Check out The Seeker's Guide to Enchanting Emporiums here! www.kickstarter.com/projects/eldermancy/the-seekers-guide-to-enchanting-emporiums?ref=bzlr8m
@@DnDDeepDive Man you answered that quickly :D ur awesome! I have been trying to perfect a pacifist support build. Utilizing the Warlock Genies lvl 10 bottle respite mechanic and 2 lvls of moon druid. I use wild shape to hide while holding concentration. normally the build goes best with setting up beforehand. Taking advantage of my ability to use my pact of the chain Familiar and being able to still sense things while still inside my Genie bottle. also pacifist only in the sense i didnt want to be doing damage in combat, becuz i find combat one of the most boring aspects, only cuz of how long it takes. so being a character who tries to end combat situations in out of the box ways was my goal. If you could also include any magic items you would look out for. I notice u never do that in your builds for good reason, but im just curious is all. The more i write this out it seems like a dumb idea. But i love it and hope u can make it even better. especially becuz you take your builds to high level.
@@DnDDeepDive I laos made this comment...... not realizing this was a BG3 video lol. I wanted you to do it for a DnD5e build video. i apologize for that mix up lol
Regarding the balancing around haste and pact of the blade etc: I think Larian understand that broken features are fun and that they are not really problems in single player games. Just play the game like you want to. But since they want to make Honor Mode a real challenge, they changed it for this mode only
see, as a powergamer, I don't find broken features fun when replaying things. I want to feel okay choosing other things, which I won't do if one option for the build (cough Great Tavern Weapon Sharpshooter Master Brawler) is the obviously-best pick.
But that just seems like it's harder to do, coding it specifically for Honor Mode. And more confusing for the players, having to remember that it works differently in different game modes. It seems like it would have been better to fix it for all.
@@dylanboczar999 I disagree, there's no real absolute best pick for everything. I play a super OP optimized party and I'm constantly shifting things and finding even better ways to deal with different fights, I challenge myself with ending every fight in 2 turns max - the optimization never ends. You can make so many things "broken" - I'm really enjoying finding those combinations. Yet I see way more people struggling with just a normal difficulty than people that think it's too easy, so with those people in mind I think having a lot of possibilities for stumbling onto an OP solution really makes the game more fun for a general audience.
I think both arguments are valid for this one. Thing for me is I’m going to feel like I’m cheating using those builds in tactician in the future knowing they patched them out of honour mode :/
@@hemogoblin6789 keep in mind that 90% of players won't touch honour mode. So changing for everyone would have impacted the experience of a vast majority who won't care about that change. So making the effort is appreciated, but I'm happy they keep it to the users who will actually appreciate it.
For BG3 allowing certain mechanics to work in every mode except Honor Mode, it's purely because they know people love it and put fan enjoyment over intention. They made the bugs a feature. And then they take them away in Honor Mode BECAUSE it's supposed to be THE hard mode. They get to have their cake and eat it too
So many of the BG3 builds have equipment requirements, and often, those builds don't truly come online until act 3. I appreciate the work you do to make these itemless builds. Certain equipment will help each and every single one of these builds, but they are solid on their own. Thank you.
@Scribbinge I do not recall saying these were the best builds. However, when you do finally have access to the end game items, these builds do become stronger from having strong equipment. I appreciate your candid response, and I sincerely hope that one day we can play together in the same party.
@ntyhurst solid recommendations would be any items that either suit your playstyle or bump up the power of what you already doing. I know that doesn't help your situation, but there are a plethora of items in bg3.
Thank you so much for not just telling me what choices to make at the various levels for these builds, but also how to play them, as well. So many build guides leave out the tactics and just present a list of stats and feats, rather than explain why we’re taking them.
“Instead of trying to inflict the feared, or restrained, or stunned, or paralyzed condition, just … try to inflict the dead condition on everything … as soon as possible. Thats the worst condition.” Two best lines imo
Please keep doing builds for this game! Even if it’s just here and there for updates or if the mood strikes you. I hope your channel blows up like those biceps did in just a few short years. Went from BG3 to tabletop so you’re evil conversion scheme is working; I failed the charisma save.
I ran a short rest team for a run. Monk, Fighter, Bard, Warlock. All with 2 levels or more of Bard & they all took durable. It seems silly but getting 6 Short rests where everyone gets back to full health REALLY helped the team survivability.
@@snek8421 Because long rests costs camp supplies, and in tactician mode (and I assume also honor mode) they cost twice as many camp supplies (80 per long rest). Camp supplies aren't that hard to come by, so it's not like you can never long rest, but if you long rest *too* much you will run low on camp supplies. Being able to fully reset on a short rest means you don't have to worry about that at all.
I love the idea. It's a great resource saver. I needed to long rest more often in order to trigger companion story events. At one point, I long rested 8 times in a row and got a cutscene every time
Hi there, I have a tweak for you. You recommended light cleric 11, druid 1 for the thornwhip. Rather than taking the 1 druid, go full light cleric, and for the feat that you would have missed by taking druid, just take the druid feat. It gives you two cantrips and thornwhip is one of them.
My MVP for Honor Mode has been Shadowheart as a Gloomstalker Ranger Sharpshooter. Multiclassed into Swords Bard for the Flourishes and later greater Invisibility (for permanent Advantage). It's absolutely brutal at initiating combat and laying waste to enemies early on. Btw, for ranged characters don't sleep on the amazing special arrows there are in the game, mainly: Arrows of many targets. They hit 3 more targets within reach for half dmg (though only the base weapoin dmg gets halfed, sharpshooter +10 and other bonuses stay for more like 100% dmg on main target + 60% on 3 more.)
Just wanted to say this party guide just works so well. Makes the end game totally doable. The insights about how to max single target burst damage are invaluable. All that d&d experience just made this noobie one happy camper on his second playthrough. The difference with an optimised and smart party setup like this is night and day. Went from tense encounters to actually laughing sometimes at how fast tough enemies went down. The combo of that thrower and the killer bard by lvl 12 is just nuts. Thanks man.
The Whispering Promise helps solve the Bless dilemma for the light cleric because it lets you buff the equivalent of Bless whenever you heal. With Mass Healing Word, you can apply Bless to the whole party with just a bonus action. You can find it in Act 1 so you can have it in your back pocket for when you get 3rd level spells and Spirit Guardians comes online.
whispering promise + hellrider's pride is probably the most effective way to do healing in bg3, healing on its own is still too miniscule an amount to make it worth it all the time but that healing also giving two pretty sizeable buffs is super powerful in the early game when you can get them and stays potent all the way through act 2 by the time you've probably found better equipment
@@GiveMeTheRice It applies to anyone you heal. There is another item that only affects the caster, but it isn't whispering promise. I can't recall what it is rn, though
For Killer Bard, I recommend the 16 CHA. Even after changes and nerfs, you can use arcane acuity helmet and a ring in Act 3 to cast control spells with (I think it is now) 26 DC as a bonus action. So pew pew flourish, stack arcane acuity, into a DC 26 control spell.
you can get a free +3 DC from Rhapsody dagger (Cazador), and another from cloak of the Weave for an easy DC30 (higher if you have more CHA). Battlemage elixir also stacks AA for free
This was the team comp that I was considering for my honor run with the slight change, being a sorcerer paladin instead of the holy warrior. Hearing you endorse that party comp gives me much more confidence.
For an alternative way to deal with bless, consider that the Whispering Promise ring gives bless on heal. Put it on the cleric and have them cast group healing word at the start of combat to auto-bless your entire party. That way, the bard can be concentrating on either hunter's mark (from an early game bow), or hex from the feat that adds a warlock spell.
On build two regarding the eldritch knight weapon bond - currently if you have a hireling you can use them to cast weapon bond and it will still work. For some reason, it will return to whoever was wielding it when it was thrown, not the original bond owner. So you can free up those levels to take the champion subclass like you said or go another route. Its a little gamey, but if we are taking every advantage we can get…
Your Karlach-build is absolutely amazing! :-) I've used it on my first tactician run and Karlach killed Grym nearly single-handedly, knocking him prone every turn. So I even got the achievement. Can't wait to try your honor mode party.
I love how uou actually start to speak faster after discussing the challenges of bringing four builds into one video again. Now to enjoy the rest. Thanks for all your awesome content.
