Pure Wizard, or are you open to multiclassing?

That's about all I know personally. Sitting on the respec screen for ages now. Confused with the stats and stuff.

Magic missle build is pretty strong. Scorching Ray extc..

wizards are pretty simple. they get a lot of spells, and that's about it. they can also learn extra spells from scrolls at the cost of gold, so don't stress too hard about the ones you choose on levelup since scrolls are so plentiful and you can swap prepared spells out of combat anytime if something isnt working for you.

for level 2 spells, i gotta give credit to shatter (decent aoe, outclassed by fireball eventually but then what isn't), scorching ray (more or less just triple fire bolt), and misty step (not as essential as in 5e, but still great for getting the hell out of dodge in combat or getting into weird places out of it). for asi, int > dex = con >>> wis > cha >= str. skill proficiencies will honestly kind of depend on the rest of your squad - i just like to have my allies fill out any gaps my tav is missing

The best build for Gale is technically the best build for anyone since you can respec anyone into anything you want and there's no restrictions on sticking to their original archetype.

Evocation Wizard is fun, because you can fireball, lightning bolt, ice storm, etc. with reckless abandon since allies don't take damage from them. It's also a good idea in your first playthrough since you get easy access to literally any spell and can swap them out at-will to try them all out.

Once you've got a better understanding of the game, your personal style and the spells you like, then Sorcerer is good pick since you won't have to worry about being stuck with spells you don't like (because you tried them all with a Wizard and know how they work now, right?), and MetaMagic gives you more options in combat than Wizards get, and CHA being their main stat allows them to multi-class with a few other classes quite well.

a stealthy approach within a party is best done with the whole party. Usually, the assassin goes ahead and the party hangs back so surprise can be triggered. A more efficient approach would be if the whole party goes with the stealth approach so no one gets left behind. I'd keep that in mind for minthara and gale. High initiative for everyone helps too.

Raise his intelligence to 20 (>!22 with the Mirror of Loss!<). Give him a shield, and I like to give him the Gloves of Dexterity (Dex raised to 18). He will be missed by physical attacks a lot.

He is great as an evocation specialist. Can cast haste on himself in the first round, now he can cast two fireballs every turn.

Learn all the spells, swap and prepare as needed.

He can also learn those OP spells you can find in >!Sorcerous Sundries!<. Artistry of War? So incredible.

Level 12 Evocation Wizard worked for me, didn't even need to change any of his starting ability scores.

I played him as an Evocation Wizard and he did great. The key was getting the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation so his cantrips do big damage, and going all-in on AoEs. Of note, he's REAL weak until lv5. Just no getting around that.

Make sure to take Magic missile, Shield, and Cloud of Daggers. The rest is up to you. Then Fireball and Lightning Bolt at lv 5. Grab Hold Person and Slow for CC, and Haste for buffs. Use Magic Missile to guarantee kills on enemies with ~5 hp left so your heavy hitters don't waste a turn on that.

Use him for big Evocation nukes since Sculpt Spells auto-misses allies. When AoE won't help an encounter, focus CC or Haste the party member that is most well suited to sweep that encounter.

When concentration on a CC or buff is vital to survival, just drink an invis potions as bonus action and run away. Skip turns if your concentration is still vital, or drop an AoE nuke when opportunity strikes.

Remember he can learn spell scrolls, and you can prepare spells any time out of combat. So load him up with utility that you can swap in when needed. Focus as much gear as you can that can buff spell save DC and attack rolls.

The default evocation Wizard is quite good already.

Wizard is actually quite hard to mess up because they can learn (almost) all the spells in the game, as long as the scroll for the spell exist.

They can also swap their prepared spells outside of combat.

For example, if you have an Invisibility scroll, you can make Gale scribe it into his spellbook, and he will know it. But it wouldn't be prepared because there is a finite amount of prepared spells at any given time. Then, if you know you need to make someone invisible for a bit of sneaky action, you can again go to the spellbook, swap some spell you don't immediately need with Invisibility, cast it and after you are done with whatever you are doing, you can swap spells back so that you can, for example, have more damage-dealing spells for the combat you know is going to happen behind the corner.

