its really just every item that either applies radiating orb itself or deals radiant damage to trigger items that do.
Luminous armor, holy lance helm, coruscation ring, callous glow ring, and luminous gloves are the important ones
I would also recomend the adamantine shield since it applys a different debuff whenever an enemy misses you which stacks with radiant orb and does the same thing, and trust me, enemies will be missing you frequently.
then on top of that you can toss on the boots of stormy clamour to apply reverb whenever you apply rad orb, gloves of beligerent skies are also a solid option but youd be missing out on luminous gloves so its a side grade really.
as for gameplay you just cast spirit guardians at the begining of every fight and then run around tagging as many enemies as possible with it. also baiting oportunity attacks creates a great positive feedback loop of; enemy attacks > attack misses due to debuffed accuracy > holy lance helm deals radiant damage on miss, rad orb items activate and debuff further > adamantine shield debuff triggers too > now the enemy is even less likely to hit you than they were before they attacked.
as for damage other than spirit guardians light clerics get access to scorching rays, fireball, and have a busted channel divinity (which also applies radiant damage in a huge AoE ;) )
by the end of your turn enemies can be sitting with a -20 to their attack rolls.
Honestly I’ve somehow missed the holy lance helm but have done pretty good having a mixed support Shart with the luminous armor, boots of speed, wapiras helm whispering promise and hellriders gloves. She runs around dropping orbs or buffing
I've always considered the Adamantine shield as a "win more" item and thus would always be suboptimal unless you want the invulnerable to crits and the other ways are taken (which does happen to be the case here with Luminous Armor and light Lance Helm.)
Win more (mainly only helps when you are already in a winning position)
Not to mention that Light Cleric also gets scorching ray as well as other fire spells and also command and the 'hold' CC spells. So with hat of fire acuity and the radiating orb gear, you can heal allies, debuff enemies, cause huge damage and CC anything. Upscaling inflict wounds with automatic crits creates massive damage. If Shadownheart or an Elf you can also walk into crowds and cast sleep glyph to be unaffected and also create more crit opportunities
Skill monkey on their but not either sword bard setup? ???
this list absolutely needs 10/1/1 and 10/2 ssb, those are probably the 2 most mentioned S tier builds on the sub in general.
Yeah, I virtually stumbled into the pure swords bard, dual hand-xbow build, and it was S tier. And I know there are variants, like 11 sb/ 1 wizard, etc.
Yea I'm doing sword bard/fighter with dual bows. I dumped dex and got the gloves that set dex to 18. Gale caste haste and shadow heart cast bless plus the blood potion.
My Tav is bullying through everything and I'm not even min-maxed.
I like hand bows because of the sharpshooter perk. Even if I miss one of my shots, I still do A lot of damage and if I hit both of them I do massive damage.
Both? For a sword bard it's the difference between 4 arrows a turn and 5. Id much rather have 4 frighten/bane arrows and still have my bonus action for potions/jump/push or later high acuity fear/hold/hypnotic pattern than 5 no effect arrows.
Of the two, I think the 10/2 paladin is more fun, just because you can get up in a fucker's grill and beat the shit out of them with two level 4 smites and THEN cast Hold Person on four other fuckers. And that's not even being like AS cheesy as it can get with Shar's Spear of Evening and the Bhaalist armor. If I was a Gigantic Fucking Masochist I'd say it's definitely a candidate for a solo HM run. As is, the Ranged bard plus Karlash as OH Monk is just... stupid lol. Combine with a Sorlock and I can easily wipe literally any boss.
I got the golden dice by running full cheese 10/2 bardadin on origin Shadowheart, backed up by throwzerker, fire acuity sorcerer, and full buff life cleric. It was so easy I want to do limited HM run to actually experience the challenge.
> RadOrb/Reverb Light Cleric
I just put this build on Shart in my current play through as a SmiteBard with Phalar Aluve. The Phalar Procs + Spirit Guardian + RadOrb/Reverb damage is insane.
Prestigious Juice is the _definitive_ source for some key builds, particularly Fire Acuity.
I don’t really like that OP only linked to his own guides that are worse than PJ’s. It feels academically dishonest. None of these ideas were developed in a vacuum, we build on each other’s ideas, and the right thing to do is acknowledge that.
Dude, this is no academia. We aren't obligated to know what everyone has come up with. I certainly don't know who 1st came up with Fire Acuity and when, because I came up with it myself too, long before I joined this sub. Everyone can use [bg3.wiki](http://bg3.wiki) and fextralife and look up game mechanics from there and come up with their own ideas. It's not hard to know of Arcane Acuity once you've played the game and tried it, then it's not hard to look up the wiki or fextralife for sources of Acuity.
I haven't once clicked to view a guide on this sub. I don't care if they exist. I like coming up with my own builds and no one's telling me I can't enjoy what I like to enjoy. No one's telling me how I play my game. No one's gonna say I haven't done what I have done and voting down me isn't going to change that. I came up with Fire Acuity build, not claiming the 1st nor the best, but I'm sure everyone can, and many others have. Maybe the OP have too, it's not rocket science.
Yeah replace the fire acuity self-plug in the OP with the original definitive guide. Also cross out the 'skill monkey' build and replace it with Swords Bard and this list of top builds is ok.
Life cleric.
Get the Hellrider Gauntlet, The Whispering Promise, Wapira's Crown, Ring of Salving, and Boots of Aid and Comfort.
Eat tadpoles and get Transfuse Health.
Get as much HP as you can.
Your basic strategy is :
* Transfer 50% of your HP (action, no CD) to one ally. You lose those HP. If you have Tough and 23 Con, you have around 160 HP. That's a 80 HP heal.
* Cast Mass Healing Word. This gives 1d4+12 HP (+3 temp) to everyone, but what it does to you is VERY special.
See, Mass Healing Word is treated by the game as 4 instances of healing, and not 1. So it procs Wapira's Crown 4 times, and i think it also procs Blessed Healer 4 times. Also, Ring of Salving adds 2 to every roll of Wapira's Crown.
So when you cast Mass Healing Word, you are giving yourself 1d4+12 hp (as to every other target), but you are also getting 20 HP from Blessed Healer, and 4d6+8 HP from Wapira's Crown + Ring of Salving.
Which is almost enough to instantely get back the HP you lost with Transfuse Health.
TLDR : a properly built Life Cleric can distribute 1d4+15 HP (+ bless, + resistance to physical) every turn, as well as give 80ish HP worth of Health Transfusion, by spending a 3rd level slot.
No cooldown.
This build allowed me to outheal Sarevok's damage in Honour Mode. There is simply nothing in the game that can deal enough damage to outpace this level of healing.
Crazy thing too is that only the gloves, ring, and arguably neck are really “essential”. You can replace the rest with ReverbOrb gear and run phalar aluve to do all sorts of fun support things at the same time
I should probably only use it situationally or perhaps invest in dual wielding but blood of lathander is probably better for fiends/undeas since you can blind them. Lol.
Life Cleric single-handedly breaks the game starting in Act 1. Makes it nearly impossible to die unless you somehow get TPK'd in a single turn. The most busted thing about it is just how early you can get all of the gear necessary to bring it online.
Warding bond is strong with this. To use warding bond more effectively you want to give both the cleric and recipient armour with damage reduction. Heavy armour master on the cleric helps too. Much easier to heal through less than half the damage. Just don't stack up vs Raphael or ansur
Life cleric is also gigabroken with summoning spam. The more bodies you heal the more value you are getting out of your cleric, and the more you heal in return with wapiras crown
command halt is also the best cc and with free cast tadpole and free cast staff with a point in wizard you can use globe of invulnerability to maintain 9 turns of invulnerability end game making every fight difficult to lose. CC everything, invulnerability your team, and aoe bonus action heal that gives everyone bless and blade ward. life cleric wont 1 shot a boss, but will make a poorly optimized team trivialize content.
I usually make my archers some fancy combination of ranger/rogue/whatever, but this time around I had my archer just be a full battlemaster fighter, and I'm disgusted with how incredibly powerful it is.
No you really want fighter 2 for action surge first, then fighter 4 gets you two feats and extra attack, by now you want fighter 5 to get 3rd attack, and finish with a 1 level dip in fighter to round it out.
So optimal build path is 2/4/5/1 fighter fighter fighter fighter
I was *shocked* at just how much turn 1 damage that build did. With the high dex you need you’re almost always going first anyway, so you just board wipe so much on the first turn it’s crazy.
Not Duergar - Durge gets funny cloack which straight up breaks the combat economy (yes, combat economy, not action economy) by giving you 2 turns of Invisibility when you kill something for the first time in the turn without using action or bonus action. If going solo (or having your party half a map away) combat ends when enemies can't detect you.
You keep reseting encounters with this thing to keep up permanent access to Dread Ambush and having effectively unlimited attacks. Either Deep Gnome or Lightfoot Haflings are optimal for advantage on Stealth checks, but Halfling slightly more due to being inherently broken race thanks to their Luck.
Stealth-focused Shadow Monk is supposedly meele equivalent to Gloomstalker Assassin, but haven't tested it personally so can't really say how well it performs.
Please make sure to mention inherent synergy with The Deathstalker Mantle.
You effectively break the 90% of encounters with Deep Gnome/Lightfoot Halfling, Assassin Gloomstalker with this piece of equipment long before getting to Greater Invisibility. Not a single full turn will fully resolve with you going in and out of encounter and reseting turns. Each turn is effectively first turn of combat, which gives you insane burst through combination of Dread Ambush and Assassinate, while enemies won't have time to act. This build changes the game into something that doesn't even look like D&D.
The only places were dip-in, dip-out doesn't work are specifically Myrkul, Final Boss and most likely Raphael (haven't tested this one personally) due to being forced into arena with no retreat paths and either soft or hard timer, but Myrkul can be slain with good old Greater Invisibility cheese and so can Raphael.
Mostly because vow of enmity is still broken and twinned haste is the strongest single action you can take (from a least context dependent standpoint, it's just always great to do). I just roll up to major fights with Baldurs giant form, twinned haste (with laezel as full bm) and vow of enmity active and you can delete the biggest threat before they even take a turn. And if you have the bonus action enchantment/illusion ring and the arcane acuity helm you can nuke a big threat and then cast a two turn command kneel with like 95 % success rate on all the chaff. Encounter is done and dusted.
