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?

[Ancient Toaster]

Gale has proficiency in light armor and shields. There is ZERO reason to use Mage Armor on him. Equip him with Drow Light Armor and a Shield.

[Caramel_Clown]

I honestly haven't had any issues with him surviving on tactician. I have him in light armor, and I haven't used a shield on him only because I honestly forgot he can lol. I might give him one now, I suppose. It's just a matter of positioning and controlling the battlefield a bit.

[MjKorz]

Originally posted by MagnificentTunaFish:

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?

1. Make him a Conjuration specialist.

2. Take Alert feat at level 4. You will lose out on +1 spell DC which is a noticeable opportunity cost, but you will gain a massive initiative boost that will allow Gale to cast disabling Conjuration spells before most enemies can act. Alternatively, you can use the first round to cast Mirror Image before he gets shot by anyone.

3. Eventually, give him the gloves that boost his dexterity to 18 for more AC and initiative or the gloves that increase his AC by +2. Use either of these gloves in conjunction with Mage Armor.

4. Consider memorizing the Shield spell to deflect the most powerful enemy attacks.

5. Take the ability score increase feats at levels 8 and 12 to max out your intelligence and do NOT take War Caster.

6. At level 10, Conjurers get a school power that makes their concentration impossible to break when maintaining Conjuration spells like Evard's Black Tentacles.

Overall, this Gale build will provide you with a max main casting stat Wizard that has unbreakable concentration on his disabling Conjuration spells, has the initiative to go first most of the time (and thus prevent getting ganked either through active use of offensive disabling spells or the use defensive spells in the first round of combat) and focuses on AoE disabling spells that make it hard or impossible for the enemy to mount an effective offense, thus massively increasing Gale's survivability.

[Soft Lockpick]

Sometimes the best use for a companion is sacrificing them to an NPC for buffs.

[Caramel_Clown]

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.

Well, the reason why you are dying is because according to you you're not using his attack spells. Which you should. Healing and utility in this ruleset don't win you fights. They are useful, but you have to simply overpower enemies with damage. Once you get level 3 spells like fireball you can just be nuking entire groups of enemies, removing the need to even be tanky. If it's dead it can't shoot you.

[RoguTheDragon]

Originally posted by 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.

This guy gets it. Bracers of defense gives gale an AC of 13 or 14 without the use of mage armor which makes him relatively tanky.

[Angelis Mortis]

Shield my dude. It auto-casts as a reaction. And make sure you get your tanks up in their face fast and use Gale and other ranged to take out their ranged. Early game use sleep, fireball mid-late.

[Ommamar]

I got gloves of missile snaring in the druid grove, be careful when you put them on Gale or he seems to take them for his magic sacrifice in the early game. Or it is some strange bug as he had them then went through one of his cut scenes where I told him to be patient when I looked again they where gone.

A couple things I have done to help his survivability is make sure he has the shield spell prepared. Blur, mirror image, and mage armor have all also helped. One of the things I have done that takes some preparation, which if possible is best to do before you kick of combat. I have him carry around 3 crates or barrels then before combat I have him drop them. It can be frustrating but if you can get it set right you have a barricade you can move him behind to protect him from damage. They can be destroyed and don't do well with area effect spells/attacks. in the early game they can really make a difference.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by MagnificentTunaFish:

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.

Magic missile lets you target up to three targets my guy. But a lot of what caco says is actually better advice.

[jlushefski]

Originally posted by MjKorz:

Originally posted by MagnificentTunaFish:

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?

1. Make him a Conjuration specialist.

2. Take Alert feat at level 4. You will lose out on +1 spell DC which is a noticeable opportunity cost, but you will gain a massive initiative boost that will allow Gale to cast disabling Conjuration spells before most enemies can act. Alternatively, you can use the first round to cast Mirror Image before he gets shot by anyone.

3. Eventually, give him the gloves that boost his dexterity to 18 for more AC and initiative or the gloves that increase his AC by +2. Use either of these gloves in conjunction with Mage Armor.

4. Consider memorizing the Shield spell to deflect the most powerful enemy attacks.

5. Take the ability score increase feats at levels 8 and 12 to max out your intelligence and do NOT take War Caster.

6. At level 10, Conjurers get a school power that makes their concentration impossible to break when maintaining Conjuration spells like Evard's Black Tentacles.

Overall, this Gale build will provide you with a max main casting stat Wizard that has unbreakable concentration on his disabling Conjuration spells, has the initiative to go first most of the time (and thus prevent getting ganked either through active use of offensive disabling spells or the use defensive spells in the first round of combat) and focuses on AoE disabling spells that make it hard or impossible for the enemy to mount an effective offense, thus massively increasing Gale's survivability.

Is the level 10 conjuration feature in combination with conjuration spells better than other spell schools with war caster (or even without war caster)? Divination and enchantment seem to have useful features. How would you build an MC wizard in BG3?

[Vixziค็็็็็n]

The Elven Chain also helps here

[Moonbane]

Are you remembering to use mage armor and giving him a shield offhand? Yes, he can carry both a shield and a staff at once.

Conjuration seems rather poor as a specialization, benefits nearly nothing, whereas warcaster have universal application.

[Silyon]

Abjuration Specialty makes Gale essentially unkillable, especially once you start getting into higher-level spell slots. Pairs very nicely with a control-oriented build that focuses on a lot of concentration debuffs, since you don't make a Concentration check if you take no damage.

Otherwise, Mage armor at the start of every day is assumed. There's a LOT of Mage armor scrolls lying around randomly, so you don't even need to prep it most of the time. Shield is a flat AC buff that every caster should have. It's amazingly stupid that he starts with Shield proficency as well, more so when you figure that late-game shields give him extra spell slots or save DC to work with (Clearly designed with paladins in mind). If you convince him to chew on tadpoles, Shield of Thralls is another nice layer of defense.

The only thing he's really lacking is raw HP to work with, someone gets a lucky crit in and he's going down regardless. So make sure he can Misty-step away at a moment's notice, and position him somewhere where it's hard for melee types to bonk him. If archers are being a problem, that's what Fog cloud is for.

[The Nameless One 3:16]

Misty Step is a bonus action so use that spell for mobility. At level for you get dimension door. To protect mages from spells use counterspell. Shield is also a good reaction. Also put atleast 14 points in constitution. My starter wizard stats are Dex 14 Con 16 Int 17 other stats don't matter put how ever you want. For every turn based games mobility is the key.

[Moonbane]

Originally posted by Silyon:

Abjuration Specialty makes Gale essentially unkillable, especially once you start getting into higher-level spell slots. Pairs very nicely with a control-oriented build that focuses on a lot of concentration debuffs, since you don't make a Concentration check if you take no damage.

Otherwise, Mage armor at the start of every day is assumed. There's a LOT of Mage armor scrolls lying around randomly, so you don't even need to prep it most of the time. Shield is a flat AC buff that every caster should have. It's amazingly stupid that he starts with Shield proficency as well, more so when you figure that late-game shields give him extra spell slots or save DC to work with (Clearly designed with paladins in mind). If you convince him to chew on tadpoles, Shield of Thralls is another nice layer of defense.

The only thing he's really lacking is raw HP to work with, someone gets a lucky crit in and he's going down regardless. So make sure he can Misty-step away at a moment's notice, and position him somewhere where it's hard for melee types to bonk him. If archers are being a problem, that's what Fog cloud is for.

You are mixing up something. Gale have shield profficiency because he is a human. And shields stacks with mage armor.