Str:16 Dex:14 Con:16 Int:8 Wis:12 Cha:8 Skills: Animal Handling, Perception Levels 1 - Barbarian 2 - Barbarian 3 - Barbarian (Wildheart) - Eagle Heart 4 - Barbarian - Feat: Great Weapon Master 5 - Barbarian 6 - Barbarian - Aspect of the Beast: Stallion 7 - Fighter - Great Weapon Fighting 8 - Fighter - 9 - Fighter - (Battlemaster)Riposte, Pushing Attack, Menacing Attack, Disarming Attack 10 - Fighter - Feat: ASI (Str) 11 - Barbarian 12 - Barbarian - Feat: ASI (Str) (for those like me who get annoyed having to repeatedly watch the video to remember what you need to take next every time you level)
I really appreciate this lore-friendly build as well as it being gear-agnostic. It seems like too many builds on RUclips I've been seeing revolve around specific gear - typically things found in Act 3. A gear-agnostic build video like this can be shown and not spoil a thing. Perfect for people who just picked up the game.
Beautifully done. I'm gonna try this with Karlach. I've been curious about multi classing her with fighter specifically for the action surge ability. Multi classing has just seemed daunting to me until now. You've made it very comprehensive. I've got to say, Fextralife has been my absolute Go-To for all RPGs I ever play. Yall are literally the best!
I really appreciate these lore-friendly builds. You don't need to minmax to beat the game, and I like character skills that make sense with the story. I've been using your Shadowheart Trickster/Rogue, and it's super useful and makes perfect sense.
I appreciate that someone else feels that way and has said this haha. So many builds out there that call for every stat you can get even if it means going against how you would normally play or your moral alignment. You don't need to! Most builds are viable, play how you want to play!
You know she makes a really amazing shadow monk/rogue as well! Especially if you get immunity to blindness you can see in magical darkness. This allows her to cast darkness on a wide area and can use shadow teleport to reposition w/advantage on all attacks. I pair her with my custom gloomstalker/warlock (yes it's fun af, you need the gloves of dex tho) and they both use darkness to cover mass areas and fight in them ranged+melee. Edit: the thief rogue allows her to get the extra action as well, allowing you to shadow step, do your attacks, and go use the additional bonus action to go back into stealth or use fists of fury/unarmed attack in the same turn
I decided on Tempest Cleric for Shadowheart. My Ranger I moved to Rogue 8 and Champion 4, so I had a shadow character already. There are so many class options, you can run through BG3 a thousand times and still not be bored with this game. That's my opinion of course. My basis for my opinion is playing Skyrim Legendary Edition with no mods for 1800 hours. It was just fun to play. BG3 is 10x better than Skyrim (because Modding takes a lot of effort and Skyrim needs to be modded to a point).
I like eagle heart but i prefer tiger heart. You get a cleave attack that can be used every attack rather than once per short rest. It also applies the extra damage from great weapon master to each hit so you can seriously boost your damage output. Tiger heart also boosts you jump distance which can also be boosted by a few items throughout the game to make jumping better than dashing or using misty step. You can also take aspect of the bear at lvl 6 to get advantage on strength checks which means advantage on athletics checks which should mean bigger jumps. The problem I had with eagle heart is that you need to rage to get the bonus action dash but rage requires a bonus action so you're only going to be able to dash on your second turn at which point you're already close enough. I've seen a lot of people recommend bear heart as well and while I do think it is extremely good, there's only one battle that I can think of that made me think I needed more resistances and that can be solved by elixirs of resistance. I've also noticed that in Larian games, offence is much much more important than defense. They can't hit you if they're dead. Also as you are also cleaving most of the time (so can't use manoeuvres), I would swap out battle master for champion for easier crits. With advantage from reckless attack and critting on 19s, your crit chance goes up to 19%.
It's been a few years since I've even looked at 5e - and having not read the player's manual, I never knew the depth of races, classes, multi-classing, and the basic gamer's algorithm when deciding on what to play. Even the Companions are worth playing, and the re-spec option is absolutely wonderful. It's fun going to the temple and having him join the group. Reminds me of Christopher Lee and Christopher Plummer. Fextralife has been busy with these YT courses on what BG3 brings to 5e, and his wiki has so much content. It's another game that will take a lifetime to enjoy!
I did the same exact build, except I did Bear Heart. I really liked the extra tankiness from Bear, but I like how you used Eagle Heart with aspect of the stallion for that extra HP. I just don't think I lvl'd her up in Barbarian enough to even get to the aspects... Also, I forget how I configured her abilities, but I ended up taking Athlete feat so I could jump her into combat if she was too far away to run or dash. Not sure if it was the best choice, but I used it all the time and found it really helpful. As for Battle Master maneuvers, I didn't understand what was good or bad at first, but I agree those four are easy top-tier. Sweeping attack definitely not as good as those four, but man, I really found it came in handy when she just needed to kill off a few low HP enemies that surrounded her.
