Baldur's Gate 3 Best Beginner Sorcerer Builds
Sep. 13, 2023Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Sorcerer Builds
In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Sorcerer Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you the 3 Best BeginnerSorcererBuilds that you can use to put together an effective Sorcerer early on in the game. 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.
We’ll have more advanced Sorcerer Builds later on but for now, let’s get into what the early-game Builds are.
The first Sorcerer Build is a SingleClassWild MagicSorcerer and I think this is probably the most effective at this point inBG3or at least a Sorcerer at Level 6, which doesn’t have to be Wild Magic. The reason for this is that you need to get Level 3Spellsquickly such asFireballandLightning Boltto greatly improve this Class’s AOE capabilities. They can start taking out a lot of enemies on the battlefield and you don’t want to delay that too much. You could dip one level into something else, which you’ll see in the other 2 Builds but you won’t want to stray too far from this point on.
So what I really like about Wild Magic Sorcerers isTides of Chaos, which is handy. It’s good for giving you anAdvantageonAttack Rolls,Saving Throws, andAbility Checksonce everyShort Rest. This means that you’re going to be able to activate it 3x in betweenLong Restsif you take a Short Rest in between each use. It’s pretty good because it can save you from a dangerous Spell or if you’re casting aCantrip, which targets theArmor Classof an enemy, you can ensure that you will hit it. Doing so will increase the chances ofWild Surgehappening, which is sometimes fun. This isn’t going to be much of an issue.
When it comes to theFeatyou’ll choose for this Wild Magic Sorcerer Build at Level 4, I strongly suggestAlertto give you way more Initiative to go first inCombator close to first, at least, to execute your 1-2 Spell combo and wipe out a pack of enemies. The best defense is always going to be a good offense and very few Classes have that offensive firepower that Sorcerers have in one turn.
Or, you can takeAbility Improvementto gain moreCharismaand to make it more likely for your Spells to connect as well as improve your dialogue checks.
Another thing that I like about the Wild Magic Sorcerer Build is at Level 6, they gainBend Luck. This is a game changer and what it does is it makes it so that when a creature they can see makes an Attack Roll, Ability Check, or Saving Throw, you can use yourReactionto spend 2Sorcerery Pointsin order to either add or subtract 1d4 to the roll to bolster allies or penalize enemies, respectively. You’ll also be able to use this 3x in between Long Rests because you don’t replenish Sorcerery Points until then.
Tides of Chaos and Bend Luck provide Wild Magic Sorcerers with a ton of control on the battlefield. These two things can make it so that one combat encounter goes a lot smoother than what you have anticipated.
One of theMetamagicI recommend getting for this Build, or any other Sorcerer Builds, isQuickened Spell. This allows you to use 3 Sorcery Points to make a Spell aBonus Action. And so, you’ll be able to cast a Spell with anActionand a Bonus Action in the same turn. There’s nothing quite like using Lightning Bolt and Fireball or possibly using 2 Fireballs in a single turn to just clean up enemies left and right because they’re going to drop like flies. And because you’re at Level 6, if you don’t use your Sorcery Points on Bend Luck or anything else, you could actively use Quickened Spell 2x during an encounter.
The next Build is a Level 5 Sorcerer and Level 1Fighteror the other way around depending on what you want. They both haveConstitution Proficiencymeaning, they make strongConcentrationSaving Throws. However, if you do take Fighter first, you’ll gainHeavy Armor Proficiency, which you won’t gain otherwise so that’s something to factor in if you want to play a Heavy Armor Sorcerer. With this setup, you won’t have to worry about yourDexterity Modifierfor your Armor Class in order to really focus on Charisma andConstitution. Just keep in mind that yourInitiativewill be rather low so you’ll definitely want to take the Alert Feat.
What I really love about the Sorcerer Fighter combo is that you have tons of armor protection because you can use aShield,Heavy Armor, or evenMedium Armor, whichever you want. You don’t have to worry aboutProficienciesat all to be able to tank on the front lines due to your high Armor Class. And if you have theShield Spell, you’ll be able to use it as a Reaction should someone manage to hit you. Once applied, you’re able to boost your Armor Class by 5 for the entire round to add to your already highArmor, making you incredibly hard to hit. You can be a Sorcerer, walk up to everything, let it crowd around you, and then castThunderwave,Burning Hands, Fireball, or Lightning Bolt. You’re basically not the squishy Sorcerer that everyone is typically used to.
