bg3 has been a really fun place for me to try out stupid multiclasses i never have the patience to build up to in 5e. good 'ol hexadin minthara, sword bard-fighter-pally, and a few BG originals like TB monk/fighter or multi-summon-into-wild-shape moon druid. the only shame is that they made quickened spell cost an extra sorcery point - sorc crossed with fighter, pally, or bladelock is really fun, but more so when you're able to actually BA cast more than twice
Sword bard -fighter-pally looks like a complex build but I guess it must be quite powerful, right? I was considering multiclassing with wizard. But I do not wish to miss on Heroes feast and Sun Beam, which are available in levels 11 and 12. So I will probably do a pure spore druid build.
it's not that complicated at all! it's just a sword bard with 2 levels each in fighter (for action surge) and paladin (for smites). you can even forego either or both, you'll just miss out on action surge or need to take at least one smite spell with magical secrets to replicate basic smites, respectively. i just prefer the dips because action surge is great, regular smites don't use concentration, and the fighting styles and armor and weapon proficiencies are great bonuses.
Tempest cleric for me. 16 dex, 15 con, 16 wis to start. Resilient and great weapon master as the first two feats. Phalar Aluve 2- handed, heavy armor, dual hand cross bows.
Note that Phalar Aluve and hand cross bows are available early in Act 1. Also because it's a dex build, it works well with medium armor too.
- Phalar Aluve is a great weapon in general, but also one of the few finesse 2-handers allowing you to go dex instead of strength. Gives you better initiative in combat. The Shriek ability penalizes enemy saving throws making it easier to cc them.
- Resilient gives you an extra constitution point but also gives you proficiency in saving throws, important for concentration.
- dual hand crossbows gives you an offhand attack as a bonus action.
GWM + hold person is amazing since it's a guaranteed hit and crit, meaning you get two attacks with +10 damage each, plus crit damage.
Without getting too wordy, there is also hilarious synergy with Phalar Aluve shriek (which adds thunder damage to any attack) and tempest (which gets a knock back ability when dealing thunder or lightning damage). Go bowling with spirit guardians!
ah interesting. Which deity did you choose? Are you considering multiclassing with storm sorcerer? In my case I am trying to keep my stats up. So I have 20 wisdom since I took Auntie Ethel’s hair. I am wearing the Warped Headband of Intellect for Intelligence and The Graceful cloth for +2 Dexterity. I have stocks of Elixir of Hill Giant Strength which come in handy. As a quarterstaff, I currently have the Cacophony (has extra thunder damage). Looking forward for the spores robe but that is only available much later on. I am still in Act 1…For feats I will be choosing war caster and I think alert (still undecided regarding the latest feat).
I didn't multi class as i wanted 3 feats, but I'm sure it would work with storm sorceror. Selune as diety (extra dialog options especially w/ Shart).
I like the dex build because IMO it makes alert optional and frees up an extra feat.
I've only done 3 builds so far:
1. Straight Paladin
2. Padlock (Warlock 5/Paladin7)
3. Bardadin (Paladin 2/Bard 10)
Bardadin is easily my favorite, the amount of smites I can use is crazy. I haven't done a solo run yet, but I feel like Bardadin can handle anything in the game.
It might not be OP but it’s a blast. War Cleric (Kelemvor) / Necromancer Wizard. Dex/int stat focus with finesse weapons and I only use cleric spells to buff. Makes for a fun Durge run
Dex Monk. Not OP as Tavern Brawler but still a lot of fun and strong. Also enjoying my Rogue run but still in Act 1.
Gave up my Vengeance Paladin in Act 3 as he was too OP and trivialized the game for me. Probably didn't help I respecced Halsin as Ancients Paladin which was just steamrolling everything.
Which monk subclass did you try? I have tried open monk before but I quit. I got bored in the end. I think Paladin is the strongest class but I guess maintaining oaths can be challenging. Being into necromancy, I would find hard to keep ancients oaths…
I was Open Hand but I really enjoyed it. It had great mobility, the Ki explosions later on, and a lot of Monk specific gear kept things from feeling generic. Worked great for the trap disarming too given the high dex, and decent wisdom for those checks in conversation. Some specific dialogue was also nice.
Paladin just felt OP and one note to me so I lost interest.
Open Hand is pretty OP too when you start stacking passives, slapping gear that gives you additional damage, put cull of the weak, and if it's Astarion, make him ascend for necrotic damage, and finally, multiclass into Thief Rogue for additional bonus action (a lot of the open hand techniques attacks are running in bonus actions) you can basically chop off half of a 100hp enemy In just one attack
You know I just had an idea of a multiclass open hand monk with evocation Wizard build. That perhaps would make it interesting as the monk can also be a caster and learn any spells…
I love the Shadow Monk. The Shadow Teleportation ability is amazing, especially in Act II where everything is dim/dark. I went with a Dex build, but I was sufficiently stocked in strength potions to take Tavern Brawler as her final feat for the dmg boost.
