Despite its description, Sanguine Animation consumes corpses rather than blood surfaces in order to create Bloodmarrow Skeletons. Knocking enemies off the platform leaves less corpses for Orin to consume.
Orin can be fought at the Bhaal Temple in the Undercity Ruins. For the fight, she takes the form of the Slayer (see Slayer for a list of its attacks) and begins the fight with either 7 stacks of Unstoppable on Balanced difficulty or 12 stacks on Tactician difficulty. These stacks are refreshed by Boon of Bhaal at the end of every round, so long as at least 1 Reaper of Bhaal is still chanting.
The 6 Reapers of Bhaal start the battle with Sanctuary and continually chant to activate Boon of Bhaal, which is represented by the giant skull over the Chamber's door. The Reapers of Bhaal do not directly participate in the fight until either Orin is defeated or their chanting is disrupted by conditions such as Prone, Silenced, Hypnotised, Fearful, or Stunned. Be aware that killing the Reapers of Bhaal before starting the fight with Orin (e.g., through stealth and long range archery) prevents the Boon of Bhaal from being removed since they died before entering the turn order. This requires the party to remove all of Orin's Unstoppable stacks each turn without having any way to stop the Boon of Bhaal.
If Orin is downed in any manner, she always dies, even if the party use a non-lethal ability or attack that imposes Knocked Out when they reduce a creature's hit point to zero or one, such as Pommel Strike.[3]
If Orin does not kill her kidnapped victim during the dialogue before the fight, they are restrained on an Altar in the center of the room. A successful DC 25 Sleight of HandCheck to lockpick their chains allows them to join the fight with whatever stats and weapons they had upon their capture; the Altar Key can also be used if it was pickpocketed from Orin or looted from her corpse. Stealthily lockpicking the altar before engaging in the battle initiates dialogue with Orin, as if the victim were still restrained, but allows the interacting party member to bypass dialogue checks that can convince Orin to refrain from killing the abductee. However, if the freed victim is then downed or killed during the fight, their death is permanent; they cannot be revived by Withers or use of Revivify.
If the party use Speak with Dead on Helena Anchev's corpse prior to the fight (which generally requires circumventing Orin on the platform), they can discover that she betrayed Orin on Sarevok's orders. If they tell Orin this and then taunting her further by succeeding a DC 25 DeceptionCheck, DC 25 PersuasionCheck, or DC 25 ReligionCheck, Orin completely breaks down. Bhaal then forcibly transforms her into the Slayer Form, and gives her the unique buff A Mist Most Scarlet.
In Honour mode, Orin has Legendary Action: Sanguine Lash in her slayer form, allowing her to use Sanguine Lash as a reaction once per round, which she applies only against foes who use melee attacks against her. She also has Legendary Resistance against being incapacitated. The Boon of Bhaal grants the legendary action Bhaal's Edict - if Orin does not use her Sanguine Lash in her turn (i.e., the party and its allies make no melee attacks against her), the Boon of Bhaal forces Bhaal's Edict upon one the party members. If that party member is unable to kill another creature, they die upon ending their turn. Death Ward does protect party members from Bhaal's Edict, although in this case they lose all of their current buffs and conditions as if they had briefly died.
If the The Dark Urge was chosen as Origin, they must challenge Orin in a one-on-one fight with Bhaal's favour on the line. The duel separates the player character from their companions. Orin is not granted the Unstoppable feature during the duel and the Boon of Bhaal is not active. Neither combatants can make Opportunity attacks[verify] or be forcefully moved against their will. Dying during the duel does not result in an immediate game over, but impacts the personal story of the Dark Urge. Their allies then start fighting the normal version of the encounter against Orin and her cultists. While Orin does not heal any damage done to her in the duel, she gains the Unstoppable feature she normally has. If the The Dark Urge does not show up, Orin reverts to her standard boss fight with the game treating the outcome as if the Urge lost their duel against her.
Depending on the party's choices in Act Two, Orin has different forms which the party can fight against.
If the Dark Urge has been granted the Slayer form, then Orin fights in her humanoid form. If they converse before the fight, the Dark Urge has the opportunity to transform into the Slayer through dialogue. If this option is taken, they can transform an additional time during combat, if the form is removed, rather than having to wait for a long rest. While in humanoid form, Orin dual-wields Crimson Mischief and Bloodthirst. She also gains one stack of Murderous Strikes per successful hit. After gaining five stacks of Murderous Strikes, she loses all stacks and can use her Deathbringer's Assault to attack seven times. In Honour mode, Orin uses Deathbringer's Assault for her reaction with Murderous Retort when it becomes available.
