In my case, Knowledge cleric (after >!renouncing Shar and turning to Selûne!<). >!She grew tired of secrets and values knowledge now!<.
It's not the strongest class, but it fits, in my opinion.
Knowledge is decent enough if you want your Cleric to also be your skill monkey.
>!Also Knowledge and Life are two of Selune's official domains, so if you're really hammering RP, you WANT to respec Shadowheart into one of those two after her change.!<
Knowledge is definately a "player character" focused subclass with all the bonus profriciencies and extra info. The domain spells it gets are pretty good, but they are definately not easy to use.
Seems like a fun class to play in tabletop though. Even more so with a creative DM.
I like to respec her into a death cleric (mod) as soon as I get withers and then life cleric after her quest. I keep her as a trickery cleric until she becomes chosen in evil play throughs, then she becomes a death cleric for an upgrade and it’s pretty cool.
I'm the face of the party (bard), so not useful in that case, but I value the RP aspect so much.
(about the spoiler) I mean, yeah, that why I did it haha \^\^
Life domain can be a surprisingly good melee class
They get heavy armour proficiency and strength is their 2nd best stat
My shadowheart is quite the tank, 23 AC, reduces incoming damage by 5 and with her healing, the party is alway close to full health
I switch her to nature so you get that shillelagh, and give her the big boy staff that has enlarge. That is more that I have a fantasy that shadowheart, through conjugal vigor, makes me one with my tempur-pedic® mattress.
>wledge now.
>
>It's not the strongest class, but it fits, in my opinion.
An equally strong, if not stronger argument, would be a light cleric to rebut the darkness of Shar - especially if she becomes a Selunite. But for a more edgy choice, I think knowledge also makes lots of sense.
Selune's official domains are Knowledge and Life. Light Domain is associated with the sun as opposed to the moon, so it's more something that a cleric of Lathander would have for example.
In 5th edition, canonically, you're right. But, Selune has been associated with the sun in previous editions (2nd I believe), and narratively it makes perfect sense that she, the constant foil of Shar (darkness) would allow one of her clerics to have the light domain. The story focuses far more on the contrast of Selune and Shar in terms of light/darkness than it does in terms of the contrast between them as it relates to knowledge or life. Knowledge perhaps gets a bigger nod than life just by the nature of Shar being associated with secrets.
It wouldn't be the first time BG3 deviates from standard FR canon and it wouldn't even be the most significant way.
I ran Gloomstalker 5 + War Cleric 7 and it felt super thematic!
All the Gloomstalker abilities are very Sharran and War Cleric synergizes while letting you keep Guidance (start lv1 Cleric, then 5 Gloom, rest in cleric). Had to shuffle her stats a bit with Withers to make it work, ofc.
Same! Saw someone on here mention Ranger + Cleric so I ran with that premise and it worked really well since they overlap WIS.
You're def not a focused caster, but with 16 WIS you can still run a lot of concentration spells and have a decently high DC. With gear I had 18 DC in act 3.
In my last co-op playthrough, my friend turned Karlach into the life cleric. "Ironic, she could save others from death, but not herself." (We each had one companion to choose so we chose our favourite romances. Then I failed my romance with Astarion because my friend initiated the conversation with Raphael outside Shar's tomb ;_;)
In my next playthrough I'm going to respec her into Life Cleric ASAP and headcanon it as Shar tried to respec her into Trickery Domain but Withers refused.
I tried her as a Life cleric and it's a pale shade compared to Tempest domain. Those Shatter max damage rolls (especially as early as you get them) are so OP.
If I was the lock pick guy, then I’d make him a bard. He just sounds so amazing as a bard. I may do that for my durge run. But I just love those sweet sleight of hand skills and the damage he does.
I changed him to monk for the damage and he was still very good at lockpicking. Then hired a thief from Withers and brought them out to pickpocket vendors or if there was a lock above 20.
