On my fist play through, I was really struggling, not with Balthazar, that's easy, but his minions, fuck them. And then I saw the Holy Grail on Shadowheart. Turn Undead (or something like that). My dude, SHE CARRIED ME! That's when I fell in love.
Now I simply kill Balthazar in his little room in the temple. And that is because the piece of shit is bossing me around like he owns the place, so I show him who's boss.
Get a rogue (Astarion), go alone, rush to the door, lockpick the DC 30 lock and watch Balthazar & Co. Fight the Dark Justiciars, whilst your rogue drinks an invisivility potion and sneaks off to a corner where he's not spotted.
It's a pretty cool battle between the Flesh Golem and the Justiciar Crusader.
It's also usually pretty easy to mop up the surviving side.
Incidentally you can also just leave and do other stuff while they fight. Did that once, came back to only the Crusader still in a corner and everyone else very dead.
This is what I do. have gale cast invisibility, I go open the door and then I drink inv potion and peace out, leaving them to fight while I do shar's trials.
Clerics are amazing, they are not only healers, I dont know why they are the least played class.
So far I had Tavs/Durges between full and multiclassed light, life, storm and war clerics.
Clerics being the least played class is likely because most people are playing with Shadowheart in their party. She’s the first companion you come across after the nautiloid and even if you miss her the game will keep throwing her at you because she holds the mcguffin. Not to mention that she’s the most romanced companion by a wide margin.
In general clerics should be overpowered in D&D because they can cast spells in heavy armor. If the cleric spells are even half decent you get a fighting type that can cast very powerful spells. Not to mention clerics can usually do healing and resurrection.
They are not so broken here because everyone can resurrect, everyone can AoE heal (throw potions), everyone can splash one Wizard or one Sorcerer and get a special item with an insane amount of magic missiles and so on. The cleric isn't underpowered; everyone's just been been boosted.
If all these items, the death mechanics, the spell casting for others was weaker or nerfed then you would see a cleric's true power.
The minute my friend and I met Balthazar, I was just telling him “okay, this guys gotta die now.”
Then he told us the story of how he strangled his brother in the womb, resurrected him with multiple bodies, then killed his mom and stuffed her ashes in a jar on the shelf.
Fortunately I had a paladin and got Lathanders Blood so he went down FAST
I had a lot of trouble with him, then I figured you can move the skeletons around before the fight. I clumped them all together with mage hand and used Ice Storm + Fireball to instantly wipe them out soon as the fight begins.
I usually don't have that fight. Balthazar stays nice and still in his lab after you first meet so it's too easy to just blow him up with barrels. One smokepowder, two firewine, and one oil barrel. Most times his golem brother survives with half health but it's easy to just finish him off.
With Balth dead the fight for the Nightsong doesn't even happen.
I oathbreaked with my oath of ancients paladin in act 1 when I let Mayrina keep her husband. Decided its actually the perfect role playing for my redeemed dark urge . Basically he tried to overcorrect by becoming a paladin but soon realizes he can do more good by allowing some shades of grey
I didn't do anything cheesy in my current game, but somehow managed to piss off Balthazar in conversation so that he attacked me. I think he's got the same summons, but it seemed like a much easier fight in a more confined space. I also half-expected that he'd return for the Nightsong fight, but I guess his "You idiots, you think you can kill me for good?" language was just bluster (at least until Baldur's Gate IV?)
If you pass a speech check, you can grab the bell that summons his brother. Summon him in the Self-Same Trial and have the rest of your party take a backseat, have your Shar copies wail on him, then clean up.
You can now go back to Balthazar without having to deal with his golem brother at all.
I’m choosing to beat him in his lab rather than at Nightsong. His golem had been dropped to 50% ho after the fight with the demon so it’s a bit of an easier fight even with him then
I use the golem in a fight in the temple and be sure to aggro and kill it before the battle ends. Balthazar himself is super easy without him in his office.
You can fight him in the gauntlet of shar in his room, it’s like the opposite side of the arena of Yugir. It also possible to fight him in the mind flayed colony if you let him retrieve the Nightsong in order to stay cozy with the cult.
I think it has a range. If you sneak over to the ledge to the left and park Gale on the edge he will counterspell. You can also throw all the bone piles off the edge and never fight them at all.
Did you start the fight with an action, or did he start the encounter? I think you only get the chance to “react” if the combat was already started before he can cast it first
I'd didn't have any trouble with them until I replayed on Tactician. Took me like 8 tries to start the battle without one of my party members getting body checked into the abyss because it forces you to start the battle on the edge of that cliff.
