Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Jack-of-all-Trades achievement build

Has anyone given any thought to an approach for a build taking a single level in each class, as per the Jack-of-all-Trades achievement?

I'm planning a Durge, more evil playthrough next, but as I know I'll probably find that more of a struggle to keep at than the sort of chaotic do-gooder I prefer, I'm thinking of running a silly jack-of-all-trades character in parallel, so I can dip into that if I feel I need a bit of a break from the dark.

Obviously this would be a meta-game character, but I can't let go of roleplay entirely so I'm thinking of making her a halfling Knowledge cleric of Oghma, keen to learn multiple skills as she travels the world. And to only take a class once I can come up with a half-reasonable story of how she came to learn it. I also ideally want her to be able to actually make use of some element of each class, even if only situationally. And while I'm happy to use items to help her be more effective, I don't want the build to be reliant on them every day. I also don't want to respec my character via Withers at any point.

So, with all that in mind, this is what I'm thinking so far (in spoiler tags just so folk can skip it if they want):

In short, looks like my character will be a great skill monkey with tons of dialogue choices, and probably pretty much every cantrip going. She's probably going to focus most on support and control given I'm not sure she'll be up to doing much damage, though hopefully I can wangle it so she can occasionally lose her rag and rage into melee whacking folk around without getting wiped out immediately!

What about everyone else? Any thoughts about my Jack-of-all-Trades character? Or one of your own?

I am definitely not planning a Jack-of-all-Trades run - if ever decide to tick off the achievement I will probably cheese it by using a companion or hireling for it.

This might of interest though:

assuming you still want to talk your way out of some of the fights i'd start with Bard [for the skills] and 14 charisma ... then id alternate between fighting classes like fighter, paladin , ranger & support classes i.e, Wizard, druid, thief, sorercer to keep my 'to hit' chance reasonable

you will only have level 1 spells, medium armour and i'd play it as a straight up fighter... you will not get any feats so it may be worth considering the grub in your head story line but another true evil character could take druid as level 2-3 [getting the shop discount] then side with the drow to kill the grove and basically get all your sold items back to sell again

That’s shouldn’t be the case, though, no? Your spell slots will be increased with combined caster level, so while you won’t get higher level spells as individual class, surely a wizard could learn up high level spells? (Or is their learning ability tied to their wizard level, not spellcasters level?)

At least cantrips scale with character level, and frankly most of the time it is all I use anyway - Karlach does all the heavy lifting anyway.

The poster is correct. In 5e tabletop a level 1 wizard, can’t learn higher level spell slots. That’s why wizard dip on sorcerer is so broken right now. All benefits without any downsides. The best low level wizard can do is cast a spell from a scroll, if they succed on an Int check.

My understanding from reading around is that wizards can learn higher level spells from scrolls in BG3. I'm not sure how many spell slots of what level I'll get with this build, but if I'm working it out correctly I think I'll have up to level 3. I'll watch that link you shared and see if it gives more clarity, cheers!

I am kind of expecting cantrips and talking to be the main way of dealing with issues for this character, given they're going to end up with tons of both skills and cantrips, and as you say cantrips scale with character level.

And thanks, Ussnorway, but even though this is a silly playthrough, I am still determined to RP it as far as possible, so the evil route is out, as is any significant tadpole usage though I could justify one or two (eg the one that gives a boost to first checks) just out of my character's curiosity about new experiences.

if your wizard can only cast level 3 spells then no you can't learn a level 4 scroll however yes you could just cast it from the scroll

as for grubs, vamp-boy is happy to shub those suckers in to give him more power and i could also see gall poping them if you want to try using them that way instead of your character

i don't see why the evil path is blocked by rp but its your run

Oh, I didn't mean it's blocked for any RP, I just meant it doesn't fit the character I have in mind for my run whom I'd outlined in my original post as some light relief from my parallel Durge run!

Maybe I will try such a run with Dark Urges Lite i.e. Astarion. A character I will never have in my party - but I can play as him.
My RP explanation - he is several hundred years old and craves new experiences, especially with the regained ability to run around in sunlight.

When I have Gale in my party and I click on "learn new spells" the scrolls with spells he is too low level to cast are IIRC in red and not available.
Only 1st level spells available to the player's charcter? So what? The rest of the party has them. The idea is to have fun!

Wait, what ?

