The Best Race for Each Class in Baldur's Gate 3

I'd say Githyanki for Bard is better than Mountain Dwarf. In pen and paper, we often take fey touched at level 4 just for free misty step, and misty step is stronger in this game than pen and paper.

A bit late but half orc war domain cleric is just bs and make the game a joke even on tactician. You dont need to have a very efficient build really. Just free revival + cleric heals + massive damage from war domain and half orc feat. You are just a undying killing machine !

I've really been digging Zariel tiefling college of lore bard. Thaumaturgy is a nice cantrip to have on a party face.

I'd go Half-Elf over Shield Dwarf for Bard and Sorcerer. I'd take a Light Armor+Shield over a Medium armor. Especially since Draconic Sorcerer has built-in armor and Bard should have some Dex skills, to get sleight of hand and stealth.

Thinking of a gith wizard next time.
Have tried:
Human champion
Half orc war priest
Half elf assassin
All have been fun in different ways

Gith are the best race like 90% of the time. Astral knowledge is insane and free misty step as a racial at level 5 is also incredibe. Their racial mobility is unmatched they get up to 5 free proficiencies. Pretty much the only time I wouldn't pick them over any other race is if I needed dark vision

Zariel tiefling is also good at being a bard because of the thaumaturgy ability. Hard can really benefit from performance checks.

The best all around races seem to be Duergar, Dragonborne/Tiefling then Githyanki and Drow. Deep Gnome, Wood Elf, Half-Elf (either), High Elf, Gnomes and Humans of course rounding out at the bottom. Somehow having 25% extra carry weight is an absolute joke. An Elixir of the Colossus does the same thing. They really nerfed any reason to play a human in BG3. It's one thing to have best races, but humans are objectivelt bad. Look at Wyll and Gale. Both would be better if they were literally any other race. Any. Duergar are just nuts though. Gith are great all around with Tieflings and Dragonborne being absurd Sorcerers/Warlocks and Bards. And Rangers. And Rogues (Thieves or Assassins, doesn't matter). Lol, every class is pretty darn good save humans. Wow they are just so bad. They really needed to pull in the additional skills/feats variants for humans to make up for everythibg they are trash at.

Elves being proficient with Longbows has a very good utility for spellcasters who otherwise wouldn't have that proficiency. Arron (very first vendor in the grove) sells a magical Longbow called Spellthief. On a crotical hit, it restores one 1st level spell slot. While this is more useful on Paladins and Rangers, who have only 1st level spells for a bit longer, any spellcaster can benefit from this occasional boon.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but monks as a human/half-elf will have shield, with +3 shield, mage armour, high wizdom, gloves, back, ring + wiz ring and sword of defence you can get 29 AC Shield don't count as an armor XD

Also I should mention that this video places a LOT of emphasis on armor proficiencies, but in the actual game there are a lot of medium armors that just plain SUCK for certain classes compared to certain robes.
In addition your cleric recommendation...well, I'm not going to sugarcoat it: Healing Touch is a massive waste of action economy. While Wood Elf isn't a bad choice the big reason to take it ISN'T necessarily the movement speed, but the weapon proficiencies. Cleric gets access to medium armor by default, and quite a few of their domains give access to heavy armor (War, Tempest, Life, and Nature). However, aside from War and Tempest, they're REALLY lacking in the weapon proficiency department. And unlike what I said for armor proficiencies for the likes of Sorcerer, this actually DOES matter since there are plenty of strong longswords, shortswords, rapiers, and hand crossbows out there that would benefit a cleric. One big example is Phalar Aluve, a longsword you can get early on that can cast a REALLY nice buff for your party or debuff for your enemies.
So knowing that...well, just makes human and half-elf the 5 star choices. Wood Elf is still good, but I wouldn't say they're the best simply because humans and half-elves give SLIGHTLY better proficiencies for clerics.
Unless you're playing War or Tempest in which case...go nuts with whatever because your race is just gravy :)

Small correction: Seldarine drow CAN choose red eyes. They're just not expected to have red eyes.

