[Tactician] Baldur's Gate 3 Raphael - Solo Tiger Barbarian

Class: 7 Wildheart Barbarian / 5 Pact of the Blade Warlock (Warlock subclass doesn't matter)
This is a series of boss fight videos featuring solo Tiger Barbarian. Other videos for this build:
- Yurgir: • [Tactician] Baldur's G...
- Viconia: • [Tactician] Baldur's G...
- Ansur: • [Tactician] Baldur's G...
- Cazador: • [Tactician] Baldur's G...
- Dame Aylin: • [Tactician] Baldur's G...
- Orin: • [Tactician] Baldur's G...
In case you're wondering how to surprise Raphael in this fight, you just need to be invisible when you trigger the conversation (either through potion, scrolls or spells). Hope is actually invisible here, but there's a visual glitch.
Anyway, about the build: the core idea is to exploit synergy between three things:
- Wildheart Barbarian's level 3 Tiger Heart's Tiger's Bloodlust: a cleave attack that bleeds enemies (bg3.wiki/wiki/Tiger%27s_Blood...)
- Wildheart Barbarian's level 6 Wolverine aspect: grants a passive that maims the target you attack if they are bleeding
- Reverberation: a condition that makes a target prone when they receive 5 or more stacks of reverberation
If a target is prone (from reverberation) and maimed (from wolverine passive) they will automatically forfeit their turn, because being prone requires them to spend half of their movement speed to stand up, but being maimed means their movement speed has been reduced to zero, and so they will not be able to perform any action on their turn. In other words, this is a really powerful disable, and works just like a stun.
One last feature to make this build even better: Great Weapon Master feat. Tiger's Bloodlust benefits from the feat's +10 damage.
The 5 levels of Pact of the Blade Warlock is to get another extra attack, i.e. this build has 3 attacks per action. Extra attacks from different martial classes don't typically stack, but for some reason Pact of the Blade Warlock's extra attack does stack with other martial classes' (in this case Barbarian's). Note that this 'bug' is fixed in Honour mode, and so you'd only get 2 attacks per action in that mode, see: bg3.wiki/wiki/Guide:Undocumen...
Technically we only need 6 levels of Barbarian + 5 levels of Warlock for the full combo to work, so the last level is up to you. I took another level of Barbarian since it gives +3 initiative.
In terms of abilities, aim to max charisma (for damage, since Warlock's bind weapon makes our weapon use charisma for attack and damage roll) and dexterity (for AC and initiative). Other abilities don't matter too much.
Equipment:
Head: bg3.wiki/wiki/Diadem_of_Arcan... (key item; with it we get additional damage from charisma modifier)
Cape: bg3.wiki/wiki/Cloak_of_Protec... (optional; I take this for more AC)
Body: bg3.wiki/wiki/Bhaalist_Armour (key item; this is what makes our late game damage shine, as it doubles our damage by making enemies vulnerable to piercing attacks)
Gloves: bg3.wiki/wiki/Gloves_of_Belli... (key item; triggers reverberation with our weapon (explained below))
Boots: bg3.wiki/wiki/Boots_of_Stormy... (key item; triggers reverberation with status-inflicting passives like Ability Drain)
Melee Weapon: bg3.wiki/wiki/Nyrulna (key item; this is the best piercing weapon in the game for us because: (1) it synergises with Bhaalist's Armour; and (2) it has built-in thunder damage and so triggers reverberation stacks with the gloves)
bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Dead_Shot (optional; any good bow would work)
Amulet: bg3.wiki/wiki/Amulet_of_Great... (optional; gives a ton of health and we can dump constitution)
Ring 1: bg3.wiki/wiki/Callous_Glow_Ring (optional; more damage)
Ring 2: bg3.wiki/wiki/Caustic_Band (optional; more damage)

[@keykilla78]

always like to think about what the enemy's perspective would look like in real time lol. like imagine being Raphael coming back to your lair all pissed off and right as you walk through the door all of your allies die before you can even react. even someone like him would probably start panicking internally lmao

[@chenghoetan1920]

I love the music in this fight. It was funny and eases the tension on the hardest fight in the game.

[@depthchargex]

Agree!

[@mitchdykema5182]

I dont understand what just happened. Looked dope, though! Haha

[@vengeance3153]

Can you explain why you keep toggling Cull the Weak on and off?

[@depthchargex]

Ah yes. If Cull the Weak is triggered to kill an enemy, you won't get the extra action from the Bloodlust Elixir. You can keep it on most times, but you'll need to turn it off for the first or 2nd enemy just to make sure you don't miss the extra action.

[@vengeance3153]

@@depthchargex I never knew that. Thanks!

[@zooyong3780]

Can you explain build detail?(level up guide)

[@depthchargex]

Sure. It's pretty straight forward
Level 1: Barbarian. Abilities: 16 str/ 16 dex / 14 con / rest up to you. Race: up to you.
Level 2: Barbarian
Level 3: Barbarian. Wildheart subclass: Tiger Heart.
Level 4: Feat: Great Weapon Master (GWM).
Level 5: Barbarian.
Level 6: Barbarian, Aspect of the Wolverine. Maim is now online. Around this level you should be able to get most of the reverberation gear, so you will start proning enemies, and so the main+prone disable combo is getting online.
Level 7: Rogue.
Level 8: Rogue. With cunning action dash we'll have more mobility.
Level 9: Rogue. Thief subclass. This is why I go with Rogue earlier; the additional bonus action from Thief will let us use GWM bonus weapon attack more consistently. Not to mention better mobility from cunning action.
Level 10: Rogue. Feat: Alert or ASI +2 str
Level 11: Respec into 6 Wildheart Barbarian / 5 Pact of Blade Warlock. Warlock subclass doesn't matter. Abilities: 16 cha / 16 dex / rest up to you. By now we should have Bhaalist Armour, Nyrulna and Amulet of Greater Health, and charisma will be our main ability. For feats, I'd get GWM and ASI +2 cha. Try to get +2 cha from Mirror of Loss too so you'd end up with 20 or 22 cha.
Level 12: Barbarian. For the bonus to initiative, but the choice is yours.

[@zooyong3780]

@@depthchargex Thanks!

[@PewPewDave]

What is GWM and ASI?

[@Kasiarzynka]

​@@PewPewDaveGWM is the Great Weapon Master feat and the second one I THINK (from context I've seen it used in) is Ability Improvement (not sure what S stands for, but if I'm correct, it's the feat that gives +2 to ability).

[@ko71k52]

​@@KasiarzynkaAbility Score Increase