Baldur's Gate 3 Guide — Complete Guide & Walkthrough

So you just started BG3. Or you're about to start and you've already watched six build videos and you're panicking about picking the wrong class.

Honestly, Baldur's Gate 3 throws a lot at you in the first 10 hours. The nautiloid crashes, you're scooping up companions left and right, and suddenly the game expects you to know what a Bonus Action does. I've found that the single biggest mistake new players make is treating this like a standard RPG where you just pick the dialogue option that sounds nicest. Larian didn't build it that way and tbh the game kinda punishes you for assuming it works like everything else you've played.

But here's what actually matters. BG3 rewards curiosity more than it rewards correct choices. Every door you lockpick, every NPC you talk to twice, every weird potion you chuck at an enemy. The game has probably accounted for it. The engine underneath is D&D 5e but the real system is "what would happen if I tried this ridiculous thing?" And that's the fun of it really.

So if you're restarting for the fifth time because you're not sure about your build, relax. Respeccing costs 100 gold once you find Withers in the Dank Crypt near the starting beach. You can respec companions too. Karlach as a monk, Gale as a cleric, Shadowheart as a paladin. Nothing is permenant and you'll probably respec at least three times before Act 1 is over anyway.

Best Classes. What Actually Works In Practice

Tabletop rankings don't translate cleanly to this game. Larian tweaked 5e rules in ways that completly flip some classes upside down, they added homebrew items that break certain subclasses wide open, and the encounter design heavily favors burst damage over sustained DPR. So the tier lists you see on YouTube are often just wrong for how BG3 actually plays.

Paladin with Oath of Vengeance is probably the best class in the game and it's not even close. Smite stacking deletes bosses in one turn when you set it up right. Aura of Protection at level 6 saves your entire party from crowd control. And Charisma handles all dialogue so you're the face of the party without even trying. Swords Bard is the other S-tier pick. Ranged Slashing Flourish hits twice per attack, and at level 6 with Sharpshooter that's four shots per turn. Then in Act 3 you grab the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel and suddenly your bonus action is throwing out control spells between flourishes. I played through Honor Mode with Swords Bard 10 / Fighter 2 and it felt unfair by Act 3. Slashing Flourish plus Action Surge killed Raphael before he took a single turn. Kinda anticlimactic honestly.

Sorcerer with Draconic Bloodline is solid. Twinned Haste on two martials just wins fights before they start, and Quickened Chain Lightning as a bonus action cleans up whatever's left. Con save proficiency means concentration actually sticks which is more valuable than it sounds on paper. Battle Master Fighter deserves a mention too. Precision Attack patches the Great Weapon Master accuracy penalty, Action Surge is the best two-level dip in the entire game, and Disarming Attack trivializes any boss that relies on a weapon. Which is most of them.

Light Domain Cleric absolutely destroys Act 2. Spirit Guardians plus Radiant Orb gear and everything just melts. Warding Flare imposes disadvantage on attacks against you which sounds minor until you realize it procs constantly. One level of Storm Sorcerer gives you free flight after casting. weird interaction but it works. Open Hand Monk with Tavern Brawler at level 4 hits like a truck and Stunning Strike lands way more often than the tooltip percentages suggest. Thief 3 dip for an extra flurry and you're stunning two targets per turn.

Tbh pure Rogue falls off hard after level 5 compared to classes that get Extra Attack. The extra bonus action from Thief is incredible. as a 3-level dip. Not as your main class. And Gloom Stalker Ranger is similar. Dread Ambusher is incredible turn one. After that you're basically a worse Fighter. Best as 3 to 5 levels in a multiclass setup, not a full build.

Companions. Who's Actually Worth The Party Slot

Party composition matters more than individual builds. Four B-tier characters with synergy will outperform four S-tier characters with zero coordination every time. I'm not sure about this but I think people obsess way too much over individual companion tier lists when the real game is about how their abilities stack together.

Shadowheart should be respecced to Light or Tempest Domain immediately. Trickery Domain is terrible and Larian never fixed it. Light gives you Fireball and Improved Warding Flare. Tempest lets you maximize lightning damage on wet targets which is disgusting when you set it up right. Her personal quest runs through the entire main plot too. she's the most story-relevant companion by a wide margin and you miss a ton of context if you bench her.

Lae'zel as Battle Master with the Silver Sword of the Astral Plane dominates from Act 1 onward. Disarming Attack wins multiple boss fights by itself. If you're bored of the great weapon master playstyle, respec her to Open Hand Monk plus Githyanki mobility plus Tavern Brawler. She has the best racial bonuses for monk and honestly she hits harder than a custom character built for the role. Weird but true.

Astarion as Thief 3 / Gloom Stalker 5 / Fighter 2 with dual hand crossbows and Sharpshooter gives you five opening-round attacks. Start combat with him solo from stealth to force surprise rounds and most encounters end before the enemy gets a turn. His Act 3 quest also gives a permanent plus one attack bonus if you make the right choice. The Persuasion check after killing Cazador is the single most important dialogue option for his arc and getting it wrong locks you into a pretty depressing outcome for him. So don't mess that up.

Gale as Evocation Wizard is the straightforward pick. Sculpt Spells means Fireballs don't hit allies which solves the biggest wizard problem in this game. Feed him the Necromancy of Thay in Act 1 for Speak with Dead. His Act 3 quest gives a scroll of True Resurrection.

