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Combat inBaldur’s Gate 3has its ups and downs, but few battles are as exciting or flexible as the final mob area of the game: High Hall Courtyard. In this battle, you won’t just face scores of enemies you’ve faced from Act One to Act Three; you’ll have the opportunity to summon your own allies.
Swarming the battlefield with the friends you’ve made along the way, you’ll be able to put your tactical thinking to work while also feeling like a certified badass. From the leader of a party to the leader of an army, we’ve got the insight you need to become one of Baldur’s Gate’s greatest generals.
Updated January 30 by Alexis Campbell:Added links to the important Gather Your Allies guide for a complete list on allies and how to recruit them. Additionally added new possible strategy in overcoming High Hall Courtyard while increasing possible strategies with newly discovered summonable allies.
How To Summon Allies In The Final Battle
As you begin the final battle section of the game, you’ll be brought to an area outside High Hall Courtyard where you’ll meet with any and all allies you’ve gathered through your efforts in Baldur’s Gate.
Every ally in this room can be summonedto aid you in the final battle. Not every one of them will appear in person, but they might have strong, special effects or hordes of underlings beneath them they’ll send in their place.
For a full list of which allies can be in this room and how to recruit them, please refer to ourofficial Gather Your Allies guide.
After delivering your motivational speech to the group, you’ll be allowed to move out into the High Hall Courtyard.Look at the hotbar on the bottom of your screennear your character’s health. A new toggle: “Call Forth Allies” will be visible.
Select Call Forth Allies, and you’ll be able tosee all summonable allies and abilities.We highly recommendreading these before going through the big gateto High Hall Courtyard to take stock of all your options.
Allies cannot be summoned pre-combat.
High Hall Courtyard: Lower Area
As you enter the courtyard for the first time, you’ll immediately bemet with these enemies:
To begin this fight, we recommend sending over anyone who is half-illithid (or someone who can fly) up into the tower on the right side. This will move them into a prime position for the impending combat.
Although there are alternate methods of entering the courtyard from the left or right sides, it is surprisinglybetter to go ahead and walk into the courtyard through the central, main gate.From this position, you may summon allies anywhere required on the battlefield.
There isno benefit in sneakingviaInvisibilitysince the archers up top have See Invisibility active.
Having Auntie Ethel as an ally does allow you to use Mass Invisibility, but it’s pointless in this area until the archers have been dealt with.
There is a known cheese for this entire area up to the Netherbrain up at the top. This requires casting Sanctuary on one creature and running straight to the top - preferably with Haste active.
Don’t attack any creatures and reach the Netherbrain without taking a single point of damage. This, while funny, does detract from one of the most fun challenge areas of the game.
As you enter the courtyard, werecommend using a spellcaster withMisty Stepto reach thewall on the left side.With the Goblin Trackers so close together, they are vulnerable to attacks likeLightning BoltandCone of Colddue to their horrendously low health.
Placing your spellcaster up here also means you’ll be in a prime position to abuse the fire barrels on this wall later on.
On the right side, yourillithid can use Nebulous Black Hole to pull down the archersfrom the wall into the main area. This position also means you’ll be capable ofusing Psionic Backlash when the ranger eventually usesEnsnaring Strike.
Yourcentral troops should begin summoning alliesonto the field.
For thefirst turnof combat, thebest allies to summon are expendable, defensive front-line troopsto block the paladins and the Illithid Arcanist as well as soak of damage. These troopsinclude:
Zevlor’s Hellrider Platoon is an exceptional defensive unit, but it isn’t expendable, so place them carefully. They consist of Zevlor, a paladin, and a cleric.
On your second turn, your spellcaster canuse aFireballspell (or the like) on the corner of the left wallto blow up a pair of explosive barrels. At this point, they should explode the ogre and a number of lesser enemies gathered here.
Keep your illithid dragging down people from the walls, preferably taking out the meddlesome Adept of the Absolute (the spellcaster) as soon as possible.
