Class Builds

[lucifier]

Wondering with the update info on class/races released why we don't see any class builds on the forums.
Are people just waiting for release or due you have a cookie cutter goto build your using.

I havent played tabletop since 2nd/3rd editions so im not to familiar with the PHB rule changes, but from what ive gathered spell classes are not as strong as melee and spells have been watered down.
Im looking to see what others think, Im kinda looking to see if I can still make a super monk build with this new rule set but dont have my hopes to high from some of the rules Ive seen.

Are any of the great builds from back in the days still viable?

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Wat?

Wizard (Conjuration) is still king, and Clercs are a close second place contender.

[Yojo0o]

Any theorizing about builds outside the scope of EA will largely overlap with the last decade of DnD 5e discourse, so there's not too much new to speak of right now. We'll see what sort of builds are enabled by unique campaign features, gear, and other elements specific to BG3 that will be discovered in 1.0.

[WeenerTuck813]

Originally posted by Pan Darius Loveless:

Wat?

Wizard (Conjuration) is still king, and Clercs are a close second place contender.

This is so not close to correct lol.

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by WeenerTuck813:

Originally posted by Pan Darius Loveless:

Wat?

Wizard (Conjuration) is still king, and Clercs are a close second place contender.

This is so not close to correct lol.

Wizards and Clerics are damn good classes.

Any tier list of these is gonna be debatable, but I think it certainly is close to correct, though I'm not sure why Conjuration is seen so highly.

[Guitarist with Osteoarthritis]

Clerics are ok as spellcasters, but they do not have the stopping power as the Sorcerer, Wizard, Druid, and Bard. They aren't bad by any stretch. They just aren't the top spellcaster. I think Larian will need to change the Rogue Thief subclass third level ability "Fast hands" to NOT let them have an extra bonus action. That is WILD, and that will be one of the meta builds that will be paired with paladin and sorcerer simply because they would be able to use their sorcery points more often, and with greater potency. Having two bonus actions to do with whatever you want is very powerful. The Grit helmet would give them yet another bonus action when their health is half through. It's insane.

[Blackdragon]

Originally posted by Pan Darius Loveless:

Wat?

Wizard (Conjuration) is still king, and Clercs are a close second place contender.

My Draconic Sorcerer wipes the floor with your wizard. Also a charisma powerhouse, charming and intimidating his way through all conversations, while your Int-based nerd gets a couple of (Lore) checks at best.

Second best class is Rogue (Thief), due to the ability to make double attacks and/or hide after attacks, completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the AI.

Fighters I expect to be solid, not the best but not bad either. There are some strong Feats incoming, like Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter, that can make a Fighter/Thief build very potent.

Clerics pretty much suck in this game, unless you take one of the battle domains and just treat him/her as a fighter with heals.

Multiclassing for spellcasters will be very risky with the 12 level cap, and some obvious builds (like Sorlock or Tempest Cleric/Sorcerer) are gimped due to absence of basic components (Hexblade and Transmute Spell, respectively). However, martial classes will probably benefit from dips into Rogue.

[Guitarist with Osteoarthritis]

The Beserker Barbarian will get a massive damage boost over the fighter with the Grit helmet and three levels of Rogue Thief with TWO extra bonus actions. rofl. Five attacks by level eight is insane. rofl. The Fighter gets their third attack at level eleven.

[Guitarist with Osteoarthritis]

I should've clarified. The Berserker needs to be at half health to use the extra bonus action from the Grit helmet, but that's not that bad of a trade off for a one hundred hundred percent damage increase. rofl.

[Blackdragon]

Originally posted by Guitarist with Osteoarthritis:

I should've clarified. The Berserker needs to be at half health to use the extra bonus action from the Grit helmet, but that's not that bad of a trade off for a two hundred percent damage increase. rofl.

How is ONE extra bonus action a TWO hundred percent damage increase?

[Foolswalkin]

I don't think we know the first thing about what Conjuration school wizards do yet, right? The 2nd level ability doesn't make any sense in a CRPG.

I think there will still be good options for multiclassing with spellcasters as long as you know what you're doing and don't try to carbon-copy something off the internet that is missing a critical tool from PnP. I've posted it a bunch of times so I may sound like a broken record, but I'm pretty excited for Vengeance Paladin 2/Sword Bard 10 builds (better than PnP since you gain Oath at level 1 instead of 3 now), you lose 1 caster level and access to 6th level spells but you get a 6th level spell slot for scalable spells, you still nab Magical Secrets to cherry pick your faves, and you can smite enemies all day long. I'm also looking forward to Life Cleric 1/Enchanter Wizard 11 for the heavy armor and shield to back up Enchanter's insane love of being in melee range with enemies, you don't lose any slots there although your progression of new spell levels is one behind.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Originally posted by WeenerTuck813:

Originally posted by Pan Darius Loveless:

Wat?

Wizard (Conjuration) is still king, and Clercs are a close second place contender.

This is so not close to correct lol.

You know it's true!

[lucifier]

Does any one have any advice for the monks in 5th edition? I remember haveing a untouchable monk do to dex building and haveing like 6 attacks a attack round due to monks skills/abilities back in 2nd edition, are they still on that build style or have they been nerfed to high heaven?

