Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Most Popular Class&Race by Larian!

I do like the lucky feat that halflings get and am thinking it would be great for a ranger, I'll try that in a future playthrough.

So...where did you find the Potion of Eternal Youth&Immortality huh? I know it wasn't in Irenicus dungeon. Was it some Goddess who gave it to you?? WHO?? Tell us!!!

I also wanna see the Hotties you gonna make! Post them!

I think in the case of classes it is who you do not get as a companion or do not use as a companion. As for races, half-elves and humans were always the most popular (in that order, I'd say) and all "shorties" were always in a minority.

Have to admit, Dragonborn ahead of tieflings did surprise me here.

Still, halflings are cool and they have Lucky as a free feat and let me tell you, that saved me a few times. And I played range, so movement speed is not even that important for me.

Humans have always been pretty popular. However, Half-Elves were not always popular; they were only popular when they didn't suck. At least that's my recollection. Elves have always been pretty popular but they have also never really sucked.

The reason I think Half-Elves are pretty popular right now is probably because of Shield Proficiency. (Humans get that, too.) The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th most popular class choices all benefit from a Shield Proficiency more than just about anything else. Humans don't make good Paladins, but Human Paladin has been a thing since the early days when only Humans could be Paladins. Wood Elves are good at just about anything because they are fast in addition to getting their other racial bennies. I'd like to see the cross-tabs on it, but from my subjective view, a Wood Elf Paladin is a synergistic combo due to speed and a Human or Half-Elf is a synergistic combo with Sorcerer, Warlock, and Rogue (for the stupidest of reasons: Shield Proficiency). I think that is a pretty good partial explanation for why the top 3 races and top 4 classes are where they are.

The mid-tier races (Dragonborn, Tiefling, and Drow) are all "cool" choices that don't have a significant downside (like reduced speed) and don't have poor synergy with many classes. Most of the classes fall in a middle range of popularity (with the Paladin, Sorcerer, and to a lesser extent Warlock standing out above all others) with only the Cleric being unpopular.

The shorties are all slow, which is a pretty big ding. I think you could fix the problem with shorties by making them better. If Halfings got a free proficiency in Stealth, that would help. All Dwarves should get a Militia-like Trait for Light Armor and Shields (which only makes sense if Humans and Half-Elves have it) and, for Shield Dwarves only, an Armor Proficiency after class has been chosen, to bump Light Armor to Medium Armor, Medium Armor to Heavy Armor, and Heavy Armor to Heavy Armor Master. Gnomes should each get Expertise, like Rock Gnomes get Expertise in History and Sleight of Hand (they lost the 5e Tinker ability, after all), Forest Gnomes get Expertise in Animal Handling, and Deep Gnomes get Expertise in Stealth.

Githyanki in 5e have Resistance to Psionic Damage; bring that back. Currently they are about the least synergistic race for Fighter, which is ironically what Lae'zel is. At least give them something.

Clerics are boring, but they aren't weak. I think making them stronger would be a mistake that has been made before, resulting in CoDzilla. What you could do is give them a couple of unique Cantrips. Like a Cantrip that allows you to help a downed ally at a distance (like Spare the Dying but at a distance or maybe at Touch range but as a Bonus Action because everybody in BG3 can take an action that is equivalent to the Spare the Dying Cantrip) or an offensive cantrip as an alternative to Sacred Flame (like Word of Radiance).

Clerics are not boring.

They're not, but shadowheart is already a cleric and you only need one.

All the domains are cool, but none compare to life domain - all the healing spells you would want come auto prepared, every memorized slot can be offensive and CC spells, and lets face it, no one is going to use turn undead on plants or whatever, having divinity charges for a mass heal is 1 charge = 1 short rest.

While I’m sure there are a great many players who consider racial bonuses in their build, I’m willing to put money down that for the overwhelming majority of players, the primary and sometimes only factor in choosing race is what looks cool or attractive. For most people, Dwarfs, Haflings, Gnomes, and especially Githyanki don’t often qualify.

I love halflings and gnomes and my little halfling bardlock is the cutest.
I can appreciate most races, only halforcs are not my cup of tea.

