Baldur's Gate 3 - The Fist of Talos (Deity Build)

Hi all! Here's my next deity build! This time I decided to cover Talos, the god of storms. The obvious choice for build like this would be storm sorcerer, so I've come up with something a little bit different. I also used this as an opportunity to show off what Lightning Charges can do! Overall this build is a bit of a glass cannon but can certainly pull of some serious damage!
The Fist of Talos:
Four Elements Monk 6/Tempest Cleric 6
Starting Stats: 14/14/14/8/16/8
Make sure to grab the Potion of Everlasting Vigour: bg3.wiki/wiki/...
And grab Ethel's Boon for +1 CON
Note: The combat showcase doesn't have these buffs. The build will be stronger when complete.
Weapons: bg3.wiki/wiki/... (Optional)
Armour: bg3.wiki/wiki/...
Gloves: bg3.wiki/wiki/...
Boots: bg3.wiki/wiki/...
Amulet: bg3.wiki/wiki/... or bg3.wiki/wiki/...)
Rings: bg3.wiki/wiki/... and bg3.wiki/wiki/...

[@williamblack2904]

Love your stuff. Also the part about Elistrae’s followers not wearing armor, that’s just wrong. Her followers will wear little to no clothing during religious ceremonies, but that’s it. Day to day, adventuring, they wear clothing and armor.

[@kotarorune]

💯

[@gothicshark]

Yeah, I mean it was obvious he wasn't up on her lore, but the build was solid, and very close to my main who is a Seldarine Drow. Sword and Magic Missiles Cleric Wizard. ((After all Eilistraee created MM because her mom tried to use her bow & Arrows to kill her dad, she swore off bows and went all in with Magic & Swords MM was to replace the Bow.))

[@HoboZone]

Then why was a I getting a few comments saying they should be "clothing optional" or "scantily clad?" Lol

[@ALLmasked]

@@HoboZone everybody these days are adamant of their half truths, never realizing its a lie.

[@HoboZone]

that sounds like some Final Fantasy quote or something lol

[@alexandernelson3331]

Another great build! Loving your chosen of the deities ideas, very cool concept. Keep going brother!

[@Heartless-Sage]

Aye this is a fun build. The Storm Sor and Tempest Cleric is a common choice so its nice to see something a lot more unique. Talos isn't a god you hear much about in a casual sense and I know nothing about them but this seems like a very cool build to represent their wrath. Def keep it up with builds which are Not the strongest, at this point the meta builds are well established and boring, fun and thematic are much better.

[@ryoujiarisato7308]

hard agree, if youtube recommends me one more sorcadin build video i'm gonna morb, this channel was a life saver xD

[@chloenelson3951]

Hey man, just wanted to jump in and say, as a dnd nerd who loves Eilistraee, I loved your Eilistraee video and I don't know what these people are talking about. From what I've read about it, the only time they'd be naked is during a particular time of worship and dance. Not on the battlefield. You did a great job. Now I shall finish enjoying this video XD

[@Aprion]

I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a way of the 4 elements monk build that's more thematic than your basic pure monk. Lo and behold, here you are with just the thing I needed. =D I love how all your builds are more about doing a fun theme and not just pure min max power builds.

[@pablito8497]

I think you're doing great by interpreting the god based on the information given. People forget that deities have various aspects and not all clerics embody all of those aspects at once. Hell, even some Chosen of deities are only vaguely "on theme" with their deity, and in most cases not even clerics. Point being: you kinda stumbled your way into making more accurate Chosen character than the comments would lead you to believe. Great work, and I hope you also do race-specific deities in this series like Vlaakith and Lagduer!

[@shmooters5599]

Exactly, if you want to be the person to go super hard into what it is “supposed” to be go right ahead. But I think that based on what the game is giving us, these have been super good

[@matthewhoward-white463]

You could take revify and imagine you are using magical electric paddles 😁. "Clear!" 😂

[@Person17011]

I love what you’re doing with your channel. This is a great game. I’ve also regularly played dungeons and dragons for over 20 years and monks are very multiple ability dependent. There are ways to address that, but I like that you are not letting that drive your build the themes make these characters very fun to play your build here makes me want to play this guy in a paper and pencil, dungeons and dragons game keep up the good work, brother.

[@Person17011]

I used voice to write that comment. I hope it’s clear enough. Haha.

[@HoboZone]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@user-ke8di7ws6n]

Lightning charges also add damage to spirit Guardian so as a lvl 8 tempest claric you can just throw entire rooms of enemy's around just by walking!

