Baldur’s Gate 3 Guide - Best Early Game Spells (Most players Don't Know How Good These Are)
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
- In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Guide, we’ll take a look at 11 Early Game Spells that you should absolutely have in your repertoire, regardless of your party makeup, that you are absolutely not using enough. There are so many great early-game spells in BG3, but we’ve narrowed it down to the very best of the best in this Guide.
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Timestamps:
0:00 - BG3 Best Early Game Spells
0:57 - Sleep
2:15 - Longstrider
2:59 - Shield
3:37 - Minor Illusion
4:16 - Colour Spray
4:58 - Healing Word
5:49 - Bless
6:34 - Magic Missle
7:24 - Guidance
8:07 - Sanctuary
8:44 - Disguise Self
9:48 - Final Thoughts
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I like how you hearted your own comment
easily the most important thing about MM, and totally overlooked. it's fantastic for nuking concentration
Forgot a very important part of Magic Missile: Each missile that you send towards an enemy that is concentrating, procs a concentration check on that enemy, potentially making them drop concentration.
I didn't know that. Good tip
Best bang for your buck concentration breaker in the game...
Also works against unstoppable buff, later in the game.
It’s also great for stripping stacks of Unstoppable, like on the Orin fight. Each missile counts as a separate attack. A single upcast of rank 5 magic missiles strips all 7 Unstoppable stacks that Orin gets per turn during the ritual.
It also deals force damage, and I haven't found many enemies that have resistance to it (compared to other damage types)
Disguise self also allows you to get into small passages that normally only small races can get into
I thought they patched that out since it's a disguise and not actually your characters "real" size.
@@V3x0rworks with gnome too
@@V3x0r i just tried it the othe rday and was able to turn into a gnome to get into a small hole
You can also do that with the spell/scroll/potion of gaseous form for anyone wondering if there are other ways to get through the holes.
@@V3x0r I used it last night to get in to to see Mol in the druid's grove.
great video, I think what's important for people to understand is that an enemy with 1 HP can still do the same damage in their turn as one with 100 HP, the key is preventing their turns, essentially the SKIP card in UNO.
Magic missile can also activate levers in otherwise unreachable places since it can path around the environment.
Important info, thanks
BUMP
Christ that's such a good point. Literally just got to a point in ACT 3 where this is essential. HERO
Late to the party but there are levers and things you can shoot with a bow or activate with magic hand.
So can crossbow arrows and the firebolt cantrip that elves get!
I played a deep gnome who would use disguise self to interact with people as a precaution because he was used to being treated badly in the Underdark. By the end of my playthrough I felt like he didn't need it as he could stand on his own. It's a spell that really added to my experience!
This is so immersive. Great play king
@@BeLikeNexus thank you, king
I love it
It's so cool when i.e. you disguise as a drow at the goblin base etc. Just walk in ;)
Awesome!
Evocation wizards can eventually add int (should be +5) to each magic missile, makes it even more deadly and a powerhouse when upcast.
Agree Magic Missile is one of the best spell for Wizzard Sorc and Warlocks in D&D. Because of its Dmg type it hits realy hard when cast at high level. Most High level Enemies a DM can throw at you have high resistens to elements or even immunity. There isn't mutch that has resistens or immunity to Magic/Force dmg. Don't know how it translates to the Game because i am still in act 2 right now and the max level in BG3 is 12. So no 9thier spells for us like Invulnerability, Power Word: Kill, Time Stop or Meteor Swarm. 🤥
Thanks! I am playing an evoker wizard and watched a number of these videos after character creation and got worried I picked a lame class. There is SO MUCH to learn about this game
@@ShintomQQand stealing the monsy back 😂
Especially with the necklace that gives you 1 free cast of MM per day AND adds one extra dart to every casting of the spell, essentially freely upcasting every MM by one spell slot. BONKERS.
Command is so under appreciated, command drop weapon basically turns most early game threats in to pushovers. Id go as far as to say it might aswell be an instant kill for a good chunk of enemies if it succeeds.
Command: Drop on the cambrion with the flaming sword in the intro fight and get a great weapon
@@Demonstherehonestly rather just use the explosives to kill him. You get more do that way
@@Phantom-bh5ruwhy do that? You can just beat him to a pulp the old fashioned way. No need to cheese the fight. Shield of faith on the mind flayer. Then beat the devil down and take his things.
It’s good to show the devil who’s boss.
Not on tactician I believe@@zero11010
@@zero11010Shadow heart does excellent damage with her starting necromancy spell. You can just have her do that, along with everyone chipping him away, since he won't attack anyone but the flayer.
I was shocked how good longstrider is in this game. Increasing the whole parties movement is great. Especially when you have a lot of people that use melee attacks.
It’s also a ritual. You can buff the whole group with it outside of combat without using a spell slot and it lasts until you long rest (or die)
Great for that fighter with GWM.
It comboes superbly well with Wildheart Karlach and Aspect of the Elk. Everyone runs 15ft faster now which is fantastic for closing distances or fleeing from enemies since most of them can only run 30ft.
Karlach herself runs at 55ft due to her Barbarian class buffs, long strider and aspect of the elk.
Haste her or give her a potion of speed and she can catch up to any one, even teleporting assholes lol
@@santosic yes I've got her in on of my parties with that combo. Gave her aspect of the wolf for the first option so she gives me and another party member advantage on our melee attacks when she is nearby. I also have a sorcerer that can twin haste on two party members.
It combos even better with a party specialised on skirmishing...
Many enemies in the game don't have a ranged attack, and most of those that do have a shit ranged attack compared to their melee attack. So you just cast longstrider and kite the enemy.
And the best part about ranged is that you can focus fire really effectively, constantly killing whatever enemy is the closest to catching up with the party/ whichever enemies do have decent ranged options.
I love magic Missle because if a enemy has multiple "holograms" you can shoot the missle at every target to determine the real one. And it's always fun to shout Fox 2 before firing the heat seeker ^^
Great movie reference that I bet a bunch of people unfortunately missed. Eagle 20, Fox 2!!!
Another important part of Magic Missle: There are some enemies (especially later on) with barriers that need certain amount of hits to break. Each dart counts as a hit so you can strip the barriers quickly.
You guys need to play with the Command spell more! Probably the strongest and most flexible level 1 spell in the game
Absolutely. One of my favorite spells to have and turned some tides with it.
To be honest, I've only started using it at MUCH later levels, and was very impressed with how well it performs. It's a video game implementation of Suggestion (admittedly, with a lower duration)... Performs really well. In the later stages, delaying, say, a boss turn can be REALLY impactful. It also up-casts really well. And, the best part is: It doesn't require concentration! It's one of the only "control" spells in this game that doesn't require concentration.
Use it on the Demon Commander dude fighting the Mind Flayer on the Nautiloid to get his Flaming Sword...
I got an endgame greatsword in act 1 because of the command spell. It really is broken.
Command is the perfect spell to get a nice flaming sword in the tutorial. Command that asshole to drop his weapon and scoop it up - no kill required, but you may want to quick save before in case he resists. Shadowheart can learn it from the second she escapes her pod.
Another thing for disguise self, they don't just change your appearance it also changes your size. If you're a party of medium characters disguise self can change you to a small size and creep through small holes or tunnels.
Create or Destroy Water is singlehandedly the most underrated early game spell period. You can cast it on top of enemies, then have another party member throw any source of lightning damage on top of it to fry huge swathes of enemies simultaneously.
Also combos well with the gear that gives you lightning charges while standing in water. "Wet" is also a condition for gear and buffs that activate when applying a condition.
True if this is your only option to apply the wet condition or enemies are close together. But if its only a single target, then I don't waste a spell slot for that and let another character just throw a water bottle instead as you can find so many of them.
@crazy-tommy Exactly, I saty collecting water bottles for this reason. I also have a party member carry around a water barrel too.
That create water staff you get from the druids has paid for itself twice over with the utility I've gotten from it.
In my party it would do exactly fuck all
I know this video was specifically about early game spells, but magic missile actually gets really strong late game, too, if you're using it on an evocation wizard. They gain the ability to add their int modifiers to the damage of evocation spells, and that applies to every hit of a magic missile spell. So even using a level 1 spell slot to cast, you're adding a total of 15 damage to your damage rolls for that spell.
The amount of speak dead I missed without knowing about disguise self
i've watched more than 5 million BG3 videos so far, and this has been the most informative of them all. good job, good video
Also Friends Cantrip: Basically a free Advantage on social checks. Btw, worth consider getting 1 wizard level to every caster: it lets you learn any wizard spell from scrolls (the best list) from any level your COMBINED spellcaster level could cast. O.P.
Theres a mod that lets you do the same thing without needing wizard subclass.
The downside to sleep in BG3 compared to 5e is that shoving is only a bonus action (compared to needing a full action to wake a sleeping creature in 5e) and the AI loves to shove its allies awake, and still have the capability to run up to you and attack in the same turn. It's still fantastic when targeting creatures that don't have awake allies nearby.
I think its fantastic for creatures that Rage or have a similar feature. You can take out raging monsters mid fight before they can hurt anyone else
And when there's a ton of low HP enemies all over. Goblin and Kobold battles, for example. Maybe a swarm of low level intellect devourers.
Still not a spell I use, though, personally.
the nice thing is that this applies to us as well if an enemy puts us to sleep! a double edged sword if you will
That failed check at 0:27 is brutal lmao
Been looking for something like this. Early game spells are so crucial in this game, especially for Tactician. The hardest part of the game is Act 1 TBH as you probably don't have much cheese as opposed to the cheese we can get in higher levels.
I think the issue with act 1 is poor fight encounters. For three years they had hardcore gamer nerds telling each other they’re not good enough if they can’t do all of act one and then say it was easy with a level 4 player cap. And the guides for how to do every fight were available.
Now … normal people have the game and normal people don’t have patience for that nonsense.
The game leaves you pinballing at level 3-4 looking for a reasonable fight. There are boss fights all over the place!
The gith with a red dragon at level 3? No thanks. They’re level 5 and 6 and they have a dragon. You can let the dragon leave. Then they’re still level 5 and 6.
The beholder? Nope.
