Baldur's Gate 3's latest hotfix makes Gale less cranky when he doesn't get his way

Baldur's Gate 3 companion Gale may be «the Sword Coast's biggest wife guy,» but he's also apparently a bit of a touchy sort who will permanently leave your party if you don't cough up magic items when he asks for one. Not cool! Also not intentional, as it turns out, as the latest Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix prevents him from doing so—unless you want him to.

Hotfix 17 addresses a handful of issues, including the camera sometimes inappropriately zooming in while you're jumping or casting spells, or thieves' tools in your camp not being accessible while you're picking locks. The change to Gale's behavior is the big one, though. Spoilers follow, so consider yourself warned and go read something else if you don't want to blow the surprise

Ready?

Here's what Gale's bad habit looks like in action: 

It turns out that Gale is afflicted with a condition that requires him to consume magical items in order to prevent his body from being corrupted by a dark power. As the game progresses, he'll ask players for magic items to absorb so he can «soothe its disquiet»—and should players refuse to do so, he'll take a powder. 

That became a problem when the previous hotfix made some changes that rendered players unable to hand over the goods under some circumstances, thereby unintentionally triggering his departure. The new update includes a «temporary bug fix» that should put a halt to that behavior until Larian can clear it up properly.

«In Hotfix #16, we began the process of updating a player’s ability to access certain quest-related items, even if they were in the camp chest, or in the inventory of a companion waiting at camp,» Larian explained. «However, the UI through which items can be donated to Gale has not yet been updated, which meant that the dialogue could be triggered if the items were available elsewhere, but would not show in the UI to be donated. This risked placing players in a situation where Gale expected an item from them, and they were unable to provide one.

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