[SPOILERS] Level 20 (modded) Lore-Builds for each Companion

I'm planning a heavily-modded run for Patch 8, with level 20 and several subclass mods, along with a bunch of difficulty mods.

My goal is to use the extra levels not to get overpowered, but as a buffer for more flexible expression of each companion's lore and personality.

So in that light, I came up with some level 20 builds for each companion and wanted to share for critique.

---

Lae'zel: Psi Warrior 14 / War Magic Wizard 6

Githyanki soldiers are traditionally Gish, including many NPCs seen in-game.

I see no reason to deprive her of that by going Battle Master, but I don't like the generic Eldritch Knight approach either.

With mods, we have access to the Psi Warrior subclass, which I think better fits the Githyanki Psionic lore.

To complement it, there's really no other choice besides Wizard, but the traditional Wizard schools don't fit at all.

Luckily, there's also a mod for War Magic subclass, which fits quite nicely.

Progression:

• Fighter 1 -> 6, picking up Martial Adept as replacement for BM, and Telekinetic to go with her Psionic theme.
• Wizard 1 -> 2, focusing on buff spells like Shield, Longstrider, Featherfall, Protection from Evil and Good, etc.
• Fighter 7 -> 11, going for improved Extra Attack and picking up an ASI along the way.
• Wizard 3 -> 6, picking up War Caster for concentration.
• Fighter 12 -> 14, choosing to end on Fighter because that's the icon I want to show up on her portrait. The final feats are Tough, because it fits and makes up for lower CON, and Great Weapon Master.

This build is a bit MAD. Goal is to reach 14 DEX for AC and at least 16 INT. We also give her the Potion of Everlasting Vigour.

---

Astarion: Glamour Bard 6 / Blood Sorcerer 14

I was so happy about the new Bard subclass in Patch 8 because I was looking to make Astarion a Bard for a while, but Lore wasn't the best fit for him.

Glamour fits Astarion to a TEE. To me this is a perfect expression of his personality. This subclass comes bundles with some neat blood-themed spells.

I never saw him as much of a Rogue tbh.

Obviously, I plan on letting him ascend. But in the vanilla game there's nothing to represent this mechanically.

Luckily, someone made a pretty cool blood-themed subclass for Sorcerer which is the perfect way to represent his ascended powers.

So his progression is very straight-forward:

• Bard 1 -> 6, this is enough to grab Mantle of Majesty. We don't need to go too deep into Bard.
• Rogue xxx -> Go Arcane Trickster until Act 3 just as a filler.
• Sorcerer 1 -> 14, after ascencion plot, immediately respec and go full Blood Sorcery.

---

Wyll: Fiend Warlock 5 / Swords Bard 5 / Devotion Paladin 10

Wyll is the first of the more complex characters.

His backstory demands he be a Fiend Warlock. But deep down, his ideals align with those of a Devotion Paladin (protect the weak, etc.).

I think that's what he would've become, had he been more convicted and far-sighted, instead of being tricked by a devil.

At the same time, his fondness for story-telling and his Blade of the Frontiers moniker are begging for a dip into Swords Bard.

These 3 classes are necessary to fully capture Wyll's persona.

Progression:

• Warlock 1, we start Warlock because that's his most immediately plot thread.
• Bard 1, immediately we take one level in Bard just for the flavor.
• Warlock 2 -> 3, grab Pact of the Blade.
• Bard 2 -> 3, grab sword flourishes. At this point he's at least worthy of his nickname.
• Warlock 4 -> 5, grab Deepened Pact. Notably I also grab Hell-Touched feat here just for flavor.
• Bard 4 -> 5, Extra Attack from here will stack with Deepend Pact outside of Honour mode.
• Paladin 1 -> 10, at this point I imagine he's been through enough that he's matured, been fucked over by Mizora, and demonstrated his conviction to protect enough that it naturally develops into an Oath that he can draw power from. So from here onward we just go straight Paladin, fulfilling his "arc". 10 levels is enough for Aura of Courage, which is a fitting capstone.

