Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What character class did you start with?

For me I started with a ranger, after seeing Youtube videos about the combat being 3 dimensional (-ish). I really didn't fancy running around chasing enemies with a pure melee character, and I wanted a character that was a bit tankier than a rogue.

Have a lot of character ideas for 5E tabletop play, and wanted to try Eldritch Knight however Fighter Subclasses were not available yet in this build. So I made a Half Drow Light Cleric (heh). Might toy with making a Ranger or Rogue next though i hear Sneak Attack bonuses arent being applied?

I'm Ranger as well but don't understand most things.
I have a Shortsword 1d6 Piercing and just found a Dagger 1d4 Piercing, so ignoring everything else, which does more damage, 1d4 or 1d6? I have searched and read about dice notation, still don't understand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice_notation
Also found a Longsword 1d10 but slashing, I guess 1d10 is higher damage, meaning a dice with 10 sides, at least can roll a higher number. But then that would mean that a warrior has higher damage than a rogue, and that doesn't make sense.

The number refers to the number of sides on the dice. So a 1d4 has a 1,2,3 and a 4 side so the highest number it can roll is a 4. A short sword has 6 sides 1,2,3,4,5, and 6 so the highest number you can roll is a 6. The average of a d4 is 2.5 and the average of a d6 is 3.5 so a 1d6 will on average do more damage. You are correct about the longsword. Fighters are not just tanks in 5e they can do quite a lot if damage if you build them right. Rogues are more of a stealth and lots of skills based class rather than just a dps class you see in many mmo's. Also rogues have sneak attack. So the rogue with a dagger will be doing their weapon damage 1d6 for a shortsword + 1d6 sneak attack at first level. So the damage is actually a lot closer.

Rogue. Lots of skills, good at melee or ranged, and the focus on dex leaves plenty of points for charisma, because I bet we'll be doing lots of persuading.

Rogue bonus damage comes from sneak attack. It's an ability that adds extra d6s to an attack. It scales with level.

And yeah, 1d8 means it rolls an 8 sided die, for a result of 1 to 8.

Thanks a lot, now I can pick, had to pause the game and search

Also in the meantime created this thread
"Dice notation, or "what 1d6 means?"
at Help Tips & Tricks section http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=679307#Post679307
Will quote your answer there, I'm sure there are many more players who will need it.

Please continue there in case anyone else wants to add more about "Dice notation", would be off-topic here, sorry for derailing this thread.

I thought Eldritch knight IS available in the EA?

Playing a drow priestess of Lolth and was very pleased to see how many lines Shadowheart has for the drow. She's a wicked thing. My fav companion as a drow.

Eldritch Knight is in the EA. Fighters don't get their subclass until 3rd level which is probably where the confusion comes from.

Yeah I went Drow Ranger, must be that half elf coming out lol.

I'm pretty sure two fighter subclasses (including EK) are already available.

Apart from the sneak attack damage that others have mentioned, rogues also get their turn more often (think of this as more attacks per round), further increasing a rogue's damage relative to the fighter. Also, as mentioned above, think of the fighter as a jack-of-all-trades of the martial craft - they can be unstoppable juggernauts wielding huge 2H weapons, archers plugging away from behind the lines, swashbucklers using dual-wield to make their enemies bleed, or an impregnable wall of a tank using a 1H and shield combo. The tank may be low on damage, but the others certainly won't. However, the common thread is that they will all generally be attacking head-on, and dealing slower but heavier hits than a rogue. Again, in D&D there are rules, exceptions to the rules, and exceptions to the exceptions, so take all of that with a grain of salt...

I started out as a ranger as well; was a bit torn between that and a Life Domain cleric, but since a cleric companion is available and a ranger is not, that made my decision for me.

EK is there, but i'll wait for booming blade/ green flame blade before playing one xD