Can I just say, I love the way you talk about your builds. Like one can really get how you had a grand idea and then experimented with everything and found what worked best. It's very refreshing.
I think an 8-4 barbarian monk split may be more tanky in the long run. The extra feat could give you 24 extra hp by taking the Tough feat and you gain evasion at monk level 7 which massively reduces spell damage
@@RustySpoon Ah, yes, I just didn't read your comment clearly. That's decent idea, but it wouldn't get Aspect of the Stallion, which will give you MUCH more than 24 health. Even if you never dashed in combat, and just dashed to refresh your shield between each combat, it will be giving you hundreds of HP.
The idea of beating the absolute in 4 days is funny to me, but at the same time not more unrealistic than taking a month to do so on a world scale this small lol. Love your build and tier vids and hope to see more often. The most fun i have with this game is finding underutilized synergy in thematic characters.
Duuuuude I love your build videos, from the honour mode video to this and the ice knight, such great content. I finished the game once on tactician and once on honour, so these videos on different builds are great for me.
I did 1 barb 10 monk 1 cleric and it was BUSTED. Cleric is really nice because this character is going to be the last one standing 99% of the time if a fight goes south and having sanctuary/healing word is a run saver, but trading that and a monk level for some fighter wouldn’t have been too bad either. Soul rejuvenation lets you heal 10hp/turn, combined with the periapt of wound closure and the ring of regeneration you’re healing for 14 automatically without having to dash. With rage you’re out healing almost every late game enemy for no action economy cost.
when you said you like to go over the synergies and NOT go level by level you instantly got a sub holy shit BG3 build videos can be soooo baaaaaaad thank youuuuu
This is a cool idea durability is surprisingly easy to generate in BG3 and unlike 5e you can really have a tank Build I’ve always opted for Open Hand Monk 6 / Thief Rogue 3 / with 3 other levels being either Cleric for heavy armor proficiency and spells or Fighter 2/ Rogue 4 Those two builds are really powerful but I tend to not use Monk because when I play with friends Monk tends to overshadow other damage dealers, D&D is a team based game and it’s not fun when you’re overshadowing other players and making them irrelevant.
I like the idea of this, solid tanky monk! I really wish the Tiger stuff worked unarmed, or the eagle leap - it doesn't add any damage to it. My favourite monk multiclass is 6 oh/3thief/3 spores druid (or 7oh/3thief/2spore, 6oh/4thief/2spore) but I play dex monk, tavern brawler is too much for me. I bring it up because like in the video it synergizes incredibly well with light cleric warding flare to keep the spore stack, but also i just love the theme of the build being a big Drow enjoyer and it just seems to fit them. As a bonus, using the hand crossbow proficiency you can open as safely as you want with the extra necrotic shots + arrows, can even make a case for sharpshooter (it's my rogue 4 if i go that). I also like that you can play this as a stabby Shadow monk if you want with a similiar split, probably the way to go for solo honestly. I guess I like the challenge of attempting to keep the stack, too.
Great breakdown! I've been using a similar build for the last few months on my honour mode playthrough, except with the Aspect of the Wolf on Karlach instead of Stallion. It's been fun starting fights with the enemies weakened, positioned right in the thick of things in a squad of bruised up enemies. Being able to come at engagements from the middle or far side instead of the typical angle of attack feels neat. I think I'll try your build out with the Garb of the Land and Sky though, since it doubles up on the step of the wind dash synergy. The only thing I'd add is I gave Karlach the Corellon's grace staff in her off hand for bonus punch damage by 1) giving her the dual wielder feat, 2) equipping the staff in her off hand with something else in her main hand, 3) having a companion with empty hands take her mainhand weapon from the tab menu, and then 4) respec'ing Karlach to drop the dual wielder feat while still keeping the offhand quarterstaff. It's gamey, but satisfying and I was oddly happy to have an excuse to never touch the Returning Pike.
