I suggest taking Bounty Hunter as your Favorite Enemy because hitting with Ensnaring Strike (which you should have as a Ranger) applies Disadvantage to saving throws on enemy you hit, which your other party members will appreciate a lot. Much better deal than profficiency in Arcana, IMO, especially with all the expertise you get with Rogue.
You, sir, are well spoken and articulate. A joy to listen to and i understood the process on the first listen. Which doesn’t happen often when i watch crpg builds videos.
This is the perfect build for the dark urge if you want to fight the urge. Choose deep gnome for your race to get advantage on the saving throws, advantage on stealth, and double dark vision. The cape will serve you well (and get the slayer form by liquidating a useless love interest if you want by save scumming until you fail the rolls :).
The only thing I would do different is Thief subclass for the rogue, you get two bonus actions which gives more versatility in combat and does not make the build so dependant on the first turn
Once you get level 5 ranger assassin is better because the three attacks critting is like 6 attacks, and you get a second round of that before most of the enemies.
@@Incredibility565 I found while yes it’s more versatile the assassin ends fights quicker because priority targets are basically guaranteed to go down. Assassins alacrity is enough to kill most boss enemies and that extra bonus action from thief seems underutilized at least for me.
@@qballa2787 if you’re dual weilding a crossbow or have misty step that extra bonus action goes crazy. My thief gloomstalker character is never below 90% health because i always have the option of repositioning easily. Even without the assassin subclass I can comfortably kill enemies with over 90hp in the opening round.
Love this. One level in great old one warlock empowers all of those critical hits to cause fear to nearby enemies, providing some crowd control for the ones left standing after your initial barrage.
Yeah, I would say drop one level in rogue for the Great Old One. You lose uncanny dodge, but does that matter if everyone is frightened and unable to act.
For massive alphastrike damage - 5 Gloom, 3 assassin, 1x Wardomain Cleric (Warpriest class feature should work on range attacks?) for 3 warpriest charges, + 3 Battlemaster for Superiority dice and extra action With a haste potion/Haste buff you get: 9 attacks + 2 Bonus actions which can be turned into extra attacks and 4 superiority dice that can do some nice things and add an extra d6 4 times. That is... if Warpriest works for ranged attacks. You can use Huntersmark or if you want, you could use Shield of Faith for more AC etc. and other useful lvl1 cleric spells - and you have Wisdom anyway. Or and using a longbow allows you to use brace for advantage on damage rolls.
I went with Theif/Battle Master. There’s just something about walking into the center of the room with a couple of hand crossbows and shoot EVERYONE. Not to mention, getting a sneak attack trip right next to the resident paladin who then smites with advantage the next turn is marvelous 😂
Yea I plan on a dual wielder build soon, was going to talk about the double hand crossbows + double melee and how fun it can be from a pure power fantasy perspective
@@JDogth3Wise Hell yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing that video. I started watching your channel for Tarkov a few years ago since I couldn’t play on deployment. I’m glad to see that it’s not the only thing you play. Thank you for the entertainment.
I go a single level of fighter (Urchin background) for 2 weapon fighting/heavy armor/all weapons and then Assassin with dual wielded hand crossbows. On your first attack you can use a Fire/Ice/Acid/etc...arrow (instead of sneak attack) and then proc sneak attack on your off-hand with all damage being automatic crits. Use in conjunction with poisons and suchlike to one-shot bosses from range.
In normal D&D I made a similar build. It was a Gloom Stalker Ranger lvl 5/Scout Rogue lvl 3. He was an aasimar named Angel Kutter, and he was my edgy boy and I loved him. His father was a human woodsman named Arbor Kutter who nursed a fallen angel back to health. Angel's sister's name was Angelica, and all his family died when a night creature attacked. And of course, no edgy character would be complete without having their dump stat be Charisma, for that sweet, sweet social awkwardness. *At level 8, I had 40 feet of movement, and when an enemy came within 5 feet, I could use a reaction to move 20 feet without taking opportunity attacks. *I was invisible to darkvision, while my own dark vision was 90 feet. *On the first round of combat I could make 3 attacks, one of which dealt an additional 1d8 force damage. *I had Hunter's Mark for an extra 1d6 damage. *When I didn't want to use Hunter's Mark I'd have Pass Without Trace going for an extra +10 to stealth checks. *I had expertise in Perception, Stealth, Survival, and Nature. *I had Mold Earth and Silence, which I used to lock down spell casters by dropping them to the bottom of a pit with Silence at the bottom. *I had Rope Trick for ambushes and quick escapes. *I had Guidance for that sweet extra 1d4 to skill checks. *And I used a scroll of Find Familiar to get a bat, so I could use its Blindsight when I needed. I was a menace in the shadows.
