Baldur's Gate 3 Best Beginner Paladin Builds

Sep. 8, 2023

Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Paladin Builds

In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin Build Guide, I’m going to be showing 3 early-gamePaladinBuilds that are very, very powerful. I wanted to give some early-gameBuildsfor those of you who are near the beginning of the game. This is going to go to Level 6 and then for late-game Builds, it’s going to be from Levels 7 to 12. There will also be full Level 12 Builds.

So there are 3MulticlassPaladin Builds and I did it this way because first of all, they’re really fun, and second, I thought that after my Paladin Guide, playing a single-class Paladin is pretty straightforward. But multiclassing is a little more complicated so I wanted to get into that by showing you the ways on how to do it early on. Here are my thee Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Game Paladin Builds!

So the first Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin Build I’m going to show you is a PaladinWarlockMulticlass Build. This is 2 levels of Paladin and then 4 levels of Warlock. Now it doesn’t particularly matter what subclass you choose for Paladin or Warlock here so you can choose whichever you like.

The Fiendis kind of nice for the extra health on top of your health pool when you kill enemies since you will be in melee range a lot but you could go with whatever you want.

So the general idea here is to take 2 levels of Paladin first in order to bring along ourFighting Style, which is going to beGreat Weapon Fightingsince we’ll be using a Two-Handed Weapon. We’re going to bring along ourDivine Smite, of course, which deals incredible damage, our ArmorProficiences, and thenSpell Slots.

Moving along to the Warlock, what we’re going to gain here isEldritch Blast, which allows us to use ourCharismato make ranged attacks, which is great because Paladins have basically no good ranged attacks unless they’re playing asDexterityPaladins where most playStrength-based ones. Also at Level 2, we’re going to be able to takeAgonizing Blastwith our firstEldritch Invocation, which is going to allow us to add our Charisma Modifier to our Eldritch Blast.

With our second Eldritch Invocation, we’re going to pick upDevil’s Sight. This is going to give us Superior Darkvision but it’s also going to allow us to see inside darkness. I don’t mean dark places in BG3 but I mean the actualDarkness Spell. We will be able to fight inside it while other enemies cannot, which is going to give us a few things.

At the same level, we’re also going to gain access to a second Pact Magic Spell Slot so we’ll be able to cast two-pack magicSpellsbefore eachShort Rest.

At Level 3, these two-pack magic Spell Slots will upgrade to Level 2 versions, which is great for Divine Smite, since these will deal more damage. We’ll also gain aPact Boonand we’re going to choosePact of the Bladehere. This is going to allow us to use Charisma for ourAttack Rollsand damage, which is huge. And because we use Charisma from this point onward to make our attacks with thisWeapon, we don’t really need Strength or Dexterity necessarily. We’re going to be wearingHeavy Armorbecause of our Proficiency as a Paladin so we’re not going to gain extra Armor from Dexterity so we don’t really need this Ability Score either.

You could probably use Dexterity andMedium Armorif you want in order to have some points in thisAbility Scorebut you’re really going to focus onConstitutionand Charisma so that your Spells and Weapon will hit as hard has they can. Constitution will help give you a huge health pool and will also help you on Concentration Checks so if you have a lot of points in Dexterity or Strength, I suggest respeccing at this point and then putting as much as you can into Charisma and Constitution.

And then at Level 4 of Warlock, we’re going to gain a Feat where we’ll selectGreat Weapon Master. Whenever we make aCritical Hitor kill a target with a Melee Weapon, we can make another melee attack as a Bonus Action so we’ll be able to use our regular Attack Action to attack and we’re also going to be able to use our Bonus Action to attack as well on top of that.

We have a Toggleable Feature that allows us to add 10 damage to our Damage Roll for a -5 Attack Roll penalty which means we might be more likely to miss but if we do connect, we’re going to hit way harder. Since this is toggleable, you can turn it on and off but one of the great things is if you’re fighting in darkness, then you haveAdvantageon your Attack Rolls with Devil’s Sight so we don’t necessarily get penalized that much with that Attack Roll penalty compared to a lot of other characters.

But the strategy here is to drop Darkness in an area around a bunch of enemies, go into that darkness, and then get in and attack them. You also protect yourself because ranged enemies cannot shoot into the darkness but you also can’t shoot ranged attacks out of the darkness. But you can execute melee attacks in the darkness with Advantage paired with Devil’s Sight.

What’s really great about having the Paladin is you can use Divine Smite in this darkness and you can also use it on the bonus attack that you gain if you kill an enemy with your Weapon. Just keep in mind that if you kill the first enemy with your Weapon and Divine Smite together, you won’t gain that Bonus Action. So try and kill the first enemy, make it a weaker target, kill that enemy, and then use your Weapon Attack Divine Smite on the second target if possible.

The first pro of this Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin Build is that you have more flexibility as a Paladin because of Eldritch Blast as a ranged option. You don’t have to put points into Strength and Dexterity from this point onward. Instead, you could just pump Constitution and Charisma, making you really tanky and have really high damage because your attacks are going to be off that. You also can fight in darkness and give yourself high-ground rules of damage in there that’s going to make enemies have a tough time.

They won’t know how to handle it very well so those are the strengths of this playstyle. What’s really great about this too is that your next level at Level 7, if you take Level 5 of Warlock, your Spell Slots are going to get upgraded to Level 3. Additionally, you’re going to gain Extra Attack with your Pact Weapon. So that Extra Attack you’re missing from 5 levels of Paladin, you’ll gain in 1 more level of Warlock, making this Build even stronger.

