Baldur's Gate 3: Playable Races Guide

[Music] foreign what's going on everybody mortum here this time bringing you a video and a guide to the races available in Baldur's Gate 3 as well as how to pick and choose which ones to play that kind of thing including a lot of general information I had been putting this one off for a while as the Early Access version of these was definitely going to be changed and many things work but now that the game is launched and I've been playing it quite a bit it was finally time to make this video so to kick it off I want to start with talking about how to pick and choose so for starters the main thing you should consider when picking a race to play is which one do you want to play which one do you think looks the coolest as silly as that might sound that is very much so what you should do and this is because thanks to some of the optional Rules and Things they've taken into account here mechanically there's not a ton of difference between a lot of them stat wise and while there are still some optimal picks for certain builds it's not a make or break difference for instance instead of any of them getting a plus or minus to certain ability scores as was the case in the past Baldur's Gate 3 uses the plus two plus one system where we put plus two to one ability score and plus one to another one regardless of the race we are and just removing that part from the races frees you up for so many more role-playing focused opportunities however there are still features and benefits to picking each individual race and this typically comes down to a small selection of abilities that some of them get on top of the proficiencies the proficiencies in my opinion are usually the biggest non-role play reason and this is because for instance the gith Yankee can get access to medium armor regardless of the class they are that can actually be pretty handy especially if you're playing a spellcaster class that does not normally get that proficiency for instance in a recent warlock build I went with a tiefling but realistically if I wanted to min max that I would have went with gith Yankee because with a t fling warlock I have to spend a feat on gaining medium armor which means I don't get to increase my ability scores at the same time but if I went with gith Yankee I don't need to take a feat to get medium armor and thus have more points to spend on my actual ability scores so decisions like that are things you might want to take into account but I do want to stress that this is a game that is primarily focused on the role play aspects of it and while you can do some power gaming which I've absolutely done myself it is not 100 necessary by any means with that in mind let's dive into these individual races what features they get that kind of thing and classes they might be good for now we're going to start this off with one of the easiest ones which is the Dragonborn race this is the race with the most amount of sub-races however all of them are very simple no matter what kind of Dragonborn you pick typically a color associated with Dragons these all correlate to an element that element is going to to give you a breath attack that you can use once per day that will deal some damage based on the element type of your color and then you will also get resistance to that same element so if we're playing a white dragon we get a frost breath and resistance to cold damage because of this truth be told Dragonborn while they look really cool don't really bring a huge amount of benefit to just about any class because their breath weapon is limited in terms of its uses and it never scales up in terms of its damage which means as a class levels up you will find less and less use for it and while it can be pretty helpful in some of the early game moments from a stat perspective or feature perspective dragonborn's actually not that great but they do look super cool which is as valid a reason as any to pick them moving along to another relatively simple one we have the half work half Works however have two really really cool features and this is Savage attack and Relentless endurance Savage attacks causes critical hits with a melee weapon to actually triple your damage instead of just double it which is very very good for melee oriented builds such as potentially a barbarian a fighter a paladin just anything that is hitting in melee basically and then Relentless endurance means that if they actually get killed once per event so to speak they actually just go down to one hit point instead of being downed altogether which can be fantastic they also get dark vision but dark vision isn't amazing in Baldur's Gate 3 though it does have some uses here and there so half Works while a relatively simple race altogether have some fantastic features for melee oriented builds in particular not to mention they have a ton of role play potential around their own Heritage which can make them a lot of fun but those two relatively simple ones aside we now come to these slightly more complicated ones starting with the elves elves gain access to fate ancestry which gives them advantage on saving throws against being Charmed and they cannot be magically put to sleep that is actually somewhat useful there are some fights in this game where people will try to put your characters to sleep and just being flat out immune to that is not a bad way to go Charmed however isn't that great of a spell or effect anyway the only thing Charmed will do is keep your character from attacking the character who Charmed them but you still have control over that character you can still attack other