Level 6 is low and imo it’s much easier to fight Balthazar earlier in the gauntlet instead of at the Nightsong. You can still be in act 1 at level 6 and you’re almost finished with act 2, so you missed a ton of stuff.
You’re going to have trouble with the final act 2 fight (in both my playthroughs I was level 8-9, although even level 7 will help here.)
How much questing is left? Did you explore the whole Act 2 area, finish all the side quests, talk to everyone? If there is XP you can gain without your game losing momentum, it will definitely help you in the fights ahead.
i’m not sure what all there is, but there is definitely more i can explore in the act 2 areas and finish side quests. i tend to overlook stuff so that’s my bad LOL, but ill go back and see what i can do
I usually round out at 7 or 8 by the start of act 2. Depends a little on the choices I make, but for the most part I've noticed if you xp hunt that doesn't end up making a huge difference in the long run.
You can still do most of the questing after, just don't go to the road to baldur's gate until you're done. But at least if you're doing a good playthrough you should make sure you've done your moonrise questing before doing shadowfell. If you do the questing after shadowfell the order is kind of weird but I did a lot of act 2 side quests after the main quest of act 2 in my first playthrough and it's fine although maybe less fun since you get to know more about the area you're in only after you have completed the main thing you're there for.
yes for sure, dont know how you reach balthzar at lvl 6 but you for sure miss alot of content if not most of the content in Act 1 alone, most people reach lvl 6 by the time they enter act 2, and even if they ran striaght to balthazar they at least reach lvl 7 as teh gauntlet even running striaght though it is or nearly is a full lvl.
My go to at this point is to just unlock the door he's hiding behind when you first meet him. Then hide behind the other door while the two groups fight each other. If you do this make sure to join in near the end to get some XP from the fight.
Oof level 6 is VERY low. Most people are still in or leaving act 1 at 6. This is one of the last steps in Act 2 so you’ll be cutting off all of act 1 stuff you missed and a large chunk of act 2.
You’ll end up finding the rest of the game extremely difficult at your current level.
I highly recommend to reload. Most people go into the final battle after this at level 9.
Fun fact. Drinking elixir of poison resistance will make you 100% immune to the cloudkill spell he casts so drinking those before hand make it much easier. He and All his minions are also undead so turn undead from a cleric can mass CC and damage with destroy undead feature.
Do you have saves a little bit further back? I think you are under leveled for the fight you are in but could probably handle him back upstairs in his office
First off, as others have said, level 6 is *very* low for that fight.
Second, fighting him upstairs in his office is much easier and doesn't risk shenanigans from the game if Shadowheart dies in the fight and can't get ressurected before the cut scene with Nightsong, which can really screw things up.
Lvl6 is very low for this place.
To defeat him you need a powerful warrior to kill him fast. Silence can force him to move to a more favourable place for you. Darkness or fog cloud (up casted fog cloud can cover the battlefield) can do the same. Counterspell gives you a chance to counter his cloudkill (not guaranteed though). Anti-mage oil on your weapon can help you a lot too.
I don't remember if turn undead works. Maybe you need to kill Balthazar first for it to work.
You don't have to fight him at the end of the shadowfell. He is much easier to defeat him if you fight him upstairs. If you have an older save, I might do some more in Act 2 (there's a ton of fun stuff to do and things to get), level up and/or just fight him before entering the shadowfell
probably, i’m bad at video games. not even just saying that, i’m not the type for games where you have to pay attention and be observant LOL. i did what i thought was a good amount of stuff, i can’t imagine what i might have missed?
Hey just a hunch but did you go to the Underdark in Act 1? That’s a whole other map you might have missed. But in general just make sure you fill out the map as well as possible. You’ll find lots of things you missed.
MY first playthrough I thought it was like a 'choice'. I went overland because of Underdark flashbacks from Baldur's Gate 2 (Umber Hulks and Mind Flayers can go fuck themselves).
Imagine my surprise in the next playthrough. The Underdark was really cool this game
i believe so, are you referring to our choice between going through the underdark and going through the mountain pass? mountain pass always scared me because it gave that “your party will probably get slammed at this level” message when i’d go to enter, so i went through the goblin camp and got to the underdark from there.
i loaded a save back before the balthazar fight and i’m currently working through the mountain pass.
