Bladesingers, Artificers, and Mods in Baldur's Gate 3

if you've always wanted to play an artificer or a  blade singer in balers Gate 3 or you're interested   in enhancing the game via mods then you are  especially going to enjoy today's video Welcome to [Music] D4 hey everybody so here at D4 each week  we take a deep dive into character builds for our   favorite role playing games I like to crunch  numbers about them and Theory craft about them   not so that I can tell you the right way or  the best way to play a certain character but   to explore one potential way to build something  that you're thinking about playing in hopes of   creating a character that's both really fun but  also really powerful to play so if you enjoy   creating characters for your role playing games  almost as much as you enjoy playing the actual   game itself or if you're just looking for tips  or ideas on how to build something that you're   thinking about playing then welcome home this is  is where you belong it really is and I am so glad   that you're watching so thanks for being here my  name is Colby I put out videos every Tuesday on   character builds so if you enjoy what you see I  hope that you'll like And subscribe and comment   and even ring the notifications Bell so that you  don't miss an episode so mods modding a game after   its release is one of the great joys of playing  a game on a PC some people may find it a little   intimidating but I'm here to tell those of you  that think that way that it's easier than you   might think I am by no means a technical Guru  but once you get past your initial trepidation   and just take a few minutes to figure it out and  I will give you a brief tutorial on doing so for   this game anyway I think that you'll learn it's  probably not as difficult as you think now some   people might not like the idea of modding a game  because they think it will unbalance it right   and thereby take away the fun the game developers  tested this thing at nauseum for years right why   should we throw off the balance by introducing  something not meant to be there a valid point   but here's my counterargument for modding B's  gate specifically at least in the way that we   will be doing today the mods that we're going to  use are simply putting things into the game that   already exist in Dungeons and Dragons which is the  rule set that balers Gate 3 was built around right   I think laran probably just didn't have quite  enough time to develop and include these things   personally but thanks to some fantastic modders we  can have them in the game and to me it just feels   like a natural fit like these things should have  been here all along but in the end the beauty of   playing DN D essentially by yourself like we do  in this game is that if you unbalance something   it's not a crazy huge deal because at the end of  the day the way you play the game doesn't really   affect other people playing the game like when  you're playing DN D with your friends in the   tabletop version right there if the balance is  off for a character or an NPC it can really throw   things off for your entire table and potentially  affect the fun that they are having here the only   thing that really matters is is it fun for you if  you install a mod that throws off game balance but   it increases how much fun you're having with the  game then by all means do it and once you figure   out how to mod the game it opens up a whole  new world of not just potential power tweaks   like giving yourself more Feats or increasing your  party size or increasing the level cap to 20 but   often lots of Fant fantastic aesthetic tweaks that  let you customize the look and feel of the game   and your characters in an almost endless number of  ways to fit your own style and taste preferences   but today I'm going to focus very narrowly on  mods that yes add things that don't exist in   the current version of balers Gate 3 that I miss  from DND more than anything the artificer class   and my darling baby the blade singer I've often  said it but playing a blade singer is still too   dat the most fun I've ever had with a character  in d and d at least mechanically my passion for   the subass is kind of what put this channel on the  map for a lot of DnD players but artificers they   took me a lot longer to warm up to once I got over  my aversion to Clockwork or artifice magic in my   high fantasy setting though I kind of fell in love  with the class and especially the armorer subass   and I've really enjoyed creating some fun and  Powerful builds for armorers especially but but   before I get into the builds that I've made for  these incredible subclasses I wanted to give you   guys yes a very brief tutorial on how to mod the  game now first up a disclaimer I am not technical   support while I love getting lots of comments in  the comment sections on my videos understand that   this is probably not the place to post a lot of  questions on how to fix something that went wrong   if you're hoping to get help if you decide to mod  the game please understand that doing so comes   with the risk of something not working right and  causing frustration and wasted time and effort it   can potentially screw something up for your game  and it might even force you to like reinstall the   game right so if you're going to mod the game back  up your files first to do this you rightclick on   balers Gate 3 in Steam select manage and choose  the browse local files option once there select   everything and copy and paste it into a separate  location if you need more info on backing up your   game files than what I've just given you please  google it before proceeding as for installing   the mods themselves there's a great tutorial in  the official bg3 wiki that will walk you through   doing this I will link it in the video description  as I will link all of the resources and mod pages   and stuff uh in the video description as well but  yeah I'll walk you through it quickly here first   up get the balers Gate 3 mod manager this is a  really fantastic tool that makes modding the game   so much easier once you've got that simply make  your way over to the balers Gate 3 page on Nexus   mods again linked down below and download the mods  that you want to install there are currently about   3,000 mods to choose from so have fun shopping I  like to sort them by endorsements or popularity   personally to show me like the cream of the crop  First Once you find the file you like click on it   and scroll down in the description to see if there  are any like special installation instructions Etc   usually installing the mod is simply going to mean  going to the files tab clicking on manual download   not mod manager download I know that seems a  little counterintuitive but then downloading   the file or files now some mods are going to  require you to have other mods installed as well   in order for them to work properly