I failed the strength check despite being a paladin and using inspiration. I never saw him again even after getting through nearly all of act 2. I’ve asked this before, maybe even in this community, but no one gave a concrete answer, likely because the game was still new.
Only tangentially related, but if you choose to ignore the portal you can come back later to get Gale. I was in a role-playing mood on my first playthrough. When I encountered a strange portal, and was given only the choices of ignoring it or sticking my hand in I thought, “How about no.”
No. He’s dead or stuck in an alternate dimension.
Looks like someone’s got a 2nd play through in their future…
Maybe. I rage quit the first one. Once I get a new PC I might finish and/or play again. Little shit like this is probably one of the biggest reasons I quit. It’s absolutely insane to me to lock a follower behind a random chance. I was over 50 hours in before I began to realize I might not see him again. I would’ve save scummed if I knew.
oh i highly encourage save scumming the crap out of that game
I have no problems save scumming, but I never suspected they’d literally design one of the main 6 characters to be missable over a single fucking failed skill check. I thought for sure I’d see him later.
Consequences of your decisions is what makes this game special. You’re going to have a bad time going forward with this game if you cannot deal with the fomo.
What the hell do you mean consequences of my actions? I didn’t do something dumb, I tried to save him. And it’s not like a cool piece of armor or weapon was locked behind a skill check, it’s a whole damn character. Arguably the best thing about this game is the characters and their dialogue. Now one of them is gone through no fault of my own. I can understand locking Minthara behind killing the druids and then not allowing you to have Karlach or Wyll in the party. That makes sense. I’d definitely view that as a consequence of my actions. But that’s not what I’m upset about. I’m upset that one of the six main characters was locked behind a random skill check! It’s dumb. They could’ve just as easily made it so he pops up again later at a different portal if you fail the first time, but no. So don’t say this was a “consequence of my actions.” If I was playing Dark Urge and chopped his hand off the argument would be better, but I’m not. I was playing a high strength character and used my inspirations and still failed due to no fault of my own and now one of the characters is just completely inaccessible. That’s a massive chunk of content. Hundreds if not thousands of lines of dialogue I can’t get to partake in because of a fucking random chance. So don’t fucking say it’s a consequence of my actions.
Wait till this guy hears about Minthara
I literally mentioned Minthara in the post.
Failing a roll is on you whether you like it or not. The ever looming threat of failure is important in story telling and suspension of disbelief. It’s the opposite of dumb game design. So yeah you either reload until everything gets handed to you or you move on. You’re talking like he’s locked behind a dlc when you’re just pissed a dice roll didn’t go your way at level one.
It is like that, it’s common DLC to add a new character. It’s like locking DLC behind a roll.