Optimizing Every Companion in Baldur's Gate 3 (Part 1)

Errata: I mention that Call Lightning follow up damage doesn't scale in D&D - I was confusing it with Witch Bolt - it scales just the same as in BG3 :).

So, I know it's a classic meme on this channel, but again, Fighter makes a fantastic choice as a single-level dip for Wyll.

Yes, you don't get Action Surge (which REALLY sucks since you CAN get it as Warlock 5/Paladin 5/Fighter 2), but you get ANOTHER Fighting Style, probably Defense, AND you can respec to have taken it level 1 for.. you guessed it... Constitution Saving Throw proficiency. Also, more information below, but it IS a spoiler.








If you a rescue Mizora from Moonrise Towers, she will give you the Infernal Rapier, letting you use Charisma instead of Dexterity when attacking. This sounds redundant since we have Pact of the Blade, UNLESS we go for Two-Weapon Fighting and take the Dual-Wielder feat. Now we can Blade Pact our PRIMARY weapon of choice (Phalar Aluve perchance??) and then use the Infernal Rapier in the OFFHAND and become a whirlwind of death in Darkness. I have not tried this, but it DOES give a use for our Bonus Action every attack that isn't Hex, since we're probably going to be Concentrating on Darkness, Hunger of Hadar, Hypnotic Pattern, or some other similar control spell.

(Also the Infernal Rapier gives +1 to Spell Save DC which is nice and Dual Wielder gives +1 AC which can make up for no shields).

Yes ive been waiting for a video like this ever since i noticed astatians unique bite mechanic. (Granted thief rogue meshes super well) i wasnt sure if i overlooked other possible combinations for other companions

one of the things i love the most about BG3 is the wide variety of options for creating builds. I´ve probably spent well over 50 hours just sitting in camp talking to withers, crafting and trying different builds... i absolutely love it when a game gives you enough options to do so.

For Shadowheart could a rogue/arcane trickster build be fun?
That way you can keep her trickery, focus on dex and wis skills, and use fun ranged legerdemain.

I think overusing short and long rests is a bit gamy, so not relying too much on spell slots is nice. Also not everyone needs to be a perfect damage dealer, one OP build should deal enough damage compared to a whole noob party.

Your videos are always such a delight! For Karlach, I wanted to try giving her some druid levels but I don't think it really works, I might try this throwing barbarian !

Considering the lore of Shar, a Monk of the Shadow [Moon] build or multiclass might also work. Even a gish with War Cleric and maybe a multiclass into an Illusion or Necromancy wizard will also fit well considering the aspiration to be a Dark Justiciar. Not sure about the Storm Cleric as it is not in Shar's portfolio (Death and Trickery domains).

I'm home 😎

critlander dropped another banger

I optimized for proficiencies.
Particularly, the very useful shield proficiency, seeing as the shield ac boost always applies, not just when attacking with melee.
potential spoilers of who can be companions
So gale as wizard makes sense (shield and light armor options).
Shadowheart I respec as either rogue or bard (shield and firebolt is situationally useful).
Wyll as sorcerer (honestly, sorcerer points feel more flavorful powerful to me than warlock).
Karlach as fiend warlock (makes flavor sense to me), because I never do pure warlock. Either fighter 1 warlock 11 (for all proficiencies and con save proficiency, and slowing down warlock by 1 feels fine). Or warlock 3 paladin 9 for a defensive paladin that can be SAD.
Astarion as druid (gets shield from class, adds ranged shortbow and longbow as ranged options) and his biting makes sense.
Laezel as rogue (adds medium armor, mage hand to grant sneak attack, and astral knowledge as skill monkey makes sense).
Halsin druid also fine (shorbow longbow movespeed, which I'm pretty sure applies to wild shape).
Minthara would make a good cleric as a drow, I think (adds finesse rapier, shortsword, and hand crossbows to weaponize her bonus actions, and I think cleric feels flavorful and close to paladin).
Minsc monk (adds shields to monk and he looks like a big guy).
Jaheria any missing shieldless class (bard, monk, rogue, sorcerer, warlock, wizard). Idk, she's been around long enough I assume she could have trained in anything by now.
Oh, and the player character Durge should be githyanki cleric of knowledge for all skill proficiencies, since they're The Face.
Thoughts?

