SUBCLASS TIER LIST - Single Class Characters - Baldur's Gate 3 Honour Mode Guide Part 2

[@r.s.819]

It's bizarre to me that rogue, a martial class, has no subclasses or ability to gain extra attack outside of multiclassing, while bard, a full caster, has two subclasses that can extra attack.

[@Nathanorwhatever]

In actual 5e, there are 8 Bard subclasses, and only those two have the extra attack. Bards are meant to be kind of Build a Bears where different subclasses have different specialties. Larian happened to pick the more combat heavy bards, likely because the game is more combat heavy, but they are in contrast treated in a way that makes sense in tabletop. Rogues are about surprise attacks. If you hit someone once, the second attack isn't surprising, so on it's own it doesn't make sense for it to have more attacks. It's more of a utility class with DPS capabilities than a martial in that way, a unique thing of it's own

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I'd love to have more insight into how they picked the subclasses they did. In 5e only Lore and Valour are in the Player's Handbook, and all other bards are from expansions, so they could have picked any 3rd. I'd love to know why they chose Swords bard, heavily houseruled it (totally breaking the balance in the process), and then didn't give it to either Wyll or Astarion (both of whom seem much closer to swords bards than to their actual classes to me, and who I assumed one of them *would* be a swords bard when I saw that was one of the classes in the game). I'm not like unhappy with the decision or anything, I just think it would be neat to know more about how they arrived at it!

[@cryamistellimek9184]

@@CephalopocalypseI imagine it was a combination of what they wanted, what they thought was cool, house rules at their own tables, and what was easiest to program.

[@MidlifeCrisisJoe]

@@Cephalopocalypse Astarion definitely seems more like an arcane trickster to me than a swords bard, mostly because he's not showy enough to be a bard. Wyll, though? Definitely see where you're coming from there.

[@LoneIrbis]

@@Cephalopocalypse funny enough, I multiclassed Wyll to bardlock and Astarion to rogue/bard the moment I discovered what multiclass is, without giving it much second thought or knowing whether those are any good or how to make them properly (at first). It just felt like perfect fit thematically, and I kind of thought they were semi-intended as multi-classes.

[@jmr90000]

what a king for slinging these out so fast

[@tobiaskoran6787]

I believe at this point he has done so much on this and got so much experience that he just goes "overpriced jewelry teleshopping clerk" mode and provides riveting commentary purely through autopilot

[@petercarlson2680]

I expected a week until part 2. Pleasantly surprised

[@gomatgo]

the sling king

[@Gsdavis.00]

For real!

[@xaveir7787]

The pace that this high quality content is coming out is nothing short of legendary. Thank you for your dedication!

[@tobiaskoran6787]

"Money in this game is mostly free" we makin it to 1000000% inflation with this one

[@Cephalopocalypse]

pickpocket withers until the dot com bubble bursts and all the banks are left scrambling for out of work COBOLt soul monks I'll be here all week folks

[@JoshSweetvale]

36:35 "I'm my own worst enemy!" Minthara, is that you?

[@nina9565]

Arcane tricksters can be really good scroll slingers, and if the player is willing to exploit the pickpocketing mechanic, they can become the most reliable caster.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

It's true! One thing I wasn't sure about was how much to take scrolls into account in this. On the one hand, they're an important balance consideration for, say, warlocks, who get to patch all the weaknesses of their character by carrying a stack of scrolls. On the other, thanks to the broken economy, the optimal honour mode party is probably a cleric and 3 fighters with 20 INT each carrying a stack of scrolls and double casting them with action surge :P

[@Exoskel2]

​@@Cephalopocalypse that looks janky fun way to play the game.

[@milanstepanek4185]

One note on early Hunter: besides the piddly few spell slots you can use on ritual longlasting buff spells, it needs precicesly zero short and long rest, it can go forever and its extra dmg features (colossus/horde breaker) have infinite use. For this reason I had an amazing early game on a hunter that i built as melee with decent AC because i was able to keep the rare elixirs on and the quest reward buffs that eventually stacked on to so much +atk roll +hp etc. it dished out consitent dmg. I went to lvl 7 without a single long rest and at that point statmogged most bosses. The moment you take a long rest you nerf yoursefl into oblivion lol (im looking at you guardian forcing me to long rest on act transition).

[@sev1120]

And late game, after the first round the Hunter outpaces the Gloomstalker in terms of DPR.

[@itmehuglife]

And then there's me breaking my oath of devotion three times in honor mode. Climb the brain stem, Gale- I'm broke and done with this play-through 😮‍💨

[@UltravioletArts]

The irony of the beastmaster is that your beast ally is relatively powerful with lots of utility but you are stuck with just the base chasis of the ranger and it is so horribly mediocre haha. I also think that you are underselling the oathbreaker aura a little bit. Even without elixirs or the giant gloves you can use ethel's hair and you asi's to get 20 STR (or DEX) and CHA. Love the thoughtful discussion on these. I spend far too much of my spare time analyzing class abilities haha.

[@rrrenaisssance]

I know this is a semi-old vid so you might not see this but ,dawg, your dedication to sharing with us the knowledge you’ve acquired by just playing what you love and then being thorough enough in how you’ve compiled that your channel can literally serve as an one-stop full on wiki is so fucking cool. It motivates me to make videos of my own , which would have nothing to do with BG3 but instead of things I myself love. You’re fucking awesome, and I hope the algo blesses you and the monetization affords you more time to keep doing this. Even if you some day stop making videos, I hope you always play or engage with what you love. Cheers and good health to you man.

[@Eillwinnas2]

Something that wasn't said for lvl12 rogue of any subclass is the level 11 feature, "Reliable Talent". In the context of a party, throwing a Greater Invisibility on your mono-class rogue and have him never roll poorly on the stealth ability check while attacking is fun. No "Pass without a Trace" required.

