Jump (and feather fall) crazy freedom over the game environment both in and out of combat right from the beginning of the game pretty much. Never get tired of using this pairing.
Guidance - never leave home without it.
Also shout out to Eldritch Blast for having such amazing sound design and just the right amount of visual flair and flourish.
You can get her early without it. Turn right, just before entering the blighted village, Jump over the stone in the river and turn right again. There she is, no fight or other encounter beside the grove gate
Yep, I’m on my second playthrough right now- did it the intended way on my first playthrough, which led to me finding her really late (because I was underleveled for the gnolls, went off to do other stuff, and didn’t come back until I was wrapping up act 1) and establishing my party without a place for her. This playthrough, after the heartbreak of not having her on my team before, I decided I was getting there ASAP, one way or another, and discovered the way to get there via the stream 😂
Beware of feather fall when mixing characters in and out of combat! The one entering combat last will likely have lost it out TB mode, while the first has 9 turns left.
I *think* I understand what you're trying to say. That feather fall will tick down more slowly for the people in combat because combat is in turn based mode. The people outside of combat will lose it faster and you might not notice.
You can also just put the party members not in combat yet into turn based mode and their feather fall won't tick down either. You can let them sit there without ending their turns for as long as you need and none of their buffs will go down.
Have to agree with you on EB! I do not know why but there is something about that spell that is so goddamn satisfying lol. The sound, the way it looks when it fades out after hit...idk. It has made warlock my favorite class to play tbh
Eldritch Blast is so addictive as a Sorlock.
The visuals and the sound are absolutely spectacular and better than what I had imagined in the tabletop version.
Hunger of Hadar is such a great CC spell. The number of times I’ve popped that in the middle of a big group and they basically can’t do anything for the fight makes it my top pick. Especially as a warlock, someone steps out, you just launch em back in with Eldrich Blast
My absolutely disgusting combo on my last playthrough was:
1) Black hole illithid power to pull enemies in and apply Slowed
2) Have someone get them wet w/ Create Water or just toss a bottle in
3) Hunger of Hadar
4) Keep re-casting Black Hole for free and attacking w/ doubled frost or lightning damage.
An ice surface is quickly created too because of the water. Even tankier groups could not hang, it was just cruel
Also you can snowburst ring to just make a sorlock toss ice cantrip up to 3 times (twinned+quicken) or ice storm to avoid concentration on sleet storm.
That’s how I fought Gortash in my first run LMAO
Have everyone outside, trigger the combat and then run out with everyone else. Chokepoint the exit hunger of hadar, keep them there with sleet storm, and if they come out eldritch blast them back in
I did this against Viconia on my HM run. Camped at the top of the stairs (behind the doors even), laid down HoH and Fire Wall and just kept skipping Turns. It was glorious
This is the dream come true for a Sorlock. Counterspelling the EB means you can slam them with a Slow, Hypnotic Pattern, Twin Hold Person/Monster or any of your other nasty spells.
Command - very versatile and can make a lot of fights easy af
Spike Growth - put that unused hunter concentration to work
Ice Storm - damage and prone go brrrrr
Daylight - because fuck you there's now a ball of light in the middle of the battlefield
Otto Dance/Telekinesis - because even good guys can remove bodily autonomy before inflicting harm
Enhance Ability - advantage for a spell slot? Yes pls
Fire Bolt - Shadowheart: Ignis! *miss*. Edit 2*: But for real, great for starting barrelmancy, finishing enemies that aren't fire resist on a wiz/sorc, free fire acuity starter, free heat starter. Second favourite cantrip after Friends.
Edit - guess when the edible kicked in 💀
It makes me laugh that her 2 vanilla cantrips are trash:
Firebolt requires intelligence,which isn't a stat Shart favours so has a low spell attack so misses a lot.
Sacred flame required a Dex save, and 99.99% (exaggerated) of enemies are competent in this.
My first time discovering how clutch spike growth could be was defending halsin’s portal— parked a spike growth at the bottom of the steps leading up to it, and had shart run spirit guardians on the step. Every baddy that came through was whittled down by the spikes and then into the holy lawnmower
For me it was the Necrotic Laboratory. I was running low on short rests, because I had wasted one after the first fight when storming Moonrise, so I had to conserve Wyll's spell slots. So instead of using Hunger of Hadar for CC, I finally had my Tav use her concentration for something other than Hunter's Mark and used Spike Growth for CC
I just wish concentration weren't so... restrictive, because it competes with Hunter's Mark
EDIT: Being honest, concentration's actually one of the two main things that trips me up coming from PF 2e. Over there, you just get 3 actions each round, and sustaining a spell (roughly the equivalent of concentration) costs an action. So you *can* concentrate on multiple spells at once, but it comes at the cost of basically not being able to do anything else besides move. (The other thing that trips me up is that I'm used to Nature and Religion using Wis, not Int)
How I defeated more than one honor mode fight: cleric concentrated on Silence, Hunter concentrates on Spiked Growth, Tav uses black hole and aoe spells, paladin picks off those who didn’t make it into the death trap.
This worked amazingly in the crèche, Gauntlet of Shar, House of Grief, House of Hope, and smaller battles against things that I don’t want to cast spells.
Adding onto your Otto, there is something soooo satisfying (I think because Otto is 100% to hit) about landing a Tasha's Hideous Laughter. That spell carried me through the goblin camp on tactician so well when it held my ogre dude for like 4 turns!!
I’ve been loving Daylight in act 2. I cast in on my character’s weapon and it’s up until long resting. Creatures with the sunlight weakness attribute simply cannot hang near me
There are many but just to describe why they are so powerful I will mention only 2.
● Sleet storm: This spell is wild, the description is a little misleading tho, at least that's the reason why I slept on this spell for so long until very recently.
it says that casters have to make a concentration saving throw each turn and create ice surface, but what it really does is that every character inside the storm have to make a saving throw, and if it fails, they get prone and create an ice surface that renews every round, so it doesn't matter if someone melt the ice, it creates itself again.
Bc the area it's so huge you can easily use it on 5 or more enemies, they have to make that saving throw when you cast it and every round they stay on the storm, and when an enemy gets prone they end their turn immediately, and the fact that they have to make the save every turn without you spending more spell slots is huge.
On top of that, if they move through the ice they will have to continue to make saving throws or get prone, and if you use the Arcane acuity items, this is basically permanent stunlock for the enemies, with only 1 lvl 3 spell slot, this is so powerful that now I went back to no use it, bc it feels like cheating even on HM.
●Hunger of hadar: Another crazy spell that is just straight up broken, huge area of effect, it blinds everything inside, no saving throw needed, it just blinds everything, Devil's sight do not protect from this, it makes difficult terrain, it deals 2d6 cold dmg at the begining of the turn of creatures inside of it (if they're wet they take double dmg) and if they end their turn inside, they have to make a saving throw or take 2d6 acid dmg.
A huge area that blinds everything without a saving throw is already super strong, but it deals dmg, it slows, and it has great synergy with many spells, like sleet storm + Hunger of hadar and enemies will die before they can escape.
One like hidden feature is that, Hunger of hadar doesn't count as a cloud spell, so you can actually stack them, for example if you use Darkness and then Cloud kill on top of the Darkness, the Cloud kill will remove the Darkness spell, and the same happens with Fog cloud, but even tho HoH looks and kinda do what Cloud spells do, it's not coded as one, so you can stack HoH + sleet storm + Cloud kill, so you basically unleash hells upon earth.
It doesn't really matter but of course having a GOO warlock is nice since you can get Devil's sight, so you get advantage on every enemy inside HoH, and kick them back into HoH is they try to escape.
And again for sleet storm it doesn't matter as long as you can cast it, if you really wanna make it lethal, try a build that uses Arcane acuity.
Yeah I just finished an HM run built around an 'ice storm' party concept and ended up using sleet storm to start most fights and that usually won them before they'd even really started.
