Explore the best classes and subclasses as we present the top 10 builds for Baldur’s Gate 3 in Patch 6, offering the most powerful in BG3.
Baldur’s Gate 3 build crafting can be a complex series of factors that contribute to a character’s effectiveness, such as their race, class, subclass, abilities, feats, spells, equipment, and playstyle. It also involves understanding how different mechanics interact with each other and how to optimize your character’s build to take advantage of these interactions. Patch 6 has been released, and we intend to answer the question in this build: What is the Best Build for Baldur’s Gate 3?
- 10 Circle of Spores Druid Build
- 9 Necromancy School Wizard Build
- 8 Life Domain Cleric Build
- 7 Thief Rogue Build
- 6 Way of the Open Hand Monk Build
- 5 Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer Build
- 4 Battle Master Fighter Build
- 3 Berserker Barbarian Build
- 2 Gloom Stalker Ranger Build
- 1 Oath of Vengeance Paladin Build
- What’s New in Patch 6 for Baldur’s Gate 3?
This guide has been updated for the patch 6 version of Baldur’s Gate 3.
What are the Best 10 Builds for Baldur’s Gate 3 in Patch 6
The best Builds in Patch 6 are Paladin, Oath of Vengeance subclass, Ranger Gloom Stalker subclass, and Barbarian Berserker subclass. These three classes excel in their respective roles, offering substantial damage output and valuable utility to any party.
However, the Oath of Vengeance Paladin is the overall strongest class, subclass, and build in Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6. Paladin offers unparalleled versatility, potent single-target damage, and remarkable survivability within a single class. The Paladins can access various weapons and armour types, allowing for diverse playstyles. Combining Extra Attack with Divine Smite results in exceptional raw damage potential. The Paladin can also cast spells and heal allies, providing support, damage, and the best overall build currently in BG3 Patch 6.
Ten best builds in the latest Patch 6 from best to worst:
- Oath of Vengeance Paladin Build: best single target damage, good in dialogue, flexible equipment options
- Gloom Stalker Ranger Build: best range class, high survivability, best for solo play
- Berserker Barbarian Build: the simplest and most effective melee damage build
- Battle Master Fighter Build: high damage, utility, and flexibility with heavy armour
- Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer Build: the most potent spellcaster with metamagic and bonus action utility
- Way of the Open Hand Monk Build: high damage and mobility without the need for weapons
- Thief Rogue Build: effective in melee or range combat with incredible utility for your party
- Life Domain Cleric Build: the best healing, support, and utility build in BG3
- Necromancy School Wizard Build: a unique Wizard build that has high survivability and damage
- Circle of Spores Druid Build: an effective spell-casting damage dealer with healing abilities
Honour Mode
In Patch 6, Larian Studios introduced a new difficulty setting Honour Mode. Honour Mode campaigns gave players a single-save only, meaning that a complete party wipeout would end your campaign. Additionally, Honor Mode gave bosses “legendary actions.” These actions were ultra-powerful attacks often capable of destroying an entire group.
We have completed Honour Mode with all the various builds listen below and have updated this guide to reflect those changes. These rankings will be primarily focused on combat-related performance for group, solo, and Honour Mode.
10 Circle of Spores Druid Build
The best features for Circle of Spores Druid build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Circle of Spores
- Race – High Elf
- Armour – Light Armour
- Weapon – Quarterstaff & Shield
- Primary Ability – Wisdom
- Saving Throws – Wisdom, Intelligence
- Background – Folk Hero
- Skills – Insight & Medicine
The weakness of the Druid class is the emphasis on Wild Shape. While this is helpful at lower levels, Wild Shaping essentially turns off your power spells and significantly reduces your damage and utility. The Circle of Spores Druid is the best way to play a class because it uses Wild Shape charges to enhance spells. With less emphasis on Wild Shape, the Circle of Spores Druid feels like a unique spellcaster with increased action utility.
You can use the Halo of Spores to create a cloud of necrotic spores dealing necrotic damage in an area. You can then stack Symbiotic Entity, dealing additional necrotic damage and gaining temporary hit points. The temporary hit points can reach over 40, essentially providing you with nearly the same protection as a Wild Shape creature could provide. Additionally, the Spores combo allows the Druid to do passive damage via reaction which frees up both action and bonus action.
What holds this build back from being higher is the lack of bonus action utility and a weaker spell selection than Wizard and Sorcerer. Additionally, this build takes many levels to start feeling powerful and can feel weaker during Act 1 of BG3. With the right combination of spells and scrolls, you can provide great damage in comparison to the core spellcasters along with high health due to temporary hit points gained. The Circle of Spores Druid is an extremely powerful and different type of spell caster that can provide good area damage, utility, and healing.