targets so it's not ideal but it's also not that crazy they also get regular dark vision which allows them to see in the dark up to 40 feet but again you'll hear me say this many times Dark Vision in this game isn't that critical even on my tactician playthrough there was like maybe five times where having dark vision would have helped and even then it was usually farther out than this but elves also get proficiencies with the long sword short sword short short bow and Longbow which means they are a fantastic choice for a build that you want to use a bow with potentially but you know you don't have the proficiency for it but elves come with two sub-braces High Elves and wood elves hi elves get to pick a can trip from The Wizard spell list just as part of their race the default one here is Firebolt and that is usually what people will pick up because it's handy to be able to set things on fire occasionally so not incredible but pretty useful and then the wood elf variant actually gets an extra five foot to their movement speed while I wouldn't necessarily prioritize this over something like a half Works abilities that extra five feet to movement speed is not bad by any means movement speed in particular for melee oriented characters or even something like a rogue which gets a lot of movement speed or a monk which also gets a lot of movement that extra five feet can go a long way because if you use a rogue's cunning action to dash it just doubles your base movement so you'd effectively get 10 extra feet that round and because of those things elves have some decent options for sure the Fey ancestry thing and the complete immunity to magical sleep is not bad the proficiencies being added on to whatever Clash you've got can make your life a little bit easier if you're looking for bows in particular and what else having that extra movement is really handy for classes like a rogue or potentially even a monk that brings us to tiefling though one of the classics tieflings represent people who have descended from some amount of relation to the Devils of the nine Hells so they look a little bit demonic as a result as a people they are not inherently evil or anything but they do Garner a certain amount of mistrust based solely on their looks and we see some of that play out in game even now in terms of their features all tieflings pick up hellish resistance which is resistance to fire damage taking it down to half they also pick up Dark Vision which again is just okay it's not bad but wouldn't really pick a particular race over it however where things get interesting are the sub-races for the tiefling because we can pick between three sub-races which are Arch Devils that we might have descended from this can be asmodeus Mephistopheles or zariel each one of them gives us a can trip such as produce flame Mage hand for Mephistopheles or samaturgy for Zario which gives us advantage on intimidation and performance however that's actually not all as they level up they'll get a few more spells based on their Heritage in particular just level one and two spells so nothing crazy but as an example zariel will get searing Smite and then branding Smite later at levels three and five respectively I believe which can be really handy for a sort of Gish character that you're trying to deal some extra damage within melee here and there and you'll be able to use those abilities as a class ability once per long rest instead of using a spell slot so this can be useful but I wouldn't really make a whole character around this specifically or anything but just to let people know asmodeus gives us hellish rebuke at level 3 and darkness at level five and then Mephistopheles gives you burning hands at level three and Flame blade at level five live so not terrible but chances are if you're wanting to use those spells effectively you would pick a class that would do so and you wouldn't necessarily make an entire character around just those abilities like I mentioned certainly not a terrible option though and that brings us to the drow drow are for the most part A greatly feared culture they live in an area called the underdark and many of them serve an evil deity called Loth though not all of them to be clear as the celdarine sworn drow are kind of the polar opposite so there's a sort of dichotomy to their entire culture and everything but it's important to note that if you play as a drow some people will attack you on site or at least attempt to if you can't pass a check now they are also elves technically so they get Fae ancestry as well just like the actual elves do and they also get Superior dark vision because they live in the underdark which lessens the out to 80 feet this is actually a little more useful than regular dark vision because you could play this with a bow or something and pretend actually make use of dark vision in a few areas of the game where you would actually now be able to see the target but they also pick up drow weapon training which gives them proficiency with a rape here short sword and a hand crossbow which isn't bad but truth be told the classes that would be most likely to use those weapons almost always have the proficiency for them so I would say you're unlikely to pick a drought specifically for those things but it's certainly possible now for sub-races we have wolf and celdarine now the game doesn't actually tell you this because you don't get them right at level one but drow actually do pick up some abilities as they level up at level three and five though it is the same for both of them because the only difference to the drow sub-races is they get different