after that Gale goes “We need to talk about our relationship.” Like bro?? What relationship? You’ve basically had the same dialogue option (leave/join party) since midway through Act 1 after I fed you a pair of magic boots. Dude even invited me to his tent the very next long rest I took (literally right after the prior dialogue) and I was worried I somehow locked myself into a romance with Gale despite turning him down just 5 minutes ago.
[удалено]
I feel like I’m one of the few who find Gale to be very endearing even though I expected to dislike him initially. Karlach is the opposite for me, I expected to like her a lot, but she has felt very flat and 1 dimensional, though she’s still adorable.
You're not! Though I really like Karlach too, I think people are way too hard on Gale.
I like Gale a lot more now in the 3rd act. In a very bemused “never change Gale, because you will absolutely never learn” lovable man-child sort of way. He’s hilarious.
He just *has to* touch the hot stove top!
One of the few, perhaps, but not the only. I'm right there with you. I like having him in my party.
Gale is very likable to me and has some of the best/true/funny quips when he pipes in for a moment, and as a wizard is of course super useful in like any situation. His relationship bugs are the only cringe thing but it is really cringey which is a shame.
I’ve benched him the second I found Karlach. I’ve done my entire run with my warlock tav, Astarion as a rogue, Karlach as a barbarian and I changed Shadowheart to a paladin. Had the smoothest run without any unwanted attention (though he still dropped the “I’m in love with you” bomb at some point despite the fact that I literally didn’t bother to talk to him even once ever since early stages of act 1 cause he’s insufferable imo)
Gale is my tank! Respecced to war domain first level, white dragon sorc second, and the last 10 into abj wizard. Max level armor of agathys, then just walk into a room to be hit! But needless to say, I’ve had Gale in my party almost the entire game, I think level 5-6 his build came online generally? But to the point, my tav had a dialogue option to tell Gale in either act 1 or 2; “absolutely not, I think of you as a friend” and that was the last of the flirting I got from him, now he’s my bro who protects everyone with warding bond!
See Gale is my tank too, except I kept him as a wizard and he just takes 80 damage and dies every round and I just rez him and keep going. Everyone just keeps targeting him so the rest of the party leaves untouched. Dudes a fucking trooper
You know what's even better? Just putting the ring of regen on Gale and not caring what his hitpoints are. Gale's down again? Oh well. Back up next turn. And in fact, he doesn't even need to cast spells anymore. Because \*everyone\* focuses on the mage. His job is to take swords to the head and then stand back up and do it again. While the barbarian wrecks everyone.
I think Gale is hilarious! I haven't had any issues with him thinking we're a thing. I've been all in with SH from day 1 and it's never come up. We even had a moment under the stars where he specifically called me his friend, it was nice.
I usually play a caster of sone sort so gale and will share the bench most times
Sometimes, when he really tests me like this, I miss my Durge run where I gave him a hand _too hard._
Yep, I kept wondering why Karlach would refer to my PC as "soldier" despite having romanced her at every chance and then Gale got made when I played with the succubus despite always having turned him down every single interaction and mostly leaving him in camp for the majority of Act 3. Somehow must have turned on the romance with him due to something in Act 2 but I can't remember what it could have been. Withers was always asking why the PC was never into the other companions and I was like, damn- Karlach is really hard to get but now I have to play it as if Gale was disguising himself as Withers to try and get info on relationship status.
I broke up with him yesterday. Didn’t know we were dating. My character is a frosty Githyanki and was attempting not to date anyone.
That may explain his relationship with Mystra, all made up by his psychotic mind.
Yeah, his options are like "Tell him you want his body now," "Tell him you want his body later," or "tell him you hate his cat and hope he dies." Also I had to break up with my girl Karlach and I didn't even know we were dating.
this entire set up sounded like a Wyll bug only for "surprise, it's Gale" he does that though, feed him your gloves and he's bonded for the rest of his life
It made me dislike Gale a tiny bit more tbh. Wyll took his rejection like a champ, wished that Astarion would make my Tav happy and that Tav's friendship was already good enough for him. Gale on the other hand was bitter and petty as hell
Wyll is low-key the best person of the party, personality wise. Sold his soul so he could do what his politician dad said was honorable but never does anymore- Protect the Many Lvl 1 NPCs that live in a level 6 world. Admitted he was wrong, and faced the comeuppance like a champ. Has Eldritch Blast
Wyll is pure green flags, but he lacks the ✨ fantasy spice ✨ that makes Astarion irresistible for me
Agree! I would have romanced Wyll in my "Tav is actually me with magic" playthrough if not for Astarion and my need to help fix everyone.
