Best party compositions in Baldur’s Gate 3, ranked

Baldur’s Gate 3 allows you to have four party members total and since this is a D&D experience, you’ll want to know what the best classes you should have in your party. When it comes to the best party composition, otherwise known as the best classes together in a party, it comes down to filling roles and staying balanced. Here are the best party compositions in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Best party composition in BG3

There are multiple ways to make your party in Baldur’s Gate 3. If you’re playing multiplayer co-op, everyone can create a custom character with a specific class, but you want to make sure that the party meshes together well. You can choose to play as an Origin character and you’ll likely choose up to three Origin characters to party with you. To make sure you aren’t too weak in one area in or out of battle, here are the best classes for the best party compositions in Baldur’s Gate 3.

• Best Balanced — Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Cleric
• Best Offensive — Barbarian, Paladin, Fighter, Cleric
• Best Defensive — Paladin, Monk, Cleric, Wizard
• Sneaky Party — Rogue, Monk, Ranger, Cleric
• Lots and Lots of Spells — Wizard, Druid, Warlock, Bard

Screenshot: PC Invasion

Best Balanced

• Barbarian/Fighter, Rogue, Spellcaster, Cleric
• Karlach/Lae’zel, Astarion, Custom Character/Wyll/Gale, Shadowheart

The classic D&D party composition looks something like Barbarian/Fighter, Rogue, Spellcaster, and Cleric. Melee tank, sneaky DPS and lockpicker, ranged magic user, and healer. What can I say, it’s a classic for a reason.

The cool thing about this best all-around party composition is that it is really easy to make with Origin characters. In fact, you don’t even need to make a custom character if you don’t want to. You can make this party composition with Karlach, Astarion, Wyll or Gale, and Shadowheart, or you can throw your own custom character into the mix and play it like that.

Personally, I often ran with my Druid, alongside either Lae’zel or Karlach (great offense), Gale (my counterspell fireball machine), and always Shadowheart. Sometimes Astarion would replace Gale, but only in certain situations. You want to make sure to have a spellcaster, healer/support, and a melee fighter.

You can also switch some of the classes around and still get the best all-around party composition. To do that, you can switch Barbarian with Fighter or Paladin, Rogue with the sneakiest Monk or Ranger, Sorcerer can switch with Wizard or Warlock, and Cleric can switch with Bard or Paladin.

Best Offensive

• Barbarian, Paladin, Fighter, Cleric
• Karlach, Minthara/Custom Character, Lae’zel, Shadowheart

If you want to make a party that focuses more on hitting hard, you can make a successful party with Barbarian, Paladin, Fighter, and Cleric. Barbarian and Paladin are your main damage dealers, while Fighter plays flex with melee and ranged attacks, and Cleric supports the team while also being able to dish out damage.

While it may take some time to find the right companions, you can make the heavy hitters party composition fairly easily with Origin characters and your own custom character. Karlach takes the Barbarian spot, Minthara or your own character takes Paladin, Lae’zel is your Fighter, and Shadowheart is your Cleric. If you didn’t end up recruiting Minthara, your custom character could always be the Paladin.

The hard thing about the heavy hitters party composition is that there’s not much wiggle room. You could switch out the Barbarian with a tanky Druid, but the Paladin and Cleric are necessary for support purposes and Fighter is necessary for melee and range. You could switch out Fighter for Ranger and get similar results, but they’re not as good at offense as a Fighter would be.

Best Defense

• Paladin, Monk, Cleric, Wizard
• Minthara, Custom Character, Shadowheart, Gale

This is a pretty interesting party comp, because some of these classes can unexpectedly be great at defensive play. The Paladin is the tank fighter who can also serve as a great support. You can always swap them out for a Barbarian or Fighter with high CON, but Paladins are great tanks too.

