Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What Party Compositions Do You Prefer Based On Your Class?

I've been away from the game a bit, and with so much improvement, I'm just curious about what party combinations people are enjoying now. I found myself pretty lost when creating my Paladin, and I had no idea what party members complement the battles and the dialogue choices a Paladin has to make. Thanks, everyone, in advance for sharing your compositions!

Let me think...

- Martial classes, Paladin included, like Clerics, because gods Bless. They also like bards because of the bardic inspiration.
- Stealthy classes might also want a Trickery Domain Cleric aka Shadowheart for Blessing of the Trickster/Invoke Duplicity.
- Sorcerers and Wizards need some frontliner in the party to pull attention, otherwise themdead (except for Abjuration Wiz).
- Warlocks and Battlemasters like Bards, because of the extra short rest from the song.

Edit: Personally, I prefer to plan my comp based on initiative, because the most impactful turns are those when your characters act back to back. I usually make two characters with high INI and those get more likely to have a 'merged' turn before the enemies act. For example having a high DEX battlemaster (me) and a Thief (Astarion) going first in the same turn can delete one or two enemies instantly. They are adding Alert in the release version so I might have two characters take it just for the sake of those crazy big turns.

My rule of the thumb in ANY CRPG is that whatever I'm going to play I want my ideal party composition to cover as many bases as possible in terms of overall diversity: very distinct roles between characters, as many different races and backgrounds as possible included in the final setup,characters ideally using very different types of weapons, etc.

Admittedly I'm still conflicted on how I'll deal with the currently known options.

Does this approach work for you with the 'party face' system of BG3? It often sucks your MC into the cutscene and there is currently no way of taking over the convo with the other character or even delegating skill checks to companions.

I will build Minsk as a Tank: Breastplate, shield, and Faithbreaker.

Jahiera as support caster / crowd control / DPS spells / off tank shape shifter

Wyll as a spell DPS

Bard Main (2 level dip to paladin at level 7) Ranged / melee DPS / support as needed

My Charname is a Rogue, so I feel spoiled. I love Laezel, Shadowheart and Gale, my favourite companions also happen to be the best suited party for a Rogue - Warrior, Cleric and Mage.

And this game is not as hardcore as latest Pathfinder games, where party composition is actually important on higher difficulties. In BG3 anything will work, so just pick whatever you like more.

It's a principle I apply in general regardless of the direct benefits, because I simply enjoy experiencing as much variety as possible across a single playthrough (and while I MAY gladly choose to do multiple ones on my own and experience different things, I don't like to feel like I'm pressured into it out of strict necessity).

About that specific topic, I had a laser-targeted thread I made specifically to discuss it in the past:
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=101623&Number=826412#Post826412

And a key passage that to some extent answers directly your question may be this one:


Admittedly the entire thread is a bit redundant at this point. We'll see what Larian is setting for, but I kinda gave up on the idea of having "your party participate to the conversation".
I doubt it's going to happen even if Swen Vincke at some point promised it would.

I like Shadowheart, because she does a good job of being a healer and a rogue, thereby allowing Astarion to stay away from me.

After that, I have Wyll for DPS.

Lae' if I'm playing ranged.

Gale if I'm playing melee.

Tuco "I'll deal with the consequences and occasional shortcomings of being a barbarian if I have to."


Honestly it will just add to the flavor of the run.

In one playthrew i want to make a priest or paladin of bhaal and murder everyone in game and try ressurect bhaal.

In another I fancy making a cowardly bard who hates to fight and try and stealth and talk my way out of as much combat as possible poisoning goblins
And throwing in spectators and running away setting off traps and just being sneaky and avoiding fights

Im sorta planning on making custom characters for every slot in these playthrews

Team 1, bhaal cleric, paladin of bhaal (if it lets us pick a god) assasin and necromancer

Team 2, bard, trickery cleric, thief, a druid who focuses on summons to let the party avoid fighting directly

First normal play threw, minsc , Karlach, jaheera, tav bard to cover mage and theif roles

First bad play threw, minthara, lazel, tav cleric, astarian

So much fantastic feedback. Thank all of you for your thoughts. I thought Gale would be a good choice to keep at the party. He seems agreeable when I make decisions based on a good role. Wyll, I haven't gotten him yet, as I'm fairly new in my playthrough. I just arrived in the druid city, so I think he's there. I remember him being agreeable to making kind/good decisions. Ultimately, I'm trying to go through as a party full of do-gooders for my return. So that's the type of synergy I'm looking for, not so much who's the most powerful. This is my plan before I do my drow rogue playthrough. My goal is to see how differing each side of the story is.

Yep, Wyll is in the grove and definitely favours defending the weak … usually.

I agree with folk who say Shadowheart is a really useful party member. She can buff & heal, do reasonable spell damage, use a crossbow or even melee weapon in a pinch, really help your party with stealth, and open locks and disable traps given her Urchin sleight of hand proficiency.

She’ll grumble a bit if you go out of your way to be helpful, but generally (as an urchin background) favours helping the underdog and even reluctantly comes round to a level of do-gooding. If you take her at face value, help her out on the nautiloid, and don’t pester her for info she’s not ready to give, she comes across as friendly and appreciative and to me it can really feel in the course of early access that we’re laying the foundations of a real friendship. There is also reason to worry that we shouldn’t take her at face value and she is possibly cosying up to us and manipulating us for her own ends, but for the bit of the game we have I think she works perfectly well in a good party that’s at least minimally tolerant of different views.

