Best BG3 Builds Tier List - All Subclasses Ranked

Welcome to our BG3 Subclass Builds Tier List. On this page, we have ranked all subclasses in Baldur’s Gate based on how strong they are.

You can also find a build for each subclass, helping you to harness the power of whichever subclasses you decide to use in your party.

Our ranking ranges from S-Tier (featuring the most powerful subclasses in the game that are easy to play and dominate combat), down to C-Tier (decent but flawed or unremarkable).

Tier	Class
S
A
B
C

S-Tier Builds for BG3

S-Tier Subclass Builds are the strongest in Baldur’s Gate 3 due to their high damage or support potential and good survivability. Thanks to these qualities, these subclasses often become the pillar of your party and are often quite easy to play.

To make it into S-Tier, subclasses have to be very strong throughout the entire game. So a subclass that is great at max level but weak in Act I won’t make it to this rank.

Light Domain Cleric

The Light Domain Cleric Build is excellent at supporting your party and also has better damage potential than most of the other Cleric variations, thanks to its powerful Domain Spells and Channel Divinity Actions.

You can use Warding Flare to impose Disadvantage on an attacker, making them more likely to miss. Later in the game, you can extend this protection to your allies.

Radiance of the Dawn allows you to deal Radiant Damage in a large area, and you gradually unlock some great AoE spells to go with this, such as Fireball and Flame Strike.

What makes the Light Domain Cleric especially strong is its synergy with Radiating Orb equipment. When you’ve kitted out your Cleric with this equipment, as described in our Light Domain Cleric Build, you can easily impose many stacks of the Radiating Orb debuff on your enemies, imposing massive penalties to their Attack Rolls (up to -10), turning even powerful boss enemies into blundering fools. In short, the Light Domain Cleric does a masterful job of defending his or her party, and retaliates against foes with powerful fire or light themed AoE attacks.

Life Domain Cleric

The Life Domain Cleric Build is the most healing-focused subclass in Baldur’s Gate 3, but it retains all of the Cleric’s basic capabilities, so you can still deal lots of AoE damage and support your party in other ways, too.

With the Life Domain, you can make your healer especially tanky by equipping them with Heavy Armour without any penalties. You can use the Preserve Life action to restore large chunks of health to your allies. Your healing spells are more potent than usual, and at higher levels you will also regain some health whenever you heal another character.

The Life Domain Cleric works well in tandem with equipment that applies extra healing and buffs when you heal an ally. With effects like Preserve Life and Mass Cure Wounds, you can heal and buff your entire party at the same time.

Tempest Domain Cleric

The Tempest Cleric Build is, overall, a little weaker than the Light and Life Domains. But it does just about enough to scrape into the top-tier.

Tempest Clerics can use Heavy Armour and Martial Weapons, making them tanky and more effective in melee. They can spend their Reaction to retaliate against attackers with Lightning or Thunder damage.

The Destructive Wrath feature allows you to spend a Channel Divinity charge to guarantee the maximum possible damage roll on a Thunder or Lightning based attack. You can combine this effect with your numerous Thunder and Lightning spells to dish out some serious damage.

At Level 5, you unlock Call Lightning, which is one of the best spells in the game. Keep your Cleric safe from enemy attacks so that their Concentration isn’t broken, and you can keep recasting Call Lightning for free every turn to deal huge amounts of AoE damage. Combo it with Destructive Wrath to guarantee the maximum damage roll when needed, decisively turning the battle in your favour.

Tempest Domain is a more aggressive take on the Cleric that does a great job of making a focus on Thunder and Lightning magic not only viable, but effective and fun.

Circle of the Land Druid

While all Druids in BG3 are good spellcasters, the Circle of the Land Build focuses fully on enhancing your spellcasting as much as possible, granting you more spells and the ability to replenish Spell Slots between Long Rests.

Every two levels, you will choose a Circle to inherit two spells from. These spells do not need to be Prepared, so you’ll quickly amass a very full bar of spells, giving you a huge number of options in combat. Many of the spells are usually unavailable to Druids, with the Circle of the Land being the only way to learn them.

Choose your Circles wisely and you’ll have a huge variety of impactful magic at your disposal, giving you tools to deal with any situation that your party encounters.

Battle Master Fighter

The Battle Master Build is the complete melee fighter package in BG3. They can attack several times per turn (after a few levels up), wield any weapon in the game and deal devastating damage as long as you equip them properly.

They’re reasonably durable and they can support their team with all sorts of Battle Manoeuvres. Some of the best options are Trip Attack, which knocks the target Prone and gives Advantage to subsequent attacks against them, Menacing Attack which Frightens the target, debuffing their attacks against your party, and Disarming Attack.

If you want the best all-round melee fighter for your party, this is it.

Swashbuckler Rogue

The Swashbuckler Build can use Rakish Sneak Attack to gain the very powerful Rogue stealth damage bonus without needing to have Advantage against the target. This makes the Swashbuckler very easy to play and highly effective, because your damage output without stealth is almost as high as other Rogue subclasses who are executing perfect stealth attacks.

In addition, you can use Dirty Tricks to Blind or Disarm your foe. Blinded enemies are much easier for your whole party to hit with Attack Rolls, making it one of the best debuffs in the game, and your Swashbuckler can try to apply it every turn with Dirty Trick: Sand Toss.

The combination of simplified sneak attacks and easy debuff potential makes the Swashbuckler one of the best subclasses in BG3.

