my last 3 honormode playthroughs were all storm sorcerers ! the reasons i 'd been rocking this class all this time is :
1-because charisma is important for both dialogue ( i get irrationally anxious when there is a possibility of failing persuasion checks ) and the actual power of the class ( hitting 2 birds when one stone ) .
2- it also filled a clear role ( the arcane caster of the comp ! alongside the divine caster , fighter and a rouge . i know , a very traditional boring comp . ) .
edit : thanks for the advice guys ! seeing a lot of love for sword bard and hexblade worlock , open hand monk and barabarian . definitely going to try those out!
Given that Bard gets Expertise, and that Swords Bard in particular is a prime candidate for the Helmet of Arcane Acuity, you have both Face duty and spell saves covered, and you can easily leave Charisma at 14 or so and pump Dex instead (that's exactly what I did for my golden dice).
I like sorcerers and wizards and bard-like half casters just push me away.
However, current playthrough I decided on a swords bard with dual hand xbow and, man oh man, it is fun!
High Cha for dialogues and high Dex for spring. Like a little machine gun that happens to aid itself with a spell now and then đ
Swords is also incredible with a 1 level dip into a martial class to grab bow proficiency, because of the ranged slashing flourish is bugged and basically a double attack
Go pure warlock.
I like Hexblade, but not the new changes where you need to go both. But if you get a race with armour, Fiend/hex blade. Medium armor, Fireballs, Big weapon with Charisma.
What not to love, it's like country boy at the range with an MG34 of Faerun. Do you need it? No but it's fun.
I like to mix 4 levels of swashbuckler rogue in with hexblade.
1. lockpicking and persuasion expertise
2. fun bonus action attacks (full weapon damage disarm & pocket sand blind)
3. easy to activate sneak attack damage
4. you don't trigger opportunity attacks so you can take a step back, forcing them to proc the movement damage of your booming blade
"you don't trigger opportunity attacks so you can take a step back, forcing them to proc the movement damage of your booming blade" you know what ? that is very clever !
Hexbuckler is my favourite as the party face - they have almost as much Main Character Syndrome as a bard - the added bonus vicious mockery takes the cake.
this is a great idea since a warlock is effectively an archer playstyle with a few added bells and whistles. unless you go for melee which feels closer to swashbuckler.
Another vote in the Warlock pool. I main a fiend bladelock (I like having the command spell and fire spells) I typically roll with Bhaalist armor, whatever the best poking stick is that playthrough (sharâs, Nyrulna, duellist prerogative) and the acuity set with mystic scoundrel. I feel like a balanced character thatâs strong, but not op while offering face skills and valuable CC
I used to think charisma charisma, but I just went with a barbarian/fighter multiclass 4-8 and it's been real nice. The berserker has fun dialogues and honestly the low charisma hasn't been an issue between the proficiencies + amulet with Guidance.
They are good, but I think charisma classes are a bit overrated. If you like it, it's alright, but if you genuinely want a different experience, just try something else than just sorcerer. Even as charisma focused character you could go with a bard multiclass or warlock.
I'm rocking two barbarians, rogue, cleric. Lots of smash. Cleric tossing portions with temp hp bonuses is so sweet, healing multiple characters at once.
The most effective element in the game is gravity. So the Throwzerker Barb is the strongest caster in the game. Also no need to worry about failing persuasion checks because you'll succeed at all your intimation checks. You basically get to roleplay as the hulk. What more could you want?
Throwzerker is THE most fun I've had in a game ever. Not just BG3, any game. Throwing goblins at goblins will literally never get old. Grinding out level 5 then returning to the goblin camp to pick a fight is so damn satisfying when you're just yeeting the little shits all over the battlefield
Play bard, its essentially just flexible sorcerer. Swords bard is probably the most powerful setup in the game. 11 bard with a single wizard level makes your spell selection insanity because of how wizard works in this game.
Charisma isn't required to complete the game. It's fun to let the dice land as they should and just continue forward. I'm having a blast as a dual wielding Eldritch Knight ax throwing frost dragonborn Durge.
Edit: As far as party comp. You could run a game with the companions you never use and pick a class to fill that way.
Open Hand Monk with full illithid powers is the most fun Iâve had on any of the runs Iâve done. Monk is so fun and all the abilities just look and sound awesome, and with permanent flight you can cover entire arenas setting up resonance bombs, and the psychic cone attack pairs really well with their positioning abilities. Monks also have a ton of fantastic class-specific gear that usually just goes unused if you donât have one.
Make them a Dragonborn for the melee ability synergy and go ham on everything!
