Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What character(s) will you make first?

I mistyped, I meant to type ranger not fighter.... you can see I was half asleep when I wrote it. Meant to say 6 EK, 3 Ranger, 1 Rogue, 2 warlock

Ah ok. Then I hope for you that there are no nasty surprises / limitations and you can dip your char into all your desired (sub)classes.

Shadow Monk first, wood elf or goth

Draconic sorcerer dragonborn second

Moon druid half orc, with a sprinkle of monk on top, third

No one wants to play Rogue? Except couple of people who want to splash a couple of Rogue levels to multiclass.

Why is that? Are they bad?

Can't say that I found rogue particularly enjoyable, either in BG3 EA or PnP.

"Bring 'em on, I'd prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around."

I do, main Thief (in every game) but I had already answered that in older threads and didn't have the muse to repeat myself until now....

VHuman - Thief (12) joining the Zhentarim / The Guild
VHuman - Lore Bard (6) / Storm Sorceress (6) focus on heal and ice (air & water) magic

These two are set in stone.

Not possible yet Shield Dwarf Artificier (Guild Artisan) maybe with a BM dip but perhaps I can reflavour another class. But I am still struggling with it -.-

Last 4th party slot I am also struggling between:

Tiefling Berserker maybe multiclassing
VHuman Arcane Trickster (4) / Illusionist (8)
Any Fiendlock (4) / Necromancer (8)

Mostly to cover bounty hunting, interrogating (Speak with Dead) flavours. But hopefully I don't have to make hard decisions and can at least have a party of five...?

I love playing Rogues. They are a great time. But it’s my most played class in the EA, so for my main runs I’m playing other classes.

The main reason is that you can not use daggers on Rogue in a way you may think, the dagger in 2nd hand is much weaker then the first, instead of doing 1D6 + BONUS, +1d6 from the right hand, the 2nd dagger only does somewhere between 2-4 damage with no bonus action. This is because 5th ed only provides 2 actions (main and bonus). You do more damage throwing a stone at an enemy then using your bonus action to stab.

Your much better to use any other weapon outside of dagger, as daggers are not exclusive to stabbing in bg3. Spears, and Swords all use strength and can still be used to stab with, all while wielding a shield +2AC. Only reason you need Rouge is for the proficiency as it makes you do a lot more (knife master, hence level 3), and improves odds of landing it a lot. Knowing how broken stealth is in BG3 due to dos, Rogue 1-3 is ideal, beyond that you hit no value.

This problem is also in pathfinder. Taking 2 berserker, 2 fighter, and 2 blood rager gives you almost 2X damage then doing any of the classes exclusive to 6

This is a weird post full of tangents and misinformation.

Who said anything about daggers?
Daggers do 1d4.
Knife Master is not a 5E or BG3 subclass.
If by stab you mean sneak attack- you cannot use spears to sneak attack. Only ranged weapons and finesse weapons.
The point of a high level rogue is the high sneak attack bonus damage. There is little value in taking 1 to 3 levels of rogue outside of flavor, as multiclassing is much weaker in 5E. This isn’t Pathfinder (thank Odin).

You can use short swords or rapiers with high DEX to dual wield if you don’t like the d4 daggers, and with two-weapon fighting feat you get damage bonus for your offhand attack as well. All that with Sneak Attack makes Rogue a decent striker. Yeh 5E forcing to take bonus action for off hand attack sucks, but what can we do.

• A dragonborn spores druid, folk hero or outlander background (still deciding)
Themes: divination, necromancy, nature, medium, the cycle of life and death

• A Seldarine drow trickery cleric, Charlatan background
Themes: deception, infiltration, fire, faith, revolution

• A Wood elf Shadow Monk 7/Assassin Rogue 5, urchin background
Themes: loyalty, found family, stealth, duty

You hit the nail on the head, it's not 1d6, it's 1d4, I just misremebered because of how brain dead stupid this rule is because we always change this in homebrew. Daggers at terrible.

