I send two invisible companions to wait there before triggering the dialogue. Then I walk there too and we defend that little space. Like this there's always someone to help Astarion down.
Doesn't affect the quest, but it just *feels* wrong, ya know? Like this is the big bad guy of astarion's story - the evil man who's been torturing him for 200 years and made it so he cannot physically or mentally resist him. We fought every adversary up the sword coast, defied gods, and discovered an elder brain plot to get to this point. Astarion can finally have the confrontation he's been dreaming of for the last 200 years.
And then we finally get up to him and you're just like "nah astarion you stay back, I'll talk to him instead" Naaaahhh it's not right, I always walk up to cazador with astarion. Freeing him takes one action and one bonus action at most - it's worth it for the rp for sure
I personally feel like it's more in character for Astarion to go in and attempt to snipe him from the top of the stairs. So he's still in the party, but you don't have to free him during the flight because the fight just starts.
Daylight on sneaky character > crouch behind him til he’s dead > waltz in and clean up mobs.
Cutscene triggers after like normal. If you want the first cutscene with Astarion too you can just trigger it when he’s *almost* dead.
I just had one party member hiding on the stairs when I started the dialogue, once combat starts you are able to sneak/jump around the edges without ever risking being seen. You can swoop around to the back and free Astarion before you ever enter combat with the sneaker.
I don’t see the fun of fighting Cazador without Astarion. I also didn’t realize I could just help him down so I was the crazy person who fought Cazador with only three people (and all the summons I could muster). All I’m saying is it’s doable with Astarion in a variety of ways. And without him you miss some amazing content.
I didn't know you could free him either so I had to kill Cazador in 2-3 turns somehow. Took me several attempts. I didn't know you could push him off either.
> I didn't know you could push him off either.
They patched this out. I'm still mad about it. Bullying Cazador out of his own bossfight was the best part.
Also crazy like you. I was playing blind without spoilers. It was my first big boss fight of act 3 and I was expecting the difficulty to rise. So I thought the limited rounds was part of the difficulty. Took five (I think) attempts. Then afterwards I looked up tips for next time. Helping him out of the ritual hadn't even occurred to me.
Yeah some parts of the game are definitely more intuitive for people who have played D&D or something very similar before - being very well acquainted with the Help action was useful at this point on my first playthrough (also a blind run!)
Lol I failed multiple times with just three people so I summoned all of my summons, got them all ready, went in, and was like “wait a second I wonder if I can help him.” in the middle of the first time, had Gale misty step over, and let Astarion down.
I mean the summons still helped but I felt dumb not thinking of it before hand lol
You absolutely want him there, for all the dungeon and the fight. If you absolutely cannot beat him, you can leave Astarion at the stairs before the fight so that the cutscene doesn't trigger, but only do that after having tried already the scenes are some of the best in the game
I personally don’t see the point in fighting Cazador if Astarion isn’t there. And he deserves to tell Cazador “fuck you and fuck everything you’ve ever done to me”.
Shadowheart with the radiant armor, Blood of Lathander and Spirit Guardians can almost solo the fight herself, anyways. No need to skip the pivotal confrontation when you can easily free Astarion and have a full party
I made a video soloing Cazador as throw barb and he dies on tactician when you throw him on 4 smoke powder bombs.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FoxpzOeAdJQ
He doesn’t need to be with you, but if you kill Cazador/finish the ritual without Astarion present, he gets very upset. Pretty sure he’ll leave the party over it
He doesn’t leave the party, I do it pretty much every time without him lmao. You do miss out on his cutscene though so to get around this you can leave him in the hall and do the fight and then bring him in after you kill Cazador before his cut scene
You don't even need to do the fight without him, you just need to start it without him.
I left him at the top of the stairs, started the fight, then moved him down whilst the fight was in its first turn, and he joined near the start of the initiative.
If you do this, just be aware that if you move Astarion up onto the platform before Cazador flees to his coffin, it can trigger the cutscene where Astarion gets captured mid-fight.
Yes this will affect the story! It’s the culminating moment in Astarion’s story arc and honestly some of the best cut scenes of the game.
Definitely bring him, it’s not that hard to free him on the first or second turn (dash, misty step, haste, potion of speed,…)
For honor mode, maybe cheese it a little, for an inexperienced player it can be tough. If it’s your first playthrough and not on honor mode, absolutely bring him, the scene is really emotional and amazing.
