The best Baldur's Gate 3 builds (2024)

Looking for a decent Baldur's Gate 3 build to see you through Early Access? Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game based on D&D. That means that while you can min-max, it’s not 100 percent necessary for a few reasons. For starters, sometimes you can take the strongest character in the world and ask them to pick up a bag, but if they mess up that strength check, they’re still going to mess it up. That being said, having an optimised build still helps a lot. That's why I've put together this Baldur’s Gate 3 builds guide to get you started.

But keep in mind that, whether you follow the following templates or not, sometimes the digital dice just won't roll in your favour. And that's okay; It's part of the fun. It’s also important to remember that, unlike Divinity: Original Sin 2's builds system, you can’t really build a hybrid class, so your priority is to make sure your character creation is optimised.

Oh, also, Humans are basically okay at everything: If you’re worried, pick them.

The best Baldur's Gate 3 builds for each class

Cleric

Cleric

Primary stat: Wisdom
Best races: Gold Dwarf, Wood Elf
Best abilities: Cantrips: Guidance, Resistance, Sacred Flame. Spells: Bane, Healing Word, Shield of Faith.
Best subclass: Life Domain

Now, it’s a little cliche to say a Cleric should be doing lots of healing, and it’s not the only thing that they can do in Baldur’s Gate 3, but it is what they’re best at. Assuming you’re playing a Cleric because you want to help all your friends out, this is the build for you.

To boost the effectiveness of your healing spells, you want Life Domain. You’ve then got your healing spells (Healing Word and Cure Wounds, the latter from Life Domain) to keep your party alive, your debuffs (Bane) to keep your foes from striking, and your support spells like Shield of Faith and Resistance. The aim of this build is to keep everybody alive at all times.

Fighter

Fighter

Primary stat: Strength
Best races: Githyanki, Shield Dwarf (Strength Weapons) Strongfoot Halfling (Dexterity Weapons), High Elf (Dexterity weapons and INT for Eldritch Knight spellcasting)
Best subclass: Battle Master

Unlike the magic classes, you’ll have very few choices when starting off as a Fighter. In fact, you’ll basically have none beyond your choice of weapon. Pick your race that best suits your preferred weapons.

At level 2, you get to choose a specialisation, which is basically the weapon you like to use. At level 3, though, that’s when you can choose your subclass. You can be an Eldritch Knight if you want, but it’s a little ineffective most of the time. Instead, it’s generally better to go with the Battle Master, which allows for more interesting attacks.

Ranger

Ranger

Primary stat: Dexterity
Secondary stat: Wisdom
Best races: Elf, Halfling, Drow
Best abilities: Mage Breaker, Beast Tamer
Best subclass: Beast Master

As a Ranger, you can go far by being really good friends with an animal—and shooting things, naturally. Mage Breaker Grants you the True Strike cantrip, which gives you an advantage on attack rolls against a creature.

As with the Fighter, you can double down on a weapon at Level 2. For this build, choose Archery as your main fighting style. Unlike the Fighter, you also get to choose a couple of spells: You generally want Cure Wounds if there’s don't have a Cleric in your party for healing, or something like Jump and Longstrider if you do. At level 3, go for the Beast Master subclass to complete your animal-friendly transformation.

Rogue

Rogue

Primary stat: Dexterity
Best races: Halfling, High Elf, Drow
Best subclass: Thief

The Rogue is probably the most straight-forward class in Baldur’s Gate 3. Your aim is simple: Use your hide and sneak attacks to take out enemies as fast as possible.

In fact, you don’t even get to make any choices until level 3. At that point, you then get to choose your subclass. There are definitely some arguments to be made for Arcane Trickster here, but the other classes should have you covered on that front. Instead, it’s usually better to just focus on your stealthy abilities and choose the Thief, who gets an extra bonus action each turn.

Warlock

Warlock

Primary stat: Charisma
Best races: Tiefling, Half-Elf, Lightfoot Halfling
Best abilities: Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand. Spells: Hex, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
Best subclass: The Great Old One

The Warlock is another class that can play various roles. However, for this build, it’s better to focus on rendering your opponents unable to fight and then using Eldritch Blast to take them out.

At level 2 you get to choose two Eldritch Invocations—make sure one of these is Agonizing Blast. It adds your Charisma modifier to the damage of your Eldritch Blast, which makes almost obnoxiously powerful. Combine that with your ability to stop enemies attacking you, and you become a demon.

Wizard

Wizard

Primary stat: Intelligence
Best races: High Elf, Tiefling
Best abilities: Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp. Spells: Mage Armour, Burning Hands, Grease, Magic Missile, Sleep, Witch Bolt
Best subclass: Evocation

Of all of the classes, the Wizard probably has the most fun. You’ll have an almost overwhelmingly large number of options to choose from each time you level up. Even just starting the character chucks a bunch of spells at you. However, the spells above blend pure damage with a couple of utility spells. Also, always use Sleep.

At level 2 you’ll get to choose a subclass, either Evocation or Abjuration. Abjuration is a little more tricksy than Evocation, but it’s hard to beat the higher damage output of the Evocation School. Plus, you can actively make sure your friends don’t get hit by your AoE attacks.

See comments