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pretty sure the flourishing attack on ranged isn't supposed to target the same enemy twice, at least that what the discord has been saying. I made a bard for my 3rd playthrough and my plan was to go duelling but bc ranged flourish is so much better than dueling I just found myself always using ranged anyway, other than like RP reasons I just cant seem to find a reason why I would go melee over ranged with a bard right now. Granted idk the class well enough, maybe there is an equally insane build for dueling specifically that I just don't know about.
Hi Wolf! You totally want to break the game, huh? Seriously though, you made an epic build! For Astarion, I levelled him up as an assassin rogue/gloom stalker, and I've been having a lot of fun with that build. I did it for roleplay purposes, but it has been working well for me so far.
Note that as of Patch #4, your dexterity modifier is no longer added to your offhand ranged attacks by default. However Two Weapon Fighting now DOES add your dexterity modifier to these attacks. In my inventory screen, the damage it says my offhand attacks do isn't calculating correctly (showing without dex modifier), but the tooltip does show that the dex modifier will be added, and when I make attacks and check how damage calculates, it does add the dex modifier to both attacks.
QOL tip : the Passive icon (Sharpshooter) can be placed on the more visible part of your hotbar (!) instead of the near invisible Passive tab (how: open the UI that shows your features and drag the icon). I place that icon next to my core Class icons or beside my attack icons.
Go to Reactions (right tab of spellbook) and check Sneak attack and Sneak Attack (critical hit) to both be on, and both have Ask checked as well. This will allow any of your attacks to apply sneak attack. So if you main attack misses you can still get the extra sneak attack damage on off-hand attacks.
@wolfheartFPS Just want to point out that you can go to your reactions and toggle on "ask" for sneak attack so that you can apply it to regular main hand and off hand attacks without using the sneak attack "action".
Really appreciate how much time and effort went into this. It is long but you get through the most important points very quickly. I find that other build videos feel longer even though they might be shorter. Time to go respec... again
Nice build. Dual hand crossbows with sharpshooter is insane, but completely nuts with slashing flourishes. I am currently trivializing tactician mode with just a fighter/rogue variation, but the bard looks so much more interesting. The only thing that sucks is that there are only two decent weapons for this build in the game and only one of then is even +2. Not that you need a powerful weapon at all, but it feels kinda bad that you are stuck using the same weapons for most of the game without intersecting upgrades. Anyway, great video and thanks for sharing!
Another good way to increase hit chance is to get the ability drain illithid power (assuming you want to use illithid powers) and hitting an enemy that has any bonus to their AC from DEX with your first shot, lowering their AC by 1 if their DEX was an even number. You can even toggle off sharpshooter and use an off hand attack or something to have a better chance of triggering it.
Played a gloomstalker/assassin on my first run and was surprised how good dual wielding handcrossbows can be. Shoutout in particular to the Ne'er Misser in Act2 which fully converts its damage to Raw, baypassing pretty much all resistances. Cloth of Grace could probably be a good mainstay for this one as well, gives you +2 dex to bump you up to 20 easier, as well as giving permanent advantage on dex checks if you do want to go down the stealth shenannigans you mentioned. Honestly only gripe i personally have is that i have an unreasonable dislike for combining more than two classes... but doing this without archery fightning style seems rough.
This build is really good for the avatar so you can easily handle most checks out of combat without having to switch characters, and specially bartering so you don't tie your vendors approval to another character that you might want to swap out eventually.
I thinnk this is the highest damage in the game. Even beats the Wet + lightning combo. Thats because you're using just one action to hit Sharpshooter twice. Its like a critical hit. I tested it and even the bonuses are doubled. Morning Radiance ( 1d4 radiant ) + caustic band ( 2 acid ) + Broodmother revenge ( 1d6 poison ) + Amulet of elemental torment ( fire surface 1d4 ) = its like 15 x 2 damage just on the BONUSES. This is Act 1 damage btw. And bardic inspirations restore on short rest! Good job on the build. Probably the best ever.
I have two rogues (lvl 4) that were both supposed to be dual melee rogues but once I discovered +2 ranged damage gloves and that offhand crossbows still include dex damage I realised how much more powerful dual hand crossbow rogue is! I was looking up forums and getting so much differing and confusing info on how to maximise dual hand crossbow damage, I'm so glad you produced this. Now I know exactly how to progress my single player rogue (I'm not sure it would be fair to my party if I made this build in my multiplayer game!). I wasn't even really interested in watching a 20 min video explaining a build but ended up liking it so much I'm now subscribed!
The Sword bard might be my favorite subclass in the game. It's so much better than the 5e version while also being a bit simpler. My 2 main characters I've played are an Ancients Paladin 7/ Sword Bard 5 & currently working on a similar build to this with Sword Bard 6/ Theif 3/ Battlemaster 3.
I like it! A variant for the Bard version might be to use 2 levels of Ranger instead of 2 levels of Fighter. You still take Archery, just at level 2, but you also get the Hunter's Mark spell. Here's why. There's a 2nd Act magic item called the Circlet of Hunting, and it gives the wearer a +1d4 to Attack Rolls if the target has any of the following spells on them: Hunter's Mark, True Strike, Faerie Fire, and Guided Bolt. Hunter's Mark using a Bonus Action to cast, and throwing in it's own +1d6 of damage is what makes the Ranger option work so well.
