Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion POLL: What patch 8 subclasses are you most looking forward to trying?

Ok, I think, I might like Bladesong the most - it's basically an intellegence based bard class with more spells. Choose Longsword as your weapon and then use Phalar Aluve for a more theme appropriate build.
I think, that might be my first playthrough with patch 8 (after having finished my gnome artificer)

Wait 'til you learn that Shadow Blade has become a regular spell that wizards can learn now. A sword that does 4d8 psychic damage to complement your bladesinging wizard.

I know - and Booming Blade - a ridiculous powerful cantrip.

I just love throwing builds ...
So i was looking forward for GIant Barbarian.
(im also kinda sad we didnt get Soulknife for same reason)

Sadly tho, as it seems throwing still completely messes up our hotbar, bcs our character for meere split second in situation when time is basicaly stopped so nobody can interweene ... is not "holding" the weapon. -_-

Such a waste.

I am looking forward to toy around with some kind of build that makes Gale's corruption by the Shadow Weave a little bit felt if you go down that road in his origin. Currently the consequences are a pretty purple spell slot and Astarion being very pleased with you, and while I don't mind either, it never feels like I made a significant choice.

Are you thinking of making him a shadow sorcerer? I think, that would fit.

Oh yes, or at least multiclass into it, as wizard / wild magic Sorcerer is one of those odd mixtures, I very much enjoy. We'll probably have plenty of chats with Withers once the patch releases.

Bladesinging also sounds interesting, not to make the Shadow Weave felt but in general - and for the shallow reason that I like to hear Gale's dipping comments more often. ^^

I think, it's pretty relatable, that Gale would look for other methods to do magic, since the orb should really make it impossible to reach into the weave as a mage. I made an all bard playthrough and thought, that Gale would jump on it (in early access he had a dialogue with a bard Tav that he is trying to write a book).

But shadow sorcerer sounds pretty fitting with it's darker theme.

I contemplating to make Lae'zel a Bladesinger, since that would fit her as a gith.

The cleric, archer fighter, and drunk monk get my votes.
But I'll no doubt be putting points into all of them over several playthroughs to come lol.
Super excited!

Would like to do an arcane archer, but it sounds broken in the later game due to the savings throw. Will look for a mod b4 I do so.

Does Arcane Acuity affect it?
It affects consumable arrow DC saves, so I'm hoping it affects these special skill arrows too.

The glamor bard sounds fun. I usually try to create a lore bard/archfey warlock character. I have no idea what I'm doing in BG3, whether I'm multi-classing or not. But the glamor bard sounds like a mix of the two classes I always use, so that makes it stand out the most to me.

Not interested in any of these subclasses. Will probably never use them.

The more i hear about Patch 8 ... the more i incline to this sentiment.

They feels like Larian finaly abandoned all ties to 5e and embraced their Homebrew fully.
Or is it just me?

I dont mind they are homebrewn, but none of them really click with me.

Theres plenty of the standard subclasses that dont really click either.

Barbarian for example, really I'll go Wildheart every time. Bard, Lore or Swords. Etc.

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I dont really mind homebrew either ...

But form what have i seen so far (from videos, i didnt get my hands on it ... yet) it dont really seem like good homebrew so far. :-/
And that is just something im a bit affraid of.

More like ...
If you invide your 12y old cousin to play DnD and he come up with super edgy character called Überboss who is half demon, half angel, and cyborg, and 100% badass ... wields shotgun with infinite ammo, have 55AC, +15 to every roll and saving throw, and if they die they can just return to living for free every short rest.
And you just dont have the heart to tell him no ... and so you suffer this bullshit for whole session, wich you will probably scap afterwards anyway ...

I mean ... sure, sometimes its fun to play with cheats ... for like 20 minutes in my opinion.
But if one of your opinion is objectively ten times stronger than anyone else ... do you really have a choice?

That aswell ...

I kinda get some of them ...
Giant Barbarian is great and brings something potentialy new ...
And i certainly understand that Swashbuckler is more popular, than by favourite dagger throwing (wich WOULD be at least different gameplaywise) Soulknife.

