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.
No. He’s dead or stuck in an alternate dimension.
I think only Lae’zel and Shadowheart really have multiple chances.
Gale, Karlach, and Astarian only show up in a single place.
Wyll has a couple of places, depending. If you don’t recruit right away, he’ll show up at camp if you recruit Karlach.
He’ll also just stand around near the entrance of the grove on the left side of the road, just past the gate. I didn’t even know existed my first playthrough until I was through with the Underdark. Then I read about him online, went back, and found him there.
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.”
I missed both Gale and Astarion for several levels and thought the companions you got were RNG
No he’s dead.
As far as I’m aware, that’s your one chance to recruit him.
He just drifts in the Astral until he dies. To the player, he is just gone and can’t be recruited again.
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.
It’s a game that’s meant to be played multiple times, since you can’t experience everything in one playthrough. I agree it can be frustrating when something gets locked out as easily as a failed roll, and that often causes choice paralysis in myself while I play, but you need to go in with the mindset of not being able to complete everything the first attempt (or you’ll go insane).
I hope you can try the game again in the future and enjoy it! Maybe having several plays going at once and save scumming at choice points so you can use the same character for most of the options!
Unpopular opinion: you are much better off without him.
Very unpopular
That’s been the only saving grace is that everyone says he’s the most annoying character. A friend even told me they got soft locked because of him and had to reload an older save.
I had the same question; it’s nice to find out the answer. … if I ever play again, I was probably going to start a new save file anyway.
I don’t think I even got entirely through act one.
