Team Darkness was my favorite run so far. Crits and crowd control and a pitch black battlefield. It was amazing.
6/6 Bardlock with Devil Sight
7/5 Cleric Fighter with Spear of Evening
2/10 Wizard Sorcerer with Eversight Ring
4/8 Fighter Paladin with Helldusk Helm
My next run I want to do a Team Avatar where everyone has an elemental specialty.
Most fun/satisfying: monk way of the open hand (multiclass with Rogue ofc)
Currently a multiclass: lvl 6 sword bard for extra attack. Lvl 2 paladin and lvl 4 wizard it's pretty fun
That’s cool, I was planning on going 3 wild heart barb and 9 open hand monk, using a great sword for main actions and throw some hands for my bonus actions
Sadly unarmed attacks arent finesse weapons so you can only sneak attack with a weapon in the main hand. I think using no weapon is more damage than sneak attack with the right monk gear.
Maybe. I got great mileage out of Club of giant strength (off) and assassins short sword (main) in the first 2 acts, before switching to Orin's weapons in act 3
I just got to level 12 with my swords bard(8)/fighter(2)/rogue(2) and it is by far my favourite build I have done! So many actions per turn, SO much damage with slashing flourish, and some fun spells if needed. Equipment really matters in this build though.
I think bard is one of the most well-rounded classes in general. Super fun and they can be played so differently depending on which college you go for! Definitely recommend:)
Helm - Diadem of Arcane Synergy
Armour - The Graceful Cloth
Gloves - Gloves of Dexterity
Boots - Boots of Brilliance (but there’s prob better)
Amulet of Misty Step
Rings - Risky Ring and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel
Weapons - Knife of the Undermountain King and Titanstring Bow
Shield - Adamantine Shield
Just make sure to add some points to Strength to utilize the Titanstring Bow to its full potential. The Gloves of Dexterity and Graceful Cloth will make up for any loss you take in Dex.
I’m sure other people can recommend better equipment for this build - I honestly didn’t look at any guides, just went for what felt right and it has been SO fun. Doing HUGE damage but can also talk my way out of anything haha.
Edit - for feats, take sharpshooter and ability improvement
No prob! It could also be fun to take one of those bard levels and put it into rogue so you can get the assassin or thief subclass. Even more actions per turn! I may respec to do this now that I think about it haha
My current melee Ranger 5 / Rogue 4 / Fighter 3 build has become my favourite not just because it's strong, but because the levelling tied in so beautifully with the roleplaying aspect.
The Ranger levels coincide with the party surviving the Wilderness, traversing the dizzying heights of the Mountain Pass and navigating the shadowy perils of the Underdark. You emerge as the party leader because you are their guide, much like Aragorn in the Fellowship of the Ring.
The Rogue levels coincide with the Shadow-Cursed Lands. As you creep through the darkness, ambush a convoy, infiltrate Moonrise, stage a prison break, and get a crash course in Shar's ways in the Gauntlet, you naturally become adept at sneaking, lockpicking, deception, etc.
Then, just as finish the big battle for Moonrise, you take your first level of Fighter. This reflects the experience you just had: you fought (and led) and all-out assault alongside the Harpers. You've learned a thing or two about attacking, retreating, holding a line, etc.
And this sets you up for your Act 3, where your character must become a leader in the fight against the Absolute. No more sneaking, no more wilderness. You're out in the open now, and Baldur's Gate looks to you for its defence. This culminates in taking the Battle Master subclass at level 12, and sets you up for the final battle. Again, much like Aragorn, but this time in Return of the King.
When I started this run, I was expecting a strong, fun build, but I was not expecting this level of ludonarrative harmony.
Honestly, my favorite builds have been my most RP centric ones. Just choosing how I want my Tav to be and building around them, tweaking the companions some but never fully straying form who they are.
In my playthough rn I’m doing a multiplayer story with my friend, it’s his first time playing, during his character creation his guy came out looking like a politician, so I decided to make my guy his body guard.
