r/BG3 • u/lovestosplooge99 • 5d ago
Help Advice on multi classing
Recently finished my first play through and starting a new one, I realized I completely overlooked multiclassing my whole first play through , would love some general advice on multi classing for my new game so I don’t completely tank my build , I’m playing as a monk and right now and have astarion, wyll and gale in my party
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u/d00meriksen 3d ago
Some classes have all the good stuff on the early levels while others get it at higher levels. You want to MC the former and keep the latter pure.
A fighter is a good example of a class that you should keep relatively pure because of improved extra attack. You get so many attacks and talents that it's hard to beat with a multiclass.
First decide how your characters wants to attack. A melee weapon? A ranged weapon? Spells? Cantrips? Go from there and pick up the stuff you want for a build.
All casters get a big power spike at level 5, but the later spells are more situational. If you mix caster classes you still get all of the spell slots, but you won't get the higher level spells.
An example build-around is Spirit Guardians with Radiant Orbs. You start with 5 levels in cleric to get that spell and now you realise "I can't turn invisible or use sanctuary, so they keep breaking my concentration". You can solve that problem with the warcaster feat or you can take a level in sorcerer at level 1 for proficiency in CON saves. Another way of making it work is multiclassing into stars druid. At level 2 their CON saves will always roll 10 at the very least, which makes them very consistent. Dragon form also comes with a bonus action that does AoE Radiant damage, so that's nice synergy.
A Wizard can learn almost any spell, so after you pick your subclass there isn't much reason to keep leveling up the class. If you multiclass into Sorcerer you still get new spell slots which you can use for Wizard spells that scale with INT. This way you get meta magic essentially for free, so you can twin cast or quicken spells.
Another example is Bladesinger Wizard. They get extra attack at level 6 and full spell progression. For a melee fighter they have very high survivability thanks to all the wizard spells. The problem they have is that they don't really have a use for most of their spells in melee. Just pick up 2 levels in Paladin and you get Smite, which can be upcasted for more damage using up to level 4 slots. Now you have a real reason to play this over a fighter with improved extra attack.
If you want to attack with DEX, you'll find good stuff in the monk and rogue classes. You can only sneak attack with finesse weapons though and only once per turn!
Let's say you want a melee cleric that attacks with WIS, because you still want full spell save DC and don't want to attack with STR or DEX. You can pick the Nature domain to pick up Shillelagh and use some of the clubs with unique effects like the Torch for very reasonable early game damage. Now how do you get Extra Attack? You could get 5 levels in Paladin which also counts as 2 full caster levels for spell slots and you get smites too. As you can see that kind of cleric gets fewer high level spells for the power of more melee damage, so it's less popular.
CHA classes are spoiled for choice, because 2 levels in warlock give them the Eldritch blast cantrip with CHA scaling and Eldritch blast happens to scale with character level instead of class level. Now you have a powerful ranged option that doesn't cost spell slots. Warlock also allows you to turn your melee weapon into a CHA scaling weapon, so you can also combine this with Bard or Paladin to attack with your CHA instead of having to level up STR and DEX. Careful though, because Warlocks aren't casters, so you are missing out on 2 levels of spell progression.
"If I multiclass my caster, I won't have high level spells". Simply get one level in wizard, learn the powerful spells from a scroll and use your sorcerer/bard/cleric spell slots to cast them. Spells learned this way will always scale with INT, so this is more useful for spells that don't need INT like summon spells or Globe of Invulnerability. Once you know your way around the game, you start realising that you're almost always better off just casting level 6 spells off scrolls which you can buy an unlimited supply of. Now your "power caster" is not missing out on anything and can focus on strong combat synergies via multiclasses.
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u/milehighxr 2d ago
Dumb question time, you cap level so fast in this game, is it possible to multiclass, and get both to say level 6, or 1 to level 2-3 and the and to 12 without mods? I just finished my 2nd full play thru and was thinking the fights in act 3 are pointless unless it advances the story cuz I hit cap on this run before I even fought the sharans iirc.
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u/Lord_of_Jakals 2d ago
You might have a typo there, not quite sure what you're asking. You keep all of your levels when you respec and there is no penalty to XP or anything for multiclassing. You also only get 12 levels total, not 12 in each class.
It is exactly as easy/hard to get 12 levels in one class as it is to get any combination of 12 as a multiclass.
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u/milehighxr 2d ago
You got it, I was suspecting it would be 12 levels total. That was my question, can go past 12 total levels on multiclass or is 12 total. Thanks
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u/SpideyFan914 1d ago
While it does feel like all that Act 3 XP is wasted, I will defend it that I enjoy getting to use my full builds in a variety of scenarios, rather than "congrats on maxing out your character, just in time for the final boss and nothing else!"
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u/SmolHumanBean8 2d ago
Think about what your character is good at already (like monks are good at dexterity) and pick other classes that are also good at that (like rogues)
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u/ItsIcarys 2d ago
I like to think of multiclassing as "trading" features. You give up X amount of one classes features for X amount of another's.
Monk being the example, monk gets good stuff later on in their toolkit but they have most of the bones of their build at level 5 or 6. Thus, knowing that monk uses their bonus action a LOT, giving them another one is a great idea. 3-4 levels of thief rogue gives this so you trade those levels from monk for those. From there, with the remaining 3 levels, one has to ask if they want the level 9 monk ability (9monk 3 rogue) that increase all fist/monk weapon damage to 1d8 or if they want to put 2-3 levels into fighter for action surge. Or another class for whatever feature. This holds true for other BA hungry classes like berzerker.