Wyll and Karlach are. fine. Paladins do what Wyll does but better across the board. Barbarians are strictly worse than Fighters for sustained damage and the rage mechanic doesn't scale well into late game. Halsin and Jaheira join too late to really matter without specific builds you have to plan around from Act 1. Minsc arrives in Act 3 with a Ranger build that needs a full respec to be usable. Love the character, hate the default setup.

Romance. How Approval Actually Functions

The approval system isn't about picking nice dialogue options. Each companion has a distinct moral framework and they judge you by their own standards, not yours. Shadowheart approves of pragmatism, deception, and respecting privacy. She disapproves when you pry into her Shar worship. Just let her come to you. If you rescue the Nightsong without forcing her hand the romance flows naturally without any special effort. But she won't open up if you keep pushing.

Lae'zel responds to directness and dominance. Challenge her to a duel at the tiefling party and win. She propositions you immediately afterwards. Her romance arc is surprisingly tender if you stick with it through Act 3. the sunrise scene with her is genuinly one of the best moments in the game and I was not expecting that from a githyanki warrior.

Astarion likes selfishness, cruelty, and humor at other people's expense. But for his good ending you need to push back against his worst instincts during his personal quest. The Persuasion check after killing Cazador determines which version of him you get for the rest of the game. So here's what trips people up: companions are mutually exclusive. Sleep with Lae'zel at the party and Shadowheart won't approach you later. Halsin's polyamory in Act 3 is the only exception. he joins an existing relationship if both partners agree. Everyone else is monogamous and the game doesn't really warn you about this until it's too late.

Legendary Items Worth Actually Going Out Of Your Way For

Not every orange-bordered item is good. Some are genuinely worse than rares you found ten hours earlier and forgot about. The game's itemization is weird like that.

The Silver Sword of the Astral Plane you can get in Act 1 if you know what you're doing. Have a Battle Master use Disarming Attack on Voss during the githyanki patrol near the mountain pass. Command Drop also works if you have a cleric. A plus three greatsword with bonus psychic damage at level four or five carries you through Acts 1 and 2 without needing to think about weapon upgrades ever again. The Band of the Mystic Scoundrel in Act 3 is the core piece of the strongest build in the game. Bonus action Illusion or Enchantment spells after a weapon attack. On Swords Bard that's two Flourish attacks into bonus action Hold Person. Absolutely broken and I love it.

Helldusk Armor from the House of Hope gives 21 AC and anyone can wear it without proficiency. Fire resistance and built-in Fly on top of that. You get it by killing Raphael which is also the best boss fight in the game so there's no reason to skip this. Balduran's Giantslayer from the Wyrmway doubles your Strength modifier damage against Large and bigger enemies. Most Act 3 bosses qualify. Nyrulna is a returning thrown weapon with AoE thunder damage and if you're running a Tavern Brawler throw build it clears rooms in one action. It's kinda silly how strong throwing builds get with this thing.

But don't obsess over missing items. BG3 is beatable with zero legendary gear on Honor Mode. I've watched people do it. The items make your power fantasy feel earned. they don't gate content behind them. If you miss the Silver Sword in Act 1 you're not bricking your run or anything.

Quest Decisions That Actually Change Things

Most choices in this game alter dialogue flavor without changing outcomes. These specific ones don't. they reshape entire questlines and access to gear or characters.

Saving the Grove versus raiding it in Act 1 is the single biggest branching point. Killing the tieflings locks you out of Dammon who sells some of the best gear across all three acts. You lose Karlach and Wyll permanently. You gain Minthara. The trade-off is massive in terms of lost questlines and vendors and honestly the Minthara recruitment path costs way more than it gives. I wouldn't recommend it for a first playthrough. Maybe a third run when you're curious about the evil route...

Freeing the Nightsong versus killing her in Act 2 is mechanically one-sided. Freeing her kills the Shadow Curse permanently and gives your whole party a buff for the final battle. Killing her gives you a mediocre spear that you'll replace within two hours. There is no mechanical reason to kill her and the narrative payoff for freeing her is substantially better too.

Raphael's deal in Act 3 is tempting because it gives you the Orphic Hammer without a fight. But refusing means you fight him in the House of Hope. the best boss encounter in the game. and you walk away with Helldusk Armor plus the Hammer as loot. Refuse the deal. Always refuse the deal. The fight is too good to skip and the rewards are too good to pass up.

And the Emperor versus Orpheus choice at the end. freeing Orpheus means someone in your party becomes a mind flayer which locks their epilogue into something pretty bleak. Emperor keeps everyone humanoid. Orpheus is narratively more satisfying but mechanically worse for your party composition. Not sure about this but I think the intended path is freeing Orpheus and having Karlach volunteer for the transformation since it saves her from her engine problem. That felt like the most complete ending to me at least.

So here's the thing about the Astral Tadpole at the start of Act 3. Taking it gives permanent Fly as a free action. The only downside is your face gets veiny in cutscenes. If you can tolerate looking half-illithid the mechanical benefit is substantial. I took it on Honor Mode and never looked back. Your romance partner still acts normal around you so it's really just an aesthetic trade-off for a genuinely powerful ability.