Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Best none GWM fighter build for Lae'zel

Hi guys, I'm kind of a RP player and I'm running my first tactician mode game.

I've already used Lae'zel as a GWM user in a previous game, so I'm woundering what would be the best option aside from 2hander ?

Is DW or sword and board fighter would be the best ?

The rest of my team isn,t that powerfull, War domain shadowheart, Arcane trickster Astarion and a pure wizard Gale.

Technically, the most powerful would be Eldritch Knight Thrower build.

But if that's not your style, you can do some dual wield builds. I'm quite fond of Champion Crit builds (Where you utilize items like Knife of the Undermountain King and some Act 2 Justiciar items to stack crit on top of Champions innate +1 crit). But you can also do more regular Battlemaster or EK builds.

If you want, you can still go SnB build for that extra AC (Without losing much damage as you get more from going 11 Fighter for the extra attack than dipping Thief for Fast Hands due to how Extra Attack works better with Action Surge and Haste so dual wield as a Fighter mostly just gets you 1 single off-hand attack - With the main exception being weapons with bonus effects which can add some extra damage). Both Battlemaster and Eldritch Knight offer some nice extras to spice up gameplay while being a more tanky frontliner.

At the end of the day, it's up to you really. Both DW and SnB are fine and about equal powerwise, DW simply offers a little bit more damage through using bonus action for an off-hand attack while SnB gets a bit of extra AC.

I'm not entirely against a trowing build but I need her to be in melee to soak some damage. Is trowing penalized when someone is in melee range of you like archery ?

Yes, if you are engaged then you get disadvantage on throwing just as if you were using a bow (Or non-touch range spell)

Of course, as a Throwing build prioritizes Strength, you are very much capable of Shoving an enemy that is engaged with you away allowing you to then throw without disadvantage.

Not to mention... You can still actually melee with a throwing build. Like, you are very much able to throw at the start of the fight, then when enemies start to get close run in to melee and start meleeing and absorbing damage. You're not necessarily bad at melee, it's just it won't be anywhere near as strong as your thrown attacks (Which are ridiculously strong thanks to Tavern Brawler feat)

The strongest melee Fighter as of Patch 8 is Eldritch Knight. The problem is that most of the damage of a Fighter comes from Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter or Tavern Brawler. Using a onehanded sword and shield greatly reduces the damage.

If you don't mind using a twohanded weapon, you could make a controlling Fighter with Sentinel, Polearm Master, Savage Attacker and one ASI. I'd prefer GWM for such a build over Savage Attacker, but if you want to avoid it, the other variant isn't much worse. Anyway, a polearm build does play differently from a pure GWM damage build.

You could make the Fighter with sword and board and use Phalar Aluve, to increase the other party members damage considerably. With Battlemaster you still have the means to control the enemy, with Eldritch Knight you can still use Booming Blade and have 4 attacks with ease, that's 40 less damage than with GWM but still ok.

BTW my main is an allround Eldritch Knight Fighter, she has GWM and Sharpshooter and is Dex based. Her main weapons are Phalar Aluve and the Ttanstring Bow. I like to be able to act at any distance. Shooting a bow is also not as annoying as throwing, for my taste. It plays a bit differently than a pure melee GWM build, but in the end it's GWM when in melee, so maybe not for you.

If you don't mind a ranged Fighter, Arcane Archer is insanely strong (in my party Astarion is one), wether you use 12 levels Fighter with a bow or make an 8 Fighter/4 Rogue Thief mix with hand crossbows. Of course such a Fighter does play quite differently than a GWM based build.

To the rest of your group, War domain Cleric and Arcane Trickster Rogue may not be that strong, but a pure Wizard can win many fights mostly alone, if specced in certain ways and long-resting a lot, so I would like to come to Gale's defense here. To be honest, I cannot imagine Lae'zel without a twohander. Because my main occupies that role, Lae'zel is not in my party except for the creche (my party always consists of Shadowheart, Astarion and Gale, while only Astarion is allowed to multiclass).

If you want melee but not a fighter you can go with a Monk Lae'Zel.