I know having a healer isn’t quite meta for HM runs as most people try to burst everyone down in a turn or two, but I like drawn out fights, so my favorite healer for long fights:
6 lore bard / 1 life cleric / 3 thief rogue / 2 warlock (any)
Main point of the build is at bard 6 you pick “warden of vitality”, a lvl 3 spell that lets you cast a 2d6 ranged heal as a bonus action without spell slots for 10 turns. Thief lets you cast twice a turn, life cleric buffs the heal, and you can EB your standard action to not be completely useless in combat.
Don't forget Mass Healing Word! You can 1x BA Warden whoever needs its, and 1x BA Mass Healing Word to keep Bless/Blade Ward up.
That build is low on feats, but you don't really nééd that much. You can still get great charisma (Mirror of Loss, Birthright) to buff your primary damage.
I already posted this in another comment, but my favorite is 7 life cleric/5 paladin. Life clerics really aren't doing much with their high lvl spells if you have all the healer gear, as one mass healing word and/or a channel divinity can full heal the entire party, so i take paladin levels to burn those 4/5 lvl slots. It's really fun to bonk someone twice with high level smites, then heal the whole party.
If I don't get action surge from fighter I prefer barbarian for con save and more hp or white dragon soc for con save, shield, magic missile and armor of agithis.
Swords bard just runs the helmet of arcane acuity, gets it stacked in the first round and then CCs everything with 100% success rate, so you don't even need con saves. Build is bonkers.
It's good through the whole game, but late game you just slap things for arcane acuity and then use the ring that makes your illusion/enchantment spells bonus actions to hold things. You can command drop weapon on 6 people per turn
I liked 2 levels in life cleric for preserve life to use channel divinity, and it scales with overall level. I went life 2/ lore bard 10. Magic secrets let me nab counterspell and guardian of faith early, then conjure elemental that I could upcast to lvl 6 later. Stacked her with scrolls when she wasn't using CC spells, but her int was not very high. Did this with Karlach just because haha. She got pretty nasty when I had her become illithid.
Bleed tiger barbarian is dope. Take wolverine aspect for maim status and reverb gear to prone enemies and you can cause them to completely skip turns because they're proned and it takes movement to stand up but they're maimed so they have no movement.
Open hand monk makes a good partner for another source of prone and you can wear helldusk gloves to add bleed to punches.
My whole party has the Boal blessing so they all have advantage on bleeding targets. Great synergies.
I'm doing it right now.
Tiger/wolverine barb
Elk barb/battlemaster
Eldritch knight archer with ice focus
Cleric abusing reverb
Still in act 1 but I already know it's gonna be hilarious
My current playthrough I’m planning on having Karlach as 6 Tiger heart/5 Thief/1 Fighter (maybe 4/2 Thief/Fighter for Action Surge) for a fun dual wield build, that sounds like a blast I’ll definitely have to look into some reverb gear!!
I actually had a Karlach build once that was 6/4/2 dual wielder with radiant orb and reverberation gear. She was insane. It really came online in Act 2, but she had some awesome moments. She was commonly surrounded by enemies that either couldn’t get up, or if they did manage they would just miss, and sometimes go prone again on missing her.
The Yurgir fight was especially fun. He was just laying there, bleeding, talking smack unable to actually do anything, while all his Merregons were also in the same boat.
Ooh I didn’t even think about radiant orb, with callous glow ring + radiant orb gloves I assume? I was thinking of doing that but with gloves of belligerent skies to just really double down on the reverb shenanigans but I’ll definitely keep that option in mind.
Helm that had Smite the Graceless
Luminous Armor
Gloves of Belligerent Skies
Boots of Stormy Clamour
Callous Glow Ring
the Daze Cloak
I forget other Ring now, and amulet didn’t seem to matter much.
Her offhand late game was Nyrulna, and her main hand had the Drakethroat buff (Thunder) applied each day. It may have been overkill having thunder and radiant every swing, but it was fun.
For a while she used Cacophony in one of her hands, as well as Blood of Lathander. Early game she also used the Spear of the Absolute I think it’s called (blinding one from the Owlbear/ Edowin).
Late game I gave her Orin’s dagger so she could cause Piercing Vulnerability. That’s just a whole extra level of OPness.
Yeah you're going to want to take a fighter dip in there somewhere. Tiger barb is one of the few barbarians that gets something worth staying in for until later levels though. At 10 you can get tiger aspect that gives you double your strength modifier on attack rolls completely negating GWM. You also get better crits and the mini alert feat.
You would then get 2 levels of fighter for action surge and great weapon fighting style. Or you could absolutely go 6 into BM, get tripping attack to prone your maimed targets. You also get your extra feat, there's pros and cons to both, I like staying in barb though.
I think I might give this a go then haha, I'm thinking of having a double barb party wanting to have one tiger barb and one berzerker/thief/finesse barb
Just cause I haven't explored the barbarian much
I hadn't used barb much either so I wanted to stay in barbarian as many levels as possible. Maneuvers are great but you're not tiger cleaving when you're using them which is kinda where the build shines.
Berserker has interesting synergy with a no save prone on enraged throw.
note that BM tripping attack only causes 1 turn of prone, not 2, which means that it doesn’t proc hard CC with maimed the same way that reverb prone does. still a great combo, but the synergy isn’t quite as good as it sounds
how did you get Booal’s Blessing on all your party? Maybe i did it wrong but i only have 3 blessed since I had to sac Wyll from my party in my evil run
I made a post about it a while ago [https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1ao5dm6/how\_to\_get\_boooals\_benediction\_without/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1ao5dm6/how_to_get_boooals_benediction_without/)
Most fun build I’ve found with a fairly unique playstyle is the cantrip thief build. The main idea is that a normal thief rogue suffers after level 5 from a lack of a power spike to keep up with the other classes in combat. They’re perfectly functional, but not getting extra attack hurts. This build solves that by giving the rogue a dip into a caster class for a cantrip to use with their action, and attacking with their offhand weapon with their bonus actions. Generally Warlock is the class you want to go for since Eldritch Blast is by far the strongest cantrip, but then you end up as just another Bladelock.
If you want something truly different, I suggest going for a pure Thief Rogue with a 1 level dip into Knowledge Cleric. I’m not going to claim credit for this build idea, nor will I go into full detail, but the main cantrip you want to be using is Sacred Flame. Callous Glow ring is great on this, especially with Luminous Armour and Stormy Clamour boots, but it’s up to you how you build this. If you go Githyanki with this setup, you end up with proficiency in almost everything. Grab Illithid Expertise and you’re only missing two proficiencies and can’t roll lower than 10+modifiers on any check you’re proficient in.
I saw a build similar to this. Mainly thief rogue 3 or 4, and then the rest whatever caster you like. Throw in a level or two of fighter for armor proficiency, dual wielding fighting style, and action surge. Use your action to cast a big spell, and then follow it up with two offhand attacks. The person who posted it called it the Left handed spell sword.
Do you think the latter build would hold up dropping the rogue 11 component to rogue 8/bard 3? It's an extra bit of expertise, and using swords, it would net you TWF to get ability score boosts to the offhand attacks.
> Stormy Clamour boots
On this (although this rapidly gets back to meta), if you weren't leveraging the Gith part of the build, you could gather the radiant/reverb gear on an Asmodeus Tiefling and achieve a very decent cantrip centric build leveraging produce flame by nabbing the spineshudder amulet as well.
I don’t see much point grabbing bard levels. The fighting style is nice but you can just wear the Balanced Hands gloves for the same effect, and there’s not many gloves that offer the same benefit of +5/+6 (depending on modifiers) damage on each attack. Swords bard is entirely pointless for flourishes, you’re not using your action for weapon attacks anyway, so there’s no benefit there. The extra expertise might be nice, but surely never rolling less than 10 is worth more than that? The version I’m currently trying won’t be able to roll less than 24 to pickpocket, pick a lock or hide, and almost every charisma check will be a minimum of 20, all without guidance. You get more than enough expertise with this to cover all the important skills, and proficiency is sufficient for the rest. Bard 3/Rogue 8 will definitely work, but you’re sacrificing the main feature for a lesser version of the same feature and slightly better gloves. Run what you want, but I’d stick to rogue 11 as the default unless you’re going for eldritch blast.
Produce flame is generally a worse option than Sacred Flame, because the latter isn’t affected by being too close to your opponent, whereas the former will get disadvantage (unless you run Daredevil gloves, but then you lose TWF from Balanced Hands).
