All of Baldur’s Gate 3’s core systems—combat, role-playing, and utility—are balanced around one thing and one thing only: Player choice. Chasing after the optimal build is not something the game needs you to do in order to beat it in balanced mode. Any character can work, and in most cases, roleplay matters more than combat in that a ‘suboptimal’ party composition will eventually find a way to handle even the most difficult combat encounters with some creative thinking and a bit of luck.

Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: All Changes From Early Access To Full Release

However, that doesn’t mean that min-maxing your build will not yield rewards. On the contrary, if you’re planning on playing the game on Tactician difficulty, it’s a necessity to eke out every single advantage you can from the game systems. And that starts with finding the best party composition for you.

Updated by Hamza Haq on August 26, 2023: New links have been incorporated into the content to reflect the most recent information available for Baldur’s Gate 3.

Optimal Party Composition Overview

Players in Baldur’s Gate 3 will have four slots to fill for a complete party. Having a good mix of healing and DPS is crucial for surviving on higher difficulties, and focusing on creating a balanced party will allow you to enter any combat encounter with confidence.

With as much class customization as is available in BG3, limiting players to one class or a specific build in order to achieve the perfect party is a bad idea. Instead, we’ve aimed to narrow down specific niches players should aim to fill out with whatever class combination or multiclassing they choose. This way, there is plenty of room to personalize while still creating a halfway decent party. Win, win.

Doubling up on roles is not only common but advised. As long as your party covers each other's weaknesses, there is no reason a healer can not also be a DPS while leaving the support skills to the Tank.

Party Slot 1: Tank

A Tank is not a role you need to fill per se, but it would sure make things easier. Opting for pure damage in lieu of defense is a viable strategy but much more difficult to execute than the alternative. A Tank gives you leeway and room for mistakes. It takes the pressure off of allies and engages enemies, bogging them down, so they’re focused on the Tank rather than the backlines.

Paladins, Fighters, Barbarians, and Druids (Circle of the Moon Subclass) are some of the best classes for this role, but anyone with high AC can tank up in the frontlines with powerful enough gear.

Recommended Classes:

• Paladin
• Fighter
• Barbarian
• Druid
• Monk
• Ranger (Beast Master Subclass)

In Tactician Mode, Tanks are much less effective than they are in Balanced. The enemy AI is smarter and will choose to focus on your backlines if given the chance. At this difficulty level, simply having a damage sponge with high armor level or high HP is not going to be enough. You’re also going to have to optimize for damage.

Party Slot 2: Healer

In Baldur’s Gate 3, when enemies defeat a character, he/she enters the ‘Downed’ status that lasts three turns. For the next few turns, a downed character will either survive or die, depending on their death saving throws. However, for the duration of that encounter, they’re out of the fight.

But not if you have a healer. If you heal a downed character with Healing Word, they get right back up, reentering the fight to tilt the balance in your favor. Clerics are arguably the best healers, but Bards and Druids are excellent as well while also providing tons of utility (Bard) or DPS (Druid), depending on your build choices.

Recommended Classes:

• Cleric
• Bard
• Druid

Combat in Baldur’s Gate 3 is dynamic, and you’ll almost never be in melee range to another character without spending movement speed. Long-distance healing spells are incredibly useful because of this, providing an excellent way for you to revive downed party members without having to move into melee range.

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Party Slot 3: Spellcaster

There are three main spellcaster classes in the game: Wizard, Sorcerer, and Druid. Each class comes with its own subclasses that offer different specializations for you to further optimize your build. Warlocks and Clerics are also respectable spellcasters but with less emphasis on direct damage.

Having a damage-focused spellcaster in your party will allow it to handle difficult encounters with ease for one simple reason: Area of Effect (AoE) spells. These spells not only provide tons of damage to dish out to grouped-up enemies but also offer excellent battlefield control opportunities by freezing enemies en masse or electrocuting them. The Wizard Class is the best at this simply because of the sheer variety of spells they can choose to have in their arsenal but Sorcerers trump them in damage with their specialized spell list.

Recommended Classes:

• Wizard
• Sorcerer
• Druid
• Warlock

Spellcasting Druids (Circle of the Land Subclass) are excellent at manipulating the terrain while offering decent damage at the cost of versatility. Choose them if you’re looking for an alternative to Wizards or Sorcerers, but remember that they can’t cast spells in their Wild Shape.

Party Slot 4: Damage Dealer

With the spellcaster taking up the role of dealing AoE damage, you’ll want a party member primarily focused on taking out powerful enemies with single-target damage. By their very nature, single-target abilities are going to be much more effective at chipping down the health of one enemy than AoE spells.

This role is the most versatile, and you can almost fit any class into it with the right build. We like Monk, Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, and Ranger for this role, but the final decision depends on the rest of the party. With the right build and weapon at hand, a bow-wielding Ranger can deal massive damage to a single target, while a Monk can sort of be like a secondary frontline alongside the primary Tank while dishing out devastating palm strikes.

Recommended Classes:

• Barbarian
• Fighter
• Ranger
• Rogue
• Monk

Related: Baldur's Gate 3: Pre-Order & Edition Differences

Examples Of Powerful Party Compositions

So far, we’ve primarily focused on party composition from a combat perspective, and while Baldur’s Gate 3’s combat is a significant part of the game, dialogue and utility outside of combat can be just as impactful to your run, if not more.

You might want to have your main character have a class that scales off of Charisma to have higher rolls during dialogue. Or, have at least one party member that can talk to animals using Speak With Animals.

Companions in Baldur’s Gate 3 are a big part of the lore, and you’ll want to include them in your party to experience their stories firsthand. With that in mind, we’ve created some party compositions showing how they might complement each other in a group.

Party Composition 1 (Using Companion Default Classes)

Party Composition 2 (Using Companion Default Classes)

Party Composition 3 (Using Companion Default Classes)

Party Composition 4 (Using Companion Default Classes)

You can respec your companions by employing the services of an NPC you’ll meet during the course of the game, allowing you to respec them into whatever roles you want them to fit into while still experiencing their story.

Party Composition 5

Party Composition 6

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