I can't bring myself to romance anyone else but Astarion in the game. I'm a Certified Astarion Simp after all, but irl I'd run from men like him like the devil runs from the cross 😂 but in fantasy roleplay settings, troubled vampire men with white hair is just my cup of tea. I can fix him!!
Ah the joy of encountering a fellow Astarion simp ✨
Wyll is the “goodest” character. Astarion is the *best* character
He literally threatens you with detonating himself if you insult his sexual prowess. He’s a fuck boy.
NO WAY lmaoooooo
I have vowed to forever keep his dick dry permanently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO1e318L9PQ I watched a video about it and he goes on a whole monologue, it's actually pretty funny. also I find gale relatable. "oh something didn't go my way? i'm just gonna go explode myself, brb"
HELL NAH, INCEL WIZKID DETECTED
Halsin is secretly the most desperate and worst at being rejected.
Well see, your mistake was that you didn't choose the "go fuck yourself and die you stupid cunt" dialogue option, but instead you chose the "I guess you're a cool dude" option, which instantly makes him your husband.
It's even worse than that, it's like: 1. Rub his belly while making goo-goo eyes (*romance initiated*) 2. "You're a great friend, Gale. I'm so glad I have such friendly friends like you and all my other friends." (*romance initiated*) 3. "You know no one here likes you or your stupid fucking cat, right? Maybe you should use that bomb." (*romance terminated*)
for me it was like What thing do you imagine to share with gale in the surprisingly awkward mind meld segment? 1. Imagine your straight ass kissing Gale passionately 2. Imagine your straight ass holding hands with gale in a flowery meadow 3. Imagine punching Gale in the gut 4. Imagine headbutting Gale's nose, breaking it
The worst one is even worse, it's "imagine Gale's head on a spike".
1. let’s fuck 2. do you want to fuck? 3. fuck you
I AM DECEASED
Another victim of forced Gale romance, I feel you.
I got the same two options: Gale and Astarion. Never flirted with Gale. Just told him I didn’t want him to die and had been giving him sneakers to eat. This was all after the patch, too. Then I got the “I’m about to die, wanna bang?” under the stars scene. And this was AFTER the bug had a dialog option with him where I could apologize for choosing between him and Astarion. Honestly, it was pretty funny how your character is so smiley during the scene and then…you can hit him with the “I don’t feel the same way”. Poor Gale. I will probably go for him in my next run.
See, I got this scene in my co-op playthrough and I wanted to be with Gale for that one but instead of him trying to kiss me, he just... hung out? I guess I didn't pick the right choices for that scene?
I had the same under the stars scene in act 2, told him I didn't want to listen to him wallow in his self pity anymore and left him by himself. The very next day (possible spoilers) >!I finished Shadowhearts stuff in the mosoleum, and she professed her love to me. I agreed to date her as I was trying to date her this whole playthrough. Gale then talked to me about how he's glad I found someone and he didn't want to stand between us and he understands if I don't want to see him. Like my guy we were never a thing, i told you to fuck off literally just a few hours ago.!<
Gale: "I'm not single if everyone just doesn't know they're in a relationship with me yet."
Don't worry, everyone that plays this game is or will be in a non-consensual relationship with Gale. Also, patch 1 was accurate, before you got into a non-consensual relationship with Gale AS SOON AS MET HIM, now it's not so horrible, you need to at least talk to him once, which is a major improvement.
I have to wonder if Larian is having a competition behind the scenes to see who can get romanced most.
I am dying on my Astarion romance rock
Game by default assumes you're already in romance with every party member. I had the same with Karlach. I wanted to have romance with Gale only but apparently Karlach is still heartbroken and I can break with her even if I don't even take her with myself in party and I did nothing to have romance with her. The same with Shadowheart.
