Baldur’s Gate 3 BEST Class [All Ranked, Tier List]

Baldur’s Gate 3 offers 12 classes at the start of the campaign in a Dungeons and Dragons setting. Each of these major classes has its subclasses.

There are 12 distinct classes:

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Druid
• Fighter
• Monk
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue
• Sorcerer
• Warlock
• Wizard

Let’s take a look at my picks for the top 8 characters and compare them so we can come to a better conclusion.

1. Barbarian

Best for Melee Attacks.

The Barbarians are a purely combat-focused class. For players who want a rough and tough character that goes into battle and hits hard, this class is perfect.

Barbarians get medium and light armor along with a shield. They are proficient with heavy hard-hitting weapons like Warhammers and axes much like barbarians from other RPGs like Diablo 4.

For characters that are so aggressive and fight-focused in battle, this class has rage which is an ability that not only reduces the damage they receive but also increases the damage output by the player as well during combat.

The Barbarian’s kit offers a high-strength stat with 17 strength which all their ability rolls will be based on. The table below showcases all the Barbarian’s attributes.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
17*	13	15	8	12	10

Once characters in Baldur’s Gate hit level 3 they get to choose between some subclasses. For the barbarian, this includes the Berserker, The Wildheart, or the Wild Magic Subclass. Let’s take a glance at what these classes mean for the playthrough.

1. Berserker Subclass:

   • Focuses on heightened combat abilities, like Frenzy, granting extra turns during rage mode.
   • Can potentially double damage in certain fights.

2. Wildheart Subclass:

   • Emphasizes animal-inspired powers.
   • Allows tapping into Bestial Hearts for enhanced movement in difficult terrains.
   • Offers unique abilities complementing the barbarian’s frontline playstyle.

3. Wild Magic Subclass:

   • Blends mage and berserker traits.
   • Features chaotic magical effects triggered during rage.
   • Effects can be both positive and negative, adding unpredictability and challenge to gameplay.

2. Bard

Best Class for Out-of-Combat Playstyle.

Bard is a caster class that focuses on spell usage throughout the game. He has exceptional charisma and charm and players can look great wearing the finest rags in the land holding their instruments whilst in battle.

The Bard makes use of light armor and has charisma as their primary stat. The fighting style for the bard is more so in the backlines and are a fairly decent support character that can boost the rolls of their allies. 

The bard uses simple weapons as they’re more so spell casters. These include Crossbows, longswords, rapiers, and shortswords. These weapons require another stat the bards are proficient at which is dexterity.

The bard has a list of skills and cantrips that they get in their process of leveling up. These cantrips are cast using the bard’s creative expression. Having high charisma also makes for the bards to be great at conversation and good at being persuasive.

The charming Bard features high charisma using their charm to win ability checks in the game. The attributes are highlighted in the table below.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
8	15	13	12	10	17*

Once level 3 the bard gets the choice between 3 subclasses that are known as Bard Colleges. The choices given are the College of Lore, the College of Valor, and the College of Swords.

1. College of Lore:

   • Emphasizes charm and charisma, gathering knowledge from various sources.
   • Utilizes spellcasting to lower enemy attack rolls.
   • Features Cutting Word’s ability to distract and undermine enemies.

2. College of Valor:

   • Shifts towards combat, offering Combat Inspiration for various combat boosts.
   • Focuses less on spellcasting, and more on martial skills.
   • Grants proficiency with heavier weapons and armor.

3. College of Swords:

   • Enhances weapon proficiency, blending verbal wit with combat prowess.
   • Features the Dueling passive, granting extra damage when wielding a one-handed melee weapon solo.

3. Cleric

Best Class for Spellcasting.

Clerics are a class that uses a mixture of both melee and magic. Their description reads that they are representatives of the gods they worship, wielding potent divine magic for good or ill.

Additionally, the armor proficiency they have is light to medium which makes them not the best choice for frontline.

The weapon proficiencies the Cleric has is for simple weapons, Morningstars, Longswords, Shortswords, Longbows, and short bows. Clerics do tend to be a more backline class rather than upfront.

Clerics are powerful spell casters and get a buff with Channel Divinity where they can get an extra divine ability that can either make undead enemies move away or can give a +10 to attack rolls.

When choosing the cleric as your main class you get a choice of 7 subclasses. Life, Light, Trickery, Knowledge, Nature, Tempest, and War. All of these classes mainly differ in the spells they get in their playthrough.