I remember the 5e blade singer video was my first exposure to your channel and ended up always enjoying your videos. Glad to see you show up on my feed again for BG3. One thing I want to say is about control. It can be very overpowered in almost every setting of BG3. Using quickened scorching ray on a 11/1 sorlock to stack arcane acuity via the hat of fire acuity and then using your action to cast command is absolutely wild. Can render whole rooms of trash mobs to very powerful bosses useless.
Funnily enough I beat honour mode yesterday with a slight variation of this party, I had the abjuration tank in place of the holy warrior, but then the light cleric, Astarion as swords bard (ascended vampire adds +1d10 necrotic damage on every crossbow attack), and the blaster for twinned haste. Only fight that give it trouble was Ansur (and mainly because I didn't notice his new ability! :D). Love the builds and trying them out in game has been a blast.
Wow thank you for this!! Please keep up the BG3 content. And thanks for posting the summary of this for your supporters! “The Dead condition is the worst condition.” So true!
Spirit guardians is just too much fun. Toss in the luminous armor and all the other orb and reverberation gear, after running around the battlefield once every enemy has a -10 to hit and is probably knocked prone
It's so disgusting. My solo HM war cleric became a god once I hit lvl 5. I'm about to go into Act 2 Gauntlet and I'm sad I have to respec... But I'm going right back to Light Bulb/ Reverb build as soon as I'm done 😅
If you sacrifice the gloves slot for hellriders pride and a ring slot for whispering promise you also become the best support character as you can bless the party and give blade ward using mass healing word. That solves the bless complication and makes your party resistant to weapon damage. You don't lose out too much but gain a massive amount
@@Sarkhan69there is a amulet that has one healing word and mass healing word cast per LR and with the ring concentration free bless. With an optimized party two rounds should be enough time to wipe out almost all bosses even on honour mode while freeing up concentration slot for spirit guardians for example and at later levels 3rd level spell use isnt an issue.
@@Sarkhan69 Still worth it for bless. To be able to bless your party for 2 turns and also keep spirit gaurdians up is OP. You only give up a ring slot that way
For a cleric i love a 1 level storm sorc dip, popping spirit guardians and using that to get a free fly across the battlefield, you also get shield reaction and thats amazing.
I got my golden d20 this weekend. Was definitely more fun having to seriously consider all of your choices and I ended with a pretty evil dark urge run. Based on my run I think you nailed it, best to kill a boss on turn one with as much burst as possible. I ran a lockadin, eldritch knight thrower, hand x bows ranger rogue and a light cleric, and was able to turn 1 kill most bosses. Will definitely have to give some of these builds a try on my next one😊
@@Sarkhan69real nice comment bud, you seem like a well balanced individual. But yea I did beat it, if you know what you’re doing and boss rush act 3 for key items it’s pretty breezy.
For build #3, you mentioned the weapon that gives you Thorn Whip, a fun thing about that weapon is that the spell is a bonus action instead of a full action, so you can cast Spirit Guardians, and Thorn Whip on the same turn, once per short rest, which is a pretty great upside to using it.
I love the Spin Doctors reference at the end! As someone who was a teen in the 90s, they have a special place in my heart. I'm always interested in your Baldur's Gate build ideas, and these are no exception. I haven't tried Honor Mode yet, but I have been thinking about who I might bring. One thing I haven't seen you mention is the usefulness of the Alert feat, especially in Honor mode. From what I've heard Larian changed the initiative from a d20 to a d4, so taking Alert pretty much guarantees that you will go first. And in Honor mode, where burst damage on turn 1 is key, I would think that would be very important.
I just discovered this channel, and boy howdy am I glad I did. The way he describes things just resonates so well with my weird brain. I look forward to listening to more of his videos
Just finished honor mode with this party! Thanks so much for the guide, it reallymade the game pretty much stress free. The only thing that was close for me was cazador, but after that Ascended astarian as the swords bard with 9 attacks would basically kill anything in one round.
I hope that Larian doesn’t nerf my favorite character. I have an idea that will instantly fix the COS bard, and Larian doesn’t have to even do anything. Every single one of us can just not make that build. You have just fixed the game and can play it the way you want, and I can still play my way.
Colby, you built the exact team I was thinking of! I’ve tried different builds for different plays but I’ve found this is a very balanced team with heavy nova ability. Kudos!
so i was waiting on all the build channels to bring forth their ideas. But The Optimancer in me will always watch your vids for both D&D and BG3. I think i want to go a 4 Bard honour mode attempt. Bardadin (beat normal mode with this!)...Bardsorc, Bardlock and Bardbarian! after every major battle we all can perform "Old Time Battles"
I run it on Astarion as a companion. He's perfect for it, and now I want to play him as an Origin character so I can take full advantage of this build's all-around greatness!
I'm doing a play through right now where my Tav is going to take one level in each class (Jack of All Trades achievement) on honour difficulty. Got through act 1 just fine, have proficiency in every skill except for wisdom skills, but they are covered by other party members. Expertise in persuasion and deception help a lot.
@@joeracer302 honestly I just take enhance ability on one of my spellcasters for when I really need that advantage. imo alert is significantly more important than any other feat for honor mode just because you really want to be winning initiative with your whole party to kill the enemies before they get any chances to move
Didn’t read all the comments, but used your light cleric build, and that one level dip into Druid also gives you Farstrider, which made a MASSIVE impact every battle. There were times where I forgot to ritual cast it at the beginning of the day, and the difference was stunning.
I put watching this off until after Christmas because I knew it was going to make me want to get back into BG3 and as a father I just don't have the required energy to do something the week of Christmas that is not children focused. I was right to wait.
The divine intervention legendary mace from cleric provides 10 rounds of healing without concentration to all party members, coupling that with the items that automatically bless and blade Ward your party is *chefs kiss*
I started my Honour Mode recently and decided to go with your builds; I was interested to see how things would go. I am only lvl 5 at the moment but I am having a freaking blast. Thanks for the ideas and just being awesome, positive and just really great. I always look forward to watching your videos each week.
I love how this video arrives as I start my "Non-Ultimate Honor Mode Party"... I basically went the opposite of everything you'd said ;) Moon Druid Bear Tank Tav Bear Barbarian Tank Karlach Necro Wizard - Shadowheart Beast Master Ranger - Jaheria
Heya, just wanted to quickly comment and let you know how much value I've gotten out of the builds you've brought up in this video, specifically the killer bard! Great for persuasion checks, and there's also a pair of gauntlets near Grymforge via some Mimics that gives you +1 usage of Bardic Inspiration & +1 AC. Fantastic addition to an already great build, and I have a feeling it'll carry me to the pearly gates and that golden D20. Thank you so much! Looking forward to anything you end up putting out in the future!
Decent gloves, you can find several others better for your bard than this though. You don’t really need extra bard points when you can basically have unlimited long rests.
That killer bard build is my main character and so much fun. Karlach is my ragey throwy queen! Thank you for all your videos. Such a big help for a noob
I love the insane amount of build diversity in this game, I've beaten honor mode twice and I'm nearing the end of act 1 on a 3rd run where I only ever have 3 party members. What I find really interesting though is how many of my builds are very similar to yours in concept, but with differing executions. My mainstay build is a sharpshooter battlemaster, possibly dual wielding hand crossbows with 4 levels of thief, and going crit fishing, but my 2 favorite builds that I've used are a tempest cleric multiclassed with 2 levels of evocation wizard to abuse the spell book to still get access to 6th level spells, and there are few stronger things to do on turn 1 than drink a potion of speed so you can cast create water and chain lightning, or lightning bolt if you don't have 6th level spells yet. The other build started with the idea of a dual wielding paladin to multiclass into swords bard, and ended with 2 levels of paladin, 6 of bard and 4 of fighter, 6 attacks on the first turn with 38m of movement, a 57% critical chance and 11 spellslots for smiting. I dueled Orin as Durge while I only had a 45% crit chance, and I killed her in slayer form before she took a turn with an attack to spare
Regarding bless: the ring that makes healing cause bless is a 2 round bless but doesn't require concentration. you can start your opening round with a prayer and bless your allies with it. Bonus value if you use the gloves that give healing blade ward too, and so your heal all is both bless and bladeward.
just started honor mode with my friend and i decided to go throw build, and I never thought in a million years to go thief rogue with it. Thank you for the idea and I will be doing that
Playing through Honor Mode ... and your builds are working great! The priestess (SH) and the "Tav" (the Bard build) are slow to come online, but careful play and Karlach rocking the thrower build have carried. I can tell that everything is gonna be beautiful when it fully comes online. For everyone out there trying this: MAKE SURE YOU GET THE STAFF IN THE BASEMENT OF THE WIZARD'S TOWER IN THE UNDERDARK! The whole build comes together (even before it's fully optimized) perfectly with it giving you Bless x2++!
