Watch part 1 here! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j7WXnNOivKu5hmQ.html

Wishing for a part 3 for Halsin, Minthara, Minsc and Jaheira in the future.

Lae'zel's Healing Word is just telling a grievously injured party member to "walk it off."

What I love about your builds is they're seated in the mechanics of the game, rather than weird and specific items that abuse game mechanics that probably aren't intended and only come online in Act 3. Thank you for what you do!

On high charisma Lae’zel, as I’ve been saying for years, charisma is an individual’s force of personality, not necessarily how amicable they are. So Lae’zel having a strong presence or personality makes a lot of sense to me, as do paladin levels. She screams Oath of Devotion or Vengeance as a Githyanki Warrior.

I think a part 3 for non-origin companions would be great. Especially with the 2 very different druid builds between Halsin and Jaheira

I gotta love friendly Homelander educating my newbie self on how to play BG3. Found this channel from part 1 of this series and now I’m totally hooked! Keep up the good work!

Missed opportunity to call the wizard tank either The Wank or The Wanker

Using tarot to generate backstories is such a great idea. Tarot is, even if you are a skeptic, a great random idea generator. Making connections between the cards can get your creativity going.

A random note, as a human Gale has light armour and shield proficiency. With the 18 dex gloves and cloak of protection he was sitting comfortably at 20 AC for me leaving act 2.

Very professional! Our ENTIRE family plays this and watches your channel. Age 3, 8, 13, 39, and 45. Thank you. You have a 30 ability score in our house, on Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence. We love the BG3 content! So good!❤❤❤

Anyone doubting her majesty Lae'zel taking on bard should consider that Gurney Halleck played a lot of baliset, well at least in the book. He also is fairly prickly.

Something interesting/weird about Gale in BG3. Since humans in BG3 have Light Armor and Shield proficiency, it means Gale (and Wyll) always get to use Light Armor and Shields for free without multi-classing.

I actually respecced Astarion into an Oathbreaker/Warlock; he's the only of my party to grow the *mind powers* and is running the underdark drow sword, so having him be this sort of unholy powerseeker that does loads of damage is really fun

If I remember correctly Lae'zel and Gale have a bit of banter about Githyanki fighting styles and weapons early on. She offers to teach him something and he declines. So there would be some backstory for those fighter levels. ^^

Feel like someone’s gonna show up in this series that I didn’t know could be a companion

I feel like Vengeance Paladin makes soooooo much sense for Astarion especially since the dip is likely to happen in act 2 when he starts to open up more and become more affixed to the idea of taking Cazador down instead of simply avoiding him at all costs. All 3 of these builds seem super fitting to me, and that Karlach build from the last video is INSANE at least up to level 6 where she is in that playthrough. Thanks as always for the wonderful breakdowns of the synergy of your builds, it really makes DnD noobs like me have a better understanding of the game and I can't say I'd be having as much fun as I am without them. Thank you!

Another excellent bonus for Rally is that it can revive Downed allies! It gives them the X Temporary Health AND 1 standard HP. Martials getting the equivalent of Healing Word with a 60ft range is nuts.

One thing to keep in mind too, with gale specifically, is that he can use light armor and shields right from level 1 regardless of class. In bg3 humans and half elves get the civil militia feature, which gives you proficiency in all polearms, light armor and shields.

Gale is actually pretty sturdy by default, or he can be. As a Human in BG3, he starts with proficiency in Light Armor and Shields. So if you spec him to have 14 Dex, he can have 12 AC natively, plus 2 from a shield is 14, then throw on, like, even a Padded+1 early on and you’re at 16 or 17 or so. Also, on learning from Lae’zel: She actually offers to teach him some of her techniques for defense, but he says he “prefers Abjuration to acrobatics,” for what it’s worth.

