Should You Kill Isobel As The Dark Urge In Baldur’s Gate 3?

So you’re playing Baldur’s Gate 3, and you’ve decided to make a murderous, morally conflicted Dark Urge Origin Character. You’ll be used to the more unhinged dialogue options and intimately aware of how different this playthrough is to other, regular playthroughs – that Bard didn’t stand a chance – but Act 2 presents the first actual moral quandary that the Dark Urge faces.

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After meeting (and saving) Isobel at the Last Light Inn, a nighttime meeting with your murderous butler, Sceleritas, presents you with a certain quest: kill the kindly Cleric. You’re promised a powerful reward in return for the completion of this task, but is it worth it?

Updated November 23, 2023: We’ve updated this guide to include some details on acquiring the reward for this quest in an alternative fashion, and we’ve tidied up the guide to boot!

Killing Isobel: An Overview

So if you’re here, you’re probably wondering exactly what will happen if you do actually happen to go through with Sceleritas’s quest and kill Isobel. She obviously doesn’t deserve the mindless violence, and it’s hinted that some very bad things will happen upon her death.

First, an overview of what actually happens in the process of killing Isobel:

• A potential conversation with the Cleric in which you admit to your urges.
• Your good-aligned characters will gain some disapproval, and most will have a conversation with you about your actions when you next camp.
• A fight against Isobel, though not a particularly difficult one.
• If she’s alive, a confrontation with Jaheira.
• The fall of the Last Light Inn, which includes a large-scale fight.
• A second confrontation with Jaheira (if she survives the first two fights) with options based on your previous conversation.

These actions and reactions have some deeper knock-on effects that you’ll want to be aware of, notably similar to those that occur if she falls in the battle against the rogue Fist:

• Dammon will turn undead and must be put down. This means you cannot progress further in Karlach’s quest – make sure you’ve upgraded Karlach’s engine twice, if you care about this progress.
• Art Cullagh will die. This doesn’t prevent you from taking on Thorm or acquiring information about Thaniel (you can talk to him using Speak With Dead), but it means you miss out on some lore and quest progress.
• Isobel will be present at Act 2’s final battle, potentially making it harder (but not really, as she’s not much of a threat).

And what about your reward? We’ll go into detail at the end of the guide, but to spoil it quickly here: for killing Isobel and dealing with the fallout, you’ll be rewarded with a unique shapeshifting power that turns you into a bloodthirsty monstrosity.

It is possible to acquire this shapeshifting reward without murdering Isobel, but it will require a different sacrifice. Scroll down to the end of this guide to find out what this is.

How To Kill Isobel

Once you’ve obtained the quest to kill Isobel, the first stage of the quest is as easy as traveling back to Last Light Inn and provoking her into a battle. You can either do this through a dialogue or simply by attacking her – both options will work; as long as Isobel dies.

Notably, attacking Isobel will also draw the ire of the Harpers and Fists who witness the fight – including Jaheira. While it’s possible to keep the battle stealthy and out of sight, you don’t need to. Isobel doesn’t have much health and the battle will end as soon as she dies, with the quest progressing to the next stage instantly.

Even if Jaheira joins the battle against you, it’s not a guarantee that she will turn on you in the next stage of the quest.

Isobel is quite a frail combatant. While she can roll highly and deal a lot of damage with her Guiding Bolt spell, it’s more than possible to finish her off before she gets a second turn.

With such low AC, a few characters making concentrated attacks directed at her will down her quickly. Even moreso if your martial characters have reached Level 5 and obtained their Extra Attacks.

Ideally, you’ll be able to ignore every other combatant in this fight and burst Isobel down as soon as possible. Remember, the battle ends as soon as she dies, and you’re automatically relocated as part of the ensuing cutscene, so you should not worry about setting up the next fight.

The Confrontation With Jaheira

When Isobel dies, a cutscene will play in which Jaheira confronts you (if she’s alive). She’s instantly suspicious of you, but you have some options to deal with this.

