Guide:Races Guide by Phantomsplit

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Revision as of 14:24, 1 August 2023 by Phantomsplit (talk | contribs) (→‎Half-Elves: Added Half-Elf section.)

Original Author: Phantomsplit

Experiience/Credentials: 9 years as a player and GM for D&D 5e, mild experience with PF1E and PF2E

Hobbies: I can fix her

^ The above is to try and get the wiki to rank via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and I feel corny for including it.

This guide is to introduce players new to D&D 5e, the Forgotten Realms, or Baldur's Gate 3 to the races available for you to use for your custom character "Tav," Dark Urge, or hirelings and to understand the races of origin characters and companions. It will go over how the dialogue tag system may cause a character's race to play a role in conversation options and how the world reacts to your character. And it will cover the mechanical features of the races, and what classes or builds may go well with each race.


Flexible Ability Scores

In BG3's Early Access different races have fixed ability score increases. For example, Githyanki have a +2 bonus to Strength and a +1 bonus to Intelligence. This leads many to recommend Githyanki for character builds that use at least one if not both of these abilities, so they may be recommended for something like an Eldritch Knight Fighter or a Wizard. However at launch this is going to change and all races will have a floating +2 that they can put into any ability score, and a +1 they can put into a different ability score. So you may see old build guides out there saying that a Wood Elf is a bad choice for say a Paladin, while Dragonborn would be a bad choice for Monk based off the ability score increases for these races vs. the ability scores that the respective classes focus in. However those recommendations will be out of date when launch comes around and you will be able to put the ability scores wherever you want.


There are three races that lose out by this change however. Humans used to get a +1 to all ability scores. Half-elves used to get a +2 to Charisma and then a +1 they could put in any two other ability scores of their choosing. And a Shield Dwarf (a.k.a. Mountain Dwarf) would get a +2 to Strength as well as a +2 to Constitution. As of the time of writing we know that Larian intends to buff Humans and Half elves for this change, and this will likely include proficiency in spears, pikes, halberds, glaives, and shields as well as possible additional features. We so far have no indication on how the Mountain Dwarf will be implemented with these changes.

Racial Spellcasting

This section applies to High elves, Drow a.k.a. Dark Elves, High Half-Elves, Drow Dalf-Elves, Tieflings, and possibly Githyanki. Rather than repeating the same information for each of these I will cover this aspect of racial spellcasting for all the above at once, and when I discuss those individual races I will refer back to this section when discussing their spellcasting.


The races that this section applies to all have racial features that allow them to cast spells which may require either an attack roll or saving throw. An attack roll means that you will have to roll a 20 sided die (often referred to as a d20) and apply applicable bonuses and penalties to the result to see if the attack hits the target. A target rolling a save means that the target will roll a d20 and apply relevant modifiers to try and avoid the effect of something like a spell, and how difficult this will be for your target to avoid for your target will depend on your character's relevant modifiers. For more information see the Die Rolls page.


So your character's relevant spellcasting modifier will have an effect on how useful these racial spells that require attack rolls and saving throws are. If say you are a Drow but have a low Charisma then enemies will be able to more easily avoid your racial Faerie Fire spell, or if you make a High Elf with a low Intelligence and select Fire Bolt as your racial cantrip, then you will miss more of your attacks. Spells which are affected by this mechanic and their relevant spellcasting ability modifier are:

Important Racial Spellcasting Modifiers
Race Spellcasting Modifier Affected Spells
Drow Charisma Faerie Fire
Drow Half-Elves Charisma Faerie Fire
High Elf Intelligence Acid Splash, Bone Chill (Chill Touch), Fire Bolt, Poison Spray, Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp, Mage Hand*
Half High-Elf Intelligence Acid Splash, Bone Chill (Chill Touch), Fire Bolt, Poison Spray, Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp, Mage Hand*
Githyanki Intelligence Mage Hand*
Asmodeous Tiefling Charisma Hellish Rebuke
Mephistopholes Tiefling Charisma Burning Hands, Flame Blade, Mage Hand*
Zariel Tiefling Charisma Searing Smite, Branding Smite 
Mage Hand should use your spellcasting ability modifiers for things such as trying to shove creatures, but I have not tested this to verify


Lately in the tabletop realm of D&D 5e the rules have begun shifting towards letting a player choose what the racial spellcasting ability modifier is. However there are no signs of these rules lateraling over to Baldur's Gate 3 at the time of writing.

Dragonborn

Lore

The Dragonborn are beyond a doubt the most unique appearing races with a very strange history going back to the origin of the Forgotten Realms world. To understand the lore of Dragonborn in this setting, you need to first understand the lore of the world of Toril itself. A 10 minute video by Spell&Shield also summarizes these events.


The game Baldur's Gate 3 takes place in the region known as the Sword Coast on the continent of Faerûn on a world known as Toril. But Toril used to be known as Abeir-Toril, until drastic events caused this world to be split in two. The problem at the time was that chaotic and powerful creatures known as Primordials existed on Abeir-Toril at first. They went to war with the group of gods that had come to try and foster civilized life on the world, resulting in a conflict known as the Dawn War. As the war was drawing to an end and it seemed the Primordials were going to lose the war they began to grow desperate. In frustration Io the greatest of the Primordials decided that if he could not have Abeir-Toril then he would instead destroy it, which he attempted to do by dropping a moon on the world. As this event was in the process of destroying the world, Io's counterpart named Ao and the greatest of the gods quickly intervened. He split the world Abeir-Toril into two different worlds named Abeir and Toril which are similar but distinctly unique. This event is known as Tearfall, and occurred about 33,000 years before BG3 takes place.