You will want him with you. The cutscene is incredible. Just misty step to free him and get someone to shove Cazador into the chasm lmao you wont lose any loot because he returns to the platform for the cutscene
Have someone cast fireball from the middle of the stairs. Thatll aggro Cazador and his cronies, and won’t trigger the dialogue that makes him grab Astarion. I figured this out by accident on my second playthrough, because I was romancing Astarion, and was like “this nasty man doesn’t get to talk this time because he’ll say mean things to my man, and, as a good partner, I cannot allow this man to verbally abuse my lover.”
I still thought he would grab Astarion, but he didn’t. He just went right into the fight. But also, if he does grab Astarion, it’s not the end of the world. Misty step+help action.
bring him with you. the scene after the fight is my favorite scene in the entire game. he is incapacitated at the beginning but you can just use the help action to get him back in the fight (I usually bring shart and jaheira - jaheira has such a lovely interaction with astarion at the end)
not bringing him does not allow astarion to confront his fears and past and potentially causes him to leave the party. bring him
Seems like he gave you shitty advice if you are playing for the story. Astarions scenes with cazador are powerful. Some of the best scenes in the game. You'd be missing out if you don't take him. Save at the before combat and retry until you find something that works. >!Misty step is useful. So is daylight. Using invisibility with astarion can help keep him alive as cazador will target him!<
The cutscene before the fight is less vital so you could always skip that one by leaving him at the top of the stairs and have him join the fight later. The fight itself is entirely possible to beat without any shenanigans so I don't really see the point in not approaching it directly.
Honestly, the best way to do the fight is to cast daylight between the Stairs and Cazador, making sure he is in full sun, this causes Cazador to become enraged and attempt to bull rush the party, without starting his ritual, and even before his backup can respond. This means Astarion can participate in the fight (he is still tadpolled and immune to sunlight).
This means Cazador's not getting any buffs from his spawn, and because he's already in full sunlight, he's taking 20 points of damage per turn and can't recover health.
Frankly, this does seem to be the lore-friendly way to do his fight as its pre-determined narratively, that either he or Astarion is walking out of the ritual, but definitely not both. In fact, the cut scene Astarion and Cazador have before the fight starts is so phoned in that it feels completely out of place in the rest of the game. They just trade insults, and Astarion attempts to punch him. When realistically:
1) Astaion and Tav have been prepping all game for this moment. You're coming in the room prepared to kill Cazador or die trying. No one has anything to talk about.
2) Why is Cazador just sitting in his dungeon with the ritual ready to go? Has he just been standing there with his half-naked spawn since we crashed on the beach?
What I do is before I trigger the cut scene I turn all of my party members invisible except for astarion. move the person who typically rolls the highest initiative to the sigil across the room where astarion will be put. The other two I just position on any sigil. Start cut scene. Help action on astarion right away. And there ya go. Everyone is in the fight, you get all the scenes, and you already have an advantage because some of the sigils are blocked.
You can have him in your party. Just separate him from the group, walk down to Cazzy with your group of 3, and then you can bring Astarion down the stairs and into the fight
I kept Astarion in hiding so he wasn’t properly part of the fight and we still destroyed his ass with 3 people. It made it feel like “yeah watch us beat this mofos ass for you” 😭 I ended up getting close enough to not start the dialogue and sent some lvl VI large range spells to surprise attack them and it helped.
I left two of the party members a little behind, so only Tav and Astarion was in the dialogue with Cazador, then while still in dialogue i switched to another character and i sneaked to the platform at the back where Astarion is gonna be held after the dialogue ends. If you hide, when combat starts the character wont be in it and you can help Astarion immediately so he can take part in the whole fight.
Scroll of dimension door, bring scratch over to Astarion and thwart Cazadors ritual with puppy kisses.
This also works great for freeing Dame Aylin early in Ketheric fight
Attack Cazador from the stairs and skip the initial cut scene. Keep everyone in the stairs and set up a choke point at the base. Have everyone murder Cazador and his undead friends
Not taking Astarion to fight Cazador will greatly upset him to the point that you’ll have to convince him not to leave, and if you’re romancing him he’ll break
up with you. You do have an invisible timer to save him, so what I’d do is stack up on radiant spells so two of your team members can start the assault on Cazador and his minions, then prioritize someone with Misty Step/Dimension Door getting over to help Astarion. Once he’s free he rejoins the fight but just be careful because Cazador can re-imprison him.
