Baldur's Gate 3: ALL Companions Build YOU NEED

Quick and Easy guide for Baldurs Gate 3 for every companion build that you need as beginner. There will be every single one: Astarion, Karlach, Shadowheart, Lae'Zel, Gale, Wyll. Want to know how to build companions in bdg3? Than Spud The King will explain you this :)
I will cover everything from cantrips to spells, best abilities, stat allocation!
Enjoy!

TIMECODE:
0:00 Intro
0:15 What's in this video
0:55 Best Party in Baldurs Gate 3
3:15 Lvl Up
3:50 Karlach
6:20 Astarion
9:40 Shadowheart
18:00 Gale
27:15 Lae'Zel
30:30 Combat tips with Basic Party
33:50 Combat
37:15 Wyll
44:00 How to Respec character in Baldurs Gate 3

Music :
Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

[TheSpudKing]

Quick note: as stated in some comments - This is not UBER OPTIMIZED builds, but ones that is easy to follow, play, and enjoy your main character :)
BUILDS FOR ALL CLASSES + SUBCLASSES:
🪓Barbarian:

🎵Bard:

🌺Cleric:

☘Druid:

⚔Fighter:

🤜Monk:

🗡Paladin:

🏹Ranger:

🔪Rogue:

🔮Sorcerer:

😈Warlock:

🧙‍♂Wizard:

[AlbertoMonroy-lqvw]

People like me who want to focus on the main character build but enjoy the role playing for all the characters and the world really appreciate this video. Sometimes just aiming for a functional build for companions can block your mind and prevent you from playing. Now I can focus on my main and enjoy the ride.

[Tetsuo_]

As someone who doesnt have the big brain to come up with the craziest build and just want to enjoy the story and amazing dialogue choices in BG3 your guides are a life saver. Thank you very much!

[iamniss]

A few optimizations I see for anyone that wants them:

On Cleric:

Do not ward a Berserker with warding bond!! The rulebook states that resistance can only be applied once per attack and this is true in BG3. Rage and warding bond both give resistance (50% less damage taken) so they don't stack! Warding bond does add resistance to elements whereas rage does not - but you're taking mostly physical damage anyway and she's a tiefling with native fire resistance. So you're just sharing all physical/fire damage you would be taking on Karlach 1:1 with Shadowheart for no reason. If you do this keep rage turned off, but then why use a berserker?
Ward your off tank instead! :) And maybe your squishy, too. But beware there are other sources of "Resistance" that do not stack with this spell.

Damage that Shadowheart takes after it has been shared can be resisted again though as it's a separate instance of damage. So it's worth it to take blade ward and warding bond and stack those so if they physically strike the tank 50% goes to tem and 25% to Shadowheart or they target Shadowheart and she only takes 50%. This makes Shadowheart really durable in between support and heal spells if they're targeting her. Though you can also use Sanctuary on her in hard fights and only buff/debuff/heal/spawn spiritual weapons. Just spam blade ward in between to keep shared damage diminished, getting a strong defense on a squishy DPS.

Also some effects that reduce damage by a flat amount in BG3 work really well with this, as they go last in the damage calculation. (Not default in 5e!) For example:
Currently my fighter has resistance from the bond for -50% and heavy armour mastery for -3 damage on all physical damage rolls. He also wears an enchanted chain mail for -1 slashing damage so -4 in total on that. Shadowheart has resistance from blade ward and then an extra -1 piercing damage from a breastplate herself.
Rolling a 11 damage slashing attack on my tank drops it down to 11-6-4= 1. 1 is then shared to Shadowheart who reduces it to 0 with blade ward.
Rolling a 13 damage piercing attack on my tank drops it down to 13-7-3= 3. 3 is then shared to Shadowheart who reduces it to 0. -2 from blade ward and -1 from the armor enchantment.
Rolling a 20 damage piercing critical sneak attack on my tank drops it down to 7. 7 is then shared to Shadowheart who reduces it to 2. -4 from Blade Ward and -1 from the armor enchantment.
Imagine a cleric that also picks up Heavy Armour Master after obtaining the proficiency from a subclass, domain or the feat. You could ward both or all 3 of your companions and just spam blade ward while you chug potions to lower incoming damage and heal it each round. Can use the throw feature to toss potions at your feet standing next to an ally to heal both from the damage that was just split between you. Just don't eat AoE's.