---

Shadowheart: Rogue 1 / Twilight Cleric 10 / Shadow Monk 6 / Gloom Stalker 3

Shadowheart has perhaps the wierdest build.

Obviously she has to stay somewhat Cleric, whichever decision she makes in Act 2.

My plan is to take the light side; so start as Trickery and then respec to Twilight from the Cleric Subclasses mod, which is the best fit lore-wise for Selune.

Twilight, ironically enough, has a lot of features focused around darkness.

Iirc, she is also stated to be an infiltrator. I imagine that, in addition to being an Acolyte, she also had some decent training in stealth and subterfuge and is more dextrous and physically capable that one would suspect from a full-Cleric build.

A combination of Shadow Monk and Gloom Stalker has soom nice synergy with Twilight spells and also fits that background, and also gives her something different to do than support. Rogue 1 is mostly just for flavor, though Sneak Attack is a great way to cap out this build. I read a post about how this likely fits her background before being taken by Shar and agreed. This also makes up for that lack of Rogue and Ranger among other companions.

Progression:

• Cleric 1, she starts with her most important class.
• Rogue 1, goes second to fit her imagined backstory.
• Cleric 2, should go next for Channel Divinity.
• Monk 1 -> 3, build starts to get fun.
• Ranger 1 -> 3, Gloom Stalker really falls off late-game, so we want to take this relatively early.
• Cleric 3 -> 5, gotta sprinkle this in for flavor.
• Monk 4 -> 6, grabbing Shadow Step.
• Cleric 6 -> 10

---

Gale: Wizard 19 / Knowledge Cleric 1

Gale is the most straightforward.

I've seen the arguments for Sorcerer, but I just don't see it.

I've also seen arguments for Bard, but there's too many Bards in the team already, and not every charismatic character has to be a Bard.

Gale is best representing by just going full Wizard.

There's also a point to made about having at least one character with whom to experiment the higher-level spells added by 5e Spells mod (or Mystra Spells if you prefer).

A single level in Cleric is just there to capture the Chosen of Mystra flavor. Even though he's fallen out of grace with her, he still longs to get back in her good graces, and I'm sure Mystra is keeping a close eye. His background also mentions his immense thirst for knowledge, so 1 level in Knowledge Domain seems very fitting.

For his Wizard school, I'm leaning towards Evocation. Gale is ambitious and brash, not to mention "explosive".

There's a strong case to be made for Divination as well, but the Level 20 Expansion mod doesn't implement the level 14 Improved Portent feature, but does the Overchannel feature of Evocation.

Progression:

• Wizard 1 -> 2, grab the subclass.
• Cleric 1, grab the flavor.
• Wizard 3 -> 19, grab all the spells.

---

Karlach: Wildheart Barbarian 20 OR Wildheart Barbarian 14 / Champion 6

Karlach is the one I'm in doubt over.

First, her subclass could go in any direction.

I've seen cases for Wild Magic as a result of her Infernal Engine. I think it's a cool idea, if not for the fact that none of the Wild Magic effects are very in-theme.

Berserker works, especially with Tavern Brawler, but to me that's more of a Minsk thing, and I don't want to repeat subclasses.

Wildheart is left by default. But it's actually quite fitting for her personality and her Outlander background (despite that clashing somewhat with the exposition we get in Act 3).

It also lets me try out the Dynamic Wildheart mod, which seems pretty cool.

The question then is whether to multiclass. I made an intentional effort to multiclass every other companion because it gimps the progression and prevents them from getting too strong, while also letting me try out as many subclasses as possible and capture multiple facets of each character's persona.

But Karlach doesn't really have a multi-faceted persona?

Literally the only multiclass I can see on her is Champion Fighter, though tbh that's tied with Hunter Ranger for most boring class in the game imo.

Champion doesn't really add much to Karlach's background. It's just multiclassing for its own sake.

Going all the way to Barbarian 20, on the other hand, let's me grab the Barbarian capstone, which is OP.

And yes, I said I wanted to avoid being OP, but having a 24 STR / 24 CON Karlach just sounds cool.

