Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Quick tips on planning your ability scores

We have a lot of newer players that haven't played 5e or EA before so I though I would put together a quickie guide for your ability scores and how to plan them out.

Rule 1 : Always aim for even numbers when you are first starting out. It is more cost effective because odd numbers give you the same bonus as the even number below it. e.g. a 17 in Dex gives you the same +3 that a 16 does.

Rule 2 : Put a 16 in your class's main ability score. All classes have a primary ability score that affects their capabilities. The game puts a star next to that stat so it is easy to figure out. Do note though, that Paladins and to a lesser degree, Rangers, have 2 abilities they have to take into account. Their primary attack ability and their spell casting ability. You have to balance those out based on your goals with that character, but in general a 16 in their physical attribute and a 14 in their spell casting is a good place to start.

Rule 3 : When in doubt put your extra points in Con and Wis. Both of those stats protect you from dangerous spells and the bonus HP from Con is a great perk. If you have a single point left and your Str is less than 13, put that extra point in Str, it has the only significant boost for an odd number, which is carrying weight.

Rule 4 : Be careful with dump stats. A 'dump stat' is an ability score that you give an 8 so that you can use those points towards something more important. Often you'll see melee characters with an 8 in Int and Cha so they can pump their physical stats through the roof. However in BG3 there are a lot of skill checks of all kinds, and having a negative score can lead to a lot of conversation failures. On the other side of the house, casters who dump strength are in for a bad time when the enemy tries to push them off a cliff and being over-encumbered gives you disadvantage on multiple checks that you don't want to mess up.

Rule 5: This is more of a shorthand for planning your spreads than a rule, but the quick math for your scores can be summed up in pairs of numbers: 8/15, 10/14, 12/13. What that means is that for every 15 ability score, you get an 8 ability score, etc. You can obviously shift points around from there, but for a quick double-check those pairs come in real handy.

Rule 6 : Use your free +2 on a 14 and your free +1 on a 15 or 13. The way ability score point buy works is that every one score increase from 8-13 costs one point (out of 27 total), while going to 14 and then 15 costs two points each. Your free +2 and +1 ignore that rule though, so you basically get even more free points if you spend them to get to 14 or higher.

Rule 8: Plan for the type of armor you'll be using. Your Dex bonus gets applied to your AC differently based on your type of armor; for light armor you get to add your entire bonus to your AC, for medium armor you get to add a maximum of +2, and for heavy armor you don't get any bonus from your Dex. By knowing what your wearing (combined with rule 2) you can better plan how to spend your points on Dex.

Rule 9: another not rule, below are just some good combos for different classes based on the assumptions that you'll be using them in one or two standard ways. I'll be doing at least two spreads, one with dump stats and one without. Your MC is going to have to make most of the ability checks on their own, and you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot before you get a handle on the basics and/or are willing to accept failure. so use the dump stat version at your own peril.

The stat order is Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma. I'm not typing those out each time. The numbers will have the base scores followed with a 1 or 2 to indicate where to put your bonus points.

Barbarian, Strength based medium armor fighter:
14(2) 13(1) 14 10 12 10
14(2) 14 15(1) 8 10 10

Heavy armor tanky fighter
15(2)* 12 15(1) 8 12 9 Pick up Heavy Armor Master for the +1 Str and the extra defenses to basic damage. This feat is better the lower your level, so get it first.

Caster Bard, Warlock, Sorcerer:
10 13(1) 14 10 12 14 (2)
8 14 15(1) 10 10 14(2)

Cleric, Druid Caster:
12 14 13(1) 10 14(2) 10
10 14 15(1) 10 14(2) 8

Moon Druid:
11 12 13(1) 12 14(2) 12 you don't need to waste a lot of points on your physical stats for combat purposes, since your wildshape will overwrite them.

Monk:
10 14 13(1) 10 14(2) 12
10 15(1) 14 8 14(2) 10

Heavy armor Paladin:
14(2) 10 14 10 12 13(1)
15(1) 10 14 8 10 14(2)
15(1) 8 15* 8 10 14(2) take Resilient Con as your first ASI to take it to 16, this will make you the tankiest you can be with your aura backing you up

Ranger:
12 14(2) 14 10 13(1) 10
10 14(2) 15(1) 10 14 8 - melee
10 14(2) 14 10 15(1) 8 - ranged

Rogue and Dex Fighter:
11 14(2) 15(1) 10 12 10

Wizard:
10 14 13(1) 14(2) 12 10
8 15(1) 14 14(2) 12 8


Special cases:
Dex Caster Fighter
10 15* 14(2) 15(1) 8 8 take Resilient Dex as your first ASI to take it to 16.

Caster Rogue
10 14(2) 15* 15(1) 8 8 take Resilient Con as your first ASI to take it to 16, this will help with your concentration saves.

