Act 3 is the time when all the stories coalesce into one big alliance plotting an ending. Near enough, most of the side quests, and main quest all resort to some form of ending-altering spin, and the Rapahel deal is no different. After you meet the man in Act 2, you can find him in the Sharess Caress upstairs bedrooms, where you can learn more about a potential deal you can form. No matter what decision you choose, it will have implications on the type of side content you can do, how it affects your character and more. Here’s a rundown of what to expect if you take Raphael’s Deal or not in Baldur’s Gate 3
Should you Take Rapahel’s Deal or Not in Baldur’s Gate 3?¶
Here’s a look at the possibilities and the outcomes of all the Raphael deal possibilities in Baldur’s Gate 3.
When you approach Raphael, he will explain that he wants the crown of Krasus, in exchange for finally removing your tadpoles, after teasing you about it in Act and giving you the Hammer of Orthric. If you get the hammer, it means you can complete the Voss, and Laew’zel storyline, break Orpheas out of his slumber inside the Prism, and begin the Githyanki revolution.
Yet, giving Rapahel the Crown of Krasus is a dangerous game. He says he wants to use it to control the Hells, and make him a mighty archdemon. Yet, the crown is what holds the Elder Brain under control by the absolute. So, there are certainly a lot of dangerous implications that derive from the deal getting accepted.
As for your companions, a few of them have their concerns about the matter. For one, Astarian is okay with the deal, as he gets to learn more about the writings on his back, and can handle Cazzador. Meanwhile, lawe’Zel is also okay with the deal, as it’s a way to complete her storyline (she is also okay with you refusing the deal and stealing the hammer anyway). Meanwhile, characters like Wyll and 
Karlach have had their fair share of demon interactions, and so, there responses.
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that even if you say accept or refuse to take the Raphael Deal in the Sharess Caress, you can change your mind later to a degree. If you refused the deal, simply return to Raphael and change your mind, as he’s apparently okay with waiting for you. If you take the deal, however, you can just return to his place anyway and steal the rest of the content from his gaff, but he still expects the crown to be his once you’re done with the main storyline.
What happens if you don’t take Raphael’s Deal in BG3?¶
If you refuse the deal, you can tell Lae’Zel to shut it, as you are going to steal it anyway without giving bargaining power to Raphael.
If you refuse to take Raphael’s deal, you still have options. You can find in ways to his house of hope, and get the hammer, and his other prizes yourself in your own time. If you didn’t kill the fiend in the Gauntlet of Shar, you may already have a clue show to enter the House of Hope.
If you did kill the fiend, you can still enter his house. There is a building west of the Lower City graveyard with a dwarf at a counter. If you speak to her, you can learn more about ways to get into Rapahel’s home. She will provide you with the details on how to enter it through Avernus and enter his house of hope that way. The Emperor advises you against it, but who cares? You’re probably level 11-12 at this point.
As for ending implications, you can get a few slight ending interactions. We’ve tagged them in spoiler boxes in case you aren’t planning on being spoiled!
If you decide to enter his House of Hope, you can expect to steal the Hammer and other legendary and rare items in the process. You may also need to make some fights, and you may need to do some explaining to Raphael why you’re in his place too.
If you refuse to take Raphael’s deal, and do not get into his House of Hope, then, Raphael has no impact on the game’s ending. He will simply wait for a few several thousand years plotting his course of action to once again get control of the crown via the devilish contracts they make when the next best opportunity arises.
What happens if you take Raphael’s Deal in BG3?¶
If you take the deal, you get the hammer and can use it to free Orpheus when you next get the chance to.
If you take the deal, you are given the Hammer, and there is a hell contract written which you are legally entitled to complete, per the contracts with hellish creatures. With the Hammer in hand, you can free Orpheus when the next opportunity arises for you to enter the Prism. Note, that you will enter the prism as part of the final storyline for the game, so you will get to use it as part of a key end-game decision-making event.
If you decide to break that contract, and then steal his contents and other shenanigans not in the interests of Raphael, then you can break the contract. This, in turn, leads to a boss fight. So, if you do intend to go back on it, and have Raphael call you out on your lies, then feel free.
As for the Crown and handing it over, as well as a cure for the tadpole… The answer to that lies within the spoiler tag. It’s a heavy spoiler relating to the end of the game since it relates to the crown that the final boss wears. So, reveal the info at your own peril.
Okay, if you’re reading this, the quest appears bugged. If you manage to defeat the brain and took the deal, there can be instances where you cannot get the Raphael ending to fire. There is supposed to be an ending where Raphael shows up at the end of the Withers cutscene and mentions how nice the crown is, and all the devilish things he will do in hell with it. So, expect a bug fix to sort this out in the future as one of the potential endings with the crown at some point.
If it does fire, then Raphael will greet you with a message saying he might find the inventor of the crown and show him what his crown is capable of. Then he mentions his forces are descending onto Zarial’s flying fortress in Avernus, and will likely win the battle. He also mentions that other lords of hell are already looking into peace and paying tribute, including Mephisto. So, Raphael seems to be in a position to make the Blood War very interesting.
What happens if you ignore Raphael in Act 3?¶
If you decided to ignore Raphael and his deal completely, you can still get the chance to take the deal or not. Again, we are spoiler tagging this, as it relates to just before the final fight of the game.
He will appear during the build-up to the final battle in the game. If the Emperor runs off, and you cannot free Orpheus, Raphael can turn up and allow you to free him with the Hammer, but the crown is his. This seems to be what happens if you enter the end game battles, with no Hammer, and decide where you don’t take the Emperor’s advice.It really is your only opportunity to actually finish the game otherwise, as you either need Orpheus or The Emperor free to actually complete the game. So, if you decide not to speak to Raphael or side with the Emperor, Raphael automatically wins. We found this out via Ghostly21Gaming’s Youtube channel, as it seemed weird that there was no Raphael ending despite taking the deal. Turns out it seems like a bug.
And there you have it. You now know about the Raphael deal possibilities in Baldur’s Gate 3.
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Lvl 11-12? How? Just now I got to lvl 10.