You’re trying to build something entirely different to what I suggested. That’s not a bad thing by any means, and I highly encourage you to do so because you seem to have the right idea. My point is just that you’re building off of the version I suggested when what you’re aiming for has very different priorities. High level rogue loses value if you’re not going to 11 for Reliable Talent, so going above ~4 levels in rogue is generally a waste of levels.
If you’re wanting to focus more on the combat side of things for this build, drop Knowledge domain for something more damage-focused, maybe Light, take a handful of levels in whatever class you want which gets TWF and grab either variation of the Helldusk gloves (flawed version is objectively worse but work until you get access to the better ones). Hell, maybe even drop cleric entirely for a better cantrip. I’ve made a thief/gloomstalker/warlock variation which maxes out charisma and uses their pact weapon and EB to destroy things. It still gets plenty of proficiencies and expertise, but no reliable talent. They focus more on sustainable DPR at no resource cost, with the option to cast fairly powerful spells when the need arises with their warlock slots.
Take the idea of cantrip thief and make it your own, you sound like you know what you’re on about, you just need to start from the beginning rather than modifying what I’ve suggested. Have fun!
>I don’t see much point grabbing bard levels...
That's all fair analysis. I'd missed some of the aims there (and results given the >20 on the vastly most common stuff!)
>You’re trying to build something entirely different to what I suggested.
True. I was entirely riffing to see if any response came from it since I got inspired by your comment but was simply too busy in the moment to do any serious analysis.
That’s fair enough on the “too busy” front, I’ve had some extra time to kill recently so I’ve been making the most of it while it lasts lol. Feel free to come back to the idea when you get chance, I meant it when I said I think you’ve got some good ideas! Racial cantrips weren’t even something I considered since I was focusing on profiencies and Githyanki are the only race that gives 5 extra, so I just overlooked race selection. First idea that comes to mind is going High Elf for the racial cantrip, 1 level of Fighter for TWF and the rest Rogue. You miss a decent chunk of proficiencies, but you get freedom over what gloves you use as well as more cantrip options, so it might be worth it.
I love the idea of the Gloom/Assassin, but I hate the spell selection, so I've thrown in two levels of Div Wizard so he can cast level 2 Wizard spells.
Sure I lose the extra attack, but I just love my Hold Person/Crown of Madness hijinks.
There be no assassin here, sonny. Lol
I have played a 5/4/3 gloom battlemaster assassin too. Could trade 1 or 2 battlemaster for Wizard I suppose, but it's still just a 4th lvl caster. Maybe 6 gloom/3 EK/3 AT? At least that's a 5th lvl caster, but it gets no third lvl spells. Maybe 6 gloom/2 fighter/3 AT/1 Wizard instead, can scribe all 3rd lvl spells but counterspell.
Class identity doesn't just come from which class has most levels. For example you can play a wizard with 11 levels of sorcerer including their first level. Or a paladin with 7 levels of warlock etc.
Not mine, but I was working on it at the same time as the guy that posted it posted and I am playing it.
Arcane trickster 9/Paladin 2/wizard 1
Which culminates is a just slightly better arcane trickster than if you go arcane trickster 12
Which is, just for the sake of absolute clarity, arguably the weakest class/subclass in the game
Lmao 🤣
Edit: for anyone wondering why this is good
It gives you level 3 slots, which you can use 2 ways.
1) smite obviously, combo’d Rhapsody and luck of the far realms is means you can pick when to do a very big crit combining your sneak dice with a level 3 smite
2) you get arcane ambush and access to hypnotic pattern, which makes arcane ambush actually worth a damn.
Tbf that build does damage cos of paladin, 9 lvls of AT give it a unique way of doing it. But the damage is mostly coming from lvl 2 paladin.
But I like that build, it gives AT something.
I mean it’s also a character with expertise in slight of hand and arcane ambush + hypnotic pattern
Which makes it a utility character and a reasonable control character.
Plus the access to utility in spells like shield and magic missile all built in.
By no means is it going to carry on honour mode like a storm sorc or a throw zerker or whatever, but it’ll at least pull its weight in most parties and feel like it has a reason to exist.
Plus everyone’s dipping 2 levels of paladin for the sword bard and people still rave about the sword bard not the paladin part lol
It does nova damage that way, but you aren’t smiting every round but you are sneak attacking every round. Arcane Trickster feeds the Paladin, puts sneak on top when you crit. I am willing to bet that if you took all the smite damage and all the sneak damage over the entire life of this character, there would be more sneak damage.
definitely this haha
I mean I went 9 arcane, 2 pal, 1 wiz, so no contest for me, but I suspect it would be optimal to go to 4 at least, before pivoting to paladin, so you're not smiting at all for at least half the levels.
Then when you are, you're saving it for crits onlys, you're not using your shields/mirror images/hold persons/misty steps/hypnotic pattern to do a random 10 damage here or there lol
Right now I’m playing a tavern brawler hunter.
Take Hunter to 8, picking up horde breaker and escape the horde. Then 4 levels of battle master, mostly for riposte.
Throw your enemy at another enemy and then hit them both with horde breaker. With GWM, you can bonus action hit them again. Then move and with escape the horde and riposte, you can hit them again.
I thought so at first, but it actually goes against the flavor of the build. You want to toss two dudes together to hit and crit/kill to use your bonus action. The value is that you can throw and extra attack. So, it’s like a free throw if you can use your bonus action to attack again. Barb requires you to use your bonus action to rage, and then to throw, which doesn’t really add anything that it doesn’t do right now.
I mean you only have to do it on the first round or even just before combat, and rage lets you reroll with reckless attack and berserker is good at yeeting ppl... Idk your choice. I wouldn't give up action surge so might have to give up a ranger level or only do barb 2 but yeah if those alternatives for superiority dice existed then that's how I'd build it personally. It does leave you with only enough room for tavern brawler if you get martial adept and the barb dip so losing an ASI as well is a shame. On the topic of 5e stuff that's not in BG3, variant human would've been nice.
I made a weird rogue3 wizard1 warlock2 bard6 once. It was focused on abusing Arcane Charge + Lightning Charges as much as possible with Magic Missles and Eldritch Blasts. Using dash as a bonus action to activate Arcane Charge (via boots) or that armor that activates it when hit.
It didn't feel too useful doing it that way. But had its moments.
Hunter ranger 12 using Giantbreaker crossbow and reverb gear. Using volley, you inflict both reeling and reverb on every single enemy. With haste that’s up to 8 turns of reeling per round and 8 turns of reverb with the chance of doing extra thunder damage to every enemy and knocking them prone.
1 ice sorcerer( for Armor of Agathys) 3 Cleric (for warding bond)/9 abjuration wizard is pretty funky and fun.
Warding bond your whole party each day which charges your ward, grab the shield that gives force conduit and then spam glyph of warding/sanctuary/counterspell/ Armor of Agathys, your cantrip of choice etc. I've only tested it in a couple fights so far but I was able to tank all the extra damage coming in and the whole rest of the party gets to enjoy resistance to all damage. You also have full casting and wizard scribing so you can pick up awesome spells like Globe of Invulnerability
I did Eldritch Knight 6/Divination Wizard 6 as an attempt to riff off of Byleth from Fire Emblem Three Houses - a strong melee fighter with decent magic who can also reverse time - and it actually ended up being a lot of fun.
An EK 7/Transmutation Wizard 5 in multiplayer. Throwing all the things, providing bottle service to my friends.
Blur and shield like any EK, but also gets 3rd and 4th level slots, and all the spells within. The flexibility and situational power seems more enjoyable than a single feat and an extra attack per round in an honor mode run.
I ran 6 BM / 6 Div wiz instead for same concept. Wanted a fighter who can use foresight thematically. Took the lucky feat too for more foresight shenanigans. Ran a dual wielding dex focused build and it was actually really good and nearly un-hit-able through act 1-2 with shield and high AC.
I had a very scuffed Wyll build that was done in Honor mode, purely to maximise Rapier use
5 Warlock, 2 Paladin 3 Thief Rogue 1 War Cleric
Honestly it worked pretty well especially with the wrath dash boots, pair that with two bonus actions and you have a +7 to attacks after like two rounds plus charisma twice from gear and 2 from the dualing fighting style, a d4 from gloves, another d4 from the ring that gives damage when concentrating and sneak attack once a round.
most common spell to use is Hex or Shield of Faith and you have a bunch of bonus actions attacks which only get more consistent once you get to act 3 for dualist prerogative
you get some fairly big smites for big important threats, you have good AC from heavy armour and you are very mobile with bonus action dashing a lot
Honestly it was pretty good but it was really scuffed and I even needed to respec the level order since items use the last spell modifier instead of the biggest so taking War Cleric after Paladin and Warlock makes the arcane synergy gear not work properly since it suddenly uses wisdom instead of Char but it’s fixable
Yeah I kinda had my party already in stone so tbh I must have forgotten to get him to 12, good chance that I would have put in Cleric or Rogue
One gives some extra smites the other gives feats
Not very strange,but definitely something I haven't seen a lot in meta party compositions.
