Our Baldur’s Gate 3: Ability Score Explained guide will help players understand the basics of how to build an effective character.
What Are Ability Scores in Baldur’s Gate 3?
In Baldur’s Gate 3, ability scores represent the natural talents, strengths, and weaknesses of your character. They are fundamental attributes that define various aspects of your character’s capabilities and influence their performance in different situations. The game uses the standard six Ability Scores found in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5e).
These are a list of ability scores found in Baldurs’ Gate 3:
- Strength – This score determines your character’s physical power.
- Dexterity – This score determines your character’s agility and reflexes.
- Constitution – This score determines your character’s health and stamina.
- Intelligence -This score determines your character’s mental acuity.
- Wisdom – This score determines your character’s perception and intuition.
- Charisma – This score determines your character’s force of personality.
Technically each ability score has a range of 1 to 20. Baldur’s Gate 3 has a standard point-buy system, with each character getting 27 points to distribute between their six Ability Scores. However, in BG3 the lowest each score can be is 8 and the highest by point-buy alone is 15. Your character’s starting ability scores are determined by your race and class. You can also increase your ability scores by leveling up or by using magic items.
Ability scores are an important part of your character’s overall power. By carefully choosing your ability scores to pair effectively with your class, you can create a character that is well-suited for your playstyle.
How Do Ability Scores Work in Baldur’s Gate 3?
In Baldur’s Gate 3, ability scores are critical for determining a character’s success in combat, exploration, and social interactions. They play a pivotal role in skill checks, saving throws, and determining the effectiveness of attacks and spells. Understanding and strategically allocating Ability Scores can greatly impact your character’s performance and playstyle throughout the game.
During character creation, you allocate points to these Ability Scores, which will determine your character’s starting capabilities. Some races and classes might also provide bonuses or penalties to certain Ability Scores. As your character levels up, you may gain Ability Score Increases, allowing you to improve one or more of these scores, further customizing your character’s strengths and weaknesses.
Let’s take a more in-depth look at each Ability stat and how you can develop an effective build around it.
Strength
The Strength ability measures your character’s physical power and ability to perform tasks that require raw physical force, such as carrying heavy objects, breaking down doors, or dealing melee damage with weapons like axes or hammers. Strength also affects the character’s ability to wear heavier armor and carry more equipment.
Your level in Strength directly affects your Athletics Skill. Athletics is checked when a character is climbing, swimming, jumping, or attempting other grappling tasks. The higher your Strength ability, the farther you can jump, the harder you can shove opponents and the farther you can throw things (calculation also dependent on the object’s weight).
The higher your Strength ability, the more your weight your character can carry in their inventory. Currently, this is calculated as 10 pounds of weight per each single point in Strength. Encumbrance occurs when your character’s inventory reaches about 2/3rds of their maximum carry capacity. This will result in your character no longer being able to jog forward normally, instead moving at a slow walk.
Strength is the most important ability stat for melee damage character builds. Strength is calculated in all attack and damage rolls made with any type of melee weapons.
The Best Classes for Strength ability score are Barbarian and Fighter in Baldur’s Gate 3:
| Barbarian | Fighter |
| Strength – 16 | Strength – 17 |
| Dexterity – 14 | Dexterity – 10 |
| Constitution – 16 | Constitution – 17 |
| Intelligence – 8 | Intelligence – 8 |
| Wisdom – 12 | Wisdom – 10 |
| Charisma – 10 | Charisma – 12 |
Dexterity
Dexterity represents your character’s agility, reflexes, and hand-eye coordination. It affects their accuracy with ranged weapons, ability to dodge attacks and traps, and success in skills like Stealth and Sleight of Hand. High Dexterity can also improve your character’s Armor Class
Your level in Dexterity directly affects your Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand and Stealth skills. Acrobatics is your ability to resist being shoved in combat and to stay upright when trying to move on a slippery surface. The Sleight of Hand skill covers things like disarming traps, stealing and pickpocketing, and Stealth determines your ability to sneak around undetected.
Dexterity is also the ability score which is used to determine Initiative in combat. A higher Dexterity means that your character has a higher likelyhood of striking first in Baldur’s Gate 3’s turn-based combat. Your Dexterity score in combination with your armor type will determine how difficult it is for enemies to land successful attacks.
Dexterity is also very important for ranged attacks, making it vital for archers. Keep in mind that this does not apply to casters, who use their own primary ability score for spells.
The Best classes for Dexterity ability score are Rogue and Ranger in Baldur’s Gate 3:
| Rogue | Ranger |
| Strength – 9 | Strength – 12 |
| Dexterity – 16 | Dexterity – 17 |
| Constitution – 14 | Constitution – 14 |
| Intelligence – 8 | Intelligence – 8 |
| Wisdom – 14 | Wisdom – 14 |
| Charisma – 14 | Charisma – 10 |
Constitution
Constitution reflects your character’s health, endurance, and overall resilience. A high Constitution score increases their hit points, making them more durable in combat and less susceptible to diseases and environmental hazards.
Your level in Constitution does not effect any currently available Skills. It does affect the Armor class for Barbarians, who use a Constitution modifier for their armor. Additionally, Barbarians makes the most use of Constitution because they have the highest hit dice of 1d12.