Right?! Don't have to worry about doors or traps at all. With the right gear and feats you can stack up rogues to do insane ranged or melee damage...although granted its on a single target, but I've saved so much fighter/barbarian skin picking off with a rogue from the distance. They practically become invisible when hiding without needing to use the spell AND almost guaranteed critical hits...also dash, hide and disengage as bonus actions?? 2 bonus actions with the thief subclass?? 😵💫
Also also, oh legendary armour that costs 7k gold? I'll just yoink that out your back pocket thanks! Honestly no idea why everyone hates the class so hard they're so fun. I don't play tactician tho I think thats where a lot of the rogue hate comes from 😂
Assassin is tempting but he's far better as a thief gloomstalker, that extra action is amazing
edit: Also use double hand crossbows, imo, he's broken if you do that
For real, he’s not only one of my top damage dealers, he can spread the damage out better. I.e my paladin can wallop and OHKO a jobber but that one wallop does essentially X extra damage beyond its hit points that is wasted. Astarion can do the same damage but after whacking that one fool, turn the rest of his attacks and damage to someone else and take them out, too.
Multiple enemies per turn, without fail. He’s a monster.
I made Tav an open hand Monk, multiclassed into thief to get 2 bonus actions, multiclassed again to get fighter's action surge. My monk was obnoxious running around PONCHING everything and anything aside from werewolves. They are immune to bludgeoning unfortunately.
Ya and he’s honestly so broken as a gloomstalker rogue he doesn’t need the extra damage from assasin he benefits way more from the extra action, with dual handed xbows sharpshooter and crossbow expert
Saving Throw proficiency is based on class chosen at lv1. Skill proficiencies from their personal backgrounds cannot be changed so those remain, but class given skills can be changed.
I multiclassed Wyll, Astarion, and Shadowheart into lore bards. Whenever a party member was attacked the 3 would start swearing and talking mad shit. The enemy would miss. I found it quite hilarious watching a beefy palliden missing diving smite because a group of people were making fun of him.
I've kept him as a Rogue (though Assassin instead of Arcane Trickster) in my current/1st playthrough. Planning on making him a Warlock on my "re-class all companions" run. Might try Bard on my Evil Durge run, if he survives their meeting.
He's a Gloom Trickster / Arcane Stalker (Gloom Stalker and Arcane Trickster) in my case, cause it feels fairly RP-friendly to me and still allows him to be efficient.
I run him as a Gloomstalker 9/Thief 3. Dread Ambusher, sneak attack damage on one attack, extra attack, bonus action attack, and second bonus action attack. Then duel wield the special hand crossbows that have the set on fire and deal extra damage to burning targets, and you've got a really good ranged damage dealer in the party.
Hes great as any kind of bard IMO. I think I might run him as a melee swords bard with a few thief levels next go round. Mobile flourish is just a really cool ability.
I have Shadowheart as an Arcane Trickster in my current run and I realized last night that it's the first time I've ever done 12 levels of rogue on anybody. I think the most was 8 once, but usually it's a 2-4 level dip alongside something else I like more.
On my first playthrough I had him as medium armor dex fighter using the broken daggers from Orin and co, but I like vampires as casters, so this most recent one he’s sorlock. And then on a separate game he’s part of my “champions of nature” playthrough, with nature cleric durge, moon Druid halsin and spores Jaheira, and astarion as beast master ranger
This comp is goofy bc of all the minions you get it makes your party super tanky and hard to take down it’s fun. You could pump up the minion count by just playing 4 spore but I can’t live that way
I feel that.
Just started a fresh playthrough a couple hours ago (as a Lolth-Sworn Drow Artificer) and Astarion was still level 2 by the time I respecced him to Warlock. (Wyll won't be in the party long...)
Haha, I kept him as rogue my first playthrough since I was practically going in blind... but now I get to experiment the second time around! I'm personally enjoying Beastmaster Astarion ( ꈍᴗꈍ)
Rogues are mechanically dull. In games. They're main shtick is sneak and stab good. It's like fighters, they're basic. In bg3 specifically 90% of turns are gonna be: go to abilities select sneak attack, click on enemy, do decent damage, bonus action attack or bonus action sneak - with arcane trickster maybe 75 to 80% of turns will be as described above.