no worries  Nexus mods gives you a handy little popup with   hyperlinks to any additional files you may need so  follow those links grab those files as well once   you've downloaded all of the files that you need  simply open up the bg3 mod manager and go to file   import mods and find the mod file or files that  you've just downloaded and click open once you've   got all of your files in place drag them from the  right side of the mod manager these are inactive   mods over to the left side of the mod manager  the active mod section note that sometimes it's   important to put mods in certain order like this  one needs to be at the bottom Etc when that's the   case you will be told as much in the description  page of the mod itself so again read that page   first now once you've got all of your mods in  the active area like you want save it and then   click export voila mods installed after that just  start the game I would use the mod manager itself   to Run the game there's a little icon here in the  mod manager to do so as sometimes the mods won't   work right unless you start it up from within  the mod manager itself okay any questions if so   feel free to ask them on the laran forums or in  Reddit or something all right tutorial complete   let's jump into bg3 episode 8 blad singers and  artificers I am so excited but first before we   jump into the build one of my favorite sponsors of  all time is back today hit point press this time   I have got to tell you guys about their Fable  makers deck of many things which is live right   now on Kickstarter and I mean yeah at the time of  this recording they're already like 30 times their   funding goal so why they even had a threshold  to begin with I don't know because of course the   product is amazing and of course it's going to be  published time for you to go back it right now so   a careful decision lies ahead will you find the  key that unlocks many doors gamble on a gure or   be illuminated by the star you guys know how much  I love hito press's decks and this Fable makers   deck of many things is no exception to that rule  illustrated by the Eisner award nominated artist   Yoshi yoshitani the Fable makers deck of many  things is based on the 5e version of deck of   many things it can be used in game as that iconic  magic item we all know and love so you're drawing   actual cards from an actual deck in order to see  what you get right but better yet it can be used   as as an oracle deck to help guide your character  the plot of your game and more including a 100   page guide book to help you do just that now the  deck features 46 foil cards in both full color   and monochrome variants and I've even got a few of  them here that they sent me to show off and I mean   look how gorgeous they are oh yeah check that out  so glittery the moon even the backs of the cards   look amazing ooh ruin um I don't want to draw that  one please and we've got the aforementioned Jester   oh looks so cool each one of these cards features  stunning foil accents as you've seen that reflect   alongside you as you explore their meanings with  themes such as isolation Injustice desire and   ambition you can discover new ways to overcome  hurdles in your path so expand your journey with   bundles including donj D20 spinning pins reading  mats and more pull your Delight or your doom go   back this project today because there are actually  only a couple of days left on the kickstarter at   the time of this video release now obviously if  you're seeing this video after the kickstarter is   over you will still be able to purchase the deck  but why wait right now you can get the goodies   that are available to Kickstarter backers only  so do not delay right huge thanks to hitpoint   press I love you guys this deck is going to  be amazing I can't wait to see the finished   product and let's jump into the builds all right  first up let's start with the artificer today for   those who don't know artificers in D and D kind  of fill this niche of being like a tinkerer but   with magic now it doesn't have to be flavored  like steampunk or Clockwork you could flavor it   differently if you'd like but I think most  of the descriptions of the character class   the subclasses the abilities that they have in  the official D and Source books makes it feel   to me like artificers are using their brains  Ingenuity and kind of engineering prowess to   work their magic I'm going to say magic more than  say tapping into the Arcane right regardless there   are four subclasses for artificers all of which  show up in the mod that we're going to be using   for this build which is simply called artificer  class and all subclasses by cadarian lyen I hope   I'm pronouncing that right I will link to the mod  in the video description of course and yeah they   did a fantastic job with this mod all four of the  official artificer subclasses are included in the   Mod The Alchemist the artillerist the battlesmith  and my personal favorite the armorer you can build   artificers to fill a lot of different roles quite  effectively with a support control buffing and   debuffing kind of focus with a damage Focus  but the place where I think they particularly   Excel is when you build them as a tank and that is  what we're going to be doing with our build today   though admittedly they're going to be a lot more  of like a Bruiser tank kind of a combination of   both damage and durability one final note because  of some of the ways that bg3 works mechanically   versus DND the modders of the game made plenty  of changes to some of the artificer and subclass   features just like laran made changes of their own  right I'll put a link to a page that describes all   of the differences between artificers here versus  D and d5e in the video description I'm not going   to go over all of the differences in this video  just the ones that are pertinent to us for this   build all right let's jump in at level one for  our starting class we're going artificer naturally   and for our starting abilities we're going to I'm  going to recommend going with a 16 intelligence a   16 Constitution and then a 14 wisdom or dexterity  depending on if you'd rather have a good wisdom   save and perception check or a good initiative  bonus and like dexterity based skills like sight   of hand right I'd probably go decks personally  especially early on to get a bump to our AC since   we'll only have medium armor available to us at  first as for the equipment that we're going to   want to be wearing on this character I mean  yeah medium armor at first eventually we're   going to want to get heavy armor later that's  the only thing that I'm going to say like this   is a must have other equipment that we get can be  used to either enhance our defense or enhance our   damage depending on what you feel like you need  more of in your party now at level one artificers   get spells now unlike other half