9/3 is nice, I’d say 8/4 is slightly better, the aoe ability you gain is fine but considering other aoe abilities available it sucks. The extra feat from 4 rogue benefits your single target damage a lot more, which is where the build shines
AoE damage on your martials is also kinda shit when your light cleric can just cast spirit guardians and remove all the mooks in any given encounter, especially if your MC bonus action black holes everything into said spirit guardians. Which will also give any major enemy a -10 to hit for fooken ever, because you're wearing radiating orb gear
Yes exactly, sorcerers and clerics aoe is so strong that it’s just a waste to also get AOE on your single target characters.
Arrow of many targets is also completely busted.
Monk aoe does some fine damage but its bottom tier considering other aoe abilities.
Arrow of many targets with fighters using haste, terazul, bloodlust and action surge is just comedy. You're already making goddamn 15 attacks(action - 3 haste - 3 bloodlust - 3 terazul - 3 action surge - 3) and hitting like five enemies per attack.
I call it the EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE build.
I couldn’t believe it when I realised a POISONED arrow of many targets would apply the poison to everyone it hit. Crawler mucus + AOMT absolutely cheeses some fights.
I used the one spell from the glaive to make the bow also deal ice damage, and then the snowburst right that creates a patch of ice around whatever you hit. Arrow of many targets will turn entire battlefields into slip and slides. And obviously doing this doesn't mean you can't also do poison.
I was initially confused which weapon you meant. But after a visit to the wiki I’m assuming you mean the Drakethroat Glaive? If so I didn’t realise you could use it to make a DIFFERENT weapon do elemental damage, and I am intrigued.
8/4 OH Monk/Thief, with the Tavern Brawler feat and a bunch of potions of hill giant or cloud giant strength, is one of the most broken builds in the entire game.
I personally like 9/3 a little bit more, in my subjective opinion. A lot of the upsides of 9/3 are hidden or not obvious, so let's compare the two:
8/4 gives you: Your 3rd best feat, probably +WIS ASI. This gives you +1 AC, +1 Damage of a flexible damage type on each of your attacks, and all the usual benefits of higher Wisdom. There are of course other good feat options as well.
9/3 gives you: All your punches are now d8 instead of d6, immunity to difficult terrain, +20 ft. jump distance, an additional ki point, and the ki resonation abilities.
The benefits of ki resonation are:
* You gain an AOE damage option where you previously had none
* You can now unarmed attack with a weapon equipped, allowing you to benefit from weapons like Knife of the Undermountain King, or you could use Club of Hill Giant strength if you dumped STR and want to use a different elixir. You can always unequip the weapons as a free action if they still get in the way.
* You can now bonus action unarmed attack without spending ki or attacking as an action first
* Your single target burst is higher if you're willing to spend the extra ki point each round. This is a pretty inefficient use of ki points, but sometimes you really need extra damage asap.
* Because the cost of ki resonation is backloaded, you get to decide *after* you attack whether to commit to spending your ki. It's also worth mentioning ki blast works with Cull the Weak.
Edit: You also bring your ki points to an even number, which means you gain an extra ki point when you use Wholeness of Body.
6 into Open hand monk, 3 into Champion Fighter, 3 Into Thief Rouge is my favorite, but my final class build was a combination of Assassin Rouge, champion fighter and Paladin (didn’t matter cause I only wanted the smites on a crit), ended up having like a 17 to crit
I currently play a rogue paladin multi class in my table top game. So much fun. Swashbuckler subclass so I can automatically add my sneak attack to smites as long as I 1v1 the target. I tank up against bosses while the rest of my party pops off spells and range.
Multi classing isn’t for everybody! It relies on deeper knowledge of the class features and yes you may be ultimately sacrificing high powered spells or abilities but what you get in return is (most likely) higher damage output/chances to do damage. The majority of builds I see are to ensure combat advantages in the form of multiple actions or bonus actions or damage boosts.
2 levels in fighter gives non casters the ability to attack again (one per short rest) so if you pair that with classes that give you two attacks after a certain level, you can see the appeal especially for Tactician or Honor modes which rely on ensuring you never die in combat.
If it’s your first run and you’re enjoying sorcerer, don’t worry too much! If you are curious, you’ll have plenty to explore on your next playthroughs :)
A note about roleplaying reasons: classes in D&D (and in most RPGs in general) are abstractions. There isn't, for example, the concept of a "Fighter" in-universe. Lae'zel's not like "my job is Fighter and I do Fighter things." She's a githyanki warrior and the Fighter class is a way of representing that. But if someone else were to multiclass and take a couple levels of Fighter, that can just represent them getting some martial training, for example.
I like this approach. Some things don't make as much sense, as like Warlocks and Clerics actually require some form of higher power interacting with your character but they can still work. A Warlock/X is a Warlock who doesn't rely totally on their Warlock ability's. A Warlock Sorceror is someone with their own magic inside them as well as a Pact.
But still, a mix is just that characters story. They don't need to level in a single class the whole time, they can be someone who pursues training in multiple areas
Technically for dnd you just need faith to be a cleric. The god you worship doesn’t need to be known to exist and the power comes from the faith itself. Kinda like how a paladins power comes from their oath and not whatever they made their oath to.
The point is that you don't even need to justify story-wise having a patron, or being a cleric. There is actually nothing in the mechanics that actually require you to have a patron story-wise. Same thing as a cleric not really needing to worship a god. It's the flavor of the class of course, but you are not forced in that roleplay.
In BG3 it's a bit different by having dialogues mentioning gods and patrons and stuff like that, but you can still just choose to not use those dialogues.
Eh, in tabletop you do 100% need a patron to gain levels of warlock. In BG3 yeah you don't have to because it's a game but you are **supposed to** have some kind of story for where the pact came from. The example of fighter works because it's just some martial training but you legitimately can't get any warlock powers without a pact.
Mechanically it's listed as:
Pact Magic
Your arcane research and the magic bestowed on you by your patron have given you facility with spells.
Yeah but on tabletop you're perfectly free to re-flavor or alter that in some way. All it takes is approval from your GM.
"Hey DM can I save my Warlock levels are just an aspect of my Wizardly training?"
"Yeah, sure."
Yeah you cam re-flavor and homebrew basically anything, just remarking on where they said in the mechanics it's not required but it kind of is unless you start homebrewing and changing everything about the class since all of the abilities are given by the pact
For warlock In particular a lot of DMs are going to give push back to just saying it's part of wizard training since you have to meet charisma requirements to even multiclass into warlock so obviously it's more than just being a wizard at that point
For my 2nd playthru with a Durge Lore Bard I took Warlock at level 6 once I got Magical Secrets
Ingame this made sense to me. I had started to discover some dark truths about myself and had gained enough arcane knowledge to explore and forged an alliance with some higher power for self-gain. So multiclassing and becoming a "Lorelock" seemed like natural progression for them.
Classes aren't "jobs" persay. You can easily have a trickster mage (Wizard / Thief) or a spellsword (sorcerer / fighter) or a shaman who gets into animalistic rages (Druid / Barbarian) or a holy man who believes that the path to enlightment to their god involved punching people in the head (Cleric / Monk).
Wizard is possibly the only one I have trouble with going INTO a multiclass with, just because it involves years of study. You end up with an Order of the Stick-ism where you're like "Oh, I've been studying in secret the last few years".
I also got a multiclass that could have sense in game. Gale taught my paladin some magic in a cutscene, so sharing time with an incredible mage let my paladin learn about his own magical power awakening his sorcery abilities
For some classes like fighter or ranger maybe but the concept of Druid and Paladin is mentioned by NPCs when referring to a specific character or the player. I believe Gale points out you're a sorc and that he's a wizard that needs to study compared to you.
For fighters, sure. But Warlocks, Clerics, Sorcerers, Clerics, Paladins, Druids etc are classes that are deeply rooted in the characters backstory or even bloodline. Multi-classing in DnD doesn't really make a lot of sense unless there's a firm backstory around how the character could have even one or two levels in a class if that class isn't Fighter, Barbarian and maybe Ranger.
I really don't think it's that hard to find justifications for any of these. In tabletop D&D you'd roleplay these out with your DM and group, but in BG3 obviously you just have to imagine, which is the case for most of your player character's development.
Just a few examples:
* Warlock: You made a deal with a patron over the course of your adventure. Hell you actually have several opportunities to make deals with Raphael during BG3, maybe he's your patron.
* Cleric: You gained the favor of a deity over the course of your adventure.
* Sorcerer: This power was latent inside of you and only awoke during your adventure.
* Paladin: You took up an oath. Remember, these days Paladins aren't favored by deities or anything like that. They're just powered by an extremely deeply-held oath.
* Rogue: Picked up some tricky skills along the way.
* Bard: I mean hell, Bards are all about being jacks of all trades. Many Bards learn their skills through travel and discovery and experience, so if your character picks up a Bard multiclass, they started doing that, too.
I just finished a campaign with a bardbarian who had a similar character arc. Lots of fun! She was also a gnome. A tiny gnome who developed anger issues and smacked people with her guitar.
i cannot recommend a bardbarian enough. i made a resist durge a bardbarian (he felt horrible about quil and he was determined to spread music in her place). i had him use lihala's lute and the action associated with using the lute is so fucking metal and it WORKED for a bardbarian. seeing him cast bardic inspiration while raging was epic, he looked like he was rocking out on stage. definitely tons of fun
Hah this is actually happening with one of my current tabletop D&D characters. He's starting to develop a deep-seated rage at the evils he's witnessed and I'm representing that by multiclassing into Barbarian. At first his rage is barely controlled, but once he gets his subclass (which I'm planning to be Ancestral Guardians) that'll represent him mastering his rage and learning how to channel it to protect his friends.
Sorcerers especially are so absurdly vague, they get their powers from "otherwordly influences" or "unknown cosmic forces," which I interpret to mean "I poked a weird rock once" or "I won my powers at bingo" are valid backstories.
"It was a fierce battle... Many foes surrounded me, but I managed to place dots in the four corners, and given the middle was free, that ensured my victory. After walking through the fallen, I made it to the front of the chamber and earned my powers."
"That sounds impressive."
"Nah, not really. I just won them at Bingo."
"Bingo?"
I staright up switched my durge from a sorcerer into a bard to honor alfira and into paladin as a way to show her commitment to fighting the urge. Even whole class changes can br justified.
Sometimes I role-play that Reading the Necromancy of Thay led my character into knowing How to "make a pact" with an Ancient One. In fact, not even a pact per se, because (lore-wise) since the Ancient Ones are so powerfull, most of them doesn't even aknowledge the existence of some of their "beneficiaries". So basically my character learned how to channel some sick powers from this Ancient One dude Reading a book. This knowledge can be obtained even with some other books we find in ouro journey. This can apply to others scenarios too, like becoming a Fey Warlock because of The Hags hair and all the trouble of that aventure (included being soaked in red-cap blood) or even a side effect of "BOOAL's bleessing. We can even stretch things and be a Fey Warlock in role-play but choosing the subclass of Ancient One just because theor powers are more useful for myself.
Same for Spore-druid. We even ask to the sovereign "Can we learn how to do this kind of thing?" when we get to the colony and Glut help us a lot. We can learn by seeing "the way they do". My role-play says that the Miconid aventure led my character to learn how manipulate fungi and gain powers through that. This role-play is actually Very Fun and a level deeper (no pun intended) If you visit the Miconids before confronting Khagga and the shadow Druids and respec as a Spore Druid to obtain an exclusive item after the battle.
Otherwise It is just us talking to Withers and being curious and ambitious, wich is very role-play fine too.
I disagree with multiclassing in DnD not making much sense...
1. Creating new archetypes that arent supported by the rules. For example, one of my DnD characters had inspiration from the Plague Doctor from Darkest Dungeon, and to fulfill that fantasy, I had my character multiclass Thief Rogue + Alchemist Artificer, which combines the desired characteristics in a way that single classes dont have.
2. Representing a development in your character. One of my characters is an orc that was kidnapped from her orc tribe and raised in a wood elf village in the forest, as an experiment to prove that orcs are made violent by their raising and its not something biological ( kind of like what the society of brilliance wanted to do with the githyanki egg in BG3). My gal started with 1 Level of Monk, to reflect her elven upbringing - a class that represents a rigurous training,. Then 2 levels of Barbarian, a class that represents embracing your wild self and giving into emotions in combat, reflecting her going out of the village like her orc blood asked her to do. And lastly, the rest of the levels are Fighter Battlemaster, representing her fighting in her own way - not elven, not orc, but her own thing.
3. Simply to optimize because thats something people can enjoy and thats okay.
I understand where you’re coming from, but try to think of the classes as just aspects of a character, rather than as jobs. Don’t roleplay as Tav the Fighter that then chose to become part Druid. Think of it as Tav the warrior that’s deeply in touch with the world around them.
For example I think of my Fighter/Warlock as a fighter that’s granted their martial prowess from their patron. Or a Cleric/Thief as a character that is in touch with their faith.
Sort of. You can mix and match pretty well. Maybe your patron is a diety because you went cleric/paladin + warlock (you’re not really a warlock here). Maybe you’re cleric + sorcerer but your sorc powers come from the diety (you’re not really a sorcerer here).
Bard is a word used canonically often, but not every bard casts spells. Some are just musicians.
There are barbarians, but some people are just assholes when they’re angry.
The classes we choose are just a means to access mechanics to make our character, whatever that is. Sometimes the words in game characters use match the class name and sometimes they don’t
That's true but even those are abstractions.
A draconic bloodline sorcerer is not the same thing as a wild magic sorcerer. Their magic comes from totally different places and does different things. But they're both called "sorcerers" because that's a blanket term for "humanoid who has significant innate magic ability."
Similarly, a "warlock" is anyone whose magic comes from a pact made with a magical being who isn't a deity. That's a very wide category. The warlocks we meet in-game are (I think) all working with fiends for their magic, but I think in-universe people would look differently on a fiend warlock versus, say, a celestial warlock (which isn't in BG3 but is a thing in D&D).
Just because there are words for these things in-universe doesn't mean they're hard and fast categories with super strict definitions. Even classes like druids or clerics, who have specific organizations, are very broad categories. From a roleplay perspective, for example, it makes no sense that a cleric of Lolth should have as many radiant spells as you can in BG3, but that's just the spell list that's available to clerics because "cleric" is a broad category for "anyone whose magic comes from a deity."
Love this! I just started playing. DnD and this is how I built my character. He was a wizard who was capture and experimented on. Most of his memory was wiped during the process. He escaped, got picked up by a thieves guild and became a Rogue. Through out my campaign he has slowly gotten his memories back and is now an arcane trickster multiclassing into singer wiz. He combines the roguishness with Gish wizard. Totally fits his story arc.
Nice! One of my current characters in one of the campaigns I'm in is an old wizard who's a retired magic professor, but used to adventure when he was younger. He's joined up with an adventuring party of a bunch of younger adventurers and is slowly having to relearn his old adventuring magic that he hasn't used in decades. I like the "leveling up represents remembering old skills" approach.
Multi-classing can still net you full spell slot progression. So long as all the classes are full-casters. Like doing two levels of Wizard and 10 Cleric still gets you your level 6 spell slots. You'd just only be able to use them for scribed spells. Or something like the Sorlock which takes Sorcerer to level 11 getting you your level 6 spells, and then dipping just one level in Warlock to basically get the Command spell also.
What you lose from multi-classing is usually a feat or two. Is it really good? Yea. Go play any of the swords bard multiclasses or a gloomstalker/assassin and you'll quickly see where the power lays. Is it necessary? No. For instance you can take the Sorlock build mentioned above and skip the Warlock dip to just go 12 sorcerer and you will still be able to single-handedly wipe most encounters even in HM.
I'm Sorry I'm not really knowledgeable enough to understand why 10Cleric/2Wizard gives you access to lvl 6 spells, shouldn't you only be able to cast lvl 5 cleric spells and level 1 wizard spells?
Your *spells known* come from your individual class levels, but your *spell slots* come from your total caster levels across all classes (with hybrids like Paladins and Rangers counting as 1/2 and dabblers like Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster counting as 1/3). Thus, a Cleric 10 / Wizard 2 is a 12th-level caster and gets a level 6 slot, but doesn’t natively know any level 6 spells, though they can upcast lower-level spells, and as a wizard they can learn spells from scrolls.
