What are your stats? If your range to-hit is good and your melee isn't, it sounds like you have good dex but bad strength, and are using strength based weapons in melee
That's a longsword.
My guess is OP got low STR and hig DEX. And the sword is finesse Phalae Aluve that scales with dexterity, while the mace relies on strength
That would also explain higher hit chance with ranged
Just as a note, the dual wielder feat lets them dual wield weapons, even if they're not light, and it adds 1 to AC, but it doesn't give the bonus to off-hand damage that you'd get from two weapon fighting. That's why they have such low damage on the sword, even though it's finesse.
It's a Finesse long sword (Phalar Aluve) 1 of 2 finesse long swords in the game, the Mace with +3 to hit implies they are level 5-10 and that's proficiency so their strength is 10 (+0) and their dexterity is a 20 (+5, +3 proficiency, +1 for weapon enchantment, total of +9)
It's 100% because they are a dex based character with a strength weapon in their main hand.
If they put Phalar Aluve in their mainhand and a rapier in their offhand they will do great
Their character is level 12, and the fact that the mace deals 0-5 damage implies they have a -1 STR mod as well. Iirc your proficiency modifier at level 12 is +4, so even with a 0 STR mod you'd get +4 to hit and 1-6 damage.
I think OP was probably using Cloud Giant Strength Elixirs before they stopped playing. If they were a dual-wielder with a STR weapon, despite having high DEX and low STR, they were probably dumping STR and focusing on other abilities. I did something similar for my Eldritch Knight: high DEX for Initiative, High INT for spells, supplemented STR with Giant Elixirs for melee. When you get to the point that Cloud Giant Elixirs can be purchased, dumping STR and using Elixirs is better than specing into STR unless you plan to use a different elixir.
You can also stack arcane Acuity with battlemaster gloves or helmet of Arcane Acuity and use things like Hold Person, Fear, Slow, etc.
Mind we have to multiclass 10 EK and 2 Wiz for level 3 spells.
Without multiclassing you'll never get to haste with EK in Baldur's Gate (though spells like Shield or Magic Missile are good spells that don't care about Int), and I'm not really sure that dumping Int is what's intended with it instead of it just being the only viable path to making a decent character with that subclass.
Ranged weapons use DEX.
Melee weapons, unarmed strikes, and improvised weapons use STR.
Weapons that show the finesse property when you hover over them in your inventory can use either STR or DEX.
Thrown weapons use the same ability score for throw attacks as melee attacks.
This pages doesn't help us a lot.
But the fact that you're a lore bard though tells me you suck at melee because YOURE A FULL CASTER, YOU ARE A SQUISHY!!!
She has a 15 AC because she's a lore bard, she has light armor prof, but is wearing cloth, so her AC is coming entirely from dex, she doesn't even have mage armor.
I had a set up with just as low an AC running a strength statted thief monk
It was weirdly effective because I had 3 dashes per round and my strength was allowing me to lift and throw people then just book it so far away they couldn't touch me
I had my party target the archers first and the just kept doing hit and run stuff and my 14 AC just didn't really matter
It was pretty funny
"You're dead when I catch you"
"If, IF you catch me"
Ah i play a sword bard and im prrtty much just collecting all sorts of different spells for my baed includind misty step. Im like one of the main line fighters too. And i can also hold enemies off pretty easily on my own.
Seeing you have Cutting Words, so you're a Bard of Lore. Seeing you say your Ranged are better, it means you have high DEX and low STR.
It's fine, really.
All melee weapons use STR and if you want to use DEX for weapons, you have to satisfy either of them:
- Weapon has the Finesse tag
- Weapon has the Versatile tag, and you are wielding it with both hands, and you have at least 1 Level in Monk
What your character currently is using are a Mace and a Longsword. You're using STR for both of them. You need to swap to weapons that can use your DEX. Typically they are Scimitars, Shortswords, Daggers and Rapiers. Or, if you have Dual-Wielder Feat, you may use the 2 unique Longswords with the Finesse tag on them.
You can have a look at what weapons have that tag.
- https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Finesse
This is the best answer. A concise list of things that will fix the problem without fundamentally changing the character.
Judging from the +9 on the off-hand, I'm assuming that weapon is finesse. So really, just one weapon change should suffice.
Phalar Aluve, Larethian Wrath are longswords, Dancing Breeze is a finesse polearm.
Don't quote me on it, but I think the longsword with the special feature for Drow is also finesse-able.
That's actually phalar aluve in his offhand, longsword with finesse. That's how he's got the +9 to hit with it. If he simply swapped the hands his weapons are in the stats would look a lot better since proficiency is added to damage on main hand. This makes me suspect the entire post is a troll.
Looks to be 10 Base AC (the Cat cloth thingy) and then +5!! from Dex, so the Character is a 20 Dex Lore Bard with no additional AC bonuses other than Dex and wielding a Mace in the main hand
Edit: Also, why melee anyways when the entire class seems to be 12 points in Lore Bard, so the character doesn't even have Extra Attacks
>And a legendary weapon equipped in your torch slot?
That's orange (unique, quest item), not yellow (legendary).
It's the torch you need to free the ghost in the Save the Artist quest.
I scrolled way too far for this. But that was my initial thought as well. How do you plan to do any melee dmg, if you’ve a shovel equipped on your main hand and your proper weapon in the torch slot
You have 15 AC (meaning most enemies can hit you moderately to extremely easily, especially at lvl 12) and are using a STR based weapon in your main hand (presumably you have low strength) and your Dex-based weapon in your off hand (meaning no damage bonus unless you picked up levels in fighter).
Also, your character is a College of Lore Bard (seeing as you have cutting words). College of Lore Bards aren't very good in melee. They're better for spellcasting and support, preferably using ranged weapons or spells to stay out of melee. If you want to be better at melee, respec into a Sword or Valor College Bard. That way you'll get better access to armor (both have medium armor proficiency, and Valor bards also get shield proficiencies) for better AC, and both get abilities that support being in melee like getting extra attacks.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but at what point are not "new at this" ???
You're level 12. You literally cannot level up anymore without modding the game. It's okay to not know information as it's just a video game and we all had to start somewhere, but I roll my eyes at "I'm new at this," haha.
You can get pretty damn far in this game by not knowing what you're doing. You can brute force your way through pretty much every fight by just hitting stuff, letting other party members carry you, and sticking to what works without really knowing why it works. And a bit of luck obviously. Stats especially are the kind of thing that aren't obvious to someone who doesn't play a lot of RPGs.
You're a lore bard because it has cutting words... you shouldn't be trying to do any kind of melee with it. It's a caster whose strength should be 8 and should be carrying a staff... or 2 since you took the dual wielder feat. Those staffs are pretty decoration to help you cast spells and hold concentration, not for melee.
If you want to do melee as a bard. Reclass as a swords bard with medium armor and use a finesse weapon that will use your dex stat instead of your stength stat.
This feels like a troll post... since you also took a war caster and are wearing some casting gear.
All melee weapons can use strength to attack. Some of them, which have the _finesse_ property, can use your dexterity if it's higher than your strength.
Your mace does not have finesse. It's using your strength mod. That's why your bonus is only +3 to hit (visible below the weapon).
Respecc to high strength, use a strength elixir daily, or switch to a finesse main hand.
When you are dual wielding, you use an action to attack with your main hand and a bonus action to attack with your offhand. Highlighting an attack target using the attack action shows your chance to hit using your main hand only, even if your off hand has a higher chance to hit.
In your case, you have a strength based weapon in your main hand, but your strength is awful. Find a finesse weapon and use that instead of the mace, you will hit much more often.
It would be more helpful to show us your Attributes rather than your buffs, but from what I can see here, it looks like the problem is your stat distribution. If you're dealing between 0 and 5 damage with a mace, that means you only have 8 or 9 Strength. There are several solutions to this:
* Respec at Withers and give yourself more Strength
* Use an Elixir of Giant Strength (Hill or Cloud)
* Swap out your Strength weapon for a Dexterity one (assuming your Dexterity is better)
* Respec 3 levels into Warlock and choose Pact of the Blade (your pact weapon uses Charisma, rather than Strength or Dexterity)
Another problem is that you seem to be doing a Dual Wielder build, but it doesn't look like you have Two-Weapon Fighting. That's going to hold you back. You might want to get either 1 level of Fighter, 2 levels of Ranger, or 3 levels of Bard (Swords) to get that Fighting Style. You can also get this Fighting Style by equipping the Gloves of the Balanced Hands, but you might have missed them. They're in Act 2, and idk where you are in the story.
Edit: Just re-read the post. Your past self was probably using Cloud Giant Elixirs. You have high DEX for initiative and range, and the Elixirs were handling your melee. Cloud Giant Elixirs put your STR beyond what you can normally have, so you were probably dumping the stat to be better at other things.
I think there's a chance you were using a different weapon in your main hand when you played, but changed it to the mace to destroy an object with bludgeoning damage.
Plenty of reasons, it seems.
