Baldur's Gate 3: 10 Ridiculous Builds That Have No Business Being Powerful

At this point, the gameplay possibilities of Baldur's Gate 3 are well-established. It's not just with the endless options of dialogue, wonderful roleplaying opportunities, or with the vast manner of combat encounters and their outcomes, but it's also with how you can build your character.

And let me say, you can get up to some ridiculous builds in this game.

Whether you're trying to think of a build for your own Tav or ways you can reclass your companion, there are endless ways to build them as chaotic as possible — but at the end of the day, they will still be immensely powerful.

These are not average, traditional builds; these are ways that you can spice up your repeat playthrough while also having the time of your life ... just don't expect many things to make sense.

10 Bear-Knuckled

Tavern Brawler Works in Wild Shape

If you've not played Druid, give it a shot for Wild Shape alone. Wild Shape is already a neat way to get through small spaces and discover new secrets, but it also becomes a powerhouse in the middle of combat.

And if you combine this with the Tavern Brawler feat, which adds your Strength modifier to unarmed attacks and throws, your Wild Shapes are suddenly a lot more lethal to enemies. With this feature, which you can get as early as Level 4, you can get into Wild Shape for the sole purpose of throwing hands (well, claws) with someone.

It's per attack, too, meaning if you use a multi-attack action (which many of the Wild Shape options have), that modifier is added with each hit rather than once per turn. While yes, you may not have a high Strength in your human druid form, you take on different stats (including Strength) in your Wild Shape, so there are no worries about your power.

Even if you drop to 0 HP, you can just Wild Shape back into something else — after all, you didn't hear a bell.

9 Illithid Wannabe

Yummy Yummy Brain Worms

For a game that makes it very clear how terrifying mind flayers are, that constantly reinforces how the parasite is clearly Not a Good Thing, actually playing with these tadpoles is loads of fun. Seriously, as soon as you're able to actually use these bad boys in your brain, the possibilities of power are endless.

This is even more overpowered once you go half-illithid, where you have access to even stronger abilities and enhancements. If you avoided the tadpoles on your first playthrough because of how it would transform your character's look (especially after hours in the character creator, I get it), you can easily install a mod that just keeps your face the same. Enjoy the power.

This also takes on a completely different context on subsequent playthroughs where you know most of the spoilers surrounding the illithids you encounter. But you know all the drama by this point, it's time to know all your options.

As far as your build outside of the tadpoles, go all-out on psychic spells for the full Mind Flayer Wannabe vibe.

8 The Divine Durge

The Literal Angel and Demon on Your Shoulder Trope

Players have toyed with multiclassing a Shadow Sorcerer with a Light Domain Cleric, which in and of itself is already a hilarious endeavor; but it ends up taking on a whole new layer of comedy if you also play through as The Dark Urge with this multiclass. It ends up just turning your Durge's inner conflict into a sitcom.

Specifically, it's that trope where a character is trying to listen to an angel on one shoulder, and a devil on the other.

As far as which shoulder you'll end up giving your full ear to, that's up to you and how you'll want your Durge run to end, but it'll be one heck of a ride on the way there. Playing through as The Dark Urge is already chaotic, but a simple multiclass transforms the experience into a new kind of hilarity.

Embrace the dark comedy of your Durge in all situations, even during a simple level up.

7 Jack Sparrow Who Signed a Contract

Hexblade + Swashbuckler = Chaotic Power

Both Rogue and Warlock are well-established and powerful classes on their own, especially with the added subclasses Patch 8 brought into the mix. By combining the two, you're able to create a character that's an absolute monster with a sword, while also being just as sharp of tongue.

The Swashbuckler is a subclass of Rogue that emphasizes Dirty Tricks and swordplay, while the Hexblade subclass of Warlock is meant to bolster your weaponry and combat as a whole. It's a no-brainer to put together, and a deadly combination that makes you the most dangerous pirate of the Sword Coast.

And if you start your build with Warlock, Charisma will end up being one of your highest stats, which will not only enhance your modifiers, but it also will allow you to sweet-talk your way out of any situation. It's a perfect Tav build.

As far as your Pact Boon, realistically any of them could work, but Pact of the Blade would serve you best in combat.

6 Evil Robin Hood

A Rogue Built Around One Item

In Act Two, specifically at the Reithwin Tollhouse, you will be able to obtain a weapon by defeating Gerringothe Thorm, a mace called Twist of Fortune. It's like any other mace, but with the added ability called Blood Money. This ability does more damage the more gold someone is carrying on their person.

