In Baldur’s Gate 3, the Gauntlet of Shar, you’re faced with trial after trial of both enemies and puzzles as you attempt to find the Nightsong. When you finally see a non-hostile Displacer Beast, you might be tempted to follow it as it leads you deeper into the gauntlet. Don’t; it’s leading you into an ambush.
The displacer beast works for Yurgir the Orthon, a devil Raphael will warn you about before entering the Thorm mausoleum. Yurgir leads a host of Merregons behind him, lesser devils armed with magic weapons, and he has a host of tricks up his own arsenal. A fight with him starts with you at a huge disadvantage.
Updated by Jeff Brooks on October 14, 2023: This guide has been updated to include new links throughout to help guide readers to relevant and valuable content to enhance their Baldur’s Gate 3 experience.
Yurgir Fight Preparations
As a devil, Yurgir is immune to fire and poison. He also resists non-magical physical damage and cold damage, so be sure all of your weapons are magical, and make sure you prepare spells that can deal full damage. AoEs will be helpful since Yurgir and his followers start the fight packed together.
Defensively, Orthon attacks using a lot of fire and poison damage, so elixirs providing resistance to those damage types will be a boon. Since devils have magic resistance, smokepowder bombs are another good way to deal damage to the enemy group — buy a few if you can find them. Lastly, have a plan to deal with Invisibility. Yurgir will often end his turn by going invisible, but you can counter this. The See Invisibility spell will negate it outright while Hunter’s Mark will keep track of him when he does go invisible.
How To Talk Your Way Out Of The Fight
Yurgir doesn’t attack you immediately. Instead, you can have a conversation with the devil, and through this conversation, you can make the fight easier — or avoid it altogether. Yurgir is trapped in the gauntlet by a deal with Raphael, and you can get him to share the terms of the pact. Once you learn that, and if you pass some checks, you can persuade Yurgir to kill his Merregons, then his Displacer Beast, then himself. Convincing him to destroy the Merregons is easy, but his Displacer Beast and himself are much higher rolls, and if you fail, the fight begins.
How To Beat Yurgir The Orthon
Yurgir and his followers start the combat on higher ground. If the Merregons are alive, your first task is to thin their numbers before they shoot you to death. Hit them with large AoEs like Glyph of Warding, so you can choose damage they won’t resist. Positioning is also key here; try to find cover from where Yurgir and his allies can see you.
You can move under their platform to force them to reposition.
The main problem is dealing with Yurgir. He throws a spread of bombs at your party that deal massive damage and force you to leave the blast radius and move into the open. These bombs, however, are the key to winning this fight. Karlach can tell you in an earlier dialogue that Orthons don’t like having their bombs thrown back at them, and that trick works wonders here.
Yurgir doesn’t resist the damage from his own bombs, and they have a large explosion radius. High Strength characters can throw them back up on the ledge where Yurgir is to deal massive damage to clusters of enemies all at once. Since Yurgir ends his turn by going invisible, these bombs are great for dragging him out of it. Employ this trick while continuing to throw out your own AoE attacks, and have a melee party member hold down the Displacer Beast to keep it off your casters. You can win by having the devil be his own demise.