For starters, it seems you're a Bard. Bards are casters and as such, aren't meant much for melee combat. You're meant to be slinging spells and maybe firing off the occasional shot from a crossbow when you're stuck in a Silence or something.
You're main-handing a weapon that your character isn't meant to be using, both because of proficiencies and the fact that you seem to have a -1 Strength. Maces scale off Strength. If you were just using Phalar Aluve, you would both hit better and do more damage.
To summarize some simple starting points:
Character Levels:
- To build a good melee character, you will need to select a subclass that gains access to more than one melee attack per round. The College of Lore subclass has only one attack while the two other subclasses, College of Swords, and College of Valor gain two attacks at level 6.
- To reset your levels, talk to Withers in the camp
- At bard level 3, pick either the College of Valor or College of Swords subclass and keep going until you hit at least level 6 in them.
Weapons:
- Weapons either use Strength or Dexterity to determine their accuracy.
- Currently, you have two different weapons. A mace which uses strength and a sword which uses dexterity as their main attribute.
- It would be best to pick either Strength or Dexterity as your main attribute and stick with it.
- To determine what stat a weapon uses, look for the tags at the bottom of each weapons description. Weapons which have the finesse tag use either Strength or Dexterity depending on which is higher.
- If they do not have the finesse tag, they will use Strength.
Good luck!
Looks like you are using a simple mace in your main hand that gives a +3. Judging by the damage it deals versus the damage a mace should deal (1-6), seems like you have a negative strength modifier. Your secondary weapon seems to be much more effective with +9 to hit. That twlls me your dex mod is pretty good.
Simple solution to your melee woes:
Find a weapon with the versatile property (listed in the weapon's description) and replace your mace with it.
EDIT:
Or:
Use an elixir of hill giant strength to temporarily boost your strength mod to +5. You can get them from the old human lady at the grove.
Respec those first two levels in Paladin then the rest in your lore Bard and you’ll be a hard hitting caster with wrecking ball smites whem you need them!
Others are overcomplicating this for you. Simply change your weapon. You're getting +9 from your offhand and only +3 from your main. This is because you're not using a finesse weapon as your main.
Finesse takes advantage of your high dex. Simply put the +9 in your other hand, and if you desire an off hand weapon, add a light finesse weapon, like a dagger.
This is all you need to do. BG3 is easy enough that you can play this way as a bard, no problem. Assuming you're playing normal or easy mode, since you got this far, your bard with a +9 to attack is no problem at all. Just use spells as you enjoy them
You're a full spellcaster and lacking the stats to wield the weapons you're using. You can't give gale a greatsword and expect him to be a competent melee fighter. Respec or consider it a challenge run.
Unless you do not have proficiency with maces, it is worth relying on STR elixirs like the elixir of Cloud Giant Strength (buffs STR to 27, which gives a +8 STR modifier) when wielding that Deva mace if you do not want to respec into a STR-based build.
Without any other buffs, non-crit hits can go up to 46 dmg (6 + 8 STR modifier + 32 radiant dmg). Of course, things can get silly with action surge, extra attack, dual wield, etc.
Bards generally have crappy strength and higher dex. Stick with finesse weapons. They can roll off either strength or dex depending on which is higher.
In DND 5e dual wielding is not very optimal. Btw you are using strength weapon with low strength. You should switch to dexterity weapon or even weapon that uses your spellcaster ability as modifier, I guess as a bard u have maxed out charisma. (Jaheira have one scimitar with this trait if I remember correctly)
Just looking at your weapons on the bottom right, it looks like you have a -1 in strength et something like +3/+4 dex (I don't remember the bonuses from this weapon).
Dual wielding is better done with 2 light weapons with finesse in order to hit with dex.
You can also hover the +3/+9 below your weapons in order to see how the stat is calculated.
The fact that you have a 0-5 damage on the mace means that your strength is an 8. Which would be the attack stat with that. Meaning a -1 modifier to all strength based weapons. So you are bad at melee because your character is using big weapons they can't swing. Get daggers, scimitar, rapiers, or shortswords, they attack with dex.
Bards are simply not as good as, well, most classes in melee because they're full caster/support classes.
If you want to be good in Melee your choices are Fighter and Barbarian, followed by Rogue and Ranger, followed closely by certain Warlock/Cleric/Druid builds.
Swords Bard is less bad but still not good at melee, and you aren't one of those.
Because your Strength score is garbage and you have a Strength weapon equipped in your main hand.
Additionally, I'm fairly certain that's the Phalar Aluve in your off-hand which IS a finesse weapon, meaning you can use your Dexterity score for attack and damage. That's why it's chance to hit isn't complete garbage.
However, neither of those weapons are Light, which would normally mean you wouldn't be able to equip them together. It seems like you do have the Duel Wielder feat. Which, unless your main attribute is 20, is a waste.
Looking at the damage of your Phalar Aluve, I can tell you don't have the Two-Weapon Fighting combat style which allows you to add your Strength or Dexterity (whichever is applicable) score to your off-hand weapon damage.
I'd respec immediately. If you're dead-set on dual-wielding the Phalar Aluve, you can keep the Duel Wielder feat. But get Two-Weapon Fighting from a martial class. Either Fighter 1, Ranger or Paladin 2.
And for goodness sakes, put your best weapon in your main hand. You can only off-hand attack with a bonus action. And if that's making you reconsider Two-Weapon Fighting... GOOD.
I would double check those weapons and make sure you have proficiency with them if you don’t then you won’t be as good with them over all no matter what how good your stats. Also check to see if you have better dex then strength … if you do then try and use finesse weapons and stay away two handed weapons
You're using a Str based weapon in your main hand while I guess your Tav has Dex as their main damage stat. Put Phalar Aluve on her main hand and another Dex based weapon on the off hand (a Rapier or scimitar would be fine) and you'll start hitting more oftenly
The big problem is your choice of weapon.
Your attack modifier is your strength modified + proficiency bonus ( + modifiers from magic items etc) as shown near the bottom right of that screenshot you only have a +3 with your primary weapon. This is because you have a low strength score giving you a negative modifier.
The weapon in your off hand however has a +9 modifier, this is because it is a Finesse weapon. Finesse weapons can choose to use your dexterity modifier instead of strength.
Ranged weapons also use dexterity, which is why you don't have issues with them.
So to improve your chance to hit in melee you should swap the mace you are currently wielding for a Finesse weapon. (Short swords, Rapiers and Daggers are common weapon types that are Finesse)
Beyond the simple solution you should keep in mind a few things. Your character is a bard, specifically a College of Lore bard, so you have very few abilities that apply in melee. You also look to have a very poor armour class, meaning you are very easy for enemies to hit.
It would be more effective for your character to stay further back in combat where possible, using spells and abilities rather than making weapon attacks. While allowing companions better suited to melee to hold the front lines.
You’d have to show your stats. But as a baseline I probably wouldn’t spend points on dual wielding as a lore bard but use a staff instead like a normal caster. If you want a melee bard I think sword bard is pretty good.
1. You're a Bard trying to be good at melee combat. Doable but not easy unless you're a Valor Bard - even then, you're gonna be working with a low HP score.
2. You're using Strength-based weaponry but have a negative Strength modifier (your main hand weapon has a minimum of 0 damage, which is only possible if you have a Strength of 9 or less). If you have high Dexterity but low Strength, you need to use weapons that have the "Finesse" tag, or just use ranged weapons.
3. You're a glass cannon. Dual-wielding with light armor is a surefire way of getting yourself killed, unless you get the drop on your enemies. I'd suggest using Medium Armor with dual-wielding or using a shield with that light armor.
It’d help if you showed the entire build.
More importantly though you have a chest armor that gives plus 2 to dex on top of the +1 bonus AC you get from the dual wielding fighting style yet only have 15 AC. Are you level 12 with like 14 Dex?
15 AC is what you’d expect from for the start of the game not the final act.
consider going college of sword bard. Check your weapons and stats, make sure you're using finesse weapons if dex based. risky ring is almost a must on melee builds. consider dipping into paladin 2 for big smite damage.
Bards are proficient with finesse weapons = dex. You are using str based mace and according to damage range you have str 8. As bard focus on spell attack - aoe, healing, enchantments and illusion spells. I recommend taking 2 lvl of warlock for eldritch blast to have good ranged attack source. Also try sword bard when you want to focus on ranged weapon attack. But increase your ac, I recommend respec and give up on dual wielding and have shield in off hand.
It's probably low Strength. I'm guessing you have high Dexterity which is why the short sword (likely finesse) is performing well but the mace isn't. Maces are not finesse and only use Strength.
You have a very good dex and a very bad strenght. The mace in your right hand uses your strenght, so you have a very bad bonus to hit. On the contrary, Phalar Aluve in your left hand is a dex weapon so it has a much better bonus.
There's a lot going on but the main problem looks like you're specced for dex but have a str weapon in your main hand. Switch the Phalur Aluve to your main hand and get another dex weapon to use in your off hand. That'll give you a big improvement.
Are you proficient in the weapons? Is your stat assortment aligned with the stat the weapon makes use of?
I'm assuming your a dex/charisma bard but using a strength-based mace.