The table below shows the default attributes for the Cleric.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
15	10	13	8	17*	12

There is also a mechanic where the subclasses can choose specific deities to worship depending on their specific subclass

• Life Domain: Focuses on healing and tankiness, granting heavy armor proficiency alongside healing spells.
• Light Domain: Adds a cantrip (Light) to the cleric’s repertoire, featuring Warding Flare to shield with divine light and impose a disadvantage on enemies.
• Trickery Domain: Specializes in deception and illusion magic, offering Blessing of the Trickster to grant advantage on stealth checks and further skills in trickery.
• Knowledge Domain: Provides language learning and proficiency in Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion, with channel divinity granting temporary proficiency in a skill or tool. Level 6 allows mind reading and control.
• Nature Domain: Focuses on animals and nature, offering animal communication and skill proficiencies, including one cantrip from the druid spell list.
• Tempest Domain: Incorporates lightning and wind spells, featuring Wrath of the Storm for reactive damage, destructive wrath to maximize lightning/thunder damage, and the ability to push enemies with Channel Divinity.
• War Domain: Combat-focused subclass granting heavy armor and martial weapon proficiencies, featuring War Priest for additional attacks and Guided Strike for bonus attack roll accuracy with Channel Divinity.

4. Fighter

Best Class with Weapon Selection.

The Fighter class represents an all-combat-focused character. From shooting their bows from long range to being close to the enemies swinging their swords, the Fighter is a fierce warrior perfect for players wanting pure action.

The primary ability score for the Fighter class is strength and dexterity. They get swords and shields, buffs for fighting, and a way to heal. 

The Fighter has a high strength stat as seen in the table below. They will use strength to win their ability checks in the game.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
17*	13	15	10	12	8

At level 3, the Fighter class has the choice between 3 subclasses: the Battle Master, Eldritch Knight, and Champion.

• Battle Master: Offers enjoyable gameplay with Combat Superiority at level 3, granting maneuvers for attacking enemies or supporting allies, such as Evasive Footwork to evade attacks by imposing a disadvantage on melee attacks against the player.
• Eldritch Knight: Focuses on ranged magic combat, blending spellcasting and martial prowess. Offers two schools, Abjuration for protection and Evocation for dealing damage to multiple enemies.
• Champion: Enhances fighter abilities with bonuses like increased critical hit chances and alternative fighting styles, refining combat skills without major changes to the class.

5. Paladin

Best Class for Survival.

While the Clerics are the holy priests in Baldur’s Gate 3 the Paladins are the fierce warriors tasked with bringing justice. The class features a high strength stat closely followed by a high charisma stat. Furthermore, the paladin is proficient with all armor types, Shields, and heavy weapons.

With these high proficiencies, the paladin opens up many possibilities early on in the game. Players can mess around with heavy armor sets and any type of weapons they wish to play with.

Additionally, they also start with a heal spell for other creatures further improving the gameplay for early players. A buff spell is also included in the base paladin kit which allows them to gain an advantage in attacks against their foes temporarily.

Here’s a table highlighting the attributes of this Paladin.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
17*	12	13	8	10	15

At level 1 the Paladin get to decide their subclass from 4 options. Oath of the Ancients, Oath of Devotion, Oath of Vengeance, and Oathbreaker.

Oath of the Ancients: Focuses on standing against darkness and nature, gaining abilities like Speak with Animals and Healing Radiance for supporting allies. Channel Divinity’s abilities include rooting targets and impairing movement.

Oath of Devotion: Embodies the “knight in shining armor” archetype, emphasizing honor, protection, and compassion. Features skills to protect allies, imbue weapons with charisma, and deal extra damage to enemies.

Oath of Vengeance: A fighter class focused on seeking vengeance without showing mercy to wrongdoers. Features abilities to buff attacks, frighten enemies and compromise their movement.

Oathbreaker: A subclass obtained by breaking one’s oath, granting freedom to pursue desires without setbacks. Can be reversed for a fee, allowing players to revert to their original oath and playstyle.

6. Rogue

Best Class for Stealth-based Playstyle.

Rogues are known for their efficiency during combat and expertise in stealth. With a super high dexterity stat rogues can easily tread the path of a thief or an assassin. With expertise in sleight of hand and stealth, this playstyle is very suited for them.

Rogues have proficiency with light armor to move quickly and quietly. As for the weapons, rogues are proficient with simple weapons crossbows shortswords, and longswords.

The defining Class action of the rogue is one they get at level 1 Called Sneak Attack. This allows us to hit an enemy’s weak spot and deal massive damage if you get an advantage on your attack roll.

This attack is great as it can also be activated if an ally is within 5 feet so it counts as the player flanking them.

The rogue features attributes that are highlighted in the table below.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
8	17*	14	13	13	10

At level 3 the Rogue gets to choose a subclass from 3 options. Arcane Trickster, Thief, and Assassin.

