Baldur's Gate 3: How to Defeat the Thorm Family Without Combat (2024)

When Ketheric Thorm became an immortal monster, the rest of his family followed his lead. As players of Baldur's Gate 3 explore Reithwin in the western half of the Shadow-Cursed Land, they'll come across three members of the Thorm clan who are lording it over their twisted undead minions.

Each member of the Thorm clan has a massive pile of hit points, and fighting them is far from easy. However, Baldur's Gate 3 is a game all about choices and build options, and a player with a good party can defeat all three of them without landing a single blow or casting a single spell (aside from Guidance). Here's how.

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Malus Thorm

Baldur's Gate 3: How to Defeat the Thorm Family Without Combat (1)

Malus's domain is the House of Healing to the northwest of the town center. He's the chief surgeon, and he teaches the undead Sisters about the Sharran philosophy of healing.

Players can walk right up to Malus and convince him to give up immediately, but his private quarters contain a book that makes this task much easier. To find it, players should go to the north end of the House of Healing and check out the small room north of the operating theater. The doors are locked, but players can pick the lock or destroy the doors to get inside. Read the book on the table, Surgery and Physiology: A Sharran's Primer, to unlock new dialog options with Malus.

Players will enter a conversation with Malus as soon as they approach the table. Say anything except "Attack" for the first option, then choose Investigation, Religion, or Persuasion. All three are against a DC of 16, so choose the speaker's best skill.

Passing this check will lead to another set of skill rolls. Players can Persuade Malus to let the Sisters practice on him or each other by passing a DC 21 check. Reading the book replaces the first option with an Intimidation or Persuasion check against 18 instead.

Gerringothe Thorm

Baldur's Gate 3: How to Defeat the Thorm Family Without Combat (2)

The southeast building in Reithwin is the tollhouse. This is the domain of Gerringothe Thorm, the town assessor. Players will find her wandering around the upper floor of the building. Her minions are giant glowing skulls called Visages.

As the town assessor, Gerringothe will demand gold from the party for the right to cross the river. Players should give her one gold piece, at which point she'll demand all the gold the party has. Baldur's Gate 3 players can in fact give her all their gold, and they can cheat Gerringothe by putting all the party gold in the camp supply box aside from two pieces.

Choosing this route will give players the encounter experience along with a Signed Trading Visa. This acts as a spell scroll players can use to cast Flesh to Gold, a special version of the Flesh to Stone spell. However, the active party will disapprove of the protagonist for giving in to this extortion.

Instead, players can ask what they get for giving Gerringothe all their gold. They should then see a Persuasion choice to convince her to leave and a Deception choice to convince her that the speaker is her new replacement. Both options must beat a DC of 18.

Either way, players can now choose between a Deception, Persuasion, or Intimidation check, all of which are against a DC of 21. Passing one of these will cause Gerringothe to explode in a shower of gold, and all the Visages will also break. Players can now loot Gerringothe for the morning star Twist of Fortune and the tollhouse for a pile of gold and items.

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Thisobald Thorm

Baldur's Gate 3: How to Defeat the Thorm Family Without Combat (3)

The last of the lesser Thorms is Thisobald. Thisobald runs The Waning Moon, the town's distillery and tavern. The Waning Moon holds a variety of patrons and performers, but all of them have been blighted by Thisobald's deadly new brew.

When the party approaches Thisobald, the leader will take a seat at the bar and Thisobald will insist that they have a drink. Players must pick up the tankard to continue the conversation, and they can choose either to roll a Constitution saving throw or a Sleight of Hand check. The speaker must pass three of these checks to beat this encounter without fighting: the Constitution saves are against a 14, 16, and 18 (no matter how many drinks players skip with Sleight of Hand), while the Sleight of Hand check is always an 18.

If players fail a Constitution save, they'll become Drunk, which imposes a disadvantage on Dexterity and Charisma checks. If players fail a Sleight of Hand roll, Thisobald will become offended and start a fight immediately.

Between each drink, Thisobald will ask for some conversation. After the first drink, Thisobald wants to hear a story of exploration, and after the second drink, he wants to hear a story about defeating an enemy. Both checks are always Performance, and the DC is 16. Note that players must choose something the party has actually accomplished for these checks.

If players fail this check, they get a second chance to keep the conversation going. Their Performance options become impossible exploits, and the DC goes up to 18. If players fail again, combat begins.

