Baldur's Gate 3: Classes Ranked 

Seriously! Bard w/ a 2-3 levels for warlock or paladin is so good.

I need to play a bard in my next playthrough. I was able to convince some bosses to kill themselves with my oathbreaker paladin/warlock, but to be fair it's just more thematic at the moment to smite everyone and everything 😂.

just charisma check, nothing to relate to the bard specifically.

All charisma builds can do that and paladin and warlock are better.

@@GrosPorcMalade Sure, but I feel like Bard has such amazing dialogue options in so many situations that it really enhances that kind of playstyle

I agree, the ranger and Druid top some lists

This is really true! My first playthrough was with a druid and I loved it!

Larian is incredible. I wish more people would try out Dos2

God this sounds like an experience 😂

That's still act 1 I think The old "god" was a fake one right?

@@LogPileGaminghonestly the scene of the torture letting himself be killed was somewhat traumatic 😅

SPOILERS: i just managed to convince the spider-drow and its group in chapter 2 that i am a chosen of the absolute, so they should gimme their magical protection lamp because I just blessed them allright. They died in the shadows lol.

my first playthrough is with a bard, because I love being the skill person/support. It has been really fun seeing all the bard specific options.

I also went paladin but only because I'm playing a paladin in a friend's upcoming 5e campaign so I figured it would be good practice. Sadly not sure the dm will let me reset the fight if half the party dies or any time I fail an important roll

My Way of Open Hand Monk has +22 attack bonus, deals 31-50 damage damage per attack, and gets 4 attacks per turn baseline. There is one class that is unparalleled in single-target damage, but it's not the Paladin.

Are you 2h and sword and boring with those numbers?

@@FernandoHernandez-jw4yy Surprise round outo crits? I had so many surprise rounds with my rogue and i don't crit.

@@SirBeck0621 Nothing equipped in either hand for melee, for my Monk. Tavern Brawler feat makes it so I apply my Str modifier twice to attack & damage rolls, Way of Open Hand adds radiant damage equal to 1d4 + Wis modifier, Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo adds Wis modifier to damage again. Attack bonus is +4 from Proficiency, +2 from hat (Mask of Soul Perception), +16 from Strength (Str 27 from Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength) for a total of +22. Damage is 1d8 from punch, +16 from Strength, +12 from Wisdom (Wis 22 from level-ups and Temple of Shar +2 stat boost), +1d4 from Manifestation of Soul (Way of Open Hand Monk), +1d10 from Gloves of Soul Catching. That's 1d8 + 1d4 + 1d10 + 28, for 31-50 damage per punch. My action gives me two punches, and Flurry of Blows means two more punches for my Bonus action.

I played a Barb all the way until the last Dead Three bosses, and then I saw this really cool Sorcerer/Paladin build. So I made a whole new character and spent another 100 hours playing through the campaign as that one lol. I ended up beating the game with my Paladin before my Barb

this is me rn...

Ya I’ve sadly missed out on some loot with bosses falling in lava, water and deep caves

Warlock Fighter with charisma and eldritch blast? yeah i'll do 60 damage in 1 turn, thank you very much!

spoiler:I killed the 3rd chosen by eldritch blast pushing her off a cliff before she got a turn. It is the most op ability in the game

​@@claudeducharme007I always forget to do It but you can toggle the pushback on and off at will under passives

@@rezataghdisi6762 I did this to Cazzador.

Honestly, it makes me want to lean away from it cus im not into unearned power and power fantssy stuff. We have the choice so I think that's good to cater to different folks. Those were my thoughts too. It's bonkers the gear you get in such volumes.

@@confounded_feline It's probably happening because some classes can be mechanically exhausting, just doing the same thing over and over again. Paladin's Smite is super powerful, but pretty dull if that's all you do. Same reason is why there are weapon specific special attacks (not part of basic DnD 5e), as well as the illithid stuff. This was also the case in BG1 and BG2, there were many weird and powerful items to spice up especially melee characters, who only had few special attacks at high level and that's about it.