While the above history occurred an unknown thousands of years before BG3, it is noteworthy because Dragonborn are originally from Abeir while the game is set in Toril. In the aftermath of Tearfall many dragons were brought to Abeir with the Primordials. But Abeir did not have access to the Weave making it impossible for Abeir's inhabitants to cast magic, and as a result they were unable to resist the dragons who came to conquer the planet Abeir. Dragonborn were created at some point after this, believed to be hatched from dragon eggs as a unique race (source 5e PHB). Regardless, they were slaves to the dragons for thousands of years, with the biggest exception being a group of Dargonborn in Tymanther who won their freedom against the dragons about 200 years before the events of BG3.


However things radically changed due to an event known as the Spellplague about 100 years before BG3. The evil goddess Shar sought control over magic in the year 1385 DR, and as a result she successfully plotted to have the goddess of magic Mystra killed. Mystra did die (though not permanently) and with this the Weave that constrains and controls magic fell apart in an event known as the Spellplague. This had many effects, but for this conversation it also caused parts of Toril to go to Abeir and parts of Abeir to go to Toril. This included the freed dragonborn region of Tymanther being brought to Toril, and that is how Dragonborn were introduced to the setting. The Spellplague ended 10 years later in 1395 when Mystra returned. Ao later once again started to separate the worlds of Toril and Abeir in a period known as the Second Sundering. But Tymanther was never brought back to Abeir, so it and its Dragonborn inhabitants remain on Toril. Notably the Spellplague took place after the events of the first two games. Dragonborn did not exist on Faerun during the time of the first two Baldur's Gate games.


World Interactions

We do not have Dragonborn in Early Access so this is entirely speculation based off the above lore. BG3 takes place in 1492 DR, about 100 years after the Dragonborn first arrived on Faerun. Tymanther landed on the opposite side of the continent from Baldur's Gate. So there may be people living in rural areas who have never seen or heard of Dragonborn. They are often viewed with uncertainty by those who have heard of them simply due to the strange circumstances of their arrival. Dragonborn tend to group together in clan like fashions due to the strife they experienced on Abeir, and the isolation they face on Toril. And above all, they hate evil dragons. They may hold suspicions or uncertainty towards good aligned metallic dragons. But evil chromatic (red, black, green, blue, white) dragons are despised by Dragonborn.


Mechanical Traits

Dragonborn are not in Early Access. The below is based on their mechanics in the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Player's Handbook:

Draconic Ancestry: Choose a dragon type. You gain a breath weapon which does damage of the type and shape shown in the below table, and also gain resistance to that damage type. The breath weapon initially does 2d6 damage damage on a failed saving throw, or half as much if the targets make a successful save. The DC is 8 + Constitution modifier + Proficiency bonus. The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level and 4d6 at 11th level. Normally in 5e this recharges on a short or long rest.

Draconic Ancestry Table
Draconic Ancestor Damage Type Breath Weapon
Black Acid 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Blue Lightning 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Brass Fire 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Bronze Lightning 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Copper Acid 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Gold Fire 15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
Green Poison 15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
Red Fire 15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
Silver Cold 15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
White Cold 15 ft. cone (Dex. save)


Build Synergy

In D&D 5e tabletop the Dragonborn are normally seen as one of the weakest races overall. They don't have Darkvision which is very significant. The breath weapon damage is very, very low and requires your full action to use. Originally all races had locked in ability score bonuses, and Dragonborn had +2 Strength and +1 Cha. This was their biggest selling point, making them good choices for Paladin characters due to these bonuses at least lining up with ability scores prioritized by Paladins. But with BG3 using the optional flexible Ability score rules, any race is able to select +2 Str and +1 Cha which also removes this advantage. If there is any build that gets particular synergy out of Dragonborn abilities, it would be one like a Circle of the Moon Druid or Barbarian which often have a high Constitution to make their breath weapon just a smidge better. I would argue that there are still much better choices out there from a mechanical standpoint. But in terms of appearance, lore, and culture Dragonborn are very interesting and you can certainly play as one regardless of what class you use. There will almost always be another option which is a bit better is all.


Wizards of the Coast (the company that makes the tabletop rules) has buffed Dragonborns in the tabletop rules, but it so far does not appear that Larian intends to use these new rules. There are signs that Larian is changing some features of theirs but we don't have the details and from what is known these changes do not appear substantial.


Drow

Lore

Drow is pronounced like "cow"


Drow have some of the most nuanced and fleshed out lore in the Forgotten Realms, largely due to the famous novels following the adventures of the legendary Drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden. I am only going to give a very, very brief summary and for more details please see this 10 minute video by Spell&Shield (which is still all things considered a brief summary of Drow lore).


In short summary, the elven gods were once all united and referred to as the Seldarine over 30,000 years before the events of Baldur's Gate 3. They were led by Corellon. His consort Araushnee craved Corellon's power and plotted against him, trying several times to get Corellon assassinated. Usually her plan consisted of causing an evil god and its forces to go to war with the Seldarine gods, and plotting for Corellon to "accidentally" die as a result of the battle. One notable case of this was when she convinced Gruumsh the god of Orcs to attack the Seldarine, and this is how Orcs were introduced to Toril. For the last of these plots Araushnee cursed Corellon's scabbard so that it would draw the arrows fired by their daughter Eilistraee and frame her for Corellon's death. This plan did somewhat work but it only wounded Corellon. Evenutally Araushnee and her son Vhaeraun who helped her with these plots would be caught and put on trial. Araushnee and her son were exiled from the Seldarine pantheon, and Araushnee would later turn herself into spider like demonic creature and take the name of Lolth. Meanwhile Eilistraee (the daughter of now Lolth who was framed for the attempted murder of her father Corellon) willingly exiled herself from the pantheon so that she may be there as a light to guide the dark elves who she feared were in danger from Lolth.