I love this idea yass

Would there still be a point to dip eldritch knight if you were using Nyrulna? I understand the point of eldritch knight is to bond with a finesse weapon for sneak attack, but the bonus thunder damage on Nyrulna makes up for sneak attack.

I had a playthrough where I made Astarion a shadow monk and lae'zel a lockadin lol

I enjoy your voice tone

meh Shadowheart. Shar doesn't have the tempest domain... I get that you want to make a cleric that's got big numbers, but I'd rather make a war domain cleric/paladin or war cleric/fighter or something of this order. You have a sad bias too, which is that BG3 allows you to cheese a lot of the game with stealth and pickpocket, and the trickery domain would make for the mostl ridiculous stealth build. I'd easily see a trickery/rogue build. Wouldn't be the best in combat, but combats would be a lot easier with half the enemies already dead or naked.

another note : polearm master is very unoptimal in combination with great weapon master, because the best feature of both is the bonus action attack and they both have it. GWM bonus attack is far better than PAM bonus attack. PAM is far, far better with sentinel.

I think Shadowheart respec to Light Cleric makes sense in act 3.. but not before then.

One thing I much preferred in wotr's way of doing it was having characters set to their starting position. I found it so fun trying to work out how to make the best of Daeran or Ember, given the class and stats they started with.

In BG3, even characters that have customised stats, all go back to a cookie cutter representation of their base class once you recruit them.

For example, Halsin has 10 strength after you recruit him?!?!

Astarion with finished quest as a thief monk is ridiculously op

It's kinda funny to me how thunder and lightning damage are separate in dnd

I've been stubborn on my first playthrough and refused to respec any origin characters bc i wanted the 'intended' experience.
deffo gonna be experimenting on my second. I want to make a full stealth party

I agree that trickery domain sucks.... honestly it needs more rogue features built into subclass. Noone wants to delay core cleric spell but honestly playing without them feels wrong. I love the list of spells but the features are soooo lacking.

And this is then my ask... can you pls create a video to fix the subclass? Cuz only a person that has played the subclass understands that the features are so damn terrible.

Gloomstalker 5, swords bard 5, fighter 2 sharpshooter build in the future?

I was guessing you will go with war domain for Shadowheart, given her determination to become Shar's elite warrior, but your explenation for going tempest is solid c:

I love your bg3 videos!

Ngl berserker barbarian does not sound appealing with all the minus stuff

Nyrulna trident or whatever it’s called is amazing on a 3 Barb/3Rog/6fighter.

Until act 3 the best warlock weapon is a hammer that adds 1-8 lightning if a pact weapon. For the last lvl on Wyll’s build I went war cleric. Getting 4 attacks for first 3 turns.

"There are several ways to cause a creature to get wet"

tbh if i click on a video and there is 8 min of intro, patreon begging and sponsoring before the real "content" even starts then its probably the last video i watch on a channel.

thank you for this video, I already have builds for sjadowheart and wylll but I´ll try the karlach built and am looking forward especially to a laezel but the others as well

Scribed scrolls with say Lightning Bolt still uses INT as the caster stat, right?

Am I the only thirsty person who thought "YES !You can definitely just take your shirt off." ? 😮

"It's alot easier to get enemies wet before combat" -Colby
Sir this is a Fighter playthrough, no bards allowed

This was very enjoyable to watch. It gave me a better understanding of the class features and mechanics. Thank you

I too am sad and put all my points in charisma so this video really speaks to me

I think the Wyll warlock/paladin combo is stronger. I can see will being a paladin.

I followed your fighter/warlock/sorceror build from your pre-release BG3 video and loved it and apparently we're on a similar wavelength now lol.

I just finished my 3rd play through and used the exact same build as you've suggested for Wyll (only started as bard so it was bard 6->warlock 5->bard 7) and its fantastic fun. The rapier you can pick up in act 3 really brings it all together around the same time as you can be hitting 11 and its a huge power spike. Adding tadpole powers to it only makes it even better even if you never use anything but the cull the weak passive.
I also had Shadowheart on a very similar tempest cleric build which also worked great.

Thanks for more great fun builds!