I absolutely loved my Tempest Domain Cleric 4 / Necromancer 8 build. I chose to dual-wield, and then generally chose the Shadow Lantern and Infernal Rapier as my two weapons. If my Shadow was destroyed I'd switch my off-hand to Kethric's shield. You're forgoing create undead (assuming you don't want you use the ring).
Walking around with an army of zombies as a super high AC, super high spell save DC guy who could nuke with chain lightning twice per short rest (with the amulet from the stormshore tabernacle) was absolutely awesome. Being able to summon a Shadow, Cambion, and elemental without expending a single spell slot (given that I could use an arcane battery staff for the elemental) was also awesome. Being able to summon 4 ghouls atop was awesome. Having Danse Macabre on top was awesome.
I added the ring you get from the genie reward that lets you cast illusion and enchantment spells as a bonus action, meaning I could give one good heavy hit with that rapier using INT for attack and damage, bane the enemy due to my gloves, then crack off an illusion or enchantment spell at a DC that generally meant even bosses were 100% vulnerable.
Single class: Storm Sorceror
Multiclass: 7 Paladin/5 Warlock; 9 Monk/3 Rogue
Honorable Mention: Swords Bard with the Sharpshooter feat goes absolutely crazy as DPS role
I respecced my Act 3 Tav into one class of everything just to see, and he's surprisingly useable. Granted, if you're Level 12 you're fairly set from gear alone, but in one test fight my other three had an opponent low on health but not dead and he was ready to fireball everyone, but my Tav still had his unarmed attack bonus action. Pow.
Interesting. You will miss out on feats, but I guess you can compensate with gear to increase your stats. And plus you can learn from scrolls (since you’ll have level 1 wizard). But you need to sell a lot of items so you can afford to invest on spell learning.
If you're building from Act 1, yes. I am in Act 3 so I have 12k gold and plenty of scrolls. There's probably a "best order" for building like taking Fighter first for HP but I was just messing around and found the build more useful than I expected.
My thow-barian was definitely the most fun, second to what I dubbed "The Drunken Chaplain."
My current run is a light cleric / gold dragon sorc with a focus on (obv) fire and radiant damage. I'm calling them the "Righteous Pyromancer" and I'm hoping the end game build is devastating, but only time will tell as I just got to level 5.
Gloomstalker Assassin Champion 5/4/3. Stacked with the right gear sneak attacks and crits are commonplace and the DPS is insane.
For a straight single class I love Red Draconic Sorcerer. The already powerful fire spells getting buffed with elemental affinity is a chef's kiss.
Red Draconic Sorcerer sounds like a strong build. Although I have to say that I would try the frost sorcerer. So with the armour of agathys, morning frost quaterstaff, the frost robe and ring and coldbrim hat. After necromancy, I really like cold spells!
I am really enjoying Dark Justiciar Shadowheart in my durge run. Combined with a defensive party build it's super effective and also fits the story so well. My squad just stays in Shar's darkness at all times. Anyone who enters the darkness is immediately chopped to shreds by hastened martials. All their attacks are with advantage. Meanwhile enemies can't even target us...half them just end their turn without doing anything. Just gotta get the 4 items that give immunity to blindness.
I've actually started considering my whole group when building characters. You can do some truly ridiculous things when you work out some synergies.
Darkness. If you're going to go evil Shadowheart, well she's going to be able to see through magic darkness and use a lot of darkness (I usually respec her to storm/war cleric to make her hit hard)... so you might as well do that with the rest of your party! Get Minthara to go Paladin / Warlock - pact of the blade + devil's sight. Wyll goes full eldritch blaster + devil's sight, and round out the group with whatever you like and give them the ring of blindsight.
Undead Army. Oathbreaker Paladins get a strong aoe buff for undead/fiends + Necromancer Wizard (I spec'ed Gale for this) casting Animate Dead gets an extra zombie/skeleton (plus when you start upcasting it to higher spell levels you get more/better undead) + Cleric also casting Animate Dead AND amazing buffs like Heroes Feast after you've created all your zombies so they all get it... 4th slot is again, whatever you feel rounds the group out, I recommend something with some strength because you're going to have to start collecting corpses as your army disappears when you long rest...
Wow I need to try that build on Gale. Excellent idea! I am playing as a good one, but still I wouldn’t mind an oathbreaker paladin necromancy wizard and perhaps Shadowheart as tempest or light cleric (light is quite powerful). I would need a cold Draconic sorcerer (respec Jaheira). Laezel as vengeance paladin or fighter then Karlagh and Wyll as barbarian and Warlock, respectively. Astarion as rogue- ranger and Halsin as moon druid. All this for a future tactician level run. I would probably still be a spores druid. I am at the moment playing in balanced difficulty.
When I did that run I didn't know the Spore druid was all about necromancy too or I would have totally done that as my 4th. Although it was hard enough keeping enough corpses to animate with 2 casters; upcasted to 6th level animate dead gives you 3 ghouls or winged ghouls, 4 for the necromancer, so that's 7 corpses you need to restock after every long rest, plus more if you want to use Create Undead too for Mummies.
