The BEST ARCHER in Baldur's Gate 3 - Honor Mode Build Guide
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ส.ค. 2024
- Want your character to one shot enemies before they ever know you were there, solve encounters from the shadows, and output massive damage completely unseen? Look no further! In this quick build guide I'll go over the hows and whys of the best character for sniping, assassination, and stealth in Baldur's Gate 3, perfect for Astarion or a main character on Honor or Tactician Modes and one of the best solo characters in the game!
This character uses Gloomstalker Ranger, Assassin Rogue, and Battle Master Fighter to get massive damage, tremendous stealth checks, and overwhelming power as a true D&D sniper!
0:00 Intro and Build Goals
2:27 Level 1 Build
5:44 Subclass Selection
8:42 Ranger
13:59 Subclass Selection
17:05 Feat Selection
20:49 Fighter
22:37 Subclass Selection
23:04 Level 12 Respec
25:58 Items and Typical Combat - เกม
Hey pals! As mentioned a couple times in the comments, there's an error with the final respec for this build. More optimal is Rogue 3 / Ranger 5 / Fighter 4, gaining the same increased hit points and feats, while maintaining access to Pass Without Trace and Misty Step. Apologies for the mistake!
Would it be slightly more optimal to respec at level 12, to go Fighter 4/Rogue 3/Ranger 5? It's very marginal, but my thinking is that starting with Fighter would allow you to start with heavy armour proficiency, so you could then take something other than Ranger Knight from the Ranger Favoured Enemy, such as Bounty Hunter to more easily cast Ensnaring Strike?
Pretty frustrating for a new player to have to find some of your builds not mentioned at all.
Also, I have no stealth option under the 4/4 row.
@@StrickenBiged agreed
Gloom stalker 5 then assassin 3 then champion 4 while leveling then the respec champion 4 gloom 5 bounty hunter and assassin 3 your looking for items that lower the crit hit number
@Flying_Miku I was thinking this as well actually, since you get some GOOD benefits. And with the level 1-4 in 20 minutes guide, you get a decent amount of the ranger benefits almost immediately
I went with a Gloomstalker Ranger as my first character and I had Astarion going as an Assassin Rogue. Then I realized there abilities compliment eachother so well, that I went hand had Astarion multiclass into a Gloomstalker Ranger and my main took 3 levels in rogue to become an assassin. Even on tactician, those two take out most encounters before the enemies even get a chance to react.
I need to try a group of 4 assassin, like an assassin guild 😂 gotta be fun
My 2 assassins cleared the entirety of the goblin camp without ever getting hit. They can open combat on the same target and insure it dies, then back to the shadows. So amazing for a no reload run.
If playing as Durge, the cloak you get very early on makes Astarion (or your Durge character if playing this archetype) next level.
My Sorcerer is the Dark Urge, but I did it specifically to give Astarion the cloak.
Going invisible after killing someone is bad ass
its crap because its only one time per turn, maybe only in beginning its good when you kill npc per turn but later its useless
@@kiemugen9830 No its not xD It gives you guaranteed advantage I.e. sneak and it makes it so NPCs basicly will never be able to attack your ranger which in a lot of cases will be your squishiest member
this is like skyrim... so many great builds and abilities... but i always end up on the stealh archer doing 70% of the kills by himself
You must resist this urge
Try a barbarian or a monk something that will force you to fight in melee
I my self am tired of steath archer i tried bard with him till lvl 6 im tempted to go back to arcane trickster
Same but I always used big armor and big two handed weapon instead, ooga boga
Going to run this for my fourth playthrough as party lead :). Amazing guides.
At level 1 ranger, the beast tamer selection can let you use the raven which can blind, as well as fly to your enemies to proc the advantage for your sneak attacks
The cat can also help positionning your target
Very good BG3 Vids! Subscribed
I have so many build/team comp ideas - too little time
I'm surprised you have under 30k subs. Your builds are quality. Getting Ranger 5 is key. I saw another build that was thinking of taking Cleric/War Priest at level 12. Skipping the 2nd feat for extra attacks and low level cleric spells/cantrips. Might have to see how that works when I get to 12.
