Looked at the lineup and the Quints look nice... although not a fan of the one leg with fishnets. I wish they committed to both.

Quality wise BG3 will live up to its large reputation. When it comes to buildcraft, exploration, adventure, impactful choices so on and so on it’s all there in spades.

That said the learning curve to start the game is absolutely massive and will ask a lot from you. Thankfully there is no lack of helpful content out there to aid that but it is definitely a thing and it’s easily overwhelming to start.

IMO if you aren’t vibing with it right now then try something else until you are feeling it. Game will be just as good in the future as it is now and there are no lack of other great games out there that might fit your current mood in the mean time

I could never get into witcher or e33, but bg3 was my obsession for the past couple years

For me it's just the level of possibilities, the player freedom. You can kill almost any npc, even if they are required for a quest.

The decisions and branching narrative are truly unmatched. Too many rpgs have decisions that barely affect the story, in bg3 there is actual weight behind every decision imo. It can be hard to learn if you're new to crpgs, but once you learn the systems, you'll have a great time.

Don't watch any videos about it before you play, except maybe a build guide or two, so that you're not getting crushed by every encounter.

The characters are great, and the dialogue is next level. I know a lot of people just dont want to play a dnd based game, and the turn based combat also turns a lot of people off.

But, if you think you might enjoy it, give it a chance

I wasn't really into crpgs before but bg3 was great, I loved all the time I spent with it. To some degree you do have to learn a bit of the dnd tabletop rule quirks, but I picked it up pretty quickly. The combat encounters don't feel overly numerous which helps because the pace of combat is so slow. A lot of the game is engaging with the various dialogue options which I love in an RPG and you get a lot of choice and freedom in how you interact with the world.

You dont need to play a custom character, you can play one of the defined companion characters if you prefer.

Its a hard game not to recommend to an rpg fan thats for sure. Not sure what you mean by the animations, they are better than Witcher 3 (no mean feat, despite the age difference)

BG3 is for people who enjoy character creation and fucking about in a world that was meant to be fucked about in.

The sheer number of ways to approach any one given situation is pretty crazy, all things considered.

If testing yourself and trying different strategies isn't your thing, though, look elsewhere. After your first playthrough, that's all you have left- doing it all differently.

Astarion also later gets a free 1d10 necrotic to all of his weapon strikes. Granted, yes necrotic is the most commonly resisted damage type but free damage is free damage

karlach's soul coin added fire damage applies twice to unarmed attacks IIRC, so it's basically the ascended astarion effect but available at act 1.

Astarion, Minthara, and Karlach are probably all tied.

Ascended Astarion just adds a 1d10 damage to everything which is amazing but comes online super late. The happy buff makes him the best archer though.

Soul Coins adding 2d4 to all of Karlach's unarmed attacks make her the best Monk and its online from go.

Soul Branding not being removed on throws means Minthara is probably the best thrower since its 2d4+1 on all her attacks no matter what

Minthara as a thrower with soul brand has to be up there, and mama k 4e monk or giant Barb with soul coins (19 long rests is definitely doable) but ascended astarion is definitely the easiest to take advantage of imo.

Poison amusingly is good but only because Hexblade's Curse exists; if you opt for Caustic Band and Poisoner's Gloves you can abuse a cleave spam build (11 Hunter Ranger/1 Hexblade Warlock or 6 Tiger Barb/5 Hunter Ranger/1 Hexblade Warlock both are great for this). Because this combo makes every time you hit an enemy spawn a poison fart cloud on their body they take proficiency bonus damage for each cloud which massively stacks up when you are cleave spamming (for instance, let's say there are 5 enemies grouped up. With 2 cleaves you have made 10 fart clouds which at endgame is +40 flat damage per enemy for +200 damage that they can't do much about. Even if it is resisted that's still +100 damage to your turn for 2 gear pieces)

Rage or low hp. Which as an early game monk.. Personally I love mama K as a rogue - you can actually use your racial smites, and hitting sneak attack on top of a smite takes some great chunks out of the beefier enemies

I think I'd add some savage attacker to my life, that feat is awesome once you start rolling a lot of dice

There might be fringe instances where Gale is better due to the extra level 3 spell slots, but pretty much astarion is the guy for most min max builds.

