Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General POLL: What classes have you played in the full release?

Those Bards are essentially an eldritch knight more focused on (spell) damage and cc instead of mobility and defense, I can see that. My issue is more my own play style, though -- I could have played any of them as more "bardic", but they tend to lose the class feel in my hands unless I set out to do a bard in a "squishy" spellcaster role.

You can do some very interesting things with college of swords, things an eldritch knight simply can't (like decent spell saves). It still doesn't feel like a bard if you focus overly on the melee. I don't know why that is.

I played everything...

My first choice was a 7/5 Conjuration Wiz/Beast Master Ranger multiclass. Was disappointed with the conjuration school, thought I'd be a menagerie keeper, yet at the time NPCs were freaking out at summons and the act3 optimization was horrid. Therefore I played with the raven only, what a bummer.

I don’t know how others feel, but there is one and only one reason I refuse to use Druids in BG3 - the godawful UI. Shapeshifting messes with hotbar everysingle time, so it is either submitting to compete chaos of Larian’s Ui design, or re-organising the thing after every single shapeshift.

AAA RPG and UI is among the worst ones I have seen in a long time

Well yeah Bard is a full caster now. Definitely a wonderful change. Especially since it still feels balanced.

Except for the part in which skill focused classes (Rogue, Bard, a little bit also Ranger) just rule in BG3. That doesnt refer to combat though.

I think the companions' canon classes play a role. Bards really slot well into the mix with their classes, and since they are so versatile they work with most party compositions.

Yeah, I picked my first character purely based on what I wanted to play, but the default classes of the companions is weighing on what I'll play next time. Rogue is one of the options I'm considering, but I'll definitely be taking Astarion (because I didn't last time) so I'm not sure if I'd want two rogues.

CHA is good for the character who'll by default be leading conversations, although presumably you could have (let's say) Wyll act as the face of the party by clicking the Change Character button when you get into a conversation?

Bard is a poor choice of class for the main character, since the inspiration feature does not work on self. Since in every dialogue our MC gets dragged into the conversation, the civil application of bardic inspiration becomes unavailable.

That's what Shadowheart's Guidance, Persuasion expertise and (non-bardic) inspiration is for

Or play an Eloquence bard that basically can't fail almost all speech checks.

Although to be honest, the odd failure makes the game more fun (maybe not if you lose an Honour Mode run to it, sure).

I honestly didn't need that so far for my bards. I seldom botched a conversation skill. Plus, if you are sword bard, you need your inspiration for those sweet flourishes. I have to literally restrain myself from playing bard every single time.

If I am playing a bard, between expertise, guidance and proficiency bonus I am rolling 21-40 on every speech check without bardic inspiration. There are very few speech checks that you need higher than that to pass.

I've also played several main characters with poor charisma and simply accept failing speech checks sometimes and the results are usually just fun to see.

Plus bard gets Jack of all Trades, which helps a lot with skill checks

Druid and Cleric, the focus was on healing and protecting, with Druid also summoning helpers.

Hmm.

Jack of all Trades is +1 to all skills you dont have proficiency for, and +2 once you hit level 9.

I mean its very much on theme for Bard. And its certainly not nothing. But its not really much of a gamechanger.

I heard of the claim that in tabletop Bard gets this advantage also on pure Ability Score rolls, i.e. if you roll against Wisdom etc. That would indeed be strong.

Aye, in TT (Also, RAW) it is applied to all ABILITY rolls you don't have a proficiency bonus on.

Meaning, not only skills, but also things like Initiative (Which is a Dex ability roll), Counterspell (Charisma ability roll), Concentration (Con ability roll) and direct ability skill checks.

Which is pretty nifty.

In BG3 though, it's just a slight boost to the skills you haven't put proficiency in (Most likely non-Dex/Chr skills like Perception and Insight). Which can make a difference, but will largely be overshadowed by party members that actually have the stats for these skills (Such as having a Cleric/Druid with Perception proficiency finding all the traps for you)

Sorcerer, wizard, druid (not counting 1-2 class dips).