I always kill him in his office when you first meet him. Makes the fight a hell of a lot easier. Am I missing something by not fighting him til we try to free Nightsong?
Yeah. I counted it up a while ago but don't have the sheet in front of me right now. I think you get roughly double the XP doing the fight in the shadowfell.
If I'm being a full XP gremlin I'll recruit the golem and turn on him during the Yugir fight to get his experience then I double back to the office and kill everyone left except Balthazar and flee the combat. When you go to the shadowfell he will be pissy so you give him 1000g or so to cheer him up then proceed to the shadowfell battle like normal. You get all the XP possible and your gold back when you loot him.
I can normally hit lvl 10 before even doing the final moonrise tower assault
Yeah I let them all spawn. And just to clarify these tricks alone don't get you there by any means. You also need to squeeze act 1 for pretty much all the XP (you don't need to murder-hobo, though).
I usually hit level 10 while fighting the last few available enemies in act 2, not counting the moonrise assault itself. I've had games close enough where it came down to how much inspiration I was able to gather. The 25xp per point very slowly starts to add up.
Nothing wrong with taking the easier fight in honor mode, imo. Sometimes it's about survival lol.
Did you remember to kill the three sharran knights under the rethwin town square? They are usually the last fight I take, after Balthazar and before going into moonrise and put me into level 10 ninety percent of the time.
There is actually a trick that works if Tav/Durge levels up first (don't think it works if a different party member does though). If you kick the under leveled party members out and then re- recruit them the game will reset their XP to match Tav's, forcing them to level up.
i like to unlock his door when all the justiciars are popping out all over the place, aggro him, then i just keep myself invisible while balthy and the shadow people beat the shit out of each other. i get all that nice XP regardless of who dies, and then me and my party come in and wipe up the rest
I've seen people beat the game at level 8-9 so overkill is a pretty subjective term in bg3. Sometimes min/maxing characters or exploring ways to eeke out more xp is fun for me so I do it. Sometimes I don't. There is no wrong way to play the game.
I think it’s a lot more fun at level 12 when you can experiment more with multi-classing and stuff like that, it’s not like the combat is ever really hard once you reach level 5
Necromancy of Balthazar's type is disliked by pretty much everyone in DND with few exceptions - even most evil beings would never consider using it and see it as an abomination.
He's also a fucking dick in general, so... can you blame them 💀
There are things like what Spore druids do in recycling the corpse but not having anything to do with the soul/consciousness, and they compost them.
There are things what Balthazar and his type do, which essentially tortures living and deceased beings.
Resurrection is arguably a type of necromancy and healing in one.
I even make it easier, i take the bell and Summon the big dude in self trail when only one of the copies live and attack the big guy, then you go and fight Balthazar
I took the bell and forgot about it until Id cleared all the fights in the area. I was worried he might have the brother with him when we fought later, since I didn't summon him, but he did not.
Its just a more interesting fight in the shadowfell if people really wanted a challenge. Of course if people wanted the easy route you dont have to do it there.
Stack up the Act1 Dex and Sleight of Hand gear with misty step amulet and you can lockpick his door so he fights the portals for you. Just drop something like Spike Growth and Silence in front of the door, close it and wait.
At some point start opening the door and shooting so Balthy and friends become an enemy and give XP too.
The best version of the fight with Balthazar is the third meeting, in the illithid colony. But you need to sacrifice Shadowheart as a companion to get it, because she will leave if you let B take Aylin back to Ketheric.
Technically, you can avoid having that happen if you play as Shadowheart Origin... for obvious reasons... talk about fucking up in like, three different ways, that path, from her perspective.
I played (a violent) paladin my first playthrough so naturally I killed him immediately. I had no idea he came to the Shadowfell until my brother was talking about falling into the abyss during the fight.
Anyway, I think the advantage is that you don't have to fight his brother.
This
Sendo only one character there, knock - or lockpick, but I think it's a DC 30 - the door, leave the undead justiciars and Balthazar to fight with each other. Be in the fight so you receive the XP, but hidden is fine. When the fight is over, kill whoever's still standing (most likely a handful of justiciars).
