Gloomstalker Ranger is a particularly good drow choice.

Others might include Spore Druid, any Rogue, Shadow Monk, maybe a Wild Soul Barbarian. Any wiz or sorc could work just fine but probably lean toward Wild Magic Sorc.

Spore Druid works at lower levels. Handcrossbow stacking is fun. And things like entangle give you easy advantage.

Get warding bond from a cleric to double your effective temp hp.

Undead are hilariously bad at times. Especially for the city life. But it’s fun til it breaks.

Then you can always be a sorcerer with the offhand crossbow to hit. Tho most of the human and half elf do it better I suppose with their shield rtcy

It's probably not a good idea but I went drow barbarian

Do you want your build to fit the lore of the Drow or the mechanics of the race? You could try Necro Wiz or Assassin/Fighter for lore or Bladelock with Devil's Sight for mechanics, since you have one free cast of Darkness per day. Darkness in bg3 is less powerful than in tabletop, though.

Drow is a matriarchal society where Clerics of Llolth essentially rule. A female cleric with a noble background would be a very good RP build.

Drows are also natural sorcerors and they have a school of wizardry. Either spell caster would be cool.

Male drows are either put into Wizard School or fighting school, so Wizard or Fighter for a male Drow.

If you want to do a surface Drow, they tend to follow Llolths good daughter, who loves nature and music. I did a female surface drow sorcerer and I had her pick up performance from Alfira. This would be a great reason to build a bard Drow as well.

Paladin would be a wonderful diety-based build if you didn't want to go Cleric.

But to get those Drow related dialgue as a Drow figure head to your party I like the charisma based classes, personally.

Race is mostly a cosmetic/rp choice in BG3 so you could be whatever class you want.

Thematically though I think a lolth sworn drow would be great as a gloomstalker ranger/thief rogue multiclass dual wielding hand crossbows, or maybe an Eldritch Knight fighter/wizard of some sort, or a darkness monk/trickery cleric.

Bard would be pretty funny, but also possibly awesome.

I have played a Drow Assassin, and now playing a Drow Vengeance Paladin. Enjoyed both. There are dialogue trees for Drow that aren't there for others, ie the goblins immediately defer to you, and some eye you with suspicion. I would imagine much the same for half-orcs. I like the infravision boost of the Drow, and the benefit of the doubt you get with most of the baddies because you are drow..gives you a chance for more dialogue, IMHO.

Racial darkness lends itself to a lot of cheese with warlock and devil's sight. You can even go for the ring that gives immune to blindness as well. You get a free darkness, might as well use it to it's full advantage.

16 Dex, 16 Wis Archery Beastmaster, non-Lolth. There is an equipment mod with Beastmaster specific magic items that really helps combat synergy with your pet. I like a dip into Fighter/Champion to get a second (Archery first) fighting style: duelist.

The character pairs really well with a pure Halsin druid build in Act 3. I made Wyll a Hexblade front liner and then sprinkle in the others as the story wants.

I’m going evil in my second play through with a Lolth-sworn, female drow ranger that uses a spider companion and spider familiar and from a roleplaying perspective, I’m loving it. Lolth is the spider queen leader of the drow and women are the dominant gender in the culture, so it all fits together nicely. And it is a blast having my spiders leap all over the battlefield enwebbing and poisoning enemies while I rain down arrows from afar.

Race deosn't really affect builds since they changed how the ability scores are assigned. Choose one based on your background and have fun.

My personal favorite build is a Swords bard Archer though.

Anything you want. Race doesn’t matter for builds unless you’re trying to min max and even then it does barely anything.

Drow screams gloomstalker assassin to me

Female orthodox Lloth cleric, the second older sister from one of the noble houses in Menzoberranzan.

Wizard apprentice in the beginning of his path, moved from Underdark to serve Eilistraee.

Bae'qeshel bard/bregan d'aerthe rogue agent, seeking for the netherese crown by the order of some noble house mistress, having their beloved as a hostage...