From what my so has told me, Lae'zel becomes very much "they asked for NO pickles" if you pursue a relationship with her. But you can't beat Karlach reacting to Tav saying they love her
Wildheart Barb and Oath of Vengeance Pally is another fun combo that I like that still feels lore friendly for her. You can still Lay On Hands while raging and you don't need your spells b/c you'll be using those spell slots for Divine Smite.
Amulet of Misty Step and Disintegrating Night Walkers give her two casts of Misty Step per short rest on top of all the movement. Now Sanctuary your bard who has healing spells and Haste and keep Karlach hasted to make basically all battles easy as pie. My Karlach uses Sussur Greatsword in fights against casters to keep them Silenced. It is a blast.
I gave her the Everburn Blade the second I beat Therezzyn, It's a fiery blade, it makes sense to give it to her, only reason why I didn't before was because I gave it to Lae'zel as my created character & Shadowheart wasn't proficient in it, the Soulbreaker Sword, that does psychic damage if used by a Gith is what i gave Lae'zel which freed up the Everburn Blade. Karlach is a great character from origin story to combat, definitely gonna do a playthrough as her, she also pairs well with Lae'zel too for that Frontline combat.
This is very close to the build I did for her the small difference is I went 4 barb and 8 fighter for the 4 feats. Late game with gauntlets of hill giant strength I was able to take sental, polearm master, great weapon fighter, and alert.
I just finished my first playthrough on balanced, and before I try tactician I wanted a Karlach build. Enjoyed your Shadowheart so I most like be trying this too. She really needs action surge, hell it's such a good ability everyone needs it.
I like this build. But I actually prefer going with the Champion Fighter sub-class. It effectively doubles your critical chance, which let's you get that bonus great weapon master attack more often. I didn't find myself using the superiority dice too often. It does have its utility, though.
I had been using Reckless before attacking to increase critical hit chance. If you only use it as a reaction, you give that up if the attack roll is high enough to hit normally but still not a crit. It seems to be a trade off over whether you want increased crit chance (and the damage that goes along with it) vs letting enemies have advantage on you. I wonder if someone has done the math, but it seems like you should use Reckless before the attack when going against single enemies with high AC/HP, but wait to use it as a reaction only if you would miss against low AC mobs.
I gave her the gloves and necklace from the house of hope and the armor that gives 2 dex . She ended up with 23 str 20 dex 23 con 14 int 14 wis 14 cha 8 lvs into barb zerker and 4 into fighter champion with great weapon master and savage attacker feats
PRO TIP I learned, Set Reckless Attack to ask in the reactions settings! This way you don't have to use it and get disadvantage if you didn't need to, but if you were going to miss an attack, it will ask you if you want to use Reckless Attack to give advantage and possibly hit instead... way more efficient...
One thing to note for disarming attack is you cant target it on a creature with no weapon to disarm, which includes beasts, so if you pick it up make sure you also take something like menacing or pushing that can attack unarmed creatures if need be
I ended up going 6 Wild Heart/6 Battle Master with Bear and Elk. She was almost unkillable, and by the end she could jump almost across the entire screen, so she could be wherever I needed her to be.
Wait, what ? Why did you go to Fighter 6 ?? From Barbarian 6/Fighter 4 : - Taking 2 levels of Fighter gives you : nothing at Fighter 5, and a Feat/ASI at Fighter 6. - Taking 2 levels of Barbarian gives you : a Class Feature at Barbarian 7, which gives a bonus to Initiative, and a Feat/ASI at Barbarian 8. So you trade away an actual Class Feature (not necessarily build-defining, but definitely a Feature) to get absolutely nothing. What's the point ?
I considered Fighter 8 Barb 4, to get an extra superiority die, 2 more manouvers and an extra feat for Ftr 8. However, you lose fast movement, initiative bonus, 1 rage charge and an aspect. Looking at these lists I think Barb levels win out.
@@kevak1236 Either Barbarian 8 / Fighter 4, or Fighter 8 / Barbarian 4 are fine. I'm just surprised at the choice of Barbarian 6 / Fighter 6, which doesn't give anything special.
I like this build. I hava build that is a bit cheesy, and very funny. It relies and bit on the potions of gaint strength. See they aren't very hard to get and as long as you don't rest a whole lot they're amazingly. The other part that I did differently is I gave her monk lvs. Really you only need 2 level for step of the wind and now she can jump around like crazy. It pairs well with the eagle barb and gives her a ton of AC. I wouldn't dump strength but, I would focus on dex than con to make her a sturdy lady. The elixir handles extra hit and damage. Without the elixir monk and high dex make her pretty good at hitting and high con and barb makes her thich. Also you can play her with out the elixir, the monk does fine with out it and you can slap a great sword in her hands when you do. Not to mention, the feats, tavern brawler and athlete. Jump up to an enemy on high ground throw him off, jump again, and again if you want. What made her so fun for me was putting everyone in a pile so my sorcerer could nuke them. It isn't that difficult to garb three boxes and stack them for her to get the bonus. She can do it herself in mid fight if you want, for diving strike. It's more silly than necessary, and very funny. Tldr Really it's just the 3 things eagle barb, step of the wind. And elixir of cloud gaint strength. You can figure the rest out.