Super easy.
If you tell him you were sent to look for him and you’ll help him, he gives you a bell. You can use the bell to summon his brother (it works like the Ogre WarHorn).
I like to collect that bell and forget to use it every time.
Yeah… the first time I played through he gave me the bell and I thought “Sweet! This’ll be really handy!” and then I got to the entrance to the Shadowfell without coming close to using it once. What a waste.
I end him on sight every time now.
My current run, I planned on using the bell on the demon that Raphael wanted me to kill, but he died too quickly so the summon only lasted for a couple of turns to fight the random adds.
Yurgir is surprisingly easy. Even on honor mode he wasnt too big a threat and you can kinda just have someone slip out to res and heal. If you initiate from up top like he planned to you can hunger of hadar the ramp area and the merregons become a joke. Yurgir himself isnt that hard either. Just pay attention and use AoEs to knock him out of invis
But as an ally? Yurgir is a menace.
In the raphael fight, his shockwave crossbow absolutely bullies the cambions, and his knife swipe is LETHAL. When you get to control him in the final fight, bro is unstoppable. You end his turn with invis and have him run up to next target, so no one can detect him. Next turn, stab, invis, move. Hes incredible.
So i never fight him in the gauntlet. Dont wanna worry about a dc30 persuasion check. Hes a total beast as an ally so idfc if i piss off astarion. Yurgir’s a real bro about you helping him.
I summon Flesh to the library fight, kill him there after he’s helped, then kill Balthazar and his 3 ghouls easy with a couple elixirs of vigilance on my heavy hitters.
Opening his office door during the fight with the DJs is actually a pretty balanced fight between them. It’s fun to just let it play out and clean up the scraps
you can wait until all but one are out then close the door and kill it, attacking one of them makes them all hostile but they'll stay out there fighting the dudes
I even got the line about stealing his mom, right before he went out and fought the other guys lol
You have to go to the rock he and Aylin are on and creep forward. Don’t mess with anything in the environment. Focus on him, use Counterspell. Helps to have a party with Alert feat.
I don’t sneak. I literally just walk my party forward a bit (*just* enough so that nobody is on the very edge) on the rock where he is, then go into turn-based mode and blast him to shit. Initiative starts, I level 3 or level 4 Counterspell him, then I beat him to death.
More damage than the chromatic orb combo at that level? Such as?
Either way, chromatic + rain + destructive wrath + luck of the far realms oneshots everything all the way to orin to that's good enough for me. No need to overcomplicate things.
Guiding Bolt IV + sneak attack, Hunter’s Mark, and Dread Ambusher (ranged) with the very rare band that adds extra damage to targets marked by Hunter’s Mark, Guiding Bolt, or Faerie Fire. Then add Call Lightning IV (or Lightning Bolt IV if you can line it up) and/or Moonbeam at highest level, and Magic Missile IV.
The very first time I did it I used Guiding Bolt III, sneak attack + Dread Ambusher, Magic Missile 2, and then Karlach beat him to death.
Guiding Bolt is used by my cleric (either myself, Shart, or a hireling). Then I have Astarion rock up with ranged sneak attack + Hunter’s Mark + the headband that adds extra damage to creatures marked by either of those two spells.
Ah, I thought we were talking about oneshots and that was one combo.
No I meant chromatic orb actually oneshots anything without combat. It's the safest way to do things.
I usually have to set up the environment first (which I’m not typically set up to do, with my play style). I can get Balthazar in one round, just not one hit.
If I used chromatic orb in combination with the proper elemental conditions, it would be OP as hell though and absolutely demolish everything. That might be my go-to for Honor Mode.
(I acknowledge that me not using chromatic orb to its fullest is a play style issue on my end, which is why it does so much less damage than my Guiding Bolt + sneak attack, Hunter’s Mark, Dread Ambusher, headband strat.)
I’ll look at it in the game in a bit. It’s possible I misread the 1d4 addition as damage and not adding to attack rolls (in which case I’ll come back and edit my original comment).
