10 Easy Ways To Deal With Tough Bosses In Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 presents some difficult challenges with its boss fights, and especially when playing in Honour Mode, any one of these encounters can be deadly. While some players may be fine with dying and trying again to experiment with different strategies, that is not always an option on certain playthroughs where one death can mean the loss of the whole save. It can be smart, and sometimes necessary, to find creative and outside-the-box ways to bring down some of these foes.

There are many ways that players can exploit or “cheese” specific encounters by taking advantage of game mechanics or glitches. And while Larian is pretty active in patching and adding to the game, making some cheese strategies no longer viable, there are still plenty that can help to make the most deadly fights in Baldur’s Gate 3 a cakewalk. These 10 methods can be used to get the party past big bosses or difficult moments in the game, allowing them to progress and possibly even saving their party from deletion.

10 The Goblin Camp Bosses Can Fall Victim To Some Cheap Tricks

Gravity Is Sometimes The Greatest Weapon

One of the first difficult encounters in Act One comes when the party reaches the goblin camp, and is tasked with killing the three leaders of the horde. Those are priestess Gut, the hobgoblin Dror Ragzlin, and Nightwarden Minthara, who all must be slain for the tiefling refugees to be able to travel safely to Baldur’s Gate. Fighting them ordinarily is no easy feat, since they are surrounded by goblin minions, and the three of them have some powerful spells and abilities that can kill low-level parties.

But there’s a well-known exploit to kill three birds with one stone: a rickety bridge inside the camp that can be broken to drop anyone on it to their death. Minthara is standing almost right next to it, making her an easy target for players to lure on to the dangerous structure and drop her into the abyss. But Ragzlin and Gut can also be brought across the camp using minor illusion or a bard’s Performance, positioned on the bridge, and dropped at the same time. It will cause players to miss out on some good loot, but it will instantly kill the goblin camp leaders.

9 Fighting Grym From High Up Can Make The Construct A Joke

No Ranged Attacks Means The Party Can Take Advantage Of Distance

Later on in Act One, players may find themselves exploring the underground Grymforge, where they can construct some powerful Adamantine equipment. To access the forge, however, the party will first need to defeat Grym, a mechanical guardian with a ton of health and resistances. The fight involves an enormous hammer that can be dropped on Grym repeatedly to take him out, but there is another way to defeat him that keeps players almost entirely out of danger.

Grym is something of a gimmick boss, immune to damage most of the time unless he is superheated by lava. The fight normally involves a careful juggling act of heating Grym up, luring him under the hammer, and dropping it while dodging his melee attacks.

The Grym fight happens at the bottom of the forge structure, but there is an overlook high above where the fight can be observed. All one needs to do is send at least one character down to start the fight while leaving others on the overlook, from which they can throw objects down or even jump off to land on Grym. A popular strategy to defeat the construct is having a Wild Shaped druid in the form of an Owlbear jump off while having feather fall cast on them to land on Grym, crushing him with bludgeoning damage while taking no fall damage.

8 Using Words To Bring Down The Thorm Family

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword

Act Two takes place in the Shadow-Cursed Lands around the ruined town of Reithwin, where the Thorm family holds power through necromancy. Three Thorms can be encountered in the town as mini-bosses before the party goes to take down Ketheric. These are Thisobald, Malus, and Gerringothe Thorm, each of which are strong in their own right and can be quite deadly. Fighting them is one strategy, but Baldur’s Gate 3 also allows persuasive characters to defeat the Thorms with words alone.

Each Thorm can be spoken to before their fight, revealing their unique brand of madness and ways to potentially manipulate them into death. Gerringothe is a gold-obsessed toll collector who can be undone by convincing her that her job is no longer necessary; Malus is a sadistic surgeon who can be persuaded to let his students “practice” on him; and Thisobald is a gluttonous bartender who players can drink with until he explodes. Even Ketheric, their patriarch, is somewhat vulnerable to being taken down through sheer charisma.

7 Damaging AOEs Can Overcome Ethel’s Wild Magic

Magic Missile And Spike Growth Remain Powerful

Back in Act One, players have the option of seeking out and battling Auntie Ethel, a cruel hag who is holding a woman hostage to steal her baby. Ethel is a tricky boss to defeat, especially if players attack her before hitting level four, and has led to the end of many Honour Mode playthroughs. What makes her especially dangerous is her ability to make illusory clones that can attack and deal large amounts of poison damage. She can repeat this ability as a legendary reaction when players cast spells, making the more powerful attacks in the game disadvantageous.

But magic can actually still be helpful in taking Ethel down, if used correctly. Magic missile can be cast to target and destroy multiple illusions with one action, and though Ethel will initially react to that by making more, she can only do that once per round. Having multiple characters cast magic missile one after the other can make short work of every clone and leave Ethel standing alone. It also uses up Ethel’s reaction each turn, allowing players to place more damaging spell effects like spike growth to catch Ethel while she’s invisible.

6 Toss Gortash Off A Bridge

Exploiting A Certain Glitch To Take Down A Tyrant

Gortash is one of the three main bosses for players to find and kill in the game’s third act. He possesses a Netherstone, an item necessary to beat the game, so beating him is imperative in any playthrough. But the tyrannical man is clever, surrounding himself with automated guards and traps that will defend him and kill players if they attack recklessly. Normally, defeating Gortash involves a long series of quests to disable his Steel Watchers and infiltrate his office.

Players can also choose to work with Gortash, siding with him and letting the Netherbrain eventually kill him off, but he is such a smarmy villain that killing him is difficult to resist.

