Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems GrymForge Bug - Rescuing Nere

G'day folks!

Okay, I have to report this as a bug, because I have NO idea WTF is going on here. I am trying to save the Grymforge gnomes, but after four tries of this, I can only conclude there's some bug causing this.

I have talked to the gnomes, I have dropped the smokepowder satchels next to the cave-in, then went a safe distance away and ignited them. They blew up the rockface and opened the cave in entrance. But immediately afterwards, ALL the Duergar in the area go hostile and attack. I've tried this four different times now in different ways, and it's the same thing: after the explosion, every Duergar goes hostile.

I have everybody at max level with the best gear I can manage, but even if I pre-buff the party, I get killed in two rounds just from sheer numbers. All the Duergar are getting at least 2 attacks, so that means they're level 5. My party has been wiped 4 times by this, so I'm REALLY calling this some kind of a bug.

Anybody else had this problem??

SKP

All I can say is that, for me, when they go hostile, it's because a gnome walks into the resulting fire from the explosion and takes damage. That triggers the hostility.

So it's somewhat about luck and somewhat about positioning of the explosives. You can always try to Create Water in turn based mode immediately after the explosion, putting out some of the fire that otherwise triggers the attack.

That said, if you chose to fight all the Duergar, it can be a tough fight. But it is something you can win.

(Maybe a little bit of a spoiler, but... You can get some of the Duergar to help you in the fight. Specifically, the ones who want to get paid by Nere and feel they have been shafted thus far.)

I second that it's probably just an NPC getting damaged. I can confirm I was able to use the runepowder last patch, without triggering hostility. This patch, I was trying to get through it a bit quicker, so I just threw two bombs instead. Try that, less risk of collateral damage.

I have replicated this over and over with zero indication of anyone or anything getting damaged other than the smoke powder satchel and the rubble.

Edit: Even the duergar I'm working with are hostile and when you attack Nere he says "What are you doing?" depite the fact that he's hostile and attacking your party. This is CLEARLY a bug.

I've had something like this happen just not immediately after the explosion. If I didn't run up and talk to Nere quickly enough after the explosion everyone would turn hostile even the Duergar I had made a deal with.

I get no opportunity to do anything at all. Immediately following the explosion, initiative is rolled.

Heard back from Larian. Basically, if the smoke powder is detonated too far to the left, it causes a crime interaction with the statue. It is on the list of things to fix now.

I never knew it was even possible to clear the rubble without triggering a massive fight! It’s really tough but quite rewarding. Winning felt like the first time I completely cleared the goblin camp.

My tips are to stay well away from the lava lest you get insta shove-killed, kill as many duergar as possible while exploring Grymforge or they might join the big fight partway through, play a Bearheart barbarian because they canonically can’t die.

It’s still an intense marathon, though. It’s the only time I’ve ever had to rage twice in a single combat because rage “only” lasts ten turns.

I've had the same problem as the OP. I've had to retry this battle 5 or 6 times before finally getting the correct parties into combat (not "aggroing" the gnomes and /or all of the duergar and the correct dialogs to work. Then after getting a victory, I cannot loot Nere's head !!! <grrrrr> He actually died within the doorway to the rubble. I even thought about taking the whole body, but that wasn't an option either.

Seems like the gnomes should run for cover into the hallway to the right under the balcony and not randomly wander around a battlefield.

I finally gave up on completing the quest from Spraw and just moved on.

just to be clear which "smokepowder satchels" did you use to blow the rubble away?

i assume you didn't talk to the gnames before trying to blow them up and therefore this reaction from them is not a bug but just the [frankly obvious] resultbut yes the entire battle is super buggy

Talked to gnomes, agreed with them to blow up
Talked to duergar too.
Blow up the wall.
Duerrgar agro, gnomes start neutral.
100% sure no damagge done to any gnome.
After Gale casts Fireball on Duergar only, loaceted away from the wall, with 100% no gnome in area, the gnomes agro.

This is a bug.
Repeat 5 times to be sure.

Yes, lots of players have struggled in patch 9 with gnomes turning hostile in this battle. It seems even worse now than when this post was created, but hopefully will be addressed in the full game.

I’ve ended up just fighting this battle with no AoE spells or effects at all, which works but does make things a bit more challenging!