This guide focuses on the essential aspects of a Cold build in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) and how to use those powers to your advantage.
The Cold Build in Baldur’s Gate 3 focuses on dealing Cold damage mostly by casting spells. You have to focus on acquiring the best cold spells and use them in your turns to deal damage. The best class for casting cold spells is Sorcerer as there are various choices among all 6 Level Spells. Moreover, another essential feature that you need for this build is to get an ability to scatter water. Doing so will allow the Sorcerer to deal extensive damage and crowd control using powerful spells like Cone of Cold and Ice Storm. Slowing down and freezing enemies is great for crowd control which you can achieve easily with this build. Aiming to utilize both your actions and bonus actions at every turn will allow you to deal potential damage.
With our Cold Build in Baldur’s Gate 3, we will guide you in picking the best classes/subclasses, the ability score, complete level progression, the best companions to pick, weapons, armor, and consumables.
This build page has been updated for thepatch 7 version of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Everything About the Cold in Baldur’s Gate 3
The Cold Build in Baldur’s Gate 3 focuses on dealing high damage to enemies by focusing on cold elemental damage. One of the best things about this build is that there are several cold spells and cantrips to acquire as the Sorcerer. You can use Cantrips like Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp, and Firebolt which are very powerful in the early game. They all deal high damage and additionally, acquiring the Ice Knife (spell) will certainly increase the potential of dealing cold damage. Moreover, if you are familiar with the Sorcerer, Wizard, or Cleric class, this build is very simple to make and use.
However, the Cold Build solely depends on element (cold) for potential damage. Moreover, as the Sorcerer cannot scatter water directly, you must multiclass into Cleric to gain the ability to spread water in an area. This will take our 1 level into Cleric and the rest of 11 levels to Sorcerer.
Features and Mechanics of Cold
The following list presents all the essential Tactician Build Cold Mechanics and Features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
How to Play Cold Build
The Cold Build is among some of the simple builds in Baldur’s Gate 3. It is easy to make and use as it mainly requires a strong spellcaster with cold elemental damage potential. The Sorcerer with Draconic Bloodline is the best spellcaster in Baldur’s Gate 3. Upon selecting the subclass, choose the Draconic Ancestry (White) to start with a cold elemental spell. Your main playstyle with the Cold Build in early game is slowing down enemies and crowd control. It is best to hire a hard-hitter companion in your team to deal with the inflicted targets in the area. As you level up, you will unlock more powerful spells, that both deal extensive cold damage and great for crowd control.
Below are some general tips on how to play the best Cold build in BG3 Tactician:
Character Creation
Race Choice for Cold
Wood Half-Elf is the best choice for a Cold Build because it gives shield proficiency, Darkvision, and the highest movement speed per turn in BG3. A secondary choice is the Human because you gain increased carrying capacity, skill proficiency, and shield proficiency as well. We highly suggest taking the Wood Elf due to its movement speed and default shield proficiency which is helpful early in Act 1.
The Sorcerer’s racial choice will not influence ability score, as race will get a +2 and +1 to spend regardless. This frees your race choice up to not completely hinder yourself based on ability score, but race features. Each of these races offers unique advantages that can enhance your combat prowess, survivability, or utility. Additionally, consider the roleplaying opportunities and character concepts that resonate with you.
Here is the bestracechoice for Cold Build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
Cold Classes and Subclasses
For the Cold Build Classes and Subclasses, go along with the following choices.
Draconic Bloodlineis the best subclass for the Sorcerer because you gain access to Draconic Resilience, Draconic armour class, and Draconic Ancestor. This allows you to focus on a specific elemental magic type and also have higher survivability. As we are focusing on a Cold Build, you can select the White Ancestry for Cold elemental magic.
