The answer to "what does best even mean" is simple: the best build is the build that will cause you to uninstall when you get to the doppelganger fight in the gauntlet 😂
Just gotta thank you! Finally beat Honor Mode after failing my first run. -Fire Sorcerer -TB OH Monk -Hulking Hurler -Swords Bard Archer Couldn't have done it without your EXTREMELY well thought out and powerful builds!
@@kirtwedel9275Bard was my Astarion actually! I did the Sorcerer for my MC. And I didn’t mind not having a healer. Act 1 had a few parts where if you get unlucky rolls against you, it got a lil scary, but once Act 2/lv6 came around, and builds started going online….things die too fast to be worried :P
I've been playing D&D for over 20 years, in 3rd edition I was extremely knowledgeable about how to make builds. Your content fulfills that for me for BG3 and is really inspiring. Thanks for giving me so much content to listen to at work and guide me in my gaming time.
I spent some time trying to think of how to distill that down into individual points and then I was like no, let's just go straight to the heart of the matter
Incredibly charismatic by default of being a bard, multiple areas of proficiencies by default of being a bard, the ability to become experts in several proficiencies by default of being a bard, inspirational because they're bards, full casters because they're bards, with special weapon based attacks only they can do because of their subclasses that can either: -Knock moveable enemies back regardless of their weight (and then teleport to them) -Deal massive amounts of ranged/melee damage -Become nearly unhittable ...with some of the best synergy with some of the most broken equipment available, Swords Bard are peak "I am the main character" energy.
@@r.s.819Swords Bard is the Ultimate Power Fantasy Sub-class. I actually ban that subclass unless I'm doing some sort of challenge run because it makes the game trivial once you get Extra Attack
@@LordAryu You could probably nerf swords bard by personally not allowing them to use casting (besides maybe cantrips) but you'd still end up being one of the best weapon fighters, so while it is a nerf, it's not a very big one. Swords Bard make Valour bards obsolete which doesn't feel good for balance. Arcane Acuity is probably the bigger issue at hand since so much of their brokenness comes from combining it with the HoAA. Maybe you could use swords bard but not use AA and while they'd still be broken, they wouldn't be horrifically broken. At least hexblade isn't in the vanilla game, or it'd be even worse, since then you could be even more single attribute dependent.
I haven't tried Bard yet (just finished my first playthrough), imagine how shocked I was when I realized that Bard can be a melee class with full casters spell slots xd
I will say also about the throwserker build, I've been using one on my current honor mode and one thing that can be VERY annoying about the thrown build is sometimes the geometry of areas can be a little weird and wont give you an angle to throw your weapon, typically happens indoors
Also the returning weapons are janky and sometimes take forever to come back, or deal damage to the thrower when they return(?), and don't seem to return when used to initiate combat, which is a problem if they're your strongest ranged attacker.
@@meekrab9027 I have found that if you enter an already active combat thru a thrown sneak attack, the weapons do not return for whatever reason. Clearly a bug but they need to fix that
@@gaigerielI came to say this, it's seems to me that the returning property in the weapons is coded to only work if you are in combat, since initiating combat from a throwing attack you are first out of combat it doesn't work, so you always need to initiate combat with another person and then attack in the surprise round with the barbarian
yeah, i always keep a handful of daggers on my throwzerker for this reason--they may not do the same amount of damage as the returning pike or nyrulna, but they are much easier to throw in tight areas.
@@jennahinckley8216Lol, same =)) I have stacked so many dagger that when me and my bros reach arc3 and try to pickpockets nine-finger they said I have find my soulmate =))
Thanks for the video, what I really like about yours is that I have never played the table top D&D, and you take the time to explain the reasons behind the actions. So many videos just say "do this and this, get this skill or attribute" , and no explanation. For months I had no idea what Arcane Aquity was or even how you were suppose to use it. So again thanks, love your guides.
Arcane Acuity hat Swords Bard/Thief Rogue Astarion on my HM run absolutely dominated every single encounter. So, so good, the entire battlefield was feared or confused for the full duration.
Tip for thrower builds: - Keep spare daggers for throwing so you can initiate a fight and not lose your main Thrown Weapon. - Always wait a few seconds for thr thrown weapon to return in combat. - For the Final Boss, IIRC, if you enter melee range and throw your weapon, it shoild hit the boss (needs to be double checked). - For Berserkers, remember that you can throw enemies at each other or use them as Improvised weapons! I like to carry a dead goblin to suplex into enemies at melee range.
I for one would be very interested in seeing you play out a few combat encounters with your favored party build. Your videos have been so helpful but I need it literally spelled out for me sometimes and I think it would be great to see what choices you make to win encounters! It’d be a different kind of video and idk if it would do well but I would be glued to the screen lol
I would love to see that too; your videos are great but seeing you fight and take advantage of the builds as well as seeing your weapon and equipment for your characters would be amazing
Tip for the Druid build: Single level of Barb will add your constituion modifier to AC while shapeshifting, most animal forms add 2 or 3 AC just from this. Of course only works as longs as you dont wear armor, so keep that in mind.
As a Tavern Brawler Monk if you dont want to deal with the hassle of using strength elixirs you can grab Gloves of Dexterity and Mighty Cloth fairly early in the game, then dump your dex and pump your Strength all the way to 20 which is more than enough to breeze through the game. Then later in the game when you have done House of Hope you can swap your dex gloves for Gloves of Soul catching and equip Amulet of Greater Health. If you have used Ethel's Hair on +1 Dexterity and Tavern Brawler on +1 Strength and Mighty Cloth +2 Strength this will allow you to respec into 20 Strength, 18 Dexterity, 23 Constitution and 16 Wisdom. Strength Elixirs are great but i feel like its a little overkill when Monk is already insane.
I played Sorc 1/Light Cleric x as a Magic Missile build and it carried me through Honour. MM will get you a ton of Reverb and Orb stacks with the right gear.
you can basically make any sorcerer build tanky by just using gloves of dexterity and a race that gives shield proficiency. That's what I did with a recent tempest lightning sorcerer that I wanted to roleplay as a melee shocking grasp fighter. Insane damage as there are a lot of damage modifiers for cantrips that can all be equipped together (Necklace of elemental augmentation, draconic bloodline, Potent Robes, Kereska's favour) in combination with being able to use wet, while also being able to be in the face of the enemy and trigger opportunity attacks with war caster without risking every attack hitting you because of a high armor class given by gloves of dexterity and shield. Shocking grasp with all the modifiers would deal a consistent 60+ damage per cast without using the tempest cleric ability. That then could also be twin spelled and because you are using cantrips you can do that a lot.
@@Jabberwokee I would recommend doing only sorcerer if you have a cleric in the party, I didn't have one so I multi-classed into cleric which works fine as long as you have 6 levels in a lightning draconic blood sorcerer (you need a cleric for create water to make enemies wet, throwing water bottles works too but it's a lot less efficient). For stats I would start with 8 strength, 12 dexterity, 16 constitution, 8 intelligence, 13 wisdom and 17 charisma. Focus solely on getting charisma to 20 at first with feats and auntie ethel's hair. Then as you get gloves of dexterity you can respec all the dexterity points into increasing wisdom to 14 (for saving throws) and strength to 10 (for carry weight). Charisma is by far the most important ability score in this build and you should increase it by all means possible. That means getting the hat that gives +2 charisma and the mirror blessing that gives another +2 for a maximum of 24. This is because every time charisma increases to an even number every shocking grasp you do you deal +3 damage (+6 to wet) instead of only increasing attack rolls. Constitution is the 2nd most important as you are going to be concentrating on haste a lot as you are going to have plenty of spell slots because you are using primarily cantrips. I even recommend getting warcaster as your 2nd feat, which is why Ethel's hair should be used on this character so you can get 20 Charisma with 1 feat. Your last feat should be alert. I will have to note that this build will feel pretty weak until you reach level 6 where ideally you will have the necklace of elemental augmentation (which basically requires you to go to Creche Y'llek before grymforge) and you get your draconic bloodline feature. Then once you get the potent robes from Alfira this build becomes completely broken. If you are playing Dark Urge make sure Alfira survives by knocking her out on the day that she visits you, if she doesn't you can't get the potent robes. You also have to make Rolan stay with the tieflings in the grove.
Heads up, there is currently a bug where Karlach will deal double fire damage with her Soul Coin buff when using unarmed attacks making her arguably the highest damaging character in the game apart from Astarion if he's lucky :)
@Ricard1807o it always cracks me up when people say trickery clerics are weak. While they may not be as broken as some others, they are still clerics. The base spell list is just too good.
I would add level specific early game builds. If you focus on builds that only start getting powerful when you're already half-way through act 2, then you're basically ignoring half of the game. For me, there are just a handful of builds to keep in mind when starting the game, and they can make the first levels very easy. At level 2 and 3, you want fighter. A dual-wielding fighter, to be precise. And arm yourself with torches. Torches are VERY powerful early game, because they are constantly on fire. And contrary to the Everburn Blade, they are plenty. This is the safest way to play the game at this very low level imo. At level 4, you want a TB monk, or druid. Tavern Brawler is the single most OP feat in the game, and considering most builds don't come around until level 5, TB is a life saver. Monk is the most common way to use it, but shapeshifting as a druid works almost as good. Then at level 5, most builds will start showing their strengths, and this is where your guide starts becoming relevant.
My #1 is a dex based 10bard/paladin. You can either just play dex, or use strength elixirs. The ridiculous banishing smite+4th level smite is just amazing, and smiting is fun in general
Used your builds to beat honor mode on the first shot, having only played the game when it first came out (I rushed down tactician in the first week then stopped playing originally). Even with my limited knowledge of the game, the survivability of abjuration wizard, cleric, eldritch and swords bard allowed me to correct round one mistakes or just win from pure damage output. You deserve to be known as the best build builder in bg3. Well done!