Thief Rogue

At first glance, the Thief looks quite simplistic and weak – its effectiveness entirely stems from its additional Bonus Action, making it the only subclass in the game with two Bonus Actions. The Thief Build gels perfectly with the Rogue’s Cunning Actions, allowing you to perform various feats such as dashing up to three times per turn, sneaking and making a full dual-wield attack on the same turn, or attacking and disengaging on the same turn.

Other subclasses can only pull off feats like this if they’re Hastened by a spell or potion, while the Thief can do it every turn.

The Hexblade Warlock

The Hexblade is a strong candidate for the best subclass in Baldur’s Gate 3 – it gets so much more stuff than the other Warlock classes that its addition to BG3 in Patch 8 overshadowed them and made them seem decidedly mediocre by comparison.

With the Hexblade Build, you get Proficiency with Medium Armour, Shields and all Martial Weapons, allowing you to wield heavy-hitting weapons like Greatswords and Greataxes. You can bind to the weapon, allowing you to roll its attacks with Charisma instead of Strength/Dexterity, and giving it a chance to apply Hexblade Curse to the target.

Hexblade Curse is an important part of the subclass – it reduces the Attack Roll requirement for Critical Hit by 1 (from 20 to 19, for example) and restores HP to you when the cursed enemy dies.

From Level 6, you can raise Accursed Spectres from fallen enemies. Target larger enemies for more powerful spectres. The Spectres can steal HP from enemies and give it to your Warlock.

At Level 10, you can spend a Reaction to get a 50% chance of completely blocking an enemy’s attack, if that enemy is afflicted with the Hexblade Curse.

The Hexblade Warlock can further enhance its melee damage output with various smite spells, including Wrathful Smite, Branding Smite and Staggering Smite.

With its massive self-healing potential, access to martial weapon proficiency and solid spellcasting ability, the Hexblade Warlock is an absolute powerhouse and can sometimes feel like playing on easy mode.

A-Tier Builds

A-Tier Builds are still very mighty indeed, but lacking the overpowered edge of the S-Tier Builds.

Berserker Barbarian

This is, without a doubt, the strongest Barbarian variant in terms of raw damage potential, making the class as aggressive as possible.

With the Berserker Build, you’ll be able to become Frenzied. In this state, you can spend your Bonus Action to make an additional attack with your weapon, or throw an object. This is especially strong in the early-game – having a Berserker in your party will carry you through Act I. I’d argue this is the strongest subclass in the game for Act I; it gains power faster than any other subclass. But later in the game, the Berserker fades a little and becomes slightly weaker than the good variants of the Fighter class, like Battle Master.

If you want a borderline insane melee fighter who leaps into action and causes unstoppable havoc, then the Berserker is the choice for you.

Wildheart Barbarian

While it’s weaker than the Berserker in terms of its own damage output, the Wildheart Barbarian Build shines in another way – it is brilliant at supporting a party that primarily uses Attack Rolls to deal damage (i.e. not much emphasis on spellcasting).

Wildheart Barbarians choose one of five animals to style their rage after. The one we are most interested in is the Wolf Heart, which gives Advantage to your allies’ Attack Rolls against enemies who are within 2 metres of you (only when you are Raging). It’s hard to overstate how strong this can be. Used in the correct party setup, you’ll greatly increase the accuracy and therefore the damage output of your whole party.

You can also take the more “selfish” option of using Bear Heart, which gives you 50% Resistance to all damage when you are Raging (apart from Psychic Damage). But I strongly recommend sticking to Wolf Heart if you want to get the best out of your Wildheart Barbarian in BG3.

College of Swords Bard

Retaining the decent spellcasting abilities of the Bard class, the College of Sword Build gives you Proficiency with Medium Armour and Scimitars, and access to several special weapon actions.

For example, Swords Bards can use Defensive Flourish to boost their Armour Class by 4 after hitting an enemy, or Mobile Flourish to push an enemy back and then teleport to them afterwards.

If you want your Bard to focus more on weapon fighting rather than spellcasting, then the College of Swords is the obvious choice.

Death Domain Cleric

Death Domain Clerics added a new take on necromancy to Baldur’s Gate in Patch 8.

With the Death Cleric Build, you quickly unlock a couple of very useful early-game boosts. Your Necromancy Cantrips like Bone Chill will now target two creatures instead of one, and you can use Touch of Death to deal a big chunk of extra Necrotic Damage on your melee attacks (this works with the Inflict Wounds spell if you want even more Necrotic damage).

When you reach Level 5, you can begin raising undead with the Animate Dead spell, and from Level 6 you can ignore resistance to Necrotic Damage, which will come in very useful in fights against undead enemies.

Overall it is weaker than the Clerics in S-Tier, but the Death Domain Cleric is still very strong and probably the best Cleric in terms of single-target damage potential.

Circle of the Moon Druid

The Circle of the Moon Druid Build focuses on your animal transformations, giving you several powerful new Wild Shape options including a tanky, hard-hitting Bear at Level 2 (helps to carry your party through Act I), a Sabre-Toothed Tiger from level 8, and deadly elemental Myrmidons from Level 10.

You can also use Lunar Mend to heal yourself in Wild Shape form (costs a Spell Slot which I think this is a bit wasteful most of the time, but it’s up to you), and importantly you can transform with a Bonus Action instead of a full Action, allowing you to transform and attack on the same turn.

The Circle of the Moon is strongest at the beginning and end of the game thanks to the Bear and Myrmidon forms respectively, but it can feel a bit barren in the middle of the game.

Arcane Archer Fighter

Retaining the already impressive melee prowess of the Fighter class, Arcane Archer Build can also choose several Arcane Shots to learn, which makes this subclass play a little bit like a ranged version of the Battle Master.