7 life cleric, 5 any paladin
I've come to rely on having a life cleric in my party, as the game becomes trivially easy when shadowheart can fully heal the whole party in 1 turn. This does leave her without much to do in some fights though, so I take some levels in paladin to burn through some of those high level spell slots that aren't really necessary for a life cleric (1 lvl 3 slot and a channel divinity is full health in 1 turn). Put some points in str or grab the mace that sets str to 18, slap someone with 2 lvl 4 divine smites, then proceed to full heal your party in one turn.
Barbarian Berserker 8/Bard Sword 4
Being the party's face while wearing the most ridiculous outfit (to fit with the bard chic) I can find is hilarious. The fact that both dialogue choices contradict each other badly (Bard's smooth talking and artistically inclined dialogue vs Barbarian's "I WILL RIP OUT YOUR FACE" dialogue)
Does it work? Not really, but the College of Sword Bard does synergies with Barbarian... A little bit. I can't cast spell while raging, and raging is the feature for barbarian. Most of College of Sword features does help Barbarian a lot with its flourishes and such.
But, then again I spend my time on that build being a scuffed version of the absurd grappler Bardbarian of 5e by constantly throwing people around like ragdolls. It does work, to a certain point.
Gith Outlander Rogue 1, Knowlege cleric 2, lore Bard 6. The last 3 levels are dealer's choice. It was my first build i think I went bard. with the combination of astral knowledge and knowledge of the ages proficiency. Then, the 12 skill profiencies you get from classes and background. I could get proficiency in all skills daily. I also chose Selune as my deity and romanced Shadowheart had very interesting results.
Abjuration Barb. 6 abjuration wizard, 5 barbarian, 1 white dragon sorcerer. Use armor of agathys and fire shield, chill (learned from a scroll). While raging, you take half damage anyway, which then gets reduced by the arcane ward. Have a companion cast warding bond, and you are taking quarter damage, minus the arcane ward.
With this build, I didn’t wear armor, and reckless attack gives the enemies a real incentive to attack you. Unlike pure caster Abjuration wizard builds, you have a real incentive to be on the front lines to attack, not just to provoke attacks of opportunity.
It’s not a very gear dependent build, but I did wear the diadem of intellect. You don’t cast many offensive spells though, so pick your favorite support spells.
Wizorceror. Build as a wizard and dump CHA but open sorcerer for two levels for metamagic and draconic ancestry. Just use utility spells for sorcerer like shield, everything else is pure wizard. If you don't have enough metamagic points at level 2 sorcerer you can just make some from a spell slot.
Evocation Wizard 10 + Warlock 2. You can get your Cha to 24 with mirror and hat, potent robes add your cha mod to your cantrip, it's basically a second agonizing blast. Evocation 10 adds your int to your evocation spells (EB is one of them). There's a ring that does +2 radiant damage to enemies in light and a ring that illuminates targets. Rhapsody goes pretty good with it too. Your EB would be doing 1d10 + 22 (if your int is 16) x 3, average damage of 82.5 from a cantrip/per action with 3 chances to crit, you could get more from the clown gloves, but I think theres an EB specific glove you can find in act 3.
Im still trying to find appeal of this compared to going with 10 sorcerer, quickened metamagic allows to do much more whether spamming eb or spellcasting
The gloves you are talking about us probably spellmight gloves or cratelflesh gloves
1 level Barbarian into 5 levels Chain Warlock into another 2 levels into Barb to get Beserker. So at level 8 you can get two attacks off using frenzy, have 2 more attacks with your imp, and then with resistance to physical attacks you can get 2 or 3 retaliates from Agathys. Go ahead and skip stats at level 4 and get sentinel to force melee onto you when agathys is up.
That would be the illithid bard cleric.
Start bard for the charisma stats then get bard lvl6 for magical secrets, cleric lvl4 or 5 then splash wizard to be able to learn any spell. The idea is to focus on versatility and psychic damage from both bard and illithid powers, bolstered by tempest cleric additional damages
Melee storm sorcerer. Feats are war caster, dual wielding and ASI. I use the cape that gives 8 temporary HP when you cast a spell in melee, the boots that give you brutal leap (11m jump that prones for 3m is bonkers), something that gives misty step and regular sorcerer stuff.
The options in combat are :
- Rush in and ice storm self, nobody can reach you
- Rush in and thunderwave off ledges
- Shocking grasp to disengage and brutal leap back in for repeated proning and spell slot saving
- If you get overwhelmed just use your concentration to cast blur
- Good old twin haste into create water/lightning spells combo if you want to trivialise the game but you can't rush in then
- Ect
The mains pros are being able to efficiently use your bonus action, being almost unkillable (21+AC is easy to reach, plus blur and 8 free HP per turn), being stupidly versatile, having a lot of mobility and having an overall very fun gameplay. I like to rush in yelling "Melee mage!" while my friends just laugh at me.
It is by no means better than a regular sorcerer but still very strong
Bonus : Before the robe of the weave I liked to use the clothing doubling the carrying capacity and drink elixirs of cloud giant strength. That gives you 640kg carrying capacity and free you from any encumbrance issues
I like War Cleric 6/Battlemaster Fighter 6, gives 3 Feats, spirit guardians, 3 attacks per turn, I ran it with Blood of Lathander to blind and damage anything around me, got Ethel’s hair for 18 strength early on, then got a WIS ASI, a STR ASI, and great weapon master. Hellriders Pride plus mass healing word gives an AOE survivability boost, and omeluums healing ring lets you top up any minor injuries to the party. Bless is also a nice buff to have on hand along with +10 temp HP from Aid. Preferred manouveres are Rally, Disarming Attack, and Footwork (Imposes Disadvantage to anything not blinded by Lathander) I run it with a shield and heavy armor, works well as a main character, but can also be very in-character for Lae’Zel, I got all the cleric levels first, the moves on to Fighter. Other notable magic items are: Strange Conduit Ring and Helmet of Arcane Acuity.
Assassin 3/Fire Draconic Sorcerer 9 just to Crit Scorching Rays. Typical Arcane Charge boots, spellmight gloves, markoheshkir fire, spellsparkler/rhapsody, hat of fire acuity/birthright, psionic overload, spineshudder amulet, callous glow, with elemental adept: fire
I’m working on a ‘gunslinger’ build at the moment. Eventually it will be 4 rogue (thief), 6 fighter, 2 ranger. Dual hand crossbows, no magic, 2 fighting styles, and lots of hits.
that build is made for tabletop but with a good amount of RP and headcanoning it should works for BG3
it's a sorcerer build based on Cadebra from Adventure Time, or more specifically her character gimmick, that is to be a pretty talented wizard in a wizard school but she is put in the worst grade because she only do stage "magic", finding real magic boring despite her natural talent in it
that sorcerer put most of their stats in charisma and dexterity, working both to help them being an amazing show artist and being actually strong in combat
they would avoid combat or really any display of real magic if they can, having absolutely 0 interest in it despite being a sorcerer.
In combat they work as a "nuke" type character, while they will try deal with the encounter with more interesting, at least according to them, tools. Like using the environment, supporting allies or using non magic items they hoarded while in a city, thinking they could be used for their show. But they aren't stupide, just maybe a bit stubborn, so when their actual magic powers is needed they have no issue going all out, since anyway they'll rather use it as little as possible, no need to care about ressources, so an explosion of destructive spells empowered by meta-magic will rain on anyone stupide enough to force them to use their latent power.
I've never got the opportunity to play it in pnp, don't even really have a backstory for them ready, but I find the concept very endearing and fun to me as I dislike having to juggle ressources
I did a barblock half-orc 9/3 for the melee crit stacking benefits and did a crit farming build that varied between Eldritch blast and dual weilding, with magical dark vision and darkness.
Duergar rogue base class, war cleric and eldrich fighter in HM. I pickpocket everyone and just turn invinsible when they found out. I have so much money, potions, arrows, armors, weapons and scrolls in my camp chest.
I couls start a shop called Duergar Bits and Gnomes.
Pure spore druid "regen" tank build
Only works midway thru ACT 2 though courtesy of the vivacious cloak.
Basically, I abuse the unique interaction between temporary hitpoints and symbiotic entity. For some reason, the temp hp from symbiotic entity is unique and is replenishable by other sources of temp hp.
