Baldur’s Gate 3 subclasses let you further specialize your character in the RPG, which is all fine and good, but we’re interested in the weird ones. Anyone can be an Oathkeeper Paladin, but it takes a special kind of vengeful warrior to toss it all away in favor of a dark path. You could be an angsty rogue edgelord or a slightly deranged druid who brings people back to life with mushrooms and control their every move. In true Larian fashion, Baldur’s Gate 3 throws some genuinely bizarre subclasses in the mix, but that doesn’t mean they’re impractical. Usually. Some of them even give you access to a special set of powerful skills, and we’ve listed our favorites below.
Bard – College of Swords
The Bard’s School of Swords class is a new one that wasn’t in the PC game‘s Early Access build, and what it basically amounts to is a circus performer. Your bard holds audiences – and enemies – captive with spellbinding swordplay and daring feats.
Forget singing about heroes. This bard swallows daggers and bamboozles foes with dextrous agility. In Far Realms lore, Sword Bards often take up work with guilds as hired muscle or roam the highways as lone adventurers.
Why you should pick College of Swords Bard
On the practical side, a College of Swords bard gets additional armor proficiencies and can even dual-wield certain weapons. Their bardic skills gain more support options, including the ability to shove enemies around while dealing extra damage, which means you can hold your own more often and don’t have to play second fiddle – or flute or drum – while the heavy-hitters get all the fun.
Paladin - Oathbreaker
The Oathbreaker Paladin is almost not even a Paladin. They’re a traitor to the cause, someone who – hence the name – shattered their oath of faith and protection to pursue their own dark course of power and violence. It’s a subtle variation on the new Oath of Vengeance subclass. Where that one breaks with tradition to mete out justice, the Oathbreaker Paladin just stops caring about justice – and anything that isn’t them. There’s a lot of roleplaying potential here, including how you go about becoming an Oathbreaker.
You have to literally break your oath by lying to people, causing or encouraging harm, and generally just being nasty.
Why you should pick Oathbreaker Paladin
They might not be the nicest people around, but Oathbreaker Paladins are certainly handy in battle. They get a broad selection of spells, ranging from necrotic abilities that deal damage every turn to control over the undead and even a reactive skill that sets enemies on fire when they attack you.
That’s in addition to proficiency with weapons and the option to dual-wield, so you won’t be short of skills before you have to take a long rest. It’s good to be bad, etc etc.
Monk – Way of the Four Elements
If you play a Way of the Four Elements monk, you get a splash of The Last Airbender in with your D&D fantasy. The class description even says you “bend” the elements to your will, including air, fire, water, and earth, by mastering your ki energy.
It might feel like breaking the fourth wall a little, but this is a solid choice if you’re after something a bit sillier in concept and more difficult to get your head around.
Why you should pick Way of the Four Elements Monk
The Way of the Four Elements monk gets access to a strong selection of elemental abilities. You have to specialize in one, but as you level up, you can dabble in a second, which is a handy way to make up for any elemental shortcomings your party has.
The downside is that you trade the monk’s usual multi-attack skills for skills that require more ki points with potentially less payoff. It takes a lot of getting used to, but you can pull off some strong combos with the right build.
Druid – Circle of Spores
Spore Druids have a complex relationship with life. They think death is kind of not that bad, since it leads to new life in the form of fungus and undead creatures, among other things. That’s partly a nice philosophy and mostly not the kind of person you want in charge of keeping you alive.
These Druids might have a tenuous connection to the reality most people (and elves and tieflings) live in, but their dedication to bringing new life into the world at whatever the cost gives them access to some unique and entertaining skills.
Why you should pick a Circle of Spores Druid
True to their name, Spore Druids carry a bunch of spores with them and can inflict necrotic damage using the little particles. At higher levels, that leads to additional damage dealt over time and even using spores to infest corpses and bring them back to un-life – gross and creepy, but definitely helpful.
Your spore range grows as you level up as well, so the Spore Druid is an excellent pick for taking down enemies before they even reach your party.
Ranger – Gloom Stalker
The Gloom Stalker Ranger trades in the dashing derring-do of your usual Robin Hood-style video game trickster and dons the persona of a shadow-dwelling edgelord instead.
The class description literally says they feel at home in dark places, whether that’s a city’s dank alleyways or in a hole in the ground, but while that sounds a touch overdramatic, the Gloom Stalker has good intentions. They inhabit these shadowy voids to get an advantage on evildoers seeking to harm the innocent.
Why you should pick Gloom Stalker Ranger
That noble cause carries over into their skillset as well, which is heavily built around ambushing. Gloom Stalker Rangers get movement buffs and deal extra damage when they attack in the same turn they move, with that attack boost applying to any weapon they use.
They can lay traps on the field to damage and hinder enemies and, at higher levels, can even turn their misses into an extra chance to attack.
Cleric – Trickery Domain
Clerics in most RPGs are the helpful ones, the monk-like healers who resist violent urges and support the party with a selection of soothing magics. That’s true for your average Baldur’s Gate 3 Cleric as well – but not the Trickery Cleric.
These swear fealty to the gods of chaos and mischief, and while they don’t entirely forsake goodness and light for malice, they do specialize in the arts of deception and general tomfoolery. If you’re keen on roleplaying, this Cleric gives you plenty of room to take routes your usual healers would never dream of, thanks in part to their high charisma stat.
Why you should pick Trickery Cleric
This class is a solid choice if you like playing support, but want something more involved and interesting. The Trickery Cleric plays more like a Bard than a straight-up healer, with access to some handy debuff and status effect-inducing skills alongside the traditional clutch of health and safety abilities.
Your Trickery Cleric can instill fear in the hearts of enemies and create duplicates of themselves while casting defensive spells on allies and handling the undead.
Warlock – Archfey
Warlocks gain power by aligning themselves to the will of higher beings. For most Warlocks, that higher being is some eldritch creature or even an evil demon. The Archey Warlock exists to do the bidding of the fairy folk and maybe the odd hag or two.
It’s a delightfully whimsical approach to the class, where your patron could be the Queen of Air and Darkness or maybe Oberon, plucked straight from the pages of Shakespeare and medieval history, and your accompanying skills are just as capricious as the beings who inspire them.
Why you should pick Archfey Warlock
The Archfey Warlock shares a bit with the Bard when it comes to support spells. They specialize in charming and intimidating enemies and can even reflect mind-altering spells back at the foes who cast them.
If all else fails, Archfey Warlocks can vanish in a puff of smoke, befitting of the kind of fairytale hero they are. They also get access to the usual range of Warlock skills, so playing this class requires some careful balancing of your spell slots and good timing for your stronger attacks.
Barbarian – Wild Magic
Most RPG Barbarians are your typical muscle characters, beefy fighters who trash everything around them, but that’s not the case in the Far Realms. Wild Magic Barbarians are a refreshing change, described as exceptionally sensitive and prone to sudden changes based on the environment.
Wild Magic Barbarians are warriors so attuned to the vibrant, pulsing magics of the Fey realm around them that it surges through their bodies and manifests in unexpected ways. Strength is still their main stat advantage, but it’s a welcome change of pace from the usual Barbarian ideas – especially in combat.
Why you should pick Wild Magic Barbarian
Wild Magic Barbarians get a separate dice roll when they enter their rage state, and where the dice land determines what kind of magical effect comes bursting out of them.
At higher levels, Wild Magic Barbarians can roll the magic dice when they attack or receive damage to produce another effect. The class lives up to its name, and the unpredictable effects keep even rote encounters against imps and rogues interesting. They even get a touch of support and can apply some of their magic effects on allies.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
