Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Jaheira Builds

I feel like of all the Companions the puzzle of how to do handle Jaheira under the 5e scheme is the most interesting.


She can recruit in at around lvl 6 which pretty much matches how she performs as an ally (with the wildshape Panther), but the pair of scimitars and her presentation in the old games suggests she's got at least 1 lvl in fighter. For me she came in at the same lvl as the PC which can be a little hard to explain. Given her semi legendary status, even randos from Avernus are in the fan club now, seems like she would recruit in at a higher level than the other PCs. I would say 1 lvl higher than the protagonist's current level would make sense, and this could be explained by an imagined throwaway line about old wounds. You know leaving her drained somehow of her former strength, cause of the connection to the land and the return of death gods and such. Perhaps she gets nailed in that first big fight with a mark of Myrkul or something, and that's why she comes in at the lvl she does.

For early recruitment, you have to have a party of 3, cause if you hit that scene with 4 you'll get the dreaded "looks like you're all full up" response, but with no way to dismiss a current companion from the hostile area.

Either way assuming she comes in between 6-8 (likely 7?) how do you handle her Class and Abilities...?

Pure class Druid with martial flavor feat?

Split class evenly (like a nod to the old multi-class) or weighted more towards either Fighter or Druid?

Another martial class to druid maybe, or Ranger or Bard for the Harper angle? It seems like there are many interesting options, and I kinda dig how we can choose here, but I'm also changeable of mind. I do feel like fighter druid would be right for oldschool vibes, but there are so many new options in a 5e scheme that could cover a similar archetype.

Her attribute spread in BG1 was

15 STR, 14 DEX, 17 CON, 10 INT, 14 WIS, 15 CHA

In BG2 she had 17 DEX which was a bit of a retcon. With all 3 Wisdom tomes from BG1 that had her at 17 WISDOM, or 1 up in any other stat, but in 5e we are closer to that BG1 spread probably. Like just knock off a point on each and you're pretty close to the 27 point buy we have going.

She keys off default druid stats, so basically low STR high DEX in the default, though of course we can Withers that, but has her pretty solid. Circle and such is our choice or the additional class at lvl up. What are you all running with?

I haven't gotten to Misc yet, though I imagine a similar question arises there, and how to translate his progression and high STR. From BG1 before Barbarian was a class option, he seemed very much a Ranger Barbarian prototype, with an animal companion that was entirely imaginary (for all we knew) and a loadout that had him packing steel by his catchphrase, so what to do with him in the new much more open ended scheme is also curious. Dip out of Ranger into something else? Try to rock a striker STR ranger on a respec... I could see it also being an interesting q. But Jaheira comes in first so figured starting there. What are you all trying out?

Jaheira:

I’ve decided to go 10 Druid (arctic) / 2 Fighter.

I don’t think a character that is mostly a fighter benefits much from a few levels of druid.

Splinting even doesn’t provide her a focused enough role for me.

This build makes her a tanky support caster / healer in plate armor with an action surge. I like it.

Minsc:

I just drop ranger entirely. He was only a ranger in 2nd Ed. because barbarian wasn’t a thing yet.

I’m making him an 9 Barbarian (berserker) / 3 Rogue (thief).

Thanks to berserker’s frenzy bonus action attacks and thief’s 2 bonus actions, he gets 4 attacks a turn. If I want to put him in light armor he can be sneaky and can do a bit of extra sneak damage at range before getting in close with a blade.

I feel this adequately represents his character from the first game. He can’t cast Ranger spells, but given his mental infirmity I always felt casting was out of character for him anyway. Completely dump int, wis, and cha and make him a big old dumb physical powerhouse.

Barbarian / Fighter is also good, but that suits Karlach better, I think.

By the way, Boo is not imaginary. How dare you!

Barbarians were a 2nd edition class. It just wasn't implemented in BG 1, and was added later, either with ToB or BG 2. And he's still a ranger in lore, even if an unusual one.

