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Early in Baldur’s Gate 3 you’ll face powerful enemies and difficult encounters. Combat isn’t easy even when you’ve gathered a party of Rogues, Barbarians and Wizards. You’ll need every advantage you can get, and whether you’re leveling up your own Rogue / Ranger or putting one in your party, you may need a few tips to get the most out of sneak attacks. With the right combination of skills, you can attack up to x6 times in a single action. That won’t happen until you’re (at least) Level 8 and only if you’re really serious about min / maxing — even if you want a general build, which is totally viable, you might want to give some of these tricks a try.
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How To Unlock Assassin & Gloom Stalker
To deal incredible damage, you’ll want to unlock the Assassin and Gloom Stalker subclass. This multiclass combo, combined with the Fighter allows you to attack multiple times in a single turn while dealing critical damage.
- Assassin Subclass: Unlocked at Level 3 of the Rogue class.
- Gloom Stalker Subclass: Unlocked at Level 3 of the Ranger class.
Reach Level 3 with Rogue, then Level 3 with Ranger to unlock both subclasses.
- Assassin Innate Skill: Assassinate – Deal guaranteed critical damage to any enemy that hasn’t taken a turn in combat yet.
- Gloom Stalker Innate Skill: Dread Ambusher – Can take an additional weapon attack each turn.
Combine with the Fighter skill Action Surge (Level 2 Fighter) which gives you +1 additional action per turn. With these skills unlocked, you can score up to x6 actions in a single turn while dealing critical damage with each hit. There are more tricks you can use to easily deal high critical damage every turn.
More Rogue Damage Tips
Even with a simple Rogue or Ranger build, you can deal incredible damage with Sneak Attack or using movement skills.
- Astarion is an Act 1 companion that can gain the Assassin subclass. Even if you don’t want to class into Rogue / Ranger, you can build Astarion to become an incredible damage-dealer.
Unlock Teleport or Athletics with your Rogue, whether they use Crossbows or close-range weapons. Either way, these skills are important for combat. They allow you to carefully position yourself in the combat area.
- Get a Magic Item to unlock Teleport to save yourself a skill. The Disintegrating Night Walkers boots grant the wearer Misty Step — a spell that allows you to teleport to any target location.
- Disintegrating Night Walkers Location: Grymforge – At the Grymforge, talk to Seargeant Thrinn to begin the Free True Soul Nere quest. Once you find Nere’s body, you’ll get the magic boots.
In addition to Misty Step, you can also turn invisible with the Shadow of Menzoberranzan magic item. This spell allows you to become invisible and setup a new sneak attack.
- Get the Shadow of Menzoberranzan Magic Item to turn Invisible. A very powerful spell for rogues.
- Shadow of Menzoberranzan Location: Underdark – At the Myconid Colony, talk to Sovereign Spaw to wipe out enemies at the Underdark Beach. Do as they request to gain this special item from the hidden storeroom.
With the ability to teleport and turn invisible, you can ambush even more. One of the best strategies for dealing damage is by taking a high vantage point and sniping enemies with ranged sneak attacks.
- Sneak Attacks, Assassination or Ambush are easy to pull off with bows or crossbows.
- Move into a high position where enemies can’t see you and you can sneak attack every turn.
- Hide at the start of your turn and you can perform a Sneak Attack again. As long as you aren’t in direct line-of-sight, you can hide. Hiding is a Bonus Action so you can score sneak attacks every turn.
Using the environment to your advantage and sneak attacking, ambushing or assassinating at close-range or from far away. With the right combination of skills and sneaky methods, you can crush toug combat encounters easily. No wizards required.
