FULL Class & Subclass Overview (NO SPOILERS) for Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3's full release is just around the corner in August and people will be playing for the first time returning from their first Rory into Early Access or maybe you played the first two and are ready for another adventure in the Forgotten Realms whatever it is choosing your character's class is going to be one of your first big steps on your journey in bg3 but which one do you choose maybe you're between two and need some help well in this video today I'm going to be breaking each class down at a very high level with no spoiler breakdowns to help you decide which class is best for you I'll be giving you a general overview of each class talk very briefly about their subclass options then try and draw a line of comparison between that class and other things from popular RPGs to help you decide which character in the future too I will be creating expanded overview videos per each class but that is not in this video if this is your first time on my channel the way I do things here is by upfronting knowledge within my videos so you can decide if it's the right one for you unfortunately I can't really purify it paraphrase all 12 classes in a sentence but I've put the chapters in the timeline so please just jump to the classes you're interested in most there's no need to stick around for the entire video if you don't want to but one thing I do want to say up front and it might help remove some of that class indecisiveness you can entirely respect your character choosing a new class different subclasses literally everything except your character's race can be swapped out as early as act 1 and only for 100 gold so I strongly encourage you to try multi-classing trying out different ones or whatever it is before landing on the character you want even when it comes to Feats they have said that there are going to be double the amount of Feats in the bit in the actual launch game that there were in Early Access an experiment experimentation is the spice of life so please play how you want not how myself or some existential guide tells you how to play this is an RPG you spent your money so enjoy it how you will if you end up heading out early please don't forget to like comment or subscribe each one of those things does truly help me out in a very very huge way lastly don't forget to follow me on Twitch where I will be streaming Baldur's Gate 3 in a Solo and a co-op playthrough let's get started here on my no spoiler class and subclasses overview for Baldur's Gate 3. before we get started on our list I do want to throw a quick disclaimer here that I'm pulling all this information from the 5th edition player's handbook with the game as a supplement to it larion has made great tweaks to allow for a better translation to the piece see things like favorite enemy for Rangers is entirely different now a lot of Feats have been made better and what have you but I'm trying to not pull specific examples from the game for fear of trying to create a min max bias as I've said before I want you to play how you want not how you think you should play because it's overpowered hence everything we'll be talking about will be in Broad Strokes only using the Early Access clients character creation screen which will change up upon launch but I just wanted to say these things up front so that you have a good idea of what we're about to get into starting with the Conan archetype we have the Barbarian think of the shirtless Berserker charging headlong into combat while you can wear armor as a barbarian you get bonus defense from your Constitution when going without it their most iconic ability is Rage that sends you in well a rage giving you advantage on strength checks throws and increased damage wealth also increased resistances if you're looking to play a Burly class that throws itself had long into fighting because that's where their strengths reside this is the one for you it's not to say that this is a glass Cannon but more that you're focusing on getting as many of your benefits online in combat that you can you have disgustingly High Health pool and very high raw damage capabilities to help you jump into The Fray Barbarian is really all about Reckless abandon killing first and thinking later now with that being said there is definitely a strategy to the character well you will need to be quite clever about how you place yourself if you take the unarmored route this cleverness will extend to your subclass options as well Berserker will double down on your rage mechanics of the bass Barbarian adding more damage to your Rage with frenzy granting Community to charm and frightened effects with Mindless rage and intimidating presence and the ability to retaliate basically you're just a barbarian dialed up to 11. wild hard barbarians formerly known as the totem Warriors this subclass allows you to choose a totem spirit bear eagle or wolf every handful of levels you gain more active or passive of attributes from your totem spirit the focus is to give you more tactical options such as damage resistance from the bear movement from the eagle and Advantage rolls from Wolf just to name a few wild magic is a subclass that adds a bit of spell casting Flair to the Barbarian you aren't casting spells like say a wizard but whenever you rage you trigger a number of random effects on a table maybe you get magical damage added to your weapon or your skin turns to Granite for increased resistances so there's a lot of awesome chaotic abilities but it's entirely random eventually you can extend this benefit to your companions but playing with the warp does