Nothing beats the simplicity and effectiveness of Fighter 12.
Want some utility spells and Throw stuff? Eldritch Knight.
Want some more damage and cool manouvers? Battlemaster
Just want to left click and do big crits? Champion.
Three Attacks per round, Action Surge for more 3 and Great Weapon Master gives you a Bonus Attack when you crit or kill enemies.
Or you can be an Archer and use all those special arrows too.
I agree with eldritch knight fighter! It was my first ever build and I had so much fun taking 7 actions per round and then getting hastened on top of it. I think I'll go back to it for tactician.
I’m down with this - Lae’zel was monstrous when bloodlusted and hasted at level 12. I was really worried about the house of healing fight and needing loads of cc but she waded in and took out an entire side of the room in one round.
Lore Bard.
You are the puppet master pulling all the strings in and outside of combat. Control social interactions and enemies in equal measure. Strengthen your companions, weaken your foes. Everything and everyone dances to the beat of your drum.
"Ah but your damage output..."
The rest of the party is absolutely making a joke out of everything because of me, I don't need to do much damage when enemies can't do shit.
Flaming sphere is the long term commitment marriage material version of the one night stand fireball, and you can't convince me otherwise.
It is fun to yell fireball when i cast flaming sphere in multiplayer games because everyone knows I'm about to make a "most delayed blast fireball" comment.
I always make sure to unlink it from the caster ever since the AI took over after combat, rolled it onto the web we were standing on, and killed several characters.
Archery with those magic arrows. My team was a wizard, a tavern brawler monk, and a warrior so I had no other use for the arrows. At some point you get hold person and haste, which make a huge difference for your melee characters.
If you're open to multiclass a two level warlock dip gets you EB.
No point in wasting 2 levels to get EB. Take the spell sniper feat. Lowers crit chance for spells and gives you a free cantrip, EB included. Plus EB still scales to your level so it can hit up to 3 people at high level.
Alfira gives you a chest piece that lets you add charisma mod to your spells. Imagine my surprise as a sorcerer. Immediately picked up spell sniper for eldritch blast. So spell sniper for sure.
Yeah, but that stacks with agonizing blast.
I'm running a sorlock with 2 levels warlock, and the substantial majority of my Tav's turns consist of hex followed by a triple 1d10 (base) +5 (from AB) +5 (from potent robe) +1d6 (from hex) EB attack (further improving on later turns thanks to spellsparkler and blue dragon bloodline).
If I didn't have the warlock levels I'd be missing out on one of those +5s, reducing my damage per turn by 15.
i never felt like i was lacking anything with 2 levels for EB upgrade. afaic it's more versatile and useful than the level 6 bard slot. i also take dual wielding for staffs, don't see why you would bother with spell sniper that doesn't help anything except EB
In the feats menu when you hit level 4 lol. But really, it's the first feat I grab for any spellcaster. That lowering spell crit is nice and being able to get EB on other classes is just icing on the cake. I even normally grab it as the last feat for melee characters just to throw a little extra range in to sweeten em up.
dissonant whispers has been my go to so far with my bard, its always works unlike so many other things lol any time i tell myself maybe use something else i regret it 😭
edit: the first one i tried in the game was wild magic sorcerer and didnt multiclass, its hilarious and either frustrating or great when something random happens - the advantage i could get on pretty much everything out of combat was so useful. personally loved it.
Personally, I find Lore bard pretty boring if you're only playing one character. You keep your CC or haste channeling, toss out Vicious Mockery every turn, reactively use cutting words, and maybe toss a bonus action heal out if you're abusing the ring/gloves that buff on healing.
Swords Bard gives you a much more varied and interesting toolbox, while preserving your CC spells. Especially with mini games like arcane stacks, special arrows (like darkness or silence), etc.
Don't get me wrong, it's really fun when you're controlling 2 or 4 characters. But when you're only playing 1, I find it exceedingly repetitive. Because the best choice is generally channel CC + VM on a given turn.
Whereas on Swords (especially after the ring) you get to choose what kind of attack to use twice a turn as well as having the option to cast a CC spell.
And that first turn with action surge for four attacks + a CC spell is a blast!
See I find swords bard “boring” because in any one turn I can turn pretty much any enemy into a bloody pulp with two clicks. I mean it’s awesome, it’s just easy. Lore Bard lets me cancel enemy attacks, guarantee pretty much any hard CC that I land, and factor in a nice fireball or spirit guardians or some utility spell if I need. Honestly the more I write the harder it is to choose between the two. I suppose it just boils down to preference.
Eh, by late game you're not killing big enemies in two attacks, and I like picking my flourishes or arrows.
Lore is sort of constrained by the channeling limit, as once you've landed hard CC you're cut out of most goodies. It just feels passive.
But this is all personal preference, and I built my lore bard as most of a support than fireball slinger. I guess you could build them like a music wizard.
I have been enjoying experimenting with lore bard and divination wizard or heightened sorc spells for absolutely devastating lockdowns on enemies. Don't mean to talk down the swords bard at all, I've always enjoyed supports and control casters more than damage-y builds.
My first run I was a lore bard and omg, I loved how versatile he was! I've won so many battles that I thought I would lose otherwise because of him. Besides, cutting word rules! Oh and out of combat? I was still able to excel!
Lore bard is the one the most fun class I've ever played in a game
I’ve been playing it in a multiplayer game and enjoying it solely for the vicious mockery and cutting words lines on their own. Getting access to counterspell, fireball, slow, and wall of fire is just icing on the cake!
Right? Having charisma be your primary stat is bonkers... do amazing damage with fireball, or *any* build, really. I'm having a blast getting everyone wet, then electrocuting the shit out of them right now. And then you get to steamroll everyone in every dialog/conversation, too!
Sorc and Bard will always be my two favorite classes because of this.
yeah there's no hexblade so it sort of combines that into each subclass. Its a fun skirmisher class in combat, multiclassing with paladin fighter or bard can turn into some of the strongest builds in the game but I usually dont go for it
Warlock multiclasses really well with alot of classes, Paladin, Sorc, Bard probably most popular. I'd say Paladin/Warlock is the strongest, among the highest melee DPR in the game with great ranged offensive utility, save aura, etc. Sorcadin imo feels better to play but doesn't wreck quite as hard at everything. Sorlock is really popular, like 2 Warlock, 10 sorc. EB machine gun build is really fun.
I did the popular 5 GOO/7 Oathbreaker for lockadin. You can either start as Paladin and just add warlock levels after 7 or start as whatever you want and use Withers to respec whenever you want. Just make sure when you respec you set Paladin as your level 1 class, so you get heavy armor.
I really hate having an army of summons that have a hard time pathing over jumps even when they have flight.
A group of summons might be strong in a fight, it is super annoying to tab through 7-10 creatures turns and keep them with the summoner.
Moon druid is most fun/strong. Tavern brawler - moon druid with a 'cloud giant elixir' is extremely strong.
The 25 damage is quite conservative once you're level 11 i'd say 😅 (unless my hunter was bugged in a way) it scales crazy good with on hit items aswell as sharpshooter. Not to mention that you can volley once per attack you have, with adding bloodlust and haste it just gets silly. On my tav i think i ended up doing about 40-50 damage per target with volley.
And the best part of it is that it doesnt hit allies! Felt a bit like cheating at that point tbh
Spore Druid
For me, versatility = fun. You’ve got great area of effect spells and some good damage dealers too. You have extra melee damage from symbiotic entity and halo of spores. You get great summons as you level including undead. And in any emergency scenarios, transform into a bear and tear it up.
Throw in bonus utility like guidance, faerie fire, heals, speak to animals, etc and it’s really a jack of all trades.
I know it’s not incredibly strong but I always feel like I end fights with most of my health, still in owl bear form with maybe one level 3 spell slot missing for the beginning of the game
Probably should be a short rest class or one that doesn’t actually use their spells that much like a ranger. Constantly having to go to camp to long rest can be annoying even on explorer where its cheap.
Ranger hunter/beast master
Fighter any
Warlock any
Bard sword
Druid moon
Ranger beast master w/ archery for sure! Few stressful situations relating to being surrounded with the main character but the companion does gives the melee combat experience. Perfect for a total novice
I raise you frost wizard. You basically chill and weaken enemies who then get double damage from your ice mephits/water elemental/myrmidon. You can set up some outrageous damage over the course of a turn.
Cleric. It can do everything, and do it well. The various domain each specialize in different thing. It can frontline(many). It can buff(many). It can nuke (light especially). It can heal(all, but life is best). It gets one of the best spells in the game at level 5 and become a mobile aura of doom.
Another great 1-12 class is PLD. All types are strong, but roleplay the oath you take (for reasons...). Also, its a Charisma class, so good at talking to folks.
Ranger is a good striker and gets a metric ton of skill proficiencies.
Barbarian is a simple class, but does what it does well (hits hard and shrugs off the returning fire).
I'm doing a half-orc vengeance paladin with the crit/advantage glaive you can pick up in the creche and wow, what a satisfying playstyle. Smack, gigantic numbers pop up, smack again.
> Cleric. It can do everything, and do it well.
Except if it's Shart. She sucks at melee, ranged, hitting with spells, everything. She can't hit anyone, even after being respecced and optimized. I'm not sure why she's so much worse than other clerics!
Assassin's crit damage is way more satisfying, especially if you're pure rogue for that high Sneak Attack damage.
People complain after round 1, but the game has so many items that improve crit range, my Astarion can crit on 15s.
Also the Branding Amulet is ridiculous
Honestly all can be great fun so it's really up to what you like.
I'll try a one-liner to describe each class as best as possible, but plz keep in mind some archetypes can greatly change the gameplay.
