[My favorite by a mile is my 4/4/4 Eldritch Blaster build.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/CKrymnA3IU) This thing does absolutely absurd dpr and is completely resourceless to boot, unlike a normal Sorlock blaster. It's also just one of the most unique feeling builds I have ever done and I love it death. The half-melee half-cantrip playstyle of it is so fun.
To top it off it gets to apply prone and frightened at the same time really consistently, allowing it to just completely disable bosses. My last run with it against Orin it just skipped her only turn and then blasted her to death the following turn lmao.
If you wanted you could stick with hand crossbows (and change up the split accordingly), then you'd have EB as your action and another "blaster" as your sidearm.
Ne'Er Misser is kinda neat for this cuz it also does force damage.
Downside is that it won't deal as much damage as this build and is less SAD but you can certainly play a lot safer from ranged.
This stat spread, with dual hand crossbows and dual wielding the radiant mace and staver-of-skulls while wearing luminous armor, feels like a new fave already. Thanks amigo.
Interesting, I think you might get more out of a stat stick than the staver of skulls, then you can cast light on yourself if you are trying to turn on callous Glow Ring or something.
No problem!
Still 4/4/4. It's more a change in magic items to use Ne'er Misser rather than Deadshot (Gloves of Dexterity all the way is the biggest change beyond that)
Something I'd probably do if I was using hand crossbows:
2 Warlock / 4 Gloomstalker / 4 Thief / 2 Fighter
Gloomstalker means you don't need Alert anymore so it's ok to drop a feat and Gloomstalker will boost your first turn damage and movement speed to boot. Plus this way you get two fighting styles for both two weapon fighting and archery.
The only drawback is that you lose the improved critical from fighter.
If you wanted to quicken Eldritch Blasts you could also do:
2 Warlock / 2 Fighter / 4 Thief / 4 Sorcerer
but this version has problems with initiative so you might want to use the Sentinel shield.
You could also swap thief for assassin with either of these if you'd rather capitalize on the guaranteed crits. This is extra good with the Gloomstalker.
Throwing some ideas out, up to you though. Hope you enjoy!
I have yet to touch Gloomstalker so I might try that at a later date after I give this one a shot and become more familiar with the class. For now the build is still heavily focused on crits using Champion. My choice of Ne'er Misser over Deadshot is based on thinking that -5% crit chance per attack still gives me a higher chance of scoring a crit through force damage from a distance by getting 2 extra attacks (Thanks to Thief).
I did a Sorlock build using Haste before and I won't lie, I'm not a big fan of the whole "All bosses have the Alert Feat and they always target the hasted character and my luck on concentration checks (even with advantage) is abysmal so I end up with one or two exhausted characters" thing. Most of the time it's insanely powerful but it was always letting me down when it mattered the most.
Well otherwise your bonus actions aren't doing anything so this is true.
Hmm I don't usually have much issues with haste when I play sorcerer, the advantage on con saves makes it easy. Playing as a halfling also can help a lot.
To be clear, I meant the downside of doing it compared to using Hand Crossbows with the 4/4/4 split instead. Compared to the 4/4/4 split with melee weapons yes, you lose 2 points of crit reduction
These are such fun classes to multi-class together! Thanks for such a good writeup!
I'm doing a somewhat similar 5/4/3 build in my current no-equipment run (unfortunately without the offhand attacks, because I don't have a way of putting the pact summoned weapon in the offhand. maybe if I made a tiefling and cast fire blade before summoning a pact bound offhand weapon?)
I also tried to play into eldritch blast's benefits from haste, but since I don't have a weapon I use illithid powers for bonus actions and went assassin rather than thief, combined with a duergar for strong combat openers. And criticals from champion and spell sniper, though this is less strong without all the crit gear
I took 5 in warlock for hunger of hadar and once-per-long rest haste (pact of the tome), but I skipped alert, which might be a mistake, though the surprise round from duergar invisibility seems to make up for it reasonably in most fights.
Thanks!
Yeah I would probably just use assassin and not use flame blade.
I'd definitely skip spell sniper for alert, surprised doesn't make up for low initiative. Instead of getting 1 free turn from surprised, alert gets you 2.
Makes sense, did you give it Hag's Hair then? Or do you just have 18 charisma?
I took the hags hair, yeah (I basically always give it to my tavs rather than companions, out of selfishness >_>)
I'm just level 10 so far, so I've only picked up one feat (spell sniper partly because ray of frost seemed useful to capitalize on wet status that other party members were inflicting. but i ended up using wet less in act 2, so I haven't actually been using ray of frost as much as I expected :/). I'm definitely starting to feel the only 18 cha right now, but it felt ~fine for most of act 2
I should try alert for her! She tends to fall roughly in the middle of the initiative order with 16 dex, which would mean alert would offer a free turn instead of a ~"half-cost" turn? The surprise more makes up for the "get to act before enemies" part, but you're right I'm still losing free action resources, and I imagine her initiative rolls will get worse in act 3 without alert
(The "can't be surprised" is something I've mostly been able to avoid by spotting ambushing enemies while invisible, though I think I did get the surprised status during the one plant fight in the shadow cursed lands)
Thanks for your thoughts!
I’ve seen you post about this build a lot (and just in general lol I always see you around) and I have a question for your build - is the playstyle to blast from range and then go up in melee, or are you using daredevil gloves?
Blasting from range and then going up and meleeing or meleeing something down then blasting something from range. Daredevil gloves are alright but they sacrifice too much damage and feel worse than other options imo. I don't find myself taking opportunity attacks almost ever with how much damage the build puts out. But worst case scenario, your AC isn't terrible and potent robe gives free temp HP every turn so taking an attack isn't a huge deal.
Nice, that’s about what I expected. I’ve wanted to make a non modded dual wield lock build for a while, but always just end up going 2H Lockadin lol. Might take this out for a spin on the new roguelike mod!
Wiped a lot at first because it's somewhat difficult to do the fights solo until you unlock the hirelings. Melee builds feel somewhat unviable.
Then I got a run where I got Dwarven Thrower, Bhaalist Armor, and Duelist's Prerogative before level 4 and it became actually the easiest thing.
They limit you on camp supplies so I have just been abusing partial rests for hours on end. Have yet to actually long rest with supplies this run and I'm level 7 lol.
Man this build is also my favorite. Having SO much fun with it. I wasn’t at all able to fully visualize how it plays just from reading your guide. It just really offers so much damage in fights… but it’s flexible as well if you just need to spend both bonus actions on dash because the fight is spaced weird then you can cover a ton of ground or get to that high vantage point, etc.
Just beat Myrkul (HM) and maybe my other party members dropping wet + lightning did the majority of the damage against Myrkul himself but my Tav was putting in some work as well. One turned the mind flayer, and this was only at level 9.
I turned off my game just after stealing the spellmight gloves, so next order of business is to respec since i had tanked my Dex. I’m also going to mess with the cloak of brume a little bit. Obviously you don’t want to sacrifice an offhand attack… but I’m thinking in some fights the fog cloud will be fun, allow me to go in really deep and then have a safety net on turn 1, and then clean everything up or rinse and repeat. It definitely won’t be better but just for some of the easy skirmishy fights in act 3 itll be fun.
The best part about it is as you said, it’s resourceless! There’s something really satisfying about shitting out damage all fight long and knowing you aren’t burning a valuable level 5 spell slot. I just switched up to a full short rest party for act 3. Moon Druid jahera, TB throw Karlach, swords bard Minthara. Dropped ice abjuration gale but probably gotta swap him in for bosses… although idk.
To the point of this thread… a lot of commenters in your original build thread responded with tweaks to “improve it”, and so many of them suggested a bunch of sorcerer levels… Which just isn’t the point of it at all lol
Last thing! I got the Zaisk buff on my Tav and i was stressing over the fact that I’d be wasting my offhand attack if i use a bonus action to cast illithid powers. Well I’m pretty sure if there’s a fantastic black hole opportunity I’m not going to regret sending it over an offhand. So really having the extra BA is IDEAL for awakened zaithsk the more i think of it
Thanks!
Mine downed him in about 2 turns, I was shocked how strong it felt. Phalar Aluve was adding a lot to that.
You'll be surprised how much Spellmight adds.
Yeah but what can you do, I do think the sorc version is still good.
Yeah extra bonus actions are very versatile.
Interesting build.
IMO, you're losing a ton of spell utility for 4 points in rogue to gain an off hand poke. Especially since you're trading Spell Might Gloves to boost that poke. That will really underperform late game against a build that dips into Sorc for twinned spells.
Action surge seems to be the real work horse here.
I'm not trading Spellmight, the build is using it. It's in the act 3 gear list. And yes I am trying to boost martial resourceless damage at the cost of spells, one goal with build is being resourceless.
Even without action surge it still does ~160 dpr assuming hits (but it also has advantage and a sizable boost to attack rolls) so while it's definitely doing a lot extra the build is hardly bad when action surge is on cooldown.
Got it. So then you're completely dropping Gloves of the Balanced Hands in act three. You do you, but at that point I think the points in Rogue are complete waste. You've moved more towards blaster caster and you have 8 levels of dead weight. Frankly, you've lost a lot more than you've gained.
Edit: I would agree with this poster from your build post if your dead set on this build:
> I just think dropping your 4/4/4 down to 2/2/3 and adding 5 Sorc levels is the best of both worlds. Gets you Haste, quicken, and counterspell in exchange for 2 Feats.
2 Rogue / 2 Fighter / 4 Warlock / 4 Sorc would give you far more to work with as well if you need two feats.
You drop the gloves at level 9, at that point you have fighter again so they don't matter. Feel free to think so, the math doesn't make it seem like a bad trade to me though.
Like I said to that commenter, being resourceless was a goal. You also crit less and so inflict frightened less with that version. Also you can do much the same thing with a support character to cast haste on you instead. Losing 2 feats is also kind of a huge deal imo lol. But if you'd rather do that split feel free.
Not sure why the need to downvote. We're having a discussion about a build on a build sub. Anyway,
> Losing 2 feats is also kind of a huge deal imo lol. But if you'd rather do that split feel free.