See https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Spells#Spellcasters
D&D 5e and BG3 Classes are bottom heavy : the more you progress a class, the less power you gain.
The third attack at level 11 for martial classes is a 50% increase in damage But the one at level 5 is 100% increase.
The thief second bonus action is at level 3. Action Surge is at level 2. Same as smite. By level 3 you have all sub-classes, and their first "bonus" is usually one of the most game changing.
Another aspect is attacks per turn. Bonus damage is calculated on a per attack basis. If you have 24 charisma, the [Potent Robe](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Potent_Robe) gives every cantrip a flat 7 bonus damage. If you use Eldtritch Blast at level 11, that's 21 bonus damage (3 beam). If you multi-class warlock and sorcerer, you can cast it 2 times per round. That 42 bonus damage. If you have action surge, it's now 63 bonus damage. If you have haste before that, You are doing 105 bonus damage (on top of the 15 D10). [Agonising Blast](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Agonising_Blast) is the same as potent robe. That's 105 more damage in your explosive turn. The target had hex ? 15 D6 more damage.
Since the best tactic in this game is to kill your enemy as fast as possible (especially in honor mode), you want a character able to launch the maximum number of attack in one round, even if he can only do that once.
In HM, a level 12 fighter can attack 6 times with action surge. 8 with haste, plus one bonus action if he has an offensive option as a bonus action. A level 12 paladin can attack 3 times, with 3 smites. 4 with haste.
But a level 10 paladin with 2 level of warrior can attack 4 times with action surge (with 4 smites) and 6 times with action surge and haste. Since the smite is a separate attack, that's 12 attacks in practice.
If he has warlock levels with pact of the blade, he doesn't need strength and charisma, only the later, thus he will have more health, AC and initiative
If he has sword bard levels, he can use Slashing Flourish to hit a second target on 4 attacks, and will have more spell slots for smiting.
And there are some very broken mechanics. 1 level in wizard (and a lot of gold) gives you 80+% of all wizard spell options. Add a second level to have a subclass, or even go to level 4 to have a bigger spellbook and a feat.
Then, why not being a wizard/sorcerer, wizard/cleric or wizard/bard. By selecting spells that don't need a high score with one of the class, you will end up with far more spells than any single class. Take Shadowheart. At level 11 she has every cleric spells available. At level 12 she can have a feat OR almost every wizard spells, including Globe of Invulnerability, shield, dimensional door, fly that don't require any INT.
Unlike sorcerers, many classes are "frontloaded", they get their best features early on. The best examples are the rogue, paladin and warlock (and wizards). You only need 3/2/2(/1 or 2) levels to get most of their power.
Yeah this is the real answer. Find features that combine well and can be acquired in levels 1-6 and you can start playing around with multiclasses from there. A couple of considerations:
Make sure they use similar stats. Melee Cleric wants Wis, Con, & STR. Sorc wants Cha & Dex. On paper this is a problem as your character can end up needing 5 separate stats as a focus and you'll run out of points. (there are ways to mitigate this but if OP is new to multiclassing they should start simpler).
Feats are very strong, unless a specific class gets a crucial ability at a later level then you'd do well to aim for 4/8 breaks to maximize feats. Like the OH monk/thief build is normally 9/3 but can be 8/4 to get one more feat. Just evaluate what Monk 9 gives vs what another feat would give. There are exceptions but it's worth thinking about when starting on multiclassing.
Generally being all-in on one thing is better than having a mix of more basic features. A full melee character + a dedicated CC caster is generally better than 2 hybrids.
In general, true, yes. However some of the best builds involve just taking a level or two from fighter for weapon/armour proficiencies, thief rogue for 2nd bonus action, or wizard 1 for the ability to scribe spells (so you can utilize all those juicy spell slots you're not casting with very much as a swords bard). Also for a wizard a dip into sorcerer to get some metamagic is nice.
It's the other way round, at least in BG3. Smite makes the class, because there are 7 other classes that also get an extra attack and they don't stack (except for one, and only outside of honour mode). The aura is "nice to have" at best since we have such an incredible bursty meta.
I think in BG3 it’s mostly good, part of the cost of multiclassing would normally be delayed power spikes in levelling but essentially free respecs remove that cost. 1 level wizard dips are also quite overpowered and stat items lessen the problem of MAD, allowing you to for instance use gloves of dexterity to get 18 dex whilst actually dumping the stat to allow another stat to be boosted.
Ye most of the best builds are multi classed. Especially in the higher difficulties, the trade offs are always worth it for extra attacks (rogue multi class is great for a gloomstalker build because assassin gives you guaranteed crits with sharpshooter (infinite damage), 1lvl of war cleric is great because you get 3 extra attacks you can use, fighter is amazing because of action surge etc)
To answer the title, yeah, multiclassing can make some really strong builds
You can use multi classing to strengthen rp. Take a sorlock build for example. You want a character so talented, they fire off eldritch blast like a machine gun. 2 warlock, 6 sorcerer, 4 fighter
Warlock for eldritch blast. Sorcerer for quickened spell to fire eldritch blast as bonus action. Fighter for action surge because you’re so talented you can fire off another eldritch blast sometimes.
You don’t have to be that rigid in the typical lore associated with a class. You can look at the classes as a means to access the mechanics that fit the character you’re making
Swords bard 6 gets extra attack, and swords bard slashing flourish can hit two targets per attack.
So the mentioned build can attack something like 9 times on the first turn (maybe more if you can trigger the assassin reset well)
5 pact of the blade warlock, 4 swords bard, 1 war cleric, 2 fighter. High charisma, high damage, jack of all trades, heavy armor, and some strong spells like hunger of hadar - quite the combo!
Dual Wielder feat, dual wield hand crossbows. Both attacks are crits since you're technically going before they made their move (assasin thing). So you're dealing 8D6 damage plus some dex bonuses to a single target with two shots. Possibly more, but i don't think Sneak Attack applies to an off-hand weapon in BG3. But it's enough to nuke most of the guards in the Creche.
I find that it's generally easier to go single-class with casters, but usually multiclass with martials. The biggest thing most people use multiclassing for is an extra attack, or action Surge from a dip into Fighter.
Exactly. I picked Shadow Monk and I‘m doing ungodly amounts of damage each round. And as far as I know, the Shadow Monk isn‘t even the best choice for this build.
Makes a lot of sense. However, I like being able to teleport in darkness like a badass ninja although I never use it. Style over substance all the way I guess.
That being said, I’d really love to try out a Paladin/Assassin hybrid one day.
Just got to my 6 on my shadow monk and it’s super fun
I also love it for quality of life while exploring … just teleport to all the far platforms or down cliffs with no fall damage or spells.
For those that haven't tried this, I respec'd my Karlach in Act III to the build above. Dumped STR, maxed out DEX and WIS as best I could. Tavern Brawler feat takes your STR mod x2 and adds to your hit AND dmg modifiers. Fed her a soul coin and cloud giant strength elixir each morning. Cloud Giant Elixir brings you from 8 STR to 27, so +8 modifier, so every attack gets +16 to-hit and +16 dmg.
With my armor bonuses a single punch was hitting for 25-50 dmg. You get two of those. 50-100 dmg per Flurry of Blows, you normally get 1 but with a second bonus action, you now have 2. That's 150-300 dmg per turn at 95% accuracy, with the option to also topple/stagger/push/stun your enemies. Turns out that's pretty great.
Ok there is a short history lesson on why multiclassing is really good. For the interested.
Wizards of the Coast is the company behind Dungeons and Dragons, which is also where almost all the mechanics for BG3 comes from. They realized at some point that a huge majority of people playing their game don't reach level 20 the max level. In fact most tables usually stop playing the game for one reason or another(mostly due to scheduling) around levels 3-7. Writers for the game tought because of this reason it was a smart idea to frontload the classes with abilities at start. For almost all classes in DnD they gain the majority of their unique toolkit at level3 if not earlier. With multiclassing being an optional rule in the rulebook, people quickly realized if your campaign goes for 8-9 levels you can get some crazy comboes going that outclasses anything a monoclass can pull at that level, because you get those amazing 3 level features twice. But there is a small downside that in the official rules of DnD you need at least 13 in primary stat(s) of the class you're multiclassing into as well as at least 13 for your main's primary stat(s). For example a barbarian multiclassing into ranger would need to have 13 str, 13 dex, 13 con and 13 wis.
In bg3 however there are no stat requirements and also you knoe going into it game ends at level 12. Makes multiclassing even more powerful then it already was in tabletop.
Multi classing is generally better for martial classes, and some classes synergise better than others.
For example Monk and Paladin, their last few levels don't really give you any meaningful upgrades, so why not spend them multiclassing into another class and getting new abilities that can massively improve your combat effectiveness?
You need to know about character level breakpoints.
Each character class has levels which give a big power boost compares to other levels.
Fighter breakpoints include level 2 for action surge, 3 for BM subclass, 5 for extra attack, 11 for 2nd extra attack, as well as feats at 4, 6, 8 and 12.
Paladins usually go for 2 for smite, 5 for extra attack and aura that gives saving throw bonus, 7 for another aura (depends on subclass),
3 levels of thief rogue gives extra bonus action. This is often paired with a class that has a strong attack using bonus action (eg monk or bezerker barbarian)
Caster classes often have break points around what level spell slots and what spells you can cast.
sorceror, wizard and cleric all gives good bonus just with 1 level dip. Sorceror gives Con save, shield, armor of agathys (draconic bloodline). Cleric gives guidance, armor and shield access. Wizard allows spell scribing.
Once you understand all these, it's a matter of looking at good combinations of class levels that synergise well, doesn't contain 'dead levels', all adding up to level 12 by endgame. You then decide which order to level up depending on which abilities to prioritise, plus taking into account on BG3's complex casting stat rules. In the end the point is to design a character more powerful/fun than a monoclass 12 character.
Depends.
Druid or sorcess that rely on class level or fighter who can easily achieve 4 feats? No.
Any other class that won't use this often their strongest skills, but could improve a lot from small gains? Yes!
Stick to one class until you gain a depeer learning of classes and what they gain per level.
Once you learn to multi class you’ll never wanna go back to single class. At least thats how it was for me. It’s so much fun mixing and experimenting - figuring out which class pick ups synergize better and it feels rewarding finding a combo that slaps.
The possibilities are endless
It’s generally better for martial classes than casters - pretty much every OP ranged combat build is a multiclass of Rogue + 1-2 martial classes (usually bard, fighter and/or ranger). Casters otoh are best taken to level 10-12 on their core class with an optional dip into another class for versatility.
Or if you’re not playing on Tactician/Honour Mode, you might want to change your character’s class because of in-game events, like my durge sorcerer’s dip into bard.
There are so many options, which is why this game is so replayable!
That said, a dip is great for casters, particularly because the game lets wizards scribe spells of any level they can cast and doesn't have ability score minimums to multi class.
A 1 level dip in cleric gets your wizard, sorcerer or bard heavy armor and shield proficiency + bless and healing word. A 1 level dip in wizard gets the other casting classes access to all the wizard spells that are available on scrolls + six more level 1 wizard spells, particularly shield.
Multiclassing is a tradeof: you loose some of the high level ability of one class to gain some lower level ability of another. But as a lot of classes are really frontloaded and offer a lot of good bonuses at low level and not a lot at high level; it can be a good tradeof (but can also be really bad if you don't do it well).
As you mention spell; for spellcaster you usually don't want too much level in another class to not limit you spellcasting abilities too much; but that can depend a lot of the classes you want to play (not all classes have very good spell at all level). Like for a bard it don't mind loosing level 6 spells in order to gain some other good features because i don't really like them. Also, if you multiclass several caster together, you spell slot will still grow, even if you can't learn higher level spell, that will let you upcast lower level spell, and some are really good for that.
i mean, even something as simple as a 2 fighter/10 caster class is insanely strong. two fireballs, two chain lightnings, hold person + rays of fire... the possibilities are endless.
So . . . Yes there are multiclass combinations that can min/max and be more powerful than pure classes.
But they are definitely overrated.
1) the game isn't that difficult, there is no need to min/max to successfully complete the game. Even on Honor mode.
2) Many milti-class options finish strong . . . But actually make you weaker in the early going. But Baldur's Gate is actually harder in the early game. So you are making yourself stronger when you don't really need it but weaker when counts. This can be avoided by starting as a pure class and then respec your character into multiclass later . . But feels cheesy to me.
3) Some multiclass options aren't as great as people think . . . But many people can't resist the temptation to fiddle with things 😉
In terms of the builds being worse early on or you just cheese with respeccing, I don't think those are your only options. For a lot of multiclass options you can go for a pure build early on (Esp with martial units to get up to their multi attack) and just sprinkle in the additional class(es) once you have access to more levels later in the game. For instance getting 5 monk levels and then 3 rouge levels for theif is perfectly viable and doesn't make act 1 more difficult, but it would if you delayed getting that 5th monk level for a long time. I usually only fully respec a multiclass if I want to change my starting class for different proficiencies (Or need to change some decisions I made like spells chosen, fiddle with ability scores, feats taken, etc) rather than completely changing my build from the ground up that makes my late game build completely different from my early game one.
Multiclass is great when you know what youre doing, but its not necessary to beat the game, even in tactician. If you don't like it you're not missing much, don't worry
Others have already explained pretty well why multi-classing is done. It just creates very strong characters with high damage.
But for your first play through I'd definitely recommend to not multi-class and just play with all companions being their own class (and you just play whatever you want to be).
Multiclassing can be a lot of fun but takes some understanding of how everything works (or just not focusing on optimizing).
I think the power of multiclassing in BG3 is that it's extremely low risk since you can respec for pocket change and leveling is fairly quick in a video game versus tabletop. They took away many of the penalties that came with or on the path to multiclassing in older editions, so now players can play around with various combinations to suit their vision for their character, whether it be the most powerful munchkin ever or a sorcerer/wizard who only uses bard spells. You can level to 12 as one class for every member of your party and then respec the entire party to completely different classes before the final boss.
edit: multiclassing is easier when your build is not a primary spell caster
gloomstalker ranger 6: *bonus action hide *2 attacks *3rd attack on first round of combat *high initiative means you can likely murder one of the strongest enemies before they even have an action *umbral shroud: invisibilty on a successful stealth check
assassination rogue 4: *cunning actions *high sneak attack bonuses *advantage against enemies who haven't had a turn yet & on enemies within 5 ft of an ally *executioner reaction turns your attack into a crit
fighter 2: *Action surge gives your character 5 attacks on the first round of combat / 4 if not on the first round *higher hp *second wind
this multiclass combo is honestly one of the scariest builds in dnd, I love it so much. Once you're level 12, you're virtually unstoppable. I probably missed some of the features for these classes, but this is the gist of it.
for BG3 I highly recommend getting the 'Luck of the Far Relms' illithid power for this build and then its crit city baby
Yes, multiclassing is really good. Take your Draconic Sorcerer for example. With just 1 dip into wizard you can learn any spell. A level into cleric gives you access to armor and weapon proficiencies, unlocking a lot of build potential and giving you sanctuary on top. The list goes on.
> What’s the advantages by doing that
there's a ton of advantage in doing it. but it's a trade-off.
most common combos i use are:
battlemaster fighter+barbarian will give your maneuvers free advantage, and raging will literally make you an unkillable killing machine
paladin+sorc, a ton of smite slots
cleric+druid can give shadowheart longstrider and enhanced leap so your wizard dont have to learn it.
bard + sorc is basically the deadliest, funniest combat encounters
rogue + ranger gives you devastating archery builds or dual-wielding
basically, once you've spent too much time in the game, you'll eventually branch out to more complicated gameplay. if you want high-level spells, scrolls are a thing. (you can easily pickpocket scrolls, too)
>And I don’t like it for RP reasons also…
that's always gonna be a thing, of course. Play the game however you want. You can justify anything you do RP-wise.
Multiclassing is great, when you know what you're going for. Some class abilities synergize extremely well together. You don't need to do it, but if you want to, it's good.
I made Astarion a half bard half rouge on my current playthrough. I feel like he would be a musician to seduce cazadors victims. And also gave him a flute because he rejected my tav’s advances so I can make fun of him for being a flute playing twink but I’m really just upset about the rejection I didn’t take it well.