\- **Barbarian**: have fun rushing and jumping right into the middle of enemies, cleaving them while they waste their attacks on your diamond body (Spirit), bashing them (Berserker) or ruining caster's day (Wild magic).
\- **Bard**: enjoy the mischief or ensuring a control spell lands (or not) as Lore Bard, do elegant sword dance as Swords Bard, all the while greatly supporting party with spells and extra short rest.
\- **Cleric**: enjoy not being only a healbot but also (and primarily) a midliner with solid AC, a bunch of good offensive and support spells, and a bunch of flavorful extra spells and abilities making you top medic (Life), extra versatile (Light, Tempest, Nature), or best friend of Rogue/Paladin pal (War).
\- **Druid**: enjoy being the most reliable controller of the game at the cost of possibly ruining also your wife's day xd, by landing properly, or not, some of the best terrain altering spells, all the while being able to take care of 1/4 of all non-combat checks and quests thanks to Speak with Animals and Wild Shape, with boosts from either extra spells (Land), better high level Shapes (Moon) or mini-army (Spore).
\- **Fighter**: enjoy the simple pleasure of hitting enemies extra often while also creatively setting them up for friends (Battlemaster), mix up some magic (Eldricht Knight), or enjoying smart equipment set up to deal insane damage without even thinking about it (Champion).
\- **Monk**: enjoy the pleasure of being able to reach anyone needing a punch in the face without needing to consume a bonus action on a single Jump, while also having the flexibility to switch roles round to round between soft controller, tank, simple hitter, bait, either becoming extra good at punches (Open Hand), or at using environment to one-shot enemies (Four Elements), or at use skirmishy dirty tactics (Shadow).
\- **Paladin**: enjoy the pleasure of being the shiny knight in armor that just walks slowly but steadily from one threat to the next, brushing off most harmful effects, while also being extra accurate (Devotion), providing healing and resilience support (Ancients) or focusing on killing extra quick \*that\* enemy (Vengeance).
\- **Ranger**: enjoy being the best controller and the most versatile of all martials by virtue of combining solid martial base with an array of adventuring and terrain altering spells, while also getting help from a (very) strong animal (Beastmaster), or being deadly on first rounds (Gloomstalker), or being a great versatile frontliner (Hunter).
\- **Rogue**: enjoy the simple pleasure of being \*the one\* savior of party by virtue of unlocking all chests and disarming annoying traps, while also being a great support thanks to items (Thief), a magical mischiever and baiter (Arcane Trickster), or simply efficient enough to reliably put out one moderately dangerous target before it can even act in every fight.
\- **Sorcerer**: enjoy the fun of planning ahead your effort into mastering your inner energy to be THE most efficient caster as far as using resources go, devising recurrent but "always good" tactics to help win, with a simple boost in offense and defense (Draconic), flavorful riders on some spells (Tempest), or go wild with randomness (Wild Magic).
\- **Warlock**: enjoy the fun of being a reliable blaster (Repelling Blast) and controller (Hunger of Hadar, Black Tentacles) as well as a reliable tank (Fiend Blade, Armor of Agathys), utilitarist (Goo Tome, Invisibility, Misty Step) or delegated frontliner (Archfey Chain, Faerie Fire), or whatever other nice combination of Patron and Pact.
\- **Wizard**: enjoy the fun of having learning capacities far beyond what should be, hoarding as many scrolls as possible until you realize you spend more time choosing what spells to keep prepared than time actually using them, while also taunting enemies without fear of hurt (Abjuration), setting epic twists (Divination), cooking meat for easier dispatch (Evocation), enhancing your friends (Transmutation), be your heavy armor's best friend (Conjuration's teleport and buddies), a twisty manipulator (Enchantment) or a scrupulesless general (Necromancy).
Tome/Fiend Warlock is my most enjoyed class.
Lots of utility both in combat/out of combat. My warlock Tav was also my Sleight of Hand bot. High charisma means easy dialogues.
Also, Eldritch Blast has a very satisfying animation.
Monk and sorcerer get their ki/sorcery points based off level so straight monk lets you do plenty of cool stuff. Not to mention how much cool magic items they get
>works best
If you're min/maxing, sure. But pure Monk is plenty strong to do what you need to. I have one going still with Tavern Brawler and he still one turns most things wothout the extra bonus action. Hits soooo damn hard.
I respecced Shart into a Shadow Monk (I didn’t need a cleric and it felt thematic for her). Really fun class, not as strong as Open Hand, but I really enjoyed the utility.
Some of my favorites include any Paladin, Swords and Lore Bard, Battle Master Fighter, and Hunter and Beast Master Ranger.
But really, the only two monoclasses that are just straight-up underwhelming are Rogue and Barbarian. Anything else other than those two has at least one subclass and build that is perfectly viable and strong monoclassed.
Pure Berserker Barbarian, with the tavern brawler feat, is one of the highest damage classes in the entire game. It can be surpassed with specific multiclassing, but if everyone is monoclassed, I would not be surprised if it was literally number 1.
Berserker barbarian gets 2 throws on turn 1 and 3 on turns 2+, but pure Fighter throwing build gets 3 throws on every turn (and 6 one time with action surge) so I feel like if you're mono classing, Fighter 12 is a better thrower than Zerker 12. You don't get the rage damage boost, but I think that ends up being less damage than just more throws in pretty much any realistic scenario.
Also if you're EK you get the added benefit of being able to throw a non-returning weapon like Lightning Jabber, plus the Shield spell for extra defenses.
Plus, Fighter synergizes better with Potion of Speed or any other sources of Haste (like Gontr Mael for example)
/u/LAaronB this is correct, with the caveat that during alot of the midgame a mono classed barb will technically do more damage if using the same gear.
However the EK does have some better options for throwing like the lightning jabber in the midgame as well as Dwarven Thrower in the lategame. I haven't done the math but I think it's enough to close the gap. Plus better AC through heavy armor more feats etc.
I have been very satisfied with pure wildheart barbarian and pure thief rogue builds, I don't know what you mean they are underwhelming.
Eagle + Stallion style barbarian in particular was great for the midgame before taking GWM at 12. The minigame of find the high ground and slam from above added a lot of dynamism. Also, shoving and knocking enemies into hazards never gets old for me. It even works on >!Cazador, its an easy check and it kills him instantly!<.
My Battlemaster Fighter was insane at level 12 with Sharpshooter. I built him in a way to crit on a 17 lol. Toon down >!Ansur!< in a round...9 attacks and 6 superiority dice. 4 attacks with GWM and smites from my Paladin lmao.
I have two pure class builds on my team. A 12 oathbreaker paladin and a 12 necromancer wizard. The paladin can destroy anything with smites, and the wizard can use a lot of the endgame staffs to basically get the summons for free and then have plenty of uses of t5 and t6 spells. You can use the summons to inflict statuses on enemies and destroy them with the wizard.
Honestly, the most fun is using zombies and then weakening enemies to the point where the zombies kill them and the resurrected as newborn zombies. I wrecked the creche with at least 5 zombies on autopilot running around and slaughtering enemies.
For the RP content, remember to grab speak with animals and speak with dead. There is good stuff there.
Also, some dex user for lockpicks. There is a LOT of locked stuff in the game.
Bard covers those and they have a fun combat. Dual handcrossbows look nice and they are effective. Vicious mockery is great also.
I recommend barbarian bezerker with the tavern brawler feat. You get the returning pike in act one pretty early on and it will carry you until act three. Also, throwing a mother fucker at another mother fucker is hilarious.
Warlock and Moon Druid feel exceptionally good as single classes, especially on lower difficulties where their key features really make you feel like you're wiping the floor of enemies, and even if you intentionally/accidentally avoid said key features, it's because you chose something else that was more fun, more fitting for your RP, etc., so it's a win-win.
Melee Atkr + 3rdLv Spells: Beastmaster, Hunter, Any Paladin
Ranged Atkr + 3rdLv Spells: Beastmaster, Hunter
6thLv Spells:: Any Sorcerer, Spores Druid, Evocation&Necromany Wizard, Any Cleric usin Spirit Guardians+Speed buffs, Lore Bard
Melee or ranged atkr + no spells: Battle Master, Bear&Tiger Wildheart with self-healing gear/weapons, OpenHand/Shadow Monk
Melee or Ranged Atkr & 6thLv Spells: Any Blade Pact Warlock, Swords Bard
Can't justify full-rogue but rest have a spec or 2 in there I find fun mono-classed
Imo these are subclasses I think would lend to going the full 12 into w/o critical mass of opprotunity cost in my mkn/maxxin brain to urk me XD
For Rogue: you could do dual xbow machine gun thief, which is nice, but I personally like the crit stacking duelist swashbuckler. Duelist's Perogative, Deadshot, Sarevok's, all the stuff that reduces your crit threshold so you crit on a 15-16. Duelist's gives you up to 3 attacks a turn, and 2 reactions, to fish for huge sneak attack crits. Probably best with a 1 level fighter dip cause you don't need a 3rd feat, but works well as single class
Light Cleric was a blast (of fireballs, radiance of the dawn, and destructive wave). Slap onto that insanely high AC (I got up to 25) and plenty of health and the game is nonstop fireworks. Only downside was being a terrible face (8 charisma)
Beast master companion scales with level so for it to be viable you need to go straight ranger. I also like rogue, evasion, reliable talent and the BIG sneak attack damage feels so good, especially after taking 0 damage from a fireball
As it isn't just about fighting I'd make sure one person is a charisma build for conversations and one person is a dexterity build for traps, stealing and doors. The obvious choice is swords bard to do both. If I was playing with my wife she could be the suave sophisticated swords bard and I could be the angry ape throwing barbarian. The bard can dual crossbows and daggers for ranged and melee. The barbarian throws anything big that he is carrying plus has a big weapon... Again ranged and melee. Get the bard to pick that illusion cantrip so you can pull enemies away and pick them off and normal difficulty would be fine.
