Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Disciple Z'rell fight literally impossible

is anybody else stuck on the fight with the OP ugly orc in Moonlight Towers and her equally OP cronies? she's bad enough with the fact that melee hits damage the attacker as well, her counterspell ability which makes spellcasting borderline impossible, cone of cold aoe and the three Acolytes beside her who are ridiculously tanky and deal WAY too much damage, the ridiculously long lasting blinding aoe spell the mages use along with the fact that the group in the room north of her aggro into the fight too with an equally tanky NPC too. Also the fact I miss 90% of my 'hits' even whilst I have ranged attackers on the rafters with the apparrent elavated position supposedly should have an advantage but NEVER does, I still miss attacks way too often.

this isnt a difficult fight as difficult would insinuate the ability to actually win wheras this fight in all honesty seems like Larian gave the orc and her cronies every advantage concievable and not a single advantage to the player

I wouldnt b surprised if the boss fight with Ketheric Jameson is easier than this.

Has anybody else had this problem with the ugly orc and if so could u share how to beat the b*ch?

I tried this fight twice just the other day before giving up and sneaking around, avoiding her entirely.

how do u do that with the non stealthy party members?

I literally sneak around the outside of the tower. You can find a path to the left that takes you past the disciple and you can go to the group in the room behind her forces, and you can take them out without agroing her. At least I managed to.

I had to reload this fight cause of the stupid harpers running in and triggering everything. My strat was to get thief to misty step to rafters to take out archers, and get my party out in front. A couple of the enemy ran into the mob of harpers. I got some cc and aoe onto the side groups while a hasted Karlach was able to make pretty quick work of the main enemy caster. The hunger of hafar spell was tough. Just had to suck it up and waste a turn using your action to get out. Also blew a couple scrolls. Pretty good fight but I was doing it on balanced so if you are on tactician maybe it’s tougher.

After act 1 I had to set difficulty to explorer for most fights unfortunately, so I don't remember the difficulty setting for this particular fight.

Your worst enemies are the leader (the orc) and the two spell casters, so focus on taking those down asap. Use area spells, especially spells that create difficult terrain, that will slow their progress. Hunger of Hafar spell as has been said is particularly nasty, you probably cannot avoid being hit by that at least once. I like to cast haste on a warrior type companion if I have the opportunity but there are probably other ways to do it. A well placed fireball can take down several archers at once, in the back. I leave the archers above to the harpers, or take them down last, as they are not the greatest threat.

I did it on tactitian difficulty and I'd say it was the second or third most difficult fight for me in act 2.
My party composition was battlemaster fighter, wolfheart barbarian, trickery cleric and a storm sorcerer with 2 levels into tempest cleric. Additionally I picked the dialogue option where the harpers would assist me in the fight.

In the fight my characters did the following:
The barbarian was raging and tried to stay alive in melee range of the strongest enemies.
The fighter (with sursur greatsword) focussed Z'rell with battlemaster maneuvers and went for the casters afterwards (and fell unconscious multiple times as far as I remember).
The sorcerer started the fight with an upcast shatter enhanced by destructive wrath to severly injure and partially kill the enemies on the left side of the room. Then I used my bonus action flight to fly up onto the beams where the enemy archers are standing. During subsequent turns I shoved the archers down to the ground while casting twinned chromatic orbs on the enemies below, focussing on squishy targets.
The cleric concentrated on bless, used multiple mass healing words (enhanced by gear that grants blade ward and temporary hp to every healed target) and added some minor damage to low hp targets.

I had SH summoned that divine guardian? the floating armour who attacks people who stand near it, at the base of the stairs, and she ran into it and died first turn.
Then the harpers made everything slippery with the sleet spell so her back up went prone and were easy to take out.

Maybe go do some side quests and come back after a level?

I forget the names - this is the main floor of moonrise boss?

If so here's what I did - siding with harpers (and I had to reload many times).

