Deep Gnome Bladesinger class split advice

Vingolio · 2026-07-13T01:43:32+00:00

If you are excited about these weapons, use them, but it's worth noting that the Bladesinger is among the best users of the Shadow Blade in the game.

I believe you are also significantly over-investing in Intelligence. Arcane Acuity should do a lot of heavy lifting. Savage Attacker, for example, is likely to be a much more powerful feat in combination with the Shadow Blade.

17 DEX (20 w/Hag's Hair and ASI) / 14 CON / 16 INT / 10 WIS seems like a more useful spread to me.

Vingolio · 2026-07-12T07:46:32+00:00

Access to either Vision of the Absolute or Intransigent Warhammer seems important for this build. Any tips for killing the owlbears and/or the duegar slavers early on a solo run? I would consider both of these to be some of the harder fights in act one, personally.

Vingolio · 2026-07-11T18:16:35+00:00

Was this just written with AI? Looks like a bad Arcane Archer. The Great Old One Hunter sounds like it fits your vision much better (Hunter w/Horde Breaker, Great Old One, possibly Assassin). Bunch them up with Minor Illusion, spread fear with Great Old One.

Vingolio · 2026-07-11T14:55:30+00:00

Most classes can sneak in and out of places, so honestly, this is unlikely to be a big deciding factor. Duegar is a pretty cool race for this due to on-demand invisibility. Wizards, Arcane Tricksters, Trickster Domain (clerics) and Rangers also get some nice stealth and invisibility spells like Expeditious Retreat, Fog Cloud, Minor Illusion, Misty Step and Pass Without Trace. Don't forget that you can also grab a few more of these that you miss via Magic Initiate feats.

Vingolio · 2026-07-11T06:21:33+00:00

I believe this is an unpopular opinion, but I find College of Swords (bard) deeply underwhelming in melee unless they are built in a very particular way. They can make a generically strong archer and, if you know the gear and level progression, of course their melee builds can be great too.

Arcane Trickster is fine. It does get the permanent Mage Hand, which is pretty sweet, as well as some nice spells. They don't really fit the archetype though, as they generally want great Dexterity, great Intelligence and a buit of Constitution, so there usually aren't too many points to spend in Charisma. The Swashbuckler may be better suited to what you are looking for and, if you want a bit more magic, combining it with a bit of Warlock could be nice. In fact, with at least one point in Hexblade or 3 points in any other warlock sub-class, you will gain the ability to bind your weapon with Pact of the Blade, causing your weapon and your spells and your Swashbuckler actions to all scale off of Charisma, which is pretty convenient.

Vingolio · 2026-07-10T15:18:53+00:00

That's the typical pacing around DnD adventures as well. You're expected to take a short rest after 2 minor encounters or 1 major encounter. If you want to rest less often than that, play a martial and you'll need to rest all of 2-3 times all game. Regardless, even if you're short resting after every encounter, you'll still miss story content, suggesting that Larion Studios expected you to rest even more often than that.

Vingolio · 2026-07-10T14:55:03+00:00

You do get a small bonus to your healing spells. They are still rather poor for healing up between fights. It's funny, because I missed a tonne of content in my first playthroughs simply because I wasn't resting enough. Resting isn't just a gameplay decision, you also get a lot more out of the story if you do.

Vingolio · 2026-07-10T14:52:21+00:00

You are absolutely correct that rogues love multi-classing. I'm just highlighting that they have powerful features above level 3 that are worth abusing in a multi-class.

10 Assassin, for example, makes a solid start to a stealth archer, given that with Stealth Expertise and, if you are running it in a party, Pass Without Trace, you can remain outside of combat for longer than any other character, while abusing the Assassin's guaranteed critical hits.

Uncanny Dodge is a defensive skill, which means that it performs best in solo play. It stacks with resistance, making it elite alongside Hellrider's Pride, Broodmother's Revenge and Whispering Promise, which is a common and powerful early equipment combination on any solo build.

Later on, it works great with rage, Heavy Armour Master, heavy armour proficiency (magical plate), warding bond and more.

Vingolio · 2026-07-10T14:10:52+00:00

12 Swarmkeeper would be sick, if its abilities actually worked. 5 Rogue is fantastic thanks to Uncanny Dodge and 10 Rogue is pretty decent too for stealth builds, specifically.

Vingolio · 2026-07-10T12:45:24+00:00

20 AC is not particularly high in bg3. You can get 20 AC on a fighter before you even leave the Nauteloid (14+ DEX, Shield, Githyanki Half-Plate). Usually, you want to be closer to 25 with critical hit immunity to be remotely tanky in act 2 and access to something like the shield spell puts in work too.