Really fun video’ I’ve been running Karlach as a Tavern Brawler berserker/thief rogue but with a twist; I’m dual wielding with a finesse weapon and that returning trident. What I do is first toss the trident as a bonus action for damage and to knock the enemy prone. Then I make 3 attacks against the prone enemy, one with 4d6 sneak, all at advantage all without having to use frenzy strain
Just before BG3 launched I found your channel, I was playing the early access and just rewatching your first BG3 video over and over again. I love BG3 and since a 1,5 year or so I also DM a DnD campaign, I've learned a lot by watching your video's! I encourage my players to watch your guides. I've used some builds from your first video for my first BG3 play through. Finished it on Tactician with a (bugged short rest spell slots) Sorlock without really trying (jump head first into any fight, straight up attack everyone, no disable guards first etc.) and unlocked a lot of steam achievements in the process for killing bosses before they use special powers. Yesterday I became a member to appreciate you and for the ability to find the written versions of the builds in this video. I've played for some hours yesterday and today, and I've got to say: great builds and play style philosophy so far. I've seen a lot of builds from different creators on TH-cam that are strong, but also feel niche, come online late game and are very dependent on items. On the bg3builds subreddit, and especially the honour mode topics, people seem to focus way too much on "survivability". Your approach is simple and effective: kill the enemies before they can hurt you, and you'll survive. And if everything goes wrong: I still have a few invisibility potions that I can pop, and I'll just run. Only had to do it once though, when I forgot about the "escape prison mechanic" and aggro'd the whole grove when running out with my party. I love the bard Tav build. I've played dual xbow before on a few classes, but I kind of brushed them off as boring. Lately I really started to warm up to the CC side of bards, and this build is the perfect combination! You're so right: a dedicated support character isn't what you need in this game (goodbye life cleric 1/ bard x). It kind of hurt to change the backstory of my Sorcerer Tav (man you're right, Sorcerers suck in single target damage) a bit, but I think I made a good choice picking the killer bard. The light cleric I haven't tried yet, but I picked up the armor that synergizes really well, and my life cleric bard (Gale) will be respecced soon! I've played similar clerics before and know them to be strong. The holy warrior is smacking right now, even though I haven't even reached the Paladin levels yet. In the video, you're talking so much about bless, it did help me to get my priorities straight and (re)started using it every battle! With the Holy Warrior I picked up some gloves that give advantage when 2 enemies are near, so just positioning yourself in the middle of monsters is so strong! Gives me my advantage and zone of control, and I don't have to use reckless attack every turn. The thrower I haven't tried yet, I did use your first tavern brawler thrower on a play through, but I got annoyed when fighting in dungeons and such, sometimes it is really hard to hit someone with a throwing weapon. Right now I am using the half wood elf hireling as a tavern brawler monk, she kind of fulfills the same role as the thrower, but just melee instead. I can see I miss a lot of potentially fun plays when not playing a thrower, because it would be awesome to just throw enemies around again. Super long message without a point really, just wanted to let you know I really enjoy the builds for BG & DnD! And after finishing a video, I'm also motivated to go to the gym first & play video games later!
Personnaly in honor mode I use: Tav as the Critlander Laezel as the Non-Bear Tank Gayle as the Wizard Tank Shadowheart as the AOE cleric from the previous videos
Thanks for this video. I understand the trepidation about investing so much time into something like this. I hope this video ages like wine! This is exactly the video I needed!
Thanks for the builds! Just got those sweet, sweet golden dice using this party. I made a few changes in my run (most notably, getting the Alert feat on everyone), but the core mechanics of these characters are very powerful and very fun.
hey, that was an excellent showcase of very strong builds! Just wanted to throw my 2 cents after finishing honor mode myself. 1. For the entire game I played with life cleric in my party. I rather keep my party top health than raise them from the brink of death with one bonus action. On top of that heroes feast, aid, and death wards carried my away through act 3 boss fights (you can probably cheese this with hirelings instead but I've not tested that). 2. Optimising for bonus actions is great just remember that you will also need them to jump, push or drink potions. So I would not focus that much on super optimising ways to get that bonus attack since you will always forced to do trade offs. 3. My main character was a draconic sorcerer (with 1 lvl dip into wizard) and I would say it was a great choice. Metamagic can do wonders, and it also works on spells added by items or by your wizard multiclass. Hold monster with forced disadvantage or extended globe of invulnerability (6 turns) can make for a safe and easy encounter. When it comes to damage I focused on ice (with elemental adept feat) but it was also more about adding ice surfaces to the battlefield giving you some chance for even big bosses to just skip their turn slipping on the ice. From wizard dip you also get summons which are great help, some utility spells like globe, haste, invisibility, longstrider, jump, mirror image, shield, the list goes on. Did I also mentioned that draconic sorcerers can just fly on demand? 4. Persuasion/Deception is also nice in few moments on honor mode, I would not ignore the things outside of the combat and having huge boost to charisma helps a lot. 5. In general I totally agree that high damage potential is the key to combat in honor mode but in my experience I always forget about something and having the utility of some spellcasters got me out of some very nasty situations along the way.
Great video! I'm following the same philosophy of high damage for Honour mode. My main is Gale as Evocation wizard 2 \ Tempest cleric.10, and then Astarion Gloomstalker 5 \ Assassin 5 \ Fighter 2, Laezel Battlemaster 12, Shadowheart Paladin 5 \ Lore Bard 7.
Just figured you should know, I beat honor mode yesterday with this party setup. Only alteration was that Gale joined in the final fight instead of Shadowhart since I was having no issue with HP or AOE. I owe my golden die to you, friend.
One of the great things about BG3 is because you have more party members than you can bring you can have apecialized party members tailored for dealing with specific challenges. The only one who needs to be universally applicable is the MC. I think a controller/nuke caster hybrid in particular is good to fill that role, particularly a sorcerer who can make use of some old favorites like hypnotic pattern if you extend spell it. Throw 2-4 levels of warlock for eldritch blast for your dps and youll be golden.
I loved my team/group/girls club and it was phenomenally over-powered. took your advice and made shadowheart a storm cleric/wild magic sorcerer, lae'zel went full champion fighter, and karlach (my boo) went 100% berserker. the linch-pin was a halfling (female) eldritch-knight 3/lore bard 9. i picked up counterspell and eldritch blast via my college and and while i might have had too many reactions, the 3 hit from eldritch blast + action surge was so critical in locking up and putting down a few bosses, raphael never got to move. Also having most of your party with a 20+ac while karlac just flies around and decimates people was so increadibly satisfying that i kinda forgot to summon allies against the BBEG.
As always, really good content. As for my future team, wanted to go with one of these compos : Comp 1 (which I've totally stolen :p ) : - Lore Bard that can do anything you need, skillmonkey, buff, heal and have skyrocketing AC. => Tav - TB Monk or TB Thrower (because too much dmg and consistency. Really insane) - Warlock Blaster - Tiger Barbarian build with much attack, much advantage, much debuffing gear (classical radiant/thunder debuff combo item) Comp 2 (which is more what I planned before seing you video, as I've notably understand how broken is a light cleric with the right stuff): - Light Cleric with all the funny control gear for debuffing all the world while stomping on it - Sword Bard turret (which is exactly what you did here. With the right items, he can also be tanky with an easy 25 AC really fast, skillmonkey, good tav) - TB Monk or TB Thrower (because too much dmg and consistency. Really insane) - Warlock Blaster OR Holy Smiter OR Some freakin' archer build (some are really insane, like furtive one or just volley) In both cases, I aim to have : - some jerk that run around debuffing passively things while stomping them (of note, one other build, acid knight, is kinda fun in this part too) - some guy who is there only to do consistent and late game brutal physical damage. And can throw enemies in pit. Cause it's fun AND downright lethal. - some guy that can be the party face+skillmonkey and buff/tank OR do dmg (because as said, dead people are no more to be feared)=> BARD+ANYHTING ELSE (because bard are just too good as support and polyvalent things) - some other guy that can be a lil' more... anything. But dmg dealer. I think it depends on what I take on the others slots, the fourth is to make/synergyze with the other 3. But well, it does damage, obviously. (of note, the warlock is consistent too in this category... but a good assassin to decimate a room even before you start combat, or a good meatshield if you don't already have is also a good spot) I could have gone with some classical other build, like Gloomstalker (but I need party face, so If I go with it, I'll pick a blaster warlock with high charisma to compensate) or Tempest Cleric (but I hate the mechanics for this build xD). I feel, from an external point of view, that a bard with good dex and college sword is more useful overall than the gloomstalker. They are both same niche, but one offer more... maybe less damage, but more attacks, and the initiative can be compensated with high dex and some good armor (like the medium armor that give bonus ini and let full dex apply to AC). Bard for the win èoé (and bard have just so much useful choices during the game as Tav).
