Baldur’s Gate 3 give you a staggering number of character options to pick from, but the one that players focus on the most are the character classes. There are no bad choices for your protagonist’s character class and you should always go with what you find most interesting, but some classes will make your experience in the Forgotten Realms a lot easier.
When determining the best classes ranked by their features, the main factor was balancing how enjoyable they are to play vs. how powerful they are in combat. There’s a fine balancing act between a class being able to hold its own in a scrap and how well it can function outside of fights. No class is useless in either regard, especially as you have party members who can pick up the slack, so don’t feel pressured to avoid a class due to its disadvantages.
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Bards Are The Best Of All Worlds
In the old days of D&D and the Baldur’s Gate series, Bards were usually the worst class in the game due to their jack-of-all-trades style, leaving them underpowered compared to the specialists. Thankfully, this is no longer the case in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Bards have an incredible array of healing & combat spells, a wide selection of skills and features that make them better, the ability to boost their allies’ powers in combat, and subclasses that let you specialize in either combat or magic. Bards are masters of social-based skills, allowing them to talk their way out of combat easily, and who doesn’t want to play the romantic masters of music in a video game?
Sorcerers Are The Masters Of Molding Magic
While Wizards might get access to more spells than the Sorcerer, they lack the incredible Metamagic feature that lets Sorcerers change how their arcane magic works. Sorcerers gain access to a pool of Sorcery Points, allowing them to cast more spells than the other arcane casters, or can alter their spells to make them more effective, such as using the amazing Quickened Spell to cast two spells in one turn. The Sorcerer’s magic is also Charisma-based, helping you with the out-of-combat dialogue skills.
It helps to know how the spells work in Baldur’s Gate 3 before tackling a Sorcerer, as you don’t get access to many of them as you level up. Once you have this knowledge, you should be able to effectively unleash the might of magic-blooded casters against your enemies.
Paladin Is The Most Popular Baldur’s Gate 3 Class For A Reason
There are several melee fighter classes in Baldur’s Gate 3, but the Paladin is easily the most fun to play. Not only can they use the best armor & weapons out of the gate, but they also have healing powers, which can help your Cleric/Druid if taken out. They aren’t all about patching up their allies, however, as Paladins receive access to Divine Smite and the Smite spells, allowing them to deal ridiculous amounts of damage against their enemies. Couple all this with a need for a high Charisma stat, and you have the perfect party leader.
Druids Balance Buffing With Powerful Offense
The Cleric might be the better healer than the Druid, but there’s little doubt that the nature lovers are the more enjoyable class to play. This is thanks to their wide selection of elemental attack spells, giving them more options in combat. The real reason to play a Druid is their Wild Shape ability, as you can turn into different kinds of animals, allowing you to wreak havoc on the frontlines or explore ahead in relative safety.
Wizards Are The Masters Of Arcane Options
The Sorcerer can do fun things with their spells, but Wizards have greater freedom when switching their magic selection. If you find a copy of a Wizard spell in the wild, then you can add it to your spellbook, and it’s yours forever. This makes the Wizard the better choice for new players, as their flexibility makes it harder for you to make a mistake. You also get the biggest selection of subclasses to choose from, and your high Intelligence gives you a boost when using some of the most useful Skills in the game.
Rogues Are Master Explorers & Can Pack A Mighty Punch
It’s a shame that Baldur’s Gate 3 immediately gives you such a great Rogue (in the charming Astarion), as it’s one of the most exciting classes to play. Not only do you get access to all Skills along with class features that help you improve them, but you’ll be doing tons of damage in combat with your Sneak Attack feature. The Charisma characters might be more useful in towns, but when you’re in the wild or a dungeon, then the Rogue should be front and center, as they’re the best class for spotting unpleasant surprises before they get you.
The Fighter Is Deceptively Fun
Back in the old days, the Fighter was often regarded as the most boring D&D or Baldur’s Gate class of all time. This is no longer the case, thanks to some stellar abilities, like Action Surge, which lets you take two Actions in one turn, and some of the best subclasses in the game. The Eldritch Knight will give you access to spells, while the Battlemaster has all kinds of awesome powers that let you mess with the enemies by inflicting status effects on them during combat.
Clerics Let You Unleash The Might Of The Divine
Like the Rogue, it’s a shame that Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you an awesome Cleric out of the gate (in the form of Shadowheart), as it ended up being the least popular class during Baldur’s Gate 3’s launch. This could also be due to players not being keen on rolling up a healer, as the DPS roles are more popular in RPGs. The Cleric has been maligned here, as it’s a lot of fun to play, with a wide-selection of healing & buffing spells and some powerful Channel Divinity features that let you tap into the power of your god. You’re also the best suited for dealing with any undead that might draw near the party.
The Warlock Is Fun, But Not For Beginners
Of the three arcane spellcaster classes in Baldur’s Gate 3, the Warlock really isn’t for beginners. This is because they have the fewest spells and spell slot options. On the surface, that might seem as if they’re the easiest to play, but it’s easy for new players to pick some sub-par abilities and be stuck with them for most of the game. The Warlock is actually a lot of fun to play if you know what you’re doing, as they get lots of interesting powers, a fun dynamic with their Patron, and the boost to the Charisma-based Skills. Just be prepared to press the Eldritch Blast button a million times over the course of your run.
The Barbarian Does One Thing Really Well
The Barbarian is really good at smashing things – and that’s it. They don’t have the interesting combat options of the Paladin or Fighter and mostly exist to cause havoc wherever they go. This can be fun for a chaotic run that isn’t serious, so long as you don’t mind using the same handful of actions in every fight in the game. It also doesn’t help that Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you the awesome Karlach as a party member, as she can do all of the raging you’ll ever need.
The Monk Needs The Perfect Line-Up Of Stats
The Monk is an unusual class for many reasons, least of all that it’s a kung-fu warrior in a medieval fantasy setting. They’re also unusual because you must min-max them to make them as effective as the other classes. The Monk can be fun to play, especially as they can throw out lots of attacks at low levels, and they’re easily the cheapest to maintain when it comes to new gear, but some of their abilities feel like more limited versions of the ones used by Rogues, especially as they’re tied to the finite Ki Points resource.
The Ranger Is The Mid-Point Between Fighter & Rogue
The poor Ranger has struggled so much in D&D 5E, being regarded as easily the worst class in the game and receiving several revisions over the lifespan of the edition. The version of the Ranger in Baldur’s Gate 3 is better, but it’s still underwhelming compared to the other classes. This is because the Ranger tries to be good at several things, but other classes outpace it. The Paladins are better magic knights, Fighters can be better archers, Rogues are better outside combat, and Druids are better nature magic users.
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Like the Monk, you need to build a Ranger as optimally as possible to make them good, preferably by focusing on archery or two-weapon fighting. You can get some good spells and pets by playing the Ranger, and they certainly aren’t as bad as they are in D&D, but other classes do what they do, but better.
Published: Aug 24, 2023 11:19 am