Don’t worry gale will eat them all

Just because your characters are level 1-12 doesn't mean the adventure is level 1-12. Many of the encounters are way beyond what you'd see in a pen-and-paper game of DnD of that level. E.g. that fight in Shadowfell in act 2, you wouldn't add sonething like that in a pnp campaign against level 8-9 characters unless you gave them overpowered items lso, the entire premise of the campaign is a war against the Chosen of evil deities, you literally fight things like divine avatars (even though that particular fight isn't too difficult) and armies of Githyanki and Illithid. Thematically it's a high level campaign, it's just clad in low to mid-level gameplay, probably because balancing a campaign for high level players is notoriously difficult

@@exantiuse497 They would've gone higher but once you go pass level 6 spells it just gets absolutely crazy even some level 6 spells are crazy

Yep, and the wildshape's high Constitution stacks with Barbarian's unarmored AC bonus.

this is such a trap. Moon druids can only transform as a bonus action and rage is also a bonus action so it's a 2 turn set up that can't be done before entering combat. better to just stay pure Druid, get better spells and use Tavern Brawler to empower your wildshapes if that is you goal.

would be much better if you could rage WHILE wildshaped, would make it tempting then

thing is in BG3, rage and wild shape are both bonus actions and cant do em as an action. So it takes 2 turns to set-up that is just not worth it.

​@@ISAACcookiedoes tavern brawler work with animal forms?

Same here. I did the dark urge with a Red Dragon Kin. The fire power (literally) is insane.

@@matthewgonzalez1346I just started my second playthrough with this exact setup. Pumped!

I thought they only added monks to the enhanced edition of Baldur's gate 1&2 ? were they available in the OG version? or was it just the monk companion they added later on?

Isn't the monk doing like 250 damage now? over 4 standard deviations above other classes?

My monk simply annihilates everything in front of it, kinda feels imbalanced

yes, monks were not in original BG1, it was BG2 that added it and BGEE and BG2EE now has it@@BalmierLotus

@@BalmierLotus Monks were in the original BG2 but they were definitely not in the first BG.

Druid has been my favorite class to use.

Moon Druid is easily the best tank in the game for the first 5-6 levels. I think the other Druid lines lag behind a bit. Im pretty surprised by the overall list tho. Cleric/Wizard are top 5 on pretty much every 5e list ever conceived. I think theyre multiple tiers above Fighters for example.

@@kraqah Fighters benefit a lot from the campaign capping out at level 12, since fighters hit their peak at level 11 and then it's all downhill from there. But yeah, by virtue of Spirit Guardians alone Cleric pretty much has to be in the top quarter. And Wizards are even stronger here than they are in 5e since they can swap spells without needing to rest. By virtue of that alone they're a contender for the top spot.

​@@kraqahthis list isn't sorted by powerlevel, but preferences. Bard trounces warlock by gameplay mechanics, for example. Rogue, warlock very nearly exist just for some multiclass levels

​@@Taliesin_ the optimal wizard level is 1, because of how weird spell slots work in this game. At the moment, anyway, they may rebalanced it and it's nowhere near tabletop-accurate

I should look to switching. Currently playing a moon druid, and I have been pretty disappointed in it so far. Was thinking of switching classes all together, but maybe I'll try playing as a nature caster first. I do really enjoy the RP though, and talking with every animal everywhere...

That is the EXACT same experience i had with my druid in BG3 (and really, in DND 5e as well!) Its a sub class that already adds onto the spell casting of the Druid and makes it into (arguably)a more versatile wizard just because of wildshaping! Gale with my druid would just powerhouse through conbat encounters and never have big problems with spell slots since the wolf form is so powerful and good, and if I did get back into my human form I could just NUKE them with a spell slot or two ;) I guess this is a matter of perspective but the accent was pretty clear and cut for the moon druid and land druid, one is good at wild shapes the other is a good spellcaster, pretty disssapponted he only looked at the mushroom sub class (which is trying to be a gish in a very underwhelming way and even in DnD everyone just knows its one of the weaker subclasses) and say that the whole class is bad, its not exactly informing the viewer of the other two viable and optimal options?? (This also goes for the rogue, assasin was always underwhelming and extremely picky when it comes to being useable in combat, thief and arcane trickster always were more fun)

​@@Owch-fr, I have no idea how spores got in ahead of any of the other non-phb subclasses

​@@Tooooooomno idea, but it's the only one my druid/monk is interested in. Though my 5e build of shileghleigh/polarm master feels redundant with the way they've buffed monks.

