As someone who came into bg3 straight from 5e, i completely ignored larian’s itemization for 2 whole runs beyond the obviously good stuff. Never took a second to read what things like arcane acuity even meant. Just as i was losing steam on the game around 200 hours I found these videos and now i’m running a swords bard and enjoying the game in a completely new way. Thanks!
Interesting thing to note about the Justiciar's Scimitar: It doesn't (currently) have a weapon class tag associated with it. So technically everyone is automatically proficient with it without the need for a specific weapon proficiency, which you would assume is martial or scimitar in this case. I fully expect that to get fixed later on tho
I was going to comment this. Also, there is a really easy way to get advantage on (all) attack rolls: buy the Risky Ring from Araj Oblodra in Moonrise Towers. With this ring you can force advantage and have a higher chance of getting those conditions rolling that require it, every time you attack.
@@scorpiowarrior7841 Not a huge problem for rogues who can hide as a bonus action, and if you play as Durge rogue you'll get a cloak that gives you invisiblity after a kill. amulet in act3 can give you advantage on mental rolls to offset it. Warding Bond to reduce incoming dmg. The worst thing that can hit you is Charm/Hold Person/Prone. You can just use Sanctuary with your cleric if the wearer gets hit by something until you can clear it, if you are melee you should be using the boots that give you immune to roots and ground effects from Nere anyway, which will offset a large amount of debuffs enemies try to throw at you. and even if you somehow get hit you still can misty step away from danger as long as you have mental control of your character. Freedom of movement has a similar effect, you can apply it with cleric or druid and it stays until you long rest. If you're immune to it, you don't need a saving throw. Plenty of ways to play around it.
This might be more intentional than you think. Trickery Domain Clerics can't get proficiency with Scimitars, only Tempest and War Domain can. If there's no proficiency requirement for the weapon, Shadowheart can use it without having to respec to another Domain.
I honestly am surprised about that since it's a weapon you can buy pretty early and then I used it until the very end fight against the nether brain. I feel like other weapons are too weak (also halberd + sentinel + perk that gives you opportunity attacks against people that walk into range is great)
Idk if they patched it, but when I had laezel set for polearm master/gwm/sentinel, I would have her proc opportunity attacks when mobs like, 50+ feet away from her would move lol. I also got pop ups for enemies opportunity attacks, and could just cancel them
I plan on using it later, but mourning frost stacks so well with my equipment and my skills as a Warlock 5 fighter 2, with hunger of hadar and my frost armor. But I love halberds, and plan on going 6 fighter with pole arm master and gwm. But I have a ways to go…
I was wondering why I got a polearm opportunity pop up and then the enemy would hit me. It was the enemy opportunity attack and I could say no. Must be a bug.
The infernal rapier is an insane item. One issue it has is that if youre a blade warlock, you already get the cha-as-damage-modifier from your pact weapon. But this allows any martial class to get that effect without going warlock. So this is a perfect weapon for a martial/caster multiclass. But its not even restricted to cha classes? Its such a build defining weapon. Plus having a free cambion is nuts. It can fly to get extra to hit for its scorching ray.
Could open up a double rapier build for wyll potentially. Take dual wielder feat then another rapier. Then bind the other rapier as a pact weapon. Then you get two charm scaling rapiers. Maybe not super optimal but definitely cool and thematic.
Drakethroat cold + snowburst ring + disintegrating nightwalkers. Enemies you hit will slip and fall becoming prone using your caster DC (great for martial bard or warlock). Glaive lets you use ANY weapon for this. It also gives +1 attack! This also works with arrow of many targets.
Hey on your bleeding build, dont forget theres some grenades from mind flayers that cause bleeding. I know they're in short supply but might be good on boss fights.
About Drakethroat Glaive - it might be a patch 6 thing, but you can just cast it on the character(s) you want and it'll apply to their main hand weapon they have currently equipped. Just as you described, Twinned Spell works on this perfectly - just need to have the two party members close in the range, and they naturally like to space out a bit beyond that.
