Baldur's Gate 3 Best Beginner Fighter Builds
Sep. 18, 2023Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Fighter Builds
In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Fighter Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you the 3 Best Beginner FighterBuildsthat you can use to put together an effectiveFighterearly on in the game. Note that these are a mix of singleClassandMulticlassBuilds.
These are Level 6 Fighter Builds and I’ll be talking about how they play and how you can advance them further as you level up higher.
The first Baldur’s Gate 3 Fighter Build we’re going to take a look at is 5 levels ofEldritch Knightand 1 level ofWizard. You could actually do 6 levels of Eldritch Knight and have the same amount ofSpell Slotsat this point. However, by taking 1 level of Wizard, you’ll be able to learnSpellsfrom scrolls, which will give you a broader range of Spells that you can cast.
I’ve waited until after Level 5 to take 1 level of Wizard and that’s because you want to be able to gainExtra Attackfrom the Fighter even if you’re playing an Eldritch Knight. Extra Attack is extremely strong so it’s important to get it as quickly as you can with the Spells you need.
One thing that I really like about this Baldur’s Gate 3 Eldritch Knight Wizard Multiclass Build is at Level 7 if you’re playing Eldritch Knight and take another level of it, you’ll gain 2 Level 2 Spells, Spell Slots, and an extraFeat, making it very strong in midgBaldur’s Gate 3 – Fighter Gameplayame until the latter parts of the game. The Eldritch KnightSubclassgives you all the best things of the Fighter including Feats, Extra Attacks,Action Surge, aFighting Style, and Spells likeShieldto protect you inCombat.
For instance, you can throw aMagic Missileto finish off a weak enemy and then hit another. You can also useThunderwaveto knock targets back. There are several things you can do with this Build that a regular Fighter wouldn’t be able to do if you were to choose theBattle MasterorChampionSubclass.
And by taking 2 levels of Wizard, you’ll gain a Subclass. You can take theEvocation Schoolif you don’t want to worry about hitting friendlies with AOES or theAbjuration Schoolif you wantArcane Ward, which is fantastic to help protect you in combat and makes you tankier as a Fighter. Reaching Level 2 Wizard will enable you to get all the Subclass Features of the Eldritch Knight eventually but you do sacrifice theImproved Extra Attackat Level 11 but I think theSpellcastingoffsets that in this Build.
Another thing I want to mention is if you’re just using Magic Missile as your offensive Spell and Shield as your protective Spell, you don’t really need anyIntelligence. If you’ll mostly attack but want access to some buffs, you can still allocate points into yourAbility Scoreshow you would normally put them as a Fighter whether that’sDexterityorStrength.
TheWarped Headband of Intellectis great for this Class because it’s going to give you 17 Intelligence so even if you dumped this and weren’t planning on using much Spells, you’ll still be able to cast them relatively effectively, at least in the early game.
The next BG3 Fighter Build we’re going to take a look at is 5 levels of Champion and 1 level ofBarbarian. What I really like about this is you’re going to go through a similar path as the Eldritch Knight Build and then you’ll create something much more powerful later on in the game. You’ll receive all the things I’ve mentioned previously such as Extra Attack from 5 levels of Fighter, Fighting Style, and Action Surge.
You’ll then have a higher crit chance because Champions only need to roll a 19 or 20 in order to crit, which synergizes very well with Barbarians and I’ll explain why.
Barbarians at Level 1 gain access toRage, which allows them to add two additional damage to their melee attacks, specificallyImprovised Melee WeaponsandThrown Objects. It’s also going to give them damage resistance from physical damage by cutting it in half. Next, they gain anAdvantageon Strength Checks andSaving Throws, which means that they won’t be shoved very easily and they’ll be able to resist or save against most Spells that target their Strength.
At Level 2 of the Barbarian, which is what you’re going to immediately do upon hitting Level 7, you’ll gainReckless Attack. This will provide you with an Advantage on yourAttack Rolls. And because you only need to roll a 19 or 20 in order to crit since you’re a Champion, the likelihood of dealing crit damage will increase. The only downside is that enemies have an Advantage against you but you still have damage resistance from Rage so it’s not the end of the world. Additionally, you won’t be able to useHeavy Armorwith this Build while you’re Raging.
But the idea here is to build towards 9 levels of the Barbarian and 3 levels of the Fighter. However, at the start, you’ll want 5 levels of Fighter in order to have that Extra Attack.
And then you’ll eventually respect to 5 levels of Barbarian and 3 levels of Fighter and choose to become a Barbarian all the way. At Level 9 Barbarian, you’re going to get to roll an extra crit die when you crit so not only do you have a higher chance to crit from Advantage on all your attacks with Reckless Attack but also, when you do crit, it’s going to hit harder. So this is a really nice synergy later on in the game.
Barbarians also gainUnarmored Defense, allowing them to add theirConstitutionModifier to theirArmor Classif they’re Unarmored, which you can absolutely play this BG3 Champion Barbarian Multiclass Build on. And they also gain a lot of passive benefits.
The last Baldur’s Gate 3 Build here is just pure 6 levels of theBattle MasterFighter and what this is going to do is it’ll give you access to differentManeuversto use in combat effectively. There are a lot of strong ones such asSweeping Attack. Sweeping Attack allows you to cleave enemies in front of you. This is really good for AOE, which is something that Fighters don’t always have, allowing you to deal with multiple targets without resorting to Spellcasting.
Another good Maneuver isEvasive Footwork. This makes it so that enemies receive aDisadvantageon melee attacks against you until your next turn. That’s huge because you could be surrounded by say, 8 targets, but none of them can hit you for a turn. You already have a high Armor Class as a Fighter anyway, particularly if you have a Shield. And then they have Disadvantages in all their attacks. You can simply tank for days and the Evasive Footwork only costs 1Superiority Die. Remember that at this point in the game, you have 4 Superiority Die for every Short Rest, making you super tanky with just 1 Maneuver.
Just like the other Fighter Builds I’ve shown, you’re going to gain a Fighting Style, Action Surge, Extra Attack, as well as a second Feat that you can use forGreat Weapon Master. Great Weapon Master is really strong because when you kill an enemy or critically hit them, you’ll gain another attack as aBonus Action. This is really good even if you using a Sword andShield. In total you’ll be able to attack 3x, accounting for your Extra Attack as well.
Moving forward, if you’re playing dual wield, you could mix this with aThiefRoguein order to gain an extra Bonus Action that you can attack with using your OffhandWeapon. Or you could keep climbing up as a Battle Master and gain more Maneuvers and Superiority Die. Remember that the Superiority Die also adds damage to the attacks you make with damage-dealing Maneuvers so you won’t only deal regular damage. This Feature only gets stronger later on in the game going from a d8 to a d10 to further increase the damage.
Frankly, if I had to recommend a Fighter Build to a new player, it’d be the Battle Master. The Champion is easier in terms of its passive abilities so you don’t have to learn a lot about it. But the Battle Master is much more engaging to play because you have all these different Maneuvers you can choose from and so each of them will end up differently.
So that wraps up our Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Fighter Builds. Again, we do have Advanced Builds coming. I’ve seen people who are frustrated that we haven’t put them out yet but I want to get through all the Class Guides. Afterward, we’ll start getting into more specific Endgame Builds. And as always, if you have further tips for new players, leave them in the comments. If you have questions, I will try and answer them as best I can.
Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content.
Auberon
Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.