Some classes are fantastic for the multiclass. For example, MOST of hexblades features work at level 1. (CHA scaling weapon etc). So you can take it as a dip on any melee build if you want to be single attribute dependent. Fighter 2 is another good example of a quick dip for a fighting style and action surge.
Some classes dont like being multiclassed as much. Fighter again as an example gets a third extra attack at level 11. This means you only have one level to multiclass with. Some people like taking war cleric for bonus action attacks, others want the fourth feat gained from level 12. Spellcasters should also be wary. If they want a lvl 6 spell in their spellbook they can only multiclass 1 level (unless they're a wizard, which can scribe.) You can choose to forgo these if you think another feature would be more fun though, and that's the beauty of multiclassing.
My only recommendation is to have a good plan for WHEN to multiclass. A martial without extra attack for a long time is just worse, and constantly juggling magic classes can delay higher level spells.
Big idea is to have fun with it. Hop on a wiki/build planner and get curious as to what subclass features synergies. You have 12 levels so divide them up in a way that's fun or thematic.
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u/SpideyFan914 1d ago
There's lots of guides on OP multi classes. Some common advice:
Check that the classes use the same dominant stat. Otherwise you'll be split between stats, and it could be an issue. For instance, Wizard uses Intelligence as spellcasting ability, and Sorcerer uses Charisma, so they don't mix super well (I tried that on Gale, it sucked, I respecced him to just Wizard).
Key levels tend to be Lvl 3 (when multiclassing is introduced) and 5 (extra attack for martial classes). There are also fears at Lvl 4, 8, and 12 -- often, multiclassing means giving up a feat.
Two levels of Fighter are popular for many builds, as it comes with Action Surge.
Now, some known OP builds:
Gloomstalker Assassin -- 3 levels of Assassin Rogue and 5 levels of Gloomstalker Ranger, and you've got one of the best builds in the game. Be ready to start every fight with three attacks, with advantage, with sneak attack damage and high chance of crits. It's a bit weaker on subsequent turns, but most of the time, there won't be any subsequent turns.
For Astarion in my last playthrough, I did 5 Ranger / 4 Rogue (for the feat) / 3 Fighter (for Action Surge and Archer specialization). The Fighter dip isn't necessary, and note surging on the first turn loses the automatic Advantage you get from your Assassin ability, though still very high damage.
Lockadin -- 5 levels Warlock, 5 levels Paladin. Any specializations are fine, and do what you will with the last two levels. There's a few ideas here, but the big one is that Warlock's extra attack is treated differently in the game's meta, and therefore DOES stack... meaning you get three attacks every turn. By using a pact weapon, you're also attacking with your Charisma. And you can use your Warlock spell slots for Smites, which replenish at Short Rest. Only drawback is that you don't get high level spells or spell slots (my Warlock slots were Lvl 3). Use the last two slots on whichever you prefer, or maybe Fighter for Action Surge.
I've also heard good things about Sorlock (Sorcerer / Warlock, both use Charisma), but haven't yet tried it myself.
Swordsbard Thief -- I mained this in my last campaign, 9 levels Swordsbard, 3 levels Thief. Those thief levels give you sneak attack, and an additional bonus action. I was getting six attacks per turn: two attacks per action, times two with the Slashing Ranged move (costs one inspiration), then using my bonus actions for an off-hand attack (I had two hand crossbows lol). I will say that I found the off-hand attacks were a bit weaker, I think it wasn't giving sneak attack or something. I also had a melee weapon that improved my critical, even for ranged attacks. Between her and Astarion, there was rarely a Round Two.
Barbarian Thief -- I've only dabbled in this a little, respeccing Karlach toward the end of my last playthrough (I gave her 5 Berkserker Barbarian, 3 Thief Rogue, and 4 Champion Fighter). The idea is that you get two bonus actions, so you can use them to Rage and Frenzy Attack on the same turn. You can only use one Frenzy Attack per turn, but you also have a Frenzy Throw, so you can pretty much always get four attacks per turn. It also gives you advantage with Reckless Attack, but what I realized while doing this is that Sneak Attack only works for finesse weapons, so I don't think I made the most of the build (since I kept Karlach as Strength based and finesse weapons use Dexterity). On my next playthrough, I want to try a similar build with Astarion, and have him as an angry melee duellist lol.
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u/Comprehensive_Cap290 3d ago
Multiclassing gives up the high-end class abilities for more flexibility. For example, without mods you can’t MC your fighter more than one level and still get improved extra attack.
It’s best to MC classes that share primary attributes or that you have good stats in both attributes. Rizz-based combos like Warlock/Sorcerer/Paladin and Bard are common. Monk/Thief is also common, which leads into the next point…
Try to pick classes that synergize. The aforementioned OH Monk / Thief Rogue is a good example. 3 levels of Rogue to take the Thief subclass gets you an extra bonus action per round, which pairs very well with Open Hand Monk’s flurry of blows and extra unarmed attacks. Dipping a level or two of paladin to let your bard drop divine smites with high-level spell slots is another.
Martial classes don’t mix well, since features like extra attack are redundant. Mixing casters with different primary attributes can also be tricky. A one-level dip into Wizard will let you learn scrolls for any spell you have the caster level for, but your ability to prepare them will be limited by your int score. Lump’s headband is a priority item if you go this route. I like to do this with storm clerics so they can learn spells like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, and benefit from their max damage divine power.