imo taking 2 levels of fighters is very benefical for the action surge and another fighting style , that way you are very usefull for both melee and ranged combat , plus you can make 7 actions on your first turn thats insane you can clear so many enemies on your first turn... one of the craziest builds available imo
@@3bcm6 first we have our normal attack (1) then level 5 we get our extra attack (2) then we get extra attack first round gloom ( 3) thief is a solid extra bonus action ( 4 ) off hand weapon ( 5) action surge attack ( 6 ) extra attack ( 7 ) Now if you can use haste... Well that will be wild I think like 12 attacks
This is also how I did my build but idk if I’m just not doing the steps in the right order or what cause it’s only giving me 4 actions to do at the start of encounters. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Assuming you ever hit anything. I took sharpshooter and i never hit now so i reclassed to drop it till later. Same with heavy weapon master on my barb. Oh great damage, if you ever hit.
great build, however i believe picking assassin is not for first playthroughs as you dont really know who will you be fighting and you usually drop into the combat right after the conversation, hencewhy no surprised enemies. Thief is just overall better option honestly, you can do some really awesome stuff like reapplying ur hunter's mark + pop back into stealth or just mistystep away
Cool build. I don't like the surprise attack thing for the first run though. I like exploring and having chat with everyone so basically is very hard to get a combat starting on surprise mode. :/
Think i might do this with Astarion pretty fitting for the old Vampire. My main Character will be a Paladin/Lock that abuses darkness. Probably rounding it out with Shadowheart and Laezel just as they are, or might make her a cleric/bard super support
I went with thief instead of assassin. While you get lower first round damage it makes up by having double bonus action points in each of the following rounds allowing you to dash and hide at once
Yes, the double bonus action is extremely powerful and super versatile, especially with dual crossbows. You also have the option to triple dash which just gives a ludicrious amount of manuverability
or you can dual wield hand cross bows for 2 extra ranged (off-hand) attacks per round. Currently "Sharpshooter" -5 penalty does not apply to off-hand weapon attacks. Probably a bug but the extra 10 damage added to off-hand attacks is phat.
I found a ring that gives advantage on attack rolls, but disadvantage on saving throws. Any shot can be a sneak attack as long as you have advantage, you do not need to be hidden.
I like picking up the Sharpshooter feat instead of the first ASI. You get +10 damage for a -5 on attack rolls, but that matters less when all of your attacks get advantage from being sneak attacks or hitting surprised enemies! EDIT: And the +2 to hit from Archery fighting style!
I used Risky Ring for my Ranger/Thief dual hand crossbow build. It gives you advantage on all attacks with the downside of disadvantage on saving throws which does not matter if the enemy dies before casting anything.
Personally would rather run thief over assassin if ur powergaming, even with 5+3 initiative, u still wont always start first if u get unlucky in the later acts. And since the rogue/assissin role is mostly for murdering weaker ranged units in one hit before they can dish out damage, this can really limit ur options after first round as they will likely have the highest initiative and are more likely to beat ur role. Since thief has 2 bonus actions, u can basically guarentee 2 sneak attack on any target and remain in stealth, which means u will also never get hit, which allows u to dump con and pick up strength for the strength+dex bow. 7 levels thief 5 levels gloomstalker all the way. Also take sharpshooter feat for way more damage.
I thought Thief was better too, but realized that it is usually possible to do the alpha strikes then sneak/dash out of combat (like in another room, etc) If you do that then turn based ends and you can go ambush them all over again. Rinse and repeat.
With thief you can solo kill just about anything without taking dmg. You get an extra bonus action which allows you to sneak attack, stealth, then dash to a new location. They can't find you so you get to go again. Repeat.
@calendil there is a set of armor that gives you an advantage on stealth checks & with high enough dex, i think I've only been caught out a few times & you can easily use invisibility to reset.