Meta is one ATK 3 cost instead of double glacio with signature

Like you said ATK could be higher, other than that, if you want & have time, try to get more res skill substats. You can trade some of your ER for res skill

I like to do him as a gloomstalker ranger x rogue assassin and dump a bunch into dex. If you give him the right equipment you'll never need to lockpick anything twice hehe

He’s an arcane trickster, which is probably one of the funnest and most unique classes in the game while being quite strong.

A lot of people like to make him a Swords Bard. The class thematically complements his flamboyance and his wit nicely, and it's well-suited for a dexterity-based build which is canon for him.

5/7 gloomstalker/assassin

Astarion is probably the only companion where his class is not a big part of his character, so almost anything works - main ones that I think would be wrong for him is cleric (pretty obvious from his dialogue he has no time for the gods, none of them helped him) and druid (he's not really a fan of nature and cute creatures! Spore druid though, maybe?).

I've seen some people say Warlock wouldn't work as he won't want to be beholden to anyone else, but he has quite a bit of dialogue in the game where he's perfectly happy with the concept of making a deal/giving something up for power, but he does draw a line (tadpoles yes, astral tadpole nonono, and he says after meeting Raphael he'd rather have a devil have what's left of his soul than Cazador - so if he felt a warlock patron would give him the power to be free of Cazador, he'd definitely take it imo).

A common reclassing for him is rogue/ranger, I've done it myself and it certainly slaps, but he also doesn't strike me as a ranger, they're a bit... druid adjacent 😂

Sorcerer? Works. Maybe Cazador forbade him from using his magic but now he's free he can finally utilise it.

Wizard? See sorcerer. Necromancy works as he's very interested in the necromancy of thay.

Bard? I think it works, his mockery lines are amazing. He doesn't strike me as musical at all (he's quite mocking of bards and music in game as well) but bard doesn't mean they have to be musical, can be more of a storyteller, actor, etc, but it is a big part of how BG3 bards work (using instruments for spell etc)

Barbarian? He's pretty damn angry about his 200 years of PURE SHIT, so I guess that could fuel rages!

Paladin? Oath of vengeance works imo, not a stretch to imagine he'd swear an oath of vengeance against Cazador. Oath breaker also works. Paladin powers come from the oath, not a god.

I currently have him as Hexblade warlock, I'm going to 6 as I want the spectres, but then I'm toying with the last 6 levels as shadow sorcerer or vengeance/oathbreaker paladin.

It gets a lot of hate for only being the third best Fighter subclass, but it's still a lot more useful than the fourth, and it has unique assets that are worth using. Take Seeking/Piercing/Banishing, and swap out Banishing for Shadow at level 5.

edit: Bursting may be noticeably better than Piercing at low levels.

The only one I’d add is trip attack battle master with the underdark bow that applies fear. Trip attack has no max duration on its prone and fear prevents them from getting up. It’s a stunlock build that’s online in act 1.

Depends but in general, in this game Gloom Stalker 5, Assassin 4, Champion 3. First round of combat is the most decisive one and this one dominates it with guaranteed criticals and a tiny bit more attacks. For honour 12 AA might be better I haven't really tried it at higher levels but it doesn't seem like arrows scale that well so going for 12 champion could still be a better archer build.

I saw an arcane archer swords bard multiclass and lowkey looks fun. Just trying to find a niche for astarion to fit lol

Any fighter other than champion has my vote because 3 attacks plus surge are top-tier.. Arcane archer is great. Banishing arrow is fantastic throughout the game. I know people say arcane archer falls off late game, but being able to banish steel watchers (or even Orin so you clean up her supports) is great. Plus can use all the consumable arrows. Battlemaster maneuvers are all useful ranged. Disarm, prone, precision. Eldritch knight (Rivington Rat) is obviously super strong. Titan string is an obvious candidate, but crossbow expert can work really well to eliminate disadvanage in melee range. This works with both dual hand crossbows or the special heavy crossbows like with Harald to reduce saves on arcane archer shots or special arrows. With its 4 feats, fighter is a good candidate for crossbow expert. I also still think the classic 10/1/1 Prestigious Juice swords bard archer is fantastic.

INT headband is bad. It doesn’t give you more INT than you can just get at character creation. Club of giant strength + natural INT is a better combo, there aren’t many amazing stat sticks for archers before act 3 so it’s really no problem wielding the club, while there are some good helmets out there.

AA’s still a fighter archer it’s fine. I’m not a fan of banishing arrow but shadow arrow is cool and they’re still extra damage. Consumable arrows are just way stronger.

