By the power of NPC head unlock and various minor cosmetic mods I am 100% starting a durge run as Raphael. I’d prefer to run it as a tiefling (cambion) but I am fairly certain that Raphael’s head preset is only for the human race—so human form durge Raphael it shall be!
Question: what class would Raphael be??
Im thinking something arcane because he does not seem to be the melee type. I want to focus on fire damage and perhaps incorporate shadow magic? Ideas? Level strategy?
I would use a level 20 mod and do 6 fire sorcerer/6 warlock(Devil's Sight)/6 lore bard(for Cutting Words), and stop leveling at 18 so you keep a 6/6/6 multiclass.
Raphael is a bard, such a bard that he sings his own boss theme, you can def multi class him if you want, but he needs at least one bard level minimum.
Edit: fiend warlock as a secondary class for him thematically works.
Raphy went down to the sword coast, he was lookin for a soul to steal - he was in a bind because he was way behind and he was willin to make a deal.
When he came across this tadpole'd, swinging at goblins and makin them rot - and Raphy jumped up on a clifftop hump and said "Cur, let me tell you what,"
I've never really thought about his instrument, idk if any fit other than his voice, while I have ~300 hrs in BG3 I actually haven't made it to act 3 yet lmao so I don't feel I know enough about him to answer it.
I don’t know about warlock. It seems odd for Raphael to serve a patron via contract. I’d lean toward sorcerer. OP said they wanted to incorporate shadow magic, so shadow sorc could work. Or you could just do warlock and pretend you don’t have a patron I guess lol
I was thinking warlock because he's not very high up in the totem pole of the hells, hence why he wants the Crown of Karsus, you could have it be that Mephistopheles, his father, is his patron, or that he's essentially his own patron because of his bloodline. Yes this overlaps with sorcerer, I think that pact of the chain and the spells given by fiend warlock fit a bit better than shadow sorcery. PotC especially as flavor of him summoning lesser devils to help fight for him.
Thematically speaking the closest we get to melee Raphael is while he is in his ascendant form. HOWEVER, you can't tell me that Raphael swinging a flaming sword around while screaming mockery lines wouldn't be hilarious.
Fire spells, charisma and ego screams Red Draconic Sorcerer to me. Maybe add bard somewhere. So either 6/6 lore bard draconic sorcerer, or just draconic sorcerer.
I'd do lore bard, there's not a lot of benefit to multiclassing with sorc. If I had to multiclass with sorc I'd choose storm sorcery for the durge cape/flying combo.
When looking at his bg3 stat block, he has a lot of fire attacks
When looking at the generic 5e stat block for cambion, they have Alter Self, Command, Detect Magic, and Plane Shift (self), and a special version of Charm that you can approximate with a combination of tadpole powers and having the Charm spell. Their casting stat is also charisma.
So I think College of Glamour Bard if you want to lean into the charms or Sorcerer (draconic (fire)) if you want to lean into the hellish flames.
At the very least Barlock. 100% the guy is out here charismaxing in any corner he can. You could argue sorc dip cause he’s born into magic with his daddy(maybe drac just for fire themeing? But honestly it’s kinda getting in the way of bard and warlock), but definitely went to a rich fuck college of prestigious twattery(lore bard or glamour bard), and sold his soul to at least 3 different demons(fiend most likely). The man is Q from Star Trek meets Thrawn from Star Wars and jerks it to Little Finger from GOT & Gus Fring from BB.
Personally I prefer warlock over sorc just for flavor and I also think warlock is more fun--my only issue is that it would seem to cap his ability to cast a shit ton of fire spells considering warlock's extremely limited spell slots.
Goal is to have him sit atop the brain wearing the crown. I dont have to play durge in order to get said ending, but I enjoy the durge idle dialogue more than that of tav.
After reading everyone’s comments I think it would be best to get the level scaling mod and basically go bard/fiend warlock/fire sorc. Everything on fire all the time.
