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
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.
If players convince Malus to let the Sisters practice on him, they'll kill Malus and players will get the XP for winning the encounter. They'll also get Malus's gear, which includes the Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet, a Supply Pack, and a Battered Lute. The lute is a quest item Baldur's Gate 3 players will need to wake up Art Cullagh.
If players convince Malus to let the Sisters practice on each other, they'll kill each other and make the fight against Malus easier. Players also get one last chance to roll Deception to beat a DC 21 so that Malus will also end his own life.
Gerringothe Thorm
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
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.
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