Go arcane archer until act 3, then google “rivington rat” if you want to get super goofy with it. 

You can ramp shadow arrow pretty high by being in resonance stone range once you get there in act 3. I also agree that headband isn’t needed, go 16 Dex 16 int 14 con and pump str with elixir or club. Acuity helm + gloves of power help you stick your cc way better anyways

Truthfully, it's still probably EK Archer if you have no qualms about spamming magic arrows in the context of a straight fight. In the context of ambush style fighting then Gloomstalker/Assassin/AA or Battlemaster is probably going to be better simply because they have guaranteed crits turn 1 and thus have higher burst entering combat scenarios. Arcane Archer or Battlemaster for the multiclass variant is largely up to your choice; I like AA more as it is helpful if a fight goes longer than 1 round to control high priority targets that can't be outright killed (such as bosses) via Banishing Arrow, but I can see similar merit to Battlemaster with Disarming Shot and picking up their weapon before they can in most scenarios

AA is very powerful. It has abilities at low level that other classes won’t have until high level (Banishing arrow). Being able to remove a target from a fight is huge.

On top of that it does great damage at low to mid level. And while some late game builds can do more when damage numbers get silly at late level, AA remains consistently good.

Spore Druid is a strong contender for ranged caster that can still bonk decently in melee, thanks to flame blade, shillelagh, and symbiotic entity. It’s also a strong thematic match for evil astarion as a vampire lord raising dead and dealing necrotic damage. If you want more martial effectiveness, dropping to 5 ranger 7 spore is a strong Gish build that can be melee, bow, or thrower

Well you still want a class that has Expertise in sleight of hands, so you can comfortably pick even higher DC locks. So I would go swords bard.

Tbh I never understand why people don’t like rogues. Yes you don’t get those big dpr numbers with them, but thats not their purpose, neither in BG3, nor in 5e. Their purpose is giving out of combat utility. They are meant to be used for those tasks where you absolutely cannot afford to fail. Reliable Talent is a blessing in Honor mode, if you don’t plan to save scum.

Did you do Swords bard or a different subclass?

Fighter Arcane Archer fits in my opinion.

It's magical, it's (mostly) dex based, it's ranged but can still swing a sword and use big armour because it's a fighter.

Though if you stick till lvl 6 with bard, swords bard gets extra attack for up to 4 shots in one round. At 5 you can still use your bardic inspiration to have a limited though decent pool of extra attacks.

I like Astarion as a melee character, personally. This way he can get his bite in when you need to reapply Happy. Here are my favorite Astarion builds:

• 11 Eldritch Knight/1 Nature Cleric - I did an Ice Knight build which turned out really great! I think fire suits his aesthetic better though, so a 12 EK using permanent flame blade could also be an option.

• 10 Swords Bard/2 Vengeance Paladin - Classic control martial that floats around this subreddit. I did one Phalar Aluve Dex build, which allowed him to do insane damage.

• 6 Death Cleric/6 Open Hand Monk - This one I usually do on Shart or Halsin, but I think it would be good for an evil Ascendant Astarion run as well. Focuses on doing massive necrotic damage.

Ascended Astarion benefits from as many attacks as possible to apply that extra damage rider, hence why monk is so good for him.

I think any Fighter archer suits him well, trickshotting arrows seems on brand for him. 10/1/1 Swords Bard also feels thematic as an archer and a smooth talker.

I always thought it might be a good move to necro-max him by going warlock 12 and getting lifedrinker, pact of the blade, and some source of arcane synergy.

He can be any build you want him to be but if you mean to utilize the 1d10 necrotic damage then any build that attacks a lot works well. That means basically any fighter, or any build with a bonus action attack that uses grit and thief multi.

Archery builds work great because the shave carries through to the arrow of many targets and gets doubled when you hit with the specialty slaying arrows. 

I used the gloomstalker assassin fighter trope with much success in my first honor mode run.

Swords Bard Thief with dual Hand Crossbows? Lots of pew pew, tons of damage!

Gloomstalker rogue is a very strong archer, esp to get you through early Act 1. I recommend 5 levels of ranger then switch to rogue. There are a lot of variations on this build, like adding 2 fighter and 1 war cleric.