If I'm not mistaken Gale being pushy on romance is a glitch or something. That's what I've heard anyways. I desperately need Larian to put a tag in the dialogue like [ROMANCE] when you talk to your companions. Just being nice shouldn't mean I'm trying to bone them 😅

For Gale I found that Wizard 8/Sorcerer 4 was stunningly good. By putting Charisma at 12 and focusing on spells that don't require a high casting bonus but are "must takes" for my spontaneous sorcerer spells (magic missile, shield, misty step, mirror image), I was able to get some sorcerer utility (twinned spells, quickened spell, reach spell) which gave me the extra action economy of a fighter but didn't in any way diminish my spellcasting capability, and as a draconic sorcerer I picked up 3 AC and 4 HP along with yet another always useful spell - feather fall. By continuing to focus on Intelligence casting, the losses were minimal at worst and non-existent in many places. I lost two arcane recovery charges (replaced with 4 sorcery spell points which can do the same thing and were more versatile), 8 spells learned at level (which equates only to gold since I can still scribe level 6 spells and have max slots to use them), 4 prepared spells (which are replaced with 5 known spells for being a draconic sorcerer, so a net win), and my level 10 subclass feature (which as diviniation was not a huge loss and easily balanced with overall wins). This is all easily roleplayed as his connection with the artifact and/or Mystra (just as easily as cleric levels can at least).

I think for Gale, a little bit of sorcerer would be interesting and fit his background - he was born with an incredible ability with magic...

For optimising Gale, I like camp Gale. 3 Cleric/1 rogue/8 Transmutation Wizard. He can use Warding Bond on everyone and he gets the NPC heal self while he's not in your party so he takes half of your party's damage without ever being there and heals it all for free. He gets a level 6 spell slot for upcast Aid. He can do the longstrider and mage armor casts (if you have anyone unarmoured) saving your party from needing to prepare/use those spells. The rogue level is for expertise in Medicine to help him do alchemy and produce double outputs as a transmutation wizard. And finally he gets transmutation stone as well, that he can give away to someone. He just buffs everyone then leaves party and chills in camp.

I was totally planning to give Astarion Paladin levels because it feels right for the character to me. These build's are awesome. I love the idea of Lae'zel taking up the roll of battlefield commander as she slowly grows to appreciate the capabilities of her companions. Thanks for sharing :D

That's my version of Astarion, the Ascendant Vampire ! For me have a lot of sense some mix of Rogue and Bard. He is very charming and cautivating and he talks a lot ( so his instrument is the lyre ). All the spells are very vampirestyle: charming, sleep, control animal, paralize, hipnotise, disguise. And a little of Warlock cause the final pact with Mephistopheles. Disapointing that someone with more than 100 years old still on Level 1. Come on Astarion,..! Anyway, it could be like this. ACT 1 Nautiloide, Tiflings/Goblins, Auntie/Underdark and Crèche 1.- 1 Rogue. Sneak attack. 2.- 2 Rogue. hide/run as Bonus action. 3.- 3 Rogue. PickPocket. Extra Bonus Action. 3 attacks/round. 4.- 4 Rogue. Feat . Sharpshooter. +10damage -5attackrolls 5.- 1 Bard. Bardic inspiration. Harmful mockery is very Astarion and Friends. ACT 2 Shadowlands. Last Light, Gauntlet of Shar and Moonrise Towers. 6.- 2 Bard. Short Rest + competence skills. 7.- 3 Bard.Colleges of Swords. 2 attacks or +4 AC or through back the enemy. + Paralize + Dual weapon bonus 8.- 4 Bard. Feat : +2 DEX or Crossbows Master. ACT 3 Baldur's Gate. 9.- 5 Bard. Hipnotise patron. Better Bardic insp,. 10.- 6 Bard ExtraAttack Finally! Terror. 11.- Warlock Hex/Infernalrepresion. The Great old One, mortal reminder. 12.- Warlock Devil's Sight + Repeling Blast. Gear. Helmet of Grit +Extra Bonus Action when 50% HP. The Deathstalker Mantle. Invisible for kill. Bhaalist Armour. Enemies at 2 meters vulnerables to piercing damage. That's crazy. +2 initiative Infernal Gloves. Extra damage and +1DC And Thief Gloves for stealing Disintegrating Night Walkers boots. Misty Step and good stuffs. Amulet of the Harpers. Shield Spell. Or Constitution cause the idea is being under 50% HP. Risky Ring Advantage on attack rolls. And Smuggler's Ring for stealing. Band of the Mystic Scoundrel. After hitting a creature with a weapon attack, you can cast illusion or enchantment spells as a Bonus Action. And Shapeshifter's Boon Ring for stealing. Knife Under the Mountain 19Crit Blade of the First Blood leftHand 18Crit + Counter Attack + 1AC HandCrossbow Hellfire and fireburning And the Eternal Carafe of Wine Item that you can win with the Djinn Akabi and the Tranfuse health illithid power is perfect for the Helmet of Grit. You can damage almost the half of your HP and be aqurate with the wine as free action to reach the 50% HP. And if you don't have the Thief Gloves in Act 1, Akabi have a +2 stealing gloves with a "downside" that you gain 1 piece of hot coal for each steal you do. Then you can sell the coal for 1 piece of gold each one. The problem is that when you steal a lot of things you can burn in flames. So there is a cloak from Akabi too that make you wet. It's a funny combination :o) - So, you have a very powerfull build here! 2 attacks + 3 bonus actions with the helmet. With the ring you can cast a spell as a bonusaction. Use your action attacking and then paralize, hipnotize or terrify with a bonus action, and destroy with the other 2 bonusaction. AND with the amazing Baahlist Armor, you'll be attacking with your crossbow and the +10 damage of the Sharpshooter exactly 2,00 meters from the enemy. So the enemy will be vulnerable to your piercing damage and the min distance to avoid the proximity disvantage on ranged atacks. There is a pixel in between! ( Or you can choose Crossbowmaster to make easier ) And anyway , you wear the risky ring ;) Also is very funy and usefull how interacts the aura of the armor out of combat. Everyone run away from you! Luckly you can toggle the pasive. Very vampire too. So, attacking with a ( +10 dmg Sharpshooter +d10 dmg Vampire Ascendant +d6 dmg Gloves ) x 2 = 52 dmg for arrow . Plus if you have paralized before... Crit! Put some arrows like Darkness with the Infernal Vision or arrow for Multiple enemies and have fun Plus Illithid Powers : Flying, Cull the weak, Mind Blast, Transfuse, Blackhole, Beast Shape,. Man, that's all very vampire too, my darling ♡