[@SSSmokeStyle]

One thing about the assassin rogue is that if you open combat with another character and trigger the surprised round with them your first strike outside combat will be a crit, giving you two guaranteed crit. Summons like the imp or quasit are great since they don't trigger the arrest dialogue, making getting surprise rounds much more reliable

[@Wolferys]

I didnt expect such a long video to release so quickly after the first part, that's some really high quality channel.

[@nathanfivecoate5848]

I'm going to make a case that Psychic damage isn't actually bad in act 3, and is honestly quite powerful. Firstly, only Steel Watchers and other constructs are immune to Psychic damage. Secondly, the Resonance Stone found in the Mind Flayer Coloney at the end of act 2 applies the Steeped in Bliss condition to all living creatures (as in *everything but construct and undead* creatures) within 30' of it. This condition grants affected creatures advantage on all Physical Ability Checks, Disadvantage on all Mental Saving Throws, and Vulnerability to Psychic Damage. That vulnerability makes Psychic damage immensely strong against almost everything in act 3. Especially if you build around Shadow Blade and use Belm in your off hand. I played a Durge Oath of Ancients Paladin (mono-classed) on Tactician who did just that and he killed Orin in 1 turn flat at level 11. He scored a crit on her for 100 Psychic damage and 61 Radiant damage (3rd level Smite+Improved Divine Smite) on his second attack

[@MXF-sy9hy]

The description of those "other players" who actually make mistakes is brilliant. Thank you for making this both so informative and entertaining.

[@keithhayes3928]

I have so many campaigns saved and I love respecting every character in every one of them. It’s almost like its own hobby. Appreciate these videos. They’re good food for thought.

[@lolmanmagee2785]

one thing to note about oath of the ancients as well, is that the healing is so good it can be used out of combat. in my current tactician paladin game at 5, i am healing 10 health to my entire party twice if i have them all stand together. that is the same amount of HP as a short rest, sometimes more if its on a wizard for example. when you consider that you can use this 3 times in a day, its kind of bonkers and can even be compared to bards song of rest.

[@AirLancer]

Not really, since Song of Rest also refreshes certain abilities and warlock spell slots. Besides which, it's not like it's hard to just get a lot of healing potions.

[@lolmanmagee2785]

@@AirLancer I made this comment before i knew about potion aoe healing, out of combat healing is basically irrelevant due to that. health can be made into a valuable resource with a few restrictions though.

[@alliu6562]

29:43 speaking of oath breaking: some story events that are better in the long run WILL break your oath if you take it. Found out the hard way that letting Ethel go in Act 1 (to get her hair) will, in fact, break your oath if you’re playing Vengeance. Not sure about the others, but for vengeance I at least understand why bc you’re supposed to kill everything that harms others (and Ethel falls into that category). However Vengeance is probably harder to break when it comes to random crimes, so surprise attacking neutral characters generally won’t break your oath which is nice.

[@Sleepynotlazy]

This has been an amazing deep dive into the classes that honestly shows that the dev team needs to rethink some choices.

[@HallsteinI]

Hopefully something they address in an expansion pack... but Larian doesn't really do expansions. I'd settle for a patch.

[@shinkamui]

personally instead of the ''out classed'' tier, i'd rather you put them in the proper tier those classes belong to, just maybe have an asterisk beside them or something for example, if someone wants to play valor bard and they look at the finalized tierlist, maybe it would be helpful to communicate to that person where exactly does a valor bard falls on the tier list within perspective to every other class, but just have a marker letting them know that it's just a worse sword bard. Like, you never even stated where the trick domain falls on the tierlist at all, so while outclassed, does that mean an A? a B? a C? even worse than a C? the scale gets all messed up without some actual anchoring and we get left without a solid basis to know where it belongs proportionally to the other classes. Given that it's a roleplay game and not a competitive game, people might still play these classes even if they're outclassed, and it would be helpful to know what exactly we're getting into with them

[@EnderPryde]

So small correction on the Oathbreaker Paladin: It also applies to friendly Fiends, so Planar Ally: Cambion's do get the bonus. Not that said bonus is making-or-breaking that ability, mind you, just that is *is* an edge case to the effect doing slightly more than "deal your charisma mod extra on hit"

[@SoI_Badguy]

Something neat about Fangs of the Fire Snake is that the fire damage sort of acts like a second attack, so it procs the extra damage of spells like hex again. So if you have hex on someone and use fangs of the fire snake, you get 2d6 on every hex attack rather than 1d6.

[@rupeeheartian6606]

Hey hey! Just so you know, Wholeness of Body (Open Hand’s restoration move) is even more comically overtuned than the first pass gives it credit for. In addition to the traits you described, it provides 1 additional bonus action, bringing Monk’s endgame to 6 attacks for 3 consecutive turns even without the thief dip. So far, enjoying the video!

[@AkantorCZ]

I like Colossus Slayer. It often is that little bit of extra damage that helps me to finish the enemy. What I like about it in comparison to the Dread Ambusher is that the effect applies to all turns. The multiclass build I'm using it for revolves around dual wielding light weapons with focus on crit, later damage vulnerability and uses Savage Attacker. As such, extra 1d8 of weapon damage every turn is quite noticable. Saying that, the Dread Ambusher is also great. It's matter of personal preference. You either want sneakiness and firts round burst or you just want consistent extra damage. My character is more of gladiator entering front door so the choice is obvious. :)

[@mythcraft3445]

ive watched a few of your breakdowns now, and while theres a few hot takes it seems really good overall. id probably refer ppl to these lists if they didnt understand much abt the game, probably the most accurate and in depth explanation of spells and classes in this game so far

[@Feersumdjinn]

Such high quality content on such a regular basis. What a machine!