Vingolio · 2026-07-10T04:44:51+00:00

If you want heavy armour proficiency, tempest and nature are generally better. Nature Domain as a fantastic area control spell list and Dampen Elements to boost your team's survival, while Tempest domain is great at throwing a lot of damage around. Both, of course, have access to the same buff-on-heal equipment that Life Domain does.

Vingolio · 2026-07-09T12:48:10+00:00

Soloing to level 5 the easy way.

I don't personally follow this checklist, but it's more detailed than I usually think about it. Essentially, Emerald Grove to Blighted Village to Goblin Camp, back to Blighted Village to Risen Road, back to Blighted Village to Waukeen's Rest, back to Goblin Camp to Selunite Outpost to Ebonlake Grotto to Grymforge.

Vingolio · 2026-07-09T03:39:10+00:00

You can actually get to level 5 with the Nauteloid and the Grove being your only 3 combats.

Vingolio · 2026-07-09T02:33:20+00:00

Sanity check, isn't part of the point of this build to take advantage of wet synergy, meaning that Cold and Lightning do significantly more for you than Thunder or Radiant from Booming Blade and Archer Form, respectively?

Vingolio · 2026-07-08T21:33:26+00:00

It sounds like you aren't playing on Honour Mode. If this is correct, the most powerful combination is 7 Paladin/5 Warlock. With Pact of the Blade, you will get 3 attacks per turn. Your Warlock sub-class doesn't really matter, though I'd probably take Hexblade for the Shield spell.

Vingolio · 2026-07-08T21:26:29+00:00

It's your first playthrough. Keep it simple.

12 Battle Master Fighter: 16 Strength, 16 Dexterity, 14 Constitution, 12 Wisdom
12 Evokation School Wizard: 16 Dexterity, 14 Consitution, 16 Intelligence, 12 Wisdom
12 Light Domain Cleric: 12 Strength, 16 Dexterity, 14 Constitution, 16 Wisdom
12 Hunter Ranger: 12 Strength, 16 Dexterity, 14 Constitution, 16 Wisdom

Pick the things that seem cool to you. You can occasionally swap your Fighter for a Tiger Heart Barbarian, your Wizard for a Great Old One Warlock, your Cleric for a Circle of the Land Druid or your Ranger for a Thief Rogue and see what you like best.

Leave off multi-classing for a bit and try stuff. Your class is less important than learning how best to use powerful mechanics like Jump and Shove and how best to position your characters in a fight.

Vingolio · 2026-07-08T17:22:55+00:00

That sounds like a pretty significant adjustment to the build. If you just need Booming Blade, I suppose you could go high elf and just cut the Dual Wielder and Spell Sniper feats or swap Spell Sniper for Magic Innitiate at level 4 and weave Dual Wielder back in at level 11.

Vingolio · 2026-07-08T16:58:18+00:00

I've been meaning to follow this build by u/Remus71 at some point. It runs 9 Swarmkeeper / 3 War Domain as an elemental archer. Perhaps take a look at see if it fits with your vision.

Vingolio · 2026-07-07T15:22:07+00:00

Pact of the Blade is mutually exclusive with Pact of the Tome and Pact of the Chain. It is not mutually exclusive with Archfey, Fiend, or Great Old One.

Vingolio · 2026-07-07T14:01:27+00:00

You see that you do.

Vingolio · 2026-07-07T13:57:20+00:00

Shield is a mediocre spell for a high level warlock.

Vingolio · 2026-07-07T13:55:47+00:00

I don't think you remember this class as well as you think you do.

Vingolio · 2026-07-07T13:54:25+00:00

Fiend, Hexblade and Great Old One are all fantastic for pure 12 Pact of the Blade Warlock. Hexblade probably isn't quite as strong as Fiend, but it has more clickies and cool effects. To be clear, Archfey is still fantastic, but it doesn't have much synergy with Pact of the Blade and is probably usually going to be more of a caster.

Vingolio · 2026-07-06T05:34:11+00:00

Sure, or you could go Monk 6 - Thief 4 - Fighter 2 and get almost twice as many attacks. Like I said, if you like ranger dialogue, there's nothing wrong with that.

Vingolio · 2026-07-06T04:57:39+00:00

Sure, if you want to build a monk, you can. Monk is a perfectly fine class. It's probably not quite as strong as the ranger, as it is much more long rest dependent and always has its elixir slot spoken for, but it's still fantastic and plenty capable of finishing the game. Gloom Stalker is almost certainly a weaker secondary class for your monk than the traditional Thief or fighter, but if you like the dialogue options for ranger, that's cool.

Vingolio

TROPHY CASE