As nice as the infernal rapier is, the Melee Caster bonus doesn't really fit Wyll, because he *already* has Bind Weapon or whatever its called, that will give his weapon a boost to attack/damage rolls equal to his spellcasting modifier. Melee Caster _only_ buffs attack rolls and not damage rolls.
the description is incorrect, it uses your spellcasting mod instead of str/dex best used on a melee swords bard or something else that isn't dipping warlock for the blade pact
Thanks so much for the shout out, Aestus! Your channel has been a big influence on how I think about the game so it really means a lot! Nice discussion of the Justiciar's Scimitar. Sadly I missed that one on my Maimed run, not realizing the significance of the rats at the time, lol. I would have been tempted to try dual-wielding it alongside the Slicing Shortsword, to get the Maimed-Blinded lockout all on one character. Though I haven't actually played around with using both. On that note, totally agree about the Slicing Shortsword. I thought it was niche at first but I just keep coming back to it on my runs. There are a lot of abilities that target Con that are normally pretty so-so that become a lot better when the target has disadvantage on the save.
It reminds me Pillars: Deadfire, where there are some really powerful ways to debuff the Will defense, and it makes me prioritize every damage dealing spell that targets Will, even though they are on their own less powerful that other spells that target other defenses. I built entire team compositions around attack the Will defense of every enemy! The combination of Bleeding + Reverberation makes Constitution attacking spells and abilities a practical guarantee, and I find myself theorycrafting team comps just around that!
@@Aestus_RPG More evidence I need to finally get around to playing Deadfire ;). And yes, so true about the Reverb/Bleed combo. Any time I see an ability that targets Con that's immediately where my mind goes. In fact, it's so good, that a part of me liked Reverb better when it was bugged... lol.
@@Build-a-Barbarian-Workshop You should play Deadfire! I'm on record for saying its the best combat design in CRPG history, and its up there for best narrative design to!
I wielded both Ne'er Misser and Hellfire Hand Crossbow on my bard as his primary weapons. Reminded me of the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3 (RiP), and the addition of both Magic Missile and Scorching Ray was a spectacular addition to actions, given I played College of Lore. With a Potion of Speed I could unload both in a single turn if needed, like during a desperation attack, or cast any other spell like Fireball or Blight or a scroll spell, like something that caused frostbite, followed by Magic Missiles.
I've got both of those on Astarion just as a normal Thief Rogue in my current playthrough and it is super good yeah. It's not busted or anything but he does about 80 damage a turn reliably and I'm still in Act 2.
One great thing ive noticed on my sharran SH build, if you cast mirror image while in the darkness itll stack with the ac bonus sharran gear gets in the dark giving SH an AC so high some enemies wont even attempt to attack her even when shes solo. Spending a turn on darkness is nothing when youre the only one taking a turn in the first place
Your channel reminds me directly of @clexplays7268 videos of Titan Quest - and I mean that as the highest compliment I know how to pay you. Thank you for engaging with BG3 and the community in a very knowledgeable, reliable, and helpful way.
When I got into a fight with the tollmaster, the first thing she did was hit me with the morningstar's special weapon attack. I was full health. I was downed instantly. 😂
I think the sword of life stealing is worth a shout. I used it throughout my whole playthrough with my rogue thief character, dual wielded with another short sword. Combined with savage attacker and a good pair of gloves, my damage output was incredible because i could usually sneak a couple crits in (even as a reaction). Great list nonetheless, act 2 has my favorite weapon selection by far because they get really creative and it feels like you have time to play around with them.
I think there's atleast 2 more weapons that are worth mentioning. One is the halberd of vigilance, which is just a really reliable +2 halberd with extra force damage. The other is the lightning jabber. The lightning jabber is handcrafted to be an Eldritch Knight Weapon and is the best throwing weapon that you can get until Nyrulna or Dwarven Thrower in act 3. It's a +1 spear that has an additional d4 of lightning damage by default, and gets another d4 of lightning damage when thrown, and can inflict the shocked condition. And because it's lightning damage, you can also combine it with a lot of gear (reverberation primarily) as well as use it for wet blasting compositions.
The Halberd of Vigilance also gives you a mini version of Sentinel, which is really strong since Sentinel is already one of the best feats in all of 5e
@@whensomethingcriesagainYup. It doesn't get the best feature of sentinel (the ability to cut down movement to zero when you hit an enemy with an opportunity attack), but advantage on opportunity attacks and a bonus to initiative is always good.
Added note, since lightning jabber has 2 sources of damage it will double dip with the kushigos gloves and the throwing ring. Assuming you took tavern brawler, that also gets a proc for some reason so total the gloves add 3d4 and the ring adds another 3d4.
