Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Apostle of Myrkul fight made me quit the game

yes but its by design so play a lover setting until you have a better plain

This is the best* of the three Big Boss fights <3
What can I add?
- Free Dame Aylin on turn 2. However, I've found that while usefull in round 1, in round 2 she has spent her Smites and is useless.
- long term AoE - Hunger of Hadar, Spike Growth, Cloud Kill etc. in Necromite spawning areas
- long term AoE - Insect Plague, Hunger of Hadar, etc. over Kethric
- some sort of fast moving Summon - best if with Blundgedoing damage - to destroy Necromite "eggs"
- Smokepowder Arrows

BTW - I've only ever done this fight on Honour Mode

* I suspect that the Big Boss fights were designed with the original lvl 10 cap in mind. Hence Kethric is still fun, the Crazy is so-so, while Gortash is a lame push over.

For me, it was a ranged battle. My githyanki necromancer had a skeleton shooting squad of nine (four from Tav, three from Shadowheart). They took out the mind flayer quickly and then the intellect devourers as they approached. Gale, who had a flying ghoul, took out the Necromite involucres with Wyll who also brought his Cambion from the Infernal Rapier. I'd have to go back to the savegames for details, but my Tav blinked and misty stepped to Dame Aylin and ended Ketheric's immortality. I also had the Shadow from the Shadow Lantern, but I don't think it did much except for a few honorary hit points of damage. With all the ranged firepower, we took the apostle out before it could consume any necromites. At least, that's what the game achievement plaque says. My group was always surrounded by a host of thralls, so IP those battles were short bursts of violence, but IRL, it was a lot of clicking about and moving pieces about on the Lanceboard.

The fight can quickly mean the end of your Honor Mode. As far as I know, barrelmancy no longer works there or backpacks with explosives, as the Apostle only takes limited damage from it and can no longer be killed like that. A few pieces of advice that you should perhaps take into account, depending on how you want to fight the battles yourself, some of them could possibly be a savior in an emergency.

I don't think my party was particularly strong and we did OK, although I do have prior D&D experience. I can't remember the details, or how many attempts it took the first time through (I replayed part of act 2 and it was really easy because I knew what to expect), but as others said make sure Aylin is up and active, and don't get too close to the avatar. Even so, I usually had one or two at risk from his fear beam and proximity effects. Ah yes - Lae'zel would probably have been on the platform with him because she was built as a greatsword warrior, and Tav was probably up there using bard spells to ward off fear effects (with halfling bravery to help). Then Wyll & Shadowheart doing ranged attacks.

That fiend in the Sharran temple was much harder, and that's not even a boss fight.

I found this fight to be relatively easy for a boss fight to be honest with you. What level were you when you took this battle on? When I did it I had done every thing that could be done in level one and believe I was at level 5 or 6 when I fought him and his cronies.

@Sini Shadowheart being a Tempus Cleric is now one of the most powerful spell casters in my party loves water.<G> I've tried a lot of builds for SH and found that I love my current build for her the best.

The first time I got into this fight, I also thought this was the end-of-game. Never would I be able to finish act 2. But, as usual, after a few retries you find a strategy that can work.
Althought there's still an important dependance on the die rolls, IMO. Especially those from Dame Aylin. Sometimes she's as harmful (not) as a fly and gets swatted just as easily. Other times she wacks Ketheric like a training dummy.

Chain lightning is extremely strong in this fight. I always have a sufficient number of chain lightning scrolls and water with me anyway. My Shadowheart is mostly radiant orb cleric, I like it when the enemies simply explode due to the orbs.

It's difficult to whittle down his health with conventional attacks when you are constantly frightened and he has resistance. The trick is using persistent aoe and attacks that automatically hits.

I think you can use Calm Emotions against being frightened. I was lucky so far , but in my current HM run, I gave to face him again soon and I will pack CE and all the adds , that I can. If necessary from scrolls.

It's a possible approach, but it's a tradeoff because it's a concentration spell so that means one less persistent aoe spell.

