Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What is your party composition?

But none of this answers my question. And btw, my question was entirely sincere and serious. If I were forced to pick only one thing that says this is what defines D&D and makes it distinct from other similar high-fantasy RPGs, I would say that one thing is D&D's class system. For me, without many distinct classes, D&D is no longer D&D.


So then you agree that having different CLASSES of companions in your party composition matters, and saying 'party composition in 5e doesn't matter' is false.

Yes, I’d agree with that. As I said in my first response to this thread, I find there's a lot of flexibility in party composition in BG3, but I don’t think it’s true that party composition doesn’t matter at all. And personally, given BG3 was my first exposure to 5e, I also still find it helpful to consider traditional RPG roles when building a party, though those roles don’t need to be performed by specialist characters and can also be broken down to their component functions and shared out between characters, and some functions can be managed without if your party has a strategy for filling the gap.

I do think that most party compositions can probably be made to work, even ones without variety, but that’s going to make the game more of a challenge and limit options for ways combat and quests can be completed.

And I also think that any three of the existing pre-built companions Larian have provided could feasibly work with any main character, though again some combinations are going to be more of a challenge than others. (Eg a party with a caster MC who doesn’t take Lae’zel will need to think about how they’ll manage without a front line tank or how one of the other characters can be specced to function at least partly as one, and a party without Astarion or Shadowheart or a MC with good Dex/sleight of hand is going to struggle with lockpicking/traps.)

As I’ve mentioned, I find the 5e approach to classes and the four person limit forces me to think more deeply, and actually this helps me appreciate classes more. Rather than just “I need a tank”, I need to think about why I need a tank, ie what are the essential function(s) of that role in my party? And what are all the potential ways classes other than heavily armoured fighters could perform that function? I find this makes for more varied and interesting combat and general gameplay as well as a clearer understanding of the game systems and mechanics.

Thanks for a well-stated reply! And I would generally agree.

Although a BG1/2 veteran, I'm OK with four member party. I read about this size somewhere and used it my last nostalgic playthrough a few years ago. I'll never go back to six - four was so much easier to move about! And levelling up much quicker (which I believe is not an issue in BG3).

Nevertheless, sitting down to BG3 my mind defaulted to tank+lockpicker+healer+glass cannon.

But, as stated by several posters - those by the Red Queen struck a vein in particular - there is lots of overlap and flexibility provided by 5ed subclasses and backgrounds. BG3 does not have the narrow specialisation that BG1/2 had and e.g. Astarion can be used as a tank (TBH I've read that some cunning players - that's not me! - using magic items and buffs - made a very effective tank out of Viconia).

Nevertheless as Astarion rubs me the wrong way I could not imagine having him on board - yet I could not imagine NOT having a sapper/lock opener - my first CHARNAME was a high Dex Ranger with Urchin background. Only later did I notice (I'm not so quick thinking and 5ed is soooo different to what I was accustomed to) that Shadowheart makes an excellent (or adequate, YMMV) party sapper/thief. Only 3h gameplay lost

My current party is Shadowheart-Gale-Layzael-Paladin (I soooo original! Go me! :)). In the wild I lead with Miss Mysterious and Dangerous to know, for the traps, while in areas where I will talk with NPCs - with my Paladin.
No Astarion ever, whereas Wyll? Not anytime soon. I dropped out from CRPG before NWN and 4ed, thus the Warlock, Tieflings and Dragonborn are an unknown to me.

The transit from 3,5 to 5ed in general is hard enough for me, I am unlearning so many old concepts and mastering new ones that, besides Wyll simply not catching my fancy, discovering HOW exactly a Warlock works is too much for me.
So, maybe I will give the Warlock a trial run sometime later ...

I feel your pain! While I’d some minor experience with warlocks from NWN2, I never played that much and can’t recall how they worked, and prior to the start of BG3 early access pretty much all my D&D experience came from BG1 & 2, IWD and NWN, so getting to grips with 5e was some learning curve. I’ve never done so much offline homework for a game before! Hopefully the full release will have more in-game help for newbies to the ruleset.

