Baldur’s Gate 3: Top 10 most powerful spells in BG3

Even if you’re not playing a Wizard or Sorcerer, spells are a massive part of Baldur’s Gate 3. Making the most of your spell slot usage is a fun challenge that allows for different “right” choices. This list will walk you through 10 spells that you’ll never regret casting.

Criteria for the list will take account of accessibility, so if a spell is incredibly specific to a class or scenario, it won’t be included. Cantrips will also be excluded, as they do not consume spell slots.

The 10 best spells in BG3

10) Armour of Agathys (Sorcerer, Warlock)

• Gain five temporary hit points and deal five cold damage to the next creature that hits you with a melee attack.

At level one, five hit points can often be 50 percent or more of a character’s health. This spell can also be upcast to any spell level, making it viable for any level of combat. In a fight against a melee foe, casting Armour of Agathys is essentially using a powerful healing spell as well as a powerful offensive spell in one action.

9) Sleep (Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard)

• Put any number of creatures up to a combined 24 hit points to sleep for two turns or until they take damage.

This spell is a lifesaver and a quality of life improvement. Taking several creatures out of the fight for two turns is already a great tool for combat, but it also makes fights with tons of foes involved take significantly less time to get through a round of combat.

My personal favorite aspect of this spell is the fact that it has no saving throw involved—it cannot be avoided unless a creature is immune to magical slumbers. The spell’s guaranteed success makes it fantastic in a pinch.

8) Bless (Cleric, Paladin)

• Bless up to three creatures that will gain a 1d4 bonus to attack rolls and saving throws for 10 turns.

If you have a Cleric or a Paladin in your party and they aren’t casting this spell every 10 turns, it’s time for an intervention. Selecting three targets in Baldur’s Gate 3 might as well mean “selecting the rest of the party.” If a second-level spell slot is used, it can affect the whole party.

The only thing to watch out for with this spell is the fact that it’s a concentration spell. You’ll want its caster to avoid damage as much as possible, or to take the War Caster Feat.

7) Pass Without Trace (Cleric, Druid, Ranger)

• Summon a veil of shadows that gives the caster and all nearby allies +10 to Stealth checks.

BG3 is not an easy game, even on standard difficulty settings. There are always going to be times in this game when Stealth is not just used for sneak attacks but for survival. Pass Without Trace makes everyone instantly better at Stealth, so it’s an important tool to have among your party.

Just the other day, I got stuck in what became a death loop trying to escape from the Goblin Camp. I didn’t have this spell prepared in my party, and the entire time I couldn’t get the fact that my party would be able to freely walk through the hordes of goblins with this spell out of my head.

6) Magic Missile (Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard)

• Shoot three magical darts at one, two, or three targets, each dealing 1d4+1 force damage. Magic Missile cannot miss.

This is my personal favorite damage spell in BG3. It has fantastic versatility, being able to spread damage among three weaker foes (or more when upcast) or focus all fire on a stronger enemy. Because Magic Missile cannot miss, it is a perfect safe bet for avoiding situations where the dice could decide between life and death. ‘Ol Reliable, as it were.

5) Hold Person (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard)

• Hold target humanoid in place, preventing them from moving, acting, and reacting. Attacks from three meters or less are guaranteed critical hits.

This spell is an absolute boss-buster. Almost any class can learn it, and the damage output/reduced damage input potential is off the charts. One single Fighter or Barbarian turn can be devastating against a target under the effect of Hold Person, and if the attacker happens to be a Half-Orc, it’s certain death.

The best part about this spell is the fact that Saving Throws are made during the affected creature’s turn, not when damage is taken. Use this spell at the right time and your whole party can have a turn auto-critting. Combine with the Haste spell if you believe in cruel and unusual punishment.

4) Grease (Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard)

• Create a four-meter sphere of grease within 18 meters. It acts as Difficult Terrain and knocks creatures prone unless they pass a Dexterity saving throw.

This is an awesome utility spell. The Difficult Terrain makes most creatures need at least an extra turn or two to reach your party, assuming they even pass all of their Dexterity saves. The grease can also be ignited by any source of fire, causing all creatures in the radius to ignite and begin burning.

This is one of those spells where you’ll get out what you put in. Start thinking creatively and strategically with Grease, and it can easily change the outcome of a fight.

3) Fireball (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard)

• Shoot a bright flame from the tip of your finger that explodes into a six-meter inferno upon contact, dealing 8d6 Fire Damage to all creatures caught in the blast. Targets that pass a Dexterity save take half damage.

This spell needs no description. Massive damage to any creature within six meters of one another with no way to avoid the damage outright. Perhaps most importantly, it’s just so absurdly satisfying to use.

2) Healing Word (Bard, Cleric, Druid)

• Heal a target within 18 meters for 1d4+3 hit points.

The healing itself on this spell may not be a contender for the highest amount in Baldur’s Gate 3, but this spell can be cast as a bonus action. That fact alone makes it phenomenal, but that’s not all.

In BG3, picking up a downed ally is a standard action, but receiving healing while downed will automatically pick up a character. This means that Healing Word can be used to pick up a party member as a bonus action from 18 meters away, and instantly grants them four to seven hit points. This is, in my opinion, a must-have spell for any class that can cast it.

1) Haste (Sorcerer, Wizard)

• Hasten yourself or a target in range, granting an extra action per turn, two AC, two to Dexterity saving throws and doubling movement speed for 10 turns.

In a lot of cases, lists of this nature are subjective to a degree and usually, different circumstances will make certain spells much more viable over others. Personally, I believe that Haste is the exception, and the only time you shouldn’t cast it is when you think a fight is easy enough that you don’t need it.

Here’s the thing about Haste: most classes in BG3 receive an extra attack per turn at level five. This is not an extra action, but rather a free bonus attack granted whenever the attack action is used during a turn. With two actions per turn, a character can use the attack action twice, and thus receive an extra attack twice. That’s 40 attacks in 10 turns—a one-character army.

It doesn’t stop there, either. In BG3, Sorcerers have a class-specific resource called Sorcery Points. These points can be spent to achieve several different effects, one of which is to make a single target spell apply to two different targets. See where this is going?

A Sorcerer can cast Haste on two different members of a party in one turn with a single spell slot. If one of those party members is a Wizard, they can then use their extra action to cast Haste on the other two party members in their turn if they so choose.

Even without using this method, Haste is so strong that players are actually asking Larian Studios to nerf the spell or remove it altogether as they feel that it is so powerful that it removes the challenge from even the hardest difficulty setting.

Utilizing Spells in BG3

Every spell in BG3 has its time to shine (well, almost every spell). Every damage spell included on this list is not there because it deals the most possible damage in the game, but because they all have some added element of versatility. Fireball is a fantastic spell, but obviously shouldn’t be used on one foe surrounded by three allies.

Decide for yourself what spells you like most. Think about whether you want to be a Healer, focus on utility spells like Grease, or simply spew out tons and tons of damage. A list can tell what the most globally powerful spells in BG3 are, but it cannot tell you which spells you’ll have the most fun using.

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