After her exile, Lolth went on to rule the demon inhabited domain of the Abyss in a realm now known as the Demonweb Pits. From there she has plotted against Corellon and her former elven god kin by trying to steal the worship of the dark elves and have them go to war with Corellon's remaining elven worshippers. This primarily took the form of working behind the scenes to cause wars known as the Crown Wars between the dark elves of Ilythiir and other elven groups. Then Lolth would just happen to be there willing to aid the dark elves when they were in these dire times of war. After enough occurrences of this she became popular among the dark elves. As the dark elves then grew more powerful over time and became more violent under the influence of Lolth and other evil gods, the original elven Seldarine pantheon sought to stop these wars by cursing all dark elves; even those who were not involved in Lolth's wars. The Dark Elves were cursed to become Drow making it difficult for them to tolerate the sun's light on the surface and magically drawing them to the great underground network known as the Underdark. This did stop the conflicts so long as the surface elves stayed away from the underdark, but also drove many neutral or good Drow into the arms of Lolth who was there to care for them. As the Drow moved underground they conquered many locations including the Dwarven Kingdom of Bhaerynden, displacing the dwarves that remained and sending them into exile.

Drow occasionally return to the surface as raiding bands to fulfill some desire of Lolth or another, and these Drow leave disaster in their wake. This has been the state of things for over 10,000 years. Over this time Lolth's influence grew further to the point where most underdark dwelling Drow are fanatically Lolth-Sworn. There do remain some Drow that try to mend relations and coexist with surface races, to separate themselves from Lolth's influence, and to redeem their evil kin. These are referred to in BG3 as Seldarine Drow, which is the name of the original elven pantheon of Gods led by Corellon. They will very likely worship Eilistraee for coming down from godhood to live among them and sharing her similar goals of redeeming the fallen Drow taken by her mother Lolth.


World Interactions

For a surface dweller, seeing a Drow is perhaps one of the most terrifying things imaginable. There are many stories of their surface raiding parties devastating small villages, taking slaves and treating them despicably, and torturing their victims. If your character is a Lolth-sworn Drow then they may encourage this type of reaction as they try to frighten those they meet, or give folks further stories to tell of the horrible things Drow are capable of. In underdark society Drow are at the top with female Drow calling all the shots. They have a house system led by matriarchs which I am not going to get into or we'll be here for hours, and so far I have not seen much mention of this in BG3. However underdark dwelling races like Deep Gnomes will be especially frightful of Drow, as they often make slaves of the Deep Gnomes. Duergar and Drow respect but hate one another, being the two most powerful civilized races in the underdark. At times they are at war, and at times they are allies by circumstances.


A Seldarine Drow will likely be met with similar reactions to most people, but in most cases BG3 allows the Seldarine to try and calm the person they are talking to and persuade them that they do not behave like their evil brethren.


Mechanical Traits


Build Synergy

Normally in tabletop Drow have Sunlight Sensitivity which is a major, major downside to picking this race. However the tadpole in our brain seems to render our characters immune to these effects.


Superior Darkvision is great for any character, and Perception is often seen as one of the most valuable skills in BG3 so having proficiency is great and the elf is already off to a good start. Fey ancestry is a bit situational but by no means a bad thing to have. The Darkness Spell can also be great to have on any character. For example say you have some enemy bad guys on a platform firing ranged attacks at your party, and you would have to spend 2 turns just to move and get into range with them. You can cast darkness on the platform they are on therefore blinding them and making them come down. Or you can use it out of combat to help sneak about. This spell can get great mileage out of even non-spellcasters.


The remaining abilities are a bit more situational. Dancing lights requires concentration, which can be a serious downside for casters because this means they cannot concentrate on other more powerful spells. But on a non-caster class this isn't really an issue so may be more worth using. The Faerie Fire spell actually scales really well into mid game for a racial feature you get at level 1, but only if you have the high Charisma to use it effectively as discussed in the Racial Spellcasting section. The weapon proficiencies don't help many builds. The builds which could make good use of those proficiencies will already get them from their class. If D&D 5e cantrips like Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade are added to BG3 then these proficiencies could become very helpful for Sorcerers and Wizards, but that is unlikely to be present in BG3 without mods.


Pretty much any class or build will get tremendous benefit from being a Drow. Charisma casting classes like Bard, Warlock, Paladin, and Sorcerer may get a bit more benefit than others thanks to the Faerie Fire spell but nothing too substantial. Warlocks with the Devil's Sight Eldritch Invocation may get further use of the Drow's Darkness Spell.

Dwarves

Lore

Dwarves in the Forgotten Realms compare to the typical Dwarves in other conventional fantasy settings. They tend to develop underground kingdoms where they amass treasure and might, and develop clan like societies that respect their elders and gods such as the good aligned god of crafting Moradin. Dwarven commerce largely revolves around mining and blacksmithing. They have great appreciation for finely crafted weapons, armor, and other objects such as chalices, jewelry, and architecture. They feel a natural draw towards the stone and have an intuitive understanding of it to an extent. The Dwarven disciplined structure causes them to come at odds with the elves who are seen as flippant and emotionally driven. However Dwarves tend to get along with Humans, Halflings (primarily Strongheart Halflings), and especially Gnomes.


