Baldur’s Gate 3: How to defeat Balthazar (BG3)

When you come across Balthazar in Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s pretty clear that you’ll likely fight him soon. He has evil written all over him, quite literally. But he is not someone to be trifled with as his boss encounter can be extremely difficult if you aren’t prepared. His necromancer abilities allow him to summon an undead army to fight you. And he’s pretty formidable on his own too. Let’s get into how we can defeat Balthazar in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Baldur’s Gate 3: How to defeat Balthazar

We’ll cover the encounter with Balthazar that takes place after the Gauntlet of Shar’s many trials. When you finally encounter the Nightsong, you’ll have an option to take Balthazar down, and it’s here where things get dicey. You can also decide to help him, which we’ll detail more below. When I took this fight on, my party was level 8, and I had Shadowheart, Astarion, and Lae’zel join my Warlock character. Before the fight begins, make sure each character has a few health potions, just in case.

Preparation

Before the fight begins, detach your strongest ranged attacker from the party. In my case this was Astarion, and I left him on the rock overlooking the arena. The rest of the party went down to meet Balthazar. You’ll want your ranged attacker up here to gain an advantage over the enemies that will surround your party. Just be warned that, like most other annoying boss fights in Baldur’s Gate 3, Balthazar can use Misty Step, so there’s a chance he’ll teleport up here as well. If that happens you can either attack him or move further up the rocks to maintain the height advantage.

Balthazar’s undead army

Once you’re ready, start the fight by choosing to go against Balthazar. Immediately he will summon a total of 20 undead skeletons to fight for him. The ones to look out for are the three Apostate Destroyers. These guys have 48 HP and can deal a lot of damage. So as you begin to pick off the enemies, start with them. You should also move to the center of the arena as soon as possible. Some of these enemies like to try and shove the party off the sides of the arena. And if this happens, that party member will be dead for the rest of the fight.

One of the silver linings of this fight is that most of the enemies deal melee damage. This means that they need to get in close to your party and will wind up bunching themselves very close together. When this happens you can use an AoE spell like Cloud of Daggers to deal a ton of damage to them all at once.

I also had the Blood of Lathander for Shadowheart which comes with a spell called Sunbeam. This ability deals 6d8 of Radiant damage and shoots out a long beam that hurts multiple enemies at once. If you time the use of this ability well, you can easily deal a ton of damage to the mob.

Related: How to get Markoheshkir Legendary staff weapon in Baldur’s Gate 3

After you’ve exhausted your area spells, the best way to clear the enemies out is by focusing on them one at a time. And when your ranged attacker can no longer reach any enemies, move them down to join the rest of the party.

Additionally, these enemies are weak against Bludgeoning damage, so make full use of that weakness to further increase the damage. If the enemies manage to get a good few hits on you, be sure to top up your health with items or spells. As a reminder, you can examine enemy weaknesses at any point, which we have a guide on.

Beating Balthazar

While most of your team is handling the undead, send one of them to focus on Balthazar. Ideally, you want your strongest attacker, who, in my case, was Lae’zel. You can also bring along Karlach instead of Lae’zel. In a single turn, she was able to deal close to 60 HP worth of damage. And since Balthazar’s total health is only 91 HP, that’s a big deal. If you’re really lucky you could kill Balthazar in a single turn like this.

If you aren’t so lucky and have Balthazar live for another turn, he’ll most likely cast Cloudkill. This spell causes a cloud of poison gas to occupy a space, and it deals 5d8 Poison damage on contact. So if this is cast, you need to get your party members out of it as soon as possible. Luckily it occupies a rather small space, so moving away from it shouldn’t be too hard.

After Balthazar casts this, he’ll likely use Misty Step and move to a quieter portion of the arena. When this happens, move the character focusing on him as close to Balthazar as possible. He shouldn’t Misty Step again for the next turn so you can use a Dash to ensure you can attack him when the time comes.

Luckily Balthazar doesn’t really have a trump card to play in Baldur’s Gate 3. His undead army is his most threatening ability, and once you’ve got it under control, there’s not much to worry about. His spells hit hard but are easily dealt with via healing spells and items. Plus, with a ranged character taking good shots at enemies from afar, you’re able to control the battle.

What happens if you help Balthazar in Baldur’s Gate 3

If you’re looking to help Balthazar get Nightsong instead of fighting him, there’s always that choice. Just be warned that bringing Balthazar to Nightsong makes Shadowheart angry, since she’s tasked to kill her. If you still want her in your party, don’t help Balthazar.

Otherwise, siding with him gives you one interesting item. He’ll give you a bell that can summon Flesh during battle. This creature is quite helpful during combat, especially in the Gauntlet. But in my opinion, siding with Balthazar isn’t worth it, since Shadowheart is such a useful party member.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on Steam and the PlayStation 5.

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