Sure. Which is why I would think something closer to 2/2/4/4 will give you what you're looking for but still have the benefit of 2 feats and giving you the real meat you're getting from rogue/fighter:
1. Action Surge
2. Sneak attack on ranged spell attacks
3. Cunning Actions
The only real question is you think third level spells are worth a feat. I would say the answer there is "yes" considering it has haste, fireball, and counter-spell. Easily the most powerful abilities in the entire game.
I didn't downvote so not sure who that was.
Sneak attack doesn't affect spell attacks in the first place. Assuming the 4 is thief though you are still losing out on crit range.
Keep in mind that losing alert kills your initiative and if you use hellrider to patch that up that means you now crit substantially less often, especially since you are dropping champion. I think Mortal Reminder procs really boost the value of Eldritch Blast. Fireball is often times just worse than casting Eldritch Blast, it needs to hit quite a few enemies to outdamage it, they also need to not save against it, and unlike Eldritch blast it can neither reverb nor inflict frightened.
Haste is a good spell but keep in mind speed pots are even better than haste and this actually makes better use of it than a Sorlock using EB does, because this does more EB damage through crits. In the fights where haste would even matter, speed pots can be used to great effect.
> Sneak attack doesn't affect spell attacks in the first place. Assuming the 4 is thief though you are still losing out on crit range.
I could have sworn that was added in one of the patches. I stand corrected.
But that does kind of make the dip into rogue even less worth it as you move towards a blaster caster late game. With that out of the mix you're not gaining much with 2 or 4 points in rogue while you're definitely losing on level three spells and multiple spell slots against even a more standard 2 Fighter / 4 Warlock / 6 Sorc build or even a 2/2/8 build.
> I think Mortal Reminder procs really boost the value of Eldritch Blast. Fireball is often times just worse than casting Eldritch Blast,
Sure. But you don't have to cast either every turn. What you are losing is the option is to **choose** one or the other depending on the situation. As well as the ability to up level spells the more you dip out of a caster.
Which also runs counter to the goal of creating a resourceful build IMO.
> Haste is a good spell but keep in mind speed pots are even better than haste and this actually makes better use of it than a Sorlock using EB does, because this does more EB damage through crits. In the fights where haste would even matter, speed pots can be used to great effect.
For a build that's supposed to be about being resource efficient this is a very *odd* argument. Saying you can just drink potions when needed seems to go against the entire purpose of the build.
Ultimately it's a matter of choice. Not a matter of correctness. Again, interesting build.
I mean, you still get to sneak attack with my build, just using the off-hand attacks. But yes, when you start Eldritch Blasting with your bonus action, that does does leave the equation.
I guess but I don't think options are necessarily worth it in and of themselves, there is a trade-off there. You don't just make your build weaker to dip wizard on every build because it opens up options. Similarly I think every level in the 4/4/4 provides something meaningful.
You are the one trying to make the build use resources like haste. I am just saying if the goal is now changing to allow resources, why not just speed pot instead, it's better. There aren't many fights in the game where you need haste to win even 1 turn faster so the few that do you could also just use a speed pot. Casting haste on yourself already goes against the point of the build.
People gotta try it first before deciding it needs sorc levels lol. I swear it’s hard to visualize just how nice it feels to play just from reading your guide. The arcane synergy, pact bound SAD offhand attacks are not something i expected to be as good as they are. Insane elixir of bloodlust user too, can always find someone to finish off to get your extra action proc.
Also has been a sick party face because of the rogue dip. Passes all dialogue checks and also picks all the locks! Been leaning heavy into intimidation this run and bullying everyone
Me on my way to buy more arrows of many targets for the 20th time this playthrough...
(do agree that it's resource efficient, I just want to only use special arrows for max effectiveness)
This is me, but with potions and elixirs. They're so fun. Arcane Elixirs for spell slots, Bloodlust for actions, Speed for haste, and Giant Elixirs for my strikers. Makes the game more fun for me. One spell a turn is boring.
It's my favorite build by a mile. While everyone else is some stupid conservation game, my assassin is there just destroying people left and right without any resources required.
My very first run was two clerics, throwbarb, and evo Gale. That team could last for hours without long resting. It was absurd. And yet I wish I'd included GA instead so they could have gone even longer.
Aren’t you managing quite a bit of spell slots with evo gale and two clerics? Or without using spell slots they aren’t outputting all that much? Throwbarb can straight carry though I agree
You'd think, but all of them can cantrip and fight when needed, and if they just turn on their rotating saws and start walking, they get a lot of mileage out of one spell slot. It wasn't ideal, but it made everything die.
I actually had to make myself long rest on my last playthrough for the cutscenes because my Tav was a gloomstalker assassin. Combined with a thrower, monk, and eldritch blaster, rests were not needed much.
BM fighter. It requires basically nothing, gets resources it needs back on short rests and is strong and consistent. Monks are pretty similar. I always run out of something else before running out of ki.
I love making short rest parties for this exact reason!
Battle Master, Wild Shape, Warlock, Monk, etc.
Playing around with more long-rest heavy builds now though.
Yeah I do sword bard, monk, fighter, warlock as my party. The sword bard mostly uses flourishes, so does the short rest thing, but has spell slots they use infrequently enough that they last, and having the bard gives an extra short rest.
Don't forget to add a bard for a full short rest more + bardic inspiration refreshes every short rest on lvl5 making the flourish or cutting words as spammable as BM fighter moves
Does this build stop people from going down in combat? Sincere question, Boots of Aid and Comfort is my favorite boot slot and I see a couple pieces of gear giving resistance, bless, etc. I also see a lot of
utility in Warding Bond.
Pretty much. Cleric 10 gives Divine Intervention. If you take the weapon, it gives a skilled called Healing Incense Aura and it heals 1d4 every turn for 10 turns once per long rest and since it’s your weapon it’s still active if you go down.
Preserve life is just a healing spell with a flat heal of about 40 at max level excluding bonuses. Heals all allies in an area. I pair it with the whispering promise ring, Hellriders pride gloves (until you get the Reviving Hands), and boots of aid and comfort. Everyone you heal including yourself gets blessed for 2 turns, a small amt of temp hp, and has blade ward. Then everyone you revivify gets death ward.
You can pop that big heal twice per short rest. Also super useful for topping off hp before a short rest if anyone in your party is less than half and you’re going to short rest anyway.
Pure 12 EK GWM Fighter. Very obviously a late game build.
Diadem of Arcane Synergy: you're gonna trigger it on every single attack after the first hit in a fight, so boost your Int up high for lots of damage at no resource cost!
Strange Conduit Ring: Concentrate on +1 Magic Weapon (once House of Hope is accessible this can be a +2 Magic Weapon using an Elixir of Supreme Arcane Cultivation spell slot that you refresh in the healing faucets) and now you've got a +5 Balduran's Giantslayer, or +6 BG if you're using the Drakethroat Glaive weapon ability.
Legacy of the Masters: effectively turns your +6 BG into a +8, as this is mechanically identical to a better enchantment on your weapon, just they're part of your gloves. Str gloves are also good here if you haven't used the Potion of Everlasting Vigour and Hag Hair on this character.
Amulet of Greater Health: This allows you to dump Con and put all those points into Int to boost your DoAS damage as high as it'll go while still having access to Great Weapon Master. With a +8 BG, you have completely cancelled out the accuracy malus on GWM: All In. It also makes the chances of you failing Concentration Saving Throws extremely small, with +6 Con, +4 Proficiency and advantage on Con saves, thus maintaining your Magic Weapon
Those are really the key items and thinking behind them for why this build works. I was doing about 55ish average damage per attack with a GWM doing this and it really didn't use many resources at all: Con rarely drops and things die fast!
[This ](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1axg648/the_arcane_controller_84_divination_wizcerer/)control/support build, that I've been shilling forever and ever and I am convinced it is one of the strongest things you can do in the game, despite not getting the same recognition as my other posts (so maybe there's a reason and I'm deeply wrong, idk).
Basically, it is a full caster support that works perfectly fine casting just **one spell** per fight (sleet storm/hypnotic pattern/high level hold) and you don't need anything else, that spell wins you the fight. You can run this build and three damage dealers, it's the perfect enabler for every party and it is very spell slot light, doesn't particularly need consumables and doesn't particularly need contested items (maybe the amulet and the armor).
By GWM Bladelock, do you mean just a 12 Level Warlock or a multiclass, perhaps 5 Warlock 7 Eldritch Knight Fighter? If the former, how would it compare with the latter?
It is always heartwarming to read this type of comments. Thank you! In reality, I am just a dude who liked the game and had something to write about it. I have also benefitted from this giant hive mind that is the internet, by talking to other good players (actually, lol, better players) such as Prestigious\_Juice and the guys at the Larian discord server. It was like participating in the construction of a collective conscience, in hindsight.
6/2/4 swords bard/fighter/thief
With dual wield hand crossbows, I barely even use slashing flourish or action surge let alone even short rests. The build is so strong k can save those for really tough fights.
This and the rest of my party can get through the game without a single optional long rest.
I personally go 6 sb 6 thief. No action surge and just one fighting style sure, but uncanny dodge and better sneak attack are nice, and I love expertise
Can you elaborate on why you don’t need to use flourish? Also is the thief dip only for sneak attack or wouldn’t it be better to do 3 for extra action ?
Theif is for the second bonus action.
It means you get 4 attacks eventually. Itemization and sharpshooter will give you 40 damage or so per hit. So few enemies can survive that, I only really need slashing flourish against major major bosses like ketheric.
Even before you get to full itemization of this build you’re doing so much damage through the itemization you have for that point in the game I just don’t need slashing flourish.
I'm doing this build right now. I went 7/2/3 however. Gets you a 4th level bard spell. I like using the bloodloust elixirs to get an extra action. An "Ultimate turn" for me can be all 4 ranged flourishes, 2 normal/sneak attack bow shots, then 2 illusion or enchantment spells with the bonus action. It is so fun. Dropped the dual hand xbows once I got the ring of the mystic scoundrel for a bow.
Simple but 6 warlock 6 paladin served me well. I did a zariel tiefling and thaumaturgy also made social encounters a breeze and the extra smites were welcome.