However, the downside to taking Fighter first is that it’s going to take you one extra level to gain Level 3 Spells such as Fireball and Lightning Bolt. But once you have it, you’re going to be in good shape, especially since it’s faster to level up at the beginning. Flipping it around by going with Level 5 Sorcerer and then Level 1 Fighter will prevent you from gaining the Heavy Armor Proficiency. But if you had some Dexterity and you were using Medium Armor, your protection should be similar while giving you better Initiative, allowing you to take something different for your Feat like Ability Improvement for more Charisma.
Moving on to our final Build here, I have 5 levels of Sorcerer and 1 level of theTempestCleric or the other way around. The order is really up to you. What I like about the TempestClericis the Heavy Armor Proficiency you gain no matter what order you take it in. This means that if you decide to level up Sorcerer first to get your Level 3 Spells faster, you absolutely can. And so you’re able to keep your Constitution Proficiency for your Concentration Saving Throws.
For the Sorcerer, I like to go withStorm Sorceryto focus on Lightning and Thunder Spells. The synergy between these Sorcerer and ClericSubclassesis amazing. At Level 1 Storm Sorcery, when you cast a Spell, you’ll actually be able to fly with your opponent’s Action and move around without triggeringAttacks of Opportunityso you really have good mobility on this Storm Sorcery Tempest ClericMulticlassBuild. You can position yourself for good AOES and use Lightning Bolt very effectively.
Meanwhile, what’s nice about the Tempest Cleric is that you’ll gain Thunderwave andFog Cloudfor free once you hit Level 1 Cleric so you don’t have to take Thunderwave on your Sorcerer. This Subclass is going to make it so that you can use a Reaction to deal lightning or thunder damage to an enemy that strikes you without moving away from you. It’s a good alternative to doing a melee attack because you aren’t going to have very high melee capabilities with this Build. You’re not playing as a Martial Class so being able to have this decent Reaction more often in combat is great.
A good Feat for this Build would beElemental Adept: Lightningbecause of how strong Lightning Spells are, helping you ignore the respective resistance. This also makes it so that yourDamage Rollscan’t roll a 1 in order to gain more damage out of these Spells.
You could also do Ability Improvement or Alert to further boost your Initiative if you’re not using Dexterity at all because you’re wearing Heavy Armor.
A couple of other things with this Build moving forward. If you take two levels of Tempest Cleric, so Level 10 Sorcerer and Level 2 Cleric, you can actually use yourChannel Divinityability to max roll your damage when casting a Lightning or Thunder Spell once per Short Rest. This is huge especially if you’re upscaling and enemies fail theirSaving Throwsto annihilate anything. Meanwhile, those who do succeed still receive half the damage.
When you take one more level in Storm Sorcery at Level 6, you’ll gainHeart of the Storm, which is going to make it so that you deal lightning or thunder damage around you in an AOE. The damage won’t be as high but it’s nice if you’re in the thick of combat. It’ll also grant lightning and thunder damage resistance. On top of these, you’ll learnCall Lightning,Sleet Storm,Gust of Wind,Create or Destroy Water, and Thunderwave for free. This is really great because Sorcerers have to learn all of their Spells unlikeWizardswho have the whole Spell list and then just prepare the Spells they need from there. You even have to option to change these out as you level up.
One last tip about this Sorcerer Cleric Build is that if you use Create Water on a group of enemies, use Quickened Spell, and then cast Lightning Bolt on the same turn, you can absolutely wipe out enemies, especially if you use the max damage from Tempest Cleric with their Channel Divinity. This is because these targets are going to be vulnerable to lightning and cold damage, meaning, they’ll take double damage. If they took double max damage, you could absolutely throttle enemies in one turn.
Also, there are tons of other Builds we can make including aPaladinSorcerer, which we already have on our Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Paladin Builds. This is a really good combo focusing on Tides of Chaos to grant an Advantage on Attack Rolls andDivine Smitedoesn’t trigger this even though it usesSpell Slots. You can completely avoid Wild Magic on a Paladin most of the time if you still want to get that Tides of Chaos Class Feature with one level, which is really nice. Additionally, you can pick up a Shield on a Paladin to give them extra Armor.
So that wraps up our 3 early-game Builds for the Sorcerer. I hope you guys found this informative. We still have more specific Builds for the late-game up until Level 12 but I wanted to get something out now. We’ll continue with our Class Guides and Build Guides. If you have more tips for players, please leave them in the comments and if you have questions, I’ll try to get to them.
Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content.
Auberon
Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.
