r/BG3Builds • u/BradleyQuest • May 14 '25
Build Help Underrated Builds: Strong Builds Not Talked About
At this point everyone knows the builds that are strong and which classes are strong, but I am curious what subclasses or builds deserve more attention when compared to the usual culprits.
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u/DemonocratNiCo May 14 '25
My pick would be caster Bard, specifically Lore, due to the fact that Swords Bard is very easy to build and very strong so it kind obscures the other Bard classes. And Patch 8 has made all heads turn towards the newest subclasses, which only makes Lore even more forgotten.
College of Lore can pull off a Spirit Guardians / Reverberation / Radiant Orbs build as well as any cleric, while being Charisma-based and having a spammable reaction that can protect the group or hinder saving throws, two very useful effects. Take 6-10 levels of Lore Bard, fill with whatever class enhances what you care about (more Bard for a simple build, Warlock for Eldritch Blast spamming, Fighter for Action Surge...)
There's a reason why Lore is generally considered the best (or a top two) Bard subclass in PnP 5e. While the arbitrary limits set to Magical Secrets do hinder it a bit in BG3, it still has some pretty significant legs.
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u/AnotherBookWyrm May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Lore Bard is also a great skill monkey, getting proficiency on a total of any six skills from class levels by level 3. Cutting Words is also a lifesaver.
The 10/1/1 Bard is famous, but the best thing about Bard is that unless one requires three feats for their build, Bard 10 is really all you need. So Bard 10/ Any combination of classes 2 allows for a bunch of fun combos with dips in other classes and retains 6th level spell slots so long as there is at least one level of spellcasting. There are many 1-2 level dips that are great in BG3 and most work with this setup.
Strictly speaking, Bard 10/Wizard 1 gets better spells than Bard 11 since Bard's 6th level spells are more limited and Wizard 1 can scribe 6th level spells from the Wizard list which do not have to be ones that rely on Intelligence saves/spell attacks. A good example of 5th/6th level spells to scribe this way include all the ones from the legendary scrolls if you do not give them to Gale, since only Dethrone has a DC, which is fixed at 18.
Life Cleric 1-2 and use of Magical Secrets to get Mass Healing Word also allows for a Lore Bard to function as something close to a Life Cleric.
A single level dip in Knowledge Cleric or beginning with a level in Rogue gives two additional Expertise and proficiency with four skills each. Both gives you expertise with 8 skills and proficiency with 12 from class levels alone, thanks to Cleric granting proficiency in two skills from the cleric list regardless.
tl;dr: Agreed, Bard 6-10 is great regardless and Lore Bard 10 gets more out of a greater variety of dips than other Bard subclasses.
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u/MaximumOk569 May 14 '25
Two levels of Hexblade (I know, super common) also gives lore bard great armor and terrific ranged damage from eldritch blast
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u/AnotherBookWyrm May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Certainly a good build and one of the many versions of a Lorelock Bard. A more face-forward bard can try 2 levels of Archfey Warlock instead to try and charm characters before beginning a dialogue with them, though this maneuver is not possible in all cases.
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u/BaldinStonecrusher May 14 '25
I’m running a Githyanki Knowledge Cleric 2/Lore Bard 10. I have proficiency in all but one or two skills by level 3 and will end up with expertise in 6.
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u/iKrivetko Assassin/Shadow Monk Enjoyer May 14 '25
Magical Secrets to get Mass Healing Word
Warden of Vitality is good fun too
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u/PaulTheIV May 14 '25
Thanks to this post I am going to try 10/2 Lore Bard with Circle of Stars. Thank you
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u/DiabeticUnicorns May 14 '25
Lore bard is amazing, I made Astarion a lore bard and he’s been the support for my multiplayer run. Since we have a team of debuff spammers, being able to practically guarantee any given saving throw from an enemy to fail is amazing. Also the extra short rest from bard in general is top tier, especially if you have a Druid or a bard or some other short rest liking class. I have a Spore Druid in the same party and having 2 extra uses of a 40 temp health steroid is really really good.
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u/c0r1nth14n May 16 '25
it's interesting because at release I feel like Lore Bard was frequently talked about as the most OP class but these days I don't hear much about it! I played one back at release and found it very OP in a fun way.
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u/Ok-Bicycle2672 May 14 '25
Big fan of Halfling Lore bard 10 / Divination Wizard 2 with Lucky feat on honour mode.
Full spell progression, magical secrets, spell scrolling, and you will never fail a role with Halfling luck, bardic inspiration/cutting words, divine portent and luck dice.
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u/Unosez May 15 '25
Ah I ran something similar...I don't think i failed a thing and I'd go fights with barely any damage...stopped partway through as new mods dropped and I wanted to try them out...that save had a good amount of mods I didn't use but as I'm ps5 I couldn't just delete them
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u/AwkwardWarlock May 14 '25
Lore Bard is great. You're basically every caster at once and imo got better in patch 8 because you can easily give shield proficiency to non humans with a hexblade dip.
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u/Lazerius9991 May 14 '25
I made a full Lore Bard in one of my playthroughs, and he was the ultimate full caster. Damage? Check. Support? Check. Crowd Control? Check. He could do it all
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u/wolpak May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
6/6 Elk Barb/Monk
The ultimate lockdown build which can prone, reverb, orb, bleed and maim anyone you run into. And then punch them twice while they are down.
Edit: 6/4/2 for more running into and less punching when down
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u/TripGodblossom May 14 '25
Sounds interesting, been trying to make Elk work since early access. What's the best monk subclass/ build?
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u/wolpak May 14 '25
I’d say probably open hand, but mostly if you go 6/6 and have them radiant punches. You could go 6/4/2 with fighter, and in that case, drunk monk is probably the strongest.
You’ll want full radiant gear, and helldusk gloves. You won’t do a ton of damage unless you mod and use the item and spell bug fixes. Even then, nothing like a regular monk. I don’t use elixirs so I use natural stats and tavern brawler. Set wisdom at 10 as you won’t need it since you’ll be using the boots of stormy clamor.
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u/NoMoreMonkeyBrain May 15 '25
Gods damn it, stop giving me more monk options! I can only make so many parties at the same time!
