Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Early Character builds

I just said that if your bard is not a pure caster they may want another build that do not use sorcerer levels. And I think the lore bards are the best for several playstiles focusing casting and support, but you can play a bard as a melee character, a sniper, etc.

You also lose one ability score improvement / feat if you only get 7 levels of bard because those are tied to your class levels, like the extra attacks per turn.

http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/09/03/ability-score-improvements-in-multiclass/

But as you said, it is a strong multiclass build for bards that are pure casters.

If you can play with a custom party IWD style, it's definitely going to be my caster. Paladin/warlock (Shield spammer) as a tank, my Sniper build as DPS and maybe a pure Cleric? Since Bards can heal and buff, the last slot is kinda hard to fill.

IDK on 5e, but on 3.5e, is essential to NOT multiclass arcane casters UNLESS is a class that gives +caster level.

In 5e your caster level is some combination of their caster levels. For classes that reach lvl9 casting, you don't lose any spell slots when multiclassing. That is, if you're a Bard 17/Sorcerer 3, you count as a level 20 spellcaster since both reach lvl 9 spells.

but you do lose class spells.

spell multiclassing in 5e comes from two angles: character level, and caster level.

character level determines available spell slots. it is what enables you to cast a "lvl9" magic missile.

caster level determines known spells. if you are a level 3 sorcerer, you are not casting Teleport.

So, pick only two levels of warlock for eldritch blast + agonizing blast is a good idea?

It might, but you'll potentially lose spell slots since Warlock is not a caster class and you only add half his levels to spellcasting level.

Why? For the Arcane Ward + Armor of Agathys combo. Armor of Agathys is an Abjuration spell. Arcane Ward is the first special ability grant by the Abjuration specialist sub-class. AW is activated and replenished by Abjuration spells. Shield, Absorb Elements, Counter Spell, Dispel Magic, and Banishment are your bread butter. Warlock Spells can be cast with Wizard slots. You cast AoA on yourself, that activates the AW.


Armor of Agathys: A protective magical force surrounds you, manifesting as a spectral frost that covers you and your gear. You gain 5 temporary hit points for the duration. If a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points, the creature takes 5 cold damage.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, both the temporary hit points and the cold damage increase by 5 for each slot.

Arcane Ward: Starting at 2nd level, you can weave magic around yourself for protection. When you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, you can simultaneously use a strand of the spell’s magic to create a magical ward on yourself that lasts until you finish a long rest. The ward has a hit point maximum equal to twice your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier. Whenever you take damage, the ward takes the damage instead. If this damage reduces the ward to 0 hit points, you take any remaining damage.
While the ward has 0 hit points, it can’t absorb damage, but its magic remains. Whenever you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, the ward regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell.
Once you create the ward, you can’t create it again until you finish a long rest.

You move into melee combat. With the ward up, it protects the armor. Use your reaction to cast Shield, Absorb Elements, Counterspell, to protect and replenish the ward. Banishment and Dispel help the ward as well. Also cast Fire Shield, Flaming Sphere. Use battlefield control spells like Wall of Force, Web, Slow, and Polymorph. The Githyanki has Mage Hand, Jump, Misty step; to either get you out of trouble, or to the action quickly. Treantmonk's Temple on You-Tube designed the original concept. He had the Hexblade Warlock, with Hex and Booming Blade. I'm not counting on anything from XGoE being in BG3. I'll use HBW if it's available, if not oh well, this works. Besides, his version was more defensive than mine.

You can pick the "Magic initiate feat: warlock" to get "Armor of Agathys" and some other cantrips of your choice (even eldritch blast) and go full wizard with a full spell growth if you are not using the warlock features.
Ed: Scratch that, you cannot heighten the spell "Armor of Agathys" when using this feat, so it would be cast always at Lvl-1 and that is not very useful.

If not, you can consider picking 2 levels of Warlock to get "Armor of shadows" because that allows you to use INFINITE castings of the abjuration spell "Mage armor" so you can replenish your Ward every turn (but honestly, that is going a little overboard =D )

It also works with any other multiclass build.