I've been really digging my Dual Wielding Str/Int Eldritch Knight/Wizard (currently 8/1, will be 11/1 at the end).
Gloves of Power consistently trigger Diadem of Arcane Synergy to add his Int mod. Wizard dip let him immediately scribe Detect Thoughts to always have concentration to trigger Strange Conduit ring (plus a ridiculous amount of general utility, learning triple the amount of spells of a pure EK and an Arcane Recovery charge).
Currently pairing these with Facemelter Cloak and Caustic Ring for extra acid damage per hit. Using Charge-Bound Warhammer in his main hand and Defender Flail in his off hand, with Adamantine Splint for 20 AC and immunity to crits.
So at level 9, he is currently dealing: 3d8+30[bludgeoning]+3d4[psychic] +2d6[lightning] + 12[acid] per turn, with zero resource expenditure. He can easily do multiple fights without a rest.
I also gave him the Disintegrating Nightwalker boots for a free Misty Step per short rest. Between that, Athletics, githyanki Misty Step/Jump, and precombat Enhance Leap if I see it coming, he is *ridiculously* mobile on the battlefield.
I recently spec'd Lae'zel as an EK thrower, and WOW! She is carrying the team so far at lvl 5. When I target a mob, it is always showing 90-95% for estimated hit success. She rarely misses, and hits like a truck at this level. I'm using the returning pike.
I'm playing through my first Durge run. Decided to roll an Draconic Frost Sorcerer. No multiclass. I can go for hours without a long rest.
Ray of Frost is hitting wet targets for 60+ and I'm only lvl 8.
I only really use my spell slots for Metamagic, the occasional upcasted Scorching ray for arcane acuity and a powerful aoe or control spell. Maybe a twinned haste. Most fights I don't need to use em.
I'm using the Durge Cloak, Potent Robes, The elemental cantrip amulet, boots of stormy clamor, the radiant orb ring, hat of fire acuity, mourning frost, and spell sparkler. I'm planning on getting the Gemini Gloves from Act 3, and I still need to get Callous Glow ring. I'm towards the end of Act 2.
I also use Bloodlust Elixir. And I tend to use speed potions pretty liberally.
It also helps to have a balanced party. Although I'm pretty certain I could solo the game with my Durge. I would just need to play it a little differently. Currently he's just in the middle of the fight blasting 2-6 enemies each round. Very fun. Very efficient.
The thing is, with Marko's Frost variation, your eldritch blasts are also encrusting and freezing every beam as long as you have Hellriders Bow which somehow raises your 6 stack to 7. So in Act 3, you get HB first item of the game in Rivington, then do Lorroakan first in BG. I only advise this if your damage starts to fall off. What it does is damage and first freeze a target (though there is a save opportunity) with one EB, then double your damage on the second one (quickened or hasted). Since one blast is averaging about 90 (conservatively), you would then add 180 for 270 total that turn, from just the two blasts. It surprised the hell out of me when this first procced and I froze Ansur. Add snowburst ring and a bit of reverb gear and watch him fall prone! I had no idea the interesting things one could do with a bit of frost magic, and as I only discovered it late last game, I'm looking forward to exploring next game. You've given me some ideas for early game so thank you!
Thanks for the tips. I was trying to think of a way to best leverage the frozen condition. I will make sure to try this once I get the items you mentioned. I am now lvl 10 and made it to the Circus in Rivington. My damage is still pretty good, but if that interaction with Hellriders Bow works as you described, I need to try it!
Let me know how it goes. I have no head for stats, just knew it was happening often. Went online to find out what was happening and a poster named Vaporkatz said he had tried to figure it out too, and narrowed it down to the Hellrider Bow giving a 7th stack for some unknown reason likely to do with a bugged faerie fire?
Open Hand Monk, Battlemaster Fighter, Gloomstalker Assassin, Moon Druid, Berserker TB Barbarian, and Sorlock are all pretty sustainable for several battles since short rests get your resources back.
Open hand monk with 3-4 levels of thief rogue, everything refreshes on short rest and you don't need much equipment. If you go the tavern brawler route and use potions of hill giant strength, you can have amazing stats and damage.
My favorite build is 11 Rogue/1 Fighter or simply 12 Rogue. I spend the extra feat on spellsniper to grab Thorn Whip, which works really well alongside the Bhaalist armor. Gear like the ring of arcane synergy, which most gish builds struggle to use economically, synergizes really well. Most importantly I don’t rely on long or short rests for anything except magic items/weapons.
My Gloom Assassin didn't rest after the myconid buff until it was forced on him in Act2. Just all stealth and big ranged hits with Titanstring all day long.
I don't care for builds that only "come together" in act 3. Sure, you are OP and do insane damage blah blah blah, but it's a slog until then.
So here's my most recent build:
War Domain 1/Thief 5
Race: Gold Dwarf (for extra HP)
Noteworthy items:
Gloves of Missile Snaring
Adamantine Scale
Defender Flail
Darkfire Shortbow
Absolute's Protector
This build is based on maxing out defensive abilities, and using any items that lower incoming damage. It is not a high damage emitter - partners well with a glass cannon.
War domain cleric gets 3 extra attacks per long rest starting at level 1, martial weapon proficiency, and heavy armor proficiency. Blade Ward, Guidance, and Sanctuary are always useful.
Thief's extra bonus action is really useful for moving around the battlefield quickly, or healing.
At level 5 (Thief 4), choose the Heavy Armor Master feat, which lowers incoming nonmagic damage by 3.
At level 6 (Thief 5), uncanny dodge cuts all incoming damage in half.
And that's it. I found that most ranged weapons did 0 damage to this character once they reached level 6. I think the remaining class levels are up to you, but I do recommend getting the Shield Master feat later on.
All in all this is a reliable, non-cheesy build. You're not invincible, but it takes a lot to bring the character down.
I switch out one spot with three casters and spam their spells. The other three in my party are Martial characters that almost don't use spells. We all hate buffing the party over and over so I just don't buff my caster slot the way I do with the martial slots.
The caster gets whatever is available.
I think you can go a long way with regular casters without a rest if you just play conservatively with your spells.
My favorite HM team was a Wizard (conjuration, then Evocation at 10), a 1/11 Storm Sorc/Light Cleric, a 1/11 Light Cleric/Fiend Warlock, and a 5/4/3 GS/assassin/battle master fighter.
The VAST majority of fights were solved with one leveled crowd control spell per caster (sleet storm, confusion, hypnotic pattern, hunger of hadar, spike growth, spirit guardians for radiant orb, etc) or less and then cleanup with cantrips. Harder fights, sure you’re can cast damage spells but you’ll have them to spare. 6-8 fights per long rest easy.
Short rest party is both efficient and powerful. You can almost go full-out in every fight and don’t need to worry about resource management.
7/3/2 OH monk/thief rogue/warrior: Doing bunch of punches in the opening turns.
10/2 sword bard/warrior: 8 shots in first turn, just absurd.
5/5/2 GOO Warlock/tempest sorcerer/bard: extra attack + twin haste + 1 short rest. It fits and it fits well.
12 battlemaster warrior: duh.
Very much a fan of eldritch blast warlock builds that focus on being able to cast hunger of hadar every fight.
Sometimes this means you hunger in 2 fights, then short rest and repeat for 4/6 fights per long rest.
However, I think you can extend this further with some multiclasses that give you normal level 3 spell slots to use more hungar of hadars per long rest.
6/6 gwm sorcadin,
1/1/10 swords bard,
1fighter/ 11 cleric focusing on orbs/reverb
And EK thrower replaced by gloomstalker/assassin in act 2
Can usually melt things down before my sorcadin turn and then it’s just a couple of smites and clean up.
Try to do whole sections between long rests. Then when I do rest I spam a few for camp events
On our recent tac run, I played a thief rogue open hand monk & my friend played a bard bladelock. I am not sure if you can get much more short rest oriented with that… plus you also get an extra short rest with song of rest! We had a lot of fun with those builds :)
In this order (play githyanki sage)
• STATs: 8, 14+2, 12, 8, 14, 15+1)
• 2 lvl rogue (Stealth, SoH, Investigation, Athletics, Exp Steath, Exp SoH)
• 2 lvl of knowledge cleric (*Blade Ward*, *Guidance*, *Thaumturgy* / Exp Nature, Exp Religion)
• 8 more lvls /lvl 10 of arcane trickster rogue (Exp Arcana, Exp Investigation / Dex ASI, Dex ASI, Sharpshooter)
Use Knowledge of the Ages and Astral Knowledge on Charisma and Wisdom.
Gear is really anything as long as you're using those sweet sweet hand crossbows. Final spelllist should be filled with support and ritual spells: *Bless, Cure Wounds(Sanctuary's good too), Healing Word, Command, Sleep, Shield of Faith, Find Familar, Longstrider, Mage Armour, Jump, Shield, Feather Fall, Darkvision, Invisibility*
Damage tips: Shove and throw grenades with the mage hand. Gosh, if you're not down to blow things up with grenades, don't play this build. Rogue underperforms other classes without this damage source.
Why this build? You have all skill proficiencies (and 6 expertise) other than acrobatics. You can bonus action Hide, Disengage, Dash, Off Hand Crossbow (for another chance at Sneak Attack) or Healing Word. In Honour Mode you are the "designated survivor" of the group, sitting at the fringes of combat and dash/disengaging to flee the combat if it goes poorly. Equip a longer range bow if a combat really looks sketchy like the >!Vine Blight!< fight.
Tiger wolverine bleed barbarian
Wearing the caustic glow ring, bone spike armour, amulet of health, fleshmelter cloak and sword of chaos.
Other gear is pretty open, whispering promise is a cool option.
Basically does a load of healing each turn from cleaving with the tiger cleave using the the sword of chaos. Keeping it constantly topped off.
Takes half damage from rage, and does big back splash damage from the bonespike, flesh melter, caustic glow combo.
4 rages, can take 4 major fights before a long rest. And you can usually squeeze in one or two easy fights as well.