[@HoboZone]

Okay thats sounds awesome

[@Cleptomancer]

That sounds awesome, except for missing out on extra attack.

[@user-wv8yk3xu4h]

Good one, very thematic . I would also recommend a❤ Sorcerer1(storm) - Tempest6 - Land Druid 5. This way you get access to both main lightning spells, you get both main classes with their SC maxed, con saving throw proficiency and you are all about storms and nature. Give it a try.

[@bigolbearthejammydodger6527]

well I am a lore nerd and talos is also known as the lord of storms - so your good in this case. known for lobbing lightning around FYI - talos is the god of storms, but not the god of the sea specifically - that would be Umberlee - AKA the bitch queen. Both are chaotic evil and sailors pray to both usually. There is a temple to Umberlee in baldurs gate (act 3) and a shrine to all gods where you can pray to talos and donate for a bonus if you want. Alternative talos build for you: The storm bow archer bard 6(swords), cleric 5 (tempest), wizard 1. starting stats: DEX and WIS primary, with some OK INT and CON, dump STR and CHA feats:SHARPSHOOTER, WAR CASTER gear: the lightning bow, the staff from lorican and whatever other gear you fancy. You get 4 attacks per round with your bow with haste + bardic flourish bonus ones for AC you get heavy armour + shield + haste bonus + shield spell reaction. for an easy 25+ AC end game. the staff gives you lightning charges when you cast, the bow gives them when you attack and you have shocking grasp for mele. you are a full caster with access to lightning bolt, chain lighting, call lightning all castable at level 6 and you get as many attacks as a ranger or paladin or barbarian pureclass and can cast haste on your self if you want.

[@Cleptomancer]

Very Nice use of Way of 4 Elements. Spell sniper and reverberation gear went pretty well with mine.

[@MrJokerJay92]

Would love to see a remaster of this as it's a build I'm considering for a full evil durge run. Maybe with a single level into storm sorc for flying??

[@masonthewalker]

This is a cool build, kind of the vibe I’ve been wanting in my Tav. For sure gonna try it out.

[@WololoDewd]

I was just about to start planning my evil playthrough and this build is perfect for it

[@DGDDice]

Thank you for this build. I've been trying to combine monk and cleric for a monk of bahamut I wanted to create so seeing this build gave me some ideas and inspiration. Hope you don't mind me using this build as a jumping off point for that. keep up the awesome work :) the one thing I wonder which of bahamuts domain I should go for. Life or War.

[@kahnTM]

Both domains are in Bahamut's portfolio so I'd go War if you want to be more of a damage dealer and Life if you don't mind taking a more support role. I'd say it depends on what you want to spend more levels on, if you just want to dip into cleric for RP reasons and a bit of flavour go War; if you want to invest more heavily into cleric go Life. Super cool idea!

[@HoboZone]

My personal suggestion would be Paladin 5, War Cleric 1 or 2, go the rest Draconic Sorcerer with a cold affinity. You can be a strong armoured warrior with powerful melee options and a ton of elemental magic.

[@DGDDice]

@@HoboZone Thank you for the advice. I like this build you've suggested. I can play off one of Bahamuts titles "Lord of the North Wind" with it. when I was thinking of the monk build I was going off his title "Grandmaster of Flowers" that he was given when he disguised himself as a young monk but I do like the idea of an Icy Paladin now that you've suggested it.

[@tobak952]

you know your DnD lore much better than the sticklers in your comments :) Elistraees followers would be nude douring rituals, yes.. but they would absolutely wear armor for combat and adventuring. This DnD lore nerd loves all your builds, especially the deity ones.

[@2009worstyearever]

An alternative to the strength would be either grabbing the club of hill giant strength or just use potions of hill and then cloud giant strength. you can then pump up your dex and wisdom and still get the benefits from tavern brawler and everything else.

[@jfrazier2217]

Love your builds! keep it up!

[@anthonydavidson1282]

FYI, you still get unarmed monk bonuses in heavy armor and with a shield just not the movement speed. I would go strength and get tavern brawler feat, increasing strength and dex is hard to do but not impossible late game. Great ideas though :)

[@tevisstier9044]

Followers of Eilistraee don't fight in the nude. They wear armor. They disrobed for times of worship. Talos is a god of storms. His name is invoked by most to try and avoid his eye.

[@ballywobbler6254]

Loving all your builds! I just got done a tactician run with your Pscionic Warrior build and it was a blast incorporating all the different mind flayer abilities with it, seemed like the natural progression of that build and made tactician a little easier. Anyway, I had a build suggestion for you! Idk if you've played Elden Ring but I was thinking of a Sir Gideon Offnir build, he's basically a jack of all trades who uses spells from all the different schools of magic, this may be multiability score dependant but I would love to see you make it work.