I FINALLY HAVE BG3!!!!!! Also, thank you for the modding tutorial, I still ended up having to go look elsewhere for additional help, but having one of my favorite and most welcoming content creators really helped introduce me to it! Now I can go through the game without having to worry about spiders!
You did a full party build! I feel like my request was heard! Thank you! Also, I hope you had a lovely holiday with your family. (And possibly still are, at the time of this posting)
Really informative. I’m not doing Honor Mode just yet, but I’m doing a custom run with the single save file, mostly balance except for new combat mechanics at tactician, and some hidden failed roles for immersion.
You know what... Thank you for the Add, that books sounds Amazing ^^ Especially if you start out and run pre defined Adventures, most of the time the group has more gold than god but nothing todo with it.
Yay! More BG3 content! I really wished the game launched with this mode. In my first play through I was going to only leave it to one save file then the 'Bad Idea Fairy' started to creep in and I found myself wondering what a different choice would look like in cut scenes. I think the first time came when Vollo wanted to poke my eye with an ice pick. After that I've played with max saves hitting F5 like my life or in this case my TPK deepened on it.
Jesus, on my 2nd playthrough (now tactician) and just when I thought I was getting acquainted to the game, I watch half of this video and realize that I've just barely scraped the bottom of the barrel. I'll prolly memorize all of the game's areas before actually being able to min-max properly 🤣. Thanks for the guide!
I'm going very similar. Holy warrior, thrower, my Light cleric is mixing in some more fighter, and a gloomstalker in place of the bard. If/when this one fails I'll take your choices under advisement. Thanks for the well thought out advice!
Regarding that lack of Bless when the cleric is concentrating -- I always make it a point to get the staff from the mage tower secret level, it's a 3 person 2d4 unique version of bless that is really helpful on tough early game encounters.
Killer bard is so much fun to play, and it is good at every level- right now I’m running it, tavern thrower, gloomstalker thief, and a war cleric that needs some work
One thing to point out here is that all of the builds have a decent dex. Which really helps with high initiative and bursting. For those who don't know, in bg3 initiative is rolled by a d4+dex so the modifier positive or negative is a lot more impactful
Great videos as always! I'm currently running Berzerker, Gloomstalker, Life Cleric, Monk about to take on the Act 1 forge golem - for early play this combo feels strong and tough enough. Even so I've ranged between scared and very alert every fight, with every skill check and encounter taking a bit of prep to make sure I'm going at it the best way possible. This run has just been a complete blast, 50/50 if it survives this upcoming fight. I'm almost certainly going to take your advice on two or three party members right around level 8, but the monk just feels like it has to remain it's an absolute beast with nova sustain on every turn and so much mobility. I love the bard and paladin ideas in particular, and might transition from life to light cleric for act 2 (its super useful running life in act 1 where everyone is a tad underpowered imo especially with the gloves that give resists on heal).
Great group comp. I mentioned in my other comment your killing Bard sounds like my very first Tav I used to beat Tactician mode. I would make alterations to the Light Cleric myself. Whatever I did I would have Warlock dip 2 for the Eldritch blast. Make use of the Potent Robe and Birthright. But mostly using a Corusation ring while under the effect of a light spell. And using Magic Missile to either spread the love to many enemies or stack the radiating orb effect on one big baddie. I think a modified version of your cool Icebreaker build would work great. Give a little Wizardly love to the group. Make sure to get Bless with the build. Great debuffer. And helps the Killing Bard with multiple lesser enemies or to nuke from a distance.
I really like 10 sword bard 2 pally. I played this on my first playthrough and loved it. You have so many spell slots to smite with! I'm excited to try your builds out for myself. The killer bard and the holy warrior most! Great video! I'm subbing!
One tip for the cleric build... At level 10 you can respec your other characters (including withers's mercs) as full cleric, then spend their use of divine intervention (1per char) to get the devotee's mace a legendary with a big healing aura for 10 turns/long rest... After you can respec back and the weapon stays...
I havent watching most of your bg3 content simply cause i wanna play the game how i want and expirement, but now im probably gonna take a look at them since there seems to be a lot of mechanics i wasnt aware of that would be really important to know. Great video, keep it up!
PSA: idk if everybody knows those but if you play honor mode and lose. You can continue the same campaign with the bosses having legendary actions still having them. So if you just wanted to experience this you could start an honor campaign, die, then you can adjust all the mechanics as you like and still enjoy the new legendary actions
This was a lot of fun! Your killer bard is my favorite main character build. I do tend to prefer Swords Bard 6 / Eldritch Knight 3 / Paladin 3. I know how awkward that looks, but going from flourishes at range to powerful smites up close is great fun. My favorite build, the Tempest Cleric / Storm Sorcerer, feels much less powerful in honor mode. Mainly because enemies make their saving through against lightning bolt you can sort of compensate for that by focusing on single target damage with upcast Witch Bolt or Chromatic Orb, but it really isn’t the same.
Another Sword Bard I want to try out is the Bardadin. 10 Bard/ 2 Paladin. Slashing Smite Flourish. Love to try the Light Cleric Bablade go bzz, and add radiant orb debuffs. Thanks for the in depth guide and focussing on low levels (which are the hardest), in stead of late game gear heavy builds, that can only fully be used in the last couple of fights.
I started a tactician mode run now that I've finished my first one, and I'm using a lot of the builds you've been suggesting! Karlach is the thrower, my Tav is gonna be the Avatar build, Lae'Zel is the battlefield commander, and I'm still deciding on my last character who I want. I'll definitely try these out too when I get around to honor mode!
I had a thrower tav in my first run. Going TB monk tav for tactician, with Sword Bardlock Wyll, Gloomsin Astarion, and either Shadowheart or Gale as cleric/wizard multi. Don’t really have a locked down build for either of them yet.
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Check out The Seeker's Guide to Enchanting Emporiums here!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/eldermancy/the-seekers-guide-to-enchanting-emporiums?ref=bzlr8m
Already backed it because I enjoyed the first book of the taverns
do you have a plce where we can submit build ideas?
@@reginaldkelly7809 this is as good a place as any :)
@@DnDDeepDive Man you answered that quickly :D ur awesome! I have been trying to perfect a pacifist support build. Utilizing the Warlock Genies lvl 10 bottle respite mechanic and 2 lvls of moon druid. I use wild shape to hide while holding concentration. normally the build goes best with setting up beforehand. Taking advantage of my ability to use my pact of the chain Familiar and being able to still sense things while still inside my Genie bottle. also pacifist only in the sense i didnt want to be doing damage in combat, becuz i find combat one of the most boring aspects, only cuz of how long it takes. so being a character who tries to end combat situations in out of the box ways was my goal. If you could also include any magic items you would look out for. I notice u never do that in your builds for good reason, but im just curious is all. The more i write this out it seems like a dumb idea. But i love it and hope u can make it even better. especially becuz you take your builds to high level.
@@DnDDeepDive I laos made this comment...... not realizing this was a BG3 video lol. I wanted you to do it for a DnD5e build video. i apologize for that mix up lol
Regarding the balancing around haste and pact of the blade etc: I think Larian understand that broken features are fun and that they are not really problems in single player games. Just play the game like you want to. But since they want to make Honor Mode a real challenge, they changed it for this mode only
see, as a powergamer, I don't find broken features fun when replaying things. I want to feel okay choosing other things, which I won't do if one option for the build (cough Great Tavern Weapon Sharpshooter Master Brawler) is the obviously-best pick.
But that just seems like it's harder to do, coding it specifically for Honor Mode. And more confusing for the players, having to remember that it works differently in different game modes. It seems like it would have been better to fix it for all.
@@dylanboczar999 I disagree, there's no real absolute best pick for everything. I play a super OP optimized party and I'm constantly shifting things and finding even better ways to deal with different fights, I challenge myself with ending every fight in 2 turns max - the optimization never ends. You can make so many things "broken" - I'm really enjoying finding those combinations.