9 Necromancy School Wizard Build
The best features for Necromancy Wizard build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Necromancy School
- Race – Asmodeus Tiefling
- Armour – Clothing
- Weapon – Quarterstaff & Shield
- Primary Ability – Intelligence
- Saving Throws – Intelligence, Wisdom
- Background – Sage, Acolyte, & Noble
- Skills – Investigation & Religion
The Necromancy Wizard excels at summoning creatures and animating the dead. With the Necromancy subclass, you get a free Animate Dead spell that increases your health and raises an additional corpse. You can combine this with other summoning abilities like Conjure Elemental and Minor Elemental. What you end up having is an army of undead and elementals fighting for you on the battlefield.
The strength of this build is that up to 5 creatures fighting for you provide extra damage, utility, and a high fun factor. Most of these summonses and undead last until a long rest and will remain at your side the entire time. However, it comes with a downside and that’s using a large amount of spell slots to summon a lot of creatures and finding corpses to animate the dead. Moreover, the Wizard doesn’t have Metamagic to utilise your bonus action during combat without Illithid Powers.
Unlike the Evocation subclass, the Necromancy has “friendly fire,” meaning you can hit your allies with spells like Fireball. The Necromancy build is best played as a pure Wizard all the way to level 12 to take advantage of level 6 spell slots. The reason multiclassing with this build is difficulty, is due to your primary ability score being intelligence. Wizards are the only class with intelligence as their primary, and thus not the best to multiclass. Play this build if you want to create an army of creatures that is both unique and powerful, making it the best choice among wizard builds in Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6.
8 Life Domain Cleric Build
The best features for Life Cleric build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Life Domain
- Race – High Elf
- Armour – Heavy Armour
- Weapon – Mace & Shield
- Primary Ability – Wisdom
- Saving Throws – Wisdom, Charisma
- Background – Acolyte
- Skills – Medicine & Perception
The Life Domain Cleric is the dominant support and versatility build in BG3. The Life subclass unlocks heavy armour proficiency and powerful healing domain spells. You have a one-hand and shield-wielding heavy armour spell caster that is incredibly survivable and able to heal. But you’re not limited to healing, and you can cast summon spells like Spiritual Weapon and Guardian of Faith. Both spells do not require concentration and can stack, aiding you in combat while maintaining concentration on buffs for your group.
Also, the Life Domain Cleric has many spells with excellent crowd control, like Banishment, Hold Person, and Command. This build also has powerful buffs like Bless, Beacon of Hope, and Death Ward. The best part is the combination of Healing Word and Cure Wounds. Healing Word is a bonus action, and Cure Wounds is an action which can be chained together for two heals in one turn. You will later upgrade these spells with Mass Healing Word and Mass Cure Wounds, giving them further area healing. Combine this with Preserve Life channel divinity action, and you always have a powerful burst area healing at your disposal.
The weakness of the class is no additional action or bonus action. You will also be lower in the attack order, which means you can get stunned or snared. Your mobility is deficient, so Misty Step scrolls or gear sets are essential to make every turn count. Consider the Life Domain Cleric the go-to support class and a community favourite when using Shadowheart companion.
7 Thief Rogue Build
The best features for Thief Rogue build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Thief
- Race – Wood Half-Elf
- Armour – Light Armour
- Weapon – Bow or Dual Crossbows
- Primary Ability – Dexterity
- Saving Throws – Dexterity, Intelligence
- Background – Criminal
- Skills – Acrobatics, Stealth, Sleight of Hand
The Rogue Thief build is a stealthy damage dealer that can be effective at range or in melee combat. What makes the Thief Rogue unique is its versatility outside of combat with many skill selections. This allows for a party to unlock a chest, sneak, stealth, and all sorts of thievery. When it comes to damage and combat, the Rogue shines early in BG3. However, the power quickly fades and requires the class to be multiclass to keep progressing.
However, the Rogue, once multi-classed with the Ranger or Fighter, creates a devastating combination. Unlike other builds, the Rogue Thief build can use dual wield, range bow, or even dual crossbows for an effective build. With the addition of outside-of-combat utility, it’s hard not to like the Rogue. The reason it’s not higher on this list is, that you are required to multi-class very early to extract more power out of the class. Moreover, the Ranger is an improved combat version of the Rogue, but with slightly fewer skill proficiencies.
6 Way of the Open Hand Monk Build
The best features for Way of the Open Hand Monk build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Way of the Open Hand
- Race – Wood Half-Elf
- Armour – Clothing
- Weapon – None
- Primary Ability – Dexterity, Wisdom
- Saving Throws – Strength, Dexterity
- Background – Entertainer
- Skills – Athletics & Insight
The Way of the Open Hand Monk is an extremely strong build if played as a multiclass Rogue, Thief. The Monk class incentivises the use of bonus action for unarmed attacks. The Way of the Open Hand unlocks Flurry of Blows, giving you massive utility and damage. Another benefit of playing this build is you use clothing and gloves for damage which doesn’t require you to have weapons.
