Finally returning toBaldur’s Gate 3to wrap up its last act means finally making the big, impactful decisions I’ve been building up to since the Nautiloid crashed on the beach all those hours ago. I’m putting a bow on my companions’ storylines, and sometimes that means it’s time for our paths to diverge. In my playthrough, that was the case with Astarion, and I just don’t know how to feel about it.
When I got to the titular city at the end of 2023, I was a little afraid to take on the important quests, so I nibbled around the edges and left the companion quests unfinished. That meant that when I picked the game back up, I had a big yellow marker waiting for me with Cazador’s name on it.
Do My Companions Need Me? Or Do They Need To Move On?
It was time to finally finish Astarion’s storyline, and it turned out to be a difficult moment for my party. The fight itself was tough, and took several tries, but that was ultimately a good thing because it helped me shake off the strategic rust that had accumulated in my months away.
I eventually overcame the powerful vampire by splitting my party into two groups, summoning a fire myrmidon, and kiting enemies onto the walkways that extend outward from Cazador’s central platform. Once they were there, I could use Karlach’s body slam ability which threw multiple enemies off the bridge. The whole party got in on the fun, shoving Gurs into the abyss. After getting wrecked by Cazador’s magic and his huge crowd of minions so many times, it was satisfying to watch them all plummet to their deaths.
But once the fight was over, I had a hard decision to make about the future of my friends. Astarion ripped his old master from his coffin and threatened to go through with the ritual Cazador had been planning, which would use the spawn he had collected over the years as sacrificial lambs to perform the Rite of Profane Ascension, which would free him from his lowly status as a vampire spawn and turn him into a vampire ascendant, a more powerful version of himself with none of the typical vampire weaknesses.
I Lost Astarion In Baldur’s Gate 3 And I’m Confused
When I look at the Baldur’s Gate 3 wiki entry for Astarion’s personal quest, The Pale Elf, I see two options that I got during this encounter — aiding Astarion in his ascension or refusing to help — and two that I missed. The option to interrupt the ritual would only have become available if I had helped with the ritual, so I understand missing that one. But there’s a fourth option — persuading Astarion not to go through with it — that I never got, despite having a high persuasion stat. This omission has left me confused. I thought I had a strong relationship with Astarion, but in the moment I was only given the option to abet the mass slaughter of the spawn, or to harshly refuse. I couldn’t talk him down from the ledge, and I don’t know why.
Since writing this article, features editor Tessa Kaur has informed me of the reason this happened, but that’s another article for another day.
That encounter ended with Astarion breaking Cazador’s staff, leaving the spawn to rot in their cages, and permanently leaving my party, hissing that he hoped I “die screaming”. I want to stick to this choice because, honestly, you need to commit to your decisions in an RPG like this if you want to have a memorable experience. The negative feelings are a net positive that means you’re engaging with the art on its terms. More pragmatically, I hadn’t been using Astarion in my core party, and had only swapped him in for this quest. My playstyle favors Gale’s magic, not Astarion’s stealth, so leaving him behind doesn’t mess with my strategy.
But I feel like I got nothing out of this delve into Cazador’s lair. I lost Astarion, didn’t get the staff, and left the spawn in their cages. It was a purely negative experience that, aside from XP, has not helped prepare me to face tough fights to come. I want to honor the decision, but another part of me wants to go back and tinker with that conversation, see if I can finesse a different outcome. It’s an understandable desire, but it may be a dark urge.