Pair of Minotaurs that push you off off cliffs for instant death? That’s really hard.
Bulette? That’s also really hard.
How about the spider Queen and two adds plus 15 of her babies? If you do that fight without cheese it’s REALLY hard.
Maybe the hag and all her illusionary selves? That’s s really hard fight and you need to get through a pretty rough couple of puzzles to get there.
Maybe you should do the gnoll cave with a bunch hard gnolls. That’s WAY easier than the others I’ve mentioned. Hope you got lucky and started the fight the right way from the right direction!
There is the tavern with the fake paladins of tyr. Those are level 4 and 5 (I think). Still way easier than the spider Queen. Hard. But can be done for sure.
There is the whole army full of goblins. The dozens of druids and Tieflings in a fortified location are afraid of these. But, you and 3 buddies? Go for it! Multiple boss fights. It’s STILL easier than any of the other fights I’ve mentioned (at least until you walk out the front door). But, should it be? It’s an army! Why would it even occur to you to attack an army? In the second act if you try to go to Bauldur’s Gate “early” there is an army in the way. Try to continue and you’re immediately locked up … because of course you are. It’s an ARMY! But, the goblin camp doesn’t count. Totally different logic … somehow.
Act 1 is significantly harder than act 2. It isn’t because you’re low level. It’s because there are too many fights designed to be walls for the player.
The owlbear fight is a cakewalk compared to these other act 1 fights and that’s still reasonably challenging at level 3 if you’re a new player (do you know how to take advance of action economy, do you have gear, do you know which spells are good, do you know how to use bonus actions, do you have two extra helpers with you, do you know how to set an ambush).
"CHEESE!! Cheese for everyone!" - Sheogorath
@@zero11010 - I've noticed the people who struggle in a lot of these fights suffer one or both of the following reasons; 1, they don't use a sound strategy and tactics, but just clump up out in the open and try to focus all their efforts in dealing damage only. 2; they have really shitty rolls.
I'm not going to outline my successful strategies and tactics for all those battles, as that should be part of the fun. Most of those battles you listed are quite manageable with some clever thinking. Auntie Ethel's duplicates have 1 HP regardless of what the HP bar says, because you're not supposed to know which one the real one is. So spells that hit multiple targets like Scorching Ray, Magic Missile, Eldritch Blast; or fighters with multiple attacks per action, and a bow, can knock those illusions out pretty steadily. Even barbarians can bring them down well with their higher movement and strength based leaps to close the distance. AoE objects like Alchemist's Fire bottles, or Acid Vials; which don't require a saving throw against since they are 'splash' attacks.
As for the Gith + dragon; in a tabletop game, the DM would probably say something like, "You weren't supposed to fight them." Then again, any decent DM would already know that doesn't matter because your players will do exactly the opposite of what you intended them to do from the beginning. So on that, I do agree that the level six Gith warriors, plus an adult red dragon, is way too much for four level 4 adventurers. Though not impossible, definitely likely to be the most difficult fight in the game save for the very very last battle of the game just for the logistics.
I still hate the spider queen so much that I typically ignore all the spiders and her, and take out those clutches with everything I've got. Usually starting with an alchemist fire in the first clutch, and then hauling ass to hit the other one too. haha
@@zero11010 Maybe having experience with games like Neverwinter nights and pathfinder honed my skills more than the average player because I breezed through most encounters. I didn't knew so many players were having trouble with the goblin cap until I checked in to see the stories how people handled that place.
Also why wouldn't you cheese the fight against the spider queen? Would you have a fair fight with a bear? They made her walk over the web to give you an advantage, why not use it?
I was really cheap with the spider and just shot a thunder arrow and knocked her down into the abyss on the first round.. worked, though.@@zero11010
2:17 sure would be nice if ritual spells SAID they were ritual spells on the level up screen.
I want to give a shout out to the spell Friends. It's an absolute game changer for dialogue options as you get to roll an additional dice, and it takes the higher of the two. I can't tell you how many times I've done this, and one of them would've been a critical failure, but instead, I get to pass the check. It's made my paladin and bard classes OP in all dialogue checks
Also can get it as a cantrip on certain characters
You forgot one very important spell - Command!
This spell in Shadowheart arsenal allows you to force opponents to skip their next turn, or drop their weapons, or just move towards you for an entire turn. It could be upcast to target more targets.
This thing alone could win you a lot of fights... except with undead.
All of the options given here that offer crowd control, like sleep and blind, do not require a saving throw check. If you can cast it, it will work. Command has saving throws. Just like immobilize target. We all use those two, the point of this video was to showcase the ones we don't use. Not the onese everyone uses...
@@Mebsuta from this point of view - totally agreed.
But from the name as best early game spell - Druids spike growth will carry a lot of fights, if you position your party right.
And lvl 3 is quite fast to obtain.
If your melee character goes after the caster; Drop Weapon, if it succeeds, then grabbing the dropped weapon with your melee character so the boss or whoever can't even pick up the weapon and rearm themselves is a great maneuver.