Wizards are hella useful for this versatility and hard to mess because you literally can learn any spell and swap them at will, and while it might be hard to keep them alive on early levels, they can turn the tide as they get access to various spells.

I tried a divination wizard for my playthrough. liked it quite a bit. Cast Hold Person on the biggest baddest boss. Game goes he needs a 8 to save, he rolled a 13. Gale goes no u didn't, u rolled a 3. Everyone else proceeds to crit the fuck outta the bad guy.

Yep! I don't recall seeing any staff that had a main hand only benefit (though I could be wrong). Plus you can use your bonus action to whack people lol. (Which can actually do some damage when combined with other gear, like lightning charges and reverb or cold based stuff. Mourning Frost with the ring that creates ice when you do cold damage can also knock people prone, though Gale might also fall if he isn't wearing anti-slip shoes.)

https://preview.redd.it/uljbwdiv61df1.png?width=452&format=png&auto=webp&s=902690cba4cda7cb300c5c05888b14b14a3f2fca

I make gale a Lvl 1 Wizard/Lvl 11 Cleric. You can still learn all the spells form spell scrolls, but he gets all the spells of a cleric as well. You can also choose one of the domains that gives him heavy armor, and he's nearly unbeatable. Only downside is balancing intelligence/wisdom stats, but if you take the intelligence circlet form the orges in act 1, you can make him super OP. I love making Gale a cleric because he's so invested in Mystra, it just makes sense to me

evocation wizard with all the reverberation/lightning charge gear you can find using solely magic missile and artistry of war

you’ll never miss and every bolt applies the inflictions so you’ll be a debuff powerhouse, plus at level 10 you’ll add your intelligence modifier to each bolt so hopefully it’s a +5 damage every missile which adds up tremendously well

this is the build i used for gale during my honour mode and it stripped orin of her unstoppable stacks in one turn and knocked her prone and dazed her and everything amazing he basically solo’d her

In addition to what other have said, I love the dual wielding feat for him, with two quarterstaves, since there are some that add great bonuses.

Plain Evocation 12 is never bad — you may Fireball / Lightning Bolt an enemy crowd engaged in melee without harming your allies.

You can be a Magic Missile machine gun with The Spellsparkler (staff you get by saving Florrick at Waukeen's Rest) and Psychic Spark (necklace from Blurg) by early/mid Act 1. When you grab Gloves of Belligerent Skies in the Crèche, put them together with Boots of Stormy Clamour (buy from Omeluum). By Act 2, the radiant rings (Callous Glow + Coruscation) wrap up your build.

Alternatively, you can go Evocation Wizard 10 / Tempest Cleric 2. Wet enemies with water bottles or Create Water, then cast a lightning spell — Tempest Cleric's ability lets you maximise damage and water makes enemies vulnerable, so you'll be deleting plenty of bosses without worries. Anything that survives will still be vulnerable, so even without the max damage from cleric, it'll be a ton of damage anyway.

No worries :) The game is all about positioning and action economy, and wizards excel at both. You haven't lived until you've killed a boss with fall damage. Gerringothe, Bernard and Lorroakan spring to mind. (Gortash too, if you cheese it by using him to do an improvised weapon attack on empty air by the castle walls, thus kidnapping him and sprinting him outside!)

Gale the moment his STR rises above 8:

I like the way you think.

If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re looking for a build that fits Gale’s story as a magic user without going standard Sorc/Wizard since that is what your Durge would be.

I’ve been playing around with gish builds for Gale. Swashbuckler with Bladesinger or Hexblade have been particularly interesting. Gotta be suave enough to romance a goddess after all.

I’m doing an Origin run as Gale, currently specced as a College of Lore Bard with a 2 Level dip into Hexblade Warlock.

My justification is that Gale locked himself in his Tower after the Orb incident, finding solace in words and song while infusing them with his native talents. Once he gains some manner of control over the Orb, he’s able to invoke its power.

This is a riff on the Devils Tongue build. I’m enjoying it!

I once made him an arcane archer, on the reasoning that he'd lost a lot of power after the break up/the orb, and that AA does partly run on intelligence. It's pretty effective. I decided he'd taken up archery to get his mind off things, and being Gale had bespelled his arrows. Eldritch Knight/archer could work too.

