Baldur’s Gate 3: Herringot Thorm
In Baldur’s Gate 3, Herringot Thorm is an intelligent undead and the customs officer in the shadow-cursed lands, still collecting duties.
This mini-boss can be both simple and difficult, depending on your skills and luck.
Where to Find
Herringot Thorm appears in Act 2 of the game in the shadow-cursed lands on the second floor of the Raitwin Customs, located near the “Raitwin” teleport.
When you meet the toll collector, you have several options on how to deal with her:
- Kill her.
- Appease her with money.
- Deceive her.
How to Kill in Battle
If you decide to fight Herringot Thorm, she is quite a strong opponent unless you know a few secrets that make the battle easier.
Boss Characteristics:
- Vulnerable to acid and force attacks. Stock up on acid spells and scrolls.
- Immune to psychic damage and poisons.
- Warning – initiative +5.
- Immune to undead control and transformation (e.g., “Polymorph” scroll won’t work).
- Resistance to “Disable”.
Abilities: Herringot’s armor is entirely made of cursed coins, allowing her to use them as a whip and increasing her health.
- Bonus action “Whip” – hits the target and pulls it 4 meters closer.
- “Quick Hands” – has an additional bonus action.
- “Legendary Action: Sublimation” (only on “Hard” difficulty) – when part of her armor is destroyed (i.e., you kill one of the shards), she can turn a nearby companion into gold. The target takes a test, and if it fails, it becomes unable to perform any actions for 4 turns.
- After the armor pieces fall to the ground, the boss eventually turns them into mines that explode after 1 turn.
She summons a level 7 halberd made of coins.
The more gold you have in your pockets, the more damage Herringot inflicts with a special strike. To make life easier, lay your gold on the floor in the customs area or leave it in the camp before meeting her.
Gloomy Liches — Key to Victory
During the fight, Herringot is assisted by flying skulls called “Gloomy Liches”, which are a significant source of her health and defense.
- There are 6 in total: 2 on the first floor and 4 on the second.
- Each lich has unique abilities: psychic, necrotic, poison, and fire damage.
Your primary task in the battle with the customs boss is to defeat the gloomy liches:
- Kill the flying skulls as quickly as possible. They can teleport to random locations during the fight. Killing each lich destroys one part of Herringot’s golden armor.
- After destroying all the skulls, the tax collector’s health will significantly decrease, and her armor class will drop. Her appearance will become pitiful. Killing her in this state won’t be much of a problem.
Use area-effect spells to effectively hit the skulls, like: “Fireball”, “Ice Storm”, “Spiritual Guardians”.
In earlier versions of the game, it was possible to destroy the liches in stealth mode before the fight with Herringot, making the battle much easier. However, this has been patched.
Even if you kill them in advance, the gloomy liches will still materialize during the battle.
Small Tips
Here are a few additional tips to make the battle with Herringot Thorm easier:
- Before the encounter, collect handfuls of gold lying on the floor. This will slightly ease the fight, as she won’t be able to create as many mines.
- Before the fight, make sure to drop all your gold far from the battle zone (or leave it in the camp).
- During the fight, disarm the coin mines by picking them up and placing them in your inventory. You can then throw them away so that the customs officer does not deal extra damage to you.
- Take advantage of any opportunity to push the boss off the roof by sneaking up with a potion, using an invisibility spell, or shooting, for example, “Thundering Arrow”. If the fall doesn’t kill her, quickly descend and finish her before she stands.
Peaceful Way to Win
There are several ways to deceive Herringot, all leading to the same outcome — avoiding a grueling battle if successful.
When you approach the customs officer, dialogue will start. Choose the following options:
- “What do you need?”
- “If I give you gold, what will I get in return?”
- Throw a gold coin to the creature.
- “How much exactly do you need?”
- “I don’t give away gold for free.”
Afterward, you will have options to deceive or persuade the creature to peacefully resolve the conflict.
Deception
- Choose any of the following options (difficulty 18):
- [Persuasion] “Why stick around in this rotten building? Take your gold and be free.”
- [Deception] “I’ll take over your toll post.”
- After a successful charisma check, additional deception options will appear (difficulty 21):
- [Deception] “You’ve been promoted! You will collect gold at a customs far better than this.”
- [Persuasion] “You’ve done a great job here. But I’ll take over from here.”
- [Intimidation] “Do you dare question your orders? Vacate the premises immediately.”
If you pass the check successfully, Herringot will surrender, saying, “No, I shall redeem myself!” and self-destruct.
Pay 5000 Gold
An alternative to deceiving Herringot Thorm is simply paying what she asks for.
Choose the following options:
- “What do you need?”
- Throw a gold coin to the creature.
- “How much exactly do you need?”
- “Okay. Take it all.”
Herringot will take the money and leave you alone, not engaging in battle.
Note that:
- If you give less than 5,000 gold, Herringot will immediately attack you.
- Characters like Astarion, Gale, Karlach, Minthara, and Shadowheart will not approve of you giving away all your money.
- If you give Herringot 5,000 or more gold, the customs officer will also give a very rare “Stamped Trade Visa” scroll.
- If you give 5,000 or more gold and then kill her, you will receive the “Stamped Trade Visa” and all your money back along with other rewards.
The Stamped Trade Visa is a very rare and unique scroll in Baldur’s Gate 3 that transforms the target into a gold statue for 3 turns if they fail a constitution check.
Rewards
For killing Herringot (directly or through self-destruction), you receive the following valuable rewards:
- “Wealth and Luck” Morningstar – possesses the unique “Bloody Money” action, dealing 3 damage for every 300 gold the enemy has in their pockets. Some skilled players have killed top bosses in one hit with “Wealth and Luck”.
- Key to the customs office – found on the second floor near where the toll collector roams.
- Iron Vine Shield – obtained only by opening the heavy chest in Herringot’s office on the second floor of the customs.
Achievement
Defeating Herringot Thorm is tied to the achievement “Thriftiness Above All”. To complete it, you must defeat the toll collector without allowing her to use her gold in battle.
Although the description mentions “in battle”, you can achieve this by deceiving the customs officer and causing her to explode at the end of the conversation.
