Baldur’s Gate 3 thrives on the power of choices you make in the many situations and it continues throughout the storyline. Each of your decisions can ripple through the world of Faerûn, changing events, affecting your relations with NPCs, and most importantly determining the fate of your BG3 storyline. In your whole journey, you’ll have many tough calls, but few are as critical as the decision in Act 3: should you free Orpheus or side with the Emperor in BG3? This big choice will affect the fate of your party and what game’s ending you will have ahead.
Encountering Orpheus and the Emperor in Baldur’s Gate 3
In Act 3 of Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll encounter one of the most intense dilemmas. Lae’zel, a true Githyanki warrior, is adamant about rescuing Prince Orpheus, her rightful leader and a sign of hope for her people. On the other side, the mind-flayer Emperor with a complex past insists that you shouldn’t rescue Orpheus to avoid becoming a mind-flayer. It’s a classic tug-of-war, where the stakes are nothing less than the fate of Faerûn and the lives of your party members.
What Happens If You Free Orpheus in BG3 with the Orphic Hammer?
If you decide to free Orpheus, one way you can do this is by using the Orphic Hammer but not the easiest approach. First, you’ll need to get the Orphic Hammer – a powerful artifact currently in the hands of Raphael, a devilish NPC who has his agenda. Raphael offers to trade the hammer for the Crown of Karsus, a deal that sounds tempting but comes with bad consequences. Handing over the crown means allowing him to get the power to control the Elder Brain in Baldur’s Gate 3 and become the king of Avernus and beyond. Not exactly the kind of future you want to set in motion.
Alternatively, you can decide to steal the Orphic Hammer from Raphael by getting into the Hope of House. But things will get tricky here, sneaking around Raphael’s lair requires you to get invisible by using the best invisible spells or potions. Facing Raphael in BG3 is one of the toughest boss fights and you should try to avoid here as much as you can. He’s no pushover, so be prepared for a tough battle if you have to do that. But if you save Hope in the dungeon, who was imprisoned by Raphael, she can turn the tide in your favor during the combat as her Cleric healing ability will keep all the party members at good HP.
Once you have obtained the Orphic Hammer, it’s time to free Orpheus. Smash the crystals binding him with the Orphic Hammer to rescue the Githyanki prince. But don’t expect the Emperor to take this lightly. He’ll be furious and switch sides, go with the Netherbrain to fight against you, and there will be a tough encounter waiting for you.
But it’s a must for any one character to turn into a mind flayer to defeat the Netherbrain. You can choose your character but it’s not going back after that or if you have Karlach in your party, she can also be the option. Otherwise, the last choice is Orpheus himself but it will be the end of this guy and you can’t get him as your companion after that. But if save Orpheus from becoming a mind flayer, he’ll join your party as a Monk with some solid skills bringing to the party. If Karlach takes the hit, it ties into her tragic story arc nicely.
What Happens If You Free Orpheus in BG3 by Becoming Ming Flayer?
Probably, many of you want to save Orpheus but without the hassle of beating Raphael to get the Orphic Hammer, it’s possible by going down to another path. In this case: You still have the option to free Orpheus by having someone in your party step into his shoes means taking his place. But the question is, who’s it gonna be?
You can let your character be at Orpheus’ place, showing true heroism (and maybe some insanity), going this way means you’ll transform into a mind flayer. It’s not a pretty process—cue the brain-eating imagery—but it’s a noble sacrifice to save the prince and potentially all of Faerûn. If you don’t want to turn your hero into a tentacled nightmare, there’s another option: Karlach. She wants to do it herself as her Infernal Engine is having problems and she is on the brink of death already. It’s a heart-wrenching choice because Karlach’s journey has already been fraught with hardship, and her self-sacrifice is a poignant twist to her story.