@@justinwhite2725 nice the drunk is a certaintly a timeless classic

I second this

Minthara

Emperor

@@niolonqi can fix her

Half-Elf Mommy S-tier for sure

Indeed, although as Warlock you basically get access to all these as well through your Invocations. And in general, I do sort of appreciate how easy it is to gain access to these Face spells through items, scrolls, etc. in the game, basically making a non-Face class viable to play in a video game. I think lots of folks would feel bad about having a companion do the talking after you spent a lot of time in the character editor simply because you can't talk to folks.

That’s what I did. But I chose college of lore, so that I have more skills and fireball and counterspell on level 6. In conclusion I have bard who has 22 ac (yuan ti medium armor, gloves of dexterity and shield), wielding singing sword that gives basically bless effect once per short rest. Turn one turn on that sword effect and inspiration. Then just chuck fireballs around, or use other support and utility spells, while being pretty much unhittable, and since I’m halfling I never fail in checks

@@Jollefjoll True, but Warlocks only get them as a trade-off and/or relatively late in comparison.

My bard has been amazing. Nearly every encounter has a unique option, and several significant bosses have a unique dialogue as well.

With high Charisma a Bard gets so many dialogue and out of combat skill points (with jack of all trades, they literally get skill points in EVERY skill) they might as well be considered the "sleepwalk every dice roll in the game" character. In combat they are...ok. Personally, if I ever played a Bard again, I think I would multiclass it with another melee class, (Paladin? Fighter?) to boost their combat ability. Because quite frankly, past level 6 or so, Bards can already cheese every dice roll in the game, and anything beyond that is just overkill.

You can always respec your bard a bit. Swords bards make for extremely effective warriors

Wizard is extremely good lata game at being forgotten, you just dip lv1 into it, scribe high tier spell of your choice and respect into your fantasy hybird caster combo. Since respect keep your scribing

@@tangahkoncek6841 you can also mod the game to make yourself invincible and press a button to kill everything on screen if you'd like to do that

@ziwuri13 naah I keep myself to the perfectly balanced feature game giving me. Of course feel free to do it yourself if you're so inclined

Yeah, I figure. First 3 minutes in the video and pretty much got told my 3 favourite classes are supposedly all underdogs, while when playing with my friends with such classes I'm often the who's told to focus on the big guys as I can two-shot them with a good combination of arrows/sneak attack, or tank its damage with the wildform. o.ò

Another thing to note is with the depth of the game its impossible to give a well informed take on every class thats out right now

and here I still haven't finished act 1, idk how many characters I have done though XD

same XD its tough sticking to 1 character@@qgqsrg1

Also college of lore is just nasty for upcasting CC, strongest controller in the game which says alot. Trivializes some bosses.

@@perhedman7050esp when it gets 22 charisma from the act 3 hat and can rock duel hand cross bows to do nasty damage without spell slots with sharpshooter

Same in real dnd too, charisma trumps everything else

I just got level 8 in act 2. Recalases from full Assassin to 5 gloomstalker/3 Assassin. Losing the sneak attack dice does hurt a little, but the extra attack, medium armor proficiency and archery fighting style has been crazy

Yeah like I mentioned they make great multiclasses

@@Draffut2003 There is a bunch of "Gloomstalker" build guides around I just went 3 levels into rogue for the Thief subclass and then into Ranger.

@@BwAaS Doesnt the extra attack feature clash with how theyve implemented sneak attack?

@@MaMastoast Extra attack = Hunters Mark Extra attack hide

I had hoped we could Volo but we couldn't :(

I liked that you picked something you never play as. It’s an underrated characteristic. 👍

Planescape: Torment was amazing. We need more games in that setting.

NWN was such an amazing game. I miss the days where there were massive "open world"-esque servers for the community. There was a dope one, Menzoberranzan. Someone made a whole Underdark NWN module that had tons of areas, it was basically a mini D&D MMO.

@@priest148 lets also not forget the countless expansions that were released for original NWN and NWN2 so much content

I think the game appealed to me in part because I was a Dragon Age fan.