casters Rangers  and paladins cuz artificers are half casters we   actually get spells right at level one and I'm  going to recommend taking guidance of course   one of the best cantrips in the game Firebolt or  Ray of frost for like a ranged attack Thorn whip   is a great option to like pull enemies closer  to you and do a little damage at the same time   this can both help keep enemies away from allies  and thus help keep them safe but also bring them   closer to you so that you can punch them and  then for first level spells you know make sure   you grab cure wounds a nice backup heal when  you need it and fairy fire is probably what   we'd be concentrating on at least for the first  few levels you cast aell spell is in action and   then anybody affected by the spell who fails their  dexterity saving throw against it basically means   that you're going to have advantage on attacks  against them until the spell ends which is a   really great buff for your entire team at level  two artificers get Infuse item so this is kind   of one of the standout class defining features  for artificers it lets us choose from a healthy   list of potential infusions and then use those  infusions to basically enhance our equipment in   some way or in some cases create new magic items  entirely more on that later we get to learn four   infusions but currently can only have two of them  at any given time active now we can swap out which   infusions we're using after a long rest and the  list of infusions are a little shorter in the mod   than they are in DND D not every single infusion  is included but I feel like they got all of the   best and most important ones so it's all good for  this build I would plan on using enhanced defense   to add a plus one to the AC of our armor or shield  and enhanced weapon weon to add a plus one to our   weapon here's the best part about infusions for  bg3 as opposed to how they work in D and D in D   and D they only infusions only work on mundane  non-magical items in balers gate it works on any   item magical or not and honestly Wizards of the  Coast needs to do this there's nothing worse than   having a cool class defining feature made a lot  less cool because you found a plus one weapon or   some plus one armor right the way it works in  balers gate is that these infusions they show   up in your hot bar as though they were spells so  just make sure that you've got the armor or weapon   equipped that you want and then cast the infusion  on yourself and voila plus one also important to   note both of these infusions increase to plus two  at level 10 and that's really nice at level three   artificers get to choose their subass and like I  said we're going with my favorite here the armorer   the armorer is so awesome first up as an armor we  get a couple of additional spells magic Missile   and Thunder Wave both handy we get heavy armor  proficiency which is great so yeah Dawn that heavy   armor if you found some by now and then we get the  armor model feature this tells us that we get to   choose a model for the armor that we're wearing  we can choose the infiltrator model which is   super fun super flavorful it puts you in kind of  a stealthy spy suit and then there's the guardian   model which I Envision as a little bit more of  like a battle Mech kind of thing built to both   punch and take a punch it is the perfect vi from  Arcane or League of Legends fantasy I think and   I love it with all of my heart now you can swap  out which model you're using after even just a   short rest but I'm going to assume for this build  that we're sticking with the guardian feel free   to play around with the infiltrator if you want  it's very different but still really fun now both   models get a special weapon just automatically  built into them and for the guardian that means   we get the Thunder gauntlets the team over at  cadarian lyan I assume they're a team anyway it   did this so beautifully so once you choose the  guardian armor model from your hot bar you get   these Thunder gauntlets that you can equip into  your weapon slots you get two of them and unlike   in D and D in this mod they're actually considered  light weapons meaning you can just automatically   dual wield them using your off-hand weapon to  make an attack with them as a bonus action right   even if you don't have the Dual wielder feet since  they're light and which you need to have in D and   D if you want to do this now that offhand bonus  action attack is not going to add the damage from   your ability score modifier right unless you get  the two weapon fighting fighting style but that's   fine we're not really here for the damage now  these weapons these Thunder gauntlets come with   some fantastic abilities first up when you hit  with them they do Thunder damage naturally but   then very importantly these weapons specifically  use your intelligence modifier for your plus a hit   and you're plus to damage woohoo we don't need no  stinking strength but the best part about them is   this when you hit an enemy it applies a debuff  to them that gives them disadvantage on attacks   against anyone other than you until the end of  their next turn and so as a result we have the   thing that I have been longing for in balers  gate since release a way to essentially taunt   our enemies just by attacking them meaning that  for my money we now have the best tank in all of   bg3 we just had to mod the game to get there now  this ability works very similarly to the battl   Master Fighters goting attack but it applies that  debuff on every single successful attack no saving   throw no nothing I also love how when you have  your thunder gauntlets equipped it gives this   cool like glowy effect to your fists and also when  the enemy is debuffed they get this awesome like   staticky effect on them too as far as how well  this works in game in testing I put myself in   the middle of a pack of enemies and hit as many  of them as I could with my thunder gauntlets but   then also like like moved an ally with a lowish AC  into kind of a mid-range position as well someone   that the enemies could have gotten to if they'd  run over to him and in that situation the vast   majority of the time the enemies decided to still  attack me instead of my Ally not always but more   often than not even though I had I think like a  25 AC and my Ally had like a 14 Armor class and   then the few times that the enemies did decide  to attack my Ally instead they missed more often   than not thanks to the disadvantage buff that I  put on them so yeah in my experience at least it   worked exactly like IID hoped it would of course  this is anecdotal evidence and your experience may   vary I hope it doesn't one note when you use  the enhanced weapon infusion on your thunder   gauntlets it's currently only enhancing your main  hand weapon for damage purposes you do continue to   get the plus one to hit for both your