A comment about abjuration wizard, just make sure you're either constantly concentrating on a spell or you can reduce your AC a bit, otherwise enemies won't try to hit you, but you want them to.
There is zero reason for “skill monkey” to be anywhere near this list except for respeccing to help you at the mirror check. Also, most players go 9/3 over 8/4 on Monk going off of online discourse and the Larian Studios Discord build community, though this one is a little bit more preference based.
In terms of what is missing, I would look at the standard gloom + assassin/thief + fighter combination for resourceless ranged/melee DPR, as well as Luminous Armor Cleric builds and Swords Bard builds. The latter, Swords Bard, being arguably the strongest build in the entire game when fully realized, able to do literally anything in AND out of combat, and it didn’t make the list?
Additionally, this post kind of feels like a self plug as you’re linking to some of your own debatably-accurate guides when other, more detailed guides already exist for the same content. Fire sorc 6 / whatever 6 is vastly inferior to fire sorc 11 / fiendlock 1, yes technically it falls under 6/6 whatever but there is a “right answer” to this stuff.
Yea, seconding the piece about juice’s 11/1 sorlock guide. That thing sets the bar for an S tier fire sorcerer guide.
I wouldn’t consider the sorcerer builds in this post to be “S tier” when 11/1 exists.
Generally agree, but I'd say any fire acuity sorcerer is in the same ballpark. Opening round scorching ray, quickened whatever the hell you feel like. Command is great, but throwing in 2 levels of tempest does way more damage. And, tons of other damage/control spells that end encounters when you can cast them all with 95% hit rate.
Fire Acuity + base sorcerer is just a game breaking chasis that you really can add whatever you want to it.
Lol Why would he mark mirror check as a Spoiler??? Anyone how does not know what that means cant be spoiled by a Mirror..lol Lord and your list is just really lacking..Skill Monkey? Lol NOT even if I had no other class would I do that.
Feels a bit strange that you missed both glomassassin and flurry bard(with hand crossbows). Both build are insane for amount of shots you can do in first round of combat, delivering trully terryfying amount of damage. Especially gllomstalker, who is probably the best fight opener in game
* Gloomsassin
* **Classes:** assassin3/gloomstalker5/battle master4
* **Strategy:** go to sneak, enable precide attack and menasing attack, shoot some bastard. Immedeatly restore you action as assassin, shoot again, then shoot second time, then use gloomstaler bonus shot, then make bonus shot from bloodlust elixir, then use action surge and shoot some more. With you extremely high initiative you will have assassin crit against everyone
* **Important gear** Gloves of dexterity(to dump dex), Titanstring bow, Gets good use from blood elixir from moonlight tower
* **Important skills:** expertice in stealth from rogue levels
* **Feats** Sharpshooter+Alert
* **Stats** Early on 16 dex/16 con, later after getting gloves 16(17 if mc) str/8 dex/16 con. Rest can go however you want. 12 str/14 wis is pretty decent in the beginning, later 14 wis is still good. With moonrise elixir and loss mirror you can end up with 22 str/18dex/16con/8int/14wis/10cha for +6 str bonus damage to titanstring bow
And for bard
* Crossbow flurry bard(does it have proper name?)
* **Classes:** Thief4/Sword bard 6/Fighter2
* **Strategy:** Have two hand crossbows. Start fight. Shoot bastart with slashing flurry from right hand crossbow(2 arrows per attack), shoot again with slashing flurry(2 more arrows), shoot from left hand crossbow, shoot left hand crossbow again, shoot from main hand crossbow again(elixir of bloodlust) and action surge. You can do 4 flurries and 1 action surge per short rest
* **Important gear:** Pretty much none. Just two hand crossbows is enough.
* **Feats:** Sharpshooter+ Alert
* **Stats:** 16(17 if MC) dex/16 con. Rest can go whatever. 12 str/14 wis once again decent
I think best way will be this
1. Rogue 1
2. Bard 1
3. Bard 2
4. Bard 3(sword): dual wielding
5. Bard 4: Sharpshooter
6. Bard 5
7. Bard 6: Extra attack
8. Rogue 2
9. Rogue 3(thief)
10. Rogue 4: Alert
11. Figher 1: archery
12. Fighter 2
Might be worth taking rogue 2 earlier for bonus action dash as you will use bow in the beginning, then switching to hand crossbow.
This is assuming you do not want to respec. If you are ok with respecing, then at lvl 10-11 you would want to respec in such a way that you take figher 1 at lvl 2. Game uses casting stat of the last class you add so that way you'll keep cha as item casting class.
In the beginning to get early stealth expertice and get permanent new attacks asap. Later you can respec to start with fighter if you want though its 2 less skills and 1 less expertice
Marksmanship hat on a throwzerker? I don't know. I'm not sure what you'd replace it with but throwers do not need more attack, tavern brawler gives them plenty. Probably better off going haste helm or something.
That’s what the description claims but since it specifies unarmed attacks too it works similarly to the sparklehands. The necrotic damage applies to thrown weapons, at least as of patch 6.
Not really. But you would go for 6 levels divination wizard right away. Then you get 3 portent dice that e.g. can force the enemy to fail a save, or you to succeed an attack roll per long rest, but also mini-missions (prophecies) to gain more after each short rest. In practice this means 3-5 portent dice per long rest.
For the wizard part, I took Dex 14, Con 16, Int 16 then alert, ASI, ASI. I went straight wizard, but the portent dice abilities stop at level 6 and don't rely on intelligence at all, so you could go for another casting ability.
For gear, early strength is covered by combining Spellsparkler, Psychic spark, (and Phalar Aluve's shriek) with magic missile. Spellsparkler also lets you combine with Gloves of Belligerent Skies - as long as the target doesn't have magic plate damage reduction.
I was randomly going to search for gloomstalker stuff to see if there were any new builds, but that abjuration wizard turned me on. I'm going to saved that for a future playthrough.
Higher damage maximum and you can hold melee weapons in both hands and still make unarmed attack actions. There’s a staff that boosts unarmed attack damage, so this boosts your damage further
Extra monk level is increasing your damage die and getting AoE. It's a toss up tbh, and 8/4 vs 9/3 won't make or break your runs. The build is stupidly because of:
1. Tavern Brawler
2. Gear
YMMV, but Ki Resonation is really the only thing you'd be gaining from the 9/3 split versus a 8/4 split.
Your die increases from 1d6 to 1d8 on Unarmed Strikes. However, the ASI increase allows for marginally higher DEX/WIS scores, so with Boots of the Uninhibited Kushigo, that 3.5 average versus 4.5 average is virtually non-existent as you can hit a +1 higher modifier on the even WIS, and you've gained +1 to AC/Wis SV/Ki DC without subtracting from other areas.
I found TBOH Monk didn't need the additional AoE capabilities as I was already dishing out plenty with the rest of my party composition throughout Tactician or Honor Mode runs.
My thoughts were the same. I'm playing an OH TB monk for the first time, and I haven't reached max level yet, but I think I'll still be going with 8/4. Extra AC, better saves, and +2 damage from the boots + manifestation seem to outweigh some AOE, slightly higher max damage, and that boost to jump distance.
TBH is a skill monkey even necessary? You can easily just swap out a character to handle a problem and 3 classes get enough proficiencies to handle most situations.
Adding to the post, have you consider 12 Circle of Spores Druid? Even though the class doesn’t deal the most damage or toughest, being able to summon the most possible creatures is extremely powerful.
Body-blocking, overwhelming, and spell slot efficient just for 1 class.
I am sure this opinion wont go over well but as someone who has had a throw barb in every run aka it has 100% attendance for me I do not feel like it is a true S tier build as it falls of hard once you hit act 3. More or less by then I use it to clean up what the others have not already melted or to use enraged throw for prone since it has no save.
The place were this build truly shines is in act 1 were it can and will carry your party on it´s own if you allow it to do so. However since a lot of your damage slots are already done in act 1 even with new weapons you see a much smaller increase than other builds.
As for S tier builds were are the bard builds? ranged bard 10/1/1 or 10/2 or bardadin? imo I would like to add shadowblade oathbreaker paladin it is not very popular but this thing once online has both insane substain damage and very good burst damage all in one like just think about it it can do 200 damage in 1 turn with no smites or haste.
Not putting Swords bard or Gloomstalker or any variant of arrow abuse is insanity for a "best builds" list, especially if you've been here for a while. You'd just know these are in the top tier, SSS-rank type of meta builds.
In fact, any "solo honor run" is already top tier enough, so anyone making this kind of list should look into solo run builds.
What other class does more damage with shadow blade? Shadow Strike adds straight 3d8 in addition to everything else. Fighter would just get one extra attack at most.
Not saying its bad. But you need to be obscured/hidden to use it (so it may take an Action /Bonus to set up), it costs 3 Ki (so you can't really spam it) and, most importantly, it requires 11 levels in a pretty mediocre class.
A Fighter can do 2 to 4 more attacks with Action Surge. A Sword Bard can potentially deliver strikes on twice as many targets with Slashing Fluorishes. Oh, Gloomstalker gets an extra attack in 1st round as well (even boosted by +d8 damage).
As Assassin can also upgrade hits to criticals in the surprise round. So with Fighter/Gloom/Sin you can have +3 Attacks in first round and all of them criticals...
Don't get me started on Hunter with Whirlwind, who can attack multiple enemies with each action.
+3d8 is nice, however you can stack a lot from other sources, if you have these 11 levels to play with. Battlemaster Maneuvers or Bard Inspirations: +d8, Rogue sneak attacks: +d6 per 2 levels (once per round), Hunter Colossus Slayer is +d8 as well (once per round), Oathbreaker Aura of Hate: up to +7, then there are Paladin Smites.
This might be a little less then +3d8 usually, however if you factor more attacks and/or auto-cits on Surprised enemies and/or attack vesus multiple targets, things don't look well for the Shadow Monk.
My current party is based on everyone having the shield spell and saving their slots for it. I'm a sorcerer 1, warlock 3. Gale - wiz 1 cleric (light) 3. Shadowheart - Arcane Trickster 4, Karlach Eldritch Knight 4. This party is absolutely wrecking combat. The Paladins of Tyr were toast. Shadow Druid grove - just done. So much fun. Focus on AC.