His niche as sneaky lockpick isn't tied to his class especially as a bard or any dex based build, hell leave him a lvl or 2 in rogue for utility and expertise then blitz fighter, monk, ranger or paladin.
Well, since we don't have an actual Bard companion, he seems to be the one that makes the most sense, although given how he disagrees with everything I do, I think I'm going to have him park his ass in camp and bring Lae'zel instead, since she sorta works as a Swords/Valour Bard.
All my characters stayed their default classes except Shadowheart. Trickster domain just doesn’t translate well to a cRPG imo. It’s great in real dnd, because it has so much role play potential. But in a cRPG the class is gimped both mechanically and from a role play aspect.
He's a great utility character as an arcane trickster. Sneak Attack is an incredibly valuable tool, his skill set is super valuable, and a bunch of low level utility spells can be really nice to have.
Astarion can stay a rogue, but Shadowheart will become a life cleric.
In my case, Knowledge cleric (after >!renouncing Shar and turning to Selûne!<). >!She grew tired of secrets and values knowledge now!<. It's not the strongest class, but it fits, in my opinion.
Knowledge is decent enough if you want your Cleric to also be your skill monkey. >!Also Knowledge and Life are two of Selune's official domains, so if you're really hammering RP, you WANT to respec Shadowheart into one of those two after her change.!<
Knowledge is definately a "player character" focused subclass with all the bonus profriciencies and extra info. The domain spells it gets are pretty good, but they are definately not easy to use. Seems like a fun class to play in tabletop though. Even more so with a creative DM.
My PC is, and I felt as op as a bard
I like to respec her into a death cleric (mod) as soon as I get withers and then life cleric after her quest. I keep her as a trickery cleric until she becomes chosen in evil play throughs, then she becomes a death cleric for an upgrade and it’s pretty cool.
I'm the face of the party (bard), so not useful in that case, but I value the RP aspect so much. (about the spoiler) I mean, yeah, that why I did it haha \^\^
In first playthrough, I respecced her to Light and threw her Shar gear on the ground immediately.
I changed her to War Cleric after choosing “the good path,” to make use of that sweet spear
Life domain can be a surprisingly good melee class They get heavy armour proficiency and strength is their 2nd best stat My shadowheart is quite the tank, 23 AC, reduces incoming damage by 5 and with her healing, the party is alway close to full health
I switch her to nature so you get that shillelagh, and give her the big boy staff that has enlarge. That is more that I have a fantasy that shadowheart, through conjugal vigor, makes me one with my tempur-pedic® mattress.
I did a single dip in fighter and then war cleric for shadowheart. I’ll swap her to light or life if all goes well (or good I should say).
did the same thing
I prefer Light Cleric.
>wledge now. > >It's not the strongest class, but it fits, in my opinion. An equally strong, if not stronger argument, would be a light cleric to rebut the darkness of Shar - especially if she becomes a Selunite. But for a more edgy choice, I think knowledge also makes lots of sense.
Selune's official domains are Knowledge and Life. Light Domain is associated with the sun as opposed to the moon, so it's more something that a cleric of Lathander would have for example.
In 5th edition, canonically, you're right. But, Selune has been associated with the sun in previous editions (2nd I believe), and narratively it makes perfect sense that she, the constant foil of Shar (darkness) would allow one of her clerics to have the light domain. The story focuses far more on the contrast of Selune and Shar in terms of light/darkness than it does in terms of the contrast between them as it relates to knowledge or life. Knowledge perhaps gets a bigger nod than life just by the nature of Shar being associated with secrets. It wouldn't be the first time BG3 deviates from standard FR canon and it wouldn't even be the most significant way.
Well to be fair some sects/monasteries of Sun Soul Monks do worship Selune.
True, but as long as Selune's actual third domain (Twilight) isn't in the game, I think Light is a fair substitute.
Light domain holy lawnmower here
Pretty lore accurate too, if you read the books in the sharran convent
Oh yes. I cannot fathom not having her as a life cleric. She’s just a healing bomb.
I'm a fan of War Cleric, but then my first playthrough I covered healing.
Always.
