Insanely Fun Baldur’s Gate III Builds You Can Try in Patch 7, Part I

We already know that Baldur’s Gate III’s upcoming “evil” Patch 7 will bring some pretty exciting changes, especially for those who enjoy the darker side of things! There’s never been a better time to start a new character, so you can marvel at the new spicy endings and cinematics, or just have a fun casual ride with some new dialogue options.

And while we’re on the topic of new beginnings, a lot of people find themselves wondering what new build to try, or what new character alignment to follow. Sure, it’s not mandatory to have a dedicated build, playstyle, or moral values to have an epic run at Baldur’s Gate III, but trying something new never hurts, especially in such a massive game with so many different paths to take. Plus, you can’t always be an upstanding paladin now, can you?!

In this series, I will introduce you to some of my favorite devilishly-themed builds that perfectly fit the new evil cinematics of Patch 7. I’ve personally playtested all of them, so you’ll get a hands-on experience of how things work, what to expect, and why to choose these talents specifically. Opening your mind for a new way to play might just get you that elusive adrenaline rush you got on your first playthrough. If it still doesn’t, well, attacking 6-7 times in a single turn never hurt anyone, did it? Well, except the piles of enemies foolish enough to stand in your way.

Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the first (and maybe slightly overpowered) “evil” build that is sure to bring some variety to your Baldur’s Gate III campaign. Naturally, you can also play as the fan-favorite Dark Urge for some extra flavor and spice! Yum!

The True Eldritch Knight Experience in Baldur’s Gate III

Want to get all those juicy Charisma dialogue options while being a Warlock, but want to smash enemies multiple times with your sword like a Fighter instead? Well look no further than The True Eldritch Knight Experience! This build will have you put 6 levels into Fighter and 6 levels into Warlock, which might sound a bit weird and wonky, but the end result is an absolute monstrosity that can attack 7 times in a single turn!

When it comes to race, I suggest picking Half-Orc. Highly regarded as one of the best races out there, orcs have insane racial bonuses, such as Relentless Endurance and Savage Attacks. You start by creating a Fighter, which will give you access to all armor and weapon proficiencies you might need for a melee class. You will also need the Soldier background, giving you access to Intimidation and Athletics. Intimidation + high Charisma will lead to some pretty badass dialogue options. As a fighting style, pick Great Weapon Fighting for some extra power! Your starter stats will need some “fine tuning” however. In order for this build to work, you’d have to dump all those pesky strength points into Charisma. You would want to end up with something like this:

Down the line, you want to dump your levels into Warlock as soon as possible, picking Great Old One, mainly because of the Mortal Reminder passive, but also for the fun “jedi mind tricks” you can do to enemies down the line. Remember, the idea is to smite people with a demonically empowered sword… charismatically, with the added bonus of reminding everyone of their mortality (the Frightened debuff from Mortal Reminder also helps). Additionally, you will gain access to the single most powerful Cantrips in the game – Eldritch Blast. Despite you starting as a warrior, Eldritch Blast will be at full power thanks to your Charisma being your main stat, giving you a terrific option for those pesky enemies that are out of reach.

When you level up, you have several paths you can take – you can get some levels into Fighter and get early access to Action Surge, but I don’t recommend doing that early in the game. While it absolutely is a powerful ability, the low strength means that your early game will most likely be a struggle, especially in Honor Mode. Additionally, the Fighter’s abilities all rely more or less on strength, which will be a problem unless mitigated in some fiendish way (that’s where the Warlock skill tree comes in) which is why I suggest going full Warlock until level 7, as not only will you gain some new Charisma-dependent control spells, you will also be gaining some extra melee prowess pretty early on.

At level two, that will come in the form of True Strike along with your Eldritch Blast for some extra hitting power, which will mitigate the rather odd Fighter stats early on. As far as spells are concerned, choose Hex and Charm Person for even more damage and control.

At level three, pick Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast to power up your Eldritch Blast to not only deal your Charisma modifier as damage, but also push enemies away from you, or down the cliff should you prefer it. The knockback also effectively breaks concentration, which is especially useful in situations where pesky casters are involved. As a spell, I find that Tasha’s Hideous Laughter is a great option for dealing with annoying enemies from afar, giving you plenty of time to focus on those in front of you.