The exact build I am going for with slight deviations. Don't know if it is better but I rushed level 5 ranger so that my out of first turn damage stayed good with that extra attack. I also highly suggest the Orc race for some super tasty Crits. Lastly, and I am sure this is something you are already doing, but pre hasting (with potion or spell) before you start things off WITH action surge is sick nasty. Ending fights before anyone else in my party gets to go is a normal thing to happen lol.
*NOTE* Your better off picking Ensnaring Strike & the perk for it then to pick the Cure Wounds because you get a Amulet of Restoration. You find it sold by Derryth Bonecloak at Myconid Colony, Underdark, Act 1. I too picked Cure Wounds then got this & respecced.
@@JDogth3Wise I posted my comment before fully watching your video, but see you covered the same thing :) Yeah I'm enjoying it but it's as you say, dependant on positioning to make the most of the early utilities. When a cutscene plays out I tend to move my characters into position which really helps set this guy up (bottom left corner). Currently experimenting with whether to go for assassin Rogue or Thief for the Rogue.
Was looking for something like this to optimize my idea after finding some solid gear in another run- namely the boots that give lightning charges upon dashing and bow that gives lightning charges upon shooting. Both of which are medium armor but because they arent armor dont impose penalties to stealth or hinder dex stats. Each lightning charge gives a +1 to hit and +1 lightning damage until 5 stacks where theyre consumed to give 1d8(?) lightning damage onto the attack. Imagining being hasted, dread ambushing, sneak attacking and dashing each turn even if not needed to keep the charges coming.
Lvl 5 Ranger + Rogue for the rest seems to give the best results, you lose 2d6 sneak attack in total instead of 1d6, but you gain extra attack for it and even have misty step earlier.
@@carlosgabriell647 you'll probably gonna need one level of rogue at least before going 5 ranger. In order to gain expertise in sleight of hand at least. That is pretty much all the utility rogue brings brought just by 1 level investment. You can do 2 levels of rogue if you really want cunning actions. No more than that though, your second attack gets too delayed otherwise. I'd personally go 1 rogue + 5 gloom stalker.
@@fistan5447 Agree, if you're going dex and light armour, which you need to as this build, I'd go rogue first for extra proficiencies, 1D6 sneak atk bonus and then go to 5 ranger for double attack then go back to rogue. That's how I'd do it anyway.
I play the strength version of this, I use Titanstring bow that scales its damage with your strength modifier, I still have 8 in strength, but I use the club of hill giant's strength in my off hand, it sets your base strength to 17, then you can dump points into dex for crit and lockpicking and all that, but this means you are using this club and bow for the whole game which you get in act 1. you get the club by breaking a chair in the mage tower in the Underdark. the Titanstring bow is bought from, Brem in act one, he's in the Zhentarim hideout
For such a great video I wanna reward yall with a hilarious story of my and my friends playing playing in early access over a year ago. I decided to go full rogue stealth and was getting those sneak attacks like a mf and taking out so many enemies. When we were in the underdark, my brilliant cleric decided to enchant my daggers with light so I can see better. He didn't understand at first why I showed agitation on what he thought was helpful assistance. I hade to point out he killed my agility to sneak, which was the ultimate edge I contributed to the party. He thought it was so hilarious. This was when early access just started so we didn't know you can click and cancel it.
This is interesting, definitely will use this for my Astarion in the next run. Btw, since you are adding 2 lv of fighter at the end, you might as well respec and choose fighter at lv 1 to get proficiency in every weapon and armor, would definitely make building more easy.
You're right, ranger don't have heavy armor proficiency at the satrt, but I think you just get that with one of the favoured enemy choice, so I guess start with ranger is fine as well.
Another great build. If you play as the Dark Urge, you get Deathstalker mantle very early, automaticly turning you invis on kill mid fight: The Shadow Itself: You gain expertise in Stealth Checks. Once per turn when you kill an enemy, shroud yourself in primeval darkness to become invisible for 2 turns.
@@JDogth3Wise It's not, consider yourself warned. The storyline does turn you into a meme-worthy powerful combat char, but the playthrough is not fun at all.
New to Baldurs Gate and this a very addictive Game, this the only game I’ve become excited about since Witcher 3, I want to build an Assassin Long ranged build but do not know how, I am now level 5 Thief and will definitely reset mu Class, thanks for this build!!
