SUBCLASS TIER LIST - Single Class Characters - Baldur's Gate 3 Honour Mode Guide Part 1
Vložit
- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- Welcome to the second installment of my full breakdown of all classes and subclasses in the game for honour mode, to help you build the perfect party to cruise to victory and the golden dice! In this detailed breakdown, we discuss the subclasses if built mono classed - how strong are the characters if you take all 12 levels in a single class? Let's find out!
Part 1 covers subclasses for Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, and Fighter.
In this tier list I rate both the power and the versatility of the character. How strong is it? How many different ways can you build it? How easy is it to fit into a party?
Includes detailed guide and breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of every class and character in Baldur's Gate 3!
0:00 Intro
7:00 Barbarian
17:56 Bard
27:10 Cleric
45:56 Druid
57:43 Fighter - Hry
I really like on your videos that you don't dismiss anything, like in a lot of tierlists people will just go ''oh trickery domain bad, rp tier'' and not even talk about why its bad, or any merits it might have despite being worse than the others so it leaves people uninformed. IMO theorycrafting and optimizing are at their best when they're in service of making the stuff you want to use not suck even if they're wonky, and your videos do that splendidly
Trickery has a really good spellist unironically. Mirror Image on a Spirit Guardians build? Fear on a meele composition, or Dimensional Door on a support character? Its genuinly good, especially early to mid game.
Trickery domain can be good for the buff if you're stacking stealth in order to abuse improved invisibility.
how do you pump out so much quality content so fast??
Would love a party building guide sometime!
Thanks! The secret is I've done nothing but think about dungeons and dragons for 20 years :P
Party building guides coming soon! Probably next after this series
Finally, someone puts Moon Druid in S tier. I appreciate you
You are my favorite BG3 tierlist guy.
Thanks very much!
This series is super helpful and a real service to the player community. Thank you! I think its especially good for newer players but I have over more hours than I care to admit and it’s still good to hear your well thought out opinions!
Small correction: Channel divinity recovers on short rests, so it can be used 3/6 times a day.
That's right - good catch!
Small note: Ranged flourishes do work in tabletop. 5E swords bard only requires "attack action" and "weapon attack"
The real change was how Slashing flourish worked range. In tabletop it's more like a bouncing arrow that could only hit one extra person instead of a whole second attack.
So… Trickery domain tricks you into thinking it has good subclass abilities
Trickery has quite a few merits actually. Still a cleric amd has some very interesting synergies. Is it as good as other subclasses ? Definetely not. Is it Bad ? Not at all.
@@cloudy978 I just don't understand why your body double aura can't move around like in TT. That alone got me so nettled I dipped out of trickery forever.
The good T is Twilight
@@CiaphasKirbyI was disappointed by that, too.
@@cloudy978 oh come on, wdym. Just let things be bad. If the worst subclass isn't bad I don't know what is, and it's not even like it has its niche which just doesn't come up often; it basically doesn't.
Let things be bad again. Average is average, not good; above average is good, below is bad. If you think trickery is bad but it doesn't really matter because the game is easy enough, just say that.
I still did not watch this one because i'm looking at all the building character serie in order . But i just want to say as a guy that played some table top 20 years ago tapping again into D&D those days through BG3 , i'm so happy to have found your content . Your way to explain theorycrafting is indeed fascinating ! I'm very entertained sir. Deep thanks .
Thanks so much! One of my favorite things about BG3 is how many new and returning players it's brought to one of my favorite hobbies - it's awesome to see old hands picking the game back up
Your explanations are the most concise and easy to understand. Keep up the amazing content!!!
Kinda weird how swords bard abilities work with ranged attacks.
It makes me happy to see Eldritch Knight ranked highly because it's been one of my favorite subclasses and I have felt that it's underrated. After my first playthrough with Laezel as a companion I've never played her as anything else. A really fun combo I found is learning the Expeditious Retreat spell, equipping the Strange Conduit ring and the Speedy Lightfeet boots, so she's always concentrating on a spell for psychic dmg and is able to use her bonus action to dash and add extra lightning damage to her attacks. I'm entering Act 3 now and plan to get the helmet of balduran to combine with the broodmother's revenge necklace. I play tactician and I never even have to use mirror image or blur because she just downs every enemy she hits and if she can't down them she stuns them the Soulbreaker greatsword.