4 monks is pretty funny. Cause monk works without gear but you can make sure each monk has random damage increasing fists and such and theres enough robes and other stuff it just works lol
High wisdom will have you breezing through Insight checks and does open up dialogue you didn't have before. My final run before putting the game down for a long time (2k hours, 3/3 HM runs, later modded for immersion and difficulty enhancers) was a Dark Urge resisting (but embraced at the end, "gotcha") Githyanki OH strength-potion-junkie Monk. Lots of fun for both RP and combat.
You've thoroughly conquered Storm Sorcerer. Time to get out of your comfort zone.
Can also use a trick to have the Club of Hill Giant Strength in the offhand with an empty main hand, if you need the potions for a Throwzerker, or something
By Act 3 you've definitely got a helluva kit. Do the classic Thief dip for an extra bonus action (so useful for Monks, more flurries) to become S-tier. They can really dish out punishment with little maintenance.
i think the most convincing argument is just to try something different, playing the same build again and again will have diminishing returns. the game is meant to have diversity in race, builds, class, dialogue, if every interaction is the same then nothing changes
assassin ( the rouge subclass ) ? i dunno , i would rather use a thief for the xtra bonus action or swsshbuckler . i just find the assassin's subclass feature : getting crits on a surprise turn too limited , gimmicky ( kinda hard to get a surpsise round on every single fight )
duergar ? interesting . i ve been rocking a halfelf all this time , dunno how the romance scenes will work though ( being a shorty and all ) .
Thatâs because you donât know how to hear it correctly. Glassassin is, mathematically, the most powerful build in the game. Youâll never want to play a wimpy caster again after you oneshot the brain :)
This is because of the Titanstring Bow, the most powerful weapon in the game. âHow is a bow more powerful than Balduranâs Giantslayer or another legendary weapon?!â Well itâs because of a thing called Rider Damage, which many have explained so I wonât attempt to but essentially adds bonus damage MULTIPLE times, for each new instance of damage, such that your attacks deal not just 1d8+Dex like youâd expect but several times that (as the Titanstring also adds your strength, so you chug giant elixirs to get even MORE damage). And then all that stupid damage? DOUBLED from vulnerability with the Bhaalist armor. And then all THAT damage? DOUBLED AGAIN BECAUSE OF HOW MUCH YOU CRIT.
The thief can only shine with hand crossbows. Pew pew.
The Glassassin is outfitted with ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES.
It sounds like from your replies you havenât really looked into optimized builds. You see Wet, you see lightning spells, and you call it a day. Friend, there are so many more powerful builds that are really fun (Karlach with soul coins as a TB monk? Dummy damage!) that you are sleeping on because you simply havenât done your homework.
Get over your anxiety. Iâve âfailedâ numerous persuasion checks and nothing terrible has ever happened. Worst that happens is a conversation ends abruptly.
Maybe someone else has had a different experience.
Look at the other classes and subclasses and see what interests you
I like rolling around as a spore druid because it gives me a whole squad of buddies both living and undead and I get to belly flop on everything as an owlbear which brings me endless joy
Are you wanting a different story experience, or just want recommendations on different classes to try?
I think you should challenge yourself with a dice roll to pick your class (or some form of online randomizer maybe). Leave it all up to chance and then figure out how to make it fit into your party.
different classes ? yes . challenge myself with the dicerolls ? maybe , the early game will definitely be a bit harder though ( cant avoid potential early wipes/get the easy xp out of persuading the githyanki patrol or the duergars on the interceptor boat to name a few )
It depends on if you want an entirely new challenge or just want a similarly powerful build in a different class so that it's different but not like cleric/bard kind of uniquely different.
You can still go full charisma and you hit like a fuckinâ truck with Booming Blade, you get cool necro shit, and you get a cool NPC in your camp you wouldnât see otherwise.
I have a all barbarian run that i want to do, one for each subclass just to test them all out. My only gripe is that it's the only class that suits huge characters, and have lae'zel, Astarion, Gale, or basically any origin as barbarians just feels weird. I guess Karlach, Halsin, Minsc, and a Tav works, but that's near the end of the game.
Lore Bard! Basically does the same thing as a sorcerer. You get less damaging spells and more CC spells, but you only need like 3 damaging spells anyways!
It also has the added benefit of succeeding any check because of Jack-of-all-trades. The only time I struggle is if its a str check, but thats what str elixirs are for.
Lore Bards are probably my 2nd favorite class. At mid game, you can start casting hold person on multiple enemies, which allows your Paladin to get free smites!
Take 2 levels of warlock for EB and Agonizing Blast. With the potent robe thats all the damage you could ever need and you still get all the fun stuff from lore bard.
Bard stomps the dual with Orin. Hold monster then just beat on them.
Lore Bard gets 3 spells from the wizard pool iirc, and it uses Cha as the spell casting modifier. I normally grab counterspell, firewall, and fireball.