Thanks for the guide! I’m doing the melee version of this build with a Half-Orc for the triple CRIT damage + Great-Weapon Master for a bonus melee attack. I’m still in the early game, but if I’m not wrong by level 12 this build should allow for up to 7 attacks at the start of combat for a total of 214 DMG using a normal Rapier (1d8+5): 1 - Sneak Attack (3d6) + Normal Melee Attack (1d8+5). Before combat. COMBAT START - Cast Hunter’s Mark as a Bonus Action 2 - Normal Melee Attack - CRIT (3d8+5) + Huner’s Mark (1d6). On the start of combat, regain your attack. First action attack. 3 - Normal Melee Attack - CRIT (3d8+5) + Huner’s Mark (1d6) + Dread ambusher (1d8). Using Dread Ambusher, make another attack. 4 - Normal Melee Attack - CRIT (3d8+5) + Huner’s Mark (1d6). Extra Attack from Lvl 5 Ranger. 5 - Normal Melee Attack - CRIT (3d8+5) + Huner’s Mark (1d6). Second Wind to regain both attacks (1) 6 - Normal Melee Attack - CRIT (3d8+5) + Huner’s Mark (1d6). Second Wind attack (2) 7 - Normal Melee Attack - CRIT (3d8+5) + Huner’s Mark (1d6). Great weapon master grants a Bonus melee weapon attack after a crit. The damage could be optimized even more by taking a Potion of Hill Giant Strength and grabing a heavy weapon to use the +10 from GWM, for a total of 367 DMG using a normal Greatsword (2d6+5) 🤯
I'm going for something like that too. My plan is to go Gloom Stalker (5) then Assassin (4) then Fighter (2) and I'm not sure about the last level. Maybe Cleric Trikery for the cantrips & spell slots? At lvl 4 Gloom Stalker, I take +1 DEXT, +1 WIS. At lvl 4 assassin, I take Great weapon master. Am I doing it right?
@@sfisabbt Yeah, I'd stick with Lvl.5 Assassin. Uncanny dodge is great since we will be spending more time on the front line, also its at Lvl.5 that your Sneak attack goes from 2d6 to 3d6. I don't think there's a need to dip into another class here, unless you want to add some extra minor utility. For the level progression, I don't think there's a way to do it wrong since you can respec at any time for only 100gp. For the early levels (1-5), I wanted the expertise in slight of hand and perception, so I went Rogue (3) first, than ranger. Untill I reach level 6, I intend to stick with the Thief subclass for the added bonus action, this allows you to dual weild AND use Hunter's mark, for a bit of extra damage during the early game.
@@SailHazael Got it, thanks for the tips. I'll go Assassin 5. Maybe experiment with thief 5 using the respec, I don't know. I also chose to go to lvl 4 in someting early since I'm the utility member of the group and I wanted the sweet +4 DEXT.
Nice build! Made me think about my build. I have 3 lvl in thief. Thise binus action at lvl 3 are super strong. Being able to sneak attack, with a bow, and then hide again, its amazing. Was not sure if i would go beast master or gloomstalker. I am leaning on beast since i like having a pet, i mean, thats what rangers were known for.
Yeah, i was thinking...and the game seem to be a lot easier as you progress. You beco.e real strong. So i wont be min maxing...too much. Lol I will do 3thief/3beastmaster/6 spore druid. Because concept and roleplaying fun. Lol I dont have a druid/nature caster in my group. And at 3/3 you have all your tools to be a sniping machine. So i will add the flavor i dont have. Amd in the case where my team need support, i will have it. And since i dont have a mage, i will also provide CC. With my pet spider. And my ppisonous spores. Its going to be glorious!!! Lol
Start rogue over ranger you get an extra skill prof over go ranger into rogue getting you 3 in total, that being said you can just respec once you hit level 4 to do rogue first for the extra skill prof
Dual wield is better I agree, also better to get sharpshooter right away. Can start ranger imo, respec later. Get to level 5 ranger for 4 attacks the first round.
