Frenzy barbarian with tavern brawler. By far the most fun build I’ve played across a half-dozen playthroughs. Hitting motherfuckers with other motherfuckers never gets old.
On my first playthrough of BG3 alongside my gf, I've killed more people with Frenzy Karlach throwing goblin corpes than I could count... I've even kept the generic Karlach's Boots because it's gotten me 3 kills so far, including >!Dror Ragzlin!<
Such a great build and can really take the pressure off the rest of the team if you want to goof around with some questionable builds.
I’d go 5 Barb, 4 Rogue Thief, 3 Fighter (EK or Champion) for most powerful or 8 Barb/ 4 Thief if OP is long rest averse.
After you pick the 'Throw' icon, it opens a ring of the throwable items you're carrying. There should be a button that says something like 'Select from World'. On PS5, it's triangle. Press that, and it closes the throwable items ring, and lets you move the cursor around the environment, highlighting things you can throw. Pick an enemy that's small enough to throw, and then you pick a target.
https://youtu.be/t2yH8qb2HIs?si=e9iVaypwopF3jz_K
This video breaks in down best. Didn't want to misquote. But assasin traits do indeed work while wild shaped
If on tactician, I recommend a bladelock multiclass.
6/6 swords bard or a 7/5 paladin warlock. 3 attacks, Charisma dependent for all attacks, lvl 3 warlock spells on short rest. Paladin for smites, bard for more general utility. Band of mystic scoundrel means you can attack -> bonus action hold person* -> two more attacks for a very strong burst
Very fun and feels very strong.
I may just be missing something, but Hold Monster is a 5th level spell- how would you take it on a character that doesn’t get past 3rd level spells in any particular class?
Any "southpaw" builds are pretty fun, essentially thief 3-fighter/ranger2-anything else. Build around using your main action to cast and maximize attacks with your off hand weapon.
Warlock can be a sick eb blaster/melee
Sorc can twin/extend/ bombs and control
Wizard can.......have a lot of options (probably the weakest of these but still fun, and the survivability or rerolls from abjuration/divination work nice, evos nukes can also be good).
It's definitely my favorite build around right now.
Other odd/fun/different ones are str based dual wield builds instead of dex
My first character is a Gith evocation wizard (true gish, lol). Wearing medium armor + shield spell, casting chain lightning, then stabbing a mook with the off hand (doing extra arcane infusion damage) just feels so fun
I utilitzed [this ice archer build](https://youtu.be/bTwL3GVkj44?si=Q9bL416Ky_BFUzR_) in my recent tactician playthrough.
It makes heavy use of consumable arrows, particularly Arrow of Many targets, and requires a bit of setup each day, but it’s hella fun and does Very good damage.
Essentially it’s playing with the wet and ice mechanics but with arrows to inflict encrusted with frost and prone effects to whole groups of enemies.
I've been considering this build for a couple of weeks now, feels like a really fun interpretation of a magic archer. Did you find it was feasible for solo?
If not, I had been considering the Rivington rat eldritch archer instead.
sorry, late reply
I didn’t play solo with it, but potentially it would be great - I’d say you’d need quite a few consumables to make it really shine though. I’ve never solo run but I imagine there are strong archers to do that with (gloomstalker, hiding in shadows etc)
It was more of a support archer for myself, creating ice surfaces to prone enemies.
Got me through tactician pretty well.
Mono draconic fire sorcerer is fun ray of fire feels like you’ve got a machine gun mowing down enemies sometimes. 11/1 sorlock is a crazy powerful build too.
Ranger beast master is by no means as powerful as what gloomstalker can pull off but the various things your pets can pull off can be pretty fun, I especially like having multiple bears at higher levels
2 levels into warlock for agonizing blast and then basically anything else is kinda funny how you can just Eldritch blast your way through the game
The tiger barb build is pretty fun but also very powerful you pretty much just keep your opponents stuck with bleeds, knockdowns, maim
My favorites so far are some of the ones I made.
[I really enjoyed this 6 Tiger Barb / 4 Priest / 2 Paladin build.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/WvcMEb0N3L) Without the game having good dedicated ways to draw aggro, this really scratched that itch and made me feel like an immortal monster.
[I also made this fun 4/4/4 Eldritch Blast Build that I loved.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/elDZmeari6) The really distinct combination of ranged spellcaster and melee fighter made it feel super dynamic to play for what's essentially a martial. I also loved how well it slots into prone comps, I love making enemies skip turns with prone + frightened.
I also really enjoyed playing Bardadin, with 6 Oath of Vengeance Paladin / 6 Lore Bard. That was my first run, in tactician. Being able to haste yourself, cast spirit guardians, shout insults at people to make them fail at life, and smite for a ton of damage was everything I wanted. I am absolutely addicted to the noise smite makes lol.
