PSA At this time, you do need two weapon fighting to add your ability modifier to the damage of an off-hand crossbow attack. It was fixed in a recent patch.
Yep, 100% correct. This is the risk of reporting on things that end up being bugged or changed. The Two Weapon Fighting change was needed pretty badly, because it was making some builds wayyyy too powerful. Thanks for pointing this out!
Weirdly, the Halfling Champion is one of the best builds in BG3. Never critically fails, better chance of critical hits, take the Athlete Feat & max out strength and you’ll fly all over the map.
Yeh the little races get ignored, but there's some nice racials on some of them. Halfling Champion stands no chance against 4 barechested Halfling Barbarians, however.
NEVER critically Fails? the statement IS NOT TRUE. "When you roll a 1 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll." This means, IF you rolled a 1, you can reroll it and MUST use the new roll, so if the 2nd ROLL happens to BE another 1, then you do get CRITICAL FAIL, of cos the chances of you rolling 1 and then re-roll and get 1 again, is LOW, but its still possible, so Never critical fail is not true.
I never comment on videos, but I have to say that you have the best breakdown videos out there. No bullshit, straight to the point, thorough explanations that I enjoy. I am very new to all of what D&D has to offer so thank you for all that you do for new people like myself.
The monk being able to do something is a new and the ranger companions being able to attack on the same turn as the ranger is... Well it makes sense but 5e doesn't like it
I've heard that Eldritch Strikes actually applies to weapon based saving throws contrary to it's description. Meaning that if you have an on-hit effect like "Blindness" Eldritch Knight can uniquely maximize chances to apply afflictions - Both due to it being at disadvantage and it being re-applied per-attack.
You weren't exaggerating about putting the final touches on this video when you commented yesterday! Thanks for another very informative video. Keep up the good work!
I really like the idea of an Eldritch Knight, I'd use a lot of the spell slots for Shield, and you would not need a lot of Int, I have even wondered about dipping into 4-6 levels of Abjuration Wizard, for the Arcane Ward and extra spell slots, you would have lvl 3 or 4 spells, as you would max as a level 6-8 spell caster, as lvl 12 EK is a 4th level caster, albeit with 3 attacks per attack action. You can get things like Haste, Blur, Mirror Image, Fly, Blink and such, and with a proficiency in Constitution, any concentration check will have your proficiency bonus, if you started as fighter. None of these spells use int, so you just need enough to prepare your wizard spells, I'd say 12 or 14 int would be fine, as that would give you 12-13 spells prepared if you went lvl 8 EK and 4 wizard...if my math is right. 7 for EK, plus 4 (wizard level) + 1 or 2 for int. It's tough on when to multi class though, you want lvl 5 for extra attack, but then you might as well go 6 for a feat, then you are 2 away from the level 8 feat and you would miss no feats, but the sooner you go wizard the more spell slots and levels you would get, without any limits to what spells you can scribe.
Figuring out when to Multiclass is the hardest part for a lot of builds, haha. The Fighter is so good as a pure class that you really have to force yourself to commit to something else. It's a struggle...
Honestly I'll always recommend Fighter's for a first toon in anything D&D. Be that a TT campaign or something like BG or other games that are like it. It's a solid new player class. You just go bonk. Can't go wrong with getting either the biggest stick, or whatever dex uses.(Kidding kidding, Dex fighters are pretty good too, since the Dex keeps you alive too.) It's just a good all around class for someone learning.
Battlemaster Archer is an utterly broken, but utterly fun build. Smokepowder, Arcane, and Many target arrows and 3 attacks + Action Surge means no group is lasting long.
The trick arrows are crazy if you actually make use of them. I could absolutely see a Fighter just spamming them across the room. Frankly, it's disgusting. I love it.
Dude, I really enjoy your videos. You remind me of one of my battle buddies from the war. Plus you do a good presentation. And if you were transported to Faerun, you'd definitely be a fighter, just by the looks of you. Probably protection battlemaster. Probably a weaponsmith too, lol. I'd watch if you did a let's play, but given the pace of your videos, and the fact you're sadly not monetized, I won't hold my breath. Rogue gets 4 feats too. extra at 10. I often play with two melee characters next to each other, but protection... probably not a choice I'd take unless I was roleplaying a battlemaster with abilities that synch with it. But sword and board... yuck. For the Eldritch Knight bonded weapon to be an effective throwing weapon, it needs to be a (thrown) type weapon. I threw a two-hander, not so good. Best combined with the tavern brawler feat. Also works with Great Weapon Fighting style, the caveat being that the 3 of the few two-handed (thrown) type weapons in the game already have a returning property, so you could do a throwing build that way without the EK subclass as the first of them is available in fairly early in Act 1. Versatile weapons when wielded with no shield also work with Great Weapon Fighting. I don't know what the itemization in game of versatile (thrown) weapons is. Eldritch Knight is pretty fun, but it feels best with wizard levels. I like a 7/5 split, which still limits your end spell level. You're still a weapons first character. I go evocation for sculpted spells too, cause it just feels like an Eldritch Knight would cast without regard for his surroundings. I tried Abjuration, but honestly, it just didn't seem necessary. I make Lae'zael a battlemaster, pure fighter, 4 feats, first one athlete for enhanced mobility and 18 str. Then I go great weapon master at 6. The last two feats are ASI for 20 str and savage attacker. I wish Action Surge resulted in a hit, but it never seems to, at least early game when I notice misses. I don't know that two-weapon fighting style description is correct. It gives you full damage on your offhand. Maybe that's why the offhand isn't full damage. The ability modifier isn't added yet? How I use fighter for multiclass dip. I dip one level into assassin for two-weapon fighting style. Makes a big difference. 1 other wizard, for utility spells, then I get a 3 feat assassin with all the class-specific goodies, and two-weapon fighting style and a couple of hand crossbows. I can attack for full damage anywhere on the battlefield. Action surge and no wizard level would give me more assassin alpha strike power, but whatever. As I recall 1e rogues could do magic (from scrolls) outside of combat, so I see my build like that. I built a dwarven throwing war cleric with 3 levels of champion. Another fun build I did on Wyll is 1 storm sorc, 5 warlock, pact of blade, 6 battle master. It's so good. And the sorc level gives you flying after casting a leveled spell. Take enhanced jump for one of your sorc spells, and you get out of combat flying for free. Magic missile for when swinging the 2-hander seems like overkill.