Ya know after testing I found that hunters mark ends up being more of a nuisance than a benefit trying to cast it as it takes up one of your powerful bonus action shots, and most enemies that you attack will already die in a single turn. Having to constantly throw it around didn't feel like it was worth it, even with that item that you mentioned. I think it would work much better for a character using a heavy crossbow. That's just my thoughts though. Thanks Richard!
@@WolfheartFPS Sure, I could definitely see not bothering to use it against multiple "small" targets that you can probably already one shot. I am talking about using it and the headgear to help offset things like the bosses with Defense bonuses, because the headgear bonus stacks with spell bonuses like the one from Bless, making for a +2d4 to your To Hit rolls. It should also work with any other To Hit roll bonuses that don't come from items, like Bard Inspirations and the like. It's those rolls when you really want that Sharpshooter to stay on and having as many different plus sources as you can helps that.
This is crazy because this is exactly the kind of build I was wanting to do but didn’t really know how. I had made a meme/cosplay character for a playhrough with a friend, a bard who would eventually specialize in bows called Bow Burnham (ba dum tsss). At first I was just using a light crossbow but then realized you can dial wield hand crossbows which was super useful because I could either do two attacks or use a cantrip/support spell with my action and then still attack with my bonus action. This build looks awesome, can’t wait to try it out!
I wondered if you would be listed in the credits, so I watched the whole credit listing. I also felt that they did such a good job, it was well deserved. It lasted so long, I feel like I should have received an achievement for watching it all. You know what I saw, and I was surprised by the video at the end.
It takes so much knowledge and creativity to make these fun and good builds... Now that I want to start my second playthrough, I am stuck figuring out what I want to play, and I'm burning my brain trying to think of a fun and good Wood Elf Druid build that uses spear/alt. shield and still has high WIS...
Id go 8 bard/4 rog. You will get 3 feats/more spells and another inspiration. You will loose the archery and action surge but does more dps long term as you get more florish and you have a guaranteed max dex with feats like athlete and dual weild.
I love the idea of this build and then pairing it up with the melee ranger build you have from early access for an "against type" duo. add cleric and caster and you've got a party
Great variation of this build! This was similar to my Astarion build in my 1st run. He was Thief 4 \ Battlemaster 8. Your build is more appropriate for the main character and also more powerful 😊
Talking about power. Your version is kinda better because of no bard in the mix. You have more hp bard spells are usless most of the time, also why would you waste action on spells if you could just fire 4 times for like 80-90 damage total
Offhand shield for ranged builds is great ... But did you know that *some* meele weapons magical effects apply on your ranged weapon attacks aswell? For example ... If you pick a polearm that gives you Advantage when fighting Montrosities ... Or if you pick a shortsword (i think) that reduces number required to Critical Strike by 1 ... (very nice thing this one, it worked even for spells ... not sure if intended tho. xD )
The extra bonus action shot and sneak attack from rogue doesn't seem to actually add too much compared to just getting the extra attacks from sword bard earlier. This also opens up to any interesting ranged weapon instead of just hand crossbows and gives you some more class versatility.
Going bard first is GREAT but I think it is more of a preference thing! Rogue first allows for a few things: 1: Consistent extra attack (with bonus action) at level 3 in the game. Bard extra attack is not until level 6. The first half of the game tends to be the most difficult for players, so giving them this extra damage can be a huge help. 2: It gives you dash/disengage as a bonus action, making good positioning much easier and quicker leading to more consistency. 3: It more easily allows for the fighter multiclass integration earlier in the build to get that archery fighting style, which of course leads to more consistency with landing shots. Overall though, both are great and I think you could argue either or. It was a tough decision for me to choose which one I wanted to start off with for the video.
One thing you could try is taking a few levels in warlock to get devil's sight, then either take darkness with bard magical secrets or get an ally to cast darkness and just sit in it while firing. You get advantage from shooting from inside the darkness, most enemies have disadvantage with melee attacks on you, and ranged attacks just straight up get blocked.
Doesn't really work for this build. To get magical secrets as a swords bard you'd need to be level 10 as a bard. Lore bards could get darkness at lvl 6 but they don't get double attack. This also only allows 2 levels in warlock which could get devils sight but loses the rogue bonus attack and also not getting the fighter action surge. You could do a melee warlock (lvl 5) with pact of the blade and eldritch blasting from inside darkness but then it'd be a completely different build.
Made dang near the same build when I learned what Bloodlust elixir + potion of speed and wonderous gloves do. And the phalar alluve just makes it that much better
I SUPER enjoyed this video, man! It was so cool to watch. I love learning interesting/powerful builds on BG3! This one I've known about but only because of my tabletop Dungeons and Dragons experience. It's awesome to see it translated so well into this game. :)
I'm not much of a build looker upper, i like to make things up as i go along myself, but HOLY COW! This looks like a fun af build and that was a well put together video on it! Will tune in for more of these.
absoutely awesome, I was waitin for a build like this, I LOVE range-bow builds, and I ave fallen in love with the Bard class so Im defo going to resepc my lvl8 ranger into this build. I know you said it took a lot of time but its an awesome video and an awesome build cant wait to see what you have next :D
This is almost exactly the build I ran on my first character. Being a Bard with high char and high dex I never needed to switch to a companion for locks or conversations. Without spoiling anything in act 3 you can get a sword that grants an extra attack on crit also a helm that gives +2 on attacks which help to always be hitting. The sa thing is there are so few good light crossbows in the game but the dmg this build puts out is crazy good with the added utility having bards spells Im sure its the best overall build in the game.