There are a lot of other good barbarian wildheart abilities. Bear Heart is amazing to make her almost invincible, and you could combine that with elk to improve your entire party ... OR you can double up on Tiger to make it so that you rarely miss, even with Great Weapon Master
I tried magicheart with eldritch knight, doom hammer with reverb equipment....she blew enemies away like flies, with soul coin power she mocked raph and made him & his cronies eat dirt. Good time made the game super easy.
I've kept Karlach as Barb. She has the halberd from the end of Act 2 and now the very rare clothing that gives temp HP when raging in Act 3. She'll get a feat at lvl 12 rather have maxed str first
Quick tip: when you really want to kill someone using karlach, slot in that infernal coin and apply arsonist oil to karlach's weapons, and watch her breaks hell loose
There's a ring that allows you to dash as a bonus action, if you find it you can switch out eagle heart for bear heart, giving you more resistances without sacrificing the temp HP
@@TomCottonNZ Rather use the boots that give 3x lighting charge per dash. That not only increases your attack roles thus your chance of landing attacks but also your damage output by doing 1 extra lightning damage minimum up to 1d8 extra dmg every other dash. If you have 2x bonus actions you can do an extra 1d8 lightning damage every single round on top of having the extra +1 to attack roles up permanently. Bear Heart is nice but even on tactician it’s just not needed and there are much better boots to use. Best defense in this game is a good offense. Plus Diving Strike with Eagle heart is just fun to do, hits hard, knocks em prone, and is very easy to do every fight as barbs have insane movement which easily allows you to get high ground and dive bomb someone. You do full damage plus prone and then get to follow that up with 2-3 more attacks on a prone target.
fyi reckless attack should probably always be used unless there is danger of her dying or being surrounded as attacking with advantage also increases the possibility of a critical strike. obviously dont use if she has advantage on attack from another source though.
On tactician take precision strike, menancing and disarm. You gonna need precision together with bless to hit endgame targets, even with reckless attack.
Or you could 9/3 her using the champion subclass to benefit both from an extra critical Die from Barb and the increased critical chance which is basically doubled by Reckless Attack and play with an Axe, with the axe when you crit you get an extra d12 (2d12 if you get 9 levels of barb) against the extra 1d6 you get from greatsword on crits
I gave her three levels of rogue on top of 8 barb instead to be true to her backstory life of crime and the extra bonud action works great with GWM and Polearm master using the halberd from moonrise
My personal build is similar but I opt for frenzy barb and bar brawler, with a playstyle set around throwing everything and almost everyone. Crazy synergy if you set up a few overlapping AoE concentration spells and just have her toss people into the blender. Also, I like imagining the mental trauma caused by disarming an eneny, throwing the weapon at its friend and then throwing the enemy in their other friend.
@@LyricSnowe My thought as well. "a build that focus on mobility and big hits from a greatsword in melee" and "a build that focus on throwing stuff and with a different feat setup" is not really similar. I am guessing they meant multiclassing Barbarian and Fighter makes it similar, which I kind of get, but in terms of playstyle, it is very different.
Who is wrong : Larian or Fextralife ? The Fighting Style GWF (Great Weapon Fightning) allows you to reroll all the damage dice that land on 1 or 2, once. Then, you must keep the results, which may contain again some 1s and 2s. You do NOT reroll dice until they land on 3 or more. So, how is GWF implemented in BG3 ? Did Larian change it, or did Fextralife make a mistake (twice in the video, so that's probably not a tongue slip, but rather a misunderstanding of the mechanics.)
I was playing as described in this guide, then i changed to 8 berserker / 4 thief. If you want to get full karlach experience i recommend berserker-thief
I was wondering if I could match her barbarian with some paladin levels actually, give her some smites to focus on as well as some utility with spells. I know you wouldn’t be using the paladin to it’s full effect without using concentration spells, but the idea of Karlach as a vengeance paladin is just so awesome
You could, but you would have an overall low amount of spell slots to use for Smites when combining Paladin with a non-caster. Also, some of the good features of the Paladin requires a fairly decent Charisma value to get the most out of. And then of course, there is the spell casting/Rage issue.
Love these companion build guides. I especially like that they have been multiclass to consider more dynamic characters. I do wonder who would make good bards, paladins, or rangers for a extra class
I really enjoy Karlach. My big debate is the medium adamantine armor that prevents critical hits or the cloth armors that buff strength or dex. You see lots of critical hits with relentless attack. How do u feel about pole arm Master as an alternative?
On my first run i made her a wild barb 4 and a 8 ek knight tavern brawler nyrulna legendary hammer thrower. Second run tavern brawler 5 monk 3 barb 3 thief at the moment
I usually go 6 Berserker, 2 Way of the open Fist monk and 4 Champion Fighter. Just throwing everything around for insane damage and slapping the shit out of every enemy in the game.