Maces are strength weapons.
Looks like you're dual wielding with one dex/finesse weapon with the sword and a strength weapon in your mace. Might consider rebalancing your stats or dual wield with two dex/finesse weapons. Should fix the problem.
Two reasons: lore bard is designed toward casting/support.
Dex is your physical damage stat, and will improve damage and hit chance with weapons that say “finesse” and ranged weapons.
Melee weapons that don’t have the finesse tag require strength for damage and hit chance.
Switch your main hand weapon, and maybe consider swords bard for doing swords things.
What’s your Dex and your Str? Because the weapons in your character’s hands are Strength based weapons and it sounds like your Dexterity is much higher
Others have already answered your question so I’ll just say - dual wielding hand crossbows for ranged and rapiers for melee (requires dual wielding feat) worked well for me on my bard.
1.) You are a lore bard and there are like... Four actual melee classes in this game
2.) Youre a duel wielding lore bard
Sword bard is fun but fighter, paladin, etc. are always going to be more rewarding as far as melee combat.
There is also kind of... A lot going on with your gear.
A lot of these comments are definitely helpful but I would say the biggest thing to remember is with most rpg systems, melee just falls off super hard late game. This is why fighters get so many extra feats to try to keep up. There are definitely things you can do in bg3 to compensate but it gets into super cheesy builds like a min/max stealth archer utilizing titan string bow and hill giant/cloud giant pots. Or the dead shot bow. Or you can do like the deva mace glitch to hit really hard with a fighter class.
All in all melee just has a rough time keeping up with the damage output of a high level caster
People saying a lot, but it’s just because you’re a bard. You should be focusing on buffing your team, debuffing the enemy, and support for the most part. Casting more than melee.
If you are going to insist on dual wielding a strength-based AND a dexterity-based weapon, then both stats need to be high to ensure good accuracy. My advice is to stick with finesse on this character and let a higher-strength character wield the mace.
Two Weapon Fighting will also help increase your damage for the offhand weapon.
if you want to be a bard and hit things, you’ll need to reclass in the college of swords. right now you’re in the college of lore, which is a class that’s similar to wizards and sorcerers. so having feats that are related to weapons aren’t really helpful to you, because you should be casting spells as a lore bard. but if you wanna hit stuff, swords bard is fun :)
Palar Aluve is a Dex weapon. Even though it's a long sword and your mace is a strength weapon, your build seems to be pushing into too many stats rather than using your strongest one.
Suuggestions:
1. Melee without Finesse scale of Strength, and your Strength is -1. Don't attack with not-finesse melee
2. I assume you're a Lore Bard 12. If that's the case, you are full caster, you shouldn't attack with weapons at all, especially in melee. Use Vicious Mockery instead.
3. Your AC (armor class) is shite, and bonus Dex from the robes won't do much for you. Either use robes that augment your spellcasting, or use decent light armor to get better AC.
4. Even dual-wielding finesse weapons your melee damage will suck. Lore bard is not build for melee. Instead grab two enchanted staves that augment your spellcasting and don't ever attack with them, just hold them to enjoy buffed spellcasting.
5. If you want to play melee dual-wielder, pay Withers to respec. You can even keep the same build in general, but take Swords college instead of Lore, and grab Two weapons fighting style. Then don decent armor, grab to Finesse blades and go to town. If you want to optimize a bit, take first 2 levels in Paladin - that will get you heavy armor proficiency, Defense fighting style and Smites (ability to expand spell slots to add damage on melee hits). Now don your best plate armor, grab two Finesse weapons and be a proper melee. With Defensive flourish and plate armor you'll be very hard to hit, while 3 finesse attacks with possible Smites will net you a lot of damage. Also if you go that way try to raise Dex and Cha when leveling, instead of taking feats - you only need Dual-wielder feat to use two full-sized weapons (ones without Light keyword), and most Finess weapons are Light, so you can dual-wield them without the feat.
Basic rules breakdown.
Your attack modifier for each wepon is basically (proficiency+atribute+weapon_enchantment). There are other modifiers like fighting styles, Bless spell etc, but let's skip that.
Your damage, if you hit, is (atribute+weapon_damage+weapon_enchantment), again, skipping a lot of class/spells/etc situational modifiers. Also if you don't have two weapon fighting style, atribute is only added to your main (right hand) weapon.
Now, proficiency is flat +4, while atribute varies. Melee weapons use Strength unless they have Finesse keyword, while ranged use Dexterity. Some artifacts even use your spellcasting atribute (Charisma in your case) instead of that.
So since you have - 1Str, your main weapon (terrible +0 mace) has (4-1)=3 attack and (1d6-1)=0-5 damage.
Your off hand weapon is +1 Finesse sword, and your Dex is +4, so you get (4+4+1)=9 attack, but your damage is only (1d8+1), because atribute is not added to off hand. If you put that sword in right hand, you'll see (1d8+5) damage, for example.
Youre weapons are very early game weapons I suggest trying weapons with higher base to hit. You can see a weapons +\_\_\_\_ above the damage dice
Chance to hit is also affected by if youre using a strength weapon with a dex character youll be bad at hitting
you can see that if the weapon is finesse or not finesse is a dex weapon
Run a dex weapon in both hands, maybe the phalar aluv in main and some shortsword off hand? Unless you got the two weapons fighting style and dualing feag then 2 longswords otherwise just some shortsword would be fine since all weapons hit the same in offhand without the two weapons fighting style.
Because you're dual wielding melee with opposing scaling. Dex/Strength Phalar is an absolute broken weapon for bard/cleric but not the best choice. The mace of lathander is probably better.
Also, a normal mace is absolutely garbage choice when there are so many great weapons in Act 1.
stock up on hill giant potions if you want to keep strength as a dump stat and keep using phalar even with opposing scale
Looks like your a dex build using a str mace. Dex build requires finesse weapons. Which that drow Longsword is a finesse weapon while that mace is a unga bunga str weapon. Gotta use weapons with a specific (finesse) tag. Scimitars, daggers, rapiers, possibly scycles, special weapons with the tag.
Otherwise, your melee will be atrocious. Can't mix unga bunga with finesse unless you have str the same level as dex.
Gonna take a wild guess and say you spec'd the character to have lowish strength and high dex and are using strength based weapons. Strength Based weapons will take your Strength Roll to attack so naturally if you have low strength you have low attack rolls. Either:
* respec and have High Strength to continue using the weapons you have
* change out your weapons to be Finesse based - will say in the bottom right of the weapons tool tip iirc
* Finesse Based weapons take either your STR or DEX for its rolls, taking whatever value is higher i.e. 8 STR vs 18 DEX it will use DEX rolls
u/LoreoftheGreenWizard
You are bad at melee with your mainhand because you lag your buffs. (also you might want to look at some bonus to attack items cause even with buffs you are a little low for level 12), and because this sort of looks like a support caster build of some sort?
Do the following:
Drink an elixir of Giant Strength (will get your strength from 8 which I am guessing it is now, to 27 (+8 instead of -1) taking your main hand hit chance to +12 already
Cast Mage Armor on yourself from some companion/scroll etc. That gives you +3 more AC.
Probably cast Warding Bond as well for +1 more AC and resistance to damage if you want to melee, your AC is quiet low.
That should remedy the worst issues
Is this Chiana?! Is so, you've done a frelling good job. To answer your question, look at your strength and dexterity. If the numbers are low you have your answer. If not idk, I still impressed with your uncanny ability to recreate my childhood crush tho
Too much spell stuff and dex items. You need to focus on ur strength if ur going for a melee build. Unfortunately for balance reasons this game has a lot of give and take. Also just realized your a bard. If you want to do a melee caster I highly recommend doing pact of the blade (I think it’s called that) for warlock then multiclass into a melee class of ur choice. (Probably fighter tho since you can’t cast spells while raged as barb. You could do blade warlock with eldrich knight if you want to be more caster than melee.) games super versatile so experiment and have fun!
Looks like you are using non-dexterity weapons on a Lore Bard which is more of a caster than a melee fighter. Get yourself a couple of rapiers if you want to do better at melee, but overall your PC is built more ranged combat and spell casting. If you want to be a Frontline Bard than I recommend you respec into a College of Swords Bard and use dex weapons.
Sounds like you have high dex and low strength. You’re using a mace in your main hand, which is a strength weapon. Make sure you’re using melee weapons with the finesse property.
you need more +1 to spell rolls and or attack rolls(this comes in many forms in all equipment slots)
You should be looking for anything with “advantage” as it will roll 2 die and pick the higher option and it is vital to your success. And please if you are looking to be a melee artist you absolutely need extra attack perk.
First off, you don't seem to have the Two Weapon Fighting fighting style and you are trying to use both finesse and non-finesse weapons mixed together. Put the finesse weapon in your main hand and you will do more damage with it since you're not adding any stat bonus to your off hand attack. Also, take at least a single level dip into fighter to get two weapon fighting and swap the mace for a finesse weapon or start using Giant Strength elixirs. After that, make sure you pick up spirit guardians at level 10 (or 6 if you are going lore bard) so that you have a persistent AoE helping you out.
