[MAJOR ACT 3 / ENDING SPOILERS - DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE GAME]

Have you remained relatively neutral about/unsupportive of Gale's plans to use the Crown of Karsus throughout your journey, then felt blindsided by his end-game insistence to use it regardless of your attempts to dissuade him? Did you even succeed the DC30 Persuasion Check before the final battle to convince him to abandon his plans, only to have him apparently ignore your conversation during the ending? Do you not feel like going back through dozens of hours of gameplay to navigate through the labyrinthine dialogue choices you apparently have to make to convince Gale otherwise?

This mod fixes an apparent bug* in the game's script and allows you to change Gale's mind about the Crown right before the final battle. If Gale is in your final party and you succeed a DC20 Persuasion/Charisma check (lowered from DC30), Gale will decide to retrieve and return the Crown post-battle. If you romanced Gale, this will allow you to decide your future (or non-future) together before the epilogue, and if you didn't romance him he will choose to return to Waterdeep.

Getting the Mod to Work:

• Unzip and copy the "Data" folder to your game's installation directory (example: "D:/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Baldur's Gate 3/"). I believe you must have the BG3 Mod Fixer installed.
• The Persuasion Check appears during the conversation right before the final battle, when you ascend the Netherbrain stalk, and only appears if Gale is in your final party and planning on using the Crown. You'll know this is the case if he says, "Once we ascend the Netherbrain's stem, we'll be in touching distance of the crown. Of reclaiming the powers of Karsus himself."
• You should then see the following prompt: "I'm ready. Are you?" You must select the following conversation choices to get to the Persuasion check: "Are you sure you want this crown?..." then "[PERSUASION] No. But surely you see now how dangerous the crown is?"
• Roll a successful DC20 Persuasion check to change Gale's mind, and see the results of your conversation in the ending.
  
  

[Technical Details]

*I believe Gale choosing to use the Crown in the ending even if you succeed the DC30 Persuasion check is a bug because the game script attempts to change a pivotal plot flag, "ORI_Gale_State_SwayedTowardsCrown" upon a successful roll, but testing in the Script Extender console shows the flag will remain unchanged in the ending regardless. This might be because the flag is determined by a hidden internal process which takes into account your conversational choices throughout the game, and cannot be flipped with a simple "SetFlag" command like other plot flags.

This mod overwrites a portion of one file, "END_BrainBattle_Intro.lsf" and manually sets certain plot flags in advance of the ending (such as a non-romanced Gale deciding to return to Waterdeep) to bypass the "ORI_Gale_State_SwayedTowardsCrown" plot flag. I have tested it with both a romanced and non-romanced Gale, and he decided to return the Crown in both scenarios.

I am not a programmer, so there are probably much more elegant ways of fixing this issue rather than brute force plot flag changes and using a loose file overwrite, and I definitely have not been able to test this mod out with the endless dialogue choices / story configurations possible in the game (e.g. I have not tested a scenario where the player chooses to become an Illithid), nor with the multitude of other mods out there, so please let me know if you run into any issues.

[Uninstalling]

Simply delete the modded file (found at "[Game Install Directory] / Data / Mods / GustavDev / Story / DialogsBinary / Act3 / Endgame / END_BrainBattle_Intro.lsf")


When I first got Gale's crown / ascension ending despite making what I thought were fairly neutral/unsupportive dialogue choices throughout the game, I was annoyed enough to do some online searching about what led to the result and whether it could be changed. This mod is only possible due to the work of Redditors u/airydandelion, who provided a helpful guide to Gale's different endings, and u/pimentisa, who provided a very detailed outline listing various plot flags and decision points.