Baldur’s Gate 3: Abilities Overview Guide

Ability Points must be spent wisely in Baldur’s Gate 3, just as in Dungeons & Dragons. Every class has particular Abilities it should prioritize, but there should be some thought put into their overall distribution. You shouldn’t pump all your Ability Points into just one stat in Baldur’s Gate 3. This guide will give a broad overview touching on each Ability, their effects, and which classes should invest in them.

Which Are the Best Abilities for Each Class in Baldur’s Gate 3

How Abilities Work

The best abilities in Baldur’s Gate 3 are those that offer improvements to your character’s offensive capabilities and skill checks. When you pick a class in the character creation menu, the Abilities tab will automatically allocate points based on that class’ priorities. The most important attribute is also denoted with a star symbol.

You can see an example in the image below where Wisdom is prioritized for the Druid. Naturally, you can still increase or decrease these values before starting the game proper.

Best Abilities for Classes and Skill Checks

Below, we’ve detailed the Baldur’s Gate 3 abilities that you’ll have to consider. We also note which classes excel with these Abilities in mind, as well as the skill checks that they govern.

Strength (STR)

• Function: Increases melee weapon effectiveness, jump distance, and carry weight.
• Classes: Barbarians, Fighters, and Paladins.
• Skills: Athletics.

Dexterity (DEX)

• Function: Increases initiative (i.e., turn order), armor class (i.e., armor defense), ranged weapon effectiveness, and finesse weapon effectiveness.
• Classes: Rangers and Rogues.
• Skills: Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth.

Constitution (CON)

• Function: Increases your max HP.
• Classes: All – While CON isn’t the main stat of a particular class, it’s still necessary to have to improve survivability. Allocate as necessary.
• Skills: None.

Intelligence (INT)

• Function: Improves spellcasting effectiveness.
• Classes: Wizards.
• Skills: Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion.

Wisdom (WIS)

• Function: Improves spellcasting effectiveness
• Classes: Clerics, Druids, and Rangers.
• Skills: Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Perception, and Survival.

Charisma (CHA)

• Function: Improves spellcasting effectiveness and affects trade prices of merchants.
• Classes: Bards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks.
• Skills: Deception, Intimidation, Performance, and Persuasion.

Related: How to Save Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3

Tips When Allocating and Min-Maxing Abilities

There are other concepts to be mindful of when considering the Baldur’s Gate 3 best abilities for your character:

• Your race and sub-race matters. Certain options provide +1 or +2 to an ability, as well as a skill.
• You gain a bonus to your dice rolls for every two ability points above 10, and a malus below that value. For instance, having 12 Wisdom grants +1 to Wisdom-based skill checks and saving throws. But, having 16 Wisdom gives +3 to those rolls.
• While you can predominantly focus on a specific ability for your class, you’ll still need to have a viable stat spread. For instance, I made sure that my Bard had 16 Charisma for spellcasting, as well as around 14 Dexterity and 14 Constitution. I wanted Dexterity for armor defense and the use of finesse weapons. Constitution, meanwhile, is something that I find viable for all classes, since it also ensures higher HP gains.

And that’s it. That’s all you need to know about the best abilities to prioritize for each class in Baldur’s Gate 3. For more tips and tactics, you can visit our BG3 guides hub.