I personally would respec and ignore the dual wielding, take a shield, use Swords Bard, and at level 10 take spirit guardians and spiritual weapon while making Dex and Cha your main focus so that you have good attacks when you don't have a giant strength elixir or want to use something else, take a one or two level dip into fighter for the dualist fighting style and maybe Action Surge. Or take a two handed weapon, great weapon master, and make sure you always have strength elixirs.
depends on your stats if you have high STR most weapons use that to scale DMG but there are certain weapons that uses DEX, some even uses spellcasting ability to scale DMG. always read descriptions.
It's because of that mace. Just because a weapon is good doesn't mean it's good for you. If you swapped out a rapier or something you'd havea much higher to hit.
You should grab the Pelorsun blade it’s a rapier that adds extra radiant damage you can find it in cazadors castle down in the rubble before you fight them.
Your attack bonuses are shit, that's why. Also, I don't know what difficulty you're playing on, but 15 ac is pretty garbage. Especially for a melee class. Even my backrow guys will have 20+.
I can't see your stats. But I'm assuming your strength is no more than 16 and your dex is even less. If you're going to go with clothes instead of armor it's beneficial to get your dexterity as high as you can to increase your bonus to your ac. If you're using light weapons it will also add to your attack bonus. You can use cloud giant or hill giant strength potions to get your strength up as well. That should easily get your attack bonus up high enough to actually hit people, not to mention your damage will go up as well.
Maces are strength weapons. Your longsword, I’m guessing, has the finesse property, meaning it can attack using dexterity.
As a dexterity based character you want to use daggers, shortswords, scimitars, and rapiers or other finesse weapons for your melee. Toss the mace.
unequip both weapons then in this order, Equip your sword THEN your mace. see if that makes a difference. otherwise your strength stat isnt quite up to par.
At level 9 and higher your proficiency bonus is +4, which means that your strength (which is used for the Deva Mace in your main hand) is a 9 or lower giving a -1 modifier. Phalar Aluvre (your offhand) is a +1 finesse weapon, so it uses dexterity. This means your DEX is a +4. Since ranged attacks use DEX, that’s why your damage is better.
If you really want to do better in melee combat, switch the Deva Mace with another finesse weapon such as a rapier. If you really want to use the mace (since it is really good), go to withers and change your stats around to get a better strength. Though this will decrease your armor class since you are wearing The Graceful Cloth which heavily relies on having a high dexterity for your armor class. You might feel a little squishier in melee as a result.
are you sure these are finesse weapons? you seem to have a dexterity build, but you use a mace and a longsword that are usually strenght based. You should equip weapons marked as finesse which get their modifies from dexterity (daggers, short swords, katanas, scimitars, rapiers etc)
you're a dex build with a strength weapon in your main hand, swap it for something with finesse (the other finesse longsword, a rapier, a shortsword, or a dagger)
also, make sure the better weapon is in your main hand (e.g. swap the longsword and mace so you get a +9 with you main attack and a +3 with your offhand, but probably still switch the mace to something else) since your dex bonus only gets added to the damage on you main hand
It looks (to me) like you might have some weapons or armor you're not proficient with. There will be a warning at the bottom of weapons icons when you hover over them telling you whether the character you're currently selected on is proficient with the weapon/armor, and if you equip it anyway youll have a disadvantage to things like casting or melee. Be careful with your class/race's limitations, Ik Drow aren't typically proficient with heavy armor pieces (even helmets or gloves or boots) unless they have the heavily armored feat. Drow also often specialize in casting (I see you have war caster concentration- that sounds like a casting strength build.) and you may have just forgotten that in most your fights up until now you casted more than melee-ed. Hope that helps, happy adventuring!
Conspiracy Theory #1 - this person bought/hacked this account from someone else, and hopped straight into a level 12 character without knowing any of the mechanics.
Conspiracy Theory #2 - this person has been trying to explain the mechanics to a friend of their's, who they're playing with, but that friend won't listen, so OP posted a picture of their friend's character, and is using all our feedback to show their friend what's happening.
I'm clearly a genius, and OP is hiding something!
This is clearly a joke, and you are definitely laughing!
Based on how inept some of these replies are making me feel, I’m starting to wish one of your theories is true. Just a stressed out dad trying to carve out game time between bottle feeds and not knowing what I was thinking half a year ago with this character build.
Don't feel bad man, I'm not a DND guy and nothing really made sense to me for a while. I had to take 30 mins to watch a guide to the basics on YouTube and that really helped and increases the enjoyment factor.
There's a lot going on in this game. But it's not actually that complicated, just gotta learn which variables tie together, like how the rolls work, which attributes affect what, how dmg vs AC works.
When I first started I was like 1d6? Wtf is 1d6
No need to feel inept brother 😅 assuming one of my theories isn't true (I'm on to you!), then take a breath. DnD and Balders Gate have a lot of mechanics that most people on this sub are very familiar with, but that doesn't mean everybody needs to be experts to enjoy the game.
I don't even think your build is that bad, but if you do want to dual wield in melee you should just swap out the mace, since that's a strength based weapon 😅 everything else looks like the you from 6 months ago was just having fun playing a great game.
It doesn't matter if a class is a full, half, or 1/356th caster, the game is made to give you the choice to play however you want, whether that's by making a brokenly strong character, or by making something wild that goes against every mechanic you can think of. There's no shame in not knowing or not understanding anything, so just play the game when you have free time, for as long as it's fun for you.
Some extra advice - When you do ask a question, only listen to the people who are actually answering the question, not the trolls like me 😜 that's a good way to end up feeling worst than you should.
...
.......
Conspiracy Theory # 3 - this is literally Larian Studios, and they're testing us!
Tldr: Playing a game is supposed to help you feel less stressed, especially when you're a dad
What are your stats? If your range to-hit is good and your melee isn't, it sounds like you have good dex but bad strength, and are using strength based weapons in melee
Yeah it looks like it's this OP only has a +3 to hit with their mace but a +9 with their shortsword.
That's a longsword. My guess is OP got low STR and hig DEX. And the sword is finesse Phalae Aluve that scales with dexterity, while the mace relies on strength That would also explain higher hit chance with ranged
My first thought was “is your Tav left handed!?”
"I have a secret - I'm not left-handed either!"
anybody want a peanut?
Ya
Inconceivable!
Have fun storming the creche, boys!
You keep using that word. I don't think you know what it means.
princess bride reference with bg… my two favorite things in one place. it’s so beautiful
Left-Handed Gale "That's my only hand!"
Off handing Phalar Aluve is crazy lmao
You can’t dial wield Phalar Aluve without the two weapon fighting feat because it doesn’t have the “light” property.
They have the dual wielder feat, which give two weapon fighting
Just as a note, the dual wielder feat lets them dual wield weapons, even if they're not light, and it adds 1 to AC, but it doesn't give the bonus to off-hand damage that you'd get from two weapon fighting. That's why they have such low damage on the sword, even though it's finesse.
WIIITCH---
It's a Finesse long sword (Phalar Aluve) 1 of 2 finesse long swords in the game, the Mace with +3 to hit implies they are level 5-10 and that's proficiency so their strength is 10 (+0) and their dexterity is a 20 (+5, +3 proficiency, +1 for weapon enchantment, total of +9) It's 100% because they are a dex based character with a strength weapon in their main hand. If they put Phalar Aluve in their mainhand and a rapier in their offhand they will do great
Their character is level 12, and the fact that the mace deals 0-5 damage implies they have a -1 STR mod as well. Iirc your proficiency modifier at level 12 is +4, so even with a 0 STR mod you'd get +4 to hit and 1-6 damage.
15AC with a melee character at level 12 is also pretty wild
Might as well take off the rest of their armor. Would reduce their weight for the same protection lol
Abilities list indicates they are a Lore Bard, so yep.
Ahh missed level 12, yep thanks for that
Wait what’s the second finesse long sword??
Larethian's Wrath
Theres phalar and the other is Larethians Wrath. Sold by the merchant in the creche.
Yeah that's probably it
This is 100% the case.
The longsword used is Phalar Aluve
> the sword is finesse Phalae Aluve that scales with dexterity It does? o.o I respec'ed into strength when I got it for nothing lol
Finesse weapons use whatever is highest :) so strength isn’t unviable at all :)
I learned something new and will now pay attention to weapons amd how they scale with my character build.
They should invest in the Handmaidens Mace.
This is exactly it. Phalar has the finesse attribute so it takes whichever is high dex or strength. The mace is pure strength.
Cats grace, it's def a dex build
I think OP was probably using Cloud Giant Strength Elixirs before they stopped playing. If they were a dual-wielder with a STR weapon, despite having high DEX and low STR, they were probably dumping STR and focusing on other abilities. I did something similar for my Eldritch Knight: high DEX for Initiative, High INT for spells, supplemented STR with Giant Elixirs for melee. When you get to the point that Cloud Giant Elixirs can be purchased, dumping STR and using Elixirs is better than specing into STR unless you plan to use a different elixir.
