Best way to save Isobel and defeat Fist Marcus in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

The moment you reach the Last Light Inn and talk to Isobel in Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll encounter Fist Marcus. If you’re truly evil, you can side with Fist Marcus and help him kidnap Isobel, but you’ll be turning your back on everyone in the Last Light Inn. What I chose to do was stand my ground, defend Isobel, and fight Fist Marcus — and I was successful. Here’s my winning strategy to beat Fist Marcus in Baldur’s Gate 3 that you can apply to your battle.

Note: If you missed every opportunity to get a Moonlantern and break through the major Shadow Curse section, know that you are not softlocked. I created an entire guide to help you if you feel like you’re softlocked in Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Fist Marcus cheese strategy | How to beat Fist Marcus easily

To defend Isobel successfully and beat Fist Marcus in Baldur’s Gate 3, you need to focus all your damage on Fist Marcus, support Isobel with spells that heal and grant armor, and block the doors to keep the demons at bay.

Best way to defeat Fist Marcus in Baldur’s Gate 3

The first thing I did was use my Polymorph scroll to turn Fist Marcus into a sheep. I highly recommend using Polymorph on Fist Marcus, but if you don’t have that spell or scroll, I recommend you use other powerful scrolls to deal damage and control Fist Marcus. I think Sleep and Hold Person could be really great to stop Fist Marcus, but Polymorph is the best option.

Screenshot: PC Invasion

Once Fist Marcus was turned into a sheep, his total health dropped down to three. He still has plus 40 HP, but I quickly knocked that down to zero after attacking with two other characters. After Fist Marcus dies, he gets reborn because of the Shadow Curse, so you’ll need to defeat him again.

To defeat Fist Marcus a second time, I recommend using high damage single target spells and attacks. I used my best Monk attacks to lower his health, spells like Eldritch Blast, Chromatic Orb, and Fireball with my Warlock (just watch out to not hurt your allies and Isobel with the big AoE spells), and two big attacks from my Druid shapeshifted into an owlbear. With that, Fist Marcus is down for good.

Best way to defend Isobel in Baldur’s Gate 3

The most important part of this fight is protecting Isobel because if her health hits zero, the fight immediately ends and Fist Marcus kidnaps her. To do this, I surrounded Isobel with my entire party for the entire fight. I also used Healing Word, Mage Armor, and Invisibility to protect Isobel from incoming attacks.

Screenshot: PC Invasion

I found that the best way to defend Isobel is to put all my characters near the doors. I placed my owlbear Druid in the doorway so enemies couldn’t come through, my Monk on another doorway to make Opportunity Attacks on incoming demons (which killed two of them), and my Warlock and Wizard stationed around Isobel for anything that broke through.

With Fist Marcus dead, all you need to do is clean up by taking care of the remaining demons. This is pretty easy to do thanks to the NPCs helping out. Stay close to Isobel to defend her to the end, but have one or two characters in your party hunt the last remaining demons to win the fight.

Hopefully, you can use my exact strategy to beat Fist Marcus in Baldur’s Gate 3, or you can learn something from it and apply your own cheese to beat Fist Marcus and defend Isobel. If you don’t have a Druid in your party, I recommend recruiting the Druid hireling. You can also learn the best party class compositions to make your party even stronger.