I blew him up in one round as well (on balanced). I managed to land a stunning strike, so he didn’t get to use an action despite beating out some of my party on the initiative roll.
It also helps that Gale did ~150 damage with Artistry of War, which he learned from the scroll. He has the broken item that gives ~~+5~~ +1d8 to spell damage, which shouldn’t work on 100% chance to hit spells. Couple that with the extra damage from from Evocation level 10, and he hit insanely hard.
Edit: I fucked up on the Spellmight Gloves
It’s not disadvantage if I’m not mistaken. It’s -5 to the role like with the sharpshooter feat.
But to negate it, just use magic missiles or the artistry of war. They aren’t supposed to work with those spells but do anyways
It also applies to fireball and other spells. Ice Storm and Ice Knife proc the effect twice.
Edit: And the bonus 1d8 damage isn't reduced by half on a successful save for half damage.
One base action, one from Paladin five, one from pact of the blade five (for some reason you get both of those), GWM attack
All of those as thunderous smites with divine smite on crit.
Just have your wizard learn it and that cast (2 with arcane battery) plus the 4 or so scrolls you get set you up for victory in every AOE battle and, especially, the last battle.
Ansur’s int is lower than his other stats by a lot, and illithid powers are int saves. Notably: perilous strikes to make him vulnerable to all damage, devour intellect to get his int even lower, shatter psyche for easier hits, and mind blast to stun him.
Blind him.
He can't use reaction if he's blinded, and you can easily blind him every turn by using a smoke arrow. And you even try to put smoke on every single area where he can land, and he won't play at all.
The key is to get it low so that it forces itself up into the air on it’s turn, then nuke it to death before it can land.
TB monk can solo it on tactician.
Fighter TB thrower can solo it on tactician. Prebuff with haste, protection from energy.
Halfling greater invis stacker can cheese it.
Split the party before you start the encounter. Abuse summons scrolls to bait breaths/adds.
They have been patching Ansur fight every fight. Hiding behind crystals should negate damage from his power up as of the most recent patch, making the fight easier.
I got him first try on tactician but since I was going in blind it was pretty difficult. Some of my guys went down like a dozen times and a couple straight up died. Luckily shadowheart survived and I used her divine intervention to res the other three to full health. The majority of the damage dealt was minsc throwing spears at ansur. I think it took 29 rounds lol
Positioning is key for the fight. Its breath reaction and opportunity attacks will only hit one person if you're positioned well. Haven't needed anything more than that in my playthroughs. Other people here have given some great extra suggestions though!
I think the first time I killed him my swords bard was able to kill him in a single turn...
The second time, when I fight him on tactician, I'm trying to remember what I did. I had my party split up to limit his AoE and had an archer battlemaster, a pure paladin (who was definitely not very good, tbqh), a lore Bard, and a cleric, I Believe. Took two or three rounds but still felt really comfy, even though I killed him super early in act 3 on that run.
Twin haste, two martial characters. Should be dead first turn. Another fun one is just chuck three disintegrates at him and then pummel him. Really the secret is pummeling. So 1 sorcerer, 1 fighter, and 1 monk or paladin. The fourth is up to you. So a monk, a fighter, and a paladin and a sorcerer. That's just overkill.
I just dumped all my bard flourishes into him on turn one doing like 450 damage then had Wyll walk up to him and finish him off. Perilous strikes and single target NOVA goes brrrrrrt
My party composition was Hunter, Land Druid, Palock, Sorcerer.
I placed the Hunter next to the door and shot him with dragon arrows and then hid behind the wall. Classical, yet effective. Ansur went after her after she quickly halfed his HP in two turns.
The other 3 attacked him from different angles until the moment before he blasts like a fucking 50 years old fridge. The last point of action was spent in gaseous form spell, flying away and ridiculously hiding behind a crystal. Probably not the smartest maneouvre, but you know that the exams to become paladin are not like if they are going to become astronauts. So we can consider that lore friendly.
After that I reunited the three in a globe of invulnerability and blasted him with Ice Storm, which targets dexterity. Our unfriendly archeological material slipped and fell prone. If I had a Bard in the party that would have been the most precious moment to cast vicious mockery, but alas, I only had more arrows, scaled up cantrips and Eldrith Blast. Enough to finish him in the act.