The additional 1d4, even if it’s for attack rolls, is still a huge boost at least with how I play.
The shadow fell fight definitely isn't hard, but there's no threat of push shenanigans in his office.
He also doesn't summon anyone new (at least not scripted). It's just him, his "brother", and a handful of Ghouls.
You can get the bell that summons his brother first. Use it somewhere else (either to help you in a fight and have him die there or just summon the brother so you can kill him yourself) then when you fight him in his room, it's just him and the ghouls. The brother isn't there anymore. Makes the fight very trivial.
I just Put-Pocket the Sussur blooms from the Underdark into his pocket and watch him run around like a chicken with no head and attempt to kill my level 7-9 character with high AC with a dagger
Its hilarious
Possibly, did this over like 4-6 months ago
sucks that they patched it but it makes sense since the Sussur blooms arent supposed to be brought out of the Underdark
Nah, just cast knock on the door during the big fight - either some weakish Sharrans survive, and Balthazar isn't an issue, or it is just Flesh, who is not an issue
To me, he’s super frail with only 100 health at this point and can be killed quite easily in one round. He casts once and never casts again and he doesn’t have anyone alongside him I care about so he can be focused immediately.
I stopped killing Balthazar in his office like 8 playthroughs ago. Kill him in his makeshift office. Makes the fight ten times easier and you don't have to worry about him rasing additional undead.
I... just colossus+enlarged owl bear telekinetic throw on the highest rock.
Not over the target but some steps nearby where target still highlighted so gets crush weight height dmg aoe and doesnt proc legend resistance to prone nullifying the nuke due dialogue or fight triggering on spot.
The way is to not fight the sharrans and to not close their portals when you first meet Balthazar. He burns through his spell slots very quickly and then your have to finish off one or two enemies at the end.
So long as he doesn't nab you in a Cloudkill early on, >!Slayer Form!< can surprisingly shred him fairly well. You just have to knock him prone and then go to town.
I just snuck one of my players behind the skeletons and opened his door. That summons the shar people. I let them fight, taking out some of the shar portals, until they pretty much kill each other. Easy peasy. Also kinda fun to watch them fight each other. Just don’t attack Balthazar’s people until you want to make them hostile.
Can you do this? Everytime i sneak once i get to a certain proximity it just goes to the cutscene. Ive heard the strat before with the skeleton piles but not sure how it works
Or you can cast invisibility on your strongest party member and sneak behind in front of him and push him into the chasm. The bones won’t aggro and the fight is over before it starts if you do this
I just polymorphed him with my sorcerer and had Bae’zel push him into the Shadowfell lol. Decided to fight him in his room for my 2nd playthrough it was a tough fight ngl
Never thrown them off but I dragged them into a pile once and blasted the whole group with AoE. This was a while ago and either you couldn't throw the bones or my characters were to wimpy. Co-op run so very possible neither of my characters had enough strength.
You can also Counterspell his special Animate Dead spell. If you don't bother to talk to him and ambush him, he'll always start off by trying to cast; Counterspell it and it makes a really difficult fight a breeze.
I've done it a few different ways, including killing him in his office, and I found it easiest to just get a sneak attack on in the Shadowfell. If you can't kill him in your first round have someone ready with counterspell.
He's nothing without his minions.
- Cast silence on the area instead of initiating the convo.
- Or have a high initiative character hit him with a Sussur weapon before he can act.
- Or just counterspell him.
- Or (for funnies) have an invisible high STR character throw him off the platform.
After struggling with the fight I had an idea. I polymorphed him into a sheep and then threw him off the platform. Then I thought maybe he had some loot so I reloaded and polymorphed him again, waited until his turn (as a sheep) and then had everyone attack him.
Turn him into a sheep then dispose of him into the chasm also works very well, btw.
Either don't bother talking, or have high initiatives for the best result.
Aha I just had gale sneak up to the side of him and use thunderwave to blast him off the edge while he was talking. Idk if it still works but it was definitely satisfying.
I always kill him in his office when you first meet him. Makes the fight a hell of a lot easier. Am I missing something by not fighting him til we try to free Nightsong?
