I never thought I'd say this, but my first Baldur's Gate 3 character will be a Bard. The horny, rizzed-up scourge of Dungeon Masters everywhere has captured my heart in the game's early access, and now I'm genuinely not sure how I'd make my way to the titular city without one. And as much as I have known hatred deep in my heart for D&D's troublesome troubadours, I'm here to make the case for why you should take a musical maestro into your first playthrough.
First, there's a genuine, developer-sanctioned case for choosing the bard over several of D&D's other classes. In a recent interview, game director Sven Wincke recommended taking a custom character into your first Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough, as opposed to one of the bespoke Origin characters. Those Origin characters have their classes baked in, so assuming you follow Larian's advice and opt to play one of them on a subsequent playthrough, you can confidently skip over the Cleric, Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Warlock classes, safe in the knowledge that you'll be able to play as one of them when you return to the Origins.