As an alternative, you could just let Clerics help a downed ally as a Bonus Action kind of like how several classes can Hide as a Bonus Action. It isn't particularly powerful and makes Clerics a bit more interesting. You could also take Prayer for Healing off the Cleric Spell list and just make it an ability that is used automatically when you take a Short Rest (in 5e, it was a 10 minute cast time). Prayer for Healing is kind of useless as it stands because you can just go to camp when not in combat anyway; this change would make it more likely your party would venture just a bit more before taking a Long Rest with no real impact on power level.

I'd give Clerics Prayer of Healing as a 1st Level ability that heals everyone Cleric Level x 1d4 + Spellcasting Modifier hp with each Short Rest and remove it from the Spell List.

I'd give Clerics the Bonus Action "help a downed ally" at 2nd Level.

With an additional offensive Cantrip, that might be enough to make them interesting enough to increase popularity for the class without increasing power much.

You might also consider taking away some armor for more interesting and/or thematically appropriate abilities. Like Nature Cleric could have Medium Armor (instead of Heavy) and Proficiency with Nature and Survival. Knowledge Cleric could have Light Armor (instead of Medium) and Proficiency in all of Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion and Expertise in two of them (instead of just Expertise in two of them). Trickery could have Light Armor (instead of Medium) and Proficiency with two of Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and Deception (plus the other could be chosen as one of the two starting Cleric Proficiencies). Not more powerful, just more interesting.

Clerics *are* boring. I've been around a gaming table enough times to hear the eventual sigh, followed with "OK, I guess I'll play the Cleric." Warlock is the third most popular choice and the party already has a Warlock, too, so the argument that we don't need another Cleric is undercut by the argument that we don't need another Warlock, but Warlock is a popular choice and Cleric is not. When I say it's boring, I don't mean it's boring for everyone, just that it is boring for the majority of players. Cleric = Armor, Mace, Shield, Healing Spells. Take away armor for some builds (for something else) and make Healing part of the class abilities like I proposed above, leaving spell slots open for more interesting things, and the class becomes more interesting to more people.

I am extremely surprised to see Paladins being so popular and I honestly can't understand why. The Paladins are pretty broken in BG3 as the game makes it extremely difficult not to break your pact...unless all those people went in intentionally planning to become oathbreakers, which seems doubtful. I suspect a lot of people who chose Paladin were casuals who didn't really know what they were getting themselves into.

The following classes all make sense though...Sorcerers, Warlocks, Rogues, and Bards are all amazing face classes, and face is the role that can only be properly filled by the player that is insanely important in BG3. These are all the players who knew what they were getting themselves into. Beyond that Monks and Druids are indeed the worst classes, you'll never catch me arguing that, and the CLeric is in last place purely because most will have Shadowheart in their party for the whole game, and there isn't much reason to run with two clerics in a party.

From the races I am surprised to see humans and dragonborns so highly picked...I understand that people may be most comfortable playing as humans or may want to be the amazing looking dragonborns but both are mechanically terrible races. Also no idea how half-elves ended up ahead of elves when they are significantly worse. Elves and Drow really are where it's at for BG3. Surprised to see Githyanki so low down though admittedly while the race is pretty good, it's not good for the face classes so that devalues it quite a bit...but they should still be well above the dwarves, halflings, and gnomes.

But overall I am pleasantly surprised to see that all the sensible choices are among the top even with the top spot or two taken by strange selections.

Clerics aren't boring. Period. Anyone who claims otherwise is wrong. Clerics are amongst the most varied of vlssses. The problem is people are stuck in the 'cleric= healer' mindset. That is is.

Dwarves are awesome. Dwarves are cool. The fact that Dwarves are in the bottom third if races innbg3 speaks to larian's racism against them. They gaslit their players:( Too bad sunce they handled Dwarves pretty good IN DOS2.

I agree that the "cleric = heal bot" mindset hurts the chances that a player will play a cleric.

Paladins are popular for RPGs of all stripes, so it's no surprise that the same is true for BG3 players. And you have to realize that most of these players are coming in without Early Access experience. They don't know how hard it is to abide a paladin oath. So, that's not a turn off for them.

Regarding shorties:
Humans and tall, attractive races will always be popular with casuals who are just trying to set up a power fantasy. But it doesn't help that Larian didn't include any short races as companions. That would have encouraged players to choose a short race, especially if that companion were romanceable.

