Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Favorite subclasses?

So far:

Barbarian - Wildheart(?), Bear. But they are all fine.
Bard - College of Lore
Cleric - ?
Druid - ?
Fighter - Battle Master
Monk - ?
Paladin - ?
Ranger - ?
Rogue - Thief
Sorcerer - Storm
Warlock - ?
Wizard - Transmutation School

Wildheart, Bear because resistance to all damage but necrotic sounds friggin awesome
College of Lore because Bards are one of the two skill classes and Lore gets more. Also more spells and you can fully focus on Charisma and Dexterity, while the other two have the Paladin problem and need all stats.
Battle Master, obviously.
Thief as the "real" Rogue
Storm because it sounds great while the other two rather suck
Transmutation is not as strong but makes more potions and makes other characters better with Transmuter stones.

Favorite is always going to be different for everyone, but for me it's gotta be ASSASSIN ROGUE

Sure everyone has a reason why other subclasses can be optimal for one situation or another, but for me, Assassin is still the most fun personally.

You get a huge payoff if you manage to sneak up on your opponents and can do a disgusting amount of damage if you do it right. Certainly it's not for everybody but I've been able to solo some act 1 bosses in a single turn just by carefully planning my ambushes ahead of time. It's a seriously front loaded build, meaning that if you do it right you will make any followup combat trivial, assuming they survive your alpha strike.

Also this subclass pairs ridiculously well with Gloomstalker Ranger, more attacks, more initiative, more of that turn 1 beatdown. However I wouldn't recommend doing anything more then 5 levels of Ranger, that just cuts off too many sneak attack dice, plus you don't want to miss out on evasion!


p.s. not sure about the others but I should note that I've not had much trouble getting surprise on my enemies, I do try to sneak up on them so that no one in my party is seen until I initiate combat from stealth so that probably helps.

Barbarian - Berserker
Bard - College of Lore
Cleric - Domain of knowledge and life domain
Druid - Circle of the land
Fighter - Battle Master (simply better than champion)
Monk - ?
Paladin - ?
Ranger - ?
Rogue - Thief
Sorcerer - I love every subclass there, if i should pick one - wild magic for fun! unexpected randomness is a lot of fun.
Warlock - ? (but i feel the great old one will fit my playstyle, really want to try subclasses of warlock... in practice not really sure because i need to play)
Wizard - Evocation School... (because i can't normally play school of necromancy with summons and NPC's are annoying.)

I think this will take years before i could say which subclass are 'my favorite'. Every class looks nice and i want to try them all.

For me it is definitely a Thief. For a simple reason that it fits the character I RP the best. Plus mechanically, Thief has one of the best subclass abilities in the game.

Second would be Way of Shadow. Tons of flavour, and also super effective mechanically. Can’t go wrong if you like martial arts, stealth and ninjas.

Third one is Oath of Vengeance. So much RP potential. A Paladin on a quest for revenge… just amazing.

Evocation on wizard is so good. Having your big aoe spells not have friendly fire is huge for playthroughs where you want to save ally NPC's like the Gondians in Steelwatch Foundry, etc.

Life Domain cleric is also plain busted. Channel Divinity refreshes on short rest, 2 charges, heals like 40 HP per cast, it's your highest heal spell in the game until the lv6 heal spell which requires melee range and is single target, while Channel Divinity is ranged and aoe. Grants heavy armor proficiency on top.

I should maybe add that if I play Wizard myself, I would currently pick the Necromancy School. Two instead of one Skeleton or Zombie sounds the most powerful to me.

Transmutation School is for having a support mage like Gale giving you more potions, while probably making Wyll into a Storm Sorcerer for the "real" work. Or maybe make the Warlock work ... somehow ? That class looks extremely gimmicky to me, i.e. I just dont see its actual purpose.



And I'm thinking I really like the Knowledge Domain for Clerics, albeit only as a single level for College of Lore Bards, who after all just cant have enough Expertises, and you can pick two more with Knowledge Domain at level 1 ! Though only among Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion - all Intelligence based. But still ! Also, you can now cast stuff like Bless. Not bad.

By the way if your Bard is a Rock Gnome, you already get History expertise, so thats also a Way to get more expertises. But do you really want to lose the Halfling ability to reroll a Critical Failure for that ? You DO also gain Advantage on Charisma, Wisdom and Intelligence saving throws, after all. Hmm.

So you could have 9 Expertises ! Thats 1 from Rock Gnome (History), 4 from Bard Level 3 and 10 (any), 2 from Actor feat (Deception and Perform), and 2 from Knowledge Domain (two out of Arcana, Nature, Religion). Since theres 18 Skills total, you have expertise on half of all skills ! LOL

And as a Lore Bard you learn both Medium Armor and Shields; also for some reason ... Morning Star ??? LOL. Completely useless, since its not a Finesse weapon. At Str 9, I would deal 0-7 damage. Compared to a simple Dagger 4-7 damage, and +4 more attack bonus as well. Apparently there is later a really good Medium Armor without Dexterity or Stealth penalties, too.

Plus they finally get a Cantrip that actually deals some actual damage. Granted they could also just go High Elf or High Half-Elf for such a Cantrip. Or pick the feat Spell Sniper. That one even gives you access to Eldritch Blast ! Of course there is also the "Magic Initiate: X" line for which you can pick Sorcerer or Warlock and gain TWO Cantrips (and one level 1 spell).




P.s.: Oh and I still dont know what Paladin Oath to favor. Right now my Highelf is Devotion simply because its the most traditional pick.