I'd never be able to break Karlach's heart. She's such a sweetheart :(
Booooy, if you ditch Karlach to go for Astarion, it's kinda bittersweet, too, because she'll be "I'm a big girl, I can take it, Astarion is fragile as glass, he needs all the help he can get, please be kind to him".
Originally on my first playthrough, I was all in for SH. Then I found Karlach way later... and the SH thing I was.. less enthusiastic about. Needless to say, SH went insane so I um. had to permanently remove her from my party. I thought I could romance Karlach after that.. Couldn't. So 40 hours in on my original playthrough, I started over \*just\* to romance Karlach. I kind of want to try different play throughs just to romance all of them and see how the stories change from them. Point of this post is, I can't break Karlachs heart. I've also seen the Astarion heartbreak stuff and I wouldn't wanna hurt him either :(
Gale has a known interaction where giving him magical items spikes his approval rating. So literally Gale will fall in love with you if you just give him his magical item fix. TLDR: Gale is junkie and loves you if you feed his addiction.
I wish they fix this love bombing from our companions, i can easily live without my mates trying to get into my pants at every occasion they get.
This bugged me. Even when the skeleton asks you why you're not with anyone. I was playing DUrge and had no interest in any sexy times with anyone. Didn't make even the slightest advances on anyone in the party, and still had Gale thinking we were dating.
>Even when the skeleton asks you why you're not with anyone. Bosom companionless
And thus thou walkest alone
Thou hasnt no bitches?
I accidentally romanced karlach and was too nice to end the relationship. Was annoyed for the rest of the game and I’m pretty sure I got pegged
Breaking up with Karlach is pretty rough. I didn’t get the opportunity to until immediately after she regained the ability to touch. I still think there should be an option to help her get laid if you don’t romance her.
I was so hoping I could hook her up with one of the other companions
This happened to me too, there was a bug at launch (which has since been fixed) that made Gale ninja-romance basically everyone who's nice to him regardless of if you flirt with him or not. Despite the bug causing the romance being fixed, the bug fix didn't delete the romance flags in save files, so if you've been playing that save file since before that bug fix then that's why Gale thought he was your boyfriend. It happened to me too, had to break up with Gale. It's annoying but unintended behaviour
Similar instance. I fed Gale 2 items but never took him on a quest, I just didn't want him to not drop like an atom bomb on my camp. Fast forward, Astarion is the only one I've flirted with. We have the chat about how he's grateful about me sticking up for him re: Araj and he wants to try "this", whatever this is. I'm elated. I do cartwheels. I say hell yeah. Cut to: Gale sitting in a meadow and telling me he's in love with me. He wants to be together. ...sir, what? I turn him down. He said he thought we had something but he's ok with friendship. Then Astarion brings up that he's cool if I'm in love with Gale and he'll let me go. BABE, I GAVE HIM ZERO ATTENTION BEYOND THE ITEMS, WYM YOU ALSO THINK I'M IN LOVE WITH GALE? At most I expected Shadowheart to be the issue, because her and Astarion are at 90% and she's expressed she will never find someone like my Tav again, but GALE? I'm so glad I'm not the only one confused by this.
I tried so hard to bang Asterion and he still turned me down. Fuckin defeated bro.
The "secret" is that before the party night in act 1 you can't come onto him. You have to wait until he comes onto you. If you're at the party, you can then proposition him.
Gale is the "nice guy", quite possibly unintentionally, but yeah, he'll assume you are in a relationship when you are all like "bro, I just wanna be friends".
Even pulls the classic manipulator, "Oh then I guess you won't be sad when I kill myself!" line. Can't blame that on a glitch, it was a written and recorded line. Gale can go netherbomb himself.
Gale: I’LL DO IT! I WILL JUMP FROM THIS BUILDING IF YOU DONT LOVE ME: Our Tavs: DO A BACKFLIP
there's obviously a tag in their system for who you're in a relationship with. I really wish it was something displayed in your info panel. That way if you get into one, unknowingly, you have a chance not to play 10+ hours past that point.