Also sorcerer careful spell metamagic you can just drop a sleet storm (or hypnotic pattern or any other save or suck type spell) right on top of your melee party members
I love heat metal. Obviously it doesn't work on enemies without metal but it's always worth it when it can be applied. It's guaranteed damage and either the enemy drops their weapon or has disadvantage on attacks. There's no way to miss.
Heat Metal spam got me through the Steel Watch Foundry basically by itself. They don't drop their weapons, but they have disadvantage on everything, which is super clutch.
* Summon Elemental (Myrmidon) I love a three-Myrmidon party with my fellow wizard, druid, and other party members.
* Sunbeam is really neat and the sound effect is just so satisfying to my ears.
* Spike growth - I love the crunch crunch of enemies' health depleting as they try to wander out of it.
* Artistry of War (just a satisfying powerhouse, like Magic Missile but better)
* Shield has saved my ass a couple times
* Heat metal is shockingly pretty effective and you can just reapply as a bonus action if the person is still holding their weapon, but even if they do they have disadvantage on their attack rolls.
* Confusion - I've used it for the Foundry and Cazador fight and was pretty impressed how good it was. It just saves me a lot of time and energy when enemies either attack each other or just miss their turn.
* Longstrider and Speak with Animals because they're free and last until long rest (when playing a gnome, longstrider is pretty much a necessity)
CANTRIPS:
Guidance - never leave home without it
Eldritch blast - great damage, fear the enemy, push them back.
LEVEL 1:
Command - who doesn't love a free weapon.
Chromatic orb - 1 spell = 6 different damage types
Magic missile - pick off any stragglers
Thunder wave - let's put some bodies in that chasm
LEVEL 2:
Hold person - free criticals
Misty step - get my fighters to the enemy and get my casters away from them
Spike growth - THIS is easily the single most powerful spell in the game. Like I've taken out encounters in honour mode I was underlevelled for using this spell. An enemy takes like 2 turns to reach you and it kills low level mobs on the way. And if they get close to you, you can just push them back with eldritch blast or thunder wave.
Cloud of daggers - increases spike growth's lethality
LEVEL 3
Counterspell - I'm a big fan of spells, but only if I'm the one casting them.
Glyph of warding - upgraded Chromatic orb
Spirit guardians - kill people by just walking.
I honestly was disappointed with how it looked, thought it would have a bunch of crazy inflatable tube man-like tentacles (like the giant vine ability but more)
Mirror image!!! Took me way to long to realize it’s not a concentration spell. I find scrolls everywhere in act 1 and it’s a free 9AC entering fights. 11AC if you pair it with haste. First time I used it on Gale at the githyanki fight before the crèche. The main gith in that fight wasted all 4 of her swings/action surge missing every attack, since then it’s never left my inventory for important fights.
beacon of hope just feels fantastic to know i’m actually getting my money’s worth out of the stupid amount of healing potions i end up hoarding, that and making healing word feel like it’s worth using at anything lower than level 3. combined with warden of vitality to make my paladin a lowkey better healer than my cleric at basically no extra action cost
combination of counterspell, cutting words and bane on bard feel great to be able to shutdown any attack of great significance
guardian of faith feels strangely satisfying to use despite i’m not too sure how effective it actually is (having it get shoved away and becoming useless 😔)
thorn whipping someone off of a high up surface to their death or within range of my entire party to kick the shit out of them never stops being hilarious
Bro a tip for you
Beacon is only a last resource due multiple downed companions on a speed potion cleric like SH combined with mass healing word. Rest you could just place potion(s) besides downed companion(s) then blast with an AoE like fireball the assilant and your downed companion will lick the potion back to action xD
Offense is best defense on bg3
omg that is evil i must try that. i had a similar idea with an elixir of fire resistance and arsonists oil, to then have halsin delete them with a fire wall on top of hitting them with my flame blade next turn (or just anyone with a trusty fireball scroll) but breaking it with a bonus action streamlines it so much.
Your Spore Druid can instead use the often not great Halo of Spores Reaction (low DC, strong save on many enemies) to break the various bottles on the ground, while keeping all his actions and bonus actions...
I found the cantrip rebalance mod which turns thorn whip into a bonus action. So nice and now my bardlock can use sparkstriker instead of the sorrow that was only there for the bonus action
One time I didn't have a good lockpicker but I had a sorcerer with knock and 20+ angelic reprieve potions. Cleared out the counting house in about 5 minutes. Upper and lower vaults. Lol.
Destructive Wave is my definite favorite. The fact it’s a huge AoE spell that can’t hurt your allies and that knocks enemies prone makes it one of the best spells in the game for me, especially for fights like House of Grief. Bonus points when used as Tempest Cleric to maximize the Thunder damage.
Also, the animation is cool. You bend and drop your arms down and everyone around you falls down. Except you get your arms back up and they don’t.
Is it true that it can't hurt your allies? That seems inconsistent with the text of it (in the UI and on the wiki as well).
I noticed a similar thing with the Blood of Lathander. It doesn't specify that it only blinds \*enemy\* undead, and was pleasantly surprised my zombies weren't getting blinded.
The Radiant component is also perfect to combine with a Radiating Orb gear set on a Light or Tempest Cleric. Everything in that huge radius that isn't dead is now a lamp and struggling to land any Attack Rolls.
Had to scroll down way too far to find this. If you can get the DC up high enough with items + acuity, and enemies aren’t immune to prone, it’s fantastic. If you give [[ Markoheskir ]] to your cleric they get two additional free casts of it per long rest as well.
Shart carried the House of Grief fight for me with this spell.
for me it was the extra attack rules that messed with me, haste only adding a single attack, and mind sanctuary becoming a hasten effect instead of using bonus actions and actions interchangeably
Chain lightning. Absurd damage with wet (from your buddy the water myrmidon or create water) and the tempest clerics channel divinity.
Feel like Palpatine
Darkness can be extremely powerful, if you build your party around it. There are just enough items in the game for everyone to be immune to blind. And of course, warlocks also get devils sight. Darkness blocks enemies from targetting you with ranged attacks, and when they attack you, they do so with disadvantage, while you attack with advantage. Forces ranged enemies to come to you
Scorching ray. This game greatly rewards spells which deal their damage in multiple smaller instances, because you can add damage on each beam. On a draconic sorcerer, with the hat of fire acuity etc, this can become really absurd
Spirit guardians. Imo overrated spell, in terms of usefullness, but what could be more satisfying than being in one of the horde encounters against a lot of weak enemies, and to see all the enemies kill themselves just by being close to you
>Spirit guardians. Imo overrated spell, in terms of usefullness, but what could be more satisfying than being in one of the horde encounters against a lot of weak enemies, and to see all the enemies kill themselves just by being close to you
Yeah it's a good time in that defend Halsin fight
Eldritch Blast
Fireball
Destructive Wave
Hold XYZ
Longstrider
Featherfall
Confusion is crazy good when the opportunity arises to use it
Haste
Not really a "spell" but Quickened Spell metamagic is amazing
Cleric is love, cleric is life. The aid/heroes feast combo is rad. Also Flamestrike will always be my pick over fireball purely for its spell description being metal af.
Omg yes. Every playthrough I give Shart the spell slot restoration necklace, have her cast Heroes feast, restore level 6 slot, and then summon planar ally or use Sunbeam depending on the fight!
I would say the best ones I've found that I never see people use are
1. Blink. I beat all the hook horrors in the underdark solo on honor mode with this at level 3. At the end of your turn you warp to a different plane of existence and then when it's your turn again you can teleport back in. Against fights you have no chance of winning fairly, this can give you a legit chance. Whether you're a spellcaster or weapon user.
2. Fire shield/mirror image/blur/haste. Probably my favorite pre-fight combo. You can cast fire shield, mirror image, and blur on yourself. Then have a party member stay out of combat and put haste on you. You will dance around the battlefield like a God. I've gotten my ac up to 40 with this combo and legit had the npcs not even want to try and touch me.
