Builds

Every build in Baldur’s Gate 3 has to answer the same question three times, at levels 4, 8 and 12: take a named feat, or take Ability Improvement and put two points into a stat. Race, background, spells and gear all vary with the class, but that choice is the one every one of our 59 build pages makes in the open, and it is the cleanest way to tell them apart. Nine builds never take Ability Improvement at all. A handful take nothing else. The rest sit in between, and the feat they pair with the stat points tells you what the build is for.

This guide sorts the builds that way. The first table is the ladder, from all three slots named to all three spent on stats, with the builds that sit on each rung. The second is the full list of 59, one row per page, with the class and the named feats each one reaches for. Between them is the short list of feats our writers return to most, because six names account for most of the slots in the folder. The classes guide explains why a Fighter gets a fourth slot at level 6, and the feats page has every option with its unlock level.

Nine builds that never take Ability Improvement

These are the builds whose pages spend every slot on a named feat, and they split into two kinds. The martial ones want a feature the class lacks. The tank, a Dwarf Fighter, takes Athlete at 4, Great Weapon Master at 8 and Moderately Armored at 12, and its page is explicit that a character only gets three feats so each must earn its place. The Thief takes Athlete, Dungeon Delver and Crossbow Expert, which is also the spine of the dual crossbow Ranger with Alert swapped in. The Gloom Stalker stacks Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter and Weapon Master, and the Way of Shadow Monk wants mobility above all, Athlete, Mobile and Tavern Brawler.

The caster ones do the opposite and buy survivability. The Tempest Domain Cleric takes War Caster, Lucky and Tough; the War Domain takes Tough, War Caster and Ritual Caster; the Wild Magic Sorcerer takes War Caster, Spell Sniper and Elemental Adept. The College of Valor Bard is the odd one, all personality: Actor, Skilled and Performer.

The six feats that do most of the work

Count the named feats across all 59 pages and the list is short at the top. War Caster is recommended thirteen times, on nearly every Cleric, Druid and Warlock page, because concentration is what those classes lose when they are hit. Spell Sniper is next with eight, on Wizards and Sorcerers and, oddly, the Eldritch Knight. Great Weapon Master and Savage Attacker have six each and travel together on the Battle Master and Berserker, where a critical hit turns into a second swing. Athlete and Alert have five each, Sharpshooter, Elemental Adept and the Magic Initiate family four each. Everything else, from Sentinel to Ritual Caster to Polearm Master, appears once or twice, usually as the signature of a single build.

Two slots on stats: the caster pattern

The largest group takes Ability Improvement twice, and almost all of them are casters pushing their casting stat from 16 to 20. The Wizard schools are the clearest case: Conjuration and Divination put Intelligence to 18 at level 4 and 20 at level 8, then spend level 12 on Elemental Adept or Spell Sniper; Evocation and Illusion take the feat first and the stats later. The Sorcerers do the same with Charisma, Draconic Bloodline and Storm Sorcery both pairing two improvements with a Magic Initiate pick, Warlock for one and Wizard for the other. The Fiend and Archfey Warlocks and the Great Old One do it with War Caster, Shield Master or Spell Sniper as the third.

On the Cleric side, Life, Light and Nature Domain all bookend War Caster with two Wisdom improvements, while Knowledge Domain takes one and borrows Druid cantrips with Magic Initiate. The Rangers, Beast Master and Hunter, want Dexterity at 20 and Sharpshooter, and the Arcane Trickster spends both of its early slots on Intelligence for the spells it steals from the Wizard list. The Oath of the Ancients Paladin and the College of Lore Bard round the group out, as does the Wild Magic Barbarian, the one melee build here, which wraps Great Weapon Master in two Strength improvements.

The four Patch 8 builds belong in this group with a twist. The Arcane Archer, Death Domain, Path of the Giants and Shadow Magic pages each take their improvements at 4 and 8, then give the level 12 slot away entirely by multiclassing for the final level, a War Cleric dip on the archer for one more attack. The Charisma build is a Sorcerer that treats the third slot as a menu, Elemental Adept, Performer or Spell Sniper, because its point is winning conversations rather than fights.