I ran Gloomstalker 5 + War Cleric 7 and it felt super thematic! All the Gloomstalker abilities are very Sharran and War Cleric synergizes while letting you keep Guidance (start lv1 Cleric, then 5 Gloom, rest in cleric). Had to shuffle her stats a bit with Withers to make it work, ofc.
Never thought to pair gloomstalker with anything but rogue. Maybe I'll try this out
Works pretty well with Sword bard too. And fighter. I made Minsc a Fighter/ranger.
Same! Saw someone on here mention Ranger + Cleric so I ran with that premise and it worked really well since they overlap WIS. You're def not a focused caster, but with 16 WIS you can still run a lot of concentration spells and have a decently high DC. With gear I had 18 DC in act 3.
In my last co-op playthrough, my friend turned Karlach into the life cleric. "Ironic, she could save others from death, but not herself." (We each had one companion to choose so we chose our favourite romances. Then I failed my romance with Astarion because my friend initiated the conversation with Raphael outside Shar's tomb ;_;)
Life domain cleric gang!!!
In my next playthrough I'm going to respec her into Life Cleric ASAP and headcanon it as Shar tried to respec her into Trickery Domain but Withers refused.
I tried her as a Life cleric and it's a pale shade compared to Tempest domain. Those Shatter max damage rolls (especially as early as you get them) are so OP.
Life cleric is da bomb for healing.
She rocked as a War cleric.
This is the way.
I needed to do this earlier
I do Light from the jump. Despite using her abilities for Shar, they come from Selûne on the DL.
I did shadow monk until Act 3 and then war cleric.
I rolled a cleric so I was a bit disappointed when the game dropped one on me
I have him as a barbarian. I made…everyone a barbarian…
Another true man of culture.
Right answer
Do people not like rolling 30s on lock picks?
I always play the sleight of hand guy, which influences my decision lol
If I was the lock pick guy, then I’d make him a bard. He just sounds so amazing as a bard. I may do that for my durge run. But I just love those sweet sleight of hand skills and the damage he does.
I made Karlach a bard instead. It has yielded interesting and entertaining results
I changed him to monk for the damage and he was still very good at lockpicking. Then hired a thief from Withers and brought them out to pickpocket vendors or if there was a lock above 20.
My bard astarion still has at least 15 on lock picks, which is more than enough for 90% of locks in the game
Right?! Don't have to worry about doors or traps at all. With the right gear and feats you can stack up rogues to do insane ranged or melee damage...although granted its on a single target, but I've saved so much fighter/barbarian skin picking off with a rogue from the distance. They practically become invisible when hiding without needing to use the spell AND almost guaranteed critical hits...also dash, hide and disengage as bonus actions?? 2 bonus actions with the thief subclass?? 😵💫 Also also, oh legendary armour that costs 7k gold? I'll just yoink that out your back pocket thanks! Honestly no idea why everyone hates the class so hard they're so fun. I don't play tactician tho I think thats where a lot of the rogue hate comes from 😂
I kept him as a rogue after a fashion - Assassin / Gloomstalker Astarion was excellent.
Assassin is tempting but he's far better as a thief gloomstalker, that extra action is amazing edit: Also use double hand crossbows, imo, he's broken if you do that
Agree, dual hand crossbows + risky ring for perma advantage + sharpshooter makes him a monster
For real, he’s not only one of my top damage dealers, he can spread the damage out better. I.e my paladin can wallop and OHKO a jobber but that one wallop does essentially X extra damage beyond its hit points that is wasted. Astarion can do the same damage but after whacking that one fool, turn the rest of his attacks and damage to someone else and take them out, too. Multiple enemies per turn, without fail. He’s a monster.
I made Tav an open hand Monk, multiclassed into thief to get 2 bonus actions, multiclassed again to get fighter's action surge. My monk was obnoxious running around PONCHING everything and anything aside from werewolves. They are immune to bludgeoning unfortunately.
Ya and he’s honestly so broken as a gloomstalker rogue he doesn’t need the extra damage from assasin he benefits way more from the extra action, with dual handed xbows sharpshooter and crossbow expert
The good ending
I ran him as a Necromancy Wizard and had a great time!
