Ketheric Thorm/Combat

Overview

Combat

This page focuses on Ketheric Thorm's behavior during turn-based combat gameplay.

Attacks and abilities

 Blinding Smite ()

Normal weapon damage +

3d8 (3~24) Radiant

Evoke a heavenly flare and possibly  Blind your target

CON Save

 Range: Normal weapon range

 Deadly Orders

Command your troops to prioritise attacking a specific foe.

Your underlings are more likely to target this foe, and their Attack Rolls against it have Advantage.

 Range: 24 m / 80 ft

Recharge: Per turn

 Divine Smite ()

Normal weapon damage +

2d8 (2~16) Radiant

Your weapon deals an additional 2d8RadiantDRS damage, increased by 1d8Radiant damage when attacking Fiends or Undead.

 Range: Normal weapon range

 Incubate Death ()

3d8 + 3 (6~27) Necrotic

Spawn a skeletal involucre. After 1 turn, the involucre explodes, dealing 3d8Necrotic damage and birthing a necromite.

DEX Save

 Range: 24 m /  ft

Honour Mode

 Hordestrike ()

4d8 (4~32) Force

Launch a hammer of spectral force at a creature your minions are attacking.

DEX Save

 Range: 16 m / 52 ft

Recharge: Per turn

Allies

Ketheric will be accompanied by the following allies. Detailed information can be found on their respective pages.

Moonrise Towers Rooftop (Stage 1)

• Kar'niss (If still alive)
• Necromite - 8x
• Squire (If still alive)
• Susdera (If still alive)

Mind Flayer Colony (Stage 2)

• Isobel (if kidnapped during Resolve the Abduction)
• Intellect Devourer - 4x
• Mind Flayer
• Necromite - 4x

Encounter details

Ketheric Thorm's actual battle has two individual stages, some of which may be affected by the choices of the party.

Stage 1 (Moonrise Towers Rooftop)

The first part of the encounter with Ketheric takes place atop Moonrise Towers. Ketheric will be joined by Susdera, his loyal dog Squire, as well as eight Necromites. Susdera will stand immediately before the party, while Ketheric will stand on the small balcony behind her, with necromites flanking the stairs to him on both sides. The party can make a DC 18 Persuasion check followed by a DC 30 Persuasion check to persuade him to stand down. A successful persuasion will not prevent the battle from taking place, but is a prerequisite for a later DC 18 Persuasion check in the Mind Flayer Colony.

Ketheric boasts an impressive 22 AC and thus may be very difficult for the party to hit. Additionally, though his Dexterity skill is relatively low, he has advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws via Ketheric's Shield. Spells with a Dexterity saving throw can still be used should Ketheric activate his armour Reaper's Embrace, which negates the advantage he has. He is also immune to  Charmed or  Sleeping due to his  Fey Ancestry. As an undead he is also immune to many crowd control spells such as  Command and  Hold Person.

Ketheric's main source of damage will be through a combination of his melee attacks and  Divine Smites. As a Paladin enemy, his attacks can very quickly burst down party members if his hits all connect. At the end of his turn, Ketheric will also order his necromites to focus their attacks on a single party member using  Deadly Orders and cap his turn by casting  Incubate Death. The skeletal involucre it summons will detonate at the end of the round.

Should the player have spared Aylin, she will join the fight on the party's side and assist. She cannot be controlled by the player but her AI will often attempt to focus on killing Susdera or Ketheric.

Once Ketheric's health drops to around 25%, he will interrupt the fight by summoning a gargantuan tentacle, kidnapping Aylin should she be present, and fleeing down the destroyed tower to the Mind Flayer Colony. If all of his allies are dead, combat ends immediately, otherwise they must be dispatched first. The party is then free to explore the surroundings and follow Ketheric when ready.

Stage 2 (Mind Flayer Colony)

Phase 1

The next stage of the fight begins shortly after catching up to Ketheric in the Mind Flayer Colony. A Restoration Pod that grants the benefits of a Long Rest can be found to the right of the elevator that brings you to him. This pod is present even on Tactician and Honour difficulty. The  Rejuvenating Miasma condition in the area also allows the party to cast  Animate Dead without consuming any corpses.

