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There are many approaches that can be taken when creating a new custom character for Baldur’s Gate 3. While it can be a lot of fun to play with a fully optimized build, not all builds in Baldur’s Gate 3 have to be about power and efficiency – in fact, some of the most fun characters to play with in Baldur’s Gate 3 are those with interesting concepts.
Whether focusing on the roleplaying experience for a first campaign or kicking back after a punishing Honour Mode run, there are plenty of reasons to set aside the idea of getting the highest stats. The builds below are not all optimal or even powerful, but they all offer something a little different, and most importantly: they are fun.
Bladesinger Paladins Can Do It All
Two Attacks & Tons Of Spells
The Bladesinger subclass for wizards wasn’t in Baldur’s Gate 3 at launch, but its later addition to the game opened up a slew of fun possibilities for class builds. Simply embracing the subclass without any multiclassing can already be a memorable experience, as Bladesingers get to make extensive use of both spells and martial skills in a very different way from any other wizards.
Multiclassing, however, can take things to another level. One great option is to multiclass with paladin. To make the most out of it, you’ll want to commit to bladesinger for most of the game, but ultimately dip into two levels of paladin to add Divine Smite to the table.
Your best bet for a paladin subclass is probably Oath of the Crown, as the Righteous Clarity class action provides some useful proficiency bonuses for attacks. As for spells, you’ll definitely want to have the booming blade cantrip on hand. Later, combining spells like 
Hold Person with the paladin’s Divine Smite can set up some powerful attacks.
Pure Bard Is More Of A Roleplaying Style
These Musical Adventurers Make Any Campaign Hilarious
Pure bards are less of a specific build and more of a roleplay style. For this character, any BG3 bard subclass can be chosen, but College of Lore works well thematically.
In-universe, bards are typically performers, so Charisma is the stat you’ll want to focus on, giving you plenty of leeway when it comes to Persuasion, Deception, and, most importantly, Performance checks.
A bard is ideally a character that isn’t in the fray if they can help it, so crowd control spells like 
Tasha’s hideous laughter, Hold person, Otto’s irresistible dance, and silence can help you out a lot. It’s also exceptionally fun to get serious NPCs to dance along to a tune, which can often make for a rather silly sight.
While out of combat, 
Charm Person, 
Disguise Self or 
Seeming are also good suggestions. Players can charm their enemies during dialogue, and with the help of some Bardic inspiration, this can allow you to get past some extremely difficult checks.
Bard-Barian Merges The Two Most Reactive Classes
Vigor & Voice
For those who want the roleplaying benefits of a bard, but don’t want to sacrifice the combat prowess of meatier melee classes, look no further than the bard-barian. There are many ways to balance this multiclass build, but it’s probably best to start as a barbarian for that early attack and HP boost, then take at least three levels in bard throughout the game.
It’s best for a bard-barian to take at least a couple of healing spells, like 
healing word, so they can keep themselves alive while tanking. Support spells like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and Silence are useful for debuffing enemies. Song of Rest can also be helpful, effectively giving the entire party an extra short rest so they can keep going a little longer.
Although College of Lore is always good, if you only plan on taking three levels in the class, College of Swords might be best for the bard-barian since it’s the most martial-focused out of all the bard subclasses.
Compared to the other classes, Bards and Barbarians have the most class-specific dialogue options throughout the game, so merging them together will unlock an incredible amount of interactions.
Besides the excellent unique dialogue options and Jack of All Trades bonus to skills the bard isn’t proficient in, they’ll also get a number of handy bonuses that can help boost their own skills and support their teammates.
Rogue-Ranger Assassins Are Sneaky Little Tricksters
Pure Damage Output & Unparalleled Sleight-Of-Hand
The rogue-ranger build is focused solely on dealing as much damage as possible in the first turn of combat.
The build doesn’t work too well in story-centric battles that begin with long stretches of dialogue, since it relies almost entirely on getting the first turn and surprising enemies, which can cause first-timers to miss out on a lot of context.
However, for experienced combat optimizers who know their targets and want to dish out large amounts of damage, playing a rogue-ranger is an easy and satisfying way to cut a path through the Sword Coast.