The most important events in Dwarven lore revolve around the kingdom Bhaerynden. This was the greatest of the dwarven kingdoms on Faerûn, located a fair bit South East of the Sword Coast where Baldur's Gate 3 is. Approximately 12,000 years before the events of BG3 one clan of dwarves had splintered off from the ruling dwarves at the time and set off west, founding a new kingdom of Shanatar just south of the Sword Coast (and actually pretty close to where Baldur's Gate II takes place). These dwarves would become known as the Shield Dwarves. Many dwarves still remained back in the kingdom of Bhaerynden after the Shield Dwarves splintered off. But a few hundred years later the dark elves were cursed to become Drow and they moved underground, conquering many lands in the process. Among these included the Dwarven kingdom of Bhaerynden. The refugee dwarves from this great empire fled far and wide and became nomadic, with some even going to live on the surface. These Bhaerynden refugees and their descendants became known as the Gold Dwarves or the Hill Dwarves.


Flipping back to the splintered off Shield Dwarves now and about 2,000 years after the fall of Bhaerynden, Clan Duergar of the Shield Dwarves would begin causing trouble. Clan Duergar sought to practice the teachings of the evil aligned god of magical crafting Laduguer who was xenophobic and encouraged his followers to exploit slavery to obtain their goals. But the rest of the Shield Dwarves would not practice or even tolerate Clan Duergar's ideals. Clan Duergar then splintered off from the Shield Dwarves to set up their own society where they could freely practice these evil ideals, but their isolation made them a target for Illithids (Mind Flayers) who would capture and conduct experiments on them, and turn them into their own slaves. These changes would ultimately change the physiology of the Clan Duergar dwarves, mutating them into the Duergar we know today. The Duergar remained slaves to the Illithids for about 5,000 years before they won their freedom by allying themselves with dark powers. They went on to found their own society in the Underdark in the great city Gracklstugh where the Duergar toil towards mastering their craft at an unhealthy level and remain very xenophobic. Especially towards their once Shield Dwarf brethren and anything relating to Illithids. More information on Duergar can be found in this 8 minute video by Spell&Shield.


World Interactions

A Dwarf will likely have extra dialogue options when it comes to recognizing and identifying weapons and armor of unique make, unique architecture masonry, or exploring underground areas as a result of their bond to the rock and stone. They may express some animosity or rivalry with elves due to their extreme difference in lifestyle, though I doubt it will be much more than some quick quips rather than outright violence. Perhaps much like Gimli and Legolas from Lord of the Rings. Duergar will likely have an outright loathing for anything related to Illithids. And Deep Gnomes will likely react with fear to the sight of a Duergar because the Duergar are known for making Deep Gnomes into slaves. Duergar and Drow are the two ruling civilized races in the underdark. They are often civil around one another, but are also rivals and have clashed many times before as well as becoming allies by circumstance on occassion.


Depending on how deep Larian goes with the lore you may see additional reactions based on the above lore. Gold Dwarves (Hill Dwarves) may hold a grudge against the Drow for their conquering of Bhaerynden. Duergar often blame the Shield Dwarves for their abandonment to the hands of the Mind Flayers, so there could be animosity between Duergar and Shield Dwarves. And Hill Dwarves and Mountain Dwarves also often view Gnomes as their cousins, so they may get along particularly well.


Mechanical Traits

All Dwarves have:

The Dwarven Subraces obtain:

Dwarven Subrace Features
Duergar* Gold Dwarves (Hill Dwarves) Shield Dwarves (Mountain Dwarves)***
Superior Darkvision out to 80 ft** Darkvision out to 40 ft Darkvision out to 40 ft
Duergar Magic granting the ability to cast Enlarge/Reduce on self once per Long Rest starting at 3rd Level, and Invisibility on self once per long rest Dwarven Toughness granting one additional hit point per character level Proficiency in Light and Medium Armor
Duergar resilience granting advantage on saving throws against illusions as well as being Charmed or Paralyzed. - - 
* Duergar are not in Early Access, these features are expected on launch.
** The original rules regarding Duergar in tabletop also grants Duergar Sunlight Sensitivity which is a major drawback for this race. However Larian will likely not implement this feature in BG3, whether that is due to the Illithid tadpole in our brains or following updated tabletop rules.
*** The Shield Dwarves normally get a +2 bonus to their Strength Ability Score. However with the Flexible Ability Scores changes Larian is making to BG3, the Shield Dwarves may or may not get some form of this feature or something to replace it.


Build Synergy

Poison damage is very common, so dwarves getting resistance and being able to cut the damage in half and resist related effects is very nice. And Darkvision can be immensely beneficial to any character as well. The Dwarves' movement speed reductions slightly hampers their melee combat ability, as you may not be able to close range with bad guys quite as quickly. But it doesn't have as great of an impact on characters able to make attacks from a distance. Additionally melee classes that can mitigate this movement speed penalty such as Monk and Barbarian may be able to offset it somewhat. Their additional weapon proficiencies are not going to be too beneficial on their own as most builds which want these proficiencies will get them from their class. But Monk is once again the standout winner from this feature. There is speculation that monks will be able to use their Martial Arts features like unarmed strikes with any weapon that they are proficient with but lacks the heavy or two-handed property. This means a dwarven monk might be able to wield a warhammer with its d10 damage die when wielded as a versatile weapon, which is much better than the next best option monks normally get with the shortsword's d6 damage.


