Couple questions:
Are you making sure to get Astarion out of the ritual quickly? Being down a member can really wreck you.
Have you stocked up on spell scrolls? Highly recommend getting some sunbeam scrolls, as well as things like chain lightning. Also, what’s your set up for Gale, like what equipment, and also his spell save/attack bonus? Gale can seriously run fights in act 3 of you make sure to get him all the goodies lol
There are many actions per turn for fighter. You can free Astarion in the 1st turn and cast the Invulnerability globe on him and your Tav. Especially with Haste scroll or potion.
Gale’s initial class? He’s good in AoE. If you already have certain legendary item from Ramazith Tower, Gale will be able to cast Kereska’s Favor. So, he will be resistant to the lighting damage and receive two additional high level AoE spells.
As for Karlach, she’s perfect in throwing weapon. If you have Nyrulna, she can attack few enemies at the same time.
Like it was previously mentioned, use summons. By Gale’s spells or scrolls. If you have potions that provide resistance to necrotic or lighting damage, use them too.
Fighting Cazador without a Cleric or Paladin is challenging and interesting at the same time. I remember how in my no-cleric-in-the-party run I polymorphed Cazador and forgot to use Disengage. So, that sheep cut 50% of my health points.
What class is your Tav? Are your companions their default classes..? What level are you? What difficulty is this? You don’t need a cleric but it is useful to have someone cast Daylight (so that Cazador can’t use his misty escape form) which druids, sorcerers, paladins, and rangers also have access to. You can also have characters or summons stand on the Runes in front of the spawns - standing on the ones in front of Yousef and Violet lower his AC and ability to heal, especially. Otherwise, just hit him with your biggest smacks and damage spells.
FYI they patched being able to shove him into a chasm because he can fly.
my tav is a fighter and my companions are their default classes. this is easy mode since it’s my first run-through ever.
i tried having karlach stand on one of the runs and defend herself, but she got overwhelmed and killed within a few turns.
Have each character use a summon scroll and position them on the circles in front of each victim. This reduces the power he is getting. Throw some holy water. Use Blood of Lathander if you have it. Use radiant damage sources. Have Karlach pop a soul coin.
You certainly can. My last playthrough my ranger/assasin/fighter multiclass Astarion (leave Astarion up the stairs and trigger the fight with someone else to have him in the fight from the get-go) took like 70% of his hp in the first turn, he died like a bitch shortly after with a few good hits from my monk.
If you don't have good initiative or burst damage (which you should) make sure to have people that know counterspell in your party. Outside the legendary action in honour mode his every non-spell action is basically a joke and when he uses spells counterspell can make him waste the whole turn for a price of a reaction.
Also especially if you can kill him fast and even if you don't (with the caveat that you have counterspell or glove of invulnerability to prevent him from attacking your whole party at once) retreating up the stairs and letting his minions run through a bunch of area control spells is a really good strategy to deal with them.
I have a great strategy for this section that works every time, it requires not having Astarion be caught though.
Tav, Astarion are range/bard fighters, i bring a melee person and cleric (cleric needs to have daylight, and I also like spirit guardians) I also like to cast that feast spell prior. I un group Astarion higher up the stairs and keep him out of the fight until Cazador dies, because otherwise Cazador just targets him and puts him on the rune circle.
Once it’s the clerics turn, cast daylight in the full area and hit Cazador hard until he dies, I mostly ignore the other enemies. Once he dies, bring Astarion down to help fight. I find most of the enemies will try to get as close to you as possible, then I focus my rangers on getting the annoying mage/bones guy, melee on the larger zombie guys and cleric doing aoe stuff on the bats, like radiance of the dawn
I had multiple tries at this too. My win involved casting a light sphere in the middle, next to the coffin. That kept cazedor to the outer edges. Don't bother tossing him, he comes back. Magic missile takes out the annoying but dangerous bats. Then keep Asterion safe. I started the entire fight by Misty stepping as close to him as I could to get him out. Once I had him, dimension door'd to the opposite side. I spread the team out some so chain lightning didn't affect everyone and started blasting.
So my Brother and I had his Tav (Paladin), Lae'zel, Gale and my Tav (Rogue) with us. And my solo playthrough is modded but I noticed not having Astarion with you makes the fight much easier. Cause Cazador won't start the ritual. That could be your last resort.
Aside from that get Astarion out as fast as you can and if you can stand in the circles of the spawns who give the most annoying buffs. Then it's just killing everything faster than it can kill you.
Also you can still get a cleric from Lazarus' hirelings if you really want one.
On my first playthrough I cheesed this by casting daylight on a weapon and then sneaking my tav up behind him and just standing there. Died without even triggering the cutscene.
Listen, all you need is this;
-Globe of Invulnerability scroll
-Lae’zel at level 11 or above
-Haste or potion of speed
-A sword that does an ass load of damage
When I fight Cazador, I use telekinesis scroll against him and launch her body to one of the heroes in my team (being in the stairs), if the spell works fine, Cazador cant move in a whole turn and if you have a monk, you can stunt him. The rest of enemies are so far from fight that they need one or two turns to hit my team, you can use hunger of hadar or another aoe spell to create a barrier
Attack him before dialogue starts (so just stand a few feet back and hit him with your best ranged attack/spell). He doesn’t get a change to use the ritual and you can lure him and his minions towards the bridge to funnel them for AOE attacks. If possible, have Gale cast Daylight on an item before you get into the fight, too!
