The original Baldur’s Gate came out back in 1998, and it’s living proof until today that a well-designed game can be a mind-blowing experience, without the need for advanced technology and visuals. Of course, a huge part of its success is owed to its Dungeons & Dragons mechanic adaptions, along with races and classes of the aforementioned pen & paper RPG titan.
A Fighter/Mage is arguably the strongest class in the game by the end of Baldur's Gate 2, and with all the new defensive spells from the sequel fleshing out the spellbooks of the Enhanced Edition, they're stronger than ever in the first game. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Walkthrough Welcome to our Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition walkthrough! Simply click any of the links within the navigation bar to the right and you will be brought to the respective area.
In this list, we will be taking a close look at all of Baldur’s Gate races and their passive traits, in order to make your character creation easier, since going back and forward in-game is quite a pain – even in the Enhanced Edition.
Of course, choosing a race always falls into personal preference more than anything else, but it’s still important to know the traits of your race, and how you can synergize them with your class choice and your character’s progression.
With that said, make sure to check all BG classes before you make your final race choice, since the synergy options are too many!
Table of Contents
Humans are the predominant race in Faerûn. Humans rule most of the significant empires and kingdoms in the realms. They are the most social and tolerant of races, excepting perhaps the halflings. Humans may advance as any class and are also the only race that can dual-class. Humans may not multi-class.
Humans don’t have any extra racial traits.
Elves tend to be shorter and slimmer than humans. Their features are finely chiseled and delicate, and they speak in melodic tones. Elves are looked upon as being frivolous and aloof.
They concern themselves with natural beauty, dancing, frolicking, and other similar pursuits. Their humor is clever, as are their songs and poetry. There are six racial divisions of elves within the realms: gold elves, moon elves, wild elves, sea elves, dark elves (drow), and winged elves (avariel).
Elves have the following traits:
Half-elves are a mix of human and elven blood. They are handsome folk, with good features from each of their parent races. A half-elf has the curiosity, inventiveness, and ambition of their human ancestors and the refined senses, love of nature, and artistic tastes of their elven ancestors.
Half-elves have the following traits:
Dwarves are short and stocky, easily identifiable by their size and shape. They have ruddy cheeks, dark eyes, and dark hair. Dwarves tend to be dour and taciturn. They are given to hard work, and care little for most humor. They enjoy beer, ale, mead, but most of all, they love gold. There are four racial divisions of dwarves within the realms: shield dwarves, gold dwarves, wild dwarves, and duergar.
Dwarves have the following traits:
Halflings are short, generally plump people, very much like small humans. Their faces are round and broad, and often quite florid. Their hair is typically curly, and the tops of their feet are covered with coarse hair. Overall they prefer the comforts of home to dangerous adventuring. They enjoy good living, rough humor, and homespun tales. There are three racial divisions of halflings within the realms: the hairfoot, tallfellow, and stout.
Halflings have the following traits:
Kin to dwarves, gnomes are noticeably smaller than their distant cousins. Gnomes, as they proudly maintain, are also less rotund than dwarves. Most have dark tan or brown skin, white hair, and rather large noses. Gnomes have lively and sly senses of humor, especially for practical jokes. They have a love for nature that is only matched by their love for gems and jewelry. There are two racial divisions of gnomes within the realms: rock gnomes and deep gnomes (svirfneblin).
Gnomes have the following traits:
Half-orcs are born from the union of human and ore parents. They are as tall as humans, but a little heavier due to their muscular builds. Their greenish pigmentation, sloping forehead, jutting jaw, prominent teeth, and coarse body hair make their lineage plain for all to see.
In the Sword Coast, half-orcs are tolerated, as unlike in the north the local people haven’t had centuries of warfare with ore kind. Half-orcs are known for their great strength.
Half-orcs have the following traits:
The BG2 Fixpack is a WeiDU compilation of fixes for Baldur's Gate II. With the disappearance of Kevin Dorner and the cessation of activity of the Baldurdash fixpack for BG2, several modders began working on a new WeiDU fixpack to address the numerous bugs that have been identified since Baldurdash. This collaborative effort, including the work of modders from several different modding communities and assistance from BG2 lead writer David Gaider, has resulted in a fixpack that currently includes all of the fixes addressed by Baldurdash (including the Game Text Update) and several hundred new bugfixes. The project is ongoing, and we're working through a substantial list of bugs culled from various sites, the old Baldurdash forums, and our own research.
The Enhanced Editions of the game has been a huge boon to the project, as a lot of new players means a lot of new bug reports. Working with Beamdog has given us access to new bug reports--as well as testing of existing ones, as the EEs are built upon the Fixpack--and allowed for v12 to be the largest expansion of the Fixpack since its first release.
Though the project has long since left beta status, there remains a need to introduce and test new fixes. To facilitate these new fixes without compromising the stability of the project, a component entitled BETA Core Fixes is available. This component includes fixes intended for the Core Fixes component and tested in a limited fashion, but have not yet been tested 'in the wild' or with other mods. As such, this component is considered to be of a BETA status. As fixes in this component get tested and validated in the wild, they will move into the Core Fixes.
The BG2 Fixpack strives for complete transparency in its fixes. As such, complete documentation is available of the fixes on the project pages, visual fixes are noted in the BG2 Fixpack Gallery, and all discussions leading up to fixes are in the Fixpack forums. There are no private workrooms.