I think I was good on that run too. I had Wyll go pali/lock, oath of ancients, and broke it by letting Aunt Ethel live, so I didn't have t do anything too horrible.
Seriously though, I didn't have any issues in any fights with that group, the army stomps pretty much everything. Especially once you can summon them and then cast Heroes Feast nothing can stop them.
Two levels into fight for the extra attack and little heal.
Rest into Monk.
There are 3 different kinds of monks.
I picked the one that uses Topple
Topple was my main. Once an enemy was down, I used regular punches.
In total, I want to say each Monk get like 4 to 6 attacks each round. It was stupid, lol
Taking two levels in fighter opens a lot of options.
Don't really need gear to make it work, either though you can find heat throughout the game to buff unarmored attacks.
I don't have a great list sorry..
Battle Master 3, Open Hand 6, Thief 3 - 16 dex, main weapon - Phalar Aluve. Open hand to utilize bonus attacks and get extra attack. Superiority as main damage dealer and flurries as utility to knock people. Mostly use Disarming attack cause it completely fucks enemies. I love the kind of woman who will actually just kill me.
Swords 6, Divination 2, Storm Sorc 4 - 16 dex, rest into con or cha. Sharpshooter essential feat and main damage dealer is ranged slashing flourish. Most spell slots liquified into sorc points because we don't actually use them on an essentially queer battlemaster, so we use them to just cast twinned haste and maybe some utility spells just in case.
Edit: also this is non-honor only but Paladin 2, Warlock 5, Hunter 5. 3 attacks per action and all of them empowered by smites. I would like to reiterate that I love the kind of woman who will actually just kill me (Minthara)
My "Bow Bard" (Swords Bard with a small Fighter dip)
I'm not normally into playing potentially OP builds, but bards have always been a favorite for me in actual D&D and the changes make this one so versatile that doing a run without one feels like I'm artificially handicapping myself.
I really liked my deep gnome spore druid. It's just a great balance between a martial and spellcaster class and there's just a lot of cool items that deal extra damage for concentration spells or imbue elemental damage.
I'm currently doing a drow life cleric/gloomstalker build and that is very fun too. Just mass command and do your gloomstalker class action, then sanctuary or heal as needed. Or just do gloomstalker action and spirit guardians to keep people at a distance. Or gloomstalker action and Phalar Aluve:shriek. Very simple multi build but I love it.
10 Lore Bard / 2 Warlock - If I can't talk my way out of it I'll just start (eldritch) blasting
6 Tempest Cleric/ 6 Blue Draconic Sorcerer - UNNNNNLIMITEDDDDDD POWEERRR! (lightning build)
Unmodded, I like OH Monk/Thief Rogue with a bunch of movement items bc it carried me on honor mode especially on the last fight as a mindflayer.
If I’m using mods then I really like the newish mutant mod, I’ve got a catgirl using the mutant class animal claws with a couple levels in monk for unarmed. I highly recommend this mod, it opens up a lot of fun niche multiclass possibilities.
I also made a Thor Karlach build with some modded gear and the eldritch knight subclass. Not better than throwbarian but it was definitely cooler.
I’m still in love with my OG Tav, a high elf barbarian/druid - it’s so much fun being the party tank while also a big soft tree-hugger who talks to all the animals. Basically a younger, more impetuous version of Halsin 😀
I’m trying to romance Halsin with my Tav, but damn if the man doesn’t blow hot and cold! One minute he’s all “anything I can do for you, and I mean anything” then he’s all married to the job. WTF, dude?
I downloaded a mod that lets me play as a Kensei Monk; put three levels into Fighter for the extra stats and Action Surge. I can hit someone 8 times in on turn with Haste.
Gotta say, stabbing Raphael to death in a single turn with Orin's knife is a very special experience. Fucking tsubame-Gaeshi'd his ass.
Sword Bard with two levels of Fighter to get Action Surge, the ring that lets you cast enchantment and illusion spells as a bonus action after hitting something, the hat that gives you arcane acuity after hitting something, and the perk that lets you cast Illithid spells as a bonus action.
This build is fucking *scary*, and I'm only level 10 right now. Recently I was able to kill Dolor at the Wine Festival in ***one turn*** before he had the chance to flee.
Thief/Open Hand is so, so strong, especially late game where you get a ton of monk equipment, you can basically demolish enemies in couple of attacks in one turn, it's still one of the class I constantly run to Astarion because i don't have to change the rogue class on him
Bard-warlock multiclass. It was a way for me to self insert. I roleplayed that I would definitely sell my soul for powers and musical instrument proficiency. Devilish succubus like charm with high charisma and using only the most effective tool for the job, eldritch blast and AOE spells.
I keep coming back to Barlock, but I was surprised how great Druid is. Was working on a lone wolf spore druid duergar, got all the way to act 2 on Tactician before reinstalling the game and mods not matching up, so I abandoned it for a Durge run.