Also, not surprised to see swords bard as S+. My only previous experience with Bards was from BG1&2, so when I made a dark urge Swords Bard I chose to play on balanced thinking it was going to be underpowered LOL.
Was waiting for this one, your takes are accurate affff
Always looking forward to your tier lists
Subclass video?! A man of culture and class. Thank you sir. Now for sick multiclass video
You should have a tier on top just called "Swords Bard" and have it be separated by 3 other tiers above every other subclass in the game. Such a broken subclass.
Howso?
I want to play a bard. Does it have to do with bonus actions?
@@JoshSweetvale It has to do with the flourishes, ESPECIALLY Sword Flourish. It's 2 attacks per action if you're using a ranged weapon, plus another 1-2 attacks if you're using hand crossbows and using bonus action to fire offhand (multi class into rogue for extra bonus action). Crazy good in a vacuum, incredibly broken considering bards are good and basically everything
This is perfect timing as im working on planning my honor run as its the last achievement in my way
Nice - good luck!
Well done on crafting these videos, very detailed and interesting to follow! I've been wondering what subclass to respec my companions into and this helps a lot! What is strong in BG3 is quite a bit different than what is good in D&D!
Imo, eldritch knight is also pretty good as a controller with the same swords bard combo, arcane acuity + mystic scoundrel, even full class with the level 10 eldritch feature giving disadvantage, very reliable control
No nonsense. No sponsored content before you even begin. I like that.
Love these videos. I know this is a mono-class tier list. It would be neat to see you do a multiclass tier list (though, I know that would be a very long process). A build I saw the other day and have been testing out is Ancients Paladin/Life Cleric (6/6, but 5/4 right now as I am in Act 2) and MAN. It’s a lot of fun being a good damage dealer AND the primary healer. It’s really only a single target damage dealer, but it’s been a fun build to test out. Extra attack and bonus action healing is pretty handy
Small note, tavern brawler is currently bug as of hotfix 20 on moon druids, it applies on the attack rolls but not on the dmg, another sad day for moon druids in bg3.
And btw the Spreading Spores from lvl 10 spore druid uses a bonus action, not an action, and you can cast it as many times as you want in a combat, and it doesnt harm allies, so you can use a fighter to trap enemies on it while keep casting on that same area without hurting your melees.
Spore Druid is probably the *single* best user of the Cull the Weak Illithid power. It's niche but being able to act offensively with an AoE spell as an action, an AoE lingering cloud as a bonus action, *and* poke someone as a Reaction because why not, you can touch a number of targets in a turn that only a Sorcerer double-casting with with something like quicken and Magic Missile or Fireball can keep up with, and a Sorcerer will burn through resources significantly more quickly to do so.
Combine that with the summons and it's probably the best zone-control caster.
Of the various list videos I've seen of yours, this is the one I agree with the most. And yeah, Champion Fighters get pretty boned. They could at least keep improving the crit threshold as they level up.
The "improved critical" human fighter setup was a classic meta/twink build in older editions of D&D, and Champion seems like it's meant to represent that specifically, but it just doesn't scale like those builds did. It was extremely common in 3.5 especially - take Bastard Sword proficiency with improved critical on it at level 1, so you get that 1d10 one-handed weapon *and* a shield, then get a few improved crit feats as you level up until your crit range gets to something like 16-17 and you're doing 3x damage crits when they land, and along with Greater Cleave so you'd just mow through enemies like they were grass and you're a lawnmower with little other than basic attacks.
Its appeal was its simplicity and its effectiveness, and Champion seems to be trying to do the same thing, but because it expands crit range generally and not specifically, but that doesn't grow in scale as you level up, it's just completely outclassed.
Exactly - personally, I preferred the old style of critical threat ranges and damage differing by weapon, since that gave weapons that are just inferior in 5e their own real niches and made critical hit builds much more spectacular. 5e just doesn't have anything that compares to the feeling of finally landing that scythe critical!
I really appreciate your inclusiveness and not making toxic statements about people being dumb for making certain choices.
Its pretty interesting to see how you feel about wild magic barb compared to wild magic sorcerer. Also been playing around with a stealth druid halfling playstyle with land druid for greater invisibility to fall out of turn order and use your strong concentrationless spells like plant growth, gust of wind ledge kills, the buffed grasping vine, woodland being, ice storm, ect. Lot of fun "spirit of nature" kind of build that can cap off your greater invis by casting another super strong concentration spell if you need to join combat yourself. Druid also give you shields for gloomshields +stealth coincidentally
I'm so excited 😊
I don't disagree with the wild magic barbarian's placement at all, but I think it's worth noting the d4 you get from bolstering magic stacks with guidance, so if you're okay with pickpocketing on honour mode, it can make it much easier.
