Baldur’s Gate 3 follows the same fundamentals of good boss fights that every Dungeon Master knows. Each encounter is loaded with great storytelling, environmental hazards, unique abilities, and multiple potential outcomes. They’re the hallmarks that players look forward to the most on subsequent playthroughs.
Act 2 is loaded with some of the game’s creepiest and most sinister bosses, perfectly suited for the Shadow-Cursed Lands setting. Each of them leans heavily into various horror elements, typically involving some form of necromancy or shadow magic. Defeating these undead threats is always empowering, but whether players do so by fighting smarter or harder is up to them.
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11 He Who Was
His Gloves Aren't Worth the Rats They're Made From
To his credit, He Who Was is an interesting character. His sidequest in The Gauntlet of Shar is packed with creepy mystery, beginning with some mysterious talking rats. Many players end up siding with Madeline over him, but other than moral reasons, there’s not much reason to do so. He Who Was commits the cardinal sin of boss fights: bad loot.
If nothing else, his questline is worth it just for the experience, but its finale doesn’t really stick the landing.
10 Fist Marcus
The Fist Who Flew Too Close To The Sun
The corruption of the Shadow-Cursed Lands corrupts everything, even the most stalwart of heroes. That’s what happened to Marcus, the Flaming Fist who betrayed his allies for a pair of wings. His assault on the Last Light Inn can either end with his defeat or his successful kidnapping of Isobel, the Inn’s Selunite protector. With everything that's at stake with this battle, its important for players to come prepared.
Marcus’s betrayal might have hit a lot harder if he’d been slightly tougher to beat. His newfound flight doesn’t give him much of an advantage indoors. The real challenge in preventing allies and civilians from becoming casualties in the meantime.
9 Kar'niss
Rated "Not Safe for Arachnophobics"
Like Wyll said, “There is no boot big enough.” This chittering, babbling drider immediately sets the tone for the Shadow-Cursd Lands. Creepy doesn’t begin to describe him, with his massive spider legs and the rash of eyeballs along his face.
What makes Kar’niss a doozy to fight is his reliance on the “Sanctuary” spell, forcing players to either rely on their AOE attacks or switch focus to the other caravan members. Thankfully, they have the Harpers to back them up, allowing for a neat segue into their arrival at the Last Light Inn. Alternatively, players can convince Kar'niss to hand over the lantern and avoid a fight all together.
8 Inquisitor of Vlaakith
Everybody Dreads the Githyanki Inquisition
After defying Vlaakith’s orders to kill the Dream Visitor, players knew they’d have a big storm coming. Marked as the Lich Queen’s enemies, they’ll need to fight their way out of Crèche Y’lleck somehow. Worse still, standing right outside the portal is one of Vlaakith’s watchdogs, Inquisitor C’h’rai W’wargaz.
The sheer dread of the situation is well-earned. The Inquisitor packs a whollop, and his buff abilities ensure that his allies do, as well. His constant parrying also makes it difficult to land a hit on him. Vlaakith sure knows how to pick them.
7 Balthazar
It's Better Not To Ask Him How He Got Those Scars
Balthazar is everything gamers expect from a classic fight against a creepy necromancer. Sinister design? Check. An arsenal of dark magic? Check. The power to raise scores of undead? Obviously check.
There are a number of fun ways to approach this battle. The easiest approach is to either Counterspell or Silence him before he can raise his undead allies. Alternatively, players also enjoy Polymorphing him into a sheep and shoving him down the nearby chasm. After all, a necromancer without his minions is just a wizard with a death-metal aesthetic.
6 Thisobald Thorm
Better Settle This One Over A Pint, Or Else
Sharing a drink with the bartender of Reithwin is a dangerous game, but it sure is fun either way. If players fail to stomach his lethal concoctions, they’ll be thrown into a battle with a bloated juggernaut who is resistant to almost every form of damage.
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The key to defeating Thisobald is knowing when to strike. After a few turns, he’ll black out from his constant drinking, rendering him vulnerable to attack. Keep the cycle going, and players can easily kick Thisobald while he’s down. Alternatively, you can avoid the fight just by passing enough checks when you talk to him.
5 Yurgir
Keep Talking, Or Else Everyone Explodes
Players enter the Gauntlet of Shar with a mission: to slay the Orthon Yurgir so he may return to the devil Raphael. The easier solution is to convince Yurgir to return, literally by his own hand. Failing that and the ensuing battle is one of the toughest in Act 2.
It’s not hard to tell why Raphael wanted this mountain of a demon. His bombs do massive damage. He’s resistant to fire and non-magical attacks. And his minions are everywhere. Defeating him isn’t easy, but no glorious victory ever is.
4 Gerringothe Thorm
An Interesting Use of Taxpayer's Gold
This tollmaster is corrupt in more ways than one. Years of bribery and embezzlement, coupled with the shadow curse, have turned Gerringothe Thorm into an empty golden shell of her former self.
Failing to talk her down results in a truly unique fight. The more gold the player has, the harder she hits. And for someone who looks like she’s literally dipped in gold, she moves surprisingly quickly. Players will need to think creatively if they want to quickly part this fool from her money.
3 Malus Thorm
"Malpractice" Or "Malicious Practice" - Either One Works Here
The House of Healing is a masterclass on combining tragedy with medical horror. What was once a bastion of care and hospitality became a festering blight on the town. Symptoms included creepy undead nurses, and lying at the heart of this plague lay one sad*stic surgeon.
Malus Thorm earned his medical degree in torturing his patients, and now he’s passing on his knowledge to his hospital staff. Players can either fight them head-on or convince them to give in to their sad*stic nature on each other. Whatever made Malus the way he is, it seems to be terminal.
2 Ketheric Thorm
The Undead General Lives Up To The Hype
Myrkul’s Chosen can be felt all throughout Act 2. Everything had led up to this climactic battle at the top of Moonrise Towers, and it’s everything gamers could have hoped for. Ketheric Thorm’s fight begins with an epic monologue, performed to perfection by J.K. Simmons, and the fight that follows proves his bite is worse than his bark.
Both rounds against Ketheric are brutal. He’s a necromantic powerhouse that takes every the player’s got to take down. But when he finally goes down, it quickly becomes apparent that he’s not down and out yet.
1 The Apostle of Myrkul
The Lord of Bones, the Haunt of Mausoleums, The God of Dust and Dusk
Just as Ketheric meets his final defeat, he utters one last prayer to Myrkul, the god of death. Rising from the sickly green pit comes a gigantic skeletal amalgamation armed with a Reaper’s Scythe and “Finger of Death.”
Myrkul’s Avatar is a terrifying opponent, made all the worse by the fact that the party is already weakened from their fight with Ketheric. It’s a fight to the death against Death itself, with all the challenge that a literal god can muster. If players can manage to defeat him, they will gain some great loot for their efforts.
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Baldur's Gate 3
RPG
- Platform(s)
- PC , macOS , PS5 , Xbox Series X
- Released
- August 3, 2023
- Publisher(s)
- Larian Studios