I took Pally levels with her, respecing at level 8 to be a Barb 3/Pally 5 and plan to keep her going on pally which will just get her to lvl 3 spells (inc Haste as a Vengy Pally). Not only does this give the obvious rage/smiting, but leans into using her racial smite spells and some Pally spells if a given combat doesn't feel worth using a rage on. (I normally don't have Shadowheart in my party, so the limited healing she gets from Pally helps fill in that gap too)
Pure barbarian 18 str, 18 con, bear rage, bear heart, then crocodile so she can't slip over. She can run around nude and kill everything - gear becomes almost obsolete. If you can beat the Cambion General aboard the ship in the intro, his sword will carry you through most ofvthe game, until you get the Djinn's spear.
Take savage attacker and get her the gauntlets of hill giant strength in act 3. No need to take multiple strength ASI’s when those gloves set her strength to 23
I disagree with the choice of rage. Berzerker is superior in every way. If mobility is the sole reason (or the temporary life) it is not enough to supplant a whole extra attack a turn that berzerker grants you as early as lvl 3. Also mobility is a non issue if you get the Speed boots from the sick gnome in the underdark... she will have click heels class action dash. But if you want to get really feisty with her you do some mesh of fighter 3 champion (extra crits) + barb 9....she will absolutely wreck shit up all by herself. No need for fancy manouvers.
I wonder how the martial adept feat would work with battle master? Can the 1 dice you get added to your other superiority dice? I think it would be cool if it gives you more options and one extra dice to use all your maneuvers.
@@fendelphi Yeah the way I see it is, it should work but it would likely be something they had to specifically code to work and they may have simply not done that. Probably not worth the feat cost optimally but sounds like fun fluff thing. I also am considering downloading a few mods and I think this would be a cool thing to get for Laezel if I get an extra feat mod for level 1.
I tried to follow this tutorial however no matter what I keep respecting her it's not giving me the same options to even add abilities like the ones mentioned here and theyre not in her arsenal no matter how many times i resecc her. On PS5
If i give her the potion of everlasting strength to get her strength to 20, would it be worth putting her ability improvement feat to something like savage attacker or just go for 22 strength?
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Thx! it is very good content and well explained.
Str:16
Dex:14
Con:16
Int:8
Wis:12
Cha:8
Skills: Animal Handling, Perception
Levels
1 - Barbarian
2 - Barbarian
3 - Barbarian (Wildheart) - Eagle Heart
4 - Barbarian - Feat: Great Weapon Master
5 - Barbarian
6 - Barbarian - Aspect of the Beast: Stallion
7 - Fighter - Great Weapon Fighting
8 - Fighter -
9 - Fighter - (Battlemaster)Riposte, Pushing Attack, Menacing Attack, Disarming Attack
10 - Fighter - Feat: ASI (Str)
11 - Barbarian
12 - Barbarian - Feat: ASI (Str)
(for those like me who get annoyed having to repeatedly watch the video to remember what you need to take next every time you level)
The real MVP
your a legend
The hero we need but dont deserve 😔
May all your dice rolls be successful kind sir
youre a saint my man
I really appreciate this lore-friendly build as well as it being gear-agnostic. It seems like too many builds on RUclips I've been seeing revolve around specific gear - typically things found in Act 3. A gear-agnostic build video like this can be shown and not spoil a thing. Perfect for people who just picked up the game.
It's why GWM, polearm master, Sent fighter build is great. not dependent on gear but a 2hander, anything else is just gravy.
"gear-agnostic" is the douchiest term i've ever fucking heard lmao
Beautifully done. I'm gonna try this with Karlach. I've been curious about multi classing her with fighter specifically for the action surge ability. Multi classing has just seemed daunting to me until now. You've made it very comprehensive. I've got to say, Fextralife has been my absolute Go-To for all RPGs I ever play. Yall are literally the best!
I really appreciate these lore-friendly builds. You don't need to minmax to beat the game, and I like character skills that make sense with the story. I've been using your Shadowheart Trickster/Rogue, and it's super useful and makes perfect sense.
I appreciate that someone else feels that way and has said this haha.
So many builds out there that call for every stat you can get even if it means going against how you would normally play or your moral alignment.
You don't need to! Most builds are viable, play how you want to play!
You know she makes a really amazing shadow monk/rogue as well! Especially if you get immunity to blindness you can see in magical darkness. This allows her to cast darkness on a wide area and can use shadow teleport to reposition w/advantage on all attacks. I pair her with my custom gloomstalker/warlock (yes it's fun af, you need the gloves of dex tho) and they both use darkness to cover mass areas and fight in them ranged+melee.
Edit: the thief rogue allows her to get the extra action as well, allowing you to shadow step, do your attacks, and go use the additional bonus action to go back into stealth or use fists of fury/unarmed attack in the same turn
I decided on Tempest Cleric for Shadowheart. My Ranger I moved to Rogue 8 and Champion 4, so I had a shadow character already. There are so many class options, you can run through BG3 a thousand times and still not be bored with this game. That's my opinion of course. My basis for my opinion is playing Skyrim Legendary Edition with no mods for 1800 hours. It was just fun to play. BG3 is 10x better than Skyrim (because Modding takes a lot of effort and Skyrim needs to be modded to a point).