You earned my sub and like, señor, saludos desde Monterrey NL, great content.
Thanks very much - welcome!
I love Champion as long as you can stack all the reduced critical items (bloodthirst, undermountain knife, sarevok's helmet, dead shot, elixir of viciousness, vivacious cloak) eventually you only need to roll a 14 to crit, or 13 if you're hidden
Great video. One thing: Trickery clerics also get mirror image which is great for not losing concentration or having your cleric go down while spirit guardians is doing its work. Also, invoke duplicity is concentration in 5e.
The coolest use for Trickery cleric that I saw was someone using invoke Duplicity as a secondary target for twin-cast Hail of Thorns to get a double overlapping aura of Piercing damage with the Bhaalist Armor aura and an automatic crit that actually redoubled the AOE damage dice. It's apparently a glitch, so I'm eager to see Larian nerf Trickery cleric's Invoke Duplicity 😁
Would you consider doing a multiclass tier list specifically on how the builds you make videos on have aged?
I quite like Trickery domain on Shadowheart, due to Dimension Door. She was built as a utility character, so having Dimension Door really helped in getting the damage dealer where they needed to be. Doubly so if you take alert on everyone, so you can freely swap to Shadowheart for the teleport, and then to the damage dealer.
Everything else aside, I can confirm that a throwing build on an Eldritch Knight is, in fact, quite fun.
I’ve got an evil run paused somewhere in Act 3 because I’m waiting on Patch7. But that one’s an Eldritch Knight, and I’ve just been tossing The Baneful at people, and it’s just been the best.
I just bought the first one a couple weeks ago for $5and been loving it. Idk how I missed the original but this game made me want to play the original I can’t wait for the 22nd!! 🤘🏼🤘🏼
the description says part 2
Also thank you so much for these videos, they scratch my itch for optimisation without shaming me for not hyperoptimising because of roleplay
Thanks! You're right that's a little unclear - I meant the second part of the series, where part 1 was the class tier list, but since this video's also in two parts that's definitely confusing. I'll update it :D
Spore Druid, despite not having the extra attack, really benefits from hand crossbow and spell sniper eldritch blast. Those combinations can really have the bonus damage add up
Could you do a Draconic Sorcerer build video? Love your videos and build guides!
Another big negative to Wild Magic Barbarian, a lot (or all?) of their beneficial effects will ALSO apply to nearby enemies. I don't know if they've fixed this, surely it's a bug. Dancing Lights (+1AC to all allies within 10ft) will also give +1 AC to every enemy in that range.
One thing I find really cool in bg3 is how Barbarian has the utility to sort of buff casters. Wild magic, Zerker water throws / prone, and Wildheart debuffs making so many saves put at disadvantage. They're definitely a Land druid's best friend.
Yeah! One of the awesome things about the game is all the small synergies like that
Earth myrmidon with tavern brawler on moon druid is force to be reckoned with.
You can simply yeet it into a bunch of enemies, which were pulled together by black hole or void bulb and watch how they all went prone and can't reach your casters. Only thing which left for them is attacking 20ac myrmidon with 120+ hp, which if yeeted correctly can still teleport out of melee range and teleport back on it's own turn to finish the fight.
I get your argument about life cleric, but being able to more consistently apply an aoe bless and blade ward makes the healing so good. I guess it depends on how often you’re resting. I try to get through the acts with as few rests as possible, so it just depends.
Light cleric and tempest cleric can be a primary aoe damage dealer and debuffer, whereas life cleric is a buffer and healer.
Eldritch Knight fighter is a prime candidate for headband of intellect if you want occasionally cast control spells like hold person.
I appreciate that this is basically We Rate Dogs for BG3 - 11/10 they’re good subclasses Brent 🖤
Exactly! They ARE good subclasses :D
Thanks!
Thanks very much! I appreciate the support :D
Ah, S+, future home of the Throwing Barb/Tossing Eldritch and Swords Bard.
In BG3 cutting words can cut saving throws just like Eloquence Bard in Table top, which makes it even more top-tier imo.
