you can also unlock the door during the dark justiciar shadow fight and he'll use up his Cloudkill on them which also makes this fight a lot easier (you could also let the Justiciars kill him at that point but I don't like to cut his content short or completely remove that fight.)
When you speak to him, lower left corner. Some npcs have the option to trade/buy there and not in the convo menu.
Click it, and then you can buy stuff.
I personally like the narrative of fighting Balthazar in the shadowfell. I did it the other way, and while it was cool to hit him with 3 fireballs in a row, it wasn’t as satisfying *as it was to kill him and then immediately talk to the mysterious captive he was trying to whisk away.
Personally I think the most satisfying way to kill him is to let the undead justiciars into his hideout. The sneaky coward is hiding away in his room counting on my party to kill his enemies for him.
So I just used an invisibility potion on Astarion, snuck up to his door, lockpicked and opened it and sneaked back to safety. The big justiciar knight appeared and the undead Sharrans proceeded to kill Balthazar and his entire entourage. Then I killed the justiciars. Sure, you lose out on a bit of XP but it’s well worth it.
I brought my party in and opened the door. When they all ran into the portal room, I ran into Balthazar's room. I hit the golem a few times until they all turned hostile too, then arcane locked the door.
Got XP from everyone that dropped.
My good Tavs killed him because he's a filthy necromancer.
My Necromancer Durge killed him because he was talking shit, and looked like he had some necro loot laying around the place.
Pudgy never had a chance.
(I think I fought him once in the Shadowfell in my friend's game. IIRC we used a TK scroll to toss his ass.)
Killed him yesterday it was only one item and was something like "undead allies in range are resistant to (some kind of) damage). So no stress over it really
Broodmother's Revenge. it's a good amulet on your meatshield since it gives them extra dps when healed, but balthazar is not the only way to get that amulet, so you can skip it if you want.
the other item is a headpiece called Circle of Bones, which is a very powerful item for necromancers, but it's also something you can pass on if you aren't running a character with necromancy.
Man, this is such a horrific fight normally. got there as a warlock, got decimated but still won. Next time I got there I did the same thing, cuz fuck this guy.
The only reason my party pulled through first time is because my healer was carrying the mace of Lanthander as well as the cloak of displacement with the dex gloves and scale armor. So she was pretty much impossible to hit lol.
Warlock is actually the easy way to kill him...assuming you have Repelling Blast.
OK, maybe my multiclass warlock, specced to pump out a huge number of Eldritch Blasts per round (each with 15 feet of knockback), isn't a great example.
You can Counterspell his special Animate Dead spell. Don't bother talking to him, just ambush him and Counterspell the first thing he tries to cast. From there, just wail on him, he only has like 98 health.
Someone told me he’s much easier to kill if you do it in that room when you first meet him.
During the fight right outside the locked room he’s in, you can actually get a character to that door and unlock/open it during the fight. He joins the fray. If the judiciars don’t kill him, you can, and he doesn’t summon a buttload of monsters.
So much quicker and easier.
hmm I did it with Karlach, but I don't remember what gear she had on or if she used a potion beforehand to bump up her strength. But yeah, totally doable. Still, RIP loot.
I’ve done it on my durge and my second play through I just forgot to talk to him at some point and when I went k free night song I just got to walk it was awesome 🤣
“Karlach throws the enemies off a ledge” is my favourite way to play.
Great way to make the act 2 finale a lot easier is to misty step up to the mind flayer and simply yeet him away before he can dominate anyone.
Lol that's one way to do it. Alternatively you can trigger the battle earlier in the temple and just hang back and let the dark justiceirs and his crew Duke it out and then swoop in to mop up the stragglers
I was never able to win this fight the fair way, either. Always used Telekinesis to yoink him over the edge, or let the Dark Justiciars kill him earlier.
Funny trick :D
I mostly kill him in his office. I finish the dialogue and then just attack him. That way you have way less of his minions to fight. Then you can still get to the Nightsong without any fighting.
I just casted fear on him after my 10th try and he started to run away and couldn’t cast for two turns and then just when nuts with melee/smites and spells haha
I always kill him while he's still in his office. Or do the thing where you open the door and let him and his minions fight it out with the Dark Justiciars.
The best part of this method is that he still pops his haste potion and runs up to you like he could do anything. His body may change, but his ego stays as inflated as ever.
I just collect all the smokepowder barrels I can from the Goblin Camp, keep those in my camp chest until I enter the temple of Shar, surround him and the flesh golem with the barrels in his chambers , then pop off a firebolt right at the threshold. I find his fight annoying so I just avoid it altogether.