Shadowheart always reminded me of Sebille so definitely
I like eagle heart but i prefer tiger heart. You get a cleave attack that can be used every attack rather than once per short rest. It also applies the extra damage from great weapon master to each hit so you can seriously boost your damage output. Tiger heart also boosts you jump distance which can also be boosted by a few items throughout the game to make jumping better than dashing or using misty step. You can also take aspect of the bear at lvl 6 to get advantage on strength checks which means advantage on athletics checks which should mean bigger jumps. The problem I had with eagle heart is that you need to rage to get the bonus action dash but rage requires a bonus action so you're only going to be able to dash on your second turn at which point you're already close enough. I've seen a lot of people recommend bear heart as well and while I do think it is extremely good, there's only one battle that I can think of that made me think I needed more resistances and that can be solved by elixirs of resistance. I've also noticed that in Larian games, offence is much much more important than defense. They can't hit you if they're dead. Also as you are also cleaving most of the time (so can't use manoeuvres), I would swap out battle master for champion for easier crits. With advantage from reckless attack and critting on 19s, your crit chance goes up to 19%.
I am late to BG3 and your videos are the most informative with actual play through of how to use the build 👍
Ayyy let’s goooo ! Been waiting on these companion builds 🔥
It's been a few years since I've even looked at 5e - and having not read the player's manual, I never knew the depth of races, classes, multi-classing, and the basic gamer's algorithm when deciding on what to play. Even the Companions are worth playing, and the re-spec option is absolutely wonderful. It's fun going to the temple and having him join the group. Reminds me of Christopher Lee and Christopher Plummer. Fextralife has been busy with these YT courses on what BG3 brings to 5e, and his wiki has so much content. It's another game that will take a lifetime to enjoy!
I did the same exact build, except I did Bear Heart. I really liked the extra tankiness from Bear, but I like how you used Eagle Heart with aspect of the stallion for that extra HP. I just don't think I lvl'd her up in Barbarian enough to even get to the aspects... Also, I forget how I configured her abilities, but I ended up taking Athlete feat so I could jump her into combat if she was too far away to run or dash. Not sure if it was the best choice, but I used it all the time and found it really helpful. As for Battle Master maneuvers, I didn't understand what was good or bad at first, but I agree those four are easy top-tier. Sweeping attack definitely not as good as those four, but man, I really found it came in handy when she just needed to kill off a few low HP enemies that surrounded her.
Best Girl
From what my so has told me, Lae'zel becomes very much "they asked for NO pickles" if you pursue a relationship with her. But you can't beat Karlach reacting to Tav saying they love her
Yup☺️
100%
NOT AT ALL THERE IS BETTER !!!
@@DamzelNDistress ???
Bear was just too powerful for me to overlook. It effectively doubles her HP against just about every possible type of damage.
Wildheart Barb and Oath of Vengeance Pally is another fun combo that I like that still feels lore friendly for her. You can still Lay On Hands while raging and you don't need your spells b/c you'll be using those spell slots for Divine Smite.
So simple yet so effective thank you so much
Amulet of Misty Step and Disintegrating Night Walkers give her two casts of Misty Step per short rest on top of all the movement. Now Sanctuary your bard who has healing spells and Haste and keep Karlach hasted to make basically all battles easy as pie. My Karlach uses Sussur Greatsword in fights against casters to keep them Silenced. It is a blast.
LOve this! Can't wait for the other companions build!
I gave her the Everburn Blade the second I beat Therezzyn, It's a fiery blade, it makes sense to give it to her, only reason why I didn't before was because I gave it to Lae'zel as my created character & Shadowheart wasn't proficient in it, the Soulbreaker Sword, that does psychic damage if used by a Gith is what i gave Lae'zel which freed up the Everburn Blade. Karlach is a great character from origin story to combat, definitely gonna do a playthrough as her, she also pairs well with Lae'zel too for that Frontline combat.
Hope you're doing more videos like but for the other companions.
This was great!
Already did shadowheart and astarion, will complete all!
Definitely trying this spec thanks🎉❤🎉
7:54 GWF only allows you to reroll once and must use the new dice, so 2d6 can still roll 2-5 dmg, just less likely.
Yeah, the mistake is mentioned twice in the video.
Did Larian implemented GWF incorrectly, or did Fextralife misunderstand the mechanics ?
@@ytchanviewer5389 I tested immediately upon watching the video, Larian did made it correctly.
I just love Elk Heart too much. Rampaging through a mob, knocking everyone down, hacking them to bits while they're prone, you can't beat that.
Trip attack is also a great option for maneuvres. Get your enemy prone and have the entire team pummel them while on the ground.
Second playthrough now, love the build, i should it on next run
This is very close to the build I did for her the small difference is I went 4 barb and 8 fighter for the 4 feats. Late game with gauntlets of hill giant strength I was able to take sental, polearm master, great weapon fighter, and alert.
I just finished my first playthrough on balanced, and before I try tactician I wanted a Karlach build. Enjoyed your Shadowheart so I most like be trying this too. She really needs action surge, hell it's such a good ability everyone needs it.
Awesome guides as always Fextra Life!
