Hello and welcome to my first BG3 guide. You might remember me from Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous' guides like this one.

This time, I bring you a simple BG3 summary guide so you can check ALL features of every class and subclass in one place, without the need of opening several webpages (like that crappy fextra wiki) to check what each subclass gets at each level. Since this is a beginner-friendly guide, I won't cover advanced topics such as multiclassing. Use Control + F to jump to specific parts of the guide.

If this guide's helped you in any way, feel free to give it a positive rating and/or add it to your favorites! if you see anything wrong, please let me know and I'll be happy to edit it accordingly.

Thanks to my friends Kram and Julia for helping me with the images and formatting. <3

Sturdy and powerful combatants, Barbarians can enter a Rage state in which they deal extra damage on attacks while also receiving resistance to various types of damage. This rage effect can be kept on for the whole battle as long as you hit an enemy or get hit every turn (missing an attack also counts).

The Barbarian also receives the highest amount of health points out of all classes. In addition, they get extra armour class from their Constitution modifier, so you get extra life AND armour in one stat, as long as you are not wearing any armour.

You think violence is the question, not the answer. The answer is yes.

This subclass is basically an enhancement to the already great offensive capabilities of the Barbarian. Your Rage turns into a Frenzy. During a frenzy, you can make an extra attack as a bonus action on each turn. However, every time you use this extra frenzy attack, you suffer a stacking -1 to your hit chance until your Frenzy ends, so pay attention to your number of stacks.

A nature warrior, able to channel animal aspects and choose a bestial heart, receiving different rage bonuses according to the animal heart you pick. Those bonuses include self healing, extra movement speed, bleed attacks, a leap attack, among others, and you can change your heart choice at each level up. Additionally, you can speak to animals at will.

Every time you enter a rage, you unleash a random magic effect. Most of those effects are self buffs, while others can trigger different AoE effects around you. You can also support the spellcasters in your party by recovering some of their spell slots.

Unpredictable, strong, with a bit of magic support on top, that's basically it.

The bard is your classic "jack of all trades", offering a lot of build possibilities and group utility. They can cover the lock-picking role of your thief, cast spells (mainly support, buffs and debuffs), use basic armor and weapons, handle all kinds of ability checks, and much more.

Their unique ability buffs party members to enhance their attack rolls, saving throws, or ability checks. Since they are Charisma-based, they also make for a great "face" of the party, being a nice option for a main character to deal with all those persuasion, intimidation, and performance checks.

Support-oriented Bard. Focuses on spellcasting and debuffing enemies from afar. You get more spells instead of an extra attack, and a bunch of extra proficiencies to be the designated "skill monkey".

Do you want your bard to be a melee swashbuckler? This is the choice for you. You can pick a fighting style between Dueling (fighting with one hand free) or Two-Weapon Fighting so you can be a frontline rogue-like support.

This subclass also specialises in melee combat, but this time you are more of a fighter-bard hybrid since you can use any kind of weapon, allowing you to make a STR bard. You can also use shields and medium armor, so you can be a little more defensive if you want.

Normally used as healers, Clerics are great support characters because of their spell variety. They can heal and buff allies while having some offensive spell options for harming enemies (especially undead).

They have to choose a deity to worship, along with one domain (their subclass). While the deity choice is purely used for roleplaying purposes, their domain grants them extra abilities and add different spells to their list, following the "theme" of your chosen domain. Those domain spells are always prepared, meaning that you don't have to worry about not having available slots for them.

I'll organize the domains into 3 groups, according to their foci, including a list of the extra spells each domain gets and other notable features:

• Spellcasting: Life, Light, Nature
  
• Melee combat: Tempest, War
  
• Utility/roleplay: Knowledge, Trickery

This domain is all about healing, including their Channel Divinity spell. It's the best healer you can get on this game, with nice support spells on top of great AoE healing. They get heavy armour proficiency at level 1 and extra 1d6 radiant damage to their weapon attacks starting at level 8.