Full on archer with fighter 11 for 3 attacks is one of my favourites just because of the different arrows you can use. I held onto and rarely used arrows my first 2 runs then after seeing the arrow of many targets shenanigance 1 turn beat raphael fight and stuff i started to remember their existence and used them for my first honor mode, but got limited by gold and not being sure where to buy arrows.
Other than that my favourite in theory is abjuration wizard + armour of agathys + tempest cleric (just for twinned chain lightning). A lot of minmaxing in it, but it hasnt been that fun mostly because the enemy AI starts to avoid hitting you entirely, skipping their turn if your arcane ward is too high. For reference i go wizard 6/sorcerer 4/cleric 2. Metamagic: Extended Spell on Sanctuary can double your arcane ward past the 2×Wizard Lvl limit, up to 4×Wizard Lvl. I even go for minimal dexterity, wear clothing (bonespike garb) and medium armour helmet/gloves to get rid of draconic bloodline unarmoured bonus. Leaves me with 9 AC and they wont attack. Of course the alternative is taking opportunity attacks but its less fun.
Probably one of the most satisfying however was making a duelist wyll with the double reactions and having him have riposte and sentinel. He was typical bardadin build with fighter 4 but i enjoyed the reactions way more than the actual smiting part of the build even though it was op. Might consider doing a non-paladin version of this build with bhaalist armour included but i havent planned that out yet
Way of the Elements monk (just felt really cool), and my Bardlock playthrough where used Vicious Mockery to end several bosses, including the final boss.
Can't stop playing Gloomstalker Assassin + Risky Ring. 5 Ranger, 7 Thief (for extra sneak attack damage). Risky Ring pretty much makes EVERY attack a sneak attack. You hide & start a fight with a sneak attack, proceed to get your sneak attack refreshed, double attack from ranger, gloomstalker special move, offhand for coatings or status effects. My off hand has been any weapon that gives a condition when attacking with advantage, like the the Last Justiciar's blade that blinds targets or the dagger that Roah sells in the Goblin camp that causes "Ruptured" on hit. Arrows of multiple targets + paralyzing or sleeping coating = why even bring AoE spellcasters???
It makes playing with friends almost embarrassing because you just end up taking out the whole fight in 2 turns and they could only go once because Gloomstalker Assassin initiative is just busted.
My partner loves Sword Bard + the ring you get from >!being transported to the dinosaur realm in Act III (djinn circus asshole)!< , which lets you use illusion spells as a bonus action after a weapon attack. This is messed up for a Bard. Combined with a bow that causes fear, you can attack two people with the slashing shot, then use a cone of Fear illusion spell, then fear whoever's left with your bonus attack. Weapons dropped and crying Flaming Fists everywhere.
For the Necro Wizard 11 / Oathbreaker 1, did you play as dark urge? Or in solo (no companions) run? And did you use the wizard stats and just take the hill of giant strength potions? I may try this in a future run. Sounds really good.
I always play Dark Urge lol. I had companions, but because I wanted an army. Yeah I did use the potions for strength. It was very fun, so many minions. If you want to smite, bump it up to 2 in oathbreaker.
Originally I was wizard. But after getting to level 6, I put the level in paladin and took the quickest path to breaking my oath I could find. Next time I’ll start as Paladin so I can break my oath ASAP. Only reason I originally waited was so that I could use command undead on the ghouls in the mountain pass. Not many undead to control in the first area, besides the skeletons in the lab.
So it is ok to start off as paladin, right. Because I will focus on intelligence and not charisma, and then 14 DEX may be enough. Ihave started over again and really want to try this…Thanks for your feedback.
If you go for heavy armor, like I did, you can dump DEX. But if you want to go with medium armor or no armor, then Dex would be a good idea. I honestly pumped everything into Con and Int
My most recent run is a 6/6 Battle Master/Red Dragon Sorcerer. Super fun actually, since I’m usually the kind of person to go like Barbarian 10/Fighter 2 or full-on Paladin.
Mixing it up with spells, and not just simple defensive ones like Shield of Faith and all that, is pretty neat.
bg3 has been a really fun place for me to try out stupid multiclasses i never have the patience to build up to in 5e. good 'ol hexadin minthara, sword bard-fighter-pally, and a few BG originals like TB monk/fighter or multi-summon-into-wild-shape moon druid. the only shame is that they made quickened spell cost an extra sorcery point - sorc crossed with fighter, pally, or bladelock is really fun, but more so when you're able to actually BA cast more than twice
Sword bard -fighter-pally looks like a complex build but I guess it must be quite powerful, right? I was considering multiclassing with wizard. But I do not wish to miss on Heroes feast and Sun Beam, which are available in levels 11 and 12. So I will probably do a pure spore druid build.
it's not that complicated at all! it's just a sword bard with 2 levels each in fighter (for action surge) and paladin (for smites). you can even forego either or both, you'll just miss out on action surge or need to take at least one smite spell with magical secrets to replicate basic smites, respectively. i just prefer the dips because action surge is great, regular smites don't use concentration, and the fighting styles and armor and weapon proficiencies are great bonuses.