At this point, how you proceed is up to you. Depending on your party composition, you may keep your middle units summoning allies or make them get involved in combat themselves.
Thebest backline supports(performing best on the walls) are:
Thebest summonable offensive alliesare:
Where necessary, you cansummon Isobel’s Blessing of the Moonmaiden to heala number of allies all at once.
TheArmored Owlbearmay be epic, but it is currently bugged to only deal unarmed striking damage and Dash. While its impressive health means it could be a good damage sponge, only the heartless would result to this tactic.
This bug persists sporadically even in Patch 5 but is least likely to happen in the courtyard and more likely to happen atop the Netherbrain.
High Hall Courtyard: Climbing The Stairs
As you progress through this fight, you’ll want tostart making your way up the stairs.At some point, aWinged Terror will screech and begin summoning reinforcementsfrom the left, the right, and up the stairs.
Thegreatest threat on this map is the giant Beholderthat will begin rushing down the stairs toward you.
To deal with this Beholder and its goblin companions, we highly recommendusing Kith’rak Voss’s Kith’raki Inferno attack.This should eliminate everything except the Beholder itself, leaving it open for the rest of your team and allies to remove.
Yurgir is a great ally to send inagainst the Beholder thanks to his immunity to Fire damage, meaning he can stand in the Inferno attack without taking any damage.
On the left side, thesecond-greatest threat on this map comes in two modestly-leveled mind flayersand their swarm of Intellect Devourers. Your spellcaster can easilystrike them with a well-timedFireball,Ice Storm, or any other great area-attack spell.
you’re able to send any of your central units not dedicated to the Beholder on this path.
There is, at thenortheastern corner of the map, alocked tower filled with survivors.You can reach it by climbing a ladder, but the door is locked.
To open it, you may burst through, lockpick, or convince the survivors to open the door for you. No matter what you choose, they’ll rush past you. The real prize is in achest through a second door in the tower that contains a Potion of Superior Healing.
On the right side(the south side) of the map on the far wall, you’ll also likely be dealing withanother crossbow ranger.you’re able to wait for your defensive allies to jump up there and finish it, get up there yourself, or summon another batch of allies on top of the ranger.
When it and all other enemies on this field are defeated, you’ll be able toprogress into the tower at the top of the stairsfor the next section.
High Hall Courtyard Tower: How To Reach The Netherbrain
As you enter the tower at the top of the courtyard steps,go up the stairs on the left side. There is no point in going right unless all members of your party can fly or teleport.
Upon your ascent, anillithid ship will begin firing missilesasintellect devourers and mind flayers are deployed as reinforcementson an endless cycle.
With whichever illithid is in your party, you can use Nebulous Black Hole slightly off the map to pull enemies into the chasms for instant deaths. Otherwise, keeping attacks likeThunderwaveis very helpful here.
The falling missiles areindicated by glowing yellow-orange (or sometimes blue) sigilson the ground. You must avoid ending your characters' turns on these sigils.
If struck, sometimes characters can be knocked into other sigils for a chain pinball-like situation, ending in character knock-outs or even deaths.
At the top of the stairs on the left, you’llencounter a door. If you don’t have a high-Dexterity character, we recommendforgoing a lockpicking check and blasting it open with strong attacks.
Once on the other side of the door, your goal is toreach the door in the center at the very top.Use any means to get there with no regard for spell slots or actions (there’s a long-rest restoration device on the other side).
Only one character needs to reach this doorto end the encounter. When they touch the door, the nautiloid will stop firing.
A chest can be found on the way, but we recommend only checking it once the nautiloid has been neutralized.
Afterresting at the restoration device, you canapproach the Netherbrain stem.This is your final rest checkpoint before the final battle.
If you brought Gale with you, you can avoid the upcoming encounter entirely and send him up by himself to use the Netherine Orb. This will end the game here.
If you decide toclimb the Netherbrain stem, we wish you luck in your final encounter.