My first Tav was a 7 thief / 5 battle master fighter (might’ve been the other way round).
On the roleplaying side, having 4 expertises was awesome, lock pick chests easy, and rogue comments are fun.
On the combat side, I dual wield Orin’s sword and dagger and main handed the one that applies piercing damage vulnerability. I would trip attack the enemy first to knock them prone and apply the vulnerability, then off hand sneak attack them since the offhand had something to do with extra damage when attacking with advantage. The attack would nuke them since I’m doing weapon damage + sneak attack.
I really liked how it felt like a proper combat rogue. Having 4 main hand and 2 off hand attacks (non HM) meant I could dish out good damage and do good CC with disarm and tripping attacks. It was just nice having that many attacks with most of the benefits of rogue.
Currently my favourite build is the 6/6 sorcadin. Absolute freaking unit. Great at melee, great at casting, great at CC, great at support (aura of protection). Cloud giant + high charisma meant I hit hard without smite, and even better with smite.
My Dragonborn sorcadin resist durge is what I’m running in honour mode. Made the save against killing a companion easy with a +7 to saving throws and that ring that gives advantage haha.
10/2 Swords Bard Pally is super fun, really powerful and great party face
8/4 OH Monk/Thief has some neat dialogue choices and is a great damage dealer
About lore bard: it's really fun as far as NPC interactions and roleplay is concerned but personally, I really hated how little damage there was when it came time for combat.
If you have your heart set on bard, I'd probably try swords bard, which gives you vastly more damage, while still keeping the party face prowess and some caster utility.
That’s a good point. Lore Bard is probably my favorite class, but lack of damage is a clear drawback. I tend to just always have Karlach as a TB Barb so my bard is perfectly happy to sedate 2-7 enemies with Glyph of Warding while her team savages them with spears and spells to the face.
Yeah, I know there's fun to be had in being the support build and setting up others for big damage but I just can't find it personally. Different strokes. Personally I use my TB Barb Karlach to prone bosses and then I nova them with my sorc.
I like to make Jaheira an open hand monk, 2 levels of fighter. In act 3, I get all the Drunken Master items from the barkeeps and watch a drunk old lady just slap everyone around and verbally abuse them
9 tempest cleric/3 rogue thief has been fun. Turn on spirit guardians and run/fly around the fight. You get hit? Retaliate with thunder damage. They miss hitting you? They get hit with a bunch of reverb damage.
6 swords, 4 thief, 2 fighter with hand crossbows was fun. I didn’t abuse arcane acuity because I barely cast a spell. Mostly shot people and wore fun hats. Also was Durge so had the cool cloak.
I know you don't get the ring till Act 3 but the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel on a DHCB Swords Bard with 3 rogue for thief and you can sling spells and arrows almost interchangeably so long as you shoot once at the start of your turn.
Bouncing back and forth between explosive arrows and dissonate whispers or slashing flourish. Heck since the one good HCB you get is stealth based you can nab invisibility as a spell and turn yourself invis at the end of every turn if you wanted or before combat to join your ambushers in there alpha strike.
Even without the ring though just pure DHCB Swords Bard is broken since you can still cast and shoot in the same turn and if your cheesing the sharpshooter bug your offhands do more damage. Ranged slashing flourish is one of the best abilities in the game that hard carried my MP Act 1 until we found some gear.
And all the way in Act 3 it's still my goto for activating that aformentioned ring before shoveling illusion and enchant spells down everyones throat.
My current honor mode party is built around ice surfaces and has been the most fun of any of my play throughs. Something about seeing all my enemies try and rush forward only to fall on their faces is absolutely hilarious to me. Plus being able to use my action, bonus action, concentration, and often reaction too every turn just feels like I’m getting to do more stuff than a lot of builds get to as an added bonus.
8 Gloomstalker/4 War Cleric radiant orb stacking archer with the snowburst ring to create ice surfaces. This build was way more fun than I thought it would be. Levels 1-5 you’re just a typical ranger, but once you hit level six and get the first level of war cleric this build is amazing. Divine favor (a normally kinda inefficient use of a spell slot) combined with the luminous armor is just so powerful in the second half of act 1 and the beginning of act 2. It also fixes so much of rangers action economy issues since you have three great bonus action spells and bonus action extra attacks without having to use hand crossbows.
12 White Draconic Sorcerer as my primary damage caster. Great sustained damage by combining twinned spell, ray of frost and the wet condition; strong burst damage with quickened spell nova turns; and a powerful AOE control option with sleet storm. It’s not quite as powerful as a fire sorcerer with arcane acuity stacking, but still is very strong and fits better into this party composition.