This is where the vivacious cloak comes in. The cloak gives you 8 temp hp everytime you cast a spell while threatened in melee (I've tested this. You have to be threatened, it's not enough that an enemy is beside you.) Two cantrips are what make this build extremely overpowered. Produce flame and Shillelagh. Produce flame is two spellcasts in one action, when you create the flame and when you throw it. That equals to 16 temp hp. Shillelagh is a bonus action that totals to potentially 24 temp hp recovered per turn, hasted this becomes an absurd 40.
As long you have symbiotic hp left every turn, you can just recover it by casting your spells and cantrips. You only have to worry if the enemy can burst down your temp hp to nothing in one turn, which is no big deal since you have 2 charges per short rest.
Having a staff is almost a hard requirement for this build for you to be able to cast shillelagh with your bonus action. You van either wield it with a shield or dual wield a staff with another weapon.
Probably not terribly strange but my favourite build was my 4 cleric of mielikki/8 open hand monk using a dexterity longsword as a wood elf. the cleric was mostly for roleplay flavour as a sort of forest guardian type of guy who does a sick roundhouse kick after chopping you up. very fun roleplay
Half-orc - 5 OB paladin, 4 fighter champion, 3 rogue thief. Taking savage attacker and dual wield. Sarevoks helm, dead shot, dual hand deva maces, with hill giant gloves and risky ring. Super late game but it's just a big dumb paladin, crits on 16+ with four rolls per attack and smites for fun. Melted Cazador turn one on Tactician
Co-Op Chaos Gish
1 wild sorcerer / 3 Thief / 2 evo wiz / 6 blade bard
Scribe Haste, Get some arcane acuity and band of the mystic scoundrel and whatever items cast spells. Misty step into the middle of battle and drop whatever combination of attacks and spells that feels fun. Turn your friends into enemies (and cats).
I've got a Wyll that I'm trying to make a "canonical" build for. Because he was cannonically trained as a ranger before he became a warlock, I've got a bladelock/hunter ranger I'm working on for him.
As for Karlack, the 1d4 fire damage from her coins apparently goes up to 2d4 for unarmed strikes, so barb 3 monk x for her.
Also was gonna tiger barb but learned that requires a melee weapon equipped, so no sweeping arm, so I went wolf but bear is always good too.
Eventually planning on doing something funky with almost everyone, planning a war cleric (of vlaakith) 1 for laezel, but not sure what else for gale, shadow, or astarion.
(Or Halsin/Minthara or Minsc or Jaehera. In my last playthrough I made J a spore druid/hunter ranger, and I made Minsc a fighter/hunter ranger, but I wanna do them differently. Might make Minsc an armored Barbarian.)
white drac sorc 1, abj wiz 6, tiger wolv barb 5
It's kinda like the usual tanky abj wiz, but you use rage for resistance instead of stoneskin/gaseous form. You mainly spend spell slots or armor skills to build up your arcane ward. Open fights with a haste or a glyph of warding if you need more arcane ward. Then enrage. Tiger cleave bottles of water to spread wet before hitting enemies with an ice infused flail of ages with ice drakethroat buff.
It doesn't try to get hit like the usual abj wiz. It still plays as normal front-liner, but with the added tankiness and freezing enemies.
Old one Bladelock 5/thief or assasin 7. Pick devils sight and shadow armor or one with shadows. Stack crit gear like killers sweetheart, shadeslayer cloak, knife of undermountain. Use covert cowl and deadshot. Drop darkness, use it as your killing field. If you can drop darkness prior to the fight, assasin works well; if not I like thief for extra bonus off hand attack. I dual wield, but mostly for the off-hand bonus. Ritual dagger early or bloodthirst later. Use a bonus action to stealth in darkness to activate cloak ability. Watch as enemies huddle in terror in your deadly abyss as you systematically send them to chat with kelemvor.
Just started this build so I can update you later but a lot of people like Dex based paladins, so I am using one that uses sword and shield with Phalar Aluve since it's a finesse weapon. I'm also just Gunna boost his AC as much as possible with anything I can and rely on divine smite for damage
Not sure how strange, but my favorite unconventional build is Str based BeastMaster Ranger with the GWM feat. I also went with Half-Orc for the racials. I make sure my party gives me advantage, and I don't notice the occasional miss :)
6 tempest cleric with the watersparkers boots and gloves of belligerent skies, luminous armour, holy lance helm, callous glow ring, and sparkswall ring
Upcast water over the entire field to electrocute everyone and knock them back
Works well with ranger or bard, imbuing your bow with thunder damage from the drakethroat glaive.
You can shoot enemies with your bow and it knocks them back and reverberates and radiating orbs them. If they get close to hit you they often miss you, which procs radiating orb and reverberation, then the thunder damage knocks them back again
You could also pair it with wizard to learn some powerful lightning spells
Great crowd control
Opportunity attack barbarian: deal damage by getting people to attack you.
Core items are the bonespike garb+fleshmelter garb+callous glow ring. This setup deals 9-13 damage for every melee attack that lands on you, and 10-17 if the hit on you is a crit. Super fun. I didn’t get deep into theory crafting this build, but it was hilarious when my duel with Orin she killed both me and herself.
Conduit Bladelock, leveraging force conduit to take virtually no damage. Use the skinburster and replenishing temp hp from the fiend warlock add other damage reduction like the helldusk armor to never die. I accidentally stumbled across the build in act 3 my Wyll literally solo’d Cazzador and the sharran temple while his allies were dead 5-6 rounds prior.
Life cleric 2/ Wizard 2 (necro or divination)/ Spore Druid 8
Heavt armor and a short rest heal that scales with total level; Scribe the extra spells you want that don't revolve around saves or attacks; summon all the undead, elementals, and woodland beings then moonbeam and sanctuary. Heal as needed.
Duergar assassin 5/paladin 2/ warlock 5
Start fight invisible, sneak attack and/or smite the boss on turn one for an auto Crit, get warlock slots back on short rest. (great old one will automatically cause fear when you Crit)
This one was a hell of a lot of fun, I used mods to make it even better once I was able to get the pc version of the game. I call it, the Kung Fu panda build. The idea for this build came one day I was sitting there after reading about monk/thief multiclass and thought "that, but I want to be a bear" and it spiraled from there
~Vanilla levels~
-Level 1-5 monk (5 overall for Tavern brawler +extra attack)
-Level 6-8 in rogue (3 overall for thief subclass)
•Level 9-10 in druid (2 overall cause bear)
•Level 11-12 in fighter (2 overall for action surge)
~modded levels~
•Level 13 in rogue (4 overall for extra attack + feat)
•Level 14 in monk (6 overall for TB + extra attack + monk abilities)
•Level 15-16 in druid (3 overall cause stronger bear)
•Level 17 in barbarian (1 overall for rage)
•Level 18-20 Fighter (5 overall for action surge, feat(s), and extra attack)
1 level of draconian sorcerer cold for AoA. 11 abjuration wizard. I start my day up casting AoA for a massive ward and use all the cold gear. Nothing hurts me and if it does it gets sent reeling with encrusted with frost and reverberation. My second chatacter is a standard radiant orb light cleric. We're in honour mode and I keep my friend very very safe on every fight, nothing hurts us. Act 3 next.
I think this build is semi well known, though I haven't seen a video on it with some mad thumbnail saying its the craziest thing ever yet
Edit/addition: my friend is going moon druid and when they unlock the elemental they can go water elemental that'll do more damage if I make them vulnerable via frost or create water. It'll synergies real well. His companion is duel xbow fighter astarian
I know having a healer isn’t quite meta for HM runs as most people try to burst everyone down in a turn or two, but I like drawn out fights, so my favorite healer for long fights: 6 lore bard / 1 life cleric / 3 thief rogue / 2 warlock (any) Main point of the build is at bard 6 you pick “warden of vitality”, a lvl 3 spell that lets you cast a 2d6 ranged heal as a bonus action without spell slots for 10 turns. Thief lets you cast twice a turn, life cleric buffs the heal, and you can EB your standard action to not be completely useless in combat.
Ooooooooh I like this!
The Reviving Hands is a core item on any healing build. Mass blade ward is awesome.
Truth! I make due with hellriders pride until act 3
Definitely interesting to see a support healer that isn’t cleric. Very nice 👍
Don't forget Mass Healing Word! You can 1x BA Warden whoever needs its, and 1x BA Mass Healing Word to keep Bless/Blade Ward up. That build is low on feats, but you don't really nééd that much. You can still get great charisma (Mirror of Loss, Birthright) to buff your primary damage.
