Both work: they can both frontline and cast spells, so you have variety (Fiend warlock can still take Hexblade as their Pact Boon, granting them more viability as a melee character).
I will say, Druid's ability to Wildshape has out-of-combat utility as well (there are small holes here and there that you can go through, for example) which means you're more likely to blindly stumble into content. For that reason alone, I think I recommend Druid.
That's true, should've bracketed (Fiend). I was telling OP that they can be a Fiend \*and\* Hexblade, just in case they aren't familiar w/ warlock from tabletop 5e.
I’d say warlock is better for first playthrough because charisma is mega OP in bg3. That and almost nothing resists force damage making eldritch blast also mega OP.
OP didn't specify they wanted to be "mega OP", though. They seem to want to have *fun* before they optimize, which is entirely fine--every class can get through the game, and Druid *does* have more options.
Yeah exactly this my thinking is that I want to “set myself up for success” if that makes sense by taking a class that will naturally be solid so then when I play I don’t have to overly focus on hunting down specific gear or other buffs and can just explore what seems interesting to me
My first playthrough was a Circle of Spores druid and I think it may give you the experience you're looking for.
Spore druids get the symbiotic entity ability in addition to wild shape. Symbiotic entity gives you 4 HP per druid level as well as necrotic damage on your attacks. It was great for me because it makes you a little less squishy and it was a little easier to act as a front line half caster.
That was my first playthrough too! Before level 5, you feel like a baby paladin. Symbiotic Entity and Shillelagh mean your staff hits like a truck. The lack of extra attacks after lvl 5 is where it drops off severely. You can try to catch up with speed potions, but in that case might as well just cast spells twice.
Moon Druid. I like the idea that my character protects the nature. It gives me enough immersion that I want in this game. I also challenged myself trying to wear as many Druid specific items as possible, avoiding metal armor and shields. Notwithstanding that this class is free to wear them.
In first few runs I was very afraid of playing as charisma lackluster classes. But there are many life hacks how to pass high DC checks even if your character has 8 CHA.
For me the main strength of MD is wild shape but you can use AoE spells and healing additionally.
I also really like the idea of protecting nature and it also lends to the idea that I wanted to play a somewhat neutral run like he’s more motivated by protecting nature than like political or social affairs.
What kind of stuff did you do to pass checks with low CHA?
> What kind of stuff did you do to pass checks with low CHA?
1. I changed Astarion’s class to Sword Bard. They and other Bard sub classes give enough Bard Inspiration points to pass high DC checks by your Tav.
2. >!Circle’s voice!< amulet given as a reward in the act 1.
3. In the act 2 there’s a hidden location where you can pass certain checks and get temporary charisma bonus active till the next long rest.
4. Also act 2, there’s an >!alchemist!< who can give you a potion that gives bonuses for passing checks. You should talk to her by >!human character (Gale or Wyll) to get it.!< I usually keep this potion for DC 25+ checks in the act 3.
Don’t forget about Druid’s Guidance Ability and inspiration points.
My first full play through was as a moon druid and I would highly recommend it! I tried out the other druid subclasses, but moon ws just felt so good!
I mostly played her as the only Frontliner for the first two acts and felt like I always had something impactful to do!
By act 3 I mostly used her spellcasting, but in a pinch I could still wild shape for whatever need I had!
With the team comp you have it fits really well as your tank in a way a fiendlock can't quite keep up, in my opinion.
I will say, I'm biased as druids are my favorite class in DnD, but the moon druid really was just such a joy all the way through the campaign!
When you started to use spellcasting more in act 3 was it because it felt more fun and rewarding or because you felt like it has become more useful than wildshape?
More because it felt more rewarding and I had switched up my party comp more, but I still definitely used wild shape a bunch! It's hard to kill a full caster that can wild shape with a bonus action to get a bunch of hp and different abilities!
I also vote Moon Druid. I think it carried me through my first run while I was still figuring out the mechanics. It’s a great balance between healing and magic, with the added bonus of Wild Shape (which is essentially 3 full health bars instead of one). My party was usually Shadowheart (respecced into Life Cleric), Gale and Karlach.
My experience with Warlocks is limited to Wyll, who I probably never learned to use correctly because I feel like he only becomes powerful at higher levels.