Great descriptive video as always! I have to say as much as I enjoy Baldar's Gate 3, I hate how the developers just seemed to throw balance out the window with some of these classes choosing to make things that were balanced ridiculously overpowered. I could understand some things being broken on release, balance is difficult to uh... balance before knowing how strong the classes actually are. But months out from the game, they really have no excuse for not having nerfed some of these classes that need it
Shocking Grasp would be pretty sweet on the Eldritch Knight. Disables the enemy reaction so no more Ready to Parry from the annoying Githyanki, lol. I didn't know that on my first playthrough tho so my EK Lae'zel just brute forcing thru those guys
Lore Bard's possibly strongest ability in BG3 is that they can use cutting words on enemy saving throws. Adding a 1d6/8/10 to your spells' DC will very often let you land a powerful control ability on the target you need it on, vastly improving the effectiveness of a control caster. It also lets you significantly reduce the odds of an enemy saving on your big damage spells like a tempest cleric doing their typical wet lightning shenanigans.
lvl 10 evocation wizard + lvl 2 warlock. Eblast away baby.
Another fun sub build I like is powerful hand crossbow build. lvl 6 rouge/thief and lvl 6 sward bard.
I have been having good luck with the crit range fighter with a duel wield fighter/rogue with all the +1 crit range items and the sword of when you crit +10 dmg and get 10 temp, obviously this is multiclass specific but I am curious to hear your thoughts on that
First character was Lore Bard with the Actor Feat. For those who don't know, Actor flat-out gives you Expertise in Performance and Deception - you don't need Proficiency with them first. This means my Lore Bard was Proficient or an Expert in so many useful skills there was basically no content or dialogue option they were locked out ot.
You should do a lore accurate dark urge build 🗣️🔥
Arcane Acuity is my favorite mechanic in this game, I always try to find some way to use it as good as sword bard can with mystic scoundrel
I never use precision attack because you don't lose your superiority dice if you miss. The versatility of things like sweeping attack hitting invisible enemies if you know where they are is too good
I think wolf heart barbarian is one of the best unique support styles in the game. Advantage is a big deal, ongoing permanent easy access movable advatage just for existing? Incredible, as long as your party leans melee but also summons will benefit greatly. Wolf heart rage is an "I win" button. Also Wild Magic's +proficiency save aura is great for boss fights especially if you have a party that likes to stay tight (Paladin, etc)
Love these videos
10 Lore Bard + 2 Divination Wizard Halfling, Now you control all the ability checks and dice rolls. Also called the Elminster Volo build, in the forgotten Realms.
There are act 3 gloves that give advantage on battle maneuvers, so there is a way to gain advantage on fighters, just not champion
2 paladin 10 war cleric is one of my favorite dwarves I've made. Flamestrike plus smites is awesome. Also 2 pally and 10 light cleric or 9 land druid 1 war cleric
Playing a non-throwing EK currently in one of my honor runs, I already beat it so I'm just playing classes I haven't before / sub optimally.
Having ray of frost as a fighter is great when my cleric casts sleet storm and my warlock casts hunger of hadar, it's just hilarious..
Enemies take one step and end turn and if they get out the EK still is a fighter and just beats them up lol. I know I could do more damage throwing but the RP of a spellcasting fighter is too fun.
Enhanced jump with 18 strength is also hilarious, who needs misty step when you can leap twice the distance lol.
7:48 A thing I want to mention, the strain only lasts till the end of the frenzy, so you can cancel out of it
(Don't know if you have already corrected yourself but there it is)
In 5E, the Valor bard becomes more distinct than the Swords bard, but only upon acquisition of their 14th level subclass feature, which lets them make a weapon attack as a bonus action whenever they use their action to cast a spell or cantrip. Also, the Valor bard's Combat inspiration gives other characters a reaction, which is significant. The Lore bard's cutting words is limited to the bard's reaction. Combat inspiration can be used on other character's reaction, which never gets brought up during discussions of the Valor bard. In BG3 specifically, the Valor bard's access to all martial weapons allows them to benefit from the vast bonuses that come from magical equipment. The extra damage from the Swords bard's flourishes are comparable to heavier hitting martial weapons that Valor bards have access to. Their defensive flourish is comparable to the Valor bard's Combat inspiration, and its ability to buff the party's armor class. The Swords bard channels all of their subclass's features into making the bard a stronger singular entity. The Valor bard uses their powers to amplify the party's combat capabilities with both spells, weapons and inspiration. The Valor bard gets looked down upon, or otherwise overlooked, when they really shouldn't be. They are a force multiplier, moreso than any other bard.