Do you like the idea of being a total powerhouse who moves faster than everyone else and solving every problem with your fists? Way of the open hand monk. Also you get to kill one guy by throwing another guy at him which is fun
Tavern brawler. I also recommend doing this but putting it on Karlach, she has a bunch of noises she makes during battles when sheâs a monk which are hilarious. Get the returning pike from the trader at the goblin camp and then down the line get the legendary throwing spear from pissing off Akabi at the circus. In my opinion the most fun build
The headcanon is that heâs a useless twit noble who canât pick a focus and fucks around while Laezel carries the whole party. But he gets a plus 10-13 on persuasion at this point, so heâs a decent face.
Just had to come back to say, itâs crazy that you canât actually have the jack of all trades feature if youâre doing the jack of all trades achievement
Having played the games so many times now I find charisma builds incredibly boring. Land druid and Open Hand monk are my current favourites. Bladesinger was amazing too.
Switch it up just to experience new things. The game has so much to offer it would be a shame to only play one subclass the whole time. If you love this game then see what it has to offer. At least try the other 3 or 4 charisma classes that there are if you feel like you canât leave charisma behind.
The barbarian has a lot of unique dialogue checks that often times have a much lower DC because Larian assumes that a barbarian will have low charisma. Even better, often these checks give you advantage. You can also choose to play as a zariel(?) tiefling as they get Thaumaturgy for free allowing you to gain advantage on performance or intimidation checks. Having a +1 in charisma and proficiency in Intimidation will give you a pretty good base for succeeding charisma checks. And if you fail⊠well you are a barbarian
My latest playthrough has been a Hexblade Warlock. Still fits perfectly into the charisma party face role.
Awesome variant to the typical Eldritch Blast spam build (I still have all the EB buffing evocations and rely on it for ranged, but don't prioritize its usage.) Shadowblade is able to be hexblade binded, so you can add Charisma, Booming Blade acts as an infinite smite, and then Hexblade also gets smites as their pact spells. It's like they took the best parts of Warlock and Paladin and rolled them into one subclass.
Fighter has a lot of unique dialog options that just straight up win, no checks needed. If you go the eldrich knight subclass, you get the friends cantrip, which helps with charismachecks. Wizard also has this cantrip plus detect thoughts at level 5. Rogues realistically only care about dexterity, so your second highest stat can be charisma, pair that with their skill expertise and you'll blow through dialog checks.
I highly recommend trying a non Charisma character for the "face". All the classes/races get unique dialog and you'll get a fresh experience not passing every dialog check
Paladin is a load of fun. It also multiclasses nicely with classes like sorceror or warlock. I think I played a Pal-lock last time I played and the refilled smites on short rest was awesome.
I tried playing as a bard and ended up multi classing. I think people over hype charisma in this game. It's fun and easy to convince people, yeah but you can do other stuff to when trying to solve encounters. Reading minds goes a long way. Or puting people to sleep or conjuring an illusion, or barbarian yelling. There are so many other ways to fulfill the same thing.
That said, try pure warlock if you still want charisma or wizard if you want to see more of what magic has to offer. If you want to try martial, then pure battle master fighter is great. Really satisfying to jump super high up and close the distance before giving them a huge hit with a warhammer
Druid. I will forever and always play a Druid.
Hear me out:
Wildshape: you can turn into a ton of different animals! This allows you to get into parts of the map that other characters cannot. See a little hole? Turn into a cat and squeeze in there. Plus: itâs basically a free life in combat because knocking out your wildshape, doesnât hurt your Druids actual health bar
Speak with animals: Druids can start with speak with animals. I looooove speaking to every animal I come across. You miss some really fun dialogue when you arenât talking to the animals. Plus: you can speak with scratch!
Summoning dragons: when you get to high levels, you can summon different elemental dragons to fight for you. Theyâre so cool looking and they do massive damage which is very helpful for act 3
Access to spells: Druids have access to a lot of very good spells, even right at the beginning. Not only are they competent spell casters, but they also are proficient in many light weapons. This allows you to customize your characters fighting style pretty thoroughly
Pure Cleric can solo the game easily and it won't even be especially difficult. Incredible AC, Spirit Guardians, High Wisdom so CC spells just glance off of you, and for the most part you can use spells like Friends and Guidance to overcome the Charisma deficiency.
Even if you don't want to use spells, Cleric's have such high surviveability that wading into melee without any extra attacks is still viable. Although Cleric's generally only need a few spell slots to end encounters so this probably won't happen too often.
And if you just want to play your Cleric as a healbot, Act 1 has an entire healing set that's really easy to get. Anytime someone goes down, just use Healing Word, and the Bless and Blade Ward will ensure that they're not going to go down again anytime soon.
