Cazador - weakest villain of this game?(spoilers)

[IndridCold]

After all that hype built up by Astarion and the inhabitants of the manor I expected more than just a little angry man that looks like an asian queer extra from Twilight.

Not saying queer characters cannot be menacing and sinister. Him from PFF is plenty unsettling, even to adults. But there is nothing intimidating about Cazador in person whatsoever. Not his manner, not his dress, not his stature, not his voice. ESPECIALLY not his voice.

He comes off as annoying, condescending, whiny, and entitled. I don't know. In a game where you have fairly compelling villains such as Raphael, Gortash, Kethric and even smaller villains such as Balthazar Cazador stands out as a sore thumb.

Balthazar proves that Larian can make villains look and sound sinister.
Raphael proves that Larian can write unsettling and cunning characters well even if they look 'ordinary'.

Cazador is none of the above so I don't quite understand what they were going for other than a petty melodrama dispute between Astarion and his disappointed asian dad.

[Metrod125]

The only thing threatening about Caz is:
The potential loss of a companion

Him having a ability to damage you in 10m of him in honor mode and hitting like a truck

[GriffinPilgrim]

I rather liked it. Cazador is pretty powerful but the fact that he is, in form an attitude, just an arrogant noble seems fitting. After all for all the supernatural stuff around him the horror of Cazador is basically "domestic abuser" rather than "Dark Lord."

[Brian_the_Brute]

He doesn't even look like a vampire, too much color. Larian removed all the light and dark skintones in final release and just left middle tones for every race. I realized this when I downloaded a mod that has the extremes for all of the hues and was able to make Astarion actually look pale and like a vampire. He looks even more sinister when he gets half-illithid veins, a lot scarier looking than Cazador.

The Cazador fight can be cheesed by just attacking before his long-winded speech, he doesn't get to auto capture Astarion if you do that. That and Hunger of Hadar on him will make him hang back confused in vapor form and occasionally will cast call lighting.

[ReoHays]

Unless you are in Honor Mode. All you have to do is Kill Raphael and get everything out of there. Then everyone after that is easy. Keep and use everything dont pay the imp that got you there.

[IndridCold]

I should have probably emphasised I meant weakest villain in terms of storytelling and presentation rather than mechanics.

I haven't played honor mode yet personally but otherwise Cazador's fight was probably one the 'harder' ones that I've tried especially since iirc there was a bit of a 'timer' involved in case I wanted to save Astarion from being sacrificed.

Originally posted by GriffinPilgrim:

I rather liked it. Cazador is pretty powerful but the fact that he is, in form an attitude, just an arrogant noble seems fitting. After all for all the supernatural stuff around him the horror of Cazador is basically "domestic abuser" rather than "Dark Lord."

Sure, but we're talking about an over the top game where you fly through literal Hell in an alien spaceship that is besieged by other aliens on dragons... at level 1... and then become companions with characters some of which had almost reached demigod status before you've even met them.

The game does undeniably build certain expectations given how overly sumptuous it is with its visual spectacles and mythic scale storytelling. Baldur's Gate 3 is not a subtle game in the least in this regard. There are a lot of cool monsters in this game and well designed humanoid characters as well that look quite sinister(Orin and Balthazar come to mind once again).

Cazador is meant to be the biggest and baddest Vampire that we meet.... nearly at the height of his power.

I won't lie, I was half-expecting some sort of a half... demon bat looking badass or at least a more classic Castlevania style Dracula inspired character.

[✙205🍉🐆→]

I think he would have ascended in 2-3 rounds and then it would have been a completely different fight

[Big Moustache]

Cazador did not choose to look like a Twilight extra. He needs vitamine D. It is the lack of sunlight for centuries that made him depressed abusive dad.

[✙205🍉🐆→]

Originally posted by Fragoos:

Cazador did not choose to look like a Twilight extra. He needs vitamine D. It is the lack of sunlight for centuries that made him depressed abusive dad.

The funniest thing is that he is oriental, I immediately imagined Chinese hopping vampire (Jiangshi)

[KingOfFriedChicken]

The biggest threat to astarion in the past is that cazador as the true vampire is thralls cannot disobey him. I do wish he was a little stronger it's true. But his main threat is astraion before the tadpole was incapable of fighting back, the mere issue of being a thrall is that big a deal.

Altough I wonder what would happen if you completed the good ending rid yourself of the tadpole while playing astarion hmmm... cuz once it's gone he should poof in the sun haha I might try it lol