The best ‘class’ in Baldur’s Gate 3 is ‘barrelmancer’

23.08.2023 - 21:33 / polygon.com / Best

Baldur’s Gate 3 hasalready dazzled fans with its scope, and the degree to which it supports player creativity. You can improvise melee weapons — throwing rotten food, shoes, and even companion characters. You can also fill your pockets with just about anything you’re strong enough to carry, and make some outrageous plays by placing those items strategically. One of my personal favorite aspects of the game’s freeform item aesthetic is the made-up class fans call a “barrelmancer,” someone who collects flammable barrels, then sets them off to create a daisy chain of explosions.

<a href=«https://twitter.com/larianstudios?ref_src=» https:>@larianstudios

Thank you for making this game, it is an absolute masterpiece. I blew up Goblin camp in celebration pic.twitter.com/vWJieNKC1M

The barrelmancer strategy went viral on Reddit and X (née Twitter) last week. In the clip, content creator Okoii scrolls through an inventory stocked with nearly 40 incendiary barrels. Their Halfling character — who is extremely yoked — then places those barrels in a domino-like configuration all through the Goblin Camp in the game’s first act, scrambles onto a perch, and tosses an Alchemist’s Fire grenade to set them off.

It apparently took even more barrels than I could have possibly imagined. Via email, Okoii told me just how many: “I used about 70 barrels but i didn’t count the exact amount, there were limited explosive barrels so i clustered them around the important targets and used mostly Oil and wine barrels for the rest with the occasional throwable items placed in between spots where i was running out.”

A full minute of the rest of the video’s run time is dedicated to documenting the chain of explosions that absolutely ravage the Goblin Camp. This includes, of course, every enemy dying dramatically, whether they failed or passed their savings throw. It took about eight hours in total to place the barrels and film the various camera angles. “The most satisfying part was throwing the very first firepot setting off the barrels outside the camp,” Okoii said.

Okoii also posted a full-length YouTube video edit of his crew of Halfling barbarians — a crew that very much reads like a group of buff hobbits — causing chaos throughout The Sword Coast. (The footage posted to Reddit and X is just the last minute of the full YouTube video.)

“4 Halfing Barbarians are no joke, barbarians in general especially early game are extremely strong so we had absolutely no trouble with any fights even without barrels,” Okoii said.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 fans also got a kick out of barrelmancy, so it’s no surprise to see Baldur’s Gate 3 fans pulling off the same trick. But the scope of this — 70 barrels and eight hours! — still blows my mind.