So currently my plan is level up with the Champion multiclass, and then respect to full Barbarian at max level (if I can ever get there).

While I'm at it, might as well grab Deadly Alacrity and Savage Attacker feats to try and maximize crits.

I'm willing to hear more interesting alternatives if anybody has suggestions.

---

Minthara: War Cleric 1 / Fighter 2 / Conquest Paladin 12 / Fey Warlock 5

HERE ME OUT.

Minthara's story has famously gone through many revisions between EA and release.

This has made her a rather inconsistent character, but also gives us room for interpretation.

Starting out, Minthara would have been raised a Cleric as per her society's tradition.

In EA she was also a Cleric, and is depicted as such in Magic: The Gathering.

A single level in War Cleric I think is necessary to capture her root.

It also lets her pick Lolth as a deity to worship in the beginning.

I imagine that martial training was also a big part of her upgrinding.

She'd probably be a Battle Master if we had levels to spare.

Instead we'll give her Fighter 2 for Action Surge and pick up Martial Adept feat for some Manouvers.

Paladin is her canonical class, and she talks about it non-stop. So we can't just ignore it even if doesn't make a lot of sense.

I've seen several comments about how she should actually be a Conquest rather than Vengeance Paladin, and after reading the Oath tenets I agree.

So I'm choosing to ignore her Vengeance-related dialogue and instead go the Conquest route.

The last bit might seem weird, and I'll admit my biggest motivation was to have the Drow character wield the Phalar Aluve.

My reasoning is, after she renounces Lolth and The Absolute, a gate is opened to be influenced by the opposite deity: Ellistrae.

Ellistrae is a morally-good deity who only wants to save her people. My head canon is that she would reach out to Minthara to show her a different path.

She might begin sharing knowledge with Minthara without her knowledge, and slowly Minthara would grow to accept Ellistrae's power, if only as a tool for her revenge.

This accomplishes a few things:

- It solves the MADness of the build, letting her focus only on CHA.

- It let's me gear her up with the full Moonsong set.

- It makes Minthara more of a redeemable anti-hero.

Progression:

• Cleric 1, gotta start with her roots.
• Fighter 2, also part of her background.
• Paladin 5, noting that she starts at level 6, so everything up to Paladin 3 is a given. At level 4 we grab Martial Adept.
• Warlock 1, she start getting a hint of power from Ellistrae.
• Paladin 6 -> 7, Aura of Conquest.
• Warlock 2, another hint.
• Paladin 8 -> 9
• Warlock 3 -> 5, she grows fully into it, getting Pact of the Blade and Deepened Pact. At some point, maybe Warlock 4, we grab Fey-Touched, for more flavor.
• Paladin 10 -> 12, end on Paladin since that's her primary class. War Magic can be grabbed as a Feat, instead of War Caster which almost everybody else will end up getting.

In a way, this Minthara is the anti-Wyll. He starts as a Warlock to an evil entity and develops the conviction to become a Paladin for good. Minthara starts as a Paladin who defends an evil deity, and later opens her heart to receive power as a Warlock to a good deity.

---

Jaheira, Halsin & Mins:

I'm not that interested in buiding these characters.

To me they are far less interesting.

I also don't relish at having to train another 3 characters to 20. I don't even know how much EXP is in the game.

So just to quickly get over these...

• Jaheira: Green Knight 6 / Land Druid 6
  • Everyone seems to agree she's a mix of Fighter and Druid. Green Knight is mod class that perfectly captures that fantasy. Land Druid is the only acceptable Druid option for her. Definitely no Spores.
• Halsin: Full Moon Druid
  • Need I say more.
• Minsc: Berserker 6 / Hunter Ranger 4 / Fighter 2
  • Everyone also agrees that Minsc is some combination of Berserker and Ranger, probably Hunter. But there is *a lot* of disagreement on which should be the primary class. Both subclasses are top-tier snoozefest so I don't really care tbh.

---

I really enjoy theorycrafting discussions.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for indulging me.