How To Be An Insanely Powerful Paladin EARLY ON In Baldur's Gate 3 (Honour Mode Build And Guide)

there is one class in Ballers Gate 3 that has the so-called main character syndrome and why wouldn't they this class is still the most popular class for a reason given the recent stats that laran Studios themselves released and well let's say paladins are the true powerhouses in balers SK 3 you want to know why insane damage that spirals out of control quickly thanks to the Paladin's ability to stack many instances of damage through spell casting but also great physical damage and in this video I will show you how to make a truly powerful Paladin in the early to mid game of balers Gate 3 so he can tackle the new honor mode with success in your new playr honor mode is the new highest difficulty in balers Gate 3 that was just released and has been described as a nightmare so we have to make our build truly adaptable to this set Nightmare and we're going to do that by embracing the power within us to the maximum to make sure to not forget where we come from as a paladin and more importantly stay true to the oath you know as a paladin you have to constantly adhere to the tenants of your oath but in turn if we stay loyal we will be blessed with power that makes the so-called honor mode a mere mode that we will defeat with honor at least for the first seven levels which is the focus of this video you can tackle act one in its totality and also the most of act two with the build and strategy to play balers Skate 3 shown in this video make sure to quickly get the video a like And subscribe if you haven't done so yet we're almost at 200,000 so let's get it and also if you want to support the channel consider becoming a patreon and turn you will get a nice gift because you get access to written guides to my bers Gate 3 builds so let's then start with the build right and leveling when you choose your class you want to choose a paladin to become a paladin yes who would have thought but then we're immediately confronted with a major Choice which oath do we take do we go Vengeance for extra damage devotion for Retribution purposes or do we go ancients for that beautiful healing if you're playing honor mode the hardest difficulty ancients is going to blow the other two out of the water in my humble opinion especially for the first seven levels and I'll explain to you why see paladins already have insane damage in Ballers SK 3 through the power of the Base Class itself and just how the properties of this class work what you're seeing right now on screen are examples of the Paladin doing absolutely nuclear damage without adhering to the vision of Vengeance or devotion which are more oriented towards offensive purposes and that exactly explains my point we have the damage already especially with the ride gear and setup that I will show you in this video and ancients on the other hand gives you insane sustain because Gung the oath of ancients gives you healing Radiance which is an absolutely amazing healing ability that heals you and everything around you in your radius for at least 12 hp each and then is also enhanced by your charisma level but it doesn't just do that it does it twice in a row in two different turns with just one cast so you can get an easy 100 HP or even more for your entire party every time you use your channel oath which is what fuels your healing Radiance but what is crazy is that this 100 HP doesn't require a long rest to reset no you can recharge your channel oos with mere short rests so you get multiple of these insane heals for every long rest in this game that is still not what makes this ability so good though it's the fact that it's a bonus action that heals you for or two turns back to back meaning you can still use your action and thus attack and destroy a bunch of things in the same turn that you have activated your healing Radiance absolutely god tier ability and that's still not even where the power of the Ancients ends because we can modify and enhances healing by giving it properties through like the very powerful blast every time we use our healing Radiance which gives you a plus 1 D4 bonus to attack rolls and saving throws and this effect can be found on a Gear piece that can be found very early on but more on that when we get to gear just keep it in mind that there's a lot of good things to Healing Radiance and right from the start you also get lay of Hands by the way which also synergizes with healing Radiance irregardless of your oath and this spell gives you specific targeted heals or a cure for disease and poisoning you can in fact choose between three different options when you select your lay of hands of which two are healing based on whether you want to use one or two lay of hands charges so it gives you flexibility of if you want to go for a small or a big targeted heal depending on the scenario that you're in and lay of hands is a nice addition to make sure you and your party stay alive making your sustain even better in addition to the just mentioned very powerful healing Radiance okay so now you know why we went with the oath of the Ancients it's just too good for your abilities you want to go 16 strength because our damage is going to scale through strength 16 Charisma because our oats auras as well as various spells scale through Charisma and then we get 14 constitution for the con saving throws as well as some HP for more sustain other stats can be up to your preference but some dexterity is nice for Initiative for your race it doesn't really matter what you pick but for a paladin I prefer Wood Elf or would have Elf for the extra movement it's really good on a Melee character that you want to make sure is as proactive on the battlefield as possible which is exactly what a paltin should do because it's the main character remember now that the first level and initiation