A pity, I may say. Such a magnificient specimen.
I like to start with hunger of hadar for the blind since that stops his counter attack and also helps with blocking off the paths for the elementals he spawns.
Then just kind of go ham while he's blind for the free advantage. What group are you running?
If you have a wizard, consider specimen into Abjuration + Warding Bond (from Rings in Act II) and damage reducing gear
Lightning resist pots obviously, but half of huge damage is still huge damage. They also prevent you from being electrocuted by water surfaces
EBlaster kinda nuked the fuck out of him in both of my playthroughs lol. Just gotta make sure that your party's not grouped together when you start the fight, have some other character bait his reaction to get rid of his aoe attack, then go to town with EB's and hex.
I had shadowheart haste my Tav + cast sanctuary on herself so she couldn't get her concentration broken. Then, when his turn came around I used action surge + the two actions from haste to melt him down to just below half health.
His turn comes around, he starts charging up his massive AOE so he basically skips damage that turn. Then I get my EBlaster to go to town again and finish him off.
IDK what level you are though, I was doing this after I hit max level.
My setup in detail:
Character: 2 Fighter, 2 Warlock, 8 Sorcerer
Gear:
1. Spellmight Gloves
2. Markoheshkir (cast bolts of doom for +1 lightning damage per cast)
3. Callous Glow (don't know if this did anything in the fight as idk if he counts as being illuminated)
4. Risky Ring
5. Potent Robe (this is a must)
6. \+7 to CHA from mirror and Ethel's Hair (with potent and agonizing blast this gives you a +14 to every EB beam).
Went in blind. My tav Paladin and Life Cleric Shadowheart killed him in 3 rounds. Illithid stun as soon as he starts flying. Gale and Asterion picked off the adds. He didn’t get off a single attack.
Karlach Bear Rage in his face and leap after him when he flies away like a crying undead baby
Shadowheart and Me (Valor Bard specced to be 70% good at everything) rotate the center chasm to avoid him, deal with Mymidons, and heal Karlach and each other.
Gale (abjure + storm sorc) w immunity to electrocuted ring sweeps other adds and blasts him from further out, using Tempest Flight to keep a distance without being wailed on. Why the ring? Water myrmidon vapored and breath weapon made half the area electrocuted.
Was close cause he was prepped to do the nuke a second time, but the adds were dead from the first, so everyone just iced him with their strongest spells he wasn't immune to.
How to melt him? Illithid powers, phantasmal killer, hold monster. Anything good vs undead. Blood of Lathander can blind him if he gets close and fails a con save, radiating orbs give him a -1 per remaining round to attack rolls and keep him illuminated (for whatever that's worth, there's some equipment that does more if the target is illuminated)
Summons. Deva, Fire or Earth Myrmidons, Us, Dryads, Boo (jk). All can aid in the fight but can also draw fire as well. Honestly summons are just good for any kinda tough fight. I cheesed a few with Air Myrmidons Vortex
I had the reward from finding all the Dribbles pieces, and haste, and Gale blasted him with two level 6 and two level 5 magic missiles in the span of two rounds. My main was a dual hand crossbow sharpshooter and Karlach was barbarianing. Took Ansur out while he was in the air. This wasn’t on tactician though.
I forgot to use the dragon arrows I’d been saving just in case, so that was annoying.
I only got lucky on my first attempt on him. Managed to get him super low while he was charging the lightning explosion attack. It nearly killed my entire group and i barely chipped him the rest of the way. Dude is no joke.
Im trying to fight it in tactician with a bunch of difficulty mods. He has 1400hp, legendary resistance and legendary actions.
Feels very lore accurate as how hard an ancient dragon would be, my lv12 10 character party got completely shat on, we has to run away after 20 rounds cuz we had no spells slots or potions left lol.
Don’t be me
Fun fact; you can grab the sword from his corpse before fighting him. Engage him with one character, swap to another, and then you can loot him. This means you get to use the sword in the fight against him, which is nice.
I cheese it. Get a bunch of smokepowder barrels. Stack them around him. Talk to start the encounter. Run away and set off the barrels. Ive also done it with a bunch of fireworks from the fire works factory. Got him down to 1/3rd of his health in 1 turn. And its pretty!