Level four is where things get really interesting – it’s here that you have your first real power spike, which comes in the form of the Pact of the Blade pact boon. This will essentially make your weapon do magic damage, adding you Charisma Modifier for your attack rolls and damage rolls. Suddenly, your low strength means absolutely nothing now, allowing you to make devastating attacks with your two-hander. Additionally, you can not drop or throw your weapon, which renders some enemies’ special attacks useless against you. And in the off chance you don’t have a weapon equipped, you have the option to conjure one at will. For a spell, I personally go for Misty Step, as high mobility is always good in any situation, especially for some quests and hard-to-get zones.

At level five, you get yet another power spike in the form of the Great Weapon Master feat, which grants you an extra attack on critical strike or kill, in addition to having +10 damage when using a Two-Handed or Versatile melee weapon (in both hands) that you are proficient with at the small cost of – 5 on attack rolls. It sounds kind of bad, but it’s well worth it. Your high weapon proficiency and high Charisma (which is added to your attack roll, remember) absolutely mitigate this penalty – it is hardly ever felt. This level doesn’t offer much in terms of spells, but there is still some good utility to be found. I personally go for more control and smoother dialogue options (if you’re not resisted or caught) in the form of the Hold Person spell and the Friends cantrip.

At level six, you gain access to the Deepened Pact feature, which gives us an extra attack with our Pact Weapon just because we’ve picked Pact of the Blade. To sum it up, this gives us at least two attacks, with a guaranteed third if we get a critical strike or a kill. And remember, we haven’t even gotten to the Fighter perks just yet. You can see how things are starting to add up, but we’re not done yet! For your Eldritch Evocation, I choose Beguiling Influence for better Deception and Persuasion dialogue options (extra flavor and benefits for your high Charisma), and for a spell I choose the very powerful Counterspell option – its benefits are endless, it’s just an amazing interrupt and crowd control utility that helps you in a ton of situations.

It is at level seven that we take our second level as a Fighter, which gains us access to the previously mentioned Action Surge, giving you an extra action this turn, which includes an attack. Now, that’s already impressive, but there’s more than meets the eye here. This extra attack action can trigger the Great Weapon Master extra attack, not to mention the extra attack from Deepened Pact. This means that you can now attack up to six times in a turn! But we’re not done quite just yet!

At level eight, we get to choose our Fighter Subclass, which will be a Battle Master. The maneuvers are extremely powerful utility tools that allow you to control the battlefield from close and afar (they have both melee and ranged options) even more. They depend entirely on your playstyle, but I prefer Feinting Attack, Menacing Attack and Disarming Attack myself.

Level 9 is relatively straightforward – we pick the Ability Improvement feat so we can put some more stats on Charisma (essential for damage).

Level 10 is similar in this sense, because the only thing we gain is the Fighter’s Extra Attack feature. If you do the math, this can lead up to 7 attacks in a single turn. At this point, you should be able to devastate most enemies in a single turn, but then again there’s no kill like overkill!

Level 11 will once again offer us an Ability Improvement feat, which we dump on Charisma yet again for extra damage, unless it’s maxed out (if you’d like to know how to go +20, let me know in the comments), in which case the extra stat is up to you, but I recommend Dexterity.

And finally, the last level 12 is really up to you. You could go once more into Fighter for two extra Maneuvers, but I found little use for them in all honesty. Instead, I like going Warlock for the Entropic Ward passive feature – an excellent defensive perk that gives enemies Disadvantage against you on their next attack roll at the cost of a Reaction. Not only that, it also turns into an Advantage on your next Attack Roll against said enemy. You also gain a spell choice as Warlock, which I tend to spend on Grant Flight for the extra utility and to make sure that not even the high ground is safe for my enemies!

And there you have it! Feel free to test this build out on your next Baldur’s Gate III run and tell me what you think! Mild warning – this works best on a normal playthrough, as some rules and features (such as multiple attacks, sadly) work differently in Honor Mode for obvious reasons. Note the multiple extra attacks are not a bug, they are a feature, so feel free to enjoy them! Anyway, more builds are on the way, so stay tuned!