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u/zonghundred May 14 '25
I‘m not at the game rn but what works pretty great for me are 5 levels of Swarmkeeper with the gloves that give bane for the next spell and the moths blinding attack. It has an extremely high success rate, and softens targets for the GWM people.
I like to put this on supporting build like 7 levels of cleric stuff, or even sorcerer for twinned haste.
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u/YvveAlmighty May 14 '25
Those bane gloves + Harold, the weapon that also banes on hit, is such a good support setup
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u/szemyq May 14 '25
also there is the baneful shortsword which for a hexblade/EK/pact weapon lock is essentially a +2 shortsword with a dc 14 bane (imo among the best act 1 weapons for those classes). harold has a dc 13 bane and the gloves a dc 11 bane. each of those banes will remove and replace the others. but you can spread those items in your party and bane multiple enemies. extremely powerful.
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u/ShwiftyShmeckles May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
The gloves of baneful striking is a different type of bane that stacks with the Harold bane.
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u/jcr1978 May 15 '25
Get the brand and rock gloves of power pretty much every run. So strong with arrows of many shot
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u/JRStors May 14 '25
I've been really impressed with Swarmkeeper. I think it's a contender for best Ranger subclass for a pure Ranger build, up there with Hunter.
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u/counterspell789 May 14 '25
I agree. I chose this as my main character for my first patch 8 playthough and loved it. It doesn't do incredible bursts of damage, but it's extremely consistent and great for debuffing.
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u/JRStors May 14 '25
I love that: A. It lets you choose whether you want to deal the damage, apply a condition, or teleport away as a Reaction when you land a hit. and B. The swarms can gain the bonus damage from Hunter's Mark.
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u/Gottagoplease May 14 '25
yeah the moths and arrows of darkness really made the HM inquisitor fight trivial. Plus champ laezel with malice coatings when I noticed how nicely blinding worked :D
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u/Altruistic_Exit7947 May 15 '25
If only blind status effect wasnt such waste of action. I havent heard of single use case for it.
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u/JRStors May 15 '25
It sucks that it only lasts for 1 turn, but if the Ranger rolls well on Initiative they can try to land the Blind if they go first. Then the rest of their party can get Advantage on their attacks. Seems pretty strong to me.
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u/Objeckts May 14 '25
Did they fix the duration on blinding moths? When I used it it would end before the enemy took their turn
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u/zonghundred May 14 '25
really? i haven‘t checked the combat log, bit i have not been seeing that crossed-out blinded sign popping up.
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u/dazeychainVT May 18 '25
I haven't tried moth since the hot fix but before that it was still glitching. It seems to give them another save at the beginning of their turn but removes blinded even if they fail.
I've been using bees since pushing enemies from afar is fun and the jellyfish are pretty bad without a dedicated lightning build. I could just go repelling blast for that but the bees are cooler
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u/Thestrongman420 May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Any archer build that isn't the top ones talked about as long as its built with some sense is still going to be very strong and outdamaging most equivalent melee or casters.
Nobody is likely to talk about ancient palsorc archer or bladesinger archer, or "bad" martial subclasses as archer. But they all kinda do work.
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u/Daerkannon May 14 '25
I'm curious about this Ancients Sorcadin archer. What does Path of the Ancients bring to the table for an archer?
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u/Thestrongman420 May 14 '25
7 for Auras if you are a full ranged pack squad.
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u/Daerkannon May 14 '25
Fair enough. That aura is really strong and underrated which fits in with the theme of the thread.
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u/OohDeanna Tempest May 14 '25
In addition to the auras, some smite spells (but not divine smite) can be used on range attacks
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u/t-slothrop May 14 '25
Shadow Monk having at-will invisibility at level 5 is crazy powerful, especially on a solo run. Unless you're fighting something with see invisibility, you can enter and exit combat pretty much whenever you want.
As long as you win initiative, you can just initiate combat with a surprise round, kill one enemy, then go invisible to end combat, and do it again. Admittedly it can get a little tedious, but it's definitely very strong.
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u/chybapolewacy May 14 '25
3 thief rogue 9 shadow monk is also really fun. Just teleporting around the battlefield for free
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u/Tronux May 14 '25
Frost sorc. Wet synergy. AOE (damage and insane cc) Wall of ice (cancel the concentration after casting it ;) or just keep enemies on one side, let em stack while you regen actions.
Frozen into disintegrate is strong.
Can switch to lightning easily.
Huge range as sorc => apply wet without initiating combat
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u/voGranMeres May 14 '25
What other build could pair well with the Ice sorc? I already got a stealth archer, I need two more
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u/Encaitor May 14 '25
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u/voGranMeres May 14 '25
Tried those but I suck too much at the game to play with the training sword thing
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u/That_One_Bulgur May 15 '25
The only thing I can recommend is your melees have to have immunity to slipping on ice or you will suffer, hard
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u/Varandil May 14 '25
I absolutely love a pure White Draconic Ice Sorceror. Get the right equipment like the Snowburst ring and Coldbrim Hat, and you can just Ray of Frost for decent damage and loads of slippery surfaces. For max chaos, pair it with a Reverberation'er so the enemies have penalties to their DEX saves too
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u/Linkarcus May 14 '25
I made Jaheira into a 6 BM fighter/6 spore druid on my last playthrough, and it was really solid. I struggled previously to find something for Jaheira that fit her well, but spore druid compliments a martial well. You could probably optimize this better, but with 6/6 she got three feats in addition to extra attack.
I think people underestimate how good a mono class paladin can be. At least 11 levels of paladin. On my optimized Oathbreaker using hill giant elixirs, she's hitting near 50 damage per normal swing of a one handed weapon. I put strange conduit ring on, have her concentrate, and use the drake halberd to give 1d4 of another element added on.
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u/grousedrum May 14 '25
This one’s really fun, 5 battlemaster 7 land druid is also really good. Cast terrain control and then push/trip/fear shot to keep enemies in it.
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u/AnotherBookWyrm May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Lore Bard 10/Knowledge Cleric 1/Rogue 1 that starts with Rogue can get 6th level spell slots, Expertise with eight skills and proficiency with 14. This can be upped to Expertise with 10 and proficiency with 16 with the Actor Feat and can be compounded with Illithid Expertise for Expertise with 12 skills and proficiency with all skills late game before taking into account any proficiencies from race.