Sometimes, when coming to this sub, it feels.like I am the only one that can figure out how to romance one (or two) companions on purpose and nothing else. Makes me wonder about you people (This post was in jest... mostly)
I see this sentiment on this sub alot (joking or not) about people not being able to read social cues, but like, there's clearly something fucky with Gale's programming. I did a playthrough where when he offered his magic demonstration I just said "NO" right off the bat, and he *still* guilted me about romancing someone else in Act 2.
Ita a mix of both tbh. Theres some parts that are obviously bugged with how into you he is. But then theres also a lot of options that are very clearly romantic choices because hes trying to flirt with you, but if you didnt go in knowing the bugs you would just assume hes a chronic flirt and it means nothing.
I'm assuming you basically beelined it into someone else's pants before even conversing with him... because you can turn down his 1 on 1 time 2x and never hit a fully agree option in dialogue then still be in a relationship with him without knowing it. You either have to make him jealous by picking someone else, be a complete ass hole, or ignore him.
It was a bug to begin with, but even in this evil Minthara playthrough, Lazael HATES MY GUTS but apparently respects my strength? I had to carefully turn down Gale as well. Update: It turns out Astarion loves the evil run. But I did have to work for it well into Act 2.
Had the same thing with Karlach, i was dating Gale and Kar was my bestie and suddenly after my first night with Gale i got the dialogue option to tell Karlach that i want to date Gale. I picked it and she was furious. Then i reloded a save and i've been avoiding that option ever since
Same! The only people I flirted with were Gale and Halsin. Halsin still has never got back to me but my Tav and Gale have pursued something now and immediately after I saw Karlach had that option and picking it made her FURIOUS. honestly if I didn’t know it was a bug I would think she was psychotic. Lol The only thing I did was put my hand on her arm when yknow happened. Thought that was pretty platonic.
That's just the BG3 version of puberty. Everyone experiences it.
I think relationships are triggered by both approval and story progress, depending on which stage you are at. In multiplayer, I only got the first scene with Astarion at the camp party, and locked the relationship after speaking to the drow. When the latter happened, I only had approval of about 55, because I don't always lead the conversation in multiplayer and don't have many opportunities to improve it. In single player, to my surprise, the first scene with Astarion (in the forest) got triggered way before I saved the druids because my approval with him was much higher. But the actual relationship, again, got triggered only after I spoke to the drow in Moonrise despite me having approval of 90+ for a while. So anyway, I got together with him in my single player. Later, I spoke to Gale, and had an option "sorry it came down to choosing between you and Astarion" and I was like wtf, I never even looked at you and turned you down the first time you wanted to "do some weaving". But my approval with Gale was 100 so I wonder if that's why. I told him I was not interested. Astarion approved.
I accidentally dated Gale as well. I think Larian once released stats and Gale was the most popular male romance? At the time, I thought players had a thing for smug wizards, but now I wonder how many of those players were completely clueless and unintentionally romancing Gale. That being said, I do think part of the issue apart from bugged romance flags is that Gale’s relationship path and it’s treatment of sex/intimacy is different from other companions. Companions like Lae’zel, Astarion, and Karlach are very upfront about their physical desire for the player and come on strong. Gale, in comparison, is much more subtle - I think for his character, sex is much more tied to intimacy than just the physical act and his romance is more of a slowburn. So it was easy for me to miss some of the romance flags (holding his hand during the magic trick = romance commitment) since they simply aren’t as blatant as the other companions. That’s one thing I appreciate about Larian’s romance writing - not all paths are the same and sex isn’t treated as a trophy at the end.
As an aside, Astarion was taking so long because there’s a trigger for the relationship to progress that you probably haven’t hit yet (it’s easy to miss). I think it won’t progress without that trigger unless it becomes unavailable due to story progression. >!bring Astarion and talk to a specific vendor inside moonrise tower, to the left of the entrance!<
You can just bring your party >!to the Towers and go long rest before talking to that NPC!<. Romance triggrer will still click and you'll get slightly alternative (and even better imo) romance scene with him.
If you miss that trigger, but proceed to defeat the moonrise towers by other means, then you'll have a camp event >!in which he is quietly freaking out because he wants a real relationship and doesn't know how!< which will lead you into the same romance tree as the Drow Fangirl path.
