D&D General BG3 and 5E Theories. Top 10.

[Zardnaar]

Arguably BG3 achieves better martial-caster balance than stock 5E does, but it's a complicated road to get there. They changed a lot of stuff that benefits casters, but they also give martial characters more rules-based options, and frankly a lot of their abilities are just more powerful/reliable than they are in 5E. They also subtly nerfed a lot of spells - nerfing their AOE, their range, what exactly they do and so on - a simple example would be fireball - it has a 13ft radius instead of 20ft, and a 60ft range instead of 150ft. On top of that, the monster design is different to 5E, often with boosted HP values and extra abilities, and the battlefields tend to be very vertical, which combine with the increased options for martial characters who can shove or throw enemies off things or into each other.

Outside of combat, whilst the game makes good use of spells, a lot of the "just bypass a problem" spells are simply not in the game, or have negative consequences, so it often makes more sense to rely on skill and just buff them (the game is pretty generous in terms of letting you buff rolls with spells).

There are also a wide variety of items ranging from the decent to the wildly overpowered, many, maybe most of them not using 5E magic item rules, but instead weird and wild rules Larian have made up (for example, there are no functional, normal, charge-based wands/staves/etc. in the game, but there are ton of items which use new conditions Larian have made up like "Reverberation").

The only class which continues to be worthless except as part of multiclassing is Rogue. None of the changes they've made really help Rogues. Single-classed, their DPR is the worst in the game, and all they really have to offer is Expertise in Sleight of Hand (disarm traps, pick pockets) and Stealth (or another skill of your choice), and Thief gives a free entire bonus action at L3. So a ton of builds have Rogue 3 (Thief) in them, and basically there's never any real point going beyond that in Rogue unless you are trying to make your life harder. The best "Rogue" build is Gloomstalker 5, Fighter 4, Thief 3.

Best rogue build involves Monks. Eg Monk 6. Rogue 4, fighter 2. Ascended asterion for more fun and games.

I think there's a single classed assassin build that's viable once you figure out sneak attack mechanics. Otherwise weakest class in the game outside dips. If you do that the initiative roll is the early combat, surprise round mid combat and round 1 is late.

 

[Zardnaar]

I wouldn't say I have a preferred party comp yet, but I do feel like Tav "should" be some kind of Bard, and favor using Shadowheart as some kind of Cleric (I believe I have her as a Nature Cleric in my furthest-along file) and Karlach as a Barbarian-plus-something.

The main comp a friend of mine and I have been using is GOO Bladelock (me), Ancients Paladin (him), BM Lae'zel (he's usually managing her), and Diviner Gale (me). When Lae'zel runs out of dice or Gale runs out of slots, we swap in Bear Totem Karlach or Nature Cleric Shadowheart respectively. Now that we've got Halsin as well, and potentially Minthara down the line (since we should have done what's necessary to save her without betraying the tieflings), that presents a third fallback option. I think I'll either respec or normally pick up a level of Cleric, mostly for the shield proficiency rather than medium armor per se (though that would let me drop to only 14 Dex without issue.) Probably Knowledge, or Light.

The characters for ease of use are close to default imho. Optimization though.

Humans warlocks or sorcerers, bards, wizards.

Half Elves. See humans.

Gith. Anything they want but skill monkey or wizard,/Sorcerer, Bard.

Karlach melee generally barbarian, fighter, paladin. Also monk due to soul coins. Best monk in game except for ascended asterion.

Tav. Generally a charisma based class with persuasion. Gith bard or life cleric 2/Bard xyz is great.

Dragonborn avoid.

Tieflings depends on subrace.

Half orc nelee fighters/Barbarians.

Gith and wood elves generally best overall at every class imho.

Made level 5 honor mode. Tav is battlemaster, laezel and asterion are spending quality time togather in camp.

Default party is Karlach, Wyll, Gale occasionally sgadowheart jobs. She's a bit meh at most classes except wizard. Has sone if the best story content though just talking about mechanically.

 

[FrogReaver]

I’m not sure if they are transferable to bg3 but I’ve found the following combos to be really good in solasta.

Druid casting spike growth under the party and having melee enemies enter the area or be pelted to death with ranged attacks. Moonbeam also deserves a mention as it can drive enemies out of cover or allow for offense while behind cover.

Clerics - Spirit Guardians is another way to handle melee enemies. In essence keep the party close. Make sure they all have solid ranged attacks and anything that gets close enters a meat grinder.

Paladin - Dex for a bow and whatever finesse weapon with good damage. If anything enters the melee meatgrinder and needs to die fast smite. Otherwise mostly use ranged attacks and possibly shield of faith or protection from evil as a defensive buff (10 minute duration can be quite handy).

Wizard - I’d be an evocation wizard so I can drop a fireball on the party. In Solasta there’s no evocation wizard and I use alot of magic missile. Scorching ray if I have advantage (it gives advantage to all rays). The wizard is more for knock/fly/misty step though as sometimes that’s the only way to get to certain treasure. Also counterspell is very useful.

Spells not in solasta but in bg3 I think would be good. Web. Find familiar. Plant growth. Possibly conjuration spells as they have been turned into 1 action instead of 1 minute.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Dragonborn avoid.

