9 Best Open-World RPGs with the Deepest Character Builds

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Best Open World RPGs With Deep Character Builds

Christian has three years of experience writing in the gaming industry, including guides and reviews, for publications such as Dualshockers, Attack of the Fanboy, and PC Invasion. He has been an avid gamer since he was a kid, viewing it as the best possible art form and medium. Some of his favorite genres include Survival Horror, Soulslikes, and RPGs, but he finds joy in almost any type of game.

There are tons of open-world games out on the market, and it seems like every developer these days is trying to enter the genre. However, not all open-world games offer deep character builds where players can experiment and create something unique to their adventure.

Deep build customization usually comes from the game having tons of weapons, armor, spells, allowing for endless combinations. It can also be found if a game has many systems that work together and synergize with one another, such as skill trees or armor slots that grant buffs and bonuses. When a game has all of these, the possibilities are endless and players can go wild with their build.

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If you're looking for an open-world game that allows you to create a build without many limitations, then we have the perfect list for you here. Here are the 10 best open-world RPGs with the deepest character builds.

9 Dragon’s Dogma 2

Choose Your Vocation

While the first Dragon’s Dogma offered a good amount of build variety, Dragon’s Dogma 2 offers more choices for players due to the inclusion of new vocations. There are 10 vocations to choose from in Dragon’s Dogma 2, each offering a ton of unique skills to choose from. Each vocation specializes in a certain playstyle, which will dictate how you engage in combat. For example, the Warrior is pure strength, while the Trickster uses illusion spells to command the battlefield. Each vocation feels vastly different, and since players can switch vocation on the fly, the game offers a ton of diversity.

The game even offers a unique Augment system, which are passive abilities that enhance the character’s potential in combat. While each Augment can only be unlocked by upgrading its corresponding vocation, once it's unlocked, it can be carried over to another vocation. This system can be compared to Final Fantasy Tactics' skill system, where you can carry over skills to another class once they're unlocked. In other words, this allows for more customization for your character in Dragon’s Dogma 2.

8 Horizon: Forbidden West

Elemental Damage

Believe it or not, Horizon: Forbidden West has surprising depth when it comes to character builds. The game’s skill trees are divided into distinct paths: Warrior, Hunter, Trapper, Survivor, Infiltrator, and Machine Master. Each of these paths offers unique abilities catered to their specific fields, allowing players to pick and choose from them to create a build that works best for their playstyle. For example, players can focus on both Warrior and Survivor to create a build that focuses on melee combat and healing. Since there are so many options in each of these skill trees, there are many combinations.

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Horizon: Forbidden West adds build depth through varied ammo types, elemental effects, and rarity tiers. Some examples include Impact, Tear, Plasma, Acid, Fost, Burn, or Shock damage, all of which directly affect enemy behavior and how players engage with combat. Additionally, players can find a variety of outfits and armor in the world that contain a unique set of skills and passives, such as increased health, stealth, stamina efficiency, etc. All of these systems working together allow players to experiment and create a build of their own.

7 Dragon Age: Inquisition

Pick Your Playstyle

Dragon Age: Inquisition offers deep character builds through multiple systems that reward experimentation. Each of the three classes, Warrior, Mage, and Rogue, has its own specializations that can dramatically change the playstyle of the class, such as a Knight Enchanter that focuses on melee magic or an Assassin that takes a stealth approach. These specializations allow players to customize their characters to their liking, making each adventure feel unique in terms of gameplay.

Additionally, Dragon Age: Inquisition offers in-depth skill trees that contain both active and passive abilities, encouraging players to synergize between the two to create a deadly build. Add on the fact that there is a decent amount of crafting, which allows players to gain buffs through weapon materials, and the potential of creating an incredible build, one that is unique to your character, is unlimited. Not to mention that the game offers a plethora of weapons, spells, and ability combos with companions.

6 Xenoblade Chronicles X

Master Weapon Combinations

Xenoblade Chronicles X is a massive game, having a gigantic open world and deep character builds. The build variety revolves around weapon combinations, class specialization, and augmenting gear, allowing players to create high-damage dealers, tanks, or support roles. Each character that joins your party in Xenoblade Chronicles X has their own strengths and weaknesses, making party composition and synergy extremely important. In other words, you're not just making a build for one character in this game, you're also making, what I like to call, a "party build."

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The only downside to this game is that it can take a while for it to pick up the pace, meaning you won't be fully engrossed in its build creation systems until a handful of hours in. However, I highly recommend sticking with it and letting everything come together, such as unlocking all characters, becoming able to utilize Overdrive Arts, and progressing further in the deep skill tree. Once you hit the 10-hour mark or so, you'll begin to create some incredible builds and realize how truly powerful you can make your characters.

