Baldur’s Gate 3: Self Same Trial Guide

Baldur’s Gate 3 is an incredible experience that will occupy all of your gaming time in the process. That’s not a bad thing because the challenges and questlines never stop being interesting. One of the best parts is the Gauntlet of Shar, where you need to prove your worth to get to the Nightsong. Along the way, you’ll need to face off against yourself to make it through. Here’s how to complete the Self Same Trial in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Baldur’s Gate 3: Self Same Trial Guide

What Is the Self-Same Trial?

Shar is a mean mistress of the dark, and her trials match that in every way. The idea of this trial is simple: beat yourself, and you’ll win the prize. Easy, right? Well, yes and no. The problem here is that the game punishes you for having a well-oiled machine of a party. If you march in here at level 5 or above, this will be one tough fight. Conversely, getting here at a level lower than that will be hard on its own. So yes, Baldur’s Gate 3 is as cruel as Shar.

Who Should You Bring to the Self-Same Trial?

This is the most important part of the trial. Your choices for party members will be reflected in the fight, so this might be the rare case where you leave your best characters behind. In fact, if you bring some of your worst characters to the fight, you can make this fight fairly easy. This is also true if you leave all party members behind, since entering it by yourself will result in a 1v1 fight.

I brought a mix of my veterans and little-used members to make sure I could take out the easy characters while ensuring I could survive the damage from the strong ones. You can go in with any composition you want; the only objective is finishing the fight.

How To Win the Self Same Trial in Baldur’s Gate 3

The fight itself is pretty tough. Your clones are just as powerful as you are and use the same weapons and armor, too. Additionally, you’re afflicted with a curse if you kill another character’s clone. That means you need to make each character kill their respective clone. If you don’t, you get cursed with a health penalty that won’t go away until a long rest. This isn’t the worst thing, but still an annoying inconvenience.

Set up your party in twos. Separate before the fight and pick a good melee and ranged combo for each duo. You can even stagger all four characters, though I didn’t find this necessary in my experience.

Enemy clones take advantage of your full suite of spells and attacks. Get ready for this fight by casting any armor and protection buffs you have. I’m assuming you’ll have Lae’zel, because why wouldn’t you? She can Misty Step into the teeth of your party at the start of the fight and start ripping you apart. In fact, this happens every time I’ve started the fight, no matter who I’ve brought along.

Take out clone-Lae’zel with Lae’zel while keeping her healed and buffed by Shadowheart. If you don’t care about avoiding the curse, then have all characters focus on Lae’zel. She’ll likely have the most HP, making her the most dangerous melee combatant. She can go down fairly fast, but keep in mind her Action Surge gives her four attacks, so she might take one of your party members down, too.

Next up is Gale, or whoever you have set up as your magic user. He usually starts in the back of the fight, slinging spells of all kinds. Luckily, Gale is a glass cannon. If Lae’zel survives herself, send her to Gale using Misty Step and take him down fast. While your player character is nothing to scoff at, as long you get through Gale and Lae’zel with three characters alive, you can get through this trial without too much issue.

If you want to break the Self Same trial completely, you can unequip all of your armor and weapons. Then start the fight and equip everything on your first turn to leave your clones completely helpless. It’s not the bravest option, but it is nevertheless an available tactic.

That covers how to complete the Self Same trial in Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a tough fight, but following the above tactics should get you through it without too much issue. Hopefully, this got you through the Self Same trial alive and well. For more tips and tricks, check out our dedicated BG3 guides hub.