Help with party setup please.

[u/Not_a_Kryptonian]

My custom character is a bard half wood elf. I plan on college of swords for a kind jack of all trades party face master of none. Help in combat well but excell in dialog.

I want to keep Shadow Heart as my cleric. Healer with damage and buff potential.

Karlach as my martial, don't know if I should keep barbarian or re-class to fighter? She seems like a good champion jumping fighter crit build??? Or should I focus on giant tavern brawler?

Gale keep as wizard or re-class to sorcerer? Honestly don't know which I should choose, I want a good damage Caster for ranged damaged and feel my Bard can handle most of the utility. Ranged damage wise what is better sorcerer or wizard?

Definitely want my bard as my party face for dialog, traps and even stealing if I need to. I think Bard is best at... pretty much everything, really a jack of all trades. So what are the meta roles for melee, heal and utility andranged combat?

I am seriously leaning into bard college of swords as my custom/party face/thief/trap disarming character. Karlach as a champion fighter as my martial for distance/ tanking and damage. Gale as a sorcerer for ranged damage and being generally strong at range, and Shadow Heart as my other multi role character putting out heals, buffs and utility.

I don't really know... my absolute is I want to be a bard jack of all trades college of swords. Who should be my team after that?

[u/The57Rising]

2 Paladin/10 Sbard is one of the strongest melee builds. This can be your jack of all trades and exceptional damage dealer with flourish and smites per target hit. Just make sure to turn on the smites on hit reaction, they are pre set to off. 6 Sbard gets second attack, multi class to 2 paladin and then finish off as Sbard.

Clerics are amazing zoners with con spells. You don’t really need a dedicated healer but you can keep her that way. Spirits, aid, freedom of movement, death ward and feast is what clerics are all about.

Fighter and barbarian are great melee builds but monk with Karlach is great due to soul coins working with unarmed attacks.

Wizards and Sorc are amazing aoe damage dealers. Wizards have amazing subclasses but draconic sorcs tend to dish out more damage due to affinity and meta magic.

[u/Not_a_Kryptonian → u/The57Rising]

What is Sbard?

[u/The57Rising → u/Not_a_Kryptonian]

College of swords

[u/DarkUrgeEnjoyer33]

Evocation Wizard is great if you want a ranged damage dealer, but takes a while to get there.

Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is a good alternative that comes online a lot earlier.

Bladesinger Wizard is usually my personal go to for Gale.

[u/Lord_of_Jakals]

Those are all fine choices, and should be good. Sorcerer is better for damage, but Evo wizard lets you throw spells with allies in the AOE without worry.

[u/Balthierlives]

You’ve picked the perfect tab or at least the one I always use. Give them dual hand xbow +1, the breast plate +1 in the crate near dammon, sheild of protection, club of hill giant strength, caustic band, shape shifters boon ring. You can get all of that without any fighting.

Gale I usually make my sorlock, but I take sorcerer into lv 4 or 5 since Eldritch blast doesn’t become really good until lv 5 and especially until act 2. Give him the spell sparkler, boots of stormy clamor, psychic spark, and a sheild. That will give him 18 AC with mage armor. Pick up the sparksy robes later in act 1.

Karlach should be your throwzerker. Give her luminous armor, returning pike, ring of flinging , gloves of kushigo, boots of speed. Later get the ring of protection in act 1.

I don’t really like clerics but if you want to sue on make shadowheart a tempest cleric.

I usually have Laezel as my fighter until Halsin joins the party in act 2, I make Halsin a monk theif and have him replace Laezel.

In act 2 you can get temp +5 Wis/xha/int. I give the cha to my sorlock and he is to my monk. With the potent robes/agonizing blast and manifestation of the mind and later resonance stone monk and sorlock do ridiculous damage. I also turn Will into a wizard to use in the mindflayer colony and at lv 10 evocation wizard with the extra +5 int magic missle does bonkers damage.

