In Baldur’s Gate 3, there are many missable quests and battles that, if given the chance, you should go out of your way to try. As you make your way into Wyrm’s Crossing and the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate, one such questline manifests as a boss battle with Raphael, the devil that has been stalking and harassing you for pretty much the entire game.
But there’s a massive difference between wanting to put the beat down on Raphael for being an insufferable creep and actually doing it. In order to make it to the final confrontation with the demonic dealmaker himself, you’ll have to sneak into his home, also known as the House of Hope.
Let’s start at the Devil’s Fee
Technically speaking, you’d begin this quest by speaking with Raphael in his room on the top floor of the Sharess’ Caress in Wyrm’s Crossing. In this conversation, he’ll offer you a deal — if you can promise that you’ll give him Karsus’ Crown, he’ll reward you with the Orphic Hammer, which is the only weapon that can free the Githyanki Orpheus from his chains within the Astral Prism.
It’s worth noting you can choose to take the deal or not; either way, you can still embark on the journey that ends with this boss fight. In any case, I chose to bypass that conversation (because I had already heard the spiel in a previous save and then died against Helsik, the owner of the Devil’s Fee shop, and her Gilded Imps and Gilded Minotaurs.
In any case, the Devil’s Fee is located to the north of the Lower City and can be accessed easily by fast traveling to the Lower City Central Wall waypoint and heading north. Helsik is not immediately antagonistic, but I was impatient and decided to kill and loot her body for the Grimoire Bound in Imp Skin, an item that’ll let you create a portal to Raphael’s Home, the House of Hope.
Head upstairs and avoid the trap to enter Helsik’s Room, where you’ll find a demonic summoning circle. In this room, you’ll find several items you’ll need to place on the circle to open the portal: you’ll need to put a skull on the arrow facing west, a Coin of Mammon on the arrow facing northwest, a diamond on the arrow facing northeast, some incense on the arrow facing southeast, and an Infernal Marble at the center of the circle.
As soon as this is done, the portal will open, and you’ll be able to enter the House of Hope.
Hope dies today
In the House of Hope, you’ll meet Hope — an astral projection of a dwarf cleric trapped within the prison in Raphael’s home. I hope you can look past her eccentricities because you’ll need to rescue her if you intend to beat Raphael. Hope will give you a debtor’s disguise, which will let you navigate through the house without being harassed by enemies.
But be careful — if you decide to bring a character from your camp to the house after Hope initially gives you the disguises, you need to manually equip the disguise as a camp outfit, or the debtors will see you as an intruder. If you’re comfortable with that, then power be to you, but there are a lot of enemies here.
It should be said that in my playthrough, because I didn’t accept or refuse Raphael’s deal, my intention in coming here was, first and foremost, to steal the Orphic Hammer from the Archive, which is located at the end of the circular hallway on the map. To be welcomed into the Archive, talk to Hope and pass a Persuasion check so she’ll tell you the Archivist is terrified of the high inquisitor of Zariel named Verillius Receptor. If you’re able to get this name out of Hope, you can tell the Archivist you’re a Receptor in disguise. In the House of Hope Archive, you’ll find three very powerful items that can be stolen — the Amulet of Greater Health, the Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength, and the Orphic Hammer.
Speak with the Archivist until he invites you to relax in the Boudoir, the room that, until now, you weren’t able to access because you lacked an invitation. In this room, you’ll meet Raphael’s incubus, Haarlep, and you have a choice to make — to be honest, none of the options are ideal, but you can choose to let him make a copy of your body to “play around” with if you get my drift, but you can also fight Haarlep and reach the same ends. In any case, do what you need to do to get through this encounter, and you’ll find Raphael’s safe, located to the left when facing the bed. The password to unlock the Orphic Hammer is in this safe, so it’s time to head back to the Archive.
Before that, you can locate an Inert Infernal Gem midway between Hope’s Prison and the Archive. This gem unlocks a hidden room containing 666 gold, a Staff of Spellpower, and the Helldusk Helmet, but only if you pass both a Wisdom (DC 10) and Arcana (DC 20) check. It can be rather tough, but adding the Helldusk Helmet to your inventory is worth it.
OK, now — this part is important. Separate one party member who has Invisibility or Greater Invisibility and send everyone else to the opposite end of the circular hallway to the hatch leading to Hope’s prison. Cast one of the aforementioned spells on your ONE character and send them into the Archive to grab the three items I mentioned before. You don’t have to get all three items if you don’t want to — the most important one is the Orphic Hammer, but before you grab it, be ready for all hell to break loose. As soon as you grab the hammer, everyone in the house will turn against you, so before your invisibility runs out, run back down the hall and join your party in Hope’s Prison.
Rescuing Hope
I found this segment to be much easier if you leave everyone else by the ladder and only use one person, ideally someone with Dimension Door, Misty Step, and Fly. In my case, it was Astarion, whom I have been feeding parasites. To free Hope, you’ll need to navigate to both sides of this arena and use the Orphic Hammer to smash a duo of crystals, at which point she’ll be freed from her chains and join your party.
It can be tough, especially if you’re the only character in play. There are a ton of monsters who will use Eldritch Blast, which will wear down your character very quickly. Feel free to bring another character to distract the monsters while you do what you need to do. I personally found it easier to keep all of my party in play, just have them further back so Astarion could do what he needed to do.
If you’re able to successfully rescue Hope, then it’s time to blow this popsicle stand. If you chose to leave Hope in chains, the next part might be a bit easier depending on how many Invisibility spells you can muster, but chances are the answer to that is “not a lot.” Regardless, your next move is to make for the entrance of the House of Hope, but practically every demonic entity in the house will be in your way. In this instance, my best advice would be to not waste time (or energy) fighting them — just dash.
As soon as everyone in your party has reached the entrance door, open it and get ready for the fight of your life. It can be ironically hopeful, actually making it to the entrance somewhat unscathed, but then — at least for me — that’s when the theme song started playing. Approach the summoning circle and watch as Raphael materializes, bringing along with him a potentially familiar face — Yurgir, whom you may have fought in Shar’s Gauntlet in Act 2. He’s alive, somehow! In a strange turn of events, you might be able to recruit him to your cause before the fight begins, but it’s a tough persuasion check (DC 30).
If you’d like some help in actually defeating Raphael, we have a guide on performing a miracle that you can check out. In the meantime, we wish you the absolute best in dealing with this monster of a boss.
Published: Oct 21, 2023 09:45 am