Currently I’m testing out:

  • Dark Urge paladin/bard
  • Karlach four elements monk
  • Asterion Fiend warlock
  • Laezel Evocation wizard
  • Wahots@pawb.social
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    1 year ago

    Karlach/barbarian

    Shadowheart/cleric

    Gale/wizard

    Asterion/rogue

    …in summary, the defaults. I wanna hear their stories :3

  • jackfrost@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago
    • Half elf Order of the Ancients paladin
    • Shadowheart light domain cleric
    • Karlach beast ranger
    • Wyll champion fighter

    I wanted Karlach in the party, but I didn’t feel like I had room for her at the time as a barbarian. Booted Astarion and made Karlach a ranger so that I could still have rogue-like utility. Rogue or bard didn’t make sense for Karlach lore-wise. Made Wyll a fighter because it turned out that I could have another melee fighter, and I simply cannot figure out a way to make warlocks as combat-effective as the other classes. And I don’t like the absence of a proper spellbook anyway. But I like his personality. I chose paladin half-elf for the player character because there isn’t a good-aligned paladin option otherwise, and half-elves get a +2 charisma racial bonus and fey ancestry.

    At this point, I could probably restore Karlach as a barbarian and make Wyll a ranger. I like rangers because of the tactical options provided by pets. Particularly birds, because of how few enemy types are immune or resistant to being blinded. Plus, birds can cover ground quickly by flying, without using up an action. It’s effectively a teleport that you can use every round.

    Playing without a pure offensive caster seemed crazy at first, but it’s going all right on the standard difficulty. Shadowheart’s light domain spells fill in a surprising number of gaps – and they are particularly effective in Act 2, which is where I’m at now.

    The nice thing is, if I change my mind, reclassing is pretty inexpensive. Unlike many other games of this type, the price does not scale with the number of times you do it, or with character level, or anything else. It’s always 100 gold.

      • cayleaf@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I did the same thing as them. Yeah it’s goofy but I really wasn’t into the trickster domain and light is a lot of fun to play.

    • darth_helmet@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Warlocks can be incredible for offense: eldritch blast + agonizing and repelling blast invocations with high charisma is a lot of at-will damage. Pact of the blade lets you ignore physical stats and be in melee with any weapon. fiend patron is great as it gives you temp hp on every kill and access to fireball. My MC is a full warlock and consistently kills half the things in a fight. Repelling blast in particular is incredible if you keep an eye out for enemies near ledges. With good positioning you can be booping two enemies to death per action.

  • bleuy007@artemis.camp
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    1 year ago

    I’m really enjoying this setup:

    Custom Asmodeus Paladin - Oathbreaker (does a bit of everything)
    Karlach Barbarian - Wildheart (Frontline)
    Shadowheart Cleric - Trickery Domain (Support)
    Astarion Rogue - Thief (Stealth Archer)

    My typical strategy is for Karlach and my character to storm in and do a bunch of damage up close, while Astarion sneaks around for stealth attacks, and Shadowheart handles the buffs and whatnot (aided by my character, who also has Eldritch Blast).

    Working really well so far! Plus, my character can speak with the dead and handle speech checks, Karlach can speak to animals, Astarion can pick locks, and Shadowheart helps out with rolls as well (I can’t remember what that is called at the moment). So lots of bases are covered outside of combat!

    • Godric@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Are you me? That’s literally my exact setup, only with a Mephistopheles Tiefling because I initially started as a Warlock.

  • _spiffy@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Dark Urge Monk Hexblade will Wild magic barbarian karlach Trickster cleric shadowheart

    I run trickster for shadowheart because mirror image divine shield is stupid good.

  • ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago
    • Custom Drow Wild Magic Sorcerer
    • Shadowheart (Trickery Cleric)
    • Karlach (Berserker Barbarian)
    • Astarion (Arcane Trickster Rogue)

    I’m finding that four party members is too few for my liking. Benching Astarion means having to go back to camp for him every time I encounter locks or traps, which is too annoying to bother with, and Shadowheart is always needed for Bless in combat and Guidance on checks (I provide my own Enhance Ability). That means I really only have one flex slot, since I can’t bench myself, and it needs to be a front liner since I’m not one.

    The previous two BG games had six person parties, which was way better. I would like to be able to bring Lae’zel as a second front liner, and Gale because he knows all the utility spells.

      • ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        I found one but it says it might break things, so I’m waiting for one that’s more stable. Also ideally you’d rebalance encounters around the increased party size, but that would be a massive undertaking so I don’t expect a mod to ever do it.

