Best Class for Elves- Baldur’s Gate 3

Elves are a magical people of otherworldly grace, living in places of ethereal beauty, in the midst of ancient forests or in silvery spires glittering with faerie light, where soft music drifts through the air and gentle fragrances waft on the breeze. Elves love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry.

One of the most well known and famous fantasy games of all time wouldn’t be the same without one of the most well known and famous fantasy races of all time. The nomadic and druidic natural view of elves remains a constant in most of their iterations, but in Baldur’s Gate 3, players can do as they wish with their elven character. Whether they wish to lean into the stereotype or make something new of them, that includes customising their looks, background and general personality. Baldur’s Gate 3 features an immersive adventure experience that D&D players will thrive in, then again so will any big fans of fantasy and role-play. At the start of the game, much like when you would roll up your character at a table for Dungeons and Dragons, players create their character. Part of this choice, and perhaps one of the most important choices when you start this game is the class you play, as that’ll dictate how you play the game.

Elves had a number of abilities that set them apart from other humanoid races. Like their living ancestors, the eladrin, elves are agile, dexterous creatures. However, elves could move slightly faster than their eladrin kin and could move swiftly through even the roughest terrain. Elves were also more preternaturally aware of their surroundings than eladrin, as well as possessing better common sense. This aided elves in many ways, allowing them a high degree of perceptiveness that they could lend partially to allies. Additionally, elves are extremely accurate in their attacks, having a degree of precision that would be unusual for other humanoids.

Although a lot of players will pick a race and class according to their personal choice, others might wonder which race best suits which class depending on the racial features one can get. Some races are naturally going to be more magic-based whilst others are going to be more melee-driven. Elves are a little mix of both, with the potential to be either depending on the sub-race you pick.

Elves Traits

Ability Score Increase

An Elf’s Dexterity score increases by 2.

Age

Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.

Size

 Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. An Elf’s size is Medium.

Speed

An Elf’s base walking speed is 9m.

Darkvision 

Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, an Elf has superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Trance

Elves do not sleep. Instead they meditate deeply, remaining semi-conscious, for 4 hours a day. The Common word for this meditation is “trance.” While meditating, you dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive after years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit a human would from 8 hours of sleep.

Keen Senses

You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Languages 

You can speak, read, and write Common and Elven

Elf Subraces

Elves have two main subraces in Baldur’s Gate 3, each having a different additional ability score increase which’ll help you decide what build you want to focus around. But they also gain a few other benefits, in particular High Elves have a free extra Cantrip whilsty the Wood Elves have more physical buffs that affect their speed and proficienies.

High Elf

Ability Score Increase

+1 Intelligence Score

Cantrip

High Elves know one cantrip of their choice from the Wizard spell list. Intelligence is their spellcasting ability for it

Base Racial Speed

High Elves can move 9m per turn.

Wood Elf

Ability Score Increase

+1 Wisdom Score

Fleet of Foot

 Wood Elves movement speed is 10.5m.

Mask of the Wild

Gain Stealth Proficiency. Wood Elves were raised to blend into natural surroundings. 

Elves in Baldur’s Gate 3

For the most part, Elves are quite common on The Forgotten Realms, perhaps second most common race after humans.

Elves, much like their living ancestors, the eladrin, who were also commonly called elves, were a long-lived race of the Tel-quessir found most commonly in forests, shrublands, and other wildernesses. From time to time the elves organized strong nations, though with far less frequency than eladrin, in some cases adopting even a nomadic lifestyle. Almost all elves worshiped the gods of the Seldarine, and the elves were generally, though not always, good in nature.

But that still doesn’t dismiss elves from a few unpleasant other people who might be racially biased. Currently in Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access, there’s not much in terms of elf-specific content like there are for Tieflings. That being said, one of your starting companions is a High Elf, Astarion.

Best Class for Elves in BG3

Elves are a Dexterity focused class, which opens a lot of paths considering just how versatile Dexterity is. In particular, Rogues are a highly Dex-based class, but thanks to the additional Wisdom or Intelligence boost, the different types of elves lean towards a particular class.

Wood Elves, for example, with their Dex and Wisdom boost would suit a Ranger. Whilst the High Elves, with their Intelligence and Dexterity would suit a Rogue, especially an Arcane Trickster.

Final Thoughts

Thanks to the Elven buff to Dexterity, this means there’s a lot of options in terms of playing. A player could easily play the more finesse based melee classes like Ranger or Rogue but they could – if they so desire – dabble in a fully magic class, either being a Cleric of a Wizard.