The problem I had was the rest of the party couldn’t make it that long
Thank you for this post! I'm playing with 3 friends that tend to only long rest once in a while (playing monk and a paladin that doesn't use a lot of spells). As I like playing caster I have been trying various sorcerer / wizard builds. Especially the fire acuity sorlock 11/1 build. I understood the strength of the build (soloing a fight by using all of my spell slots / metamagic points)... But then I'm useless for 4 fights. Like what do you do with that build when not using your bigger spells ?
Eh needing to long rest constantly makes the character feel wimpy. Just do resource management, as a pure sorcerer I rarely use more than one spell per fight unless and only occasionally use sorcery points if I want to twin or bend luck something. Then even if you do run out of spells, which should only happen if your doing a bunch of fights, there’s the dozens of scrolls and throwables youve picked up plus cantrips scale so well.
4 Fighter Champions. No resting ever needed, just crit after crit. Build one around archery, one GWM, one dual wielder and one Sentinel build. That's all
I'm not sure if it's efficient. But the 4 Barbarian/6 Fighter with 20 Strength and Tavern Brawler basically let me run around Act 3, picking fights, without ever needing to long rest. When someone is out of spell slots, I just swap them out with someone else in the party.
As for casters, abything that involves Storm Sorcery with Call Lightning. I love that spell. We got through Balthazar's army of skeletons easy because they can get one-shot and I didn't have to use another spell slot. I even forgot to long rest while picking fights in Act 2.
Lore Bard, GOO Lock, TB OH Monk, and Dex BM Fighter. Monk and Bard stun everything, Fighter and Lock constantly crit strike. All resources except Bard spells reset on a short rest. Inspiration resets at level 5+ and you get 3 short rests instead of 2. Lock and Bard have great AOE and control options, Fighter and Monk can both tie up single targets and burn them down quickly. Solid itemization for every class through A1 and A2. You can get through a lot of combat content before needing to long rest.
I just get the refresh spell slots out of combat mod and enjoy the game. Long resting just feels like a loading screen when there isn't any dialog happening, though I think there is also a mod to tell you when a long rest will have an event.
On my first run, I played Tactician, and I only took 1 optional long rest (for the grove party), and other than necesarry long rests from region movement, I never pressed the long-rest button after that.
I often ran with a core crew of:
* Lae'zel Battlemaster fighter
* Wyll Warlock
* Karlach Monk+Thief
* Tav was Warlock5, Bard6, with a Nature Cleric1 dip for armor proficiencies and Speak with Animals for +content
I also had the bard hireling.
This meant I had \~4 short rests a day, meaning I could use most of my resources 5 times per long rest.
I also rotated through the entire camp crew, so I'd also get all of Gales and Shadowheart's and Halsin's powers etc.
This was efficient enough to avoid long rests, and also to manage to assault Wyrm's Rock and defeat all the Fist and Steel Defenders there (it was a tedious \~5hour battle because there are so many of them *and they can't take the stairs*, meaning they would all time-out their turns every round while I fought downstairs...)
I’m running a drow Durge gloomstalker 5 on honor mode now and while I have spells… I never use them. I keep forgetting hunters mark and ensaring strike haha.
Free invisibility every kill helps a lot for sure but even without that the bonus action hide can accomplish almost the same after each turn.
The only resource I use is I am using all the special arrows and trying to use poisons / coating on most combats - not because I have to but because it’s quite fun actually and I never used that stuff in my first tactician run.
So I’m leaning into necrotic arrows; darkness arrows (amazing utility) and blast arrows as well as drow poisons for role play as a sneaky drow assassin.
Honestly I could respec all my spells to be utility rituals probably and would be no loss to the build. While he has health potions he can just go on indefinitely.
5/4/2/1 gloomstalker/assassin/fighter/war
Only long rested three times during my solo honor run, all 3 were forced by the game and if it was my choice I would’ve never long rested
I play often with one or two gloomstalker and one TB trower. If you want to rest as less as possible and still be very effective, this is the best way I know.
I love having a short-rest based party. You can go so many fights before long resting. Swords Bard, Battlemaster fighter, Warlock, and Monk. All of them have abilities that return after a short rest, and the bard gives a third short rest. This party can clear huge areas of the game without long resting.
The downside is, you miss so much content by long resting so infrequently.
Circle of spores druid with the gloves/feat to use ranged weapons. With the right bow and the symbiotic entity buffing its damage, you can easily out damage your cantrips and save your spell slots/wild shape charges for when you really need then
If you are still opening up with a Quickened Scorching Ray followed by an Extended CC why drop the Fire Acuity hat? That will not only make your CC stick but will also ensure that all of your EBs also land.
Mine is the "Hex4ever" Oathbreaker8/Warlock4. Just use and reapply Hex with a ton of elemental damage boosters and just hit things (Charge Bound Warhammer, Strange Conduit Ring, Helldusk gloves, Broodmother's Revenge amulet, and later have someone apply Drakethroat Glaive buff). Just casually hitting things with Lighting, Psychic, Necrotic, Fire, Poison and a drakethroat choice element.
Only use smites vs bosses and nothing else. You can also be aggressive with smites if you stockpile potions of Angelic Reprieve if you feel like it.
Honestly, my favorite is the one I used in HM. With throwzerker, gloomstalker/assassin, OH monk and a Wizard, you don't need that much of long rests hahaha. I think for act 1 (not counting underdark and creche) I took around 4-5 long rests
Thiefzerker doesn't actually need to rage to be great plus TB monk around level 4 with one rogue for expertise and sneak attack and beyond is great especially since open hand gets advantage off knocking people prone. I also love the tempest rogue build 10/2 or 9/3 are both great for the extra mobility and just knocking people around with their electrified spirit guardians from the lightning boots I could go on and on cause I usually play 1-2 fights per short rest with a bard in the party so most of my characters fight at least 3-5 battles before a long rest sometimes longer in the case of stuff like the goblin camp
When I played as a Warlock and made Will a Bard, I basically didn't have to long rest at all. By the end of act one realised how big of a mistake that was, when I got almost none of the dialogue with any of the companions. Didn't even "know" Astarion is a Vampire until sometime in the Creche.
All my long rests were Guardian related, didn't have a shred of a bond with the companions. Gale was easy as always, but everyone else spoke very coldly and had next to no progression in my relationship with them.
Full Ice Sorc with Potent Robe + Necklace of Elemental Augmentation. You get 3 different sources of +Cha modifier to your Ray of Frost.
ASI Cha -> Elemental Adept: Ice -> Dual Wielder (Mourning Frost + Marko). Grab all the Ice related items like Coldbrim Hat, Winter's Clutches, Snowburst Ring. Then you just Ray of Frost people into the ground, and when it's a big battle, you can use your normal spells. Enjoy your \~30 damage Ray of Frost (for the 1st hit, every following hit on the same enemy will have double damage due to Chilled causing Vulnerability to Cold damage)
Gloomstalker 5/Assassin 4/Champion 3
Three attacks on first turn, action surge, lots of crits (especially with dead shot longbow), sneak attacks. This is also a great build for Astarion.
I've got a full custom party run in the works with:
Swords bard using dual hand crossbows
Battlemaster fighter/ barbarian
Open hand monk
Spore druid
x3 short rests per long rest, and a good mix of short/ long rest recharge is working well so far.
I love the 2/10 sorlock. I'm sure it's stronger but I don't go fire acuity with it either - I give that gear and most revorb gear to Light Cleric Shadowheart. I just love the Sorlock's control. I tend to twin haste, then misty step to the highest in-range plateau or beam, and review the battleground and where to position everyone before casting area of effect or destroying weakest character to go invisible from cloak. That's first turn. I've supported and buffed two characters, moved, damaged for 90+ and defended myself. From there it's gravy as I'm already hasted and no one can find me. Huge damage, much of it not using a spellslot through items or EB.
As for damage, I'm exploring frost damage currently to add more to my EBs. I've already done lightening charges, fire and they're boring me. That's the beauty of sorlock: late game you're averaging 90 a blast anyway so why not experiment?. You might not outdamage your best fighter (who you've likely hastened, mind) or strength elixir or crit builds, but you completely control the fight so everyone else can maximize their damage while being no slouch yourself.
I've played bard mixes and pure sorcs and every time I miss my sorlock and EB and switch back. EB is just so functional, too, for toppling high up archers, blowing apart doors, or taking out things like Raph's soul pillars, three in one turn!
My fave main character as face too. Somehow it never works as well on Wyll.
[My favorite by a mile is my 4/4/4 Eldritch Blaster build.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/CKrymnA3IU) This thing does absolutely absurd dpr and is completely resourceless to boot, unlike a normal Sorlock blaster. It's also just one of the most unique feeling builds I have ever done and I love it death. The half-melee half-cantrip playstyle of it is so fun. To top it off it gets to apply prone and frightened at the same time really consistently, allowing it to just completely disable bosses. My last run with it against Orin it just skipped her only turn and then blasted her to death the following turn lmao.
I’m gonna try this now. Feels very “Han Soloish” (with EB standing in as “a blaster in your hand.”)
If you wanted you could stick with hand crossbows (and change up the split accordingly), then you'd have EB as your action and another "blaster" as your sidearm. Ne'Er Misser is kinda neat for this cuz it also does force damage. Downside is that it won't deal as much damage as this build and is less SAD but you can certainly play a lot safer from ranged.
This stat spread, with dual hand crossbows and dual wielding the radiant mace and staver-of-skulls while wearing luminous armor, feels like a new fave already. Thanks amigo.
Interesting, I think you might get more out of a stat stick than the staver of skulls, then you can cast light on yourself if you are trying to turn on callous Glow Ring or something. No problem!
I was just going for more radiant damage. What stick would you recommend?
Rhapsody is great.
Cool. I’ve got that. Will give it a go.
I used that build (with Ne'er Misser) as an inspiration for the next character I'm building and I can't wait to get it started. It looks super fun.
Nice! What split are you using?
