Baldurs Gate 3: Character creation - class, race, abilities Baldurs Gate 3 guide, walkthrough
Can't wrap your head around the BG3 character wizard? We have prepared a quick character creation guide for you. We discuss, among others, the choice of race and class.
Last update: 01 August 2023
The character creator in Baldur's Gate 3 is a powerful tool, allowing choosing or creating a character who will be our main hero. Thanks to a multitude of options in the creator, you'll be able to choose his race, sub-race, class, abilities, specializations, and spells and customize the appearance of the character. Alternatively, you can skip the whole process and choose a pre-defined hero, but remember that it may have already decided skills and playstyle that may not fit your idea for gameplay.
- Creating/choosing a character and interface
- Choosing race
- Choosing class
- Choosing background, skills, and abilities
- Customizing appearance
- Naming the hero
- Selecting the Guardian
Creating/choosing a character and interface
The character creator greets you with an important question - will you choose a ready-made character, or will you create one from scratch? When it comes to choosing, you can assume control of one of seven pre-defined heroes.
The alternative is to create your own hero from scratch - beginning of this process is described in step 2.
- Navigation menu - you can move to different fields at any moment.
- The window where you choose a ready-made hero or create your own.
- Press here to proceed to the next step of the wizard or to the character appearance window. We recommend choosing the race and class first, and leaving the appearance for later, as with each changing of the race, the hero's appearance resets to default.
- Character Results window - here you can see race, class, abilities, learned spells and Proficiencies along with Skills here.
- The window where you choose the body type and how camera behaves in the wizard.
Choosing race
Choosing the race in Baldurs Gate 3 is a very important step, as it affects the story tremendously and with each race, you have access to different racial bonuses. With the release day version, you have a choice between 11 different races.
- Race selection window
- A brief description of each race and their racial bonuses.
In Baldurs Gate 3 you have 11 races to choose from, each of which is unique in its own way and may have its own subraces. To learn more about races, you can view a dedicated chapter of our guide (Races).
- Subrace selection window.
- A window describing the selected subrace along with its offered bonuses.
Choosing class
There are 12 classes to choose from in Baldurs Gate 3. Some of them specialize in melee combat using weapons, are best played as hybrids or focus exclusively on magic and spells.
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To learn more about possible classes and get their descriptions, visit a dedicated chapter of our guide (Classes).
- Window where you choose Cantrips - simple spells available to magic wielders or sometimes other classes
- Subclass selection window.
- Field describing a given subclass and bonuses it provides for the player.
- The main attribute of a spellcaster-type class - the higher, the better.
- The difficulty level of a spell - the higher it is, the harder is for enemies to resist the spell.
- Bonus to the spell.
- Field displaying selected spells.
- List of available level 1 spells.
Choosing background, skills, and abilities
Background is one of the key aspects of the created character. It determines the hero's past, and with it, what additional starting Proficiencies you'll have.
- Field showing possible Background variants.
- A brief description of the Background and bonuses received.
Skills and Abilities are very important and one of the basic elements of the game. In Baldurs Gate 3, you have access to 6 Abilities - each class has a main leading attribute that is marked with a star.
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- The field dedicated to Proficiency bonus that will increase along with our character level.
- Ability window - you can add and subtract as you see fit.
- A field dedicated to Proficiencies and Skills.
In Baldur's Gate 3, there are following abilities:
- Strength - aside from melee damage, this ability also affects the range of jump and maximum carry weight limit.
- Dexterity - affects the chance of a successful hit with ranged and finesse weapons. Additionally, it affects Initiative and Armor Class.
- Constitution - influences the amount of Hit Points - more the better.
- Intelligence - a attribute especially important to spellcasters.
- Wisdom - a main attribute for Clerics, Druids, and Rangers.
- Charisma - governing attribute for Paladins, Bards, Sorcerers and Warlocks. Important when it comes to interactions and affects the merchant prices.
Each of these attributes has a corresponding Skill that you can find in Proficiencies. For example, Intmidation is affected by Charisma, while Lore is affected by Intelligence.
Customizing appearance
Customizing the appearance of your character is one of the more important features of the character creator. Thanks to a multitude of options, you'll be able to create a perfect character.
- Navigating through various body parts.
- Main dialogue window where you can make changes.
- Random element window and camera control
You can change your appearance through general changes, adding tattoos and piercings, changing eye color, adding makeup, changing hair and its color, modifying facial hair and in the case of more diverse races - adding additional elements. For example, a Tiefling can change the appearance of its horns.
Naming the hero
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After pressing the blue "Next" button, you are almost at the conclusion of the character creation wizard. It's time to name your hero or heroine.
Selecting the Guardian
The Guardian is a mysterious character who will appear during dream sequences throughout the course of the entire campaign. For your characters, the Guardian will be an object of interest, possibly even culminating in romance or conflict. Please note that when choosing a Guardian, you can only determine the appearance. More on the topic on a dedicated page in the FAQ chapter (Who is the Guardian?).