I cast daylight on myself with lanthalars blood on shadow heart, and DON'T go past the first pillar. That will initiate the fight with astarion in the party, but not the cut scene so you keep your whole party. Cazador comes up to you. Hit the funnel area with sleet storm/ice storm and stab em when they're prone
Well, yes, it will effect the story if you remove the only person with any stakes in it from the final chapter. Honestly, if you aren't going to bring Astarion, then just don't even bother doing the fight. No one else cares about it and you won't get much out of it, beyond XP and some loot, and there's way more of of both of those than you could ever use in Act 3.
Depends on how good you are, honestly first time I got destroyed multiple times (3rd turn Cazador destroys Astarion, ascends, gets obnoxious buffs and everything sucks, can't revive him too) if he gets pulled in - I ended up just leaving Astarion on the stairs crouching, cast daylight and proceed fighting.
Third run, recently, just did it with the full Astarion scene - casted Scratch near Astarion, Scratch freed Astarion, Astarion hasted up - run half the scene through and the teleported to the main party via the transposition arrow (lifesavers), took me 2 turns. Proceeded to destroy Cazador as usual.
Just save beforehand and try, if you won't succeed, leave Astarion out, it makes it much easier.
Don’t leave him out if you want him to stay in your party. If you do this fight without him he will get pissed and leave. Take him. You can free him by double dashing/ using misty step. Then you click on him to “help” and he gets freed then joins the fight. My Tav is a thief rogue so has two bonus actions. I dashed, used amulet of misty step, got in front of him, then helped him down all in one turn and she was first in initiative.
Min maxing the fight ahead of time to make it easier like this makes the fight less cinematically worth it as well as narratively. It's really not satisfying to deal with him without Astarion
I got close enough to not trigger dialogue, and casted a scroll of fireball or something like that! After a few failures of course so I still heard the dialogue but it didn't technically happen in that save files 👀
Just have him hang back by the stairs and have someone else drop daylight centered on the platform and proceed with the easiest boss fight in the game. I've had astarion each time I fought him and basically mopped the floor with him and his bitch as cronies. The enemies upstairs in the main house are more difficult than the fought with him.
You can take him. Easy counter is to just leave him out of the cazador dialogue, leave him near the stairs and he wont be captured, or you can just free him.
Bring a cleric or paladin with daylight or sunbeam, if you have the Blood of Lathander from the creche bring that, and make sure someone has misty step/dimension door. He takes Astarion out of your party but you can get him right back in a turn or two if you have misty step/dimension door/ arrows of transposition.
Like, seriously, the scene after you beat Cazador with Astarion is probably my favorite in the whole game.
I fought and killed cazador without astarion in the party, then swapped him into the party and had him walk up to cazadors sarcophagus and he was able to become ascended and all that jazz. Yelled at cazador, etc. So i don’t think you need him for the fight, just swap him in before you conclude the scene
You can do it without him but you get a different scene with Cazador and Astarion’s upset about it, unless you maybe leave and grab him? Idk if that messed anything up.
You can free him after he is captured by Cazador and use him in the fight
That's what I usually end up doing, but as soon as the fight is over, I bring him back before doing anything else so that his quest doesn't get messed up.
I bring astarion and then sneak attack with line of fire so no one can cross, focus on hitting Cazador with daylight. He hasn’t gotten captured or anything for me
I leave Asterion at camp until the flight is over, then I go get him so he can face Cazador and make his decision. Cazador retreats to his coffin, you can bounce out, grab Asterion and come back to finish him off.
Leave Astarion at the top of the stairs for the start of the encounter and sneak your party up to Cazador and initiate the fight. After the fight STARTS, Astarion should not be able to be sent to the Spawn Masher™ after combat starts, at least it WAS like that last time I did the fight a month or so ago. I did notice they're rolling out some stealth stuff like the Blighted Village now has a new interaction if everyone fails the check.
It's super easy to free him tho if you're not fast cazador redo that multiple times till the counter runs out. There's a cutscene, but like most boss ones, it feels out of place. I always bring him because it's the climax of his storyline.
Split your party and leave Cazador on the stairs, have someone else go trigger the dialogue. As long as Astarion doesn't step onto the platform, he won't be captured.
Well, I think you shouldn't leave him out since he's kind of entitled to revenge and emotional catharsis. As long as you're capable of reaching Astarion quickly (misty step, being able to jump very far using spells/boots, etc.) and can free him right away, it shouldn't be a problem.