Both good ideas. But 2 levels of Warlock costs me 5th level Wizard spells. The Magic Initiate feat would mean I'd have to go with the Variant Human, which would cost me my great sword, medium armor, Misty Step, Jump, a cantrip, telepathy, and +1 to an ability score. But I'm always open to ideas, so I'll think about it. Maybe I can make it work? I spent 3 days working on this build renamed The Astral Tank.

OK, its setteled than.

For a lv10 char its either single class bard (lore and valor are in PHB) or single class hexblade (not in PHB, lets see if we get it).
I messed up my first char in PK, which was my first pathfinder game ever.
BG3 will be my first DnD 5E game ever, so I better take a single class char in the beginning.

I want to play P:K in the near future. Did you get to finish?
Is there no respec?

I never used respec, but i believe that the devs added it into the game. If not, there are a mod which allow respec. I honestly don't like respec since it undermines the consequences of your choices. I finished with around 120 hours on my first run. The game is extremely long.

Games like these need respec, as they are very complex. Just see all recent CRPGS.
Devs cannot assume that a first time player is a master of the mechanics. They'll probably screw up their first character at some point.

It is one of my favorite games of the past years, I absolutely recommend the game of P: K. I am eager to put my hands in Wrath of the Righteous.

And yeah, the game is big, it covers all the "Kingmaker" AP modules and it takes you from level 1 to 20 with the two DLC ( Uh, you can reach Lvl 20 without the DLC if you like grinding a lot or you play solo but...)



Yeah, it has respec ( the guy of the pathfinder society in the tavern, it costs an amount of gold per level to respect, and you can respec your companions too )

You can also hire and create your mercenaries from scratch if you want to try builds that are not covered by your companions, but I do not recommend it because they are mute mercenaries and do not have subquests like Amiri, Linzi, Ekundayo, and company.

The "Beneath the stolen lands" DLC also offers a stand-alone big dungeon to explore where you create your entire party in the purest IWD style so you can try new builds if you can pay for them.


If you do not like variant human you can pick a feat at level 4 or 8 if you want to go full gizyanki wizard, but as I stated before, the cantrips you get will level up to your character level (Even Eldrich blast ! ) but sadly the level 1 spell you pick with "magic initiate" cannot be heightened, like "Armor of Agathys".

http://dnd5ed.wikidot.com/feat:magic-initiate

It works fine for other wizard builds tho.



You may, but remember that you will cast those spells (obtained using multiclass or magic initiate feat) and the agonizing blast using your CHA because that is what warlocks use and as stated before if you are not using the MI feat, you will lose the 5th level spells (if your question was about a wiz-warlock MC)
The good thing is that you are playing a wizard with a patron. Patrons are always fun to RP.

Well that leaves the Magic Initiate feat off the table. Defeats the purpose of the build. No Eldritch Blast with the Astral Tank. With a 13 charisma, not much point. Intelligence/ strength base build. Fire Bolt and Ray of Frost are fine.

But I did make a new build, intelligence/ charisma based. Half Elf Hexblade 2/ Abjurer 8 with Eldritch Blast, and Agonizing Blast. I don't take the 2nd level of Warlock until level 7. If I don't have half plate by then, I'll take Armor of Shadows, if I do I'll take Grasp of Hadar. I call this build The Witchblade:

Rolling stats confirmed: https://twinfinite.net/2020/02/baldurs-gate-3-interview/

Which means you can have that beautiful 20 for your main stat at level 1 that I used for the build!
If it follows the PHB, probably will be hard to get several 18's though, since you won't sum and rearrange your points as you want.

I know it's silly, but one of my favourite things was to sit and roll characters in BG until I had a stat pool of 90+, lol.

Not 90, but it is unlikely that people didn't at least max their main stat and CON, since it was so easy to do. BG allowed you to sum your scores and reallocate them.
In BG3 I think they'll follow the PHB and roll 6 fixed scores that you them allocate into stats.

most definitely. BG was also broken in that classes with high min-stat requirements also rolled better than not.

getting over 90 on a base fighter is incredibly rare, with tops around 92, but a sorc or warlock can get up to 96 reliably. lol.