Regardless of who takes the prince’s place, the new mind flayer has to eat Orpheus’ brain. This act is supposed to ensure that the power dynamics hold and that the new mind flayer can have the necessary strength for the final battle. If you go through with this, the Emperor will reluctantly agree, and you’ll avoid having to battle him alongside the Netherbrain. However, it still means losing a crucial party member to a horrific fate. On the flip side, Orpheus remains alive, and if he’s saved and kept from becoming a mind flayer, he might even convince Lae’zel to challenge the Githyanki queen Vlaakith, leading to an intense endgame scenario where they set off to liberate their people.
What Happens If You Don’t Free Orpheus in BG3?
Lae’zel will breathe down your neck, demanding you rescue Orpheus. But the Emperor seriously warns that only if Orpheus is locked, you and your party members will be safe from turning into mind flayers. He will tell you that the moment you save him, he will attack you and you have to kill him. But what consequences you will have to leave Orpheus in his Astral prison?
First, the Emperor will continue to gain Orpheus’ power, which keeps your party safe from the horrors of cere-morphosis (that’s the fancy word for becoming a mind flayer). This means you won’t have to deal with any unexpected tentacle sprouting among your crew, that’s a big advantage if you don’t like the brain-eating thing. But you will have consequences for this decision, Lae’zel will be very furious and turn against the whole party. The combat with Lae’zel isn’t easy though, with her powerful abilities and anger as a hornet.
On top of that, Karlach’s objective also links with the Orpheus dilemma. If you’ve romanced Karlach and want to see her happy ending, ignoring Orpheus’ plight might throw a wrench so you should free him in this case. Siding with the Emperor makes the fight against the Netherbrain easier since the Emperor won’t join his group, but it comes at the cost of potentially losing key allies. In the end, not freeing Orpheus keeps your party human (or elf, dwarf, or whatever they are), but it means losing the trust and friendship of Lae’zel and impacting other characters’ storylines. It’s a tough call, but that’s Baldur’s Gate 3 for you.
How to Avoid Your Party Becoming the Mind Flayer in Baldur’s Gate 3
Fortunately, there is a clever though convoluted, way to get rid of the mind-flayer situation. If you have Gale in BG3 in your active party, he has the key to avoiding turning anyone in your party into a mind flayer. He has the Netherese Orb, and this could be your way out. You need to plant the idea in the Emperor’s mind that Gale can use the orb to destroy the Netherbrain. The Emperor doesn’t agree easily, but with the right dialogue choices and high Persuasion checks, you can make him see the potential in Gale’s plan.
Next, after freeing Orpheus, you have to present this plan to him too. Orpheus, understandably, might be skeptical, but explaining the details and the potential for a massive sacrificial explosion sway him. The key here is timing and making sure everyone’s on board before this happens. At the right moment, Gale will have to activate the Netherese Orb to destroy the Netherbrain but sadly, he will also sacrifice himself.
Should You Free (Save) Orpheus in BG3?
So, is it worth freeing Orpheus in BG3? It’s not a simple yes or no. Like any good RPG decision, it depends on what you value most in your playthrough.
If you free Orpheus, you will have Lae’zel’s loyalty and the greater good of the Githyanki people. It’s a big decision for her character arc and can lead to an inspiring ending where she and Orpheus overthrow the tyrannical Vlaakith and start a Githyanki revolution. But this choice guarantees that your party is destined to become a mind flayer unless you decide to sacrifice Gale or fight against both Emperor and Elder Brain. It’s a tough pill to swallow when you have no mood to let your character or Karlach be the sacrifice option. But if you don’t save Orpheus and choose to side with the Emperor, you will keep your party intact from the mind flayer problem.
In the end, there is nothing that we can say is the right choice because every option leads to some good and bad results (gaining or losing the companions). So, to say that, the right choice depends on your priorities and what party members you want to save and with whom sacrifice, you will be fine. Do you want to satisfy Lae’zel and potentially liberate an entire race? Or do you prefer to keep your party intact and avoid the gruesome fate of becoming mind flayers? There’s no perfect answer, and that’s what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 so compelling. Every choice has weight, and every outcome carries its blend of triumph and tragedy. However, if you don’t want to turn your whole party into a mind flayer, you should not free Orpheus even though you will lose Lae’zel but that’s a fine decision at least from my point of view.
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