With this build, you will want to use 3-4 levels of the Rogue to get the Thief Subclass. This will unlock an additional bonus action, which means an additional attack. With the Extra Attack class feature and two bonus actions, your Monk will hit very hard just using unarmed attacks and have many attacks per turn. Each attack can consume your Ki resource providing stuns, knockbacks, and staggers. This gives the Monk superior control over each individual hit.
The downside of this build is its entire mobility depends on and has limited ways to deal with stuns and incoming crowd control effects. Moreover, the Monk does not have spell casting with this subclass. If you don’t roll high on the initiative, you are susceptible to incoming stun and a turned skipped. However, it’s a very powerful melee class that, if supported properly, can destroy the opposing team.
5 Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer Build
The best features for Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Draconic Bloodline
- Race – Dragonborn
- Armour – Clothing
- Weapon – Quarterstaff & Shield
- Primary Ability – Charisma
- Saving Throws – Charisma, Constitution
- Background – Noble
- Skills – Intimidation & Deception
The Draconic Bloodline is arguably the most powerful spellcaster in the game thanks to Metamagic. Metamagic allows you to manipulate magic either using a Twinned spell for two targets on a single target ability or a quickened spell for bonus action spell casting. At level 11, you can select the Disintegrate spell for the most single-target burst in the game. This provides 50-100 damage per cast. The trick is you use Twinned Spell to attack two targets with one spell slot for possibly 100-200 damage. And while most spellcasters would be done with their turn, the Sorcerer can activate the Quickened spell to use their bonus action for another spell cast.
At this point, you can then scale up a Fireball spell to level 5 and use Elemental Affinity. When you cast a spell that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry, you add your Charisma Modifier to the damage. With the Birthright Hat, you can reach 22 Charisma, thus absolutely obliterating an area with Fireball. And this is in turn one, what could be an entire group wiped and often is. Nothing beats the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerers‘ raw power at times.
The downside of the class is the need for constant long rest. If you do the combination listed above, your spell slots and Sorcerery points will be utterly drained and need a long rest. This can be an issue playing on Tactican or Honour Mode where a long rest costs 80 resources. The class also has limited spell selection and cannot prepare spells. You will need to be very careful when selecting spells, otherwise, only replace them via respect or long rest. If you love spell casting, huge area damage, and feeling powerful as a spellcaster, the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is your number one among the 10 best builds in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) Patch 6.
4 Battle Master Fighter Build
The best features for Battle Master Fighter build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Battle Master
- Race – Half-Orc
- Armour – Heavy Armour
- Weapon – Greatsword
- Primary Ability – Strength
- Saving Throws – Strength, Constitution
- Background – Soldier
- Skills – Acrobatics & Athletics
The Battle Master Fighter is the simplest melee damage dealer and the strongest at the start of the game. With heavy armour proficiency, massive utility and crowd control with Battle Manoeuvers, it is one of the best melee fighters in the game. What separates the class is Extra Attack, Action Surge, and Improved Extra Attack. At level 11 in the Fighter, with one action, you can attack three times. You can then use a combination of skills, items, and consumables and attack for 9 or more times in one turn!
The downside of the class is the lack of spellcasting and vulnerability to incoming spells. You have few tools to counter or stop spells from dropping your weapon or holding you in person. Moreover, your Dexterity will be lower, so initiative is an issue going late in the attack order. Lastly, you won’t have the off-healing capabilities of the Paladin which can help in tough fights. However, Battle Master Fighter remains my number one recommendation for players looking to play melee build in BG3 for the first time due to its power, armour flexibility, and simplicity.
3 Berserker Barbarian Build
The best features for Berserker Barbarian build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Berserker
- Race – Half-Orc
- Armour – Clothing
- Weapon – Greatsword
- Primary Ability – Strength
- Saving Throws – Strength, Constitution
- Background – Soldier
- Skills – Perception & Survival
The Berserker Barbarian is the most straightforward melee damage dealer to understand and use. The Barbarian has an unarmoured defence feature like the Monk, which incentivizes using clothing rather than medium armour. You play this build one-way, all-out aggression attacking to maintain Rage or Frenzy every turn. Rage will increase your damage done and reduce damage taken and is a very simple melee attack style gameplay.