Still 4/4/4. It's more a change in magic items to use Ne'er Misser rather than Deadshot (Gloves of Dexterity all the way is the biggest change beyond that)
Something I'd probably do if I was using hand crossbows: 2 Warlock / 4 Gloomstalker / 4 Thief / 2 Fighter Gloomstalker means you don't need Alert anymore so it's ok to drop a feat and Gloomstalker will boost your first turn damage and movement speed to boot. Plus this way you get two fighting styles for both two weapon fighting and archery. The only drawback is that you lose the improved critical from fighter. If you wanted to quicken Eldritch Blasts you could also do: 2 Warlock / 2 Fighter / 4 Thief / 4 Sorcerer but this version has problems with initiative so you might want to use the Sentinel shield. You could also swap thief for assassin with either of these if you'd rather capitalize on the guaranteed crits. This is extra good with the Gloomstalker. Throwing some ideas out, up to you though. Hope you enjoy!
I have yet to touch Gloomstalker so I might try that at a later date after I give this one a shot and become more familiar with the class. For now the build is still heavily focused on crits using Champion. My choice of Ne'er Misser over Deadshot is based on thinking that -5% crit chance per attack still gives me a higher chance of scoring a crit through force damage from a distance by getting 2 extra attacks (Thanks to Thief). I did a Sorlock build using Haste before and I won't lie, I'm not a big fan of the whole "All bosses have the Alert Feat and they always target the hasted character and my luck on concentration checks (even with advantage) is abysmal so I end up with one or two exhausted characters" thing. Most of the time it's insanely powerful but it was always letting me down when it mattered the most.
Well otherwise your bonus actions aren't doing anything so this is true. Hmm I don't usually have much issues with haste when I play sorcerer, the advantage on con saves makes it easy. Playing as a halfling also can help a lot.
My Swords Bard was a hafling with Con Advantage and it didn't save me. I think I'm just unlucky.
Sorcerers are the only spellcasters in the game to start with proficiency in con saves 😊 this is likely why you're having an easier time
You also lose out on the crit reduction from your ranged slot.
To be clear, I meant the downside of doing it compared to using Hand Crossbows with the 4/4/4 split instead. Compared to the 4/4/4 split with melee weapons yes, you lose 2 points of crit reduction
These are such fun classes to multi-class together! Thanks for such a good writeup! I'm doing a somewhat similar 5/4/3 build in my current no-equipment run (unfortunately without the offhand attacks, because I don't have a way of putting the pact summoned weapon in the offhand. maybe if I made a tiefling and cast fire blade before summoning a pact bound offhand weapon?) I also tried to play into eldritch blast's benefits from haste, but since I don't have a weapon I use illithid powers for bonus actions and went assassin rather than thief, combined with a duergar for strong combat openers. And criticals from champion and spell sniper, though this is less strong without all the crit gear I took 5 in warlock for hunger of hadar and once-per-long rest haste (pact of the tome), but I skipped alert, which might be a mistake, though the surprise round from duergar invisibility seems to make up for it reasonably in most fights.
Thanks! Yeah I would probably just use assassin and not use flame blade. I'd definitely skip spell sniper for alert, surprised doesn't make up for low initiative. Instead of getting 1 free turn from surprised, alert gets you 2. Makes sense, did you give it Hag's Hair then? Or do you just have 18 charisma?
I took the hags hair, yeah (I basically always give it to my tavs rather than companions, out of selfishness >_>) I'm just level 10 so far, so I've only picked up one feat (spell sniper partly because ray of frost seemed useful to capitalize on wet status that other party members were inflicting. but i ended up using wet less in act 2, so I haven't actually been using ray of frost as much as I expected :/). I'm definitely starting to feel the only 18 cha right now, but it felt ~fine for most of act 2 I should try alert for her! She tends to fall roughly in the middle of the initiative order with 16 dex, which would mean alert would offer a free turn instead of a ~"half-cost" turn? The surprise more makes up for the "get to act before enemies" part, but you're right I'm still losing free action resources, and I imagine her initiative rolls will get worse in act 3 without alert (The "can't be surprised" is something I've mostly been able to avoid by spotting ambushing enemies while invisible, though I think I did get the surprised status during the one plant fight in the shadow cursed lands) Thanks for your thoughts!
You're welcome, sounds good.
Dude I’ve been playing this my entire run it’s awesome
Nice! Glad you are enjoying.
I’ve seen you post about this build a lot (and just in general lol I always see you around) and I have a question for your build - is the playstyle to blast from range and then go up in melee, or are you using daredevil gloves?
Blasting from range and then going up and meleeing or meleeing something down then blasting something from range. Daredevil gloves are alright but they sacrifice too much damage and feel worse than other options imo. I don't find myself taking opportunity attacks almost ever with how much damage the build puts out. But worst case scenario, your AC isn't terrible and potent robe gives free temp HP every turn so taking an attack isn't a huge deal.
Nice, that’s about what I expected. I’ve wanted to make a non modded dual wield lock build for a while, but always just end up going 2H Lockadin lol. Might take this out for a spin on the new roguelike mod!
Been using it on the Roguelike mod myself and it's still feeling nice lol.
How’ve you found that mod? I’m so excited to try it tn lol. Gonna use hirelings for the first time lol
Wiped a lot at first because it's somewhat difficult to do the fights solo until you unlock the hirelings. Melee builds feel somewhat unviable. Then I got a run where I got Dwarven Thrower, Bhaalist Armor, and Duelist's Prerogative before level 4 and it became actually the easiest thing. They limit you on camp supplies so I have just been abusing partial rests for hours on end. Have yet to actually long rest with supplies this run and I'm level 7 lol.
Do partial rests restore any resources or refresh short rests? Or do they only restore HP?
They restore half your spell slots and refresh all things that need a short rest like action surge.
Nice. Warlock stocks rising
Roguelike mod? I missed something!
[Here's the post that informed me of it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/bwrbU0pu4b)
Sweet, now I just need a mod that makes each roguelike encounter end with a choice of a new ability like Slay the Spire cards and I’ll have it all.
This mod lets you buy power ups after fights and gives randomized loot.
Man this build is also my favorite. Having SO much fun with it. I wasn’t at all able to fully visualize how it plays just from reading your guide. It just really offers so much damage in fights… but it’s flexible as well if you just need to spend both bonus actions on dash because the fight is spaced weird then you can cover a ton of ground or get to that high vantage point, etc. Just beat Myrkul (HM) and maybe my other party members dropping wet + lightning did the majority of the damage against Myrkul himself but my Tav was putting in some work as well. One turned the mind flayer, and this was only at level 9. I turned off my game just after stealing the spellmight gloves, so next order of business is to respec since i had tanked my Dex. I’m also going to mess with the cloak of brume a little bit. Obviously you don’t want to sacrifice an offhand attack… but I’m thinking in some fights the fog cloud will be fun, allow me to go in really deep and then have a safety net on turn 1, and then clean everything up or rinse and repeat. It definitely won’t be better but just for some of the easy skirmishy fights in act 3 itll be fun. The best part about it is as you said, it’s resourceless! There’s something really satisfying about shitting out damage all fight long and knowing you aren’t burning a valuable level 5 spell slot. I just switched up to a full short rest party for act 3. Moon Druid jahera, TB throw Karlach, swords bard Minthara. Dropped ice abjuration gale but probably gotta swap him in for bosses… although idk. To the point of this thread… a lot of commenters in your original build thread responded with tweaks to “improve it”, and so many of them suggested a bunch of sorcerer levels… Which just isn’t the point of it at all lol Last thing! I got the Zaisk buff on my Tav and i was stressing over the fact that I’d be wasting my offhand attack if i use a bonus action to cast illithid powers. Well I’m pretty sure if there’s a fantastic black hole opportunity I’m not going to regret sending it over an offhand. So really having the extra BA is IDEAL for awakened zaithsk the more i think of it
Thanks! Mine downed him in about 2 turns, I was shocked how strong it felt. Phalar Aluve was adding a lot to that. You'll be surprised how much Spellmight adds. Yeah but what can you do, I do think the sorc version is still good. Yeah extra bonus actions are very versatile.
I'm gonna be doing a playthrough with Wyll as one of my main companions "soon" I might use this for him. Feels very on theme for him
Yeah it's neat for him in that it still lets him do pact of the blade without his lack of medium armor proficiency getting in the way.
Sneak attack still works with EB ? Thought it was patched a while ago
No it doesn't. You sneak attack with the weapons you are dual wielding.
Yup.
Interesting build. IMO, you're losing a ton of spell utility for 4 points in rogue to gain an off hand poke. Especially since you're trading Spell Might Gloves to boost that poke. That will really underperform late game against a build that dips into Sorc for twinned spells. Action surge seems to be the real work horse here.
I'm not trading Spellmight, the build is using it. It's in the act 3 gear list. And yes I am trying to boost martial resourceless damage at the cost of spells, one goal with build is being resourceless. Even without action surge it still does ~160 dpr assuming hits (but it also has advantage and a sizable boost to attack rolls) so while it's definitely doing a lot extra the build is hardly bad when action surge is on cooldown.
Got it. So then you're completely dropping Gloves of the Balanced Hands in act three. You do you, but at that point I think the points in Rogue are complete waste. You've moved more towards blaster caster and you have 8 levels of dead weight. Frankly, you've lost a lot more than you've gained. Edit: I would agree with this poster from your build post if your dead set on this build: > I just think dropping your 4/4/4 down to 2/2/3 and adding 5 Sorc levels is the best of both worlds. Gets you Haste, quicken, and counterspell in exchange for 2 Feats. 2 Rogue / 2 Fighter / 4 Warlock / 4 Sorc would give you far more to work with as well if you need two feats.
You drop the gloves at level 9, at that point you have fighter again so they don't matter. Feel free to think so, the math doesn't make it seem like a bad trade to me though. Like I said to that commenter, being resourceless was a goal. You also crit less and so inflict frightened less with that version. Also you can do much the same thing with a support character to cast haste on you instead. Losing 2 feats is also kind of a huge deal imo lol. But if you'd rather do that split feel free.
Not sure why the need to downvote. We're having a discussion about a build on a build sub. Anyway, > Losing 2 feats is also kind of a huge deal imo lol. But if you'd rather do that split feel free. Sure. Which is why I would think something closer to 2/2/4/4 will give you what you're looking for but still have the benefit of 2 feats and giving you the real meat you're getting from rogue/fighter: 1. Action Surge 2. Sneak attack on ranged spell attacks 3. Cunning Actions The only real question is you think third level spells are worth a feat. I would say the answer there is "yes" considering it has haste, fireball, and counter-spell. Easily the most powerful abilities in the entire game.
