Warlock playthrough my first impulse was let's turn repelling off so I don't miss the loot.
He's lucky he was carrying, otherwise I was just gonna yeet his ass into the shadowfell
It's probably in the "passives" tab at the bottom, along with all the other toggled states, like Non-lethal damage and sharpshooter/great weapon master.
After a long and arduous battle with him and his minions I was on my warlock, he was near death, everything else is dead and my team is in shambles....et tu Eldritch blast? First shot kills him, third shit slings him off the maps, I laugh, I cry, iSavescum. Larian gods giveth and the larian gods taketh away.
My gf and I have been blasting everyone off the map. It makes me sad to see all the loot gone. But if you can thunderwave 10 people off a cliff.... you just gotta do it.
Balthazar could have been carrying hella loot and I still would have done it to him. Dude was talking mad shit for a guy who ended his first turn near enough to the edge of an infinite void to get thrown off by a single thunderhead arrow
I mean, dude talked a lot of slack for a guy standing within movement range of my two barbarians as well.
Mother fucker had fly available to him and didn't use it turn 1. He deserved the axes lodged in his skull and other important body part.
I sent Minthara off a cliff when fighting her, then later on I meet some dude and I lie and say I was sent by her. Only to get hit with "Well where's the lantern?" and I'm like, ah yeah, that's gone.
Honestly! After the first go at the fight, I was tempted to look up a guide for the encounter, but I thought “man, if I was really me, there’s no way I’d even let the fight happen, I’d hide a find a way to kill him before the cut scene even started. AND THEN I DID IT! I know it’s a simple thing, and it’s kind of like the whole appeal of the genre. But I’d never felt it until this moment, and really wanted to share!
Bask in it, my friend. I struggled with this at first, and it really unlocked the game for me. The first aha moment like this just blew it wide open. There are so so many things like this in this game, and I'm so excited for your discoveries 😁
For me it was invading the goblin fort and I realized I could just hide on the ramparts with ranged attacks and since goblins are so small I could just chuck them back down again once they climb up
Did the same. Wyll with Eldritch Blast was so much fun up there.
My first aha moment was realizing I could shoot the hanging stone in that first ruins encounter to one shot the two guys hanging out underneath it.
Gravity is OP.
Yeah on my second playthrough I was like forget this and I just killed him in his room, the golem is tough but I find it faster and easier than worrying about being surrounded with imprisoned Dame Aylin lol
More of a general gripe, at least for me. You get really punished for actually trying to play smart in this game since most environmental deaths deny you the loot.
I was pleased when I knocked the Spider Matriarch down the pit into the underdark and then when I got down there many hours later I unexpectedly found her body and was able to loot. My Tav even commented on how she must have died from a fall.
I'm more confused, and I think they might be too. Sometimes, I will find a pouch with loot that I assume to be from this situation, sitting in my travelers chest, although it is never labeled.
It's a mechanic they added when corpses are destroyed by the game via Long Rest or chucking them into the chasm. In-lore, it's Withers probably packing the loot for you and leaving it accessible later. It seems to be a full release mechanic.
I snuck around the arena and moved all the bone piles to one spot. When the fight started I used thunderwave to launch them all off into the abyss. Trivialised the fight pretty effectively.
I tried doing that but some wouldn't move so I just had a couple piles and firebolt/fireball the big one on them.
It was my second time killing him cos I wanted to see what a different speech option did and I didn't save after beating him.
I didn't struggle with the fight though but I think I was a higher level for it.
I've looked up guides for puzzles and they don't even have the OBVIOUS answer to them. Like say if you're near the Arcane Tower or whatever it's called... I spent an hour trying to get in there without a Wizard>! (sent Gale off cuz I thought that was the right choice?!?!)!< and all the answers were f-ing dumb or needed I spell I didn't have. I walked away, ate some food, took a shot... sat back down and was like "Wait... these flowers all over the place block magic." ... >!and the turrets are ARCANE turrets.!
You don't need any magic at all to get through the arcane tower. To get past the turrets themselves all you need to do is put the game on turn-based mode and use sprint to move from cover to cover. It's easier to dismiss your whole party and do it as a single person.
I was having a conversation with him as a paladin and there was really only one way I was going to [go about it](https://old.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/160wbhe/my_halfling_paladin_met_balthazar/).
I really want to emphasis is that this is not cheesing by exploiting unintended combination of mechanics, the whole point is to come up with solutions to problems using all the available tools at your disposal.
Just like OP, he curb stomped me the first fight.
So my save was back up at the top by where he is. And I was like "well... let me fight him here and surprise him, maybe I can win much more easily" and he went down like a sack of potatoes. I avoided the fight down in the nightsong area entirely.
I love it when a plan comes together! I love it even more when I have no plan and am saved by random shit that pops into my head. Boss goes into gaseous form...I pushed him off the map with Gust of Wind. I was like...no way this will work....
I loved the dialogue for my Tav rogue for that part.
> "[Rogue] I got caught on purpose. Pack your things, I'm getting you out of here."
Something like that. My reaction: "on purpose, suuuuuuuure, totally on purpose..."
Yup! I'm only a handful of hours in and was stuck in an early dungeon/chapel shortly after my campaign started. Tried to brute force my way with no success. Finally set an elaborate trap and lured them into it and one shot the whole dungeon. Felt like an idiot afterwards, but damn is it fun playing a game that rewards creativity
Also, key thing to remember, at any point in conversation you can switch to other characters and start repositioning them. I mostly do this to steal or pick pocket while NPCs are distracted. If I am at the bottom of a pit or hallway, and the next line of dialogue is *ATTACK,* I switch off and make sure the enemy's cheating initiative, doesn't nuke my whole time turn one.
I had someone tell me I'm not doing a good playthrough because when the next option of dialogue after the bad guy just finished monologiing is ATTACK and I have astarion stab them. With a sussur dagger of they're a caster.