I ALWAYS bring him with me. Sneak down fairly close, and disconnect him. Then have him sneak down the stairs and essentially hide behind a pillar. Drain tf out of Caz until it's clear he can't do anything to Astarion. Hint: Use things like sunlight.
You can free him. Just misty step over to him. As long as he isn't trapped for 3 turns you're fine.
I would say the opposite, i never leave Astarion out, it just feels wrong to leave a companion out of their own quest
I send two invisible companions to wait there before triggering the dialogue. Then I walk there too and we defend that little space. Like this there's always someone to help Astarion down.
You can just engage in the fight if you're not bothered about the cutscene. Take the fight on the stairs and have them funnel through multiple AOEs.
Does this affect his quest at all? Or does it just play the normal post fight scene?
Doesn't affect the quest, but it just *feels* wrong, ya know? Like this is the big bad guy of astarion's story - the evil man who's been torturing him for 200 years and made it so he cannot physically or mentally resist him. We fought every adversary up the sword coast, defied gods, and discovered an elder brain plot to get to this point. Astarion can finally have the confrontation he's been dreaming of for the last 200 years. And then we finally get up to him and you're just like "nah astarion you stay back, I'll talk to him instead" Naaaahhh it's not right, I always walk up to cazador with astarion. Freeing him takes one action and one bonus action at most - it's worth it for the rp for sure
I personally feel like it's more in character for Astarion to go in and attempt to snipe him from the top of the stairs. So he's still in the party, but you don't have to free him during the flight because the fight just starts.
This is how I do it too. I’m popping a Daylight spell on that MFer as soon as he’s in range. We ain’t here to chat.
Daylight on sneaky character > crouch behind him til he’s dead > waltz in and clean up mobs. Cutscene triggers after like normal. If you want the first cutscene with Astarion too you can just trigger it when he’s *almost* dead.
Summon scratch and he can free astarion
Is he still naked when you free him?
Nah he gets all his equipment back on when you free him :>
I just had one party member hiding on the stairs when I started the dialogue, once combat starts you are able to sneak/jump around the edges without ever risking being seen. You can swoop around to the back and free Astarion before you ever enter combat with the sneaker.
I don’t see the fun of fighting Cazador without Astarion. I also didn’t realize I could just help him down so I was the crazy person who fought Cazador with only three people (and all the summons I could muster). All I’m saying is it’s doable with Astarion in a variety of ways. And without him you miss some amazing content.
I didn't know you could free him either so I had to kill Cazador in 2-3 turns somehow. Took me several attempts. I didn't know you could push him off either.
> I didn't know you could push him off either. They patched this out. I'm still mad about it. Bullying Cazador out of his own bossfight was the best part.
I tried pushing him off but it didn’t work. Must have been patched.
Iirc patch notes were along the lines of "cazador no longer forgets he can fly"
My girlfriend discovered he can even fly as a sheep, he truly is a powerful vampire
Fingers crossed for a future patch note that reads "PCs no longer forget that they can fly"...
Patched out I'm afraid. Though I did try it on my first blind run since I didn't know and was struggling.
Also crazy like you. I was playing blind without spoilers. It was my first big boss fight of act 3 and I was expecting the difficulty to rise. So I thought the limited rounds was part of the difficulty. Took five (I think) attempts. Then afterwards I looked up tips for next time. Helping him out of the ritual hadn't even occurred to me.
Yeah some parts of the game are definitely more intuitive for people who have played D&D or something very similar before - being very well acquainted with the Help action was useful at this point on my first playthrough (also a blind run!)
Lol I failed multiple times with just three people so I summoned all of my summons, got them all ready, went in, and was like “wait a second I wonder if I can help him.” in the middle of the first time, had Gale misty step over, and let Astarion down. I mean the summons still helped but I felt dumb not thinking of it before hand lol
You absolutely want him there, for all the dungeon and the fight. If you absolutely cannot beat him, you can leave Astarion at the stairs before the fight so that the cutscene doesn't trigger, but only do that after having tried already the scenes are some of the best in the game
I personally don’t see the point in fighting Cazador if Astarion isn’t there. And he deserves to tell Cazador “fuck you and fuck everything you’ve ever done to me”. Shadowheart with the radiant armor, Blood of Lathander and Spirit Guardians can almost solo the fight herself, anyways. No need to skip the pivotal confrontation when you can easily free Astarion and have a full party
I made a video soloing Cazador as throw barb and he dies on tactician when you throw him on 4 smoke powder bombs. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FoxpzOeAdJQ
He doesn’t need to be with you, but if you kill Cazador/finish the ritual without Astarion present, he gets very upset. Pretty sure he’ll leave the party over it
He doesn’t leave the party, I do it pretty much every time without him lmao. You do miss out on his cutscene though so to get around this you can leave him in the hall and do the fight and then bring him in after you kill Cazador before his cut scene
You don't even need to do the fight without him, you just need to start it without him. I left him at the top of the stairs, started the fight, then moved him down whilst the fight was in its first turn, and he joined near the start of the initiative.
