Giving Gale/Astarion Necromancy of Thay Consequences.

[Wuorg]

Answer Edit: Other than what normally occurs with the book, there's no further meaningful repercussions to either Astarion or Gale's personal quests/stories. Aside from the associated approval impact, a couple of lines, and one or two small scenes. That said, the book *might* provide an alternative for Astarion to learn about Cazador's ritual, but that's all it is, an alternative. I was not able to find confirmation on this.

I know this is probably a frequent question, but I couldn't find a concrete answer after about 20 minutes of searching, so apologies in advance if this has been answered many times before!

I've done a run where Redemption Durge did the whole Necromancy of Thay questline, so I know what happens "normally." In my Bhaalist Durge run I am doing now, I am at the point where I can give the book to either Gale or Astarion in Act 1.

My question is: *Besides what normally happens with the book*, are there any story consequences of giving it to either of them? Does it affect their personal quests in any way? If it matters, I plan to Ascend both of them in this playthrough, as I did the opposite in my previous.

Edit: I did find out about that brief camp scene with Astarion if you give him the book, but was mostly wondering about more substantial consequences.

[Moongrams]

I might be wrong but it ends up helping him in his Ascension because it teaches him the incantation for it.
If you don't use the necromancy of thay, you must search Cazador's dungeon for another book that has the incantation

[Raz]

Originally posted by Moongrams:

I might be wrong but it ends up helping him in his Ascension because it teaches him the incantation for it.
If you don't use the necromancy of thay, you must search Cazador's dungeon for another book that has the incantation

Pretty sure the Necromancy of Thay does not teach the incantation for Ascension because the incantation is Infernal, which the book of Thay doesn't have information on. I know my Astartion had read the Book of Thay but still needed to find the Incantation book in Czador's mansion.

[Wuorg]

Interesting, thanks for the responses, y'all!

From what I've been able to find online and this thread, I'm under the impression that nothing important really happens with either of them as a result of giving them the book. Giving it to them seems to really just be mostly an RP thing. Which is fine, but I'm glad to know nonetheless!

(Giving it to Astarion *might* progress his quest faster--beyond providing a boost to approval--but that's all. It doesn't change the outcome or anything like that. As far as I can tell.)

[Wuorg]

Originally posted by Mike Garrison:

Whether you give to to Gale or Astarion is mostly just a role-play issue, but keep in mind that whoever reads it can eventually get some nice permanent bonuses and magical abilities. So giving it to a player you don't expect to keep active in your party would be a less-than-optimal move.

From that standpoint it is safest to have the player character read the book, because the player character will always be in the active party.

Ya, I'm honestly not fussed about who gets the rewards for reading the book.

It doesn't really matter to me which party member is using Speak With Dead, just that I have access to it. Likewise, Danse Macabre is the same no matter who casts it (bonuses from a Necromancer Wizard notwithstanding, which is what I did last time so I am not terribly interested this go around), but it is still nice to have on someone. Forbidden Knowledge is the only one I really care to be on my PC, but I'd absolutely overrule that for cool story/RP reasons. But since the impact from giving the book to Astarion/Gale seems pretty minimal...I did end up reading the book with my Durge, but mostly because he is a Sorcerer with high Charisma, which made it seem like he'd have the best chance at success lol.