Rangers are a complicated class to categorize. They’re a little bit stealthy, a little bit melee, and a little bit magic. A Ranger is a jack of all trades and master of none. This makes them an easy fit for almost any party, and an excellent choice for solo play. However, this makes choosing the best feats for your Ranger a bit difficult in Baldur’s Gate 3, so we’re here to help!
10 Best Ranger Feats in Baldur’s Gate 3
Rangers get to choose to either take a two-point ability score improvement or pick a feat at levels 4, 8, and 12. Choosing the right feat can completely change the way you play the game, so it’s important to make sure you get one you’ll like.
Here’s our list of the 10 best feats for Ranger in Baldur’s Gate 3, ranked from good to best.
Lucky
Lucky is one of those feats that’s so good that it’s difficult to not recommend it for just about every class. It works like this: You get three ‘Luck Points.’ You can use these to give yourself advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.
You can also use them to impose disadvantage on enemy attacks. You can use these tokens like a reaction, but they don’t actually take up your reaction for the turn. All three Luck Points come back at the end of every long rest.
Sound busted? That’s because it is. The only reason we ranked it so low is because it’s sort of general use and isn’t a feature that explicitly benefits Ranger builds.
Medium Armor Master
Rangers are primarily a Dex-based class. That means that, even though some builds might benefit from heavy armor, most are better off sticking to light or medium armor, so they can still get the bonus to AC from their high Dexterity.
Unfortunately, some of the higher AC suits of Medium Armor still impose disadvantage on Stealth checks. This can mean that you’ll have to choose between being a sneaky sneak or having a high AC.
Medium Armor Master makes it so that wearing medium armor doesn’t impose disadvantage on Stealth checks. It also makes it so you can get a +3 bonus to AC from Dex instead of the standard +2. That way you won’t have to choose between having some decent protection in battle and pick-pocketing nobles in your downtime.
Alert
A lot of the feats on this list are heavily combat focused, but sometimes the moments leading up to combat are just as important. One of the defining traits of Rangers is their ability to ability to perceive danger. That’s where the Alert feat comes in.
Alert gives players a +5 bonus to initiative and makes it so they can’t be surprised. That means no enemy will ever be able to get a surprise round on you, no matter how devilishly clever their trap might be.
It also means that there is a very good chance that you will have the first action of the round at the start of combat. This is good for any class, but Rogues and Rangers both benefit immensely from this. It allows you to take position and set the tone for the rest of the battle.
Magic Initiate: Druid/Cleric
Rangers have some magic, but they aren’t exactly specialists. They only get a handful of spells. Taking one of the Magic Initiate feats will allow them to add a few extra spells to their repertoire. You can learn 2 new cantrips and a first-level spell from a different class list.
You want to be careful though. The spellcasting modifier varies depending on the associated class, so you want to make sure they match up with your stat allocation. Rangers are Wisdom casters, so you’ll probably want to choose from one of the spell lists of the other two Wisdom-casting classes: Druid and Cleric.
The Druid spell list is very similar to Ranger one, so only choose Magic Initiate: Druid if you want more spells, but want your character’s roster to be thematically the same.
Magic Initiate: Cleric is the better choice, especially if you don’t already have a cleric in your party. The Sacred Flame cantrip is particularly good to have, as it will give you some Radiant damage, which is very handy against undead enemies. It also never hurts to have a party member who can cast Bless.
Savage Attacker
Rangers make excellent archers, but they’re also competent swordsmen. They don’t generally deal quite as much damage in close quarters as Fighters, Paladins, or Barbarians, but there are ways to make them hit a little harder. One of the ways you can beef up their damage output is by taking the Savage Attacker feat.
This feat makes it so that you get to roll the damage dice twice and take the higher of the two numbers every time you roll a weapon attack. That means that every attack is going to do a little bit more damage on average. It’s not as flashy as some of the other feats, but it’s hard to argue with results.
Dual Wielder
Ever wanted to wield a blade in each hand? Well, you can in Baldur’s Gate 3, just like in regular D&D, but it’s not the same as getting two full-scale attacks. Certain restrictions are placed on the amount of damage you can do. Regular two-weapon fighting only allows you to use Light weapons like daggers, for example. The Dual Wielder feat lets you mitigate a lot of those restrictions.
It basically works like this: Those with the Dual Wielder feat can use two mid-sized, single-handed weapons. It also boosts your AC by +1, which is handy considering that you’re giving up a shield for this deadlier fighting style. It’s particularly good if you’re wearing medium armor that caps your Dex bonus.
Sharp Shooter
Want to make your Ranger into an expert marksman? One of the best ways to do that is by taking the Sharp Shooter feat.
If you’ve used the bow for more than a few hours in BG3¸ then you’ve probably already figured out that it isn’t as simple as point and shoot. Enemy altitude and cover can make certain shots nearly impossible. Sharp Shooter makes these shots much more likely to hit their intended targets.
It makes it so that ranged weapon attacks don’t get any sort of penalty for targeting enemies that hold higher ground. It also has an optional setting which makes it so ranged weapon attacks made with a weapon you’re proficient with take a -5 penalty to hit, but deal an extra 10 points of damage when they do. It’s high risk, high reward.
Athlete
Athlete is one of the few abilities that also allows you to take a point in either Strength or Dexterity. This makes it one of the best feats to choose in the early levels of your build since it will allow you to take that starting max 17 Dex up to 18 (giving you a +4) while also granting you a secondary skill.
There are two extra features that Athlete gives you. The first is that it makes it so that standing up from the prone position only uses 1.5m of your character’s movement speed. The second is that it increases your jump distance by a full 50%. That’s a tremendous boost that’s extremely valuable, given the way BG3 handles the jumping mechanic.
Since jumping is treated as a bonus action, you can cover significantly more ground by jumping and then using the rest of your basic movement to reach your target destination than by running alone. Athlete makes that jump go farther.
Defensive Duelist
Taking the number two spot on our list of the best Baldur’s Gate 3 Ranger feats is Defensive Duelist. This is probably the most utilitarian option for Rangers who are even remotely thinking about stepping into melee range. Rangers, as a class, are not typically the most heavily armored melee fighters, but this feat can help give you a boost to your AC when you need it most.
Defensive Duelist allows characters who are wielding a finesse weapon that they’re proficient with to use their reaction to add their proficiency bonus to their armor class. Since this is a reaction, you can actually choose to do it any time an enemy rolls high enough to meet your AC, but low enough that your proficiency bonus would cause them to miss. It doesn’t make you untouchable, but it does mean you’re going to be hit a whole heck of a lot less.
Mobile
No matter how you play them, Rangers are all about movement. If your character is an archer, then you’re going to want to get to the best vantage as quickly as possible and adjust to get an angle on enemies hiding behind cover. If you’re a melee fighter, you’re going to want to get close to your enemies, give them a good couple of whacks, and then back away.
That’s where the Mobile feat shines. Not only does it increase your movement speed, but it also makes it so that difficult terrain doesn’t slow you down when you dash. But its most important feature is that it allows you to move away from an enemy after making a melee attack. This means you can hit an enemy with a melee attack, retreat to a vantage point, and use your extra attack to hit them with a ranged attack.
Join the High Ground!
Thanks for reading our list of the best Ranger feats in Baldur’s Gate 3. Be sure to leave a comment letting us know what your favorite Ranger feat is and follow High Ground Gaming for more BG3 tips.
Happy gaming!
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