Among the best Arcane Shots in BG3 are Seeking Arrow, which is guaranteed to hit the target and applies Faerie Fire (makes subsequent attacks easier) and Shadow Arrow, which can Blind the target (makes them easier to hit and gives them a hard time hitting you).

At higher levels, you can spend your Bonus Action to retry a missed magical ranged attack (aims at the closest target to the original) and bypass physical resistance.

Because it is still a good melee fighter thanks to its Fighter roots, the Arcane Archer is arguably the most versatile subclass in the game. It also rather embarrassingly upstages the Ranger, supposedly the king of ranged combat, by being better in almost every way.

Champion Fighter

Contrary to the previously mentioned Battle Master and Arcane Archer, the Champion doesn’t have any special tricks up its sleeve.

The main appeal of this subclass is that it reduces the number needed for a Critical Hit by 1. To begin with, this changes it from 20 to 19, but later on you can stack it with other similar effects to lower the requirement further.

This Champion Build works perfectly with the Half-Orc race, who deals more damage on Critical Hits than anyone else. It completely lacks the bells and whistles of the other Fighter subclasses, but if you want to create a build that is simple and just focuses on Critical Damage, then this is the subclass of choice.

Open Hand Monk

I’d wager that most people playing the Monk want to make a character who specialises in unarmed combat, and the Open Hand Monk Build is the best choice for this.

You gain special upgraded versions of the Flurry of Blows action, including the ability to knock the target Prone. This will make subsequent attacks against the target easier to land,

At level 6, you can infuse extra Necrotic, Psychic or Radiant damage into your unarmed attacks, and at Level 9 you can make enemies explode with Ki Resonation: Blast.

In our Open Hand Monk build, we’ll use items to add extra damage to the Open Hand Monk’s already impressive unarmed damage potential, finishing up with a build that will dish out crazy damage without ever picking up a weapon.

Four Elements Monk

With the Four Elements Monk Build, you gain access to a range of special spells that are cast using Ki Points rather than Spell Slots.

These spells not only add more versatility to the Monk, but some of them are surprisingly hard-hitting, particularly Fist of Unbroken Air and Water Whip.

I think this subclass is a little weaker than the Open Hand Monk in general terms. But with clever use of your magical abilities you can add a lot of value to your party with this the Four Elements Monk.

Oath of Ancients Paladin

The Oath of Ancients Build is focused on healing and defending allies. In some ways, it plays quite similarly to the Life Domain Cleric.

While Paladin magic is much weaker than Cleric magic, they make up for it with their melee strength, which they can further augment with their Smite Spells, infusing magical damage into their attacks.

You can use Healing Radiance to heal all nearby allies, following up with an automatic second heal on your next turn. At Level 7, you unlock the Aura of Warding which halves the damage you and your allies take from spells. Just be aware that the radius on Paladin auras is very small – if you want your whole party to benefit from it, you need to keep them all within 3 metres of your Paladin, which can leave you vulnerable to AoE attacks.

Despite this small flaw, the Oath of Ancients Paladin is great for leading your party and carrying them through the toughest encounters in the game.

Oathbreaker Paladin

Oathbreakers are Paladins who failed to keep their Oath. They lose access to their original subclass, and instead get to use the Oathbreaker subclass.

With the Oathbreaker Build, you can carry your party through the early game by making use of Spiteful Suffering, dealing extra Necrotic Damage to your target every turn and gaining Advantage against them.

At Level 7 you get the Aura of Hate, which will boost the damage of all nearby fiends and undead (including enemy ones) by your Charisma Modifier. This aura makes the Oathbreaker Paladin an almost essential inclusion if you want to build a party focused on Necromancy. The Oathbreaker eventually learns to summon their own undead minions, too.

While this subclass isn’t for everyone, it offers some really powerful tools for necromancers.

Swarmkeeper Ranger

The Swarmkeeper Build forms a magical bond with one of three swarms – a cloud of jellyfish, flurry of moths or a legion of bees.

Your Swarms can be used to either deal a modest amount of damage to an enemy, teleport you over a short distance or impose a negative effect (depending on the swarm type). The Flurry of Moths is the best swarm because it can Blind the target, making them much easier to hit and debuffing their own attacks.

The nice thing about the swarms is that they don’t cost an Action, Bonus Action or Reaction to use. They are classed as their own type of special Action which can always be used once per turn unless your Ranger is stunned.

When this subclass added in Patch 8, I initially thought it was pretty mediocre. But learning to Blind enemies with the moths before attacking made it much more useful.

Arcane Trickster Rogue

The Arcane Trickster Build gains access to basic spellcasting. These spells aren’t very good for dealing damage and are best used to support your Rogue or debuff enemies.

When you are hidden, enemies have Disadvantage on Saving Throws against your spells.

A good way to use this is to combo it with Hold Person, giving you a very high chance to successfully paralyze the target. However, this is feature locked until Level 9.

Shadow Magic Sorcerer

The Shadow Magic Sorcerer Build gains 24 metres of Darkvision from the start of the game, making non-magical darkness a non-issue for your character.

They can use a special version of the Darkness spell called Eyes of the Dark: Darkness; this summons a cloud of magical Darkness (which will completely Blind those within) and also allows your Sorcerer to see through Magical Darkness, giving you a significant upper hand if you can prevent enemies from leaving the dark area.

At Level 6, you can summon the Hound of Ill Omen, a magical dog companion who can help you to regain Sorcery Points and summons a weaker clone of himself whenever he takes damage. The clones also summon clones when they are hit, so you can wind up with a whole pack of dogs fighting for you (only the primary dog summon is directly controlled by you, the copies are all AI-controlled).

