Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Elite Build - Cursed Battlemage - Dwarf - Wizardlock

This one is a little harder to finagle and is a bit gear dependent. The problem with most Wizard builds is the enemy seems to make a beeline for them so this is designed to make them a lot tougher and to maybe deter enemies from going after you and providing a neat little damage boost.

Start with a Shield Dwarf as your selected race.


Then Choose Wizard.

Starting stats:
Str: 12
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 11 (18 with the Headband of Intellect)
Wis: 10
Chr: 15 (Will be 16 with the Ersatz Eye)

Skill choice doesn't really matter.

The other people in your group or your other companions will have to carry you a bit until you get to the blighted village. Your most reliable attack will be a light crossbow.

Gear Needed:
Warped Headband of Intellect - Blighted Village 3 ogres.
Scale Mail +1 (Remember Dwarf gives you Medium armor proficiency)
Volo's Ersatz Eye - Use to raise your Charisma by +1 (can be stolen from Volo in the Grove)
Light Crossbow for Ranged attacks
Necklace of missiles (adds damage to Magic Missile)
Amulet of Elemental Torment is also good.

Cantrips choose - Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp and Blade Ward
You get the Flame Bolt scroll on the Nautaloid so you should never choose that.

At Level 2 Select Evocation as your Subclass.

At Level 4 select Magic Initiate: Warlock.

Select Hex as your 1st Level spell, then Eldritch Blast and whatever else.

So Hex is the big spell you want here because it adds 1d6 to all damage you do when there is an attack roll. So Scorching Ray will jump to 3d6 damage per Ray x 3 = 9d6 or up to 9-54 damagee per cast.

All your Attack roll cantrips will gain an additional 1d6 damage versus that target. Note: Magic Missile does NOT work with this - as there is no attack roll.

As usual Hex is cast as a Bonus action and can be re-applied.

Now OBVIOUSLY this build will be WAY stronger once we get Sorcerer in here because the synergies will be better.

And of course you are rolling with 17 AC with the Scale Mail +1 - I would also grab the Sword of Justice and throw Tyr's Protection on you for 19 AC - free of charge. Then swap it with the any other weapon.

On top of this you have Poison resistance and Advantage on poison saving throws from Shield Dwarf racial.

Last tip, if you do get charged at your go-to should always be Shocking Grasp because 1)it is a melee range spell so no disadvantage on attacks and 2) it can take away your opponents reaction so you don't have to use disengage to run away.

Still a bit of a work in progress as I am looking for more gear-related synergies, but if you are sick of having your mage get steamrolled its a nice solution.

Final word: This is an EA, limited to level 4 and single class Frankenstein build. Its not intended for the larger game with 10+ levels and Multiclass where there are better ways to do this sort of thing. This is not a build for beginners either. Too many little details.

Feel free to corect me ...
But doesnt them both (Tyr's Protection and Hex) require concentration, and therefore excluding each other? O_o

And if not ... remember to do this trick before combat, since equiping weapon costs action now.

I prefer making my wizard a Githyanki and abjuration school, 2h sword for melee and use of mage armor for arcane armor+ tadpole reflect power. I feel it has better survivability.

I mean, I'm not sure I'd call any build 'elite' when its description involves "Your mates will have to carry you levels 1-3, at level 4 you'll be pretty sweet, then at level 5-7 you'll be about as comparable as any other purely directed caster doing similar things, while at level 8 and beyond you'll be utterly gimped and crutched compared to your companions who, by that point, have 18 or above in their core stat, while you have to keep a particular helmet welded to your head for all time, in order to be just slightly *worse* than them."


You can't. That's not how Twin Spell works.

Would not Half-Elf (High) work better for this, given the innate CHA bonus

They just have to carry you until Blighted Village, which yes will likely be level 3, which is 900 experience. Its about 15% into EA.

I can only account for Levels 1-4 as that is all we have. Once we have full levels and multiclass this build goes out the window.

I assume you referring to the fact that twin spell requires you to choose a second target - which wouldn't have Hex. Fair point.

I myself am critical of this build because I think its a lot of work for a minor payoff, but sort of a funny synergy. In real 5e with all classes and multi available it would make way more sense to multiclass.



Yes, you would of course do it before combat and then unequip it. And also you would have to choose to use Hex and drop your Tyr's protection or not. This would be a situational decision depending on the targets in the environment. A high target environment it would make sense to keep the Protection up and focus on shatter, thunderwave, magic missile. A single high health target I would go with the Hex to up the damage on scorching ray.

But then you would lose the ability to wear Light and Medium Armor which is a big part of the defensive build.

In 5E if you are proficient in armor you can wear it while spellcasting.

Yeah, that's a solid direction to go in. You lose out on Darkvision, and the ability to wear medium armor, and the ability to cast evocation without harming companions in range but you are def better protected.

I feel like the build I put together is designed to weld protection and aggressive casting into a single build - which is something lost on abjuration builds.

How often did you find yourself getting hit by sleep?

Not gonna lie, that is a weakness with the build - but one shared by Tieflings, Githyanki, Humans, and Halflings as well. It doesn't happen often but it can happen.

The bigger problem that this attempts to solve is the Low-AC mage getting steamrolled by the enemy AI which targets either mages or lowest AC individuals. Sleep is less of a problem than getting downed in round 1 or 2 and then being a liability for the rest of the encounter while the AI continually re-targets you and knocks you out. I have seen it, so many times. Its like you may as well not even bring a mage.


If you can rock 19AC - you just won't get targeted as much and they will connect much less often. You also save a 1st level spell slot.

Cool. I can dig that.

Thanks

Let me tell you, Blackheifer:

i was OK with your rogue, haven't tried your cleric.

BUT THIS TOON.

This right here. She just ended up soloing the spider queen at level 3. Very tough to kill, and now that she has the headband, can cast like any other wizard.

Holy crap! I think that's more on the skill of the player there. I haven't tried that myself!

LOL. How?!

Of course, the Poison damage resistance and advantage on Poison saving throws from being a Shield Dwarf probably helped.

That was it. The poison wiped out the rest of the party, and i had enough heal pots to power thru with the spells until I got the matriarch down. Then it was just a matter of cleaning up the trash. Took a LONG time, but it worked.

Happy Dance! Thank you! So awesome!

That's fair,

For Twin spell, though, as well as it being necessarily two targets, it also requires that the spell being twinned is *incapable* of targeting more than one creature at the level at which you cast it - not just that you 'do' target only one creature (as with war caster's reaction cast), but literally that the spell cannot be made to do otherwise, so sadly Scorching Ray (which does have excellent hex synergy) is never appropriate for Twin.

As a general rule of thumb, if there's ever an ability or class perk that mirrors another one, or two that are similar in nature, and one is stronger than the other, and you can't recall which version is the one that Sorcerers get... it's the weaker, more limited or less useful one. Always. We get the shaft every time.