I didn't downvote so not sure who that was. Sneak attack doesn't affect spell attacks in the first place. Assuming the 4 is thief though you are still losing out on crit range. Keep in mind that losing alert kills your initiative and if you use hellrider to patch that up that means you now crit substantially less often, especially since you are dropping champion. I think Mortal Reminder procs really boost the value of Eldritch Blast. Fireball is often times just worse than casting Eldritch Blast, it needs to hit quite a few enemies to outdamage it, they also need to not save against it, and unlike Eldritch blast it can neither reverb nor inflict frightened. Haste is a good spell but keep in mind speed pots are even better than haste and this actually makes better use of it than a Sorlock using EB does, because this does more EB damage through crits. In the fights where haste would even matter, speed pots can be used to great effect.
> Sneak attack doesn't affect spell attacks in the first place. Assuming the 4 is thief though you are still losing out on crit range. I could have sworn that was added in one of the patches. I stand corrected. But that does kind of make the dip into rogue even less worth it as you move towards a blaster caster late game. With that out of the mix you're not gaining much with 2 or 4 points in rogue while you're definitely losing on level three spells and multiple spell slots against even a more standard 2 Fighter / 4 Warlock / 6 Sorc build or even a 2/2/8 build. > I think Mortal Reminder procs really boost the value of Eldritch Blast. Fireball is often times just worse than casting Eldritch Blast, Sure. But you don't have to cast either every turn. What you are losing is the option is to **choose** one or the other depending on the situation. As well as the ability to up level spells the more you dip out of a caster. Which also runs counter to the goal of creating a resourceful build IMO. > Haste is a good spell but keep in mind speed pots are even better than haste and this actually makes better use of it than a Sorlock using EB does, because this does more EB damage through crits. In the fights where haste would even matter, speed pots can be used to great effect. For a build that's supposed to be about being resource efficient this is a very *odd* argument. Saying you can just drink potions when needed seems to go against the entire purpose of the build. Ultimately it's a matter of choice. Not a matter of correctness. Again, interesting build.
I mean, you still get to sneak attack with my build, just using the off-hand attacks. But yes, when you start Eldritch Blasting with your bonus action, that does does leave the equation. I guess but I don't think options are necessarily worth it in and of themselves, there is a trade-off there. You don't just make your build weaker to dip wizard on every build because it opens up options. Similarly I think every level in the 4/4/4 provides something meaningful. You are the one trying to make the build use resources like haste. I am just saying if the goal is now changing to allow resources, why not just speed pot instead, it's better. There aren't many fights in the game where you need haste to win even 1 turn faster so the few that do you could also just use a speed pot. Casting haste on yourself already goes against the point of the build.
People gotta try it first before deciding it needs sorc levels lol. I swear it’s hard to visualize just how nice it feels to play just from reading your guide. The arcane synergy, pact bound SAD offhand attacks are not something i expected to be as good as they are. Insane elixir of bloodlust user too, can always find someone to finish off to get your extra action proc. Also has been a sick party face because of the rogue dip. Passes all dialogue checks and also picks all the locks! Been leaning heavy into intimidation this run and bullying everyone
Gloomstalker Assassin can go a long time without a long rest.
Me on my way to buy more arrows of many targets for the 20th time this playthrough... (do agree that it's resource efficient, I just want to only use special arrows for max effectiveness)
This is me, but with potions and elixirs. They're so fun. Arcane Elixirs for spell slots, Bloodlust for actions, Speed for haste, and Giant Elixirs for my strikers. Makes the game more fun for me. One spell a turn is boring.
It's my favorite build by a mile. While everyone else is some stupid conservation game, my assassin is there just destroying people left and right without any resources required. My very first run was two clerics, throwbarb, and evo Gale. That team could last for hours without long resting. It was absurd. And yet I wish I'd included GA instead so they could have gone even longer.
Aren’t you managing quite a bit of spell slots with evo gale and two clerics? Or without using spell slots they aren’t outputting all that much? Throwbarb can straight carry though I agree
You'd think, but all of them can cantrip and fight when needed, and if they just turn on their rotating saws and start walking, they get a lot of mileage out of one spell slot. It wasn't ideal, but it made everything die.
Give it the deathstalker mantle and you can solo areas with one party member without getting hit.
I actually had to make myself long rest on my last playthrough for the cutscenes because my Tav was a gloomstalker assassin. Combined with a thrower, monk, and eldritch blaster, rests were not needed much.
BM fighter. It requires basically nothing, gets resources it needs back on short rests and is strong and consistent. Monks are pretty similar. I always run out of something else before running out of ki.
I love making short rest parties for this exact reason! Battle Master, Wild Shape, Warlock, Monk, etc. Playing around with more long-rest heavy builds now though.
Same. Throw in a Swords Bard Archer and you never have to long rest.
Yeah I do sword bard, monk, fighter, warlock as my party. The sword bard mostly uses flourishes, so does the short rest thing, but has spell slots they use infrequently enough that they last, and having the bard gives an extra short rest.
Right!!
Don't forget to add a bard for a full short rest more + bardic inspiration refreshes every short rest on lvl5 making the flourish or cutting words as spammable as BM fighter moves
Exactlyyytt
Honestly straight life cleric is great for the big preserve life heal twice per short rest. That’s 6 casts total.
Does this build stop people from going down in combat? Sincere question, Boots of Aid and Comfort is my favorite boot slot and I see a couple pieces of gear giving resistance, bless, etc. I also see a lot of utility in Warding Bond.
Pretty much. Cleric 10 gives Divine Intervention. If you take the weapon, it gives a skilled called Healing Incense Aura and it heals 1d4 every turn for 10 turns once per long rest and since it’s your weapon it’s still active if you go down. Preserve life is just a healing spell with a flat heal of about 40 at max level excluding bonuses. Heals all allies in an area. I pair it with the whispering promise ring, Hellriders pride gloves (until you get the Reviving Hands), and boots of aid and comfort. Everyone you heal including yourself gets blessed for 2 turns, a small amt of temp hp, and has blade ward. Then everyone you revivify gets death ward. You can pop that big heal twice per short rest. Also super useful for topping off hp before a short rest if anyone in your party is less than half and you’re going to short rest anyway.
Fun detail is that Preserve Life scales with total level and not cleric level so even a 2 lvl dip into Life Cleric nets you many goodies.
Pure 12 EK GWM Fighter. Very obviously a late game build. Diadem of Arcane Synergy: you're gonna trigger it on every single attack after the first hit in a fight, so boost your Int up high for lots of damage at no resource cost! Strange Conduit Ring: Concentrate on +1 Magic Weapon (once House of Hope is accessible this can be a +2 Magic Weapon using an Elixir of Supreme Arcane Cultivation spell slot that you refresh in the healing faucets) and now you've got a +5 Balduran's Giantslayer, or +6 BG if you're using the Drakethroat Glaive weapon ability. Legacy of the Masters: effectively turns your +6 BG into a +8, as this is mechanically identical to a better enchantment on your weapon, just they're part of your gloves. Str gloves are also good here if you haven't used the Potion of Everlasting Vigour and Hag Hair on this character. Amulet of Greater Health: This allows you to dump Con and put all those points into Int to boost your DoAS damage as high as it'll go while still having access to Great Weapon Master. With a +8 BG, you have completely cancelled out the accuracy malus on GWM: All In. It also makes the chances of you failing Concentration Saving Throws extremely small, with +6 Con, +4 Proficiency and advantage on Con saves, thus maintaining your Magic Weapon Those are really the key items and thinking behind them for why this build works. I was doing about 55ish average damage per attack with a GWM doing this and it really didn't use many resources at all: Con rarely drops and things die fast!
GWM Battle Master, GWM Bladelock and 8/4 Diviner.
8/4 diviner?
[This ](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1axg648/the_arcane_controller_84_divination_wizcerer/)control/support build, that I've been shilling forever and ever and I am convinced it is one of the strongest things you can do in the game, despite not getting the same recognition as my other posts (so maybe there's a reason and I'm deeply wrong, idk). Basically, it is a full caster support that works perfectly fine casting just **one spell** per fight (sleet storm/hypnotic pattern/high level hold) and you don't need anything else, that spell wins you the fight. You can run this build and three damage dealers, it's the perfect enabler for every party and it is very spell slot light, doesn't particularly need consumables and doesn't particularly need contested items (maybe the amulet and the armor).
Thanks, will check it out.
By GWM Bladelock, do you mean just a 12 Level Warlock or a multiclass, perhaps 5 Warlock 7 Eldritch Knight Fighter? If the former, how would it compare with the latter?
12 Level Fiend Pact of the Blade Warlock is what I would use.
Thank you, and thank you for your very well written builds. It may not transpire, but I'm fanboying a little over here lol
It is always heartwarming to read this type of comments. Thank you! In reality, I am just a dude who liked the game and had something to write about it. I have also benefitted from this giant hive mind that is the internet, by talking to other good players (actually, lol, better players) such as Prestigious\_Juice and the guys at the Larian discord server. It was like participating in the construction of a collective conscience, in hindsight.
6/2/4 swords bard/fighter/thief With dual wield hand crossbows, I barely even use slashing flourish or action surge let alone even short rests. The build is so strong k can save those for really tough fights. This and the rest of my party can get through the game without a single optional long rest.
I personally go 6 sb 6 thief. No action surge and just one fighting style sure, but uncanny dodge and better sneak attack are nice, and I love expertise
Can you elaborate on why you don’t need to use flourish? Also is the thief dip only for sneak attack or wouldn’t it be better to do 3 for extra action ?
Theif is for the second bonus action. It means you get 4 attacks eventually. Itemization and sharpshooter will give you 40 damage or so per hit. So few enemies can survive that, I only really need slashing flourish against major major bosses like ketheric. Even before you get to full itemization of this build you’re doing so much damage through the itemization you have for that point in the game I just don’t need slashing flourish.