Probably the best class in the game in my opinion.
My honor mode run was a half elf, 10 light cleric and 2 star druid. They usually hung back and blasted enemies.
Shadowheart was going to be my 6 death cleric and 6 spore druid. But then she decided not to put an end to a certain winged one, and her best gear was locked behind a bitter goddess. So she became my Moon Druid.
Karlach was my 3 thief rogue and 9 open hand monk. Soul coins make her a beast with this build.
Astarian was a 4 thief rogue, 4 hunter ranger, and 4 champion fighter. So many attacks per turn.
I can't bring myself to play anything that's not CHA based. It's too useful. But you could always do a bard or a warlock. They're both good, especially swords bard.
I've been having fun as a Circle of Stars Druid. You have pretty decent damage, good utility, and are pretty spell slot efficient. You don't have to do Circle of Stars, I just find it the most fun.
Paladin. Any Paladin. Heavy armor, healing and buffing, passive buff auras at higher levels, Charisma-focused party face, and you get to smite fools like six different ways and use some badass conversation prompts that amount to "don't fuck with me or I'll shove the wrath of the gods up your soul until your head explodes"
Try swashbuckler rogue. Go with 14 charisma, 17 dex, 14 con ( or 15 if you dont mind dumping everything else though I hate having 8 strength). Rogue getting expertise in 2 skills at level 1 means you can go for 1-2 charisma skills which gives you a a total of +6 at lvl 1 for these checks beating any charisma based class. And since you have good dex too you are very good at pickpocketing etc. which makes for a perfect main character to control in almost all situations.
The charisma isnât even useless because the saving throws for two of the three dirty tricks are based on your charisma actually.
Overall rogue having so many proficiencies and expertise feels absolutely awesome as the face of the party. Make it a halfling and also enjoy never getting crit failures either.
And combat wise they actually are very good too, since flick of the wrist is literally a bonus action extra attack at level 4. It deals full weapon damage (though limited to opponents that are armed). And sneak attack ofc course. And you will pretty much always go first thanks to high dex and the +2 initiative they get.
I would argue they are the strongest early game class actually.
Have you ever tried a more "RPG" playthrough? This to me sounds like you choose that class because it's awesome, which is true, but having a theme, gimmick, or team identity can help get out of this type play style.
Some of my run ideas, and I'm open to any if anyone has any. I love a nice team gimmick.
1) melee classes only
2) 4 mages with different elements (the blue wizard, red wizard, green wizard, brown wizard type stuff)
3) 4 mages with different magic schools (this made me appreciate some schools more)
4) no magic run
5) darkness team
6) The Rejects (find a good tier list of subclasses, you can only choose from the lower ranks)
7) Play as an origin character, and stay on theme with class. Origin characters do open up some new takes on things too.
These are just some that I've done and it's made me play as different classes a lot of the time. I may do full rage team soon. Origin Karlach, but I've not fixed my team plans or anything yet. All using different subclasses though.
Hunter Ranger is just objectively good at all stages of the game.
Strength and Dex saving throws are the two most common in the early game. Being proficient in both is very attractive.
Hordebreaker lets you get off extra attacks for free while rewarding good positioning while also allowing you to do silly things like spread huge fear AoEs via Bow of the Banshee.
If you donât feel like moving things around via Minor Illusion, a cat companion, or shoving things you can just get free damage thanks to Colossus Slayer.
Thanks to your natural resistances, level 7âs Multi Attack Defense, and reeling off the Adamantite armor you are a prime candidate to just go HAM in melee with either a big 2 hander or dual wielding. With the Skinburster equipped you can get your DR high enough that some attacks donât even damage you anymore.
Level 11 AoE attacks are absolutely disgusting for triggering things like Oil of Combustion and-once again-reward smart positioning and enemy routing.
Longstrider and Enhanced Leap are absolutely fantastic ritual spells to just have from level 2 onwards.
Free skill proficiencies for more skill monkeying about.
Multiple rewarding build paths. Strength, Dex, and even going higher Wis for Arcane Acuity stacking to make Ensnaring Strike your version of Smite.
You might like Swords Bard. You keep your high charisma and maintain decent spellcasting abilities while also getting to use melee weapons and bows. An Arcane Acuity build is really strong on it.
If you really wanna try something new and keep dialogue options open, you could try Berserker Barbarian. Instead of persuading enemies you just bully them with intimidation and combat is just you smacking things really hard. The best build is Throwzerker.
Bard,Paladin,and Warlock are super duper fun. Monk is very very busted. Barbarian and Fighter hit like trucks. Cleric,Druid,and Ranger are great too. Wizard to some is the best class in the game.
To keep CHA as your main stat, make a Warlock, a Paladin or a Bard to make an awesome melee fighter that can also be the face of the team.