The following is a list of the Sorcerer Subclasses for Baldur’s Gate 3:
Recommended Background and Skills for Cold Build
Entertaineris the Bestbackgroundfor the Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Cold Build. This choice mostly influences roleplaying and dialogue options aspects and allows you to create unique characters when playing the Cold Build. Additional choices are:
DeceptionandPersuasionare the bestskillsfor the Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Cold Build because they complement your class abilities and enhance your effectiveness in various situations. In Baldur’s Gate 3,skillsrepresent the abilities and proficiencies of your character that allow them to perform various actions and interact with the game world.Skillsare associated with specific attributes and are used to determine the success or effectiveness of certain actions or abilities. They can be edited during character creation or with companions, during respec or reroll screen.
Here are the skills for Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Cold Build.
Ability Score
The Best Ability Score for Cold Build is17 Charisma,16 Dexterity, and 14 Constitution.Charisma is your spell-casting modifier; the more you have, the greater damage and the better chance to hit a target. Dexterity helps with Armour Class, boosting the chance of not being hit. Lastly, Constitution is needed for a high health pool.
Below is the best ability score for a Cold Build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
you may increase your ability score via a quest in Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. verify to check out ourPermanent bonus guideon how you can boost your ability score through quests.
Illithid Powers For Cold
The best Illithid Powers for a Cold build are Luck of the Farm Realms, Black Hole, and Cull of the Weak. Luck of the Farm helps with critical hits and burst damage and, combined with Cull of the Weak, can trigger AOE damage passively. Black Hole requires you to take the Astral Tadpole in Act 2, but it sucks in 5 enemies, slows them, and can be recast for free. This is helpful in certain large-scale boss fights with many enemies. Below are the best Illithid Tadpole Powers for the Cold build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
Best Cold Build – Level Progression in Baldur’s Gate 3
Level one follows our character creator to pick all correct backgrounds, races, skills, and ability distribution, focusing on Charisma and Dexterity. Sorcerer also gets to choose their subclass at level one, select Draonic Bloodline and the Draconic Ancestry: White (Cold). You will want to use a Quarterstaff for your weapon and stick to “clothing.” It’s vitally important you do not use any armor on gear slots. The ability score has high Dexterity which will add to our AC total. you’re able to also use spells to pump this up higher, specifically Mirror Image if you have trouble with survivability. At level one, you will have access to four cantrips. You will also have access to two level-one spells along with two very important subclass features.
Here are the most important features at level 1 with a Draconic Sorcerer Build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
Draconic Resilience Explained
Sorcerer (Cold) Cantrip Recommendations
Sorcerer Spell Recommendations
At this level use your Chromatic Orb for small area damage and Magic Missile when you need guaranteed damage. Fire Bolt will hit hard and Shocking Grasp does great in melee range. Use Ray of Frost to deal cold damage which will also allow you to flee a melee target chasing you. Level two will introduce Metamagic which gives your build a lot more power early.
Draconic Sorcerer (Cold) Gameplay & Priorities
During the early phase of BG3, the Draconic Sorcerer is a powerful spellcaster who should equip a quarterstaff as early as possible. Your primary goal should be to recruit at least one melee heavy-hitter to your party. Spellcasters in BG3 feel weak in the first several levels and you’ll likely want a partner to increase your survivability. Moreover, look to acquire theElixir of Bloodlustor Potion of Invisibility. Bloodlust helps trigger an extra action on kill and Invisibility helps you stay alive if you’re in trouble.
Your overall priority with the Draconic Sorcerer build is the following:
Following these steps ensures a strong foundation, especially if you plan on playingsoloor onHonour Modedifficulty.
At level two you with our Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Cold Build you unlock Sorcery Points, Metamagic, and one additional spell. We suggest taking Ice Knife spell with Twinned Spell and Extended Spell for metagmagic class passives.
Metamagic lets you manipulate spells to add range, cast on multiple targets, and more. Sorcery Points can be converted into additional Spell Slots, allowing you to cast more spells in between long rests. At level two, you get to select two Metamagic Options out of four: Careful, Distant, Extended, and Twinned. We suggest taking Twinned and Extended.