love the build! but: add a cloak that produces fog when you disengage to this build in combo with a ring that makes Hero impossible to get blinded and you can always hide in fog cloud and do sneak attacks from there. or cast it on your enemies and shoot your enemies from both hands through the cloud as they always will get disadvantage
Start off with Ranger and you’ll have medium armor and shields to begin. Get to level 3 for gloomstalker, and archery fighting style, you’ll have spells also(including longstrider HUNTERS MARK and jump). Gloomstalker gets to attack twice the first round of combat, it’s like having action surge, but with an extra d8 damage, if you’re just using it to attack. Level 4 get sharpshooter.
I use a Assassin gloomstalker dual crossbows build for my Astarion, using the crossbow that causes burning together with the crossbow that does more damage to burning targets. From this video, it sounds like changing him from assassins to a thief would be a bit better though.
These (build videos) Are So so so Awesome. Thank You Beloved Immortal Brother, "The Magnificent Silver Beast, The Heart of The Wolf, The Immortal King Ah-Thor".
My first run build is a close cousin of this one, Rogue (Thief) 5/Fighter 7, using twin hand crossbows and short swords (I just like the option to go melee or ranged, pure ranged weapon always makes me feel vulnerable in my headcanon. Battlemaster to use those on the 2nd main hand attack (assuming you can get your sneak attack off with your other), and 2 off hand attacks, mixing and matching between ranged and melee as needed. Cos of the melee aspect, went TWF as my fighter style, and so also passed on Sharpshooter, instead bumping Dex, and then having an open option for the late game lvl 6 fighter lvl of taking Martial Adept to double down on Battlemaster, Mobile, Alert or Lucky. Taking expert in persuasion and 12 in Cha has let me do perfectly well in dialog, with prof in Insight to shore that up and in Sleight and Expert in Perception lets me fully 'rogue', face and swing hit w melee or ranged. No casting, but with Evasive Footwork, Uncanny Dodge and Trip Attack, can tank for short durations as well. The +2 acid damage ring has really helped reduce the damage loss of no sharpshooter, and obviously, hits a lot more reliably. (Another cousin of this, that I want to try, is Rogue (Thief) 3/Monk 9, using the best option at any given moment for your main hand gear, but dual hand crossbows for ranged, letting you SA with a 'main hand ranged attack, but then also use a staff or unarmed attack with your other main attack to trigger your bonus unarmed hit when your not flurrying. And just like the fighter version, 2 bonus actions is just nuts levels of good for cunning action, off hand attacks, flurrys etc. I aim to go Open Hand, and get a warm fuzzy feeling that I'd get Resonating Punch but am saved from the sadness that is Tranquility) (You could also lean into the legendary Rapier, which requires quite a specific sort of built to make real use of it. While you won't trigger the free bonus unarmed hit, you could SA, and then use your 2 bonus actions between a 3rd Rapier attack, Flurry, cunning action an off hand crossbow attack etc, a fencing monk, heh)
Been having my Astarion go Fighter 1 into Bard 6 for a different path on me latest Honour playthrough, only level 4 at the moment so no Sharpshooter feat yet doing it this way, but I've got both the Archery and Two Weapon fighting styles at level 4 (plus the Flourishes) and it's still a good time. Really looking forward to level 5 though (assuming I don't wipe before getting there lol).
very nice builds. this build playstyle very similiar to my fav build at the moment (rogue, ranger, figther). but i think this build is even stronger than that, def gonna try this
I would love a Paladin with some type of multi class guide from you. I’m kind of at a crisis on what do do and I’m trying out a Paladin Warlock mix (using charisma).
This is basically my build, except I started out as Bard, then took 3 rogue for thief. That's where I am in my playthrough, but it's stupidly powerful already, nothing in Act 2 on Tactician has given me any trouble at all, and I've been very combat heavy. My Astarion is a Gloomstalker Assassin too, so between us we can clear basically every encounter. I use CC spells on my bard, hypnotic pattern is very good as a combat opener, then it's machine gun crossbow time
Fantastic vid mate. Love the thought that went into this! From bonus bonus actions, to where to buy hand crossbows and the level by level multiclass build... just amazing work. Just finished my 2nd playthrough on balanced as Jack-of-all-Trades (actually super fun, albeit with an enormous acrion bar) without really struggling. Will definitely pay careful attention to these guides for respeccing my NPCs in tactician... if only my Dark Urge would stop killing them! Is Dark Urge evil tactician the Hard+ mode? Feels like it for now! Sir Fizzalump might be less thirsty than Gale for magic items and (ahem) other things, but he's no conversationalist.
Just a little tip if you want to re roll ALL TRADERS STOCK, you just have any of your characters level up. If you have no one to lvl up just change your class by talking to Withers at camp.
With the new update the hand crossbows are now effected the same way as melee weapons when dual wielding so now the off hand doesn't do as much damage if you don't have the two weapon fighting fighting style
I always use 6Gloomstalker/4Assassin/2Fighter on Astarion and he is my "delte this" guy. 😂 Other than that I can also recommend Karlach/Minathra as 4Berserker/8Paladin. That's my usual go-to.
