How to Defeat Dror Ragzlin in Baldur’s Gate 3

I’m not the type of person who gets joy out of replaying a battle over and over again, especially if I constantly keep losing. At that point, I wave the white flag and hop onto Google to try to find the magical secret I must be missing. I’m here to have fun, not impress an invisible audience who will never see my save file.

That said, finding answers for Baldur's Gate 3 can be tough. A lot of the top searches are from pre-release, way back in 2021 and no longer apply to the updated game. The ones that do tend to be really obscure methods or other players pissing on the people asking for help.

Friends, as I’ve gone through the struggle of killing Dror Ragzlin twice (my first save got corrupted, and I had to start the whole game again. Shed a tear for me) and read through almost all the currently available guides, I’m going to give you my words of wisdom.

Dror Ragzlin is one of the three goblin leaders that Halsin asks you to kill after rescuing him. The other two are pretty simple kills if you’re willing to take an easy way out, but Dror Ragzlin offers no such exit. Here are the two methods that actually worked for me, going from least effective to most:

PUSH HIM INTO THE PIT

If you take notice of the stage Dror Ragzlin is walking on, you’ll see a pit. It is, technically speaking, a hole big enough to throw a person through, and it conveniently leads to the spiders under the keep. If you manage to get the goblin leader down there…welp. Bye, bye, Dror Ragzlin. Some players recommend shoving him in or using void bulbs to yeet the Hobgoblin in before he even notices you. I felt that this option, while technically the only “passive” method available, was luck-based and didn’t avoid violence at all. The few times I got Dror Ragzlin down it, the whole of the camp instantly went hostile anyway — not for killing their leader, though. Nah, just because I broke their crappy wooden beams. With the amount of reloads you’ll likely use going this route, you could have already killed Dror Ragzlin in normal combat.

Another downside to this method is that you can’t loot Dror Ragzlin if you chuck him into the abyss. He has a pretty cool hammer that you might want, not to mention a parasite. All useful, depending on your style.

USE THE RAFTERS

This method was tried and true for me. Get all your party members up on the rafters and have someone shoot one of the war drums as your first move. It is imperative that both war drums are destroyed before a goblin can get to them, or else you’re about to add another swarm of people to attack. Be aware: shooting the drum will cause the fight to trigger. Make sure to cast feather fall as well, that way, falling off the support beams won’t decimate your party.

Now, you have an advantage. Dror Ragzlin is below you, and he’s a melee fighter. As long as you keep him on the ground, you can easily wear him down. Do note that goblins can climb up into the rafters, but they’re decently easy to take care of.

Dror Ragzlin can and will one-shot you if you’re a low enough level. So, it should be your primary goal to take him down first. Focus your whole party on this one task, as you’ll easily be able to knock off all the other enemies afterwards since most of them have 8 HP against Dror Ragzlin’s 52.

If he does manage to get up to the rafters to attack you, you can try to push him off and hope the fall is enough to finish off his HP.

WHO TO BRING

Gale! For the love of all that is holy, bring Gale. If you’re up in the rafters, ranged weapons are going to be your trump card. By the point you reach this boss fight, you should be around level 3 or 4, so Gale should have a nice amount of offensive spells. I’d also recommend Astarion because, again: ranged weapons! He’s also easier to heal up since he can bite an enemy to gain a little HP.

The last slot is up to you, but I personally brought Lae'zel. She was my backup if anyone got onto the rafters and needed to be taken out. She also can use a bow and arrow, so don’t completely discount her just because she’s more of a tank and melee fighter.

Once everyone is dead, jump into the spider pit, let those suckers free, and use every turn you get in the newly-turned fully hostile camp to run.

Overall, this fight comes down to strategy. That should come as no surprise, given that you’re playing Baldur’s Gate 3, but sometimes it’s good to have a reminder that this isn’t a game where you can slash your way through. Be smart and don’t be a hero: quicksave.

You deserve to quicksave.