In Act One of Baldur’s Gate 3, there is a fluffy white dog named Scratch that you stumble upon just outside the Blighted Village and near the Risen Road. You can recruit this dog as a Camp Follower, but it is a bit challenging. Here’s how to get Scratch in your camp in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Scratch the dog’s location in BG3
Scratch will be found in the Forest, northwest of the owlbear nest at the coordinates X: 69 Y: 476. He will be pacing around the bloody corpse of his master who’s known as Gomwick the messenger. You can use a Potion of Animal Speaking to speak with Scratch.
The easiest way to get a Potion of Animal Speaking is the vendor, Arron, located in Druid’s Grove.
By speaking with him you’ll learn that Scratch is in denial of his owner’s passing and will not hear any one else’s opinions on the matter, even if its the truth.
How to recruit Scratch the dog in BG3
There are a couple of ways to get Scratch to join you, but the key is to avoid telling him the truth of his master. He is grieving the loss of his owner, and you need to make it clear to him that you would like him to join you. At the same time, it’s of the utmost importance that you remain respectful of his fallen master, or he will turn hostile.
Choose to be kind to him and use a Perception check to see his name on his collar. Calling him by his name helps you gain his trust. He won’t want to leave his master during this interaction, so just be kind to him, maybe offer some pets, and let him know to follow your scent and meet up with your camp if his owner doesn’t wake up.
How to get Scratch in Baldur’s Gate 3 without Animal Speaking Potion
To recruit Scratch without animal speaking, you use an Animal Handling check to show that you mean no harm. You can use the same Perception check to call him by his name and gain his trust. You’ll later get the option to “motion him to follow you” and “Hold out your hand so he can follow your scent to camp.”
After a long rest or two, Scratch will appear at your camp, and you can pet him. After a few long rests, Scratch will want to get your attention and have a ball in his mouth. You can take that ball and throw it across camp. Any time you throw the ball in camp, Scratch will pick it up and put it back in your inventory.
Once you leave camp, you can summon Scratch as a pet companion at any time by using your action bar or clicking the ball in your inventory.
Can Scratch permanently die in BG3?
Once Scratch is a part of your BG3 camp, he will not permanently die if you summon him. I was extraordinarily anxious about trying to summon him out in the wild because I didn’t want him to ever get harmed, but I had one of our other Dot Esports writers test it out just to make sure we had the all-clear—and yes, we do.
If Scratch is killed in combat out in the wild, he can still be resummoned later on. With a relatively low health bar, this good boy isn’t exactly combat-ready, so I’d not be putting him into harm’s way too much if you can avoid it.
Now that you know how to get Scratch in Baldur’s Gate 3, all you need to worry about is making sure he knows that he’s loved.
