Deal with the Devil | Bard Warlock | Baldur's Gate 3

you grew up in elel the proud sister city to Boulder's Gate you were never the prettiest never the funniest or the best singer always second place you watched the man you loved fall for another you stood there while the inkeeper chose some wretch from out of town to play in his Tavern over you even your parents always loved your brother more why was your life like this it's hard to imagine from the outside looking in your always put on a brave face and made it seem like everything is all right second best isn't last after all but inside you hated it everything you wanted just Out Of Reach this life was hell until that's where you truly were the companion a giant glowing Second Son that had protected El Terell for 50 years suddenly turned pitch black of night buildings crashed and fell around you the whole city quaked and was ripped in an instant from the earth and transported into the hells the city was in chaos but you just walked into the streets and laughed of course this was your fate Horrors besieged the city at every turn you saw death and destruction but you did would not die here you would have everything you ever dreamed of you saw this as your chance you ran and ran until you could no longer breathe from exhaustion and that was when you saw him a proud and Regal devil and you fell on your knees before him please grant me the Artistry of the greatest BS make me a beacon of adoration embraced by all who lays Eyes Upon me she shielded from The Sting of rejections touch please grant me unwavering confidence to channel my emotions into decisive action you wish a packed with me little mouse how amusing it is to witness your yearnings I am not looking for more pets still you show ambition and I am prepared to indulge you you will be the most celebrated Bard all shall be drawn to you unable to resist your charm yet as with all things my gifts come at a price be wary for your heart's desires May transform into insatiable appetites and remember little mouse that packs with Devils seldom unfold as you expect but if you dare to dance on the edge of your desires though the power you seek shall be yours it did not take long until the city was mysteriously returned from the hells to its rightful place the city though would never be the same you learned quickly to defend yourself with your charm music and when even that failed you your Blade with the chaos pass prejudice against the hell spawned teelings reign supreme and the teelings of elel were entirely exiled before long it was a long road to Boulders gate but you learned quickly to control your new powers the dreams though dark dreams they were another thing entirely you reached the city after 11 Days on the Road you remember making your way to the closest rooftop laughing with joy as you climbed the stairs you did not find what you expected shouting crashing and then nothing you awoke to a mind flare hello everyone my name is Seb and that was a long one lots of requests for this one so it's been in the works for a while uh quick disclaimer like always this is a concept first and optimized second style built building around a concept rather than the best possible damage this build looks like should be a heap of fun to play though and I hope you enjoy it so one of my viewers uh Fen 1539 contributed a few great ideas for how to build out this character's backstory and so thank you for your ideas and finally as you may have noticed I did leave space in this character's backstory for a dark urge playthrough uh I did consider making this a dark urge build however the dark urge makes it very difficult to go in with a preconceived back story so if you would like to play this as a dark urge go for it um I'll be setting this character up like any other though so disclaimer is done let's get into the build level by level so character creation for our race we are going tling and in particular Zario tling and they gain abilities on level 1 3 and five we'll go over those abilities a bit more but they are thorat tury on level one searing Smite on level three and branding Smite on level five next for our class we are beginning as warlock having just gained the gifts of our Patron so we learned a lot on our return from hell with our Newfound gifts I feel we can talk almost anyone into anything that we want so I like to think that someone briefly trained us with a rapia in alel and then again on the road to Boulders gate however I see this character as not truly a combatant at least not yet for the vast majority of this character's interactions they will always take the Diplomatic route first if that fails well Fury follows you ask for the powers of Music confidence and charm so your primary spellcasting focus will not be on offensive magic it will be on utility and deception so with that explained we will gain two cantrips on level one and as you can probably guess we are taking the friends cantrip giving us advantage on Charisma checks against non-hostile creatures and of course eldrid blast next we get our subass and our Patron is a devil from the hells so we are of course going fiend this subass gives us the dark ones blessing feature giving us temporary hit points when when we kill an enemy these scales with us as we level being our Charisma modifier plus our warlock levels in temporary hit points next we gain two level one spells and we are taking charm person and command