"you're better off casting haste on your strongest mele damage dealer, or maybe your eldritch blast warlock" Just last night I hit level 5 and was twin casting haste on Karlach and Wyll with my sorcerer. I was going through enemies like a hot knife through butter...

I like the Rogue/Gloomstalker for Asterion, but his personality is all about wanting power and being charming (in a way). A pure Bard with College of Lore fits him well. He can still be your slight of hand specialist, but he now gets all sorts of illusion and charm options. Even a few good evocations if you want to take them at levels six or 10. Arcane Trickster or Rogue 2 Wizard 10 might fit him as well, but with Bard he’s casting and picking pockets from the start. And he has perform in his default skill set, too.

Just found this channel a week ago and was already waiting anxiously for Part 2. Love the DnD and Balder's Gate content and the positivity in these videos, keep up the good work!!!

I just watched part 1 from my recommended tab an hour ago and checked if part 2 was out. And not just 40 minutes later, here it is

I always respec Astarion as a Bard first and then a rogue, makes more sense considering that his job with Cazador was attracting victims, so he would be very carismatic, and I love the dual hand crossbow build, its insane

You could take archery in gloomstalker then use gloves of the balanced hands, which will essentially do the same thing as selecting Two Weapon Fighting. This is how I use my gloomstalker assassin and I really love the versatility of being able to go range or melee depending on the situation. Lmao nvm, didn't see paladin coming 🤣

Empowered evocation also add the INT modifier on EACH missile of magic missile. Which is quite something considering its 8 missiles at the end so 40 hit point guaranted.

The puzzle with Wizards is spell selection moment to moment. When you have quick saves that falls apart.

I actually went with Monk for Lae'zel, especially after a specific choice that begins in Act 1 and throughout Act 2.

I did Gloomstalker 5/Assasin 6/ Great Old One 1 for that Fear on Crits, was very happy with it

Personally I love Laezel as Eldritch Knight/Abjurer. Extra tanky and get that feel of the old Psychic Warrior from older versions of D&D

Honestly, my favorite Lae'zel build has been pure War Cleric of Vlaakith.

If I'm not playing a bard myself, I often give the role to Astarion as college of swords and deck him out in a +1 (and later +2) chain shirt since those both have a fairly similar aesthetic to his starting outfit. He becomes my fancy Battle-Bard.

I would have never thought of a assassin paladin build. Thats sounds really fun thanks!