Clerics are great, but there are two main reasons people aren't playing them: 1) everyone is already rolling with Shadowheart, and there is no room for a second cleric in the party, and 2) Clerics don't fill the face role, which only the player character can properly fill in BG3, and is extremely important to the game.

This is...no...just no. Larian didn't tell anyone not to play dwarves. Humans and Dragonborns are significantly worse than Dwarves too mechanically speaking as those two races have nothing going for them yet are still insanely popular. The reality is very simple: nobody wants to play as dwarves.

Lol. I guess I'm wrong because I think Clerics are boring.

Dwarves are cool but it's annoying that a half-elf can tank better than a shield dwarf in most instances. (Light Armor + Shield > Medium Armor for Sorcerer or Wizard and Shield > Medium Armor for most lightly armored classes) Darkvision turns out to be irrelevant once you have a camp wizard who casts Darkvision on anyone who needs it (along with Longstrider on everyone). So Shield Dwarves really don't get much relative to other races than a slow speed. Human Sorcerer or Wizard (other than Draconic) is better than a Shield Dwarf Wizard or Sorcerer because Light Armor is adequate and Shield is OP (at least for those classes, which I present by way of example). A Shield Dwarf in a heavily armored class is worse than a human, who at least gets an extra proficiency and is faster. So, yes, they are cool, but they kinda suck mechanically. Gold Dwarf at least gets more hp but hp haven't been a huge problem for my Fighter, though a little more speed is sometimes desirable.

Dwarves are usually pretty popular. Normally just below humans elves. Even in EA, they were just under thise races mostly. Now, full release bg3 they dropped even lower. Not a coincidence. This was as designed by Larian. All evidence points to this as fact.

Not true re Face. Knowledge Cleric with 12 (or 14 if you can spare it) CHA who chooses all CHA-based proficiencies is a good face, and they also have Knowledge Expertise if you need it and good Insight. Make it a Githyanki and you can have proficiency with all WIS- and CHA-based skills, most INT-based (including Expertise in two) and a couple DEX-based ones, too, if you choose the right background. That makes a better face than almost any other class because it isn't always just a Persuade check. I made a GIth Knowledge Cleric with balanced stats who rarely failed any face tests.

Also, mechanically, dwarves suck, especially Shield Dwarves. In EA there was an interesting option for a Shield Dwarf Wizard or Sorcerer with Medium Armor, but now that Humans and Half-Elves can use Shields, they are better (even humans!) than Shield Dwarves. Half-Elves (wood) laugh at silly dwarves (mechanically). It shouldn't be that way, but it is.

People aren't making Warlocks because of anything to do with Wyll, firstly they want a CHA main, secondly a lot of players are making multiclass 2 Warlock / rest Sorc or Paladin. This gets mixed in with Paladin and Sorc statistics if they picked Warlock at their first level I would guess.

A lot of players are viewing Warlocks as one of weakest classes due to the lack of spell slots, but they want 2 levels for the Eldritch Blast plus its two upgrades.

I took EB on my sorc with the spell critical feat, but without the warlock upgrades its pretty pointless unless enemies are resistant to other cantrips. One complaint about this thats already got a thread here is not being able to use the warlock spell slots before the sorc slots, making them quite useless as they likely wont be used up before you short rest, and cant be used to fuel metamagics, this is why I'm avoiding the build or any multiclassing for now until I reach level 12, then I will play around with testing whatever builds I can think off using Withers and use multiclassing in my second playthrough.

Regarding Clerics being boring, yes this is true in most other games and maybe PnP, but not the case in BG3. Their offensive spells are very powerful and useful, and you can see Shadowheart being used as a staple companion in just about every youtube playthrough of the game. Even without changing her domain because a bunch of players have found lots of neat tricks with abusing Polymorph which she gets with her default trickery domain.

Face really isn't what Clerics are made for...you really have to try to force it. Clerics don't swim in a million proficiencies and expertise like Rogues and Bards to really wing it efficiently. And no, proper face classes aren't just about persuasion but about ALL speech aspects...including deception and intimidation. Even if you force them in a kind of functional face Clerics are still only the 5th best face class at best. Not good at it.

As for dwarves...like I already said, no matter how bad you think they are, they're not as bad as Humans and Dragonborns...both vastly more popular classes. If people wanted to play dwarves, they would have. End of story.