I dig this. I like that you didn’t include any specific gear. Straight up basic build video. I had figured that I should focus some levels into Ranger but wasn’t thinking about the full range of skills as critically. This helped a lot. Thanks!
Thanks so much, and glad it helped! Yeah, I like to make builds that are practical in play, and it's so easy to miss a magic item in this game that ones that require very specific gear just don't make sense as guides to me
Looks like a good build, very close to what my stealth character went with. I did 5 ranger/5 rogue/2 fighter. Level 5 ranger gives you an extra attack, and level 5 rogue gives you uncanny dodge. You can easily max out Dex with a single feat, leaving just the Sharpshooter feat (which also removes disadvantage when below a target) that should be picked up. The damage from the extra attack, and dodge outweigh any if the feats in my opinion. Either way, I look forward to future videos!!
Extra Attack is also very useful, and combos extremely well with the Action Surge from fighter, so very much worth getting. Ranger 3/Rogue 3/Fighter 6 is also very worth considering as it still gets you two feats, extra attack, and more HP. Thanks very much! :D
omggg thank u so much !! i know this is late but i know nothing about this sort of thing and i love astarion but was so confused as to why he wasn’t doing anything to help in fights/barely doing any damage!! this was so helpful 😊
My favorite multiclass in this game is Rogue/Gloomstalker (Gloomstalker/Rogue) and always keep coming back to it, this build is what I am going on Astarion now and I love it, thanks for a good guide on my fav build. Keep it up
Food for thought; if you are using this for a main character, it's worth considering the gloves you can get in late act 1/throughout act 2 that set your dexterity to 18. This frees up a lot of stat points that you can put into charisma and frees up some feats for only a minor penalty compared to 20 dex (-1 atk/dmg). Considering how many forced fights the game has that last more than 1 turn I'd also consider pushing for 5 ranger; while you can only do 1 sneak attack per turn you can still chain an extra normal attack off of it and it'll also apply to your opening shot, meaning you can get in a couple extra d10s in your nova as well as the ~15 damage from each attack.
Yep, the dex gloves are excellent for just about any character, and since this one is feat-starved they're a perfect find. I tend to like keeping builds item-agnostic since magic items are so easy to miss, but those will make the build much smoother. Extra attack is excellent for this character, for sure! Also worth considering is Ranger 3/Rogue 3/Fighter 6, that gets you extra attack, still 2 feats, and some more HP and maneuvers
@@ant3910 I havent played the game much, but if you were to go 17 dex, one ability improvement, and the hair from auntie ethel gets you 20 dex in just act 1 alone.
@@iplayonatoaster5406 well in the end we have to use ability improvement since pure rogue can have 4 feats. But thanks for sharing, i’m planning to pure assassin
Commenting a bit late, but thank you for this guide, i lacked pretty much everything when i created my rogue, i didn't seem to do any damage, i got spotted fairly easy and couldn't figure what i was doing wrong. This build really helps me out. (just reached Act.2)
I am testing this build out on an Astarion origin playthrough on tactician. I am on the struggle bus in the early levels but i have faith this will improve.
if youre ever struggling just have a eltridtch knight tavern brawler throwing build or a barbarian throwing build in your party using strength elxirs. literally they will WALK thru tactician like its story mode
Pretty good guide, although I do mine differently and I get a little more damage output at the cost of a penalty to attack roll, which realistically doesn’t matter that much. I put 6 levels into fighter first, it allows you to excel in both melee and range. You take the two-weapon fighting style, which allows you to add your proficiency bonus to your off-hand attacks, whereas you generally only get to add your proficiency to your main hand. The reason you put 6 levels into fighter is for the two feats that you unlock, one at 4 and one at 6. You take the feat (can’t remember what it’s called at the moment) that allows you to wield two weapons, and you take the stat modifier and add 2 to dex. Now this build does require you to do a couple certain things in the game, but they’re not hard. U have to get the hair from auntie Ethel and add it to dex, and then u have to get the risky ring from that drow chick in moonrise towers. That’s all as far as specific equipment goes. If you’re going the durge route, the cloak is an awesome addition but not necessary. You’ll have a 20 dex at the end, without the need for items to increase it. That leaves your armor loadout open for more utility based options rather than trying to find gear to increase your stats. I use finesse melee weapons, since they use your dex rather than strength, so it couples well with the hand crossbows. After the six points in fighter, you put 4 points into rogue, and choose assassin as your subclass. Taking the 4th level gives you an extra feat that lets you take the crossbow expert feat, sacrificing a penalty of 5 to your attack roll but adding a flat 10 to your damage with crossbows. Then you put two levels into ranger, so that you can get hunter’s mark and the bounty hunter perk, and you’re set. The reason I go this route vs the lv 3 ranger route is because of the items I get. I have the poisoner’s ring on my cleric, since it takes an action to activate it and mass healing word/healing word/cure wounds are all bonus actions so they can still heal on the round they use the ring. It makes the target vulnerable to poison damage, which means that on top of the doubled dice from a crit, you double the number again because of the vulnerability. I have the broodmother’s revenge amulet on my Tav, which means that whenever I’m healed, my weapons become coated in pooison that deal an extra 1 d6 of poison dmg per hit. I use the gloves that you get from completing a certain character’s evil quest, which makes you deal a d4 of necrotic dmg on every hit, and I have the caustic band which deals 2 acid dmg in every hit. Between those 3 dmg sources, it averages out to a higher output than the extra d8 that you get from the gloomstalker attack, AND you get the extra feat by sacrificing one ranger level for an extra rogue level. When you add on that flat 10, on every hit, it makes it automatically better, since you’re not in any danger of missing attacks since you always have advantage because of the risky ring. Also, having that ring increases your chances of landing critical hits, which means that even after that first turn, you’re still able to score critical hits more often without needing to lock people up in combat with your tank. For my melee weapons, I use the sword of screams and the knife of the undermountain king, since it reduces the number needed to roll a critical by one just by having it equipped and it has a high range of dmg as a dex based character. If you’re not going into super specific gear, then I can see the level 3 ranger being a better option in some cases, but ya. That’s what I do and it fucking nukes people.