One slot on stats: the martial pattern

Melee builds mostly need one stat at 18 and then want their hands full of features. The Champion takes Strength at 4 and then Athlete, Sentinel and Savage Attacker; the Battle Master runs Great Weapon Master, Savage Attacker and Alert and saves the stat points for level 12; the Berserker puts Great Weapon Master first and Strength second. The three Paladin oaths split the same way: Devotion takes the improvement at 4 and adds Alert and Defensive Duelist, Vengeance waits until 12 after Savage Attacker and Martial Adept, and the Oathbreaker pairs its improvement with Great Weapon Master and Defensive Duelist. The Assassin wants Dual Wielder and Athlete around a single Dexterity bump, and the Monks, Open Hand with Lucky and armour proficiency and Four Elements with Martial Adept and Resilient, take theirs at 4 and never again.

A few casters also stop at one. The Enchantment and Necromancy Wizards each take one improvement, the necromancer then spending the rest on Moderately Armored and Medium Armor Master because it plans to stand in front of its undead. Circle of the Land takes Elemental Adept and War Caster before Wisdom, Circle of the Moon takes Mobile and Polearm Master for a Druid that mostly fights as a bear, and the Trickery Domain Cleric takes Sentinel and Medium Armour Master with its stat points saved for 12.

Three slots on stats

Four pages put every slot into Ability Improvement, and each has a reason. The Wildheart Barbarian gets its features from the animal heart it picks, so the feats only need to raise Strength and Constitution. The Circle of the Spores Druid scales its necrotic reaction and its temporary hit points off Wisdom. The Abjuration and Transmutation Wizards want Intelligence at 20 and then a second stat, Constitution for the ward and Dexterity for the transmuter, with the transmutation page tracking the saving-throw bonus climbing from +6 to +8 as it goes.

Every build page

Forty-five of the 46 subclasses the game shipped with have a build page; College of Swords is the one that does not. The four Patch 8 subclasses have theirs, and ten more pages are roundups or role builds rather than a subclass. The named feats below leave out Ability Improvement, which the ladder above already counts.

The roundups and the role builds

Ten pages are not tied to a subclass. All builds is the oldest, a six-class sheet from early access built around the Thief’s second bonus action, and best Wizard builds compares the schools with their weapons and key spells. The role builds are what most players actually search for: the tank is a Dwarf Fighter with Adamantine Scale Mail and a halberd; the DPS build splits a High Half-Elf between Draconic Sorcerer and Fighter; the solo build plays a Zariel Tiefling through the game alone; the duelist is a Shield Dwarf Paladin in Helldusk Armor with the Dueling style. The Drow build is a Lolth-Sworn Ranger Hunter built around Superior Darkvision and Drow Magic, and the most fun build is the Shadow Monk and Thief split six and six that our Tactician guide also recommends for its mobility.

Every companion has its own build page as well, written for Patch 8 and collected in the companions guide; those pages assume the origin character’s race and background and mostly multiclass, which the multiclassing page explains. If a build here does not suit the character you already have, Withers rebuilds anyone for 100 gold, and the spells guide covers what the casters on this list are preparing at each level.

Build questions

How many feats does a character get?

Three for a single-class character, at levels 4, 8 and 12. Fighters get a fourth at level 6, which is why the Battle Master, Champion and Eldritch Knight pages all show four rows. Multiclassing to a second class delays or forfeits a slot, which is what the four Patch 8 builds do at level 12.

Is Ability Improvement better than a feat?

Our pages treat it as the default for casters, who need their casting stat at 20 for their spells to land, and as the exception for martial builds, whose class features and weapons do more than two points of Strength. Nine builds skip it entirely and four take nothing else, so the folder does not have one answer.

Which build is the strongest?

The four pages with OP in their titles are the Patch 8 subclasses: Arcane Archer, Death Domain, Path of the Giants and Shadow Magic. Among the launch subclasses our tier lists lean on the Battle Master for a first character and the Evocation Wizard for a caster, both of which the beginner classes guide also recommends.