Minsc was originally a Ranger because of Marc's point, BG1 didn't have Barbarians. Due to that limitation the canon and fan stories kept him locked in as a ranger meanwhile class / ability purists were complaining why was he a ranger and not a berzerker subclass of barbarian.

The Ranger class does not fit MInsc's personality or battle rage personality at all, and its just one of things I've disliked about him being a Ranger being left as canon just because it was due to an engine limitation in the first game.

Now as with Jaheira, the level cap in BG3 isn't even the issue, 5e ruleset is. Even if you made her a 10 fighter / 10 druid or such she would never match the potential of an AD&D Fighter / Druid.

Using whirlwind attacks as a fire elemental was her entire 'Godlike' thing in BG2, it was horribly broken but then thats what made BG2 so fun, everything was broken with the massive EXP and level caps in that game.

And I think its because of this in BG2 that further rulesets and games continued the trend of making players less and less powerful. 'How dare you be as powerful and godlike as BG2 allowed??? Not in my game / new ruleset', yet completely ignoring the whole point of that power level in BG2 was simply that it was super fun and incredible to play.

So we will simply never have that level of enjoyment in any dnd game ever again.

Minsc was originally a table top character, like most of the BG1 companions.



The character sheet was printed in 1989, so the character was probably made not too long after, if not that year. This was before barbarian was introduced as a fighter kit in 94 and as a full class in 95.

That’s why he is a berserker ranger instead of just a barbarian. Barbarian feels much more appropriate to his nature, especially in 5E, where rangers can do much more spell casting.

Remember much of what you see to his nature is due to having suffered a head wound. Ranger better reflects his prior training.

What prior training? I don’t recall him ever speaking of any specific training. He was a bodyguard who came from an inhospitable wilderness populated by barbarian tribes who desired above all admittance to berserker lodges.

I just finished Act 2 and I'm having a similar struggle with Jaheira.

Based on what we see in-game (panther wildshape) before she joins us, she has at least 6 levels of moon druid. She also used dual scimitars which leans towards some levels in a martial class.

I currently have her with 2 lvls in fighter, but I could see her with levels in ranger with the 2 weapon fighting style. I also think a few levels in Ancients Paladin would fit her, but I'd drop two weapon fighting for dueling or defense.

Actually barbarian was a first edition AD&D class. It was introduced in the "Unearthed Arcana" rulebook along with the cavalier. For some reason both were removed in AD&D 2nd edition, only to be later reintroduced as "kits" in the "Complete Fighter's Handbook".

Right, and they hated magic. Had a mechanic to destroy magic items, which would give them xp, if I recall correctly. I believe it was only at higher levels that they were okay even being around wizards.

I tried to make Jaheira and Minsc's classes reflect their portrayed characters as much as possible, while keeping them effective.

For Jaheira,I ultimately went with 7 Druid (Circle of the Land) / 5 Fighter (Champion). It gives her access to several useful fire damage and cc spells, while still being a formidable front-line fighter with Two Weapon Fighting. She doesn't get Improved Wild-Shape, but I really only use panther form for prowl and pounce and otherwise keep her in human form. She only has 2 feats, for which I chose Ability Improvement (DEX) and Defensive Duelist.

For equipment, I use gear that generates Heat to improve fire damage output. She has 1 scimitar equipped and casts Flame Blade for a 2nd, which also contributes to and benefits from Heat. I find she's really good at controlling the battle field with Plant Growth (which is also flammable) or Sleet Storm, and taking down groups with Wall of Fire and Flaming Sphere. She's also not bad at single targets, using Mirror Image and Heat Metal to take the wind out of their sails.

She really comes off as a seasoned soldier and combat druid, which is what I was going for.

For MInsc, I went with 8 Ranger (Hunter) / 4 Barbarian (Berserker). For feats, I gave him Great Weapon Master, Mage Slayer, and Ability Improvement (STR). He rages and throws things a lot. He's also really good at taking down enemy mages with Ensnaring Strike, Silence, and the Mage Slayer feat.