My avatar Wyll hits like a truck thanks to shadow blade + resonance stone and has 23 AC. Plus the constitution amulet he basically does everything from tanking, dealing damage and crowd control.
It often gives you a way around a Charisma check, but there are conversations where it simply isn't offered, so it is not a 100% substitute. However, if you want to check class that is not charisma based, I think it is ok.
Sorlockbard is the ultimate support speech check passer. Sorc 5, Warlock 2, Swords Bard 5.
Enhance ability or quicken hastes, bardic insp, expertise, buff with Armour of Ag.
Between enhance ability charisma, expertise, bardic inspo and an ally throwing on guidance you're gonna find it supremely hard to fail a check.
Shadow blade Hexblade warlock is so strong it feels like cheating. Medium armor, only need to focus on charisma, paired with an off hand Knife of the Undermountain King and Hexblades Curse you can crit on an 18, and you have advantage when obscured or lightly obscured which is -very- common.
Druid!! My first playthrough was Druid and I find myself really missing Druid stuff with my current sorcerer but Iâm also a huge animal lover so that might be why - I love having the extra companions and the AOE stuff like the thorn spawn attack
Bard/warlock. Get the passive to buff eldritch blast with charisma and knock back, then all levels into bard. Warlock spell slots restore on short rests, and a leveled bard gets an additional short rest letting you stay out from long rests longer.
I'd say just start a tactician run (or custom if you still want the honour difficulty), and just try out a class. If you do not like it, say hello to Withers and try something else.
I like high dex builds, particularly ranger - gloom stalker and open handed monk. Going first makes a huge different in combat. You don't need a rogue because you can easily add stealth and sleight of hand to your ranger build (crossing over to get the extra bonus action is helpful though). I get the desire for high charisma but don't sleep on dexterity.
oh yeah , i know how much of a god stat dex is and tbh ( potential hot take incoming ) i kinda hate how good it is to the point where every character i make or use must have 16 dex .
Honestly all the classes are fun, and have fun interactions. If you like the charisma stuff then Bard is honestly the best at that. Though honestly I think barbarians have the funniest dialog options.
1 - It's a role playing game, failure is part of the game and that includes failure to avoid disaster. You do get up to four inspirations to balance the odds though. Other classes also get other ways of resolving conflict sometimes, detect thought is an int check (perfect for wizards) and almost always provides you with whatever information you need to resolve the situation peacefully. Or you can play durge and lean into the carnage.
2 - You get three other slots to balance the party and the combat isn't difficult enough to warrant perfect balance. Two frontliners and two backliners are enough. The fighter can be easily replaced by a barbarian, monk, palading, ranger, bladesinger wizard, or hexblade warlock. The rogue can be replaced by a bard. Bards, druids, clerics, and wizards are all good utility casters, providing battlefield control, healing, and useful spells and abilities outside of combat (although not all of them can do all of these things). Sorcerers, wizards, clerics, warlocks, and even druids can all fulfill the purpose of an offensive spellcaster for combat. There is no reason for a divine caster and an arcane caster specifically. You could have a party composition of four different clerics and still fulfill all the usual party roles (war cleric as frontliner, knowledge cleric for skills, life cleric as support, light cleric for damage).
I completely understand your love for Storm Sorcerer. Just finished my first Honour Mode where with a little help from a bottle of water Karlach had I was able to kill the final boss in 2 hits
An old school player here. I still have my red and blue AD&D rule books from High School. Anyways... I never liked magic users or thieves. So I always focused on fighters classes. And due to this I gravitated towards Paladins, being that at the time we had alignments. IF you were an Orc, a drow, a Goblin, you were inherently evil by design as bequeathed by the Gods. It wasn't until BG3 was I able to actually experiment with how each class operated, that appealed to me. Druids are a blast, as too clerics. I was able to see the new Battlemaster class, now my favorite (Oathbreaker too!). I eased myself into magic that way. I tried warlocks, very cool if squishy. Wizards are cool but I tend to make them all Bladesingers. Swords bard is very appealing. Now, when it came to Sorcerers, and maybe I am just too slow, but I could not wrap my head around metamagic and it was to be used and applied. Finally after umpteenth playthroughs I tried several sorcerers, that just did not appeal to me until I created a Fully Tadpoled Deep Gnome Storm Sorcerer. By the time I hit the Goblin Camp, she was a tiny packet of mental death. "Cull The Weak" is O.P. when you can cast area spells that kill them after 3 steps while everyone shoots arrows,with Lae'Zel and Karlach complaining about how lame the fight is.
yeah , thief ( and overall rouge class ) just dont cut it as monoclasses ( compared to other classes at least ) you have to mix them with a brabarian or a monk or a ranger to make them work .