If you manage to convince Jaheira that you were not the responsible party, the next post-battle conversation with her will give you the chance to temporarily recruit her to your campsite. If you fail (or simply admit to your actions), the conversation is destined to go poorly.

No matter how the conversation went, Jaheira will be an ally in the next fight against the turned undead of Last Light Inn.

The Fall Of Last Light Inn

Regardless of how you deal with Jaheira, the protective shield around Last Light Inn will fall, and you’ll be thrust into a battle against a horde of undead Harpers who succumbed to the curse.

In total, you’ll be fighting the following:

• 16 Level 6 Harpers
• One Level 6 Fist
• Quartermaster Talli
• Dammon

While there are a lot of enemies to face in this fight, none of them are all that threatening. Treat this encounter as a marathon rather than a sprint – conserve your resources. This is especially important as more enemies will join the fight once you’ve felled enough of the original pack.

As your enemies are all Undead, you should have some very powerful tools to deal with them if you have a Cleric or Paladin with you – Shadowheart is a brilliant companion to bring along to the fight. Turn Undead and a Radiant-elemental Spirit Guardians spell will work wonders.

Jaheira will be fighting alongside you for this fight, and will likely use Ice Storm early on. If she targets it well, she’ll damage to a huge chunk of the enemy horde and also create a large patch of ice that will knock them Prone when they walk over it. Jaheira isn’t shy about targeting your party members with this spell, so be wary.

Once she’s cast Ice Storm, her likely strategy will be to shapeshift into a Panther and start knocking out individual Harpers.

After you’ve dealt with a good chunk of the enemy horde, they will be joined by three Shadow Creepers. These only have eight hitpoints and go down easily. Make them your priority target, though, as they have an annoying habit of traveling around the battlefield quickly and knocking your party members Prone.

After beating yet more foes, you’ll again be beset by more enemies. This time, two Shadow Creepers and two Giant Shadow Creepers. These have more hit points and are far more threatening than their smaller brethren, so make them your utmost priority targets when they show up.

Dealing With Jaheira

After the fight, if Jaheira survived, you’ll be thrust directly into another cutscene with her. If she believes you to be Isobel’s killer, she’ll confront you angrily. At this point, you can either pass an Intimidation check to make her leave you alone, or you will have to fight her there and then.

With a party of four against one, it should be quite easy to beat Jaheira, even if she supplements her health pool by shapeshifting into her Panther form. Don’t feel too bad if you have to kill her – you can loot two nice Scimitars from her body.

If you manage to make Jaheira leave you alone, don’t pursue her if you want to avoid a fight. If you get too close for too long, she’ll fight you anyway.

If she believes you to be innocent, however, a different conversation will play out. You do have the choice to admit to your murder, but all that accomplishes is pushing you to the conversation choices you would have had if you’d failed the speech check earlier.

It’s possible to get Jaheira to join your campsite as a temporary companion, be sympathetic and hopeful in your dialogue choices:

1. Say that you’re sorry for her loss.
2. Remind her that she’s alive.
3. Ask her to join your camp.

She can’t be added to your party yet, but it’s neat to have her around. You’ll encounter her on the overworld again when it’s time to storm Moonrise Towers and confront Ketheric Thorm.

Your Reward: The Slayer Form

Well, this is what you’ve been working towards: your reward. After the events at Last Light Inn, the next time you take a Long Rest, you’ll be visited by Sceleritas again. He will grant you a new power: the Slayer form.

This form works like other Shapeshifter forms (such as Jaheira’s Panther form, as you might have seen earlier). The Dark Urge will become a Slayer beast, with its own health pool of 98 hit points, its own attacks, and a terrifying +9 bonus to Strength rolls that it uses for murder. You can use the Slayer form once per Long Rest.

The table below details the Slayer’s unique features:

Not too shabby a reward, but is it worth Isobel’s life?

It is also possible to acquire the Slayer form without killing Isobel! However, it will require that you take Shadowheart into the Gauntlet of Shar and allow her to kill the Nightsong. As long as one of Isobel and the Nightsong die, you will acquire this form.

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