For sure, you can definitely get some improvements with specific gear! I like to try to keep the builds relatively gear-agnostic, since it's so easy to miss specific items, but that setup sounds great for damage!
I was just about to start a lore friendly dark urge build and noticed that there is basically nobody that has a video on one. I'd be interested to see your take on it. My plan is... human, because Bhaal is primarily a human deity. Assassin, because Bhaal is also the patron god of assassins. He definitely needs to be melee focused, because any follower of Bhaal wants to literally get their hands dirty. Storywise we know the urge's former life was basically as part of the clergy as well. So I am contemplating a dip into cleric or paladin. On the other hand the default class for durge is sorcerer... so I'm really torn in which direction to take the character beyond assassin.
So we're taking disadvantage on expertise stealth, losing ranger 5th level extra attack, losing rogue 7th level 4d6 sneak attack just for action surge, a shield, and another feat/ASI? Sharpshooter and Alert are basically the only worthwhile feats without Skulker. I mean Action Surge is great and all but 2 attacks per turn at 4d6 sneak attack sounds way better (and less bloated)
I still think it's better to start as a lvl #1 Rouge... you get all the stealth and lockpick proficiencies. You'll have a 7 in stealth and a 7 in sleight of hand. Also, a Monk gets an additional attack. I do Rouge, then 2 levels of Monk, then another rouge, then I do a few Ranger levels. It's definitely worth getting a level of fighter... for almost every build.
You're right! My more recent and updated archer builds I think do start with rogue for the extra skill access. Check out "The Best Archer in BG3" for a more modern version of this guide!
Im curoous about this since im not a huge fan of triple multiclassing would 7 ranger 5 assassin be as good? Since at lvl 7 ranger u also get extra attack(where as fighter action surge is once per long rest) like 3 attacks turn 1 plus 1 attack if u initiate.
Yes! Losing out on action surge will weaken your nova damage, but that build will work just fine. Ranger5/Rogue 7 could also be good for an extra sneak attack die while still getting Extra Attack, or Ranger 8/Rogue 4 gets one fewer sneak attack dice but an additional feat. All of those will work great!
Hi! great video, sorry i'm a bit new to the d&d realm and i may have missed this in the video. Are you saying for highest damage to initiate the fight with a regular arrow attack and then after they are surprised use sneak attack and the rest of his skills? Or initiate fight with sneak attack?
Hi, great question! So short answer is you should sneak attack on the opener. Long answer is a little more complex because the game handles it kind of inconsistently. What *should* happen is you activate stealth > sneak attack (autocrit) > combat starts > sneak (autocrit) > dread ambusher attack (autocrit). Sometimes the game gets confused though and either won't apply the crit on the initial attack (it's not counting the unaware enemy as surprised), or won't allow you to sneak attack on your first turn of combat (it thinks you've already used it that round). To try to avoid this, you should enter turn-based mode before firing your first attack, I've found that helps. And if you're finding that it's *consistently* not letting you sneak attack twice *and* not letting you crit on the opening attack, you should save your sneak attack for the first round of actual combat, so you can guarantee critting with it. Hope that helps!
Should do a build of critical from champion, fighter crit chance and advantage by sleath and rogue sneak attack to increase damage die. Havent optimized it, but 6/6 fighter rogue is guess
Quick question, I think I'm misunderstanding, towards the end you refer to getting an extra attack a couple of times while leveling fighter, but then you recommend going 4-4-4 for max level, so by extra attack are you just referring to action surge or ambush? If I'm not mistaken that would only be three attacks on opening turn? Or am I missing something
I think I'm probably talking about the action surge or ambush attack, but a strong variation for this build is rogue 3 / ranger 3 / fighter 6 that still gets two feats and gets the Extra Attack feature as well
I'm a bit puzzled by the recommendation for the "ranger knight" selection from earlier. If you're eventually getting fighter (& thus proficiency with all weapons & armor), wouldn't ranger knight be a bit repetitive?
It's definitely confusing - when you *start* with fighter or paladin, you get Heavy armor proficiency, but when you multiclass into them later, you only get Medium. You could respec to place fighter first in the levelling order and get heavy armor, but then we lose some skill access. One of 5th Edition D&D's goofier mechanics imo.