Your battle buddy must've been a good lookin dude, then. Lol! I'm ashamed that I missed mentioning the Rogue's 4th Feat. I will definitely point it out in my Rogue video when I get to that one. I appreciate all of the kind words, and you've got some awesome build ideas here. I'm gunna pin this so people can find them more easily.
Thanks for the content! I m a bit confused is the mic stand broken or why do you keep it in your hand all the time? I m most likely one of the few who noticed the bumps and all. Plus if you have one use a pop filter or hold it a bit further away for less pop click poppery ^^
I know! I need to get my audio dialed in better, for sure. I definitely appreciate the suggestions! I'm going to try something different for my Paladin video, so let me know if you watch that one...and if it sounds better. It is absolutely on my list of current issues, though.
Doing a half-orc battle master for my first BG3 playthrough. & trying to keep as close to the D&D counterpart as I can (which might be difficult as said character permadied at level 5).
I know everyone loves a damage boost, but just forget a missed attack deals no damage at all. My Astarion is a Rouge/Bard with a 2 level dip in Fighter just to get Archery (+2 to hit) and Action Surge, and I love Oil of Accuracy. This is bc of Sharpshooter (-5 to hit, + 10 damage), Archery + oil + +1 Handcrossbow cancels the penalty while spamming the +10 damage on every hit. This really matters with (college of swords) Flourishing slash Ranged to shoot 2 enemies first turn, sneak attack from Rouge (theif), plus 2 off hand shots, plus Arrow of Many Targets, and action surge, means he can solo a room of like 8 guys in one turn lol. It's really fun. Point is sometimes boosting your hit chance translates into much more damage than a passive damage bump. The creative ways to build characters in this game are endless, and definitely (imho) the most fun part of the experience. Safe passage travelers
Never actually gave Fighter a chance because I always thought it sounded boring and bad because of how little I got out of my melee attacks as a war cleric, and fighter just sounding like a war cleric without spells from having not tried it. Maybe I will give it a shot someday
They are very strong! They can be simple, but there's a surprising amount of options with Eldritch Knight's spells and the Battle Master Maneuvers also. 12 levels in Fighter is one of the easiest S-Tier builds I could recommend. They're reeeeaallly good at chopping people up.
@@PanicRolling Don't suppose you got a line of videos about early game kitting that might inspire the usage of other classes aswell? Usually when I'm presented with builds, it's endgame stuff. Would be pretty sweet to have builds divided into acts so that you could assemble what you see on screen in act 1 forexample, since some builds require a lot of progress to shine the way they're depicted. Or so it feels
I took YMFAH's "fun" low level build to the end game and it was a blast. Start as a cleric in the light domain and level 2, take fighter and defensive fighting. Get your armor class as high as you can and watch people fail to hit you and when they do, the damage is pathetic. I went battle master and took evasive footwork and reposte and combine it with your level 1 light cleric's warding flare. Use warding flare to force rerolls on ranged attacks you dont want to hit you or will crit you and use reposte to deal massive damage to melee enemies foolish enough to try and swing at you. Probably not optimal, but its a blast.
Savage attack, two hand weapon master, warcaster and spell sniper with the choose of eldritch blast.... you're gonna feel really like the hero of the party, otherwise become a battle master and take 6 level of tempest cleric
Fighter is broken AF for multiclassing, those first 2 levels are all 100% worth it for melee characters. Second wind is awesome if you are in a pinch and want to survive one more hit, Action Surge is awesome to be able to kill someone on the first round, and the Battle Styles is what actually makes melee builds good. And in my opinion even the third level is worth it.. be it for the critical or the Battle Manoeuvres to be able to Disarming Attack, Menacing Attack, Pushing Attack or Trip Attack. Just one point you forgot to mention about critical hits that make them insanely good to stack: a critical hit is an automatic hit, meaning that even if you are fighting an enemy with high AC, the crit will ignore his AC and land the attack.
Yeh Fighters and Wizards work well as a dip for just about anyone. The amount of utility and power you get for just 1-2 levels in each is ridiculous. And yeh you're right, that is incredibly powerful!
Not tested this yet, since i've just hit lvl5. But if it works just like 5e, then haste won't give you 2 or 3 extra attacks. It only grants 1. Since it's a seperate action in which you can make an attack, dash or something similar. It's not a duplicate of the attack action, and thus doesn't let you use Extra Attack twice per turn. That would truly be busted.
It does grant you additional uses of Extra Attack in BG3. This is how Fighters are capable of pulling off up to 11 attacks in a single turn, and why Haste is considered one of the top 3 or 4 spells in the game, depending on party composition.
It's so broken, lol. Potions of Speed, as well. And don't forget, your characters can drink potions from another character's bag, even if they are not near each other. So you don't even have to split up the potions.
