Baldur’s Gate 3: How To Defeat Balthazar In The Gauntlet Of Shar

Throughout Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ve probably heard the name Balthazar quite a bit by the time you reach the Gauntlet of Shar. You’ve probably even been into his study at Moonrise Towers to get a Moon Lantern so you can safely travel the Shadow Cursed Lands. You might have even met him already if you’re trying to find Ketheric Thorm’s Relic.

Whether to fight Balthazar is one question, but how do you beat him? Fighting the undead commander is a challenge no matter how you decide to confront him, but some clever tactics will make it a lot easier.

Where To Find Balthazar

Balthazar can be found in the Gauntlet of Shar and will likely be encountered as part of the quest to Find Ketheric Thorm’s Relic or to Kill Raphael’s Old Enemy. Head directly north from Moonrise Towers and past the House of Healing in Reithwin Town. Behind the House of Healing is a graveyard, and after you stop to talk to Raphael and activate the Grand Mausoleum Waypoint, head inside the Thorm Mausoleum.

If you snoop around the Thorm Mausoleum you can learn about Balthazar’s work there, as he’s been away from Moonrise Towers for a while. When you’re ready to move on, you’ll need to bypass the traps and solve the puzzle in the Thorm Mausoleum. In the far chamber from the entrance is a room with a sarcophagus and three large paintings. Under each painting is a button. Press the buttons in the correct order to avoid triggering any traps and reveal a secret passageway to the Gauntlet of Shar. The correct order to press the buttons is: Moonrise Towers, Grief, General.

Balthazar can be found at (X:-850, U: 784) behind a locked door guarded by undead servants. Approach the undead and start a conversation, then fight the Dark Justiciars that appear. Once the Dark Justiciars are gone you can enter the locked door and finally meet Balthazar.

When To Fight Balthazar

Depending on when you confront the undead commander, the fight with Balthazar and his undead followers can be a fun challenge or a nightmare. You should consider just fighting Balthazar now, in the room he’s in when you meet him. Fighting Balthazar later in the Shadowfell once you’ve found the Nightsong will be extremely difficult, as his undead army will grow in size and you’ll have to protect the Nightsong during the fight. When you first meet Balthazar the fight is much more straight forward, but not an easy one. No matter what you pick he will have several undead followers such as ghouls, his brother Flesh, or several undead apostates.

You can get Balthazar to give you a bell to summon Flesh in a fight and have the construct fight for you. However, Flesh will not fight Balthazar and will be hostile if you summon him while fighting Balthazar at any point. If you have the bell to summon Flesh, use it another time.

Balthazar’s Stats

Flesh’s Stats

Strategies For Defeating Balthazar

In The Gauntlet Of Shar

If you’re choosing to fight Balthazar before heading to the Shadowfell you can expect an easier time, but the fight still won’t be easy. Balthazar will be flanked by his brother Flesh and some Ghoul Medics. If you saved Nere in Act 1 and let him live, Nere will also be here with Balthazar. Balthazar is a spellcaster, so be prepared with Silence and Counterspell or Arrows of Arcane Disruption. To start the fight, cast Silence over him and stay outside of it. This will force him to move out of his defensive space behind the altar.

Keep your own spellcasters safely protected from Flesh and the Ghoul Medics. Focus your heavy hitters like the barbarian Karlach on Flesh to get rid of the giant undead berserker. It may take a few rounds, but taking care of Flesh while keeping Balthazar Silenced will make dealing with him quite a bit easier. The Ghoul Medics are easy to take care of, especially if you have a cleric like Shadowheart to cast Spirit Guardians and get up close.

Once he’s alone, Balthazar isn’t much of a threat. He can cast Misty Step so catching up to him is a bit hard, but if you corner him or keep him Silenced he only takes a few good hits with Radiant damage to kill.

In The Shadowfell

If you like to live dangerously, then fighting Balthazar in the Shadowfell is the way to go. This fight is significantly harder and Balthazar will raise a small undead army of apostates. He can Misty Step, cast powerful spells like Cloudkill, and will do his best to kill the Nightsong. Having the Blood of Lathander for this fight is a good idea so you have access to the Sunbeam spell and can hit several targets with Radiant damage at once. It’s a good idea to keep one of your ranged party companions like the fighter Lae’zel up on the ledge above the fight before it starts so they can hit enemies from above with advantage.

The small undead army isn’t something to ignore, but you can’t ignore Balthazar either. The three Apostate Destroyers are particularly dangerous and can do a lot of damage very quickly. You should try to stay away from ledges to avoid being shoved off into the abyss by the undead. Radiant damage and AoE spells and attacks will be your best friend: most of the undead need to do melee damage, so they will tend to bunch up and can be hit easily in a crowd. Sunbeam from the Blood of Lathander will be useful for taking out the undead army: it deals 6d8 Radiant damage in a beam that can hit many enemies at once, but be careful, as it can also hit your party members. The undead army is also relatively weak to Bludgeoning damage, so smashing them with maces, mauls, hammers, and other Bludgeoning weapons will take you far.

You’ll want to avoid ignoring Balthazar or he’ll kill the Nightsong extremely quickly. Send one of your party members to attack him directly. Karlach or Lae’zel are both viable options, but so is Shadowheart if you have another way of controlling all the undead in the area. If you use someone with multiple attacks like Lae’zel or Karlach, though, you can potentially take out Balthazar in one round of combat. His health is pretty low for a boss fight, and Lae’zel and Karlach can both do a ton of damage with their multi-attacks per turn. If Balthazar lives more than a round of combat he will probably cast Cloudkill, which will deal 5d8 Poison damage on contact with your party. They’ll die pretty fast if left within the cloud, so get them out quickly. Balthazar doesn’t have any other tricks up his sleeve beyond Cloudkill and his minions, so if you’re on top of your crowd control and can keep him Silenced, he can be defeated.

Rewards

Aside from the good feelings you get from defeating Ketheric Thorm’s undead lackey, you can also get the Circle Of Bones circlet. This rare circlet gives undead allies near the wearer resistance to physical damage and the wearer can cast Animate Dead. Gaining access to the Nightsong is the other major reward and a large plot point for Shadowhearts companion questline, so it’s a good idea to have her in your party.