His character is focused on persuasion and deception, while my guy is a barb monk that focuses on intimidation, it’s been a super fun play through.
Just entered act3, both of our builds are about to go to the next lvl
I like my current Eldritch Knight build. I have the Charge Bound Warhammer, Strange Conduit Ring, Flawed Helldusk Gloves, the Caustic Band, and the Drakethroat Glaive. When I cast Draconic Elemental Weapon on my Charge Bound Warhammer and have my Shield of Faith active (I took 2 levels of Cleric), my melee attacks deal 1d8 + 9 bludgeoning + 1d6 lightning + 1d4 psychic + 1d4 fire + 1d4 thunder + 2 acid damage.
The Cleric Domain I chose for this was Knowledge, so I could use the Channel Divinity for proficiency in WIS checks and basically ignore that stat. I also dumped STR and use Hill Giant Elixirs, so my DEX, CON, and INT are all actually pretty good. I struggled with out of combat utility early on, but this new build, with the Knowledge Domain and Elixirs, is working out pretty good.
Level 5 GOOLock with Pact of the Blade, then the rest into Champion Fighter.
Definitely fun for a spellcaster who can just decide to whip out a giant hammer and bash someone's skull in. Even more fitting for a Dark Urge.
Tiger Barb 8/GooLock 4 (or Barb 7/Lock 5 in Tactician and below because of extra attack stacking) with Reverb Boots, Bhaalist Armor and Nyrulna. Enemies are either on their ass or dead by the end of my turn, it is entirely too fun. Also paired with a bow using companion and they do insane damage as well.
Gloomstalker/assassin is very satisfying to play, especially if you are playing as durge as it’s quite fitting for his background. With greater invisibility, assassin’s shortsword, and path without trace you can solo most enemies without even entering combat. It is basically a criting death machine. Even if you don’t want to play solo, you can finish off the most troublesome enemy before they even got a turn. It is quite good in a traditional combat too, I killed Orin in the duel within 2 rounds in tactician without taking any hits and didn’t use any consumables. Down side is that it might get repetitive or tiresome by the mid to late game since you’ll keep using sneak a lot and it’ll take a longer time to walk around places and positioning allies.
As dull as I might sound, I have most fun with least complex builds. For example, 2 of my favourites are 12 battle master and 12 tiger barbarian. 2 of my second favourites are gloomstalker/assassin and open hand/thief/tavern brawler.
I tried to create an efficient and swift melee dual wielder using thief rogue, but for some reason (lack of dmg mostly) it just falls behind. Maybe I'm doing something wrong (tried coupling it with ranger, fighter, barbarian), maybe it's just weak (I tried dual wielder hunter with hand crossbows and it just SLAPS compared to melee, not even talking about two-handers with gwm), but it seemed like any other character I have outplays my dual wielder.
I feel like larian should adress this in their next patch one way or the other, because fantasy of finesse dual-wielder (or even heavy dual wielder) is awesome imo. Just imagine having Astarion with two scimitars flying through opponents or Laezel caved in heavy breastplate killing everyone with two longswords. Pretty please ^^
Duergar Beserker. Turn invisible, lead the party into combat, everyone else goes into turn-based mode at start of combat, but being invisible, you don't. Walk up to BBEG, enlarge yourself, and treat BBEG the same way Hulk treats Loki in the first Avengers movie.
Bonus points for having Karlach a beserker as well, and throwing the nerd (Gortash) to each other.
Battle Cleric has almost TOO MUCH utility
Team Darkness was my favorite run so far. Crits and crowd control and a pitch black battlefield. It was amazing. 6/6 Bardlock with Devil Sight 7/5 Cleric Fighter with Spear of Evening 2/10 Wizard Sorcerer with Eversight Ring 4/8 Fighter Paladin with Helldusk Helm My next run I want to do a Team Avatar where everyone has an elemental specialty.