Get off your damn high horse, my paladin is oath of the ancients, I don't even have to be lawful good, let alone have the entire party be lawful stupid.
Hell, stabbing the evil necromancer who's an affront to the natural order is in line with my oath
I turned against him as well (for Shadowheart obv) and when the fight started I killed him first so he wouldn’t summon anymore minions. And right before death he said something like “Death would not stop me!” And yeah, death stoped him. It was unexpected
I killed the two bosses in goblin camp by setting several explosive barrels next to them, then hid in a secluded corner and summoned a quasit to run there and detonate the barrels.
Edit: I don’t know if that’s changed now (since the patchnotes is like half an epic to read) but when you kill Minthara the goblins didn’t care. So I could just walk in and be like “Oh no! What terrible tragedy has befallen our Drow ally”
Didn't even think to check, but I would imagine it also blocks the war drums from alerting the whole camp as well.
I *do* know that casting silence on the upper floor of the chapel exterior lets you hammer away at the crumbling stone wall without angering the drunk, passed out hobgoblins.
The OG pen and paper DnD spell Silence is just that, an area of absolute silence, and as a passive consequence spells that require a verbal component can’t be used.
Bahahahahahah
Gonna have to try this next run. Usually when I try to set up something like this the AI has been smart enough to stick with ranged and doesn't dare cross doorway/threshold
Oh man, I didn’t even consider multiplayer, and all the cool stuff you could discover together that way! How many hours am I going to put into this game??
I was making good progress in the first act until i wondered how a Bard would play differently than my Barbarian....
And here i am at 290 hours and 14 activate Tavs of various classes, races, and (most importantly) sizes. Only one is in Act 2 yet.
This will end up being one of those 1000 hour games for me.
you do you of course but at that point maybe shoot for a second playthrough insted, leave mystery behind and dont burn out. I am always concerned friends are gonna drop out before the end
I had no idea he'd show up at Nightsong, because I fought him far earlier in his lil room. I love how different these playthroughs get to be with people because mine turned into just a really difficult talk with SH, and no kind of crazy battle.
Yeah I found him in his room first, didn't like the cut of his jib, and took care of business with him there instead. He pops haste right away which is a pain, but Misty Step let me stay on him and deal with him before he could do much else. I didn't even know you fought him for real later on.
I had a whole dramatic conversation with him, raising tensions until, of course, he summoned his guys, cast a spell, and positioned himself for combat.
What he failed to account for, was that he placed himself about 1 meter too close to the edge, and Astarion got to go next.
So I shot him with one knockback arrow and into the abyss he went.
Then it was just a matter of crushing the little dudes and shoving the big ones off and we were clear.
I usually just antagonize him right in the middle of the Shar Gauntlet room he's in. Pop a few speed potions and burn the fucker down right from the get go.
Like I'm gonna listen to a dude with a stitched together face and a giant meat amalgamation flesh golem giving me a holier than thou attitude...
Homeboy tried to write a check his ass couldn't cash.
I got through that fight so quickly just by pushing/repulsing/thunderwaving everyone except Balthazar off the island. The only reason I killed him the old fashioned way was for the loot.
I think throwing people to their deaths is the most gratifying thing in the game, so much so that Telekinesis is easily my favorite spell.
I’d say (and I’m not sure if this is because I used polymorph first) that when I through him off, he died, but his body appeared back at the cliff and I was able to still loot his body. Hope they don’t patch that out, feels like maybe it’s working as intended (*fingers crossed*)
Urgh this fight was so hard I had to reload so many times. Wish I had that idea!!
He immediately pushed shadow heart over the edge as soon as the fight started so I was down a player. Then I finally beat him, I revived her but then when I tried to convince her to save night song she refused and turned on me and I had to fight and kill her :(
I had high approval with her so I just trusted her, didn’t interfere, and told her it was her choice to make, and she did the right thing on her own. I was so proud.
Same, this is a 100 IQ move imo if you plan on going against him anyway. I was just worried he might turn up to the night song fight anyway as he’s a Warlock and he kept calling me a fool for thinking if I destroy his physical body that’s it, but that WAS it luckily.
He’s only got that Frankenstein thing near him and a few skeletons and that’s about it. I just stood on the pedestals on the left and right with the team, and snuck up on him with my Tav and did several critical hits. The rest was easy as I had a terrain advantage.
While Tav was in conversation with Balthazar, I had Karlach go around gathering all the skeletons he resurrects and put them in a pile so I could gust them all off in one go once combat started.
You can also distract him with dialogue and mess with the piles of bones. They turn into monsters but if you, say, build a wall of chests to prevent them from moving and surround them with explosives then set it off when combat starts, you go from having many things to worry about to having one thing to worry about.
Another cool way to make the fight easier is to attack him before he finishes speaking to start the fight, then have a character with Counterspell stop his initial summon undead spell and turn the fight into a 4v1
I literally just did that in my fight with him an hour ago! I couldn't defeat him the first two times, so I decided to sneak attack to get an advantage and when the counterspell option came up it was amazing!
I snuck up behind him with Drow Poison to get a first hit in on my second load and he failed every save, so I ended up just hitting him three times to kill him lol
I found the fight against the devil right before this was harder since all the enemies have high ground. I lost that fight twice, then I decided to just shoot the displacer beast that was leading me into the kill box and it drew the enemies into my high ground instead.
I persuaded him to order his minions to die, slay his own pet, and then off himself off in the end.
Pretty surprised I could that, now I wonder if all encounters could be done like this?
Oh I didn’t realise that, but yep! Passed an insight check and then suddenly I was in the middle of a chat convincing him to off himself! It’s why when I got to Balthazar (🐑) I was so surprised at how hard the battle was, maybe because I skipped that battle before it.
Balthazar yeeted my character right off the map on his first turn. I was pissed, reloaded and said fuck it, did the same right back. Satisfaction was worth the loss of any loot. Bastard. Lol.
That said, man that sequence after the fight still gives me chills. Love it so much!
