Baldur's Gate 3: The Four Bard Party Play-Through

Introduction

    No silly play-through of Baldur's Gate 3 has provided me with so much enjoyment than the Four Bard Party!  I love this way of playing the game!  In this article I will go over how I did it and how it works out.

Why Bard?

    Bards are the arguably the most versatile class in Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), much less Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3), a game made from that system.

    As I have previously written, Bards can easily fill the party roles of Dialogue Specialist, Utility, and Support Caster, as Fextralife and others have pointed out.  DnD is not a new system, and as some are quoted to have said, that an adventuring party must be diverse to accomplish its goals is a good thing.  But then you might ask, how can a four Bard party work?  Bards also happen to be the most flexible.

    Can a Bard fill the combat specialist role?  Only the College of Swords ("swords") subclass, and many would argue that a Fighter, Barbarian or Paladin would do slightly better.

    Can a Bard fill the offensive spellcaster role?  Only the College of Lore ("lore") subclass, and many would argue that a Wizard, Warlock or Sorcerer would do better.

    But ironically it is this diversity of the Bard subclasses that really allows a four Bard party to work.  One of the strengths of the Bard class is its features like Jack of All Trades, which allow Bards to do half as good at certain skill checks they are not proficient with, which is a very powerful feature to have.  It's like they were meant to be lucky.  Another strength of the Bard subclasses, especially Lore, is that they get access to Magical Secrets at certain levels, with Lore getting two opportunities.  If you think for a second, your offensive spellcasters often depend on just a couple of highly powerful spells.  While the Bard spells themselves are not super powerful, it is the Magical Secrets spells that are the main power.

    So briefly, your advantages as a four Bard party are as follows.  First, all Bards get Bardic Inspiration as well as access to the Healing Word spell.  Every combat turn, you can be either helping your allies hit their targets or save from spell effects.  Every turn you can also apply a little bit of healing, which can be very useful to raise downed comrades.  There's tons of synergy to be had.  You can also sell about 25% of the equipment you find in the game for more gold simply because none of you can use it (like loot that requires being a Paladin or Monk).  Then even if your main character isn't roped into a conversation with a non-player character (NPC), they will likely be at least half proficient in any dialogue skill checks they might need to use.  As well, Lore allows you to take even more skills, so between your background and your ability to learn new skills, you will always have someone who can take Sleight of Hand to pick locks, or Stealth to hide, etc.

    There are a few drawbacks though.  First, your hit points will not be fantastic.  Bards are "squishy."  Bards get a D8 hit dice, which isn't bad but also isn't the best, as Barbarians (D12) and Fighters (D10) get more.  None of the Bards in your party will truly be a tank, though you can equip (for example) one of them with multiple items that help them have a higher armor class.  But also, Bards don't get heavy armor proficiency without taking a feat.  The best they get is medium armor.  So you will likely not have any extreme tanks like you would in a traditional party (like Lae'zel with heavy armor level).  For example, fights with Paladins in this game, such as against the Paladins of Tyre, Minthara and Nere, can potentially be highly dangerous due to the ability of Paladins to dish out a lot of damage in their first couple turns.  Indeed, it was normal in these fights for the enemy Paladin to down whichever of the party they targeted.

General Advice for the Play-Through

    Here's my general advice for playing a four Bard party in BG3.

    Initially, you won't have Withers, so you will only have Bard if you are playing a custom character or the Dark Urge.  I recommend taking proficiency in sleight of hand since you will be filling the utility role of the party due to being a Bard at the beginning.  I recommend picking a race that gets proficiency in medium armor, such as Githyanki or Shield Dwarves.  When you begin the game, as usual, be as efficient as possible with experience.  For example, in the nautiloid, kill the two thralls in combat.  If you do your best to max loot and even possibly get the everburn blade from the Cambion, you will be set up so that hopefully when you help Shadowheart up on the beach and walk away, you will be level 2.  Follow the game progression and recruit Lae'zel, Gale and Astarion, putting Astarion in the camp.  You will want to prioritize recruiting Lae'zel because she also gets medium armor proficiency.  This is important later but not in the first levels.  Get up to about level 3 and then complete the temple quest to get Withers in your party.  Once you get Withers, reclass everyone to Bard, either College of Valor ("Valor") if they do not get a weapon proficiency you want that would improve their fighting capabilities, or Swords if they already have what you want.  For example, Shadowheart might not have proficiency with the war pick Shining Staver of Skulls, so I'll make her College of Valor, while I make Lae'zel College of Swords because she already has a greatsword proficiency.  But I make her dual weapon fighting style because I think that is more likely to get the club of hill giant strength, etc.