Which means, if you snuck up behind them and reversed-pick-pocketed them by slipping some gold in their purse, you're able to do a devastating amount of damage in a single hit.

You will need to spend most of Act One building an incredibly sneaky Rogue (or a Rogue/Ranger multiclass if you're trying to go all-out on the Evil Robin Hood vibe) — or you can just get the weapon right from the start with the help of mods. Which, if you're wanting to be able to use the Blood Money ability more than once per short rest, that might be a good idea anyway.

5 Big Drunk

Alt. Titled Way of the Drunken Giant

While you're unable to cast spells while raging as a Barbarian, did you know that you can still use Monk Ki Points if you're multiclassed? If you didn't, that would be a fun build to try out — specifically with the Giant Barbarian and Way of the Drunken Master Monk specifically. You'll need to keep a good supply of booze on you.

And let me just say: Karlach has never hit harder.

This isn't even mentioning other ways you can enhance this build (such as the previously mentioned Tavern Brawler feat), but being equal parts a giant and martial powerhouse already makes you both the unstoppable force and immovable object. You're about as close to immortal and godlike as you can be without ever casting a spell.

It's also just brutal seeing the different ways you can just demolish your enemies with a simple crunch, and just when you think the damage can't be any higher, you'll somehow hit harder.

4 The Improviser

Everything is Throwable

Barbarians are truly one of, if not the most fun class that Baldur's Gate 3 has to offer, and that's due to the completely ridiculous builds you can create with them. Not even needing to multiclass, you can just power up your Barbarian with one thing in mind: throwing anything and everything you can.

Whether it's something you can improvise with in the area you're in or something you're already carrying on your person, anything is a lethal projectile if your Strength modifier is high enough. The outcome is as hilarious as you think it is.

This is often combined with the fan-favourite "Barrelmancy" build, which revolves around you collecting and using explosive barrels every chance you get. With a Barbarian, you can carry around (and toss around) multiple of these barrels with ease.

You could also, of course, just throw an enemy at another enemy — two birds with one stone.

3 Salami is a Weapon

Dual-Wielding is Actually Busted

When collecting various Camp Supplies, you might be surprised to notice that you can actually wield salami as a weapon. If you have dual-wielding proficiency (either as a Rogue, Fighter, or some other melee weapon-centered class), you can use two salamis as a dual-weapon.

Here's the thing, though: dual-wielding builds are already incredibly busted in this game, especially if you're playing as a Rogue and can stack Sneak Attack on your hits. While salami doesn't do a ton of damage on its own, it will scale with your class and proficiencies.

The next thing you know, you're actually assassinating someone with deli meat. This isn't even considering any magical modifiers you're able to cast on it (either through a scroll or a party member) to make your meaty weapons all the more powerful. It's absolutely ridiculous, but it's also the best time you can have.

And someone has already tested this: yes, you can beat the whole game using just salami.

2 Pure Wild Magic

Let Randomness Take the Stage

If you played as either a Wild Magic Sorcerer or a Wild Magic Barbarian (or had both present in your party), you would know first-hand how chaotic things can get with a simple Wild Magic Surge. Literally anything can happen and anything goes, so you need to be prepared for that randomness.

However, if you were to multiclass as both a Wild Magic Sorcerer and Wild Magic Barbarian, that chaos that will unleash every time you do something in combat would just be hysterical.

While yes, you can't cast spells while you're raging, this gives you a good amount of flexibility in how you plan to handle a situation, either with some spells or by force — that is, if the powers of the Weave have anything to say about it. For all you know, everyone could get turned into cats.

Despite how genuinely insane things can turn on the battlefield with this build, though, you're still going to hit hard and have a great time with it, so don't worry about wrenches in your plans.

1 Jack of All Trades

Your Starting Class is Crucial

There is a trophy that you can get in this game, called Jack of All Trades: where it has you take a level from every single class in the game without ever visiting Withers once. This means you take on a new class upon every level up.

And as someone who did this build, I was expecting to genuinely struggle through and have an even harder time beating the game — and thank the gods, I couldn't have been more wrong. I was so, ungodly powerful it wasn't even funny, it's actually ridiculous how well the build ends up working.

The exact nature of this build will depend on which class you start with (I always recommend a Charisma-based class if you're a Tav), as well as all the little things you pick out for your action wheel. Just be ready to flip through many, many wheels to do the exact action and bonus action you want to do.

Being able to make even the most absurd build and still thrive in the game with it is just good game design, setting a precedent that continues to roll successful intimidation checks on potential developers for Baldur's Gate 4.