How to Play Baldur’s Gate 3 Solo: Lone Wolf Guide explains character creation, mechanics, builds, and gear choices for solo players in BG3.
How to Play Solo in Baldur’s Gate 3
You can play Baldur’s Gate 3 solo by either ignoring companions or recruiting them and dismissing them to your camp. Playing solo can be a challenging experience, however, you can finish the entire game solo on Tactician difficulty. In this How to Play Baldur’s Gate 3 Solo guide, we will explain playing as a Lone Wolf.
The overall goal of a solo build in Baldur’s Gate 3 is to be self-reliant. This means damage, healing, and protection against crowd control effects. If you are stunned, or disabled solo, you will have very few options to continually fight. Thankfully, there are a variety of gear sets, builds, races, and playstyles that can help you in solo gameplay. Let’s start with the character creator and the best selections.
Character Creation
Character creation in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a comprehensive process that allows players to customize their protagonists to suit their playstyle and preferences. It involves selecting a variety of options, including Origin, Race, Class, Background, and Ability Score.
It’s important to note that most of your character creation choices can be changed in your camp via Wither’s NPC. What cannot be changed is your racial choice. This choice is an important determining factor in your overall performance and viability as a solo player. Let’s go over the important selections in character creation for a solo player in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Best Solo Racial Choice
The Half-Orc stands out as the best solo race for survivability due to the Relentless Endurance feature. With Relentless Endurance racial future, once per long rest, if you reach 0 Hit Points, you regain 1 hit point instead of becoming Downed. This gives you the possibility of reviving, escaping, healing, and finishing the fight.
Below are the best race choices for a Lone Wolf Solo player in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Half-Orc: Free revive, Darkvision
- High Half-Elf: Shield proficiency, Fey Ancestry, Cantrip
- Wood Half-Elf: Shield proficiency, Fey Ancestry, Movement speed
- Human: Shield proficiency and extra carrying capacity
- Drow: Spells, Fey Ancestry, Superior Darkvision
- Githyanki: Weapon and Armor Proficiency and mobility
Half-Orc is ideal for those looking to play at the highest difficulty like Tactician. Half-Elf like Wood or High are great because of Fey Ancestry. This gives you advantage against being Charmed and immune to Sleep. Anything that prevents crowd control effects is vital for solo play. Moreover, the Half-Elf gained Civila Militia, allowing any class to equip a shield.
Some other strong racial choices are Human, Drow, and Githyanki. Humans, like Half-Elf gain shield proficiency. This is useful if playing a spell caster, using a versatile Quarterstaff and Shield combination. This will give you a big boost in Armour Class (AC), helping to avoid attacks. Drows are similar to Half-Elf but with additional spells and Superior Darkvision. Githyanki are incredibly mobile and have a plethora of weapons and armor proficiencies that can help with finding optimal equipment.
Classes
The best overall classes for solo play are the Ranger, Barbarian, and Wizard. The Ranger has high initiative and can be multiclass with the Rogue for extra utility. Barbarians have high health and damage reduction, and with the Half-Orc race, a free revive per long rest. Lastly, the Wizard with Abjuration subclass stands out as the best solo spellcaster. With Abjuration, you have an extra defensive mechanism but retain all the damage potential of a Wizard.
When considering a class for Lone Wolf Solo play in Baldur’s Gate 3, consider the following:
- Health: High health like Barbarian combined with Potions for healing.
- Mobility: Misty Step like Gloom Stalker Ranger, or Monk Wood Half-Elf.
- Proficiency: Fighter with a variety of Armor and Weapon choices.
- Healing: Consider how you heal yourself through consumables or spells.
- AC and Defensive: Heavy armor or item set to boost AC quickly to avoid damage.
- Crowd Control: Your class needs to stun single-target enemies or large areas for survival.
- Quick Start: Classes like Paladin start very slowly, Fighter incredibly fast.
Further in this guide, we will give you brief templates that we will later expand on into full solo builds. Let’s continue with more character creation explanations and important decisions for How to Play Baldur’s Gate 3 Solo Lone Wolf Guide.
