Top Multiclass Builds for Baldur's Gate: Vol. 3

[@GrimFables]

Here's a video idea; Optimizing the existing characters. We want to keep each character their original class, but what would be their best multiclass option? etc.

[@TalvezAroldo]

That'd be amazing.

[@xavierharris4036]

In this economy?

[@LeonLJ]

Yes! love this! 1 for all the preset characters (maybe even dark urge???)!!

[@20storiesunder]

Absolutely, keep it loreful aswell

[@Sonareklipse]

Excellent idea!

[@shiinaere]

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite comfy-watch channels. It's like Bob Ross, but D&D. Glorious

[@the1only1witness]

Same - that's a perfect way of putting it :D

[@eggy_conch1876]

Welcome

[@akillersquirrel5880]

Everyone enjoys a happy little multiclass

[@1995pieter]

yea I came for BG3 but stayed for the DnD. BG3 keeps giving me great content even indirectly. love how he has the same love as me in DnD as in char crafting. im only playing dnd a few years and not have "met" another one

[@michaelrowave]

On point. Enjoy the process even more than the result.

[@beastslayer8729]

I have been doing a run as a dual crossbow Swords Bard recently, and realized the subclass is REALLY strong for sharpshooter builds. Slashing Flourish (ranged) lets you attack two targets (or the same one twice) with one attack, and paired with Rogue Thief for some off hand shots with your bonus action, you can do 6 sharpshooter attacks a round! It might be good for a future build video, but no pressure obviously. I just wanted to share the build since I have enjoyed it so much. :)

[@LuDan288]

This exactly what my fav range build has. Most underrated part is you don’t have to use spells often so you can hold your slots for a lot of goodies that boost checks outside of combat or control the field. That together with high Dex, sleight of hand proficiencies, persuasion proficiencies, Jack of all trades, high ac with shield and medium armor that allows full dex, and lastly level 11 + 12 go into fighter for archery style and action surge. Feels like one of the best builds ever. Can meta game a bit more and go gith and get misty steps and astral knowledge for other checks 😂

[@CowboyKing]

He did such a class already iirc.

[@icyknightmare4592]

O_O I've been playing a swords bard for the past 30 hours and never thought to try to use slashing flourish on one target.

[@alexw4482]

alternatively, if you get the ascended buff from the zaith'isk in act 1, you can use gontr mael as your weapon. Take 8 levels in bard and 4 in fighter. Use your bonus actions on illithid powers and action surge a whole bunch of slashing flourishes.

[@tangahkoncek6841]

For flourishing bard, go warlock 5 and pact your weapon. You can flourish 3x with bard 6 and dont forget diadem of arcane equity. Hex +3x flourish delicious There is a poison seller in act 2 after you defeat healer(?) Thorn, stock your poison coating there before going for act3, paralyzing coating and combustion coating is very good

[@Nightcrawler395]

Idea for a video: Party builds that combo together, kind of like your old duo-character builds. For us that love building character synergies, we finally get a good DnD experience where we don't have to rely on other players to combo with us :)

[@Fuzzhead93]

This! I commented above that having a druid and warlock duo would unlock the cheese grater build by level 3! Set up traps, start combat, push and pull! Combine this with ranged character since you don't want to be in the traps & the control freak to control the casters/archers that might not walk through the trap

[@Sheamu5]

Cool idea, also that cheese grater build will fall off later, Spike growth is great but you can't upcast it, and mobs get too tanky. Firewall, cloudkill, insect plague are good replacements later

[@Copperscaled]

Wow, this idea got me really excited actually!

[@johnscherer5686]

Man, I remember finding you a couple years ago when I was starting my first DND campaign and thinking your intro spiel was describing a crazy person. Now 100+ videos and countless theory crafted characters later I realize I am in fact the crazy person, and indeed home. Thanks for all you do Colby!

[@IamWalkingDead1]

Useful tip: for the storm sorcerer/tempest cleric you can buy a quarterstaff in the druid grove that has create water once a day

[@tangahkoncek6841]

Or just magehand, drop your water bottle because dropping item is free and let magehand do the job for you

[@kelvinmok10]

@@tangahkoncek6841 alternatively, off-hand light crossbows allow you to attack the water bottle with a bonus action, (let's you prepare another spell if you dont want to use mage hands)

[@darcraven01]

give the raindancer staff to another character so they create water then you use lightning right away and this lets you use the wakeen's rest lightning charge staff

[@mikkoutevsky3902]

@@darcraven01or grab Dual Wielder and use both staves and get +1 AC too!

[@opsavagecabbage]

@@mikkoutevsky3902This game is too fire😂

[@pancakes4193]

Only halfway through but I really just gotta commend you for your clarity and cohesiveness with these build guides. A lot of BG3 build videos from other channels focus more on the end result and reliance on stacking gear without much care for early game effectiveness but right off the bat, not only did you give a Sorc-Cleric build that works effectively VERY early on in the game- but you didn't even force us to choose any specific races or center the build around specific gear. It's one thing to recommend a good build, but it's another thing to let the player add their own touches to the builds. To me that adds a looooot more importance and fun to these builds. As a newbie I really gotta thank you. Hope to see more BG3 videos from you soon!

[@longers1028]

These builds are interesting because they're self-sufficient. Most multiclass build guides tell you to go for certain equipment, but Colby's builds are entirely focused on the character itself. I don't think he even mentioned specific items that really take certain builds to absurd levels (looking at you, sword bard with helmet of arcane acuity)

[@mycenaeangal9312]

That's carried over from D&D. It makes a ton of sense to not include items there because access to them is solely at the discretion of the DM. Some are more permissive than others so having something that just works no matter what is important. As far as BG3 goes, it makes another sort of sense to not include them for Colby cause these builds are kinda minimal effort adaptations of his old characters that he's doing to try to grow his channel until the BG3 well runs dry. That said, they're all still really good and creative he just put in the effort months and sometimes years ago instead of doing it fresh.

[@Icetrinity01]

I actually wish he took the opposite approach and factored gear in. Builds in 5e need to be gear independent because every table is different and you can’t plan around what items you’ll get. That’s not the case in BG3. We know exactly what’s available, when and where. They should 100% be factored into planned builds. Not just “these are the most OP items” though. I’d love to see a progression through the acts, with ways to incrementally improve the build as you play through and level up. It’s probably a lot to ask given the extra work involved, but I think would just elevate these videos to a whole new level.