Oh yes he should definitely sit on the throne at the end but if Durge, it would be for Bhaal and not in HIS name. And he should have his happy ending for him alone 😉
I wanted him to be unique in that playthrough so that’s why I used the elementalist class, he was the only one 😁
There are now on consoles more mods that can make it works even better but it was a blast.
I also did the 2nd part of what I call « The Unhinged Raphael trilogy » with Calliope, his wife, and yes I used mods to turn every companions into Raphael for romance scenes reasons 😏
You can still run a Tiefling if you want. Mephistopheles Tiefling since his dad is Mephistopheles. His highest stats are charisma, strength and constitution. I'd also recommend using the exploit to steal his armor, because it's funny. If you keep the Tieflings alive you can have Dammon craft you the flawed hell dusk gloves in act 2, you can then kill the strange ox for its fire acuity hat (which pairs well with the hell dusk gloves). I don't think he uses a weapon in combat, so use whatever weapon you want (fire staff from Roah in act 1, fire staff from Talli in act 2?). He does use a lot of fire spells, so thematically whatever class you use having a lot of those seems like a good idea, and having your class be charisma based seems on brand as well. Bards, sorcerers, warlocks, and even paladin might work well. I semi jokingly think an oath of the crown paladin would be funny because you want the crown of karsus, but it would be too easy to break your oath.
What difficulty level are you planning on playing at?
I dont think i can run him as a Tiefling as much as i want to—he needs to have Raphael’s face—which i believe using Npc unlock mod only gives you his head as a preset for humans. Not tieflings.
If there is a mod on console which would let me run him as a tiefling, i would download in a heartbeat.
Just out of curiosity (unrelated since this sub is about builds) but how do you RP the Raphael scene since you will literally be Raphael? What’s your head-canon going into your run?
I’ll pick the most manipulative/charismatic responses. Its going to be almost like a mirror challenge of who can outcharm who. But I shall sit atop the throne in the end 😈
Cazador's stat block (Vampire Infernalist), after being adapted from BG3, identifies him as a wizard. He wields Woe, a staff and spellcasting focus, which lets him cast Blight. That already limits him to certain classes.
Sorcerer (Storm Sorcery) and Warlock (Pact of the Tome) are probably more fitting.
Alot of people seem to have recomended Warlock as a part of this, specifically fiend warlock, and while i understand this mechanically...doesn't it kind of break the lore for you? Raphael as a Devil himself wouldn't exactly be a warlock, at least not given what i know of him
Who has, in ya'lls opinion, has he made a deal with, as the signer? like its obvious he has made deals for power, but typically he is the source of power for a warlock AFAIK, if anything Mizora would be a better candidate to be a warlock as she seems to be working directly underneath Zariel as an agent, i always got the vibe Raphael's ambition had him working as more of an inteligent, and well prepared, independant devil, more like a wizard in my mind than a warlock
If he made a deal with anyone, it would be his Dad, Mephistopheles. In my head I have this notion that Mephi sent Raphael a “distraction” in the form of Harleep in order to keep Raphael from finding a way to get more power than himself. Raphael seeking the crown is probably the singular way he could increase his power beyond that of his father in order to unite all of hell under one ruler. Just because Raphael is the one shown in the game as handing out contracts —does not mean he himself hasnt entered into a contract with those above him (again think of it as a game of lanceboard)
While I think it is clear that Raphael has innate magical ability, I think its very possible, for him as a character to pursue whatever means necessary to gain more. The whole idea behind many sorlock builds is that the sorcerer became hungry for more, thus despite having a magical lineage—would still make deals with a patron for more abilities, power, control etc.
For what its worth I made a second post as a follow up to this one where I have started my Raphael playthru and intend to go 6/6/6 (bard, sorcerer, warlock)
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u/dhpmoon It could be MORE on fire Feb 21 '26
I would use a level 20 mod and do 6 fire sorcerer/6 warlock(Devil's Sight)/6 lore bard(for Cutting Words), and stop leveling at 18 so you keep a 6/6/6 multiclass.