Yet I see way more people struggling with just a normal difficulty than people that think it's too easy, so with those people in mind I think having a lot of possibilities for stumbling onto an OP solution really makes the game more fun for a general audience.
I think both arguments are valid for this one. Thing for me is I’m going to feel like I’m cheating using those builds in tactician in the future knowing they patched them out of honour mode :/
@@hemogoblin6789 keep in mind that 90% of players won't touch honour mode. So changing for everyone would have impacted the experience of a vast majority who won't care about that change. So making the effort is appreciated, but I'm happy they keep it to the users who will actually appreciate it.
For BG3 allowing certain mechanics to work in every mode except Honor Mode, it's purely because they know people love it and put fan enjoyment over intention. They made the bugs a feature. And then they take them away in Honor Mode BECAUSE it's supposed to be THE hard mode. They get to have their cake and eat it too
you say that but all the bugs are still in the game, you can beat the game in a few hours with jump skipping in any mode, including honour mode.
@@loop4x454 right, so I very clearly didn't mean every bug. My comment was directly in response to something he says in the video
So many of the BG3 builds have equipment requirements, and often, those builds don't truly come online until act 3. I appreciate the work you do to make these itemless builds. Certain equipment will help each and every single one of these builds, but they are solid on their own. Thank you.
@Scribbinge I do not recall saying these were the best builds. However, when you do finally have access to the end game items, these builds do become stronger from having strong equipment. I appreciate your candid response, and I sincerely hope that one day we can play together in the same party.
agreed but it would be great to get at least a few recommended items for each build.
@ntyhurst solid recommendations would be any items that either suit your playstyle or bump up the power of what you already doing. I know that doesn't help your situation, but there are a plethora of items in bg3.
Thank you so much for not just telling me what choices to make at the various levels for these builds, but also how to play them, as well. So many build guides leave out the tactics and just present a list of stats and feats, rather than explain why we’re taking them.
"If burst damage is the way then action surge is the road" could work I think :D
“Instead of trying to inflict the feared, or restrained, or stunned, or paralyzed condition, just … try to inflict the dead condition on everything … as soon as possible. Thats the worst condition.”
Two best lines imo
Read in the voice of Malus Thorm :)
Please keep doing builds for this game! Even if it’s just here and there for updates or if the mood strikes you.
I hope your channel blows up like those biceps did in just a few short years.
Went from BG3 to tabletop so you’re evil conversion scheme is working; I failed the charisma save.
I ran a short rest team for a run. Monk, Fighter, Bard, Warlock. All with 2 levels or more of Bard & they all took durable. It seems silly but getting 6 Short rests where everyone gets back to full health REALLY helped the team survivability.
but why not just long rest more?
@@snek8421 Because long rests costs camp supplies, and in tactician mode (and I assume also honor mode) they cost twice as many camp supplies (80 per long rest). Camp supplies aren't that hard to come by, so it's not like you can never long rest, but if you long rest *too* much you will run low on camp supplies. Being able to fully reset on a short rest means you don't have to worry about that at all.
thats weak. game way too easy. @@Ikaxas
I love the idea. It's a great resource saver. I needed to long rest more often in order to trigger companion story events. At one point, I long rested 8 times in a row and got a cutscene every time
I had a bardlock team for this exact reason. Lots of darkness all over the place that doesn't hinder my team at all with 6 short rests
Hi there, I have a tweak for you. You recommended light cleric 11, druid 1 for the thornwhip. Rather than taking the 1 druid, go full light cleric, and for the feat that you would have missed by taking druid, just take the druid feat. It gives you two cantrips and thornwhip is one of them.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. People always forget about feats!
I was JUST thinking yesterday... "man it's actually been a little while since Colby has made a BG3 video..." haha
Exact same thought
Same
I had a similar if not identical thought two days ago.
I’m now realizing that there is no individual experience in this life. I was thinking the SAME THING
My MVP for Honor Mode has been Shadowheart as a Gloomstalker Ranger Sharpshooter. Multiclassed into Swords Bard for the Flourishes and later greater Invisibility (for permanent Advantage). It's absolutely brutal at initiating combat and laying waste to enemies early on.
Btw, for ranged characters don't sleep on the amazing special arrows there are in the game, mainly: Arrows of many targets. They hit 3 more targets within reach for half dmg (though only the base weapoin dmg gets halfed, sharpshooter +10 and other bonuses stay for more like 100% dmg on main target + 60% on 3 more.)
Came for the builds, stayed for the pocket full of kryptonite.
Good stuff, Colby.
Just wanted to say this party guide just works so well. Makes the end game totally doable. The insights about how to max single target burst damage are invaluable. All that d&d experience just made this noobie one happy camper on his second playthrough. The difference with an optimised and smart party setup like this is night and day. Went from tense encounters to actually laughing sometimes at how fast tough enemies went down. The combo of that thrower and the killer bard by lvl 12 is just nuts. Thanks man.
The Whispering Promise helps solve the Bless dilemma for the light cleric because it lets you buff the equivalent of Bless whenever you heal. With Mass Healing Word, you can apply Bless to the whole party with just a bonus action. You can find it in Act 1 so you can have it in your back pocket for when you get 3rd level spells and Spirit Guardians comes online.
whispering promise + hellrider's pride is probably the most effective way to do healing in bg3, healing on its own is still too miniscule an amount to make it worth it all the time but that healing also giving two pretty sizeable buffs is super powerful in the early game when you can get them and stays potent all the way through act 2 by the time you've probably found better equipment
Whispering Promise only gives the buff to the caster, no?
@@GiveMeTheRice It applies to anyone you heal. There is another item that only affects the caster, but it isn't whispering promise. I can't recall what it is rn, though
@@thaesimir The wiki says the whispering promise is the caster only one
@@GiveMeTheRice"Blessed Mercy: When you heal a creature, it gains a +1d4 bonus to Attack rolls and Saving throws for 2 turns."
From the wiki🤙🤙
For Killer Bard, I recommend the 16 CHA. Even after changes and nerfs, you can use arcane acuity helmet and a ring in Act 3 to cast control spells with (I think it is now) 26 DC as a bonus action. So pew pew flourish, stack arcane acuity, into a DC 26 control spell.
you can get a free +3 DC from Rhapsody dagger (Cazador), and another from cloak of the Weave for an easy DC30 (higher if you have more CHA). Battlemage elixir also stacks AA for free
This is the way.
This was the team comp that I was considering for my honor run with the slight change, being a sorcerer paladin instead of the holy warrior. Hearing you endorse that party comp gives me much more confidence.
The glaive with thornwhip is a bonus action version of the cantrip. It’s a seriously awesome act 1 weapon.
Super excited for this. I've been going through all of your Baldur's Gate 3 videos for builds for my parties. Can't wait to see the ultimate party. 😄
For an alternative way to deal with bless, consider that the Whispering Promise ring gives bless on heal. Put it on the cleric and have them cast group healing word at the start of combat to auto-bless your entire party. That way, the bard can be concentrating on either hunter's mark (from an early game bow), or hex from the feat that adds a warlock spell.
On build two regarding the eldritch knight weapon bond - currently if you have a hireling you can use them to cast weapon bond and it will still work. For some reason, it will return to whoever was wielding it when it was thrown, not the original bond owner. So you can free up those levels to take the champion subclass like you said or go another route.
Its a little gamey, but if we are taking every advantage we can get…
3rd honor mode attempt here. Had to run for my life last night from a 3rd chapter boss fight! Learned a lot from this video. Thanks dude!
Just finished act 2 in honor mode and honestly... this guide has made the game trivially easy with decent preparation for hard fights. Great Guide!
Your Karlach-build is absolutely amazing! :-) I've used it on my first tactician run and Karlach killed Grym nearly single-handedly, knocking him prone every turn. So I even got the achievement.
Can't wait to try your honor mode party.
I love how uou actually start to speak faster after discussing the challenges of bringing four builds into one video again. Now to enjoy the rest. Thanks for all your awesome content.
I remember the 5e blade singer video was my first exposure to your channel and ended up always enjoying your videos.
Glad to see you show up on my feed again for BG3.
One thing I want to say is about control. It can be very overpowered in almost every setting of BG3.
Using quickened scorching ray on a 11/1 sorlock to stack arcane acuity via the hat of fire acuity and then using your action to cast command is absolutely wild. Can render whole rooms of trash mobs to very powerful bosses useless.
Just died yesterday on Honor Mode so, yes, I am excited to watch this
This is legit the best build video I've watched for bg3. Well done. Staying for more.