@@lordgrey5223 Yup. Haven't really done throwing builds but was noticing this happening with tavern brawler. Can't tell if it's a bug or not but I feel like it is. It should only be adding str modifier to initial damage and hit chance twice I feel and not stacking/ proccing with other damage riders. Does it also work similarly with unarmed damage I wonder?
@@common_undead not entirely sure of your question but I was talking about the throwing gloves/ rings were proccing off of tavern brawler like it was a source damage. So if you throw a lightning jabber, those items will proc once for the initial hit, proc again for the lightning damage, and proc a third time for tavern brawler (counting it like a source damage). I think you may have read it backwards as tavern brawler proccing off of the rings instead. As for unarmed, tavern brawler merely adds the strength modifier to your attack roll and your damage roll per hit. (Flurry of blows is 2 hits) So a strength 20 will get +5 from each hit (+10 total with each flurry of blows activation)
Even before hearing you talk about the Justiciar's scimitar I already know just from looking at it that it combos well into the bleed build for dual wielding to help upkeep advantage procks from blindness post reckless attacking
I use a lore bard as my main and I use the hellfire hand crossbow along with the force hand crossbow and I'm stomping enemies. I got them with these and then use hunger of Hadar.
In Act 2 I really liked the Lightning Jabber it does 1d4 extra lightning damage twice and applies Shocked on hit ... works great on a Eldritch Knight Tavern Brawler thrown weapon build.
I really liked the Lightining Jabber on my Throwmancer Build. It's too bad I encountered some kind of bug and lost the weapon after throwing it once during a big fight.
That Drakethroat glaive tip is crazy. I don’t know whether to put it on the Silver Sword of the Astral Plane I stole in act 1 or Karlach’s returning pike.
Someone probably already mentioned this but boooal you can get the whole party blessed by sacrificing a companion, or by pickpocketing the main fish guy mid conversation. Always like doing that in dos2 so was a fun find
Hellfire crossbow note. there is a hand crossbow in the the forge (sorry, the name escapes me) that does an extra 1d6 piercing to burning targets. i've been running this combo on a thief with the hellfire main hand and the unnamed in the offhand for double bonus action offhand attacks. been a solid combo with sharpshooter.
That's how I've been playing my Astarion, Thief subclass with Hellfire + Firestoker to get the most value from it. I could even just throw an alchemists fire or something to easily proc Firestoker
That’s one thing about BG3 along with other rpgs that drives me crazy. Many of the good items in the game are pretty much only available at the end of the game. There’s no real post game so you’re basically just hitting full build and items for the last few fights.
24:20 The description doesn't really reflect this very well but the Shar's Spear of Darkness actually adds 1d6 damage to all attacks so long as the enemy is obscured. You can use it with a duel wielder feat to get the extra 1d6 on your other weapon. You can use the spear with a 2x Hand Crossbow Sharpshooter build to add 1d6 to all of your attacks and use arrows of darkness to gain advantage. It's such a great weapon, it's quite literally one of the best weapons in the game.
You missed Render of Mind and Body! Easy to miss but an insane weapon w/ risky ring. Better than Justiciar scimitar and slicing shortsword. Extra D8 on attack. It also procs again on sneak attack. So with a rogue you can get extra 3d8 damage per turn!
Maybe not the best but definitely an interesting weapon is a hammer that u can buy at last lights inn (if i remember right) that gives u boni for hitting chance and a +d8 lighting dmg. unfortunately that only applies of its a bond or a pact weapon making it perfect for "thor" builds or the perfect weapon for a warlock/paladin build. maybe not the best but defenitly interesting for thematic/stylish builds.
Damn I wish I knew about the Drakethroat Glaive earlier because it would've been the final piece for perfecting my Lightning Paladin/Sorcerer multiclass. I did 6 Paladin/6 Sorcerer and was able to get up to lvl 5 spell slots to smite with, plus Aura of Protection, Haste, Call Lightning, and Lightning Bolt, plus 6 sorcery points. The only thing I missed out on is Elemental Weapon. I was having Minthara cast her elemental weapon on me since her AC is 23 and she never breaks concentration, so she is basically my weapon buffer now with Soul Branding and a Lightning Elemental Weapon. Without her though I have to use the Elemental Infusion Ring to add lightning damage to my sword, but that's only half my melee attacks getting infused with lightning.