Great summary. I just entered Act 3 on my HM run and I'm using Ceph's EK throwing build and the Swords Bard archer to make my battles as smooth as possible. I have a few observations on these two builds, a couple he's already mentioned: 1.Throwing builds have a lot of downsides imo and I'm only using it for the sake of getting that golden dice. To get the most power you want to use str elixirs. I find it tedious having to spend time in ACT 1 going to the druid camp every rest and lvl up to stock up on elixirs. If others don't mind, more power to them, but it's not worth it other than HM, imo. As far as weapons go, the Lightning Jabber will, of course, return if you've used your EK weapon binding, but if you're caught unaware (like the scene between ACT 2 and 3) and forget to bind it, then you have to run to get it back, reequip, and bind. Also, there is a bug and the draconic elemental weapon damage does NOT apply when throwing the LJ. I've submitted a bug report, which I'm sure others have, as well. But that's annoying. And then there's Nylruna which is so annoying because of the friendly fire damage, so I find I don't want to keep it equipped, generally. So instead, it looks like I'll need to choose before certain battles to equip and bind it if I don't think I'll need to worry about friendly fire. It's all very tedious. And then that's not even to mention the apparent bug with the final boss. I'm hoping the next patch releases and fixes it before I get to that point 🤦♀. 2. Swords Bard Archer - Totally op, but aesthetically, I absolutely love it. It's got a Selene Underworld vibe which I think is so fun. Even if it weren't op like it is I would still love it just for the flavor. Just wanted to make a note that you don't need to worry about taking wearing the gloves of dex if you wear The Graceful Cloth armor. I think it's hideous to look at, especially compared to the Yuan-ti Scale Mail which gives more AC, BUT the character is squishy regardless, so I still prefer to wear the graceful armor to get to 20 dex. That way I can wear Wondrous Gloves. I find the Wondrous Gloves and Boots of Brilliance to be useful since they give a couple extra rounds of attack. For my other two characters I'm using Ceph's Lore Bard/Life Cleric build for heals, which has been brilliant in the times heal were really necessary. It also makes for a great support and main face character. I'd personally recommend playing it on Shadowheart just because she has the perfect sass for Cutting Words and her Origin run has been fantastic so far. Lastly, I'm using Ceph's Barbarian/Warlock build on Karlach. It was a little slow to come online, but with the other builds in the party I wasn't worried, and it wasn't an issue. I like the idea that Karlach picked up fiendish abilities while in the Hells, so I mind canon it as though she innately picked up those abilities. The retaliation damage is great and she's really good at casting Command to control the battlefield before raging and attacking. Also, warlock w/ 2 bards has been great party synergy.
1. Freedom accent. 2. hono”u”r. My guy is Canadian. Thanks for this great lecture. I’m new to the game and stumbling around. I’ll keep these ideas in mind and try one of these next run.
Yup the eldritch knight thrower is criminally underrated I am playing it now soloing honor mode I am a bit concerned about the bug for the last boss tho but I will cross that bridge when it comes
I used it in my first honour run. Loved it, but sometimes my weapon wouldn't return to me. This even happened with Nyrulna sometimes. Tried weapon bonding AND not bonding Nyrulna and it happened both ways sometimes, it wasn't very often, but it happened during boss fights. But I had an Archer Swords Bard and ice Mage abjuration wizard, so I crushed everyone regardless of bugs.
@@johnwalker1322 Yea what I realize is that if you end your turn before the weapon comes back to you it doesn't come bk so the best thing to do is always wait before you end your turn
Why is the bug a problem? Just have like 30 daggers, axes, spears, etc in your inventory and you’ll be able to do your normal thing with only a slight decrease in damage. It isn’t that big of a deal.
I'm more curious about Ceph's favourite or must have items tbh, there's such a lot of equipment in the game ranking all of it would take forever. Maybe just whatever the S and/or A class equipment is?
There's so much tho.. And stuff that only works for specific builds but is absolutely game breaking when in that build so where would that go because Band of the Mystic Scoundrel on a fighter is absolutely useless but on a bard is broken beyond belief.. So where would that go on a tier list? Gear is pretty character specific so there's not a good way to do gear and there's only a few pieces of gear you want on EVERY playthrough and everyone already knows what gear that is at this point.. So it doesn't really make for a good tier list since gear is very build dependant.. There's not many pieces of gear that is good for every single character other than what, Ring and Cloak of Protection.. Nightwalkers boots, Click Heels and a couple of other items which are more QoL items than anything else..
I was actually wondering the same. Even if a full list/ranking would be prohibitive, I’d love to have something going over them in some way. I find myself using the same gear all the time, & I’m sure I’m missing things that are more effective &/or fun.
My first honor mode run was 4 moon druids who started with 1 level of draconic sorc for Armor of Agathys. 99% of my in combat actions were just basic attacks, for both my main party and my summons. Very relaxed playthrough.
I think the solution for the Lightning Lord's "slow early game" can be summed up thusly: Whispering Promise, Wapira's Crown, Twinned Healing Word, Twinned Magic Weapon. I think the name "Lightning Lord" is a little misleading, it's really just a support build designed to compliment 2x Swords Bard Archers with all day Twinned Magic Weapon and no concentration Bless, that happens to set itself up as a prime Markoheshkir user in act 3. Twinned Haste is frankly a bad joke in a game where throwing Potions of Speed is a thing.
I'm glad you shed light on cleric in general, not just the strong subclass variants. I probably said this in a reply already but even a trickery cleric can be broken, they're just that good
Also random, what is your most embarrassing loss in honor mode? I was Level 3, me and Shart vs the sleeping bug bear at blighted village… For whatever reason, he was NOT surprised, won initiative against my assassin rogue, and one shot them. Then I hit them, got them to 2 Hp, and he one shot my full health circle of spores Shadowheart… This was in my 1st 2player HM run.
Had just hit lvl 5... padlock build all was looking good. I went to save the chancellor from the burning building and mis clicked on hitting the door and hit a friendly and they all immediately agro me and my 4 man is stuck in a burning building, 2 ranged characters that are squishy, and u have like 15 dudes my level or higher 3 of which can 1 shot anyone I had. Well I died and my first play through of honor mode ended
I lost honour mode once, to the owlbear, at level 3, I somehow thought it was a good idea, full partywipe while desperately trying to run 😂 My very first honour mode experience 😅
The build that carried my end game Honor Mode playthrough was Enchantment Wizard. Just locking down enemies with sometimes 100% hold spells was great with an end spell save dc of 28.
Awesome video. Gloomstalker/Assassin is one of my favorite specs to play and hard carried my first honour mode run. Equipped the Bhaalist armor on a Battlemaster Fighter to give piercing vulnerability to as many enemies as possible in melee and let the Gloomstalker/Assa Rogue with 25% crit tee off on them from the backline. Recently started my third playthrough with the goal of playing four fun, unfamiliar builds without regard to power, but lo and behold, I've created a party with a Lockadin and Moon Druid lol. Lore Bard and Wild Magic Sorc in the remaining two slots ought to keep things interesting though.
Does assassin work with all forms of advantage? Then I'd add e.g. the shield (feat/ability?) that gives team advantage over adjacent enemies. Or plain old darkness abuse.
I'm surprised Sorlock didn't make the list. You can get some amazing burst damage If you go 2 warlock/ 5 sorcerer/ 2 fighter/ 3 thief rogue. Round 1: haste yourself, create sorcery points with a lower level spell slot so that you have at least 6 sorcery points. Round 2: Eldritch Blast as an action, Eldritch Blast with your hasted action, action surge to Eldritch Blast, Quicken Spell Eldritch Blast with your first bonus action, quicken spell Eldritch Blast again with your second bonus action from the thief subclass, if you have a bloodlust elixir you can probably get off another Eldritch Blast. That's a total of 18 Eldritch Blast beams. The big down side is that it uses basically all of your resources, but it hits like a truck.
If you use the Spell savant amulet you can get infinite sorcery points. If you don't want to use that, you can technically do the same thing with potions of angelic reprieve instead. Stock up on hundreds from Lann Tarv in act 2. Every time you use one, you replenish your level 1 and 2 spell slots. So you can create 12 spell slots, chug a pot, 12, chug, 12, etc.
Eldritch Blast is great, but it’s not THAT great. If all you’re bringing to the table is damage, there are better builds for that. Like just removing one of those Warlock levels and using Scorching Ray instead. More blasts, and you benefit from all the fire boosting stuff. The only reason to keep that other Warlock level is for Hex, due to all the blasts.
@@MayHugger what about ice sorcerer? I am on my 3rd run which is my honour run. My second run was a test for honour run so except going back in saves everything was in honour mode ruleset even long rest was 120 food, trader prices was 4 times if i remember correctly. First 5 levels i used Vengeance Paladin then i respec into Ice sorcerer Storm. With Create water and only ice/lightning spells and morning frost, markoheskir dual wield. 24 Charisma without the cowboy hat. I want to do this on my actual honour run right now. IS this viable
Really enjoy your content, do you think we could get a condition tier list (arcane acuity, heat, lightning charges, etc.,) with a rundown of what each does? I think it'd be really helpful for newer players and I haven't seen anyone do it so far
Really hope he does this!!! This would be super helpful. No matter how many times I read the blurb about the conditions, it just doesn’t stick in my brain and then I don’t remember how applicable it is.
Just completed Honor Mode. Thanks for the tips. Sword Bard Archer was a fun play through. Went with the Gale ending on the last run. Didn’t want to risk it in the last round.
The best equipment combo for the swords bard archer (or any archer) is the punch drunk bastard great club and the amulet of the drunkard. 5 rounds of advantage at the cost of a bottle of booze and a bonus action paired with a ton of attacks every turn makes this build a crit machine. By far one of the most fun classes I’ve run. While not required, I did enjoy using the dead shot bow for the practically guaranteed chance to hit. Unfortunately I lost that honor run to Ansur and some poor planning but I’m excited to come back with the helm of arcane acuity. He won’t know what hit him
Awesome video. Anyone seeing this, for Berserker Thrower, it gets very strong, very early. And then just gets nuttier the more levels you get and better gear you get. The most early power I've felt came from Berserker Thrower, OH Monk and AoA Wizard
OMG. Another staggeringly high quality video. I think I know why you never respond to any of my comments. You're too busy creating this incredibly high quality content! I found this channel just in the knick of time, as I'm starting my 2nd run through the game. The first run I played blind without any help from the internet. But for the next run I plan to use all the collective wisdom of the BG3 masses, and this channel seems like Ground Zero for that effort. 😂😂
53:44 Removing spacebar from your shortcuts should be the first thing any player does when first launching the game ! 😂 I think I did remove it in the first hour. In any way, Bards are OP. Free short rest is totally broken in and of itself, they make the best "face" for your team and are unable to fail any dialogue option (mak of the shifter, guidance and all your broken bonuses make sure of that). Quite funny how they went from being a tabletop joke to being an absolute beast in BG3 Great video as usual ✌
I disagree on the short rest being broken, the game throws you SOOOO MANY free camp supplies every few areas that you never have to worry about just long resting if you need to.
I'm going to try a few of these for sure. The assassin archer, lockadin, lighting lord and berserker thrower or eldritch knight thrower. I'm sad to see sorlock isn't on the list. Last I played was like 8 months ago and the first toon I used to beat the game (balance not honor) was with a Sorlock and I LOVED it.