After the cutscene regarding Ketheric and his allies, players will enter a short conversation with Ketheric. During this dialogue, he can be talked down from fighting with a DC 18 Persuasion check, which will only be available if party members laid the conversational groundwork during the prior conversation on top of Moonrise Towers. On a success, Ketheric will kill himself and the battle will skip directly to phase two. Otherwise, a fight will ensue.

Ketheric will stand on a raised circular platform before the party. To the far right, a Mindflayer can be found overlooking the battlefield, and four Intellect Devourers will quickly approach the party from below it. On the other side of the room, to the left, four Necromites will sling spells down at the party from another raised platform.

Should she be alive, Aylin will be found trapped by spectral hands, granting Ketheric  Invulnerability once more. Aylin can be freed from her prison via the  Help action. Once free, she will assist the party in the fight, usually by charging directly at Ketheric.

Dealing with Ketheric himself should be relatively similar to his first encounter. Like in the previous fight, Ketheric can order his party to focus a single party member using  Deadly Orders and raise new necromites using  Incubate Death. If the party  Disarmed him of Ketheric's Warhammer during the previous fight, then he will have a regular replacement warhammer.

If Isobel was kidnapped during Resolve the Abduction, she will be tadpoled and brainwashed into fighting alongside her father. She will use  Healing Word and  Cure Wounds on injured enemies.

As soon as Ketheric is defeated, the next and final phase of the fight begins.

Phase 2

See also: Apostle of Myrkul

The last phase of the fight begins as soon as Ketheric is killed, and this time the party faces the Apostle of Myrkul. Twisted by necrotic magic, the Apostle takes up the entire space in the center of the room, summoning necromites as the fight begins.

During this phase, up to four additional Necromites will be created at random points on the edges of the battle at the end of every round. The involucres are resistant to piercing damage but vulnerable to bludgeoning and radiant damage.

The Apostle hits hard, hits often, and has a large health pool. The main gimmick of the fight is that the Apostle will sacrifice a necromite in order to gain the  Finger of Death spell. Should the necromites be dealt with, then this spell cannot be cast.

The Apostle's presence also applies  Bone Chilled to anyone near it on the platform, which prevents healing damaged party members.

Once the Apostle is defeated, Ketheric will finally die for good, allowing the party to retrieve his Netherstone, and proceed to Baldur's Gate.

Tactics

Stage 1 (Moonrise Towers Rooftop)

The best course of action is to burst Ketheric down as soon as possible through whatever means available. His high Armour Class will make it difficult to land attacks on him unless the party manages to inflict conditions that give advantage on attacks such as  Prone,  Blinded,  Faerie Fire, or  Paralysed. He can also be made much less threatening if  Disarmed since he will no longer be able to use his  Divine Smites.

The party can also consume Elixir of Radiant Resistance to reduced the high damage of his  Divine Smites.

The necromites can be safely ignored if the party has a high AC or necrotic resistance, as they only ever cast  Reach from Beyond, a low damage spell. However, both Ketheric and Susdera can summon more of them, so it's best to dispatch them with AoE attacks to avoid being overwhelmed.

Susdera herself may prove to be more of a direct threat at the start of combat given that she can cast  Fireball and the party begins the fight grouped together by default.  Silence or  Darkness spells can neutralize her and give the party a chance to form up as needed. She's also able to cast  Bone Chill, preventing healing for one entire turn.

Alternatively, it is possible to kill Susdera, Squire, Kar'niss, and all 8 Necromites prior to the battle. The party can enter the rooftop early by defeating Radija and the 4 necromites guarding its entrance, allowing them to talk to Susdera and antagonize her into attacking them. This will cause her and all 8 necromites to turn hostile, while the  Invulnerable Ketheric will not unless the party gets too close to him. Susdera and the necromites can be safely dispatched from a distance without approaching Ketheric. The party can also encounter and kill Squire in Ketheric's bedroom. Kar'niss is a boss in his own right who can appear in this battle if the party sides with him during the Harper ambush and follows him all the way to Moonrise. Doing so is not advised as it will make this fight far more difficult than it usually is.