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Light domain clerics are offensive spellcasters, focusing on fire spells and using light to impose disadvantages on enemies. They can use their Channel Divinity charges to deal radiant damage and dispel darkness around an enemy. At level 8, you can add your wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with cleric cantrips.

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Another variant of the spellcasting cleric, but more of a crowd controller this time with your druidic nature spells and the ability to charm animals and plants with your Channel Divinity. They also get a free druid cantrip and become proficient in animal handling, nature, or survival. At level 8, you can add 1d8 elemental damage to your weapon damage on melee (fire, cold, or lightning).

Tempest clerics utilize lightning and thunder spells against their enemies. They can wield any kind of weapon and wear any kind of armor, and can deal extra damage to melee attackers as a reaction, thus pushing them a little more towards melee combat. They can use their Channel Divinity to maximize the damage on their lightning and thunder spells and reactions.

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War clerics are martial combat specialists. They're the only cleric who can make 2 weapon attacks per round, by spending an unique resource that is equal to their Wisdom modifier. Along with that, they can also wield any weapon and wear any armour. Their Channel Divinity can be used as a reaction to give a whopping +10 bonus to an attack roll that would otherwise miss. That can be used for themselves or for allies.

*Freedom of Movement.

This domain offers tools for roleplaying, being a master of languages and skill proficiency. Your Channel Divinity can be used to gain proficiency in all skills of a chosen ability. The big deal is that you can swap your chosen proficiencies every time you need something different, like in dialogue or exploration. You can also allocate a +2 expertise bonus on History, Nature, Religion, or Arcana.

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Masters of deception, Trickery clerics focus on illusion spells, that can offer some good utility for stealth gameplay and deception acts. Their Channel Divinity can be used to summon an illusion to distract your enemies, granting allies advantage on attack rolls against a creature if both the attacker and the illusion are within 3m of that creature.

Druids are divine spellcasters specialized in nature magic. Their deep bond with animals lets them shapeshift into different kinds of beasts, each with its own special ability and stats. Their spellbook offer some good versatility in crowd control and damage potential. But do remember that you can't cast spells while shifted.

If playing a nature mage that can turn into animals strikes your fancy, the Druid is the right choice for you. Nothing so satisfying than turning into an owlbear to crush your enemies under your feet... I mean, paws.

This subclass gives you a lot of spell choices to be a master of nature and the elements. At specific levels, you can pick a druid circle to receive 2 extra spells each time. Those spells are always prepared (you don't need to waste a slot for them) and some of those choices can give you spells that are not in your spellbook normally. You can pick different circles each time according to your preference.

If you want a full caster Druid, or don't care so much about shapeshifting, this is a good choice for you.

This subclass focuses entirely on the shapeshifting capabilities of the Druid, expanding their choice of beasts while giving you tools to keep your transformation for longer. Recommended for players who want to deep dive into the metamorphosis aspect of the class. This is the only subclass that can use shapeshifting as a bonus action and turn into a Myrmidon.



In case you don't know what the hell is a myrmidon, here's an example (taken from the Forgotten Realms wiki[forgottenrealms.fandom.com]):

Another variant of a spellcaster Druid, but this time you're focusing your nature magic into its necrotic side, using spores, fungi, poison, and necrosis. You receive some necromancy spells which are not included on the druid spellbook by default.

Fighters are pretty basic and straightforward: they excel at martial combat and battlefield control. They can equip any kind of weapon, armor, or shield, so you have plenty of tools to choose from. If you want to do a standard melee warrior, it's hard to go wrong by picking the fighter.

You might think they are weak since they don't have that many flashy skills and generally just attack with weapons, but fighters are really, really strong in what they do. They are the only martial class that gets three attacks per action/turn. With their Action Surge ability, they can get up to six attacks on a single turn at level 11. If that's not strong enough, they get to choose four feats, instead of three. Fighters are unmatched when it comes to martial combat.

The battle master is all about combat manoeuvers, special abilities that can apply all sorts of disadvantages on enemies, bolster your attack damage, and also buff yourself or allies. They offer a strategic gameplay by picking the right ability at the right time.