[@finnick3222]

When you're about to do warlock subclasses could you also include your opinion on the 3 pact boons? I feel like they're basically 3 subclasses within warlock subclasses (microclasses? lol)

[@SkyNinja759]

Pact of the chain can be side stepped by getting Shovel in act 1. Pact of the Blade is alright if you want to be a melee Warlock; which isn't optimal compared to eldritch blast spamming but is a fun playstyle change. Pact of the tome seems to be the optimal boon in general play. Getting access to guidance is always useful and makes forgoing a party cleric less impactful in dialogue checks. At level 5 you get unique access to haste. Haste is a top tier spell and great use of concentration if you don't see a need in hexing; warlock loves to take war caster as a feat for mantaining concentration so there's natural synergy between the spell and class. For me there's a clearly defined power level difference for each boom: 1. Pact of the tome: the cantrips are fairly good situationally and guidance is insane. Level 5 haste is warmly welcomed. Every plain Jane Warlock wants this boon. 2. Pact of the Blade: Either for a specific multi-class build or for a odd melee focused casual playthrough warlock. Not useless but you're definitely not mono-class optimizing by picking this boon. 3. Pact of the Chain: Entirely replaced by a minion you can rush to obtain for free in act 1 if you know where to find it. Still a fun boon if you want to double down with another character using Shovel but not winning any optimization awards bar the darkness/invisibility shenanigans theme.

[@mirkofraccastoro7573]

I do believe you undervalued oath breaker, I believe it deserves S tier easily, firstly if you are min maxing there is no reason not to use elixirs, which turns the aoe fear into really solid concentration less CC and the +5 damage on each attack with no cooldown or activation requirement like action or such is very nice. Also, the control under ability is quite different from dominate person as it's duration allows you to just cruise trough act 2 by enlisting the help of a certain undead dryder, medic, or even spectator, like, having a concentration less level 5/6 summon for the large majority of act 2 has to be worth something

[@ArteriusSaren]

I wouldn't be surprised if sword bard would be the only S+ class. Abjuration Wizard and Draconic Sorcerer may be close I suppose.

[@JoshSweetvale]

Any sorcerer can do Twinspell Haste.

[@kylefields3951]

@@JoshSweetvale Draconic Sorcerer can just fly at Level 11 and gives you a Base Armour Class of 13 along with additional 12 HP at Level 12. Within the confines of a Mono-Class Restriction combined with the fact that Sorcerer itself is already crazy busted, those two additional benefits are not nothing. You get a huge boon at the beginning of the Game, steadily build extra HP on what is otherwise a not very tanky Class, can Fly straight up no Spell Slot or Bonus Action required, and get your Charisma Modifier to Damage of your type.

[@peanuts7324]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@kylefields3951anybody can fly with illithid powers. the increase to base ac is literally just free mage armor, which is nice but not anything op. it’s definitely not s tier in my opinion, but probably a tier

[@doloresabernathy9809]

Thanks for another Great video!! I wish I could read the thumbnails for the subclasses. Maybe post a list of the tiers? Until then I will have to take notes.

[@KG6591]

Idk if anyone brought it up in the comments already BUT oathbreakers turn undead channel oath turns and undead equal to or less than your paladin level, ANY undead. Including undead with WEAPONS. And you can use that on multiple undead, which I'm turn gain your oath of hate. Also dance macabre (even though their claws aren't technically weapons) also gain buffs from aura of hate. At least in my experience. Also spiteful suffering gives YOUR ENTIRE PARTY advantage on one target for 3 turns. Not just the paladin. While I do agree oath of vengeance does do alot of the same things that oathbreaker does better, the oathbreaker is NOT outclassed it's a more support variant of vengeance whereas vengeance is ball hog main character play style.

[@mysecretavatar]

I actually think that the Aura of Hate makes Oathbreaker Paladin a compelling monoclass. It’s easy to get 3 to 6 extra passive damage on every hit from this aura by level 12 with items and Charisma boosts from Mirror and Ethel. Think of this as a half of Great Weapon Master’s damage bonus!

[@Princess_Salami]

And again with a great super informative video! The thing that makes me saddest about (I think) the latest patch is that the Hellrider's Pride gloves were somewhat altered, and the person wearing the gloves no longer benefit from the Blade Ward effect. The item description now says "When you heal ANOTHER creature", and I noticed it in my own game, and on someone's streamed game. However, I do think the Reviving Hands gloves might still work, but they are a rather late game item. So I guess this might have been a slight nerf to Oath of the Ancients. And if you wanna talk about broken Gloomstalker build in TableTop, playing a Bugbear (the one from Monsters of the Multiverse), who deals an extra 2d6 to enemies who haven't taken a turn in combat yet, is kind of overwhelming, since grabbing 3 levels of Battle Master adds not only an extra d8 of damage, but also Action Surge, which, with the way the Dread Ambusher attack is worded, means you can make that attack again ("If you take the Attack action on that turn, you can make one additional weapon attack as part of that action", and Action Surge gives you an extra action...). When I played that, as an experiment in a mini-campaign, I made 150% sure the DM and other players knew my goal, and I would NOT have played it if anyone had any hesitation. Oh, and we were allowed Muskets in that campaign too.... For Thief, I do see one slight benefit to their "extra attack" being an off hand attack: with certain weapon spells (I'm here mainly thinking of Phalar Aluve's Melody ability) taking an action, thief can still make 2 off hand attacks, while other martials have to sacrifice their entire action on that. I guess where I'm going is that the cost of a Thief losing their Action (or spending it on something that isn't making an attack) is lesser than other extra attack martials, who, if they have to spend an action on something, lose out on all their attacks. I don't think it's enough to bring it out of C tier, but it's still something I like to keep in mind. But I do agree, the hand crossbows in the game are very lack luster, and you're pretty much stuck using Ne'er Misser and the Hellfire Hand Crossbow... And for some reason, people don't understand why I'm no longer a fan of Dual Hand crossbow builds...