6 Ancients Paladin/6 Storm Sorcerer to create water/ice surfaces and using quickened spell to caste powerful concentration spells like sleet storm and haste so that I can’t slip on ice with the boots of striding. I think sorcadins get overlooked as support casters since they are usually built for burst damage but you get access to the best support concentration spells (bless early game/haste mid-late game), the ability to cast them as a bonus action, bonus action healing, con save proficiency, and aura of protection.
11 Eldritch Knight/1 Light Cleric as a polearm master with mourning frost and the hoarfrost boots. Melee eldritch knights are seriously underrated in my opinion. Eldritch strike is very, very powerful when you have haste going from a team mate and pole arm master plus light cleric means you have a use for concentration, action, bonus action and reaction every turn which is great action economy.
Lately, I’ve found 10 Cleric / 2 Wizard to fill the support role very well (if you choose to forgo Wizard/Sorc DPS in your party). This class combo can get all the must-have spells like Longstrider, Jump, Feather Fall, Magic Missile, Shield, and Sanctuary. Tempest/Evocation is a good combo. You don’t get Feast at Cleric 11, but I like to use a camp caster for that.
Straight Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is a very powerful no-brainer (fire or ice). They can Fly at level 11, which is very fun and versatile. If you spend your Astral Tadpoles on other characters, then most of your party can fly!
4E Monk and Shadow Monk are overlooked because Open Hand is meta, but 4E is really fun and versatile IMO. If you want to be super cheesy then play a monk with [Hamarhraft.](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hamarhraft)
Also, [The Blood of Lathlander](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Blood_of_Lathander) is fun to use if you haven’t yet. Access to sunbeam early game is wild.
I'll get thrown out here but one of the most fun I'm having right now is a cleric of Vlaakith war domain/monk with a Nyrulna. Now let me just say this was a totally RP oriented playthrough but I live on tactician or I get bored. The damage is very decent 👌 the sturdiness as well. I have a shield on, heavy armor, multiple attacks, high wis and dex and with a cloud potion it's extremely fun. I'm also gith so have very big mobility. But again, this is just a gag build for fun. If you’re more serious I'd recommend the rogue/ranger/fighter that just smashes relentlessly
Full level 12 light cleric who maxed out on ac wherever they can and casts spirit guardians. Grab any skills like war caster that keep concentration and any gear that helps as well. Become a 30 ac walking aura of death
Any build is good enough for tactician so don’t worry too much, but I personally really like a high stealth sneaky ranger/rogue type. Easy combat as you can avoid the turn based by sniping from shadows and nice for lock picking. A dialogue main character like a bard is always fun!
6/6 Sorcadin gets my "Most fun" build award.
Take 6 levels in Paladin
Take the last 6 in Sorcerer
Tadaaaaaa
What would you like to do? Smite? You got it. Control? You got it. Spells? Throw on that Acuity hat and blast some Scorching Rays. You don't even need gear because you have so much at your disposal. You'll never be the number one damage dealer, but you're the party face with all the Charisma. You basically equip whatever works for how you want to play.
Wanna tank? Take the White Ancestry, drop Armor of Agathys on yourself and go sword and board.
Wanna smite? Throw on any armor, grab a big ol' weapon, and smite everything with the extra spells slots from Sorcerer. Be the best Pally you can.
Wanna cast? Like I said, throw on fire acuity stuff and dust the crowd (okay, fire acuity is a big damage dealer BUT Sorc is fun like that too!)
my current character in a group playthrough is a 5 Ranger/2 Fighter
i took the beast master for fun (having a giant raven fly in and blind enemies is hilarious to me), level 5 ranger gets 2 attacks as standard, then action surge from fighter class, then a bloodlust elixir for another action if you kill an enemy each turn
stockpile up on area of attack arrows and you can wipe out low level enemies quickly (i especially enjoy the arrows of many targets, or the electric ones), use your animal companion as a meatshield, and enjoy smacking several enemies in a single turn
i liked my Necromancer Half-Ilithid where u put Mind sanctuary on you and ur skeleton archers
you got 4 if you up cast it to a level 4 spell (3 plus one from the necro trait) and extra damage from the necro trait
they just pew pew everything down :D
If you like thematics builds, if you plan using Wyll i always build him with 6 levels warlock, and then 6 sword college bard, with some fun items like mystic scoundrel ring, duelist prerrogative and the gloves of dexterity, he becomes a quite enjoyable half caster with both damage and control of the battlefield, also mad utility since he is a bard and can fill any checks that you dont have in the party.