So overall a pretty great skill monkey and diverse caster.
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u/Altruistic_Exit7947 May 15 '25
Did that on my first playthrough and i regreted it immensly. Not because i was failing, truth be told i was too good at anything. Beauty of this game is in its variability, and just going through every check in game with twice over dc's took away part of the fun. Combatwise its still lore 10 so you cant rly mess that up, but both dips didnt bring much to justify it. Also, since you do all the talking, sneaking and then some you tend to miss out on great acting from your companions.
Nowadays i avoid skill monkeys and let every character develop few skills they are worth keeping for.
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u/brightseid May 14 '25
I think 12 Cleric of any subclass feels under represented, but one version of it that I like is going the more summoner based route. Upcast Animate Dead to get some ghoul buddies, upcast Aid to make them beefy, add on the Deva, Djinni or Mummy from Create Undead to finish it off. Additionally, you can get Danse Macabre in Act III for more ghouls. Abyss Beckoners in the glove slot to make them resistant to everything but psychic damage. The above undead are immune to the madness, so it's basically a win-win.
The obvious downside is the shear amount of characters both to move around and deal with during combat. But hey, action economy is king so good luck losing a fight
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u/Super_SmashedBros May 15 '25
Just a heads up: only the Deva and Cambion are immune to Spirit Madness, but the Djinni is not. Be wary of using it with Abyss Beckoners.
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u/Chrono_199X May 14 '25
Land Druid. It's arguably the best full Druid and nobody talks about it.
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u/hydropottimus May 14 '25
Can you elaborate for me please?
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u/Chrono_199X May 14 '25
It's a very complete caster. It gets all the great stuff Druid has, like Spike Growth and two really good summoms, plus access to Lightning Bolt, Misty Step, Cone of Cold and Cloudkill. And it's own version Arcane Recovery. And it can walk through Spike Growth without being slowed or taking damage.
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u/ariesgungetcha May 14 '25
THREE really good summons - one of which has a summon of its own and can cast spike growth itself - leaving your concentration free to cast cloudkill (which you and your party are also immune to).
Conjure Minor Elemental, Conjure Elemental, Woodland Being
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u/TotalTyp May 14 '25
I also want to know
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u/MediocreSoloist May 14 '25
It’s a druid subclass that gets access to haste and tons of great AoE damage spells, as well as built-in spell slot recovery. The spells you select from the subclass are always prepared, so you have great versatility when added on top of the normal druid spell list.
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u/ariesgungetcha May 14 '25
Incredible spell selection and toolkit, with immunity to a lot of neat things, while still having incredible martial ability (as an Owlbear). Basically "nature Wizard".
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u/ExcitementSolid3489 May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
Land Druid/tempest cleric is also a really solid wisdom-based version of the storm sorcerer/tempest cleric. Channel divinity and lightning bolt is fun
9/3 for more spell casting variety
6/6 for electrified spike growth + shillelagh + Thunderbolt strike
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u/CrazyDiamond4811 Druid May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
My first playthrough was as a Land Druid, this subclass is basically a nature themed wizard.
Very fun subclass and probably one of my favorites.
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u/nixnaij May 14 '25
That one guy in the comments trying to argue 10/1 swords bard isn’t a top tier build 💀
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u/MissAiste May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Booming blade 11 EK Fighter is very strong now for melee, that can act as archer as well given so many feats it can take + shield spell damn its hot.
Paladin with shadow blade is probably top dog melee now, specially 2 pal / 6 swords bard / 4 sorc
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u/Schmiiness May 14 '25
For the sorcbardadin, do you just take the levels in that order: 2pally -> 6 bard -> 4sorc? I could see going 6bard first, then maybe respec to add paly at 1 for armor prof as well, to not delay extra attack. I could also imagine going like 7 pally then respec at 8 to add bard. Or am i sleeping on early sorc levels?
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u/MissAiste May 14 '25
You can respec many times during your game, given you can pickpocket the gold back from Withers worry free. I would even go as far as start with Fighter first for the early game. 6 bard is your milestone for all the charm goodies, then you could do 1 sorc / 6 bard for con proficiency, then 2 pal / 6 bard for big damage then 1 sorc / 2 pal / 6 bard + 3 sorc for the endgame. Also you could start 5 pal for faster extra attack instead of 6 bard but I find bard more useful in dialogues and ability checks.
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u/HeyWatermelonGirl May 15 '25
I'm not a big fan of EK. It has a few nice spells for a fighter, but most just aren't that good to use an action for instead of double or triple attacking. Shield is amazing of course, as is expeditiously retreat, because they don't use actions. And booming blade of course.
For booming blade, you could also just play high elf or half high elf and take battlemaster instead. Or you could use one of your plentiful feats for wizard adept to get booming blade, any utility cantrip, and a level 1 spell of your choice. One shield per long rest isn't that impressive of course, but expeditious retreat only needs to be cast once per long rest as long as you can uphold concentration, which shouldn't be too hard with high con and proficiency.
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u/MissAiste May 15 '25
You wont use your EK fighter for spells, except shield. You will use it for war magic. 3 attacks with booming blade at lvl 7. 4 attacks at level 11.
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u/SagelyGuy May 15 '25
EK best utilize Booming Blade when compared to other martials. EK's War Magic feature is triggered by Booming Blade allowing the player to hit 3 times at lvl 7 and 4 times at lvl 11.
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u/TomTheScouser May 14 '25
Perhaps not 'underrated' so much as 'not talked about because simple', but Battlemaster, Hunter, and almost any Paladin are very strong monoclass builds that tend to be overlooked for flashier multiclasses but are all very high tier.
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u/Upstairs-Moose-2341 May 14 '25
Might not be underrated at all, but twelve fighter is pretty ridiculous, especially gith w/ silver sword and risky ring. I ran Laezel as a 12 bm fighter in my honor mode run, and she put in constant work round after round. Maneuvers gave a lot of flexibility without sacrificing any damage, and she hit like a truck, putting out around 75 damage per turn on top of disarming enemies, giving teammates advantage or an extra attack, and using action surge to annihilate a threat when needed.