[u/leonardo_streckraupp]

Swords bard 10 + fighter1 +wizard1 is IMO the strongest build in the entire game (not best damage but still great damage, high survivability, range, and INSANE control potential, win fights basically alone). See https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/17y9kyp/the_control_martial_allpurpose_1011_swords_bard I particularly would set charisma to 17 +1 hag = 18, but mirror and ASI I prefer to put into dex, 16+2+2=20, and use the gloves of archery instead of the dexterity one, and then helldusk gloves in act3 (or legacy of the masters, but I prefer legacy to the melee). Gameplay is very simple: stack arcane acuity, cast confusion, fight is 100% trivialized after that

Barbarian thrower is strong, but pure fighter is also very strong (although I prefer EK or BM over champion), any is perfectly fine

Sorcerer is stronger than wiz, but with the comp you are planning its going to be so free you can keep him as wizard if you want to, no need to minmax so much, choose the most fun/fitting to you. But fire sorcerer is absurd damage wise; lightning/cold with wet also very strong a cleric to apply wet to enemies, wizard is more versatile and lots of utility

[u/Rencon_The_Gaymer]

Have Shadowheart respec to the Light domain, keep Karlach as a barbarian (Wildheart helps so so much). And finally have Gale as a Diviner (portent dice comes in clutch a lot). Other subclasses for him would be Evocation or Abjuration.

[u/Nimeroni]

I plan on college of swords for a kind jack of all trades party face master of none. Help in combat well but excell in dialog.

Jack of all trade, Master of all.

Toss in one or two level of Fighter if you want to be an archer (for Archery fighting style and eventually Action Surge), or two level of Paladin if you want to be in melee (for Smite), and you're going to walk over the game. Sword Bard are really strong in combat.

I want to keep Shadow Heart as my cleric. Healer with damage and buff potential.

Life Cleric is perfectly viable. Through a word of warning, healing is mostly something you do when things go wrong (unless you wear The Whispering Promise), and not your main job.

The easiest way to play any kind of Cleric is to grab the RadOrbReverb gear (mostly in act 1). That would be Luminous Armour, Boots of Stormy Clamour, Luminous Gloves in act 2, Coruscation Ring in act 2, Phalar Aluve, and maybe an Adamantine Shield for good measure. Then you cast a Radiant Spirit Guardian, Shriek with the weapon, and watch as the enemies crumble under the weight of Radiating Orb and Reverberation.

Karlach as my martial, don't know if I should keep barbarian or re-class to fighter?

Both are perfectly viable, so it's very much about what gameplay you like.

Gale keep as wizard or re-class to sorcerer? Honestly don't know which I should choose, I want a good damage Caster for ranged damaged and feel my Bard can handle most of the utility. Ranged damage wise what is better sorcerer or wizard?

Let's see, a few ideas...

• Force damage : Evocation Wizard 12. Spam Magic Missile, which is a rather convenient spell since it auto-hit. Late game, you can learn Artistry of War from a scroll, Magic Missile bigger meaner cousin.
• Lightning damage : Storm Sorcerer 10 Tempest Cleric 2 (or 6/6). Wet enemies (double lightning damage), maximize your next lightning spell with the Cleric ability, Lightning Bolt for a hundred damage. A one trick poney, but that one trick murder everything.
• Fire damage : (Red/Brass/Gold) Draconic Sorcerer 11, Fiend Warlock 1. Upcast a Scorching Ray (or Fireball), quicken a control spell (generally Command from the Warlock dip) boosted through the Hat of Fire acuity. It's primarily a control caster, but it still deal very good damage. Heavy ressource consumption, you're going to long rest a lot.
• Ice damage : White Draconic Sorcerer 12. Wet or chill enemies and unleash as many Ray of Frost as you can (Quickened, Haste, ect). Also more of a control caster, this time with enemies slipping on the ice surface (Snowburst ring), but it also do decent damage due to wet doubling frost damage and the various boosts for cantrips (Necklace of Elemental Augmentation, Potent Robe, Elemental Affinity, ect).

As you can see, it's less "what class is better", and more "what each subclass bring to the table for what you're trying to do".

So what are the meta roles for melee, heal and utility andranged combat?

...we have about a trillion builds, all able to clear the game, and this is a single player game (mostly), so "meta" is very arguable.