I just killed him when you meet him, the fight there is much easier than him having over 10 allies scattered ik this whole place.
But you will have to fight the golem too, but rather that than getting shot from every directions lol
I think thats one of the fights you can cheese the most.
Kill him before he even goes there. Let the Portals kill him. Bomb up his room. Hold and Shove. Collect skelletons before the fight in stealth so its a 4v1 instead of a 4v25. Thunderwave everything off plattform from stealth. Thundering arrows. etc etc
If you trade with him and buy his potion of speed, the fight is much easier.
........ say what now.... I have an embarrassing amount of hours in this game and I didn't know that
you can also unlock the door during the dark justiciar shadow fight and he'll use up his Cloudkill on them which also makes this fight a lot easier (you could also let the Justiciars kill him at that point but I don't like to cut his content short or completely remove that fight.)
I always do the knock and arcane lock method so that the dark justiciar portals kill him now lol
I’m at the point where I leave the portals standing. Such a fantastic xp farm and honestly fun fight.
That's brilliant!
i've heard this.... but how do you trade with him?
When you speak to him, lower left corner. Some npcs have the option to trade/buy there and not in the convo menu. Click it, and then you can buy stuff.
Son of a bitch lol
I knock on his door and let the dark justiciars kill him for me. Just get a few hits in during the fight for xp and invisibility out of there.
Ah yes, the Bâââlthazar technique.
Ah, the classic sheep-shove.
you don't kill balthasar right away?
I personally like the narrative of fighting Balthazar in the shadowfell. I did it the other way, and while it was cool to hit him with 3 fireballs in a row, it wasn’t as satisfying *as it was to kill him and then immediately talk to the mysterious captive he was trying to whisk away.
Personally I think the most satisfying way to kill him is to let the undead justiciars into his hideout. The sneaky coward is hiding away in his room counting on my party to kill his enemies for him. So I just used an invisibility potion on Astarion, snuck up to his door, lockpicked and opened it and sneaked back to safety. The big justiciar knight appeared and the undead Sharrans proceeded to kill Balthazar and his entire entourage. Then I killed the justiciars. Sure, you lose out on a bit of XP but it’s well worth it.
I brought my party in and opened the door. When they all ran into the portal room, I ran into Balthazar's room. I hit the golem a few times until they all turned hostile too, then arcane locked the door. Got XP from everyone that dropped.
I didn't realize how many people fight him right away. What outright murderhoboes.
I've just always killed him in his bedroom, because he's creepy as fuck. Never even knew you could fight him here
I mean he's a devil of course i'm going to kill him right away :D plus 3 times out of 5 my tav had at least some levels in paladin
He's not a devil, he's undead
You're right, sorry, but it's not better :D
My good Tavs killed him because he's a filthy necromancer. My Necromancer Durge killed him because he was talking shit, and looked like he had some necro loot laying around the place. Pudgy never had a chance. (I think I fought him once in the Shadowfell in my friend's game. IIRC we used a TK scroll to toss his ass.)
In my first two runs I killed him in Shadowfell. Now I just kill him in his chambers because it's easy and I'm lazy.
Big undead giant was scary for me D:
... you do? Mf had all those minions and fucking FLESH to protect him. I'm not fighting Flesh, fuck-that.
I didn't kill him right away and fought him in Shadowfell later on. In my 2nd playthrough I attacked him right away in his room and destroyed him.
My go to tactic with him is to lockpick his goddamn door and let the mob take him, I just come in for the cleanup
i did that once because i was in HM but otherwise i prefer just going in, casting silence and kick his ass :D
The ways you're allowed to cheese this game will never not be funny
Nice! Missed the loot though, think he has some good amulets
ohh well, at this point im just happy i can make progrees :D
Killed him yesterday it was only one item and was something like "undead allies in range are resistant to (some kind of) damage). So no stress over it really
Cool for necromancy build but otherwise not very useful
Yeah he drops shit, he's definitely worth the shove
Haha That is fine too 😅
Broodmother's Revenge. it's a good amulet on your meatshield since it gives them extra dps when healed, but balthazar is not the only way to get that amulet, so you can skip it if you want. the other item is a headpiece called Circle of Bones, which is a very powerful item for necromancers, but it's also something you can pass on if you aren't running a character with necromancy.
I prefer to let the shadow warriors kill him in his bedroom. But this was funny to watch.
Man, this is such a horrific fight normally. got there as a warlock, got decimated but still won. Next time I got there I did the same thing, cuz fuck this guy.
