You can make one of Baldur's Gate 3's hardest fights easier on yourself—without sacrificing one of the game's best cutscenes and an award-winning performance

Astarion, a very pretty and silver-haired vampire spawn from Baldur's Gate 3, smirks coyly, dressed for celebration in an ornate ruffled shirt.
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

I'm getting close to wrapping up my Baldur's Gate 3 honour mode playthrough—all I've got to do is not beef it on the last couple of deadly fights and I'm there. In the interest of survival, I've been skipping a couple of key story beats. 

I have a cosy setup that works, and I can't be bothered to wrangle Larian's fiddly inventory system to make carbon copies of my party members on other companion NPCs. But rounding out Act 3's final few fights, I hesitated—I really wanted to see Astarion's quest line through a second time. Spoilers for Act 3 and Astarion's story quests to follow.

Cazador is a bastard. And I don't just mean that in terms of how awful of a presence he is in Astarion's life—his boss fight is also a massive pain. There's a skeleton mage who will hobble your party with spells, a bunch of ghouls who can paralyse people, and you need to flatten the vampire in a few turns or he'll become even deadlier.

What's more, bringing Astarion along for his story quest makes things a hell of a lot harder. The moment the fight starts, he's yoinked to the other side of the arena and restrained. In a fight where you need as much help as you can get it's a major pain.

Narratively, in a story where you can reload a save, this is great. But if you're desperate not to wipe and forfeit your golden dice, it's a nightmare. Also if you do the fight without Astarion he can get (justifiably) angry at you for stealing his final blow. You're also robbing yourself of one of the game's most cathartic scenes—one that puts a capstone on Astarion's beautiful tale of escaping the abusive grip of his former master.

Having your blood, and drinking it too

Astarion stands as he deliberates whether to ascend as a vampire during the final act of Baldur's Gate 3.

(Image credit: Larian Studios)

So what's a grimy power gamer to do? Turns out you can have your cake and eat it too, mostly. Here's a quick step-by-step list of what I did, though I'm certain I'm not the first to discover this:

  1. Kill Cazador. This is the hard part. 
  2. Don't touch anything. Bring yourself and a second party member to the underground exit into the Baldur's Gate sewers, down a floor and to the left of the waypoint. This requires a DC30 lockpicking check, but you should have a bard or rogue for this sort of thing.
  3. Once you're out of the "no fast travel" zone, return to camp. Dismiss the party member you brought with you.
  4. Get Astarion into your party. Warp back to Cazador's lair. Interact with his coffin.

The game shrugs its shoulders at this point and assumes that—since Astarion's there and you're clicking the coffin—he must've been there for the fight. He appears shirtless and begins one of Neil Newbon's award-winning performances.

The only downside is that by doing this, you're also missing out on a couple key pieces of dialogue: firstly, Astarion has plenty to say as you make your way through Cazador's lair. Secondly, there's an excellent conversation with Cazador that he has before the fight starts. It's not an ideal way to experience his plotline for the first time, but it's miles better than skipping it entirely.

But if everyone's favourite beautiful vampire man is a member of your honour mode playthrough, and you'd like to finish his storyline with the smallest risk possible, this strategy could be a genuine lifesaver.

Baldur's Gate 3 guideBaldur's Gate 3 tipsBaldur's Gate 3 classesBaldur's Gate 3 multiclass buildsBaldur's Gate 3 romanceBaldur's Gate 3 co-op

Baldur's Gate 3 guide: Everything you need
Baldur's Gate 3 tips: Be prepared
Baldur's Gate 3 classes: Which to choose
Baldur's Gate 3 multiclass builds: Coolest combos
Baldur's Gate 3 romance: Who to pursue
Baldur's Gate 3 co-op: How multiplayer works

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
Astarion
Players are still finding edge-case Baldur's Gate 3 scenes, like one where you play as a kidnapped Astarion even if you made your own player-character
Half Orc wearing rare Bhaalist Armor in Baldur's Gate 3 standing in front of Astarion and Karlach
It turns out you can get Baldur's Gate 3's best assassin armor without killing a baby angel elephant and joining a cult, all you have to do is pickpocket a ghost
Avowed kill or spare Ygwulf - An upper-body shot of Ygwulf facing directly ahead.
Should you kill or spare Ygwulf in Avowed?
Avowed - The Delemgan Queen, a magical humanoid creature with bark skin, leaf accents, and twisted root horns and crown
Delemgan Queen stealth route in Avowed: How to get the adragan heart without fighting her
Avowed masked Knight with glowing red eyes Inquisitor Lodwyn looks at camera
Avowed's rarest ending has only been seen by 0.2% of players and demands you make the correct choice at every major quest to not get your head chopped off
Casting a fireball at a mushroom creature in Avowed.
My respec in Avowed turned the combat from Skyrim into Dishonored, and now I'm having a blast as an invisible parkour sword-mage
Latest in Baldur's Gate
Minthara BG3 looking upset
Another round of Baldur's Gate 3 unearthing reveals Minthara can end up living in a sewer, an unused beach ending, and more
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that wiped out Honour Mode runs at the last possible moment
Baldur's Gate 3 player character made to resemble Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher.
Wait a minute, Geralt of Rivia actor Doug Cockle was in Baldur's Gate 3 this whole time
Half Orc wearing rare Bhaalist Armor in Baldur's Gate 3 standing in front of Astarion and Karlach
It turns out you can get Baldur's Gate 3's best assassin armor without killing a baby angel elephant and joining a cult, all you have to do is pickpocket a ghost
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update has, mercifully, made one of its new OP cantrips halfway balanced again—but it's really still quite good
Withers Big Naturals mod image - Withers with big naturals
Sure, why not, here's a guy beating Baldur's Gate 3 without a race or class at all
Latest in News
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
As layoffs and studio closures continue to deathroll the western AAA industry, analyst points out 5 of 8 major Japanese companies hit all-time share prices this year
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
A woman wearing a VR headset with dramatic, colourful lighting across the background
'World’s smallest LEDs' could lead to accurately lit screens with 127,000 pixels per inch and much more immersive VR
The NES themed 8BitDo Retro mechanical gaming keyboard on a blue background
I love the 8BitDo Retro C64 keyboard but I'd pick its cheaper NES-themed model near its lowest price ever during Amazon's Big Spring Sale