This is mainly done using the rogue’s Sneak Attack feature, which gives them a 1d6 bonus on one attack each turn as long as they’re hiding (or have advantage against their target). If you don’t have disadvantage, Sneak Attack also works if you have a teammate within five feet of the target.
Their abilities are boosted further by the Assassin subclass for rogue and the Dread Ambusher subclass for ranger. The former enhances the first turn in battle, especially when the rogue-ranger surprises their enemies. The latter adds to those bonuses, and helps them hide with Umbral Shroud.
The Sharpshooter and Alert feats can help bolster this build. “Alert” works particularly well with the Assassin Rogue, since the subclass is deadliest when attacking enemies who have not yet had their turn. The feat adds a huge bonus to initiative and prevents you from being surprised.
Battle Master Is The Best Fighter Build
Fighter is one of the most versatile classes in both DnD and Baldur’s Gate 3. They are able to use all varieties of weapons and armor, making them the perfect Baldur’s Gate 3 class for beginners. They are also tons of fun to play as, with several of their abilities, such as Action Surge, adding to their versatility.
Fighters do miss out on a lot of roleplay aspects of BG3 since they don’t get a huge amount of unique dialogue, but they’re a very solid choice if you usually find yourself struggling in combat.
By far the most fun fighter build is the Battle Master with their Battle Maneuvers. This can allow the fighter to do some really fun things in combat, like disarming enemies, pushing them, or knocking them prone, all of which can be even more useful in Baldur’s Gate 3 than in tabletop DnD thanks to an overall emphasis on verticality.
This build makes combat more interesting for a class that may seem boring at first glance, and it’s possible to make a powerful character very early in the game. It’s also a smart choice if you want to try out a wide range of armor sets in Baldur’s Gate 3, since fighters won’t have to worry about not being able to cast spells while heavily armored.
Tavern Brawler Monk Is Full Of Strength
Aggressive Attackers
For a fun and powerful build, it’s hard to go wrong with the Tavern Brawler monk. For this build, choose monk at character creation and level them up to level five, choosing Way of the Open Hand.
At level four, choose Tavern Brawler as your feat to add the character’s Strength modifier to damage and attack rolls. This would already create a very powerful character, but by adding some levels of rogue, things can get really entertaining, as your character will get an extra bonus action.
This is perfect for using Flurry of Blows, which, with Tavern Brawler, will allow you to deal tons of damage per turn. The rogue’s cunning action will also grant you some excellent freedom to move around the battlefield.
Hexblade Bardlock Turns Your Character Into A Dueling Savant
Multiple Weapons And Enchantments Create Cursed Music To Your Party’s Ears
One of the most interesting class combinations in BG3 is a pairing between the Warlock and Bard classes, due to both archetypes’ use of Charisma in most of their abilities. However, putting together the College of Swords Bard and Hexblade Warlock can turn two spell casting classes into the ultimate melee fighter, with each gaining tons of benefits towards up-close and personal fighting. Whether for your Tav custom character or a companion like Wyll, this build is incredibly strong mechanically.
For starters, being a Bard gives you Bardic Inspiration to help your allies and Jack of All Trades to vastly improve your ability scores. Song of Rest at Level 2 is essentially a free Short Rest, even before you start investing into Warlock Levels. Getting Hexblade at one level of Warlock dip automatically sets you up for success, giving your character access to Medium Armor, Shields, and Martial Weapons, allowing your defense to be much better than Warlocks or Bards get on their own.
Hexblade Warlocks also never have to worry about losing their weapons, as their Bind Hexed Weapon feature at Level 1 prevents them from dropping the tool they are bound to, while its damage also becomes magical to overcome resistances.
College of Swords Bards gain access to a variety of Flourish techniques, similar to the Battle Master’s maneuvers for the Fighter. From increasing AC to getting to attack multiple foes in a single strike, this build only gets better as you level up. Combined with the destructive potential of Warlock magic, which comes with easier Critical Hits thanks to the Hexblade’s Curse feature, your character’s versatility will be off the charts.
