Baldur’s Gate 3: House Of Grief Guide
Baldur's Gate 3: House Of Grief Guide
Quick Links
- Where to Find and How to Enter the House of Grief
- Choices You Can Make in the House of Grief: Encountering Viconia
- How to Defeat Viconia Devir
- What to Do with Viconia and How to Get the Legendary Shield: Viconia’s Walking Fortress
- What to Do with Arnell and Emmeline Hallowleaf
- What to Do with the Mirror of Loss
- Where to Find Nocturne
- Where to Find Night Orchid Cave
Your resident cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3, Shadowheart, has come a long way from the grumpy, prickly girl you met on the beach in Act One. Whether you’ve followed the dark path of Shar or the light of Selune, your adventure will lead you to the place where all roads lead: Baldur’s Gate.
Nestled within this bustling city is the secret cloister of Shar’s most faithful and the secrets of Shadowheart’s past. Though the House of Grief knows the sorrows of the people of the city, with Shadowheart in your company, you may come to deliver grief to its inhabitants personally.
Where to Find and How to Enter the House of Grief
The House of Grief is on the far northwestern side of the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate, further westward than the Baldur’s Gate Waypoint and entrance into the Upper City. You’ll have to cross a small bridge to reach the humble building on the city’s outskirts.
Once you’ve crossed the bridge, climb up a set of stairs into a richly clad, crimson room where a blonde elf named Mirie will be standing behind the counter.
Speak with Mirie and demand to be let through. She’ll tell you to submit to the mapping. When your dialogue ends, take her cue and walk into the back room, where you’ll find an empty space with a marble bench. Sit on the bench with whomever you wish.
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An Inquirer of Grief will appear. Shadowheart will be a key part of this conversation, so allow her to “Go ahead” and speak with the woman on the bench. After a conversation that reveals the inquisitor to be Viconia, the Mother Superior, a door will open. Interact with the door to enter the Cloister of Shar’s Embrace.
Descend past the doors on either side of the next room for now (you’ll need keys later) and continue to the very bottom of the stairs. Here, you’ll encounter Viconia on the other side of the grand door.
Choices You Can Make in the House of Grief: Encountering Viconia
Depending on the path Shadowheart has taken, your encounter with Viconia will differ greatly.
- If you’ve chosen to stop Shadowheart and convince her to walk the path of Selune, the light path, you must fight all the enemies in this room.
- If you’ve chosen to allow Shadowheart to walk the path of Shar, the darker path, you can convince the majority of the Shar followers to join you in battle.
In the case of Shadowheart’s Shar path, this fight is a cakewalk. Apply the tips in the fight section of this guide liberally as needed, though you should not suffer much with as many as ten or more allies against Viconia’s five.
Shadowheart’s Selune path, however, takes no small amount of persistence and strategy.
Alternatively, you can decide to side with Viconia and betray Shadowheart. Hand over Shadowheart to Viconia, and you can completely avoid the encounter and have Lady Shar’s faithful join you as allies in the fight against the Elder Brain. The downside is that Shadowheart will permanently leave your group.
How to Defeat Viconia Devir
The first important detail to know about Viconia is that she reflects Radiant damage back against the party and deals it at twice its original value, making this fight especially dangerous for clerics.
With the addition of the disciples’ spam-use of Bone Chill and Darkness, healing isn’t easy either. Clerics and paladins, in general, may feel useless in this fight at times. Keeping Shadowheart alive as a cleric will be a struggle.
For this fight, we highly recommend bringing at least one spellcaster with large area attacks like:
- Ice Storm
- Fireball
- Wall of Ice / Wall of Thorns / Wall of Fire
- Chain Lightning
- Cloudkill
- Destructive Wave (Thunder-only)
- Cone of Cold
- Hunger of Hadar*
- Thunderwave
- Shatter
They should also bring Counterspell.
The rest of your party is up to your flavor and discretion, though we do recommend ensuring that any party members with Radiant-damage weapons stay away from Viconia. The other Sharrans are vulnerable to Radiant damage. As such, you shouldn’t put your Radiant weapons away but instead be smart in who you target and your reactions and plan to have substitute weapons to switch to later when fighting Viconia.
As you approach Viconia to speak with her, separate your spellcaster just before reaching the dialogue zone to ensure your spellcaster is up high on the stairs and not stuck in the danger zone with the rest of the group.
When the battle begins, try to spread out your party from the bottom of the steps as much and as safely as possible (Misty Step is great for this). The enemies will spam Darkness on any group you have, rendering it not within your best interests to stay.
When it is your spellcaster’s turn, we recommend starting your first turn with Ice Storm. This will both take out your enemies and also create a Difficult Terrain that could knock them Prone or, at the very least, slow down their movement.