Pure Battlemaster ranged fighting style, sharpshopter, luck of the far realms, and smokepowder/many target arrows, action surge, haste.
At 12th level you have 9 attacks per round, precision strike, can crit several enemies on the first shot, then destroy them easily
Ceph if you are looking for suggestions for videos I'd love to see a guide on Illithid powers and maybe a build that can synergize well with them.
Love the content. Keep at it!
Thanks! I intend to :D
Fog Cloud is working as intended. Characters inside the cloud are heavily obscured and blinded, attacks against a heavily obscured target have disadvantage, however attacks against blinded targets have advantage cancelling it out. Attacks from outside a fog cloud are *mostly* unimpeded. As blinded characters can only attack directly adjacent characters, using this spell on your own party is usually a bad idea.
The funny thing I've found with fog cloud is if you crouch and you walk into it the ranged enemies will just stand there confused as to what to do but the melee enemies will come in and try to find you
Umbral shroud just saved my honor mode run when the Owlbear encounter went completely wrong. Ranger escaped and got Withers to res the other 3. First time I have ever died there but glad I did not have to replay that first 2 hours again.
This is GOLD JERRY! GOLD!
Personally, I'd subclass as Thief in Rogue for the extra bonus action. Paired with the "cloak of cunning brume" you can get in Last Light Inn, you can make all your attacks, then use your cunning actions to disengage (which creates a fog cloud with the cloak) then hide to become essentially undetectable until it's your turn again. It sacrifices that extra attack on the opening round of combat, but when the enemies are skipping their turns because they can't see you it doesn't matter too much. Bit of a cheeseball strategy, but it's safe and effective at handling most encounters.
The bonus is good and the best if you are running dual handbows but for a regular longbow in general assassin will be better in terms of damage. Although that cloak is great it will still work very well with only 1 bonus action available when rocking longbows with the exception ofc of not being able to re-applying hunters mark the same round which is completely fine by the time you get both items depending on how much side quests you tend to do ofc.
Obviously the longer a fight goes on the more assassin benefits trails off but since most encounters, even boss fights, tend to be quite short assassin's insane R1 damage means you can almost half an encounter right away
Edit: ALTHOUGH another good point about your build is also that you can use this bonus action to get more out of shade-slayer cloak as well. Basicly use those bonus actions to hide to get -1 on critt chance. So it might actually be that thief rogue catches up with assassins quite quickly in just a few rounds if you got enough reduced critt chance
@@pepparmostheelder In my current playthrough I'm using the illithid power called mind sanctuary, which lets me used that extra bonus action from theif as a full action. I get 6 attacks for 3 rounds of combat. really handy for tthose bigger fights.
@@Jmandude5 Doesnt work on honour mode though. Mind sanctuary acts as a haste there but yes on tactician and lower that must be hella strong. Still a very strong ability in honour mode obviously but significantly less so
@@pepparmostheelder haven't unlocked honor mode yet
One thing to add so I can shill for thief archer... you can wear the lightning charge boots (if you dash, get 3 lightning charges). That means you can pretty much getting lightning charges every round + sneak attacking which grants extra 1 attack roll + 1 lightning damage. On the second round, you will be able to get sneak attack again but with the bonus of 5 lightning charges, to deal massive 1d8 lightning on top of the other bonus, which is huge for early game. You won't have risky ring then, so you can't guarantee being able to sneak attack + sharpshooter feat without an extra bonus action (hide).
Obviously, if you plan on skipping dialogue and just attacking from stealth everytime, assassin wins hands down.
For me it's thief no matter what. Assassin is absolutely amazing for first round but thief is so powerful EVERY round.
I think having momentum (not the passive, I mean the word) is more important than anything else, hence why Assassin can be absolutely filthy.
I used to carefully hide and place my Gale before each encounter just for that massive T1 spell
Wow I kept casting fog cloud on enemies and then I wasn't able to attack them🤦♀️ but I'm supposed to cast it on myself. Gotchya😅 thank you so much for the great guides!
😂
Would love to see a video about a full party guide to take on honor mode!
Coming soon! :D
I know it doesnt go with this specific vid but i was wondering if its possible to do a full druid party since in a sense a druid can fulfill multiple roles depending on the build
The funny thing with all the builds I see there is mention of Ethel's hair, sadly not all party members can use the hair. It would be great if you could, lol.
I love your videos!
That's an awesome build, i do use Astarion as my lockpick companion so i love it.
Could you make a version for the Spore Druid?
Knock is my lock picking companion.
As i am playing tjis build while leveling it up, from the start of the game and onwards, should u stick to bow?
Do i take what deals more dmg on my journey?
Ty.
21:00~ I realize this is an old ass video, but maybe someone could answer this question for me:
If I am planning on using two hand crossbows on Astarion, would it not be better to take the "Two-Weapon Fighting" Style as opposed to the "Defence" Style? Or would "Defence" still be better? Just curious. Thanks in advance if anyone can help me out with this!
i've been playing a 1 fighter 1 wizard 10 bard control archer for so long then I made a druid which does everything control archer does with the right set up (1 sorc 1 war cleric 10 druid) so i've been looking for a new archer build and honestly this is great i can set up have this guy start surprise rather than going panther form, means i can start as a myrmidon or owl bear rather than panther
i do have a question though why do you not start fighter? pass without trace is concentration and fighter gives advantage on con saving throws leading to it being harder to lose concentration plus it starts with heavy armor proficiency letting you drop ranger knight in favour of another ranger style like fire or frost resistance alongside bounty hunter
For maneuvers I prefer pushing attack, it can often lead to an extra kill in a turn if you knock in chasm.
2 questions what was the background and what do you mean with take aunties deal, let her have your eye?
Is fog cloud bugged? The darkness spell prevents ranged attacks, but fog cloud doesn't. Since darkness is a lvl 2 spell and there is very little functional difference between the two spells, it feels like an intentional choice. If you dont want to be attacked at range, simply hide in the fog cloud, and that should do the trick.
I believe you might have mixed up fog cloud and darkness spells. My understanding is that fog cloud doesn't impede enemies from attacking you, it just makes you heavily obscured, so if they can see in darkness they can see you there. So they can shoot you, it's just that they are more likely to miss if they can't see in the dark. Hiding in the fog cloud might give you the effect you mention if they fail perception to find you.
Now the spell darkness is what you meant I think, if you are inside darkness, no attacks from outside are allowed unless enemy has devil's sight, because it's magical darkness.
Yeah, your right here. Unless there is some targeting thing he knows about, fog cloud shouldnt just offer protection.
but isn't the refreshed action at start of combat kind of analogous to the double shots allowed by the swords bard?
I didn’t see fighting style chosen. We already have archery from ranger. Is dueling or two weapon fighting better?
I'm doing this build solo balanced, mainly because I wanted to play Astarian story and felt like doing ranged. I'm at lv8, steam rolling everything. Don't even have to use scrolls, bombs or even special arrows (except interference & many targets here and there). I'd say biggest power ups were Sharpshooter and Double attack. Given that, if I were to go full rogue till 5 may have been a smoother experience.
what heavy armor do you want from Knight? almost no boots or helms are heavy. Just the one from Grym from what I see
Swords bards can attack 2 times at level 3 with ranged flourish. It can even be the same target. War clerics etc
I’m building a shadow hunter type team: bardlock Durge, Lockadin Minthara, 1Wiz/11Cler Shadowheart, and Archer Astarion. Unfortunately one of the last two characters can’t see in the Lock darkness (one will get the ring). I’m thinking of giving the ring to Shadowheart and doing 2 levels of Lock for this toon for Devil’s Sight instead of Fighter. Then the party walks in, darkness seeps all over, and things start dying until an enemy figures out what’s happening and comes over, only to die horribly to all the advantage having murderers. Curious if that seems reasonably potent instead of the 2 fighter levels. I guess it’s minus two extra attacks. Or I can just give the ring to Astarion and have Shadowheart mostly pre-cast concentration stuff and sit tight.
Here is the build on paper with extra information: docs.google.com/document/d/1OjzKZaDPOLkDjpY7qsibEQCWaiuifI4HAdfxh0AkRNQ/edit?usp=sharing
Here's the build path:
Lvl 1 Rogue (1)
Stats:
12 Str / 14(+2) Dex / 15(+1) Con / 8 Int / 14 Wis / 8 Cha
Skills:
Acrobatics +2 / Sleight of hand +1 / Stealth +2 +1 / Performance +2 / Persuasion +2
Lvl 2 Rogue (2)
Toggle Dual Wielding Off (optional)
Lvl 3 Rogue (3)
Subclass - Assassin
Lvl 4 Ranger (1)
Ranger Knight -> Wasteland Wanderer: Fire -> Athletics +2 or Insight +2
Lvl 5 Ranger (2)
Fighting Style: Archery
Spells: Hunter's Mask / Longstrider
Lvl 6 Ranger (3)
Subclass - Gloom Stalker
Spells: Fog Cloud
Lvl 7 Ranger (4)
Feat - Sharpshooter
Lvl 8 Ranger (5)
Spells - Pass Without Trace or Spike Growth
Lvl 9 Rogue (4)
Feat - Ability Improvement +2 Dex
Lvl 10 Fighter (1)
Fighting Style: Defence
Lvl 11 Fighter (2)
Lvl 12 Respec
Rogue 3 - Ranger 3 - Fighter 2
Lvl 9 Fighter (3)
Subclass: Battle Master
Manoeuvre: Menacing Attack/ Precision Attack/ Trip Attack
Lvl 10 Fighter (4)
Feat: Sharpshooter
Lvl 11 Fighter (5)
Lvl 12 Fighter (6)
Feat: Ability Improvement +2 Dex
Have you played around with the interaction between Pass Without Trace and Greater Invisibility? If you stack enough bonus to stealth checks, and run Elegant Studded Leather you can get some serious round 1 shenanigans. I have already seen a handful of clips downing entire encounters before combat officially starts.
Edit: I could see an entire run built around a Stealth Archer and a Lore5/Sorc7 for Twin Haste (then GI), Song of Rest and Inspiration. Still haven't worked out the ideal split yet, but its a pretty scary duo past level 7.
whats the interaction between those? i'm asking because I genuinly don't know, they're both concentration so i wouldn't think they'd work together on a single character
@@kurtcobane1762 its a bit of an obscure interaction but it creates a lot of shenanigans.
Greater Invis stipulates that you are invisible for the duration unless you make an attack, and that attack rolls a stealth check to see if you drop invis. The roll starts at like 17 and scales by 1 per check.
PWOT gives you a +10 flat bonus to your stealth checks. Meaning you only need a 7 or higher to pass the first check.
The interaction comes with the combat mechanics as the ticker for checking stealth resets between combat encounters. If you make an attack the game rolls stealth checks for all interactions and if you pass all of them you stay out of combat. So with Proficiency, some +stealth gear, and the Elegant Studded Leather armor (advantage on stealth checks) you can make multiple attacks without ever entering combat. As you stack stealth you can avoid combat entirely and just plink bosses while they just wander around confused. Search "BG3 Stealth Archer" on YT and you should find a couple videos showcasing builds
@@bobnewkirk7003 thats really interesting thanks I'll look into it further
Once the build is complete have a section to show how it fares in actual combat.
Decisions, decisions. Assassin with a two-handed bow, or Thief with dual hand-crossbows. Assassin with a two-handed bow seems like it would be better on normal trash encounters, but worse on really high health boss encounters. With Sharpshooter always on, the misses actually hurt way less when using hand-crossbows.