[@common_undead]

The hellrider gloves never gave you blade ward for healing yourself iirc.

[@thewanderers97]

I wish there were better hand crossbows

[@nat.1193]

I think you far estimate how powerful archer's in general are. Their act 1 itemization is so rediculously strong, that all rangers propably need to be 1 tier above, where they currently are at. Rangers do A LOT of damage during act 1. Between Titanstring with club, Arcane Synergy Helmet, Archer gloves/dex gloves and hunter's mark they deal surprising amounts of damage. We are talking about over 30 damage per shot at lvl 6. Before multiclassing even a throwzerker struggles to keep up with the damage. So far we have ignored the insanity that are special arrows, which closes the damage gap between Swords Bard and the rest of the archers btw. You also undervalue backheavy classes. Act 3 is big. Like REALLY big and you play the vast majority of it at lvl 11+. Propably a third of my entire play time was at that level. Hunter dpr is frankly absurd at lvl 11 with access to blackhole and oil of combustion.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

It's true that act 3 is long and you spend a lot of your time at level 11+ but that's also the easiest part of the game. By the time you're max level, your party is so broken that it's hard to lose at that point

[@panjan9834]

You don't have to initiate a fight w assasin to gain its benefits, you just have to enter the fight with a sneak attack. So you can initiate with whatever else you want while the assasin hides somewhere. Also, assasin does indeed get his sneak attack refunded at the start via its class feature. Fun fact, other rouges can also make 2 sneak attacks in first round, because for whatever reason even though their sneak attack icon is faded out when they come into the fight with it, it still procs on reaction with an off hand attack. Act 2 is indeed painful with a pure rogue, as it is heavily outshined by the other classes by then, as you say, but luckily in act 3 you can get 2 items that give enemies vulnerability to piercing damage, which make rogue fun to play again. I think you can pretty much solo anything in 1 round with a thief, when you go bhaalist armour, Orins dagger and other crit items and the advantage ring, and wait for a crit to use your sneak attack as a reaction.

[@peanuts7324]

you forgot to mention oath of vengeance’s inquisitors might can apply dazed, with no saving throw. the most notable effect of dazed is it gives disadvantage of wisdom saves, allowing your control spells have a much higher chance if landing

[@keystonelyte]

It's item dependent, sure, but the Gloomstalker as Dark Urge gets the Deathstalker Mantle, and that combo is what really makes that shit proper busted. With the Assassin mutliclass, that's the combo being used for like 99% of the solo Honor Mode runs.

[@OakandIV]

Thanks for this. Well done. I keep wanting to defend subclasses only to realize that what I like about them is how well they slot into multiclass builds. :-)

[@paulneligh5095]

I think people severely underestimate the ranger class. They are an item dependent class - use the arrows! Arrow of many targets with advantage, a gloom stalker strike and surprise is simply ridiculous

[@datbottleofcidre6926]

I'd say that Rogue's subclasses become much more viable if you can manage to consistently apply damage vulnerabilities. I think the best example would be just using Orin's dagger in right hand which applies piercing damage vulnerability on attack and it does it before all the damage is calculated so dealing 100+ damage in a single attack is good enough to not be dismissed

[@Rayoguhn]

Happy to be like bumber 1000 on here. Keep up the good work!

[@Ray_juicy]

The best BG3 vids hands down

[@kayn9651]

Definitely agree with the point made on Arcane Trickster Rogues, I tend to mono-class purely because I'm not versed enough in D&D rules to really feel comfortable multi-classing off the top of my head, so I tend to leave Astarion an arcane trickster as he wants to be by default, and then I make him my dedicated out-of-combat ritual caster. - Mage hand, enhanced leap, feather fall, in particular. I anyway keep him around for picking locks and disarming traps, and otherwise build him for ranged sneak attacks with dual crossbows, as well as my designated "special arrow" user. He's also the one I have sneaking around to like.. place down barrels and explosives for when I wanna cheese a fight rather than do it normally. - Took down THAT particularly nasty boss in act 2 just by putting down every single smokepowder barrel, firewine barrel, oil barrel, smoke bomb and mindflayer container I had hoarded from all over act 1 and the tutorial, retired everyone in my camp and then just had Astarion shoot one fire arrow and watch the whole room die. - Why? Because the charisma check way to circumvent that encounter wasn't available to me since I played a warlock.

[@Martin-sp1nj]

havent played the game for a couple of months (not comment on the game but had done what i wanted to just praying for dlc) but super chill content and tier list are just always fun lol

[@redbeardguy_]

Shockingly I made it all the way to lv12 with my ancients paladin without breaking my oath without really trying. Just playing as a good guy.. UNTIL (SPOILERS).. I told Astarion to free the vamp spawn, and boom broken lol but at that point of the game who cares about 1k gold

[@bdl6779]

I think devotion’s attack bonus is better than vengeance’s advantage in actual play. This is because the devotion Paladin can easily get advantage (there’s an act one weapon for instance) and now it has both. The vengeance Paladin will be 3-4 attack lower in most fights. Also, 20 str 18 cha is easily do able by level 8 alongside great weapon master on a Paladin. Yes it costs some resources. But if you are playing a Paladin it’s worth it. Although it’s why I don’t like paladins overall.

[@cloudy978]

Yeah but Vengeance Paladins get command and Hold Person. I think it makes them better.

[@bdl6779]

Yes I’m not saying devotion is better than vengeance. Just that their attack bonus is better than advantage in actual play.

