Gale makes game crash

I have no clue why this started in my one playthrough, but when I select Gale, it crashes. Sometimes, it lets me select him, but leveling him up makes it crash. I've disabled all class/race mods, and I haven't even used him yet on this playthrough, so he's level 1. No problems with any other characters?!? Any suggestions?

I have also tried:

deleting levelcache (multiple times)

disabling unlock level curve