D&D5 PHB, Page 114, Section "Your Spellbook":

"Copying a Spell into the Book. When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher [i.e. not a Cantrip], you can add it to your spellbook if its a level for which you have spell slots and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it."

Larian faithfully implemented what D&D5 defines.

Think he means lvl 1 wizards can't learn say, lvl 3 spells. I have a Fireball scroll on Gale atm at lv 4 and he can't scribe it to his book as he doesn't have lv 3 spell slots.

Why yes, indeed.

But if he was a level 1 Wizard level 4 Cleric he could since he, according to the D&D5 multiclass rules, would now have level 3 spell slots.

Sorry that this was apparently poorly explained by me.

I just kept one character in the camp and never used. Then when I reached lvl 12 took him into group, leveled into all classes and got the achievement...

lol nice.

In the spirit of gamesmanship I'm actually playing mine. Started with Bard, maxing Cha, Sorc>Warlock>Druid...so far. It's fun on a Deep Gnome for max utility on rolls.

On the first lvl pick figther then move to bard+ sorc+ wizard.
As a wizard you can learn spell so as you progress with lvl.
Next lvls cleric ligth domain then moon druid and warlock. Next monk it let's you to use your bonus action to punch someone. Rest is not so important.
Starting stats should be 14 strength 8 dex 16 con 16 int wis 8 charisma 12 or 11 or 13 honestly I don't remember how much point I could do..
Healing you can cast from charisma and spells you can cast from int. I suggest to wear heavy armor shield. Stay ranged but the spell lvl-s will add togather so in the end you will be able to cast lvl 3 spells I suggest here haste .
Actually you can also go charisma and use the intelligence tiara.
But its up to you I was totally fine like this.
Do and take as much lightning based damage. Cast haste use creatie water and lighting spells. Stack up as much armor class as you can. It will carry you till the end game even on tactican solo. At least I don't had any problems.

Wouldnt it suffice to just pick any character, pay 100 gold to reset them, and then level up accordingly ?

Resetting invalidates the achievement, but as noted you can leave someone unleveled in camp and once you reach 12 go back to camp, recruit the toon and then level it up through all 12 diff classes.

But there's no pride in that.

I've been making slow progress with my jack-of-all-trades run as I've been busy with life, but when I have found time to play it's been a blast so far. So much so, that I've not made any headway with my intended parallel Durge run at all. The fact that the character has so many dialogue options and skills makes for lots of fun choices, and as someone who can overthink stuff, I'm finding roleplaying a well-meaning flibbertigibbet who will say "yes" to almost anything quite liberating

I've just hit level 7 in Grymforge (I did go to the creche before the Underdark this playthrough), so thought I'd give an update on choices made so far, in case it's helpful for anyone doing their own JoaT run or anyone has any thoughts or comments. The build seems to be working okay so far, even though I've been prioritising roleplay over effectiveness. Though admittedly I've only been playing on normal difficulty.

My character, Sophy, has so far taken:

• Level 1: Paladin, Oath of the Ancients, Strongheart Halfling, Folk Hero - Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Survival, Persuasion, Insight, heavy armour, simple and martial weapons - Lay on Hands, Divine Sense, Healing Radiance - Brave, Strongheart Resilience and Halfling Luck from race
• Level 2: Cleric, Knowledge Domain, Oghma - Expertise: Arcana, Nature (can pick as a result of Knowledge Domain) - Cantrips: Produce Flame, Guidance, Thaumaturgy - Spells: Sleep and Command (always prepared from domain), level 1 Cleric spells
• Level 3: Ranger, Sanctified Stalker, Beast Tamer - Proficiencies: Religion - Cantrips: Sacred Flame - Find Familiar
• Level 4: Bard - Proficiencies: Performance - Cantrips: Friends, Vicious Mockery - Spells: Dissonant Whispers, Disguise Self, Heroism, Tasha's Hideous Laughter - Bardic Inspiration
• Level 5: Monk - Dextrous Attacks (can now use Dex instead of Str for melee attacks with all simple and martial weapons that aren't two-handed or heavy), Bonus Unarmed Attack, Deft Strikes, Flurry of Blows bonus action
• Level 6: Warlock, Great Old One - Cantrips: Bone Chill, Eldritch Blast - Spells: Hex, Arms of Hadar - Mortal Reminder (possibly Frighten enemies on critical hit)
• Level 7: Wizard - Cantrips: Light, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion - Spells: Shield, Magic Missile, Featherfall, Longstrider, Fog Cloud, Enhance Leap (with just 10 base Int, I went for spells that don't rely on it as even though she's wearing the Warped Headband of Intellect currently I don't want to be tied to it as some of the Cha enhancing headgear might be better later on - she can also only memorise a single wizard spell without the headband and four with it, and given the BG3 rules she will later be able to learn and memorise level 3 spells from scrolls so I don't know that she'll actually make use of these spells much) - Arcane Recovery will be handy though I'm sure

