There are plenty of different ways to boost your character stats as you make your way through Baldur’s Gate 3, but the game hides one of the best options in Act 3.
The Mirror of Loss is a mystical artifact that players actually first encounter while exploring the Gauntlet of Shar in Act 2. The Gauntlet’s Mirror is cracked and unusable, but there’s another hidden far below the House of Grief in Baldur’s Gate. Should you successfully reach the second Mirror, you might be able to earn a permanent attribute increase for multiple characters.
Mirror, Mirror
Before you can interact with the Mirror, at least one of your party members needs to pass a DC 25 Arcana or Religion check to recognize what it is. Once someone succeeds, everyone will have the opportunity to get a bonus from the Mirror, but first they’ll need to offer a prayer to the Mirror and pass their own DC 25 Religion check.
After successfully offering the prayer, each character can choose a memory to sacrifice. The memories are listed in order of their associated attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Characters can also try to deceive the Mirror, but even doing so successfully won’t get them any bonuses.
The chosen attribute will get a -2 penalty from the Stolen Vigour curse. Then characters can choose from a new set of memories with associated attributes listed in the same order. The adopted memory brings a +2 bonus to its associated attribute, and the best part is that the Stolen Vigour curse can be cleared away with a Remove Curse spell or a long rest.
Reading the fine print
Passing a DC 25 Religion check isn’t something that most characters will be able to do easily. There are plenty of ways to raise your odds in an ability check, but there are two different tricks that are specifically associated with this check.
When you first enter the House of Grief, Mirie offers to give you a Mapping of the Heart. Whichever character you choose to have go through the Mapping can get advantage on the Mirror’s Religion check.
The other way to improve your odds with the Mirror either requires a bit of luck or some serious foreknowledge. Way back in Act 1, you might have discovered a book called the Necromancy of Thay. If, while investigating that tome, you received Forbidden Knowledge, you can offer those secrets to the Mirror in exchange for an attribute bonus – no Religion check needed.
Those tricks can only help one character each, but aside from that the process is the same for everyone. Make a DC 25 Religion check, choose an attribute to sacrifice, then choose an attribute to boost. Of course, actually getting to the Mirror of Loss is another matter entirely. Your experience traveling beneath the House of Grief has everything to do with your relationship with Shadowheart, and that can mean there’s a big fight standing between you and the Mirror.