Thank you for your guides! My wife and I are new to this and have been playing BG3 together. Your guides videos have been a godsend to us. 🙇♂️
Makes me happy! We game together as a couple too :D
I found Aid to be very helpful in the early levels (and still remains strong when upcasted in mid-late game) when your squad is fairly squishy, you can easily use one spell slot to give everyone a permanent 5 or even 10 HP boost until long rest, when it results in a 20-30% HP increase early game to mid-game, what's not to love?
aid also heals 5 hp when you cast it and works at range so if you have multiple party members down you can cast aid at range and pick them all back up at once
Even in late game this spell can be amazing. Ot will effect your entire party, which includes all of the powerful late game summons and familiars. My current standing party size is 9, which at 15 hp a head means a bonus 135hp in your health pool.
@@darby2314my late game daily party buffing involved Heroes Feast from my druid and then a level 4 Aid. Totaling up to 40 more max hp for the whole party
It also works for all summons & familiars. Necromancer + Cleric + Oathbreaker Paladin = absolute winning combo.
@@zylnada My main is a Druid so I can't wait to abuse that haha.
Healing word:
The real magic happens when you have gear that buffs healing spells. It’s even more pronounced on a life cleric that gets additional buffs to healing.
1D8 Vs 1D4 is a pretty big jump. An average of 4.5 Vs an average of 2.5. 2 health may not seem like a ton, but it’s 80% of that 2.5 heal.
BUT … you don’t just get 1D8 or 1D4. You also get your wisdom modifier added in. That’s another 3 at low level. So, now it’s 7.5 Vs 5.5. Now it’s a 36% increase. That’s a lot less.
But what if you got the boots from the goblin camp that add 3 temp hit points?
Now it’s 10.5 Vs 8.5. That’s 23% more healing.
What if you’re a life cleric and get an extra +3 to your low level healing spells? 13.5 Vs 11.5. 17% extra healing.
What about when your wisdom is 18 and you have the ring that increases healing by 2? 16.5 Vs 14.5. 13% additional healing.
An action is a really big deal. Having to run all around the battle can ALSO be a really big deal. Healing with a bonus action instead is amazing! Healing at a distance and only needing to use a bonus action is HUGE!
The more modifiers you get the less of a difference the dice make in your output.
(There are more modifiers to your healing you can get than this)
LASTLY -
Don’t wait until people are unconscious to heal them. If they go unconscious definitely heal them. But, keep them from getting knocked out. That character loses an action when they’re revived that way.
You SHOULD NOT try to use healing to keep everyone full at all times Though, life domain cleric and a bard are the secret to doing this (2 massive AOE channel divinity per short rest and 3 short rests per long rest). What you want to do is heal when people get to about half health … roughly. You want to keep everyone 2 turns away from being knocked out. When the fight ends no one should be at max health. Be comfortable with damaged companions. But, make sure they don’t get knocked out if you can help it (it’ll still happen from time to time).
Yeah, the healer gear really makes encounters so much easier. Minor, vague spoilers on equipment below.
Got a staff that makes bless do +2d4 for attacks & saves and +3d4 for spell attack rolls.
Gauntlets that grant blade ward to people healed.
Think there's also some equipment that removes poison on heal too.
I made shadowheart a life cleric and got a bunch of healing buff gear and doing mass healing word she heals like 25 health for everyone within range and gives 5 temp hit points its so good
@@angel__king focus on her channel divinity. Save those mass healing words if you can. They’re a great backup.
If you’re going to do that … try a short rest squad.
The biggest thing that snows you down is running out of resources. You can build a team that gets new resources on short rest (mostly). You can also swap people out. As they get low.
A bard is key for this. They give you an extra short rest. This … gives you the health from an extra short rest, and also the health from two more channel divinity. It meshes really well with a battlemaster fighter and a warlock (both of whom get resources back on short rest). From level 4 through 9 I only needed to take one long rest per level.
Lore bard’s cutting words is really useful for this. They recharge on short rest also. They can be used to force attacks to miss and to force enemy saving throws to fail. This makes each cutting words the equivalent to a good heal spell that recharges on rest (because if it wasn’t used you’d need to heal that amount of damage to get back to where you were). I made the bard the lock picker, face of the party, alternate healer, and support caster. The life cleric is also a really strong tank. This means I have two core party members and two companions I can swap out. The only things I need from companions are damage so I can rotate them in as needed.
I just keep a huge stock of healing potions and have whoever needs healing use one when they need to. You can use items from any character's inventory in combat, regardless of how far away you are.
@@Skaftholu that won’t work at higher levels.
This is simply the best BG3 tip video i have found. I respecced Gale and now the game is more fun and less frustrating. Big thanks.
I would also say the lvl 2 spike field stuff (im not a dnd player) from the druid spells is super useful. It creates a large area where enemies take damage for walking through it. So if you use it in a doorway and stand in the other room, most melee enemies die on the way to you. I cleared the whole goblin camp with like 2 uses of this spell. Inside and outside.
Spike growth is epic
Hey if you play baldurs gate 3, it is a dnd game. You're a dnd player. They also use the correct names from dnd, so you can't use not playing dnd as an excuse to not remember the names of spells, as the game tells you the correct name for the matching spell in traditional dnd
Stacking this with sanctuary in situations with a ton of enemies (like the goblin camp) is moderately broken, since you can hold onto concentration for much longer. That's also why I took the war caster feat as a moon druid, and so far, it is turning out to be the most fun build I've tried.