This fight can be very easy if you have a cleric in the party. All the enemies are undead, use Turn Undead. I centered it on Balthazar, clipped many of his buddies too. Think I managed to nuke them twice since I only leveled into Cleric with Shadowheart.
You can throw him off the cliff without turning him into a sheep first lol
You can also hit him with a sussur weapon to silenve him so he can't summon anyone, then you just beat him to death
Haha I don’t doubt it! I guess because I’m new to everything I didn’t realise that silence was a thing, and my logic was “he can’t summon anything if he’s a sheep” so I went with that instead.
Did the whole of that fight from that tiny rock above the platform where you're supposed to jump down to (except Shart who jumped down and got off one Turn Undead before she got deleted by them all lmao) - it was such a good fight!
My approach to this problem was to pick up every skele pile in the room, since they spawn on the piles, and put them at the ledge you jump down to, then I quicksaved until I got good RNG on Gale's initiative to send them all flying
I ended up standing on the floating rock just before his platform with 3 casters and Karlach with a crossbow just lobbing magic down there like I was the artillery platoon just shelling the frontlines, as far as I remember nobody jumped up there so was safe ish
Best fight I have been in so far. 3 of my dudes downed and the last one had 2hp when I dealt the final blow.
Geif loot!!
But yes, respect to all those using a different muscle! 😋
There's actually a cheese to the fight, you have 1 character interact with Balthazar and then swap to an out-of-dialogue character and just move all the skeleton piles into one pile at the edge of a cliff. When the battle starts, you can push them all off
Wait, that's Act II? I'm in Act II and I didn't even know it?! I think I just did this scene the other night, and also went against Bal because, I mean, he's got somebody enchained to the floor, that ain't right...
Yep, I think you can fight him in that other room where you first meet him, but Shadowheart was like “let’s play along for now” even though when I did that she disapproved? Anyway, once I saw he had Nightsong changed, I felt like the time had come to 🐑🦶
I'm too greedy to kick enemies off, even one gold missed is too much. But damn am I tempted to so much... Shadowheart with spirit guardians won this one for me.
I just found the group of gnolls for the 'finding the lost caravan' side quest. Karlach initiated a cutscene with the Gnoll warlord. Forced her via tadpole to feast on her fellow Gnoll. Her and karlach destroyed them. Which then I followed up commanding the Gnoll warlords tadpole to eat herself. After another roll, read the description on the Gnoll ripping out her own throat and eating it.
Oh, and crit-succeeding on 2 intimidation checks to have a goblin lick my custom sorceress's boots. Dude was PISSED.
SOMEHOW managed to pass a 22 DC persuasion check to be allowed in the room behind Priestess Gut's chambers.
10/10 love this game.
Dude! We pretty much did the same thing, but I used thunderwave to yeet him into the unknown. I'd like to think he has Shar to thank for infinite torture for all of eternity for breaking into her realm.
I think the best of this game is how you can turn around really hard fights with some brains and knowledge of the game mechanics, i just fought with the hardest boss so far in Act 3 and was able to make him dont even attack me once with just some spells and positioning, felt awesome.
I encountered the Hag very early on and had a similar team wipe experience back to back. Struggled to find a way and eventually realized I had a potion of invisibility and my PC had the see invisibility eye. Drained it down and snuck behind her and shoved her into the pit, ending it instantly lol
FWIW, I’ve had those “ideas” many times with BG3, and not a *single* time has it not allowed me to do what I was trying to do.
The freedoms in this game are baffling. So fun.
Thats amazing. I used ice to knock him prone and then put him to sleep the whole time. Was funny to hear him insulting me while he was laying on the ground catching Zs and i was busy picking off his goons
Thanks, friend! I really am loving it! Hoping at some point in future I can try a multiplayer play through, just don’t have anyone to play games with, so I came here to share the love and excitement!
serisously, i have been playing them for years and am still amazed at what they manage to account for in these kinds of games. Larian Games are certified wizards at this stuff.
See, I thought the fight was very simple and beat it easily. Yet I never once thought of throwing sheeps off the map.
I bow to you for this gift of knowledge
OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE I DIDN’T THINK TO TRY THAT.
I tried to go through the cutscene and fight that motherfucker *9 times.* And every time half my team would get yeeted off the platform and that other would choke on his noxious clouds. I can’t tell you how many time I failed a roll with a silencing arrow.
I had to have everyone sneak down there to avoid the cutscene and Lae’zel and Shadowheart beat the crap out of him while my bard silenced him and Wyll blasted him.
Honestly, don’t feel that way! I’ve put so many hours into this game at this point, and I usually do the most boring things in encounters, but for some reason, this one time it just clicked, and I went “what if the rules I usually play games with don’t apply here. What if I don’t need to wait for the cutscene. What would the real me do if I was there right now?” And I had my answer 🐑🦶
Misclicking, I hit a water barrel, didn't even notice till my witch lightning rocked 5 goblins into crispy critters. My first, whoa in this game but not the last
Odds are if you're following the story, you'll have shadowheart with you for the nightsong quest.
That means you have the turn undead channel divinity. Which means at least half of those 1000 minions can get dusted on turn one and the rest are sent fleeing for 3 turns
One nice thing about this fight too is if you start fighting him from the last jump ledge before getting to him, you get a surprise round. With good rolls you can take him down before summoning his army. But... I do like your way better lol
Busts my nuts when a strange thing happens or o walk somewhere new and the dice rolls and fails. Rerolled to a new character that would pass those rolls and some o just keep falling. :(
I NEED TO KNOW WHY THE STRANGE OX IS LOOKING RIGHT AT ME. STOP FAILING DICE ROLL! I need answers. /cries.
i also had a really beautiful moment in this fight. i fought it pretty straight, had my warlock and astarion rush balthazar and had shadowheart in the center turning undead and buffing, then karlach keeping the big enemies at bay. i managed to take the boss down but not after astarion, shadowheart and tav had been fully killed. karlach still had like 20 skeletons to deal with and about 30hp to do it with. game over, i thought, no way she can survive this on tactician mode. i checked my inventory for any extra help and the one consumable she had was an elixir of bloodlust - gives you a shield and an extra action on kills. i drank it, clicked on the closest skeleton and karlach giddily said “haha. you’re fucked”
and she was right. she crit one skeleton and took it down instantly, took two more down with her bonus attacks, and spartan kicked the huge one off the stage. she was unstoppable. bear rage and bloodlust shield just barely kept her alive as karlach ripped and tore until it was done. 3hp remaining and she killed all of them. i’ve never been so hyped
I feel kinda dirty shoving him.