I personally usually build Astarion as a bard stealth archer for the utility of bardic inspiration and song of rest. 6 swords bard/2 fighter/4 thief is what I'm running rn but that's just one version

Rogue swashbuckler is a great mono class build for darting in and out for big melee strikes and slipping out without provoking opportunity attacks. Take rogue to 4 for dirty tricks and a healthy dps boost. Add some hexblade warlock to be single ability dependent. If you take hexblade for a few levels, you can get access to shadow blade and eventually deepend pact (for extra attack with pact of the blade). Eldritch blast is really powerfully as your ranged attack as well.

I've been loving the classic 5 gloom stalker (Ranger) 4 assassin(rogue). You can take 3 fighter or even 2 fighter 1 war cleric for even more attacks if you want. It's truly the perfect first turn assassin and will kill everything on non-honor mode by itself if you play a little smart

There are very few reasons to take rogue past level 4.

Three levels gets subclass features, and four gets a feat.

After that, you get more punch by switching to a martial class (any class that gets extra attack as a feature). Good ones include - swords bard, shadow monk, open hand monk, hexblade warlock, gloomstalker ranger, battlemaster fighter, giant barbarian, berserker barbarian.

For builds that get a bunch of attacks in a burst, assassin is better (fighter, ranger, bard). For builds that get a plethora of bonus actions (barbarian, monk), thief is better.

Sneaky assassin builds can be done with swords bard, shadow monk, gloomstalker ranger. Barbarian will play more like the barbarian (throwing for berserker, melee + kicking for giant).

I like astarion as a dex-primary archer, either sword bard/fighter, arcane archer or eldritch knight.

Also good at lockpicking.

Honestly, anything ranged.

A variation on rogue+gloomstalker is an obvious answer, and it can be enjoyable, but it makes the game very easy. Even pure assassin is very easy once you figure out how to sneak attack. In one of my runs with Astarion as assassin and Tav as swords bard, the rest of the team had nothing to do, because these two shredded every enemy pretty much on the first turn.

I'm currently doing a duo run with Astarion as arcane archer and Tav as life cleric with one level in wild magic sorcerer. Yesterday Astarion pretty much soloed Dror Ragzlin with Tav healing him up from Sanctuary. The attack that applies blindness is very OP.

I feel like DEX based builds suit Astarion the best, but I like the idea of him doing a little magic on the side after he aquires the Necromancy of Thay, and he is originally an arcane trickster. I really liked him as an Eldrich Knight. Maybe I should add a couple of levels of wizard to the archer...

Contrary to the popular opinion I don't really like Astarion as a bard. Yes, insults are fun and all, but I don't feel like he would enjoy showcasing his genuine hobby/passion in front of people. If he's really into music, nobody would know this but Tav.

I'm actually not a gloomstalker fan. I've been loving 4 in Swashbuckler, 6 in sword bard, with 2 to spare. (Sometimes 8 bard, other times fighter, another time wizard for extra spell access).

Before patch 8 I actually preferred him as rogue and barbarian combo up in melee. I just feel like shredding everything up close and personal would be super gratifying for him. Can't use those teeth in the back line after all. 😅

He's always some kind of archer - happy buff helps to cancel out sharpshooter - and I love playing archers.

I do really like having him as a dual-handcrossbow pure rogue thief. It's just so versatile and very solid if you build it right (maxed out DEX, balanced hand gloves, yugir's bow & the ne'er misser + bloodlust elixir), & it's a nice break from the super OP builds like gloomstalker-assassins and swords bard.

Arcane Trickster/Wizard. Gives him access to Shovel who I think gets one with him, third level spells, and a wizard spell book. I let him wear the int headband to get one extra prepared slot.

It's just a two level dip, one when he reads the necromancy of thay, and one when he reads the codex.

I really like being able to learn extra spells and having him as a solid half caster, even if it's mostly misty step, shield, and the ocassional fireball.

BG3 taught me (almost) everything I know about DnD and Astarion is a really fun character to do a cool build with.

After way too many hours, this is my tier list:

3. Sorcadin - 6 levels of Paladin, 6 levels of Sorcerer. Having Astarion run around in heavy armor and smite the everliving fuck out of everything is extremely satisfying. Oath of Vengeance of course.