Alternatively, players can throw him off a bridge immediately. This involves a glitch where Gortash can be picked up and moved around during his introductory scene in act three, where he is made the Archduke of Baldur’s Gate. Gortash is not supposed to be vulnerable to being picked up and thrown, but trying to do so before canceling the action and moving can result in players taking the Banite with them. Fast traveling outside while holding Gortash will take him there, as well, where he can be shoved off the side of Wyrm’s Rock Fortress.

5 Defend Against Range Attacks With A Wall Of Boxes

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Version Of A Wall Of Force

This strategy applies not to a single boss, but to any situation in which the party is overwhelmed by ranged attacks. Whether it be the goblins attacking the druid grove, the gnolls outside the Zhentarim cave, or Gith raiders, mid and low-level parties can quickly get overwhelmed by ranged damage. This can be prevented by finding cover, though not every arena offers a place to duck down. That’s where this strategy comes in: bringing boxes into every fight.

Baldur’s Gate 3 characters can carry a lot as long as their strength is high, and empty boxes take up a good amount of space while not weighing a ton. And even in combat, objects can be dropped or placed in the world without taking any kind of action. As such, players can quickly build a pretty tall and wide wall of boxes between themselves and danger. This affects enemy AI in a few ways: some will try to find a route around, while others will spend turns attacking the boxes. Either way, it can give the party a necessary moment of reprieve.

4 Orin Can Be Killed Before Her Fight Even Begins

Sacrificing A Friend To Defeat A Mass Murderer

LIke Gortash, Orin is a Netherstone wielder that must be fought and killed to progress to the game’s final fight. Also like Gortash, Orin’s default position is right in the middle of a horde of her followers, who can make killing the Bhaalspawn quite a pain. But there’s a strange way to circumvent the fight in the temple of Bhaal and get Orin’s stone without much risk – to the player character, that is.

The solution lies in the hostage that Orin takes from the player’s camp, which can either be a party member or the orphan child, Yenna. Orin will be standing next to them in the temple of Bhaal, while they are tied down to an altar. They can’t be freed until Orin’s dead, but they can be attacked, and this strategy will require a bit of friendly fire. Players must take the legendary weapon Nyrulna and throw it at their ally from the temple’s upper level, which will damage them and Orin thanks to its splash damage. Strangely, this does not set off Orin or the cultists, and can be done until Orin dies.

3 Have Gale Kill The Netherbrain

Skipping The Game’s Final Fight

This one isn’t so much an exploit as it is a narrative choice, though it’s one that many players will usually avoid. Still, it may be necessary to prevent an Honour Mode campaign from being lost in the final moments. Right before the last confrontation with the Netherbrain, if Gale is in the party, he will offer to climb the brain’s stem alone and blow it up using his Netherese Orb. This will kill Gale obviously, but also the brain, ending the Absolute’s reign of terror.

It is a bit of an anticlimax, granted, since it turns the last fight in the game into a cutscene. But the fight itself can be difficult, especially if the Emperor has taken the brain’s side, so it can be a necessary precaution to make sure one’s Honour Mode save doesn’t get deleted. And Gale’s sacrifice, though sad, is a sure way to kill the Absolute and defeat its army.

2 Getting The Justiciars To Kill Balthazar

The Sneaky Way To Take Down Ketheric’s Right Hand

This one is a little more difficult than other exploits, since it requires some successful stealth to pull off. But if done correctly, players can avoid having to even talk with Balthazar, the slimy second-in-command to Myrkul’s Chosen. Balthazar is initially located in a back room of the Gauntlet of Shar, where his bony troops are being attacked by Shar’s justiciars. Ordinarily, the player would find this fight and need to join, inadvertently saving the necromancer while he hides behind a locked door. But what happens if that door opens?

The door cannot be lockpicked without the player being forced into the fight, but an invisible player can sneak up and cast knock, causing the door to open and Shar’s defenders to attack the creatures behind it. Despite Baltahzar’s bragging about his power, he and his troops will be squashed quickly by an army of dark justiciars. After this, players may ignore the area entirely, or clean up the remaining troops and loot Balthazar’s office.

1 Barrels Are Baldur’s Gate’s Strongest Weapons

Portable Explosions Break The Game’s Balance

When all else fails, explosive barrels can defeat pretty much any antagonistic force in Baldur’s Gate 3. Much like boxes, barrels can be dropped or placed in the world mid-fight without using an action, or even set up in an area before a fight begins. Smokepowder and oil barrels in particular are explosive and quite devastating when hit with fire damage.

Related

The Most Powerful Build In Baldur’s Gate 3 Doesn’t Even Use A Real Class

BG3 has a number of environmental interactions that are effective regardless of a character’s class, and certain items happen to be very powerful.

Piling up these barrels around an area where an enemy is about to spawn, or surrounding them with them mid-fight before blowing them up, is a pretty sure way to destroy anything the game throws at its players. From the second fight outside the Emerald Grove’s walls, to the Cazador fight below his manor, to even the final confrontation against the Netherbrain, carrying a few spare explosive barrels can be the difference between life and death in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Sources: Baldur’s Gate 3/YouTube, wonobo5249/Reddit

Developed and published by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an upcoming role-playing game set to release in August of 2023. Players will create a character to embark on a large-scale journey and can do so solo or cooperatively with a friend. Combat is a turn-based style this time around.

Platform(s)

PC , macOS , PS5 , Xbox Series X

Released

August 3, 2023

Developer(s)

Larian Studios

Publisher(s)

Larian Studios

Number of Players

1-4

Local Co-Op Support

1-2 Players

Split Screen Orientation

Vertical Only

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence

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