Class Evalution Guide - Baldur's Gate 3

Barbarian

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All Barbarians suffer a bit (or a lot) from the fact there’s Hellrider’s Pride gloves, which gives Blade Ward. So once Clerics get some slots to spare to toss healing wards for it, Barbarian loses a lot of glamour.

Berserker
Rating	[C-]
Losing AB is the exact opposite thing of what you want to do. The sub is bad in pnp, still bad in the game.

Wild Heart
Rating	[B+]
Bear gets resistance to everything. Wolf gives your team advantage. Both are fine.

Wild Magic
Rating	[B+]
Some of the effects on it are great. Recharging allies spell slots is fine, too.

Bard

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Bards do start a bit slow. They really want to get to level 3 fast to grab some armor, and they don’t exactly have too many amazing spells that could turn the tide of battle. But little by little this improves.

The elephant in the room is your spell-list will never really drastically improve. You'll basically be stuck with some utility mixed with disappointment. Lore does fix it some, but then you’re trading armor proficiencies and an extra attack for it in a game where you will autoattack a lot.

Which does mean you really want some way to utilize and expand your slots. A prime solution is a Warlock multiclass for EB’s, devil’s sight and whatnot. Just 2 levels of warlock will improve your QOL drastically, especially if you couple it with a race that’d give you an access to Darkness. Another way is grabbing 2 levels of Paladin to smite with otherwise unused slots.

Lore
Rating	[A-]
Patches up the bard spell-list reasonably early. It’s a solid enough choice for a support caster/skill monkey. Although I don’t like resting too much and without some multiclassing it won’t be of much help.

Valour
Rating	[B]
A melee-ish bard that goes pretty heavy on inspiration and support. I’ll be honest, their Swords counterpart is just better in most every way as being a bit selfish is better for anything on the frontlines.

Swords
Rating	[A]
Gets to take dueling proficiency for some extra damage (as you will want a shield). The next order of business is procuring said shield. Option 1 is just going for a human or a half-elf race (for which the existence of a Swords bard that doesn’t get shield proficiency is a decent redeeming factor). Option 2 is taking 2 levels of paladin, which will provide you with a way to spend your spell slots on damage and all the proficiencies(provided you’ve taken paladin first). You can obviously mix and match, especially if you are set on starting out as a bard and not respeccing into it later on. Guess there’s also option 3 with taking two-weapon fighting and using some of the weapons in the game that would give you AC bonuses, but it will be worse than taking Pal2 and grabbing defense style on top of everything else you get.

Cleric

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Decent spell-list (up to level 3, that is. Clerics really only care about slots after to upcast), and good utility. There’s nothing wrong with clerics, just don’t forget they’re full casters, not martials. At least not out of the box.

Life
Rating	[B+]
Nice for a 1 level dip as it will give you heavy proficiency (comes from a domain, not the class, so you will get it at any point, unlike, say, fighter) and channel is useful enough at 1. As for progressing beyond level 1, you’ll find better options out there.

Light
Rating	[A-]
The biggest selling point is adding wisdom to cantrips, but it doesn’t currently work with EB, which you can grab from a spell sniper. I can’t really find too much here, apart from fireball, which is nice, but we can do better things with our slots as a cleric.

Trickery
Rating	[C]
Channel is awful. The bonus spells are, too. Just pretend it doesn’t exist, ok?

Knowledge
Rating	[B]
Pretty much the gith racial as a channel. Getting some skills is nice, but you can do better. Adding Wis to cantrips at 8 is alright, but same as Light, you just don’t have many of those that’d be strong enough to bother.

Nature
Rating	[A-]
The whole point of it is shillelagh. Slap a ranger5 on top for the extra attack (while keeping some of the slot progression) and you have yourself a decent melee cleric that scales both spells and melee attacks from one stat. And you get heavy armor, too. Quite nice.

Tempest
Rating	[A]
The main attraction is a level 2 channel for sorcerers. Given we are at a fixed level cap, that means you want 3 levels most of the time. More won’t do you much good. If only they got more lightning/thunder goodies from either the spell-list of the subclass - that would have been awesome, but no dice. Also, glyph ward, despite being able to be lightning does not benefit from the channel for whatever reason, which is really disappointing. Also gets heavy proficiency.

