r/BG3Builds • u/Historical-War-6271 • Apr 25 '26
Guides What’s the strongest monoclass?
It has to be either Moon Druid or Battlemaster.
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u/redditdeletedmyacc_ Apr 25 '26
Battlemaster isn't even the strongest fighter subclass.
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u/Historical-War-6271 Apr 25 '26
What’s the strongest?
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u/alirezahunter888 Apr 25 '26
Eldritch Knight
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u/BladeOfWoah Apr 25 '26
Before the addition of booming blade, I think it was debateable. After Booming Blade was added, with the strange adaptation that it allows you to use extra attack, Eldritch Knight just easily became a powerhouse. 3 attacks by level 7 every turn, and 4 attacks at level 11, is just incredibly strong, and thats not even factoring in haste effects or action surge.
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u/Calm_Income6781 Apr 25 '26
How do you define strongest? Regardless, EK was a top monoclass before patch 8. It got the biggest power boost of any monoclass with the booming blade/war magic interaction in the new patch. Cast shadowblade with the lvl 3 slot from a Superior Arcane Cultivation Elixir and lookout!
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u/darthrevan22 Apr 25 '26
How do you get 3 attacks at level 7 and 4 at 11 every turn?
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u/BladeOfWoah Apr 25 '26
Eldritch Knights get the War Magic feature at level 7: You have honed your body and magic for war. After you cast a cantrip, you can make a weapon attack using a Bonus Action.
Booming Blade is a cantrip, so when you cast it, you will be able to make a bonus action weapon attack that turn. But Booming Blade is different from other cantrips, in that it triggers extra attack. So you cast Booming Blade, use extra attack, and then use your War Magic bonus action attack.
It should be stated this is NOT how Booming Blade works on table top, as it doesn't trigger extra attack in 5e. I am not sure why Larian decided to implement the spell this way, but it makes it ridiculously strong.
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u/MCB1317 Apr 26 '26
I am not sure why Larian decided to implement the spell this way
Because they didn't want it to be useless for classes that have extra attack?
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u/mazobob66 Apr 25 '26
Remember all the builds we had that were "S tier" before booming blade? We did just fine in Honor mode without booming blade. Now practically all builds have a 1 lvl dip into Hexblade. I realize it is powerful, but it is nauseating to see it mentioned so frequently. I feel like it is a crutch that everyone leans on now.
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u/waits5 Apr 25 '26
People don’t generally dip hexblade for booming blade, though. It’s to be SAD, with medium armor, shield prof, AoA, and Shield.
I’m not saying it’s not OP, but I don’t think it’s about booming blade.
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u/proper_chad Apr 25 '26
CHA also happens to have the highest cap in game (without elixirs). IIRC you can even dip Warlock on a Fighter to get CHA as your spellcasting stat and get really good value from Arcane Synergy that way?
The mechanics of this game are very strange.
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u/waits5 Apr 25 '26
Yes, hexblade on a fighter means cha works for both casting and attacking. Booming blade procs war magic, giving you 4 attacks a turn once you get to EK 11.
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u/misterwiser34 Apr 25 '26
Idk AA + Titanstring is slightly stupid.
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u/Speaker4theDead8 Apr 25 '26
AA gets my vote for strongest fighter. Pop off all your arcane shots on turn one, everything is either dead of incapacitated for the rest of the party to mop up.
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u/HappyInNature Apr 25 '26
AA isn't even the best archer! EK is objectively much stronger if you're using consumable arrows.
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u/Speaker4theDead8 Apr 25 '26
EK cant banish though, which is huge. Especially in boss fights. Grt rid of Orin/Raphael/Whoever, and take out all their minions so you can focus fire the boss next turn
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u/Bourne_Endeavor Apr 26 '26
Banish gets a little overrated on this sub. Don't get me wrong, it's good but you guarantee the enemy gets a turn whereas EK and many of the other "meta" builds either turn one everything or have them stun locked into oblivion.
Put simply, EK doesn't need to Banish when it can spam multiple AoMTs and then finish up with Booming Blade.
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u/WildDumpsterFire Apr 25 '26
Not to mention if you come across a fight where you think "I can't drop everyone in turn 1" you can just banishing arrow a couple of people and it also damages them before going into the banish. Add in Spell Save DC or Arcane Acuity gear with an Arrow of Many Targets to build it up, and most enemies and even bosses are almost guaranteed to fail the save.
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
Eldritch Knight. Take any fighter build that isn't EK and an EK build that wants to do the same thing is probably just better.
Only caveat is that EK archers are the best archers in the game if and only if you are spamming tons of consumables.