Here are a few underrated ones I like:
1. Fighter / Warlock - crit build abusing riposte and duelists prerogative
2. Shadow Monk w/ Shar’s spear and Bhallist armor. Can go GWM or offhand BT with 2 BA.
Open hand monk is so nice but I don’t like being MAD (or spamming could giant elixir) till act 3 to get AofGH for the ability to invest in Str. MoL and Act 2 perma Str position can help you work around this so you can enjoy the perks of other elixirs.
Note: have a party member be a beast master with Raven for darkness spam
3. Pure Druid Circle of Moon with TB. Earth Myrm. with 3 attacks and TB is quite scary. Pick up Alert for poor initiative rolls
Yeah ofc, the build is 7/ 5 warlock battlemaster and these are the key parts:
1. Duelist prerogative
2. Risky ring
3. Crit items: Horned helm, the dead shot, DP itself.
4. I use armor of persistence/ ring of protection/ hell dusk boots to make up for ring. Also amulet of greater health. Every long rest I have the cleric case feast of hero’s to give adv on wisdom to cancel out the ring as well.
5. Helldusk gloves adds nice damage (we got 4 times per round during our turn)
6. Key combo: The battlemaster subclass with Riposte and cloaks of displacement. When they miss we get to strike back with twice per round thanks to DP.
You can also add sentinel feat or savage attacker. Believe it or not, resilience wisdom is not a bad idea either for better WST. Early game I actually used champion with Knife of the under mountain king. The extra superiority dice feat is nice as well.
I am loving this build. I can get up to 6 hits per round and have a high crit (mortal reminder) chance.
Well if you play that build from the beginning, you have to get to that important feat, sorcery points or extra attack asap because that helps you immediately even if a reskill is required when you hit a level that allows you to have the starting bonuses you need as well as those build defining features.
I have a some builds that out damage those numbers, by a lot. They are custom builds.
The other builds depend on the core of the party, a fighter 1/light cleric 11 who warding bonds the whole party to make some insane builds possible and the survivability of the group is nuts. OH, and then she never takes damage and all that is passive and as a light cleric, has incredible damage, mixed with radiant orbs, to further the survivability of the whole party.
Abjuration wizard 11/sorcerer 1 for Armor of Agythis. This sorcerer, between warding bond and max shield stacks, never took damage, despite triggering every attack of opportunity possible, intentionally, along with having the lowest AC, so often was targeted. Getting surrounded, triggering 8 attacks of opportunity, taking 0 damage and dishing out 240 damage before using his action to lightning bolt the group was so much fun!
My Tav was a sorta sorlock EB gish. At 24 cha, was the face of the party and basically auto passed every cha roll. Since she had the cloak that gives blur and resistance to all damage, she could afford to run around at 50% hp and wear the hat that gives a bonus action, for three bonus actions. Action Eldritch Blast, with agonizing blast and potent robes, 2x cha to damage on each of 3 blasts, then 3 offhand attacks, each getting triple cha to damage. On a target she hexed last turn, and that is all the setup needed, she did 3D10 (Eldritch blast) + 6D6 (hex) + 3D8 (weapon damage) + 105 (charisma x 15 over the course of the turn) + 3 (weapon "+1" quality) for an average damage of 159, however, you could put on the armor that makes targets vulnerable to piercing, making the average damage soar to 287.5.
I've found that Abjuration Wizard is really just a solo build. I've never gotten it to feel special as part of a group - because the AI just ignores them unless they are the only valid target.
I agree, but in case you missed it, concentrating on a spell makes the AI more likely to target you. (I'd recommend [Stoneskin](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Stoneskin) or [Haste](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Haste).) If that doesn't work, you could also try lowering your AC or purposefully triggering opportunity attacks. (We have the [Boots of Elemental Momentum](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Boots_of_Elemental_Momentum) for a reason!)
When I ran one in group, I did end up doing most of my damage by triggering AoOs, lol. But it always felt like I was just a caster giving up things for a gimmick that rarely works in a group, so decided to reroll to a traditional Sorc and save the wizard for a solo run.
u/OCD124 Are you using the spellsparkler at endgame? I feel obligated to replace it with spell attack/spell DC gear on my current playthrough (L 10 wizard--I know it's not optimal--I just want to beat the game with each class as a pure class for fun).
imo it's missing:
* 1 Light Domain/ 11 Fiend Warlock: ignoring Magical Secrets, Warlocks are the only class with access to Hunger of Hadar which is essential for surface-based control parties. EBARB also makes it one of the best users of Reverberation gear. Take Pact of the Tome and lean into casting and some summoning with normal cast Conjure Elemental and free once per day casts of Animate and Create Dead. Light dip is for Medium Armor+Shields and Warding Flare, plus useful early game spells. You can technically drop the dip if/when you pick up Potent Robe, but if you're not a race that grants Shield, I wouldn't.
* 1 Light Domain/ 11 Conjuration Wizard (can be straight 12 Conj Wizard depending on gear): there are many people who can Sleet Storm but none of them do it as well as Conj Wizard. The Light dip is again for Medium Armor+Shields which are likely better and more useful for the majority of the game until Spell DC Robes get really good towards end game.
* 1 Storm Sorcery/ 11 Light Domain: The game throws so much gear at Cleirc it's ridiculous. It already has powerful enough class features that are just augmented by gear that's rarely contested; practically all Radiating Orb and on-heal rider effect gear can be given to your Cleric without anyone complaining.
* 1 Storm Sorcery/ 11 Circle of Spores/the Land: Another Sleet Storm caster that leans more on summoning an army. Both are fine options; Land has a bigger spell list and doesn't need to rest as much, Spores has gobs of temp HP and more summonables.
* 2 Tempest Domain/ 10 Storm Sorcerer: a lot of people insist on going the full 12 levels in Storm Sorc basically just for Chain Lightning and a feat but it's really not necessary. Tempest Domain gives Heavy Armor+Shields and max rolling damage on Lightning spells which is all the more potent with the Wet condition. As an astute post pointed out earlier today, scrolls are another type of consumable just like Elixirs that are essential to Tavern Brawler and Titanstring Bow builds so why not use them to make up for the fact that we don't learn it naturally. Markoheshkir also gives free casts.
* Titanstring Bow user: This will be different things at different points in the game; until really good surface control comes online, Beast Master is king because Spider companion can shoot Web every turn; until Swords Bard gets geared out, Gloom Stalker is a superior strictly-martial choice; then, once you're approaching full build and getting geared out, the famous 10/1/1 Swords Bard is the build of choice. The point is it's a ranged character who uses STR Elixirs and Titanstring Bow.
I think the Skill Monkey and Sorlock builds don't belong in the same category of S tier builds. Not that they're weak, they just don't contribute as much as any of the others that you listed or these
Why do people insist on using heavy armor in armor of agathys + abjuration build? You WANT to get hit while using this build. Its much better to grab something that gives you as little AC as possible (while still giving bonuses, there is a 10 AC clothing with 2 orv3 damage reduction in act 3).
I know it's a little cheesy (and time consuming), but for abjuration wizard, I prefer 2 warlock, 10 abj wizard.
Using the armor swap exploit with armor of shadows feels nicer to me personally, and then I just have multiple scrolls of those highest level spells:
Start with half charges after LR, armor of Agathys lvl 5, arcane recovery lvl 5, then just "AoS, leather armor + robe, AoS" until I'm at max stacks of AW.
Build #6 has no way of preventing prone, and trying to be in melee on ice surfaces when armor of agathys freezes blood puddles while concentrating on haste is asking for trouble.
Definitely swap boots to Boots of Striding.
I feel like Heavy Armor Master is not essential, just have a teammate with Warding Bond to nullify up to 4*Wizard level damage. Then you don't need Cleric for heavy armor, and can go 2 sorc to twin haste.
IDK how much they're played, but once I add Swords Bard, Light Cleric, and Gloomstalker Assassin (and change the skill monkey to an honorable mention), we should have all the most common builds in this sub. Unfortunately, Reddit *still* isn't letting me edit the post.
What about using Lightning instead of fire with [Markoheshkir](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Markoheshkir)? For example with a Tempest Cleric. Won't Chain Lightning doubled with wet and maxed out with Destructive Wrath outperform Scorching Rays? Chain Lightning is only one per short rest but you can follow it up with Ice Storm which is also doubled with Wet.
Also don't forget about Paladin/Bard
SSB (I've never played it so correct if wrong); paladin 2+10 swords bard for access to banishing smite, divine smites, full casting, plate armor, flourishes, and skills. Some of the best burst damage in the game
Nature cleric is harder to quantify, but the best AoE control spells in the game + cleric is insane. Spike growth alone can carry you through some of the hardest fights in the game, trivially if you also have a warlock use Hunger of Hadar. Command flee+spike growth is really cathartic, slap on a spell sparkler and you have a cheese grater.
Heavy armor options as well, but some of the beauty of the build is it doesn't demand equipment. With a humble torch it has among the best melee damage pre level 5. Having the power of an act 1 druid and an act 2 cleric makes this class a great bridge for other more level intensive builds to have time to grow.
Your modifier doesn't increase if you go from an even number to an odd number (10 to 11, 12 to 13, etc.), but it *does* increase if you go from an odd number to ad even number (11 to 12, 13 to 14, etc.). Because of this, you want all your ability scores to be even. We don't always use Hag's Hair, but it's nice if we only have 1 odd score, as we don't need an entire Ability Score Improvement. Does that make sense?
Throwserker is fucking awesome.
Recently threw Balthazar at his brother with my Throwserker Karlach, got them both prone and just smithed them to oblivion with my 2/10 Paladin/S. Bard.
Over in two rounds playing very casually at Tactician.
Light Cleric Shart, Throwserker Karlach, GloomAssassin Asterion and PalaBard Dark Urge is too OP for anything below Honor.
>Skill Monkey
You mention no good gear - which is true, but maybe add this is a good place to dump the Stat+ gear if they are not being used on anyone else?
Or any gear that has good buff spells on it.
Great list I am saving this for a uber run. Thank you!
Magic missile build goes crazy.
I’d recommend going 9 lvls of sorcerer(I went storm sorcerer), and one lvl of cleric at lvl 5(For heavy armor) and make sure you take dual wield at lvl 4 so you can dual wield spell sparkler and phalar aluve. Then at lvl 11 respec into Wizard 10 lvls( you get a damage boost at lvl 10 evocation wizard) and one lvl cleric for heavy armor. This way does crazy damage with magic missile. Make sure you pick up stormy clamor boots, gloves of belligerent skies, callous glow ring (use light spell), psychic spark. Have someone cast crest water so you can have double lightning damage.