have its perils which will you will discover should you choose this class on the other end of the spectrum you have the well-rounded fighter that can specialize in any armor any weapon and has multiple fighting styles want to be a dual wielding heavy armor knight Fighters for you want to be a duelist using a single weapon Fighters got you covered even if you want to exclusively focus on archery you can do so with one of the fighting styles the big thing with Fighter versus the Barbarian is that you have a lot armor and weapon options you can use virtually any weapon or armor in the game which is why they're so accessible you have a high Health pool you do great damage and you scale into another stat to fit your needs don't think that this is just some sort of boring old class where you slap things with a weapon because the multi-class options are wild this is how you effectively hybridize any of your Caster classes into melee classes as well much in the same way that the wizard turns the melee classes into hybrid casters your options expand outward with your choice of subclass as well Battle Master gives you the ability to act as sort of a tactician giving you a special maneuver that allows you to complete special abilities at the cost of one of your special superiority dice can I say special more which is basically like a subclass unique resource these Maneuvers are things like lunging attack increasing your reach or disarming attacks that disarm Eldritch Knight turns you into a fighter that uses wizard spells and cantrips but also forges a bond with their weapon to be able to summon it across long distances eldrich Knights will pull from the schools of ab duration Buffs or evocation damage to help in adding some spell casting to your weapon wielding this is different than a fighter wizard multi-class as that changes how scaling works for your character lastly Champions are the ultimate combatant focusing and doubling down on becoming particularly good with a fighting style even getting another one to become a true master of combat this subclass is really about dealing out lots of critical strikes off of their preferred fighting styles if you want to play maybe an Archer that also dual builds this could definitely be done with this Avenue everyone's favorite fist fighter will always be the Monk and it's no different here in Baldur's Gate 3. you might be familiar with the monk from previous DND games such as the original balder's gate or Neverwinter Knights but the monk has come a long way much like the Barbarian you'll be getting defensive bonuses if you fight without armor only this time with wisdom you'll love this class if you want to destroy things with your fists becoming the one punch man of bg3 you may might think you have to go unarmed to play a monk though but you can use monk specific weapons such as short swords or any simple weapons as long as they aren't two-handed or have the heavy property giving you some versatility if you like the Monk class but just don't want to go unarmed this class is not just about leaping Into The Fray though you're certainly no barbarian the monk does slap things sure but harnessing your key energy a special resource dice unique to the monk your character becomes wildly self-sufficient as you progress the base monk kit can become immune to poisons and diseases charm effects learns all the languages just all these really cool flavorful things you don't have the biggest Health pool though so you'll be relying on outright negating attacks by evading deflecting missiles or what have you your subclass options can also drastically change the way you approach the class way on the way of the open hand for example will make you better at just simply being a monk that self-sufficiency increases with the ability to heal yourself Grant yourself Sanctuary or get a badass quivering Palm attack that is like being Uma Thurman and Kill Bill the way of the Shadow doesn't outright turn your monk into a rogue but it does make for some fun Shadow play allowing you to use some illusion can trips teleport using Shadow step and become invisible or just kind of setting up some awesome attacks of opportunity in tandem with your team the way of the four elements on the other hand is vastly different from the other two subclasses it basically allows you to use your key dice to either imbue your attacks with special Elemental Properties or outright cast Elemental spells such as Fireball Shadow or even fly the other attacks are fun unique monk attacks that harness a specific element to increase your reach like fangs of the fire snake while also dealing fire damage there's just tons of flavorful and different options for the subclass and I apologize if it's actually pronounced Chi rather than Key Energy but still the monk is going to be a fun one to play the Aragorn of D and D Rangers have always been a class that has stood out as that hybrid step between Fighters and Druids but with lots of fun things in Between Borders Gate 3 is no different here offering you a lot of ways to play want to be an Archer that casts spells Ranger might be your favorite option even choosing to dual wield and sneak around or work in tandem with your animal companion are two different options for playing this class not as tanky as the other pure Fighters or even Paladin the ranger still has a lot of great utility that they bring to the table favorite enemy is probably one of the most iconic abilities and it's far different in bg3 than it was or is in the fifth edition rather than selecting the type of monster you select the type of Ranger you are which then grants bonuses towards various types of enemies as