Oh my sweet boy, you can indeed "quicken" Ithilid powers. I'm sure you know of the "Awakened" permabuff you can get in Act 1. Breaks Fire Sorc in half.
i've used the lockadin (not the 3/9 split, but paladin 5/warlock 7), 12 straight levels of moon druid, assassin archer (i actually went ranger 5 rogue 4 fighter 3, but it probably doesn't make much of a difference), the berserker thrower, the OH monk/thief, eldritch knight thrower (12 levels), and swords bard archer. i've never played HM (much more comfortable on tactician), but so many of the builds i've used for my playthroughs have come from this channel. i think your videos also got me to try the roguelock multiclass (assassin/great old one), which has become a favorite of mine.
Bard 6 / ranger 4 / fighter 2 or whatever you fancy for the last 2 levels is amazing with sharpshooter, crossbow expert and durge aura of murder. The added damage from colossus slayer that comes with ranger/hunter makes incredible bursts in melee, and is very easy to play all game long. Just like your #1 pick, it's a skill monkey, party face, and not rest dependant. What I find weird in these ranged builds is saying dex gloves are required. You can max out dex in all of these, and you can gulp down STR elixirs or use STR items if needed.
I'm currently at the goblin camp in honor mode. Pretty terrified of everything. Very fun. Always love learning new tricks to keep me alive in this brutal mode.
You’ve definitely probably beaten it by now, but if you want to cheese the whole outside area, have one archer character with a Heavy Crossbow and the Sharpshooter feat go up to the real high area, try to stealthily kill the single goblin reading the book, then jump just past him. Have one character sneak just past the ogre and initiate a surprise round, or better yet get the summon Shovel to do it. From here, just have you archer pick off most of the Goblins, as long as the Bugbear that patrols is already in combat, you won’t be able to enter combat unless you fail to kill one of the goblins in one hit, even if you miss you won’t enter combat.
abjuration build is definitely Sorc 1/ Cleric 1 ( heavy armor and create water) / abjuration 10 Thrown weapons do not apply all their bonuses on hit, unless explicitly stated so in the description, like the lightning jabbers and Nyrulna. The ThrowBarb and open hand monk builds can be combined if one is willing to respec at lvl 12. Monk 6/ Thief 3/ zerker 3. One feat only, but tavern brawler is all you need, str can be at 20 by mid game without feats.
Your Open Hand Monk build (3) can easily be improved by speccing at least 1 level but preferably 3 levels of Barbarian as that will give you an extra 2dmg on your crazy amount of Monk attacks and you'll be able to half all physical damage received while raging plus the Barbarian Unarmored Defense is arguably better then the Monks version as it benefits from Con allowing you to buff both you health and AC. If you go 3 levels your can either halve ALL damage except for Psychic or go Frenzy for drastically increased thrown damage with tavern Brawler and easy ranged prone attacks too :)
Really appreciate all the effort you go through to explain these, and that you all ready have the full videos elsewhere. I used a HM Wild Magic Sorc you made for my first Tactician run, but its been fun. I kind of want to try HM now with your builds!
Having now played the Abjuration Wizard build, I can say a huge weakness of this build is how weak it is early on. Until about level 7 or 8, your ward is not that strong, so chip damage gets in. The best way to mitigate this is to have your OP cleric cast warding bond on you. You still are going to struggle to keep your ward up if you are intentionally tanking extra hits each round. strongly reccomend giving this build all the items that let them refill spell slots, or take fewer fights per rest. I ran this in a party with a monk, a swords bard, and a warlock, so short rests were abound and long rests were rarer.
One that I think you critically missed is crit fish eldritch blast. 4 Warlock, 4 Fighter, 4 Sorcerer. up to 9 eldritch blasts per turn, 13 or higher to crit, 10+2d10+2d6 force per blast that combines fear and prone to nullify enemies outright, and a fantastic option to use ilthid powers in the party. Combine this with cull the weak and bonus action illithid abilites as well as reactions, it can destroy things outright, or crowd control by knocking back enemies and take out targets. Gets online at level 2 and builds up from there. Only downsides is somewhat of a glass cannon, but it's control features are so strong.
The berserker thrower is also a good recipient of the gloves of dex. They help mitigate the initiative issue they have, let you dump dex for other stats like more con, and also buff your AC which will help when using reckless attack, which you'll want to do a good bit of the time, despite TB's hit chance.
One unmentioned bonus of tavern brawler throwers, Barb or Fighter, is that you can use enemies as projectiles too. Forcibly moving around enemies and getting two probes for the price of one if you throw one guy into another
It's important to have something be easy to play: Clerics, for example, were broken in 3.5 edition, but casting all these buffs before start took more time than the fight itself, so playing something like a Paladin was faster. I had a multiclass with Favored Soul (Sorc version of Cleric) in NWN2, and at some point I debated between not casting most buffs or just keep loading them up as enemies die around me. One of the reasons I like Paladins so much is that you can JUST FIGHT instead of micromanaging all. In fact, I added Sorc level to my pally so I can jump and feather fall on will, out of ALL spells, having Wyll and Gale get where I want them too is far more important than another Magic Weapon or Bless, even if everything stacks now (except concentration, learned the hard way with Guidance canceling Eagle's Splendor).
I think Fire Sorcerer is the clear best build in the game. A quickened scorching ray into an upcasted hold person or extended command ends most encounters immediately.
I’ve never seen this build on any list but I like going 6 bard 3 rogue 3 fighter as a half orc. Heavy armor, flourishes, good control, and guaranteed crits. Plus they are a good main character because of high charisma and they can be your lockpicker. If you build your party around control then they are amazing. You can choose thief rogue as well and just itemize for high crit chance and use dual wield crossbows. They are somewhat of a melee archer if you play this way because I always built my party around the “hold” and sleep spells.
oh how i'd love to see a 'fun' version of this!^ as i've enjoyed ur rank of most fun classes / subclasses as well, n keep coming back to this particular video, i'd looove a video of ur favorite / most fun multiclass (or single) builds overall 🙏
I really like the look of cleric 11, monk 1. Restricted to robes and not using shield, but with dextrous attacks and unarmored defence you could go for high dex and wis, so this might be an interesting dual wielder (the feat) with staffs.
One extra advantage of going for "native" dex over gloves of dex on swords bard is that late game, you can equip the nimblefinger gloves while disguised as a gnome for an extra +2. With hair and an asi this leaves you 4 dex higher than the dex gloves version, 6 higher with mirror. Obviously this is resource investment but if any character is worth it, the swords bard is
I did my honour mode as duergar throwbarb. It was amazing. Only annoying thing was using the thorw spear for so long and sometimes it bugs if you try to throw again too fast, but with Dwarf thrower and Nyrulna shit got real fast in act3. Incredible damage, tankiness and barb dialogue with points to spare for charisma.
For the Fire Sorcerer, there are 2 items in the game (one in act 2, one in act 3) that give a free fire ray spell that refreshes on short rest. So if you have a Bard or 2 in your party, these can greatly mitigate the reliance on sleep. Bard is so broken, it makes other broken builds even more broken just by being nearby them XD
for the paladin, i feel like one of the best choices is 8pal/4lock. that gives you 3 feats, which can give alot of utility. i usually say 2 on charisma(to cap 20), and alert. the last one can be anything, from durable for full heal on short rest, to spell sniper with thorn whip to pull enemies into close range or away from allies. for early game, i normally say its better to start as warlock, up until you hit level 5. that way you can respec into 1 pal, 4 warlock. get your 19/20 charisma, and then just put the rest into pally. for race, i think strongheart halfling works the best, as you dont need to worry about str damage, as your damage comes from charisma. and you get a good roll with lucky.
Best build I’ve found for Honor is Tempest Cleric, Abjuration Wizard Multiclass. Using Armor of Agathys to buff your Abjuration Barrier, Create Water on mobs to make them vulnerable to cold. Hits against you deal massive damage to them and the barrier nullifies damage to you. You can use your reaction to deal lightning damage from the Tempest ability. Further increase damage negation by taking Heavy Armor master feat.
Running that rogue / ranger / fighter build with hand bows and durge is pretty next level. Also there is a chest in act 1.5 (monastery) it gives +2 dex and catlike reflexes, it’s low AC but with the invis on kill you aren’t often targeted, JIC you want gloves of dex on someone else. I used that pretty much up till Baahlist Armor in my honor mode game.
May I add Hamrhraft Monk ( or Barb)/Rogue into the mix? The first act might be a bit rocky, but as soon as you hit level 6, your power is through the roof. Your normal encounter damage is already quite high. If you add Grant Flight and/or Hastened to the jumper, you clear almost all encounters on the first turn. And starting with act 3, you can have Fly available at all times without any cost. So, if you want your teammates to assist the jumper, a Transmutation Wizard can add a movement speed stone and cast Flight/Haste/Longstrider, Minthara can Soulbrand, everyone can drop Potions of Flight/Haste (which a Transmutation Wizard can create more efficiently). And if you like to cheese and abuse exploits, a level 6 Barbarian in your party that's not the jumper having Aspect of the Elk aura can let you have infinite damage, literally. All the while the jumper's abilities don't matter in combat, so you can go high dex for lockpicking and such, and also go charisma to be a party face. Up to Tactician, the build is absolutely broken, dealing at least 5 damage per jump and having at least 188 jumps per turn. In honour mode, the damage suffers a bit from some damage riders not being counted, but it's still at least 3 damage per jump. The scariest mandatory enemy on the whole run is Ketheric, as he reduces all damage taken by 2. On Tactician, that's not a problem at all, as the Ring of Absolute Force + Elemental Adept: Thunder guarantees 3 damage per jump, so Thorm takes at least one damage. On honour mode, I ran the numbers, and if you have optimal starting positions and don't waste any movement, you should usually still be able to kill him on the first turn, with some damage to spare. (Personally, I had a barbarian nearby for infinite damage, as I didn't want to leave my first honour mode run to chance and me making absolutely no mistakes.) Ansur is the only enemy I'd skip (reduces damage by 4, making it impossible to deal any damage on honour mode, and BEST CASE 1 damage on Tactician and lower), and I don't know exactly how well Thisobald would go on honour, I made use of my charisma and dex to avoid the fight, but I know that on Tactician, if you have the Ring that deals 2 damage to illuminated targets, Thisobald is dealt those 2 damage even when he takes 0 damage from the jumps due to his thunder immunity. Sorry for gushing about this, I spent a lot of time perfecting this build, and while it sometimes feels quite sluggish to issue 200 jumps per turn, I still love the build with all my heart, and the damage it can deliver just trivializes almost all of the combat encounters. Also fits your criteria for "Best": Power is at least 500 damage per turn that can be distributed around the battlefield, minimizing wasting damage. As soon as you have Alert as a feat and 18 dex, you're pretty much always going first, so even if you manage a bad roll with your high CHA and DEX scores, combat won't be punishing, and as there is only one turn anyway, it's not likely you have to recover on the next turn. Also, all of Hamrhraft's and Reverberations' damage is guaranteed, no dice rolls needed, so even if you're unlucky, the build's damage is always reliable (the saving throw on reverb is only for falling prone or not). And it is easy to play: apply any of the two power buffs before or during combat, just make sure to have Longstrider on you all day, and maybe remember giving that movespeed stone to the jumper. Then, in combat, all you have to do is Step of the Wind: Dash, main action Dash (x2 if Hastened), Click Heels, jump/fly all around. With Fly, you do have to be cautious to not fly further than 1m, or you're wasting damage - but you should have more than enough, even if not going infinite.
