Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks New To the series

Hello all.

I received my PS5 Deluxe discs recently, but haven't had time to start with choosing a character. I got to that point and was blown away by the options.

I know everyone has their own preferences etc, but as a 100% newbie player to this series, I could really use some build/creation advice.

Thanks

For a first character, I'd suggest Rogue.

Max out DEX, but a few points into CON and CHR. Take Deception, Persuasion and Slight of Hand proficiencies and Expertise in Deception and Persuasion.

After level 3, specialize in Thief.

This would be the simplest overall class. No additional resources to manage, you'll be able to do most things you encounter (Opening locks, using dialogue options etc), you just stab people with sharp, pointy objects in combat (Or shoot them with bows/crossbows).

With that, you can get a feel for other classes via companions (Notably, you'll encounter a Cleric, Wizard and Warlock which will allow you to get used to the magic system) whereby you can figure out what other classes you may wish to try in future playthroughs.

Hey and ty for the suggestions/info.

What would make a better rogue, race wise? Or does it even matter?

And it also asks me to make a 'companion'? I'm not logged atm, so I can't recall exactly what all the options were.

I've never played any D&D games, the only games 'similar' were Skyrim and ESO.

For race, the differences are fairly small between them. Pick whichever one you think looks nicer.

Oh, for the Guardian, just make someone who looks cool.

Ok, thank you again friend 👍

I'll start with that and see how it goes

Although I do not use Rogues myself, I support the idea of using a Thief as part lockpicker (DEX) and face (CHA). Take 15 CHA at character creation, as quite early on you will find a ring boosting lockpicking at cost of -1 to CHA. And you want abilities to be at even numbers.
Another simple and easy to master Class is Fighter Champion.
Larian changed DnD rules so races do not really matter.

Good to know, appreciate it 🍻

I don’t really get the rouge suggestion. Obviously, you can pick anything and it will probably be fine, but why single rouges out?

To get the best out of them in combat, you really need to use sneak attacks, which isn’t the most intuitive thing. Plus you already have Astarion available.

Personally, I’d suggest a bard because they are so versatile, they can fill in for just about anyone you don’t want to bring along. They are the jack of all trades and not even much below master of most.

Hands down the best talkers, with high charisma and expertise proficiency you can put into persuasion. Likewise with fairly high dex and expertise in slight of hand they are almost as good as rouges with traps and locks. They are full spell casters, with good crowd control spells as well as some damage and maybe a bit of healing. And if you go for sword bard, they can be very good at melee and bows too. Maybe not quite as good as a battlemaster fighter, but not too far off.

And they have some good dialogue options for being a bit of a jerk.

1) Expertise helps a new player who may not have the best stats.

2) It's simple. You just hit things that are standing next to an ally. You don't need to know about spells, spell slot usage, managing rests for spell slots. You just hit things. Generally, I err away from suggesting any casters for new players specifically because of lack of knowledge of spells will be significant. Having to learn the games systems is a task in of itself, without having to be overwhelmed by the many spell choices.

3) Cunning Actions are very useful. They provide a lot of flexibility which is useful for a new player who might not position optimally and thus rely of Dash/Disengage more often.

4) They're generally easy going on stats. You max out Dex, splash some Con and... That's it. Everything else is gravy. Which given a new player is more likely to use suggested stats (Which doesn't min/max) you'll be pretty comfortable with your effectivness.

5) "You already have Astarion available" I generally don't assume that every new player ends up having every companion with them. It's plenty possible to not get Astarion or to simply kill him at one of the several opportunities to do so.

Or people don't want to rely on one companion for Sleight of Hand. You can of course resopec every character, but I do agree, that rogue doesn't have a lot of micromanaging and you don't have to use special gear, you might not be able to find in your first playthrough.
Generally I do agree, that bard is vastly superior, but it also has a lot going on, that might be overwhelming for someone new.

Fair points. Not sure I entirely agree, but I’m not trying to say you’re wrong. I just found it interesting to suggest that.