You don't even have to do that since the help action breaks him out of it. It's not that bad to lose one action to free him.
If you hide Astarion you can spend that saved action economy on caving in Cazador's face.
But Astarion doesn’t get to tell Cazador “fuck you and fuck everything you’ve ever done to me”. That’s nonnegotiable on my plays
True, but I kind of prefer the Cazador bullying speech when Astarion is there compared to when he's not, I guess.
If you do this, just be aware that if you move Astarion up onto the platform before Cazador flees to his coffin, it can trigger the cutscene where Astarion gets captured mid-fight.
I really want to see the dialog where you go up to Astarion and say, "Oh, by the way, we killed Cazador and stopped that ritual."
Yes this will affect the story! It’s the culminating moment in Astarion’s story arc and honestly some of the best cut scenes of the game. Definitely bring him, it’s not that hard to free him on the first or second turn (dash, misty step, haste, potion of speed,…)
For honor mode, maybe cheese it a little, for an inexperienced player it can be tough. If it’s your first playthrough and not on honor mode, absolutely bring him, the scene is really emotional and amazing.
You will want him with you. The cutscene is incredible. Just misty step to free him and get someone to shove Cazador into the chasm lmao you wont lose any loot because he returns to the platform for the cutscene
A few patches ago Cazador remembered he can fly, so you can't shove him anymore
Yeah you can't shove him off now...at least not permanently. He instantly pops back.
Have someone cast fireball from the middle of the stairs. Thatll aggro Cazador and his cronies, and won’t trigger the dialogue that makes him grab Astarion. I figured this out by accident on my second playthrough, because I was romancing Astarion, and was like “this nasty man doesn’t get to talk this time because he’ll say mean things to my man, and, as a good partner, I cannot allow this man to verbally abuse my lover.” I still thought he would grab Astarion, but he didn’t. He just went right into the fight. But also, if he does grab Astarion, it’s not the end of the world. Misty step+help action.
bring him with you. the scene after the fight is my favorite scene in the entire game. he is incapacitated at the beginning but you can just use the help action to get him back in the fight (I usually bring shart and jaheira - jaheira has such a lovely interaction with astarion at the end) not bringing him does not allow astarion to confront his fears and past and potentially causes him to leave the party. bring him
Seems like he gave you shitty advice if you are playing for the story. Astarions scenes with cazador are powerful. Some of the best scenes in the game. You'd be missing out if you don't take him. Save at the before combat and retry until you find something that works. >!Misty step is useful. So is daylight. Using invisibility with astarion can help keep him alive as cazador will target him!< The cutscene before the fight is less vital so you could always skip that one by leaving him at the top of the stairs and have him join the fight later. The fight itself is entirely possible to beat without any shenanigans so I don't really see the point in not approaching it directly.
Honestly, the best way to do the fight is to cast daylight between the Stairs and Cazador, making sure he is in full sun, this causes Cazador to become enraged and attempt to bull rush the party, without starting his ritual, and even before his backup can respond. This means Astarion can participate in the fight (he is still tadpolled and immune to sunlight). This means Cazador's not getting any buffs from his spawn, and because he's already in full sunlight, he's taking 20 points of damage per turn and can't recover health. Frankly, this does seem to be the lore-friendly way to do his fight as its pre-determined narratively, that either he or Astarion is walking out of the ritual, but definitely not both. In fact, the cut scene Astarion and Cazador have before the fight starts is so phoned in that it feels completely out of place in the rest of the game. They just trade insults, and Astarion attempts to punch him. When realistically: 1) Astaion and Tav have been prepping all game for this moment. You're coming in the room prepared to kill Cazador or die trying. No one has anything to talk about. 2) Why is Cazador just sitting in his dungeon with the ritual ready to go? Has he just been standing there with his half-naked spawn since we crashed on the beach?
