Is lizard girl potentially the most powerful companion?

[Whale hunter]

So … given the fact that we can respec from scratch, Lae’zel having all those race specific items gives her a big ol’ buff? Having her as a Sorcadin or locadin and having all those free boosts must put her near the top of the pile?

[MewTressym]

Big buff? Nah.

Small buff? Yeah.

Githyanki do get some of the best movement options, like misty step, 3x jump, and the profiency with all skills in a given attribute is nice, but hardly game breaking since other characters can get all of those things with items/spells/skills anyways.

I would say that Lae'zel probably does have the most potential to be the most powerful if specc'd right, as playing a Githyanki in general would too.

There are better options though for certain specs, like Lightfoot Halflings if you want a rogue/thief/archer spec is probably better then Gith as a racial choice for the spec, and there are other comparisons like this.

[Fluff]

Astarion as a monk and Ascended is the most strong one.

But if taking only original classes and no multiclassing, then Lae`zel and Karlach. Gale also.

[Nightlistic]

Minthara is pretty epic if you do the story to recruit her. Paladan's hit ridiculously hard.

[wendigo211]

Based on the buffs he gets, it's easily Astarion. Hell, just the happy buff he gets from biting people (+1 to everything) is pretty good and that's before you consider the potential Ascended buffs.

Lae'zel is probably 2nd, not because of the spells, but because of the all the Githyanki gear that gives githyanki bonus psionic damage and other stuff. Unfortunately, other than the silver sword, there are probably better choices for most of her gear slots.

Karlach is probably next, with the bonuses from soul coins.

Halsin gets a special wild shape and he's a wood elf, so bonus movement, darkvision, etc.

Minsc and Jaheira don't get any special bonuses or penalties so they're just in the middle. Half-high elf is better than human though.

Wyll and Gale are pretty bad. Both humans, so no darkvision, but wyll can get it from a Warlock Invocation, that said he doesn't really get any bonus powers or anything. Just a Rapier that's worse than the bound weapons you can find. Gale eats magic items, which is pretty bad, but he does get to skip the final fight.

Shadowheart is probably the worst since she can't use the mirror of loss and ends up 2 ability points behind everyone else.

[Loot]

I was of the opinion that Githyanki had all the best weapons. Then I made a Warladin and used the Charge-Bound Hammer. Now, there's a sweet weapon. I was doing the same damage as Lae'zel with her Githyanki Greatsword, while having 5 more AC than her.

[meleander]

Originally posted by Whale hunter:

So … given the fact that we can respec from scratch, Lae’zel having all those race specific items gives her a big ol’ buff? Having her as a Sorcadin or locadin and having all those free boosts must put her near the top of the pile?

If we're talking respeccing, then no one, as you can make anyone anything.

If we're talking no multiclass and respeccing only into the same class, then... Shadowheart and I'm not talking about romancing <wink> <wink>. But seriously:

• Command spell (and other holds and etc) - this can make you win any fight vs a strong boss easily. Fighting Grymforge boss? You can make him not do anything for his turns and just beath him down without any retaliation. Fighting a minotaur? Make it drop his 2d12 weapon and grab it for yourself.
  
• Sanctuary / etc - hey, need someone to be untargetable? Or non-killable for few turns? You got it :D
  
• Guidance / Enhance ability - need some help with a check? Maybe +1d4? Or maybe an ADVANTAGE in rolls?
  
• AOE spells that don't deal dmg to allies...
  
• Spirit Guardians - just run around the battlefield hitting every enemy without any retaliation...
  
• Summons - she can even summon summons with her bonus action (Spiritual Weapon)...

And even with multiclass, Shadowheart is a strong contender, because of her AOE and CC abilities.

[meleander]

Originally posted by StepBroccoli:

Astarion as a monk and Ascended is the most strong one.

But if taking only original classes and no multiclassing, then Lae`zel and Karlach. Gale also.

Astarion can go to 3 lvls of thief, then get 6 lvls as monk, then 2 warrior and last thief again, so I would say you can go easily very strong withour respeccing. Problem with monks is, you need to be able to fight in close combat, so you will be using your bonus actions to move closer to the enemies (while dmg looks good on paper, in reality you need to be extremely mobile on the battlefield).

