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Baldur's Gate 3

How to Speak to the Strange Ox in Baldur's Gate 3

By
Seren Morgan-Roberts

This page will offer a guide on how to speak with the Strange Ox in Druid Grove in Baldur’s Gate 3. You’ll find information on where to encounter the Ox and what spells you’ll need in order to speak with the Ox and find out his secrets!

There’s something strange going on with this Ox…we’ll tell you how to uncover his secrets!

Strange Ox Secret Encounter - How to Speak with Animals

The Strange Ox is found in Druid Grove, more specifically in The Hollow, near the path overlooking the ritual below. There are three Ox here, but you want to speak with the Strange Ox because…well, he’s strange.

The Strange Ox can be found in The Hollow in Druid Grove.

Speaking to the Ox without Animal Speech

If you speak with the Strange Ox without activating any sort of "Speak with Animals" iconSpeak with Animals spell, you’ll only have the option to either do an Arcana check, compliment the Ox or insult him. The Arcana option requires an Intelligence Check of 10 to succeed. However, even if you succeed on your check, despite the Narrator pointing out that you know there’s something weird going on the with Ox, you won’t get anything other than a “Moo”. This is because you cannot speak Oxen language, of course!

Speaking to the Ox with Animal Speech

In order to have a “meaningful” conversation with the Ox, you’re going to need to activate some sort of Speak with Animals ability. There are numerous ways you can obtain this ability:

  • Speak with Animals - A Lv 1 Divination Spell which can be learned by Bards, Rangers and Druids.
  • Beast Speech - A Warlock Eldritch Invocation that allows you to cast Speak with Animals without using up a spell slot.
  • Wildheart Barbarian subclass - If you choose the Wildheart subclass, you can learn Speak with Animals at Level 3.
  • Oath of the Ancients Paladin subclass - If you choose the Oath of the Ancients subclass, you can learn Speak with Animals at Level 3.
  • Potion of Animal Speaking - Arron at The Hollow in Druid Grove sells this potion.

Activate Speak with Animals to talk with the Ox.

As you can see, there are several ways to learn Speak with Animals, and if you don’t want to learn the spell you can also just purchase the potion from Arron nearby!

When you have the spell/potion, activate it and then speak with the Strange Ox. You can now understand the Ox and he’ll be rather surprised that you can talk with him! You can first talk to him about trivial things like his background, before attempting to pass the Arcana Intelligence Check, which you need 10 on for a success.

(1 of 2) Your gut tells you that this Ox is…strange

Your gut tells you that this Ox is…strange (left), you’ll need to perform an Arcana check to see if you dig deeper into this or not! (right)

After succeeding on your Intelligence check, you can choose to pry a little deeper into the Ox’s life by choosing the option “there’s more to you than meets the eye. Care to explain?”. After choosing this option, you’ll be tasked with either succeeding on a Persuasion, Intimidation or Deception check. To succeed any of these checks, you’ll need a 10 or more on your roll. Should you succeed on your roll, regardless of your choice, the Ox will tell you he’s escaping to Baldur’s Gate!

You’ll need to find a way to coax the information out of the Ox!

If you’re looking for more information on more side quests, hidden secrets and more in Baldur’s Gate 3, take a look at the following pages:

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Larian Studios
  • Platforms,
    Mac, PC, PS5, XB X|S
  • Genre
    Adventure, RPG
  • Guide Release
    6 April 2023
  • Last Updated
    26 March 2024
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is an immersive roleplaying game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. It features a rich story with multiple outcomes for almost every encounter, and plenty of character customization features including more races, classes, subclasses and party combinations than you are ever likely to explore. The seemingly endless possibilities and numerous choices that you can make throughout your journey make a helping hand always welcome, and that’s where we come in! This guide features the following:

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