Indeed, preparing myself for the challenge, very informative and to the point.
Funnily enough I beat honour mode yesterday with a slight variation of this party, I had the abjuration tank in place of the holy warrior, but then the light cleric, Astarion as swords bard (ascended vampire adds +1d10 necrotic damage on every crossbow attack), and the blaster for twinned haste. Only fight that give it trouble was Ansur (and mainly because I didn't notice his new ability! :D). Love the builds and trying them out in game has been a blast.
Wow thank you for this!! Please keep up the BG3 content. And thanks for posting the summary of this for your supporters! “The Dead condition is the worst condition.” So true!
Thank you so much for this video! I just beat honour mode today with this party. You’re amazing!!
Spirit guardians is just too much fun. Toss in the luminous armor and all the other orb and reverberation gear, after running around the battlefield once every enemy has a -10 to hit and is probably knocked prone
It's so disgusting. My solo HM war cleric became a god once I hit lvl 5.
I'm about to go into Act 2 Gauntlet and I'm sad I have to respec... But I'm going right back to Light Bulb/ Reverb build as soon as I'm done 😅
If you sacrifice the gloves slot for hellriders pride and a ring slot for whispering promise you also become the best support character as you can bless the party and give blade ward using mass healing word. That solves the bless complication and makes your party resistant to weapon damage. You don't lose out too much but gain a massive amount
@@daveyfunk not really. the blade ward only lasts 1 turn and mass healing word uses up a lv 3 slot.
@@Sarkhan69there is a amulet that has one healing word and mass healing word cast per LR and with the ring concentration free bless. With an optimized party two rounds should be enough time to wipe out almost all bosses even on honour mode while freeing up concentration slot for spirit guardians for example and at later levels 3rd level spell use isnt an issue.
@@Sarkhan69 Still worth it for bless. To be able to bless your party for 2 turns and also keep spirit gaurdians up is OP. You only give up a ring slot that way
Thanks! Your BG3 videos have increased my enjoyment of the game more than I can describe.
Hey thanks!
For a cleric i love a 1 level storm sorc dip, popping spirit guardians and using that to get a free fly across the battlefield, you also get shield reaction and thats amazing.
I got my golden d20 this weekend. Was definitely more fun having to seriously consider all of your choices and I ended with a pretty evil dark urge run. Based on my run I think you nailed it, best to kill a boss on turn one with as much burst as possible. I ran a lockadin, eldritch knight thrower, hand x bows ranger rogue and a light cleric, and was able to turn 1 kill most bosses.
Will definitely have to give some of these builds a try on my next one😊
either BS or you need to touch grass. honor mode only just released and you already beat it?
@@Sarkhan69real nice comment bud, you seem like a well balanced individual.
But yea I did beat it, if you know what you’re doing and boss rush act 3 for key items it’s pretty breezy.
@@Sarkhan69 skill issue
For build #3, you mentioned the weapon that gives you Thorn Whip, a fun thing about that weapon is that the spell is a bonus action instead of a full action, so you can cast Spirit Guardians, and Thorn Whip on the same turn, once per short rest, which is a pretty great upside to using it.
Thank you for your positivity and overall good vibes ❤
They're even better than your builds.
I love the Spin Doctors reference at the end! As someone who was a teen in the 90s, they have a special place in my heart. I'm always interested in your Baldur's Gate build ideas, and these are no exception. I haven't tried Honor Mode yet, but I have been thinking about who I might bring. One thing I haven't seen you mention is the usefulness of the Alert feat, especially in Honor mode. From what I've heard Larian changed the initiative from a d20 to a d4, so taking Alert pretty much guarantees that you will go first. And in Honor mode, where burst damage on turn 1 is key, I would think that would be very important.
I just discovered this channel, and boy howdy am I glad I did. The way he describes things just resonates so well with my weird brain. I look forward to listening to more of his videos
This is a really good and comprehensive video, I’m honestly super impressed. I’m 100% going to try this out in my next playthrough.
Just finished honor mode with this party! Thanks so much for the guide, it reallymade the game pretty much stress free. The only thing that was close for me was cazador, but after that Ascended astarian as the swords bard with 9 attacks would basically kill anything in one round.
Thank you so much, just accomplished game in honor mode with 3 characters built by yours guide. Huge hug!
I hope that Larian doesn’t nerf my favorite character. I have an idea that will instantly fix the COS bard, and Larian doesn’t have to even do anything. Every single one of us can just not make that build. You have just fixed the game and can play it the way you want, and I can still play my way.
Colby, you built the exact team I was thinking of! I’ve tried different builds for different plays but I’ve found this is a very balanced team with heavy nova ability. Kudos!
so i was waiting on all the build channels to bring forth their ideas. But The Optimancer in me will always watch your vids for both D&D and BG3. I think i want to go a 4 Bard honour mode attempt. Bardadin (beat normal mode with this!)...Bardsorc, Bardlock and Bardbarian! after every major battle we all can perform "Old Time Battles"
Killer Bard on Tav is doubly good because it's also very good for dialogue checks.
The Face who can also fight is handy in and out of combat. I quite like a Sword Bardadin for this :D
I feel like the Lucky ability is more important in Honor Mode, just to help make those pivotal dialogue checks.
I run it on Astarion as a companion. He's perfect for it, and now I want to play him as an Origin character so I can take full advantage of this build's all-around greatness!
I'm doing a play through right now where my Tav is going to take one level in each class (Jack of All Trades achievement) on honour difficulty. Got through act 1 just fine, have proficiency in every skill except for wisdom skills, but they are covered by other party members. Expertise in persuasion and deception help a lot.
@@joeracer302 honestly I just take enhance ability on one of my spellcasters for when I really need that advantage. imo alert is significantly more important than any other feat for honor mode just because you really want to be winning initiative with your whole party to kill the enemies before they get any chances to move
Didn’t read all the comments, but used your light cleric build, and that one level dip into Druid also gives you Farstrider, which made a MASSIVE impact every battle. There were times where I forgot to ritual cast it at the beginning of the day, and the difference was stunning.
I put watching this off until after Christmas because I knew it was going to make me want to get back into BG3 and as a father I just don't have the required energy to do something the week of Christmas that is not children focused. I was right to wait.
The divine intervention legendary mace from cleric provides 10 rounds of healing without concentration to all party members, coupling that with the items that automatically bless and blade Ward your party is *chefs kiss*
I've ignored other creators' vids on Honor Mode Teams because I hoped you'd make a vid on it. Thanks for making this!
off topic your voice is so soothing
I started my Honour Mode recently and decided to go with your builds; I was interested to see how things would go. I am only lvl 5 at the moment but I am having a freaking blast. Thanks for the ideas and just being awesome, positive and just really great. I always look forward to watching your videos each week.
Even though I'm not planning to touch honor mode I wanted to watch the video regardless. The way you explain BG3 builds is just the best
I love how this video arrives as I start my "Non-Ultimate Honor Mode Party"... I basically went the opposite of everything you'd said ;)
Moon Druid Bear Tank Tav
Bear Barbarian Tank Karlach
Necro Wizard - Shadowheart
Beast Master Ranger - Jaheria
For the wizard dilemma: I just put a level of wizard into my party face for scrolls and that's good
Heya, just wanted to quickly comment and let you know how much value I've gotten out of the builds you've brought up in this video, specifically the killer bard! Great for persuasion checks, and there's also a pair of gauntlets near Grymforge via some Mimics that gives you +1 usage of Bardic Inspiration & +1 AC. Fantastic addition to an already great build, and I have a feeling it'll carry me to the pearly gates and that golden D20. Thank you so much!
Looking forward to anything you end up putting out in the future!
Decent gloves, you can find several others better for your bard than this though. You don’t really need extra bard points when you can basically have unlimited long rests.
Just got my gold die last night. Watched this to see if any of my builds were mentioned. Epic game, even better content!
