Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Ranger Builds
Sep. 23, 2023Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Ranger Builds
In thisBaldur’s Gate 3 Ranger Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you the 3 Best BeginnerRangerBuilds that you can use to put together an effective Ranger early on in the game. I wanted to give some early-gameBuildsfor those of you who are near the beginning of the game. This is going to go to Level 6 and then for late-game Builds, it’s going to be from Levels 7 to 12.
All 3 of theseBaldur’s Gate 3Best Beginner Ranger Builds are basically 5 levels of one of theSubclassesof the Ranger and 1 level of something else because Rangers gainExtra Attackby then. Additionally, their Subclass at Level 3 doesn’t seem enough forMulticlassing.
The first Build we’re going to take a look at is 5 levels of theHunterRanger and 1 level ofDruid. What I really like about this is that Hunters gain one of their best features at Level 3. Here, they’ll be able to pick eitherColossus Slayer,Horde Breaker, orGiant Killerbut among these three, you’ll want to choose Colossus Slayer or Horde Breaker. You can select anything you want here if you prefer the added AOE or if you’re looking for something that automatically triggers in order to deal d8 damage every turn since you only have one attack early on in the game.
This is really the best feature of Hunters besides gettingVolleyorWhirlwind Attackat Level 11. The Level 7 passive you gain won’t be as strong, in my opinion. So if you’re playing this Subclass, you’ll want to go 3 levels or 11 levels in to gain Volley and Whirlwind and then multiclass with something else.
But remember that it doesn’t really make sense to cut out of Hunter after Level 3 and miss out on Extra Attacks so we’re taking 5 levels of Ranger. If you had more levels say at Level 8 or 9, you could take 3 levels of the Hunter and then 5 or 6 levels of theMonkorFighterand still gain the Extra Attack.
Also, at Level 5 of the Ranger, you’ll gain access to Level 2Ranger Spells, which is great. There are some good ones that pair well with the Druid because it gives you access toShillelagh. Shillelagh allows you to buff your meleeWeaponif it’s aStaffor aClub, making it use yourWisdom Modifierfor itsAttackandDamage Rolls. This prevents you from going crazy withDexterityorStrengthon your Ranger and instead focuses more onConstitutionand Wisdom while still using your melee attacks andSpellsvery effectively.
It’ll also allow you to upcast any Level 1Druid Spellsuch asThunderwavesince you’ll have Level 2Spell Slots. Moving forward, if you took something like 7 levels of Druid, you’d have a lot of different Spells that you could cast and you’d have a lot of Spell Slots. Plus, you’d still be able to get 2 attacks with Extra Attack and still make use of Colossus Slayer or Horde Breaker every time you’re inCombat.
So essentially, what you’re doing here instead of taking 1 more level of Ranger in order to gain anotherNatural ExplorerandFavored Enemy, is you’re basically getting the stuff you’d gain from the Druid, which includes access to more Spells and being able to upcast them.
On the next Build, we’ll look at 5 levels of theBeast Masterand 1 level of Monk. If you saw our Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger Class Guide, you’ll know that the Beast Master is a tough Subclass to multiclass because yourRanger’s Companiongets stronger as you level up. If you take half your levels here and half of them somewhere else further on into the game, your Companion’s level will drop off but your enemies become stronger. So it’ll die easily and its damage and abilities will be underwhelming. Because of this, you either need to go all in on Beast Master or close to it in order to get the most benefit from it.
At Level 5, you gain other things like Extra Attack, Level 2 Spells, andCompanion’s Bond. Companion’s Bond will add yourProficiency Bonusto theArmor Classand Damage Rolls of your Companion to make them a lot stronger. They’ll also gain more HP as well as another Class Feature.
Why I like the Monk here is that it gives youMartial Arts: Dextrous Attacks, which allows you to use any melee Weapon except for Two-Handed and Heavy Melee Weapons with your Dexterity or Strength. So this gives you more options if say, you prefer to wield aLongsword,Warhammer, or Staff. Note that you can still use your Bow or Crossbow at range because of your high Dexterity.
On top of that, it’s going to let you use your Wisdom Bonus for your Armor Class if you’re not wearingArmor. Having high Dexterity and high Wisdom might actually be better if you’re unarmored depending on the Armor selection you have.
Next, you gain Ki points as well as access toFlurry of Blowsfor yourBonus Actionand deal more damage for everyShort Rest.
What you’d probably want to do with this Build over time is to take Beast Master up to Level 9 and then finish fleshing it out with the Monk say, by choosing theWay of the Open Hand Subclassin order to have more Ki and execute more Flurry of Blows. You’ll also eventually gainPatient Defense,Step of the Wind, andDeflect Missiles. You’ll also gain a pretty strong Companion.
So next, we’re going to take a look at 5 levels ofGloom Stalker, again for the Extra Attack, and 1 level of theWar DomainCleric. We also haveDread Ambusher, which gives us higher Initiatives to go first in combat while giving us a free attack at the beginning. This is extra damage so you’re actually going to have 3 attacks once you have Extra Attack at Level 5.
Because we’ve taken 1 level of War Domain, you can use your Bonus Action for an attack so theoretically, at the very first turn of combat, you could make 4 attacks. That’s a lot of attacks at this point in the game! It’s going to allow you to shell out tons of damage.
Another reason why Rangers and Clerics have good synergy is that they use Wisdom to cast their Spells soCleric Spellsare going to benefit from the same stat as Rangers. So this would be more of a Wisdom-focused Build.
If you went higher with this Build, you would probably continue to increase War Domain to gain access to more offensive and defensive Cleric Spells andChannel Divinities, giving you lots of attacks. But remember that you don’t have to go with the War Domain Subclass but I do like it because of the bonuses you get.
A good alternative is theLight Domain Clericif you want more offense or theTempest Domainif you want somewhere in the middle and if you prefer casting Lightning Spells. The general idea is you’re a hybrid Spellcaster that has lots of attacks per turn, making you extremely deadly.
So that wraps up our 3 early-game Ranger Builds. I hope I’ve extrapolated them enough so you can see where I would go with them if I went higher. I also hope I’ve made a good case here on why you would at least need to reach Level 5 for the Ranger to gain Extra Attack, particularly with Beast Master due to the Subclass Features they gain. Plus, their Companions become stronger.
The general nature of Martial Classes is to gain an Extra Attack at the beginning of the game when you don’t have as many levels. Once you have it, you can see what to do next.
Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content. We have more Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Builds coming up like the Druid, Cleric, andBarbarian!
Auberon
Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.