[@SavageLordSevirus]

yeah, what I appreciate is they're also not reliant on the (act1 spoilers!!!!!!)hag's hair(/spoilers) since I play multiplayer and the mrs always claims it for her self 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@mauricio3811]

So true. But it is good that Colby does not rely on gear, since gear can be removed or nerfed way easier than tinkering core D&D 5e mechanics. One cannot stress how reliant is BG3 on gear. In my party I have: 1. A ring that gives perma advantage on attack rolls, making a Gloomstalker + Rogue + sharpshooter even more OP than they already are. 2. A medium armour that does not cap DEX modifiers for AC, making possible to have a sharpshooter tank sitting on 26 AC (with the help of other gear pieces that add +1 AC here and there). 3. A few pieces for a caster that makes cantrips hit for more than 90 damage per action and above 100 when crit. Cantrips!

[@mattdodson1272]

Astarion makes an amazing gloomstalker/thief with his hand crossbows. Solos enemies/bosses round 1 all the time. Also, giving him haste and other buffs just gravy.

[@ericposey-vt5ej]

I just don’t like mixing gloom and rogue. It overlaps too much. I personally think fighter thief or thief swords bard are just straight upgrades. Thief sword bard is absolutely nuts with the items you can find.

[@Spectacular_Insanity]

His crit rate as thief or assassin is insane. For me, he’s critting like 30% of the time.

[@juusovuolle8251]

I had similar expirience with my tempest cleric/ oathbreaker paladin. Step one: Throw a water bottle. Step two: Use Thunderous smite. Step three: Use one of your three different automatic critical hit abilities. Step 4 Use lvl V divine smite Enemy Deleted Even Orrin got one shotted by it

[@mattdodson1272]

@@juusovuolle8251 Love it! The water bottle play is another one that is super cool and changes the tactics in BG3 for the tempest cleric and storm sorcerer (and anyone really).

[@juusovuolle8251]

@@mattdodson1272 i usuallyhave shadowheart cast lvl 3 create water for a massive puddle. Then with Gale i can misty step and get a massive lightning bolt. You can use the black hole to group them up and use call lightning for example. Chain lightning is just brutal there too. Fun fact you can use dual wield with your spell caster and wield two staffs

[@erpmario]

Video idea! There's an achievement for taking one level in each class *without respeccing*, meaning your initial ability scores, proficiencies, and the order you take subsequent levels are all set in stone (also no feats!). I think it'd be cool to theorycraft the best way to take that concept from level 1 to 12.

[@JamesMadisonsSpiritAnimal]

The reason larian was so engaged in CC spells is because how badly they broke divinity original sin 2. The game became: "whoever CC first wins" and they were pretty open about not wanting this to happen in bg3. I think they nailed it and it was no easy feat! That being said there is an item you can give to clerics that gives you advantage on all immobilizing concentration spells in act 2 and it breaks the game which is wy i dont use it lol

[@neuropantser5]

Can you tell me the name of this item please so that I may never use its forbidden, naughty, broken and overpowered abilities please?

[@tangahkoncek6841]

Pathing is really important for ai in this game, a simple tentacle of Hadar could broke many ai With decent carrying capacity you could build a fort of crate yourself (dropping item cost no action, but careful with your movement) and use globe of invulnerability and see how ai breaks

[@wldnrkls]

what item?

[@Vasharan]

@@wldnrklsSnare Cuirass, sold by Roah Moonglow (the halfling) in Moonrise Towers.

[@deojnwedofuWE]

Yeah, couldn't agree more about DOS2 cc. It just dominates the combat in that game, and that coupled with the inability to respec really killed my interest in that game despite being such a lovingly crafted world.

[@tangentkatz]

I have made zero story progress in the game for a week and I blame this channel. You reminded me how much I love character building, so all I do now is create builds and test them in different fights. Which as it turns out, is really good because I'm having tons of fun and can wait for the patches to fix some Act 3 annoyances.

[@Zephz43]

Hey Colby! I just wanted to share that I just beat BG3 over the weekend with a build inspired by your first BG3 video and I had a blast (pun intended). Also, some in-game items really helped that concept. I wanted to just go Warlock and Fighter, but after I stumbled into an item in Act 1 I decided to switch to Warlock 2 / Fighter 2 / Sorcerer X. Minor spoilers about items ahead: There's a Staff that gives you Lightning Charges every time you deal damage with a cantrip. Lightning charges add 1 Lightning damage to your strikes/cantrips. This means that with max Charisma and the Potent Robe from Act 2 (Adds spellcast mod to your cantrip's damage), and with Lightning Charges, each individual eldritch blasts deals 1d10 + 7 (Agonizing Blast) + 7 (Potent Robe) + 1 (Lightning Charge) + 7 (Bronze Dragon Bloodline) + 7 (Necklace of Elemental Augmentation). It's a bit inconsistent since you can't always have LIghtning Charges on (they reset after reaching to 5+ and deal 1d8 damage), but this means that your eldritch blasts will be dealing an average of 19.5 damage without charges and 33.5 damage with charges. And of course, with Action Surge, Bloodlust Elixir, Haste, and Quickened Metamagic, we can cast up to 15 blasts in a single turn. Very fun! And here's also a suggestion that you look into some interesting items that may inspire some builds for you. BG3 surely has a lot of game changing gear.

[@Kenobi6398]

How can bronze dragon sorc add dmg to eldritch blast when force dmg isn't a element, what am I missing

[@Zephz43]

​@@Kenobi6398 Because whenever you have Lightning Charges, you have +1 to Attack Rolls and deal an additional 1 Lightning damage. Since your Eldritch Blasts now deals 1d10 + 1 Lightning, being a Bronze Sorcerer means 1d10 + 1 + CHA, and if you add the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation, it adds your CHA again.

[@nealanderson9041]

@@Kenobi6398 I don't know the mechanics, but I'm assuming he's referring to the lightning charges applying Elemental Affinity after level 6 sorcerer, even if Eldritch Blast itself doesn't deal lightning damage. I would be surprised if it worked that way, especially since I think casting multiple eldritch blasts wouldn't cause the lightning charges to apply each time.