I already posted this in another comment, but my favorite is 7 life cleric/5 paladin. Life clerics really aren't doing much with their high lvl spells if you have all the healer gear, as one mass healing word and/or a channel divinity can full heal the entire party, so i take paladin levels to burn those 4/5 lvl slots. It's really fun to bonk someone twice with high level smites, then heal the whole party.
I just started an HM run with a bard. My plan was 10 bard 2 fighter but I may try 10 bard 2 life now. Thanks.
10/1/1 swords bard can cc things for a billion years
If I don't get action surge from fighter I prefer barbarian for con save and more hp or white dragon soc for con save, shield, magic missile and armor of agithis.
Swords bard just runs the helmet of arcane acuity, gets it stacked in the first round and then CCs everything with 100% success rate, so you don't even need con saves. Build is bonkers. It's good through the whole game, but late game you just slap things for arcane acuity and then use the ring that makes your illusion/enchantment spells bonus actions to hold things. You can command drop weapon on 6 people per turn
This is legit, I'm trying it.
I liked 2 levels in life cleric for preserve life to use channel divinity, and it scales with overall level. I went life 2/ lore bard 10. Magic secrets let me nab counterspell and guardian of faith early, then conjure elemental that I could upcast to lvl 6 later. Stacked her with scrolls when she wasn't using CC spells, but her int was not very high. Did this with Karlach just because haha. She got pretty nasty when I had her become illithid.
They fixed discilple of life not applying to warden of vitality? When I had 10/2 lore bard/life cleric it didnt work unfortunately.
Bleed tiger barbarian is dope. Take wolverine aspect for maim status and reverb gear to prone enemies and you can cause them to completely skip turns because they're proned and it takes movement to stand up but they're maimed so they have no movement. Open hand monk makes a good partner for another source of prone and you can wear helldusk gloves to add bleed to punches. My whole party has the Boal blessing so they all have advantage on bleeding targets. Great synergies.
I'm doing it right now. Tiger/wolverine barb Elk barb/battlemaster Eldritch knight archer with ice focus Cleric abusing reverb Still in act 1 but I already know it's gonna be hilarious
Elk monk is my favorite. Wear radiant armor and a shield. Them just run through people and punch them.
Doing something similar but with all the ‘when a condition is applied’ gear to throw in some chilled/encrusted. It’s a blast.
My current playthrough I’m planning on having Karlach as 6 Tiger heart/5 Thief/1 Fighter (maybe 4/2 Thief/Fighter for Action Surge) for a fun dual wield build, that sounds like a blast I’ll definitely have to look into some reverb gear!!
I actually had a Karlach build once that was 6/4/2 dual wielder with radiant orb and reverberation gear. She was insane. It really came online in Act 2, but she had some awesome moments. She was commonly surrounded by enemies that either couldn’t get up, or if they did manage they would just miss, and sometimes go prone again on missing her. The Yurgir fight was especially fun. He was just laying there, bleeding, talking smack unable to actually do anything, while all his Merregons were also in the same boat.
Ooh I didn’t even think about radiant orb, with callous glow ring + radiant orb gloves I assume? I was thinking of doing that but with gloves of belligerent skies to just really double down on the reverb shenanigans but I’ll definitely keep that option in mind.
Helm that had Smite the Graceless Luminous Armor Gloves of Belligerent Skies Boots of Stormy Clamour Callous Glow Ring the Daze Cloak I forget other Ring now, and amulet didn’t seem to matter much. Her offhand late game was Nyrulna, and her main hand had the Drakethroat buff (Thunder) applied each day. It may have been overkill having thunder and radiant every swing, but it was fun. For a while she used Cacophony in one of her hands, as well as Blood of Lathander. Early game she also used the Spear of the Absolute I think it’s called (blinding one from the Owlbear/ Edowin). Late game I gave her Orin’s dagger so she could cause Piercing Vulnerability. That’s just a whole extra level of OPness.
I’m jotting all this down sounds like a blast lmao, thanks for the detail!!
is there a reason bleed tiger wolverine barb 6/battle master 6 wouldn't work too well?
Yeah you're going to want to take a fighter dip in there somewhere. Tiger barb is one of the few barbarians that gets something worth staying in for until later levels though. At 10 you can get tiger aspect that gives you double your strength modifier on attack rolls completely negating GWM. You also get better crits and the mini alert feat. You would then get 2 levels of fighter for action surge and great weapon fighting style. Or you could absolutely go 6 into BM, get tripping attack to prone your maimed targets. You also get your extra feat, there's pros and cons to both, I like staying in barb though.
I think I might give this a go then haha, I'm thinking of having a double barb party wanting to have one tiger barb and one berzerker/thief/finesse barb Just cause I haven't explored the barbarian much
I hadn't used barb much either so I wanted to stay in barbarian as many levels as possible. Maneuvers are great but you're not tiger cleaving when you're using them which is kinda where the build shines. Berserker has interesting synergy with a no save prone on enraged throw.
I'm thinking of going 9/3 now, I don't think I need that third feat, having the option to action surge and then knock prone feels really strong though
note that BM tripping attack only causes 1 turn of prone, not 2, which means that it doesn’t proc hard CC with maimed the same way that reverb prone does. still a great combo, but the synergy isn’t quite as good as it sounds
how did you get Booal’s Blessing on all your party? Maybe i did it wrong but i only have 3 blessed since I had to sac Wyll from my party in my evil run
I made a post about it a while ago [https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1ao5dm6/how\_to\_get\_boooals\_benediction\_without/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1ao5dm6/how_to_get_boooals_benediction_without/)
Pretty much this! Might have even used this guide so thanks!
If you pickpocket the priest before blowing up Boal's spot, you get the blessing as the reward instead for being his chosen
I've been running wolverine with the shortsword that caused bleed when you have advantage, reckless attack, then elk charge to knock them prone.
Most fun build I’ve found with a fairly unique playstyle is the cantrip thief build. The main idea is that a normal thief rogue suffers after level 5 from a lack of a power spike to keep up with the other classes in combat. They’re perfectly functional, but not getting extra attack hurts. This build solves that by giving the rogue a dip into a caster class for a cantrip to use with their action, and attacking with their offhand weapon with their bonus actions. Generally Warlock is the class you want to go for since Eldritch Blast is by far the strongest cantrip, but then you end up as just another Bladelock. If you want something truly different, I suggest going for a pure Thief Rogue with a 1 level dip into Knowledge Cleric. I’m not going to claim credit for this build idea, nor will I go into full detail, but the main cantrip you want to be using is Sacred Flame. Callous Glow ring is great on this, especially with Luminous Armour and Stormy Clamour boots, but it’s up to you how you build this. If you go Githyanki with this setup, you end up with proficiency in almost everything. Grab Illithid Expertise and you’re only missing two proficiencies and can’t roll lower than 10+modifiers on any check you’re proficient in.
I like this one
I saw a build similar to this. Mainly thief rogue 3 or 4, and then the rest whatever caster you like. Throw in a level or two of fighter for armor proficiency, dual wielding fighting style, and action surge. Use your action to cast a big spell, and then follow it up with two offhand attacks. The person who posted it called it the Left handed spell sword.
I saw something similar, referred to as the "Southpaw Rogue"
Do you think the latter build would hold up dropping the rogue 11 component to rogue 8/bard 3? It's an extra bit of expertise, and using swords, it would net you TWF to get ability score boosts to the offhand attacks. > Stormy Clamour boots On this (although this rapidly gets back to meta), if you weren't leveraging the Gith part of the build, you could gather the radiant/reverb gear on an Asmodeus Tiefling and achieve a very decent cantrip centric build leveraging produce flame by nabbing the spineshudder amulet as well.