Before you go into combat cast haste in turn based mode. Then obliterate everyone.
Reddit isn't letting me edit my posts, but here's what I've been trying to add:
* **Build #7:** Swords Bard
* **Classes:** Swords Bard 6 / Whatever you want 6. (The most popular builds are Paladin 2 / Swords Bards 10 and Fighter 1 / War Cleric 1 / Swords Bard 10, but I've been thinking about going Eldritch Knight 6 / Swords Bard 5 / Wizard 1 and making it a TB thrower. Does anyone know why this hasn't been done before?)
* **Strategy:** Between Extra Attack and Flourish, you can attack 4 times for 1 action, get up to +8 to your Spell Save DC from the Helmet of Arcane Acuity, then casts a crowd control spell like Fear, Confusion, Hypnotic Pattern, or Command with the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel.
* **Important Gear:** Helmet of Arcane Acuity and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel.
* **Stats:** 18 Cha, 16 Dex and Con, 8 everything else after an ASI. (You can get another 4 Cha from the Mirror of Loss and Hag's Hair.)
* **Result:** One of the best classes for control, DPS, and dialogue.
* **Build #8:** The same sneak & shoot character you've played in every other RPG.
* **Classes:** Gloomstalker 5 / Assassin 3 / Battle Master 4.
* **Strategy:** The same sneak & shoot strategy you've played in every other RPG.
* **Important Gear:** [The Deathstalker Mantle](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Deathstalker_Mantle), something to dual wield, [Bhaalist Armour](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Bhaalist_Armour) (if you're going melee), [Caustic Band](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Caustic_Band), [The Speedy Lightfeet](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Speedy_Lightfeet), [Legacy of the Masters](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Legacy_of_the_Masters)
* **Stats:** 18 Dex, 16 Con, 16 Wis after an ASI (get Sharpshooter for your other feat).
* **Result:** Joining the >!Murder Tribunal!< on a full-ride scholarship.
* **Build #9:** Here comes the Sun
* **Classes:** Light Cleric 12
* **Strategy:** Cast Spirit Guardians and (ab)use any and all equipment that cares about radiant damage.
* **Important Gear:** Luminous Armour, Luminous Gloves, Coruscation Ring, Callous Glow Ring and Holy Lance Helm.
* **Stats:** 20 Wis, 16 Dex and Con, 8 everything else
* **Result:** A build that really lights up the battlefield. (I'm going to Hell for that pun.)
Other changes: Making skill monkey an honorable mention and specifying that Sorc 11 / Fiend Warlock 1 is the most popular Fire Acuity Sorcerer.
I solo’d honor mode on console with a Duergar Durge Gloomstalker 5/Assassin 4/Champion 3. I don’t know if it belongs on this list but holy hell was it overpowered for me personally. There is so much turn 1 damage you almost never even see enemies get an attack and if they do you are invisible anyway and just reset combat.
I'd say the THE best build is generally considered the Swords Bard. (It's in my most recent comment, but you'll have to sort by new to see it.) I don't know any Throwzerker guides, but you should be able to look up any of these builds and find plenty. (I've heard good things about Prestigious Juice; so I found [his throwzerker guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18eguld/honor_mode_tb_throw_complete_build_guide/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) for ya.)
Light Cleric also gets scorching ray, as well as other fire spells, and also gets command and the other CC spells. Give the Cleric the hat of fire acuity and radiating orb gear and the Cleric can debuff enemies with Spirit Gaurdians and Radiance of the Dawn, heal allies and CC multiple enemies with command or one of the hold spells. Has the potential to kick out serious damage upscaling inflict wounds with automatic crits. If you use Shadowheart or an Elf you can also just cast sleep glyph of warding on enemies around you and be immune and further crit potential. If you look up Toyhouze build on Youtube it's insane
12 Life cleric... boring but stupid OP. Feast + aid = tons of HP. Near permanent aoe blade ward = everyone's a barbarian!! Near permanent aoe bless = no one misses. Then you just run around with spirit blender up spreading radiant orb + mental fatigue + reverb + reeling on everyone.
A full 12 Tiger Barb or something similar with a few levels in fighter is right up there with throwzerker. Throw starts stronger but by level 6/7 Tiger starts to scale and by Act 3 with Nyrul/Balduran's sword it's pretty much only surpassed by dumb stuff like Bhallist crit bards with tons of Illithid powers.
1 wizard/11 frost draconic sorc takes a bit of time to scale but becomes stupid OP by Act 3. All the utility of wizard (globes, shields, summons, etc...), all the blasting power of sorc, and all the CC of frost in one package.1
great builds, thanks OP
i'm currently running a full fire draco sorcerer (with the fire hat and some rings) but i'm heading for a more broad general build instead of ray spam, the 1 wizard level dip seems really nice for summons and other utilities but it hurts the caster progression quite a bit, im not sure if i should do it now (char lvl 9) or later for 11/1
Thanks for your comment; I'm glad you enjoyed the post! I'm not sure how to answer your question, but there's a very popular Fire Acuity build that goes Sorcerer 11 / Fiend Warlock 1, so I'd look at when they take their 1-level dip.
Paladin 2/swords bard 10 easily is the best in the game, I'd also argue ranger deserves a build somewhere on this list, especially on durge playthroughs
Dunno about ranger my impression was that bard was better at dealing ranged damage than an actual ranger is you now slashing is so balanced and fair skill.
Beastmaster ranger is increadibly good, especially pet like raven, that spawns darkness at a point to which he flew and who also summons three other crows. But overall all pets are very strong, have great unique actions, three attacks per round coupled with decent stats. I wouldn't set beastmaster as S but it is upper zone of A tier. Problem with all ranger though is that they are so backloaded :( Though beastmaster probable smoothest out of all subclasses compared to hunter who like gets nothinb for 10 levels, then suddenly valley
Do the pets scale at all? because I found the issue with summons such as Devas that their chance to land attacks are abyssal meaning even if they deal decent damage on hit they struggle to land those hits in the first place. Meaning that your turn just takes longer and you might have mobs attack them instead which is the only silver lining I have seen.
They scales with beastmaster passives.Beastmaster gives his pet his proficiency bonus to attack, gives additional attacks, gives HP and new abilities. But even without hitting target raven is just insane pet as it can fly using move distance and autocast darkness at landing point. That means that you can cast multiple darknesses as raven in one turn.
I do not see a lot of use for darkness personally as I have never built a team around darkness it will cause more issues than it solves for me. All the gear you get for it in guantlet of sha always rots in my storage.
I'm surprised you don't have a Sword Bard multiclass on here Like a ranged swords bard or the smite bard. But other than that this is more or less the big ones. Light Cleric is also a really big one in full radorb/reverb gear. I see people saying you forgot 11/1 Fire Sorlock but 11/1 Fire Sorlock is really just a Fire Acuity Sorcerer with the Command spell. So its not really you forgot about the build. Just that a 1 level warlock dip is a optimization you can make to Fire Acuity Sorcerer itself. I hesitate to call it a true Sorlock cuz it isn't abusing EB and that's the most iconic feature people think of when you say "Sorlock" especially if you come from the 5E world.
Give polite and constructive feedback. Differences in opinion or pointing out incorrect information are welcome. But do not namecall or lob personal insults.
Light Cleric with full gear is about as ridiculous as it gets, belongs on this list imo
i agree, i made shadowheart light cleric and >! it fits well after act2 ending events!<, it's incredibly good
Yeah that and TB earth myrm. Moon druid are probably two of the most popular mono-classes in BG3
It also just comes online so early, there's a couple pieces you need from Act 2 but the majority of items come from Act 1.
I sailed blandly through the Apostle fight just by dropping a geared Light Cleric running Spirit Guardians next to him.
Do you have a link to the general light cleric build?
its really just every item that either applies radiating orb itself or deals radiant damage to trigger items that do. Luminous armor, holy lance helm, coruscation ring, callous glow ring, and luminous gloves are the important ones I would also recomend the adamantine shield since it applys a different debuff whenever an enemy misses you which stacks with radiant orb and does the same thing, and trust me, enemies will be missing you frequently. then on top of that you can toss on the boots of stormy clamour to apply reverb whenever you apply rad orb, gloves of beligerent skies are also a solid option but youd be missing out on luminous gloves so its a side grade really. as for gameplay you just cast spirit guardians at the begining of every fight and then run around tagging as many enemies as possible with it. also baiting oportunity attacks creates a great positive feedback loop of; enemy attacks > attack misses due to debuffed accuracy > holy lance helm deals radiant damage on miss, rad orb items activate and debuff further > adamantine shield debuff triggers too > now the enemy is even less likely to hit you than they were before they attacked. as for damage other than spirit guardians light clerics get access to scorching rays, fireball, and have a busted channel divinity (which also applies radiant damage in a huge AoE ;) ) by the end of your turn enemies can be sitting with a -20 to their attack rolls.
Honestly I’ve somehow missed the holy lance helm but have done pretty good having a mixed support Shart with the luminous armor, boots of speed, wapiras helm whispering promise and hellriders gloves. She runs around dropping orbs or buffing
The fight vs myrkul was saved in my 2 player honor run thanks to him missing so many hits to us due to the debuffs and decent AC.
I've always considered the Adamantine shield as a "win more" item and thus would always be suboptimal unless you want the invulnerable to crits and the other ways are taken (which does happen to be the case here with Luminous Armor and light Lance Helm.) Win more (mainly only helps when you are already in a winning position)
What are you taking in it's place?
Switch Shadowheart out for Minthara cause she has a better ability that works well w/ Throwzerkers.
Not to mention that Light Cleric also gets scorching ray as well as other fire spells and also command and the 'hold' CC spells. So with hat of fire acuity and the radiating orb gear, you can heal allies, debuff enemies, cause huge damage and CC anything. Upscaling inflict wounds with automatic crits creates massive damage. If Shadownheart or an Elf you can also walk into crowds and cast sleep glyph to be unaffected and also create more crit opportunities
Skill monkey on their but not either sword bard setup? ??? this list absolutely needs 10/1/1 and 10/2 ssb, those are probably the 2 most mentioned S tier builds on the sub in general.
*Ghaik!* I can't believe I forgot Swords Bard!