5 Genshin Impact

Gacha Builds

Just because Genshin Impact is a free-to-play title doesn’t mean that players should underestimate its depth. Genshin Impact has some of the deepest character builds in the open world genre, mainly due to its layered progression systems and elemental combat mechanics. If you aren’t familiar with this game, it’s important to know that there are a ton of characters to choose from, each with their own unique “kit.” These kits include unique standard attacks, elemental skills, elemental bursts, and passive talents, all of which feel entirely different from one another.

While players will upgrade their characters through natural progression, they can optimize all characters in their party further by using Artifacts. Artifacts are equippable items that grant stat bonuses, such as increasing crit rate, crit damage, energy recharge, elemental mastery, HP, and more. Weapons deepen character builds even further, as each of them provides unique passives that can help create synergy between members of your party. Since Genshin Impact is a Gacha game, players will constantly be adjusting their character builds as they continuously get new items, artifacts, weapons, etc.

4 Fallout: New Vegas

S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

Out of all the Fallout games, Fallout: New Vegas arguably has the deepest character builds. Unlike most games on this list, Fallout doesn't just allow players to create builds that focus on weapons, guns, and damage in general. It also lets players focus on builds that help with the story, NPC interactions, and engaging with the surrounding environment. For example, players can raise the Lockpick stat to become better at stealing, convince NPCs to do what you want them to through the Speech stat, and even get better prices from shop owners through Barter.

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When it comes to combat, players can create a unique build through the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system, which offers starting attributes such as Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Each of these attributes determines the type of build that will most likely be the focus of your adventure. Additionally, every two levels, players will get the chance to select two perks to unlock that offer two unique bonuses. As you continue to level up, you will slowly mold your character into who you want him or her to be. Also, the game has a ton of different weapons, which deepens build variety even further.

3 Cyberpunk 2077

Hacking and High Damage

Cyberpunk 2077 had a rough launch, but after a couple of years and a ton of patches later, it has turned into one of the best open world RPGs that offer deep character builds. Creating a build in this game is definitely a slow start, but after progressing a bit, unlocking more of its mechanics, and upgrading your character, the number of options for your character build is astonishing. The build creation process includes selecting attributes, perks, weapons, and Cyberware, all of which there are plenty of.

Whether you want to focus on stealth, pure damage, or even hacking, there is a build for you. The best part of Cyberpunk 2077 is how different some of the weapons are, ranging from standard pistols to smart weapons that offer unique abilities, such as ammo that tracks targets. Additionally, there are even powerful katanas that players can equip if they want to take on the role of a ninja or samurai. Due to the deep build variety in this game, Cyberpunk 2077 is a game with a ton of replayability.

This Classic RPG Still Holds Up

No matter what type of gamer you are, RPG fan or not, you have heard of Skyrim. It is one of the most popular games ever made, offering an expansive world filled with incredible lore, exciting quests, and, of course, deep character builds. The systems are so complex that the game essentially allows you to create whichever build your brain can think of. This is possible through the vast amount of weapons, spells, and armor, as well as the ability to choose a Race, which ultimately determines the type of set of abilities your character will have.

Players can choose to roleplay numerous different classes. For example, you can decide to become a Paladin, a character with heavy armor that combines sheer strength with healing spells. Even more devastating, you can become a black mage, a character that focuses on using deadly spells to destroy their opponents. And then, of course, you can create something entirely unique that other players haven’t thought of by combining your own set of spells and weapons. One of my favorites is dual-wielding knives and taking on an assassin role.

1 Elden Ring

Build Variety is Endless

Elden Ring, which can easily be considered FromSoftware’s magnum opus, offers an insane amount of build variety for players. Not only does it allow players to focus solely on melee, magic, or a combination of the two, but it also offers incredible depth to those categories due to the sheer amount of weapons, sorceries, and incantations. For reference, there are around 400 weapons to find, 100 sorceries, and 100 incantations. This essentially makes the number of combinations endless.

While there are tons of “meta builds” online for players to copy, focused purely on using the best weapons and spells, the game is at its most fun when you discover a build on your own. Maybe you want to use a Greatsword while casting ranged sorceries with your offhand, or perhaps you wish to use Frenzied Flame incantations to drive your enemies mad and earn a buff while doing so. You can even use hand-to-hand weapons for a martial arts build, which was added in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. Discovering a build that works for you in Elden Ring is exciting, and the sky is the limit.