Enver Gortash/Combat

Overview

Combat

This page focuses on Enver Gortash's behavior during turn-based combat gameplay.

Attacks and abilities

Fabricated Arbalest

 Dazzling Ray ()   –  Fabricated Arbalest

2d10 (2~20) Radiant

Unleash a beam of brilliant light that  Blinds all creatures in its path.

Until the spell ends, you can recast the spell. Casting it again may possibly  burn you each time you recast it.

DEX Save

AoE: 18 m / 60 ft (Line)

 Ranged Attack ()   –  Fabricated Arbalest

Normal weapon damage

Make a ranged attack with your equipped weapon.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Avatar of Tyranny

 Empowered Unarmed Strike ()

Unarmed damage Bludgeoning

+

4d8 (4~32) + Strength modifier Force

Blessed by the unholy strength of Bane, deal 1 + Strength ModifierBludgeoning damage and 4d8Force. If the target fails a Strength saving throw, it gets pushed back.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Invoke the Black Hand ()

Gortash calls upon Bane's tyrannical aid, gaining 150 temporary hit points along with new strength and powers.

• Gortash summons multiple Manifestation of Tyranny entities around the room.
• Gortash summons 1 Bane's Fist entity that gets inserted into the very end of the turn order.

 The Closed Fist of Bane ()

12d10 (12~120) Force

Conjure the divine aspect of Bane the Accursed - a fist that hangs in the air until the end of the round before falling, crushing anyone under it for 12d10Force damage.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Tyrant's Bindings ()

8d8 (8~64) Force

Create heavy magical chains that bind to your targets, halving their Movement speed. If the chains are still present at the beginning of your next turn, they break, dealing 8d8Force damage to all targets.

WIS Save

 Range: 12 m / 40 ft

Honour Mode

 Tyrannical Branding

Place a  Tyrant's Curse on a target.

Allies

Gortash will be accompanied by the following allies. Detailed information can be found on their respective pages.

Audience Hall (Coronation)

• Ulder Ravengard
• Steel Watcher - 9x
• Fist Bella
• Fist Earthdigger
• Fist Fernhollow
• Fist Klaas
• Fist Kyberos
• Fist Quickstitch

Gortash's Office (Top Floor)

• Steel Watcher - 4x on the roof (if the Foundry has not been destroyed)
• Steel Watcher - 1x in the office (if the Foundry has not been destroyed)
• Lo
• Jaxbock
• Numia
• Ulova

Wyrm's Rock Traps

• Deranged Force Curtain
• Grenade Impeller
• Incineration Caster
• Micromodron Force Curtain

Summoned entities

• Manifestation of Tyranny - Gortash summons a fixed number of these creatures into specific places in the room. These have no place in the initiative order but each one applies 1 stack of the aura condition  Bane's Brutality to Gortash and/or nearby Black Gauntlet characters, as long as they are standing within a short distance.
• Bane's Fist - Inserted into the end of the turn order. At the end of each of its turns, Bane's Fist punches the ground around it for a lot of damage.

Conditions

This information is not specified on this character's Examine page, but has resulted from contributor testing. If this information varies depending on whether this character is hostile, allied, or neutral, then please specify this in the applicable section.

Unique

This character has frequent access to the following unique conditions, but is not necessarily the caster of these conditions.

•  Avatar of Tyranny
•  Bane's Brutality

Temporary

Gortash can gain certain defensive buffs or debuffs from his Reflectoguards and nearby traps:

•  Malfunctioning Shell of Resistance (from Deranged Force Curtain)
•  Reflectoguard Active (from a thrown Reflectoguard)
•  Shell of Resistance (from Micromodron Force Curtain)

Immunities

Immunities include Conditions that, according to in-game UI messages, cannot be afflicted onto this character. Conditions that are not explicit "Immune to" messages can also go in this section.

This character is immune to all of the following Conditions:

•  Petrified

Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities include specific named Conditions that can be afflicted onto this character, even if the chance of successfully afflicting this condition on the character is really, really low.

This character can be affected by all of the following Conditions:

•  Blinded
•  Mental Fatigue
•  Paralysed
•  Prone
•  Shredded Armour
•  Sluggardly
•  Stunned

Encounter details

Wyrm's Rock Fortress- (Audience Hall)

If the party chooses to attack Gortash during his coronation ceremony, they will face one of the most difficult fights in all of Baldur's Gate 3. Gortash is accompanied by Duke Ravengard, an army of Steel Watchers and Flaming Fist, and innumerable traps along the walls.