Its affinity with darkness isn’t enough to make the Shadow Magic Sorcerer a good subclass, but the Hound of Ill Omen gives it the extra boost that it needs and also gives this subclass one of the most distinct identities in BG3. The hounds are great for distracting and pinning down enemies – just beware that the dog’s HP is a little on the low side, and a powerful enemy will make very short work of it.

Storm Sorcerer

The Storm Sorcerer Build starts out quite weak, only getting access to 9 metres of flight when it casts a spell – a nice mobility boon but nothing to write home about.

But at Level 6 it finally gets much stronger, picking up passive resistance to Lightning and Thunder damage, access to the powerful Call Lightning spell, and the passive ability to create a small storm dealing extra Lightning or Thunder damage in an AoE whenever you deal damage with a Lightning or Thunder spell.

The Storm Sorcerer can also retaliate against melee attackers with lightning bolts that send them flying backwards, but this is locked until Level 11.

The Storm Sorcerer was a candidate for S-Tier, but it got demoted because it has almost nothing for the first five levels of the game, making it weak for pretty much all of Act I. Once you get past that phase of the game, the Storm Sorcerer can become an AoE damage machine just by spamming Call Lightning.

Bladesinging Wizard

A clear candidate for the weirdest subclass in BG3, the Bladesinging Wizard sought to fill the niche of the Spellsword archetype, and does a decent job for the most part.

With the Bladesinging Wizard Build, you gain Proficiency with Light Armour and a range of bladed weapons. The subclass revolves around the Bladesong feature. Activating Bladesong gives you more Armour Class and Movement Speed, and allows you to built up special Damage Charges and Healing Charges. You can spend the charges by using Bladesong Climax, converting them into Force Damage and Healing.

Later on you gain the Extra Attack feature and can spend Spell Slots to subtract 5 damage from an incoming attack.

Its weirdness made the Bladesinger a little tricky to compare to the other Wizard subclasses, but I think this is a fair ranking because it gets a decent amount of extra features, albeit very niche ones.

Evocation Wizard

Evocation is the go-to subclass for players who simply want their Wizard to be as good as possible at attacking magic – particularly AoE spells.

The Evocation Wizard Build gets the Sculpt Spells feature that prevents your Evocation Spells from hurting your allies.

At Level 6, enemies who succeed a Saving Throw against your Cantrips will still take half of the damage. And finally, at Level 10, you will add your Intelligence Modifier to the damage rolls of your Evocation Spells.

The School of Evocation is a solid subclass and if you can’t decide which Wizard subclass to use then this one will be a safe bet. Just remember to slot plenty of Evocation spells so you get the full benefits.

Necromancy Wizard

Necromancers have always been popular archetypes in fantasy games that include them, so it’s fortunate that Larian did a decent job with BG3’s primary Necromancy subclass, which is the Necromancy Wizard.

We’ll start off with the bad news – you don’t get any bonuses that directly relate to raising undead until you reach Level 6. Before that you just heal yourself when you kill an enemy with a spell, with an extra chunk of healing if it was a Necromancy Spell. Still, this is a pretty decent starting passive and much better than the meagre offerings of some other Wizard subclasses in BG3.

At Level 6, the Necromancer Build unlocks the Animate Dead spell if you didn’t already have it. Your Animate Dead will raise an additional corpse, and they gain extra HP and damage.

At Level 10 you become Resistant to Necrotic Damage and immunity to conditions that reduce Max HP.

Once you reach Level 6, you can cause all sorts of trouble for your foes with your buffed up undead minions. Get the Necromancy of Thay book if you want to take your Necromancer to the next level, but beware that reading the book may have unintended consequences…

B-Tier Builds

B-Tier subclasses are still reasonably strong, but they typically lack features that make them stand out. So in a game with a whopping 58 subclasses, these ones can easily get overshadowed forgotten about, even if there’s nothing necessarily wrong with most of them.

Nevertheless, we have a build for each one of these subclasses that will ensure they are still an asset to your party.

Path of Giants Barbarian

Putting Path of Giants down in B-Tier felt a bit cruel and it was a close thing indeed. It is here only because I didn’t want to have three of the four Barbarians in the same tier, and this subclass felt just ever so slightly weaker than the Berserker and the Wildheart Barbarians.

The Giant Barbarian Build‘s Rage causes them to grow in size. This can be stacked with other similar effects like the Enlarge spell, temporarily turning your Barbarian into a giant. This makes your Barbarian stronger and causes them to hit harder.

Your Carrying Capacity is increased by 25%, making this a good combo with the Human race who also comes with a Carrying Capacity boost.

At Level 6 you can choose to infuse elemental damage into your weapon attacks while Raging, giving you a nice damage boost. Keep an eye out for elemental resistances and weaknesses of your target and change your chosen element accordingly.

Despite the regrettable B-Tier ranking, the Path of Giants Barbarian is still plenty strong enough and is quite fun to play.

College of Valour Bard

The College of Valour seems to be a worse version of the College of Swords, missing out on the special Flourish actions but gaining an upgraded Combat Inspiration that can buff the next Attack Roll, Ability Check, Saving Throw, Weapon Damage Roll or Armour Class of an ally.

This nearly fell down into C-Tier, but it was saved by its blanket Martial Weapons Proficiency. You can also use Medium Armour and Shields.

In my opinion it’s just flat out better to use the College of Swords Bard if you want a weapon-focused Bard, unless you want College of Valour for roleplay purposes or for a really niche build idea like a Sword and Shield Bard.

But if you still want to try it out, our College of Valour Bard Build will ensure you get the most out of the subclass.