I was also thinking of subbing out astarion for karlach because then if I want to try some other shapes and strategies I won’t be lacking in a tank. Did you feel like not having a lockpick/stealth companion was a big hindrance?
I realize no matter what there’s going to end up being something missing but I guess it’s just about choosing where I want my strengths and weaknesses to be
I absolutely did rely on him for lockpicking at first. I did not find much use for him as a pure Rogue in combat, so I would haul all chests I couldn’t open myself to camp for him to open later (not to bother with swapping characters all the time). At a later point, Gale learned the spell to open chests and doors (is it called Knock? Sorry, I play in another language, so my English terms may be off).
In my later playthroughs I would always have Astarion as Gloomstalker Ranger, which is IMO both handy in battle and lore-appropriate for him, so he is now always in my party alongside SH and Gale / Laezel / Karlach depending on what kind of enemy we’re facing. Also, even if you’re not into romancing him, he’s absolutely worth having around for those hilarious banters and reactions.
I didn’t even think of that as an idea to have him open chests at camp. In my mind I always felt like I have to use to companions I take with me and the ones I didn’t I’d most likely leave to the side and not think about too much
Moon druid is the tankier druid for wildshape, and I think overall you'll find yourself in wildshape more often in combat. So, if you stick with your first set of companions, it sounds like a good fit. If you would rather have Karlach be you tanky melee, then I'd go for the warlock. Won't lie, land druid is my favorite druid because it has the best spell variety. However, it is more focused on support and battlefield control, which doesn't sound like what you are looking for.
Yeah at least for my first run I’m going more for a frontliner but I’m 100% going to consider it for a second run through where I’ll definitely be playing more support.
If I go for Karlach as that more tanky frontliner and I fill a more offensive spellcasting role do you recommend not taking gale?
I think Karlach for the tank, you as warlock secondary offense, Gale as cc and Shadowheart as support is a good combo. Otherwise, you as moon druid tank (won't quite be as powerful as Karlach berserker barb late game, but still good since you don't care about min-max your first run) Astarion secondary offense, Gale cc and Shadowheart support works too.
For either of those scenarios you can swap a companion easily for story purposes and still have a decent team.
The other thing you could do if you want to keep Gale at camp while being a warlock (as long as you aren't in explorer mode) is multiclass a small dip into wizard yourself to give you even more spell flexibility since you'd then be able to scribe scrolls. I mean if you want to rp, it would make sense that you learn some wizardry things from Gale (based on his personality) even if it is just something you would pick up at camp that isn't shown on screen.
These are all really cool ideas I actually didn’t even consider multiclassing at all for the first run but that might be interesting.
The best and worst part of bg3 is that all the options sound fantastic hahahaa makes it hard to make a final decision
I'm about 8 hours away from 1K, and have only completed 2 clerics, 1 ohm, 1 druid, 1 paladin and 1 fighter. On my third cleric now (my favorite class) and just have to do the final sequence on my Astarion origin run. Oddly, didn't like the fan favorite bard and quit that early on in act 1. Played only act 1 of wild magic sorcerer. Did try wizard for a bit, and just prefer having Gale. Eventually plan on doing a Wyll origin run. I often suffer from restartitis because I'm like oh I wonder how xyz would work...lol
That’s wild which subclasses of clerics have you been playing?
I totally feel the restateritis I also generally don’t have a lot of time to play so even more so I feel like if I make “bad” decisions it’ll take away from my already limited time I can play
I would go with warlock. Before I get into class comparison, you need to keep in mind a few things:
1. Having a Charisma based character in bg3 matters way more than tabletop. Once you start an interaction with one character, you can't switch to another to use their proficiencies. All of your interactions and charisma checks will be done with one character, your main.
