Highlights
- Background choices in Baldur's Gate 3 provide additional skill proficiencies and can help with skill coverage for your character.
- The Guild Artisan background grants proficiency in Insight and persuasion, making it useful for characters with Wisdom and Charisma skills.
- The Charlatan background is more useful than the Entertainer background, as it provides proficiency in Deception and Sleight of Hand, which can be helpful for deceiving targets and picking pockets.
Lots of RPGs will give you plenty of choices to make when creating a character. All of these choices come together to shape them and determine the final results of what your character will be best suited for. Three of the biggest factors for creating a character in Baldur’s Gate 3 will be deciding on a Race, a Class, and a Background.
Background choices in Baldur’s Gate 3 are extremely circumstantial, as can be expected from a video game adaption of a tabletop system. They should be used to gain additional skill proficiencies in areas that a character can perform well in but are not able to acquire by normal means. Alternately, they can be used to take skill proficiencies in skills that would normally be accessible so that the class can take other options from their skill list to have a larger coverage. However, they also serve another use in gaining Inspiration through accomplishing unique goals.
Updated by Chad Thesen on August 17, 2023: This list has been updated for the purpose of adding additional entries to give it a more expansive range of coverage so that readers are able to make more informed decisions for their choices in the game. This includes the inclusion of the Guild Artisan Background.
11 Guild Artisan
A Guild Artisan is someone who has shown enough skill to earn them a place in the form of a membership to a merchants' guild. This provides them with the protection and security they need for their craft. This Background will grant proficiency in both Insight and persuasion.
While this may seem very good, splitting these skills between a dedicated Wisdom user and a Charisma user means a significantly higher chance of success. When you need to persuade, send in a Sorcerer, Paladin, Warlock, or Bard to do the trick. For an Insight Check, have the Druid or Cleric cover that area.
10 Entertainer
Entertainers are the center of attention. They captivate large crowds and attend events for those with deep pockets. They get proficiencies for Acrobatics and Performance. This is a pairing of a Dexterity skill and a Charisma skill. Both of these skills are useful for either a Rogue or a Bard.
The Rogue and Bard are well known for rounding off party compositions by covering a wide range of skills, and this Background will help you check off two skills for when you see an opportunity to use them.
9 Charlatan
Charlatans are known for manipulating marks by telling them what they want to hear regardless of how truthful it may be. They build up plenty of hype and then hustle their marks by manipulating whatever system they have set up without the mark being aware. They get proficiencies in Deception and Sleight of Hand.
This is also a paring of a Charisma skill and a Dexterity skill. Deception will let you directly deceive a target to get what you need, and Sleight of Hand is useful for picking pockets. This overall makes Charlatan more useful than Entertainer for the majority of the game.
8 Criminal
Criminals walk on the opposite path of the law and will be enriched through the downfall and suffering of others. They get proficiencies in Deception and Stealth. As you can see, Charisma and Dexterity go very well together to help round out a lot of skill coverage. Stealth will be more valuable than Sleight of Hand for sneaking around, bumping it up an entry on this list.
However, what knocks both Criminal and Charlatan down so much on this list is that their Background goals will upset a lot of good companions, so going with these Backgrounds should only be taken during an evil playthrough. This is so you do not upset certain companions and bring down their approval.
7 Noble
Nobles come from one of many prestigious pedigrees and have ties within the social elites. This Background has a lot of easy goals that can be solved with money. They get proficiencies in History and Persuasion. This is a paring of an Intelligence skill and a Charisma skill.
Spell casters that use their Charisma are unlikely to need Intelligence, and Wizards have little use for Charisma. The class that would benefit most from this Background is the College of Lore Bard, which has a very wide coverage of skill usage across all abilities.
6 Acolyte
Acolytes are characters that have grown up in temples and have studied many sacred rites in their time. They have a deep understanding of deities and know how to seek out deeper meaning. They get proficiencies in Insight and Religion.
This is a paring of a Wisdom skill and an Intelligence skill. Not many classes will be focusing deeply in these two Abilities at the same time, but there is one subclass that will be perfect for it: the Knowledge Domain Cleric. You can use this subclass as a cornerstone when designing a party to cover all skills.
5 Folk Hero
Folk heroes are praised far and wide and minstrels sing of their praises. They are always there to lend a hand and inspire a new song about their exploits, and they get proficiencies in Animal Handling and Survival.
This is a paring of two Wisdom skills and can help you fill out the coverage of your entire party's Wisdom skills. A Cleric does not naturally get proficiency in Perception, but Wisdom is their primary skill, so covering all other Wisdom skills is the next best thing.
4 Outlander
Outlanders are those that have grown up in the wilds, living outside the cities and away from civilized society. They are adept at avoiding the harshness of nature and overcoming its many obstacles. They get proficiencies for Athletics and Survival. This is a paring of the only Strength skill and a Wisdom skill.
This is a great Background for Rangers and Fighters, both of which will be able to use both proficiencies throughout the game. Survival will help you gather food and resources in the wild. Even if the roll is not optimized, being able to roll for it with several characters will aid the group as a whole.
3 Soldier
Soldiers are those on the frontlines and are in their element when in the heat of combat. They have studied battlefield strategies and are very adept at taking the lives of their enemies. They get proficiencies for Athletics and Intimidation. This is another paring of the only Strength skill but this time paired with a Charisma skill.
Charisma is not usually something that is your first choice on a Fighter or Barbarian; however, it can be useful when you are not having any luck with Persuasion or Deception. What bumped this Background up above Outlander is how it is one of the few Backgrounds you can use to effectively farm Inspiration. It accomplishes this by monopolizing final blows on enemies.
2 Sage
Sages are a wellspring of knowledge and have spent a large portion of their lives reading books and understanding the magical world around them. They get proficiencies for Arcana and History. These are both Intelligence skills.
Intelligence skills will reveal many of the game’s secrets and allow you to accomplish things of which you otherwise would not know. Covering every skill in the game should be a high priority for you. A Wizard’s primary stat is Intelligence, so having them take this and cover another 2 will give you a very wide coverage of Intelligence skills.
1 Urchin
Urchins grew up on the streets of cities, begging for money and feeding on scraps. They possess streetwise cunning and know how to move around undetected. The Urchin Background provides proficiencies in Sleight of Hand and Stealth. This is a paring of 2 Dexterity skills.
This Background covers both exceptional Dexterity proficiencies from Criminal and Charlatan while granting several heroic and unsavory goals, allowing it to be used in many types of playthroughs. Sleight of Hand and Stealth together will let you sneak through corridors, pickpocket a guard for his keys, and use tools to disarm traps. It covers very important aspects of the game.