Melee Bard
8 15(1) 15* 8 10 14(2) take Resilient Con as your first ASI to take it to 16, this will help with your concentration saves.

Warlock Pact of the Blade and multi-classes that utilize it (Paladins and Melee Bards):
10 14 15(1) 8 10 14(2) here you can maximize your defenses since both your attacks and your spells are working off of Cha.


Your mileage may vary and you can always switch around the 8,10, and 12s. The 14s and 16s are more important to leave where they are, though there are some places where it is dealers choice on 16 Dex 14 Con or vice versa.

Anyway, if the hour I spent putting this together saves some of you time, then I am glad to have helped

You helped, thank you.

Thanks. This is helpful!

Some questions to that:

Are there any general rules / guidelines around ASI vs. Feat selection as well?

If I understand correctly, there's gear that sets certain stats to an absolute value (like headband of intellect) instead of increasing it relatively by a certain amount like it works in WotW (headband of intelligence +2 etc.). What's your take on this? To me it seems to invalidate choices made around stats to an extent. It would even encourage respecing / retroactively dumping stats that are boosted by that gear. Do I miss something here?

Headband of Intellect etc. - let us wait for the final game to see if such items still exist and are they still absolute or are now relative.

Yeah, let's see. Gear with relative stat increase would be very welcome.

Gear that sets your stat to a specific value is more common in PnP, but there are some with relative bonuses (ioun stones).

I am not sure if this makes a difference, but I imagine for min maxers it has to.

In EA, there is an item you can get that permanently increases CHA at the cost of 1 INT. And there is another questline that potentially gets you a reward that allows you to choose a stat to increase +1.

Also Question: In EA I am playing a Ranger currently. With Dex at 20, is seems like the difference in AC between medium and light armor is worse les than what I lose from losing the Dex bonus. Is this just due to current itemization options in the game, or in general is it just a bad idea to do high dex builds and medium armor?

Not particularly, depending on how they scale the different armors with magic items you can achieve the same AC with non-magic equipment if you go light armor max dex or medium with 14 dex. The highest medium armor comes with disadvantage to stealth though, so if you go full 20 Dex and studded leather you come out ahead of medium armor. However we don't know if the armor types are going to scale linearly as in each armor gets the same +1, +2, +3s at the same time or if heacy and medium will get higher bonuses.

All that said, you'll probably be fine.

Once your Dex exceeds the Dex cap of an armor type, it's best to go down to the next lighter category. Armor can give you penalties on some skills, so you want to wear the lightest you possibly can for Dex builds.

ASIs vs. feats discussion seems to come in three varieties based on player priorities:

1. Which will let me punch better?
In which case there are Feats for certain builds that outpace ASIs in damage. Great weapon master + polearm master = huge damage increase over a +2 to attack and damage especially for 'crit fishing' builds that plan out ways to get advantage on every attack.

Magic initiate can fill in gaps that your spell caster wouldn't otherwise have access to, or give your melee character access to Hex or Hunter's mark.

2. How do I increase my own non-punchy capabilities?
Is it better for me to gain added mobility so I can avoid things? Or get into the fight faster to get more hits in than a +1 will make up the difference for. In tabletop there are a lot of feats that help with this that came with later 'expansions' (not as much in BG3 though).

Magic initiate here can add some utility spells like jump and guidance that can help in day to day stuff.

3. How do I be a better team player? Feats like Sentinel and Inspiring leader aid your party in ways that protect your team much better than doing a little more damage or healing an extra point per spell would.

Honorable mention - Does this fit my character's RP/Background? Things like Tavern Brawler and Keen Mind aren't super powerful, but add flavor with a dash of situational usefulness.

If your goal is to make a 'perfect build' there are tons of guides for table-top that are great starts even though BG3 seems like it will be a little different for some feats.

Not necessarily. There will be times when the medium armor available to you will be better even if you have an 18 dex. When it comes to Dex builds, don't ignore medium armor completely if you have the proficiency, because there will be times when the math works out in its favor. Great example is early game when you get either plain leather (11 AC) + Dex (+3) vs Lae's armor (15 AC) + Dex (capped at +2).

I hope the "Tavern Brawler" implementation in BG 3 will give my LVL 4 Thief a second attack / action: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/quest...at-better-than-a-stat-bump-to-str-or-dex

It also bumps Berserkers proficiency with improvised weapons for throwing attacks.

To address the comments on items and planning your character around them. My only suggestion would be to not depend on them for you primary ability needs. You never know if/when you'll have your gear taken from you for story reasons and you don't want to be hobbled because of it.

My suggestion would be to use them in ways that supplement you rather than become a dependency. E.g. As a Bard, I may not choose any intelligence based skill proficiencies, because I know I can get the headband with +3 intelligence and add from my +1 from Jack of all trades. However, I wouldn't depend on a Lute of 18 Charisma, because if set my Cha to 12 knowing I would get the lute, I could be seriously crippled in areas that turn off magic items or in scenarios where I don't have access to my gear.

