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Baldur's Gate 3 - Dragonborn Race Guide

Discover how you can make the most out of Dragonborn characters in Baldur's Gate 3.

The Baldur's Gate 3 Dragonborn race lets you play as a humanoid reptile, with a means of harnessing the elements due to its nature. There are also several sub-races that provide new abilities. Our guide discusses what you can expect if you pick a Dragonborn character in the game.

Baldur's Gate 3 Dragonborn Race Guide

The Baldur's Gate 3 Dragonborn is one of 11 races that you can choose during character creation. Most notably, it's the default race if you pick the Dark Urge origin, though this can still be changed as you see fit. All Dragonborn characters have a movement speed/distance of nine meters. Their uniqueness, however, boils down to the sub-race:

Dragonborn Sub-races

There are 12 Dragonborn sub-races. All of them have a Fire Breath action, which deals damage based on a particular element. The Draconic Ancestry feature, meanwhile, adds resistances for that element. Here are the options arranged per element type:

  • Fire element - Brass, Gold, and Red.
  • Cold element - Silver and White.
  • Lightning element - Blue and Bronze.
  • Acid element - Black and Copper.
  • Poison element - Green.

In short, you can expect your Dragonborn to dish out additional elemental damage based on their sub-race. They'd also be sturdier when they get hit by that type of magic.

The Dragonborn race gives an extra spell, as well as elemental resistance.
The Dragonborn race gives an extra spell, as well as elemental resistance.

Best Class for the Dragonborn

Given the above, we feel that the best class for the Baldur's Gate 3 Dragonborn race is none other than the Sorcerer. The class itself is quite powerful, since it's able to use the Metamagic feature to modify the effect and usage of spells (i.e. single-target spells that hit multiple foes or cast the same spell twice in one turn).

Likewise, there's the highly interesting Draconic Bloodline subclass, which gives extra hit points, and a base armor class (AC) of 13 if you're only wearing robes and cloth pieces. You can also choose a Dragon Ancestor, which grants a spell during character creation, and increased elemental damage and resistance at level 6. The categories still follow what you've seen from the sub-races, but the difference lies in the extra spells:

  • Fire: Brass - Sleep.
  • Fire: Gold - Disguise Self.
  • Fire: Red - Burning Hands.
  • Cold: Silver - Feather Fall.
  • Cold: White - Armor of Agathys.
  • Lightning: Blue - Witch Bolt.
  • Lightning: Blue - Fog Cloud.
  • Acid: Black - Grease.
  • Acid: Copper - Tasha's Hideous Laughter.
  • Poison: Green - Ray of Sickness.

For your Baldur's Gate 3 Dragonborn Sorcerer, we suggest the White Dragon ancestry. That's because the Armor of Agathys spell is quite decent for most of the game. The Red Dragon ancestry is also viable for the Burning Hands spell, and the increased fire elemental damage later in the campaign, which is also when you'll opt to cast Fireball in combat.

Baldur's Gate 3 is filled to the brim with activities and secrets. You'll no doubt be part of an adventure that can take countless hours to complete. For other tips, you can visit our BG3 guides hub.

Jason Rodriguez on Google+
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