The fighter 12 or fighter 11/cleric archery buils is one of the strongest in the game as well. Arrow of many targets is by far the best aoe in the game, minus maybe wet+chain lightning/call lightning. Definitely more action economy efficient
Just finished honor mode with an open hand m8/r4 build. big damage, AC22 and initiative of 7. all comes down to the party and gear. we beat the final dragon in the first round before it could attack. Ranger Rouge, wizard, lockadin and monk
If you use Minthara for your Eldrich Knight thrower you also get to abuse her Sould Branding special ability.. As a bonus action it gives an extra 2d8 damage to your weapon and lasts 3 turns but your next attack consumes it however throwing your weapon doesn't count in that so you keep the 2d8 for the entire 3 turns. I guess your build with 1 War cleric mittigates the need for that with the war priest charges but otherwise I like it for more hybrid EK builds that don't generally get great uses for the bonus action.
My fight playthrough was basically the assassin ranger. I didn't even bother with the fighter levels because everything died anyways, without maximal optimization. I think I long rested maybe 10-12 times throughout the whole game.
when i made my swords bard archer (the recommended bard 10 fighter 2) in HM i deliberately didn't use the dex gloves because i actually wanted my dex to be 20 for more accuracy (the risky ring was going to someone else in the party), and i knew i would only get two feats. instead i used the graceful cloth and boosted my AC with a shield and mage armor. Since i was the party face i used auntie ethel's hair to take my CHA from 17 to 18 just to make speech checks a bit easier.
Minor note about the Lockadin: I used one for my first playthrough pre patch 7 and the extra attack from pally and bladelock stacked, giving me 3 attacks by ~lvl 10. Idk if they patched it out recently, but it's definitely a bonus to the build and good reason to even out your levels more. Also, based on the wording of the abilities, I think the 3 attacks were intentional so I hope they didn't patch
You get the extra attack on tactician mode or below, but not on honour mode - it's extremely powerful for lower difficulties! (The reason is that normally sources of Extra Attack never stack, but they released it stacking due to a bug - rather than nerf everyone's builds, they changed it for only honour mode when they released that difficulty)
I am going to have to try the Monk 8/Rogue 4 build. I have Lae'zel as a Monk on an Origin run and even at level 5 she is wicked good already. Tacking on a few level of Rogue to get the passives and extra proficiencies sounds amazing.
i know it might not be very easy to do but some gameplay examples would be really cool to see along side the commentary on future build videos! great video though very well explained
The reason I don't usually do this is twofold: first, it's a ton of extra work, and second, people don't watch it. When I've included gameplay sections, viewership for those sections has dropped dramatically - which makes sense when you think about it! By including gameplay, I'm suddenly competing with professionally-edited Let's Plays from studios with entire teams behind their scripting, editing, and mixing - and production lead times of weeks rather than daily videos like I do. On the other hand, when it comes to builds I have world-class knowledge so that's something people can't easily get elsewhere.
I disagree with you saying that Dex Gloves are required for Gloomstalker. In fact I think they're pretty bad because you can't get your dex to 20 with the Graceful Cloth if you get your 18 from the Dex Gloves. Same with the Sword Bard. You do NOT need Dex Gloves. It's useful, and it makes the build slightly better by allowing you to point in Constitution, but it's not a requirement imo. In fact, the item requirement for a sword bard build is so low, you can have 2 of them and steamroll honor mode. You can even probably just duo the game just with 2 bards, and still not struggle. And I of course agree that it should be the #1 on the list. Sword Bards are insane. They can do EVERYTHING, and they can do it extremely well at that :)
It’s noteworthy for the lightning sorc build, you can actually take your levels 1 sorc, 2 cleric, 2 wiz, rest sorc. Stack int instead of charisma, and use scrolls to learn all your lightning spells. You need to take wiz as your last class so that the saves are based on int. This gives you access to things like chain lightning without markoheshkir.
Correct - see my build guide for the character! (slightly better is sorc 1, cler 1, wiz 1, cler 2, wiz 2, sorc 2-8 so you get access to scribing earlier)
I'm fairly sure the Eldritch Knight doesn't give the weapon thrown property, it just makes it return to your hand. that's kinda limiting in how many extra things can take advantage of the throwzerker synergy
Yep, that's right - you need a weapon with the thrown property but it doesn't need returning, so there's a few extra options you get (stuff like the Lightning Jabber, which they didn't fix the drs bugs on and still does way too much extra damage)
I did a swords bard with 3 thief rogue for two bonus actions and a shit ton of expertise (which I put into deception and persuasion for the social checks in the game). Absolutely broken. 10/10.
Exactly what i needed, just started a duo honor run with my mate and we still couldnt figure out who to choose besides bladedancer, monk and cleric goodness , lets try some of these out see if one of them fits , great content
I think the stealth archer is criminally underrated, it pretty easily solos all of honor mode except kethric thorne and titan string+ club of giant str and elixirs of str and stealth are not under broken stuff. High enough stealth(pass without a trace+Expertise and max dex) actually breaks the game to the point most fights can be done without the enemy ever getting a turn and you can skip a lot of stuff. Morgana Evelyn has a really good really worked out build+soloing honor mode guide. I lost 3 honor mode runs tried her guide and solod for my dice on the first try.
I don't particularly emphasize playthroughs that require you to skip tons of content and memorize routes and fight orders - not that that's not a totally valid way to play the game! But most players are looking for builds to help them beat all the encounters without doing a lot of research ahead of time, so I'm judging these builds based on how good they are for typical play. Morgana's guides are very good though!
I just did rogue5/ranger5/fighter2. Thief for rogue, gloomstalker for ranger. Was my first run for honor mode, I wanted to make something crazy, but it wound up trivializing honor mode. Every time I got nervous for a boss fight, I wound up proving myself silly for being so. Because I killed the boss in 1 to 2 turns… Very happy to have the gold dice 😁
@@louisrharmony max dex. 22. Got the hair from Ethel and the +2 dex from Mirror of Loss, traded it by saccing the Forbidden Wisdom from the Necromancy of Thay. Could have had 23 dex since I used Ethel’s hair, but no modifier, so.
@@louisrharmony got all of that alongside the Sharpshooter feat. My guy could attack 11 times on the first turn with bloodlust elixir and speed potion. He was dual-wielding hand crossbows, attacking lotssss.
Im act 3 for my first playthrough (and the first is in honor) with a 1beastmaster ranger and 3 moon Druid for the "every one is my pet" and it is pretty easy without any spoil Myrkul was a danger, but other is a breaze for now 🎉
I'm quite partial to frost mage, myself. Combines well with wet, arcane acuity, and the boots you get from Nere. :) And it's a far less common resistance/immunity than fire, even if you don't have the same insane burst that fire mage/sorcerer does. And as a bonus, upcasted Armour of Agythas via draconic bloodline sorcerer is my personal goat. ^.^
one really cool thing I did with swords bard archer is him holding the mystra bless staff and getting the 1 level of war cleric and getting bless, so for some reason my strongest dps is also the guy who double bless my party leaving my sorcerer to concentrate on twin haste.
Abjuration Wizard: "The interesting thing this character is doing is the wet condition, wet is very good" Me: *Leans into the computer monitor* "Go on...."
45:07 I just beat the game today with Karlach using a throwmancer build in my party. There is a way around this bug, if you aim at the back of the boss / at the stem you can use thrown objects and returning weapons like Nyrulna will return however make sure a % chance to hit appears or else you will lose the weapon and do no damage.
![The BEST SORCERER in Baldur's Gate 3 - [Updated] Honour Build Guide](/img/n.gif)
The answer to "what does best even mean" is simple: the best build is the build that will cause you to uninstall when you get to the doppelganger fight in the gauntlet 😂
Did that fight "right" the first time through. Every time after, I fight against a naked team that uses fists or torches against me. 😂
That fight is easy
If you make your characters weak AF before starting the trial and put your armor back on after starting it basically cheeses the fight
@@GAMER32231it’s also an optional fight. You can still go meet the night song in shadow feil without doing it
@@mrpineapplecc5342 I don’t think you were supposed to use knock on the door but ok
Just gotta thank you! Finally beat Honor Mode after failing my first run.
-Fire Sorcerer
-TB OH Monk
-Hulking Hurler
-Swords Bard Archer
Couldn't have done it without your EXTREMELY well thought out and powerful builds!
Nice, congrats on the win!
Sounds like a fun team, Did you miss not having a cleric/healer?
Did you play the Bard as your main?
@@kirtwedel9275Bard was my Astarion actually! I did the Sorcerer for my MC.
And I didn’t mind not having a healer. Act 1 had a few parts where if you get unlucky rolls against you, it got a lil scary, but once Act 2/lv6 came around, and builds started going online….things die too fast to be worried :P
@@viewershipdown Nice! I gota try this.
"Why top eleven? Because I like to go one step beyond"
Man, I am old
But this one goes to eleven.
You might even be One Step Beyond old tbh ;D
But it goes to 11....
do not worry I get it ;p
I hate to be a critic of the nostalgia here...but I get it.
I've been playing D&D for over 20 years, in 3rd edition I was extremely knowledgeable about how to make builds. Your content fulfills that for me for BG3 and is really inspiring. Thanks for giving me so much content to listen to at work and guide me in my gaming time.
I'm in a very similar position. TT 3.X / Pathfinder I pretty much have down. All the 5th stuff is all new to me.
I love how the broken stuff for swords bard includes "being a swords bard"
I spent some time trying to think of how to distill that down into individual points and then I was like no, let's just go straight to the heart of the matter
Incredibly charismatic by default of being a bard, multiple areas of proficiencies by default of being a bard, the ability to become experts in several proficiencies by default of being a bard, inspirational because they're bards, full casters because they're bards, with special weapon based attacks only they can do because of their subclasses that can either:
-Knock moveable enemies back regardless of their weight (and then teleport to them)
-Deal massive amounts of ranged/melee damage
-Become nearly unhittable
...with some of the best synergy with some of the most broken equipment available, Swords Bard are peak "I am the main character" energy.
