Karlach is a Berserker Barbarian Asmodeus Tiefling in Baldur's Gate 3 who can be recruited as a companion or used as an origin character. As an origin character, she has a ton of potential for different builds due to being a Barbarian with multiple subclass options and can always be respecced by visiting Withers. Below you'll find some great Karlach ideas in our Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach build guide.
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Best stats for Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3
For Karlach to be a great Barbarian, you will want very high Strength, as it will increase your attack rolls and actions like Jump, Throw, and Shoves. You should also have high Constitution to increase your health to be able to endure more as a front-liner. Lastly, your Dexterity should be decent in order to increase your Initiative. You should dump the rest of your stats, as you won't need Charisma, Intelligence, or high Wisdom to be a powerful Barbarian.
- Strength: 17
- Dexterity: 14
- Constitution: 16
- Intelligence: 8
- Wisdom: 10
- Charisma: 8
Karlach is a very powerful melee character, especially once you get to level 3. When that happens, you will choose a Barbarian subclass and receive amazing abilities based on the one you chose.
BG3 Karlach leveling guide
Barbarians unlock new abilities at every level on top of the abilities unlocked through subclasses. Here are all the abilities you will unlock at each level of Barbarian in BG3:
| Level | Abilities |
| 1 | Unarmored Defence(Passive) Rage(Bonus Action) |
| 2 | Danger Sense(Passive) Reckless Attack(Action) |
| 3 | Extra Rage Charge Choose Subclass |
| 4 | Feat |
| 5 | Extra Attack Fast Movement(Passive) |
| 6 | Extra Rage Charge |
| 7 | Feral Instinct (Passive) |
| 8 | Feat |
| 9 | Brutal Critical (Passive) |
| 10 | Subclass Ability |
| 11 | Relentless Rage |
| 12 | Extra Rage Charge Feat |
Best subclasses for Karlach in BG3
Picking the Berserker subclass gives you access to Frenzy, which will give you the following abilities:
- Frenzied Strike: As a bonus action, make a melee attack with your equipped weapon.
- Enraged Throw: Pick up an item or creature and throw it at a target, dealing Bludgeoning damage and knocking itProne.
These abilities are very helpful while raging, as you can use your bonus action for attacks or knocking a pesky opponent prone. The Enraged Throw can give thrown weapons its melee damage, making it viable to throw weapons as a bonus action.
At level 6, you unlock Mindless Rage, which will make you immune to Charmed and Frightened. Additionally, Calm Emotion will not end your rage, which can be very helpful against casters and enemies who nullify rages.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3 Finesse Weapons Guide
Level 10 unlocks the subclass action Intimidating Presence, which can be used to instill Fear into one enemy within nine meters, and to grant you some space against tougher enemies while leaving them vulnerable to more damage.
Following Patch #3, Enraged Throw no longer applies Frenzied Strain, which applied -1 to hit on all attacks per stack. Now that Enraged Throw is more viable, the Berserker build is one of the best builds for Karlach to inflict tons of damage with throws. However, Lightning Charges no longer trigger other damage modifiers following Patch #3, so some of the build items are not as useful, but are still great options for increasing damage.
Alternately, the Wildheart Barbarian subclass can turn Karlach into a great melee tank using the Bear Bestial Heart. When you unlock the Wildheart subclass at level 3, choose Bear, as it will make you resistant to all damage except psychic during your rage. At level 6, you can also choose an Animal Aspect, of which these are the best options for you:
- Aspect of the Bear: Yourcarrying capacityis doubled, and you haveAdvantageon Strength Checks.
- Aspect of the Tiger: You add an additional Strength Modifier toAttack Rollsagainst Bleeding orPoisonedtargets, and gainProficiencyinSurvival.
- Aspect of the Elk: Give yourself and nearby allies extramovement speed.
Following Patch #3, the Aspect of the Stallion now scales the bonus temp HP based on your Barbarian level, rather than character level. This means Stallion is no longer a great option for multiclassing because you will lose a substantial amount of temp HP with a low Barbarian level.
Best feats for Karlach in BG3
There are a few feats that are very helpful for Karlach; many will increase her health/Constitution or make her harder to hit. You can also always elect to take an Ability Score Improvement, which would be great to get her Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity higher.
| Feat | Description |
| Athlete | Your Strength or Dexterity increases by 1, to a maximum of 20. When you are Prone, standing up uses significantly less movement. Your jump distance also increases by 50%. |
| Durable | Your Constitution increases by 1, to a maximum of 20. You regain full hit points each time you take aShort Rest. |
| Great Weapon Master | When you land a Critical Hit or kill a target with a melee weapon attack, you can make another melee weapon attack as a bonus action that turn. Attacks with Heavy melee weapons you are Proficient with, can deal an additional 10 damage at the cost of a -5 Attack Roll penalty. (You can toggle this on and off.) |
| Tough | Your hit point maximum increases by 2 for every level you have gained. |
Karlach can take and deal a lot of damage as either a Wildheart or Berserker Barbarian. She can also multiclass into melee classes like Fighter, Monk, or even Druid. Make sure if you plan on multiclassing, check the leveling guide to see what Barbarian abilities you are getting and which ones you may miss out on when multiclassing. Karlach is a great ally to have in your party, so make sure you are taking good feats and abilities to improve her in combat and utility.
For more on Baldur's Gate 3, check out BG3 Tactician Difficulty Guide here on Pro Game Guides.
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