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

Rolls 6 abilities ... crap reloads. Rolls 6 abilities ... crap lol. What I'll probably do is roll once, if the point buy would be better, I'll take that instead. I'm not spending hours rolling characters, like I did for Warriors of the Eternal Sun. But hey good for you rollers. I don't need to power game.

Baldur's Gate 2 is way more fun when you don't reroll your stats. I played with a Wizard with just 73 max stats on total and was very fun and challenging.

That ain't a good example since Wizards don't need anything other than 18 in INT. Edwin had less than 73 I believe, and he was the strongest Wizard companion.

Character Name: "Fights Neked" (placeholder)

Half-Elf Totem Barbarian: 3rd Wolf, 6th Tiger

Strength: 16 (15+1)
Dexterity: 14
Con: 16 (15+1)
Int: 8
Wis: 8
Charisma: 12 (10+2)

15 AC without armor, so dress as you please.
Urchin: Thieves Tools, Disguise kit, Slight of Hand, Stealth,
Athletics, Perception (Class),
Persuasion, Deception (Race),
Acrobatics, and Survival (Tiger).

Take Great Weapon Fighter at 4 (for 2-3 attacks at level 5)

The Strength of this wolf is in the pack.
(all melee gets advantage on target + 5' ie Boss).

NPC #1 Lae' zel Fighter Melee


NPC#2 "Brains" (Placeholder)

Half-Elf Moon Druid

Strength: 8
Dexterity: 8
Con: 10
Int: 16 (15+1)
Wis: 16 (15+1)
Charisma: 16 (14+2)

Weakling who takes on the physical attributes of the animal they shift into.
Now you can have a multi-attack bear with "pack tactics" when Neked rages close by.

Take Observant at level 4 for a passive investigation & Perception of 21
Take those feats and others appropriate

NPC#3 "Bones" (Insert name here)

Half-Elf Life Cleric

Strength: 15 (14+1) For Plate
Dexterity: 10
con: 14
Int 10
wis 16 (15+1)
Charisma 10 (8+2)

Healer, buffs, cantrip / mace + Spiritual weapon.
Situational concentration spells:
Spirit Guardians in heavy traffic
Beacon of Hope for saves and heals
Bane or Bless
Channel divinity heals

Here is a nice tool to make characters:

Point buy calculater

Now Warlocks are crazy fun to play!

Tiefling is a good choice here, but the very versatile Half-Elf shines brighter yet again.

Stats

Now at level 4 you can take the Elven accuracy feat to bump you to 18 charisma and have even better accuracy when you get advantage on attacks.
Advantage is easy to get with a Warlock if you use the Darkness/Devil's sight combo or Hunger of Hadar later on (provided they put the latter in).

I like this background with Titania as a patron (Cuz she is Chaotic Good). Evil characters feel icky to me (personal preference).

Archfey

This background is really nice for a ranged blaster, as you can use a reaction to teleport 60' and turn invisible should you get hit.

Spells are sparse, but you get them back after a short rest. I usually pick out of combat utility spells along with a selection of in combat spells to pick from such as:

Darkness, Hex, Mirror image, and Armor of Agathys.

Eldritch invocations are abilities that can be chosen as you progress and are quite powerful. Agonizing blast is pretty staple.

Eldritch Invocations

Warlock Spells

Class Overview


Eldritch Blast is a cantrip that you can cast without a spell slot. It has a 120' range and uses force damage (rarely resisted). cast 2 blasts when you reach character level 5.

So I finally decided on a build for my Warlock/ Wizard. That's assuming the Hexblade subclass makes it in the game, at some point. This will be my first Warlock ever.

Build Name: The Witchblade - https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/Merlex/characters/27170402

Variant Human Hexblade Warlock 5/ Wizard 5

Strength: 8
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 16 (15+1)
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 16 (15+1), 18 (16+2 at 5th lvl)

Racial Skill: Perception.
Class Skills: Arcana, Deception.
Sage Skills: History, Persuasion.

Languages: Common, Deep Speech, Infernal, Abyssal.

Feats: War Caster (1st), Charisma +2 (6th), Great Weapon Master (10th).

