Baldur's Gate 3 Best Class: Complete Tier List

Baldur's Gate 3 has done a wonderful job of integrating the combat rules from DnD 5e, and it treats many mechanics exactly as prescribed by the Player's Handbook. For that reason, many of the best classes in 5e are also the best classes in Baldur's Gate 3.

However, a few Class Features and certain Spells have either not made it across into BG3, or they've been heavily altered. Some classes have notably suffered from this process, like the Druid, but more on that later.

In this article you can find a complete tier-ranking of every class in Baldur's Gate 3. And, we also answer that burning question: what is the very best class in Baldur's Gate 3. Enjoy.

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The Best Class In Baldur's Gate 3

Cleric is the best class in Baldur's Gate 3, and it's strongest sub-class is probably the Light Domain. Clerics have strong damage options, the best healing in the game, natural survivability and a diverse spell-list. Their only real weakness is that they are MAD (multiple attribute dependent), but that's the price you pay for being able to do everything.

In DnD, they are even stronger, because they get access to the late-game ability Divine Intervention, but Baldur's Gate 3 only goes to level 12, not 20, so we won't get to use this ability in-game. Still, they are incredible in BG3.

You will probably see a few things online about Sorcerer's being the best. They are very good, but they were specifically broken during Early Access because of a build that doesn't work in the full game (long story short, Metamagic was completely busted during EA). If you remove all the cheesy builds, the exploits and the mods, the Cleric is undoubedtly the strongest class in Baldur's Gate 3. Although, the Sorcerer is still really, really good.

Baldur's Gate 3: Best Class Tier List

Right, now let's get to ranking every class in Baldur's Gate 3. We've based our ranking of each class on their raw power at each level of the game, and less so on how fun or easy to use they are. But that's exactly why you power-gamers are here.

• S-Tier: Cleric, Paladin
• A-Tier: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard
• B-Tier: Fighter, Ranger Warlock
• C-Tier: Bard, Druid
• D-Tier: Monk

You can find a full explanation of each class below.

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Baldur's Gate 3 Class Tier List: S-Tier

These are undoubtedly the two best classes in Baldur's Gate 3. And no, we don't just have a thing for Divine magic and Radiant damage.

Cleric (S-Tier)

• Best Race: Gold Dwarf
• Best Sub-Class: Light Domain
• Strengths: Almost everything.
• Weaknesses: Multi Attribute Dependent.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Low Charisma, but they do have Guidance.
• Multiclass Potential: Low, but unneccessary.
• Perfect For: Players who want to take on the challenge of playing BG3 solo.

In DnD 5e, the Cleric can do everything. And luckily, in the transition from tabletop to video game, almost nothing about this class had to be sacrificed.

Where to begin? This class has access to the best healing in the game: Healing Word. It also has incredible damage spells, like Inflict Words (the highest damage spell at Level 1), and some great subclass features to match every playstyle. Hell, the Cleric even has good out-of-combat utility thanks to Guidance.

Even if you don't want to play Cleric yourself, please at least bring Shadowheart (the Cleric companion).

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Paladin (S-Tier)

• Best Race: Half-Orc
• Best Sub-Class: Oath of Vengeance
• Strengths: Very consistent damage output.
• Weaknesses: Unimpressive options for Ranged.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Can be the "Face" of the party thanks to naturally high Charisma.
• Multiclass Potential: Medium, couples well with Warlock but not much else.
• Perfect For: Players who always choose to be the "good guy" / hero in RPGs, and players who want a Martial character with more depth.

The Paladin is the best example of how a hybrid Martial/Magic class should be designed. Usually, these hybrid classes suffer from being just a bit worse in melee than Fighters and having pathetically little magic to show for it. However, with the Paladin, you can use all of your magical ability to cast Smite, which guarantees 100% efficiency with the use of your Spell Slots, and gives you consistently high damage-output in fights.

In addition to the great damage efficiency you get out of a Paladin, they also get a little bit of healing and some out-of-combat benefits thanks to their naturally high charisma. This is what makes them the best class for people who want to play Martial characters; you can be the big guy with a sword in combat, but you also get a lot more depth in other areas than the Fighter or Barbarian. And while it's not the main focus of this class tier-list, it's also worth mentioning that the Paladin has a strong narrative already "baked-in" to the character.