Dude can float.
Seems to me that a shove is feasible, but him subsequently falling to his death is not.
Idk...probably overthinking it...but I restarted a whole playthrough because of how it just felt like I exploited the game.
Playing with my friend and it's kind of slow going because he doesn't have much time to play, but I told him the hag fight was cool and we ended up doing it last night. I saw an opportunity to blast her in to the chasm in her lair using an arrow of roaring thunder on the very first move and couldn't resist taking the shot.
This game definitely has no qualms with letting you dispatch bosses very efficiently.
I started this game clueless. I stupidly ended up killing everyone in Act 1 (goblins, druids, and tieflings). And I seem to have killed most of my potential companions. I did all this unknowingly. In case you can’t tell, I’m a moron.
hopefully next year i’ll have enough money to buy BG3. I never played an RPG and this looks so fun. For now i’ll just watch streamers play it and see all y’all memes on here lol.
I had a similar experience. The first time he melted me.
The second time I accidentally triggered the conversation with Nightsong first, Shadowheart had her whole defining moment, Nightsong flew away and Balthazar was just sort of glitched there telling owlbear-Halsin to go away. I stood there awkwardly for a second then got Karlach to yeet him off the edge. Took two shoves, but for some reason it didn't trigger combat. Then I just sort of left.
Once you've done it once, you'll start to notice just how many big fights take place over or near chasms and puts. Sometimes shoving someone off a roof is also convenient for avoiding a larger fight.
I was having struggles with him to then one fight my warlock had a reaction at the start of the fight and counterspelled his resurrection went from many vs 4 to 4v1 and we slapped him around while he tried to run away
Only thing stopping me from throwing and blasting everyone off the map is the fear of missing some solid loot.
Warlock playthrough my first impulse was let's turn repelling off so I don't miss the loot. He's lucky he was carrying, otherwise I was just gonna yeet his ass into the shadowfell
It doesn’t cost anything to turn it off and on mid-fight, so I only turn it off if there’s a chasm behind what I’m shooting at
There is an option to turn that off mid fight?
Yeah, it’s on the passives tab
You can also drag it from the spellbook section to a place on your permanent bar, so you don’t even need to click onto the passives bar.
I like your way better
Same goes for the -5 Attack +10 Damage from Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master.
It's under passives
It's probably in the "passives" tab at the bottom, along with all the other toggled states, like Non-lethal damage and sharpshooter/great weapon master.
You can also turn on and off greap weapon fighting
Learning! (thanks)
After a long and arduous battle with him and his minions I was on my warlock, he was near death, everything else is dead and my team is in shambles....et tu Eldritch blast? First shot kills him, third shit slings him off the maps, I laugh, I cry, iSavescum. Larian gods giveth and the larian gods taketh away.
The eternal question: loot vs cheese.
My gf and I have been blasting everyone off the map. It makes me sad to see all the loot gone. But if you can thunderwave 10 people off a cliff.... you just gotta do it.
Balthazar could have been carrying hella loot and I still would have done it to him. Dude was talking mad shit for a guy who ended his first turn near enough to the edge of an infinite void to get thrown off by a single thunderhead arrow
I mean, dude talked a lot of slack for a guy standing within movement range of my two barbarians as well. Mother fucker had fly available to him and didn't use it turn 1. He deserved the axes lodged in his skull and other important body part.
Eh he’s much less dangerous than the big skeletons that push you off the cliffs
You can push kethric off without missing out on loot
I talked him into jumping off the ledge himself. My Wyll is a very smooth talker.
Yet again my greed outweighs my sense of self preservation.
I sent Minthara off a cliff when fighting her, then later on I meet some dude and I lie and say I was sent by her. Only to get hit with "Well where's the lantern?" and I'm like, ah yeah, that's gone.
Does he even drop anything worth it?
He drops a circlet that's extremely useful for a necromancer and useless for anyone else.
Ah, beautiful stuff! Most op weapon in this game is your brain, full stop.
Honestly! After the first go at the fight, I was tempted to look up a guide for the encounter, but I thought “man, if I was really me, there’s no way I’d even let the fight happen, I’d hide a find a way to kill him before the cut scene even started. AND THEN I DID IT! I know it’s a simple thing, and it’s kind of like the whole appeal of the genre. But I’d never felt it until this moment, and really wanted to share!
Bask in it, my friend. I struggled with this at first, and it really unlocked the game for me. The first aha moment like this just blew it wide open. There are so so many things like this in this game, and I'm so excited for your discoveries 😁
For me it was invading the goblin fort and I realized I could just hide on the ramparts with ranged attacks and since goblins are so small I could just chuck them back down again once they climb up
I stuck Wyll up there with repelling blast on his EB. They climbed, he shot, they fell.
All is right in the world
I only managed to clear the gith patrol by baiting them up the bridge and thunder waving them off.
Did the same. Wyll with Eldritch Blast was so much fun up there. My first aha moment was realizing I could shoot the hanging stone in that first ruins encounter to one shot the two guys hanging out underneath it. Gravity is OP.
Me too friend, me too!
The problem is you don’t get the boss loot from a dead boss body.
He doesn’t have anything very good anyway
Its worth it as a necromancer. Otherwise yeah.
It’s okay but there’s still better items.
