Character Creation is where the epic journey begins, so get ready, and start strong with the powerful and optimized protagonist in Baldur’s Gate 3; our guide aims to help beginners and advanced players go through this essential process.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Character Creation Explained
Character Creation in Baldur’s Gate 3 offers freedom and impressive character customization options, that influence not only how your character’s appearance but most importantly personality. You’ll be able to choose skills, background, how your character looks, proficiencies, race, and much more. This feature has undergone significant improvements in comparison to the early access version.
However, in Baldur’s Gate 3, character creation is more than just picking pretty eyes and tribal tattoos. The game is heavily based on Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, where almost every little detail matters. Would you like to be a drow bard? Certainly, but be aware that the world around you will recognize your class and origin. Citizens of Forgotten Realms may fear you due to your Drow gray-pale skin, making it challenging to convince them to engage in conversation, let alone perform music for them, given the Drow race’s unfavorable reputation.
The complexity of character creation is also intertwined with numerous statistics you’ll need to select from the start, including ability scores, skills, weapon and armor proficiencies. All of these factors combined make the process of crafting your perfect protagonist even more enjoyable! For those, like me, who love spending hours picking the right hair, don’t worry—the character creation system offers multiple options to craft diverse and unique characters, providing countless colors and selections to choose from.
The following list includes all customization options in Baldur’s Gate 3 character creation:
- Origin
- Race
- Class
- Background
- Proficiencies
- Ability Score
- Gender
- Makeup
- Skin
- Skin Color
- Scales for Sorcerer
- Scales Color for Sorcerer
- Eye
- Eye Color
- Tatoo
- Face Shape
- Maturity Slider
- Freckles Quantity/Intensity,
- Vitiligo Pigmentation
- Horn customization for Tieflings (Horn color and tip color)
- Scaring
- Hair
- Hair Colors
- Hair Highlights
- Facial Hair
- Facial Hair Color
- Body Type
- Piercings
- Crest for Dragonborn
Origin Character – What Should You Choose?
Firstly, you need to choose your character’s origin. You should choose for your first playthrough, a custom character and create your first protagonist from scratch. It is recommended even by developers. By doing so, you will guarantee that you experience the story from your unique perspective, allowing you to grasp the mechanics before delving into more complex aspects of the game, such as dialogue, backgrounds, or special quests related to origin characters.
Origin characters are playable heroes, each possessing their own distinct stories, desires, and attitudes toward the in-game world. Players have the choice to immerse themselves in the game’s narrative through the perspective of a specific origin character or to invite them to join as companions on their journey.
The player’s choices hold a substantial effect on the evolution of the origin character’s storyline. If you recruit these characters as companions, their past experiences and perspectives will shape their opinions and advice regarding the player’s choices and actions. Through interactions, decisions, and dialogues, players can forge the nature of their relationship with the origin character, potentially leading to diverse outcomes such as friendship, romance, rivalry, or even animosity.
Class Choice
There are 12 classes, each with its unique features. Classes determine your spells, attacks, proficiencies, and how the game’s world will see you and interact with you. Subclasses, on the other hand, offer a deeper level of specialization within your chosen class. They grant additional features and capabilities that allow you to further customize your character’s abilities and strengths. In Baldur’s Gate 3, your class and subclass choices play a big role in shaping your character strengths, and playstyle throughout the game.
During character creation, you’ll select your starting class. This choice determines your character’s primary abilities and proficiencies. Certain classes allow you to choose a subclass right at character creation. Others, as you progress and gain experience, you’ll have the opportunity to select a subclass.
Pick a class that matches your favorite playstyle and enhances your character’s development and narrative journey, to forge a hero uniquely suited to you.
All Baldur’s Gate 3 Classes
All available in Baldur’s Gate 3 character creation classes are:
- Barbarian – A rage-driven warrior who is always in the middle of a fight.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields
- Bard – You are a deadly musician who can successfully support the team with your spells.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons, Hand Crossbows, Longswords, Rapiers, Shortswords
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor
- Cleric – The best healer among classes, dedicated their life to one deity.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons, Morningstars
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields
- Druid – They possess the unique ability to transform into animals in combat and focus on nature magic.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Clubs, Daggers, Javelins, Maces, Quarterstaffs, Scimitars, Sickles, Spears
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields
- Fighter – They control the fight and, do best with melee weapons.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Shields
- Monk – Dedicated to Zen philosophy.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons, Shortswords
- Paladin – Holy warrior with a talent for healing.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Shields
- Ranger – Ranger is the best class if you like bow combat.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields
- Rogue – the master of attacks from the shadows, with huge critical damage.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons, Hand Crossbows, Longswords, Rapiers, Shortswords
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor
- Sorcerer – This class doesn’t have many spells but the ones they have are extremely powerful.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Daggers, Quarterstaffs, Light, Crossbows
- Warlock – Your demonic patron gives you powers and powerful cantrips to spread fear in your enemy’s hearts.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Simple Weapons
- Armor Proficiencies – Light Armor
- Wizard – This class is probably the classic spellcaster with many spells and cantrips available at your wish.