What about going a full 12 in Oathbreaker Pally? They get Control Undead for Channel Divinity, Animate Dead at level 9, and Aura of Hate which increases Undead melee damage by your CHA mod? Take Crypt Lord Ring for Mummy summon.

If you’re wanting a more Necrotic spell caster build, I’d suggest waiting for Patch 8 and go Death Domain 9 / Necromancer 3. You should be able to scribe the Summon Ghoul spell as a Lvl 5 spell to your spell book, and as a Cleric you have the opportunity to hit ppl with necrotic infused martial weapon attacks while holding a war hammer. Just take the Heavy Armor feat for access to heavy armor, use Ketheric’s war hammer and armor, Viconia’s legendary shield, and you’re set. Only draw back is you’ll be losing out on an extra attack. But y’know, see Oathbreaker above.

Can always have a hireling be a 6 Spore Druid / 6 Necromancer and have a bunch of summoned Fungal Zombies, Raised Undead, whatever you want.

You have a few options, but your description has you pulled in too many directions.

Option 1 - Support caster focused on necrotic damage with minions:

- You can go 6 Necromancer Wizard and 6 Death Domain Cleric (assuming Patch 8). If starting before Patch 8, you will want to choose a different Cleric Domain such as Life or Nature.

• Pros:

  • You get access to most spells thanks to Wizard's ability to scribe scrolls. This makes up for the fact that you normally wouldn't be able to learn the highest level of spells even though you would have the spell slots.

• You get the extra extra undead summons from being a Necromancer and can summon some extra pets from the Cleric spell list. Your zombies are also better.

• Good necrotic damage due to Death Domain's ability to ignore necrotic resistance.

• Cons:

  • No Heavy Armor Proficiency with Death Domain Cleric.

  • Build comes online super late due to you wanting level 6 features of both classes. You will feel like the other class is holding you back until late game.

  • Your stats will be all over the place. Wizards want Intelligence, while Clerics want Wisdom. You will also want Charisma as you will be the character doing the most dialogue, Dexterity for initiative, and Constitution so you don't die. Dumping Strength won't give you enough spare points either.

  • Necromancy spells are generally weaker than other leveled spells and are very often resisted until you get Death Domain's 6th level. Circle of Death is a Fireball with a larger radius that requires a sixth level Spell Slot instead of a third level, Harm can't kill anything, Contagion requires the enemy to somehow fail 3 Saving Throws in a row, and Vampiric Touch and Inflict Wounds are melee only, which is not where you want your squishy caster to be.

 

Options 2, 3, and 4 - Frontliner with minions:

- You have a choice between 6 or 7 Oathbreaker Paladin and 5 or 6 Death Cleric, 5 or 6 Spore Druid, and 5 or 6 Necromancer Wizard

• Pros:

  • Heavy Armor Proficiency

  • You can animate dead with Cleric or Wizard or raise fungal zombies with Druid.

  • You can hit stuff with a shield and staff or a hammer depending on your mood.

  • If you go the Druid route, you gain Shillelagh so that your staff scales with Wisdom meaning you don't have to invest in so many different stats. You can also get this from Nature Cleric, but you lose out on the fungal zombies.

  • Druid gives you extra survivability in terms of temporary HP and extra damage from Symbiotic Entity.

  • You get to turn an undead enemy into an ally until Long Rest with Control Undead.

  • 7 Oathbreaker Paladin gives you additional damage equal to your Charisma Modifier as well as any nearby fiends or undead with weapons thanks to Aura of Hate.

  • Synergy with Circle of Bones helmet. Nearby undead become more tanky.

• Cons:

  • Fungal zombies are really weak. They have next to no HP or AC, meaning they will die very easily.

  • Still dependent on many stats. Wizard will want Intelligence, Cleric and Druid will want Wisdom, and Paladin wants Charisma.

  • Still comes online really late. You can't create Fungal Zombies until 6 Druid, and Aura of Hate requires 7 Paladin levels.