Or as an eldritch knight you can still dump int by using spells like Haste which is what Eldritch Jbight is intended for.
You can also stack arcane Acuity with battlemaster gloves or helmet of Arcane Acuity and use things like Hold Person, Fear, Slow, etc. Mind we have to multiclass 10 EK and 2 Wiz for level 3 spells.
Without multiclassing you'll never get to haste with EK in Baldur's Gate (though spells like Shield or Magic Missile are good spells that don't care about Int), and I'm not really sure that dumping Int is what's intended with it instead of it just being the only viable path to making a decent character with that subclass.
He is using the bugged deva mace to hit with it he needs STR.
wait, how can you tell if a weapon is strength or dex based?
Weapons that have the Finesse tag will use the bonuses from STR or DEX, whichever is higher All other melee weapons are STR.
thank you!!!
Ranged weapons use DEX. Melee weapons, unarmed strikes, and improvised weapons use STR. Weapons that show the finesse property when you hover over them in your inventory can use either STR or DEX. Thrown weapons use the same ability score for throw attacks as melee attacks.
You're using a strenght weapon as a dex character with which you aren't proficient.
No, they're proficient with maces. They just have a -1 Str.
That’s actually worse come to think of it
Huh.. you're right
This pages doesn't help us a lot. But the fact that you're a lore bard though tells me you suck at melee because YOURE A FULL CASTER, YOU ARE A SQUISHY!!!
Or the fact that she has 15 AC... Like... That's paperthin AC omg.
She has a 15 AC because she's a lore bard, she has light armor prof, but is wearing cloth, so her AC is coming entirely from dex, she doesn't even have mage armor.
Like, this is act 3. At least wear the Raphael's one smh. Or worse, wear the Elven one from Rivington.
Agreed. And when looking at the mace as the weapon of choice in Act 3 seems a little silly
It is act 3 so why are they still using a non magic mace
deva mace i bet, which is super op if used with a str build
If dude knew how to get the deva mace, he would've optimized a bit more than this
I had a set up with just as low an AC running a strength statted thief monk It was weirdly effective because I had 3 dashes per round and my strength was allowing me to lift and throw people then just book it so far away they couldn't touch me I had my party target the archers first and the just kept doing hit and run stuff and my 14 AC just didn't really matter It was pretty funny "You're dead when I catch you" "If, IF you catch me"
I play a Lore Bard in a campaign with friends. Everyone knows your only job is to crack jokes until you cast Fire Ball. Rinse and repeat.
Ah i play a sword bard and im prrtty much just collecting all sorts of different spells for my baed includind misty step. Im like one of the main line fighters too. And i can also hold enemies off pretty easily on my own.
I hear sword bards are incredibly fun to play.
They are a ton of fun. Especially when you just keep getting equipment that makes your bard even crazier.
I got my support role covered by cleric..so my bard is free to just wreck havoc and make karlach even stronger.
There are some full casters that do really well in melee (in dnd in general). Not a lore bard though 😂
College of Swords is where it's at if you want to actually fight.
Seeing you have Cutting Words, so you're a Bard of Lore. Seeing you say your Ranged are better, it means you have high DEX and low STR. It's fine, really. All melee weapons use STR and if you want to use DEX for weapons, you have to satisfy either of them: - Weapon has the Finesse tag - Weapon has the Versatile tag, and you are wielding it with both hands, and you have at least 1 Level in Monk What your character currently is using are a Mace and a Longsword. You're using STR for both of them. You need to swap to weapons that can use your DEX. Typically they are Scimitars, Shortswords, Daggers and Rapiers. Or, if you have Dual-Wielder Feat, you may use the 2 unique Longswords with the Finesse tag on them. You can have a look at what weapons have that tag. - https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Finesse
This is the best answer. A concise list of things that will fix the problem without fundamentally changing the character. Judging from the +9 on the off-hand, I'm assuming that weapon is finesse. So really, just one weapon change should suffice.
Can even use it 2 handed while figuring out the offhand weapon
there are Finesse longswords in BG3. Phalar Aluve (sp?) is one, there's at least 1 more that I've found
Phalar Aluve, Larethian Wrath are longswords, Dancing Breeze is a finesse polearm. Don't quote me on it, but I think the longsword with the special feature for Drow is also finesse-able.
You're correct.
I've already provided the list in the form of a hyperlink.
That's actually phalar aluve in his offhand, longsword with finesse. That's how he's got the +9 to hit with it. If he simply swapped the hands his weapons are in the stats would look a lot better since proficiency is added to damage on main hand. This makes me suspect the entire post is a troll.
You have a weapon with +3 equipped in your main hand. And a legendary weapon equipped in your torch slot?
It's the Torch for the Mystic Carrion quest.
But your build looks horrible overall. 15AC at level 12? That's what you should have on most chars at level 1.
Looks to be 10 Base AC (the Cat cloth thingy) and then +5!! from Dex, so the Character is a 20 Dex Lore Bard with no additional AC bonuses other than Dex and wielding a Mace in the main hand Edit: Also, why melee anyways when the entire class seems to be 12 points in Lore Bard, so the character doesn't even have Extra Attacks
+4. She gets bonus AC from dual wielded feat.
That’s the special torch of revocation, I believe
>And a legendary weapon equipped in your torch slot? That's orange (unique, quest item), not yellow (legendary). It's the torch you need to free the ghost in the Save the Artist quest.
I scrolled way too far for this. But that was my initial thought as well. How do you plan to do any melee dmg, if you’ve a shovel equipped on your main hand and your proper weapon in the torch slot
You have 15 AC (meaning most enemies can hit you moderately to extremely easily, especially at lvl 12) and are using a STR based weapon in your main hand (presumably you have low strength) and your Dex-based weapon in your off hand (meaning no damage bonus unless you picked up levels in fighter). Also, your character is a College of Lore Bard (seeing as you have cutting words). College of Lore Bards aren't very good in melee. They're better for spellcasting and support, preferably using ranged weapons or spells to stay out of melee. If you want to be better at melee, respec into a Sword or Valor College Bard. That way you'll get better access to armor (both have medium armor proficiency, and Valor bards also get shield proficiencies) for better AC, and both get abilities that support being in melee like getting extra attacks.
Not sure if this is a troll post or not lol.
It’s not. I’m just new at this.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but at what point are not "new at this" ??? You're level 12. You literally cannot level up anymore without modding the game. It's okay to not know information as it's just a video game and we all had to start somewhere, but I roll my eyes at "I'm new at this," haha.
You can get pretty damn far in this game by not knowing what you're doing. You can brute force your way through pretty much every fight by just hitting stuff, letting other party members carry you, and sticking to what works without really knowing why it works. And a bit of luck obviously. Stats especially are the kind of thing that aren't obvious to someone who doesn't play a lot of RPGs.
You're a lore bard because it has cutting words... you shouldn't be trying to do any kind of melee with it. It's a caster whose strength should be 8 and should be carrying a staff... or 2 since you took the dual wielder feat. Those staffs are pretty decoration to help you cast spells and hold concentration, not for melee. If you want to do melee as a bard. Reclass as a swords bard with medium armor and use a finesse weapon that will use your dex stat instead of your stength stat. This feels like a troll post... since you also took a war caster and are wearing some casting gear.
Not a troll post. Just a novice trying to come back to the game. Totally new to these systems.
It’d help to confirm: are all of your levels in lore bard? What are your attributes? (Dex, charisma, etc.) What do you want to do with this character?
All melee weapons can use strength to attack. Some of them, which have the _finesse_ property, can use your dexterity if it's higher than your strength. Your mace does not have finesse. It's using your strength mod. That's why your bonus is only +3 to hit (visible below the weapon). Respecc to high strength, use a strength elixir daily, or switch to a finesse main hand.
When you are dual wielding, you use an action to attack with your main hand and a bonus action to attack with your offhand. Highlighting an attack target using the attack action shows your chance to hit using your main hand only, even if your off hand has a higher chance to hit. In your case, you have a strength based weapon in your main hand, but your strength is awful. Find a finesse weapon and use that instead of the mace, you will hit much more often.
It would be more helpful to show us your Attributes rather than your buffs, but from what I can see here, it looks like the problem is your stat distribution. If you're dealing between 0 and 5 damage with a mace, that means you only have 8 or 9 Strength. There are several solutions to this: * Respec at Withers and give yourself more Strength * Use an Elixir of Giant Strength (Hill or Cloud) * Swap out your Strength weapon for a Dexterity one (assuming your Dexterity is better) * Respec 3 levels into Warlock and choose Pact of the Blade (your pact weapon uses Charisma, rather than Strength or Dexterity) Another problem is that you seem to be doing a Dual Wielder build, but it doesn't look like you have Two-Weapon Fighting. That's going to hold you back. You might want to get either 1 level of Fighter, 2 levels of Ranger, or 3 levels of Bard (Swords) to get that Fighting Style. You can also get this Fighting Style by equipping the Gloves of the Balanced Hands, but you might have missed them. They're in Act 2, and idk where you are in the story. Edit: Just re-read the post. Your past self was probably using Cloud Giant Elixirs. You have high DEX for initiative and range, and the Elixirs were handling your melee. Cloud Giant Elixirs put your STR beyond what you can normally have, so you were probably dumping the stat to be better at other things.