well as proficiencies can trips and what have you take Ranger Knight here for example giving you Proficiency in heavy armor as well as history they're just fun ways to manipulate the class while also staying true to the roots with the ability to focus down specific targets or give the party lots of bonuses navigating through the open world the ranger has even more utilities from its subclasses take Hunter for example Hunters make you even better at focusing down specific monsters or maybe even hordes of them utilizing your bow to get multi-attack like volley to hit everything in a certain range or a whirlwind attack for your melee weapons that you can just Wade through tons of monsters while also evading or dodging your way out of trouble Beastmaster is just what it sounds like now you'll get access to a ranger companion that can be targeted by your spells and gets stronger as you level up with tons of side benefits this is one of those quintessential Ranger tropes that I absolutely love a quick note here though you'll get access to summoning a companion in Baldur's Gate 3 regardless of this subclass it just makes that companion better and I want to make sure that you guys knew that up front gloomstalker is our newest subclass and it is a very different Ranger than the previous two focusing on staying in the shadows and basically turning you into an assassin by granting you a special kit of Gloom stalker spells this subclass is about ambushing turning your missed attacks into another hit dark vision and generally making your ability kill things that much more terrifying since we're on the subject of skulking in the shadows it's only natural we pivot to the Rogue the consummate trickster Thief assassin and all things in between sneak attacks are of course a big staple of the Rogue and it's a class that needs no real wild introduction but I don't want you to get lost in just the sneak attacking portion of the class the base kit might not be the craziest thing in the world but you're looking at adding a lot of stacking bonuses to your attacks Dodges and ability scores this allows you to do most things which a much higher chance of success evading a big hit well now you can help yourself out with doing so trying to pick a pocket someone or pick someone's pocket enjoy more success due to your roguish ways you'll love this class if you want to be someone who can tackle a lot of obstacles that most of the other classes just aren't good at picking locks detecting traps disarming traps all the many things you experience in the game world that can really rough up a playthrough in Baldur's Gate 3 in different ways than the actual tabletop RPG you then get to focus in more on the specific aspects of the Rogue with your roguish archetypes or subclasses assassin will make you already your or your already deadliest sneak attack abilities even more destructive with abilities like assassinate or Deathstrike but you can also mimic other people which might translate into the game in a very fun way infiltrating and killing are the Hallmarks of the subclass the thief archetype enhances your natural thieving abilities of picking locks disarming traps and especially sneaking around with Supreme sneak which you also have enhanced reflexes and the ability to use magic devices you're not Indiana Jones but you're definitely handy in a tight spot the Arcane trickster is very similar to the Eldritch Knight for fighter you're a rogue that has learned wizard spells in the enchantment and illusion lines giving you plenty of fun options but your access to magehand lets you grab objects pick locks disarm traps and eventually distract people all from a distance at the latter levels you can even copy an enemy's spells under certain circumstances the Jack of all trades the master of none the coin to your Witcher The Bard the class that has probably risen in popularity the most in the modern day of Dungeons and Dragons rightfully so as it is my favorite class on this list you're playing a class here that can dip into a lot of different play Styles such as the Arcane the Marshall or even just going heavily into ridiculous role-playing tangents if you're someone that wants to do everything that d d has to offer even maybe some skullduggery then Bard is definitely the option for you you don't get access to every bit of armor and weaponry but you get to play around with a lot of different things you aren't the tankiest of characters unless you kid it out that way but you get to cast spells shoot arrows sneak around learn magical Secrets the list goes on in Baldur's Gate it's hard to say what a game that is effectively on the rails will allow you to do with The Bard but The bardic Inspirations are Buffs that you can use to give your party special advantages in addition you also get a limited number of spells to cast that will allow you to help dictate the flow of combat whether you want to assume more of a support barred role or be an upfront fighter will be dependent upon your subclass or Bard colleges they're called the College of lore focuses on the more Arcane or at least scholarly Pursuits of The Bard if you're dead set on being in the back line casting spells and using more Inspirations then this is the route to go giving you more of both in Spades the College of Valor is what turns your Bard into a Frontline fighter you're going to still be able to cast spells but now you get access to combat Inspirations which allow you to use your bardic Inspirations to help in attack or defensive situations layer this with the ability to also get more melee attacks and you'll be thriving toe-to-toe with other Frontline Bros the College of Swords is