Warlocks are an interesting caster class in Baldur’s Gate 3 because of their ability to focus on both spellcasting and physical combat. While they already feel like a multiclass because of some of their Pact Boons, we aim to make them even stronger by multiclassing them with some viable choices.
A guide to the Warlock multiclass build in Baldur’s Gate 3
Of the three major spellcasting classes, Warlocks are by far the most balanced class. They have a great combination of offensive and defensive spells along with supporting abilities and summons to handle any situation the game throws at them. To make the class even stronger, we multiclass them into one of three similar classes that bring out the best in our Warlock.
If we focus on the Warlock’s strengths, these three classes balance out the Warlock pretty well.
- Bard: For a supporting multiclass that buffs their allies.
- Fighter: For a powerful offensive frontliner.
- Sorcerer: For more control in battle.
While Sorcerer is a perfectly fine control multiclass option and Fighter makes for a powerful spellsword, our pick of choice for the best multiclass with a Warlock is the Bard. Not only do the Bard’s support abilities complement the Warlock’s, but the control skills of both classes allow you to manipulate the battlefield in your favor.
The Bard also shares Charisma as their primary ability stat with the Warlock, leading to a lot of similarities between their spell effects. This leads to great dialogue options out of battle, allowing you to bypass some fights entirely in favor of talking your way through.
But before we get to the meat of the matter, we need to create our character.
Character creation
When it comes to creating a character, start off with a Custom Origin character. Even though Wyll starts off as a Warlock, we are better off with a custom character since we need to fulfill specific conditions regarding our character’s race and other aspects. To get the most out of our multiclass, these are the options we select for each aspect.
Race
As is with most caster classes, Half-Elf is by far the superior choice. Even though Humans and Tieflings are a close second, Half-Elves grant you Darkvision, which is perfect for a class that needs a vision advantage over their opponent. Additionally, the subrace we choose later is ideal for a caster and is only available if you start with the Half-Elf.
Subrace
The High Half-Elf subrace is also the perfect choice for a caster. Playing as a High Half-Elf grants you an additional Cantrip, opening up more possibilities for spellcasting. Having more Cantrips gives you more options to cast spells without needing to use up spell slots. Add the Warlock’s special class ability to that and you can keep up a constant barrage of outgoing spells.
Subclass
The Fiend is the best option to choose for the Warlock’s subclass. What really makes this subclass shine over the others is its subclass feature, which allows you to regain health points every time you kill an enemy. While the other subclasses have their place, for the Bard multiclass, we believe The Fiend fulfills our needs better.
Abilities
When it comes down to ability point distribution, the setup you see here is the most ideal one. Seeing as how Warlocks, and later on Bards, thrive on Charisma, starting off with a strong Charisma score is perfect. The secondary stat we go for is Dexterity so that we gain an advantage on attack rolls and armor class, allowing us to get our turn early in battle.
Background
Charlatan seems like a no-brainer choice for our Background. Deception is one of three different speech checks that utilize our Charisma, making convincing a lot easier, and allowing you to bypass certain difficult battles at times. Sleight of Hand is a great choice for the early game and a good Dexterity score only helps us even further with this skill.
Spells
The final part of our character creation focuses on starting spells and Cantrips. For this build, these are the Cantrips we started with.
- Blade Ward: Take half damage from Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage.
- Eldritch Blast: Fire a blast of Force energy at your target, dealing damage.
- Fire Bolt: Toss a bolt of fire at your enemy, dealing fire damage.
Since we have a few offensive options through our Cantrips, we go for more utility with our spells. With that in mind, these are the starting spells that help us through the early levels.
- Command: Compel your target to follow one of five different orders.
- Approach: Your target moves towards you.
- Drop: Your target drops their weapon.
- Flee: Your target runs away from you.
- Grovel: Your target falls prone.
- Halt: Your target stops in its tracks, unable to move to use actions.
- Hellish Rebuke: Automatically retaliate against your attack with fire damage.
The next part of this build addresses ideal gear choices.
Gear choices
Gear choices aren’t the be-all and end-all in Baldur’s Gate 3, since it is perfectly feasible to finish a full run with less-than-optimal legendary gear. But having better gear is always going to make your journey easier and these are some of the better items to pick up in the three acts.
- Act One:
- Amulet of Misty Step: Grants the Misty Step skill. This spell allows you to teleport a short distance, keeping you safe from any immediate threats.
- Circlet of Blasting: Grants the Scorching Ray skill. This spell fires three powerful blasts of sunlight that can either hit multiple targets or be focused on one enemy for high damage.
- Staff of Crones: Grants the Ray of Sickness skill. This spell shoots a beam of poison at a target, dealing damage with a high chance of poisoning the target.
These three items provide a good mix of defense, offense, and control with their spells.
- Act Two:
- Disintegrating Night Walkers: You can’t be affected by any movement-hindering abilities including Enwebbed, Entangled, or Ensnared.
- Shifting Corpus Ring: Grants the Invisibility and Blur skills. The former lets you vanish from sight while the latter causes enemies to miss their attacks on you.
- Spellcrux Amulet: Grants Spell Slot Restoration. Once per Long Rest, you can restore an expended spell slot of any level.