Wizards can learn cantrips from scrolls. Githyanki is better imo. Also for sword bards shields are great

Cleric should only use healing word for realband for rezzing. Clerics are just frontline casters. Damage output on tempest and light is wild

Carry capacity is useless when you can send everything right to your camp and then go get it as needed with fast travel. Also, Half-orc savage attacks will only work on late game moon druid wild shapes that use weapons.

Dragonborn are low on the power scale. Argubly a worse version of tiefling if you choose fire element dragon.
But boy oh boy do they look absolutely badass and amazing.

Flame blade is ALREADY a druid spell, jeez this list is awful.

The best way to use githyanki astral knowledge is to build around it.

basically, pick one of the ability scores with a lot of generally useful associated proficiencies, like wisdom or dexterity, and then DONT select any of those skills at all using your class or background proficiencies.

Then, every morning when you finish your long rest, use Astro knowledge to hit that ability that you ignored and gain as many free proficiencies from it as possible.

Some major points you missed out with elven weapon training: Monks get the use of a d10 Versatile weapon which is otherwise not possible (and also dwarven weapons does the same with warhammer proficiency). Second, druids otherwise don't get any ranged weapon (all other classes get Light Crossbow proficiency), so this is especially good for druids. Human's and Half elfs Civil Malitia gives shield proficiency to bards, wizards, sorcerers and warlocks, which is 2 extra AC, which is insane.

High elf cantrip also benefits arcane tricksters and eldritch knights.

ITS GITH OR NUTHIN

The 5E system is pretty balanced but I appreciate the notes on little bonuses and things that could help. In the end, just be creative and think up a character you'd enjoy playing. Half-Orc Bard? Do it!

Savage attacker isn‘t very impactful. Even if you attack with advantage and have extended crit range with a great axe, it only adds 1,2 damage per attack.
Crit builds is not a thing in 5e, the math just doesn‘t add up.

Rock Gnome for Bard is poetic.

10 College of Lore, 1 knowledge cleric, 1 rogue. Guild Artisan, Artificer's Lore, 3 skill proficiencies for 6 out of 18 skills with proficiency at lvl 1, and 1 with expertise.

+3 proficiencies more at level 3, and expertise in 2 skills. Actor lvl 4 adds deception and performance proficiency with expertise and 1 charisma. Skilled at lvl 8 adds +3 proficiencies, and at level 10 gain expertise in 2 more skills. Knowledge Cleric adds 2 more free proficiencies, with expertise for them. Rogue adds +2 expertise to 2 more skills.

Total 16 out of 18 skills with proficiency, and 11 out of 16 skills with expertise, while certain items can provide advantage on various skills which is a way to gain faux expertise on those skills.

Shapeshifter's Boon Ring: +1d4 to all checks while disguised or shapeshifted.

Enlarge: Advantage on strength rolls.
|
Guidance: +1d4 bonus to ability checks.

Forbidden Knowledge/Harper's Amulet: +1 bonus to all wisdom rolls, and advantage on them.

Advantage on dexterity and constitution rolls or saving throws through gear.

Praise Mahkloompah!

Respectfully, you're wrong. High half elf is NOT the best race for wizard. Wizard is the best CLASS for High Half Elf. This is not the same thing. 1 more cantrip on a full caster character is okay... but largely not meaningful, especially when you can respec for essentially free. The best RACE for Wizard IS Githyanki. You can use the race to automatically gain proficiency in ALL intelligence skills, get access to medium armor, mage hand, leap and Misty Step. ALL of which are good spells for any character. The medium armor proficiency allows you to get 20+ AC as early as the begining of act 2. The runner up race is Human, since that would give them access to 1 skill, Light Armor and Shield proficiency. High half elf is a solid 4th, behind Shield Dwarf, but it is not the best.

human pally for ultimate hording and buying selling

Drows and Half-Drows also get Faerie Fire as a racial spell at level 3, recharges on Long rest I think? Pretty useful spell, at least in the early game.

Is were or is were not an effect of darkvision?
I don't see any disadvantage when attacking without darkvision

The armor proficiency is moot if you just sink a point into fighter at level one then choose your magic casting class at level 2 onward. This allows you to pick a better race for spellcasting while allowing you to use medium armor and shields. Could even sink a second level into fighter for action surge for 2 spells in a round or 3 with quickened sorcerer spells.