[@Astral_Incarnate]

wholeness of body does also give an extra bonus action for 3 turns, giving you a 50% bonus to damage for those 3 turns

[@ssap620]

I just double checked under the spellbook tab and my eldritch knight has the shield icon, so i think the wiki is correct. (Actually, out of curiosity I decided to respec just to see and sure enough, the icons are switched in the level up screen. That is really odd). I appreciate the food for thought you're providing on the subclasses, especially rogues.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Good catch! What a weird error for them to have made

[@larryjeff]

immediately clicked on notification and cant be more happier seeing Monk in S tier

[@wfdmount]

The Ranger Hunter subclass is actually incredibly powerful in the early game due to Colossus Slayer. I recently finished a run as a single class Hunter Ranger and then started a new run as a Swords Bard, and damn, the Swords Bard just feels so weak in comparison in the very early game. Here, I’m referring to the Druid Grove, Risen Road, and Goblin Camp parts of Act 1-while my character is a level 2, 3, 4, and 5. At that part of the game, the Hunter Ranger outclasses the Swords Bard. Maybe the Swords Bard will come online in Act 2 or later in Act 1 when I get to the Underdatk, Grimforge, or the Githyanki crèche, but in the early part of Act 1, I’m really missing the consistent damage boosts from Hunters Mark (1d6) and Colossus Slayer (1d8) on pretty much every attack. Colossus Slayer plus Hunters Mark gives the Hunter Ranger the ability to roll 3 damage dice pretty much every turn, so it is comparable to the Paladin’s Divine Smite (2d8 plus weapon damage). While the Paladin may slightly edge out the Ranger for a few more points of damage with the smite and weapon attack, the resource cost is drastically different. The Paladin smite burns a level 1 spell slot for the day with a smite, whereas Hunters Mark also uses a spell slot, but the mark can be recast over and over again (assuming the Ranger can maintain concentration). And while playing as a Ranger, four level 1 spell slots reserved for Hunter’s Mark is enough for even the toughest adventuring days. The Ranger, thanks to the archery fighting style, is a heck of a lot more accurate than the Paladin and won’t take as much damage either. Anyway, in terms of game play, Colossus Slayer actually gives the Hunter Ranger a consistent damage output that is on par with the burst damage that Paladin’s have in the early game. For characters that want to wield two finesse weapons like short sword, colossus slayer will often activate and add damage that slightly outpaces the Thief Rogue’s extra bonus action attack. Colossus Slayer and Hunter’s Mark can also boost a lot of bonus action attacks like flourishes with a rapier. So, for example, the S+ tier Swords Bard may want to use a flourish to move into melee range and knock an enemy off balance-doing 1d4 damage-and gaining advantage on their attack next turn. The B tier Hunter Ranger, on the other hand, can attack with that same flourish (for 1d4 damage plus 1d6 damage against a marked target plus 1d8 against targets that aren’t at full health) and do, on average, about 10 to 11 damage with that same bonus action attack. Since a lot of the goblins in Act 1 only have 11 hit points, this bonus action 3~18 damage with a rapier flourish or offhand attack with a short sword for 3~20 damage is often enough to get a kill. All of the Hunter subclass abilities are situational. But of the three, Colossus Slayer is the easiest to trigger, and once the Ranger reaches level 5 and has the extra attack, Colossus Slayer will almost always activate on the second attack. Colossus Slayer, on it’s own, might not seem to be that impressive. But once you stack it with other damage boosting ranged abilities like Hunter’s Mark and the Sharpshooter feat and items like the Gloves of Archery and the Strange Conduit Ring you get an incredibly the consistent high-damage archer build-that doesn’t need to guzzle strength potions to abuse the Titansting bow mechanic or do silly greater invisibility stealth archer cheese to win encounters.

[@randomnobody660]

Here's my worthless 2 cents on vow of enmity. Thematically how it works is probably like oath of vengeance paladins swore an oath to destroy *something* and did so so solemnly that they gained special powers. Vow of enmity sort of declares whatever thing as a member of that something so your oath drives you to destroy them. Now what if you are trying to destroy yourself? Well self harm is certainly one way, but empirically people who hate themselves also tends to lash out strongly at the rest of the world. In bg3 we don't know if self cast enmity also causes disadvantage on saves against yourself since, well, you don't save against yourself, so at least it's not inconsistent with that notion. So in a sense, it's somewhat reasonable that self cast vow of enmity gives you advantage against everything.

[@vladimirtchuiev2218]

I haven't tried this playstyle, but in theory it seems not bad. Thief Rogues can spam Illithid powers with their extra bonus action, and with the helm of grit in act 3 you can make a pretty powerful semi-mind flayer.

[@rinkitorirataki7488]

unless Horde Breaker can be cast with Volley, i don't ever see it come up again after level 11 in which case Colossus Slayer is much more value because atleast you can activate it. and the tier list is for single class unless reroll other wise i would take CS over HB

[@MrKibitt]

Finally someone who recognizes the Arcane Trickster has a good number of uses. I'd say a few more points you missed - your spell school restriction doesn't exist when you re-learn a spell so most of your spells do not actually need to stay as enchantment and illusion. That said the party face utility option is still often the best. The permanent and invisible mage hand with extra options is extremely good for throwing potions or jugs or water on the first turn of combat to double your huge flashy spell damage while sharing a turn with your caster, on top of the exploration feature it has so it's very useful in and out of combat.

[@zlorfik2428]

I think that the Hunter is very well suited to play a tanky frontliner, using melee weapons. Use some broken on-hit effects like force conduit, etc. or weapon effects such as the snare on the staff from act 1 and you can do better tanking (or rather pseudo aggro) than a barbarian.

[@guilhermerossi1560]

I love your videos and I'm looking forward to the multiclass videos.

