The BEST Ranger Build In Baldur’s Gate 3

Become the best Ranger there is by knowing an optimal build catered to the Ranger in Baldur's Gate 3!

Baldur’s Gate 3 offers players a variety of classes to choose from, allowing players to pick freely from the race for their character and choose between a melee or a ranged class. Players might want to know an optimal Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger Build, focusing on the race, spells, and weapons to use! 

Key Takeaways
  • Ranger builds in Baldur’s Gate 3 require an optimal sub-class, race, feats, allocation to ability points, and correct origin and proficiency skills. 
  • The ranger class focuses on using control against enemies and casting specialized spells
  • Players want to focus on choosing the Bounty Hunter for their Favored Enemy or the Wasteland Wanderer (Fire) for their Natural Explorer features.
  • Being a wood elf might be your best option for being a ranger since it focuses on your overall Dexterity and provides proficiencies. 
  • The selected race also increases Wisdom, which is crucial for casting spells during combat for Range build in BG3. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Ranger Build

Ranger Class Overview
Ranger Class Overview (Image Credits Exputer)

Below listed is my summary of the best Ranger build in Baldur’s Gate 3, containing all features such as ability points, Skills, Origin, and more. 

Baldur's Gate 3 Gloom Stalker Ranger BuildDescription
Ranger Class FeaturesStrength Saving Throw, Dexterity Saving Throw, Light Armor, Heavy Armor, Medium Armor, Shield, Martial Weapon and Simple Weapon Proficiencies, Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer.
OriginCharlatan
Proficiency SkillsAnimal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, Survival.
Ability PointsStrength, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution.
Gloom Stalker Subclass Level Progression Features And SpellsSuperior Darkvision, Dread Ambusher, Umbral Shroud, Dread Ambusher (Hide), Disguise Self, Iron Mind, Misty Self, Fear, Stalker's Flurry.
RaceWood Elf

Players would first want to choose the Ranger class to form a proper build since they want to go for a Ranger-based build. The ranger class focuses on Dexterity being the primary attribute, while it’s saving throw proficiencies will be both Dexterities and Strength. 

  • Control: Rangers can also take control of the wildest of enemies while staying at a distance to protect themselves from incoming damage against enemies that have it out for them. 
  • Specialized Spells: Other than that, Rangers can also excel at casting out specialized spells that can render enemies useless. 

Features 

When first starting, there will be a few features that players will be able to see that are listed as follows: 

  • Proficiencies in Strength Saving Throw, Dexterity Saving Throw, Light Armor, Heavy, Medium Armor, Shield, Martial, and Simple Weapon. 

At level one, players will have to choose a favored enemy and a Natural Explorer, while at level 3, you will be required to choose a subclass

Favored Enemy 

Favored Enemy
Favored Enemy (Image Credits Exputer)

For your favorite enemy, you will choose between five: Bounty Hunter, Keeper of the Veil, Mage Breaker, Ranger Knight, and Sanctified Stalker. You want to go for the Bounty Hunter, or if that doesn’t suit you well, you can choose any other than Ranger Knight since you won’t need to be in extremely heavy armor. 

  • Bounty Hunter: Players can get proficiency in Investigation, and any creatures you attack using Ensnaring Strike will get a Disadvantage on their Saving Throw. 

Natural Explorer 

Natural Explorer
Natural Explorer (Image Credits Exputer)

Other than that, for your Natural Explorer, you can choose from Beast Tamer, Urban Tracker, and Wasteland Wanderer options from Cold, Fire, and Poison. It depends on your needs, but you could choose the Wasteland Wanderer Fire. 

  • Wasteland Wanderer Fire: Players will be resistant to fire damage, only being able to take in half of the incoming damage. 

Ranger Build Origin

Origin
Origin (Image Credits Exputer)

You will also have to choose the origin of choice, and you can go for the Charlatan origin. 

  • While choosing Charlatan, players will be able to become experts in manipulation, as well as being able to profit from their exaggeration. 

The Charlatan origin grants you Deception Proficiency and Sleight of Hand proficiency. 

Proficiency Skills

Proficiency Skills
Proficiency Skills (Image Credits Exputer)

Moving on, a few of the proficiency skills that you would want to have are as follows: You can choose a total of 3 proficiency skills. You can choose Insight, Nature, and Survival skills, while the others, like Perception and Stealth, will be granted by race. 

Proficiency SkillsEffects
Animal HandlingWisdom-based skill allowing you to handle animals.
AthleticsStrength-based skill which focuses on your overall athletics.
InsightWisdom-based skill which allows you to see if a creature has good intentions or not.
InvestigationIntelligence-based skill allowing you to focus on clues and strategies.
NatureIntelligence-based skill which focuses on your information about nature.
PerceptionWisdom-based skill which allows players to see your awareness.
StealthDexterity-based skill which focuses on your ability to hide yourself from enemies.
SurvivalWisdom-based skill which focuses on your general survivability.

Ability Points 

Ability Points
Ability Points (Image Credits Exputer)

Next up, you will also want to allot several ability points based on the choices for your Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger Build, and you can choose from investing in attributes such as Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. 