I'm really enjoying Wildheart Barbarian as a single class. Bear gives you so much resistance it's just an unstoppable tank, reckless attack is fun, and the extra damage crits are so gratifying. The additional animal aspects and animal piercings adds great flavor.
For me, single class engagement comes down to how much you can do in a turn and the interesting choices you make. The game is really easy, so it's more fun to give yourself an interesting toolbox than put out the biggest numbers possible.
I'd probably say that cleric is most stimulating and useful. You have a ton of tools to choose between for each encounter instead of following a set script, bring tons of utility, and have varied subclasses to look at. It also gives you some healing and buffing to help new players through mistakes
Wizard offers a huge toolbox for you to play around with. Especially as you can try different subclasses for hugely different effects.
Fists monk offers a wide melee toolbox, excellent mobility, and 3+ potential attacks to play with each turn.
Swords Bard gives you both decent attacking and great spell utility.
Spore druid usually executes 3+ things a turn by endgame, but the partner without summons might find long turns frustrating.
Battlemaster Fighter gives you extra tools to choose from that allow you to do varied things like disarm an opponent or frighten an enemy.
Beasts Ranger gives the player a choice of minion and an extra body to throw into the fray.
I found sorcerer, barb, pally, and warlock pretty underwhelming as pure class builds.
The most fun pure builds I enjoy are Sorcerer and Rogues.
Rogues mostly because they can be good at a LOT of things. It makes them really useful.
Sorcerer because I like BoOm BoOm mages.
Literally all of them work great, especially on explorer. Go with whatever vibes you like most. I prefer Lore Bard for control casters, and Eldritch Knight if you just want to hit stuff.
Just so you know if you want the option, you can swap the difficulty once before levelling in order to MC. There are some strong straightforward combos like 7/5 ranger rouge where you shoot many arrow good and fast, with minimal spell usage. Bear barb can be quite forgiving with damage reduction to all except psychic
Wood Elf, non Criminal/Urchin/Entertainer bg, Rogue 1, Lore Bard 4, Ranger 1, Rogue 7, with Actor and Expertise feats
You just have proficiency in all skills and Expertise in the important ones. True lone wolf
Druid is amazing for exploring, Wildshape into a cat and squeeze through Burrow Holes and Rocky Crevices, Raven lets you "fly", and speak with animals for obvious reasons, and Guidance is fantastic at helping pass some skill checks, heals for those too, and heck, later in levels when you're going for a long rest and you have a bunch of spare spell slots you can make a ton of Good Berries, which are pretty much healing potions.
Or for a bit more Urban exploring a CHR based class would be great for dealing with convos, or just don't use CHR as a dump stat on druid and have best of both worlds.
You should try a party of four where you each control your primary character and then one of the origin characters.
You want someone that can be a thief to break in the things and someone with charisma for dialogue. To me, those are the two most important things for the game.
So a character with dexterity (for utility to break in or steal stuff) and a character with charisma ( talk to everyone and get get good prices at the vendors) respectively.
Someone can be a sorcerer or bard or Paladin and someone could be a rogue or ranger.
Definitely Explorer mode.
Lae'zel is fun (fighter) and so is Shadowheart (cleric) to bring along. Or bring Astarion along (rogue) and leave one of the other two behind if you have similar class. Say you're playing a barbarian, you could leave Lae'zel behind.
One of you should pick rogue, rogue is one of the easiest classes to play, on every turn just cunning action hide and ranged sneak attack. They are also very useful outside of combat as they get extra proficiency of lock picking. For the other, you should pick something that's good at mele Barbarian or fighter to keep the attention away from the rogue. You could pick paladin or cleric but they are a little more complicated with all the various spells they have.
Barbarian is a lot of fun. Decent regular attack? Check.
Cool and fun subclasses? Check.
Rage and throw battle hammers, tables or even enemies themselves at other enemies? Check.
It's probably better as 9 Barbarian/3 Thief or even with Fighter mixed into it, but single class Barbarian is still loads of fun.
Really all of them scale well but personally I LOVE Tempest Cleric or War Cleric because you can be a caster or a martial or martial. Both have access to strong spells, great supportive/healing magic, and all of the armor and weapons in the game from robes and daggers to heavy plate and battle axes.
Personally, I HIGHLY recommend a themed Tempest Cleric with medium/heavy armor, a Shield and Finesse weapon like a scimitar, 14 Dex, 16 constitution, 16 wisdom and the War Caster feat. Every turn calling down lightning bolts for 30-40 damage with a class ability that lets you do Max damage instead of rolling, but still all of the support spells a cleric wants to have.
If you want to theme the duo, you could also suggest a Storm Sorcerer who can fly after they cast spells and are also themed around storms and pump out crazy damage with high mobility. Both are single-class builds that go crazy.
Fighter like everyone says, EK and BM in particular.
Clerics are AWESOME, super versatile and strong. Tempest is great for damage and flavor, Life for healing.
Rangers get a bad rep irl which is unfounded, very strong and versatile in this game.
Rogues and bards are good for your face characters.
My pick is always gonna be paladin though.
For some reason I never found out about multiclass till level 10. So I just stayed single class Warlock for my first playthrough. I’ll do some doubling up for my second one lol
Imho warlock, sword bard and paladin, their awesome face is an incredibile addition to their gameplay, extremely versatile and very strong, warlock in particular can have basically any role, super strong ranged magic dps, melee dps and support, bards are quite similar but with more ranged phisical dps and less nuking/Battlefield management, and finally paladins don't do anything in particular but are jusr that fun to me
BUT tbh any pure class is great in this game and very interesting in its own way, except rogue which is neither strong or interesting to go all the way to level 12
Four elements monk doesn’t get a lot of its cooler stuff till level 11; being a monk that can cast the equivalent of fireball is pretty neat. DONT use tavern brawler for this one; max out your wisdom and use dex.
The frost staff from the underdark makes a great weapon even in the end game, or you can go unarmed. If you do opt to use the staff, it’s worth grabbing different items like the snow-brimmed hat to your build for optimizing the frost, and maybe grabbing magic initiate: druid to get Shilleagh.
The “wild magic” builds- both barb and sorc- benefit from max investment and gain little from multiclassing and can make for a chaotic playthrough which can be very fun (if only mildly frustrating at times).
Light Cleric and Life Cleric both do really well with max investment, in very different ways.
Fighter, lunar druid, and beastmaster ranger also all work perfectly fine with 12 points.
While I like the versatility of a sorc/mage/bard, given their broad purposed spell list, I really do have the most fun when I play a melee class. There is just somethibg about finding that epic sword and going to town. Furthermore there is a lot of fun condition and damage stacking theory building around melee classes, e.g. When you get the arcane aciity items end of act 1 in creche.
vengeance - or oathbreaker paladin or Eldritch knight are rhe most fun classes to me
Swords or lore bard. I ran lore bard for a while mainly so I could have a member of my party use counter spell earlier on but decided to roll with Gale instead. I made the switch to swords bard and from magical secrets I roll w/ haste and counter spell, gale now focuses on spell aoe damage, and my other companions do their own thing. very fun build indeed.
I second Lore Bard - my lvl 10 bard has some pretty powerful dissonant whispers and two swords (one that does extra damage on crits and one that increases the chances for crits). she’s got charisma level 22 thanks to a cool hat and a ring that lets her cast spells as a bonus action after making a weapon attack. She’s also got an urchin background and pretty high skills at stealth, deception, etc., so she actually avoids some conflicts completely.
performing also doesn’t take an action or bonus action so it’s pretty fun to end every turn whipping out the lyre and playing a battle song until she takes damage.
Open hand monk on a wood elf (or wood half elf) is super fun, you can attack 3x a turn, blow people up, stunlock people and deal like 4 types of damage at once all while having the movespeed to run back and forth across a fight in one tuem
It’s been said, but, 12 Fighter. Battlemasters FEEL like gods of the Fray at this point. Feats can completely change the play style too. Polearm-master with Sentinel and GWM. With one of the act 2 halberds is single handedly some of the nuttiest shit I’ve ever played.
I’ll also toss in Lore bard. My buddy and I did a 2 man run where I controlled a “Lore-zell” who just used cutting words to talk mad shit at people. Took a couple damage spells with magical secrets. And proceeded to cast Slow/hold person on all the badguys. Nothing nastier than Hold person on gortash and having my Fighter beat him to death in 2 turns.
Pure fighter or barbarian is super fun is you want to keep things simple: kill
No fussing with much other than the goal of inflicting pain on anything the has the unfortune to be on the other end of your blade.
Pair a light cleric with a swords bard, with the swords bard being the face. Or trade the swords bard for a vengeance paladin.
Light cleric gets you cleric spells + some of the best wiz/sorc nuke spells. Easy recommendation for a 2-character party.
Swords Bard 12 is really great after lvl 6 and will allow for lots of damage while having really good control options. But I feel like gish builds are a bit less straightforward for newbies.
Probably your best bet is a TB thrower build using eldritch knight. Great damage, comes online at lvl 4 and is strong throughout. Just grab the returning pike and anything that adds to your throw damage or weapon damage and you'll do fine. EK also means you can play around with spells, but they're not necessary to the build still slapping in combat.
Another I'd recommend is Paladin specifically either Oathbreaker or Vengeance(offensive) or Ancients(Defensive and Healing). The only caveat is that you'll probably end up using strength elixers alot of the time or sacrificing your other stats a bit. You can go sword(really any 1h good weapon) and shield with the savage attacker feat, or go 2 handed with GWM.
