Highlights
- Baldur's Gate 3 encourages players to experiment with character-building and offers the option to multiclass into every available class, allowing for maximum versatility and minimum mastery.
- Multiclassing can be useful if players have the right stat distribution, but it can also lead to redundant abilities and lower skill checks if not chosen wisely.
- While creating a character that is a true Jack-of-All-Trades may be impractical, it can be a fun and chaotic way to play, even if it requires relying more on party members.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a game that pushes players to experiment with the mechanics on offer to create a build that mixes efficiency with creativity. Larian Studios fully encourages cheesing Baldur's Gate 3 combat if players find a way, but it also allows players to take some unorthodox directions for character-building.
Given that Baldur's Gate 3 is based on Dungeons & Dragons 5e, it carries over many elements from that system, including multiclassing. As the name implies, multiclassing allows characters to begin leveling up in an extra class. This means that while players potentially get more variety in the skills they have access to, it means sacrificing access to higher-level abilities for their current class, and Baldur's Gate 3 takes this concept to the extreme.
Baldur's Gate 3 Allows Players to be a True Jack-of-All-Trades
In Baldur's Gate 3's commitment to bringing players the maximum amount of possible freedom over how they build a character, the game gives no limit to how many classes one can take on. This means with the level cap of 12, players can multiclass into every single one of the available classes for maximum versatility and minimum mastery.
The game even encourages this brazen idea since there is an achievement titled Jack-of-All-Trades whose requirement is doing just that. Any practicality for a character who only has access to every level 1 ability goes out the window, since the best they can be is simply okay at any given task when it might be better for someone to specialize in a handful of things and be truly exceptional at what they do.
Taking on even a single extra class might be a mistake for many Baldur's Gate 3 players, since they could potentially pick a class with redundant abilities or one where the required skill checks will suffer thanks to a low number for the secondary class's primary stat. However, multiclassing can be incredibly useful for players with the right stat distribution. Some even allow for a natural progression into multiclassing, such as Paladin and Warlock, which can both profit off of a high Charisma stat.
There really isn't a way to make a character who would be perfect for taking on every single class, as the stats would need to be evenly distributed, meaning the character would be potentially slightly above average in every regard and not much else, but this could encourage better use of a Baldur's Gate 3 player's environment with the skills they do have. It is still commendable that Larian Studios not only gives players the option to take multiclassing to the extreme, but also encourages players to try the idea out by dangling an achievement.
Despite its impracticality, having a character who has no focus and instead samples every class is a fun and chaotic way to attempt a playthrough, even if a player would need to rely more on party members to accomplish some of the more difficult challenges awaiting them in Baldur's Gate 3. It is not a far-fetched idea to finish the game as a true Jack-of-All-Trades, even if most skill checks will likely fail and Baldur's Gate 3's unpredictable enemy AI dish out increasingly devastating high-level moves.
Players who want the achievement can't just respec their BG3 character by talking to Withers in camp to quickly take on all classes before reverting to their original class, since that restriction is specified. Players can bench a party member whose sole purpose is to take on more classes. However, this option does take the fun out of fumbling through Baldur's Gate 3, trying to make the best out of only using the first skills of any given class.
Baldur's Gate 3 is currently available for PC and will come out September 6 for PS5.