Much better build is for 3 lvls of thief, then go 5 lvls for gloomstalker, then 4 lvls for fighter (champion) with 2 dual crossbows. That is much better because you can easily take out anything on the battlefield. It's also easy to get even as much as +9 to initiative, so you can take any caster before the fight even starts, which is like having a free counterspell.

[meleander]

Originally posted by Whale hunter:

So … given the fact that we can respec from scratch, Lae’zel having all those race specific items gives her a big ol’ buff? Having her as a Sorcadin or locadin and having all those free boosts must put her near the top of the pile?

It depends on your build and ability to utilize them. I suck at utilizing wizards, but excell at utilizing CC and archers, so obviously Gale is bad for me, while Shadowheart is extremely versatile. I also love fighting with Minsc and Lazeal using a double mace build.

[Calculus]

About the items that give bonuses to certain races. Disguise self spell can make you change race so said item can give buffs to other characters than laezel

[Loot]

Originally posted by Calculus:

About the items that give bonuses to certain races. Disguise self spell can make you change race so said item can give buffs to other characters than laezel

I've learned that this breaks certain reactions, though. Like Shield or Sneak Attack from Rogue.

[Terato]

Karlach for the Win

[Aelanar Brightfield]

Originally posted by meleander:

Originally posted by Whale hunter:

So … given the fact that we can respec from scratch, Lae’zel having all those race specific items gives her a big ol’ buff? Having her as a Sorcadin or locadin and having all those free boosts must put her near the top of the pile?

If we're talking respeccing, then no one, as you can make anyone anything.

If we're talking no multiclass and respeccing only into the same class, then... Shadowheart and I'm not talking about romancing <wink> <wink>. But seriously:

• Command spell (and other holds and etc) - this can make you win any fight vs a strong boss easily. Fighting Grymforge boss? You can make him not do anything for his turns and just beath him down without any retaliation. Fighting a minotaur? Make it drop his 2d12 weapon and grab it for yourself.
  
• Sanctuary / etc - hey, need someone to be untargetable? Or non-killable for few turns? You got it :D
  
• Guidance / Enhance ability - need some help with a check? Maybe +1d4? Or maybe an ADVANTAGE in rolls?
  
• AOE spells that don't deal dmg to allies...
  
• Spirit Guardians - just run around the battlefield hitting every enemy without any retaliation...
  
• Summons - she can even summon summons with her bonus action (Spiritual Weapon)...

And even with multiclass, Shadowheart is a strong contender, because of her AOE and CC abilities.

No, you cannot respec the other origins to be Gith, and there is equipment with Gith only buffs, some companions are better than others even if you respect them all to fighter

[meleander]

Originally posted by Aelanar Brightfield:

Originally posted by meleander:

If we're talking respeccing, then no one, as you can make anyone anything.

If we're talking no multiclass and respeccing only into the same class, then... Shadowheart and I'm not talking about romancing <wink> <wink>. But seriously:

• Command spell (and other holds and etc) - this can make you win any fight vs a strong boss easily. Fighting Grymforge boss? You can make him not do anything for his turns and just beath him down without any retaliation. Fighting a minotaur? Make it drop his 2d12 weapon and grab it for yourself.
  
• Sanctuary / etc - hey, need someone to be untargetable? Or non-killable for few turns? You got it :D
  
• Guidance / Enhance ability - need some help with a check? Maybe +1d4? Or maybe an ADVANTAGE in rolls?
  
• AOE spells that don't deal dmg to allies...
  
• Spirit Guardians - just run around the battlefield hitting every enemy without any retaliation...
  
• Summons - she can even summon summons with her bonus action (Spiritual Weapon)...

And even with multiclass, Shadowheart is a strong contender, because of her AOE and CC abilities.

No, you cannot respec the other origins to be Gith, and there is equipment with Gith only buffs, some companions are better than others even if you respect them all to fighter

That equipment is totally worthless, there is a lot of much better ones around.

Race doesn't really matter that much depending on what you're building. And why would you respec everyone to a fighter?

Lol. Fighters may be good later, but clerics are always good. And cleric can make you kill enemies through the conversations, which warrior won't be able to do.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Only races that matter are the shorty races!!

Bg3 no love there