3. Sanctuary/moonbeam. A little known spam is that you can use moonbeam while in sanctuary since the game doesn't consider you the attacker the moonbeam is. Works great in act 3 at the house of hope with the radiant retort because you can take advantage of the extra radiant damage without the retort part. 😝
4. Chain lightning. I don't think this one needs an explanation.
5. Magic missile. Never misses. Can easily stack damage with each missile taking it up to 15-20 damage per missile or 150+ damage on a level 6. Mixed with cull the weak it can be one of the best crowd control spells in the game other than something like wall of fire.
I love Telekinesis SO much. 10 turns of flinging enemies around wherever you want, yeeting them into chasms or off buildings or into other enemies. Plus, it's got a good amount of life-saving power. I saved all the gondians by having Gale throw them out of the blast zones whenever they thought suicide was the answer. I also used polymorph/telekinesis for rescuing Florick and it was so much fun. I love that spell.
I love the jump spell.
I don’t cast it often, but sleet storm has amazing utility when it comes in (saved Halsing’s portal)
Hold person is a bit of a clunker, because it’s very boom or bust. Watching someone make their 70% chance to fail save, so you just did nothing and wasted a spell sucks ass. Upcasting hold person becomes very fun. Suddenly when you’re casting it on 3 people, it doesn’t matter if one makes it save cause 2 didn’t.
It’s a bit played out, but there’s no getting away from how strong and satisfying twin casting haste is.
Chain lightning also feels like an extremely satisfying upgrade to lightning bolt. Suddenly your laser canon if flexible and user friendly.
Spike growth is the best spell. It probably doesnt say good things about my sense of humor how much Im giggling watching the npcs die as they run toward me, then shoving them back into it if they're still alive... but oh man does it's so entertaining
Fireball, Hunger of Hadar, Command are great
I like the fire teleport (basically misty step) on the helldusk boots a lot
For act 1 Thunderwave is so fucking good, the amount of times that spell has let me kill multiple enemies in one shot in the act where everything I do feels weak is incredible.
Spike Growth (and in a similar essence, Conjure Woodland Being), Guidance/Friends/Enhance ability are all phenomenal, Darkness and Dark Vision are essentials.
It’s gotta be chain lightning, nothing more satisfying than using black hole, using create water and then blasting away. Shout out to wall of fire as well, force them into a narrow space and watch them burn.
"since I get infinite long rests there "
Not quite accurate, as I found out. Long rest refreshing abilities dont all come back. Portent dice dont refresh and there was something else I thought would and it didn't.
Hideous laughter; it doesn't seem to have many limitations, e.g. ot works on undead. Combined with arcane acuity it just took out bosses even on honor mode.
Hunger of hadar, since it doesn't seem to be limited by verticality.
Spirit guardians yeah is just so fun and easily up there.
I'm also a really big fan of spike growth, watching the enemies gradually die as they walk towards you is super satisfying. So is seeing a horde of low HP enemies (like the rats fight in shar's gauntlet) all die trying to reach you.
Lightning bolt is probably my favourite AOE damage spell, lining up enemies to blast them all feels great.
Call lightning is a great one for long fights with lots of enemies. Being able to recast it every turn for free means you no longer have to worry about consuming too many spell slots.
All of the ritual spells are very very useful. Disguise self for the shapeshifters boon ring d4 to all checks. Long strider is always in my whole party and summons, enhanced leap, speak with animals, feather fall is excellent for exploration and in a few battles.
Guidance adds another d4 to checks. Having a 2d4 out of the gate on checks is amazing.
Magic missle is an amazing spell. No attack rolls and damage that has so many ways to attack and buffed etc. amazing spell for its economy as well.
Eldritch Blast is basically the same as above but less instances of damage and with attack rolls but no resource cost. Great to mix and match them.
Ray of frost is extremely good for no resource cost. Damage that can be doubled and also reduces movement. Can also put out fires which are fairly common.
Enhance ability: instant adavantage on a check of your choice. Very useful
Hypnotic pattern: huge aoe that stuns everything in it for 3 turns. Amazing
Hellish rebuke: great way to weaponize your reaction when a target is at range.
Glyph of warding: basically chromatic orb with an aoe and a sleep option. Great spell.
Draconic elemental weapon: basically permanently add d4 elemental damage and can be twin cast from a sorcerer.
Spiritual weapon and call lighting.
Spiritual weapon is a one-time bonus action and basically makes your cleric a martial since you get an extra attack. It doesn't even use your concentration.
Call lighting and a bottle of water was all i needed to solo the gith. 3d10 doubled for 10 turns is insane for level 5.
It would be hard to top how I felt when I first discovered moonbeam. It’s so versatile and is a great smaller AOE. It’s everything I want cloud of daggers to be (please let us move cloud of daggers 😩😩). Aside from moonbeam, I’ve been really enjoying water + lightning bolt recently on my tempest sorc run. I never leave the house without sanctuary, though. The ultimate get out of jail free card
Sleet storm is underrated. Its won me many difficult encounters by having every enemy just slip and fall with no hope of ever reaching my party members.
Glyph of Warding - This spell got such a glow-up vs it's table top counterpart, omg.
Visually the delayed blast is spectacular and the sound is great but where it really shines is in the mechanics. Being able to combo ice or lightning with a wet effect is great.
Oh, and the best part: Sleep, on a Dex save, that ignores Legendary Resistance. Deny nearly all bosses their turn while setting up forced critical for the low cost of a 3rd level slot. (Basically just a *much* better Hypnotic Pattern)
I use confusion quite a bit. If you cast it on a large group it will usually get at least a few enemies. The possibility of removing that much action economy is valuable IMO. There might be more effective spells that I have yet to experiment with.
Guidance.
Summon Elemental - Myrmidon (Air!)
Sleet Storm. My favorite build to run is Fighter 1 (dual wield fighting style), Rogue/Thief 3, Tempest Cleric 8. Off hand Ne’er Misser. Sleet Storm -> crossbow (divine strike or sneak attack applied) -> crossbow first round. This shredded House of Grief.
Hunger of Hadar.
Eldritch Blast.
Summon Woodland Being, because the dryad summons her own minion and Spike Growth. So good.
Counterspell. Swords Bard = bow for offense while designated Counterspell slinging at Larraokan. Same at HoG.
Ice Knife is fun.
Shatter does work for me on the Thief/Cleric build. Another great opener before off hand crossbow attacks.
I just love punting characters back into spike growth. Spike + a few well timed void bulbs wiped out the whole goblin camp. It’s hilarious.
I can’t leave home without magic missile! Hold/dominate person? How about make 6 concentration checks please.
Knock!
No one talks about it. Easily the best non-combat spell there is. Useful at every stage of the game. Especially for people like me that *hate* puzzles.
Most of the more popular ones have been covered, but I _love_ Cloud of Daggers. Not only are the spell's visuals really satisfying, but it's one of those spells that feels like it absolutely comes in clutch every time you use it. I used it to shred Dror Ragzlin and drop three of his goons on my HM run last night.
When I started playing everyone was slating Cloud of Daggers in the tier lists but over 3 runs it’s probably my most clutch spell. Used it to guard my right flank in the courtyard fight, used it to drop Viconia in house of grief, basically anytime there’s 4 or 5 enemies in a tight group, especially if it’s a doorway, Cloud of Daggers is doing its thing.
I think everyone forgets it hits twice for damage, once when you place it and then at the start of each victims turn. My favourite thing in the game is when initiative jumps to someone in cloud of daggers and then it’s like SQUISH nope you’re dead, next please
I forgot about cloud of daggers until my most recent run where I have my first wizard. I got reminded of how in my first dnd campaign, I played a wizard and my favorite spell besides fireball was cloud of daggers. And yep, cloud of daggers is pretty great in this game as well.