That killer bard build is my main character and so much fun. Karlach is my ragey throwy queen! Thank you for all your videos. Such a big help for a noob
I love the insane amount of build diversity in this game, I've beaten honor mode twice and I'm nearing the end of act 1 on a 3rd run where I only ever have 3 party members. What I find really interesting though is how many of my builds are very similar to yours in concept, but with differing executions. My mainstay build is a sharpshooter battlemaster, possibly dual wielding hand crossbows with 4 levels of thief, and going crit fishing, but my 2 favorite builds that I've used are a tempest cleric multiclassed with 2 levels of evocation wizard to abuse the spell book to still get access to 6th level spells, and there are few stronger things to do on turn 1 than drink a potion of speed so you can cast create water and chain lightning, or lightning bolt if you don't have 6th level spells yet. The other build started with the idea of a dual wielding paladin to multiclass into swords bard, and ended with 2 levels of paladin, 6 of bard and 4 of fighter, 6 attacks on the first turn with 38m of movement, a 57% critical chance and 11 spellslots for smiting. I dueled Orin as Durge while I only had a 45% crit chance, and I killed her in slayer form before she took a turn with an attack to spare
Regarding bless: the ring that makes healing cause bless is a 2 round bless but doesn't require concentration. you can start your opening round with a prayer and bless your allies with it. Bonus value if you use the gloves that give healing blade ward too, and so your heal all is both bless and bladeward.
just started honor mode with my friend and i decided to go throw build, and I never thought in a million years to go thief rogue with it. Thank you for the idea and I will be doing that
Playing through Honor Mode ... and your builds are working great! The priestess (SH) and the "Tav" (the Bard build) are slow to come online, but careful play and Karlach rocking the thrower build have carried. I can tell that everything is gonna be beautiful when it fully comes online. For everyone out there trying this: MAKE SURE YOU GET THE STAFF IN THE BASEMENT OF THE WIZARD'S TOWER IN THE UNDERDARK! The whole build comes together (even before it's fully optimized) perfectly with it giving you Bless x2++!
... and it's crazy to think the Bard'll be wielding the staff (and a shield) in the endgame. Seriously: ... crazy!
Really fun video’ I’ve been running Karlach as a Tavern Brawler berserker/thief rogue but with a twist; I’m dual wielding with a finesse weapon and that returning trident. What I do is first toss the trident as a bonus action for damage and to knock the enemy prone. Then I make 3 attacks against the prone enemy, one with 4d6 sneak, all at advantage all without having to use frenzy strain
My Christmas break from work just started, so perfect timing for me!
Just before BG3 launched I found your channel, I was playing the early access and just rewatching your first BG3 video over and over again. I love BG3 and since a 1,5 year or so I also DM a DnD campaign, I've learned a lot by watching your video's! I encourage my players to watch your guides. I've used some builds from your first video for my first BG3 play through. Finished it on Tactician with a (bugged short rest spell slots) Sorlock without really trying (jump head first into any fight, straight up attack everyone, no disable guards first etc.) and unlocked a lot of steam achievements in the process for killing bosses before they use special powers.
Yesterday I became a member to appreciate you and for the ability to find the written versions of the builds in this video. I've played for some hours yesterday and today, and I've got to say: great builds and play style philosophy so far. I've seen a lot of builds from different creators on TH-cam that are strong, but also feel niche, come online late game and are very dependent on items. On the bg3builds subreddit, and especially the honour mode topics, people seem to focus way too much on "survivability". Your approach is simple and effective: kill the enemies before they can hurt you, and you'll survive. And if everything goes wrong: I still have a few invisibility potions that I can pop, and I'll just run. Only had to do it once though, when I forgot about the "escape prison mechanic" and aggro'd the whole grove when running out with my party.
I love the bard Tav build. I've played dual xbow before on a few classes, but I kind of brushed them off as boring. Lately I really started to warm up to the CC side of bards, and this build is the perfect combination! You're so right: a dedicated support character isn't what you need in this game (goodbye life cleric 1/ bard x). It kind of hurt to change the backstory of my Sorcerer Tav (man you're right, Sorcerers suck in single target damage) a bit, but I think I made a good choice picking the killer bard.
The light cleric I haven't tried yet, but I picked up the armor that synergizes really well, and my life cleric bard (Gale) will be respecced soon! I've played similar clerics before and know them to be strong.
The holy warrior is smacking right now, even though I haven't even reached the Paladin levels yet. In the video, you're talking so much about bless, it did help me to get my priorities straight and (re)started using it every battle! With the Holy Warrior I picked up some gloves that give advantage when 2 enemies are near, so just positioning yourself in the middle of monsters is so strong! Gives me my advantage and zone of control, and I don't have to use reckless attack every turn.
The thrower I haven't tried yet, I did use your first tavern brawler thrower on a play through, but I got annoyed when fighting in dungeons and such, sometimes it is really hard to hit someone with a throwing weapon. Right now I am using the half wood elf hireling as a tavern brawler monk, she kind of fulfills the same role as the thrower, but just melee instead. I can see I miss a lot of potentially fun plays when not playing a thrower, because it would be awesome to just throw enemies around again.
Super long message without a point really, just wanted to let you know I really enjoy the builds for BG & DnD! And after finishing a video, I'm also motivated to go to the gym first & play video games later!
Personnaly in honor mode I use:
Tav as the Critlander
Laezel as the Non-Bear Tank
Gayle as the Wizard Tank
Shadowheart as the AOE cleric
from the previous videos
Thanks for this video.
I understand the trepidation about investing so much time into something like this.
I hope this video ages like wine!
This is exactly the video I needed!
Thanks for the builds! Just got those sweet, sweet golden dice using this party. I made a few changes in my run (most notably, getting the Alert feat on everyone), but the core mechanics of these characters are very powerful and very fun.
I knew a version of your optimized Karlach would be on here because it's an incredible build and the killer bard, my favorite!
hey, that was an excellent showcase of very strong builds! Just wanted to throw my 2 cents after finishing honor mode myself.
1. For the entire game I played with life cleric in my party. I rather keep my party top health than raise them from the brink of death with one bonus action. On top of that heroes feast, aid, and death wards carried my away through act 3 boss fights (you can probably cheese this with hirelings instead but I've not tested that).
2. Optimising for bonus actions is great just remember that you will also need them to jump, push or drink potions. So I would not focus that much on super optimising ways to get that bonus attack since you will always forced to do trade offs.
3. My main character was a draconic sorcerer (with 1 lvl dip into wizard) and I would say it was a great choice. Metamagic can do wonders, and it also works on spells added by items or by your wizard multiclass. Hold monster with forced disadvantage or extended globe of invulnerability (6 turns) can make for a safe and easy encounter. When it comes to damage I focused on ice (with elemental adept feat) but it was also more about adding ice surfaces to the battlefield giving you some chance for even big bosses to just skip their turn slipping on the ice. From wizard dip you also get summons which are great help, some utility spells like globe, haste, invisibility, longstrider, jump, mirror image, shield, the list goes on. Did I also mentioned that draconic sorcerers can just fly on demand?
4. Persuasion/Deception is also nice in few moments on honor mode, I would not ignore the things outside of the combat and having huge boost to charisma helps a lot.
5. In general I totally agree that high damage potential is the key to combat in honor mode but in my experience I always forget about something and having the utility of some spellcasters got me out of some very nasty situations along the way.
Great video! I'm following the same philosophy of high damage for Honour mode. My main is Gale as Evocation wizard 2 \ Tempest cleric.10, and then Astarion Gloomstalker 5 \ Assassin 5 \ Fighter 2, Laezel Battlemaster 12, Shadowheart Paladin 5 \ Lore Bard 7.
Just figured you should know, I beat honor mode yesterday with this party setup. Only alteration was that Gale joined in the final fight instead of Shadowhart since I was having no issue with HP or AOE. I owe my golden die to you, friend.
OMG! The best person to discuss precisely what I was looking for! Thanks a lot, Colby!
One of the great things about BG3 is because you have more party members than you can bring you can have apecialized party members tailored for dealing with specific challenges. The only one who needs to be universally applicable is the MC.
I think a controller/nuke caster hybrid in particular is good to fill that role, particularly a sorcerer who can make use of some old favorites like hypnotic pattern if you extend spell it. Throw 2-4 levels of warlock for eldritch blast for your dps and youll be golden.
51:35 Love that you gave a shout out to warcleric, swords bars synergy! Longbows 4 life!
cant believe you actually made this video! lovely stuff Colby :D
I loved my team/group/girls club and it was phenomenally over-powered. took your advice and made shadowheart a storm cleric/wild magic sorcerer, lae'zel went full champion fighter, and karlach (my boo) went 100% berserker. the linch-pin was a halfling (female) eldritch-knight 3/lore bard 9. i picked up counterspell and eldritch blast via my college and and while i might have had too many reactions, the 3 hit from eldritch blast + action surge was so critical in locking up and putting down a few bosses, raphael never got to move. Also having most of your party with a 20+ac while karlac just flies around and decimates people was so increadibly satisfying that i kinda forgot to summon allies against the BBEG.