Hi great theoretical video - could you maybe do a short video of how to actually use this build at level 6? sorry I am noob and have no ideo how to do that correctly
Thanks so much! You should be fine as long as you just activate stealth before starting combat - the game will do the rest of the math for you. I should have some gameplay streams coming up soon as well, so keep an eye out for those!
What kind of gear to look out for while leveling this char up, I am currently only lvl 3 now.... So, any tips for what to use? and try to get for this char later on?
titanstring bow, graceful cloth, either club of ogre strength or knife of undermountain king for early levels. just with those two and you'll steamroll as long as you use the mechanics of this build well
Great build although i feel that 3 lvls in fighter is a bit of waste especially early on would just prefer 5 ranger and 4 rogue then rest can be whatever.
Sure - especially if you plan to respec later on, you can prioritize reaching feats and Extra Attack earlier over reaching Action Surge and maneuvers. It really depends on how you want to play the character out!
Actually if you think about it taking 1 level away from final fighter levels and making it go to ranger (5 ranger, 4 rogue, 3 fighter) is probably better because you get misty step and 2 2nd level spell slots for your subclass feature which gives more maneuverability and possibly get you to higher ground making the build stronger because of the preferred range and saving throws with ranged implications, this also accounts for if bonus action disengage/dash/hide is not enough to gain any real strategical advantage, plus this does work better with stat boosting gear so you don't rely on the ASI's that much in leveling letting you take feats like alert for better initiative or maybe roleplay specific feats. And all of this doesn't even mention the power of extra attack. Still respect the intent to keep it simple great build!
I’m very new to this game and CRPGS in general so sorry if this is a stupid question. What if the enemy initiates combat first so he doesn’t have time to position, would he just stealth as soon as combat starts and position himself from there?
Not a dumb question at all! Yes, that's exactly right - you even get stealth as a bonus action, so you can hide and attack both in the same turn. Generally you'll be able to start combat yourself, but there are some story events where you get attacked, so it should *usually* only come up in those.
One of the nice things about this build is it doesn't really need specific items, just the best bow you can find! The githyanki creche has some nice heavy crossbows, and I think it's in Last Light Inn you can buy a medium armor with no max DEX, which will give you excellent AC as a dex character. Gloves of dexterity, also from the githyanki creche, can be very useful before you get 20 dex as well.
Theres a bow that scales with str and dex act 1. So that possibly 20-26 depening on party comp... Probably the best option tbh. Gear that gives 23 str, and stat investments for dex. But elixer od bloodlust for 1 action after kill. Better then haste. Dip weapon for 1d4 or other oils for up to 1d8.
Yeah, great suggestions! I like to keep builds gear-agnostic since it's so easy to miss specific items, but dipping weapons is huge extra damage for this build, as are oils, since all the damage dice get the crit benefit. Great points!
Yes! You'll probably want the build variation that goes Ranger 3 / Rogue 3 / Fighter 6 for Extra Attack, since you don't need Sharpshooter so the 3rd feat is wasted, but otherwise you shouldn't have to change much!
Sure, that would be fine! You'll also get the opportunity to respec your character later on, so if you decide as you play that you want more of one or the other, you'll be able to change it after a couple hours
Hmm from level 7 when you added fighter as another multiclass... the primary ability switched from DEX to STR ........... will that be bad? for a DEX char
Nope! Which of the two stats you use to attack is based on the type of weapon you're using, not your class. Any ranged weapon will always use your dexterity
@@Cephalopocalypse i see. Unless the weapon states that the bonus it give is using the ability class then it would be the str right? In this case i mean.
Saying this is an assassin build is jank. This is more a gunslinger build since the intent is to take ranger. I have imagine that while Assassin Rogue isn't optimal for BG3's gameplay loop...fast hands is busted I really want to try something different. My primary build uses Ranger Rogue Fighter to basically spam shots
To reset a level you have to respec your character back to level 1 by talking to Withers. Unfortunately you can't just redo a single level Spoilers if you haven't met him yet: Explore the ruins by the starting beach and then he will appear in your camp on a long rest. Alternatively, he appears after resolving the druid grove quest
Question bec im barley at level 3 rouge and ranger would you still recommend for me to go 4-4-4??? And im kinda new to the game so id really appreciate if you showed an example of how to play this build bec i just sneak and shoot and end up dying bec i take too much damage idk how tbh
Hi! So the most important thing for this build is getting to Rogue 3 / Ranger 3 ASAP - Then you'll want to start picking up feats, which means probably getting Ranger 4 Rogue 4 - at that point, ranger 5 gets you extra Attack, or you could start levelling fighter. There's I think two possible endgame builds: Ranger 3 / Rogue 3 / Fighter 6, which gets you Extra Attack and 2 feats, or 4/4/4 for three feats - the first is probably stronger overall, but takes a little longer to reach full power - you can also do one and then respec into the other! If you're dying frequently, you might just be standing too close - try firing your stealth attacks from long range and then moving *away* with your movement, so the enemies can't reach you in the first turns. Hope that helps!