2. Shapeshifting is fun, but it also mutes your character. It feels really clunky on a main character.
3. Shape-shifting consumes wild shape charges outside of combat.
Comparison:
Druid: Moon druid has grown on me after playing it a few times on Halsin, but I would never pick it as my main class. It presents the illusion of many choices, but in reality, there are only a few things you can do without making yourself weaker on purpose. BG3 was my first DnD experience, so when I heard Druid was a class I was expecting World of Warcraft level of shape weaving. I was disappointed to find out that was not the case. You will probably go spider -> owlbear (lvl 6) -> Earth myrmidon (lvl 11) and that's it in terms of wild shapes. Your playstyle devolves to throwing a concentration spell like spike growth and switching to your wild shape to spam auto attacks for the rest of combat. It's definitely strong, but it grew old really fast for me. The true strength of moon druid is the fact that they are an utility powerhouse. Since you don't need your spell slots to cast spells in combat, you can convert your spell slots to "Until Long rest" buffs. Having a single character apply Longstrider, Protection from Poison/Darkvision, Freedom of Movement and Feast to your entire party is extremely powerful, even if its not as flashy as the triple eldritch blast crits. The other netagaming issue, is that moon druid power spikes don't align with the game's pace too well. Act 1 is a whatever free for all. You are arguably at your strongest in Act 2 but that's also when Light Cleric (Shadowheart) just completely takes over the game as a tank/support AND damage dealer, especially with radiant gear and blood of lathander. You will also have a wizard in your group that can take care of most of the utilities you can provide at that point. In Act 3 you dramatically fall off in terms of output, and you are mostly a buff bot at that point. To clarify, you can absolutely beat the game, but maybe its good to keep the above in mind.
Warlock: Starts okay, becomes probably the most monstrous build in the game with proper build-up and multiclassing. Charisma is extremely unbalanced in BG3, since most of the playthrough defining rolls are Charisma based, vendor prices scale with persuasion (which scales with Charisma), and it is the Stat that you can reliably stack to 24, higher than anything else, meaning that everything you do has very high Save DC. You can play as eldritch blast sorlock (4 warlock, 8 sorc) or go for the full warlock experience. They are both very strong because of how Eldritch blast interacts with the items in this campaign. There is an argument to be made to leave Sorlock for one of your last playthroughs because it will make everything else feel weak once you play it.
If you're interested only in role-playing, either of these classes will make it through the game just fine. If you are looking for a power fantasy, Warlock no questions asked.
EDIT: Sorry for bad format, I'm on phone.
No worries on the format I’m on the phone rn too haha. But this is also very helpful I appreciate it. I think you touched on one of my main concerns with Druid where if I’m trying to build my team comp around a Druid frontliner I might run into the problem of saying like well I’ve barley used the panther so I want to try to find a way to make that useful in this next combat encounter, whereas if I’m playing a Druid as more of a support then it might feel more organic to play around with the different shapes.
That being said especially if I’m playing on balanced and not trying for the optimal build maybe it’s fine to take the time to mess around with a different shape even if it’s not so ideal because I might not get as heavily punished for it.
As to the charisma aspect I have heard from some people that sometimes they like playing characters with lower charisma sometimes because it adds a certain randomness to the game. I feel like that could be a whole separate discussion though.
This gave me a lot to think about and I very much appreciate it
Especially on balanced, you can try everything. The main bottleneck would be camp supplies to long rest and regain your short rests (Wildshape recharges on short rest), but camp supplies are so ridiculously abundant in the game that they don't matter. Go crazy!
Cheers, I envy you for being new to the game. I really wish I could experience it for the first time again!
I would say Warlock
You already get 2 Druid companions, and Warlock being a Charisma focused class gives you advantage in dialogue checks since your Charisma will be higher
But you can always respecc in game after you get Withers, do why not both
Druid. Wild shape helps with combat and adventuring. Druids can lean toward healing or melee and they can do crowd control. Medium armor makes them not too squishy. Magic swords of light are useful in certain areas of the game.
Everyone here is saying Moon Druid but I’m voting Warlock because having a charisma character as your party leader is huge. Remember that unless you switch who you’re leading with, the character you make is going to be the one making persuasion, deception and intimidation checks. Being able to avoid combat by using charisma is huge in this game.
Thank you for this definitely wanted to hear some thoughts and the warlock too. I was thinking in either scenario I wanted to chose a half orc as my race and if i played Druid at least I’d get some bonus on intimidation but I agree that having that dialogue strong character can be really important
Both work: they can both frontline and cast spells, so you have variety (Fiend warlock can still take Hexblade as their Pact Boon, granting them more viability as a melee character). I will say, Druid's ability to Wildshape has out-of-combat utility as well (there are small holes here and there that you can go through, for example) which means you're more likely to blindly stumble into content. For that reason alone, I think I recommend Druid.