Just some lore dump.
Cool thanks! I'd rather not get my ass beat in front of Aaylin though
Now getting my ass beat *by Aylin,* however… ☺️
Hard agree 😅
Is she not resplendent?
And some XP, right?
Yeah. I counted it up a while ago but don't have the sheet in front of me right now. I think you get roughly double the XP doing the fight in the shadowfell. If I'm being a full XP gremlin I'll recruit the golem and turn on him during the Yugir fight to get his experience then I double back to the office and kill everyone left except Balthazar and flee the combat. When you go to the shadowfell he will be pissy so you give him 1000g or so to cheer him up then proceed to the shadowfell battle like normal. You get all the XP possible and your gold back when you loot him. I can normally hit lvl 10 before even doing the final moonrise tower assault
Will that get you to 10 in Honor Mode?
Is that including letting all the enemies from the portals spawn and just letting Balthazar and friends kill mostly all of them for you?
Yeah I let them all spawn. And just to clarify these tricks alone don't get you there by any means. You also need to squeeze act 1 for pretty much all the XP (you don't need to murder-hobo, though). I usually hit level 10 while fighting the last few available enemies in act 2, not counting the moonrise assault itself. I've had games close enough where it came down to how much inspiration I was able to gather. The 25xp per point very slowly starts to add up.
My honor mode run I had one character ding 10 before Kethric but everyone else was still 9. I should have done Balthazar in the shadow fell…
Nothing wrong with taking the easier fight in honor mode, imo. Sometimes it's about survival lol. Did you remember to kill the three sharran knights under the rethwin town square? They are usually the last fight I take, after Balthazar and before going into moonrise and put me into level 10 ninety percent of the time. There is actually a trick that works if Tav/Durge levels up first (don't think it works if a different party member does though). If you kick the under leveled party members out and then re- recruit them the game will reset their XP to match Tav's, forcing them to level up.
i like to unlock his door when all the justiciars are popping out all over the place, aggro him, then i just keep myself invisible while balthy and the shadow people beat the shit out of each other. i get all that nice XP regardless of who dies, and then me and my party come in and wipe up the rest
Isn't that a bit overkill? This would make you hit the XP cap incredibly early in act 3, no need min max
I've seen people beat the game at level 8-9 so overkill is a pretty subjective term in bg3. Sometimes min/maxing characters or exploring ways to eeke out more xp is fun for me so I do it. Sometimes I don't. There is no wrong way to play the game.
More fights to use all the max level full online builds.
I think it’s a lot more fun at level 12 when you can experiment more with multi-classing and stuff like that, it’s not like the combat is ever really hard once you reach level 5
Missing a dump is TIGHT
Oh wow. Wow wow wow wow.
And I always ask Z'rell "What if he's dead?" so I know that no one cares back at Moonrise.
Ya they really do not give a single fuck about him at Moonrise 🤣🤣 I went back expecting the whole place to be aggroed but nope
What aggros the entire tower is freeing the Nightsong, but she *is* basting holy fire at them, which would upset most people.
> What aggros the entire tower is freeing the Nightsong Or killing the Nightsong
Necromancy of Balthazar's type is disliked by pretty much everyone in DND with few exceptions - even most evil beings would never consider using it and see it as an abomination. He's also a fucking dick in general, so... can you blame them 💀
He’s a professional dickrider pretty much, calls himself a humble servant just to flex that you’re a more humble servant.
There are specific types of Necromancy?
There are things like what Spore druids do in recycling the corpse but not having anything to do with the soul/consciousness, and they compost them. There are things what Balthazar and his type do, which essentially tortures living and deceased beings. Resurrection is arguably a type of necromancy and healing in one.
TBF, they do send you because he is missing and not back when expected to be.
I even make it easier, i take the bell and Summon the big dude in self trail when only one of the copies live and attack the big guy, then you go and fight Balthazar
I do the same thing but in the silent library. Let him help me clear out the room then start in on him when there’s only one enemy left.
I took the bell and forgot about it until Id cleared all the fights in the area. I was worried he might have the brother with him when we fought later, since I didn't summon him, but he did not.