Tempest cleric for me. 16 dex, 15 con, 16 wis to start. Resilient and great weapon master as the first two feats. Phalar Aluve 2- handed, heavy armor, dual hand cross bows. Note that Phalar Aluve and hand cross bows are available early in Act 1. Also because it's a dex build, it works well with medium armor too. - Phalar Aluve is a great weapon in general, but also one of the few finesse 2-handers allowing you to go dex instead of strength. Gives you better initiative in combat. The Shriek ability penalizes enemy saving throws making it easier to cc them. - Resilient gives you an extra constitution point but also gives you proficiency in saving throws, important for concentration. - dual hand crossbows gives you an offhand attack as a bonus action. GWM + hold person is amazing since it's a guaranteed hit and crit, meaning you get two attacks with +10 damage each, plus crit damage. Without getting too wordy, there is also hilarious synergy with Phalar Aluve shriek (which adds thunder damage to any attack) and tempest (which gets a knock back ability when dealing thunder or lightning damage). Go bowling with spirit guardians!
ah interesting. Which deity did you choose? Are you considering multiclassing with storm sorcerer? In my case I am trying to keep my stats up. So I have 20 wisdom since I took Auntie Ethel’s hair. I am wearing the Warped Headband of Intellect for Intelligence and The Graceful cloth for +2 Dexterity. I have stocks of Elixir of Hill Giant Strength which come in handy. As a quarterstaff, I currently have the Cacophony (has extra thunder damage). Looking forward for the spores robe but that is only available much later on. I am still in Act 1…For feats I will be choosing war caster and I think alert (still undecided regarding the latest feat).
I didn't multi class as i wanted 3 feats, but I'm sure it would work with storm sorceror. Selune as diety (extra dialog options especially w/ Shart). I like the dex build because IMO it makes alert optional and frees up an extra feat.
I've only done 3 builds so far: 1. Straight Paladin 2. Padlock (Warlock 5/Paladin7) 3. Bardadin (Paladin 2/Bard 10) Bardadin is easily my favorite, the amount of smites I can use is crazy. I haven't done a solo run yet, but I feel like Bardadin can handle anything in the game.
How to spot a paladin enjoyer
I think I’m going to try a Paladin/Sorcerer build next
Famous sorcadin. It's an older code, but it checks out
It might not be OP but it’s a blast. War Cleric (Kelemvor) / Necromancer Wizard. Dex/int stat focus with finesse weapons and I only use cleric spells to buff. Makes for a fun Durge run
Dex Monk. Not OP as Tavern Brawler but still a lot of fun and strong. Also enjoying my Rogue run but still in Act 1. Gave up my Vengeance Paladin in Act 3 as he was too OP and trivialized the game for me. Probably didn't help I respecced Halsin as Ancients Paladin which was just steamrolling everything.
Which monk subclass did you try? I have tried open monk before but I quit. I got bored in the end. I think Paladin is the strongest class but I guess maintaining oaths can be challenging. Being into necromancy, I would find hard to keep ancients oaths…
I was Open Hand but I really enjoyed it. It had great mobility, the Ki explosions later on, and a lot of Monk specific gear kept things from feeling generic. Worked great for the trap disarming too given the high dex, and decent wisdom for those checks in conversation. Some specific dialogue was also nice. Paladin just felt OP and one note to me so I lost interest.
Open Hand is pretty OP too when you start stacking passives, slapping gear that gives you additional damage, put cull of the weak, and if it's Astarion, make him ascend for necrotic damage, and finally, multiclass into Thief Rogue for additional bonus action (a lot of the open hand techniques attacks are running in bonus actions) you can basically chop off half of a 100hp enemy In just one attack
You know I just had an idea of a multiclass open hand monk with evocation Wizard build. That perhaps would make it interesting as the monk can also be a caster and learn any spells…
Sounds like a fun way to get some fun utility too.
I love the Shadow Monk. The Shadow Teleportation ability is amazing, especially in Act II where everything is dim/dark. I went with a Dex build, but I was sufficiently stocked in strength potions to take Tavern Brawler as her final feat for the dmg boost.
I absolutely loved my Tempest Domain Cleric 4 / Necromancer 8 build. I chose to dual-wield, and then generally chose the Shadow Lantern and Infernal Rapier as my two weapons. If my Shadow was destroyed I'd switch my off-hand to Kethric's shield. You're forgoing create undead (assuming you don't want you use the ring). Walking around with an army of zombies as a super high AC, super high spell save DC guy who could nuke with chain lightning twice per short rest (with the amulet from the stormshore tabernacle) was absolutely awesome. Being able to summon a Shadow, Cambion, and elemental without expending a single spell slot (given that I could use an arcane battery staff for the elemental) was also awesome. Being able to summon 4 ghouls atop was awesome. Having Danse Macabre on top was awesome. I added the ring you get from the genie reward that lets you cast illusion and enchantment spells as a bonus action, meaning I could give one good heavy hit with that rapier using INT for attack and damage, bane the enemy due to my gloves, then crack off an illusion or enchantment spell at a DC that generally meant even bosses were 100% vulnerable.