College of Lore Bard

The College of Lore Build is primarily focused on spellcasting and learning more Skills. It gets three bonus Skill Proficiencies, which is pretty useful if you allocate them wisely.

You can use the Cutting Words action, spending a Bardic Inspiration charge to debuff an enemy’s Attack Roll, Ability Check or Saving Throw.

The main appeal of the Lore Bard is that they get an extra helping of the Magical Secrets feature at Level 6, allowing them to choose two non-Bard spells to learn. Bards usually have to wait until Level 10 to access this, but with Lore you get it at both 6 and 10.

Grabbing the Call Lightning spell at Level 6 is a good way to give your Bard the ability to spam insane amounts of AoE Lightning damage every turn, as long as you keep them safe from enemy attacks that might break their Concentration.

This Call Lightning trick almost elevates the Lore Bard to A-Tier, but it just isn’t quite enough on its own to stop the College of Lore subclass from feeling a bit… empty. One or two more special features would have done a lot of good here.

War Domain Cleric

The War Cleric Build can wear Heavy Armour and wield Martial Weapons. While they retain the Cleric’s wide range of spells, they place a little more emphasis on weapon combat.

They can spend War Priest Charges to make an extra attack with their Bonus Action, and Guided Strike to add a +10 bonus to their Attack Roll (can be granted to allies from Level 6).

You can make pretty good use of these features if you give your War Cleric a heavy-hitting weapon like a Greataxe.

So why the B-Tier ranking? The issue with the War Cleric is that it just gets overshadowed by other Cleric subclasses. The Death Domain and Tempest Domain both outperform the War Cleric as a melee fighter, so while this subclass isn’t bad, it just struggles to leave its own mark on BG3.

Nature Domain Cleric

The Nature Domain Cleric Build gives you some Druid features, allowing you to choose one Druid Cantrip and one Druid Skill to unlock.

The most important features of this subclass are its access to Spike Growth at level 3 – an excellent early-game spell that creates a deadly spike AoE that will severely damage any enemies who try to cross it – and the Dampen Elements Reaction that allows you to halve the damage of incoming elemental damage for yourself or an ally.

Aside from these two features, the Nature Domain doesn’t offer anything particularly special.

Knowledge Domain Cleric

The Knowledge Domain Cleric Build specializes in gaining Proficiency with as many Skills as possible.

At the start of the game, you can choose two skills to gain Expertise in, doubling your Proficiency bonus. From level 2, you can also use Knowledge of the Ages, giving you Proficiency with all Skills of a selected Ability (for example, all Dexterity Skills).

Later on, you gain the ability to Read Thoughts or Speak with Animals by spending a Channel Divinity charge, and at Level 8 you’ll add your Wisdom Modifier to the damage of Cleric Cantrips.

While it’s weak in combat (not in absolute terms, but relative to other Clerics) the Knowledge Domain Cleric can open up a lot of extra paths with its ability to master any Skill in the game.

Circle of Spores Druid

The Circle of Spores Druid Build focuses on death and decay, gaining some Necrotic abilities.

They can spend their Reaction each turn to shoot spores at a target, dealing Necrotic Damage. They also gain a new way to spend their Wild Shape charges, becoming a Symbiotic Entity. In reality, this is a buff that gives you Temporary HP, increases the damage of your spores and infuses your attacks with extra Necrotic Damage. When the THP runs out, you’ll lose the buff.

Later on, you gain the ability to raise undead, either using the Animate Dead spell or with the Fungal Infestation action, that raises a Fungal Zombie.

At Level 10, you can seed an area with spores that damage hostile creatures while leaving your allies unharmed.

These bonuses are decent and make this subclass a great fit in a party that focuses on Necromancy. This subclass is in B-Tier only because it overshadowed by the Circles of the Land and Moon.

Circle of Stars Druid

The Circle of the Stars Build gives you access to three Starry Forms, that can be assumed by spending a Wild Shape Charge. Just like the Spore Druid’s Symbiotic Entity, these do not actually change your form but give you a buff that unlocks new features.

The best Starry Form for most situations is the Dragon, because it guarantees a minimum roll of 10 on Concentration Saving Throws. The Druid has a huge number of Concentration Spells, so Concentration Saving Throws are a bigger problem for this class than any others in BG3, and the Dragon Form allows you to passively mitigate the problem.

You can also use the Archer form to deal extra damage each turn with a Luminous Arrow (helps with the Druid’s lack of good single-target damage) or the Chalice to improve your healing potential.

The Circle of Stars is another Druid subclass that is still quite good, but merely overshadowed by the Land and Moon subclasses.

Eldritch Knight Fighter

The Eldritch Knight Build adds basic spellcasting ability to the Fighter class.

You can bond to your weapon, preventing it from being knocked out of your hand. Bound weapons will automatically return to you if you throw it.

Later on, you gain the War Magic passive that allows you to make a weapon attack with your Bonus Action after you cast a cantrip. Finally, you unlock Eldritch Strike, which imposes Disadvantage on the target’s Saving Throw against your next spell when you hit them with a weapon attack.

Similarly to the Arcane Trickster, you can use Eldritch Strike to make a spell like Hold Person much more likely to succeed.

Drunken Master Monk

The Drunken Master Monk initially looks like it’s just a joke subclass, but it does actually have a few good features. To begin with, this subclass is immune to the negative effects of being Drunk.

With the Drunken Master Monk Build, you can use Drunken Technique to punch an enemy twice with a Bonus Action, also granting you extra Movement Speed and allowing you to avoid opportunist attacks.

Later on, you can make enemies Drunk with Intoxicating Strike, gaining an Attack and Armour bonus when fighting against Drunk enemies.

