Gale: The Wizard of Waterdeep - Baldur's Gate III Guide - IGN (2024)

Gale is a confident and sometimes arrogant wizard you can recruit in Baldur's Gate 3, but his behavior belies a troubled man. This walkthrough will guide you through every step of his companion quest, allowing you to see his tale through to the end.

Gale Companion Quest

Gale is a Human Wizard. As a wizard, he can harness all kinds of magic to hinder your foes, help your allies, or just blow everything up. You can also pick one of the eight schools of magic as Gale levels to give him more specialized spells and perks.

Recruiting Gale

Gale is located north of the main Nautiloid Crash site. As you head through the area, you may notice a volatile sigil on the cliff wall; approaching it will trigger a scene where Gale attempts to extricate himself from the sigil. You can help him escape and recruit him from here.

The Wizard of Waterdeep

After traveling together for a while, Gale will open up somewhat regarding his condition, which requires him to absorb power from magical artifacts every once in a while. You can allow him to drain power from magical items you’ve found to keep him healthy and grow closer, but it’s important to note that this will render the magical item inert. Once Gale has discussed this with you, eligible magic items will be marked as such.

How to Cure Gale

Every once in a while, after discussing his condition with you, you'll receive a notification in your quest journal that Gale needs to absorb a magical item. In order to alleviate Gale's symptoms, head to your campsite and speak to him, choosing the option to "give Gale a magic artifact." This opens a menu of all the magical items in your or your party's inventory. Select one to offer, then close the menu to proceed with his treatment. If you try to offer more than one, you'll be prompted to select a single item instead. This will ease Gale's condition for a little while, so you have time between treatments to find more magical items.

The Best Magic Artifacts to Give Gale

While parting with a magical item can hurt, Act 1 is absolutely stuffed full of magic items. Depending on your character (or your willingness to multi-class) there may be a large variety of items that aren't useful to your party. For instance, a hat that makes your Bardic Inspiration more effective is useless if you don't have a bard in the party. There are also gauntlets that make your unarmed strikes more powerful, but this is item is most beneficial when worn by a monk.

These items are good candidates to donate to Gale. There are definitely more to pick from, but if you're lacking a bard, these are a few easy choices to make:

• Cap of Curing: This cap is the example we used above. It makes Bardic Inspiration better by adding a healing effect, but as we stated, it's useless without a bard to utilize it. Give it to Gale instead! You can find it near the druids' grove, south of the path to the beach. You'll have to lockpick a chest, but Alfira is too focused on her music to notice you.

• Blazer of Benevolence: This is another item that exclusively benefits bards. Much like the Cap of Curing, it makes Bardic Inspiration a little better, but not by much. This item is earned as a reward for saving Volo from the Goblin Camp.

• Ring of Colour Spray: This is another item that has a very limited use. It gives the wearer the ability to cast a Level 1 Colour Spray, which can blind opponents up to 33 health points. This can be useful very early on, but it can quickly lose its effectiveness as opponents become stronger, at which point you'll likely come across better and stronger magical items. This can be found in the harpy's nest south of where you find them when Investigating the Beach. Follow the path of craggy cliffs to find the nest.

Gale's Condition Worsens

After 3 instances of Gale feeding on magic items, he’ll have a poor reaction to one of them. He claims that it didn’t quite satisfy his hunger in the same way the others have, but for now he’ll be okay. The next time you give him an item, a similar phenomenon occurs, and he decides to speak with the party about the severity of his condition.

After his story, you can banish him from the party for the danger he poses, or commit to finding a way to stabilize his condition. Banishing him ends the quest, but if you resolve to help him, this brings the first section of Gale's quest to an end.

Atonement

When you enter either the Mountain Pass or use the elevator in Grymforge to enter the Shadow-cursed Lands, you'll meet an old man looking for Gale. This is Elminster, and bringing him to Gale, or Gale to him if he's in your party, starts the next step of Gale's quest.

Elminster is able to stabilize the magic in Gale's chest, but Mystra has requested that he unleash it when he finds the Absolute, to completely destroy them both. While this will cost Gale his life, Mystra claims it will make up for what he did.