Background and Skills
When playing solo, having a diverse skill set and background will be critical for dialogue and discovery. You won’t be able to have companions specialize in certain areas like Arcane, Perceptions, etc. This means your ability score, and skill proficiencies, will limit your dialogue and exploration options. Githyanki Race has Astral Knowledge, which gives them proficiency in all skills within an ability score. This is helpful when you have lower intelligence but want to base Investigation checks.
Below are the most important skills to consider in Baldur’s Gate 3 for solo Lone Wolf:
- Stealth (Dexterity): Helps you stay hidden from enemies or other NPCs.
- Acrobatics (Dexterity): Resist being shoved.
- Persuasion (Charisma): Influence dialogue choices.
- Intimidation (Charisma): Aids in intimidation dialogue checks.
- Investigation (Intelligence): Analyze clues, and solve mysteries in dialogue and exploration.
- Perception (Wisdom): Detect hidden containers, mechanisms, traps, and hidden creatures.
Skill Selection
Stealth skill is vital to playing solo because it allows you a better chance of remaining hidden. This is useful before combat when moving around to find a better position, and to escape with Invisibility potions. Acrobatics, another Dexterity skill, helps with being shoved preventing you from possibly being instantly dead or stunned. Both Dexterity skills have applications in combat and should be a priority during character creation. The Entertainer background has proficiency in Acrobatics, while Criminal and Urchin have proficiency in stealth.
When it comes to dialogue, Persuasion and Intimidation are your best skills. These skills, while not directly effective in combat, can help you avoid it. Often, Larian Studios put in dialogue solutions for difficult fights. Having a higher Charisma score can be helpful specifically for these two skills. The soldier background is your best choice for Intimidation skill proficiency because it also has Athletics as well.
Lastly, we have two exploration skills Investigation and Perception. Perceptions are useful for finding hidden items, switches, or traps. Investigation is useful for solving puzzles or quests that require clues and mysteries. While nearly impossible to have proficiency in all these skills, the above will help you prioritize why and what to select.
Gear and Equipment
When playing the Lone Wolf solo style, you want to look for items and equipment that help avoid survivability first. Ideally, these items will provide some extra benefits that help when you are in need. Take the Periapt of Wound Closure necklace for an example. When downed, automatically stabilize at the start of the turn. This item can keep you alive, similar to the Half-Orc racial features. Any item that “automatically” casts or provides a defensive buff is vital for solo play in Baldur’s Gate 3. Here’s a list of some other helpful accessory items for solo players:
- Moondrop Pendant (Act 1): When the wearer has 50% hit points or less, they don’t provoke Attacks of Opportunity.
- The Sparkswall (Act 1): Cannon be electrocuted and gain resistance to Lighting Damage.
- Eversight Ring (Act 2): The wearer cannot be Blinded.
- Amulet of the Harpers (Act 2): Automatically cast Shield once per long rest.
- Periapt of Wound Closure (Act 2): When downed, automatically stabilize at the start of the turn.
- After Death Do Us Part (Acts 1 & 3): When downed, rise with half their Hit Points, but Shadow Possession.
Mobility and Crowd Control
While not an exhaustive list, this shows the power of a few early to mid-game items that help the solo player. Particularly, anything that prevents you from being downed. Moreover, later-game items that prevent you from being forcibly moved are vital to survival in tough encounters. The Act 3 Helldusk Boots have a special feature called Steadfast that prevents the wear from being forcibly moved.
Your build, from the character creator, race, skills, and gear, is built around preventing crowd control and death. If you can survive indefinitely solo, there’s not one single boss you cannot defeat. Most of the time, your death will come from being disabled. This will give one or more enemies multiple attacks without your ability to thin the herd. Let’s discuss another important aspect of solo play, and that’s using Illithid Powers or not.