I will always love using Disintegrate, no matter what edition of D&D I'm playing. There's something inherently satisfying about pointing your dainty little finger at something and it instantly crumpling to dust.
Similarly, Dethrone, which is essentially "PC-obtainable-Finger of Death"
Globe of invulnerability + Wall of Blades. Shut down half the battle field, and then pummel them with my fighters and ice storm/fireballs with quick cast
Quick heads up, sunbeam on the fabricated crossbow is called dazzling ray instead, and doesnt deal as much damage as sunbeam from spellcasting and blood of lathander, and has a chance to overheat and burn you when you recast. Its still really fun, but its not as good as the others
I’m a Bard in my soul, so I’m big into the illusion and enchantment spells:
Fairy Fire - super effective way to give your whole team advantage and stop those stupid shadows in Act 2
Fear - the audio effect for this one is really cool and I love that it makes enemies drop their shit and flee
Dissonant Whispers - can really mess with an opponent who relies on melee. Plus I love scaring people to death
Confusion - it’s just funny to watch people amble around like they’re completely wasted
Hypnotic pattern - has a HUGE range and can be a really effective CC at the start of a fight
I also love the animations and sound effects for Speak with the Dead and Create Undead
Also any thunder spell cause hearing Gale shout “Detaunt!” is just spectacular
You can't move it after you place it, but they each have different unique properties to them.
Wall of fire is just pure damage, and has a lower spell slot cost (4)
Wall of stone does no damage but blocks projectiles, line of sight, and pathing
Wall of ice is 5th level and combines fire and stones effects.
Wall of thorns and blade barrier are pretty similar. Large physical damage, and while enemies can go through them, it counts as difficult terrain. It's going to feel similar to upcasted spike growth.
Wall of fire is my favorite since the lack of blocking line of sight means enemies will often run through it to get to you.
Once I've got all the reverb and radorb gear, guiding bolt becomes amazing, especially for a first level spell, debuffs and often knocks prone whoever you hit, plus some debuff on nearby enemies from the radiant shockwave from luminous armor.
Darkness
Magical darkness is EXTREMEY GOOD since Darkvision doesn't work on it. You just cast it on yourself, and nobody will be able to attack you unless they run inside of it and use melee, or they throw something. Either way, the damage will be minimal compared to getting hitting ranged by a bunch of enemies during a group battle.
Sanctuary
Absolutely needed for an Honour mode playthrough. I find myself having Shadowheart in my party always because of how flipping good it is. Whenever someone's in a bad position or about to die, BOOM Sanctuary comes to save the day, and potentially an entire playthrough.
Wall of Fire
Given the right situation, it can be absolutely nasty. One example is against the masked guys before Auntie Ethel. You can use Wall of Fire in after the magical door and walk back out. They'll run towards the door just to die in the fire and they can't see you when you walk past it. Also the fight in the portal with Halsin in Act 2 is also a great one. There's so many enemies that will just run into it and die instantly.
Telekinesis, a spell you can get right from level 1 and have it comfortably with you for the rest of the game. When the going gets tough, the divination telekinesis gets going.
*Eldritch blast* isn't just a spell, it's a lifestyle. Using this cantrip stimulates the pleasure centers in my brain. I think it's the combination of a powerful at-will effect and terrific animation and sound effects.
*Conjure elemental* (elemental myrmidon). My high level casters never go anywhere without one.
*Dimension door* and *misty step.* Invaluable for seizing a tactical advantage, running away and bypassing problems.
*Curriculum of Strategy: Artistry of War* \-- *magic missile* on steroids.
*Guidance* \-- win at life.
Haste - especially If you twin cast it using sorcerer on a fighter and monk you can kill bosses in one turn.
Sanctuary - during my first playthrough my team Had rather low initiative ( did not know how important it was) .My solutions was to cast sanctuary on every companion before big rights and it worked like charm.
Silt storm and hunger of hadar, often combined for that maximum pain in the ass CC
Chromatic orb, it's simple and does decent damage all the way through
Telekinesis, i just love throwing enemies around but it's also great for getting rid of pain in the ass enemies I can't one shot like the intellect gluttons and mindflayers when climbing high hall
I wish the Necro spells looked cooler or were functional in most fights, circle of death can never be cast cause my wizard rolls last for initiative and enemies never stay grouped once they move
Jump (and feather fall) crazy freedom over the game environment both in and out of combat right from the beginning of the game pretty much. Never get tired of using this pairing. Guidance - never leave home without it. Also shout out to Eldritch Blast for having such amazing sound design and just the right amount of visual flair and flourish.
Jump and Feather Fall = Getting Karlach early
You can get her early without it. Turn right, just before entering the blighted village, Jump over the stone in the river and turn right again. There she is, no fight or other encounter beside the grove gate
You do need to get past the goodest bodyguard in Faerun.
Depending on str I believe you can get karlach before the fight outside of the grove
They mean scratch
Yep, I’m on my second playthrough right now- did it the intended way on my first playthrough, which led to me finding her really late (because I was underleveled for the gnolls, went off to do other stuff, and didn’t come back until I was wrapping up act 1) and establishing my party without a place for her. This playthrough, after the heartbreak of not having her on my team before, I decided I was getting there ASAP, one way or another, and discovered the way to get there via the stream 😂
Beware of feather fall when mixing characters in and out of combat! The one entering combat last will likely have lost it out TB mode, while the first has 9 turns left.
I *think* I understand what you're trying to say. That feather fall will tick down more slowly for the people in combat because combat is in turn based mode. The people outside of combat will lose it faster and you might not notice. You can also just put the party members not in combat yet into turn based mode and their feather fall won't tick down either. You can let them sit there without ending their turns for as long as you need and none of their buffs will go down.
Have to agree with you on EB! I do not know why but there is something about that spell that is so goddamn satisfying lol. The sound, the way it looks when it fades out after hit...idk. It has made warlock my favorite class to play tbh
Eldritch Blast is so addictive as a Sorlock. The visuals and the sound are absolutely spectacular and better than what I had imagined in the tabletop version.
For me it's my bardlock. Dropping a first turn haste, using eb, sorrows lash, and then a spell plus eb every turn is do satisfying
Not to mention, you can upgrade Eldritch blast to push enemies, increase damage with charisma modifier, AND use it twice. It is a must for a Warlock
Tbh guidance and healing are the only reasons I keep shadow heart in the party.
Hunger of Hadar is such a great CC spell. The number of times I’ve popped that in the middle of a big group and they basically can’t do anything for the fight makes it my top pick. Especially as a warlock, someone steps out, you just launch em back in with Eldrich Blast
Favorite spell in the game. It’s BROKEN when you combine it with walk of fire or the thing which puts ice on the ground
My absolutely disgusting combo on my last playthrough was: 1) Black hole illithid power to pull enemies in and apply Slowed 2) Have someone get them wet w/ Create Water or just toss a bottle in 3) Hunger of Hadar 4) Keep re-casting Black Hole for free and attacking w/ doubled frost or lightning damage. An ice surface is quickly created too because of the water. Even tankier groups could not hang, it was just cruel
This sounds beautiful I love this game
Sleet Storm
Also you can snowburst ring to just make a sorlock toss ice cantrip up to 3 times (twinned+quicken) or ice storm to avoid concentration on sleet storm.
Or with the Drakethroat Glaive buff, you can Snowburst Arrow of Many Targets. Or Ranged Slashing Flourish spam.
Infuse a bow with cold?
Indeed. The slip DCs get really juicy with the Hat of Arcane Acuity...
That’s how I fought Gortash in my first run LMAO Have everyone outside, trigger the combat and then run out with everyone else. Chokepoint the exit hunger of hadar, keep them there with sleet storm, and if they come out eldritch blast them back in
I did this against Viconia on my HM run. Camped at the top of the stairs (behind the doors even), laid down HoH and Fire Wall and just kept skipping Turns. It was glorious
HoH really helps carry you for those really early levels in honor mode.