The Eldritch Knight is a cool idea, and can be pretty powerful (like any fighter) particularly with a throwing build. But your stats are pretty spread out. You can get more of the same power fantasy (blade & spell) with something like the Warlock-Bard (three weapon attacks at level 11, plus level 3 spells from multiple lists) or the Warlock-Paladin - College of War Cleric (3 attacks, plus one extra per long rest, great smites, lots of spells).
Yeh I think the circlet you can get in Act 1 opens up the option to use Eldritch Knight decently well, though. The few items you can find that set certain stats to a certain level are nuts. I've got Laezel built as an Eldritch Knight on my current Durge run. She has her pretty Int Tiara, too.
If you compare great weapon fighting with dueling, dueling always comes out on top. Dueling always adds more damage to your attacks. GWF only POSSIBLY deals more damage, IF you already rolled crap. GWF is more of a trap than an actual option. Saying it's a great option, only shows how little you've actually playtested it..
It's a great option because of its obvious companion feat you take. At 4th level. It's a benefit to a will known powerful fighter build. Not like one would take Dueling then GWM.
Dueling doesn't come out on top if you're using a two-handed weapon. The two fighting styles are made for different playstyles, and function differently. You're right though, Dueling is very strong, and one of the most powerful weapons in the game is a Rapier that has specific bonuses for using it with an empty offhand. This works perfectly with Dueling, also. But dismissing GWM entirely doesn't make sense to me, since there are a ton of players who will be using two-handed weapons on their Fighters.
@@werecoth great weapon master is indeed a very strong feat. A muat havr for any optimized build. But great weapon fighting as a style doesn't do much for that either.. you could go for defense for more AC, and still take great weapon master, right? Rerolling a 1 or 2 doesn't actually do that much, since you can still roll another 1 or 2. Yes, dueling style doesn't do anything for heavy weapon users. But that doesn't make GWF a good option. With dueling, you can still take a shield, giving you 2 more AC than GWF, AND the damage bonus is flat eith every single attack. That's why it's a better option. GWM is just plain insane. I kinda wished they'd merged GWF and GWM, and made it slightly less powerful, so that it wouls be in line with the other styles, and wouldn't force you to take a feat specifically for a certain type of weapon to be relevant.
@@PanicRolling i know it's meant to promote different playstyles, and heavy weapons are already capable of dealing more damage. The issue i have with GWF is that it only increases the chance of a decent to big hit. It can still do minimum damage, if you're unlucky. On a d12, rolling a 3 is still unsatisfying, and GWF only works on a 1 or 2, which could still be rerolled into that same number. What i meant with my initial comment: dueling gives you +2 to defense (since you can use a shield) and +2 to damage, while GWF only increases your average damage by about 1. Hardly a fair tradeoff, since you deliberately chose to forgo defense for more damage..
Yeh I agree with you, 100%. And BG3 specifically makes this even worse because one of the most broken weapons in the game is a Rapier, so it fits perfectly with Dueling.
i really hope they rework some of the feats and class "gimmiks" like the weapon bond. compared to the pact weapon it really sucks. only benefit is that u can throw it and it returns while the pact weapon gives an extra attack (on top of on extra attack), magic, and uses us casting modifier. also the great weapon master is WAY to op compared to other martial feats. u dont even need a dual handed weapon for the bonus attack, u can basicly any weapon for it as long as u kill or crit something. and u get +10dmg on top of it. compared to, for example, dual wielder, which gets only +1 AC...and u can use non light weapons in ur offhand. wow. not even a bonus attack or anything
I do think it would be cool if Weapon Bond granted you damage scaling with your spellcasting ability like Pact Weapon does. But I think the reason it doesn't is that your Eldritch Knight likely already has great scaling through Strength or Dexterity. The Warlock that chooses Pact of the Blade will likely have very low Str or Dex scores. They also don't natively get extra attacks like all of the Martial classes do, so the fact that Pact Weapon ends up granting them one extra attack helps bring them in line with the other melee classes. Personally I think the weapon returning to your hand after being thrown is a cool feature. Nothing like having unlimited javelins for your magic-infused knight to hurl at their enemies. It does help with certain thrown weapon builds, but I mostly mention it because of the "rule of cool". About Great Weapon Master...the extra attack portion should be activating on crits and kills with any weapon, but based on the wording of the Feat, it shouldn't be allowing you to add the +10 damage to any attacks with non two-handed weapons (this includes Versatile weapons wielded in both hands). That part is a toggle ability that reduces the accuracy of your attacks with 2h weapons but adds bonus damage. Your attack rolls take a -5 modifier, and the damage is increased by 10. It should only be applying to 2h weapons though. If you are getting this bonus while using 1h weapons, it might be a bug...and I'm sure it is doing incredible damage lol.