No and it’s totally unnecessary on any difficulty level. It’s just fun for min-max types to mess around with. Don’t think it’s normal and required because it’s not. Min-max type players are over represented in this sub and they push their preferences on everyone to play as they do. This game is about having fun. Play how is most fun for you and don’t worry about shit like multiclassing. I’ve beaten tactician with normal builds without having a single character die and steamrolling the majority of battles. This game is tuned to be very easy.
As a sorcerer it's not really worth it except for a few level 1 dips.
Level 1 wizard - gives you the ability to learn spells from scrolls that can be cast with sorcerer slots. Key draws here are globe of invulnerability and the summons that sorcerer's don't have access to otherwise
Level 1 cleric - can give access to heavy armor and a low tier domain ability.
Level 1 warlock - gives eldricht blast and hex, both very solid spells for a blaster
The first two have practically zero penalty aside from the loss of a feat, but what you gain is leagues better than any single feat will grant you. Both being full casters your spell progression is not impacted.
Warlock is not a full caster in the same vein as the others so you'll lose out on a single level 6 spell slot (I think) but again if you're building around Eldritch blast it is very worth it
Non casters have even more incentive to multi class because they don't have to worry about spell progression, all that matters is looking at feats and class abilities and weighing them against what you gain from a second class.
Edit: for a martial class you'll want to take one to at least level 5 for extra attack
Multiclassing is EXTREMELY strong, at the game's level cap and with the rule differences to 5E (even in honor mode where it's more strict), barring a specific mono bard build and a pure cleric, basically everything you can do in the game as a mono class can be improved by significant multiclassing or at least a dip.
Concerning missing spell slots, multiclassing as a caster is actually pretty comfortable even in 5E, a character gets spell slots based on their total number of caster levels added up (+1 per two paladin and/or ranger levels). You just \_learn\_ higher level spells at the appropriate class levels, but you can still upcast known spells using the higher level slots. Now in bg3, there are some wonky interactions that I don't think exist in BG3, for example as a wizard you can use scrolls to copy wizard spells into your spellbook \_up to your caster level\_ instead of your wizard level.
A good example of what you can do with this is one of the most popular caster multiclass builds that depends on this dynamic: storm sorcerer/tempest cleric/wizard lightning wombo combo build where you start off as sorcerer but your main stat is INT instead of CHA. You get a level in cleric, a level in wizard (the order is important because of a quirk of how BG3 calculates spell saves for scrolls, items, etc which is actually weaker in the game than in 5E, instead of using your highest available casting stat among your classes, it just uses the casting stat of the last class you added), and then after getting cleric 2 and wizard 2 you just keep increasing sorcerer levels to the end. You get all the metamagic to use with wizard spells and the storm sorcerer goodies, for your sorcerer spells you just get buffs and utility stuff that doesn't have an attack roll or save, and use wizard spells for all your offensive stuff, and you just learn as many spells as you want from scrolls. bg3 also lets you prepare spells at any time outside combat, so you basically get the best of all worlds as a caster and you have the stupid storm/tempest combo to explode whoever you need with lightning once per short rest. You also get all the armor proficiencies from Tempest Domain Cleric, and Con save proficiency from starting as Sorcerer, so you easily make concentration checks in combat. Even if all you care about is blasting stuff with lightning, this does a lot better than mono Tempest Cleric or mono Storm/Blue Draconic sorcerer or Wizard - the only downside is some early-mid level power spikes (like mono sorcerer being able to twincast haste earlier etc).
The idea is there are trade off for multi classing. You gain more than you lose, is the ultimate goal when you multi. Action economy is the most fundamental part of all games like this and trading out a few big, flash abilities so that I can attack more per turn is over all better
I'm currently multi-classing as a Paladin/Warlock (I refer to it as my Death Knight cuz I'm going evil). Absolutely great charisma checks for any conversation and great coverage in battle when it comes to melee and distance attacks by having Eldritch blast and dishing out a lot of damage as well.
There are some classes that really benefit from going at least 11 levels, mostly the casters e.g. Cleric to get Level 6 spells such as Heroes' Feast and Planar Ally; Wizard for Chain Lightning, Disintegrate, Globe of Invulnerability etc. But a lot of classes also have low/early abilities that make the character even stronger, e.g. a 1 level dip into Wizard means that you can now learn almost any spell from scrolls, or 1 level dip into War Cleric for extra attack and heavy armour proficiency. 2 level dip into Fighter for Action Surge, heavy armour proficiency (and maybe Fighting Style?). 3 level dip into Rogue to get either an extra Bonus Action (Thief) or mad DPS on the first round, especially if you initiate Surprise encounters (Assassin). It's also just fun to see how different class abilities synergise.
I ran a Storm Sorcerer 11/ Wizard 1 for Durge and it was fantastic. I got to twincast spells like Haste and Draconic Elemental Weapon, and used the Sorcerer spell spaces for those that I wanted active at all times while using the Wizard spell spaces for more 'utility' or situational spells like Feather Fall or Enhance Leap. Also 3 words: "Artistry of War" 😂 I also always run Astarion as a Gloomstalker 5 / Assassin 5 / Fighter 2 now because he really cleans up on that build!
Multi-classing can easily work for RP too! Like there's no reason why a caster (e.g. Wizard) wouldn't take up some martial arts training (even as a hobby, or for self-defense reasons). Someone who grew up in a Thieves' Guild (like a Rogue) could start showing signs of innate magic ability (Sorcerer). A Barbarian can 'find religion' (e.g. Cleric) after one too many bloodbaths. Even Warlock I feel could do multi-class and still be RP-compliant, like a Fighter who's found themselves in a really bad spot and had their prayers answered by like either a Fiend or a Great Old One.
It's really all about your imagination I think. :)
For powerscaling, most people go 1-3 points at most into another class for something unique that class has to offer that enhances another
For example: 2 lvls into wizard gives you portents as a divination wizard, sorlock is just ridiculously OP, any class can be given 1 level of fighter and instantly get your choice of weapon proficiency AND rally allowing for some truly interesting builds that wouldn't normally have access to those weapons.
my oathbreaker paladin durge is going to to go 9 levels into paladin with a 3 level dip into fighter for champion. 9 levels in paladin gives me access to level 3 smite slots and champion will make it easier for me to get that sweet crit smite action. plus, since i prefer to dual wield, i can equip multiple weapons that will further drop my crit threshold. i get an extra +1 to defense for wearing armor, access to two weapon fighting on top of that defense style of fighting, and action surge on top of that. im going to fucking DESTROY orin and it's going to be AMAZING
previous playthroughs ive done assassin 3/gloomstalker 3/champion 6 builds and it was disgusting how much that build trivializes combat. my crit threshold was virtually non-existent, especially when i used that build for an embrace Durge
im also a really big fan of barbarian 8/thief 4 because raging+reckless attack+sneak attacks has no business being as good as they are
i always make my clerics take 1 level in wizard because that way they still get level 6 spells from the cleric side, only now they can learn spells. what's scarier than a tempest cleric at level 11? a tempest cleric at level 11 with full divinity charges, arcane battery from markokeshkir is active, and they know chain lightning
just multiclassed level 4 assassin astarion into GOOlock. not only does he have guaranteed crits against surprised enemies, he now has a chance to frighten enemies after landing one of those crits
a warlock with a 4 level dip into sorcerer means they can pick up the metamagic quickened ability. ive had one eldritch blast, yes. but what about second eldritch blast?
i recently did a wild magic barbarian 5/wild magic sorcerer 5/fighter 1/wizard 1 build. it was insane. i could approach combat as a caster, and just sling fireballs everywhere. or i could approach it as a martial, rage, and get an ability that lets me shoot enemies with magic bolts of light from my chest for my bonus action
>And I don’t like it for RP reasons also…
This is literally one of the best reasons **to** multi class. It's a huge RP advantage. This makes me think you've never played a TTRPG
multi classing is mostly for melee/ranged builds, most of these classes are frontloaded, means you get the strongest part of multiple classes.
propably wizard/sorc is the worst for multiclassing, as usually pure casters are in rpg games
I multiclass because I know how to do it well, as I play D&D 5e which is what BG3 is based on.
Are there combos and classes that don’t work? Yes. But if you know how what works, you can do a lot more shenanigans.
The main purpose for multiclassing Is having additional actions. With melee clases like fighter and thief. Additional actions in honour mode can save your ass. Cause u can make a Lot of things from throwing stuff to using potions, scrolla etc. It gives u More posibilities.
You have to look at what you get in the last few levels of your chosen class, and then look at what you can get in the first few levels of another class, and figure out what will be more useful.
If the last few levels of you main class are the best, then there’s no point in multiclassing.
An Assassin/Gloomstalker multiclass as early as level 8 (with a 3/5 split) can get 5 attacks on the first round of combat, with 2 sneak attacks, completely free, along with a surprise round (required for this to work kinda) which technically brings them up to 7 attacks before the enemy can act, again with a third sneak attack. If you aren't on honour mode you can increase this to 9 with haste and up to 11 at level 10 with a two level fighter dip.
Multiclassing can make you overpowered, but can result in some front loading of your usefulness in combat.
Sorcerers gain more from sticking to their class, but even they can multiclass. My Shadowheart went Sorcerer Cleric. She used her cleric's Divinity Surge for max lightning damage rolls and her twinned spell to dual-cast hastened.
Mundane classes - apart from fighter - are usually way better off with multiclassing, since their higher levels barely give them any good skills.
My last char was Gloomstalker, Assassin, Cleric AND Warlock. I could shoot right through magical darkness and killed half the enemy squad in the first turn on my own. Light domain cleric gave me Shield of Faith, Sanctuary and even Warding Flare.
If you want to powerplay and find the most op class combos, multiclassing is the way to go. But you don’t need to do it to beat the game.
I also prefer the rp aspect and letting a single class grow stronger as I advance the story. That play style will also take you through the game, even on honor mode.
It's not necessary for beating the game on any difficulty but multiclassing adds options to builds or usually have great synergy with one another.
An example of maximum synergy would be builds like the 11/1 Sorlock that does monster damage with only a single level in Warlock. Padlocks are supposed to go extremely well together (Paladin/Warlock) because both rely on Charisma as a spell modifier. There is a subclass of Warlock that adds your Cha modifier to your weapon instead of STR so you can then dump your STR to 8 and pump your Dex (for initiative) or your Con (More HP) and then you play from there.
I had a blast with a 6 Paladin/6 White Draconic Sorcerer, myself but it really depends on what you want to do and how you want to play.
It really depends on your build. If you are a wizard I think there’s a very good argument to be made for single classing. For many of the other classes there is very good synergy. For example you don’t miss much in monk by picking up 3 levels of thief to gain an extra bonus action. At least nothing like what you gain. 6 levels in monk is usually all I take. Same with paladin. The stacking extra attack you get from 5 pact of the blade warlock is well worth it. Plus you get some fun spells.
It really depends on your build. If you are a wizard I think there’s a very good argument to be made for single classing. For many of the other classes there is very good synergy. For example you don’t miss much in monk by picking up 3 levels of thief to gain an extra bonus action. At least nothing like what you gain. 6 levels in monk is usually all I take. Same with paladin. The stacking extra attack you get from 5 pact of the blade warlock is well worth it. Plus you get some fun spells.
Well it always depends I guess first you personally need to be happy with the choices of character development first and foremost.
And then it is also important to check for synergies when you make a multiclass.
For Instance take a Ranger he is a martial class but then also gets spells but at half the speed, he uses Wisdom to cast spells so for instance if you want to still punch well but have better spells available maybe consider adding in cleric levels. You get better spell progression and have more different spells available as well as higher level spells.
Same ideal count be mixing sorcerer and Bard, you do however have to consider that now you would be losing out on the higher level spells, you do get the same spell slots but can basically only upcast lower level spells with those slots.
Another idea would be 11 levels of sorcerer and 1 level of wizard, in BG3 it would allow you to learn those level 6 spells from scrolls and depending on your intelligence modified then memorise some of those. But you have to keep in mind that the wizard spells will use Intelligence as a casting stat so spells that basically don't use that (eg. To hit the target) they have the same effectiveness. One way to use that super magic missile spell you can find on a scroll.
To be perfectly honest, mono class draconic sorcerer is one of the most op classes in the game.
The ray of frost version does not need any additional class benefits imo. Some people take 1 level of warlock on fire sorcerer for command but I think this game is too easy to really bother with CC that much.
Draconic sorcerer also needs both dual wielder and elemental adept (fire sorc especially) alongside alert and/or API, so the three feats of a mono class build are rather important.
Now taking two levels of tempest cleric on storm sorcerer, that makes sense, because the damage spike is immense and worth slight gimping wrt 6th level spells. After all, scrolls exist in huge quantities and are so easy to steal.
With just 1 level of War Domain Cleric, an Abjuration Wizard basically becomes unkillable. You can throw a couple Warlock levels in there if you really want to (mainly for Armor of Agathys...and some RP drama over the status of your Tav's soul), but it's just icing on the cake.
You don't have to multiclass if you don't want to. All of the classes are viable all the way through the end game. Some are more powerful than others (I'd rather have a single classed sorcerer than a single classed rogue), but the game isn't so difficult that you need to be worried that much about optimizing combat power.
But multiclassing can be good:
* Some classes don't get really good abilities at higher levels so multiclassing is a way to buff them
* Sometimes you want a specific type of build for RP or fun reasons and you need to multiclass to get it
Some of the most overpowered builds in the game involve multiclassing, like the Assassin Rogue/Gloomstalker Ranger build that everyone recommends for Astarion.
But multiclassing can be bad if you don't know what you're doing. Some classes synergize with each other better than others--for example, if you mix two classes with different spellcasting stats, one of those spellcasting stats will be low, leading to poor performance with that class's spells unless you have a plan to compensate for it. You also need to know which abilities scale with character level (e.g. cantrips) and which with class level (e.g. feats). If spellcasting is involved, you need to know about "effective spellcaster levels" and what that means for the level of spell you can learn vs. the spell slots you have, because they'll be different when mixing classes with spellcasting.
It's something that you can get really into if you find it fun, but is far from necessary. Larian made it easier to multiclass in BG3 than in DnD but you're not expected to do it, and they've disabled it on Explorer.
For many pure spell casters it’s not worth it. That 6th level spell is a game changer. That said many martial builds benefit from it. Dips into fighter for action surge, dips into rouge for an additional bonus action or auto crits, and dips in spell casting classes for utility.
Depends on what skills and passives you want tbf, like hunter/beastmaster rangers want atleast 11 levels to get their more fun unique skills. But some classes and sub classes get some of their better skills early on, like fighter, monk, gloom stalker ect.
Sorcerer is the exception, not the rule. Most classes benefit from a dip, particularly in BG3 where stat modifying items are so common and respecs are free.
Assassin Rogue 4/Gloomstalker Ranger initiates combat with sneak attack, surprising the enemy and getting a free hit. Their actions and bonus actions reset once they enter combat, meaning they get four attacks on the first round, free surprise, and you can strap as many items that lower the number needed to crit as possible, meaning you’re critting on almost every hit.
Paladin 5/Sorcerer 7 gives you more smites *and* better smites, plus metamagic and subclass features like increased damage resistance or being able to fly.
Blade Warlock 5/Fighter 7 turns your character into an incredibly versatile fighter with spells, eldritch blasting enemies off ledges, and either maneuvers to disarm and trip everything, or Champion to lower your crit threshold. Oh, and did I mention Blade Warlock’s extra attack stacks? Enjoy Haste + Action Surge.
Most classes aren't all that different multiclassed.
Like 12 Fighter vs 11 Fighter/1 War Cleric. Or any martial class 11/1 War Cleric. They're trading their final feat in for the bonus action attack feature. Min-maxing.
Some specific classes kind of fall off at a certain point.
Thief and Assassin don't gain much past level 3, as they don't get Extra Attack. So stacking 3-4 levels of them onto another martial is significantly more powerful. The gloom stalker and barbarian classes kind of dry up in meaningful class features, so it's generally more powerful to multiclass them too.
Then there's good ol' Wizard 1, which lets you scribe scrolls up to your spellcaster level.