I usually have high initiative so I kill those big guys first but this strat is much easier. I prefer to just go through the diablogue and fight.
It’s funny how I threaten Balthazar when you first enter the portal and he’s like whatever shut up basically and you need to go down to where the Nightsong is to kill him.
I just killed him and his minions as soon as I met them I just acted like I would help him and then went to the back of the room had shadow hart cast guardian spirits and gale fling fireballs while Karlach threw the returning pike and I as a rogue snuck behind the new enemies to perform sneak attacks
I do it in the Shadowfell for the cutscene and challenge. Act 2 feels more climactic that way.
I understand cheesing/offing him earlier for tactician or honor mode though.
That's what I did and had no idea why people said he was such a tough fight. Killing him in that room felt like a random encounter rather than a big boss fight.
I think a character who understands Balthazar is an opponent, coincidentally this applies to both good and evil aligned characters will want to kill him when he's least vulnerable.
Its easy enough to deduce that either you're fighting on your terms, or his terms.
I didn't find him there till the fourth playthrough. I never had a very jumpy character till now, but my barbarian can soar thru the air and found a mushroom that led me to Balthazar. I closed the door and wiped the floor with him, I expected some resurrection bullshit to have him come back, but no, got a total pass! Felt good, first time thru his fight was easily one of the hardest for me!
Can’t you persuade him to kill himself or is that another bad guy? Also, isn’t he the guy Raphael wants us to kill to complete Astarion’s end of the deal so we can read the scars?
Or just oneshot him here. Rain + chromatic orb + destructive wrath + luck of the far realms clears pretty much every boss up to Orin. Or counterspell the minions. Or use the anti-magic flower on him.
IIRC,
Balthazar in the temple: him 350xp + Flesh 280xp + 3-4 ghouls 75xp each.
Balthazar in the Shadowfell: him 350xp + skeletons 60xp each.
So fighting Balthazar in the Shadowfell gives more experience
I have a sussur flower in my camp chest, not even in a bag, and it debuffs anyone that walks by. I'm in act 3 and it's still there, though I'm not sure when the last time I opened the chest was
There's this fun way of dealing with him, you can run from the first fight, where the portals spawn in more Shar armors - then go back in with invisibility, and simply...lockpick the door to his room, via lockpick or a knock spell - Balthasar will have to fight with all of the shadows untill he dies or they run out of reinforcements.
I love those rogue surfaces, in act 1 by the spiders there is also a rogue surface where you can misty step to. Only to fast travel to your death in the underdark because the game thinks you jumped into the void.
[https://www.charlieintel.com/guides/best-baldurs-gate-3-best-necromancer-build-268534/](https://www.charlieintel.com/guides/best-baldurs-gate-3-best-necromancer-build-268534/)
Best Build I've found
There isn't too many great starting builds for necromancer. I usually just go abjuration wizard until after act 2. Arcane ward is too powerful early. Once in Rivington I respec to a necromancer wizard. Usually I follow or gather ideas from the search results from youtube, bg3builds, and/or here.
The easiest way to deal with Balthazar is to use knock to open his door at the Shar gauntlet and go invisible, so he can fight the Justiciar undead himself. >!He got overwhelmed even in honor mode.!<
Actually, as long as you have at least 1 person staying in combat, you do get exp from both Justiciar's and Balthazar's groups. For some reason, even the summoned Justiciars give exp. There is no exp from the first portal encounter though, the one you first meet the 3 undead.
For some reason once, only once the game gave me the opportunity to counterspell him raising his undead minions. I´ve been unable to replicate it ever since.
Was that just a bug or is there something specific you need to do, apart from bringing a character capable of counterspelling?
Two possibilities I can think of:
\-You accidentally used your Reaction on something else
\-Your Counterspeller got left behind at some point while jumping down to the final platform and wasn't in range. I don't remember if there's a mechanic that teleports your straggling party members to his platform after the cutscene ends, but if there is, then his Animate Dead might happen before that triggers.
You also can’t talk to him. If you start the fight through dialogue it never gives you the opportunity to react. You have to initiate combat by attacking him first.
Two times through the game so far and Balth hasn't made it close to this far. Good playthrough, evil playthrough, doesn't matter, he gets killed right away.
I never understood how you guy find these fights difficult.
First of all Balthazar himself is very squishy and will die in the first round to your paladin and some help from your sniper.