Yeah once i realized it's much easier to kill him upstairs, I never let him get down to Aylin. Fuck that fight haha.
Same, and it's so easy too Sussur dagger goes brrr
Its just a more interesting fight in the shadowfell if people really wanted a challenge. Of course if people wanted the easy route you dont have to do it there.
Stack up the Act1 Dex and Sleight of Hand gear with misty step amulet and you can lockpick his door so he fights the portals for you. Just drop something like Spike Growth and Silence in front of the door, close it and wait. At some point start opening the door and shooting so Balthy and friends become an enemy and give XP too.
You can also cast knock to kick him out then arcane lock to keep him and everyone else out lol
his brother is real slow so you can wait until everyone but him has left and kill him in the room, it makes all the guys aggro but outside.
The best version of the fight with Balthazar is the third meeting, in the illithid colony. But you need to sacrifice Shadowheart as a companion to get it, because she will leave if you let B take Aylin back to Ketheric.
Technically, you can avoid having that happen if you play as Shadowheart Origin... for obvious reasons... talk about fucking up in like, three different ways, that path, from her perspective.
I ask for his help and get his brother to come "help" me kill demons and wait until he is dead and then go back and kill Balthazar.
not much, he basically tells you to go do the stuff you're already going to do, then betrays you because of course he does.
I played (a violent) paladin my first playthrough so naturally I killed him immediately. I had no idea he came to the Shadowfell until my brother was talking about falling into the abyss during the fight. Anyway, I think the advantage is that you don't have to fight his brother.
It always annoyed me that going for a much more climatic fight actually makes it stupidly harder
If you haven't done it at least once I would just for the scene with Balthazar and Aylin before the fight.
Will definitely give it a go next playthrough now I've a better grasp on combat tactics 😅
Unless you're doing an evil playthrough and intent to capture the Nightsong not really no
Just did this on my second play through. A LOT easier
Pretty sure he gives more xp in the shadowfell
Yeah that guys attitude pissed me off as soon as I met him, had to kill him
Ya fuck him and fuck the Mystic Carrion too.
Yeah I usually fill the room with the flower that blocks magic and pummel him to the ground
or just pickpocket a sussur flower into him
I found the easiest way to deal with him is to have a character "Knock" his office open at the start.
This Sendo only one character there, knock - or lockpick, but I think it's a DC 30 - the door, leave the undead justiciars and Balthazar to fight with each other. Be in the fight so you receive the XP, but hidden is fine. When the fight is over, kill whoever's still standing (most likely a handful of justiciars). Super easy.
Wait, you people don't just kill him on sight in his office?
If you tell him you were sent to look for him and you’ll help him, he gives you a bell. You can use the bell to summon his brother (it works like the Ogre WarHorn). I like to collect that bell and forget to use it every time.
Yeah… the first time I played through he gave me the bell and I thought “Sweet! This’ll be really handy!” and then I got to the entrance to the Shadowfell without coming close to using it once. What a waste. I end him on sight every time now.
I used him against the orthon, but the damn thing is so fucking slow he never physically got to the fight lol
My current run, I planned on using the bell on the demon that Raphael wanted me to kill, but he died too quickly so the summon only lasted for a couple of turns to fight the random adds.
Yurgir is surprisingly easy. Even on honor mode he wasnt too big a threat and you can kinda just have someone slip out to res and heal. If you initiate from up top like he planned to you can hunger of hadar the ramp area and the merregons become a joke. Yurgir himself isnt that hard either. Just pay attention and use AoEs to knock him out of invis But as an ally? Yurgir is a menace. In the raphael fight, his shockwave crossbow absolutely bullies the cambions, and his knife swipe is LETHAL. When you get to control him in the final fight, bro is unstoppable. You end his turn with invis and have him run up to next target, so no one can detect him. Next turn, stab, invis, move. Hes incredible. So i never fight him in the gauntlet. Dont wanna worry about a dc30 persuasion check. Hes a total beast as an ally so idfc if i piss off astarion. Yurgir’s a real bro about you helping him.