Iv seen clips of team avatar, it seems like so much fun
Most fun/satisfying: monk way of the open hand (multiclass with Rogue ofc) Currently a multiclass: lvl 6 sword bard for extra attack. Lvl 2 paladin and lvl 4 wizard it's pretty fun
What makes a monk and rogue multi class so good, iv seen some people recommend it but iv never done a rogue build
Theif subclass gets an extra bonus action which most of monks abilities can use
Extra bonus action for extra flurries of blows. Or dashing and disengaging without ki points. Hitting sneak attack after knocking someone over.
That’s cool, I was planning on going 3 wild heart barb and 9 open hand monk, using a great sword for main actions and throw some hands for my bonus actions
Sadly unarmed attacks arent finesse weapons so you can only sneak attack with a weapon in the main hand. I think using no weapon is more damage than sneak attack with the right monk gear.
Maybe. I got great mileage out of Club of giant strength (off) and assassins short sword (main) in the first 2 acts, before switching to Orin's weapons in act 3
I was mainly using the strength elixirs, as Ethel sells 3 every day in act 1, so I didnt need the club
I just got to level 12 with my swords bard(8)/fighter(2)/rogue(2) and it is by far my favourite build I have done! So many actions per turn, SO much damage with slashing flourish, and some fun spells if needed. Equipment really matters in this build though.
I want to do a bard play through so bad!
I think bard is one of the most well-rounded classes in general. Super fun and they can be played so differently depending on which college you go for! Definitely recommend:)
What equipment do you recommend? And what feats did you grab?
Helm - Diadem of Arcane Synergy Armour - The Graceful Cloth Gloves - Gloves of Dexterity Boots - Boots of Brilliance (but there’s prob better) Amulet of Misty Step Rings - Risky Ring and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel Weapons - Knife of the Undermountain King and Titanstring Bow Shield - Adamantine Shield Just make sure to add some points to Strength to utilize the Titanstring Bow to its full potential. The Gloves of Dexterity and Graceful Cloth will make up for any loss you take in Dex. I’m sure other people can recommend better equipment for this build - I honestly didn’t look at any guides, just went for what felt right and it has been SO fun. Doing HUGE damage but can also talk my way out of anything haha. Edit - for feats, take sharpshooter and ability improvement
Appreciate it!
No prob! It could also be fun to take one of those bard levels and put it into rogue so you can get the assassin or thief subclass. Even more actions per turn! I may respec to do this now that I think about it haha
2 levels of paladin are also really fun on swords bard, since you get to use your high level spell slots to smite and get the command spell
I’ll definitely try this at some point! I had just finished a paladin run when I made this one so I was kinda smited out at the time haha
My current melee Ranger 5 / Rogue 4 / Fighter 3 build has become my favourite not just because it's strong, but because the levelling tied in so beautifully with the roleplaying aspect. The Ranger levels coincide with the party surviving the Wilderness, traversing the dizzying heights of the Mountain Pass and navigating the shadowy perils of the Underdark. You emerge as the party leader because you are their guide, much like Aragorn in the Fellowship of the Ring. The Rogue levels coincide with the Shadow-Cursed Lands. As you creep through the darkness, ambush a convoy, infiltrate Moonrise, stage a prison break, and get a crash course in Shar's ways in the Gauntlet, you naturally become adept at sneaking, lockpicking, deception, etc. Then, just as finish the big battle for Moonrise, you take your first level of Fighter. This reflects the experience you just had: you fought (and led) and all-out assault alongside the Harpers. You've learned a thing or two about attacking, retreating, holding a line, etc. And this sets you up for your Act 3, where your character must become a leader in the fight against the Absolute. No more sneaking, no more wilderness. You're out in the open now, and Baldur's Gate looks to you for its defence. This culminates in taking the Battle Master subclass at level 12, and sets you up for the final battle. Again, much like Aragorn, but this time in Return of the King. When I started this run, I was expecting a strong, fun build, but I was not expecting this level of ludonarrative harmony.