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Baldur's Gate 3 Class Tier List: A-Tier

These aren't the best Baldur's 3 classes, but they are all solid options, and they won't ever leave you feeling under-powered or pointless compared to your teammates.

Barbarian (A-Tier)

• Best Race: Half-Orc
• Best Sub-Class: Beserker
• Strengths: Easy-to-play, high damage output.
• Weaknesses: Very inefficent at fighting mobs.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Can be used to intimidate?
• Multiclass Potential: Good for a one level dip, but only for Martial classes that want Rage.
• Perfect For: Players who want a simple but powerful tank.

If you want a simple character that get's angry and hits stuff, the Barbarian is for you. For many people that might sound boring, but we have to respect the Barbarian because this class is the best at tanking, and is also capable of impressive single-target damage (they are so good at tanking despite their lack of Heavy Armor proficiency because when they turn on Rage they get resistence to all physical damage).

You would have a very difficult time with a party of four Barbarians, abut we think bringing one to engange the biggest enemy in every fight is hugely beneficial. And if you do choose to play a Barbarian, you have to check out feats, which elevate this class from being merely "good" at single-target damage to one of the best classes in the game at single-target damage.

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Rogue (A-Tier)

• Best Race: Wood Elf (Movement)
• Best Sub-Class: Assassin
• Strengths: Loads of options for what they can do each turn and great single-target damage.
• Weaknesses: Despite having good evasive abilities, the Rogue is still very squishy for a Martial character.
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Fantastic, they're naturally charismatic, and thanks to Expertise they will be called upon for most skill-checks past level 6.
• Multiclass Potential: Very strong, great for either a 1/2 level dip, or even a more committed multiclass build. Can pair well with both Martial and Magic classes.
• Perfect For: Players who aren't keen on magic but want a lot of options on their turn.

The Rogue is maybe the closest class in A-Tier to the S-Tier. The Rogues just get so many abilities, and they're all easy to use and very effective. And when you've mastered all these abilities you're left with a character that can do incredible single-target damage, has a ton of ways to escape danger, and can synergise well with other classes. And that's not even mentioning the Rogue's almost-Bard-level of usefullness outside of combat, as well as their reliance on only one stat: Dex.

The only negative thing we have to say about Rogues in BG3 is that the Arcane Trickster subclass is not as good as it is in DnD. This is largely because illusion magic as a whole is much weaker in BG3 than it is playing tabletop.

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Sorcerer (A-Tier)

• Best Race: Human (Shields)
• Best Sub-Class: Storm Sorcery
• Strengths: Metamagic can give Sorcerers a huge bursts of damage.
• Weaknesses: A much smaller range of spells to use than the Wizard.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: They have naturally high Charisma, but besides that not really.
• Multiclass Potential: Massive - this is the OG class for making broken multiclass builds.
• Perfect For: Technically-minded players who want to make clever use of Metamagic.

"What the hell is the Sorcerer doing in A-tier?" Is what I imagine a great many DnD players are thinking. And to those people all I can suggest is that they try Metamagic in BG3. It feels like in this video game format, the idea of Metamagic is properly realised, and it works far more effectively, and far more often, than it ever does playing tabletop. The other class features, for all the Sorcerer subclasses, are a little underwhelming, but the Metamagic is enough to justify picking a Sorcerer.

Their short spell list is just as annoying in Baldur's Gate as it is in 5e, but for raw combat effectiveness we can't fairly give them less than a B-Tier.

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Wizard (A-Tier)

• Best Race: High Half-Elf (Shields & Extra Cantrip that uses Int)
• Best Sub-Class: Divination
• Strengths: Can cast a greater variety of spells more times a day than any other class.
• Weaknesses: They need to be protected - zero healing and very squishy.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: The only class that doesn't dump Intelligence, and this is useful for quite a few skill checks.
• Multiclass Potential: Poor. We don't recommend multiclassing Wizards.
• Perfect For: Players who want to try out as much magic as possible.