Again, very helpful. Now I have a somewhat conclusive idea on turning Shadowheart into the holy assassin and face of the party that she wants to be:

8 15(+1) 10 8 15* 14(+2) with * Observant Feat adding +1 to wisdom and +5 to perception
(using respec to change initial attribute scores if necessary)

Cleric(Thievery) 4 / Rogue(Assassin) 3 / Ranger(Gloom) 5

Mostly agree with OP, but didn't include a few standard options. Lets see:

heavy armour cleric (a couple of subclasses include heavy armour prof, also consider shillelagh on nature cleric).
14 10 15(1) 8 14(2) 10
15(1) 10 14 8 14(2) 10

light armour archer cleric (war domain)
10 15(1) 14 8 14(2) 8


There are a couple of others, like heavy armor tank ranger, dex paladin etc

With regard to casting stats for part-casters like rangers or eldritch knights consider if you are going to use spells that have attack rolls or saving throws or not. If not, you don't need a particularly high casting stat.

I wouldn't worry excessively about dumping INT - a lot of INT checks are made passively, so everyone gets to roll.

You have to be careful when dumping Int, they aren't the type that would key your car or tell their friends that you are a bad kisser, but they have been known to put up fake profiles in dating apps to lure thirsty wizards to their ex's houses.

Serv'em right for being THAT kind of Wizard! They give the profession a Bad Name!

Benbaxter, this will be very helpful for newer players, great job and thank you.

I'd also add a little bit on the dump stats.

There are two stats that can be kinda 'cheated out' of the formula. The first one is DEX, as you've already mentioned, which can be left at 8 if you are using heavy armor. The second one is, surprisingly, CON, which can be left at 12. You can then fix your HP with a Tough feat at level 4, which would equal having 16 CON in terms of your health. This means Achieving the same from the get go would mean spending 7(!) more ability points in the character creation screen. This is great economy, the only drawback being your CON saving throws staying the same.

Another trick you can do to make your character more interesting is dump both DEX and STR on a martial class, leave both at 8. Seemingly a terrible idea, but hear me out. If you want to focus on the dialogue as a martial class and still be good at combat, there is a way. Just pump your WIS and take 'Shillelagh' spell from the 'Druid Initiate' feat. That way you can translate your WIS to your attack rolls and damage, but you would be restricted to a particular set of weapons. I had a great time with my skill monkey ranger with this approach throughout the EA.

Thanks for bringing those up!

One thing you always have to consider when thinking about about dumping ability score is Saves. On of my favorite character in TT was a Paladin with dumped dex and int, but fireballs were his nemesis and he almost got 2 shot by an intellect devourer.

In BG3 you are getting shoved a couple times every fight, having both both a low dex and str is going to turn you into the school geek who repeatedly gets tossed into garbage cans. If you are only wearing light or no armor you can get away with a dumped Str, but carry weight is important in this game, so be careful when planning out what armor and weapons you plan on using. I would try to keep at least one twelve between the two.

Counterintuitively, support casters need Con more than high DPR melee classes. Keeping your concentration skills up and running can be tough when fighting lots of little guys all plinking away at you. Warcaster can handle the difference, but that is a third of your ASIs so I would only pick it if you plan on using its other abilities.

I also love making skill monkies! Unless I know a build needs all their ASIs, I will almost always start as a rogue, ranger, or bard. My first build at this point is going to be whichever race ends up with the most skills (it better be Half-elf) Light Cleric 1, Ranger 1, Lore Bard 10 (depending on how multiclassing skill selection goes.

Since it has come up a few times across the forums, below is a build that will give you every skill and still keep 6th level spells (number of possible skills in parenthesis)

Wood Elf (2)
Background (2)
1 level in Ranger (5)
1 level in Knowledge Cleric (2 with expertise)
1 levels in Bard (1)
2 more levels in bard to get Lore subclass (3, and two more with expertise)
1 last level in bard to take the skilled feat (3)

You then have 6 levels to do whatever (Wisdom or Charisma casters work best)

Because you have proficiency in everything, it wont hurt much to dump your unimportant ability scores so I would aim to have a 16 in your primary ability score and split a 14/16 between Dex and Con. That leaves 10/10/8 or 12/8/8 for your other scores. If you are doing a non-charisma character, I'd put a 12 in it just so you can benefit a little more from the bard spells.

This works okay for the half-casters, too, but you need to tweak your scores a bit.

Paladin: 16 10 16 8 10 14
Ranger: 10 16 14 10 14 12


I wont personally be using this exact build, because I don't think you need to have every skill to enjoy the game. But it is here if you are interested