So next let’s take a look at 5 levels of Paladin and 1 level ofSorcerer. What I really like about this setup is you’re going to have more Spell Slots than you had in the previous Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin Build. You’re going to gain them by taking aLong Restinstead of a Short Rest, which means more Divine Smites in a given combat scenario if you need them.

Additionally, you will gain access to someCantripswith this Build that gives you a ranged option as a Paladin that doesn’t consume Spell Slots. Paladins sorely need range and because they’re mostly Strength and Charisma-based, they don’t really use a Bow or Crossbow very effectively.

Because we’ve taken the 5 levels of Paladin here before 1 level of Sorcerer, you’re going to gain a few things that are missing in the previous Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin Build. You’re going to gain two otherChannel Oath Featuresfor your Subclass, whichever Subclass you choose. You can pick anything you want and you’re also going to gain the Spells you would gain for your Oath Spells at Level 3 and Level 5 that were missing from the previous Build because we never made it to either level. But depending on what Subclass you are, you’re going to gain access to more Spells too.

On top of this, you’ll be able to pick up some offensive AOE-type Spells like Thunderwave or Burning Hands that come in handy when a Paladin is surrounded by a lot of enemies. Because even though this Class has Extra Attack, the damage won’t be a lot if you’re surrounded by 6 guys.

But if you area of effect spell, you can hit and potentially kill a lot of them. Essentially this is a better use of your turn than just hitting or killing two guys. So I really like having the flexibility of having some AOE shorter-range type Spells with the ability to attack twice and cast a ranged Cantrip, giving you a lot of tools based on what you need for the situation.

On your 7th level, if you take Sorcerer again, you’re going to gain access toSorcery Points, which is going to allow you to manipulate your Spells by giving youMetamagicor you can sacrifice those Sorcery Points for another Spell Slot that you can use to cast Spells like Divine Smite if you need it so there’s some more flexibility there as well.

My recommendation for the Subclass here is theStorm Sorceryand that’s because at Level 1, whenever you cast a Level 1 Spell or higher, you canFlyas aBonus Actionuntil the end of your turn without receiving anAttack of Opportunity. Paladins absolutely need this mobility so having the ability to move up or down a good distance is great, and then they can use their movement points and this tempts them to cast Spells. Keep in mind that Divine Smite does not count as a Spell in this case because using it won’t let you Fly.

So the final Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin Build here is 2 levels of Paladin and 4 levels ofBard. Just with 2 levels of Paladin here, you’re going to bring your Armor andWeapon Proficiencieswith you. You’ll retain Divine Smite, Spell Slots, and your Fighting Style, which in this case is going to be Defense. What you gain by selecting the Bard isBardic Inspirationthat’s used a number of times before taking a Long Rest to help yourCompanionsout.

Eventually, we’ll be able to use this on ourselves as well. You’ll also gain access to a lot of support-type Spells and offensive ones too like Healing Word which can be used as a Bonus Action to heal teammates or themselves while in combat. Another set of examples isCloud of Daggersand Thunderwave.

Additionally, you’re going to have more Spell Slots than you have with either the other two combinations together with Level 3 Spell Slots, which you can use to cast stronger Divine Smites or to cast Level 2 Spells at a higher level since you won’t have access to Level 3 Bard Spells at this point, although you will on the very next level.

So once you hit Level 3 Bard, you’re going to choose a Subclass, specifically theCollege of Swords. What this is going to do is it’ll give us a couple of extra Actions that we can use in Combat thanks to the Bardic Inspiration Die to be applied on ourselves that’s going to make us more formidable.

So for the first one, there’sDefensive Flourish, which makes it so that if you land your attack, then you increase your Armor by 4 until your next turn, which is great. Second isMobile Flourishwhich allows you to push the target backward by 6 meters and then teleport to them after if you want. So maybe you’re next to a ledge and you want to knock a target off or push them backward. Or perhaps you just want to push them away from another friendly target and then teleport onto them to stay on top. So there are many options to choose from.

Third isSlashing Flourish, which allows you to use a Bardic Inspiration Die to kind of give you a Cleave effect and effectively hit two enemies but you need to maneuver properly so that the targeted area is over both enemies. But this is really great because we’re lacking Extra Attack so you can make up for it with your Bardic Inspiration Dies because you can hit two enemies with one attack. If you hit both enemies, you can actually trigger Divine Smite against them. You’d have to use 2 Spell Slots in order to do this but that’s absolutely devastating.

Level 4 Bard

For your Feat at Level 4 Bard, I strongly suggest getting something likeWar Casteror you could also invest points into Charisma. War Caster is really nice because it’ll give you Advantage on Concentration Checks meaning that you can cast a Cloud of Daggers and keep it up longer. Paladins and Bards have a lot of Concentration type Spells and I feel like War Caster is a really nice benefit here in order to keep those Spells up longer.

Another great thing is that at Bard Level 5, our Bardic Inspiration Die will replenish on a Short Rest as well as a Long Rest so you’ll be able to use them pretty much between every encounter.

And lastly, if you take Bard up to Level 6 after this point so at Level 8 on your character, you’ll gain Extra Attack, which you were missing from 5 levels of Paladin and a couple more levels really, really rounding out this Build.

So that wraps up our article on the best early game Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin Builds you can play early on in Baldur’s Gate 3. I hope it gives ideas on how you can play. These are obviously not the only multiclassing you can do at this level but they’re the ones that I found particularly fun.

Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content. If you guys have questions or you need help with these things, please let me know in the comments below.

Auberon

Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.