[@HoboZone]

Check my Mystic Theurge build! It kind of covers this concept. Glad you liked my build enough to use it! EDIT: Got my builds mixed up lmao

[@robertleelandjob]

Blue dragonborn, str(17) > wis(16) > con(14). Tavern brawler(str), str +2. Monk, 1x tempest cleric, 4e monk to 11. Run lightning trident, then thunder trident, shield, and heavy armor. You are now a dynasty warrior. My dude's name was Szaraketh stormfist. Can do either 11/1, 10/2, 6/6, 4/8(lose extra attack for +1d8 thunder to attacks and more spells). More cleric probably run the act 3 staff for extra lightning dmg spells.

[@RobThePrincess]

I totally understand not wanting to do loads of research into a topic you have only been introduced to... But the wiki is pretty good at delivering efficient info. Id say that it, at the very least, warrants a quick search if youre making a whole video series on it. Check the Dogma and the domains out for a well rounded, streamlined summary. It could help bring more creative opportunities for you as well!

[@HoboZone]

Yeah. I totally missed the ball with this one. Going to try and do some research from now on.

[@user-wv8yk3xu4h]

Not really. Talos is pretty much what the game says, a fully chaotic deity that supports the claim that nature exists to destroy, not create. Anything elaborate thing living beings create is meant to be destroyed by the forces of nature/entropy. So a punch drunk tavern brawler talonite makes sense to me. So I would say he did a pretty good job representing a Talos worshipper with this build.

[@RobThePrincess]

@@HoboZone I don't think you messed anything up. But I assume you will be able to come up with more, if you have more info around the subject. This one is cool!

[@gravityhammer25]

Awesome build, I'm using this as a guide for my Raiden (Mortal Kombat) inspired character.

[@Stereo-hb2lo]

Cant wait to run this and rp as a skyrim nord suddenly in faerun

[@andersfrieden567]

Finally a Monk build

[@teejaygibson4315]

Who even cares if it's 💯 lore accurate. D&D is all about doing your own thing

[@MrK98C]

Absolutely loving the builds! I was wondering if there's a way to make work a multiclass of Barbarian, Monk and Cleric. Almost like an unarmed berserking war priest.

[@HoboZone]

The Cleric bit seems a bit redundant as Monk can already do a bonus action attack and rage would prevent casting Cleric spells. Monk and Barbarian are a great mix in this game though.

[@lafunk1978]

Id add in 1 point in storm sorcerer just so you can fly about

[@blackblue817]

Love this build as a start, but you are missing out on some lightning charge-Thunder reverberation synergy that really boosts this build: • hat of storm scion’s power - buffs your spell dc and spell save whenever you deal Thunder damage • spineshudder amulet - deals reverberation whenever you hit a spell • Thunderskin cloak - makes any creature suffering reverb have to roll to save if they hit you. If they fail, they’re knocked prone • ring of spiteful Thunder - when you deal Thunder damage to a creature suffering reverb, they have to make a saving throw or suffer dazed • the water-waterspark combo can become hazardous if you have a lot of melee brawlers in the area or if enemies aren’t grouped together. For this reason, Boots of Stormy Clamour may be a more appropriate swap-in so you’re still stacking reverb in place of lightning charges On top of that, I think taking a quarterstaff or trident could also benefit this build: • You can get spellsparkler early on and get lighting charges for spells/cantrips. Makes it to where you’re conserving the minimal lightning charges lost if you use a spell instead of making an unarmed attack • cacophony is also fairly early into Act 2, and would provide consistent Thunder damage for the reverb effects • in the late game, Markoheshkir can give you access to both free-use Thunder magic and some super powerful lightning magic that would otherwise be locked off to you • for more of a Poseidon flair and to buff off of Tavern Brawler, Nyrulna gives you a solid non-ranged option and insane Thunder damage. Plus the other passives synergize well with Monk.

[@HoboZone]

I plan to do a build like this soon. Some of my older builds need updating

[@fool3609]

HOLY DIVER

[@msan617]

I like your builds, but I think people get too hooked-up over CON. The HP difference between 14 and 16 CON is 12 pts at level 12. By time time you're L12 those 12 HP shouldn't make or break you in any way - you're dealing with huge attack pools at that point and lots of different magic items to mitigate it. The HP are far more valuable at L1-4 then after that. The main thing for CON is Check bonuses: if your build uses CON for Concentration spells/activities, etc then it's important to you; and even then it's just a +1 bonus: +5%.

