Advice for using Gale?

[M.T. Fish]

I'm using him as my party wizard but every fight a ranged enemy manages to take him out in one of the first rounds. Is there a way to increase his surviablity so that I don't have to have another party memeber babysit him in the back row? Is mage armor worth using on him?

[Andi]

Yes, Mage Armor is definitely worth using. Its only constraint is that the target mustn't wear any armor, what is the case with Gale.

I've also used Blur occasionally in addition, but Blur is a concentration spell, so it's not always the best idea.

I've found Gale to be quite resilient. With Mage Armor his AC is comparable to that of all my other characters.
When exiting the goblin camp he turned out to even be a quite suitable tank if needed.

[M.T. Fish]

Originally posted by Andi:

Yes, Mage Armor is definitely worth using. Its only constraint is that the target mustn't wear any armor, what is the case with Gale.

I've also used Blur occasionally in addition, but Blur is a concentration spell, so it's not always the best idea.

I've found Gale to be quite resilient. With Mage Armor his AC is comparable to that of all my other characters.
When exiting the goblin camp he turned out to even be a quite suitable tank if needed.

Cool. I'll have to give this a shot so that I don't have to waste actions on saving him all the time.

[Bloodcup]

also, find the gloves of missle snaring...those help too. (no idea where i found them...sorry)

And, misty step helps too...cast your spell them move outta the way, behind something or around a corner.

[Kyutaru]

Gale should also be wearing Bracers of Defense, which add another +2 to his AC while unarmored. This doesn't interfere with Mage Armor and gives him more durability.

Overall though, your wizard Gale will go down a LOT in this game. Just have the cleric ready to pick him back up and be thankful for the distraction he serves in keeping your main DPS frontliners alive and murdering. You can use Stealth or obscuring terrain to protect him at the start of the battle so he can at least get some shots off, but overall I keep my wizard out of line of sight behind some type of barrier whenever possible. He can always walk out, cast a spell, then go back to hiding in a corner.

[Fritz]

Utilize line of sight breaking cover, mage armor, and don't ever put him on the frontlines. Have him hang back and he'll be fine.

[Quillithe]

Can't you just give Gale light armor? He has proficiency from being human.

Only problem is I'm playing as Gale having conversations with this absurd looking drow armor and helm like I'm the edgiest elf ninja.

Also yeah, be ready to get him back up with healing word.

As a note, healing word > cure wounds. It heals 2 less health per slot level on average, but bonus action speed and range make it actually usable in combat. And honestly the healing difference from casting it at max possible level is usually not even half of one attack from an enemy, so it frequently won't matter anyway.

Swap out spells for cure wounds when outside combat though.

[Atari 2600]

All the above plus Mirror Image has been amazing. I also gave him missile snaring gloves. Been a life changer.

[M.T. Fish]

Originally posted by Fritz:

Utilize line of sight breaking cover, mage armor, and don't ever put him on the frontlines. Have him hang back and he'll be fine.

I'm still getting the hang of the lines of sight. Sometimes it's unclear what does and doesn't block the enemy sight lines, like the village ambush where the goblins can attack through holes in the roofs I couldn't even see.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Can't you just give Gale light armor? He has proficiency from being human.

Only problem is I'm playing as Gale having conversations with this absurd looking drow armor and helm like I'm the edgiest elf ninja.

You can't use mage armor if you are using armor. If the benefits of wearing real armor surpasses the benefits of being able to use mage armor then by all means. Also the great thing about wizards is their flexibility. If you want Gale to be a utility caster then you can do that. If you want him to be a support you can do that. (I don't think turning Gale into a war wizard is really possible in BG3 but I could be wrong)

[Cacomistle]

First of all, you can give him a shield. Wizards can't normally have shields so I didn't think to do this early, until I realized being human gives him proficiency with shields.

Second, you can use mage armor, and then when you find light armor with 13+ac later you can trade it out.

Third, take the shield spell. Gives you higher ac on reaction, so he'll be more likely to survive single target attacks.

If we assume mage armor + shield + shield spell + 14 dex (he might start with 13 but you can just respec him and dump his charisma and strength to get 14+ dex 14+ con 16+int), gale would have 17 natural ac and 22 on reaction. Not the craziest amount naturally but 22 on reaction is pretty high.

Later on there's other items that increase your dex, better armor, or better shields, which should be able to increase your ac further. Where I'm at now (level 7), if I was using gale I could get him base 19ac without mage armor and no investment into dex.


