[SPOILERS] Looking for tips on SAFE ways to deal with Gale while (not) completing his companion quest

[ᚺᛟᚾᛊᛁᛖᚷ]

I am currently playing an evil playthrough and I made a regrettable mistake of recruiting Gale instead of letting him stay stuck in the portal (or even DUrging him right there). While understanding Gale's condition makes his demands reasonable, the prideful sod refuses to share his secret with the protagonist demanding the help being provided based on blind trust.
That is something I might reluctantly do while playing do-gooder but it really goes against what my current evil selfish protagonist would likely do. Naturally, I do not want my evil playthrough to end prematurely due to Gale nuking the whole area I cannot escape either.
So I am looking for all available options and online sources I have found so far are surprisingly poor, often probably written just based on EA - thus I would like to ask the community here for tips (and corrections) on what to do with Gale. I will try to update the following with what I learn from you and elsewhere. What (I think) I know so far:

* you can choose not to pull Gale out of the portal - either leaving him there, DUrging him or not interacting with the portal at all - I assume all of these make Gale to never appear in BG3
* you can pull him out of the portal but refuse to accept him as a companion, I believe - not sure though if that makes him disappear from the game never to return?
** if you recruit him he will start to demand magical items to consume
* if you keep on refusing he will eventually steal and consume magical item of his choosing from your inventory (which is obviously worse than feeding him items of your choosing, not to mention HE will hate YOU for not giving him items willingly)
* if you kill him or he dies in combat you will be urged to resurrect him and if you refuse/fail to do so -> GAME OVER after 2 long rests
* if you pick him to be sacrificed to Booal -> GAME OVER after 2 long rests
* if you romance him and DUrge him - ??? not sure, this supposedly should be a safe way of getting rid of him and his 'condition' - could someone confirm?
** if you feed him magical items it should take 3 or 4 (not sure if the amount depends on something e.g. if you offer him magical items proactively vs. wait for him to ask for another), then he will disclose more information about his condition giving you choice (I assume you still cannot kill him or game over) to
* either banish him from your party (does this make him disappear from BG3 for good?)
** or agree to further help him (not sure if he will stop consuming magical items right there?) in which case you will meet Elminster soon who will stabilize Gale and direct him to destroying the heart of Absolute - when you finally confront Absolute, you can
* either let Gale use orb resulting in GAME OVER
* or (?) let Gale use orb successfully destroying the heart of Absolute without killing your whole party and ending Gale's Wizard of Waterdeep companion quest ??? - can someone confirm it is even possible? does this depend on some dice roll?
** or persuade Gale not to use the orb, in which case he will start to search for the Netherese Crown instead - once you get the crown, Gale will
* either give it to Mystra and finally be cured
* or keep it becomming stronger, leaving your party and attacking you and (hopefully) ending up dead

To summarize: once you recruit Gale, you cannot safely ignore his quest or leave him dead for more than 1 day, you only get one chance to get rid of him by banishing him after you feed him 3-4 magical items, and you can only safely kill him at the end of his questline if he decides to keep the crown.

If you notice any info incorrect, incomplete or missing, please share what you know on the subject.

[ketaro_su]

Originally posted by grrusa:

Role play. There is only one way my selfish evil prone-to-slaughter Dark Urge protagonist would react to Gale's combination of insolent demands and proud secrecy - gutting and beheading, not in any particular order. :impahead: Sadly, that leads to game over, so I am looking for a complete map of possible choices and outcomes regarding Gale.

Pretty one dimensional for an evil roleplay but I guess some people just find that easier even if its not too realistic *shrugs*
Doesn't he, like, immediately tell you all his secrets if you kill him?

[ᚺᛟᚾᛊᛁᛖᚷ]

Originally posted by ketaro_su:

Originally posted by grrusa:

Role play. There is only one way my selfish evil prone-to-slaughter Dark Urge protagonist would react to Gale's combination of insolent demands and proud secrecy - gutting and beheading, not in any particular order. Sadly, that leads to game over, so I am looking for a complete map of possible choices and outcomes regarding Gale.

Pretty one dimensional for an evil roleplay but I guess some people just find that easier even if its not too realistic *shrugs*
Doesn't he, like, immediately tell you all his secrets if you kill him?

Evil protagonist not resisting his Dark Urge is sort of one dimensional by definition and such behavior is perfectly realistic for him - Dark Urge is killing for the slaughter itself even unprovoked and Gale is certainly provoking him.

I agree it is not the most common/typical/interesting (I would say rather than 'realistic') kind of evil, but it is what Dark Urge is. Sadly, it seems to be the most 'rewarding' evil roleplay in BG3 - if the protagonist does not view the mayhem and destruction he causes as a reward enough in itself, the evil path leads to less power/riches than the good path. You lose companions and NPCs (that makes sense) together with their questlines and related loot and rewards but there is not enough evil-path-only content to compensate for that and reward the evil protagonist with what evil people usually sacrifice their friends and acquaintances for - power in one form or another. Thus evil paths available in BG3 are mostly stupid-evil paths as they fail to be self-serving. Smart and provident selfish evil protagonist would follow mostly good path in BG3 - not because he cares about others, but because it gives him more material rewards.

As for 'one dimensional' - that is why I started this thread, to map all the relevant options and be able to choose one that fits evil roleplay and does not end in premature game over. Sadly it seems, people willing to share here what they know are not that deep in BG3 yet themselves - those who have already finished several playthroughs are probably rather playing even more than browsing troll infested forums.

And yes, Gale getting killed triggers his fail-safe demanding him to be resurrected and providing more info why is it important. That does not change the fact that while he was alive, the insolent sod felt entitled to make demands without explaining anything and even dared to get angry when the protagonist probed him for more info. While the orb deserves to be taken very seriously, Gale himself deserves no compassion.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Gale needs to eat 3 magic items and that's all. There's no downsides to having him whatsoever. You lose 3 worthless green items in the totality of the game. You have nothing to worry about.

[ᚺᛟᚾᛊᛁᛖᚷ]

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

Gale needs to eat 3 magic items and that's all. There's no downsides to having him whatsoever. You lose 3 worthless green items in the totality of the game. You have nothing to worry about.

Thanks for confirming that.

Do you know if Gale dying anytime after consuming these 3 items (or even after Elminster temporarily fixes his condition) still triggers the same ressurection requirement and failing ressurection causes game over after 2 long rests (same as if he dies early in the game before consuming 3 items and meeting Elminster)?

[Hawke]

3 items; denotating the orb near the final boss in Act 2 or 3 leads to the credits. No idea about the rest.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Originally posted by grrusa:

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

Gale needs to eat 3 magic items and that's all. There's no downsides to having him whatsoever. You lose 3 worthless green items in the totality of the game. You have nothing to worry about.

Thanks for confirming that.

Do you know if Gale dying anytime after consuming these 3 items (or even after Elminster temporarily fixes his condition) still triggers the same ressurection requirement and failing ressurection causes game over after 2 long rests (same as if he dies early in the game before consuming 3 items and meeting Elminster)?

I don't know because if you just stop worrying about it and treat him like a normal companion then nothing bad will happen. Give him items the two times you have to and move on.