Gortash will begin combat with  Shell of Resistance cast on him by a nearby force curtain, and will throw Reflectoguards at himself and Phase Optimizers at nearby Steel Watchers. This will give him immunity or resistance to most types of damage and make him very difficult to kill quickly, while turning all Steel Watchers into even more dangerous threats.

Gortash has +5 Initiative (+10 on Tactician and Honour modes) and all Steel Watchers have +6 Initiative, making them very likely to act early in the turn order. Considering that there are 9 Steel Watchers in addition to Gortash, it is easily possible for an unprepared party to be killed in a single turn.

The traps along the walls can also be quite dangerous. Grenade Impellers and Incineration Casters fire projectiles that constantly force the party to move, while Micromodron Force Curtain will repeatedly grant Gortash many resistances and immunities. However the Deranged Force Curtains are malfunctioning and can debuff Gortash with  Malfunctioning Shell of Resistance to reduce his defenses.

Once per fight Gortash can cast  Invoke the Black Hand, giving him 150 temporary hit points, Advantage on Strength checks and saving throws, an extra 1d4Physical damage to weapon attacks, and Immunity to Thunder, Fire, and Force damage. He will also gain the ability to use  Tyrant's Bindings,  Empowered Unarmed Strike, and  The Closed Fist of Bane. This will make him significantly more durable and drastically increase his own damage.

Wyrm's Rock Fortress- (Gortash's Office)

If the party forgoes fighting him at his coronation, they can return to Gortash in his office later on. If the party agreed to his deal during Consider Gortash's Bargain and finished Get Orin's Netherstone then they can attempt to fulfill the bargain. If the party either destroyed the Foundry or travelled to the Iron Throne, he will become hostile to the party and begin combat.

If the party returns to the lower floors of Wyrm's Rock after having destroyed the Foundry, the lower floors will already be hostile, and the party may find itself fighting their way up through the Audience Hall and its traps and guards in order to reach Gortash's office on the top floor. This sometimes results in a bug^{[See: Bugs]}.

All information about Gortash's high initiative, conditional buffs from traps and Reflectoguards, and his spells and abilities remain the same.

Tactics

Wyrm's Rock Fortress- (Audience Hall)

This fight is immensely difficult and requires immaculate planning since the action economy is so stacked against the party.

The high initiative and area of effect attacks of the Steel Watchers threaten to end the fight before it even fully begins. This practically necessitates that the party increase their initiative as well. This can be done through the Alert feat, Elixir of Vigilance, and/or equipment that increases initiative (see Initiative bonuses).

The party can take advantage of the Steel Watcher's  Self-Detonate ability by luring them into the close proximity of other enemies and allowing them to blow each other up.

The Micromodron Force Curtains will make it very difficult to damage Gortash for as long as they're intact. Destroying them and leaving behind only the malfunctioning Deranged Force Curtains will reduce his resistances and make it easier to defeat him.

Wyrm's Rock Fortress- (Gortash's Office)

This fight is significantly easier than the Coronation fight, especially if the player completed Disable the Steel Watch to take out the Steel Watchers. All advice from the previous section also applies here.

Gortash's Black Gauntlet allies can be dangerous due to their  Command and  Dominate Person spells. They should be taken out quickly before they get a chance to use them.

While the lower floors of the fortress will already be hostile if the party destroyed the Foundry, they can be bypassed entirely by using  Grant Flight,  Feather Fall, or  Misty Step to jump from Wyrm's Crossing to the rocky area around the base of the Fortress. The party can then safely ascend the vines on the western side of the building and jump up the platforms on the southwestern rampart.

A very effective strategy in defeating Gortash and his allies is to lure them out of his office and onto the foyer outside, thereby avoiding all the traps. This is done most effectively by de-coupling your party, sending a single member to initiate combat with Gortash, and very quickly either Dashing or teleporting (e.g. Dimension Door) back towards the door outside. Placing spells like Hunger of Hadar, Insect Plague, and Cloudkill around the door and shoving them back into it trivializes the encounter as Gortash and his allies will constantly take massive damage trying to pursue your party through the door.

Bugs

Fighting in the Audience Hall after destroying the Foundry will sometimes trigger the enemies on the top floor to become involved in the combat. In this case Gortash and friends may make an appearance near the entrance to the Audience Hall (despite this not being the door to the location they are coming from). This can make the fight easier as Gortash is further from his most deadly traps, but can also make the fight difficult by adding an unexpected wave of additional enemies.

For some users, Gortash will cast repeatedly Invoke the Black Hand after taking any damage, with seemingly unlimited reactions. This occurs after he has activated Avatar of Tyranny. Once this bug appears, the only solution is to deal enough damage in a single attack (not turn) to kill him, which will likely be over 350 points.