@@r.s.819Swords Bard is the Ultimate Power Fantasy Sub-class. I actually ban that subclass unless I'm doing some sort of challenge run because it makes the game trivial once you get Extra Attack
@@LordAryu You could probably nerf swords bard by personally not allowing them to use casting (besides maybe cantrips) but you'd still end up being one of the best weapon fighters, so while it is a nerf, it's not a very big one. Swords Bard make Valour bards obsolete which doesn't feel good for balance.
Arcane Acuity is probably the bigger issue at hand since so much of their brokenness comes from combining it with the HoAA. Maybe you could use swords bard but not use AA and while they'd still be broken, they wouldn't be horrifically broken.
At least hexblade isn't in the vanilla game, or it'd be even worse, since then you could be even more single attribute dependent.
I haven't tried Bard yet (just finished my first playthrough), imagine how shocked I was when I realized that Bard can be a melee class with full casters spell slots xd
I will say also about the throwserker build, I've been using one on my current honor mode and one thing that can be VERY annoying about the thrown build is sometimes the geometry of areas can be a little weird and wont give you an angle to throw your weapon, typically happens indoors
Also the returning weapons are janky and sometimes take forever to come back, or deal damage to the thrower when they return(?), and don't seem to return when used to initiate combat, which is a problem if they're your strongest ranged attacker.
@@meekrab9027 I have found that if you enter an already active combat thru a thrown sneak attack, the weapons do not return for whatever reason. Clearly a bug but they need to fix that
@@gaigerielI came to say this, it's seems to me that the returning property in the weapons is coded to only work if you are in combat, since initiating combat from a throwing attack you are first out of combat it doesn't work, so you always need to initiate combat with another person and then attack in the surprise round with the barbarian
yeah, i always keep a handful of daggers on my throwzerker for this reason--they may not do the same amount of damage as the returning pike or nyrulna, but they are much easier to throw in tight areas.
@@jennahinckley8216Lol, same =))
I have stacked so many dagger that when me and my bros reach arc3 and try to pickpockets nine-finger they said I have find my soulmate =))
Thanks for the video, what I really like about yours is that I have never played the table top D&D, and you take the time to explain the reasons behind the actions. So many videos just say "do this and this, get this skill or attribute" , and no explanation. For months I had no idea what Arcane Aquity was or even how you were suppose to use it. So again thanks, love your guides.
Arcane Acuity hat Swords Bard/Thief Rogue Astarion on my HM run absolutely dominated every single encounter. So, so good, the entire battlefield was feared or confused for the full duration.
Tip for thrower builds:
- Keep spare daggers for throwing so you can initiate a fight and not lose your main Thrown Weapon.
- Always wait a few seconds for thr thrown weapon to return in combat.
- For the Final Boss, IIRC, if you enter melee range and throw your weapon, it shoild hit the boss (needs to be double checked).
- For Berserkers, remember that you can throw enemies at each other or use them as Improvised weapons! I like to carry a dead goblin to suplex into enemies at melee range.
Patch 7 has fixed the issue of bound weapons not returning if you initiate combat from stealth.
@michaelnadler596 God how do I give Larian more of my money!
JUST TAKE MY MONEY! 💰
@@chuckchan4127 ... I may have spoken too soon. Sometimes it works now... sometimes not so much.
@michaelnadler596 I heard it's how you aim the throw arc.
This is one of the reason I'm dropping my thrower fighter and replacing him with a TB Monk.
I for one would be very interested in seeing you play out a few combat encounters with your favored party build. Your videos have been so helpful but I need it literally spelled out for me sometimes and I think it would be great to see what choices you make to win encounters! It’d be a different kind of video and idk if it would do well but I would be glued to the screen lol
I was just thinking if a video about positioning could work, but this idea is better, since it includes positioning, but so much more.
Great idea, more visual content would be good imo after all the relevant tier lists already done.
I would love to see that too; your videos are great but seeing you fight and take advantage of the builds as well as seeing your weapon and equipment for your characters would be amazing
Tip for the Druid build:
Single level of Barb will add your constituion modifier to AC while shapeshifting, most animal forms add 2 or 3 AC just from this.
Of course only works as longs as you dont wear armor, so keep that in mind.
Does it add YOUR Con or the ANIMALS Con?
@@Jabberwokee
Which constitution stat is active while shape shifted?
As a Tavern Brawler Monk if you dont want to deal with the hassle of using strength elixirs you can grab Gloves of Dexterity and Mighty Cloth fairly early in the game, then dump your dex and pump your Strength all the way to 20 which is more than enough to breeze through the game. Then later in the game when you have done House of Hope you can swap your dex gloves for Gloves of Soul catching and equip Amulet of Greater Health. If you have used Ethel's Hair on +1 Dexterity and Tavern Brawler on +1 Strength and Mighty Cloth +2 Strength this will allow you to respec into 20 Strength, 18 Dexterity, 23 Constitution and 16 Wisdom.
Strength Elixirs are great but i feel like its a little overkill when Monk is already insane.
I played Sorc 1/Light Cleric x as a Magic Missile build and it carried me through Honour. MM will get you a ton of Reverb and Orb stacks with the right gear.
you can basically make any sorcerer build tanky by just using gloves of dexterity and a race that gives shield proficiency. That's what I did with a recent tempest lightning sorcerer that I wanted to roleplay as a melee shocking grasp fighter. Insane damage as there are a lot of damage modifiers for cantrips that can all be equipped together (Necklace of elemental augmentation, draconic bloodline, Potent Robes, Kereska's favour) in combination with being able to use wet, while also being able to be in the face of the enemy and trigger opportunity attacks with war caster without risking every attack hitting you because of a high armor class given by gloves of dexterity and shield. Shocking grasp with all the modifiers would deal a consistent 60+ damage per cast without using the tempest cleric ability. That then could also be twin spelled and because you are using cantrips you can do that a lot.
Can you clarify how you’d do the stat spread for this?
Would you only take Sorcerer?
@@Jabberwokee I would recommend doing only sorcerer if you have a cleric in the party, I didn't have one so I multi-classed into cleric which works fine as long as you have 6 levels in a lightning draconic blood sorcerer (you need a cleric for create water to make enemies wet, throwing water bottles works too but it's a lot less efficient). For stats I would start with 8 strength, 12 dexterity, 16 constitution, 8 intelligence, 13 wisdom and 17 charisma. Focus solely on getting charisma to 20 at first with feats and auntie ethel's hair. Then as you get gloves of dexterity you can respec all the dexterity points into increasing wisdom to 14 (for saving throws) and strength to 10 (for carry weight). Charisma is by far the most important ability score in this build and you should increase it by all means possible. That means getting the hat that gives +2 charisma and the mirror blessing that gives another +2 for a maximum of 24. This is because every time charisma increases to an even number every shocking grasp you do you deal +3 damage (+6 to wet) instead of only increasing attack rolls. Constitution is the 2nd most important as you are going to be concentrating on haste a lot as you are going to have plenty of spell slots because you are using primarily cantrips. I even recommend getting warcaster as your 2nd feat, which is why Ethel's hair should be used on this character so you can get 20 Charisma with 1 feat. Your last feat should be alert.
I will have to note that this build will feel pretty weak until you reach level 6 where ideally you will have the necklace of elemental augmentation (which basically requires you to go to Creche Y'llek before grymforge) and you get your draconic bloodline feature. Then once you get the potent robes from Alfira this build becomes completely broken. If you are playing Dark Urge make sure Alfira survives by knocking her out on the day that she visits you, if she doesn't you can't get the potent robes. You also have to make Rolan stay with the tieflings in the grove.
I like berserker thrower Karlach. It is so much fun to use enemies as improvised weapon.
Heads up, there is currently a bug where Karlach will deal double fire damage with her Soul Coin buff when using unarmed attacks making her arguably the highest damaging character in the game apart from Astarion if he's lucky :)
Seeing cleric in here brings me so much joy. I've always said cleric is absolutely busted but I hardly ever see folks play it.
Even a trickery cleric can be busted, that's how good clerics are 100%
I never play as one cuz shadow heart but every team comp I think of always has her in it they are too good
probably because its the "healer" in traditional video game logic
Light cleric with radiant orb gear is absurdly strong. It’s what made shadowheart a core companion in my like 700+hours played
@Ricard1807o it always cracks me up when people say trickery clerics are weak. While they may not be as broken as some others, they are still clerics. The base spell list is just too good.
I would add level specific early game builds. If you focus on builds that only start getting powerful when you're already half-way through act 2, then you're basically ignoring half of the game.
For me, there are just a handful of builds to keep in mind when starting the game, and they can make the first levels very easy.
At level 2 and 3, you want fighter. A dual-wielding fighter, to be precise. And arm yourself with torches. Torches are VERY powerful early game, because they are constantly on fire. And contrary to the Everburn Blade, they are plenty. This is the safest way to play the game at this very low level imo.
At level 4, you want a TB monk, or druid. Tavern Brawler is the single most OP feat in the game, and considering most builds don't come around until level 5, TB is a life saver.
Monk is the most common way to use it, but shapeshifting as a druid works almost as good.
Then at level 5, most builds will start showing their strengths, and this is where your guide starts becoming relevant.
Level 1-3 the easiest way to do it is go ranger and get to level 3-4 off exploration and dialogue xp.
He's prefaced it by saying he's taking into account how good they are the entire game. Including early and mid game
My #1 is a dex based 10bard/paladin. You can either just play dex, or use strength elixirs. The ridiculous banishing smite+4th level smite is just amazing, and smiting is fun in general
I did the same for honor mode ,2 paladin 10 bard, called my character OnlySmites 😭😭
Used your builds to beat honor mode on the first shot, having only played the game when it first came out (I rushed down tactician in the first week then stopped playing originally). Even with my limited knowledge of the game, the survivability of abjuration wizard, cleric, eldritch and swords bard allowed me to correct round one mistakes or just win from pure damage output. You deserve to be known as the best build builder in bg3. Well done!
Great summary. I just entered Act 3 on my HM run and I'm using Ceph's EK throwing build and the Swords Bard archer to make my battles as smooth as possible. I have a few observations on these two builds, a couple he's already mentioned:
1.Throwing builds have a lot of downsides imo and I'm only using it for the sake of getting that golden dice. To get the most power you want to use str elixirs. I find it tedious having to spend time in ACT 1 going to the druid camp every rest and lvl up to stock up on elixirs. If others don't mind, more power to them, but it's not worth it other than HM, imo. As far as weapons go, the Lightning Jabber will, of course, return if you've used your EK weapon binding, but if you're caught unaware (like the scene between ACT 2 and 3) and forget to bind it, then you have to run to get it back, reequip, and bind. Also, there is a bug and the draconic elemental weapon damage does NOT apply when throwing the LJ. I've submitted a bug report, which I'm sure others have, as well. But that's annoying. And then there's Nylruna which is so annoying because of the friendly fire damage, so I find I don't want to keep it equipped, generally. So instead, it looks like I'll need to choose before certain battles to equip and bind it if I don't think I'll need to worry about friendly fire. It's all very tedious. And then that's not even to mention the apparent bug with the final boss. I'm hoping the next patch releases and fixes it before I get to that point 🤦♀.