Essentially, the primary function of your Constitution ability score is to boost your Hit Points. You’ll add your Constitution Modifier to your Hit Point total every time you level up.
The Best classes for Constitution ability score are Barbarian and Fighter in Baldur’s Gate 3:
| Barbarian | Fighter |
| Strength – 16 | Strength – 17 |
| Dexterity – 14 | Dexterity – 10 |
| Constitution – 16 | Constitution – 17 |
| Intelligence – 8 | Intelligence – 8 |
| Wisdom – 12 | Wisdom – 10 |
| Charisma – 10 | Charisma – 12 |
Intelligence
Intelligence measures your character’s knowledge, problem-solving abilities, and memory. It affects skills like Arcana, History, and Investigation, and is crucial for Wizards who cast spells from spellbooks.
Your level in Intelligence directly affects your Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature and Religion skills. These are all skills that will mostly be useful as you explore the world of Faerun. Discovering ruins with old murals, viewing plaques, attempting to read magic tomes or examining religious idols will often automatically trigger and Intelligence roll and if your character is knowledgeable enough they may be able to interpret of make a comment. Intelligence can also play a role in dialogue options and roleplay.
Most importantly, Intelligence is the primary ability score used by Wizards in their spellcasting. A Wizard’s Intelligence score affects their spellcasting in three primary ways:
- Saving Throws
- The higher a spell’s saving throw the less likely enemies are to resist or avoid the effects of your spells.
- Attack Rolls
- Attack rolls with spells are boosted by your Intelligence, making them more likely to hit.
- Spell Slots
- The number of spells a Wizard can have prepared can be calculated by adding their level plus their Intelligence modifier.
The Best class for Intelligence ability score is Wizard in Baldur’s Gate 3:
| Wizard | Ability Score |
| Strength | 8 |
| Dexterity | 16 |
| Constitution | 14 |
| Intelligence | 16 |
| Wisdom | 10 |
| Charisma | 10 |
Wisdom
Wisdom represents your character’s perception, intuition, and common sense. It influences skills like Perception, Insight, and Survival. Characters with high Wisdom are more in tune with their surroundings and better at resisting mental manipulation.
Your level in Wisdom directly affects your Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Perception and Survival skills. Survival and Perception skills have to do with how well observant your character is of their environment and how comfortable they are moving around in it. Animal Handling governs how skilled your character is in dealing with all creatures great and small, while Insight will help discern another person’s true intentions while having a conversation with them. The Medicine skill determines how effective your character is at healing others.
More significantly, Druids and Clerics use Wisdom as the primary ability score in their spellcasting. Similar to Wizards, their Wisdom score affects their spellcasting in three primary ways:
- Saving Throws
- The higher a spell’s saving throw the less likely enemies are to resist or avoid the effects of your spells.
- Attack Rolls
- Attack rolls with spells are boosted by your Wisdom, making them more likely to hit.
- Spell Slots
The Best classes for Wisdom ability score are Druid and Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3:
| Druid | Cleric |
| Strength – 10 | Strength – 12 |
| Dexterity – 14 | Dexterity – 14 |
| Constitution – 16 | Constitution – 16 |
| Intelligence – 10 | Intelligence – 8 |
| Wisdom – 16 | Wisdom – 16 |
| Charisma – 8 | Charisma – 8 |
Charisma
Charisma measures your character’s personal magnetism, charm, and ability to influence others. It impacts skills like Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation, making characters more convincing or intimidating during conversations and social interactions.
Your level in Charisma directly affects your Deception, Intimidation, Performance and Persuasion skills. These skills come into use often, primarily in dialogue with companion characters and regular NPCs. Your skill level in Charisma can greatly influence how conflicts resolve, can help you fast talk your way out of trouble, or manipulate others into doing what you want.
Finally, Wisdom is the primary ability score used by Bards, Paladins, Sorcerers, and Warlocks in their spellcasting. Similar to Wizards, their Charisma score affects their spellcasting in three primary ways:
- Saving Throws
- The higher a spell’s saving throw the less likely enemies are to resist or avoid the effects of your spells.
- Attack Rolls
- Attack rolls with spells are boosted by your Wisdom, making them more likely to hit.
- Spell Slots
- The number of spells these classes can have prepared can be calculated by adding their level plus their Charisma modifier.
The Best classes for Wisdom ability score are Bard and Sorcerer in Baldur’s Gate 3:
| Bard | Sorcerer |
| Strength – 12 | Strength – 8 |
| Dexterity – 14 | Dexterity – 16 |
| Constitution – 16 | Constitution – 14 |
| Intelligence – 8 | Intelligence – 10 |
| Wisdom – 10 | Wisdom – 10 |
| Charisma – 16 | Charisma – 16 |
In Baldur’s Gate 3, ability scores are critical for determining a character’s success in combat, exploration, and social interactions. They play a pivotal role in skill checks, saving throws, and determining the effectiveness of attacks and spells. Understanding and strategically allocating Ability Scores can greatly impact your character’s performance and playstyle throughout the game.
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