A potential alternative for Gale's lvl 8 feat choice is spell sniper instead of +2 to INT. Pick up eldritch blast, and lvl 10 wizard he now adds INT to every blast, mimicking agonizing blast really well, but with a wider utility as a wizard.

I've been waiting, since part 1, for this one. :) I'd love to see your take on a Jack of all Trades build. One that you can't respec (If achievement hunting).

I’m tempted to turn everyone into Druids and simply wildshaping into owlbears.

The introduction is quite likely my favorite of all introductions. Love you too!

Astarion also said he is fighting with his claws so the pugilist monk could be a consideration

I came back just to watch the second one (even though I already got the build I wanted lol) just because you said in the first one people never watch part 2's 😂😂😂 well and your videos are so well put together.

I was quite literally just waiting to see if this had been uploaded yet! What great timing, thank you so much for this!

Thank you! This is a big help! I'm getting back into D&D after a 20 yr hiatus & thought a vg would make it easier. I had no idea how overwhelming it would be. Thank you for making my life easier.

Sentinel & Polearm master a great combo. If it works properly.

I've been waiting for this one. I absolutely love your builds. I have never played dnd, your videos are huge on helping me understand the mechanics for BG3.

Time to respec everything. Thank you so much for doing this, I can't imagine how much work it was. It's much appreciated!💖As a noob in turn vg, I was super apprehensive. I'm just grateful I found your channel.

Thanks for all your hard work. I recently found your channel. Your video production is fantastic. Everyone needs to hear your outros, they're wholesome and genuine, and should be in your intro as well.

Love these builds, and love your energy, man! Such a positive and refreshing thing to find on the interwebs. Your expertise has made my first playthrough so much fun!

Awww yeah. Been checking up daily when part 2 came out. Been having a blast with the companion builds. They really feel just right

unfortunately Commander's Strike in BG3 doesn't actually happen until your ally's next turn and then they can use their reaction during their turn to make another attack but it is still good

Totally doing the Gloomwalker for my PC! Such great videos. Thank you so much.

Love these builds. Been looking forward to this 2nd optimizing video. I often watch this during my lunch break, yay for working from home. Totally off topic, I could listen to you read a phone book. Like for reals it just chills me out. lol.

About Fighter Gale, there actually is an interaction between them that happened to me in Act 1 where Lae'zel offered to teach Gale her fighting style.

Hey Colby, thanks for all the fire BG3 content lately, I've been making good use of some of your builds. I really love your battlefield commander idea for Lae'zel and I'm definitely gonna try it out. It does feel very thematic for her personality and I like how you tried to keep that in mind. Keep up the sick work!

Thank you for these build guides, they are awesome 👌 I rolled with your Storm Socerer build with my Gale and never looked back. Makes boss fights trivial 😅

Really happy I found your channel. You are really a fantastic resource. Thank you!

something id like to add, i made Lae'zel into a dual wielder with a 3 lvl dip into thief rogue for the extra bonus action, seeing as how she has a scimitar in the splash art rather then a long/greatsword. though maybe there's a great-scimitar out there somewhere? i dunno

Finallllyyyy! Been waiting excitedly for a long 7 days for this! Thanks so much!

I have not heard a SINGLE WORD you've said in the last 40 minutes as I was reading articles, and writing my very own essays to a friend. Your voice is THAT soothing, and that's a compliment. it's almost like background music. if nothing else, when I need to focus on my own writing, i'll just pull up one of your 40 minute videos. xD

I love that, after all this time taking a break from bg3 but just now getting back into it when a friend started playing; just seeing and hearing you speak about it jogs my mind and brings back all the clever tricks and tips I had gotten from you back at the game's release. Your charisma stat is considerable, lol

Loving the build ideas ❤ I really enjoy trying new builds in this wonderful game.

Part 3 for Halsin and Minthara!! Also this was an amazing video and I really liked the original and surprise twists you made in these builds. I think they made sense and I will be trying them all out!!