[@antonyfaulkner8649]

BG3 is probably 80% adventure/exploration, 20% Fighting. Single Class Rogue Thief as your main Character will be perfect in that regard. You just modulate the other 3 Party Members for whichever Boss you will be fighting, but the Rogue Thief will still have a part to play. What I've learned since first playthrough is that Astarion is almost the perfect Rogue Thief, compared to any custom main character you could hope to build... due to his Vampirism... and if you go the whole hog in Act 3.... wow!! . So it makes choosing your main character as a Rogue a bit redundant. There's also not much mention here about the gear that Rogues get throughout the game, but especially the two weapons you get from slaying Orin, which turn the Rogue into a filthy slaying machine. Rogue is made for all the Crit Chance gear you find, which is "useless" on anything but Rogue (e.g. the Light Armour, Hoods etc). There's a paper trail of "Super Rogue" gear starting in Act 1.... you just have to find it... which is what Rogues are good at doing.

[@joeking3057]

Wild magic barb doesn’t play like other barbarians if you want to maximize it. It’s a control tank. Gloves of absolute power and natures snare staff are the start of the bane snare barbarian. Add some reverberation and tadpole powers and you get great value while not competing for gear. Polearm master, sentinel and adamantine shields. Reckless attack becomes amazing because the enemy gets less chance to hit you if you hit them which pairs well with the ability to give your team advantage with ensnare on the staff. Reverberation can let you knock enemies prone in one turn. I don’t disagree with the placement, but the build is great and I struggle to replace it in most playthroughs due to its ease of use and lack of gear greed

[@travisretriever7473]

10:21 *patiently waiting for you to take Tavern Brawler feat & daily Strength of the Hill (or Cloud) Giant elixirs into account for this subclass...*

[@keegancuff1861]

Oathbreaker paladins’ aura of hate not only doesn’t work on any allied undead, it also buffs enemy undead and fiends. The yugir fight in particular becomes significantly harder with an oathbreaker.

[@invictus7736]

you can just.. turn it off in that case.. also it works just fine on any controlled undead with weapons, or cambions

[@keegancuff1861]

@@invictus7736 You cant turn off auras - you can't even die to remove the aura. I think you could probably respec to remove it, but you would have to reclaim your oath to do that. Also there really arent that many undead to control that have melee weapons - most of them just attack with fists or claws. Cambion works fine though.

[@sid1925]

you forgot that wholeness of body gives you an extra bonus action for 3 turns, so you can do six attacks for two turns compared to a fighter who only does it one turn. It's only once per long rest compared to action surge which you get back on short rest , but honestly in bg3 there is no real penalty from resting as much as you want and camping supplies are easy to get.

[@sebastianbardosson7493]

Holy Rebuke doesn't work with Luminous Armor or Luminous Gloves but Inquisitor's Might works with the gloves.

[@darbisonsrus8072]

Still surprised Nature Cleric was rated S-Tied when so many people meme on it. I agree it’s a good class for a controller/support as the Cleric chassis is quite good.

[@brooksington4696]

What do you think could be done to bring rogue back up in line with some of the other classes in terms of single class potential? I have a few thoughts, but realize this is probably a pointless exercise, it is however, fun to think about. Giving Assassin access to poison based abilities or the ability to craft unique(as in available only to the assassin rogue) poisons could be thematic and potentially somewhat powerful. Could make some of them mimic spell abilities like hold person on top of adding modest amounts of flat damage and then tying them to short or long rests- see BM fighter. Add proficiency + expertise to deception to infiltration expertise. Giving arcane trickster green flame blade or booming blade from tabletop would help some, though I'd prefer these cantrips added to the game in general. Thief is a bit harder for me to theorycraft. I'd start by making supreme sneak a bonus action, it's rather insulting that it isn't already. Add to second story work additional benefits to jumping- see champion fighter. Maybe even give them access to the two-weapon fighting fighting style or something at higher levels? /shrug

[@Cephalopocalypse]

This is the grognard in me mostly but my preferred fix is just to revert sneak attack to how it was in earlier D&D editions: not limited to 1/round, not limited to finesse weapons (or weapons at all!). This would let dual-weapon rogues keep up in damage, give arcane tricksters their own niche with spell-based sneak attacks, and add strength rogues back into the possible builds, while not really breaking multi-class rogues because without extra rogue levels they wouldn't have high enough sneak attack dice to be a problem. I'm still not sure why they made those changes in the first place tbh

[@brooksington4696]

@@Cephalopocalypse Yeah, I can see that working, "fixing" all the rogues in one fell swoop by addressing the base class's deficiencies. Your proposed fix would probably make thief pretty absurd with 3 potential sneak attacks per round, 4 with haste, single classed. 18/24d6 potential sneak attack damage per round seems a bit TOO good. 😛I'm here for it though, Hot rogue summer baby here we come.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

@@brooksington4696 Yeah, those numbers are probably a little high! I think there's probably some easy ways to fix that though (make it every 3rd level, make it a d4, make it not work against the same enemy twice in a turn, something like that)

[@dragonlancer1909]

For the beastmaster I find the wolf to be underrated for late game. It tied spider for highest initiative while also having almost the same bulk as the bear.. Add this with lupine slash which is basically a cone of cold that doesn't damage allies and does force damage and can be spammed throughout the battle. I do think the wolf is pretty bad from level 5 to 11 in act 2 nerocrotic bite is a bit underwhelming compared to concoon, rage, honeyed paws and bad omen. Hunter in my opinion catches up to the other two subclasses once 11 so great choice for minsc

[@Zendien]

I'm doing a monoclass honor mode run atm and my trickster rogue is almost level 8. I'm looking forward to finally hitting level 9 on him and see what he can do. Don't think he's getting the Mystic Scoundrel tho since I have also a dw melee swordsbard and that's likely where the band is going to end up at :P ...and yes, it's a weird party with the other two being bm fighter and currently a tempest cleric. Weird but tactically really interesting