where you take being a fighter to a further degree if you remember the blade from Baldur's Gate 2 you'll love the College of Swords you adopt a two weapon fighting style gain the ability to wear medium armor and use scimitars and you get access to Blade flourishes these will give you offensive defensive or movement Buffs at the cost of your Bardock inspiration Dice and is probably one of my favorite subclasses in the game paladins we all know them we all love them the consummate Holy Night is coming to Baldur's Gate in a big way delivering all the fun offensive capabilities of say a fighter with some of the Divine spell casting of the cleric my favorite hybrid of the hybrid's paladins are veritable tanks with auras of protection and courage that helps the party with saving throws or immunity to fear you can select fighting styles to focus on specific weapons or opt for protection to help defend your Bros by putting your enemies at a disadvantage you'll love the Paladin if you want to be a defensive fighter but with a lot of party utility that helps with dropping major heals via lay on hands or getting rid of ailments with cleansing touch you're durable and can kit yourself out to be quite destructive but don't think you have to play this class in an archetypical good guy kind of way the subclass or Oaths added a lot of spice to Paladin especially as we get to the last option you take up your oath and it becomes really the central story of your character oath of the Ancients effectively turns your Paladin into the fifth edition more what the fifth edition book refers to as a Green Knight leveraging the ancient rituals of The Druids you'll gain spells from the nature side of spell casting granting you Nature's wrath allowing you to talk to animals or getting spells like ice storm Aura of warding is your unique Aura granting you spell resistance the oath of devotion on the other hand makes you more of the typical holy Warrior pulling lots of spells centered around light and fire damaging enemies with set elements or buffing via a guardian of Faith you also learn turn Unholy doing damage to fiends in the undead Aura of devotion grants immunity to charm before your entire party now the oath of vengeance is where things move into the gray a bit you'll do anything to Smite the greater evil in the land driven onward by some tragic scenario in your past you're an unrelenting tide at retribution clad and armor your spells are now focused on banishing things holding stuff in place or speeding your party up your vow of enmity allows you to get bonuses attacking particular targets but the final avenging Angel ability allows you to sprout wings and fly after a Target overwhelming everything with your aura of Menace making them terrified the oath breaker is no oath in fact you are now an anti-paladin or anti-paladin you are the Dark Knight Darkness poison and charm spells have become your foray and you focus on controlling the undead rather than turning them your aura of hate grants you and fiends are Undead a damage bonus based off your your charisma as you embody nothing but malice warlocks are a wild addition to the D D universe that you might have missed if you only play the video games Neverwinter Knights 2 was I think their first time that they were actually added in and it Blends a lot of gameplay elements together to get a very well Eldritch class unlike the sorcerer who's born into magic or the wizard who learns it you make a pact with an otherworldly Patron that then grants you Boons and other benefits as you level your warlock becoming more and more powerful under their tutelage as it were while you do only wear light armor and have access to simple weapons you have a lot of spells at your disposal that allow you to deal tons of damage warlocks have their own unique spells such as Alger blast but also pull from a lot of the general wizard spell to make for a very fun combination Eldritch invocations are special abilities that you know maybe cast spells or they buff your Boons more on that in a second these indications are things like life Drinker which make your weapons deal extra necrotic damage or minions of chaos which summons Elementals you also get access to special packed Boons each one modeled after a different item chain gives you access to a familiar that will fight alongside you blade grants you a special bound weapon that is summonable at any time you can even turn magic items you find into bound weapons if you wish and Tome grants you a special Book of Shadows allowing you to cast cantrips from other classes that you would otherwise not be able to outside of the boons you also have the selection of your Patron which dictates your subclass arch Faye are ancient beings well beyond the age of the other Mortal races you'll be granted nature-based spells and also given Boons that play along with the beguiling nature of the FAE fiend are also commonly referred to as demons but you'll be be drawing spells that coincide with fire and darkness blinding your enemies or attacking them with scorching Rays you can even attack and send a creature into the burning Hells sending them into another plane of entirely which is badass also you have the great old one which are cosmic beings outside of space and time that sit in the realm between Realms you'll get spells that charm people but also things like phantasmal force that allow you to do psychic damage if Paladin is a hybrid fighter that can heal then the cleric is a hybrid not necessarily healer a common misconception in d d is that the cleric should be a character that is healing and hanging out in the back line Nay with the many domains at your disposal