2. Swords Bard Archer - Totally op, but aesthetically, I absolutely love it. It's got a Selene Underworld vibe which I think is so fun. Even if it weren't op like it is I would still love it just for the flavor. Just wanted to make a note that you don't need to worry about taking wearing the gloves of dex if you wear The Graceful Cloth armor. I think it's hideous to look at, especially compared to the Yuan-ti Scale Mail which gives more AC, BUT the character is squishy regardless, so I still prefer to wear the graceful armor to get to 20 dex. That way I can wear Wondrous Gloves. I find the Wondrous Gloves and Boots of Brilliance to be useful since they give a couple extra rounds of attack.
For my other two characters I'm using Ceph's Lore Bard/Life Cleric build for heals, which has been brilliant in the times heal were really necessary. It also makes for a great support and main face character. I'd personally recommend playing it on Shadowheart just because she has the perfect sass for Cutting Words and her Origin run has been fantastic so far.
Lastly, I'm using Ceph's Barbarian/Warlock build on Karlach. It was a little slow to come online, but with the other builds in the party I wasn't worried, and it wasn't an issue. I like the idea that Karlach picked up fiendish abilities while in the Hells, so I mind canon it as though she innately picked up those abilities. The retaliation damage is great and she's really good at casting Command to control the battlefield before raging and attacking. Also, warlock w/ 2 bards has been great party synergy.
1. Freedom accent. 2. hono”u”r.
My guy is Canadian.
Thanks for this great lecture. I’m new to the game and stumbling around. I’ll keep these ideas in mind and try one of these next run.
Yup the eldritch knight thrower is criminally underrated I am playing it now soloing honor mode I am a bit concerned about the bug for the last boss tho but I will cross that bridge when it comes
I used it in my first honour run. Loved it, but sometimes my weapon wouldn't return to me. This even happened with Nyrulna sometimes. Tried weapon bonding AND not bonding Nyrulna and it happened both ways sometimes, it wasn't very often, but it happened during boss fights. But I had an Archer Swords Bard and ice Mage abjuration wizard, so I crushed everyone regardless of bugs.
@@johnwalker1322 Yea what I realize is that if you end your turn before the weapon comes back to you it doesn't come bk so the best thing to do is always wait before you end your turn
@@johnwalker1322 Along with what the other person said, it looks like if you initiate combat with a thrown weapon it doesn't return
Why is the bug a problem? Just have like 30 daggers, axes, spears, etc in your inventory and you’ll be able to do your normal thing with only a slight decrease in damage. It isn’t that big of a deal.
Can we get an equipment ranking vid?
Yes pls that would add a tone of content 😊
I'm more curious about Ceph's favourite or must have items tbh, there's such a lot of equipment in the game ranking all of it would take forever. Maybe just whatever the S and/or A class equipment is?
There's so much tho.. And stuff that only works for specific builds but is absolutely game breaking when in that build so where would that go because Band of the Mystic Scoundrel on a fighter is absolutely useless but on a bard is broken beyond belief.. So where would that go on a tier list?
Gear is pretty character specific so there's not a good way to do gear and there's only a few pieces of gear you want on EVERY playthrough and everyone already knows what gear that is at this point.. So it doesn't really make for a good tier list since gear is very build dependant.. There's not many pieces of gear that is good for every single character other than what, Ring and Cloak of Protection.. Nightwalkers boots, Click Heels and a couple of other items which are more QoL items than anything else..
Yeah, maybe like one video with the best and most powerful items/item combos in the game, and then one video with Ceph's favorite items.
I was actually wondering the same. Even if a full list/ranking would be prohibitive, I’d love to have something going over them in some way. I find myself using the same gear all the time, & I’m sure I’m missing things that are more effective &/or fun.
My first honor mode run was 4 moon druids who started with 1 level of draconic sorc for Armor of Agathys. 99% of my in combat actions were just basic attacks, for both my main party and my summons. Very relaxed playthrough.
Yeah but isnt it boring though ?
I run the same with a ranger Beats master Tav
I think the solution for the Lightning Lord's "slow early game" can be summed up thusly: Whispering Promise, Wapira's Crown, Twinned Healing Word, Twinned Magic Weapon.
I think the name "Lightning Lord" is a little misleading, it's really just a support build designed to compliment 2x Swords Bard Archers with all day Twinned Magic Weapon and no concentration Bless, that happens to set itself up as a prime Markoheshkir user in act 3.
Twinned Haste is frankly a bad joke in a game where throwing Potions of Speed is a thing.
I'm glad you shed light on cleric in general, not just the strong subclass variants. I probably said this in a reply already but even a trickery cleric can be broken, they're just that good
Also random, what is your most embarrassing loss in honor mode?
I was Level 3, me and Shart vs the sleeping bug bear at blighted village…
For whatever reason, he was NOT surprised, won initiative against my assassin rogue, and one shot them.
Then I hit them, got them to 2 Hp, and he one shot my full health circle of spores Shadowheart…
This was in my 1st 2player HM run.
Doing the blood of lathander blind and not knowing how to deactivate the weapon. Woops
@@tripleaarcade I was RIGHT THERE!
Had just hit lvl 5... padlock build all was looking good. I went to save the chancellor from the burning building and mis clicked on hitting the door and hit a friendly and they all immediately agro me and my 4 man is stuck in a burning building, 2 ranged characters that are squishy, and u have like 15 dudes my level or higher 3 of which can 1 shot anyone I had. Well I died and my first play through of honor mode ended
I lost honour mode once, to the owlbear, at level 3, I somehow thought it was a good idea, full partywipe while desperately trying to run 😂 My very first honour mode experience 😅
I talked to the minelayer rilled a nat 1 and it was over.
The build that carried my end game Honor Mode playthrough was Enchantment Wizard. Just locking down enemies with sometimes 100% hold spells was great with an end spell save dc of 28.
Awesome video. Gloomstalker/Assassin is one of my favorite specs to play and hard carried my first honour mode run. Equipped the Bhaalist armor on a Battlemaster Fighter to give piercing vulnerability to as many enemies as possible in melee and let the Gloomstalker/Assa Rogue with 25% crit tee off on them from the backline.
Recently started my third playthrough with the goal of playing four fun, unfamiliar builds without regard to power, but lo and behold, I've created a party with a Lockadin and Moon Druid lol. Lore Bard and Wild Magic Sorc in the remaining two slots ought to keep things interesting though.
Does assassin work with all forms of advantage?
Then I'd add e.g. the shield (feat/ability?) that gives team advantage over adjacent enemies.
Or plain old darkness abuse.
I'm surprised Sorlock didn't make the list. You can get some amazing burst damage If you go 2 warlock/ 5 sorcerer/ 2 fighter/ 3 thief rogue.
Round 1:
haste yourself, create sorcery points with a lower level spell slot so that you have at least 6 sorcery points.
Round 2:
Eldritch Blast as an action, Eldritch Blast with your hasted action, action surge to Eldritch Blast, Quicken Spell Eldritch Blast with your first bonus action, quicken spell Eldritch Blast again with your second bonus action from the thief subclass, if you have a bloodlust elixir you can probably get off another Eldritch Blast.
That's a total of 18 Eldritch Blast beams. The big down side is that it uses basically all of your resources, but it hits like a truck.
If you use the Spell savant amulet you can get infinite sorcery points. If you don't want to use that, you can technically do the same thing with potions of angelic reprieve instead. Stock up on hundreds from Lann Tarv in act 2. Every time you use one, you replenish your level 1 and 2 spell slots. So you can create 12 spell slots, chug a pot, 12, chug, 12, etc.
Eldritch Blast is great, but it’s not THAT great. If all you’re bringing to the table is damage, there are better builds for that. Like just removing one of those Warlock levels and using Scorching Ray instead. More blasts, and you benefit from all the fire boosting stuff. The only reason to keep that other Warlock level is for Hex, due to all the blasts.
@@MayHugger what about ice sorcerer? I am on my 3rd run which is my honour run. My second run was a test for honour run so except going back in saves everything was in honour mode ruleset even long rest was 120 food, trader prices was 4 times if i remember correctly. First 5 levels i used Vengeance Paladin then i respec into Ice sorcerer Storm. With Create water and only ice/lightning spells and morning frost, markoheskir dual wield. 24 Charisma without the cowboy hat. I want to do this on my actual honour run right now. IS this viable
Really enjoy your content, do you think we could get a condition tier list (arcane acuity, heat, lightning charges, etc.,) with a rundown of what each does? I think it'd be really helpful for newer players and I haven't seen anyone do it so far
Really hope he does this!!! This would be super helpful. No matter how many times I read the blurb about the conditions, it just doesn’t stick in my brain and then I don’t remember how applicable it is.
Just completed Honor Mode. Thanks for the tips. Sword Bard Archer was a fun play through. Went with the Gale ending on the last run. Didn’t want to risk it in the last round.
Nice, congrats on the win!
The best equipment combo for the swords bard archer (or any archer) is the punch drunk bastard great club and the amulet of the drunkard. 5 rounds of advantage at the cost of a bottle of booze and a bonus action paired with a ton of attacks every turn makes this build a crit machine. By far one of the most fun classes I’ve run.
While not required, I did enjoy using the dead shot bow for the practically guaranteed chance to hit. Unfortunately I lost that honor run to Ansur and some poor planning but I’m excited to come back with the helm of arcane acuity. He won’t know what hit him
Awesome video. Anyone seeing this, for Berserker Thrower, it gets very strong, very early. And then just gets nuttier the more levels you get and better gear you get. The most early power I've felt came from Berserker Thrower, OH Monk and AoA Wizard
OMG. Another staggeringly high quality video. I think I know why you never respond to any of my comments. You're too busy creating this incredibly high quality content! I found this channel just in the knick of time, as I'm starting my 2nd run through the game. The first run I played blind without any help from the internet. But for the next run I plan to use all the collective wisdom of the BG3 masses, and this channel seems like Ground Zero for that effort. 😂😂
I used assassin archer for my Durge run. I can attest to how powerful and fun this build is. Might considerl using it for my honor mode run :)
Vid starts at 5:02
Good list. My first honor mode clear was throw barb, sword bard, sorlock and light cleric. Just shooting everything
53:44 Removing spacebar from your shortcuts should be the first thing any player does when first launching the game ! 😂
I think I did remove it in the first hour.
