The Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard class requires a specific build to boost the efficiency of your spells and cantrips in battle. You must think about your abilities, spells, cantrips, race, and sometimes background. While that may sound like a lot to worry about, it’s simple. We’ve created the best Wizard build guide for Baldur’s Gate 3, making playing a Wizard character much more enjoyable to use. The Wizard requires high Intelligence and Dexterity to perform a number of their spells effectively, and choosing the right class can give you an extra cantrip. Let’s talk about what goes into the best Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard build below.
The Best Wizard Build in Baldur’s Gate 3
The best way to build a Wizard character involves focusing heavily on Intelligence and Dexterity. Though you can always add a bit more and make your build balanced, this is what we’ve found works best.
Race
The best race you can choose for a Wizard is the Elf or the Half-Elf. Both races have certain features that can be useful. The Elf has a 9m Base Racial Speed, Eleven Weapon Training that allows proficiency with the Longsword, Shortsword, Shortbow, and Longbow, Darkvision, and Fey Ancestry, which gives you an Advantage on Saving Throws against Charmed, and you can no longer be put to sleep by magic.
The Half-Elf is similar but does have some key differences. Rather than having Elven Weapon Training, the Half-Elf has Civil Militia. Civil Militia allows for Weapon Proficiencies with spears, pikes, halberds, glaives, and Armour Proficiencies with Light Armor and Shields.
We chose an Elf for this Baldur’s Gate Wizard build, but the Half-Elf is almost just as good.
Best Subrace
Two different Subraces under the Elf Race can be chosen: High Elf or Wood Elf. For this build, High Elf is the best. The Wood Elf Subrace offers more movement distances per turn, but the High Elf Subrace offers an additional Cantrip. Since the Wizzard is a magic user, it’s relatively straightforward why we would want an additional Cantrip over some extra movement.
Background and Skills
There’s only one background that makes sense for the best Wizazrd Build in Baldur’s Gate 3: the Sage background. The Sage background plays heavily on your being well-read and intelligent. The Sage Background offers the Arcana and History skills. These are all things that can be considered quite valuable to a Wizard, since this build relies heavily on Intelligence and Charisma.
Your ability levels should be set in the following amounts:
- Strength – 8
- Dexterity – 14
- Constitution– 14 (+1)
- Intelligence– 15 (+2)
- Wisdom – 11
- Charisma– 14
The Wizard’s best stats are Intelligence, Constitution, Charisma, and Dexterity. Intelligence helps to increase the effectiveness of your magical abilities, which a Wizard relies heavily. Additionally, Constitution determines your character’s overall HP. Dexterity can assist with your Armor Class Modifier, so it’s equally important, and Charisma determines how well you communicate with others.
Class Progression
Now, let’s take a look at how you level your Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard build. As you level, you should be obtaining these cantrips and spells:
- Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, Acid Splash, Mage Hand
- Blade Ward (L4)
- Grease, Thunderwave, Mage Armor, Magic Missile
- Chromatic Orb (L2)
- Misty Step, Cloud of Daggers (L3)
- Detect Thoughts, Crown of Madness (L4)
- Fireball, Hypnotic Pattern (L5)
Related:
Baldur’s Gate 3: Wyll Companion Guide
This concludes our best Wizard Build guide for Baldur’s Gate 3. Focus on your spells as you level and keep your intelligence ability the best you can.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on PC.