Planescape: Torment was my introduction to the DND world as a kid… miss that game and I’ll never forget it.

Yea monk/barb tavern brawler was so op that's what I played day 1 beat this game so fast as that took me like three days on tactican

Another benefit to monk is the Insight skill and Monk dialog choices. Insight (tied to Wisdom), when an option, acts like Persuasion- you give other people Insight into themselves, their actions, feelings, etc and they change behavior. The Monk dialog choices ofter at minimum grant Advantage to your roll or bypass a social skill check entirely So even with a Charisma of 8 you'll be pretty OK for dialog skill checks

Any weapon you are proficient with is a monk weapon in this game. If you take barb or fighter at level 1 you can use greataxes as a monk weapon for example.

@alkabek9581 single level dip is rough for the loss of feat or ability points though

Looking to respec from my four elements to open hands, how should i distribute my stats for it?

Yep. You can also goad her onto the bridge and knock the support right from underneath her.

Bruh you just lost all that sweet loot by pushing her...

​@@asfasdfsd8476 So? I did it normal on my solo run and the loot is nothing to really care about. Especially seeing as I play bard and my friend is a monk and neither of us use maces. The necklace we already have one and the shoes are whatever as well as I already have some that work better for my build. Same as him and the two Ai with us

@@scotrugby4529 We used the bridge to kill the rest of the goblins by luring them all over to us and then breaking it. It worked out great and saved us a lot of time overall

I'm guessing you don't care about the mindflayer parasite she drops?

Agreed!

I wonder if that's intentional. Kinda seems like you ought to only be able to scribe wizard spells up to what your wizard level would normally allow you to cast (e.g., level 3 wizard spells at wizard level 5). I wouldn't be shocked if that got patched at some point. Hopefully not though, because it seems so fun!

@@prokhor_zakharov it is but all the spells he learns as wizard will use his int instead of cha and if he's mostly sorcereror that would be most

@@Schtopleslow int wizard for all the utility spells that don’t use Int, then full sorc with pumped charisma

Get the warped headband that gives you 17 Int. Then you can play INT dumped sorc/wiz

That's pretty meta. Any spellcaster is encouraged to put one point into wizard so you can learn scrolls and have a wider array of spells to choose from.

strongest class in the game.

Doing the same thing for dark urge, plan on turning it into a solo run later. Even at just level 5 gloomstalker with dual handcrossbows and deathstalker mantle it already seems broken lmao

wait until 3 rogue and you get an extra attack every round. It's hilarious.@@Squeeble00

my gloomstalker thief astarian is stupid strong for opening combat, then my sorcadinfinishes ppl off with

Wait, you finished act 1 with level 5? And Bards can also talk to animals on top of friends, detect thoughts and so on. But yeah, coolness and vibes certainly trumps playing a "meta".

@@DrZaius3141 wait is Level 5 in that case high or low? Also I‘m not super sure what Act 1 entails, I‘m currently journeying through the underdark to Moonrise Towers.

@@thebro4165 Act 1 includes the Underdark/Mountain Pass. And I'm currently still in the Underdark at level 7.

It seems I still have a bit of Act 1 ahead of me then😅 which for all intents and purposes is a good thing actually XD

Spider druid in early is kinda good cause u can cast web instantly after shapeshifting to root all their melees and when you get Owlbear you start kicking ass for a time, then lategame druid feels a bit like a jack of all, master of none kinda character. But I really like it for RP and being the good guy. I think next playthorugh I'll do warlock or paladin and be evil muahahah edit: Oh and shapeshifting into a cat to scout enemy fortresses etc. is such a blast! Even a rogue isnt as good as druid in sneaking around.

With some of the electricity equipment, call lightning is a delete button

@@CoolWzzrd Nice! I'm a DM for DnD night and I decided to have a pack of marauders assault my players, and they all identified the Druid with its moonbeam as the biggest threat that had to be dealt with even with two raging Barbs in their face lol

Hi, can you please detail how you did your build with warlock in solo run? I can only play these games as solo (dont like more than one pawn) but still dont know what exact build i should go with warlock eldritch blast. I know i need eldreitch as it is spammable but dont know if i should subclass or not and etc. I would appreciate it if you explain to me. I read in another comment i should go "2 fighter 2 warlock 8 sorcerer" but it didnt elaborate why.