Sparkling Frost build. People often forget that wet + cold = double damage as well as wet + electric damage. How about a build that emphasises wet + cold damage, as well as wet + electric. The key thing about this build is that here are several items you can find that make this build rather powerful. To get the best from the build you will need your character to have footwear that stops you slipping on icy ground (like the boots from true soul Nere). This works nicely with the 3rd level spell Sleet Storm - it's always nice to be able to hit prone opponents. The Snowburst ring also helps (creates a small ice surface around a target when hit with a cold based spell). If you want to melee with weapons that help with these damage types, you probably want a cleric over an arcane caster, as they are more tanky. There are several items to help this build available later in Act 1 and some early in Act2. Look for parts of a staff in the Underdark that you can combine together, that chills your target (add the wet condition and they are frozen for 1 turn). Keep all of the many water bottles you find, to throw at enemies at the right time. You can decide for yourself whether you want opponents to suffer from being electrified or chilled and possibly prone. Add the Sparkswall ring to your character for protection from electroction along with electricity resistance and you can have immunity to many of your spells that use WET + lightning, or WET + cold damage. There are numerous weapons that can boost your damage with electric and cold. I'd probably gravitate towards electric based items early (as there are several items found early), switching to cold based weapons when you find them. If you went Tempest cleric (or at least 2 levels of it) you can use your ability to maximise lightning (and thunder) damage , which would give you the big one-a-day max electric/thunder damage strike, followed by your character dealing chilled/cold damage and creating ice surfaces. Character creation choices can also give you resistance, depending on your choice, to things like electricity/cold/fire/poison, which helps survivability, especially on a Tactician run. I like this build concept because it is not just wet + electric; while wet + cold can do nasty damage to fiery creatures and possibly others too, because IIRC there is an item (forget its name, or even whether it is an item, or spell, or both) that causes enemies to be vulnerable to a certain damage type.

I really love the Lae’zel build here. Such a cool idea for her to be mostly a Fighter/Bard. I can just hear the mockery she would yell across the battlefield, hoping to throw off an enemy just in time for a vicious strike from her allies. These build guides have been blessing for me as I do not have as much time to theory craft anymore. Thanks and keep up the fantastic work!

I've watched so many build videos at this point and these are by far my favorites. I care much more about making the builds feel in-character instead of just min-maxing, so this was perfect! Also love that you don't focus on requiring super specific equipment to make builds work. Can't wait to start my tactician playthrough using your builds for Shadowheart, Lae'zel, and Astarion! I'm stealing Wyll's build for my character. Planning on doing an evil playthrough so hoping for a part 3 just in case I need to sub out Shadowheart for Minthara!

Another great video! I love your content and your attitude. 🧡

I love your builds also love that you're doing BG3 content. Thanks!

29:12 the stereotypes around bards are easily my biggest pet peeve when it comes to the dnd community. For some reason most people can’t follow along any time you try to make a bard that goes outside of that box. There’s so much potential for making loads of characters that have nothing to do with being a musician or trying to seduce everyone you meet. But it’s done more often than not with every other class. But apparently that stereotype is *so funny* 🤪

You explain stuff so well. There are some channels that are all over the place on these guides. Thai is my first “D&D” “experience” so I appreciate the explanations and the fact that you explain stuff so well. Cheers bro. Thanks

Not gonna lie, when you said Bard for Lae'zel, I was like "Okay...that's a weird choice, but I wanna see what you do with it," but as you started explaining, this is definitely something I want to play with. Very...inspirational lol

Gloomstalker is by far and away one of the best subclasses in all of 5E and BG3 really brings it to the "big screen", as it were. It's really fun to see it work - and work well, as intended - in a game. Pairs perfectly with assassin in BG3 too even though I find assassin to be a sub-par sub-class in actual D&D. You have to get Withers as soon as you can just to have fun rebuilding and experimenting!

Your vids are so great man. Never thought I'd get invested in long form DnD build content lel

Lae'zel as bard: I see her sitting around the campfire strumming her lute and singing "kumbaya!" while encouraging everyone to come in closer. Group hug!!!! 🤣 . . . . ha! Can't get this image out of my mind, now! Seriously, these two videos taught me so much about building characters, multiclassing, and group dynamics for the party. Well done!

Such great build ideas. Thank you!

That last part was very nice, thank you, you too have a great day, week or month even!