dual wielding gets it's extra attack from the second weapon and the main hand will still get another attack if you are on a character that gets extra attack. What it is missing is the extra damage component it's supposed to have. You are also getting more damage from it from being able to use a bigger weapon than you could before, but it does so without sacrificing accuracy. A trade off that you are ignoring in your comparison of the two. The fighter gets his extra attack through his class and does not need it through the weapon bond. Warlock has no advantage here, except where Larian actually broke something that isn't supposed to stack and to my knowledge that is basically just with one multi-class combination. Otherwise this is just the warlock being brought up to parity, not giving it anything extra. And in fact it means that the Warlock is actually behind the Fighter because the Fighter gets yet one more Attack at 11th level that the Warlock does not (the closest they do get at that same level is a +5 static damage which is really good as well but not necessarily quite equal). While that is basically at the end of the game for BG3 it is not when it comes to leveling and play in 5e that it is based off of. on top of that, As Panic pointed out Action Surge in the video, this is just another way that weapon bond does not need to do nearly as much because of what the Fighter Base does for the Eldritch Knight. Which still kind of puts the Pact of the Blade Warlock behind the curve somewhat when it comes to the matter of just hitting things. Only to be made up by the Warlock's easier time at making it's spells effective than the Eldritch Knight. also, if you are taking Great Weapon Master to use with a non-Two Handed Weapon. you are getting less than you are with, for example, dual wielding if you are doing a dual weapon build just to be able to not actually make more attacks than taking the dual weapon feat (or even as many because there is a very real chance of this one piece of the feat only triggering occasionally even if it is usable by anybody and all weapons). Dual weapon would give you more damage from the larger off hand, the +1 AC that GWM doesn't give making you 5% harder to hit, and it's built onto a style that passively is already giving you an extra hit. What it is missing is additional damage from your stat modifier, Which the Fighting Style can actually give you (or you can pick it up through a couple different pieces of equipment) which means for a couple other synergistic components to your build you are doing almost as much damage as the +10 but without having to worry about overcoming the penalty (which tends to be harder to do for GWM builds), so you can potentially add more accurate on top of it counterbalanced by maybe 2-3 more damage on average per swing that the GWM build might give you. What this means is that while everybody loves GWM and overstates just how good GWM is. it's really kind of niche. it just happens to be a very easy Niche to get into when you don't consider some of it's problems to go along with it and pretend everything happens in a white room and an imaginary scenario, and while functional on many classes, is often better off on something like the Barbarian because it has natural built in class abilities to attempt to offset some of the drawbacks that GWM possesses.
It's certainly doable. Pact of the Blade Warlocks get some pretty good stuff at the higher levels though, so make sure you know what you're giving up when you multiclass it with Fighter. That one is a tough decision, haha!
I wish Larian had implemented the Psionic Fighter, which IS actually Darth Vader but in D&D. I really like that subclass (even thouh it isn't very strong) because the flavor of being able to do some light "magic" psionic stuff is really fun. Also they pair well with Githyanki, the Gith are literally mentioned in the subclass description in the book it came out in, so I think it's a huge missed opportunity that we got the Champion instead of the Psi Fighter, considering Githyanki play such a large part in the story of this game!
The Gith are so strong in BG3 lol. They don't get chosen very often, but they deserve to. I didn't even know about all of the crazy racial bonuses they got, and Laezel died pretty early on my first run...so I had no idea. I've been a Gith fan ever since. Just laid an egg a few minutes ago. Then I focused my mind and jumped 37 city blocks. Istik.
Gith is my go-to race pick in this game. Level 5 free misty step and astral knowledge are too good. Not to mention medium armor. If they got shields, they’d have it all.
It is honestly a prison made up of my own indecision. I could make 100 characters and still find something different to mess with in the creator. Good thing I love that part, too.
Honestly, I like the way the bg3.wiki is set up. It's easy to navigate and it's also all community property, so I'm allowed to use it for these videos. I'm not sure what Fextralife's rules are for that.
PSA
At this time, you do need two weapon fighting to add your ability modifier to the damage of an off-hand crossbow attack. It was fixed in a recent patch.
Yep, 100% correct. This is the risk of reporting on things that end up being bugged or changed.
The Two Weapon Fighting change was needed pretty badly, because it was making some builds wayyyy too powerful.
Thanks for pointing this out!
Finally a BG3 tutorial that didn't give me a migraine lol. This dude breaks it down perfectly for DnD noobs like me. Subbed 👊
I'm glad I could help! Welcome to the channel!
Weirdly, the Halfling Champion is one of the best builds in BG3. Never critically fails, better chance of critical hits, take the Athlete Feat & max out strength and you’ll fly all over the map.
Yeh the little races get ignored, but there's some nice racials on some of them. Halfling Champion stands no chance against 4 barechested Halfling Barbarians, however.
@@PanicRolling I really want to play Belkar Bitterleaf in BG3. :-)
@@OakandIVI suggest you make Belkar as a Beast Master Ranger, possibly as Dark Urge
NEVER critically Fails? the statement IS NOT TRUE.
"When you roll a 1 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll."
This means, IF you rolled a 1, you can reroll it and MUST use the new roll, so if the 2nd ROLL happens to BE another 1, then you do get CRITICAL FAIL, of cos the chances of you rolling 1 and then re-roll and get 1 again, is LOW, but its still possible, so Never critical fail is not true.
@@lingth it reduces the chances of critically failing to less than 1%. It's statistically improbable
Protection is the best fighting style! I will provide no evidence to support this claim
Here I stand...corrected.
Finally someone that explains the class in a simple, but detailed way. Earned a new sub❤️
I appreciate it!
I never comment on videos, but I have to say that you have the best breakdown videos out there. No bullshit, straight to the point, thorough explanations that I enjoy. I am very new to all of what D&D has to offer so thank you for all that you do for new people like myself.
That's very high praise, and I'm glad you've enjoyed them! I'm working on the Monk video as we speak, so keep an eye out for that one, also.
That’s perfect! I’m rocking a monk/barbarian multiclass. So knowing more about the monk class would be great!
Coming from 5e, the Power of martials is WILD.
Yeh my first Tav was a Frenzy Barbarian with Tavern Brawler for raining death across the room. Once you hit 5th level, it's game on.
