Baldur's Gate 3 Best Beginner Rogue Builds

Sep. 14, 2023

Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Rogue Builds

In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Rogue Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you the 3 Best Beginner RogueBuildsthat you can use to put together an effectiveRogueearly on in the game. Note that these are allMulticlassBuilds because I think the Rogue is one of thoseClassesinBG3that really lends itself well to multiclassing.

The Rogue brings a lot to the table and because it doesn’t haveExtra Attacklike a lot of the Martial Classes, you don’t miss out on that by leaving this Class at Level 3. So you’ll be dipping into Rogue a bit to pick up some great stuff.

The first Baldur’s Gate 3 Rogue Build we’re going to take a look at is theArcane TricksterWizard Hybrid Build. This is 3 levels of Arcane Trickster and 3 levels ofWizard. What I really like about the Arcane TricksterSubclassis that they still have all the damage that our regular Rogue does from theirSneak AttacktoSpellswith a ton of utility. For instance, if they setBlindon an enemy or knock themProne, they gain anAdvantageto execute Sneak Attack. Alternatively, they can preemptively castSleepon a target and still gain the same Advantage.

This Rogue Wizard Multiclass Build has a lot of ways to use Sneak Attack where they wouldn’t normally be able to. There are places in the game where this will be very useful, particularly, having a lot of things that are also helpful outside ofCombatlikeMinor Illusion. Minor Illusion can be used to move groups of enemies to certain places so your character can slip by. There’s a lot of flexibility with the Arcane Trickster that other Rogues won’t have.

The reason why I love multiclassing it with the Wizard is that they use the sameSpell Casting Ability Modifier, which isIntelligence. By taking 3 levels of Wizard once you hit Level 6 in Rogue, you’ll be able to have Level 3Spell Slotsand upcast the corresponding Spells. And since Wizards can learn Spells from scrolls, they can learn Level 3 Spells likeFireball,Lightning Bolt, or other heavy-hitting Spells, which can add some firepower to the arsenal of the Rogue.

Once you reach Level 9 in Rogue and you have 3 levels of Wizard, which is where I would take this Build eventually, you’ll be able to cast Fireball and Lightning Bolt fromStealth. Targets will automatically have aDisadvantageon theirSaving Throws. I don’t think you can really take advantage of that passive effect if you don’t have at least Level 3 Spells.

Another good thing about this Build is that theWarped Headband of Intellectcan be found very early on in the game. This gives you 17 Intelligence so it’s a great item to have your Arcane Trickster wear since they’ll focus onDexterityin order to improve their melee and ranged attacks.

The next Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Rogue Build I want to show you is 3 levels ofAssassinand 3 levels ofGloom Stalker. What I love about the Assassin Subclass is that it effectively encourages you to trigger combat from outside of an encounter. So you should sneak up and fire onto your enemies.

Normally, when you hit an enemy or kill them with your Bow as another Rogue Subclass or Class, combat will be triggered and then you won’t get anotherActionon your turn. But Assassins replenish theirBonus Actionat the beginning no matter what so if they were to fire a shot and then the encounter starts, they will be able to execute another attack. They also have an Advantage on that first attack against any enemy who hasn’t taken a turn yet. Because of this, Assassins can perform a Sneak Attack with a very high hit chance on their succeeding attack, making them incredibly deadly at starting fights.

What’s phenomenal about the Gloom StalkerRangeris they’re going to get a bonus attack on their first round of combat to be able to move further or deal more damage. So if you lobbed a hot with your Assassin Gloom Stalker and then triggered an encounter, you gain Advantage and your attacks will hit harder. It also allows you to execute 3 attacks in a row as long as you start from outside combat at Level 6.

If you take 2 more levels of Gloom Stalker afterward, you’re going to an Extra Attack from Ranger to be able to deal 4 attacks, which would be incredibly deadly.

Next, there are things that these 2 Classes share, which synergize very nicely to create a Build with a deadly pairing that keeps getting stronger. For instance, Rogues typically need very highPerceptionto spot hidden objects and traps and disarm them without the party getting blown up. This falls underWisdomand Rangers need very high Wisdom in order to cast their Spells effectively. So you would want to put more points into Dexterity, Wisdom, andConstitution.

Additionally, Rangers gainFighting Stylesat Level 2 and you can either pickTwo-Weapon FightingorArchery, which are both great for the Rogue. You can get the extra hit chance with Archery in order to be able to land your shots more or deal greater damage with yourOffhand.

This brings me to my final Build, which is a Level 3Thiefand Level 3War Domain Cleric. There is a lot of synergy between these two. First of all, Thieves have an extra Bonus Action every turn in combat and this is huge becauseClericshave a lot of Bonus Actions as well likeHealing Wordto top somebody up or if you need to pick them up off the ground. You also haveSanctuarythat can keep one of your allies from even being targeted. This becomes especially useful if they’re already weak or squishy.

Keep in mind that War Domain Clerics can make a second attack using a Bonus Action and this can allow the Thief to go into Stealth mode to execute a Sneak Attack and then fire another shot with their Bonus Action. So they’ll be able to deal 2 attacks in a turn from the very beginning. But the synergy doesn’t end there. For instance, Thieves need Perception as I’ve mentioned earlier and Clerics use Wisdom just like Rangers do.

Moreover, I feel like Thieves can useConcentrationSpells strongly in Baldur’s Gate 3 because they can use say, a Level 2 Spell Slot ofBless, on their entire group, and then go into Stealth. Doing so will prevent them from being targeted. On their turn, they come out again, shoot something for Sneak Attack, and go back into hiding while Bless will be maintained on everyone. It’s really strong to have somebody who never gets interrupted the whole time.

Or maybe they’re runningEnhanced Abilityin order to have better Perception Checks while running around on the landscape to find all those hidden things and traps a lot easier. Instead of buffing themselves, they can use Enhanced Ability on Dexterity to gain Advantage on Stealth Checks while they’re going through dangerous areas in the game. Basically, you can make a Build involving support and utility in one. So perhaps you don’t want to bringAstarionorShadowheart, then this Thief War Domain Cleric Multiclass Build is a good option to fill in that gap. You also have some firepower of being able to use your Bonus Actions for attacks.

Another thing is that you could use Trickery Domain, which you’ll see in our Shadowheart Build Guide because one of the things that Trickery Domain Clerics get isPass Without Traceat Level 2. What this does is it gives them +10 on their and their allies’ Stealth Checks. That is absolutely huge but they need to maintain their Concentration. They basically can’t get lower than 21 on their Stealth Check, making it pretty hard to fail at.

On top of that, Trickery Domain Clerics have all the other things I’ve mentioned before but they won’t haveWar Priest, which allows them to use their Bonus Action to attack. This is the only downside but you’ll be able to have a Stealthier Cleric or you can go with a more combat-focused Cleric with the War Domain. The choice is up to you.

So that wraps up our article on three early-game Rogue Builds. I hope you guys found it interesting and informative and inspired you to maybe think outside the box a little bit. I really love Rogue in this game they are a ton of fun to play. I’ve learned so much doing these articles and I can’t wait to get out proper Build Guides for Rogue in endgame so we can really get into depth on some of the things you can do.

As always if you have more tips for other players make sure to leave them in the comments below. And if you have questions leave them there as well and I’ll answer them as quickly as I can.

Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content.

Auberon

Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.