Welcome to the Top 5 Spells List for Baldur’s Gate 3. In this article, we will go over the five most essential spells for your BG3 playthrough. These are spells that will make the game considerably easier to progress through due to their high damage or utility.
Some of the spells can be obtained early in the game, while others are higher-level spells that can only be unlocked late in the game by classes with access to high level magic (Wizard, Druid, Cleric, Sorcerer etc).
Without further delay, let’s get into the top 5 Spells for BG3.
5 – Spike Growth
Spike Growth is an excellent soft control spell that summons a large AOE of spikes to cover the ground. Characters trying to walk through the spikes will be slowed down, and they will also take damage when walking through them. You can get this spell quite early in the game, and doing so makes things considerably easier for you.
This is largely because of the effect that the spell has on the enemy AI. Characters with long range abilities generally won’t be affected by it, but melee focused enemies will typically do one of three things:
- Find a longer way to reach you by going around the spikes, which can sometimes buy you several turns to deal with enemies
- Charge straight through the spikes, taking heavy damage and often dying in the process
- Stand around aimlessly on the edge of the spikes yelling taunts, but refusing to cross the spikes
This spell works best when placed in a chokepoint of some kind, and having it in your arsenal can make an otherwise difficult fight considerably easier.
Spike Growth is available to Druids and Nature Domain Clerics at Level 3, and Rangers at Level 5.
Note that an alternative to Spike Growth is the Grease spell. This is similar but creates a large area of grease instead, which has a chance of knocking over enemies in the area. Enemies who have been knocked over are very vulnerable to your attacks – you’ll roll against them with an Advantage.
4 – Bless
Bless is an excellent buff spell that adds a 1-4 bonus to the Attack Rolls and Saving Throws of all creatures with the buff. This is great for helping your party to improve their hit chance and resist effects coming from enemy abilities.
The spell is even more important in the early game when you are somewhat lacking in powerful AOE abilities, making single-target attacks quite unreliable against strong enemies without buffing your party and/or debuffing the target.
Bless is a Level 1 Spell that is applied to 3 targets by default, however you can upcast it to Level 2 in order to apply it to all 4 members of your party.
Bless is available to the Cleric and the Paladin class in BG3.
3 – Hold Person/Hold Monster
This is technically two spells, but I decided it’s fair to roll them into one for the purposes of this list, since Hold Monster is basically a better version of Hold Person that you unlock at higher levels.
Hold Person imposes a Wisdom Saving Throw on the target, and if they fail the throw then they will be magically rooted in place, unable to move or take any actions at all. In addition, any attacks made from within 3 metres of the stunned creature will have be a guaranteed Critical Hit. The affected creature will attempt the Wisdom Saving Throw again each turn, either succeeding and breaking free or failing and remaining stunned. If the caster breaks or loses their concentration on the spell then the victim will break free.
Hold Person can only be cast on humanoids, whereas Hold Monster can be cast on most targets (but won’t affect Undead).
These spells are absolutely essential because it’s practically a death sentence for the target, even tanky enemies can be quickly brought down when their defences are completely taken away and all your attacks are guaranteed Crits. Because of this, giving this spell a place in the top 5 Spells seemed like an obvious choice.
However, note that due to the fact that this spell has a Wisdom Saving Throw, enemies with high Wisdom will have a high chance of resisting the effect and therefore make for poor targets.
Hold Person can be learned by Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, Oath of Vengeance Paladin, Arcane Trickster Rogue and Eldritch Knight Fighter.
Hold Monster can only be learned by Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard and War Domain Cleric.
2 – Insect Plague
This is one of my personal favorites – Insect Plague is somewhat similar to Spike Growth but is much nastier. It summons a swarm of locusts in a 12-metre-wide zone, which will slow down any enemies trying to pass through it. Enemies starting their turn in the area will take 4-40 Piercing Damage from the swarm, too.
If you can draw your enemies into a chokepoint and drop Insect Plague into the chokepoint (especially combined with AOE spells from other spellcasters) then you will be able to set up some nasty kill-zones that even boss enemies will have a hard time with. I’ve seen this spell trivialise multiple fights that were quite difficult when I tried to do them without using the spell, so I definitely recommend picking this up if you can.
You won’t be able to unlock Insect Plague until Level 9, and it’s only available to Clerics, Druids and Sorcerers.
1 – Haste
Haste is an extremely powerful buff spell that you will typically unlock late in Act 1. Like all the others on this list, it’s a Concentration Spell so the caster needs to be careful not to take too much damage after casting it or they risk the effect ending early.
A creature with the Haste buff will get:
- Doubled Movement Speed
- +2 bonus to Armour Class
- Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws
- An extra Action each turn
This is very powerful for obvious reasons. You’ll be able to make an extra attack each turn with the character who is hasted. If they themselves are a spellcaster concentrating on a spell like Call Lightning that can be recast with an Action each turn, then they’ll now be able to do this twice on their turn. Cast Haste on your most powerful damage dealers and you’ll be able to dispatch enemies much more quickly.
The only thing to be careful of with this spell is that when the effect ends, the creature will become Lethargic for one turn, unable to make any Actions for that turn. The spell can last for up to 10 turns as long as you maintain Concentration, so as long as you keep it going for at least a couple of turnes then you are already getting great value out of it. The ability of this spell to turn anyone into a damage machine is why we ranked it at the top of our Top 5 Spells list for BG3.
Haste is available to the Sorcerer, Wizard and Oath of Vengeance Paladin. It can also be unlocked by Circle of the Land Druids who choose Arctic or Grassland, and Warlocks with the Pact of the Tome.
I hope you liked this Top 5 Spells ranking for Baldur’s Gate 3.