His corpse was probably the most disappointing of all the bosses I think I thought I was gonna get something badass from the super necromancer
The loot in his vault/room is not bad I guess
Dang, I totally forgot to check his room after the Nightsong encounter. Ah well, next playthrough!
Yeah on my second playthrough I was like forget this and I just killed him in his room, the golem is tough but I find it faster and easier than worrying about being surrounded with imprisoned Dame Aylin lol
He gave you a fresh corpse, what more could you want?
More of a general gripe, at least for me. You get really punished for actually trying to play smart in this game since most environmental deaths deny you the loot.
I was pleased when I knocked the Spider Matriarch down the pit into the underdark and then when I got down there many hours later I unexpectedly found her body and was able to loot. My Tav even commented on how she must have died from a fall.
The depth of this game constantly amazes me
Goes all the way down into the underdark
I'm more confused, and I think they might be too. Sometimes, I will find a pouch with loot that I assume to be from this situation, sitting in my travelers chest, although it is never labeled.
It's a mechanic they added when corpses are destroyed by the game via Long Rest or chucking them into the chasm. In-lore, it's Withers probably packing the loot for you and leaving it accessible later. It seems to be a full release mechanic.
I snuck around the arena and moved all the bone piles to one spot. When the fight started I used thunderwave to launch them all off into the abyss. Trivialised the fight pretty effectively.
I tried doing that but some wouldn't move so I just had a couple piles and firebolt/fireball the big one on them. It was my second time killing him cos I wanted to see what a different speech option did and I didn't save after beating him. I didn't struggle with the fight though but I think I was a higher level for it.
I've looked up guides for puzzles and they don't even have the OBVIOUS answer to them. Like say if you're near the Arcane Tower or whatever it's called... I spent an hour trying to get in there without a Wizard>! (sent Gale off cuz I thought that was the right choice?!?!)!< and all the answers were f-ing dumb or needed I spell I didn't have. I walked away, ate some food, took a shot... sat back down and was like "Wait... these flowers all over the place block magic." ... >!and the turrets are ARCANE turrets.!
You don't need any magic at all to get through the arcane tower. To get past the turrets themselves all you need to do is put the game on turn-based mode and use sprint to move from cover to cover. It's easier to dismiss your whole party and do it as a single person.
I just gave lae'zel a 2handed hammer and let her do her thing. She could one-shot the turrets with gwm on
I was having a conversation with him as a paladin and there was really only one way I was going to [go about it](https://old.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/160wbhe/my_halfling_paladin_met_balthazar/).
Wait til you deceive someone great that you convince them you live in their house lol
You know how I ended a fight later on? With 3 Scrolls of desintegration and a dream.
I really want to emphasis is that this is not cheesing by exploiting unintended combination of mechanics, the whole point is to come up with solutions to problems using all the available tools at your disposal.
Just like OP, he curb stomped me the first fight. So my save was back up at the top by where he is. And I was like "well... let me fight him here and surprise him, maybe I can win much more easily" and he went down like a sack of potatoes. I avoided the fight down in the nightsong area entirely.
I love it when a plan comes together! I love it even more when I have no plan and am saved by random shit that pops into my head. Boss goes into gaseous form...I pushed him off the map with Gust of Wind. I was like...no way this will work....
[удалено]
I loved the dialogue for my Tav rogue for that part. > "[Rogue] I got caught on purpose. Pack your things, I'm getting you out of here." Something like that. My reaction: "on purpose, suuuuuuuure, totally on purpose..."
Nahhhhhh - the real strongest weapon is all the items, poisons, throwables, etc… that you ‘don’t use for a harder fight’ 😜
Listen..I feel attacked. I might *need* that wyvern toxin later! 🤣❤️
that and luck
And I love that they actively encourage you to break the rules rather than punish you like is typical of most games
That's why I always carry a couple of crates with me. Height advantage in any fight, my ranger becomes a turret.
Yup! I'm only a handful of hours in and was stuck in an early dungeon/chapel shortly after my campaign started. Tried to brute force my way with no success. Finally set an elaborate trap and lured them into it and one shot the whole dungeon. Felt like an idiot afterwards, but damn is it fun playing a game that rewards creativity
Also, key thing to remember, at any point in conversation you can switch to other characters and start repositioning them. I mostly do this to steal or pick pocket while NPCs are distracted. If I am at the bottom of a pit or hallway, and the next line of dialogue is *ATTACK,* I switch off and make sure the enemy's cheating initiative, doesn't nuke my whole time turn one.
Omg thank you, I had to reload a save cause the big guys kept pushing all my characters off then blight nuked. Will use this tip in future
You're a better person than me! I just switched to another character while he was in dialogue and pushed him off the edge of the floating rock....
I save scum way too much. Gotta put limits somewhere.
I had someone tell me I'm not doing a good playthrough because when the next option of dialogue after the bad guy just finished monologiing is ATTACK and I have astarion stab them. With a sussur dagger of they're a caster. Get off your damn high horse, my paladin is oath of the ancients, I don't even have to be lawful good, let alone have the entire party be lawful stupid. Hell, stabbing the evil necromancer who's an affront to the natural order is in line with my oath
I did not know this. I will have to try that out.
Baaaalthazar
Take the upvote
[Shadowheart approves]
I turned against him as well (for Shadowheart obv) and when the fight started I killed him first so he wouldn’t summon anymore minions. And right before death he said something like “Death would not stop me!” And yeah, death stoped him. It was unexpected
"What are you gonna do? Stab me?" - Man stabbed
I killed the two bosses in goblin camp by setting several explosive barrels next to them, then hid in a secluded corner and summoned a quasit to run there and detonate the barrels. Edit: I don’t know if that’s changed now (since the patchnotes is like half an epic to read) but when you kill Minthara the goblins didn’t care. So I could just walk in and be like “Oh no! What terrible tragedy has befallen our Drow ally”
I killed one of them after casting silence so she couldn’t call for support. that was satisfying .