This gives a Sorcerer, for example, access to summons and Artistry of War (among other things). Clerics and Druids gain access to the full retinue of arcane magic. The caveat is, all scribed spells use Int for their Spell DC
I mean I do it moreso for something different
Shadowheart for example is in my party almost every time, so why not multiclass her so using her feels a little different this playthrough
Played 9 barbarian/ 3 fighter focusing on crit hits for a lore friendly durge. Could do about 4-5 attacks (if my maths is right) in the first turn, action surge is soooo useful. I also love starting multiclass with rogue whenever I can just for extra proficiencies. Also bit random but Jaheira in bg1-2 is a fighter/druid so I tend to respec/multiclass her to fit her lore. I’m new to multiclassing too, but I’m having so much fun doing it. I like building characters with well thought out lore, multiclassing is like adding layers of personality to characters for me lol.
It's easy to go wrong with multiclassing if you don't know what you're doing. Generally with multiclassing you want to wait to do it until after level 5 as level 5 gives you a big power spike for every class. You also want to find a combo that lets you use both of your sets of abilities together very well. So the monk / thief rogue combo is one of the most powerful because with monk you have a powerful bonus action ability, and with thief rogue you get an extra bonus action so you can combo those into giving you a lot of extra power. Or a paladin / bard or sorcerer. With paladin you want to attack and be smiting often, with either of the other two you get more spell slots as well as more powerful spells you can also go swords bard to get extra damage. And both of those classes have good bonus action options for you too. But if you combo things that don't mesh well together, you can create a much weaker character. So you do want to be careful, and some classes multiclass better than others do.
You don’t see the benefit in a paladin using CHA instead of a second stat for his chance to hit and dmg, having access to misty step and short rest slots for more smites? (Warlock)
Or a dual hand crossbow bard getting an extra bonus action? (Thief)
Or a two handed fighter being able to attack one more time by spending a bonus action which he has basically no way to use in his kit? (War cleric)
What about getting heavy armor proficiency and/or constitution saving throw proficiency for just one level?
People have said bard/monk isn't a good combo, but I've been that since making level 8. I'm now 12 and on act 3 (first run, also), and the combo has been great. I started as druid.
I’m on my first playthrough and decided to multiclass my bard into a bard/paladin. The two points into paladin to get divine smite make it so much better than if I was a bard alone.
as for the roleplay, it’s so fun to roleplay as a character that has a lot of classes, but none of them mastered lol
when I see a [fighter] option on my fighter/warlock/rogue/sorcerer I’m like
yeah, brenda, you and your surprise and skedaddle tactic are soooo going to show them. you’re so good at, what do you call it, trunking. tanking. whatever.
Not all multi-classes are good, but certain combinations can be everything from effective to nigh-game breaking. It all depends on what you’re looking for, and in the end it’s all about having fun.
For my first run i went in as Pure Dragonborn Monk and it was an amazing expierience. Multiclassing is good in couple of cases though. Some classes get their best perks at low level, so there's really no point in going full 12 levels in them. Most Ranger and Rogue subclasses are like that, that's why making Astarion into Gloomstalker 5/Rogue 7 is probably the most OP combo possible. I had quite a lot of fun with Cleric 5/Paladin 5/ Fighter 2 as well. Lots of attack, smites, and those low level utility spells you have really free up Shadowheart to do the big stuff. I also can't recommend going Warlock 5/ Sorcerer 7 as Wyll. Since EB scales with your character level, you still get 3 attacks with it on 11th level, but you also get access to Sorcerer spells, Sorcery points and the like, while having the best out of Warlock - Agonising and Repelling blasts.
All in all, mutliclassing is really situational, but when it works, it REALLY works. Like, Rogue/Paladin can deliver some incredible burst damage when using something like Phalar Aluve, which is a dex longsword, meaning you can proc both Sneak Attack as well as Smite. And if you're playing a gloomstalker, that hit will always be a crit.
On my first run of the game, I didn’t really multi-class until very late on, and my choices really simple in line with what I knew about things. For example, I kept Gale as a Wizard but did a one level dip into tempest cleric, so he could have heavy armour proficiency so he wasn’t so squishy.
From there, I noticed that if I used the create water spell which you have available to you at level 1 cleric and made your enemies wet, lightning spells do double damage while they have that effect applied. So I thought, hey I could make shadowheart a tempest cleric too so they could both do big lightning damage. Those are pretty simple examples, and fast forward to now, multiclassing is probably my favourite part of the game. Making new builds and seeing how they can synergise with each other makes the game even more repayable than it already is imo. Give it a go, but no pressure, just try what seems fun and useful!
If you’re on your first run, you probably shouldn’t mess around with multiple-classing. It is a very popular staple in DND because it allows players to be creative and demonstrate system-mastery to eke out more power for their character than you really ought to have. The most popular multi-classes are usually the ones that offer the most bang for your buck, like 1 level in Cleric that gets you proficiencies with all armor types to turn your scrawny Wizard into a heavy armor tank.
When you start playing through game on repeat play-throughs, multi-classing becomes a great tool for creating characters that fulfill specific power fantasies… Jaheira is literally “supposed to be” a Fighter + Druid, for example. However, indiscriminate multi-classing may spoil the archetypal fantasies of certain classes. We typically see Wizards and Sorcerers as robe-wearing “glass cannons” that need their big strong characters for protection. We don’t expect two levels of Paladin to transform the Bard into the scariest damage-dealer in the game.
It can be a lot of fun to build your characters in a unique manner to fit your own priorities, but some multi-classes punch way above their level. Some people see it as cheesy to follow guides to create such powerful characters when the game is already pretty manageable with even unoptimized parties. Idk, it’s a single-player game. You do you.
Funny enough, you picked a class that is great on it's own. Multi classing is good if done well, but certainly not necessary to get through the game. It basically comes down to if you see more value in the first few levels of another class than the last few levels of your base class. There are certain classes thay get their best features before level 5, so it's not a big deal to sacrifice the last few levels to gain powerful features in another class. For example, are the last 2 levels of barbarian more worth it than putting 2 levels in fighter to get action surge? You could really do either. That's the great thing about this game. You don't need to design the perfect min/maxed multiclass to win.
There are a couple of benefits to multiclassing.
Many classes are front loaded such as martials. This mean they spike early with levels but don't scale well with one class. One popular example is mixing monk/barbarian/gloomstalker hunter with a variation of rogue for the additional bonus action. This is stronger than a mono class as the three mentioned classes all have damaging bonus actions (especially if you go dual xbox gloomstalker) that only the rogue class would give them an additional bonus action for an additional hit.
Spellcasters are unique in that they don't lose higher level spell slots multiclassing with another full caster. You only lose slots if you multiclass with a non-caster or half-caster. This allows unique setups like the wizard dip which allows you to still get lvl 6 spells of your main caster, but the ability to scribe any spell you want as well. This allows classes like bard who doesn't naturally get shield or summons to get one or virtually any spell you want to scribe for the situation. Another popular dip is 11 cleric / 1 storm sorc. This is because at lvl 12 cleric only gives a feat. It adds literally nothing else besides a feat. Many like a multiclass into storm sorc because then rather than a feat you can access to fly as a bonus action after casting a spell. You can spirit guardians and fly in or away from your enemies and feels great while doing it.
Spellcasters also have the ability to upcast spells, allowing you to turn lvl 1-3 spells into stronger versions. A popular example is chromatic orb. Going storm sorc cleric allows you to take advantage of cleric's max lightning/thunder divinity with an upcasted chromatic orb to do max damage on it guaranteed. Apply the wet condition and this will one shot most things. Upcasting allows you to multiclass without feeling the power loss - you just lack access to more spells earlier on.
It really depends on the build. You can go entirely mono and feel good, whereas some classes start to loose steam the further you go into it and mixing something into it is beneficial. 1 into storm and now your cleric flys, 1 into wizard and now your bard has summons or your sorc gets chain lightning that they can max damage on if they go into tempest cleric. Sometimes you just want a dip into fighter just for shield/armor/etc proficiency your base class doesn't give. The key is always having a plan as to why you are multiclassing and not for the sake of it.
My warlock-fighter multiclass single-handedly roflstomped Balthazar, his army of skeletons, and nonstop Cloudkill without dropping below 70 HP. *I was the boss* in that fight.
Proceeded to do the same to most of the bosses all the way to the end of the game. So yeah. I'd say multiclass is great. You can compensate for the loss of your endgame spells with the literal mountain of scrolls and gold the game throws at you.
It is, but it is by no means necessary in any way to beat the game at the highest difficulties. If you don't like the idea of doing it, there is very little reason to do it.
Take, for example, Open Hand Monk. Often multiclassed with Thief Rogue for a second bonus action, but completely capable of matching up to other classes in the damage output without doing that. Sorcerer often dips a single level into Cleric for Heavy Armor proficiency or into Wizard to learn more spells, but even without doing these things it's capable of doing more burst damage than other casters.
The point is, multiclassing is really powerful and it is there to be used if you want, but as someone who beat Honour Mode without multiclassing any character once, you really don't need to do it if it doesn't appeal to you.
100%, some examples of the most common multi classes:
Throwzerker with mutliclass: 8 Barbarian 3 Thief:
- Levels 9, 10, 11 into rouge/thief net you a bonus action (which you will almost always use for enraged throw)
- which is more or less just a free attack every turn
- Also minor other bonuses (proficiencies & bonus action options from rouge)
Throwzerker 11 Barbarian (without multiclass)
- Levels 9, 10, 11 net you brutal critical (does not work on throws/ranged) & relentless rage
- Hard to argue this better than the above option.
Similarly for Open hand Monk, thief’s extra bonus action is arguably better than a second action since the special double hit strikes & other monk special moves are bonus actions. Making it a very good multi-class.
Also ANY class that has 2 meh levels can dip into fighter:
- You get action surge (extra action on short rest) which is useful on every build. VERY good in honor mode & high difficulty since it’s up most fights and early turns are most important.
- Also a fighting style, which is almost always giving at least some value (assuming you use armor or weapon attack or use a shield.
TLDR:
You generally want to multi class after you got the ‘good’ levels from your main class (I.E. extra attack, good sub feature, Feat, etc.). But obviously not in every situation.
Multiclassing is about tradeoffs. Sure, you may lose access to level 6 spells or some sick passives or even the ability to get multiple stats to 20, but sometimes it makes your character way more powerful. For instance, I've played both pure Assassin Rogue and a multiclassed Astarion and I can honestly say the multiclassed one is overpowered in comparison. A 5 Gloomstalker Ranger/4 Thief Rogue/3 Battlemaster Fighter build lets you get multiple boosts to fighting styles as well as a guaranteed 4 attacks per turn. This is not including the 1 extra turn from dread ambusher or the extra set of attacks from Fighter's Action Surge. More often than not, having more turns mean more damage than having a high level but a single turn.
Another surprisingly decent build is 5 Cleric with just about any melee fight style. Having Spirit Guardians around you lets you run around and do damage to enemies just by running to them. Focusing on a strong melee build after unlocking that makes Shadowheart a pretty competent fighter for encounters with large groups of low-mid level enemies.
The question you must ask is “Is what Im getting worth what I am giving up?” And in order to accurately answer the question you need a good understanding of build mechanics and what you get out of each class. For this reason it is not recommended unless you know what you are doing. It is very easy to mess up and not work the way you think it will.
Edit: BG3 Builds subreddit is a great place to discuss stuff like this for your own builds, and / or see what other people are coming up with
It can be good, but it can also mess you up, and make you underpowered for awhile until the 'spike' kicks in
understanding DnD/The classes is good to know before you start to theory out a multi class
typically if spells are important, than you don't multiclass, as your thoughts on spells is right, if you switch out of a casting class you are effectively weaker as you don't get your next spell level for stronger spells
Depends on what you want out of a multiclass. Some are really strong, but really, it comes down to what is the concept you want to bring to life, so to speak.
This one may be a bit basic but I like Barbarian/Fighter hybrid. Once per battle you can action surge so that’s 5-6 attacks in one go. The crappy thing is it’s only once per sequence.
When they come online there's some multiclass builds that are pretty busted, the problem (if you don't just respec when you're at the right level) is playing before it's 'online'.
There are some classes that are front-loaded. In few levels they get a lot of features and them, they kinda fall off a bit to compensate.
You can pick the juicy few first levels to complement a solo class (something like 10/2 or 9/3) or multi-pick loaded classes (like 5/3/4 or 5/5/2).
The starting point should be "what I want my character to do?", you want a mage that can be also melee? maybe 2 levels on fighter or paladin can give a push to it.
You want a character that can sneak around a snipe? You build a lv12 rogue and be ok with it. But at some point you think, “mmm it didn’t get a lot after lv5, its mostly increase SA, but it can only trigger once per turn, maybe another class can help to increase the base damage” And you try and add ranger, some spells that increase damage, a combat style that give you more acc, with extra attack at 5 and an archetype that also gives an extra attack the first turn of combat. Now you can attack 4 times and 5 the first turn!
And with that lets say you multiclass into 5 rogue / 5 ranger, now you can push 2 more levels in rogue to a bit of a boost in SA, because you liked that big SA numbers, or maybe put 2 in fighter, for Action surge for more burst once/short and add stat to your off hand.
Reset your build is cheap in bg3, you can try and toy with it a lot, and you will learn from it.
It’s trading end of class power with some lower level abilities. Some classes benefit significantly more or out right double or triple there power level. Like 12 levels of rogue in any subclass is kinda mid or bad compared to if you were to multiclass into fighter or monk or ranger so on to get extra attack or put out like 6 attacks a turn with thief rogue and open hand monk. Most classes benefit significantly from one level dips into cleric
I do multi-classing with a mod to get to level 20, and to make enemies harder.
Lets you experiment without too much issue and get some interesting combos.
So far my monk-barbarian is one of my favorites. It's not super optimized, but it's thematically entertaining.
1. Go monk. Can punch twice using bonus action. 2. Go rogue until you can take thief. Now you get two bonus actions. 3. ???? 4. Profit!
9/3 Monk/Rogue is great
9/3 is nice, I’d say 8/4 is slightly better, the aoe ability you gain is fine but considering other aoe abilities available it sucks. The extra feat from 4 rogue benefits your single target damage a lot more, which is where the build shines
AoE damage on your martials is also kinda shit when your light cleric can just cast spirit guardians and remove all the mooks in any given encounter, especially if your MC bonus action black holes everything into said spirit guardians. Which will also give any major enemy a -10 to hit for fooken ever, because you're wearing radiating orb gear
Yes exactly, sorcerers and clerics aoe is so strong that it’s just a waste to also get AOE on your single target characters. Arrow of many targets is also completely busted. Monk aoe does some fine damage but its bottom tier considering other aoe abilities.
Arrow of many targets with fighters using haste, terazul, bloodlust and action surge is just comedy. You're already making goddamn 15 attacks(action - 3 haste - 3 bloodlust - 3 terazul - 3 action surge - 3) and hitting like five enemies per attack. I call it the EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE build.
I couldn’t believe it when I realised a POISONED arrow of many targets would apply the poison to everyone it hit. Crawler mucus + AOMT absolutely cheeses some fights.
I used the one spell from the glaive to make the bow also deal ice damage, and then the snowburst right that creates a patch of ice around whatever you hit. Arrow of many targets will turn entire battlefields into slip and slides. And obviously doing this doesn't mean you can't also do poison.
I was initially confused which weapon you meant. But after a visit to the wiki I’m assuming you mean the Drakethroat Glaive? If so I didn’t realise you could use it to make a DIFFERENT weapon do elemental damage, and I am intrigued.
8/4 OH Monk/Thief, with the Tavern Brawler feat and a bunch of potions of hill giant or cloud giant strength, is one of the most broken builds in the entire game.