Frightened prevents moved - if necessary I use Misty Step or Arrow of Transposition to get around
When Dame Aylin decides to take a nap while at 1HP inside Kethric's Bone Chill aura I use Shove or Throw

That is true, but my guy is a sword bard and seldom use spells, so he can do it and Gale and Shadowheart can AoE, while Karlach or Lae'zel tank.
Worth a try. If it doesn't work, I will let you know here

As I just finished this boss fight for the first time the other day, I will recount what I did (I believe there will be useful info for those struggling with the fight). For those wondering, I found it not that difficult (Balanced Difficulty) and pretty sure I could handle it on harder diffculty knowing what to expect as I had no prior knowledge of the boss, and also see a method to handle the Legendary Action in Honour Mode that I will mention later. I can see why people found it anti-climactic or underwhelming, but have suspicions on why many found it hell while I didn't, which I will again also mention later.

So first, my party set up. The party was level 9 going in. My Tav is a Githyanki Life Domain Cleric, with all her gear centered on buffing her healing and granting free bless, and 21 AC. I brought Shadowheart, who I had reclassed as a Death Domain cleric, with I believe 22 AC, the ring that gives mental fatigue, and the Infernal Rapier which I had just got. Speaking of, I also brought Wyll (I am not sure if he needed to be there to get the Infernal Rapier, but did not wish to risk it) and despite what you may be thinking, he is not a warlock. For the purposes of this fight, he is a Way of the Shadow Monk, because I really wanted infinite teleports, with the Rapier of Screams. He is the weakest of the party with 18 AC. And lastly, Minthara, who I made a Oath of the Crown Paladin and Hexblade Warlock, with the Radiant Orb set and Blood of Lathander and a headset that gave her arcane synergy and 23 AC, by far the most powerful of those I brought.

So, my party goes in and starts fighting Thorm. I start sending Wyll to go handle the four Intellect Devourers and free the Nightsong. Minthara has the darkbow and so applied haste to herself. Shadowheart summons the Cambion. I forget what my Tav was doing, ngl, bear with me if I can't recount everything, I remember the notable things.

What happened is that Thorm stunned multiple of my characters, including Minthara and making her lose her haste immediately. Wyll, who has that ice armor temporary hit points spell applied, is dealing with the Mind flayers pretty well. Those few Necromite's in the corner were certainly a pain as they kept targeting my Tav, but thankfully a lot of them were saved (As in my character kept dodging).

I initially tried to use the Cambion to attack thorm but quickly realized that, one, he was invulnerable and I was wasting my time, and two, the Cambion had piss poor accuracy against him and it simply wasn't worth it. I instead used the Cambion to help with the Mindflayer, who honestly I ended up killing so quickly that he was barely noticeable. I had my Tav use spirit guardians when Thorm tried summoning more necromites, which wasn't the best move since I couldn't damage the egg things but did counter them effectively enough. (There was also a time where I used beacon of hope and then a widespread heal, but I forget where in the order this happened)

I then tried to have Shadowheart use Cloudkill on the necromites on the platform. This was a terrible idea as I forgot that they are immune to poison. I ended up moving the cloud to try and damage Thorm, and no idea if that really did anything of use. Wyll has killed the intellect devourers and freed the Nightsong by this point, so I have Minthara start damaging him heavily. The Nightsong was... pretty useless. She got killed by Thorm in one set of attacks. Which some of you may be thinking is fine, she'll be back. Just you wait.

So, Minthara then smites Thorm and he is near dead. And so comes the Avatar of Death popping up, to my surprise as I've only seen a clip of this thing existing and was not expecting him. I look at his stats and see his abilities, and quickly made one of the two decisions I think made this fight much easier for me. I had Shadowheart put silence on him.

I have not seen anywhere saying that Silence affects this boss in any notable way. I could possibly be wrong. But I see no other reason for why throughout the entire fight, he does not use an ability that normally causes havoc. I saw the effect on him mentioning that he can sacrifice necromites to use a move that basically means insta death for most characters, and he summons the damn things, and he did not do so once throughout the whole fight. I even got an achievement for that. I suspect this is because I put the Silence over him, but if someone knows that this is not the case, feel free to correct me, but I do believe it is likely.