Couldn't you dual wield the spear of evening and the Justiciar scimitar in the same fight, summon the darkness with your main action and then apply prolonged blindness on 2 enemies within the cloud with the extra bonus action of Thief? Sounds great for a dual wielding martial class.
I can add two pretty strong weapons one of them Katheric Hammer but it's actually for starting act 3 😅 the another one is if you use it properly it will strong as legendary weapons Damion sells an Hammer if you bound it with an Eldritch knight The hammer became much much stronger then ever. And you can also stack higher buff it. İ think is game breaker it makes a lot of things you can prone enemies you can stun them with hight strength attacks. İt was really amazing.
Spear of night really doesn't belong on a list with these other weapons. Who would you actually equip that on? Maybe if I had it at the start of act II, but by the time I got it the majority of mass-radiant vulnerable situations were cleared. Support roles all have better things to do with concentration, and attack classes shouldn't use their weapon slot for defensive buffs with the exception of wildshape druids. My first time getting this I was pretty bummed out. It went into Karlach's inventory as a throwing weapon.
Edit: So you actually can use twinned spell on the draconic elemental weapon ability! I wonder if you can use sorcerer to twin cast draconic elemental weapon so you and an ally both get the buff, I’ll have to try that out
The Vicious Dragon Breath trait is not worth it since the Dragonborns' breath weapon for some odd reason doesn't scale with level, ergo it quickly becomes just a total waste of an action, even if it lands.
They changed it at some point so now it does actually scale the damage with level. Starts at 2d6 and my lvl 11 Dragonborn currently does 4d6. I’m assuming it doesn’t go higher than that at lvl 12 but idk for sure. Still doesn’t make up for Dragonborns lack of other class abilities, but you can deal some good damage with cold or lightning breath against wet targets at least.
I think I broke act 2! I ended up doing the Mausoleum / Shar's Gauntlet etc BEFORE I'd even been to Moonrise, because I stumbled upon the devil after going to the house of healing. It meant by the time I reached Moonrise it was a full on assault going down. So none of the vendors were there to sell these weapons, but I didn't seem to find them on corpses either. I then found a bug, if you complete the Moonrise assault I still had open quests for Halsin, but all of his dialogue was messed up and he spoke as if a fight was due to happen, rather than it having happened. I had to go back and find that ghost boy and family, then he did the lift the curse thing but it didn't seem to close off the quest properly. Wonder if I missed much content? I seemed to get through Act 2 in about 15 hours.
FYI the description says "10 best non-weapon items" That said, a lot of things I've never even run across, as I've largely avoided looking up things in my 2 playthroughs (1 normal and 1 Dark Urge). And I had no idea Minthara could be a permanent companion. I romanced her at the end of Act 1 on my Dark Urge run but went with the urge that comes during it.
meh...I am big on dual wilders other than my pure malee characters so for me the best weapons in the game are lethandra mace you get from the creche quest, house of grief that scores poison and strength to 18 and the sweet radiant morning star from the tabernacle then of course the arcane batteryś for my magic based characters. Interesting to see what other folks find worth it though. Punch drunk Bastard would be worth it if it was single handed as I often need other potions in a fight so the benefits of the weapon requiring being drunk become a hinderance when not able to use
That Glaive is pretty amazing. It's hugely expensive (1900 GP for my 18 CHA Bard) and its stats otherwise aren't *that* impressive for the cost, but the spell makes it worth it. For example: My Karlach currently uses the Defender Greataxe which lets you take a -1 hit on its enchantment in order to boost your defense for the round. So you lose a bit of chance to hit and bonus damage, but with the extra enchantment from the glaive, you'll add 1 back to the axe's attack roll and gain a 1d4 in damage. So you're basically getting the increased AC/defense for free. Or you don't use the axe's defensive ability and get a +1 on top of the axe's ..errr +2 IIRC enchantment. Plus this is a feature that'll stay useful all the way to the endgame. I'll soon switch Karlach to a different weapon, but I can still enchant that new weapon of hers with the glaive's spell. BTW: I'm pretty sure my current Gale has the base-version of that spell available to learn - so I'm not sure it's a Paladin-only spell. It is, as you said, a concentration one and also adds +1 and 1d4 damage. But it being concentration-based makes this a pretty pointless spell in its "vanilla" guise, IMO. Unless you use a character to cast it whom you then leave at camp - not sure if that would work or if characters break concentration when you kick them off your team. :D
It wouldn't work. Characters stop concentrating if you don't have them in your party. Ritual spells and spells that last till long rest will however continue working.