The Gold Dwarves' additional HP per level goes great with classes that get up close in melee. Combine this with the tough feat on a barbarian to make a super tank. The Shield Dwarves' additional armor proficiencies go great on characters like squishy casters such as wizards, sorcerers, lore bards, and warlocks as it allows you to leave your Dexterity at 14 and wear medium armor for an overall armor class of 16 before accounting for magical bonuses. This combined with dwarven weapon proficiencies makes it feasible (but far from ideal unless you have access to spells likely not to be in BG3 without mods) to make a melee sorcerer or wizard character. And lastly the Duergar's Enlarge ability goes great with a melee class that gets multiple attacks such as a monk. Normally in tabletop the bonus damage from enlarge does not apply to unarmed strikes but in BG3 you are able to apply this additional damage. While the Duergar's invisibility spell could be very nice for a sneaky type of character including rogue as well as many other classes if they build themselves this way. The duergar race overall synergizes excellently with Shadow Monk.


Elves

Lore

Elves initially came to Toril about 30,000 years ago (relatively shortly after Tearfall as described in the Dragonborn Lore section) from the plane of the Feywild. This plane is known for harboring often mischievous magical creatures with attachment to nature such as satyrs, brownies, and sylphs. This helps explain the elves emotional and relaxed temperament. They include several subraces we will see in BG3 such as moon and sun elves (which are considered High Elves) and Wood Elves and dark elves which would later become Drow as described in the Drow Lore section. They also included other subraces which we will likely not see in BG3 such as wild elves and sea elves as the more common options, and a few additional more rare elven subracees. With the exception of Drow, modern day elves still maintain their relaxed lifestyle with a focus on enjoying life and the world, maintaining nature's balance, and are known for their prowess and dance as well as the bow and sword. Elves were the first races to exist on Toril and had the time to build up their society, but as a race they were not inclined to building great cities with few exceptions. Events such as conflicts with the Drow, the rise of Humans, and catastrophes over the centuries have resulted in elven influence in the world diminishing in the world.


Most of the notable Elven history is covered in the Drow Lore section. One detail I'll add here but may not ever get mentioned in BG3 is the First Sundering. After Araushnee (now Lolth) and her son Vhaeraun were exiled from the Elven pantheon but before the Crown Wars fully began, Lolth's and Vhaeraun's influence on the dark elves began spreading causing some minor conflicts. Around year -17,500 DR (about 19,000 years before BG3) many of the elves had enough of this and decided to pull a mass of land from the plane of Arborea full of enchanting magic and beautiful landscapes, and make it a remote island on this world of Toril. Then these peaceful elves could go live there away from all the war and strife of the dark elves. The good news is that the elves were successful and made their homeland island of Evermeet. The bad news is that with this came devastation across the continent of Faerun as the world reacted to this catastrophic change in geography and powerful magic. Many elven societies were flooded by the shifting seas and most would consider the event an overall disaster, save for the surviving elves who went off to live on Evermeet in peace. While many don't know this in modern days, the remote isle of Evermeet has since been pulled into the Feywild as a result of the Spellplague.


World Interactions

Elves are known for their emotional and whimsical yet patient attitudes as they seek to enjoy their long lives spanning several centuries. They have a natural tendency towards magic and the balance of nature. High elves further emphasize this emphasis on magic, while wood elves further emphasize their interactions with nature. Enough time has passed and animosity has settled down between elves and humans where their past disputes are behind the short lived human memories, and the two races often interact well enough with each other now. The extremely different temperaments between elves and dwarves means they don't necessarily get along, but they also don't really come to blows very often. The greatest enemy of elves are often their cousins the drow.


Mechanical Traits

All elves have:

The Elven Subraces obtain:

Elven Subrace Features
High Elves Wood Elves
Learn one Cantrip from the Wizard Spell list* using Intelligence as the spellcasting ability modifier when applicable Movement Speed is increased by 5 ft to a total of 35 ft
- Mask of the Wild grants proficiency in Stealth 
* For High Elf's Cantrip feature, see the Racial Spellcasting section

Build Synergy

Elves' Darkvision is great for any character, and Perception is often seen as one of the most valuable skills in BG3 so having proficiency is great and the elf is already off to a good start. Fey ancestry is a bit situational but by no means a bad thing to have. And like with Drow and Dwarves above, the racial weapon proficiencies are not that great unless you are going for a melee wizard or sorcerer build which will be difficult to pull of in BG3. But the longsword proficiency could be nice for a monk character if you can in-fact use a longsword as a monk weapon. The longbow proficiency can also be nice on a rogue as they are a build that can make good use of a Longbow but are not proficient with it normally.


As mentioned in the Racial Spellcasting section, you may need to be a little careful about what cantrip you pick if you are going High Elf. If your character is not going to have a high Intelligence then do not pick one of the spells listed in the Racial Spellcasting table. Of the remaining options some standout choices include Light (which you can cast on the weapon of an ally who does not have darkvision and make them shed their own light), Minor Illusion (which you can use to draw creatures to a certain area whether to sneak by them or ambush them) and Mage Hand (if you do not intend to use the Mage Hand to shove your enemies, or are not playing a race like Githyanki or a class like Arcane Trickster Rogue which automatically gets this spell). The wood elve's movement speed bonus is very helpful for melee characters who may need to close the gap with enemies, while their proficiency in stealth is great for characters who will be doing your sneaking around.


Half-Elves

=Lore

Half-elves don't particularly have too much lore behind them. They are born from Human and Elf parents, often in a Human or Elf dominated society, where they go on to adopt the culture of that society. They have existed in small numbers for tens of thousands of years. They typically are not viewed with any particular scorn or hatred by any.


