Barbarian/Fighter/Paladin?

[Floymin]

Why do so many guides suggest these three classes as the best for so many races? Is there really a "best class" for a race, or is this game arranged in a way that you can be anything you want without penalty?

[Blanch Warren]

Fighter in particular has always been considered a good class, while Paladin has been considered a good class for BG3, likely in part given it's a charisma build for RPG, and I think it was simply made more powerful. Smite here isn't the smite I had when I played Neverwinter Nights back in the day.

I don't know if maybe it's a pathfinder thing. Paladin historically has the same attack growth as Fighter, so it's a good melee class anyway, just that it gets more in the way of it's own feats rather than fighter's.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Floymin:

Barbarian/Fighter/Paladin?
Why do so many guides suggest these three classes as the best for so many races? Is there really a "best class" for a race, or is this game arranged in a way that you can be anything you want without penalty?

You can be anything you want.
The penalty is imaginary or whatever you want to be your penalty.

Like e.g. Humans are no good with Darkvision or Wood Elfs having a movement advantage. IF you decide not having that movement advantage is a penalty to you - there you have it.

[Occasum_Solis]

Originally posted by Floymin:

Why do so many guides suggest these three classes as the best for so many races? Is there really a "best class" for a race, or is this game arranged in a way that you can be anything you want without penalty?

From a Damage perspective? Yes. Paladin/Orc or Paladin/Githyanki with Multiclass in Warrior is by far the strongest Class/Race Comp in the whole game.

[Boss]

I've never heard people say that a class is "best for the race", it's always the other way around. But the floating +2/+1 instead of the racial ASI, there's only a few good races, and the rest just waste their features.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Half Orc is the best class for Paladin, because how smite die works.

[guard65]

Orc is a good melee race because of its extra critical die using melee weapons. That is a race pairing thing.

[RamboRusina]

You can distribute your stats freely so race isn't that big of a deal. There are few really good racials, but it's not gonna make or break your game in the least if you decide on trash race.

As for classes, Fighter is just solid all around with extra feat as you level up and triple attack. Pally is good melee fighter that has smites and even in general decent spells&auras. Pally is also Charisma based so it will do wonders for your speech checks and fetch cheaper prices from stores.
Barbs got nerfed hard before release to point I can't really recommend them unless throwing specifically is of interest to you(even for that you could still go fighter).

[Lani]

If you play the game as a combat efficiency simulator than yes it's one of the 'best' class combinations.
But this game is not really a combat efficiency simulator though, so you may not get the fun out if you hope for if that's your thing. The people who do like CES tend to tire of the game soonish and then spend a week or so complaining about it on the forum then move on.

However when you set your expectations to a cinematic story style roleplaying game, then there's suddenly no 'best' class (although I tend to think Bard for first play-through is ideal) and you can start enjoying the game for real.

[Soteria]

Originally posted by Blanch Warren:

Fighter in particular has always been considered a good class, while Paladin has been considered a good class for BG3, likely in part given it's a charisma build for RPG, and I think it was simply made more powerful. Smite here isn't the smite I had when I played Neverwinter Nights back in the day.

I don't know if maybe it's a pathfinder thing. Paladin historically has the same attack growth as Fighter, so it's a good melee class anyway, just that it gets more in the way of it's own feats rather than fighter's.

It's a 5e thing. A lot of people find Paladins to be really strong in this edition.

[northernwater]

Originally posted by Floymin:

Why do so many guides suggest these three classes as the best for so many races? Is there really a "best class" for a race, or is this game arranged in a way that you can be anything you want without penalty?

From the standpoint of race, best race is Deep Gnome by far. Has the broadest probabilistic advantage - 4 advantages.

[Chaosolous]

I like the game but my paladin carries the entire group most the time.

[northernwater]

Originally posted by Chaosolous:

I like the game but my paladin carries the entire group most the time.

It's them smites.

[Maraxus]

Barbs can always attack with advantage which is easy click and kill.

[spasti696969]

Bard + Barbarian. Bardarian. I swear by the Bardarian.

[Black-X]

Those suggestions are for the most part for min-maxing your damage. Any race / class combo will work regardless of what you go for, be it multi classing, pure class with whatever race you desire or anything else, it's called personal preference. While yes, you can go, let's say for example, with orc and play a paladin/sorc 6/6 for them level 5 juicy smites and all, but it's not needed at all to achieve the desired result from the build you're making, not even in honour mode.
The "best" or "overpowered" thing in this game is your experience/knowledge of the game mechanics, that's it.