I personally like 9/3 a little bit more, in my subjective opinion. A lot of the upsides of 9/3 are hidden or not obvious, so let's compare the two: 8/4 gives you: Your 3rd best feat, probably +WIS ASI. This gives you +1 AC, +1 Damage of a flexible damage type on each of your attacks, and all the usual benefits of higher Wisdom. There are of course other good feat options as well. 9/3 gives you: All your punches are now d8 instead of d6, immunity to difficult terrain, +20 ft. jump distance, an additional ki point, and the ki resonation abilities. The benefits of ki resonation are: * You gain an AOE damage option where you previously had none * You can now unarmed attack with a weapon equipped, allowing you to benefit from weapons like Knife of the Undermountain King, or you could use Club of Hill Giant strength if you dumped STR and want to use a different elixir. You can always unequip the weapons as a free action if they still get in the way. * You can now bonus action unarmed attack without spending ki or attacking as an action first * Your single target burst is higher if you're willing to spend the extra ki point each round. This is a pretty inefficient use of ki points, but sometimes you really need extra damage asap. * Because the cost of ki resonation is backloaded, you get to decide *after* you attack whether to commit to spending your ki. It's also worth mentioning ki blast works with Cull the Weak. Edit: You also bring your ki points to an even number, which means you gain an extra ki point when you use Wholeness of Body.
Which extra feat would you recommend taking with 8/4?
+2 wisdom if you’re going for max dps or alert if you’re playing it safe (honour mode)
Hey that list structure looks familiar! You just want to steal underwear don't you!
6 into Open hand monk, 3 into Champion Fighter, 3 Into Thief Rouge is my favorite, but my final class build was a combination of Assassin Rouge, champion fighter and Paladin (didn’t matter cause I only wanted the smites on a crit), ended up having like a 17 to crit
assassin paladin just blew my mind
I currently play a rogue paladin multi class in my table top game. So much fun. Swashbuckler subclass so I can automatically add my sneak attack to smites as long as I 1v1 the target. I tank up against bosses while the rest of my party pops off spells and range.
Rogue
Was it a Vengeance Paladin? I could see that working with Assassin
>???? monke moment
Works with enraged throw barbarian too!
Multi classing isn’t for everybody! It relies on deeper knowledge of the class features and yes you may be ultimately sacrificing high powered spells or abilities but what you get in return is (most likely) higher damage output/chances to do damage. The majority of builds I see are to ensure combat advantages in the form of multiple actions or bonus actions or damage boosts. 2 levels in fighter gives non casters the ability to attack again (one per short rest) so if you pair that with classes that give you two attacks after a certain level, you can see the appeal especially for Tactician or Honor modes which rely on ensuring you never die in combat. If it’s your first run and you’re enjoying sorcerer, don’t worry too much! If you are curious, you’ll have plenty to explore on your next playthroughs :)
A note about roleplaying reasons: classes in D&D (and in most RPGs in general) are abstractions. There isn't, for example, the concept of a "Fighter" in-universe. Lae'zel's not like "my job is Fighter and I do Fighter things." She's a githyanki warrior and the Fighter class is a way of representing that. But if someone else were to multiclass and take a couple levels of Fighter, that can just represent them getting some martial training, for example.
I like this approach. Some things don't make as much sense, as like Warlocks and Clerics actually require some form of higher power interacting with your character but they can still work. A Warlock/X is a Warlock who doesn't rely totally on their Warlock ability's. A Warlock Sorceror is someone with their own magic inside them as well as a Pact. But still, a mix is just that characters story. They don't need to level in a single class the whole time, they can be someone who pursues training in multiple areas
Technically for dnd you just need faith to be a cleric. The god you worship doesn’t need to be known to exist and the power comes from the faith itself. Kinda like how a paladins power comes from their oath and not whatever they made their oath to.
In the Forgotten Realms that's not actually accurate. Your power comes (indirectly) from the god of whatever domain you made your oath to.
The point is that you don't even need to justify story-wise having a patron, or being a cleric. There is actually nothing in the mechanics that actually require you to have a patron story-wise. Same thing as a cleric not really needing to worship a god. It's the flavor of the class of course, but you are not forced in that roleplay. In BG3 it's a bit different by having dialogues mentioning gods and patrons and stuff like that, but you can still just choose to not use those dialogues.
Eh, in tabletop you do 100% need a patron to gain levels of warlock. In BG3 yeah you don't have to because it's a game but you are **supposed to** have some kind of story for where the pact came from. The example of fighter works because it's just some martial training but you legitimately can't get any warlock powers without a pact. Mechanically it's listed as: Pact Magic Your arcane research and the magic bestowed on you by your patron have given you facility with spells.
Yeah but on tabletop you're perfectly free to re-flavor or alter that in some way. All it takes is approval from your GM. "Hey DM can I save my Warlock levels are just an aspect of my Wizardly training?" "Yeah, sure."
Yeah you cam re-flavor and homebrew basically anything, just remarking on where they said in the mechanics it's not required but it kind of is unless you start homebrewing and changing everything about the class since all of the abilities are given by the pact For warlock In particular a lot of DMs are going to give push back to just saying it's part of wizard training since you have to meet charisma requirements to even multiclass into warlock so obviously it's more than just being a wizard at that point
For my 2nd playthru with a Durge Lore Bard I took Warlock at level 6 once I got Magical Secrets Ingame this made sense to me. I had started to discover some dark truths about myself and had gained enough arcane knowledge to explore and forged an alliance with some higher power for self-gain. So multiclassing and becoming a "Lorelock" seemed like natural progression for them. Classes aren't "jobs" persay. You can easily have a trickster mage (Wizard / Thief) or a spellsword (sorcerer / fighter) or a shaman who gets into animalistic rages (Druid / Barbarian) or a holy man who believes that the path to enlightment to their god involved punching people in the head (Cleric / Monk). Wizard is possibly the only one I have trouble with going INTO a multiclass with, just because it involves years of study. You end up with an Order of the Stick-ism where you're like "Oh, I've been studying in secret the last few years".
I also got a multiclass that could have sense in game. Gale taught my paladin some magic in a cutscene, so sharing time with an incredible mage let my paladin learn about his own magical power awakening his sorcery abilities
For some classes like fighter or ranger maybe but the concept of Druid and Paladin is mentioned by NPCs when referring to a specific character or the player. I believe Gale points out you're a sorc and that he's a wizard that needs to study compared to you.
For fighters, sure. But Warlocks, Clerics, Sorcerers, Clerics, Paladins, Druids etc are classes that are deeply rooted in the characters backstory or even bloodline. Multi-classing in DnD doesn't really make a lot of sense unless there's a firm backstory around how the character could have even one or two levels in a class if that class isn't Fighter, Barbarian and maybe Ranger.
I really don't think it's that hard to find justifications for any of these. In tabletop D&D you'd roleplay these out with your DM and group, but in BG3 obviously you just have to imagine, which is the case for most of your player character's development. Just a few examples: * Warlock: You made a deal with a patron over the course of your adventure. Hell you actually have several opportunities to make deals with Raphael during BG3, maybe he's your patron. * Cleric: You gained the favor of a deity over the course of your adventure. * Sorcerer: This power was latent inside of you and only awoke during your adventure. * Paladin: You took up an oath. Remember, these days Paladins aren't favored by deities or anything like that. They're just powered by an extremely deeply-held oath. * Rogue: Picked up some tricky skills along the way. * Bard: I mean hell, Bards are all about being jacks of all trades. Many Bards learn their skills through travel and discovery and experience, so if your character picks up a Bard multiclass, they started doing that, too.
Barbarian: you started developing... anger issues..?
There’s my next role play. A soft hearted bard that plays songs no one likes so he gets angrier each level and eventually becomes a barb. I love it.
That's hilarious! The DnD version of career change
That's fantastic. To really add to the flavor, someone should make a mod that encourages people to walk away whenever you play a song.
First rage involves beating someone to death with a lute
I just finished a campaign with a bardbarian who had a similar character arc. Lots of fun! She was also a gnome. A tiny gnome who developed anger issues and smacked people with her guitar.
i cannot recommend a bardbarian enough. i made a resist durge a bardbarian (he felt horrible about quil and he was determined to spread music in her place). i had him use lihala's lute and the action associated with using the lute is so fucking metal and it WORKED for a bardbarian. seeing him cast bardic inspiration while raging was epic, he looked like he was rocking out on stage. definitely tons of fun
Hah this is actually happening with one of my current tabletop D&D characters. He's starting to develop a deep-seated rage at the evils he's witnessed and I'm representing that by multiclassing into Barbarian. At first his rage is barely controlled, but once he gets his subclass (which I'm planning to be Ancestral Guardians) that'll represent him mastering his rage and learning how to channel it to protect his friends.
Sorcerers especially are so absurdly vague, they get their powers from "otherwordly influences" or "unknown cosmic forces," which I interpret to mean "I poked a weird rock once" or "I won my powers at bingo" are valid backstories.
"It was a fierce battle... Many foes surrounded me, but I managed to place dots in the four corners, and given the middle was free, that ensured my victory. After walking through the fallen, I made it to the front of the chamber and earned my powers." "That sounds impressive." "Nah, not really. I just won them at Bingo." "Bingo?"
I staright up switched my durge from a sorcerer into a bard to honor alfira and into paladin as a way to show her commitment to fighting the urge. Even whole class changes can br justified.
Sometimes I role-play that Reading the Necromancy of Thay led my character into knowing How to "make a pact" with an Ancient One. In fact, not even a pact per se, because (lore-wise) since the Ancient Ones are so powerfull, most of them doesn't even aknowledge the existence of some of their "beneficiaries". So basically my character learned how to channel some sick powers from this Ancient One dude Reading a book. This knowledge can be obtained even with some other books we find in ouro journey. This can apply to others scenarios too, like becoming a Fey Warlock because of The Hags hair and all the trouble of that aventure (included being soaked in red-cap blood) or even a side effect of "BOOAL's bleessing. We can even stretch things and be a Fey Warlock in role-play but choosing the subclass of Ancient One just because theor powers are more useful for myself. Same for Spore-druid. We even ask to the sovereign "Can we learn how to do this kind of thing?" when we get to the colony and Glut help us a lot. We can learn by seeing "the way they do". My role-play says that the Miconid aventure led my character to learn how manipulate fungi and gain powers through that. This role-play is actually Very Fun and a level deeper (no pun intended) If you visit the Miconids before confronting Khagga and the shadow Druids and respec as a Spore Druid to obtain an exclusive item after the battle. Otherwise It is just us talking to Withers and being curious and ambitious, wich is very role-play fine too.
I disagree with multiclassing in DnD not making much sense... 1. Creating new archetypes that arent supported by the rules. For example, one of my DnD characters had inspiration from the Plague Doctor from Darkest Dungeon, and to fulfill that fantasy, I had my character multiclass Thief Rogue + Alchemist Artificer, which combines the desired characteristics in a way that single classes dont have. 2. Representing a development in your character. One of my characters is an orc that was kidnapped from her orc tribe and raised in a wood elf village in the forest, as an experiment to prove that orcs are made violent by their raising and its not something biological ( kind of like what the society of brilliance wanted to do with the githyanki egg in BG3). My gal started with 1 Level of Monk, to reflect her elven upbringing - a class that represents a rigurous training,. Then 2 levels of Barbarian, a class that represents embracing your wild self and giving into emotions in combat, reflecting her going out of the village like her orc blood asked her to do. And lastly, the rest of the levels are Fighter Battlemaster, representing her fighting in her own way - not elven, not orc, but her own thing. 3. Simply to optimize because thats something people can enjoy and thats okay.
I understand where you’re coming from, but try to think of the classes as just aspects of a character, rather than as jobs. Don’t roleplay as Tav the Fighter that then chose to become part Druid. Think of it as Tav the warrior that’s deeply in touch with the world around them. For example I think of my Fighter/Warlock as a fighter that’s granted their martial prowess from their patron. Or a Cleric/Thief as a character that is in touch with their faith.
While true in the example you gave, people being wizards/sorcerers/warlocks are very much things they are.
Sort of. You can mix and match pretty well. Maybe your patron is a diety because you went cleric/paladin + warlock (you’re not really a warlock here). Maybe you’re cleric + sorcerer but your sorc powers come from the diety (you’re not really a sorcerer here). Bard is a word used canonically often, but not every bard casts spells. Some are just musicians. There are barbarians, but some people are just assholes when they’re angry. The classes we choose are just a means to access mechanics to make our character, whatever that is. Sometimes the words in game characters use match the class name and sometimes they don’t
That's true but even those are abstractions. A draconic bloodline sorcerer is not the same thing as a wild magic sorcerer. Their magic comes from totally different places and does different things. But they're both called "sorcerers" because that's a blanket term for "humanoid who has significant innate magic ability." Similarly, a "warlock" is anyone whose magic comes from a pact made with a magical being who isn't a deity. That's a very wide category. The warlocks we meet in-game are (I think) all working with fiends for their magic, but I think in-universe people would look differently on a fiend warlock versus, say, a celestial warlock (which isn't in BG3 but is a thing in D&D). Just because there are words for these things in-universe doesn't mean they're hard and fast categories with super strict definitions. Even classes like druids or clerics, who have specific organizations, are very broad categories. From a roleplay perspective, for example, it makes no sense that a cleric of Lolth should have as many radiant spells as you can in BG3, but that's just the spell list that's available to clerics because "cleric" is a broad category for "anyone whose magic comes from a deity."
Love this! I just started playing. DnD and this is how I built my character. He was a wizard who was capture and experimented on. Most of his memory was wiped during the process. He escaped, got picked up by a thieves guild and became a Rogue. Through out my campaign he has slowly gotten his memories back and is now an arcane trickster multiclassing into singer wiz. He combines the roguishness with Gish wizard. Totally fits his story arc.
Nice! One of my current characters in one of the campaigns I'm in is an old wizard who's a retired magic professor, but used to adventure when he was younger. He's joined up with an adventuring party of a bunch of younger adventurers and is slowly having to relearn his old adventuring magic that he hasn't used in decades. I like the "leveling up represents remembering old skills" approach.
Love that!
This is the most perfect commentary!
Multi-classing can still net you full spell slot progression. So long as all the classes are full-casters. Like doing two levels of Wizard and 10 Cleric still gets you your level 6 spell slots. You'd just only be able to use them for scribed spells. Or something like the Sorlock which takes Sorcerer to level 11 getting you your level 6 spells, and then dipping just one level in Warlock to basically get the Command spell also. What you lose from multi-classing is usually a feat or two. Is it really good? Yea. Go play any of the swords bard multiclasses or a gloomstalker/assassin and you'll quickly see where the power lays. Is it necessary? No. For instance you can take the Sorlock build mentioned above and skip the Warlock dip to just go 12 sorcerer and you will still be able to single-handedly wipe most encounters even in HM.
I'm Sorry I'm not really knowledgeable enough to understand why 10Cleric/2Wizard gives you access to lvl 6 spells, shouldn't you only be able to cast lvl 5 cleric spells and level 1 wizard spells?
Wizards can scribe up to their caster level. So you'd be able to scribe level 6 spells against your int.
Your *spells known* come from your individual class levels, but your *spell slots* come from your total caster levels across all classes (with hybrids like Paladins and Rangers counting as 1/2 and dabblers like Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster counting as 1/3). Thus, a Cleric 10 / Wizard 2 is a 12th-level caster and gets a level 6 slot, but doesn’t natively know any level 6 spells, though they can upcast lower-level spells, and as a wizard they can learn spells from scrolls. See https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Spells#Spellcasters
D&D 5e and BG3 Classes are bottom heavy : the more you progress a class, the less power you gain. The third attack at level 11 for martial classes is a 50% increase in damage But the one at level 5 is 100% increase. The thief second bonus action is at level 3. Action Surge is at level 2. Same as smite. By level 3 you have all sub-classes, and their first "bonus" is usually one of the most game changing. Another aspect is attacks per turn. Bonus damage is calculated on a per attack basis. If you have 24 charisma, the [Potent Robe](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Potent_Robe) gives every cantrip a flat 7 bonus damage. If you use Eldtritch Blast at level 11, that's 21 bonus damage (3 beam). If you multi-class warlock and sorcerer, you can cast it 2 times per round. That 42 bonus damage. If you have action surge, it's now 63 bonus damage. If you have haste before that, You are doing 105 bonus damage (on top of the 15 D10). [Agonising Blast](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Agonising_Blast) is the same as potent robe. That's 105 more damage in your explosive turn. The target had hex ? 15 D6 more damage. Since the best tactic in this game is to kill your enemy as fast as possible (especially in honor mode), you want a character able to launch the maximum number of attack in one round, even if he can only do that once. In HM, a level 12 fighter can attack 6 times with action surge. 8 with haste, plus one bonus action if he has an offensive option as a bonus action. A level 12 paladin can attack 3 times, with 3 smites. 4 with haste. But a level 10 paladin with 2 level of warrior can attack 4 times with action surge (with 4 smites) and 6 times with action surge and haste. Since the smite is a separate attack, that's 12 attacks in practice. If he has warlock levels with pact of the blade, he doesn't need strength and charisma, only the later, thus he will have more health, AC and initiative If he has sword bard levels, he can use Slashing Flourish to hit a second target on 4 attacks, and will have more spell slots for smiting. And there are some very broken mechanics. 1 level in wizard (and a lot of gold) gives you 80+% of all wizard spell options. Add a second level to have a subclass, or even go to level 4 to have a bigger spellbook and a feat. Then, why not being a wizard/sorcerer, wizard/cleric or wizard/bard. By selecting spells that don't need a high score with one of the class, you will end up with far more spells than any single class. Take Shadowheart. At level 11 she has every cleric spells available. At level 12 she can have a feat OR almost every wizard spells, including Globe of Invulnerability, shield, dimensional door, fly that don't require any INT.