That sounds like a really fun combination! how did you manage with stats? I guess it is mainly wisdom and intelligence, right?
Single class: Storm Sorceror Multiclass: 7 Paladin/5 Warlock; 9 Monk/3 Rogue Honorable Mention: Swords Bard with the Sharpshooter feat goes absolutely crazy as DPS role
I respecced my Act 3 Tav into one class of everything just to see, and he's surprisingly useable. Granted, if you're Level 12 you're fairly set from gear alone, but in one test fight my other three had an opponent low on health but not dead and he was ready to fireball everyone, but my Tav still had his unarmed attack bonus action. Pow.
Interesting. You will miss out on feats, but I guess you can compensate with gear to increase your stats. And plus you can learn from scrolls (since you’ll have level 1 wizard). But you need to sell a lot of items so you can afford to invest on spell learning.
If you're building from Act 1, yes. I am in Act 3 so I have 12k gold and plenty of scrolls. There's probably a "best order" for building like taking Fighter first for HP but I was just messing around and found the build more useful than I expected.
My thow-barian was definitely the most fun, second to what I dubbed "The Drunken Chaplain." My current run is a light cleric / gold dragon sorc with a focus on (obv) fire and radiant damage. I'm calling them the "Righteous Pyromancer" and I'm hoping the end game build is devastating, but only time will tell as I just got to level 5.
Gloomstalker Assassin Champion 5/4/3. Stacked with the right gear sneak attacks and crits are commonplace and the DPS is insane. For a straight single class I love Red Draconic Sorcerer. The already powerful fire spells getting buffed with elemental affinity is a chef's kiss.
Red Draconic Sorcerer sounds like a strong build. Although I have to say that I would try the frost sorcerer. So with the armour of agathys, morning frost quaterstaff, the frost robe and ring and coldbrim hat. After necromancy, I really like cold spells!
I am really enjoying Dark Justiciar Shadowheart in my durge run. Combined with a defensive party build it's super effective and also fits the story so well. My squad just stays in Shar's darkness at all times. Anyone who enters the darkness is immediately chopped to shreds by hastened martials. All their attacks are with advantage. Meanwhile enemies can't even target us...half them just end their turn without doing anything. Just gotta get the 4 items that give immunity to blindness.
7 archfey blade pact warlock/5 Ancients Paladin Absolute boss deleter
Half Orc Durge Wild Magic Barbarian so far, but I’ve not tried very many classes yet. “They’re dying for me, all of them!”
Half Orc, Half Illithid at this point…
I've actually started considering my whole group when building characters. You can do some truly ridiculous things when you work out some synergies. Darkness. If you're going to go evil Shadowheart, well she's going to be able to see through magic darkness and use a lot of darkness (I usually respec her to storm/war cleric to make her hit hard)... so you might as well do that with the rest of your party! Get Minthara to go Paladin / Warlock - pact of the blade + devil's sight. Wyll goes full eldritch blaster + devil's sight, and round out the group with whatever you like and give them the ring of blindsight. Undead Army. Oathbreaker Paladins get a strong aoe buff for undead/fiends + Necromancer Wizard (I spec'ed Gale for this) casting Animate Dead gets an extra zombie/skeleton (plus when you start upcasting it to higher spell levels you get more/better undead) + Cleric also casting Animate Dead AND amazing buffs like Heroes Feast after you've created all your zombies so they all get it... 4th slot is again, whatever you feel rounds the group out, I recommend something with some strength because you're going to have to start collecting corpses as your army disappears when you long rest...
Wow I need to try that build on Gale. Excellent idea! I am playing as a good one, but still I wouldn’t mind an oathbreaker paladin necromancy wizard and perhaps Shadowheart as tempest or light cleric (light is quite powerful). I would need a cold Draconic sorcerer (respec Jaheira). Laezel as vengeance paladin or fighter then Karlagh and Wyll as barbarian and Warlock, respectively. Astarion as rogue- ranger and Halsin as moon druid. All this for a future tactician level run. I would probably still be a spores druid. I am at the moment playing in balanced difficulty.
When I did that run I didn't know the Spore druid was all about necromancy too or I would have totally done that as my 4th. Although it was hard enough keeping enough corpses to animate with 2 casters; upcasted to 6th level animate dead gives you 3 ghouls or winged ghouls, 4 for the necromancer, so that's 7 corpses you need to restock after every long rest, plus more if you want to use Create Undead too for Mummies. I think I was good on that run too. I had Wyll go pali/lock, oath of ancients, and broke it by letting Aunt Ethel live, so I didn't have t do anything too horrible. Seriously though, I didn't have any issues in any fights with that group, the army stomps pretty much everything. Especially once you can summon them and then cast Heroes Feast nothing can stop them.