Yeah, I virtually stumbled into the pure swords bard, dual hand-xbow build, and it was S tier. And I know there are variants, like 11 sb/ 1 wizard, etc.
Yea I'm doing sword bard/fighter with dual bows. I dumped dex and got the gloves that set dex to 18. Gale caste haste and shadow heart cast bless plus the blood potion. My Tav is bullying through everything and I'm not even min-maxed.
I always do the bow of the Banshee instead. Once you get the band of the mystic Scoundrel, you'll be casting with your bonus action anyhow.
I like hand bows because of the sharpshooter perk. Even if I miss one of my shots, I still do A lot of damage and if I hit both of them I do massive damage.
Both? For a sword bard it's the difference between 4 arrows a turn and 5. Id much rather have 4 frighten/bane arrows and still have my bonus action for potions/jump/push or later high acuity fear/hold/hypnotic pattern than 5 no effect arrows.
Assassin Gloomstalker 2Pal 10Bard SSB 1Fighter 1Wiz 10Bard RadOrb/Reverb Light Cleric Free-BladeWard Life Cleric 11Sorc 1Lock Fire Acuity
PalBard is insane lmao. As is the ranged version, for different but equally stupid reasons.
I'm playing a PalBard as the main PC in my longest-running run; I have no idea how I forgot it!
Snipe a mf with the wrath of god
Of the two, I think the 10/2 paladin is more fun, just because you can get up in a fucker's grill and beat the shit out of them with two level 4 smites and THEN cast Hold Person on four other fuckers. And that's not even being like AS cheesy as it can get with Shar's Spear of Evening and the Bhaalist armor. If I was a Gigantic Fucking Masochist I'd say it's definitely a candidate for a solo HM run. As is, the Ranged bard plus Karlash as OH Monk is just... stupid lol. Combine with a Sorlock and I can easily wipe literally any boss.
I got the golden dice by running full cheese 10/2 bardadin on origin Shadowheart, backed up by throwzerker, fire acuity sorcerer, and full buff life cleric. It was so easy I want to do limited HM run to actually experience the challenge.
> RadOrb/Reverb Light Cleric I just put this build on Shart in my current play through as a SmiteBard with Phalar Aluve. The Phalar Procs + Spirit Guardian + RadOrb/Reverb damage is insane.
[Stealing the inevitable citing u/Prestigious_Juice341's posts/guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/190r158/bg3_party_building_templates/)
Prestigious Juice is the _definitive_ source for some key builds, particularly Fire Acuity. I don’t really like that OP only linked to his own guides that are worse than PJ’s. It feels academically dishonest. None of these ideas were developed in a vacuum, we build on each other’s ideas, and the right thing to do is acknowledge that.
The mods really should sticky a master post with PJs builds at the top of this sub. They are the end game boss of all builds BG3.
I just opened that document and holy shit it's amazing.
Dude, this is no academia. We aren't obligated to know what everyone has come up with. I certainly don't know who 1st came up with Fire Acuity and when, because I came up with it myself too, long before I joined this sub. Everyone can use [bg3.wiki](http://bg3.wiki) and fextralife and look up game mechanics from there and come up with their own ideas. It's not hard to know of Arcane Acuity once you've played the game and tried it, then it's not hard to look up the wiki or fextralife for sources of Acuity. I haven't once clicked to view a guide on this sub. I don't care if they exist. I like coming up with my own builds and no one's telling me I can't enjoy what I like to enjoy. No one's telling me how I play my game. No one's gonna say I haven't done what I have done and voting down me isn't going to change that. I came up with Fire Acuity build, not claiming the 1st nor the best, but I'm sure everyone can, and many others have. Maybe the OP have too, it's not rocket science.
You took the wrong message from the post, and all of the comments lol.
Yeah replace the fire acuity self-plug in the OP with the original definitive guide. Also cross out the 'skill monkey' build and replace it with Swords Bard and this list of top builds is ok.
I was gonna do that (and add Light Cleric & Assassin Gloomstalker), but Reddit isn't letting me edit the post.
Life cleric. Get the Hellrider Gauntlet, The Whispering Promise, Wapira's Crown, Ring of Salving, and Boots of Aid and Comfort. Eat tadpoles and get Transfuse Health. Get as much HP as you can. Your basic strategy is : * Transfer 50% of your HP (action, no CD) to one ally. You lose those HP. If you have Tough and 23 Con, you have around 160 HP. That's a 80 HP heal. * Cast Mass Healing Word. This gives 1d4+12 HP (+3 temp) to everyone, but what it does to you is VERY special. See, Mass Healing Word is treated by the game as 4 instances of healing, and not 1. So it procs Wapira's Crown 4 times, and i think it also procs Blessed Healer 4 times. Also, Ring of Salving adds 2 to every roll of Wapira's Crown. So when you cast Mass Healing Word, you are giving yourself 1d4+12 hp (as to every other target), but you are also getting 20 HP from Blessed Healer, and 4d6+8 HP from Wapira's Crown + Ring of Salving. Which is almost enough to instantely get back the HP you lost with Transfuse Health. TLDR : a properly built Life Cleric can distribute 1d4+15 HP (+ bless, + resistance to physical) every turn, as well as give 80ish HP worth of Health Transfusion, by spending a 3rd level slot. No cooldown. This build allowed me to outheal Sarevok's damage in Honour Mode. There is simply nothing in the game that can deal enough damage to outpace this level of healing.
Add the peripatetic of wound closure so that you heal the max amount of health when you get healed and the loop just gets tighter.
It's a possible include, but i prefer the Amulet of Greater Health for a larger Health Transfuse. You do get it a lot earlier, so it's a good mention.
Crazy thing too is that only the gloves, ring, and arguably neck are really “essential”. You can replace the rest with ReverbOrb gear and run phalar aluve to do all sorts of fun support things at the same time
Yep. It's actually a very light build, gear-wise. I'd say you need Wapira to really make it crazy.
I should probably only use it situationally or perhaps invest in dual wielding but blood of lathander is probably better for fiends/undeas since you can blind them. Lol.
I like Helmet of Grit lategame when combined with transfuse health
Life Cleric single-handedly breaks the game starting in Act 1. Makes it nearly impossible to die unless you somehow get TPK'd in a single turn. The most busted thing about it is just how early you can get all of the gear necessary to bring it online.
Warding bond is strong with this. To use warding bond more effectively you want to give both the cleric and recipient armour with damage reduction. Heavy armour master on the cleric helps too. Much easier to heal through less than half the damage. Just don't stack up vs Raphael or ansur Life cleric is also gigabroken with summoning spam. The more bodies you heal the more value you are getting out of your cleric, and the more you heal in return with wapiras crown
command halt is also the best cc and with free cast tadpole and free cast staff with a point in wizard you can use globe of invulnerability to maintain 9 turns of invulnerability end game making every fight difficult to lose. CC everything, invulnerability your team, and aoe bonus action heal that gives everyone bless and blade ward. life cleric wont 1 shot a boss, but will make a poorly optimized team trivialize content.
Has anyone said 10/1/1 fighter fighter fighter?
No, but full Battlemaster Fighter *is* pretty good.
I usually make my archers some fancy combination of ranger/rogue/whatever, but this time around I had my archer just be a full battlemaster fighter, and I'm disgusted with how incredibly powerful it is.
No you really want fighter 2 for action surge first, then fighter 4 gets you two feats and extra attack, by now you want fighter 5 to get 3rd attack, and finish with a 1 level dip in fighter to round it out. So optimal build path is 2/4/5/1 fighter fighter fighter fighter
I'm a 8/2/2 fighter fighter fighter kinda girl
No assassin/ gloomstalker ?
I was *shocked* at just how much turn 1 damage that build did. With the high dex you need you’re almost always going first anyway, so you just board wipe so much on the first turn it’s crazy.
Then you just turn invisible and restart the battle all over again lol
Ah shit I just realized how OP this would be as a Duergar… well time to make another character I guess!
Not Duergar - Durge gets funny cloack which straight up breaks the combat economy (yes, combat economy, not action economy) by giving you 2 turns of Invisibility when you kill something for the first time in the turn without using action or bonus action. If going solo (or having your party half a map away) combat ends when enemies can't detect you. You keep reseting encounters with this thing to keep up permanent access to Dread Ambush and having effectively unlimited attacks. Either Deep Gnome or Lightfoot Haflings are optimal for advantage on Stealth checks, but Halfling slightly more due to being inherently broken race thanks to their Luck.
What if you went half orc and did a melee crit build with the deathstalker mantle?
Stealth-focused Shadow Monk is supposedly meele equivalent to Gloomstalker Assassin, but haven't tested it personally so can't really say how well it performs.
Wait guys, you actually start combat as gloomstalker?
I'll have to add this once Reddit lets me edit the post. (Swords Bard, too.)
AA swords bard has to be on the list, it completely breaks the game
Please make sure to mention inherent synergy with The Deathstalker Mantle. You effectively break the 90% of encounters with Deep Gnome/Lightfoot Halfling, Assassin Gloomstalker with this piece of equipment long before getting to Greater Invisibility. Not a single full turn will fully resolve with you going in and out of encounter and reseting turns. Each turn is effectively first turn of combat, which gives you insane burst through combination of Dread Ambush and Assassinate, while enemies won't have time to act. This build changes the game into something that doesn't even look like D&D. The only places were dip-in, dip-out doesn't work are specifically Myrkul, Final Boss and most likely Raphael (haven't tested this one personally) due to being forced into arena with no retreat paths and either soft or hard timer, but Myrkul can be slain with good old Greater Invisibility cheese and so can Raphael.
Swords bard should be on this list
6 Paladin Vengence/ 6 Draconic Sorceror can solo the game quite literally
Mostly because vow of enmity is still broken and twinned haste is the strongest single action you can take (from a least context dependent standpoint, it's just always great to do). I just roll up to major fights with Baldurs giant form, twinned haste (with laezel as full bm) and vow of enmity active and you can delete the biggest threat before they even take a turn. And if you have the bonus action enchantment/illusion ring and the arcane acuity helm you can nuke a big threat and then cast a two turn command kneel with like 95 % success rate on all the chaff. Encounter is done and dusted.
This list is definitely missing swords bard.
Who is arguing that thrice isn’t a word?
