Baldur's Gate 3 allows you to immerse yourself in the world Dungeons & Dragonstranslated from desktop to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S by Larian Studios. As such, the game is full of fantastic creatures, deadly opponents, and interesting quests to encounter and overcome.
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One soon Baldur's Gate 3 a quest that can lead to an unexpected outcome is Search the Cellar, which can be started in Act One's Blighted Village. After reading the diary in the village alchemist's house, you'll be tasked with discovering the alchemist's true identity – and the contents of his secret dungeon beneath the house.
Updated by Jeff Brooks on November 5, 2025: This guide details what can be done with Necromancy of Thay, from the humble beginnings of the first act to the late game third act adventures. You'll have to go through some very tough skill tests to get the best rewards, but this book is definitely worth the time investment needed to get it. The guide has been updated with new images, formatting, helpful links, and clearer instructions on what to do with this mysterious volume to get the most out of it.
Where to find Necromancy Thay
Under the Rotten Village (Act 1)
Thay's Necromancy is an evil book that you can find very early on your way in Baldur's Gate 3. more precisely you can find him in the first act in the basement of the pharmacy. All you have to do is travel to Corrupted Village then go to the first house to the left of the Blighted Village waypoint. This is the village apothecary and right behind the counter that leads to the basement of the apothecary you will find a wooden hatch.
Once in the apothecary basement, look for a lever on the wall behind some crates on the opposite side of the basement from the ladder. Activating this lever will open a nearby secret passage that will eventually lead to a confrontation with some skeleton guards. Once you take them out, continue exploring the basement to eventually come across it Ornate mirror. As it turns out, this is a magic mirror that you can actually talk to, and there are a few different ways to successfully get through the mirror and into the room with the Necromancy of Thay book:
|
Dialogue options |
DC |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|
|
Intimidation |
15+ |
You can try to intimidate the mirror by threatening to break it. |
|
Bard of intimidation |
15+ |
If you're a Bard, you can threaten the mirror and say you'll sell it as an antique. |
|
Strength |
15+ |
You can use a nearby rock to directly break the mirror without crossing the fortress threshold. |
|
Dark Diary (Persuasion) |
15+ |
If you found the Dark Diary in the coffin in this basement and read it, you can trick the mirror into thinking you are its owner, Ilyn Toth. |
|
Destroy the mirror |
ON |
Outside of conversation, if you can deal 22+ damage in a single hit to the mirror, you can destroy it and break the medium durability threshold. |
|
Take the Mirror's Quiz |
ON |
You can also go the route of answering a series of questions from the mirror, and this quiz comes with its own skill checks and paths. |
After overcoming the magic mirror, you will need to find a rusted key or use various other methods to get to the rusted iron gate in this room. You'll obviously want to disarm the traps in this room first, but once inside you'll be able to grab the Necromancy of Thay book.
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How to open Necromancy Thay
You will need to find dark amethyst
To actually open the Necromancy of Thay book, you'll need a dark amethyst. Fortunately, it can also be found in the Blighted Village – more specifically, in the village well in the Matriarch Spider's lair. You'll need to climb down this well (or, alternatively, break down a wall leading into the cavern beneath the well in the Blacksmith's cellar). You can find the Dark Amethyst on a pile of bones on the western side of this cavern, behind all the Phase Spiders as well as their Matriarch.
The standard route is to defeat all these spiders first and then get the dark amethyst, but you can also use stealth or invisibility to sneak past the spiders, grab the amethyst and teleport, although it's much more difficult.
After obtaining the dark amethyst using whatever path you choose, simply interact with the Necromancy of Thay book in your inventory. You will get the option to “Place the amethyst in the hole on the book cover,” and you'll want to select this. From there you'll have four options and one you'll want to select is “Open Book”.
What to do with necromancy Thaye
Obviously, you'll want to read it
If you are looking for a guide on how to open the Necromancy of Thay book, you probably want to read it successfully. In order to read this book, you will need to pass three separate wisdom checks after opening the book, and if you fail any of them, you will suffer a curse. (either Whispers of Madness or Baleful Knowledge, both do the same thing: inflict Disadvantage on Wisdom Checks until a Remove Curse spell is cast on the character).
However, with each success you get rewards such as Talk to Dead Ritual Spell and Forbidden Knowledge passive. After you've made all three initial saving throws, you get all you can out of the book (for now) and it slams shut.
Unlock Thay's full potential necromancy in the third act
It's easy to forget about an item tucked away in your inventory since Act 1, but you can finally unlock the full potential of Necromancy Thay in the titular city of Baldur's Gate with the help of Tharchiat Codexa secret tome found in the vault below Sorcerous Sundries – specifically the Elminister's part of the vault.
Tharchiate Witheringwhich reduces their Constitution score by 5 points. However, once the curse is lifted using the Remove Curse spell, your character will benefit Tharchiat Codex: Blessing
After you've read through the Tharchiate Codex, you can then re-read the Necromancy of Thay. Passing a Wisdom saving throw (DC 20) The magic of Danse Macabrewho will summon four Ghouls to fight for you.
|
Task |
Remuneration |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|
|
Successfully turning (at least) one page |
Talk to Dead Ritual Spell |
|
|
Successfully turning all three pages |
Forbidden knowledge |
|
|
Danse Macabre magic |
A permanent 5th-level Necromancy Spell that unlocks for the character reading the book; it allows them to summon four (uncontrollable) Ghouls to fight for you. Usable once per long rest. |
destroy the book with Radiant damagebut that's really not recommended, as it only gets you a bit of approval from Karlach, Lae'zel, and Will – and also forces you to fight three enemy Shadows when the book is destroyed.
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All in all, the Necromancy of Thay is one of the more mysterious items in Act 1, and it's great that there are so many different ways to go about unlocking it – and the rewards for doing so.
- Released
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August 3, 2023
- ESRB
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