The monk being able to do something is a new and the ranger companions being able to attack on the same turn as the ranger is... Well it makes sense but 5e doesn't like it
I've heard that Eldritch Strikes actually applies to weapon based saving throws contrary to it's description. Meaning that if you have an on-hit effect like "Blindness" Eldritch Knight can uniquely maximize chances to apply afflictions - Both due to it being at disadvantage and it being re-applied per-attack.
Hey, great find! I do like the idea of using it to help apply debuffs or crowd control effects.
I am leaving a comment because I thoroughly enjoyed this video
I'm leaving a response because I appreciate your comment.
For real though, thank you!
„Feets are really good and the fighter gets four of them.“
Better believe it!
You weren't exaggerating about putting the final touches on this video when you commented yesterday! Thanks for another very informative video. Keep up the good work!
Haha, I was trying my best to get it out today! Thank you for the kind words and encouragement, as well.
amazing explanation, looking forward for the next videos
Thank you very much!
Every deep dive makes me want to start a new game. Then there are the subclasses...
Most are pretty good.
The subclasses can change what you do significantly.
As much as i try to avoid it bc its so cliche, I keep coming back to fighter bc its so much fun!
Nothing wrong with that!
As a noob, I really appreciated this video. Thank you for explaining it so clearly
Also as a noob, I appreciate it!
Good content, i cant wait to see you cover the other classes
Thank you! I'm having a blast making these, and I'm glad you guys are enjoying them.
Great video and content
Thank you very much!
I really like the idea of an Eldritch Knight, I'd use a lot of the spell slots for Shield, and you would not need a lot of Int, I have even wondered about dipping into 4-6 levels of Abjuration Wizard, for the Arcane Ward and extra spell slots, you would have lvl 3 or 4 spells, as you would max as a level 6-8 spell caster, as lvl 12 EK is a 4th level caster, albeit with 3 attacks per attack action.
You can get things like Haste, Blur, Mirror Image, Fly, Blink and such, and with a proficiency in Constitution, any concentration check will have your proficiency bonus, if you started as fighter. None of these spells use int, so you just need enough to prepare your wizard spells, I'd say 12 or 14 int would be fine, as that would give you 12-13 spells prepared if you went lvl 8 EK and 4 wizard...if my math is right. 7 for EK, plus 4 (wizard level) + 1 or 2 for int.
It's tough on when to multi class though, you want lvl 5 for extra attack, but then you might as well go 6 for a feat, then you are 2 away from the level 8 feat and you would miss no feats, but the sooner you go wizard the more spell slots and levels you would get, without any limits to what spells you can scribe.
Figuring out when to Multiclass is the hardest part for a lot of builds, haha. The Fighter is so good as a pure class that you really have to force yourself to commit to something else. It's a struggle...
You defintely could do that. Eldritch knight is defintely meant to be a fighter wizard style class so multiclassing wizard isn't that wierd.
Great vid 👍 been having fun as a Champion
Can't argue with the blades of a blender.
I've been waiting for this video! your cleric video really helped me a lot with my first playthrough :)
Hey, I'm glad you got something out of them. Thanks for watching and for the kind words :)
Looking forward to the rest of the classes, keep em coming :)
Great video and it is paced in a way that makes it easier to follow than the others
Thank you very much! I'm trying to work out a few more bugs with each video I make. Maybe I'll land on an actual recipe for a video at some point. Lol
this is exactly what I was looking for!
It was looking for you, too! I'm glad you found each other.
Great video, you do a great job explaining things in your own words its pretty entertaining!
Hey, thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Honestly I'll always recommend Fighter's for a first toon in anything D&D. Be that a TT campaign or something like BG or other games that are like it. It's a solid new player class. You just go bonk. Can't go wrong with getting either the biggest stick, or whatever dex uses.(Kidding kidding, Dex fighters are pretty good too, since the Dex keeps you alive too.) It's just a good all around class for someone learning.
There's a reason Fighter 12 lands squarely in S-tier on all the lists.
You content is good shit hoss.
I subbed.
Haha! I appreciate the support, Traveler.
Battlemaster Archer is an utterly broken, but utterly fun build. Smokepowder, Arcane, and Many target arrows and 3 attacks + Action Surge means no group is lasting long.
The trick arrows are crazy if you actually make use of them. I could absolutely see a Fighter just spamming them across the room.
Frankly, it's disgusting. I love it.
@@PanicRolling Plus combine Precision strike with Sharpshooter- All in and Luck of the Far Realms. And you have massive damage.
Can't wait for your rogue video!
Dude, I really enjoy your videos. You remind me of one of my battle buddies from the war. Plus you do a good presentation. And if you were transported to Faerun, you'd definitely be a fighter, just by the looks of you. Probably protection battlemaster. Probably a weaponsmith too, lol.
I'd watch if you did a let's play, but given the pace of your videos, and the fact you're sadly not monetized, I won't hold my breath.
Rogue gets 4 feats too. extra at 10.
I often play with two melee characters next to each other, but protection... probably not a choice I'd take unless I was roleplaying a battlemaster with abilities that synch with it. But sword and board... yuck.
For the Eldritch Knight bonded weapon to be an effective throwing weapon, it needs to be a (thrown) type weapon. I threw a two-hander, not so good. Best combined with the tavern brawler feat. Also works with Great Weapon Fighting style, the caveat being that the 3 of the few two-handed (thrown) type weapons in the game already have a returning property, so you could do a throwing build that way without the EK subclass as the first of them is available in fairly early in Act 1. Versatile weapons when wielded with no shield also work with Great Weapon Fighting. I don't know what the itemization in game of versatile (thrown) weapons is.