1. Recruit Jaheria - otherwise she Leroy Jenkins her way into the battle

2. I still had a haste spore thingy. I made a cloud of haste spores so harpers and party were hasted and I ran back into the cloud when the haste ran you

3. Wizard Tav - I was counterspelling most of the time.

4. Shadowheart - silence, healing.

5. Jaheria - ice storm, ice storm, panther

6. Wyll - who I made into a thief - using wyvern poison, disrupting the warlocks.

7. Karlach - smash

And I didn't do this because I have an irrational dislike of surfaces after playing DOS 2 but DOS tactics might work here as well. Ice storm, follow with fireball and then electrify the floor. That will keep the warlocks distracted while you take out the true souls.

Throw two fireballs in one round (quicken spell) with my sorcerer after she used her counter spells. The spell telekinesis also helps to reach foes by throwing them to your malee chars.

Jaheira did a Leeroy Jenkins the first time I triggered this fight and died on turn 2. I reloaded and it was annoying but because I was not prepared for the positioning (move off the stairs into the room ASAP even if it means dashing with an action) and devastating enemy AE spells (save spell slots and reactions for the stuff that can really wreck you). Had I done the fight a third time, it would have been cake. Unfortunately this puzzle combat bullshit is par for the course in a Larian game. I wish it was not.

First round I had the party hang back and let the Harpers take the hits. My MC drank Haste and threw 4x smokepowder bombs into Z'rell's group, Karlach and Gale attacked at range, SH buffed.

Second round Z'rell fell, Karlach jumped onto rafters (Str20 + Athlete feat) and threw enemy archers down on foes. Gale went CC with Black tentacles. SH mass healed, and MC did Lay on hands on Jaheira (she had gotten badly injured).

Third/fourth rounds we wrecked the enemy backline spellcasters and fight transitioned to mop-up.

This one can be tedious especially with mages doing the blind thing all the time, I usually emphasize killing them first or breaking their concentration, they are the real threat to winning. IMO you'll win or lose based on how long that darkness cloud stays up. They can also use Hadar, which will pretty much wreck your group if it isn't removed quickly.

If you recruit Jaheira, she can cast ice spikes and create a surface on the center, causing the center group to miss a turn initially. You can have Karlach jump over it and position her to help deal with anyone that casts Darkness quickly, have Shadowheart put a guardian up at the base of the stairs, that center group is just going to rush you immediately and this will help take some of them down. I had myself (Wizard) and Wyll cast Fireball to eliminate some of the fodder on the left side, then use it once more on the center group to knock them down a bunch. Between the ice spikes, fireball, and guardian, they should be pretty low and you can finish them off with another AoE. Doing it this way eliminates the fodder mobs that will run at you first and aside from Karlach smashing the mages, you can largely ignore the rest until the center group is dead. I was also able to Misty Step myself out of the way of the Darkness cloud before they put it up. Alternatively, using a debuff like Hadar or anything that makes movement slow down could allow you to focus on knocking out the mages first, then deal with the rest. You could also try to silence them, but they will move out of it. You could blind or debuff them, as well, but I found killing them quickly with Karlach in position to focus on whoever is concentrating worked best.

The remaining fodder mobs, especially mages, can be dangerous, I use Karlach to pick them off then deal with the archers last.

The first time I did this, I was really weak (~lvl5) and it was really difficult, I eventually won but it was luck with initiative and saves. My last run at this was at lvl9 and it was a cakewalk, almost too easy. I did lose once, but I had issues breaking Hadar and got unlucky with damage rolls. You'll find later in the game, dealing with AoE debuffs is going to be a slightly common theme for harder fights, this fight is sorta the first one where it really becomes an issue, so learning to deal with it is important.

I strongly recommend asking Jaheira to join you so you can control her, otherwise she tends to run head first into it and die

Fight went pretty smoothly for me.

I literally explored every spot in act 2 and tried to do all the quest so I may have been higher level than others. Chars were level 9 I think.