World Interactions

Given how most races are on decent terms with humans, the world interactions you get as a half-elf will respond more to your elven herritage. If you are playing as a Drow Half-Elf then you may get dialogue tags that represent the your Drow lineage, and you may get dialogue tags that represent your human lineage. But you will not have the total reactivity of either. There are dialogue options in the game which are only available to Drow, but not Half-Drow. Similar rules apply to Wood Half-Elf and High Half-Elf.


Mechanical Traits

Half-Elves in BG3 are one of the races that are hampered by Larian's Flexible Ability Scores changes. It is speculated based off some launch build footage from content creators that Half-elves will get:


Normally in Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, Half-Elves get "Skill Versatility" allowing them to be proficient in two skills of their choice. This option does not appear to be present in BG3 and they must choose one of the below variant Half-Elf options which grants the following:

Caption text
Drow Half-Elf High Half-Elf Wood Half-Elf
The ability to cast the following spells using Charisma as the spellcasting ability modifier when applicable: Learn one Cantrip from the Wizard Spell list** using Intelligence as the spellcasting ability modifier when applicable Movement Speed is increased by 5 ft to a total of 35 ft
- - Mask of the Wild grants proficiency in Stealth 
* For Drow Half-Elf's Faerie Fire see the Racial Spellcasting section.
** For High Half-Elf's Cantrip feature, see the Racial Spellcasting section.


Build Synergy

In tabletop the Half-Elf is the second most common race for players to pick behind variant human. This is largely due to their ability score bonuses where they get a +2 to Charisma (as well as flexible ability scores they can put elsewhere) in combination with Charisma focused classes like Bard, Warlock, Sorcerer, Paladin, and possibly even some charming Rogues. They are also desired in tabletop for their Darkvision and Skill Versatility options. Of the above three features (ability score bonuses, darkvision, and skill versatility), only Darkvision will be available to Half-elves in BG3. This significantly shakes them up. The Fey Ancestry is a nice feature, but rather niche and by no means a reason why most people pick this class in tabletop.

Now half-elves keep their darkvision and niche fey ancestry feature, but the extra armor, shield, and weapon proficiencies they are likely to obtain are intended to make up for the loss to traditional half-elf ability score bonuses as discussed in the Flexible Ability Scores section. Like with human these features make half-elf a slightly more tempting target for something like a squishy Warlock or Bard since they can throw a shield on and slightly boost their AC. And this is especially the case for Sorcerer and Wizard Characters who by default do not even get light armor proficiency. I still think a one level dip into a class that grants medium armor and shield proficiency like Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, or Druid would be better for such characters, but playing a half-elf is a way to get some defensive boosts without multiclassing.

The subrace features synergize just like the same features do for the base Elf race:

  • Drow Half-Elf's Dancing Lights is not very helpful on caster character because it competes for Concentration but can be of a bit of benefit to non caster builds. Darkness has great in combat and out of combat utility whether you are a caster or not, but is especially good on a Warlock with the Devil's Sight Eldritch Invocation. Faerie Fire is a great spell into the midgame even, but only on characters with decent Charisma as described in the Racial Spellcasting section.
  • High Half-Elf's Cantrip goes great with Intelligence based casters such as the Wizard, Eldritch Knight Fighter, or Arcane Trickster Rogue. But if the character will not have a high Intelligence then Light, Minor Illusion, and to an extent Mage Hand can also be good options as described in the Elf Mechanics section of this guide.
  • Wood Half-Elf movement speed bonus is nice on all characters, but especially nice on melee characters who can use this to get into range of their target. Their stealth proficiency is nice on sneaky characters as it opens you up to put proficiencies from background and your starting class elsewhere.

Overall if Half-Elf is implemented as they are expected to be then they are still a very flexible choice which anyone will get at least some benefit out of. There is a very good chance that a more specialized race exists for a specific build. But anyone will at least get some decent use from their half-elf features.

Half-Orcs

Lore

Orcs first came to the planet of Toril as a result of one of Lolth's plots to kill Corellon as described in the Drow Lore section. One of the gods who Lolth tricked into fighting the Seldarine was Gruumsh, patron god of orcs who brought a horde of orc with him. Upon Gruumsh's defeat many orcs would be left behind in Faerun and more orcs crossed into Faerun via other methods. For tens of thousands of years orcs were isolated savages which posed no major threat to civilized races. However around -3,600 DR (about 5,000 years before BG3) orcs began to band together and raid civilized lands in massive hordes. And in fact this is how most orcs to this day still behave. They are typically violent, selfish, short tempered creatures.


Humans and orcs have been known to exist peacefully together in some scenarios, as stated in the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition Players Handbook which states, "Whether united under the leadership of a mighty warlock or having fought to a standstill after years of conflict, orc and human communities, sometimes form alliances. When these alliances are sealed by marriages, half-orcs are born. Some half-orcs rise to become proud leaders of orc communities. Some venture into the world to prove their worth. Many of these become adventurers, achieving greatness for their mighty deeds." One popular example of this cooperation is Kingdom of Many Arrows located near the northern end of the Sword Coast. Many-Arrows was established just over 100 years before the events in BG3 and is a peaceful settlement of orcs that has generated bonds and relationships with their neighbors. In-fact their neighbors have even come to the military defense of Many-Arrows. From these kinds of relationships between humans and orcs, half-orcs can be born.


Half-orcs are rare and do not have a society or culture of their own. They tend to adopt the culture of whatever settlement they are in. If they venture out from their home they are very likely to be met with hesitation from all they meet due to the reputation orcs have. Even other orc tribes will be unfriendly toward their half-orc kin due to the human blood being seen as a weakness.