Half orc is great for some crit builds, but unfortunately not this one. Their crit bonus only works in melee, and doesn't exactly triple critical hits - it lets you add one of the weapon's damage dice in addition to the normal crit damage. That means it won't improve sneak attack, and is best with weapons like greataxes that roll single large damage dice.
why astarion?how come ppl don't just make a 100% custom character instead of picking one of the templates? I just got the game, i just made a custom character like i did in NWN, BG1, BG2 etc.
if you talk to withers and you have em as a companion you can change their stats, so you can have not only a custom character but companions with custom stats
@@Don1sir how much it costs to respec? I actually started to give Astarion some ranger levels and make this template, but he doesn't have the stats (higher dex etc..)
@@mikehunt9884 it costs like 100 gold, its relatively cheap if you have been stocking up and selling random loot, I make a tendency to take and sell all the weapons I pick up off slain enemies so I can sell em later
True! Sadly the half orc feature doesn't multiply *all* your crit damage (even though that's how it should work). It just adds 1 extra damage die from your weapon, but won't multiply sneak attack or dread ambusher damage. Still, an extra d10 from a heavy crossbow on each attack is really strong! (it's also weird with weapons that roll two dice, it only adds one of them - so it makes a greatsword crit 5d6 instead of 6d6 like it should)
@@Cephalopocalypse I did exactly the same thing, but I don't know, my bow was good too, then I tried another build, my hiding damage increased, but it still shows normal arrow damage low agility, 18, but normal arrow damage max 15, before starting this build, my character was hitting more.
@@Cephalopocalypse i try this build in my solo dark urge tactician game, with the cloak who puts you on invisibility when you kill an enemy, it's very powerful
Great question! Nova or "going nova" is using all of your resources at the beginning of a fight to try to win it immediately. It often refers to spending your highest level spells on the first turn, but I use it here to mean using your sneak attack, extra attacks and action surge all at once to maximize initial damage. Hope that helps!
All right even if you are actively not using the stove skill because you are avoiding a line of sight and don't need to make the stuff check then it's totally pointless to quit ranks into stealth to begin with furthermore your heavy armor proficiency if you're going to go that route not only is going to give you a disadvantage on Estelle Trolls but it also totally negates any type of a bonus to Armor class for dexterity so the only thing that your dexterity is basically good for in this building of initiative and if you're going around one shotting everybody to give you sneaking up on them then you don't really need the initiative bonus either plus the dread ambusher is going to do to help with that so why if you're going to go with the heavy armor proficiency route are you even putting anything inside of your dexterity?
Hi! We primarily need DEX in this build because it's our main stat - bows use it for to-hit and damage rolls, so it's required. Initiative is also as you mention very important for both the Assassin feature and the Gloomstalker feature. Stealth is still very important as well - my point was just that it's not as bad as it might sound to wear heavy armor, but we'll still definitely be making some stealth checks.
![The BEST ROGUE in Baldur's Gate 3 - [Updated] Astarion Honour Build Guide](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SZYnp9AppYk/mqdefault.jpg)
I dig this. I like that you didn’t include any specific gear. Straight up basic build video. I had figured that I should focus some levels into Ranger but wasn’t thinking about the full range of skills as critically. This helped a lot. Thanks!
Thanks so much, and glad it helped! Yeah, I like to make builds that are practical in play, and it's so easy to miss a magic item in this game that ones that require very specific gear just don't make sense as guides to me
Looks like a good build, very close to what my stealth character went with. I did 5 ranger/5 rogue/2 fighter. Level 5 ranger gives you an extra attack, and level 5 rogue gives you uncanny dodge. You can easily max out Dex with a single feat, leaving just the Sharpshooter feat (which also removes disadvantage when below a target) that should be picked up. The damage from the extra attack, and dodge outweigh any if the feats in my opinion. Either way, I look forward to future videos!!
Extra Attack is also very useful, and combos extremely well with the Action Surge from fighter, so very much worth getting. Ranger 3/Rogue 3/Fighter 6 is also very worth considering as it still gets you two feats, extra attack, and more HP. Thanks very much! :D
@@Cephalopocalypseranger 3 rogue 3 bard 6 is also interesting
so is ranger 5 rogue 3 paladin 4@@ShengFink
@@n1gtwhisper158 will check this out thanks
4,4, and 4 is good but the 5,5and 2 was a little better
omggg thank u so much !! i know this is late but i know nothing about this sort of thing and i love astarion but was so confused as to why he wasn’t doing anything to help in fights/barely doing any damage!!
this was so helpful 😊
My favorite multiclass in this game is Rogue/Gloomstalker (Gloomstalker/Rogue) and always keep coming back to it, this build is what I am going on Astarion now and I love it, thanks for a good guide on my fav build. Keep it up
Thank you very much, I going to do this build as a durge.
Food for thought; if you are using this for a main character, it's worth considering the gloves you can get in late act 1/throughout act 2 that set your dexterity to 18. This frees up a lot of stat points that you can put into charisma and frees up some feats for only a minor penalty compared to 20 dex (-1 atk/dmg).