​@@mohammadahmadi5740 Base warlock = caster/eltritch blast spam Mixed warlock = pick pact of the blade and use spells and a melee weapon As for multiclassing, you'll want charisma based classes like Sorcerer (for metamagic) or Paladin (Smite and good at fighting up close). 6 Warlocks and 6 Sorcerer levels for example is a basic mix that will make you a powerful caster 6 Warlock 6 Paladin is a mix of caster and fighter You can always respec and change your levels if youre unhappy

Ye, its amazing.. I love the ranged slashing flourish.. so stylish and effective.

@@rhodan74 Whenever you cast a spell, your Toolbar changes to an UI that asks you what level of slot you want to use. You can select a Sorcerer level 1 slot for Hex, even if you have level 2 Warlock slots available, and the other way around. Only if you select a slot level that you have both Warlock and other class, the game will default to the slot corresponding to the class you got the spell from. I still wish the game would simply always prefer Warlock slots in this case, since they replenish easier, but you CAN use them. However, I have only first-hand experience from my character, which is mainly a Warlock, but even then, as soon as I had level 2 pact magic slots, the game automatically used Bard (in my case) level 1 slots for Hex, but I had the option to select a level 2 slot instead.

The most important: you can't burn your warlock spell slots to create sorcery points if you still have sorcerer spell slots of the same level available

@@rhodan74 I don't know how/if I can post an image in a youtube comment, but it does work. I just tried it. Respecced my character into Warlock 2/Sorcerer 8, cast Hex and it auto-selects the Level 1 Warlock spell slot, but allows me to upcast it using any Sorcerer spell slot, except level 1. Level 1 always uses the Warlock slot

​@@rhodan74look again. After you select the spell, the UI will then show you the spell slot selection. It's easy to miss. But it doesn't matter what "spell slot" filter you select the spell from. The choice can only be made after you click the spell.

@@rhodan74 oh that's unfortunate! I believe a big patch is coming soon so hopefully they fix that.

Is hunter not better, u get the +8 damage every round and stealth from rogue?

@@ewweg I'm not sure, I like gloom stalkers invis at will ability

I ended up with gloom stalker + rogue with 2 levels in fighter. I do absolutely bonkers damage due to advantage all the time. Really enjoyed it! feel like ranger + rogue complement each other very well

Do you prefer choosing ranger or rogue as your starting class?

@@nickdirado929 I don't think I prefer either or, perhaps lean more towards rogue for its bonus actions (disengage etc)

Not to mention the very unique, very powerful spells only a wizard can learn in act 3. No other Class can get those. And one of them is a necromancy spell... Which is very strong.

My only beef with Wizard is that it's the only class currently that uses INT so it's not very great for multiclassing (maybe an Eldritch Knight Warrior though)

I was hoping they going add bladesinger, that’s my favorite subclass.

I guess in the end it all comes down to personal preference and play style.

Different people prefer different things. The balancing isn't that good because from a gameplay and powerlevel perspective the Charisma-based characters and Gloomstalker seem to stand out too much.

Wanting to start a second playthrough as a drow gloomstalker. Is it fun?

@@mcastro550 It was my choice of first playthrough and it has been incredible. Incredible damage, and easier to keep a good-aligned party not needing Astarion and his... opinions.

There's tons of way to play a spore Druid and it's easy to abuse it's necrotic damage. Especially when you reach the point where it deals double damage (so 2-8) you can use flaming blade which is a 3d8 (pure fire) weapon outfit go for dual wield going gloomstalker dual wield 5 then pick fighter 2 for surge. Now watch as you output ridiculous amount of raw melee damage. By ranger 5 with just base flame blade you'll be doing some 10d8+ worth of raw damage. Too bad you can't dual wield the flaming blade. Tho. Thst would be some 6d8 by druid lvl 8. You can still be around 22-25AC with dual wield in medium armor

druid is super strong... summon a lvl 5 element, lvl 4 elemental, lvl 4 woodland creature, it summons another creature. turn into a bear... and you have a whole woodland party on top of your party. all of the summons stay alive indefinitely. Rolling around with 12 people in my party