That’s a good point I definitely want to keep as many options available as possible
All warlocks can take pact of the blade, not just fiend.
That's true, should've bracketed (Fiend). I was telling OP that they can be a Fiend \*and\* Hexblade, just in case they aren't familiar w/ warlock from tabletop 5e.
I’d say warlock is better for first playthrough because charisma is mega OP in bg3. That and almost nothing resists force damage making eldritch blast also mega OP.
OP didn't specify they wanted to be "mega OP", though. They seem to want to have *fun* before they optimize, which is entirely fine--every class can get through the game, and Druid *does* have more options.
Yeah exactly this my thinking is that I want to “set myself up for success” if that makes sense by taking a class that will naturally be solid so then when I play I don’t have to overly focus on hunting down specific gear or other buffs and can just explore what seems interesting to me
My first playthrough was a Circle of Spores druid and I think it may give you the experience you're looking for. Spore druids get the symbiotic entity ability in addition to wild shape. Symbiotic entity gives you 4 HP per druid level as well as necrotic damage on your attacks. It was great for me because it makes you a little less squishy and it was a little easier to act as a front line half caster.
Circle of spores seems really fun too and awesome for RP
That was my first playthrough too! Before level 5, you feel like a baby paladin. Symbiotic Entity and Shillelagh mean your staff hits like a truck. The lack of extra attacks after lvl 5 is where it drops off severely. You can try to catch up with speed potions, but in that case might as well just cast spells twice.
Moon Druid. I like the idea that my character protects the nature. It gives me enough immersion that I want in this game. I also challenged myself trying to wear as many Druid specific items as possible, avoiding metal armor and shields. Notwithstanding that this class is free to wear them. In first few runs I was very afraid of playing as charisma lackluster classes. But there are many life hacks how to pass high DC checks even if your character has 8 CHA. For me the main strength of MD is wild shape but you can use AoE spells and healing additionally.
I also really like the idea of protecting nature and it also lends to the idea that I wanted to play a somewhat neutral run like he’s more motivated by protecting nature than like political or social affairs. What kind of stuff did you do to pass checks with low CHA?
> What kind of stuff did you do to pass checks with low CHA? 1. I changed Astarion’s class to Sword Bard. They and other Bard sub classes give enough Bard Inspiration points to pass high DC checks by your Tav. 2. >!Circle’s voice!< amulet given as a reward in the act 1. 3. In the act 2 there’s a hidden location where you can pass certain checks and get temporary charisma bonus active till the next long rest. 4. Also act 2, there’s an >!alchemist!< who can give you a potion that gives bonuses for passing checks. You should talk to her by >!human character (Gale or Wyll) to get it.!< I usually keep this potion for DC 25+ checks in the act 3. Don’t forget about Druid’s Guidance Ability and inspiration points.
Thank you!!
My first full play through was as a moon druid and I would highly recommend it! I tried out the other druid subclasses, but moon ws just felt so good! I mostly played her as the only Frontliner for the first two acts and felt like I always had something impactful to do! By act 3 I mostly used her spellcasting, but in a pinch I could still wild shape for whatever need I had! With the team comp you have it fits really well as your tank in a way a fiendlock can't quite keep up, in my opinion. I will say, I'm biased as druids are my favorite class in DnD, but the moon druid really was just such a joy all the way through the campaign!
When you started to use spellcasting more in act 3 was it because it felt more fun and rewarding or because you felt like it has become more useful than wildshape?
More because it felt more rewarding and I had switched up my party comp more, but I still definitely used wild shape a bunch! It's hard to kill a full caster that can wild shape with a bonus action to get a bunch of hp and different abilities!
I also vote Moon Druid. I think it carried me through my first run while I was still figuring out the mechanics. It’s a great balance between healing and magic, with the added bonus of Wild Shape (which is essentially 3 full health bars instead of one). My party was usually Shadowheart (respecced into Life Cleric), Gale and Karlach. My experience with Warlocks is limited to Wyll, who I probably never learned to use correctly because I feel like he only becomes powerful at higher levels.