Throwing a toxin vial on the ground and having all your party dip weapons into it (both melee and ranged) is a good way to get +poison damage on every attack all the way until the next long rest. Might also work with acid vial but not checked that.....
This is awesome. I look forward to more of these types of videos. I'm a noob with BG3 and D&D mechanics in general and these help me understand the builds not only in a creative way but practically as well. I am playing as a character inspired by Marvel's Nightcrawler. Would there be anyway you could break something down like that? I'm only level 3 at the moment but I'm having a blast with this game and it makes me want to get into the table top rpg realm as well.
@@WolfheartFPS I watched that one before this one. It was equally as awesome. No worried on the request. I haven't made it very far because I'm the guy that explores every nook and cranny along the way but it's been great so far. Your channel has helped a ton with my BG3 experience so THANK YOU!
Is it worth grabbing the cats grace armor instead of ability improvement to get 20 dex? You won’t lose much AC because medium armor only allows +2 from AC, and will allow mage armor to work on you.
Hello, does anyone know about the optimal gear for this particular build? I just love it and would enjoy seeing it reach it's max performance. Just need to know which gear pieces to search for. Thanks!
Even better : Bard 6 / Rogue 3 / Hunter 3. You trade action surge, a couple of feats and some spells you're never gonna use for Colossus Slayer, which does 1d8 dmg every turn. Drow gets faerie fire for free and no darkness malus at range, Go archery gloves then wondrous gloves, put a level in fighter for archery then respec to ranger when you hit level 12. To compensate for the lack of feats be sure to massage your religion skill to pass the mirror check asap in act 3, you can also go gnome and use the nimblefinger gloves, armor isn't critical if you stay back so the cat suit is allright too.
Cool variation! I do want to say though that in my humble opinion getting an extra 1d8 per turn (not shot to clarify for anyone reading this comment) is not worth the sacrifice of feats/ action surge / sneak attack boost etc. Especially at the later parts of the game when 1--8 damage is pretty minimal. With that said as long as you can get yourself extra attack from fighter / bard / or ranger and then also get the thief subclass for the extra bonus action, everything after that is just the cherry on top. For your build I would personally just drop bard completely and do more levels into ranger and rouge. That way you don't give up any feats etc.
Use code WOLFHEART50 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/3I6tRCZ!
🔴NOTE - As of patch 3, your off-hand weapon attack's damage NO LONGER benefits from your dex modifier UNLESS you take the two-weapon fighting style at bard level 3. So I am going to recommend that over the dueling fighting style now!
This build is so much fun and extremely powerful. As long as you aid yourself in your chance to hit as much as possible, most of the time you will be wiping out multiple enemies per turn.
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pretty sure the flourishing attack on ranged isn't supposed to target the same enemy twice, at least that what the discord has been saying. I made a bard for my 3rd playthrough and my plan was to go duelling but bc ranged flourish is so much better than dueling I just found myself always using ranged anyway, other than like RP reasons I just cant seem to find a reason why I would go melee over ranged with a bard right now. Granted idk the class well enough, maybe there is an equally insane build for dueling specifically that I just don't know about.
Hi Wolf! You totally want to break the game, huh? Seriously though, you made an epic build! For Astarion, I levelled him up as an assassin rogue/gloom stalker, and I've been having a lot of fun with that build. I did it for roleplay purposes, but it has been working well for me so far.
Either way it still remains a very powerful bard feature for the build! Will be interesting to see if Larian ends up nerfing it though.
gloomstalker / assassin is such a great combat opener build!@@Suzanne_sf
@@WolfheartFPS Thank you! :)
Note that as of Patch #4, your dexterity modifier is no longer added to your offhand ranged attacks by default. However Two Weapon Fighting now DOES add your dexterity modifier to these attacks. In my inventory screen, the damage it says my offhand attacks do isn't calculating correctly (showing without dex modifier), but the tooltip does show that the dex modifier will be added, and when I make attacks and check how damage calculates, it does add the dex modifier to both attacks.
QOL tip : the Passive icon (Sharpshooter) can be placed on the more visible part of your hotbar (!) instead of the near invisible Passive tab (how: open the UI that shows your features and drag the icon). I place that icon next to my core Class icons or beside my attack icons.
Ooo I didn't actually think of that! Great tip
You can also use the custom tab making it even easier as then ittied to the number pad
Go to Reactions (right tab of spellbook) and check Sneak attack and Sneak Attack (critical hit) to both be on, and both have Ask checked as well. This will allow any of your attacks to apply sneak attack. So if you main attack misses you can still get the extra sneak attack damage on off-hand attacks.
Good stuff!
@wolfheartFPS Just want to point out that you can go to your reactions and toggle on "ask" for sneak attack so that you can apply it to regular main hand and off hand attacks without using the sneak attack "action".
Really appreciate how much time and effort went into this. It is long but you get through the most important points very quickly. I find that other build videos feel longer even though they might be shorter. Time to go respec... again
hot damn Sebastian! Thanks so much. May your bolt shots land true.
Thanks! Just found your channel and getting a lot out of it! Love your calm approach, as well as the way you include gameplay details and lore.
Hey! I appreciate that. Welcome to the channel.
