Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Favorite subclasses?

I’m not very far, taking my time and am still in early access content. Im really enjoying experimenting with subclasses I’ve never used before (both in BG3 and table top).

While my favorite class is monk, my favorite subclass is the storm sorcerer. I love the draconic bloodline sorcerer, so I didn’t think anything would top that, but storm just feels amazing in this game. The verticality makes what is normally an underwhelming class feature highly potent. I love being able to run up to enemies, Thunderwave them off a ledge, and fly off.

That I can wear Drow armor and carry a spear as a half elf really makes this one of my favorite characters in 5E ever, even if it is running on Larian homebrew.





How about everybody else? What y’all vibing on?

I like Gloomstalker a lot. They did not implement Umbral sight but you get a bonus action hide and a once per short rest invisibility instead. Dread Ambush is in there and it works very consistently, you basically get an extra attack that does extra damage to start every fight. I just got to level 8 and am currently Gloomstalker 5/Assassin 3. Surprise seems bugged though, it almost never triggers.

Thief.

Yes I really like my Storm Sorceress. Her flight feature is very useful not only in combat. First flatten everything, then cast Speak with Dead and after each use fly to the next corpse until all have been interrogated.

Ofc my main char will always be a Rogue and I have currently a level 3 Thief / (Open Hand) Monk multiclass. I need a few more levels to figure out how compatible both classes are with their action economy.

For ranged combat, I'm happy with the Dual Wield Hand Crossbows so far, but I'm hoping the "Tavern Brawler" implementation in BG 3 will give my LVL 4 Thief a second attack / action: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/quest...at-better-than-a-stat-bump-to-str-or-dex to throw vials.

For melee I use two short swords and an unarmed strike martial kick yeah. I like the ability to use different bonus attacks for different situations given by weapon or monk traits.

Originally I was just going to go straight Thief and throw grenades etc, but martial combat animation and monk bonus attack as well as LVL 5 monk extra attack are tempting.

So I need a few more levels to figure out my favorite playstyle.

This. I went exactly that route. Many times you're infiltrating somewhere, you decide you want to kill them - then a cinematic triggers saying; "Oh, they'r eangry now' and you're not really catching them by suprise.
However. in instances where it *does* work, the thing you want killed, is dead. Still. I love my Gloomy.

Be sure to *start* as a rogue for the expertise in two skills [stealth, sleight of hand for me]. You'll miss out on medium armor and some weapon proficiemcies, but you'll have high dex anyway - And I'm an elf for the proficiencies.


However. Lae'zel as a pure Battlemaster has been the most consistently good character in my party. Bar none, not even my handmade pc. She's everywhere she needs to be with her psionics; has the most attacks out of everyone [six with action surge, currently at lvl 11] and hits like an absolute truck, too. I gave her the Sentinel feat + Riposte maximizing the odds of her killing stuff on her reaction. She is *such* a beast.

I made Gale a bard 1 / Diviner 10. Gale is..... Handy to have, and he would be missed if he weren't in the party - but he also doesn't shine. There's too many spells that rely on concentration and he has SO much trouble protecting himself. Misty step is mandatory. I gave him the Lucky feat, too - making his attackers reroll - but at the later stages that doesn't work. They only miss on a 1, anyway. Still, he's just a toolbox and the portent dice become important dice. There's only a handful of spells I find consistenly good - Magic missile, misty step and mirror Image. Everything else about Gale is situational. It's nice to have flihght and feather fall on you when you need it.

Paladin - Oath of the Vengeance.

All I can really say here is: there are only two kinds of BG3 players: those who play as pure Rogue Assassins, no multiclassing, and then there are those who are wrong...those who are truly lost and whose souls are destined to end up as bricks in the Wall of the Faithless.

More worthy debates can be had about which three origin character companions(pure starting class to level 12, no respec into other classes or multiclassing ever) should accompany the player Rogue Assassin for the optimal party composition depending on whether you want to play as good or evil but the best compliment the rogue assassin.

Don't get me wrong you can still have fun and beat the game with other classes but they will just not be as good as the Rogue Assassin in terms of player character.

