Who is the Half-Elf in Baldur’s Gate 3? Among the 11 playable races in Baldur’s Gate 3 is the Half-Elf. Choosing the Half-Elf brings innate abilities, which include buffs and effects, as well as their appearance. Choosing the right race, class, and background is important if you want to dominate Faerun.
There are lots of things you should learn if you want to venture deep into Baldur’s Gate 3 as the Half-Elf. This includes their racial features, subraces, traits, spells, and cantrips, as well as the best class for them. In order to make your choice, you should be familiar with all of the Baldur’s Gate 3 races and classes in Larian’s fantasy RPG, so here’s everything you need to know about Half-Elves.
Half-Elf Racial features
Here are the racial features of the Half-Elf:
- Base speed – 9 meters per turn
Half-Elf subraces
Because of the wide variety of elves in Dungeons and Dragons, Half-Elves have more subraces than average to choose from at three.
High Half-Elf
While not as naturally attuned to magic as full-blooded High Elves, High Half-Elves still have some of the Feywild in them, even if they aren’t formally trained in magic.
Subrace features
One cantrip of your choice from the Wizard spell list (learn at level 1) – uses intelligence in spellcasting ability for it.
Wood Half-Elf
Like their High Half-Elf Cousins, wood high-elves benefit from their ancestry, picking up advantages in swiftness and stealth.
Subrace features
- Fleet of Foot – Base speed is 10.5 meters per turn
- Mask of the Wild – Grants stealth proficiency
Drow Half-Elf
Most Drow Half-Elves come about due to the union between Seldarine Drow and surface dwellers. Fortunately for their Half-Elf children, they still inherit some magical gifts but tend to live on the surface, not in the Underdark.
Subrace features
- Dancing Lights – Create wisps of light that illuminate a 12-meter radius
- Faerie Fire – Once per long rest. Encase multiple targets in colorful light. The targets turn visible, and attack rolls against the targets have an advantage roll. Ignores allies with the Sculpt Spells feature.
- Darkness – Once per long rest. Create a cloud of magical darkness that Heavily Obscures and Blinds creatures within. Creatures cannot make ranged attacks into or out of the darkness.
Half-Elf traits
Here are the traits of Half-Elves:
- Fey Ancestry – You have an advantage roll on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep
- Darkvision – You can now see in the dark out to a range of 12 meters
Best Class for Half-Elf
The best class to choose for Half-Elf is:
- Sorcerer
- Warlock
- Bard
Half-Elves’ natural charisma bonus and affinity for magic means they’ll want to play a class that takes advantage of those things. The best choices for Half-Elves are Sorcerer and Warlock because they can get high stats in several key stats at level 1. If you’re not sold on a spellcaster, Half-Elves also make decent Bards because of their high charisma stat.
Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Half-Elf backgrounds
The best backgrounds for the Half-Elf are Folk Hero, Guild Artisan, Entertainer, or Sage, though it does depend heavily on their class.
Half-Elves are caught between two very different worlds, but their mixed heritage gives them the best of both. Like Elves, they are graceful and long-lived, but they also enjoy the ambition and creativity of humans. Half-Elves tend to excel at whatever they pursue, but they often exist on the edges of both human and elven society.
You should be up to scratch with Half-Elves in Baldur’s Gate 3 now. For more on Larian’s RPG, why not research how to finally get that Druid you’ve been lusting after into your bedroll with our guide to all things romance in BG3? If that’s not for you, perhaps you’ll find our leveling guide useful.