I did it on tactician difficulty.
Party composition:
*Wyll (mc, default fiend warlock, using repelling eldrich blasts to drop archers from high places to the ground)
*Halsin(moon druid, in owlbear form which is super powerful)
*Wither's Sorcerer (holding twinspelled haste Wyll and Halsin)
*Shadowheart(default trick cleric, spiritual weapon and guardian of faith tanking enemy attacks)

I also tried something else just to see if worked: do the same thing you did with the goblin bosses. If you have a save right before the nightsong fast travel to moonrise.


Battle just got much easier.

The problem people seem to have is they allow themselves to get bottlenecked, where the enemy is spread out directing all of their 'fire' into a tight area where all the PCs and NPCs are located. By this level your party should have the means to misty step, invisibility, shadowstep, jump, fly, gaseous form, etc. What you need to do is get some PCs behind the enemy.

In my playthru, I used my Shadow Monk to basically teleport behind the enemy, and Lae'zel to jump behind their front rank. The Harper druid (not using her name to avoid spoilers) wildshapes and jumps behind them as well. Now the enemy needs to divide their attention.

Meanwhile those up front need to keep pushing forward. Spirit Guardian spell, Spiritual Weapon, Moonbeam, anything area of effect can help clear the path.

Then there's explosive arrows, pushing attacks, etc. that can help push the bottleneck forward.

Getting someone up into the rafters with a bow helps too.

Best way to kill her, is before the big fight.

Either before you finish the goblin matter (if the goblins are not dead by ACT1), or before Zrell moves to her room afterward.
You can sneak into her room, killing the 2 zealot at the balcony outside her room, then bait the troll guarding her room with illusion and kill it.
Don't forget to deal with the scrying eye afterward.

Then proceed talking with Zrell, until she gave key to balthazar room.

Now she moves to her room, with no one guarding her.
Cast silence on her area or hold person, then kill her with melee attacks asap.

OR

Bait her with illusion to Balthazar room, and kill her there.

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I'm not sure if by doing this I'm missing some reward or treasure.
But at least, that's how I killed her.

I agree, just kill everything in Moonrise Tower before the big fight, including Z'rell and you are good. She isn't really that good, she is only overpowered during the main fight.

In general for gigantic fights (in addition to being careful with positioning and area control), potions of speed will help significantly. Unlike casting Haste (with a spell slot or scroll), you don't have to worry about losing concentration. And, unlike in tabletop D&D, BG3's version lets you do more than just take a single extra attack.

Additionally, a lot of the "elixir" potions are extremely OP -- and they last all day!. The Elixir of Bloodlust is particularly great, especially when you have a lot of enemies to fight, because in addition to some temporary HP, it gives you an extra action whenever you drop someone. (And, again, an action you can do anything with. That's crazy good!)

I recruited jaheira but she had no spells left.

No harpers, last light destroyed.

Z'rell wasn't the issue, it was the fcking paladin guy that came out later. He NEVER misses.

i killed them all with a single cloud kill scroll on my first try but yes keeping J from running off is the only real issue here

I just did this fight (tactician level), without harpers, because they were killed earlier when Isobela was abducted. In a a first try, Jaheira was too anxious and got caught in the crossfire as the party advanced into the tower. For a second attempt, we changed tactics. First we covered the stairs with grease from grease bottles and threw some smoke powder satchels in the grease. This is possible without triggering the fight. The fight can be triggered with a nice AoE spell. We picked confusion. We then stayed at the top of the staircase, near the gate, to pelt the enemy from there. Some of them will come rushing up the stairs. Pick a good moment to light up the grease. We were attacked with Arms of Hadar spells. We retreated even further, to outside the gates. This made the enemy move through their own Arms of Hadar area. Even the enemies posted on the overhead beams climbed down to rush towards their demise. We kept bombarding the enemy from a distance until they all died. Disciple Z'rell died somewhere on the stairs from all the environmental damage. We kept Jaheira away from the fight, she could not contribute mucht, aside from an entangle spell at 18 meters.
So after trying out a different approach the fight went much smoother. That can probably be said about almost all difficult encounters in the game, which is nice.