Cazador boss fight

[Watermelon]

How do i beat cazador while astarion is trapped to the ritual without abusing exploits.
I tried multiple strategies. First one is nuking the ♥♥♥♥ out of everything with fireballs. Second one was concetration spells with wyll casting hadar, jaheira the plaque, shadow holding cazador with a hold spell and tav with the bubble of immunity while also using the bright spell, and still i cant beat him before he ascends. The only way i beat him was fighting outside the arena so the cutscene would not appear :/

[seeker1]

I'll throw out a few tips.

Cazador is very vulnerable to sunlight. Daylight and Moonbeams on him wreck him. Also focus on anything you've got that damages undead. The werewolves aren't undead, but Cazador and the Gur zombies ARE. When he's in his mist form, he is not indestructible, but pay attention to how that changes his resistances & vulnerabilities. He often casts Blights and other spells on your party, make sure they have Counterspell, Psionic Dominance, and other forms of magic resistance.

Don't worry about the pesky low HP bats. They can barely damage you.

Also, you've got 3 turns to free Astarion. Make that a focus of one party member. If Cazador completes the ritual, Asty dies (and is gone permanently), and Cazador ascends, which really boosts his stats. BTW, the other thing that can short circuit his ascension is killing one of the other spawn around the circle.

[Jehane]

Oprindeligt skrevet af seeker1:

Also, you've got 3 turns to free Astarion. Make that a focus of one party member. If Cazador completes the ritual, Asty dies (and is gone permanently), and Cazador ascends, which really boosts his stats. BTW, the other thing that can short circuit his ascension is killing one of the other spawn around the circle.

I was just going to suggest that, too. It's either that or ungrouping Astarion before entering the chamber so Cazador doesn't even get a chance to use him for the ritual. He'll start fighting the party nevertheless, and once he does that, you can pull Astarion back into the group without any risk of Cazador using him for the ritual. Leaving him in camp and not taking him to Cazador's lair at all might work as well, but something tells me he'll be terribly upset and grumpy when he finds out the party did this crucial part of the quest without him.

[Raz]

- Long strider on all your characters.

- Sanctuary on your player character and Astarion just before triggering the cutscene. Any companion currently talking in a cutscene (which is you by default and Astarion in this case) is considered to be in turn-based mode. Once combat starts your character can just rush to pick up Astarion with Dash then you both can rush back to help the rest of the squad.

- Daylight cast on a characters weapon rather than the orb in the middle of the room. This means that you can more easily keep Cazador in the middle of the light so he cannot escape.

- Elixirs of Necrotic Resistance if you're having trouble tanking hits from him.

- Drop wet on him and blast with all the Lightning and Cold damage spells you got.


Dead and crispy Cazador.

[Bumc]

Start combat with one character (someone that has high Initiative and isn't Astarion himself).
Daylight the field from outside combat (it doesn't put you in combat for some reason).
If you have Scratch, invisibility sneak it through combat and have it save Astarion on round 1.
If you have summons, use them to block the circles.

[mike_hanna211]

One thing I don't like about some of the harder fights in BG3. I would play through, go to cutscene, and then get my ass handed to me. For several fights I had to "cheese" them by attacking before any cutscenes (e.g. Cazador, Viconia, etc.).

It seems the cutscenes put you and the party at a serious disadvantage when combat starts.

[chaosek]

You need to free Astarion or kill one of the other spawn to stop the ritual if you can't kill him fast enough. Misty step helps but you can also jump towards Cazador just before the point at which he starts a conversation. Your character will make the jump before dialogue starts thus bringing you closer to Astarion.
Also cast daylight on your armour (take it off and cast daylight on it) and maybe even all of your other companions. Cazador will take damage from it. Finally if you have Wyll try a 4 fighter/ 2 warlock/ 6 sorcerer on him. This will give him the ability to fire off three eldrith blasts on the first turn (action, quickened spell, action surge).