Arcane Trickster: Introduces magic to the rogue class, starting with Mage Hand cantrip. Spells focus on illusion, enchantment, and divination, leveraging intelligence for magic use.

Noncombat abilities include putting enemies to sleep with Sleep and disguising oneself with Disguise Self.

Thief: Shifts focus towards combat effectiveness, featuring Fast Hands at level 3 for additional bonus actions. Enhances mobility and damage potential against enemies.

Assassin: Focused on combat, offers high damage potential with features like Assassinate at level 3, granting advantage against enemies who haven’t acted yet, and automatic critical strikes against surprised enemies.

Fall damage resistance and Infiltration Expertise at level 9 further enhance the rogue assassin playstyle, allowing for identity change and appearance alteration.

7. Warlock

Basic Class.

Warlock is a unique class that is more of a recent entry into the world of Dungeons and Dragons and this class fulfills the role of a Melee Casting hybrid. Players who don’t want to fully commit to a caster wizard or sorcerer character might have a fun time playing the warlock.

Warlock’s primary attribute is Charisma which they will be using for their ability checks. Unlike sorcerers who gain their magic from their bloodline or have magic in them as an inherent part of them, and unlike Wizards who learn their magic from studying, Warlocks gain their magic from a pact.

The warlock has 3 spell slots which may be a bit misleading when looked at from the perspective of a wizard or a sorcerer. The spell slot for the warlock reaches to a level 5 at max level and the spells that the player chose to be in those spell slots are also then cast at a level 5 regardless of their level.

This essentially allows great scaling in terms of damage capabilities for the warlock. To recast skills the warlock simply needs a short rest.

At level 12 with 3 spell slots the warlock can short rest twice which means we can cast 9 spells during a fight without needing a long rest.

The attributes of the warlock are shown in this table.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
8	13	14	13	10	17*

At the character creation screen the Warlock can choose their subclass. The player has 3 options for subclasses namely being, The Fiend, The Great Old One, and The Archfey.

Fiend Subclass:

• Dark One’s Blessing (Level 1): Gain temporary hit points when reducing a hostile creature’s health points to 0.
• Dark One’s Own Luck (Level 6): Add 1d10 to ability checks by calling upon the patron to change fate.
• Fiendish Resilience (Level 10): Choose a damage type to become resistant to; can reset with Short Rest.

Great Old One Subclass:

• Mortal Reminder (Level 1): Frighten creatures hit by critical strikes; affects nearby creatures.
• Entropic Ward (Level 6): Impose Disadvantage on an attack roll against you; gain advantage on the next attack if the attack misses.
• Thought Shield (Level 10): Gain psychic damage resistance and reflect psychic damage.

Archfey Subclass:

• Fey Presence (Level 1): Charm or frighten enemies in a radius with a wisdom roll.
• Misty Escape (Level 6): Become invisible upon taking damage; use Misty Step on the next turn to teleport.
• Beguiling Defenses (Level 10): Immune to being charmed; can charm back enemies attempting to charm you.

8. Wizard

Best Class with Extensive Spell List.

Wizard is a class that focuses on studying and increasing their intellect to learn about magic and the arcane tradition. Wizards are very frail and not at all tanky due to their playstyle being at-range attackers. This makes there a hurdle for players trying out the wizard.

Wizards will have more spells known than all the other subclasses that rely on using spells. at level 1 the wizard starts with 6 spells. To cast these spells, however, we need to prepare them first.

The number of spells players can prefer is generally a lot lower than the total number of spells they know of. This number can increase with their level and intelligence modifier.

The spells a Wizard can cast are further reduced by the number of spell slots they have which at level 1 they’ll get 2 level 1 spell slots.

One really good class feature is Arcane Recovery which allows the user to replenish their expended spell slots while out of combat without needing a long rest.

Here’s a table highlighting the attributes of the wizard.

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
8	13	15	17*	10	12

At character creation, players can choose what subclass they want on their sorcerer. Sorcerer has the most subclasses in the game at 8 subclasses. Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation.

Something to note is each subclass gets a feature where the cost to learn spells from scrolls that are linked to their subclass is halved.

Abjuration Subclass:

• Arcane Ward: Form a protective ward around yourself.
• Projected Ward: Sacrifice Arcane Ward to reduce nearby allies’ damage.
• Improved Abjuration: Increase ward intensity with each short rest.

Conjuration Subclass:

• Minor Conjuration: Create water; enemies touching it become “wet,” enhancing certain spells.
• Benign Transposition: Teleport or swap places with an ally.
• Focused Conjuration: Maintain concentration on conjuration spells even when taking damage.