I absolutly love how off the wall your builds are! Not simply fighter x plus barbarian x = good, really nitty-gritty detail wise that others dont do.
Nice build. Dual hand crossbows with sharpshooter is insane, but completely nuts with slashing flourishes. I am currently trivializing tactician mode with just a fighter/rogue variation, but the bard looks so much more interesting. The only thing that sucks is that there are only two decent weapons for this build in the game and only one of then is even +2. Not that you need a powerful weapon at all, but it feels kinda bad that you are stuck using the same weapons for most of the game without intersecting upgrades. Anyway, great video and thanks for sharing!
Another good way to increase hit chance is to get the ability drain illithid power (assuming you want to use illithid powers) and hitting an enemy that has any bonus to their AC from DEX with your first shot, lowering their AC by 1 if their DEX was an even number. You can even toggle off sharpshooter and use an off hand attack or something to have a better chance of triggering it.
Played a gloomstalker/assassin on my first run and was surprised how good dual wielding handcrossbows can be.
Shoutout in particular to the Ne'er Misser in Act2 which fully converts its damage to Raw, baypassing pretty much all resistances.
Cloth of Grace could probably be a good mainstay for this one as well, gives you +2 dex to bump you up to 20 easier, as well as giving permanent advantage on dex checks if you do want to go down the stealth shenannigans you mentioned.
Honestly only gripe i personally have is that i have an unreasonable dislike for combining more than two classes... but doing this without archery fightning style seems rough.
This build is really good for the avatar so you can easily handle most checks out of combat without having to switch characters, and specially bartering so you don't tie your vendors approval to another character that you might want to swap out eventually.
Absolutely
I thinnk this is the highest damage in the game. Even beats the Wet + lightning combo.
Thats because you're using just one action to hit Sharpshooter twice. Its like a critical hit. I tested it and even the bonuses are doubled.
Morning Radiance ( 1d4 radiant ) + caustic band ( 2 acid ) + Broodmother revenge ( 1d6 poison ) + Amulet of elemental torment ( fire surface 1d4 ) = its like 15 x 2 damage just on the BONUSES. This is Act 1 damage btw.
And bardic inspirations restore on short rest! Good job on the build. Probably the best ever.
I have two rogues (lvl 4) that were both supposed to be dual melee rogues but once I discovered +2 ranged damage gloves and that offhand crossbows still include dex damage I realised how much more powerful dual hand crossbow rogue is!
I was looking up forums and getting so much differing and confusing info on how to maximise dual hand crossbow damage, I'm so glad you produced this. Now I know exactly how to progress my single player rogue (I'm not sure it would be fair to my party if I made this build in my multiplayer game!).
I wasn't even really interested in watching a 20 min video explaining a build but ended up liking it so much I'm now subscribed!
The Sword bard might be my favorite subclass in the game. It's so much better than the 5e version while also being a bit simpler. My 2 main characters I've played are an Ancients Paladin 7/ Sword Bard 5 & currently working on a similar build to this with Sword Bard 6/ Theif 3/ Battlemaster 3.
6/4/2 would be better for the extra feat.
I like it! A variant for the Bard version might be to use 2 levels of Ranger instead of 2 levels of Fighter. You still take Archery, just at level 2, but you also get the Hunter's Mark spell. Here's why. There's a 2nd Act magic item called the Circlet of Hunting, and it gives the wearer a +1d4 to Attack Rolls if the target has any of the following spells on them: Hunter's Mark, True Strike, Faerie Fire, and Guided Bolt. Hunter's Mark using a Bonus Action to cast, and throwing in it's own +1d6 of damage is what makes the Ranger option work so well.
Ya know after testing I found that hunters mark ends up being more of a nuisance than a benefit trying to cast it as it takes up one of your powerful bonus action shots, and most enemies that you attack will already die in a single turn. Having to constantly throw it around didn't feel like it was worth it, even with that item that you mentioned. I think it would work much better for a character using a heavy crossbow. That's just my thoughts though. Thanks Richard!
@@WolfheartFPS Sure, I could definitely see not bothering to use it against multiple "small" targets that you can probably already one shot. I am talking about using it and the headgear to help offset things like the bosses with Defense bonuses, because the headgear bonus stacks with spell bonuses like the one from Bless, making for a +2d4 to your To Hit rolls. It should also work with any other To Hit roll bonuses that don't come from items, like Bard Inspirations and the like. It's those rolls when you really want that Sharpshooter to stay on and having as many different plus sources as you can helps that.
This is literally the bard build I did on my first playthrough! I used a Longbow but it's still very very fun!
This is crazy because this is exactly the kind of build I was wanting to do but didn’t really know how. I had made a meme/cosplay character for a playhrough with a friend, a bard who would eventually specialize in bows called Bow Burnham (ba dum tsss). At first I was just using a light crossbow but then realized you can dial wield hand crossbows which was super useful because I could either do two attacks or use a cantrip/support spell with my action and then still attack with my bonus action. This build looks awesome, can’t wait to try it out!
Awesome. Happy to help!
The hand crossbow Nevermisser gets some force damage as well on top of all that. Pretty intense with that build.
I wondered if you would be listed in the credits, so I watched the whole credit listing. I also felt that they did such a good job, it was well deserved. It lasted so long, I feel like I should have received an achievement for watching it all. You know what I saw, and I was surprised by the video at the end.