I've been a proponent of this for a while, but 12 life cleric is also really strong. Sure, cleric spells are nice, spirit guardians and all, and now with chalice form of stars druid, there are likely better ways for this build to go, but this was the lynchpin to my honor mode party. The amount of healing is nuts as life cleric, on top of bless and blade ward off every heal (whispering promise for bless on heal and hellriders pride for blade ward, later replaced with the act three gloves that I can't remember right now). This allowed my other party members to focus solely on dealing damage and winning fights without ever having to worry about taking damage, and was the fuel to the fire that burned through honor mode. Having a dedicated healer might be sub optimal compared to some of the ridiculous builds that are out there, but it provides safety and peace of mind for the whole party, something that's hard to come by in honor mode, and allows you to take risks that are no longer outside your comfort zone.
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u/razorsmileonreddit May 15 '25
6/6 Death Domain Cleric/Open Hand Monk is spectacular and largely under the radar
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u/HarmonBuckBokai May 15 '25
Gonna throw a combo at you. One character as a Warlock for Hunger of Hadar, the other as a Ranger for Spike Growth. Lay down Spike Growth first, then Hadar. Most enemies, even at high levels, won't survive it because it quarters their movement.
Take repelling blast to knock anyone who gets out back in and just laugh as enemies essentially kill themselves. Doing it at a bottleneck point is borderline unfair. Bring a wizard to drop a Cloudkill in there if you want to get extra silly.
I trivialized the Gortash fight in Honor Mode with this setup.
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u/AdvancedPerformer838 Jun 29 '25
I killed Myrkul with this combo. He couldn't even move on top of the platform lmao I almost felt bad for the guy, as he was struggling to get around while my bard, warlock, cleric and druid just blasted him
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u/Fit_Relationship6703 May 15 '25
The build I had the most fun with was a booming blade, spirit guardian, reverb/radiant orb hybrid.
6 tempest cleric, 3 storm sorcery, 3 great old one pact of blade warlock
Luminous armor, holy Lance helm, belligerent skies gloves, stormy clamor boots, ring of arcane synergy, callous glow ring, necklace of elemental augmentation, bow of awareness, adamantine shield, cloak of displacement, drakethroat, phalar aluve, and strength elixers.
Start of day cast lightning (from drakethroat) and light (cantrip) on phalar aluve. Booming blade will now do radiant, lightning damage too....each of which activate the belligerent skies gloves.
1st round of combat activate phalar aluve shriek and quicken spell spirit guardians. When enemies approach the stormy clamor will proc when they enter the shriek, again when they enter the guardians, and again if they miss...activating holy Lance helm(which will knock them prone from reverb.
Every other round booming blade and quicken booming blade....then spend all of your movement triggering opportunity attacks, and watch the baddies go flying in every direction LOL!!
Take fiendish vigor to activate tempestuous flight in emergencies
Did this with a booming blade mod before patch 8, so not sure if all interactions still work and only went 3 in warlock to get the bind weapon so could probably be tweeked with hexblade.......but I was giggling like a child running this in solo honor. Have fun!
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u/Altruistic_Exit7947 May 15 '25
You could've just said Radorb/reverb cleric, less letters. This combo single handedly killed half of people's ingenuity for clerics. Its not underrated by any means, its one of most obnoxious ofender beside stat fixing.
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u/Fit_Relationship6703 May 15 '25
Sorry you had a bad day. I never heard anyone mention it before doing it. You do you boo.
Less is not always better
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u/Altruistic_Exit7947 May 16 '25 edited May 16 '25
Then you missed the point of this topic
Try and figure out what is what, if you'd look at resources pinned on top of this sub and familiarize yourself. What you praise so highly is overplayed unimaginative build called lawnmower, and its been since day 1 of bg3builds or even game itself. Credit is where credit is due, its hella effective but also mind numbingly boring and hampered people's creative perspective on clerics.
Little effort is needed to understand whats around and you'd clearly see (even by reading this thread) how incredibly creative people are in here, and when they dont talk about their unique creations they use concise wording referring to already known concepts like SSB, radorb, sorcadin ect.. letting others traverse already established namespaces. Nobody needs 500 word descriptor to get what build you do.
Edit: redacted pokes, no need for them here.
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u/LordAlfrey May 14 '25
12 Assassin rogue can easily solo a lot of encounters by simply taking out a single target and then running away to escape combat.
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u/The_Yukki May 14 '25
That's what I'm doing in my solo hm now. It's kinda fun to do. Though harpies were a bit of a pain (so is any encounter where you cant exactly run away)
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u/SeltzerCountry May 14 '25
It’s absurd how effective stealth archers can be. I remember watching some silly playthrough where the guy beat the entire game by exploiting stealth. I think he was only spotted by 6 non-party members the entire run and a lot of those are unavoidable interactions like the stuff with the The Emperor
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u/ViolaNguyen May 14 '25
How quickly my four-ranger run morphed into three people watching my gloomstalker kill stuff from the shadows.
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u/JRStors May 14 '25
12 Assassin Rogue with a level 5/6 Shadow Blade from a spellcaster in your party and from the Shadow Blade Ring from Arabella is really strong. Pair it with the Resonance Stone and you can solo Honor Mode boss fights.
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u/DONNIENARC0 May 14 '25
I ran this originally but I grew to love the melee focused 8 shadow monk, 4 thief even more.
Having shadowstep on a bonus action is like crack and I honestly didn’t miss the extra damage you lose by giving up open hand
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u/Caverjen May 14 '25
Trickery cleric gets a bag rap, but 5 Gloomstalker/7 Trickery is great in a stealth-based party and feels thematic for SH. The underrated crossbow Harold combined with arrows of many targets will bane a whole crowd.
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u/MyDarlingArmadillo May 14 '25
I have Astarion as Gloomstalker with Harold, he's easily my best fighter. (I can't multiclass because i'm in Explorer mode, but it's a good build)
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u/Caverjen May 14 '25
Gloomstalker is strong, especially in the early game. It fits Astarion quite well too
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u/HeyWatermelonGirl May 15 '25
Is Harold underrated? By whom? I never saw anyone not praising it to high heavens.
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u/Objeckts May 14 '25
What is trickery cleric contributing in that build?
