The Spectator, also known as the Beholder, is a flying head with one giant eye in the center, and multiple eyes on tendrils on the sides in Baldur’s Gate 3.
What makes this boss particularly annoying and difficult is its ability to inflict multiple status effects on you and your party in the same round. That includes petrifying your party members and making them useless for a few turns.
Not to mention that it can also use a charm to turn your party members against you. There is a lot that you need to know before facing the Spectator in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Where to find Spectator, the Beholder
There are two Spectators that you can encounter in the first act of Baldur’s Gate 3, one of which is optional and technically a boss of your own making.
Free the Beholder from the Flask
You need to first complete the BG3 Find the Missing Shipment quest in the first act by obtaining an Iron Flask. This object is a prison of the Beholder. Interact with the Iron Flask to open it and free the Spectator for an immediate boss fight.
Get ambushed in the Underdark
To find the second Spectator, you need to make your way to the Underdark region where it will ambush you during your search for Dhourn in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Finding Dhourn is important to know about The Adamantine Forge. Hence, there is no time to waste. You need to put down this horrific one-eyed boss quickly.
You can enter Underdark in multiple ways. One way of getting there is through Whispering Depth dungeon. You can locate this by walking east from the Blighted Village waypoint.
Once you are inside the Whispering Depth Dungeon, you need to walk past the Phase Spider Matriarch. After that, you need to drop down the giant pit that comes after.
Doing so will lead you directly into the Underdark region where Aberration is located. Just make sure that you have the Feather Fall Spell with you.
How to defeat the Spectator in Baldur’s Gate 3
Something the game does not tell you is that throwing the Iron Flask on the ground automatically releases its imprisoned Spectator.
The trick here to kill this Spectator easily is to throw the Iron Flask from range into a group of enemies. When the Beholder comes out of the Flask, it will start fighting the other mobs. This way, you can either let the enemies kill it for you or wait until its health is down before moving in.
However, in the second, Underdark encounter, there is no such option. So you need to be fully prepared to deal with the Spectator because it can prove to be a pretty annoying boss fight.
The spectator has several different types of damaging rays in his arsenal such as Wounding, Paralyze, and Fear. These rays deal a lot of damage by paralyzing as well as immobilizing team members.
When that happens in Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s always best to maintain a distance from the Beholder. This is because these rays have a maximum range of 20 feet. You can get away by just moving away.
During the early stages of the fight with Spectator, he will take the help of Dhourn as well as Drow by unpetrifying and charming them. Soon after that, they will cast a Darkness spell onto your party and start attacking.
To make the Drow and Dhourn into a friendly ally, you need to break the charm spell cast by the Spectator. You can easily do so by attacking both Drow and Dhourn. Keep in mind that both will again become enemies if you attack them twice.
During the fight, Spectator will petrify and unpetrify Drow multiple times in Baldur’s Gate 3. Whenever Spectator unpetrify Drew or Dhourn, you need to instantly break the charm spell by attacking them. This will change the battle balance on our side and easily overwhelm the Spectator.
In conclusion, you can defeat Spectator but with the help of Drow and Dhourn therefore you need to always keep them by your side. This is the only strategy to win the Beholder fight in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Spectator loot and rewards
After successfully defeating Spectator, you will get The Spectator Eyes as a reward. The Spectator Eyes is an amulet that allows you to spells such as Wounding Ray and Ray of Fear.