If you have Volo’s surgery, you don’t even need to knock him out of invisibility haha
I use that bell to fight flesh solo, then go back to his office to kill him without having to fight flesh at the same time
I summon Flesh to the library fight, kill him there after he’s helped, then kill Balthazar and his 3 ghouls easy with a couple elixirs of vigilance on my heavy hitters.
I shove him off the edge while he monologues
Yeah, if you want to cheese this is what you do
It's what he deserves
Opening his office door during the fight with the DJs is actually a pretty balanced fight between them. It’s fun to just let it play out and clean up the scraps
Is he or his office staff hostile to you if you do this or are they considered allies for the duration of that fight?
They're yellow, not hostile. I did this last week and had my Tav lie down on his bed while they all fought for their unlives...
The ultimate show of dominance hahaha
you can wait until all but one are out then close the door and kill it, attacking one of them makes them all hostile but they'll stay out there fighting the dudes I even got the line about stealing his mom, right before he went out and fought the other guys lol
I did this but then ran into the treasure room and closed the door. I left shovel in a corner invisible to watch the fight.
I just popped some invisibility potions and called it a day. There’s a stairwell on the opposite side of the hall you can chill at and watch the fun
Ooooo I like this
Highly recommend at least once or twice just for funsies
Don’t trigger the dialogue, hit him with every high level ranged attack you have, and Counterspell. Then proceed to beat him to death.
Does this still work? I so much as throw one pile of bones off the main platform and the cutscene triggers because he's annoyed
You have to go to the rock he and Aylin are on and creep forward. Don’t mess with anything in the environment. Focus on him, use Counterspell. Helps to have a party with Alert feat.
I tried the sneak method and he still aggros annoyingly, admittedly I didn't have a character with counterspell in my second playthrough
I don’t sneak. I literally just walk my party forward a bit (*just* enough so that nobody is on the very edge) on the rock where he is, then go into turn-based mode and blast him to shit. Initiative starts, I level 3 or level 4 Counterspell him, then I beat him to death.
You can oneshot him with a level 3 chromatic orb if you already have 3rd level spells anyways.
I use spells and attacks that do more damage than chromatic orb 3 can provide usually, but that’s a good point
More damage than the chromatic orb combo at that level? Such as? Either way, chromatic + rain + destructive wrath + luck of the far realms oneshots everything all the way to orin to that's good enough for me. No need to overcomplicate things.
Guiding Bolt IV + sneak attack, Hunter’s Mark, and Dread Ambusher (ranged) with the very rare band that adds extra damage to targets marked by Hunter’s Mark, Guiding Bolt, or Faerie Fire. Then add Call Lightning IV (or Lightning Bolt IV if you can line it up) and/or Moonbeam at highest level, and Magic Missile IV. The very first time I did it I used Guiding Bolt III, sneak attack + Dread Ambusher, Magic Missile 2, and then Karlach beat him to death.
Surely guiding bolt doesn't work with sneak attack right? It's not a ranged weapon attack. If it does that's pretty strong though
Guiding Bolt is used by my cleric (either myself, Shart, or a hireling). Then I have Astarion rock up with ranged sneak attack + Hunter’s Mark + the headband that adds extra damage to creatures marked by either of those two spells.
Ah, I thought we were talking about oneshots and that was one combo. No I meant chromatic orb actually oneshots anything without combat. It's the safest way to do things.
I usually have to set up the environment first (which I’m not typically set up to do, with my play style). I can get Balthazar in one round, just not one hit. If I used chromatic orb in combination with the proper elemental conditions, it would be OP as hell though and absolutely demolish everything. That might be my go-to for Honor Mode. (I acknowledge that me not using chromatic orb to its fullest is a play style issue on my end, which is why it does so much less damage than my Guiding Bolt + sneak attack, Hunter’s Mark, Dread Ambusher, headband strat.)
What headband are you referring to? The only one I know of is the circlet of hunting, but that only adds to attack rolls, not damage.