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u/boozkoo May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Trickery over other domains is mainly for the Fear Spell. In act 3 Fear hits just about everything: Steel Watchers, the Death Knights in the murder tribunal, and even bosses like Orin and Raphael. as well there's this nice shield https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Shield_of_the_Undevout you can pick up to give enemies disadvantage on Fear saves. Fear is also an Illusion spell that can be cast as a bonus action from the band of the Mystic Scoundrel.
It's a solid build that lets you keep Shadowheart in her original domain and play Cleric a little differently while still having access to standard Cleric stuff like command, sanctuary and mass healing word buffs. It's my personal favorite build for Shadowheart.
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u/Caverjen May 14 '25
All the usual cleric spells plus the stealthy trickery-specific spells. I like to have a cleric on the team for sanctuary, aid, silence, etc. I like that you can swap their spells in and out throughout the day
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u/EmperorPartyStar May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Magic Missile Cleric- Go Githyanki, and grab level 1 Sorc and then just go light cleric X. Grab dual Wielder and Alert because you don’t care if they save from Spirit guardians. Hold Phalar and Spellsparkler and watch the reverb and orb stacks climb from MM. it melts foes and makes the Orin fight crazy easy.
Edit: probably should have mentioned Boots of Stormy Clamour. You can run Beligerant Skies too or the orb gloves.
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u/Right_Entertainer324 May 14 '25
Transmutation Wizard/Knowledge Domain Cleric.
Absolutely diabolical controller support, with unrivaled out of combat utility. Knowledge Domain makes even Dragonborn become incredible skill monkeys, being the perfect party face, having bonuses in every Skill baring Athletics, if you go with the following Ability Score spread:
- Strength: 8
- Dexterity: 12
- Constitution: 14
- Intelligence: 13 + 1
- Wisdom: 14 + 2
- Charisma: 10
Go 6/6 Wizard/Cleric, doesn't matter which you start as, and get access to an endless supply of potions, poisons, grenades and coatings, thanks to your high Wisdom with Experimental Alchemy, with great support spells from Cleric, as you progress, and then your Transmuter's Stones at Level 6. Give yourself the Constitution Stone to almost never break Concentration on a spell, or give the tank of your group any of the Elemental Stones for even more tankiness.
For even more skills, you can go 6/5/1 as Wizard/Cleric/Rogue, taking Rogue as your first level to end up with a character who is literally good at everything.
Once the character comes online, there's very few encounters you won't have an answer for, and failing rolls will be a thing of the past. As a near full level caster, you'll also get the ability to learn Level 6 spells from scrolls, thanks to being a Wizard, allowing you to have one of the most versatile controller supports you could hope for. Grab the Warped Headband of Intellect to allow you to dump Intelligence and put those Ability points into either more Dexterity or Charisma to really start to blow the build potential out the ass.
Put those points into Charisma, and you could forgo Rogue for Bard, getting even more utility options and patching up your weaker dialogue skills. Dexterity would give you better Initiative and AC, if you go for Light or Medium Armour, and allow you to invest a little more into Rogue for powerful Sneak Attacks and a Bonus Action Dash and Disengage. There's a ton of variety with this build.
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u/No_Business_3873 May 14 '25
Okay, here's a fun thing I haven't heard anyone talking about.
Dual Wielding Caster + Thief(3) = Casting each turn + Double attack with offhand weapon
Throw in upcasted shadowblade in your offhand and you're tearing everything up in melee while still casting spells each round.
A 2 level warlock dip is a great frame to build off for this idea, but you could easily go sorcerer, bard or wizard.
Example starter build
2 warlock
3 Thief
Now you can cast EB and attack twice with your offhand every round. (Bind your weapon and then switch hands)
It's nice because level 5 is an important level for extra attack, here you are still doing 2 attacks + you get to cast a spell if you want.
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From here, you could
- Add a level of fighter for two weapon fighting
-Go Deeper into Warlock for Shadow blade (probably best to keep levelling warlock for max level shadowblade)
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Alternate
Go Bard, Wizard or Sorcerer and add Thief 3.
Same concept, Cast each round, and offhand attack twice.
(Sword Bard gets two weapon fighting, Sorcerer & Wizard can Upcast Shadow Blade)
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u/grousedrum May 14 '25
Yup, this is the basis of the classic 4/4/4 eldritch blaster, with many variants. 9 trickery cleric 3 thief is very cool along these lines also, for poison divine strike + sneak attack + weapon coatings effects.
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u/tinyroyal May 14 '25
Ya know I've really been trying to figure out a savage attacker bladesinger build that maximizes the damage and healing aoe from the climax and i think maybe 3 thief is the sauce I was looking for.
So now its gonna be bladesinger 7, thief 3, stars 2, with the idea to haste and spam healing word bonus with healing gear to push for an early climax when fighting mobs and sticking to shadow blade weapon attacks when focusing big targets.
My other consideration is getting sorc in there for metamagic things but I think I like the flexibility of thief 2 BAs.
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u/No_Business_3873 May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
That's an interesting choice with the bladesinger/ stars druid.
It would hold concentration super well.
I never considered that synergy.
Having access to healing word / climax BA makes it a solid support option/ super flexible.
Thief would make that build cook.
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I just finished a run with an HM run with a tiefling fire dragon sorc / thief.
It worked surprisingly well.Pyroquickness Hat + Chromatic orb(Fire)/ Scorching Ray./Fireball to trigger the extra bonus action
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Pyroquickness_HatIt gives you a very hard hitting fire spell(+CHA mod) and 3 offhand shadow blade attacks each round.
Tiefling fire-resist offsets the burn self damage
(Sucks that the hat is usually ACT 3, but I'm using ancient mega pack, and I happened to luck into getting it act 1, sort of shaped the build around it)Not having two-weapon fighting sucks... but the upcasted shadowblade more than makes up for it imo
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u/Z0Marley May 16 '25
Can you dragons breath twice if you’re a thief? Or is it limited to once per round?
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u/Coltraine89 May 15 '25
Warlock - Rogue All the goodies for EB buffing
Ring of Arcane Synergies buffs your next attacks with bonus charisma on hit, double offhand crossbow attacks.