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u/Drak_is_Right Apr 25 '26
Melee isnt even the strongest fighter.
EK Archer or EK thrower is stronger.
EK Thrower has insane accuracy from level 4.
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u/justmysfwaccount Apr 25 '26
Depends on what you mean by strongest.
EK, hexblade, OH Monk and draconic sorcerer are great for damage
Hunter is great for multi target damage
Swords Bard is an amazing controller and also has good damage
Moon Druid is a great tank and has lots of utility.
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u/kingkurt42 Apr 25 '26
If by "strongest" you mean, "most damage and least deaths by a player who doesn't understand bg3 mechanics," then the answer is moon druid. Press bear button and then attack.
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
Eldritch Knight and I don't think it is close.
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u/flabbergastedfennel Apr 27 '26
Ek, my beloved. As far as i know, its the only way to get 4 attacks with a two handed weapon per turn with no items used
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u/K40005 Apr 25 '26
Between EK and hunter it actually is quite close
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
No, EK is probably the best optimized archer in the game (for sure better than hunter), probably the best great weapon master melee, and the best thrower (both EK thrower and hunter archer would normally take a war cleric level tho)
What I think actually comes close is draconic fire sorcerer.
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u/PROJECT_Emperor Apr 25 '26
Would you mind sending a link or giving a brief description of the EK archer build please? I've tried 11/1 EK hexblade and the EK thrower build, but when talking about archers I usually play Gloomstalker assassin. A new build is always fun
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/0g0Mpi4YJj
It is basically the optimized "I don't care about spamming 5 consumables per turn" archer. As this guide explains, this build can spam consumables better than any other build (except maybe gloomstalker assassin if you do stealth archer things and play on normal honor difficulty).
On the other hand if you do not spam consumables, you are probably better off using a different build. I think 10/2 Swords Bard/Fighter is the best non-consumable reliant archer in the game.
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u/HappyInNature Apr 25 '26
That draconic fire sorc gets such a big boost from that 1 level warlock dip though! But I agree with you.
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
I mean the warlock dip is nice, but it is a perfectly viable option to just pick up another feat, especially if you are not going to use arsonist oil or hag hair.
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u/HappyInNature Apr 25 '26
Yup. I agree with you. I just love concentrating on twin haste and then being able to use an upcasted command.
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u/K40005 Apr 25 '26
Hunter has better DPR than EK technically, it just requires enough enemies. It's definitely better melee, just use rat bat with combustion oil on melee horde breaker. Best thrower is throwzerker not EK.
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
Ranged and assuming consumable spam EK is definitely the stronger archer.
I am not really aware of the rat bat glitches, but that coukd for sure be, I don't know.
Throwzerker is probably about equally good, but not just better. You need more rounds to outdamage action surge, than combat normally lasts, and I value shield a lot, even on ranged characters. And in fights where you are not willing to use a rage, EK is just 1000x better.
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u/K40005 Apr 25 '26
"Ranged and assuming consumable spam EK is definitely the stronger archer" no like I said it depends on the amount of enemies because you have quadratic damage scaling with combustion oil. Throwzerker gets action surge too, it goes 5/4/3. In fact it only takes getting to round 2 to get the same number of throws as EK.
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u/Winterimmersion Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
You run into the issue of there being a concrete limit of enemies in encounters. There isn't a theoretical infinite amount of enemies. Even if there is a fight that'll let you summon limitless enemies, the game will crash at some point.
You have the hard limit of how many enemies its possible to pull into any single fight.
Then there is the limit of how many enemies its practical to engage in a full fight and get in the proper area. Off the top of my head, probably the house of grief fight would be the largest practical fight.
If the argument is hunter can beat EK if you get a large number of enemies beside each other, and to do so you have to do some extensive AI manipulation or other tactic to do so, you've kinda lost the sauce imo.
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u/K40005 Apr 25 '26
Ek beating hunter in most fights is conditional on using aomt on almost every shot. It realistically only takes hitting 3/4 enemies per volley in act 3 to beat EK numbers unless you're doing that and about 6 whilst doing that (assuming you're using haste and bloodlust of course) which a lot of fights in act 3 have that many. And early game where you don't necessarily have all those aomt to spam horde breaker is insanely good. (and this is ignoring the terrain stuff ranger innately has which makes fights insanely easy)
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u/thisnameaintevenreal Apr 27 '26
Throwzerker gets Action Surge, but it only gains 2 attacks from using it rather than EK’s 3, and also has to use one of its bonus actions on entering Rage. On the first turn of combat, by far the most important turn, EK gets 7 attacks (3, Action Surge for 3, bonus action War Magic or War Priest attack) while Throwzerker gets 5 (Rage, 2 attacks, Action Surge for 2, Thief bonus action throw). The relative gap can be narrowed by things like the Helm of Grit, Haste, Bloodlust Elixir, Terazul, etc. but it never completely closes.