Was cool of them to do that! My name also represents the community and not just myself. Larian seems to greatly care about community which is awesome.
It takes so much knowledge and creativity to make these fun and good builds... Now that I want to start my second playthrough, I am stuck figuring out what I want to play, and I'm burning my brain trying to think of a fun and good Wood Elf Druid build that uses spear/alt. shield and still has high WIS...
That's got to be the most effective red floor painter I've seen in a while.
Been kicking around the thought of making a build like this in my head. Didn't expect that damage output tho....crazy awesome!
Id go 8 bard/4 rog. You will get 3 feats/more spells and another inspiration. You will loose the archery and action surge but does more dps long term as you get more florish and you have a guaranteed max dex with feats like athlete and dual weild.
Will be roleyplaying this character Han Solo-like for sure!
Hell yeah!
I love the idea of this build and then pairing it up with the melee ranger build you have from early access for an "against type" duo. add cleric and caster and you've got a party
Yep, im doing Thief 3/Eldritch Knight 3/Bard 6. I really wanted EK for shield + utlity spells.
Great variation of this build! This was similar to my Astarion build in my 1st run. He was Thief 4 \ Battlemaster 8. Your build is more appropriate for the main character and also more powerful 😊
Talking about power. Your version is kinda better because of no bard in the mix. You have more hp bard spells are usless most of the time, also why would you waste action on spells if you could just fire 4 times for like 80-90 damage total
Offhand shield for ranged builds is great ...
But did you know that *some* meele weapons magical effects apply on your ranged weapon attacks aswell?
For example ...
If you pick a polearm that gives you Advantage when fighting Montrosities ...
Or if you pick a shortsword (i think) that reduces number required to Critical Strike by 1 ... (very nice thing this one, it worked even for spells ... not sure if intended tho. xD )
That's sweet!!
The extra bonus action shot and sneak attack from rogue doesn't seem to actually add too much compared to just getting the extra attacks from sword bard earlier. This also opens up to any interesting ranged weapon instead of just hand crossbows and gives you some more class versatility.
Going bard first is GREAT but I think it is more of a preference thing! Rogue first allows for a few things:
1: Consistent extra attack (with bonus action) at level 3 in the game. Bard extra attack is not until level 6. The first half of the game tends to be the most difficult for players, so giving them this extra damage can be a huge help.
2: It gives you dash/disengage as a bonus action, making good positioning much easier and quicker leading to more consistency.
3: It more easily allows for the fighter multiclass integration earlier in the build to get that archery fighting style, which of course leads to more consistency with landing shots.
Overall though, both are great and I think you could argue either or. It was a tough decision for me to choose which one I wanted to start off with for the video.
Thank you about tip about turning auto dual wield off
Here I am doing pure Warlock and yall coming up with triple class craziness!
I appreciate you sharing this build Wolf. Looks like a lot of fun and very powerful! ✌🏽
One thing you could try is taking a few levels in warlock to get devil's sight, then either take darkness with bard magical secrets or get an ally to cast darkness and just sit in it while firing. You get advantage from shooting from inside the darkness, most enemies have disadvantage with melee attacks on you, and ranged attacks just straight up get blocked.
Doesn't really work for this build. To get magical secrets as a swords bard you'd need to be level 10 as a bard. Lore bards could get darkness at lvl 6 but they don't get double attack. This also only allows 2 levels in warlock which could get devils sight but loses the rogue bonus attack and also not getting the fighter action surge. You could do a melee warlock (lvl 5) with pact of the blade and eldritch blasting from inside darkness but then it'd be a completely different build.
Made dang near the same build when I learned what Bloodlust elixir + potion of speed and wonderous gloves do. And the phalar alluve just makes it that much better
I did Gloom Stalker level 5/Champion Fighter level 4/Thief Rogue level 3 and it was nice. But this Bard build is insane!
I SUPER enjoyed this video, man! It was so cool to watch. I love learning interesting/powerful builds on BG3! This one I've known about but only because of my tabletop Dungeons and Dragons experience. It's awesome to see it translated so well into this game. :)
I'm not much of a build looker upper, i like to make things up as i go along myself, but HOLY COW!
This looks like a fun af build and that was a well put together video on it!
Will tune in for more of these.
Well thanks for watching!
Pretty awesome build. I prefer my 5 gloom stalker 5 assassin 2 fighter multiclass for the opening round annihilation but this is a good one too.
That is a great opener build!
absoutely awesome, I was waitin for a build like this, I LOVE range-bow builds, and I ave fallen in love with the Bard class so Im defo going to resepc my lvl8 ranger into this build.
I know you said it took a lot of time but its an awesome video and an awesome build cant wait to see what you have next :D
🍻 🙏
This is almost exactly the build I ran on my first character. Being a Bard with high char and high dex I never needed to switch to a companion for locks or conversations. Without spoiling anything in act 3 you can get a sword that grants an extra attack on crit also a helm that gives +2 on attacks which help to always be hitting. The sa thing is there are so few good light crossbows in the game but the dmg this build puts out is crazy good with the added utility having bards spells Im sure its the best overall build in the game.