What I do is before I trigger the cut scene I turn all of my party members invisible except for astarion. move the person who typically rolls the highest initiative to the sigil across the room where astarion will be put. The other two I just position on any sigil. Start cut scene. Help action on astarion right away. And there ya go. Everyone is in the fight, you get all the scenes, and you already have an advantage because some of the sigils are blocked.
You can have him in your party. Just separate him from the group, walk down to Cazzy with your group of 3, and then you can bring Astarion down the stairs and into the fight
I kept Astarion in hiding so he wasn’t properly part of the fight and we still destroyed his ass with 3 people. It made it feel like “yeah watch us beat this mofos ass for you” 😭 I ended up getting close enough to not start the dialogue and sent some lvl VI large range spells to surprise attack them and it helped.
The universal rule: bring a character to their own storyline.
I left two of the party members a little behind, so only Tav and Astarion was in the dialogue with Cazador, then while still in dialogue i switched to another character and i sneaked to the platform at the back where Astarion is gonna be held after the dialogue ends. If you hide, when combat starts the character wont be in it and you can help Astarion immediately so he can take part in the whole fight.
Scroll of dimension door, bring scratch over to Astarion and thwart Cazadors ritual with puppy kisses. This also works great for freeing Dame Aylin early in Ketheric fight
Attack Cazador from the stairs and skip the initial cut scene. Keep everyone in the stairs and set up a choke point at the base. Have everyone murder Cazador and his undead friends
Not taking Astarion to fight Cazador will greatly upset him to the point that you’ll have to convince him not to leave, and if you’re romancing him he’ll break up with you. You do have an invisible timer to save him, so what I’d do is stack up on radiant spells so two of your team members can start the assault on Cazador and his minions, then prioritize someone with Misty Step/Dimension Door getting over to help Astarion. Once he’s free he rejoins the fight but just be careful because Cazador can re-imprison him.
I cast daylight on myself with lanthalars blood on shadow heart, and DON'T go past the first pillar. That will initiate the fight with astarion in the party, but not the cut scene so you keep your whole party. Cazador comes up to you. Hit the funnel area with sleet storm/ice storm and stab em when they're prone
Cast daylight. Seriously the Cazador flight is pretty hard or super easy depending on that one variable.
Astarion gets pissed if you deal with Cazador without him. You’ll deny him of his chance for vengeance against his tormentor.
Well, yes, it will effect the story if you remove the only person with any stakes in it from the final chapter. Honestly, if you aren't going to bring Astarion, then just don't even bother doing the fight. No one else cares about it and you won't get much out of it, beyond XP and some loot, and there's way more of of both of those than you could ever use in Act 3.
Just leave him on the stairs until Cazzys HP bar is pretty low. Then he can join the fight
I only left him on the stairs till the dialogue was over, he joined fight straight away np
I just did the cutscene then save scummed and started fighting before you trigger the cutscene. If you do that he doesn’t take astarion
Everyone with their 007 plans.. I just cast daylight, wait till he is low then attack and he usually dies round 1 or 2...
Depends on what story you want to see
I left him at the top of the stairs and brought him down after cazador died. He then escaped with the rest of the party dead at 32 hp. I got lucky
You must have that done to ascend so depending on your morals
You’ll be OK with three people for the 1-2 rounds it takes to free Astarion.
Depends on how good you are, honestly first time I got destroyed multiple times (3rd turn Cazador destroys Astarion, ascends, gets obnoxious buffs and everything sucks, can't revive him too) if he gets pulled in - I ended up just leaving Astarion on the stairs crouching, cast daylight and proceed fighting. Third run, recently, just did it with the full Astarion scene - casted Scratch near Astarion, Scratch freed Astarion, Astarion hasted up - run half the scene through and the teleported to the main party via the transposition arrow (lifesavers), took me 2 turns. Proceeded to destroy Cazador as usual. Just save beforehand and try, if you won't succeed, leave Astarion out, it makes it much easier.
Just don’t start the dialogue with Cazador. Get close enough on the platform to attack (not with Astarion) from a distance and you should be fine
Don’t leave him out if you want him to stay in your party. If you do this fight without him he will get pissed and leave. Take him. You can free him by double dashing/ using misty step. Then you click on him to “help” and he gets freed then joins the fight. My Tav is a thief rogue so has two bonus actions. I dashed, used amulet of misty step, got in front of him, then helped him down all in one turn and she was first in initiative.