Divination Subclass:

• Portent: Gain 2 portent dice per long rest to influence attack rolls or saving throws.
• Expert Divination: Gain an additional portent die; receive prophecies to restore portent dice.
• Timeless Body: Age at a slower rate and resist aging effects.

Enchantment Subclass:

• Hypnotic Gaze: Charm an enemy for 2 turns with a successful wisdom saving throw.
• Instinctive Charm: Charm attacking enemies as a reaction; they may switch targets on a failed wisdom save.
• Split Enchantment: Enchant two enemies with spells that typically target one.

Evocation Subclass:

• Sculpt Spells: Allies take no damage and automatically succeed in saving throws from your spells.
• Potent Cantrip: Even on successful saving throws, targets take half the damage from your cantrips.
• Empowered Evocation: Adds an Intelligence modifier to damage rolls with evocation spells.

Illusion Subclass:

• Improved Minor Illusion: Cast minor illusion as a bonus action, even when silenced, and remain hidden while casting.
• See Invisibility: Once per short rest, cast See Invisibility without using a spell slot.
• Illusory Self: Create an illusory duplicate to evade attacks.

Necromancy Subclass:

• Grim Harvest: Heal when killing a creature with a spell; healing increases with spell slot level.
• Undead Thralls: Raise additional undead with Animate Dead, bolstering their hit points and damage.
• Inured to Undeath: Resist necrotic damage; max hit points cannot be reduced.

Transmutation Subclass:

• Experimental Alchemy: Brew two alchemical solutions with a successful DC 15 medicine check.
• Transmuter’s Stone: Store transmutation magic in a stone for beneficial effects on a carrier.
• Shapechanger: Transform into a blue jay with flight capability; revert to original form when hit points reach 0.

Stat Table For All Classes

Here’s a table outlining all the classes and their attribute stats. The numbers with the * are the primary attributes of each class. Things like ability checks will use these attributes.

Class	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Barbarian	17*	13	15	8	12	10
Bard	8	15	13	12	10	17*
Cleric	15	10	13	8	17*	12
Druid	10	14	14	8	17*	12
Fighter	17*	13	15	10	12	8
Monk	12	17*	14	8	14	10
Paladin	17*	12	13	8	10	15
Ranger	12	17*	13	8	15	10
Rogue	8	17*	14	13	13	10
Sorcerer	8	13	15	12	10	17*
Warlock	8	13	14	13	10	17*
Wizard	8	13	15	17*	10	12

Comparison Table. 

Class Ranking

Class	Rank	Best for	Pros	Cons
Barbarian	S	Best for Melee Attacks.	-Easy to use -High damage -Good survivability -Fun to play	-No real ability for combos -No refined gameplay -Not the greatest character for DnD veterans
Bard	S	Best Class for Out-of-Combat Playstyle.	-Fun to play -Good supporting -Great dialogue out of combat -Great buffing	-Harder for newer players to grasp -Reliant mostly on ability checks.
Cleric	A	Best Class for Spellcasting.	-Best Healing Class -Spellcasters and good supports	-While healing is good outright damage can be a better option -Frail and easy to die on
Fighter	A	Best Class with Weapon Selection.	-Great at normal melee combat -Subclasses all center around combat and self preservation	-Linear playstyle -No combo potential
Paladin	S	Best Class for Survival.	-Very high single target damage -Very tanky -Magic based classes which can support and fight	-Gameplay based on Oath which can be broken and players can become Oath breakers changing their gameplay.
Rogue	A	Best Class for Stealth-based Playstyle.	-Very high damage -Stealth based gameplay -very good mobility	-Easy to kill -Not the easiest to play
Warlock	A	Basic Class.	-Mix of Magic and Melee -Can short rest multiple times to reset spells. -high damage	-Very few spell slots -Easy to kill
Wizard	S	Best Class with Extensive Spell List.	-Great combo potential -High damage -Many spell slots	-Easy to kill -Spells can only be recast with a long rest -Can rely only on magic for damage

Best Class Comparison Table. 

My Recommendation

In this article, we took a look at every class and their subclasses. Additionally, I looked at what made all of these classes unique and came upon a decision as to what class I would categorize as the single best class. As always I hope this guide was useful to you all and would love to know how you’ve been enjoying the game so far.

Barbarian stands out as the best class due to its combination of raw strength, damage output, and tank capabilities. The ability to jump adds utility and mobility, while its straightforward gameplay makes it accessible for newer and mid-level players. While other classes excel in their respective roles, Barbarian’s versatility and sheer power make it a standout choice for carrying combat encounters.

For more information about Baldur’s Gate 3 check out our other guides:

• Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Eldritch Invocations
• Baldur’s Gate 3 BEST Feats