This was extremely helpful for me as I haven't played these kinds of games before and I'm especially having trouble with all of the spells. Thank you!
Darkness - I think most people put it off because it blinds everyone, including their party. However, the disadvantage of your blindness and the advantage of their blindness cancel each other out. What this really does is prevent all ranged attacks from entering or exiting the space, meaning enemies are forced to get into melee range, even those pesky archers. Very useful for combat control.
There is so much to go through and get into in this game so you easily miss the simple and obvious stuff like these. Thanks for pointing it out. Very helpfull.
Color spray:
I find I would always rather use thunderwave or burning hands. If you have multiple targets under 33hp those damaging first level spells do a pretty good job of weakening them enough to be finished with a single hit.
The blindness only lasts a single turn. That’s not much.
I’ve experimented this with the low level ring that gives color spray on characters that don’t typically have spells or AOE options.
Best people to use color spray are non-casters. You can find a Color Spray ring from the harpy encounter next to Emerald Grove. If your movement didn't quite reach the enemy to melee them, blast them with the ring. Even better if multiple enemies are in the cone.
@@noway8662 yeah. I mentioned having the ring. But, it’s like 30 combined HP worth of enemies. If that’s 10-15HP per enemy … a 3D6 burning hands (average damage 10.5) has the same range and a good chance to kill three 10 HP targets or at least a couple of them. This feels better to me than one round of blind and still needing to devote actions to handling them.
But, you should play as you like. 👍
@@zero11010 Keyword CHANCE, being certain something will work is a huge advantage because you can plan accordingly, and speaking of advantage, blind is one of the nasties debuffs in the game, having the enemy crippled is sometimes better than betting on a killing roll, because an enemy is equally lethal with 1hp as it was at full health and at the close range you need to be for burning hands your caster is in trouble if the rng goods are not in a good mood.
@@zzxp1 you should definitely play as you like. I do one long rest per level. Seems like a lot of other players long rest every couple of fights. Feels like I’m doing something right. Should be level 11 in the next day or two (I’m about 60% into level 10 and so far I’ve only taken one short rest with two more short rests to go). I don’t use cheese in fights and I respec characters pretty often to explore build designs (rather than rely on a set thing that works).
Personally I don’t care for color spray. You do you though. 👍
@@zero11010 Wellm of course at higher levels there are tons of other better things you can do with your action, but at lower levels giving advantage to your attacks and disadvantage to the attacks of the enemy without any chance to save is pretty damn strong.
Magic missile is truly one of the most versatile and reliable spells in the game, late into act 3 at level 12 im still using it regularly.
I wear on gale a ring that makes you deal +2 dmg with every attack and every missile procs the extra +2 dmg.
Where did you get that😮
I won the last fight in tactician thanks to spam missiles 😂 because of range and 100% hit chances 🎉 it will remain in my mind forever
The poison ring? Thought it only worked on melee
there is a strictly better version of lvl 5 magic missile if you raid loarcan's library btw, highly reccomend it
There's a ring that gives you +1 missile and another that gives +2 acid damage.
Thank you so much for this video! I was focused on damage spells before wondering why things weren’t working.
Just the fact that you put the spells on your thumbnail is amazing, you’ve outdone yourself yet again
Many just need to understand that "until Long Rest" spells that are non-concentration can and should be used outside of combat.
Ritual* spells don't require a spell slot, non ritual ones might.
@@JohnDoe-jg4cceven if they do that’s irrelevant. Those spells become permanent buffs in exchange for a few slots. Mage armor is a common example. There is next to no reason to not use it immediately after each long rest.
@@SH1NK1R01 "next to no reason to" other than to use those spell slots to deal damage or disable enemies for x amount of turns to finish combat encounters faster instead? I've never had the need to use mage armour once in a full playthrough on tactician difficulty.
@@JohnDoe-jg4cc a single level 1 slot that will keep its effect for every combat until next rest. or a single cast of a level 1 spell in a single combat. wow you have no brain.
Great video. I put in 100 hours into BG3 and still learned some things!
Helpful video, thanks! As a cleric myself I learned to use many of them for good crowd control.
Don't forget, sleep doesn't work on elves and half-elves.
One thing to note with magic missile is that depending on the armor class/saving throw of the enemy, it can be mathematically the strongest spell, or at least a very powerful one because it's average damage isn't lowered by a chance to miss in the calculation.
Word of warning: Casting Guidance in dialog and then starting combat will use up the casting characters action for the first round.
Note that there is an amulet with Guidance on a skeleton located on a hill southwest of the druid grove gate, handy if you don't plan on having any Cleric or Druid in your party. There's another amulet with Speak With the Dead in a fairly obvious place in the eastern crypt, so you don't really need to take this spell. Speak With Animals is a handy spell to have, but note that it's only cast on self so you want it on your main conversation character.
All the Ritual spells are handy to have among your party. Someone in the party should have Enhance Leap and Featherfall, though it can be a prepared caster that swaps them in as needed. Someone should have Longstrider.