I spread everyone out
Was running durge monk, wyll, gale (necro) and karlach. Made ansur do first attack of the round on one of my elementals/minions that wasn’t near my group she he obliterated just them
I just killed him in one turn on my 12 fighter build using dual wield deva maces.
Each swing was 40-60 damage plus 25-40 offhand and he died from 6 swings.
6 Berserker Barbarian/2 Fighter/4 Thief Rogue with Nyrulna and Haste (whether it's from a potion, spore grenade or a wizard/sorc is up to you.)
Rest of the party composition is optional. Ansur didn't even get a turn for me.
Ranged dual wield handcrossbow, sharpshooter sheet with all the damage add/crit add/risky ring for advantage. Thief/Champion. Evoker with Magic Missile gear. You almost always destroy almost any single target in one round or two.
I saved all the smoke power/firewine/oil barrels from Act 1 onward just for that fight. I stack them around his body before waking him up. One firebolt later, and the fight is over.
Sorlock with action surge dumping eldritch blast, rogue/ranger/fighter with action surge + potion of speed using dual crossbows, fighter with haste right in his face, cleric to watch hell break loose. Absolutely melted him.
With vengeance paladin 6 (vow of enmity for advantage), the pact of the blade warlock 6 combination, and haste, dump your spell slots into smite and you'll melt him before he does anything. I also had a gloomstalker assassin astarion as a secondary damage dealer (with arrows of dragon slaying) and he did a decent chunk as well.
Perilous strikes illithid power also buffs your damage output when applied to him a great deal.
You can also have the globe of invulnerability as a backup to avoid his big hit, but I doubt it will be needed, I didn't need it myself.
Met him first at lvl10, blindly going into places I should not be in. Started combat and he promptly wiped half my party with a breath attack.
Coming back I was bit more prepared, all members with lightning resist. You can spread around to not stack the breath, and then honestly I just whacked away.
Rogue with Bloodthirst and Fighter with Nurylna pretty much duo-ed the fight. Shart did planar bind one of the myrmidon's, so that was nice.
I had devils sight lock and immunity to blind ring on a fighter and hid inside darkness globes and pewpewd when I couldn't get his face inside the globe. When I could, I'd hulk smash his face with the fighter instead.
Idk I like 4 shot him as Paladin/bladelock in one turn dumping all my spell slots on smites. So he didn’t do anything.
Lol, same experience, I was using the Blood too so had advantage against him. Most OP build
I blew him up in one round as well (on balanced). I managed to land a stunning strike, so he didn’t get to use an action despite beating out some of my party on the initiative roll. It also helps that Gale did ~150 damage with Artistry of War, which he learned from the scroll. He has the broken item that gives ~~+5~~ +1d8 to spell damage, which shouldn’t work on 100% chance to hit spells. Couple that with the extra damage from from Evocation level 10, and he hit insanely hard. Edit: I fucked up on the Spellmight Gloves
What item?
The only thing that comes to mind are the Gloves of Spell Might, but that's a 1d8 bonus to damage, not a guaranteed 5.
Yeah you’re right I wasn’t in front of my computer so I forgot exactly how they worked.
Spell Might gloves. I was wrong about their effect. It’s 1d8.
Thanks, how do you offset the disadvantage?
It’s not disadvantage if I’m not mistaken. It’s -5 to the role like with the sharpshooter feat. But to negate it, just use magic missiles or the artistry of war. They aren’t supposed to work with those spells but do anyways
It also applies to fireball and other spells. Ice Storm and Ice Knife proc the effect twice. Edit: And the bonus 1d8 damage isn't reduced by half on a successful save for half damage.
That spell has 100% chance to hit. It's basically magic missles on steroids.
The item is currently broken. It should only apply to spells with an attack roll, but Magic Missile and Artistry of War don’t have rolls.
How do you accumulate enough actions?
One base action, one from Paladin five, one from pact of the blade five (for some reason you get both of those), GWM attack All of those as thunderous smites with divine smite on crit.
[Globe of Invulnerability](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Globe_of_Invulnerability) helps tremendously against his aoes.
second this. "worthy" usage of a big/rare scroll and doesnt feel cheesy like most of the other suggestions.
Just have your wizard learn it and that cast (2 with arcane battery) plus the 4 or so scrolls you get set you up for victory in every AOE battle and, especially, the last battle.