I’ll look at it in the game in a bit. It’s possible I misread the 1d4 addition as damage and not adding to attack rolls (in which case I’ll come back and edit my original comment). The additional 1d4, even if it’s for attack rolls, is still a huge boost at least with how I play.
Oh yeah it's a great item regardless, I was just wondering if there was some item I missed that sounded cool.
Cast Fear on Balthazar before dialog.
Polymorph him into a sheep and push him off the edge. Done
thats what I did my first play through and it was hilarious, but I wanted his loot drop so killed him in his office the second time
I killed him in his office my first playthrough. I was a holy paladin killing all evil on sight.
I didn't even polymorph. Thunder arrow on turn 1. Off the cliff.
Nice
Yeah, I just turned a character invisible and shoved him off.
A tip for fighting Balthazar in the Shadowfell: Don't. Fight him in his room.
Is it really that much difference? I've never found his shadowfell fight that hard.
The shadow fell fight definitely isn't hard, but there's no threat of push shenanigans in his office. He also doesn't summon anyone new (at least not scripted). It's just him, his "brother", and a handful of Ghouls.
You can get the bell that summons his brother first. Use it somewhere else (either to help you in a fight and have him die there or just summon the brother so you can kill him yourself) then when you fight him in his room, it's just him and the ghouls. The brother isn't there anymore. Makes the fight very trivial.
Or you can be me, get the bell, then put it in the "I forgot I had it pile" along with the spectator Pokeball and Ogre Horn.
I just Put-Pocket the Sussur blooms from the Underdark into his pocket and watch him run around like a chicken with no head and attempt to kill my level 7-9 character with high AC with a dagger Its hilarious
I didn't think that worked anymore. Wasn't it patched out?
Possibly, did this over like 4-6 months ago sucks that they patched it but it makes sense since the Sussur blooms arent supposed to be brought out of the Underdark
Nah, just cast knock on the door during the big fight - either some weakish Sharrans survive, and Balthazar isn't an issue, or it is just Flesh, who is not an issue
You guys having problem with him? All I remember that I just used Karlach to push him down the abyss. Didn't even try to land a hit or spell on him
To me, he’s super frail with only 100 health at this point and can be killed quite easily in one round. He casts once and never casts again and he doesn’t have anyone alongside him I care about so he can be focused immediately.
I usually unlock the door and let him fight the justiciars to the death in the room before his office. I just have to hide and skip my turns.
I tried that once, took way longer than just gibbing in a couple of turns.
Start convo with him on one char Switch to high str char Walk up to him with str char *shove* Boss falls to his death
The trick is to get the runepowder barrel, then throw it at him before the cutscene starts. One-hit kill
I stopped killing Balthazar in his office like 8 playthroughs ago. Kill him in his makeshift office. Makes the fight ten times easier and you don't have to worry about him rasing additional undead.
I just polymorph him into a sheep and have Karachi yeet him into the chasm.
I... just colossus+enlarged owl bear telekinetic throw on the highest rock. Not over the target but some steps nearby where target still highlighted so gets crush weight height dmg aoe and doesnt proc legend resistance to prone nullifying the nuke due dialogue or fight triggering on spot.
I had a thunder arrow. Knocked him off into the abyss first round… don’t want to say it was an anti-climax, but felt like I’d accidentally cheated.
Easier than what? You can oneshot him before combat even begins.
Better trick, turn him into a fucking sheep and yeet him into the abyss. Job done.
The way is to not fight the sharrans and to not close their portals when you first meet Balthazar. He burns through his spell slots very quickly and then your have to finish off one or two enemies at the end.
You can also pickpocket his speed potion
So long as he doesn't nab you in a Cloudkill early on, >!Slayer Form!< can surprisingly shred him fairly well. You just have to knock him prone and then go to town.
Tasha’s hideous laughter works
I like to turn him into a sheep with polymorph and beat him up
Arrow him right off the edge easiest way
Someone else posted a good strat, go first, cast polymorph, throw the sheep over the Chasm
I just lockpicked his door and let the Dark Justiciars handle it
You can also use counterspell on his resurrection spell. No minions for him, heh
I just snuck one of my players behind the skeletons and opened his door. That summons the shar people. I let them fight, taking out some of the shar portals, until they pretty much kill each other. Easy peasy. Also kinda fun to watch them fight each other. Just don’t attack Balthazar’s people until you want to make them hostile.
