Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Question about Party Comp and Abilities

Greetings,

I'm pretty much decided on my first playthrough with the following party comp:

Barbarian (me)
Laezel (fighter)
Shadowheart (cleric)
Gale (wizard)

The reason I'm bring a barbarian and fighter is because I love both classes and couldn't decide which to play lol. And I really also liked both Gale/Shadowheart. Im not sure about the other companions yet but I was thinking of swapping Shadowheart for a Pally companion if they are accessible early on? The other classes/companions I'm not so crazy about for my first playthrough.

My question is without a natural charisma class/character, will I suffer in game or should I respec someone like Gale with more points in Charisma? Or do you think it will be fine to have low charisma checks?

So you have two front liners, a healer, and a caster. No CHA, no DEX. You’ll be mostly running on STR, WIS, and INT, with a splash of DEX. I would respec someone or multi class and respec to get someone a bit more utility for dialogue or checks. I think Shadowheart could work as more DEX based if you intend to have two STR already. Giving someone more CHA wouldn’t hurt, especially if they are the face.

You can get by the game failing checks, but do you WANT to?

You'll lose out on some dialoge, other than intimidation checks you'll have issues

I think it’ll be fine, there are definitely some things youll have to brute force through and other things that will go awry without a face but theres also a lot of race and class options as well as spells to get through alternate ways. Theres probably items in the game that help with this and you can have Shadowheart cast Enhance ability and Gale cast Detect thoughts to get through other parts.

Its not ideal but as long as you’re prepared to suffer some negative consequences from time to time im sure itll be fine.

As the others pointed out, for the first playthrough most people are planning to make a CHA based character for the dialogue things, you could do this with a Paladin which isn't too different to a barb, or a bard, sorcerer or warlock.

Using a non CHA main you will lose out on a lot of dialogue options, likewise I'll be playing a sorcerer instead of wizard for my first playthrough.

Thanks..

Im planning on making Shadowheart a dex light domain build.

Question..if my main 'face' barbarian (the one Im playing) is handling the dialogue or doing the talking, but I have say Gale or any other companion with high charisma, does the dialog skill check allow me to use someone in my party with higher charisman or is it always the person that initiated the dialogue and has the dialogue options? I guess what I mean is does the person initiating the dialogue have to be the one with high charisma or as long as someone in your party has high charisma? Sorry I never played BG's or the early access.

You don't need a high Charisma. If you have SH she can boost your skill checks with spells. Buuuuuuut more importantly it will probably be more fun and entertaining for you to watch your barbarian stumble through conversations and resort to other methods to get things done.

One of my favorite parts of Fallout 2 was that you got special interactions that happen when you were low int or cha.

I say, play into the stereotype and enjoy the ride.

Important note: Use your MC to handle the conversations. Your relationships with companions are built on their reactions to the things you say and do. If you let a companion lead the conversations, you'll lose out on a lot of content.

I found this comment on reddit which makes it seem that you can still enjoy the game without CHA:


But personally I wouldn't like constantly failing all the dialogue choices in my first playthrough as I want to discover as much of them and the outcomes as possible. After I'm familiar with the game I'll run through other non CHA classes in future playthroughs.

If you're ok with failing the dialogue skill checks on a first playthrough, you can go ahead and play the barbarian. I want to fully abuse friends and charm person and max CHA score on a sorc for the first playthrough.

There are tons of dialog checks that are based on other skills, as well as your race, class, and background.

Yep, this. Certainly there are things that charisma checks can get you that other skills can't, but then there are things those skills can get you that charisma can't. Including barbarian-specific checks that provide unique solutions to some problems. Personally, I tend to use my player character as a face to get their unique dialogue and don't worry about charisma. And while higher charisma might give you better prices at merchants, it's not like money is so scarce that's worth speccing your party around.

Just go for whatever you think you'll find most fun!

Even now im still rolling this around in my head,

One of my Favorite EA play throughs was a dwarven (Gold) Cleric of shar with the Light Domain ( Shar... and light domain... dont judge)

I forget the exact stats It was wis and str as I play the two stat rule. Then Con.

Any how now that we have access to war domain , I want the perc's that come along with that. However I want the light spells.

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spells:cleric

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/cleric

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/cleric:light

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/cleric:war



So I thought well I can go 1 lv fighter or paladin.. but really is heavy armor going to make that much difference as well as the weapon prof Of course. Then I looked at our lv 6 cleric spells and really though.. I maybe able to go with out that as we only get one slot.

So that got me thinking why not go 3 fighter, for the ( Fighting style, action surge, martial archetype ) http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/fighter

and still get to cast a lv 5 cleric spell.

And go with the light domain which has some fun spells. I know war domain has some good buffs but there all Concentration based, even stone skin, and that lasts for a hr, what's the point of having a battle cleric melee fighting when all his buffs are concentration ( ok lets not open that can of worms)

Even now... I have folders full of NPC'S and characters I've created and played over the years and I'm stuck lol. Well that's part of the fun.

What options for temporary boosts to charisma checks are there?

Great advice..thanks! Should be fun indeed to fight or fail my way through my first PT lol. I just wanted to make sure I'm not seriously gimping myself, losing out, etc

Thanks..guess I'm doing it backwards, my first PT will be barb, my second most likely Sorc or Pally. I just love warrior/fighter archetypes which is why I'm having a barb and fighter on my first PT..I just cant decide or wait lol

I believe the Cleric can cast guidance or something like that to improve some charisma checks? I may be mistaken..

The nice thing about this game is, just like D&D, the game continues despite failure. Embrace it. You are a barbarian. You don’t talk those fancy words. If anybody looks at you sideways, body them.

Thanks great advice..I am following my heart and not going with 'meta comps', etc

that's the plan..bash first ask questions later

Right on!

Guidance which is a druid/cleric cantrip (which you can get an amulet for in the first 2 hours of the game so you can put it on any of your characters).

Enhance Ability, which lets you pick one ability score and give any character advantage on skill checks with it. And pretty much every caster can learn that one.

The best thing about those, is they stack. If you have both running, you get an average of about a +6 to your rolls.