In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you the 3 Best Beginner Ranger Builds that you can use to put together an effective Ranger early on in the game. I wanted to give some early-game Builds for those of you who are near the beginning of the game. This is going to go to Level 6 and then for late-game Builds, it’s going to be from Levels 7 to 12.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Ranger Builds

All 3 of these Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Ranger Builds are basically 5 levels of one of the Subclasses of the Ranger and 1 level of something else because Rangers gain Extra Attack by then. Additionally, their Subclass at Level 3 doesn’t seem enough for Multiclassing.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Hunter Druid Multiclass Build

The first Build we’re going to take a look at is 5 levels of the Hunter Ranger and 1 level of Druid. What I really like about this is that Hunters gain one of their best features at Level 3. Here, they’ll be able to pick either Colossus Slayer, Horde Breaker, or Giant Killer but among these three, you’ll want to choose Colossus Slayer or Horde Breaker. You can select anything you want here if you prefer the added AOE or if you’re looking for something that automatically triggers in order to deal d8 damage every turn since you only have one attack early on in the game.

Best Hunter Features

This is really the best feature of Hunters besides getting Volley or Whirlwind Attack at Level 11. The Level 7 passive you gain won’t be as strong, in my opinion. So if you’re playing this Subclass, you’ll want to go 3 levels or 11 levels in to gain Volley and Whirlwind and then multiclass with something else. 

But remember that it doesn’t really make sense to cut out of Hunter after Level 3 and miss out on Extra Attacks so we’re taking 5 levels of Ranger. If you had more levels say at Level 8 or 9, you could take 3 levels of the Hunter and then 5 or 6 levels of the Monk or Fighter and still gain the Extra Attack. 

Level 2 Ranger Spells & Druid

Also, at Level 5 of the Ranger, you’ll gain access to Level 2 Ranger Spells, which is great. There are some good ones that pair well with the Druid because it gives you access to Shillelagh. Shillelagh allows you to buff your melee Weapon if it’s a Staff or a Club, making it use your Wisdom Modifier for its Attack and Damage Rolls. This prevents you from going crazy with Dexterity or Strength on your Ranger and instead focuses more on Constitution and Wisdom while still using your melee attacks and Spells very effectively.

It’ll also allow you to upcast any Level 1 Druid Spell such as Thunderwave since you’ll have Level 2 Spell Slots. Moving forward, if you took something like 7 levels of Druid, you’d have a lot of different Spells that you could cast and you’d have a lot of Spell Slots. Plus, you’d still be able to get 2 attacks with Extra Attack and still make use of Colossus Slayer or Horde Breaker every time you’re in Combat. 

So essentially, what you’re doing here instead of taking 1 more level of Ranger in order to gain another Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy, is you’re basically getting the stuff you’d gain from the Druid, which includes access to more Spells and being able to upcast them. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 Beast Master Monk Multiclass Build

On the next Build, we’ll look at 5 levels of the Beast Master and 1 level of Monk. If you saw our Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger Class Guide, you’ll know that the Beast Master is a tough Subclass to multiclass because your Ranger’s Companion gets stronger as you level up. If you take half your levels here and half of them somewhere else further on into the game, your Companion’s level will drop off but your enemies become stronger. So it’ll die easily and its damage and abilities will be underwhelming. Because of this, you either need to go all in on Beast Master or close to it in order to get the most benefit from it. 

Level 5 Beast Master Ranger

At Level 5, you gain other things like Extra Attack, Level 2 Spells, and Companion’s Bond. Companion’s Bond will add your Proficiency Bonus to the Armor Class and Damage Rolls of your Companion to make them a lot stronger. They’ll also gain more HP as well as another Class Feature.

Level 1 Monk

Why I like the Monk here is that it gives you Martial Arts: Dextrous Attacks, which allows you to use any melee Weapon except for Two-Handed and Heavy Melee Weapons with your Dexterity or Strength. So this gives you more options if say, you prefer to wield a Longsword, Warhammer, or Staff. Note that you can still use your Bow or Crossbow at range because of your high Dexterity. 

On top of that, it’s going to let you use your Wisdom Bonus for your Armor Class if you’re not wearing Armor. Having high Dexterity and high Wisdom might actually be better if you’re unarmored depending on the Armor selection you have. 

Next, you gain Ki points as well as access to Flurry of Blows for your Bonus Action and deal more damage for every Short Rest. 

Looking Ahead at the BG3 Beast Master Monk Multiclass Build

What you’d probably want to do with this Build over time is to take Beast Master up to Level 9 and then finish fleshing it out with the Monk say, by choosing the Way of the Open Hand Subclass in order to have more Ki and execute more Flurry of Blows. You’ll also eventually gain Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, and Deflect Missiles. You’ll also gain a pretty strong Companion.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Gloom Stalker Cleric Multiclass Build

So next, we’re going to take a look at 5 levels of Gloom Stalker, again for the Extra Attack, and 1 level of the War Domain Cleric. We also have Dread Ambusher, which gives us higher Initiatives to go first in combat while giving us a free attack at the beginning. This is extra damage so you’re actually going to have 3 attacks once you have Extra Attack at Level 5.

Level 1 War Domain Cleric

Because we’ve taken 1 level of War Domain, you can use your Bonus Action for an attack so theoretically, at the very first turn of combat, you could make 4 attacks. That’s a lot of attacks at this point in the game! It’s going to allow you to shell out tons of damage.

Another reason why Rangers and Clerics have good synergy is that they use Wisdom to cast their Spells so Cleric Spells are going to benefit from the same stat as Rangers. So this would be more of a Wisdom-focused Build. 

Looking Ahead at the BG3 Gloom Stalker Cleric Multiclass Build

If you went higher with this Build, you would probably continue to increase War Domain to gain access to more offensive and defensive Cleric Spells and Channel Divinities, giving you lots of attacks. But remember that you don’t have to go with the War Domain Subclass but I do like it because of the bonuses you get. 

A good alternative is the Light Domain Cleric if you want more offense or the Tempest Domain if you want somewhere in the middle and if you prefer casting Lightning Spells. The general idea is you’re a hybrid Spellcaster that has lots of attacks per turn, making you extremely deadly.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger Builds: Final Thoughts

So that wraps up our 3 early-game Ranger Builds. I hope I’ve extrapolated them enough so you can see where I would go with them if I went higher. I also hope I’ve made a good case here on why you would at least need to reach Level 5 for the Ranger to gain Extra Attack, particularly with Beast Master due to the Subclass Features they gain. Plus, their Companions become stronger.

The general nature of Martial Classes is to gain an Extra Attack at the beginning of the game when you don’t have as many levels. Once you have it, you can see what to do next.

Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content. We have more Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Builds coming up like the Druid, Cleric, and Barbarian!