The best Baldur’s Gate 3 quests take you off the beaten path and into some of the RPG’s deeper and darker stories. One puts you in touch with a vengeful and unhinged man out for justice. Some have you systematically dismantling a villain’s family. There’s one with a pretty good weapon at the end, a murder mystery, and one that just lets you blow lots of stuff up, which is always fun.
We focused on side quests only, instead of companion stories and main quests, and we avoided big spoilers wherever possible.
Save Mayrina – The Auntie Ethel quests
Auntie Ethel’s quests span the first and third acts, and you can completely miss them if you don’t talk to the right person – the human healer in the grove – at the right time. Without spoiling much, these quests draw heavily on folklore and really mess with your mind. There’s no way to finish the first quest without hurting at least one person, and the final one culminates with one of the game’s more inventive and challenging boss fights.
Investigate Kagha
Kagha might seem like a horrible racist jerk with a grudge against anyone who isn’t part of her circle. That’s because she is. But there’s also an even darker side to her, one that you have to dig pretty deep to uncover and commit a few crimes. If you investigate her personal storage chest and follow the clues from there, you’ll uncover a conspiracy that adds a new layer to the drama at the grove and leads to a more satisfying conclusion once it all wraps up.
You have to start before rescuing Halsin, though, so bear (ha) that in mind.
Defeat the Thorms
These aren’t technically registered as quests, but finding Ketheric’s eccentric siblings is certainly a rewarding, if slightly disturbing use of your time. You’ll likely come across Malus the deranged doctor just in the normal course of events, since the House of Healing is tied with Halsin’s quest. You can convince him to delete himself if you play your cards right. Then there’s Gerringothe the toll keeper. She loves money and taxes and getting money from taxes, but if you convince her she doesn’t need to collect taxes anymore, she’ll literally blow up.
You can probably guess the theme here, and it holds true for Thisobald at the tavern as well. You can fight or ignore them in traditional ways as well, but there’s a satisfying sense of dark justice in making these embodiments of sin implode from the weight of their own evil. Or, explode in Gerringothe’s case.
Finding Ansur
I didn’t even know this quest was here until a friend casually mentioned the dragon under Wyrm’s Rock. Ansur is easy to miss depending on how you handle Wyll’s quest, and there’s a smart little puzzle blocking the way as well. Once you proceed and survive the trials that await, there’s a pretty big battle and some of the most interesting lore tidbits in Act 3 involving the Emperor and the history of Baldur’s Gate. Getting there is tough, but it’s worth the trouble.
House of Hope
Infiltrating the House of Hope has so many layers to it. You’re subverting Raphael’s deal and stealing at least one thing out from under him, having sex with a devil who has to have sex with himself (it’s a whole thing), and triggering one of the game’s best boss fights. Any more would be a big spoiler, so just make sure you visit Helsik once you reach the Lower City in Act 3.
Iron Throne
You can make a pretty big mistake and accidentally kill a lot of people before even setting foot on the Iron Throne. Even once you get there, the wrong choice means losing a few important people along the way. This tense underwater trial is the best use of turn-based mode in the game, and getting out with everyone intact and functional is probably one of the most satisfying moments in Act 3.
Save Arabella and find her parents
Arabella, the young Tiefling you (hopefully) saved from Kagha’s snake in Act 1, shows up again in Act 2. Shadows separated her from her parents, and after you save her, she asks you to find them. They’re in the House of Healing. If you’ve been there, you can probably guess what that means for them.
Arabella has some intense, rapid character growth as a result, and then Withers eventually sends her off on a quest of her own. It’s one of the game’s more emotional side quests, especially when you learn how Arabella’s parents ended up where they are, and the kind of story that makes me hope Larian has expansions or a sequel planned, however unlikely that may be.
