Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Who's Going to Multi Astarion?

Surely the best way to play him early is using sharpshooter and taking archery for the plus 2 to offset the -5 penalty? Dread ambusher will give you advantage against creatures with darkvision. Hunter's mark for extra damage. Sneak attack on the attack that hits. Get to 5 with gloomstalker either after rogue 1 or 2 (cunning action is a lot more useful now only rogues can hide as bonus action, will offset the -5 lots, plus you want hunter's mark too)

Then it's just a playstyle choice of whether you want the alpha strike of action surge first or the extra bonus action of thief, which would be really useful for a ranger rogue for the options.

Then dual wielding for hand crossbows and crossbow expert for the late game and Astarions first round is 3 attacks main hand, one with sneak one with 1d8 dread ambusher, two offhand all with dex modifier then action surge the whole lot again, with each of these having a +10 to damage *each time*. Boss killer first round. No room for an ASI so hags hair at least needed to get dex to 18

Eh, the Gloom Rogue archer. I'm playing this myself, but for him then -

It's 8/4 for me. A single class rogue doesn't get the APR, but doesn't need it either; only one Sneak Attack anyway. If it's going to benefit from dipping in Gloom, I'd rather take feats/ASI's so levels in groups of four. If you *really* want that extra attack, go 5/7, but you miss out on feat/ASI at 12. Not my choice, but you do you. Still, archers are least in need of feats - so if you can boost DEX with items properly, this might actually be the way to go.

So what I'd then do is;

Rogue 2, expertise in Stealth
Rogue 3 Assassin for crit guarantee
rogue 4, pick Sharpshooter

Ranger needs 3 levels to get Umbral Sight which is the best thing the Gloomie gets for this build. You will save your bonus action for hiding now; provided you're in the dark, so you don;t need the extra bonus action from thief at all, and since you only attack with your main hand..
Fourth level for Sharpshooter, you have the spellcasting from ranger that you want now. Hunter's mark is all you need.

Back to thief until 12. I'd say pick ASI from this point onward, but chances are you can boost your enough DEX enough with items. We'll have to see.

Having said all this. Astarion comes with a unique melee ability, which probably scales as you level him, do his quests and such. You are probably better off building Astarion melee focused. In that case, four levels of Battlemaster might help; but even then I'd stick to rogue for the expertise and just take that feat that grants battlemaster maneuvers.

I kind of want to send him full shadow monk, to capitalize on him unlocking more vampire powers.

I'll probably just build him as an assassin and park him in camp, setting aside gear for him, and pull him out for... well assassinations. Or if trap DCs are 15-20. Or a pickpocketing run.

If Lae'zel can get BM maneuver 'Commander's strike', he'll be able to reliably have a second sneak attack in a round, as it's on another's turn. Actually, if this maneuver is available, it makes the BM feat an option for any character paired with Astarion.

I personally think Way of the Shadow Monk is probably the most interesting and thematic class for a vampire spawn. I will just have to see what Larian has done with the class before making any decisions. It will also be interesting see what Larian has done with stealth and surprise attacks. Assassin and Gloomstalker might end up being pretty mediocre if you want to engage in dialogue with potentially hostile NPCs.

Level 3 thief grants a second bonus action, which can be used to off hand attack.

So two main hand and two off hand (all with proficiency).

Then there is also riposte attacks.

Ah, in PnP, you can't use the cunning action for an attack.

Now that I'm looking at this, though - you end up at level 13. That would be my preferred choice, too

Astarion fits well as a Gloomstalker.

Build 1: (Assassin Gloom)

3 Rouge (Assassin) > 8 Ranger (Gloomstalker) > 1 Rouge (Assassin). You get 3 ASI this way. Plus he can use his sneak attack twice (Once via bow, and then close the distance with the sneak attack crit).

(1 Extra attack due Ranger comes online at level 8)

or

Build 2: (Rouge Fighter)

Rouge > Fighter 11 (Battleamster) (You get 3 attacks as standard at level 12 without haste or action surge). Yea you miss out on the ability improvement, but you are a battle master 9 attacks when you are using action surge + haste cast on you. Fighter also gives you an ability improvement anyway to make up for it.

(2 Extra Attacks due to Fighter. Build Comes Online at Level 6 with 1 Extra attack + another at level 12)

Build 3: (Raging Rouge)

(2 Extra attacks due to Beserker Barbarian comes online at Level 8)

Rouge 3 (Thief) + Barbarian 8 (Beserker) > Rouge 1 (Thief). You can make use of the Bonus action as Beserker Barbarian to Extra attack or Throw something nasty knock people prone.

(2 Extra Attacks due to Beserker Barbarian + Theif combo. Build Comes Online at Level 8 with 1 Extra attack, and you get to use the two Bonus actions for extra attacks.

Note: you can make Astarion into an Arcane trickister but that class only really comes online at level 9 when enemies have disadvantage against your spells.

Not cunning action.

When you have a bonus action available you can press the little knife looking icon to make an off hand attack.

If you have two bonus actions you can press it again.


Me wonders if the pole arm master off hand attack icon would be available a second time.