Their combat tricks can be employed by using charges of "Superiority Dice". Those charges are recovered after a short or long rest. Some of those abilties let you use your standard attack to also trip, taunt, disarm, distract, or push enemies for example, offering more versatility to the basic fighter.

The most notable feature of the Champion is that they are slightly better at scoring a critical hit. The number you need to roll a Critical Hit while attacking is reduced by 1.

That means: instead of only getting a critical hit with an attack roll of 20, you can crit with a roll of 19 or higher, basically doubling your chances. This can also can stack with other similar effects.

If you're not sure about which subclass to pick, or if you want something simpler so you don't have to manage spells or ability charges with rests, this is a good choice for you. It's basically a crit buff to the base class.

A wizard-fighter hybrid, that gets all the Fighter features along with the ability to cast up to level 2 spells. Think of a classic battlemage that can excel at weapon fighting while having access to some basic spells.

It's mostly recommended to get some self buffs and utility spells for your fighter since you won't be able to cast high level spells with a pure Eldritch Knight. While you do have some damage spells at your disposal, your hit-chance with those won't be so high without enough points into INT. So, unless you plan on doing some multiclassing or going for a very specific build/item, it's generally a good idea to focus on utility, and not trying to be a full DPS wizard, because you won't be.

Monks prefer to do the talking with their fists. Powerful melee combatants, they can use their signature ability, Flurry of Blows, to make an extra unarmed attack as soon as level 1. This ability, along with other martial arts techniques from their arsenal, spends Ki points. They can employ most of their techniques by attacking with their fists or with monk weapons (any weapon you are proficient in that is not heavy, i.e., two-handed). Attacks with monk weapons and unarmed attacks scale with your Dexterity instead of your Strength if your Dexterity is higher.

Like Barbarians, it is recommended that you don't wear armour on your monk, because they get extra armour points from a different stat, in this case Wisdom. Playing an unarmoured monk like this makes your character super fast and tanky, punching enemies left and right with your extra attacks.

This seems like a lot, but this class is very front-loaded, getting most of their selling points at early levels.

You can bend and manipulate the elements to your will. This Monk can deliver crowd control and deadly elemental attacks along with their fists, offering combat versatility to employ different effects with your "fist spells", including some AoE damage.

This is the unarmed combat specialist. They can employ several new effects with their Flurry of Blows, while also receiving extra elemental damage added to their attacks via their Wisdom modifier. If you want to go wild on the class fantasy, this is the choice for you. Open Hand monks offer arguably the highest damage potential of the class, and are quite simple to play.

This Monk focuses on stealth and subterfuge, employing shadow arts to vanish from sight, teleport all around the battlefield, and strike from the shadows. Think of a kind of rogue, with a little bit of ninja, if you will. I can't explain it better than that, sorry.

Your local castery fighter. Paladins offer some nice support capabilities by using Channel Oath charges, casting auras around them, along with huge single target damage potential with their iconic ability, Smite, which adds a lot of extra damage and other effects to their attacks. They can cast up to level 3 spells, wear heavy armour and wield any kind of weapon.

Paladins are a good choice for a main character, offering good roleplaying aspects by following your chosen sacred oath to uphold justice and righteousness along with each oath's personal tenets. You can also ignore those tenets or maybe go against them and see how it goes... if you don't want spoilers, avoid the "Oathbreaker" section.

Your typical good guy who protects the party and fights evil, guided by courage, compassion, and duty. Starting at level 1, you can use your Channel Oath charges to grant an ally a vengeful aura that deals 1d4 radiant damage to anyone who hits them with a melee attack.

The blessed knight in shining armour, using light and nature to protect allies and promote kindness and love. You receive "Healing Radiance", which uses your Channel Oath charges to heal everyone around you for two turns. This is your healer paladin, basically.

You are a punisher of evil deeds, who vows to eliminate all traces of villainy from the world. No mercy. Your Channel Oath charges can be used to bless your weapon (or an ally's weapon) to deal additional radiant damage equal to your charisma modifier with a chance to daze the target.

If you break your oath's tenets, you will turn into an Oathbreaker. The Oathbreaker receives some abilities and spells that deal necrotic damage, while being able to command and turn undead to their will.

