Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Favorite build(s)

What are you favorite builds ? Any number and in any level of detail you want to give.

And why do you like them - easy, reliable, flexible, classy, funny ... ?

Rogue Assasin 5 Ranger Gloomstalker 5 Fighter 2 is my fav build for Astarion. I think it would make for a fun Durge build as well. I’m not sure if it’s my overall favourite but it might be after I try it as Durge.

I like it because it is sneaky lol and you can do some incredible damage in Act 3 especially with some of the gear and consumables. I first came to appreciate it because it solved my “Astarion problem” it was also my first multi class build.

I guess the ultimate test will be if I still have fun using it as my characters build.

I really like Warlock 12 Fiend Chain for role playing purposes. I enjoyed playing as Wyll a lot as 12 Fiend Blade with his unique gear and having Mizora as part of the game.

I thought I would like Paladin more but I just turned into Sir Smitesalot and found it kind of dull despite the awesome smiting.

I'm really enjoying my current dex-based Oath of Ancients Paladin 5/Swords Bard 5/Light Cleric 2, kitted out with gear to inflict radiant damage/radiating orb with a bit of reverberation thrown in. They're a smiting machine, with the extra spell slots from bard/cleric and with the Sword Bard's Slashing Flourish potentially getting four smites in per round (plus with the Mage Slayer feat possibly more). And being dex based, they're not bad at range either with Ensnaring Strike or Branding Smite paladin options plus the Sword Bard ranged flourishes including the one that gets two shots per attack (so four shots per round with extra attack as long as the bardic inspiration lasts). And with radiating orbs galore enemies then struggle to hit my party, and with reverberation knocking them prone my party often gets advantage on attacks. And to save spell slots for smiting I've also focused on ritual spells to help out of combat such as Long Strider, Speak with Dead, Detect Thoughts, Feather Fall and (from the paladin class) Speak with Animals. Plus for when things get really hairy there's the Sanctuary plus Moonbeam combo (Moonbeam from 5th level Oath of Ancients) that can be used to do a bit of damage while healing up.

I'm finding it fun to play because it offers a variety of pretty interesting and effective tactics in combat and out, but also because it's really working for my role play as a Sword Dancer of Eilistraee. I love it when the abilities and tactics for a character help bring to life my vision for them, without too much of a compromise on actually being able to win fights! (I'm slightly disappointed though that my hopes of being able to use the ranged Mobile Flourish to teleport to enemies then smite them doesn't really work given the short range of the teleport: that ability would be more useful if it didn't actually push enemies back!)

I also had a blast with my Jack of All Trades run (one level in each class), partly because of the challenge of thinking up an RP justification and getting the best use of each class (that one took a fair bit of planning), but then she had access to so many dialogue options and skill proficiencies so out of combat she was extremely useful, and even in combat she did okay though admittedly that run was only on balanced difficulty and her effectiveness was increasingly dependent on equipment.

I also have a strength based Open Hand monk (one level cleric of Ilmater) who started getting fun to play a few levels in once he got Tavern Brawler and more punching options, but I've only got up to the start of act 2 so am still feeling my way and will see how the rest of the game goes. My first playthrough was with a Wild Magic sorceror 8/rogue 4 and wild magic was great fun but somehow the character didn't quite work: I'll have to give them another shot now I have a bit more of an idea of what I'm doing. And I have a Durge Gloomstalker heading towards the end of Act 1 but I really haven't worked out how to play that one yet so am reserving judgement. I am thinking of multiclassing into Assassin (which fits my RP for this murderous shapeshifter) and then once they’re available focusing on items that boost critical chance, but as yet the build hasn't really taken off.

EDIT: And how could I have forgotten my divination wizard with one level dip cleric of Mystra?! She was level 8 I think when I screwed up her honour mode run, but I will come back to it. I found the unique mechanic of the portent dice made the character feel interestingly different to play, especially as she’d just recently got the portents that let her earn new dice mainly by dealing different sorts of damage. I’d also given her the Lucky feat (headcannoning it as more by foresight than luck) for more flavour. I tend to like builds that can be effective but take a bit of thinking about how to make them so and that encourage different ways of playing, as well as enhancing roleplay.