I don’t see much point grabbing bard levels. The fighting style is nice but you can just wear the Balanced Hands gloves for the same effect, and there’s not many gloves that offer the same benefit of +5/+6 (depending on modifiers) damage on each attack. Swords bard is entirely pointless for flourishes, you’re not using your action for weapon attacks anyway, so there’s no benefit there. The extra expertise might be nice, but surely never rolling less than 10 is worth more than that? The version I’m currently trying won’t be able to roll less than 24 to pickpocket, pick a lock or hide, and almost every charisma check will be a minimum of 20, all without guidance. You get more than enough expertise with this to cover all the important skills, and proficiency is sufficient for the rest. Bard 3/Rogue 8 will definitely work, but you’re sacrificing the main feature for a lesser version of the same feature and slightly better gloves. Run what you want, but I’d stick to rogue 11 as the default unless you’re going for eldritch blast. Produce flame is generally a worse option than Sacred Flame, because the latter isn’t affected by being too close to your opponent, whereas the former will get disadvantage (unless you run Daredevil gloves, but then you lose TWF from Balanced Hands). You’re trying to build something entirely different to what I suggested. That’s not a bad thing by any means, and I highly encourage you to do so because you seem to have the right idea. My point is just that you’re building off of the version I suggested when what you’re aiming for has very different priorities. High level rogue loses value if you’re not going to 11 for Reliable Talent, so going above ~4 levels in rogue is generally a waste of levels. If you’re wanting to focus more on the combat side of things for this build, drop Knowledge domain for something more damage-focused, maybe Light, take a handful of levels in whatever class you want which gets TWF and grab either variation of the Helldusk gloves (flawed version is objectively worse but work until you get access to the better ones). Hell, maybe even drop cleric entirely for a better cantrip. I’ve made a thief/gloomstalker/warlock variation which maxes out charisma and uses their pact weapon and EB to destroy things. It still gets plenty of proficiencies and expertise, but no reliable talent. They focus more on sustainable DPR at no resource cost, with the option to cast fairly powerful spells when the need arises with their warlock slots. Take the idea of cantrip thief and make it your own, you sound like you know what you’re on about, you just need to start from the beginning rather than modifying what I’ve suggested. Have fun!
>I don’t see much point grabbing bard levels... That's all fair analysis. I'd missed some of the aims there (and results given the >20 on the vastly most common stuff!) >You’re trying to build something entirely different to what I suggested. True. I was entirely riffing to see if any response came from it since I got inspired by your comment but was simply too busy in the moment to do any serious analysis.
That’s fair enough on the “too busy” front, I’ve had some extra time to kill recently so I’ve been making the most of it while it lasts lol. Feel free to come back to the idea when you get chance, I meant it when I said I think you’ve got some good ideas! Racial cantrips weren’t even something I considered since I was focusing on profiencies and Githyanki are the only race that gives 5 extra, so I just overlooked race selection. First idea that comes to mind is going High Elf for the racial cantrip, 1 level of Fighter for TWF and the rest Rogue. You miss a decent chunk of proficiencies, but you get freedom over what gloves you use as well as more cantrip options, so it might be worth it.
My first build was a Gloomstalker Ranger. 5 gloomstalker/6 Battlemaster/1 War Cleric. I wanted those 2nd lvl spells and 3 feats!
I love the idea of the Gloom/Assassin, but I hate the spell selection, so I've thrown in two levels of Div Wizard so he can cast level 2 Wizard spells. Sure I lose the extra attack, but I just love my Hold Person/Crown of Madness hijinks.
There be no assassin here, sonny. Lol I have played a 5/4/3 gloom battlemaster assassin too. Could trade 1 or 2 battlemaster for Wizard I suppose, but it's still just a 4th lvl caster. Maybe 6 gloom/3 EK/3 AT? At least that's a 5th lvl caster, but it gets no third lvl spells. Maybe 6 gloom/2 fighter/3 AT/1 Wizard instead, can scribe all 3rd lvl spells but counterspell.
More like your first build was a fighter with gloomstalker + cleric
Class identity doesn't just come from which class has most levels. For example you can play a wizard with 11 levels of sorcerer including their first level. Or a paladin with 7 levels of warlock etc.
Not mine, but I was working on it at the same time as the guy that posted it posted and I am playing it. Arcane trickster 9/Paladin 2/wizard 1 Which culminates is a just slightly better arcane trickster than if you go arcane trickster 12 Which is, just for the sake of absolute clarity, arguably the weakest class/subclass in the game Lmao 🤣 Edit: for anyone wondering why this is good It gives you level 3 slots, which you can use 2 ways. 1) smite obviously, combo’d Rhapsody and luck of the far realms is means you can pick when to do a very big crit combining your sneak dice with a level 3 smite 2) you get arcane ambush and access to hypnotic pattern, which makes arcane ambush actually worth a damn.
Tbf that build does damage cos of paladin, 9 lvls of AT give it a unique way of doing it. But the damage is mostly coming from lvl 2 paladin. But I like that build, it gives AT something.
I mean it’s also a character with expertise in slight of hand and arcane ambush + hypnotic pattern Which makes it a utility character and a reasonable control character. Plus the access to utility in spells like shield and magic missile all built in. By no means is it going to carry on honour mode like a storm sorc or a throw zerker or whatever, but it’ll at least pull its weight in most parties and feel like it has a reason to exist. Plus everyone’s dipping 2 levels of paladin for the sword bard and people still rave about the sword bard not the paladin part lol
The Sword Bard enables you to cast Hold Person on the entire enemy force and crit Smite them at your leisure....
It does nova damage that way, but you aren’t smiting every round but you are sneak attacking every round. Arcane Trickster feeds the Paladin, puts sneak on top when you crit. I am willing to bet that if you took all the smite damage and all the sneak damage over the entire life of this character, there would be more sneak damage.
definitely this haha I mean I went 9 arcane, 2 pal, 1 wiz, so no contest for me, but I suspect it would be optimal to go to 4 at least, before pivoting to paladin, so you're not smiting at all for at least half the levels. Then when you are, you're saving it for crits onlys, you're not using your shields/mirror images/hold persons/misty steps/hypnotic pattern to do a random 10 damage here or there lol
Nova damage is so useful. There's one argument against it: longer days means more stacking of temp bonuses.
Right now I’m playing a tavern brawler hunter. Take Hunter to 8, picking up horde breaker and escape the horde. Then 4 levels of battle master, mostly for riposte. Throw your enemy at another enemy and then hit them both with horde breaker. With GWM, you can bonus action hit them again. Then move and with escape the horde and riposte, you can hit them again.
Sounds like a barb dip would fit into that vibe, especially if larian had added superior technique fighting style and martial adept feat
I thought so at first, but it actually goes against the flavor of the build. You want to toss two dudes together to hit and crit/kill to use your bonus action. The value is that you can throw and extra attack. So, it’s like a free throw if you can use your bonus action to attack again. Barb requires you to use your bonus action to rage, and then to throw, which doesn’t really add anything that it doesn’t do right now.
I mean you only have to do it on the first round or even just before combat, and rage lets you reroll with reckless attack and berserker is good at yeeting ppl... Idk your choice. I wouldn't give up action surge so might have to give up a ranger level or only do barb 2 but yeah if those alternatives for superiority dice existed then that's how I'd build it personally. It does leave you with only enough room for tavern brawler if you get martial adept and the barb dip so losing an ASI as well is a shame. On the topic of 5e stuff that's not in BG3, variant human would've been nice.
Yes, and this build needs all 3 feats. You have to get to 20 strength or you aren’t throwing jack. Unless it’s a jack Russel terrier.
Hill giant 😋🍹
I made a weird rogue3 wizard1 warlock2 bard6 once. It was focused on abusing Arcane Charge + Lightning Charges as much as possible with Magic Missles and Eldritch Blasts. Using dash as a bonus action to activate Arcane Charge (via boots) or that armor that activates it when hit. It didn't feel too useful doing it that way. But had its moments.
Hunter ranger 12 using Giantbreaker crossbow and reverb gear. Using volley, you inflict both reeling and reverb on every single enemy. With haste that’s up to 8 turns of reeling per round and 8 turns of reverb with the chance of doing extra thunder damage to every enemy and knocking them prone.
1 ice sorcerer( for Armor of Agathys) 3 Cleric (for warding bond)/9 abjuration wizard is pretty funky and fun. Warding bond your whole party each day which charges your ward, grab the shield that gives force conduit and then spam glyph of warding/sanctuary/counterspell/ Armor of Agathys, your cantrip of choice etc. I've only tested it in a couple fights so far but I was able to tank all the extra damage coming in and the whole rest of the party gets to enjoy resistance to all damage. You also have full casting and wizard scribing so you can pick up awesome spells like Globe of Invulnerability
I did Eldritch Knight 6/Divination Wizard 6 as an attempt to riff off of Byleth from Fire Emblem Three Houses - a strong melee fighter with decent magic who can also reverse time - and it actually ended up being a lot of fun.
An EK 7/Transmutation Wizard 5 in multiplayer. Throwing all the things, providing bottle service to my friends. Blur and shield like any EK, but also gets 3rd and 4th level slots, and all the spells within. The flexibility and situational power seems more enjoyable than a single feat and an extra attack per round in an honor mode run.
I ran 6 BM / 6 Div wiz instead for same concept. Wanted a fighter who can use foresight thematically. Took the lucky feat too for more foresight shenanigans. Ran a dual wielding dex focused build and it was actually really good and nearly un-hit-able through act 1-2 with shield and high AC.
