Even if you think it’s cheesy, I think it’s important to note that this is one of THE best builds to abuse the absolutely busted Helm of Arcane Acuity + Band of the Mystic Scoundrel combo. Two slashing flourishes = +8 to Spell Save DC, on a bonus action cast of Command on round 1…
I'm using this build for my bard and I'm still on my first playthrough. I stumbled upon Duellist's Prerogative rapier during Act 3 and it really fits with this build. This rapier lets you take an extra attack by using a bonus action which lets you attack 3 times in a row which equals to 3 smites in a row! This is insanely good. It even has a reaction attack of 1d4 necrotic, it's not as good as smites but it can always be useful if you' re out of spell slots, which can happen easily because this rapier lets you spam smites. This sword+ helmet of arcane accuity makes you the biggest smite menace Faerûn has ever seen.
*_Cephalopocalypse - BG3 Honor Mode Build Guide: Bard / Paladin “Bardadin”_* *Viewer Note* Cephalopocalypse spends a great deal of time creating these videos for his channel and our enjoyment. Please Like, Subscribe and Comment to help him out, boost his UA-cam metrics, and encourage him to continue making this awesome content! The text below is by me, for an easy-to-return-to build reference, but it can _never replace_ watching the entire video as a great deal of his How & Why choices aren’t explained, nor are the Tips he’s sprinkled in throughout the video. *Build* _Level 1_ Paladin 1 Oath: Ancients Stats: STR 8, DEX 16, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 12, CHA 14 Skills: (Not covered, but shown on screen) Athletics, History, Perception, Intimidation, Persuasion *Note:* At 12:08 in the video the “Skills” screens shows: History & Persuasion from the “Noble” Background, Athletics & Intimidation from Class, and Perception from Race. _Level 2_ Paladin 2 Fighting Style: Defense (suggested) or Protection (if going Sword & Board) Spells: Bless, Heroism, Thunderous Smite, Shield of Faith or Protection from Evil or Good *_Spell Casting Notes:_* 1. As a Paladin you _almost always_ want to save your spell slots for Smiting. 2. Paladin is a “Prepared Spell” caster so you can freely swap spells Paladin spells outside of combat. 3. For both Paladin and Bard you’ll have a middling CHA score so select spells that don’t have a Saving Throw, or are Utility-based. Utility spells that are also a Ritual don’t cost spells slots when cast outside of combat. Refer to the BG3 Wiki for which spells have the Ritual tag. _Level 3_ Bard 1 Cantrips: Blade Ward, Minor Illusion Spells: Healing Word, Longstrider, Speak with Animals, Disguise Self or Feather Fall Skill: Deception _Level 4_ Bard 2 Spells: Feather Fall _Level 5_ Bard 3 College: Swords Fighting Style: Dueling Spells: Cloud of Daggers Swap: Feather Fall for Invisibility *Note:* Bard spells can only be changed via the “Replace” (swap) mechanic upon leveling up. Select spells based on your need and/or party composition. Then Replace (swap) spells upon leveling as you ‘outgrow’ lower level spells. _Level 6_ Bard 4 Cantrips: True Strike Spells: Silence Swap: None Feat: ASI DEX +2 _Level 7_ Bard 5 Spells: Plant Growth Swap: None _Level 8_ Bard 6 Spells: Enhance Ability Swap: None _Level 9_ Bard 7 Spells: Freedom of Movement Swap: A lower level spell (Enhance Ability shown) with Greater Invisibility _Level 10_ Bard 8 Spells: Detect Thoughts (or any Utility spell of your choice) Swap: Feat: ASI +2 DEX _Level 11_ Bard 9 Spells: Mass Cure Wounds _Level 12_ Bard 10 Skills (Expertise): Athletics (Shown, but take whatever works for you.) Cantrips: Mage Hand Spells: Enhance Ability (Shown, but take a Utility spell of your choice.) Magical Secrets: Banishing Smite (Ranged), Counterspell (Shown, but there are _many_ good choices so select your favorite.) *Recommended Gear* Yuan-Ti Scale Mail Shortsword of First Blood Shield of Devotion Killer’s Sweetheart Reminder: Set _all_ your Smite Reactions to On/Ask. If you don’t a Bard Flourish _will not_ ask you if you also want to Smite! *Illithid Powers* Luck of the Far Realms
The necklace from the doctor is also great for this build. Being able to add paralysis on a critical hit means that every hit after will also be critical. So you Luck of the Far Realms the first attack, guarantee paralysis, then use your remaining attack to crit again. Smite on both.
I like all of your BG3 videos but this one truly comes in handy. I've been looking for precisely such a build, combining paladin and sword bard for a second playthrough of the game. Thank you!
Great build! I've opted to dump dex after getting the gloves of dex for more strength, grabbed the scale mail from last light, the cape of protection and the harpers amulet to give me shield, I now have an AC of 23 that's not including ritual spell buffs. All that with multiple smites and high charisma to pass most speech checks with ease, yeah this build is nuts!
I think a cool video would be about an honour mode party comp, with characters that work well together. Example characters would be two that uses darkness well or Bard+Warlock stuff for the short rests
I'm 20 mins into the video so dont know if this was pointed out later: There's a finesse glaive available in Act 3's Rivington Blacksmithy called The Dancing Breeze. Its the only two-handed polearm that scales with DEX if DEX>STR. It also has some really cool class abilities, and feels like the perfect weapon for a DEX Bardadin build!
Great vid and cool take on SSB. For those that are like me, and prefer to keep str as primary stat over dex, this can be solved by grabbing the gloves of dexterity from a merchant at the gyth crèche in act 1.
This is a build I have not thought to try. Looks great. I tend to default to Paladin/Warlock since it's just really nice to have 2 max level smites per short rest. But it's also a fairly one-dimensional build and I prefer flexible characters as a general rule. Subbed.
The ranged version of this one is even more flexible, 1 fighter, 1 wiz, 10 swords bard It takes sharpshooter and does the dual crossbows until mid-late when titanstring takes over It stacks arcane acuity via flourishes w/ act 2 gear and as soon as early act 3 it gets to cast control spells with its bonus action Fighter gives con save proficiency, 1wiz lets you scribe spells from scrolls. Bard levels take hold person to guarantee crits for you and your martials and eventually Command as a magical secret. Command is non concentration and upcast can hit 5 enemies to prone or approach while concentrating on something else
@@grimlok3487 Does scribe scroll still work for higher level spells? I thought it was locked based on wizard spell level? Regardless, sword bard is really good with paladin. I played around a bit with it and it's extremely good. I like that it has a really good ranged option (ranged flourish), which paladins tend to lack. I recently stumbled onto a build that isn't super intuitive but works surprisingly well on Minthara specifically, and that is the paladin/thief. You lose spell slots, but double bonus actions for her unique Soul Branding ability (2D4+1 fire to next weapon attack) means she can double this up on her turn - either use both for herself or buff herself and another character. That second double bonus action just has so many uses too. Start combat, soul branding + vow of enmity - that is just a great start to most any fight. You also get dash as a bonus action without giving up either vow or soul branding, so ranged weapons matter a lot less for this build - there is almost nowhere you can't get to with a double move action. And you still have excellent burst (sneak + smite + soul branding on a crit is 100+ damage). It's my go-to build now for Minthara.