What is this video? All the races are the same. There is no class to race optimization in this game. Not sure why people keep mentioning the races in BG3, but don't mention that Larian gutted races completely. It's not 5e DnD when a Tiefling gets the same starting stats as a Half-Orc. Please stop making videos like this and call out Larian for gutting DnD races. TY. This isn't DnD.

Also good to note. I made a Drow with my gf's playthrough and Drow indeed get faerie fire as a cantrip at lvl 2-3. I could be wrong about the cantrip part but its a pretty nice thing to just get for free.

Half-Elf is great for a Draconic Lineage Sorceror, as you gain +3 Ac from that class and you can gain additional Ac from wielding a Shield, an option you don't have if you chose Shield Dwarf. This allows you to use robes (there's some good ones, including one allowing to add your Cha mod to your Cantrips' dmg) in the armor slot while having a decent Ac.

Asmiodeus Teiflings Produce Flam - which ability score does this use?

I would disagree about the wizard. Just having an additional cantrip that uses your intelligence modifier does not make up for all the other race bonuses that are far more beneficial. Shield dwarves, githyanki, tieflings, even dragonborn can all make powerful wizards. I can't express how important armor is to a wizard. Not having proficiency in Constitution is quite painful for concentration saving throws.

I kinda wish dragonborn breath weapons scaled with your player level. Even from level 1 it's relatively useless because you're either a caster and trying to stay out of melee range, or you're a martial class and have better uses for your action anyways. Also odd that they made almost every breath into a cone based attack, and brass being the only attack that's a thin column doesn't even get an increased distance. It's a range of 5m same as the rest. Acid resistance is also just laughably bad.

Nice race review. Class suggestions feel rushed especially Monk.

Wood half elf is also great for monks.

Extra movement speed and spears

When I heard him explaining that elf race give proficiency in bows for wizards I understood that this guy just waste our time lmao

I disagree on the Zariel Tiefling. Paladin already has many of those smites, so getting one extra charge per long rest isn’t too much. It’s nice, but w/e. Also with high Charisma they don’t need much boost from thaumaturgy

Now Barbarian on the other hand. Thaumaturgy will boost the intimidation you likely already have proficiency in and will allow you to be somewhat social. Branding smite will help mark invisible enemies for your rage, once you rage. Smite, rage, remaining attacks. Easy peasy

No mention of the Duergar once per long rest Enlarge or once per battle (or whenever outside of battle) Invisibility?

gith is great for eldritch knight fighter or arcane trickster rogue, both for the bonus spells and the free proficiency in all int skills, since those subclasses want some int but lack proficiency in most of the int skills.

Wood elf is best race for bard. You can replace a thief completely.

If you are dragon born and have resistance to an element and choose ranger, do the resistance bonuses stack?

I feel like Gith and Halflings are pretty unvalued in this list. Gith get mage hand, jump, and misty step for free at 1,3 and 5 along with great proficiencies. Both Halfing Subraces are good and Lucky is an amazing racial ability.

I can't see a human being better than Gith for any class tbh. The only reason you pick human over Gith is if you want a nose.

it should also mention that as a deep gnome ranger you get giant killer at level 3 and everything is giant to you LOL

Githyanki Bard gets x1.5 to all skill checks with astral knowledge and jack of all trades

ALL RACES ARE EQUAL!!! (In fantasy games)

I'm actually going to be running Zariel tiefling, Eldritch knight /ArchFey Warlock. For the thumaturgy, and the chance to charm / frighten close enemies. And then go packed of the blade to be able to dump my stats into charisma instead of strength

I find Gale and Shadowheart eat well with their human passives. Gale can equip shields with no drawbacks (mage armor doesn't care that you're wielding shields) and Shadowheart can use polearms, which is a kind of weapon clerics don't usually get access to.

Most of the times she's better with Blood of Lathander as a weapon but the Moonlight Glaive is just more aesthetic in my opinion, and she can rock that surprisingly well if you get her Polearm Mastery as clerics don't usually get much use off their Bonus Actions aside from emergency Healing Words.