charm person is similar to friends however there are two key differences charm person costs a spell slot and it can be used on enemies so friends on allies since it's free and charm person on enemies if you don't want to kill them next command we really make use of our lure and charm here convincing people to do our bidding we are second best no longer finally for our background we are effectively an urchin at this point in our lives orphaned even as far as we know so this background gives us slight of hand and stealth proficiencies as for ability scores we are going to dump strength so eight there 15 in dexterity for 16 giving us better stealth and slight of hand rolls saving throws for spells AC and initiative so that's important 14 in Constitution to stay alive 10 for INT and wisdom so we don't get any negative roles there and of course 14 in Charisma plus 2 for 16 being the party face and a Charisma based spellcaster for our skill proficiencies we are taking deception of course and investigation and that's it for level one so Eldridge blast your way off the ship and on to level two for level two we are off the ship now and making our way through the Wilderness there's no better time to learn than in the thick of combat and in unavoidable situations you learn to twist the flow of the weave to affect your enemies and make them weaker and more vulnerable as on level two we are taking hex granting us an additional 1d6 on attack made against the Target and disadvantage on a saving throw of our choice second on level two we gain two ELD invocations as we have found a way to make our aldrid blast more potent with agonizing blast adding our Charisma modifier to our damage and the ability to change our face to resemble another and we are taking the mask of many faces level three and maybe we've been visited by our Patron at this point and they're pleased with our survival the tadpole in our eye also presents an opportunity for them maybe they comment on how the packed magic is rejecting the tadpole hence how the weave has manifested on your face I think you're growing frustrated at this point that your musical prowess has not improved this wasn't part of the bargain however the devil just Chuckles all in time little mouse however he does wish to to improve your chances of survival as a new and important porn on his board you gain a packed Boon at level three and we are taking pack of the blade now this isn't essential to make the build function but it is pretty important as it lets you summon or bind a weapon to become your packed weapon using your spellcasting ability Charisma in this case for attack and damage roles so if you didn't have one already summon in a rapia now as this will be your packed weapon we also gain a second tling ability on this level searing Smite which adds an additional 2d6 fire damage to an attack once per long rest this might be handy in a pinch finally we get our first level two spell and there are a few here to go over but we'll look at those shortly for now we are grabbing either Misty step for some Mobility there are a few items to Grant this though if you have one pick up hold person as this can be really potent incapacitating a humanoid attacks on targets made within 3 m of an incapacitated Target are automatic Critical Hits perfect so on level four we have found ourselves starting to use the Shadows more and more to our advantage getting the drop on potential enemies or sneaking past them entirely as we are taking a single level in Rogue here now what the hell why rogue good question we are here for two reasons firstly we want to gain expertise in slide of hands and deception and we also get to choose another proficiency which is going to be performance for us secondly we gain sneak attack which allows us to add a D6 to one of our melee attacks each turn which is slowly starting to become our more primary means of damage level five then and vocally we are still struggling however you find an old liar on one of your adventures and you remember back to something your mother once told you a liar's seven strings represent the seven forms of love this sticks with you for some reason and as you pick up the instrument you feel a magical resonance your fingers move of their own accord and you just play you play and play and keep playing it's like nothing you have ever done before you burst out laughing as your fingers move as if they were born for this as we take our first level in Bard so as a bard of course we gain Bic inspiration your magic fuels performances leaving your party in absolute a and sometimes even inspired to reach Greater Heights giving them a D6 to spend on an attack roll ability check or saving throw don't forget to switch this guy to ask in the reactions window it will only appear when a character is inspired though so if it's missing that's why secondly as a b we gain two can trips and we are of course taking vicious mockery dealing 2 D4 in psychic damage and giving a creature disadvantage on its next attack rle the other choice is up to you however I would probably make a choice between blade Ward and true strike next we get four more level one spells and there aren't too many that fit too well here so take what you like however I will mention the ones that I'm taking which are Bane giving three enemies a negative 1 D4 penalty on attack rolls and saving throws sleep could be good and better if you upcast it this spell can't