Then you have the Cleric, who serves as a fantastic support and healer. There are many Cleric spells that can protect fellow party members. Lastly, you may not have expected the Monk and Wizard. The Monk can be fairly defensive with Patient Defense, Deflect Missiles, and all other abilities they have to dodge out of harm’s way.

As much as you may believe Gale is too squishy to be defensive, you may be choosing the wrong subclass. Gale as an Abjuration Wizard can conjure Arcane Wards for himself and his party members. This made my Gale practically untouchable, and he can also donate those wards to allies.

Sneaky Party

• Rogue, Monk, Ranger, Cleric
• Astarion, Custom Character, Minsc/Custom Character, Shadowheart

If you want a stealthy party that can sneak in and out of combat and the world at large, you can find success with a Rogue, Monk, Ranger, and Cleric. There is no main tank in this party composition, which can make things hard, but everyone in your party will be stealthy which can make every encounter in the game much more easy and fun.

To make the sneaky party composition in Baldur’s Gate 3, you need Astarion, a custom character to be a Monk, Minsc or another custom character to be a Ranger, and, of course, Shadowheart.

Rogues are sneaky by nature, but if you have a Way of Shadow Monk, a Gloom Stalker Ranger, and a Trickery Cleric. Thanks to these specific subclasses, your entire party will be extremely gifted at sticking to the shadows. There’s not much space for switching with this party, but an Eldritch Knight Fighter can be swapped for the Ranger.

Lots and Lots of Spells

• Wizard, Druid, Warlock, Bard
• Gale, Halsin, Wyll, Custom Character

If you want to make a chaotic spell-slinging party, you can by putting a Wizard, Druid, Warlock, and Bard together. This party composition works by having your Druid be a tank while slinging spells, have your Warlock as an up-close spell slinger, have your Wizard in the back dishing out damage, and have your Bard in the back healing and buffing everyone.

Luckily, you can easily make the lots and lots of spells party composition with Gale, Wyll, Halsin, and a custom character as the Bard.

Note: If you want to make a specific party composition but your Origin characters are stuck in their class, you can respec them to turn them into whatever class you want.

The best way to create a successful lots and lots of spells party composition is to have the Druid take the Circle of Moon subclass to maximize their tank potential with shape-shifting and have your Bard take the College of Lore subclass so that they have the best spells to support the team. Wizards already have tons of spells and Warlocks can sling spells while also being effective melee attackers.

Related: Baldur’s Gate 3 class tier list (BG3) – Best classes, subclasses, and races

Screenshot: PC Invasion

Worst party class compositions in BG3

What you don’t want to do is have a party full of spellcasters or melee-only brawlers. The best parties have a little bit of everything so that all the bases are covered so that you’re prepared for any encounter. The last thing you want is to have everyone be one thing.

• All Spellcasting – Warlock, Sorcerer, Wizard, and Cleric
• No Range or Support – Rogue, Monk, Fighter, Barbarian
• Too Much Support – Paladin, Cleric, Bard, Druid

As fun as it probably is to have everybody slinging spells around, the worst party you can make in Baldur’s Gate 3 is one consisting of all spellcasters. Warlock, Sorcerer, and Wizard, with any fourth is a bad combination because everyone in your party will be too easy to down and not strong enough to defend the others. The difference between the lots and lots of spells party composition is that that party has a tank and a support.

Another party composition to watch out for is a full-on melee party. The difference between using melee-heavy classes and making a well-balanced heavy hitters party composition is a party with no range and no support won’t last long. With a heavy hitters party composition, you have support spells with the Cleric and Paladin and range with the Cleric and Fighter/Ranger. Be cautious of a party without range and support.

While it isn’t impossible to have success, the game is difficult if you have a Cleric and a Bard in the same party. On top of that, if you have super supportive Paladins as found in the Oath of Devotion subclass or super supportive Druids as found in the Circle of the Land subclass, this party crumbles. Now that you know all the best and worst party compositions in Baldur’s Gate 3, hopefully you can survive any combat that comes your way!

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on Steam.