  • Controlling Undead is super janky. An AI controls the undead target and the enemy has to fail a Saving Throw. Most of the good targets also can't jump, causing them to get stuck just about everywhere. If you Long Rest while the target is still alive, you have to hope it fails the Saving Throw again, otherwise you will have to waste resources putting it down. You also only get one chance per Short Rest.

  • If you go for the Druid route, I guarantee you, you will forget to apply Shillelagh before combat leading to a waste of a Bonus Action that you could have used to better position yourself.

  • Shillelagh only works with clubs or Quarterstaves. If you want to use a hammer, it will require Strength investment or elixirs.

  • Aura of Hate only applies to undead and fiends with melee weapons. Only the summonable Cambion fits the criteria, and since you have no control over your controlled undead, chances are the AI will not account for it and have it move outside the radius.

Just done a Spore Druid 6/necromancer 6 run. I've done cleric/Wizards same idea.

Basically you want headband of intellect and maximize your wisdom score.

Wizard spells mostly utility. Eg haste, shield etc. Cleric whatever you want.

You will be upcasting lower level spells a lot. You can Scribe things like wizard spells but can't prepare to many. Pick a direction and focus on that. Upcast spells like aid. With free cast and couple of staves you can cast 4 level 6 spells per day.

Or staff of cherished necromancer fueled inflict wounds combined with hold person/monster. Add a sorcerer or level 10 enchanter to your party. Lots of level 6 inflict wounds spells. 8d10 damage and if you kill someone via spell staff of cherished necromancy gives you its charge back. Vs Paralyzed it's double damage. Ghouls also paralyze.

After that just focus on one thing. Lightning and water or stacking spell DC items, upcasting spirit guardians, healing etc.

Skeleton archers into flying ghouls are great. Upcast aid to buff them. Water myrmidon later on for wetting opponents.

Haste spores are also great at hasting the party and minions.

Resident necro here. Looks like you want to do a lot, but luckily next patch the Death Domain cleric will grace us with its glorious presence. It more focuses on the necrotic damage side of things, it can still summon undead but for tons of minions I suggest a 6 necro wiz with 6 spore Druid.

I have a popular solo Honour necro run on YT. My name is Remortis.

If you wanna use a shield and staff, spore Druid is the way to go. You can get shilleighleigh and hit people with wisdom, and raise the dead when they die

I think, just for flavour, playing as a Drow Cleric of Eilistraee would be pretty fun! Life domain clerics are kinda absurdly powerful - Shart always gets respec'ed in my runs

I like shadow magic lots-sworn durge, my first character was loth-sworn fiend warlock.

Drow Sorcerer: "Why would I bother to take over the Absolute? I'm already such a power that nobody would notice any difference".

Blade Dancer of Eilistraee to combine melee combat with magic, now that we have Bladesinger available, for a good/neutral run.

My first ever drow was a beast master exclusively using the wolf spider companion.

My first Patch 7 drow and full embrace for Daddy B was a gloomstalker.

My first Patch 8 drow was a shadow sorcerer.

My most recent drow was a shadow monk.

All worked and felt like a good fit as a drow roleplay-wise. The last one was actually part of my recreated Shadowheart strike team where 4 of the 5 survived instead of her being the sole survivor (the drow was "close combat" specialist Buddug Vriss whose teeth met Shadowheart's elbow when they were younger).

Druid… lackluster?

I think it stems more from the fact you can’t do anything in shapeshift.

Pop concentration spell, pop whatever you need to increase attack, pop summons, shapeshift… fly around like a demon bear.

Let your other beefy character tank the hits from late game while you focus on thinning out the room with that leap.

Summons are great as well and allow for some leeway.

Druids are probably the single most difficult class to play well, and you so can expect people to underrate them quite a bit, but speaking from 5e, druids are monsters.

The summons, combined with incredible battlefield control don't give you the highest nova damage which is often believed to be the most important thing in the universe, because you can't really spend all your long rest resources in one turn.

Does this make them weak? Hell no.