*sneak attack* as in getting a surprise round and getting the accuracy bonus. Even cantrips benefit from it if you use hide. Now regarding spears from my memory they are not finesse your right. That's a common complaint in dnd also from my memory. Something larian should change

No, sneak attack is a rogue class feature where once per round you can increase the damage of your attack significantly as long as you are attacking an enemy who engaged with at least one other opponent or if you have advantage on your attack roll. It scales with your rogue level and is one of the main reasons to play a rogue. It is why you usually should not multiclass a rogue if you care about optimization, as there aren’t many multiclass options that will improve the raw damage output of just being a straight rogue.

This is very similar to what I'm planning for my 2nd playthrough! I played a gith barb for around 30 hours in EA and really enjoyed my time with him and Lae. For that reason, I decided to bring him back for the actual game and jotted down some backstory for him. Unlike Lae'zel, he's not going to be a warrior but a g'lathk, a member of the caste that is in charge of procuring food and materials for the Gith colonies. It's impossible to normally grow crops in the astral plane where time doesn't flow so this small group of farmers/animal breeders is always trying to figure out ways to provide resources for the rest of the Githyanki. My barbarian would basically be a survivalist crossed with a gardener and nutritionist who spends his time traveling from planet to planet looking for seeds and animals that can adapt and survive in extreme conditions. He'd be extremely fascinated by Faerun and will encourage Lae'zel to try all the weird exotic things such as food and petting cats lol. I'm chosing to make him a barbarian over, let's say, ranger, because I like the idea that the planets he'd be sent to scout and explore would be like our prehistoric Earth, inhospitable and extremely dangerous, populated by giant creatures and dangerous tribes. A ranger simply wouldn't cut it XD.

As per my first playthrough, I'm planning on creating my Seldarine Drow Bard Malrith. I was hoping we'll get access to college of Whispers but Swords will do. After all, it goes well with the cult of Eilistraee and all that jazz. She's a bard from New Olamn who spent her formative years working for the Xanathar guild in Skullport, below Waterdeep so her and Gale are compatriots. She mostly dealt in secrets and espionage and was a bit of a race grifter... taking advantage of the fact that most people fear drow, she often made people believe she was kinda of a big deal and that the entire Menzobaranzan would hunt down whoever dared to cross her (a bard can be really convincing even when they're clearly spouting nonsense) but in reality she's quite the soft-hearted type.

I will play my gnome arcane trickster as second playthrough. Since I played EA with her only a short while ago, I will go first with a bardlock, but I love rogues, especially arcane trickster.

Can we get sneak attack with cantrips and ray / touch spells in 5E like we do in Pathfinder? Can someone confirm?

How "Evil" is the path of joining Zhentarim? Makes sense for a Thief, but Zhentarim is waay too cruel..

If the zhents are too cruel for this character’s play through then possibly the Harpers would be the way to go on this run. I am still hoping for a meaningful way to become a shadow Druid.

First of all, I am the leader of a band of mercenaries. I am my own master. Even if I have to act against some goals of the Zhenatrim, as long as I justify them well and survive even minor incidents (competition for power) with the Zhentarim or have the power to stop them, everything is good and even in accordance with the Zhentarim (second belief): "You are the master of your own destiny. Never be less than what you deserve to be." Source: https://travelogue.fandom.com/wiki/The_Zhentarim#Beliefs
This means I can decide to use the Zhentarim connections for good or bad like Itachi Uchicha who continued to protect his village from the shadows as a renegade and outcast. Those who are familiar the series know what I mean.

Also, I support the Zhentarim in their realignment: "In recent years, the Zhentarim have become more visible in the world at large, as the group works to improve its reputation among the common people. The faction draws employees and associates from many walks of life, setting them to tasks that serve the goals of the Black Network but aren't necessarily criminal in nature. Agents of the Black Network must often work in secret, and are frequently proficient in Deception. They seek aid from the wizards, mercenaries, merchants and priesthoods allied with the Zhentarim." Source: http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/background:faction-agent

Are they still too cruel or Larian has not designed the solutions etc. pp. so well for a "grayish" playstyle. Then I can still wipe them, after all I have already infiltrated them by then. The same goes for The Guild. Hopefully both can be joined and betrayed as needed, depending.

No. Literally everything this poster said has been incorrect. I don’t know what’s up with that.