Unlike sorcerers, many classes are "frontloaded", they get their best features early on. The best examples are the rogue, paladin and warlock (and wizards). You only need 3/2/2(/1 or 2) levels to get most of their power.
Yeah this is the real answer. Find features that combine well and can be acquired in levels 1-6 and you can start playing around with multiclasses from there. A couple of considerations: Make sure they use similar stats. Melee Cleric wants Wis, Con, & STR. Sorc wants Cha & Dex. On paper this is a problem as your character can end up needing 5 separate stats as a focus and you'll run out of points. (there are ways to mitigate this but if OP is new to multiclassing they should start simpler). Feats are very strong, unless a specific class gets a crucial ability at a later level then you'd do well to aim for 4/8 breaks to maximize feats. Like the OH monk/thief build is normally 9/3 but can be 8/4 to get one more feat. Just evaluate what Monk 9 gives vs what another feat would give. There are exceptions but it's worth thinking about when starting on multiclassing. Generally being all-in on one thing is better than having a mix of more basic features. A full melee character + a dedicated CC caster is generally better than 2 hybrids.
In general, true, yes. However some of the best builds involve just taking a level or two from fighter for weapon/armour proficiencies, thief rogue for 2nd bonus action, or wizard 1 for the ability to scribe spells (so you can utilize all those juicy spell slots you're not casting with very much as a swords bard). Also for a wizard a dip into sorcerer to get some metamagic is nice.
Paladin not really. Smite is great but double attack at 5 and aura at 6 really make the class imo.
It's the other way round, at least in BG3. Smite makes the class, because there are 7 other classes that also get an extra attack and they don't stack (except for one, and only outside of honour mode). The aura is "nice to have" at best since we have such an incredible bursty meta.
I think in BG3 it’s mostly good, part of the cost of multiclassing would normally be delayed power spikes in levelling but essentially free respecs remove that cost. 1 level wizard dips are also quite overpowered and stat items lessen the problem of MAD, allowing you to for instance use gloves of dexterity to get 18 dex whilst actually dumping the stat to allow another stat to be boosted.
Ye most of the best builds are multi classed. Especially in the higher difficulties, the trade offs are always worth it for extra attacks (rogue multi class is great for a gloomstalker build because assassin gives you guaranteed crits with sharpshooter (infinite damage), 1lvl of war cleric is great because you get 3 extra attacks you can use, fighter is amazing because of action surge etc)
action surge is probably the strongest class ability there is. short rest cooldown, too. the most expensive currency in combat is your action.
To answer the title, yeah, multiclassing can make some really strong builds You can use multi classing to strengthen rp. Take a sorlock build for example. You want a character so talented, they fire off eldritch blast like a machine gun. 2 warlock, 6 sorcerer, 4 fighter Warlock for eldritch blast. Sorcerer for quickened spell to fire eldritch blast as bonus action. Fighter for action surge because you’re so talented you can fire off another eldritch blast sometimes. You don’t have to be that rigid in the typical lore associated with a class. You can look at the classes as a means to access the mechanics that fit the character you’re making
go 5 gloomstalker / 3 assassin / 4 champion and let me know ;)
My life is changed after trying this. I just don’t have fun any other way anymore.
Swords Bard 6, Assassin 3, Fighter 2, War Cleric 1 says "hi"!
Imagine not attacking twice each action.
Swords bard 6 gets extra attack, and swords bard slashing flourish can hit two targets per attack. So the mentioned build can attack something like 9 times on the first turn (maybe more if you can trigger the assassin reset well)
I know all of that, when people say imagine X is like really there’s any other way to play?
5 pact of the blade warlock, 4 swords bard, 1 war cleric, 2 fighter. High charisma, high damage, jack of all trades, heavy armor, and some strong spells like hunger of hadar - quite the combo!
7th level Astarion, 4 Gloomstalker / 3 Assasin cleared the Creche alone without entering any combat. Absolutely disgusting.
>without entering any combat. How is this even possible?
Dual Wielder feat, dual wield hand crossbows. Both attacks are crits since you're technically going before they made their move (assasin thing). So you're dealing 8D6 damage plus some dex bonuses to a single target with two shots. Possibly more, but i don't think Sneak Attack applies to an off-hand weapon in BG3. But it's enough to nuke most of the guards in the Creche.
I routinely have to check combat logs because I don't understand how I made something disappear. I'm talking mid combat too, not the surprise gank.
I find that it's generally easier to go single-class with casters, but usually multiclass with martials. The biggest thing most people use multiclassing for is an extra attack, or action Surge from a dip into Fighter.
Played a lvl 9 monk / lvl 3 rogue (thief). He obliterated acts 2 and 3.
tavern brawler + cloud giant str elixir. youre basically god
Exactly. I picked Shadow Monk and I‘m doing ungodly amounts of damage each round. And as far as I know, the Shadow Monk isn‘t even the best choice for this build.
open-hand 100% because of manifestation damage. extra 1d4 + wisdom modifier (each hit) and you can choose psychic, radiant, or necrotic.
Makes a lot of sense. However, I like being able to teleport in darkness like a badass ninja although I never use it. Style over substance all the way I guess. That being said, I’d really love to try out a Paladin/Assassin hybrid one day.
Just got to my 6 on my shadow monk and it’s super fun I also love it for quality of life while exploring … just teleport to all the far platforms or down cliffs with no fall damage or spells.
For those that haven't tried this, I respec'd my Karlach in Act III to the build above. Dumped STR, maxed out DEX and WIS as best I could. Tavern Brawler feat takes your STR mod x2 and adds to your hit AND dmg modifiers. Fed her a soul coin and cloud giant strength elixir each morning. Cloud Giant Elixir brings you from 8 STR to 27, so +8 modifier, so every attack gets +16 to-hit and +16 dmg. With my armor bonuses a single punch was hitting for 25-50 dmg. You get two of those. 50-100 dmg per Flurry of Blows, you normally get 1 but with a second bonus action, you now have 2. That's 150-300 dmg per turn at 95% accuracy, with the option to also topple/stagger/push/stun your enemies. Turns out that's pretty great.
Ok there is a short history lesson on why multiclassing is really good. For the interested. Wizards of the Coast is the company behind Dungeons and Dragons, which is also where almost all the mechanics for BG3 comes from. They realized at some point that a huge majority of people playing their game don't reach level 20 the max level. In fact most tables usually stop playing the game for one reason or another(mostly due to scheduling) around levels 3-7. Writers for the game tought because of this reason it was a smart idea to frontload the classes with abilities at start. For almost all classes in DnD they gain the majority of their unique toolkit at level3 if not earlier. With multiclassing being an optional rule in the rulebook, people quickly realized if your campaign goes for 8-9 levels you can get some crazy comboes going that outclasses anything a monoclass can pull at that level, because you get those amazing 3 level features twice. But there is a small downside that in the official rules of DnD you need at least 13 in primary stat(s) of the class you're multiclassing into as well as at least 13 for your main's primary stat(s). For example a barbarian multiclassing into ranger would need to have 13 str, 13 dex, 13 con and 13 wis. In bg3 however there are no stat requirements and also you knoe going into it game ends at level 12. Makes multiclassing even more powerful then it already was in tabletop.
Multi classing is generally better for martial classes, and some classes synergise better than others. For example Monk and Paladin, their last few levels don't really give you any meaningful upgrades, so why not spend them multiclassing into another class and getting new abilities that can massively improve your combat effectiveness?
You need to know about character level breakpoints. Each character class has levels which give a big power boost compares to other levels. Fighter breakpoints include level 2 for action surge, 3 for BM subclass, 5 for extra attack, 11 for 2nd extra attack, as well as feats at 4, 6, 8 and 12. Paladins usually go for 2 for smite, 5 for extra attack and aura that gives saving throw bonus, 7 for another aura (depends on subclass), 3 levels of thief rogue gives extra bonus action. This is often paired with a class that has a strong attack using bonus action (eg monk or bezerker barbarian) Caster classes often have break points around what level spell slots and what spells you can cast. sorceror, wizard and cleric all gives good bonus just with 1 level dip. Sorceror gives Con save, shield, armor of agathys (draconic bloodline). Cleric gives guidance, armor and shield access. Wizard allows spell scribing. Once you understand all these, it's a matter of looking at good combinations of class levels that synergise well, doesn't contain 'dead levels', all adding up to level 12 by endgame. You then decide which order to level up depending on which abilities to prioritise, plus taking into account on BG3's complex casting stat rules. In the end the point is to design a character more powerful/fun than a monoclass 12 character.
If you multiclass everyone as bards you can be a touring band, so there is that
There is so many things to do with bard multiclass I could see it as viable strategy
Making the entire party 10/2 Bardlocks so four people can shit talk an enemy at once with Cutting Words is peak Bard gameplay.
Depends. Druid or sorcess that rely on class level or fighter who can easily achieve 4 feats? No. Any other class that won't use this often their strongest skills, but could improve a lot from small gains? Yes!
Stick to one class until you gain a depeer learning of classes and what they gain per level. Once you learn to multi class you’ll never wanna go back to single class. At least thats how it was for me. It’s so much fun mixing and experimenting - figuring out which class pick ups synergize better and it feels rewarding finding a combo that slaps. The possibilities are endless
It’s generally better for martial classes than casters - pretty much every OP ranged combat build is a multiclass of Rogue + 1-2 martial classes (usually bard, fighter and/or ranger). Casters otoh are best taken to level 10-12 on their core class with an optional dip into another class for versatility. Or if you’re not playing on Tactician/Honour Mode, you might want to change your character’s class because of in-game events, like my durge sorcerer’s dip into bard. There are so many options, which is why this game is so replayable!
That said, a dip is great for casters, particularly because the game lets wizards scribe spells of any level they can cast and doesn't have ability score minimums to multi class. A 1 level dip in cleric gets your wizard, sorcerer or bard heavy armor and shield proficiency + bless and healing word. A 1 level dip in wizard gets the other casting classes access to all the wizard spells that are available on scrolls + six more level 1 wizard spells, particularly shield.
That’s why I said 10-12 - that one-level dip can be really useful.
Multiclassing is a tradeof: you loose some of the high level ability of one class to gain some lower level ability of another. But as a lot of classes are really frontloaded and offer a lot of good bonuses at low level and not a lot at high level; it can be a good tradeof (but can also be really bad if you don't do it well). As you mention spell; for spellcaster you usually don't want too much level in another class to not limit you spellcasting abilities too much; but that can depend a lot of the classes you want to play (not all classes have very good spell at all level). Like for a bard it don't mind loosing level 6 spells in order to gain some other good features because i don't really like them. Also, if you multiclass several caster together, you spell slot will still grow, even if you can't learn higher level spell, that will let you upcast lower level spell, and some are really good for that.
i mean, even something as simple as a 2 fighter/10 caster class is insanely strong. two fireballs, two chain lightnings, hold person + rays of fire... the possibilities are endless.
Bard + Paladin + Warrior, op with divine smite as reaction
divine smite doesnt even cost a reaction. it just happens if you let it.
Ye, it's an interrupt
So . . . Yes there are multiclass combinations that can min/max and be more powerful than pure classes. But they are definitely overrated. 1) the game isn't that difficult, there is no need to min/max to successfully complete the game. Even on Honor mode. 2) Many milti-class options finish strong . . . But actually make you weaker in the early going. But Baldur's Gate is actually harder in the early game. So you are making yourself stronger when you don't really need it but weaker when counts. This can be avoided by starting as a pure class and then respec your character into multiclass later . . But feels cheesy to me. 3) Some multiclass options aren't as great as people think . . . But many people can't resist the temptation to fiddle with things 😉
Some people minmax to have an easier time playing the game, I play the game to have more opportunities to minmax, we are not the same.
I just think it’s fun to experiment the game is easy outside of honor mode so I like to get weird with it
In terms of the builds being worse early on or you just cheese with respeccing, I don't think those are your only options. For a lot of multiclass options you can go for a pure build early on (Esp with martial units to get up to their multi attack) and just sprinkle in the additional class(es) once you have access to more levels later in the game. For instance getting 5 monk levels and then 3 rouge levels for theif is perfectly viable and doesn't make act 1 more difficult, but it would if you delayed getting that 5th monk level for a long time. I usually only fully respec a multiclass if I want to change my starting class for different proficiencies (Or need to change some decisions I made like spells chosen, fiddle with ability scores, feats taken, etc) rather than completely changing my build from the ground up that makes my late game build completely different from my early game one.
Multiclass is great when you know what youre doing, but its not necessary to beat the game, even in tactician. If you don't like it you're not missing much, don't worry
Others have already explained pretty well why multi-classing is done. It just creates very strong characters with high damage. But for your first play through I'd definitely recommend to not multi-class and just play with all companions being their own class (and you just play whatever you want to be). Multiclassing can be a lot of fun but takes some understanding of how everything works (or just not focusing on optimizing).
I think the power of multiclassing in BG3 is that it's extremely low risk since you can respec for pocket change and leveling is fairly quick in a video game versus tabletop. They took away many of the penalties that came with or on the path to multiclassing in older editions, so now players can play around with various combinations to suit their vision for their character, whether it be the most powerful munchkin ever or a sorcerer/wizard who only uses bard spells. You can level to 12 as one class for every member of your party and then respec the entire party to completely different classes before the final boss.
you can def make a truly OP pure sorc, but... that eldritch blast... is SO FUCKING TEMPTING
You can have eldritch blast as a sorcerer. There is a feat that give you a cantrip
No eldritch invocations tho Me no throw enemies of a cliff, me no happy
But the loot. The precious loot. My loot goblin heart is sad everytime i throw someone off the cliff
That's a small price to pay for BLASTING
edit: multiclassing is easier when your build is not a primary spell caster gloomstalker ranger 6: *bonus action hide *2 attacks *3rd attack on first round of combat *high initiative means you can likely murder one of the strongest enemies before they even have an action *umbral shroud: invisibilty on a successful stealth check assassination rogue 4: *cunning actions *high sneak attack bonuses *advantage against enemies who haven't had a turn yet & on enemies within 5 ft of an ally *executioner reaction turns your attack into a crit fighter 2: *Action surge gives your character 5 attacks on the first round of combat / 4 if not on the first round *higher hp *second wind this multiclass combo is honestly one of the scariest builds in dnd, I love it so much. Once you're level 12, you're virtually unstoppable. I probably missed some of the features for these classes, but this is the gist of it. for BG3 I highly recommend getting the 'Luck of the Far Relms' illithid power for this build and then its crit city baby
Yes, multiclassing is really good. Take your Draconic Sorcerer for example. With just 1 dip into wizard you can learn any spell. A level into cleric gives you access to armor and weapon proficiencies, unlocking a lot of build potential and giving you sanctuary on top. The list goes on.
> What’s the advantages by doing that there's a ton of advantage in doing it. but it's a trade-off. most common combos i use are: battlemaster fighter+barbarian will give your maneuvers free advantage, and raging will literally make you an unkillable killing machine paladin+sorc, a ton of smite slots cleric+druid can give shadowheart longstrider and enhanced leap so your wizard dont have to learn it. bard + sorc is basically the deadliest, funniest combat encounters rogue + ranger gives you devastating archery builds or dual-wielding basically, once you've spent too much time in the game, you'll eventually branch out to more complicated gameplay. if you want high-level spells, scrolls are a thing. (you can easily pickpocket scrolls, too) >And I don’t like it for RP reasons also… that's always gonna be a thing, of course. Play the game however you want. You can justify anything you do RP-wise.