I like this build. But I actually prefer going with the Champion Fighter sub-class. It effectively doubles your critical chance, which let's you get that bonus great weapon master attack more often. I didn't find myself using the superiority dice too often. It does have its utility, though.
I had been using Reckless before attacking to increase critical hit chance. If you only use it as a reaction, you give that up if the attack roll is high enough to hit normally but still not a crit. It seems to be a trade off over whether you want increased crit chance (and the damage that goes along with it) vs letting enemies have advantage on you. I wonder if someone has done the math, but it seems like you should use Reckless before the attack when going against single enemies with high AC/HP, but wait to use it as a reaction only if you would miss against low AC mobs.
I gave her the gloves and necklace from the house of hope and the armor that gives 2 dex . She ended up with
23 str
20 dex
23 con
14 int
14 wis
14 cha
8 lvs into barb zerker and 4 into fighter champion with great weapon master and savage attacker feats
PRO TIP I learned, Set Reckless Attack to ask in the reactions settings! This way you don't have to use it and get disadvantage if you didn't need to, but if you were going to miss an attack, it will ask you if you want to use Reckless Attack to give advantage and possibly hit instead... way more efficient...
Isn’t that the default?
@@NecroMoz Yep and the video mentions it as well
if you can make/buy them consistently, elixir of bloodlust is amazing on her too
Love her ❤
Thank you for not using "Who Are You" as the background music as it is a very distracting song for guides.
I believe the Wrath Set fits Karlach so perfectly that I hardly change her armor
One thing to note for disarming attack is you cant target it on a creature with no weapon to disarm, which includes beasts, so if you pick it up make sure you also take something like menacing or pushing that can attack unarmed creatures if need be
Why isn’t the one that knocks enemies prone any good ?
@qbcomicaddict2590 i think its good iirc, though not one to take purely for damage, more utility
I ended up going 6 Wild Heart/6 Battle Master with Bear and Elk. She was almost unkillable, and by the end she could jump almost across the entire screen, so she could be wherever I needed her to be.
Wait, what ? Why did you go to Fighter 6 ?? From Barbarian 6/Fighter 4 :
- Taking 2 levels of Fighter gives you : nothing at Fighter 5, and a Feat/ASI at Fighter 6.
- Taking 2 levels of Barbarian gives you : a Class Feature at Barbarian 7, which gives a bonus to Initiative, and a Feat/ASI at Barbarian 8.
So you trade away an actual Class Feature (not necessarily build-defining, but definitely a Feature) to get absolutely nothing. What's the point ?
I considered Fighter 8 Barb 4, to get an extra superiority die, 2 more manouvers and an extra feat for Ftr 8. However, you lose fast movement, initiative bonus, 1 rage charge and an aspect. Looking at these lists I think Barb levels win out.
@@kevak1236 Either Barbarian 8 / Fighter 4, or Fighter 8 / Barbarian 4 are fine.
I'm just surprised at the choice of Barbarian 6 / Fighter 6, which doesn't give anything special.
Instead of menacing attack i'd go with trip attack - as it gives you adv on all melee attacks against that target if it fails the dc
I needed this crash course
Hoping to see. Wyll build. Love this one and the Shadowheart one
Pole arm and sentinel are amazing with her
I like this build. I hava build that is a bit cheesy, and very funny. It relies and bit on the potions of gaint strength. See they aren't very hard to get and as long as you don't rest a whole lot they're amazingly. The other part that I did differently is I gave her monk lvs. Really you only need 2 level for step of the wind and now she can jump around like crazy. It pairs well with the eagle barb and gives her a ton of AC. I wouldn't dump strength but, I would focus on dex than con to make her a sturdy lady. The elixir handles extra hit and damage. Without the elixir monk and high dex make her pretty good at hitting and high con and barb makes her thich. Also you can play her with out the elixir, the monk does fine with out it and you can slap a great sword in her hands when you do. Not to mention, the feats, tavern brawler and athlete. Jump up to an enemy on high ground throw him off, jump again, and again if you want. What made her so fun for me was putting everyone in a pile so my sorcerer could nuke them. It isn't that difficult to garb three boxes and stack them for her to get the bonus. She can do it herself in mid fight if you want, for diving strike. It's more silly than necessary, and very funny.
Tldr
Really it's just the 3 things eagle barb, step of the wind. And elixir of cloud gaint strength. You can figure the rest out.
Mommy Karlach!!! Best girl hands down.
There are a lot of other good barbarian wildheart abilities. Bear Heart is amazing to make her almost invincible, and you could combine that with elk to improve your entire party ... OR you can double up on Tiger to make it so that you rarely miss, even with Great Weapon Master
Tiger only applies when bleeding or poisend Targets, seems not so great for me
@@MarkoKiller tiger heart cleave causes bleed so stacking that with tiger aspect triggers it
I tried magicheart with eldritch knight, doom hammer with reverb equipment....she blew enemies away like flies, with soul coin power she mocked raph and made him & his cronies eat dirt. Good time made the game super easy.