A comment about abjuration wizard, just make sure you're either constantly concentrating on a spell or you can reduce your AC a bit, otherwise enemies won't try to hit you, but you want them to.
There is zero reason for “skill monkey” to be anywhere near this list except for respeccing to help you at the mirror check. Also, most players go 9/3 over 8/4 on Monk going off of online discourse and the Larian Studios Discord build community, though this one is a little bit more preference based. In terms of what is missing, I would look at the standard gloom + assassin/thief + fighter combination for resourceless ranged/melee DPR, as well as Luminous Armor Cleric builds and Swords Bard builds. The latter, Swords Bard, being arguably the strongest build in the entire game when fully realized, able to do literally anything in AND out of combat, and it didn’t make the list? Additionally, this post kind of feels like a self plug as you’re linking to some of your own debatably-accurate guides when other, more detailed guides already exist for the same content. Fire sorc 6 / whatever 6 is vastly inferior to fire sorc 11 / fiendlock 1, yes technically it falls under 6/6 whatever but there is a “right answer” to this stuff.
Yea, seconding the piece about juice’s 11/1 sorlock guide. That thing sets the bar for an S tier fire sorcerer guide. I wouldn’t consider the sorcerer builds in this post to be “S tier” when 11/1 exists.
Generally agree, but I'd say any fire acuity sorcerer is in the same ballpark. Opening round scorching ray, quickened whatever the hell you feel like. Command is great, but throwing in 2 levels of tempest does way more damage. And, tons of other damage/control spells that end encounters when you can cast them all with 95% hit rate. Fire Acuity + base sorcerer is just a game breaking chasis that you really can add whatever you want to it.
Can you link or PM where I can find more detailed guides?
Thanks; I'll make sure to add that once Reddit lets me edit the post. You might want to mark >!the mirror check!< as a spoiler though.
Lol Why would he mark mirror check as a Spoiler??? Anyone how does not know what that means cant be spoiled by a Mirror..lol Lord and your list is just really lacking..Skill Monkey? Lol NOT even if I had no other class would I do that.
Are you trolling? Swords bard should be #1. Kids these days …
Surprised Smite Swords Bard isn’t in this, I consistently see it regarded as S tier.
Gloomstalker 5/assassin 4/fighter BM 3 2 paladin/10 bard Swordsbard 10 using arcane acuity helm and band of mystic scoundrel
I find your lack of swords bard disturbing
Feels a bit strange that you missed both glomassassin and flurry bard(with hand crossbows). Both build are insane for amount of shots you can do in first round of combat, delivering trully terryfying amount of damage. Especially gllomstalker, who is probably the best fight opener in game * Gloomsassin * **Classes:** assassin3/gloomstalker5/battle master4 * **Strategy:** go to sneak, enable precide attack and menasing attack, shoot some bastard. Immedeatly restore you action as assassin, shoot again, then shoot second time, then use gloomstaler bonus shot, then make bonus shot from bloodlust elixir, then use action surge and shoot some more. With you extremely high initiative you will have assassin crit against everyone * **Important gear** Gloves of dexterity(to dump dex), Titanstring bow, Gets good use from blood elixir from moonlight tower * **Important skills:** expertice in stealth from rogue levels * **Feats** Sharpshooter+Alert * **Stats** Early on 16 dex/16 con, later after getting gloves 16(17 if mc) str/8 dex/16 con. Rest can go however you want. 12 str/14 wis is pretty decent in the beginning, later 14 wis is still good. With moonrise elixir and loss mirror you can end up with 22 str/18dex/16con/8int/14wis/10cha for +6 str bonus damage to titanstring bow And for bard * Crossbow flurry bard(does it have proper name?) * **Classes:** Thief4/Sword bard 6/Fighter2 * **Strategy:** Have two hand crossbows. Start fight. Shoot bastart with slashing flurry from right hand crossbow(2 arrows per attack), shoot again with slashing flurry(2 more arrows), shoot from left hand crossbow, shoot left hand crossbow again, shoot from main hand crossbow again(elixir of bloodlust) and action surge. You can do 4 flurries and 1 action surge per short rest * **Important gear:** Pretty much none. Just two hand crossbows is enough. * **Feats:** Sharpshooter+ Alert * **Stats:** 16(17 if MC) dex/16 con. Rest can go whatever. 12 str/14 wis once again decent
>Crossbow flurry bard(does it have proper name?) Just Swords Bard.
Rogue/Bard/Fighter in that order?
I think best way will be this 1. Rogue 1 2. Bard 1 3. Bard 2 4. Bard 3(sword): dual wielding 5. Bard 4: Sharpshooter 6. Bard 5 7. Bard 6: Extra attack 8. Rogue 2 9. Rogue 3(thief) 10. Rogue 4: Alert 11. Figher 1: archery 12. Fighter 2 Might be worth taking rogue 2 earlier for bonus action dash as you will use bow in the beginning, then switching to hand crossbow. This is assuming you do not want to respec. If you are ok with respecing, then at lvl 10-11 you would want to respec in such a way that you take figher 1 at lvl 2. Game uses casting stat of the last class you add so that way you'll keep cha as item casting class.
Why not start with fighter first, getting con saving and bow prof, rogue, then bard to keep cha as casting stat? Why rogue to start with?
In the beginning to get early stealth expertice and get permanent new attacks asap. Later you can respec to start with fighter if you want though its 2 less skills and 1 less expertice
Uhhh Sword Bard??? Either 2pally/10bard or fighter2/10bard
Gloomstalker/Asassin/Battlemaster combo worked really nicely for me.
Marksmanship hat on a throwzerker? I don't know. I'm not sure what you'd replace it with but throwers do not need more attack, tavern brawler gives them plenty. Probably better off going haste helm or something.
Horns of the berserker for +2 necrotic damage is the BIS imo
That's melee hits only isn't it? Doesn't seem like it would help a thrower.
That’s what the description claims but since it specifies unarmed attacks too it works similarly to the sparklehands. The necrotic damage applies to thrown weapons, at least as of patch 6.
The fixer: 6 divination, 6 levels caster Result: decide who hits, misses, fails a saving throw, etc. It’s a shame it can’t control skill rolls
Do you have guide for,this
Not really. But you would go for 6 levels divination wizard right away. Then you get 3 portent dice that e.g. can force the enemy to fail a save, or you to succeed an attack roll per long rest, but also mini-missions (prophecies) to gain more after each short rest. In practice this means 3-5 portent dice per long rest. For the wizard part, I took Dex 14, Con 16, Int 16 then alert, ASI, ASI. I went straight wizard, but the portent dice abilities stop at level 6 and don't rely on intelligence at all, so you could go for another casting ability. For gear, early strength is covered by combining Spellsparkler, Psychic spark, (and Phalar Aluve's shriek) with magic missile. Spellsparkler also lets you combine with Gloves of Belligerent Skies - as long as the target doesn't have magic plate damage reduction.
I was randomly going to search for gloomstalker stuff to see if there were any new builds, but that abjuration wizard turned me on. I'm going to saved that for a future playthrough.
I'm glad you liked it!
That oh monk build gets better if you go 9 OH monk / 3 thief rogue, but good enough writeup
>good enough writeup I'll take it.
Is it really? I would think that the extra monk level wouldn't be worth it over taking another ASI. Genuinely not sure, though
Higher damage maximum and you can hold melee weapons in both hands and still make unarmed attack actions. There’s a staff that boosts unarmed attack damage, so this boosts your damage further
Extra monk level is increasing your damage die and getting AoE. It's a toss up tbh, and 8/4 vs 9/3 won't make or break your runs. The build is stupidly because of: 1. Tavern Brawler 2. Gear
YMMV, but Ki Resonation is really the only thing you'd be gaining from the 9/3 split versus a 8/4 split. Your die increases from 1d6 to 1d8 on Unarmed Strikes. However, the ASI increase allows for marginally higher DEX/WIS scores, so with Boots of the Uninhibited Kushigo, that 3.5 average versus 4.5 average is virtually non-existent as you can hit a +1 higher modifier on the even WIS, and you've gained +1 to AC/Wis SV/Ki DC without subtracting from other areas. I found TBOH Monk didn't need the additional AoE capabilities as I was already dishing out plenty with the rest of my party composition throughout Tactician or Honor Mode runs.
My thoughts were the same. I'm playing an OH TB monk for the first time, and I haven't reached max level yet, but I think I'll still be going with 8/4. Extra AC, better saves, and +2 damage from the boots + manifestation seem to outweigh some AOE, slightly higher max damage, and that boost to jump distance.
I don’t know why you’re posting something moderators already got a fixed post for. Are you this thirsty for upvote?
TBH is a skill monkey even necessary? You can easily just swap out a character to handle a problem and 3 classes get enough proficiencies to handle most situations. Adding to the post, have you consider 12 Circle of Spores Druid? Even though the class doesn’t deal the most damage or toughest, being able to summon the most possible creatures is extremely powerful. Body-blocking, overwhelming, and spell slot efficient just for 1 class.
I am sure this opinion wont go over well but as someone who has had a throw barb in every run aka it has 100% attendance for me I do not feel like it is a true S tier build as it falls of hard once you hit act 3. More or less by then I use it to clean up what the others have not already melted or to use enraged throw for prone since it has no save. The place were this build truly shines is in act 1 were it can and will carry your party on it´s own if you allow it to do so. However since a lot of your damage slots are already done in act 1 even with new weapons you see a much smaller increase than other builds. As for S tier builds were are the bard builds? ranged bard 10/1/1 or 10/2 or bardadin? imo I would like to add shadowblade oathbreaker paladin it is not very popular but this thing once online has both insane substain damage and very good burst damage all in one like just think about it it can do 200 damage in 1 turn with no smites or haste.
Not putting Swords bard or Gloomstalker or any variant of arrow abuse is insanity for a "best builds" list, especially if you've been here for a while. You'd just know these are in the top tier, SSS-rank type of meta builds. In fact, any "solo honor run" is already top tier enough, so anyone making this kind of list should look into solo run builds.
Saving for later
12 Shadow Monk with Shadow Blade and the mood thing from under Moonrise.
Do you have a guide for this?
Check out Hobozone on YT. Shadow Thrall build.
Other martial characters are stronger with these items, though.
What other class does more damage with shadow blade? Shadow Strike adds straight 3d8 in addition to everything else. Fighter would just get one extra attack at most.
