I am not a power gamer, but I know when something works. And my Baldur's Gate 3 party works very, very well. So well, in fact, that I genuinely think it might be the best combination of characters you can pull off outside of a fully min-maxed co-op run. For now, my fantasy of an all-druid Wild Shape run remains unfulfilled, but for my first playthrough, I'm pretty happy with what I've crafted instead.
I've already set out my campaign for why your first Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough should be a bard. Bafflingly high natural Charisma and the incredibly versatile Jack of All Trades skill means that you can usually ability-check your way out of trouble. That would make the bard up there with the best Baldur's Gate 3 classes even if it didn't also have Bardic Inspiration's boost to ally dice rolls and Song of Rest's teamwide heal. Naturally, to help my silver tongue shine even brighter, I chose the Dark Elf race for an extra boost to deception, so I'm lying my way straight through to Baldur's Gate.
That said, I'd be nothing without my cleric, who boasts perhaps the strongest cantrip in the game. Origin character Shadowheart comes with the Guidance spell, which offers an extra 1-4 points on pretty much every major dice roll. If I'm ever about to lie straight to someone's face, a quick tap on the shoulder and my bard can be just that little more sure that their mark will buy whatever rubbish they're about to come out with. As a cleric, Shadowheart's another support class, similar to a bard, but she's also got some potent holy magic, and enough heft in her mace-swinging arm to ensure that she can handle herself in a fight.
As well as pairing nicely with my bard, Shadowheart also makes an excellent partner for Astarion, my party's rogue. Guidance offers the same boost to his lockpicking and pickpocketing skills as it does to my character's deception and persuasion, ensuring that there's not been a single door on the sword coast that can stand in my way for long. Shadowheart also helps out Astarion thanks to her Pass Without Trace skill, heightening his stealth skill to make it easier to sneak through the shadows.
Party time
I'm not telling you this to show off all the fancy synergies that I've built within my team – anything that a bard and a cleric can offer can work with any other character, whether they're custom or created by Larian. I'm telling you this because it can be easy to simply fight through a game like Baldur's Gate 3, immediately turning your blade on anything that gets in your way, but that's one of the less interesting ways to play. A high speech skill opens up entirely different ways to best friend and foe alike, letting you see parts of the game that might be lost or lessened if you simply cut your way through them. The same is true of stealth – sticking to the shadows, picking the right lock, and sliding back to safety all while entirely unseen is a completely different way of playing the game, and having some party members facilitate those new approaches for others means things are much less likely to resort to violence by accident.
Of course, a full Baldur's Gate 3 party is four people, and mine is no exception. But so far I have two support classes and an assassin, so I'm clearly lacking some heft. This is where the Big Guns come in, in the form of Karlach. An almost literally 'roided-up tiefling barbarian, Karlach is the mother of all frontlines, holding enemies back from her squishier companions with the power of the demonic motor she has in place of her heart and a massive zweihander. She's inherently resistant to fire damage, walking around in massive heavy armor, and usually so angry in the heat of battle that she shrugs off most hits.
The team would probably fall apart without Karlach, who mostly prevents my bard from getting skewered by every goblin she comes across. As much as I'm going out of my way to avoid too much fighting, the Sword Coast is a violent place, and sometimes you can't talk your way out of trouble. As such, Karlach is something of a necessity, but she's also one of my favorite characters. As I mention in my Baldur's Gate 3 review, she's marked by a traumatic past that physically prevents her from leading a normal life, but she never stops reveling in the fact that she's been able to move on. That's testament to Baldur's Gate 3's character creation across the board – it's prepared to twist and tweak traditional D&D archetypes rather than settle into more convenient tropes – but Karlach's unceasing joy in the face of her adversity makes her far and away my favorite party member.
Karlach's temperament is a highlight, but she's just a part of a beautifully-woven narrative tapestry. The mysterious, slow-burn of Shadowheart's relationship with her goddess is one of my favorite character quests in the game. The piecing together of Astarion's vampiric past handles a difficult and tense story with excellent care and attention. Honorable mentions should go to Lae'zel – who's Githyanki background opens up one of my favorite side-quests so far – and Gale, who might yet prove to be the key that binds the entire game together. Both have made excursions into my party, and while they're not long-term companions, they're both a lot of fun to have around.
I was never going into Baldur's Gate 3 with the idea that I'd be rolling with the perfect characters, but I do think I've stumbled onto something pretty strong. Sure, I'm hardly pushing the Tank/DPS/Support trifecta to its limits, but this goes deeper. It's not combat optimisation, but a set of interesting ways to play the whole game depending on how I actually want to roleplay it at a given moment. If I'm trying to be sneaky, I have that option. If I want to talk myself out of trouble, I can do that too. And if I want to fight, Karlach is more than happy to oblige. Add to that a series of interconnecting stories and characters who feel like they're invested in each other as much as in themselves, and while maybe I'm not playing Baldur's Gate 3 in the absolute optimal way, I don't think I'd change it for a thing.
