Highlights
Baldur's Gate 3 promotes player experimentation in character development by providing the opportunity to multiclass with any available class, thereby granting maximum flexibility and minimizing the need for expertise.
Multiclassing can be beneficial for players who have a suitable stat distribution, but it can also result in redundant abilities and decreased skill checks if not chosen wisely.
Although creating a character who excels in multiple areas may not be practical, it can be enjoyable and unpredictable, even if it involves depending more on fellow party members.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a game that encourages players to explore different gameplay mechanics in order to create a character build that combines efficiency and creativity. Larian Studios fully embraces players finding loopholes in combat, but also allows for unique and unconventional choices in character development.
Since Baldur's Gate 3 is based on Dungeons & Dragons 5e, it incorporates many elements from the tabletop system, including the ability to multiclass. Multiclassing allows characters to level up in multiple classes, providing a wider range of skills. However, this also means sacrificing access to higher-level abilities in their primary class. Baldur's Gate 3 takes this concept to the extreme, giving players even more opportunities to experiment and customize their characters.
Baldur's Gate 3 Allows Players to be a True Jack-of-All-Trades
In order to prioritize player freedom in character building, Baldur's Gate 3 allows for unlimited class combinations. With a level cap of 12, players have the opportunity to multiclass into all available classes, promoting versatility over expertise.
The game actively supports this audacious concept, as evidenced by the achievement named Jack-of-All-Trades, which rewards players for achieving this feat. While a character with access only to level 1 abilities may not possess practicality, specializing in a few areas and excelling in them could be a more advantageous approach.
Taking on additional classes in Baldur's Gate 3 can be a mistake for some players. Choosing a class with redundant abilities or where skill checks suffer due to a low primary stat in the secondary class can hinder progress. However, multiclassing can be highly beneficial for players with the right stat distribution. Classes like Paladin and Warlock, which rely on Charisma, naturally lend themselves to multiclassing.
Creating a character that excels in every class is not possible as it would require even stat distribution, resulting in being slightly above average in all areas. However, this limitation can encourage players to make the most of the skills they do possess and utilize the game environment effectively. It is commendable that Larian Studios not only allows extreme multiclassing but also incentivizes players to experiment with the idea by offering achievements.
Despite being impractical, playing with a character who lacks focus and instead dabbles in every class can be a fun and chaotic way to approach a playthrough in Baldur's Gate 3. However, relying on party members becomes necessary to overcome the more challenging obstacles the game presents. It is indeed possible to complete the game as a true Jack-of-All-Trades, although most skill checks are likely to fail and the enemy AI in Baldur's Gate 3 can unleash devastating high-level moves that are hard to predict.
For players aiming to unlock the achievement, they cannot simply respec their character to try out all the classes and then switch back to their original class by speaking to Withers at camp, as this is explicitly restricted. Instead, players have the option to have a party member solely dedicated to taking on additional classes. However, this approach does detract from the fun of navigating through Baldur's Gate 3 and making the most out of using only the basic skills of each class.
Baldur's Gate 3 is currently available for PC and will come out September 6 for PS5.