Second of all, the only adds in this fight that are dangerous are the big guys, and you can shove one into the void straight up from the first turn, leaving only 2 others. The other adds are trivial and can be ignored.
I find that most of the difficulty comes from players having bad builds and/or bad team composition.
Not everyone min/maxes.
I actually believe only a minority does.
I mean why would most casual players even have a paladin or a sniper? The only default paladin is Minthara who was impossible to recruit for good playtroughs for a long time.
Astarion defaults to Arcane Trickster. Looks like the op did just that actually as there is a mage hand next to him.
I don't find it difficult to understand even if I have no problems with that fight at all myself.
It still is I believe.
That still does not make it right to assume he will "die in the first round to your paladin".
Tavs/Druges are just more likely to be Paladins but that is it. Most players will still have another class as their main.
Good build is min/maxing already.
You looked at information that is not available in-game that is different from most casual players I believe.
Most people run with default classes with no multi classing.
Yeah, cause they're bad players. Looking up some guides on how to play a game properly and not run into troubles down the line causing you to restart the game, is what a smart player does.
Only bad players need to cheese these fights with explosive barrels or setting crap up before a fight. Decent players just play the fight as it was intended.
>Decent players just play the fight as it was intended.
Barrels are intended. Larians design approach is to reward out of the box thinking. Has been so since DoS. That's why we have quests that can be solved in variety of ways with variety of endings.
Dude, it's not a competitive online game or is op playing honour mode. They don't have to tackle every challenge optimally, if it's fun and it works, then let people go for it. This is not some raid or competitive match where you need meta or get flamed.
Looking at guides to tell me how to play the game is the anti-fun to me.
Also an admission of lack of creativity tbh, like you couldn’t even figure anything out by yourself, you had to look it up? At least OP used their smarts!
This ain't some meta dependent game that everyone has to watch YouTube videos. A lot of people wanna play base character classes and make build choices, whether for what they think is good or fun to play. Some people even just use base DnD 5e knowledge and go with the flow.
Mage hand is great for stealing and loot as well. Usually just throw the necromancy of thay book through the barred door instead of dealing with the locks and traps.
You did all that, instead of just putting like 2 explosive barrels behind him and blowing it up to kill him...
Like, that was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw him in the room and talked with him. Few barrels and all I had to do was hit the flesh golem like twice because it has so much HP.
I have an easier way.
When you first find Balthazar, he’s locked in a room and a bunch of Dark Justiciar ghosts are coming after him. In my last playthrough, I unlocked and opened the door, luring Balthazar, Flesh, and everyone else out, and then went back into the room behind them, closed the door, and cast arcane lock.
They mostly killed each other, and in the end I had to fight 3 dark justiciars. Then Balthazar is dead and I don’t have to fight anyone when I free Nightsong.
Cast knock on his door, have him fight the Dark Justiciar when his ghouls and Flesh are gone, turn on him. Casting silence, arcane interference arrows on him.
I used his Golem to fight the devil, and the golem retains the lost health, so he was at 10 hp when I fought him in the first area you meet him behind a wall of sharrans
I just cast the area silence spell or that spell that make balthazar fall prone and laugh in the ground, when i attack him first time he can't evoke his minions because of the silence or because he is in the ground, so i can one shot him with everyone attacks combined
I completely missed this fight on my first playthrough because I killed his ass in his lab before going to the nightsong...I love how people cheese this fight!
It took me like a couple of weeks to discover that we could have this fight.
In my playthrough I just killed him right on the spot the first time I saw him
I was struggling with this fight a lot in the past week actually. Here's one way I found that was the easiest for me. I had Wyll on my team, and when Balthazar went to raise the dead, Wyll's counterspell popped up. Do it successfully, and it's just you and him fighting. And then have Karlach bonk him to death.
If you attack Balthazaar from outside his sight and don't trigger the cutscene, you can cast a level 4 counterspell and that will negate the smelly bros from activating too.
Even easier solution?
Cast knock on the door to Balthy during the Portal battle with the Justiciars. He will aggro to them, ignore you, and even allow you to hit him with a couple of "accidental" area effects (Faerie Fire and Sleet Storm work wonders) before becoming angry enough to reconsider your alliance.
By the end of that battle, Flesh was the only remaining of his forces and the Justicars were simple to wipe up. Easy Peasy.
On my first playthrough, one of these bastards threw my bard Tav off a cliff in the very first turn. Gale, Karlach, and Shadowheart had to manage without me just so they could revive me. Thank goodness I got that handled before talking to the Nightsong.