You made it sound like Lore bards only get cutting words, but they get cutting words and bardic inspiration, which is the lore bard comparison to combat inspiration, but doesn’t include increasing damage/ac.
Lore bard’s cutting words is much stronger than you’re giving it credit for because it reduces enemies saving throws. Reducing the saving throws of an enemy as it tries to resist hold person, dominate person, banishment, etc is a much, much better use of a die than adding that same number to a singular martial attack. Landing a level 4,5,6 CC spell that you would have failed completely changes the outcome of fights.
I would maybe suggest that battlemaster is S tier-- the improved accuracy from the superiority dice is nice, but is often overkill if you're already being buffed. And the ability to basically chain CC a character OR nuke the piss out of them is just really strong and straight forward. It also probably has one of the strongest power curves where you just start strong and keep getting stronger. Also, since your resource is brought back after short rest I think that's less of a hindrance that maybe it has been weighted.
I think Lore Bard was undercut a little bit because of cutting words ability to lower enemies saving throws basically allowing Lore Bard to almost guarantee some of the most powerful control spells on a target using just a reaction and letting them focus less on gear for spell save DC
IDK, maybe I didn't have issues because my main was Lore Bard so I had the extra Short Rest, but I ran my first Honour Mode with two pure BM fighters and a third ranged BM dip, and it felt pretty S tier to me. With so many attacks & extra actions & action surges, Alert Feat, etc. you pretty much end fights before anything gets a turn. Sure it's not the most original concept, but it's straightforward & noob friendly.
can you make a video about extra attacks? my ranger/rogue just did like 10 in a ro and i cant figure out why
Unless Honored mode changed it, Berserker Wild Magic has no negative effects. It's always a positive one, so it's generally easy to plan around it. Just pop rage like normal and enjoy the proverbial mystery box that is wild magic.
You can get paralyzing critical as a champion fighter, and if you stack gear and potions you will lower the threshold of critical strike quite a bit, you take potion of viciousness and you get it to 18-20 and there was a item you could get that lowered it even more I like the class myself the jump helps strengthen the fighters weak point of being out of position, but yes there is not a lot of flavor to the class you can crit and jump that's pretty much it
I disagree with the core playstyle of Druid hinging on managing concentrations in Wild Shape, that belongs almost exclusively to Circle of the Moon. I think the core playstyle of Druid is that you're a full caster and thus you play like a full caster; throw down your control spells and pick off enemies that approach. Unless you're a Tavern Brawler Circle of the Moon, no Wild Shape is outperforming a dedicated martial anyways. Wild Shape has some utility out of combat for map access and the extra HP can save you in a pinch, but it should not even be a consideration in combat for Land and Spores Druids because it prevents them from casting and you would rather be casting.
I also think the extra damage features of Spore Druid are a trap; once again, it's a full caster with an improved spell list, especially between Bone Chill and Animate Dead. Why be a bad martial when you can be a Druid with more spells? Pick up your extra damage from Halo of Spores when you're in range, but otherwise just be a Druid with infinite temp HP and an entourage of summons.
I would put Circle of the Land and Spores in S and Moon in A. As full casters Land and Spores miss out on very little from being mono class, just Sorc 1 for CON Saving Throws and Shield spell. Moon likewise isn't missing out on much except Fighter 2 for Action Surge and CON Throws. I rate Moon lower because it's a Tavern Brawler martial that doesn't get as much gear thrown at it as Thrower Barb or Monk do.
(Edit: I forgot to mention, thank you for the content! I got too absorbed in arguing the points I wanted to make for Druid that I neglected to say your content is always thoughtful and interesting. It's very much appreciated.)
Is there a video that explains how enemy stealth detection actually works? I've shot from hiding in the goblin camp rafters and it immediately triggered combat so I'm just very confused.
Nature cleric could be built into wisdom based melee fighter if you get 5 levels in any martial class. I like ranger for the theme.