The Berserker subclass turns Rage into Frenzy, giving you two utility skills. Enraged Throw is my favourite, allowing you to throw weapons and possibly knock down opponents. The Nyrulna Legendary Trident, if thrown, provides massive area damage and solves the major issues of the Barbarian, and that’s lack of area damage. This moves the Barbarian higher on the list, allowing for area damage and when mulitclassed, you gain more utility than the FIghter.
The downside of this build is no heavy armour proficiency, spellcasting, and weak crowd control. Like other melee builds, you will need to focus on mobility to reach targets on turn one. Plus, you have the extra mechanic of Rage, forcing you to play ultra-aggressive. The Barbarian remains one of the strongest and most simplistic melee builds in BG3 but lacks the utility and versatility of others on this 10 Baldur’s Gate Patch 6 list.
2 Gloom Stalker Ranger Build
The best features for Gloom Stalker Ranger build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Gloom Stalker
- Race – Wood Elf
- Armour – Light Armour
- Weapon – Longbow & Daggers
- Primary Ability – Dexterity
- Saving Throws – Strength, Dexterity
- Background – Outlander
- Skills – Animal Handling & Nature
Simply put, the Gloom Stalker Ranger is the best turn-one build in BG3. Your subclass allows for a free attack on your first turn with high initiative, meaning you will likely go first. The Ranger class has Extra Attack, so you pair that free Dreaded Ambusher attack with two more attacks on turn one to eliminate the highest threat target. The subclass also gives you a free invisible spell if you are obscured, superior Darkvision and Misty Step.
The Gloom Stalker Ranger is a gassed-up version of the Rogue Thief build. When you combine the two in multiclassing, each gets a huge benefit. The Ranger gets a bonus action, while the Rogue gets an Extra Attack. You can take this one step further and use two levels of the Fighter for Action Surge. This provides an additional action, and with Extra Attack, another two attacks. Not to mention, this class has limited spell casting, which can come in handy.
We’ve moved the Gloom Stalker Ranger much higher on the list due to its strength in playing solo or on Honour Difficulty. The downside of the build is the lack of crowd control and the reliance on scrolls and ammunition, such as arrows, for utility. The power fades in the class beyond level 5, and you are incentivized to multiclass to increase power. However, the Gloom Stalker is one of the strongest ranged damage dealers in the game without being overly complex.
1 Oath of Vengeance Paladin Build
The best features for Oath of Vengeance Paladin build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Subclass – Oath of Vengeance
- Race – Half-Orc
- Armour – Heavy Armour
- Weapon – Greatsword
- Primary Ability – Charisma
- Saving Throws – Wisdom, Charisma
- Background – Noble
- Skills – Athletics & Insight
The best overall build in Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 is the Oath of Vengeance Paladin. You have the most versatility, single-target damage, and survivability all in one class. With the Vengeance subclass, you solve the issue for the Paladin and that’s lethargic mobility. You obtain Misty Step and Extra Attack at level 5 and will feel a massive spike in power without the need for gear sets like Amulet of Misty Step or Disintegration Nightwalker Boots.
The Paladin, like the Fighter, has access to nearly all weapons and armour types freeing up multiple playstyles. What separates the two is the Paladin’s ability to spell cast. Combine Extra Attack with Divine Smite gives you incredible raw damage potential. You can also heal allies with Lay on Hands and save your team from dying. Additionally, it seems like the BG3 developers assumed or knew that everyone’s favourite class would be the Paladin. They loaded the game with multiple weapons and armour that increase the effectiveness of Smite and your core skills.
The only downside to this class is lower Dexterity so lower in combat turn order. You also struggle with mobility early in the game and feel like you’re crawling to combat before unloading huge damage. The Paladin is great to multiclass with the Fighter to get the best of both worlds, but can also be very complex to sort out what to use and why. But that’s why you have me! I highly recommend playing the Oath of Vengeance Paladin as the best build in Baldur’s Gate 3, Patch 6.
What’s New in Patch 6 for Baldur’s Gate 3?
Larian Studios released Patch 6 for Baldur’s Gate 3 on February 16, 2023. Another fix for Baldur’s Gate 3, this time, developers presented a massive 18,000-word list of updates, changes, and improvements. Larian added more dialogue, romance options, user interface changes, and companion quality of life improvements. Moreover, they improved the Honour Mode difficulty, tweaking bosses, adding new legendary bosses and improving the gameplay.
Leading up to the release of Honour Mode, our team has been creating solo builds designed to beat Tactician difficulty solo. Consider the major changes to this best builds post to include and emphasise the higher difficult tier, and what classes do the best in this atmosphere.
Looking For More About Baldur’s Gate 3?
Thank you for reading Baldur’s Gate 3: Top 10 Builds for Patch 6 Guide. We provide the latest news and create guides for Baldur’s Gate 3. Also, watch me play games on Twitch or visit my YouTube channel!
