In Baldur’s Gate 3, you must conjure up forces to help against the Elder brain and the massive army of the dead. In your pursuit, you get to a tribe needing your help to save their children who have been captured by the Vampire Lord and the enslaver of Astarion called Cazador in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Cazador has employed Astarion and many other vampires 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 and confronting him and how he can be defeated in BG3.
Cazador location in BG3
Before you look for Cazador, you must find the Gurr camp. This camp is located in the Wrym’s Crossing in Act 3. You can use the Waypoint of Rivington and move northeast and past Arfur’s Mansion. Their location is shown on the map above.
When you reach the camp, you will talk to Gandrel and later with Ulma, the tribe leader. She will tell you that Cazador in Baldur’s Gate 3 has captured the children of this tribe and needs your help to set them free from his grasp.
Before you move towards the camp, you must decide whether to have Astarion in your team. He will be a crucial part of the events later in the palace. But it may cause the Gurr tribe or Astarion to turn against you. It is better to leave him before you move on.
Now, you must move towards the Lower City and approach the Lower City Central Wall waypoint in Baldur’s Gate 3. To the west of this waypoint will be a door you must enter. The location of both the door and the waypoint is shown in the circle above.
There will be a guard who will stop you after climbing a ladder. Run a Deception check on her and pass it to move up the stairs and through the door. Move through the small room and up the stairs to find an open corridor leading to a door near the end.
The location of the door is indicated by the arrow in the image above. This is where Cazador’s palace in BG3 starts. Now, move along the red path in front, and you will find a sinister door locked.
Open the locked door
You must find a Szarr Family Ring and Kozakuran Dictionary to open the door. You can find the Dictionary in the room, which has a corpse with Necrotic powers coming out. This room will come right after you cross the flight of stairs.
The dictionary will be in the Mahogany Wardrobe beside the bed. The ring will be with Godey, but you will need a character with sufficient perception to spot the hidden door where Godey will be. If you are with Astarion, you can use a Deception check and a persuasion check to convince Godey to give you the key and say that you have brought back Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3 for the ritual.
If you don’t have Astarion with you, you will have to fight against him; this will be a quick fight after acquiring the key and the Dictionary. You can open the Sinister door. However, when you move in, you will find a lot of werewolves and other creatures which need to be dealt with.
After that, search the rest of the palace for a lift. The straight arrow shows the location of the lift. This lift will simply be a lightly worn-out platform that you can use to go down.
The basement will have a waypoint and a door at the opposite end, which the Szarr ring can open. Unlock the door and enter; you will find many prisoners and children kidnapped from the Gurr tribe. Now open the main entrance and head down the stairs to speak with Cazador in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Cazador Dialogue options
Cazador dialogue can go two different ways depending on your choices. If you bring Astarion along with you, he will start the fight against Cazador regardless of the dialogue choices you throw at him. In addition to that, Astarion will be captured and locked into the ascension ritual.
This will hinder him, and you must use the Help action to free him. There will also be a three-turn limit, after which Astarion will disintegrate all the vampire spawn in the ascension ritual and become the Vampire Ascendant. This will make him a lot harder to kill.
You can stop Cazador in Baldur’s Gate 3 from becoming the Vampire Ascendant by killing one of the spawns or freeing Astarion. Finally, suppose you have not brought Astarion with you in this fight. In that case, Cazador will recognize you as being acquainted with Astarion.
Still, after running a high Deception check, you can get out of the battle and promise Cazador to bring Astarion with you. In any other case, the fighting will commence automatically.
How to defeat Cazador in Baldur’s Gate 3 in a Straight Fight
After the battle, you will find Cazador to active Misty Escape. In this fight, he will also be aided by four werewolves, some bats Fallen Gur Hunters, and a skeleton spellcaster called Chatterteeth.
Cazador 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 200-point health bar.
His lackeys are dangerous because they can gang on you and take out your characters individually. If you have Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3 with you before the fight, you will be down one companion too.
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.
A few methods exist to start the fight and defeat Cazador in BG3. Firstly, you can refrain from bringing Astarion into your team before the fight; this way, you will not be penalized with a group member.
Next, 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. You can then take care of the lackeys one by one.
When Cazador is down in Baldur’s Gate 3, his spirit returns to the sarcophagus; you must finish off the lackeys to interact with the sarcophagus.
How to cheese Cazador in Baldur’s Gate 3
There is another way to deal with Cazador without dealing with the lackeys. This can be done using the Daylight spell (Level 3 Spell) on one of your companions as Vampires hate Daylight. This will enable them to flash with a bright aura. You can then sneak near Cazador, and he will start to get 20 Radiant damage from the light.
Wait until his health drops to zero and then use an invisibility spell like the Scroll of Greater invisibility to go towards the sarcophagus and complete the quest, ending the ritual. Or once Cazador is down, you can take care of the other enemies with great ease. To make the Daylight Spell trick work, you will have to carefully adjust your distance from Cazador, as getting too close will commence the battle, and you may have to restart.
You can also use the small platform to your advantage by pushing Cazador and his lackeys towards the abyss and killing them. This will cause you to lose BG3 Cazador’s dagger in the first body, making the fight much easier.
Interactions with the sarcophagus
There will be two different interactions with it. If you don’t have Astarion, your character will open the coffin and reveal another body of Cazador.
You can kill him with the dagger or spare him and leave him. He will recover if you go to him; all this fight will be for nothing. If you kill him or not, you will be given a choice to either free the prisoners, kill them all with the staff, or destroy the staff, and all will be left trapped. Next, you can return and meet with Ulma in Baldur’s Gate 3.
If you have Astarion in the fight, he will open the sarcophagus and throw Cazador out. He always wanted the powers of the Vampire Ascendents for himself, and now he has the opportunity to get them. You will have a dialogue option in which you can help him 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 him not to complete the ritual, he will stop it. He will kill Cazador and free the enslaved spawns. Also, if you agree to him first and stop him mid-ritual by Cazador, he will turn up against you, and you will need to kill him.
Lastly, if you refuse to help, 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. He will also leave your party permanently.
Cazador rewards and loot
When Cazador is dead, and you or Astarion have killed his second body, you can collect a few items. These include,
- Woe
- Rhapsody
- 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.