I'm drawn to Paladin2/Bard10 for the smiting. And 23-24 AC ...

I love this kind of stuff.What are some of the solutions you came up with?

5 Pact of the Blade Warlock & either 7 Oathbreaker Pally, or Eldritch Knight is probably my favourite.

5 GloomStalker Ranger and 7 Assassin Rogue is also a very close second. #1 for Durge runs.

I talked about the roleplay aspect of this a little while back over in this thread which has a number of posts about forum members' cool roleplay ideas.

I also outlined the JoaT build I went for in a couple of posts in a different thread here and here.

I like 11 levels in Sorcerer with 1 lvl in any other class.

Each Sorcerer sub-class seems pretty solid. WIld Magic you get tides of Chaos which has the sorcery coasting through most checks. Draconic Sorcery you get the Lineage elemental perks, scale AC and draconic flight. Storm Sorcery you get Tempestuous flight, and all the thunder and lightning themed angles.

This last is pretty fun with a dip in any caster class that can take the ritual transmutation spell Longstrider at lvl 1. Casting it counts as a levelled spell, but without the cost to the slot. You can Tempestuously Fly whenever, as soon as you learn that one from the Multi-Class. Works with the other ritual spells as well, like find Familiar say, but Longstrider doesn't have any per long/short rest requirements, so you can cast that one at will.

Wizard is a pretty OP combo for cross caster Sorcerer multi, mainly because you can still stay on pace at the high end for arcane spell progression. Your known sorcerer spells (chosen at level up) will still be 1 lvl off the standard power spikes, but because you unlock the Sorcerer spellslots you can write the spell as a Wizard (least up to lvl 5 spells). So for example, lvl 1 Wizard/4 Sorcerer, can write the spell Haste and cast it using the lvl 3 sorcerer spellslot achieved at character lvl 5. They'll get to choose the Sorcerer lvl 3 spell at the next character level 6 (1 Wiz/5 sorcerer) but until then you can still punch above your weight and write/caste from the top slots as a Wizard. Some spells work better for this, like say summons, buffs or spells that usually always hit, then save the more finicky direct damage, CC or disabling type spells for the higher CHA rolls from known Sorcerer spells at the next lvl up. Even using INT for writing above level that way, you can still do alright because the Circlet of Intellect is available very early on. But yeah, you get to do all the Wizardy things with the innate power and gift of gab that a Sorcerer gets, including all the Meta Magic. Both dialogue options are nice, since the Sorcerer dialogue tends to be saltier and snarkier, Wizard more subdued, so a bit more room to RP either angle.

After that, I like any of the other dips into Full Caster classes along with 11 lvls in Sorcerer. If they have a lvl 1 spell list with stuff that can be upcast, twinned, distanced, quickened etc that's always kinda fun to tease out. With a Cleric dip you get to choose a deity and a domain perk, along with whatever weapons or armor proficiencies from the subclass. With Bard you get to be more of a skill jockey along with Tasha's and whatnot. Warlock is the most complicated combo, because they have a different way of gaining spellslots from all the other casters, allowing them to eat spellslots to replenish Sorcery points on Short Rest, but the way the game is set up this is more awkward to execute than it might seem, since it defaults to Sorcery Spellslots for the Sorcery point conversion. Basically you'll have to eat the Warlocks slots last in sequence, when most would probably want to eat those Warlock slots first since the whole point is to push the Short Rest to double up.

I wish Jack of All Trades was worded somewhat differently. For the same reason that I like to focus on Party Composition with an eye towards the total number of party comps available, there are many more potential builds for a Triple Class Character or Quad Class Character, than there are with taking a single level in all 12 classes available. There are no interesting splits or decisions to make except regarding which Class to take first or to prioritize in sequence. I think a potentially cool concept might have been something like pick 6 out of a dozen. But then I'm always saying that, with just about everything in BG3 lol.