Illithid Powers
During the prologue, you will be infested with an Illithid tadpole. Your story unfolds while trying to remove the parasite to prevent turning into mind flayers. You reach a critical juncture early in the story, do you forgo Illithid Powers or embrace them? From a combat performance and solo player perspective, you should consume Tadpoles to improve your powers throughout the game. Let’s go over some of the strongest powers that can aid you as a long Wolf:
- Charm: prevents the enemy from attacking you next turn.
- Luck of the Far Realms: Once per long rest, you can turn a successful attack roll into a Critical Hit.
- Repulsor: Pushes everything back 6 meters doing 2d6 force damage.
- Black Hole: summons everything with a 9-meter radius into a black hole possibly slowing them.
- Fly: mobility tool that uses less movement and is not affected by surface.
- Mind Blast: Area-based cone stun.
- Freecast: Cast one spell without expending a spell slot.
For you to expand your Illithid powers, you will need to collect Mind Flayer parasite specimens throughout the world. In Act 2, you will need to agree to absorb the Astral-Touched Tadpole to become a partial Illithid. Be warned, these choices come with story consequences, in exchange for incredible power.
Consumables
The next way to quickly boost power as a solo player in BG3 is by understanding and using consumables. These are one-time-use items and are often overlooked by players. While we have a separate guide here, we will give some that can help you below:
- Arrow of Ice: Deals cold damage and creates a 2-meter ice surface for 2 turns.
- Smokepowder Arrow: Deals fire and force damage knocking targets back 3 meters.
- Drow Poison: Inflicts enemies with sleeping and poisoned if they fail the constitution throw.
- Karabasan’s Poison: Inflicts enemies with paralyzed and poisoned, if they fail the constitution, throw.
- Elixir of Bloodlust: When you kill an enemy, gain 5 temporary hit points in another action.
- Elixir of Vigilance: Gain +5 initiative and cannot be surprised.
- Potion of Invisibility: become invisible for 10 turns.
While not an exhaustive list, these consumables are about crowd control particularly. You want to “control” targets and eliminate the possibility of them hitting you. Ice Arrow can knock enemies prone, Poisons can inflict sleeping or paralyze and Smokepowder can knock enemies off ledges. More control means less incoming damage and freedom to roam and heal. Something also important to understand is that you can use poisons or oils in conjunction with elixirs.
Combine Elixir with Coating
Certain elixirs last until a long rest, like the Elixir of Bloodlust. Bloodlust in particular gives you a massive advantage when playing solo because you will be the only one responsible for kills. If you’re playing a Ranger, Barbarian, Fighter, or a class that doesn’t need frequent long rest, these are perfect to use immediately following a long rest. You can combine this Elixir with poison or oil on turn one, this will coat your weapons for 10 turns and still provide the benefit of the Elixir.
This is why hoarding, stockpiling, and buying alchemy ingredients is vital for the solo Lone Wolf player in Baldur’s Gate 3. Elixir of Vigilance and Potion of Invisibility are two must-have consumables. Vigilance gives a +5 initiative and you cannot be surprised. This mimics the Alert feat which is powerful because it allows you to almost always go first in the attack order. If you go first, you can spend your action and position yourself out of harm’s way. You can hide, use a potion, or keep yourself at a distance during the end of your turn preventing incoming damage.
The final important consumable is the Potion of Invisibility. This acts as your panic consumable where you need to retreat. Your goal is to use this at the end of your turn, you’re not able to heal yourself and get some distance away from the fight. Use consumables or spells to get your health back up, and then attack once your action and bonus actions are full. Every solo Lone Wolf must have a variety of impactful consumables and using these along with scrolls can help you in combat.
Basic Builds
This guide is not intended to give you fully fleshed-out builds, but we will leave you with some templates. If this post and guide become popular, we will look to create fully designed-solo builds. Let’s share some of our favorite solo Lone Wolf basic builds:
Ranger
Solo Ranger Build Features:
- Subclass: Gloom Stalker
- Race: Wood Half-Elf
- Primary Ability: Dexterity
- Skills: Stealth, Acrobatics
With inherently high initiative, access to heavy armor, and powerful ranged attacks, the Ranger is one of the strongest solo builds. Your goal with the Ranger is to play at range, multiclassing with the Rogue Thief to gain an additional bonus action. This opens options for stealth and additional consumables. The only thing this build lacks is area damage, which can be solved with Arrows and Scrolls.
