Note: Special thanks goes out to The Gray Ranger for helping with this information

The following table contains Baldur's Gate II Race modifiers. This information was obtained by creating a character of each Race using the patched version of BG2. The intent of this table is to aid the player in choosing the Race of their character by providing Race specific information in a concise form.

In the table, Special Abilities come from the Race description displayed during character creation. Information enclosed in parentheses in the notes section comes from the AD&D 2nd edition Players Handbook (the actual values used in BG2 may differ from these in some cases). Available Class & Multi-Class information came from available classes list displayed during character creation. The maximum natural abilities come from choosing a Fighter for each race and experimenting with these values during character creation (noting the description and verifying by subtracting points from some stats and adding to others to determine the maximums of all stats).

How can this table help you? Hopefully by allowing you to make character race comparisons to aid you in character creation and to help you answer the question "What is the best race for the character I plan to create?". At a glance, you should be able to determine for each Race: any special abilities, all classes available, and what stats enhancements or penalties are in play and in conjunction with other information available in the manual.

An example: Take the case of a Fighter. First, the table tells you that any Race can be a Fighter, big help, huh!. Lets look at the Dwarf and the Half-Orc. The primary statistic of a Fighter is Strength, the Dwarf has max Strength of 18(00), the Half-Orc 19. This means that the Dwarf has +3 to Hit and +6 to Damage due to his strength whereas the Half-Orc has +3 to Hit and +7 to Damage (from table on page 225 of the manual). In addition, the Dwarf has a weight allowance of 335 and the Half-Orc 485 due to strength. Also important to a Fighter (or any class) is Dexterity as it improves the armor class of the character. The Dwarf's Dexterity maximum is 17 giving an AC adjustment of -3 (see page 225 of manual). The Half-Orc has a maximum DEX of 18 giving him an AC adjustment of -4. Both the Dwarf and the Half-Orc have maximum Constitutions of 19 giving them both a level-up hit point adjustments of +5 (5 additional hit points each level), so they are equal here. So who should be the Fighter? Based on this information, the player can decide if the AC and attack/damage bonuses of the Half-Orc are more important than the Dwarf's Infravision and resistances.

Race	Max Str	Max Dex	Max Con	Max Int	Max Wis	Max Cha	Available Classes	Available Multi Classes	Notes
Human	18	18	18	18	18	18	Any/All	None	May Dual Class
Elf	18	19	17	18	18	18	Fighter, Ranger, Cleric, Mage, Thief, Sorcerer, Barbarian	Fighter/Thief, Fighter/Mage, Mage/Thief, Fighter/Mage/Thief	Infravision(60'), Resistance to Charm and Sleep (90%), bonus to Long Bow and Long Sword (+1)
Half-Elf	18	18	18	18	18	18	Fighter, Ranger, Cleric, Druid, Mage, Thief, Bard, Sorcerer, Barbarian	Fighter/Thief, Fighter/Mage, Fighter/Cleric, Mage/Thief, Cleric/Mage, Fighter/Druid, Cleric/Ranger, Fighter/Mage/Thief, Fighter/Mage/Cleric	Infravision(60'), Resistance to Charm and Sleep (30%)
Gnome	18	18	18	19	17	18	Cleric, Mage, Thief, Barbarian	Fighter/Thief, Fighter/Cleric, Fighter/Illusionist, Illusionist/Thief, Cleric/Illusionist, Cleric/Thief	Infravision(60'), Natural Resistance to Magic (+1 to saving throws for every 3.5 Con)
Halfling	17	19	18	18	17	18	Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Barbarian	Fighter/Thief	Infravision(30-60'), Resistance to Poison and Magic (+1 to saving throws for every 3.5 Con), bonus to Slings (+1)
Dwarf	18	17	19	18	18	16	Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Barbarian	Fighter/Thief, Fighter/Cleric	Infravision(60'), Resistance to Poison and Magic (+1 to saving throws for every 3.5 Con)
Half Orc	19	18	19	16	18	18	Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Barbarian	Fighter/Thief, Fighter/Cleric, Cleric/Thief	Known for High Strength and Constitution