1. Bards get expertise too.

2. Disagree about spell usage, because almost any player is going to need to get to grips with that anyway. At least if they use Gale, Wyll, or Shadowheart. Unless they are deliberately aiming for a no magic run or something, which would probably be very challenging.

3. Cunning actions are useful and necessary for character that needs to do a lot tactical maneuvering on the battlefield. I find rouges to need more careful positioning to be effective than some other classes.

4. Fair, but plenty of classes aren’t much worse. Paladin’s might be the trickiest, usually needing strength, constitution, charisma and probably some dex.

5. I probably would actually. I think most new players would aim to recruit as many companions as possible. They might only play once and probably want to see most of the game. Killing major characters off for role playing reasons seems more a thing for subsequent play throughs to me.

What I wouldn’t assume is that the OP is asking for the easiest class to play. Or that they don’t want to worry about using spells, or finding equipment that works well with their choice. They probably just don’t want to pick something that people generally agree is crap. I don’t think there are any such classes, btw.

My suggestion was based on being the most versatile, who can fit in with more party compositions, so you can take out the characters you want without worrying so much about having an unbalanced party. And also being a class not covered by other companions. Because if someone really likes Astarion and wants them in the party, having two rouges could be a bit limiting.

Aye, but there are other factors that combine. Like, other classes are simple, such as Fighter where you can go Champion and you just need to slap things and stack Str + Con, but they don't get Expertise.

Bard has their spells to manage, their Bardic Inspirations to manage, their dual focused stats to manage...

While Rogue is nice and simple.


Aye. But if someone picks bad spells on a companion and they feel the companion isn't pulling their weight, they can swap to a different companion. If someone picks bad spells on their main character... They're stuck being ineffective.

Sure, Withers exists to respec stuff, but not every new player knows about Withers nor chooses to utilize it.


Cunning Actions are useful no matter what class you are. Having these tools is pretty nice.

Rogues don't need any more careful positioning than any other class. At best they need another character to posiition well... But having a Tank character go stand by an enemy is pretty easy to do. (It's not like this is earlier editions of DnD where Sneak Attack required enemies to be "Flanked" meaning at least 2 allies near them or that Sneak Attack is melee only unless obtaining special subclass bonuses to enable it for thrown/ranged weapons)

If anything they often need LESS careful positioning than other classes. Given that most spell capable classes utilize Concentration spells which require you to avoid being hit to not have to make Concentration saves to keep the spell active.


It depends. Bard for example, needs Chr (For their spells) + Dex/Str (For their weapons). Most characters want a healthy amount of Dex anyway for initiative and AC (So things like Wizards, Sorcerers, Fighters, Barbarians etc. Are wanting at least some amount of their Primary stat + Con + Dex. While Rogue is literally just Dex + Con)


I've been around long enough to note that people don't always play like I would. Some will avoid Gale entirely because "Portal is scary". Some might kill Astarion (I mean, given his literal first appearance is him holding a dagger to your throat unless you pass the skill check...). Some people simply don't go to every single location on the map and might not find Astarion standing around.


Yeah, but I've seen plenty of new players get confused about mechanics and stuff and be overwhelmed by the vast amounts of choices one can make. Hence, why I tend to reccomend something easier to play to learn the ropes. Get the basic systems down and functionalities and then look into the more complex resource management systems of other classes.


I don't feel that having two (Or three or even four) Rogues in a party to be limiting at all. Such is the nature of 5e, there isn't the much in the way of limitations (Like, you don't NEED a Rogue to disarm traps. You don't NEED a Wizard to use scrolls. You don't NEED a Cleric to use Revivify) even more so with BG3's penchant for throwing potions and scrolls and magical items at you like there's no tomorrow.

At the end of the day, yes, there are more effective classes in the game. Bard is very versatile for example, Fighter and Monk can be utterly broken etc. But the thought process behind my suggestion of Rogue, is someone who's new to the series might want to be eased into the games systems. Which Rogue does excellently given its reasonably high effectiveness while being simple to build and play.

You're welcome to suggest other classes to new players for other reasons, but these are my reasons for suggesting Rogue.