I've kept Karlach as Barb. She has the halberd from the end of Act 2 and now the very rare clothing that gives temp HP when raging in Act 3. She'll get a feat at lvl 12 rather have maxed str first
Quick tip: when you really want to kill someone using karlach, slot in that infernal coin and apply arsonist oil to karlach's weapons, and watch her breaks hell loose
There's a ring that allows you to dash as a bonus action, if you find it you can switch out eagle heart for bear heart, giving you more resistances without sacrificing the temp HP
Not a ring, I’m sorry - boots of speed 🤙
@@TomCottonNZ Rather use the boots that give 3x lighting charge per dash. That not only increases your attack roles thus your chance of landing attacks but also your damage output by doing 1 extra lightning damage minimum up to 1d8 extra dmg every other dash. If you have 2x bonus actions you can do an extra 1d8 lightning damage every single round on top of having the extra +1 to attack roles up permanently. Bear Heart is nice but even on tactician it’s just not needed and there are much better boots to use. Best defense in this game is a good offense. Plus Diving Strike with Eagle heart is just fun to do, hits hard, knocks em prone, and is very easy to do every fight as barbs have insane movement which easily allows you to get high ground and dive bomb someone. You do full damage plus prone and then get to follow that up with 2-3 more attacks on a prone target.
fyi reckless attack should probably always be used unless there is danger of her dying or being surrounded as attacking with advantage also increases the possibility of a critical strike. obviously dont use if she has advantage on attack from another source though.
On tactician take precision strike, menancing and disarm. You gonna need precision together with bless to hit endgame targets, even with reckless attack.
Great Weapon Master Sponsered channel
Going to respec her to this, thanks.
Or you could 9/3 her using the champion subclass to benefit both from an extra critical Die from Barb and the increased critical chance which is basically doubled by Reckless Attack and play with an Axe, with the axe when you crit you get an extra d12 (2d12 if you get 9 levels of barb) against the extra 1d6 you get from greatsword on crits
My lady🙌🏼
Favourite female character in gaming by far
I dumped my Karlach’s strength to give her 20 dex ONLY after I got the hill giant gloves that puts her strength at 23
I gave her three levels of rogue on top of 8 barb instead to be true to her backstory life of crime and the extra bonud action works great with GWM and Polearm master using the halberd from moonrise
My personal build is similar but I opt for frenzy barb and bar brawler, with a playstyle set around throwing everything and almost everyone. Crazy synergy if you set up a few overlapping AoE concentration spells and just have her toss people into the blender.
Also, I like imagining the mental trauma caused by disarming an eneny, throwing the weapon at its friend and then throwing the enemy in their other friend.
How is that similar?
Mine is champion and two weapon fighting, dual wield, savage, str increase. Lots of crits!
@@LyricSnowe My thought as well. "a build that focus on mobility and big hits from a greatsword in melee" and "a build that focus on throwing stuff and with a different feat setup" is not really similar.
I am guessing they meant multiclassing Barbarian and Fighter makes it similar, which I kind of get, but in terms of playstyle, it is very different.
Who is wrong : Larian or Fextralife ?
The Fighting Style GWF (Great Weapon Fightning) allows you to reroll all the damage dice that land on 1 or 2, once. Then, you must keep the results, which may contain again some 1s and 2s. You do NOT reroll dice until they land on 3 or more.
So, how is GWF implemented in BG3 ? Did Larian change it, or did Fextralife make a mistake (twice in the video, so that's probably not a tongue slip, but rather a misunderstanding of the mechanics.)
Here's a adicional Tip, id you pick Karlach First Lvl of Fighter you can Use Heavy armor, and I don't know why
Great vid! With this build I often have a hard time getting Rage mode. Did do something wrong?
Berserker with Fighter champion plus the baldurdian sword made my Karlach the final boss
Spoiler (ilithid)
Get fly from ilithid, shove then get up high and slam them. Rinse and repeat 😅
Throw the prone enemy if you’re feeling crazy…
Tavern Brawler Berserker Barbarian/Fighter. Throw RETURNING PIKE 3 times and then 5 times, with Action Surge 7 times.
I was playing as described in this guide, then i changed to 8 berserker / 4 thief. If you want to get full karlach experience i recommend berserker-thief
This build is obviously really powerful, but we all know the correct option is Wild Magic Barbarian.
i did wild magic for her. My Tav is Bear heart and is main tank. Karlach has fire oozing out of her body, wild magic just made sense flavor wise
I was wondering if I could match her barbarian with some paladin levels actually, give her some smites to focus on as well as some utility with spells. I know you wouldn’t be using the paladin to it’s full effect without using concentration spells, but the idea of Karlach as a vengeance paladin is just so awesome
You could, but you would have an overall low amount of spell slots to use for Smites when combining Paladin with a non-caster.
Also, some of the good features of the Paladin requires a fairly decent Charisma value to get the most out of.
And then of course, there is the spell casting/Rage issue.
@@fendelphi the spell slots issue is rough, but I could just exchange the dexterity for the charisma on his build, maybe level more dex and con
2x reckless GWM attacks, bonus action attack from a crit, action surge for 2 more reckless GWM attacks makes for hells of a first round
Honestly I made her a pure frenzy barb and she's been straight up wrecking the entire game....but I feel stupid to never mix a fighter into her kit
My barbarian is 4 fighter, but only for two weapon fighting style/feat. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with full barbarian
6/6 Barb and battle master you still get 3 feat’s because fighters get an extra one at lvl 6
Love these companion build guides. I especially like that they have been multiclass to consider more dynamic characters.