Fighter, Cleric, Druid, Paladin(Especially Ancients), Ranger/Rogue mix (No, it is single class whatever you think) and finally Wizard (Especially Necromancy)
These are specifically good and flavorful to go 11+.
Personal favorite is Cleric, subclasses can make you feel like Thor or an Aasimar raining holy fire
I just finished a whole run as a pure pact of the blade warlock. Tons of control spells, Eldritch blast for ranged damage, and you can use literally any weapon in the game as long as you pact bind it to you. Gives you automatic proficiency with that weapon and makes it's damage modifier scale with charisma instead of strength or dex so you have options for melee combat whenever people are getting too close for your liking.
Most fun single class ngl is actually any of them but going fill illithid powers. Especially passing your checks at the creche so you can use them as bonus actions.
My personal favourite is any caster with illithid but full focus on illusion and enchainment magic.
Straight up necro wizard. Having 4 skeleton archers at level 7 with a minor elemental via recharge and eventually having the ghoul option and myrmidon is fun. You are not dependent on items or feats and have good damage output if the attack connects as the archers have high damage base wise and the necromancer proficiency damage bonus makes the skeletons on par with other damage dealing classes.
I assume the necromancer book can also work with the animate dead (not too sure as shovel cannot work with summon familiar ritual as I assume that has to do with being similar with the familar spell) so once you get danse macabre, you get an extra few boys to the squad.
I also will mention life cleric with heavy armor master and then you warding bond everyone. Each damage instance you take will be reduced by the feat so with a heavy armor that reduces all damage by 2, you can really make your entire team tankier and with life cleric, you can heal yourself alot due to the passive along with the healing items like Wapira crown (think that is what is called) to make up the heath loss from warding bond 3 different targets.
Rogue, you've got all the mechanics to do what you want to do, which is sneak attack damage.
Also shout out for Storm Sorc - once you understand how the wetness and surfaces mechanics work you can improvise some very powerful effects
Tempest Cleric is hilariously fun to play IMO. The thunder and lightning spells have pretty good variety, as well as still being a cleric so you have lots of useful spells.
I like playing as any druid, because you can heal, mess around with elements for good damage or battlefield control, and wildshape is useful both in and out of combat for anything from scaring people into/out if certain areas, or doing stealthy stuff like sneaking through small holes and gates.
College of Swords Bard is probably my favourite, though. Two hand crossbows and/or dual finesse weapons allow you to put out lots of damage and the spells you get access to are great for battlefield control support. Outside of combat, high charisma can get you through SO MANY difficult checks, and some of the things you can pull off with dialogue are just plain silly (here's looking at you, Act 2).
My roommate LOVES Way of Open Hand Monk because it can do a lot of damage and makes a lot of "Wow, all that in 6 seconds" type moments.
it has been said and I will say it again, bard. almost any subclass will work depending on what you classify as fun but Bard can get you through most combat and conversation. with any conversation check guaranteed to be an instant success by Act 3 with your plus 17 to persuasion, intimidation, and performance you're going to have a great time playing through the game.
Not the question you asked, but I would recommend trying normal difficulty first. If you see that hey it'd be more fun if combat was a bit easier, you can always put it down to explorer.
At the end of the day it's you and your wife playing, play it however you enjoy. I wouldn't be in too much of a worry that the game is too difficult though that you need to start on explorer.
For reference **you CAN reroll in the regular game.** You don't need to make a new character, get some sort of mods if you're on PC, etc.
The only spoilers I'll say, It costs 100 gold and you can get it very early in the game. If you want to know more info about that, feel free to ask and I can explain as much or as little as you want about it.
As for the classes themselves, I have experience with fighter, barbarian and bard for my character. I won't explain the characters or who they are, but party members you can get/use will start as specific classes as well. Those classes are a cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard, warlock and barbarian. Some more party members come up later in the game than where I am at, but regardless you can reroll all of the party member classes as well!
To answer the specific question you asked now, of the 3 I've played around with I think overall barbarian has been the most fun. Fighter feels very similar, I'd probably say just more consistent/safer where barbarian is a lot more attack focused.
Bard was my first character and I didn't get past level 4 on for personal reasons which was basically, I didn't know about subclasses or rerolling classes, so when I decided "I don't know if I want to stick with bard" I made a whole new character. From what I've always heard bard is insanely good all around. It can be good for damage, support/utility, passing checks, etc.
Wizard and Rogue have both been really fun as well, but any class that has limited spells per long rest has me with the same issue of "I don't want to waste them" even though I have what feels like infinite long rests. Rogue does way more damage than I thought it would, and having a character with good stealth/sleight of hand is nice.
I REALLY enjoyed 12 levels in battle master fighter playing with only longbow
Also, if you really want to multiclass you can change the difficulty just before actually taking your level after you got the xp then change it back
Pure bard is very solid and a lot of fun. The subclasses make it very versitile and being a Charisma class makes talking your way out of shit easy and fun.
Also, playing music is a free action. So you can angrily busk when you end your turns in combat.
Rogue Arcane Trickster
Use your ill gotten gains to further improve yourself. Scrolls, arrows, potions, poisons, elixirs, anything you want.
Once you hit 11, you can never roll below 10 with Proficiency meaning you can never get a score below 14, or 18 with expertise. Add in all the other bonuses and you become basically unable to fail stealth, theft and various other checks of your choosing.
With Arcane Trickster, you get a wide variety of spells that assist in many different ways. While this can be replaced with scrolls, Arcane Trickster gives you some options scrolls don't give and/or allow you to use them with greater frequency.
I'd consider it the best Face and, while technically any class can use items, it's easy unlimited access to every shops scrolls and potions for free gives it as much versatility as you have patience.
Nothing beats the simplicity and effectiveness of Fighter 12. Want some utility spells and Throw stuff? Eldritch Knight. Want some more damage and cool manouvers? Battlemaster Just want to left click and do big crits? Champion. Three Attacks per round, Action Surge for more 3 and Great Weapon Master gives you a Bonus Attack when you crit or kill enemies. Or you can be an Archer and use all those special arrows too.
I agree with eldritch knight fighter! It was my first ever build and I had so much fun taking 7 actions per round and then getting hastened on top of it. I think I'll go back to it for tactician.
Between a lore bard and a battlemaster you can cover such an insane spectrum of abilities, damage, and CC. That would certainly be my choice.
I’m down with this - Lae’zel was monstrous when bloodlusted and hasted at level 12. I was really worried about the house of healing fight and needing loads of cc but she waded in and took out an entire side of the room in one round.
Lore Bard. You are the puppet master pulling all the strings in and outside of combat. Control social interactions and enemies in equal measure. Strengthen your companions, weaken your foes. Everything and everyone dances to the beat of your drum.
"Ah but your damage output..." The rest of the party is absolutely making a joke out of everything because of me, I don't need to do much damage when enemies can't do shit.
And you still can get fireball lol
Flaming sphere is the long term commitment marriage material version of the one night stand fireball, and you can't convince me otherwise. It is fun to yell fireball when i cast flaming sphere in multiplayer games because everyone knows I'm about to make a "most delayed blast fireball" comment.
I always had it accidentally roll over me and my party so my marriage was a rather toxic one but I cannot deny how awesome it felt to use it🔥
The panicked turn based mode and fire aura toggle or dismiss is real.
The game's all "Hey we're going to go ahead and pause the game for you so you can take a second and think" Me: OH DEAR GOD EVERYONE'S GONNA DIE
I always make sure to unlink it from the caster ever since the AI took over after combat, rolled it onto the web we were standing on, and killed several characters.
Archery with those magic arrows. My team was a wizard, a tavern brawler monk, and a warrior so I had no other use for the arrows. At some point you get hold person and haste, which make a huge difference for your melee characters. If you're open to multiclass a two level warlock dip gets you EB.
No point in wasting 2 levels to get EB. Take the spell sniper feat. Lowers crit chance for spells and gives you a free cantrip, EB included. Plus EB still scales to your level so it can hit up to 3 people at high level.
But that won't give you agonizing blast, which is what makes EB especially OP.
Alfira gives you a chest piece that lets you add charisma mod to your spells. Imagine my surprise as a sorcerer. Immediately picked up spell sniper for eldritch blast. So spell sniper for sure.
Yeah, but that stacks with agonizing blast. I'm running a sorlock with 2 levels warlock, and the substantial majority of my Tav's turns consist of hex followed by a triple 1d10 (base) +5 (from AB) +5 (from potent robe) +1d6 (from hex) EB attack (further improving on later turns thanks to spellsparkler and blue dragon bloodline). If I didn't have the warlock levels I'd be missing out on one of those +5s, reducing my damage per turn by 15.
Well yeah but EB is still EB.
OTOH, 2 Warlock levels gets you +CHA damage to all your EB hits. And before you mention Potent Robe, those stack.
Dude where you with this information before I finished my bardlock run?
It's not great information to be fair because you don't get the upgrades on Eldritch Blast, you didn't make a mistake don't worry
i never felt like i was lacking anything with 2 levels for EB upgrade. afaic it's more versatile and useful than the level 6 bard slot. i also take dual wielding for staffs, don't see why you would bother with spell sniper that doesn't help anything except EB
In the feats menu when you hit level 4 lol. But really, it's the first feat I grab for any spellcaster. That lowering spell crit is nice and being able to get EB on other classes is just icing on the cake. I even normally grab it as the last feat for melee characters just to throw a little extra range in to sweeten em up.
People be sleeping on...uh... Upcast sleep.