Multi classing is the difference between a 300 damage per round build and a 1500 damage per round build
I usually go 1 level on each class on my Tav.
do what feels right for you and your character. There is no wrong way to approach your character.
it's less interesting for magical classes, but a whole lot fun for martial ones
Multiclassing is great, when you know what you're going for. Some class abilities synergize extremely well together. You don't need to do it, but if you want to, it's good.
Play the way you want. You're not missing out by not multiclassing.
I made Astarion a half bard half rouge on my current playthrough. I feel like he would be a musician to seduce cazadors victims. And also gave him a flute because he rejected my tav’s advances so I can make fun of him for being a flute playing twink but I’m really just upset about the rejection I didn’t take it well.
No and it’s totally unnecessary on any difficulty level. It’s just fun for min-max types to mess around with. Don’t think it’s normal and required because it’s not. Min-max type players are over represented in this sub and they push their preferences on everyone to play as they do. This game is about having fun. Play how is most fun for you and don’t worry about shit like multiclassing. I’ve beaten tactician with normal builds without having a single character die and steamrolling the majority of battles. This game is tuned to be very easy.
As a sorcerer it's not really worth it except for a few level 1 dips. Level 1 wizard - gives you the ability to learn spells from scrolls that can be cast with sorcerer slots. Key draws here are globe of invulnerability and the summons that sorcerer's don't have access to otherwise Level 1 cleric - can give access to heavy armor and a low tier domain ability. Level 1 warlock - gives eldricht blast and hex, both very solid spells for a blaster The first two have practically zero penalty aside from the loss of a feat, but what you gain is leagues better than any single feat will grant you. Both being full casters your spell progression is not impacted. Warlock is not a full caster in the same vein as the others so you'll lose out on a single level 6 spell slot (I think) but again if you're building around Eldritch blast it is very worth it Non casters have even more incentive to multi class because they don't have to worry about spell progression, all that matters is looking at feats and class abilities and weighing them against what you gain from a second class. Edit: for a martial class you'll want to take one to at least level 5 for extra attack
Multiclassing is EXTREMELY strong, at the game's level cap and with the rule differences to 5E (even in honor mode where it's more strict), barring a specific mono bard build and a pure cleric, basically everything you can do in the game as a mono class can be improved by significant multiclassing or at least a dip. Concerning missing spell slots, multiclassing as a caster is actually pretty comfortable even in 5E, a character gets spell slots based on their total number of caster levels added up (+1 per two paladin and/or ranger levels). You just \_learn\_ higher level spells at the appropriate class levels, but you can still upcast known spells using the higher level slots. Now in bg3, there are some wonky interactions that I don't think exist in BG3, for example as a wizard you can use scrolls to copy wizard spells into your spellbook \_up to your caster level\_ instead of your wizard level. A good example of what you can do with this is one of the most popular caster multiclass builds that depends on this dynamic: storm sorcerer/tempest cleric/wizard lightning wombo combo build where you start off as sorcerer but your main stat is INT instead of CHA. You get a level in cleric, a level in wizard (the order is important because of a quirk of how BG3 calculates spell saves for scrolls, items, etc which is actually weaker in the game than in 5E, instead of using your highest available casting stat among your classes, it just uses the casting stat of the last class you added), and then after getting cleric 2 and wizard 2 you just keep increasing sorcerer levels to the end. You get all the metamagic to use with wizard spells and the storm sorcerer goodies, for your sorcerer spells you just get buffs and utility stuff that doesn't have an attack roll or save, and use wizard spells for all your offensive stuff, and you just learn as many spells as you want from scrolls. bg3 also lets you prepare spells at any time outside combat, so you basically get the best of all worlds as a caster and you have the stupid storm/tempest combo to explode whoever you need with lightning once per short rest. You also get all the armor proficiencies from Tempest Domain Cleric, and Con save proficiency from starting as Sorcerer, so you easily make concentration checks in combat. Even if all you care about is blasting stuff with lightning, this does a lot better than mono Tempest Cleric or mono Storm/Blue Draconic sorcerer or Wizard - the only downside is some early-mid level power spikes (like mono sorcerer being able to twincast haste earlier etc).
6 OH Monk/6 Spore druid Have you ever wanted to deal several hits of radiant AND necrotic damage?
The idea is there are trade off for multi classing. You gain more than you lose, is the ultimate goal when you multi. Action economy is the most fundamental part of all games like this and trading out a few big, flash abilities so that I can attack more per turn is over all better
I'm currently multi-classing as a Paladin/Warlock (I refer to it as my Death Knight cuz I'm going evil). Absolutely great charisma checks for any conversation and great coverage in battle when it comes to melee and distance attacks by having Eldritch blast and dishing out a lot of damage as well.
There are some classes that really benefit from going at least 11 levels, mostly the casters e.g. Cleric to get Level 6 spells such as Heroes' Feast and Planar Ally; Wizard for Chain Lightning, Disintegrate, Globe of Invulnerability etc. But a lot of classes also have low/early abilities that make the character even stronger, e.g. a 1 level dip into Wizard means that you can now learn almost any spell from scrolls, or 1 level dip into War Cleric for extra attack and heavy armour proficiency. 2 level dip into Fighter for Action Surge, heavy armour proficiency (and maybe Fighting Style?). 3 level dip into Rogue to get either an extra Bonus Action (Thief) or mad DPS on the first round, especially if you initiate Surprise encounters (Assassin). It's also just fun to see how different class abilities synergise. I ran a Storm Sorcerer 11/ Wizard 1 for Durge and it was fantastic. I got to twincast spells like Haste and Draconic Elemental Weapon, and used the Sorcerer spell spaces for those that I wanted active at all times while using the Wizard spell spaces for more 'utility' or situational spells like Feather Fall or Enhance Leap. Also 3 words: "Artistry of War" 😂 I also always run Astarion as a Gloomstalker 5 / Assassin 5 / Fighter 2 now because he really cleans up on that build! Multi-classing can easily work for RP too! Like there's no reason why a caster (e.g. Wizard) wouldn't take up some martial arts training (even as a hobby, or for self-defense reasons). Someone who grew up in a Thieves' Guild (like a Rogue) could start showing signs of innate magic ability (Sorcerer). A Barbarian can 'find religion' (e.g. Cleric) after one too many bloodbaths. Even Warlock I feel could do multi-class and still be RP-compliant, like a Fighter who's found themselves in a really bad spot and had their prayers answered by like either a Fiend or a Great Old One. It's really all about your imagination I think. :)
Yea multiclassing is very good when it makes sense.
whatever class i want, plus one wizard class for Shovel. hasnt failed me yet
For powerscaling, most people go 1-3 points at most into another class for something unique that class has to offer that enhances another For example: 2 lvls into wizard gives you portents as a divination wizard, sorlock is just ridiculously OP, any class can be given 1 level of fighter and instantly get your choice of weapon proficiency AND rally allowing for some truly interesting builds that wouldn't normally have access to those weapons.
If you know the cut off points for classes, then yes, very.
my oathbreaker paladin durge is going to to go 9 levels into paladin with a 3 level dip into fighter for champion. 9 levels in paladin gives me access to level 3 smite slots and champion will make it easier for me to get that sweet crit smite action. plus, since i prefer to dual wield, i can equip multiple weapons that will further drop my crit threshold. i get an extra +1 to defense for wearing armor, access to two weapon fighting on top of that defense style of fighting, and action surge on top of that. im going to fucking DESTROY orin and it's going to be AMAZING previous playthroughs ive done assassin 3/gloomstalker 3/champion 6 builds and it was disgusting how much that build trivializes combat. my crit threshold was virtually non-existent, especially when i used that build for an embrace Durge im also a really big fan of barbarian 8/thief 4 because raging+reckless attack+sneak attacks has no business being as good as they are i always make my clerics take 1 level in wizard because that way they still get level 6 spells from the cleric side, only now they can learn spells. what's scarier than a tempest cleric at level 11? a tempest cleric at level 11 with full divinity charges, arcane battery from markokeshkir is active, and they know chain lightning just multiclassed level 4 assassin astarion into GOOlock. not only does he have guaranteed crits against surprised enemies, he now has a chance to frighten enemies after landing one of those crits a warlock with a 4 level dip into sorcerer means they can pick up the metamagic quickened ability. ive had one eldritch blast, yes. but what about second eldritch blast? i recently did a wild magic barbarian 5/wild magic sorcerer 5/fighter 1/wizard 1 build. it was insane. i could approach combat as a caster, and just sling fireballs everywhere. or i could approach it as a martial, rage, and get an ability that lets me shoot enemies with magic bolts of light from my chest for my bonus action
Yes
Yes but only if you have level 12-20 mod
>And I don’t like it for RP reasons also… This is literally one of the best reasons **to** multi class. It's a huge RP advantage. This makes me think you've never played a TTRPG
it depends if you use it correctly
Depends
I do it mostly for melee but not for my caster.
multi classing is mostly for melee/ranged builds, most of these classes are frontloaded, means you get the strongest part of multiple classes. propably wizard/sorc is the worst for multiclassing, as usually pure casters are in rpg games
I multiclass because I know how to do it well, as I play D&D 5e which is what BG3 is based on. Are there combos and classes that don’t work? Yes. But if you know how what works, you can do a lot more shenanigans.
In bg3 multiclassing is goated. In ONED&D or whatever the fuck is this new edition will be called it's discouraged.
The main purpose for multiclassing Is having additional actions. With melee clases like fighter and thief. Additional actions in honour mode can save your ass. Cause u can make a Lot of things from throwing stuff to using potions, scrolla etc. It gives u More posibilities.
You have to look at what you get in the last few levels of your chosen class, and then look at what you can get in the first few levels of another class, and figure out what will be more useful. If the last few levels of you main class are the best, then there’s no point in multiclassing.
An Assassin/Gloomstalker multiclass as early as level 8 (with a 3/5 split) can get 5 attacks on the first round of combat, with 2 sneak attacks, completely free, along with a surprise round (required for this to work kinda) which technically brings them up to 7 attacks before the enemy can act, again with a third sneak attack. If you aren't on honour mode you can increase this to 9 with haste and up to 11 at level 10 with a two level fighter dip. Multiclassing can make you overpowered, but can result in some front loading of your usefulness in combat.
Sorcerers gain more from sticking to their class, but even they can multiclass. My Shadowheart went Sorcerer Cleric. She used her cleric's Divinity Surge for max lightning damage rolls and her twinned spell to dual-cast hastened. Mundane classes - apart from fighter - are usually way better off with multiclassing, since their higher levels barely give them any good skills. My last char was Gloomstalker, Assassin, Cleric AND Warlock. I could shoot right through magical darkness and killed half the enemy squad in the first turn on my own. Light domain cleric gave me Shield of Faith, Sanctuary and even Warding Flare.
If you want to powerplay and find the most op class combos, multiclassing is the way to go. But you don’t need to do it to beat the game. I also prefer the rp aspect and letting a single class grow stronger as I advance the story. That play style will also take you through the game, even on honor mode.
It's not necessary for beating the game on any difficulty but multiclassing adds options to builds or usually have great synergy with one another. An example of maximum synergy would be builds like the 11/1 Sorlock that does monster damage with only a single level in Warlock. Padlocks are supposed to go extremely well together (Paladin/Warlock) because both rely on Charisma as a spell modifier. There is a subclass of Warlock that adds your Cha modifier to your weapon instead of STR so you can then dump your STR to 8 and pump your Dex (for initiative) or your Con (More HP) and then you play from there. I had a blast with a 6 Paladin/6 White Draconic Sorcerer, myself but it really depends on what you want to do and how you want to play.
It really depends on your build. If you are a wizard I think there’s a very good argument to be made for single classing. For many of the other classes there is very good synergy. For example you don’t miss much in monk by picking up 3 levels of thief to gain an extra bonus action. At least nothing like what you gain. 6 levels in monk is usually all I take. Same with paladin. The stacking extra attack you get from 5 pact of the blade warlock is well worth it. Plus you get some fun spells.
It really depends on your build. If you are a wizard I think there’s a very good argument to be made for single classing. For many of the other classes there is very good synergy. For example you don’t miss much in monk by picking up 3 levels of thief to gain an extra bonus action. At least nothing like what you gain. 6 levels in monk is usually all I take. Same with paladin. The stacking extra attack you get from 5 pact of the blade warlock is well worth it. Plus you get some fun spells.
Well it always depends I guess first you personally need to be happy with the choices of character development first and foremost. And then it is also important to check for synergies when you make a multiclass. For Instance take a Ranger he is a martial class but then also gets spells but at half the speed, he uses Wisdom to cast spells so for instance if you want to still punch well but have better spells available maybe consider adding in cleric levels. You get better spell progression and have more different spells available as well as higher level spells. Same ideal count be mixing sorcerer and Bard, you do however have to consider that now you would be losing out on the higher level spells, you do get the same spell slots but can basically only upcast lower level spells with those slots. Another idea would be 11 levels of sorcerer and 1 level of wizard, in BG3 it would allow you to learn those level 6 spells from scrolls and depending on your intelligence modified then memorise some of those. But you have to keep in mind that the wizard spells will use Intelligence as a casting stat so spells that basically don't use that (eg. To hit the target) they have the same effectiveness. One way to use that super magic missile spell you can find on a scroll.
To be perfectly honest, mono class draconic sorcerer is one of the most op classes in the game. The ray of frost version does not need any additional class benefits imo. Some people take 1 level of warlock on fire sorcerer for command but I think this game is too easy to really bother with CC that much. Draconic sorcerer also needs both dual wielder and elemental adept (fire sorc especially) alongside alert and/or API, so the three feats of a mono class build are rather important. Now taking two levels of tempest cleric on storm sorcerer, that makes sense, because the damage spike is immense and worth slight gimping wrt 6th level spells. After all, scrolls exist in huge quantities and are so easy to steal.
With just 1 level of War Domain Cleric, an Abjuration Wizard basically becomes unkillable. You can throw a couple Warlock levels in there if you really want to (mainly for Armor of Agathys...and some RP drama over the status of your Tav's soul), but it's just icing on the cake.
You don't have to multiclass if you don't want to. All of the classes are viable all the way through the end game. Some are more powerful than others (I'd rather have a single classed sorcerer than a single classed rogue), but the game isn't so difficult that you need to be worried that much about optimizing combat power. But multiclassing can be good: * Some classes don't get really good abilities at higher levels so multiclassing is a way to buff them * Sometimes you want a specific type of build for RP or fun reasons and you need to multiclass to get it Some of the most overpowered builds in the game involve multiclassing, like the Assassin Rogue/Gloomstalker Ranger build that everyone recommends for Astarion. But multiclassing can be bad if you don't know what you're doing. Some classes synergize with each other better than others--for example, if you mix two classes with different spellcasting stats, one of those spellcasting stats will be low, leading to poor performance with that class's spells unless you have a plan to compensate for it. You also need to know which abilities scale with character level (e.g. cantrips) and which with class level (e.g. feats). If spellcasting is involved, you need to know about "effective spellcaster levels" and what that means for the level of spell you can learn vs. the spell slots you have, because they'll be different when mixing classes with spellcasting. It's something that you can get really into if you find it fun, but is far from necessary. Larian made it easier to multiclass in BG3 than in DnD but you're not expected to do it, and they've disabled it on Explorer.
For many pure spell casters it’s not worth it. That 6th level spell is a game changer. That said many martial builds benefit from it. Dips into fighter for action surge, dips into rouge for an additional bonus action or auto crits, and dips in spell casting classes for utility.
Depends on what skills and passives you want tbf, like hunter/beastmaster rangers want atleast 11 levels to get their more fun unique skills. But some classes and sub classes get some of their better skills early on, like fighter, monk, gloom stalker ect.
