In Baldur’s Gate 3 there are many challenges that players particularly fear due to their difficulty. The community agrees that one opponent is particularly nasty – and that can also be confirmed by MeinMMO editor Caro in every way. Hardly any opponent could make her as angry as a tree.
In the subreddit of Baldur’s Gate 3, I came across an inquiry regarding “that one completely unbalanced side quest that requires a godless skill level and an incredibly specific mechanic.” I could name a lot of situations that could demand a lot from me in the game, like the Githyanki Inquisitor or Raphael. But when I saw which opponent was voted to the top by the community with 3,000 upvotes – those bitter memories came flooding back.
We’re talking about a tree. But not just any tree. The worst tree in the history of trees, in the history of opponents, one of my most hated enemies, with whom I definitely still have an account to settle:
The game calls him the “shadow-cursed shambling mound,” I call him the personified suffering and end of one of my many attempts for a successful Honour Run.
I thought I had processed my bad feelings for this stupid tree. I was mistaken. At least I am not alone with my frustration towards this disaster of an opponent. The community is loud and clear about how much they loathe this tree.
Here you see the animated short film for Patch 8 from Baldur’s Gate 3, whose characters I actually like a lot unlike the tree:
The tree doesn’t just fight unexpectedly, but really nasty
You encounter the shambling mound in Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3, where it camouflages almost perfectly into its environment, which is as dark and rotten as it is. Only with a perception check with a difficulty of 30 can you become aware of its surprise attack. If not, it and its smaller but equally annoying pests (that’s their real name, and it fits) will attack from ambush. Fthebo calls the creature the “Honour-Mode Jumpscare” on Reddit for good reason.
The battle is not only bad because it is so unexpected. The monsters can quickly lead to a TPK (Total Party Kill), which you wouldn’t have expected from those nasty root creatures.
The tendril pests ensure that your team is quickly restrained without the right preparation or equipment. Once that happens, you will quickly become their playground.
The shadow-cursed shambling mound can devour a character, which instantly kills you if you are already restrained.
And in Honour Mode, the tree really hits hard:
- You end your turn 5 meters away from the shambling mound? You are restrained and take 3d10 necrotic damage.
- You attack the creature in melee? You might get tangled up.
- You use spells? It has a constant advantage on its saving throws.
- You want to shroud it in darkness? It can see through magical darkness.
The only hope in the fight is to create movement freedom through an elixir or spell to avoid getting entangled. Additionally, you need attacks that do not deal cold, fire, necrotic, lightning, or piercing damage; otherwise, you can try for a long time.
Moreover, all abilities and conditions that prevent you from being frightened are useful to save you from a round of tendril beatings.
The community hates this thing just as much as I do
The community on Reddit offers various tips on how to deal with the rotting idiot. And these prove that sometimes it’s better to be clever instead of reckless.
“I would just blow up this entire zone immediately. If this thing didn’t give so much XP, I wouldn’t even touch it,” writes popileviz, and Sneaky_Island also reports: “I intentionally avoided this entire encounter for my Honour Run. It was going too well and I didn’t want to risk it. It was a good decision because that was the run in which I got the golden dice.”
How strong the aversion towards this tree actually is, Mynos summarizes with the following title: “This is the Wulbren Bongle among plants.”
Similar to the rotting shambling mound, I had another encounter with another creature that my co-op team and I barely managed to survive. Unlike my hated tree, however, the other little creature was able to teach us a valuable lesson – one should not be too greedy in Baldur’s Gate 3: A cursed imp punished my team’s greed for gold in Baldur’s Gate 3 and nearly ended our Honour Run