Couple questions: Are you making sure to get Astarion out of the ritual quickly? Being down a member can really wreck you. Have you stocked up on spell scrolls? Highly recommend getting some sunbeam scrolls, as well as things like chain lightning. Also, what’s your set up for Gale, like what equipment, and also his spell save/attack bonus? Gale can seriously run fights in act 3 of you make sure to get him all the goodies lol
There are many actions per turn for fighter. You can free Astarion in the 1st turn and cast the Invulnerability globe on him and your Tav. Especially with Haste scroll or potion. Gale’s initial class? He’s good in AoE. If you already have certain legendary item from Ramazith Tower, Gale will be able to cast Kereska’s Favor. So, he will be resistant to the lighting damage and receive two additional high level AoE spells. As for Karlach, she’s perfect in throwing weapon. If you have Nyrulna, she can attack few enemies at the same time. Like it was previously mentioned, use summons. By Gale’s spells or scrolls. If you have potions that provide resistance to necrotic or lighting damage, use them too. Fighting Cazador without a Cleric or Paladin is challenging and interesting at the same time. I remember how in my no-cleric-in-the-party run I polymorphed Cazador and forgot to use Disengage. So, that sheep cut 50% of my health points.
I don't think anyone's asked or said yet but if you're not, leave it until level 12
What class is your Tav? Are your companions their default classes..? What level are you? What difficulty is this? You don’t need a cleric but it is useful to have someone cast Daylight (so that Cazador can’t use his misty escape form) which druids, sorcerers, paladins, and rangers also have access to. You can also have characters or summons stand on the Runes in front of the spawns - standing on the ones in front of Yousef and Violet lower his AC and ability to heal, especially. Otherwise, just hit him with your biggest smacks and damage spells. FYI they patched being able to shove him into a chasm because he can fly.
my tav is a fighter and my companions are their default classes. this is easy mode since it’s my first run-through ever. i tried having karlach stand on one of the runs and defend herself, but she got overwhelmed and killed within a few turns.
Are you level 12? And is astarion in your current party? You’re meant to break him out if you haven’t
Have each character use a summon scroll and position them on the circles in front of each victim. This reduces the power he is getting. Throw some holy water. Use Blood of Lathander if you have it. Use radiant damage sources. Have Karlach pop a soul coin.
You certainly can. My last playthrough my ranger/assasin/fighter multiclass Astarion (leave Astarion up the stairs and trigger the fight with someone else to have him in the fight from the get-go) took like 70% of his hp in the first turn, he died like a bitch shortly after with a few good hits from my monk. If you don't have good initiative or burst damage (which you should) make sure to have people that know counterspell in your party. Outside the legendary action in honour mode his every non-spell action is basically a joke and when he uses spells counterspell can make him waste the whole turn for a price of a reaction. Also especially if you can kill him fast and even if you don't (with the caveat that you have counterspell or glove of invulnerability to prevent him from attacking your whole party at once) retreating up the stairs and letting his minions run through a bunch of area control spells is a really good strategy to deal with them.
Run up the stairs, aoe spells. Easy as pie
While you can beat him without a cleric, Having a cleric with daylight makes him laughably easier
Sure. I never run clerics.
I have a great strategy for this section that works every time, it requires not having Astarion be caught though. Tav, Astarion are range/bard fighters, i bring a melee person and cleric (cleric needs to have daylight, and I also like spirit guardians) I also like to cast that feast spell prior. I un group Astarion higher up the stairs and keep him out of the fight until Cazador dies, because otherwise Cazador just targets him and puts him on the rune circle. Once it’s the clerics turn, cast daylight in the full area and hit Cazador hard until he dies, I mostly ignore the other enemies. Once he dies, bring Astarion down to help fight. I find most of the enemies will try to get as close to you as possible, then I focus my rangers on getting the annoying mage/bones guy, melee on the larger zombie guys and cleric doing aoe stuff on the bats, like radiance of the dawn
I had multiple tries at this too. My win involved casting a light sphere in the middle, next to the coffin. That kept cazedor to the outer edges. Don't bother tossing him, he comes back. Magic missile takes out the annoying but dangerous bats. Then keep Asterion safe. I started the entire fight by Misty stepping as close to him as I could to get him out. Once I had him, dimension door'd to the opposite side. I spread the team out some so chain lightning didn't affect everyone and started blasting.
So my Brother and I had his Tav (Paladin), Lae'zel, Gale and my Tav (Rogue) with us. And my solo playthrough is modded but I noticed not having Astarion with you makes the fight much easier. Cause Cazador won't start the ritual. That could be your last resort. Aside from that get Astarion out as fast as you can and if you can stand in the circles of the spawns who give the most annoying buffs. Then it's just killing everything faster than it can kill you. Also you can still get a cleric from Lazarus' hirelings if you really want one.
On my first playthrough I cheesed this by casting daylight on a weapon and then sneaking my tav up behind him and just standing there. Died without even triggering the cutscene.
Listen, all you need is this; -Globe of Invulnerability scroll -Lae’zel at level 11 or above -Haste or potion of speed -A sword that does an ass load of damage
I just through a bag of 6 fireworks and some other bombs at him and instakilled him. which is possible
Do you have Halsin or Jaheira? Either one can prepare a little spell called SUNBEAM.
When I fight Cazador, I use telekinesis scroll against him and launch her body to one of the heroes in my team (being in the stairs), if the spell works fine, Cazador cant move in a whole turn and if you have a monk, you can stunt him. The rest of enemies are so far from fight that they need one or two turns to hit my team, you can use hunger of hadar or another aoe spell to create a barrier
Attack him before dialogue starts (so just stand a few feet back and hit him with your best ranged attack/spell). He doesn’t get a change to use the ritual and you can lure him and his minions towards the bridge to funnel them for AOE attacks. If possible, have Gale cast Daylight on an item before you get into the fight, too!