dialogue which we'll talk a little more about later but at level three drow will pick up fairy fire and at level five they will get Darkness as racial abilities so they can use them once per long rest but that brings us to the vanilla choice of of humans humans actually get some pretty useful features as with pretty much every game humans are meant to represent the tenacity and versatility of actual human beings so because of this we pick up the feature human versatility which gives us an extra skill to be proficient in which can be handy if you're already playing a class that gets a lot of skills like for instance the Rogue this also increases our carrying capacity by 25 percent which is a nice perk but not a reason to pick a particular race honestly but then they also pick up civil militia this gives us weapon proficiency with Spears Pikes halberds glaves and Light Armor Plus Shields useful in some cases if you wanted to give someone a shield or light armor Proficiency in addition to their class civil militia is not bad but admittedly very situational they do not have any sub-races though so their benefits are a little bit limited I would say the extra skill proficiency is the most important thing they get and then we have the gith Yankee they get a few really good things for starters they pick up astral knowledge this allows them to gain Proficiency in every skill available for a chosen ability so strength wisdom Charisma etc for the entire day that can be incredibly handy for picking up things that you have a bonus to but not Proficiency in and then for their armor and weapon proficiencies they get the Fantastic ability of Martial Prodigy this gives them proficiency with light and medium armor as well as with short swords long swords and great swords the medium armor Proficiency in particular is incredibly helpful that is a great way to give a class that doesn't normally get those proficiencies medium armor such as a spell Caster or something to give them armor while at the same time not sacrificing their spell slots or anything by multi-classing them into something to get the armor so just astral knowledge and these proficiencies they'll get out of the gate make the githyanki a fantastic pick for those reasons but that's not the only reason you might pick one because they also get a few extra spells right at level one they get Mage hand and if you cast it with the get Yankee psionics which is what is giving us a few of these spells the Mage hand is actually invisible so we can use it to interact with objects as an invisible entity which can be useful in a few places but at level 3 and 5 get the Yankees will pick up enhanced leap and Misty step as race actions enhance leap will let you jump I believe it's three times farther than normal that can be incredibly useful in certain situations and then they also at level 5 get a free cast of Misty step once per day which effectively allows them to teleport and close the distance which is fantastic for melee oriented characters so because of their proficiencies astral knowledge on top of being able to cast things like Misty step and hand sleep the Geth Yankee is a fantastic all-around race that a lot of people ignore because they're not exactly appealing visually they look very very much so alien and that's because they are the giths are an incredibly interesting race that hail from the astral plane they used to be enslaved by mind flayers before Breaking Free and because this game is based around mind flayers the gith in general though the gith Yankee which is technically a sub Race by itself are also a very thematic choice to play so if role playing is important to you definitely consider the gith Yankee but then we come to one of our Fantasy Classics which is the dwarf now an important thing to know about all of the shorter races that is to say dwarf halfling and gnome is that they only get 25 feet of movement every turn which means to say they can't move quite as far as everyone else in a single turn but dwarves in particular get a fantastic set of class features at a base they pick up Dwarven resilience which gives them advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance to poison damage they also get dark vision and Dwarven combat training gives them a proficiency with battle axes hand axes light hammers and warhammers which is pretty useful on its own but then we have three sub-races gold dwarves get extra hit points which makes them a fantastic option for a tank if you're already mixing it with something like a fighter for heavy armor Etc then we have the shield dwarf which gives us armor proficiency with light and medium armor which kind of puts them up there with the githyanki for picking them in specific instances and lastly the duragar or the sort of drow version of dwarves they pick up resilience which gives them advantage on saving throws against Illusions and being Charmed or paralyzed that can be very useful truth be told especially the paralyzed part but it doesn't come up a ton however they also get Superior dark vision like the drow do which can be useful for an Archer based character as I mentioned earlier there as well we're still not done yet because at levels three and five they get a couple spells they get enlarged at level 3 which can give them some extra physical damage and they pick up invisibility at level 5 which will let them turn invisible obvious nicely which gives them a little extra utility and they make a great Rogue as a result duragar in particular so plenty of reasons you might want to pick one that though brings us to half elf and probably not a surprise at all