you can contribute to the fight in a lot of different exciting ways clerics where up to medium armor and bring the purifying justice of hammer and shields the battlefield want to be a tankier Caster that pulls spells from Divine influence then cleric is going to be the class you're looking for you aren't a fighter as far as defensive defenses go but you are going to be more durable than say a barred at first blush let firing in all the benefits of your subclasses that you'll be able to go with so the domain of knowledge that will give you spells that focus on helping you out in the game World such as identify speak with the dead or suggestion the domain of life is a pretty self-explanatory one but here you'll be looking at spells geared towards healing blessing curing ailments and fighting the undead the domain of light will focus on fire and light spells with a particular offensive flare such as Fireball and Flame strike the domain of nature pulls from the many different nature-based spells very similar to a druid but with this twist for stuff like grasping Vines bark skin and dominate Beast the domain of Tempest turns you into Storm from X-men with lightning ice and wind spells the domain of trickery is the illusion and roguery theme domain giving you spells such as blink charm person and Mirror Image lastly the domain of war is the one that gives you tons of combat oriented Buffs to your weapon or defenses each of these domains also grants you some benefits that play along with its theme War for example also grants you heavy armor and martial weapon proficiencies another of our hybrid pre-sly classes is the Druid but this time we are focusing very heavily on nature spells Druids have a lot of different roles that they get to pull from and it makes them very diverse when it comes to play style because you'll be able to decide what kind of Druid you want to play as you go through your campaign not as tanky as their metal wearing cleric counterparts Druids are Defenders of nature able to use up to medium armor and a certain amount of weapons such as maces Scimitar slings and other simple weapons they are also Fierce spell casters if you want to play a strong nature Caster or a ferocious shapeshifter with lots of party utility then Druid is definitely a class you'll enjoy they are unparalleled Mastery of nature magic allows them to get devastating Elemental spells healing spells and plenty of buffing spells that give you a wide versatility to your party in addition all Druids have the ability change their shape into various wild animals depending on their relative level the more experienced the Druid the more vicious the animal that they can become eventually gaining the ability to shapeshift into flying animals with all of the many options their Base Kit has to offer them these subclasses or circles is where the real specializing comes into play for the Druid circle of the land is the subclass that is most geared towards casting spells and being a backline support caster for the party you get to determine the land that your Druid is associated with and get spell set from that land for example Arctic Druids get sleet storm and cone of cold circle of the Moon are The Druids that specialize in their wildest shape allowing them to become more powerful animals at an earlier level and gaining more benefits while in their wild shape eventually gaining the ability to turn holy into an elemental circle of the spores or of spores are about the ultimate balance between life and death flirting heavily with the undead capabilities similar to a necromancer you'll utilize invisible necrotic spores that constantly float around you having them suffuse you with health or animate a dead corpse to fight by your side or eventually giving you many layers of Defense such as immunity to fear poison blind and crit damage towards the latter levels our final two classes are the ones that I think a lot of people will get confused coming into d d or bg3 for the first time as sorcerer plays similar to wizards but they're most definitely not the same to put it in lore terms a sorcerer is an individual who is innately talented in the use of magic it's part of who they are maybe some ancient draconic bloodline or some other means but magic courses through them and lashes out in unpredictable ways in game terms the wizard gets access to a wider range of spells while the sorcerer can cast more Spells at a time even regaining the full use of their spouse after a long rest so if you want to cast a lot of spells and get back into it sorcerer is definitely the one to pick over the wizard not to say that the wizard can't but the wizard focuses on higher level spells earlier the sorcerer is also a Charisma class utilizing that stat for all their important roles as it were but which also lends itself to some fun role play capabilities another important distinction of the sorcerer is that they are the only class that gets access to meta magic as part of their Base Kit metamagic allows you to expand to sorcerer points a unique resource to you to maybe double the range of a spell cast it while silenced extend the duration there's just a ton of possible outcomes speaking of the type of sorcerer you are as dictated by your origin will also have an insane effect on the character wild magic Sorcerers are not unlike barbarians rolling on a special wild magic table which the game will of course do for you but wild magic is the stuff of chaos and every time you cast a sorcerer spell something will happen from the table sometimes it's benign like being immune to the effects of alcohol but other times you might lose all of your character's hair for 