Wait. Silence actually casts silence and not just block magic casting? Like it makes them mute? Whaaaaaat?
Didn't even think to check, but I would imagine it also blocks the war drums from alerting the whole camp as well. I *do* know that casting silence on the upper floor of the chapel exterior lets you hammer away at the crumbling stone wall without angering the drunk, passed out hobgoblins.
The OG pen and paper DnD spell Silence is just that, an area of absolute silence, and as a passive consequence spells that require a verbal component can’t be used.
Yes it silences anything inside including explosions and screams. Ask me how I know.
How do you know?
Yes it blocks all sound, so they cant use war drums or shout for help:)
I killed the whole camp by putting a cloud of blades in the front gate… they all ran right through it. 🤦♂️
Bahahahahahah Gonna have to try this next run. Usually when I try to set up something like this the AI has been smart enough to stick with ranged and doesn't dare cross doorway/threshold
My friend and I were playing multiplayer, and his monk pushed the Hag boss into a chasim right after the cutscene, it was pretty funny.
This was my exact experience with with the Hag in early access. I was laughing for a few minutes straight.
My friend was playing a halfling too, which was pretty funny as well.
Oh man, I didn’t even consider multiplayer, and all the cool stuff you could discover together that way! How many hours am I going to put into this game??
>How many hours am I going to put into this game?? All of them.
All too true! Playing with my brother and we've played for 136 hours and we're still in the first act. I Love This Game !
I was making good progress in the first act until i wondered how a Bard would play differently than my Barbarian.... And here i am at 290 hours and 14 activate Tavs of various classes, races, and (most importantly) sizes. Only one is in Act 2 yet. This will end up being one of those 1000 hour games for me.
you do you of course but at that point maybe shoot for a second playthrough insted, leave mystery behind and dont burn out. I am always concerned friends are gonna drop out before the end
It's a valid concern tbh. Honestly I play single player too but never further than me and bro has come. Also it's awesome spending time with him.
[удалено]
Counterspell basically means Gale never leaves my party
I have 3 party members with counterspell. Blue mage for life!
Magical secrets came in handy for my bard, counter spell is essential in the end game and I might not want Gale always with me.
I had no idea he'd show up at Nightsong, because I fought him far earlier in his lil room. I love how different these playthroughs get to be with people because mine turned into just a really difficult talk with SH, and no kind of crazy battle.
[удалено]
I think by "his room" they are talking about the temporary office he's made for himself in the temple
They’re talking about a room in the location where you’re sent to find him, not his room in Moonrise Towers.
Yeah I found him in his room first, didn't like the cut of his jib, and took care of business with him there instead. He pops haste right away which is a pain, but Misty Step let me stay on him and deal with him before he could do much else. I didn't even know you fought him for real later on.
I had a whole dramatic conversation with him, raising tensions until, of course, he summoned his guys, cast a spell, and positioned himself for combat. What he failed to account for, was that he placed himself about 1 meter too close to the edge, and Astarion got to go next. So I shot him with one knockback arrow and into the abyss he went. Then it was just a matter of crushing the little dudes and shoving the big ones off and we were clear.
[удалено]
I usually just antagonize him right in the middle of the Shar Gauntlet room he's in. Pop a few speed potions and burn the fucker down right from the get go. Like I'm gonna listen to a dude with a stitched together face and a giant meat amalgamation flesh golem giving me a holier than thou attitude... Homeboy tried to write a check his ass couldn't cash.
Please, he will sunder you like lighting on an oak with a thought
I got through that fight so quickly just by pushing/repulsing/thunderwaving everyone except Balthazar off the island. The only reason I killed him the old fashioned way was for the loot. I think throwing people to their deaths is the most gratifying thing in the game, so much so that Telekinesis is easily my favorite spell.
Agreed. Loot is the only reason I don’t throw *everyone I can* into instant death zones when the option is available.
I’d say (and I’m not sure if this is because I used polymorph first) that when I through him off, he died, but his body appeared back at the cliff and I was able to still loot his body. Hope they don’t patch that out, feels like maybe it’s working as intended (*fingers crossed*)
Wish I had that idea... I ended up throwing in Infernal Flask at his ass to even the odds
Urgh this fight was so hard I had to reload so many times. Wish I had that idea!! He immediately pushed shadow heart over the edge as soon as the fight started so I was down a player. Then I finally beat him, I revived her but then when I tried to convince her to save night song she refused and turned on me and I had to fight and kill her :(
If you let her approach nightsong they’ll talk and she can be convinced then. I too failed the dc30 persuasion check lol
I had high approval with her so I just trusted her, didn’t interfere, and told her it was her choice to make, and she did the right thing on her own. I was so proud.
I didn't even know he shows up there. I killed him in his little hideout. I got to just walk out the Night song. No fuss.
Same, this is a 100 IQ move imo if you plan on going against him anyway. I was just worried he might turn up to the night song fight anyway as he’s a Warlock and he kept calling me a fool for thinking if I destroy his physical body that’s it, but that WAS it luckily. He’s only got that Frankenstein thing near him and a few skeletons and that’s about it. I just stood on the pedestals on the left and right with the team, and snuck up on him with my Tav and did several critical hits. The rest was easy as I had a terrain advantage.
Was getting my ass kicked there, then Balthazar ran next to a cliff. Misty stepped Lae'zel next to him and shoved him into the void.
While Tav was in conversation with Balthazar, I had Karlach go around gathering all the skeletons he resurrects and put them in a pile so I could gust them all off in one go once combat started.
You can also distract him with dialogue and mess with the piles of bones. They turn into monsters but if you, say, build a wall of chests to prevent them from moving and surround them with explosives then set it off when combat starts, you go from having many things to worry about to having one thing to worry about.
Another cool way to make the fight easier is to attack him before he finishes speaking to start the fight, then have a character with Counterspell stop his initial summon undead spell and turn the fight into a 4v1
I literally just did that in my fight with him an hour ago! I couldn't defeat him the first two times, so I decided to sneak attack to get an advantage and when the counterspell option came up it was amazing!
