What can you do as a free member?

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and unlock all our premium features and tools to enhance your gaming experience.

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and save articles to your watchlist and get notified when they're updated with new information.

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and save your favorite games for quick access later, synced across all your devices.

Member benefits illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you'll receive instant notifications when someone replies to your posts.

Comment rating feature illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you can make use of convenient features in the comments section, such as rating and sorting comments.

Premium archive feature illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you can access Premium articles that are exclusively available to members.

Site Interface

Guest
Free Member
Article Watchlist
Game Bookmarks
Cross-device Sync
Light/Dark Theme Toggle
User Profiles
Direct Feedback
Comment Rating

Game Tools

Guest
Free Member
Interactive Map Access
Interactive Map Pins
Interactive Map Comments
Interactive Map Pins Cross-Device
Check List
Event Choice Checker
Deck Builder Cross-Device
Message Board Notification
Message Board Cross-Device
Build Planner
Stat Calculator
Diagnostic Tool
Weapon/Armor Wishlist

Want more information?Learn more

Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3)

College of Lore Subclass Guide and Builds

Add to Watchlist

★ All Updates for Patch 5
☆ Beginner Guides for All Starter Players
★ Simple Character Creation Guide for beginners
☆ A Full Guide to Multiclassing
★ All Side Quests and Event Points
☆ All Races and Subraces

The College of Lore is a Bard subclass in Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3). Check out our guide for how to unlock the College of Lore subclass, its features, best races to use, as well as the best builds.

All Bard Subclasses
Bard Class Guide
BaldurCollege of Lore BaldurCollege of Swords BaldurCollege of Valor

List of Contents

College of Lore Subclass Overview

College of Lore Basic Information

Subclass Overview
Baldur College of Lore
You pursue beauty and truth, collecting knowledge from scholarly tomes to peasants' tales, and use your gifts to hold both audiences and enemies spellbound.
Parent Class Bard
How to Unlock Reach Bard Level 3.
Spellcasting Ability Charisma
Starting Subclass Features
・All Bard Class Features and Proficiencies.

How to Unlock the College of Lore Subclass

Available Once Your Bard Reaches Level 3

The College of Lore subclass will become available once your Bard reaches Level 3. In order to earn EXP and level up in Baldur's Gate 3, players will need to complete quests, discover new areas, or defeat enemies they find in the world.

College of Lore Subclass Features

College of Lore Features
Additional Proficiencies Cutting Words Additional Magical Secrets

Additional Proficiencies

Skill Description Related Stat
Arcana Recognise magic. Interact with enchanted items. Intelligence
Intimidation Be a bully. Threaten and induce fear. Charisma
Sleight of Hand Wield nimble fingers. Steal stuff.
Helps you pick locks and pockets, and disarm traps. 		Dexterity

After obtaining the College of Lore Subclass, you'll immediately gain to three additional skill proficiences which are Arcana, Intimidation, and Sleight of Hand.

Cutting Words Allow You to Penalize Enemy Attack Rolls

Baldur

At level 3, the College of Lore also grants the Bard the Cutting Word Reaction Skill. This is a reaction skill that you can use when inflicting voice related spells to enemies or when getting attacked. This is a great debuff since it reduces attack rolls, Abiltiy Checks, and even Attack damage!

Additional Magical Secrets Grants 2 Extra Spells

Aside from obtaining Magical Secrets at level 10 by default, you also gain 2 Extra Magical Secrets at level 6 from the Bard's College of Lore! These are strong spell that belongs to an entirely new spell pool from the Bard's regular spells!

Best Races to Use for College of Lore

High Half-Elf

The High Half-Elf is a great racial choice for the College of Lore as you get proficiency in Shields from your race to make up for only having Light Armor proficiency in the subclass. You'll also be able to obtain a neat offensive Cantrip, the Fire Bolt.

・Civil Militia - Civil Militia is where you'll be obtaining your Shield proficiency from.
・Darkvision - Allows you to cast out spells in the dark without obscuring your vision due to darkness.

College of Lore Builds

Best Ability Scores

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
8 16(+1) 13 8 12 17(+2)

As a College of Lore Bard, your highest ability score will naturally be Charisma as it improves your effectiveness with spellcasting.

Pump out some points into Dexterity as well since you'll be taking advantage of weapons with Finesse, which are weapons that will scale with DEX instead of Strength, only if your Dexterity is higher than Strength.

The third highest should be Constitution as it increases your hit points and durability in combat.

Equipment Choice

Spidersilk Armor

You can wear a Spidersilk Armor as it provides a slightly higher AC when compared with other light armor found early on in the game.

