Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks How to kill Cazador Szarr (SPOILER) - Astarion Questline

Casadorr Szarrs Palace / Ritual


I hope it helps, a pitty I didn't made a video of that.

It looks like no one has responded to this in almost a year. I just had to tell you how grateful I am that you posted this for everyone. It was a huge help. You saved my sanity!! I had spent a whole day getting no where with this, and then I found your strategy. Thank you so, so much!!

Analysis of this boss fight to see how we can trivialize it:

Facts:

• Cazador's health = 270 on Tactician, fairly low for an Act 3 boss.
• His most powerful spell can be nullified by any party member using a Counterspell reaction at level 5 or 6.
• This encounter is designed to accommodate the scenario that our beloved vampire spawn gets snatched away before combat starts.
• Cazador's minions are almost all melee oriented and don't have meaningful ranged attacks.

Player party:

• All party members are level 10+, possibly 12 already, armed to teeth.
• Should have at least 2 or 3 characters who each can do well over 100 damage per round.
• It's okay to let Astarion be snatched, even if you are meant for him to become a full vampire. Let's have faith that Larian would not punish a player for roleplaying here.

Conclusions:

• The battle can be very hard if the player chooses to fight a hack and slash style with melee weapons.
• The battle can be very easy if the player relies on ranged attacks and uses cannon fodders (summons) to hold the line
• The total amount of Cazador's health is obviously designed to be less than the total amount of damage that 3 of player party members are most likely able to deal in 1 turn at this stage of the game. Therefore, on Tactician (or lower difficulty), Cazador is apparently designed to be killable by no more than 3 of well-armed party members in 1 round.
• Cazador can be "killed" by the end of 1st round, if 2 or 3 party members focus on him dealing a total of - if on Tactician - 270 damage.

Example (my very first encounter with Cazador, one of the most memorable fights to me, which was on Tactician):

• Before the fight: I let Astarion jump down to a lower level to explore but he seemed to be trapped down there. So I changed my mind and decided to go talk to Cazador without him. During the conversation, I refused to surrender Astarion. And a fight broke out immediately. I really wished to have Astarion face Cazador in combat. So I managed to get him back up to the higher level when the fight had already started, and have him join the fight after my Durge's first turn.
• Round 1:
  Cazador hit my Durge with a petty attack doing tiny damage
  Cazador cast a powerful spell on my entire party
  my Durge nullified that spell
  my Durge fought back knocking him down
  Astarion joined combat and sneak attacked Cazador (with help of my Durge's familiar, Basket, to set him up for sneak attacks)
  After Astarion's attacks, Cazador had only 50 health left
  Note: only 2 of my party members (my Durge + Astarion) attacked him in round 1.
• Round 2:
  Cazador got up, ran towards us, then got mesmerized by his own minions (hilarious!!!)
  Karlach dealt 1 hit to him, further reducing his health from 50 to just 5
  Cazador then "died" in cross fire caused by Karlach.
  I meant for Astarion to deal the killing blow, but Cazador couldn't wait that long before having to flee.

Final words:

• The Cazador fight can be genuinely hard if it is on Honor mode or if the player *unknowingly* chooses to fight him in a hardest way (typically, hack and slash).
• From the point of view of combat, preventing Astarion from being snatched away is not needed to defeat Cazador in combat.
• For the purpose of roleplay, Astarion should be with the party. Letting Cazador remove him surely makes the fight more challenging, but it may also make the fight more interesting.

He is susceptible to hideous laughter, even on honor mode. Then he will spend the entire fight rolling on the floor, which gives melee characters advantage to attacks. It's just a matter of getting the spell dc and initiative up, to ensure first turn.

On s side note, any boss fight in act three can be trivialized with globe of invulnerability, because even on hm, no enemies recognize the spell is being used. Even though they could e.g. push characters out of it to remove the effect.

On the Usefulness of the spell Tasha's Hideous Laughter
in fighting Act 3 bosses (Cazador & others)


On the positive side, this level-1 spell is one of the things in the game that can make most of us the players laugh - not just our in-game target will laugh!

On the negative side, at this stage of the game, casting this spell in combat is essentially a waste of an action in exchange of a chance to have two people (one is the in-game target, the other the player) laugh.


Let's take a closer look at the spell:

• It costs an action to cast
• It requires concentration
• It has a chance to end every time the target takes damage

- Cost of an action: In combat, anyone with the extra attack feat or equivalent could have spent this action to do 2 weapon or throwing attacks, potentially dealing 50-100 damage on Cazador (at this stage of the game - not earlier).

- Concentration required: In combat, if we are willing to concentrate on a spell every turn, we could very well have picked a much more powerful spell, such as Haste, to concentrate on. Concentrating on Haste would have granted a high-level fighter additional 3 attacks every turn for up to 10 turns (or up to 20 turns if cast by Sorcerer with double duration), potentially dealing 75-150 damage to Cazador each turn.

- Can we really keep Cazador laugh for 10 turns? Assuming it has been successfully cast on Cazador, he will roll a WIS-based die to break free every time he takes damage. As a master vampire, he has a decent WIS save bonus, meaning: he can easily break free every time the die rolls. To keep our master vampire rolling on the floor laugh, everyone - our enemies included - must not damage Cazador! Can we do that?


Conclusion?

In Act 3, this spell is meant for players to have a laugh, not meant for players struggling to win a tough battle.

Well, I've used this spell on HM, and neither Cazador nor Raphael ever made the save. It's overpowered when combined with arcane acuity, because it affects many types of creatures, and you can get the dc up to the point when the target cannot make a save.

The way I did it was first of all to hide everyone and then ungroup the party...