Invocations: Devil's Sight, Agonizing Blade, Thirsting Blade

Warlock Spells: Eldritch Blast, Minor Illusion, Friends, Armor of Agathys, Arms of Hadar, Hex, Darkness, Dispel Magic

Arcane Tradition: School of Abjuration: Abjuration Savant, Arcane Ward

Wizard Spellbook:
0. Ray of Frost, Toll the Dead, Mage Hand, Blade Ward.
1. Shield, Absorb Elements, Sleep replaced with Tasha's Hideous Laughter at Wiz 3rd, Feather Fall, Find Familiar, Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages.
2. Web, Misty Step, Levitate, Invisibility.
3. Counter Spell, Slow.

Total Spellslots: 1st - 4, 2nd - 3, 3rd - 4.

Character Progression: Warlock lvl 1-2, Wizard lvl 3-7, Warlock lvl 8-10. At 4th you can get the Arcane Ward + Armor of Agathys combo going. Use Rapier and Shield until lvl 8, when you get Pact of the Blade. Then you can switch to a two handed weapon.

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Build Name: Spartan Crusader - https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/Merlex/characters/27043085

Mountain Dwarf Fighter 8/ Cleric 2

Strength: 17 (15+2), 18 (17+ 1 at 7th lvl)
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 17 (15+2), 18 (17+1 at 7th lvl)
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 14
Charisma: 8

Racial Abilities: Dwarven Resilience, Dark Vision, Smith's Tools.
Class Skills: Athletics, Perception.
Soldier Skills: Intimidation, Religion, Land Vehicles, Dragon Chess Set.

Languages: Dwarvish, Common.

Feats: Polearm Master (5th), Strength +1 Constitution +1 (7th), Sentinel (9th).
Fighter Features: Second Wind, Action Surge, Battle Master, Extra Attack, Know Your Enemy.
Fighting Style: Dueling (Spear and Shield).
Maneuvers- 5 Superiority Dice (d8): Lunging Attack, Goading Attack, Distracting Strike, Maneuvering Attack, Evasive Footwork.

War Domain: War Priest, Channel Divinity: Guided Strike.

Spells Prepared:
0. Guidance, Spare the Dying, Resistance.
1. Bless, Guiding Bolt, Healing Word, Divine Favor.

Character Progression: Fighter lvl 1-2, Cleric lvl 3, Fighter lvl 4-9, Cleric 10. Save your War Priest Feature for tougher enemies, 2 uses per long rest. Use Polearm Master on the weaker ones. Both are bonus actions.

Taking a second look at what will be available at early access I think this build would be a very fun scout / face for the party build
and assumes that feats might not be ready by then.

A stealthy Great Old One Warlock:

GOO Lock

Patron Details

Class

Backstory: No pact required, you could have simply stumbled across some ancient writings: "The Great Old One might be unaware of your existence or entirely indifferent to you, but the secrets you have learned allow you to draw your magic from it."

Background Urchin: Stealth, Sleight of hand
Disguise kit, thieves tools (Like Sven I enjoy sneaky exploration)
class: Deception, Intimidation (Different tools for the face of the party)
race: Persuasion, insight (again for social interaction)

Level 2 pick up agonizing blast + 1 other invocation
Level 3 Pact of the chain and trade you second invocation for Voice of the Chain Master.

You can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar's senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. Additionally, while perceiving through your familiar's senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.

You can now scout the entire map with your invisible Pseudodragon having +3 perception with advantage. Additionally you can safely initiate dialog through your familiar with your own voice...sounds like crazy RP fun.

Levels 4 and 8: max out charisma.

Many usefull spells in the GOO list. including clairvoyance, dominate X, Evard's Black Tentacles (handy for a blaster to hide behind), and Telekinesis.
It will be interesting to see how these are implemented, but in early access we are pretty much testing them out.

Watching Sven slap creatures around made me think that repelling blast would be tones of fun! (If the blast doesn't kill you the fall may hurt worse).
Pulling creatures may be also viable but there are many good invocation possibilities including being a master of disguise or casting silent image at will for some thematic shenanigans.

Finally the 10th level "temporary capstone":

Thought Shield: Starting at 10th level, your thoughts can't be read by telepathy or other means unless you allow it. You also have resistance to psychic damage, and whenever a creature deals psychic damage to you, that creature takes the same amount of damage that you do.

