BG3 Honor Mode Class Tier List - Updated for Patches 5 and 6

My analysis of the classes and subclasses for Baldur's Gate 3 Honour Mode.

Rankings:
S-Tier: Sorcerer, Bard, Paladin, Cleric
A-Tier: Wizard, Warlock, Monk, Fighter
B-Tier: Barbarian, Ranger, Druid
C-Tier: Rogue

Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:34 - Barbarian
00:07:46 - Bard
00:12:33 - Cleric
00:16:30 - Druid
00:21:04 - Fighter
00:23:17 - Monk
00:26:51 - Paladin
00:31:54 - Ranger
00:34:53 - Rogue
00:41:37 - Sorcerer
00:48:16 - Warlock
00:50:58 - Wizard
00:55:30 - Subclasses Intro
00:55:53 - Barbarian Subclasses
00:58:27 - Bard Subclasses
01:01:47 - Cleric Subclasses
01:06:42 - Druid Subclasses
01:09:36 - Fighter Subclasses
01:12:36 - Monk Subclasses
01:13:59 - Paladin Subclasses
01:16:50 - Ranger Subclasses
01:18:34 - Rogue Subclasses
01:19:55 - Sorcerer Subclasses
01:22:09 - Warlock Subclasses
01:23:10 - Wizard Subclasses

[nothisispatrick]

Monks just run around and do a bunch of damage

And that’s exactly why I love them

[Childofbhaal]

My Honor mode run was with a Hafling Bard. I ended up being soooo happy with that decision. The Hafling racial is amazing for honor mode. Eliminating any bad RNG is huge. I never rolled a single crit failure on a skill check the entire game. Plus as a Bard you have high charisma. Made passing all the skill checks a breeze

[wunderfuls]

I wish rogues got some more love, they really need a way to do a extra attack if you’re going pure mono class, this really hinders you especially in solo honour mode.

[cainampi]

I love hearing the thought process, and think a lot of people don't mind the long video with the thoroughness and the ability to jump to the part that they are most interested in. The section breakdown is very well done, making it easy to come back later and rehear your thoughts about a specific class.

[BlasterSarge]

I think moon druid wild shaping as a bonus action is underrated here. Being able to wild shape the same round you put up a concentration spell nets you an entire additional round of attacks compared to any other subclass of druid, where either you don't put up a concentration spell at all (thereby ignoring half your kit) or have to wait until turn 3 before you get to attack as a wild shape (at which point most combats are decided). It seems like a substantial action economy boost.

[timothybrahm]

Interesting update. In defense of Rangers and Rogues, if you’re trying to reduce your long rests to either one back to back series in act 1 or none at all, classes like Rangers and Rogues, who have mostly abilities that don’t require using any resources, are much more appealing. I recently completed an honor mode run with zero long rests using your old rules (I did use spell scrolls and alchemy) with four Gloomstalker/Assassins. Not many classes can do that, so Gloomstalkers are S tier for the particular way I play. No spell scrolls would dramatically change that. I might personally ban arcane acuity at some point to see how that affects team comps.

[SlimJimApproves]

Necromancy Wizard is a beast late game, and I'd even argue is low S-tier at least. The staff you get from the mummy lord imposes Disadvantage on saves against your Necro spells, and also allows you to cast Necro spells for free when you get a killing blow. Combine that with something like Cloudkill, which your Undead minions are immune to, and you just throw the cloud around while your minions run in and smack anything that stays.

Also Divination should be S-tier, imo. Being able to force a failed save on an enemy or several can just autowin encounters.

Edit: Didn't realize it was for Honor Mode I'm an idiot. I haven't tested Necro wizard on HM, but on normal and tactician it still shreds.

[Williamwilliam]

Ah I see the logic now — anyone can generalize from more restrictive to less restrictive, but it’s much harder the other way around, therefore assuming more restrictions allows the most inclusion. That totally makes perfect sense! Thank you!

And love your vids btw, I have a folder dedicated to screenshots of your finished lists. Keep up the good work!

[CarltonGauss]

Open hand monks also get psychic and radiant damage as part of the class, so proccing radiant orb or mental fatigue is trivial.

[comandantegorrion]

Wild magic barbarian isn’t particularly good, but I have found one party composition in which it has a useful support niche, specifically a party that includes a sorcerer. So the fact that wild magic barbarians can, by the end of act 2, recharge a single first, second, and third level spell slot per day, means that they can functionally recharge most, if not all of a sorcerer’s sorcery points, and when that effect is also combined with the necklaces and other magic items that can be used to recharge spell slots, meaning that the sorcerer doesn’t have to burn as many points to get back spell slots, you can actually get a lot more spells and metamagic uses on a sorcerer per day than it might seem given just the regular spell slot and sorcery point numbers. Moreover, the +1d4 to rolls once per day, which also stacks with guidance and other similar spells, is nice to have.

