The best Ranger build in Baldur's Gate 3 is a bow-focused one based on ranged strikes for massive damage, a method that can make what is probably BG3's least remarkable class into something fairly potent. Rangers are a strange middle-ground, somewhere between the Fighter, the Druid, and the Rogue, and learning to play one in Baldur's Gate 3 requires a certain amount of understanding about their limitations and their strengths, and how you can play into them. With that in mind, I'll lay out the best Ranger build in Baldur's Gate 3, and what you need to do to reach that point.
Best Ranger build and choices in Baldur's Gate 3
The best Rangers in Baldur's Gate 3 have builds based on the following elements:
- Ranged attacks and high damage
- Stealth and battlefield control
- Skill diversity and utility
Rangers will require a bit of thought about how you want to use them, as they're built to be "all-rounder" classes, lacking the durability of a Barbarian, the elasticity of a Bard or the raw damage of a Sorcerer. For this reason, they can be a solid choice for your custom character, giving you a lil' something for everything, but you'll need to think about what you're building towards if you want to actually contribute something to the party beyond pointy ears and a love of archery. With that in mind, here's where you should start when building a Ranger in BG3:
- Race: Deep Gnome
- Highest attributes: Dexterity, Wisdom
- Subclass: Hunter
- Background: Urchin
- Class Skills: Insight, Perception, Athletics
- Equipment: Longbow, Rapier, medium armor
- Favored Enemy: Bounty Hunter
- Natural Explorer Environment: Beast Tamer
- Spells (level 2): Ensnaring Strike, Hail of Thorns
- Fighting Style (level 2): Archery
This is a build that's going to focus heavily on stealth as much as ranged fighting - but rather than go into the Gloom Stalker subclass, we're going to emphasise multiclassing into the Rogue later on. For that reason, the Deep Gnome comes with a built-in advantage on Stealth, and then you pour what you can into Dexterity and Wisdom, as everything important to you comes from those two sources - and the Urchin's skills will make the most out of them. If you're not a fan of Deep Gnomes, a Wood Elf is probably the best second option.
That established, you then pick your Favoured Enemy and Natural Explorer terrain - the Bounty Hunter is going to help your ranged combat, so that's an obvious pick, and all the other Natural Explorer options are either boring or bad, so take the one that gives you a free pet. After that, grab all the skills mentioned above, and source the best Longbow and Rapier you can find - you want Finesse weapons that'll scale to your Dexterity, but while two-weapon fighting is a classic Ranger visual, it's just not very powerful in BG3, so avoid it.
Finally, you need to find armor that'll protect you as much as possible, which is a bit of a balancing act for Rangers - something that won't give you stealth disadvantage and will make the most of your Dexterity bonus, so swap between medium and light depending on what you find. Then when you hit level 2, grab the spells that bolster your bow shots, and the Archery fighting style. You could probably guess that by now. Once you hit level 3 and unlock subclasses, you're also going to want to pick the Hunter subclass. Yes, the Gloom Stalker makes more sense thematically, but it's also just… a bad subclass. Our sneaking power is going to come from a different source…
Later level Ranger builds: The Ranger is known for being a bit crap at later levels, so we're going to multiclass the hell out of this. Once you hit level 3 and get the Hunter subclass (picking the Colossus Slayer and Multiattack Defense options), you're going to start multiclassing into the Rogue, adding sneak attacks to your ranged shots and granting the ability to hide as a bonus action. From that point on, you want to alternate between the two, and pick either the Thief or Assassin when you hit level 3 on the rogue themselves. Meanwhile, keep looking for better bows, magic arrows, and ranged gear - you're a distance fighter, remember!
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