Party composition:
Wizard (maybe divination)
Ranger (gloomstalker)
Cleric (Light)
Fighter (EK)- this depends on if they change how scrolls work. If its per 5e and theres plenty of scrolls ill enjoy EK more than BM.

Shadowheart is absolutely a useful character (all clerics are). She is well voiced, pleasant enough, AND has some major red flags. She has ties to the cult of Shar worshipers that is currently supporting the Absolute at the tower. While she is not a Dark Justiciar herself, she is certainly fiercely devout to their very same master.

I personally found her likable, but she reminds me of the serial killer that some poor girl took home to meet her parents.


The great thing is that you can keep your least favorite characters at camp and pull them out to see how their story arcs develop when its time to do their missions.

They are all fantastically voice acted (well maybe not Karlach), but each have an interesting hook.

Besides Class also Race matters. As a Drow I've found interactions with Absolutist Gawblins to be too easy, as I'm mistakenly taken to be Mithara's BoyToy/drinking buddy.

I will start with a paladin and try to pick companions I think is fun to have in the group and not necessarily to cover most bases.

If I had chosen a balanced party instead of who the paladin is compatible with I would go with:
* Me (paladin)
* Shadowheart (healer cleric with melee support)
* Astarion (ranged rogue or maybe even assassin)
* Gale (aoe spellcaster)

My plan is however, to pick a group like:
* Me (paladin)
* Karlach (melee DPS)
* Shadowheart (healer that I might give some rogue abilities)
* Gale (spellpower).

However, everything might change when we know the class of the new unknown companion. I hope that companion is a bard and then I might consider swapping out Karlach or maybe even Shadowheart if the bard has some healing power. Since the paladin can heal too it could be that a support healer is sufficient instead of a dedicated healer like a cleric. Shadowheart is less of a nuisance now than in the first early access versions so I don't mind having her in the group now.

As a paladin I would probably not get along with evil characters like Astarion and Laezel and struggle with characters like Wyll and maybe even Shadowheart. Both are neutral at best. Some say Wyll is chaotic neutral and Shadowheart is worshipping a neutral evil deity.

Karlach is supposed to be more towards lawful good. She is probably lawful neutral. Gale seems to have a personality compatible with a paladin. Maybe he is something like neutral good. I have a feeling the unreleased companion won't be aligned towards evil or chaotic so he / she could be an option too. A neutral good bard would fit many groups.

As companions we have fighter, barbarian, rogue, cleric, wizard and warlock covered. Halsin is a druid. Minsc is a ranger. Jaheira is a fighter / druid. Not sure which class Minthara is, but she seems to be a cleric, but some say she might be an evil paladin.

So for group balance the new companion would be a class we don't have yet. Bard is the most suited companion since it can be specced to replace Astarion or Shadowheart. We have enough melee companions and we have two spell dps toons too. A sorcerer would have been great in the group, but I doubt the new companion is that class. He / she could be a monk since the monk will be revealed in detail on Friday, but 3 melee companions seems to be too much. That's why I hope for a bard. Alfira would be perfect since she is revealed in chapter 1, but we saw her as a refugee in Baldur's Gate in a cutscene so I doubt we can pick her as a companion. That would also introduce a 2nd tiefling as a companion.

Knowing Larian I think they would let the new companion be from a race they don't have yet as a companion. Then dragonborn, half-orc or dwarf seems likely. We will know on Friday and can plan accordingly.

It might we will be encouraged to swap in and out companion members dependent upon certain quests so I e. g. might have to pick Astarion for trap heavy quests. Fortunately alignment is not part of BG3 so the paladin won't get punished for having evil characters in his group. In a PnP group I guess the DM would do something if the paladin associated himself with companions doing or saying bad things like Astarion does all the time. I wonder if a paladin would be obliged to destroy a vampire like Astarion if he had found out. Undead are supposed to be abominations for a paladin.

As paladin I might go for a half-elf vengeance paladin since they're supposed to be pretty uber, but I might go for a devotion paladin if I prefer the role playing aspect and not what's most useful for combat.

Karlach (barbarian\fighter as str based frontliner)
Tav (rogue\fighter as dex based archer)
Shadowheart (cleric as a divine caster)
Gale (wizard as a arcane caster)

I have mixed feelings about this. I want to pick the ones i´m closer to their personality but i fear i will lose some interesting storylines from the other party members.

Does anyone know if you lose the companion story if that companion doesn´t follow you when roaming around?

With a party of four I'll probably go with a warrior or some other heavy-armored class.
A priest or druid for melee damage and some healing.
And two ranged characters. A mage is a must, the second an archer or, as I planned for playing it regardless - a sorcerer.

When playing later, on lower difficulty I think I won't bother with any specific compositions and just go with whoever I like best?

I mean, these two things are one and the same for me. Variety is what makes the game fun.

If it was strictly from an utilitarian viewpoint I'm confident I could probably stomp this game no matter what party composition I'd use, even four characters of the same class.

In the same way I want to mod the game to use a larger party (if it will made viable) because I simply think it will be more fun, not out need.
I'm also confident that I would be able to beat this game even with 3 characters. Or two. Maybe even solo if I try hard enough to leverage everything I can get.