All these checks make Thisobald the hardest Thorm to beat without fighting, but he also provides the best reward. Aside from giving the party his encounter XP, Thisobald will hint at what Ketheric Thorm's source of immortality is and where to find it. He'll then explode from having had too much of his own brew.

Once Thisobald is down, players can take the Worn Key off his body to get access to the distillery behind the bar. His Research Notes are on a table, and they explain how to make the potent purple worm poison.

Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on macOS and PC.

MORE: The Unwritten Rules of Baldur's Gate 3 Explained

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FAQs

Baldur's Gate 3: How to Defeat the Thorm Family Without Combat? ›

To do this, you will have to start the conversation with Thisobald in Baldur's Gate 3 and participate in his drinking session. Players can either drink his brew or choose to deceive him while drinking – the best choice is to feign drinking. This will require a Dexterity check each time, so using Astarion can help.

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How to beat Gerringothe Thorm without fighting? ›

Pay Her A Gold Coin

To trigger Gerringothe Thorm's death without battling her, you will need to approach her in the Tollhouse, which will automatically initiate dialogue. She will demand that you give her a gold coin. After you do this, she will insist that she needs more gold in Baldur's Gate 3.

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Can you avoid fighting Thorm BG3? ›

End Of Act Two

Starting off with an honorable mention, Ketheric Thorm, as the main boss of the second act of Baldur's Gate 3, a fight cannot be avoided.

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How to avoid fighting Thisobald Thorm? ›

There are two ways of dealing with Thisobald Thorm in Baldur's Gate 3. It's possible to avoid the fight entirely by agreeing to drink with him and succeeding multiple persuasion checks to get him to keep drinking. If you fail the checks or decide not to use that method, then you'll need to fight him instead.

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How to avoid combat in Baldur's Gate 3? ›

While not the most elegant solution, you can always run away if a fight is not mandatory. Not everyone knows of this system, but if you're far enough away from your enemy, you can press the camp button, which will end combat and spawn you safely in camp.

What happens if you give Gerringothe Thorm? ›

If you choose to give her all your gold, she will fight you anyway if your gold totals less than 6,000. If you give more than 6,000 gold, she'll give you the "Signed Trade Visa" and leave you alone. This item turns a creature into solid gold after three turns.

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How to skip Thorm fight? ›

When Apostle of Myrkul comes out of the pit, you will be officially initiating Phase 3 of the boss battle against Ketheric Thorm in Baldur's Gate 3. You can actually skip this entire part if you successfully persuade Ketheric to repent for his sins in the conversation before the fight.

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What happens if you let Astarion bite you? ›

After letting Astarion take a bite from you, you'll be afflicted with the Bloodless condition. This condition gives you a -1 penalty to Attack Rolls, Saving Throws, and Ability Checks, which is nearly every interaction you'll run into in this game. It's a heavy penalty you take for allowing Astarion some of your blood.

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Can I side with General Thorm? ›

Joining forces with Ketheric Thorm, the leader of the Absolute's army, is not possible, as the encounter ultimately goes haywire and leads to a boss fight. While there are other options to serve the goals of the enemy, no major outcome in the game revolves around serving the Absolute.

What is Thisobald Thorm weakness? ›

This means a primarily melee build might not be able to do any damage to him, so the player should think about this before even fighting him. To take him down, the player actually needs to attack him with one of these attack types: fire, ice, radiant, necrotic, or poison.

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How to damage Thorm BG3? ›

He's susceptible to spell effects like Hold Person, and he's easily knocked Prone thanks to his lackluster Dexterity stat. Team up on him, using Ice spells or Shield Bash attacks to knock him Prone, use Hold Person, and generally go all out against Ketheric.

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What's keeping Thorn from Death in BG3? ›

A death saving throw is a special type of saving throw that a Downed creature must make to avoid dying. Typically, death saving throws are only performed by player characters, companions, and certain notable non-player characters. Most enemy creatures simply die when reduced to 0 hit points.

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Can I skip combat in BG3? ›

Sometimes you can use diplomacy to evade the need to fight, while other encounters can be avoided by sneaking through unseen. Unfortunately, there is no 'skip fight' button or shortcut for the moments when you do wander into combat, so you're better off using one of the methods below if a pacifist run is what you seek.

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Can you beat Baldur's Gate without combat? ›

Unfortunately, the game is not possible to complete without combat. After Ketheric Thorm's battle, there's a battle against several lvl 9 opponents that can be cheesed with summons.