Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Oddball and offbeat party compositions.

In the past many posters have said the four party member limit restricted them to only playing with the optimal balanced composition of 1 warrior, 1 skill specialist, 1 arcane caster, and 1 priest.

But I was looking at my spreadsheet of planned playthroughs (NERD) and realized I’m only planning on running unusual party compositions.

1) Wild Party
Tav (Druid)
Jaheira (Druid)
Minsc (Barbarian)
Karlach (Barbarian)

2) All Arcane
Tav (Sorcerer)
Wyll (Warlock)
Gale (Diviner Wizard)
Minsc (also Diviner Wizard)
I really hope Gale hates Minsc and they bicker incessantly.

3) All Melee
Origin Wyll (Warlock)
Lae’zel (Fighter)
Minsc (Barbarian)
Karlach (Paladin)

4) Murderers
Dark Urge (Monk / Assassin)
Astarion (Wizard / Assassin)
Wyll (Warlock / Assassin)
Shadowheart (Cleric / Assassin)

Clearly I am planning on making abundant use of companion respecing to accomplish this.

Anybody else planning to break the classic party mold?

Probably in the future, but not at first. Definitely want to have as much knowledge of the full game as possible, because I think a fair deal of metagaming will be required, particularly with the squishier arrangements

I played an all warlock Devil’s Sight / Darkness party that was relatively fun, despite all the issues with EA Darkness implementation. With shadow monks and gloom stalkers, you could make a relatively diverse “darkness themed” party.

Enlarge / Reduce has some pretty fun combos with barbarians and bears. You can use Reduce to make medium creatures throwable. You can Enlarge to make medium and large creatures effective body slammers, when they jump. I think I would make this party:
- Berserker Barbarian (Medium)
- Eagle Heart Barbarian (Small)
- Moon Druid (Any Size)
- Sorcerer (Small)

The sorcerer’s main role would be to twin cast Enlarge on the Berserker and the Druid (while wild shaped into a large creature). I am not sure if you would be able to reduce the size of the small eagle heart barbarian. However, your berserker should be able to throw them pretty far, either way.

Me (sorcerer)
Lae'zel
Shadowheart
Astarion or hireling (if they're not as shit as it currently seems they might be)
is probably what I'll be going with. Though I might swap Lae'zel for Karlach now and then depending how much they actually interject in dialogue. I think an arcane caster isn't necessarily mandatory, but my character happens to be one anyway.

Zombie Apocalypse:
1) Necromany Wizard (Gale)
2) Spore Druid (Halsin)
3) Oathbreaker Paladin (Dark Urge)
4) Trickery/ War Cleric (Shadowheart)

All of these can cast animate dead, and the zombies can create even more zombies, if they kill enemies. The oathbreaker buffs them and increases their damage output, meaning they kill more enemies more quickly.

In a settlement with a lot of people, the goblin village and later the city, I hope that this could snowball

I mostly decide, which companions to take for the story, not for party composition. So my party is never optimized really. It might be a bit more in release, since I plan on having Karlach and Shadowheart mostly in my party, because I like them and together with my bard, we are already pretty rounded up.

The Walking Dead - Faerun edition. I like it 😁

If the companions turn out to be compelling I will be taking them as well for the story, not the traditional composition - which in my opinion simply isn't necessary in 5e.

If I go custom party there are 2 compositions I've been thinking of doing:

Durge - vengance paladin / wild magic sorcerer
Tav - gloomstalker / bear heart / battlemaster
Tav - druid / barbarian
Tav - bard

or completely recreate a tt-party and go
Tav - vengance paladin / wild magic sorcerer
Tav - gloomstalker / bear heart / battlemaster
Tav - wild magic barbarian
Tav - war cleric

I'm planning on going with...

- Valor Bard (custom MC)
- Cleric (Shadowheart)
- Wizard (Gale)
- Druid (Halsin)

I will have ALL of the magic.

I'm shocked that so many people seem to be set on a singular party. Now that party lock is a thing of the past, I'm gonna be swapping out constantly, so there will be all manner of unusual parties for me. My only thing is that I like to have at least one melee character in the party

Well I kind of feel I need a healer, so Shadowheart is locked in. Halsin and Jaheira are later additions and since I don't have as much time securing their loyalty (or knowing if I'll be able to without meta-gaming) they're not an alternative at this point, but time will tell I guess. And I definitely feel I need a damage sponge, so that means Lae'zel or Karlach. Possibly Minsc but again, he's a later addition to the party and don't know how easy it will be to keep him happy either. So for me that really just leaves the last slot open and I really really prefer having a lockpicker in it.

Oh, I will do a lot of swapping too, I happen to like Shadowheart and Karlach, but they won't be constantly in the party. I definitively want to see, how Halsin works as a companion, Wylls new story and character and if Gale ends up betraying the party, as so many believe. I want to go to the creche with Lae'zel and even have Astarion occasionally in the party, to see, what happens with the Cazador storyline. Jaheira for old times sake and maybe Minsc. I don't like him, but I heard/read somewhere, that he will have a bit of unusual introduction and story, so I will probably try that too.

I’m happy that party lock was removed for the sake of everyone who didn’t like the idea, but I’m definitely not gonna use it. I like designing playthroughs around specific party builds with strong thematic cores. This way I need to “solve” each encounter only with the tools available to me in that playthrough. It adds reasons to replay the game for me.

I also generally will not recruit companions I’m not going to be using in that playthrough. Sometimes I might even kill them. If I’m playing a good character, Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Astarion definitely aren’t invited. Gale can maybe sit as camp as the party researcher.

one fun one i did once was "matching outfits" of githyanki armor
Tav the strong but dumb dwarf wizard-guild artisan (dreaning about endless underground gem mines.. ahem..). Magic missiles etc nonsavespells + hammer all the way. Funny how wizards cannot use shields so using hammers twohanded is kinda a freebie.
Astarion (+medium armor feat)
Shadowheart
iirc Lae'zel. Now i guess i might switch her out for Karlach. Maybe. Might keep Shadowheart happier.

My party will be
Tav (Sorcerer)
Halsin (Druid)
Jaheira (Druid)
Not sure for the last slot!

Could I make a recommendation?

Druid.

Do it.

Druid.

There isn’t another Druid companion for me to pick!

Take Minsc. I have a feeling that Minsc and Halsin are going to be BFFs. Keldorn and Minsc had a nice bromance in bg2.

😊

No reason Minsc can’t be a Druid. It’s been a long time since BG2. Maybe he a Boo are just really into flowers and mushrooms now.