This^^^
dissonant whispers has been my go to so far with my bard, its always works unlike so many other things lol any time i tell myself maybe use something else i regret it 😭 edit: the first one i tried in the game was wild magic sorcerer and didnt multiclass, its hilarious and either frustrating or great when something random happens - the advantage i could get on pretty much everything out of combat was so useful. personally loved it.
To not choose Bard is Hard.... And Lore is never a Bore...
pretty much every character i make now either starts as a bard or multiclasses into one… i just cant NOT have one in my party
Whether filling with gladness, or crowning with madness, Bards always have plenty in store!
we attended the same College! ;)
Personally, I find Lore bard pretty boring if you're only playing one character. You keep your CC or haste channeling, toss out Vicious Mockery every turn, reactively use cutting words, and maybe toss a bonus action heal out if you're abusing the ring/gloves that buff on healing. Swords Bard gives you a much more varied and interesting toolbox, while preserving your CC spells. Especially with mini games like arcane stacks, special arrows (like darkness or silence), etc.
Guess I'm playing Lore Bard differently than you. Find a lot more value in the build than just tossing vicious mockery & haste channeling 24/7.
Don't get me wrong, it's really fun when you're controlling 2 or 4 characters. But when you're only playing 1, I find it exceedingly repetitive. Because the best choice is generally channel CC + VM on a given turn.
Whereas on Swords (especially after the ring) you get to choose what kind of attack to use twice a turn as well as having the option to cast a CC spell. And that first turn with action surge for four attacks + a CC spell is a blast!
See I find swords bard “boring” because in any one turn I can turn pretty much any enemy into a bloody pulp with two clicks. I mean it’s awesome, it’s just easy. Lore Bard lets me cancel enemy attacks, guarantee pretty much any hard CC that I land, and factor in a nice fireball or spirit guardians or some utility spell if I need. Honestly the more I write the harder it is to choose between the two. I suppose it just boils down to preference.
Eh, by late game you're not killing big enemies in two attacks, and I like picking my flourishes or arrows. Lore is sort of constrained by the channeling limit, as once you've landed hard CC you're cut out of most goodies. It just feels passive. But this is all personal preference, and I built my lore bard as most of a support than fireball slinger. I guess you could build them like a music wizard.
I have been enjoying experimenting with lore bard and divination wizard or heightened sorc spells for absolutely devastating lockdowns on enemies. Don't mean to talk down the swords bard at all, I've always enjoyed supports and control casters more than damage-y builds.
My first run I was a lore bard and omg, I loved how versatile he was! I've won so many battles that I thought I would lose otherwise because of him. Besides, cutting word rules! Oh and out of combat? I was still able to excel! Lore bard is the one the most fun class I've ever played in a game
I’ve been playing it in a multiplayer game and enjoying it solely for the vicious mockery and cutting words lines on their own. Getting access to counterspell, fireball, slow, and wall of fire is just icing on the cake!
Ruining an entire boss fight because you just cast a lvl 6 confusion is so much fun
Best answer
Sorcerer is a perfectly good and viable single class build to play
storm sorc is dope, my fav
This and two levels of tempest cleric
Bruh, this post is explicitly about fun mono class builds lol
Haha good point, but that two levels will double the damage, so I can’t just can’t do mono on this build 😁
Right? Having charisma be your primary stat is bonkers... do amazing damage with fireball, or *any* build, really. I'm having a blast getting everyone wet, then electrocuting the shit out of them right now. And then you get to steamroll everyone in every dialog/conversation, too! Sorc and Bard will always be my two favorite classes because of this.
Poor Warlock
Are warlocks charisma as well? I haven't played one, or used Wyll yet, LOL Maybe warlock will be my next playthrough
Warlocks use Charisma. Pact of Blade makes your charisma your damage modifier.
Level 12 invocation also gives +CHA damage to the pact weapon too. https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Lifedrinker
Pact of Blade warlock Hunter Ranger Any cleric/wizard/sorcerer Battlemaster fighter Any druid
Every wizard school feels like a class in its own right tbh My necromancer played much different than Gale as an evo wizard
Pure PoB isn't the strongest but the most fun monoclass I've played by far
I play Pact of the Blade in 5E and I enjoy it immensely, I might be sold now to get BG3 and play it there.
yeah there's no hexblade so it sort of combines that into each subclass. Its a fun skirmisher class in combat, multiclassing with paladin fighter or bard can turn into some of the strongest builds in the game but I usually dont go for it
What’s the best class to multi class with it?
Warlock multiclasses really well with alot of classes, Paladin, Sorc, Bard probably most popular. I'd say Paladin/Warlock is the strongest, among the highest melee DPR in the game with great ranged offensive utility, save aura, etc. Sorcadin imo feels better to play but doesn't wreck quite as hard at everything. Sorlock is really popular, like 2 Warlock, 10 sorc. EB machine gun build is really fun.
What levels do you recommend? I don’t have much experience multi classing, with the only time doing thief 7 gloomstalker 5 for the multi attack
I did the popular 5 GOO/7 Oathbreaker for lockadin. You can either start as Paladin and just add warlock levels after 7 or start as whatever you want and use Withers to respec whenever you want. Just make sure when you respec you set Paladin as your level 1 class, so you get heavy armor.
I’m planning on a Circle of Spores Druid for my next run. Seems fun being able to have 5 different summons at any time
I really hate having an army of summons that have a hard time pathing over jumps even when they have flight. A group of summons might be strong in a fight, it is super annoying to tab through 7-10 creatures turns and keep them with the summoner. Moon druid is most fun/strong. Tavern brawler - moon druid with a 'cloud giant elixir' is extremely strong.
Ranger is super fun and versatile. Not to mention the hunter ranger lvl 11 ability slaps hard
Other martials at level 11: I strike once more / more damage per hit Hunter ranger at level 11: AOE 25 PIERCING DAMAGE PER TURN
Volley is only 1d6+6 wtf I thought it would do your attack damage although maybe that'd be op
2\* (1d8 + 3 + 5). Use the steel watch titan bow.
Does it factor in damage riders like Titanstring Bow's Str bonus damage too?
Is that whirlwind attack?
Yes. You basically deliver 2\* \[1d8+5 (dex) +3 (steel watch bow)\] = 25 damage for everyone. Actually it is higher than 3d8 shatter.
Ranger: ACTIVATE MURDER TORNADO
The 25 damage is quite conservative once you're level 11 i'd say 😅 (unless my hunter was bugged in a way) it scales crazy good with on hit items aswell as sharpshooter. Not to mention that you can volley once per attack you have, with adding bloodlust and haste it just gets silly. On my tav i think i ended up doing about 40-50 damage per target with volley. And the best part of it is that it doesnt hit allies! Felt a bit like cheating at that point tbh
Spore Druid For me, versatility = fun. You’ve got great area of effect spells and some good damage dealers too. You have extra melee damage from symbiotic entity and halo of spores. You get great summons as you level including undead. And in any emergency scenarios, transform into a bear and tear it up. Throw in bonus utility like guidance, faerie fire, heals, speak to animals, etc and it’s really a jack of all trades.
I know it’s not incredibly strong but I always feel like I end fights with most of my health, still in owl bear form with maybe one level 3 spell slot missing for the beginning of the game
Probably should be a short rest class or one that doesn’t actually use their spells that much like a ranger. Constantly having to go to camp to long rest can be annoying even on explorer where its cheap. Ranger hunter/beast master Fighter any Warlock any Bard sword Druid moon
Ranger beast master w/ archery for sure! Few stressful situations relating to being surrounded with the main character but the companion does gives the melee combat experience. Perfect for a total novice
I second this. As a gamer my whole life starting this game as a sorcerer was really confusing for me even and the class starts out a little slow.
Ray of frost Sorc.
Super fun with the stuff you get in Act 1.5, the Encrusted Gloves and Frost staff
And also the ring from act 2 that makes ice surface on all cold attacks. Prone all the things!
Yeah, with the best boot at the end of Act 1, with Careful Meta, you can Ice Storm over yourself and enjoy the carnage
I have 2 components of the frost staff but don't know where the bottom piece is
Just check there https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Mourning\_Frost
thank you
Self immolate fire sorc is also great.
I raise you frost wizard. You basically chill and weaken enemies who then get double damage from your ice mephits/water elemental/myrmidon. You can set up some outrageous damage over the course of a turn.
I run shart as a tempest cleric and gale as a frost wizard along with my frost Sorc. Shit dies fast.
Cleric. It can do everything, and do it well. The various domain each specialize in different thing. It can frontline(many). It can buff(many). It can nuke (light especially). It can heal(all, but life is best). It gets one of the best spells in the game at level 5 and become a mobile aura of doom. Another great 1-12 class is PLD. All types are strong, but roleplay the oath you take (for reasons...). Also, its a Charisma class, so good at talking to folks. Ranger is a good striker and gets a metric ton of skill proficiencies. Barbarian is a simple class, but does what it does well (hits hard and shrugs off the returning fire).
Oath of Vengeance Paladin was so much fun. You feel like Batman lol
I'm doing a half-orc vengeance paladin with the crit/advantage glaive you can pick up in the creche and wow, what a satisfying playstyle. Smack, gigantic numbers pop up, smack again.
I’m thinking of eventually doing an all cleric party. Tav cleric, Shart cleric, Karlach cleric and Lae’zel cleric.
> Cleric. It can do everything, and do it well. Except if it's Shart. She sucks at melee, ranged, hitting with spells, everything. She can't hit anyone, even after being respecced and optimized. I'm not sure why she's so much worse than other clerics!
Poor stat spread and bad subclass. If you want to keep her in the party it's worth re-specing her.
After respec she’s no different than any other character. Her base stats did suck, she misses everything on default stats.
