Agilio Macabasco
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10 Min read Choosing between the Baldur’s Gate 3 races can be difficult, especially since it’s one of the permanent decisions of the character creation process.
Each race offers its own unique perks and bonuses that offer potential advantages to your party.
Compared to D&D 5th Edition, there are some slight differences to choosing your race – mainly no racial stat bonuses and no languages.
In this beginner-friendly guide, we’ll be covering all the BG3 races in alphabetical order with a list of their abilities and some notes on good class/playstyle pairings.
Dragonborns don’t have the best racial bonuses, but they are among the coolest-looking races.
Depending on the ancestry you choose, you’ll get an elemental resistance and a matching breath attack that replenishes on a Short Rest.
With any elemental resistance, its value will be situational since you’ll face a lot of different environments and enemy types. Sometimes it’ll be a solid buff, other times it will have no use.
The breath ability does scale with levels but it isn’t that appealing unless you’re playing a class that lacks AoE like the Fighter, Monk, or Rogue.
With their inherent prowess in weaponry, Dwarves provide an appealing choice for players looking to operate in melee range. However, keep in mind that due to their stubby legs, they have lower movement speed than other classes.
Because of this, you may want to consider them more as Fighters or Paladins to be stout frontliners rather than Rogues or Rangers that thrive on being nimble.
Each of the subraces also offers additional defensive perks (health, armor proficiencies, or Saving Throws), making Dwarves even tankier in general compared to other races.
We’re a bit confused as to why Drow are their own standalone race rather than being a subclass of the Elf (like the Duergar for Dwarves or Deep Gnome for Gnomes). In 5th Edition, they were a subclass of the Elf.
That aside, the Drow makes a great choice for Rogues and Rangers, not only due to their given weapon proficiencies but also because of their Superior Darkvision.
While many other subclasses have access to Darkvision, the Superior Darkvision allows them to scout more efficiently and safely (in addition to having more movement speed than others with Superior Darkvision).
The Drow do have two subraces but they are purely for flavor, with Lolth-Sworn being more evil leaning and Seladrine leaning more good.
Elves are a versatile class that can fit well into basically any mold. If you want to play more of a caster (or just want more spell utility for any class), High Elf can be an appealing choice to unlock the additional Cantrip.
On the other hand, Fleet of Foot can be very useful for melee classes that want to chase down enemies or ranged classes that want to maintain a safe distance.
The combination of Mask of the Wild and Keen Senses in particular make Elves particularly great as scouts or infilitrators.
If you’re a player looking to min/max, the Githyanki are an incredible choice due to their inherent utility and adaptability.
First off, they get Light/Medium Armor proficiencies, making mage Githyankis tankier than most other races.
Next, their Astral Knowledge makes them an ideal candidate to be your “skill monkey” as they can buff to whatever Skill Checks you need to face on the fly.
Lastly, environmental manipulation and navigation are especially valuable in BG3. Their Githyanki Psionic spells give the race more potential solutions to problems, often being able to reach places that others cannot.
The main downside of the Githyanki is their “community perception” that they are an “ugly” class, but honestly, I think that’s a lame take.
Gnomes, along with Halflings, are the smallest race choices in BG3. While there is the downside of having less movement speed, you are also able to fit into crevices that other races cannot.
The upside of this is that you can often find secret entrances or angles for your party that would otherwise not be accessible without a transformation ability.
With that aside, the one of the best reasons to play a Gnome is for their Cunning feature which allows you to have Advantage on INT, WIS, and CHR Saving Throws.
This is absolutely massive as you’ll be incredibly resistant to enemy debuffs and crowd-control effects – it has a solid argument for being the best main race feature.
When it comes to their subclasses, Rock Gnomes can be a solid choice for a skill monkey, Forest Gnomes inherently provide Speak with Animals which is one of the most valuable social abilities in the game, and Deep Gnomes offer a third path that excels in scouting/infiltration.
Although Elves also have a boost in perception, the main difference between Elves and Half-Elves is their unlocked Weapon/Armor Proficiencies.
If you want Spears, Pikes, Halberds, Glaives, Light Armor, or Shields, go with Half-Elf. If you want Longswords, Shortswords, Shortbows, or Longbows, go with Elf.
Like we mentioned with the Gnomes, Halflings have the lowest racial speed in exchange for being able to fit into crevices which allow you to reach difficult to reach rooms and areas.
They also get access to Lucky, which is another powerful racial ability that allows you to reroll a 1. Since rolling a 1 means a Critical Failure, this can be very clutch in otherwise disastrous moments.
Due to this, Halflings make a great choice to be the face of your party as they can help you navigate social interactions while avoiding the worst outcomes. Sorcerer, Warlock, or Bard may be especially appealing here since a Paladin may feel the speed penalty a bit more.
If you want to play a Halfling Rogue, consider the Lightfoot subrace which grants a boost to Stealth check. Otherwise, you may want to go Strongheart for the additional survivability.
Half-Orcs have an absolutely beastly package of racial unique bonuses for melee and frontliner classes.
First off, you get Relentless Endurance, which basically allows you to die twice per Long Rest. This lets the Half-Orc play more aggressively and take a few more risks compared to other races.
Another reason why a Half-Orc is a great melee class choice is due to Savage Attacks, which makes your already hitting Crits hit even harder. There are even subclasses like the Fighter Champion subclass and loot that makes it easier to crit more often.
That being said, don’t be discouraged from playing a Half-Orc for non-melee classes as there will still be instances where Relentless Endurance can come in clutch.
The Human won’t be the best race for any class but it also won’t be the worst. Their main draw will be their access to Light Armor and Shields as well as the additional Skill Proficiency if your party needs a skill monkey.
The carrying capacity is a bit pointless unfortunately since you can just send your extra loot to camp instantly.
Tiefling racial bonuses offer resistance to Fire and three different subclass lines of demonic spell progression.
If you want to play a ranged class, the Asmodeus Tiefling may be the best fit since the other two subraces have melee ranged spells. Produce Flame can also be used not only as a damage Cantrip, but also to activate light sources in the environment.
Mephistopheles Tieflings have access to fire magic spells, Burning Hands (a solid AoE option) and Flame Blade, which uses CHR to power its attacks, making it a nice fit with the Pact of Blade Fiend Warlock. The Mage Hand Cantrip they also have provides a wide range of utility ranging from pulling levers to throwing items.
Lastly, we have Zariel Tieflings which have access to Thaumaturgy, Searing Smite, and Branding Smite. Thaumaturgy makes them a good match for Bards or Barbarians in social situations. Searing Smite is a solid melee-ranged spell, but a unique draw of the Zariel subrace is the Branding Smite which provides a Radiant damage option that also helps to counter Invisibility.
Here are a few common questions related to race. If we missed anything, feel free to ask in the comments below.
Although any combination of class and race is viable on for beating Tactician mode (the hardest difficulty), if we were forced to make a tier list based purely on race and subrace bonuses, it would be something like:
Although you can change your class any time by just spending 100g (unlocked early on), you cannot change your chosen race or origin permanently.
That being said, there are ways to temporarily change your race, such as with spells like Disguise Self!
There will definitely be instances where you feel a lack of movement compared to other races, but with proper planning and positioning, it won’t be too big of a deal.
Plus, the shorter races have some nice racial bonuses to make up for their lack of speed.
It does! However, most of the time it won’t make much of a difference outside of flavor and lore. There may be a few instances here and there where being a particular race will help or hurt you, but not enough for it to be the reason why you do or don’t choose a race.
Nope, all romance options can be pursued by any gender or race.
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