Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Subclass Synergy

As someone who isn't fully familiar with the inner-workings of the announced subclasses in this game, I am wondering if anyone has ideas for subclass synergies. I know in multiclassing the general rule of thumb is to overlap your primary or secondary attributes, or to pursue specific features that help your build. What about good subclass combinations?

I would suggest checking https://www.youtube.com/@DungeonDudes if you are about learning how to make the most out of it. The guys know the rules quite well and know how to build quite powerfull characters. Its more than you need for for BG3, but I feel like if you check their videos about feats and some adivces for multiclassing you should know what are considered to be power builds and then you can see for yourself how much you are willing to deviate from it.


Personally I think you won't need min-maxing as much as people claim it. If you have a specific playstyle you might get some odd combinations going that are still efficient. But if you want optimized builds there are a few well-known combos that you can find on that channel or probably here.

I think EK with Abjuration Wiz dips would be solid, more spell slots, action surge, you get your spell shield (temporary HP on cast). Gloomstalker with Assassin for an enemy flatfooted wrecking ball, pretty sure that's been mentioned on here. Tempest Domain with Storm Sorcery is another one being thrown around though contingent on CL, Sword Bard with any martial class for extra utility. Totem Barb (Bear) with Moon Druid for very tanky wildshape. That should get you started.

Biomag is on point. First of all Dungeon Dudes are amazing, watch every bit of their stuff if you want to learn DnD 5.0.

Even though Larian is removing the minimum stat requirements for multiclassing always remember, those stats in DnD were there for a reason.


Personally, I'm going Arcane Trickster Rogue 4/ Monk 8. We'll see about monk once 1.0 drops. Synergy, DEX and WIS. It isn't necessary, but it just makes damn good sense.

Just, everytime they start talking classes, they always start with the Artificer - which isn't in this game, so forget about that, or skip it.

Biomag, thank you for that youtube link! I'm not really a D&D person, so it's really helpful to watch a podcast style of people talking about the different possibilities. I'm watching the ranger video right now.

Happy if it helps. I watched a lot of their content, I guess there are channels that are even more focused on min-maxing (treatmonk or something like this, will be mentioned in their videos and they worked together in a few). They also have a couple of things where they skew things based on their preferences - like allowing crossbow experts to use a weapon in the other hand and not affecting reloads or not using action economy for switching weapons - all of which affects a bit their view on things without them noticing and there are other things based on how they play on their table But overall they are solid and definitely good enough of a source to get a good understanding while keeping in mind that your table (or video game) might have some differences that can affect some of the views significantly.

It might be a little hard to look at PNP focused multiclassing builds, simply because we have some items that are missing, notably spells like Booming Blade, GFB, and others that are bread and butter for gishes. One of my favorite "min/max" builds was a hexblade/rogue multiclass that used devil sight and darkness, rapier with booming blade that kept enemies under darkness or they took damage by moving, it was actually a pretty broken build that provided real peeling potential on enemies for your companions, it was effectively a control/dps build in and of itself. You couldn't make that build in this game, even with Pact of the Blade/Hexblade, because the booming blade cantrip is missing and that was the key to anchoring enemies in darkness. So, my point is that what might be solid in PNP may not translate due to a variety of missing elements and/or outright changed mechanics, but looking through DD might give you some ideas at least.

True, but the final spell list is still a complete mystery.

Basicaly all Baldur's Gate III. and Dungeons and Dragons youtube channel is offering some guides by now ... and if they dont, they often promis to give some very soon.

Funy about that is, that they all only guessing, since nobody really knows how much Larian changed things, and what will or will not be possible. :-/

Yeah, the amount of Larian changes and unknowns is why I rather point to a channel like dungon dudes to get the basic ideas behind the builds instead of trying to say 'this is the way'. The way depends on what we get in the game and what people like to actually achieve. My to favorite builds are not considered optimized, but if Larian gives me the tools to recreate them I will and I'm quite confident they will work for how I use them as long as the game doesn't pull some utter madness.

There are not only synergies in multiclass builds, but also in builds that do not work together as multiclass, but should be two seperate characters.

Notably, aura of dread from Oathbreaker Paladin lets Necromancers add the Paladins cha to all attacks from their minions. Which are A LOT of attacks. So this is quite strong!

Also, bard + warlock/ battlemaster is good, since they rely so strongly on short rests

There are a couple of ground rules that might help you get started:

1. Be careful not to be lured into the trap of "they have the same primary ability stat, they should be great together". There are a good chunk of classes that, while they have similar requirements, just don't work together well. I would say that applies to pretty much all instances of Wisdom classes. BG3 monk may break that mold a little bit for a Dex based Ranger, but for the most part there is either so much overlap that you might as well stick with the single class (Ranger/Druid), or an oil and water situation like Moon Druid and Monk, where one's primary specialty can't be used at the same time as the other's.

There are plenty of times when it is a good rule to sync ability scores, just don't assume it is a perfect match every time.

2. When mixing martial classes, with each other or spell casters, make a very conscious choice of when to aim for 5th level. Extra Attack is a big leap forward in their capabilities and too much, or too early, multiclassing can drastically undercut their performance.

3. In general, mixing primary spellcasters together isn't amazing. Sorcerer is probably the most worth multi-classing because of the metamagic (in tabletop you can grab a feat for that though). Otherwise though, you should be thinking about what special abilities your are gaining that are worth trading off your higher level spells.

4. There are a couple classes that mix well with just about anyone and some that are better left alone. A couple levels of rogue, fighter, or cleric can really help a class that is going to drop off in the middle to late levels. Paladins are a prime example of a class that drops off. I think most people agree that past level 6 or 7 (depending on the subclass) it is much more effective to multi-class a Paladin than to stay single class.

Other classes are terrible for dipping because their powers rely on their levels in that one specific class. Druids need druid levels to increase their wildshape power, so multi-classing with them should be done with great care. Monks, and to a lesser degree sorcerers, can be gimped by multi-classing because they lose out on their unique point wells (Ki or sorcery points respectively).

5. Specifically for BG3 and other CRPGs, keep an eye out for too much overlap between characters. It's easy to keep an eye out for when you are all single classing. But once you start multi-classing you may end up hurting your overall damage by dipping everyone into a support/healer class 'just in case', or turning all your casters into sub-par multi-role close combatants.

These are all general guidelines, and there are exceptions to all of them, but hopefully this is a good foundation for you before you delve into sub-class specific considerations.