Advice for 1st Run Build

[joaoavo1]

Hi there,
For those of you who played the game already, I wanted to ask something.
I mostly want to go in blind and find about the game without following a guide for my 1st run. I've never played the previous Baldur’s Gate games and my short experience with DnD rules comes from Neverwinter Night 1&2 and a short tryout of Solasta.
I'm aware that this game has a good balance between combat and non-combat interactions (unlike Solasta's main campaign) and I was thinking about not prioritizing damage output for my main character.
I want to build a Beastmaster (probably single class due to how animal companion scales) and I was wondering if ignoring the recommnded attribute distribution would still be viable.
I am starting the game in Normal difficulty, but will probably switch to tactician since I'm familiar with the Divinity Original Sin games.

So, would a Half Wood Elf with the following stats be any good (albeit if only 'ok' in combat)? Would it be able to succeed in relevant DC checks?

Str10
Dex14
Con10
Int12
Wis14
Cha12

My reasoning is that I could sacrifice some damage output (since my animal companion can compensate) and increase the ‘role-playing' stats to have something else instead of a dumb uncharismatic sharpshooter.
I tried using chatGPT to calculate the damage output for this and it told me it’s just around 15% (depends on enemy AC) below the recommended 'build'.
Can anyone tell me if this is true and if doing this will be adding anything outside combat?
Thanks

[Recjawjind]

If you want a jack of all trades character, just play a bard or rogue, they both make good skill monkeys.
This spec is honestly just really bad.
Using any other class and such an inefficient spec just means you'll be a master of none without being a jack of all trades.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

You really need to boost whatever stat you plan to attack with for accuracy and damage, otherwise you'll never hit anything - for a Ranger you could go either Str or Dex, but you need to pick one (or both).

[DiscoMoose]

I would just go for Druid. You are the beast.

[Soteria]

I'd second the recommendation for Bard. If you want to have someone with a lot of non-combat skills, play a Lore Bard and put your charisma and dexterity high.

I think you'll have less fun with this than you think. The animal companion is nice, but won't carry the game for you, and you're going to miss a LOT with those stats. Missing is really unfun. At least drop your int by a couple points and maybe wisdom or charisma as well, and put those points into dexterity. You'll hit more often and be better at the things a ranger is supposed to be good at.

I get that you don't care much about combat effectiveness, but you're going to be bad at really everything with this build. Not mediocre, bad. With Bard or Rogue you get more skills, which will help you out of combat. Both Bard and Rogue can be built as sharpshooters. If you *really* want some of that ranger flavor, you could take two levels in Ranger or Fighter at some point and pick up the Archery fighting style and a couple class features.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Ranger
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Fighter

Ranger would give you some dialogue options for more flavor.

[Popsicles]

Bard is a good choice. Any character with high CHA is good because then TAV is your party 'talker.' High dex. Take the Alert feat. Then go stomps some monsters.

[Trolleur_Durden]

I second the people suggesting bard, it's a must for a first playthrough. You can even have the best of two worlds by mixing two levels of Warlock:

Start as a bard, max your charisma, allocate the remaining points as you see fit. Dex and Con will improve your survivability, Int and Wis your skills. Then take 2 levels of Warlock and take the Agonizing blast invocation. Afterwards, 9 more bard levels with the Lore subclass.

You will end up with a more than decent ranged fighter, able to dish out Eldritch blasts with 3 beams, while having at the same time the insane utility of the Lore bard: lots of utility spells which you can cast as rituals (feather fall for exploration, speak with animals, longstrider, and so on) and lots of various skills. What's even better is that you can also swap your companions with ease in order to do their quests or simply have them around, since your character can fill any shoes.

[Recjawjind]

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

I second the people suggesting bard, it's a must for a first playthrough. You can even have the best of two worlds by mixing two levels of Warlock:

Start as a bard, max your charisma, allocate the remaining points as you see fit. Dex and Con will improve your survivability, Int and Wis your skills. Then take 2 levels of Warlock and take the Agonizing blast invocation. Afterwards, 9 more bard levels with the Lore subclass.

You will end up with a more than decent ranged fighter, able to dish out Eldritch blasts with 3 beams, while having at the same time the insane utility of the Lore bard: lots of skills, lots of utility spells which you can cast as rituals (feather fall for exploration, speak with animals, longstrider, and so on) and lots of various skills. What's even better is that you can also swap your companions with ease in order to do their quests or simply have them around, since your character can fill any shoes.

Its far faaaaaaar from a must, but bards are good.

[Gregorovitch]

The main first consideration to start with is to ask yourself one simple question:

Do I want my main character to be able to pass speech checks (Persuasion, Intimidation, Deception)?

* If you don't care about winning friends and influencing people (for example you just want to kill anything that moves whatever) you can play what you like (although the are some encounters with your companions where you will still need speech checks yourself to get certain outcomes you may prefer).