Note: Not sure if this a new bug. But in recent testing I found 'Helmit of Grit' is currently bugged with Unarmored Defense from Barbarian and the helm disables the AC you should get from Unarmored Defense. Since the helm counts as Light Armor, this would be working correctly for Monks, but we should still be getting our Barbarian's Unarmored. However, I tested again just now using your 6 / 6 Barbarian / Monk split and got the bug, causing AC to drop to 12 despite having much higher DEX + CON that should have led to a 16 AC. Sadly, this means we won't currently be able to use the cloth armors you list along with Helmet of Grit. But I don't think this is a problem for your build anyway, it just warrants a slight change. You probably didn't want to do this because you wanted the Monk's Unarmored movement bonus from Martial Art's, but you're already losing that from Helmit of Grit being Light armor, so switching to Armor+Shield should make this build both tankier and do more damage anyway. It will be tankier because we can drop DEX to 14 and use Medium Armors like Adamantine Split that block damage and have other Defensive features like Reeling, while still having a high AC. Plus since we have shield proficiency from another source, BG3 is letting Monk's wear a Shield and still make Bonus Action Unarmed Strikes, use Flurry of Blows etc. Shield is another +2 AC putting our Armored AC well ahead of what we can easily get from Unarmored Defense. We'll also do more damage this way because only needing DEX of 14 will let us put more points into WIS and Manifestation of Body does 1d4+WIS modifier damage, so by only having WIS of 14 your build was missing out on damage from higher WIS. And with the Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo we get to double dip and add our WIS modifier a 2nd time like Tavern Brawler does for STR. That makes it tempting to dump (or lower) CON, and use the CON Amulet in the late game, letting us instead boost WIS to 20 (or higher from Hags + Mirror...) Getting WIS to 20 means adding a flat +10 (2x WIS Modifier) to each Unarmed Strike Attack and because that can be Psychic damage, then it will actually be more damage from the Resonance Stone your build is using.
Something I'd like you to cover in future build videos I wish more people would talk about; Having googoo damage and the best gear in Act 3 is cool. However, it's the final third of the game. How do these builds play throughout the majority of the game? What makes them unique, interesting, or powerful? How long does it take them to come online? This is what I've always found weird about Monk/thief. Do you delay extra attack? Or more ki points? When do you take the first level of Rogue which gives you very little? Do you not go 4 Rogue and just.... miss out on an ASI?
I believe I mentioned in this video that this build saved a lot of rests in Act because of the early game strength of Barbarian + throw builds. I also lay out the exact leveling order in the spreadsheet I linked.
I completely agree with your helldusk gauntlet analysis for act 2. I used sparklehands which you can get in act 1 and they reliably did great and am still using them in early act 3. I don't know if this is intentional or a bug but with the spineshudder amulet it combines to add reverberation on the second attack and most subsequent attacks which can be absolutely debilitating to enemies. I'll have to check my gear to make sure I'm not forgetting something but my monk is definitely inflicting reverberation almost every attack.
I haven't been able to play Baldur's gate these last few months so I've been coming up with a bunch of builds lately and this build here is very similar to one of my latest I came up with lol. It's a 6 druid 3 barbarian and 3 monk. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun to play with, I've always thought druid really fits Karlach because she's like a mama bear lol. And I can imagine her loving animals and nature. So anyways the build combines wildheart bear, wildshape and open hand monk because I'd like her to be good outside of wildshape as well.
Greater Kushigo Counter can be used on your turn when attacking, I would wear the harpers amulet (+5 AC shield when attacked) and bait a reaction attack from them and it would give me an entire action half being used up on the forced reaction attack against that target. Not sure if it counts as a true full action in honour mode this was done in tactician. So with multiclass thief I would get while hasted and with wholeness of body active 3 actions and 3 bonus reactions resulting in 12 attacks with enough mobility to traverse the entire battle area 2 times over.