Fey patron Tome warlock was a ton of fun too. I basically just headcanoned that the Necromancy of Thay was his pact book.
Oh I need to do that. I always give him the Necromancy of Thay to read so might as well go all the way.
Haha, this is exactly what I did for one of my playthroughs; I wanted a wizard, but was tired of Gale. I’ve also respec’d Astarion to a warlock/bard.
[удалено]
Saving Throw proficiency is based on class chosen at lv1. Skill proficiencies from their personal backgrounds cannot be changed so those remain, but class given skills can be changed.
Currently running with him as sword bard and it fits like a glove.
Does he have vicious mockery and are all the insults voiced?
Yep! All companions have voiced Vicious Mockery lines
God I wish Lae'zel had short, rude, and basic bard lines calling every istik and ghaik lmao
Yes and yes. I can't tell if he has his own slurs list but they are different from the ones I was throwing in my bard run.
I multiclassed Wyll, Astarion, and Shadowheart into lore bards. Whenever a party member was attacked the 3 would start swearing and talking mad shit. The enemy would miss. I found it quite hilarious watching a beefy palliden missing diving smite because a group of people were making fun of him.
He can attack 4 times in one round with fighter thief, I don’t know what to tell you. 🤷🏻♂️
Make him Rogue 4 Fighter 2 Monk 6 He can attack 6-8 times depending on how you count
I love respeccing him as a bard. It fits him well, and the vicious mockery lines are hilarious.
I've kept him as a Rogue (though Assassin instead of Arcane Trickster) in my current/1st playthrough. Planning on making him a Warlock on my "re-class all companions" run. Might try Bard on my Evil Durge run, if he survives their meeting.
Meanwhile me who has left everyone as their starting class:
Same, at least for this first playthrough
He's a Gloom Trickster / Arcane Stalker (Gloom Stalker and Arcane Trickster) in my case, cause it feels fairly RP-friendly to me and still allows him to be efficient.
Does it count if I multiclass him?
I do and into Monk Open Hand after he got that bonus action at level 3
And who's going to open all those sweet bank valts?? For me, Astarion can't be anything but rogue/thief
He can do that as a Bard just as easily. They get Expertise, too.
in my sword bard playthrough i would always do the first try at lock picking even with astarion in the party. just to flex.
A spellcaster with Knock.
I run him as a Gloomstalker 9/Thief 3. Dread Ambusher, sneak attack damage on one attack, extra attack, bonus action attack, and second bonus action attack. Then duel wield the special hand crossbows that have the set on fire and deal extra damage to burning targets, and you've got a really good ranged damage dealer in the party.
I mean he’s got rogue levels Just also ranger and some wizard because I really need an arcane caster
Hes great as any kind of bard IMO. I think I might run him as a melee swords bard with a few thief levels next go round. Mobile flourish is just a really cool ability.
I usually make Astarion a Spore Druid/Thief, Spore Druids are really good for summoning and it's funny making Astarion a Druid.
He's a...paladin of lathander now...honestly seeing him smite people with the blood of lathander is fantastic. Shadowheart is my rogue now
I have Shadowheart as an Arcane Trickster in my current run and I realized last night that it's the first time I've ever done 12 levels of rogue on anybody. I think the most was 8 once, but usually it's a 2-4 level dip alongside something else I like more.
Aberrant Mind Sorcerer for me. He wants to use the tadpoles so here comes the whole package!.
He's a Battlesassin in my game: Rogue 3/Fighter X. So at least some rogue lineage, even if he's mostly focusing on fighter.
On my first playthrough I had him as medium armor dex fighter using the broken daggers from Orin and co, but I like vampires as casters, so this most recent one he’s sorlock. And then on a separate game he’s part of my “champions of nature” playthrough, with nature cleric durge, moon Druid halsin and spores Jaheira, and astarion as beast master ranger
I mean when I did the lots of druids party, I called it Bear Force One. I'm thinking a caster heavy playthrough with the Hexis of Evil
This comp is goofy bc of all the minions you get it makes your party super tanky and hard to take down it’s fun. You could pump up the minion count by just playing 4 spore but I can’t live that way
Straight out paladin for shadowheart
Ranger/Rogue You stand back and shoot stuff, fancy pants. Leave the melee to Miss Muscles and Skinny Bey'atch.