[@alexsawicki]

@@nealanderson9041 It 100% does work that way. I did that on my Wyll. As long as the cantrip *somehow* does the dragon's element in damage, it works.

[@wafflehaxxx]

@zephz43 Wow, wasn't expecting someone else to find this build (Which I dubbed The Eldritch Blast of Doom warlock). I however was not a dragonkin, so I missed out of the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation synergy, wild to imagine how much more damage I could have been doing. However, what I did find instead is if you use the two rings of Illumination (One ring that does Radiant damage if someone is illuminated, and the other that applies Illuminated to anyone you damage if you yourself are illuminated). This means every time your EB hits, it deals an additional source of damage, giving you even more lightning stacks. Also, you can replace your +2 Charisma hat for the Helmet of Grit which gives you one more bonus action if you start below 50% hp, which you can of course use to cast EB again. Meaning 18 bolts (Although you lose like 4 damage per bolt). Also, the legendary staff in Act 3 does the same but even better if you use the lightning form. Also, at the very end of act 3 you get gloves that give an additional 1d8 damage to every spell. Don't forget that when you hit 5 lightning charges you do an ADDITIONAL attack for lightning damage which also triggers your modifiers. You can also apply hex to give you an additional 1d6 necrotic damage per bolt. I was doing around 3x(1d10+1d6+1d8+17)+2x(1d8+6+7+1d8) damage per EB cast. Every fight I had was pretty short.

[@john_titor1]

Furthermore, with the archery build, you can use one of your actions to trip attack, and another to do menacing attack. What this means, is that the enemy becomes effectively stunlocked until the frighten goes away (which you can continue to apply, or ensnare instead). They are unable to unprone themselves without spending movement, but frighten prevents them from using this movement. So they will not move nor take actions until the frighten (or ensnare) is removed. Meanwhile, they are still prone, netting you not only free turns against them, but advantage on all attacks within 3m as well. It's a VERY powerful combo, and can easily make almost any enemy a joke. Big ass spiderqueen boss? No problem, one turn in, she's stunlocked and you have advantage on your attacks. Can't kill her in two turns? Apply another menacing attack. Two more turns of free damage. Still alive? If you have enough superiority dice, do it again, or have someone else frighten/ensnare her for more free turns. Etc, etc.

[@nealsauer3006]

wow, that's an incredible combo. as another battlefield maneuver, precision attack will apply the bonus to both attacks from slashing flourish.

[@Ktywf]

Some additional info from someone who just finished the game as a Sorc 10/Tempest Cleric 2. I actually would recommend Elemental Adept at level 6 for this build if you are playing on Tactician difficulty because a ton of Act 2 enemies have lightning resistance. Also (very mild spoilers for Act 3) there is an item you can obtain in Baldur's Gate that will allow you to cast Chain Lightning without even using a spell slot, and Chain Lightning can be used with Twinspell in this game.

[@mauricio3811]

If Twinned Spell is toggled on, Chain Lightning costs 6 Sorcery Points because it is a Level 6 spell. That is 2x more expensive than Quickened, so I would not recommend it unless it is absolutely necessary.

[@Quirk1ess]

i found a pair of gloves that effectively give you the two-weapon fighting style. gave them to my gloom stalker/thief who has two +1 hand crossbows, archery, and sharpshooter and *wow* i’m doing damage up there with karlach with rage, great weapon master, and great weapon fighting and a +1 fire greataxe, often times outdamaging her and i’m kinda shocked. needless to say, i now understand the *frankly absurd* might of the hand crossbow

[@nikcantsnipe]

I'd really like to see you try and optimize the premade characters like Laezel and Karlach.

[@Tupadre97]

just take tavern brawler and multiclass laezel with open hand monk and give karlach the returning pike and go crazy

[@couldntthinkofacoolname9608]

Make Karlach a Frenzy barb, max out her strength, give her Tavern Brawler, give her Returning Pike. You'll literally never have to switch it out

[@wile123456]

It's nice to see Jamie lannister is such a big DnD fan and keeps making amazing videos for us

[@joetarded7591]

I like that he uses his American accent for his KZbin channel 😂

[@thesorrow312]

Dude looks like brad pitt

[@balthazarstonescale6705]

That's what I said! Everyone's saying Anthony Star but I'm saying Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

[@kchoi10]

I highly recommend a 10 Sword Bard / 2 Abjuration Wizard build. This felt like a blade singer with tons of versatility, RP, and flexible gearing. The only gear requirement is a versatile, finesse longsword you can get very early in Act 1 in the Underdark, which lets you use dex and a two-handed weapon. That way you can use great weapon mastery, and then dual cross bows and get sharpshooter. You're super potent with melee, range, and spell-casting. You can go the rest of the game building however you want until later on in Act 3 you get a ring that allows you to cast illusion and enchantment spells as a bonus action after a melee attack. So you'd melee with your two-handed longsword, and then cast any illusion or enchantment spell to follow up.

[@onurbayramoglu880]

Quick question: why do we keep leveling up bard after 6? I feel like leveling abjuration wizard is necessary since our arcane ward scales with our subclass level, 2 abjurer only absorbs 4 damage max which seems unworthy of a multiclass

[@ilavain]

​@@onurbayramoglu880I assume its for magical secrets at 10, although idk which spells are worth taking

[@ilavain]

​​@@onurbayramoglu880also abjurs are different in bg3, they have a whole new funky mechanic that feels way stronger if it interacts with everything correctly (I never tested it)

[@ragvald8835]

​@@onurbayramoglu880More high-level bard spells? And magical secrets on lvl 10?

[@danolsee3430]

what level progression would you recommend?

[@late_gaming]

This channel has quickly become my go to place for ALL D&D character creation I do. Thanks for everything!

[@PuskasMarton]

In BG3 there's a Glaive called "Sorrow'" witch lets you cast Thorn whip as a bonus action once per turn, meaning you can just yo-yo enemies across the damage zone. You can get the weapon early as well, since it's in the emerald grove treasure vault.