24 hours or have chain lightning Fork out of you striking creatures in your vicinity if you want a chaotic playthrough this will definitely fit the bill draconic bloodline Sorcerers align themselves with a specific type of dragon like a blue green and gold and so on so forth to then gain an affinity with a specific damage type take blue dragons lightning affinity for example which then grants you a resistance towards that element as well as buffing the damage of any matching Spell lastly you get the ability to sprout dragon wings and move at increased speeds or even take on the dread presence of your ancestor storm sorcery are Sorcerers that love Earth Magic okay not really but they have a particular Affinity to all things related to storms they can shoot up into the air 10 feet before or after casting spells to give them height advantages they can control the weather and even have lightning Sprout out from their bodies if Sorcerers are innate spellcasters then Wizards are learned sages the gandalfs the tekless the studious Mage that pours over ancient tomes and through Arcane texts to learn new spells to be added to their Spellbook Wizards are your run-of-the-mill Caster in bg3 but they're also so much more than that very similar to the road in that they are greater than the sum of their parts a sorcerer innately knows their spells but a wizard knows a wider range of spells that they prepare each day giving them a larger tool set to Pivot as needed through their playthrough ritual casting is also something a wizard gets which enables them to cast a spell without using a spell slot Sorcerers learn in like 15 or so spells but Wizards have no cap as they endlessly learn more and more forms of magic so if you want to be a character that wants to have access to every bit of Magic the game has to offer then wizard is definitely for you outside of that since Wizards are used their intelligence other than Charisma they have a lot of world applicable proficiencies such as Arcana inside history investigation religion and Medicine allowing you to help your party in other ways outside of casting spells which brings us to our subclasses which are spell masteries keep in mind you don't lose the ability to cast other spells you just become better at casting spells from these schools the schools are AB duration emphasizing magic that blocks banishes and protects conjuration allowing you to summon objects and creatures out of thin air allowing you to also buff those Southern creatures divination is a school of magic centered around discernment remote viewing Supernatural knowledge and foresight detecting magic location spells or true strike to name a few enchantment plays with the minds of those that you cast spells on hexing charming and cursing them or maybe just giving them courage and bolstering them this isn't about enchanting weapons that's alteration but rather beguiling those around you evocation deals with damage and any kind of direct damage ability such as Fireball or chain lightning all stem from the school of invocation necromancy is probably everyone's favorite school but you know what's going on here you'll be dealing with the dead both summoning and controlling illusion are spells geared towards folk confusing or distracting your opponent maybe even buffing you like spells like mirror image transmutation or formerly known as alteration is all about changing the state of things so stuff like bark skin levitate or even dark vision are all found in this school so everything being said and done and this concludes our quick overview of the classes in the subclasses available to you in Baldur's Gate 3. now again I've done most of this from the scope or at least the um auspice of looking at the 5th edition player's handbook and I will be doing a deeper dive on each one of these characters in the next coming days and weeks here before we get to the launch of the game this way you can get a better idea of exactly okay what is the great old one like for the warlock or how does AB duration really work for the wizard or you know what I want to know more about the draconic bloodline for the sorcerer that way you can have those kind of in individual video supplements after you've made a decision from maybe watching this video or a couple of other ones out there again I cannot stress enough please play this game in the way that you want it is so crucial to play RPGs that are so narrative driven in a way that makes sense for you and the way that you want to approach them Min maxing a game like this is just not going to be enjoyable watching a guide on how to play it is again probably not going to be as enjoyable because it's all about your decisions and how those decisions uniquely craft the story you encounter that's going to be different from anyone else's playthrough but as always guys thank you so much for watching here today be on the lookout for far more Baldur's Gate 3 videos coming out as well some more Diablo 4 content but as always again have a good one and take care thank you [Music]

Channel: ItalianSpartacus

Views: 259,454

Keywords: FULL Class & Subclass Overviews (NO SPOILERS) for Baldur's Gate 3, baldurs gate 3, bg3, baldurs gate 3 classes, baldurs gate 3 races, beginners guide, baldur's gate 3, baldur's gate 3 classes, baldur's gate 3 what class to play, bg3 which class to play, which class to play, bg3 class overview, baldur's gate 3 class guide, baldur's gate 3 class, baldur's gate 3 class, baldurs gate 3 classes explained, bg 3 classes and subclasses, bg3 subclasses, bg3 classes and subclasses

Id: zSakdXTE7d4

Length: 30min 29sec (1829 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023