Appreciate the in depth explanation for this build, definately gonna use it for Astarion in my next playthrough
Appreciate you watching Amber
love the build!
but: add a cloak that produces fog when you disengage to this build in combo with a ring that makes Hero impossible to get blinded and you can always hide in fog cloud and do sneak attacks from there. or cast it on your enemies and shoot your enemies from both hands through the cloud as they always will get disadvantage
Start off with Ranger and you’ll have medium armor and shields to begin. Get to level 3 for gloomstalker, and archery fighting style, you’ll have spells also(including longstrider HUNTERS MARK and jump). Gloomstalker gets to attack twice the first round of combat, it’s like having action surge, but with an extra d8 damage, if you’re just using it to attack. Level 4 get sharpshooter.
They cannot have thought that second thief bonus action through.
I use a Assassin gloomstalker dual crossbows build for my Astarion, using the crossbow that causes burning together with the crossbow that does more damage to burning targets. From this video, it sounds like changing him from assassins to a thief would be a bit better though.
These (build videos) Are So so so Awesome. Thank You Beloved Immortal Brother, "The Magnificent Silver Beast, The Heart of The Wolf, The Immortal King Ah-Thor".
Skal
this has been my favorite build for quite some time
My first run build is a close cousin of this one, Rogue (Thief) 5/Fighter 7, using twin hand crossbows and short swords (I just like the option to go melee or ranged, pure ranged weapon always makes me feel vulnerable in my headcanon. Battlemaster to use those on the 2nd main hand attack (assuming you can get your sneak attack off with your other), and 2 off hand attacks, mixing and matching between ranged and melee as needed. Cos of the melee aspect, went TWF as my fighter style, and so also passed on Sharpshooter, instead bumping Dex, and then having an open option for the late game lvl 6 fighter lvl of taking Martial Adept to double down on Battlemaster, Mobile, Alert or Lucky. Taking expert in persuasion and 12 in Cha has let me do perfectly well in dialog, with prof in Insight to shore that up and in Sleight and Expert in Perception lets me fully 'rogue', face and swing hit w melee or ranged. No casting, but with Evasive Footwork, Uncanny Dodge and Trip Attack, can tank for short durations as well. The +2 acid damage ring has really helped reduce the damage loss of no sharpshooter, and obviously, hits a lot more reliably. (Another cousin of this, that I want to try, is Rogue (Thief) 3/Monk 9, using the best option at any given moment for your main hand gear, but dual hand crossbows for ranged, letting you SA with a 'main hand ranged attack, but then also use a staff or unarmed attack with your other main attack to trigger your bonus unarmed hit when your not flurrying. And just like the fighter version, 2 bonus actions is just nuts levels of good for cunning action, off hand attacks, flurrys etc. I aim to go Open Hand, and get a warm fuzzy feeling that I'd get Resonating Punch but am saved from the sadness that is Tranquility) (You could also lean into the legendary Rapier, which requires quite a specific sort of built to make real use of it. While you won't trigger the free bonus unarmed hit, you could SA, and then use your 2 bonus actions between a 3rd Rapier attack, Flurry, cunning action an off hand crossbow attack etc, a fencing monk, heh)
Been having my Astarion go Fighter 1 into Bard 6 for a different path on me latest Honour playthrough, only level 4 at the moment so no Sharpshooter feat yet doing it this way, but I've got both the Archery and Two Weapon fighting styles at level 4 (plus the Flourishes) and it's still a good time. Really looking forward to level 5 though (assuming I don't wipe before getting there lol).
very nice builds. this build playstyle very similiar to my fav build at the moment (rogue, ranger, figther). but i think this build is even stronger than that, def gonna try this
Good god i never gave Bard a try before and it’s just soo over the top great for Astarion.
Just started first playthrough after Mac release and this is my build LOL. Loving it.
Hell yeah 💯
Thanks for this vid. Been messing around with range builds and this is a great playstyle for me. Def re-specing .
Enjoy!
Wow, this is actually the build I made (on my own. Not saying he stole it, of course)! Nice to see it's good enough to merit a build guide video.
I would love a Paladin with some type of multi class guide from you. I’m kind of at a crisis on what do do and I’m trying out a Paladin Warlock mix (using charisma).
Ive been running something super similar, and it is ridiculously overpowered
This is basically my build, except I started out as Bard, then took 3 rogue for thief. That's where I am in my playthrough, but it's stupidly powerful already, nothing in Act 2 on Tactician has given me any trouble at all, and I've been very combat heavy. My Astarion is a Gloomstalker Assassin too, so between us we can clear basically every encounter. I use CC spells on my bard, hypnotic pattern is very good as a combat opener, then it's machine gun crossbow time
Top tier build. Ill try this on my dark urge playthrough
Fantastic vid mate. Love the thought that went into this! From bonus bonus actions, to where to buy hand crossbows and the level by level multiclass build... just amazing work.
Just finished my 2nd playthrough on balanced as Jack-of-all-Trades (actually super fun, albeit with an enormous acrion bar) without really struggling. Will definitely pay careful attention to these guides for respeccing my NPCs in tactician... if only my Dark Urge would stop killing them! Is Dark Urge evil tactician the Hard+ mode? Feels like it for now! Sir Fizzalump might be less thirsty than Gale for magic items and (ahem) other things, but he's no conversationalist.
Thank you. Best of luck with your killings lol
This has been such a blast to play - thank you
Wolf's the best bg3 creator and it's not even close
Cheers
Awesome video. Now I have to start another playthrough!!