[@GeoSaga13]

Came here to say this! Just took down a boss yesterday by using repelling blast, the Sorrow's thorn whip, my druids spike growth, and counterspelling all attempts to misty step out of the spikes. It was *chef's kiss* glorious!

[@Icaromus]

Before respeccing into fighter, do you get proficiency with Glaives from something? Or just use it without?

[@danilohernandez8989]

Found you through your BG3 vids, and now I'm a huge D&D fan thanks to you (and BG3 let's be honest). Either way, thank you for all that you do for the community and keep being your awesome self!

[@evanbillberg2019]

Its insane to think that you only have a 116 000 subscribers! With how amazing your content is and that incredible personality, you deserve soo much more! More people need to see the brilliance that is Colby! Thank you for everything you do for us and this community! Cannot wait to see what else you come up with! :D

[@DnDDeepDive]

❤

[@robinbanks1993]

Nice video :]! Since you say you havent done alot of ranged classes, I just wanted to share the build i used to solo the game on tactician. Essentially you take 4 rogue to get thief bonus bonus action asap for offhand xbow attacks and sharpshooter asap. this is the best early dmg for the build bc sharpshooter does not apply the -5 to atk roll to the offhand xbow while still offering the +10 dmg! then you just get 1 lvl in fighter for +2 range attk rolls from archery fighting style. then you go 6lvl into college of swords bards for utility and the good stuff, like ranged slashing flourish, which lets you attack twice per attack roll and even split the attacks among different targets. at lvl 7 you can switch the lvl order around to go 1fighter 6 bard to get armor proficiencies and Sword bards extra attack at lvl 6 which is a little better bc your main action flourishes are strong, plentiful, and regen on short rest which bard has an extra of. then take three in rogue for theif and the last two levels i got in ranger for the extra fighting style for a bonus ac. you can do paladin x2 instead of ranger for the same thing and also maintain the concentrated +2 ac blessing. that coupled with a ranged defensive flourish for +4 ac, you can get up to 32 ac with this ranged build! not to mention the 10 ranged weapon attacks its possible to put out in a turn. Again i was soloing with this build so i felt the extra ac relevant, but you can definitely instead use those last two levels for optimizing damage or stats from an extra feat. like taking fighter to level 2 for action surge, enabling up to 14 attacks in a turn and taking rogue to 4 again for extra feat. Heres an example of the final build solo vs a lvl 16 boss encounter: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqvFf3idg9qEhqc Have fun out there ranged enjoyers :]

[@WTH13SERIOUSLY]

Love these baldurs gate vids! Thanks for the great ideas. I have been playing baldurs gate with friends and it's been so much fun!

[@TomHigson1]

These videos are great - thank you so much for them! I've been using a variant of the storm sorc for Gale (since his name fits) - abusing a BG3 oddity where any levels in Wizard allows you to learn all spells you have the slots to cast. I went 2 cleric, 2 wiz, 8 sorc, high int, con; low cha. The downsides are: * You get few spell slots (maybe 7 with 20 int). This is compensated by putting any spells that don't change with ability score (haste, darkness etc.) in the sorc spell slots. * You get fewer metamagic options and points The upsides are: * You get a full spellbook for casting situational spells out of combat * You get access to the top level spells, including chain lighting * You can get evocation subclass to protect allies from AOE

[@matthewhelmers1426]

I'd love to see your take on 1-12 SINGLE class builds (gasp). With the lower level cap and tweaks to the 5e system, I've found that multiclass is less of a must-have in BG3. Thanks, Colby!

[@ColeTrainStudio]

Another idea for the hand x-bow rogue: Thief 4, Fighter 2, College of Swords 6. Gives you four full attacks as well as both dual weapon fighting and archery fighting styles. It's a sustain DPS build, though, that doesn't quite match GloomStalker/Thief nova round first turn. Regardless, there are ways to max your dex without the ASI. You'd otherwise get at Fighter 6. I've also heard of people going Thief 4, Champion 5, College of Swords 3 for improved critical, but I prefer the consistency and flexibility of the four 1d8 flourish die from the original build order I mentioned.

[@robzobel]

Discovered you for your BG3 content and i have to say, quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. very excited when I see a new video from you.

[@KaiserSoze679]

Funny how for the crossbow build you say "you could go 2 ways: ranger or fighter" - when really, rogue is an awesome option for the hiding bonus, and swords bard is IMO the true GOAT thanks to the fact that you can Slashing flourish from range to turn 3-4 of your attacks per short rest into double attacks. My MC for my first playthrough is swords bard that does 2x hand crossbow 90% of the time, and the spells are just there for utility and the occasional AOE bomb. I'm thinking of doing a 2 level dip into fighter for archery and action surge, but so far straight bard is already absolutely epic.

[@RulesandRulings]

For getting Hand Crossbows. When you arrive at the druid grove, chances are good your party will level up. Don't do it until you've gone in to see the blacksmith Dammon. Drop a save, check his inventory, if he doesn't have a +1 Hand Crossbow leave the dialogue, level up a character, and try again. You probably have 4 shots at getting at least a +1 Hand Crossbow and a normal one, if not two +1s. (Obviously you can load your save if that doesn't work.)

[@raulortega3104]

Came looking for cool BG3 builds, ended up commenting for the awesome Nale poster on the back. Took me like 3 videos to notice.

[@Cthulhus_Mum]

I’m glad you’re leaning into BG3 builds - I hope you’re enjoying them, since it seems to be where your audience is right now lol

[@youtousim]

A few quick notes specifically for BG3 (contains item spoilers): + There's a ring that gives advantage on all attacks + There is an endgame hat that gives a bonus action if below 50% health, and one that gives a bonus action if using a leveled fire spell + There are endgame gloves that simulate sharpshooter for spellcasters + There's a shield that gives enemies disadvantage on fear saves + Illithid Power - Mind Sanctuary exists

[@justanotherviewer1961]

Hey Colby. Been loving your videos as I get through my third BG3 playthrough. I've been a D&D player/DM for nearly a decade now and you still introduce me to new interactions and effects that I didn't know existed! One thing I want to suggest as your channel grows is increased accessibility to the info you're providing. Sometimes I don't have an hour to listen to the full video, or I want to scrub through to find some of those key details for the build I'm going for. Having the popup text as you go over something is great, but once it's gone, I have to scrub back in the video to find the info again. How about something like a side panel next to your feed of you talking where you can list the decisions you're recommending as you go through them. I.e. - Lvl 1 - Start as sorc, take X spell Lvl 2 - Unlock cleric lvl 1, take X background Etc. etc. Just a running list that populates as you go through the builds and is complete near the end of that segment. Hope you get to read my suggestion and feel the love of your community!

