Alexis Ongsansoy
It’s always the minor encounters in Baldur’s Gate 3 that gets you the most. Clearing an entire bandit camp along with three important figureheads? Easy. Killing a Spider Matriarch after finding out that it takes fall damage? Two turns guaranteed! Getting ambushed by a Spectator and surviving on the first turn? Ouch!
There’s no escaping the incoming ambush no matter how many times you try to reload a save. But it’s not a fight you can’t walk out of completely. With the correct preparation and just a small morsel of luck, we’ll get you through this encounter with at least three members of your party standing!
How to Beat the Spectator
The Spectator will find you and your party shortly if you take the route to the left of the Selûne Outpost. This route will bypass the three other areas and waypoints in the north and will take you straight to the Arcane Tower. That all stops when you drop down the ledge and go past the petrified Drow on the ground. Be sure that you have extra cannon fodder with you before heading in if you want. These would be the hirelings.
What you would want to do is have a Cleric cast Bless on anyone who’s going down this area. I’ve made the very brave and mildly questionable decision to put Astarion next to the pointer rock in the image below. Since his input will be vital here, him having Invisibility will benefit you and your party greatly.
The Spectator tends to chase after lone targets as well. That’s more reason to try and keep Astarion hidden if you want him to snipe the Spectator from a distance. Saying safe distance is a stretch by the way since there’s no such thing.
You can walk your other fighters further into the area by moving your units individually. Remain crouched and don’t let the Torchstalk next to the lying drow go off. In this scenario, we got lucky and made it to the second turn with everyone still standing. Not only that, but our Barbarian is also two steps away from the Spectator and still at full health.
Now that you still have Bless, make further use of that by using Reckless Attack on the Spectator. You should also have an extra attack as a Barbarian at this point if you’re already at Lvl. 5.
Another way of turning the tide of battle is to hit every charmed Drow that’s no longer petrified. They’ll join your ranks without question and will give the Spectator everything they’ve got.
One of these Drow will be Dhourn. You’ll need two things from him after the battle: his knowledge about the Adamantine Forge and an Icy Helve. The latter he won’t give to you even if you rescue him and his kin from eternal doom. Combine this Icy Helve along with the Icy Crystal and Icy Metal you found in the Underdark to get a very rare weapon called Mourning Frost.
Now that the Drow have complete control over themselves, it’s just a matter of time before the Spectator lands in an isolated spot. In our battle, the creature stopped by the craggy rocks when it ended its turn. To capitalize on this mistake, we lobbed four Smoke Barrels his way. As an extra precaution, we also casted Fireball to make sure all of them go off. You can see the results of our tomfoolery in the image below.
Dhourn didn’t make it during this encounter but you’ll be fine without him. You’re more evil than him to begin with anyway. When the fight is over, loot a memory shard from his corpse to get info about the Adamantine Forge. Loot the Spectator as well to get a very rare item called The Spectator Eyes.
And that’s how you survive the Spectator in Baldur’s Gate 3. The path going forward is open now and you have nothing more to worry about! Now go, there’s loot that needs looting in that tower!
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