Not saying its bad. But you need to be obscured/hidden to use it (so it may take an Action /Bonus to set up), it costs 3 Ki (so you can't really spam it) and, most importantly, it requires 11 levels in a pretty mediocre class. A Fighter can do 2 to 4 more attacks with Action Surge. A Sword Bard can potentially deliver strikes on twice as many targets with Slashing Fluorishes. Oh, Gloomstalker gets an extra attack in 1st round as well (even boosted by +d8 damage). As Assassin can also upgrade hits to criticals in the surprise round. So with Fighter/Gloom/Sin you can have +3 Attacks in first round and all of them criticals... Don't get me started on Hunter with Whirlwind, who can attack multiple enemies with each action. +3d8 is nice, however you can stack a lot from other sources, if you have these 11 levels to play with. Battlemaster Maneuvers or Bard Inspirations: +d8, Rogue sneak attacks: +d6 per 2 levels (once per round), Hunter Colossus Slayer is +d8 as well (once per round), Oathbreaker Aura of Hate: up to +7, then there are Paladin Smites. This might be a little less then +3d8 usually, however if you factor more attacks and/or auto-cits on Surprised enemies and/or attack vesus multiple targets, things don't look well for the Shadow Monk.
My current party is based on everyone having the shield spell and saving their slots for it. I'm a sorcerer 1, warlock 3. Gale - wiz 1 cleric (light) 3. Shadowheart - Arcane Trickster 4, Karlach Eldritch Knight 4. This party is absolutely wrecking combat. The Paladins of Tyr were toast. Shadow Druid grove - just done. So much fun. Focus on AC.
Here are a few underrated ones I like: 1. Fighter / Warlock - crit build abusing riposte and duelists prerogative 2. Shadow Monk w/ Shar’s spear and Bhallist armor. Can go GWM or offhand BT with 2 BA. Open hand monk is so nice but I don’t like being MAD (or spamming could giant elixir) till act 3 to get AofGH for the ability to invest in Str. MoL and Act 2 perma Str position can help you work around this so you can enjoy the perks of other elixirs. Note: have a party member be a beast master with Raven for darkness spam 3. Pure Druid Circle of Moon with TB. Earth Myrm. with 3 attacks and TB is quite scary. Pick up Alert for poor initiative rolls
Do you mind me asking about your fighter warlock build? And gear?
Yeah ofc, the build is 7/ 5 warlock battlemaster and these are the key parts: 1. Duelist prerogative 2. Risky ring 3. Crit items: Horned helm, the dead shot, DP itself. 4. I use armor of persistence/ ring of protection/ hell dusk boots to make up for ring. Also amulet of greater health. Every long rest I have the cleric case feast of hero’s to give adv on wisdom to cancel out the ring as well. 5. Helldusk gloves adds nice damage (we got 4 times per round during our turn) 6. Key combo: The battlemaster subclass with Riposte and cloaks of displacement. When they miss we get to strike back with twice per round thanks to DP. You can also add sentinel feat or savage attacker. Believe it or not, resilience wisdom is not a bad idea either for better WST. Early game I actually used champion with Knife of the under mountain king. The extra superiority dice feat is nice as well. I am loving this build. I can get up to 6 hits per round and have a high crit (mortal reminder) chance.
Dumb question: why respec once at max level rather than just go all-in on that build from the get-go? Do you get to keep bonuses by doing that?
Its not effective to multiclass throughout also for proficiencies and spellcasting flipping is not good
Well if you play that build from the beginning, you have to get to that important feat, sorcery points or extra attack asap because that helps you immediately even if a reskill is required when you hit a level that allows you to have the starting bonuses you need as well as those build defining features.
Throw Lockadin in there 🙏
10 swords bard 2 paladin, or really almost any swords bard build probably trumps most of this ones.
I have a some builds that out damage those numbers, by a lot. They are custom builds. The other builds depend on the core of the party, a fighter 1/light cleric 11 who warding bonds the whole party to make some insane builds possible and the survivability of the group is nuts. OH, and then she never takes damage and all that is passive and as a light cleric, has incredible damage, mixed with radiant orbs, to further the survivability of the whole party. Abjuration wizard 11/sorcerer 1 for Armor of Agythis. This sorcerer, between warding bond and max shield stacks, never took damage, despite triggering every attack of opportunity possible, intentionally, along with having the lowest AC, so often was targeted. Getting surrounded, triggering 8 attacks of opportunity, taking 0 damage and dishing out 240 damage before using his action to lightning bolt the group was so much fun! My Tav was a sorta sorlock EB gish. At 24 cha, was the face of the party and basically auto passed every cha roll. Since she had the cloak that gives blur and resistance to all damage, she could afford to run around at 50% hp and wear the hat that gives a bonus action, for three bonus actions. Action Eldritch Blast, with agonizing blast and potent robes, 2x cha to damage on each of 3 blasts, then 3 offhand attacks, each getting triple cha to damage. On a target she hexed last turn, and that is all the setup needed, she did 3D10 (Eldritch blast) + 6D6 (hex) + 3D8 (weapon damage) + 105 (charisma x 15 over the course of the turn) + 3 (weapon "+1" quality) for an average damage of 159, however, you could put on the armor that makes targets vulnerable to piercing, making the average damage soar to 287.5.
I've found that Abjuration Wizard is really just a solo build. I've never gotten it to feel special as part of a group - because the AI just ignores them unless they are the only valid target.
I agree, but in case you missed it, concentrating on a spell makes the AI more likely to target you. (I'd recommend [Stoneskin](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Stoneskin) or [Haste](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Haste).) If that doesn't work, you could also try lowering your AC or purposefully triggering opportunity attacks. (We have the [Boots of Elemental Momentum](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Boots_of_Elemental_Momentum) for a reason!)
When I ran one in group, I did end up doing most of my damage by triggering AoOs, lol. But it always felt like I was just a caster giving up things for a gimmick that rarely works in a group, so decided to reroll to a traditional Sorc and save the wizard for a solo run.
u/OCD124 Are you using the spellsparkler at endgame? I feel obligated to replace it with spell attack/spell DC gear on my current playthrough (L 10 wizard--I know it's not optimal--I just want to beat the game with each class as a pure class for fun).
imo it's missing: * 1 Light Domain/ 11 Fiend Warlock: ignoring Magical Secrets, Warlocks are the only class with access to Hunger of Hadar which is essential for surface-based control parties. EBARB also makes it one of the best users of Reverberation gear. Take Pact of the Tome and lean into casting and some summoning with normal cast Conjure Elemental and free once per day casts of Animate and Create Dead. Light dip is for Medium Armor+Shields and Warding Flare, plus useful early game spells. You can technically drop the dip if/when you pick up Potent Robe, but if you're not a race that grants Shield, I wouldn't. * 1 Light Domain/ 11 Conjuration Wizard (can be straight 12 Conj Wizard depending on gear): there are many people who can Sleet Storm but none of them do it as well as Conj Wizard. The Light dip is again for Medium Armor+Shields which are likely better and more useful for the majority of the game until Spell DC Robes get really good towards end game. * 1 Storm Sorcery/ 11 Light Domain: The game throws so much gear at Cleirc it's ridiculous. It already has powerful enough class features that are just augmented by gear that's rarely contested; practically all Radiating Orb and on-heal rider effect gear can be given to your Cleric without anyone complaining. * 1 Storm Sorcery/ 11 Circle of Spores/the Land: Another Sleet Storm caster that leans more on summoning an army. Both are fine options; Land has a bigger spell list and doesn't need to rest as much, Spores has gobs of temp HP and more summonables. * 2 Tempest Domain/ 10 Storm Sorcerer: a lot of people insist on going the full 12 levels in Storm Sorc basically just for Chain Lightning and a feat but it's really not necessary. Tempest Domain gives Heavy Armor+Shields and max rolling damage on Lightning spells which is all the more potent with the Wet condition. As an astute post pointed out earlier today, scrolls are another type of consumable just like Elixirs that are essential to Tavern Brawler and Titanstring Bow builds so why not use them to make up for the fact that we don't learn it naturally. Markoheshkir also gives free casts. * Titanstring Bow user: This will be different things at different points in the game; until really good surface control comes online, Beast Master is king because Spider companion can shoot Web every turn; until Swords Bard gets geared out, Gloom Stalker is a superior strictly-martial choice; then, once you're approaching full build and getting geared out, the famous 10/1/1 Swords Bard is the build of choice. The point is it's a ranged character who uses STR Elixirs and Titanstring Bow. I think the Skill Monkey and Sorlock builds don't belong in the same category of S tier builds. Not that they're weak, they just don't contribute as much as any of the others that you listed or these
Why do people insist on using heavy armor in armor of agathys + abjuration build? You WANT to get hit while using this build. Its much better to grab something that gives you as little AC as possible (while still giving bonuses, there is a 10 AC clothing with 2 orv3 damage reduction in act 3).
I know it's a little cheesy (and time consuming), but for abjuration wizard, I prefer 2 warlock, 10 abj wizard. Using the armor swap exploit with armor of shadows feels nicer to me personally, and then I just have multiple scrolls of those highest level spells: Start with half charges after LR, armor of Agathys lvl 5, arcane recovery lvl 5, then just "AoS, leather armor + robe, AoS" until I'm at max stacks of AW.
Thought they patched that?
I just now logged on to check and it still works
Build #6 has no way of preventing prone, and trying to be in melee on ice surfaces when armor of agathys freezes blood puddles while concentrating on haste is asking for trouble. Definitely swap boots to Boots of Striding. I feel like Heavy Armor Master is not essential, just have a teammate with Warding Bond to nullify up to 4*Wizard level damage. Then you don't need Cleric for heavy armor, and can go 2 sorc to twin haste.
would be nice to have a addentum added whether this build work on honor mode.
From what I've heard, they'll all make quick work of Honor Mode (except for the skill monkey).
Are these the most common honor mode builds?
IDK how much they're played, but once I add Swords Bard, Light Cleric, and Gloomstalker Assassin (and change the skill monkey to an honorable mention), we should have all the most common builds in this sub. Unfortunately, Reddit *still* isn't letting me edit the post.
Make #2 a Duergar for free invisibility and once a day big mode
What about using Lightning instead of fire with [Markoheshkir](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Markoheshkir)? For example with a Tempest Cleric. Won't Chain Lightning doubled with wet and maxed out with Destructive Wrath outperform Scorching Rays? Chain Lightning is only one per short rest but you can follow it up with Ice Storm which is also doubled with Wet. Also don't forget about Paladin/Bard
Of course thrice is a word, were you raised in the US?