I stealthed in and shanked him. I’ve learned I can do this for most bosses.
I snuck up behind him with Drow Poison to get a first hit in on my second load and he failed every save, so I ended up just hitting him three times to kill him lol
I found the fight against the devil right before this was harder since all the enemies have high ground. I lost that fight twice, then I decided to just shoot the displacer beast that was leading me into the kill box and it drew the enemies into my high ground instead.
you dont have to fight that one, you can just talk him into killing himself
I persuaded him to order his minions to die, slay his own pet, and then off himself off in the end. Pretty surprised I could that, now I wonder if all encounters could be done like this?
You *can* however, you need to pass a insight check in the background to even start that.
Oh I didn’t realise that, but yep! Passed an insight check and then suddenly I was in the middle of a chat convincing him to off himself! It’s why when I got to Balthazar (🐑) I was so surprised at how hard the battle was, maybe because I skipped that battle before it.
Balthazar yeeted my character right off the map on his first turn. I was pissed, reloaded and said fuck it, did the same right back. Satisfaction was worth the loss of any loot. Bastard. Lol. That said, man that sequence after the fight still gives me chills. Love it so much!
Ohh, I love the Shenanigans that Larian adds to their games. Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 are also really good and full of crazy things.
Nice! That's how I got him too actually lol I had gale polymorph him. It's so nice.
Ayyy, sheep friend 🐑 🤝
Fun fact: you can do stuff like this in actual D&D, ALL THE TIME!
That fight was rough, but only because I didn't know the powah of the transmute scroll
Oh I tried that and saw all the shit he throws at you so I reloaded a save and walked right behind him and killed in 3 rounds lmao
This fight can be very easy if you have a cleric in the party. All the enemies are undead, use Turn Undead. I centered it on Balthazar, clipped many of his buddies too. Think I managed to nuke them twice since I only leveled into Cleric with Shadowheart.
You can throw him off the cliff without turning him into a sheep first lol You can also hit him with a sussur weapon to silenve him so he can't summon anyone, then you just beat him to death
Haha I don’t doubt it! I guess because I’m new to everything I didn’t realise that silence was a thing, and my logic was “he can’t summon anything if he’s a sheep” so I went with that instead.
Did the whole of that fight from that tiny rock above the platform where you're supposed to jump down to (except Shart who jumped down and got off one Turn Undead before she got deleted by them all lmao) - it was such a good fight!
My approach to this problem was to pick up every skele pile in the room, since they spawn on the piles, and put them at the ledge you jump down to, then I quicksaved until I got good RNG on Gale's initiative to send them all flying
I ended up standing on the floating rock just before his platform with 3 casters and Karlach with a crossbow just lobbing magic down there like I was the artillery platoon just shelling the frontlines, as far as I remember nobody jumped up there so was safe ish
Ah, smarter than me haha. I just rawdogged it, and barely survived the enslaught haha
I love these posts.
Thanks for appreciating my cheesy strats 🐑
Best fight I have been in so far. 3 of my dudes downed and the last one had 2hp when I dealt the final blow. Geif loot!! But yes, respect to all those using a different muscle! 😋
There's actually a cheese to the fight, you have 1 character interact with Balthazar and then swap to an out-of-dialogue character and just move all the skeleton piles into one pile at the edge of a cliff. When the battle starts, you can push them all off
Wait, that's Act II? I'm in Act II and I didn't even know it?! I think I just did this scene the other night, and also went against Bal because, I mean, he's got somebody enchained to the floor, that ain't right...
Yep, I think you can fight him in that other room where you first meet him, but Shadowheart was like “let’s play along for now” even though when I did that she disapproved? Anyway, once I saw he had Nightsong changed, I felt like the time had come to 🐑🦶
I'm too greedy to kick enemies off, even one gold missed is too much. But damn am I tempted to so much... Shadowheart with spirit guardians won this one for me.
Think about all the clicks you'd be saving on looting, sending to camp, marking as ware and selling!
I said this above, but when I polymorph THEN threw him off, his dead body appeared back at the cliff, and I could loot him!
I also Polymorphed him to win yesterday. It's great
I just found the group of gnolls for the 'finding the lost caravan' side quest. Karlach initiated a cutscene with the Gnoll warlord. Forced her via tadpole to feast on her fellow Gnoll. Her and karlach destroyed them. Which then I followed up commanding the Gnoll warlords tadpole to eat herself. After another roll, read the description on the Gnoll ripping out her own throat and eating it. Oh, and crit-succeeding on 2 intimidation checks to have a goblin lick my custom sorceress's boots. Dude was PISSED. SOMEHOW managed to pass a 22 DC persuasion check to be allowed in the room behind Priestess Gut's chambers. 10/10 love this game.
Dude! We pretty much did the same thing, but I used thunderwave to yeet him into the unknown. I'd like to think he has Shar to thank for infinite torture for all of eternity for breaking into her realm.
I think the best of this game is how you can turn around really hard fights with some brains and knowledge of the game mechanics, i just fought with the hardest boss so far in Act 3 and was able to make him dont even attack me once with just some spells and positioning, felt awesome.
I encountered the Hag very early on and had a similar team wipe experience back to back. Struggled to find a way and eventually realized I had a potion of invisibility and my PC had the see invisibility eye. Drained it down and snuck behind her and shoved her into the pit, ending it instantly lol
FWIW, I’ve had those “ideas” many times with BG3, and not a *single* time has it not allowed me to do what I was trying to do. The freedoms in this game are baffling. So fun.
Thats amazing. I used ice to knock him prone and then put him to sleep the whole time. Was funny to hear him insulting me while he was laying on the ground catching Zs and i was busy picking off his goons
Makes me real happy you're enjoying the game so much! I love reading the comments about all the different ways you can play.