For gear I would probably want to use dex gloves so I can dump dex to boost cha. 18 with +1 is plenty. Then late game I would run the band of the mystic scoundrel so that after i hit something i can cast command/hold person as a bonus action. This allows you do great damage with smite and crowd control. Act 2 you also have the opting, if you have wyl in your party for it - to get a good rapier that uses your cha for attack allowing you to swiggle some stats around as well (if you didnt want to use dex gloves). I know people prefer gear agnostic builds but gear is a big part of the game.
For sure! You can get a lot of extra flexibility with the stat items. That lets you pick up CHA for save DCs and also Savage Attacker, Alert, or Actor which can all be very nice for this build!
I just finished a tact run with the build using a wood elf for the extra movement! I highly recommend equipping the legendary rapier with no off hand weapon so you can get an extra attack and an extra reaction so you can use counterspell twice if you need to! I had a blast with it!
@@Jakepf i believe he's talking about the one in act 3 after rescuing a child from auntie ethel. if you arent aware of that, apologies for the minor spoiler
@@gchristopherklugLarian has posted player stats a few times, probably on their website or Twitter? I’m not sure when the last class popularity thing was posted, so could be outdated.
Just found your channel and loving the content! I’m on my 2nd play through and didn’t kill Minthara. The only way valid atonement is building her so she can express herself via “serene sounds of slaughter”. 💜
I started playing around with this split when I picked up Honor Mode and changed from my Oathbreaker/GOO frontline. I really enjoy being a full spellcaster who has the option to dump a ton of slots on smite or just support the party with Bard utility. Personally I play mine as 2h with GWM, heavy armor, Alert and STR elixer, but whatever sinks your ship.
Yeah, that's also a great way to do it. One of the great things about this archetype (that's sadly kind of hard to convey in a build guide) is just how versatile it is. You can take basically any level split between 2-9 paladin and 3-10 bard, use any combo of weapons/shields and about 8 different feats, and all end up with an extremely strong build!
Just two days ago I experimented and made a similar build for main character) But I invested more in Paladin, but your option is even better, due to the greater number of spell slots and bardic inspirations. So I'll respec later like you did)
One of the great things about this archetype is that you can take pretty much anywhere between 2-9 paladin levels and between 3-10 Bard levels and end up with a great character!
I am seriously considering this for my next Tav. I would go two weapon fighting style and make this a version of the machine gun bard. On the negative side, this Tav would not get as many attacks as the true machine gun bard, losing that bonus attack every round. on the plus side, while you do lose that attack up close, you can smite.
I am planning this for my honor run. Go dual xbows with sharpshooter and do the pally dip for melee nova. Helm of Arcane Acuity + Band of Mystic Scoundrel for some CC ability. Not the best at any one thing but truly good at everything.
Hi. Don't know if you will see this, but I will try. I always wanted to make a Dark Urge Oathbreaker main character and I was wondering if it could work with this build. And how would you go about it. Thanks for the amazing builds my friend, I have been enjoying all your videos for a while now!
is this build better or worse by using cloud giant elixir + a heavy weapon? I'm wondering if at that point if i'm running a 2H weapon i shouldn't just go something like 2 pally 5 warlock 5 lore bard and not waste a fighting style from the sword bard, and make it more controlly though all the low level spell bloat also feel weird to take
Level 6 Ancient Paladin, level 6 lore bard, pick Spirit Guardians and Armor of Agathys magic secrets, alert, savage attacker, deva mace, luminous armor, luminous gloves and other radiant orb items = invincible solo toon. It doesn’t even need to smite much.
Definitely a good option! You can go bard 1 /pal 2 /bard 9 if you want better skill access. One small downside is you get dex save proficiency from bard rather than wis from paladin, which is overall a less useful save
I used elixir of cloud giant strength and gloves of dex so I could dump those stats and max Con/Cha, with 14/12 in Wis/int. Also keep in mind divine smite damage caps at level 4, you can use 5/6 spell slots but they wont do additional damage. Personally I went with a 6/6 Pali/Bard split so I could still get the aura of protection buff giving +3 to saving throws.
You got yourself another sub! One question: Paladin at lvl 3 gains the kinda broken Vow of Enmity, that gives you advantage on every hit if cast on yourself (if it's a bug they never fixed it), is there a way to make this build work by picking that 3rd Paladin level? Was thinking maybe 3 Pal, 6 Bard and last 3 in something else, maybe Rogue or Fighter (Action Surge also synergizes with our bard's extra short rests), or perhaps 1 lvl in Light Cleric for Warding Flare.
you want 10 bard for the Magical secret spells which gives you Counterspell(best reaction spell in the game and nothing came close to it) and the secret banish spell. You can get advantages on your attack using Risky Ring from Araj(doesn't matter if you get disadvantage on attack roll against you when they are dead lol)
For anyone wanting absolute easy mode then add 1 level of wizard to this to learn blur and use whispering promise to add bless from heals without using concentration. Once you get high enough you can respec to 10th level Bard to get blur from magical secrets, but using blur as a 2nd level spell just adds ridiculous amounts of survivability. You can use TWF to deal more damage and with blur, heavy armour, defence and defensive attack you're virtually untouchable. With bless on heals you can keep up advantage on hits
Would you recommend this over your lore friendly wyll build? I'm currently respeccing and gearing up my companions for the last leg of act 1/underdark. Currently running the dark urge lockadin, consistent killer laezel, immortal tank karlach, assassin astarion. Working on respeccing the rest of the party so I can slot them in and out for convenience.
My first ever full playthrough was a Bardadin. Oathbreaker 6 / Swords 6. It was so good and I did not even think about the synergy with Dance Macabre which Wizard Gale got. I fulfilled my Bard and Summoner preferred playstyle and it was Glorious!!
If you like this build, but want to lean more into the party face and don't mind relying on items, you can start with a 17 Charisma Bard until level 6, taking Actor along the way, then pick up the gloves of dexterity from the Creche.
The only thing I would change is starting Bard so as to not delay extra attacks, grab Pali at 7-8, that's about the time you'll be in act 2 when you need to start really pushing damage anyway. with such high dex, med armor is better anyway, though the best armor and weapon combo would be light armor and a Raiper. though im still not 100% convinced that melee bard beats archer bard since slashing can target the same thing.