of your ancient Paladin is a reality it is time to go to level two but I have great news first because in the first area of the game The Good Old Ship make sure to take out the commander this will help you get to level two pretty much instantly but also you want to use this ever burn blade and give it to your Paladin this is an amazing start for your Paladin to use this sword as your two-handed great sword because it does a lot of damage early on and you can chose the captain by using Shadow hard to prepare command accordingly use command drop the weapon take the weapon and make the fight a lot easier as the commander will now have to use his fists to fight you and he will have no chance even on tactician mode with the everb bur blade in your possession it is time to then accordingly level up to level two and for your fighting Cell you want to go great weapon fighting great weapon fighting will basically make our damage output higher with all the two-handed swords in the game that we will use and I like to use two-handed swords on my Paladin for sure as it makes our damage output really good it is as simple as that because it prevents you from rolling one or Twos for your damage tie now for your spells as a paladin you get to prepare another spell every level and preparing is different from learning as it means you have access to these spells anyways at all times you just have to choose which one you want to use in your spell book and I'm going to quickly go over all the Spells and which ones you want to prepare for the first seven levels in my opinion now the most important spell you unlock at level two is theine Smite it's not one you prepare but rather it automatically becomes a part of your kit Divine Smite is your bread and butter spell as a paladin it's what makes your damage numbers go high into the sky like a Loose Cannon and what you usually want to prioritize your spell slots on with Divine Smite you can obliterate enemies within a single attack attack or turn easily as it stacks on top of your normal attacks basically you have to see like this you attack something and while doing so you ask for help from Divinity itself and in turn your sword will be blessed with divinity and in turn it makes your attack as deadly as possible and that leads into you inflicting additional radiant damage on top of your normal damage and attack so it's kind of like attacking twice with one attack at the cost of spending a spell slot and those numbers can get very high very quickly however ever it is very important to make sure you actually go to your reaction settings and make sure to check all the Divine smites as a reaction for the different levels of divine Smite as well and check the ask prompt as well this is very important because for some reason the game trolls you and does not activate these automatically for you and who knows why because it makes you as a paladin so much stronger just with the sheer extra options you get with these options enabled yeah good old Lan Studios and they silly jokes reason why you want to do do this is because one theine Smite stacks on top of all your other smites as well as attack so you can use both of them in combination through this way because the game will actively ask you to use theine Smite after your other smites or attacks like this and two it provides you control when you want to proc Divine Smite you only have a limited amount of level one and level two spell slots so depending on the enemy and how much HP they have you accordingly want to choose if you want a Smite and if you do which one you want to use use it is also important to prioritize Divine smiting when the hit is a critical hit over a normal hit as well because your radiant damage through Divine Smite will in fact be doubled with critical hits so if you yes you are following what I'm saying it basically becomes a matter of using your limited spell slots as effectively as possible depending on the context of the battle of course you don't want to use Smite when the enemy will just die from a normal attack anyways and if you have only one spell slot left and are in a potential tight position then you might want to wait for that critical hit to happen to activate your final Smite for maximum damage that was the vine Smite and everything you need to know about it however as a paladin you also get a bunch of other smites and these are much more situational but depending on their situation can in fact be very useful now you for sure want to prepare all your smites as they are heavily bound to the class identity of the Paladin so it's a bit weird not playing with them and yeah they're just good for level one smites get Thunder Smite searing smite and rful smite so basically all level one smites thunderous Smite is one of my favorites it causes your enemies to be prone which means in turn your next attacks will be with advantage and you can also use thundra smites to push enemies into CMS or places that will make them die instantly really useful if you're seeing enemies say near a cliff and just want to go for it because your Psychopathic Tendencies are telling you to do so rful Smite on the other hand inflicts fighting on your enemies which makes them stuck in place and they will have disadvantage on ability checks and attack roles basically this is your CC Smite to inflict annoying conditions to control your enemies and usually you want to use it on enemies that tend to stay alive longer because for example they have a lot of HP then we also have searing Smite your dot Smite as it keeps inflicting fire damage over time now the fun thing about these smites is that they stack in addition with your Divine smites like set before so if you want to Stack as much damage as possible and get rid of an enemy as quickly as possible you would want to use one of these smites first and then the vine Smite