2. The Gloomstalker Rogue Fighter - Honestly this build will allow you to basically solo anything and I can lovingly recommend it for duo runs. I will share my favorite way to do this here.
- first 4 levels of Rogue: if you want to rock a longbow Assassin subclass (you get your action back if initiating combat and you get guaranteed crits against surprised creatures). Take the Sharpshooter feat, it really pays off! If you're more into dual crossbows, the Thief subclass is a good idea because you get an extra bonus action. PS: The Helm of Grit in the Szarr Mansion will give you an extra bonus action if you're under 50% HP.
Oh, and Fighter's can enjoy heavy armor!
- 5 levels of Ranger: Archery fighting style, Gloomstalker subclass - extra attack in the first round of combat. You get an extra attack on level 5. Feat isn't that important here so go wild, but upping dex is a good idea.
- last 3 levels of Fighter: You will get action surge at Fighter level 2 and selecting Champion increases your crit chance.

1. Arcane Trickster - Sorry, the default build for Astarion will forever be my favorite, it is canon, it is a challenge and man does my elf get to enjoy his magic missiles!

Extra geekery:
- Since the vampire bite is considered healing another fun things to play with is the Broodmother's Revenge pendant: "Whenever the wearer is healed, their weapon becomes coated in magic and deals an additional 1d6Poison damage."
- All these builds are greatly improved by the Risky Ring, which can be stolen from Araj (you gotta admit that's poetic, right?)

https://preview.redd.it/06jjn40jhxze1.png?width=3256&format=png&auto=webp&s=8275fb56f7f362df17a4fcee854e9a18bb737999

We are not ASKING for no pickles...

He looks great!

Yeh Acsended Monkstarion is a pretty common build as others have said. 

Did you use an ASI to get con to 18, or did you use your starting 17 on it?  Either way I would drop that to 16 (15 + TB) and use an ASI plus Khaleed's Gift to get Wis to 20. You can get Wis to 22 for end game with the mirror if you can be bothered.

Thanks for sharing, but Monk Astarion is one of the most common builds. It's really obvious because of the attacks.

> I havent seen anyone else use vampire ascendent astarion as a monk.

There is tons of similar builds in here with screenshots of flurry of blows damage with ascended astarion. You're not the first, sorry.

You should be maxxing you WIS for more damage, not your dex. i'm sitting at 64-116 dmg on my Astarion. Use Khalid's gift and mirror of loss to reach 23 WIS.

If you are looking for min-max, this damage can also be surpassed with builds exploiting aura of murder piercing vulnerability.

This is definitely itemized correctly, as others have said higher wisdom will increase your dpr. A wisdom ASI would serve you better than athlete here and you can leave dex at 16 to grab alert.

Vampire in a toga is different

Prolly gonna get down voted for this buuuut I leave him as rogue/ Assassin. With Bhaalist gear, he's critting for 120+ damage without being ascended or having the leggy daggers, by the time it's someone else's turn, he's taken out 2 enemies with bloodlust, and without bloodlust a good chunk of the second dude is gone. For me, it's too good to change so I dont

I managed to get 200+ damage per crit on my monoclass Assassin run, Bhaalist armor, craterflesh gloves, dolor bow and offhand dagger, crimson mischief mainhand. Added killer's sweetheart for an additional planned crit on command, Surgeon amulet for paralysis on crit, with my wizard having Hold Monster for more crits, in retrospect I should have added sleep spells too. Was able to obliterate most bosses this way. Used the hood that gives two turns of invisibility to surprise most enemies. Assassin is all in for surprising enemies and planned crits, but requires bypassing dialogue and a little support to work fully. It doesn't really do much in a regular fight however.

Assassin is an extremely strong foundation if you know how to use the subclass but it doesn't get anything from staying monoclassed which is why all builds multiclass into something with Extra Attack: when you can guarantee critical hits with every attack, every additional attack that you can make counts.

There's no "best build" per se, just dual wield the best finesse weapons you can find (read "with the most damage dice" or "with the most additional damage on crit"), stack all the damage riders you can find, learn to reliably trigger surprise rounds and you will be doing okay for quite a while but eventually it will fall off compared to proper martials, especially on lower difficulties (albeit there's not much "difficulty" there in the first place so it's not like you won't finish the game).

You lose a lot of damage if you don't dual-wield.

People have mixed takes on this because of differing play styles. So be aware of that as you read the comments.

If you want a character who sneaks in alone and absolutely destroys 1-2 high value targets, then disappears from combat... Or if you want to stalk the hallways alone and pick off roaming enemies in a single round of combat so they don't get a chance to summon help... Rogue Assassin is the way. Mainly because you can guarantee yourself a ton of attacks before the enemies get to react, some of those are guaranteed critical, most of them are with advantage (unlikely to miss), and you have the tools needed to move in and out of combat stealthily. Multiclassing can give you even more of those attacks, so that's why it is recommended, but Assassin works fine for this.