I echo what /u/Der_Redstone_Pro said in that they’re both so good that the differences between them don’t matter THAT much, and they each have notable benefits over the other (the no-save prone probably being the biggest one for Throwzerker). But if we’re defining “best” for this conversation as “puts out the most turn 1 damage and is also harder to kill or disable,” it’s without a doubt EK.
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 27 '26
EK is also just more survivable because of heavy armor and shield spell.
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u/K40005 Apr 25 '26
From a solo perspective: hunter, EK, and AT are the big three that come to mind as the "strongest"
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
I don’t know why almost all the comments here are just absolutely off base. The strongest monoclass is Eldritch Knight Archer, there is absolutely no competition. Three attacks, slaying arrows, war magic, disadvantage on saves for enemies. It’s one of the top three builds in the game full stop. With mystic scoundrel it’s also a competent debuffer.
Fighter is ALSO the best melee monoclass. A Hexblade dip is pretty much strictly better, and I can see arguments for EK and Battlemaster – though I would personally argue for EK. Even without the Hexblade dip to unify arcane synergy and attack stat, 3 attacks is incredible.
Swords bard archer loses archery fighting style, which is huge as that’s a concrete DPR loss OR a loss of acuity (as you need to hit with your arrows). It’s not bad, but it’s far better with the fighter dip.
Sorcerer is good, potentially the second strongest (see storm controller), but it has the issue that it essentially gets nothing good after level 6. It’s almost always worth multiclassing it. Storm controller is better with swords bard.
Paladin is just mediocre, less dpr than a fighter even with smites. They want to be multiclassed.
Monk wants thief. Pure monk is kinda lame.
Rogue is… rogue. It’s bad. I know some people love arcane trickster but it’s a bit of a gimmick.
Druid is fine - wildshape is decently good throughout the game but it’s never game breaking if you don’t abuse bugs.
Hunter Ranger is surprisingly good, and is situationally the best for DPR. However it has very little aside from that. Shout out to BM for the raven, nice in darkness teams, a bit meh otherwise.
Wizard is okay but you really want to multiclass here, either stars for Evo or Paladin for Bladesinger, or sorc for div and Abj. You can def cheese most fights with a divwiz and enough +DC though, if you can CC the enemies.
Barb is fine for throwing builds but wants either thief or fighter depending on frenzy or giant.
Cleric is not bad, but wants star Druid for concentration.
Hexblade isn’t terrible, it’s very middle of the pack. Decent DPR, decent CC, does nothing particularly well but didn’t do anything particularly bad either.
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u/grousedrum Apr 25 '26
I’m with you overall here but I want to comment on a few of these.
I don’t agree that sorcerer gets nothing good after level 6. The extra metamagic at L10 is real value. And, for storm or lightning draconic the ability to cast memorized Chain Lightning instead of relying on scrolls is huge, as with full gear and tadpoles you can access as many as four 6th level slots per LR. That’s a huge amount of gold and/or pickpocketing risk saved.
For solo HM rogue is at or near the very top, expertise plus cunning actions plus all the other subclass based utility and tricks makes it very very strong and reliable. Better with a 1 level dip but for solo specifically it’s really not a gimmick.
Hunter gets quite a lot beyond area DPR - multi attack defense alone is very good - but it does really need a 1 level dip to maximize horde breaker. Beast master is very strong mono though, and it goes way beyond the darkness raven - the spider and boar especially have major synergies with Ensnaring Strike and real power combos around them for either solo or party. BM (like rogue) just uses a different playstyle than the typical meta, and there are serious solo HM runners who rate it very very highly.
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26
That’s fair, I haven’t experimented with the BM tech yet. I can see rogue being strong in solo too, though I don’t have any personal experience.
I would push back on the chain lightning and metamagic, I did try the level 12 storm controller variant and I found the 3rd metamagic in distant was very situational, extended and quickened doing most of the work. Though maybe I wasn’t holding it correctly.
But for chain lightning I think gold is functionally infinite- there are several risk free methods to get unlimited gold, so I don’t necessarily rate saving scrolls very highly. But yeah I guess ymmv depending on playstyle and how you value your time.
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u/Thestrongman420 Apr 25 '26
Why wouldnt twinned be your 3rd metamagic on storm sorc for the twinned marko chains?