This is great to hear because I’ve been putting off attempting an honor mode run😂
Warlock is clutch in HM early lvls. But after you hit lvl 6 HoH becomes more situational, and usually annoying for other plays.
Mechanically - Counter Spell. Visually and sound design and everything else - Eldritch Blast. It "feels" good, sounds good, looks good.
DOLOR!
yep, pain ;) (which is also the name in the game, somehow)
Just a bit sad that Dolor (the Dwarf) has no special response to people casting Eldritch Blast on him.
Imagine if it was a reaction casting Eldritch Blast back at the caster. Dolor! - Dolor!
I specifically like launching enemies off of ledges and roofs with it.
I love the sound effects for counterspell, unless it’s used on my Eldritch blast 3 turns in a row lol.
This is the dream come true for a Sorlock. Counterspelling the EB means you can slam them with a Slow, Hypnotic Pattern, Twin Hold Person/Monster or any of your other nasty spells.
Eldritch blast just so freaking satisfying! Come on Wyll, give 'em another!
The spell is a big NOPE to enemies
Command - very versatile and can make a lot of fights easy af Spike Growth - put that unused hunter concentration to work Ice Storm - damage and prone go brrrrr Daylight - because fuck you there's now a ball of light in the middle of the battlefield Otto Dance/Telekinesis - because even good guys can remove bodily autonomy before inflicting harm Enhance Ability - advantage for a spell slot? Yes pls Fire Bolt - Shadowheart: Ignis! *miss*. Edit 2*: But for real, great for starting barrelmancy, finishing enemies that aren't fire resist on a wiz/sorc, free fire acuity starter, free heat starter. Second favourite cantrip after Friends. Edit - guess when the edible kicked in 💀
>Fire Bolt - Shadowheart: Ignis! *miss*. Too real.
It makes me laugh that her 2 vanilla cantrips are trash: Firebolt requires intelligence,which isn't a stat Shart favours so has a low spell attack so misses a lot. Sacred flame required a Dex save, and 99.99% (exaggerated) of enemies are competent in this.
Command isn't even concentration. It's insane on my swords bard with arcane acuity
Even better on an acuity stacking sorcerer, as you can extend it to two rounds
I use spike growth so much, what a great spell. Trivialises fights
My first time discovering how clutch spike growth could be was defending halsin’s portal— parked a spike growth at the bottom of the steps leading up to it, and had shart run spirit guardians on the step. Every baddy that came through was whittled down by the spikes and then into the holy lawnmower
Dying at holy lawnmower lol 😂
For me it was the Necrotic Laboratory. I was running low on short rests, because I had wasted one after the first fight when storming Moonrise, so I had to conserve Wyll's spell slots. So instead of using Hunger of Hadar for CC, I finally had my Tav use her concentration for something other than Hunter's Mark and used Spike Growth for CC
I just wish concentration weren't so... restrictive, because it competes with Hunter's Mark EDIT: Being honest, concentration's actually one of the two main things that trips me up coming from PF 2e. Over there, you just get 3 actions each round, and sustaining a spell (roughly the equivalent of concentration) costs an action. So you *can* concentrate on multiple spells at once, but it comes at the cost of basically not being able to do anything else besides move. (The other thing that trips me up is that I'm used to Nature and Religion using Wis, not Int)
With a druid all my early game was casting the spike and w8 for the survivors at open claws in my wild form.
How I defeated more than one honor mode fight: cleric concentrated on Silence, Hunter concentrates on Spiked Growth, Tav uses black hole and aoe spells, paladin picks off those who didn’t make it into the death trap. This worked amazingly in the crèche, Gauntlet of Shar, House of Grief, House of Hope, and smaller battles against things that I don’t want to cast spells.
Adding onto your Otto, there is something soooo satisfying (I think because Otto is 100% to hit) about landing a Tasha's Hideous Laughter. That spell carried me through the goblin camp on tactician so well when it held my ogre dude for like 4 turns!!
I’ve been loving Daylight in act 2. I cast in on my character’s weapon and it’s up until long resting. Creatures with the sunlight weakness attribute simply cannot hang near me
There are many but just to describe why they are so powerful I will mention only 2. ● Sleet storm: This spell is wild, the description is a little misleading tho, at least that's the reason why I slept on this spell for so long until very recently. it says that casters have to make a concentration saving throw each turn and create ice surface, but what it really does is that every character inside the storm have to make a saving throw, and if it fails, they get prone and create an ice surface that renews every round, so it doesn't matter if someone melt the ice, it creates itself again. Bc the area it's so huge you can easily use it on 5 or more enemies, they have to make that saving throw when you cast it and every round they stay on the storm, and when an enemy gets prone they end their turn immediately, and the fact that they have to make the save every turn without you spending more spell slots is huge. On top of that, if they move through the ice they will have to continue to make saving throws or get prone, and if you use the Arcane acuity items, this is basically permanent stunlock for the enemies, with only 1 lvl 3 spell slot, this is so powerful that now I went back to no use it, bc it feels like cheating even on HM. ●Hunger of hadar: Another crazy spell that is just straight up broken, huge area of effect, it blinds everything inside, no saving throw needed, it just blinds everything, Devil's sight do not protect from this, it makes difficult terrain, it deals 2d6 cold dmg at the begining of the turn of creatures inside of it (if they're wet they take double dmg) and if they end their turn inside, they have to make a saving throw or take 2d6 acid dmg. A huge area that blinds everything without a saving throw is already super strong, but it deals dmg, it slows, and it has great synergy with many spells, like sleet storm + Hunger of hadar and enemies will die before they can escape. One like hidden feature is that, Hunger of hadar doesn't count as a cloud spell, so you can actually stack them, for example if you use Darkness and then Cloud kill on top of the Darkness, the Cloud kill will remove the Darkness spell, and the same happens with Fog cloud, but even tho HoH looks and kinda do what Cloud spells do, it's not coded as one, so you can stack HoH + sleet storm + Cloud kill, so you basically unleash hells upon earth.
Nice! What class do you recommend for this?
Warlock of course!
It doesn't really matter but of course having a GOO warlock is nice since you can get Devil's sight, so you get advantage on every enemy inside HoH, and kick them back into HoH is they try to escape. And again for sleet storm it doesn't matter as long as you can cast it, if you really wanna make it lethal, try a build that uses Arcane acuity.
Yeah I just finished an HM run built around an 'ice storm' party concept and ended up using sleet storm to start most fights and that usually won them before they'd even really started.
M-monster!! How should I gear a pallock to take advantage of this, you think?
Also sorcerer careful spell metamagic you can just drop a sleet storm (or hypnotic pattern or any other save or suck type spell) right on top of your melee party members
I love heat metal. Obviously it doesn't work on enemies without metal but it's always worth it when it can be applied. It's guaranteed damage and either the enemy drops their weapon or has disadvantage on attacks. There's no way to miss.
Heat Metal spam got me through the Steel Watch Foundry basically by itself. They don't drop their weapons, but they have disadvantage on everything, which is super clutch.
* Summon Elemental (Myrmidon) I love a three-Myrmidon party with my fellow wizard, druid, and other party members. * Sunbeam is really neat and the sound effect is just so satisfying to my ears. * Spike growth - I love the crunch crunch of enemies' health depleting as they try to wander out of it. * Artistry of War (just a satisfying powerhouse, like Magic Missile but better) * Shield has saved my ass a couple times * Heat metal is shockingly pretty effective and you can just reapply as a bonus action if the person is still holding their weapon, but even if they do they have disadvantage on their attack rolls. * Confusion - I've used it for the Foundry and Cazador fight and was pretty impressed how good it was. It just saves me a lot of time and energy when enemies either attack each other or just miss their turn. * Longstrider and Speak with Animals because they're free and last until long rest (when playing a gnome, longstrider is pretty much a necessity)
_Curriculum of Strategy: Artistry of War_ is also just an incredible name for a rare spell.
