Should I Kill Redhammer in BG3?

When It Makes Sense

• Good fit: You are roleplaying an evil, violent, or coldly pragmatic Tav and view anyone assisting the Steel Watch as complicit. Redhammer is a Gondian technician who helps maintain the automatons used to enforce the Absolute’s allies, so eliminating him fits a narrative where your party strikes down collaborators rather than converting them.
• Good fit: You have already committed to destroying the Steel Watch and want to leave no witnesses or future threats. If your party has gone loud in the foundry or plans to side against the Gondians, killing Redhammer removes a potential variable from the encounter and may simplify the area’s combat geometry.

When You Should Avoid It

• Warning sign: You are trying to complete the “Save Gond’s Children” questline peacefully or with maximum rewards. Many Gondian NPCs in the foundry, including technicians like Redhammer, can provide information, assistance, or favorable resolutions if kept alive and persuaded. Killing him may cut off useful options.
• Warning sign: Companion approval matters to you. Characters such as Gale, Wyll, and Karlach generally disapprove of unnecessary bloodshed, while even pragmatic companions may prefer intimidation over killing a non-hostile tradesman. If you are romancing someone or trying to maintain positive standing, sparing him is usually safer.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• You receive experience points and any loot Redhammer carries, which can be useful if you are optimizing character progression or gear before the foundry’s major fights.
• Killing him reinforces a decisive, villainous roleplay and removes a named NPC tied to the antagonist faction, which can feel narratively consistent if your party has already chosen violence elsewhere.

Cons

• You lose the chance to learn additional lore, receive quest tips, or unlock peaceful solutions related to the Gondians and the Steel Watch. Baldur’s Gate 3 often rewards talking before attacking.
• Unnecessary killing can lower approval with multiple companions and may push your playthrough toward outcomes where allies become less cooperative, making later social checks harder.

Decision Checklist

• Have you spoken to Redhammer and exhausted his dialogue to see if he offers useful information or a non-violent resolution?
• Does your current party composition and alignment reward mercy, or are you intentionally playing a darker run where lethal choices feel appropriate?
• Did you quicksave before the encounter so you can reload and compare the immediate rewards against any lost story options?

Alternatives to Consider

Before drawing your weapon, try intimidation, persuasion, or deception to get what you need without bloodshed. If Redhammer is hostile because of prior actions, consider using non-lethal attacks to knock him unconscious instead of killing him, which preserves experience and loot while keeping the NPC alive for future interactions. You can also simply walk past or avoid him if he is not directly blocking your objective. Finally, remember that disabling the Steel Watch itself is accomplished through the foundry’s main quest actions; killing every technician is optional and usually not required for the broader storyline.

Final Recommendation

Sparing Redhammer is the better default for most players, especially those on good or neutral paths who want to keep quest options and companion approval intact. Kill him only if you are deliberately playing an evil or ruthless run and have already decided that all Steel Watch collaborators must die. Because Baldur’s Gate 3 is a branching single-player RPG, use quicksaves freely to experiment with both outcomes and pick the one that best serves your story.