miss so it's great for cc as long as your enemies fall under the hit point cap for the spell next feather fall just for the utility and finally I would choose between tash's hideous laughter and dissonant Whispers the former requires concentration but but causes the prone status effect giving you a much easier time hitting your target the lad deals 3d6 psychic damage and frightens a creature for two turns both great but I would probably only take one of them we also get an instrument of course as a Bard and we are taking the liar as our instrument of choice finally we get one more proficiency and I really like Insight here you are a compulsive liar and cheat yourself of course you can detect someone else doing the same finally on level five we gain the last of your teethling racial abilities and that is branding Smite giving you the option to add a bit of radiant damage to an attack once per day and preventing the target from going invisible on to level six and we are a level two Bard getting another level one spell slot and spell pick something you like we also get the Jack of all trades feature adding half of our proficiency bonus rounded down to our ability checks for skills that we are not proficient in we are now getting bonuses to every skill check and we have a lot of proficiencies finally we get song of rest essentially giving us a third short rest between long rests since our warlock spell spell slots come back on a short rest and they are level two spell slots this is great for us meaning we can upcast all our spells more often okay so halim here before we get to the best part of the build I am playing this character as a bit of a skill monkey meaning they can kind of take care of everything themselves hence the level in Rogue we really needed those extra proficiencies though and it will get even better next level however some of you may be disappointed this is not a high damage dealing build watch through to the end though or skip to the optimization section where I'll cover that in a bit more detail you are a selfish and ambitious character so don't forget that while playing you are looking after yourself your heart may go out to a certain group of tling refugees but beyond that it's fair game this might mean losing a few Companions and I'll leave it to you whether you Teeter on the edge of neutral or you fall into the evil alignment just remember that you chose a Packa with the devil for power and ambition next we don't actually get to see our Patron at any point so you might need to head Cannon your interactions a little bit I feel they would play a role in looking after their new favorite pet finally be careful not to get caught in the Trap of just standing back and spamming eldrid blast it is very potent but it's not probably the best way to play this character especially going forward from level seven onwards so some gear options a plus one Rapier shouldn't be too hard to come by I believe you can buy one in The Druids grou if you can't find one elsewhere as for armor so the same as my other melee builds the gloves of power gloves of growling Underdog are great boots of striding disintegrating night Walkers maybe even drows studded leather armor haste Helm and cloak of protection however unlike those builds boots of Brilliance Moon drop pendant shifting Corpus ring and Boots of striding are all fantastic options okay back to the build so level seven and I feel like as your musical talents have really started to come forth you start to notice your dreams growing darker almost as a side effect you start seeing these three figures two men and a woman more and more and the acts they are performing are dark and twisted you ask your Patron about your dreams and he is the cause he has created a connection between the tadpole in your head and the tentpole of the other so-called true Souls the dreams you are seeing are through their eyes he has tasked you to choose one and take their place this is your first Glimpse as to the price of the pack however your Patron offers more power to complete this task this time with the blade as you take your B subass in College of Swords now there is a lot to go over here firstly we gain B three and so we gain another level one spell slot and two level two spell slots we also gain expertise in two more skills choose the ones you like here however I am taking stealth and insight next we get a single level two spell and I don't love a lot of our options here I don't mind crown of Madness Charming our enemies into fighting amongst themselves maybe hold person if you don't already have it blindness maybe there is of course heat metal and Cloud of daggers probably the best offensive options here however careful of the Trap I mentioned earlier though next as a college of solids B we gain access to flourishers these cost our Bic inspiration charges now adding a D6 to the damage and giving us certain effects slashing flourish Cleaves hitting two Targets defensive flourish increases our AC by four for a turn if we hit and mobile flourish knocks our Target back 6 M allowing us to teleport to them after if we choose to and the target's still alive we will be making use of all of these when the need arises we also gain a fighting style on this level and we are taking dueling this grants us an additional two damage if we are only wielding a single one-handed weapon which is perfect for a rapia I will mention here that this does work