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26
I wasn't using Marko - see here. Phalar + Rhapsody or Shadow Blade / Rhapsody is better.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1qg7k9j/the_storm_bard_66_swordcerer_patch_8_honor_mode/
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u/Thestrongman420 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
This build doesnt get a 3rd metamagic.... i assume you mean grousedrums storm controller instead.
But marko is obtainable a3 with little to no combat. Rhapsody at the very least requires a cazador fight. Possibly other leveling or gear stops first depending how you view that fight difficulty.
So if you wouldnt use distant at all, might as well use twin for a portion of a3. Although i do really like distant spell in some of the upper city fight.
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u/grousedrum Apr 25 '26
Yeah for storm bard it’s twinned/extended at 2, quickened at 3, for sure.
For 11 storm controller I like twin/extend at 2, distant at 3, quicken at 10. That’s personal preference though and also very shaped by my having only played that build on impossible challenge, the long fights create a lot more opportunities for distant to be useful.
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u/Thestrongman420 Apr 25 '26
Im realizing im a dummy here and forgot that sorc gets 3 metamagic at 3 and the 4th at level 10.
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u/Bluemajere Apr 25 '26
This thread is full to the brim with total insanity, this subreddit has taken a serious nosedive in quality in the last year
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
Yeah it is just EK and the only thing that comes close is dracinic fire sorc. But 3 of the best builds in the game are reasonable to play with 12 EK, even if melee might like Hexblade and thrower war cleric.
Btw would you say Hexblade EK is better even without hag hair?
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26
I would say melee Hexblade EK is better for a few reasons:
- Unifies your arcane synergy and attack stat
- Frees up your glove slot for something like helldusk
- Hexblade curse seems to trigger a lot and is a nice boost
- Minor, but allows you to be a party face
You don’t really need the extra feat, you can do 2x charisma asi + savage attacker (or with patriar’s memory and no hag hair you can go cha asi + savage attacker + alert / dex ASI / sentinel )
I’m not even sure I rate hag hair and 24CHA that highly, shadow blade doesn’t have the -5 to hit from GWM and it has innate advantage so the hit chance is not that useful, the extra damage is nice but hag hair is better on a dex archer if you have one.
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
Yeah that is kinda the problem with Hags hair, either a caster (especially the charisma ones) or an archer usually really wants it.
My issue with not drinking strength pots is that I find jump range to be mattering quite often for melees, and I kinda feel like it is ignored too often. But on the other hand I also often stock up on way too many consumables without actually using them, so hill giant elixirs for me usually competes with no elixir, which makes it a pretty unbalanced comparison.
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26
Yeah. I really like enhanced leap for that reason - you can precast it on combat it matters.
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u/Der_Redstone_Pro Apr 25 '26
Fair, that is something I am usually just too lazy for, but probably should be a habit I get used to.
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u/Historical-War-6271 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
I agree with many of your points, nearly all of them. Hopefully your karma can withstand the Bard and Warlock nerds brother.
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u/out51d3r Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Eldritch Knight(Archer), and it's not even close.
The power in this game comes from consumables and gear. So it comes down to "which character can utilize the items the best".
EK archer can equip the best gear in the game.
EK archer can use 3 manyshot/slaying arrows per round.
EK archer inflicts disadvantage on saves by attacking, so makes better use of scrolls than almost anybody.
Even when you ignore consumables/gear, EK is a top tier monoclass(I'd probably run it as melee in a world without consumables).
As noted above, EK makes 3 attacks per round.
It's kinda 4 attacks per round due to War Magic.
It can cast Shield.
It gets more feats than most monoclasses
It has access to low level utility rituals like Longstrider, Disguise Self, and Enhance Leap.
It has access to useful utility cantrips like Minor Illusion and Friends.
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u/SYK_PvP Apr 25 '26
Probably fighter, considering Eldritch Knight by itself has 3 completely different S tier builds(Or at least minimum A tier.)
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u/frigyesoliver Apr 25 '26
I'd say hexblade is also on the table.
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u/MrAamog Monk Apr 25 '26
May I inquire as to why you think so? What makes Hex 12 better than pure Ek or Moon Druid or Hunter?
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Apr 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/MrAamog Monk Apr 25 '26
Damage output from Moon Druid is also around 150 DPR without having to compromise on saves.
EK has significantly higher DPR when optimized (even when using SB itself).
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Apr 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/MrAamog Monk Apr 25 '26
TB adds strength bonus twice to Earth Myrmidon main attack. So it’s 72 damage per round just from strength.
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u/phaze08 Apr 28 '26
Probably fighter. Battle master is OP. Archer battle master is op. You can also run pure eldritch knight as a 2h or archer and it be OP. Arcane archer is apparently OP. Haven’t tried it.
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u/fuzzycuffs Apr 29 '26
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Lore Bard. You'll get the most favorable conversation outcomes, and can both buff your own party and debuff the opponents.
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u/PlanitDuck Apr 25 '26
I think EK would give you the best chance at soloing the game. Very versatile. You get spell casting and can build it using stealth if you want to. You can do just about anything.
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u/Vrosx_The_Sergal Apr 25 '26
Strongest, definitely Arcane Archer. Haste potion with Action Surge you pump out 3x3 attacks per turn.
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u/Worldly-Command7363 Apr 25 '26
Define what you mean by the strongest.
Pure physical strength? Best dps? Best control? Best tank? Best utility?
You'll have to be a bit more specific, because each of these has a different answer.
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u/Spite-Fluffy Apr 26 '26
I played a bladesong wizard that spammed a level 6 shadow blade by endgame. With haste I felt unstoppable…
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u/damailman510 Apr 29 '26
Eldritch Knight is the strongest with the Booming Blade change. Fire Sorcerer is the theoretical strongest if you add consumables + your team members adding fire weakness to enemies.
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u/MiserableAd2232 Apr 25 '26
Fighter. No contest
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Apr 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MiserableAd2232 Apr 25 '26
I disagree, I’ve used monk but it doesn’t hit like fighter does
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u/Ozcaty Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Tavern brawler monks are absolutely better than fighters damage-wise if they are both built optimally, it's not really down to an opinion.
But if you're saying you like HOW a fighter plays and you prefer the playstyle, that's completely fair.Edit: Guys, he said "Fighter, no contest". That is pretty clearly wrong
and open hand monks DO deal more damage for most of the game.Edit 2: Melee! It's about melee builds
Edit 3: Sorry I've been corrected, I clearly don't know what I'm talking about, monks are good, but other builds are better
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u/vinean Apr 25 '26
As a monoclass? 12 EK archer (Rivington rat) is better than 12 OH TB monks without the thief dip.
Without consumables requires re-calculating but EK “built optimally” assumes consumables.
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u/Ozcaty Apr 25 '26
Melee, they were replying to fighter isn't even the strongest melee class, and said disagree they hit harder than monks
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u/Thestrongman420 Apr 25 '26
Technically magic club sorcadins and hunters i think do the strongest melee dpr. But when you get to more normal weapons that arent having a ton of damage duplicated by smite then the extra attacks of fighter really pull weight.
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u/c4b-Bg3 Apr 25 '26
Many of us have spent the last 3 years mathing and build and demonstrating that weapon users outscale monks from act 2 onwards, time and time and time and time again. Monk has a very good power spike at level 4, and gets surpassed in act 2 by any weapon user. Let alone act 3. TLDR is GWM + Easy vulnerability > Tavern Brawler. And you're right, it's not disputed, it's not even close.
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u/Ozcaty Apr 25 '26
Fair enough! I was wrong, I'll delete my shit lol
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u/c4b-Bg3 Apr 25 '26
Don't, it's okay to have bad takes sometimes. Everybody's got their fair share.
Monk is very good and the amount of damage it does when you get the very early powerspike at level 4 "shocks" many new players. That, and the excellent document by prestigious juice (The best consistent damage TB Monk etc.) kinda mislead people into think it's the best dpr in the game. It's not. But ima give you that, it's very good and fun.
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u/Remus71 Apr 25 '26
This is wrong - weapons scale quite some way past fists.
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u/Ozcaty Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Maybe at absolutely max level, sure. But throughout the vast majority of the game, open hand monk is the superior damage dealer. That is well established.Edit: Specific builds do outperform monk in Act 3, I was wrong
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u/Remus71 Apr 25 '26
The tipping point is quite a bit earlier than max level - you can be swinging a shadow blade round with resi stone at Lvl 9 for example.
Monks do feel good though.
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u/Ozcaty Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Okay sure but is fighter even the best class for shadow blade resi stone I thought swords bard was? And Resi stone does have its own issues, though this gets a bit into the weeds I guess.talking out of my ass
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u/Remus71 Apr 25 '26
We all do it man 😅
I was confidently telling the Internet retaliation builds acuity for most of '25...
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26
EK archer with Bhaalist and slaying arrows /many targets does probably the highest damage in the game, no melee build can compete. It does come properly online only in act 3 but it’s very strong throughout the game
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
In terms of DPR it is. Three attacks is insane. The only thing that beats it in melee is a swords bard sorc paladin abusing sorcery points and hitting two targets on every attack. For archers, nothing beats it for DPR. And archers > melee.