- Weapons Proficiencies – Daggers, Quarterstaffs, Light Crossbows
What is the Easiest Class to Play?
The fighter stands as a mighty force, offering the most straightforward gameplay in Baldur’s Gate 3. Command the battlefield, you have a decent health pool that helps with your survival. If you favor a melee approach, particularly the finesse of a two-handed sword, the fighter is your style.
You can explore the Rogue Thief or Assassin subclasses—a dexterity-based class. Once you grasp the basics of stealth attacks, this class becomes a fantastic source of devastating damage.
Spellcasters are more complex but also powerful. If you’re new to Baldur’s Gate 3 and seek versatility and survivability, the Druid is a good spellcaster to pick. Alternatively, consider reliable classes like Warlock or Wizard.
Remember, this is your character and your odyssey. Embrace what resonates with you, ensuring an exhilarating voyage through the realms of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Backgrounds
There are thirteen backgrounds in Baldur’s Gate 3, and they represent where your character comes from and what their life was before. NPC characters, including your companions, will sometimes react consequently to your protagonist’s origin, which can sometimes earn you favors or enemies. Backgrounds are not limited to race or class, so you can pick whatever you like or will give you the best statistics.
Here are all backgrounds in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Acolyte
- Charlatan
- Criminal
- Entertainer
- Folk Hero
- Guild Artisan
- Hermit
- Noble
- Outlander
- Sage
- Sailor
- Soldier
- Urchin
Skills and Proficiencies
In Baldur’s Gate 3, skills serve as active abilities that empower your character to perform specific tasks. What expertise does your character possess? Arcana, Stealth, or perhaps Intimidiation? Not all classes grant access to every skill, but lacking proficiency in a particular skill doesn’t bar your character from attempting related actions. Skill can be acquired through your character’s Race and Background, while your class determines an additional 2-3 skills.
Skills mainly influence the game’s roleplaying aspect, infusing your character with individuality, similar to backgrounds that have skill proficiencies. However, each skill aligns with one of six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. Thus, selecting skills that can grant passive boosts to these attributes and optimizing your character by choosing skills that complement your class and preferred playstyle, will result in a finely-tuned build.
In your party, it’s a good idea to have at least one character proficient in one of the skills to create the most balanced team.
- You want to have at least one character with Stealth, and Sleight of Hand in your team to steal, lockpick, and disarm traps while exploring. Whether you use it or not.
- Athletics is the second skill you should have in your team, you never know when someone with unusual strength and capable of lifting heavy things will be useful.
- Arcana, history, nature, and medicine can prove useful in exploration.
- However, you truly want someone with high insight and perception, who will be able to recognize patterns and discover things others can’t see.
- Lastly, make sure you have someone with Persuasion and intimidation. Baldur’s Gate 3 is full of fantastic quests, and dialogues and many will require you to pass charisma checks to achieve your goals.
Ability Score
In Baldur’s Gate 3, ability scores embody your character’s talents, strengths, and weaknesses. These core attributes shape various abilities of your character’s capabilities and impact how they perform in different scenarios. The game has six Ability Scores featured in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
Each class has a primary ability that you should focus on. You can find this in the character description or the Abilities tab, noted with a star icon. Regardless of your chosen class, prioritize investing the most points into its primary ability. Additionally, after you select a class, the game automatically allocates points to your statistics – a handy option to consider if you’re uncertain about your choices.
Baldur’s Gate 3 abilities are:
- Strength – Primary statistic for Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin
- Dexterity – Primary statistic for Ranger, Rogue
- Constitution
- Intelligence – Primary statistic for Wizard
- Wisdom – Primary statistic for Cleric, Druid
- Charisma – Primary statistic for Warlock, Sorcerer, Bard
Race & Subrace
In Baldur’s Gate 3, races play a big role in shaping your character’s playstyle and identity. Each race has a variety of racial traits, offering boosts to proficiencies, skills, or resistances. Furthermore, certain races come with subraces, increasing your customization options.