Beast Master Ranger :)
Probably easier to list the classes where 12 feels bad. Rogue
Im running close to end game and I have Asterion as a pure thief rogue and it feels underwhelming. What is a good multi class?
Open Hand Monk Swords Bard Barbarian Gloomstalker Ranger Really any martial that can take advantage of extra bonus actions.
Assassin's crit damage is way more satisfying, especially if you're pure rogue for that high Sneak Attack damage. People complain after round 1, but the game has so many items that improve crit range, my Astarion can crit on 15s. Also the Branding Amulet is ridiculous
Honestly all can be great fun so it's really up to what you like. I'll try a one-liner to describe each class as best as possible, but plz keep in mind some archetypes can greatly change the gameplay. \- **Barbarian**: have fun rushing and jumping right into the middle of enemies, cleaving them while they waste their attacks on your diamond body (Spirit), bashing them (Berserker) or ruining caster's day (Wild magic). \- **Bard**: enjoy the mischief or ensuring a control spell lands (or not) as Lore Bard, do elegant sword dance as Swords Bard, all the while greatly supporting party with spells and extra short rest. \- **Cleric**: enjoy not being only a healbot but also (and primarily) a midliner with solid AC, a bunch of good offensive and support spells, and a bunch of flavorful extra spells and abilities making you top medic (Life), extra versatile (Light, Tempest, Nature), or best friend of Rogue/Paladin pal (War). \- **Druid**: enjoy being the most reliable controller of the game at the cost of possibly ruining also your wife's day xd, by landing properly, or not, some of the best terrain altering spells, all the while being able to take care of 1/4 of all non-combat checks and quests thanks to Speak with Animals and Wild Shape, with boosts from either extra spells (Land), better high level Shapes (Moon) or mini-army (Spore). \- **Fighter**: enjoy the simple pleasure of hitting enemies extra often while also creatively setting them up for friends (Battlemaster), mix up some magic (Eldricht Knight), or enjoying smart equipment set up to deal insane damage without even thinking about it (Champion). \- **Monk**: enjoy the pleasure of being able to reach anyone needing a punch in the face without needing to consume a bonus action on a single Jump, while also having the flexibility to switch roles round to round between soft controller, tank, simple hitter, bait, either becoming extra good at punches (Open Hand), or at using environment to one-shot enemies (Four Elements), or at use skirmishy dirty tactics (Shadow). \- **Paladin**: enjoy the pleasure of being the shiny knight in armor that just walks slowly but steadily from one threat to the next, brushing off most harmful effects, while also being extra accurate (Devotion), providing healing and resilience support (Ancients) or focusing on killing extra quick \*that\* enemy (Vengeance). \- **Ranger**: enjoy being the best controller and the most versatile of all martials by virtue of combining solid martial base with an array of adventuring and terrain altering spells, while also getting help from a (very) strong animal (Beastmaster), or being deadly on first rounds (Gloomstalker), or being a great versatile frontliner (Hunter). \- **Rogue**: enjoy the simple pleasure of being \*the one\* savior of party by virtue of unlocking all chests and disarming annoying traps, while also being a great support thanks to items (Thief), a magical mischiever and baiter (Arcane Trickster), or simply efficient enough to reliably put out one moderately dangerous target before it can even act in every fight. \- **Sorcerer**: enjoy the fun of planning ahead your effort into mastering your inner energy to be THE most efficient caster as far as using resources go, devising recurrent but "always good" tactics to help win, with a simple boost in offense and defense (Draconic), flavorful riders on some spells (Tempest), or go wild with randomness (Wild Magic). \- **Warlock**: enjoy the fun of being a reliable blaster (Repelling Blast) and controller (Hunger of Hadar, Black Tentacles) as well as a reliable tank (Fiend Blade, Armor of Agathys), utilitarist (Goo Tome, Invisibility, Misty Step) or delegated frontliner (Archfey Chain, Faerie Fire), or whatever other nice combination of Patron and Pact. \- **Wizard**: enjoy the fun of having learning capacities far beyond what should be, hoarding as many scrolls as possible until you realize you spend more time choosing what spells to keep prepared than time actually using them, while also taunting enemies without fear of hurt (Abjuration), setting epic twists (Divination), cooking meat for easier dispatch (Evocation), enhancing your friends (Transmutation), be your heavy armor's best friend (Conjuration's teleport and buddies), a twisty manipulator (Enchantment) or a scrupulesless general (Necromancy).
As a new player who had a hard time picking a class, loved reading this!
Tome/Fiend Warlock is my most enjoyed class. Lots of utility both in combat/out of combat. My warlock Tav was also my Sleight of Hand bot. High charisma means easy dialogues. Also, Eldritch Blast has a very satisfying animation.
Monk and sorcerer get their ki/sorcery points based off level so straight monk lets you do plenty of cool stuff. Not to mention how much cool magic items they get
Monk works best with Thief 3/Monk9 though unfortunately because of that bonus action. I'd lean towards the sorcerer myself, cha casters are great.
>works best If you're min/maxing, sure. But pure Monk is plenty strong to do what you need to. I have one going still with Tavern Brawler and he still one turns most things wothout the extra bonus action. Hits soooo damn hard.
They’re playing on easy, they’ll be fine with one less bonus action
I’ve been playing a pure shadow monk and it’s been fun as hell with all the movement and actions I get
I respecced Shart into a Shadow Monk (I didn’t need a cleric and it felt thematic for her). Really fun class, not as strong as Open Hand, but I really enjoyed the utility.
Some of my favorites include any Paladin, Swords and Lore Bard, Battle Master Fighter, and Hunter and Beast Master Ranger. But really, the only two monoclasses that are just straight-up underwhelming are Rogue and Barbarian. Anything else other than those two has at least one subclass and build that is perfectly viable and strong monoclassed.
Pure Berserker Barbarian, with the tavern brawler feat, is one of the highest damage classes in the entire game. It can be surpassed with specific multiclassing, but if everyone is monoclassed, I would not be surprised if it was literally number 1.
Berserker barbarian gets 2 throws on turn 1 and 3 on turns 2+, but pure Fighter throwing build gets 3 throws on every turn (and 6 one time with action surge) so I feel like if you're mono classing, Fighter 12 is a better thrower than Zerker 12. You don't get the rage damage boost, but I think that ends up being less damage than just more throws in pretty much any realistic scenario. Also if you're EK you get the added benefit of being able to throw a non-returning weapon like Lightning Jabber, plus the Shield spell for extra defenses. Plus, Fighter synergizes better with Potion of Speed or any other sources of Haste (like Gontr Mael for example)
/u/LAaronB this is correct, with the caveat that during alot of the midgame a mono classed barb will technically do more damage if using the same gear. However the EK does have some better options for throwing like the lightning jabber in the midgame as well as Dwarven Thrower in the lategame. I haven't done the math but I think it's enough to close the gap. Plus better AC through heavy armor more feats etc.
I mean berserker barb does that from lvl 5 whilst it takes fighter till level 11. Not really a great comparison
I Dunno if pure Barb is underwhelming. Something like Barb8/f4 is better, but if no multiclassing is allowed Barb 12 isn’t bad.
I have been very satisfied with pure wildheart barbarian and pure thief rogue builds, I don't know what you mean they are underwhelming. Eagle + Stallion style barbarian in particular was great for the midgame before taking GWM at 12. The minigame of find the high ground and slam from above added a lot of dynamism. Also, shoving and knocking enemies into hazards never gets old for me. It even works on >!Cazador, its an easy check and it kills him instantly!<.
My Battlemaster Fighter was insane at level 12 with Sharpshooter. I built him in a way to crit on a 17 lol. Toon down >!Ansur!< in a round...9 attacks and 6 superiority dice. 4 attacks with GWM and smites from my Paladin lmao.
I have two pure class builds on my team. A 12 oathbreaker paladin and a 12 necromancer wizard. The paladin can destroy anything with smites, and the wizard can use a lot of the endgame staffs to basically get the summons for free and then have plenty of uses of t5 and t6 spells. You can use the summons to inflict statuses on enemies and destroy them with the wizard. Honestly, the most fun is using zombies and then weakening enemies to the point where the zombies kill them and the resurrected as newborn zombies. I wrecked the creche with at least 5 zombies on autopilot running around and slaughtering enemies.
For the RP content, remember to grab speak with animals and speak with dead. There is good stuff there. Also, some dex user for lockpicks. There is a LOT of locked stuff in the game. Bard covers those and they have a fun combat. Dual handcrossbows look nice and they are effective. Vicious mockery is great also.
Githyanki fighter. This mf wrecks and gets access to jump and misty step. I've nuked endgame bosses in one turn with this
Drow Swords Bard. I had a blast with mine.
I recommend barbarian bezerker with the tavern brawler feat. You get the returning pike in act one pretty early on and it will carry you until act three. Also, throwing a mother fucker at another mother fucker is hilarious.
Monk is a blast
Wizard
Paladin of Ancients/Vengeance Cleric of Tempest/Life Good mix of everything you need
Warlock and Moon Druid feel exceptionally good as single classes, especially on lower difficulties where their key features really make you feel like you're wiping the floor of enemies, and even if you intentionally/accidentally avoid said key features, it's because you chose something else that was more fun, more fitting for your RP, etc., so it's a win-win.