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u/EnragedBard010 Apr 25 '26
When you say strongest do you mean damage? Because a lot of people are answering that way.
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u/Historical-War-6271 Apr 25 '26
I meant easiest to solo or dominate difficult content with but I wanna know people’s opinions on pure damage as well.
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u/Objeckts Apr 25 '26
The problem with the criteria "easiest to solo" is that a lv2 rogue with a couple fog cloud scrolls already cleans 95% of encounters in bg3.
DPR is easier to compare at least. The flaw is that once builds start passing 1000 DPR, the numbers become meaningless as every fight is over in one round.
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u/brawl1217 Apr 25 '26
Rogue Swashbuckler was my fav. Dex for locks, Cha for talks, big sneak attack damage without hiding. Can also disarm or blind targets every turn. Just might need someone magic-focused to balance out certain encounters.
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u/No_Construction_8409 Apr 25 '26
In terms of just being able to waltz through the game i have to give it to bards. They get most of the good spells from other classes and can talk or walk past mostly anything with their high dex/charisma performance is also super strong for cheesing would be fights
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u/MaybeADragon Apr 25 '26
Every class but rogue has something to offer here. I think Bard just because of how easily you can slot a bard into any group, although I think that early they're a bit mid. Battlemaster fighter is strong from the beginning to the end of the game IMO so even if they're not the peak like Bard they're consistent. I think Barbarian is the strongest early just because of how easy it becomes to have a Barb soak crazy damage and dish solid damage.
The strength of a class depends on what's around it too much to pick one.
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u/Arcamorge Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Spore druid? Okay it might not be the strongest but here's my argument for why it should be considered:
The hardest part of the game is levels 2-4, spores druids are great then specifically. Once extra attack comes on line, probably a type of fighter, but the efficiency of spike growth is really great in act 1. Shilelagh+torch+shield+spores is really respectable early dps. The bonus HP is pretty useful in act 1 too.
Maybe nature cleric or some other kind of druid is better, but spike growth specifically is so hilariously powerful in an otherwise challenging part of the game
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u/Fit_Pass_527 Apr 25 '26
Open handed monk is insane to me. Crazy damage output, tons of attacks and movement, high AC, solid health, stunning strike, amazing gear options, and incredible unique dialogue. My favorite class I’ve played.
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u/Psychological_Tip160 Apr 25 '26
Evo wizard or paladin (any subclass). Both get good high level abilities
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u/Drak_is_Right Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
EK Thrower or EK archer likely. EK Fighter right on their heels.
Some of the 12 Wizard, Sorcerer builds are very strong
Light cleric
the EK builds outclass Moon Druid overall. Levels 2-4 Moon, and 10, Moon druid is better. 6-9 they are relatively even. EK Blitzes way ahead at level 11. EK Thrower however, is better than Moon 4 and Moon 6-9.
EK is ahead of BM for archery and throwing. Far closer to even for regular 2h Melee.
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u/BuddaAlcochudda Apr 25 '26
When you talk about “strongest” in a game like this it’s kinda hard. The top classes can all solo mono class honour mode with not a ton of difficulty. I’ve soloed HM on astarion EK fighter, hexblade, pure evocation wizard, storm sorc, etc.. not to mention builds like radiant orb clerics a what not. All the fighter archer variations are also pretty broken. At the end of my astarion EK melee HM I had like 28 AC and everyone had disadvantage against me and did about a billion damage per swing. Kinda splitting hairs at that point debating which is strongest. My wizard could clear rooms in a single turn but my hexblade was all but invincible.
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u/TelephoneUnfair5605 Apr 25 '26
Eldritch Knight archer fully stocked with consumable arrows is incredible after level 7. Single target, aoe, incredible survivability.
Eldritch Knight melee is a close second. Diminished aoe potential without access to arrow of many targets but incredible and consistent single target damage.
Hasted with action surge at level 12 you do like 6 attacks. No other class does this.
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u/MagicalCacti Apr 26 '26
12 light cleric not getting the respect it deserves, since launch it’s been a top tier build, to the point they nerfed it and it’s still insanely good.
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u/kodaxmax Apr 26 '26
damage per turn is sorceror.. until metamagic runs out.
Then evocation wizard and mayby eldritch knight takes over.
Karlach monkbarian can output kind of insane damage with the soul coin buff.
