When it comes to class combinations in Baldur’s Gate 3, a Necromancer Bard build may not have been your first thought. I’m here to tell you, though, that you should really consider trying out this class combination. It is a ton of fun to channel Michael Jackson’s Thriller and sing and dance with your zombies! It’s also a very strong build and we’ll be breaking down exactly how to create this unique blend of classes in this guide right here.
How to Build a Necromancer Bard in BG3
Race Options
- Githyanki – This is the best overall race for this build. You gain the Astral Knowledge action, which grants proficiency in all skills of a chosen ability until you take a long rest. Increased speed and the ability to use light or medium armor are also amazing features.
- Dwarf – Dwarf is a good back up option. They resist poison and have Darkvision, which is useful.
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Starting Cantrips & Spells
Start out with Vicious Mockery and Minor Illusion as your Bard Cantrips. For spells, we’ll be taking Faerie Fire, Sleep, Healing Word and Thunderwave for their excellent utility.
Instrument, Background, Proficiencies and Abilities
I went with the Hand Drum as my instrument, but you can choose what you prefer. For the background, take Soldier for the Athletics and Intimidation. For Proficiencies, I added Acrobatics, Persuasion and Arcana.
For the ability points distribution you’ll want the following:
- Strength +17 with the +2 bonus applied
- Dexterity +14
- Constitution +15 with the +1 bonus applied
- Intelligence +10
- Wisdom +8
- Charisma +10
The focus of this build will be on our zombies and summons. These scale with level so we won’t need to worry about having a high Charisma or Wisdom stat. Instead, we can focus on having high physical attributes. This will allow us to survive and maintain concentration better.
Levels 2-3
When you hit level 2, take Longstrider as your choice of new spell. At level 3 we get to choose our sub-class. We’ll be taking College of Valor for the Combat Inspiration action to use on our allies and minions. For your new spell, take Enhance Ability, which is an ability buffing skill.
Levels 4-6
Level 4 is where we go multi-class. Hit the “add class” button on the top right of the level up pane and select Wizard. Take some utility spells and cantrips that you prefer here. At level 5 (Level 2 Wizard), we get our Wizard sub-class. We’ll be choosing Necromancy here. For spells, take False Life and one other utility spell. At level 6 (level 3 Wizard) take Reduce/Enlarge and Invisibility as your spell choices.
Levels 7-9
At level 7 take Light as your Cantrip. Darkness and Hold Person for your spell choices. For the feat, we’ll be taking Ability Improvement. Add +1 to Strength and +1 to Constitution. At level 8 we finally get access to the Animate Dead spell. Take that and another utility spell you like from the level 2 spells.
At level 9 we gain two new sub-class features that really bring the build to life. Undead Thralls: Additional Undead and Undead Thralls: Better Summons. These let us have more and beefier summons, respectively.
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Levels 10-12
At level 10 we get the spell Conjure Minor Elemental, which is a huge boost to the build. We also take Dimension Door for the utility. At level 11 take Greater Invisibility and another low level utility spell. For the feat we’ll once again be taking Ability Improvement. This time we’ll be adding both points in to Strength to have it at 20 points.
At level 12 we’ll take Conjure Elemental for the big bad version of the spell. We also take Hold Monster as utility.
How to Play the Build
First thing we do is cast Longstrider for the extra movement until long rest. Next we use Enhance Ability: Bulls Strength on ourselves. This will then give us massively increased carrying capacity. The reason we want this is to be able to pick up corpses so that we have at least four in one spot to animate. Walk on up to a corpse and right click it and select pick up. Boom corpses ready to use when you need them.
Now before a fight, you’ll want to use your Conjure Minor Elemental and Elemental spells for a nice pair of strong minions to add to your roster. You should cast these both as a level 6 spell because we don’t need those slots and you can choose any type you like except for fire based ones. Those leave bodies unusable and we want to be able to store up corpses.
When you enter combat, the first thing you’ll do is open your bag and drop four corpses on the ground next to you. This doesn’t use any of your actions to do! Now we can go to level 4 spells and cast Animate Dead: Zombie. Use the level 4 version to be able to animate four targets. Select the corpses you dropped and they will become zombies. These zombies will be very strong! They will also create additional zombies when they finish off an enemy. The extra ones they create don’t last long and attack of their own accord. It’s still a pretty sweet extra, though. With that you’ve got everything you need to absolutely destroy any enemies that get in you and your minions armies way.
That’s how you can build yourself a super powerful Necromancer Bard in Baldur’s Gate 3. The minion army you can muster is awesome!
If you’re looking for more guides, check out how to beat the Soft-Step Trial in Baldur’s Gate 3.