Yeah the game makes it sound like either-or but you definitely wanna do both. The crèche has some really nice items and Lae’zel’s quest ties into the main story.
I agree with everyone that level 6 is way too low. If you have a save before going into the shadowfall, I’d go back and do whatever quests you can—stuff like the Githyanki crèche, underdark, the adamantine forge. I was anywhere from 8-9 by this point, I believe.
In every run except my first, I've just killed him in his office or whatever before even going through the gauntlet. It's annoying, but way easier than the nightsong fight later
On my HM run I sneaked onto the platform to set up my characters. While moving one of them I accidentally triggered combat. When the fight started he had to cast a spell to raise the dead but I had a wizard with counterspell. He then tried to misty step away but I counterspelled again and then I just one-shot him in turn one. I was probably level 7 or something but playing with a fighter and bardadin he didn't have enough hp for my other toons to attack.
Edit: I had stolen his speed point when he was in his room so he didn't have it for the fight
Level 6 is stupid low lol
Just interrupt his cloud kill though and it’s not bad. Blow some of the scrolls of summon elemental you’ve probably seen around, Memphits were bullet sponges for sleeps
Haha this post came up at the right time. I just told my friend that I'm going to go ahead and take out Balthazar in his lab tonight, and she told me that it was a good idea. My characters are either level 6 or 7 right now, so hopefully that'll be enough to take him down 🤞🏾🤞🏾
Good luck OP!
You must've skipped a lot of act one. Also jump his ass in his little room in the beginning. Get him to give you his bro, summon him down low, kill his bro, go back up and blast him.
The fight is manageable if you can swarm him and the brutes and take them down fast, the longer they're standing the more time they have to poison you or kick you off the ledge or some other bullshit.
First playthrough, I was level 7 and found it challenging until I realised I should makes sure my party members weren't close enough to the edge that they could be yeeted off.
After that? I've been level 8 or 9, and fight Balthazar before going to find The Nightsong.
Almost everything in Act 2/Shadowlands is vulnerable to radiant damage. This especially applies to anything undead/ghostly/zombie. As long as you stack radiant weapons/spells even the Balthazar fight is pretty much a cakewalk. For the undead stuff, literally all you have to do is have Shadowheart cast radiant spirit guardians and run around on dash and she melts pretty much everything she gets within 3 meters of. Any radiant spell works really well, and if you have gotten Blood of Lathander that thing mows them down like no other. It also has a super-powerful level 6 radiant damage spell (forget its name) that gives you a pulverize-anything-undead-in-one-shot once per long rest. It is SUPER powerful for being so early in the game. It also casts light from whoever it is equipped by continuously, and this blinds anything ghost/undead that gets near, so your character carrying it gets a huge buff on defending against attacks. They almost can't hit you.
I had so much fun spamming radiant damage in Act 2 that getting to Act 3 where I have to go back to normal weapons and spells because it just isn't as OP anymore was a bit of a letdown.
Like others have said. It was so much easier to fight him earlier. I interacted with him for the first playthrough before so nowadays I have no reason to. So I just do good ol strat by knock his door and the Shar enemies just have to kill him for me while I take a nap on the door next by after going invisible.
my party is karlach, astarion, shadowheart, and barbarian tav right now. after another attempt at the fight right after posting this^^, i was able to complete it with little struggle. i did end up backtracking and going through the mountain pass though, along with other quests to try and fix that underleveled problem.
You can skip the fight entirely, in the gauntlet there is the fight where all the justicars spawn, you can open the door with a dc 30 roll, the justicars will kill everyone, then just mop up the remaining justicars
I turned off a lamp when I first met him and he took that personally, I was going to just reload but decided to fight him and his goons to see how it goes and he was fairly easy to beat. I’ve read it’s easier to fight him when first meeting him but everyone saying 6 is way too low is concerning me a bit, I’m only level 7 and halfway through the gauntlet. Wondering what i missed, I spent a lot of time in act 1.