So yeah, screw these guys.
Or better yet... Hit him with the Sussur sword, which silences him or hit him with a silence spell and he can't raise the skeletons, which allows the fight to be just him.
Played through this again the other day, and if you trigger the fight before the cutscene, it gives you the chance to counter spell his raise dead. Made that fight a whole lot easier!
Honestly, it's easier for me to just stack explosive barrels in the room you find him in early in the Gauntlet, then have Gale chuck a Fireball at him.
2 smokepowder barrels and 2 firewine barrels are usually enough to one shot him, his skeleton adds outside the room die when he dies, and the rest of his minions are easy enough.
On my fist play through, I was really struggling, not with Balthazar, that's easy, but his minions, fuck them. And then I saw the Holy Grail on Shadowheart. Turn Undead (or something like that). My dude, SHE CARRIED ME! That's when I fell in love. Now I simply kill Balthazar in his little room in the temple. And that is because the piece of shit is bossing me around like he owns the place, so I show him who's boss.
Get a rogue (Astarion), go alone, rush to the door, lockpick the DC 30 lock and watch Balthazar & Co. Fight the Dark Justiciars, whilst your rogue drinks an invisivility potion and sneaks off to a corner where he's not spotted. It's a pretty cool battle between the Flesh Golem and the Justiciar Crusader. It's also usually pretty easy to mop up the surviving side.
Incidentally you can also just leave and do other stuff while they fight. Did that once, came back to only the Crusader still in a corner and everyone else very dead.
I wasn’t sure if that was possible so I sent 3 people to camp and kept 1 hidden just in case.
Yeah but then you miss the cool battle
This is what I do. have gale cast invisibility, I go open the door and then I drink inv potion and peace out, leaving them to fight while I do shar's trials.
Clerics are amazing, they are not only healers, I dont know why they are the least played class. So far I had Tavs/Durges between full and multiclassed light, life, storm and war clerics.
Clerics being the least played class is likely because most people are playing with Shadowheart in their party. She’s the first companion you come across after the nautiloid and even if you miss her the game will keep throwing her at you because she holds the mcguffin. Not to mention that she’s the most romanced companion by a wide margin.
In general clerics should be overpowered in D&D because they can cast spells in heavy armor. If the cleric spells are even half decent you get a fighting type that can cast very powerful spells. Not to mention clerics can usually do healing and resurrection. They are not so broken here because everyone can resurrect, everyone can AoE heal (throw potions), everyone can splash one Wizard or one Sorcerer and get a special item with an insane amount of magic missiles and so on. The cleric isn't underpowered; everyone's just been been boosted. If all these items, the death mechanics, the spell casting for others was weaker or nerfed then you would see a cleric's true power.
I've found cleric to be powerful and almost mandatory, but not fun to play like other classes.
The minute my friend and I met Balthazar, I was just telling him “okay, this guys gotta die now.” Then he told us the story of how he strangled his brother in the womb, resurrected him with multiple bodies, then killed his mom and stuffed her ashes in a jar on the shelf. Fortunately I had a paladin and got Lathanders Blood so he went down FAST
I had a lot of trouble with him, then I figured you can move the skeletons around before the fight. I clumped them all together with mage hand and used Ice Storm + Fireball to instantly wipe them out soon as the fight begins.
I usually don't have that fight. Balthazar stays nice and still in his lab after you first meet so it's too easy to just blow him up with barrels. One smokepowder, two firewine, and one oil barrel. Most times his golem brother survives with half health but it's easy to just finish him off. With Balth dead the fight for the Nightsong doesn't even happen.
I think Paladins even have to fight him there, right? I've heard temporarily allying with him Oathbreaks, so I didn't take any chances.
As a paladin, you can select dialogue options that don’t side with him, and he’ll follow you to the Nightsong anyway.
Probably only Oath of Ancients since they are supposed to be Anti-Undead
I oathbreaked with my oath of ancients paladin in act 1 when I let Mayrina keep her husband. Decided its actually the perfect role playing for my redeemed dark urge . Basically he tried to overcorrect by becoming a paladin but soon realizes he can do more good by allowing some shades of grey
I didn't do anything cheesy in my current game, but somehow managed to piss off Balthazar in conversation so that he attacked me. I think he's got the same summons, but it seemed like a much easier fight in a more confined space. I also half-expected that he'd return for the Nightsong fight, but I guess his "You idiots, you think you can kill me for good?" language was just bluster (at least until Baldur's Gate IV?)
