Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Classes and Subclasses Tier List

Cleric

• Type: Support
• Best Subclass: Light Domain

No party can effectively move through the Faerun continent without having a Cleric as its ally. Access to various buffs and healing spells provides a massive advantage in every situation.

The two best buff spells I recommend for Cleric are Bless and Aid. Bless grants a 1d4 bonus to attack rolls and saving throws, while Aid boosts ally Toughness and Resolve, which increase their attacking and healing powers. If you simply want to heal an ally or revive a downed player, then use Healing Word, a powerful evocative spell.

I strongly suggest going with the Light Domain subclass since you get some very important augments, such as Warding Flare and Radiance of Dawn. Both of these provide you with some extra damage and defenses.

Related: How to Save Shadowheart

Wizard

• Type: Control
• Best Subclass: School of Abjuration

Wizards are masters of control and spell-casting! They have access to the largest number of spells due to their unique ability to learn incantations by collecting scrolls throughout the world.

Some of the most useful sorceries Wizards can learn are: Light, Armour of Agathys, Fog Cloud, Sleep, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Flame Blade, Flaming Sphere, Hold Person, Scorching Ray, and many others. Note that all these spells can usually be cast only by their respective classes, but due to the Wizard’s power to learn these scrolls, you gain access to the powers of all other classes, which easily makes it an S-tier choice on this tier list.

A Wizard can also be very useful in the School of Abjuration subclass due to its strong focus on protective spells. If you’re lucky enough to find the Armour of Agathys scroll, then you can also significantly improve your own durability.

• Type: Attack
• Best Subclass: Battle Master

I’d recommend the Fighter class to all beginner players, as it’s the easiest one to use by far, and it’s also quite effective. Fighters are excellent in combat and don’t require you to learn any special or complicated tactics.

Every Fighter has access to six fighting styles that are divided into two categories: offensive and defensive. Obviously, if you don’t want to waste your time in defense, the best fighting styles you should focus on are Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, and Two-Weapon Fighting. All of them increase your damage in various ways that are easy to utilize and learn.

If you want to add some spice to your combat, then go with the Battle Master subclass, which utilizes six Combat Maneuver spells. The two best ones are Menacing Attack and Pushing Attack, which help quite a bit during any fight.

Sorcerer

• Type: Control
• Best Subclass: Draconic Bloodline

The Sorcerer class can be compared to the Wizard class, but it has one significant downside: it can’t learn spells from scrolls. However, it has access to Metamagic, which is a really cool (and useful) ability.

Metamagic is represented by the levels of various spells, where you choose one from the list of available ones. But you can also use it to exchange spell points for spell slots, which can be very handy in certain situations. If I had to choose the best spell from Metamagic, then I’d pick an Extend spell, which effectively doubles the duration of all your summons and conditions.

If you decide to run this class, then be sure to go with the Draconic Srocerer subclass that has access to Draconic Ancestry and Draconic Resilience, which are both extremely powerful spells.

Barbarian

• Type: Attack
• Best Subclass: Berserker

This class is a good alternative to the Fighter class, although Barbarian has a stronger focus on defense. You get better resistance to physical damage, and your own damage doesn’t suffer too much either.

The best feature of this class is the Rage, which is unlocked at Level 1. It grants you a damage bonus for your melee weapons and thrown objects and increases your defensive stats against piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning damage. Later on, you can also unlock Danger Sense and Reckless Attack, which can easily improve any build.

The Berserker subclass turns Barbarian into real beasts with its own Frenzy feature. This one allows you to execute sequences of powerful attacks one after another, stacking huge amounts of damage.

• Type: Control
• Best Subclass: Circle of the Moon

It seems that a Druid tries to be either a Sorcerer or a Wizard, but can’t really fulfill any of those roles equally well. But in addition to its spell-casting abilities, it has the Wild Shape feature, which is quite interesting.

The Druid has a weak pool of spells, but Wild Shape grants it some excellent durability. For example, if you turn yourself into a beast, all the damage dealt is basically not real damage. Once you return to your original form, your HP stays the same as before, which is nice, to say the least.

That’s also why Circle of the Moon is the best subclass for Druid, as it extends its most important features, adding Combat Wild Shape and Improved Wild Shape. The first one uses bonus action points instead of standard ones, and the second one adds very strong Polar Bear and very mobile Dire Raven forms to your shapeshifting abilities.

Ranger

• Type: Attack
• Best Subclass: Beastmaster

A Ranger is basically a hunter-explorer with spell-casting abilities. Unfortunately, not a single one of its features stands out or provides a strong identity, putting at the bottom of this tier list. It’s hard to build around this class in general, although the Beastmaster subclass provides some relief in that regard.

There are a few features that can make this class work, such as Ranger Knight, which provides you with some durable heavy armor, and Wasteland Wanderer, which grants you a number of resistances, including cold, fire, and poison. The best damage spell a Ranger can use is Ensnaring Strike, which restrains saving throws.

But all that’s nothing without the Summon Companion, a feature only available to the Beastmaster subclass. Some of the best animal companions you can summon during any fight are the bear, raven, and spider. You can also summon them as many times as you want between fights.