Rangers are masters of death from a distance, and this build seeks to utilize that through stealth and ambushes. Surprising our foes will be our priority while eliminating key targets in the first and second rounds leaving clean-up to our allies. Here’s my best Ranger build in Baldur’s Gate 3.
How to Make the Best Ranger Build in Baldur’s Gate 3
As I mentioned, this Ranger build will rely on ranged attacks from Stealth and getting additional hand crossbow attacks with the Thief Rogue multiclass. The important choices we’ll be discussing later are:
- Race: Githyanki, Wood Elf, or Drow.
- Subclass & Multiclassing: Ranger Gloom Stalker and Rogue Thief.
- Feats: Sharpshooter, Dexterity Increases, and Alert.
- Gear: Dual-wield Hand Crossbows like the Hellfire one for an extra two Bonus Action attacks with Thief and another one with G.S. Ranger. I would also highly recommend combining the Hunter’s Mark spell with the Circlet of Hunting from Araj and the Risky Ring as that’ll essentially ignore the Sharpshooter penalty. Additionally, pick up the Cloak of Displacement, Armor of Agility, Legacy of the Masters, and Disintegrating Night Walkers.
As for Ability Scores, we want to maximize our Dexterity first, then Wisdom for a decent spellsave DC, and finally Constitution. No matter which race you pick, put that +2 into Dexterity for a 17 and +1 into Wisdom for a 16. We don’t need Strength since we’ll be using Jump or the Githyanki’s movement abilities for mobility.
As for base Ranger features, there are three important choices:
- Fighting Style: Archery to offset the penalty from our Sharpshooter feat later.
- Favored Enemy: Bounty Hunter for advantage on Ensaring Strike.
- Spells: Hunter’s Mark for damage on bosses, Ensnaring Strike for lockdown, Enhance Leap for Mobility, Pass Without Trace for ambushes, and then pick your favorites.
Combine this build with a strong vanguard that will separate you from the enemies. I recommend my Karlach, Lae’Zel, and tanky Shadowheart builds for the rest of your party, as per your preference. Let’s now discuss the rest of our choices, as well as strategies.
Best Ranger Race in BG3
I would suggest the following race choices due to the mobility and utility spell options they offer:
- Githyanki: Offers excellent mobility options with Jump and Misty Step.
- Wood Elf: Extra movement coupled with free Stealth and Perception proficiency to avoid ambushes since we want to be the ambusher.
- Drow: Besides Superior Darkvision we’re here for the Faerie Fire spell, which will grant us Advantage on attacks heavily synergizing with Sharpshooter.
Whatever you do, I wouldn’t recommend picking up small races with movement penalties on Ranger. Our goal will be positioning for the perfect Surprise round so we need all the movement we can get.
Best Ranger Subclass and Feats
We arrive at our crucial choice, which is the Gloom Stalker subclass and then after Level 5 when you get Extra Attack go into Thief Rogue for three levels to get extra bonus action attacks. Dread Ambusher is our bread and butter here, as it will grant us an Initiative bonus so we can go first in surprise rounds. We ensure surprise rounds with the Pass Without a Trace spell and our high Stealth skill. As for Thief, they get extra bonus actions which we can use for Hand Cross bow dual wield attacks.
We can then position well with the Jump to have a full view of key enemy targets like Mages, Healers, or Bosses. From here, Dread Ambusher also gives us an extra empowered attack to use in the first round.
Combine this with the Sharpshooter feat at Level 4, which gives us +10 damage on each attack. We’re making three high-damage attacks on the first round at Level 5 with Extra Attack, and five once we grab three levels into Thief Rogue with dual-wielding hand crossbows. The penalty from the feat will be reduced by our Advantage thanks to Stealth and the Risky Ring, as well as the Archery fighting style and our gear choices. Pop Hunter’s Mark for more damage and to offset the Sharpshooter penalty further with the Circlet of Hunting.
Once you have 5 levels into Ranger and 3 levels into Rogue, progress with Ranger all the way for extra spells and feats. After Sharpshooter, max out your Dexterity score through Feats and grab Alert for extra Initiative if you have a spare feat. I recommend getting Auntie Ethel’s Scalp for another Dexterity bump.
The Thief subclass greatly synergizes with our sniper playstyle by allowing us to attack two more times with our bonus action meaning more Sharpshooter attacks. This is devastating, especially when you consider we’re also getting that Hunter’s Mark damage boost on all five in the first round for +5d6 if we hit them all which we likely will thanks to Risky Ring and Circlet of Hunting. Focus fire the boss with this setup and the rest of the fight swings in your favor. Sneak Attack will proc on enemies we’re hidden from or if you charge your Karlach or Lae’Zel up to them.
This concludes my best Ranger build in Baldur’s Gate 3. Check out more of our BG3 guides like my best builds and classes for Honour mode.