The problem is that Assassin adds nothing of value after that carefully executed fight opener, so if you want to actually have ongoing combat against a group of enemies (or deal with fights that start from dialogue without using some character swapping cheese), it is pretty close to the worst possible option. And that's why shadow monk, thief, gloomstalker, etc. get recommended a lot, or why people insist you should multiclass (you really should).

That 12d6 sneak can also be done twice on the first round of combat. If you join combat on surprised enemies using the sneak attack action, it doesn't consume your sneak attack for the round as you technically haven't joined combat yet, so you can then use the on-prompt sneak attack by attacking with your bonus action or restored action. So now we are at 24d6 on the first turn from sneak attack dice alone, which can be doubled to 2×24d6 via piercing vulnerability. All rogues can get the extra first round sneak attack, but assassin in particular can put it to great use because of the auto-crits. 

It obviously can't compete with the more meta builds, including multiclasses featuring assassin itself, and imo having so little to do per turn can get pretty boring. But in terms of nova damage it's perfectly respectable if played to maximun advantage. 

4 rogue, 8 fighter with dagger/short swords

-rogue met all requirements of the first line

-at level 8, 3 thief/5 fighter get 4 attacks per turn, increasing the bonus from high dexterity by a lot. alternatively, that's 2 potions drank per turns or 2 dashes per turn if you don't want to use off-hand attacks.

-damage is consistent, and many attacks means finishing off weak enemies is easier

-go for baahlist armor, light armor that double your damage output, and you can find it right after going into baldur's gate

-go champion fighter and crit boosting gear along risky ring, act 2 feature some that works with obscuration, but act 3 shoot that number to as much as >60% crit chance with each attacks. deadshot, sarevok helmet, elixir of viciousness, bloodthirst, knife of the undermountain king. vulnerability and crit makes my tav down 2-3 enemies per turn.

Rogue Assassin is crazy tbh, when playing with it I love to stack dice onto my first attack to hopefully one hit kill and proc The Deathstalker Mantle immediately after. Focusing on lethality, survivability, and Traps/Lockpicking, I'm going to build straight into DEX and CON with a lil bit of WIS for mental defenses. You can, of course, build however you choose as long as DEX is prioritized. STR 10/ DEX 15 (+2)/ CON 15 (+1)/ INT 8/ WIS 14/ CHA 8.

To begin, obviously Rogue. Expertise in Sleight of Hand and Stealth. Dual wield Shortswords, and take 3 levels until Assassin. Carry candles around and use a bonus action to dip them for a 1d4 fire damage bonus. It's better if you do this before combat begins. You can continue to level 4 if you want, but we need to prioritize damage effectiveness against enemies ASAP.

Take 3 levels of Ranger (Favored Enemies and Natural Explorer options can be anything you want) and pick up the Gloomstalker subclass, "Two Weapon Fighting" Fighting Style, Longstrider, and Hunter's Mark. With this at level 6/7 we'll have up to 3 attacks with guaranteed crits or Hunter's Mark and add 1d6, to 2 attacks at the beginning of combat. Dread Ambusher is going to be the bread and butter here. On a crit with Dread Ambusher with +3 DEX, you'll deal 6d6 (weapon + Sneak Attack) + 2d8 (Dread Ambusher) + 2d4 (fire dip) + 3 (DEX) = about 38 damage on average. (45 with Hunter's Mark) But we can go bigger.

If you took Rogue/Ranger to 4 for a feat. You'll want the Graceful Cloth to boost your DEX + advantage on all DEX checks. Stack AC boosting gear to make you harder to hit (Ring/Cloak of Protection, Bracers of Defense, Evasive Boots, etc), The Deathstalker Mantle will obviously increase survivability more, and be sure to carry invisiblity potions to pull you out of scary situations.