Also, early game you can have gale behind a wall casting magic missile. A lot of the archer enemies run away and try to hide behind stuff, so its usually very easy to break line of sight with them. If you have to, detach him from your group before a fight so he's further back.

[M.T. Fish]

Originally posted by Fritz:

You can't use mage armor if you are using armor. If the benefits of wearing real armor surpasses the benefits of being able to use mage armor then by all means. Also the great thing about wizards is their flexibility. If you want Gale to be a utility caster then you can do that. If you want him to be a support you can do that. (I don't think turning Gale into a war wizard is really possible in BG3 but I could be wrong)

I've been using him mainly to witchbolt strong enemies and for the grease spell to get some crowd control but I'm probably gonna try experimenting with sleep and mage hand if the opportunity arises.

[M.T. Fish]

Originally posted by Cacomistle:

First of all, you can give him a shield. Wizards can't normally have shields so I didn't think to do this early, until I realized being human gives him proficiency with shields.

Second, you can use mage armor, and then when you find light armor with 13+ac later you can trade it out.

Third, take the shield spell. Gives you higher ac on reaction, so he'll be more likely to survive single target attacks.

If we assume mage armor + shield + shield spell + 14 dex (he might start with 13 but you can just respec him and dump his charisma and strength to get 14+ dex 14+ con 16+int), gale would have 17 natural ac and 22 on reaction. Not the craziest amount naturally but 22 on reaction is pretty high.

This sounds like a good combo. I'm not using most of his attack spells TBH so swapping them out for utility and defense would probably be a better move than wasting them on spells I'll never actually use.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Fritz:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Can't you just give Gale light armor? He has proficiency from being human.

Only problem is I'm playing as Gale having conversations with this absurd looking drow armor and helm like I'm the edgiest elf ninja.

You can't use mage armor if you are using armor. If the benefits of wearing real armor surpasses the benefits of being able to use mage armor then by all means. Also the great thing about wizards is their flexibility. If you want Gale to be a utility caster then you can do that. If you want him to be a support you can do that. (I don't think turning Gale into a war wizard is really possible in BG3 but I could be wrong)

Hm, true I suppose mage armor plus bracers is more AC.

I could be tempted later, so far I haven't wanted to spare the spell slot, haven't really found useful robes, and am using bracers for my mini frost theme with my staff.

[[ARA] Panzergott]

As someone who just entered Act 3 and has had Gale in my party the entire time I can say you dont need Mage Armor or any AC boosting spell.

Positioning and spell choice is the most important factor but having teamates between the enemies and your mage is also important. Wizards are kinda a Swiss Army Gun of a class. You have practicly every spell in the game in your spell list so make use of them. Fireball that group of enemies, Raise the Dead for a chunkier front line, USE CROWD CONTROL SPELLS PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Slow, Hold Person, Ice Storm, Hypnotize, Grease during early levels. Dont allow the enemies a chance to even hit you to begin with.

Experiment with your Wizard. Thats what they're good at. Find the broken spells and abuse them. If you want pure damage Sorcerers can do more then a Wizard. One major tip I can give is find and hope for the Shock Hands cantrip in scroll form then teach it to your Wizard. Do some decent damage while stopping Oppurtunity attacks from the enemy you hit.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by MagnificentTunaFish:

Originally posted by Cacomistle:

First of all, you can give him a shield. Wizards can't normally have shields so I didn't think to do this early, until I realized being human gives him proficiency with shields.

Second, you can use mage armor, and then when you find light armor with 13+ac later you can trade it out.

Third, take the shield spell. Gives you higher ac on reaction, so he'll be more likely to survive single target attacks.

If we assume mage armor + shield + shield spell + 14 dex (he might start with 13 but you can just respec him and dump his charisma and strength to get 14+ dex 14+ con 16+int), gale would have 17 natural ac and 22 on reaction. Not the craziest amount naturally but 22 on reaction is pretty high.

This sounds like a good combo. I'm not using most of his attack spells TBH so swapping them out for utility and defense would probably be a better move than wasting them on spells I'll never actually use.

Yeah I like to have a few attack spells, at least one good single target like magic missile, one AOE like fireball, but you don't really need a ton of them memorized especially thanks to up casting.

Sure, sometimes acid arrow might be better than upcast magic missile, but usually I'd rather have a more different option in that slot.