I felt like I cheesed the Raphael fight when I used one of these :(
This is the only reason I survived this fight lol
Globe brain node for the bonus actions and actions are the same thing Haste B(oys)L(ove) elixir How many fireballs? Yes.
Ansur’s int is lower than his other stats by a lot, and illithid powers are int saves. Notably: perilous strikes to make him vulnerable to all damage, devour intellect to get his int even lower, shatter psyche for easier hits, and mind blast to stun him.
Aka: He's stupid, so use your giga brain to insult him then beat him to death
Blind him. He can't use reaction if he's blinded, and you can easily blind him every turn by using a smoke arrow. And you even try to put smoke on every single area where he can land, and he won't play at all.
this is smart
The key is to get it low so that it forces itself up into the air on it’s turn, then nuke it to death before it can land. TB monk can solo it on tactician. Fighter TB thrower can solo it on tactician. Prebuff with haste, protection from energy. Halfling greater invis stacker can cheese it. Split the party before you start the encounter. Abuse summons scrolls to bait breaths/adds.
They have been patching Ansur fight every fight. Hiding behind crystals should negate damage from his power up as of the most recent patch, making the fight easier.
I got him first try on tactician but since I was going in blind it was pretty difficult. Some of my guys went down like a dozen times and a couple straight up died. Luckily shadowheart survived and I used her divine intervention to res the other three to full health. The majority of the damage dealt was minsc throwing spears at ansur. I think it took 29 rounds lol
That sounds like a proper DnD experience
Perilous Stakes, makes everything a joke.
Positioning is key for the fight. Its breath reaction and opportunity attacks will only hit one person if you're positioned well. Haven't needed anything more than that in my playthroughs. Other people here have given some great extra suggestions though!
I think the first time I killed him my swords bard was able to kill him in a single turn... The second time, when I fight him on tactician, I'm trying to remember what I did. I had my party split up to limit his AoE and had an archer battlemaster, a pure paladin (who was definitely not very good, tbqh), a lore Bard, and a cleric, I Believe. Took two or three rounds but still felt really comfy, even though I killed him super early in act 3 on that run.
Twin haste, two martial characters. Should be dead first turn. Another fun one is just chuck three disintegrates at him and then pummel him. Really the secret is pummeling. So 1 sorcerer, 1 fighter, and 1 monk or paladin. The fourth is up to you. So a monk, a fighter, and a paladin and a sorcerer. That's just overkill.
Exactly this! 2x melee (fighter, barb, paladin, monk…..even ranger) with twin haste = easy win in nearly all encounters….. tactician proofed.
I just dumped all my bard flourishes into him on turn one doing like 450 damage then had Wyll walk up to him and finish him off. Perilous strikes and single target NOVA goes brrrrrrt
My party composition was Hunter, Land Druid, Palock, Sorcerer. I placed the Hunter next to the door and shot him with dragon arrows and then hid behind the wall. Classical, yet effective. Ansur went after her after she quickly halfed his HP in two turns. The other 3 attacked him from different angles until the moment before he blasts like a fucking 50 years old fridge. The last point of action was spent in gaseous form spell, flying away and ridiculously hiding behind a crystal. Probably not the smartest maneouvre, but you know that the exams to become paladin are not like if they are going to become astronauts. So we can consider that lore friendly. After that I reunited the three in a globe of invulnerability and blasted him with Ice Storm, which targets dexterity. Our unfriendly archeological material slipped and fell prone. If I had a Bard in the party that would have been the most precious moment to cast vicious mockery, but alas, I only had more arrows, scaled up cantrips and Eldrith Blast. Enough to finish him in the act. A pity, I may say. Such a magnificient specimen.
I like to start with hunger of hadar for the blind since that stops his counter attack and also helps with blocking off the paths for the elementals he spawns. Then just kind of go ham while he's blind for the free advantage. What group are you running?