Finally, and this is a very powergamey move, you can abuse Hirelings to cast Longstrider and all the non-Ritual 'Until Long Rest' buff spells like Mage Armor, Protection from Poison, Darkvision and so on without wasting any spell slots on your main party.
I totally do that last part with Gale. I think it's a fair trade considering I helped him with his magic item problem. Also helps give my my character that's a wizard more preps, so I can prepare something other than longstrider.
Aid is also a hugely powerful option for hireling casting.
4:58 Healing Word also stacks really well with the "Hellrider's Gauntlets", a reward from Zevlor. The gauntlets grant your healing target "Blade Ward" along with whatever damage you manage to heal. This basically cuts all melee and ranged (but not spell) damage for the target in half for two rounds. It's a great buff for your main tank when they're getting low on hit points, and you need to temporarily improve their durability.
also stack with a ring that gives the effect of bless on the healed target, making it incredibly strong, and you can basically mass healing word your party just to get bless for 2 turns without concentrating, blade ward on your whole party as well and concentrate on spirit guardians. Makes some fights really easy
Really SOLID list and learned a few things, cheers!!
Wow, I undersetimated these spells at first due to my ignorance. Now I find them very valuable, many thanks!
This is incredibly helpful in learning what I can use and most importantly how and when to use it!
Wow totally misunderstood long strider, it’s waaay better than I thought. Thanks man!
Thank you! I didn’t know disguise was this useful. Now i will use it from now on.
also let's you get into places you can't reach because something's too high or too small by changing into a race that meets the criteria
@@roxomega is somewhere in the game is explained that criteria?
@@ageup7493 something's will say you're too large others will be less obvious like reaching the top shelf as a gnome can be difficult
Loved these tips! Really made me think of the spells I'm using.
Asesome tips, quick effective and showcasing in the video while explaining.
Perfect condensed and easily processed info.
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You can also cast Sanctuary on a npc you need to protect like the Selune cleric, helped a lot in that battle
simp
Underrated part of magic missile is that each missile triggers a concentration saving throw, so it can be really useful later in the game as well :)
I still remember the magic missile > shield > etc. epic battle between two wizards at the start of Baldurs Gate 2.
Unless they have a Reaction still, and Shield prepared. T_T
Seeing clickbaity title+thumbnail in this channel is almost refreshing lol
Great tips, I wasn't aware of the 100% hit rate of Sleep and Color Spray under the hp restrictions (which I also thought referred to total hp)
thank you for this, never realize how fun minor illusion is, totally will start using that now
also Sanctuary is awesome, ACT 2 shown me how annoying it is when an enemy started using it, by attacking me then putting sanctuary on itself so I can't attack back.
Fog Cloud is another spell people sleep on. Granting a concealment bonus to a sneaking party. If you want to loot a chest or stop archers from firing at a party popping in and out of the cloud to take pot shots back at enemy archers.
I also used Magic Missile in an area where enemies like to turn your allies against you. If they take ANY damage, they are returned to normal status. Almost any party member can take a couple damage and be just fine. Just use one Magic Missile on them and the rest how you see fit
Or the reverse, in the fight against the big floating eye thingy in the underdark and it's easily liberated slaves.
@@bramvanduijn8086 Luckily I killed him with only two guys unpetrified so I didn't have to mess with much. The 100% accuracy is what keeps me coming back to Magic Missile.
That also works great for multiple images such as the Hags. Split one missile to each and poof! The real hag is revealed.
I feel happy knowing these spells are all stuff i used regularly in my early game.
Glad to see I’ve still got it, I use all of these except bless, but I’ll be using bless now!
As many people are saying, Command is crazy OP in act 1 at the very least. Drop weapon can get you the Everburn Blade super easily in the prelude and can shut down any martial baddie you face especially if you have the means to reduce enemies' saving throws, of which there are many.
Great video. I am using most of those spells. But I really need to point out that my life became way easier when I got fireball on both my lock and Gale. Double fireball ends fights quite fast :D
Cast Silence with Shadowheart and nobody will even know you lobbed two fireballs in there to begin with. >:)
Tashas hideous laughter. It knocks someone out of the fight until you lose concentration, or they can attempt a saving throw after they take dmg (and since it is not sleep your enemies.dont.know that they should help their allies). There was a late game boss with 666hp that I took out of the fight for 3 entire rounds while I wiped out every other enemy. And his laugh echoing through the music was honestly incredible to listen to lol
Also if you ever see a trap in the form of torch on ground and gas vents ready to go, you can use.mage hand to toss the torch to your character to pick up. You can also cast it through bars to throw loot out, or to pull levers on the other side
I almost felt bad because it was such an awesome fight with the music and the whole vibe of the situation going on, and I just used hold monster at an 85% chance with my sorc using heightened spells and they literally didn't even get to fight me. At least they still sang for me while they were stunned lol.
really, really, really helpful stuff. thanks so much
To me Hypnotize has been a godsend spell for early and mid game. So many times has Gale changed the tide of battle by casting Hypnotize on group (it has huge AoE) and letting me heal everyone on our turn. Sleep is amazing yes and later if you use Wyll or yourself I find Huger of Hadar to be the #1 CC in the game for chokepoints, if you couple it with plant growth or spike growth most enemies will just kill themselves.
