Baldur’s Gate 3 player builds mage that deals thousands of damage per turn

A Baldur’s Gate 3 player has shared their impressive multiclass mage build, which can easily end fights in just one round.

In the weeks since Baldur’s Gate 3 released in full, players have accomplished some impressive feats.

From speedruns that roll credits in under 7 minutes to soloing the game’s toughest boss in one turn, the Baldur’s Gate 3 community has shown lots of creativity in pushing the game to its limits with innovative gameplay strategies and character builds.

One incredibly powerful build combines three spellcasting classes to create a mage that deals over 2,000 damage in a turn – an amount that can end plenty of encounters before the enemy knows what hit them.

Larian Studios

This OP Baldur’s Gate 3 build relies on multiclassing, magic items & lightning

This Baldur’s Gate 3 build was shared by King-Mollusk on Reddit.

To sum it up, the character will be using a mix of class features, environmental factors, and magic items to maximize the damage dealt by Chain Lightning. This level 6 spell deals 10d8 Lightning damage to up to four targets within 60 feet of one another.

Enemies who make the dexterity save still take half damage, and those vulnerable to lightning damage take double. The latter is easy to accomplish, as inflicting the Wet condition through a spell like Create Water or throwing a water barrel will make the target vulnerable to Cold and Lightning damage.

To accomplish this, the player will need to multiclass, taking levels in wizard, sorcerer (specifically Storm Sorcery), and cleric (with the Tempest subclass). The final class breakdown at level 12 is wizard 1, sorcerer 9, and cleric 2.

This mage build does nearly 2,000 damage in a single turn..
by u/King-Mollusk in BaldursGate3

Wizard gives players the ability to permanently learn spells via scrolls, casting these with their intelligence stat, which should be maxed out.

Sorcerer is the most important, as it gives access to Metamagic. The options Twinned Spell (which allows spells that target one creature to target a second) and Quickened Spell (which allows the user to cast a spell that normally costs an action as a bonus action) are vital for the strategy.

Finally, the tempest cleric’s Channel Divinity ensures Chain Lightning will deal its maximum damage. Plus, heavy armor proficiency will help keep the player alive until the strategy becomes viable in the late-game.

For items, players will need the legendary staff Markoheshkir, which, among other things, lets the wielder cast a spell without using a spell slot and adds an extra +4 damage to Chain Lightning. The very rare Amulet of the Devout is also necessary, as it gives its wearer an extra use of Channel Divinity.

Larian Studios

As King-Mollusk lays out, “Because you now have 9 sorcery points, you can blow your load on 3 chain lightnings in a turn if your heart so desire[s].”

Their personal strategy adds some more twists that allow it to be repeated three times before needing to take a long rest. “What I prefer to do though is twin haste 2 companions on the first turn. I use the Justiciar’s Greatshield to cloak myself as a bonus action so my concentration can’t be broken. Then I’ll sneak attack chain lightning the following turn.”

All in all, this amounts to a potential total of 168 damage dealt to up to 12 targets, which equals a maximum damage of 2,016 total.

While it’ll take quite a bit of set-up and players won’t be able to take full advantage of it until they’ve reached Baldur’s Gate 3’s max level, the strategy is incredibly powerful. Not everyone will want to go through the effort to pull off King-Mollusk’s impressively maximized Chain Lightning, but that it’s even possible shows the creativity of players and how deep and customizable Baldur’s Gate 3’s mechanics are.