While this does obviously suggest a corruption path, and you can very much play it like that if you want, it doesn't necessarily mean that you turn evil. The basic idea is that you broke your oath by prioritizing your personal needs and views over the basic tenets you once swore by. You might have done that because you were tempted by the dark side, of course, but maybe you just didn't agree with the obvious lawful-good options and went through a more neutral or chaotic path instead... So treat it with a little bit of nuance according to your roleplaying choices.

You can become an oathbreaker at any level, gaining all oathbreaker's previous abilities according to your level (you'll only lose the unique features of your previous oath, of course). In case you want to atone for your sins and return to your previous oath, you can talk to the oathbreaker knight in camp and pay 1k gold.

Rangers are skilled nature scouts and hunters, mastering control over wild beasts and the environment. Although the most common path for a ranger being that of an archer, they can also fight in the frontlines with great success, due to rangers being able to wield any kind of weapon and wear medium armor. Rangers can also cast spells of up to third level (using the Wisdom stat), most of those spells being of the nature theme for good buffs and crowd control.

You can have an animal companion to travel with you and fight by your side. Each animal has its unique abilities and can be used in combat in different ways:

• Bear: can taunt enemies, knock enemies prone or make enemies drop their weapons;
  
• Boar: can charge ahead knocking enemies prone and also enter a rage (similar to barbarians);
  
• Spider: can poison enemies, throw webs to slow them down, or trap them in cocoons;
  
• Raven: can blind and curse enemies. Also has high mobility to scout high places;
  
• Wolf: can make enemies bleed and lunge at targets, knocking them prone.

Be wary that having some animals around you can make npcs run around and scream in fear. It might be wise dismissing them before entering towns and villages.

The assassin Ranger, who can ambush enemies from shadows, become invisible in the dark, and disguise yourself as different races and genders.

The ideal subclass for an experienced ranger, be it melee or ranged, receiving special abilities to deal with multiple enemies at once and also defend themselves against attacks. If you don't care for animal companions or stealth gameplay, this is a great choice for you.

You can choose one of three abilities:

• Horde Breaker: Target two creatures standing close to each other, attacking them in quick succession;
  
• Giant Killer: If a large or bigger creature attacks you, you can use your reaction to make a melee attack;
  
• Colossus Slayer: Once per turn, your weapon attack deals an extra 1d8 damage if the target is below its hit point maximum.

Rogues are masters of stealth, with a jack of all trades nature similar to bards, but this time focused on damage potential and uncanny reflexes. Their signature move is the Sneak Attack: once per turn, you deal additional 1d6 damage to any enemy you have advantage against. You need to use a finesse weapon on your main hand to proc this.

Similar to the Eldritch Knight, this version of the Rogue can cast spells of up to level 2. The same pros and cons apply here: It's mostly recommended to get some self buffs and utility spells for your rogue since you won't be able to cast high level spells with a pure Arcane Trickster, and you also won't have high enough INT to have high hit chance on your offensive spells and debuffs (unless you plan on doing some multiclassing or you're going for a very specific build/item).

The assassin is a Dark Brotherhood member swift killer, who specializes in killing enemies out of stealth and then quickly returning to the shadows. It offers a massive burst damage potential. One of their signature abilities lets you restore your actions and bonus actions at the start of combat. With this, you can stealth close to an enemy, deliver a critical hit to start combat, and then have all of your actions available right away to make a full attack.

The classic stereotype of a Rogue: an agile and stealthy burglar. In case you don't want to worry about spells or managing stealth gameplay out of combat, this is a simple and effective choice for you. The most notable feature of this class is the fact that you get two bonus actions on every turn. This opens up several combat possibilities, like jumping behind an enemy, shoving them off a cliff, and then going into stealth. Or drinking two potions. Be creative.

Sorcerers are Charisma-based spellcasters who receive their magical powers either from their lineage or bloodline, as an expression of their inner self. Their unique mechanic, Sorcery Points, are charges used to either alter the effects of their spells with Metamagic or recover spent spell slots. Sorcery Points are recovered with a long rest.