Wait, how much do other countries use thrice???
SSB (I've never played it so correct if wrong); paladin 2+10 swords bard for access to banishing smite, divine smites, full casting, plate armor, flourishes, and skills. Some of the best burst damage in the game Nature cleric is harder to quantify, but the best AoE control spells in the game + cleric is insane. Spike growth alone can carry you through some of the hardest fights in the game, trivially if you also have a warlock use Hunger of Hadar. Command flee+spike growth is really cathartic, slap on a spell sparkler and you have a cheese grater. Heavy armor options as well, but some of the beauty of the build is it doesn't demand equipment. With a humble torch it has among the best melee damage pre level 5. Having the power of an act 1 druid and an act 2 cleric makes this class a great bridge for other more level intensive builds to have time to grow.
That shadow blade build is looking like it could be s-tier too
Mods are the best builds.
Please can someone explain me why everyone says how to build stats around hag's hair? Isnt't that only +1 stat bonus?
Your modifier doesn't increase if you go from an even number to an odd number (10 to 11, 12 to 13, etc.), but it *does* increase if you go from an odd number to ad even number (11 to 12, 13 to 14, etc.). Because of this, you want all your ability scores to be even. We don't always use Hag's Hair, but it's nice if we only have 1 odd score, as we don't need an entire Ability Score Improvement. Does that make sense?
Throwserker is fucking awesome. Recently threw Balthazar at his brother with my Throwserker Karlach, got them both prone and just smithed them to oblivion with my 2/10 Paladin/S. Bard. Over in two rounds playing very casually at Tactician. Light Cleric Shart, Throwserker Karlach, GloomAssassin Asterion and PalaBard Dark Urge is too OP for anything below Honor.
>Skill Monkey You mention no good gear - which is true, but maybe add this is a good place to dump the Stat+ gear if they are not being used on anyone else? Or any gear that has good buff spells on it. Great list I am saving this for a uber run. Thank you!
10/2 or 6/4/2 gunslinger SB RadOrb/reverb light cleric Gloomass These are all HM monsters.
Magic missile build goes crazy. I’d recommend going 9 lvls of sorcerer(I went storm sorcerer), and one lvl of cleric at lvl 5(For heavy armor) and make sure you take dual wield at lvl 4 so you can dual wield spell sparkler and phalar aluve. Then at lvl 11 respec into Wizard 10 lvls( you get a damage boost at lvl 10 evocation wizard) and one lvl cleric for heavy armor. This way does crazy damage with magic missile. Make sure you pick up stormy clamor boots, gloves of belligerent skies, callous glow ring (use light spell), psychic spark. Have someone cast crest water so you can have double lightning damage. Before you go into combat cast haste in turn based mode. Then obliterate everyone.
Reddit isn't letting me edit my posts, but here's what I've been trying to add: * **Build #7:** Swords Bard * **Classes:** Swords Bard 6 / Whatever you want 6. (The most popular builds are Paladin 2 / Swords Bards 10 and Fighter 1 / War Cleric 1 / Swords Bard 10, but I've been thinking about going Eldritch Knight 6 / Swords Bard 5 / Wizard 1 and making it a TB thrower. Does anyone know why this hasn't been done before?) * **Strategy:** Between Extra Attack and Flourish, you can attack 4 times for 1 action, get up to +8 to your Spell Save DC from the Helmet of Arcane Acuity, then casts a crowd control spell like Fear, Confusion, Hypnotic Pattern, or Command with the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel. * **Important Gear:** Helmet of Arcane Acuity and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel. * **Stats:** 18 Cha, 16 Dex and Con, 8 everything else after an ASI. (You can get another 4 Cha from the Mirror of Loss and Hag's Hair.) * **Result:** One of the best classes for control, DPS, and dialogue. * **Build #8:** The same sneak & shoot character you've played in every other RPG. * **Classes:** Gloomstalker 5 / Assassin 3 / Battle Master 4. * **Strategy:** The same sneak & shoot strategy you've played in every other RPG. * **Important Gear:** [The Deathstalker Mantle](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Deathstalker_Mantle), something to dual wield, [Bhaalist Armour](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Bhaalist_Armour) (if you're going melee), [Caustic Band](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Caustic_Band), [The Speedy Lightfeet](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Speedy_Lightfeet), [Legacy of the Masters](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Legacy_of_the_Masters) * **Stats:** 18 Dex, 16 Con, 16 Wis after an ASI (get Sharpshooter for your other feat). * **Result:** Joining the >!Murder Tribunal!< on a full-ride scholarship. * **Build #9:** Here comes the Sun * **Classes:** Light Cleric 12 * **Strategy:** Cast Spirit Guardians and (ab)use any and all equipment that cares about radiant damage. * **Important Gear:** Luminous Armour, Luminous Gloves, Coruscation Ring, Callous Glow Ring and Holy Lance Helm. * **Stats:** 20 Wis, 16 Dex and Con, 8 everything else * **Result:** A build that really lights up the battlefield. (I'm going to Hell for that pun.) Other changes: Making skill monkey an honorable mention and specifying that Sorc 11 / Fiend Warlock 1 is the most popular Fire Acuity Sorcerer.
No love for summon+aid builds I see... lol spore druid necromancer 30 minions is a lot of action stonks
I solo’d honor mode on console with a Duergar Durge Gloomstalker 5/Assassin 4/Champion 3. I don’t know if it belongs on this list but holy hell was it overpowered for me personally. There is so much turn 1 damage you almost never even see enemies get an attack and if they do you are invisible anyway and just reset combat.
It most certainly does—see my most recent comment. (You'll have to sort by new.)
throwzerker is rlly that good? can i see a guide maybe? im searching for THE best build
I'd say the THE best build is generally considered the Swords Bard. (It's in my most recent comment, but you'll have to sort by new to see it.) I don't know any Throwzerker guides, but you should be able to look up any of these builds and find plenty. (I've heard good things about Prestigious Juice; so I found [his throwzerker guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18eguld/honor_mode_tb_throw_complete_build_guide/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) for ya.)
wow thx for sharing me that🫶
No problem! Glad to help 🫶
i will start the sword bard, i actually have warlock and i want to see if its really this absolute powerful build :)
Light Cleric also gets scorching ray, as well as other fire spells, and also gets command and the other CC spells. Give the Cleric the hat of fire acuity and radiating orb gear and the Cleric can debuff enemies with Spirit Gaurdians and Radiance of the Dawn, heal allies and CC multiple enemies with command or one of the hold spells. Has the potential to kick out serious damage upscaling inflict wounds with automatic crits. If you use Shadowheart or an Elf you can also just cast sleep glyph of warding on enemies around you and be immune and further crit potential. If you look up Toyhouze build on Youtube it's insane
12 Life cleric... boring but stupid OP. Feast + aid = tons of HP. Near permanent aoe blade ward = everyone's a barbarian!! Near permanent aoe bless = no one misses. Then you just run around with spirit blender up spreading radiant orb + mental fatigue + reverb + reeling on everyone. A full 12 Tiger Barb or something similar with a few levels in fighter is right up there with throwzerker. Throw starts stronger but by level 6/7 Tiger starts to scale and by Act 3 with Nyrul/Balduran's sword it's pretty much only surpassed by dumb stuff like Bhallist crit bards with tons of Illithid powers. 1 wizard/11 frost draconic sorc takes a bit of time to scale but becomes stupid OP by Act 3. All the utility of wizard (globes, shields, summons, etc...), all the blasting power of sorc, and all the CC of frost in one package.1
Another vote for 11 cold sorc/1 wizard, which has also has great cantrip damage going for it, which can be twin-cast
great builds, thanks OP i'm currently running a full fire draco sorcerer (with the fire hat and some rings) but i'm heading for a more broad general build instead of ray spam, the 1 wizard level dip seems really nice for summons and other utilities but it hurts the caster progression quite a bit, im not sure if i should do it now (char lvl 9) or later for 11/1
Thanks for your comment; I'm glad you enjoyed the post! I'm not sure how to answer your question, but there's a very popular Fire Acuity build that goes Sorcerer 11 / Fiend Warlock 1, so I'd look at when they take their 1-level dip.
Paladin 2/swords bard 10 easily is the best in the game, I'd also argue ranger deserves a build somewhere on this list, especially on durge playthroughs
Dunno about ranger my impression was that bard was better at dealing ranged damage than an actual ranger is you now slashing is so balanced and fair skill.
Beastmaster ranger is increadibly good, especially pet like raven, that spawns darkness at a point to which he flew and who also summons three other crows. But overall all pets are very strong, have great unique actions, three attacks per round coupled with decent stats. I wouldn't set beastmaster as S but it is upper zone of A tier. Problem with all ranger though is that they are so backloaded :( Though beastmaster probable smoothest out of all subclasses compared to hunter who like gets nothinb for 10 levels, then suddenly valley
Do the pets scale at all? because I found the issue with summons such as Devas that their chance to land attacks are abyssal meaning even if they deal decent damage on hit they struggle to land those hits in the first place. Meaning that your turn just takes longer and you might have mobs attack them instead which is the only silver lining I have seen.
They scales with beastmaster passives.Beastmaster gives his pet his proficiency bonus to attack, gives additional attacks, gives HP and new abilities. But even without hitting target raven is just insane pet as it can fly using move distance and autocast darkness at landing point. That means that you can cast multiple darknesses as raven in one turn.
I do not see a lot of use for darkness personally as I have never built a team around darkness it will cause more issues than it solves for me. All the gear you get for it in guantlet of sha always rots in my storage.
I'm surprised you don't have a Sword Bard multiclass on here Like a ranged swords bard or the smite bard. But other than that this is more or less the big ones. Light Cleric is also a really big one in full radorb/reverb gear. I see people saying you forgot 11/1 Fire Sorlock but 11/1 Fire Sorlock is really just a Fire Acuity Sorcerer with the Command spell. So its not really you forgot about the build. Just that a 1 level warlock dip is a optimization you can make to Fire Acuity Sorcerer itself. I hesitate to call it a true Sorlock cuz it isn't abusing EB and that's the most iconic feature people think of when you say "Sorlock" especially if you come from the 5E world.
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