My tank needs to be hit for 50 blunt damage, 52 slash damage, 54 piercing damage or 22 elemental damage before Shadowheart takes more than 10 damage in a hit. This is really nice for concentration.

You should always concentrate Shadowheart on Bless it's by far the most effective boost. And beware that using Warding Bond will cause all shared damage above 0 to force concentration checks which are DC10 or equal to incoming damage. This is why it's nice to respec Shadowheart to have 16 Con, medium armor helmet, the safeguard shield and she could Bless herself as 1 of the 3 targets. Unless you drop warding bond. This will give +3 from Con, +1 from Helm, +1 from Shield, 1d4 from Bless and the 1d20 making it harder to break her concentration by sharing <10 damage. Add advantage from war caster at level 4 not 8 and bless won't be interrupted as much even under ward. Then go grab heavy armor proficiency and master or resilience: constitution with Tough to soak everyone's damage. Also should grab Aid and upcast it to give the whole party a sweet max hitpoints boost until next long rest including any and all summons. This stacks with Heroes' Feast.

On Wizard:


When you choose the Evocation school at level 2 you already get a passive ability to stop any and all Evocation magic from causing friendly fire so the warning on fireball isn't needed. This is also why Elemental Adept: Fire is a great feat to pick even if you roll out of it later for intel accuracy and damage scaling. I prefer it over 5% accuracy from topping intel up to 18 early on. Turning fireballs 8-48 into 16-48 or scorching rays 8-36 into 12-36 (or more when upcasting!) makes it more reliable to DPS. Accuracy should come from elevation, bless, advantage and debuffing your enemies. You want to put intel to 18 at class level 8 for accuracy and an extra +1 min damage at level 10. Pick up Misty Step and Grant Flight for positioning keep that dimension door and keep spamming spells from afar. Unless you want to play a supportive wizard drop that banishment, sleep, magic weapon and IMO wall of stone. Keep hold person in a pinch it's an insanely good spell.

On Fighter:


Spell sniper gives you a passive that states it only works on spells. This appears to be true as it really only works on SPELLS it does not even work on cantrips even though you get a free cantrip alongside it. If you have Great Weapon Fighter I would first choose Great Weapon Master alongside it since you already have something to reroll a low dice. And make sure you use a 2d6 instead of a 1d12 weapon with that talent so you get 2 chances at rerolling a bad roll each attack. Great weapon master gives +10 damage in a hit if you have the accuracy to pay and you can always just turn it off to get back that 5% accuracy. Savage Attacker could turn an unlucky rerolled 1 into a 6 for +5 but when does that happen? It could just as easily give another bad damage roll. Great weapon master is always +10 damage per attack on at your command as long as you can pay the accuracy loss. You're also forgetting with the improved critical hit and 3 attacks per turn you will quite often proc the ability to use your bonus action for a fourth attack from great weapon master. That Resilient: Dexterity feat was unnecessary imo I'd drop that for great weapon master. I'd reroll base stats, pick Heavy armour master, Great weapon master, Savage attacker and ability improvement for another +2 str at the end.

On Warlock:


Pick up Hellish Rebuke it can give some great burst damage to finish off targets outside your turn. It has a pretty good damage roll and it will upcast. You will want to cast eldritch blast (EB) with most action points anyway especially after Hexing. I like it much better than Arms of Hadar early on you shouldn't be in melee range and if you are you'll probably AoE the party. Also do not just waste a spellslot at the start to misty step into battle you are ranged DPS and you have legs. That thing is for emergencies. Cast Hex immediately and start blasting. Hex > scorching ray is sweet as each hit will apply hex and it upscales into even more hits at higher level. One of the Invocations should have been Armour of Shadows, definitely not beast speech. There's potions for that. May even want to pick Armour of Shadows before Repelling Blast.