Isn’t it easier to take 5 levels of a hunter at the beginning, so that at lvl 5 there would be an additional attack?, and then take 4 lvl of a rogue thief, then 3 lvl of a champion warrior
If I may suggest, one should start in fighter then only take it to level 3 as per your original setup. The reason I mention that is because doing so will give you concertation proficiency which would enable to keep 'pass without trace' online, You will still have your two attacks, but now you will almost certainly keep the spell which will last the entire day.
hey, how about duergar? advantage on saving throws against poisoned(disadv on attack rolls), superior darkvision and invisibility all sound amazing on a stealthy sneak attack archer.
It is.
Unlimited Invis works great as you can simply stay invisible in-between every single fight making it nearly impossible for enemies to catch you off-guard. And superior darkvision is self explanatory for an archer in act 2. If you are going to stealth/sneak attack route, it's one of the best races IMO.
For everyone saying the Swords Bard version is better, Gloomstalker gives so much more mobility and accessible stealth options, so you’re so much better at getting away and avoiding a TPK, which is much more important if you’re playing Honor Mode.
Sorry, what? How do you work that out? Gloom stalkers entire point is going first and doing the most damage from surprise... which is 1 single addition damage shot on top of your regular attacks..... bard does that better.
Sorry accessible stealth? Are you actually wasting time reestablished stealth every combat or cheesing with the durge cloak? If that is the case, and you are actually getting back into stealth, seriously, need to think about your action economy.
Gloom stalker is fantastic in solo play because it lends itself very well to that playstyle, but for the 85%+ people that don't do solo honor, then bard out classes it significantly. Not mention being infinitely more useful outside if Combat.
I'm sorry pal, but there is no way that any reasonable person could objectively look at both sets of kit and not realise which is better. However I would say that bard start out as powerful as gloomstalker, on that much i would agree, why past level 6 😅 rangers terrible spells and general lack of any real substance hurt it even more.
@@ZeroStyIe you missed my point, “pal”! I didn’t mention anywhere that GS does more damage, or has better spells. My point, which you conveniently didn’t address, is that those things are worth sacrificing in order to gain better mobility and stealth cheese so you can avoid a game over (TPK, or “total party kill”). Yes, I understand that killing enemies more reliably is a good way to avoid TPK, but in advanced difficulty it’s super important to have a good “oh shit” strategy, and GS truly shines in that regard.
You can cover your entire team with 1 smoke arrow if your playing the game with its combat AI and an unmodded state. However if your playing with the modded AI that actually wants to kill you, than. You'd know that and all of that "mobility" that your talking about can be achieved with "clicky heals". With the range of a long bow, there's no real way you'd ever be in a position the have an oh shit movement. Unless it's a few very specific placs/ encounters and at that point if your choosing to play honor mode and your not walking into things prepped, then your a true champ and have the balls of a buffalo, because I'm planinging shit of in advance ever encounter, same way you would when playing DnD.
I’ve just stumbled across your content and find it incredibly helpful a as I still struggle to get my head around many aspects of this game despite the many hours I’ve put in already!
A question: how does putting the 4 dex points saved by using the gloves into wis gain you an additional feat???
Thanks
Thanks! The extra WIS doesn't give you the extra feat - not having to spend an ability score improvement on dexterity does. Without the gloves, you need to take a feat to go from 16 to 18, whereas with the gloves you can spend that on something else.
@@Cephalopocalypse ah yes, that makes sense, thanks. What would you recommend using the saved feat on?
@@chrisw8082 He mentioned taking "Alert" in the video, which gives you bonus initiative and you can't be surprised.
other than astarion what is a good race to choose
Did you ever do the video on breakpoints for every class?