main hand  and your offhand but for some reason you don't   get that plus one to damage on the off hand not a  huge deal don't know if that's working as intended   frankly I'm grateful that it's getting the plus  one to hit that's more important important I just   wanted to mention it maybe they'll fix it in a  future patch to the mod now Guardians also get   the pretty great defensive field feature which  lets us proficiency bonus times per day use a   bonus action to give us a number of temporary hit  points equal to our artificer level always handy   for a tank and the best part of this is the way  it puts like this cool looking magical matrixyl   around you when you cast it at level four we  get our first feat and I'm just going to say   let's bump our intelligence take it 18 it's really  going to impact everything that we're trying to   do with this character and then at level five as  an armorer we get extra attack so yes now we can   potentially make three attacks with our Thunder  gauntlets each round two with our attack and one   with our bonus action the way I would play it in  game would be to try and land one attack on as   many different enemies as possible thus debuffing  or taunting as many enemies as I could letting my   allies worry about killing them off and yes that  might mean running around on the battlefield and   risking taking opportunity attacks at least for  now but you've likely got a really high armor   class at the moment depending on your gear so the  risk of you actually getting hit is pretty minimal   and totally worth it in my opinion we also get  second level spells here at this level and there's   a lot of good ones to choose from blur can be a  really nice way to give your enemies disadvantage   on attacks against you so yeah increasing our  own survivability but remember we would rather   that the enemy try and hit us instead of our  allies right if give them disadvantage against   us as well as our allies I'm worried that the  AI might just decide to attack our allies every   time no I think the spell that I would rather  start concentrating on here instead would be en   llarge reduce this spell is not only really nice  mechanically but there's just something about it   like thematically that I love as well you can cast  it on yourself to grow to large size which is what   we'd be doing here and for a character in like  a big mech suit of heavy armor who's trying to   just get the enemies to focus on them just going  into like Kaiju mode feels so awesome and being   large does kind of just naturally extend our reach  as well letting us hit enemies that we otherwise   would have had to get a little bit closer to right  also when we're big our attacks do an extra D4 of   damage it's not crazy but it's not bad feel free  to keep focusing on fairy fire instead if you want   but yeah I'm going Kaiju at level six we get the  tool expertise feature this basically just doubles   our slight of hand proficiency bonus instead of  like in D and D it doubles your proficiency bonus   with all tools here thieves tools and like trap  disarming kits are kind of the only tools that   you use and those are both based on slight of hand  so I think that was kind of like the obvious way   to go here so yeah it's like we have expertise in  slight of hand and and by default that just makes   you really great at lockpicking and disarming  traps especially if you did put some points   into dexterity instead of wisdom during character  creation artificers also get the ability to apply   a third invocation per long rest now at this  level as well as some new and more powerful   options for those invocations I think the one that  I want the most here is Boots of the winding path   they've changed this invocation a little bit for  bg3 compared to D and D here it just puts a buff   on our boots that increases our move speed by  10 ft always handy and makes it so that we don't   provoke opportunity attacks ever and for someone  who's likely going to be running around the battle   field trying to land a taunt attack on as many  enemies as possible that's super awesome at level   seven we get Flash of Genius and this tells us  that intelligence modifier times per day when   you or another creature that you can see within  30 ft makes an ability check or a saving throw   you can use your reaction to add your intelligence  modifier to the role thereby helping your allies   potentially succeed right nice little utility  support feature at level eight we get another   feat and yeah I'm going to bump our intelligence  up cap it at 20 20 now which feels perfect and   then at level 9 we get perfected armor armors are  supposed to in D and D get a feature called armor   modifications but long story short the ability  didn't really make sense for balder's gate so   instead the mod team decided to give a modified  version of the perfected armor feature which we   normally wouldn't get until Level 15 for us in  this mod it means that when an enemy within 30   ft of us makes an attack against an ally we can  use our reaction to just like yoink them 20 ft   towards us if they fail a strength save pretty  awesome way to help keep our allies safe and   coupled with Thorn whip we could potentially be  just like pulling enemies all over the place and   that's fun and really cool most importantly though  at this level we get third level artificer spells   and while there are a lot of great options here  the one that we want most no question is haste   yeah haste is the best buff in balers Gate 3 as it  lets us just get a full action every single turn   so long as we maintain our concentration on the  spell it's like having action surge every single   round it's so good now the big drawback of course  is that when we lose concentration and the spell   ends we're basically incapacitated for a round  but lucky for us I actually forgot to mention   this earlier artificers do have Proficiency in  Constitution saving throws so we've got a nice   bonus to our concentration checks now haste also  gives us a plus two to our Armor class and our   dexterity saves making us tankier than ever and  and it doubles our move speed you know with our   buffed boots we're we've got what 80 ft of move  speed we're running all over the battlefield   not taking opportunity attacks and potentially  hitting up to five enemies to try to encourage   them to attack us instead of our allies and yes  of course the reality is that you should have a   full Caster be putting this buff on us as soon as  they could right at level five right it's nice to   have the option to be able to do it ourselves now  but if you've got somebody who is already casting   it on you great we can keep enlarging ourselves  instead or doing something else useful with our   concentration if we want at level 10 first up  like I mentioned earlier the enhanced defense   and enhanced weapon infusions go to plus two now  and