The Wizard of Waterdeep – Baldur’s Gate 3

Early in the game you’ll find yourself on a beach, washed up figuratively if not literally. The party members you gathered in the first part of the game will be gone, but you won’t have to look too far to fill those spots – several companions are scattered around this small area. You just have to find them.

One of the easier companions to miss is Gale, the Wizard of Waterdeep. He’s gotten himself into a bit of a predicament, but you won’t even know it unless you go looking. Gale is a wizard with many useful spells and an interesting story. So where can you find Gale in the game?

Finding Gale

After you pass through the crashed mind flayer ship, you’ll come upon some footprints. They point toward an Ancient Sigil Circle – one of many that you will be able to use to fast travel across the map. This one looks unstable, and your character will comment on it as you pass by.

Clicking on the Ancient Sigil Circle, you’ll approach it. Here is where I personally missed Gale the first time around – the game will tell you that the rune looks dangerous, and you’ll have two options: touch it, or leave. If you leave, you won’t find Gale.

How to Free Gale

If you touch the rune, a hand will emerge, and Gale will ask for assistance.

You’ll have a couple of options here. You can ask him who he is or slap his hand, but both of these choices will bring you right back to the other options. Your other choices are to leave (in which case you won’t get Gale), or attempt a Strength check to get him out. You may also have another ability check option, depending on your class.

However you choose to try to get him out, the check should be fairly easy to meet. If you succeed, you’ll yank Gale out of the Ancient Sigil Circle. He’ll be very grateful, and after a short conversation you can invite him to join your crew.

Gale is a wizard, meaning he can learn spells from scrolls. He has a very amiable and charismatic personality, making him one of the more pleasant companions to interact with.

Arcane Hunger

Once you’ve traveled with Gale for a while and increased your Reputation with him to over 20, he’ll tell you a secret — namely, that he has a condition that requires him to consume magical artifacts from time to time.  However, he won’t reveal anything more than that.  He’ll just ask you to trust him.

As you continue on with Gale, he’ll eventually get hungry for an item, and you’ll see the Arcane Hunger debuff (disadvantage to Constitution saving throws) next to his portrait.  Gale‘s hunger seems to be related to traveling to new map regions (like the Blighted Village, the Goblin Camp, and the Risen Road) rather than the passage of time, so you can’t really avoid it.

When Gale‘s hungry, you’ll be able to talk to him and offer him an item.  This will open up a window showing all of the relevant magical items from your party’s inventory.  Most of these items are lesser “green” items, and you’ll find a lot of them early in the game — more than enough to satisfy Gale.  Each item that Gale can eat includes the line “Gale can absorb this item’s magic, destroying it.”  So hang onto a few of these items for when Gale gets hungry.  Just be aware that the offering interface isn’t exactly clear.  It’ll allow you to give Gale multiple items at once, when really you should only give him one item and then close the interface.

A few of the edible items you can find early in the game include:

• Cap of Curing – found in a locked chest in the Emerald Grove
• Gloves of Heroism – found in a secret room of the tollhouse cellar in the Risen Road
• Komira’s Locket – given as a reward for completing Save Arabella in the Emerald Grove
• Moondrop Pendant – found in a chest in the Owlbear Nest
• Reason’s Grasp – found in a locked chest in Olly and Rugan’s cave in the Risen Road
• Ring of Colour Spray – found in the harpy nest east of the Emerald Grove

If you get desperate, you can also buy a few items from Arron and Dammon in the Emerald Grove.

The items you give to Gale will be destroyed, so only give him things you won’t need.  For example, a few of the items listed above are only useful to a particular class: Cap of Curing for Bards, Gloves of Heroism for Paladins, and Reason’s Grasp for Barbarians.  So if your party doesn’t include those classes, then their associated items make perfect gifts for Gale.

The first time you feed Gale, everything will go as expected.  But the second time, the item won’t help him as much as usual, and then the third time it’ll barely help him at all.  At this point, Gale will finally explain the cause of his condition.  He’ll tell you that he had a relationship with the goddess Mystra, and that while trying to impress her, he came into contact with a powerful book of magic.  The book contained a raw fragment of the Weave, which he planned to give to Mystra, only instead it shot into his chest and now demands to be fed.  Worse, Gale will reveal that if he doesn’t keep the fragment satisfied, it might destabilize and “level a city the size of Waterdeep.”

But there is good news: from this point on, you won’t have to feed Gale any more artifacts.

This guide is a work in progress, and will be updated regularly with more info on the continuation of Gale’s questline.