[@jamalabdr]

Eldritch knight is the icon with the shield, battle master is the one with the flames. I think you actually switched them into the wrong positions

[@SoI_Badguy]

Why would battlemaster have flames? Eldritch knights are the ones that can take Evocation spells

[@benross9174]

@@SoI_Badguythey would be a way better class if it was another spell school tbh, like transmutation. Like fighters already deal good damage without spells

[@Astral_Incarnate]

@@SoI_Badguy idk but in game battle master does have the flames and eldritch knight has the shield. its weird but its the way it is

[@Cephalopocalypse]

TURNS OUT the game just swaps them. In the level up screen, the battle master has the shield (though I think it's actually supposed to be a banner) and EK has the flames, but in the character sheet it's reversed. I think this way makes more sense - banner for BM, flames for EK is thematically right anyways - but that's a pretty funny mistake for them to have made!

[@jamalabdr]

@@Cephalopocalypse Oh that's pretty weird lol

[@arokh72]

I love how the Gloomstalker icon reminds me of Katniss' mockingjay' pin from the Hunger Games movies. I've done a Katniss ranged Gloomstalker build :) May the odds, or in BG3, the dice roll, ever be in your favour.

[@cptlonesong3211]

Why is it that my Oathbreaker Aura of Hate specifically says bludgeon damage with weapons? Was it bugged or something? For the longest time I had him using Blood of Lathander.

[@nicholasbaxter8547]

Hey would you be willing to make a Spotify account and post these videos as a podcast? I watch your videos all the way through most of the time and it kills my battery bc the screen has to be on. I’ll still watch these videos if you do or don’t but it would be nice!! Also can you make a spore Druid fighter??!?! I’m excited about the idea of it

[@MrTrellheim]

Sorry, but by your definiton, shouldn't Shadow Monk go to "Out Classed" category? Everything the class does is done similarly or better by the other monk classes. EDIT: Especially with the Devotion Paladin ranking bein also "Out Classed"

[@sublimefanaticsf8616]

49:57 Damn. Would be really fun made a full edgy party with a oathbreaker character origin called "Edgelord", comanding and empowered undeads with his aura. Well, nothing stop me for doing anyways.

[@austinprevette474]

Can you make a video about non meta builds and how to make them work. Like i made a paladin warcleric barbarian and its been fun. Also a dual wield barbarian build would be cool. Yes i know the bonus action is the big problem there but thats what your for to optimize the down trodden subclasses and such

[@GolompReformed]

good to know that my first play trought as a Rouge was playing weakest class (ofc i had fun but I did felt that im not doing much)

[@ThirteenthThunder]

Ranger's main advantage is a lot of skill proficiencies. In short, they have insane adaptability. Maybe 3rd after Rogue and Bard, but unlike Bard and Rogue, Ranger have no expertise. Potentially maximum 7 proficiencies. 3 (instead of 2) in skill list, 3 Favoured Enemies, 1 Urban Tracker of Natural Explorer. Or maximum 5 proficiencies until level 5. Unfortunately, 0 Charisma based skill. Ranger is just okay without maximizing their spellcasting ability (wisdom) because most of their good skills don't need attack roll or saving throw. A lot of them are buff, debuff, AoE, control or support spells. Martial class with such proficiencies is insane. If you think about it, Dread Ambusher is just like restricted version of Action Surge, but instead of per short rest, it's gained per battle but doesn't trigger Extra Attack. Gloom Stalker Ranger even have insane adaptability in the dark. Thanks to their Darkvision. With their +3 initiative and having great potential for DEX oriented build rather than STR oriented build, I assume Gloom Stalker Ranger is designed to be fastest subclass in BG3. As for Paladin, their Aura of Protection is an insane defensive capability. Increasing just Charisma to improve all saving throws. It's a very strong defensive capability. My favourite defensive skill. As for Bard, especially College of Valour and College of Swords are classified as both full caster and martial class at once. I'm speechless. Druid can be classified that way too but unable to be used simalteneously. Fighter is a simple class in my opinion. Especially Champion. Too simple I would say. Way of Open Hand Monk is the ultimate definition of simple but not too simple. Barbarian is overall most simple class whose subclass are all simple. Only below Champion Fighter and Way of Open Hand Monk. And Cleric is the class with most various subclass. Full caster with War Cleric subclass is semi-martial class. So far, Gloom Stalker Ranger is my favourite. I usually dislike sneak-type classes. But, I believe Gloom Stalker Ranger is more into fast warriors with great fighting capability in the dark rather than sneak-type. I can be wrong though.

[@MajesticFerret]

Nature Domain Cleric being better than Spore Druid, is absolute blasphemy. Either Spore Druid needs to come up or Nature Domain needs to come down. Spore Druid has a signature Armour that let's them cast an AoE Haste Cloud that is the only feasible way to Haste summons, whoch when combined with how many summonsyou or allies can bring to the table, leads to astronomically high dmg. There's a good argument for Spore Druid to be S Tier.

[@Leftside08]

I think for the mono class tier list, it may be useful to discuss where a non-tavern brawler monk Falls in terms of power level. I know for myself I want to use strong and fun builds that will allow me to beat honor mode. But I don’t want to face roll the game. In Almost every discussion I see about Monk. Nobody seems to really have an idea of where just a normal monk falls in a tier list. Because people only ever play with elixir or tavern brawler- since that’s the popular narrative around the class. I might not speak for everyone. But I know for my future play through I want to enjoy Monk, but because it may trivialize the entire run, I’ll likely just be running it with a dex monk, and no tavern, brawler or elixir. Likely picking up one of the other great fates, or even savage attacker .