You are one of the top creators. You’ll be recognized one day and have your own kickstarter 💪🏽 animo!
As always, really good content.
As for my future team, wanted to go with one of these compos :
Comp 1 (which I've totally stolen :p ) :
- Lore Bard that can do anything you need, skillmonkey, buff, heal and have skyrocketing AC. => Tav
- TB Monk or TB Thrower (because too much dmg and consistency. Really insane)
- Warlock Blaster
- Tiger Barbarian build with much attack, much advantage, much debuffing gear (classical radiant/thunder debuff combo item)
Comp 2 (which is more what I planned before seing you video, as I've notably understand how broken is a light cleric with the right stuff):
- Light Cleric with all the funny control gear for debuffing all the world while stomping on it
- Sword Bard turret (which is exactly what you did here. With the right items, he can also be tanky with an easy 25 AC really fast, skillmonkey, good tav)
- TB Monk or TB Thrower (because too much dmg and consistency. Really insane)
- Warlock Blaster OR Holy Smiter OR Some freakin' archer build (some are really insane, like furtive one or just volley)
In both cases, I aim to have :
- some jerk that run around debuffing passively things while stomping them (of note, one other build, acid knight, is kinda fun in this part too)
- some guy who is there only to do consistent and late game brutal physical damage. And can throw enemies in pit. Cause it's fun AND downright lethal.
- some guy that can be the party face+skillmonkey and buff/tank OR do dmg (because as said, dead people are no more to be feared)=> BARD+ANYHTING ELSE (because bard are just too good as support and polyvalent things)
- some other guy that can be a lil' more... anything. But dmg dealer. I think it depends on what I take on the others slots, the fourth is to make/synergyze with the other 3. But well, it does damage, obviously. (of note, the warlock is consistent too in this category... but a good assassin to decimate a room even before you start combat, or a good meatshield if you don't already have is also a good spot)
I could have gone with some classical other build, like Gloomstalker (but I need party face, so If I go with it, I'll pick a blaster warlock with high charisma to compensate) or Tempest Cleric (but I hate the mechanics for this build xD). I feel, from an external point of view, that a bard with good dex and college sword is more useful overall than the gloomstalker. They are both same niche, but one offer more... maybe less damage, but more attacks, and the initiative can be compensated with high dex and some good armor (like the medium armor that give bonus ini and let full dex apply to AC). Bard for the win èoé (and bard have just so much useful choices during the game as Tav).
I FINALLY HAVE BG3!!!!!! Also, thank you for the modding tutorial, I still ended up having to go look elsewhere for additional help, but having one of my favorite and most welcoming content creators really helped introduce me to it! Now I can go through the game without having to worry about spiders!
You did a full party build! I feel like my request was heard! Thank you! Also, I hope you had a lovely holiday with your family. (And possibly still are, at the time of this posting)
I just realized your Stormlight Archive art on the wall and now I love this channel even more
When Colby uses the build you suggested: VINDICATIOOON
I stumbled into the bard build on my first playthrough and it's so broken
Really informative. I’m not doing Honor Mode just yet, but I’m doing a custom run with the single save file, mostly balance except for new combat mechanics at tactician, and some hidden failed roles for immersion.
You know what... Thank you for the Add, that books sounds Amazing ^^
Especially if you start out and run pre defined Adventures, most of the time the group has more gold than god but nothing todo with it.
Yay! More BG3 content! I really wished the game launched with this mode. In my first play through I was going to only leave it to one save file then the 'Bad Idea Fairy' started to creep in and I found myself wondering what a different choice would look like in cut scenes. I think the first time came when Vollo wanted to poke my eye with an ice pick. After that I've played with max saves hitting F5 like my life or in this case my TPK deepened on it.
Jesus, on my 2nd playthrough (now tactician) and just when I thought I was getting acquainted to the game, I watch half of this video and realize that I've just barely scraped the bottom of the barrel. I'll prolly memorize all of the game's areas before actually being able to min-max properly 🤣. Thanks for the guide!
I'm going very similar. Holy warrior, thrower, my Light cleric is mixing in some more fighter, and a gloomstalker in place of the bard. If/when this one fails I'll take your choices under advisement.
Thanks for the well thought out advice!
Regarding that lack of Bless when the cleric is concentrating -- I always make it a point to get the staff from the mage tower secret level, it's a 3 person 2d4 unique version of bless that is really helpful on tough early game encounters.
Killer bard is so much fun to play, and it is good at every level- right now I’m running it, tavern thrower, gloomstalker thief, and a war cleric that needs some work
Glad to see more BG3 content! I was afraid you was done covering it
One thing to point out here is that all of the builds have a decent dex. Which really helps with high initiative and bursting.
For those who don't know, in bg3 initiative is rolled by a d4+dex so the modifier positive or negative is a lot more impactful
Great videos as always!
I'm currently running Berzerker, Gloomstalker, Life Cleric, Monk about to take on the Act 1 forge golem - for early play this combo feels strong and tough enough. Even so I've ranged between scared and very alert every fight, with every skill check and encounter taking a bit of prep to make sure I'm going at it the best way possible. This run has just been a complete blast, 50/50 if it survives this upcoming fight.
I'm almost certainly going to take your advice on two or three party members right around level 8, but the monk just feels like it has to remain it's an absolute beast with nova sustain on every turn and so much mobility. I love the bard and paladin ideas in particular, and might transition from life to light cleric for act 2 (its super useful running life in act 1 where everyone is a tad underpowered imo especially with the gloves that give resists on heal).
Great group comp. I mentioned in my other comment your killing Bard sounds like my very first Tav I used to beat Tactician mode. I would make alterations to the Light Cleric myself. Whatever I did I would have Warlock dip 2 for the Eldritch blast. Make use of the Potent Robe and Birthright. But mostly using a Corusation ring while under the effect of a light spell. And using Magic Missile to either spread the love to many enemies or stack the radiating orb effect on one big baddie. I think a modified version of your cool Icebreaker build would work great. Give a little Wizardly love to the group. Make sure to get Bless with the build. Great debuffer. And helps the Killing Bard with multiple lesser enemies or to nuke from a distance.
I really like 10 sword bard 2 pally. I played this on my first playthrough and loved it. You have so many spell slots to smite with!
I'm excited to try your builds out for myself. The killer bard and the holy warrior most!
Great video! I'm subbing!
One tip for the cleric build... At level 10 you can respec your other characters (including withers's mercs) as full cleric, then spend their use of divine intervention (1per char) to get the devotee's mace a legendary with a big healing aura for 10 turns/long rest...
After you can respec back and the weapon stays...
I havent watching most of your bg3 content simply cause i wanna play the game how i want and expirement, but now im probably gonna take a look at them since there seems to be a lot of mechanics i wasnt aware of that would be really important to know. Great video, keep it up!
PSA: idk if everybody knows those but if you play honor mode and lose. You can continue the same campaign with the bosses having legendary actions still having them. So if you just wanted to experience this you could start an honor campaign, die, then you can adjust all the mechanics as you like and still enjoy the new legendary actions
This was a lot of fun!
Your killer bard is my favorite main character build. I do tend to prefer Swords Bard 6 / Eldritch Knight 3 / Paladin 3. I know how awkward that looks, but going from flourishes at range to powerful smites up close is great fun.
My favorite build, the Tempest Cleric / Storm Sorcerer, feels much less powerful in honor mode. Mainly because enemies make their saving through against lightning bolt you can sort of compensate for that by focusing on single target damage with upcast Witch Bolt or Chromatic Orb, but it really isn’t the same.
LETS GO! I've been waiting for more BG3 from my favorite tabletop character builder!
Another Sword Bard I want to try out is the Bardadin. 10 Bard/ 2 Paladin. Slashing Smite Flourish.
Love to try the Light Cleric Bablade go bzz, and add radiant orb debuffs.
Thanks for the in depth guide and focussing on low levels (which are the hardest), in stead of late game gear heavy builds, that can only fully be used in the last couple of fights.
I started a tactician mode run now that I've finished my first one, and I'm using a lot of the builds you've been suggesting! Karlach is the thrower, my Tav is gonna be the Avatar build, Lae'Zel is the battlefield commander, and I'm still deciding on my last character who I want. I'll definitely try these out too when I get around to honor mode!
I had a thrower tav in my first run. Going TB monk tav for tactician, with Sword Bardlock Wyll, Gloomsin Astarion, and either Shadowheart or Gale as cleric/wizard multi. Don’t really have a locked down build for either of them yet.