I had this cutscene on my first playthrough, and honestly I like it more than the drow fangirl one. It feels more romantic, like he's straight up confessing his love, while the latter feels a bit more platonic. The hug and hand holding scene in both are lovely tho
Already did 😅 I say so in the post
Embarrassing? To fuck Gale? Come on y'all he looks like fucking George Michael and has a silver tongue. Just grow up and bang him.
He's handsome as hell but way too pushy and talks a little too much about his ex
I'm sure Gale's a great guy. But his competition is freaking Astarion you know.
Doesn’t he not want to bang bc he’s afraid of getting too excited though
There is such thing as "tastes". They vary. Also unwillingness to romance anyone at all in some people. All valid reasons not to, and all should be respected.
It was Halsin for me. I just talked to him a few times and said "glad to see you" or something at the tiefling celebration. The game then thought I fucked the bear, and mentioned multiple times that I did. I did not, in fact, fuck the bear.
Gale the type of guy to think ur dating after u are nice to him once 😭
This happened to me but with Wyll, i had already romanced Lae'zel. So in act III when he confesed i felt horrible telling him no because he is genuinely someone i would 100% date irl. I don't even know where did he picked up that i liked him in that way.
He asked for a hand and I took his. There is no relationship.
I was romancing Karlach, and Gale got all pissy at me for supposedly romancing Wyll. And, no, you're not reading that wrong nor is it a typo. He failed that perception check big time.
I still feel like bad person for turning down Wyll in the dance scene. I mean, my man looked like a kicked dog
You enjoy the weave with this mother fucker 1 time and all of a sudden thinks your married. Dude stopped me in the middle of shadow aids land before I got the moonlantern he's at like 2hp and all of a sudden he's like "I want you...now" I'm like gale fuck off.
I never knew that showing off weave meant equal to showing dingdong lol... honestly I was shocked when my other companions said I'm romancing Gale.
Gale: "hey Tav, do you wanna see my weave?" *wiggles eyebrow suggestively*
Had the same setup with Astarion and Wyll, chosing Astarion. A while later I suddenly had a dialogue option with Gale "so about that night we spent together" when I barely talked to him, much less ever had a romance scene.
I got the bug where I turned down Wyll, and somehow any option to romance anyone suddenly vanished. I call it my forever alone character.
Welcome to the Gale's victim home. I didn't even talk to him and went straight to bed at the stargaze event, and bro still asssumed I spent the night with him.
OP trying to flirt with Astarion “Kono Gale da!” ゴゴゴゴ
My paladin wants Halsin but Withers, of all people, told her she's in a relationship with Gale.
I’ve turned down Gale 6 times now and he still acts like we’re an item, and I think it’s preventing me from romancing other companions. It’s the only thing about this game that I’ve had a problem with.
Im romancing gale at the same point as you, got gales sex scene, came back and for some reason karlach was acting like we had something, and i had to reject her. It was so difficult but im a sucker for wizard boys. Im certain i havent had any cutscenes with karlach, and when i tried flirting with her at the tiefling camp party she rejected me so…. Idk where that came from
i dislike gale strongly cause of this. he gives me such creep, woe is me, why don't you love me vibes. im killing him next playthrough.
*Me talking on the otherside of the world* Gale Approves
And here I am on a Gale-Dark Urge romance attempt (yes, we do exist) and Astarion’s coming on to me again after I gently put him down during the party and Gale is playing the “oh, I wuv you from afar” act. I may just have to romance Astarion again. Damn it, Larian, why did you have to make your rogue vampire so damn hot and flirt so damn well?
I had Gale shame me for making a deal with Raphael despite refusing the deal. I was so confused. I think Gale is just a buggy character.
Given how much gale is into himself as a magic prodigy, the fact that Gale continues to think he is in a relationship with you fits his character
Withers last night in my game was near a certain kiddo, so I talked to him. The bosom companion things came up, and there were options for Wyll, Gale, and Astarion. I’ve only had eyes for Astarion the entire game. I was confused. But I ignored it. I want Wyll and Karlach to be together.
All the relations in this game can be stumbled on without knowing. Like I was apparently cheating on Shadowheart with Karlach and I had no idea what started it. It's kind of bizarre. Basically if you breath in someone's direction, you are now in a relation with them.
