Cazador has employed Astarion and many other vampires in BG3 to find and capture people and lead them back to his palace, where he can make them his spawns. Now that you have gotten the opportunity to find Cazador and end his torment of the innocent, you will have to go and confront him directly.
The fight against Cazador has many different endings, each with different consequences, like many other dialogue choices. We have put together this article to guide you in finding Cazador, confronting him, and how he can be defeated in BG3.
Cazador location in BG3
To find Cazador in BG3, go to the Lower City and approach the Lower City Central Wall waypoint. To the west of this waypoint is a door you must enter. The door leading to Cazador’s palace is marked on the map. Now, move along the red path in front, and you will find a sinister door locked.
To open this door, you need the Szarr Family Ring and Kozakuran Dictionary. You can find the Dictionary in the room, which has a corpse with Necrotic powers coming out. You can reach this room right after crossing the flight of stairs.
The ring can be found by going down the stairs into the kennels. Pass a perception check to locate a skeleton enemy hiding there. Either persuade or kill it to obtain the key. After acquiring the key and the Dictionary, you can open the Sinister door in Cazador’s palace.
Preparation for the fight
Cazador is an undead vampire that uses a lot of necromantic spells against his foes. Make sure that you have necrotic resistance in the form of elixirs ready for the fight. Cazador also changes its shape and turns invincible in the form of a mist. The only way to hurt him in this form is to have Light spells ready. Daylight spell, Haste spell, and the necrotic resistance elixir are necessary to survive the fight against Cazador in BG3. Shadowheart can readily use and cast daylight spells in case you can’t use it.
One more thing that you need to do before entering the arena and starting the fight with Cazador is to disband Astarion from the party and leave him at the door. This will stop Cazador from capturing Astarion and binding him to the rune contraption for the ascension ritual. Once Astarion is caught, freeing him is very difficult.
How to defeat Cazador in BG3
Once you enter the arena, make a quick save and cast the daylight spell on Shadowheart alongside the invisibility spell. Disband her from the party before you proceed to talk to Cazador. Don’t proceed with his dialogue options and move Shadowheart closer to Cazador in the meantime. Being a vampire, Cazador will immediately start taking radiant damage from Shadowheart. As the fight has not yet started, he will not attack you either. Don’t move Shadowheart too close to Cazador, or this will start the fight immediately in BG3.
In case you don’t have Shadowheart or mess up the cheese, the battle will start. Make Astarion join your party right now. You will find Cazador using Misty Escape in BG3. Cazador will also be aided by four werewolves, some bats Fallen Gur Hunters, and a skeleton spellcaster called Chatterteeth.
Cazador is an undead who can be a mighty foe with his highly damaging spells, such as Call Lightening. He also has excellent survivability traits, like being resistant to almost all non-magical melee attacks and a massive 200HP.
His lackeys are dangerous because they can gang on you and take out your characters individually. If you have Astarion with you before the fight, you will be down one companion, too, as he will be captured immediately for the ascension ritual.
The werewolf and the bats only deal physical damage, while the Fallen Gur Hunters will activate their ghastly fumes trait, which will poison damage in an area, so keep your distance when near the Hunter.
Finally, the spellcaster skeleton will deal with spells such as Eyebite, which will hinder your team member with either an Asleep or Frightened condition. This skeleton can, however, be handled with a blunt weapon without worry.
How to stop Cazador’s Ascension ritual
You need to stop the ascension ritual as the first thing. This will not allow Cazador to recharge himself and turn into Vampire Ascendant. If he draws power three times from all seven runes, the fight will be over immediately. To stop the Ascension Ritual, you have only three turns. Make sure that you either kill one of his pawns or replace them with a party member to interrupt the whole ritual.
During the fight, you should choose light spells such as Sunbeam or Daylight near him. This will cause 20 Radiant Damage to Cazador and blind nearby enemies. Cazador will also not be able to heal when near the light and will lose his mist form. You can then take care of the lackeys one by one.
When Cazador is down, his spirit returns to his sarcophagus, and you need to finish off the lackeys to interact with the sarcophagus.
Interactions with Cazador’s Sarcophagus
There will be two different interactions with it. If you don’t have Astarion, your character will open the coffin and reveal the true body of Cazador.
You can kill him with the dagger or spare him and leave him. He will recover if you spare him; all this fight will be for nothing. Whether you kill Cazador in his sarcophagus or not, you will be given a choice to either free the Gurr prisoners, kill them all with Cazador’s staff, or destroy the staff, which will result in all the prisoners being left trapped permanently. Next, you can return and meet with Ulma in BG3 and report everything.
If you have Astarion in the fight, he will open the sarcophagus and throw Cazador out. Astarion always wanted the powers of the Vampire Ascendents for himself, and now he can get them. You will have a dialogue option in which you can help Astarion complete Cazador’s ritual from the first option. This will give him all the powers and make him all-powerful.
If you choose the second option and run a persuasion check to convince Astarion not to complete the ascension ritual, he will stop it. He will kill Cazador and free the enslaved spawns. If you agree with Astarion first and then stop him mid-ritual, he will turn up against you, and you will need to kill him.
Lastly, if you refuse to help Astarion, he will kill Cazador and free the seven spawns in BG3. However, he will destroy Cazador’s staff and trap the prisoners in their cells. Astarion will also leave your party permanently. This will severely hurt your chances of romancing Astarion in BG3.
Cazador rewards and loot
When Cazador is dead, and you or Astarion have killed his true body, you can collect a few items. These include,
- Woe
- Rhapsody
- Sweet Bloodletting
- Counting House Vault 3 Key
Besides these items, you can find a few things in the room where you found the Dictionary and Godey.
The Woe is a very rare Quarterstaff that can deal bludgeoning damage to enemies. You will get the Arcane Enchantment, a bonus on spell saves and attack rolls. You will also get the Arcane Vampirism, which provides 1 to 4 hit points when a creature fails a Saving throw. Finally, you get the Blight spell, a level 4 necromancy spell in Baldur’s Gate 3.
The Rhapsody is a very rare dagger that deals with piercing damage and is used to kill Cazador in the coffin. It provides a Scarlet Remittance form in which you gain a bonus point on attack rolls, spell saves, and damage each time you kill an enemy. This effect can be stacked to 3 times.
You will also get the Sweet Bloodletting, which can impart Bleeding when you use this weapon to hit an enemy while invisible or hiding.