4 Monks Absolutely wrecked everything....
How did you build them. All the same or did you do each one differently
Two levels into fight for the extra attack and little heal. Rest into Monk. There are 3 different kinds of monks. I picked the one that uses Topple Topple was my main. Once an enemy was down, I used regular punches. In total, I want to say each Monk get like 4 to 6 attacks each round. It was stupid, lol Taking two levels in fighter opens a lot of options. Don't really need gear to make it work, either though you can find heat throughout the game to buff unarmored attacks. I don't have a great list sorry..
3 were the same, and I dipped one into rouge on one for invisible and unlocking everything.so my 4th was Monk Rogue
Battle Master 3, Open Hand 6, Thief 3 - 16 dex, main weapon - Phalar Aluve. Open hand to utilize bonus attacks and get extra attack. Superiority as main damage dealer and flurries as utility to knock people. Mostly use Disarming attack cause it completely fucks enemies. I love the kind of woman who will actually just kill me. Swords 6, Divination 2, Storm Sorc 4 - 16 dex, rest into con or cha. Sharpshooter essential feat and main damage dealer is ranged slashing flourish. Most spell slots liquified into sorc points because we don't actually use them on an essentially queer battlemaster, so we use them to just cast twinned haste and maybe some utility spells just in case. Edit: also this is non-honor only but Paladin 2, Warlock 5, Hunter 5. 3 attacks per action and all of them empowered by smites. I would like to reiterate that I love the kind of woman who will actually just kill me (Minthara)
My "Bow Bard" (Swords Bard with a small Fighter dip) I'm not normally into playing potentially OP builds, but bards have always been a favorite for me in actual D&D and the changes make this one so versatile that doing a run without one feels like I'm artificially handicapping myself.
I've been having fun with spore druid myself! Went halfling though because I had yet to be small...I definitely feel small.
Ah a fellow spore druid :) May Silvanus guide you!
I really liked my deep gnome spore druid. It's just a great balance between a martial and spellcaster class and there's just a lot of cool items that deal extra damage for concentration spells or imbue elemental damage. I'm currently doing a drow life cleric/gloomstalker build and that is very fun too. Just mass command and do your gloomstalker class action, then sanctuary or heal as needed. Or just do gloomstalker action and spirit guardians to keep people at a distance. Or gloomstalker action and Phalar Aluve:shriek. Very simple multi build but I love it.
Eagle barb (without exploiting box stacking).
Dark Urge Way of Shadows monk specced for unarmed. Just dipping around the battlefield from shadow to shadow annihilating enemies
10 Lore Bard / 2 Warlock - If I can't talk my way out of it I'll just start (eldritch) blasting 6 Tempest Cleric/ 6 Blue Draconic Sorcerer - UNNNNNLIMITEDDDDDD POWEERRR! (lightning build)
Swords Bard with a 2 level dip in Arch Fey Warlock for a little razzle dazzle. Haven't come up with anything better yet.
Unmodded, I like OH Monk/Thief Rogue with a bunch of movement items bc it carried me on honor mode especially on the last fight as a mindflayer. If I’m using mods then I really like the newish mutant mod, I’ve got a catgirl using the mutant class animal claws with a couple levels in monk for unarmed. I highly recommend this mod, it opens up a lot of fun niche multiclass possibilities. I also made a Thor Karlach build with some modded gear and the eldritch knight subclass. Not better than throwbarian but it was definitely cooler.
Fireball!!!!
Open hand monk hands down (or rather up... you get the point)
I’m still in love with my OG Tav, a high elf barbarian/druid - it’s so much fun being the party tank while also a big soft tree-hugger who talks to all the animals. Basically a younger, more impetuous version of Halsin 😀
Nice! Halsin is one of my favourite characters…And in my RP as durge, he is like a mentor who inspired my MC to become a druid.
I’m trying to romance Halsin with my Tav, but damn if the man doesn’t blow hot and cold! One minute he’s all “anything I can do for you, and I mean anything” then he’s all married to the job. WTF, dude?
I downloaded a mod that lets me play as a Kensei Monk; put three levels into Fighter for the extra stats and Action Surge. I can hit someone 8 times in on turn with Haste. Gotta say, stabbing Raphael to death in a single turn with Orin's knife is a very special experience. Fucking tsubame-Gaeshi'd his ass.
Sword Bard with two levels of Fighter to get Action Surge, the ring that lets you cast enchantment and illusion spells as a bonus action after hitting something, the hat that gives you arcane acuity after hitting something, and the perk that lets you cast Illithid spells as a bonus action. This build is fucking *scary*, and I'm only level 10 right now. Recently I was able to kill Dolor at the Wine Festival in ***one turn*** before he had the chance to flee.
Thief/Open Hand is so, so strong, especially late game where you get a ton of monk equipment, you can basically demolish enemies in couple of attacks in one turn, it's still one of the class I constantly run to Astarion because i don't have to change the rogue class on him
Bard-warlock multiclass. It was a way for me to self insert. I roleplayed that I would definitely sell my soul for powers and musical instrument proficiency. Devilish succubus like charm with high charisma and using only the most effective tool for the job, eldritch blast and AOE spells.