How much difference would it make to start with Ranger and move into Rogue? I am currently following an alternative build that starts with Ranger (up to 5). Ta
I'm late but it play a bit different. You hit the double attack at level 5 which is a huge power spike. Least stealth kills but more damage on longer fight and on boss you cannot surprise
Does the passive critical works with arrows of many targets? If so its gonna be so satisfying to play this now
Yep! Any surprised enemy you get automatic criticals against, no matter how you make the attack - as long as it involves an attack roll and can crit!
I'd probably put Rhapsody in the offhand instead of a shield, considering this build will probably kill a lot of enemies but ideally not get hit that much. +3 to attack, dmg, and spell save DC isn't too shabby after all.
For sure! You can definitely power up this build with itemization, especially late game. The shield will be really good at low levels though, so I think for most of the game you'll want to roll with that.
@@Cephalopocalypse Oh for sure! At least you can get the sword really early, and some really neat shields in Act 2.
why there is no armor piercing arrow which overcome resistance or even immunity? I mean people invited cummulative ammo irl just for that...
Hi nice build, why not start as a fighter to get the proficiency and then multiclass into rogue or ranger ?
Thanks! Basically, skill access - rogues get more and better skills than fighter. If you don't need those skills then you can start fighter
Fog cloud needs you to hide for them to stop attacking you, otherwise they dont see you, you dont see them and attacks should go off as normal per 5e rules :)
Fog cloud isn't bugged, it does exactly what tooltip says. Heavily obscure is just setting light to 0 - if it blocked ranged attacks too, then it would literally just be Darkness. That's why Darkness is a level spell higher, and Darkness builds exist where fog cloud builds don't lol
Personally fighter 6 ranger 3 rogue 3 for me. Extra feat from fighter to do more shenanigans
Don't you lose misty step on reset?
Even though the build is nice, I finde this video very confusing, especially concidering, that in the comments you finde the actual respec. Maybe take the time to reupload next time? Otherwise love your content, especially because you explain every very well.
+1
Kind of an off topic question, but what's your pick for honor mode Tav? Because dialogue checks are now SO important since it enables you to legit just skip entire legendary action boss fights, I feel like it's a throw not to pick a naturally high charisma class. My natural inclination is Paladin/Sorcerer, but the nerf to haste feels SO bad. What's your take?
You can just run around with a charisma character that ain't Tav.
Bard astarion, wyll, minthara if you unlock her etc.
I'm currently running Astarion as Assassin 6 / Battle Master 6 and holy shit, that is awesome. You loose that Gloom shot, but the two APR + Action Surge is enough. Gloom shot is *good*, but it's only one shot per battle. With 6/6 instead, you get three feats, ending up with 20 DEX, which makes quite a difference, especially with Sharpshooter. You also get evasion from rogue, and higher Sneak Damage.
Also an excellent build! Just to talk up gloomstalker a bit though, remember it's not just the extra attack you get - you also get +3 initiative (+2 compared to an ASI) and the bonus movement speed. The extra attack is also I think much stronger than you're giving it credit for - it's an extra attack at the most important point in the combat, when you can very likely generate automatic crits and also any enemies you drop will never get a turn.
Well, that *is* true, but between bloodlust elixers, and haste and speed pots.... I really prefer the increased hit/chance and damage over one attack per battle and minor buffs. If I were to go solo - I'd take a HalfOrc Gloom Durge for max Cheese Play, but for pure arrow damage, I prefer the 6/6.
Waiting to lvl 3 for a 2nd attack. Laughs in Monk. But seriously, good build.
The gloomstalker seems to be broke in my game. I never get the first round second attack.
What was the nerf to elixir of bloodlust on honor mode?
On honor mode, haste and bloodlust actions only allow you to attack once, even if you have Extra Attack. Action Surge will still let you attack multiple times though.
Excellent build!
I have 2 questions, and a tip for the sharpshooter feat:
Tip:
When using the sharpshooter feat (or GWM feat), really the only times it's worth toggling off is if you want to finish off an enemy with low enough health that they'd die with or without the extra damage, or if you *need* to make sure you apply an effect with your attack (like trip attack). Sometimes it's more important to make sure your attack lands than it is to maximize damage.