[@grimm516]

So the dule crossbow Guild you made is good, & to be far iv been running a build that's very strong basically its 4 rouge, 6 sword bard and 2 fighter for all the reasons you mentioned plus ranged flourish let's you attack 2 times per action and rouge thef gives you a 2nd bonus action bard 6 you get extra attack and fighter 2 gives you action surge and archery & a few spells for some utility

[@f25mart]

As a D&D+BG3 newbie, I Love these videos - keeps giving me ideas to respec my BG3 characters and try new combos for replays in the future.

[@Fuzzhead93]

Cheese grater sounds really fun, maybe have the druid and warlock as two separate characters, so you can cloud of daggers & spike growth the same area and then next turn, warlock can push and then druid can pull back in lol. Combine this with the ranged character and the control character from this build so no one has to get into the trapped area and control the casters in the back line so they can't do anything while you're pushing and pulling the melees! If theres no one else to control, the wizard can use Command as well to make them flee or approach to further grate them lol. You can do multiple targets at later levels too!

[@Quetzelkoa]

The glaive "Sorrow" is perfect for the cheese grater btw, letting you cast a thornwhip as a bonus action (even if you don't have glaive proficiency). And I believe you could also get spike growth from Nature Druid 3 or Lore Bard 6 if you wanted to build it a bit differently. Bard/Warlock is an awesome combo in BG3.

[@arfzarfz]

woah you can PUSH and PULL in the same turn. Insane.

[@TheSkyfolk]

I was checking for this exact comment, the first thing I thought of when he was laying out the point of the build was Sorrow lmao

[@lucasramey6427]

Well I know what I'm going for when my game finishes downloading

[@Holydiver60]

"So fun to yank them into the blender and watch them get all ground up." You've been playing the Dark Urge too much, my friend. 😂

[@armonkaviani7808]

Just to note: sorcerers can get Tasha’s Hideous Laughter at level 1 by choosing the appropriate dragon ancestor!

[@aylictal]

checked comments for this and here it is. not only tashas but grease is another one that sorcerers cant learn but can be given through a dragon ancestor.

[@MrYouNoTakeCandle]

I have an addendum/modification to make to the ranged build: You can sacrifice a tiny amount of dmg to get a Hufe amount of utility! Start with ranger up to 3, get archery as fighting style, goodberries and longstrider as level 1 spells. This gives group healing and longstrider is a super useful ritual spell. Take Beastmaster. The spider you can summon can cast 1 Web spell per turn (!!!) which is immensly useful. Ranger 5 will get you an extra attack. (Take sharpshooter) Then go rogue 3 for thief. The remaining 4 Levels are up to you, to go either Ranger 8/Rogue 4; or Ranger 5/Fighter 4/Rogue 3

[@benry007]

I wondered how enemies were breaking out of mt hypnotic pattern, didn't realise they changed to 2 turns. Thats a big nerf.

[@garion046]

It warms my heart to see the channel doing so well Colby. I've watched for a long time and loved every episode (even if your builds need toning down at my table so i don't overshadow my non-optimising friends. Congrats on 100k mate, youve earned it.

[@syldarikitsune]

Let's fkn go! Another milly views for d4!

[@pluginmao4604]

Another thing in martial ranged users favor is the special ammo. It's way easier to add extra damage on top with the special ammo, compared to dipping in surfaces or using poison for melee and as soon as you get to act 3 you get access to the bomb arrows that are essentially fireballs with knockback.

[@maxcorwin]

You should do a mod list for bg3. If they had mods for varient human or blade singer you could build 90% of your characters

[@jaguor]

But they do have bladesinger

[@helgenlane]

Need a mod that adds booming blade and I'm set

[@evantrujillo8339]

​@cyberpantsu theres a mod that adds a BUNCH of 5e spells. Booming blade is one of them. The mod community is putting in some serious overtime for this game

[@waverebel9503]

Been doing level 20 (double xp) multi class mod with the more action mod (enemies get 1 more action) to to counter balance it as well as playing on tactician it’s been really fun but fairly difficult I have had 6 tpk and I’m still in act 1 lol

[@Oswanov]

​@@waverebel9503There is also a newer mod that allows lvl 20 single class (or any 13+ Multiclass for that matter) and plans to add actual progression to them, tho most of the paths are still wip unfortunately. I think it was called UnlockLevelCurve

[@steel5315]

49:57-50:13 *Laughs in Kingmaker Spike Growth that takes up the entire screen and locks down both your party and every enemy on the field bc the area is so massive*

[@Dr.Happy11]

Just finished watching the second multiclass, and got blessed by a d4 video. Christmas came early this year. Your ideas are cool af, only sad part is I don't have enough companions to try them all. Yet.

[@Hagosha]

You could if you include hirelings :)

[@Dr.Happy11]

@@Hagosha you can only have a maximum of three of those, no? So at my current six companions+three hirelings+me, I can't fit all 'em builds. Unless I'm missing something* obvious, which could always be the case with my low int 😬 *unless that something is respecc/2nd playthrough/any other "duh" option

[@Hagosha]

@@Dr.Happy11 Oh, i wasn't aware of the 3 hireling cap. I have 2 at the moment and was just thinking about respecs for builds not in use, but hmmmmmmmm

[@Dr.Happy11]

@@Hagosha Well, I'm apparently technically not correct since we can potentially dismiss a hireling and hire someone else instead, so potentially we can get a wide plethora of classes and builds. My only issue is the lack of dragonborn in both hirelings and companions.