She's absorbed two additional tadpoles to give Favourable Beginnings and Luck of the Far Realms which synergise with the character (Luck of the Far Realms I hope will work well with the GOOlock Mortal Reminder, as well as feeling thematically appropriate, and both fit well to my mind with Halfling Luck). But while she'll try anything once ... or twice! ... she'll now leave tadpoles well alone until the astral one.

The first five levels, in my head, represented Sophy honing skills she'd already had as a devotee of Oghma with a passion for art, learning and nature and a determination to defend them with her life. I initially found Monk a bit tricky to work in as one thing she's not is disciplined, but then decided for Sophy her martial arts are basically a fusion of fighting and dance. The Warlock level was after she'd consumed tadpoles for the first time which opened her up to a strange connection to the far realms. And the Wizard was as a result of working with Gale after being inspired when he showed her how to connect to the Weave.

Sophy is doing pretty well avoiding damage with 15AC medium armour and a shield so far, but she'll be adopting heavy armour later on. Weapon-wise, she has Harold for ranged attacks (I didn't watch the vid Wormerine shared to begin with as I didn't want to be overly influenced, but it's reassuring to see that was what that streamer picked too, though I'm using cantrips a fair bit as well and expect to do that more later after picking up more damage cantrips with Sorceror). She currently has Blood of Lathander for melee. She has Gloves of Dexterity as I only gave her a base Dex of 14 and it's not going to get higher with no feats or ASIs. In hindsight, I think I should have given her Dex 16 and Wis 14 rather than the other way around. The Flawed Helldusk Gloves that give 1-4 fire damage with weapon attacks and 1-4 necrotic with unarmed would give Sophy more damage on bonus attack unarmed strikes and flurry of blows. And the Gemini Gloves are tempting to give an additional target for her tons of cantrips (she already has a bunch and will have a silly amount after picking up Sorceror and Druid too). But while I'm fine with her using cantrips and spells at range, I do want her to be able to at least hit stuff in melee and I suspect she'll need either the Dex gloves or the Hill Giant Strength ones for that, unless I hammer the strength potions. In short, I'm not sure I'll have the flexibility to use those other gloves, but I'll have to experiment and see what's best when I get them.

I'd also agree with the streamer in the vid Wormerine shared that this sort of run encourages good use of the environment, and of things like grenades, bombs, barrels (though I insist on only using ones that are already nearby), and to me that actually feels right for my character.

I do have a rough plan for the rest of her development, and spent time up front planning skills and cantrips to try to get as wide coverage as possible, but the exact order I'll take the rest of the classes in will depend on what feels right at the time. I'm currently thinking Fighter (Sophy's been spending some quality time tussling with Lae'zel recently ), Rogue (I think her relationship with Astarion will grow closer in Act 2 after a false start and one night stand at the party), Druid (I expect she and Halsin will become close as they share similar outlooks on a number of things), Wild Magic Sorceror (after her magic becomes destabilised on consuming the astral tadpole) and probably Barbarian last (representing her becoming occasionally erratic and losing it as a result of the tadpoles, strange new magics and general stress), but will see how it goes.

Here she is at level 7 ...

This looks like a nice challenge! Do you roleplay Sophy to have severe FOMO?


I think that it is quite doable for one character to have a strength potion after each long rest. Especially if you keep looking for ingredients and if you revisit vendors from time to time. That should leave more room in the glove compartment.

I hadn't thought of it that way. I've seen her more as someone who just gets fascinated by anything that comes across her path, and gets distracted by new, shiny things at the expense of whoever or whatever she was focusing on before. So while she means well, she can be thoughtless and careless of others' (and her own) physical and emotional wellbeing. She's already accidentally broken her oath twice, and I can imagine the Oathbreaker knight doing quite well out of her before the game ends

I can totally see a character with FOMO could be a really fun basis for a JoaT run, though.

And cheers for the thoughts on the gloves. I've tended to forget I can take elixirs a lot of the time, so it might be time to give more thought to them.