Ranking The Dark Urge's Most Brutal Choices in Baldur's Gate 3

Players who dip their toes into Baldur's Gate 3 often find themselves coming back for seconds, and with recent patches adding full mod support plus brand-new evil endings, the replayability rabbit hole goes deep. Few runs hit quite as hard as a Dark Urge playthrough, where the protagonist is saddled with a blood-soaked past and a constant whisper to do unspeakable things. The beauty of it is that every impulse can be embraced or rejected, but for those who want to become Faerûn's ultimate villain, some choices are simply diabolical. Spoilers for The Dark Urge storyline and evil playthroughs lie ahead, so proceed with caution.

Rank	Choice	Act	Location
10	Torture Goblins	II	Moonrise Towers
9	Kill Pandirna	I	Emerald Grove
8	Kick Timber the Squirrel	I	Emerald Grove
7	Cut Off Gale's Hand	I	Roadside Cliffs
6	Kill Isobel	II	Last Light Inn
5	Kill the Bard	I	Camp
4	Instigate Arabella's Death	I	Emerald Grove
3	Kill Minthara After Raiding the Grove	I	Camp
2	Become Bhaal's Chosen and the Absolute	III	Temple of Bhaal
1	Make Minsc Kill Jaheira	III	Temple of Bhaal

10. Torture Goblins at Moonrise Towers

When players first roll up to Moonrise Towers in Act II, they are instructed to meet Ketheric Thorm in the throne room. Upon arriving, they walk in on a small group of goblins facing judgment from Ketheric and Disciple Z'rell. For their failure to find the Astral Prism, they are sentenced to death. But before anyone carries out the sentence, Ketheric offers the player the chance to seal their fate. Most goody-two-shoes characters might set the goblins free, but a Dark Urge run is a different beast entirely. Special dialogue lets players make the goblins beg for their lives before being brutally killed anyway. Sure, they are just goblins, but the genuine terror in their voices makes this a cruel pill to swallow.

9. Kill Pandirna in the Emerald Grove

Hidden behind locked doors in the Emerald Grove, players can stumble upon the tiefling Pandirna. She is borderline hostile at first because she is in a particularly vulnerable state: she is paralysed. After taking one of Auntie Ethel's potions that was supposed to help her strength, she lost the use of her legs and ended up guarding treasure in a locked room instead of mingling with the others. The Dark Urge, of course, has a familiar itch: break her legs and kill her. Acting on it does not alert the guards outside, and it allows players to loot the treasure she is protecting. It is cold-blooded, but for an evil run, it is practically an invitation.

8. Kick Timber the Squirrel

Animal cruelty is not beneath The Dark Urge's long list of sins. This becomes clear early in the Emerald Grove when players encounter Timber the Squirrel. Timber is incredibly territorial and will outright threaten anyone who has Speak with Animals active. The Dark Urge's intrusive thought in that moment is to kick the little critter as hard as possible. Acting on it is as violent as one would expect: the helpless squirrel dies immediately upon smacking into a tree. Companions present will not exactly be thrilled, and most of them will have a thing or two to say about it. It is a small act in the grand scheme, but it shows that no creature is safe when the urges take over.

7. Cut Off Gale's Hand

One of the first evil choices players face is also one of the most elusive. Gale can be found on the Roadside Cliffs near the initial Nautiloid crash site, trapped inside a purple portal. When he reaches his hand through asking for help, the intrusive thoughts start screaming. This time, The Dark Urge fantasises about cutting off his hand. If the option is selected, it is not just a daydream: The Dark Urge gives in and actually severs Gale's hand. This effectively kills him and prevents him from ever joining the party. Funny enough, the severed hand can later be used as an offering at the Murder Tribunal in Act III. Talk about turning a tragedy into a transaction.