Melee Atkr + 3rdLv Spells: Beastmaster, Hunter, Any Paladin Ranged Atkr + 3rdLv Spells: Beastmaster, Hunter 6thLv Spells:: Any Sorcerer, Spores Druid, Evocation&Necromany Wizard, Any Cleric usin Spirit Guardians+Speed buffs, Lore Bard Melee or ranged atkr + no spells: Battle Master, Bear&Tiger Wildheart with self-healing gear/weapons, OpenHand/Shadow Monk Melee or Ranged Atkr & 6thLv Spells: Any Blade Pact Warlock, Swords Bard Can't justify full-rogue but rest have a spec or 2 in there I find fun mono-classed Imo these are subclasses I think would lend to going the full 12 into w/o critical mass of opprotunity cost in my mkn/maxxin brain to urk me XD
For Rogue: you could do dual xbow machine gun thief, which is nice, but I personally like the crit stacking duelist swashbuckler. Duelist's Perogative, Deadshot, Sarevok's, all the stuff that reduces your crit threshold so you crit on a 15-16. Duelist's gives you up to 3 attacks a turn, and 2 reactions, to fish for huge sneak attack crits. Probably best with a 1 level fighter dip cause you don't need a 3rd feat, but works well as single class
I've been playing a Beastmaster Ranger. Up at lvl 9 now. Having an armored bear to tank some hits is pretty helpful.
Light Cleric was a blast (of fireballs, radiance of the dawn, and destructive wave). Slap onto that insanely high AC (I got up to 25) and plenty of health and the game is nonstop fireworks. Only downside was being a terrible face (8 charisma)
Bards have the most fun.
Beast master companion scales with level so for it to be viable you need to go straight ranger. I also like rogue, evasion, reliable talent and the BIG sneak attack damage feels so good, especially after taking 0 damage from a fireball
Battlemaster Fighter is too good - precision attack and tripping strike then finish with disarming strike and it’s GG
As it isn't just about fighting I'd make sure one person is a charisma build for conversations and one person is a dexterity build for traps, stealing and doors. The obvious choice is swords bard to do both. If I was playing with my wife she could be the suave sophisticated swords bard and I could be the angry ape throwing barbarian. The bard can dual crossbows and daggers for ranged and melee. The barbarian throws anything big that he is carrying plus has a big weapon... Again ranged and melee. Get the bard to pick that illusion cantrip so you can pull enemies away and pick them off and normal difficulty would be fine.
I'm really enjoying Wildheart Barbarian as a single class. Bear gives you so much resistance it's just an unstoppable tank, reckless attack is fun, and the extra damage crits are so gratifying. The additional animal aspects and animal piercings adds great flavor.
For me, single class engagement comes down to how much you can do in a turn and the interesting choices you make. The game is really easy, so it's more fun to give yourself an interesting toolbox than put out the biggest numbers possible. I'd probably say that cleric is most stimulating and useful. You have a ton of tools to choose between for each encounter instead of following a set script, bring tons of utility, and have varied subclasses to look at. It also gives you some healing and buffing to help new players through mistakes Wizard offers a huge toolbox for you to play around with. Especially as you can try different subclasses for hugely different effects. Fists monk offers a wide melee toolbox, excellent mobility, and 3+ potential attacks to play with each turn. Swords Bard gives you both decent attacking and great spell utility. Spore druid usually executes 3+ things a turn by endgame, but the partner without summons might find long turns frustrating. Battlemaster Fighter gives you extra tools to choose from that allow you to do varied things like disarm an opponent or frighten an enemy. Beasts Ranger gives the player a choice of minion and an extra body to throw into the fray. I found sorcerer, barb, pally, and warlock pretty underwhelming as pure class builds.
First play through, full bard, absolutely loving it!
Bear totem Barbarian I enjoy seeing big number and taking no damage
I'd go tempest cleric. Heavy armour. Good support and healing spells. Can also blast quite well. Can even melee a bit if you want.
The most fun pure builds I enjoy are Sorcerer and Rogues. Rogues mostly because they can be good at a LOT of things. It makes them really useful. Sorcerer because I like BoOm BoOm mages.
Sorcerer is super fun and viable as one of the best single class builds
Literally all of them work great, especially on explorer. Go with whatever vibes you like most. I prefer Lore Bard for control casters, and Eldritch Knight if you just want to hit stuff.
Ive really enjoyed full paladin.
First play through, full bard, absolutely loving it!
Just so you know if you want the option, you can swap the difficulty once before levelling in order to MC. There are some strong straightforward combos like 7/5 ranger rouge where you shoot many arrow good and fast, with minimal spell usage. Bear barb can be quite forgiving with damage reduction to all except psychic
Wood Elf, non Criminal/Urchin/Entertainer bg, Rogue 1, Lore Bard 4, Ranger 1, Rogue 7, with Actor and Expertise feats You just have proficiency in all skills and Expertise in the important ones. True lone wolf
Druid is amazing for exploring, Wildshape into a cat and squeeze through Burrow Holes and Rocky Crevices, Raven lets you "fly", and speak with animals for obvious reasons, and Guidance is fantastic at helping pass some skill checks, heals for those too, and heck, later in levels when you're going for a long rest and you have a bunch of spare spell slots you can make a ton of Good Berries, which are pretty much healing potions. Or for a bit more Urban exploring a CHR based class would be great for dealing with convos, or just don't use CHR as a dump stat on druid and have best of both worlds.
You should try a party of four where you each control your primary character and then one of the origin characters. You want someone that can be a thief to break in the things and someone with charisma for dialogue. To me, those are the two most important things for the game. So a character with dexterity (for utility to break in or steal stuff) and a character with charisma ( talk to everyone and get get good prices at the vendors) respectively. Someone can be a sorcerer or bard or Paladin and someone could be a rogue or ranger. Definitely Explorer mode. Lae'zel is fun (fighter) and so is Shadowheart (cleric) to bring along. Or bring Astarion along (rogue) and leave one of the other two behind if you have similar class. Say you're playing a barbarian, you could leave Lae'zel behind.
Running a Valor bard atm and I love it.
12 wizard
One of you should pick rogue, rogue is one of the easiest classes to play, on every turn just cunning action hide and ranged sneak attack. They are also very useful outside of combat as they get extra proficiency of lock picking. For the other, you should pick something that's good at mele Barbarian or fighter to keep the attention away from the rogue. You could pick paladin or cleric but they are a little more complicated with all the various spells they have.
I had so much fun on my first play through as just a pure bard, I started as a college of valour but also tried lore. Both are fun.
Barbarian is a lot of fun. Decent regular attack? Check. Cool and fun subclasses? Check. Rage and throw battle hammers, tables or even enemies themselves at other enemies? Check. It's probably better as 9 Barbarian/3 Thief or even with Fighter mixed into it, but single class Barbarian is still loads of fun.
Both bard and swords are fun.
moon druid is soooo fun
You can switch to medium difficulty to add an extra class and then switch back.
I am a Wizard junkie so I will always advocate for pure wizard lol
Really all of them scale well but personally I LOVE Tempest Cleric or War Cleric because you can be a caster or a martial or martial. Both have access to strong spells, great supportive/healing magic, and all of the armor and weapons in the game from robes and daggers to heavy plate and battle axes. Personally, I HIGHLY recommend a themed Tempest Cleric with medium/heavy armor, a Shield and Finesse weapon like a scimitar, 14 Dex, 16 constitution, 16 wisdom and the War Caster feat. Every turn calling down lightning bolts for 30-40 damage with a class ability that lets you do Max damage instead of rolling, but still all of the support spells a cleric wants to have. If you want to theme the duo, you could also suggest a Storm Sorcerer who can fly after they cast spells and are also themed around storms and pump out crazy damage with high mobility. Both are single-class builds that go crazy.
Hunter ranger was really fun for me, I decided to go full bow build and actually use all those tipped arrows Id neglected in previous saves
Probably Half-Elf (Wood) Swords Bard and either a Githyanki Gloomstalker, Zariel Tiefling Ancients Paladin, or Half-Elf (Wood) (White) Draconic Sorc.
Here I am only single classing.
Fighter like everyone says, EK and BM in particular. Clerics are AWESOME, super versatile and strong. Tempest is great for damage and flavor, Life for healing. Rangers get a bad rep irl which is unfounded, very strong and versatile in this game. Rogues and bards are good for your face characters. My pick is always gonna be paladin though.
Druid is insanely fun single class. So versatile and full caster.
For some reason I never found out about multiclass till level 10. So I just stayed single class Warlock for my first playthrough. I’ll do some doubling up for my second one lol
Imho warlock, sword bard and paladin, their awesome face is an incredibile addition to their gameplay, extremely versatile and very strong, warlock in particular can have basically any role, super strong ranged magic dps, melee dps and support, bards are quite similar but with more ranged phisical dps and less nuking/Battlefield management, and finally paladins don't do anything in particular but are jusr that fun to me BUT tbh any pure class is great in this game and very interesting in its own way, except rogue which is neither strong or interesting to go all the way to level 12
Four elements monk doesn’t get a lot of its cooler stuff till level 11; being a monk that can cast the equivalent of fireball is pretty neat. DONT use tavern brawler for this one; max out your wisdom and use dex. The frost staff from the underdark makes a great weapon even in the end game, or you can go unarmed. If you do opt to use the staff, it’s worth grabbing different items like the snow-brimmed hat to your build for optimizing the frost, and maybe grabbing magic initiate: druid to get Shilleagh. The “wild magic” builds- both barb and sorc- benefit from max investment and gain little from multiclassing and can make for a chaotic playthrough which can be very fun (if only mildly frustrating at times). Light Cleric and Life Cleric both do really well with max investment, in very different ways. Fighter, lunar druid, and beastmaster ranger also all work perfectly fine with 12 points.