That build definitely will work well! The levelling order here is very flexible. Smites are worth a ton of damage (usually more than Extra Attack without them) so I wouldn't worry too much about getting to that feature early - Bard 1 / pal 2 / bard 9 is my pick if you want to have the extra skills from bard. This definitely won't be as strong damage-wise as an archer bard, since as you say the ranged slashing flourish is broken (personally I wish they would change that, but c'est la vie)
@@Cephalopocalypse Agreed, there is a mod that changes it but with the way it is currently the damage is just insane. Even more so if you take X-box Expert and use the Bhalist armor. I used the Dualist Prog with bahlist armor. made act 3 a complete joke.
For this build, if you are running this as a main Tav, who are the other 3? I really like Wizard for the flexibility as well as Throw Barb and the Ranger/Rogue duel wielding multiclass (though I like those classes I worry they are too "glass cannon-y"). Advice?
If and when I finally get around to playing honour mode, I’ll definitely have a bardadin in my party. It looks so fun. (And I would be so tempted to take spirit guardians via magical secrets, middling CHA be damned lol.) If you’re taking duelling then I think duellist’s prerogative is going to give you the best bang for your buck, even if it means forgoing a shield. You could also take the infernal rapier and roll with a cambion. Another option is to take the GWM feat and use one of the few 2H/versatile finesse weapons in the game. Phalar Aluve in Act 1 & 2, then the Dancing Breeze from the start of Act 3. +10 damage to each slashing flourish hit will potentially be +40 per turn.
It's also worth noting that if you're smiting on react rather than casting smite you're never missing smites. Better to miss the attack and not spend a spell slot than spend the spell slot and miss the attack.
Seems like late game 4 oath of vengeance paladin + 8 swords bard would be better. Three feats and bonus action vow of enmity cast on yourself for ten rounds of advantage against everything is cracked. You could even go 3/9 and get a level five spell if you didn’t need the third feat.
Seeing this video after doing this same build to level 6. Can't decide if I should follow this route of go 2 Paladin/6 Seord Bard/4 Sorcerer or maybe even through in a level of wizard somewhere.
The spell is cool, but I'm not sure it's as good as going bard 8/paladin 2/Fighter 2 and just having an action surge. you do so much damage using your bard flourish to attack and smite 2 targets at once, and basically every fight in act 3 lasts 1 round when you have 4 very well made characters so I'm not sure how useful the banish actually is, I'd rather just make the enemy dead
For sure, you can definitely do that - or go pal 4 for Savage Attacker to boost your average smite damage significantly. I just really like the secret spell :P
I enjoy starting this build with bard for the skills. But if you go with a Gith character, you'll be able to use the racial to get prof in other skills you might have an okay skill in like the Int or wis ones.
For sure! Gith make excellent main characters for that reason imo, you can grab all the knowledge skills alongside the circlet of intellect and just have decent knowledge skills more or less for free. Bard gets half that bonus on all skills so it's *slightly* redundant for bards, but still very nice
Question, since in this build we don't actually need a shield and our Dex is higher than our strength, would Duellist's Prerogative in Act 3 work well with this?
Is this the best tank build for Honor? I'm missing build like that in my party, good job. What race is the best , beside Draw Minthara? Orc might be a good one? I've noticed on Honor I need a party where each one member can finish the honor on its own. It is hard to win with a dice roll of 90%+. So far over strength / damages characters can do that to some extend (monk, tavern brawler thrower) for me.
With a Sorlock as Main and with the wish to include a Bard into the Group What would you choose? This one and giving Laezel a throwing build? Supportbard mixed with cleric on shadowheart? What would be your Teamsetup? Sorlock Laezel Astarion Shadowheart or at least no cleric with this Bardardin?
One of the great things about this build is it fits pretty well into any party - alongside a sorlock you've got a lot of your bases covered! My instinct would be to have this character be your lockpicker since it can also cover the dps role of a rogue, and go with a divine caster (cleric or druid) and a melee character - throwing would also work though!
@@Cephalopocalypse thx! I am very new to BG3 and Overall to D & D...learning a Lot . Fighter,Sorlock and a Cleric (thinking of the Tempest) should Work ..will give it a try in my Tactician-Run working on towards Honour
I am curious if PLD2 / Bladelock 3/Swords 7 would make for an overall better main character. It would allow you to shift all offense to Cha, gives access to the Devil Sight/Darkness combo, full power EB, has stupid conversation skills (esp with Illithid expertise, should you go that route), and Cha is the stat that can be upped the highest overall. The biggest problem I see is that the build only truly comes online at level 11. Also only one feat, so you are counting on the hair for baseline Cha20.
Kind of confused. You seemed to be going dual wielding rather than sword/board when you picked "Defense" over "Protection (7:22)" but when you got to "Fighting Style" you picked Duelling (17:23) which you said goes better with sword/board.
This build can use either depending on your preference! Defense style will work for either setup. The picks in the video are just an example - choose dueling if you want to be sword and board, or two weapon fighting if you want to dual wield
Question: I have the Hag's Dexterity Boon and plan on switching from Rogue/Bard to Paladin/Bard in endgame for RP reasons. I know that means my starting stats will have to be different to compensate and I'll have to pick a different second feat. What would you recommend?
Sure! You'll want to take 17 starting dex, probably dropping 2 WIS, and then for feats the best options are Alert (just always excellent, especially for higher difficulties, though less important on this high dex character) or Savage Attacker, which rerolls your smite damage dice and increases your average damage enormously.
Going to be gimped on damage a little by not going straight fighter. Battlemaster gives you a wider variety of attacks compared to swords bard flourishes, and straight fighter gives you three extra feats compared to any other class. Mixing in bard for some more support probably means concentration spells, which are risky when you’re melee, especially if you’re not using a shield.
It does, and I definitely should have brought it up in the video. Savage attacker is great for this build's average damage, but I err on the side of hit chance and AC for this build. I find if you hit the target at all they almost always die regardless, so I prefer the extra hit chance, but if you want more damage SA over the ASI is great. Especially for the dual-wielding variant, as they have an extra chance to land a smite.
@@Cephalopocalypse I just left my question in the comments, but say I was able to max out my Dex with one feat because I got the Hag's Boon and needed to respec my stats to compensate. Would Savage Attacker be a good replacement?
For a first run at Tactician mode, would this be a good build to run with? Any suggestions on a party to compliment? Was thinking Karlach (not sure on build), light cleric Shadowheart and Gale 😊
It definitely would! I think that party sounds great to me - I'd recommend getting sleight of hand if possible on the main character, just so you have that in the party, but that group has everything you need!
Would you think Phalar Aluve is viable in the Endgame? Shriek is extremely Powerful ...i am at the End of Act 1 and with a Shield,Phalars Shriek and a AC of 19-21 even Bosses miss most Attacks
Sure! You give up a little AC and initiative if you use strength instead, but the build will still work fine - or you could use the gloves of dex or strength elixirs to reach pretty much the same stats.
Could you alternatively for weapons consider subbing in the club of str from act 1 to use with titanstring bow so you could use a different elixir than str elixir? Perhaps viciousness for more crits?