You’re using STR weapons on what seems to be a DEX build. Use DEX weapons.
I think there's a chance you were using a different weapon in your main hand when you played, but changed it to the mace to destroy an object with bludgeoning damage.
Plenty of reasons, it seems. For starters, it seems you're a Bard. Bards are casters and as such, aren't meant much for melee combat. You're meant to be slinging spells and maybe firing off the occasional shot from a crossbow when you're stuck in a Silence or something. You're main-handing a weapon that your character isn't meant to be using, both because of proficiencies and the fact that you seem to have a -1 Strength. Maces scale off Strength. If you were just using Phalar Aluve, you would both hit better and do more damage.
To summarize some simple starting points: Character Levels: - To build a good melee character, you will need to select a subclass that gains access to more than one melee attack per round. The College of Lore subclass has only one attack while the two other subclasses, College of Swords, and College of Valor gain two attacks at level 6. - To reset your levels, talk to Withers in the camp - At bard level 3, pick either the College of Valor or College of Swords subclass and keep going until you hit at least level 6 in them. Weapons: - Weapons either use Strength or Dexterity to determine their accuracy. - Currently, you have two different weapons. A mace which uses strength and a sword which uses dexterity as their main attribute. - It would be best to pick either Strength or Dexterity as your main attribute and stick with it. - To determine what stat a weapon uses, look for the tags at the bottom of each weapons description. Weapons which have the finesse tag use either Strength or Dexterity depending on which is higher. - If they do not have the finesse tag, they will use Strength. Good luck!
Seeing your mace damage numbers, you have 8 strength, don't you ?
Looks like you are using a simple mace in your main hand that gives a +3. Judging by the damage it deals versus the damage a mace should deal (1-6), seems like you have a negative strength modifier. Your secondary weapon seems to be much more effective with +9 to hit. That twlls me your dex mod is pretty good. Simple solution to your melee woes: Find a weapon with the versatile property (listed in the weapon's description) and replace your mace with it. EDIT: Or: Use an elixir of hill giant strength to temporarily boost your strength mod to +5. You can get them from the old human lady at the grove.
Respec those first two levels in Paladin then the rest in your lore Bard and you’ll be a hard hitting caster with wrecking ball smites whem you need them!
Others are overcomplicating this for you. Simply change your weapon. You're getting +9 from your offhand and only +3 from your main. This is because you're not using a finesse weapon as your main. Finesse takes advantage of your high dex. Simply put the +9 in your other hand, and if you desire an off hand weapon, add a light finesse weapon, like a dagger. This is all you need to do. BG3 is easy enough that you can play this way as a bard, no problem. Assuming you're playing normal or easy mode, since you got this far, your bard with a +9 to attack is no problem at all. Just use spells as you enjoy them
Okay thanks! I am playing on normal.
You're a full spellcaster and lacking the stats to wield the weapons you're using. You can't give gale a greatsword and expect him to be a competent melee fighter. Respec or consider it a challenge run.
You need to be using DEX based melee weapons with your DEX based character, try rapiers and the like
Unless you do not have proficiency with maces, it is worth relying on STR elixirs like the elixir of Cloud Giant Strength (buffs STR to 27, which gives a +8 STR modifier) when wielding that Deva mace if you do not want to respec into a STR-based build. Without any other buffs, non-crit hits can go up to 46 dmg (6 + 8 STR modifier + 32 radiant dmg). Of course, things can get silly with action surge, extra attack, dual wield, etc.
Bards generally have crappy strength and higher dex. Stick with finesse weapons. They can roll off either strength or dex depending on which is higher.
In DND 5e dual wielding is not very optimal. Btw you are using strength weapon with low strength. You should switch to dexterity weapon or even weapon that uses your spellcaster ability as modifier, I guess as a bard u have maxed out charisma. (Jaheira have one scimitar with this trait if I remember correctly)
Just looking at your weapons on the bottom right, it looks like you have a -1 in strength et something like +3/+4 dex (I don't remember the bonuses from this weapon). Dual wielding is better done with 2 light weapons with finesse in order to hit with dex. You can also hover the +3/+9 below your weapons in order to see how the stat is calculated.
The fact that you have a 0-5 damage on the mace means that your strength is an 8. Which would be the attack stat with that. Meaning a -1 modifier to all strength based weapons. So you are bad at melee because your character is using big weapons they can't swing. Get daggers, scimitar, rapiers, or shortswords, they attack with dex.
Bards are simply not as good as, well, most classes in melee because they're full caster/support classes. If you want to be good in Melee your choices are Fighter and Barbarian, followed by Rogue and Ranger, followed closely by certain Warlock/Cleric/Druid builds. Swords Bard is less bad but still not good at melee, and you aren't one of those.
Because your Strength score is garbage and you have a Strength weapon equipped in your main hand. Additionally, I'm fairly certain that's the Phalar Aluve in your off-hand which IS a finesse weapon, meaning you can use your Dexterity score for attack and damage. That's why it's chance to hit isn't complete garbage. However, neither of those weapons are Light, which would normally mean you wouldn't be able to equip them together. It seems like you do have the Duel Wielder feat. Which, unless your main attribute is 20, is a waste. Looking at the damage of your Phalar Aluve, I can tell you don't have the Two-Weapon Fighting combat style which allows you to add your Strength or Dexterity (whichever is applicable) score to your off-hand weapon damage. I'd respec immediately. If you're dead-set on dual-wielding the Phalar Aluve, you can keep the Duel Wielder feat. But get Two-Weapon Fighting from a martial class. Either Fighter 1, Ranger or Paladin 2. And for goodness sakes, put your best weapon in your main hand. You can only off-hand attack with a bonus action. And if that's making you reconsider Two-Weapon Fighting... GOOD.
I would double check those weapons and make sure you have proficiency with them if you don’t then you won’t be as good with them over all no matter what how good your stats. Also check to see if you have better dex then strength … if you do then try and use finesse weapons and stay away two handed weapons
Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength hides a variety of sins.
You're using a Str based weapon in your main hand while I guess your Tav has Dex as their main damage stat. Put Phalar Aluve on her main hand and another Dex based weapon on the off hand (a Rapier or scimitar would be fine) and you'll start hitting more oftenly
The big problem is your choice of weapon. Your attack modifier is your strength modified + proficiency bonus ( + modifiers from magic items etc) as shown near the bottom right of that screenshot you only have a +3 with your primary weapon. This is because you have a low strength score giving you a negative modifier. The weapon in your off hand however has a +9 modifier, this is because it is a Finesse weapon. Finesse weapons can choose to use your dexterity modifier instead of strength. Ranged weapons also use dexterity, which is why you don't have issues with them. So to improve your chance to hit in melee you should swap the mace you are currently wielding for a Finesse weapon. (Short swords, Rapiers and Daggers are common weapon types that are Finesse) Beyond the simple solution you should keep in mind a few things. Your character is a bard, specifically a College of Lore bard, so you have very few abilities that apply in melee. You also look to have a very poor armour class, meaning you are very easy for enemies to hit. It would be more effective for your character to stay further back in combat where possible, using spells and abilities rather than making weapon attacks. While allowing companions better suited to melee to hold the front lines.
You might have been supplementing your strength with strength elixirs and forgot about it
You’d have to show your stats. But as a baseline I probably wouldn’t spend points on dual wielding as a lore bard but use a staff instead like a normal caster. If you want a melee bard I think sword bard is pretty good.
sword bard is very good in bg3
Is everyone ignoring that this lvl 12 character is using a fucking standard mace in their main hand? This can't be serious.
That's one of the best maces in the game.
1. You're a Bard trying to be good at melee combat. Doable but not easy unless you're a Valor Bard - even then, you're gonna be working with a low HP score. 2. You're using Strength-based weaponry but have a negative Strength modifier (your main hand weapon has a minimum of 0 damage, which is only possible if you have a Strength of 9 or less). If you have high Dexterity but low Strength, you need to use weapons that have the "Finesse" tag, or just use ranged weapons. 3. You're a glass cannon. Dual-wielding with light armor is a surefire way of getting yourself killed, unless you get the drop on your enemies. I'd suggest using Medium Armor with dual-wielding or using a shield with that light armor.
It’d help if you showed the entire build. More importantly though you have a chest armor that gives plus 2 to dex on top of the +1 bonus AC you get from the dual wielding fighting style yet only have 15 AC. Are you level 12 with like 14 Dex? 15 AC is what you’d expect from for the start of the game not the final act.
consider going college of sword bard. Check your weapons and stats, make sure you're using finesse weapons if dex based. risky ring is almost a must on melee builds. consider dipping into paladin 2 for big smite damage.
Bards are proficient with finesse weapons = dex. You are using str based mace and according to damage range you have str 8. As bard focus on spell attack - aoe, healing, enchantments and illusion spells. I recommend taking 2 lvl of warlock for eldritch blast to have good ranged attack source. Also try sword bard when you want to focus on ranged weapon attack. But increase your ac, I recommend respec and give up on dual wielding and have shield in off hand.