[@stevepoulsen83]

Build starts at 4:30

[@vinish0w]

I'm loving your videos on deity builds, I recently started playing and I'm not very familiar with the world of D&D and I had no idea about the Gods in this universe. I started watching and researching... at this point I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't identify a good option for a Half-Elf other than Corellon Larethian, which I don't feel would be appropriate for my more human-oriented background of the race. I'm even considering restarting my campaign to make an Eilistraee Drow as I fell in love with the idea of it being a very exclusive type of character. Anyway, can you recommend a deity for a Half-Elf Sorcerer/Cleric specialized in storm that is good/neutral (chaotic or neutral)?

[@HoboZone]

I'm not well versed on lore, but I try not to connect race and religion too closely. There's no reason someone from a certain race can't worship a certain god that would typically be worshiped by another race. You make the backstory for your character, you're only limited by what you can come up with.

[@vinish0w]

@@HoboZone I thought I should choose a god directly linked to my race, for example if I was a Gnome I should choose GARL GLITTERGOLD. This definitely expands my options, thanks

[@florin-alexandrustanciu5643]

Strength gives you more unarmed damage tho, it is applied twice with tavernbrawler

[@kaizel2264]

What is that blue wind lol you should really show them all 11:30

[@xBucket13x]

very fun build. if i can ask, How would you go about building " Escanor, the Lion Sin of Pride" i was thinking paly/monk, but it unarm strike doesnt work with smite. thoughts?

[@hawkgaming3029]

Escanor by any measure wouldnt be a Pally/Monk he would be a Barbarian/ Light Cleric I could see a 2 level dip into Pally for smiting but thats about it, escanor would have his axe around 1handed with dueling/ defense, prolly heavy armor master with elemental adept so they could not resist fire damage.

[@xBucket13x]

@@hawkgaming3029 i thought about monk/Cleric also, for all the wisdom he drops. Barbarian just doesnt sit right for me ( theme wise), Rage and frenzy is a lose of control, which doesnt fit the well spoken , poem spewing, cool, calm and collected Escanor, even when he is at his peek, he is still razor focused. but i do agree on the one handed axe. the monk is for the Devine chop and poke he does when unarmed. taking Tavern brawler

[@xBucket13x]

good themeing@@hawkgaming3029

[@jiveequation1865]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@xBucket13xwhat show did you watch? Escanor isn’t a monk 💀

[@kree197238]

Why monk first ? Cleric for the toy's thay become monk proficient possibly a bit better ?

[@kree197238]

Just till the fists start gaining traction

[@ryanschmid2678]

Can you do a paladin build next please

[@gothicshark]

you really should at least look at the forgotten realms wiki, loads of easy to find good info. Love the build, but Talos was a Barbarian/Reaver/Orc god, not a sea god. It would work if the guy was a pirate though... but Talos is mostly plainsland where you get big Thunder Storms.

[@HoboZone]

Yeah fair enough. I'll do more research in the future.

[@IvanBelcov]

Joe Frazier build

[@LiuTienanOfficial]

great build, but you should've bumped your rizzdom up to 20 OwO

[@madmanthepope6448]

Anybideas for a githyanky psyic monk or a dualweilding samurai?

[@9PS404]

Rage open-handed monk (3bar/9monk) main str,con cherry on top with wis. Use AP silver sword while bear rage (resist all dmg type). Sorry for dual samurai, I got no idea 😅

[@madmanthepope6448]

@@9PS404 I've been experimenting with Fighter Monk for the dual wield idk not that good and miss a lot

[@HoboZone]

​@madmanthepope6448 For your samurai build, wield a katana in one hand and a spear (or pike, whichever has the thrown property) and go Eldritch Knight to get bound weapon so you throw your spear and have it return to you. Could be a cool build.

[@9PS404]

@@madmanthepope6448 I found 2 katana on act 3 if you intend to use them for aesthetic reason, 1st one one shelf behind jinni in circus, secend in area of disable wacther 😁

[@HoboZone]

The Katana behind the Djinn can't be used. Your character won't even pick it up, citing it as a fake.

[@FernandoHernandez-jw4yy]

Yeah, you could just read the Forgotten Realms Wiki article on the deity you're making a build for. That would show commitment and really not be that hard.

[@HoboZone]

I will in the future. I wasn't sure if Forgotten Realms was a good source of information as Fandom pages tend to be iffy in my experience.