Taking one level of war cleric solves the squishiness problem for a spore Druid and makes them a lot more fun.

which druid subclass gets all those summons? sounds fun@@cowboybob5301

@@TheRelen222 yeah.. People are totally sleeping on the 1 level dip into something else like fighter or cleric to compensate big time their squishiness. Hell dipping also let you refund some dex to put in other things. Just like I enjoy my cleric to dip 1 level into druid just for shillehag cantrip to actually have a hard hitting melee hit with staff or club without having to invest into dex or str to actually hit.

I really want to do a moon Druid but I want to be able to kind of like combine spell casting and wild shape. I know it sounds like I should be doing circle of the land but honestly circle of the moon just captures me the most (probably because in dragon age origins I was a kind of shapeshifter/blood mage so I’m trying to kind of replicate that)

Reminds me of my tiger barb

I think the only one in my party that died in that fight was Gale, and that was only after putting in some serious work. Between him and Shadowheart half the enemies spent most of the fight in Hold Person, and Gale was throwing out Lightning Bolts left and right, and I gave Karlach the Eversight Ring, so she was just wrecking their faces like nobody's business lol. My paladin was almost a side character in that fight lmao

You should check out light domain Cleric if you want to be the most tanky. You can crank a light domain Cleric up to 36+ AC and still have Warding Flare to impose disadvantage on all enemies who swipe at you, and this is before we talk about their massive amounts of saving throws across the board.

@@jobers5566 in my main run Shadwoheart was a light cleric

well.............. there's the four element monk so.....

It might depend on what is important to you, raw powerlevel or fun to play or role-playing or spell casting or ... it's good that it is different by personal preferences.

I agree with this list while loving the druid 😂. It is all good to be honest. Ranger is the weakest, but when you multiclass suddenly becomes amazing.

Same, I multiclassed gloomstalker (lvl 5) with thief dual wielding hand crossbows and I slaughter everything.

Many classes can speak with animals as well

​@@nathie1750 Can any other class speak with animals without expending a spell slot other than the Wildheart Barbarian?

@@RandyEid-qs9wt The speak with animals spell is a ritual spell. Meaning if you cast it outside combat it doesn't use a spell slot. So any class that can learn it can use it for free. Warlock can use it for free whenever

You can do that with alchemy, racial abilities, with equipment, or with other classes such as ranger. It's kind of a joke that anyone wouldn't have that ability up all the time.

Any class can if they make the right potion with alchemy, and it's one of the easiest potions to make. My (non wildheart) barbarian has never missed an opportunity to talk to animals. @@RandyEid-qs9wt

Whenever I have played a warlock (tabletop), I never really minded the spell slot limitations, since I would just make my party take a short rest. With enough short rests, you can have around 4-6 spell slots a day (max level), which isn't bad at all.

If you have the right items, way of the 4 elements melts bosses in one turn and it’s the most fun dps class in combat I’ve played so far

​@@ishmamanwar6840 Can you tell me more about this build ? I want to be a monk in my second playthrough but I can't stand playing Tavern Brawler as I can't take pleasure with "exploit", and I was intrigued by Elemental Monk but everybody says it's unplayable xD ! Help me build my monk pls ! :) (The only thing I'm sure is that I will be a Duergar, cause I want to see their dialogues options)

How good is that at healing?

Exactly what I was thinking for my second playthrough

@@UnburntDragon In 5th edition D&D healing will almost never keep pace with damage dealing. So in most instances a basic Healing Word to keep people from death is all that gets used. In BG3 there is a slight push to cast it before someone drops though since they lose their action if they go unconscious. The exception is the spell called Heal, which all Clerics get. That is an instant 70 hp. In tabletop there is a spell called Healing Spirit that used to be used to max HP for everyone outside of combat by having people pass through it in a conga line. It was since nerfed but can still provide up to 6d6 healing for a second level spell slot.

@@UnburntDragon they have a lot of healing that other clerics do. I rarely use it unless I'm using the bonus action heal to get a team mate up.

@@thedanish5523 10/10 I definitely recommend.