Can't fault most of the other choices and you'll probably still beat the game with all these builds. :P Some changes are just mathematically better or make it a bit easier overall.

[flutterbree]

New to DND, I had NO idea how to fight in BG3 at first. Thank you for taking the time to actually explain some of the basic things you can do for combat. Perfect example, I didn't realize just how helpful a "distraction" throwaway target could be until I used the Spiritual Weapon and noticed all the enemies aiming for IT instead of my party!

[Fanta]

Man can't tell you how badly I needed this

[daveyfunk]

If you take a dip into Druid for Shadowheart you can then take Shillelagh and then use wisdom for your melee attacks. Can still use shield with a staff. Also, command is a great spell for Shadowheart. Getting a strong enemy to drop their weapon and picking it up takes them out the game pretty much

[beckettignowski]

Thank you for the video! I'm a brand new player to both the D&D elements and BG3 so this was really helpful. Your explanations where very clear and to the point, it is much appreciated!

[creid]

This has been something I've been looking for, thank you. Also appreciate the mindfulness of spoilers

[PrinsB]

*The Reckless Crit-Smite:*
_You want to Reckless Crit into your Smites._
Starterclass: Paladin (Minthara)
16STR, 10DEX, 16CON, 15CHA
Note: drop STR if you want to use Hillgiant-Strength instead.
- LV1: Oath, Heavy Amore
- LV2: GreatFightStyle, DivineSmite
- LV3: Spellcasting
- LV4: GreatWeaponMaster Feat.
- LV5: Extra-Attack
Note: Ethals Hair (+1CHA)
- LV6: Aura of Saving Thows
Barbarian: Use 18Dex-GithGloves
- LV7 (B1): Rage (No more Heavy Amore)
- LV8 (B2): Reckless Attack
Note: Use your Spellslots only for Crit-Smites via Reckless Attack at this Point.
Fighter: Use +2STR Potion from Moonrise
- LV9 (F1): Second Fighting Style (+1AC)
- LV10 (F2): Action Search
- LV11 (F3): Champion (-1 to Crit)
- LV12 (F4): +2STR
Note: If you don’t need the Ability Improvement because of your Gear and Potions take Savage Attacker or Alert as Final Feat instead.

[askandytsai]

Made shadowheart into Tempest Cleric, dip Sorcerer, Double thunder. She became my main damage dealer😊

[lisgraa]

I am saving this video and having it in the background for when I play! Thank you! :D

[theepicduck]

If you're using a wizard as the avatar (could turn gale into an alchemist to get some use out of him if he's receiving a permanent bench due to redundancy). Unfortunately no artificer in this game so sorry Gale.

[flamepal]

I’m only a minute into the video but I already know this is exactly what I need

[dominikbehrendt]

With how powerful and available resting is, Gale really can provide quite some power when it really counts when going for Abjuration or Divination school imo.

[AvengedxJunkie]

Not sure if you knew this, but it seems like when you respec your class, you can change the starting character's base stat points as well, if you want to min-max

[TakeshySun]

Dam, you prepare all what I need exactly when i need it :) TY!

[kroanosm]

I think what confuses people about the feat GWM is the -5 atk roll for +10dmg. That can be toggled off and on so you can use it when it is advantageous.
You will still get the extra attack for crits and kills if it is toggled off since they are 2 separate skills.

[SenseiAkki]

Super informative video and love all the little details! I can't tell you how bad my builds were before this video. Now I'm ripping through enemies! Thanks for the great video!!

[Drock]

I'm making my character as a Sorlock I'm playing around with companions and still haven't decided 100% but I will be using Asterion all the time but he will be an Assassin Rogue/ Shadow Monk, I will either respec Shadowheart to be more useful as a support but I feel like taking Wyll and making him a Bard-lock or War-Bard (Warlock/ Bard) would be fun to make into a support. Ideally I would like to have a Life Cleric/ Lore Bard as my support character. My 4th companion will probably be Gale and keep him a general Wizard or maybe an evocation Wizard, but he can have utility and still bomb AOE when needed!