I also struggled with Wyll to begin with, partly because (as per a separate discussion from a little while back) he’s not my favourite character, but also because he always seemed to miss and I made the mistake of trying have him use a rapier. Once I discovered the hex + eldritch blast classic warlock combo, selected the agonising blast improvement, boosted his CHA at level 4 and started making more use of his imp familiar for scouting, I found him more effective, and now often take him along and am slowly getting to grips with the different ways warlocks can be built and think it seems like a really fun class. Though except for Wyll, whose patron is in the game, I suspect that the richer relationship with a patron that can be developed in TT games will feel lacking in BG3. Which is one reason why I’m actually looking forward to the opportunity to play Wyll as an origin character, despite generally preferring to play custom Tavs.

I really love Shadowheart and Laezel, so these 2 will be a staple in all if my parties probably.

I’m going to play a Rogue, so having Gale for the last spot makes a perfect party of likeable characters.

Not sold on a vampire. That dude is out as minimum, or dead as maximum.

Based on who is most fun in the party with great comments and voice barks.
Astarion - plus his VA is fantastic
Laezel with Shadowheart- the conflict between them is great
If I don't play a custom character then I need to learn more about Karlach's character to choose the final spot.

I had the same problem with Wyll in combat at first. I also had him use a rapier because, well, he is known as the Blade of Frontiers. An excellent swordsman, not a wizard or sorcerer (I don't think a lot of people would publicly declare themselves warlocks). I don't know if the average inhabitant of Faerûn can distinguish between wizard/sorcerer and warlock spells, but either way: wouldn't it have been easier for Wyll to pose as a wizard or sorcerer? Eldritch blast is not very subtle, people might notice it...

With the hex/eldritch blast combo and agonizing blast, Wyll can keep up in battle very well, though it still feels a bit weird to not have him use his rapier at all.
I really like to have him in my party, he and my characters will agree on most issues, and I believe him that he sincerely wants to help others. He has his flaws, like every other companion (and my Tavs), but I think that makes him a much more complex and interesting character.

My current party consists of Wyll, Shadowheart, Astarion (Arcane Trickster) and my Wild Magic Sorcerer (I can't stop playing them), and it works really well.
But I haven't had a party composition yet that did not work. Sometimes it was a bit more challenging, but no matter how "weird" my party was, it was definitely possible to win a fight or achieve quest goals.

I do not choose my party members depending on their class or stats, but depending on which interactions I would like to have (e.g. a friendly rivalry between my sorcerer and Gale, the conflict between Lae'zel and Shadowheart,..) and what fits best for story reasons (having Wyll in my party for the goblin camp, Lae'zel for the Githyanki patrol etc.).

My focus is on interactions with my party and on a story, dialogues with companions are always my favourite part in an RPG. I like being able to concentrate on this and to not having to choose my companions dependent on which role/class is missing in my group.



I can only agree. I wonder if these two will ever get to the point where they at least respect each other


I agree once more, the voice acting is phenomenal, I think Neil Newbon had a lot of fun playing Astarion (I think all the voice acting in BG3 is fantastic).

I almost always have Astarion in my party - although he is definitely not the nicest person around, I think he is the most entertaining one. And I think, like each of our companions, he is a quite complex character. I wonder which influence this whole "adventure" and the interaction with our player character will have on him.

As somebody who has played a lot of 5E, both as a player and as a DM, I find the classes to be exquisite. Each class has a distinct identity and set of mechanics, but many can be built in a variety of ways to fulfill different rolls in the party. I’m personally a fan of building warlocks into quasi-rogues. My first 5E character was a multiclass rogue warlock, and there is some great synergy there, and it’s also fun to roleplay.

I think the smaller party size works quite well. In 2E, fighters and low level warriors didn’t have much to do besides hold the line. In 5E you have broader action economy, so each individual character is doing more. A 6 character party in BG3 would lead to more tedious fights, I think, and would be more difficult to balance.

Party composition matters in BG3, but if you want to build an odd ball party the game is still doable. You just need to more carefully consider your tactics. I’ve played without tanks. I’ve played with no casters. I did a really fun solo warlock run. I did one playthrough that was a small assassins guild, with a warlock and three rogues. That the system affords all of these approaches lends the game a great deal of replayability.

My personal favorite composition is a tiltshifted classic party.