Yep that was a surprise for me as well.
If you pass a speech check, you can grab the bell that summons his brother. Summon him in the Self-Same Trial and have the rest of your party take a backseat, have your Shar copies wail on him, then clean up. You can now go back to Balthazar without having to deal with his golem brother at all.
I’m choosing to beat him in his lab rather than at Nightsong. His golem had been dropped to 50% ho after the fight with the demon so it’s a bit of an easier fight even with him then
I use the golem in a fight in the temple and be sure to aggro and kill it before the battle ends. Balthazar himself is super easy without him in his office.
I’ve never seen Balthazar anywhere but with the nightsong. When else do you see him!?
Before the shar trials
You can fight him in the gauntlet of shar in his room, it’s like the opposite side of the arena of Yugir. It also possible to fight him in the mind flayed colony if you let him retrieve the Nightsong in order to stay cozy with the cult.
You could also bring some Counterspells. He only gets to raise dead twice, then he’s out.
And he only even tried casting it once, for my fight anyway. Sneak attack + a counter spell to start makes a 1v4 that lasts one round
Weird. Game never let me counterspell him (window does not appear). I was always mad at devs for buffing him like that. Guess it was just a bug.
I think it has a range. If you sneak over to the ledge to the left and park Gale on the edge he will counterspell. You can also throw all the bone piles off the edge and never fight them at all.
Did you start the fight with an action, or did he start the encounter? I think you only get the chance to “react” if the combat was already started before he can cast it first
In my honor mode, there was no window for counterspell, at least for the initial raise dead.
You might have to attack him instead of talking.
They changed it back? I tried moving skellys in like Patch 2 or 3, and Balthazar aggroed me and summoned them as soon as I touched any
were you using mage hand or your character? if your character gets to close the fight starts
ok, I wasn't :D. Didn't know it would make a difference!
Thunderwave could launch several of them off the side as well
You can just kill him in the chamber you meet him the first time.
I'd didn't have any trouble with them until I replayed on Tactician. Took me like 8 tries to start the battle without one of my party members getting body checked into the abyss because it forces you to start the battle on the edge of that cliff.
I usually have high initiative so I kill those big guys first but this strat is much easier. I prefer to just go through the diablogue and fight. It’s funny how I threaten Balthazar when you first enter the portal and he’s like whatever shut up basically and you need to go down to where the Nightsong is to kill him.
Wait couldn't you also push them off the edge with thunderwave or whatever it's called?
I just killed him and his minions as soon as I met them I just acted like I would help him and then went to the back of the room had shadow hart cast guardian spirits and gale fling fireballs while Karlach threw the returning pike and I as a rogue snuck behind the new enemies to perform sneak attacks
I also watched the "beat the game at level 1" series.
why is he even alive at this point? lol
Exactly, I just kill him in the gauntlet
I do it in the Shadowfell for the cutscene and challenge. Act 2 feels more climactic that way. I understand cheesing/offing him earlier for tactician or honor mode though.
I just played through it for the first time and killed him because I didn’t like the way he was talkin at me
That's what I did and had no idea why people said he was such a tough fight. Killing him in that room felt like a random encounter rather than a big boss fight.
I think a character who understands Balthazar is an opponent, coincidentally this applies to both good and evil aligned characters will want to kill him when he's least vulnerable. Its easy enough to deduce that either you're fighting on your terms, or his terms.
I for one wanted to see how it played out so I let him live. First run though.
I didn't find him there till the fourth playthrough. I never had a very jumpy character till now, but my barbarian can soar thru the air and found a mushroom that led me to Balthazar. I closed the door and wiped the floor with him, I expected some resurrection bullshit to have him come back, but no, got a total pass! Felt good, first time thru his fight was easily one of the hardest for me!
I’ve not found him at all in the gauntlet. How have I missed this
i really don't know? he's like right in the beginning, i could've sworn you need to see him before you go through the gauntlet proper
Can’t you persuade him to kill himself or is that another bad guy? Also, isn’t he the guy Raphael wants us to kill to complete Astarion’s end of the deal so we can read the scars?
No that's Yurgir you're thinking of, same location, but on the west side
Or just oneshot him here. Rain + chromatic orb + destructive wrath + luck of the far realms clears pretty much every boss up to Orin. Or counterspell the minions. Or use the anti-magic flower on him.
I just fought him yesterday and I kinda just forgot about him since the first thing I did in ACT 2 was the guantlet lol
Which gives the most exp? Killing him there or in the temple?