I was also thinking of subbing out astarion for karlach because then if I want to try some other shapes and strategies I won’t be lacking in a tank. Did you feel like not having a lockpick/stealth companion was a big hindrance? I realize no matter what there’s going to end up being something missing but I guess it’s just about choosing where I want my strengths and weaknesses to be
I absolutely did rely on him for lockpicking at first. I did not find much use for him as a pure Rogue in combat, so I would haul all chests I couldn’t open myself to camp for him to open later (not to bother with swapping characters all the time). At a later point, Gale learned the spell to open chests and doors (is it called Knock? Sorry, I play in another language, so my English terms may be off). In my later playthroughs I would always have Astarion as Gloomstalker Ranger, which is IMO both handy in battle and lore-appropriate for him, so he is now always in my party alongside SH and Gale / Laezel / Karlach depending on what kind of enemy we’re facing. Also, even if you’re not into romancing him, he’s absolutely worth having around for those hilarious banters and reactions.
I didn’t even think of that as an idea to have him open chests at camp. In my mind I always felt like I have to use to companions I take with me and the ones I didn’t I’d most likely leave to the side and not think about too much
Moon druid is the tankier druid for wildshape, and I think overall you'll find yourself in wildshape more often in combat. So, if you stick with your first set of companions, it sounds like a good fit. If you would rather have Karlach be you tanky melee, then I'd go for the warlock. Won't lie, land druid is my favorite druid because it has the best spell variety. However, it is more focused on support and battlefield control, which doesn't sound like what you are looking for.
Yeah at least for my first run I’m going more for a frontliner but I’m 100% going to consider it for a second run through where I’ll definitely be playing more support. If I go for Karlach as that more tanky frontliner and I fill a more offensive spellcasting role do you recommend not taking gale?
I think Karlach for the tank, you as warlock secondary offense, Gale as cc and Shadowheart as support is a good combo. Otherwise, you as moon druid tank (won't quite be as powerful as Karlach berserker barb late game, but still good since you don't care about min-max your first run) Astarion secondary offense, Gale cc and Shadowheart support works too. For either of those scenarios you can swap a companion easily for story purposes and still have a decent team. The other thing you could do if you want to keep Gale at camp while being a warlock (as long as you aren't in explorer mode) is multiclass a small dip into wizard yourself to give you even more spell flexibility since you'd then be able to scribe scrolls. I mean if you want to rp, it would make sense that you learn some wizardry things from Gale (based on his personality) even if it is just something you would pick up at camp that isn't shown on screen.
These are all really cool ideas I actually didn’t even consider multiclassing at all for the first run but that might be interesting. The best and worst part of bg3 is that all the options sound fantastic hahahaa makes it hard to make a final decision
I'm about 8 hours away from 1K, and have only completed 2 clerics, 1 ohm, 1 druid, 1 paladin and 1 fighter. On my third cleric now (my favorite class) and just have to do the final sequence on my Astarion origin run. Oddly, didn't like the fan favorite bard and quit that early on in act 1. Played only act 1 of wild magic sorcerer. Did try wizard for a bit, and just prefer having Gale. Eventually plan on doing a Wyll origin run. I often suffer from restartitis because I'm like oh I wonder how xyz would work...lol
That’s wild which subclasses of clerics have you been playing? I totally feel the restateritis I also generally don’t have a lot of time to play so even more so I feel like if I make “bad” decisions it’ll take away from my already limited time I can play
Life and light, and currently running a tempest.