You can take both classes to 4 if you want feats, this is essentially the whole build up to the finale of Act 2. From here on, you can use whatever items/take whatever you want for levels:

• Knife of the Undermountain King prevents 1s when rolling Piercing damage and gives you a better crit range.
• Drakethroat Glaive adds 1d4 of any element to any weapon you cast it on.
• Strange Conduit Ring adds 1d4 Psychic damage while you concentrate on a spell (Hunter's Mark)
• Luck of the Far Realms Illithid Power gives you a free once per day crit in case of emergencies to hopefully get a kill and proc The Deathstalker Mantle.
• Executioner's Ring also gives a free once per day crit after getting a kill.
• Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet can paralyze one humanoid once per long rest when you crit them. If man's is beefy, hit em with this for easy elimination.
• Ranger 5 gives you Extra Attack giving you 4 attacks at the beginning of combat.
• Paladin 2 gives you smites which are great with free crits from Assassin. If you boost CHA and forgo Rogue+Ranger 4 for Level 6 Paladin, you can boost all your Saving Throws + your CHA. (Hag's Hair + Patriar's Memory + Mirror of Loss + Birthright = +3 to CHA) As well as getting Extra Attack through Paladin. (This route should be considered once hitting end game or level 11 in order to have most important features online).
• Circle of Shores Druid 2 gives you Symbiotic Entity which adds 1d6 Necrotic to all weapon attacks as long as you have your Temp HP.

One of my old builds was Assassin 3/Gloomstalker 3/Barbarian 5. You can respec to this once you hit level 11 of course. You can pick any Fighting Style here.

• Unarmored Defense lets you use DEX + CON modifier for AC (Use the Amulet of Bodily Health to get +6 CON and advantage on CON saves)
• You can take any of the subclasses you desire (I prefer Wild Magic because fun).
• Raging not required, we're only taking this for Unarmored Defense, Reckless Attack, and Extra Attack.
• What we want here is a finesse two-handed weapon that we can use with Great Weapon Master. So you have your choice of the Phalar Aluve longsword (Act 1) , the Larethian's Wrath longsword (Act 1), or The Dancing Breeze glaive (Act 3). Pick up GWM feat at Barbarian 4. Then, attack recklessly for advantage.
• With Dread Ambusher and +5 DEX, that's 2d10 (weapon) + 4d6 (Sneak Attack) + 2d8 (Dread Ambusher) + 2d4 (fire dip) + 10 (GWM) + 5 (DEX) + 1 or 2 (Rare/Very Rare weapon bonus) = about 55/56 damage on average. (72/73 with Hunter's Mark + Strange Conduit Ring + Drakethroat Glaive)

A fun one I haven't done yet is Assassin 3/Gloomstalker 5/Spores Druid 2/ Paladin 2. Any Fighting Style. Only one ASI so no super fun feats to play with. But with DEX should be +5 at this point anyways if you started with 17 DEX. The only problem with this build is your spell slots are limited (4 lvl 1's, 3 lvl 2's, 2 lvl 3's.) Once they're gone, long rests are needed to get em back.

• Acquire and equip The Duelist's Perogative, and Bhaalist Armor.
• Activate Symbiotic Entity (Out of combat)
• Profit.
• With Dread Ambusher, +5 DEX, Piercing vulnerability from Bhaalist Armor, and Divine Smite at 3rd level: 4d8x2 (Weapon + Dread Ambusher) + 4d6x2 (Sneak Attack) + 8d8 (Divine Smite) + 2d4 (fire dip) + 2d4 (Duelist Perogative) + 2d6 (Symbiotic Entity) + 5x2 (DEX) + 3x2 (Legendary weapon bonus) = about 133 damage on average (155 with Hunter's Mark + Strange Conduit Ring + Drakethroat Glaive + Duelist Perogative reaction)

Assassin makes for very powerful solo builds. It's especially neat when combined with The Deathstalker Mantle to leave combat and reinitiate whenever you want to regain Dread Ambusher. I apologize for the long write up too. Buildcrafting is my favorite thing to do. So I tend to yap a lot down to the smallest detail when doing so.

2 paladin 10 swords bard. Take the first 6 levels in swords bard. Dual wield and smite away. Could also do 6 swords bard/ 6 champion fighter, if you still want 3 feats.

8 Monk/4 Rogue is quite a common build.

I’ve only ever done it with open hand monk but I’m sure the way of the shadows monk would go quite well thematically?

I know the usual consensus is to build it as a strength monk with taking TB at level 4, but I’m sure the build is still excellent when focusing Dex.

Only issue with this is that it won’t fit with you wanting to use finesse weapons or the necromancer stuff.