Barbarian
Solo Barbarian Build Features:
- Subclass: Berserker
- Race: Half-Orc
- Primary Ability: Strength
- Skills: Intimidation, Athletics
The Barbarian sacrifices heavy armor for the highest health pool in Baldur’s Gate 3. With Rage and Frenzy, you will reduce damage and look for gear sets that optimize your Rage mechanic. An advantage of the Barbarian is the Enraged Throw ability gained with the Berserker subclass. This gives you a great range crowd control option even for a melee build. Moreover, you get higher initiative and critical damage. With an ultra-simple build, you can be the most powerful melee solo build in BG3.
Wizard
Solo Wizard Build Features
- Subclass: Abjuration School
- Race: High Half-Elf
- Primary Ability: Intelligence
- Skills: Investigation, Arcana
With the unique subclass of Abjuration School, the Wizard possesses the defensive capabilities necessary to succeed solo in BG3. This Wizard build relies on Arcane Ward and frequent use of Abjuration spells. You want to select a race like the High Half-Elf so you can equip a shield with a quarterstaff. Within Act 1, you can reach high levels of AC around 17 very early in the game. Later in the game, with legendary items, you can reach 22 AC or higher. This gives you incredible defensive power passively, allowing you to do massive area damage and summon creatures.
Solo Gameplay Tips
The two most important gameplay tips for Solo Lone Wolf players are Stealth and Initiative. Stealth, while obvious, must be utilized constantly to start encounters. In your first playthrough in BG3, you won’t know when to expect a fight or combat situation. However, in your second playthrough, you will anticipate and prepare much more effectively. You always want to approach situations in stealth and avoid detection. Often, you can open combat with a massive attack and trigger the surprise status effect. This essentially skips the enemies’ first turn, giving you free damage and assessment of the situation.
Speaking of surprises, this is something you want to avoid. The Alert feat and Elixir of Vigilance prevent the surprise status effect from you, preventing an ambush. While the Alert feat seems like a weak choice, in solo play, having +5 initiative and no surprise is a powerful way to increase survivability. Going earlier in the attack order allows you to focus on crowd-controlling targets. This lowers incoming possible damage while giving you more time to thin the herd. Remember, your goal is survival first, then destroy weaker targets.
Increase Mobility
Lastly, mobility is an important consideration for solo play. Both Misty Step spell and Fly are remarkably powerful. Mist Step is a spell is a level 2 conjuration spell that can be learned by nearly all spellcasters. However, you can obtain two items in Act 1 that give you free usage during short rest: Amulet of Misty Step, and Disintegrating Night Walkers.
Grant Flight, or Flying is a bit more difficult to obtain. You can use a Flying Potion, Boots of Psionic Movement, or Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer have this ability at level 11. If you read our Illithid Powers section, you can obtain this later in the game through that means. Fly is powerful because you can reach higher objects and are not affected by rough terrain or environmental hazards.
Putting Together a Solo Build
Now that you have the concept, you can design and dominate as a solo player. Here are the important parts of any Solo Lone Wolf Build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Race: Half-Orc, High-Elf, Human, something that helps survivability.
- Class: Focus on durability, range, high health, and availability of weapon and armor proficiency.
- Skills: Have a balanced skill profile that helps in combat and non-combat (Stealth, Acrobatics, Intimidation).
Gear: Look for accessories and items that prevent being downed, increase AC, or gain elemental resistance. - Consumables: Combine coatings, and oils with Elixirs and carry multiple potions of Invisibility.
- Initiative: Take Alert feat, high dexterity build, or Elixir of Vigilance so you can go sooner in combat.
- Mobility: Obtain two Act 1 items to gain Misty Step, then transition to Fly in Act 3.
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