Larian Studios lets you customize your own character to your heart’s content in Baldur’s Gate 3: Between the many different races, classes and multi-class options, you have what feels like an endless number of possible combinations. In our guide to the right character planner, we show you how you can keep track of the classes with the flood of options and even plan your skills for higher levels in advance.
Which tool is it? Choosing and planning your class in Baldur’s Gate 3 can be quite complicated. With D&D Beyond you can replicate, test and simulate your builds almost one-to-one at higher levels.
What can I do with the tool? D&D Beyond is primarily designed to simplify the character creation process for Dungeons & Dragons. Available features include implementation of the (nearly) complete Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition rulebook, digital dice, printable character sheets, and gamemaster planning tools, among others.
D&D Beyond is free in the basic version and is operated by Wizards of the Coast. Among other things, the company is responsible for Dungeons & Dragons, but also for Magic: The Gathering.
Due to the close proximity of Baldurs’ Gate 3 and Dungeons & Dragons, the website is the perfect tool for testing your dream character builds before you start playing.
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Step-by-step guide for your character build
In the following we explain step by step the process of creating a character in D&D Beyond with the corresponding examples from Baldur’s Gate 3. But be careful:
All you need to get started is an account. Once you are logged in, you can select My Characters under Collections. This will take you to your character overview. In the free basic version, you can own up to six different characters at the same time.
Create a Character takes you to the character creation menu. Here you can choose whether you want to create your own character by default. With a tick at Beginner? Show Help Text gives you another helping hand on the site.
Premade has ready-made character suggestions, Quick Build skips a lot of steps for a quick build, and Random is just that: a random number generator.
You can ignore the first page of the character creator. This is only relevant if you want to play Dungeons & Dragons with the character later.
At the beginning, choose your desired race…
… as well as the appropriate sub-race.
Optional: Some races allow you to choose spells, languages and special abilities.
Now it’s down to business with the class and, depending on the decision, the sub-class choice.
You therefore jump directly to the class overview after selecting the class. Enter the level you want to simulate here. This will show you all personalization options at level level.
With + Add Another Class you can simulate multi-classing.
In Baldur’s Gate 3 you choose your background next. D&D Beyond, on the other hand, lets you distribute your attribute points first. However, skipping one of the steps is not a problem either in game or on the website.
To illustrate, let’s continue with attribute points here.
Select the Manual/Rolled method in D&D Beyond. Each attribute has at least 8 points. In addition, you can distribute 27 freely, as you think it makes sense. Also awards a +2 and +1 modifier.
You can choose your background in D&D Beyond almost 1:1 like in Baldur’s Gate 3. However, the website gives you a lot more options, which are automatically given in the game.
Danger: In Baldur’s Gate 3 you can already choose classes with spells. In D&D Beyond, this is only possible in the finished character sheet.
To get there, you still have to complete the Equipment step. Choose your desired armor and weapons here via Add Items. In the game you will be provided with the starting equipment.
To view your character sheet, click View Character Sheet in the What’s Next window.
The page that opens should look something like this:
In the overview box you click on Spells and then on Manage Spells. Now the menu has opened where you can choose your spells.
Spell Slots indicates how often you can cast spells and at what level. The Known Spells include everything you can theoretically cast. The Prepared Spells list what you currently have selected.
With a click on the desired spell you open the description.
Why do we recommend the tool? D&D Beyond is a first-party tool that is constantly being developed and supplied with new content. In addition, it is comparatively easy to use with a little practice. On top of that, the website has a handy app that lets you take your character builder pretty much anywhere.
In addition to the free version teased above, you can also choose two different subscription options. However, these are primarily exciting for you if you are already playing or plan to play Dungeons & Dragons. If necessary, you can also buy what interests you from the huge catalog and rules.
So with D&D Beyond you are completely up to all character and spec tasks. You can find an initial overview of the individual classes and their abilities in our class tier list:
Baldur’s Gate 3 Classes Tier List: The Best Classes & Subclasses 2023