I'd have to disagree that there aren't interesting decisions to make with one level of each class: I spent far more time planning it out than any other build, to maximise the number of skill proficiencies, cantrips and spells. Without planning it's all too easy to double up and not get full advantage. Though admittedly not being able to respec with Withers probably also contributed to my more careful planning, as generally that's an option if I mess up my build. But even at level one there a choices of subclass and spells to make, plus there's the challenge of what equipment and tactics can make such a character effective Though possibly it's more like solving a puzzle to which there are only a few viable answers, so totally understandable that it's not something that's going to be interesting to players who are looking for flexibility. Though having dialogue options for all classes and proficiencies in a load of different skills does allow for a lot of roleplay potential in dialogue!

My attempt may have been somewhat flawed. I tried it with Jackie the Half-Elf, a Dark Urge Storm Sorceress at lvl 1.

My thinking was that a Charisma based caster class would probably end up being the most useful, since that way we could potentially hit a 20 in our prime attribute via itemization. So 17 off the Nautiloid, up to 18 from taking the Hag's hair, then the Robin Hood cap at the Sundries +2 CHA to achieve that 20 during the endgame.

After that my thinking was CON, for the HP and concentration checks, then Wisdom for the 15, just cause there are so many WIS rolls and checks throughout the game, and that one is harder to raise the roof on from equipment. STR, DEX and INT all dump stats, since it's possible to push all those into a respectable range via items, before we get to Act II.

Something like STR 8, DEX 8, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 15, CHA 17 at the start =

STR 19, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 17, WIS 15, CHA 18 by the time we reach the Shadowlands.

Club of Hill Giant STR from the stool leg in the Underdark, Gloves of DEX from Jeera at the Creche, Circlet of Intellect from Lump. Then in Act III we can drop the Circlet of INT for the Cap of CHA, so we can Eldritch Blast with a 20 in Charisma. The Attribute dependent equipment slots are basically the Headgear, the Gloves, and the offhand Melee weapon (unless just using Elixirs, but those are sorta tedius). Cape is locked in cause it's Durge. Leaves the Torso and Boots, Rings and Amulet for playing around. I thought about trying to push Dex instead where you can also hit a 20 and freeing up Gloves instead of the Torso (which I thought Cat's Grace for the early get +2) but somehow I just felt like pushing CHA would be better over the long haul, like for all the persuasion/deception checks and whatnot.

The thing that frustrated me out of completing the attempt was that I ran out of slots in the hotbar for all the icons lol, and because Minsc already stole our thunder by completing the achievement a while back in one of the random tactician runs.

I'm curious if there's just 1 build that rules them all taking 1 lvl in each Class, like with an optimal starting class/race just based on proficiencies and boons from the lineage. I just chose Half-Elf because they're already a bit of a Hybrid to fit the theme, thought about Half-Drow or Half-Orc too, but ended up just going by the head models I liked and too afraid of cape clipping to branch out much hehe.

It was reasonably entertaining, but I also felt like the character lacked identity outside the meta. Like I would ask myself 'why would I ever do this if not for the achievement?' hehe

Then as I was doing it I thought, well probably would have been cooler for me to have something like 3 levels in 4 Classes, because then we still wouldn't get the feats, but there'd be more to the choice of subclasses and such. Or just more combos generally overall that one might try. Which would have been more to my tastes. Like oh which combo did you use to achieve the Jack of All Trades thing? And then there'd be some real mix and match on that with different options to explore what might be optimal.

