Playing Baldur’s Gate 3 As A New Class Is A Whole New Game

Wizards of the Coast has been rolling out various proposed changes to its Dungeons & Dragons classes ahead of moving on from 5e next year. Whether it be the spiritual Viking barbarian, the Aquaman druid, or the fact every proposed change for bard was unceremoniously rolled back, I’ve been keeping up with the changes and trying to explain them in more digestible terms than the stat block-heavy handbook PDFs we’re given. But monks threw me for a loop, and Baldur’s Gate 3 just made it a loop-de-loop.

I’ve never had much interest in monks. They seemed like a halfway point between rogues and fighters while not being as good as either. In the proposed changes, monks were going to get stronger but lose the diversity of their approach, which seemed to squander what made them special. Add in changes to Ki (including its renaming), and it offered very little motivation to try one. As I wrote at the time, I was less likely to play a monk than ever with these changes.

Why Did Nobody Tell Me About Jaheira?

Jaheira is a missable companion in Baldur's Gate 3, and the fanbase needs to show her some more love

However, in my second playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3, I suddenly find myself playing as a monk. There are some justifications for this hypocrisy. Firstly, monks in Baldur’s Gate 3 precede these proposed changes, so you’re getting one last ride as the current iteration. Secondly, while BG3 doesn’t dumb down D&D, it does make it easier to track what you can or can’t do at any given point, which removes some of the irritations around monks. It’s the same reason I’m annoyed that Echo Fighter isn’t in the game, when it’s the subclass most hampered by having to remember when to act and how.

The third reason is that I wasn’t sure how long this playthrough would last. It’s a co-op playthrough with my wife, and given how little she plays games, I wasn’t even sure if we’d escape the Nautiloid. It would be a noncommittal taste of a new class, with the option to switch to her character (a ranger, one of my go-tos) if she gave up instantly.

In the end, she has kept playing and I’ve even stepped away to let her have full control, although that’s nothing to do with the monk. In fact, giving up my monk only makes me want to try a monk out for real.

But then, this experience is not really about the monk either. I haven’t played anywhere near enough of the game to discuss how Baldur’s Gate 3 works as a monk, althought I'm sure I will in due course. Instead, what playing as a new class opened my eyes up to was the diversity each class offers when approaching the game. If you do play BG3 again (and for a lot of you, that’s when), try it out with a class you’d never imagine playing as. It just might surprise you.

I’ve grown accustomed to thinking of classes more as characters. I don’t consider my main party to be warlock, barbarian, fighter, and cleric - it’s me, Karlach, Lae’zel, and Shadowheart. I’ve decided Wyll is useless, not because of anything he’s done, but because we’re both warlocks and we don’t need two. That’s why we went for monk and ranger in our new game, to offer a unique range of character options. But there’s more than just party balance to consider.

There are plenty of games that I’ve played over two or three times as different classes for a different flavour. Dragon Age feels vastly different whether you’re a two-handed warrior, dual blade rogue, or mage. Playing as a monk getting up close and personal with unarmed strikes (especially a dragonborn one who also has access to frost breath) is vastly different from a warlock who stays back and uses Eldritch Blast and Black Tentacles to cover the ground.

But with Baldur’s Gate 3, the whole experience feels fresh. My warlock was a drow, so was regarded with fear and occasional worship wherever she went, but our human ranger is just kinda there. That means she gets far more neutral conversations and can steer the path to more information, while my drow made folks more emotional and offered vulnerabilities to exploit. Add in leaning on class options in dialogue, playing as a different character means there are options available and outcomes possible you could never get the first time around. I was an Underdark Barbie, and who knows what we’ll get this time.

With so many choices over the order you approach tasks in, and scenarios unfolding in different ways depending on unseen choices you may have taken hours before, it feels like a fresh game. It’s enough to make me want to try out monk again some time, and that’s a success in and of itself.

People are going to be playing Baldur’s Gate 3 for a long time, going back to it in new ways to recover forgotten memories. I might be back in for a third run some time next year. But the best part is not in replaying the parts you loved, but in finding new parts to love instead. These might be locked away in your first game, but a new class gives you a whole new set of keys.

Next: Naughty Dog Has Lost The Dawg In It