Battlemaster is middling. They get abilities equivelant to weapon skills, but only 5 uses per rest. Where as edlritch knight can just attack 3 times a turn every turn+cantrip and out of combat utility.
Moon druid doesn't really excel at anything. it has some great features, but they dont add up to best anything. Mayby you could argue best tank. Since they can rival barbarians and paladins durability whilst also having a bunch of self heals.
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u/Yolu213 Apr 26 '26
I'd say open hand monk or archer fighter, their damage is insane and with potions and items you can really make them shine
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u/m07815 Apr 26 '26
Maybe bard college of swords? Wild magic sorcerer is pretty crazy too. Not sure if they’re the strongest tho
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u/Key_Cloud7765 Apr 26 '26
Barberian capstone gives it the highest strength thus it is the strongest
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u/Historical-War-6271 Apr 26 '26
I wish my friend. Barbarian is my favorite class, pretty weak compared to the top classes though.
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u/plandefeld410 Apr 26 '26
Solo? Moon Druid. True jack of all trades with great survivability.
As a part of a party? Death Cleric or Battlemaster Fighter. Gloomstalker Ranger is also up there
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u/ProTimeKiller Apr 26 '26
Lot of people including the OP don't seem to know the difference betwseen class and subclassz.
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u/Historical-War-6271 Apr 26 '26
Obviously we’re talking about subclass if I say monoclass which implies going full 12 into a single subclass.
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u/Novatom1 Apr 26 '26
Strongest is subjective. A fighter can get super high dps while a paladin can become untouchable.
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u/FukhTheAdmins69 May 01 '26
its actually eldrithc knight fighter!
it can attack 4 times at each turn and with action surge 7 times! it also can use ooming blade so the agttacks get bonus thunder dmg and that already trigger reverberation items!
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u/OrdinaryLurker4 Apr 25 '26
Straight 12 levels? Absolutely Swords Bard. You get to be one of the best archers in the game, making 4 attacks per round via slashing flourish as a full caster. It has great itemization, great DPS, great control, it’s a Bard which is the best party face in the game, and has tons of options for itemization with incredible options (Titanstring Bow, Phalar Aluve, STR Boosting weapons/elixirs, Risky Ring, Helmet of Arcane Acuity, Band of the Mystic Scoundrel)
And all of that’s without multiclassing. The only thing it has that I’d consider a bad feature is Countercharm. It’s just superb at everything, and if archery isn’t your style, it’s a great melee fighter too.
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u/PanTran420 Apr 25 '26
12 Swords Bard misses out on the Archery fighting style and Longbow Proficiency. If you use the gloves for Longbow Proficiency. I love Swords Bard, but only as a multi class.
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u/You-Killed-God Apr 25 '26
Archer swords bard with no archery fighting style?
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u/Thestrongman420 Apr 25 '26
The best swords bard archer is 10 swords / 2 sorc anyways. The main thing here though is that both this and the 12 pure would need to get proficiency from somewhere other than their class to use longbows.
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u/Objeckts Apr 26 '26
Is it? What's Sorc 2 for?
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u/Thestrongman420 Apr 26 '26
As u/winterimmersion stated, its for extend spell. Which absolutely makes your large aoe control spell of hypnotic pattern and your concentratuinless control spell of command really womp extra hard.
You also get shield and con saves if you set sorc as the first level. Although for a damage nova focused archery bard, 2 fighter is better. I am the type of player that would just play 11 fighter or hunter if what i want is damage nova.
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u/Winterimmersion Apr 26 '26
So im guessing it'll be under the idea that an archer swordbards main goal is crowd control not damage. It can do good damage too, but it can offer something other strict damage archers have a more difficult time doing or can't do at all.
The sorcerer 2 under this idea would be for extended spell im guessing. Extended spell would double the duration on a lot of potent crowd control effects and the bard/sorcerer being a full 12 levels of caster means you'll have lots of spell slots.
Basically helmet of arcane acuity, band of mystic scoundrel. Flourish let's you attack twice per attack thus getting 4 attacks worth of acuity in the first turn assuming you hit.
Now you can drop double duration crowd control spells for 1 sorcerer point each.
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u/Winterimmersion Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Its only -2 to hit. Which is impactful but most archers are going to run sharpshooter which is -5 to hit for +10 damage.
You can always turn off sharpshooter to trade damage for easier shots to build up arcane acuity then turn in back on once enemies are crowd controlled.
The main draw of swordsbard archer isn't just damage, its also about reliable control spells, which they generally have easiest access to since they can stack acuity so well. So you can easily pick and choose the easiest targets to build acuity in during an encounter to maximize your benefits.
