Barghest

Barghests are spectral hounds, phantom dogs that hunt in packs much like wolves. Together they circle their prey, leap at it and tear it apart. If the victim fights back too hard, they lash out with a burst of ghostly fire.

They aren’t always born on their own. When a wight feels threatened, it spits out an ectoplasmic slime that almost instantly turns into barghests, and the hounds then follow the wight’s commands.

In The Witcher 3 you meet barghests in Toussaint. A wight and a barghest wait in the cave passage during The Warble of a Smitten Knight. Several roam the Trastamara Estate Ruins in La Cage au Fou. They also guard the treasure in The Curse of Carnarvon, and they show up at the Termes Palace ruins during Scavenger Hunt: Grandmaster Wolven Gear.

Across the games

In The Witcher, barghests are a big part of Act I in the Outskirts of Vizima. In the main quest Of Monsters and Men, beasts attack a woman and her child, and Geralt has to kill them before they reach the people behind the palisade. The Reverend later asks him to light the Holy Flame in five chapels, which does nothing to drive the barghests away.

In the same act, the herbalist Abigail buys barghest skulls and wants ten of them, paying 100 orens, 2,000 XP and a mandrake root. In Act III, a dwarven dentist who collects monster teeth will also buy barghest skulls as part of his collection, paying per trophy and adding a bonus once Geralt has contributed enough.

Of Monsters and Men (Act I, main quest)
The Barghest Contract (Act I, monster contract)
Won’t Hurt a Bit (Act III, monster contract)

Combat strategy

Barghests are fast and slippery, and they work together, so you will often have one in front of you while another circles behind. Keep your back clear and keep turning to face them. Don’t commit to long combos, because their leaps punish a witcher who stands still. Fire hurts them even though they can’t be set burning.

If a wight is around, deal with the barghests first. Otherwise the wight can keep summoning more while you chase it.

Apply Specter Oil to your silver sword.
Throw Moon Dust to pin them in the material world so they can’t slip away.
Axii works on them, which buys time when a pack rushes you.
Expect a blast of phantom fire if you turtle for too long. Keep up the pressure or dodge out.
Keep Quen up in pack fights to absorb leaps from behind.