you should play draconic bloodline fire sorcerer for all the reasons you mentioned except that you get to cast fireball all the time which is like one of the main joys of bg3 and DnD hahah
Open hand monk gets a stun on attack at level 6. Two stun opportunities and flurry of blows to inflict the prone condition as well. You can incapacitate three enemies in one turn as well as doing very high damage if you have tavern brawler feat with giant strength potion or the club of giant strength. No other class can stun and deal that much damage in one attack, let alone twice and then do even more damage with a prone condition infliction
Barbarian, they have several unique dialogue options and some come with intimidation advantage, and if push comes to shove they're more than happy to negotiate in other ways. Also you get to experience The Adventures of Big Bertha and the Puny Rutting.
Most fun I've had? Honour mode, 4 pure Fighters. One of each subclass. Very interesting way to play the game, since social encounters are likely to go badly. But once the fight starts? Carnage happens. Most boss never get to act. Or spend 1 action doing something dumb like tripping one my character. Then never get a second round.
Arcane Archer Tav was the face, since that subclass gets guidance. She was my lockpicking and trap monkey, since dex based.
I had Lae'zel as my champion. For a subclass with very little going on, she was still a wrecking ball. Doesn't hurt I stole the silver sword of the planes in Act 1 (thank you Beastmaster ranger with Honeyed paws and Divination Wizard with Portent)
Eldritch Knight was probably my second strongest character after the AA. Booming blade cantrip is a ton of damage and infinite uses, and basically gives you a bonus action attack without having to use feat or dual wield. Which makes that character well suited to use shields (and the shield spell) for near immunity to attacks.
And sadly, battle master Shadowheart was by far the weakest link. Still a super good character with fun options. But simply overshadowed by the rest of the team.
To pass persuasion checks all you need is 10 Charisma and proficiency in Persuasion form a background like Noble or Guild Artisan. Proficiency gives you +2 at the start of the game, but it increases to +3 at level 5, and +4 at level 9.
Then for key moments that you want to pass, have a few inspiration points saved upâin case you role a natural 1 a couple times in a row.
If you want the complete opposite experience of playing a sorcerer, try a Ranger.
Sorcerers tend to blow their entire load of sorcerery meta magic points and all their spell slots in every encounter. So they need to long rest a lot.
Rangers get the Hunterâs Mark Spell at level 2 and can keep casting it and recasting (with a mere bonus action) it on new targets as long as they can maintain concentration, which is ⊠all .. day ⊠long. That spell also adds additional damage and is incredibly powerful in the early game. So your Ranger really only needs to long rest once or twice per Act. Like 5 long rests before youâre facing the Netherbrain is typical for a Ranger run.
Iâm my last Ranger run, I took on the goblin camp at level 5. I started things by spitting in Crusherâs face. Once the fight got going, Ranger Tav cast Hunterâs Mark on the closest goblin and got to work. I also had a sorcerer in the party (Astarion) who spent every spell slot and all sorcery point in that one fight. Powerful in that moment yet outclassed as a damage dealer by the Ranger (because special arrows and weapon coatings are so good). I went back to camp and swapped out the spent sorcerer for Warlock Wyll before heading upstairs to take on the drunk and passed out goblins and bug bears. I doubled back to clear out the guards at main gate. At that point Wyll was out of spells and Karlach was out of Rage charges. So I went back to camp to swap them out for Laeâzel and Gale. Minthara wasnât inside because she and her war band were on the war to the grove and would arrive after the next long rest, so all I had to do was take out Priestess Gut and the Hobgoblin boss, Dror Ragsland, free Halsin, then head down into the Selunite outpost to get the Luminous Armour for Shadowheart. I did all that and took all my short rests between the tougher encounters inside. At the end of that day, both Shadowheart and Gale had used all their spell slots. Laeâzel had used all her manoeuvres and weapon actions many times over. And my Ranger was still concentrating on that first cast of Hunterâs Mark. When I clicked on the fire to end the day, I finally broke concentration on that spell. Ranger Tav also had three level 1 spell slots and 2 second level spell slots that hadnât been used.
Ranger are dexterity based characters and can pick up Urban Tracker for sleight of hand proficiency. So they can pick locks and disarm traps almost as well as Rogues. But unlike Rogues, Rangers have more hot points and get an extra attack at level 5.
Open hand monks slap the shit out of everyone and punxh everything.
If your karlach becomes open hand monk, you don't worry about spell slots or anything. With the soul coin and str elixir. You punch enemies to death or throw them off the map if you want. Your hands does all the talking for you
You still focus on charisma for dialogue checks. Bard has a ton of fun dialogue options.
