Act 3: Cazador's Palace
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- This is a brutal fight, and if you plan to use Gale to blow up the netherbrain, it's not super necessary. If you want to skip it, you'll miss out on a new offhand weapon for MC and some necrotic damage that's auto added to Astarions attacks. I like to have every bit of damage for the netherbrain, but if you're just gonna blow him up, you do'nt need to risk this fight. Definitely consider the consequences, this is easily the toughest fight yet, Cazador hits hard and I'm always close to death at the end of it. If you're just looking to get the trophy and gold dice, I would suggest just moving on lol. If you do want to do this fight, there is another immediately after Cazador. So make sure you have song of rest or short rest. It'd be a shame to beat Cazador and then lose to some chump vampire hunters.
- We can head to Cazador's Palace to make Astarion a bit stronger (as if he isn't enough already!).Head into the central watch tower, right next to Lower City waypoint.
- Go up and follow the path north, when the guards stop you, convince them you belong and keep going to get to Cazador's palace.
- Once inside, head forward and go right to go down the stairs. You'll see a door with glowing green stuff coming off of it. If you have an elixir of necrotic resistance, I think it helps deal with the damage in this room. Separate someone like MC bard and have them use it. Then head into the room into the back, loot the wardrobe near the left side of the bed to find a book Kozakuran Dictionary. Loot the book and leave the room asap.
- If you go down the hall from that room, you'll find a hidden door on the right hand side to the kennel. Go inside and kill Godey. Then loot the Szarr Family Ring from him.
- Now we have what we need to finish this place. Head back upstairs to the glowing red door and it will open now that you have those items.
- There is a decent size fight on the other side of the door, so you can twin haste / spirit guardians before opening it. Also try to close the door behind you (you can still close it in the fight), so that the people in the hall to join in. Just make sure all your guys are in the room first. It should be a pretty easy fight for you at level 12, just aoe with Lae'zel/Shadowheart and have Astarion/MC mop up the tougher guys.
- In the SW room there's an elevator you can use to go down. There's a waypoint down here. The Cazador fight is coming up and a bit harder, especially since he's going to imprison Astarion. I would make sure you can at least twin haste / spirit guardians, and probably 1 or 2 chain lightnings before moving forward. If not, run back to house of hope and get your spell slots back.
- Head north through the door, you can talk to the vampires if you want, but it doesn't matter, they'll be dead soon. Keep heading north. Cast twin haste (on MC/Lae'zel or Shadowheart) / spirit guardians. I would stealth up to Cazador, he has his back turned. I would open the fight by sneaking up to him and using fury of blows: topple with Astarion, he's going to be throwing him in prison in a second, so might as well get a hit in first. Shadowheart should also cast daylight on herself. It prevents Cazador from going into mist form and does some damage to him. Just make sure to follow him around with her.
- Cazador Szarr Strategy:
- He teleported Astarion to a prison thing on the north side, have Shadowheart or someone go fly and release him
- Lae'zel should chain lightning/fireball/aoe try to kill as many minions as possible
- MC can help Lae'zel pickoff minions
- They can stand on the ritual sources (there's 1 in front of each vampire) to lower Cazador's strength, you can inspect him to see the bonuses he's getting
- Once the minions are gone, turn your attention to Cazador
- Danse Macabre helps with giving them more targets to hit
- After he's dead, interact with the sarcophagus in the middle of the platform. Let Astarion go through with the ritual. Equip Rhapsody on MC bard, it's on Cazador's corpse.
- As you head out to the waypoint, you'll be attacked by some vampire hunters. They're not bad, but if you're at almost no health because of the Cazador fight, it will be rough. So make sure to rest/ heal up before going out. Enjoy slaughtering them and feeling powerful again after that extremely rough fight!