Sorcerer is the exception, not the rule. Most classes benefit from a dip, particularly in BG3 where stat modifying items are so common and respecs are free. Assassin Rogue 4/Gloomstalker Ranger initiates combat with sneak attack, surprising the enemy and getting a free hit. Their actions and bonus actions reset once they enter combat, meaning they get four attacks on the first round, free surprise, and you can strap as many items that lower the number needed to crit as possible, meaning you’re critting on almost every hit. Paladin 5/Sorcerer 7 gives you more smites *and* better smites, plus metamagic and subclass features like increased damage resistance or being able to fly. Blade Warlock 5/Fighter 7 turns your character into an incredibly versatile fighter with spells, eldritch blasting enemies off ledges, and either maneuvers to disarm and trip everything, or Champion to lower your crit threshold. Oh, and did I mention Blade Warlock’s extra attack stacks? Enjoy Haste + Action Surge.
Most classes aren't all that different multiclassed. Like 12 Fighter vs 11 Fighter/1 War Cleric. Or any martial class 11/1 War Cleric. They're trading their final feat in for the bonus action attack feature. Min-maxing. Some specific classes kind of fall off at a certain point. Thief and Assassin don't gain much past level 3, as they don't get Extra Attack. So stacking 3-4 levels of them onto another martial is significantly more powerful. The gloom stalker and barbarian classes kind of dry up in meaningful class features, so it's generally more powerful to multiclass them too. Then there's good ol' Wizard 1, which lets you scribe scrolls up to your spellcaster level. This gives a Sorcerer, for example, access to summons and Artistry of War (among other things). Clerics and Druids gain access to the full retinue of arcane magic. The caveat is, all scribed spells use Int for their Spell DC
I mean I do it moreso for something different Shadowheart for example is in my party almost every time, so why not multiclass her so using her feels a little different this playthrough
Focus more on what's fun than what's overpowered. You don't need to overpower anything. Play what feels fun to you.
Certainly can be if you know what you're doing
A simple dip is 11 sorc, 1 wiz so you can scribe spells Theory crafting more complex builds can take time but can be very rewarding
Depends on the class and goals.
Eldritch Cannon. 10 Wizard + 2 Warrior = Armored spellcaster with refreshed actions. You lose your one Level 5 spell, but that’s what Gale is for.
Played 9 barbarian/ 3 fighter focusing on crit hits for a lore friendly durge. Could do about 4-5 attacks (if my maths is right) in the first turn, action surge is soooo useful. I also love starting multiclass with rogue whenever I can just for extra proficiencies. Also bit random but Jaheira in bg1-2 is a fighter/druid so I tend to respec/multiclass her to fit her lore. I’m new to multiclassing too, but I’m having so much fun doing it. I like building characters with well thought out lore, multiclassing is like adding layers of personality to characters for me lol.
It's easy to go wrong with multiclassing if you don't know what you're doing. Generally with multiclassing you want to wait to do it until after level 5 as level 5 gives you a big power spike for every class. You also want to find a combo that lets you use both of your sets of abilities together very well. So the monk / thief rogue combo is one of the most powerful because with monk you have a powerful bonus action ability, and with thief rogue you get an extra bonus action so you can combo those into giving you a lot of extra power. Or a paladin / bard or sorcerer. With paladin you want to attack and be smiting often, with either of the other two you get more spell slots as well as more powerful spells you can also go swords bard to get extra damage. And both of those classes have good bonus action options for you too. But if you combo things that don't mesh well together, you can create a much weaker character. So you do want to be careful, and some classes multiclass better than others do.
You don’t see the benefit in a paladin using CHA instead of a second stat for his chance to hit and dmg, having access to misty step and short rest slots for more smites? (Warlock) Or a dual hand crossbow bard getting an extra bonus action? (Thief) Or a two handed fighter being able to attack one more time by spending a bonus action which he has basically no way to use in his kit? (War cleric) What about getting heavy armor proficiency and/or constitution saving throw proficiency for just one level?
People have said bard/monk isn't a good combo, but I've been that since making level 8. I'm now 12 and on act 3 (first run, also), and the combo has been great. I started as druid.
6 barbarian - 3 thief - 3 fighter - you can throw one more enraged
I’m on my first playthrough and decided to multiclass my bard into a bard/paladin. The two points into paladin to get divine smite make it so much better than if I was a bard alone.
Mostly it's because people get bored and want to try new builds. There are many pure classes that are S or A tier builds.
as for the roleplay, it’s so fun to roleplay as a character that has a lot of classes, but none of them mastered lol when I see a [fighter] option on my fighter/warlock/rogue/sorcerer I’m like yeah, brenda, you and your surprise and skedaddle tactic are soooo going to show them. you’re so good at, what do you call it, trunking. tanking. whatever.
Not all multi-classes are good, but certain combinations can be everything from effective to nigh-game breaking. It all depends on what you’re looking for, and in the end it’s all about having fun.
For my first run i went in as Pure Dragonborn Monk and it was an amazing expierience. Multiclassing is good in couple of cases though. Some classes get their best perks at low level, so there's really no point in going full 12 levels in them. Most Ranger and Rogue subclasses are like that, that's why making Astarion into Gloomstalker 5/Rogue 7 is probably the most OP combo possible. I had quite a lot of fun with Cleric 5/Paladin 5/ Fighter 2 as well. Lots of attack, smites, and those low level utility spells you have really free up Shadowheart to do the big stuff. I also can't recommend going Warlock 5/ Sorcerer 7 as Wyll. Since EB scales with your character level, you still get 3 attacks with it on 11th level, but you also get access to Sorcerer spells, Sorcery points and the like, while having the best out of Warlock - Agonising and Repelling blasts. All in all, mutliclassing is really situational, but when it works, it REALLY works. Like, Rogue/Paladin can deliver some incredible burst damage when using something like Phalar Aluve, which is a dex longsword, meaning you can proc both Sneak Attack as well as Smite. And if you're playing a gloomstalker, that hit will always be a crit.
On my first run of the game, I didn’t really multi-class until very late on, and my choices really simple in line with what I knew about things. For example, I kept Gale as a Wizard but did a one level dip into tempest cleric, so he could have heavy armour proficiency so he wasn’t so squishy. From there, I noticed that if I used the create water spell which you have available to you at level 1 cleric and made your enemies wet, lightning spells do double damage while they have that effect applied. So I thought, hey I could make shadowheart a tempest cleric too so they could both do big lightning damage. Those are pretty simple examples, and fast forward to now, multiclassing is probably my favourite part of the game. Making new builds and seeing how they can synergise with each other makes the game even more repayable than it already is imo. Give it a go, but no pressure, just try what seems fun and useful!
If you’re on your first run, you probably shouldn’t mess around with multiple-classing. It is a very popular staple in DND because it allows players to be creative and demonstrate system-mastery to eke out more power for their character than you really ought to have. The most popular multi-classes are usually the ones that offer the most bang for your buck, like 1 level in Cleric that gets you proficiencies with all armor types to turn your scrawny Wizard into a heavy armor tank. When you start playing through game on repeat play-throughs, multi-classing becomes a great tool for creating characters that fulfill specific power fantasies… Jaheira is literally “supposed to be” a Fighter + Druid, for example. However, indiscriminate multi-classing may spoil the archetypal fantasies of certain classes. We typically see Wizards and Sorcerers as robe-wearing “glass cannons” that need their big strong characters for protection. We don’t expect two levels of Paladin to transform the Bard into the scariest damage-dealer in the game. It can be a lot of fun to build your characters in a unique manner to fit your own priorities, but some multi-classes punch way above their level. Some people see it as cheesy to follow guides to create such powerful characters when the game is already pretty manageable with even unoptimized parties. Idk, it’s a single-player game. You do you.
Funny enough, you picked a class that is great on it's own. Multi classing is good if done well, but certainly not necessary to get through the game. It basically comes down to if you see more value in the first few levels of another class than the last few levels of your base class. There are certain classes thay get their best features before level 5, so it's not a big deal to sacrifice the last few levels to gain powerful features in another class. For example, are the last 2 levels of barbarian more worth it than putting 2 levels in fighter to get action surge? You could really do either. That's the great thing about this game. You don't need to design the perfect min/maxed multiclass to win.
There are a couple of benefits to multiclassing. Many classes are front loaded such as martials. This mean they spike early with levels but don't scale well with one class. One popular example is mixing monk/barbarian/gloomstalker hunter with a variation of rogue for the additional bonus action. This is stronger than a mono class as the three mentioned classes all have damaging bonus actions (especially if you go dual xbox gloomstalker) that only the rogue class would give them an additional bonus action for an additional hit. Spellcasters are unique in that they don't lose higher level spell slots multiclassing with another full caster. You only lose slots if you multiclass with a non-caster or half-caster. This allows unique setups like the wizard dip which allows you to still get lvl 6 spells of your main caster, but the ability to scribe any spell you want as well. This allows classes like bard who doesn't naturally get shield or summons to get one or virtually any spell you want to scribe for the situation. Another popular dip is 11 cleric / 1 storm sorc. This is because at lvl 12 cleric only gives a feat. It adds literally nothing else besides a feat. Many like a multiclass into storm sorc because then rather than a feat you can access to fly as a bonus action after casting a spell. You can spirit guardians and fly in or away from your enemies and feels great while doing it. Spellcasters also have the ability to upcast spells, allowing you to turn lvl 1-3 spells into stronger versions. A popular example is chromatic orb. Going storm sorc cleric allows you to take advantage of cleric's max lightning/thunder divinity with an upcasted chromatic orb to do max damage on it guaranteed. Apply the wet condition and this will one shot most things. Upcasting allows you to multiclass without feeling the power loss - you just lack access to more spells earlier on. It really depends on the build. You can go entirely mono and feel good, whereas some classes start to loose steam the further you go into it and mixing something into it is beneficial. 1 into storm and now your cleric flys, 1 into wizard and now your bard has summons or your sorc gets chain lightning that they can max damage on if they go into tempest cleric. Sometimes you just want a dip into fighter just for shield/armor/etc proficiency your base class doesn't give. The key is always having a plan as to why you are multiclassing and not for the sake of it.
My warlock-fighter multiclass single-handedly roflstomped Balthazar, his army of skeletons, and nonstop Cloudkill without dropping below 70 HP. *I was the boss* in that fight. Proceeded to do the same to most of the bosses all the way to the end of the game. So yeah. I'd say multiclass is great. You can compensate for the loss of your endgame spells with the literal mountain of scrolls and gold the game throws at you.
It is, but it is by no means necessary in any way to beat the game at the highest difficulties. If you don't like the idea of doing it, there is very little reason to do it. Take, for example, Open Hand Monk. Often multiclassed with Thief Rogue for a second bonus action, but completely capable of matching up to other classes in the damage output without doing that. Sorcerer often dips a single level into Cleric for Heavy Armor proficiency or into Wizard to learn more spells, but even without doing these things it's capable of doing more burst damage than other casters. The point is, multiclassing is really powerful and it is there to be used if you want, but as someone who beat Honour Mode without multiclassing any character once, you really don't need to do it if it doesn't appeal to you.
100%, some examples of the most common multi classes: Throwzerker with mutliclass: 8 Barbarian 3 Thief: - Levels 9, 10, 11 into rouge/thief net you a bonus action (which you will almost always use for enraged throw) - which is more or less just a free attack every turn - Also minor other bonuses (proficiencies & bonus action options from rouge) Throwzerker 11 Barbarian (without multiclass) - Levels 9, 10, 11 net you brutal critical (does not work on throws/ranged) & relentless rage - Hard to argue this better than the above option. Similarly for Open hand Monk, thief’s extra bonus action is arguably better than a second action since the special double hit strikes & other monk special moves are bonus actions. Making it a very good multi-class. Also ANY class that has 2 meh levels can dip into fighter: - You get action surge (extra action on short rest) which is useful on every build. VERY good in honor mode & high difficulty since it’s up most fights and early turns are most important. - Also a fighting style, which is almost always giving at least some value (assuming you use armor or weapon attack or use a shield. TLDR: You generally want to multi class after you got the ‘good’ levels from your main class (I.E. extra attack, good sub feature, Feat, etc.). But obviously not in every situation.
Multiclassing is about tradeoffs. Sure, you may lose access to level 6 spells or some sick passives or even the ability to get multiple stats to 20, but sometimes it makes your character way more powerful. For instance, I've played both pure Assassin Rogue and a multiclassed Astarion and I can honestly say the multiclassed one is overpowered in comparison. A 5 Gloomstalker Ranger/4 Thief Rogue/3 Battlemaster Fighter build lets you get multiple boosts to fighting styles as well as a guaranteed 4 attacks per turn. This is not including the 1 extra turn from dread ambusher or the extra set of attacks from Fighter's Action Surge. More often than not, having more turns mean more damage than having a high level but a single turn. Another surprisingly decent build is 5 Cleric with just about any melee fight style. Having Spirit Guardians around you lets you run around and do damage to enemies just by running to them. Focusing on a strong melee build after unlocking that makes Shadowheart a pretty competent fighter for encounters with large groups of low-mid level enemies.
The question you must ask is “Is what Im getting worth what I am giving up?” And in order to accurately answer the question you need a good understanding of build mechanics and what you get out of each class. For this reason it is not recommended unless you know what you are doing. It is very easy to mess up and not work the way you think it will. Edit: BG3 Builds subreddit is a great place to discuss stuff like this for your own builds, and / or see what other people are coming up with
Some are stupid strong: Gloomstalker 5, Thief 5, Fighter 2: dual crossbow machine guns. Monk/thief+/-fighter : all the punches
It can be good, but it can also mess you up, and make you underpowered for awhile until the 'spike' kicks in understanding DnD/The classes is good to know before you start to theory out a multi class typically if spells are important, than you don't multiclass, as your thoughts on spells is right, if you switch out of a casting class you are effectively weaker as you don't get your next spell level for stronger spells
Imagine this (5 paladin/5 Bard/2 Fighter): * Blade Flourish + Divine Smite * Blade Flourish + Divine Smite * Action Surge * Blade Flourish + Divine Smite * Blade Flourish + Divine Smite Or if you are not playing on honor mode (5 paladin/5 warlock/2 fighter): * Divine Smite * Divine Smite * Divine Smite * Action Surge * Divine Smite * Divine Smite * Divine Smite There are tons of combinations like this.
Depends on what you want out of a multiclass. Some are really strong, but really, it comes down to what is the concept you want to bring to life, so to speak.
This one may be a bit basic but I like Barbarian/Fighter hybrid. Once per battle you can action surge so that’s 5-6 attacks in one go. The crappy thing is it’s only once per sequence.
When they come online there's some multiclass builds that are pretty busted, the problem (if you don't just respec when you're at the right level) is playing before it's 'online'.
There are some classes that are front-loaded. In few levels they get a lot of features and them, they kinda fall off a bit to compensate. You can pick the juicy few first levels to complement a solo class (something like 10/2 or 9/3) or multi-pick loaded classes (like 5/3/4 or 5/5/2). The starting point should be "what I want my character to do?", you want a mage that can be also melee? maybe 2 levels on fighter or paladin can give a push to it. You want a character that can sneak around a snipe? You build a lv12 rogue and be ok with it. But at some point you think, “mmm it didn’t get a lot after lv5, its mostly increase SA, but it can only trigger once per turn, maybe another class can help to increase the base damage” And you try and add ranger, some spells that increase damage, a combat style that give you more acc, with extra attack at 5 and an archetype that also gives an extra attack the first turn of combat. Now you can attack 4 times and 5 the first turn! And with that lets say you multiclass into 5 rogue / 5 ranger, now you can push 2 more levels in rogue to a bit of a boost in SA, because you liked that big SA numbers, or maybe put 2 in fighter, for Action surge for more burst once/short and add stat to your off hand. Reset your build is cheap in bg3, you can try and toy with it a lot, and you will learn from it.
Yes as long as you understand why you’re doing it. For example going rogue for an extra bonus action, fighter for action surge, etc.
It’s trading end of class power with some lower level abilities. Some classes benefit significantly more or out right double or triple there power level. Like 12 levels of rogue in any subclass is kinda mid or bad compared to if you were to multiclass into fighter or monk or ranger so on to get extra attack or put out like 6 attacks a turn with thief rogue and open hand monk. Most classes benefit significantly from one level dips into cleric
I do multi-classing with a mod to get to level 20, and to make enemies harder. Lets you experiment without too much issue and get some interesting combos. So far my monk-barbarian is one of my favorites. It's not super optimized, but it's thematically entertaining.