honestly this is one of the main reasons that   I wanted to get to level 10 artificer the  one big drawback with using these Thunder   gauntlets right is I mean we're level 10 there  are all kinds of very rare and even Legendary   Weapons floating around out there in this game  that are going to like a plus two maybe a plus   three and probably doing other cool things as  well and we've been sort of stuck with these   plus one Thunder gauntlets the whole time but  to be honest I'm really okay with that the soft   taunt debuff that they give on every single hit  makes it totally worth using still in my opinion   and of course the fact that we get to make our  attacks with our intelligence and letting us be   sad right single ability score dependent I mean  you could totally argue that these weapons are   essentially like a pink very rare weapon maybe  even legendary and we've had them since level   three but being able to Now bump them up to a plus  two at least makes it feel like we're keeping up   a bit better with what's available in the game  weapon-wise right now also at this level we get   magic item Adept and because there's no such thing  as Attunement to magic items in balder's Gate this   works differently than it does in D and D also it  just gives us an additional plus two to both spell   and weapon damage on top of any infusions we may  have so long as we are holding a magical weapon   so yes this means that our Thunder gauntlets  will now be doing a plus4 to damage at least   on our main hand that's awesome finally at level  10 we get a fourth infusion to be able to put on   our gear there are lots of great choices but I  think I would probably go with either well it's   the equivalent of the spell refueling ring the  infusion just lets us spend one of our infusions   to create an extra spell slot in balers gate if  not that though I'd consider going with replicate   magic item in D and D you can start replicating  magic items as an infusion as early as level two   but the list of magic items that you can replicate  gets increasingly more powerful as you level in   balers gate I think that since you just get so  many magic items thrown at you all of the time   the modders decided to save this feature for  level 10 and then letting you craft one of five   new powerful magic items and yeah you could use  up like all four of your infusion to create four   out of five of them if you wanted let me mention  them briefly there is the Amulet of Greater Health   it just automatically sets your Constitution to  20 different than the Amulet of Greater Health   you can get in game actually which puts it at 23  still really good flying boots let you fly per   short rest as a bonus action no concentration  it also gives you plus 10 ft of move speed and   a plus two to your acrobatics and Athletics nice  there's a circlet of mind reading this lets you   cast detect thoughts once per short rest counter  spell as a fifth level spell per long rest and   gives you advantage on wisdom and Constitution  saving throws that would include concentration   checks that's really nice there's the gauntlets  of frost giant strength and and these set your   strength just to 20 automatically again different  than the gauntlets of giant strength available   already in game which do 23 but again still  really good and then there's the Crypt Lord   ring this lets you cast the create Undead spell  once per short rest and that's a sixth level   spell that's really nice it summons an undead  creature to fight for you right doesn't require   concentration the ring also gives you resistance  to necrotic damage so yeah depending on what magic   items you currently have you might want one or  more of these and you don't have to keep them for   yourself you can give them to an ally so figure  out which one you need most and if you'd rather   have one of these than like an extra spell slot  for example go for it to finish off the build you   know levels 11 and 12 I'm a little torn on the one  hand you could totally stay artificer at level 11   we get the spell storing item and the way it works  in balers gate is that it just lets you create a   spell scroll intelligence modifier times per day  which expires at the end of the day it lets you   choose which scroll to create from a select list  of spells but I mean haste is on there so that's   probably the one you're using and yeah it could  let you have your fighter cast haste a few times a   day and be the one maintaining concentration on it  right that's pretty awesome the only problem is in   balers Gate 3 I feel like Scrolls and elixir are  pretty common and a little less impressive than   they might be in D and D still worth considering  and then at level 12 artificer we'd get another   feat right and with our intelligence capped I'd  probably take heavy armor Master to further reduce   incoming damage I think but in the end I don't  think I'd go artificer to 12 here I'm probably   just finishing the build in fighter we get a  fighting style and you know that would let us   go defense to bump our AC even higher you know I  think you might find that this character is almost   never getting hit as is and for that reason  I'd probably go with the two weapon fighting   fighting style to get a little more damage out  of that off-hand attack I think personally but   protection would also be a great choice to  help you keep your ally safe if you know for   some reason you weren't able to land your taunt on  an enemy more importantly of course we could get   you know fighter two that means action Surge and  yeah if we're hasted I mean that's seven attacks   on our turn once per short rest and anyways and  that's just both a ton of taunts and a lot of   extra damage in the end I think you're going  to have a blast with this character they make   a fantastic tank but honestly they can dish out  some pretty significant damage too especially if   you gear for it getting items that add damage to  your attacks and things like that it just so fun   to wait into battle with a you can't hurt me devil  mayare attitude actively encouraging enemies to do   their best regardless and just pummeling them  into Oblivion while they bounce off your mech   suit over and over and over but then there's the  blade singer so okay you guys I I can't even stand   it like I love gishes so much you know this and  there's just nothing as good in all of Dungeons   and Dragons or balers Gate 3 as a blad singer  when it comes to gishes I'm sorry it is just   true you're a full wizard you acrobatically dance  your way through b weaving spells to let you float   like a butterfly and sting like a Mac Truck you  can teleport you can Shield you can control you   can Fireball and your sword sings as it cuts down  your foes with both speed and Grace now the mod   that we're going to be using for this build  here is called expansion blad singer only in   parenthesis it's by