Welcome to our Top 5 Exploration Spells Guide for Baldur’s Gate 3. Here we’ll go through the most useful spells for exploration, accessing hard-to-reach areas and discovering or unlocking side content in BG3.

Making sure someone in your party has access to some, or all, of these spells will help you to have the richest playthrough possible in BG3. Because you won’t miss out on content that is hidden, locked behind tricky Ability Checks, or just located in a difficult-to-reach area.

1. Misty Step Spell

Misty Step is a brilliant exploration spell that also has lots of applications in combat. It allows your character to teleport to any location within range, as long as it’s visible from where you are currently located. This is great for things like moving to and from high places, crossing over gaps that are too big to jump, or getting through tight gaps.

You can also use this spell in combat situations to get yourself into an advantageous location, such as getting the high ground over your enemies and shooting down on them. Additionally, there is also an Amulet of Misty Step which gives you access to the spell too. Preferably place this on a melee character like the BG3 Barbarian Build or BG3 Fighter Build to reach any place during combat.

In short, if there’s a location that looks like it could be interesting, but you can’t find a way to traverse there normally, then Misty Step should have you covered.

Bards, Sorcerers and Wizards can unlock Misty Step at Level 3. You can also purchase the Amulet of Misty Step from Omeluum in the Myconid Colony, after completing his side quest. If you don’t have this spell yet, you can instead use the Enhance Leap spell which triples your jumping distance and is available from the start of the game for Druids, Wizards and Sorcerers.

2. Guidance

Guidance is an awesome Cantrip that you can get from the start of the game on certain classes, and we highly recommend picking it up ASAP. Recruiting Shadowheart into your party is another way to get this spell.

Guidance gives you a 1-4 bonus to your dice rolls when it comes to Ability Checks. This is useful for basically any out of combat dice roll, helping you with persuasion, intimidation, lockpicking and much more. While the spell doesn’t guarantee success, it will significantly increase your chances of passing these ability checks, which can unlock special dialogue options with NPCs, allow you to discover secrets in the world and open locked doors and chests.

You can ask whoever has the Guidance Cantrip to cast it on you from within the dice roll screen too, so you don’t need to worry about casting it before going into dialogue or an ability check.

Guidance is available to Clerics and Druids from the beginning of the game (you must choose it in Character Creation or on a subsequent level up).

Guidance Baldur's Gate 3 Exploration Spells

3. Speak with Animals

If you played Larian’s previous release, Divinity Original Sin 2, then you may recall that animals in the world had things to say, and you could converse with them if you had the Pet Pal talent.

Well, the same thing applies to Baldur’s Gate 3, but this time you need the Speak with Animals spell. Sometimes animals won’t have anything useful to say besides idle chatter, sometimes they’ll say something funny, and sometimes they might even have side quests to give you that you’d have completely missed otherwise.

To discover everything that Baldur’s Gate 3 has to offer, it’s highly recommended to get this spell and use it often.

Speak with Animals can be unlocked by Druids, Bards, Rangers, Warlocks, Oath of the Ancients Paladins, Wildheart Barbarians and Forest Gnomes.

Speak with Animals Baldur's Gate 3 Exploration Spells

4. Speak with the Dead

You can use the Speak with the Dead spell to, well, speak with the dead. The catch is that the target cannot be classed as Undead, and they must still have a mouth to speak with. So if the target was killed in such a way that they are now deprived of a mouth, then you won’t be able to get anything out of them with this spell. A killing blow with Acid, Fire, Lightning, Necrotic or Radiant damage will cause this to happen.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that if it was you who killed them, they may resist sharing information with you. In that case you can combo the spell with Disguise Self to trick them into revealing more than they otherwise might have done.

You can use this spell to get a better sense of the dark side of the world in Baldur’s Gate 3. Like animals, the dead won’t always have useful things to tell you, but it’s worth grabbing the spell and making use of it when the opportunity arises (provided you have no qualms with minor acts of necromancy).

Speak with Dead can be unlocked at Level 5 by Bards and Clerics, from the Amulet of Lost Voices of from the Necromancy of Thay book.

5. Create or Destroy Water

Another spell that does exactly what it says. With Create or Destroy Water you can perform useful actions like extinguishing fires or removing water from a flooded area, allowing you to safely explore an area that would otherwise be very hazardous.

Create or Destroy Water is available to Druids and Clerics, and can be chosen from the start of the game.

Create or Destroy Water Baldur's Gate 3 Exploration Spells

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list – there are plenty of Create or Destroy Water in Baldur’s Gate 3 that can be used in creative ways to aid exploration. These are just some of our favorites.

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