I have a question about your damage calculation. Next to tavern brawler you list an average damage added of 18 per hit. TB adds double the STR modifier to the damage which would max out at 16 damage (+8 STR bonus). So I'm trying to figure out where you got the extra 2 damage for this calculation. I'm assuming its a +2 bonus from a magical weapon, which is confusing, but would check out math wise. Thanks for the video and on the off chance you actually respond, thanks for taking the time to answer me!
Tha ks mate, was thinking of something similar for my dark urge playthrough and this seems perfect. I'd be tempted to add some of the other wild abilities via mods like the diving strike or the elk stampede just for fun though.
Thanks for the build guide. A few comments/questions: 1. Both barbarian and monk are bonus action starved. They both like to multiclass with thief like you said. The barbarian also has to spend a bonus action in the first round to rage, trading off a flurry of blows for rage damage reduction. Does the damage reduction from rage not hinder the m typical monk loop of punching most enemies to death in a couple of rounds? The helmet of grit synergy is best but it comes online so late. Feels like the standard monk thief combo would be more powerful till then. 2. You mentioned limited long rests. I’ve found limited rage charges to be a huge hindrance to such a style. Feels like you have to heavily compromise the build fantasy by not raging every fight with your limitations. How did you manage limited rage charges with the gameplay fantasy of a tanky monk?
On 1. I've maintained since release that high damage compositions (i.e. punching everything to death) are optimal but still overrated by the community writ large. In other words, they are the best strategy, but not by as much as people tend to think. Likewise, I agree that a standard monk/rogue or barbarian/rogue combo is better then the Way of Fury build I offer. However, I still think the Way of Fury build is powerful and worth exploring. To be honest, I am so bored of high damage compositions, not only in BG3, but in all tactical crpgs. They ARE the optimal strategy, for two reasons: (1) there is only one real win state in crpg encounters, and that is killing all enemies. As long as this is true in a game, offense will tend to be more valuable. If you could clear encounters by surviving x amount of turns, or something similar, other kinds of strategies might flourish. (2) CRPGs have been lapsed in exploring combat systems where resources build over an encounter. As long as you have all options available to your units on round 1, then it will always be optimal to go nova on round 1. These two paradigms practically necessitate the "kill everything quick" playstyle, and after 20+ years of playing these games, I am tired of it. So I like to explore defensive oriented builds and strategies from time to time just for my own sanity, even if I understand that there are better builds. On 2. You are quite right that limited long rests is a big problem for Barbarians. Its one of the reasons I rank barbarian a B-tier class. They tend to be overrated by people who are not used to thinking in a minimize long rest paradigm. That said, many of the features I mentioned in this build are not long rest dependent, and most fight don't really require a rage, so I still think the build performs well.
@@Aestus_RPG I too wish that strong DPR builds were not so much more optimal than alternatives. Hoping to see some mechanics in future games where tanking can convert to damage or other utility. Perhaps some creative take on the overpower ability in Diablo 4. Re. limited rage charges, I created a party around the barbarian’s wolfheart ability in one of my runs and the limited rage charges hampered my fun with that build. Also, if you had to recommend another wild heart, which one would you pick? Bear heart is effective but I find it to be incredibly boring because of its passive gameplay. I’m also torn on how useful it actually is. Most enemies in this game seem to do weapon damage, which is covered by standard rage. The big exception is mind layers and they do psychic damage, so bear damage doesn’t help.
@@rajivkurian2285 Tanking converting to damage is interesting, but it still feels like its not real defense, its just making defense valuable for offense. If there were more building mechanics in these games, like you could only use your most powerful abilities on round 3, the defense would be more valuable in itself. There are a few interesting wildheart builds. One is to go Tigerheart into bleed to create a crowd controlling build. Here is an older video made by a friend that outlines it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PEC1D_HkD9Y.htmlsi=8Hj9SOZZS82rB4uP I made an Barbarian/Cleric multi build that used Eagleheart and Aspect of Stallion for tanking and support for the team. You can find it in my Golden Dice Run video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QEu3vDYKh1U.html I have some other ideas I am interested in exploring, but I haven't tested them yet.