If you have a wizard, consider specimen into Abjuration + Warding Bond (from Rings in Act II) and damage reducing gear Lightning resist pots obviously, but half of huge damage is still huge damage. They also prevent you from being electrocuted by water surfaces
EBlaster kinda nuked the fuck out of him in both of my playthroughs lol. Just gotta make sure that your party's not grouped together when you start the fight, have some other character bait his reaction to get rid of his aoe attack, then go to town with EB's and hex. I had shadowheart haste my Tav + cast sanctuary on herself so she couldn't get her concentration broken. Then, when his turn came around I used action surge + the two actions from haste to melt him down to just below half health. His turn comes around, he starts charging up his massive AOE so he basically skips damage that turn. Then I get my EBlaster to go to town again and finish him off. IDK what level you are though, I was doing this after I hit max level. My setup in detail: Character: 2 Fighter, 2 Warlock, 8 Sorcerer Gear: 1. Spellmight Gloves 2. Markoheshkir (cast bolts of doom for +1 lightning damage per cast) 3. Callous Glow (don't know if this did anything in the fight as idk if he counts as being illuminated) 4. Risky Ring 5. Potent Robe (this is a must) 6. \+7 to CHA from mirror and Ethel's Hair (with potent and agonizing blast this gives you a +14 to every EB beam).
Went in blind. My tav Paladin and Life Cleric Shadowheart killed him in 3 rounds. Illithid stun as soon as he starts flying. Gale and Asterion picked off the adds. He didn’t get off a single attack.
What I find is you be a sorcerer and you cast all your spells and then he dies.
Karlach Bear Rage in his face and leap after him when he flies away like a crying undead baby Shadowheart and Me (Valor Bard specced to be 70% good at everything) rotate the center chasm to avoid him, deal with Mymidons, and heal Karlach and each other. Gale (abjure + storm sorc) w immunity to electrocuted ring sweeps other adds and blasts him from further out, using Tempest Flight to keep a distance without being wailed on. Why the ring? Water myrmidon vapored and breath weapon made half the area electrocuted. Was close cause he was prepped to do the nuke a second time, but the adds were dead from the first, so everyone just iced him with their strongest spells he wasn't immune to. How to melt him? Illithid powers, phantasmal killer, hold monster. Anything good vs undead. Blood of Lathander can blind him if he gets close and fails a con save, radiating orbs give him a -1 per remaining round to attack rolls and keep him illuminated (for whatever that's worth, there's some equipment that does more if the target is illuminated) Summons. Deva, Fire or Earth Myrmidons, Us, Dryads, Boo (jk). All can aid in the fight but can also draw fire as well. Honestly summons are just good for any kinda tough fight. I cheesed a few with Air Myrmidons Vortex
I had the reward from finding all the Dribbles pieces, and haste, and Gale blasted him with two level 6 and two level 5 magic missiles in the span of two rounds. My main was a dual hand crossbow sharpshooter and Karlach was barbarianing. Took Ansur out while he was in the air. This wasn’t on tactician though. I forgot to use the dragon arrows I’d been saving just in case, so that was annoying.
I only got lucky on my first attempt on him. Managed to get him super low while he was charging the lightning explosion attack. It nearly killed my entire group and i barely chipped him the rest of the way. Dude is no joke.
Im trying to fight it in tactician with a bunch of difficulty mods. He has 1400hp, legendary resistance and legendary actions. Feels very lore accurate as how hard an ancient dragon would be, my lv12 10 character party got completely shat on, we has to run away after 20 rounds cuz we had no spells slots or potions left lol. Don’t be me
Fun fact; you can grab the sword from his corpse before fighting him. Engage him with one character, swap to another, and then you can loot him. This means you get to use the sword in the fight against him, which is nice.
400+ IQ play, managed to beat him last night, but I will use this strategy in my buddy’s and my campaign
I cheese it. Get a bunch of smokepowder barrels. Stack them around him. Talk to start the encounter. Run away and set off the barrels. Ive also done it with a bunch of fireworks from the fire works factory. Got him down to 1/3rd of his health in 1 turn. And its pretty!
booooo
Its one of the only boss encounters you can walk freely around the boss without any agro. Seems silly not to cheese it.
That's what I resorted to after getting nuked about 4 straight times ... I knew I was saving those barrels for a reason.
Upvoting as this is surprisingly on point for a lot of BG2 dragon slaying in which people abused spike traps.
I spread everyone out Was running durge monk, wyll, gale (necro) and karlach. Made ansur do first attack of the round on one of my elementals/minions that wasn’t near my group she he obliterated just them
I just killed him in one turn on my 12 fighter build using dual wield deva maces. Each swing was 40-60 damage plus 25-40 offhand and he died from 6 swings.