Slicing Shortsword may have changed or gotten bugged in a recent patch. I tried it on Karlach recently and it doesn't apply bleed when she uses Reckless Attack; it only does on her next attack after that. As far as I can tell, it seems that for its effect to proc you need to already have advantage before making the attack (hence why the first attack with Reckless Attack doesn't do it).
Can you check something for me? Halsin even as a Circle of the Land Druid can cast Wildshape Cave Bear as a bonus action when only Circle of The Moon Druid can Wildshape as a bonus action. Is this character (Halsin) unique aspect?
Yes it is. He also has innate access to Healing Word, Thunderwave and Call Lightning. That's why you'll find his Black Bear wildshape and the 3 spells I mentioned on the left side of the action bar where other innate actions go and not the spell list on the right/middle side.
3:15 fuck, fuck, fuck I was so done with the character you save that I just wanted to be over with it on my current playthrough, now I am contemplating if loading back like a 4h old save would be worth to get this, so annoying. 7:30 roah moonglow died in the goblin camp, this really isn't going well is it lmao
you have too few party members to use all those cool builds and weapons, BG3 offers. Get one cool item, do one cool build. Watching RU-vid videos now wanting to go for a different also cool build. Its a great game. Replaying it can be boring though, some quests are very boring or arduos (but I did almost all of them for the exp to get the cool builds going earlier).
@jekkin8972 wasn't planning on using karlach in this playthrough so she had to go. If i could i would have sacrificed gale but apparently that results in a game over
Question, without spoilers, do I have to bring Wyll 100%? I have been keeping him in the camp... My team is Devotion paladin tav, Gale, Shadowheart and the best girl Karlack
Theres another +1 hand (edit* not a +1) crossbow that does and extra 1d4 piercing damage to burning targets. So that could be nice for the dual wield with Hellfire crossbow.
13:20 Ok, but why would you nerf yourself by using such a weak weapon? All this build needs is just a wildheart barbarian. This class ON IT'S OWN provides you with everything you need for this build. First- on lvl 2 you get reckless attack, which provides advantage on all your attack rolls (you don't need to choose the "reckless attack" from the dedicated icon, the game will just give you an option to apply it retroactively if you miss, to give you advantage and therefore a second chance at rolling the hit die), at lvl 3 you pick the wildheart subclass with the "tiger heart" which provides an AOE attack "Tiger's Bloodlust" that automatically inflicts bleed, targets up to 3 enemies, and is considered a normal weapon attack (so yes, you can do two per action, like with normal attacks) and you can use it as many times as you want (unlike other special attacks like cleave). At lvl 6 you get the aspect of the beast: wolverine to get the "maim" bonus and tadaa, build completed. All your attacks are AOE now (up to 3 people at once), they all cause bleed and maim, and they all have advantage, so you're inflicting that 'bleed' on a lot more enemies, and you didn't need to be an evil bastard who sacrificed one of your companions for personal gain, and you're not tied to using a weak ass 1d6+1 weapon for the rest of the game- you can keep your 1d10+3+2d4 Halberd of Vigilance buffed with Drakethroat Glaive's draconic elemental weapon. And since you're keeping The Big Weapon, you can also pick the "Great Weapon Master" for a flat +10 damage on all attacks, which yes, does work with that AOE swipe. Granted the damage of this special attack is halved, like with the cleave, but that 50% is still more than a 100% of the attack with that puny shortsword (assuming you picked the Great weapon master) and you attack up to 3 people at once. And even in an unlikely scenario where there is only one person to attack- you can just do normal attacks and deal A LOT MORE concentrated damage than that bleed will ever possibly do, since it only applies once on the beginning of the enemies turn, not per hit like the "gaping wounds" condition.
@@Aestus_RPG So? 1. You're not going to use it all the time- the game allows you to apply it retroactively if you miss, and even then, if you're scared, you can take the L and miss that one guy- doesn't matter anyway, you still dealt almost twice as much damage as with the shortsword to the 2 other guys you were attacking, that still got hit. 2. It doesn't matter if they have advantage on attack rolls when they're dead, because your attacks actually deal good damage. And/or you have 20+ AC and turned off the karmic dice 3. Barbarians get resistance to damage for a reason. 4. There are other reliable sources of advantage, that don't require being evil and nerfing yourself with a 1d6+1 one-handed weapon, like the Gloves of the Automaton which you can just buy in the Last Light's Inn, or the Gloves of the Growling Underdog you can loot from the Goblin Camp.