For Example, the Dragonborn race branches into three subraces: Black Dragonborn, Blue Dragonborn, and Green Dragonborn. Each subrace comes with its distinct set of weapon and armor proficiencies, alongside other racial traits. Subraces allow you to delve deeper into customization and create unique characters with distinctive origins.
When deciding your character’s race and subrace in Baldur’s Gate 3, consider the bonuses it can offer. For instance, elf races like drow, high elf, and wood elf have darkvision, enabling them to see in darkness—an immensely valuable skill during exploration. Moreover, each race in Baldur’s Gate 3 provides a +2 and +1 ability score, which helps optimize the stats for best performance.
Ultimately, the choice of race and subrace is up to you. There’s no best answer and the optimal selection hinges on your unique playstyle. However, by thoughtfully considering your options, you can craft a character both unique and distinct.
Appearance
Lastly, in Baldur’s Gate 3, you can shape your character’s appearance to your liking, immersing yourself deeply in the creative process. Start by selecting from four distinct voice options, two of which are associated with femininity, and the other two resonate with masculinity.
Bodytype Gender and Genitalia
Gender is your next step when creating your character’s core identity. You have a decent number of choices, embracing the diversity of this fantastical world. That includes the genitalia options with 3 for women and 3 for men. Your character’s body type offers four distinctive options that have both feminine and masculine forms. Each gender’s body type has two possible body shapes, lean and muscular.
Skin Color and Face
Skin color is a great expression of individuality, and players have a huge amount of options available. Whether you choose a traditional tone or venture into the realms of the extraordinary, like vibrant blues or verdant greens, the choice is yours to make.
To access a wider array of colors in Baldur’s Gate 3, simply look for the “All Colors” option whenever color customization is available. Activating this option will unlock a broader spectrum of hues, granting you greater freedom to craft a truly unique and vibrant character.
Face shape, while limited to six pre-designed options, you still should be able to find one for yourself. They are very versatile, but the limitation in this section is what many players complain about. However, your character face can be personalized with other interesting options. Maturity, another facet of appearance, can be subtly adjusted, adding a touch of realism. Freckles and vitiligo pigmentation celebrate the nuances of the human form, allowing you to add depth and authenticity to your character’s visage. Scars tell stories of battles fought and challenges overcome. A selection of scars is at your disposal to enrich your character’s narrative.
Eyes
Eyes, the windows to your character’s soul, come in various colors usually distinctive to the race choice. Character creation even offers the option for heterochromia – a great touch that adds depth to your character’s appearance. Each color presents a distinct charm, allowing you to enhance your character’s personality.
Body Art and Makeup
Tattoos or body art add fantastic designs to your character’s skin, adding another layer of uniqueness. This personal emblem can create a story of its own, contributing to your character’s look. There are not many tattoo colors available but you should find something for you between options, that include even white or beige colors hues.
Nextly, you can enhance your character’s appearance with makeup that includes more realistic and fantasy options. Eyeshadows and lipstick colors could offer more selections but you can also adjust opacity, which will help you create something that fits your character.
Hair and Facial Hair
Hairstyles offer a fantastic selection of styles that should satisfy diverse tastes. Also, the hair in Baldur’s Gate 3 is well-animated with very detailed textures. Whether you’re a fan of timeless elegance or bold innovation, your character’s appearance will be unique. Hair color, ranging from natural shades to brave hues like vibrant blues and pinks. Highlight your character’s individuality with hair highlights, and greying slider for older characters, or if you want to add a bit of uniqueness to your character look.
There are fewer facial hair options but anyone should find something that will enhance their character look. Just as with hair color, the facial hair color spectrum is massive.
Additional Customization options – Scales, Horns, Crest, and Piercings
Sorcerers of the dragon bloodline subclass can decorate their faces with scales. The selection may be modest, but it captures the essence of your draconic lineage. These scales breathe life into your character’s unique heritage. The color of your scales, if you’ve chosen the path of the Sorcerer, will depend on your dragon ancestor and associated element, frost, fire, acid, or lighting
For Tieflings, players can pick horns shapes, and colors. Dragonborn characters, crests. You have the liberty to manipulate their colors and shapes, which symbolize your character’s lineage.
Lastly game offers piercings and ornamental jewelry, the selection is small, and you can’t change the colors. However, I can not deny their beauty.
Final Thoughts
In Baldur’s Gate 3, character creation is an immersive experience that empowers you to mold every aspect of your avatar. From the subtle nuances of freckles to the bold statements of hair color, each choice shapes your character’s identity, ensuring they stand as a true reflection of your vision.
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