First of all AWESOME build idea, i just read through the comments because i didn't understand your choice to start with 8 Str until i found out that you're using elixirs :) how do you keep up that economy , especially if you have two chars that need them like your Pal/Bard ??? Do you craft them, steal them or buy them? Because early - while not having access to that would make you extremely weak, right? I'm pretty new to the game, so maybe there is another vid of yours i need to watch?
It's cliche but I'd have to go barb 3 / thief 3 here. You can match Stallion's hp bonus by swigging a potion and still have a bonus action left, or just make 2x flurry of blows. Bearheart is always great, this also goes really well with berserker since you are equally adept at melee or throwing weapons. If played with Karlach, soul coins are golden with this build; she's be making a ton of individual hits and the coins add 1-4 fire damage to each hit!
There are many differences between my build and the one you are describing. For example: Tempo: My builds gets the benefits of being able to start Barb at level one (better saving throw proficiencies) and single class Barb for act 1 (which is better early game then single classing monk). Feats: Your build only has one feat. Needing pots: depending on potions is a disadvantage in my ruleset. You should be using your pots to heal outside of combat to save long rests. You only have pots to spare by late act 3. Thematic: if you only going to put 3 levels in Barb, then its no longer worth going Barb. But then you wouldn't be realizing the concept of a Monk/Barb.
@@Aestus_RPG I started as a barb myself actually, by level 4 was barb 3 / monk 1 and doing 3 attacks per turn. Barb works well with monk even at 3 levels because rage adds flat damage to attacks, and monk makes a lot of individual attacks. Even 1 level of barbarian would be useful and carry a strong raging monk feel. 3 levels of berserker obvs gives added benefit of applying your TB feat to a ranged attack. I get not wanting to rely on elixers, using potions of hill giant strength as a crutch to be very MAD etc. I do see your point of view; resting less better models the Tabletop D&D experience, and allows you to carry stuff like the creche bless for longer. I've personally never gone out of my way to ration long rests, from my experiences health pots are cheap and plentiful. Outside of a limited long rest challenge run, I wouldn't think to ration them in the same way as a proper elixer. I don't think you are losing out thematically, other than losing the Temp HP on running. The really flavourful part of the barb is raging, and you can have that with 3 levels. Anyway, I don't want to come off passive aggressive, I enjoyed your vid and wanted to offer a contribution. Apologies if I came off as too blunt.
How does a barb build work with only taking 4 long rests? Barb always feels hamstrung by the rage recharge on long rest. I have to be stingy with rage, even though it is the core feature of the class. With only 3-5 rages per LR, that means you have to run the whole game with roughly 16 total rage charges.
Just came back after re-watching wanted to say if you do the BOOOAL's benediction without sacrificing a companion method if your playthrough allows things like that you'll get advantage on every hit with the bleed damage on unarmed gloves, soul catching still better but if you wanted to the synergy is there the barb monk basically making every single member of the party gain advantage, pair with an Assassin who also has the buff everything just melts
What race would anyone recommend for this build? I would like to Tav this since Monk is my favorite class but I don’t know if going with something other than Wood Elf would be beneficial
If you look at the level by level spreadsheet I posted in the description it includes my recommendations for race. I believe I recommend Gold Dwarf and Githyanki.
14:17 is this like an 8 con build for gale considering he is at 39 hp with aid? Will there be a video for whatever that build is or at least an explanation?
Heey nice to see you still in active with your YT Channel, i came back to BG3 after a couple of months and having beated it once (i have around 200h), and i was doing a Karlach run when i saw your video, currently i'm level 4 and was respecing accordingly to your build and i realised that since we still don't have monk features our damage just drop, given that we still use STR mod, am i missing something or before level 7 if you go 6 Barb with 8 STR it is really bad? I tested both with a weapon and unarmed.