I gave Astarion a few spell levels and Shield has saved him dozens of times! Bless is a spell I use throughout the game and Magic Missle is awesome to take out multiple weaker characters or killing that guy with 1 HP left so you're not wasting a DPS characters attack- seems to happen far too many times. I didn't know Disguise Self was so amazing! Thank you.
Mass healing word and the equipment that buffs it (Bless for 2 turns or bladeward) is a great use of a 3rd level spell in late game.
the problem with bg3 spell selection is that when u learn or prepare a spells very little information is at your disposal, you have to experiment the spell to really understand what it does.
That's not a problem, that's part of the fun.
respecting my character 10 times was not fun hahaha@@bramvanduijn8086
Shield can often mean not taking a hit that could make you lose concentration. Very underrated spell
some of these were super helpful! thank you
Faerie fire:
One of the best first level spell slots in the game. Scales until the end of the game fine. If your party generally uses attack roles (melee, or bows, or ranged cantrips that use attack rolls) it’s hard to beat advantage to attack for your WHOLE party for the fight.
In this game it doesn’t counter invisibility… but, even just for party wide advantage it’s huge.
yeah, the whole still being able to go invisible thing irked my group. lol
Disguise self can also be a second guidance when you use the shapeshifter ring (Found from killing the suspicious cow in act 1 druid grove) as this gives +1d4 to all ability checks while shapeshifted (or transformed). This can be extremely helpful when paired with guidance.
Don't kill the Strange Ox though, if you finish its quest line it'll be more beneficial later on, and you'll still get the ring.
I've tried talking to that damn cow so many times. Even with speak with animals, haven't had any sort of conversation.
@K0nqu0r after you use speak with animals on it, just move on, it will show up in the next town and you can talk to it more. Then the next town etc, until you get close to Baldur's Gate, then you'll get a quest from it.
@@OmriLahavComposer ahhhh. Thanks!
Extremely useful thank you!!
Extremely helpful. Thank you
I don't see enough people talking about how useful Friends can be. It can show up in dialogue bonuses like Guidance can as long as the target isn't already hostile and it gives you advantage on that check. It's a cantrip so it's quite versatile.
Amazing video! Hope you will make same with higher level spells
great video, thanks!
This was very good content. Particularly the disguise self and sanctuary stuff. That was new to me.
Man that makes the deluxe editions disguise self helmet incredibly broken. Since you can cast it infinitely.
There’s a ring in act1 that gives a bonus to checks and stuff while digitized that combos so well with it
My experience with Sleep has been underwhelming in BG3. Enemies just shove their pals awake. Very rare for slept enemies to stay down.
That is, at the very least, a bonus action wasted to be fair. Depends on who you ask to determine whether that’s worth it or not though.
but that means that those enemies that are not asleep waste their turn on shove, meaning you also crowd controlled the enemies that are awake
Thats an Action/Movement not damaging a party member
*what skippy said*
If you have ranged characters this is exactly what you want, I sleep the farthest character, another enemy goes over to wake them up wasting their turn, I pepper with more arrows, most things are dead before they get to me
Its so true ! All these spells like hold a person, confussion etc. are almost useless.....they are low % chance they gonna succeed, and when it finally hits, enemies help them next turn. Im 150hrs in and the best tactic is just pure damage and try to kill enemy as fast as possible
Taking serious notes from all these vids till the Sept 6!
Definitely going to be adjusting my spell slots tonight!
There's a great ring early on that gives your Magic Missile an additional shot. Also a nice early game amulet to provide the wearer Guidance.
Damn, can they be found in Act 1?
@@kroanosm617 Yes!
If you want the buff that last until long rest but dont want to take the spell slots on your main team you can respec a person who stays at camp and have that person take the utility spells, have them cast it on everyone while in camp and swap them back out the group, all the utility spells without taking spells slots for your main squad
That sounds like a bug, but incredibly useful.
Concentration broke when you change back. Don't work
@@xcenic lol not concentration spells but longstride and any type like that works just fine, concentration spells have a max range on them. Another one thats nice is warding bond +1 to ac saves and resistances for free
Excellent information thanks!
Great video! I had no idea about the utility of these spells! Can you please make more videos like this Cas?
Fog cloud:
A single first level spell slot and it can negate ranged attackers.
In fights where you have a LOT of enemies and several archers or casters this is a battlefield manipulation spell that forces them to move, may cost them a turn (like color spray) and also usually brings them closer to you while bunching them up together.
This makes them ripe for cloud of daggers or shatter or thunderwave or any other fun AOE spell, or thrown bottle or elemental arrow.
The next time you murder your way out of that goblin stronghold think about how many arrows are hitting you each round and how much better it would be if that stopped for a moment and if they grouped together to come at you from either side of that fire pit …..
Plenty of other uses. But that’s what you look for. Large enemy groups of archers and spell casters. Vs 1 or 2 it may not feel like a spell slot well spent. Vs 4 or 5 you’re going to feel GREAT about that spell slot.
I wonder if fog cloud would work for fights like Auntie Ethel where her doubles are concerned?