I at this point send my Tav with spirit guardians and try to have her use her Triple githyanki given jump to get to the platform the Necromites were on to try and kill them all. A more effective thing to do would have been to Mistystep there, but I did not think of that and am generally conservative on resources. And at this point, the boss nearly one hit kills Minthara, a character I so far have never had go below half health (She was at ~60 health when this happened of her ~80)

I wisely have Minthara move out of the bosses' Bonechill zone so she can start using some heals on herself. The Boss at this point is still targeting her and making her frightened. Also at this time, I am using the Cambion to target the not yet spawned Necromites, because it's accuracy is again pointless against the boss. I'm also trying to maneuver Wyll into the other corner to handle the Necromites on the other side.

The Avatar of Death proceeds to inhale and drag my tav character to him, and I have my Tav first try to use a heal spell, to which I then remember his bone chill aura, and then realize that, the Nightsong has been and will be effectively removed for the whole fight because she died right where that aura prevents her from getting back up or helped. Again, the Nightsong is useless and literally just is not a part of the second phase. However, this did make me realize just how bad this was, and I have my Tav do a column of fire on the boss to do a good chunk before using Sanctuary to have her leave and help Minthara heal.

And at this point comes the second move that I suspect helped make this fight easy. Summons. The Boss was still targeting Minthara, and she is by far my most powerful character, so I need to get her healed and protected from the frightened effect. To this end, I have Shadowheart summon spiritual weapon. This helped take the aggro of the boss away from Minthara. I summon spiritual weapon twice, and I don't think even one got a chance to attack, but that's fine, they served their purpose. I also have my Tav summon a Guardian of Faith, which ended up being a free 60 damage (None of the boss's attacks hit it). I also summoned one skeleton with Shadoweart which did a bit of damage.

This is something I think would have helped even in the honor mode run, as I think the summons might be able to take his Legendary Action, which is a counterattack once per round. Something to consider.

And after this, the fight was basically smooth sailing. Wyll was handling the necromites on the left at this point, Cambion those on the right, Shadowheart was keeping up the silence and using the Toll the Bell cantrip to apply more mental fatigue, and Minthara, I kept away because I did not want her getting caught in the no healing aura, and she was able to do plenty of damage at a distance with the Warlock cantrip while applying lots of Radiant Orb to make the boss less accurate. I was able to have my Tav skip turns at the end because there was nobody to heal or do an action. (Minthara at this point put a protection from good/evil spell on herself to prevent being frightened if hit)

So main recommendations for this fight is use a silence bubble as fast as you can and then start bringing out summons to keep your party safe and use a damage dealer from afar. Again, this was my first time battling the boss, with zero prior preparation or knowledge. The spells they had were the spells I normally always keep on hand because I know their utility may come in use unexpectedly. Nor was this a fully optimized team, as Wyll is the weakest character I have as I am experimenting with him on an effective Shadow Monk build and have not figured it out yet, I brought him solely for his quest and the Infernal Rapier, which I was glad to have for that fight.

I do not believe this fight was all that difficult, though I do acknowledge that had the boss actually managed to get Minthara that first time, I may have been screwed. But I also suspect I would have managed, based on many of the decisions I made that I believe made the fight successful were very much reactive to the information I had, and I already had a thought on how to bring a character away from the no healing aura to bring them back, so not an impossible hurdle to come back from. I also had plenty of resources left over I could have used, like Blood of Lathander's sunbeam, or any divinity charges. I also didn't use any elixers, because I'm a stingy hoarder.

The fight was fun. Hope this was helpful.

Sure there's plenty of strategies to do this fight. But the first time through, you know none of this!

Spoilers in this post!

You don't know:

TO use the Doomhammer
TO run to the little bulges to heal
TO focus down the mindflayer first

You don't even know you can't heal at first. You don't know he has a super heal black hole power. You don't have infinite heal potions from farming. You don't have a hill giant for your fighter.

You probably didn't even know this fight was two phases! Oh my, Kethric, unload every thing you've got! And maybe you did it after a few reloads.

Yay! Whaaaaaaa???

And now you're on empty.