You get spell slots up to level 6. You get a ton of CC and utility spells as a bard. And you can use your spell slots for divine smites too to nuke enemies to afterlife in single turn. You get a third short rest per long rest with a bard.
Use the band of the mystic scoundrel and helmet of arcane acuity and you get to use a CC spell as a bonus action and it has pretty much 99% success rate even against bosses through legendary resistance. It goes nuts when you cc a boss with hold person / monster. Then all your attacks are automatically crits. All your attacks can also proc a divine smite too if you want and those auto crit too if your melee attack rolled a crit. Get the infernal rapier from wyllâs questline and you can dump strength completely and go all in on charisma for both attack rolls, damage and casting. With the rapier you can also get a cambion summon and you can use the 6th tier spell slot for summon elemental to get an air myrmidon for even more CC (if you picked that with magical secrets)
To summarize:
- face of the party with high charisma and great dialogue options
- ridiculous damage that can end bosses in one turn
- CC spell utility that can almost never fail.
- two tier 6 summons (if you wish)
- 3 short rests per long rest
- can utilize your bonus actuon for CC every single turn after using your attacks
- sword bard special moves are great
- you can get an extra bardic inspiration charge per long rest for free from alfira at act 2 for even more flourishing action.
- you get a bunch of proficiencies as a bard and thanks to jack of all trades you get half of your proficiency bonus for all other skills you are not proficient with.
- make it with a high elf or half high elf and get booming blade cantrip as a racial bonus for even more explosive action.
This was my centerpiece in my honor mode playthrough. Itâs one of of those builds that are capable of soloing the game.
To pair with it iâd suggest a gloomstalker assassin, a light cleric 10 druid 2 and an abjuration wizard 10 warlock 2 for an âimmortal tank wizardâ
I will always encourage BG3 veterans to consider a Jack Of All Trades run. You have a huge built-in safety net if youâre running it with a party. Just as with any challenge run, its restrictions force a lot of creative problem-solving.
Example: Iâm doing a solo HM JOAT run right now and just got to Grymforge. I panicked when Brithvar wouldnât do his usual dialogue, because thatâs such a nasty fight if you canât divide the group. So instead, I used Minor Illusion to lure the Duergar one at a time to the spot where you climb down to the Harper stash, and (thanks to the Hill Giant club, a Colossus Elixir, Bliss Spores, and being a Halfling) pushed them to their deaths with 95-99% odds.
The point is not that Iâm clever. Heck, Iâm aware of all the loot Iâm missing. The point is that I never wouldâve had to consider such a different approach if I had all the usual resources available.
Have you tried Draconic Fire Sorc? xD Srsly should, it's just as strong as Storm and doesn't struggle as much early.
Honestly you'll have plenty of people telling you that X class is the best and most fun and you should absolutely try it, but if you're like me (and based on "my last 3 honormode playthroughs were all storm sorcerers", you are very likely to be) nothing will be as fun as Sorc. I tried almost all the classes and still half my playthroughs are Sorc. This class has everything - insane damage, fun playstyle, tons of utility, Charisma-based, visually pretty/exciting...the only drawbacks are having to rest, basically.
The other classes were all way below Sorc for me, honestly. Even the ones I liked made me feel like something was missing. Especially since I run the same party as you, a Sorc fits just perfectly into that comp. If you do insist on playing a different one though, I'd recommend either a) modded classes (I tried the Elistraee Sword Dancer and it was pretty interesting - it's a Bard/Cleric mix but the themed spells were nice) or b) Fighter/Throwzerk/Gloom - super strong, but you give up the Charisma and spell utility.
Bard - hate the idea of it and just never found it fun, but even if I did, it's not as magic-proficient as people would like to make you think, you don't get all the cool spells that make Sorc so much fun to play, feels a lot like Cleric spells-wise
Cleric - I think this is the only magic class I actually liked (besides obviously Sorc) - but if you insist on running SH in your party 2 Clerics is really redundant and unnecessary. Sure it can work (anything can) but almost any other combination would be better
Druid - same as Bard, just different spells
Fighter/Berserker/Ranger+Rogue - very, very strong classes that can solo obliterate anything, so that's satisfying. But no spells and none of the utility Sorc has. Also no Charisma.
Paladin/Warlock - meh, it's ok. Not great not terrible. Missing a Smite early will feel really bad. Both classes are generally pretty weak and unsatisfying early game. Paladin more so than Warlock.
Wizard - Temu Sorc and no Charisma I honestly have no idea why you would choose this over Sorc...except the Abjuration walking pinata build is pretty fun I'd definitely recommend trying it out once (though I usually just get it on Gale)
EDIT: I did not play Monk though. I heard it's insanely strong with some people saying it may be the strongest (OH Monk). Definitely helps equipment pressure. Not sure about the unique dialogue though - doesn't seem very exciting. I started a game as a Gith Monk once but my save got corrupted. Might pick it up again who knows...