@@wreckedgamerqq5001 I would assume it would mess with up to two for one round. They are mostly far apart and will move if they need to.
Plenty of fight for it though. The belthazar fight it would shine in to move stuff close to you.
Exit the goblin stronghold.
Goblins at the windmill.
Gnoll cave.
Paladins of tyr.
Koa toa.
Duergar leader.
Thorm boss fight.
Protecting Halsin at the portal, though, something like hunger of hadar is way better. It’s good to blind them all (fog, darkness, hunger ….). But, you so want to slow them. And you also want to damage them. Hunger checks all the boxes. Fog plus spike growth would be great there. But, hunger and a circle of blades feels unfair. Funnels them into a tight spot and then you’ve got all your AOE options. Even an alchemist flask does well in that fight if you group them. Spiritual guardians is always good, but does extremely well there, too.
Pretty sure the single best spell for the hag is magic missile. One cast. Hit them all. No more duplicates. Burn down the real one and prevent the duplicates from attacking.
Maybe as a bard or druid. 👍 do bards get magic missile? I can’t remember.
Any fight where you have close groups of ranged attackers. It’s like rock, paper, scissors. Fog beats a tight group of ranged attackers. Though, hypnotic pattern is king of that game. Massive radius.
Magic missile:
A big deal for this spell, more so at higher levels, is that the target has to do a concentration save vs damage for EACH time they’re hit. Magic missile is fantastic for targeting spell casters who are concentrating on big spells.
Scorching Ray does this too. And, so does eldritch blast as you get more levels.
Even if a target is unlikely to fail a concentration save … they’re going to roll that 1-5 eventually. You just have to keep hitting them. A bunch of missiles is a great way to farm for that low number while also doing some damage (casters tend to have low health to begin with).
This is why shield negates magic missile, but not all casters get access to shield.
If you can somehow make the caster use their reaction to do something else, too, they wont be able to use Shield when you lob all those darts. :D
@@nephicus339 the only way I can think of to do that would be to run someone physically close then walk away and let the caster swing at you.
Counterspell is a tricky thing to do because you’re still out the spell slot.
Great job, saved for re-watch!
This is very useful! Thanks!
Something I learned about longgstrider is that you can prepare it, use it on all party members, then remove it from prepared list. It’ll still have the buff for all party members.
That doesn't work on a druid, so I'd assume it doesn't work for clerics either. Don't know about arcane spell casters. Any ritual spell on a druid (Longstrider, Speak with Animals, Jump) and Detect thoughts on Wizards goes away if you take it out of prepared spells.
This does not actually work reliably. I’ve tested it multiple times but if you remove it from prepared spells it will fall of parry members.
I do not have this experience. I also tried this with darkvision and lost the effects after casting it and removing it from my preps.
@@John-qx1zi it was working on my Druid yesterday, maybe my games bugged?
Best spell in the entire D&D is probably Eldritch Blast.
I didn't know any of this. This game is wild! So many more things to do!
This video was so helpful!
Command:
If you make a melee boss drop their weapon the fight is over and it’s hilarious. You can beat them down with their own weapon.
This works on MAJOR bosses. Though, the best way to do this is with the battlemaster disarm combat maneuver.
It’s a very good usage of a 1st level spell slot.
I try to use it from close and also pick up the weapon before their turn. No idea if the AI will pick up a dropped weapon and I’m not curious enough to do a fight and test it.
They do pick up their weapon and even re-equip them, but they waste their turn because equipping any weapon eats up your action, so if nothing else Command: Drop buys you two turns, if you can't get to the weapon in time.
I disagree with shield being on this list, not because it’s bad, but because it’s too good. Seriously, who tf thinks shield is a bad spell?
VERY HELPFUL!
very helpful, thank you!
I didn't know enemies didn't roll against Sleep?! I've been using it successfully in and out of combat and all (playing on balanced, so idk if npcs care about that on tactician difficulty), but it never crossed my mind.
If you Alter Self to Drow Elf you can get right through the goblin check points no problem. You can go straight to Halsin or Minthara without attacking anyone.
You can already do that as a true soul.
@@zero11010 True but you don't have to use that power
@@rolanddechaine3564 that’s true. And if you’re one of the people who played early access for the 3 years it was a visible you got a mask that gives you disguise self at will.
I’ve found very few uses for the thing. Occasionally a tunnel a small character can use. Occasionally a dialog option (talking to the gith as a gith helps).
Disguise self isn’t really useful very often.
@@zero11010 Depends on what you want to do in the game and how you want to solve it. From what I have read(havent tried myself), if you disguise self and commit a crime, get away, hide and change back to your true self, the criminal is "gone". There you are, a nice and helpful halfling, while everyone is looking after a psychotic elf on a killing spree.
@@fendelphi if you attack someone you’re interrupted with a guard. No real time to activate or cancel a disguise self.
If someone sees you do something bad (but not murder) you get a negative modifier for your attitude. I’m assuming if you change what you look like that attitude drop is basically negated.
I’ve not made a thieving character or evil character yet. If I misclick I reload. It wasn’t intentional. I don’t feel bad about undoing it.
So helpful!