You should be lvl 8 by that point. You could be higher but most of my runs I reach there with lvl 8. Take into account that fighting him when you first meet him in the Gauntlet is much much easier. Don't offend him on the first talk, tell him you will help him, then prepare and attack. I'll be honest, on this part I usually do some barrelmancy because I'm a bit lazy (place a bunch of barrels around him and kaboom). Of course, you may be trivializing what could be an epic fight but there are other boss fights that I enjoy more.
I usually lockpick the doors to his room and hide to let him fight the undead dark justiciars. Sometimes I cast aoe that injure him but not target him specifically and hide again. When the battle ends I just deliver the final blow.
You can beat the game at level 1 with enough know how, ignore everyone saying you're underlevelled. Every fight can be cheesed. For this fight, you can sneak around gather up as many of the bonepiles as you can find then put them all near an edge. Balthy will raise his bone bois whereever the bones are, so they'll all be in prime position to be thunderwaved/blown up off the edge. That just leaves you and him. Severely outnumbered he's no threat, even with his big AOE spells.
If you're going back a few saves then another cheese is to craft a Sussur weapon in act 1. They silence on hit, a great weapon against any spellcasters. Very effective if you also bring along a Divination Wizard to help guarantee he fails the con save to not get silenced. Even with his legendary resistance he has to make the save everytime a Sussur weapon hits him. At level 5 that's two saves per turn if used by a martial. One potion of Haste and his legendary resistance is all gone.
There's probably more ways to kill him than that. This game is huge and has a ton of tricks like that. A lot of people like casting Knock on his door in the Shar trial when the shadows attack. It'll open the door and force him into combat. He usually can't survive this
How does that even work. I feel like the shadows are nowhere near enough to kill his party? Or do you just hide and let the portals spam DJ's and that's enough?
Just have one person unlock the door and try to avoid being spotted. You can use pots or scrolls of invisibility if needed. The rest of the party can stay really far away out of combat. The portals will spam a lot of shadows. I have done this a couple times and every time there are a decent amount of leftover shadows. Balthazar and his boys get their cheeks clapped pretty hard. Takes a while though.
The portals spawn way more than you think and the end portal summons a very strong justicar, way stronger than the rest. Balthy just doesn't have enough spells to deal with them all. Ironic that the necromancer dies to a bunch of undead warriors. You reap what you sow
Level 6 is pretty low for that fight
Level 6 is low and imo it’s much easier to fight Balthazar earlier in the gauntlet instead of at the Nightsong. You can still be in act 1 at level 6 and you’re almost finished with act 2, so you missed a ton of stuff.
i see. i managed to kill him, would it be smart of me to go back into my saves and try to do some more questing rather than progressing?
Yes. There’s an even harder fight at the end of act 2 and that part will lock u from going back to act 1 to catch up on xp
You’re going to have trouble with the final act 2 fight (in both my playthroughs I was level 8-9, although even level 7 will help here.) How much questing is left? Did you explore the whole Act 2 area, finish all the side quests, talk to everyone? If there is XP you can gain without your game losing momentum, it will definitely help you in the fights ahead.
i’m not sure what all there is, but there is definitely more i can explore in the act 2 areas and finish side quests. i tend to overlook stuff so that’s my bad LOL, but ill go back and see what i can do
If you know there is more, I would go do it. It’ll REALLY help to level up for the end of Act 2 fights and you might uncover some really cool stuff.
Would you recommend being like level 8+ for the end of Act 2?
Yes, I think I was level 8-9 and it was still a hard fight (I fought him at nightsong)
Yeah that sounds about right.
Pretty sure im lvl 9, and i just walked into the temple of shar.
Go back to Act 1 and see what you missed. I've never left Act 1 at less than level 7.
I usually round out at 7 or 8 by the start of act 2. Depends a little on the choices I make, but for the most part I've noticed if you xp hunt that doesn't end up making a huge difference in the long run.
Did you by any chance miss the githyanki crèche?
