This page will detail how to defeat Malus Thorm without fighting in Baldur’s Gate 3. Malus Thorm is one of several Thorm family members that can be found roaming around the Shadowlands. All of the Thorm family members can be defeated in unique ways without ever having to fight them!
On this page, you’ll also find information on how to fight him in combat should you fail or want to just get into a good ol’ fight.
Malus Thorm feels like he’s straight out of Resident Evil…gore warning!
Where to Find Malus Thorm¶
Malus Thorm is found inside The 
House of Healing which is found west of 
Reithwin Town and nearby the Thorm Mausoleum. You can go through a locked side entrance found at X: -185, Y:73. Once in this small room, read the book on the table - it’s important for later! You can also loot the chest to the right of the desk for a pair of rare 
Poisoner’s Gloves.
(1 of 2) Locate this door and make your way through it (lockpicking or smashing it in)
Locate this door and make your way through it (lockpicking or smashing it in) (left), then have a quick read of this book on the desk before heading inside. (right)
All Dialogue Outcomes with Malus Thorm¶
Once you’re ready, proceed into the room up ahead where you’ll find Malus Thorm and several creepy nurse women. After talking with him you’ll need to persuade him that his nurses aren’t ready (DC16 persuasion check). After succeeding that, there are three main ways to deal with this interaction:
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Fight Malus Thorm and all the nurses.
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Convince Malus Thorm’s nurses to turn on each other and then fight only Malus Thorm.
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Convince Malus Thorm to lie on the operating table to have the nurses kill him (you can do this option after the nurses turn on each other too).
Malus Thorm wants your eyes! What will you do?
You can do the first option at any point in the dialogue by just choosing to attack or failing persuasion checks. Jump to the section below on how to beat him below if you choose this option!
The second option and third option come about when Malus Thorm offers to take your eyeballs out (lovely!). You’ll get the option here to take advantage of the fact that you read his research on the desk outside and tell him to “initiate the final lesson”, which means that he’ll have his nurses kill him and you won’t have to do any of the dirty work. The two options that result in this outcome require either a DC18 Intimidation Check or a DC18 Persuasion Check. If you’d rather, however, you could choose the option where the nurses turn on each other - this requires a high Persuasion check of a DC22 though! If you do this, you can then choose to kill Malus Thorm or have him kill himself with a Persuasion Check.
There are three main ways to deal with Malus and his creepy nurses.
How to Beat Thisobold Thorm in Combat¶
If you’re looking for a challenge then keep the nurses alive for the fight, as they’re surprisingly powerful and have quite a bit of crowd control with their Mind Screech ability. If your characters fail their saving throw they’ll become confused, causing them to attack randomly, wander around aimlessly and sometimes even skip turns at random. Since there are several of them, you may get overwhelmed quite quickly so try to focus on them before turning your attention to Malus Thorm.
The nurses have a horrifying scream that can cause confusion amongst your party members.
However, if you’d like to deal with a more manageable fight, try to roll a successful check on having the nurses turn on each other and then fight Malus alone. This will be a far easier fight, though he will occasionally raise one of the dead nurses to fight alongside him.
Malus Thorm also has a high HP bar at 276 HP (balanced mode) and 18 AC, which can make him tougher to hit. He also has resistance to slashing, piercing, bludgeoning and fire damage, which means he’ll only take half damage from those damage types. You can still use these kinds of damage but expect to take a bit longer to whittle him down. You’ll find it better to use big spells that do alternative damage types to chunk his health down.
(1 of 2) Theobold has a fair few different resistances but he isn’t completely immune to any damage types
Theobold has a fair few different resistances but he isn’t completely immune to any damage types (left), you could still use physical weapons, but they won’t do as much damage! (right)
Can You Save the Distressed Patient?¶
Try as you might, there is unfortunately no way to save the Distressed Patient. You can stop him from being killed during the cut scene by attacking Malus before he kills him, but after getting out of the fight, you’ll only be able to interact with the patient and won’t actually be able to unlock the doctor’s table locks or heal him. The most merciful thing to do would be to put the poor man out of his misery, though it’s up to you of course!
Unfortunately, you can’t save the Distressed Patient.
Looking for more Thorm family members to encounter? Head over to our guide on where to find and how to defeat Thisobald Thorm.
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You can save the Distressed patient, I ended up trying to convince the nurses to fight but failed and ended up in the encounter fighting them all. After killing them, I was able to release the distressed patient. There was no extra dialogue scene, he just ran away screaming in pain. Not sure if there was something specific that happened to allow it?