Eldritch Knight is pretty fun, but it feels best with wizard levels. I like a 7/5 split, which still limits your end spell level. You're still a weapons first character. I go evocation for sculpted spells too, cause it just feels like an Eldritch Knight would cast without regard for his surroundings. I tried Abjuration, but honestly, it just didn't seem necessary.
I make Lae'zael a battlemaster, pure fighter, 4 feats, first one athlete for enhanced mobility and 18 str. Then I go great weapon master at 6. The last two feats are ASI for 20 str and savage attacker.
I wish Action Surge resulted in a hit, but it never seems to, at least early game when I notice misses.
I don't know that two-weapon fighting style description is correct. It gives you full damage on your offhand. Maybe that's why the offhand isn't full damage. The ability modifier isn't added yet?
How I use fighter for multiclass dip.
I dip one level into assassin for two-weapon fighting style. Makes a big difference. 1 other wizard, for utility spells, then I get a 3 feat assassin with all the class-specific goodies, and two-weapon fighting style and a couple of hand crossbows. I can attack for full damage anywhere on the battlefield. Action surge and no wizard level would give me more assassin alpha strike power, but whatever. As I recall 1e rogues could do magic (from scrolls) outside of combat, so I see my build like that.
I built a dwarven throwing war cleric with 3 levels of champion.
Another fun build I did on Wyll is 1 storm sorc, 5 warlock, pact of blade, 6 battle master. It's so good. And the sorc level gives you flying after casting a leveled spell. Take enhanced jump for one of your sorc spells, and you get out of combat flying for free. Magic missile for when swinging the 2-hander seems like overkill.
Your battle buddy must've been a good lookin dude, then. Lol!
I'm ashamed that I missed mentioning the Rogue's 4th Feat. I will definitely point it out in my Rogue video when I get to that one.
I appreciate all of the kind words, and you've got some awesome build ideas here. I'm gunna pin this so people can find them more easily.
Great vid, like your style! Congrats!
Thank you very much. I appreciate the feedback!
Thanks for this video. Your delivery is perfect 👍
Thanks for the content! I m a bit confused is the mic stand broken or why do you keep it in your hand all the time? I m most likely one of the few who noticed the bumps and all. Plus if you have one use a pop filter or hold it a bit further away for less pop click poppery ^^
I know! I need to get my audio dialed in better, for sure. I definitely appreciate the suggestions! I'm going to try something different for my Paladin video, so let me know if you watch that one...and if it sounds better.
It is absolutely on my list of current issues, though.
Doing a half-orc battle master for my first BG3 playthrough. & trying to keep as close to the D&D counterpart as I can (which might be difficult as said character permadied at level 5).
I know everyone loves a damage boost, but just forget a missed attack deals no damage at all. My Astarion is a Rouge/Bard with a 2 level dip in Fighter just to get Archery (+2 to hit) and Action Surge, and I love Oil of Accuracy. This is bc of Sharpshooter (-5 to hit, + 10 damage), Archery + oil + +1 Handcrossbow cancels the penalty while spamming the +10 damage on every hit.
This really matters with (college of swords) Flourishing slash Ranged to shoot 2 enemies first turn, sneak attack from Rouge (theif), plus 2 off hand shots, plus Arrow of Many Targets, and action surge, means he can solo a room of like 8 guys in one turn lol. It's really fun.
Point is sometimes boosting your hit chance translates into much more damage than a passive damage bump. The creative ways to build characters in this game are endless, and definitely (imho) the most fun part of the experience. Safe passage travelers
Never actually gave Fighter a chance because I always thought it sounded boring and bad because of how little I got out of my melee attacks as a war cleric, and fighter just sounding like a war cleric without spells from having not tried it. Maybe I will give it a shot someday
They are very strong! They can be simple, but there's a surprising amount of options with Eldritch Knight's spells and the Battle Master Maneuvers also.
12 levels in Fighter is one of the easiest S-Tier builds I could recommend. They're reeeeaallly good at chopping people up.
@@PanicRolling Don't suppose you got a line of videos about early game kitting that might inspire the usage of other classes aswell? Usually when I'm presented with builds, it's endgame stuff. Would be pretty sweet to have builds divided into acts so that you could assemble what you see on screen in act 1 forexample, since some builds require a lot of progress to shine the way they're depicted. Or so it feels
I took YMFAH's "fun" low level build to the end game and it was a blast. Start as a cleric in the light domain and level 2, take fighter and defensive fighting. Get your armor class as high as you can and watch people fail to hit you and when they do, the damage is pathetic.
I went battle master and took evasive footwork and reposte and combine it with your level 1 light cleric's warding flare. Use warding flare to force rerolls on ranged attacks you dont want to hit you or will crit you and use reposte to deal massive damage to melee enemies foolish enough to try and swing at you.
Probably not optimal, but its a blast.
Went EK, I got enlarge, thor hammer, shocking grasp, etc.
Bro its fun.
I love the class fantasy of the Eldritch Knight!
Savage attack, two hand weapon master, warcaster and spell sniper with the choose of eldritch blast.... you're gonna feel really like the hero of the party, otherwise become a battle master and take 6 level of tempest cleric
Fighter is broken AF for multiclassing, those first 2 levels are all 100% worth it for melee characters.
Second wind is awesome if you are in a pinch and want to survive one more hit, Action Surge is awesome to be able to kill someone on the first round, and the Battle Styles is what actually makes melee builds good.
And in my opinion even the third level is worth it.. be it for the critical or the Battle Manoeuvres to be able to Disarming Attack, Menacing Attack, Pushing Attack or Trip Attack.