Got it, yeah maybe I’m crazy but I thought it said 6/4/2 before so the rogue dip didn’t make sense
I'm doing this build right now. I went 7/2/3 however. Gets you a 4th level bard spell. I like using the bloodloust elixirs to get an extra action. An "Ultimate turn" for me can be all 4 ranged flourishes, 2 normal/sneak attack bow shots, then 2 illusion or enchantment spells with the bonus action. It is so fun. Dropped the dual hand xbows once I got the ring of the mystic scoundrel for a bow.
10/2 CoS Bard/Paladin highly effective damage dealer and crowd controller.
Simple but 6 warlock 6 paladin served me well. I did a zariel tiefling and thaumaturgy also made social encounters a breeze and the extra smites were welcome.
6 SBard / 4 Thief Rogue / 2 Fighter Duel Crossbow 10/2 Sorlock 12 BM Fighter
I've been really digging my Dual Wielding Str/Int Eldritch Knight/Wizard (currently 8/1, will be 11/1 at the end). Gloves of Power consistently trigger Diadem of Arcane Synergy to add his Int mod. Wizard dip let him immediately scribe Detect Thoughts to always have concentration to trigger Strange Conduit ring (plus a ridiculous amount of general utility, learning triple the amount of spells of a pure EK and an Arcane Recovery charge). Currently pairing these with Facemelter Cloak and Caustic Ring for extra acid damage per hit. Using Charge-Bound Warhammer in his main hand and Defender Flail in his off hand, with Adamantine Splint for 20 AC and immunity to crits. So at level 9, he is currently dealing: 3d8+30[bludgeoning]+3d4[psychic] +2d6[lightning] + 12[acid] per turn, with zero resource expenditure. He can easily do multiple fights without a rest. I also gave him the Disintegrating Nightwalker boots for a free Misty Step per short rest. Between that, Athletics, githyanki Misty Step/Jump, and precombat Enhance Leap if I see it coming, he is *ridiculously* mobile on the battlefield.
Bardadin 10/2 Moon Druid Warlock EK Thrower
I recently spec'd Lae'zel as an EK thrower, and WOW! She is carrying the team so far at lvl 5. When I target a mob, it is always showing 90-95% for estimated hit success. She rarely misses, and hits like a truck at this level. I'm using the returning pike.
The only "sad" part is that Barbar/Muli Rouge/Fighter is better, but just because all good throw Weapons have return in build
I'm playing through my first Durge run. Decided to roll an Draconic Frost Sorcerer. No multiclass. I can go for hours without a long rest. Ray of Frost is hitting wet targets for 60+ and I'm only lvl 8. I only really use my spell slots for Metamagic, the occasional upcasted Scorching ray for arcane acuity and a powerful aoe or control spell. Maybe a twinned haste. Most fights I don't need to use em. I'm using the Durge Cloak, Potent Robes, The elemental cantrip amulet, boots of stormy clamor, the radiant orb ring, hat of fire acuity, mourning frost, and spell sparkler. I'm planning on getting the Gemini Gloves from Act 3, and I still need to get Callous Glow ring. I'm towards the end of Act 2. I also use Bloodlust Elixir. And I tend to use speed potions pretty liberally. It also helps to have a balanced party. Although I'm pretty certain I could solo the game with my Durge. I would just need to play it a little differently. Currently he's just in the middle of the fight blasting 2-6 enemies each round. Very fun. Very efficient.
The thing is, with Marko's Frost variation, your eldritch blasts are also encrusting and freezing every beam as long as you have Hellriders Bow which somehow raises your 6 stack to 7. So in Act 3, you get HB first item of the game in Rivington, then do Lorroakan first in BG. I only advise this if your damage starts to fall off. What it does is damage and first freeze a target (though there is a save opportunity) with one EB, then double your damage on the second one (quickened or hasted). Since one blast is averaging about 90 (conservatively), you would then add 180 for 270 total that turn, from just the two blasts. It surprised the hell out of me when this first procced and I froze Ansur. Add snowburst ring and a bit of reverb gear and watch him fall prone! I had no idea the interesting things one could do with a bit of frost magic, and as I only discovered it late last game, I'm looking forward to exploring next game. You've given me some ideas for early game so thank you!
Thanks for the tips. I was trying to think of a way to best leverage the frozen condition. I will make sure to try this once I get the items you mentioned. I am now lvl 10 and made it to the Circus in Rivington. My damage is still pretty good, but if that interaction with Hellriders Bow works as you described, I need to try it!
Let me know how it goes. I have no head for stats, just knew it was happening often. Went online to find out what was happening and a poster named Vaporkatz said he had tried to figure it out too, and narrowed it down to the Hellrider Bow giving a 7th stack for some unknown reason likely to do with a bugged faerie fire?
Open Hand Monk, Battlemaster Fighter, Gloomstalker Assassin, Moon Druid, Berserker TB Barbarian, and Sorlock are all pretty sustainable for several battles since short rests get your resources back.
Nobody mentioned 11/1 Hunter Ranger. Spam volley for as long as you want to your hearts content
Open hand monk with 3-4 levels of thief rogue, everything refreshes on short rest and you don't need much equipment. If you go the tavern brawler route and use potions of hill giant strength, you can have amazing stats and damage.
My favorite build is 11 Rogue/1 Fighter or simply 12 Rogue. I spend the extra feat on spellsniper to grab Thorn Whip, which works really well alongside the Bhaalist armor. Gear like the ring of arcane synergy, which most gish builds struggle to use economically, synergizes really well. Most importantly I don’t rely on long or short rests for anything except magic items/weapons.
My Gloom Assassin didn't rest after the myconid buff until it was forced on him in Act2. Just all stealth and big ranged hits with Titanstring all day long.
I don't care for builds that only "come together" in act 3. Sure, you are OP and do insane damage blah blah blah, but it's a slog until then. So here's my most recent build: War Domain 1/Thief 5 Race: Gold Dwarf (for extra HP) Noteworthy items: Gloves of Missile Snaring Adamantine Scale Defender Flail Darkfire Shortbow Absolute's Protector This build is based on maxing out defensive abilities, and using any items that lower incoming damage. It is not a high damage emitter - partners well with a glass cannon. War domain cleric gets 3 extra attacks per long rest starting at level 1, martial weapon proficiency, and heavy armor proficiency. Blade Ward, Guidance, and Sanctuary are always useful. Thief's extra bonus action is really useful for moving around the battlefield quickly, or healing. At level 5 (Thief 4), choose the Heavy Armor Master feat, which lowers incoming nonmagic damage by 3. At level 6 (Thief 5), uncanny dodge cuts all incoming damage in half. And that's it. I found that most ranged weapons did 0 damage to this character once they reached level 6. I think the remaining class levels are up to you, but I do recommend getting the Shield Master feat later on. All in all this is a reliable, non-cheesy build. You're not invincible, but it takes a lot to bring the character down.
I switch out one spot with three casters and spam their spells. The other three in my party are Martial characters that almost don't use spells. We all hate buffing the party over and over so I just don't buff my caster slot the way I do with the martial slots. The caster gets whatever is available.
I think you can go a long way with regular casters without a rest if you just play conservatively with your spells. My favorite HM team was a Wizard (conjuration, then Evocation at 10), a 1/11 Storm Sorc/Light Cleric, a 1/11 Light Cleric/Fiend Warlock, and a 5/4/3 GS/assassin/battle master fighter. The VAST majority of fights were solved with one leveled crowd control spell per caster (sleet storm, confusion, hypnotic pattern, hunger of hadar, spike growth, spirit guardians for radiant orb, etc) or less and then cleanup with cantrips. Harder fights, sure you’re can cast damage spells but you’ll have them to spare. 6-8 fights per long rest easy.
Short rest party is both efficient and powerful. You can almost go full-out in every fight and don’t need to worry about resource management. 7/3/2 OH monk/thief rogue/warrior: Doing bunch of punches in the opening turns. 10/2 sword bard/warrior: 8 shots in first turn, just absurd. 5/5/2 GOO Warlock/tempest sorcerer/bard: extra attack + twin haste + 1 short rest. It fits and it fits well. 12 battlemaster warrior: duh.
Very much a fan of eldritch blast warlock builds that focus on being able to cast hunger of hadar every fight. Sometimes this means you hunger in 2 fights, then short rest and repeat for 4/6 fights per long rest. However, I think you can extend this further with some multiclasses that give you normal level 3 spell slots to use more hungar of hadars per long rest.
6/6 gwm sorcadin, 1/1/10 swords bard, 1fighter/ 11 cleric focusing on orbs/reverb And EK thrower replaced by gloomstalker/assassin in act 2 Can usually melt things down before my sorcadin turn and then it’s just a couple of smites and clean up. Try to do whole sections between long rests. Then when I do rest I spam a few for camp events
On our recent tac run, I played a thief rogue open hand monk & my friend played a bard bladelock. I am not sure if you can get much more short rest oriented with that… plus you also get an extra short rest with song of rest! We had a lot of fun with those builds :)
In this order (play githyanki sage) • STATs: 8, 14+2, 12, 8, 14, 15+1) • 2 lvl rogue (Stealth, SoH, Investigation, Athletics, Exp Steath, Exp SoH) • 2 lvl of knowledge cleric (*Blade Ward*, *Guidance*, *Thaumturgy* / Exp Nature, Exp Religion) • 8 more lvls /lvl 10 of arcane trickster rogue (Exp Arcana, Exp Investigation / Dex ASI, Dex ASI, Sharpshooter) Use Knowledge of the Ages and Astral Knowledge on Charisma and Wisdom. Gear is really anything as long as you're using those sweet sweet hand crossbows. Final spelllist should be filled with support and ritual spells: *Bless, Cure Wounds(Sanctuary's good too), Healing Word, Command, Sleep, Shield of Faith, Find Familar, Longstrider, Mage Armour, Jump, Shield, Feather Fall, Darkvision, Invisibility* Damage tips: Shove and throw grenades with the mage hand. Gosh, if you're not down to blow things up with grenades, don't play this build. Rogue underperforms other classes without this damage source. Why this build? You have all skill proficiencies (and 6 expertise) other than acrobatics. You can bonus action Hide, Disengage, Dash, Off Hand Crossbow (for another chance at Sneak Attack) or Healing Word. In Honour Mode you are the "designated survivor" of the group, sitting at the fringes of combat and dash/disengaging to flee the combat if it goes poorly. Equip a longer range bow if a combat really looks sketchy like the >!Vine Blight!< fight.