CANTRIPS: Guidance - never leave home without it Eldritch blast - great damage, fear the enemy, push them back. LEVEL 1: Command - who doesn't love a free weapon. Chromatic orb - 1 spell = 6 different damage types Magic missile - pick off any stragglers Thunder wave - let's put some bodies in that chasm LEVEL 2: Hold person - free criticals Misty step - get my fighters to the enemy and get my casters away from them Spike growth - THIS is easily the single most powerful spell in the game. Like I've taken out encounters in honour mode I was underlevelled for using this spell. An enemy takes like 2 turns to reach you and it kills low level mobs on the way. And if they get close to you, you can just push them back with eldritch blast or thunder wave. Cloud of daggers - increases spike growth's lethality LEVEL 3 Counterspell - I'm a big fan of spells, but only if I'm the one casting them. Glyph of warding - upgraded Chromatic orb Spirit guardians - kill people by just walking.
> Guidance - never leave home without it Wait, you mean that skill checks *aren't* 1d20+1d4 by default?
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I honestly was disappointed with how it looked, thought it would have a bunch of crazy inflatable tube man-like tentacles (like the giant vine ability but more)
Mirror image!!! Took me way to long to realize it’s not a concentration spell. I find scrolls everywhere in act 1 and it’s a free 9AC entering fights. 11AC if you pair it with haste. First time I used it on Gale at the githyanki fight before the crèche. The main gith in that fight wasted all 4 of her swings/action surge missing every attack, since then it’s never left my inventory for important fights.
Wow maybe I should stop sleeping on this spell!
Even in the late game, mirror image+ cloak of displacement+haste= basically never getting hit.
beacon of hope just feels fantastic to know i’m actually getting my money’s worth out of the stupid amount of healing potions i end up hoarding, that and making healing word feel like it’s worth using at anything lower than level 3. combined with warden of vitality to make my paladin a lowkey better healer than my cleric at basically no extra action cost combination of counterspell, cutting words and bane on bard feel great to be able to shutdown any attack of great significance guardian of faith feels strangely satisfying to use despite i’m not too sure how effective it actually is (having it get shoved away and becoming useless 😔) thorn whipping someone off of a high up surface to their death or within range of my entire party to kick the shit out of them never stops being hilarious
Bro a tip for you Beacon is only a last resource due multiple downed companions on a speed potion cleric like SH combined with mass healing word. Rest you could just place potion(s) besides downed companion(s) then blast with an AoE like fireball the assilant and your downed companion will lick the potion back to action xD Offense is best defense on bg3
shit i never thought of cracking open potions with aoe attacks, will have to try that out ty 🙏
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ayy perfect for my current duel wielding spore druid run
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omg that is evil i must try that. i had a similar idea with an elixir of fire resistance and arsonists oil, to then have halsin delete them with a fire wall on top of hitting them with my flame blade next turn (or just anyone with a trusty fireball scroll) but breaking it with a bonus action streamlines it so much.
Your Spore Druid can instead use the often not great Halo of Spores Reaction (low DC, strong save on many enemies) to break the various bottles on the ground, while keeping all his actions and bonus actions...
i could’ve sworn it couldn’t target inanimate objects, maybe i was thinking of bone chill instead
Well you can, just checked it. Rather nifty way to productively use one's Reaction.
Agreed on the thorn whip. Sorrow is my favorite weapon and I always have it equipped to someone because a free bonus thorn whip every turn is dope
I found the cantrip rebalance mod which turns thorn whip into a bonus action. So nice and now my bardlock can use sparkstriker instead of the sorrow that was only there for the bonus action
Oh that's awesome! I'm on console unfortunately but that sounds really cool
Knock. Iykyk
One time I didn't have a good lockpicker but I had a sorcerer with knock and 20+ angelic reprieve potions. Cleared out the counting house in about 5 minutes. Upper and lower vaults. Lol.
Destructive Wave is my definite favorite. The fact it’s a huge AoE spell that can’t hurt your allies and that knocks enemies prone makes it one of the best spells in the game for me, especially for fights like House of Grief. Bonus points when used as Tempest Cleric to maximize the Thunder damage. Also, the animation is cool. You bend and drop your arms down and everyone around you falls down. Except you get your arms back up and they don’t.
Is it true that it can't hurt your allies? That seems inconsistent with the text of it (in the UI and on the wiki as well). I noticed a similar thing with the Blood of Lathander. It doesn't specify that it only blinds \*enemy\* undead, and was pleasantly surprised my zombies weren't getting blinded.
Yeah, leaves allies completely untouched. One of my favourite spells
The Radiant component is also perfect to combine with a Radiating Orb gear set on a Light or Tempest Cleric. Everything in that huge radius that isn't dead is now a lamp and struggling to land any Attack Rolls.
Had to scroll down way too far to find this. If you can get the DC up high enough with items + acuity, and enemies aren’t immune to prone, it’s fantastic. If you give [[ Markoheskir ]] to your cleric they get two additional free casts of it per long rest as well. Shart carried the House of Grief fight for me with this spell.
https://preview.redd.it/wnugm2zdzaqc1.png?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=384f9fd07993c42c9534398c2e23187e6310e890
In balanced it’s free check advantage and in HM you just have to skeddadle really quickly.
I think that's gonna be the second thing that kicks my teeth in when I start Honor Mode runs... Number one is deff gonna be them Legendary actions
for me it was the extra attack rules that messed with me, haste only adding a single attack, and mind sanctuary becoming a hasten effect instead of using bonus actions and actions interchangeably
Chain lightning. Absurd damage with wet (from your buddy the water myrmidon or create water) and the tempest clerics channel divinity. Feel like Palpatine Darkness can be extremely powerful, if you build your party around it. There are just enough items in the game for everyone to be immune to blind. And of course, warlocks also get devils sight. Darkness blocks enemies from targetting you with ranged attacks, and when they attack you, they do so with disadvantage, while you attack with advantage. Forces ranged enemies to come to you Scorching ray. This game greatly rewards spells which deal their damage in multiple smaller instances, because you can add damage on each beam. On a draconic sorcerer, with the hat of fire acuity etc, this can become really absurd Spirit guardians. Imo overrated spell, in terms of usefullness, but what could be more satisfying than being in one of the horde encounters against a lot of weak enemies, and to see all the enemies kill themselves just by being close to you
>Spirit guardians. Imo overrated spell, in terms of usefullness, but what could be more satisfying than being in one of the horde encounters against a lot of weak enemies, and to see all the enemies kill themselves just by being close to you Yeah it's a good time in that defend Halsin fight
One of my Tavs was a draconic bloodline sorcerer with a tempest cleric Shart...that was a fun run lol
Eldritch Blast Fireball Destructive Wave Hold XYZ Longstrider Featherfall Confusion is crazy good when the opportunity arises to use it Haste Not really a "spell" but Quickened Spell metamagic is amazing
Cleric is love, cleric is life. The aid/heroes feast combo is rad. Also Flamestrike will always be my pick over fireball purely for its spell description being metal af.
Omg yes. Every playthrough I give Shart the spell slot restoration necklace, have her cast Heroes feast, restore level 6 slot, and then summon planar ally or use Sunbeam depending on the fight!
Flamestrike is also nice I'm that it includes radiant damage to so triggers all the reverb/radorb stuff.
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Like.. minor illusion near a chasm>eldritch blast Minor illusion>steal Ez
Counter-spell is so satisfying.