* If you do care but you are happy to play with the Warlock companion all the time, you can play what you like

* If you do care and you do not want to be tied to one specific companion as the party "face" for most of the game (i.e. the Warlock) then you need to play a Paladin, a Bard, a Warlock, a Sorcerer or some multi-class combination thereof (because they all have Charisma as their primary stat).

Out of these options Bard (or multi-class variations thereof) is extremely popular because not only do they ace speech checks but they can also handle locks and traps which means you no longer need a rogue in your party since you are one yourself. That means you are no longer tied to Astarian. Astarian is a marmite character - some people love him and some people hate him. YMMV.

However, when all is said and done, within 4-8 hours in game you will have access to Withers who will be able to completely respec you ground up for a measly 100 gold. So there is no need to sweat this decision too much. In the end what matters most is which companions you prefer to travel with (because you will want to play a class that has good synergy with them) but of course you don't know that from the start which is why Withers can be so important.

[AsianGirlLover]

Druid is best for a first run, especially if you have no idea what you’re doing.

[Soulwind]

As a Ranger Beastmaster, you'll probably want to go with a mostly Archery based combat.
Assuming that you also want to be the main character for NPC interaction, then here's what I'd do:

Drop INT to 10 (you can/probably will find an item relatively early in Act 1 that gives you a 17 INT as long as it's equipped).

Drop WIS to 12 (yes, it affects your spellcasting, so keep your chosen spells to more of the utility type - longstrider, speak with animals, hunter's mark rather than combat spells) You'll probably use most of your spell slots casting hunter's mark anyway.

Raise DEX to 16 (this affects your ranged to-hit and ranged damage bonuses). You'll probably want to take a stat increase as your level 4 feat and raise it to 18.

Raise CON to 14 for the bonus hit points and concentration saving throws.

Raise CHA to 14 for the NPC interaction

(These numbers include your free +2/+1 in DEX and either CON or CHA)

Use a Finesse based melee weapon so you can use DEX bonuses instead of STR.

Pick up Sharpshooter at lvl 8 -- with an 18 DEX you can use it for the +10 damage a lot of the time.

At lvl 12 pick whatever you want that sounds interesting or boost DEX to 20.

[❤N'wahCliffracer❤]

I would say it depends on what you care about gameplay-wise. There is a character who no matter what playthrough I always take with me.I go high cha, throw in some dex, but I mostly play magic users and always as elves or drow. I've played sorcerer, warlock, bard, monk, as both durge and Tav. I would probably lower the wis and int with the build you're looking to make. The commenter above me (soulwind) has good advice, imo.

[joaoavo1]

Thank you all for the feedback.
Regarding choosing Bard, I understand it's the best class for skill checks, but I never really like the concept of this class. Going into battle playing music isn't something that resonates with me.
Rogue is nice, normally my go to class in RPGs, but I really wanted to try out the animal companion first.

I'll follow Soulwind's advice or try to get more proficiencies with a more careful selection of background/race/etc.

Cheers

[Soteria]

Originally posted by joaoavo1:

Thank you all for the feedback.
Regarding choosing Bard, I understand it's the best class for skill checks, but I never really like the concept of this class. Going into battle playing music isn't something that resonates with me.
Rogue is nice, normally my go to class in RPGs, but I really wanted to try out the animal companion first.

I'll follow Soulwind's advice or try to get more proficiencies with a more careful selection of background/race/etc.

Cheers

That's not really the concept of Bard in 5e, though. They *can* play music, but in 5e they don't play music in combat. It's not like previous editions where they're typically playing a song every fight. They're a spellcaster whose spell focus is their instrument who also has a lot of skills, and maybe some martial abilities with the right subclass.

Good luck!

[Jondar Korric]

right off the bat, I do NOT suggest dumping Constitution. especially not if you're planning on using any Concentration Spells.

[Jondar Korric]

Originally posted by Soteria:

Originally posted by joaoavo1:

Thank you all for the feedback.
Regarding choosing Bard, I understand it's the best class for skill checks, but I never really like the concept of this class. Going into battle playing music isn't something that resonates with me.
Rogue is nice, normally my go to class in RPGs, but I really wanted to try out the animal companion first.

I'll follow Soulwind's advice or try to get more proficiencies with a more careful selection of background/race/etc.

Cheers

That's not really the concept of Bard in 5e, though. They *can* play music, but in 5e they don't play music in combat. It's not like previous editions where they're typically playing a song every fight. They're a spellcaster whose spell focus is their instrument who also has a lot of skills, and maybe some martial abilities with the right subclass.

Good luck!

except they do? their musical instrument is literally their spellcasting focus which is played as part of the somatic component, and several of their abilities are literally songs.