If the Dark Urge either never received the Slayer Form or passes a check to give her A Mist Most Scarlet, then Orin fights them in her Slayer form. Her version does not function like a Wild Shape or Polymorph - reducing her to 0 hit points kills her. She also cannot use opportunity attacks as the slayer during the duel.
This fight principally revolves around reducing Orin's many stacks of Unstoppable. To accomplish this there are three main strategies:
By dealing enough separate instances of damage to burn through them all each turn and then applying substantial damage with subsequent attacks on the same turn. The easiest way to remove Unstoppable is to use spells with several instances of damage such as Magic Missile or Scorching Ray. Magic Missile is particularly effective since it is guaranteed to hit, does not require a clear line of sight, and can generate additional instances through up-casting, the Psychic Spark amulet or both. Quirks of the initiative order can make accomplishing this more difficult than expected (e.g., if the Magic Missile caster goes last and other high-damage party members go first). Thus one may want to go into this battle with flexible strategies, although the likelihood of initiative problems can be reduced with preparation such as Elixir of Vigilance or the Alert feat.
By stopping all the Reapers of Bhaal from chanting, which stops her from refreshing her stacks each turn. The Reapers of Bhaal cannot be directly targeted due to Sanctuary but can be killed with area-of-effect weapons, items and spells (e.g. Smokepowder Arrows, Fireball, or Ice Storm), ricocheting attacks (e.g., Arrow of Many Targets or Chain Lightning) or disrupted from chanting with conditions such as Prone, Silenced, Hypnotised, Fearful, or Stunned. They can also be knocked off the platform with Arrow of Roaring Thunder, Smokepowder Arrows, and spells like Thunderwave. Once all of the Reapers are eliminated, Orin can no longer refresh her stacks of Unstoppable, and any remaining ones can be removed through conventional attacks.
By preemptively debuffing Orin with Contagion before entering the Temple of Bhaal. When she appears disguised in Rivington, attacking her causes her to taunt the attacker and instantly teleport away. This gives the party two opportunities to cast contagion; once at each location before she escapes. Extra attempts can be gained by knocking her unconscious. To do this, Non-Lethal Attacks must be set, and all the disguised form's hit points must be removed in one attack. Lens is likely the most attractive target, as she only has 8 HP and attacking her does not initiate combat with nearby NPCs. Orin may remain standing, continuing Lens' idle animation, and not show the knocked out condition in her tooltip, but as long as the attack does not trigger a dialogue, she will be incapacitated, and at this point her Mutilated Carapace can be looted. While knocked out Orin still rolls saving throws, allowing the party to try again if the condition fails to take, or inflict as many variants as desired. If the party choose not to knock Orin out, it is worth waiting near her second disguised form before initiating dialogue to give the saving throws time to play out. Upon being later encountered in the Temple of Bhaal, she retains any diseases inflicted on her, no matter how much time has passed or how many long rests are taken by the party. While all variants of Contagion are powerful debuffs, the following two are of particular interest:
Contagion: Slimy Doom paired with a spell which deals damage every turn during the fight (i.e., Wall of Fire, Cloudkill, or Phantasmal Killer) stuns her as long as the damage spell is active. Note that Orin's Unstoppable only stacks to reduce damage to one, instead of preventing it completely. As a result, any attack which hits her stuns her. As this stun lasts until the end of her next turn, persistent area attacks renew the stun before she can take any action; they deal damage at the start of her turn.
Contagion: Mindfire makes her hostile during future encounters via the Befuddled condition. This starts combat immediately when the party approach her in the Temple of Bhaal; she does not have an opportunity to sacrifice the victim, and related skillchecks are skipped. She is also hostile when she appears disguised as the kidnapped victim. While in this form, Orin cannot be killed even if her hit points are reduced to zero. However she can be Knocked Out by using Non-Lethal Attacks. When she is then encountered outside the Temple of Bhaal, she has access to neither the Unstoppable condition, nor the Slayer form.
Alternatively, on lower difficulty levels the fight can be 'cheesed' by knocking Orin off of the platform to instantly kill her.
On Honour Mode Orin's Sanguine Lash can knock back multiple party members, and if they are near the edge of the abyss this can lead to their deaths.
↑ Orin's Slayer form has higher stats than the version used by the Dark Urge.
↑ While the player character needs to read Regarding the Slayer as the Dark Urge to use Piercing Growl in their Slayer form, Orin's version automatically has this ability.