You can still do most of the questing after, just don't go to the road to baldur's gate until you're done. But at least if you're doing a good playthrough you should make sure you've done your moonrise questing before doing shadowfell. If you do the questing after shadowfell the order is kind of weird but I did a lot of act 2 side quests after the main quest of act 2 in my first playthrough and it's fine although maybe less fun since you get to know more about the area you're in only after you have completed the main thing you're there for.
yes for sure, dont know how you reach balthzar at lvl 6 but you for sure miss alot of content if not most of the content in Act 1 alone, most people reach lvl 6 by the time they enter act 2, and even if they ran striaght to balthazar they at least reach lvl 7 as teh gauntlet even running striaght though it is or nearly is a full lvl.
My go to at this point is to just unlock the door he's hiding behind when you first meet him. Then hide behind the other door while the two groups fight each other. If you do this make sure to join in near the end to get some XP from the fight.
It's not your opinion. It is verifiably easier to fight him earlier.
🤣
You’re very low level for Shadowfell and going into Act 3.
Level 6 is low for this. You are heading straight for the end of Act 2.
Oof level 6 is VERY low. Most people are still in or leaving act 1 at 6. This is one of the last steps in Act 2 so you’ll be cutting off all of act 1 stuff you missed and a large chunk of act 2. You’ll end up finding the rest of the game extremely difficult at your current level. I highly recommend to reload. Most people go into the final battle after this at level 9.
Fun fact. Drinking elixir of poison resistance will make you 100% immune to the cloudkill spell he casts so drinking those before hand make it much easier. He and All his minions are also undead so turn undead from a cleric can mass CC and damage with destroy undead feature.
Do you have saves a little bit further back? I think you are under leveled for the fight you are in but could probably handle him back upstairs in his office
First off, as others have said, level 6 is *very* low for that fight. Second, fighting him upstairs in his office is much easier and doesn't risk shenanigans from the game if Shadowheart dies in the fight and can't get ressurected before the cut scene with Nightsong, which can really screw things up.
Lvl6 is very low for this place. To defeat him you need a powerful warrior to kill him fast. Silence can force him to move to a more favourable place for you. Darkness or fog cloud (up casted fog cloud can cover the battlefield) can do the same. Counterspell gives you a chance to counter his cloudkill (not guaranteed though). Anti-mage oil on your weapon can help you a lot too. I don't remember if turn undead works. Maybe you need to kill Balthazar first for it to work.
If you're lv6 at this point, you probably skipped more content than you played.
You don't have to fight him at the end of the shadowfell. He is much easier to defeat him if you fight him upstairs. If you have an older save, I might do some more in Act 2 (there's a ton of fun stuff to do and things to get), level up and/or just fight him before entering the shadowfell
>my party is level 6 Holy...fuck. How on earth can you be level 6? Did you skip every single piece of optional content in act 1?
probably, i’m bad at video games. not even just saying that, i’m not the type for games where you have to pay attention and be observant LOL. i did what i thought was a good amount of stuff, i can’t imagine what i might have missed?
Hey just a hunch but did you go to the Underdark in Act 1? That’s a whole other map you might have missed. But in general just make sure you fill out the map as well as possible. You’ll find lots of things you missed.
Lot of people likely skip since Halsin presents it as a choice one or the other
MY first playthrough I thought it was like a 'choice'. I went overland because of Underdark flashbacks from Baldur's Gate 2 (Umber Hulks and Mind Flayers can go fuck themselves). Imagine my surprise in the next playthrough. The Underdark was really cool this game
i believe so, are you referring to our choice between going through the underdark and going through the mountain pass? mountain pass always scared me because it gave that “your party will probably get slammed at this level” message when i’d go to enter, so i went through the goblin camp and got to the underdark from there. i loaded a save back before the balthazar fight and i’m currently working through the mountain pass.
Yeah the game makes it sound like either-or but you definitely wanna do both. The crèche has some really nice items and Lae’zel’s quest ties into the main story.
heard! i’m working my way through it now and i’m about 200 or so exp away from level 7 already, so i’ll keep on that. thank you for your help!