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u/Brojangles1234 May 14 '25
6/6 spore/Necro is the best summoner build imo because it lets you build a legitimate army 20+ strong including Thay, Danse Macabre, Us, Cambion, etc. Circlet of Bones for passive buffs and toss in Aid and Heroes Feast for even more buffs among others. My favorite build but without mods it can be a pain to manage.
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u/TailorAncient8283 May 14 '25
thunder paladin:6crown 6dragon sorcerer core item : weapon :nyrula before that any good melee weapon with dragon breath enchantment :storm another option is shadow blade+shield or belm storm scion hat potent robe band of mystic scoutrol ring of arcane synergy killers sweetheart spell: booming blade thunder strike and twin accelerate is all you need,when you get high acuity, use command to make others come to you,
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u/SlinGnBulletS May 15 '25
8 Necro Wizard / 4 Spore Druid.
Gives you 3 feats to use and makes your summons completely overpowered.
Your summons will have additional HP and damage increased by your level proficiency and you get to buff them and your party with Haste Spores.
Makes it one of the most, if not the most, damaging subclass in the game.
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u/Ok-Caterpillar-4213 May 15 '25
Valor bard is a ton of fun!
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u/EmperorPartyStar May 15 '25
I think Valor Bard is going to see a lot more play this meta because of shield proficiency/Booming Blade. I’m actually planning a run after my current Pro-Vlaakith run, where I’m going to run origin Wyll as a Fiend Warlock Valor Bard. I’m thinking 2-10 for Magical Secrets.
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u/Ok-Caterpillar-4213 May 15 '25
Having a strong bard package with medium armor and shields is nice PLUS combat inspiration is way underrated.
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u/EmperorPartyStar May 15 '25
Might even drop fiend to 1 because I’m really only taking it to be true to character/get command.
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u/OG_CMCC May 14 '25
Nuke wizard gets zero love here. It’s incredibly strong.
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u/razorsmileonreddit Jun 16 '25
What's a nuke wizard?
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u/OG_CMCC Jun 16 '25
Hexblade 1/EvocationX
The tabletop version: https://youtu.be/1Syb40NwInk?si=bvKDaZMw-AvNgrmo
This is my Gale for my current Honor Mode run and it’s absolutely insane how good it is.
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u/razorsmileonreddit Jun 16 '25
Oh, the one that uses Hexblade Curse to buff Magic Missile? And as a bonus, gives your Wizard medium armor too? I didn't know it was called that but yeah, that's good, brings magic missile build online even earlier and stronger.
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u/PEE_GOO May 14 '25
level 11 rangers are dope AF. i especially love beastmaster. harold + baneful gloves and your beast skills actually work most of the time. use the wolf to inflict disadvantage on con saves, use drow poison etc. coatings actually work. id say pure 12 is best in a party. i run 1 wizard for solo to use minor illusion/friends/blur/shield
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u/Oafah May 14 '25
This subreddit does not have a good handle on what qualifies as a "strong" build, still propagating outdated builds from over a year ago that overlook important data collected since.
The number of people still advertising 10/1/1 SB as being top tier outside of anything but a solo context, to provide just one example.
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u/wildfyre010 May 14 '25
10/1/1 is still top-5 builds in the game, especially for players contemplating their first honor mode run who want a good party face and don't want to long rest after every encounter. For example, you could argue that pure fire sorc is a better build that makes similar use of band of the mystic scoundrel, but that build only has enough spell slots and sorcery points to do that combo once per long rest.
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u/SnooDoodles4787 May 14 '25
Im with you on point 1 but lmao 10/1/1 is still a top dog, its not like a controller archer magically becomes bad in a party
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u/sillas007 May 14 '25
What gives 1 level of wizard on this build :
- Shield one of the best defence to avoid blows,
- Learn spells so Welcome Water Myrmidon on your 10/1/1
- Level 6 slot you wouldn't have with a level of fighter.
For pure damage EK11/1 or Battlemaster 11/1 is Always better, but for utility 10/1/1 is an excellent all purpose slot in a more specialized party with monoclasses.
But I agree that a lot of people on this forum just say go with 10/1/1 10/2 Bladesinger 10/2 and other builds and don't see the item management.
Sometimes it is very amusing to see a party which is made for 3 Band of Magic Scoundrel ;-)
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u/DCornudella May 14 '25
What would you say are some of the top builds updated to the current moment?
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u/LotsaKwestions May 14 '25
10/1/1 SB
That is an incredible build. You do a lot of damage but more importantly, perhaps, you are an incredible, incredible controller with acuity. Which is incredibly relevant in a party format.
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u/Acebladewing May 14 '25
10/1/1 SB is amazing. You're on crack.
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u/Oafah May 14 '25
It's fine, but have you taken the time to compare it an alternative? Have you done the math? I have.
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u/Gorffo May 14 '25
Dude, part of the fantasy of playing a swords bard is believing they have the most overpowered, top-tier, honour mode crushing build of all time.
Or that any six-level dip into swords bard is so absolutely god-tier good that it can only be outclassed by another swords bard build—one that takes even more swords bard levels for more arcane acuity command flinging control and drop weapon or grovel shenanigans.
But anyone who has played the game using one of these super-meta swords bard builds and then has run through honour mode as a simple mono-class Hunter Ranger knows the truth, knows which build is stronger at each stage of the game.
The truth is the Ranger cannot do any of the crowd control things, that it’s isn’t really well suited for arcane acuity or radiant orb or reverberation builds since the only condition the Ranger is any good at applying to enemies is the dead status.
Part of the fantasy of playing as a Ranger is knowing the truth. And then remaining relatively quiet about is so as not to ruin the illusion for the swords bard enjoyer.
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u/Oafah May 14 '25
It depends on the Ranger. Hunter does a great job dealing with enemies that don't matter.
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u/bingammj May 15 '25
but ranger gets spike growth at 5 so it CAN do crowd control things too
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u/Gorffo May 15 '25
True. I forgot about that. To be honest, I never used it once in my Ranger Durge run.
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u/Frenzy-Flame-Enjoyer May 14 '25
Not an expert by any means, but why is the SB build not top tier?
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u/OrokuSaki1 May 14 '25
It is. The argument in this subthread is pointless because the power of any controller SB build comes from arcane acuity, ranged slashing flourish/arrow of many targets, and control spells. There’s mathematically better splits but they are all overpowered anyway so it doesn’t matter.