You get a couple of other cool features like Sobering Realisation and Drunkard’s Luck, but these aren’t unlocked until quite far into the game.

The Drunken Master is a fun subclass to play and isn’t particularly weak. It only falls into B-Tier because the Open Hand and Four Elements Monks are noticeably better in general.

Oath of the Crown Paladin

The Oath of the Crown Build focuses on supporting and protecting your party.

With this subclass, you can use Righteous Clarity to boost an ally’s Attack Rolls by their Proficiency Bonus.

You can use Champion Challenge to taunt enemies around you. This is a “soft taunt”; it’s still possible for enemies to attack your allies, but they will suffer a Disadvantage penalty if they do so. You can also use Turn the Tide to heal nearby allies.

From Level 7, you can use Divine Allegiance to exchange your health with an ally’s, healing them and taking an equal amount of Radiant Damage. You can make this more efficient if you can acquire Resistance to Radiant Damage.

The Oath of the Crown is a decent support subclass, but it is outmatched by other support subclasses and other Paladin subclasses too, so it sadly falls down into B-Tier.

Oath of Devotion Paladin

The Oath of Devotion Paladin Build can use Holy Rebuke to deal Radiant Damage to enemy attackers. Sadly this buff only lasts for a couple of turns.

Later on, you can use Sacred Weapon to infuse your weapon with a bright light. Your Charisma Modifier is added to Attack Rolls with the weapon, making it more accurate.

You can use Turn the Unholy to Turn nearby undead and fiends, forcing them to flee. The Aura of Devotion is unlocked at Level 7, and prevents you and nearby allies from being Charmed.

The Devotion Paladin’s only widely useful feature is Sacred Weapon, and this alone isn’t enough to lift the subclass any higher than B-Tier.

Oath of Vengeance Paladin

The Oath of Vengeance Build is themed around relentlessly attacking and pursuing enemies.

To start with, you can use Inquisitor’s Might to infuse you or an ally’s weapon attacks with extra Radiant Damage.

Later on, you can use Abjure Enemy to Frighten an enemy, or Vow of Enmity to gain Advantage on Attack Rolls against a target. From Level 7, you get Relentless Avenger which gives you extra Movement Speed on your next turn after hitting an enemy with an Opportunist Attack.

The Oath of Vengeance was very close to making it to A-Tier. It was really a toss-up between the two.

Gloom Stalker Ranger

The Gloom Stalker Build places maximum emphasis on stealth and ambushing. They can all see up to 24 metres in the dark, regardless of subclass, and can become Invisible if they are already obscured.

The Gloom Stalker can use Dread Ambusher on the first turn of combat to make an extra attack for free. At Level 11, they unlock Stalker’s Flurry, allowing them to make an additional weapon attack for free if they miss their first attempt.

This last feature is pretty strong, but I didn’t take it into account much because you won’t unlock it until you are well into Act III. That just leaves the stealth boosts and ambush attack, which is helpful but not enough to life the Gloom Stalker any higher than B-Tier.

Hunter Ranger

The Hunter Build can choose one of three Hunter’s Prey features to unlock, each one granting a special ability. Colossus Slayer is typically the best option – it gives 1d8 extra damage each turn when you hit an enemy who has already taken damage.

At Level 11, you unlock Volley and Whirlwind Attack, which allow you to attack several enemies at once. But once again, these are unlocked so late that I can’t give them full points.

1d8 extra damage per turn and another couple of minor buffs just isn’t good enough to life the Hunter any higher than this.

Assassin Rogue

The Assassin Build Replenishes your Action and Bonus Action at the start of combat, guarantees Critical Hits against Surprised creatures and Advantage against targets who haven’t taken their first turn yet.

It is extremely strong on the first turn of combat, especially if you Surprise the enemies, but after that you get nothing at all.

The Assassin is a good subclass for minmaxers and players who enjoy experimenting with novel and out-of-the-box strategies. But aside from that, it’s probably the weakest out of the Rogue subclasses in BG3.

Draconic Power Sorcerer

With the Draconic Sorcerer Build, you must choose a Draconic Ancestry, which grants an extra spell and affinity with an elemental damage type. You also get a base Armour Class of 13 when you’re not wearing armour, making you more tanky than other Sorcerers.

When you reach level 6, you’ll add your Charisma Modifier to the damage of spells that deal the same damage type that you have affinity with. You can also gain 50% Resistance to damage of that type.

At Level 11 you will gain the ability to fly, bypassing various obstructions and hazards.

The Draconic Power Sorcerer is pretty good if you want to focus primarily on Fire, Cold, Poison or Acid damage, but is otherwise quite tame – the only reason it made it into B-Tier is the extra base armour.

The Fiend Warlock

The Fiend Build gets a really nice passive feature from the start of the game – whenever you kill an enemy you will gain Temporary HP equal to your Charisma Modifier. This will be +3 THP to begin with, increasing later on if you follow our Fiend Warlock Build Guide.

Once per Short Rest, you can add a 1d10 bonus to an Ability Check, and eventually you will also be able to become Resistant to any damage type of your choice.

The Fiend Warlock gets a decent array of attacking spells, particularly Fireball, Cone of Cold and Flame Strike.

This version of the Warlock is quite well-rounded and only just fell short of A-Tier. The absurd strength of the Hexblade Warlock overshadows all other Warlock subclasses and causes them to rank lower than they would otherwise.

Great Old One Warlock

The Great Old One Build is slightly weaker than the Fiend, but not by enough to justify putting it into a lower tier.

Landing a Critical Hit on an enemy with the Great Old One will attempt to apply Frightened to the target.