Just one point you forgot to mention about critical hits that make them insanely good to stack: a critical hit is an automatic hit, meaning that even if you are fighting an enemy with high AC, the crit will ignore his AC and land the attack.
Yeh Fighters and Wizards work well as a dip for just about anyone. The amount of utility and power you get for just 1-2 levels in each is ridiculous.
And yeh you're right, that is incredibly powerful!
23:40 is it really a double crit chance? Or double the the chance to crit if you already rolled to hit, not miss?
Not tested this yet, since i've just hit lvl5. But if it works just like 5e, then haste won't give you 2 or 3 extra attacks. It only grants 1. Since it's a seperate action in which you can make an attack, dash or something similar. It's not a duplicate of the attack action, and thus doesn't let you use Extra Attack twice per turn. That would truly be busted.
It does grant you additional uses of Extra Attack in BG3. This is how Fighters are capable of pulling off up to 11 attacks in a single turn, and why Haste is considered one of the top 3 or 4 spells in the game, depending on party composition.
@@PanicRolling i guess they split off from 5e in that regard then. Amazing info, in that case! Have to try this out
It's so broken, lol. Potions of Speed, as well. And don't forget, your characters can drink potions from another character's bag, even if they are not near each other. So you don't even have to split up the potions.
@@PanicRolling wait what? I don't have to swap items or make sure they have everything divided amongst themselves equally?!
You sure don't. You can just drink the potion right out of your party member's bag.
The Eldritch Knight is a cool idea, and can be pretty powerful (like any fighter) particularly with a throwing build. But your stats are pretty spread out.
You can get more of the same power fantasy (blade & spell) with something like the Warlock-Bard (three weapon attacks at level 11, plus level 3 spells from multiple lists) or the Warlock-Paladin - College of War Cleric (3 attacks, plus one extra per long rest, great smites, lots of spells).
Yeh I think the circlet you can get in Act 1 opens up the option to use Eldritch Knight decently well, though. The few items you can find that set certain stats to a certain level are nuts.
I've got Laezel built as an Eldritch Knight on my current Durge run. She has her pretty Int Tiara, too.
ty
Have you done a RANGER Deepdive?
Working on the Ranger guide as we speak!
If you compare great weapon fighting with dueling, dueling always comes out on top. Dueling always adds more damage to your attacks. GWF only POSSIBLY deals more damage, IF you already rolled crap.
GWF is more of a trap than an actual option. Saying it's a great option, only shows how little you've actually playtested it..
It's a great option because of its obvious companion feat you take. At 4th level.
It's a benefit to a will known powerful fighter build. Not like one would take Dueling then GWM.
Dueling doesn't come out on top if you're using a two-handed weapon. The two fighting styles are made for different playstyles, and function differently.
You're right though, Dueling is very strong, and one of the most powerful weapons in the game is a Rapier that has specific bonuses for using it with an empty offhand. This works perfectly with Dueling, also.
But dismissing GWM entirely doesn't make sense to me, since there are a ton of players who will be using two-handed weapons on their Fighters.
@@werecoth great weapon master is indeed a very strong feat. A muat havr for any optimized build. But great weapon fighting as a style doesn't do much for that either.. you could go for defense for more AC, and still take great weapon master, right? Rerolling a 1 or 2 doesn't actually do that much, since you can still roll another 1 or 2.
Yes, dueling style doesn't do anything for heavy weapon users. But that doesn't make GWF a good option. With dueling, you can still take a shield, giving you 2 more AC than GWF, AND the damage bonus is flat eith every single attack. That's why it's a better option. GWM is just plain insane. I kinda wished they'd merged GWF and GWM, and made it slightly less powerful, so that it wouls be in line with the other styles, and wouldn't force you to take a feat specifically for a certain type of weapon to be relevant.
@@PanicRolling i know it's meant to promote different playstyles, and heavy weapons are already capable of dealing more damage. The issue i have with GWF is that it only increases the chance of a decent to big hit. It can still do minimum damage, if you're unlucky. On a d12, rolling a 3 is still unsatisfying, and GWF only works on a 1 or 2, which could still be rerolled into that same number.
What i meant with my initial comment:
dueling gives you +2 to defense (since you can use a shield) and +2 to damage, while GWF only increases your average damage by about 1.
Hardly a fair tradeoff, since you deliberately chose to forgo defense for more damage..
Yeh I agree with you, 100%. And BG3 specifically makes this even worse because one of the most broken weapons in the game is a Rapier, so it fits perfectly with Dueling.
i really hope they rework some of the feats and class "gimmiks" like the weapon bond. compared to the pact weapon it really sucks. only benefit is that u can throw it and it returns while the pact weapon gives an extra attack (on top of on extra attack), magic, and uses us casting modifier. also the great weapon master is WAY to op compared to other martial feats. u dont even need a dual handed weapon for the bonus attack, u can basicly any weapon for it as long as u kill or crit something. and u get +10dmg on top of it. compared to, for example, dual wielder, which gets only +1 AC...and u can use non light weapons in ur offhand. wow. not even a bonus attack or anything
I do think it would be cool if Weapon Bond granted you damage scaling with your spellcasting ability like Pact Weapon does. But I think the reason it doesn't is that your Eldritch Knight likely already has great scaling through Strength or Dexterity. The Warlock that chooses Pact of the Blade will likely have very low Str or Dex scores. They also don't natively get extra attacks like all of the Martial classes do, so the fact that Pact Weapon ends up granting them one extra attack helps bring them in line with the other melee classes.