[@aersla1731]

Haven't played honour mode yet but want to do a playthrough is there no multiclassing in honour mode?

[@kollinpoindexter8859]

Is astarion counted as an undead for oathbreaker paladin, or any other spells/features?

[@menotyou8209]

hey in honor mode action surge gives one attack not three. i think for a series about honor runs specifically that should be pointed out

[@Cephalopocalypse]

That's not actually true! Bonus actions from Haste and Bloodlust only give 1, but Action Surge gives you your full attacks for the action

[@menotyou8209]

you right chief my bad @@Cephalopocalypse

[@keystonelyte]

The only time Oathbreaker truly comes online is A. With POB Warlock multiclass, B. When you successfully manage to snag one of the powerful undead running around in Act 2. In short, it really only works with POB Warlock, because I'm not running a class based on Command Undead for one act of the game. Just break your Oath, do all the bad boy shit you want to do early on, and then pay the price to go back to OOV/OOA.

[@violetbliss4399]

It's weird how bg3 itemization both makes monks stronger and weaker comparably at the same time, versus others. I don't like tavern brawler or rather, i don't like giant potion builds so I don't play the open hand quite as powerful, but it is still S tier imo even as a dex focus. I smiled when you brought up wholeness of body because I have had the exact same thought, it really is an insult to 4E monk. :D I think it's really obvious the way monk subclasses are implemented that this is before all of the much-needed love the class needed from WotC, but after some (or they were just bumped by Larian with varying success).

[@peculiarpangolin4638]

Excellent guide as always! However, I do think you were a little unfair in your evaluations between ranger and rogue. You assumed that ranger (particularly gloomstalker) would be using sharpshooter, but not the rogue. If a gloomstalker doesn't take sharpshooter, the only extra damage it gets over the assassin's alacrity is the d8 (although not having the restriction of starting combat is strong). If one assumes an assassin also has sharpshooter, they also have the potential to remove an enemy from the fight, plus they have an extra chance to trigger that all-important sneak attack damage. A Thief with hand crossbows gets an extra attack with sharpshooter every round. Now, don't get me wrong, these are still weaker than the other classes, since every other martial class gets an extra attack free of their subclass, so my argument would at most move them up only one tier. I just think there was some disparity in hiw you assumed one was played than the other. I really don't mean to criticize much!! I LOVE your BG3 content and you have massively helped me have more fun with my builds! I just disagreed with this one bit and wanted to voice it. I hope you're having a great day!

[@WylliamJudd]

How would you rate Valor bard, as is, if Sword bard didn't exist?

[@bobyhappy2992]

I remember when arcane trickster was able to sneak attack with spells it was so good now you cannot and I'd honestly pick a bard rather than an arcane trickster the bard is literally what the arcane trickster tries to be but WAY BETTER !! :(

[@common_undead]

Honestly, giving arcane trickster cantrip sneak attack could be a fun way to make the class stand out.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yup! I personally think 3.5's concept of sneak attack (not limited to weapons, not limited to 1/turn) was way cooler, and gave rogue a much more interesting identity in combat, and also reduced frustration with missed attacks.

[@cryamistellimek9184]

Evocation is clearly S+ when you nab yourself the staff of the mumbling wizard. Free random fireballs that can’t hurt friendlies.

[@ghostlore3660]

30:16 - Not NEVER! when you’re being swarmed by low-HP undead with unarmed melee attacks, who are often vulnerable to radiant damage, it can be a little better than using your action for a melee attack! Still, just cast spirit guardians LOL

[@ginar2339]

Well, by the time you get Minsc, you’re nearly level 11, so it kind of works in that case?

[@IlRe720]

Silence isn’t a ritual spell… I’m assuming you mixed it up with something else right? I had to go google it 😂 you said it so many times I started thinking shit maybe it is… google says no but I haven’t used that spell in ages so like I don’t even know now…. And control undead doesn’t use your spell save dc, it’s a guaranteed spell the undead just needs to be a lower level than your Paladin level, it’s still not a great ability and is mostly only useful in act 2 where you can use it to control like Karniss for a while till he dies…

[@crazyelf1]

This is probably going to have to be updated when Patch 8 comes out and the 12 new subclasses come with it - in 2025.

[@hasseo195]

My problem with the paladin: From the lore, would the devotion paladin the only one, that would fit my idea of a chara. It looks like a "i want to protect" paladin. The vengece paladin to the other hand, looks practicly like Batman. Someone, who would take this oath, because he had a very bad day and would be allways angry.

[@brojoe4919]

Gonna stomp the game with Ancients Paladin, Eldrich Knight (with 1 wizard dip), Some Barbarian/Monk multiclass, and moon druid.

[@jacobmckinzie65]

Could you make a guide for jack of all trades achievement?

[@sherrydowns4052]

Do you think monk/barbarian (wild heart-bear) 8/4, is worse than monk/rogue 8/4 because of the principle that killing is better than healing/resistance/tanking?

[@Rigel6747]

it's funny that rogue is the single worst class in the entire game but the single best class to take 3 levels of at the same time

[@Zabuloon96]

high quality content ⭐

[@arnorr7089]

Oath of Devotion needs true strike to fix it....

[@ProfessorAragorn]

The changes Rangers got in BG3 make Rogues suck. A one level dip in ranger gets you fire resistance, an extra skill proficiency and a cantrip/heavy armor proficiency. It's no 1 level dip in fighter or cleric but if you wanted to be a skill monkey you get all the health and combat proficiencies of a fighter and a bunch of skill proficiencies of a rogue. I'd rather be a Ranger than a Rogue in BG3.

[@sherrydowns4052]

Thank you

[@sorenatkinson2689]

Aura of Hate should work with Astarion