Questions:
1. When you respec, why not start with fighter instead of rogue to get heavy armor proficiency, so you don't have to take ranger knight? If your first level is in fighter, you should still get their proficiencies. Is there something you miss out on by not taking rogue first?
2. When soloing with this character (particularly for honor mode), do you know if there are some bosses/enemies that you really just can't effectively use stealth/invisibility against? If so, what would be the best strategy for those fights? Just basically try to shoot and run away, maintaining the high ground as much as possible?
I haven't played a rogue yet, let alone in honor mode, but it seems like it'd suffer *a lot* if any bosses could just... See through stealth/invisibility
Thanks! The only thing you really give up by going fighter first is a skill proficiency; mostly that won't matter, but I do imagine it being a little annoying to some players to have their character suddenly not proficient in something they've been able to do all game. There are definitely some enemies that can see invisibility, and there's one in particular that has a very bad interaction with stealth; I think that's the only one that's an issue though - spoiler below:
the boss at the end of act 2 will do an arena-wide attack if it can't see anyone on its turn, that will pull you to it and break stealth
Isn't the Bard version better than the Ranger version? You get more attacks - plus Bard goodies.
Swords bard is also good! You get much higher nova damage, but the main tradeoff is you need to use more resources - you get inspiration dice every short rest starting at level 6 bard, but before that you're a long rest build, and even afterwards you have a much heavier reliance on short rests.
For a bard archer build, check out my video "The Bardic Machine Gun" from last week :D
@@Cephalopocalypse I will check it right away - thanks!
What does 6 fighter / 3 rogue / 3 ranger get you that 3 fighter/ 4 rogue / 5 ranger doesn't? Same number of feats, you might gain like 3 hp, but you loose out on the extra spells and spell slots. Also, would champion be better for this build for the crit chance?
he did say in the comments that theres an error with the final respec and the more optimal build is Rogue 3 / Ranger 5 / Fighter 4
@@EmeraldGames101 ah, didn't see that, thanks.
@@garyco766 np
Races: wood elf, deep gnome, halfling 13:00 in.
Swords Bard also gets "two hits" prior to level 5.
College of swords get extra attack on lvl 6. Wouldn't call the flourishes 2 attacks because they cost a Ressource just like war cleric charges
Can we start as ranger, then rogue and then fighter?
Yep! That will work fine.
What is truly important is:
- assassin (rogue 3)
- gloomstalker (ranger 3)
- sharpshooter (feat)
- extra attack (ranger, fighter, monk, barbarian, paladin 5 or bard 6).
Everything else is bonus, some better than other like battlemaster or more feats for dex, better jumping, better movement, etc...
Aren't you losing out on piercing damage by not having more points in rogue?
That's true - you lose out on 1d6 of sneak attack damage for every 2 rogue levels (so if you were full rogue, you'd have 6d6 total compared to the 2d6 we get here). However, that's once per round, so the actual damage output of additional attacks (from gloomstalker and Extra Attack), battle master maneuvers, and other bonuses from multiclassing outpace the sneak attack damage by a pretty wide margin.
I'm gonna take two handed weapon fighting instead of defence XD
just hide in fog cloud with a bonus action. enemies wont do anything but look for you and fail.
Even on Balance difficulty every enemy kept spotting my stealth character (s) and made stealth builds useless.
I go ranger for 5 into thief
Mix with bloodlust elixir and you get like 6 shots a turn
Fighter 6, Ranger 3, Rogue 3. Is the best.
Really looking forward to seeing your Circle of the Land wildshape version and potetially a multiclass druid version as well.
How bad does a wildshape Land druid suffer from non magical attacks that the Moon gets?
When mentioning charachters that can attack 2 times per round at lvl 3 monk is always overlooked. Don't know why. And they can even have 2 attacks starting from lvl 1, no resource needed!
Because their damage is lower at low levels.