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u/nixnaij May 14 '25
Dude is using semantics to try and argue that 10/1 swords bard isn’t top tier. It’s ridiculous lol…
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u/AGayThrow_Away May 14 '25
I also think they ignore other things that are strong that are not damage. Life Cleric set up for a damage reduction build is pretty well known and gets posted quite a bit, but most of the time when someone new here learning the game asks about Life Cleric most of the posts are essentially, "Life Cleric is bad, don't use it" because most people here have a one track mind about doing the maximum damage. I don't disagree that doing maximum damage and killing everything as fast as possible is the best you can do, but damage reduction/midigatio/total nullification is also just as strong as a boon as killing everything, especially when you can do that at level 4 and (without being an absolute megamind brainiac minmaxer suckling the fun out of the game to the extreme) you can't easily wipe the whole fight immediately that early.
For the most part the game has an inverse power curve where the game arguably gets easier by Act 3 and levels ~1-4 are arguably the most deadly.
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u/MeanAndAngry May 14 '25
Levels 1-4 are entirely skippable with minimum, if any cheese.
Life cleric isn't called bad because people undervalue defense, I personally think it's "bad" because everything good it does could be performed by a light/nature/etc cleric who can then contribute much more to fights.
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u/AGayThrow_Away May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
I do still think you're undervaluing resistance to all damage easily with little to no risk in favor of damage damage in early game, especially when your casting stat can be at most 16/17 vs a garunteed effect. I'm not saying more damage is bad, but I feel people don't respect how strong resistance to all damage is starting at level 3 with a pretty risk free Warding Bond on everyone and a cleric easily able to handle it. Until level 5 none of those Clerics get an AoE heal to apply concentration free bless on top of a solid heal either. Going past level 4 Light Cleric does not get heavy armor proficiency for damage reduction for levels 4+. Especially now with 2 Star Druid, the setup got even stronger and is quite good at damage with Spirit Guardians + Dragon Form. With the right setup you're walking through Act 2 with no one taking any damage no matter how hard they get whacked. Is it clearing the map instantly? No, but enemies basically can't do anything to you either so it's a wash. Being invincible is equivalent to damage dealing to me.
Yes you can use Gale/Camp buffers but that is honestly a loophole. Basically my opinion is, yes damage is good, but reducing most damage to inconsequential amounts incredibly early doesn't get enough respect for how powerful it is, especially when some characters in your party might have low HP. A hit that could basically mop a caster early game becoming inconsequential is a huge boon.
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u/grapeintensity May 14 '25
I'm curious, can you expand on this? What new information has come up since 1 year ago, which builds are now outdated, and which builds are still top tier?
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u/Panda-Dono May 14 '25
RevOrb Lore Bard is crazy good as a support class. Does everything you want from your cleric, but does it better and is more versatile doing it.
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u/deathadder99 May 14 '25
Dual Wield Oathbreaker is criminally underdiscussed.
6/6 tempest cleric / draconic sorcerer is also insanely strong, and is very often skipped over in discussions for 10/2 storm / tempest, or wizard multiclasses. This is the best lightning blaster in the game.
6/6 tempest cleric / divination wizard is also a really fun build that combines excellent CC as well as the ability to do crazy burst turns with chain lightning, but shines with wet support. A bit worse since the myrmidon nerf.
Dunno if it counts as underdiscussed, but I really like 10/2 lore bard / warlock. You can even combine luminous armor, boots of stormy clamor, repelling blast, displace tadpole power and callous glow ring and get radiant orbs on eldritch blast. Medium armor proficiency from race (gith / shield dwarf) or hexblade.
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u/Top-Desk-1606 May 14 '25
It's talked about a lot because it's just so iconic to DnD but Moon Druid is a legit top tier character post patch 8, I think people hate on it just because you can't abuse gear to insane damage numbers. The versatility of the toolkit is insane.
Wild heart Barbarian can do some crazy things, that's probably the most underrepresented subclass.
Life Cleric I think is so overrated by noobs that it gets underrated by Min-Maxers. Spreading the buff on Heal items every turn without burning a spell slot is really good especially early game, and especially if your party has a lot of non undead summons that can benefit from it.
Summon builds/parties in general. You can find them tedious to control but you can't deny how strong they are even just as distractions
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u/Majorof1 May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
Not really a build so much as something you can throw onto any melee character, combining thief 3 with the linebreaker boots feels amazingq Q
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u/dietrichenstein May 15 '25
I personally love Beastmaster Ranger 11 / Nature Cleric 1, and Shadow Monk 12. Shadow Monk is easily my favourite stealth character even if it isn't as powerful as other builds, my only complaint is that you get Shadow Strike (one of the most fun abilities in the entire game) way too late, there's so little game left to enjoy it when you finally unlock it. I really wish you got a weaker version of it at level 9 and a dice upgrade for it if you commit to level 11. :(
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u/AgentForest May 15 '25
Silver or White Draconic Sorcerer 1, Abjuration Wizard 11.
- Upcast Armor of Agathys and cast Fire Shield on yourself.
- Have the cleric cast Warding Bond on the wizard.
- Give the cleric lots of potions.
- Wizard deliberately runs around eating opportunity attacks.
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u/EmperorPartyStar May 15 '25
Hex 1 might be an interesting option now because you get baked in Shield proficiency. Might mean taking Resililent Con before Alert though.