I love the videos! I haven't watched my subscriptions page as closely as I do for these videos

I was excited for the Astarion build, however I already used that build for him at least until you added Paladin lol. My build for him was 4 assassin, 5 gloomstalker, and 3 champion. The reasoning for going champion is to reduce the number needed for a crit, which by the time you get to act 3 you'll find many items that *stack* onto it. Also having action surge on a build that already murders half the enemies on turn one is insane. That's not even mentioning illithid potential, luck of the far realms, favorable beginnings, psionic backlash, and cull the weak just make this build even more incredible.

Great videos and just what I've been looking for! I want to keep to the character's personality while making them more powerful. I appreciate the advice, as someone new to this genre and not a D&D player. One thing I think these guide videos would benefit from are visuals from the game, it'd just be easier to follow if I could pause and see the different ability points, spell selections, and proficiencies you're suggesting so I don't have to rewind and listen a few times! Excellent content regardless, of course. :)

Incredible info man. You know the game very well. You give me a lot of insight which I love. I'm going to keep playing around and I just entered act 3 so wish me luck! I'm almost level 8 😅

Love the builds! And well... every build you've posted regarding BG3 haha. I do feel though with Gale maybe the blaster caster Tempest cleric/Sorc could've been a good fit too? No spoilers but definitely could see him being that subclass of a cleric too as well as the fact that he's a charmer as well so Charisma feels like something he should thematically have a lot in lol

Such great builds! Thanks Colby!

You've convinced me. Next run: all Bard multi-class party! I LOVE this idea for Lae'zel! Please keep making these they are fantastic.

Can't get enough of the BG3 content. The respec'ing and multiclassing flexibility is just wonderful for optimization.

I will absolutely be using this Lae’zel build! So freaking dope!

Not necessarily a min/max build, but fun nonetheless! Level 1-4: Light Cleric Level 5-7/8: Dragon Ancestry Sorcerer (no more than 4 levels - just want twinned, careful, and quickened spell) Level 7/8-12: Light cleric Great single target and aoe spells all using wisdom for casting; utilize sorcerer for support/exploration spells. Have fun!

That Lae’Zel build is so awesome I love it!

been so excited for this! really wanna see how you do lae'zel

Your option 3 for Lae'zel is almost exactly how I started building her in my second playthrough, partly because I just initially thought it would be funny to make her mad to be not as much of a direct "warrior"-like character like she would realistically want, but then I just started to realize how much it was actually was working (I did the bard option) and how much fun it was. Bonus points that it's funny that you can use her to perform and earn money, the mental image of a Gith singing like, ancient songs of war in the streets is very entertaining!

I didn't realize that Gale actually has shield and light armor proficiency for a while

That field commander Laezel sounds SO FUN! I have it set up where my core three characters are broken/OP (Shadowheart and Asterion) so that my fourth character gets to be RP/lore friendly build! I might try this with her. ❤️

I've got multiple hundreds of hours in this game, and I've barely even scratched the surface of act 3. These videos always inspire me to play around with different builds, thanks for being awesome!

My couple of cents to this great video where I'd really love to see a third part on: Gale: In general I'd pref to not take a heavy armor detour for my wizards (though the CON saves are nice) because you can get very strong light armor gear to put on your casters that'd increase their to hit and DC DRASTICALLY. Gale also doesn't need to learn using shields as he is a human who get proficiency with light armor and shields through the civil militia feature. Bae'zel: I'm a bit sad for Fighter 11 to not be very unique as you can just take any 5 (or 6) level dip into two (sub-)classes that get extra attack to have the same thing earlier and potentially getting more on the way. Polearm Master on 6? I Thought we were going sword and board. I guess spears still work but might as well mention that. Not that I don't agree, I'd probably even ditch the shield as there are so many really powerful armors in act 3 that you don't really need the extra ac and could also use some extra damage. Astarion: There is no origin character more bardy than him, he might start as a rogue but is absolutely mostly a bard. I can totally understand the gloom stalker ranger, but I chose thief rogue and swords bard for a billion hand crossbow attacks. Well... all that is given I'd not leave him in a ditch because he is my least favourite character.

Awesome 👏 as someone who hasn’t played with the dnd system your explanations have really helped me to understand things better

Thank you for all your hard work. I'm new to d&d and baldur's gate 3 and these builds are so helpful. So again thank you.

The astarion build is almost exactly what my tav runs lol. Which is cool cause I don't typically keep astarion in my party.