In any way, Bards are OP. Free short rest is totally broken in and of itself, they make the best "face" for your team and are unable to fail any dialogue option (mak of the shifter, guidance and all your broken bonuses make sure of that). Quite funny how they went from being a tabletop joke to being an absolute beast in BG3
Great video as usual ✌
I disagree on the short rest being broken, the game throws you SOOOO MANY free camp supplies every few areas that you never have to worry about just long resting if you need to.
Been playing bards since 2nd edition and they have always been strong.
I'm going to try a few of these for sure. The assassin archer, lockadin, lighting lord and berserker thrower or eldritch knight thrower.
I'm sad to see sorlock isn't on the list. Last I played was like 8 months ago and the first toon I used to beat the game (balance not honor) was with a Sorlock and I LOVED it.
Oh my sweet boy, you can indeed "quicken" Ithilid powers. I'm sure you know of the "Awakened" permabuff you can get in Act 1. Breaks Fire Sorc in half.
i've used the lockadin (not the 3/9 split, but paladin 5/warlock 7), 12 straight levels of moon druid, assassin archer (i actually went ranger 5 rogue 4 fighter 3, but it probably doesn't make much of a difference), the berserker thrower, the OH monk/thief, eldritch knight thrower (12 levels), and swords bard archer. i've never played HM (much more comfortable on tactician), but so many of the builds i've used for my playthroughs have come from this channel. i think your videos also got me to try the roguelock multiclass (assassin/great old one), which has become a favorite of mine.
Give honor mode a try. I wouldn't say it's much more difficult and you can still save scum if it you really need to
Bard 6 / ranger 4 / fighter 2 or whatever you fancy for the last 2 levels is amazing with sharpshooter, crossbow expert and durge aura of murder. The added damage from colossus slayer that comes with ranger/hunter makes incredible bursts in melee, and is very easy to play all game long. Just like your #1 pick, it's a skill monkey, party face, and not rest dependant.
What I find weird in these ranged builds is saying dex gloves are required. You can max out dex in all of these, and you can gulp down STR elixirs or use STR items if needed.
I'm currently at the goblin camp in honor mode. Pretty terrified of everything. Very fun. Always love learning new tricks to keep me alive in this brutal mode.
You’ve definitely probably beaten it by now, but if you want to cheese the whole outside area, have one archer character with a Heavy Crossbow and the Sharpshooter feat go up to the real high area, try to stealthily kill the single goblin reading the book, then jump just past him.
Have one character sneak just past the ogre and initiate a surprise round, or better yet get the summon Shovel to do it. From here, just have you archer pick off most of the Goblins, as long as the Bugbear that patrols is already in combat, you won’t be able to enter combat unless you fail to kill one of the goblins in one hit, even if you miss you won’t enter combat.
abjuration build is definitely Sorc 1/ Cleric 1 ( heavy armor and create water) / abjuration 10
Thrown weapons do not apply all their bonuses on hit, unless explicitly stated so in the description, like the lightning jabbers and Nyrulna.
The ThrowBarb and open hand monk builds can be combined if one is willing to respec at lvl 12. Monk 6/ Thief 3/ zerker 3. One feat only, but tavern brawler is all you need, str can be at 20 by mid game without feats.
Your Open Hand Monk build (3) can easily be improved by speccing at least 1 level but preferably 3 levels of Barbarian as that will give you an extra 2dmg on your crazy amount of Monk attacks and you'll be able to half all physical damage received while raging plus the Barbarian Unarmored Defense is arguably better then the Monks version as it benefits from Con allowing you to buff both you health and AC. If you go 3 levels your can either halve ALL damage except for Psychic or go Frenzy for drastically increased thrown damage with tavern Brawler and easy ranged prone attacks too :)
This is perfect timing. Thanks for the work on this video (and all of your other full build videos).
Really appreciate all the effort you go through to explain these, and that you all ready have the full videos elsewhere. I used a HM Wild Magic Sorc you made for my first Tactician run, but its been fun. I kind of want to try HM now with your builds!
Having now played the Abjuration Wizard build, I can say a huge weakness of this build is how weak it is early on. Until about level 7 or 8, your ward is not that strong, so chip damage gets in. The best way to mitigate this is to have your OP cleric cast warding bond on you.
You still are going to struggle to keep your ward up if you are intentionally tanking extra hits each round. strongly reccomend giving this build all the items that let them refill spell slots, or take fewer fights per rest. I ran this in a party with a monk, a swords bard, and a warlock, so short rests were abound and long rests were rarer.
One that I think you critically missed is crit fish eldritch blast. 4 Warlock, 4 Fighter, 4 Sorcerer. up to 9 eldritch blasts per turn, 13 or higher to crit, 10+2d10+2d6 force per blast that combines fear and prone to nullify enemies outright, and a fantastic option to use ilthid powers in the party. Combine this with cull the weak and bonus action illithid abilites as well as reactions, it can destroy things outright, or crowd control by knocking back enemies and take out targets. Gets online at level 2 and builds up from there. Only downsides is somewhat of a glass cannon, but it's control features are so strong.
The berserker thrower is also a good recipient of the gloves of dex. They help mitigate the initiative issue they have, let you dump dex for other stats like more con, and also buff your AC which will help when using reckless attack, which you'll want to do a good bit of the time, despite TB's hit chance.
One unmentioned bonus of tavern brawler throwers, Barb or Fighter, is that you can use enemies as projectiles too. Forcibly moving around enemies and getting two probes for the price of one if you throw one guy into another
It's important to have something be easy to play: Clerics, for example, were broken in 3.5 edition, but casting all these buffs before start took more time than the fight itself, so playing something like a Paladin was faster. I had a multiclass with Favored Soul (Sorc version of Cleric) in NWN2, and at some point I debated between not casting most buffs or just keep loading them up as enemies die around me. One of the reasons I like Paladins so much is that you can JUST FIGHT instead of micromanaging all. In fact, I added Sorc level to my pally so I can jump and feather fall on will, out of ALL spells, having Wyll and Gale get where I want them too is far more important than another Magic Weapon or Bless, even if everything stacks now (except concentration, learned the hard way with Guidance canceling Eagle's Splendor).
It's weird but everytime I watch your guides it feels like I'm in an online class listening to a teacher.
I think Fire Sorcerer is the clear best build in the game. A quickened scorching ray into an upcasted hold person or extended command ends most encounters immediately.
I’ve never seen this build on any list but I like going 6 bard 3 rogue 3 fighter as a half orc. Heavy armor, flourishes, good control, and guaranteed crits. Plus they are a good main character because of high charisma and they can be your lockpicker. If you build your party around control then they are amazing. You can choose thief rogue as well and just itemize for high crit chance and use dual wield crossbows. They are somewhat of a melee archer if you play this way because I always built my party around the “hold” and sleep spells.
oh how i'd love to see a 'fun' version of this!^ as i've enjoyed ur rank of most fun classes / subclasses as well, n keep coming back to this particular video, i'd looove a video of ur favorite / most fun multiclass (or single) builds overall 🙏
I really like the look of cleric 11, monk 1. Restricted to robes and not using shield, but with dextrous attacks and unarmored defence you could go for high dex and wis, so this might be an interesting dual wielder (the feat) with staffs.
One extra advantage of going for "native" dex over gloves of dex on swords bard is that late game, you can equip the nimblefinger gloves while disguised as a gnome for an extra +2. With hair and an asi this leaves you 4 dex higher than the dex gloves version, 6 higher with mirror. Obviously this is resource investment but if any character is worth it, the swords bard is
I did my honour mode as duergar throwbarb. It was amazing. Only annoying thing was using the thorw spear for so long and sometimes it bugs if you try to throw again too fast, but with Dwarf thrower and Nyrulna shit got real fast in act3. Incredible damage, tankiness and barb dialogue with points to spare for charisma.
For the Fire Sorcerer, there are 2 items in the game (one in act 2, one in act 3) that give a free fire ray spell that refreshes on short rest. So if you have a Bard or 2 in your party, these can greatly mitigate the reliance on sleep.
Bard is so broken, it makes other broken builds even more broken just by being nearby them XD
for the paladin, i feel like one of the best choices is 8pal/4lock. that gives you 3 feats, which can give alot of utility. i usually say 2 on charisma(to cap 20), and alert. the last one can be anything, from durable for full heal on short rest, to spell sniper with thorn whip to pull enemies into close range or away from allies.
for early game, i normally say its better to start as warlock, up until you hit level 5. that way you can respec into 1 pal, 4 warlock. get your 19/20 charisma, and then just put the rest into pally.
for race, i think strongheart halfling works the best, as you dont need to worry about str damage, as your damage comes from charisma.
and you get a good roll with lucky.
Best build I’ve found for Honor is Tempest Cleric, Abjuration Wizard Multiclass. Using Armor of Agathys to buff your Abjuration Barrier, Create Water on mobs to make them vulnerable to cold. Hits against you deal massive damage to them and the barrier nullifies damage to you. You can use your reaction to deal lightning damage from the Tempest ability. Further increase damage negation by taking Heavy Armor master feat.
Are you a contractor bc your presentations got me like…..
lol, sorry had to donate again for a good presentation. Love it
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the support :D
Running that rogue / ranger / fighter build with hand bows and durge is pretty next level.
Also there is a chest in act 1.5 (monastery) it gives +2 dex and catlike reflexes, it’s low AC but with the invis on kill you aren’t often targeted, JIC you want gloves of dex on someone else.
I used that pretty much up till Baahlist Armor in my honor mode game.
Thank you so much for this video! It was very helpful and I'll start watching your specific build videos right now
man.. i was looking for some build and a present surprise for me to hear the voice that guided me through brotato)))
fair play, my friend))
I always opened my HM Monk with fighter for heavy armor and held a shield in my off hand, made him supremely resilient
I havent been playing in a while but i always watch your videos and find them very informative
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the support - really glad you're still enjoying the videos! :D
If you combine thrower with a melee with certain armor you get when you decide to yeet BG3's Lulu, damage output is incredible
May I add Hamrhraft Monk ( or Barb)/Rogue into the mix? The first act might be a bit rocky, but as soon as you hit level 6, your power is through the roof. Your normal encounter damage is already quite high. If you add Grant Flight and/or Hastened to the jumper, you clear almost all encounters on the first turn. And starting with act 3, you can have Fly available at all times without any cost.
So, if you want your teammates to assist the jumper, a Transmutation Wizard can add a movement speed stone and cast Flight/Haste/Longstrider, Minthara can Soulbrand, everyone can drop Potions of Flight/Haste (which a Transmutation Wizard can create more efficiently). And if you like to cheese and abuse exploits, a level 6 Barbarian in your party that's not the jumper having Aspect of the Elk aura can let you have infinite damage, literally.
All the while the jumper's abilities don't matter in combat, so you can go high dex for lockpicking and such, and also go charisma to be a party face.