It really depends on where you want your damage to come from. The bardadin uses charisma synergies and spells for damage by smites. A fighter bard would be looking for pure weapon damage, ergo focusing on either STR or DEX over CHA. You'd probably be better off looking at a completely different build rather than this one. One possible option would be 6 bard (swords)/4 rogue (thief)/2 fighter dual hand crossbow build, though that is I suspect rather less fighter than what you were looking for.
Ya I dont know if it is bugged or what but you can not use smites as a reaction on your flourish attacks. Im doing this build for honor mode and im leve five and everytime I use one of my flourishes I can never use a paladin smite on it and ive used it over a dozen times
Make sure smites are turned to ask in the reaction tab. I've never had it not work unless I've miss-aimed slashing flourish and not actually hit them in the cone.
I didn't realize I needed to activate smite's reaction... I saw someone previously said you can smite on crit only and I thought that was cool, but I didn't see how to do it... 😅
would be cool to see a cleric build that focuses on lone wolf honor mode play, seems like to me that pretty much all classes got builds that can solo honor mode with but cleric. I'm excluding tempest cleric as I see it more of a complementary subclass for sorcerer. any ideas for that kind of build with other subclass than tempest?
Off the top of my head, Light Cleric using Radiating Orb stacking is probably the best solo honour cleric - cool idea though, I'll think about it more!
I don't think there is a more lore friendly character for this build. Minthara is a paladin and she carries an instrument in-game. That said you could argue changing oaths isn't lore friendly but you could make a case for that storywise
When you get to act 3 as soon as you get the 5k gold buy the statue of your character from stoney in the fair it gives your character a blessed buff after every long rest until your next long rest so essentially for 5k you can have a permanent bless buff on your main character. Also take the necromancy of thay book in act one if you can pass the saving throws you get a good permanent buff from it then in act 3 you get access to a quest related to the book best to look up a video about it hard to explain how to do the quest but at the end of it you get a book that if kept in your inventory you get 20 additional hit points after every long rest
I would like a little bit more info on these builds, like here the lithid powers and probably how to play them from the begining. like at very early levels this build feels particularly reliant on bows
Slightly concerned about having only 14 charisma on a bard/paladin, is it not an important stat for paladin+bard damage rolls and being a main character for skill checks?
Good question! CHA doesn't influence damage rolls for this build - your damage will be based off DEX as long as you use a finesse weapon (like a rapier). It *does* influence the Save DCs of your spells, which is why we try to avoid spells that allow saving throws and instead take buffs and utility (or just use them for smites). You'll have slightly worse dialogue skills than a pure charisma character, but should still easily pass most checks since you'll have good proficiencies.
I would say go two weapon fighting because certain weapons you get when you kill someone scantily dressed in red plus risky rings and Bhaalist armor can make you essentially 1 shot bosses
None at all! Definitely a possible build variant. If you go that route you can take higher CHA and also get Alert or Savage Attacker for better combat stats, or Actor for better skills.
I would recommend starting as Bard instead of Paladin. You lose Heavy armor, but you gain another 2 skills (do not take Deception or Performance). In addition, I would go with an odd score for charisma (15), and do first 4 levels as Bard and take Actor feat which boosts charisma by one and gives you Deception and Performance with expertise (even you you don't have either before). You could do the two levels of Paladin at this point, then resume going up as Bard after. This maximizes you ability as Face for the party.
![The Complete Story of Destiny! From origins to Shadowkeep [Timeline and Lore explained]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9mbDXvDNqTU/mqdefault.jpg)
Even if you think it’s cheesy, I think it’s important to note that this is one of THE best builds to abuse the absolutely busted Helm of Arcane Acuity + Band of the Mystic Scoundrel combo.
Two slashing flourishes = +8 to Spell Save DC, on a bonus action cast of Command on round 1…
I'm using this build for my bard and I'm still on my first playthrough. I stumbled upon Duellist's Prerogative rapier during Act 3 and it really fits with this build. This rapier lets you take an extra attack by using a bonus action which lets you attack 3 times in a row which equals to 3 smites in a row! This is insanely good. It even has a reaction attack of 1d4 necrotic, it's not as good as smites but it can always be useful if you' re out of spell slots, which can happen easily because this rapier lets you spam smites.
This sword+ helmet of arcane accuity makes you the biggest smite menace Faerûn has ever seen.
*_Cephalopocalypse - BG3 Honor Mode Build Guide: Bard / Paladin “Bardadin”_*
*Viewer Note*
Cephalopocalypse spends a great deal of time creating these videos for his channel and our enjoyment. Please Like, Subscribe and Comment to help him out, boost his UA-cam metrics, and encourage him to continue making this awesome content!
The text below is by me, for an easy-to-return-to build reference, but it can _never replace_ watching the entire video as a great deal of his How & Why choices aren’t explained, nor are the Tips he’s sprinkled in throughout the video.
*Build*
_Level 1_
Paladin 1
Oath: Ancients
Stats: STR 8, DEX 16, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 12, CHA 14
Skills: (Not covered, but shown on screen) Athletics, History, Perception, Intimidation, Persuasion
*Note:* At 12:08 in the video the “Skills” screens shows: History & Persuasion from the “Noble” Background, Athletics & Intimidation from Class, and Perception from Race.
_Level 2_
Paladin 2
Fighting Style: Defense (suggested) or Protection (if going Sword & Board)
Spells: Bless, Heroism, Thunderous Smite, Shield of Faith or Protection from Evil or Good
*_Spell Casting Notes:_*
1. As a Paladin you _almost always_ want to save your spell slots for Smiting.
2. Paladin is a “Prepared Spell” caster so you can freely swap spells Paladin spells outside of combat.
3. For both Paladin and Bard you’ll have a middling CHA score so select spells that don’t have a Saving Throw, or are Utility-based. Utility spells that are also a Ritual don’t cost spells slots when cast outside of combat. Refer to the BG3 Wiki for which spells have the Ritual tag.
_Level 3_
Bard 1
Cantrips: Blade Ward, Minor Illusion
Spells: Healing Word, Longstrider, Speak with Animals, Disguise Self or Feather Fall
Skill: Deception
_Level 4_
Bard 2
Spells: Feather Fall
_Level 5_
Bard 3
College: Swords
Fighting Style: Dueling
Spells: Cloud of Daggers
Swap: Feather Fall for Invisibility
*Note:* Bard spells can only be changed via the “Replace” (swap) mechanic upon leveling up. Select spells based on your need and/or party composition. Then Replace (swap) spells upon leveling as you ‘outgrow’ lower level spells.
_Level 6_
Bard 4
Cantrips: True Strike
Spells: Silence
Swap: None
Feat: ASI DEX +2
_Level 7_
Bard 5
Spells: Plant Growth
Swap: None
_Level 8_
Bard 6
Spells: Enhance Ability
Swap: None
_Level 9_
Bard 7
Spells: Freedom of Movement
Swap: A lower level spell (Enhance Ability shown) with Greater Invisibility
_Level 10_
Bard 8
Spells: Detect Thoughts (or any Utility spell of your choice)
Swap:
Feat: ASI +2 DEX
_Level 11_
Bard 9
Spells: Mass Cure Wounds
_Level 12_
Bard 10
Skills (Expertise): Athletics (Shown, but take whatever works for you.)
