Races

There are a great variety of Races that can be found in the Forgotten Realms and played in Baldur's Gate 3, both civilized and savage. A creature's race determines its lineage and innate powers and abilities.

All races have their own strengths and many possess unique abilities and powers. Sometimes creatures can even cast spells as a result of their racial heritage.

Race affects NPC reactions and available interactions during conversations. Each race also has unique attack animations (while spellcasting animations are based on class).

See below for a list of races.

• 

  Human

• 

  Elf

• 

  Drow

• 

  Half-Elf

• 

  Half-Orc

• 

  Halfling

• 

  Dwarf

• 

  Gnome

• 

  Tiefling

• 

  Githyanki

• 

  Dragonborn

Overview of Playable Races

There are 11 playable races in Baldur's Gate 3. Many playable races are divided into subraces, which further defines a character's strengths, abilities, and appearance.

Refer to individual Race pages for further details.

Unless otherwise noted, spells gained from race may only be cast once per Long Rest.

In D&D 5e races tend to receive fixed ability score bonuses as racial bonuses. Baldur's Gate 3 instead awards each race the following ability score bonuses for the player to freely allocate:

• +2 to any Ability Score
• +1 to any other Ability Score

Race and Subraces		Base Speed	Proficiencies		Features
			From Race	From Subrace	From Race	From Subrace
Human		Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons Spears Pikes Halberds Glaives Armour Light armour Shields Skills 1 Skill of choice		Increased Carrying Capacity by 25%
Elf	High Elf	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons  Shortswords  Longswords Shortbows Longbows Skills Perception	High Elf -	Keen Senses Perception Proficiency Fey Ancestry Advantage against Charm Immune to magical Sleep Darkvision	High Elf High Elf Cantrip 1 Cantrip from the Wizard spell list
	Wood Elf	Fast 10.5 m / 35 ft		Wood Elf Skills Stealth		Wood Elf Mask of the Wild Stealth proficiency Fleet of Foot Increased Base Speed
Drow	Lolth-Sworn Drow	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons  Rapiers  Shortswords  Hand Crossbows Skills Perception		Keen Senses Perception Proficiency Fey Ancestry Advantage against Charm Immune to magical Sleep Superior Darkvision Doubled range compared to standard Darkvision Drow Magic Faerie Fire and Darkness Spells at level 3 and 5	The only difference between Drow subraces lies in their available dialogue options.
	Seldarine Drow
Half-Elf	High Half-Elf	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons Spears Pikes Halberds Glaives Armour Light armour Shields	High Half-Elf -	Fey Ancestry Advantage against Charm Immune to magical Sleep Darkvision	High Half-Elf High Elf Cantrip 1 Cantrip from the Wizard spell list
	Wood Half-Elf	Fast 10.5 m / 35 ft		Wood Half-Elf -		Wood Half-Elf Mask of the Wild Stealth proficiency Fleet of Foot Increased Base Speed
	Drow Half-Elf	Standard 9 m / 30 ft		Drow Half-Elf -		Drow Half-Elf Drow Magic Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire, and Darkness Spells at level 1, 3, and 5
Half-Orc		Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Skills Intimidation		Darkvision Savage Attacks Add one additional dice of damage when scoring a critical hit with a melee weapon Relentless Endurance Drop to 1 hit point instead of being downed, once per long rest
Halfling	Lightfoot Halfling	Slow 7.5 m / 25 ft	-	Lightfoot Halfling -	Lucky Single reroll on a 1 for certain rolls Brave Advantage against Frightened	Lightfoot Halfling Naturally Stealthy Advantage on Stealth Checks.
	Strongheart Halfling			Strongheart Halfling -		Strongheart Halfling Strongheart Resilience Advantage and Resistance against Poisoned / Poison damage
Dwarf	Gold Dwarf	Slow 7.5 m / 25 ft	Weapons  Battleaxes  Handaxes  Light Hammers  Warhammers	Gold Dwarf -	Dwarven Resilience Advantage and Resistance against Poisoned / Poison damage Darkvision	Gold Dwarf Dwarven Toughness Maximum Hit Point increased by 1 per level
	Shield Dwarf			Shield Dwarf Armour Medium armour Light armour		Shield Dwarf Dwarven Armour Training Medium and light armour proficiency
	Duergar			Duergar -		Duergar Duergar Resilience Superior Darkvision Doubled range Enlarge and Invisibility Spells at level 3 and 5
Gnome	Forest Gnome	Slow 7.5 m / 25 ft	-	Forest Gnome -	Gnome Cunning Advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma Saves Darkvision	Forest Gnome Additional Spell Speak with Animals (at will)
	Deep Gnome			Deep Gnome -		Deep Gnome Superior Darkvision Doubled range Stone Camouflage Advantage on Stealth checks
	Rock Gnome			Rock Gnome Skills History (Expertise)		Rock Gnome Artificer's Lore History expertise
Tiefling	Asmodeus Tiefling	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	-		Hellish Resistance Resistance to Fire Darkvision	Tiefling Magic Additional Tiefling Cantrip, level 1 and 2 Spells, differing based on Subrace
	Mephistopheles Tiefling
	Zariel Tiefling
Githyanki		Standard 9 m / 30 ft	Weapons  Shortswords  Longswords  Greatswords Armour Light armour Medium armour Skills See Astral Knowledge		Astral Knowledge Gain Proficiency in all Skills corresponding to a chosen Ability each Long Rest Githyanki Psionics Additional Githyanki Cantrip, level 1 and 2 Spells
Dragonborn	Black Dragonborn	Standard 9 m / 30 ft	-		-	Black Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Acid damage Acid Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Acid damage
	Blue Dragonborn					Blue Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Lightning damage Lightning Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Lightning damage
	Brass Dragonborn					Brass Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Fire damage Fire Breath 17ft line of 2d6 Fire damage
	Bronze Dragonborn					Bronze Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Lightning damage Lightning Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Lightning damage
	Copper Dragonborn					Copper Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Poison damage Acid Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Acid damage
	Gold Dragonborn					Gold Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Fire damage Fire Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Fire damage
	Green Dragonborn					Green Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Poison damage Acid Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Acid damage
	Red Dragonborn					Red Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Fire damage Fire Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Fire damage
	Silver Dragonborn					Silver Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Cold damage Frost Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Cold damage
	White Dragonborn					White Dragonborn Draconic Ancestry Resistance to Cold damage Frost Breath 17ft cone of 2d6 Cold damage

Non-Playable Races

There are many more non-playable races, many of which are extremely dangerous and monstrous. See below for a list of all non-playable races and their abilities.

• List of all Non-Playable Races

Trivia

• See D&D 5e Race Changes for a summary of all changes to races in Baldur's Gate 3 from the 5e ruleset.