Oath Of The Crown Paladin Has The Most Challenging Vows To Maintain
Ultimate Tank Builds Require Plenty Of Sacrifice
For players looking for a suitable roleplaying challenge in BG3 for their next character build, a fun idea can be to go all in on an Oath of the Crown Paladin. This archetype has the hardest Oath Tenets to maintain without becoming an Oathbreaker, as their ideals of Law, Loyalty, and Responsibility often create friction with the “normal” ways of playing BG3. For example, breaking your word with any character, villain or ally, can easily cause the Oathbreaker Knight to appear quickly.
At Level 7, this subclass can use their Reaction to take damage meant for someone else, supporting a theme of self-sacrifice that connects to the Oath of the Crown’s selfless nature.
As one of the strongest classes in the game, the rewards for staying true to your Oath are vast with this build. Yet, the Oath of the Crown is particularly unique in how its abilities reflect your stalwart nature, with tons of defensive skills that make this Paladin the best defensive build for the class. This starts with Righteous Clarity, a Channel Divinity feature that lets your character support allies by adding a friendly creature’s proficiency bonus to their attack roll.
Other abilities for this subclass allow the player to challenge all enemies around them, giving them disadvantage on any attack that isn’t against their Paladin. At the same time, a healing shout can restore the vitality of your friends, with the Oath of the Crown also gaining spells to help with this tank-like path. Command, Compelled Duel, Warding Bond, and Crusader’s Mantle give the Paladin defensive magic to use instead of just Smite.
Bear-barian Is A Fun Druid-Barbarian Combo
Tanky Brawlers With A Fluffy Twist
A well-known DnD build is the Bear-barian, which combines Circle of the Moon druid with the Totem Warrior barbarian. For Baldur’s Gate 3, Totem Warrior has been redesigned slightly in the form of Wildheart, but the multiclass build still works.
This is a great build for overall power and roleplaying potential, and it has a lot of extra benefits, such as the extra health pool, healing abilities, and bonus rage damage.
When starting a new character, druid should be chosen and leveled up to level two with Circle of the Moon as the subclass, so you get access to more powerful wildshape forms. After that, switch to barbarian and level up to level three, choosing Wildheart and Bear Heart for resistance to all damage types except psychic while raging.
After this, it is entirely up to personal preference, but a 50/50 split works well to balance the strengths of both classes.
You can create a similar build with Halsin as a full barbarian with the Shapeshifter hat, since he constantly has access to Bear Wildshape, no matter his class or level. He still needs a wildshape charge to use the ability, and the item grants a single wildshape charge per long rest.
Drunken Master Monk Makes You The Life Of The Party
Make Use Of Otherwise Discarded Supply Items
An incredibly unorthodox build is one with plenty of variations, namely the Way of the Drunken Master Monk subclass. This route unlocks at Level 3 when you pick the Monk, allowing your character to drink copious amounts of alcoholic drinks without actually suffering the negative effects of BG3‘s Drunk condition. Doing this unlocks several abilities, including greater Performance skill checks and a Drunken Technique that allows for freedom of movement rather than just a Flurry of Blows.
The Drunken Master Monk is one of the few subclasses for the Monk that can recover Ki Points outside of resting, with characters gaining half this resource back by simply drinking alcohol, though only once per day.
What makes this subclass fun is not just seeing your character sway drunkenly during battle, but how that character can make everyone else on the battlefield drunk too. Some of the Level 4 combat options for this subclass allow you to deal Intoxicating Strikes to targets, making them Drunk while becoming the Life of the Party in the process. That passive bonus gives your character higher attack roll bonuses and a better AC, improving offense and defense at the same time.
You could choose to stick with Monk all the way through this build, gaining abilities to Redirect attacks and deal Psychic damage by sobering targets up. Alternatively, you could combine Drunken Master with a Cleric or Druid investment, supporting your innate Wisdom focus with a variety of magical options. A personal favorite build I’ve seen is a Drunken Master Monk and War Cleric, almost acting like a grizzled and alcohol-prone war veteran whose Guided Strike skill almost guarantees that someone is getting wasted.