Astarion is a pretty popular character in Baldur's Gate 3, and it's quite easy to see why - he's a dashing, noble high elf with rogueish, almost supernatural charms. You'll encounter him very early on in the story, and he will readily join you on your quest.

Building a character in Baldur's Gate 3 is a pretty streamlined process, but every now and then, you'll be prompted to make important decisions, such as which subclass to choose or what spells to learn. Astarion is no exception.

Updated January 3, 2024: We've updated this guide with fresh links and some updated tips to help you make Astarion the best rogue he can be.

Astarion Overview

Astarion is a high elf rogue with a noble background. There's also something a little bit... off about him - though we're sure you'll find that out for yourself soon enough if you haven't already.

As his high elf spell, Astarion chose Minor Illusion, which can prove useful for distracting foes.

His stat spread isn't too bad. 17 Dexterity gives him great combat prowess with finesse weapons, and 14 Constitution is nothing to sniff at. He's a good rogue who should be able to handle the majority of your sneaky needs.

Currently, there are two general philosophies for building Astarion, melee or ranged.

Best Melee Astarion Build

This build leans heavily on the thief subclass. Thieves are classic rogues. They get some great bonuses to their rogue-archetype skills and turn them into Sneak Attack machines, pumping out ludicrous damage.

This build also takes a break from Rogue and puts five levels into the fighter class. Every single level in this class provides Astarion with an incredibly useful ability, whether it's an improvement to his action economy or improved survivability.

With two weapons in your hands, you should be pumping out a ton of attacks per turn, especially with Fast Hands by your side. You should be wielding two Finesse weapons, such as daggers, rapiers, or shortswords.

By the time you gain all your fighter features, you'll have two normal attacks per turn and two bonus attacks per turn, all with an improved critical range. With Action Surge in the mix, Astarion can potentially attack six times in one turn.

You may wish to forego the final level of rogue for a sixth level in fighter. This will mean no Evasion, but you will be able to get another feat, which should definitely be used to improve Astarion's Dexterity up to 20.

If you opt for this alternative, take the sixth level of Fighter directly after the fifth to get the most use out of that extra Dexterity.

Best Equipment For A Melee Astarion Build

First and foremost, it is important that Astarion is wielding two Finesse weapons. These will allow him to use his Dexterity as his attack modifier, boosting his accuracy and damage. With the extra bonus actions he has, making sure his off-hand is filled with a good weapon is crucial to his damage output.

Prior to taking the Dual Wielder feat, you must make sure that your weapons both have the Light trait. Once you have the trait, however, you can start mixing non-Light Finesse weapons into your build, like Rapiers.

Give Astarion Light Armour, and give him the magic items that heavily improve his mobility or stealth.

A particularly fantastic piece that is only available to The Dark Urge campaigns is The Deathstalker Mantle. This will automatically grant the wearer Invisible after killing an enemy, and with Astarion's skillset, this is the perfect setup for Sneak Attacks.

The Haste Helm and Disintegrating Night Walkers are also tailor-made for a stealthy, mobile build like this one.

Best Ranged Astarion Build

Thanks to the nature of BG3's combat system, characters can execute melee and ranged attacks on the fly, making 'ranged builds' sort of difficult to build around. That said, there are ways to build around a ranged strategy using a few range-specific features and some creative thinking.

This build focuses on raw damage output and, like the previous build, looks to increase Astarion's action economy simultaneously. It relies heavily on multiclassing, including some weird thematic choices, but the result is a versatile ranger who can pick and choose when to focus his bursts of damage while always staying useful.

What this build does is take features from two classes that are perceived as 'front-loaded' (in other words, they get their best features early on) and improve upon them with some creative choices in Cleric. With two spare levels, Fighter is the obvious choice to finish, as both levels provide a great deal of versatility.

The idea here is to make Astarion a demon of damage within the first round of fighting, even moreso if he starts the fight with a well-placed shot, surprising them. He can make quite a few attacks in the first round of a fight with Action Surge and the Cleric pool, and thanks to Assassin, they'll all be critical hits.

From the second round onwards, Astarion can still thrive at being an annoying yet high-damage opponent for your enemies, using Stealth, picking off the weak, and closing into melee range when he has to. He'll be on the frail side, but will also have sources of self-healing that use different resource pools and can stay away from the fray with his long-range options.

Best Equipment For A Ranged Astarion Build

Well, obviously, a ranged Astarion requires a ranged weapon. Give him your best Longbow or Heavy Crossbow, magic or otherwise, for the firing range and the better damage die.

It'll also be useful to give Astarion a good melee weapon as a backup. Stick with Finesse weapons to ensure you can deal on-par damage, such as Rapiers.

There aren't as many magic Longbows in the game as with alternative weapon types, but Spellthief makes for a decent early-game weapon once you start acquiring ranger spell slots, and the Joltshooter synergizes well with Astarion's high-attack count strategy.

As for armor choices, you can pretty much go with the same ones you'd for any stealthy character. Mobility and stealth enchantments are the way to go - you want Astarion to be able to move far away from threatening enemy martials and find the best vantage points on the battlefield.