For console players wondering adding another class is just pressing the leftmost button on the right side of your controller, so square for ps players and x for Xbox players
one of my fave builds. personally, since i dont mind resting often, getting action surge earlier does more than getting dread ambusher earlier. pretty much aside from dread ambusher and that +3 bonus to initiative, the battlemaster has the gloomstalker trumped for the earlier-mid levels (extra feat, maneuvers for more dmg + control). so i'd go fighter 2->assassin 3->battlemaster 6->gloomstalker 3. of course if you're the type who doesnt like resting for a challenge then gloomstalker is better earlier as action surge loses value over dread ambusher if you dont get to use it every combat.
My plan is very similar, except I sacrifice early game performance for a better save: fighter 1 (con save), rogue 1 (sneak attk, skill expertise is worth way more in bg3 than on most tabletops) ranger 5 (defensive, SHARPSHOOTER FEAT! Since damage is harder to come by than hit %), fighter 2, and last 4 levels are dealers choice. I prefer rogue 3+ either fighter 3 (battlemaster) + life cleric to juice the goodberries, or fighter 4 (alert) Claric also grabts guidance and Bless (which I hugely prefer over hunters mark, frees up my bonus action, and then i dont need a cleric in the party. , add another dps and combat becomes a lot easier
I may suggest 1 (maybe 2) level of warcleric, since wis is a good score you get multiple extra attack as bonus action and few bless for balance the sharpshooter malus. my build for an archer is Fighter 6 (2 feat, 2 attack, action surge, precision attack for balance sharpshooter), Ranger 4, warcleric 2.
@@JDogth3Wise im playing an assassin/paladin and I have to say 80% of the time fight start afther dialog so you almost never get the crit (but get the advantage) so i feel like to play a more reliable damage dealer next time. Also apparently Thief subclass get a second bonus action every turn and it sound massive, double dash, sneak, double potion, lot of possibility.
Wow that's crazy, I actually am doing 5 Ranger & Rogue & 2 Fighter. I will always go Ranger/Rogue, I love it way too much. Been wanting to try Monk but not on my main. I want to also go up & do 7 Rogue just to see how much damage it is. Might actually be better then 2 levels of Fighter, I have to see.
im at level 8 and I have built a fighter archer with Lae'zel. I did a re-spec on her her kept her STR low to pump up DEX 18 (now) and CON stats. I gave her the (Hill Giant Club) giving me 19 STR. Then I have the Titan Bow equipped so she gets both DEX and STR damage bonus to her attack. She has Sharpshooter FEAT too. So she is doing around 25 pts damage per attack. She is almost never in melee so the low melee damage is meaningless.
actually a better bow would be the titanstring bow(+STR modifier to damage) from zentarium hideout mercchant in act 1. dump all str stat and just drink a STR potion for massive damage
Good video. Thanks for the idea. Some notes, though, when you're talking about ability scores: I'd recommend either taking DEX to 16 and using that last bit to bump CON to 16 as well, or putting CON to 14 and DEX to 16 and using the points in other places. Having DEX and CON at odd numbers for 7 levels minimum is a huge waste of resources.
Yea I can see your point. I just dont really want to recommend everybody to min-max that heavily because IMO it takes away some of the joy of watching a character build grow
I got a similar build to this going thief and gloomstaler then using hand crossbows, which at lvl 8 with 2 handcross bows let's me get 4atks per round with sharpshooter getting 10dmg + 1d6+ dex +sneak atk per atk and haste getting me 6atks per rnd. Practically a machine gun of arrows that deal like 20-30dmg per hit.
You know what's funny, you don't need to be a stealthy archer that's really good, if you are at extremely long ranges, and tried to shoot outside your 18 meter ranges, your shots will have a 50/50 chance of hitting but if hit does full damage, and some AI enemies just ignore themselves being pelted, like the Harpies at the coastline outside of the druids. While the goblins underground may run to the last spot they think you are at, you can simply slink away and wait for them to lose interest before pelting them again. Turn based mode will never start when you do this.
take ability score increase to raise DEX to 19 and you can SPOILER in act 1 to make it 20. For me that's a great reason to go into this with only 14 CON and put CHA to 10.
i prefer thief to assassin, reason is because of the circuitry glove which gives you advantage on all shots for 10 turns, so that pretty much nullifies the assassin perk #1. thief with the extra bonus action means another off hand shot!
Assassin gets auto crit which isn't limited to only the first attack you make. if you have a source giving you a second attack, then every attack you make during that turn will be a critical hit. this build with Assassin instead of Thief deletes most bosses on your very first turn, and it only hits harder and harder as you find better bows/crossbows.