Spidersilk Armour: Armor Guide and How to Get

Cap of Curing

When Cap of Curing is equipped, your ally regains 1d6 hit points upon using Bardic Inspiration on them.

Cap of Curing: Armor Guide and How to Get

Baldur's Gate 3 Related Guides

Baldur

Bard Class Guide

All Bard Subclasses

All Bard Subclasses
Bard Class Guide
BaldurCollege of Lore BaldurCollege of Swords BaldurCollege of Valor

Comment

Post (0 Comments)

Author

Baldur's Gate 3 Walkthrough Team
This article was created by Game8's elite team of writers and gamers.
    Leave feedback(Login required)
    Please participate in our site
    improvement survey
    12/2025
    Would you assist in
    improving Game8's site?
    ×
    This survey will take about 1 minute.
    Your answers will help us to improve our website.
    We are listening to our users' valuable opinions and discussing how to act on them.
    The information collected through this survey will be used for the purpose of improving our services. In addition, the information will only be disclosed a part of a statistic in a format that will not allow identification of personal information.
    Begin Survey
    Not Now
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Advertisements.
    Amount of Ads
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Placement of Ads
    Timing of Ad Display
    Ad Loading Speed
    Safeness of Ads
    Content of Ads
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Quality of Articles.
    Amount of information
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Frequency of updates
    Speed of new information
    Accuracy of articles
    Understandibility of articles
    Readability of sentences
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Usability of the Site.
    Ease of finding information
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Loading Speed
    Use of Color
    Font Size
    Visibility of Images
    Easy to Understand Layout
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Message Boards, Comments.
    Ease of Writing
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Readability
    Ease in Finding Information
    Comment Quality
    Comment Quantity
    Admin Response
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Site's new design.
    Please rate our site's new design
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Do you think that the website's design change makes the site easier to use?
    Has the new design made it easier for you to find information on the site?
    Has the new design improved the overall visual appeal of the site?
    How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the new design of the site?
    ×
    How likely are you to recommend Game8 to someone you know?
    Very Unlikely
    0
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    Very Likely
    If you have other opinions regarding potential improvement to the website, please share them with us. We would appreciate your honest opinion.
    Note: This is a free response section, so you can proceed without entering anything.
    Note: Please be sure not to enter any kind of personal information into your response.
    ×
    Thank You
    ×
    Thank you for participating in our survey! Your answers will help us to improve the quality of our website and services.
    We hope you continue to make use of Game8.
    Close
    For other opinions or comments, go here.

    Rankings

    Popular Articles
    Message Board
    • We could not find the message board you were looking for.

    Gaming News

    Tides of Annihilation Gameplay Trailer Deep Dive: Dual Frontline System & More Analyzed

    Tides of Annihilation Gameplay Trailer Deep Dive: Dual Fr...

    Popular Games

    Recommended Games

    All rights reserved

    © 2023 Larian Studios. All rights reserved. Larian Studios is a registered trademark of arrakis nv, affiliate of Larian Studios Games ltd. All company names, brand names, trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. © 2020 Wizards of the coast. All rights reserved. Wizards of the coast, Baldur’s Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, and their respective logos. Are registered trademarks of wizards of the coast LLC

    The copyrights of videos of games used in our content and other intellectual property rights belong to the provider of the game.
    The contents we provide on this site were created personally by members of the Game8 editorial department.
    We refuse the right to reuse or repost content taken without our permission such as data or images to other sites.

    Baldur's Gate 3 Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

    Quick Access
    Guide Index

    All Quest Walkthroughs

    Main Quest Walkthroughs

    Side Quest Walkthroughs

    Prologue Side Quests
    Act 1 Side Quests
    Act 2 Side Quests
    Act 3 Side Quests

    Beginner Guides

    All Beginner Guides

    Bosses

    Act 1 Bosses

    Act 2 Bosses

    Act 3 Bosses

    Character Creation

    All Character Creation Guides

    Classes

    All Class Guides

    All Subclass Guides

    Barbarian Subclasses

    Bard Subclasses

    Cleric Subclasses

    Fighter Subclasses

    Monk Subclasses

    Rogue Subclasses

    Sorcerer Sublcasses

    Warlock Subclasses

    Wizard Subclasses

    Legendaries

    Legendary Weapons

    Legendary Armor

    Legendary Books

    Weapons

    Simple Weapons

    Martial Weapons

    Armor

    All Armor Types

    Accessories

    Accessory Types

    Spells

    All Schools of Magic

    Actions

    Actions by Type

    Illithid Powers

    Items

    All Item Types

    Origin Characters

    All Origin Characters

    All Non-Origin Characters

    Maps

    All Locations

    Latest News

    News and Updates