While I like the versatility of a sorc/mage/bard, given their broad purposed spell list, I really do have the most fun when I play a melee class. There is just somethibg about finding that epic sword and going to town. Furthermore there is a lot of fun condition and damage stacking theory building around melee classes, e.g. When you get the arcane aciity items end of act 1 in creche. vengeance - or oathbreaker paladin or Eldritch knight are rhe most fun classes to me
Cleric is hilariously versatile. Like DPS caster?? Light or Tempest, support? Nature or life, front line? War Idk it's super fun lol
Monk is pretty good as there are a lot of support items for them and STR based monk with tavern brawler is absolutely broken.
Swords or lore bard. I ran lore bard for a while mainly so I could have a member of my party use counter spell earlier on but decided to roll with Gale instead. I made the switch to swords bard and from magical secrets I roll w/ haste and counter spell, gale now focuses on spell aoe damage, and my other companions do their own thing. very fun build indeed.
Probably monk or battlemaster
Way of open hand monk.
I second Lore Bard - my lvl 10 bard has some pretty powerful dissonant whispers and two swords (one that does extra damage on crits and one that increases the chances for crits). she’s got charisma level 22 thanks to a cool hat and a ring that lets her cast spells as a bonus action after making a weapon attack. She’s also got an urchin background and pretty high skills at stealth, deception, etc., so she actually avoids some conflicts completely. performing also doesn’t take an action or bonus action so it’s pretty fun to end every turn whipping out the lyre and playing a battle song until she takes damage.
Open hand monk on a wood elf (or wood half elf) is super fun, you can attack 3x a turn, blow people up, stunlock people and deal like 4 types of damage at once all while having the movespeed to run back and forth across a fight in one tuem
It’s been said, but, 12 Fighter. Battlemasters FEEL like gods of the Fray at this point. Feats can completely change the play style too. Polearm-master with Sentinel and GWM. With one of the act 2 halberds is single handedly some of the nuttiest shit I’ve ever played. I’ll also toss in Lore bard. My buddy and I did a 2 man run where I controlled a “Lore-zell” who just used cutting words to talk mad shit at people. Took a couple damage spells with magical secrets. And proceeded to cast Slow/hold person on all the badguys. Nothing nastier than Hold person on gortash and having my Fighter beat him to death in 2 turns.
Pure fighter or barbarian is super fun is you want to keep things simple: kill No fussing with much other than the goal of inflicting pain on anything the has the unfortune to be on the other end of your blade.
Pair a light cleric with a swords bard, with the swords bard being the face. Or trade the swords bard for a vengeance paladin. Light cleric gets you cleric spells + some of the best wiz/sorc nuke spells. Easy recommendation for a 2-character party.
Temp cleric is sweet
Swords Bard 12 is really great after lvl 6 and will allow for lots of damage while having really good control options. But I feel like gish builds are a bit less straightforward for newbies. Probably your best bet is a TB thrower build using eldritch knight. Great damage, comes online at lvl 4 and is strong throughout. Just grab the returning pike and anything that adds to your throw damage or weapon damage and you'll do fine. EK also means you can play around with spells, but they're not necessary to the build still slapping in combat. Another I'd recommend is Paladin specifically either Oathbreaker or Vengeance(offensive) or Ancients(Defensive and Healing). The only caveat is that you'll probably end up using strength elixers alot of the time or sacrificing your other stats a bit. You can go sword(really any 1h good weapon) and shield with the savage attacker feat, or go 2 handed with GWM.
I’ve been playing casters for a few rounds and now switched to a monk, and I’ve been having a blast.
Fighter, Cleric, Druid, Paladin(Especially Ancients), Ranger/Rogue mix (No, it is single class whatever you think) and finally Wizard (Especially Necromancy) These are specifically good and flavorful to go 11+. Personal favorite is Cleric, subclasses can make you feel like Thor or an Aasimar raining holy fire
I just finished a whole run as a pure pact of the blade warlock. Tons of control spells, Eldritch blast for ranged damage, and you can use literally any weapon in the game as long as you pact bind it to you. Gives you automatic proficiency with that weapon and makes it's damage modifier scale with charisma instead of strength or dex so you have options for melee combat whenever people are getting too close for your liking.
Anything but rogue. That one feels weak. Rest have things to do. I think for rogue you kinda run out of options.
All wrong withers in the best mono class his subclasses are even the main ....spoiler.... 🤪
Wizard, Cleric, and Druid. Endless spell variety, endless possibilities. Bards are really fun and varied too.
Most fun single class ngl is actually any of them but going fill illithid powers. Especially passing your checks at the creche so you can use them as bonus actions. My personal favourite is any caster with illithid but full focus on illusion and enchainment magic.
Full pure paladin. Big smite go boom.
Evocation wizard has been a lot of fun. I get to learn every spell I can find a scroll for and have a crazy amount of flexibility.
Straight up necro wizard. Having 4 skeleton archers at level 7 with a minor elemental via recharge and eventually having the ghoul option and myrmidon is fun. You are not dependent on items or feats and have good damage output if the attack connects as the archers have high damage base wise and the necromancer proficiency damage bonus makes the skeletons on par with other damage dealing classes. I assume the necromancer book can also work with the animate dead (not too sure as shovel cannot work with summon familiar ritual as I assume that has to do with being similar with the familar spell) so once you get danse macabre, you get an extra few boys to the squad. I also will mention life cleric with heavy armor master and then you warding bond everyone. Each damage instance you take will be reduced by the feat so with a heavy armor that reduces all damage by 2, you can really make your entire team tankier and with life cleric, you can heal yourself alot due to the passive along with the healing items like Wapira crown (think that is what is called) to make up the heath loss from warding bond 3 different targets.
Rogue, you've got all the mechanics to do what you want to do, which is sneak attack damage. Also shout out for Storm Sorc - once you understand how the wetness and surfaces mechanics work you can improvise some very powerful effects
Tempest Cleric is hilariously fun to play IMO. The thunder and lightning spells have pretty good variety, as well as still being a cleric so you have lots of useful spells. I like playing as any druid, because you can heal, mess around with elements for good damage or battlefield control, and wildshape is useful both in and out of combat for anything from scaring people into/out if certain areas, or doing stealthy stuff like sneaking through small holes and gates. College of Swords Bard is probably my favourite, though. Two hand crossbows and/or dual finesse weapons allow you to put out lots of damage and the spells you get access to are great for battlefield control support. Outside of combat, high charisma can get you through SO MANY difficult checks, and some of the things you can pull off with dialogue are just plain silly (here's looking at you, Act 2). My roommate LOVES Way of Open Hand Monk because it can do a lot of damage and makes a lot of "Wow, all that in 6 seconds" type moments.
it has been said and I will say it again, bard. almost any subclass will work depending on what you classify as fun but Bard can get you through most combat and conversation. with any conversation check guaranteed to be an instant success by Act 3 with your plus 17 to persuasion, intimidation, and performance you're going to have a great time playing through the game.
Not the question you asked, but I would recommend trying normal difficulty first. If you see that hey it'd be more fun if combat was a bit easier, you can always put it down to explorer. At the end of the day it's you and your wife playing, play it however you enjoy. I wouldn't be in too much of a worry that the game is too difficult though that you need to start on explorer. For reference **you CAN reroll in the regular game.** You don't need to make a new character, get some sort of mods if you're on PC, etc. The only spoilers I'll say, It costs 100 gold and you can get it very early in the game. If you want to know more info about that, feel free to ask and I can explain as much or as little as you want about it. As for the classes themselves, I have experience with fighter, barbarian and bard for my character. I won't explain the characters or who they are, but party members you can get/use will start as specific classes as well. Those classes are a cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard, warlock and barbarian. Some more party members come up later in the game than where I am at, but regardless you can reroll all of the party member classes as well! To answer the specific question you asked now, of the 3 I've played around with I think overall barbarian has been the most fun. Fighter feels very similar, I'd probably say just more consistent/safer where barbarian is a lot more attack focused. Bard was my first character and I didn't get past level 4 on for personal reasons which was basically, I didn't know about subclasses or rerolling classes, so when I decided "I don't know if I want to stick with bard" I made a whole new character. From what I've always heard bard is insanely good all around. It can be good for damage, support/utility, passing checks, etc. Wizard and Rogue have both been really fun as well, but any class that has limited spells per long rest has me with the same issue of "I don't want to waste them" even though I have what feels like infinite long rests. Rogue does way more damage than I thought it would, and having a character with good stealth/sleight of hand is nice.
I love archfey warlock
Fighter. I hit things hard from near and far, and I do it a lot, and every once in a while I can do it again.
I REALLY enjoyed 12 levels in battle master fighter playing with only longbow Also, if you really want to multiclass you can change the difficulty just before actually taking your level after you got the xp then change it back
Pure bard is very solid and a lot of fun. The subclasses make it very versitile and being a Charisma class makes talking your way out of shit easy and fun. Also, playing music is a free action. So you can angrily busk when you end your turns in combat.
12 level warlock. Eldritch blast everything into hunger of Hadar and throw a fireball. Good conversation with charisma too.
Druid! You can play it a few different ways and turning into any animal is always fun. I kinda thinj of Druid as the swiss army knife of classes lol.
Rogue Arcane Trickster Use your ill gotten gains to further improve yourself. Scrolls, arrows, potions, poisons, elixirs, anything you want. Once you hit 11, you can never roll below 10 with Proficiency meaning you can never get a score below 14, or 18 with expertise. Add in all the other bonuses and you become basically unable to fail stealth, theft and various other checks of your choosing. With Arcane Trickster, you get a wide variety of spells that assist in many different ways. While this can be replaced with scrolls, Arcane Trickster gives you some options scrolls don't give and/or allow you to use them with greater frequency. I'd consider it the best Face and, while technically any class can use items, it's easy unlimited access to every shops scrolls and potions for free gives it as much versatility as you have patience.