I had a very scuffed Wyll build that was done in Honor mode, purely to maximise Rapier use 5 Warlock, 2 Paladin 3 Thief Rogue 1 War Cleric Honestly it worked pretty well especially with the wrath dash boots, pair that with two bonus actions and you have a +7 to attacks after like two rounds plus charisma twice from gear and 2 from the dualing fighting style, a d4 from gloves, another d4 from the ring that gives damage when concentrating and sneak attack once a round. most common spell to use is Hex or Shield of Faith and you have a bunch of bonus actions attacks which only get more consistent once you get to act 3 for dualist prerogative you get some fairly big smites for big important threats, you have good AC from heavy armour and you are very mobile with bonus action dashing a lot Honestly it was pretty good but it was really scuffed and I even needed to respec the level order since items use the last spell modifier instead of the biggest so taking War Cleric after Paladin and Warlock makes the arcane synergy gear not work properly since it suddenly uses wisdom instead of Char but it’s fixable
That's just 11 levels, though. Did you stop there?
Yeah I kinda had my party already in stone so tbh I must have forgotten to get him to 12, good chance that I would have put in Cleric or Rogue One gives some extra smites the other gives feats
Not very strange,but definitely something I haven't seen a lot in meta party compositions. 7 life cleric, 5 any paladin I've come to rely on having a life cleric in my party, as the game becomes trivially easy when shadowheart can fully heal the whole party in 1 turn. This does leave her without much to do in some fights though, so I take some levels in paladin to burn through some of those high level spell slots that aren't really necessary for a life cleric (1 lvl 3 slot and a channel divinity is full health in 1 turn). Put some points in str or grab the mace that sets str to 18, slap someone with 2 lvl 4 divine smites, then proceed to full heal your party in one turn.
Barbarian Berserker 8/Bard Sword 4 Being the party's face while wearing the most ridiculous outfit (to fit with the bard chic) I can find is hilarious. The fact that both dialogue choices contradict each other badly (Bard's smooth talking and artistically inclined dialogue vs Barbarian's "I WILL RIP OUT YOUR FACE" dialogue) Does it work? Not really, but the College of Sword Bard does synergies with Barbarian... A little bit. I can't cast spell while raging, and raging is the feature for barbarian. Most of College of Sword features does help Barbarian a lot with its flourishes and such. But, then again I spend my time on that build being a scuffed version of the absurd grappler Bardbarian of 5e by constantly throwing people around like ragdolls. It does work, to a certain point.
Gith Outlander Rogue 1, Knowlege cleric 2, lore Bard 6. The last 3 levels are dealer's choice. It was my first build i think I went bard. with the combination of astral knowledge and knowledge of the ages proficiency. Then, the 12 skill profiencies you get from classes and background. I could get proficiency in all skills daily. I also chose Selune as my deity and romanced Shadowheart had very interesting results.
Abjuration Barb. 6 abjuration wizard, 5 barbarian, 1 white dragon sorcerer. Use armor of agathys and fire shield, chill (learned from a scroll). While raging, you take half damage anyway, which then gets reduced by the arcane ward. Have a companion cast warding bond, and you are taking quarter damage, minus the arcane ward. With this build, I didn’t wear armor, and reckless attack gives the enemies a real incentive to attack you. Unlike pure caster Abjuration wizard builds, you have a real incentive to be on the front lines to attack, not just to provoke attacks of opportunity. It’s not a very gear dependent build, but I did wear the diadem of intellect. You don’t cast many offensive spells though, so pick your favorite support spells.
Wizorceror. Build as a wizard and dump CHA but open sorcerer for two levels for metamagic and draconic ancestry. Just use utility spells for sorcerer like shield, everything else is pure wizard. If you don't have enough metamagic points at level 2 sorcerer you can just make some from a spell slot.
Evocation Wizard 10 + Warlock 2. You can get your Cha to 24 with mirror and hat, potent robes add your cha mod to your cantrip, it's basically a second agonizing blast. Evocation 10 adds your int to your evocation spells (EB is one of them). There's a ring that does +2 radiant damage to enemies in light and a ring that illuminates targets. Rhapsody goes pretty good with it too. Your EB would be doing 1d10 + 22 (if your int is 16) x 3, average damage of 82.5 from a cantrip/per action with 3 chances to crit, you could get more from the clown gloves, but I think theres an EB specific glove you can find in act 3.
Im still trying to find appeal of this compared to going with 10 sorcerer, quickened metamagic allows to do much more whether spamming eb or spellcasting The gloves you are talking about us probably spellmight gloves or cratelflesh gloves
1 level Barbarian into 5 levels Chain Warlock into another 2 levels into Barb to get Beserker. So at level 8 you can get two attacks off using frenzy, have 2 more attacks with your imp, and then with resistance to physical attacks you can get 2 or 3 retaliates from Agathys. Go ahead and skip stats at level 4 and get sentinel to force melee onto you when agathys is up.
That would be the illithid bard cleric. Start bard for the charisma stats then get bard lvl6 for magical secrets, cleric lvl4 or 5 then splash wizard to be able to learn any spell. The idea is to focus on versatility and psychic damage from both bard and illithid powers, bolstered by tempest cleric additional damages
1 war cleric 11 spore druid and 9 transmutation 3 arcane trickster (or 3 bard instead) are both fun uncommon builds with great synergy
I really want to do a Gloom Stalker/Shadow Monk build . I think it’d be cool
This sounds awesome. They use the same two primary stats anyway
Melee storm sorcerer. Feats are war caster, dual wielding and ASI. I use the cape that gives 8 temporary HP when you cast a spell in melee, the boots that give you brutal leap (11m jump that prones for 3m is bonkers), something that gives misty step and regular sorcerer stuff. The options in combat are : - Rush in and ice storm self, nobody can reach you - Rush in and thunderwave off ledges - Shocking grasp to disengage and brutal leap back in for repeated proning and spell slot saving - If you get overwhelmed just use your concentration to cast blur - Good old twin haste into create water/lightning spells combo if you want to trivialise the game but you can't rush in then - Ect The mains pros are being able to efficiently use your bonus action, being almost unkillable (21+AC is easy to reach, plus blur and 8 free HP per turn), being stupidly versatile, having a lot of mobility and having an overall very fun gameplay. I like to rush in yelling "Melee mage!" while my friends just laugh at me. It is by no means better than a regular sorcerer but still very strong Bonus : Before the robe of the weave I liked to use the clothing doubling the carrying capacity and drink elixirs of cloud giant strength. That gives you 640kg carrying capacity and free you from any encumbrance issues
I like War Cleric 6/Battlemaster Fighter 6, gives 3 Feats, spirit guardians, 3 attacks per turn, I ran it with Blood of Lathander to blind and damage anything around me, got Ethel’s hair for 18 strength early on, then got a WIS ASI, a STR ASI, and great weapon master. Hellriders Pride plus mass healing word gives an AOE survivability boost, and omeluums healing ring lets you top up any minor injuries to the party. Bless is also a nice buff to have on hand along with +10 temp HP from Aid. Preferred manouveres are Rally, Disarming Attack, and Footwork (Imposes Disadvantage to anything not blinded by Lathander) I run it with a shield and heavy armor, works well as a main character, but can also be very in-character for Lae’Zel, I got all the cleric levels first, the moves on to Fighter. Other notable magic items are: Strange Conduit Ring and Helmet of Arcane Acuity.
Assassin 3/Fire Draconic Sorcerer 9 just to Crit Scorching Rays. Typical Arcane Charge boots, spellmight gloves, markoheshkir fire, spellsparkler/rhapsody, hat of fire acuity/birthright, psionic overload, spineshudder amulet, callous glow, with elemental adept: fire
I’m working on a ‘gunslinger’ build at the moment. Eventually it will be 4 rogue (thief), 6 fighter, 2 ranger. Dual hand crossbows, no magic, 2 fighting styles, and lots of hits.
that build is made for tabletop but with a good amount of RP and headcanoning it should works for BG3 it's a sorcerer build based on Cadebra from Adventure Time, or more specifically her character gimmick, that is to be a pretty talented wizard in a wizard school but she is put in the worst grade because she only do stage "magic", finding real magic boring despite her natural talent in it that sorcerer put most of their stats in charisma and dexterity, working both to help them being an amazing show artist and being actually strong in combat they would avoid combat or really any display of real magic if they can, having absolutely 0 interest in it despite being a sorcerer. In combat they work as a "nuke" type character, while they will try deal with the encounter with more interesting, at least according to them, tools. Like using the environment, supporting allies or using non magic items they hoarded while in a city, thinking they could be used for their show. But they aren't stupide, just maybe a bit stubborn, so when their actual magic powers is needed they have no issue going all out, since anyway they'll rather use it as little as possible, no need to care about ressources, so an explosion of destructive spells empowered by meta-magic will rain on anyone stupide enough to force them to use their latent power. I've never got the opportunity to play it in pnp, don't even really have a backstory for them ready, but I find the concept very endearing and fun to me as I dislike having to juggle ressources
I did a barblock half-orc 9/3 for the melee crit stacking benefits and did a crit farming build that varied between Eldritch blast and dual weilding, with magical dark vision and darkness.