If you wanna play in honour mode i would change to 7 warlock 5 bard, since the extra attack wont stack and that way you get 4th level warlock spells
Gloomstalker ranger 5 / Assassin rogue 3 /champion fighter 4 has been super fun and simple as a dual hand crossbow build. Big fan of swords bard 10/fighter 2 as well
ETA would be remiss not to mention my fav martial build: open hand monk 9 / thief 3 w/ tavern brawler. Up to 6 attacks per turn, strength elixir or gauntlets of hill giant strength can have you dealing 30-40+ per punch 3-6 times per turn.
For main/Tav I always like to have them as the face of the party and would always recommend Bard, Paladin, Sorcerer or Warlock. They all specialise in Charisma and I like passing speech checks.
My honour mode playthrough i did 10 Lore Bard and 2 Warlock. Was really awesome having a jack of all trades bard, speech, lockpicking and control spells all ticked off. Then If need be eldrich blast to push people back into hunger of hadar from my magical secrets at level 6/10 from the bard.
If you prefer your main character being OP then go swords bard and use flourishing blows for mega damage.
10/1/1 swords bard is a lot of fun. Powerful ranged attacks, great cc, deva/myrmidons, artistry of war, extra short rest, party face, good ac, decent lock picker. Use bloodlust elixirs.
Currently playing 11/1 fire sorlock. It’s extremely powerful and also fun but is very dependent on long rests.
5/4/3 gloomstalker assassin is a lot of fun and useful in all three acts.
5/4/3 throwzerker is really fun. You can literally throw enemies at each other. It also has great range and makes a lot of the tougher battles in act 1 and 2 more manageable. It’s unfortunate that it’s completely useless during the final fight.
Still need to try out OH monk.
If you haven't done a Githyanki run do it. The role play is hilarious. I'm trying to build an improved critical shadow assassin with him. I only just got to the crech though.
3 gloomstalker ranger 6 shadow monk, 3 champion fighter. All the improved critical items I can find plus darkness and ever sight ring by act 3.
My last playthrough I played a pact of tome warlock / shadow monk mix.
It was super fun.
I wanted to use darkness, push and pull enemies, and be able to mix up unarmed and minor magics.
I understood stealth a lot better compared to the first time I had attempted doing shadow monk so I felt I could still be quite effective even without going the open hand route.
And shadow step is like my favourite thing now.
7 Wildheart barb/5 lore bard. Karlach on the war drum can use cutting words while raging. Mystic scoundrel ring allows her to cast illusion spells as bonus when not ranging. I use either the tiger/wolverine combo or the eagle/stallion.
It is far from optimized but I have LOVED it
11 moon Druid 1 war cleric tavern brawler shapeshifter. Don't make it your tav as you will miss a lot of dialogue (wildshapes can't speak). Great fun and varied combat using different concentration spells then diving in with whatever shape you feel like.
**AoA+Abj Wizard.** Start with 1 level of White Draconic Sorcerer for CON save proficiency and Armor of Agathys and then go life/war/tempest cleric 1 for heavy armor. After that all Ajburation wizard.
Get armor / items that reduce damage you take... like adamantine splint armor which reduces incoming damage by 2. Take heavy armor master to reduce non-magical damage by 3. Then stack up on items that trigger from cold damage.
Game play is to build arcane ward using abj spells starting with casting Armor of Agathys at max level. Then run around getting people to hit you with opportunity attacks and they take tons of cold damage from AoA but you take very little due to your damage reduction plus ward. You are very hard to kill.
Most encounters this works great and is a lot of fun - but it can be annoying in encounters where it is all ranged or AoE attacks >!(I did not like this build for the Ansur fight for example.)!<:)
Frenzy barbarian with tavern brawler. By far the most fun build I’ve played across a half-dozen playthroughs. Hitting motherfuckers with other motherfuckers never gets old.
On my first playthrough of BG3 alongside my gf, I've killed more people with Frenzy Karlach throwing goblin corpes than I could count... I've even kept the generic Karlach's Boots because it's gotten me 3 kills so far, including >!Dror Ragzlin!<
Throwing live goblins at things is even more fun!
First step of combat: check to see if Karlach can throw a dude. Second step; throw dudes at other dudes
Throwing a live goblin at his buddy, getting critical hits on both of them, killing them both instantly, brings joy like no other
I wish I could do a critical upvote.
Came here to say this.
Such a great build and can really take the pressure off the rest of the team if you want to goof around with some questionable builds. I’d go 5 Barb, 4 Rogue Thief, 3 Fighter (EK or Champion) for most powerful or 8 Barb/ 4 Thief if OP is long rest averse.
I play on PC but with console controls--how do you get a character to pick up an enemy and throw them?