6. Kill Isobel at Last Light Inn

The Dark Urge does not just long for petty violence; it wants death and blood, piles upon piles of bodies, with Isobel's at the very top. Most players avoid killing Isobel because she keeps the Shadow Curse at bay, protecting every soul sheltering at Last Light Inn. Striking her down means every single person there—refugees, children, innocents—dies with her. On the plus side, killing Isobel grants Dark Urge players the Slayer form, an incredibly powerful monster transformation. But all hell breaks loose immediately, and players will have to fight their way through the aftermath. It is a classic case of playing with fire to get exactly what the urges demand.

5. Kill the Bard at Camp

For Dark Urge players chasing Bhaal's vision of mountains of corpses, one camp interaction sets the foundation for those dead bodies. An unfortunate bard shows up at camp begging to join the party. Typically, this is the tiefling Alfira from the Emerald Grove. If the grove has already been slaughtered or Alfira was saved through some miracle, a dragonborn named Quil Grootslang arrives instead. Either way, the poor bard is ritually murdered overnight, and players must figure out what to do with the body. It is a tone shift that catches most players off guard the first time, and it acts as the first major evil before many more atrocities in the game. Talk about a rude awakening.

4. Instigate Arabella's Death

For The Dark Urge, the death of a child is a tragedy that never gets old. Upon entering the Emerald Grove for the first time in Act I, players are expected to speak with Kagha, the new first druid. Instead, they find her threatening a tiefling child, Arabella, with her snake. Arabella had stolen the sacred Idol of Silvanus, an action with dire consequences. A specific Dark Urge option lets players flick their eyes away while looking at Arabella, encouraging her to run. Selecting it prompts Arabella to attempt an escape, but she is immediately bitten by Kagha's snake. The child dies instantly, and it is entirely on the player's hands. That is a special kind of villainy.

3. Kill Minthara After Raiding the Grove

By now, most evil playthrough veterans know all about raiding the Emerald Grove. For a long time, that was the only way to romance the drow Minthara, though recent patches added a new method to recruit her on good playthroughs. Still, raiding the grove is one of the earliest and most evil actions available, and the game does not pull any punches about how terrible it is. After the carnage, players can complete their spicy romance scene with Minthara, followed by an intimate moment of vulnerability. Minthara confesses deep fears she has been hiding, and The Dark Urge—having gone a whole fifteen minutes without killing anyone—gets the urge to take another life. While cuddling, there is a special option to snap her neck, betraying her and the goblins after everything they went through together. It is brutal, even by Dark Urge standards.

2. Become Bhaal's Chosen and the Absolute

The biggest mystery surrounding The Dark Urge is where those urges come from. The answer is Bhaal himself, because The Dark Urge is a Bhaalspawn, born from a corpse and raised by a need for ritual slaughter. One of the main antagonists, Orin, is actually their little sister. After defeating Orin in the Temple of Bhaal, Bhaal emerges from a pool of blood and demands that The Dark Urge become his new chosen and claim The Absolute in his name. Rejecting Bhaal's influence is possible, but this is an evil playthrough, so accepting is the move. By becoming Bhaal's chosen, the player becomes the disciple of murder and will seize The Absolute by the end of the game. This does not save the world—it dooms it. The apple truly does not fall far from the tree.

1. Make Minsc Kill Jaheira

If players accept Bhaal with Minsc and Jaheira in the party, they are met with a scene where both of them reject their former ally and declare The Dark Urge an enemy. This leads to a fight, but only if the player chooses to talk first. It is easy to forget that Minsc is tadpoled, and the tadpole can be influenced by anyone else carrying a Mind Flayer parasite. One such influence, Minsc's final influence, forces him to kill Jaheira by his own hand. The screams he lets out after realising what has happened are absolutely harrowing. Even players who actively want evil outcomes often find this choice hard to swallow. It is without a doubt the most evil decision available on a Dark Urge run, and it is exclusive to The Dark Urge—a true cherry on top of a mountain of sins.

From kicking innocent squirrels to forcing beloved companions to murder each other, The Dark Urge playthrough offers a masterclass in descending into villainy. Each choice carries its own twisted weight, and together they paint a portrait of a character who can either resist temptation or dive headfirst into the abyss. For those with the stomach for it, these moments are exactly what make evil runs in Baldur's Gate 3 so unforgettable.