See, there's the problem.

I’m not sure if they are transferable to bg3 but I’ve found the following combos to be really good in solasta.

Druid casting spike growth under the party and having melee enemies enter the area or be pelted to death with ranged attacks. Moonbeam also deserves a mention as it can drive enemies out of cover or allow for offense while behind cover.

Clerics - Spirit Guardians is another way to handle melee enemies. In essence keep the party close. Make sure they all have solid ranged attacks and anything that gets close enters a meat grinder.

Paladin - Dex for a bow and whatever finesse weapon with good damage. If anything enters the melee meatgrinder and needs to die fast smite. Otherwise mostly use ranged attacks and possibly shield of faith or protection from evil as a defensive buff (10 minute duration can be quite handy).

Wizard - I’d be an evocation wizard so I can drop a fireball on the party. In Solasta there’s no evocation wizard and I use alot of magic missile. Scorching ray if I have advantage (it gives advantage to all rays). The wizard is more for knock/fly/misty step though as sometimes that’s the only way to get to certain treasure. Also counterspell is very useful.

Spells not in solasta but in bg3 I think would be good. Web. Find familiar. Plant growth. Possibly conjuration spells as they have been turned into 1 action instead of 1 minute.

All those spells are quite good (e.g. I've seen spike growth trivialize a nasty fight, moonbeam do a ton of damage, etc.) Dex-Paladin can be awkward but I'm sure it's possible to make it work. Other than counterspell, I haven't actually seen much value in that thus far.

Familiars are useful, but you want to use the special one you find in the destroyed village ("cheeky quasit"). Haven't seen plant growth so I can't say. Web can be useful, but like sleep it doesn't have a ton of staying power AFAICT.

 

[Zardnaar]

See, there's the problem.


All those spells are quite good (e.g. I've seen spike growth trivialize a nasty fight, moonbeam do a ton of damage, etc.) Dex-Paladin can be awkward but I'm sure it's possible to make it work. Other than counterspell, I haven't actually seen much value in that thus far.

Familiars are useful, but you want to use the special one you find in the destroyed village ("cheeky quasit"). Haven't seen plant growth so I can't say. Web can be useful, but like sleep it doesn't have a ton of staying power AFAICT.

Dex Paladin wouldn't be ideal but some thoughts.

In Act 3 iirc there's a finesse polearm. Until them use rapier and shield. 24 dexterity plus gwm..... I used a +1 polearm until netherbrain honor mode.


End of act two if you rescue mizora and ask her for a reward. She gives you a rapier that can summon a cambion.

Not the greatest potential but you could probably do it. If multiclassing is allowed the sky is the limit.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Moonbeam: I found it very easy to damage party members with this spell. "Don't go into the light!"

Spirit Guardians: Ridiculously OP in BG3.

Find Familiar: BG3 has a couple of special familiars - the aforementioned cheeky quasit, Us, and Boo. You can only have one familiar at a time. Regular familiars aren't bad at low levels.

Archery Paladin: Archery is good in BG, but I don't think paladin is the best way to leverage it. Collage of Swords Bard with duel wielding hand crossbows is the way I would recommend.

 

[Zardnaar]

Moonbeam: I found it very easy to damage party members with this spell. "Don't go into the light!"

Spirit Guardians: Ridiculously OP in BG3.

Find Familiar: BG3 has a couple of special familiars - the aforementioned cheeky quasit, Us, and Boo. You can only have one familiar at a time. Regular familiars aren't bad at low levels.

Archery Paladin: Archery is good in BG, but I don't think paladin is the best way to leverage it. Collage of Swords Bard with duel wielding hand crossbows is the way I would recommend.

Sword bard is just good. Probably best class in the game for Tav. Skills, charisma, dual hand crossbows or Paladin2/SB 10.

May have found an archery build better than swords bard. Work in progress but uses titan bow, special arrows and Reverberation to hit for truckloads of damage. Won't be able to bonus action enchantment/illusion spells in act 3 though.

Took down netherbrain with 3 archers last tactician run one of them was sword bard hand crossbow with a critical hit build and titanbow (simple) build iirc.

 

[FrogReaver]

Archery Paladin: Archery is good in BG, but I don't think paladin is the best way to leverage it. Collage of Swords Bard with duel wielding hand crossbows is the way I would recommend.

IMO. It's not so much that a Paladin makes the best archer, it's more that a Paladin with a solid ranged attack makes the best Paladin.

 

[Zardnaar]

IMO. It's not so much that a Paladin makes the best archer, it's more that a Paladin with a solid ranged attack makes the best Paladin.

Tavern brawler feat? I'm msnaging to beat that. Outside monk builds with elixirs and/or asterion.

 

[Dausuul]

Spirit Guardians: Ridiculously OP in BG3.

Not at Tactician/Honor Mode difficulties. It's useful in Act 2 where you get swarmed by mooks a lot and radiant damage is essential to turn off wraith and shadow invisibility. But otherwise it's too slow-acting for a concentration spell that requires the caster to be in harm's way.

I generally want my combat spells to a) deny actions to the enemy, b) inflict a lot of damage in one blast, c) create a kill zone at long range, d) buff the party's offense, or e) remove obstacles stopping us from killing the enemy.