[@Hagosha]

@@Dr.Happy11 ah, ok, phew. I was worried for a sec cause i was thinking about snatching up more hirelings before the end of the game to try more stuff lol also, yeah, i noticed a distinct lack of dragonborn rep in companions/hirelings. Also you can't have a dragonborn guardian. Sadge

[@danieljohnson270]

For the Storm Sorcerer/Tempest Cleric build: you can take the illithid power (Luck of the Far Realms) that can upgrade a hit to a critical hit once per long rest, and use it on your Twinned Chromatic Orb cast on wet targets (since Chromatic Orb has a to-hit roll, it can crit). That doubles it again. Wet doubles it once, crit doubles it again, Twinning doubles it again, and then Destructive Wrath maximizes it.

[@johnbrennan9617]

Given that this is a video game with a whole party, I'd love to start seeing combo builds in BG3 similar to some of the D&D combo builds Colby has done in the past.

[@guitaristscott1]

Just wanted to add, there are some REALLY good staffs in the game that do things like deal extra damage with certain spells, increase spell save DC, ect. Taking the dual wielder feat allows you to use 2 staffs which is honestly really good. Especially for things like the electric staff for the Wrath of the Storm build.

[@kyleprahl9308]

Can't thank you enough Colby for continuing to offer highly thoughtful BG3 takes from a DND expert!

[@screes620]

@d4, for your Wrath of the Storm build. Try this. You can drop a bottle of water without using an action, and you can "drop" a bottle of water, quite a bit further from yourself than you would think. Then.. when you dual wield hand crossbows, you can use a bonus action to shoot that bottle of water getting the monsters wet, and then use your action to hit them with the lightning spell of your choice. All in the first turn with no setup and less resources lost.

[@Philrgoo]

Came here to say this as I also just found this out. Wish I knew this sooner. Makes pulling off the combo SO MUCH EASIER when I don't want to burn sorcery points. And you can do this at level 2!

[@bbfitzgerald1827]

YES D4 I love you SO much

[@alexdecarli2933]

you actually had the correct gut feeling about picking the ASI over elemental adept. Making a target wet makes them vulnerable as long as they aren’t immune -meaning by splashing water on them they turn from resistant all the way to vulnerable, and you’ll already be maxing the damage so you won’t be getting any value out of the feat on your Nova Round 16:29

[@redelephantsdotnl]

For the lightning build: You don't need high level spells, you just upcast your lower ones. So, add two levels of Evoker [at level eight and nine]. You still increase your spell levels. That way, you really can just Lightning Bolt and Thunderwave everywhere with no risk of hurting your allies. For Wizard Spells, you can pick things that don't rely on Intelligence, so Shield or Mage Armor or something.

[@mycenaeangal9312]

in general upcasting is less efficient than casting higher level spells.

[@redelephantsdotnl]

@@mycenaeangal9312 But in this case there is not. You'll never do more spell damage than with this, let alone to everything on the screen.

[@NicksIdeaEngine]

I love your videos. I like how broadly and deeply you dive into each idea, especially with how you break down the difference between 5e and BG3. You're incredibly informative, the order in which you give information is easy to flow, and I like that you clarify between thematic choices versus mechanical choices. This is a pretty small detail, but symbiotic entity makes halo of spores hit twice rather than doubling the damage. So you might wind up with one halo of spores hitting for one damage, and another for four damage. The average of x2 multiplier is still on point over several casts, though.

[@yifengzhang7613]

I'm BG3 player not a dnd player, an advice for you to include in these vids for bg3 fans, include items from the game into your builds, because it set player goals to obtain those to achieve the build and the items changes significantly how a class can be, not just charactors. maybe some permanent buff can change things as well, For example, what about a full set Darkjusticier from shadow heart quest line can build into a class? the set can create darkness, hide, immue to blindess in one bonus action, which class can do best with it ? These questions are more fun.

[@discipleofdeath2517]

Looking to make a drunk build since found three or so pieces giving you buffs while drunk lol.

[@armonkaviani7808]

My 2 cents: the best options for a control caster are draconic sorcerer and divination wizard. 1) Draconic sorcerer has some built in tankiness and constitution saves, so no need to dip into fighter. Twinned and heightened metamagic allow you to CC more enemies or make it much easier to land CC on a key target. 2) Divination wizard makes it much easier to land CC on targets with portent dice, and some protection from those portent dice as well depending on how you use them. Enchanter I just feel like doesn’t really come online until twinned ability at level 10 (even later at 12 if you took fighter levels).

[@mernix]

I loved that your builds work regardless of items in game.

[@IMZAMORAK]

Build 1: so bg3 tempest clerics destructive wrath applies to all damage rolls on that attack as long as one of those rolls is thunder or lightning damage. so I dipped 2 levels of paladin for smites, and thunderous smite does thunder damage. guess what, you can cast thunderous smite, choose to roll max damage, throw a high level divine smite on top of that, and guarantee a crit (through various means), and it MAXES ALL THAT DAMAGE, the weapon damage roll, the thunder smite, the divine smite, any additional rolls (helldusk gloves/elemental weapon), and since you can force a crit its all doubled (or tripled if a halforc) Build 2: with elixir of bloodlust, speed potion/haste spell, action surge you can get 4 actions in a turn, a pure fighter(11) would get 12 attacks that turn. if you wanted to mess around with mind sanctuary and helm of grit you can get 6 more attacks in that same turn. so i think a pure fighter makes the ultimate archer Build 3: BM ranger(spider pet) and druid(spider form) get unlimited web (can cast web without spending any resource/spell slot) definitely extremely useful. you can get some antiweb boots pretty early to slap on one of your melee so they are unaffected by the tons of webs. web combined with the cheese grater? ooooweeemama

[@eirsilvermoon4911]

I'm so glad you updated Wrath of the Storm, that was the 1st build i ever made in BG3 inspired by your previous video Master of the Storm #60 it fits perfectly!

[@ClayAdams]

I just love that you can respec anytime and try out all sorts of stuff.

[@TheNorseCrow]

For the Cheese Grater build an alternative to Druid would be Nature Domain Cleric. This gets you the Spike Growth but more importantly it gets you heavy armor and shield proficiency since it is a subclass feature for Nature Domain. This also gets you Spiritual Weapon which doesn't require concentration and functions independently. (It also gets you Speak with Animals for free which is always fun) It will also get you good cantrips such as Thaumaturgy and the spell Enhance Ability which is good for charisma related stuff.