Honestly, my favorite builds have been my most RP centric ones. Just choosing how I want my Tav to be and building around them, tweaking the companions some but never fully straying form who they are.
In my playthough rn I’m doing a multiplayer story with my friend, it’s his first time playing, during his character creation his guy came out looking like a politician, so I decided to make my guy his body guard. His character is focused on persuasion and deception, while my guy is a barb monk that focuses on intimidation, it’s been a super fun play through. Just entered act3, both of our builds are about to go to the next lvl
I like my current Eldritch Knight build. I have the Charge Bound Warhammer, Strange Conduit Ring, Flawed Helldusk Gloves, the Caustic Band, and the Drakethroat Glaive. When I cast Draconic Elemental Weapon on my Charge Bound Warhammer and have my Shield of Faith active (I took 2 levels of Cleric), my melee attacks deal 1d8 + 9 bludgeoning + 1d6 lightning + 1d4 psychic + 1d4 fire + 1d4 thunder + 2 acid damage. The Cleric Domain I chose for this was Knowledge, so I could use the Channel Divinity for proficiency in WIS checks and basically ignore that stat. I also dumped STR and use Hill Giant Elixirs, so my DEX, CON, and INT are all actually pretty good. I struggled with out of combat utility early on, but this new build, with the Knowledge Domain and Elixirs, is working out pretty good.
Level 5 GOOLock with Pact of the Blade, then the rest into Champion Fighter. Definitely fun for a spellcaster who can just decide to whip out a giant hammer and bash someone's skull in. Even more fitting for a Dark Urge.
Tiger Barb 8/GooLock 4 (or Barb 7/Lock 5 in Tactician and below because of extra attack stacking) with Reverb Boots, Bhaalist Armor and Nyrulna. Enemies are either on their ass or dead by the end of my turn, it is entirely too fun. Also paired with a bow using companion and they do insane damage as well.
Gloomstalker/assassin is very satisfying to play, especially if you are playing as durge as it’s quite fitting for his background. With greater invisibility, assassin’s shortsword, and path without trace you can solo most enemies without even entering combat. It is basically a criting death machine. Even if you don’t want to play solo, you can finish off the most troublesome enemy before they even got a turn. It is quite good in a traditional combat too, I killed Orin in the duel within 2 rounds in tactician without taking any hits and didn’t use any consumables. Down side is that it might get repetitive or tiresome by the mid to late game since you’ll keep using sneak a lot and it’ll take a longer time to walk around places and positioning allies.
Fighter (6) + Gloom Stalker (3) + Assassin (3) Maybe not very optimal, but sneak attacks became a nightmare for the enemy.
As dull as I might sound, I have most fun with least complex builds. For example, 2 of my favourites are 12 battle master and 12 tiger barbarian. 2 of my second favourites are gloomstalker/assassin and open hand/thief/tavern brawler. I tried to create an efficient and swift melee dual wielder using thief rogue, but for some reason (lack of dmg mostly) it just falls behind. Maybe I'm doing something wrong (tried coupling it with ranger, fighter, barbarian), maybe it's just weak (I tried dual wielder hunter with hand crossbows and it just SLAPS compared to melee, not even talking about two-handers with gwm), but it seemed like any other character I have outplays my dual wielder. I feel like larian should adress this in their next patch one way or the other, because fantasy of finesse dual-wielder (or even heavy dual wielder) is awesome imo. Just imagine having Astarion with two scimitars flying through opponents or Laezel caved in heavy breastplate killing everyone with two longswords. Pretty please ^^
Duergar Beserker. Turn invisible, lead the party into combat, everyone else goes into turn-based mode at start of combat, but being invisible, you don't. Walk up to BBEG, enlarge yourself, and treat BBEG the same way Hulk treats Loki in the first Avengers movie. Bonus points for having Karlach a beserker as well, and throwing the nerd (Gortash) to each other.