Considering how many forced fights the game has that last more than 1 turn I'd also consider pushing for 5 ranger; while you can only do 1 sneak attack per turn you can still chain an extra normal attack off of it and it'll also apply to your opening shot, meaning you can get in a couple extra d10s in your nova as well as the ~15 damage from each attack.
Yep, the dex gloves are excellent for just about any character, and since this one is feat-starved they're a perfect find. I tend to like keeping builds item-agnostic since magic items are so easy to miss, but those will make the build much smoother.
Extra attack is excellent for this character, for sure! Also worth considering is Ranger 3/Rogue 3/Fighter 6, that gets you extra attack, still 2 feats, and some more HP and maneuvers
Thanks, but how to get 20 dex in late game without using too much ability improvement feat?
@@ant3910 I havent played the game much, but if you were to go 17 dex, one ability improvement, and the hair from auntie ethel gets you 20 dex in just act 1 alone.
@@iplayonatoaster5406 well in the end we have to use ability improvement since pure rogue can have 4 feats. But thanks for sharing, i’m planning to pure assassin
bro where can i find it what is its name ?
I love this build because it still feels very true to the basic Astarion build just beefed up and optimized. Def using this on my new run
Wish you could have shown us how to use this build. Helps us newer folks
Commenting a bit late, but thank you for this guide, i lacked pretty much everything when i created my rogue, i didn't seem to do any damage, i got spotted fairly easy and couldn't figure what i was doing wrong. This build really helps me out. (just reached Act.2)
Awesome, glad it's helping! Really appreciate hearing that :D
I am testing this build out on an Astarion origin playthrough on tactician. I am on the struggle bus in the early levels but i have faith this will improve.
if youre ever struggling just have a eltridtch knight tavern brawler throwing build or a barbarian throwing build in your party using strength elxirs. literally they will WALK thru tactician like its story mode
that's an insanely awesome build
Thanks, I had problems with Astarion because I built wrong, everyone told me that Atarion is carrying his game and mine was a little useless
Awesome, glad it's helping! This build should help him be super strong, just make sure you put him into stealth before fights!
Same here. Mine could barely attack and did nothing. Was the most useless character I had. He was only amazing with traps and doors.
Pretty good guide, although I do mine differently and I get a little more damage output at the cost of a penalty to attack roll, which realistically doesn’t matter that much. I put 6 levels into fighter first, it allows you to excel in both melee and range. You take the two-weapon fighting style, which allows you to add your proficiency bonus to your off-hand attacks, whereas you generally only get to add your proficiency to your main hand. The reason you put 6 levels into fighter is for the two feats that you unlock, one at 4 and one at 6. You take the feat (can’t remember what it’s called at the moment) that allows you to wield two weapons, and you take the stat modifier and add 2 to dex. Now this build does require you to do a couple certain things in the game, but they’re not hard. U have to get the hair from auntie Ethel and add it to dex, and then u have to get the risky ring from that drow chick in moonrise towers. That’s all as far as specific equipment goes. If you’re going the durge route, the cloak is an awesome addition but not necessary. You’ll have a 20 dex at the end, without the need for items to increase it. That leaves your armor loadout open for more utility based options rather than trying to find gear to increase your stats. I use finesse melee weapons, since they use your dex rather than strength, so it couples well with the hand crossbows. After the six points in fighter, you put 4 points into rogue, and choose assassin as your subclass. Taking the 4th level gives you an extra feat that lets you take the crossbow expert feat, sacrificing a penalty of 5 to your attack roll but adding a flat 10 to your damage with crossbows. Then you put two levels into ranger, so that you can get hunter’s mark and the bounty hunter perk, and you’re set. The reason I go this route vs the lv 3 ranger route is because of the items I get. I have the poisoner’s ring on my cleric, since it takes an action to activate it and mass healing word/healing word/cure wounds are all bonus actions so they can still heal on the round they use the ring. It makes the target vulnerable to poison damage, which means that on top of the doubled dice from a crit, you double the number again because of the vulnerability. I have the broodmother’s revenge amulet on my Tav, which means that whenever I’m healed, my weapons become coated in pooison that deal an extra 1 d6 of poison dmg per hit. I use the gloves that you get from completing a certain character’s evil quest, which makes you deal a d4 of necrotic dmg on every hit, and I have the caustic band which deals 2 acid dmg in every hit. Between those 3 dmg sources, it averages out to a higher output than the extra d8 that you get from the gloomstalker attack, AND you get the extra feat by sacrificing one ranger level for an extra rogue level. When you add on that flat 10, on every hit, it makes it automatically better, since you’re not in any danger of missing attacks since you always have advantage because of the risky ring. Also, having that ring increases your chances of landing critical hits, which means that even after that first turn, you’re still able to score critical hits more often without needing to lock people up in combat with your tank. For my melee weapons, I use the sword of screams and the knife of the undermountain king, since it reduces the number needed to roll a critical by one just by having it equipped and it has a high range of dmg as a dex based character. If you’re not going into super specific gear, then I can see the level 3 ranger being a better option in some cases, but ya. That’s what I do and it fucking nukes people.
For sure, you can definitely get some improvements with specific gear! I like to try to keep the builds relatively gear-agnostic, since it's so easy to miss specific items, but that setup sounds great for damage!