I do wonder who would make good bards, paladins, or rangers for a extra class
I like her as a barbarian paladin to get some Smite damage
I really enjoy Karlach. My big debate is the medium adamantine armor that prevents critical hits or the cloth armors that buff strength or dex. You see lots of critical hits with relentless attack. How do u feel about pole arm Master as an alternative?
this might be optimal, but i'm addicted to enraged throw
On my first run i made her a wild barb 4 and a 8 ek knight tavern brawler nyrulna legendary hammer thrower.
Second run tavern brawler 5 monk 3 barb 3 thief at the moment
I usually go 6 Berserker, 2 Way of the open Fist monk and 4 Champion Fighter. Just throwing everything around for insane damage and slapping the shit out of every enemy in the game.
I took Pally levels with her, respecing at level 8 to be a Barb 3/Pally 5 and plan to keep her going on pally which will just get her to lvl 3 spells (inc Haste as a Vengy Pally). Not only does this give the obvious rage/smiting, but leans into using her racial smite spells and some Pally spells if a given combat doesn't feel worth using a rage on. (I normally don't have Shadowheart in my party, so the limited healing she gets from Pally helps fill in that gap too)
To be more accurate i think for Karlach specifically champion fighter works better
Pure barbarian 18 str, 18 con, bear rage, bear heart, then crocodile so she can't slip over. She can run around nude and kill everything - gear becomes almost obsolete. If you can beat the Cambion General aboard the ship in the intro, his sword will carry you through most ofvthe game, until you get the Djinn's spear.
You don't have to beat him if you use Shadowhearts Command. Just let him drop the weapon :)
I have one big question: Why take animal handling when you get speak with animals with your wild heart choice for barbarian?
Take savage attacker and get her the gauntlets of hill giant strength in act 3.
No need to take multiple strength ASI’s when those gloves set her strength to 23
I disagree with the choice of rage. Berzerker is superior in every way. If mobility is the sole reason (or the temporary life) it is not enough to supplant a whole extra attack a turn that berzerker grants you as early as lvl 3. Also mobility is a non issue if you get the Speed boots from the sick gnome in the underdark... she will have click heels class action dash. But if you want to get really feisty with her you do some mesh of fighter 3 champion (extra crits) + barb 9....she will absolutely wreck shit up all by herself. No need for fancy manouvers.
I just realized that karlachs idle is her dancing
I love Karlach's character and personality but she misses soooo often that I've swapped her out for Lae'Zel
They have the same starting stats, unless you have her great wep mastery
I wonder how the martial adept feat would work with battle master? Can the 1 dice you get added to your other superiority dice? I think it would be cool if it gives you more options and one extra dice to use all your maneuvers.
It should, since it is the same resource/mechanic. I havent tested it personally though.
That said, it might not be worth the feat cost.
@@fendelphi Yeah the way I see it is, it should work but it would likely be something they had to specifically code to work and they may have simply not done that.
Probably not worth the feat cost optimally but sounds like fun fluff thing. I also am considering downloading a few mods and I think this would be a cool thing to get for Laezel if I get an extra feat mod for level 1.
I made her a paladin since I had good paladin gear to give her.
Didn’t know Smithers played bg3
So on Reckless attack. How am I suppose to use it? I'm newer sorry. Am I supposed to just use it AS an attack everytime?
Question: Is going 4 levels in Fighter for the “Savage Attacker” Feat better than going level 9 Barbarian for “Brutal Critical”?
I tried to follow this tutorial however no matter what I keep respecting her it's not giving me the same options to even add abilities like the ones mentioned here and theyre not in her arsenal no matter how many times i resecc her. On PS5
If i give her the potion of everlasting strength to get her strength to 20, would it be worth putting her ability improvement feat to something like savage attacker or just go for 22 strength?
Does this build still work if you want her as a companion for your OC?
I thought it was basically guaranteed that the 4 attacks per turn were getting patched out? Or am I thinking about something else entirely?
I've been following this as I level karlach, just got to lvl 8, but her percentage to hit is always god awful. Anyone else running into this?
Yep. Someone else commented on this too. I've switched to Laezel and haven't looked back.
Also, without boosting STR, aren’t you going to have a HELLUVA time hitting anything with any consistency?
What about the legendary trident Nyrulna?
idk if im missing something but atleast on ps5 when i go to respec her it doesnt let me swap the bonuses around.
why the Gloves of Uninhibited Kushigo tho? i dont get it
Lae'zel build guide coming soon?
I have it finished and need to write it down and produce it. Planned for this week
where did the comment that listed the upgrades go?
Karlach is best waifu
no best waifu is rimuru, karlach is best 3d character displayed on 2d screen
shadow heart would like a word
Why are we grabbing great weapon fighting twice?
Just hit lvl 6 with Karlach and it didn't give option for passive animal.