Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Best build for fighting initialization (via initiative) / face?

Hi, i am planning to approach possible enemies first with one character alone while leaving the 3 companions behind, hidden, so they could approach independent from round based schedule. For this i guess i would need to build my frontliner (single char at the front) with a) high charisma for doing the dialogue options if aggressive enemies are not obvious b) tanky to take the first few hits (all concentrated on frontliner as others are hidden) c) with a high initiative bonus so that my frontliner does not suffer too many enemies in initiative first before the rest of the team can jump out of the shadows. Any suggestions?

Edit: or is this approach not worth the risk of late initiative (high damage)?

Barbarians get an initiative bonus, and theres a feat that gives +5 and surprise immunity.

Initiative itself is based off dex, so you could also have 16 dex on the barb, or use the 18 dex gauntlets.

If you really need speech skills on top as well you could dump dex, use the gloves, and go 20 str, 16 con, 16 cha?

For me Astarion with 20 dex always goes first even in act 3 encounters even without any investment in initiative, I think some of his gear also has +1 initiative too, so if speech stuff isn't necessary, go in for a sneak hit first with him then bring in the others. This can work even better if you make him an assassin, and is pretty much what that subclass is designed to do, one sneak hit first and you get another bonus action right after for a second attack.

Thanks for the quick response @DumbleDorf, i will consider ALERT feat. But i checked in fextralife wiki and nowhere i saw that Barbarians get an initiative bonus. Where is this stated and how high is it?
And is the 1 char only approach benefitial for battle outcome (you risk more but then have the advantage of sneak / hidden attacks from other companions who are then still outside of round based attack and can enter when its my front char*s turn - or was there a reroll of initiative when a new companion enters battle? Cant play the game now to test it as im on holiday).

Ignore that then, I thought I saw an initiative boost on Karlach while levelling her up, it was probably something else.

In which case just use a 20 dex assassin with a CHA dip, and you could use the expertise skill picks on speech skills if you wanted.

At level 7 barbarians get feral instinct which works pretty similar to the alert feat. I think the bonus to initiative is a bit smaller, but you still get immunity to being surprised.

That was it:

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Feral+Instinct

I didn't spot it when looking for it earlier as well.

So at 16 dex, a barb would still have 1 more initiative than a rogue at 20 dex, or 2 more if you use the dexterity gloves.

Gloom Stalker Level 3 may also be worth a look: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Dread+Ambusher

Jack of All Trades from bard is supposed to give you initiative bonus in 5e. Not sure if it does in bg3 but it should.

According to Fextrlife Wiki:
Unlike D&D 5e rules, Jack of All Trades does not appear to work on Initiative nor Counterspell (Magical Secrets).

I overlooked the Barb Lev7 +3 on initiative. So i'll either go with gloomstalker/assassin (Astarion) and High Dex or with Barbarian (Karlach) and feat Alert first and then at lev8 respec w/o Alert feat. Think i'm with Karlach as i never could really stand Astarions tone in EA and Karlach seems to be pretty fun, maybe invest some more CHA (14) and respec DEX after i got the gloves.

Barbarian 4 sorcerer 8 stand in the middle is basically how I fight Karlach

The shield spell mage outfit and Barbarians armour (or shield) basically make her impossible to kill if she gets the opening move

Shadow heart first level paladin to unlock heavy armour and weapons then cleric is also workable in this roll with her adamantine armour and shield she becomes the very definition of tank character