I never stopped doing youtube. You shouldn't have 8 strength. In the items tab of the build you'll see I suggest Strength Elixirs for the elixir slot. You should always have one on you. That will boost your strength to 21 early game 27 late game.
@@Aestus_RPG oooh the Str Elixir, now it all makes sense, thanks. About the youtube think i meant in a way that i saw a bunch of your videos at the time i was playing, but stoped seeing any BG3 videos for months, and since i've seen many channels that i liked suddenly stop uploading i feared that it could've happend to you as well, but im glad it didn't.
Your description says its an Eldritch Knight Video ;). Did you upload the playthrough? Im still watching your golden dice run with your Barbarian/Cleric Multiclass.
Hey I always love seeing your videos. I'm new to bg3 and I have a question: If you use tavern brawler with 8 strength, does that mean it adds your -1 strength mod to your unarmed attacks? Or does it replace it with dex or con or something?
My comment have nothing to do with the video, but it's engagement all the same.. Do you think that the poison ability from Markoheshkir is underrated? It aplies the poisoned condition that grant 2 turns of disadvantage for the enemy attack rolls.. That, plus the Coruscation ring and Marko.. You'll be dealing damage and debuffs at the same time (Radiant orb + disadvantage) .. This in a Eldritch Blast build for example, what do you guys think?
I'm curious: what do you do about Potion of Angelic Reprieve in your personal ruleset? Buggy interactions aside, they're a cheap and easily available to keep going without resting. Also, with only 4 long rests this build is only raging in ~12 combats a playthrough, right? Is it mostly in Act 3 where you find you need the rests and durability?
I use them, but don't buy them that often. Buying them is allowed in my rules though. Tbh, you never actually need to rest in Act 3 due to these, House of Hope, and Divine Intervention.
Is stallion aspect impressive enough to justify not running a 6 3 3 split and picking up fast hands and skill expertise? I’ve fallen in love with warding bond tanks supporting the party so I feel like monk has a lot of durability under those circumstances already (especially if you steal the helldusk armour in act 1). Using a ki point for every shield refresh could also be a bit resource intensive. This combo could be amazing if the rage and unarmed soul coin bonuses stacked though Edit: on second thought you’d be missing a feat with this path but it still seems like a steep investment into durability when the player will be below 50% health often utilising the helmet of grit
I ranked the build A-tier, which implies I believe it is good, but not the best. Fast Hand builds are better, but may not fit in every team composition. I think people underrated durability though.
How do you feel about 3 barb and 9 monk? Basically swapping out stallion, extra attack, and the crit for evasion, stillness of mind, and ki blast. I like the idea of this because I find ki blast incredibly fun, but I don't know if it's as viable on honor mode as the stallion would be- and on honor mode viability does matter a tad haha
Would you ever consider the tactician plus mods with 300% health scale and stat base scale 7, Ive really enjoyed the added challenge on my honor mode it really changed how I approached fights.
Have you considered using mods to make the game more challenging? It seems preferable to me over having to restrict yourself with so many self-imposed rules.
@@Aestus_RPG By the way, I'm already in act three and I want to switch to this construction, where do you recommend I find or create the strength exlires to compensate for the base 8?
Guys sorry if its a stupid question. Im lvl3, how do I deal dmg? My str is 8, should I drink elixirs of str all the time? Am I to rely on throwing stuff going unarmed?
@@Aestus_RPGbecause your channel is littered with “best xyz” and tier videos. If you are just making RP builds that’s fine, but then why go over the minmax aspects of them if “that’s boring”?
@@TheVic18t Ranking things is a naturally entertaining format. However, build videos are not ranking videos. I can't make a build ranking video, its not possible. So when I make a build video I have to ask "what is going to make this video interesting?" I make the builds videos which I think are most interesting, which is not usually the builds I think are peak performance. I'm not sure why this is confusing. RU-vid is an entertainment business. If I'm not putting effort into making information entertaining, then I am wasting your time.