dis and Diz did such a bang up  job with this mod huge shout out to them wherever   they are but there's actually one other mod that  we're going to need in order to get this build   working like it really should in game it's called  5e spells it's by celest and it's also just an   incredible fantastic mod it basically includes  almost all of the spells that are currently in   D and D 5e that didn't otherwise make it into  balder's gate there are a few exceptions and some   of the Spells had to be tweaked slightly of course  but there are a couple of very important spells we   need from what's available in DND D if we want our  blade singer to truly sing like they're meant to   so be sure and grab that mod too and I will  of course link to both of those mods in the   video description all right at level one for our  starting class yes we're going Wizard and for the   first time I think I'm actually going to recommend  a specific race here for a balers gate build   because see we're going to be straight wizard  for a long time here and as such have crap weapon   proficiencies blad singers do get to add one extra  weapon proficiency but we kind of want two we want   both rapers and short swords fortunately eles D  and gith Yankee get one or the other and we can   choose like the other one when we get our subass  right this is important because depending on the   weapons that show up for you in game you might  want to use a raper sometimes short swords other   times sometimes you know dual wielding those short  swords if it were me I would go elf I think as   much for story and character concept purposes as  anything originally in D and D you could only be a   blade singer if you were an elf or a half elf and  I think between highelf and wood elf personally   I'd go wood elf just to get some extra move speed  which is always handy and it will actually also   play a little bit into a decision that I'm going  to be making later on in the character's career   like thematically feel free to go another route  if you really want as for our ability scores I'm   going to say let's start off with a 16 dexterity  a 16 intelligence and a 14 Constitution so yeah   we're going to to be a decks based Striker  focusing primarily on buffing that above   everything else intelligence will of course be  important for us as a wizard and especially as a   blad singer more on that later I would love to get  that Constitution higher for concentration checks   if nothing else and I mean you know feel free to  resp to like a 16 con if you get that headband   of intellect uh that's available pretty early on  in the game but for right now I think we get more   mileage out of intelligence than Constitution  personally as for equipment we're going to want   on this character it's basically like the best  light armor we could get and then the best two   shortswords or Rapier that we can find at level  one Wizards get Arcane recovery this lets them   recover spent spell slots right and then we get  spells we're going to want the usuals shield to   help our defense uh long Strider is great to give  us an extra 10 ft of move Speed without costing us   a spell slot right since it is a ritual spell so  yeah we can cast it on ourselves and each of our   allies which we should totally do doesn't require  concentration lasts all day uh Mage Armor is good   for now but we'll probably replace it later once  we get some decent light armor we'll want like   either Firebolt or Ray of frost for a ranged  attack but the most important spells for us to   pick up are not in the base game of balers Gate 3  and come to us from the 5e Spells mod and yes here   I am talking about booming blade and green flame  blade for those who don't know the way both of   these spells work is as part of casting the spell  you make a weapon attack and then something extra   happens with booming Blade the enemy is covered in  energy and then if they move before your next turn   they are going to take some additional Thunder  damage with green flame blade if you hit an enemy   and there's an enemy standing right next to them  like fire jumps out and does a little damage to   the enemy standing next to them later on at level  five and then at level 11 they get a bump in their   damage by a d8 including to the damage that the  spell itself does on the Target that that we're   attacking right initially there's no damage done  to our main target and we are going to be making   fantastic use of these Camp trips at level two  wizards get their subass and yes of course we are   going blade singing and as a blade singer first  up we get training in war and song this tells us   that we get Proficiency in light armor so put on  that leather armor you've been carrying around   now and also a single onehanded melee weapon of  our choice so go either rap here or short sword   here whichever you didn't get from your race most  importantly though we get our quintessential blad   song feature this tells us that proficiency bonus  times per day as a bonus action we can invoke the   Elven magic that is our blad song it lasts for 1  minute and so long as we're not using medium or   heavy armor or a shield we get an extra 10 ft of  move speed meaning we now have 55 ft of move speed   if we went wood elf and we're using long Strider  right fantastic it also increases our Armor class   equal to our intelligence modifier so three for  now amazing and increases our concentration checks   the same equal to our intelligence modifier we  now have the defensive capabilities to actually   stay in the thick of the fight thanks especially  to the shield spell right so save some spell slots   for shield now keep in mind that we don't and  never will have a ton of hit points so we are   a bit of a glass Cannon here but we will be really  hard to hit it's just that when we do get hit it's   going to hurt a lot more that's okay I like a  little risk with my incredible power at level   three we get second level wizard spells and while  there are so many Fantastic options blur enlarg   R Deuce hold person invisibility Misty step web I  want to focus on two Mirror Image creates illusory   duplicates of ourselves that an enemy might hit  instead of us that's great to help us stay alive   a little longer doesn't require concentration  which I love because that means we can save   our concentration for my favorite spell in all of  Dungeons and Dragons you knew knew it was coming   I'm talking Shadow Blade I don't really know  why I love this spell so much honestly a love   of lightsabers I suppose now laran kind of let the  spell be in the game you can get it from a magic   ring right but it doesn't scale and so it's not  as good and plus you have to be wearing the ring   with the 5e Spells mod we get the real deal you  cast the spell as a bonus action and it creates   a shadowy blade of Gloom in our hand it has the  light and finesse properties so that we can