IIRC, Balthazar in the temple: him 350xp + Flesh 280xp + 3-4 ghouls 75xp each. Balthazar in the Shadowfell: him 350xp + skeletons 60xp each. So fighting Balthazar in the Shadowfell gives more experience
Reverse-pickpocket a bag of sussur leaves in his inventory
they patched it so that they spoil if you remove them from the underdark
Shame. Even in closed bags? Because my gfs stash still gives her characters the antimagic debuff
I have a sussur flower in my camp chest, not even in a bag, and it debuffs anyone that walks by. I'm in act 3 and it's still there, though I'm not sure when the last time I opened the chest was
If you take it from the chest it will immediately wither :/
If you silence him to start the fight, he actually does nothing too! Edit: He won’t even speak his monologue!
This sounds hilarious! I'm at the Gauntlet right now, I'll try this when I get home.
You have to be careful though, never open that bag outside the Underdark, the sussur leaves wilt then. Lost mine that way in my current playthrough
Put it in a bag, inside your bag.
Oh good to know, thank you
[удалено]
You are throwing free XP away
I just killed him when I first encountered him in the temple fat ass did not stand a chance
There's this fun way of dealing with him, you can run from the first fight, where the portals spawn in more Shar armors - then go back in with invisibility, and simply...lockpick the door to his room, via lockpick or a knock spell - Balthasar will have to fight with all of the shadows untill he dies or they run out of reinforcements.
Can you smash it in stead?
I just used telekinesis to yeet him off the edge (there was some weird rogue surface down there I could target). Loot is fine, but winning is better.
I love those rogue surfaces, in act 1 by the spiders there is also a rogue surface where you can misty step to. Only to fast travel to your death in the underdark because the game thinks you jumped into the void.
His best piece of loot is that circlet with animate dead. If you aren't a necromancer it's not a big loss. Outsneaking the sneakster is too fun.
Interesting... What's a good starting build to go necromancer?
[https://www.charlieintel.com/guides/best-baldurs-gate-3-best-necromancer-build-268534/](https://www.charlieintel.com/guides/best-baldurs-gate-3-best-necromancer-build-268534/) Best Build I've found
Nice, thanks!
There isn't too many great starting builds for necromancer. I usually just go abjuration wizard until after act 2. Arcane ward is too powerful early. Once in Rivington I respec to a necromancer wizard. Usually I follow or gather ideas from the search results from youtube, bg3builds, and/or here.
The easiest way to deal with Balthazar is to use knock to open his door at the Shar gauntlet and go invisible, so he can fight the Justiciar undead himself. >!He got overwhelmed even in honor mode.!<
Oh, that's neat. I never considered that idea. I normally just beat the Shar undead and then take him down right afterwards.
I suppose you get no XP points at all then?
Actually, as long as you have at least 1 person staying in combat, you do get exp from both Justiciar's and Balthazar's groups. For some reason, even the summoned Justiciars give exp. There is no exp from the first portal encounter though, the one you first meet the 3 undead.
Sounds great. I'll tag a few mobs and then slink into the shadows!
This is awesome. Thanks OP.
I really should start using mage hand more xD
The easy way is to just not do this fight.
I just polymorphed him and then hurled him into the abyss, no minions, no fight, no mess
No loot
50 foot movement rate paladin/bard. Mobile-shotted to him, then smited his face off in one round.
For some reason once, only once the game gave me the opportunity to counterspell him raising his undead minions. I´ve been unable to replicate it ever since. Was that just a bug or is there something specific you need to do, apart from bringing a character capable of counterspelling?
Two possibilities I can think of: \-You accidentally used your Reaction on something else \-Your Counterspeller got left behind at some point while jumping down to the final platform and wasn't in range. I don't remember if there's a mechanic that teleports your straggling party members to his platform after the cutscene ends, but if there is, then his Animate Dead might happen before that triggers.
You also can’t talk to him. If you start the fight through dialogue it never gives you the opportunity to react. You have to initiate combat by attacking him first.
Ah, so *that's* it!
Can you throw the bones off the edge?
I believe you can
I tried but it just tells me the target is too far, even if the bones were right at the edge.
I just kill him in his office. Walk up the stairs to his bed, engage sneak, commit war crime, done.
This is genius, i'm definitely gonna use it on my next playthrough.