In the next phase, you get more options, but these are the best at this stage. Twinned combined with Ice Knife gives you two casts on a single target which is huge damage early in the game. At this level, you can pick up one more spell from the Sorcerer spell’s list. We suggest picking up Ice Knife.
Level 2 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, and Ice Knife.
At Level 3 you will unlock more metamagic options, Heighted, Subtle, and Quickened Spell.Quickened spellis the obvious choice here because it allows us to use an attack as a bonus action, using one action to cast a spell and one via bonus action.
At this level, you can learn another spell, along with replacing a spell. You want to learn Misty Step and we do not have to replace any spell for now.
Quickened Spell Explained
With Quickened Spell, you have a way to cast area-based damage spells with Sorcery Points. Keep in mind, the cost is substantial early with Quickened Costing 3 Sorcery points. Early on, it’s better to use Chromatic Orb twice with Twinned then at level 5 and beyond you have flexibility in Sorcery Point usage. You may also see Burning Hands or Hellish Rebuke on the spell book chart, and some of those spells can be granted passively depending on your race.Dragonbornalso has an additional spell, High Elf Fire Bolt cantrip, and so on. So your spell book might look slightly different depending on the race choice you went with for the Best Sorcerer Build in Baldur’s Gate 3!
Level 3 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, and Misty Step.
At Level, you will gain a cantrip, spell, and feat. We recommend taking the Ability Improvement feat for an increase in Charisma by +2 giving you 17 overall. This will help with damage and landing spells.
So far, this build is set up mainly for defense as you learn the game. You rely on simple spells like Chromatic Orb and Ice Knife for damage and Shield and Misty Step for survival.
Level 4 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, and Misty Step.
At level 5 with our Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Cold Build your Sorcerer starts to feel very powerful with access to Level 3 spells. There are a lot of powerful spells to choose from at this point, but here’s our suggestion:
With this powerful level 3 spell, you can turn a large area into ice and make the movement of enemies harder. Moreover, you can follow up with the Ice Knife to deal additional Cold damage to enemies.
Level 5 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, Misty Step, and Sleet Storm.
At level 6, we suggest investing a level into theClericclass. To do this, simply click the + sign with two access formulticlass. Select your class then a popup will appear on what you may select. The reason we want to use the Cleric is mainly for theTempest Domainsubclass with the Create or Destroy Water spell. As the Sorcerer cannot cast the wet status by themselves other than throwing water bottles, etc. it is more efficient to get Cleric. Below is everything you need to get as you spent a Level in Cleric class.
Cantrip Selection
Level 6 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, Misty Step, Sleet Storm, and Create or Destroy Water.
Now, come back to the Sorcerer and level up to choose an additional passive feature. Here, you will get a choice to either pick an Elemental Affinity: Damage or Elemental Affinity: Resistance. We recommend you to select theElemental Affinity: Damageas it will give a boost to the sorcerer’s cold spells. Moreover, you will get the option to choose one more spell at this level. Pick the Counterspell (level 3).
However, you have to be cautious using this spell as it requires reactions. Save reactions for using this spell against the spellcasters.
Level 7 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, Misty Step, Sleet Storm, Create or Destroy Water, and Counterspell.
Leveling up your sorcerer class to Level 7 will grant you access to Level 4 Spells. These include some of the strongest spells in the game. We recommend you take theIce Stormspell as it further strengthens our build with crowd control.
The Ice Storm deals d2d8 bludgeoning damage and 4d6 cold damage in a massive 6m radius. This spell radius is enormous, and you want to ensure not to hit allies with it. Since it’s a level 4 spell, you can use it in conjunction with Sleet Storm or Ice Knife. You then have two sources of area damage.
Level 8 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, Misty Step, Sleet Storm, Create or Destroy Water, Counterspell, and Ice Storm.