Gloomstalker 5 / Assassin 4 / Battle Master 3 (in that order). Grab the Helmet of Grit, The Deathstalker Mantle, Bhaalist Armor, Craterflesh Gloves, The Speedy Lightfeet, Caustic Band, Strange Conduit Ring, Crimson Mischief (main hand) and Bloodthirst (off hand). For fighting styles, choose Two-Weapon Fighting and Defence.

I like to do 5 levels thief rogue then the rest gloomstalker ranger for Astarion. He gets extra moves and good bow damage. give him gear for misty step and the durge cloak for extra mobility and stealth. I’ve seen a few levels of fighter mixed into that build as well but I like to keep to 2 classes.

I have to put in a vote for my favourite - Swords Bard 6 / Fighter 2 / Thief 4 (in roughly that order, though you can dip into the first level of Fighter to get Archery as early as you see fit), taking Two Weapon Fighting as your bard fighting style, and the Sharpshooter Feat.

Start with two +1 hand crossbows from Dammon plus the best shortsword/dagger combo I can find at any point as a backup if caught in melee - it's a solid build at all levels, tbh, and even better on a durge run if you give him the Shadeslayer Mantle. The poor enemy AI spends a lot of time looking for him 😂

4 thief rogue/5 gloomstalker ranger/3 champion fighter is a easy but fun crit built, if I don't go the usual 5 thief/7 gloomstalker split.

4 thief for extra bonus action and feat. 5 gloomstalker for extra attack and feat. 3 champion fighter for the -1 crit number and action surge.

Two +1 hand crossbow (change to Nere Misser + Yurgir's from Act2), two short sword/dagger (the -1 crit short sword from Creche and the Sussur Bark dagger for chance to Silence are my starter pick).

There are a lot of melee choices but for a crit built I always keep the -1 crit sword. With ranger you can wear some good medium/heavy armor (if you pick ranger knight, some late game heavy armor don't give disadvantage for stealth) and you can get several -1 crit pieces in act 3. But even without them, your burst dmg will still be pretty good.

I've played with him as a rogue for like 1200 hours but I had to shake it up for HM because my husband wanted to be a Gloomstalker - and I've gotta say, Paladin of Vengeance Astarion goes hard. I run him as a sorcadin (6 levels paladin, 6 levels sorc).

Rogue 4/Fighter 8 is fine.  Tactician isn’t as hard as you think- the most significant difficulty changes are early rather than late tbh.

Also build strength is honestly much more about itemization than class levels - as long as you get the basics (Extra Attack for a martial and 3rd level spells for a caster) your build can be solid.

The gloomstalker build is a lot of fun. Sprinkle in some crit gear and some damage riders and he‘s blasting

8 OH monk/4 thief rogue. Basically plays itself. Solid and simple gear progression. And it competes on the same level as the second highest tier of builds

Sounds like she's doing a melee swords bard multi class. Ranged swords bard multi classes are pretty powerful. 6 swords bard with 6 fighter or 3 gloom stalker and 3 assassin is pretty awesome and both feel thematic for Astarion. Alternatively open hand monk is pretty straight forward, just punch all the things a whole bunch.

Lean into the character. Embrace the vampire. Forget this is D&D and you're playing Warhammwr Fantasy.

2 lvls of War Cleric. For armor and weapon prof and divinity extra attacks. 8 lvls of Necromancer wizard for upgraded summons and utility spells. And then 2 more levels of War cleric for that lvl 6 spell slot and more divinity. Give him a shield and a strong 1h weapon. Tank, smash face, action economy management with summons, and utility spell casting. Bam. Astarion is finally an actually badass vampire.

I'm torn between this and GOOlock. It's not that I don't realise that this is more powerful, but I'd miss things like Crown of Madness, Hold Person etc.

4 levels in either assassin or thief (depends how you are starting fights), then you can put the rest in gloomstalker ranger. Alternatively take the last 2 levels in fighter for action surge. Sharpshooter is a required feat here.

Use Dual Xbows. I like using caustic ring when I do this build, cuz that's a free extra 10 damage on the first turn. Other ring you can use Risky ring from Oblodora, and then so long as you don't get disadvantage you will always get sneak attacks.

Other people more used to posting builds can probably reply to this with a more in depth crafting of it, but this is the gist of it.

Oh. Definitely Swords Bard 9 / Thief 3.

But I have been making him a Bardadin as of late (Vengeance)

Do whichever you like. Gloomstalker/Assassin is very good. But Thief/Bard is also very good (and imo, much more appropriate thematically).