    • expr@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I definitely agree in wanting a bigger party size. 5e is pretty optimized around 5 person parties. 6 is a bit harder to balance around, but still doable.

  • Sebeck0401@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    Are there any negative consequences for respeccing the origin characters? (barbarian Gale, etc)

    • luxyr42@lemmy.dormedas.com
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      1 year ago

      Just the 100g cost as far as I can tell. Sometimes it might make story beats weird, like if a character naturally is a warlock, their patron might show up even if you changed them to fighter.

  • Anafroj@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    My party is level 4.

    • Cleric of Talos (the chaotic evil god of storm and destruction), Tempest domain (obviously)
    • Shadowheart, default class (we’re the couple of doom!)
    • Asterion, default class, subclass assassin
    • Gale, default class, subclass school of necromancy

    Not like I have a choice, anyway, we killed all other companions (except Wyll, who left by himself before it happened). They started it!

  • pyrflie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I swap party members in and out a lot, mostly for story reasons, but here is how I built them:

    • MC: Ancients Paladin 7/Swords Bard 5 - Polearm Master, Sentinel - Lockdown Tank/Support
    • Karlach: Wolf Wildheart Barbarian 8/Thief Rogue 4 - Great Weapon Master, Tavern Brawler - Heavy Weapon Beatdown, Advantage Generator, Skill Monkey - MVP build
    • Astarion: Thief Rogue 3/Swords Bard 7 - Sharpshooter - Skill Monkey, Machinegun - MVP build
    • Gale: Conjuration Wizard 12 - Utility, Control, Haste-bot
    • Lae’zel: Eldritch Knight Fighter 11/Rogue 1 - Tavern Brawler, Sentinel - Gith Dragoon - MVP build
    • Shadowheart: Light Cleric 11/Druid 1 - Blaster, Support
    • Wyll: Fiend Warlock 6/Vengence Paladin 6 - SMITE
    • Halsin: Moon Druid 10/Monk 2 - Wildshape Tank
    • Jaheira: Land Druid 12 - Blaster, Control
    • Minsc: Gloomstalker Ranger 4/Bear Wildheart Barbarian 8 - Tavern Brawler - Improvised Weapons Control Tank
  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Running a vanilla group. Nothing fancy.

    Bard, barbarian, fighter, cleric.

    It’s got smashy smashy, some heals, and a groovy beat.

    Oh, and the bard is wearing Minthara’s underwear. 😆

  • darth_helmet@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    MC Tav Gith warlock 9:

    • fiend+blade pact for up close
    • eldritch blast + agonizing + repelling for ledge boops and while closing gaps
    • gith for medium armor and the totally bonkers ancestral knowledge. I have proficiency in effectively all skills, and charisma for winning dialogue
    • using sorrow for reliable bonus action attack+yank

    Shadowheart trickery cleric 9

    • “you cast guidance”
    • spirit guardians, guardian of faith, and spiritual weapon can all be going at the same time
    • a magic bow that causes the frightened condition is the cherry on top.

    Karlach paladin 6/barbarian 3

    • you can smite while raging
    • those couple extra free racial smites are nice
    • currently ancients + berserker, but planning to switch to wild magic
    • using blood of lathander

    Gale evocation wizard 9

    • “I didn’t ask how big the room was, I said I cast fireball”
      • Why9@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think Tieflings get searing smite and branding smite as racial skills that can be used once per long rest. They cost an action and are definitely a nice to have as a Tiefling Paladin MC

  • GataZapata@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Currently :

    MC deep gnome warlock2/bard7
    Karlach 9 battlemaster
    Wyll 6battlemaster 3assa rogue (ranged bow)
    SH 9 light cleric

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    I have… problems long resting as much as the game wants me to. Long rest classes give me stress. Also I don’t really optimize builds much, but

    • main character half elf fey warlock, pact of the chain
    • wyll as pact of the blade
    • laezel as 23 ac battlemaster sword and board. She’s basically indestructible. Heavy armor master + adamantine armor means she can’t be crit, and damage is reduced by 5.
    • shadow heart as her default cleric, but honestly she’s not pulling her weight a lot of the time. Spirit weapon is nice but misses a lot and has butt for movement speed. Spirit guardians is real nice, admittedly. Cleric cantrips kind of suck.

    On the other hand, two warlocks with devil’s sight and gith lady with an “immune to blind” ring is extremely effective. Shadow heart can chill out in the dark with spirit guardians, too.

    Only in act 2 though we’ll see how the rest of the game goes!

    • Ready! Player 31@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      If you want to focus on short rests you should pick up a bard. Song of Rest effectively gives you an additional short rest per long rest.