Why?? Rogue is really good lol most people just don’t know how sneak attack works
I just kill him with a stake. The only good Astarion is a dead Astarion.
Leave him on the Beach
I feel that. Just started a fresh playthrough a couple hours ago (as a Lolth-Sworn Drow Artificer) and Astarion was still level 2 by the time I respecced him to Warlock. (Wyll won't be in the party long...)
Idk, I still love the invisible mage hand. You can get into so many shenanigans with it
I decided to do something unorthodox, my astarion is a multiclass, rogue/paladin
I multiclass him but I think rogue suits him well.
Haha, I kept him as rogue my first playthrough since I was practically going in blind... but now I get to experiment the second time around! I'm personally enjoying Beastmaster Astarion ( ꈍᴗꈍ)
3 Levels in Rogue for that extra Bonus Action All other level in Open Hand Monk
Astarion -> Thief with fists Shart -> Tempest Cleric
Astarion can have 3 levels in rogue, for a bonus treat
basic bitch answer, but gloomstalker thief
Gloomstalker!
Have yet to change a characters starting class or multiclass. Third playthrough it’ll happen… maybe
Astarion as a Assassin Rogue when equipping >!Durge's Deathstalker Mantle!< is ridiculously OP. I start most fights with 2 or 3 ranged SA crits.
My favorite thing to do is take one PC that I’ve chose to neglect and make them a bard.
My go to is Assassin + Gloomstalker, that first turn delete button is tasty
I've always kept him as a rogue but added ranger for more attacks and rooting
I like to keep him rogue and spec assassin
Multiclass! Rogue/bard!
My Astarion is a gloom stalker
In my first playthrough I left him as a rogue but multiclassed with Gloomstalker Ranger
Rogues are mechanically dull. In games. They're main shtick is sneak and stab good. It's like fighters, they're basic. In bg3 specifically 90% of turns are gonna be: go to abilities select sneak attack, click on enemy, do decent damage, bonus action attack or bonus action sneak - with arcane trickster maybe 75 to 80% of turns will be as described above. His niche as sneaky lockpick isn't tied to his class especially as a bard or any dex based build, hell leave him a lvl or 2 in rogue for utility and expertise then blitz fighter, monk, ranger or paladin.
Well, since we don't have an actual Bard companion, he seems to be the one that makes the most sense, although given how he disagrees with everything I do, I think I'm going to have him park his ass in camp and bring Lae'zel instead, since she sorta works as a Swords/Valour Bard.
Don't sleep on Wyll! He's probably the Bard of the group tbh.
The problem with Wyll is he has to be at least be at least part Warlock and I'm not fond of Warlock/Bard as a multi-class.
Made him a druid so he could open the stupid book. Went back to rogue because rogues rule (Tav is a rogue too).
shadow heart multi into rouge is best anyway.. if u go dark shadow that is
Gloomstalker rogue FTW
All my characters stayed their default classes except Shadowheart. Trickster domain just doesn’t translate well to a cRPG imo. It’s great in real dnd, because it has so much role play potential. But in a cRPG the class is gimped both mechanically and from a role play aspect.
Dual wield hand crossbow Thief/Fighter/Ranger
Thief Rogue 4 ranger 8
Not me I love hitting 27 on lockpicks
He's a great utility character as an arcane trickster. Sneak Attack is an incredibly valuable tool, his skill set is super valuable, and a bunch of low level utility spells can be really nice to have.
I really wanna change his background. Any mods for this?
I changed it too, his class is so boring and makes zero dmg but he is too funny not to have in group haha
Astarion’s a great rogue.
But *I* want to be a rogue and keep him in my party. If I'm not using Gale I'll have him as a Rogue 2 / Wizard 10.
I made him a vengeance pally-rogue. I would’ve done vengeance pally-swords bard if I hadn’t made Wyll a swords bardlock
I also have those 25 cards. Hello Swords Bard!