Loviatar’s Love, or Torture Buff, is a permanent upgrade in Baldur’s Gate 3 with an excellent in-game bonus during combat. You can get this buff by visiting the shattered sanctum area of the Goblin Village during Act 1 and meeting with a particular NPC known as Abdirak. To get Loviatar’s Love, you must allow Abdirak to inflict pain on you and enjoy it (or at least pretend).
Loviatar is a Goddess well-known for inflicting pain on her followers, who found this process oddly quite satisfying. Since Loviatar inflicted pain on her followers in the Torture Chambers, you will likely find her follower Abdirak there as well.
Obtaining Loviatar Love Buff in BG3
Finding Loviatar’s Love is a multiple-step process in Baldur’s Gate 3. This involves you invading Goblin Camp and making your way all the way to its northern area, Shattered Sanctum. We strongly recommend that you follow our guides to enter this area peacefully. Raising any alarm will make Abdirak leave permanently, locking you out of once per playthrough Loviatar Love buff.
1. Locate the Shattered Sanctum
Loviatar’s Love Buff in Bladur’s Gate 3 can only be obtained from Abdirak, who is available in the Shattered Sanctum area of Goblin Camp. For that, go to the Blighted Village from Druid Grove and head west to reach the Goblin Camp. You can use your charisma checks along the way to avoid physical confrontation.
Head to the east side of the collapsed corridor in the Goblin Camp. There, you will find a goblin named Spike torturing a victim. You can talk to him first and then pass some persuasion checks. Doing so, Spike will inform you about the whereabouts of Shattered Sanctum in the Goblin Camp, which is directly to the North.
2. Find the torture chamber
Now that you have located the Shattered Sanctum, you can head towards the Torture Chambers. These are located on the east side of the Shattered Sanctum. After entering through the main door, you can take a right turn and head straight.
However, if you used the alternate path to enter via Worg Pens, you can find two torture chambers in the Shattered Sanctum to the South. There, you will find Abdirak praying at a bloodied wall with his back towards you.
3. Talk to Abdirak
Talking to Abdirak to obtain Loviatar’s Love in Baldur’s Gate 3 will be an exciting interaction. You must use the conversation options that make Abdirak hit you. For that, you can go through the dialogue options and select the ones we mentioned below:
- What do you mean?
- It’s appalling
- Clever man. How did you know?
- And how would you do that?
- All right, why not?
This will prompt Abdirak to ask you to go to the bloodied wall and face it. Then, he will begin by striking your back with a whip. After the first hit, he will tell you that the pain you suffer will cleanse you, so don’t fight it but rather embrace it. There will be a couple of options for reacting, so you should select either Performance or Intimidation.
Whatever option you select, you must stick with that throughout this event because the roles will get more challenging towards the end of the torture. We decided to go with a Performance check and had to pass a DC5 roll to survive the first whip from Abdirak. This seems strange, but trust us, as you need to endure this pain and humiliation to obtain Loviatar’s Love in Baldur’s Gate 3.
For the next two charisma checks, you need to pass two DC10 rolls in a sequence. This will greatly please Abdirak as he will notice that you are enjoying the pain and embracing it. After the fourth whip strike, reply with the following dialogue option:
- Thank you. I enjoyed myself.
Abdirak will mention that Loviatar was impressed by our performance and deemed us worthy of her blessing. You will get the permanent Loviatar’s Love blessing on your character in Baldur’s Gate 3.
How Loviatar’s Love works in Baldur’s Gate 3
Loviatar’s Love buff can only be gained by the party member who endures the torture at the hands of Abdirak. It can be you or anyone from the active party. Loviatar Love buff in Bg3 is permanent, but if the character carrying this blessing dies, they will lose it permanently. You can only obtain Loviatar’s Love once per playthrough, so be very careful and avoid death at all costs.
Loviatar’s Love grants +2 to the attack rolls, and Wisdom saving throws off its carrier once their HP hits 30%. This buff lasts for three turns.
You will find it very resourceful in combat against more formidable opponents. What makes this buff even better is that its duration is permanent throughout the game.
Effects of Loviatar’s Love Buff on Companions
Once you gain this buff, it will also secure approval from Astarion and Shadowheart. Make sure to include them in your party when you go out to find Loviatar’s Love Buff in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Having Shadowheart is even better as it will resonate with her acolyte background. Moreover, you will also see a dialogue box stating that Shadowheart is inspired by her goal, saying that Acolyte: A Kiss Without Mercy is available for her to pursue in Baldur’s Gate 3.