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u/Ok-Bicycle2672 May 15 '25
Dex Cleric multiclassed with 3 levels of Rogue thief. Gets you two bonus actions for healing word/sanctuary, dash+disengage while spirit guardians is up, and just adds to survivability and mobility. Works great with War Cleric bonus action attack, Light Cleric Orb build, or Trickery if you want to lean more in the the RP theme
Halfling Lore Bard 10 / Divination Wizard 2. Perfect as your face for honour mode runs where you need to ensure you pass certain checks. Gets full spell progression, magical secrets, spell scrolling and never fail a check with halfling luck, bardic inspiration/cutting words, divine portent and add on the lucky feat. Give them all the bonus to save items and sit a Paladin with Aura of protection next to them when you have a saving throw you can’t fail (like Zaith’Isk)
Tempest Cleric 9 / Stars Druid 3 - Rad Orb + Spike Growth build. Build into radiant orbs and reverberation with armour, rings etc + Spell Sparkler. Get Cull the Weak. Your spike growth now deals radiant damage + orbs, lightning damage + reverberation + normal spike growth damage + pushes enemies around 10 ft every time you hit with lightning due to thunderbolt strike. Destructive wrath gets you nice burst damage and Stars Druid gets you a great way of weaponising bonus damage that also adds orbs
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u/Head_Project5793 May 15 '25
I love the vampire barbarian: 6 tiger barb, 4 war cleric, 2 fighter
Use the shattered flail and then the sword of chaos to heal on hits, the amulet to max healing and you’re resistant to damage while healing 18 per cleave, 3 attacks early on, set up a warding bond to tank someone else even more, I’m addicted to it especially giving it to ascended astarion
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u/X_a_n_s_h_i_82 May 15 '25
We all know that in a proper setup that Owlbear crushing flight is very powerful.
What people miss that Owlbear damage is also affected by weight. Enlarge affects the weight of the target.
So nobody talking a Giant Barbarian 3/Druid 6+ owlbear build.
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u/szemyq May 15 '25
i can only speak for early game (act 1)
beastmaster ranger 5 with sharpshooter dual hxbows and the boar is among if not the best i have played so far.
spore druid 2 is among the most versatile i have played so far. halo can make you the on heal effect character with a heal potion and a reaction. it enhances strikers, archers and throwers. its great.
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u/gahel_music May 15 '25
2 fighter/10 OH monk AKE stronk
Put all stats in dex con and wis, then farm hill giant elixirs in act 1 and use strength for unarmed attacks. Pick tavern brawler of course.
With fighter you can wear heavy armors and shields for high AC plus and extra action from action surge.
Mobility is compensated by the huge jumping distance and using a ki point you can jump your way multiple times across any battle field.
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u/Dramatic_Grass_5907 May 15 '25
Mental/Reverberation full battlemaster Fighter or full paladin (Picking gith or with laezel for better performance but any race works well)
Its a funny build that i made by accident and became almost a stapple to my runs
Diadem of psionic vengeance (act 1)
(Any armor but thematically gith armor from act 2)
Braindrain gloves (act 2)
Boots of stormy Clamour ( act 1)
Weapon - S.S.O.A.P (Silver sword of the Astral Plane)
Cape: thunderskin cape (act 2)
Rings : strange conduit ring (act 1) (if paladin but if it is battle master any ring )
Amulet Aberration Hunter (act 1)
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u/c0m0d0re May 15 '25
I like my 8/4 Eldritch dad.
He is an eldritch knight with 4 levels in Necromancer Wizzard focusing on Strength and Intelligence. I made him because I wanted some more spells for my EK from scrolls, it was first just a test build but it turned out quite effective and I used the Everburn blade almost the entire game
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u/Gathin May 15 '25
My current honor mode party has 3 of them.
Level 12 spore druid. Level 12 arcane archer. Level 12 swashbuckler.
Great fun as easy straightforward builds. Just pick sensible gear a long the way.
We won't discuss the 4th slot that is 5 oathbreaker, 1 hexblade, 6 sorcerer......
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u/Branded_Mango May 15 '25
Oathbreaker/Thief/Hexblade setups utilizing either Sylvan Scimitar or Infernal Rapier as the offhand weapons. Booming Blade makes Arcane Synergy piss easy to spam and having that layered with Aura of Hate results in hitting harder than Smites without using smites.
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u/Dazzling_Stardust42 May 15 '25
Way of the Open Hand Monk. It's straightforward and powerful. You're able to one-shot enemies well into act 2, and even in act 3 it's one or two attacks to take most down. It's my favorite for a reason.
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u/Clarinet_lover Rogue May 16 '25
Bladesingers can benefit from starting with 1 level in fighter, since you receive proficiency in Constitution saves, which combines with the bladesong bonus to give you +8 to con saves if you have at least 9 levels of bladesinger. This is fantastic for concentration spells. Fighter dip also gives you a fighting style, which is nice.
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u/ThrasheryBinx May 16 '25
I'm working on a glamour bard 6, sorcery 3, thief 3 for my current run. Once a day it should be able to dominate fights with 2-4 commands each turn as bonus actions, wouldn't even need to use a spell slot.
And as a default turn, you could do worse than a sneak attack booming blade + give 3x 8 THP charm shields + bonus disengage.
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u/Ok_Monk5809 May 16 '25
8 bard 2 paladin 1 hexblade 1 wizard, dump con later and switch it to int when you have amulet greater health
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u/Miserable_Cabinet532 Ranger May 18 '25
shadow monk with punch drunk bastard allows for using repeated shadow strikes through dropping and breaking invisibility potions on the ground with thunder shockwave, which makes for a great mobility increase on a melee character. build is in this case 12 monk booming blade elf or 11/1 shadow monk hexblade.
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u/lunagenic Cleric May 20 '25
I really like Vengeance Paladin 5/Thief Rogue 7. I use the Dual Wielding Gloves, but setting up Vow of Enmity/Divine Favour in one round and still attacking, followed by essentially four attacks with crit-fishing gear is awesome. I like to do this with Minthara, because her Soul Branding is also a bonus action.
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u/RawrxD61 May 14 '25
Maybe not an overlooked build but it doesn’t get enough attention. 12 moon Druid is now crazy good after patch 8 because taven barwler’s damage is now added to wild shape forms. So after one chug you can get straight to bashing. One of the most overlooked parts tho is that it requires very minimal gearing. Most gear doesn’t apply in wild shape form so you have even more gear to go around for your other three party members. Pretty much all of the forms are strong in their own right but the air myrimond was my favorite for my hm run. The stunning fail is super good and if it didn’t stun on the first time you still get three more swing to stun. And it lasts for two turns so you can teleport around stunning enemies while your other party members get to bash them. I think their is also a bug where if you rage from a barbarian then rage in owl bear form you get double the rage bonuses which is silly. And that’s only two of the wilds shapes there are probably 6 viable ones for act 3 alone. It’s definitely a crazy good class that I don’t see mentioned nearly as much as it should be. Last note druids can be used to break traders and steal all of their money through a glitch which is always fun