Hello. Can you do a separate video for this, talking exclusivelly about gear?
I was just about to start a lore friendly dark urge build and noticed that there is basically nobody that has a video on one. I'd be interested to see your take on it.
My plan is... human, because Bhaal is primarily a human deity. Assassin, because Bhaal is also the patron god of assassins. He definitely needs to be melee focused, because any follower of Bhaal wants to literally get their hands dirty. Storywise we know the urge's former life was basically as part of the clergy as well. So I am contemplating a dip into cleric or paladin. On the other hand the default class for durge is sorcerer... so I'm really torn in which direction to take the character beyond assassin.
So we're taking disadvantage on expertise stealth, losing ranger 5th level extra attack, losing rogue 7th level 4d6 sneak attack just for action surge, a shield, and another feat/ASI? Sharpshooter and Alert are basically the only worthwhile feats without Skulker.
I mean Action Surge is great and all but 2 attacks per turn at 4d6 sneak attack sounds way better (and less bloated)
Nice build. Thanks for sharing.
I still think it's better to start as a lvl #1 Rouge... you get all the stealth and lockpick proficiencies. You'll have a 7 in stealth and a 7 in sleight of hand. Also, a Monk gets an additional attack. I do Rouge, then 2 levels of Monk, then another rouge, then I do a few Ranger levels. It's definitely worth getting a level of fighter... for almost every build.
You're right! My more recent and updated archer builds I think do start with rogue for the extra skill access. Check out "The Best Archer in BG3" for a more modern version of this guide!
Im curoous about this since im not a huge fan of triple multiclassing would 7 ranger 5 assassin be as good? Since at lvl 7 ranger u also get extra attack(where as fighter action surge is once per long rest) like 3 attacks turn 1 plus 1 attack if u initiate.
Yes! Losing out on action surge will weaken your nova damage, but that build will work just fine. Ranger5/Rogue 7 could also be good for an extra sneak attack die while still getting Extra Attack, or Ranger 8/Rogue 4 gets one fewer sneak attack dice but an additional feat. All of those will work great!
@@Cephalopocalypse Maybe this was true a month ago but I don't think you get another extra attack at lvl7 ranger, only lvl 5
On my next playthrough, I want to make a full ninja team and everyone should be good rangers. Then I want to sneak my way and steal everything.
What about the last two levels? Wouldn’t it be better to do a 4/4/4 split so you can get each feat/ASI?
Hi! great video, sorry i'm a bit new to the d&d realm and i may have missed this in the video. Are you saying for highest damage to initiate the fight with a regular arrow attack and then after they are surprised use sneak attack and the rest of his skills? Or initiate fight with sneak attack?
Hi, great question! So short answer is you should sneak attack on the opener. Long answer is a little more complex because the game handles it kind of inconsistently.
What *should* happen is you activate stealth > sneak attack (autocrit) > combat starts > sneak (autocrit) > dread ambusher attack (autocrit). Sometimes the game gets confused though and either won't apply the crit on the initial attack (it's not counting the unaware enemy as surprised), or won't allow you to sneak attack on your first turn of combat (it thinks you've already used it that round).
To try to avoid this, you should enter turn-based mode before firing your first attack, I've found that helps. And if you're finding that it's *consistently* not letting you sneak attack twice *and* not letting you crit on the opening attack, you should save your sneak attack for the first round of actual combat, so you can guarantee critting with it.
Hope that helps!
@@Cephalopocalypsethank you!
Great video! Im planning on making a character this way!
Thanks so much, glad you liked it! Good luck with the sneaking :D
Should do a build of critical from champion, fighter crit chance and advantage by sleath and rogue sneak attack to increase damage die. Havent optimized it, but 6/6 fighter rogue is guess
Quick question, I think I'm misunderstanding, towards the end you refer to getting an extra attack a couple of times while leveling fighter, but then you recommend going 4-4-4 for max level, so by extra attack are you just referring to action surge or ambush? If I'm not mistaken that would only be three attacks on opening turn? Or am I missing something
I think I'm probably talking about the action surge or ambush attack, but a strong variation for this build is rogue 3 / ranger 3 / fighter 6 that still gets two feats and gets the Extra Attack feature as well
I'm a bit puzzled by the recommendation for the "ranger knight" selection from earlier. If you're eventually getting fighter (& thus proficiency with all weapons & armor), wouldn't ranger knight be a bit repetitive?
It's definitely confusing - when you *start* with fighter or paladin, you get Heavy armor proficiency, but when you multiclass into them later, you only get Medium. You could respec to place fighter first in the levelling order and get heavy armor, but then we lose some skill access. One of 5th Edition D&D's goofier mechanics imo.
Any gear recommendations?
Hi great theoretical video - could you maybe do a short video of how to actually use this build at level 6? sorry I am noob and have no ideo how to do that correctly
Thanks so much! You should be fine as long as you just activate stealth before starting combat - the game will do the rest of the math for you. I should have some gameplay streams coming up soon as well, so keep an eye out for those!