@erichuls193 how do you reliably get the surprise, though? for the big fights theres always cutscenes. If you trigger combat by yourself on yellows and skip all that you're losing the story imo, and often the surprise mechanism doesnt work well with half the party not in the round, its not a reliable mechanic and not enjoyable imo
Want to wreck some havoc - try Ranger (Gloomstalker variant) with Warlock....... Also, serious thought should go into how the build will fair in Act 3 specifically the House of Grief. Just saying.
You get back a free action and a bonus action when choosing assassin? I thought the reason you went for thief is to get the extra bonus action so you will have a much easier time getting back into the shadows. While Assassin is if you are looking for that critical hit, where if you have used at least two tadpoles you could actually get two crits in a row if you chose luck of the realms.
You know dude, i took thief instead of assassin And uhh I get one more attack out of it, every turn Dual hand crossbows, the build is Lv5 to Gloom ranger for extra attack then rush thief by Lv8 Find two handcrossbows then you got 2 attacks on main hand and two attacks off-hand Plus the gloom ranger ambush attack first turn Get the right rings and gloves with the appropriate conditions
In a game where its really cheap to respec (100 GP), setting an ability to 17 at level one is pointless and suboptimal. You get no benefit from an odd ability score, the points can be spent boosting another stat until you level up, and when you hit a level where you take a feat you can respec to adust ability points if you're taking a feat with a +1... And If you find an item that has a -1 to an ability, just respec to balance it out
keep the 17 at lv.1, and at lv.4 it'll be a 20 if you're not a moron. 17 at lv.1, take on the Hag at lv.4 for the hair, and now dex is maxed. zero need to even waste the 100gp on a respec.
Don't know why nobody goes Duergar with innate invisibility (sneak attack > dread ambush > invis > drop combat) I can easily clear so much with this combo over and over. Even bosses die in those two attacks. Just have a heavy x-bow and it's a solid opener. Lvl 4 assasin lvl 4 gloom stalker FTW. It will bug if you stay out of sight so just make sure some surviving enemy sees you before you invis so they can do the search thing and you can clear the whole camp.
Putting this into a coop game with a proper party setup and getting buffed before combat, this could really just wipe out half of the enemy team before the fight starts.
I'd rather get Rogue 5/Ranger 5/Fighter 2. You get the same number of feats but you get Misty Step as a spell from Ranger and Uncanny Dodge plus an extra Sneak Attack die from Rogue .
I went gloomstalker 5 first to rush sharpshooter and extra attack, then started rogue from level 6. There are items that increase dex +2 (up to 20) and certain interactable objects than can permanently boost ability scores by +2 (up to 24) as well. At level 12 I respeced to GS 3/Sin 3/ BM 6. Ending with SS and 20 or 22 dex depending on if I have the dex clothing item on or not. I have medium armor and the dex clothing (also gives cats grace) on my hot bar so I swap between them.
Better to start with rogue for the extra skill proficiency. And the best build in the end would probably be 3ro/3ra/6f, because you get the 2 feats you need and you also get subclass for fighter . Respeccing to this when you get to level 12.
Looks pretty awesome! I did have a question about sleight of hand from Urban Tracker, stacking with sleight of hand from Rogue... do they stack, or is that simply redundant. I do realize you point out that it lets you lock pick easier before you get the rogue class.
Oddly enough that kinda how built my character but i started with gloom stalker then assassin into fighter, i wanted to pick up Sharpshooter and extra attack before multi classing
Yeah in DND you can go variant human and get pick up feat. I run a DND a gloomstalker elves with eleven accuracy crossbow expert sharpshooter and two hand crossbow and a heavy crossbow my DM hates rope trick now lol
what is the advantage of not putting just 5 into Ranger first and getting it out of the way? i noticed you deviated / dipped into Rogue Assassin at like 4(?) and then went back to ranger, just because those first few abilities are that good or… Thanks! 🤲🏻
@@Str8Nightmares I think its nice to get the subclasses for both early as possible, but you can level it in any way depending on what key abilities you want first
I personally like regular bows for aesthetics, but you can do some cool stuff with hand crossbows and dual wielding with thief rogue instead of assassin on this one