For equipment, I use gear that improves throw damage and gives wrath, along with a Sussur Greatsword. The build is working out much better than I thought it would and is pretty fun overall. Feels very Minsc.

Yeah I had that same feeling, that I wanted her to be able to crash the front line too. It's an interesting dilemma cause Jaheira in BG1/BG2 was pretty versatile, like the inverse of a Dual-Class human fighter/druid in BG1 or berserker/druid in BG2, since she could brawl and heal and use the best armor to keep it humming while Charname's dual class caught up. I think the angkeg armor was meant for her, even though it always ended up on Viconia hehe. Just seemed that her big plus came from having access to heavier armor, helmets and shields, since she could wear the best in class for that. Also the ring of holiness really gave her a lot of utility with the lvl 1-4 spells. I'd probably have been fine with her just having the wolf form here, but once you see her as a Panther it's like hmmm that does feel right.

Also with the idea that Jaheira was basically tutoring you if you dual classed into Druid. Just by the mechanics now all multiclassing is a bit more like dual classing, so whereas in BG1 the dilemma was probably Charname's here they got the puzzle on her. The big power up at lvl2 and lvl5 for a fighter and lvl 6-7 in Druid, might be part of why they wanted to push the lvl cap a bit beyond 10 just to make some of the multi-classing options there a bit more flexible hehe. I don't mind, this kind of stuff is entertaining. I don't really agree with the article I read today suggesting that she should have been left in the past, I think having Jaheira in this game is great! Sorta made the full release for me.

I'm perfectly happy for the longer lived half-elves and elves to still be kicking around. If BG4 just had her going around doing various Hierophant type adventures I can get into that. The point where Druids start ceasing to age is lvl 18 now right? So I wouldn't mind if we took it that far haha



In BG2 I thought it was amusing that Minsc survived and Dynaheir was the one who got got, cause invariably in my BG1 games it was Minsc who ended up getting chunked and the pair would break with her sticking around lol. But in BG2 he often came along for the ride, always on the lookout for a new witch to protect, so I'm glad they're both here.

I have Jaheira as a Fighter 2 / Spore Druid 10. The temp HP gives her more staying power in melee while she combines Two-Weapon Fighting with a scimitar in one hand and a Flame Blade in the other. The undead she can produce helps bog enemies down so she's not eating all the melee hits herself. Action Surge also helps her set up Symbiotic Entity in the first round so you can pop it and go in immediately.

Jaheira can be in the front line without any fighter classes fyi.

In 2e rules, defensively druids were as squishy as wizards. They had more HP but could only wear leather armour.

Now taking 2 levels of fighter on her does what exactly? You dont get a second attack until 5 fighter levels which doesn't leave much for druid spells.

As I think I already mentioned, 5e is very different to 2e, what worked in 2e and with BG2's massive level cap does not translate well into BG3.

Also missing out on conjure elemental summoned with a level 6 slot is just bad. Once you've tried those summons out, you won't be wanting any less than 11 druid levels.

I went Ftr-EK6/Dru6 and made her basically a utility tank.

She has level 8 spell slots, so gave her support and CC spells. She can also belt out a lot of magic missiles. She also has a ring that allows her cast illusion/enchantment on a hit. Situationally useful.

I find even on tactician you can have 2 utility characters in the party.

Regarding level 6 slots, you could go ranger 3 and have level 11 slots, but I value extra attack more.

She has WHAT!?

Mine is just a straight Spore druid, with very many undead friends. Turn 1 of combat needs a damage kick-start from someone else, but after that, snowballs hard with a horde of undead.

She is different every single playthrough for me:

I tried fighter 2/3-druid rest but was underwhelmed.
When I don't want Halsin in my party also, I switch her to moon druid
To keep her druid and give more a Harper/CIA agent feeling, Rogue 1/land druid 11 or Thief 3/land druid 9

The spell slots of a level 8 caster.

Nope, highest slots she has are level 4. Basically comparable to bit better than paladin spellcasting.

And she is probably weaker in combat than a level 6 slot Water Myrmiddon.