Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Fighter the most essential class for damage output?

Just want to say, in my singleplayer game so far a Battlemaster Fighter has not at all been my MVP. Laezel is almost my weakest companion, in part because I'm a Gith Paladin and already have both Gith stuff and melee tanking covered, and in part because all she brings is damage and a small amount of utility, while the rest bring:

Myself, Gith Paladin (Actual MVP) - I tank, I slaughter, I pass skill checks, I serve as party face in dialogue, and thanks to lay on hands, high AC, and especially the save bonus, I don't go down or get turned against the party. Damage with Smite is quite good, and taking a long rest to replenish those is almost never a problem.
Gale (MVP of companions) - Crowd Control, he's effectively ended multiple fights before they really began, and trivialized some fights that would otherwise have been tough by landing crucial CC on bosses. Plus having him around to both dump obtained scrolls on and then as a result to pick and choose from any of the spells he's got whenever needed has been phenomenally powerful. Granted I did go into Bard after 2nd level but even as a pure Wizard I feel he'd be contributing massively, Bard has just meant Bardic Inspiration and so forth help out as well.
Asterion (2nd most useful) - He's earned me effectively infinite wealth outside of combat, and kept himself well stocked with plenty of poisons and elemental arrows and so forth. In combat he's a dual wielding sharpshooter so he's dishing out massive, consistent damage round after round.
Shadowheart (3rd) - She covers healing so my main character doesn't have to. She was respecced to Life Domain, granted, but that just makes her more effective in her role. Her role would be an awesome and useful one regardless. Spells like Sanctuary let her do some really silly things.
Karlach (4th) - I don't love when I bring her around, she's largely redundant with my main character, but she at least is an absolute *tank* and I don't need to worry too much about healing her, positioning, or anything like that. Plus she has some fun unique abilities not normally available to Tieflings which make her better than a "stock" Tiefling Barb.
Laezel (5th) - Again basically redundant with my MC, built her as a Battlemaster fighter but haven't had a single encounter where she shined, in large part because bringing her (typically because I'm doing stuff with her story) means I'm without Shadowheart and thus my heals, or Gale and thus my CC, or Asterion and thus the crazy ranged damage he provides. I typically try to replace Shadowheart but unlike Karlach she takes enough damage to where the lack of healing is a problem, significantly cuts into my damage output replacing that healing and she doesn't provide enough damage upside over Shadowheart for the loss to be justified. I'd redo her as an Archer and just generically replace Asterion when she comes along, but even then I'd miss the scouting and theiving. Largely due to party comp, but I do legitimately resent when I feel obliged to bring her along.
Wyll (6th) - Likely just my party composition or preferred playstyle, but he feels even more useless than Laezel, I just can't seem to make him work well with my party and make him feel like he's really contributing anything. If I had a Ranger with Whirlwind attack or a Storm Sorc or something I could use him to shove enemies into place for better AOE potential, and at least then he'd have a role. Right now he just feels like a strict downgrade vs my main 3.

YMMV of course, but for me Laezel has *not* been the MVP of the run at all, at least she's not been the worst, but that has been more of an indictment on Wyll than a reason to praise her. Just my experience of course.