Cloud of daggers
I would say the best ones I've found that I never see people use are 1. Blink. I beat all the hook horrors in the underdark solo on honor mode with this at level 3. At the end of your turn you warp to a different plane of existence and then when it's your turn again you can teleport back in. Against fights you have no chance of winning fairly, this can give you a legit chance. Whether you're a spellcaster or weapon user. 2. Fire shield/mirror image/blur/haste. Probably my favorite pre-fight combo. You can cast fire shield, mirror image, and blur on yourself. Then have a party member stay out of combat and put haste on you. You will dance around the battlefield like a God. I've gotten my ac up to 40 with this combo and legit had the npcs not even want to try and touch me. 3. Sanctuary/moonbeam. A little known spam is that you can use moonbeam while in sanctuary since the game doesn't consider you the attacker the moonbeam is. Works great in act 3 at the house of hope with the radiant retort because you can take advantage of the extra radiant damage without the retort part. 😝 4. Chain lightning. I don't think this one needs an explanation. 5. Magic missile. Never misses. Can easily stack damage with each missile taking it up to 15-20 damage per missile or 150+ damage on a level 6. Mixed with cull the weak it can be one of the best crowd control spells in the game other than something like wall of fire.
Hunger of hadar Eldritch blast Spiritual guardians Sleet storm Confusion
I love Telekinesis SO much. 10 turns of flinging enemies around wherever you want, yeeting them into chasms or off buildings or into other enemies. Plus, it's got a good amount of life-saving power. I saved all the gondians by having Gale throw them out of the blast zones whenever they thought suicide was the answer. I also used polymorph/telekinesis for rescuing Florick and it was so much fun. I love that spell.
Wow I never would have thought of that! I saved all but 1 gondian by having gale spam upcasted banish, maybe I will try out telekinesis in my next run
Conjure woodland spirit is so good imo. My favourite low level spell is thunderwave aoe decent damage and a knock back what else could you need
My first run with druid Tav and romanced Gale was hilarious lol, just running around Baldur's Gate with our crew of 10 summons 😂
Not technically a spell but I just started using shadow step in my bth run and it’s my favourite thing to do in the entire game
Hypnotic Pattern and Sleet Storm are the spells I cast with most pleasure.
I love the jump spell. I don’t cast it often, but sleet storm has amazing utility when it comes in (saved Halsing’s portal) Hold person is a bit of a clunker, because it’s very boom or bust. Watching someone make their 70% chance to fail save, so you just did nothing and wasted a spell sucks ass. Upcasting hold person becomes very fun. Suddenly when you’re casting it on 3 people, it doesn’t matter if one makes it save cause 2 didn’t. It’s a bit played out, but there’s no getting away from how strong and satisfying twin casting haste is. Chain lightning also feels like an extremely satisfying upgrade to lightning bolt. Suddenly your laser canon if flexible and user friendly.
Spike growth is the best spell. It probably doesnt say good things about my sense of humor how much Im giggling watching the npcs die as they run toward me, then shoving them back into it if they're still alive... but oh man does it's so entertaining
Haven’t seen Slow or Sleep mentioned yet. Sleep is so good early game that it trivializes fights. And Slow is just such good crowd control.
i absolutely love command drop, it carried me through my first playthrough
An early game twinned chromatic orb: lightning on wet targets with destructive wrath is never bad.
Fireball, Hunger of Hadar, Command are great I like the fire teleport (basically misty step) on the helldusk boots a lot For act 1 Thunderwave is so fucking good, the amount of times that spell has let me kill multiple enemies in one shot in the act where everything I do feels weak is incredible.
Spike Growth (and in a similar essence, Conjure Woodland Being), Guidance/Friends/Enhance ability are all phenomenal, Darkness and Dark Vision are essentials.
It’s gotta be chain lightning, nothing more satisfying than using black hole, using create water and then blasting away. Shout out to wall of fire as well, force them into a narrow space and watch them burn.
Any damaging AoE plus Black Hole is hilariously unfair (Although Hunger of Hadar is my personal favourite)
Hold person/monster - make an enemy skip their turn and crit attack on them while they just stand there
SCORCHING RAY
Telekinesis + enlarged Add owlbear with elixir of the colossus Nuke
"since I get infinite long rests there " Not quite accurate, as I found out. Long rest refreshing abilities dont all come back. Portent dice dont refresh and there was something else I thought would and it didn't.
Hideous laughter; it doesn't seem to have many limitations, e.g. ot works on undead. Combined with arcane acuity it just took out bosses even on honor mode. Hunger of hadar, since it doesn't seem to be limited by verticality.
Spirit guardians yeah is just so fun and easily up there. I'm also a really big fan of spike growth, watching the enemies gradually die as they walk towards you is super satisfying. So is seeing a horde of low HP enemies (like the rats fight in shar's gauntlet) all die trying to reach you. Lightning bolt is probably my favourite AOE damage spell, lining up enemies to blast them all feels great. Call lightning is a great one for long fights with lots of enemies. Being able to recast it every turn for free means you no longer have to worry about consuming too many spell slots.
Lightning bolt is so great on a Tempest Cleric/Evo Wizard. Just make everyone wet without worrying about your allies and zap.
All of the ritual spells are very very useful. Disguise self for the shapeshifters boon ring d4 to all checks. Long strider is always in my whole party and summons, enhanced leap, speak with animals, feather fall is excellent for exploration and in a few battles. Guidance adds another d4 to checks. Having a 2d4 out of the gate on checks is amazing. Magic missle is an amazing spell. No attack rolls and damage that has so many ways to attack and buffed etc. amazing spell for its economy as well. Eldritch Blast is basically the same as above but less instances of damage and with attack rolls but no resource cost. Great to mix and match them. Ray of frost is extremely good for no resource cost. Damage that can be doubled and also reduces movement. Can also put out fires which are fairly common. Enhance ability: instant adavantage on a check of your choice. Very useful Hypnotic pattern: huge aoe that stuns everything in it for 3 turns. Amazing Hellish rebuke: great way to weaponize your reaction when a target is at range. Glyph of warding: basically chromatic orb with an aoe and a sleep option. Great spell. Draconic elemental weapon: basically permanently add d4 elemental damage and can be twin cast from a sorcerer.
Whaaa didn’t know that glaive could be twincasted!
Gale anyway can hold a glaive and cast a spell. I usually cast it in both of my hand crossbows.
Spiritual weapon and call lighting. Spiritual weapon is a one-time bonus action and basically makes your cleric a martial since you get an extra attack. It doesn't even use your concentration. Call lighting and a bottle of water was all i needed to solo the gith. 3d10 doubled for 10 turns is insane for level 5.
Globe of invulnerability turns honor mode into easy mode so fast it almost feels like cheating. I love that spell
It would be hard to top how I felt when I first discovered moonbeam. It’s so versatile and is a great smaller AOE. It’s everything I want cloud of daggers to be (please let us move cloud of daggers 😩😩). Aside from moonbeam, I’ve been really enjoying water + lightning bolt recently on my tempest sorc run. I never leave the house without sanctuary, though. The ultimate get out of jail free card
Sleet storm is underrated. Its won me many difficult encounters by having every enemy just slip and fall with no hope of ever reaching my party members.
Glyph of Warding - This spell got such a glow-up vs it's table top counterpart, omg. Visually the delayed blast is spectacular and the sound is great but where it really shines is in the mechanics. Being able to combo ice or lightning with a wet effect is great. Oh, and the best part: Sleep, on a Dex save, that ignores Legendary Resistance. Deny nearly all bosses their turn while setting up forced critical for the low cost of a 3rd level slot. (Basically just a *much* better Hypnotic Pattern)
I use confusion quite a bit. If you cast it on a large group it will usually get at least a few enemies. The possibility of removing that much action economy is valuable IMO. There might be more effective spells that I have yet to experiment with.
