Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Gale Build Guide

Best Gale Build in Baldur’s Gate 3

The best Gale build would center around his Evocation subclass. This allows him to cast incredibly powerful spells on a large area that avoids hitting his allies. Keep his default class as a wizard to gain access to this subclass and their diverse arsenal of available spells.

As an origin character, it’s better to keep mostly everything about Gale as is. You can’t change his default race, but you don’t need to change his class, as he’s best suited to being a wizard. You may have to tweak his stat allocation to make him better than he should be.

• Race: Human
• Class: Wizard
• Subclass: Evocation
• Background: Sage
• Proficiencies: Arcana, History
• Stats: STR 8, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 10, CHA 10

Speaking of proficiencies, pick Arcana and History, which complement Gale’s class very well. As a Wizard, Gale should be intelligent and proficient in the history of magic and its arts. Both are tied to your Intelligence stats, which you should invest heavily in.

Wizards also come with Arcane Recovery. This allows them to replenish their spell slots outside of battle. Although you can’t replenish spells above level 5, it’s pretty useful early on in the game, so you don’t frequently need to rest at your camp to get back your most powerful spells.

Level 1

At Level 1, Gale gets access to 3 cantrips, 4 prepared spells, and 6 spells in total.

Cantrips

• Acid Splash: Cast a bubble of acid that damages each target it hits.
• Fire Bolt: Hurl a mote of fire for 1d10 fire damage at an enemy for 18m.
• Ray of Frost: Reduce your target’s movement speed by 3m.

Spells

• Magic Missile: Cast 3 magical darts that always find their mark for 2-5 Force damage. Since it’s always guaranteed to hit, it’s a useful finisher when you can’t afford to miss. You can target up to 3 enemies with it.
• Sleep: Select enemies to put them into slumber. Very useful at lower levels for crowd control. Cast it when surrounded by an overwhelming number of foes and focus on limiting what they can do as a group.
• Mage Armour: Surround an unarmored creature in a protective magical force. Its AC increases to 13+ its Dexterity modifier. The armor you cast stays on until Long Rest.
• Grease: Cover the ground in grease the slows anyone caught inside and makes them fall prone.
• Thunderwave: Release a thunderous wave that pushes away all creatures and objects. Targets on Saving Throws still take half damage. A great spell to push away aggressive melee combatants coming too close to you.
• Burning Hands: Each flammable target is hit with 3-8 Fire damage. Targets on Saving Throws still take half damage.

Level 2

At Level 2, you should make Gale take the Evocation subclass if you recruited him as a companion and not playing as him. This subclass comes with several bonuses:

• Evocation Savant: Learning Evocation spells from scrolls costs half as much, becoming 25 gold pieces per spell level.
• Sculpt Spells: Create pockets of safety within your Evocation spells. Allies automatically succeed their Saving Throws against these spells and take no damage from them.

You won’t be able to get any new cantrips at this level but you can add a few more to your spell slots. Here’s what we recommend for Level 2:

Spells

• Ice Knife: Throw a shard of ice that deals 1-10 Piercing damage. It explodes and deals 2-12 Cold damage to anyone nearby. It leaves and icy surface for 2 turns.
• Chromatic Orb: Hurl a sphere of energy that deals 3d8 Thunder damage, or deals 2d8 Acid, Cold; Fire, Lightning, or Poison damage and creates a surface.

Level 3

At Level 3, you get more Spell Slots and allowing you to cast Level 2 Evocation spells for the first time. You get 1 Level 1 Spell Slot and 2 Level 2 Spell Slots. Here’s what we recommend you take for Level 3:

Spells

• Shield: When you are about to be hit by an enemy, increase your Armour Class by 5. You take no damage from Magic Missile. Will stay until your next Long Rest.
• Scorching Ray: Hurl 3 rays of fire. Each ray deals 2-12 Fire damage.
• Flaming Sphere: Summon a flaming sphere that damages nearby enemies and objects. The sphere sheds bright light in a 6m radius, and dim light for an additional 6m.

Level 4

At Level 4, you get an additional Level 2 Spell Slot and cantrip. You also get to choose two more spells for yourself and even pick between picking a feat or Ability Improvement. Here’s what we recommend for Level 4:

Cantrips

• Poison Spray: Project a puff of poisonous gas. Targets hit take 1d12 Poison damage.

Spells

• Mirror Image: Create 3 illusionary duplicates of yourself that distract attackers. Each duplicate increases your AC by 3. Whenever you successfully evade an attack, one of the duplicates disappears.
• Misty Step: Surrounded by silver mist, you teleport to an unoccupied space you can see. A great spell for repositioning.

We recommend picking Ability Improvement over a feat. You can boost your Intelligence stat by two which increases the power of your spells.

Level 5

You finally get access to Level 3 spells at Level 5. You get to pick 2 of them. Here’s what we recommend for Level 5:

• Fireball: Shoot a bright flame from your fingers that explodes upon contact, torching everything in the vicinity. Targets on Saving Throws still take half damage. Targets hit take 8d6 Fire damage.
• Haste: Target yourself or an ally to become Hastened: gain an action, become faster, and harder to hit.

Level 6

At Level 6, you get a new Evocation subclass featured called Potent Cantrip and two new spells. Potent Cantrip is important as it provides the following bonus:

• Potent Cantrip: Your cantrips become hard to evade entirely. When a creature succeeds its Saving Throw against one of your cantrips, it still takes half the cantrip’s damage, but suffers no additional effects.

For spells, here’s what we recommend for Level 6:

Spells

• Sleet Storm: Call forth a storm that disrupts the Concentration of spellcasters, douses fires, and creates an ice surface.
• Stinking Cloud: Create a cloud of gas so nauseating it prevents creatures from taking actions.

Level 7

At Level 7, you finally get access to the more powerful Level 4 spells as well as an additional Prepared Spell. Here’s what we recommend for Level 7:

Spells

• Wall of Fire: Create a blazing wall of fire, burning anyone who dares to stand too close.
• Ice Storm: Impel a storm of hail ice to crash from the sky, covering the ground and striking all objects and creatures within range.

Level 8

At Level 8, you get to pick a feat and gain access to two more spells. Here’s what we recommend for Level 8:

Feats

• Elemental Adept: Your spells ignore Resistance to a damage type of your choice. When you cast spells of that type, you cannot roll a 1.

Spells

• Banishment: Temporarily Banish your target to another plane of existence.
• Conjure Minor Elemental: Conjure a minor elemental to fight alongside you.

How to recruit Gale in Baldur’s Gate 3

Gale can be recruited at the Roadside Inn, which is to the north of where you crash-landed after the prologue of the game. Once you meet him, talk to him, and he’ll tell you that he is also infected with the mind flayer tadpole and ask for your help in finding a cure. Agree, and he’ll join your party.

If your party is full at the time of speaking with him, Gale will go to your camp until you swap out another member. You’ll know it’s Gale because of his purple robes and wavy brown hair. Gale is one of the Origin characters that can be recruited if you choose not to play as him at the start of the game.