He'd also fit as a knowledge cleric of Mystra I think but I wouldn't respec him as any other kind of magic user but wizard, he's quite vocal about the unlettered (read sorcerors and others who acquire powers the non-study way). I can't see him as a rogue or ranger either, and paladins seem like they're in service of something greater, where he tends to want to be the something greater. There again, if you do want to keep him as a wizard, Bladesinger maybe?

I've never played Durge and not killed Gale Act 1.

Cleric of Mystra? Maybe Knowledge?

That's DnD spells for you, they just miss whenever you need them. Thats why I rarely use cc spells early on since I don't savesum most fights. Late game though if you keep an eye out for spell DC boost items Gale will have like 22 spell save DC and become an absolute god with higher level spells. I use him mostly as a utility spell slave early on but once you get level 2 and 3 spells, the damage spells are not bad as long as he don't become a piñata, which I solved by just getting medium armor mastery until he gets higher level.

Besides he is the only one who have one level of multiclass into a 1945 Japanese fighter pilot at the start of Part 2, which is also pretty neat.

When you have Astarion multi classed dual wielding hand crossbows and fall back massive variety of enchanted arrows he can burst like a beast, have magic damage much more consistently and pick your locks and disarm traps and even have back up knock spell leaving room for a melee DD a Cleric and a tank.

If you’re far enough to have Jahiera, you’re far enough for Gale to be lobbing Fireball.

Bonus, if you made him an Evocation Wizard like he usually is, his Fireballs don’t harm allies.

Any spell caster is inherently strong.

Every companion is good, especially since you can respec them entirely.

Gale as is, is still pretty solid though. He's got a good stat array for a Wizard and you're in act 2 at least so he should be high enough level to be at the point where casters are becoming really strong.

Him not hitting is mostly a matter of luck, as his hit rate shouldn't be worse than anybody else. Even then, there are some spells you can rely on for guaranteed damage like Magic Missile or anything that's save for half like Fireball.

Plus the utility of being able to learn any arcane spell so long as you find a scroll.

I used Garsen’s battle mage build (abjuration wizard with polearm master and booming blade) for my successful HM run. Not the best Abj wizard, but it was super fun, did decent damage and was hard to kill. Gale single-handedly got me through the House of Grief. And then he sacrificed himself to kill the brain and save the love of his life. sniff it was beautiful.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOUc9QwZ_I&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD

If you're looking for survivability, this build just won't die: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mhyn5oAkP0

I’m currently doing HM as Gale, using a pretty vanilla divination wizard build (with the Alert feat, a must lol) and it’s going very well! I’ve had to stuff him full of tadpoles lol, but he’s just defeated Orin!

Can't go wrong with a classic.

2 tempest cleric 10 evo wizard.

Chain lightning gets a boost from evo subclass and then you have a channel divinity to extra boost the damage.

Pairs well with a 12 tempest cleric.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/56pLdqqFHk

Gale origin works very well with this and it's made by one of the most well known guide makers.

Abjuration frost Gayle is an excellent build for solo play, but on a agressive party, I think everyone dies before Gayle does his job.

A contrario, Gale as an evocation wizard in a HM party is great. Contrary to a Sorcerer which can be generalist with few spells or specialized in fire / lightning, Gayle can be a specialist of everything at each camp rest.

You want a fire blaster to destroy goblins : Gayle You want a lightning /frost blaster in the house of Hope : Gayle You want to kill sahuagin fast with lightning : Gayle You want to be a powerful necromancer : Gayle

Don't play wizard like a sorc.

You can have all spells, select what you memorize and keep Scrolls.

If you know what you will face next fight Gayle wizard is awesome.

If you want to be sure, play 2 parallel games : One with specialized generic party ( fire blasters, lightning blasters, bardadinlock...) and one with adaptable casters :

• Évocation Gayle 1 cast / turn
• Arcanic rogue Astarion finesse archer / mêlée as a BA, 1 cast / turn or
• life Cleric or light Cleric with reverb.
• Bard control archer 10/1/1 with BMS or Bardadin or Ek archer with spécial arrows.

You can replace rogue by generic Sorcerer if you want more firepower.