The Shadow-cursed Lands

This is the place where Gale will need to put his plan into action. After fighting Ketheric Thorm at the top of Moonrise Towers, he'll retreat into the depths of the mindflayer colony down below. You'll have an opportunity to rest here, and swap your party around so you can bring Gale. Upon entering the final chamber in the colony, Gale will present his choice. Whatever you choose is what he'll follow, so we'll outline the two paths below.

Let Gale Destroy the Absolute

Urging Gale to end things, he detonates the orb, destroying your enemies and the Absolute. Despite your success, things are still dire for Faerun, and Baldur's Gate is still in danger from all the Illithids that will now transform without the Absolute's influence. This is technically an ending, complete with a credits sequence, but there's definitely more to the story if you choose to survive.

Stop Gale from Sacrificing Himself

When the time comes, ask Gale not to sacrifice himself to destroy the Absolute. Since the other option simply brings the story to an abrupt end, there's no need to convince Gale. Asking him is enough to convince him to keep living and find another way to defeat the Absolute. For a start, Gale is very interested in the Netherese crown atop the elder brain. Naturally, if Gale is not present, the choice is automatically made for him.

The Crown of Karsus

When you reach Wyrm's Crossing, you can run into your old friend Raphael at Sharess's Caress, an establishment north of South Span Checkpoint. He'll be in a room on the third floor labeled the Devil's Den. Speak with him to hear an offer he wants to make; he wants you to deliver the crown worn by the elder brain in exchange for a tool that will allow you to free Prince Orpheus from the Astral Prism. Regardless of what you choose here, Raphael gives you plenty of information about the Crown of Karsus. Speaking to Gale about the crown prompts him to suggest looking for information at Sorcerous Sundries, a shop in Baldur's Gate.

When you reach the Lower City, the shop will be a short walk southwest of the Basilisk Gate Teleport Sigil. Additionally, it will be marked on your map, making it easier to find. Head inside and speak to Tolna Tome-Monger, found at the back of the shop.

She'll list off a handful of their more dangerous books, you need to ask for 'The Annals of Karsus: A Netherese Folly'. She refuses to give it to you, but if you succeed in a speech check, you can get her to tell you it's in a vault accessible through her office. She won't give you access to her office, but this is a good lead. For now, head upstairs to Tolna's office. You'll need to lockpick the door, but it's hard to avoid being spotted, so cast Darkness on the area around the door so you can discreetly enter the office.

First, grab the Sorcerous Sundries Basem*nt Chest Key. Then, interact with the Clasped Book in the round bookcase to open a portal to the basem*nt, then enter. Head south into a room with three other doors. Two of them are locked, but you can enter the Silverhand door. To open the Karsus door, head through the Abjuration door, then the Silver door. This room will also contain a lever, so activate it and use any other door to head back to the start.

Upon entering the vault, you'll find the Annals of Karsus waiting on a shelf. Reading it reveals that the crown worn by the elder brain is indeed the crown forged by Karsus. Combining it with the three Netherstones can restore its power, at which point Gale can use it or destroy it.

When you next visit your camp, Gale's friend Elminster will be visiting. He speaks with Gale about his failure to destroy the elder brain and the Crown of Karsus. As a result, Mystra has summoned Gale to her shrine in the Stormshore Tabernacle.

Reunion

The building in question is located near to the Basilisk Gate Teleport Sigil. Head west and enter the south face of the building, then interact with the statue of Mystra in the corner. You can give Gale some advice before he answers her summon alone. She gives him a new quest; separate the Crown of Karsus from the Elder Brain and give it to her. Once he has the crown though, what he does with it is up to you.

The Final Battle

Despite Gale's quest remaining active leading up to the final battle, you no longer have to do anything specific to help him complete his quest. Once the final fight is over, you can speak with Gale about the Crown of Karsus, which fell into the River Chionthar. You can encourage him to seek out the crown for Mystra, or to keep it for himself, or ignore it entirely. Whatever you decide, you won't get to see the consequences, but Gale will fully declare his intentions based on the feedback you gave him. His quest ends with the main campaign.

For help with your other companions, use the links below:

• Wyll: The Blade of Frontiers
• Shadowheart: Daughter of Darkness
• Astarion: The Pale Elf