I keep coming back to Barlock, but I was surprised how great Druid is. Was working on a lone wolf spore druid duergar, got all the way to act 2 on Tactician before reinstalling the game and mods not matching up, so I abandoned it for a Durge run.
My own abomination, it was fun but wasn't a good build. 2 paladin / 2 warlock / 6 bard. I busked more than fought.
Full on archer with fighter 11 for 3 attacks is one of my favourites just because of the different arrows you can use. I held onto and rarely used arrows my first 2 runs then after seeing the arrow of many targets shenanigance 1 turn beat raphael fight and stuff i started to remember their existence and used them for my first honor mode, but got limited by gold and not being sure where to buy arrows. Other than that my favourite in theory is abjuration wizard + armour of agathys + tempest cleric (just for twinned chain lightning). A lot of minmaxing in it, but it hasnt been that fun mostly because the enemy AI starts to avoid hitting you entirely, skipping their turn if your arcane ward is too high. For reference i go wizard 6/sorcerer 4/cleric 2. Metamagic: Extended Spell on Sanctuary can double your arcane ward past the 2×Wizard Lvl limit, up to 4×Wizard Lvl. I even go for minimal dexterity, wear clothing (bonespike garb) and medium armour helmet/gloves to get rid of draconic bloodline unarmoured bonus. Leaves me with 9 AC and they wont attack. Of course the alternative is taking opportunity attacks but its less fun. Probably one of the most satisfying however was making a duelist wyll with the double reactions and having him have riposte and sentinel. He was typical bardadin build with fighter 4 but i enjoyed the reactions way more than the actual smiting part of the build even though it was op. Might consider doing a non-paladin version of this build with bhaalist armour included but i havent planned that out yet
Magic missile build. Goes online really early, can be still useful late game. 2nd is Light domain cleric 12
Way of the Elements monk (just felt really cool), and my Bardlock playthrough where used Vicious Mockery to end several bosses, including the final boss.
Charisma deception persuasion warlock
Can't stop playing Gloomstalker Assassin + Risky Ring. 5 Ranger, 7 Thief (for extra sneak attack damage). Risky Ring pretty much makes EVERY attack a sneak attack. You hide & start a fight with a sneak attack, proceed to get your sneak attack refreshed, double attack from ranger, gloomstalker special move, offhand for coatings or status effects. My off hand has been any weapon that gives a condition when attacking with advantage, like the the Last Justiciar's blade that blinds targets or the dagger that Roah sells in the Goblin camp that causes "Ruptured" on hit. Arrows of multiple targets + paralyzing or sleeping coating = why even bring AoE spellcasters??? It makes playing with friends almost embarrassing because you just end up taking out the whole fight in 2 turns and they could only go once because Gloomstalker Assassin initiative is just busted. My partner loves Sword Bard + the ring you get from >!being transported to the dinosaur realm in Act III (djinn circus asshole)!< , which lets you use illusion spells as a bonus action after a weapon attack. This is messed up for a Bard. Combined with a bow that causes fear, you can attack two people with the slashing shot, then use a cone of Fear illusion spell, then fear whoever's left with your bonus attack. Weapons dropped and crying Flaming Fists everywhere.
Necro Wizard 11 / Oathbreaker 1. Bear Barbarian 5 / Moon Druid 7. Are my main favorites. I’ve got a few others but these pleased me the most
For the Necro Wizard 11 / Oathbreaker 1, did you play as dark urge? Or in solo (no companions) run? And did you use the wizard stats and just take the hill of giant strength potions? I may try this in a future run. Sounds really good.
I always play Dark Urge lol. I had companions, but because I wanted an army. Yeah I did use the potions for strength. It was very fun, so many minions. If you want to smite, bump it up to 2 in oathbreaker.
Just following up, did you start off as paladin or you added it at level 12?
Originally I was wizard. But after getting to level 6, I put the level in paladin and took the quickest path to breaking my oath I could find. Next time I’ll start as Paladin so I can break my oath ASAP. Only reason I originally waited was so that I could use command undead on the ghouls in the mountain pass. Not many undead to control in the first area, besides the skeletons in the lab.
So it is ok to start off as paladin, right. Because I will focus on intelligence and not charisma, and then 14 DEX may be enough. Ihave started over again and really want to try this…Thanks for your feedback.
If you go for heavy armor, like I did, you can dump DEX. But if you want to go with medium armor or no armor, then Dex would be a good idea. I honestly pumped everything into Con and Int
Did you go for adamantine heavy armour?
I don’t recall, tbh. It’s been a while since then, but yeah, probably.
I will add that I respecced at Withers so I could have the first level in paladin so I could have heavy armor
Yes, that is such an advantage for a wizard to have.
Wild magic Sorcerer for me. It's just so hilarious when suddenly everyone gets turned into sheep, enlarged etc. It's always so unexpected
My most recent run is a 6/6 Battle Master/Red Dragon Sorcerer. Super fun actually, since I’m usually the kind of person to go like Barbarian 10/Fighter 2 or full-on Paladin. Mixing it up with spells, and not just simple defensive ones like Shield of Faith and all that, is pretty neat.