You might encounter the House of Healing in Baldur’s Gate 3, and find Malus Thorm, busy working on a patient in his care. The doctor is a potential boss you can fight before making your way to Moonrise Tower, but how you fight him is up to you.
There are two ways that you can go about defeating him. One is by talking to him, and outplaying his words through a series of precise Skill Checks, or you can take him on in a head-on-head encounter. The choice is yours. Here’s what you need to know about how to beat Malus Thorm in Baldur’s Gate 3.
All Methods to Beat Malus Thorm in Baldur’s Gate 3
Like the Gerringothe Throm and the Thisobald Thorm battles in Baldur’s Gate 3, there is an alternative to taking on Malus in a straight fight. Rather than attacking him, there’s the option to engage him in an array of Religion and Persuasion Skill Checks in dialogue. You’ll need to succeed against Thisobald to overcome these checks.
The first choice you’ll want to make is a Religion check, and “Recall what you know of Shar’s teachings.” After you’ve done this, you can share that, “Your subject is tainted. Shar’s Succour must only be granted to the willing.” Malus will agree with you, and ask how to proceed. There are several choices for this Baldur’s Gate 3 conversation, and I found the best to be, “Why not have them hone their skills on each other?” This is a Persuasion Skill Check.
If you succeed in this Skill Check roll, the nurses will be forced to fight one another. They will fight and defeat each other, making Malus Thorm a much easier target for a potential boss battle. However, before he attacks you, there should be a final option. Because I was using Wyll, I had one based on his Sorcerer class, a Deception Skill Check. This option will vary for the class you’re playing, but it will be a way to convince Malus Thorm to turn his blades himself, ending the encounter without a fight.
These rolls did take some time for me to get. I had to be careful with how I worded everything, and I used the Spell Friendship to ensure I had Advantage on the final roll. Thankfully, this completed the encounter without combat. However, there’s a good chance you might have to fight Malus in a direct battle with your Baldur’s Gate 3 party.
How to Defeat Malus Thorm in Baldur’s Gate 3
If you choose to fight against Malus Thorm, there are a few things you’ll want to know. The first thing is that he’s going to be resistant to Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning, and Fire damage. My party primarily used this type of damage, which made this fight tough, but it was not impossible Thankfully, I had already forced Malus to dispatch his nurses before this fight started, which made it much easier. Even if your Baldur’s Gate 3 party is well-equipped, this fight is much more difficult if you can’t convince Malus to eliminate his nurses.
In addition to the resistances, Malus will always have Advantage when performing a Saving Throw on anything Magic-related. This makes him a particularly difficult fight, so I recommend you talk with him to eliminate his nurses before your Baldur’s Gate 3 team fights him.
Throughout the encounter, Malus will attempt to revive his nurses. This occurs even if you remove them from the start of the fight, so you can expect to still battle them, but typically only one shows up. You can also stop Malus from reviving them if you have a character in your Baldur’s Gate 3 party that knows Counterspell.
If the Nurses do return to the fight, they won’t have too much health. However, they can provide medical instruments to Malus during this fight, aiding him. The instruments he receives may vary throughout this Baldur’s Gate 3 fight. For example, he might get the Instrument of Loss: Bonesaw, and he uses this attack against one of your party members, or he might use a Needle where he can heal himself. You’ll want to pay attention to what he’s using, and what nurse has the Surgeon’s Chosen buff.
The encounter should be like this the entire fight with Malus Thorm. He doesn’t do too many spells, but when he reaches 40% health, he’ll have the chance to use Multiattack against your party, and he becomes much more dangerous.
Best Way to Beat Malus Thorm in Baldur’s Gate 3
When it comes to fighting Malus Thorm, the key to this Baldur’s Gate 3 encounter is getting rid of the nurses. Malus Thorm is not too difficult of a battle, but the nurses can quickly overwhelm your team. I found them to be the best and most difficult to handle, especially because they’d be buffing Malus during the fight, or distracting my party from focusing all of their attacks away from Malus.
However, if you can at least eliminate the nurses before the fight starts, or you can take your way into convincing Malus Throm to defeat himself, this should be much easier compared to the other Thorm fights in Baldur’s Gate 3.