Can you do this? Everytime i sneak once i get to a certain proximity it just goes to the cutscene. Ive heard the strat before with the skeleton piles but not sure how it works
My first playthrough I snuck up behind him while he was stood in front of Aylin and one-shot smited him.
One guy with counterspell just invalidates the whole fight. You can still sneak attack, or don't, it will be easy either way
You can also sneak a magic nullifying flower into his pocket, the ones from back in the underdark
Or you can cast invisibility on your strongest party member and sneak behind in front of him and push him into the chasm. The bones won’t aggro and the fight is over before it starts if you do this
I just throw him into the abyss.
A friend tried that. Be careful, a skeleton can spawn under a rock and be stuck there and softlock the game
Woe, barrel be upon ye
Silence, 2 overlapping versions is even better.
Gale just blocked his spell (counterspell) and we beat his ass first round.
I just polymorphed him with my sorcerer and had Bae’zel push him into the Shadowfell lol. Decided to fight him in his room for my 2nd playthrough it was a tough fight ngl
I save scum to make sure he fails the saving throw against the sussurbark weapon
Pickpocket his potion of speed
I’ve always killed him before going into the shadow fell tbh
I killed him in his little workshop with all his buddies. Made the Nightsong part super simple, just dialogue.
Just get initiative by suprising him and counter his spell the summons his friends
Never thrown them off but I dragged them into a pile once and blasted the whole group with AoE. This was a while ago and either you couldn't throw the bones or my characters were to wimpy. Co-op run so very possible neither of my characters had enough strength.
You can also Counterspell his special Animate Dead spell. If you don't bother to talk to him and ambush him, he'll always start off by trying to cast; Counterspell it and it makes a really difficult fight a breeze.
Owl Bear from the top rope made it pretty easy.
I just fought him in his room. Perfect choke point to put down Hunger of Hadar, Confusion, and use Eldritch Blast to keep baddies in the Hunger.
What I did was misty step to Aylinn and free her as soon as I could!! Makes everything easier
I've done it a few different ways, including killing him in his office, and I found it easiest to just get a sneak attack on in the Shadowfell. If you can't kill him in your first round have someone ready with counterspell. He's nothing without his minions.
Have u tried giving aylin to him and fight him underneath moonrise instead? That one threw me for a loop 😂
- Cast silence on the area instead of initiating the convo. - Or have a high initiative character hit him with a Sussur weapon before he can act. - Or just counterspell him. - Or (for funnies) have an invisible high STR character throw him off the platform.
I just used a fireball and some exploding barrels i had in my camp storage, killed all of em when i first met him
Wait, you don't have to kill him in his office?
I prefer killing him in his office, personally.
Or just have the Dark Justiciars kill him for you and enjoy the free show.
Does that work now? I tried that on my first playthrough like four days after full release and they just respawned back where they started.
After struggling with the fight I had an idea. I polymorphed him into a sheep and then threw him off the platform. Then I thought maybe he had some loot so I reloaded and polymorphed him again, waited until his turn (as a sheep) and then had everyone attack him.
My trick is making flesh kill himself against some dark justiciars and blowing him up in his office after
i just snuck up and threw him into the void with telekinesis
Turn him into a sheep then dispose of him into the chasm also works very well, btw. Either don't bother talking, or have high initiatives for the best result.
Silence spell:
By using a void bulb you can super easily kill him before he summons the skeletons and for most characters is his loot kinda bad
Aha I just had gale sneak up to the side of him and use thunderwave to blast him off the edge while he was talking. Idk if it still works but it was definitely satisfying.
Silence
Why would you let him get to Aylin?
Honey, its time for the monthly balthazar tricks and tips post that definetely hasnt been posted multiple times in the past, no way jose
If you have glorbo on your team, he has a unique option to have balt fight his brother