World Interactions

Half-orcs are well known for their strength and endurance. Some of Gruumsh's impression on orcs often carries over to the half-orc offspring calling them to battle. Many half-orcs take on mercenary work to fulfill their own needs and desires. And they are known for settling disputes with a brawl rather than an argument. They often wish to revel in their victories and are known to have celebrations including viking like behaviors such as wrestling, feasts, and of course drinking. Almost all surface races will be uncomfortable around a half-orc they are not familiar with due to the reputation of the swarming hordes of orcs. Some half-orcs may be tolerant of this, others may be offended or angered by such presumptions. They are often accustomed to being viewed as outsiders. Elves, Dwarves and Orcs have the most bad blood between them, so they may be the single race to react most strongly to the sight of a half-orc.


Mechanical Traits

Half-orcs are not in Early Access, so the following information is based off the rules for Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition in which half-orcs are granted:

  • Darkvision out to a range of 40 ft
  • Proficiency in Intimidation
  • Relentless Endurance which means when a half-orc would normally be downed they instead are left with 1 hit point instead (recharges on a long rest).
  • Savage Attacks making it so that when a half-orc scores a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, they can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.


Build Synergy

Darkvision is always great to have. Relentless Endurance goes great with any melee character that you will have getting up into the thick of things and is especially desired on tanky characters like Barbarians, Moon Druids, Fighters, and Paladins. Meanwhile Savage Attacks goes great with anyone making melee weapon attacks which goes great with tons of characters. We'll have to see if Larian applies the Savage Attacks damage to a Monk's unarmed strikes or a wildshaped Druid's natural attacks, which is normally not allowed per D&D 5e but I suspect Larian may change this. It isn't a massive damage increase but can become more notable on Champion Fighter characters with their increased chance to critically hit, or any melee character where parties can guarantee crits such as if you have casters who can consistently land Hold Person. The proficiency in intimidation is a nice tassle on the end, but could become more significant for classes with a high Charisma like a Valor Bard or Swords Bard or Paladin or Pact of the Blade Warlock.


Overall the Half-Orc is one of the best races for melee combat characters with a heavy emphasis on the combat part. Ourtside of melee characters they will offer a little bit of something if mechanically implemented as expected.

Halflings

Lore

Halfling Lore is extremely sparse. There is no information on when or where the first halflings appeared. They tend to have a sense of wanderlust and exploration moreso than even the elves, as well as a tendency towards finding mishchief whether wittingly or not. They are known for their clan like social structure with an emphasis on family bonds. Some bands may settled down and make a small isolated village for a while before getting bored of it and packing up to leave with little worry or concern. Others will roam about and never settle down at all. The only major halfling settlement of Luiren was flooded as a result of the world shaking Spellplague as described in the Dragonborn Lore section and this further emphasizes the modern day halfling tendency to roam.


Besides the flooding of Luiren, the only other major Halfling lore event (which I doubt will be brought up in BG3) is the Hin Ghostwar. "Hin" is another name for Halfling, and the Ghostwar is so named because the Strongheart Tribe and Lightfoot Tribe teamed up and went to war with their Ghostwise Tribe brethren. Around year -100 DR (about 1,600 years before BG3) the druidic Ghostwise halflings were led by a cleric who came to worship the evil god of primal savagery and stalking, Malar. The cleric led her tribe to ruthlessly attack and torment wild creatures as well as other halflings from the Lightfoot and Strongheart Tribes. The Lightfoot and Strongheart tribes teamed together in the Hin Ghostwar to push the Ghostwise halflings back and killed their evil cleric. The surviving Ghostwise tribe members exiled themselves in shame for their actions under the clerics influence. While the Strongheart halflings were happy to continue living in and around Luiren, the Lightfoot halflings were horrified by the bloody events that had taken place at the hands of both the Ghostwise and the Strongheart tribes. They instead decided to set off and explore the continent of Faerun rather than stay with the awful memories of what had occurred.


While I do say that Larian may not really include the above lore info, they did go out of their way to refer to Strongheart Halflings as such, rather than simply saying Stout halflings as they are known in the D&D 5e Player Handbook Rules. So perhaps they will keep it in mind.


World Interactions

Many civilized races give a bit of pause when a halfling is in their midst, as their tendency to get into often innocent mischief is well known. On the other hand, halflings imagine that they are getting along with pretty much everyone. Since halflings lack their own large settlements and tend to roam about, they often come to settle for short times in the settlements developed by other races doing odds and end jobs. This is especially common in human and gnome settlements, while strongheart halflings tend to also relate well with dwarves. One common theme among all other races is that they tend to view a halfling's typical lack of interest in combat and warfare as the inability to fight. But when backed into a corner a halfling will fight ferociously, claws out, no tactic is too cheap, I didn't hear no bell, and with an indomitable instinct to survive. I personally doubt there will be many if any interractions specific to Lightfoot Halflings meeting Strongheart Halflings in BG3 regarding the Hin Ghostwars, but I could be mistaken. Besides Ghostwise Halflings (which are not character options in BG3 and we have seen no sign of any NPC Ghostwise in the games) halflings mostly all get along now given their friendly attitudes.


Mechanical Traits

All Halflings have:


The Halfling Subraces obtain

Halfling Subrace Features
Lightfoot Halfling Strongheart Halfling (Stout Halfling)
Naturally Stealthy granting proficiency in Stealth Strongheart Resilience giving them resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws against poison.