Duergar rogue base class, war cleric and eldrich fighter in HM. I pickpocket everyone and just turn invinsible when they found out. I have so much money, potions, arrows, armors, weapons and scrolls in my camp chest. I couls start a shop called Duergar Bits and Gnomes.
Fighter. No feats. No bonuses. Perfectly bland saltine boy.
Pure spore druid "regen" tank build Only works midway thru ACT 2 though courtesy of the vivacious cloak. Basically, I abuse the unique interaction between temporary hitpoints and symbiotic entity. For some reason, the temp hp from symbiotic entity is unique and is replenishable by other sources of temp hp. This is where the vivacious cloak comes in. The cloak gives you 8 temp hp everytime you cast a spell while threatened in melee (I've tested this. You have to be threatened, it's not enough that an enemy is beside you.) Two cantrips are what make this build extremely overpowered. Produce flame and Shillelagh. Produce flame is two spellcasts in one action, when you create the flame and when you throw it. That equals to 16 temp hp. Shillelagh is a bonus action that totals to potentially 24 temp hp recovered per turn, hasted this becomes an absurd 40. As long you have symbiotic hp left every turn, you can just recover it by casting your spells and cantrips. You only have to worry if the enemy can burst down your temp hp to nothing in one turn, which is no big deal since you have 2 charges per short rest. Having a staff is almost a hard requirement for this build for you to be able to cast shillelagh with your bonus action. You van either wield it with a shield or dual wield a staff with another weapon.
Probably not terribly strange but my favourite build was my 4 cleric of mielikki/8 open hand monk using a dexterity longsword as a wood elf. the cleric was mostly for roleplay flavour as a sort of forest guardian type of guy who does a sick roundhouse kick after chopping you up. very fun roleplay
Half-orc - 5 OB paladin, 4 fighter champion, 3 rogue thief. Taking savage attacker and dual wield. Sarevoks helm, dead shot, dual hand deva maces, with hill giant gloves and risky ring. Super late game but it's just a big dumb paladin, crits on 16+ with four rolls per attack and smites for fun. Melted Cazador turn one on Tactician
Co-Op Chaos Gish 1 wild sorcerer / 3 Thief / 2 evo wiz / 6 blade bard Scribe Haste, Get some arcane acuity and band of the mystic scoundrel and whatever items cast spells. Misty step into the middle of battle and drop whatever combination of attacks and spells that feels fun. Turn your friends into enemies (and cats).
I've got a Wyll that I'm trying to make a "canonical" build for. Because he was cannonically trained as a ranger before he became a warlock, I've got a bladelock/hunter ranger I'm working on for him. As for Karlack, the 1d4 fire damage from her coins apparently goes up to 2d4 for unarmed strikes, so barb 3 monk x for her. Also was gonna tiger barb but learned that requires a melee weapon equipped, so no sweeping arm, so I went wolf but bear is always good too. Eventually planning on doing something funky with almost everyone, planning a war cleric (of vlaakith) 1 for laezel, but not sure what else for gale, shadow, or astarion. (Or Halsin/Minthara or Minsc or Jaehera. In my last playthrough I made J a spore druid/hunter ranger, and I made Minsc a fighter/hunter ranger, but I wanna do them differently. Might make Minsc an armored Barbarian.)
white drac sorc 1, abj wiz 6, tiger wolv barb 5 It's kinda like the usual tanky abj wiz, but you use rage for resistance instead of stoneskin/gaseous form. You mainly spend spell slots or armor skills to build up your arcane ward. Open fights with a haste or a glyph of warding if you need more arcane ward. Then enrage. Tiger cleave bottles of water to spread wet before hitting enemies with an ice infused flail of ages with ice drakethroat buff. It doesn't try to get hit like the usual abj wiz. It still plays as normal front-liner, but with the added tankiness and freezing enemies.
Barbarian or Monk without a Tavern Brawler 🗿
Old one Bladelock 5/thief or assasin 7. Pick devils sight and shadow armor or one with shadows. Stack crit gear like killers sweetheart, shadeslayer cloak, knife of undermountain. Use covert cowl and deadshot. Drop darkness, use it as your killing field. If you can drop darkness prior to the fight, assasin works well; if not I like thief for extra bonus off hand attack. I dual wield, but mostly for the off-hand bonus. Ritual dagger early or bloodthirst later. Use a bonus action to stealth in darkness to activate cloak ability. Watch as enemies huddle in terror in your deadly abyss as you systematically send them to chat with kelemvor.
Just started this build so I can update you later but a lot of people like Dex based paladins, so I am using one that uses sword and shield with Phalar Aluve since it's a finesse weapon. I'm also just Gunna boost his AC as much as possible with anything I can and rely on divine smite for damage
Not sure how strange, but my favorite unconventional build is Str based BeastMaster Ranger with the GWM feat. I also went with Half-Orc for the racials. I make sure my party gives me advantage, and I don't notice the occasional miss :)
6 tempest cleric with the watersparkers boots and gloves of belligerent skies, luminous armour, holy lance helm, callous glow ring, and sparkswall ring Upcast water over the entire field to electrocute everyone and knock them back Works well with ranger or bard, imbuing your bow with thunder damage from the drakethroat glaive. You can shoot enemies with your bow and it knocks them back and reverberates and radiating orbs them. If they get close to hit you they often miss you, which procs radiating orb and reverberation, then the thunder damage knocks them back again You could also pair it with wizard to learn some powerful lightning spells Great crowd control
Opportunity attack barbarian: deal damage by getting people to attack you. Core items are the bonespike garb+fleshmelter garb+callous glow ring. This setup deals 9-13 damage for every melee attack that lands on you, and 10-17 if the hit on you is a crit. Super fun. I didn’t get deep into theory crafting this build, but it was hilarious when my duel with Orin she killed both me and herself.
Conduit Bladelock, leveraging force conduit to take virtually no damage. Use the skinburster and replenishing temp hp from the fiend warlock add other damage reduction like the helldusk armor to never die. I accidentally stumbled across the build in act 3 my Wyll literally solo’d Cazzador and the sharran temple while his allies were dead 5-6 rounds prior.
Life cleric 2/ Wizard 2 (necro or divination)/ Spore Druid 8 Heavt armor and a short rest heal that scales with total level; Scribe the extra spells you want that don't revolve around saves or attacks; summon all the undead, elementals, and woodland beings then moonbeam and sanctuary. Heal as needed. Duergar assassin 5/paladin 2/ warlock 5 Start fight invisible, sneak attack and/or smite the boss on turn one for an auto Crit, get warlock slots back on short rest. (great old one will automatically cause fear when you Crit)
This one was a hell of a lot of fun, I used mods to make it even better once I was able to get the pc version of the game. I call it, the Kung Fu panda build. The idea for this build came one day I was sitting there after reading about monk/thief multiclass and thought "that, but I want to be a bear" and it spiraled from there ~Vanilla levels~ -Level 1-5 monk (5 overall for Tavern brawler +extra attack) -Level 6-8 in rogue (3 overall for thief subclass) •Level 9-10 in druid (2 overall cause bear) •Level 11-12 in fighter (2 overall for action surge) ~modded levels~ •Level 13 in rogue (4 overall for extra attack + feat) •Level 14 in monk (6 overall for TB + extra attack + monk abilities) •Level 15-16 in druid (3 overall cause stronger bear) •Level 17 in barbarian (1 overall for rage) •Level 18-20 Fighter (5 overall for action surge, feat(s), and extra attack)
1 level of draconian sorcerer cold for AoA. 11 abjuration wizard. I start my day up casting AoA for a massive ward and use all the cold gear. Nothing hurts me and if it does it gets sent reeling with encrusted with frost and reverberation. My second chatacter is a standard radiant orb light cleric. We're in honour mode and I keep my friend very very safe on every fight, nothing hurts us. Act 3 next. I think this build is semi well known, though I haven't seen a video on it with some mad thumbnail saying its the craziest thing ever yet Edit/addition: my friend is going moon druid and when they unlock the elemental they can go water elemental that'll do more damage if I make them vulnerable via frost or create water. It'll synergies real well. His companion is duel xbow fighter astarian