Nice
Yo guys, maybe a bit off-topic, but how do summons work ? Like I know you cannot have multiple undead summoned, even as a necromancer, you are limited to max. 4 zombies/ghouls, some summons cancel each other out (Scratch x Shovel, Ghouls x Zombies, etc.). So I was wondering, how to get the best out of it. For example, the summons I use : 4 flying ghouls, 2 ice mephits, Us and Shovel. What are some better summon-comps ? I'm asking, because I'm playing necromancer with my friend as Oathbreaker paladin on honour run, we have reached Act III, but I still don't really know how to get the best out of it. 😭
The only thing that felt a bit biased was when you were talking about Battlemaster Superiority Dice being scarce. BM has up to 5 superiority dice (not counting items,) which come back on a short rest, and many but not all of its uses only eat the die on a hit. Bardic inspiration for Swords Bard flourishes are mostly the same, but you were praising how you could use them so often. Bard => many times per day. Fighter => run out in one round of combat. I get that the bard has amazing damage potential and lots of versatility, but just the way you approached the resources I couldn't understand.
Why rate spore Druid this way but u have a present video how it’s an unkillable solo honour char w unlimited hp?
You can get bonus action attack on barbarian without frenzy - through great weapon mastery feat. In late game, when you can proc that reliably, berserker value really falls off.
Yep - not to mention that martials just have great uses for their bonus action by default anyways: jumping and pushing are almost always good, but conflict with the berserker's playstyle.
@@Cephalopocalypse exactly! My "barbarians" typically end up with only 2 barbarian levels for reckless attack cause it feels taxing to even activate rage.
Something insane that you didn't mention about the Spore Warden that DESTROYS the Underdark is that you can raise the Bulette.
Is there a special dialogue option there? That's cool! I've always done it by having the mushroom guy raise it
@@Cephalopocalypse, I actually just checked. That's my bad, I think it was unintentional and got patched, since it's a monstrosity, not a beast.
I don't remember there being any really difficult fights in the Underdark though 🤷🏻♂️ In fact the most difficult fight was that boulette and it wasn't really difficult, I then raised it with the mushroom guy :-))
Although I don't play honor, so I might be completely off the mark here, idk
Honor mode gets hard at Myrkul and onwards, until then, it's not really know if you know what you are doing.@@alexmashkin863
16:33 I also can just NEVER pass up on getting Karlach some piercings 😍
I played a circle of the land Druid and I would ABSOLUTELY NOT recommend taking the haste bonus spell (from arctic/grassland)
for a simple reason : druids have SO MANY concentration spells already
if you take Haste you won't be able to use 90% of your spells
because that would break your concentration on haste and fucked up whoever was targeted by it
haste on a druid is overrated
I don't even use Haste on anyone, I just use the Haste Potions if needed, or the haste bombs you get in act 1 and later, Haste Spore from spore druid armor. (it's actually twice per short rest, as it's 1 per use of your wildshape).
Check out my guide "The owlbear flies" for one hilarious use of land druid haste
So not to take away from sword bards as being basicly the most broken class in the game, but an important factor is that you cannot use consumable arrows with ranged flourish. For example a fighter could with action surge shoot 6x slaying arrows in a single round for the equivalent of 12 attacks of damage while the bard has "only" done their 4. Also another fun option is if you can get the enemies grouped, you can apply combustion oil to your bow and use many target arrows to spread it out and then a fire arrow to blow them up. Ofcourse a sword bard can still use these arrows it just falls behind the fighters 3rd extra attack.
Lol, i'm running a swordsbard on my current honor run. Doing melee tho so not that overpowered atleast :) .. also only doing mono-classes since the game just feels alot more fun to me since I have to play tactical
Just started Act 3 honour mode with 3 rangers and fighter/warlock
What did you/he say what tempest cleric should consider wearing? 39:00
Markoheshkir - it's a legendary staff that gives you chain lightning 1/short rest, available in act 3
I believe you forgot to mention trickery domain's ability to cast invisibility with channel divinity charge. It doesn't really change the subclasses' power level but still there might be a semi-viable cleric/rogue build somewhere out there
Would say that Gloomstalker's ability would be better then. Sure it's only 1 per short rest, but it gives you gloomstalker which is better with a rogue build in the first place.
There's also Disguise Self, which lets you easily talk your way through multiple encounters in Act 1 as well as squeeze through certain holes by changing into a short race. Pass Without Trace is being slept on too, as it combos extremely well with Greater Invisibility to let you chain invisible attacks easily, and Divine Strike: Poison synchronizes well with the poison-oriented gear you can find throughout the game.
