Should You Save or Kill Yurgir in Baldur's Gate 3?
Though Yurgir is not the most kind character in Baldur's Gate 3, his choice to be killed still causes inner struggle. From minute word decisions to life-or-death decisions, every choice Baldur's Gate 3 makes is important. Though the game also has plenty of consequences and often the most small ones haunt the party later in the campaign, careful navigation can often lead to interesting rewards.
Baldur's Gate 3: Yurgir's Part
Though he mostly appears in the quest "Kill Raphael's Old Enemy," Yurgir also contributes to other quests. Usually limited to combat, he is an orthon, a giant, muscular devil of a sort. To the party's dismay, Raphael, the quest-giver, shows up often throughout the game. Players may have already come across him if he offered to remove their illithid tadpole or if they have regularly refused to assist Gale in Baldur's Gate 3. He is a cambion that loves making unfair deals.
Should You Kill Yurgir in Baldur's Gate 3?
Yurgir in Baldur's Gate 3 is ultimately not really worth sparing unless the player character is quite forgiving. Yurgir is a demon rather than a gentle giant; he is not a paragon of good. Killing him has no major repercussions; but, letting him live does. Dealing with Yurgir involves Astarion, who is more eager to work with Raphael than anybody else in the party. Raphael might be the secret to learning more about the enigmatic symbols etched into Astarion's back.
Unsurprisingly, letting Yurgir live will disturb Raphael and Astarion as well as stop the party from learning the actual meaning of the runes on Astarion's back. Although it doesn't totally stop Astarion's quest line from being completed, it can seriously affect his relationship with the character and compromise that romance option in Baldur's Gate 3. Any character relationship doesn't depend on sparing Yurgir, thus stressing another party member over Astarion won't make any difference.
Yurgir's Desperate Situation and the Moral Conundrum
One can appreciate why some parties could be inclined to help Yurgir. Making his own deal with Raphael in Baldur's Gate 3, the orthon has been assigned to kill all the Dark Justiciars at the Gauntlet Of Shar in return for his freedom. With only one Justiciar left, he has made good progress; but, he is trapped until he finds the last one. He thus swears retribution against Raphael, which is why the cambion wants him gone.
Given the dire circumstances, some characters would naturally wish to assist him. Though not the most logical decision, saving Yurgir is the most clearly merciful one even if it runs the danger of Raphael's wrath. Though Yurgir treats the Tav kindly, he is among the most morally repugnant characters in the game. From the dark secret of his bond with the displacer beast Nessa to his history of horrific violence for his personal entertainment, paying attention and succeeding on some rolls exposes disturbing facts about Yurgir.
Control Yurgir In Baldur's Gate 3
The party will face Yurgir personally after negotiating most of the dungeon and most likely solved all the puzzles around the Gauntlet Of Shar in Baldur's Gate 3. From the start of the contact, he is enraged and will be ready for a fight. Choosing the "attack" option is the easiest approach to start a fight; nevertheless, passing a series of dialogue checks can help to simplify the fight or perhaps avoid it completely.
Should the Baldur's Gate 3 party ask for specifics on Yurgir's contract, he will present it for them. An Insight check starts a line of inquiry at the end of which the player character can note that Raphael's terms only apply as long as Yurgir has an audience. That relates to his mergon minions; pass a 16 difficulty class (DC) Charisma check, and he will kill them. After learning Yurgir's darkest secrets, a 21 DC Charisma check can persuade him to kill the displacer beast Nessa—which would seem cruel but might perhaps be merciful.
Once Yurgir has everyone else on the board eliminated, there is a dialogue option to persuade him that only death will release him. Yurgir will commit suicide once a final 21 DC Charisma check is passed. Should this check go through, a difficult encounter can be completely avoided, freeing the party to go forward free from incident and notify Raphael of success.
Pressing Yurgir on the topic in conversation is absolutely vital since the secret to convincing him to follow this bloody road is knowing the nature of his contract. Understanding its nature can mean a successful Insight check before any of the Charisma choices since the character addressing Yurgir must be able to discover the secret themselves. Though the difficulty of accepting the consequences may be more satisfying, anyone who would want to save scum in Baldur's Gate 3 should save at several points in the conversation for a safety net.
Engaging Yurgir In Baldur's Gate 3
Ignoring any of these checks will cause Yurgir to turn instantly and permanently hostile. Though the player character has low Charisma, it can occasionally be worth a try; passing just one of these checks will make the next fight, one of the toughest in Baldur's Gate 3, quite easy. If the chance presents itself before the dialogue begins, it is thus ideal to change to a character with more charisma. Though it's possible to assign other party members higher Charisma depending on their level, Gale is usually the best choice among Origin characters for this chore.
Opening the fight with crossbow bolts from an elevated position, Yurgir gains extra bonus for his attack rolls. He can avoid landing his shots by hiding under the ledge by the door, so drawing him out eventually. He takes time to reach there, thus a few free turns for ranged attackers to get a leg up are needed.
Yurgir dumps bombs on the celebration as well. These can, however, be thrown back to drastically cut his HP. The merregons will try to extinguish braziers since in Baldur's Gate 3 darkness results in ranged attacks a disadvantage. If they try, kill them; else, throwables or spells will help you to relight the flames once they have been extinguished.
Skipping the conversational approach with Yurgir could have one advantage: it allows one to arrange the fight better. Anyone dead set on combat should try to approach with stealth instead since letting him have the high ground or get the jump in any manner throws away some possible advantages. With a standard jump close by, you could get up on the platform he uses to your advantage and sneak the party up behind to maybe use something like thunderwave to possibly fling him off and flip the odds ahead of the fight.
How To Save Yurgir In Baldur's Gate 3
Should the party choose to save Yurgir in Baldur's Gate 3 instead of attacking him, they will have to follow a set protocol. He will allow the party assist him search for his last target for a 16 DC Charisma check. The last Dark Justiciar can be located west of the dungeon's central room, where a cragged rock gives the party access to descend to lesser levels. Towards the bottom will be a book called One Becomes Many. Reading it will create a rat; killing the rat will cause a swarm.
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. All except one of the rats will eventually go down; that last rat will then expose itself as the last Dark Justiciar. The last Justiciar is a far simpler enemy than Yurgir; his sleep spell is the only thing the party really has to be alert for. At least momentarily, he will be released from Yurgir and, to Astarion and Raphael's dismay.
The Final destiny of Yurgir
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.