here their features are a mix of the elves and humans they have the Fey ancestry feet of the elves which is advantage on being Charmed and Immunity to magical sleep they have regular dark vision and they get these civil militia from the human part they can also pick sub-races though of half elf Wood Elf or drow half elf high elf gives us a free can trip wood elf gives us the five foot of extra movement speed and drow in this case gives us a free can trip as well on top of the fairy fire at level 3 in darkness at level 5 that regular drow also get so in many ways half elves can be incredibly useful as they are effectively just a blend of the race features from both of those that is to say humans and elves as you might expect that brings us to another smaller race though and this is the the halflings again 25 foot movement speed here five foot less than normal but they pick up Brave which is advantage on saving throws against being frightened that is actually very useful frighten comes up a lot and then more useful than that they pick up lucky lucky allows them to when they roll a 1 for an attack roll ability check or saving throw re-roll the dice and use the new roll so if you roll any Nat ones and you want to mitigate that at just regular old halfling can be a fun way to avoid those things then we have our two sub-races Lightfoot and strong heart Lightfoot gives us advantage on stealth checks very very useful for Rogues and sneaky types of course and then stronghart gives us advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance to poison damage basically the Dwarven passive so naturally halflings make fantastic all-arounders because things like lucky but the light foot advantage on stealth checks in particular makes them a fantastic Rogue in particular which is maybe reflective of their small stature lastly though that brings us to gnomes the main feature for a gnome is their advantage on intelligence wisdom and Charisma saving throws it is to say their mental attribute they have a very high chance to pass those saving throw checks which can be helpful in a few instances so I imagine it's not the reason anybody is picking gnome for a sub race we have three Rock forest and deep gnome Rock gives us expertise in history checks which is unique and then also dark vision Forest gnome gives you a once per day cast of speak with animals but this actually lasts until your next long rest anyway and given how many animals we are going to be talking to in Baldur's Gate 3 this can actually be pretty useful and they also get dark vision as well lastly we have the Deep gnome which also gets advantage on stealth checks and Superior dark vision makes a fantastic ranged Rogue especially in certain areas of the game where we can make use of their dark vision to hit things outside of our normal range without taking a penalty but it's not going to be a huge use otherwise but gnomes certainly have their place and it's mostly around passing certain checks and that is a quick overview of all of the races and what they do but the last thing I want to leave you with is that another important thing to remember about the race in general regardless of why you picked the one you picked or the min max of it the proficiencies you were after every single race is represented by unique dialogue options including in some cases they're sub-races and sometimes if you mix a particular race with a particular class people are going to mention it like I mentioned earlier some people attack drow on site basically if you don't pass a check to avoid it playing as a Dragonborn many people will comment on the fact that you're a dragon basically or at least you look like one and are walking around all sorts of things like that so one thing this game does really well about your Race Choice is beyond the simple choices of cool does it give you particular are features you wanted there is even more to the role-playing part where the world will react to what you are which I think is a really cool thing to see in a game like this but overall that is pretty much gonna do it for this video I hope you found it informative and it kind of gave you a rundown of some things to expect especially from races that get things Beyond level one typically at three and five as I really wanted to include those in the video but don't forget the most important choice you can make here as to what race to play is which one do you want to play the most that's the biggest decision because while they can be helpful they play a relatively minor role in building a character outside of some very specific instances where you might want to go like half work or get the Yankee for a specific reason that kind of thing but more than anything I hope you enjoyed the video I hope you learned something I hope you found it useful if you did like comment subscribe all that YouTube jazz but regardless of any of that truly just thank you so much for watching I really do appreciate it may you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Mortismal Gaming

Views: 176,451

Keywords: Mortym, Mortismal Gaming, Baldurs Gate, BG3, BG2, BG1, Baldur's Gate, baldur's gate 3 story, baldurs gate 3, bg3 story, bg3 gameplay, bg3 multiclassing, baldurs gate 3 multiclassing, bg3 classes, bg3 review, baldurs gate 3 review, baldur's gate 3 combat, baldur's gate 3 review, bg3 races, bg3 best races, bg3 best race to pick, baldurs gate 3 races, baldurs gate 3 best race, baldurs gate 3 best races, baldurs gate 3 race selection, baldurs gate 3 races guide

Id: 1nts1L9g5fA

Length: 21min 20sec (1280 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023