With powerful spells for buffing their companions and debuffing their enemies, Bards have much power at their fingertips in Baldur’s Gate 3, and multiclassing can make them even stronger. Faerun’s musical magicians are powerful, with a versatile set of subclasses and abilities that allow them to thrive in many different roles. However, a careful multiclass build can shore up weaknesses and make them even more formidable.

Bards in Baldur’s Gate 3 can multiclass with any of the eleven other character classes, but some combinations are better. As a Charisma-focused class, Bards synergize best with other Charisma-focused classes such as the Paladin, Sorcerer, and Warlock. Powerful builds exist for all three, but Bard/Paladin offers the highest damage output, survivability, and roleplaying utility.

How To Build A Bard Multiclass Character

Before you can begin assembling a party to explore the Sword Coast, you need to customize your character. The character creator involves more than just aesthetic choices; your character’s race, subrace, background, and more will influence your build. Some choices are better for the Bard/Paladin build than others. However, if you’ve already planned out a character with a detailed backstory, feel free to use that to add flair to the game.

When choosing a race for the Bard/Paladin, you have several great options.

• Half-Elves fit well into many builds since they have a range of useful perks, including Darkvision and Fey Ancestry, which gives them an Advantage against being Charmed and an immunity to Sleep. Wood Half-Elves also have an extra 1.5m movement range.
• Half-Orcs have Savage Attacks, which add an extra dice of damage to critical hits with melee weapons. They also have Relentless Endurance, where they can drop to 1HP instead of being downed once per Long Rest.
• Halflings have Halfling Luck, which allows them to reroll any 1s on attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws, and Brave, which gives them an Advantage against being Frightened. However, their movement range is reduced.

You will also need to pick a solid Background for your character. The Charlatan, Entertainer, and Guild Artisan Backgrounds fit the Bard best, while Backgrounds like Soldier fit the Paladin better. Alternatively, you can weigh the pros and cons of the Dark Urge Origin. The Dark Urge is a fully customizable character with a unique dark Background that ties them closer to the game’s story.

To build the Bard/Paladin, start with the Bard class and choose the following spells and Cantrips:

The Vicious Mockery and Friends cantrips give you options inside and outside of combat.

• Vicious Mockery inflicts damage and gives the target a Disadvantage on its next attack roll, giving you an easy way to help allies in danger by tipping the odds in their favor.
• Friends give you an Advantage on Charisma checks, and it’s excellent for helping you succeed at your Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation checks.

In Tactician and Honour Mode, NPCs may confront the player if they have been affected by Friends and may even turn hostile. As such, you should consider swapping Friends for another cantrip if you’re playing at higher difficulties.

Starting spells for Bard/Paladin are among the best starting spells in Baldur’s Gate 3, and here's what they do for this build:

• Faerie Fire reveals hidden foes and grants your whole party an Advantage against them.
• Dissonant Whispers can Frighten a target, rendering them immobile temporarily and giving them a Disadvantage on their rolls.
• Sleep can temporarily take enemies out of a fight, and unlike many other spells, enemies cannot roll to save themselves from its effects.
• Thunderwave is great for dealing knockback and damage to multiple enemies.

How To Build And Level a Bard Multiclass Character

At this point, you should focus on building your character as a Bard up to Level 6. There are a few important milestones to watch out for and some suggested spells that can boost your Bard’s utility in combat.

You may also want to pick Speak With Animals, one of the best spells to unlock in Baldur’s Gate 3. This unlocks new dialogue, interactions, and choices with animals, including cats and dogs.

The most important choice here is to pick College of Swords for the Blade Flourish Attacks. These are:

• Defensive Flourish, which increases your Armor Class by 4 if you hit.
• Slashing Flourish, which allows you to attack two enemies at once.
• Mobile Flourish, which has a knockback effect on enemies.

The Bard spells listed above offer additional utility in melee combat, such as Heat Metal or Fear forcing enemies to drop weapons, Bestow Curse for inflicting different debuffs, or Hold Person to freeze enemies in place for guaranteed critical hits. This synergizes nicely with Paladin attacks.

At Levels 7 and 8, multiclass into Paladin. Paladins have to swear an oath, which gives them additional abilities. The best choice for a Paladin Oath is the Oath of Vengeance, which grants your character Inquisitor’s Might. This allows you to Channel Oath Charges to give your weapon attacks additional Radiant damage equal to your Charisma modifier. As a Bard, your Charisma stat will be high, strengthening Inquisitor’s Might.

For your second level in Paladin, grab Divine Favor, which allows you to spend Spell Slots to inflict additional Radiant damage from your melee weapon attacks. Combined with the Bard’s Blade Flourish attacks, you can quickly start spending Spell Slots to dish out massive burst damage. At this point, you should aim to use some of your lower-level Spell Slots to fuel Favor for your melee attacks or use the Paladin’s Divine Smite attack. Divine Smite can also be upcast to deal more damage.

Make sure to activate Divine Smite on Critical Hit in your Reactions – this effectively adds another Divine Smite attack if you score a Critical Hit. Combine this with the Bard’s Hold Person spell to guarantee Critical Hits.

After this, continue taking Bard to Level 12. Overall, you should aim for a Bard 10/Paladin 2 split, with Blade Flourish and Smite attacks fueled by Spell Slots and backed up by high-level Bard spells. At Bard Level 10, you can access two non-Bard spells through the Magical Secrets feature, so pick spells like Counterspell to nullify enemy magic. High-damage spells like Cone of Cold are also solid choices.

The Oath of Vengeance requires you to enforce absolute justice or risk breaking the Paladin Oath. However, it’s worth noting that the Oathbreaker Paladin’s Spiteful Suffering ability deals Necrotic damage to an enemy every turn based on your Charisma modifier and gives Advantage to all attack rolls against the target. It’s an interesting option for roleplaying and combat.

By the end of the game, your character will be a powerhouse in combat, using Spell Slots to control the battlefield with Bard spells or to power high-damage melee attacks capable of crushing most enemies. Outside of combat, your character will also be the perfect face for the whole party, with a naturally high Charisma stat and Proficiencies boosting them through Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation checks. Baldur’s Gate 3 has many great multiclass builds, and the Bard/Paladin is particularly formidable for your foes.