Later on, you can apply Disadvantage to an incoming Attack Roll once per Short Rest – if the enemy misses, you’ll gain Advantage against them for the next turn.

At Level 10, you become Resistant to Psychic Damage and will also retaliate in kind against any enemies who attack you with Psychic Damage.

This subclass gets a couple of decent mind control spells, namely Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and Dominate Person, but nothing truly game changing.

Abjuration Wizard

The Abjuration Wizard Build revolves around a feature called Arcane Ward. The Arcane Ward has an intensity that always starts at the same amount as your Wizard Level. Casting an Abjuration Spell increases the intensity by an amount equal to the Spell Slot Level. When you take damage, you can opt to reduce the damage by an amount equal to your ward intensity. Each time you do this, the intensity drops by 1.

From Level 6, you can extend the Arcane Ward to allies within 18 meters, and at Level 10, every Short Rest will increase the intensity by an amount equal to your Wizard Level.

For the first few levels, the Abjuration Wizard feels very weak because you don’t have many good Abjuration Spells and the Arcane Ward strength is usually too low to make a sufficient impact. Later in the game, and especially after Level 10, this subclass becomes much stronger and can massively reduce the amount of damage your party takes, becoming something of an unsung hero.

I wanted to give the Abjuration Wizard an A-Tier, but I just couldn’t justify this because it starts out so weak and takes such a long time to start realizing its potential.

Conjuration Wizard

A fair warning: for the first six levels of BG3, the Conjuration Wizard is without a doubt the worst subclass in the game – you get nothing in this time except for the ability to create a water surface once per Short Rest.

At Level 6, we finally get something half decent, being able to teleport or swap places with an ally once per Long Rest.

It’s at Level 10 that the Conjuration Wizard finally gets its act together properly – your Concentration on Conjuration spells can no longer be broken by taking damage – an extremely good passive feature that allows you to maintain the effects of your Conjuration spells regardless of how much damage you take, as long as you stay alive and conscious. If this feature was unlocked earlier, the Conjuration Wizard would rank higher. But as it is, we have a similar situation to the Abjuration Wizard – a good endgame subclass that offers very little value for the first half of the game.

The Conjuration Wizard Build can still be a great asset for your party, despite the limitations of the subclass.

Enchantment Wizard

The Enchantment Wizard Build can, once per Long Rest, use Hypnotic Gaze to attempt to Charm and Incapacitate a creature. When successful, this completely stops a target from moving. The issue with this is the unreliability of the effect, and the fact that the target will be awoken as soon as they take damage – sometimes other enemies will figure this out and whack their friend to end the hypnosis, and then that’s a wrap on your subclass’ defining feature until the next Long Rest.

Fortunately, you get a couple of decent saving graces later in your playthrough. At Level 6 you can spend a Reaction to attempt to Charm an attacking creature, halting their attack and forcing them to choose a new target (if possible).

At Level 10 you gain the ability to split your Enchantment Spells, allowing them to hit two targets rather than one.

This is a very niche subclass that you should only use if you want to focus heavily on Enchantment magic – and once again it suffers from the same problem of taking a very long time to unlock any widely useful features.

C-Tier Builds

Subclasses in the C-Tier typically have a flaw that actively hinders them in some way, lack interesting or impressive features or are just overshadowed by another subclass to a ridiculous degree.

You can still play through the game and have fun with any of these classes (and some, like the Wild Magic Sorcerer are fun to play not despite their issues, but because of them) and our builds will ensure that they fulfil their potential. But it’s good to know about the problems that these subclasses have.

Wild Magic Barbarian

The Wild Magic Barbarian Build is still pretty strong and a real handful for enemies to deal with, but it finds its way into the C-Tier because the Berserker and Wildheart Barbarians just offer so much more, either in terms of damage output or party support.

The Wild Magic is a cool gimmick but it due to its random nature it simply cannot be relied upon to do anything beneficial in any given encounter.

Trickery Domain Cleric

The Trickery Cleric falls into C-Tier because it is, without a doubt, the worst Cleric subclass in BG3. It has some niche appeal if you want to play a very stealth-focused party.

Its only powerful feature is Invoke Duplicity, which summons an illusion that gives Advantage against nearby enemies. But this is quite difficult to use because it requires Concentration, prohibiting your Cleric from using any of their Concentration magic at the same time.

But if you still want to use this subclass, our Trickery Cleric Build will help you get the best out of it.

Way of Shadow Monk

As the name implies, the Way of Shadow Monk Build specializes in stealth.

They can give an ally a huge +10 bonus to Stealth checks, summon a cloud of Darkness to obscure and Blind those within, and grant Darkvision to an ally.

Later on, they can become Invisible if they are already obscured, and gain the ability to teleport from one shadowy area to another. From Level 11, you can perform a Shadow Strike from a hidden position, dealing a hefty chunk of extra Psychic Damage on hit.

The Way of Shadow Monk is the best subclass in the C-Tier, but it is overall weaker than the other Monk subclasses in the game, and the Rogue is much better at stealth, which leaves the Way of Shadow in a bit of an awkward position. It’s not a bad subclass, but it feels kind of unnecessary.

College of Glamour Bard

The College of Glamour Bard Build can grant Temporary HP to an ally, causing them to automatically Charm an enemy who hits them with a melee attack.

At Level 6, they can also use a Bonus Action to command a creature to flee, approach, freeze, drop Prone or drop its weapon. If the target is already Charmed, their Saving Throw is an automatic failure.

The College of Glamour subclass tried to create an interesting subclass identity around Charming enemies. But it fails in this endeavour – Charm isn’t an especially good Condition and when you’re using it constantly, it quickly gets boring. When playing as the College of Glamour Bard I was simply left wondering why on earth I would ever choose this over the other Bard options.