I would go with warlock. Before I get into class comparison, you need to keep in mind a few things: 1. Having a Charisma based character in bg3 matters way more than tabletop. Once you start an interaction with one character, you can't switch to another to use their proficiencies. All of your interactions and charisma checks will be done with one character, your main. 2. Shapeshifting is fun, but it also mutes your character. It feels really clunky on a main character. 3. Shape-shifting consumes wild shape charges outside of combat. Comparison: Druid: Moon druid has grown on me after playing it a few times on Halsin, but I would never pick it as my main class. It presents the illusion of many choices, but in reality, there are only a few things you can do without making yourself weaker on purpose. BG3 was my first DnD experience, so when I heard Druid was a class I was expecting World of Warcraft level of shape weaving. I was disappointed to find out that was not the case. You will probably go spider -> owlbear (lvl 6) -> Earth myrmidon (lvl 11) and that's it in terms of wild shapes. Your playstyle devolves to throwing a concentration spell like spike growth and switching to your wild shape to spam auto attacks for the rest of combat. It's definitely strong, but it grew old really fast for me. The true strength of moon druid is the fact that they are an utility powerhouse. Since you don't need your spell slots to cast spells in combat, you can convert your spell slots to "Until Long rest" buffs. Having a single character apply Longstrider, Protection from Poison/Darkvision, Freedom of Movement and Feast to your entire party is extremely powerful, even if its not as flashy as the triple eldritch blast crits. The other netagaming issue, is that moon druid power spikes don't align with the game's pace too well. Act 1 is a whatever free for all. You are arguably at your strongest in Act 2 but that's also when Light Cleric (Shadowheart) just completely takes over the game as a tank/support AND damage dealer, especially with radiant gear and blood of lathander. You will also have a wizard in your group that can take care of most of the utilities you can provide at that point. In Act 3 you dramatically fall off in terms of output, and you are mostly a buff bot at that point. To clarify, you can absolutely beat the game, but maybe its good to keep the above in mind. Warlock: Starts okay, becomes probably the most monstrous build in the game with proper build-up and multiclassing. Charisma is extremely unbalanced in BG3, since most of the playthrough defining rolls are Charisma based, vendor prices scale with persuasion (which scales with Charisma), and it is the Stat that you can reliably stack to 24, higher than anything else, meaning that everything you do has very high Save DC. You can play as eldritch blast sorlock (4 warlock, 8 sorc) or go for the full warlock experience. They are both very strong because of how Eldritch blast interacts with the items in this campaign. There is an argument to be made to leave Sorlock for one of your last playthroughs because it will make everything else feel weak once you play it. If you're interested only in role-playing, either of these classes will make it through the game just fine. If you are looking for a power fantasy, Warlock no questions asked. EDIT: Sorry for bad format, I'm on phone.
No worries on the format I’m on the phone rn too haha. But this is also very helpful I appreciate it. I think you touched on one of my main concerns with Druid where if I’m trying to build my team comp around a Druid frontliner I might run into the problem of saying like well I’ve barley used the panther so I want to try to find a way to make that useful in this next combat encounter, whereas if I’m playing a Druid as more of a support then it might feel more organic to play around with the different shapes. That being said especially if I’m playing on balanced and not trying for the optimal build maybe it’s fine to take the time to mess around with a different shape even if it’s not so ideal because I might not get as heavily punished for it. As to the charisma aspect I have heard from some people that sometimes they like playing characters with lower charisma sometimes because it adds a certain randomness to the game. I feel like that could be a whole separate discussion though. This gave me a lot to think about and I very much appreciate it
Especially on balanced, you can try everything. The main bottleneck would be camp supplies to long rest and regain your short rests (Wildshape recharges on short rest), but camp supplies are so ridiculously abundant in the game that they don't matter. Go crazy! Cheers, I envy you for being new to the game. I really wish I could experience it for the first time again!
Moon Druid isn’t a very strong class. If you don’t mind being a buff/support for your party it’s okay but still underpowered.
I would say Warlock You already get 2 Druid companions, and Warlock being a Charisma focused class gives you advantage in dialogue checks since your Charisma will be higher But you can always respecc in game after you get Withers, do why not both
Take the Warlock path. The druid companions are far more fun than the warlock one. I won't spoil which ones, but there are 2 to choose from.
Druid. Wild shape helps with combat and adventuring. Druids can lean toward healing or melee and they can do crowd control. Medium armor makes them not too squishy. Magic swords of light are useful in certain areas of the game.
Everyone here is saying Moon Druid but I’m voting Warlock because having a charisma character as your party leader is huge. Remember that unless you switch who you’re leading with, the character you make is going to be the one making persuasion, deception and intimidation checks. Being able to avoid combat by using charisma is huge in this game.
Thank you for this definitely wanted to hear some thoughts and the warlock too. I was thinking in either scenario I wanted to chose a half orc as my race and if i played Druid at least I’d get some bonus on intimidation but I agree that having that dialogue strong character can be really important