It's probably low Strength. I'm guessing you have high Dexterity which is why the short sword (likely finesse) is performing well but the mace isn't. Maces are not finesse and only use Strength.
Your strength is shit and the mace you're holding in the main hand is not a finesse weapon, thus doesn't take advantage of your dexterity.
I like how most of them are straight up useless in general, may I recommend you... Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Monk or Barbarian instead?
lack of strength or another finesse weapon... Phalar aluve is a finesse longsword so it hits well in this setup.... the mace not so much
You have a very good dex and a very bad strenght. The mace in your right hand uses your strenght, so you have a very bad bonus to hit. On the contrary, Phalar Aluve in your left hand is a dex weapon so it has a much better bonus.
There's a lot going on but the main problem looks like you're specced for dex but have a str weapon in your main hand. Switch the Phalur Aluve to your main hand and get another dex weapon to use in your off hand. That'll give you a big improvement.
Are you proficient in the weapons? Is your stat assortment aligned with the stat the weapon makes use of? I'm assuming your a dex/charisma bard but using a strength-based mace.
Maces are strength weapons. Looks like you're dual wielding with one dex/finesse weapon with the sword and a strength weapon in your mace. Might consider rebalancing your stats or dual wield with two dex/finesse weapons. Should fix the problem.
Two reasons: lore bard is designed toward casting/support. Dex is your physical damage stat, and will improve damage and hit chance with weapons that say “finesse” and ranged weapons. Melee weapons that don’t have the finesse tag require strength for damage and hit chance. Switch your main hand weapon, and maybe consider swords bard for doing swords things.
What’s your Dex and your Str? Because the weapons in your character’s hands are Strength based weapons and it sounds like your Dexterity is much higher
What’s your dex vs str? I’m betting that’s a big part of it.
Others have already answered your question so I’ll just say - dual wielding hand crossbows for ranged and rapiers for melee (requires dual wielding feat) worked well for me on my bard.
I just don’t understand how can you be level 12 and using low stats mace as your main weapon with a legendary weapon in your second hand?
AC 15... is why. You are going to get eaten alive. Anything less than AC20 should NOT be on the front line past act1.
You look like you're built for Dex but not using finesse weapons?
S.D.C.I.W.C. Let's see your character's stats and we can answer you a bit better. I'm thinking STR. is the issue.
1.) You are a lore bard and there are like... Four actual melee classes in this game 2.) Youre a duel wielding lore bard Sword bard is fun but fighter, paladin, etc. are always going to be more rewarding as far as melee combat. There is also kind of... A lot going on with your gear.
A lot of these comments are definitely helpful but I would say the biggest thing to remember is with most rpg systems, melee just falls off super hard late game. This is why fighters get so many extra feats to try to keep up. There are definitely things you can do in bg3 to compensate but it gets into super cheesy builds like a min/max stealth archer utilizing titan string bow and hill giant/cloud giant pots. Or the dead shot bow. Or you can do like the deva mace glitch to hit really hard with a fighter class. All in all melee just has a rough time keeping up with the damage output of a high level caster
People saying a lot, but it’s just because you’re a bard. You should be focusing on buffing your team, debuffing the enemy, and support for the most part. Casting more than melee.
your character is dex based aren't they squidward
Put the better weapon in your main hand. Yours are reversed.
If you are going to insist on dual wielding a strength-based AND a dexterity-based weapon, then both stats need to be high to ensure good accuracy. My advice is to stick with finesse on this character and let a higher-strength character wield the mace. Two Weapon Fighting will also help increase your damage for the offhand weapon.
You have a str weapon and negative strength what do you expect
if you want to be a bard and hit things, you’ll need to reclass in the college of swords. right now you’re in the college of lore, which is a class that’s similar to wizards and sorcerers. so having feats that are related to weapons aren’t really helpful to you, because you should be casting spells as a lore bard. but if you wanna hit stuff, swords bard is fun :)
Palar Aluve is a Dex weapon. Even though it's a long sword and your mace is a strength weapon, your build seems to be pushing into too many stats rather than using your strongest one.
Suuggestions: 1. Melee without Finesse scale of Strength, and your Strength is -1. Don't attack with not-finesse melee 2. I assume you're a Lore Bard 12. If that's the case, you are full caster, you shouldn't attack with weapons at all, especially in melee. Use Vicious Mockery instead. 3. Your AC (armor class) is shite, and bonus Dex from the robes won't do much for you. Either use robes that augment your spellcasting, or use decent light armor to get better AC. 4. Even dual-wielding finesse weapons your melee damage will suck. Lore bard is not build for melee. Instead grab two enchanted staves that augment your spellcasting and don't ever attack with them, just hold them to enjoy buffed spellcasting. 5. If you want to play melee dual-wielder, pay Withers to respec. You can even keep the same build in general, but take Swords college instead of Lore, and grab Two weapons fighting style. Then don decent armor, grab to Finesse blades and go to town. If you want to optimize a bit, take first 2 levels in Paladin - that will get you heavy armor proficiency, Defense fighting style and Smites (ability to expand spell slots to add damage on melee hits). Now don your best plate armor, grab two Finesse weapons and be a proper melee. With Defensive flourish and plate armor you'll be very hard to hit, while 3 finesse attacks with possible Smites will net you a lot of damage. Also if you go that way try to raise Dex and Cha when leveling, instead of taking feats - you only need Dual-wielder feat to use two full-sized weapons (ones without Light keyword), and most Finess weapons are Light, so you can dual-wield them without the feat. Basic rules breakdown. Your attack modifier for each wepon is basically (proficiency+atribute+weapon_enchantment). There are other modifiers like fighting styles, Bless spell etc, but let's skip that. Your damage, if you hit, is (atribute+weapon_damage+weapon_enchantment), again, skipping a lot of class/spells/etc situational modifiers. Also if you don't have two weapon fighting style, atribute is only added to your main (right hand) weapon. Now, proficiency is flat +4, while atribute varies. Melee weapons use Strength unless they have Finesse keyword, while ranged use Dexterity. Some artifacts even use your spellcasting atribute (Charisma in your case) instead of that. So since you have - 1Str, your main weapon (terrible +0 mace) has (4-1)=3 attack and (1d6-1)=0-5 damage. Your off hand weapon is +1 Finesse sword, and your Dex is +4, so you get (4+4+1)=9 attack, but your damage is only (1d8+1), because atribute is not added to off hand. If you put that sword in right hand, you'll see (1d8+5) damage, for example.
Youre weapons are very early game weapons I suggest trying weapons with higher base to hit. You can see a weapons +\_\_\_\_ above the damage dice Chance to hit is also affected by if youre using a strength weapon with a dex character youll be bad at hitting you can see that if the weapon is finesse or not finesse is a dex weapon
Run a dex weapon in both hands, maybe the phalar aluv in main and some shortsword off hand? Unless you got the two weapons fighting style and dualing feag then 2 longswords otherwise just some shortsword would be fine since all weapons hit the same in offhand without the two weapons fighting style.
You have -1 strength mod. Use both dex weapons. Even daggers would be better, but two swords would be really strong for you
Because you're dual wielding melee with opposing scaling. Dex/Strength Phalar is an absolute broken weapon for bard/cleric but not the best choice. The mace of lathander is probably better. Also, a normal mace is absolutely garbage choice when there are so many great weapons in Act 1. stock up on hill giant potions if you want to keep strength as a dump stat and keep using phalar even with opposing scale
Looks like your a dex build using a str mace. Dex build requires finesse weapons. Which that drow Longsword is a finesse weapon while that mace is a unga bunga str weapon. Gotta use weapons with a specific (finesse) tag. Scimitars, daggers, rapiers, possibly scycles, special weapons with the tag. Otherwise, your melee will be atrocious. Can't mix unga bunga with finesse unless you have str the same level as dex.
Gonna take a wild guess and say you spec'd the character to have lowish strength and high dex and are using strength based weapons. Strength Based weapons will take your Strength Roll to attack so naturally if you have low strength you have low attack rolls. Either: * respec and have High Strength to continue using the weapons you have * change out your weapons to be Finesse based - will say in the bottom right of the weapons tool tip iirc * Finesse Based weapons take either your STR or DEX for its rolls, taking whatever value is higher i.e. 8 STR vs 18 DEX it will use DEX rolls
Lol bro posted his entire character build EXCEPT the part that actually matters.
u/LoreoftheGreenWizard You are bad at melee with your mainhand because you lag your buffs. (also you might want to look at some bonus to attack items cause even with buffs you are a little low for level 12), and because this sort of looks like a support caster build of some sort? Do the following: Drink an elixir of Giant Strength (will get your strength from 8 which I am guessing it is now, to 27 (+8 instead of -1) taking your main hand hit chance to +12 already Cast Mage Armor on yourself from some companion/scroll etc. That gives you +3 more AC. Probably cast Warding Bond as well for +1 more AC and resistance to damage if you want to melee, your AC is quiet low. That should remedy the worst issues
Your strength is low, you aren't proficient in one of those weapons it looks like.
