Karlach is one of the most popular companions in Baldur’s Gate 3. As a Barbarian, she can deal serious damage to her opponents and is literally a powerhouse. How to get the best out of her, or even a self-created Barbarian, is explained in this guide.
Who is Karlach? Karlach belongs to the Tiefling race and can be chosen as an Origin character at the beginning of the game or later join the party as a companion.
After being sold to the archdevil Zariel, she managed to escape from hell. However, the fire of Avernus still burns within her, as a hellish machine has been placed in her heart.
How you can find Karlach and win her over for your party, you can find out in this guide.
What can the Barbarian do? The Barbarian class is best suited if you prefer to hit without regard for losses and prefer a somewhat simpler, straightforward build. As a classic melee class, you can deal heavy damage but also take it.
Compared to other melee classes, the Barbarian is characterized by its special wildness. He goes into a frenzy during battle and lets his rage guide him.
You can find out how the Barbarian fares compared to other classes in our class tier list here on MeinMMO.
Here you can see which class is best suited for beginners:
Barbarian Build – Best Subclass
The Barbarian class offers three subclasses: Berserker, Wildheart, and Wild Magic. At level 3, you can choose one of these.
Among them, the Berserker class is especially worthwhile. This enhances the frenzied battle state and allows you to throw objects or perform an additional attack as a bonus action. The subclass is extremely strong and focuses on a high damage output.
Bonus: If you play as Karlach, the offensive subclass of the Berserker also fits her ability to use soul coins. This gives her the buff “Infernal Wrath,” which adds 1d4 fire damage to all attacks as long as she is in a frenzy or her health drops below 25 %.
Barbarian Build – Attributes
Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity are particularly important for a Barbarian. The optimal distribution for the start is:
- Strength: 16
- Dexterity: 14
- Constitution: 16
- Intelligence: 8
- Wisdom: 12
- Charisma: 8
The high value in Strength increases damage and the Constitution value raises health points, making Karlach an unstoppable melee fighter.
Barbarian Build – Talents
As you level up in Baldur’s Gate 3, you get the opportunity to choose special talents. These influence the character’s attributes, add spells, or abilities. You can choose talents at levels 4, 8, and 12.
Level 4
- Improve abilities: 2 points in Strength
Level 8
- Mastery of heavy weapons
With this talent, you can perform even more attacks. With every critical or lethal hit with a melee weapon, you gain an additional melee attack as a bonus action.
Additionally, a penalty of -5 can be added to attack rolls to increase damage by 10 on a successful hit.
Level 12
- Improve abilities: 2 points in Strength
- If you have already reached Strength 20 in other ways, for example through the “Potion of Everlasting Vitality,” you can of course distribute these points differently. A good alternative is the talent “Mage Slayer” for a better chance against spellcasters with long range.
All other attacks and abilities will automatically be added as you level up. No further decisions need to be made here, making the Berserker build very simple.
At level 5, for example, you get another bonus attack. From here on, Karlach really starts to strike. When in a frenzy, you already have three attacks per turn. With a “Potion of Speed,” it can even be more.
Barbarian Build – Which items are worth it?
Only with the right items can a build really work well. The following items suit a Barbarian well:
Armor
For protection, you use medium armor. Helpful items include:
- Talisman of the Absolute
- Effect: at under 25 % health, each attack restores 1d8 hit points
- Location: Priestess Gut in the Goblin Camp (Act 1)
- Brute’s Ring
- Effect: +3 movement speed
- Location: Goblin Camp (Act 1)
- Gloves of Dexterity
- Effect: increases Dexterity to 18
- Location: Merchant in the Y’llek Crèche (Act 2)
- Amulet of Bhaal
- Effect: causes bleeding in hit enemies with full health
- Location: Murder Tribunal (Act 3)
Weapons
All melee weapons that deal as much damage as possible are suitable. These mainly include large two-handed weapons. Good options for the beginning and end of the game include:
- Everglow Blade
- Effect: adds 1d4 fire damage
- Location: Nautiloid (Prologue)
- Sword of Chaos
- Effect: gives the wielder 1d6 hit points back on a successful attack
- Location: Murder Tribunal (Act 3)
- Balduran’s Giant Killer
- Effect: advantage on attack rolls against at least large creatures, as well as a class action that temporarily increases damage and hit points
- Location: Wyrm’s Prison (Act 3)
Additionally, make sure to always have a few throwing weapons on hand. If you need to take down enemies from a distance, these can prove to be extremely useful.
In this guide, we highlighted a pure Barbarian build. If you want, you can also use this in combination with other classes. The last levels are not as important for the Barbarian. Instead, for example, you could focus on multiclassing with Paladin or Fighter.
A “bear-strong” combination also offers a Moon Druid enriched with some levels of Barbarian. You can find this and more of the best multiclass builds here on MeinMMO: The best multiclass builds and why they are so good