This party is highly adaptable and can play fire, lightning, frost, poison, Necromancy,...

Needs only micromanagement of stuff (personally I like that)

If you're looking to turn Gale into a frost tank, the Abjuration subclass is an excellent choice. When respeccing him, start with Sorcerer class with the Draconic Bloodline (White) subclass, as it grants access to Armour of Agathys. Then, rest of the levels can go into Abjuration Wizard.

For gear, the Mourning Staff is a solid pick, and you can also grab the Cold Snap Dagger from the NPC searching for Shadowheart. Just make sure she isn’t in your party when you meet him, or it’ll lock you out of the trade.

The Snowburst Ring is a fantastic addition, and the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation works wonders for boosting the damage of Ray of Frost. The Cold Brim Hat also ties in beautifully with this build. Don’t forget to include the Fireshield spell to reduce incoming melee damage and retaliate back with cold damage. Keep your AC relatively low to bait opportunity attacks.

I’ve been running this build in my current Honor playthrough, and it’s been performing exceptionally well, borderline overpowered,

One of the best things about this build is its ability to inflict the Chilled condition on enemies, making them vulnerable to cold damage. If you didn’t already know, vulnerable enemies take double damage from the damage type they’re weak to.
Also, if a chilled enemy is wet and you hit them with cold damage, they have a chance to freeze, potentially skipping their turn entirely.

Take 1 level in White Draconic Sorcerer for Armor of Agathys and Con saves, 1 level in War Cleric for Heavy Armor, and 10 levels in Abjuration Wizard for Arcane Ward. Take Heavy Armor Master and wear heavy armor that reduces damage even more. Use Mourning Frost, Luminous Gloves, the Coruscation Ring, the Callous Glow the Cloak of Displacement. Cast Armor of Agathys, Fire Shield: Chill, and Mirror Image before each fight, and use something like Stoneskin to get resistance to whatever damage you're about to take. (The most optimal way to do this is camp casting Warding Bond, but camp casting already makes you stronger than 10 wizards high on the weave, so I would personally use something like Armour of Persistence instead.) Congrats! Now any attack will have to deal over 50 damage in order to touch you, and anyone who hits you with a melee attack will probably take double damage from Armor of Agathys and Fire Shield: Chill because of Mourning Frost. In other words, you have as much time as you want to spam Glyph of Warding, which can deal massive cold damage while refueling your Arcane Ward.

Evocation is a fine pick for Gale. I wouldn’t pick it for HM, but it should be fine for Tactician and does tend to give you the largest upfront damage.

Abjuration can make him into a borderline unkillable tank and is usually built around ice spells.

Divination is great if you’re struggling with dice rolls.

I think those are the 3 subclasses most people recommend, but it’s hard to go wrong with any of them thanks to Wizards being able to learn so many spells.

https://preview.redd.it/b8c5szhh4rpe1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a7b0699eadc272731617b4e067370f89725cc5e

Just beat Myrkul, with Gale as a solid Frontline defense!

I find it helps for her (this is my shadow heart build)to be concentrating on a spell like expeditious retreat and draw attacks of opportunity.

I put my frost gear on my tempest sorc and it’s really good. The icy surface gets your spell modifier so pretty much everone is gonna be falling over.

Evocation is good for the extra damage and buffing your evocation spells later. I ran divination in my HM run so I could change the dice.

Wizard really turns you into a Swiss Army knife since you can learn spells from scrolls so changing your build depending on the fight/what you find isn’t a bad idea

Most people do it by starting with one level of sorcerer, with the subclass dragonborn (white). The various dragon sorcerers get one extra thematic spell each, and the white dragon type gets armor of agathys.

Alternatively, it's a warlock spell, and you can take one level of warlock instead, but this is significantly worse IMHO.

Given how the AI in BG3 works, most enemies won’t target the ice tank. My Gale also wears the Boots of the Disintegrating Night Walkers, so he never slips on ice. I create large ice surfaces using Cone of Cold or Sleet Storm to slow down enemies and keep them from reaching my cleric or archer. Then, I bait out opportunity attacks.

This is also one of the few builds where the Blade Ward cantrip truly shines, adding an extra layer of durability to frost tank role.