Metamagic allows you to:

• avoid hitting allies with your spells;
  
• increase the range of your spells;
  
• double the duration or applied conditions;
  
• target additional enemies with single-target spells;
  
• cast two spells in one round;
  
• force disadvantage on saving throws; or
  
• cast while silenced.

A balanced, optimal usage of metamagic and sorcerer's limited amount of spell slots can be a little overwhelming for new players, who might find wizards easier to get into.

You get your powers via a powerful dragon ancestor, carrying draconic magic in your blood. You can choose your draconic ancestry, getting a bonus spell of an element determined by the color of the dragon: red (fire), black (acid), blue (lighning), white (cold), green (poison), gold (fire), silver (cold), bronze (lighning), copper (acid), or brass (fire). This choice also alters the colour of the scales that appear on your character.

Pretty self-explanatory, eh. You are a master of thunder and lightning, able to channel the rage of storms against your enemies, and freely fly around the battlefield.

Your power comes from ancient forms of chaos. Every time you cast a spell, a random effect might happen. This effect can be beneficial, harmful, or both. This class offers unpredictable moments during fights because you never know what you'll get. It's all about luck.

Warlocks are versatile spellcasters bound to powerful otherwordly beings known as Patrons. This connection gives them an extra choice of spells and abilities for their pact. Their spellcasting has some unique features that differs the warlock from other casters. They can only cast 2 spells per rest, regardless of spell level. That means, you don't have separate slots for every spell level as you do on other classes. You can just cast 2 amongst all of your choices.

However, there are 2 main differences: They recover their spell slots on a short rest, instead of only on long rests like other casters (meaning you can cast 6 spells total before having to long rest, just 2 at a time). To compensate for this, warlocks always cast their spells at the highest level possible. Even a level 1 spell will do damage as if it were of their current level.

Warlocks also have the unique cantrip "Eldritch Blast", that can deal up to 3d10 damage at higher levels and can push enemies away, so you have a great spam spell to use every turn.

You are bound to a lady or lord of the Fey, being able to pick between different fey-themed spells, mostly of the crowd control variety.

Warlocks bound by fiends receive hellish benefits, towards destruction and corruption. You receive extra elemental spell choices, mostly for fire damage (yes, you can cast Fireball). Suits a ranged spellcaster playstyle really well, if that's your plan.

Warlocks bound to eldritch beings in the Far Realms gain strange powers over entropy and the mind. They can apply disadvantages on enemies and become resistant to psychic damage. Works well for both melee and ranged Warlocks.

Wizards use their intellect to cast spells, which they learn via rigorous research and study of the magical arts. They differ from sorcerers in two unique ways: first, they can add new spells to their spellbook by learning those from scrolls, which can potentially let you learn all spells in the game and switch between them whenever you want, and they get to choose a school of magic to specialize in, gaining specific unique benefits for each one, while making it cheaper to learn spells from scrolls of that school.

Wizards are masters of versatility, being able to switch their prepared spells at any time while out of combat to pick the right tools for each individual encounter.

Abjuration spells summon wards, banish enemies, and nullify magic, suitable for those who wish to defend themselves and others. It helps to give your wizard some tankiness, which is something they severely lack due to not being able to wear armour.

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The conjuration school focuses on summoning creatures and objects, as well as displacing them around the environment.

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Divination specialists can manipulate dice rolls around themselves using "Portent Dice". After each long rest, you gain two random portent dice. During the day, you can use your reaction to change the die of any attack roll or saving throw rolled near you to one of your Portent Dice. Each Portent Die can only be used once.

This school focuses on crowd control, enchanting enemies and bending them to your will.

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This is about doing huge elemental damage. Your local blaster DPS wizard. The best thing about it is that you can throw your evocation spells without damaging your party.

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If you've ever wanted to be a master of death, controlling an army of undead minions, this is the choice for you.

This school focuses on creating illusions to fool your enemies.

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You can manipulate and twist matter at will, mastering the art of alchemy and transmutation.