Cantrips: Mage Hand
Spells: Enhance Ability (Shown, but take a Utility spell of your choice.)
Magical Secrets: Banishing Smite (Ranged), Counterspell (Shown, but there are _many_ good choices so select your favorite.)
*Recommended Gear*
Yuan-Ti Scale Mail
Shortsword of First Blood
Shield of Devotion
Killer’s Sweetheart
Reminder: Set _all_ your Smite Reactions to On/Ask. If you don’t a Bard Flourish _will not_ ask you if you also want to Smite!
*Illithid Powers*
Luck of the Far Realms
The necklace from the doctor is also great for this build. Being able to add paralysis on a critical hit means that every hit after will also be critical. So you Luck of the Far Realms the first attack, guarantee paralysis, then use your remaining attack to crit again. Smite on both.
True! Excellent item for any smite build, especially alongside killer's sweetheart or luck of the far realms
I like all of your BG3 videos but this one truly comes in handy. I've been looking for precisely such a build, combining paladin and sword bard for a second playthrough of the game. Thank you!
Enjoy your build video formula. Very specific accurate step by step info. Probably my favorite Bg3 channel rn
Thanks very much! Appreciate the kind words :D
For me this is also the best bg3 channel, thanks for your great builds@@Cephalopocalypse
Great build! I've opted to dump dex after getting the gloves of dex for more strength, grabbed the scale mail from last light, the cape of protection and the harpers amulet to give me shield, I now have an AC of 23 that's not including ritual spell buffs. All that with multiple smites and high charisma to pass most speech checks with ease, yeah this build is nuts!
This guy gets it lol. Throw GWM in there and ASI +2 Str and the +2 Str potion from Araj. And Titanstring bow. You’re cooking
I think a cool video would be about an honour mode party comp, with characters that work well together. Example characters would be two that uses darkness well or Bard+Warlock stuff for the short rests
I think it would be cool to think for yourself and find things out on your own because that’s half the fun
@@dilhancongar-pn1ndbruh why are you watching a build video then?
I'm 20 mins into the video so dont know if this was pointed out later:
There's a finesse glaive available in Act 3's Rivington Blacksmithy called The Dancing Breeze. Its the only two-handed polearm that scales with DEX if DEX>STR.
It also has some really cool class abilities, and feels like the perfect weapon for a DEX Bardadin build!
True! Great item choice if you want a 2-hander, and one I don't see mentioned that often. Good call!
Oh man that would be so good with GWM! Thank you
Would it be worth picking the Polearm-specific talents if you go with that one you reckon?
Great vid and cool take on SSB. For those that are like me, and prefer to keep str as primary stat over dex, this can be solved by grabbing the gloves of dexterity from a merchant at the gyth crèche in act 1.
Yeah. If only there were more of those around.
More ways to increase strength throughout bg3 as opposed to the very very few dex boosters
Tbh this is what I need for my most recent role play. I think I'll go with his build till can get these. Bless your soul.
adding comment because we need more of this person's content!
Thanks very much!
Fantastic run through of the build I really appreciate it! Going to give it a shot in honor mode!
I feel bard would fit Minthara lore wise since you get the spider lyre from her
Exactly!
Didn't think about that, but she does also fit the obsessed aloof musician vibe too.
you know she was jammin' on her off time
@@threadbearr8866 Never got her in act 2 or what?
You don't need minthara for spider lyre. There's more than one way to play@@mitchellwilliam95
This is a build I have not thought to try. Looks great. I tend to default to Paladin/Warlock since it's just really nice to have 2 max level smites per short rest. But it's also a fairly one-dimensional build and I prefer flexible characters as a general rule. Subbed.
The ranged version of this one is even more flexible, 1 fighter, 1 wiz, 10 swords bard
It takes sharpshooter and does the dual crossbows until mid-late when titanstring takes over
It stacks arcane acuity via flourishes w/ act 2 gear and as soon as early act 3 it gets to cast control spells with its bonus action
Fighter gives con save proficiency, 1wiz lets you scribe spells from scrolls. Bard levels take hold person to guarantee crits for you and your martials and eventually Command as a magical secret. Command is non concentration and upcast can hit 5 enemies to prone or approach while concentrating on something else
@@grimlok3487
Does scribe scroll still work for higher level spells? I thought it was locked based on wizard spell level?
Regardless, sword bard is really good with paladin. I played around a bit with it and it's extremely good. I like that it has a really good ranged option (ranged flourish), which paladins tend to lack.
I recently stumbled onto a build that isn't super intuitive but works surprisingly well on Minthara specifically, and that is the paladin/thief. You lose spell slots, but double bonus actions for her unique Soul Branding ability (2D4+1 fire to next weapon attack) means she can double this up on her turn - either use both for herself or buff herself and another character. That second double bonus action just has so many uses too. Start combat, soul branding + vow of enmity - that is just a great start to most any fight. You also get dash as a bonus action without giving up either vow or soul branding, so ranged weapons matter a lot less for this build - there is almost nowhere you can't get to with a double move action. And you still have excellent burst (sneak + smite + soul branding on a crit is 100+ damage). It's my go-to build now for Minthara.
For gear I would probably want to use dex gloves so I can dump dex to boost cha. 18 with +1 is plenty. Then late game I would run the band of the mystic scoundrel so that after i hit something i can cast command/hold person as a bonus action. This allows you do great damage with smite and crowd control. Act 2 you also have the opting, if you have wyl in your party for it - to get a good rapier that uses your cha for attack allowing you to swiggle some stats around as well (if you didnt want to use dex gloves). I know people prefer gear agnostic builds but gear is a big part of the game.
For sure! You can get a lot of extra flexibility with the stat items. That lets you pick up CHA for save DCs and also Savage Attacker, Alert, or Actor which can all be very nice for this build!
Thoroughly enjoyed the level of detail on reasoning for choosing things, thought-process and alternative options
I’d still argue that a full charisma BardLock is even more of a main character, but this one right here might be my next playthrough! :) ty
you left out the greatest part of playing bard: the absolute hilarity of the dialogue options you get
Very true! The barn one is a personal favorite :P
Can you break your oath and become an Oathbreaker? Or is the build then broken?
You can! This will work just fine as an oathbreaker
I just finished a tact run with the build using a wood elf for the extra movement! I highly recommend equipping the legendary rapier with no off hand weapon so you can get an extra attack and an extra reaction so you can use counterspell twice if you need to! I had a blast with it!
Woah when do you get that legendary rapier?
@@Jakepf i believe he's talking about the one in act 3 after rescuing a child from auntie ethel. if you arent aware of that, apologies for the minor spoiler
@@nolen_ix ohhh, I knew of that quest option. Thanks for letting me know. Glad I didn't miss it or anything haha
bard is actually fairly low - sorcerer is the second most poular class
Where can one find these stats?
@@gchristopherklugLarian has posted player stats a few times, probably on their website or Twitter? I’m not sure when the last class popularity thing was posted, so could be outdated.
@@gchristopherklug apparently my link got removed but larian posted the most recent stats on their twitter on december 5th
@@iAmEnenra thank you
My bad! I misremembered the stats. Woops
Just found your channel and loving the content! I’m on my 2nd play through and didn’t kill Minthara. The only way valid atonement is building her so she can express herself via “serene sounds of slaughter”. 💜
I found this build a few days ago and you video explains it perfectly for me to decide if I want to implement it or not. Thank you!
I started playing around with this split when I picked up Honor Mode and changed from my Oathbreaker/GOO frontline. I really enjoy being a full spellcaster who has the option to dump a ton of slots on smite or just support the party with Bard utility. Personally I play mine as 2h with GWM, heavy armor, Alert and STR elixer, but whatever sinks your ship.
Yeah, that's also a great way to do it. One of the great things about this archetype (that's sadly kind of hard to convey in a build guide) is just how versatile it is. You can take basically any level split between 2-9 paladin and 3-10 bard, use any combo of weapons/shields and about 8 different feats, and all end up with an extremely strong build!
Just two days ago I experimented and made a similar build for main character) But I invested more in Paladin, but your option is even better, due to the greater number of spell slots and bardic inspirations. So I'll respec later like you did)
One of the great things about this archetype is that you can take pretty much anywhere between 2-9 paladin levels and between 3-10 Bard levels and end up with a great character!
@@Cephalopocalypse
yes, luckily it is)
Yet another fantastic build @Cephalopocalypse! Running this one right now on tactician and it's a-maz-ing!!
I am seriously considering this for my next Tav. I would go two weapon fighting style and make this a version of the machine gun bard. On the negative side, this Tav would not get as many attacks as the true machine gun bard, losing that bonus attack every round. on the plus side, while you do lose that attack up close, you can smite.
I am planning this for my honor run. Go dual xbows with sharpshooter and do the pally dip for melee nova. Helm of Arcane Acuity + Band of Mystic Scoundrel for some CC ability. Not the best at any one thing but truly good at everything.
Thanks for this great video :) no specific race is best for this build ?
Hi. Don't know if you will see this, but I will try.
I always wanted to make a Dark Urge Oathbreaker main character and I was wondering if it could work with this build. And how would you go about it.
Thanks for the amazing builds my friend, I have been enjoying all your videos for a while now!
This should work just fine as an oathbreaker! The paladin levels are mostly for smites - whichever subclass is your favorite will work perfectly
@@Cephalopocalypse Thanks for answering! Have a good one.
is this build better or worse by using cloud giant elixir + a heavy weapon? I'm wondering if at that point if i'm running a 2H weapon i shouldn't just go something like 2 pally 5 warlock 5 lore bard and not waste a fighting style from the sword bard, and make it more controlly
though all the low level spell bloat also feel weird to take
Great build. I appreciate your work on these :)
Thanks this is exactly what I was looking for. Everything else I’ve come across used strength which feels wrong.
Level 6 Ancient Paladin, level 6 lore bard, pick Spirit Guardians and Armor of Agathys magic secrets, alert, savage attacker, deva mace, luminous armor, luminous gloves and other radiant orb items = invincible solo toon. It doesn’t even need to smite much.
Your builds are really good. Thank you a lot.
If we are gonna take just medium armor, why not start as a bard, so you hace more skills and you can choose whathever you prefer?
Definitely a good option! You can go bard 1 /pal 2 /bard 9 if you want better skill access. One small downside is you get dex save proficiency from bard rather than wis from paladin, which is overall a less useful save
You HAVE tricked me in putting true strike lmao
My work here is done
I used elixir of cloud giant strength and gloves of dex so I could dump those stats and max Con/Cha, with 14/12 in Wis/int.
Also keep in mind divine smite damage caps at level 4, you can use 5/6 spell slots but they wont do additional damage.
Personally I went with a 6/6 Pali/Bard split so I could still get the aura of protection buff giving +3 to saving throws.
For sure! With stat items you can have better save DCs, allowing you to use Command and other powerful save effects. Always nice as well!
My first 2 playthroughs were Paladin so I was planing on playing some thing else but this build is so good I kinda just have to use it
3 playthroughs and all of them are paladin. You must really like this class
You got yourself another sub! One question: Paladin at lvl 3 gains the kinda broken Vow of Enmity, that gives you advantage on every hit if cast on yourself (if it's a bug they never fixed it), is there a way to make this build work by picking that 3rd Paladin level? Was thinking maybe 3 Pal, 6 Bard and last 3 in something else, maybe Rogue or Fighter (Action Surge also synergizes with our bard's extra short rests), or perhaps 1 lvl in Light Cleric for Warding Flare.
you want 10 bard for the Magical secret spells which gives you Counterspell(best reaction spell in the game and nothing came close to it) and the secret banish spell. You can get advantages on your attack using Risky Ring from Araj(doesn't matter if you get disadvantage on attack roll against you when they are dead lol)
I love that your disp pic is the original support ward item lol
Crappy wiki screenshot borders and all!
good old Sightstone
For anyone wanting absolute easy mode then add 1 level of wizard to this to learn blur and use whispering promise to add bless from heals without using concentration. Once you get high enough you can respec to 10th level Bard to get blur from magical secrets, but using blur as a 2nd level spell just adds ridiculous amounts of survivability. You can use TWF to deal more damage and with blur, heavy armour, defence and defensive attack you're virtually untouchable. With bless on heals you can keep up advantage on hits
Would you recommend this over your lore friendly wyll build? I'm currently respeccing and gearing up my companions for the last leg of act 1/underdark. Currently running the dark urge lockadin, consistent killer laezel, immortal tank karlach, assassin astarion. Working on respeccing the rest of the party so I can slot them in and out for convenience.
My first ever full playthrough was a Bardadin. Oathbreaker 6 / Swords 6. It was so good and I did not even think about the synergy with Dance Macabre which Wizard Gale got. I fulfilled my Bard and Summoner preferred playstyle and it was Glorious!!
Doesn't the oathbreaker aura for undead happen at level 7?
Probably going to respec my tactician Bard main to this build…seems rad!
Great video! Any chance of a build for using the slayer form?
Good idea! I'll add that to the list
Would you do 15 CHA if you plan on using ethels hair?
I'd go with 17 dex, that way you can still hit 20 while saving a feat!
If you like this build, but want to lean more into the party face and don't mind relying on items, you can start with a 17 Charisma Bard until level 6, taking Actor along the way, then pick up the gloves of dexterity from the Creche.
Can you do an Oath breaker Paladin build? Possibly a Dual Wielding one.
Yes! I already have an oathbreaker lockadin build up ("Break the Lock(adin)") but will be doing a more straight-up version soon as well
The only thing I would change is starting Bard so as to not delay extra attacks, grab Pali at 7-8, that's about the time you'll be in act 2 when you need to start really pushing damage anyway. with such high dex, med armor is better anyway, though the best armor and weapon combo would be light armor and a Raiper. though im still not 100% convinced that melee bard beats archer bard since slashing can target the same thing.
That build definitely will work well! The levelling order here is very flexible. Smites are worth a ton of damage (usually more than Extra Attack without them) so I wouldn't worry too much about getting to that feature early - Bard 1 / pal 2 / bard 9 is my pick if you want to have the extra skills from bard.
This definitely won't be as strong damage-wise as an archer bard, since as you say the ranged slashing flourish is broken (personally I wish they would change that, but c'est la vie)
@@Cephalopocalypse Agreed, there is a mod that changes it but with the way it is currently the damage is just insane. Even more so if you take X-box Expert and use the Bhalist armor. I used the Dualist Prog with bahlist armor. made act 3 a complete joke.
For this build, if you are running this as a main Tav, who are the other 3? I really like Wizard for the flexibility as well as Throw Barb and the Ranger/Rogue duel wielding multiclass (though I like those classes I worry they are too "glass cannon-y"). Advice?
I was wondering the same thing.what build would for those three work best together with this Tav build?
Does smiting with slashing flourish make up for delaying extra attack SO far?
If and when I finally get around to playing honour mode, I’ll definitely have a bardadin in my party. It looks so fun. (And I would be so tempted to take spirit guardians via magical secrets, middling CHA be damned lol.)
If you’re taking duelling then I think duellist’s prerogative is going to give you the best bang for your buck, even if it means forgoing a shield. You could also take the infernal rapier and roll with a cambion.
Another option is to take the GWM feat and use one of the few 2H/versatile finesse weapons in the game. Phalar Aluve in Act 1 & 2, then the Dancing Breeze from the start of Act 3. +10 damage to each slashing flourish hit will potentially be +40 per turn.
It's also worth noting that if you're smiting on react rather than casting smite you're never missing smites. Better to miss the attack and not spend a spell slot than spend the spell slot and miss the attack.
Kind of agree but im pretty sure that you dont use a spell slot unless you hit the attack.
Seems like late game 4 oath of vengeance paladin + 8 swords bard would be better. Three feats and bonus action vow of enmity cast on yourself for ten rounds of advantage against everything is cracked. You could even go 3/9 and get a level five spell if you didn’t need the third feat.
Rolling a new Tav and 100 using this build!
Awesome, good luck!
Have you done any Sorc/paladin build? I am debating between Sorcerer and Bard for my first durge playthrough
Seeing this video after doing this same build to level 6. Can't decide if I should follow this route of go 2 Paladin/6 Seord Bard/4 Sorcerer or maybe even through in a level of wizard somewhere.
What about this but with daily strength elixer?
The spell is cool, but I'm not sure it's as good as going bard 8/paladin 2/Fighter 2 and just having an action surge. you do so much damage using your bard flourish to attack and smite 2 targets at once, and basically every fight in act 3 lasts 1 round when you have 4 very well made characters so I'm not sure how useful the banish actually is, I'd rather just make the enemy dead
For sure, you can definitely do that - or go pal 4 for Savage Attacker to boost your average smite damage significantly. I just really like the secret spell :P
On that secret I would get the summon, you have a level 6 spell slot and a mirmidon. Is just noice
I enjoy starting this build with bard for the skills. But if you go with a Gith character, you'll be able to use the racial to get prof in other skills you might have an okay skill in like the Int or wis ones.
For sure! Gith make excellent main characters for that reason imo, you can grab all the knowledge skills alongside the circlet of intellect and just have decent knowledge skills more or less for free. Bard gets half that bonus on all skills so it's *slightly* redundant for bards, but still very nice
@@Cephalopocalypse I call it the chosen one style main character because of how many skill checks you'll be able to pass on your own.
Question, since in this build we don't actually need a shield and our Dex is higher than our strength, would Duellist's Prerogative in Act 3 work well with this?
It definitely would!
We need a Minthara starter character :D
Is this the best tank build for Honor? I'm missing build like that in my party, good job. What race is the best , beside Draw Minthara? Orc might be a good one? I've noticed on Honor I need a party where each one member can finish the honor on its own. It is hard to win with a dice roll of 90%+. So far over strength / damages characters can do that to some extend (monk, tavern brawler thrower) for me.
Just started this build and it feels incredibly op, just landed, level 2 and my lightfoot halfling has 19 ac immediately….
I really like your build videos
Thanks very much!
Btw, what are your recommended items for this build?
savage attacker should be really good for your smites. may be worth dropping an asi for.
With a Sorlock as Main and with the wish to include a Bard into the Group
What would you choose?
This one and giving Laezel a throwing build?
Supportbard mixed with cleric on shadowheart?
What would be your Teamsetup?
Sorlock
Laezel
Astarion
Shadowheart or at least no cleric with this Bardardin?
One of the great things about this build is it fits pretty well into any party - alongside a sorlock you've got a lot of your bases covered! My instinct would be to have this character be your lockpicker since it can also cover the dps role of a rogue, and go with a divine caster (cleric or druid) and a melee character - throwing would also work though!
@@Cephalopocalypse thx!
I am very new to BG3 and Overall to D & D...learning a Lot .
Fighter,Sorlock and a Cleric (thinking of the Tempest) should Work ..will give it a try in my Tactician-Run working on towards Honour
I am curious if PLD2 / Bladelock 3/Swords 7 would make for an overall better main character. It would allow you to shift all offense to Cha, gives access to the Devil Sight/Darkness combo, full power EB, has stupid conversation skills (esp with Illithid expertise, should you go that route), and Cha is the stat that can be upped the highest overall. The biggest problem I see is that the build only truly comes online at level 11. Also only one feat, so you are counting on the hair for baseline Cha20.
Recruiting minthara for my first time tomorrow, gonna get her started on the path to this build 🧝♀️
Running this build with the gloves of power and phalar aluve so saving throws should be quite manageable
Kind of confused. You seemed to be going dual wielding rather than sword/board when you picked "Defense" over "Protection (7:22)" but when you got to "Fighting Style" you picked Duelling (17:23) which you said goes better with sword/board.
This build can use either depending on your preference! Defense style will work for either setup. The picks in the video are just an example - choose dueling if you want to be sword and board, or two weapon fighting if you want to dual wield
Question: I have the Hag's Dexterity Boon and plan on switching from Rogue/Bard to Paladin/Bard in endgame for RP reasons. I know that means my starting stats will have to be different to compensate and I'll have to pick a different second feat.
What would you recommend?
Sure! You'll want to take 17 starting dex, probably dropping 2 WIS, and then for feats the best options are Alert (just always excellent, especially for higher difficulties, though less important on this high dex character) or Savage Attacker, which rerolls your smite damage dice and increases your average damage enormously.
Is 2 levels paladin, 2 levels warlock, and 8 levels bard viable? I want to make an entire party that can fight from inside darkness…
Great video. Thank you
Any suggestions for a great weapons fighter paladin / bard? Was trying to focus on strength and be a front line tank / damage / support.
Going to be gimped on damage a little by not going straight fighter. Battlemaster gives you a wider variety of attacks compared to swords bard flourishes, and straight fighter gives you three extra feats compared to any other class.
Mixing in bard for some more support probably means concentration spells, which are risky when you’re melee, especially if you’re not using a shield.
Doesn't Savage Attacker feat work really good with smite? I thought you;re gonna mention it
It does, and I definitely should have brought it up in the video. Savage attacker is great for this build's average damage, but I err on the side of hit chance and AC for this build. I find if you hit the target at all they almost always die regardless, so I prefer the extra hit chance, but if you want more damage SA over the ASI is great. Especially for the dual-wielding variant, as they have an extra chance to land a smite.
@@Cephalopocalypse
I just left my question in the comments, but say I was able to max out my Dex with one feat because I got the Hag's Boon and needed to respec my stats to compensate. Would Savage Attacker be a good replacement?
For a first run at Tactician mode, would this be a good build to run with? Any suggestions on a party to compliment? Was thinking Karlach (not sure on build), light cleric Shadowheart and Gale 😊
It definitely would! I think that party sounds great to me - I'd recommend getting sleight of hand if possible on the main character, just so you have that in the party, but that group has everything you need!
@@CephalopocalypseExcllenet thanks, wish me luck haha. I’ve done several Balanced runs but feel it’s time to dive into a harder difficultly.
Great work!
Thanks!
If I get oathbreaker, should I respec again?
Would you think Phalar Aluve is viable in the Endgame?
Shriek is extremely Powerful ...i am at the End of Act 1 and with a Shield,Phalars Shriek and a AC of 19-21 even Bosses miss most Attacks
Would this build be effective if used for strength instead of dexterity? I’m a sucker for the bigger weapons
Sure! You give up a little AC and initiative if you use strength instead, but the build will still work fine - or you could use the gloves of dex or strength elixirs to reach pretty much the same stats.
Could you alternatively for weapons consider subbing in the club of str from act 1 to use with titanstring bow so you could use a different elixir than str elixir? Perhaps viciousness for more crits?
why would you do that on a melee smite build?
how come I dont have Minthara as a starting (origin) character choice or was this just an example?
This is just an example - Minthara is one of the companions you can't recruit until later on
Would this bard set up also work with fighter instead of paladin?
It really depends on where you want your damage to come from. The bardadin uses charisma synergies and spells for damage by smites. A fighter bard would be looking for pure weapon damage, ergo focusing on either STR or DEX over CHA. You'd probably be better off looking at a completely different build rather than this one. One possible option would be 6 bard (swords)/4 rogue (thief)/2 fighter dual hand crossbow build, though that is I suspect rather less fighter than what you were looking for.
Ya I dont know if it is bugged or what but you can not use smites as a reaction on your flourish attacks. Im doing this build for honor mode and im leve five and everytime I use one of my flourishes I can never use a paladin smite on it and ive used it over a dozen times
Make sure smites are turned to ask in the reaction tab. I've never had it not work unless I've miss-aimed slashing flourish and not actually hit them in the cone.
I didn't realize I needed to activate smite's reaction... I saw someone previously said you can smite on crit only and I thought that was cool, but I didn't see how to do it... 😅
would be cool to see a cleric build that focuses on lone wolf honor mode play, seems like to me that pretty much all classes got builds that can solo honor mode with but cleric. I'm excluding tempest cleric as I see it more of a complementary subclass for sorcerer. any ideas for that kind of build with other subclass than tempest?
Off the top of my head, Light Cleric using Radiating Orb stacking is probably the best solo honour cleric - cool idea though, I'll think about it more!
Warlock/Bard or Paladin/Warlock pact of the blade let's you focus Charisma as your attacking stat
Thanks I was waiting for that
Glad to hear it!
Is this the minthara lore friendly build ? Cause I’m looking for to it but if this is it I’m so down!
I don't think there is a more lore friendly character for this build. Minthara is a paladin and she carries an instrument in-game. That said you could argue changing oaths isn't lore friendly but you could make a case for that storywise
@@apex1568 ooo what instrument was it ?
The Spider's Lyre@@Kyubii01
@@Kyubii01She carries a lyre
When you get to act 3 as soon as you get the 5k gold buy the statue of your character from stoney in the fair it gives your character a blessed buff after every long rest until your next long rest so essentially for 5k you can have a permanent bless buff on your main character. Also take the necromancy of thay book in act one if you can pass the saving throws you get a good permanent buff from it then in act 3 you get access to a quest related to the book best to look up a video about it hard to explain how to do the quest but at the end of it you get a book that if kept in your inventory you get 20 additional hit points after every long rest
you don't need to pass the saves. If you fail just use remove curse or long rest and its gone
Will banishing smite work on Myrkul?
Good luck getting to level 12 before the Myrkul fight lol.
I would like a little bit more info on these builds, like here the lithid powers and probably how to play them from the begining. like at very early levels this build feels particularly reliant on bows
Slightly concerned about having only 14 charisma on a bard/paladin, is it not an important stat for paladin+bard damage rolls and being a main character for skill checks?
Good question! CHA doesn't influence damage rolls for this build - your damage will be based off DEX as long as you use a finesse weapon (like a rapier). It *does* influence the Save DCs of your spells, which is why we try to avoid spells that allow saving throws and instead take buffs and utility (or just use them for smites).
You'll have slightly worse dialogue skills than a pure charisma character, but should still easily pass most checks since you'll have good proficiencies.
I would say go two weapon fighting because certain weapons you get when you kill someone scantily dressed in red plus risky rings and Bhaalist armor can make you essentially 1 shot bosses
Awesome vid
Any reason this wouldn’t work with great weapons and strength potions?
None at all! Definitely a possible build variant. If you go that route you can take higher CHA and also get Alert or Savage Attacker for better combat stats, or Actor for better skills.
@@Cephalopocalypse perfect thanks and thanks for all the great videos!
Ah yes, Astarian the dashing paladin 💀
I would recommend starting as Bard instead of Paladin. You lose Heavy armor, but you gain another 2 skills (do not take Deception or Performance). In addition, I would go with an odd score for charisma (15), and do first 4 levels as Bard and take Actor feat which boosts charisma by one and gives you Deception and Performance with expertise (even you you don't have either before). You could do the two levels of Paladin at this point, then resume going up as Bard after. This maximizes you ability as Face for the party.
❤l 6:04 😊