Blood of Lathander
Any quest where you can accidentally blow up an entire region is a good quest in my books. The layers you peel back to finally reach that point and the history behind the place are a big, added bonus, too. Rosymorn Monastery was once the site of fierce battles between followers of opposing deities. Somehow, that led to the creation of a gigantic laser weapon that a bunch of eagles live in now, and if you manage to deal with the Githyanki here, finish the fight with the Inquisitor, and solve the puzzles underground, you can get a pretty handy weapon for your trouble.
If you do all this and fail at the last minute, the laser activates, and, well, it’s worth seeing at least once.
Lift the Shadow Curse
The Shadow Curse seems like this massive, immovable catastrophe that has no solution, and which makes the moment you learn you can actually reverse the damage a pretty special one. It takes a lot of effort, a mischievous child, and one very tense battle to make it happen. The whole thing embodies BG3‘s themes of redemption and pushing ahead despite all obstacles, though, and the end sequence as you leave for Act 3 is quietly beautiful.
Free the Artist
The artist in Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the NPCs who’s incredibly easy to miss unless you explore a barn in a burning village, lie a lot, and make it to the temporary hideout of a notorious mercenary band. They’re keeping an artist named Oskar as a pet, but they’re willing to sell him – to the right buyer. Sweet-talk your way through the sale, and he waltzes off to Baldur’s Gate. Things are hardly rosy or normal once you arrive in the city, though, and Oskar’s quest turns into a bizarre conflict with the paranormal that you won’t forget in a hurry.
The Mad Monk
I’m picking this one solely because it surprised me both times it kicked off. In a small corner of the Grymforge, near a powerful elemental and tucked away out of sight, is a medallion. An unhinged monk lives inside it, driven beyond distraction by Tasha’s Hideous Laughter as some kind of Sharran punishment. Assuming you don’t fall victim to the same curse, he asks you to escort him home to the city, and once you get there – “home” is a crypt under the Open Hand monastery – there’s another surprise and a cruel twist. It’s full of personality, and you get a free spell at the end.
Complete the masterwork weapon
This quest makes you feel pretty smart for finishing it, and you get a nice, practical reward for your trouble as well. You have to deduce where the weapon blueprints are and then figure out how to make it using materials in the Underdark. Once you finally have all the pieces, you can make your weapon of choice back in the Blighted Village’s blacksmith forge. It might not be one of the best BG3 weapons, but it’s pretty darn good.
Felogyr’s Fireworks
This one deserves a spot just for how it unfolds. When you arrive in Rivington outside Wyrm’s Rock, you stumble on an odd scene – a man arguing with people seeking shelter. Depending on how you handle the situation, you end up in his trap-filled basement and uncover a plot to stuff teddy bears with bombs – bears being donated to a children’s charity. All this links back to a political terror group whose activities consist of sowing chaos with exploding teddies and selling illegal arms, and the final confrontation invariably ends with a lot of explosions.
Punish the Wicked
This is an intense little quest that digs into the realities of the region under Ketheric’s and Shar’s rule. A rather unsettling man asks for your help punishing a dead woman – normal, everyday stuff in Baldur’s Gate 3 land. He asks you to fetch a diary in Thisobald Thorm’s tavern where the proof of this woman’s evil lies. It’s a tale of Dark Justiciars, fear, pressure, and authoritarian rule that does so much to expand Act 2’s backstory. You can also turn the tables on He Who Was at the end, if you decide he’s out of line.
It’s a bit strange that such a memorable character never shows up again, but hey, that’s how life works too sometimes.
Solving Act 3’s murders
Act 3’s murder mystery encompasses several quests and turns into a bit of a gruesome thriller at a few points. What starts as a quirky murder mystery turns into something rather darker before ending in a twisted parade of death and depravity as you infiltrate the ranks of the Bhaalists. The side stories along the way are some of the more memorable – saving a philanthropist from a gruesome death, piecing together the culprit’s identity, and figuring out how they operate – and it’s an excellent window into the city’s psyche, the anxiety that permeates there by the time you arrive.
There’s also a flying elephant detective, which is almost better than all the other stuff combined.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