[@joshuacr]

Don't forget guidance with it. You have to always have guidance permanently available! But yeah, fantastic suggestion for substitution. I will be trying nature cleric instead of Druid on this!

[@Xendas9393]

Note about the ranged build. Swords bard is kinda broken for it, the flourish for you to attack twice can be used on the same enemy. Basically between fighter and bard you getting more attacks vs trip attacks, both are good. But you also get spells and can be the face of the party if you choose, both are very good options though :D

[@andrick11]

Im a new viewer brought to the channel from bg3, I dont plan on playing any dnd in the near future but watching old videos about builds is still fun for me! You have a very nice way of talking about all the good aspects of builds and its interesting to learn through the way you explain them ^^

[@brandonseabaugh7247]

I found this channel today and I’m already obsessed. I love this game and these multi class options look like so much fun

[@justindibe8543]

This is such a good and informed video, I'm so impressed with you and the channel's makers. I have been subbed for a long time. I really appreciate your team's game knowledge explaining subtle differences between the base system and the inspired overhaul that Larian did.

[@greypilgrim9967]

Here's a build idea (Inspiration being Escanor from The Seven Deadly Sins) You know how you've made builds that can take 2 or 3 rounds to get to full power? Ok hear me out: what if you made a build where that was the concept of it. So a build that just took like 6 (or more?) rounds to get going? The concept being (like Escanor) the character's power continues to grow over the course of the day or battle! So he's so strong that the enemies always get defeated before he reaches the zenith of his strength! So no matter how strong his enemies are his power keeps building till the enemies are crushed. And at his peak, as Merlin (in SDS) put it, "for a brief moment he becomes invincibility incarnate"

[@ChickenSoupMusic]

For controller as you mentioned sorc dip can work. You go half elf woods for movement and shield prof. Then you can go white drac sorc for AoAgathys or Storm sorc for bonus action flight movement. For your ranged build as you mentioned ranger is also an option. Something to consider over fighter is 5 ranger (generally gloom but you could argue hutner for colossus slayers 1d8) / 5 thief / 2 paladin. Works really well as a TWFighting / DWield build that is still great at range with hand crossbows. End game build with piercing vulnerability items. And... yes this game took a pretty massive dump on wizards. No INT half feats like fey touched or telekenisis. (wtf). No polymorph to heal into a giant ape / no artificer dip for heal guidance armor etc, no wall of force, nerfed CC spells, no animate objects. They completely lose out to sorc and lock. I'm hoping mods fix this. I have no idea how there's no giant ape poly in this game. As a controller they especially lose out to lore bards who can access Hunger of Hadar / best spells as well as use the Arcane Acuity items in game to lower spell saves by 7 DC. One other option for holding concentration is the white drac sorc abjuration wiz X method of not letting Arcane Ward drop so you never make concentration checks.

[@1AmGroot]

personally my ranged weapon build is going to be rogue 4 (thief, sharpshooter) (just rushing to 3 sharpshooter attacks a turn asap) rogue 4 ranger 2 (archery) respec for rogue 3 ranger 4 (gloomstalker) (should get you one more hp instead of respecing next lvl and going rogue 4 ranger 3 at this lvl) rogue 3 ranger 5 rogue 3 ranger 5 fighter 2 (twf/defense) (depends on if you're wearing good armor or have something like the graceful cloth) rogue 5 ranger 5 fighter 2 (+2 dex) (alert or lucky if there's some item i'm not aware of that sets your dex to something high) provides a lot of utility *and* you can play far away from the enemies and not 10ft away

[@zinxderobo]

I love that you brought up hit chance. I learned the importance of hit > anything playing rogue in WotLK years ago. It truly is an unequivocal mathematical powerhouse in rpg minmaxing. kinda like mitochondria or something lol.

[@sagresdoporto]

Hey Mr. I have watched yours videos and they're actually pretty good, congratulations. I've been playing dnd since I was 18-19 years old. Now I'm 31 and I've always been the guy who was more thinking about builds than actually playing. So, that's channel is a heaven for me. Today I am without a group, unfortunately. One thing I've noticed that's different in bg3 than in dnd is that in bg3 you can think of the builds taking into account the items that are found in the game. This completely changes the way you're going to think about the build because the items can change the attributes or give you a power that the build lacks for it to work. If you take this into consideration you can be sure that you could make things work much rounder. Big hug.

[@orarinnsnorrason4614]

A little late to the party but. You only need 2 hand crossbows, and they combo really well together. Firestoker and the one from the Shar temple, specifically from the demon Yurgir after you dispatch him however you want (if you can't then you can get it later during Raphael fight but depending on dialogue choices it coult get difficult).

[@Ontaros1]

SOOOO small thing I wanna point out. As of right now, Symbiotic Entity actually works on ranged attacks too so it might not be a bad idea to try working in 2 levels of spores druid into a hand crossbow build, but sadly I think it still does NOT work with unarmed strikes.

[@joshuacr]

I completely missed it works with ranged attacks, thank you!

[@kollinpoindexter8859]

I am loving Pact of the Blade warlock, Oath breaker paladin. With haste you get 6 attacks, and the ability to smite, there is a pair of gloves that lets you once per long rest cantrip, for up to 9 hits in a single turn. Get a hunter's mark on a boss and down it goes.

[@aquaticmusic5077]

I’ve been going back and forth between either doing the storm sorc tempest cleric build or use an abjuration wizard with dips into tempest and sorc. I can’t decide if I want more consistent and frequent lightning damage or have a very hard to hit and decent damage spell caster. This is the build I settled on for the abjuration wizard: Tempest/Abj/Draco Level Spread = Cleric 2/Wiz 9/Sorc 1 First Level = Sorc 1 (Cleric 2, Wiz 9) Opening Stats - 16 INT (+2), 14 CON, 14 WIS (+1), 12 DEX ASI/Feats - INT 18, INT 20/War Caster Probably will end up trying both just to see what I like but both options seem really strong!

[@karduar]

never would have found this channel without the BG3 coverage. so happy ive found this.

