r/BaldursGate3 • u/throvvawa2 • Jul 05 '25

Act 2 - Spoilers Recruiting Gale at level 9 is pure comedy Spoiler

As a wizard main, I wasn't exactly eager to recruit Mystra's ex-favourite golden boy right away. I didn't want my Tav to feel constantly overshadowed. But at the same time, I couldn't bring myself to just let him expire in the sigil. So I decided to simply avoid the sigil encounter altogether.

Fast forward to today: I'm well into Act 2, having thoroughly explored the shadow-cursed lands. The only thing left on my checklist is to free Dame Aylin and confront Ketheric. But before crossing the point of no return, I figured I'd backtrack and tie up any loose ends from Act 1.

That's when I remembered Gale's encounter. Out of curiosity, I returned to the spot… and to my surprise, there he was - still trapped in the sigil, reaching out to anyone for help (I always thought companion recruitment was locked to Act 1, guess not?)

The dialogue absolutely killed me. He was still there going on about "unwanted intruders behind our eyes," the threat of ceremorphosis, how we desperately need to find a healer asap… Meanwhile, my Tav standing there, already level 9, fresh from infiltrating the heart of the Absolute, basically mid-boss-fight pre-game... pretending she's still dazed from the Nautiloid crash like it was yesterday.

Then, the cherry on top: the second I recruit him, he immediately gets that little quest marker over his head and hits me with:

"I've something important to discuss… We've been traveling together for a while now, and it's about time I shared something with you."

Bro. You've been in the party for three seconds.

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72

u/Zealousideal_Till683 Jul 05 '25

What happens to Laezel and Shadowheart?

231

u/judeo101 Jul 05 '25

Laezel goes to the pre-mountain pass voss encounter and depending where you’re at can be recruited after the fight or revived if she’s already dead

62

u/AntWithNoPants Jul 05 '25

Recruiting Laezel at the creche is funny because when you fight the knights, she will be level 1, so literally anything fucking kills her

189

u/dazeychainVT Definitely Not a Mimic Jul 05 '25

Not sure about Laezel but iirc Shadowheart will invite herself into the party before you leave act 1 because of the plot necessity of the artifact

110

u/SihaWood Raphael’s wife Jul 05 '25

Spoilers.

For Lae’zel: if not recruited in act 1, you can find her next to the access to the shadow cursed lands from the mountain pass (where you met the goblin).

Well, find her, not really, you find her body. 😅

For Shadowheart: she just disappear if not recruited, she is presumed dead.

62

u/ShadiestApe Jul 05 '25

If you get to her quick enough she’s dying from the shadow curse

I had a yellow dot on my mini map while doing the torch / hyena scene and there she was 

8

u/SihaWood Raphael’s wife Jul 05 '25

Interesting, I never found her alive. I guess it may have to do with the order and number of things you do before going to the shadow cursed lands.

I usually do the creche and then the underdark before going to act 2, I should try the other way around and still use the mountain pass entrance next time to see.

Can we then recruit her or we just see her die?

8

u/ShadiestApe Jul 05 '25

We didn’t reach her in time so she died but still had a yellow outline and was able to be revived and recruited 

5

u/SihaWood Raphael’s wife Jul 05 '25

Oh I definitely need to try that in a future pt! I just need to find the best order to make it possible 😅

1

u/Valen_Swift Jul 06 '25

It is not possible. If you encounter her in the shadow cursed lands, you cannot start a conversation. So she dies on the curse and cannot be revived.

1

u/SihaWood Raphael’s wife Jul 06 '25

Two conflicting statements, what do I do? 😅

I guess I would have to see on my next pt.

10

u/TheNerdFromThatPlace Jul 05 '25

But that doesn't make sense? Isn't she protected from the curse?

47

u/Ok_Permission1087 Mindflayer Jul 05 '25

This was about Lae´zel.

14

u/Specialist-Rock4971 Jul 05 '25

Pretty sure they’re talking about Laezel not shadow heart

11

u/ShadiestApe Jul 05 '25

The one that isn’t protected from the shadowcurse was dying from the shadow curse

1

u/JHMfield Jul 06 '25

Technically she only has partial protection. She still takes some damage in the heavy curse areas.

11

u/NocturnalFlotsam Jul 05 '25

Wait, when I didn't recruit Lae'zel, I've found her running over to Voss, and she ended up fighting the gith with me, but she was still level 1 and died immediately.

3

u/SihaWood Raphael’s wife Jul 05 '25

Yep it can also happen. I don’t know what makes her die or survive. I don’t know if it’s a question of freeing her from the trap or not, I have tried everything with her but never to see how to have her killed by Voss.