if you are holding a shield however personally I think that looks ridiculous and you are no longer a life dextrous fighter we also gain access to medium armor so if you are struggling in in the front lines you can now increase your AC a bit this way instead of going The Shield route level eight and we are now a level four B gaining another level two spell slot so pick something you like again and we get our first feat now personally I think it's really important to bump our Charisma here bringing it to a plus 4 however if you would like to opt for a feet here here are my suggestions skilled gives you three more proficiencies if there were any checks that you were struggling with in your group this is the answer to that Savage attacker allows you to roll your damage rolls and take the Higher One defensive jewelist lets you use your reaction to increase your AC by your proficiency bonus which is a plus three now and plus 4 Next Level onwards finally mobile which increases your movement speed lets you avoid difficult terrain lets you move without provoking opportunity attacks if you attacked first on your turn so take your pick but I'll be taking the ability score Improvement so on level 9 we get improved Bic inspiration increasing our inspiration dieet to a d8 we also get font of inspiration allowing our charges to come back on a short rest now which is fantastic giving us another resource returning with song of rest we also gain level three spell slot on this level and our first level three spell there are only two I really like here if you don't already already have a fear effect the fear spell is great hitting enemies in a cone however it does require concentration next the speak with dead spell fairly accessible through items however if you don't have it I would pick it up now remember you are always a talker even if you had to kill them first level 10 and we gain two fantastic abilities on this level firstly counter charm granting you and your allies advantage on fear and charm saving through second and more important though is extra attack H finally level 10 so late but we have arrived okay level 11 close to the end now and we are a level seven b and we get fourth level spells and there are some good ones greater invisibility is my go-to here though this invisibility isn't broken when you attack and it grants you advantage on all attacks made while invisible it also makes attacks against you roll with this Advantage you stay invisible till you fail an increasingly difficult stealth check but with our stealth checks at plus 11 right now that will hopefully be quite a few turns finally we have made it to level 12 and at level 12 we take our final level in Bard ending as a warlock 3 Rogue one Bard 8 and we get another fourth level spell here and we are taking either polymorph or dimension door finally we get another feat and I am taking the ability score increase here bumping our Charisma to 20 finally for a plus five on those impossible checks at the end of the game pH this build has been so much fun to put together I love the idea of an ultimate skill monkey who can play through most of the campaign solo if they so choose surviving through their talent with word play and playing people off one another climbing the ranks through wit rather than combat press however for those of you who want to squeeze a bit more damage out of the character maybe you want to run with the full party and you already have another Rogue whatever your reason is this is how I would go about it firstly I would drop Rogue it's bringing a sneak attack die and some proficiencies but at the cost of level 9 in a spellcasting class which means no level five spells secondly I would go for extra attack way sooner focusing on warlock over Bard the breakdown would be something like this Warlock the level 1 to five for your packed weapon extra attack and some invocations strongly consider hold person and sleep for early combat encounters and get up close in personal to attack enemies for critical hits on level five you gain level three spells and hunger of haar Fireball and counter spell are all great options next I would go my three levels in Bard for the subass this will grant you plus two to attack from the fighting style and the three flourishers and and six more spell slots four level one and two level two along with five more spells song of rest and baric inspiration finally I would go warlock again from level 9 to 12 finishing level three Bard and level 9 warlock unlocking a single level five spell and several awesome invocations and that's a wrap thank you so much for sticking around to the end and let me know in the comments if you enjoyed the guide it was a bit of a longer one as I know this is the most requested of the guides on my channel thus far if you did enjoy the content here's another fun build for you to check out and maybe play and until next time see you

Channel: MrSoulbound

Views: 14,152

Keywords: baldurs gate 3, bg3, baldurs gate 3 gameplay, character creation, official release, balders gate 3, baulders gate 3, boulders gate 3, rpg, rpg 2023, upcoming rpg baldurs gate 3, crpg, larian studios, mrsoulbound, soulbound, ideas, fun build, excited, hype, characters, world, guide, multiclass, College, of, bard, build, swords, spellsword, warlock, fiend, gish, bardlock, Devil

Id: Qq0rYzKsXRo

Length: 25min 12sec (1512 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 30 2023