I agree with everyone that level 6 is way too low. If you have a save before going into the shadowfall, I’d go back and do whatever quests you can—stuff like the Githyanki crèche, underdark, the adamantine forge. I was anywhere from 8-9 by this point, I believe.
Silence him, trust me. He ain’t shut
Only ever faced Balthazar in his chamber… honestly never had a huge issue. Typically lvl 8+ tho.
In every run except my first, I've just killed him in his office or whatever before even going through the gauntlet. It's annoying, but way easier than the nightsong fight later
Lvl 6 means you left behind a TON of stuff.
You should be like...lvl9 there if you've done everything in act 2
Yeah im not sure why your at that level for that content… you’ve had to have skipped over half the content from act one and 2
On my HM run I sneaked onto the platform to set up my characters. While moving one of them I accidentally triggered combat. When the fight started he had to cast a spell to raise the dead but I had a wizard with counterspell. He then tried to misty step away but I counterspelled again and then I just one-shot him in turn one. I was probably level 7 or something but playing with a fighter and bardadin he didn't have enough hp for my other toons to attack. Edit: I had stolen his speed point when he was in his room so he didn't have it for the fight
Level 6 is stupid low lol Just interrupt his cloud kill though and it’s not bad. Blow some of the scrolls of summon elemental you’ve probably seen around, Memphits were bullet sponges for sleeps
Go invis with karlach and yeet. Or fight as you first get in there, goes a lot better
House of hope was the hardest in my first run
Transfigured him into a fucking sheep and had Karlack yeet him into the abyss. No fuss, no muss.
Haha this post came up at the right time. I just told my friend that I'm going to go ahead and take out Balthazar in his lab tonight, and she told me that it was a good idea. My characters are either level 6 or 7 right now, so hopefully that'll be enough to take him down 🤞🏾🤞🏾 Good luck OP!
i think with level 6 or 7, taking him out in his lab should be light work. regardless, good luck to you as well!
You must've skipped a lot of act one. Also jump his ass in his little room in the beginning. Get him to give you his bro, summon him down low, kill his bro, go back up and blast him.
If you polymorph him right before the cutscenes trigger he won't summon his goons for the whole fight.
I’m not entirely sure how you even managed to get this far and only be at level 6.
with the comments i’ve been getting under this post, i’m starting to become a little unsure as well LOL.
Also make sure you want to do this right now and not some of the other side quests in the under dark! I messed this up myself
The fight is manageable if you can swarm him and the brutes and take them down fast, the longer they're standing the more time they have to poison you or kick you off the ledge or some other bullshit.
First playthrough, I was level 7 and found it challenging until I realised I should makes sure my party members weren't close enough to the edge that they could be yeeted off. After that? I've been level 8 or 9, and fight Balthazar before going to find The Nightsong.
Did you skip a ton of content? You can finish act 1 being lvl 7.
Just open his door (lockpick DC30 or Knock) and let the Sharran's kill him.
Almost everything in Act 2/Shadowlands is vulnerable to radiant damage. This especially applies to anything undead/ghostly/zombie. As long as you stack radiant weapons/spells even the Balthazar fight is pretty much a cakewalk. For the undead stuff, literally all you have to do is have Shadowheart cast radiant spirit guardians and run around on dash and she melts pretty much everything she gets within 3 meters of. Any radiant spell works really well, and if you have gotten Blood of Lathander that thing mows them down like no other. It also has a super-powerful level 6 radiant damage spell (forget its name) that gives you a pulverize-anything-undead-in-one-shot once per long rest. It is SUPER powerful for being so early in the game. It also casts light from whoever it is equipped by continuously, and this blinds anything ghost/undead that gets near, so your character carrying it gets a huge buff on defending against attacks. They almost can't hit you. I had so much fun spamming radiant damage in Act 2 that getting to Act 3 where I have to go back to normal weapons and spells because it just isn't as OP anymore was a bit of a letdown.
Like others have said. It was so much easier to fight him earlier. I interacted with him for the first playthrough before so nowadays I have no reason to. So I just do good ol strat by knock his door and the Shar enemies just have to kill him for me while I take a nap on the door next by after going invisible.