Leveling up your sorcerer class to level 8 will grant you another Level 4 spell and a Feat. For the Feat, we will advise you to take the Elemental Adept: Cold as it will make the spells and attacks ignore the cold resistance.
For the next Level 4 spell, we recommend you pick theBanishmentspell. It will allow you to send a target to another plane of existence.
Level 8 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, Misty Step, Sleet Storm, Create or Destroy Water, Counterspell, Ice Storm, and Banishment.
Upon leveling up your sorcerer class to Level 9, you will gain access to Level 5 spells. Here we recommend you take the Cone of Cold spell as it synergize perfectly with Create or Destroy Water.
Cone of Cold is perfect for more area-based damage, especially if combined with Create or Destroy Water. you may also lean on scrolls for Banishment, Slow, and Confusion which is how I play this class. Loot books and you’ll get them constantly and free up your spell slots for big damage.
Level 9 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, Misty Step, Sleet Storm, Create or Destroy Water, Counterspell, Ice Storm, Banishment, and Cone of Cold.
Upon leveling up to level 10, the Sorcerer gets access to another spell, cantrip, and class passive. We recommend you take the Careful Metamagic Spell, Mage Hand Cantrip, and Hold Mpnster spell.
Level 10 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, Misty Step, Sleet Storm, Create or Destroy Water, Counterspell, Ice Storm, Banishment, Cone of Cold, and Hold Monster.
Upon leveling up the Sorcerer to Level 11, it will access the level 6 spells and my favorite spell in the entire game, which is Disintegrate. Our subclass also unlocks a free Fly movement addition.
The trick to using Disintegrate is pairing it with Twinned Magic. The spell can hit two targets in one cast, and both nearly hit 80 damage. That’s nearly 160 damage with my action. Moreover, you’re able to then fire up Quickened Metamagic for another cast with your bonus action, typically a follow-up area damage spell.
Level 11 Spell Loadout: Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Shield, Misty Step, Sleet Storm, Create or Destroy Water, Counterspell, Ice Storm, Banishment, Cone of Cold, Hold Monster, and Disintegrate.
Best Companions for Cold Build
Shadowheart,Gale, andLae’zelmake the bestcompanionsfor the Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Cold Build Guide. We do not recommend additional front-line fighters and damage dealers.
Best Gear for Cold Build
Here’s the best beginner gear, items, and equipment for Cold Build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
The following table presents the best gear, items, and equipment for the Cold Build in Baldur’s Gate 3:
Best Consumables, Potions, Ammunition, and Items
The following list is the bestconsumableitems that will aid in our Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Cold Build Guide:
Permanent Bonuses
Throughout Baldur’s Gate 3, you will have the ability to gain permanent bonuses to your character. These can grant additional spells, ability scores, and other bonuses. Permanent Bonuses are not displayed throughout the campaign but are vital to increase overall combat performance. We have all permanent bonuses here in a guide, but the most important ones for you to collect are listed below.
Build Summary – Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Cold
FAQs about the Cold build in Baldur’s Gate 3
What abilities should the Cold prioritize for my class?
Answer: Prioritize in Charisma, Dexterity, and Constitution abilities for the Throw Build in Baldur’s Gate 3.
What are the best feats for Cold builds?
Answer: For the first Feat, improve Charisma (+2) and then select the Elemental Adept: Cold as the second Feat for the Cold Build.
What are the best multiclass combos?
Answer: You do not really need a multiclass for the Cold build, but as we are using Sorcerer that cannot cast water directly, it is efficient to take a level in Cleric. Multiclassing into Cleric will provide the Create or Destroy Water spell which we can use for spreading water in an area. After that, you may use Cold spells of Sorcerer for extensive damage and crowd control.
Are there “must-have” items for Cold builds?
Answer: Elixir of Hill Giant Strength, Potion of Speed, and Elixir of Bloodlust are the must-have items for Cold builds.
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