Personally I think the weapon returning to your hand after being thrown is a cool feature. Nothing like having unlimited javelins for your magic-infused knight to hurl at their enemies. It does help with certain thrown weapon builds, but I mostly mention it because of the "rule of cool".
About Great Weapon Master...the extra attack portion should be activating on crits and kills with any weapon, but based on the wording of the Feat, it shouldn't be allowing you to add the +10 damage to any attacks with non two-handed weapons (this includes Versatile weapons wielded in both hands).
That part is a toggle ability that reduces the accuracy of your attacks with 2h weapons but adds bonus damage. Your attack rolls take a -5 modifier, and the damage is increased by 10. It should only be applying to 2h weapons though. If you are getting this bonus while using 1h weapons, it might be a bug...and I'm sure it is doing incredible damage lol.
dual wielding gets it's extra attack from the second weapon and the main hand will still get another attack if you are on a character that gets extra attack. What it is missing is the extra damage component it's supposed to have. You are also getting more damage from it from being able to use a bigger weapon than you could before, but it does so without sacrificing accuracy. A trade off that you are ignoring in your comparison of the two.
The fighter gets his extra attack through his class and does not need it through the weapon bond. Warlock has no advantage here, except where Larian actually broke something that isn't supposed to stack and to my knowledge that is basically just with one multi-class combination. Otherwise this is just the warlock being brought up to parity, not giving it anything extra. And in fact it means that the Warlock is actually behind the Fighter because the Fighter gets yet one more Attack at 11th level that the Warlock does not (the closest they do get at that same level is a +5 static damage which is really good as well but not necessarily quite equal). While that is basically at the end of the game for BG3 it is not when it comes to leveling and play in 5e that it is based off of. on top of that, As Panic pointed out Action Surge in the video, this is just another way that weapon bond does not need to do nearly as much because of what the Fighter Base does for the Eldritch Knight. Which still kind of puts the Pact of the Blade Warlock behind the curve somewhat when it comes to the matter of just hitting things. Only to be made up by the Warlock's easier time at making it's spells effective than the Eldritch Knight.
also, if you are taking Great Weapon Master to use with a non-Two Handed Weapon. you are getting less than you are with, for example, dual wielding if you are doing a dual weapon build just to be able to not actually make more attacks than taking the dual weapon feat (or even as many because there is a very real chance of this one piece of the feat only triggering occasionally even if it is usable by anybody and all weapons). Dual weapon would give you more damage from the larger off hand, the +1 AC that GWM doesn't give making you 5% harder to hit, and it's built onto a style that passively is already giving you an extra hit. What it is missing is additional damage from your stat modifier, Which the Fighting Style can actually give you (or you can pick it up through a couple different pieces of equipment) which means for a couple other synergistic components to your build you are doing almost as much damage as the +10 but without having to worry about overcoming the penalty (which tends to be harder to do for GWM builds), so you can potentially add more accurate on top of it counterbalanced by maybe 2-3 more damage on average per swing that the GWM build might give you.
What this means is that while everybody loves GWM and overstates just how good GWM is. it's really kind of niche. it just happens to be a very easy Niche to get into when you don't consider some of it's problems to go along with it and pretend everything happens in a white room and an imaginary scenario, and while functional on many classes, is often better off on something like the Barbarian because it has natural built in class abilities to attempt to offset some of the drawbacks that GWM possesses.
I think you are exaggerating
I have never exceeded 45,000,000,000 attacks per turn with my fighter
Those are rookie numbers. Chug another Speed Pot.
@@PanicRolling I'm a noob. :(
Friend, you're an Action Surge away from greatness. I believe in you.
The Eldritch Knight is probably the closest thing to a Witcher there is.
It certainly fits the fantasy. A Bladelock or a Swords Bard would kinda fit as well...depending on how well you can suspend your disbelief.
So... champion + blade warlock?
It's certainly doable. Pact of the Blade Warlocks get some pretty good stuff at the higher levels though, so make sure you know what you're giving up when you multiclass it with Fighter.
That one is a tough decision, haha!
I AM SPARTACUS!!
Spartacus wishes he had all these attacks per Action...
I wish Larian had implemented the Psionic Fighter, which IS actually Darth Vader but in D&D. I really like that subclass (even thouh it isn't very strong) because the flavor of being able to do some light "magic" psionic stuff is really fun. Also they pair well with Githyanki, the Gith are literally mentioned in the subclass description in the book it came out in, so I think it's a huge missed opportunity that we got the Champion instead of the Psi Fighter, considering Githyanki play such a large part in the story of this game!
The Gith are so strong in BG3 lol. They don't get chosen very often, but they deserve to. I didn't even know about all of the crazy racial bonuses they got, and Laezel died pretty early on my first run...so I had no idea.
I've been a Gith fan ever since. Just laid an egg a few minutes ago. Then I focused my mind and jumped 37 city blocks. Istik.
Darth Vader is actually war cleric.
That wouldbe interesting to play
Gith is my go-to race pick in this game. Level 5 free misty step and astral knowledge are too good. Not to mention medium armor. If they got shields, they’d have it all.
4th hour*
It is honestly a prison made up of my own indecision. I could make 100 characters and still find something different to mess with in the creator.
Good thing I love that part, too.
why not use fextralife bg3 wiki
Honestly, I like the way the bg3.wiki is set up. It's easy to navigate and it's also all community property, so I'm allowed to use it for these videos. I'm not sure what Fextralife's rules are for that.
Fextralife is also not always accurate or complete. It has some good information, but the bg3 wiki is more complete in my opinion