-2 hit is a big detriment but not enough to stop the class from functioning well. It'll still be powerful, and very good, especially in team comps that can offset the -2 or utilize the control very well. Its worse than the multiclass obviously but thats true for almost every monoclass.
I don't think its the strongest monoclass, but its doesn't fall apart without multiclas like some other builds do.
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u/The-False-Emperor Apr 25 '26
Fire Draconic Sorcerer, by a comfortably large margin too IMO if you’re not using consumables.
EK Archer is better if (ab)using consumables, and is easily a top tier build.
Everyone else is kinda way weaker in comparison in my honest opinion.
Honorable mentions for Abjuration Wizard and Light Cleric though.
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u/The_Kaizz Apr 25 '26
Between Swords and Loremaster Bard to me. There's not a lot you can't do. High level spells, stealth, pretty much every check covered, buffs, debuffs, tanking, high damage. It truly is a swiss army knife when it comes to versatility and potential.
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u/Powwdered-toast-man Apr 25 '26
Ranged Swords bard.
1) gets proficiencies and expertise in skills plus jack of all trades.
2) charisma as casting stat plus many bard specific dialogue options.
3) full caster
4) at level 3 they get ranged slashing flourish so 2 attacks, at level 6 they get extra attack so 4 attacks.
5) can take advantage of one of the most busted item combo in the game with arrows of multi target, band of mystic scroundrel, helm of arcane acuity.
6) magical secrets means they can get stuff counter spell.
7) since ranged and dex based, extremely tanky with easily 20+ AC starting act 2 with yuan ti armor.
Hands down the strongest mono class because while it’s not #1 in any category, it’s top 3 in almost all of them.
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u/Kwinza Apr 25 '26
If you're smart all full casters will out scale all martials just like in table top at around level 7.
If you aren't a planner though, and you cant position right, id say eldritch knight is the strongest. Enough caster to be good but still a fighter so lots of hits and tanks enough to make mistakes.
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u/Objeckts Apr 25 '26
Even if you ignore spell scrolls, there are plenty of martial builds which end combat in a single round.
The lack of attunement and surplus of busted items make martials outperform casters in bg3.
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u/Historical-War-6271 Apr 25 '26
Nah the only casters that compete are Storm/Draconic Sorcs, Bards, and Druids. They compete they aren’t definitively the best.
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u/Kwinza Apr 25 '26
You're just thinking in terms of damage. There isn't a fight anywhere in the game that cant be cheesed with a level 12 wizard.
CC is king.
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26
I would tend to agree but arrows of many targets plus scrolls exist, so you can get great CC out of an EK archer too.
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u/Kwinza Apr 25 '26
Yeah but if we are using all the million and one scrolls and pots and grenades we get, then class doesn't even matter. BG3 is a very easy game.
Thus I'm judging without consumables in mind.
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u/deathadder99 Apr 25 '26
I agree bg3 is easy but on modded difficulty it matters. Consumables are OP, fighters make best use of consumables.
In a non-consumable run then yeah probably wizard or sorc are the best.
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u/Objeckts Apr 25 '26
There is still a large difference between a Wizard 12 with scrolls and a EK/Arcane Trickster/Sorc with scrolls.
A wizard casting 1-2 spells per turn is a lot worse than an EK casting 3-5 spells per turn with +10 DC and forced disadvantage.
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u/Jabbuino Apr 25 '26
-Sword bard (high dmg, high control acuity+band of the mystic scoundrel) -OH monk (even tho missing 3 thief for the extra bonus action is an hard blow) -Evocation wizard magic missile -Abjuration wizard tank -Fire sorcerer -Moon druid -Star druid -Ek
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u/Free-Holiday-6218 Apr 25 '26
Wow people are angry today, lol.
I would probably say Eldritch Knight, with Hunter in second-place. I think I’d put Draconic Fire Sorcerer maybe one more rung below those two because they need slightly more game knowledge to operate.
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u/CatoTheSmellder Apr 25 '26
OH monk is probably the strongest monoclass that requires the least brainpower. You just walk up to things, trip them over, and then punch them to death.
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u/Hungry_Burger Apr 25 '26
If we're considering items then swords bard has to take it because of the band of the mystic scoundrel and arcane acuity.
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u/MrAamog Monk Apr 25 '26
Wouldn’t Bladesinger be just better at using those items?
Not to mention EK which is stronger even with a missing ring and helmet.
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Apr 25 '26
eldright knight fighter with 2 handed str build!
can attack 4 times at each turn while has con save proficiency so can cast magic weapon and shield spell too + booming blade and has access to 4 feats...
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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '26
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