[Foolswalkin]

Originally posted by lucifier:

Does any one have any advice for the monks in 5th edition? I remember haveing a untouchable monk do to dex building and haveing like 6 attacks a attack round due to monks skills/abilities back in 2nd edition, are they still on that build style or have they been nerfed to high heaven?

Nerfed to hell compared the BG2 possibilities.

No one knows what to expect from BG3, though, because per the last update Larian has intentionally buffed them from their PnP versions.

[.Master Jiren, The Strongest]

Originally posted by lucifier:

Wondering with the update info on class/races released why we don't see any class builds on the forums.
Are people just waiting for release or due you have a cookie cutter goto build your using.

I havent played tabletop since 2nd/3rd editions so im not to familiar with the PHB rule changes, but from what ive gathered spell classes are not as strong as melee and spells have been watered down.
Im looking to see what others think, Im kinda looking to see if I can still make a super monk build with this new rule set but dont have my hopes to high from some of the rules Ive seen.

Are any of the great builds from back in the days still viable?

If you want to know why theres no builds, look no further than the replies on this very thread. People are only arguing about what does the most 1337 damage, and ignoring every other aspect of dungeons and dragons, which is to say the other 75% of the game.

Additionally, theres no one build that will be the most bestest because you have 4 party members that can be anything you need them to be and their only job will be to make you be the best. This means builds that could work in real life dont hold a candle to what you can accomplish with the full cooperation of 3 other characters at your command.

What you'll most likely find will be party compositions of 4 rather than just singular builds. And as has been discussed in other forums, it still holds true that new players should always rely on the old tried and true method of "1 tank, 1 healer, 1 utility, 1 ranged damage dealer". That ensures you have all the aspects of the game covered, not just combat, but all aspects of DnD fulfilled by a single party.

To get more specific would require people to start talking about what duos trios and quartets work best together, and that conversation could go on for years. I mean just look at how no one can agree on a single class, now multiply that by 4.

And in case you hadnt heard theres a mod that lets you respec your companions, so they can be whatever class you need them to be, giving you unlimited control over your party as if you were using 4 created characters-- except without missing out on dialogue or story plot points.



Also, usually, when people talk about "the best class" they are almost always going to just talk about who deals the most damage. And most of the time they only calculate it from a turn 1 perspective which is called "going full nova" which means to use all your features and best spells/combos on turn 1 or as early as possible, even if it means you can do nothing on turns 2 and onward. You often get enormous amounts of damage with one character and then have to take a rest to get their resources back otherwise they are basically useless from that point on.

So when you ask what is the best, you have to dictate specifically what type of character you're talking about. sustained damage, full nova damage, or someone who can be unkillable. Those are the 3 main types of combat characters.


As for specific builds for each class, the real reason no one has written anything is because we dont know what features you'll unlock. Because they reduced the level cap to 12, this means no class will ever get their capstone feature. Or will they? See we have no idea how they will do it. And we dont know exactly what spells will be in the game or exactly how they will work. On top of this we dont know what magic items are available, and which ones will be extremely easy to get. All of this matters. For all we know, Fireball might end up being worthless by comparison to some other grossly OP strategy, but we cant make that determination until the game comes out.


I would say, for BG3, a reliable strategy would be Warlock--Darkness-- Devil Sight. This lets you cast darkness and see through it. enemies wont really be able to attack you, and you'll be able to attack them. It also lets you steal from every NPC free and clear for infinite money. See, that trick wouldn't work in table top DnD, but it works beautifully in this game. Also, in normal DnD, Warlocks are heavily limited by their spell slots as DMs never want to let you take a short rest to get your spells back, but here, you can rest literally after every fight, so Warlocks being able to get their spells back in an instant makes them slightly more powerful than they would normally be since you have full control over it. That said, any class relying on resources (all of them) can just long rest to get their things back, and long rests are an important part of the game. Which means Full Nova is a more viable strategy than it normally would be in table top since you can get all your resources back immediately after without the DM saying "You cant rest here, theres monsters nearby"

Welcome to Dungeons and Dragons, we agree on nothing and argue about everything.

[Dremall]

Originally posted by lucifier:

Wondering with the update info on class/races released why we don't see any class builds on the forums.
Are people just waiting for release or due you have a cookie cutter goto build your using.

I havent played tabletop since 2nd/3rd editions so im not to familiar with the PHB rule changes, but from what ive gathered spell classes are not as strong as melee and spells have been watered down.
Im looking to see what others think, Im kinda looking to see if I can still make a super monk build with this new rule set but dont have my hopes to high from some of the rules Ive seen.

Are any of the great builds from back in the days still viable?

Fifth edition rules are vastly different from 2/3.5 rules. Though to sum it up, they cut out the worst of the math and stacking buffs, debuffs. Casters were largely reigned in with the introduction of the concentration mechanic. Action Economy is king. The side with the most actions per round usually wins.

As far as guides go...Larian is retooling some of the subclasses either for gameplay reasons, or to make them viable. *cough* beast master ranger *cough* So while guides could be written off whats been around for pen and paper for years many would need to be amended.

I.E. In the news post announcing the date change they said monks were going to be adjusted to come in line with other classes. There main drawback is that they are heavily dependent on ki points, and eventually go from not having enough to not knowing what to do with them all about mid level. I'd imagine it wouldn't be a very fun low level experience if it's 1:1.