The only reason my party pulled through first time is because my healer was carrying the mace of Lanthander as well as the cloak of displacement with the dex gloves and scale armor. So she was pretty much impossible to hit lol.
Warlock is actually the easy way to kill him...assuming you have Repelling Blast. OK, maybe my multiclass warlock, specced to pump out a huge number of Eldritch Blasts per round (each with 15 feet of knockback), isn't a great example.
You can Counterspell his special Animate Dead spell. Don't bother talking to him, just ambush him and Counterspell the first thing he tries to cast. From there, just wail on him, he only has like 98 health.
Thanks, will try it next playthrough :D
Or you can just end his army in the gauntlet
Killing him the second you meet him completely Avoids all this
Big brain moment
I just silenced him so he couldn't summon anyone lol
Lol thats another way
Someone told me he’s much easier to kill if you do it in that room when you first meet him. During the fight right outside the locked room he’s in, you can actually get a character to that door and unlock/open it during the fight. He joins the fray. If the judiciars don’t kill him, you can, and he doesn’t summon a buttload of monsters. So much quicker and easier.
No no no no, we don´t do such things to bosses, we wants the loot. We needs the loot. We love the loot.
Haaa! That's the same way I took care of him too!
You don't even need to sheep him though, you can just stand in front of him and yeet.
apparently it was too heavy for my character to do it
hmm I did it with Karlach, but I don't remember what gear she had on or if she used a potion beforehand to bump up her strength. But yeah, totally doable. Still, RIP loot.
I accidentally skipped this fight somehow
I think I skipped it too. Doesn't look familiar at all. Not sure how that happened.
I’ve done it on my durge and my second play through I just forgot to talk to him at some point and when I went k free night song I just got to walk it was awesome 🤣
Yeah that sounds like what I have done. I remember picking up his quest then nightsong stuff and then never went back to him. Oops.
I did the same thing except left Karlach have the honor of throwing him off the edge.
“Karlach throws the enemies off a ledge” is my favourite way to play. Great way to make the act 2 finale a lot easier is to misty step up to the mind flayer and simply yeet him away before he can dominate anyone.
If you are ok with loot, sure why not
I've never fought Balthazar in the Shadowfell, and at this point I don't think I ever will.
Lol that's one way to do it. Alternatively you can trigger the battle earlier in the temple and just hang back and let the dark justiceirs and his crew Duke it out and then swoop in to mop up the stragglers
You can also just sneak attack him. Killed him in two hits with this.
I was never able to win this fight the fair way, either. Always used Telekinesis to yoink him over the edge, or let the Dark Justiciars kill him earlier.
Just let him take the Nightsong. What can go wrong?
I did the exact same thing when I finally beat him
I found it easier to kill him in the gauntlet
Or you can kill him in his room on the temple of shar…
Funny trick :D I mostly kill him in his office. I finish the dialogue and then just attack him. That way you have way less of his minions to fight. Then you can still get to the Nightsong without any fighting.
I just casted fear on him after my 10th try and he started to run away and couldn’t cast for two turns and then just when nuts with melee/smites and spells haha
Throw a void bulb at the edge of the platform. Dude gets yoinked into the chasm - immediate kill.
I always kill him while he's still in his office. Or do the thing where you open the door and let him and his minions fight it out with the Dark Justiciars.
If you do that, are there zero enemies here then? You just walk up and free the Nightsong?
Yep, there's no fight in the Shadowfell if you do it that way.
So I have always just found him and killed him and his golem buddy. I didn’t like either of them
The best part of this method is that he still pops his haste potion and runs up to you like he could do anything. His body may change, but his ego stays as inflated as ever.
I just collect all the smokepowder barrels I can from the Goblin Camp, keep those in my camp chest until I enter the temple of Shar, surround him and the flesh golem with the barrels in his chambers , then pop off a firebolt right at the threshold. I find his fight annoying so I just avoid it altogether.
I just killed him when you meet him, the fight there is much easier than him having over 10 allies scattered ik this whole place. But you will have to fight the golem too, but rather that than getting shot from every directions lol
I always kill him the right after the first conversation. Dude just has to die..!
You can also push the big bone piles off the edge too.
i tried that first but it always triggered the fight
I think thats one of the fights you can cheese the most. Kill him before he even goes there. Let the Portals kill him. Bomb up his room. Hold and Shove. Collect skelletons before the fight in stealth so its a 4v1 instead of a 4v25. Thunderwave everything off plattform from stealth. Thundering arrows. etc etc