How would I use this build if the targets don’t die after the first round ? Should I go into stealth and use sneak attack
What kind of gear to look out for while leveling this char up, I am currently only lvl 3 now.... So, any tips for what to use? and try to get for this char later on?
titanstring bow, graceful cloth, either club of ogre strength or knife of undermountain king for early levels. just with those two and you'll steamroll as long as you use the mechanics of this build well
Great build although i feel that 3 lvls in fighter is a bit of waste especially early on would just prefer 5 ranger and 4 rogue then rest can be whatever.
Sure - especially if you plan to respec later on, you can prioritize reaching feats and Extra Attack earlier over reaching Action Surge and maneuvers. It really depends on how you want to play the character out!
Actually if you think about it taking 1 level away from final fighter levels and making it go to ranger (5 ranger, 4 rogue, 3 fighter) is probably better because you get misty step and 2 2nd level spell slots for your subclass feature which gives more maneuverability and possibly get you to higher ground making the build stronger because of the preferred range and saving throws with ranged implications, this also accounts for if bonus action disengage/dash/hide is not enough to gain any real strategical advantage, plus this does work better with stat boosting gear so you don't rely on the ASI's that much in leveling letting you take feats like alert for better initiative or maybe roleplay specific feats. And all of this doesn't even mention the power of extra attack. Still respect the intent to keep it simple great build!
Thank you! Astarion was always my weakest character, with this build he improved a lot 🫂
I’m very new to this game and CRPGS in general so sorry if this is a stupid question. What if the enemy initiates combat first so he doesn’t have time to position, would he just stealth as soon as combat starts and position himself from there?
Not a dumb question at all! Yes, that's exactly right - you even get stealth as a bonus action, so you can hide and attack both in the same turn.
Generally you'll be able to start combat yourself, but there are some story events where you get attacked, so it should *usually* only come up in those.
What items would you use for this build? Act 1 and 2 items.
One of the nice things about this build is it doesn't really need specific items, just the best bow you can find! The githyanki creche has some nice heavy crossbows, and I think it's in Last Light Inn you can buy a medium armor with no max DEX, which will give you excellent AC as a dex character. Gloves of dexterity, also from the githyanki creche, can be very useful before you get 20 dex as well.
I use this on a character for all my play throughs.
sounds good theoreticy. any ingame footage?
Not currently on the channel, but perhaps coming soon!
That Build is absolutely busted with Durge because of a specific item you get
Theres a bow that scales with str and dex act 1. So that possibly 20-26 depening on party comp...
Probably the best option tbh. Gear that gives 23 str, and stat investments for dex. But elixer od bloodlust for 1 action after kill. Better then haste. Dip weapon for 1d4 or other oils for up to 1d8.
Yeah, great suggestions! I like to keep builds gear-agnostic since it's so easy to miss specific items, but dipping weapons is huge extra damage for this build, as are oils, since all the damage dice get the crit benefit. Great points!
I need to definitely reclass I think I went down the arcane trickster 🤣
what would you suggest for gear?
It doesn't help saying do 17 and do 16 dexterity. So what is it 16 or 17?
Is this build gonna be fine using daggers (two-hand style) and dark urge cloak?
Yes! You'll probably want the build variation that goes Ranger 3 / Rogue 3 / Fighter 6 for Extra Attack, since you don't need Sharpshooter so the 3rd feat is wasted, but otherwise you shouldn't have to change much!
Could you or someone from your mods add writen version of this build please? 😊
Hi im new to this game and was wondering if 10 strength and 10 charismatic would work for a main character or not?
Sure, that would be fine! You'll also get the opportunity to respec your character later on, so if you decide as you play that you want more of one or the other, you'll be able to change it after a couple hours
Hmm from level 7 when you added fighter as another multiclass... the primary ability switched from DEX to STR ...........
will that be bad? for a DEX char
Nope! Which of the two stats you use to attack is based on the type of weapon you're using, not your class. Any ranged weapon will always use your dexterity
@@Cephalopocalypse i see. Unless the weapon states that the bonus it give is using the ability class then it would be the str right? In this case i mean.
you say you should go 4/4/4 as far as levels go, but if you do that you won't get extra attack.
True! Extra attack is obviously very powerful, so to get that you're probably best off with rogue 3 ranger 3 fighter 6 to still get 2 feats
Saying this is an assassin build is jank. This is more a gunslinger build since the intent is to take ranger. I have imagine that while Assassin Rogue isn't optimal for BG3's gameplay loop...fast hands is busted I really want to try something different. My primary build uses Ranger Rogue Fighter to basically spam shots
?
Going 4 4 4 so no lvl 5 power spikes? This seems like a gimp, extra attack is way better than any extra feats
4/4/4 wouldn’t get you extra attack…much better to rush ranger to 5 first for extra attack + misty step.
I was just playing around with the mechanics and I just smashed some things, is there a way to change what I’ve chosen after leveling up?
To reset a level you have to respec your character back to level 1 by talking to Withers. Unfortunately you can't just redo a single level
Spoilers if you haven't met him yet:
Explore the ruins by the starting beach and then he will appear in your camp on a long rest. Alternatively, he appears after resolving the druid grove quest
Question bec im barley at level 3 rouge and ranger would you still recommend for me to go 4-4-4???