Oh this wouldn't be handy at all in a boss fight against Mindflayers....throwing Mind Blast at you.

Afterthought: as a Chain GOO can I sneak up with my invisible familiar and intimidate you telepathically? (Telepathy is a 1st level feature)

Magic-Users (Wizards) are my favorite class. Back in the AD&D (1e) days, I had a DM who told me straight up he HATED M-Us. This was after we started playing. And he'd DMed accordingly. Even when it came to magic items I got, if I survived that long, they were Druid or Cleric types. So I switched to an Archer-Ranger, spent 2 hours filling out his ridiculous 10 page character sheet. Then he killed the whole party 5 minutes in, because he decided to go roller skating. Needless to say, I never played with him again. I started DM-ing after that. Rarely getting to play as a character. I tried as a DM to make sure everyone was having fun. I was the story teller, the neutral referee, not the opponent.

When I first started posting on this thread, I missed the whole point of the thread. Early Builds, as in early access.
OK so in early access, we have 6 classes with 13 sub-classes. No multi-class nor feats at least not at first. And no ritual casting. Early access will be for the first part of the adventure. Since they have sub-classes, we can assume that it will go to at least 3rd level. I'm betting 4th level maybe? That all being said, here are a few 4th level builds:

Thief Acrobat: https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/Merlex/characters/27662757

Lightfoot Halfling- Rogue 4
Sub-class: Thief

Strength: 12
Dexterity: 16 (14+2)/ 18 (16+2 at 4th level)
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 12
Charisma: 14 (13+1)

Racial Features: Lucky, Brave, Nimbleness, Naturally Stealthy.
Background: Criminal: Criminal Contact. Skills: Sleight of Hand, Stealth. Tool Proficiencies: Dice Set, Disguise Kit.
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Thieves Tools.
Skill Expertise: Sleight of Hand, Stealth.
Class Features: Fast Hands, Second-Story Work.

If I were to keep playing this build after early access (maybe), I'd go straight Thief. I'd pick Perception and Acrobatics for Expertise at 6th level, take Crossbow Expert at 8th level, and max out Dexterity at 10th level.
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Red Priestess: https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/Merlex/characters/27630498

Human- Light Domain Cleric 4

Strength: 10 (9+1)
Dexterity: 14 (13+1)
Constitution: 15 (14+1)
Intelligence: 14 (13+1)
Wisdom: 16 (15+1)/ 18(16+2 at 4th)
Charisma: 9 (8+1)

Background: Hermit: Discovery Feature (Lord of Light: must burn the infidels). Skills: Perception, Insight.
Domain Features: Warding Flare, Channel Divinity: Turn Undead, Radiance of the Dawn.
Class Skills: Medicine, Religion.

Spells Prepared:
Cantrips: Light (bonus), Guidance, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying, Resistance.
1st: Burning Hands (always prepped), Fairy Fire (always prepped), Bless, Guiding Bolt, Healing Word, Shield of Faith.
2nd: Flaming Sphere (always prepped), Scorching Ray (always prepped), Aid, Blindness- Deafness, Lesser Restoration, Spiritual Weapon .

I will play this build after early access. I will take a 2 level dip in Evocation Wizard for the Sculpt Spells feature. I will also take Resilient: Constitution at 4th level, and hold off on boosting Wisdom until character level 10 (Cleric 8th).
I will post the full build closer to full release.
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Arcane Archer: https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/Merlex/characters/27655743

High Elf- Eldritch Knight Fighter 4

Strength: 8
Dexterity: 17 (15+1)/ 18 (17+1 at 4th level)
Constitution: 15/ 16 (15+1 at 4th level)
Intelligence: 16 (15+1)
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 8

Racial Traits: Dark Vision (60'), Fey Ancestry, Keen Senses, Trance.
Background: Sage: Researcher Feature. Skills: Arcana, History.
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Perception.
Fighting Style: Archery.
Class Features: Second Wind, Action Surge, Weapon Bond, Spellcasting.

Spells Known:
Cantrip: Mending (racial bonus), Blade Ward, Mage Hand.
1st: Absorb Elements, Shield, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Mage Armor (4th level)

I will not be playing this build in full release. Though I may revisit the concept, with a complete reworking as a Wizard.