That's true! I'm kind of shortcutting here to discuss characters that are making fully-powered main hand attacks. Monks get great damage, don't get me wrong, but the extra unarmed strikes aren't quite the same category of attack
Hmm elixir of giants.. immediatly in the « preorder » crate, and 3 from tatie Ethel in like 10min walkthrough. Monk is just insane from start to end in bg3 imo
9 monk 3 thief, strength elixirs, the 18 dex gloves, the circlet of intellect and in act 1 you can have crazy high stats across the board. Certified skill monkey and party face comparable to a bard.
21/18/18/17/16/14 with tavern brawler. Enjoy.
lvl 6 fighter vs lvl 6 swords bard is an interesting decision. im a fighter simp but i think bard wins for this particular build.
Idk about taking rogue first. You end up with really weird builds like rogue 3 / ranger 1 at level 4 which just seems really bad compared to 4 levels in one class which gets you sharpshooter. Or rogue 3 / ranger 2 which is really bad compared to ranger 5 with extra attack and sharpshooter.
Agreed. With unlimited respecs there's no reason to put yourself in an early hole.
You're not wrong! I try to present these builds as much as possible with minimal respecs (this one uses one, because it would be *so* damaging to not have any feats until level 10, but usually I try not to use any). I used to include more, but it was very confusing for people, and advanced players who want to optimize their leveling order typically don't need the help.
Why are you pumping so much Con with a range stealth character? 14 Con is enough. Rest should go into Cha if you are main character, and Str if it's a party member.
I think 2 Fighter 10 Swords Bard makes even better Archer. Easier to use with better magic.
How is killing ethel unreliable when you can enable non-lethal attacks
If you have a way to get dex to 20 without using a feat, I have another build option that would be pretty sweet. (Sorry for the long winded comment incoming)
Assassin Rogue 3
Gloomstalker Ranger 3
Swords Bard 6.
Swords bard adds some more skill expertise, an extra short rest, more spell slots and utility spells, you still get extra attack at level 6, and bardic inspiration you can use as flourishes to attack twice per attack. You lose out on maneuvers and action surge (two attacks) but trade it for the flourishes (5 attacks per short rest).
To start combat you can make two attacks using a bardic inspiration flourish, combat starts and your attack resets, you flourish your two attacks to make 4 attacks and then make your free gloomstalker attack. If you kill someone with elixer of bloodlust active, then you can flourish two more times like before for 4 more attacks. 9 attacks without bonus actions and if it’s a surprise round, all crits. Flourishes add your bardic dice to damage too.
One short rest (which you have three of) and everything is reset
Your build is worse than rogue 3 / ranger 5 / fighter 4 in every way. It's the same amout of feats, the same amount of hit points but less spell slots and no misty step and spike growth.
As a true DND player. I love Multiclassing when it makes sense lore wise. But hate Multiclassing when it just takes advantage of the mechanics. Multiclassing is one of those things like good bacteria. You need good bacteria to survive. But when you say "bacteria" you instantly think..."gross".
sounds like you're looking for my Lore-friendly builds or my basic class builds ;)
@@Cephalopocalypse Oh, I didn't see those!
I understand its a good SOLO run build. But there is no way you can tell me this can knock out the same damage as a swords bard archer (no not a the memey crossbow ones).
Yeah; that's what I was thinking. By the way, what's generally the best weapon set-up for a ranged Swords Bard? 2 handbows or longbow?
I prefer longbow
@@lucavestena6781 Thanks!
Titanstring bow (paired with a hill giants pot), is the bedstraw damage bow in the entire game and you can have it by level 3 😅 weirdly bard works significantly better with a long(or short)bow better than the crossbows that they were intended to you.
@@ZeroStyIe I see. Can you explain why longbows are particularly better for Bards?
You speak to fast man
You can change playback speed on a video using the settings - hope that helps!
Wouldn't it be better to start the first five levels as Ranger to get Sharpshooter + Extra Attack online asap?