  • You can decrease points from Strength and Intelligence if you want to. 
  • Wisdom: Increase investment points and keep them at the highest.
  • Dexterity: Invest 2-3 points 
  • Constituion: 2-3 points 

Essentially, Intelligence and Strength won’t need as many points to be allotted to them. 

Gloom Stalker Subclass In Baldur’s Gate 3

Moving on, the next thing players can choose is the Gloom Stalker, which is essentially a subclass for the Ranger. 

  • Their primary focus is on Dexterity, while its throw proficiencies are focused more on Dexterity and Strength. 

Progression Features and Skills 

As you reach level 3, you will unlock a few subclass features and spells that you can choose from, most of which you want to choose are listed below. 

Features/SpellsGloom Stalker Level Progession
Superior Darkvision3
Dread Ambusher3
Umbral Shroud3
Dread Ambusher (Hide)3
Disguise Self3
Iron Mind7
Misty Self5
Fear9
Stalker's Flurry11
  • Dread Ambusher: It can grant the player a bonus to their initiative rolls equal to the Wisdom Modifier. 
  • Umbral Sight: The player will get dark vision extending to an overall range of 60 feet, and if you already have dark vision allotted to you by your face, then the range gets enhanced by 30 feet. 
  • Iron Mind: Players get proficiency in Wisdom Saving throws. 
  • Stalker’s Flurry: If you miss a weapon attack during your turns, you can cast another attack with the same action. 

Best Race For Gloom Stalker

When choosing the Gloom Stalker as your subclass, players will also want to choose a main race you would want to go for. The race of choice here could be the wood elf. 

  • The wood elf is described as elves that end up spending all of their lives in the forests of Faerun, and they spend their decades of training to be spent in archery, as well as being able to camouflage and be swift. 
    Race
    Race (Image Credits Exputer)

You would want to choose the race mainly because of its several features, such as the following. 

  • Dexterity: +2, which focuses on your agility, reflexes, and overall balance. 
  • Keen Senses 
  • Darkvision 
  • Fey Ancestry 

Besides that, the class also features proficiencies in Longsword, Shortsword, and Longbow and Shortbow. For its subtracted traits, it will also have Wisdom +1, which is crucial for the spells you will use for the Gloom Stalker Build. 

Spells

You can also choose from the following spells. 

SpellsLevel
Find Familiar1
Protection From Evil And Good1
Animal Friendship1
Cure Wounds1
Ensnaring Strike1
Fog Cloud1
Goodberry1
Hail of Thorns1
Hunter's Mark1
Enhance Leap1
Longstrider1
Speak With Animals1
Disguise Self1
Barkskin2
Darkvision2
Lesser Restoration2
Pass Without Trace2
Protection From Poison2
Silence2
Spike Growth2
Misty Step2
Daylight3
Protection From Energy3
Plant Growth3
Conjure Barrage3
Lightning Arrow3
Fear3

Feats

Feats are known to be special talents that allow players to get special abilities, and they can allow your character to get a specific type of passive skill or even an active skill. 

  • Crossbow Expert: Anytime you carry out attacks with the crossbow within a melee range, the attack rolls will not have a Disadvantage. 
  • Sharpshooter: The ranged weapon attacks you use will not get penalties from the High Ground Rules. And the ranged weapon attacks with proficiency from you will get a -5 penalty to Attack Roll but can deal 10 extra damage. 

My Opinion On The Ranger Build

In my weeks of playing BG3, I never fully explored the Ranger Class. However, the time I did spend playing him reminded me a lot of Wizards and Rogues. Although they don’t share the same powers, the playstyle is awfully similar.

ibrahim bg3 save slot
My Baldur’s Gate 3 save slot (Image by eXputer)

One of the best abilities Rogue specializes in is sleight of hand, which is the easiest way to make money in BG3. Granted, it’s not the most legal way, but hey, you’re only guilty if you get caught. Their combat is nothing to scoff at either; the control they offer through Gloom Stalker syncs up very well with fighters, barbarians, or even other casters.

And that’s just about it! All that players need to know about the Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger Build, and with that, let’s wrap up the guide! While here, you might want to read the Companions guide, which tells you all you need to know about its featured companions! Other than that, Halsin will entail everything about the Halsin Companion. 

Read up on the rather… weird bear scene in the Baldur’s Gate 3 Bear Scene guide! Lastly, Baldur’s Gate 3 Wildheart Barbarian guide is an excellent read!

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Ibrahim Akhtar is a guides & features writer at eXputer. He uses his passion for gaming to provide insightful takes in his articles. Ibrahim spends most of his time defending Baldur's Gate from the forces of the Absolute. He has accumulated more than 15 years of gaming experience, having 1000 hours in The Witcher 3 and twice as much on Skyrim V. Ibrahim has previously worked at TopTierList. You can keep up with his Steam account to stay up to date on his latest explorations.

Experience: 1+ Years || Previously Worked for TopTierList || Education: Bachelors in Data Science.

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