Baldur’s Gate 3 is a long, involved game that takes you through three distinct acts leading to a climactic finale.
Most players have taken over a hundred hours to finish up a full run in its entirety and that has led to players discovering a lot about the game that was not apparent at first. These moments have either been so brilliant or so horrific that they left them speechless.
With so many remarkable moments to choose from in Baldur’s Gate 3, we have picked out 10 moments in the game that left us in awe of what we were watching. These moments will be listed chronologically, in the order of when we encountered them in the story.
Before we begin, you should know that all of these events will count as spoilers to the main story, so we recommend going through the list if you are comfortable with that information.
The eye surgeries
The first entry on this list probably caught a lot of people off guard when it first happened. While you traverse through the first act, you encounter Volo in the Druid Grove. Familiarizing yourself with him here will then lead you to meet him again in the Goblin Camp, in less than fortunate circumstances. Saving him from the Goblins will lead to him joining your camp.
A few long rests later, Volo will talk about how he has come up with a way to remove the Mind Flayer parasite from your brain. If you agree to his proposal, he will perform a crude eye surgery on you to remove the parasite from your brain. Expectedly, this surgery does fail and your character will end up losing their eye.
The whole surgery is quite a sight to behold and a sign of what could go wrong very quickly if you aren’t careful. And this isn’t the only time it happens. All we’re going to say is beware of Auntie Ethel.
The Strange Ox moment
While you explore the Druid Grove early into the first act, you will most likely be embroiled in the preparations for the battle that is to come between the Druids and the Goblins. In all of this chaos, it might be easy to miss the animals in this area. If you possess a way to speak with animals, using either the “Speak with Animals” spell or a Potion of Animal Speaking, interact with a certain ox here.
This one ox is referred to as the Strange Ox and will speak differently compared to the other oxen in the Druid Grove. At first, he will be quite forthcoming but if you keep pressuring him about his identity, he will close himself off and moo at you instead.
Once the Druid Grove battle is over, you will encounter the Strange Ox once again in the Last Light Inn. The surprising moment here is that he will transform into a different creature and you will have to fight him. Taking him down yields some good rewards, so we recommend pursuing this action.
The Grymforge encounter
In the middle of acts one and two, you will have to either traverse through the Mountain Pass or the Underdark to get to the Shadow-Cursed Lands. If you choose the Underdark, you will inevitably come across the Grymforge during your travels. This section of the Underdark contains the Adamantine Forge and a group of Duergar looking to get there.
Once you resolve the conflict and get to the Adamantine Forge itself, you prepare your weapon mold and wait for its creation. This is when you awaken Grym, the giant golem protector of the forge. The first time you see this hulking monstrosity with a massive health pool walking towards you with lava flowing all over is quite a stunning moment.
Taking this beast down is no easy feat either. We recommend coming here when you are around level eight to stand a better chance of defeating the golem.
The Rise of the Nightsong
Throughout the first two acts, you will pick up a lot of references to the Nightsong, a concept whose nature most people in the world of Baldur’s Gate 3 are unsure of. Is the Nightsong a person or a thing? When you get to the second act, you learn that the Nightsong is in fact, a living being. We can take it one step further and say that the Nightsong is a demigod.
When you get to the heart of Ketheric Thorm’s powers, a shocking scene awaits you. Towards the end of the Gauntlet of Shar, you see that the Nightsong is imprisoned in chains, supplying power to the general. The decision here becomes sketchy once Shadowheart gets involved and it might result in the death of the Nightsong if you don’t play your cards right.
If the Nightsong does survive, she will introduce herself as Dame Aylin, a daughter of Selune, and vow to help you in your fight going forward. Every action she takes in battle against Ketheric is a sight to behold and is something you need to experience as a player.
The Disciple of Myrkul’s arrival
Speaking of the Nightsong’s battle with Ketheric Thorm, there is a certain scene towards the end of act two that is quite an extraordinary sight. When Ketheric’s meeting with Orin and Gortash ends, you will engage the general in battle inside the Mind Flayer spawning ground. As the battle progresses, Ketheric reveals his true power as the Disciple of Myrkul while he transforms.
What happens next is quite a terrifying sight as the true power of the god of death is on full display. The battle only ramps up from here and Dame Aylin is a godsend if you can get to her quick enough. Don’t be too taken aback by his monstrous appearance because the Disciple of Myrkul is definitely mortal and taking him down is possible with enough patience.
The Dream Visitor’s true identity
After the fall of Ketheric Thorm, the second act comes to a close. Before Act Three officially begins, your guardian, the Dream Visitor, shows up during your dreams while you’re asleep in camp. Talking to the Dream Visitor enough will eventually reveal that he is a Mind Flayer who has broken free from the control of the hivemind that the Elder Brain possesses.
This moment is one of the more shocking moments since it comes out of nowhere and catches you by surprise. After the shock of the initial reveal, you can converse with the Mind Flayer and he will reveal himself to be “The Emperor,” a powerful elder Mind Flayer that has been alive for hundreds of years.
But what comes after this might actually leave you speechless.
The romance scene with the Emperor
Baldur’s Gate 3 truly lets you romance every type of character in the game, including Mind Flayers. The more time you spend with the Emperor in the Astral Plane, the more he will open up to you about his life as a human and his childhood growing up. Eventually, he feels something akin to human feelings and wishes to display it to you.
What comes next is a somewhat strange romantic dalliance with the Emperor, one which will catch fans off-guard if they didn’t see it coming. And most of us didn’t. Amid the awkwardness of the romance, there is a subtle beauty to it, showcasing that Mind Flayers do experience human emotions and can form genuine bonds.
The Emperor’s true identity
Once you truly embrace the Emperor for who he is, it is time to actually learn about who he is. Or rather, who he was before turning into a Mind Flayer. During the act three quest, given to you by Grand Duke Ravengard, which tasks you to find the Ancient Dragon Ansur, you come across the remains of the dragon that can be interacted with.
Eventually, Ansur will reanimate and reveal that the Emperor is what became of the legendary Balduran, the founder of Baldur’s Gate. Ansur will also reveal that Balduran killed him after the two had an eventual falling out with each other. The layers of plot twists stemming from the original Baldur’s Gate connecting to Baldur’s Gate 3 in grand fashion did leave us speechless.
The multiple endings
According to Larian Studios, there exists over 17,000 ending variations in Baldur’s Gate 3. While that fact itself is unfathomable, realistically most players will end up experiencing one of five or six different endings. With as many variables as Larian Studios have placed into different choices throughout the story of the three acts of Baldur’s Gate 3, the devs almost ensure that no two endings will be the same.
These variations carry over to the final decision at the end of the game as well. Depending on your choices, you can:
- Turn into a Mind Flayer yourself or let Karlach do it.
- Destroy the Netherbrain and save the world from the Mind Flayer parasites.
- Turn your back on everyone at the very end, stab your allies, and take control of the Netherbrain.
These are just some of the choices that you might encounter towards the end and we can admit that some of them are more shocking than others.
The one scene that everyone knows about
The final entry on this list is one that everybody knows about, which includes people who haven’t played the game. In fact, this one scene was probably the reason why some players didn’t want to play Baldur’s Gate 3 while others flocked to the game to sate their curiosity. We are, of course, talking about the infamous bear romance scene between Astarion and Halsin.
Just a few days before the official launch of Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios released a steamy romance scene between two of the in-game characters. This scene was well-received by some players calling it a breath of fresh air, while others strongly disagreed. Regardless of which side of the fence you lean on, there is no denying that watching it for the first time would leave you speechless.
Published: Oct 25, 2023 03:22 am