Some of the most exciting quests in Baldur’s Gate 3 revolve around your companions: Whether it’s Lae’zel’s quest for a Gith egg, Gale’s insatiable hunger for magical items, or Karlach’s search for cooling. When you tackle these tasks, you likely have the corresponding companions in your party. However, for a companion quest, you should preferably leave the associated character at camp…
Spoiler Alert: This article revolves around a fight in Act 3 of Baldur’s Gate 3. You will read spoilers for this act as well as the associated quest line. You have been warned.
Which boss fight is it about? In Act 3, you face the vampire lord Cazador during the companion quest “A Pale Elf.” You have two objectives: defeat Cazador and prevent him from absorbing his seven main spawns. If you fail to do so, you will lose Astarion and Cazador will become the super vampire.
The fight itself is challenging: Cazador wields powerful spells that effectively allow him to dodge physical attacks. He will do everything possible to draw power from the three vampire spawns scattered around the arena. If he succeeds, he will ascend to the vampire lord and you will have lost.
Why shouldn’t you have Astarion in the party for this fight? Since this is an essential part of Astarion’s companion quest, it’s tempting to bring him along. However, this means that you can only fight a particularly challenging battle with just three people:
To become a vampire lord, Cazador needs seven of his subordinates. These are kept captive during the ritual at the edge of the arena. Unfortunately, Astarion is one of them. If you bring him along, he will likely be ripped from the group and cannot assist you in the fight – for the time being.
However, Cazador is such a tough character that he presents a pretty challenging task even with just three people. Of course, you can also defeat him that way.
But it can be easier. For example, by confronting him with a full party. Tips for a balanced team can be found here:
Baldur’s Gate 3 Guide to Companions – How to create the best group
How can you have Astarion with you but still fight with a full group? Not leaving Astarion at camp makes sense for several reasons: Firstly, you will miss out on many exciting dialogues without him, and secondly, you may miss several endings for him. If you tell him about the fight afterwards, he will be beside himself with anger.
So what can you do? Before the final boss room, where Cazador is waiting for you, it is possible to adjust your party composition. So you can take Astarion up to that point and then leave him at camp. In this case, you will have to tell him what happened for the further companion story later.
Alternatively, you can use the “Dissolve Group” function to leave him waiting before the boss room. This way, you can start the fight without him. Then you switch to him and let him run to your group.
If you choose either of these two paths, you will miss the exciting dialogues between Astarion and his master. If you don’t want to miss this, there is still the option to free him during the fight.
To do this, you need to free him from the ritual circle with a “Help” action. However, this means that another one of your characters has to quickly move across the battlefield and past multiple enemies. We recommend a rogue with Disengage or a tank for this. The character should definitely be “hasted.”
Parts of Astarion’s dialogues and his lore become available only when his approval rating for your character is sufficiently high. How to get on his good side is detailed in our Romance Guide:
Baldur’s Gate 3: Romance Guide for all companions – How to win over your companions