War
Rating	[A]
The channel is just awesome. +10 to an attack is basically a guaranteed hit. Now imagine a situation where you would use it. It’d be one where you have to hit a priority target. It really does come in clutch. This also gives you some charges to use bonus action as a main action, which is a great 1 level dip for most s/b martials and is very impactful early game where 1 attack per round is more common than not.

Druid

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I’ll be forward with it. I don’t like druids in 5e. Period. Their spell-list is mostly concentrations, wild shapes lag behind on AC and all that. That said, I will try to evaluate them fairly, but do take this section with a grain of salt. Oh, also the game refuses to talk to MC while he’s wild-shaped, so probably don’t do druids on MC, unless it’s a spore one, which doesn’t really wildshape. In a spot of good news, druids are not restricted to non-metal arms and armor in BG3, so there’s that going for them

Circle of the Land
Rating	[B]
Caster druids. While it’s nice to have expanded spell list, I think leaning on other strength will do you more good.

Circle of the Moon
Rating	[B+]
Shapeshifter druids. If you plan to use animal shapes a lot - this is the one for you. It’s alright for what it is. Animals do respectable damage, if nothing else.

Circle of the Spores
Rating	[A]
Extra damage occupying reactions is awesome. Animate Dead is very strong, so long as you can cope with the extra effort of dragging corpses for reanimation every long rest. Fungal infestation lets you add more bodies on the field mid-fight practically for free. I kinda like this one as added necromancy spells are very much welcome, since most of them are not concentration which is plus for druids. Their Level 10 ability is also neat.

Fighter

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Fighters peak at level 2, then it’s all downhill from there. They get all proficiencies, a Con saving throw (which is really the only really important save in 5e), fighting style at 1, action surge on 2… then comes the class choice, which are sorta ok, but honestly, if you are multiclassing it’s often not even worth going there. They do get some extra ASI, but given most feats in the game are hot garbage, you won’t get too much out of it.

Battle Master
Rating	[A]
Can roll some additional effects. Doesn’t really get much value past level 3, but having 12 dice is nice. I personally like riposte, precision, evasive, trip (if you have a decent bit of str, athletics and athletics expertise). Disarming is not too bad either, albeit a bit situational, but it's worth noting that enemies do not pick up dropped weapons so it’s a good way of reducing enemy damage.

Champion
Rating	[B]
Also doesn’t get anything special past 3. And even level 3 is mostly whatever. Gear that improves crit range is not incredibly rare. It’s nice, but is it worth a level? Probably not.

Eldritch Knight
Rating	[D]
Without melee cantrips the class has absolutely nothing of value to offer. It’s hopelessly outclassed by literally any gith out there, be it warlock, paladin, bard or a ranger.

Monk

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Monks in BG3 are weird. As in they’re not really monks at all. What you do with those is take a level or two of fighter, grab heavy armor, shield, tavern brawler, and then you throw at your enemy, and use bonus actions for flurry of blows.

War of the Four Elements
Rating	[D]
The spells provided do barely anything and cost actions and ki. Hard pass.

Way of the Open Hand
Rating	[A]
Gets extra damage for unarmed attacks at level 6, which is exactly what you want. You won’t get much of anything past that, so multiclassing is in order. Namely, 2 or 3 levels of fighter is nice and so is thief or assassin.

Way of Shadow
Rating	[B]
Better spells than four elements, but still leaves a lot to be desired.

Paladin

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They burn fast and bright. Going nova, paladin can easily outdamage a rogue or literally anything out there. And even outside of that, the kit is great with nice spells, good abilities, all the proficiencies, and a fighting style. The worst part about paladins is the implementation of oaths. It has pretty much no rhyme or reason when you break them and when you don’t. Plus you can’t customize your own, so you have to pick from the stock oaths presented to you.

Oath of the Ancients
Rating	[A+]
The best level 2 dip for a paladin! Bonus action heals are never bad, especially for paladins that don’t normally get those. The next big thing is getting to level 7 for the aura, but you don’t fight mages all the time, plus it’s easier to either focus them fast or to counterspell whatever is coming your way. Not to say that aura is bad, but spending 7 levels for it might not be optimal. It’s also not too easy to break an ancients oath with normal gameplay, so that’s a positive.

Oath of Devotion
Rating	[F/S]
Cha to AB is awesome, especially for companions, who can often act while you are in dialogue with the baddies and in general precasting a buff is rarely an issue. It’s the best paladin can be, if you are planning to go for 6 levels of it. Problem is, you’d be lucky to have it for a few hours before it breaks. Feels like just breathing alone is in violation somehow. It will get better as the information is compiled so you can respec out of it before making choices you want, but without savescummig to the same effect it’s unplayable (at least for me) and I don’t like wasting time.

