Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Thief Extra Bonus Action Question

Hello, all. I'm having a gaming computer custom built so I can download and play the game. In the meantime, I've been looking up classes, races, and such so I can plan out what I want to build. I'm very familiar with D&D 5E rules, but obviously certain things will be different.

It says Thief Rogues get TWO bonus actions! In 5E that would be crazy powerful. What all can do you do with your bonus actions? In 5E Rogues can only Dash, Disengage, or Hide with their Cunning Action. Is getting two of them as powerful as it seems? What are some tactics you guys use with this feature (or have seen used)?

Last, which Skills would you see come up most often, e.g. acrobatics, survival, etc.? Which skills seemingly never come up? Thanks All?

I play as a Ranger and after level 5 I multi-classed into Rogue. So now I have x2 main attacks and x2 bonus attacks. 4 attacks per turn basically and really fun because I'm using dual hand crossbows. So pew-pew tons of damage per turn.

Plus it's also incredibly useful to have two bonus actions for tadpole powers and other stuff, assuming one obtained the Awakened buff.

Yes, Thief is incredibly powerful. So much so that I think it might be even better than Assassin for the Rogue/Gloom Stalker build, because more bonus actions means you can always have Hunter's Mark on. I also got a lot of mileage out of Misty Step on my Rogue/Ranger, which would be great to not have to compete with Hunter's Mark or off-hand attacks for in the bonus action slot.

I don't think I've seen many Acrobatics checks. Most common in conversations is probably Persuasion/Deception/Intimidation, then Insight, followed by the other knowledge skills (Arcana/History/Religion). Survival and Perception come up in the field. Sleight of Hand is mandatory for disarming traps and locks.

Larian don't understand the workings of the 5e rogue rules - you are not supposed to get an 'extra' bonus action (that is actually forbidden in 5e - you can google extensive rules discussion as well as references about this. It is not valid). A Rogue is simply meant to get an expanded list of things they can do with a bonus action at a later point, but of course, Larian have made this overpowered by ignoring the rules. I don't know if they simply don't care or if they think it is 'more fun'. Rogues can already sneak attack every round in base 5e (its very easy t get advantage in comabt) - they don't need additional help, unlike some core classes that do seem weak.

2 bonus actions is crazy powerful, especially when multiclassed.

Monk’s flurry of blows is two attacks in one bonus action. Open hand monks also have a homebrew rule that also gives you extra bonus actions.

6 attacks in your bonus actions alone, and if you have haste and took two levels of fighter for action surge, you’re basically unstoppable.

I’d be more annoyed by how broken this is if not for monk / rogue already being my favorite 5E class combo, so now I’m just enjoying the power fantasy.

In examining the mechanics, without having yet played it, it does appear ranged characters are likely far superior to melee, just like in 5E.

No booming blade or greenflame blade. That’s a big nerf to the Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster.

My melees are absolutely outclassing all my others. My melees 1shot things constantly and then get to turn around and 1shot someone else.

But I'm a noob who doesn't know anything about DND or what I'm doing in general, really.

In my experience that is not at all accurate.

It could be there's stuff I'm missing. But alll the mechanics that make ranged attacks more advantageous in DnD 5E are present in BG3. Ranged attacks still can reach the whole battle field most of the time, without having to move up to enemies. The Archery Fighting style grants +2 to attack, partially offsetting the power attack penalty if you take Sharpshooter. With ranged attacks it's much easier for Rogues to attack from a hidden position. BG3 gives an advantage for ranged attacks if you have the high ground.

I'm not doubting you. I just want to know what I'm missing. There may be some buffs or game quirks that help melee characters that I'm not aware of.

It is much less hassle with ranged attacks. In melee combat You need position, preparation and combos to be efficient, and have a bunch of emergency measures at hand for when things get sticky. With ranged you just step out, shoot (and do the same amount of damage as melee), and step back in.

Plus you have all the special arrows that work with ranged weapons. There's no shortsword that does double damage against undead that you can just whip out when needed.

Don’t need a shortsword that deals bonus damage against undead when your monk gets 10 attacks per turn dealing 35 - 45 damage per hit and almost never missing.

My party for most of the game is:
Tav 1: Storm Sorcerer
Tav 2: Open Hand Monk / Thief Rogue / Spore Druid
Karlach: Battlemaster Fighter / Wildheart Barbarian
Wyll: Devotion Paladin / Fiend Warlock / Fighter

With the exception of the sorcerer, everybody is kitted out for melee. Everyone just focuses on damage (though Karlach is more of a tank, still hits hard because she can smite when not raging). No healing, no crowd control, just raw DPS. They steamroll everything without any trouble.

That's a very powerful combination indeed.

However, my point is that a single class Fighter Battlemaster with Sharpshooter will match that damage output AND can spread the damage to several targets and adapt to enemy vulnerabilities with special arrows. So I find ranged combat more straightforward to achieving a similar outcome. More boring perhaps, but just hit level up and pick the obvious ranged combat perks and you won't have to think about much else.

Sure, there are ranged builds that also do big damage. Not denying that. What I was responding to though was the assertion that “ranged characters are likely far superior to melee,” to which I said, not in my experience.

I think what I’m getting from this conversation is that BG3 allows for some very extreme optimization, irrespective of whether it’s ranged and melee martials.

Agree

I think the idea that ranged is superior comes from that it is a lot easier to discover. It doesn't take very much to figure out how to stack ranged combat buffs and there is always an easy solution to how you are going to deal your damage - press your ranged combat attack and aim for something. You don't need to consider your character's mobility and make sure they have some gear or abilities to get them in position. But with the right preparation melee can dominate a battlefield just as much as ranged.

Yes, this is correct. And a big part of this that you don’t really get from just looking at the rules is the equipment. Gear really makes builds come together in BG3 in a way that doesn’t really happen on table top.