I will admit some of the rage effects are debilitatingly bad, especially if you have more melee combatants than just the Barbarian, and even the good ones aren’t particularly great.

[taywebb]

I do enjoy that you took your time with this one and really explained your picks and reasoning, long videos are absolutely fine when they are well done like this. If you don't take the time to explain yourself, you'll always get ppl running to the comments just getting you to clear up something you already explained but they missed.

[hectorso]

Love the tierlist and your content! I'd love to see some of your honour mode runs. Or specific strong builds. Your reasoning and knowledge of the game is what makes this channel stand out

[labmouse]

One thing that I think is really undervalued for warlock builds are the number of high level spells they can throw out between each long rest. Let's compare them to a sorcerer or wizard.

Starting at 11th level, the warlock gets 3 spells per short rest cast as a 5th level spell. This means the warlock will get 9 fifth level spells per long rest (starting with 3, then two short rests). If there is a bard in the party, and there probably will be -- the warlock will get 12 such spells.

In comparison the wizard will have 1 sixth level spell, 2 fifth, 3 fourth, and 3 third level spells. This is a total of 9 spells of various levels. The wizard will have arcane recovery, but that's only an extra spell total.

If you are looking for a class to just throw out as many cone of cold spells as possible, warlock's deliver more hits per long rest.
I think the reason a lot of people miss this is because they use those 5th level spell slots for hex.

[johnk]

Beast-master Ranger is S tier at end game, at lvl 11 the raven casts darkness whenever it lands. You can cover an entire battlefield in darkness, blind every enemy, and make your team invincible 1 turn. Use the Helldusk helmet to see in the dark and have a warlock for teammate.The raven doesnt take opportunity attacks, can pick up downed teammates, does okay damage and can infinitely summon 2 more weaker ravens.

[r_bear]

Shadow Monk with Shar's Spear of Night and someone with the special anti-blindness ring from Act 2—which lets the wearer fire ranged attacks, spells, and cantrips into and out of Darkness—can get pretty busted, especially with 3 (or 4, for feat) Thief for the extra bonus attack.

Consider a GWM build with this: you're basically always attacking with advantage, you're getting permanent damage boost from being obscured, your enemies are blinded while you're immune, you're getting permanent advantage on every saving throw, you have unlimited casts of Darkness, you have one AoE attack (does your full standard attack damage to an unlimited number of enemies in a 3m radius) that generates a small 3-turn Darkness per short rest, you're almost always getting a kill or a crit so one of your bonus actions is a full extra attack... and then you have (say) a sorcerer blasting into or out of Darkness with Scorching Ray, Eldritch Blast, and so on.

And! You can teleport around the battle field and get auto advantage once you land. This is a niche use but it can be very valuable contextually, and is actually quite useful out of battle—you can skip a lot of tedious or annoying stuff by having your shadow monk just teleport basically anywhere indoors where they have anything approaching line of sight.

[michaelkim]

Monk stan here. I completely agree with your points on the low variability, but I really enjoyed the RP of a Githyanki monk. Especially considering the Emperor/Orpheus dynamic.

[landonwilliams]

Stunning strike can prevent combat from even starting if the stun procs on the opening strike before combat begins. You can get like 4 free hits in before the stun wears off which can just end almost any non boss mob. A tad niche but incredibly useful when you need it.

[mulisha]

Seems like you didn't give enough credit to Monks CC ability. They're easily S tier and in contention for best overall when all is considered. Lvl 4-6 could be argued as the biggest powerspike of any build. TB feat(4) into extra attack WITH stunning strike(5) then Ki-empowered strikes(6) to top it off. Three attacks at lvl 6. One being Topple which is basically our Tavs legendary action and youll have two by level 9. Beguilling Rebuke on Rapheal? GL doing it on the floor where you cant react. Legendary resistance? Bait it out stunning strike and have a solid chance of landing a stun anyways.. which if you do land. Fights over. Super straight foward multi-class with Rogue. Also synergy with ANY party comp. Monk gear is tailored to their class specifically. Wont have to worry about competing with your Fighter/Sorc/Bard for gear since why would they need unarmed attack buffs? Gotta give the best class in the game more love :)

[jaceg]

My favorite thing to do is to give the wizard the "when you deal damage with a spell, apply 2 radiant orb" item, and then turn after turn, battle after battle, shower the enemy in magic missiles, second level at the start, for a guaranteed -8 to hit. Then regain those spellslots with the wizards recovery, repeat.
It is brilliant to see some bosses just stand there, trying their hardest with 14 stacks of radiant orb

[Skyblade]

Sorry, if you think Monks just run around and punch you haven’t discovered how to use their movement yet. Making Jump no longer on a Bonus Action means they get almost unlimited jumps. They don’t run around and punch, they jump around and punch. Totally different.