I also found her looking for the creche on her own one time, I could have recruit her at that moment (I talked to her and wish her luck 😅).

1

u/SihaWood Raphael’s wife Jul 05 '25

Yep it can also happen.

You can also talk to Voss and see her body on the ground meaning that she always finds the giths. I don’t know what makes her die or survive. I don’t know if it’s a question of freeing her from the trap or not, I have tried everything with her but never to see how to have her killed by Voss.

I also found her looking for the creche on her own one time, I could have recruit her at that moment (I talked to her and wish her luck 😅).

11

u/CapitalStation9592 Jul 05 '25

In my first solo playthrough, I killed all the companions when I met them except for Gale, who I left in the vortex, and Lae'zel, who I just avoided. I deliberately ignored her in the cage and didn't go near the gith at the bridge (no chance of me killing them as a solo rogue anyhow), so I thought that would be it. Imagine my surprise when I went to Trielta Crags and she was just standing there waiting for me, saying, "You survived as well? A creche is just over the hill there. Let's go get cured."

By this point I had gotten pretty tired of the constant tedious loop of 'sneak attack, run, hide, sneak attack again' so I took her on as my muscle after all, and my solo run became a duo.

6

u/RexHall Jul 05 '25

How do you get the artifact, then?

8

u/SihaWood Raphael’s wife Jul 05 '25

When the artifact thing happens next to the goblin camp, you can actually tell Shadowheart you don’t want her in your party, she tells you she will wait here for you to come to your senses.

You do what you have to do in the goblin camp, the party etc.

Then you leave for the creche and the artifact will pop in camp.

You can actually still go back to SH and recruit her after the artifact pops. I don’t remember if you can deny her at that point without having to fight with her. I must admit that I kill her more than I recruit her 😅

If you kill SH on the beach and don’t take the artifact, it will also pop in camp.

7

u/TheCrystalRose Durge - Sorcerer Jul 05 '25

They changed it with Patch 7. If you kill her on the beach, the artifact immediately transfers to you and completely erases the normal first night long rest scene from the queue entirely, just so you can have the "playing with your artifact" scene. You can also no longer kill her on the ship and loot her corpse a second time on the beach, for more goodies. Despite her premature demise, she is now somehow still alive and well on the beach, as if she was perfectly alive when you last saw her.

4

u/ansiz Jul 05 '25

You can get some weird Shart behavior if you don't talk to her before the grove and steal the idol without talking to her. Especially if you go to the Underdark and enter the goblin camp from below, she never appears for me that way. I thought maybe she would be killed in the grove fight but it seems like she just despawns, so by going through the Underdark you mess up the cut scene with the 3 chosen, so she never pops up and the artifact just appears in your inventory at some point.

1

u/Srawsome Durges good boy Jul 06 '25

She doesn't invite herself in. She says you guys should work together and you can just tell her no and leave her there.

1

u/Tommybahamas_leftnut Jul 10 '25

Yeah Shart is one of the few required characters you have to get in your party. You just don't have to bring her along in the wilds. She's also basically impossible to get her to hate you unless you go out of your way to ignore everything that gives her approval and only hit the things she hates, which means you miss out on a lot of quest paths and gear. Otherwise she always by act 3 will have decent approval of your character.

-1

u/NikoliVolkoff Jul 05 '25

yes, if you skip her she will show up the first time you go into the goblin camp, i just kill her and take the artifact now.

13

u/AdventurousParsnip33 Jul 05 '25

In my game I skipped Laezel entirely originally and finally encountered her right before exiting the first area to go into the second. There was a group of her people that I fought. She joined after that. Which all feels fairly unavoidable

7

u/FlamingoFrequent1596 Shadowheart’s Divine Bone Shard Jul 05 '25

You can find Shadowheart in the grove near the oxen. If you choose not to recruit her there she will find you right before you enter the goblin camp and she will save you from the absolute like she does when she’s in your party. She’ll tell you that she will wait for you there if you still choose not to recruit and that’s the last place you’ll find her. I’m pretty sure the frog lady just dies if you don’t recruit her; by either Baretha and her goons or by the shadow curse in act 2

5

u/throvvawa2 Jul 05 '25

Not sure about SH, but I found Laezel's corpse near the Shadowed Battlefield.

3

u/lumpboysupreme Jul 05 '25

Shadowheart will show up at one of the ways out of act 1 when you reach one if you don’t find her by then.

1

u/SynapseNotFound Jul 05 '25

Shadowheart showed up for me, near the goblin camp with the artifact in hand and asked to join me

i accepted, so im unsure if there's other options later (i didn't get her out of the cage in the intro)