But who the hells asked for Arcane Archer?
I mean come on ... basicaly any other subclass would be better pick.

Some of them would be limited by overall design/theme of the game.

Like, for Fighter; Cavalier wouldn't be doable with the design of the game. Samurai wouldn't really fit thematically. Rune Knight kind of competes with Giant Barbarian. Psi Warrior is basically Battlemaster 2.0 and Banneret is kind of boring.

So Arcane Archer or Echo Knight are the most notable options. Echo probably being hardest to implement (It also would end up feeling like an amalgamation of Trickery and War Cleric... Summoning a copy to manipulate the battle and gaining extra attacks)

Not to mention the fact that level 12 is the cap means a lot of subclasses don't get their most interesting features (Yes, they can bump some level 14 features down a bit, like they did with Draconic Sorcerer getting their Flight, but in some cases it can end up with the subclass not feeling particularly different to base classes until level 11-12) which can further limit how well some subclasses can be represented.

Disagree ...
Right now im playing in campaign, where one of us play Cavalier Fighter / Ancestral Barbarian ... and while we have no mounts (i asume that was your point?) Cavalier is still quite usefull addition to party.

So it would be doable ...
Probably it wouldnt be 1:1 with tabletop ... but since Swasbuckler, and Bladesinger are not either ... i would dare to assume Larian wouldnt really mind that.

Also ... Cavalier is basicaly best Fighter Tank ...
And this game dont have any dedicated Tanking spec ... so that would bring something "new".

Disagree again ...

As far as i know, there is nothing odd about Samurais in DnD ...
Yes, i know we have that word tied in our little minds with feudal Japan ... but that is just same word for something entirely different. :-/

How?

Ok, they both go big ... and?
Rune Knight is quite versatile subclass, while Giant Barbarian is weapon throwing elemental brute ... there is not much simmilarity.

And if you really mean this as arguing point, then im affraid i have to insist that in that case Arcane Archer competes with Range Ranger ...
After all one old DnD joke says:
"What is best way to play a Ranger? Play Dex based Fighter instead."

Battlemaster is a dude who is really good with his weapon ...
Psi Warrior is a jedi. xD

Also ... even if ... disclaimer: i dont agree with it, but lets say for argument purposes ... isnt Psi Warrior quite litterally and by deffinition the MOST FITTING SUBCLASS FOR GITHYANKI?

Yup.
No arguments there, they sucks. xD

Maybe ...
Still, it would be cool.

It would be doable. But one of the main things about Cavalier is the mount.

If Larian added a mountless Cavalier to the game, we'd see endless complaints about lacking the subclasses most defining feature.


Yes, there's nothing odd about Samurai in DnD.

It is still however, tied to Eastern locales in DnD. Which... Baldur's Gate is not. Sure, a PC could be a traveller from the East... But it's still an out of place subclass for the setting of BG3.


Both are focused around becoming large and gaining bonuses for it.

They're not identical, but there's some considerable overlap in theme. Something they might have factored in when choosing which subclasses to implement (Of course, they could have picked something else for Barb... Storm Herald or Ancestral Guardian could have been interesting)


Except "Range Ranger" is a playstyle choice, not a class one.

No part of Ranger explicitly is about using ranged weapons at all. Even their weapon focuses provides them with mostly melee options.


Thematically yes.

But in practice, they're both Fighter subclasses that get a unique dice pool to utilize special actions for. It doesn't really bring anything new to the class, it's just "Battlemaster but with different skills"

Arcane Archer on the other hand creates this ranged based playstyle.


Not really. It can be an appropriate subclass for them, given their innate psychic abilities and their martial training. But it's not definitevely the "Most fitting" since there will still be a lot of variance in what any individual Githyanki is capable of (Some might have less potent psychic powers, some might have less potent martial prowess, some might have an affinity for the Weave etc)

Which is reflected in all the Githyanki we face in game. Not all of them are Fighters.


Aye, for sure. But still, "Being Cool" isn't enough of a reason to choose various subclasses.