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Should You Read or Destroy the Necromancy of Thay in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Gordon Bicker

Published: Aug 8, 2023 05:19 am

Baldur’s Gate 3 has an impressive amount of choices that players can make and when dealing with items like the Necromancy of Thay, the possible choices can be tricky to work out which to go along with. As with many aspects in Baldur’s Gate 3, there is always use for extra pieces of information and context that can assist with a decision you make. This article will take you through if you should read or destroy the Necromancy of Thay.

Necromancy of Thay Best Choice in Baldur’s Gate 3

The best choice I recommend for the Necromancy of Thay is to read it and for doing that you will need to have the Dark Amethyst. You can acquire the Dark Amethyst from the Whispering Depths. This is under the Blighted Village area, you can then find the Amethyst after the large spider boss (Matriarch) in the Depths. When you have that, you will be prepared for inserting the Dark Amethyst into the book to read it.

Reading the Necromancy of Thay Outcome

If you decide to read the Necromancy of Thay then you will be able to get the Speak With the Dead spell if you pass the Wisdom skill checks. The skill checks are tough with one of them being 20, but along with the Speak with the Dead spell, you can also get the Forbidden Knowledge trait which always adds a +1 to future Wisdom skill checks.

Before attempting to read the book, make sure you have saved since failing any one of the Wisdom saving throws will give you the Whispers of Madness condition. Not only this but fail any more than one and you will get the Baleful Knowledge condition. These conditions have generally the same effect of adding a debuff/disadvantage to your Wisdom skill checks.

Destroying the Necromancy of Thay Outcome

If you want to destroy the Necromancy of Thay then you need to use Radiant Attacks on the book. For this, a spell such as Guiding Bolt is the best to use on the book. When you destroy the tome, all it actually does is just spawn “Shadow” enemies for you to fight off which of course wouldn’t be the best outcome from the Necromancy of Thay choices.

There is another use for the Necromancy of Thay if you don’t want to read or destroy it, which is to give it to the character Astarion. This will have Astarion “Approve” of what you have done by giving him the Necromancy of Thay. I however simply recommend trying to read the book if you’re on the lookout for the excellent Speak with the Dead spell.

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Author

Gordon Bicker

Gordon is a contributing writer for Attack of the Fanboy, a Games Design (BA) Honours student, and a Video Game Ambassador. He has been writing at AOTF for over a year and a half, with four years of games writing experience for outlets like Green Man Gaming. When he's not busy, he'll no doubt be experiencing games, writing poetry, playing guitar, adventuring, or happily starting a new Skyrim playthrough! As an avid Final Fantasy XIV player, he also hopes that you'll gain a warm feeling from his community stories. Gordon has reported on Fallout 4 and Destiny 2, whose favorite genres include action RPGs, MMORPG's and First Person Shooters but is always experimenting with many other types of games.