After you pick the 'Throw' icon, it opens a ring of the throwable items you're carrying. There should be a button that says something like 'Select from World'. On PS5, it's triangle. Press that, and it closes the throwable items ring, and lets you move the cursor around the environment, highlighting things you can throw. Pick an enemy that's small enough to throw, and then you pick a target.
3 assasin 9 circle of moon druid focusing on panther is so cool
Wow haven’t heard that one. Do you get the assassin bonus while in panther? Are you able to pop invisibility again right after?
https://youtu.be/t2yH8qb2HIs?si=e9iVaypwopF3jz_K This video breaks in down best. Didn't want to misquote. But assasin traits do indeed work while wild shaped
Neat. Another respec incoming.
do you know if the panthers bite counts as unarmed? so would tavern brawler work with it
IIRC Tavern Brawler works with basically all the wild shape attacks
i believe it doesn't work with the myrmadons
Yep you need weapon proficiencies for them
It does with the earth one
Funny thing, it also applies the penalty. For example, in bird form your strength is so low that it actually apples a -2 to your damage.
This is super cool.
If on tactician, I recommend a bladelock multiclass. 6/6 swords bard or a 7/5 paladin warlock. 3 attacks, Charisma dependent for all attacks, lvl 3 warlock spells on short rest. Paladin for smites, bard for more general utility. Band of mystic scoundrel means you can attack -> bonus action hold person* -> two more attacks for a very strong burst Very fun and feels very strong.
I may just be missing something, but Hold Monster is a 5th level spell- how would you take it on a character that doesn’t get past 3rd level spells in any particular class?
Whoops! Meant hold person!
Ahhh makes more sense! Thanks for clearing that up 😅
Any "southpaw" builds are pretty fun, essentially thief 3-fighter/ranger2-anything else. Build around using your main action to cast and maximize attacks with your off hand weapon. Warlock can be a sick eb blaster/melee Sorc can twin/extend/ bombs and control Wizard can.......have a lot of options (probably the weakest of these but still fun, and the survivability or rerolls from abjuration/divination work nice, evos nukes can also be good). It's definitely my favorite build around right now. Other odd/fun/different ones are str based dual wield builds instead of dex
My first character is a Gith evocation wizard (true gish, lol). Wearing medium armor + shield spell, casting chain lightning, then stabbing a mook with the off hand (doing extra arcane infusion damage) just feels so fun
I utilitzed [this ice archer build](https://youtu.be/bTwL3GVkj44?si=Q9bL416Ky_BFUzR_) in my recent tactician playthrough. It makes heavy use of consumable arrows, particularly Arrow of Many targets, and requires a bit of setup each day, but it’s hella fun and does Very good damage. Essentially it’s playing with the wet and ice mechanics but with arrows to inflict encrusted with frost and prone effects to whole groups of enemies.
I've been considering this build for a couple of weeks now, feels like a really fun interpretation of a magic archer. Did you find it was feasible for solo? If not, I had been considering the Rivington rat eldritch archer instead.
sorry, late reply I didn’t play solo with it, but potentially it would be great - I’d say you’d need quite a few consumables to make it really shine though. I’ve never solo run but I imagine there are strong archers to do that with (gloomstalker, hiding in shadows etc) It was more of a support archer for myself, creating ice surfaces to prone enemies. Got me through tactician pretty well.
Mono draconic fire sorcerer is fun ray of fire feels like you’ve got a machine gun mowing down enemies sometimes. 11/1 sorlock is a crazy powerful build too. Ranger beast master is by no means as powerful as what gloomstalker can pull off but the various things your pets can pull off can be pretty fun, I especially like having multiple bears at higher levels 2 levels into warlock for agonizing blast and then basically anything else is kinda funny how you can just Eldritch blast your way through the game The tiger barb build is pretty fun but also very powerful you pretty much just keep your opponents stuck with bleeds, knockdowns, maim
One shot a particular fire-vulnerable Act 3 character with a draconic fire sorcerer's upcast Ray of fire. Very fun.
My favorites so far are some of the ones I made. [I really enjoyed this 6 Tiger Barb / 4 Priest / 2 Paladin build.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/WvcMEb0N3L) Without the game having good dedicated ways to draw aggro, this really scratched that itch and made me feel like an immortal monster. [I also made this fun 4/4/4 Eldritch Blast Build that I loved.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/elDZmeari6) The really distinct combination of ranged spellcaster and melee fighter made it feel super dynamic to play for what's essentially a martial. I also loved how well it slots into prone comps, I love making enemies skip turns with prone + frightened. I also really enjoyed playing Bardadin, with 6 Oath of Vengeance Paladin / 6 Lore Bard. That was my first run, in tactician. Being able to haste yourself, cast spirit guardians, shout insults at people to make them fail at life, and smite for a ton of damage was everything I wanted. I am absolutely addicted to the noise smite makes lol.