Oathbreaker
Rating	[B+]
The selling point is getting inflict wounds, the rest of the kit is uninspired. If you multiclass into a sorcerer and get quickened spell it can be a decent boost to your nova damage, although it runs out pretty fast due to Larian's homebrew on sorcerer quickened spells.

Ranger

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Great up to level 5. Gets skills, armor proficiencies, and the spell-list is also decent. Ranger is the true king of martials for this game.

Hunter
Rating	[A-]
Horde breaker is pretty good. Nothing too special about the sub, but it does its thing just fine.

Gloomstalker
Rating	[S-]
Superior Darkvision, extra attack on the first round, extra damage on the first round, bonus action sneak… This one is the king of the alpha strike! And removing one enemy on round 1 is not to be underestimated.

Beastmaster
Rating	[B+]
While beasts can be pretty good and it’s a great leveling option, it requires you to go deep into ranger to benefit from it, and you simply can do better than an extra body on the field. Granted, Beastmaster still isn't bad by any means.

Rogue

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Now this one is all about getting to the subclasses. Whether wish you proceed with the class is debatable, but the subclasses offer a lot. Plus it’s extra damage, skills and an 2 expertise for just 1 level, which is never a bad thing!

Arcane Trickster
Rating	[C]
These aren't the droids you’re looking for. A bit of magic won’t make or break anything. If you want a shield spell that desperately, just grab a level of sorc or a wizard. Point is, the trade-off is just not worth it.

Thief
Rating	[A+]
Extra bonus action is huge for any dual-wielder. This includes double hand crossbows, which are currently broken in more ways than one.

Assassin
Rating	[A]
Another surprise round abuser, and in many ways is in line with gloomstalker. The latter still prefers thief for an extra attack, but assassin certainly isn't bad by any stretch.

Sorcerer

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Given that rest will pretty much never be an issue, sorcerers are great. You get more damage paying barely anything for it in practice. They also enjoy being one of the few classes that get Con save, which does count for a lot.

Wild Magic
Rating	[B]
It’s not as bad as it is in pnp, but it’s still annoying to deal with negative effects and the positive ones won’t likely win you a fight outright, so the cons outweigh the pros here.

Draconic Bloodline
Rating	[A]
The class features don’t really matter. What matters is adding more damage on one of the elements. I highly advise going lightning, since it does obscene damage to wet targets.

Storm Sorcery
Rating	[A+]
Does the same thing as draconic bloodline while adding more damage, except you also get resistance and some utility, so I like it better for what’s currently in vogue for arcane casters.

Warlock

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The best class in the game, IMO. Does everything by his lonesome no problem, not in the least due to the Darkness and Devil’s Sight synergy. Scales everything from 1 stat, does ok damage, has a decent amount of slots per rest… it’s just plain good enough at everything it does.

Fiend
Rating	[S]
Temp HP shield you from enemy highrolls, that’s all there is to the choice, really. It will make your warlock last a lot longer, and none of the other patrons offer anything comparable. Also a great spell-list.

Great Old One
Rating	[B]
Bonus spell list is whatever, it doesn’t provide you with anything special. It’s still a warlock with all the warlock goodies, but you get effectively nothing from the patron.

Archfey
Rating	[B]
Same as above. It offers nothing of value. But a lock is still a lock, and hence can’t go below average.

Wizard

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Abundant resting opportunities rob wizards of their greatest asset, namely, their spell slot restoration. And, unlike sorcerers, they don’t come with Con saves. There’re a whole lot of schools, so instead of listing them all, I’ll just go through the actually good ones.

Transmutation
Rating	[B/S]
B for actually taking with you. S for keeping at the camp. The Transmuter stone can give anyone Con saves, and crafting more potions for the same reagents is not unwelcome either.

Divination
Rating	[A+]
Portent dice are great. Roll high - replace your own bad rolls. Roll low - toss them to enemies. It’s just a good combat utility skill.

Evocation
Rating	[B+]
If you somehow struggle with not nuking your own party, it’s alright. But it’s easy enough just not to, so I don’t like it all that much.

Necromancy
Rating	[A]
Animate dead is a great spell. Problem is, it requires setup like dragging corpses together after every rest. It just adds unnecessary effort considering the current difficulty level of the game.