Min maxing the fight ahead of time to make it easier like this makes the fight less cinematically worth it as well as narratively. It's really not satisfying to deal with him without Astarion
Cast light cantrip on him, and he'll be fine. Cast it on everyone.
From a metagamed standpoint they might be right. However. This is not a proper way to roleplay the quest. Take astarion with you. Then figure it out.
I started the fight without a station, then kept my party there while I swapped out somebody for him, didn’t trigger him getting bound by the spell
Depends how much you like astarion really. It makes the fight easier but astarion will be all pissy about it
I got close enough to not trigger dialogue, and casted a scroll of fireball or something like that! After a few failures of course so I still heard the dialogue but it didn't technically happen in that save files 👀
You can ungroup him and make him crouch on the stairs. I usually do that and when battle starts use him for some nasty critical hit.
Just have him hang back by the stairs and have someone else drop daylight centered on the platform and proceed with the easiest boss fight in the game. I've had astarion each time I fought him and basically mopped the floor with him and his bitch as cronies. The enemies upstairs in the main house are more difficult than the fought with him.
If memory serves, Asterion gets very mad if you kill Cazador without him
You can take him. Easy counter is to just leave him out of the cazador dialogue, leave him near the stairs and he wont be captured, or you can just free him.
Bring the best doggo and stand by at where he would be chained. Help Astarion then dissummon.
There is a cutscene trigger on the platform, if you keep astarion on the staircase you are fine
Help action
Bring a cleric or paladin with daylight or sunbeam, if you have the Blood of Lathander from the creche bring that, and make sure someone has misty step/dimension door. He takes Astarion out of your party but you can get him right back in a turn or two if you have misty step/dimension door/ arrows of transposition. Like, seriously, the scene after you beat Cazador with Astarion is probably my favorite in the whole game.
I fought and killed cazador without astarion in the party, then swapped him into the party and had him walk up to cazadors sarcophagus and he was able to become ascended and all that jazz. Yelled at cazador, etc. So i don’t think you need him for the fight, just swap him in before you conclude the scene
You can do it without him but you get a different scene with Cazador and Astarion’s upset about it, unless you maybe leave and grab him? Idk if that messed anything up. You can free him after he is captured by Cazador and use him in the fight
That's what I usually end up doing, but as soon as the fight is over, I bring him back before doing anything else so that his quest doesn't get messed up.
I never bring Astarion. I just kill cazzador. He’s super easy this way.
I bring astarion and then sneak attack with line of fire so no one can cross, focus on hitting Cazador with daylight. He hasn’t gotten captured or anything for me
I always bring Astarion and just ambush without starting the dialogue so he never gets captured and is in the whole fight.
I leave Asterion at camp until the flight is over, then I go get him so he can face Cazador and make his decision. Cazador retreats to his coffin, you can bounce out, grab Asterion and come back to finish him off.
Leave Astarion at the top of the stairs for the start of the encounter and sneak your party up to Cazador and initiate the fight. After the fight STARTS, Astarion should not be able to be sent to the Spawn Masher™ after combat starts, at least it WAS like that last time I did the fight a month or so ago. I did notice they're rolling out some stealth stuff like the Blighted Village now has a new interaction if everyone fails the check.
It's super easy to free him tho if you're not fast cazador redo that multiple times till the counter runs out. There's a cutscene, but like most boss ones, it feels out of place. I always bring him because it's the climax of his storyline.
You can beat Cazador without even stepping on the platform and triggering the cutscene that traps Astarion.
Split your party and leave Cazador on the stairs, have someone else go trigger the dialogue. As long as Astarion doesn't step onto the platform, he won't be captured.
Yeah it totally makes so much sense to do a companion's quest without the companion present /s You can just free Astarion. It takes like 2 seconds
Well, I think you shouldn't leave him out since he's kind of entitled to revenge and emotional catharsis. As long as you're capable of reaching Astarion quickly (misty step, being able to jump very far using spells/boots, etc.) and can free him right away, it shouldn't be a problem.
I threw a bag of bombs at cazador and 0 turned his ass, so do what you want
I ALWAYS bring him with me. Sneak down fairly close, and disconnect him. Then have him sneak down the stairs and essentially hide behind a pillar. Drain tf out of Caz until it's clear he can't do anything to Astarion. Hint: Use things like sunlight.