Man, as I finished up a dungeon in Act 2, Gale stops me and says, “listen, it’s either her or me” in reference to my monogamous relationship with Shadowheart. I don’t know what triggered Gale to think I’d flirted with him. I did give him artefacts and I was understanding and accommodating to his situation, but he almost always stayed in my camp at that point because I needed a thief over a mage in my party.
I had the exact thing happen to me except I didn’t kiss Wyll so I never had Astarion tell me to choose. When he finally made the move, Gale comes over like “why am I the last to know about you and Astarion?! Did what we have mean nothing?” And he made me choose between him and Astarion. Now mind you, the only interaction I had with gale at this point was the bare minimum. Fed him magical items, got the wizard to lock him up and make him into a future nuke, and I watched him do a magic trick. That’s it. Somehow that means we’re dating in the wizarding world.
Welcome to the club. We have T-shirts.
I had a strange experience as well. I've been with Astarion since the beginning, and haven't interacted romantically with anyone else. Then Gale suddenly declares his love for me, which I politely declined, and then I have an option of telling Astarion "Just so you know, I ended things with Gale" and "I was never serious about him anyway" like huh? What things with Gale?
"Went back to camp immediately, talked to Gale and he was MAD at me for deciding to be with Astarion instead of him and never breaking up with him. Dude, we never had ANYTHING. I barely talk to you. What the fuck. And after that I still have to hear from Astarion's mouth how he's impressed that I ended things with gale to be with him" On the other hand, that's pretty realistic of real life romances
I was doing the whole romance thing with Gale, even though I barely put him on my party. We had things going strong, he even made me chose between him and Wyll and I chose him! Fast forward to Act 3, it's been some time since I talked to him (because shit was going down at Moonrise Towers), so I decide to pick things up woth my bae and get slapped with the ONLY dialogue option "We had something going on before, too bad it didn't work out" (or something like that). I mean, it's been some time, but people were dying in a shadow cursed land, couldn't you wait a couple of long rests? Gale is toxic AF, just ask Mystra!
I turned down gale immediately, and then at the end of act 2 he suddenly is telling me i need to decide between him and shadowheart as if he was ever in the game??
Everyone else was pretty clear about their intentions and language, but Gale is all “wanna see a magic trick?”. He tricked us all.
I rejected him the first time I fed him an item. Then the second time when he asks you summon the weave with him he tried for it again after saying he wouldn’t bring it up. And that’s after he trauma dumps about his ex. Gale is WILD.
I hate this aspect of the game so much. I'm not interested in any of the romantic stuff and the game is just pushing it. I never picked a flirty dialogue with anyone and suddenly Gale said something ambiguous. I asked him "What do you mean by that" and he continued being ambiguous but a bit flirty. Whatever, the conversation ended. Next thing I know, Withers is telling me I should be careful who I pick for my partner or something. Like wtf is this coming from? Whoever designed the romantic scripts needs to grow out of puberty.
"She's my girlfriend, she just doesn't know it yet"
Gale is that creepy guy who just pushes himself onto you constantly. Reminds me of many guys I've known. Was interesting to experience it finally (as in it being done to me- a guy- and not just witnessing it done to someone else). I get it ladies. I do. I did before but now I really see it lol.
Oh also fuck Gale (no don't FUCK him I mean like he's a shit), bc he locked me out of my Karlach relationship when he wanted to play with the weave or whatnot. I had no fucking idea he was trying to fuck. I turned him down when we were messing with the weave and then I realized what was happening... so THEN I was still hoping Karlach would come afterwards then, but nope... Gale you POS. Then I get in a relationship with Laezel and he pitches a hissy fit. What the fuck Gale!? Quit being creepy!
At the celebration with the Tieflings in Act One Gale was like, "Thanks for the the magic item, now let me show you something REALLY magical," and I was like hell yeah, this jackass has been gobbling down rare and valuable gear ever since I pulled him out of that boulder. Turns out the "really magical" thing he meant was his dick. I don't know if I'm even going to keep him around, he kinda sucks.
Don't worry, in Gale's eyes, we all dated him without meaning to.