I just about always play in archer. This looks like a lot of fun. thanks
dude your let's play series is epic. Thank you
thanks for watching!
Thank you so much for this video,im Having a lot of fun playing with your build😁👍
Dude please make another chill playthrough. I really enjoed the last one
Just a little tip if you want to re roll ALL TRADERS STOCK, you just have any of your characters level up. If you have no one to lvl up just change your class by talking to Withers at camp.
With the new update the hand crossbows are now effected the same way as melee weapons when dual wielding so now the off hand doesn't do as much damage if you don't have the two weapon fighting fighting style
Thanks for letting me know! Going to go double check this later tonight
@@WolfheartFPS was it so?
I always use 6Gloomstalker/4Assassin/2Fighter on Astarion and he is my "delte this" guy. 😂
Other than that I can also recommend Karlach/Minathra as 4Berserker/8Paladin.
That's my usual go-to.
Omg I just started my gloomstalker and I love her but this sounds amazing!!
Throwing a toxin vial on the ground and having all your party dip weapons into it (both melee and ranged) is a good way to get +poison damage on every attack all the way until the next long rest. Might also work with acid vial but not checked that.....
When you dip into fire it only lasts for 3 turns. Are you sure toxins last until long rest?
I initially thought +1 on weapons are increased damage instead of attack rolls. Thats huge.
Pretty sure the 2 items that sealed the deal for this build are Diadem of Arcane Synergy and Risky Ring.
So this is how you build El Mariachi from Desperado!!!
This is awesome. I look forward to more of these types of videos. I'm a noob with BG3 and D&D mechanics in general and these help me understand the builds not only in a creative way but practically as well. I am playing as a character inspired by Marvel's Nightcrawler. Would there be anyway you could break something down like that? I'm only level 3 at the moment but I'm having a blast with this game and it makes me want to get into the table top rpg realm as well.
Thanks! Just dropped a new build today for 2 handed melee users. I don't know much about Marvel stuff so i don't I am qualified to do that lol
@@WolfheartFPS I watched that one before this one. It was equally as awesome.
No worried on the request. I haven't made it very far because I'm the guy that explores every nook and cranny along the way but it's been great so far. Your channel has helped a ton with my BG3 experience so THANK YOU!
You should do a full playthrough with this build
Huh, I had no idea you could dual-wield hand crossbows. Neat
good stuff, i've been waiting for some more gimmicky builds like this, should do a drunken tavern brawler build next
I was actually already planning on doing a drunk build 😂
I like your style of communicating build guides. Please do more😊
Thanks will do
the snacko for good old algo
Ha ha, the Halo multikill call outs were good...overkill.
Awesome build. But I feel like the Larian level design makes you need a long range bow or crossbow to get the extra distance.
Thanks. Longbow/ heavy crossbow is only going to give you 10 more feet / 3m.
Great build, sir, thanks for all the time/effort putting it and this video together.
Cheers. Thanks for watching
Thank you for making this build, im having lots of fun pretending im a cowboy
Haha niceeee
Thank you for another amazing build guide Wolf! ❤
Im a big fan of ranger 5 rogue 7 but this bard version looks pretty crazy
Turns out I did get an achievement: "All's Well That Ends Well"
Really trying to decide if I like Dread ambusher, ensnair and hunters mark enough to not respec to this 🤔
Thanks!
Hey thanks a lot for that!
I just got to say that this is a great video
Theres gloves that give two weapon fighting in act 2 so you could still go dueling bard
High ground and bless, and you basically have a free +10 damage to a crap ton of attacks per round
Is it worth grabbing the cats grace armor instead of ability improvement to get 20 dex? You won’t lose much AC because medium armor only allows +2 from AC, and will allow mage armor to work on you.
Warding glyph should not be able to be dropped on opponents makes it OP AF.
I have a similar build but just going 6 bard 6 fighter :)
This sounds great.
Thanks!
Thank you grumpy
Too bad that it's a bug iirc. You shouldn't be able to use Ranged Flourish on the same target
Well the good thing is even if Larian changed or fixed it (if it's an actual bug) the build still remains crazy powerful.
Great video!💪🏽
Hello, does anyone know about the optimal gear for this particular build? I just love it and would enjoy seeing it reach it's max performance. Just need to know which gear pieces to search for. Thanks!
Even better : Bard 6 / Rogue 3 / Hunter 3. You trade action surge, a couple of feats and some spells you're never gonna use for Colossus Slayer, which does 1d8 dmg every turn. Drow gets faerie fire for free and no darkness malus at range, Go archery gloves then wondrous gloves, put a level in fighter for archery then respec to ranger when you hit level 12. To compensate for the lack of feats be sure to massage your religion skill to pass the mirror check asap in act 3, you can also go gnome and use the nimblefinger gloves, armor isn't critical if you stay back so the cat suit is allright too.
Cool variation! I do want to say though that in my humble opinion getting an extra 1d8 per turn (not shot to clarify for anyone reading this comment) is not worth the sacrifice of feats/ action surge / sneak attack boost etc. Especially at the later parts of the game when 1--8 damage is pretty minimal. With that said as long as you can get yourself extra attack from fighter / bard / or ranger and then also get the thief subclass for the extra bonus action, everything after that is just the cherry on top.
For your build I would personally just drop bard completely and do more levels into ranger and rouge. That way you don't give up any feats etc.