And it's not just strictly the Rogue Assassin class and subclass combination by itself that makes the Rogue Assassin the best but the way it is complimented by some of the most powerful gear in the game even if you don't play as the Dark Urge origin. It is also worth considering which subclass is best for the origin companions that might accompany the Rogue Assassin player if said subclass isn't already pre-determined by the game before you start playing the game(as again, no respec or multiclassing).

My favourite class is Warlock by far (can eliminate targets from stealth with Eldrich Blasts) and favourite subclass so far the combination of gloomstalker/assassin. I'm currently lvl7 and he one shoots people down from stealth.

My party is fiend lock with imp as initiator for the surprise status with Gloomstalker/assassin , Evo wizard as DMG blasters and 1fighter/6lightcleric as the tank who does incredible DMG aswell and got healing capabilities for everyone else.

No problem so far,most fights end on 1-2 turns

Problem with this currently is that if you take Ranger after level 1 you do not get martial weapons proficiency the way you should and the way you do if you take a level of Barb/Fighter/Paladin after level 1. Not a huge deal normally but for me, the best ranged weapon I have seen as of level 8/Act 2 is a heavy crossbow. I'm sure this is an easy fix but I am not sure if Larian is even aware of it. The game badly needs a bug report feature.

Polearm Master vengeance paladin.... Extra attacks (from extra far away) mean EXTRA SMITES.

Yeah, I definitely want to try that build at some point. I love me some broken cheese fun.

People knock Arcane Trickster and EK as being weak now with the mage hand nerf, and I thought so initially too.

But then I had both Laezel and Astarion maintaining witch bolt on bosses and lul. The best part is the shield spell react, you block so much damage, and then you get mirror image and blur later.

I just have witch bolt and magic missile for damage options as neither depend on saves and Int is left at 8 points. The initial 3 junk spells you have to pick as a trickster from illusion / enchantment, dunno if its a bug but you can swap them for any spell when levelling up, so Astarion also has MM, Witch bolt and Shield.

Yeah, I agree that people sleep on these options. They trade off raw damage for utility, versatility and survivability. I especially love Arcane Trickster.

My favourite in theory is the Assassin. But its so broken that i started a new run as a Monk (str build)


As mentioned in here: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=878290
you can only trigger the Surprised if you attack while already in turn based mode.if you attack in real time mode, the enemies wont get the surprised effect.

assassin overall is a very very broken subclass.
surprise should trigger on the first attack, it should be a condition applied outside of combat, and not at the beginning of combat. currently you have to attack (in TBM), refresh your action with your Alacrity, and then the second attack triggers the surprise-attack. Its...stupid.

And the "Infitration Expert" on level 9 is just bad. they made it a "Disguise Self" with a different name, which means that it wont work with items that can give a bonus while disguised. in Tabletop this ability is much stronger than a simple disguise, it is a second identiy with its own background. this ability should allow us to pass as a different faction instead, so we can "infiltrate" restricted areas.

Spores druid is making the evil run pretty nice. Because it ignores the tabletop rule that you need to make a mainhand attack before you can make an offhand attack, you can do shit like cast a mainline druid spell, whack someone with the spores-buffed offhand to finish him off, then raise that dead enemy as a corpse.

Terrain control spells are also ridiculously overpowered because of the sheer number of choke points in this game. Enemies will kill themselves running through an easy-to-place spike growth before lae'zel whacks em twice and shoves them back through the thorns.

Dual scimitar druid is nuts. Nuts enough to allow me to hit level 4 before taking my first long rest on the highest difficulty,

dragon sorcerer for the skin armour and a shield spell reaction is prob my fav but its more a multiclass dip in my case

my fav sub class* is lore bard

* to actually play

I am doing a storm sorcerer dip for BA fly for my lore bard. Sorcerer is a great dip. Magic missile, Shield, Con proficiency and damage dealing cantrips.

Probably sounds boring, but I really like my Battlemaster Fighter. They've implemented the martial feats and options sufficiently faithful to the ruleset for me to feel like a real menace on the field of battle like a badass mo-fo'

Just my own anecdotal experience but I have never attacked from TB mode to open a fight and I have triggered surprise on the enemy, it's just unreliable. The refreshing action and bonus action piece of the assassin always works for me if I initiate combat with my assassin.

I haven't gone very far since I keep trying different things. But so far I like the College of Swords bard.