Especially with the buffs to wildshape, druids are fantastic, pick spells like moon beam (which btw, doesn't break sanctuary), plant growth and sleet storm and you will be the likely the best battlefield controller in the game, especially with spider for infinite webs.

And then at the same time you can abuse stuff like owl bear with the jump spell to deal hundreds of damage in a single turn.

And the summons just make it even more incredible. You should also try out conjure minor/not minor elementals.

Been having a great time with spores, you can lean really hard into summoning with like 12 total pera-summons (18 in act three if you do the Necromancy book thing right unlike me) and you get pretty much free damage off your class reaction/bonus action. Most stuff casters are doing cost regular actions so you generally have leftover reactions/bonus anyways. You can take healing word to have that as an option and then spam super slot-efficient concentration spells like moonbeam or lightning conduit. Between the spells, class abilities and the summons it adds up to a ton of damage. Also getting bone chill as a cantrip early on really helps with druids overall lackluster damage cantrip options.

On top of that while you aren’t as tanky as being able to burn wildshape health you get a ton of temp hit points while still being able to cast spells.

I think most of the complaints about druid stem from specifically MOON druid. It's not significantly better at its niche than land... yet land can affect battle better with options like haste etc. Outside of pure RP, I dont know why anyone would play moon over land at this point.

Even if Larian just allowed moon druid to move the moonbeam or continue call lightning while in wildshape that would be a significant improvement. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Larian decided to completely shitcan the whole playstyle of moon druid....

Moon Druid 11, War Cleric 1

You get the fire elemental transformation and summon the nymphs and wood woads.

Concentrate on bless

Go into elemental form

Use bonus actions for more fire attacks

It's insanely strong and requires no items to functions whatsoever

The myrmidons are pretty decent...but you'd be better served playing land while leveling and then just respeccing to moon if that's what you want. Too many buggy interactions with shape-shifting for me... sometimes you can self heal, sometimes you cant...attacks not counting as magical past a certain level, owlbear rage disappears past a certain level, etc. Moon just feels like a summoner....doesn't feel like a druid at all.

I beat the game w/ a 6/5/1 Paladin/Sorcerer/Hexblade split, sacrificing one Spell Slot for Hexblade’s. The leveling can be a bit weird but past Lvl 7 everything’s starting to get much better. That’s when you get to Last Light and grab that Charge Bound Hammer. Trust me with Psionic Overload+Cull the Weak+the lightning damage from the Hammer you don’t even need to Smite that often.

The only downside of course is you have to have a resident mule to carry your items. And your second feat comes as early as lvl 10 and that’s about when you beat Myrkul. Also your CHA boost either comes from ASI or the Hat and Mirror in Act 3. Your main stat will be kind of low compared to other builds.

Your second feat could probably just be savage attacker instead of ASI. You'll be in act 2, so: broodmother's, flawed helldusk gloves, chargebound warhammer with draconic elemental weapon, strange conduit ring, shadow cloaked ring

The weapon with draconic elemental enchantment will be a +3, so you won't be missing hit chance/damage

It’s a blast to play for solo Honour but myrkul fight is gonna be tough.

If you haven’t been to the Crèche yet, be sure to get the Diadem of Arcane Synergy. It’s a must have for any melee-focused warlock.

Lifedrinker is good enough that you probably want to go Warlock all the way, honestly.

Agree except for Frost sorc. Wet condition is literally the single greatest cheese in this game imo. Free, AOE, unresistable vulnerability and freezing is the an even bigger free power boost than any class using scrolls or DRS.

Moon Druid. Shapeshift, bite things, soak damage, cast spells. Not reliant on multi-class, gear, elixirs, or scrolls.

3 thief 9 monk or 4 thief 8 monk works even better.

I’m digging death cleric 6/ monk 6… dex and wisdom

It's definitely the weakest as a full class build though. It doesn't get anything after the bonus action until level 11. At least arcane trickster gets some spells as it levels.

Totally agree but I would argue that arcane trickster is the weakest subclass.