accordingly these smites already deal really good damage and extra damage compared to a normal attack and have utility as well as you saw but after using these smites and getting the damage in the game will ask you if you want to use a Divine Smite in addition if you follow my tip to activate the reactions in your spell book so stacking smites is an amazing option if you want to go all out as soon as possible in the battle to make sure a threatening enemy is eliminated as fast as possible definitely keep that combo in mind it's really powerful those where the level one smites and you also get a level two smite after level five which is branding Smite and this one is situationally also really good no those annoying enemies that can go invisible not any longer with branding Smite it prevents them from being annoying and going invisible they are exposed for what they really are the cowards and the light makes sure you will always see them but let's be honest that is if they survive the attack in the first place because branding Smite in itself already deals insane damage as a level two Smite so now that we have discussed All smites In level 1 to7 you basically need to also consider that these smites have different Elemental damage and that's obviously done on purpose by the rule set as it means you can use their Elemental damage to accordingly get more damage out versus enemies that have weaknesses to one of set Elemental damage do you see an enemy with weaknesses to fire damage when inspecting them use searing smite do you see an enemy with weakness against Thunder damage use Thunder Smite and with continuing to analyze your enemies and what to accordingly do like that you will get the most optimal results aside from the smites you also get a bunch of other spells to prepare I would say use all of these with lesser priority than the smites but here is a priority system in how quickly you want to prepare these spells so you can in fact cast them let's go quickly over them for level one spells Shield of faith is a good option for some extra Armor class I would also highly suggest preparing blast till you get Whispering promise which I will go over in a second so you have a higher chance to actually hit your enemies and then command is also great as a paladin because you can combo it with your hard hitting attacks and smites in the sense that you can for example make them prone with command gravel and then attack them with Advantage accordingly but command also provides you opportunities to make enemies drop their weapon make them Flee for example if things go south or make annoying casters and range enemies approach you to quickly get rid of them in melee space so command is really good Divine flavor is also decent it's just extra damage protection from evil and good is situationally good as a defensive option to prevent annoying CC as well as make it harder for enemies to hit for level two two spells I would say definitely get eight if you don't have a support character for that has already it is basically free HP for everyone in the team including summons and that extra HP can get really out of control when you upcast eight and consider how much HP is being added to your team it's really good for sustain lesser restoration is decent for removing diseases and annoying CC and finally magic weapon is actually very decent as well basically it's just a better Divine fav for as it gives you extra damage but also increases your chance to hit which is nice with the feet that we will get at level four now you want to prepare your spells and make them an active part of your kit based on this priority system in my opinion just refer to this visual that I made for you guys when leveling at level three you get another spell to prepare so make sure to get one according to the priority system visualized here but at level three we get something more important we get Divine health for example which prevents us from getting diseases and that is quite useful this is basically like having a condom but for your entire body it's very good but more importantly we get two alternative uses of your oath charges in case we're feeling comfortable and don't want to go defensive with healing Radiance but instead go more offensive because we're feeling spicy at that moment turn the faithless is nice for escaping certain sketchy scenarios but the even better one is Nature's wrath it's when you just want to go all out on a big HP Target use Nature's wrath and accordingly the enemy will be restrained they cannot move and will be easier to kill off especially because because our attack roles will all have advantage against them which is absolutely huge as it means all our hits will be more likely to hit and that is very big for the feat that we will get at level four but be cautious and use Nature's wrath if you absolutely do not need to use healing radi in the same line of you know getting useful stuff we also get two situationally very useful spells thanks to our oath first one being speak with animals which is arguably one of the best non-combat spells in the game it allows you to talk to animals which opens a huge amount of extra dialogue as well as quest lines with useful rewards so the second oath spell that you get is end snaring strike that can ins snare enemies and you can hit enemies with it from a distance which is a bonus being ins snared means the target receives damage every turn but also that you'll have advantage against the target while yet again the enemy can't move a bit like to just discussed Nature's W now I will still advise to prioritize using smites for your spell slots over and saring strike but it's a nice addition regardless at level four we get to choose our feet and with our two-handed big ass sword that we will always be using we have to get great weapon Master great weapon Master is going to spike our