two   weapon fight with it right if we've got a short  sword in our off hand and yeah it will use our   dexterity modifier for the plus a hit and damage  on a hit it does 2 d8 psychic damage that's good   that's really good undoubtedly more damage than  any weapon in the game at this level despite the   fact that sadly it can't ever get like a plus one  or a plus two applied to it what it can do though   is scale as a third level spell it does 3d8 damage  so great and as a fifth level spell spell it does   for d8 and that's where it gets capped in balder's  Gate what's more if we're making our attacks from   within dim light or Darkness so try to stick to  the Shadows we have advantage on the attack but   you know what the best part about Shadow Blade is  in this game with these mods it works with booming blade yes so quickly in D and D in order for  booming blade or green flame blade to work you   have to be attacking with a weapon that's worth at  least one silver piece and while plenty of people   argue why a spell should be considered as being  worth more than one silver piece rules as written   it doesn't work you can't do it in Adventure  League right but in this game they decided to   do what even Jeremy Crawford himself has said he  would allow at his table and it's to just let it   work and this is going to be especially important  for us later on all right at level four we get   our first feat and I'm going to say let's bump  that dexterity get it up to 18 of course you   know if you you could have started with a 17  dexterity and then if you did a certain thing   with a certain hag it would have been a 18 and now  you could be bumping into 20 that's what I would   actually recommend but I'm not going to make any  assumptions on what you're doing in your game so   yeah bump your decks better for our Armor class  better for our damage better for our stealth and   all those dexterity based things better for our  initiative it is the most powerful stat in game   arguably depending on your build of course at  level five we get third level spells and while   yes that means we can Fireball and fear and slow  and counter spell the spell that we really need   to be making sure that we are buffed with is haste  now ideally you've got someone else in your party   who is casting haste on you because it's so good  if you don't you should give up Shadow Blade to   use this here on yourself I hate to give up Shadow  Blade but in this game yeah it's just better since   haste gives us the full action right now the  other one to consider though here especially   if someone else is Hasting us is only available  via the 5e Spells mod Spirit shroud this spell   requires concentration as well but then gives  us an extra d8 of damage on all of our attacks   that we make against enemies within 10 ft of us  it also slows these enemies that are within 10   ft of us and keeps them from healing so yeah now  if you're already hasted by someone else I still   think I'm using Shadow Blade over this most of  the time but it's not a no-brainer an extra d8   of damage via Spirit shroud means potentially 5  d8 more damage if we're dual wielding and we're   hasted right once we've got extra attack on the  other hand making what would be four attacks with   a Shadow Blade if we're hasted would give us 8 d8  more damage total as a third level spell versus   a non-magical rape here so yeah 3d8 more damage  from Shadow Blade than Spirit shroud but if you   have a magical short sword that would make up for  that 3d8 damage even if it means like that short   sword applies a really great debuff or something  then yeah go for it use Spirit shroud otherwise   Shadow blades your go-to and I love having options  now something to note two weapon fighting right is   nice getting that bonus action attack but there  are a lot of things that we're going to want our   bonus action for especially on this character  starting our Blade song requires a bonus action   casting either Shadow Blade or Spirit shroud  are a bonus action you know Misty step if we   need it Etc so it's not like we're going to have  our bonus action free every single round to make   that offhand attack with right that said one  great thing about balder's gate is that a lot   of the times we can know when combat is about to  begin and can like put ourselves in turnbas Mode   start our Blade song have someone cast haste on  us wait a round then get Spirit shroud or Shadow   Blade going wait another round and then start  combat with like eight or nine rounds left on   all of our Buffs which should be plenty of time  to get through pretty much every combat encounter   I think still sometimes combat starts before we  have a chance to prep and in that case especially   our bonus action will be at a premium so just  keep that in mind it's going to kind of reduce   the value of two weapon fighting if nothing else  and and might push you more towards using Shadow   Blade or a magical Raper right so at this level  level five if we're not dual wielding we should be   using our action to cast like booming BL or green  flame blade every time since it will do a little   extra damage on both the attack and then it has  the secondary effect right we only have one attack   right now anyways the reason it doesn't work with  dual wielding is because we only get that offhand   bonus action attack if we take the attack action  and casting the booming blade spell is not the   same thing as taking the attack action even though  we are making a weapon attack as part of casting   the spell I know that's a little muddy so let me  know if you have any questions there but at level   six that is like the promised land for us because  we as a blad singer get extra attack and it's not   just any old extra attack blad singers get the  best extra attack in game because we get to make   one weapon attack and then if we want replace the  second weapon attack with a canant trip and while   that of course could mean Firebolt or acid Splash  or whatever for us most of the time it's going to   mean yeah booming blade or green flame blade right  which are going to do extra damage to our Target   and it's just so lovely now we really feel like a  spell sword and yes we can booming Blade with the   Shadow Blade if we're using it and don't forget  if we're hasted we get our full action right so   we would get to make two regular attacks and two  booming blade attacks on our turn and it's just   going to add up to so much dang damage but at  level seven we're at a bit of a Crossroads of   course we could stick with wizard getting more  and better spells is always a good thing but you   know what I want to do now that we've got extra  attack and our most important spells I want to   do the thing that I have always wanted to do in  DN D but just have never really felt able to do   because of the minimum ability score requirements  we have in DND D for multiclassing