Build Synergy

As with dwarf and gnome, the halfling's movement speed penalty mostly hurts them when it comes to melee combat builds because this may make it more difficult to close the distance with their target, though this is not as important for ranged builds and can be somewhat offset by melee builds that get a movement speed bonus like Barbarian and Monk. Not having darkvision is a pretty significant detriment to this class which is something you'll have to keep in mind while playing in dark areas. Brave giving them advantage on saving throws against being frightened can be very helpful at high levels when creatures start having powerful effects that apply fear, but until then it is very situational. Their best ability is by far Lucky, as it gives you a chance to succeed on checks you would have otherwise failed. Lucky is further moderately buffed in BG3. Larian has implemented a controversial rule change where a natural 1 on an ability check results in an automatic failure, even if your modifiers, proficiency bonus, guidance, etc. would put you over the DC of the check. This can cause you to fail a check which by the D&D 5e books you should have succeeded just because you rolled a 1. A halfling's ability to reroll natural ones reduces the likelihood of this Larian houserule hurting your character. This makes halfling a more tempting race for skill monkey character like rogue, bard, ranger, or knowledge domain cleric.


The lightfoot halfling's naturally stealthy could be nice on a character who is doing some sneaking about and allow them to focus proficiencies they get from their class and/or background in other areas. While a strongheart halfling's resilience will help them resist the very common poison damage and associated effects in combat.


Humans

Lore

Like with Elves and Dwarves, the Human history also tends to meet typical fantasy expectation. For thousands of years the dwarves ruled the depths while the elves roamed far and wide and were the greatest power on the surface. But as a result of human ingenuity, dedication, perseverence, and a fast rate of reproduction they established large settlements at critical locations for trade allowing them to prosper commercially over time. The human kingdoms would fight among one another which certainly did not help their rise to dominance. But these skirmishes were nothing compared to the devastation the elves suffered in the First Sundering (as discussed in the Elven Lore section) and the Crown Wars and persistent conflicts with the Drow, and the devastation that the Dwarves experienced when the Drow moved underground as described in the Dwarven Lore section. As a result the Humans have grown to dominate much of Faerûn, including the Sword Coast region where Baldur's Gate is located.


However there are two human empires whose downfall look like they will play at least a minor part in BG3. First is Netheril. This kingdom was mankind's greatest at the time of its destruction in -339 DR (about 1,800 years before BG3) and consisted of common folk who lived on the planet's surface while the elite ruling class lived in flying cities. The mage Karsus of Netheril rightly feared the threat posed by worm like monsters called Phaerimm and sought a way to destroy this threat to the Netherese Empire. Unfortunately his plan to do so was to cast a 12th level spell to steal the power of the god of magic at the time, Mystryl. He did succeed at drawing Mystryl's power which ultimately killed her, but worse still Karsus himself was unable to contain the magic he had absorbed. He released Mystryl's power, the Weave which controls magic broke down, and the Netherese cities magically held aloft began to falter as they fell from the sky. The goddess of magic was quickly reborn, this time as Mystra and she was able to save some but not all of the falling cities. As a result of this Mystra made it so that no mortals could cast spells above 9th level, and the Netherese empire crumbled away with the death of so many high ranking citizens all due to this event now known as Karsus's Folly. For the sake of BG3 it is important to note that Netherese magic was powerful, and may not have been implemented with adequate safeguards.


The second notable human Kingdom to look into is Thay. In short starting around 100 years ago this nation far to the East of Baldur's Gate came under the control of a necromancer wizard named Szass Tam after a civil war, and the nation is now known for comitting evil acts on the regular such as consulting with devils and evil gods. They implement slavery, but they also often use undead to conduct meanial day to day routines or to make up the bulk of the nation's army. More recently Szass Tam and his Red Wizards of Thay have attempted to take over foreign kingdoms across Faerun using discrete tactics with years of planning, usually wrecking absolute chaos when their plans come to fruition. There are some notable references to Thay in BG3 but it is difficult to tell how related they will be to the main plot if at all. The Red Wizards of Thay and Szass Tam are covered more in the D&D Honor Among Thieves movie.


This 9 minute video by WolfheartFPS covers Szass Tam's rise to power. This 8 minute video by Spell&Shield contains Act 1 spoilers on where Thay is mentioned in BG3 Early Access and also provides more lore on Thay's upheaval.

World Interactions

Humans are widely considered the most vanilla race. They are the most populous and common race in the Sword Coast where BG3 takes place. They do not have any major disputes with other races. While different human kingdoms will have skirmishes, it is almost never a kill-on-sight type of reaction to a rival human unless they are something like a Red Wizard of Thay (which our characters in BG3 are not). Humans are known for their perseverence and knack for learning and applying new skills, but otherwise they are rather plain.


Mechanical Features

Normally in D&D 5e there is an optional rule whicha allows a player to use a set of features for humnans referred to as "variant human." This is seen as the most powerful race mechanically due to the variant human's feature which grants them a feat at level 1. However variant human will not be in BG3 (without mods) and therefore I'll go no further here.


Humans in BG3 are one of the races that are hampered by Larian's Flexible Ability Scores changes. It is speculated based off some launch build footage from content creators that Humans will get:


Build Synergy

It is difficult to say what a human synergizes with given that we are still unceratin about the actual features they get. The lack of darkvision is a big downside for humans. Their light armor and shield proficiency does make them somewhat tempting for squishy casters like sorcerers, wizards, lore bards, or warlocks. But until we know more about if they get something more, they do not appear to be very appealng for much of any builds.


Remaining Races are Work in Progress

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