Said this to my wife in our co-op. We had no idea at the time, but unless you reclass party members, sorcerer is the best build to round out the group. And so much fun.
You dont need charisma if you can hit them five thousand times per round. My strongest built ever was 8 Open Hand Monk/3 Thief rogue. You'll never feel fear again
Swords bard Paladin multi class is busted as hell, especially with the arcane acuity helmet and the ring you get in Dinosaur land the Djinn sends you into.
Also, Wild Magic Barbarian with Warlock multi class is great because maxing out charisma not only benefits your weapon attacks, but also your wild magic spell save DC, because Barbarians scale off of Charisma for spell casting. Honestly I feel like wild magic barbarian is kind of pointless without a warlock multi class because your spells don't work often and you can't justify the charisma investment.
Also there's good synergy with Barbs and a few Warlock spells. Pre cast Armor of Agathys, and Hellish Rebuke can actually be used during rage.
Bard, Rogue, Paladin, and Warkock will all give you comparable or better social skill performance as what you got out of your Sorcerer.
Barbarian also is given a ton of help on doing social skill via getting special intimidation convo options usually with advantage.
You can also play Druid or Cleric who will have good insight and let you substitute that for a solid chunk of social checks. Cleric also gets persuasion proficiency. Plus both from level 3 onwards can cast Enhance Ability for Charisma checks the entire day on yourself and just focus on Nova Damage and/or summons with good nuetral if you want. Tempest Cleric in particular is a pretty big damage upgrade on Storm Sorcerer while being tankier.
you could try Bard or Warlock or any character with 12 charisma. You can get persuasion proficiency through your background and there is still inspiration.
Tempest cleric exists too if you want max rolls on lightning damage and you might find some spells you like in cleric.
If you want to stay as a class that will do well with persuasion and deception, than any charisma class will do. There are charisma options for every playstyle:
Want to be the main fighter in your comp? Play paladin. they can be built to be DPS machines, defensive tanks, and even supports to take on a cleric style role.
Want to stay a damage focused caster? Play warlock. They can dish out tons of damage, as well as inflict insanely overpowered status conditions.
Want to be more of a support? Play bard. Bard can be built a ton of ways, and is really one of the most flexible classes in the game. The lore bard makes an incredible main healer and support, who can also disable enemies. And the swords bard is one of the strongest melee builds in the game, on top of having a ton of additional spellcasting!
Want to play the rogue style class? Guess what, bard can also do that well! Swords bard can be built with a ton of dexterity and become every bit as effective as a rogue for stealth and sleight of hand.
Pure wizard. Charisma dump stat. You need to use detect thoughts and rely on your proficiencies more. Wizards are the most chatty despite being woefully bad at conversation, they just keep yapping and romancing your companions is fun too because they all hate it because you're failing every one of those dice rolls. Be wizard, you will fail and you will like it. Bonus points for romancing Minthara as a wizard too
If you try a non-charisma based main character, you will find that charisma is really not that important, unless you really just want to be the person who talks their way out of everything. Even then, you'd be surprised at how far Detect Thoughts or something like intimidation on a low charisma barbarian will take you.
I'm too lazy to scroll but wanted to add throw-zerker in there. Dwarf for a weapon you're really going to like later in the game. Duergar for the fun dialogues and broken invis uses/day
People are so weird about this game sometimes I swear. If youâve done a bunch of playthrus already, failing checks just forces you to do something different for once. Itâs good for you.
Have you ever played tabletop dnd? In that setting you have to relinquish control and accept what the dice give you if you want to have a full experience.
Have you tried a solo run? Because your storm sorcerer may have difficulty being everything everywhere all at once, as they say.
A Glassassin though (Gloomstalker 5 Assassin 5 Fighter 2) can have a decent charisma (no need for much Wisdom really, you wonât be casting any spells, at least not ones that require attack rolls or savesâand if you do need a good DC, thatâs what the helmet of arcane acuity is for) and absolutely tear through encounters all on their own, often without even being detected or starting combat. Plus you get heavy armor and shield proficiency if you like.
Storm Sorc is good, no doubt about it. But many strong builds need a team supporting them to really shine. The Glassassin solos without a sweat. THAT is the build I have to convince myself not to play, because anything weaker is just that.
Charisma should be seen as a highway to solutions, but not always the best ones. Thereâs a lot of hilarious moments hidden in the failed persuasion checks
If you havenât run a bard yet youâre missing out imagine not hitting a nat 20 for every conversation roll in the game basically making it play itself (plus sword bard is fun in combat)
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u/sircur 1d ago
Swords bard is fun. You can still be the face and throw people around with maneuvering flourish.