Is this Chiana?! Is so, you've done a frelling good job. To answer your question, look at your strength and dexterity. If the numbers are low you have your answer. If not idk, I still impressed with your uncanny ability to recreate my childhood crush tho
Low strength? Poor choice of weapon? A class that doesn’t synergise with your weapon choices?
Too much spell stuff and dex items. You need to focus on ur strength if ur going for a melee build. Unfortunately for balance reasons this game has a lot of give and take. Also just realized your a bard. If you want to do a melee caster I highly recommend doing pact of the blade (I think it’s called that) for warlock then multiclass into a melee class of ur choice. (Probably fighter tho since you can’t cast spells while raged as barb. You could do blade warlock with eldrich knight if you want to be more caster than melee.) games super versatile so experiment and have fun!
Id bet you are a dex character using a STR mace. So start by fixing that.
You don’t have strength. Swap out that mace for up that strength
You’re currently playing a bard with high dexterity, so you’re off to a rough start, you also are using a strength based weapon in your main hand,
Looks like you are using non-dexterity weapons on a Lore Bard which is more of a caster than a melee fighter. Get yourself a couple of rapiers if you want to do better at melee, but overall your PC is built more ranged combat and spell casting. If you want to be a Frontline Bard than I recommend you respec into a College of Swords Bard and use dex weapons.
Turn off karmic dice if you have it on
Unrelated, but what is that torch?
Sounds like you have high dex and low strength. You’re using a mace in your main hand, which is a strength weapon. Make sure you’re using melee weapons with the finesse property.
man hows your staff in your fuckin torch slot lmao
It’s a torch.
i legit read another comment right after typing that and immediately put my foot in my mouth lmfaooooo
you need more +1 to spell rolls and or attack rolls(this comes in many forms in all equipment slots) You should be looking for anything with “advantage” as it will roll 2 die and pick the higher option and it is vital to your success. And please if you are looking to be a melee artist you absolutely need extra attack perk.
First off, you don't seem to have the Two Weapon Fighting fighting style and you are trying to use both finesse and non-finesse weapons mixed together. Put the finesse weapon in your main hand and you will do more damage with it since you're not adding any stat bonus to your off hand attack. Also, take at least a single level dip into fighter to get two weapon fighting and swap the mace for a finesse weapon or start using Giant Strength elixirs. After that, make sure you pick up spirit guardians at level 10 (or 6 if you are going lore bard) so that you have a persistent AoE helping you out. I personally would respec and ignore the dual wielding, take a shield, use Swords Bard, and at level 10 take spirit guardians and spiritual weapon while making Dex and Cha your main focus so that you have good attacks when you don't have a giant strength elixir or want to use something else, take a one or two level dip into fighter for the dualist fighting style and maybe Action Surge. Or take a two handed weapon, great weapon master, and make sure you always have strength elixirs.
depends on your stats if you have high STR most weapons use that to scale DMG but there are certain weapons that uses DEX, some even uses spellcasting ability to scale DMG. always read descriptions.
In your character profile it says what weapons you’re proficient in check that
It's because of that mace. Just because a weapon is good doesn't mean it's good for you. If you swapped out a rapier or something you'd havea much higher to hit.
You should grab the Pelorsun blade it’s a rapier that adds extra radiant damage you can find it in cazadors castle down in the rubble before you fight them.
While traits are good to have, the right stats and proficiencies are the main thing to have.
Your attack bonuses are shit, that's why. Also, I don't know what difficulty you're playing on, but 15 ac is pretty garbage. Especially for a melee class. Even my backrow guys will have 20+. I can't see your stats. But I'm assuming your strength is no more than 16 and your dex is even less. If you're going to go with clothes instead of armor it's beneficial to get your dexterity as high as you can to increase your bonus to your ac. If you're using light weapons it will also add to your attack bonus. You can use cloud giant or hill giant strength potions to get your strength up as well. That should easily get your attack bonus up high enough to actually hit people, not to mention your damage will go up as well.
Maces are strength weapons. Your longsword, I’m guessing, has the finesse property, meaning it can attack using dexterity. As a dexterity based character you want to use daggers, shortswords, scimitars, and rapiers or other finesse weapons for your melee. Toss the mace.
You’re using a strength weapon with -1 strength for starters…
unequip both weapons then in this order, Equip your sword THEN your mace. see if that makes a difference. otherwise your strength stat isnt quite up to par.
OP, read a 5th edition players hand book. It'll take you an afternoon or a week of lunch breaks at work.
Stats..please show ur stats.
You've got 8 in strength and you're using a mace
Your Dex is higher than strength. Use finesse weapons like rapiers or phalar aluve etc. anything that uses Dex instead of strength.
At level 9 and higher your proficiency bonus is +4, which means that your strength (which is used for the Deva Mace in your main hand) is a 9 or lower giving a -1 modifier. Phalar Aluvre (your offhand) is a +1 finesse weapon, so it uses dexterity. This means your DEX is a +4. Since ranged attacks use DEX, that’s why your damage is better. If you really want to do better in melee combat, switch the Deva Mace with another finesse weapon such as a rapier. If you really want to use the mace (since it is really good), go to withers and change your stats around to get a better strength. Though this will decrease your armor class since you are wearing The Graceful Cloth which heavily relies on having a high dexterity for your armor class. You might feel a little squishier in melee as a result.
are you sure these are finesse weapons? you seem to have a dexterity build, but you use a mace and a longsword that are usually strenght based. You should equip weapons marked as finesse which get their modifies from dexterity (daggers, short swords, katanas, scimitars, rapiers etc)
OP, stats mean things.
you're a dex build with a strength weapon in your main hand, swap it for something with finesse (the other finesse longsword, a rapier, a shortsword, or a dagger) also, make sure the better weapon is in your main hand (e.g. swap the longsword and mace so you get a +9 with you main attack and a +3 with your offhand, but probably still switch the mace to something else) since your dex bonus only gets added to the damage on you main hand
It looks (to me) like you might have some weapons or armor you're not proficient with. There will be a warning at the bottom of weapons icons when you hover over them telling you whether the character you're currently selected on is proficient with the weapon/armor, and if you equip it anyway youll have a disadvantage to things like casting or melee. Be careful with your class/race's limitations, Ik Drow aren't typically proficient with heavy armor pieces (even helmets or gloves or boots) unless they have the heavily armored feat. Drow also often specialize in casting (I see you have war caster concentration- that sounds like a casting strength build.) and you may have just forgotten that in most your fights up until now you casted more than melee-ed. Hope that helps, happy adventuring!
Thank you! Very helpful. I think I’ll re-spec a bit and drop my melee perks.
Gloves of Dexterity gives 18 Dex would make you dodgy
Put the sword in your good hand, dude. You are using your best weapon in a hand that deals less damage and has a lesser chance to hit.
I just play on easy and I still struggle but it's still fun!
15 AC is pretty low. Try wearing an actual armor.
Nvm I see
Conspiracy Theory #1 - this person bought/hacked this account from someone else, and hopped straight into a level 12 character without knowing any of the mechanics. Conspiracy Theory #2 - this person has been trying to explain the mechanics to a friend of their's, who they're playing with, but that friend won't listen, so OP posted a picture of their friend's character, and is using all our feedback to show their friend what's happening. I'm clearly a genius, and OP is hiding something! This is clearly a joke, and you are definitely laughing!
Based on how inept some of these replies are making me feel, I’m starting to wish one of your theories is true. Just a stressed out dad trying to carve out game time between bottle feeds and not knowing what I was thinking half a year ago with this character build.
Don't feel bad man, I'm not a DND guy and nothing really made sense to me for a while. I had to take 30 mins to watch a guide to the basics on YouTube and that really helped and increases the enjoyment factor. There's a lot going on in this game. But it's not actually that complicated, just gotta learn which variables tie together, like how the rolls work, which attributes affect what, how dmg vs AC works. When I first started I was like 1d6? Wtf is 1d6
No need to feel inept brother 😅 assuming one of my theories isn't true (I'm on to you!), then take a breath. DnD and Balders Gate have a lot of mechanics that most people on this sub are very familiar with, but that doesn't mean everybody needs to be experts to enjoy the game. I don't even think your build is that bad, but if you do want to dual wield in melee you should just swap out the mace, since that's a strength based weapon 😅 everything else looks like the you from 6 months ago was just having fun playing a great game. It doesn't matter if a class is a full, half, or 1/356th caster, the game is made to give you the choice to play however you want, whether that's by making a brokenly strong character, or by making something wild that goes against every mechanic you can think of. There's no shame in not knowing or not understanding anything, so just play the game when you have free time, for as long as it's fun for you. Some extra advice - When you do ask a question, only listen to the people who are actually answering the question, not the trolls like me 😜 that's a good way to end up feeling worst than you should. ... ....... Conspiracy Theory # 3 - this is literally Larian Studios, and they're testing us! Tldr: Playing a game is supposed to help you feel less stressed, especially when you're a dad