I kept Shadowheat as a trickery domain cleric and gave her a dip in rogue for arcane trickster. It's something you usually wouldn't do in D&D, but since there's no prerequisites for multiclassing in BG3, it works out pretty well. I also gave her the Polearm Master and Sentinel feats so she can better wield her Spear of Night. Now she sneaks up on enemies, slings spells from afar, and gives them a serious beatdown if they try to close the gap.
I may change how I have Karlach built. I tried to give her a scaled-down version of the Three Bears build from a while back, but it didn't really work out. It worked great for Halsin, though.
As for Wyll, I couldn't really do what I wanted to with him since so many subclasses aren't available, so I kept his original class and had him multiclass into a swords bard. If there's a patch or high-quality mod, I might try using him as a hexblade warlock with a swords bard dip centered around his Infernal Rapier. That, or just lean into his heroic persona and make him a glory paladin / banneret fighter.

Also, GIVE THE ROGUE STEADY AIM LARIAN!!! I want to enjoy all of BG3's broken stuff with 5e horse archery schnanigans. I want my mongol horse archer.

I respecced Karlach into the tavern brawler monk you recommended the other day and it's absolutely absurd how much damage she deals, while also making hilarious martial arts noises in the process

So sad that bear totem barb isnt in the game. Every melee martial would benefit from flat resistamce to all but 1 type of damage coupled with reckless attack. Also, where is my one true love, the swashbuckler rogue?

For Tempest Shadowheart, don't forget that you can learn chain lightning through a scroll. If you can precast haste and (or bonus action) create water, you can do 320 DMG in one round per target hit by it after you get a certain staff in act 3. That kind of burst damage is very much endgame, but it's worth mentioning for how absurd it is.

Oh I am Definitely using these Karlach and Wyll builds on my current Beastmaster Ranger play through. Keeping Shadowheart as a Trickery Cleric though. I know it's not the strongest Cleric subclass in terms of potential damage output etc, but I actually really like it, especially for enhancing & supporting rogueish playstyles that utilise stealth and darkness.

Are there any videos about each spell, what they do, when to use them, etc?

Casting haste on shadowheart lets her use call lightning multiple times per round. All still for free while concentrating.

I've gone with:
Shadowheart - Hunter6/Cleric6 Dex/Wis with Sharpshooter and dual handcrossbow, Hunter5/Cleric7 might be better not sure, Cleric domain doesn't really matter but I used Life
Gale - Thief4/Evoker8 Int/Dex with dual handcrossbow, can cast spell and shoot twice, uses all that 'spell boosts weapon' and 'weapon boosts spells' type gear
Karlach - Thief3/Wildheart5/Champ4 Str dual wielder, Reckless guarantees Sneak Attack, two Bonus Actions, Dash is bonus, dual fighting style, Action Surge
Wyll - Paladin6/Warlock6 2H weapon, Cha used for melee and spells, 3 Attacks, aura, Savage Attacker
Laezel - EK11/Wiz1 Str/Int spear throwing Tavern Brawler, 3 attacks, can cast third level spells, learn from scrolls
Astarion - same as Gale, replaces Gale in evil playthrough
Halsin - Moon Druid6/Open Hand Monk6 Wis/Str unarmed Tavern Brawler, adds Wisdom to punches
Minthara - same as Wyll except Old Ones, replaces Wyll on evil playthrough

This actually gave me a great idea for my ongoing playthrough! My Tav is warlock/bard duelist and I just might round up my team with a berserker who can throw enemies in the darkness 😈 But now I need to figure out a way to keep them there... Maybe a cleric with spirit guardians + the blindness ring? Do we have any ideas

I'm doing something similar for my own playthrough and thanks, Wyll was something I was stuck on. Karlach I want to make STRONK (Barbarian/Monk with tavern brawler), Wyll is perfect as a bardlock gish, Gale I made into the control freak but I'm stuck on Shadowheart, Lae'zel and Tav.

Lae'zel I wanted to make Fighter 10 / Barb 2 for reckless attack and gwm but the lack of a working polearm master kills me. Tav I wanted as Sorlock but Quickened spell costing 3 SP and no armor Proficiency makes it quite impossibile.

Hey Colby, is there a way to make a similar build to 5E's hexblade/Sorcerer? I suppose Haste lets you cast Eldritch Blast again but what about armor?

Maybe for the last two levels on Wyll you could multiclass into paladin? Stack smites on top of the flourishes for big damage