Anyone else wish they were able to just snuggle with Tara in camp?
Also, she just disappears in Act 3, to cover for the Tara eating the pigeons quest. She shows up on a couple of roof tops, but never comes back. Even though Gale could use her support deciding what to do about the Orb and Crown. She feels almost pointless except for giving Gale a letter from Elminster. I wish there was some kind of speech check options, like with Gale in a non-Origin run, that affect whether he uses the Crown or gives it back to Mystra. I mean, Tara loves Gale, but she’s definitely disapproving of him becoming a god. So maybe the more you talk to Tara, spend with her in camp, the more Gale is able to see the folly of claiming the crown and becoming a god.
Maybe there’s an option to kick her from camp if he’s really insistent on wanting it - and she can point out he’s learnt nothing from the Orb, or from the Chosen Three. Who thought they could control an Elder Brain with it, only for it to turn into a Netherbrain. Only partially because none of them were actually willing to work together, as the ElderNetherBrain was manipulating the Emperor to manipulate you to free it from them anyway. And Gale canonically has no actual idea the reality of the Orb, until Mystra tells him in Act 3 (which she really should have done when it happened), that it’s actually the Netherite Orb, and it’s a part of the Karsite Weave, and it’s trying to drain all of the regular Weave, and that’s why he lost the majority of his abilities and magic (and why he’s an Archmage reduced to level 1 - not because of the parasite). Because the Karsite Weave devoured it, and it’s even explicitly told to you in the book he goes looking for in Sorcerous Sundries, that the Orb was designed to gather all the magic and the Weave it could. That should be a massive shock to him. That for all his education and learning, he couldn’t recognise an Netherese magical item when he had it, and couldn’t recognise that it was responsible for draining his magic, even when he and Tara figure out to keep it stable, they have to keep feeding him magical items.
And Mystra totally drops the ball by not explaining any of this to him. Gale is ambitious and wants to know everything and have access to all the wonders of the Weave, and the fact Mystra has secrets that she keeps from mortal magic users is deeply frustrating to him, but he’s also a good man at heart, who doesn’t approve of hurting or being neglectful of others around him. Telling him he fucked up and could have killed thousands, if not millions and wiped out the regular Weave just because he wanted to impress her enough to get access to magical secrets when he mishandled one of those secrets could have easily have proven to himself that often these things are kept secret for very good reasons.
But no, it all comes down to whatever you choose on the docks. If you don’t choose to detonate the orb, that is. I somehow managed to still get Astarions romance scene where they decide to go to the underdark together, don’t break up, but still has Gale becoming a God, and not being in the Underdark with Astarion. Which should only happen if you break it off with him. But I had Gale commit to Astarion. And no option to make Spawn Astarion a god with Gale.
And I was disappointed with the fact there was only really Gale Wizard speech check options. It kinda felt like for Origin characters, which all had established backstories, personalities etc, that they’d have special unique dialogue, but for the most part it was just exactly the same as doing a Tav run. The main changes were slight differences to meeting Elminster, and having Tara around. Who doesn’t quite fill the space that Tav fills, of being able to give Gale feedback about his choices and the dangers of ambition, in a way he seems to not listen to Tara about. Because he’s known Tara since he was a child, and it seems to be that he views her as a secondary mother/babysitter sort of person, rather than a peer who might have valid opinions that aren’t just someone scolding him like a child for making a silly mistake just to impress a girl (well goddess), who already liked him and didn’t need impressing.
