Vlaakith in Baldur's Gate 3: Should You Obey Her or Defy Her?

Because Baldur's Gate 3 is based on Dungeons & Dragons, it has a lot of options. Most of them are unimportant, such as determining if you should murder Valeria. Not all decisions, however, have that effect; many have an ongoing effect on your plot and character relationships. One such choice you must make in Act 1 of the game is whether to submit to Vlaakith in BG3 or to defy her. Even if you strive to be cautious, you will still have to make some difficult choices. These are the events when you first meet her and the effects they have on you thereafter.

There will be some spoilers about Act 3 of the game and Lae'zel's endings before we continue.

In BG3, Should You Bend to Vlaakith?

Yes and no, you both have to follow her and may ignore her depending on the circumstances, according to the Act of the game. Below is a comprehensive summary of the choices you need to make:

In Act 1, Should I Obey Vlaakith?

Vlaakith should only be listened to until she instructs you to enter the Prism.

• During Act 1, go to Creche Y’llek to find out more about the mind flayer parasite cure.
• Eventually, you will meet the Inquisitor and will have to either hand him over your Prism or you can fight to keep it.
• Irrespective of what you do Vlaakith will show up and will tell you to go to the Prism and kill the Dream Visitor.
• Now, you have two choices to obey or defy her:
  • Obeying Vlaakith: Enter the Prism, but do not kill the Dream Visitor. If you do try to kill her you lose their trust and it isn’t really good for your character later on in the game.
  • Defying Vlaakith: If you do not enter the Prism, Vlaakith will kill your party resulting in the game ending.

Act 1 has the most significant consequences related to your party dying. Therefore, if you don't intend to keep Lae'zel in your party or don't care about her ending, it shouldn't really matter what you decide about Vlaakith in the third Act of the game.

In Act 3, Should You Kneel to Vlaakith?

You shouldn't follow Vlaakith's instructions here either if you want Lae'zel to have a happy ending. This is what is going to occur:

• Lae’zel obeys Vlaakith: If Lae’zel fulfills Vlaakith’s wish and kills Orpheus she will ascend. When you talk to Withers he mentions to ascend for a Gith is to be consumed. This is a bad ending for Lae’zel so after Act 1 you should try and convince her as much as possible to go against Vlaakith.
• Lae’zel doesn’t kneel to Vlaakith: With this choice, she can side with Orpheus and Voss, which will then bring you to the choice of having to side with Orpheus or the Emperor. But if you side with Orpheus and make him the Mind Flayer then after the last fight you can let Lae’zel go and fight to save her kin.

That concludes the discussion of whether or not you should bow down to Vlaakith in BG3. You still have the choice to make Karlach the Mind Flayer in place of Orpheus if you did choose to release him. While you are investigating the backstories of other characters, consider whether or not you should let Shadowheart to develop into a sinister justice.