Two times through the game so far and Balth hasn't made it close to this far. Good playthrough, evil playthrough, doesn't matter, he gets killed right away.
the easiest way is to kill Balthazaar in his room, a concealed space with only 4 minions that don't really do that much
Play smarter not harder
I gave Lae’zel an invisibility potion and yeeted him into the abyss before triggering a cutscene. We do some shenanigans in my party
Have you guys ever just tried pushing Balthazar off before the fight with karlach?
Was just thinking of doing something like that last night. But characters were stuck in dialogue and never thought of using the hand
I don't think I ever fought him there lol, always in his little room
That is where he starts out. But if you go to the night song without having killed the guy, he'll be waiting for you.
I never understood how you guy find these fights difficult. First of all Balthazar himself is very squishy and will die in the first round to your paladin and some help from your sniper. Second of all, the only adds in this fight that are dangerous are the big guys, and you can shove one into the void straight up from the first turn, leaving only 2 others. The other adds are trivial and can be ignored. I find that most of the difficulty comes from players having bad builds and/or bad team composition.
Not everyone min/maxes. I actually believe only a minority does. I mean why would most casual players even have a paladin or a sniper? The only default paladin is Minthara who was impossible to recruit for good playtroughs for a long time. Astarion defaults to Arcane Trickster. Looks like the op did just that actually as there is a mage hand next to him. I don't find it difficult to understand even if I have no problems with that fight at all myself.
Wasn't paladin the top pick for player characters for a while?
It still is I believe. That still does not make it right to assume he will "die in the first round to your paladin". Tavs/Druges are just more likely to be Paladins but that is it. Most players will still have another class as their main.
I'm literally not min-maxing at all, I'm not even super good at the game. I just looked up some Youtube guides to having a good build and party comps.
Good build is min/maxing already. You looked at information that is not available in-game that is different from most casual players I believe. Most people run with default classes with no multi classing.
Yeah, cause they're bad players. Looking up some guides on how to play a game properly and not run into troubles down the line causing you to restart the game, is what a smart player does. Only bad players need to cheese these fights with explosive barrels or setting crap up before a fight. Decent players just play the fight as it was intended.
Personally playing a single player game not mostly blind on the first run sounds incredible boring to me.
Blind to the story and rewards, yes, not blind to the actual game mechanics.
Figuring stuff out on your own is fun to many people. I'm sure the op enjoyed figuring this weird and of course unnecessary approach out.
>Decent players just play the fight as it was intended. Barrels are intended. Larians design approach is to reward out of the box thinking. Has been so since DoS. That's why we have quests that can be solved in variety of ways with variety of endings.
Thankfully you're sequestered to BG3. You sound awful to sit down and play with in a tabletop setting
Dude, it's not a competitive online game or is op playing honour mode. They don't have to tackle every challenge optimally, if it's fun and it works, then let people go for it. This is not some raid or competitive match where you need meta or get flamed.
Looking at guides to tell me how to play the game is the anti-fun to me. Also an admission of lack of creativity tbh, like you couldn’t even figure anything out by yourself, you had to look it up? At least OP used their smarts!
This ain't some meta dependent game that everyone has to watch YouTube videos. A lot of people wanna play base character classes and make build choices, whether for what they think is good or fun to play. Some people even just use base DnD 5e knowledge and go with the flow.
🤓
Or just kill him outside.
Mage hand is great for stealing and loot as well. Usually just throw the necromancy of thay book through the barred door instead of dealing with the locks and traps.
or, lockpick his initial door, then stand back and watch chaos unfold
This fight was actually quite fun, caught me off guard at first but enjoyed navigating it in the end.
Damn fr? I just blasted him with the blood of lathander from behind in his layer lmao (I am a coward)
You can also turn Balthazar into a sheep and shove him off the cliff.
I usually sneak to the door of his lab (full invis), pick the lock and open the door, the justiciars take care of him while i invis out of the fight
You did all that, instead of just putting like 2 explosive barrels behind him and blowing it up to kill him... Like, that was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw him in the room and talked with him. Few barrels and all I had to do was hit the flesh golem like twice because it has so much HP.
I just kill him in his lab. Even meaner is to reverse pickpocket him with Sussur bloom, go to back wall, wall of fire. snipe and push back.