damage absurdly high as it deals 10 additional damage at the cost of a minus five attack roll penalty however we will offset the attack roll penalty in various ways thanks to gear that provides Advantage as well as blast and other things that increase our chance to hit as you see here we have multiple benefits active that make our chance to hit higher but we will get into these when we get to gear great weapon Master is just great because it also provides you an attack on a bonus action in case you ran out of smites or you just really need that one additional attack breaking up your physical raw damage as a paladin as well oh and don't forget to prepare another spell at level four according to the priority system at level five we get a lot of goodness for instance we get an extra attack all together every single turn which is a huge power Spike as a paladin our damage is now going to spiral out of contr once again because what we did before we can do that now again but times two so a lot of extra power to be had at level five you also get two more oath Spells at level five and as an ancient Paladin you get Missy step for free which is really good Misty step provides insane utility in combat whether it's offensive to get to a Target that you want to attack that you otherwise can't reach with your movement or defensive when you want to reposition yourself strategically when you have found yourself in a sticky situation and you want to prevent enemies from devouring you you the next turn moon beam the other oath spell that you get is also very good depending on the situation because one you can use it to deal a bunch of damage to a Target stuck in a certain position or for instance if you want to start with it to surprise the target to render them iMobile and get two turns of damage just like that but also because you can reposition it to your liking every turn as it is a concentration spell that just stays on the battlefield damaging whatever is beneath it you also now get the chance to prepare level two spells and according to my mentioned priority system you can now prepare a level two spell at level six you get to prepare another spell according to the priority system but also we get AA of protection AA of protection is a permanent buff that applies to your entire team and yourself and scales with your charisma and is actually a huge bonus it gives your entire party a bonus to all your saving throws meaning all those annoying spells and effects from enemies in the game will now have a harder time actually being successfully applied on you really good and in the same line of again getting good stuff at level seven we get another absolutely amazing aura Aura of warding another permanent buff basically this Aura just means bye-bye to any enemy Caster Mage warlock whatever their damage against us gets reduced significantly and pretty much becomes trivial more or less really insane Aura make sure both of your AAS are gasted as soon as possible and again at level seven we get another spell to prepare now those were the choices to make in developing and playing our Paladin as optimal as possible through the leveling process and what to do in terms of in-game combat strategies however we also still have our gear that we need to talk about as even as early as act one you get a lot of good gear that synergizes well with our Paladin first thing we need to talk about is our sword now earlier in the video I recommended you to get the ever burn blade as soon as possible and it definitely is a good weapon for the first few levels however when you get the opportunity to go to the Grim Forge make sure to go to the merchant shop run by a Corsair Greymon and buy the George roll great sword this sword is amazing for a paladin early on as it's a plus one two-handed sword so that already helps out tremendously with making sure our weapons hit actually when considering great we master and it also synergizes with our fighting style but what is even better is the specific attack that comes with the sword called colossal Onslaught colossal Onslaught is absolutely Bonkers for a paladin because first of all it hits everything in its line of the destruction so with it you can already just do hundreds of damage with a single attack making it a really good weapon itself and as you see in the village it's yeah it's crazy but what is even better is that with Paladin specifically it does in fact stack with your Divine smites Yes you heard that right you'll get a prompt for every single enemy that was struck during colossal Onslaught so basically you can just stack smites with the insane AOE damage of this attack and take out everything in like just the first turn or any turn where you can make sure enemies align for your attack really insane weapon and thankfully you can get it in fact in Act One aside from the weapon let's go over our gear first of all we need to talk about our rings I would highly suggest to get the whispering promise ring as early as you physically can which is in the drw Grove make sure to buy it from Volo this ring is absolutely insane for this build as it will make all our heals including healing Radiance appliable as as an additional effect so we get that juicy bonus to our attack rolles and saving throws now every time we use in Radiance for instance which is great because this offsets for example the penalty of great weapon Master really early on and it can apply to your entire team more importantly if you make sure that they're standing in the radius of healing Radiance which is quite easy to do just move them around your Paladin especially because you get two turns of healing Radiance for your other ring I would suggest ring of salving as that's another 2 Hp in addition to your heal so for your entire party that is 16 HP XR with healing Radiance for example but if you want something more offensive I