    In the reclass, try to diversify the skills everyone has so that you have someone with arcana, insight, medicine, investigation, history and religion.  I try to base it on their origin class, i.e. Laezel gets all the athletics and acrobatics skills, Shadowheart gets religion and nature, etc.

    There will not be much diversity in spells at the beginning, but what I do is make them sort of try to fit a general expectation they would have had when not Bards.  For example, Lae'zel focuses on skills for combat, Shadowheart on healing spells, Gale on spell damage types, and my character on face/utility spells.  I try to give all my Bards Dissonant Whispers (how it can fill people with terror) and Shatter for AOE.  I don't start moving spells and subclasses around until level 6.

    So from level 3 until you get to level 6, the goal is Valor/Swords and to stay alive.  Everyone needs to have medium armor (granted by Valor/Swords).  When I get to Grymforge, I craft only the medium adamantine armor (or if you take the mod of 4+ ore, one shield and the rest medium adamantine armor).  Use spells for damage (except Shadowheart: heal) and for your Swords Bards, use your tactical flourishes.  Make sure everyone in the party always has a bardic inspiration on them so that you're more likely to save from spells and hit enemies.

    Once you are all bards, reclassing those not in the party is optional.  I do it because I enjoy such stuff.

    LEVEL 6: So you didn't die!  At this point, College of Lore (Lore) can be used for some of the party members, and here's sort of a guide to who can benefit from it, based on my opinion and experience.  I tend to keep Laezel Swords but honestly her racial medium armor proficiency makes her perfect for Lore at level 6, and the same with my Tav (usually a shield dwarf).  I migrate my Tav to Lore and focus on area of effect spells that will help, like Hunger of Hadar and Spike Growth.  If you've never cast these overlapping into a group of enemies and watched them freak out, you've never enjoyed BG3!  Anyways, so you basically have your Bards cover the various nice-to-have spells via Magical Secrets.  So one will be the "area of effect" (AoE) Bard, one is the fireball / haste Bard, one is the Cone of Cold Bard, etc.  But only reclass to Lore for those who can benefit: everyone else should stick with Valor/Swords.  (The other way to play it is everyone in your party is one of the colleges, with your Tav being College of Glamour ["Glamour"]).

    LEVEL 10: At this point, you can switch some of the Bards back to Valor/Swords.  I do this because I tend to assign all of the Bards a specific elemental set.    Here's the per-character way I do things:

A Note About Magical Secrets

    Magical secrets isn't the most profitable thing for all elemental damage types to try to get early through College of Lore.  I'll explain why.

    First, magical secrets is superior to taking a feat like Magic Initiate: Wizard.  If you take magic initiate, it uses the ability score of the class, not your class, meaning for Magic Initiate: Wizard you'd need a decent INT score.  But with magic initiate, it uses your class (CHA) ability score for spellcasting.

    Second, at level 6, there are 49 spells available to College of Lore.  At level 10, for all Bards, there are 62.  Not all elemental damage sets of spells are worth reclassing Lore with medium armored feat at level 6 and then jumping back to level 10 Swords/Valor.  I'm going to call this jumping subclasses at level 6 and then back at level 10 the "6/10 split."

    I usually try to outfit my characters for elemental damage types, though I know you can mix and match spells, so I'm going to provide my opinion on whether it's worth it for each of the elemental damage sets:

Spoiler-Filled Battle Field Discoveries:

    I will go over some of the fights you will face in this game here, with recommendations.  WARNING: there are spoilers in this section.