Summary

• The first act of Baldur's Gate 3 revolves in part around the Emerald Grove, where a group of druids is poised to massacre tiefling refugees.
• One route through the conflict will result in maximum bloodshed, essentially leaving the grove unoccupied.
• This route is arguably more evil than simply siding with Minthara and letting the goblins destroy the grove.

The Emerald Grove is a hotbed of conflict in Baldur's Gate 3, but there's one particular way to explode it into violence that ends up being a darker path than any other. Act One of the game focuses in part on a refugee crisis, with the druids in Emerald Grove threatening to turn out a band of tieflings who merely seek protection against near-certain death at goblin hands. Although evil parties might be tempted to act uncharitably toward the tieflings or side with the goblins outright to commit a massacre in the grove, these aren't actually the most vile methods of handling the situation.

[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3.]

Maximizing the tragedy of Baldur's Gate 3 Act One hinges on the extremism that exists among the druids, who have been stirred to a certain vindictiveness by their de facto leader, Kagha. The actual First Druid in charge of the grove is Halsin, a more temperate chief, but he's currently missing after a risky expedition that ran afoul of goblins. Although some druids feel uncomfortable with leaving the tieflings to fend for themselves, most are willing to follow Kagha's ideology, driven by fear that has been weaponized to become something more insidious.

The Druids Are Willing To Massacre The Tieflings In BG3

Goblins Aren't Necessary For Tragedy To Occur

Siding with the goblins in Baldur's Gate 3 isn't actually necessary to rain blood on Emerald Grove, as it turns out that the druids are all too willing to do it themselves. All it requires is an act of provocation that gives them something to weaponize against the perceived threat of outsiders, something that the party can all too easily provide. One simple way to provoke violence from the druids is to steal the Idol of Silvanus and get caught while Kagha is in power, although various other forms of hostility will also energize the druids in a terrifying way.

Provoking the druids into action will trigger a cutscene where a sentry calls for the grove to "remove the outsiders," an act that begins quickly as a druid attacks a tiefling and mercilessly kills him after winning a brief duel. Combat then breaks out in the camp at large, which will involve the party against the druids taking part in the ritual while others fight to kill the tieflings. It's possible to eliminate all the druids in the interest of saving the tieflings, but sitting back and letting the massacre play out through minimal involvement in combat is also on the table.

For those who want bloodshed but prefer a hands-off approach, Minthara will kill the tieflings herself if left to her own devices.

Taking this approach in Baldur's Gate 3 can feasibly result in the death of everyone in the Emerald Grove, as the druids are all too happy to systematically kill everyone they view as an outsider. Finishing off the druids will ultimately fall to the party itself, leaving a grove emptied of inhabitants for no good reason but an interest in bloodshed itself. This approach obviously won't appeal to any characters who represent any kind of good alignment, but it could fit with a murderous Dark Urge protagonist or any party that just wants to watch the world burn.

Baldur's Gate 3's Druids Are One Of Its Darkest Parts

Baldur's Gate 3 Shows How Easy It Is For Evil To Rise

Although getting the druids to turn on the tieflings doesn't necessarily accomplish more violence than loosing the goblins upon the grove, the implications of the act are more fundamentally heartbreaking. It's no surprise that the goblins would be willing to commit a massacre, as they have a generally violent society currently egged on by the command of the Absolute. The druids, however, shouldn't be as bloodthirsty, and the tieflings would likely never have even sought shelter in the grove if they believed the inhabitants to be so easily capable of atrocious acts.

The real horror of the Emerald Grove situation is just how believable it ultimately is, as it's often all too easy to turn people to violence by exploiting fear of the outsider in malicious ways. It's clear that such extreme acts wouldn't have been taken with Halsin in control, showing just how much Kagha is able to accomplish in her comparatively short time as the leader. Baldur's Gate 3 makes a point of showing the banality of evil and just how easily it can rise to the surface, even in a world with much more obvious villainy to behold.

This concept is a theme echoed in Act 3 of the game, where the city of Baldur's Gate 3 magnifies the refugee crisis concept to a much larger scale. Although the city is filled with sympathetic characters, it also has plenty who show very little willingness to extend a helping hand. Fanning the flames is the archduke Lord Enver Gortash, who's carefully weaponizing the fear that infects his subjects to further his own agenda. How the downtrodden are treated is of no real concern to him, but if their suffering can help him, he knows just how to encourage that.

On the party's end, Baldur's Gate 3 makes it possible over and over to choose between acting in self-interest or working on behalf of others, choices that extend beyond the game's big acts of heroism. Offering small ways to help or hurt the world echoes some of what makes tabletop Dungeons & Dragons games special, and it helps consistently ground the story in a way that many video games never do.

It's Possible To Kill Only Druids In Baldur's Gate 3

Violence Doesn't Have To Beget More Violence

For anyone who hates the druids in particular in Baldur's Gate 3, it's also possible to kill some key figures of Kagha's persuasion without sacrificing the tieflings as well. Part of Kagha's outsized influence comes from the fact that she's not working alone, as there are a number of other Shadow Druids also seeking to turn the Emerald Grove in a dark direction. Clues to this secret are littered around Emerald Grove, and mounting a proper investigation can lead to this secret being exposed to the party.

Outing Kagha as a Shadow Druid raises the option of killing only her and those loyal to that cause, sparing the rest of the Emerald Grove and making it possible to proceed with the plan to clear out the goblin camp instead. This is probably the best way to approach the situation for a party concerned about the general welfare of the world. Even if it takes violent methods, ridding the grove of the Shadow Druid's influence is likely to pave the best path for its future, especially if it's left in the hands of a less experienced leader after Halsin's recruitment into the party.

On the other end of things, another fascinating and dark option when dealing with the Emerald Grove is simply to leave it alone. Baldur's Gate 3 obviously has some story beats that can't be missed, but it also makes the bulk of its content completely optional, and there's nothing forcing the party's hand to intervene on either side in the Emerald Grove. Staying out of affairs is a ive way to doom the tieflings, and like helping the druids, this option shows one of the more realistic paths to tragic outcomes.

The range of ways to deal with the Emerald Grove conflict in Baldur's Gate 3 is certainly impressive, and essentially any tactic could make perfect sense for the right party. For a true murderhobo approach, however, it's hard to beat letting the grove take care of itself, after which a truly ambitious party can simply move on to clear out the goblin camp as well. Baldur's Gate 3's tieflings might seem like they are under the greatest threat from the goblin camp, but it's the druids' willingness to slaughter them that has the most horrifying implications.