The battle against Malus Thorm in Baldur’s Gate 3 can be tricky, especially considering the number of nurses surrounding him as his allies inside the House of Healing. Luckily, there is a way to by the fight and get rewards for Thorm's demise. This action requires a set of specific talking points and some good skills to Checks, but it can prevent a dangerous mini-boss battle from breaking out.

[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3.]Malus Thorm is one of the three optional Thorm bosses in Reithwin Town during Act 2. Dealing with him is one of the things you should do before entering Shadowfell in Baldur’s Gate 3. Even if he does seem insignificant initially, Malus Thorm is connected to a larger and much more important side quest in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, related to the curse that plagues the region.

The only reason to leave Malus Thorm alive is if players are on an evil campaign in Baldur’s Gate 3, but even so, killing him is much better than allowing him to continue his gruesome experiments.

Where To Find Malus Thorm

Explore Reithwin Town In Act 2

Malus Thorm and his collection of terrifying nurses can be found within the settlement of Reithwin Town. This area is deep in the Shadow Cursed Lands of Act 2, meaning you'll have to find a way to get through the Shadow Curse to reach him. Thorm resides in the House of Healing, a stone structure near the Grand Mausoleum Waypoint on your map.

This undead surgeon's home is crawling with undead, who may become hostile to your party if you try to disrupt anything or fight their master. There is plenty of notable loot here, including the Poisoner's Gloves and Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet item seen on Thorm himself. Navigating interactions with Thorm and his "students" can lead to a deadly fight if you make a wrong move.

The House of Healing is divided into three sections, including:

• Operating Theatre
• Hospital Library
• Morgue

Going to the Operating Theatre will automatically start an interaction with Malus, so take your time to investigate the rest of the building first. If you can, sneak past Malus and his nurses in the Theatre to visit his office to the north of the room. Here, you'll find the book Surgery and Physiology: A Sharran's Primer , which is crucial to unlocking dialogue with Malus to help avoid a fight with his undead troupe.

How To Make Malus Thorm Kill Himself

Save Your Party The Trouble

Like all other accursed Thorm family who reside in Reithwin Town, it is possible to make Malus Thorm kill himself rather than engage in a straightforward fight against the sadistic physician. Upon approaching Malus in the operating theater in the House of Healing, he will talk about Shar’s teachings of absence in Baldur’s Gate 3 and how all who devote themselves to her must master that.

Malus is hosting a person on the bed before him with the help of his undead nurses, who are training their operating techniques on the poor individual. However, they are torturing him by slowly cutting his body open.

To ensure you reach the desired outcome, save before each Check, and in case the die roll fails, you can reload to the most recent quicksave file.

If Shadowheart is in the party, she will agree with Malus’ dark lecture, even if she does oppose the villain. Once the dialogue options open, you should inspect the sisters’ instruments or persuade Malus that they are not ready. The former requires an Intelligence Check, while the latter relies on a Charisma Check in Baldur’s Gate 3.

ing either option will open up the choice to further persuade Malus that the nurses should practice on themselves. After ing the related Charisma Check, Malus Thorm will tell the nurses to kill each other, and once they have done that, only he and the tortured prisoner will remain.

At this point, you can perform a Deception action, which a class-specific sentence may accompany. This will require yet another Charisma check. The dialogue option will convince Malus that he must kill himself to truly live up to Shar’s teachings. If you the check and he complies, Malus will request that you follow his example and kill yourself.

Malus Thorm will then stick his mechanical finger into his eye socket, falling dead on the floor. His body and the nurses can be looted in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the blinded prisoner can be freed from the operating table.

This is the only known way of “saving” the patient without fighting Malus Thorm and his nurses, even if the victim runs off, never to be seen again. He is likely killed by the vile forces of the Shadow-Cursed Lands or the Absolute Cultists scattered across the area.

How To Make The Nurses Kill Malus Thorm

Convince Medical Students To Earn Extra Credit

There is, however, a second way of making Malus kill himself. Instead of telling him that the nurses should practice with each other, which prompts them to stab one another, you can tell Malus that they need a better subject. If you the Charisma Check in Baldur’s Gate 3 to persuade him, Malus Thorm will agree, kill the patient, lie on the operating table himself, and tell the nurses to practice on him.

The nurses will then stab Malus many times, killing him for good. Doing this does not aggro all the nearby nurses, so avoiding a battle is also a safe option. Afterward, you can loot Malus' body just as you were able to do before when you convinced him to kill himself through the previous method.

However, this second method of making Malus kill himself leaves the nurses alive and, therefore, unlootable. It also makes the victim be killed in front of you without a fighting chance. The best of all the options when dealing with Malus Thorm in the House of Healing is first, as this causes the nurses to stab each other and makes Malus take his own life. It is a horrid spectacle to watch, but the one that provides the most benefits in of loot.

Another positive aspect is that, even if you convince Malus to make the nurses kill themselves and then choose to kill himself to “teach” you about Shar’s ways, the other nurses in the House of Healing will not become aggressive towards you. This means you can stroll freely across the area, loot everything you want and need, and never get involved in a conflict that can make you spend resources otherwise better employed against obligatory bosses in Baldur's Gate 3.

Though unrelated to the Malus Thorm encounter itself, you should be cautious when using your newfound freedom to explore the exterior western portion of the House of Healing, as the path to the Morgue has an ambush set up.

Regardless of the chosen method to deal with Malus Thorm, you can loot his body, where you will find a few important items. The first one is a key to the room at the far end of the House of Healing, which contains excellent spoils. The most important item, however, is the Battered Lute, which is essential for eventually removing the Shadow Curse in Baldur’s Gate 3.

All Malus Thorm Dialogue Options

Explore Every Option Based On Your Character

Like many NPCs and potentially hostile characters in the game, Malus Thorm has plenty of dialogue options that change based on your character. For example, Clerics who follow Shar have a much different dialogue that is unlocked through conversation with Malus. However, anyone who collected the Surgery book from Malus' office will always get new dialogue to help with either method for avoiding a fight explained above.

As you encounter Malus for the first time, here are all your potential conversation options:

Those who any of these skill checks will progress to the next phase of the conversation, where Malus asks how to train the nurses properly. The following dialogue options can be selected, with the last two only existing if you read the Surgery and Physiology book in Malus' office:

As you can see, these options can lead to either Malus killing himself, the nurses killing each other, or both in some circumstances. Should the nurses kill each other, you can have a last bit of dialogue with Malus, where you can convince him to end his own life. These conversation options look like this:

ing every check associated with these options will help you avoid any confrontation with the master of the House of Healing. By avoiding both his nurse students and the undead surgeon Malus Thorm himself, you can get some great loot in Baldur's Gate 3 for just ing three skill checks.