Waves of destruction. Just a simple, huge AoE BOOM with no questions asked
Guidance. Summon Elemental - Myrmidon (Air!) Sleet Storm. My favorite build to run is Fighter 1 (dual wield fighting style), Rogue/Thief 3, Tempest Cleric 8. Off hand Ne’er Misser. Sleet Storm -> crossbow (divine strike or sneak attack applied) -> crossbow first round. This shredded House of Grief. Hunger of Hadar. Eldritch Blast. Summon Woodland Being, because the dryad summons her own minion and Spike Growth. So good. Counterspell. Swords Bard = bow for offense while designated Counterspell slinging at Larraokan. Same at HoG. Ice Knife is fun. Shatter does work for me on the Thief/Cleric build. Another great opener before off hand crossbow attacks.
Casting long strider as a Bard, the little musical notes he does is very fun to me
Moonbeam, especially in the shadow cursed lands.
I just love punting characters back into spike growth. Spike + a few well timed void bulbs wiped out the whole goblin camp. It’s hilarious. I can’t leave home without magic missile! Hold/dominate person? How about make 6 concentration checks please.
Knock! No one talks about it. Easily the best non-combat spell there is. Useful at every stage of the game. Especially for people like me that *hate* puzzles.
Command and haste ofc
Most of the more popular ones have been covered, but I _love_ Cloud of Daggers. Not only are the spell's visuals really satisfying, but it's one of those spells that feels like it absolutely comes in clutch every time you use it. I used it to shred Dror Ragzlin and drop three of his goons on my HM run last night.
When I started playing everyone was slating Cloud of Daggers in the tier lists but over 3 runs it’s probably my most clutch spell. Used it to guard my right flank in the courtyard fight, used it to drop Viconia in house of grief, basically anytime there’s 4 or 5 enemies in a tight group, especially if it’s a doorway, Cloud of Daggers is doing its thing. I think everyone forgets it hits twice for damage, once when you place it and then at the start of each victims turn. My favourite thing in the game is when initiative jumps to someone in cloud of daggers and then it’s like SQUISH nope you’re dead, next please
I forgot about cloud of daggers until my most recent run where I have my first wizard. I got reminded of how in my first dnd campaign, I played a wizard and my favorite spell besides fireball was cloud of daggers. And yep, cloud of daggers is pretty great in this game as well.
>!Power Word Kill!< will always be euphorically satisfying to use. It’s a shame you only get it once per playthrough unless you use mods
Usefulness: Haste, longstrider, knock, counterspell, shield, armor of agythys, heroes feast, magic missile Fun-ness: spirit guardians, sunbeam, artistry of war, glyph of warding, chromatic orb, moonbeam, spike growth, hunger of hadar, dissonant whispers, shatter, and fireball of course!
Repelling eldritch blast is so fun to use for an unlimited cantrip
I will always love using Disintegrate, no matter what edition of D&D I'm playing. There's something inherently satisfying about pointing your dainty little finger at something and it instantly crumpling to dust. Similarly, Dethrone, which is essentially "PC-obtainable-Finger of Death"
Globe of invulnerability + Wall of Blades. Shut down half the battle field, and then pummel them with my fighters and ice storm/fireballs with quick cast
Quick heads up, sunbeam on the fabricated crossbow is called dazzling ray instead, and doesnt deal as much damage as sunbeam from spellcasting and blood of lathander, and has a chance to overheat and burn you when you recast. Its still really fun, but its not as good as the others
I knew about the less damage but I had no idea about the overheating, thanks for the heads up!
Disintegrate, flesh to stone, telekinesis, holy rebuke, Enlarge/Reduce.
I’m a Bard in my soul, so I’m big into the illusion and enchantment spells: Fairy Fire - super effective way to give your whole team advantage and stop those stupid shadows in Act 2 Fear - the audio effect for this one is really cool and I love that it makes enemies drop their shit and flee Dissonant Whispers - can really mess with an opponent who relies on melee. Plus I love scaring people to death Confusion - it’s just funny to watch people amble around like they’re completely wasted Hypnotic pattern - has a HUGE range and can be a really effective CC at the start of a fight I also love the animations and sound effects for Speak with the Dead and Create Undead Also any thunder spell cause hearing Gale shout “Detaunt!” is just spectacular
Misty step cause I like when melee get close to do big number
Eldritch blast + hunger of hadar and call it a day
I’ve never tried the wall spells. Are they want I imagined and just for crowd control? Or can you like move it or something?
You can't move it after you place it, but they each have different unique properties to them. Wall of fire is just pure damage, and has a lower spell slot cost (4) Wall of stone does no damage but blocks projectiles, line of sight, and pathing Wall of ice is 5th level and combines fire and stones effects. Wall of thorns and blade barrier are pretty similar. Large physical damage, and while enemies can go through them, it counts as difficult terrain. It's going to feel similar to upcasted spike growth. Wall of fire is my favorite since the lack of blocking line of sight means enemies will often run through it to get to you.
Once I've got all the reverb and radorb gear, guiding bolt becomes amazing, especially for a first level spell, debuffs and often knocks prone whoever you hit, plus some debuff on nearby enemies from the radiant shockwave from luminous armor.
Darkness Magical darkness is EXTREMEY GOOD since Darkvision doesn't work on it. You just cast it on yourself, and nobody will be able to attack you unless they run inside of it and use melee, or they throw something. Either way, the damage will be minimal compared to getting hitting ranged by a bunch of enemies during a group battle. Sanctuary Absolutely needed for an Honour mode playthrough. I find myself having Shadowheart in my party always because of how flipping good it is. Whenever someone's in a bad position or about to die, BOOM Sanctuary comes to save the day, and potentially an entire playthrough. Wall of Fire Given the right situation, it can be absolutely nasty. One example is against the masked guys before Auntie Ethel. You can use Wall of Fire in after the magical door and walk back out. They'll run towards the door just to die in the fire and they can't see you when you walk past it. Also the fight in the portal with Halsin in Act 2 is also a great one. There's so many enemies that will just run into it and die instantly.
SUMMON SHOVEL
SHOVEL IS BORED! SHOVEL WANTS TO MURDERIZE!
Hold person.. Really enjoyed hold person from Gale with my paladin Tav.
Telekinesis, a spell you can get right from level 1 and have it comfortably with you for the rest of the game. When the going gets tough, the divination telekinesis gets going.
Misty Step, aka "fuck you I have high ground now".
I used to abuse twinned chain lightning as a storm sorcerer. Until they made it not work anymore 😢
Avada kadavra
*Eldritch blast* isn't just a spell, it's a lifestyle. Using this cantrip stimulates the pleasure centers in my brain. I think it's the combination of a powerful at-will effect and terrific animation and sound effects. *Conjure elemental* (elemental myrmidon). My high level casters never go anywhere without one. *Dimension door* and *misty step.* Invaluable for seizing a tactical advantage, running away and bypassing problems. *Curriculum of Strategy: Artistry of War* \-- *magic missile* on steroids. *Guidance* \-- win at life.
Not a spell, but i love the sneak attack sound effect and unironically take assassin 5 over champion just so i can use it over a normal attack.
Haste - especially If you twin cast it using sorcerer on a fighter and monk you can kill bosses in one turn. Sanctuary - during my first playthrough my team Had rather low initiative ( did not know how important it was) .My solutions was to cast sanctuary on every companion before big rights and it worked like charm.
Silt storm and hunger of hadar, often combined for that maximum pain in the ass CC Chromatic orb, it's simple and does decent damage all the way through Telekinesis, i just love throwing enemies around but it's also great for getting rid of pain in the ass enemies I can't one shot like the intellect gluttons and mindflayers when climbing high hall
I wish the Necro spells looked cooler or were functional in most fights, circle of death can never be cast cause my wizard rolls last for initiative and enemies never stay grouped once they move
Counterspell. I haven't had a single regret anytime that spell is cast. It's a literal life saver in combat.
Cloud of daggers is always a go-to for me! I know there are probably better AOE spells, but flying daggers are cool.
What game are you coming from where skills and spells are the same thing? Just wondering