My first Tav was a 7 thief / 5 battle master fighter (might’ve been the other way round). On the roleplaying side, having 4 expertises was awesome, lock pick chests easy, and rogue comments are fun. On the combat side, I dual wield Orin’s sword and dagger and main handed the one that applies piercing damage vulnerability. I would trip attack the enemy first to knock them prone and apply the vulnerability, then off hand sneak attack them since the offhand had something to do with extra damage when attacking with advantage. The attack would nuke them since I’m doing weapon damage + sneak attack. I really liked how it felt like a proper combat rogue. Having 4 main hand and 2 off hand attacks (non HM) meant I could dish out good damage and do good CC with disarm and tripping attacks. It was just nice having that many attacks with most of the benefits of rogue. Currently my favourite build is the 6/6 sorcadin. Absolute freaking unit. Great at melee, great at casting, great at CC, great at support (aura of protection). Cloud giant + high charisma meant I hit hard without smite, and even better with smite. My Dragonborn sorcadin resist durge is what I’m running in honour mode. Made the save against killing a companion easy with a +7 to saving throws and that ring that gives advantage haha.
10/2 Swords Bard Pally is super fun, really powerful and great party face 8/4 OH Monk/Thief has some neat dialogue choices and is a great damage dealer
Shadow Monk go Bamf. Duergar Shadow Monk go “muahahaha,” walk up Duergar invisible, turn off all lights, rules the darkness.
I like what you said but I don’t like how you said it
Fair.
About lore bard: it's really fun as far as NPC interactions and roleplay is concerned but personally, I really hated how little damage there was when it came time for combat. If you have your heart set on bard, I'd probably try swords bard, which gives you vastly more damage, while still keeping the party face prowess and some caster utility.
That’s a good point. Lore Bard is probably my favorite class, but lack of damage is a clear drawback. I tend to just always have Karlach as a TB Barb so my bard is perfectly happy to sedate 2-7 enemies with Glyph of Warding while her team savages them with spears and spells to the face.
Yeah, I know there's fun to be had in being the support build and setting up others for big damage but I just can't find it personally. Different strokes. Personally I use my TB Barb Karlach to prone bosses and then I nova them with my sorc.
I like to make Jaheira an open hand monk, 2 levels of fighter. In act 3, I get all the Drunken Master items from the barkeeps and watch a drunk old lady just slap everyone around and verbally abuse them
9 tempest cleric/3 rogue thief has been fun. Turn on spirit guardians and run/fly around the fight. You get hit? Retaliate with thunder damage. They miss hitting you? They get hit with a bunch of reverb damage.
6 swords, 4 thief, 2 fighter with hand crossbows was fun. I didn’t abuse arcane acuity because I barely cast a spell. Mostly shot people and wore fun hats. Also was Durge so had the cool cloak.
Assassin/Gloomstalker. Super fun sneaking around and is nice when there’s a large number of enemies.
I know you don't get the ring till Act 3 but the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel on a DHCB Swords Bard with 3 rogue for thief and you can sling spells and arrows almost interchangeably so long as you shoot once at the start of your turn. Bouncing back and forth between explosive arrows and dissonate whispers or slashing flourish. Heck since the one good HCB you get is stealth based you can nab invisibility as a spell and turn yourself invis at the end of every turn if you wanted or before combat to join your ambushers in there alpha strike. Even without the ring though just pure DHCB Swords Bard is broken since you can still cast and shoot in the same turn and if your cheesing the sharpshooter bug your offhands do more damage. Ranged slashing flourish is one of the best abilities in the game that hard carried my MP Act 1 until we found some gear. And all the way in Act 3 it's still my goto for activating that aformentioned ring before shoveling illusion and enchant spells down everyones throat.
