Baldur’s Gate 3 presents players with the chance to recruit a number of different companions along their adventures, and while most of them are found relatively quickly, a few, including the Druid Halsin and his powerful builds, will take a little bit of time and effort to add to your camp.
How to use Halsin in Baldur’s Gate 3
As a Druid, Halsin provides some of the best utility you can find filling in whatever role you might need. Figuring out the best build for him can largely be up to personal preference, making a guide for his best builds a little bit tricky. Depending on what classes you have in your composition, you might want Halsin to be melee, a caster, or even a support.
Deciding how best to use Halsin can depend on what other companions you have in your group composition. This can vary based on how you choose to interact with other potential companions, but the most notable roles that Halsin can fill will likely be as a support or as a tank.
Getting Halsin at the beginning of Act Two, it is likely that you’ve already had an opportunity to add the Cleric Shadowheart and the Barbarian Karlach to your team. Each of those characters are exceptionally good at healing and tanking respectively, but there’s a chance that maybe you chose not to let them join your camp, in which case Halsin can fill either of those roles for you.
While Halsin can be used in other capacities, there are ample caster and melee damage options to choose from, making it so that his utility is likely best served as a tank or support.
How to find Halsin in Baldur’s Gate 3
To use Halsin, you must first save him from the goblin camp in Act One, and in the process, you have to choose against siding with the Drow Minthara, who has teamed up with the goblins.
In both of my current campaigns, I chose against siding with Minthara, but I went about saving Halsin in slightly different ways.
If you’d like to improve your relationship with Halsin and have him approve of you after you’ve saved him, you’ll just want to make sure you never do anything in front of him that would disrespect nature or animals. Other than that, Halsin approves of generally heroic or kind acts.
After you’ve taken out the goblin camp and its leaders, including Dror Ragzlin, you can find Halsin back at Emerald Grove where you can ultimately team up with him by choosing the appropriate dialogue cues, all of which are relatively straightforward. Don’t worry — the game isn’t trying to trick you. They really want you to add him to your camp, if that’s what you want.
I initially made the mistake of thinking that once he was hanging around my camp that he was a playable companion, so I do have to warn you: he’s not immediately playable as soon as you add him to your camp. In order to make him a playable character, you will first need to complete a questline in Act Two that ends with you rescuing Thaniel and Oliver from the Shadow-Cursed Lands. He could be playable earlier or later in Act Two depending on how you prioritize your questing.
All of Halsin’s class features explained
When you add Halsin to your group composition, he will be downgraded to level one, and you’ll be prompted to level him up to match your other characters’ levels. He is a Wood Elf with an Outlander background, and his Subclass is Circle of the Moon. Here is what his base stats look like:
- Strength: 10
- Dexterity: 14
- Constitution: 14
- Intelligence: 8
- Wisdom: 17
- Charisma: 12
If you’re looking to use him the way he is flavorfully intended, your build will revolve around the class action Wild Shape, and we learn prior to meeting him that his go-to Wild Shape is a bear. That form turns Halsin into a large bear with a chunky HP base to match.
Best cantrips for Halsin in Baldur’s Gate 3
Halsin will start out with Thorn Whip and Shillelagh as his cantrips. Thorn Whip will deal damage to enemies and pull them toward him, making him ideal for being a frontliner. Meanwhile, Shillelagh will buff specific weapons to add to their damage roll to make your melee damage attacks add an extra punch.
Best spells for Halsin in Baldur’s Gate 3
Halsin is a bear at heart, but he’s got a number of spell options that can help heal the team a little bit and do some crowd control too. When you pick him up, his initial prepared spells will veer toward that support utility role:
- Goodberry: conjures a consumable that you can share with allies. The berries provide a few HP. While it’s not a ton of added health, it adds up and can save you from having to drink a ton of health potions.
- Entangle: This does what the name says. If you’ve gotten this far in the game, you’ve been entangled once or twice and know how frustrating that crowd control can be for a melee character. It’ll help you control the battlefield and pick apart your enemies.
- Healing Word: This is a ranged heal. It’s not as powerful as Cure Wounds, but you can do it from 18 meters away making it significantly more flexible.
By the time you get Halsin, you’ll need to pick out some level two and three spells. Here are some solid choices that you might want to consider:
- Moonbeam: My friend who plays a Druid in my co-op campaign is convinced this is overpowered. Anytime he casts it, it almost always hits multiple targets, and enemies almost always walk through it dealing more damage. It can effectively be a crowd control ability that keeps enemies out of a certain location, or it can just kill them if they’re dumb enough to walk through it anyway.
- Barksin: If you’re trying to use Halsin as tank, this will do the trick. It ups the armor class of a target. He can cast it on himself and transform into a bear for the ultimate beefy tank body.
- Spike Growth: Similar to Entangle, this can be an effective crowd control tool that can manipulate the battlefield in your favor if used properly. It can also damage enemies that don’t respect its zoning power.
- Call Lightning: This is another AoE damage option. It won’t stay in the same spot for multiple turns like Moonbeam, but you can call down lightning repeatedly throughout a combat to continue the fun, and damage.
Best feats for Halsin in Baldur’s Gate 3
Just like other companions, Halsin will earn a feat at levels four, eight, and 12. Getting Halsin’s Wisdom up to 20 as quickly as possible is optimal, so Ability Improvement is probably your best option out of the gate, and it will likely also be the best option at level eight.
Later on, you can use a feat like Elemental Adept to make sure that your spells don’t get resisted. You can also go with Resilient and up your Constitution to make Halsin the beefiest, tankiest boy possible if you’re really into the whole bear vibes.
- Level four: Ability Improvement
- Level eight: Ability Improvement
- Level 12: Elemental Adept or Resilient (Constitution)