Up to Tactician, the build is absolutely broken, dealing at least 5 damage per jump and having at least 188 jumps per turn. In honour mode, the damage suffers a bit from some damage riders not being counted, but it's still at least 3 damage per jump.
The scariest mandatory enemy on the whole run is Ketheric, as he reduces all damage taken by 2. On Tactician, that's not a problem at all, as the Ring of Absolute Force + Elemental Adept: Thunder guarantees 3 damage per jump, so Thorm takes at least one damage. On honour mode, I ran the numbers, and if you have optimal starting positions and don't waste any movement, you should usually still be able to kill him on the first turn, with some damage to spare. (Personally, I had a barbarian nearby for infinite damage, as I didn't want to leave my first honour mode run to chance and me making absolutely no mistakes.)
Ansur is the only enemy I'd skip (reduces damage by 4, making it impossible to deal any damage on honour mode, and BEST CASE 1 damage on Tactician and lower), and I don't know exactly how well Thisobald would go on honour, I made use of my charisma and dex to avoid the fight, but I know that on Tactician, if you have the Ring that deals 2 damage to illuminated targets, Thisobald is dealt those 2 damage even when he takes 0 damage from the jumps due to his thunder immunity.
Sorry for gushing about this, I spent a lot of time perfecting this build, and while it sometimes feels quite sluggish to issue 200 jumps per turn, I still love the build with all my heart, and the damage it can deliver just trivializes almost all of the combat encounters.
Also fits your criteria for "Best": Power is at least 500 damage per turn that can be distributed around the battlefield, minimizing wasting damage. As soon as you have Alert as a feat and 18 dex, you're pretty much always going first, so even if you manage a bad roll with your high CHA and DEX scores, combat won't be punishing, and as there is only one turn anyway, it's not likely you have to recover on the next turn. Also, all of Hamrhraft's and Reverberations' damage is guaranteed, no dice rolls needed, so even if you're unlucky, the build's damage is always reliable (the saving throw on reverb is only for falling prone or not). And it is easy to play: apply any of the two power buffs before or during combat, just make sure to have Longstrider on you all day, and maybe remember giving that movespeed stone to the jumper. Then, in combat, all you have to do is Step of the Wind: Dash, main action Dash (x2 if Hastened), Click Heels, jump/fly all around. With Fly, you do have to be cautious to not fly further than 1m, or you're wasting damage - but you should have more than enough, even if not going infinite.
The fighter 12 or fighter 11/cleric archery buils is one of the strongest in the game as well. Arrow of many targets is by far the best aoe in the game, minus maybe wet+chain lightning/call lightning. Definitely more action economy efficient
Just finished honor mode with an open hand m8/r4 build. big damage, AC22 and initiative of 7. all comes down to the party and gear. we beat the final dragon in the first round before it could attack. Ranger Rouge, wizard, lockadin and monk
I haven't even seen it yet, but I know this is gonna be a great video! Thank you Cephalo! 👌🏾
Thanks very much - enjoy!
@@Cephalopocalypse 🖤 I was right btw 🥳🎉
no full warrior crit archer ? those hit mad dmg and are really versatile with special arrows
If you use Minthara for your Eldrich Knight thrower you also get to abuse her Sould Branding special ability.. As a bonus action it gives an extra 2d8 damage to your weapon and lasts 3 turns but your next attack consumes it however throwing your weapon doesn't count in that so you keep the 2d8 for the entire 3 turns. I guess your build with 1 War cleric mittigates the need for that with the war priest charges but otherwise I like it for more hybrid EK builds that don't generally get great uses for the bonus action.
Wow I didn't even know that thanks for sharing the eldritch thrower is criminally underrated
Great list! I'd personally add a WHeart Barb reverb build on there as well
My fight playthrough was basically the assassin ranger. I didn't even bother with the fighter levels because everything died anyways, without maximal optimization. I think I long rested maybe 10-12 times throughout the whole game.
I could've watch a top 20 lol. Great stuff
when i made my swords bard archer (the recommended bard 10 fighter 2) in HM i deliberately didn't use the dex gloves because i actually wanted my dex to be 20 for more accuracy (the risky ring was going to someone else in the party), and i knew i would only get two feats. instead i used the graceful cloth and boosted my AC with a shield and mage armor. Since i was the party face i used auntie ethel's hair to take my CHA from 17 to 18 just to make speech checks a bit easier.
Minor note about the Lockadin: I used one for my first playthrough pre patch 7 and the extra attack from pally and bladelock stacked, giving me 3 attacks by ~lvl 10. Idk if they patched it out recently, but it's definitely a bonus to the build and good reason to even out your levels more. Also, based on the wording of the abilities, I think the 3 attacks were intentional so I hope they didn't patch
You get the extra attack on tactician mode or below, but not on honour mode - it's extremely powerful for lower difficulties!
(The reason is that normally sources of Extra Attack never stack, but they released it stacking due to a bug - rather than nerf everyone's builds, they changed it for only honour mode when they released that difficulty)
@@Cephalopocalypse Ah that makes more sense, thanks for explaining
I am going to have to try the Monk 8/Rogue 4 build. I have Lae'zel as a Monk on an Origin run and even at level 5 she is wicked good already. Tacking on a few level of Rogue to get the passives and extra proficiencies sounds amazing.
i know it might not be very easy to do but some gameplay examples would be really cool to see along side the commentary on future build videos! great video though very well explained
The reason I don't usually do this is twofold: first, it's a ton of extra work, and second, people don't watch it. When I've included gameplay sections, viewership for those sections has dropped dramatically - which makes sense when you think about it! By including gameplay, I'm suddenly competing with professionally-edited Let's Plays from studios with entire teams behind their scripting, editing, and mixing - and production lead times of weeks rather than daily videos like I do.
On the other hand, when it comes to builds I have world-class knowledge so that's something people can't easily get elsewhere.
I disagree with you saying that Dex Gloves are required for Gloomstalker. In fact I think they're pretty bad because you can't get your dex to 20 with the Graceful Cloth if you get your 18 from the Dex Gloves.
Same with the Sword Bard. You do NOT need Dex Gloves. It's useful, and it makes the build slightly better by allowing you to point in Constitution, but it's not a requirement imo.
In fact, the item requirement for a sword bard build is so low, you can have 2 of them and steamroll honor mode. You can even probably just duo the game just with 2 bards, and still not struggle.
And I of course agree that it should be the #1 on the list. Sword Bards are insane. They can do EVERYTHING, and they can do it extremely well at that :)
It’s noteworthy for the lightning sorc build, you can actually take your levels 1 sorc, 2 cleric, 2 wiz, rest sorc. Stack int instead of charisma, and use scrolls to learn all your lightning spells. You need to take wiz as your last class so that the saves are based on int. This gives you access to things like chain lightning without markoheshkir.
Correct - see my build guide for the character! (slightly better is sorc 1, cler 1, wiz 1, cler 2, wiz 2, sorc 2-8 so you get access to scribing earlier)
I'm fairly sure the Eldritch Knight doesn't give the weapon thrown property, it just makes it return to your hand. that's kinda limiting in how many extra things can take advantage of the throwzerker synergy
Yep, that's right - you need a weapon with the thrown property but it doesn't need returning, so there's a few extra options you get (stuff like the Lightning Jabber, which they didn't fix the drs bugs on and still does way too much extra damage)
I love when best druid build is just "Druid 12", just like paper dnd
I did a swords bard with 3 thief rogue for two bonus actions and a shit ton of expertise (which I put into deception and persuasion for the social checks in the game). Absolutely broken. 10/10.
New favorite channel. Thanks for all of your incredible work.
An annoying thing about thrown weapons is the multiple bugs that result in your weapon NOT returning to you like it should.
Exactly what i needed, just started a duo honor run with my mate and we still couldnt figure out who to choose besides bladedancer, monk and cleric goodness , lets try some of these out see if one of them fits , great content
I think the stealth archer is criminally underrated, it pretty easily solos all of honor mode except kethric thorne and titan string+ club of giant str and elixirs of str and stealth are not under broken stuff. High enough stealth(pass without a trace+Expertise and max dex) actually breaks the game to the point most fights can be done without the enemy ever getting a turn and you can skip a lot of stuff.
Morgana Evelyn has a really good really worked out build+soloing honor mode guide. I lost 3 honor mode runs tried her guide and solod for my dice on the first try.
I don't particularly emphasize playthroughs that require you to skip tons of content and memorize routes and fight orders - not that that's not a totally valid way to play the game! But most players are looking for builds to help them beat all the encounters without doing a lot of research ahead of time, so I'm judging these builds based on how good they are for typical play.
Morgana's guides are very good though!
I just did rogue5/ranger5/fighter2.
Thief for rogue, gloomstalker for ranger.
Was my first run for honor mode, I wanted to make something crazy, but it wound up trivializing honor mode. Every time I got nervous for a boss fight, I wound up proving myself silly for being so. Because I killed the boss in 1 to 2 turns…
Very happy to have the gold dice 😁
Did you use gloves of dex, or pump up dex naturally?
@@louisrharmony max dex. 22. Got the hair from Ethel and the +2 dex from Mirror of Loss, traded it by saccing the Forbidden Wisdom from the Necromancy of Thay. Could have had 23 dex since I used Ethel’s hair, but no modifier, so.
@@louisrharmony got all of that alongside the Sharpshooter feat. My guy could attack 11 times on the first turn with bloodlust elixir and speed potion. He was dual-wielding hand crossbows, attacking lotssss.
Im act 3 for my first playthrough (and the first is in honor) with a 1beastmaster ranger and 3 moon Druid for the "every one is my pet" and it is pretty easy without any spoil
Myrkul was a danger, but other is a breaze for now 🎉
The Blinding Radiance Paladin is INCREDIBLE.
I'm quite partial to frost mage, myself. Combines well with wet, arcane acuity, and the boots you get from Nere. :) And it's a far less common resistance/immunity than fire, even if you don't have the same insane burst that fire mage/sorcerer does. And as a bonus, upcasted Armour of Agythas via draconic bloodline sorcerer is my personal goat. ^.^
one really cool thing I did with swords bard archer is him holding the mystra bless staff and getting the 1 level of war cleric and getting bless, so for some reason my strongest dps is also the guy who double bless my party leaving my sorcerer to concentrate on twin haste.
11 top builds, awesome. One for each of my fingers.
Abjuration Wizard: "The interesting thing this character is doing is the wet condition, wet is very good"
Me: *Leans into the computer monitor* "Go on...."
The burito joke earned you a sub.
45:07 I just beat the game today with Karlach using a throwmancer build in my party. There is a way around this bug, if you aim at the back of the boss / at the stem you can use thrown objects and returning weapons like Nyrulna will return however make sure a % chance to hit appears or else you will lose the weapon and do no damage.