Summary
- Every choice in Baldur’s Gate 3 has consequences, even minor ones, and can impact future events in the game.
- Killing Yurgir in the game has no major consequences, but sparing him upsets Astarion and Raphael and limits the player character’s relationship options.
- To beat Yurgir in Baldur’s Gate 3, players can try passing dialogue checks to convince him to kill his minions or take his own life, making the fight easier.
Yurgir may not be the most unambiguously good character in Baldur’s Gate 3, but the choice over whether to kill him can still cause internal conflict. Almost every choice matters in Baldur’s Gate 3, from the most minor selection of wording to decisions between life and death. Navigating a situation carefully can often lead to interesting rewards, but the game also has no shortage of consequences, and it’s often the most minor ones that come back to bite the party later in the campaign.
Yurgir appears primarily as part of the quest “Kill Raphael’s Old Enemy,” but he figures in other quest lines as well. He’s an orthon, a giant, muscular devil of a class usually consigned to battle. The quest-giver Raphael is, to most of the party’s dismay, a recurring character throughout the game. He’s a cambion and loves to strike unfair deals, and players may have already encountered him when he offered to remove their illithid tadpole or if they’ve repeatedly refused to help Gale in Baldur’s Gate 3.
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You Should Kill Yurgir In Baldur’s Gate 3
Yurgir’s Death Provides More Tangible Rewards
Ultimately, there’s no real reason not to kill Yurgir in Baldur’s Gate 3, unless the player character is merciful to a fault. It’s not like Yurgir is a paragon of good — he’s a demon and far from a gentle giant. There are no major consequences for killing him, but there are for sparing him. One big component of dealing with Yurgir is Astarion, who is more enthusiastic about working with Raphael than anyone else in the party. Raphael could be the key to getting more information about the mysterious runes carves into Astarion’s back.
Letting Yurgir live, unsurprisingly, will upset both Astarion and Raphael and lock the party out of finding out the true meaning of the runes on Astarion’s back. This doesn’t completely prevent them from completing Astarion’s quest line, but it can prove a major setback in the character’s relationship with Astarion and could significantly impact that romance option in Baldur’s Gate 3. Sparing Yurgir isn’t essential for any character relationships, so valuing another party member more than Astarion shouldn’t change anything.
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That being said, it’s possible to understand why some parties might feel inclined to help Yurgir. The orthon has made his own deal with Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3; he’s been assigned to kill all the Dark Justiciars at the Gauntlet of Shar in exchange for his freedom. He’s done well so far, with only one Justiciar left, but he can’t find the last one and is trapped until he can do so. As a result, he swears revenge against Raphael, which is why the cambion wants him gone.
It’s a desperate, dire situation, and it makes sense for certain characters to want to help him. Even if it risks drawing Raphael’s ire, saving Yurgir is the most explicitly merciful choice, if not the smartest one. Even if Yurgir can be nice to the Tav, he’s one of the most morally reprehensible characters in the game. Paying attention and succeeding on some rolls reveals disturbing facts about Yurgir, from the dark secret of his bond with the displacer beast Nessa to his history of horrific violence for his personal entertainment.
How To Manipulate Yurgir In Baldur’s Gate 3
The Orthon Isn’t All That Bright
Once the party has traversed the better part of the dungeon and likely solved all the puzzles around the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3, they’ll come face-to-face with Yurgir himself. He’s angry and will come at them ready for a fight from the very beginning of the interaction. The easiest way to start the fight is to pick the “attack” option, but it’s possible to make the fight easier — or even skip it entirely — by passing a series of dialogue checks.
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If the Baldur’s Gate 3 party inquires about the details of Yurgir’s contract, he’ll recite it for them. Passing an Insight check opens up a line of questioning, at the end of which the player character can point out that Raphael’s terms only apply so long as Yurgir has an audience. That refers to his merregon minions — pass a 16 difficulty class (DC) Charisma check, and he’ll slaughter them. A 21 DC Charisma check can convince him to kill the displacer beast Nessa (which might seem cruel, but could potentially be merciful after finding out Yurgir’s darkest secrets).
After getting Yurgir to take care of everyone else on the board, there’s a dialogue option to convince Yurgir that only death can free him. Pass a final 21 DC Charisma check, and Yurgir will take his own life. If this check succeeds, a difficult encounter can be avoided in its entirety, leaving the party free to proceed unbothered and report back to Raphael with a success.
