Best Baldur's Gate 3 Wizard build
The best subclass, equipment, skills and spells for Wizard in BG3.
A Baldur's Gate 3 Wizard build is key for any wise mages out there, looking to take their mastery of the weave to a whole other level. If built correctly, the Wizard can perform at a level few other classes can in Baldur's Gate 3, granted you build them up correctly.
To help you do just that, we've written up this guide on our Baldur's Gate 3 Wizard build, so that you can channel spells to your hearts' desire with the right equipment, weapons, spells, and ability score split already handled.
Baldur's Gate 3 best Wizard build
The Wizard is an intelligence-based spellcaster who is able to use a huge number of spells to take out enemies from afar. They can specialize into a variety of different schools, allowing you to focus in on whichever style of play that best fits your personal preference. Versitile and power, they're able to devestate enemies and keep allies safe with ease.
- Wizard best race
- Wizard ability score priority
- Wizard proficiencies and background
- Wizard best subclass
- Wizard best equipment
- Wizard best spells
Wizard best race
The best race for Wizard players in Baldur's Gate 3 is the High Elf. This is due to their passive ability to take one free High Elf cantrip, allowing you to further expand your initial selection of spells in the early game and improve your early game performance in combat.
High Elves make for really, really good wizards, which is why our recommended alternative is the High Half-Elf. Sorry that there's not a lot of variety on display there, but you really can't beat that High Elf cantrip passive.
Wizard ability score priority
Your ability score priority should be Intelligence, Constitution, Dexterity, Wisdom, and then everything else.
When first creating your character, we recommend the following initial stats:
- Strength - 8
- Dexterity - 13
- Constitution - 15
- Intelligence - 17
- Wisdom - 10
- Charisma - 12
As you level up, you'll gain ability score increases at level 4, 8, and 12.
You should invest your points into Intelligence, up to and past 20. Intelligence is incredibly important for Wizards, so the more of it you have the better.
Wizard proficiencies and background
The best background to choose for this Baldur's Gate 3 Wizard build is the Sage.
Sages get proficiency in Arcana and History, which is basically a double-dose of those all-important Intelligence abilities. Investigation is a solid free-choice proficiency selection for the same reason.
Wizard best subclass
For the best Wizard build, we recommend taking the School of Evocation subclass.
Evocation spells are typically high damage spells, many of which deal AoE damage to any enemy hit. With the Evocation School subclass, you'll be able to learn these from spells at a lower cost, but more importantly any allies hit by your evocation spells take no damage and automatically pass any spell saves.
What this means is simple: you can throw any giant spells at enemies without worrying about friendly fire. This allows you to throw your tank and melee DPS at enemies without worrying about optimal positioning. All you need ot think about is your own placement in fights, and what spells you should use.
Wizard best equipment
Wizards have no armour proficiencies at all - meaning they have to apply armour to themselves through spells. This means whatever gear you equip should have extra afects improving your skills or providing additional spells that are useful in combat. Anything that improves you arcana, for example, or a pair of boosts that provide Misty Step or another movement spell is always nice.
As for weapons, Wizards are proficient in only a handful of basic weaponry. We recommend taking a quarterstaff, which allows you to trip melee enemies and may also come with additional bonuses for your Wizard if you equip a particuarly rare of powerful one. Just don't feed it to Gale.
Wizard best spells
Okay, so there's obviously a lot of great spells the Wizard can use, so we've picked out a few key ones you'll love using in the early game as an Evocation School Wizard.
Ray of Frost is a lovely Cantrip you'll get a level one. It doesn't quite deal as much damage as some of the alternatives, but it does slow enemy movement making it easier for you to keep dangerous melee enemies at range.
Chromatic Orb is a great Evocation spell you get at level one, dealing great AOE damage with a variety of damage effects. Be careful not to blow up your allies before you actually get to become an Evocation School Wizard at level 3.
Finally, Misty Step is amazing and worth mentioning here. It's great at getting high ground, which is super powerful in Baldur's Gate 3, but also alows you to leave the range of melee enemies without trigger an attack of opportunity. In our opinion, a must-have!
If you're looking for more magical help with BG3, don't forget to check-out our guides for the best Sorcerer build and best Warlock build.