In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Rogue Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you the 3 Best Beginner Rogue Builds that you can use to put together an effective Rogue early on in the game. Note that these are all Multiclass Builds because I think the Rogue is one of those Classes in BG3 that really lends itself well to multiclassing. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Rogue Builds

The Rogue brings a lot to the table and because it doesn’t have Extra Attack like a lot of the Martial Classes, you don’t miss out on that by leaving this Class at Level 3. So you’ll be dipping into Rogue a bit to pick up some great stuff.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Rogue Wizard Multiclass Build

The first Baldur’s Gate 3 Rogue Build we’re going to take a look at is the Arcane Trickster Wizard Hybrid Build. This is 3 levels of Arcane Trickster and 3 levels of Wizard. What I really like about the Arcane Trickster Subclass is that they still have all the damage that our regular Rogue does from their Sneak Attack to Spells with a ton of utility. For instance, if they set Blind on an enemy or knock them Prone, they gain an Advantage to execute Sneak Attack. Alternatively, they can preemptively cast Sleep on a target and still gain the same Advantage.

This Rogue Wizard Multiclass Build has a lot of ways to use Sneak Attack where they wouldn’t normally be able to. There are places in the game where this will be very useful, particularly, having a lot of things that are also helpful outside of Combat like Minor Illusion. Minor Illusion can be used to move groups of enemies to certain places so your character can slip by. There’s a lot of flexibility with the Arcane Trickster that other Rogues won’t have.

Level 1 Wizard

The reason why I love multiclassing it with the Wizard is that they use the same Spell Casting Ability Modifier, which is Intelligence. By taking 3 levels of Wizard once you hit Level 6 in Rogue, you’ll be able to have Level 3 Spell Slots and upcast the corresponding Spells. And since Wizards can learn Spells from scrolls, they can learn Level 3 Spells like Fireball, Lightning Bolt, or other heavy-hitting Spells, which can add some firepower to the arsenal of the Rogue. 

Level 9 Rogue

Once you reach Level 9 in Rogue and you have 3 levels of Wizard, which is where I would take this Build eventually, you’ll be able to cast Fireball and Lightning Bolt from Stealth. Targets will automatically have a Disadvantage on their Saving Throws. I don’t think you can really take advantage of that passive effect if you don’t have at least Level 3 Spells.

Another good thing about this Build is that the Warped Headband of Intellect can be found very early on in the game. This gives you 17 Intelligence so it’s a great item to have your Arcane Trickster wear since they’ll focus on Dexterity in order to improve their melee and ranged attacks. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 Assassin Gloom Stalker Multiclass Build

The next Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Rogue Build I want to show you is 3 levels of Assassin and 3 levels of Gloom Stalker. What I love about the Assassin Subclass is that it effectively encourages you to trigger combat from outside of an encounter. So you should sneak up and fire onto your enemies. 

Normally, when you hit an enemy or kill them with your Bow as another Rogue Subclass or Class, combat will be triggered and then you won’t get another Action on your turn. But Assassins replenish their Bonus Action at the beginning no matter what so if they were to fire a shot and then the encounter starts, they will be able to execute another attack. They also have an Advantage on that first attack against any enemy who hasn’t taken a turn yet. Because of this, Assassins can perform a Sneak Attack with a very high hit chance on their succeeding attack, making them incredibly deadly at starting fights. 

The Gloom Stalker Ranger

What’s phenomenal about the Gloom Stalker Ranger is they’re going to get a bonus attack on their first round of combat to be able to move further or deal more damage. So if you lobbed a hot with your Assassin Gloom Stalker and then triggered an encounter, you gain Advantage and your attacks will hit harder. It also allows you to execute 3 attacks in a row as long as you start from outside combat at Level 6. 

If you take 2 more levels of Gloom Stalker afterward, you’re going to an Extra Attack from Ranger to be able to deal 4 attacks, which would be incredibly deadly. 

Rogue Ranger Combination

Next, there are things that these 2 Classes share, which synergize very nicely to create a Build with a deadly pairing that keeps getting stronger. For instance, Rogues typically need very high Perception to spot hidden objects and traps and disarm them without the party getting blown up. This falls under Wisdom and Rangers need very high Wisdom in order to cast their Spells effectively. So you would want to put more points into Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution.

Additionally, Rangers gain Fighting Styles at Level 2 and you can either pick Two-Weapon Fighting or Archery, which are both great for the Rogue. You can get the extra hit chance with Archery in order to be able to land your shots more or deal greater damage with your Offhand. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 Thief War Domain Cleric Multiclass Build

This brings me to my final Build, which is a Level 3 Thief and Level 3 War Domain Cleric. There is a lot of synergy between these two. First of all, Thieves have an extra Bonus Action every turn in combat and this is huge because Clerics have a lot of Bonus Actions as well like Healing Word to top somebody up or if you need to pick them up off the ground. You also have Sanctuary that can keep one of your allies from even being targeted. This becomes especially useful if they’re already weak or squishy.

Keep in mind that War Domain Clerics can make a second attack using a Bonus Action and this can allow the Thief to go into Stealth mode to execute a Sneak Attack and then fire another shot with their Bonus Action. So they’ll be able to deal 2 attacks in a turn from the very beginning. But the synergy doesn’t end there. For instance, Thieves need Perception as I’ve mentioned earlier and Clerics use Wisdom just like Rangers do. 

The Role of a Thief

Moreover, I feel like Thieves can use Concentration Spells strongly in Baldur’s Gate 3 because they can use say, a Level 2 Spell Slot of Bless, on their entire group, and then go into Stealth. Doing so will prevent them from being targeted. On their turn, they come out again, shoot something for Sneak Attack, and go back into hiding while Bless will be maintained on everyone. It’s really strong to have somebody who never gets interrupted the whole time. 

Or maybe they’re running Enhanced Ability in order to have better Perception Checks while running around on the landscape to find all those hidden things and traps a lot easier. Instead of buffing themselves, they can use Enhanced Ability on Dexterity to gain Advantage on Stealth Checks while they’re going through dangerous areas in the game. Basically, you can make a Build involving support and utility in one. So perhaps you don’t want to bring Astarion or Shadowheart, then this Thief War Domain Cleric Multiclass Build is a good option to fill in that gap. You also have some firepower of being able to use your Bonus Actions for attacks. 

Trickery Domain Cleric

Another thing is that you could use Trickery Domain, which you’ll see in our Shadowheart Build Guide because one of the things that Trickery Domain Clerics get is Pass Without Trace at Level 2. What this does is it gives them +10 on their and their allies’ Stealth Checks. That is absolutely huge but they need to maintain their Concentration. They basically can’t get lower than 21 on their Stealth Check, making it pretty hard to fail at. 

On top of that, Trickery Domain Clerics have all the other things I’ve mentioned before but they won’t have War Priest, which allows them to use their Bonus Action to attack. This is the only downside but you’ll be able to have a Stealthier Cleric or you can go with a more combat-focused Cleric with the War Domain. The choice is up to you.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Rogue Builds: Final Thoughts

So that wraps up our article on three early-game Rogue Builds. I hope you guys found it interesting and informative and inspired you to maybe think outside the box a little bit. I really love Rogue in this game they are a ton of fun to play. I’ve learned so much doing these articles and I can’t wait to get out proper Build Guides for Rogue in endgame so we can really get into depth on some of the things you can do. 

As always if you have more tips for other players make sure to leave them in the comments below. And if you have questions leave them there as well and I’ll answer them as quickly as I can. 

Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content.