Charisma is one of the most useful stats for a custom character in Baldur’s Gate 3. Many challenging encounters can be avoided through successful negotiation, and the protagonist is likely to be the party member that handles the most conversations.
The key to persuading Yurgir to take this bloody course lies in finding out the nature of his contract, so it’s important to press him on the subject in conversation. Learning its nature can require a successful Insight check before any of the Charisma options, as whichever character is speaking to Yurgir needs to be able to figure out the secret themselves. For anyone who prefers to save scum in Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s best to save at multiple points in the conversation for a safety net, although the challenge of accepting the consequences may be more rewarding.
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Fighting Yurgir In Baldur’s Gate 3
A Challenging Boss Can Still Be Taken Down Effectively
Failing any of these checks will result in Yurgir becoming immediately and irreversibly hostile. Even if the player character has low Charisma, though, it can sometimes be worth a shot — passing just one of these checks will make the ensuing fight, one of the hardest in Baldur’s Gate 3, immeasurably easier. It’s consequently best to switch to a character with higher Charisma if the opportunity arises before the conversation starts. Among Origin characters, Gale is generally the best choice for this task, although it’s possible to give other party members higher Charisma, depending on how they’re leveled.
Yurgir opens the fight by firing crossbow bolts from an elevated position, which gives him an additional bonus to his attack rolls. Hiding beneath the ledge by the door can prevent him from landing his shots, eventually drawing him out. It takes time for him to get there, which means a few free turns for ranged attackers to get a leg up.
Yurgir also throws bombs at the party. However, these can be thrown back to take off a significant chunk of his HP. Meanwhile, the merregons will attempt to put out braziers, since darkness gives ranged attacks a disadvantage in Baldur’s Gate 3. Kill them if they try, or relight the fires after they’re put out with spells or throwables.
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One possible upside to skipping the conversational technique with Yurgir is the ability to get a better set-up for the fight. Letting him have the high ground or get the jump in any way throws away some possible advantages, so anyone dead set on fighting Yurgir should attempt to approach with stealth instead. It’s possible to get up on the platform that he uses to his advantage with a standard jump nearby, and sneaking the party up behind can open up the opportunity to use something like thunderwave to possibly fling him off and turn the tables ahead of the fight.
How To Save Yurgir In Baldur’s Gate 3
Showing Mercy Isn’t Impossible
If the party decides to save Yurgir in Baldur’s Gate 3 instead of attacking him, they’ll have to go through a series of steps. For a 16 DC Charisma check, he’ll let the party help him look for his last target. The last Dark Justiciar can be found to the west of the central room in the dungeon, where a cragged rock provides an opportunity for the party to climb down to lower levels. At the bottom, there will be a book entitled One Becomes Many. Reading it will spawn a rat; killing the rat will raise a swarm.
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Killing the rat swarm in Baldur’s Gate 3 is fairly easy with any number of AoE spells, although it could drag a bit more with an all-martial party. Eventually, all except one of the rats will go down, and that final rat will reveal itself to be the final Dark Justiciar. The last Justiciar is a far easier foe than Yurgir; the only thing the party really needs to watch out for is his sleep spell. Return to Yurgir and, to Astarion and Raphael’s disappointment, he’ll be freed, at least for the moment.
No matter how the encounter with Yurgir ends, he goes on to a worse fate: he either dies in the Gauntlet, reappears in Raphael’s House of Hope and is subject to the cambion’s “reeducation” program, or escapes his deal only to strike a new one. Of course, the party doesn’t know that information going into the interaction, so the right choice is whatever the player character would be most likely to do. Even if freeing him doesn’t make much sense morally or practically, it could be what calls to an empathetic player character, and following that prerogative is perfectly valid.
Killing Yurgir might be one of the more straightforward choices in Baldur’s Gate 3, but that doesn’t make the overall situation and the opportunities it presents any less interesting. Manipulating him can be a lot of fun, however sadistic, and fighting Yurgir and all of his minions is as rewarding as it is tough. Regardless of the approach, dealing with Yurgir is certainly a memorable part of Baldur’s Gate 3, and there’s no way to go too horribly wrong as long as the party walks away alive and intact.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Developed and published by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an upcoming role-playing game set to release in August of 2023. Players will create a character to embark on a large-scale journey and can do so solo or cooperatively with a friend. Combat is a turn-based style this time around.
- Platform(s)
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PC
, macOS
, PS5
, Xbox Series X - Released
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August 3, 2023
- Developer(s)
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Larian Studios