Stage 2 (Mind Flayer Colony)

Phase 1

The restoration pod prior to the fight provides an excellent opportunity to prepare for the coming battle by summoning additional help. If available,  Conjure Minor Elemental can be particularly helpful in keeping the necromites and skeletal involucres under control. The party can also take advantage of the  Rejuvenating Miasma condition to summon multiple undead minions with  Animate Dead.

During the battle, the party should ideally split into three groups: one to deal with the Mindflayer and help Aylin if alive, one to keep Ketheric occupied, and one to deal with the Necromites. Scratch can even be summoned with  Find Familiar: Scratch specifically to free Aylin, as he is one of the few summons with a  Help action. It is even possible to give him invisibility either by potion or spell and send him directly to Aylin and free her the moment the fight starts. Dispatching the Mindflayer quickly will help the party keep control of the battle as it will otherwise attempt to  stun them. It will also grant the party member a high vantage point to fight against the intellect devourers and Ketheric. Dispatching the intellect devourers shouldn't be too difficult as most AoE spells can remove them all at once. They are not too troublesome either, though they could prove an annoyance should they  threaten a ranged unit.

The Necromites on the left platform are not too dangerous, however, they should be eliminated before the next phase, otherwise Ketheric will have a great power spike. One party member with an AoE spell should suffice, leaving them up there will also provide another vantage point for the rest of the fight.

It is recommended to clear all of Ketheric's allies before moving on to the next phase of the fight.

Phase 2

See also: Apostle of Myrkul

Wounded party members can use  Disengage to leave the platform or move to a few small areas at the very edge of it outside the  Bone Chilled aura, and downed ones can be shoved off the platform by others if necessary.

Party members having trouble hitting the Apostle can turn to area-of-effect attacks, such as spells or Smokepowder Bombs. The Apostle's immobility allows certain spells such  Wall of Fire to continuously damage it each turn.

Despite the large size of the Apostle, it's still susceptible to most regular conditions, such as  Blinded, and can be made  Wet using  Create Water. Likewise, although it has a difficult-to-overcome saving throw versus many more severe conditions, casting  Darkness or  Hunger of Hadar on it will blind the Apostle thereby helping any melee fighters prevent some of the damage and combos, in particular removing its ability to opportunity strike.

The Apostle's  Reaper's Scythe does respectable damage and also knocks party members back, potentially off of the platform itself. Positioning all melee units with the spikes of the arena at their back will prevent them from being knocked off the platform this way. Alternatively, the Apostle can be  Disarmed of its scythe, removing the threat entirely.

Notes

• If Gale uses his Netherese Orb Blast during the second encounter with Ketheric, the game can end at this very moment, allowing the party to kill Ketheric Thorm, Enver Gortash, Orin the Red and the Absolute in one fell swoop. This only works during the cutscene; using the ability outside of the cutscene will trigger a Game Over as usual, though this will not trigger the achivement for completing Honour Mode.
• Ketheric Thorm's  Dexterity Saving Throws have Advantage because of Ketheric's Shield. But the Tooltips do not show it.
• If you are an Oathbreaker Paladin above level 11, it is possible to use  Control Undead on the Apostle of Myrkul and have him fight for you against his minions. His movement speed of 0 means he will not follow you anywhere to fight anyone out of his range. You could then attack him again and kill him while he remains friendly and won't fight back. This death however will not trigger the cut scene where he turns back to Kethric or the Dream Visitor returns. Looting the body of the Apostle will give you a supply pack, a letter from Isobel, Kethric's Warhammer, and Kethric's Shield, but not the Reaper's Scythe, Reaper's Embrace or Ketheric's Netherstone. This option thus prevents the game from progressing to Act 3.
• During any fight with Ketheric, disarming him neuters his ability to use Smites. If disarming him in the initial fight and picking up his warhammer, then he has a Flail of Myrkul during the fight in the Mind Flayer Colony. Again, this will prevent him from using Smites. In fact, he does not seem to engage in melee at all in this case, simply directing his minions to target a specific character in party each turn. He will always have his warhammer in his cutscenes.