It's still the weakest Cleric subclass, but the way everybody calls it useless is ridiculous. It's still plenty competent.
Swords bards are actually fucking insane and I can't believe they exist in this game's balancing. In addition to them being the best martial and one of the best casters, they get to use some of the most broken equipment (arcane acuity gear, mystic scoundrel ring, reverb/radiant orb gear) among the most efficiently, which only exacerbates the problem. I think if swords bards had to be well balanced, they'd have to have the following nerfs:
1. No medium armor proficiency
2. Slashing flourish must pick different targets (like twinned spell does), to make other flourishes situationally optimal
3. Flourishes can only be used once/turn (less burst damage potential).
4. Option to pick archery fighting style (mainly to make the archer version of the swords bard without having to rely on dips into fighter/ranger for the fighting style).
In addition to this, other nerfs to mechanics should include:
1. Arcane acuity only stacks to a max of 5
2. Radiant Orb only stacks to a max of 6 and enemies lose two turns every round instead of 1.
3. Initiative is rolled on a D10-D12 (to make Alert less busted while not devaluing it's bonus relative to gear which gives initiative or increases to dexterity)
Great video, but one small point I disagree with: when it comes to the math and champion, I think 5% chance to crit is way better than 1 extra damage per turn for 2 reasons: the first is it has greater synergy, with half-orc's extra crit dice and great weapon master's extra attack, and secondly because it feeds into the action economy better because you're much more likely to kill something you otherwise wouldn't that would then go on to take actions against you and rewrite actions, and potentially awkward/inefficient uses of other party members' actions to prevent. For example, an enemy from killing one of your party members or a friendly npc, healing, summoning etc.
So really it's better to think of it either as 5% chance to kill something that you otherwise wouldn't, or 5% to crit AND an extra damage dice AND an extra attack, which certainly lacks the flexibility and utility of the other fighter subclasses but isn't terrible, either.
I also think champion's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: its simplicity. A lot of players might find the sheer number of options overwhelming, especially if they're new to RPGs so having a class which is really simple to learn can be great for them. But it might feel basic and boring to others.
IMO to "fix" champion, I'd give it some radiant buff/debuff effects similar to paladin auras. After all, a champion is supposed to be an inspiring figure who gives his fellow fighters hope and strikes fear into the enemy by their presence alone.
Ease of play is such a big deal not often mentioned. I'm approaching the end of my first honor mode so in anticipation of some big fights I'm not going to switch now, but my run would have been a good bit comfier if I, say, took a pure ek thrower rather than a berserker/thief/ek thrower. The problem with the latter ofc being not knowing when to frenzy. Frenzying only to find most enemies dead by the 2nd round feels really bad, perhaps only comparable to not doing so only for the fight to turned out much harder than anticipated and having to frenzy after other members already wasted resources. Doing 3 throws round 1 and 4 every subsequent round also matters very little vs consistent 3 every round when most fights, even harder/boss fight if all your members blow resources, are over in 2-3 rounds.
Long resting also becomes more and more of an annoyance as you develop a buffing ritual. Do you need to twin draconic weapon but your caster and 2 recipients are on opposite sides of camp? Have fun herding them together. Do you have a hireling cast hero's feat + aid, and maybe also freedom of movement and warding bond? Better keep dragging your party members back. Do you have summons, better yet ones that require corpses? Got to remember to do that before the ritual etc.
For the same reason thou, I really didn't feel the 5 die limit on battlemaster to be that big a deal. If you don't know what you are doing, and I don't, just baseline power level of 3 attacks is quite good for those minor encounters, and 1 turn of big burst on boss fights has typically been enough to make up for not having a subclass for the other 2 turns.
I also didn't find light cleric particularly good. Warding flare would be nice if if you were mitigating one of a few big hits, but the big ones are often going to hit even if you flare. I also found that the party has more than enough damage between a 10/2 sorlock and the aforementioned 12bm and 5/4/3 frenzied eldritch quick hand thrower, and if it didn't, glyph is not far from fireball/flamestrike, and scorching ray feels bad anways when spellmight/markoheshkir are taken and you aren't even a draco sorc/involc wizard.
Currently she is respec-ed to life, wears orb/reverb gear, and casts spirit guardian then struggles to reach anybody most round. Straying away from single class, she does have 1 wizard dip for typically an air myrmidon to go with the cambion from rapier as well as artistry of war and dethrone.