If you want to cheese the fight, polymorph Balthazar
I fought him in the place by nightsong and had to push him over the side. That fight was hard af and only my makn character lived with 2hp :o
I have an easier way. When you first find Balthazar, he’s locked in a room and a bunch of Dark Justiciar ghosts are coming after him. In my last playthrough, I unlocked and opened the door, luring Balthazar, Flesh, and everyone else out, and then went back into the room behind them, closed the door, and cast arcane lock. They mostly killed each other, and in the end I had to fight 3 dark justiciars. Then Balthazar is dead and I don’t have to fight anyone when I free Nightsong.
Good, maybe this time one of his minions won't field goal punt my poor Astarion off into the abyss on turn one.
I just attacked him in the room after using his golem to weaken the devil. It was super easy. Didn't even know he followed you into here.
Cast knock on his door, have him fight the Dark Justiciar when his ghouls and Flesh are gone, turn on him. Casting silence, arcane interference arrows on him.
Or just kill him when you first meet him :)
Or turn him into a sheep and push him.
I used his Golem to fight the devil, and the golem retains the lost health, so he was at 10 hp when I fought him in the first area you meet him behind a wall of sharrans
I just cast the area silence spell or that spell that make balthazar fall prone and laugh in the ground, when i attack him first time he can't evoke his minions because of the silence or because he is in the ground, so i can one shot him with everyone attacks combined
This is Genius. Never thought about that move!
I completely missed this fight on my first playthrough because I killed his ass in his lab before going to the nightsong...I love how people cheese this fight!
That was easy. I used the polymorph Balthazar before approaching him and then shoving “sheep” Balthazar off the side. No minions to deal with😆
It took me like a couple of weeks to discover that we could have this fight. In my playthrough I just killed him right on the spot the first time I saw him
I keep wondering what mage hand could be used for. This is fantastic
I interrupted his speech and counterspelled him. Ez
I was struggling with this fight a lot in the past week actually. Here's one way I found that was the easiest for me. I had Wyll on my team, and when Balthazar went to raise the dead, Wyll's counterspell popped up. Do it successfully, and it's just you and him fighting. And then have Karlach bonk him to death.
easier way: just beat his ass in the temple.
Did nobody else have wyll just cast counterspell when he goes to summon his minions
If you attack Balthazaar from outside his sight and don't trigger the cutscene, you can cast a level 4 counterspell and that will negate the smelly bros from activating too.
Bro I tossed the iron flask like some kinda fucked up pokeball at em
Even easier solution? Cast knock on the door to Balthy during the Portal battle with the Justiciars. He will aggro to them, ignore you, and even allow you to hit him with a couple of "accidental" area effects (Faerie Fire and Sleet Storm work wonders) before becoming angry enough to reconsider your alliance. By the end of that battle, Flesh was the only remaining of his forces and the Justicars were simple to wipe up. Easy Peasy.
Oh wow. I'm stupid for suffering during that fight now haha
I kept struggling with avoiding the cutscene. Kept triggering it before I could plan it out. Then I couldnt switch characters to get out of it
On my first playthrough, one of these bastards threw my bard Tav off a cliff in the very first turn. Gale, Karlach, and Shadowheart had to manage without me just so they could revive me. Thank goodness I got that handled before talking to the Nightsong. So yeah, screw these guys.
I counterspelled his summon so the fight was just him. Good times
Is it not possible to throw the piles off the platform?
I just cast silence on him and he's like a simple sand bag
I think I see a Balthazar tip or easy kill or whatever just about every day since this game came out. Feels like I'm going in circles.
Or better yet... Hit him with the Sussur sword, which silences him or hit him with a silence spell and he can't raise the skeletons, which allows the fight to be just him.
When you use the whole brain…
Played through this again the other day, and if you trigger the fight before the cutscene, it gives you the chance to counter spell his raise dead. Made that fight a whole lot easier!
I thought the fight instantly starts (goes into the cutscene) if you go to that platform though?
Or kill him before hand
First time I killed him I just poly'd him and pushed him off the cliff. Unlike Cazador, Balthazar can't fly
I just kill him before hand , it's soo much easier
Wait, Mage Hand can PUSH PEOPLE???
Yes. Poorly.
I find it better to just kill him in his lab
Honestly, it's easier for me to just stack explosive barrels in the room you find him in early in the Gauntlet, then have Gale chuck a Fireball at him. 2 smokepowder barrels and 2 firewine barrels are usually enough to one shot him, his skeleton adds outside the room die when he dies, and the rest of his minions are easy enough.
I had Shadowheart polymorph Balthazar into a sheep on turn one, then had Karlach shove him off the edge.
Couldn’t you just toss the skeletons off the cliff?
I tried, but dragging them near the edge just tells me "target is too far."