These three items will get you through the second act with their mobility skills and spell slot refreshes.
- Act Three:
- Birthright: You gain a bonus of two points in Charisma up to a max of 22.
- Markoheshkir: Grants Arcane Enchantment and Arcane Battery. The former grants you a bonus to spell attack rolls and spell save DCs while the latter lets your next spell cast not use up a spell slot. Additionally, grants the Kereska’s Favor skill which imbues you with elemental energy.
- Robe of the Weave: Grants Arcane Enchantment and Weave Eater. The latter allows you to regenerate health every time you succeed in a spell Saving Throw.
These final items are some of the best caster-friendly items you can find in the game.
The final part of this guide deals with the leveling-up process of your multi-class.
Level progression
Most of our levels will take us through the Warlock class until level six when it is finally time to progress into the Bard multiclass. This is how the progression will look like.
Level two
The first level-up will grant you access to a new spell and two Eldritch Invocations from a list of 10.
- Agonizing Blast
- Armor of Shadows
- Beast Speech
- Beguiling Influence
- Devil’s Sight
- Fiendish Vigor
- Mask of Many Faces
- Repelling Blast
- Thief of Five Fates
- One with Shadows
Our choices for this build are Agonizing Blast for added damage on the spell using our Charisma modifier and Repelling Blast to add a knockback effect to Eldritch Blast. Additionally, you can pick one of these five choices of spells.
- Armor of Agathys
- Arms of Hadar
- Dissonant Whispers
- Hex
- Sleep
Level three
The next level will grant you access to the Class Boon feature. You can select one of the three Class Boons below.
- Pact of the Blade
- Pact of the Chain
- Pact of the Tome
We pick Pact of the Tome to gain access to extra spells like Guidance, Thorn Whip, and Vicious Mockery. As you level up, you gain more spells, some of which can be used without consuming a spell slot once per Short Rest.
You also gain access to level-two spells. Pick one from these choices.
- Cloud of Daggers
- Mirror Image
- Misty Step
- Phantasmal Force
- Scorching Ray
Level four
At this level, you unlock one new spell and a new feat. Choose any of the spells mentioned above, while Ability Improvement is a great feat choice to boost your Charisma.
Level five
Now you gain access to level-three spells. Choose any of these five powerful spells.
- Counterspell
- Fireball
- Hunger of Hadar
- Slow
- Vampiric Touch
You can also choose an additional Eldritch Invocation. We gain two new options.
- Mire the Mind
- Sign of Ill Omen
Instead of picking one of these, we go with One with Shadows to gain the ability to turn invisible.
Additionally, you can cast Animate Dead, Call Lightning, and Haste once per Short Rest with Pact of the Tome.
Level six
This is where we multiclass into our Bard. With the Bard comes their Bardic Inspiration, a powerful buff that boosts a target’s Attack Roll, Ability Check, and Saving Throw. It can be used to buff dialogue choices as well, making it a great skill to have.
Level seven
We pick another level in our Bard to gain access to Song of Rest and the Jack of All Trades class feature. Song of Rest is a spell that refreshes your party equivalent to that of a Short Rest. Jack of All Trades allows you to add half your Proficiency bonus to Ability Checks that you aren’t Proficient in.
Level eight
This is where you can make a distinction between choices. You can either level up the Bard again to gain access to Bard Colleges, or skip them and move back to leveling up the Warlock.
Since Bard Colleges aren’t as great outside of a true Bard class, we opt to stick with Warlock from this point on. This level lets you choose one more level three spell and one subclass feature. We choose Dark One’s Own Luck to gain bonus rolls to speech checks.
Level nine
This is where we gain access to level-four spells. Pick any of the following.
- Banishment
- Blight
- Dimension Door
- Evard’s Black Tentacles
- Wall of Fire
You can also pick an additional Eldritch Invocation. These are the new options.
- Book of Ancient Secretes
- Dreadful Word
- Sculptor of Flesh
We chose Beguiling Influence for a bonus in Deception and Persuasion since there will be some difficult speech checks at this point in the game.
Level 10
Another point in level-four spells and a new Feat. Choose one of the spells mentioned above and pick the Ability Improvement Feat for more Charisma, which should be maxed out by now.
Level 11
It’s time for level-five spells. Any of these are amazing.
- Cone of Cold
- Dominate Person
- Flame Strike
- Hold Monster
- Telekinesis
This is also the point where you pick up your final Eldritch Invocation. The last few choices are here.
- Minions of Chaos
- Otherworldly Leap
- Whispers of the Grave
Our choice is Book of Ancient Secrets to gain access to Ray of Sickness, Chromatic Orb, and Silence. If you haven’t learned these skills already, they are a great addition to be used without a spell slot. If you have, then pick any of the other Invocations to fulfill what you don’t have.
Level 12
The final level is here, your Warlock-Bard multiclass is now at full power. Pick the last of the level five spells, a new Cantrip, and the Fiendish Resilience Subclass Feature. This one allows you to become resistant to one type of damage that can be changed once every Short Rest.
That’s the end of our Warlock-Bard multiclass guide in Baldur’s Gate 3. If playing multiple classes is your thing, check out our list of multiclass guides to find out other interesting class combinations.