If things go south she can heal everybody's almost full health bar over 2 turns or cast insect swarm (or blade barrier if she was pure) if we run away to defend a choke, which happened like twice ever and would be avoided if I knew the fight beforehand and prepped properly, but is still something.
I was let down by Wildheart barbarian bear... I don't know how yo use it Dx I even got the elk thingy and was a polearm master + sentinel
I remember hearing that EK was such a bad class. But on my first play through I would have the cleric cast sanctuary and be a heal or buff bot. Then the EK would just spit out 3 or 4 attacks a turn. Maybe getting hit twice while fighting several elementals over several turns.
I'd encourage you to consider "How much player interaction is required to get the most out of this class" and "how much knowledge is required?" Part of why I like open hand monk is just how straight forward it is. . . My first 3 serious starts in BG3 were a swords bard (enjoyable enough but I don't really like the class all that much) Open hand monk (I balanced the build around giant elixirs and warped headband) and Durge Oathbreaker necromancer (With the explicit goals of saving Alfira who is one of my favorite NPCs) Monk is most enjoyable by far because combats finish FAR quicker, with less micro needed. If there were a way to set summons to autoplay I'd probably have enjoyed my necromancer, but by the time it takes to go through the massive army of summons was making the game tedious. Powerful, sure, but soooooo much micro.
Also don't forget to drop things into "Outclassed" if a single easy to acquire item makes their premier ability moot. One I'm specifically thinking of here is the Shadow Monk's pass without trace ability is replicated by the ring you can get in act 2.
I'd also encourage you to note if one of the Origins particularly excels at a class. Like, oh, Mama K getting an extra 2d4 unarmed damage when you pop a coin in her slot, no rage needed.
Are you not limited on your extra attacks on extra actions in honor mode?
You are if the action came from haste or a bloodlust elixir, but not if it's from Action Surge
I expect swords bard to be the only S+ subclass tbh. They're so insane.
Saw someone do 3x swords w/hand crossbows and cleric tank. It was very effective
I'd assume Way of the Open Hand. The sheer amount of damage they can do with relatively little preparation (gloves of your choice, vest of soul rejuvenation, strength elixir, tavern brawler, maybe Alert, and Kushigo boots) is disgusting, and not in a bad way. And they're made even better by something like Swords Bard just controlling everything on the field and granting either advantage against them, or paralyzing them and guaranteeing criticals outright.
@@r.s.819ya i think way of the open hand is the most consistent damage you can get every single turn of combat for several several combat encounters. With very little resource/item investment you can get them to do like 300 damage in one turn on average just by themselves. Of course there are ways to get much higher damage with other classes but most cant do it by themselves or they can only do it for a single turn before needing to short/long rest
got any build guides for Eldrich knight?
Yes! For a thrower, check out "The Consistent Killer," and for a more hybrid spellcaster/fighter version try "The best eldritch Knight in BG3"
Once this is done you've got to do an Honor mode run using only Out Classed characters to show its still not that bad and prove the haters wrong.
I wanted to know which single classes/subclasses/multi-classes are strongest in early game, mid-game, and/or late game. Level 1-4 is early game. Level 5-8 is mid game. Level 9-12 is late game. Also, I wanted to know how you approach honor mode in terms of which quests/combats/areas you face first in early game based on the classes you play? Which quests/combats/areas do you face first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, & etc…
8:40 I was gonna say; like, combine those strength elixir farming exploits, tavern brawler (for thrown attacks), great weapon master (for melee attacks), and bless from either a paladin or cleric, and well, yeah, W00000000000t!
Eldritch Knight makes me so sad. I love gishes so War Magic is the exact kind of ability I want to play around but it is SO BAD. Even if we had the blade cantrips it is still just okay. I haven't tested to see if you could make two bonus action attacks with an extra bonus action though
In a game like BG3 which has so many level 3 and above spells that are fairly good if not outright busted, and then keeping a class like Eldritch Knight as a third caster with only up to level 2 spell slots, they're effectively handicapped by the level restriction. It's a shame because they're interesting mechanically but you just can't do enough with their spells because the ones they do get are weak and take a long time to get, meaning you're mediocre at half of what you're aiming to do.
At least it works well with wizard and/or throw builds.
Me like Monk because Monk punch alot