Sparing Baldur’s Gate 3’s Nere actually gives him a fate crueler than death
Larian StudiosBaldur’s Gate 3 is filled with antagonists that drive the story in diverging paths, and Nere is definitely one of the most hated. Right from his first appearance in Grymforge, he has been disliked by the majority of the community due to his behavior toward the worker Gnomes and hateful remarks about other NPCs.
More often than not, players choose to kill him as that would open the path to Moonrise Towers in a “good” playthrough. However, Reddit user ‘Padzi’ was quite “surprised” to see that sparing him actually makes him serve a crueler fate than outright death.
The OP showed that if spared, Nere is turned into a zombie under Balthazar (another evil character in BG3). “So killing him by beating him to death, cutting off his head, looting his body of all valuables, and throwing his corpse into a lava flow is the merciful thing to do,” added a player.
Balthazar is a vicious character who specializes in Necromancy, cutting open living subjects, and creating zombies. So being a zombie after being cut open numerous times by Balthazar can be considered a worse fate than being killed by the players themselves
“Who cares about mercy for him, he’s a piece of s**t. I just like killing him,” said another player while others were as surprised as the OP. “OMG! I spared Nere in my current run and I didn’t know he appeared there,” added a player.
In this case, Nere most likely made his way to the Temple of Shar from Grymforge, which was his goal to begin with, but had to face Balthazar in the process. Being the vicious villain Balthazar is, he cut him up and turned him into a zombie.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is all about making choices, so if you are running another new playthrough, you can try and attempt to turn Nere into a Zombie yourself. But if you are just starting your journey in Faerun, make sure to use your companions carefully if you decide to fight Nere in Grymforge.