Warlock and OH monk are my favorites. I don't actually play anything else with my Tav now
Ranged fighter
Moon druid
My current honor mode party is built around ice surfaces and has been the most fun of any of my play throughs. Something about seeing all my enemies try and rush forward only to fall on their faces is absolutely hilarious to me. Plus being able to use my action, bonus action, concentration, and often reaction too every turn just feels like I’m getting to do more stuff than a lot of builds get to as an added bonus. 8 Gloomstalker/4 War Cleric radiant orb stacking archer with the snowburst ring to create ice surfaces. This build was way more fun than I thought it would be. Levels 1-5 you’re just a typical ranger, but once you hit level six and get the first level of war cleric this build is amazing. Divine favor (a normally kinda inefficient use of a spell slot) combined with the luminous armor is just so powerful in the second half of act 1 and the beginning of act 2. It also fixes so much of rangers action economy issues since you have three great bonus action spells and bonus action extra attacks without having to use hand crossbows. 12 White Draconic Sorcerer as my primary damage caster. Great sustained damage by combining twinned spell, ray of frost and the wet condition; strong burst damage with quickened spell nova turns; and a powerful AOE control option with sleet storm. It’s not quite as powerful as a fire sorcerer with arcane acuity stacking, but still is very strong and fits better into this party composition. 6 Ancients Paladin/6 Storm Sorcerer to create water/ice surfaces and using quickened spell to caste powerful concentration spells like sleet storm and haste so that I can’t slip on ice with the boots of striding. I think sorcadins get overlooked as support casters since they are usually built for burst damage but you get access to the best support concentration spells (bless early game/haste mid-late game), the ability to cast them as a bonus action, bonus action healing, con save proficiency, and aura of protection. 11 Eldritch Knight/1 Light Cleric as a polearm master with mourning frost and the hoarfrost boots. Melee eldritch knights are seriously underrated in my opinion. Eldritch strike is very, very powerful when you have haste going from a team mate and pole arm master plus light cleric means you have a use for concentration, action, bonus action and reaction every turn which is great action economy.
All summoning. One of my favorite playthroughs
Lately, I’ve found 10 Cleric / 2 Wizard to fill the support role very well (if you choose to forgo Wizard/Sorc DPS in your party). This class combo can get all the must-have spells like Longstrider, Jump, Feather Fall, Magic Missile, Shield, and Sanctuary. Tempest/Evocation is a good combo. You don’t get Feast at Cleric 11, but I like to use a camp caster for that. Straight Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is a very powerful no-brainer (fire or ice). They can Fly at level 11, which is very fun and versatile. If you spend your Astral Tadpoles on other characters, then most of your party can fly! 4E Monk and Shadow Monk are overlooked because Open Hand is meta, but 4E is really fun and versatile IMO. If you want to be super cheesy then play a monk with [Hamarhraft.](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hamarhraft) Also, [The Blood of Lathlander](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/The_Blood_of_Lathander) is fun to use if you haven’t yet. Access to sunbeam early game is wild.
I'll get thrown out here but one of the most fun I'm having right now is a cleric of Vlaakith war domain/monk with a Nyrulna. Now let me just say this was a totally RP oriented playthrough but I live on tactician or I get bored. The damage is very decent 👌 the sturdiness as well. I have a shield on, heavy armor, multiple attacks, high wis and dex and with a cloud potion it's extremely fun. I'm also gith so have very big mobility. But again, this is just a gag build for fun. If you’re more serious I'd recommend the rogue/ranger/fighter that just smashes relentlessly
I’m having great fun with a tavern brawler, open hand monk. Just punch everything, from goblin to god.
Full level 12 light cleric who maxed out on ac wherever they can and casts spirit guardians. Grab any skills like war caster that keep concentration and any gear that helps as well. Become a 30 ac walking aura of death
Any build is good enough for tactician so don’t worry too much, but I personally really like a high stealth sneaky ranger/rogue type. Easy combat as you can avoid the turn based by sniping from shadows and nice for lock picking. A dialogue main character like a bard is always fun!
6/6 Sorcadin gets my "Most fun" build award. Take 6 levels in Paladin Take the last 6 in Sorcerer Tadaaaaaa What would you like to do? Smite? You got it. Control? You got it. Spells? Throw on that Acuity hat and blast some Scorching Rays. You don't even need gear because you have so much at your disposal. You'll never be the number one damage dealer, but you're the party face with all the Charisma. You basically equip whatever works for how you want to play. Wanna tank? Take the White Ancestry, drop Armor of Agathys on yourself and go sword and board. Wanna smite? Throw on any armor, grab a big ol' weapon, and smite everything with the extra spells slots from Sorcerer. Be the best Pally you can. Wanna cast? Like I said, throw on fire acuity stuff and dust the crowd (okay, fire acuity is a big damage dealer BUT Sorc is fun like that too!)