would suggest getting costic bent as it applies extra damage to our weapon attacks and as you know we can hit multiple times per turn so that damage Stacks quickly both of these rings can be found in the under dark in specifically the Micon colony in act one so you can try both of them out and see what you like more for your amulet I'm going to recommend an amulet that you can get pretty much at the start of your playr the moon drop pendant obtained in the all bear Nest this one makes it so that if we go below half our HP we won't trigger opper attack so it gives us a lot more leeway in setting up our attacks and repositioning if things get a bit dangerous without the enemy retaliating for us moving away from them then we have the helmet of smiting for our helmet which was literally just made for paladins since we will apply conditions with our smites all the time so it's nice to have that extra HP for free you can get it in the selenite post regarding your cloak well fun fact there is not a single cloak to obtain an act one so the earliest cloak to obtain is going to be the cloak of protection which you can purchase at the last Light in really early on in act two the cloak helps out with defense and the sustain and it's just a really good cloak for your armor we're going to make sure of our heavy armor proficiency as a paladin and get that adamantine splint armor again obtainable in act one and honestly this thing is just one of the best items you can get in act one it will make your Paladin a juggernaut and so incredibly defensive thanks to it reducing all incoming damage by two making it impossible for enemies to land critical hits on you and applying reeling on your enemies re is really good as it increases the chance for your enemies to miss you and yeah yet again another inclusion to make our defensive capabilities as awesome as possible it also comes with a whopping 18 Armor class so in all aspects just a very good defensive piece that you can get in act one which allows us to go for one of the best offensive items in the game for our gloves in act one as well glovs of the growling Underdog this thing gives us an advantage on melee attack roles so all our attacks basically while surrounded by two or more foes and that scenario is pretty much always applied in any relevant combat scenario because many encounters will in fact consist out of two or more enemies and due to how the AI pads in this game they will also more often than not station next to each other and this piece is absolutely glorious for our setup because one it synergized with our colossal ons sloth but two it also pretty much just completely eliminates great weapon Master penalty the reason being is because with we will have Advantage up pretty much all the time on our enemies and keep in mind we also get other sources that make us more likely to actually hit our targets think about the ingrained blast in our healing our plus one weapon enchantment various abilities that apply Advantage or restrain enemies Combos and so forth this what our glorious Advantage stacking as well as us maximizing our chance to hit in order to anticipate to fully compensate gw's penalty while gloriously benefiting from its insane damage Spike looks like green green and green for boots we get get the boots of striding which you can get from MRA either by killing or recruiting her and these boots give you momentum when casting concentration spells which as you know we have multiple of including our smites and momentum gives us more movement which is very handy and also makes it so that we cannot get annoying CC like prone or pushed when we're concentrating which is a nice bonus as well since those tend to be the big causes of prematurely breaking your concentration spells for bow I would get the haunting short bow since you can get it very early on from the Trader at the Grove it gives us an option to deal with enemies in the distance obviously but that ingrained advantage against monstrosity type of enemies is really nice as well it also gives you Haunter Mark which is surprisingly effective for a paladin as sniz with our idea of damaging our enemies many times within a turn through different instances of attacking which in turn will proc Haunter Mark extra damage per hit mechanic so overall a great bow for the build and with that we have now pretty much discuss everything you need to know for this build I would say that with this setup and if you made sure to follow along you will now have an absolute monstrous Paladin build but maybe even more importantly also just have an in-depth understanding of how to play Paladin as optimal as possible even without using any smites you will still deal incredible physical raw damage so running out of spell thoughts isn't problematic at all really but but obviously with Smite stacking and getting the most out of your smites is a strategy that will lead to Absolute horrendous experiences for the enemies and maybe the quick death that is bestone upon them through your insane damage within just one turn or even worse one attack is exactly why Paladin is a great Contender for Honor mode and it being a popular class well it just all makes sense now and with my setup specifically we also have that insane sustain insane defense insane healing and so much utility to tackle any situation really there is no way you're going to die in honor mode accordingly or really fail in any instance of non-combat and combat as well incredible try it out and let me know what you think in the comments I will be making another Paladin video really soon that focuses on act three Hunter mode and specialization yes that is something to look forward to

Channel: Nizar GG

Views: 712,076

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Id: kpz5IACDBqk

Length: 26min 3sec (1563 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2023