Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Astarion Multiclassing???

What are some good Astarion multiclassing ideas?

Right now, I'm thinking:

3 Thief
6 Fighter, two weapon fighting
3 Gloom Stalker

I don't know much about how multiclassing works in 5e.

Are there any good ideas for Astarion that anyone has? I really want to explore some build option ideas.

Give it a shot, worse case scenario is you just re roll.

Seems off ...
What is your goal with theese?

Doesn't his bite attack use a bonus action? You wouldn't want duel wielding competing with that. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE (bonus action)!

But ranger is probably his best multiclass option given his starting wisdom of 13. I don't really see a great deal of point in giving him fighter levels.

Monk is potentially an option, but again, may clash with his bite attack.

I came up with this idea on the fly. Can this work?

Rogue-Thief (8), Fighter-Champion (3) GOO warlock (1).

- Thief rogue for a bonus action, sneak attack, evasion, uncanny dodge
- Champion for better critical, should work very well with sneak attack which have a lot of damage dice and an extra attack with an extra BA
- GOO warlock so that your already better critical would also apply fear to enemies

Good question. I should've mentioned that.

I guess the idea is to make him dangerous. Deadly.

With this build, he gets:

-two bonus actions from thief. that's helpful for two weapon fighting, and since he can only bite once between rests, those two bonus actions should accommodate that, as well.
-two main attacks from his fighter levels, along with two ASI's.
-umbral sight from the gloom stalker levels. Now he can hide in the darkness even from those with dark vision.

So, it seems like he's a master of hiding, being in the darkness, and dangerous with blades.

The downside seems to be that I lose out on an extra ASI because I wanted those gloom stalker levels instead of pushing thief higher.


My only problem with this is that I lose the second attack option that I would otherwise get from fighter levels.

Other than that, the stuff like evasion might be worth it. I just don't know because I'm not all that familiar with 5e. I know a lot about bg3, but very little about 5e, so I'm learning. I'm trying to get my ducks in a row before release, lol.

Well, in PnP Champion Fighter is considered the most underpowered option in the game, and crit-fishing builds generally try to include some way to ensure advantage (since it doubles your chance of rolling a crit). Also add some half orc.

I am hoping Larian buff Champion in the same way they did the barbarian subclasses.

Uncanny Dodge and Evasion are okay, but not worth going out of your way to get. The problem with UD is it uses your reaction and only works against one attack. At higher levels monsters usually have at least 2 or 3 attacks, so dodging just one is probably not going to keep you alive.

The Feypact Warlock ability is different to PnP, but in PnP it has a saving throw which depends on Charisma. Asterion has a bad charisma score (an in PnP rules would simply not be allowed to multiclass to warlock).

In BG3 rogues seem like the only ones who can actually safely and consistently ensure this advantage with how stealth works. Actually going 5 Champ, 6 Thief allows you to hide -> Sneak Attack (Ranged) -> hide -> Sneak Attack (Melee) if you are going for damage. And 1 level in GOO warlock on top equals 4 attacks every turn, two main hand, two off hand, to fish for frightening criticals. It also seems like they are removing the abity requirements for multiclassing. At least it's how it seems on paper.

I gather stealth is being nerfed somewhat. Barbarians are good at gaining advantage with reckless attack. But enough rogue levels to bonus action hide also works.

I don't think you can qualify for a second off-hand attack. You certainly can't in PnP.

The extra bonus action (which can be used for a second off-hand attack) is, I think, a homebrew feature of the Thief subclass that I've assumed is to replace something or other in 5e RAW that Larian felt didn't translate well to a computer game, but I confess I've not looked into that further. I'm sure someone will already know

It is ...
There was some suggestions, like give Tief-Rogue a limitation "once per turn" to all Bonus Action ... well, Bonus Actions ... imho that would still help Tief-Rogue to feel better than some other classes, but it would be much more ballanced.
But as it seems from lack of any change, Larian likes it as it is.

Kinda odd imho that they dont allow us to Sneak Atttack by Bonus Action, as we should ...
But they let us Attack twice with Bonus Actions, as we shouldnt ...
Maybe there is some corelation? O_o

It looks like they have changed sneak attack so that it does work with bonus actions (it's a toggle now), so it may be that the extra bonus action is gone.

Im aware of the toggle ...
But that meaning offhand attack Sneak Attack is nothing but wild asumption. :-/

Since my initial first playthrough idea was just a dream mercilessly crushed by the upcoming out-of-nowhere changes, I think I'll opt to take this build for myself and go for a Dark Urge playthrough. Dual scimitars/shortswords madness with better fear-applying criticals seems like a perfect build for that mofo of an origin.

Is it a "wild" assumption that they will try to make the game worlk more like PnP rules?

Especially when, with multiclassing, an extra bonus action is so very very broken? There is a lot more you can do with a bonus action than make an off-hand attack. Hello quickened spell. Hello berserker frenzy.

Its a wild asumption that Larian sudently change their mind about something people keep complaining about for last 3 years with no response at all.

Larian make a point of not commenting on anything on the forums - if you want objective feedback it's a good idea not to influence the discussion!

Sneak attack worked the way it did in EA for technical reasons - they had not yet implemented the tech to make it togglable. Not because "Larian hate D&D rulz".

I see you asume much more than i thought...

Comment is not the only way to respond to things ...
Do you for example remember how people were complaining about cantrips creating surface effects? Larian responded.

Technical limits are nice excuse ...
Except they could have make it toggable since patch 1 ... not nearly as well as with curent reaction system (wich Nick himself admited they didnt plan originally at all), but it was totally possible by old togglable passives!
Also ... as far as i know, Larian never comented on their reasons ... so another asumption.

And finaly ... im not aware of any claim that Larian "hate DnD rules" ... so im not really sure what are you trying to say here.

Sure, it's guesswork. But since I have a masters degree in ICT, specialising in Project Management, it's my job to make these kinds of guesses all the time. It's not "wild", it's based on training and experience.

For example, they could have made a half-assed change earlier on. But they chose to test the system with the paladin smites (which work on bonus actions) first. They, once that works and proves popular, port it over to rogues. Much better practice. And you should NEVER announce changes ahead of knowing if they are actually going to work.

I've said this elsewhere but as it's relevant here I'll mention it again - trying to make sure as many people as possible see the info to help with their first playthrough planning

What I saw when I got to play a build of the full game on Friday last week was that Sneak Attack had been implemented into the reaction system. It looked like Divine Smite, in that there were two options, one for normal Sneak Attack and one for critical Sneak Attack.

For reasons I won't go into again here, I wasn't able to test out whether that worked for main hand, off hand and Attacks of Opportunity, but it feels like the natural assumption at this stage given the analogy with smiting. Though I guess we'll have to wait for the release proper, or some more detail to be published, before we know for sure.