@IndependentObserver It's better to have advantage on every attack and not give enemies advantage. It's also useful to have a way to apply bleeding without having to rage, since you can't rage every fight. Also, with the shortsword you are free to take a different rage power other than tiger.
@@Aestus_RPG 1. Again- Gloves of the Growling Underdog from the goblin camp in act 1, or Gloves of the Automaton from Last Light's Inn in act 2, 2. Yes, you can, by the lvl 6 you have 4 'rage charges'. Just go to sleep. Except for Grymforge before you free Nere, there is no negative result from just doing a long rest.
@@IndependentObserver If your Barb uses Slicing Shortsword you are free to give the Gloves of the Growling Underdog to someone else in your party. I didn't mention it in this video, but I have elsewhere, I always assume limited long rests in my videos. Currently my rule is 5 long rests per act.
Yes twist of fortune, somehow more broken than any other item in the game…. That weapon is not even close to the most powerful in the game. Cheesing enemies by putting gold INTO enemies pockets is just that, cheese. Con saving throws are very commonly succeeded. It’s just a fine weapon unless you do unintended bs
It's the most powerful weapon in the game. I agree it's cheese, which is why I don't use it, like I said. But you can't say it isn't the most powerful weapon in the game.
I realize it's what it stands for, I realize it adds no extra syllables, but hearing all the dice get pronounced "one die 6" over the standard "1 *D* 6" hits me in a gross way every time he says it. Which, is a lot lol.
I do not understand this game at all im almost to act 3 and still have no idea wtf 1d4 is when i see it i have no idea what means what and im an avid mmorpg player and rpg player in general
1d4 means rolling one four sided dice. In game terms it randomly generates a number between 1 and 4, where there is an equal chance between each outcome being generated.
No Offense meant! For real, but you may be the first straight game commenter recommended to me by YT since Asmond… My groomsmen was gay, I don’t care but why does youtube only recommend gay gamers and I don’t understand why
I don't really know what you mean. Tbh, there is a reason I don't show my face, and it's because I really prefer to keep personal stuff private. I don't think those kind of things are relevant to the quality of my analysis.
To each their own I guess. I tend to skip 10 min videos due to suspected lack of content or depth of content. A good explanation needs a bit of time in my opinion.
Ah the youth of today. Just no staying power. It would be interesting if @BulkersRuleZ were to play some older games from the early 90s. Now some of them properly tested your patience - - - and there was no looking up a solution on the internet, like there is today. If a thing is worth watching, it doesn't matter how long it is.
@@Aestus_RPGyea don't listen to this bs. Your vids can't be summed down to 10 min. If you did it would feel like the other RU-vidrs shallow tier lists. You actually decipher and explain the weapons. Love the vids!
Not yet. I don't think they would be very interesting, I play slow and think through my decisions. I've been working on speeding up but haven't gotten a run that I'm happy with.
You can. On my second run, I did do it on the final boss of act 2 and instantly deleted his first phase in one hit. It was hilarious. Not sure how to pickpocket on PS but it's essentially just opening the pickpocket menu and instead of clicking on an item to pickpocket it, you just open your inventory and drag your gold from there to the enemy's inventory.
@@angerkuni havent actually tried it personally but if you press R1 while having the pickpocket screen open it will open your characters inventory similar to adding items to your camp chest. I should give it a test and let you know if it works
There's two Origin characters in the intro, and either one of them will end up being the best girl. Lae'zel is a late bloomer unless you cheese her. Shart has two paths she can take, both are itemized to be very strong; one is itemized in act 1, the other in act 2. Either way she will be a fucking menace. Haven't dug into it enough to figure out which will be more demigod at the end. Wyll and Karlach were added late to the game, and they are good carries for Act 1 but fall off badly in power. I haven't spent time with Astarion or Gale, Astarion was a late starter as there's no gear and Gale doesn't scale well because being able to cast Fireball 18 times over the course of 18 rounds doesn't really help.
Adrarion has story stuff that can make him vary story and can even give out a buff to the player character and with gale you can abuse the fact that most of the summon spells aren’t concentration so different summons can stack and you can have a small army and he gets some story buffs that allow you not to have to take some of the must have feats for wizards