For this fight, you’ll want to focus on everyone except Viconia. Their spamming of Darkness and Beckoning Darkness will deal the most damage to you in the early rounds. Bone Chill provides an extra layer of complication.
Additionally, the high-level Justiciars do much higher average damage. Viconia, as long as you do not empty her first health bar, will be in the far less threatening form of her wolf.
Use your spellcaster to run crowd control on the weaker enemies while your remaining party focuses on the high-level Justiciars.
This will be a long and grueling fight. The best strategies here will be those that: – Prioritize area-attacks. – Smartly use targeted Radiant damage. – GameTopicore Viconia. – Spread your party thin. – Counterspell or target enemies that cast Darkness.
Only once all Sharrans are defeated should you attempt to strike Viconia. She does not resist any damage, so attack her with anything that is not Radiant.
Once her wolf form is defeated, she’ll revert to her humanoid figure. She’ll have everything at her disposal that a Trickster Cleric would. Therefore, her most dangerous action is Sunder the Heretical.
When she uses Sunder the Heretical, you’ll likely lose half or more of your party. Having potions or, if your healer(s) survive, healing spells will be key here. With all the other Sharrans gone, Bone Chill will likely not be an issue (if so, only for one round).
After you’ve survived her Sunder the Heretical, she’ll begin using Channel Divinity in an attempt to go Invisible while recovering health. You can undo this with See Invisibility, Volo’s magic eye, or area attacks like Spirit Guardians (Necrotic).
Whittle down her health until she’s knocked out.
What to Do with Viconia and How to Get the Legendary Shield: Viconia’s Walking Fortress
Once you defeat Viconia, you must speak with her. You’ll be granted a few choices: – Kill Viconia. – Spare Viconia. – Have Shadowheart kill Viconia.
If you spare Viconia, you will not receive any of her items, a large loss in loot, and the key you will want to reach the back room.
It does not matter who kills Viconia, if that is your choice. Killing her will grant you a few keys and her legendary shield, Viconia’s Walking Fortress.
Viconia’s Walking Fortress:
+3 AC Legendary Shield. Grants Reflective Shell and Warding Bond Actions. Wearer gains Advantage on Saving Throws against spells and spell attacks. When the wearer is hit with a melee attack, they can use their reaction to deal 2d4 Force damage and knock the enemy Prone on a failed Dexterity Saving Throw.
What to Do with Arnell and Emmeline Hallowleaf
What to Do with the Mirror of Loss
The Mirror of Loss is in the farthest section of the House of Grief. It is behind the location of Arnell and Emmeline Hallowleaf and down the stairs.
This large, purple device can only be used with a high enough Religion (DC20) and Arcana (DC25) check. Both checks must succeed. Otherwise, you will not receive any bonuses from the mirror.
After the mirror has been unlocked and its purpose determined, you can give up two points in one stat to gain two points in another. Although this does not seem like a great deal, the penalty to your stat is a curse and can be removed by the spell Remove Curse.
As a result, you can gain a permanent +2 stat bonus to any stat of your choice with no consequence.
Where to Find Nocturne
There are only two rooms worth noting within the House of Grief for their contents (although each room will have special dialogue with Shadowheart you may wish to see):
- The Dormitory
- Night Orchid Cave
The Dormitory is on the north side of the central chamber (where you encounter Viconia) behind two large, wooden doors. Open them, and you’ll find Nocturne, Shadowheart’s childhood friend, inside.
Regardless of which path you have taken, Nocturne is a non-hostile NPC. You can choose to eliminate her regardless, but she is a trader and can fill Shadowheart in on her lost memories.
If you killed Viconia and the rest of the cult, Nocturne will leave permanently after your next long rest. This means long-resting after Viconia is dead but before you speak to Nocturne results in missing her entirely.
After speaking with Nocturne, you can go to the back of the room and unlock Viconia’s chest, as well as browse her bookshelves for important books about Shadowheart. Inside Viconia’s chest, you can always find a key to her vault in the Counting House.
The Counting House Vault belonging to Viconia is in the lower section. To access it easily, we recommend you follow the Minsc questline.
Where to Find Night Orchid Cave
A hiding place precious to Shadowheart and mentioned by Nocturne – you can find Night Orchid Cave in the southeastern room of the Shar Cloister’s central chamber.
You should notice a wooden barricade on the wall. Use your weapon to break it open and discover a ladder. Climb it.
Inside this cave, the only items of note here are the night orchids. Bringing Shadowheart here will unlock special dialogues in passing, in conversation with Shadowheart, and in conversation with Nocturne.
NEXT: Baldur’s Gate 3: How To Enter Bhaal’s Temple