Barbarian
Druid
Trickster Rogue
Warlock

I think my first run of the finished game will be:

Monk
Jaheira
Minsc
Karlach

This also isn’t THAT different from the older games, where you could also play with non-traditional compositions just fine. My first party in BG1 was:

Fighter
Imoen (rogue)
Branwen (cleric)
Viconia (cleric)
Yeslick (fighter / cleric)
Kivan (ranger)

Not balanced at all but still functional and I had a good time. Just ended up summoning swarms of undead around enemies and ranging them down while they were locked dealing with my army of the undead. Good times.

It depends on Tav, you should be covering your weaknesses to ensure a viable counter for every encounter. My personal recommendation is:

Tav: companions can be replaced, the pc can't, I build tav as a tank, last man Standing. Usually pick a two handed cleric of community domain or war, yes community is not offical i like homebrew.. Taking varient human for defensive feats like uncanny dodge or resilient. Stacking AC to max, while maxing constitution, and wisdom / intellect save throws.

Wyll: run him as a agonizing blast Warlock, his goal is to yeet enemies of ledges to their demise.

Astarion: only useful as a glorified door opener, generally go eldritch scoundrel as astarion is useless with a bow. His cantrips and spells can make him good, outside of stealth cheese. His vampire abilities will likely benefit from it at level 8.

Shadowheart: not a fan, gale is all around better, can learn scrolls allowing him to heal instead. As a cleric I have goodberry so shadow is not needed.

Laz: only use her to disarm enemies. She is decent, unfortunately she is a fighter, which are worst version of maleee fighters. Always multiclass her into a berzerker. The results are very powerful

Keeping the Mottled Toad and the Flop-eared Fatty in the party for their bickering is entertainment gold.
And the two Prom Queen candidates are either very strong - or simply easy to use by 5ed challenged players like me.
Oh, yes! I understand this very well. See, I played BG1/2 in two language versions.
Some of the Companions I never used - regardless of how useful/interesting plotwise they were - because I found their voices/accents insufferable. And then suddenly they became palatable and playable when I installed the English version (worked the other way too, a few had English VA which turned them into "lolnope" material).

My party will be women only. Their classes and alignments are of lesser concern.

Always Lae'zel + Shadowheart + Gale

And for the main char :
I tried druid and paladin...
For the release it will be multiclass PAL 2 (3 if Oath of vengeance is available) / BARD for the rest

BG2 : Tank fighter(blackguard), Barbarian, Mage/Thief, Bard (blade), Cleric/Thief and Sorcerer. 18 playable npcs class combinations.

BG3: Barbarian, Bard, Thief and Sorcerer. (YAWN) 8 playable npcs class combinations.

BG4: Mage, Fighter, Thief. (BIGGER YAWN) 4 playable npcs class combinations.

BG5 = The Witcher

I will bring Astarion and probably multi him into cleric because he has the wisdom for it and I need a buff/heal bot.
I will probably bring SH, and turn her into a Monk, because she has the stats for it and it would be cool.
I will bring Gale because his story excites me and I need an arcane caster, even though I think Wizards are sub-par compared to other arcane options.
I will probably run my first campaign playing as Lae'Zel origin xd.
Wyll won't be in my party because I will slaughter every tiefling I will ever encounter ^^

BG3:

Me (sorcerer or paladin) → charisma character and damage dealer
Lae'zel → damage dealer and crowd control (battlemaster)
Shadowheart → heal and thief skills
Gale if my char is paladin, Jaheira/Minsc if my char is sorcerer

BG2:

Me (berserker→mage) → best class in the game
Keldorn → anti-mage
Jaheira → tank and druid
Anomen → tank and buffer
Jan/Imoen → thief and caster
Edwin → arcane caster


BG:

Berserker → tank and damage dealer
Jaheira → tank and druid
Kivan → ranged damage dealer
Coran → thief and ranged damage dealer
Edwin → arcane caster
Baeloth → arcane caster

Was Halfling Rogue & Wood Elf Ranger till Bard came out. Then Halfling Bard and Wood Elf Ranger, both custom.

When the game goes live it'll be Halfling Bard solo, kind of wonder who will be a popular pick for companions when it goes live.