Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Dark Urge leaning into the Bhaal vibe build

Wanting to go with an honour mode, Bhaal inspired dark urge. To me that means being able to leverage the invisible cloak and the whole murder/dagger approach.

So based on that premise my thought is as follows:

- Duergar Dwarf - looks really cool, poison resistance is useful and the invisible at will is quite nice

Str 8
Dex 17 + hag
con 14
int 8
wis 10
cha 16

End levels will be Paladin 2/ Sword Bard 6/Assassin 4 - not sure if starting Pally for the heavy armour or Rogue for the skills will be better?

- gets extra attack, sneak attack 2d6, divine smites, bard spells with lvl 4 slots, two weapon fighting, defense style for +1 AC, the assassin benefits of auto crits on surprise, free actions on surprise and initiative. Feats would be Savage Attacker and Dual Wield.

-This gets me a dex based dual wielder who can use any weapon, great stealth, great skills, great face character who can burst down targets at the start of combat and then go Slayer if needed.

- go with Shar Shadowhawk, Astarian. and Minthara.

How does this look?

Looks good imo!

Keep in mind that starting as Pally and getting the Hag hair will break your oath (as many other things in a Durge run). This could be useful with the ability to control undead in Act 2 but will prevent you from doing respecs if needed and paying the OB knight just to respec is expensive. If this is not an issue for you I'd say go ahead.

May I ask what build are you planning for Astarion? I always want to have him as a companion in Durge runs but I feel that him being a Rouge means that he and I will end up filling the same role.

I was thinking going with a dex based shadowmonk9/Assassin 3 for Astarian. Take tavern brawler, and use club of hill giant in off hand.

For Shadowhawk maybe a gloomstalker Ranger 5/Light Cleric 7 for some ranged and spell support. I've come to like warding flare as a nice damage mitigation.

For Minthara maybe an oathbreaker 7/Warlock GOO 5.

If my paladin ends up as an oathbreaker that works just as well, perhaps even better roleplay wise.

The Oathbreaker 2/ Thief 4/ Sword Bard 6 is a blast to play. Evil to the core and mechanically does very well with some Arcane Acuity and the ring that lets you cast spells as a bonus action. Just took out Orin and got the Bhaal armor.

The only downside has been missing quests and venders since I killed the Druid Grove to be able to romance Minthara. Took out the Last Light to get Slayer at the start of Act 2 so that I'd get some use out of it.

The Duergar invisibilty all the time cantrip is amazing.

Honor mode no save scumming has greatly improved the game and forced me to be present when I play since I can't just breeze through and reload as needed. Having to deal with a bad die roll has made a great game better.

Finally finished my first Honor mode, it was a blast and not as hard as I thought it would be.

Here was the final team:
1.) DURGE Duergar Thief 4/ Oathbreaker 2/ Sword Bard 6 wearing the Bhaalist armor and duel wielding Orin's weapons. Went full Bhaal at the end. Four attacks per round, smites, sneak attacks, lots of criticals, great dialogue and handled all the rogue duties. Being able to burst anyone down with four smites in an un-hastened round is great, especially when the free invisibilty lets you start combat that way.
2.) Lae Zel - Eldritch Knight 12. Sword of Chaos for 4 attacks per round with Booming Blade and War Magic
3.) Minthara - Hexblade 1/ Oathbreaker 11. Using Nyruluna with a shield, Booming Blade and smites with auras to support.
4.) Astarian - Arcane Archer 12. Three attacks per un-hastened round and finally used up my horde of specialty arrows in the last fights.

Took out the Emperor and the dragon in the first turn before they could act.

You sort of have to go heavy on the evil path to really make the build. Killing the Last Light cuts you off from a bunch of quests and vendors but having the Slayer at the start of Act 2 comes in handy as an 'oh crap' button and talking to Orin is better since you are the chosen of Bhaal. Having the armor for the piercing debuff really helps your damage and Minthara with the trident and Astarian with his Titan bow. Also it works so much better with Duergar, the free, limitless invisibility makes starting with an ambush ridiculously easy.

I went with Thief for the guaranteed extra bonus actions every round instead of the Assassin better ambush mechanic that won't work coming into a cutscene which usually are the hardest fights. Being able to crush easy encounters even easier doesn't really matter. The Swashbuckler could be a contender instead of Thief.