[jonnin]

Oprindeligt skrevet af mike_hanna211:

One thing I don't like about some of the harder fights in BG3. I would play through, go to cutscene, and then get my ass handed to me. For several fights I had to "cheese" them by attacking before any cutscenes (e.g. Cazador, Viconia, etc.).

It seems the cutscenes put you and the party at a serious disadvantage when combat starts.

this is one of my top complaints about how games do things. I just shoot anyone that seems even slightly unfriendly, as the move the party into obvious ambush to talk thing got old years ago. Its not just this game or even larian though, many older CRPG do this on bosses as well. What makes BG3 double down annoying is that shooting first can break pally oath.

[alanc9]

Getting to Astarion fast should not be that difficult. You should have Misty Step on at least one of your characters by Act 3.

[Mike Garrison]

Yeah, you don't have to free Astarion. You can just kill another spawn. You have three turns to do it, and by that point in time you should be able to kill any helpless enemy in a couple of turns at most.

Obviously if Astarion was in your party, having him taken away like that leaves you with only three, so getting him loose is helpful.

The three things that help you most against Cazador are

1) Daylight
2) Daylight
3) Daylight

[Mike Garrison]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Jehane:

Leaving him in camp and not taking him to Cazador's lair at all might work as well, but something tells me he'll be terribly upset and grumpy when he finds out the party did this crucial part of the quest without him.

You have to pass a persuasion check if you do that. IIRC it wasn't too tough. Only DC15 or so.

[Jehane]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mike Garrison:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Jehane:

Leaving him in camp and not taking him to Cazador's lair at all might work as well, but something tells me he'll be terribly upset and grumpy when he finds out the party did this crucial part of the quest without him.

You have to pass a persuasion check if you do that. IIRC it wasn't too tough. Only DC15 or so.

Even before I enter the palace and start exploring it? I mean, a persuasion check makes sense once the party is in the palace and closing in on Cazador, but if my party is still outside roaming Baldur's Gate and I know I wanna do the palace next, I should be able to go back to camp, tell Astarion to stay and then do the whole palace without him, right? Just like you can do the complete Gauntlet of Shar by not bringing Shadowheart at all.

[belgix]

I've done this battle by luring Cazador upstairs. That 1) remove any backup he may have and 2) because opponents reached the choke point at different pace, that give me time to kill them facing a limited number of them each round. I ungrouped Astarion and he even didn't participate to the battle. He was my backup in case the battle turn ugly (which didn't happen). How easy is this battle with 3 characters? Super easy if you know what to do. Daylight for my monk (Blood of Lathander), something that hit hard for Lae'zel (maybe Silver Sword of the Astral Plane?) and light/radiant related spells for Shadowheart (Spirit Guardians is quite efficient for crowd control in this battle).

[Romnia]

What other people said + wall of fire does wonders along with daylight & co. Lathander's blood is neat for this battle too, as you get a free sunbeam to roast Cazador with and blind the Undead within a certain radius. I usually have it on Shadowheart and move her around with Spirit Guardians healing whoever is tanking Cazador's bs.

[Draknalor]

Cazador video if you need some ideas

https://youtu.be/Un5u73IAYjM?si=t7nyTNmkwh4Ou0C3

[Mike Garrison]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Jehane:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mike Garrison:

You have to pass a persuasion check if you do that. IIRC it wasn't too tough. Only DC15 or so.

Even before I enter the palace and start exploring it? I mean, a persuasion check makes sense once the party is in the palace and closing in on Cazador, but if my party is still outside roaming Baldur's Gate and I know I wanna do the palace next, I should be able to go back to camp, tell Astarion to stay and then do the whole palace without him, right? Just like you can do the complete Gauntlet of Shar by not bringing Shadowheart at all.

No, the check comes *after*. Astarion doesn't make you take him along, but if you kill Cazador when he is not there, on your next long rest he will want that persuasion check. (I'm not certain what the consequences are for a failed check.)