And im kinda new to the game so id really appreciate if you showed an example of how to play this build bec i just sneak and shoot and end up dying bec i take too much damage idk how tbh
Hi! So the most important thing for this build is getting to Rogue 3 / Ranger 3 ASAP - Then you'll want to start picking up feats, which means probably getting Ranger 4 Rogue 4 - at that point, ranger 5 gets you extra Attack, or you could start levelling fighter. There's I think two possible endgame builds: Ranger 3 / Rogue 3 / Fighter 6, which gets you Extra Attack and 2 feats, or 4/4/4 for three feats - the first is probably stronger overall, but takes a little longer to reach full power - you can also do one and then respec into the other!
If you're dying frequently, you might just be standing too close - try firing your stealth attacks from long range and then moving *away* with your movement, so the enemies can't reach you in the first turns. Hope that helps!
@@Cephalopocalypse okay bet appreciate the fast reply!!! Ima try 3 ranger/3 rouge /6 fighter
Hopefully I’ll be able to go crazy lol
Also, half-orc triples rather than doubles crit damage.
Half orc is great for some crit builds, but unfortunately not this one. Their crit bonus only works in melee, and doesn't exactly triple critical hits - it lets you add one of the weapon's damage dice in addition to the normal crit damage. That means it won't improve sneak attack, and is best with weapons like greataxes that roll single large damage dice.
Any vids of playstyle?
What are the interfaces better on PC
Is a party of 4 of these walking thru the game no problem?
NAh
Anyone consider the champion subclass instead of battle master? I could see the reduced requirement for crits being worthwhile
deception on mine as i follow along is at -1 idk why help
why astarion?how come ppl don't just make a 100% custom character instead of picking one of the templates? I just got the game, i just made a custom character like i did in NWN, BG1, BG2 etc.
if you talk to withers and you have em as a companion you can change their stats, so you can have not only a custom character but companions with custom stats
@@Don1sir how much it costs to respec? I actually started to give Astarion some ranger levels and make this template, but he doesn't have the stats (higher dex etc..)
@@mikehunt9884 it costs like 100 gold, its relatively cheap if you have been stocking up and selling random loot, I make a tendency to take and sell all the weapons I pick up off slain enemies so I can sell em later
How do you diviate to Rogue on PS5
Build with 11 levels and no items??
Half orc would be good too for 3x crit damage vs 2x
True! Sadly the half orc feature doesn't multiply *all* your crit damage (even though that's how it should work). It just adds 1 extra damage die from your weapon, but won't multiply sneak attack or dread ambusher damage. Still, an extra d10 from a heavy crossbow on each attack is really strong!
(it's also weird with weapons that roll two dice, it only adds one of them - so it makes a greatsword crit 5d6 instead of 6d6 like it should)
unfortunately the orc extra damage die only triggers on melee crits, not on ranged ones.
Hello, I did the build completely, but my damage decreased, what could be the reason for this?
I can't be sure exactly - is it possible you lowered your dexterity?
@@Cephalopocalypse I did exactly the same thing, but I don't know, my bow was good too, then I tried another build, my hiding damage increased, but it still shows normal arrow damage low agility, 18, but normal arrow damage max 15, before starting this build, my character was hitting more.
Too bad you did not add some gameplay of this build
Too bad indeed
@@Cephalopocalypse i try this build in my solo dark urge tactician game, with the cloak who puts you on invisibility when you kill an enemy, it's very powerful
I just discovered u can combine other classes🤦♂🤦♂🤦♂
whats nova?
Great question! Nova or "going nova" is using all of your resources at the beginning of a fight to try to win it immediately. It often refers to spending your highest level spells on the first turn, but I use it here to mean using your sneak attack, extra attacks and action surge all at once to maximize initial damage. Hope that helps!
I had to stop 3 mins in.
fascinating story
What a salad...
Gotta eat your vegetables!
That’s it, worst build ever possible goes to 😂😂😂
yea, this build is so terrible. i beat the game with it 🙄. how bout offer some actual criticism instead of being a dckhead
All right even if you are actively not using the stove skill because you are avoiding a line of sight and don't need to make the stuff check then it's totally pointless to quit ranks into stealth to begin with furthermore your heavy armor proficiency if you're going to go that route not only is going to give you a disadvantage on Estelle Trolls but it also totally negates any type of a bonus to Armor class for dexterity so the only thing that your dexterity is basically good for in this building of initiative and if you're going around one shotting everybody to give you sneaking up on them then you don't really need the initiative bonus either plus the dread ambusher is going to do to help with that so why if you're going to go with the heavy armor proficiency route are you even putting anything inside of your dexterity?
Punctuation, bro. Dang.
But anyway, he explained his reasoning at the beginning of the video. Consider it from the perspective of the game as a whole, not just situationally.
Hi! We primarily need DEX in this build because it's our main stat - bows use it for to-hit and damage rolls, so it's required. Initiative is also as you mention very important for both the Assassin feature and the Gloomstalker feature. Stealth is still very important as well - my point was just that it's not as bad as it might sound to wear heavy armor, but we'll still definitely be making some stealth checks.