The Wizard has been a part of DnD since the very first edition of the game. But while the costs of playing a Wizard have gone down over the years (they are not even close to being as squishy as they once were, having literally a single D4 of hit points at level 1 OD&D), the benefits remain just as high. These guys get access to damn-near every spell in the game, and they get a ton of Spell Slots. These are the ultimate magic-users for damage and control.

The only reason we don't have them higher is because their survivability is so poor that they simply cannot be used for solo-play, unlike the two classes in S-Tier. Also, there's a decent number of Wizard spells that have not made it into BG3.

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Baldur's Gate 3 Class Tier List: B-Tier

We wouldn't recommend avoiding these classes, as they all have a certain appeal, but you should be aware that they all have notable flaws compared to classes in the A & S tier.

Fighter (B-Tier)

• Best Race: Half-Orc
• Best Sub-Class: Champion
• Strengths: Easy-to-use.
• Weaknesses: Capable of very little besides swinging a sword or shooting a bow.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Nope.
• Multiclass Potential: Fantastic, basically the Martial equivalent of the Sorcerer. A ton of classes could benefit from a small dip into Fighter.
• Perfect For: Beginners.

A lot of people will tell you not to play Fighter because it's so boring, but on this list we only care about the power of each class. The Fighter isn't particularly powerful, but it would be unfair to place it less than B.

This is basically the beginner class. You don't need to be smart with your built, and the abilities aren't situational Why only B-Tier, then? Because there's nothing exceptional about this class, and you will never experience a power-spike that puts you clearly out in front of other classes. Never the worst, but never the best. Just reliable and boring, with almost no out-of-combat utility.

It's worth mentioning that the Fighter is a great multiclass option. This is because it can open up so many proficiencies for you, and the Fighting Style class feature at level 1 is very strong.

Ranger (B-Tier)

• Best Race: Lightfood Halfling
• Best Sub-Class: Gloom Stalker
• Strengths: Solid ranged damage output.
• Weaknesses: The fantasty of being an "expert" in a certain type of environment is still very underwhelming in BG3, even if it's a big step up from how the Ranger works in 5e.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Like the Druid - good in the woods, but less so in the city.
• Multiclass Potential: Low, in almost all cases it's better to just take the Fighter over the Ranger when multiclassing.
• Perfect For: People who want to be Robin Hood or Legolas.

Still a disappointment. Okay, we're being harsh, it's not as bad as the original Player's Handbook version of the Ranger, but it's also still a fairly mid class. The problem with the Ranger is that many of their skills are situational, and they have to make very inefficient tradeoffs to get anything more interesting out of the class than simply providing some ranged damage. In fairness to Larian, the Beast Master is much better in BG3 than DnD, but overall we couldn't recommend this class.

They already buffed this class once during the EA (you can now have a Familiar and a Companion out at the same time) so we expect the Ranger might move further up this list in the future.

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Warlock (B-Tier)

• Best Race: Drow (either sub-race)
• Best Sub-Class: Archfey
• Strengths: Eldrich Blast is the best Cantrip in DnD, and Eldrich Invocations allow you to specialize in ways that no other class can.
• Weaknesses: Fall off in power compared to other Magic classes as you level up.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Depending on the Invocations you pick, the Warlock can be very good at deception.
• Multiclass Potential: Great, they offer a lot in the first few levels, which is what we look for when multiclassing.
• Perfect For: Players that welcome the narrative implications of "signing a deal with the devil".

The Warlock is easily one of the coolest classes in all of Dungeons & Dragons, and in Baldur's Gate 3 this remains a badass class. Unfortunately, we don't have any Unearthed Arcana content (basically DLC for DnD) in BG3, and so we don't have the best Warlock subclass: the Hexblade. But we do still have some cool patrons to pick from like The Fiend and the Great Old One.

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So why is Warlock only in B-Tier? Because the Warlock is only really strong at low-levels, beyond that point it's only relevant to power-gamers as a multiclass option.It is a fantastic multiclass option but in this tier-list we're looking at the strength of classes by themselves, and so we have to take into account the mid and late-game weaknesses of the Warlock.