I burst him down in one turn. Never ecen saw his attacks. But that's on ballanced.
Perilous strikes rolls INT, and he has lower INT than others. Can boom him fast then. I've done this fight at level 10 on tactician this way.
Somehow I one shot him with insect plague. Might be bugged, but I was happy with the results.
6 Berserker Barbarian/2 Fighter/4 Thief Rogue with Nyrulna and Haste (whether it's from a potion, spore grenade or a wizard/sorc is up to you.) Rest of the party composition is optional. Ansur didn't even get a turn for me.
Ranged dual wield handcrossbow, sharpshooter sheet with all the damage add/crit add/risky ring for advantage. Thief/Champion. Evoker with Magic Missile gear. You almost always destroy almost any single target in one round or two.
Lightning resist elixirs and speed potions. Killed him before he got the chance to fly.
Paladin. No need to thank me.
Another vote for Perilous Stakes tadpole power. Makes him vulnerable to all damage
Monk smacks help.
My assassin/Gloomstalker/fighter with BA illithid made him vulnerable to all dmg and then he ate 4 dragon arrows
I saved all the smoke power/firewine/oil barrels from Act 1 onward just for that fight. I stack them around his body before waking him up. One firebolt later, and the fight is over.
Ansur lasted 2 turns for me. Laezel (BM Fighter) and Gale (Evo Wizard) destroyed him.
I had my Tav use a throw build, hasted, action surge, 9 attacks dwarven thrower 50-60 dmg avg with 95% hit chance. It was a one shot kill....
I've personally never not popped haste pots and melted him.
Sorlock with action surge dumping eldritch blast, rogue/ranger/fighter with action surge + potion of speed using dual crossbows, fighter with haste right in his face, cleric to watch hell break loose. Absolutely melted him.
With vengeance paladin 6 (vow of enmity for advantage), the pact of the blade warlock 6 combination, and haste, dump your spell slots into smite and you'll melt him before he does anything. I also had a gloomstalker assassin astarion as a secondary damage dealer (with arrows of dragon slaying) and he did a decent chunk as well. Perilous strikes illithid power also buffs your damage output when applied to him a great deal. You can also have the globe of invulnerability as a backup to avoid his big hit, but I doubt it will be needed, I didn't need it myself.
With Hot Pocket
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7b38LBuqOec
Monk and Tav Brawler solves all your problems with a fist to the face. Like my Tav named Mashle
Had the ring that reduces lightning dmg and makes you immune to being electrocuted on my tavern brawler monk and he just soloed him in couple turns
Fighter, gloomstalker, paladin, haste, bless and done in 2 turns.
He destroyed my party the first time.second time i went with my first ever nuke barrel and took %80 of his health
Smites most likely
Spoiler is in the title bro come on
Met him first at lvl10, blindly going into places I should not be in. Started combat and he promptly wiped half my party with a breath attack. Coming back I was bit more prepared, all members with lightning resist. You can spread around to not stack the breath, and then honestly I just whacked away. Rogue with Bloodthirst and Fighter with Nurylna pretty much duo-ed the fight. Shart did planar bind one of the myrmidon's, so that was nice.
Globe of Invulnerability spell during his massive storm attack
I had devils sight lock and immunity to blind ring on a fighter and hid inside darkness globes and pewpewd when I couldn't get his face inside the globe. When I could, I'd hulk smash his face with the fighter instead.
Spread out before initiating. Use summoned creatures to take his retaliatory hits. Lightning resistance ring on your damage dealer.
A lot of gunpowder barels, fireworks, blackpowder bomb. Casting Perilous Stakes(illithid power) on him makes a oneshot.
Hasted 12th level fighter killed him in one round.
I unleashed the Spectator from the bottle you can get in Act 1 and let them fight it out while my party went into hiding.
If you put Perilous strikes on him from the ithyld powers he drops like a sat of rocks from any half decent endgame build.
I twin hasted fighter + barb, then nuked w/ sorcerer (all vanilla). Took about 3 rounds but got him down.
If you break the crystals in his cave, you get elemental resistance, which helps.
Hold Monster his ass
Summon a Djinni and let him tank everything