Quad Class seems slightly absurd, but not too off the old Triple-Class Multi from like AD&D. FIght/Thief/Mage or whatever. I also probably went CHA focused, just because Jack of All Trades reminds me of 2e Bard and so trying to get a similar sort of character going maybe. I just feel like taking 1 lvl in all 12 classes is not a thing I would do though. Whereas I can maybe imagine a character that's like a S'wizlockadin or whatever, and I can kinda picture it. Like 'oh yeah you know, the Sorcerer, Wizard, Warlock, Paladin, maybe that's a cool combo...' Padlock Brangers, who knows? lol But then with all 12 I just feel like there is too much crossover and always going to be one class that's just not bringing much to the table.

I guess I would lead caster cause I enjoy them, but mostly it's for whatever Cantrip or Lvl 1 spell can scale or be upcast. I'd probably pick all the cooler classes with the scaling stuff first, and then end up stuck like meh for the last 3 or 4 levels, where the character isn't gaining anything really from the last in the list. Aside from just upping whatever main thing I'm doing by that point like with the Blast factor. I was probably brushing too broadstroke to suggest that there are no interesting splits or choices there, it just felt sorta like, 'dang I wish there were other similar achievements' instead of having that be the lone Multi-Class oriented one.

I liked the no respec concept of it, but I wish it was more like "Complete the game as with... 6 levels in 2 classes. 4 levels in 3 classes. 3 levels in 4 classes. 2 levels in 6 classes." And then maybe when you do that, you unlock the super special achievement: Multi-Classer "Jack of All Trades." That'd be more like what I'm after out of such a challenge, I think anyway, it's hard to know what hums sometimes. I was really into it at first, then fell off towards the end, but that seems to happen to me a lot. Constant restartitus. I might try it again with the mod to enlarge the hotbar.

My favourite is and always will be bard. I did finish my HM run with a sword bard 10 /fighter 2 combo and it was pretty powerful and fun.
Lorebard is great too. If you want to be a skill monkey, put in two levels of knowledge cleric and take spells like sanctuary, Bless etc.

Warlock and sorcerer are fun too Warlock is often teamed up with another charisma based class for me - I like making Wyll a lockadin.

I also started to like assassin/gloomstalker and pure tempest cleric. Those are the goto classes for my Astarion and Shadowheart, if I don't play that myself.

I also like a bit more absurd stuff like lore bard/divination wizard to really drive home the 'No, you won't do that' with Cutting Words, divinations dice changes and Counterspell.

Well, yeah. Halfling Lore Bard is my favorite pick. Bard just completely dominates all dialogue, College of Lore even more so, and Halfling only doubles down on the Bards strengths. And Lore Bard is maybe not as OP as Swords Bard, but still very good.


I dont get why TWO levels of Knowledge Cleric. The second level gives nothing of value to a Lore Bard. You can have all important skills as Expertise and most of the rest as Proficiency at that point, and the remainder still gets half Proficiency. Other than that you get one spell slot, but lose a Bard spell and access to level 6 Bard spells. Awful deal.


If at all, I would maybe consider Lore Bard 10 / Knowledge Cleric 1 / Storm Sorcerer 1. The Cleric level would be the 7th character level and the Sorcerer would be 8th character level, so the Bard gets Counterspell at level 6 from Magical Secrets.

Taking a Sorcerer level after taking the Cleric level gives a lot more extras and most importantly would make sure that scrolls and items and feats work on Charisma, not on Wisdom as the spellcasting stat again. Also I can get Shield and Magic Missle as two solid spells not usually available to Bard, and four Sorcerer Cantrips, and a short range flight after every spell cast. Overall certainly MUCH better than a second Cleric level.


P.s.: I should probably mention that the powergamer variant is probably two levels of Warlock, which is enough to get a fully upgraded Eldritch Blast.

For Astarion it was Bard 8/Rogue 4 with hand crossbows, for high AC and quite a damage. For my main I liked Sorcerer 8/Warlock 4 the most. The strongest char I had with me ever was probably Gale with Abjuration Wizard 12. That was in a modded playthrough with much higher difficulty than Honour mode where I needed any defence I could get.