Summary
Baldur’s Gate 3mostly treats summons and party members the same when it comes to gameplay. That means you’re able to leave your entire party behind and plow on ahead through the game withScratch, the loveable and seemingly immortal pup.
That’s exactly what u/ThrowRA_dependent did when they reached Act 2, sending Scratch intothe bowels of Shar’s Templeall alone, until they eventually ran up against Yurgir, a hulking Fiend from the Nine Hells trapped in a contract with Raphael.
You can get through this encounter with dialogue alone, completely avoiding combat. However, with Scratch, that should be impossible. Yurgir has a few passives and abilities like Darkvision, Invisibility, and Watchful Hunt, but notably, he doesn’t have Speak with Animals. How he understands a dog is a bit of a mystery, since he doesn’t appear to have telepathy like some fiends do. This shouldn’t be possible… right?
Yurgir Has A Bit Of A Potion Problem
The real explanation is that the game treats Scratch like any other party member, but I want a real, tangible answer that we can apply in-universe. If Yurgir can’t cast Speak with Animals, how does he understand our dog? The answer might lie with the Hoarding Merregon.
As broken down onthe Baldur’s Gate 3 wiki, you can find them by a campfire once you’ve dealt with Yurgir. Using Detect Thoughts, you’ll discover that it feeds the displacer beast and watches over Yurgir’s stock. After succeeding this investigation, you can talk to the hoarder and get five Merregon Potions as a reward.
They will roll 16 times on the potion and coating table to decide what rewards you get, and there’s a chance that they will give you a Potion of Animal Speaking, which applies the Speak with Animals effect. In short, Yurgir has a stock of potions, including one vital for speaking with Scratch. It’s not nearly as far-fetchedas it might first seem. Mystery solved.
Things get weird in the Forgotten Realms, so it’s always good to be prepared.
Baldur’s Gate 3
WHERE TO PLAY
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.