Beast Master Ranger

With the Beast Master Build, you can summon an Animal Companion to fight alongside you, choosing between a Bear, a Boar, a Raven, a Wolf or a Spider.

Animal Companions are quite weak but can help to distract enemies. They will get stronger as you level up to help them stay relevant.

While this subclass isn’t particularly strong, the Animal Companions are fun to use and great for roleplaying purposes.

Wild Magic Sorcerer

The Wild Magic Sorcerer Build has a chance to get a Magic Surge (random magical effect) every time he or she casts a spell. They can also activate Tides of Chaos once per Short or Long Rest, giving Advantage on the next dice roll and increasing the chance of subsequent Magic Surges. The effects of Magic Surges can be beneficial or detrimental (or sometimes nearly irrelevant). Beneficial effects are the most common.

From level 6, you can spend two of your Sorcery Points as a Reaction to buff or debuff another character’s dice roll by 1d4. At Level 11, nearby enemies will also have a chance to trigger a Magical Surge when they cast a spell.

While I have ranked it in C-Tier, I have to say that the Wild Magic can be a fun subclass to play – the randomness it offers keeps the combat interesting because you never know exactly what’s going to happen.

But it is not a strong subclass. Sometimes the stars will align and you’ll get the perfect random magical effect at the perfect time, but most of the time the effects are rather low impact, just a funny novelty (which will eventually wear thin) or actually detrimental. You’ll also sometimes experience really long periods where you get no random effects at all, and in these times you basically have the base Sorcerer class with almost no extra features at all.

In short, use Wild Magic if you want something different that will spice up the game a little. If you want a good Sorcerer subclass, use Storm Sorcery or Shadow Magic.

Archfey Warlock

The Archfey Warlock Build focuses on playing tricks and manipulating the minds of enemies. While that sounds fine, most of the spells granted by the Archfey subclass as you level up are quite weak, and the passive effects of Archfey aren’t very strong either.

The most you have to show for choosing this subclass is the ability to Charm or Frighten nearby foes once per Short Rest, and eventually unlocking immunity to Charmed at Level 10.

I only recommend choosing this subclass if it fits with a roleplay idea you have for your character, or if you really want to build your party around mental effects like Frighten, Charm and Dominate.

Divination Wizard

The Divination Wizard Build gains Portent Dice when they Long Rest. They can spend their Reaction during combat to change the result of a nearby Attack Roll or Saving Throw to that of one of their Portent Dice. Used correctly, this can allow you to pretty much guarantee success or failure of an attack or spell, but you are very limited in terms of how many times you can do this.

Later on, you can see in the dark and see invisible creatures.

The Portent Dice feature can be quite strong in some situations, but on the whole it’s just not enough to earn any ranks for this subclass.

Illusion Wizard

I believe this is the worst subclass in Baldur’s Gate 3.

To begin with, you get the ability to cast Minor Illusion as a Bonus Action. This is a Cantrip already available to all Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks and Wizards in the game. It’s a stealth cantrip that attracts nearby characters to a certain spot with an illusion. It’s normally used outside of combat to set up funny situations like luring a bunch of characters to a pile of explosive barrels, and as a result you don’t normally get any benefit from having it as a Bonus Action.

That’s all you get until Level 6, when you unlock the See Invisibility Action, which can be used once per Short Rest. This is occasionally useful but far too niche to earn any points.

At Level 10 you can spend your Reaction to make an attacker miss you by conjuring an illusion, once per Short Rest. This is the only thing in this subclass that’s regularly useful, and you essentially have to wait until Act III to get it.

These are very meagre offerings and make the Illusion Wizard feel like you are playing as a Wizard with no subclass.

If you still want to be an Illusion Wizard, our Illusion Wizard Build will help you to make your Wizard as strong as they can be, despite the subclass limitations.

Transmutation Wizard

While markedly better than the Illusion Wizard, the Transmutation Wizard Build falls just slightly short of escaping the C-Tier.

You start off with the Experimental Alchemy feature, which allows you to craft two potions instead of one. The problem with this effect is that it requires you to pass a DC15 Medicine roll to get the extra potion. Medicine is a Wisdom Skill, and Wizards’ spells all use Intelligence, not Wisdom. This mismatch sabotages what would otherwise be an awesome passive feature, and I probably would’ve put this into B-Tier if it wasn’t for this issue. You can partially mitigate it by being a Githyanki and using Astral Knowledge: Wisdom after every Long Rest.

At Level 6, you can make a Transmuter’s Stone that provides a special buff to the holder. You can keep the stone or give it to an ally. Only one stone can be created at a time – making a new one destroys the old one. Some of the buffs are pretty decent, giving Resistance to a damage type, boosting Movement Speed or granting Darkvision. But only being able to make one stone just feels a bit too limiting, so this is another unfortunate caveat that keeps the Transmutation Wizard in C-Tier.

At Level 10 you can transform into a bird who can fly. This is cool but ultimately of little impact in combat (if you want to reach a high place, it’s usually better to use Misty Step unless you are being suppressed by Counterspell).

Sadly the Transmutation School Wizard feels like a subclass with several good ideas that got some undeserved nerfs at some point during BG3’s development, and faded into mediocrity as a result. Making Experimental Alchemy check Intelligence instead of Wisdom and allowing you to have three or four stones to distribute to your allies would elevate this subclass to B or maybe even A-Tier, but it’s highly unlikely that it will ever be changed.

Best BG3 Builds Tier List – All Subclasses Ranked