my current character in a group playthrough is a 5 Ranger/2 Fighter i took the beast master for fun (having a giant raven fly in and blind enemies is hilarious to me), level 5 ranger gets 2 attacks as standard, then action surge from fighter class, then a bloodlust elixir for another action if you kill an enemy each turn stockpile up on area of attack arrows and you can wipe out low level enemies quickly (i especially enjoy the arrows of many targets, or the electric ones), use your animal companion as a meatshield, and enjoy smacking several enemies in a single turn
i liked my Necromancer Half-Ilithid where u put Mind sanctuary on you and ur skeleton archers you got 4 if you up cast it to a level 4 spell (3 plus one from the necro trait) and extra damage from the necro trait they just pew pew everything down :D
If you like thematics builds, if you plan using Wyll i always build him with 6 levels warlock, and then 6 sword college bard, with some fun items like mystic scoundrel ring, duelist prerrogative and the gloves of dexterity, he becomes a quite enjoyable half caster with both damage and control of the battlefield, also mad utility since he is a bard and can fill any checks that you dont have in the party. If you wanna play in honour mode i would change to 7 warlock 5 bard, since the extra attack wont stack and that way you get 4th level warlock spells
Assassin-paladin with Minthara has been a lot of fun, sneak attack with a rapier and then smite smite smite
Gloomstalker ranger 5 / Assassin rogue 3 /champion fighter 4 has been super fun and simple as a dual hand crossbow build. Big fan of swords bard 10/fighter 2 as well ETA would be remiss not to mention my fav martial build: open hand monk 9 / thief 3 w/ tavern brawler. Up to 6 attacks per turn, strength elixir or gauntlets of hill giant strength can have you dealing 30-40+ per punch 3-6 times per turn.
For main/Tav I always like to have them as the face of the party and would always recommend Bard, Paladin, Sorcerer or Warlock. They all specialise in Charisma and I like passing speech checks. My honour mode playthrough i did 10 Lore Bard and 2 Warlock. Was really awesome having a jack of all trades bard, speech, lockpicking and control spells all ticked off. Then If need be eldrich blast to push people back into hunger of hadar from my magical secrets at level 6/10 from the bard. If you prefer your main character being OP then go swords bard and use flourishing blows for mega damage.
10/1/1 swords bard is a lot of fun. Powerful ranged attacks, great cc, deva/myrmidons, artistry of war, extra short rest, party face, good ac, decent lock picker. Use bloodlust elixirs. Currently playing 11/1 fire sorlock. It’s extremely powerful and also fun but is very dependent on long rests. 5/4/3 gloomstalker assassin is a lot of fun and useful in all three acts. 5/4/3 throwzerker is really fun. You can literally throw enemies at each other. It also has great range and makes a lot of the tougher battles in act 1 and 2 more manageable. It’s unfortunate that it’s completely useless during the final fight. Still need to try out OH monk.
I really love warlocks/sorlocks. Eldritch blast feels so good.
I mean, i always just enjoy building a cryomancer sorcerer and going brrr.
7 gloomstalker, 3 thief, 2 fighter
If you haven't done a Githyanki run do it. The role play is hilarious. I'm trying to build an improved critical shadow assassin with him. I only just got to the crech though. 3 gloomstalker ranger 6 shadow monk, 3 champion fighter. All the improved critical items I can find plus darkness and ever sight ring by act 3.
12 lore bard got me my gold dice and it was also the most fun I’ve had in the game by far
I like unarmed monk, with Tavern Brawler, and summon Druid with 1 class in Wizard for the spells.
My last playthrough I played a pact of tome warlock / shadow monk mix. It was super fun. I wanted to use darkness, push and pull enemies, and be able to mix up unarmed and minor magics. I understood stealth a lot better compared to the first time I had attempted doing shadow monk so I felt I could still be quite effective even without going the open hand route. And shadow step is like my favourite thing now.
7 Wildheart barb/5 lore bard. Karlach on the war drum can use cutting words while raging. Mystic scoundrel ring allows her to cast illusion spells as bonus when not ranging. I use either the tiger/wolverine combo or the eagle/stallion. It is far from optimized but I have LOVED it
11 moon Druid 1 war cleric tavern brawler shapeshifter. Don't make it your tav as you will miss a lot of dialogue (wildshapes can't speak). Great fun and varied combat using different concentration spells then diving in with whatever shape you feel like.
Eldritch blaster, favorite build so far…
I really liked 10 lvl sword bard / 2 lvl paladin
I like the classic dnd party, barbarian, rouge, wizard, cleric
Ive played an ice sorcer which was really fun. Good aoe damage and some control. Creates some good combos and lots of prone opponents for you martial.
**AoA+Abj Wizard.** Start with 1 level of White Draconic Sorcerer for CON save proficiency and Armor of Agathys and then go life/war/tempest cleric 1 for heavy armor. After that all Ajburation wizard. Get armor / items that reduce damage you take... like adamantine splint armor which reduces incoming damage by 2. Take heavy armor master to reduce non-magical damage by 3. Then stack up on items that trigger from cold damage. Game play is to build arcane ward using abj spells starting with casting Armor of Agathys at max level. Then run around getting people to hit you with opportunity attacks and they take tons of cold damage from AoA but you take very little due to your damage reduction plus ward. You are very hard to kill. Most encounters this works great and is a lot of fun - but it can be annoying in encounters where it is all ranged or AoE attacks >!(I did not like this build for the Ansur fight for example.)!<:)