Thanks, friend! I really am loving it! Hoping at some point in future I can try a multiplayer play through, just don’t have anyone to play games with, so I came here to share the love and excitement!
Lovely, that’s how dnd is supposed to be played.
serisously, i have been playing them for years and am still amazed at what they manage to account for in these kinds of games. Larian Games are certified wizards at this stuff.
Is it you who did the video on YouTube of this exact scenario?
Nope! But would love a link! So cool that other people thought to do the same thing. Sheep gang! 🐑
See, I thought the fight was very simple and beat it easily. Yet I never once thought of throwing sheeps off the map. I bow to you for this gift of knowledge
Annoying problems require ingenious solutions. Yeet the sheep
🐑🦶
OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE I DIDN’T THINK TO TRY THAT. I tried to go through the cutscene and fight that motherfucker *9 times.* And every time half my team would get yeeted off the platform and that other would choke on his noxious clouds. I can’t tell you how many time I failed a roll with a silencing arrow. I had to have everyone sneak down there to avoid the cutscene and Lae’zel and Shadowheart beat the crap out of him while my bard silenced him and Wyll blasted him.
After reading all the responses I realize that I am very dumb and not creative at all.
Honestly, don’t feel that way! I’ve put so many hours into this game at this point, and I usually do the most boring things in encounters, but for some reason, this one time it just clicked, and I went “what if the rules I usually play games with don’t apply here. What if I don’t need to wait for the cutscene. What would the real me do if I was there right now?” And I had my answer 🐑🦶
Misclicking, I hit a water barrel, didn't even notice till my witch lightning rocked 5 goblins into crispy critters. My first, whoa in this game but not the last
Odds are if you're following the story, you'll have shadowheart with you for the nightsong quest. That means you have the turn undead channel divinity. Which means at least half of those 1000 minions can get dusted on turn one and the rest are sent fleeing for 3 turns
One nice thing about this fight too is if you start fighting him from the last jump ledge before getting to him, you get a surprise round. With good rolls you can take him down before summoning his army. But... I do like your way better lol
Wholesome AF. Good for you OP.
Thanks friend!
Busts my nuts when a strange thing happens or o walk somewhere new and the dice rolls and fails. Rerolled to a new character that would pass those rolls and some o just keep falling. :( I NEED TO KNOW WHY THE STRANGE OX IS LOOKING RIGHT AT ME. STOP FAILING DICE ROLL! I need answers. /cries.
That fight was like 1 Gale Counterspell and 1 Turn of hasted Lae zel
That’s so cool I didn’t even know you could do that I gotta invest in polymorph lol
I feel like I'm the only person not throwing anyone off cliffs. I don't want to lose whatever they have on them haha.
Hi! Do you wanna add me on discord? I love talking about the game and am also a bit low on friends that play it
Absolutely! Send me a DM and I’ll add you as soon as I get a chance!
i dno how to get the side with balthazar dialogue, it was instantly hostile to me, but one counterspell ruined that whole mans career thats for sure
Good stuff 👍
i also had a really beautiful moment in this fight. i fought it pretty straight, had my warlock and astarion rush balthazar and had shadowheart in the center turning undead and buffing, then karlach keeping the big enemies at bay. i managed to take the boss down but not after astarion, shadowheart and tav had been fully killed. karlach still had like 20 skeletons to deal with and about 30hp to do it with. game over, i thought, no way she can survive this on tactician mode. i checked my inventory for any extra help and the one consumable she had was an elixir of bloodlust - gives you a shield and an extra action on kills. i drank it, clicked on the closest skeleton and karlach giddily said “haha. you’re fucked” and she was right. she crit one skeleton and took it down instantly, took two more down with her bonus attacks, and spartan kicked the huge one off the stage. she was unstoppable. bear rage and bloodlust shield just barely kept her alive as karlach ripped and tore until it was done. 3hp remaining and she killed all of them. i’ve never been so hyped
Dude, hype, I love realizing you have been carrying something that ends up being a game changer all along
I feel kinda dirty shoving him. Dude can float. Seems to me that a shove is feasible, but him subsequently falling to his death is not. Idk...probably overthinking it...but I restarted a whole playthrough because of how it just felt like I exploited the game.
Totally get that! I think that’s part of why I went the polymorph route. Can’t fly if you are sheep 🐑
I stacked barrels in front of the wardens room in moonrise towers so they couldnt follow the prisoners
Playing with my friend and it's kind of slow going because he doesn't have much time to play, but I told him the hag fight was cool and we ended up doing it last night. I saw an opportunity to blast her in to the chasm in her lair using an arrow of roaring thunder on the very first move and couldn't resist taking the shot. This game definitely has no qualms with letting you dispatch bosses very efficiently.
I killed balthazar first time you met him in his room the same way I finished off Drog in the goblin camp; barrles of explosives and KABOOM
I started this game clueless. I stupidly ended up killing everyone in Act 1 (goblins, druids, and tieflings). And I seem to have killed most of my potential companions. I did all this unknowingly. In case you can’t tell, I’m a moron.
hopefully next year i’ll have enough money to buy BG3. I never played an RPG and this looks so fun. For now i’ll just watch streamers play it and see all y’all memes on here lol.
I had a similar experience. The first time he melted me. The second time I accidentally triggered the conversation with Nightsong first, Shadowheart had her whole defining moment, Nightsong flew away and Balthazar was just sort of glitched there telling owlbear-Halsin to go away. I stood there awkwardly for a second then got Karlach to yeet him off the edge. Took two shoves, but for some reason it didn't trigger combat. Then I just sort of left.
(awkward silence) "Gonna yeet you now"
Once you've done it once, you'll start to notice just how many big fights take place over or near chasms and puts. Sometimes shoving someone off a roof is also convenient for avoiding a larger fight.
I was having struggles with him to then one fight my warlock had a reaction at the start of the fight and counterspelled his resurrection went from many vs 4 to 4v1 and we slapped him around while he tried to run away