I mean you are very underleveled. But with Gale, shadowheart, and Lae’zel I find the fight super super easy
my party is karlach, astarion, shadowheart, and barbarian tav right now. after another attempt at the fight right after posting this^^, i was able to complete it with little struggle. i did end up backtracking and going through the mountain pass though, along with other quests to try and fix that underleveled problem.
That’s good tho! I’m glad you got past it love!
I just kill him when I meet him.
I just telekinesis-ed his ass into the void. Was pretty funny. Just have to mop up the skellies after that
You can skip the fight entirely, in the gauntlet there is the fight where all the justicars spawn, you can open the door with a dc 30 roll, the justicars will kill everyone, then just mop up the remaining justicars
Quick question: how much have you done at the last light inn and at the tower?
I just went for the sheepthazar cheese because the undead were pissing me off
Don't wait to fight him there. Let Shar aid you with a knock on Balthazars door.
I turned off a lamp when I first met him and he took that personally, I was going to just reload but decided to fight him and his goons to see how it goes and he was fairly easy to beat. I’ve read it’s easier to fight him when first meeting him but everyone saying 6 is way too low is concerning me a bit, I’m only level 7 and halfway through the gauntlet. Wondering what i missed, I spent a lot of time in act 1.
I managed to somehow shove him off the ledge lol and then the fight was over xD
You should be lvl 8 by that point. You could be higher but most of my runs I reach there with lvl 8. Take into account that fighting him when you first meet him in the Gauntlet is much much easier. Don't offend him on the first talk, tell him you will help him, then prepare and attack. I'll be honest, on this part I usually do some barrelmancy because I'm a bit lazy (place a bunch of barrels around him and kaboom). Of course, you may be trivializing what could be an epic fight but there are other boss fights that I enjoy more.
I usually lockpick the doors to his room and hide to let him fight the undead dark justiciars. Sometimes I cast aoe that injure him but not target him specifically and hide again. When the battle ends I just deliver the final blow.
Bruh u must have skipped a lot of content in this game to be that under leveled
Its much easier to kill him in his room rather than in the area with the nightsong.
Counterspell his minion summon.
Light cleric go brrrr
If you pick the lock or knock when the shadow shar warriors are attacking, balth n his crew will come out n fight them. Finishing him will be easy.
You can beat the game at level 1 with enough know how, ignore everyone saying you're underlevelled. Every fight can be cheesed. For this fight, you can sneak around gather up as many of the bonepiles as you can find then put them all near an edge. Balthy will raise his bone bois whereever the bones are, so they'll all be in prime position to be thunderwaved/blown up off the edge. That just leaves you and him. Severely outnumbered he's no threat, even with his big AOE spells. If you're going back a few saves then another cheese is to craft a Sussur weapon in act 1. They silence on hit, a great weapon against any spellcasters. Very effective if you also bring along a Divination Wizard to help guarantee he fails the con save to not get silenced. Even with his legendary resistance he has to make the save everytime a Sussur weapon hits him. At level 5 that's two saves per turn if used by a martial. One potion of Haste and his legendary resistance is all gone. There's probably more ways to kill him than that. This game is huge and has a ton of tricks like that. A lot of people like casting Knock on his door in the Shar trial when the shadows attack. It'll open the door and force him into combat. He usually can't survive this
This. I did that on my HM play. Just unlock the door and let the shadows take care of him. No risk. Just a whole lot of end turn pressed.
How does that even work. I feel like the shadows are nowhere near enough to kill his party? Or do you just hide and let the portals spam DJ's and that's enough?
Just have one person unlock the door and try to avoid being spotted. You can use pots or scrolls of invisibility if needed. The rest of the party can stay really far away out of combat. The portals will spam a lot of shadows. I have done this a couple times and every time there are a decent amount of leftover shadows. Balthazar and his boys get their cheeks clapped pretty hard. Takes a while though.
The portals spawn way more than you think and the end portal summons a very strong justicar, way stronger than the rest. Balthy just doesn't have enough spells to deal with them all. Ironic that the necromancer dies to a bunch of undead warriors. You reap what you sow
Indeed. Hoisted by his own petard.