[@Bojack198]

Regarding the comment about repelling blast at 45:04 I have seen only 10ft in most cases but sometimes enemies will get pushed more than usual. I only noticed the instanced of additional movement since the big patch so idk if it was sorta addressed but not entirely fixed yet. I will note I think Agonizing Blast has a unintentional but very cool interaction with Lighting Charges. When you use Eldritch Blast with lighting charges, the extra lighting damage procs another instance of Agonizing Blast and Hex if applied as if it was another cast of Eldritch Blast. This means that most castings of Eldritch Blast if you have a way of generating Lighting Charges will deal a nice extra chunk of damage for a warlock with very minimal investment. It feels a little too good but it's really fun to play with at the moment.

[@Exaltable]

I would heavily consider going human or half elf for the cheese grater build for the glaive proficiency. The magic item reward for saving the grove Sorrow has a special bonus action version of thornwhip that is fantastic to add into your regular rotation of pushing and pulling

[@npuldon]

@d4:D&DDeepDive From the wiki: "An offhand Hand Crossbow always adds your Dexterity Ability Score Modifier to the damage of the attack regardless of whether of you have Two Weapon Fighting or not."

[@DRProdegy]

My new favorite part of this series: seeing how many new ways Colby can write the title

[@mcshark13]

Glad you are doing more bg3. I love your original 5e builds but really get excited when I see more bg3 content.

[@exquisitemeat5845]

Tempest Cleric is my favourite subclass thematically, love to see it included here

[@depthcrew310]

Thank you for letting us know about the membership and written guides. I took so many notes before haha. This is very convenient

[@lokimidknight7319]

I actually love that there is something that is so good that it competes with the classic "2 level fighter dip" and it's a rogue I also love that one of the weakest multiclasses in 5e (monk/rogue) is arguably the strongest in BG3.

[@hadokken42]

Enjoyed the video! I would like to make a suggestion to build 1 though (storm/tempest build). 1. Take witchbolt and call lightning - it's a little bit less upfront damage, but it's more spell slot efficient to concentrate on it and reactivate, than to spend more spell slots casting chromatic orb or lightning bolt again. Witchbolt can also be twinned, upcast, and used with luck of the far realm (if you decide to go that route) for some pretty heavy burst. 2. Take extend metamagic - really this is personal preference, but again, I feel like this helps with spell slot efficiency. Cast create water with extend so that it last twice as long, hopefully saving you spell slots, so you dont have to cast it again.

[@ericmatthews4245]

For the cheese grater, consider getting the glaive from the druid groove. Then you can bonus action thorn whip, and then eldritch blast them back.

[@KontrollerMonkey]

Great video! My experience is that gloomstalker is better than action Surge because you get an extra attack EVERY Combat as opposed to once per short rest you can do more things with an action point but let's be real your gonna attack with that action point

[@thedominasian]

That cheese grater build is one of the most creative I've seen, and I might have to try it instead of the Druid summoner build I was aiming for. I do have Wyll in my party, so maybe I'll keep my Druid the way she is and use Wyll for the grating.

[@connkahn]

For the range build I’d recommend beast master ranger so your little spider friend can keep your foes webbed and you get advantage at further range

[@Gryllus2501]

Awesome builds! 🧙🏻‍♂️🤓

[@KawaiiAzusa]

Here is a potential build: A ranged sword Bard. Sure your fighting style is a melee one, so you should get Archery from Fighter, but this is insanely strong because of how flourishes work with ranged weapons. Especially the Slashing flourish let's you attack twice for one attack. This is supposed to be two different targets in range but right now it even works on the same target twice. This means for one Bardic Inspiration you get an additional attack and twice your Bardic die as damage. So as long as you have Bardic Inspirations you attack as often as a Fighter at level 11. I would recommend Fighter 2/Swords Bard 10 for Archery and Action Surge. This also gives you all weapon proficiencies, so you can go Hand Crossbows, Heavy Crossbow or Longbow. While you don't consider items in your build I still want to mention one: There is a ring very early in Act 3 that allows you to cast an illusion or enchantment spell as a bonus action if you attack this turn. This means you can attack 3 times and then cast most spells the Bard gets as a bonus action like Hold Person, Fear, Hypnotic Pattern or Dominate Person.

[@Fuzzhead93]

I made a whole team dedicated to the cheese grater strategy and i absolutely love it. Only level 4 so far, but its so much fun. I added in a Karlach barb with sentinel feat to help protect everyone if one does manage to get through or if i have to tackle some flying mobs that dont get hit by spike growth

[@TheKiskoller]

Without any experience with 5e I went with a CC-heavy wizard in my first playthrough. I've chosen divination instead of enchantment and I think it is stronger, if not more annoying due to the popups. You can essentially force a 100% success on a spell 1-3 times a short rest (depending on your portent results), after it failed. The last part is really important. You can upcast hold person and reliably hold all humanoid enemies. I didn't pick fighter even though it would be awesome for the const proficiency alone. I would pick 17 int instead, use a certain item to boost my int one more and have a free feat to pick, which could be warcaster since you already have proficiency from fighter. I've seen heavy armor with +2 con on it and light armor with advantage to con saves, those could be good alternatives to high spellcasting robes (+1 spell DC) You can also use a green staff, some blue helmet to get +1 to your spells each.

[@rtyuio6215]

The necrotic extra damage component of symbiotic spores does work with ranged weapons in BG3.

[@pepeadamczyk2163]

ultimate summoner: 3 cleric (domain with heavy armor prof), 6 necro wizard. Remaining 3 levels can be any full spellcaster: lore bard for expertise, sorcerer for twin haste and quicken, druid for little bit more control, cleric for higher level spells. Wizard can get access to all their spells anyways and nothing beats buffed summon army. My favorite is 4 ghouls with ~70 hit points each (upcast aid) and warding bond for 50% resist for all damage. Cleric can equip armor with perm blade ward and get additional damage reductions. I know there is gear to give undear phys resist, but You can lways buff party or/and elementals

[@HelicopterShark]

27:50 Heads up the Knock unconscious and Sharp Shooter/GWM passives can all be moved to ANY of the hotbars so it's always worth putting them on the ALL or Class Tab as they are front and centre at the start of turn.

[@jayson.m]

I found this channel when I started dnd and loved your approach and explinations/theories. And now you brought it to bg3, great job.