that do not   exist in bg3 you better believe it I want to be a  blad singing Paladin so yes I'm going P one here   and as a paladin one in balers gate we get our  subass our oath right and I want to go oath of   the Ancients here I think it's just like the best  fit thematically especially if we went wood elf   right we are lovers of and Protectors of nature  feel free to go another route if you want oath   of the Ancients palies get healing Radiance which  is a nice little like group heal that we can use   our Channel oath feature on that's nice then we  also get Divine sense which in this game lets us   spend a bonus action to get advantage on fiends  celestials and Undead for a couple of rounds not   bad and then finally we get lay on hands which  basically lets us spend Layon hands points to   heal ourselves or an ally or cure poison or  disease great support features here but at   level eight we'd be a p 2 and first up that means  we get a fighting style I think I'd probably go   dueling here I'm most likely using a one-handed  weapon whether it's Shadow Blade or a raper so   yeah that's going to add another two damage to  our attacks with that one-handed weapon so long   as we're not holding anything else in our hand  right we could take the defense fighting style   to increase our Armor class not a bad choice but  if I'm focused on damage then this is the best   option for paladins for this build we also get  Paladin spells here but I'm just going to say   pick your favorite pyf there's nothing that I  would really plan on using in combat here cure   wounds is a nice to have heal but no the real  reason that we came to Paladin 2 of course and   the thing that we are going to be spending lots  of our spell slots on is the one and only Divine   Smite which which lets us yes when we make a  weapon attack add 2 d8 radiant damage to the enemy   scaling up by 1d8 for each additional spell slot  we spend on it right and here's the best part as   soon as we get this ability at this level thanks  to multiclassing with Paladin and wizard we have   fourth level spell slots meaning we could if we  chose do an extra 5 d8 of damage on a hit right   when we get the ability which is the damage cap  for divine Smite right I love that so much we are   just going to lay waste to everything standing in  our way but yeah it gets potentially even better   because with Divine Smite secure I mean why not  pick up a couple of fighter levels to make our   burst damage even better so yeah let's go fighter  one we get another fighting style so we could now   grab defense after all making us that much harder  to pin down we even get second wind which lets us   heal ourselves for a little bit as a bonus action  once per short rest but then at level 10 yeah   fight or two action surge the main reason and we  go fighter of course this would let us make six   attacks on our turn if we were you know just using  a single weapon three of which would apply the   bonus damage from booming blade or green flame  blade all of which would hopefully have extra   damage from either Spirit shroud or Shadow Blade  assuming someone else is putting haste on us and   yeah potentially smiting on every single one of  those attacks we are just annihilating anything   and everything and we're having so much dang fun  while doing it to finish off the build at levels   11 and 12 I think I'm just going to go back to  wizard for more and better spells and then yeah   another feat that would let us bump either our  dexterity if you hadn't capped it yet or probably   intelligence otherwise or haven't found any gear  that would let you do that this is what I wrote   in my script I think on my next playthrough I'm  going to put it on technical difficulty bring a   party of just buffers with me who can cast say  bless and haste on me Etc and then just leave   them in the back lines of the fight while I just  go on while I just run in and Batman everything um   I started that playthrough last night oh and it  is everything that I had hoped and dreamed that   it would be I wish that I were at home playing  it right this very moment but I am not sad to be   here with you but that's the video for the week I  hope you enjoyed it if you did and you like this   Channel and especially if you are interested in  maybe getting a written cheat sheet step-by-step   guide to help you recreate these characters in  game without having to go back and rewatch the   video I would appreciate it if you would consider  joining as a channel member there's a little   button down there that says join for just a couple  of bucks a month you get access to the library of   writeups that I create for each and every one of  these builds and it's just a really great way to   say thank you and help support the channel but if  you don't want to do that that's okay I love all   of you members and non-members alike thank you  for being here for watching I hope you have a   really fantastic day and a great week and if you  don't please hang in there I also hope that you   stay safe and that you be kind and that I see  you again very soon but until then take care [Music] bye and it's new the  shape of your body it's blue   the feeling I've got in it's who W It's a cruel summer I'm drunk in the back of the car  How does it go I'm drunk in the back of   the car and I cried like a baby coming home  from the bar oh said I'm fine but it wasn't   true I don't want to keep secrets just to  keep you okay confession time I'm not the   world's biggest Taylor Swift fan but um  my daughters are big fans as they should   be and uh so I went with them and my wife um  last week to the like uh the eras tour she's   like it's like in theaters right uh when she was  doing her concert in LA and she puts on a good show and it was really fun to see  like my girls just kind of um you   know taking that in right like seeing  this amazing talented uh woman up there   just owning her power and Glory without any  apologies right so anyway great show highly recommended and choose the Bros browse  local files option we interrupt this oh   wait well no I'll just stay in this shirt  you can no say that this way or or in some   cases oh man people in the hall talk  really loudly Kinder karian lyan so it applies but it applies the DEA it can you hear that in the hallway  does that spell exist in balers   Gate 3 it just increases our move speed  it just increases the mo it gives our boo so the mod that we're going  to be using for this here is called I didn't write it down in the script now oops

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 50,441

Keywords: bg3, baldur's gate 3, mod, modify, files, bladesinger, artificer, armorer, wizard, OP, min max, D&D, dungeons & dragons, dnd, damage, dpr, guide, how to, tips, tricks, short, shorts, character, build, creation

Id: was1BZNjjOA

Length: 54min 4sec (3244 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 31 2023