Baldur's Gate 3: A Proposed Way to Multi-Class or Re-Class that is Favorable to Story and Lore

Introduction

As I have been playing Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3), I have had a creative idea on how to reclassify or multi-class characters that I think is friendly towards character story, backstory, and lore. SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO ENCOUNTER SPOILERS, STOP READING HERE.

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The fun part of BG3 is playing different origin characters and different play-through challenges. I've played many of these, including a 4-bard challenge and a summoner-only challenge. But as I was playing these, I felt it was slightly unfair to character backstory and lore to simply force a character's class and stats into something else. At that point, if I can just reclass/respec a character, what's the point?

So I thought about it and came up with an idea that you might enjoy. I'm no expert, and really it doesn't matter because the game will keep most all of the same dialogue and character story elements no matter what you do in reclassing/respecing. But I thought this would be a fair and balanced way to do it.

Step One: Stats at Recruitment

The first step is to keep in mind the character's origin stats. Here they are for reference:

CHARACTER	STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	POSSIBILITIES
Astarion	8	17	14	13	13	10	Rogue, Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Monk
Gale	8	13	15	17	10	12	Rogue, Wizard, Paladin, Sorcerer, Bard, Warlock
Halsin	10	14	14	8	17	12	Rogue, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Monk, Paladin, Sorcerer, Bard, Warlock
Jaheira	10	14	14	8	17	12	Rogue, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Monk, Paladin, Sorcerer, Bard, Warlock
Karlach	17	13	15	8	12	10	Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Monk
Lae'zel	17	13	15	10	12	8	Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Monk
Minthara	17	12	13	8	10	15	Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Paladin, Sorcerer, Bard, Warlock
Shadowheart	13	13	14	10	17	8	Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Monk
Wyll	8	13	14	13	10	17	Rogue, Wizard, Paladin, Sorcerer, Bard, Warlock

So here's how this chart works. Essentially, the first step is to look at their stats: anywhere that they begin above 10 in that area is an opportunity. It will make sense in the next step, but these are your best bets starting off. Again, you can technically mutli-class/reclass any of then in any way you want, but I'm looking at their base stats to determine where they'd best fit. Briefly, STR is mainly for fighters and barbarians, DEX for rogues, INT for wizards, WIS for clerics, druids, rangers and monks, and CHA for paladins, sorcerers, bards, and warlocks. Again, there's more to it than just one statistic, but that's going by main statistics.

Step Two: Reclass and "Siphon Off"

At this point, one will go and respec with Withers in camp. We will always keep their original class / sub-class as level 1. Here's an example. Let's say we wanted to change Shadowheart to a Rogue. We will keep level 1 as Cleric (which gives advantages) and then level 2 will be the first Rogue level. We would "siphon off" the odd number stats (since they do not increase modifiers) to keep Shadowheart's "original" capabilities mostly the same. Then the odd points would be pushed into other areas:

SHADOWHEART	STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
BEFORE	13	13	14	10	17	8
AFTER	12	15	14	10	16	8

This means she would make a decent starting Rogue. (One can instead put the remaining odd factor into STR, making STR 13 DEX 14, if desired to increase her carrying capacity.) From here, all her feats would end up in ability score increases until DEX is 20. Players often get the Gloves of Thievery early in the game, meaning playing with a DEX of 14-15 isn't going to be a huge handicap at first.

In this example, if I had wanted to make her a Ranger, Druid, or Monk, I really wouldn't need to siphon off the odd points, but I can still do so in order to bump up any of her other stats. The point here is that in siphoning off the odd points, one could be viewed as preserving their origin. But the odd points could be used to emphasize something more, such as having a Rogue with more STR than "the average Rogue," etc.

One can always play the origin character even in a class they would not be ideal for. Indeed, if you see the chart in step one, you'll note many origin characters have a higher CHA than they strictly need for their class. This could make them good "face" characters if you can play them.

Step Three: Consider Class and Weapons

Now we look into their backstory to imagine how they can conceptualize the new class for them. Is it reasonable? For example, Shadowheart's trickery doman cleric background could be argued to work very well with the trickery of a Rogue. Minthara's paladin nature of being blunt and decisive could make for a sorcerer who is quick on the draw. All of these are ideas you will have to come up with on your own, because they are subjective. For example, I can't necessarily see Minthara as a bard unless she's one of those types I'd encounter in the military that picked up a guitar on a deployment. I can see Minthara going sorcerer to get access to more smites as a paladin. Or Minthara having an existential crisis after the Absolute and going a completely different direction in life, like having much more anger issues due to their betrayal and going Barbarian. Or Astarion studying medicine (going cleric) or alchemy (wizard) concerning the marks on his back. The beauty of this conceptualization stage is that you feel connected to their backstory rather than feeling like you just steamrolled or ignored their backstory.

Ramifications: Some Better Than Others

The difficult part of this is that it is limited, so some recruitable/origin characters will be "better" than others, especially for new players. For example, Shadowheart gets access to at least medium armor for being a cleric. Lae'zel and Minthara get access to even heavy armor proficiency. This means some characters will simply be better because of either species or class benefits at the beginning. You could end up in a situation where you always have Shadowheart and Lae'zel in your party and then picking Karlach, Wyll, or Astarion over Gale due to light armor proficiency. Or then when you recruit/if you recruit Minthara, having Shadowheart, Lae'zel and Minthara. That can get pretty boring pretty quick.

One way to avoid this is to build challenges for yourself. For example, I have a game where I am playing all summoners. Right now I have Shadowheart (Cleric Death Domain, no multiclass), Karlach as a Beastmaster Ranger (can summon companion), my own "Tav" as a Circle of Spores Druid, and Minthara as a Necromancy Wizard multiclass. But I also reclassed Wyll into Necromancy Wizard, Gale as Conjuration Wizard, and Halsin and Jaheira as Moon or Spores Druids.

In another game, I am four bards. So Shadowheart as Trickery Cleric but then level 2+ are Lore College Bard (access to level 6 and 10 cleric spells), my "Tav" as Glamour College Bard, Lae'zel as Swords College Bard (drums; yes it's a stereotype, she likes hitting things) and Minthara as Lore Bard (acting as the spellcaster, sort of). How I justified it: my "Tav" character recruited all of them for a band and taught them how to play.

Other Examples

Minthara before and after, attempting to make a Druid.

After:

Karlach before attemping to reclass into Ranger: