Races

There are a great variety of Races that can be found in the Forgotten Realms setting and played in Baldur's Gate 3, both civilized and savage. A creature's race determines its lineage and innate powers and abilities.

All races have their own strengths and many possess unique abilities and powers. Sometimes creatures can even cast spells as a result of their racial heritage.

Race affects NPC reactions and available interactions during conversations. Each race also has unique attack animations (while spellcasting animations are based on class).

See below for a list of races.

• 

  Human

• 

  Elf

• 

  Drow

• 

  Half-Elf

• 

  Half-Orc

• 

  Halfling

• 

  Dwarf

• 

  Gnome

• 

  Tiefling

• 

  Githyanki

• 

  Dragonborn

Overview of playable races

There are 11 playable races in Baldur's Gate 3. Many playable races are divided into subraces, which further defines a character's strengths, abilities, and appearance.

Refer to individual Race pages for further details.

Unless otherwise noted, spells gained from race may only be cast once per Long Rest.

In D&D 5e races tend to receive fixed ability score bonuses as racial bonuses. Baldur's Gate 3 instead awards each race the following ability score bonuses for the player to freely allocate:

• +2 to any Ability Score
• +1 to any other Ability Score

Race and Subraces		Base Speed	Proficiencies		Features
			From Race	From Subrace	From Race	From Subrace
Human		Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons Spears Pikes Halberds Glaives Armour Light armour Shields Skills One Skill of choice (Human Versatility)		Human Versatility Increased Carrying Capacity by 25%
Elf	High Elf	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons Shortswords Longswords Shortbows Longbows Skills Perception (Keen Senses)	High Elf -	Fey Ancestry Advantage against being  Charmed Immune to magical  Sleep  Darkvision	High Elf High Elf Cantrip One Cantrip of choice from the Wizard spell list
	Wood Elf	Fast 10.5 m / 35 ft		Wood Elf Skills Stealth (Mask of the Wild)		Wood Elf Fleet of Foot Increases base movement speed by 1.5 m / 5 ft
Drow	Lolth-Sworn Drow	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons Rapiers Shortswords Hand Crossbows Skills Perception (Keen Senses)		Fey Ancestry Advantage against being  Charmed Immune to magical  Sleep  Superior Darkvision Doubled Darkvision range Drow Magic  Dancing Lights,  Faerie Fire, and  Darkness Spells at levels 1, 3, and 5	The only difference between Drow subraces lies in their available dialogue options
	Seldarine Drow
Half-Elf	High Half-Elf	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons Spears Pikes Halberds Glaives Armour Light armour Shields	High Half-Elf -	Fey Ancestry Advantage against being  Charmed Immune to magical  Sleep  Darkvision	High Half-Elf High Elf Cantrip One Cantrip of choice from the Wizard spell list
	Wood Half-Elf	Fast 10.5 m / 35 ft		Wood Half-Elf Skills Stealth (Mask of the Wild)		Wood Half-Elf Fleet of Foot Increases base movement speed by 1.5 m / 5 ft
	Drow Half-Elf	Standard 9 m / 30 ft		Drow Half-Elf -		Drow Half-Elf Drow Magic  Dancing Lights,  Faerie Fire, and  Darkness Spells at levels 1, 3, and 5
Half-Orc		Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Skills Intimidation (Menacing)		Darkvision  Savage Attacks Add one additional dice of damage when scoring a critical hit with a melee weapon  Relentless Endurance Drop to 1 hit point instead of being downed, once per long rest
Halfling	Lightfoot Halfling	Slow 7.5 m / 25 ft	-		Halfling Luck Single reroll on a 1 for an Attack Roll, Ability Check, or Saving Throw.  Brave Advantage against being  Frightened	Lightfoot Halfling  Naturally Stealthy Advantage on Stealth checks
	Strongheart Halfling					Strongheart Halfling  Strongheart Resilience Advantage against being  Poisoned and Resistance to Poison damage
Dwarf	Gold Dwarf	Slow 7.5 m / 25 ft	Weapons Battleaxes Handaxes Light Hammers Warhammers	Gold Dwarf -	Dwarven Resilience Advantage against being  Poisoned and Resistance to Poison damage  Darkvision	Gold Dwarf  Dwarven Toughness Maximum Hit Point increased by 1 per level
	Shield Dwarf			Shield Dwarf Armour Light armour (Dwarven Armour Training) Medium armour (Dwarven Armour Training)		Shield Dwarf -
	Duergar			Duergar -		Duergar  Duergar Resilience Advantage on Saving throws against Illusions and against being  Charmed or  Paralysed  Superior Darkvision Doubled Darkvision range Duergar Magic  Enlarge and  Invisibility Spells at levels 3 and 5
Gnome	Forest Gnome	Slow 7.5 m / 25 ft	-	Forest Gnome -	Gnome Cunning Advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma Saving throws  Darkvision	Forest Gnome Additional Spell  Speak with Animals (at will)
	Deep Gnome			Deep Gnome -		Deep Gnome  Superior Darkvision Doubled Darkvision range  Stone Camouflage Advantage on Stealth checks
	Rock Gnome			Rock Gnome Skills History Expertise (Artificer's Lore)		Rock Gnome -
Tiefling	Asmodeus Tiefling	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	-		Hellish Resistance Resistance to Fire damage  Darkvision	Asmodeus Tiefling Tiefling Magic  Produce Flame,  Hellish Rebuke, and  Darkness Spells at levels 1, 3, and 5
	Mephistopheles Tiefling					Mephistopheles Tiefling Tiefling Magic  Mage Hand,  Burning Hands, and  Flame Blade Spells at levels 1, 3, and 5
	Zariel Tiefling					Zariel Tiefling Tiefling Magic  Thaumaturgy,  Searing Smite, and  Branding Smite Spells at levels 1, 3, and 5
Githyanki		Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons Shortswords Longswords Greatswords Armour Light armour Medium armour		Astral Knowledge Gain Proficiency in all Skills corresponding to a chosen Ability each Long Rest Githyanki Psionics  Mage Hand,  Enhance Leap, and  Misty Step Spells at levels 1, 3, and 5
Dragonborn	Black Dragonborn	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	-		-	Black Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Acid damage Acid Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Cone) of Acid damage
	Blue Dragonborn					Blue Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Lightning damage Lightning Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Line) of Lightning damage
	Brass Dragonborn					Brass Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Fire damage Fire Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Line) of Fire damage
	Bronze Dragonborn					Bronze Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Lightning damage Lightning Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Cone) of Lightning damage
	Copper Dragonborn					Copper Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Acid damage Acid Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Cone) of Acid damage
	Gold Dragonborn					Gold Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Fire damage Fire Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Cone) of Fire damage
	Green Dragonborn					Green Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Poison damage Poison Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Cone) of Poison damage
	Red Dragonborn					Red Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Fire damage Fire Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Cone) of Fire damage
	Silver Dragonborn					Silver Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Cold damage Frost Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Cone) of Cold damage
	White Dragonborn					White Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Cold damage Frost Breath AoE: 5 m / 17 ft (Cone) of Cold damage

Races

Not all races and subraces are covered by hirelings, and therefore you can only have them in your party with a custom character. Dragonborn is the only race not covered by hirelings out of the 11 playable races, and out of the 18 subraces those races have only 8 of them are covered. The races and subraces covered by hirelings are:

• Gold Dwarf
• Lightfoot Halfling
• High Elf
• Mephistopheles Tiefling
• Wood Half-Elf
• Githyanki
• Half-Orc
• Seldarine Drow
• Human
• High Half-Elf
• Duergar
• Rock Gnome

The races and subraces not covered by hirelings are:

• Wood Elf (Covered by Halsin companion)
• Drow Half-Elf
• Strongheart Halfling
• Lolth-Sworn Drow (Covered by Minthara companion)
• Shield Dwarf
• Deep Gnome
• Forest Gnome
• Asmodeus Tiefling
• Zariel Tiefling (Covered by Karlach companion)
• All Dragonborn subraces.

See also

• D&D 5e Race Changes for a summary of all changes to races in Baldur's Gate 3 from the 5e ruleset.