Multiclassing in Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 does a great job introducing each of its companion characters to the player. Each companion gets a small little introductory video that details the companion’s character, but more importantly, illustrates how they are to be used.

For instance, when you first meet Lae’zel, she jumps high over head and then brandishes her great sword at you. This introduction teaches you that Lae’zel is a fighter with jump abilities. When you meet Astarion, he first tries to deceive you, then attempts to backstab you. That’s the game showing you that Astarion is a rogue who specializes in hiding and sneak attack.

But what about Wyll? You briefly see his Eldritch Blast, but the main focus of his introduction is him stabbing a goblin. “Damnable roach,” he says. “Provoke the blade, and suffer its sting”. Unlike the other companions, Wyll’s introduction is a little deceptive. He comes across as a fighter able to battle on his own.

This has a big gameplay consequences. Many players have incorrectly assumed that Wyll can handle himself as a frontline fighter only to discover that he is the first to get knocked down in a fight.

If you experienced this, welcome to the life of a Warlock! Warlocks can only wear light armor. This makes them easy to hit and easy to kill. Because of this, Wyll is best kept behind the heavy hitters like Lae’zel and Karlach, but for those of you who want Wyll in the frontlines (as advertised when you first meet him), there is a way.

Welcome to multiclassing!

Painting with classes

When I first started playing D&D, I avoided multiclassing entirely. I thought the rules were overly complex at the sake of providing little to the game. Years later – after playing many campaigns as both a DM and a player – I have found mixing classes not so much an optional rule, but the actual joy behind the game itself.

These days, I see each class like a color that I mix together with other classes to paint character and theme in my roleplay. This buildcraft is equally exciting in terms of mechanics and narrative. With multiclassing I can expand my character beyond the bounds of their original class into something that is my own. It allows me to play my character how I want to play.

BG3 being based on D&D is no exception. With BG3, you can transform Wyll into an actual frontline fighter while also keeping his Warlock powers intact. By having him as a frontline fighter, he can take hits, but also snipe enemies at range with Eldritch Blast.

All that said, be wary of multiclassing when you don’t fully understand the character class. When BG3 first dropped in 2023, there was a lot of frustration with Astarion’s fighting style. Players treated him like an ordinary fighter when in fact, a rogue is designed for ambush tactics. As a rogue, you get close to an enemy, strike with a sneak attack, and then disengage to get out of range. Rogues do not trade sword blows. If you want Astarion to actually fight like a fighter, then it’s better to change his class entirely and defer to the Knock spell for unlocking doors.

The mechanics of multiclassing

Whenever you level up, you have the option to multiclass. By default, BG3 assumes you intend to level your starting class. It’s easy to miss the multiclass button.

The first thing to note with multiclassing is you multiclass by level. Whenever you level up, you can dedicate that new level to any class. When you do this, you can gain the abilities of that class at that level.

For example, with Wyll, I start as a Paladin instead of a Warlock. This gives me access to heavy armor and weapons. From level 2 onward, I may proceed with Warlock, taking Pact of the Blade. At level 7, I’ll take two more levels of Paladin, making sure to take the Oath of Vengeance subclass . By level nine, Wyll has six levels of Warlock and three levels of Paladin.

The combination of a Warlock / Paladin is often referred to as a Padlock. There’s also a Sorlock for Sorcerer / Warlocks. All these examples use just two classes, but you can mix as many as you want. There is even the “Jack-of-all-Trades” achievement for beating the game using a character composed of every single class.

There are some downsides of multiclassing. First, you don’t gain additional profencies from new classes. You only get profencies from your starting class. Next, extra attack abilities do not stack. A level 5 Fighter and a level 5 Paladin provides only one extra attack as opposed to two. Finally, there are additional rules regarding spell slots. For the full rules, check out the BG3 wiki.

Augmenting with feats

Sometimes, dipping into a class is a little overkill for what you want to accomplish. For example, I may want my character to play an instrument without dipping into Bard. For that, I can take the Performer feat.

With Patch 7, you gain access to mod from the main menu. Once such mod is called Tasha’s Feats. These are feats from the D&D supplement Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. These feats add a ton of utility. My favorite is Fey Touched. This allows your character to learn Misty Step, a short range teleportation spell. It’s great for casters who are cornered, but also good for martials who need to make distance across the battlefield.

If you find yourself needing additional utility, check the feats listing. You may be able to avoid unnecessary multiclassing.

What to build

Creating builds require a deep knowledge of existing classes. For most of us, we don’t have the time. Thankfully, the BG3 community is here to help! The BG3Builds subreddit is an active community of BG3 players. Here you can read up on a ton of interesting builds that will give your inspiration.

I also really like the D4: D&D Deep Dive YouTube channel. This channel is all about optimizing your D&D builds, but it also provides some really clever builds of BG3. Here’s one such video with lots of different options:

This channel is also great for you ASMR fans as Colby has a very soothing voice.

Finally, the best thing to do is just experiment. See what works for you. The wonderful thing about BG3 is you can change your build as much as you want. If something isn’t working, it only costs one hundred gold to make a change. Heck, there are mods to make it even free.

The key thing to remember: there is no right way to play the game. Larien provides you plenty of tools to customize your play experience. If multiclassing isn’t your “thing”, then you can ignore it and focus just on the base classes. But if you do enjoy a little buildcraft, be prepared for a blast!