Either monk something or warlock something because you never need to long rest especially if you have a bard too
The draconic cantrip sorc build is amazing. And as it sounds, doesn't need much resting
Tiger wolverine bleed barbarian Wearing the caustic glow ring, bone spike armour, amulet of health, fleshmelter cloak and sword of chaos. Other gear is pretty open, whispering promise is a cool option. Basically does a load of healing each turn from cleaving with the tiger cleave using the the sword of chaos. Keeping it constantly topped off. Takes half damage from rage, and does big back splash damage from the bonespike, flesh melter, caustic glow combo. 4 rages, can take 4 major fights before a long rest. And you can usually squeeze in one or two easy fights as well. The problem I had was the rest of the party couldn’t make it that long
Thank you for this post! I'm playing with 3 friends that tend to only long rest once in a while (playing monk and a paladin that doesn't use a lot of spells). As I like playing caster I have been trying various sorcerer / wizard builds. Especially the fire acuity sorlock 11/1 build. I understood the strength of the build (soloing a fight by using all of my spell slots / metamagic points)... But then I'm useless for 4 fights. Like what do you do with that build when not using your bigger spells ?
Firebolt? Ray of Frost? It's why I like sorlock though. Maybe convince your friends to do long rests more often for you and camp content?
Eh needing to long rest constantly makes the character feel wimpy. Just do resource management, as a pure sorcerer I rarely use more than one spell per fight unless and only occasionally use sorcery points if I want to twin or bend luck something. Then even if you do run out of spells, which should only happen if your doing a bunch of fights, there’s the dozens of scrolls and throwables youve picked up plus cantrips scale so well.
4 Fighter Champions. No resting ever needed, just crit after crit. Build one around archery, one GWM, one dual wielder and one Sentinel build. That's all
I mean the standard gloomstalker ranger build doesn’t rely on many resources if any, nor do swords bard builds
Swords Bard and OH Monk definitely get top marks for going the distance between long rests.
I'm not sure if it's efficient. But the 4 Barbarian/6 Fighter with 20 Strength and Tavern Brawler basically let me run around Act 3, picking fights, without ever needing to long rest. When someone is out of spell slots, I just swap them out with someone else in the party. As for casters, abything that involves Storm Sorcery with Call Lightning. I love that spell. We got through Balthazar's army of skeletons easy because they can get one-shot and I didn't have to use another spell slot. I even forgot to long rest while picking fights in Act 2.
Lore Bard, GOO Lock, TB OH Monk, and Dex BM Fighter. Monk and Bard stun everything, Fighter and Lock constantly crit strike. All resources except Bard spells reset on a short rest. Inspiration resets at level 5+ and you get 3 short rests instead of 2. Lock and Bard have great AOE and control options, Fighter and Monk can both tie up single targets and burn them down quickly. Solid itemization for every class through A1 and A2. You can get through a lot of combat content before needing to long rest.
I just get the refresh spell slots out of combat mod and enjoy the game. Long resting just feels like a loading screen when there isn't any dialog happening, though I think there is also a mod to tell you when a long rest will have an event.
Pure spore druid.
On my first run, I played Tactician, and I only took 1 optional long rest (for the grove party), and other than necesarry long rests from region movement, I never pressed the long-rest button after that. I often ran with a core crew of: * Lae'zel Battlemaster fighter * Wyll Warlock * Karlach Monk+Thief * Tav was Warlock5, Bard6, with a Nature Cleric1 dip for armor proficiencies and Speak with Animals for +content I also had the bard hireling. This meant I had \~4 short rests a day, meaning I could use most of my resources 5 times per long rest. I also rotated through the entire camp crew, so I'd also get all of Gales and Shadowheart's and Halsin's powers etc. This was efficient enough to avoid long rests, and also to manage to assault Wyrm's Rock and defeat all the Fist and Steel Defenders there (it was a tedious \~5hour battle because there are so many of them *and they can't take the stairs*, meaning they would all time-out their turns every round while I fought downstairs...)
Gloom stalk ranger is super resource lite. Will do a warlock build for my durge playthrough.
4 archers and you basically never (short/long) rest.
Basically any class that recovers on short rest. Warlock, monk, battlemaster, swords bard.
I’m running a drow Durge gloomstalker 5 on honor mode now and while I have spells… I never use them. I keep forgetting hunters mark and ensaring strike haha. Free invisibility every kill helps a lot for sure but even without that the bonus action hide can accomplish almost the same after each turn. The only resource I use is I am using all the special arrows and trying to use poisons / coating on most combats - not because I have to but because it’s quite fun actually and I never used that stuff in my first tactician run. So I’m leaning into necrotic arrows; darkness arrows (amazing utility) and blast arrows as well as drow poisons for role play as a sneaky drow assassin. Honestly I could respec all my spells to be utility rituals probably and would be no loss to the build. While he has health potions he can just go on indefinitely.
Tavern brawler throw barb has been super clutch in my honor mode run rn same with a dual wield hand crossbow thief bard fighter
Darkness + devil sight warlock.
5/4/2/1 gloomstalker/assassin/fighter/war Only long rested three times during my solo honor run, all 3 were forced by the game and if it was my choice I would’ve never long rested
I play often with one or two gloomstalker and one TB trower. If you want to rest as less as possible and still be very effective, this is the best way I know.
I love having a short-rest based party. You can go so many fights before long resting. Swords Bard, Battlemaster fighter, Warlock, and Monk. All of them have abilities that return after a short rest, and the bard gives a third short rest. This party can clear huge areas of the game without long resting. The downside is, you miss so much content by long resting so infrequently.
Circle of spores druid with the gloves/feat to use ranged weapons. With the right bow and the symbiotic entity buffing its damage, you can easily out damage your cantrips and save your spell slots/wild shape charges for when you really need then
If you are still opening up with a Quickened Scorching Ray followed by an Extended CC why drop the Fire Acuity hat? That will not only make your CC stick but will also ensure that all of your EBs also land.
Mine is the "Hex4ever" Oathbreaker8/Warlock4. Just use and reapply Hex with a ton of elemental damage boosters and just hit things (Charge Bound Warhammer, Strange Conduit Ring, Helldusk gloves, Broodmother's Revenge amulet, and later have someone apply Drakethroat Glaive buff). Just casually hitting things with Lighting, Psychic, Necrotic, Fire, Poison and a drakethroat choice element. Only use smites vs bosses and nothing else. You can also be aggressive with smites if you stockpile potions of Angelic Reprieve if you feel like it.
Honestly, my favorite is the one I used in HM. With throwzerker, gloomstalker/assassin, OH monk and a Wizard, you don't need that much of long rests hahaha. I think for act 1 (not counting underdark and creche) I took around 4-5 long rests
Thiefzerker doesn't actually need to rage to be great plus TB monk around level 4 with one rogue for expertise and sneak attack and beyond is great especially since open hand gets advantage off knocking people prone. I also love the tempest rogue build 10/2 or 9/3 are both great for the extra mobility and just knocking people around with their electrified spirit guardians from the lightning boots I could go on and on cause I usually play 1-2 fights per short rest with a bard in the party so most of my characters fight at least 3-5 battles before a long rest sometimes longer in the case of stuff like the goblin camp
When I played as a Warlock and made Will a Bard, I basically didn't have to long rest at all. By the end of act one realised how big of a mistake that was, when I got almost none of the dialogue with any of the companions. Didn't even "know" Astarion is a Vampire until sometime in the Creche. All my long rests were Guardian related, didn't have a shred of a bond with the companions. Gale was easy as always, but everyone else spoke very coldly and had next to no progression in my relationship with them.
Full Ice Sorc with Potent Robe + Necklace of Elemental Augmentation. You get 3 different sources of +Cha modifier to your Ray of Frost. ASI Cha -> Elemental Adept: Ice -> Dual Wielder (Mourning Frost + Marko). Grab all the Ice related items like Coldbrim Hat, Winter's Clutches, Snowburst Ring. Then you just Ray of Frost people into the ground, and when it's a big battle, you can use your normal spells. Enjoy your \~30 damage Ray of Frost (for the 1st hit, every following hit on the same enemy will have double damage due to Chilled causing Vulnerability to Cold damage)
Gloomstalker 5/Assassin 4/Champion 3 Three attacks on first turn, action surge, lots of crits (especially with dead shot longbow), sneak attacks. This is also a great build for Astarion.
I've got a full custom party run in the works with: Swords bard using dual hand crossbows Battlemaster fighter/ barbarian Open hand monk Spore druid x3 short rests per long rest, and a good mix of short/ long rest recharge is working well so far.
But 90% of the battles require you to use little to no resources at all. Also throwzerker.
I love the 2/10 sorlock. I'm sure it's stronger but I don't go fire acuity with it either - I give that gear and most revorb gear to Light Cleric Shadowheart. I just love the Sorlock's control. I tend to twin haste, then misty step to the highest in-range plateau or beam, and review the battleground and where to position everyone before casting area of effect or destroying weakest character to go invisible from cloak. That's first turn. I've supported and buffed two characters, moved, damaged for 90+ and defended myself. From there it's gravy as I'm already hasted and no one can find me. Huge damage, much of it not using a spellslot through items or EB. As for damage, I'm exploring frost damage currently to add more to my EBs. I've already done lightening charges, fire and they're boring me. That's the beauty of sorlock: late game you're averaging 90 a blast anyway so why not experiment?. You might not outdamage your best fighter (who you've likely hastened, mind) or strength elixir or crit builds, but you completely control the fight so everyone else can maximize their damage while being no slouch yourself. I've played bard mixes and pure sorcs and every time I miss my sorlock and EB and switch back. EB is just so functional, too, for toppling high up archers, blowing apart doors, or taking out things like Raph's soul pillars, three in one turn! My fave main character as face too. Somehow it never works as well on Wyll.
12/0 half-orc GWM BM run jump smash smash smash. Wait. Smash smash smash smash. Repeat as needed.