So been thinking of what to play for my first run through of Baldurs Gate 3 when released. I will be streaming it, so looking for something entertaining, I I think I have come up with something that sings… :)
Half-Elf Drow rogue ( to get the drow hate, or maybe dragonborn… not decided fully) for the first 2 levels then switching to Bard. Or maybe Bard then switch to Rogue… not sure yet. Only 2 levels or Rogue in total. Of course there is no other choice but going with Dark Urge!!!
What is your first Character going to be, have you decided yet?
I’m thinking about doing 6 Paladin (Vengeance) / 6 Sorcerer (Draconic). A draconic paladin that focuses on radiant and fire damage. Not sure on the race yet.
I would like to theorycraft more but it seems like a lot of information about the release version isn’t available yet.
This is the biggest issue… Waiting for the release… Lol
In a bit of paralysis on build options at the moment. Played a lot of 5e in tabletop, but BG3 looks to be adding a lot of fun to playing martial characters, so I’m keen to give a Gish/Martial pure class a go. Options include:
- Wild Magic Barbarian/Battle Master Fighter (Angry Exploding Hoplite! Double up on Duelling and Rage damage, Polearm Master spear with shield, Tank-ish with lots of utility from subclass features)
- Totem Barbarian/Thief Rogue (Feral Wilder with two daggers, dual wielding and reckless for easy sneak attack - lots of off-hand strikes with Thief’s overpowered extra bonus action - there’s something visceral about a raging dagger barbarian that I want to explore)
- Half Orc Drummer Valour Bard (Full Strength, expertise in Athletics, jump on cliff, kick folks off cliff, or blast them off with Thunderwave if there’s more than one, plus full spellcasting for shenanigans)
- Acidic Dragonborn Spores Druid/Ranger (wade in with Shillelagh and spread the rot with staff and breath - depends on Spores implementation and need to maintain druid-level-dependent temporary health, otherwise barbarian would also be fun)
- Half Orc GOO Warlock/Fighter (“I’ll give you something to be scared of!” - get big weapon, drop darkness with Eldritch eyes for advantage, get big crits which scare people, then use tentacle powers to restrain folks and crit them again)
Since they got rid of Exhaustion from Frenzy I plan to run Karlach as a Berserker 9/Thief 3 with Great Weapon Master. You lose the Sneak Attack, but the chance of 40 damage per round generally beats a pretty certain 7 in my books. Plus there are some pretty good Greataxes and a Maul that does thunder damage when you jump.
Absolutely! My theorycrafting is more about realising certain fantasies than pure min-max, but for big damage numbers your build is ludicrous. Absolute whirlwind of death - and probably a reason why the thief’s ability should be retuned 😅
If you are looking to get the most out of your multi Rogue 2 (Cunning Action) doesn’t do much for Bard as they already have a lot going on with their Bonus Action. Rogue 1 (Expertise) or Thief Rogue 3 (Second Bonus Action) would be more optimal if you really want to focus as a Skill Monkey. The down side of the later is the loss of Magical Secrets.
That said Warlock 2 would probably be just as good, if not better, than either of those depending on which invocations you choose. Agonizing Blast would be a given, but Beguiling Influence, Mask of Many Faces, and Beast Speech would all be strong contenders for the second.
One final thing to note for your Expertise selections, since tool proficiencies haven’t been implemented Sleight of Hand covers Lockpicking and Trap Disarming in addition to Pickpocketing making it one of the best choices.
Edit: For my first run I’m torn between Ancients Paladin 6/Archfey Bladelock 6 and Gloomstalker Ranger 5/Thief Rogue 3/Spores Druid 4.
I was mainly thinking for the extra expertise I can put in sleight of hand, stealth + the back stabbiness of the rogue… all at really level 1. Not really much for bard at 11 and 12 tbh.
I was thinking of Warlock, but decided to go for Rogue for the lockpick thing, as the bard will then replace rogue in party. Warlock might be the stronger DPS, but I need ALL the lewts. :)
Bard is versatile front man, that’s Why I like it. I just think the Rogue will “complete” it for me. Well, at least that is my thoughts for the choice… too many options lol.
I’m thinking Human or HE Vengeance Paladin - depending on what the new Human racial stats are.
Ah yes I forgot about the human refactor.
It looks like +2/+1 with +20 carry weight and some light armour polearm and glaive(not sure on the weapons exactly). They didn’t make our as well as half elf who got light armour + shields and miss out (oh no…) on carry weight.
I’m rather new to BG so I want to say that I’ll play it safe and choose a fighter. or like Eldritch Knight fighter
… but the bards look so fun. seriously. I might throw caution to the wind and go with my heart and grab a lute ☺️
With a Full respect guy later on… you have the opportunity to try anything in one play through… however, I feel this is a game you will play many times because of all the variety of choices etc.
So go Wild!
I’m leaning Dark Urge Oathbreaker. Haven’t settled on a race yet, maybe Duergar or Drow?
The character I want to play is a Sorcerer/Eldritch Knight optimised for going nova with Shadow Blade. Some kind of Elf or Drow for Elven Accuracy. But it hinges on Shadow Blade/Booming Blade/Green-Flame Blade, which I heard aren’t in the game. And neither is Bladesinger?
Anyway, some kind of Gish would be the most fun, so I hope there is support for that.
There’s are mods that add them. You would just need to wait until they are updated for launch.
I had hoped to avoid mods on the first playthrough (especially potentially balance breaking ones like these), but it’s comforting to know they exist. Thank you for the heads up!
Am I right in reading that as a Sorcerer/EK multiclass? Any reason you’re thinking a Sorcerer instead of Wizard to pair with the Eldritch Knight (both EK and Wizard use INT for spells and a Wizard gets nearly all the spells Sorcerer gets and more)?
Well Sorcerer can spend Sorcery points on Twin or Quicken to cast Booming Blade. If in range of two creatures, you can twin Booming Blade to hit both, then use War Magic to make an attack as a Bonus Action. If in range if just one, Quicken to cast as a Bonus Action, followed by multiple attacks from EK as an action.
Sorcerer also opens the Divine Soul bloodline, which adds some versatility to your spell list and lets you back-up heal. Furthermore, in pen-and-paper, Divine Soul lets you grab Thaumaturgy as a cantrip, which can be used to dim lights for 1 minute without concentration, which is enough to trigger advantage from Shadow Blade, and in turn Elven Accuracy, which is neat.
Question answered, thank you!
Though unless I’m mistaken we have no Divine Soul Sorcerer in BG3 (just Draconic/Wild/Storm), so you might have to wait up for mods
We don’t even have Shadow Blade or Booming Blade it seems, so yeah, mods will be required, sadly. But glad they are out there.
I forgot to mention using Action Surge with those tricks, of course, which should lead to some high nova numbers.
I honestly don’t know. :P Tempted by Warlock/Paladin or Warlock/Sorcerer, I have a thing for gish builds and both of these have potential to be very powerful. But also the tweaked Monk looks very fun. So IDK. :P Race… probably half-drow, dragonborn or tiefling. Haven’t fully decided yet.
So I am thinking of making a dwarf or half-orc barbarian (not sure yet which subclass) or a Circle of the Moon Druid (not set on race yet). My husband is looking at a Sor-lock. I figure we can pick up the rogue and cleric companions and have a solid team.