The main reason Warlocks fall behind the power-curve is their lack of spell slots. Even from as low as level 5, the Wizard has nine spell slots in total, compared to the Warlock's two. The Warlock get's to use both slots to cast spells at the highest possible level, but having so few opportunities to actually cast becomes noticeable and boring. And the gap in spell economy between Warlocks and other casters only widens beyond level 5.

Baldur's Gate 3 Class Tier List: C-Tier

These are absolutely not the best classes in Baldur's Gate 3.

Bard (C-Tier)

• Best Race: Githyanki (Medium Armor)
• Best Sub-Class: College of Lore
• Strengths: Decent support and control magic.
• Weaknesses: Very little damage capability.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: The best in the game, they can literally do it all.
• Multiclass Potential: Poor, Bard's aren't front-loaded and so taking a few levels of Bard wouldn't help other classes much.
• Perfect For: Players who are more interested in the narrative and social world of BG3.

The Bard is sadly one of the classes that suffers in a video game format. In BG3, unlike tabletop, your out-of-combat options are obviously more limited, and you don't have a human DM to try and woo and persuade at every opportunity. So the Bard's natural strengths are simply less relevant.

The Bard isn't a bad class per se, even when we look strictly at combat, and their spell list offers a decent variety of support and healing. However, their Bardic Inspiration die are simply not very effective, and their role on the battlefield can be so easily replaced by a good Cleric.

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Druid (C-Tier)

• Best Race: Forest Gnome
• Best Sub-Class: Circle of the Moon
• Strengths: Wildshaping offers a unique playstle that blends magic and melee combat.
• Weaknesses: Wildshaping has been severly nerfed compared to the DnD 5e rules.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Druids can commune with animals and plants, but in urban environments they are about as useful as Barbarians.
• Multiclass Potential: Very low, the way the Druid works can't effectively be combined with other classes.
• Perfect For: Players who are drawn to natural magic.

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I hate that I can't put the Druid higher, this is maybe my favorite class from 5e. However, in the world of Baldur's Gate 3, the devs had to transform all this complicated magic from DnD into a video game format. And sadly the Druid's magic and their main ability, Wildshape (which lets you transform into animals), have suffered the most in the transition from tabletop-imagination to the world of video games and exact numbers.

You don't get the infamous Brown Bear at level 2 with Circle of the Moon (it's been replaced by a much worse version simply called "Bear"). Many of your best environmental/control spells have not made it into the game (presumably because it would be too much work and would be too taxing for the game engine). And your Wildshape options no longer scale into late-game based on CR.

Yuck. I hate what they've done to the Druid, but we always knew Primal magic would suffer the most in this format.

Baldur's Gate 3 Class Tier List: D-Tier

Monk (D-Tier)

• Best Race: Wood Elf (Movement)
• Best Sub-Class: Way of the Open Hand
• Strengths: Great movement, doesn't require loot.
• Weaknesses: Low damage, Ki mechanic is inefficent, many of the abilities are situational.
  
• Out-Of-Combat Usefullness: Very little to offer besides decent Wisdom.
• Multiclass Potential: Low. Much like the Druid, the Monk works in a very different way to other classes, and so there aren't many synergies to benefit from.
• Perfect For: Players that want to be a martial-arts legend (and haven't been disappointed by the Monk before).

As with DnD, Baldur's Gate 3 fails to satisfy the martial-artist fantasy players are looking for. To be fair to Larian they would need to wholly re-invent the class to make it better, and so you can blame the weaknesses of the Monk on Wizards of the Coast.

The Monk is trying to offer you a kind of martial-arts style fighter, and there are some benefits to this. For one thing, the Monk is less reliant on loot than other classes, and they have a good action economy so you get to physically do a lot during combat. But your damage output will quickly feel weak compared to other classes and damage is kind of all you're good for, with no out-of-combat benefits or opportunities to support teammates.

Avoid the Monk.

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And that, my fellow adventurers, was your guide to the Baldur's Gate 3 best class. Do you agree, or are you furious that we didn't give the title of "Baldur's Gate 3 best class" to Paladin or Rogue?

Druid's have important non-combat advantages: