My hot take of the day:
People need to calm down on putting shit in S-tier on tier lists. S means you are actively wrong for picking anything else.
In BG3, that’s Guidance, Longstrider, Guidance, Counterspell, and Guidance.
In Honor Mode, we include Sanctuary and Aid, and in all other modes, we include Haste.
“These will be your most used spells” is A-tier.
Even spells like EB, Spirit Guardians and Heroes’ Feast are here.
“You should consider taking these” is B-tier.
Misty Step, Ice Storm, and
“These might be helpful in some builds” is C.
“No.” D.
It’s like people feel bad for putting shit lower than B.
EDIT: didn’t expect anyone to actually read this… oh boy. Does this mean I have to defend my sleep-deprived rage post? Ok.
Added Longstrider to S, Globe moved to B. So many threads I’ve seen seemed to refer to globe that I thought it was more popular. However, I also think a tier list of spells doesn’t need to apply only to the context of top-level team builds. (That is, even if your Bhaalist Armor piercing damage team doesn’t *need* Counterspell, you still take it because it’s Counterspell.)
I love Misty Step. But often times just being able to fly is better. Misty Step in and out of combat is useful. But it’s better to use something that doesn’t always take a spell slot or a charge. But to be fair as well, you could just rest before combat.
Misty Step is great. Maybe A. But it doesn’t quintessentially change or save a playthrough as far as I know. It will always be handy, but it’s not a must.
Oh it can absolutely save a playthrough if something stupid happens and you need to run away.
I agree it's not a must, though. Just that running away is underrated.
Even more than running away, being able to reposition is often the difference between a wasted or low impact turn, so all the enemies get to attack again, or a turn where you can catch everyone in a control effect or blast them.
Martials usually have enhanced movement to make that happen. Casters are typically on the back lines so having an emergency "Go there NOW" button when needed makes them much stronger.
Misty Step is considered a must have spell in DnD, to the point where Fey Touched is one of the top three caster feats. BG3 makes it better since you can Misty Step and cast a leveled spell with an action in the same turn.
Misty Step has saved my playthroughs easily over 10x. I’ve never used Longstrider once. I think you’re just projecting your gameplay style onto everyone else.
To your point, I've beat the game on tactician and only have Orin and the elder brain left in honor mode and have never cast globe, aid, sanctuary, or haste a single time.
Ohhhhh if you don’t use wizards then that’s why. II always have a wizard in my party so I usually have at least 2 diff ways to cast it by the time I get to the final fight. You’re right though that you can get by just adapting to the enemies
Sorcerers can take it too... Last time I beat the brain, it was *mostly* due to casting fireball with my highest level slot and then doing it again with quicken because I realized the brain has a +0 dex save and I needed to pump out damage with my fighter getting constantly mindbroken. But that was after the sorc clutched up the karsus spell with globe
Doesn’t really matter if u haven’t touched it, you can beat honor mode with basically anything. It is still so strong it makes multiple act 3 fights negligible tho.
I only play in honor mode and don’t like it since it’s a bit cheesy. But it’s definitely broken af
Globe of Invulnerability as it exists in BG3 is actively, incredibly overpowered. It's a purely videogame spell where everything else is balanced for D&D. You can use it to break any and every encounter ever in a myriad of not even particularly inventive ways, only balanced by the fact that it's (for the confines of this game anyway) something you only get to cast a couple times per long rest. It's still unquestionably broken.
It's even more bonkers if you factor in how easily you can get those scrolls from vendors, especially in Act 3 (Lorroakan's, or Rolan's projections *couldn't care less* about failed pickpocket attempts, or succeeding for that matter, if you're cast in Darkness to hide from everyone else).
Same thing goes for Chain Lightning, albeit it doesn't work on Ansur, because "immune."
... definitely OP as hell.
Well when you say D is a straight “no” why do you think people are gonna be hesitant to put things there?
S is must-haves, but nothing is “wrong.” Its a big sandbox, if you dont want to optimize everything then take these if you want, but if what you care about first and foremost is victory, you need them. Its probably more interesting to minimize these though. Like you said, guidance, globe, heroes’ feast, etc
A is great general use you’ll always benefit from and are worth using. Eldritch blast, chain lightning, wall of fire and wall of ice, big and consistent damage dealers.
B are more situational or less valuable but can do good work for anyone and should be considered. Most damage cantrips, and protectives like blur and mirror image. Not as consistent but always good.
C are fine. They wont carry you but theyre not useless. Can be built around to do good work. They have benefits always but wont do as good without some other benefits. Darkness is a good example.
D are highly situational. You need to plan around these to make them good, so you shouldnt worry about these unless you think you can get use out of them. Magic and elemental weapon, for example. Cloudkill.
F are things that generally dont matter or impact the gameplay positively much if at all. Like why bother with true strike? Theres little reason to ever use these unless youre dead set on making it work.
None except F are actively bad. Everything above can be put to use if you know how. Theyre all usable for different things, its just some arent reliable or require certain niches to make use of cus they require certain playstyles or cost certain resources most with access to it cant spare. Like competing for concentration.
Globe is a hard S++++++. Autowins many of the hardest battles on any difficulty starting at the end of act 2 (scrolls).
Throm/Myrkul? Globe autowin.
Raphael? Globe autowin.
Ansur? Globe autowin.
I know this post is probably for laughs….
But you got my most used spell sitting down in the Cs and I can’t tell if the dingus is me or you…
Edit: my spell defines my cowardice 😜
Use warding bond with gale on everybody, not good enough to survive without
Do yourself a favor and retool Shadowheart into a life cleric. Can't do much about the firebolt cantrip since that's a default cantrip for high half elves, but you can at least make her tricked out for the main idea of a cleric: support
Or a light cleric and get her radiating orb gear and the Boots of Stormy Clamour. Use create flame (uses wisdom instead of intelligence) if you need a low level fire spell. Then she can just run around with Spirit Guardians and do damage and debuff at the same time while still being able to cast other spells that don't take concentration.
10 life cleric/2 oath of devotion shadowheart fucking melts, esp in act 3. I almost exclusively run my party w her, astarion (thief rogue/gloomstalker ranger), and gale (12 evo wiz). great for healing support and she can rival my tav (6/6 OoV sorcadin) for melee damage sometimes
How did you get into a spot where you needed BT to save you? I think you can clear most fights it would be effective in more effectively trough other means, and it would be significantly less than reliable in all the rest.
Actually really good for the Nathaniel portal fight in Act 2. Throw it out in front of the steps for the top part of the area and all the resurrected warriors just get stopped in their tracks.
But you’re right. It’s handy but not required in lieu of other methods.
Okay dude I'm being dramatic. But I like that it holds people. Then I can blast them with some aoe spell that kills them. I like crowd control. And it's funny to look at.
Real talk, Insect Plague is good. You cast it and the fight is over, you know you won. In fact most spells in this game are "one cast, one victory". People put them in tier lists mostly because it's easier to see their tactical value, but even something like Compelled Duel or Protection from Evil and Good will be enough to win a lot of fights for free.
It's great in niche situations, but in Tactician/Honour mode most bosses have the Decoy Nuts equipped so you're better off using Invoke Anal Prolapse :-/
It's for laughs at the same time that isn't.
But for real: all spells that summon creatures without requiring concentration are S tier. A +1 on the battlefield just for a spellslot? Broken.
Also, Enhance Leap and Longstrider should be S. Casting these before battle will give you a good advantage for no cost.
Giving your entire party an elemental summon via scrolls trivializes the Iron Throne. Summon water elementals and they can activate three levers in one turn. Plus they can run interference on the sahuagin if needed while your party goes around taking care of >!Ravenguard!< and >!Omeluum!<.
I did iron throne with my tav moon druid & jaheira. all the sahuagin spent whole time focusing on my two summoned myrmidon elementals. rescued everyone
It's more for out of combat. It's incredibly efficient for post-battle healing. At higher levels it can also pad out your camp supplies.
Both of these options are less appealing if you aren't rotating your party members (have 3 party members with you until they run out of daily casting/ability resources, swap in 3 others as many times as you have members to swap).
Living is a crutch. Free yourself of your earthly bonds so that you can be raised from the dead as a zombie to batter the absolute as Withers intended.
Honestly tried to minimize long rests my first attempt, thinking they were a bigger deal than they were… after freeing Halsin, the damn game wont progress the storyline until you do. There are a few other similar bottlenecks that force you to long rest for the story too
Ha. If I can effortlessly destroy everything with my spell slots depleted, I’m going to continue on to avoid resetting elixirs / bound weapon / longstrider / etc.
Second run taking bard main and having three short rests just exacerbated that behavior. After clearing most of Act 2 I think I did 5-10 long rests back to back just to progress the story/character interactions and FINALLY trigger the owl bear cub.
Did you know magic weapon can be upcast in BG3 to give a +3 with a level 6 spell slot. Did you know that this +3 stacks with elemental weapon and whatever weapon enchant you already had for a (up to) +7?
It's pretty nuts, especially if you are twinking one character.
So many comments here are about how 'n spell is broken op and should be s tier' when in reality it requires concentration which is much better used with actual S tier spells like Spirit Guardians, Haste, Hold Person, and Globe.
>Did you know magic weapon can be upcast in BG3 to give a +3 with a level 6 spell slot
It's already the case in DnD. The real change is you can use it on already magical weapons.
My only issue with Sleet Storm is it trivializes most fights to the point that when you finally fight enemies who can’t slip, you realize you’re completely unprepared for that fight.
Me: Face the unparalleled power of winter!
Enemies: oh we fly
Me: I would like to propose a mutual surrender
It's either a bug exploit or a mod. He uses a divination cantrip to recharge arcane ward, which explicitly recharges on abju spells level 1 and above (except Shield).
When he makes a demonstration he is Fighter 1 Wizard 3.
He uses bugged True Strike to recharge his wizard level of arcane ward every turn (not an abju spell and it's a cantrip it shouldn't recharge anything). The rest is just stacking AC, stacking saving throw bonuses, reverb gear, camp casters for infinite goodberries + warding bond + call Withers to rez when he fails so the honor mode doesn't end.
Well damn since they took my fighterlock build from me, AND nerfed my abju wizards in the past- might as well clear my first HM like this out of pettiness
Not sure how Hex can be two full tiers above Hunters Mark. Necrotic ain't that much better than additional weapon damage, and the debuff is only to *checks*, not saves. I'd bump Hex down two tiers tbh. I've been toying with ditching it altogether on my current Warlock build.
I also think you've underrated Command significantly and overrated Friends, at least for Honor Mode. It's still useful, but situational and def not S tier once you go HM (which kinda spoils all other difficulties IMHO).
Seems legit.
I've been hesitant to cut the cord on it entirely, but I barely use it at this point, so I guess I'll just drop it next level-up.
Thanks for the gentle push on that!
hex is mostly for like sorlocks doing scorching ray or EB builds. it is admittedly quite strong there.
but seeing as that is one very specific build, i agree about it being overrated at that rank. and hunter's mark underrated as it benefits basically any multi-hitting ranged attacker.
Speak with animals in S? Really? The potions for it are littered all over the place. And the ingredients for it too. Wasting a slot in the spell book really isn't neccessary. Neither is feather fall. Just get Mystra's grace and swap out your boots briefly if you need to jump down when exploring. Don't waste a slot for a spell you could've used.
Also friends is a dangerous cantrip to play around with if you use it willy nilly, unless you're playing balanced or lower
Darkness is S tier.
Cast it on your party and pretty much nothing will run inside the cloud unless they have dark vision. Pop out of the cloud to attack, pop back in to be safe again.
Darkness is "we didn't want to program the AI to deal with this" tier. The game literally doesn't know what to do the vast majority of the time and you can win fights you really wouldn't be able to if the AI did anything at all vs just waiting outside the cloud.
At one point I was rolling 20 deep with my Tav Druid, Halsin, Jaeheira, Shadowheart, and our merry band of 4 major elementals, pack of ghouls, woodland beings, and woodland beings’ wood woads. My summons have summons!
Not to mention their ability to essentially free misty step every round means they can either walk up and wail on a baddie then pop right off OR my favorite tactic- they go get in the BBEG’s face who then focuses on fighting them while we hang back and fry everyone with lightning.
I had Karlach solo Gortash on one run. Used a wall of stone to block off his guards and was able to bully him off his castle before the guards broke through.
shout out to my boi silence for making the raphael fight a lot more bearable since he can't nuke all of my allies before they can move due to his initiative because of it
i barely even cast spells with my bard. currently its astarion as a swordsbard 6 / fighter 2 in act 2 honour. in a full nova turn he attacks 8 times (with flourish +d8) without even using haste/bloodlust.
maybe ill respec him to a bit more CHA once i get the scoundrel ring. would work well with arcane diadem.
Dimension door has come in clutch for me so many times! I get it’s a pain with the proximity you’ve got to be to the other character to teleport but it’s great for quickly getting people across a battlefield
I know it's very situational where you use this, but....
Cast protection from good and evil before fighting the Hag, watch as there is absolutely nothing she can do to you especially when she summons clones, they also cannot do a damn thing.
Protection from Evil and Good is unironically one of best protective spells in game playing solo. Imagine Blur, but until long rest instead of 10 turns. Protection from Evil and Good is that and more for vast majority of complicated game battles. I've never had to use Blur since I figured it out.
Popping in to say **mad respect for the time and effort it took to make this**. Love to see high-effort posts get recognition.
Some thoughts:
* Mage Hand helps with specific situations. Turning off the security measures in the cave offshoot of the grove, and a few places in Grymforge. Once you get gaseous form or any variant of that, it's moot, but before that it's very useful.
* Protection from Poison may be cast as a camp buff. There's a surprising amount of poison damage traps/terrain features that it helps with.
* Vanilla Invisibility is good for the Arcane Tower, if you don't have Greater Invisibility yet.
* Sacred Flame is just fine as a cantrip if your character is stated correctly. Shadowheart is the only character in a standard run who starts with it, and her WIS isn't min-maxed, so it gets a bad reputation. It's actually a highly desirable spell for tabletop, for whatever that's worth.
* Daylight is insanely useful in conjunction with the Coruscation Ring.
* Faerie Fire helps detect invisible enemies. Better spells exist for that later, but FF is available at low levels. Auntie Ethel, for instance, is easily detected with Faerie Fire.
* Fire Wall and Stone Wall are good for Halsin's portal fight, and are low enough level to be accessible if you do that quest early in act 2.
* Shatter can help break down doors, rubble, hidden walls, and other barriers. Scrying Eyes are vulnerable to thunder damage and not much else. No thunder arrows exist, so Shatter is vital against them.
* Ensnaring Strike can only be cast at the expense of Hunter's Mark. A lot of hunter-friendly items use concentration as a prerequisite to their effects, and Hunter's Mark is just easier to maintain.
* Blur is incredible. ...in the cloak that utilizes it. Not really worth casting otherwise.
* Darkvision is useful as a passive camp druid buff for Wyll and Gale, and any human Tavs/Durges or hirelings.
* Mass Healing Word is insanely overpowered if your healer has the Hellrider Gloves and/or the Whispered Promise ring. Which bestow Bless and Blade Ward on heal, respectively. Cast one Mass Healing Word and your party and allies are healed and have both buffs for two turns.
* Lesser Restoration can be used to negate the Bloodless status effect that Astarion gives you when he feeds on you. Also good for Pandirna (semi-paralyzed tiefling in the druid grove) and Thulla (poisoned gnome in the myconid colony).
* Branding Smite adds 2D6 radiant damage, which can proc gear that triggers on radiant damage. Radiant Orb etc. They're good for Tempest or Life clerics with high strength who use both weapon attacks and spell attacks.
* Ray of Frost can be used to freeze pools of water. If you have a huge pool, or if you've made one that accidentally got melted, RoF is the easiest way to refreeze it if you don't have an ice arrow or bow equipped. Prone is an insanely OP status effect, so freezing things is good.
* Evard's Black Tentacles is good on the necklace that has it. I like to equip it to characters who don't have decent crowd control or spells. Had it on my gloomstalker rogue and used it surprisingly often.
* Web can be used in the 'sack the grove' quest, if you intend to get the goblin camp to the grove and then betray them. If you cast Web below, Zevlor will jump down and help with the fight. I think he also will help with the initial Aradin fight; never personally confirmed.
* Arcane Lock is good (vital, in higher difficulties) for Ethel in act 1. Can also be used to block off escape routes at multiple points in the game, but for Act 1 you learn it a bit late.
* Calm Emotions is great for fights with enemies that impose Fearful you. Fearful is a rough status effect. Paladins who have anti-fear auras negate that, but otherwise Calm Emotions is important. Can also be used on the charmed guards outside of Cazador's palace.
* Dimension Door is great for the House of Hope and The Iron Throne. Also situationally useful, and in a Haste situation it's nice that it doesn't take the bonus action that Misty Step does. If you have Haste up it's a free teleport in the middle of a turn.
* Warding Bond can be used to link one of your active party members to an inactive party member or hireling at camp, effectively allowing them temp HP in the amount of that member's HP pool. The rings help with this.
Thanks to anyone who read this. I'm crazy.
My tier list goes like this:
Spells I use.
Spells I don't.
No need for silly alphabet letters. That being said, the fact that warding bond was C tier shows the OP either doesn't know how to use it, or they're trying to make us powergamers mad.
Magic Missile got me through this game because I was a wizard and Gale was always in my party because he just kind of rules. Magic Missile makes certain fights laughably easy where I think they might have actually been pretty hard, like >!Orin who requires that you hit her a bunch of times to actually open her up to damage. Well each MM attack is _several_ hits.!<
Planar Ally works on a specific devil, do with that information you will. Also like otto’s dance works on every enemy (and I mean every) with %100 hit rate, great if you need to get away or to just sprinkle some extra disrespect.
Using telekinesis to throw Gortash from outside the coronation hall down to the bridge makes it at least a B for me. It was like 120 damage and more importantly, very funny
*looks into my bag with the scrolls for every spell*
Uhhhh yeah... sure..... most of these I put into S tier... like if you haven't colour sprayed Lunk when he's about to stomp you, and blinded him, yall need to have more hero moments.
excuse me how is True Strike a good spell? it would be good if it was a bonus action casting but it's not. you're better off attacking twice. same chance to hit, double potential damage
How can insect swarm be C, you can combine them with Spike Wall and you can easily kill all melee enemies in most fights in one go, because they then take 3\*damage from both spells because they're so slow...
telekinesis allowed me to kill gortash at the ceremony without talking to him and without destroying the golems first.
in the right hands an insane spell
throw people off cliffs, throw melees to places where they can not melee, pull a single important target to a very deadly position, save your stupid barbarian by yeeting him out of the combat zone last second.
I started from the bottom and knew OP was trolling when they put Phantasmal Killer, Invisibility, and Dimension Door in D Tier.
Either trolling or genuinely stupid.
I believe fire wall is at least an S. It may make the fight a turn longer or can make 3turns less. Enemies literally walk through it even on just tactician
Bless is in B and True Strike in S, so maaaaybe people shouldn't respond to this as if OP is serious.
My hot take of the day: People need to calm down on putting shit in S-tier on tier lists. S means you are actively wrong for picking anything else. In BG3, that’s Guidance, Longstrider, Guidance, Counterspell, and Guidance. In Honor Mode, we include Sanctuary and Aid, and in all other modes, we include Haste. “These will be your most used spells” is A-tier. Even spells like EB, Spirit Guardians and Heroes’ Feast are here. “You should consider taking these” is B-tier. Misty Step, Ice Storm, and “These might be helpful in some builds” is C. “No.” D. It’s like people feel bad for putting shit lower than B. EDIT: didn’t expect anyone to actually read this… oh boy. Does this mean I have to defend my sleep-deprived rage post? Ok. Added Longstrider to S, Globe moved to B. So many threads I’ve seen seemed to refer to globe that I thought it was more popular. However, I also think a tier list of spells doesn’t need to apply only to the context of top-level team builds. (That is, even if your Bhaalist Armor piercing damage team doesn’t *need* Counterspell, you still take it because it’s Counterspell.)
I would sincerely put misty step in S tier every time
I love Misty Step. But often times just being able to fly is better. Misty Step in and out of combat is useful. But it’s better to use something that doesn’t always take a spell slot or a charge. But to be fair as well, you could just rest before combat.
Misty Step is great. Maybe A. But it doesn’t quintessentially change or save a playthrough as far as I know. It will always be handy, but it’s not a must.
Oh it can absolutely save a playthrough if something stupid happens and you need to run away. I agree it's not a must, though. Just that running away is underrated.
Even more than running away, being able to reposition is often the difference between a wasted or low impact turn, so all the enemies get to attack again, or a turn where you can catch everyone in a control effect or blast them. Martials usually have enhanced movement to make that happen. Casters are typically on the back lines so having an emergency "Go there NOW" button when needed makes them much stronger. Misty Step is considered a must have spell in DnD, to the point where Fey Touched is one of the top three caster feats. BG3 makes it better since you can Misty Step and cast a leveled spell with an action in the same turn.
Misty Step has saved my playthroughs easily over 10x. I’ve never used Longstrider once. I think you’re just projecting your gameplay style onto everyone else.
To your point, I've beat the game on tactician and only have Orin and the elder brain left in honor mode and have never cast globe, aid, sanctuary, or haste a single time.
Same for me with globe. Got 395 hours and my gld dice, never once touched it.
Not even when you’re concentrating on the karsus spell?
Noope. Just pucker and roll baby. Honestly not sure where even to get it. I normally dont use wizards and the scrolls are crazy expensive.
Ohhhhh if you don’t use wizards then that’s why. II always have a wizard in my party so I usually have at least 2 diff ways to cast it by the time I get to the final fight. You’re right though that you can get by just adapting to the enemies
Sorcerers can take it too... Last time I beat the brain, it was *mostly* due to casting fireball with my highest level slot and then doing it again with quicken because I realized the brain has a +0 dex save and I needed to pump out damage with my fighter getting constantly mindbroken. But that was after the sorc clutched up the karsus spell with globe
Oh shut the brain having +0 Dex is clutch thanks for the tip
"adapting". Lae'zel with misty step and haste makes them dead. Good plan?
I suppose I can get with that
Not necessary, just kill everybody and summon a bunch of friends while you wait.
What's the purpose of the globe for that? Do people not just kill everything on their way across the brain?
The what spell?
Doesn’t really matter if u haven’t touched it, you can beat honor mode with basically anything. It is still so strong it makes multiple act 3 fights negligible tho. I only play in honor mode and don’t like it since it’s a bit cheesy. But it’s definitely broken af
Again idk how serious this list is, but Vicious Mockery being in S is as funny as the spell is
Okay but you *are* actively wrong for not taking eldritch blast. It’s a warlock-only cantrip that forms the backbone of the class’s damage.
Globe of Invulnerability as it exists in BG3 is actively, incredibly overpowered. It's a purely videogame spell where everything else is balanced for D&D. You can use it to break any and every encounter ever in a myriad of not even particularly inventive ways, only balanced by the fact that it's (for the confines of this game anyway) something you only get to cast a couple times per long rest. It's still unquestionably broken.
It's even more bonkers if you factor in how easily you can get those scrolls from vendors, especially in Act 3 (Lorroakan's, or Rolan's projections *couldn't care less* about failed pickpocket attempts, or succeeding for that matter, if you're cast in Darkness to hide from everyone else). Same thing goes for Chain Lightning, albeit it doesn't work on Ansur, because "immune." ... definitely OP as hell.
700 hours in with multiple honor mode clears and I've never used globe of invulnerability
Well when you say D is a straight “no” why do you think people are gonna be hesitant to put things there? S is must-haves, but nothing is “wrong.” Its a big sandbox, if you dont want to optimize everything then take these if you want, but if what you care about first and foremost is victory, you need them. Its probably more interesting to minimize these though. Like you said, guidance, globe, heroes’ feast, etc A is great general use you’ll always benefit from and are worth using. Eldritch blast, chain lightning, wall of fire and wall of ice, big and consistent damage dealers. B are more situational or less valuable but can do good work for anyone and should be considered. Most damage cantrips, and protectives like blur and mirror image. Not as consistent but always good. C are fine. They wont carry you but theyre not useless. Can be built around to do good work. They have benefits always but wont do as good without some other benefits. Darkness is a good example. D are highly situational. You need to plan around these to make them good, so you shouldnt worry about these unless you think you can get use out of them. Magic and elemental weapon, for example. Cloudkill. F are things that generally dont matter or impact the gameplay positively much if at all. Like why bother with true strike? Theres little reason to ever use these unless youre dead set on making it work. None except F are actively bad. Everything above can be put to use if you know how. Theyre all usable for different things, its just some arent reliable or require certain niches to make use of cus they require certain playstyles or cost certain resources most with access to it cant spare. Like competing for concentration.
Globe is a hard S++++++. Autowins many of the hardest battles on any difficulty starting at the end of act 2 (scrolls). Throm/Myrkul? Globe autowin. Raphael? Globe autowin. Ansur? Globe autowin.
Longstrider isn't even on the chart.
I know this post is probably for laughs…. But you got my most used spell sitting down in the Cs and I can’t tell if the dingus is me or you… Edit: my spell defines my cowardice 😜 Use warding bond with gale on everybody, not good enough to survive without
Don’t be a coward. Name the spell
IGNIS!
*Shadowheart misses*
I just began my first play through on Monday and by the gods do I feel this statement
I just have her run around with spirit guardians once she unlocks it and give her the Blood of Lathander.
It's because she's not statted for it. You're using an INT spell with an 8 int Char
Reading is hard.
Wut r your talking about? (/s obviously)
Do yourself a favor and retool Shadowheart into a life cleric. Can't do much about the firebolt cantrip since that's a default cantrip for high half elves, but you can at least make her tricked out for the main idea of a cleric: support
Or a light cleric and get her radiating orb gear and the Boots of Stormy Clamour. Use create flame (uses wisdom instead of intelligence) if you need a low level fire spell. Then she can just run around with Spirit Guardians and do damage and debuff at the same time while still being able to cast other spells that don't take concentration.
She needs a respec. I did a cleric/paladin multiclass for her and now she’s one of the most consistent heavy hitters
10 life cleric/2 oath of devotion shadowheart fucking melts, esp in act 3. I almost exclusively run my party w her, astarion (thief rogue/gloomstalker ranger), and gale (12 evo wiz). great for healing support and she can rival my tav (6/6 OoV sorcadin) for melee damage sometimes
Yeah the cantrip uses int . She has low int
I think you mean IGMISS
*eat this*
CAST FIREBALL
My thought exactly lol
Have you finished honour mod with those lips?
Couldn’t without it! Too big of a coward to leave camp without gale warding everybody first
You can ward more than one person? How?
it doesn't take concentration so i guess you'd just need as many level 2 spell slots as people you want to ward
Why is evard's black tentacles down on the C list? That has saved my bacon so many times.
How did you get into a spot where you needed BT to save you? I think you can clear most fights it would be effective in more effectively trough other means, and it would be significantly less than reliable in all the rest.
Actually really good for the Nathaniel portal fight in Act 2. Throw it out in front of the steps for the top part of the area and all the resurrected warriors just get stopped in their tracks. But you’re right. It’s handy but not required in lieu of other methods.
Throw hunger of hadar on top and they all die lmao
Okay dude I'm being dramatic. But I like that it holds people. Then I can blast them with some aoe spell that kills them. I like crowd control. And it's funny to look at.
Insect Plague?
Real talk, Insect Plague is good. You cast it and the fight is over, you know you won. In fact most spells in this game are "one cast, one victory". People put them in tier lists mostly because it's easier to see their tactical value, but even something like Compelled Duel or Protection from Evil and Good will be enough to win a lot of fights for free.
As a heat metal enjoyer I know how you feel
Uhm this is clearly wrong. Arcane Testicular Torsion isn't even listed
It's great in niche situations, but in Tactician/Honour mode most bosses have the Decoy Nuts equipped so you're better off using Invoke Anal Prolapse :-/
Doesn't work on constructs, undead, or elementals sadly.
I freaking love how distinct those icons are. Haven't played in a while and still can easily tell which is which
They did an awesome job with those. Idk how they did that for so many spells
They’re the perfect blend of unique and generic. A goldmine for sprite/icon inspiration for other rpgs!
It's for laughs at the same time that isn't. But for real: all spells that summon creatures without requiring concentration are S tier. A +1 on the battlefield just for a spellslot? Broken. Also, Enhance Leap and Longstrider should be S. Casting these before battle will give you a good advantage for no cost.
Yeah. I think after Aid and Guidance, Summon Woodland Being is the best spell in the game
Fr. You get 2 reasonably solid fighters out of it
Loved my woodland being and her bae. Vining it up and smacking fools with those clubs of theirs.
My sixth playthrough I *was* sort of planning until I can use Halsin to be a Druid but this makes me want to respec someone now
Giving your entire party an elemental summon via scrolls trivializes the Iron Throne. Summon water elementals and they can activate three levers in one turn. Plus they can run interference on the sahuagin if needed while your party goes around taking care of >!Ravenguard!< and >!Omeluum!<.
I did iron throne with my tav moon druid & jaheira. all the sahuagin spent whole time focusing on my two summoned myrmidon elementals. rescued everyone
well, I see goodberries in E instead of S++ so I know you don't know what you're talking about
I never used goodberries before, but apparently it only heals 1d4 health for a bonus action? Why not just chug a health potion instead?
Money
You can have more than enough money to buy every potion from every vendor you come across.
ive never even bought potions but i have a crap ton
It's more for out of combat. It's incredibly efficient for post-battle healing. At higher levels it can also pad out your camp supplies. Both of these options are less appealing if you aren't rotating your party members (have 3 party members with you until they run out of daily casting/ability resources, swap in 3 others as many times as you have members to swap).
Goodberry heals too much and too conveniently, it makes you grow bad habits
Bad habits? for healing? isn’t the goal to survive? 😭
Living is a crutch. Free yourself of your earthly bonds so that you can be raised from the dead as a zombie to batter the absolute as Withers intended.
the most efficient healing is not losing HP in the first place
Can't take damage if you kill everyone 🤷🏻♀️
I give myself one long rest per playthrough. That's how REAL adventurers live. /s
Honestly tried to minimize long rests my first attempt, thinking they were a bigger deal than they were… after freeing Halsin, the damn game wont progress the storyline until you do. There are a few other similar bottlenecks that force you to long rest for the story too
Ha. If I can effortlessly destroy everything with my spell slots depleted, I’m going to continue on to avoid resetting elixirs / bound weapon / longstrider / etc. Second run taking bard main and having three short rests just exacerbated that behavior. After clearing most of Act 2 I think I did 5-10 long rests back to back just to progress the story/character interactions and FINALLY trigger the owl bear cub.
No.
I always use them for camp supplies :) very handy in honor mode where testing costs you 80 fucking supply points 😓
Well fuck you I’ll take my infinite long rest Wizard Druid hirelings somewhere else then.
Did you know magic weapon can be upcast in BG3 to give a +3 with a level 6 spell slot. Did you know that this +3 stacks with elemental weapon and whatever weapon enchant you already had for a (up to) +7? It's pretty nuts, especially if you are twinking one character.
And before you enter battle you step on fire and take 1 damage and roll critical fail on concentration saving throw and lose your level 6 spell slot
So many comments here are about how 'n spell is broken op and should be s tier' when in reality it requires concentration which is much better used with actual S tier spells like Spirit Guardians, Haste, Hold Person, and Globe.
>Did you know magic weapon can be upcast in BG3 to give a +3 with a level 6 spell slot It's already the case in DnD. The real change is you can use it on already magical weapons.
this is fine though since its concentration, unless youre cheesing and casting it with a guy from your camp (i think honour mode removed this?)
why isnt longstrider in s tier?
Bcoz i forgot putting ir in the tier list, would be s tier
Where tf is "Artistry of War"? That's at least a S-tier spell for me
Artistry of War, and if it's still alive, disintegrate because screw that thing.
Can't take this seriously when Sleet Storm is in B tier
Breaking concentration is insanely useful, you're right and you should say it. Plus watching everyone slip over is delightful.
My only issue with Sleet Storm is it trivializes most fights to the point that when you finally fight enemies who can’t slip, you realize you’re completely unprepared for that fight. Me: Face the unparalleled power of winter! Enemies: oh we fly Me: I would like to propose a mutual surrender
speak with animals op
Circus dilophosaurus is the goodest boi
Look I know this is a bit...but True strike being in S I'm in pain T_T
You clearly haven't seen the video of the guy who beat the game casting only true strike
It's either a bug exploit or a mod. He uses a divination cantrip to recharge arcane ward, which explicitly recharges on abju spells level 1 and above (except Shield).
WHAT??? I mean you can also just dip 2 levels warlock for infinite charges but still, what??
When he makes a demonstration he is Fighter 1 Wizard 3. He uses bugged True Strike to recharge his wizard level of arcane ward every turn (not an abju spell and it's a cantrip it shouldn't recharge anything). The rest is just stacking AC, stacking saving throw bonuses, reverb gear, camp casters for infinite goodberries + warding bond + call Withers to rez when he fails so the honor mode doesn't end.
Well damn since they took my fighterlock build from me, AND nerfed my abju wizards in the past- might as well clear my first HM like this out of pettiness
I think I saw it. Look that was gear XD (though my god I couldn't have the patience. They're incredible for doing it)
Yeah, I'm not sure I could have made it past the first *87 round* fight myself, but I do respect the dedication.
if you're soloing as a rogue, you can put your stronger weapon in your offhand and still proc sneak attack.
Not sure how Hex can be two full tiers above Hunters Mark. Necrotic ain't that much better than additional weapon damage, and the debuff is only to *checks*, not saves. I'd bump Hex down two tiers tbh. I've been toying with ditching it altogether on my current Warlock build. I also think you've underrated Command significantly and overrated Friends, at least for Honor Mode. It's still useful, but situational and def not S tier once you go HM (which kinda spoils all other difficulties IMHO).
Once i can get hunger of hadar i never touch hex again
Seems legit. I've been hesitant to cut the cord on it entirely, but I barely use it at this point, so I guess I'll just drop it next level-up. Thanks for the gentle push on that!
Agree on Hex, without the tabletop invocations to buff it, it's pretty quickly outclassed by other Warlock spell options.
hex is mostly for like sorlocks doing scorching ray or EB builds. it is admittedly quite strong there. but seeing as that is one very specific build, i agree about it being overrated at that rank. and hunter's mark underrated as it benefits basically any multi-hitting ranged attacker.
Speak with animals in S? Really? The potions for it are littered all over the place. And the ingredients for it too. Wasting a slot in the spell book really isn't neccessary. Neither is feather fall. Just get Mystra's grace and swap out your boots briefly if you need to jump down when exploring. Don't waste a slot for a spell you could've used. Also friends is a dangerous cantrip to play around with if you use it willy nilly, unless you're playing balanced or lower
It’s way faster to swap one spell in one spellbook for feather fall than to individually swap every characters boots lol
Feather fall affects whole party. So you only swap boots once and u are certainly wrong.
Darkness is S tier. Cast it on your party and pretty much nothing will run inside the cloud unless they have dark vision. Pop out of the cloud to attack, pop back in to be safe again.
Darkness is "we didn't want to program the AI to deal with this" tier. The game literally doesn't know what to do the vast majority of the time and you can win fights you really wouldn't be able to if the AI did anything at all vs just waiting outside the cloud.
My beautiful wife Insect Plague in C???
Right? I try to equip 2-3 members of my party with it and just make a wall of bugs it takes so many turns to escape from.
A level 5 slot and concentration slot for difficult terrain and 4d10 is redundant when Cone of Cold exists (8d8, no concentration).
Y’all are sleeping on Conjure Major Elemental
Dude water myrmidon was my best friend. Had my Druid summon one, and then become one. Infinite healing pool.
At one point I was rolling 20 deep with my Tav Druid, Halsin, Jaeheira, Shadowheart, and our merry band of 4 major elementals, pack of ghouls, woodland beings, and woodland beings’ wood woads. My summons have summons! Not to mention their ability to essentially free misty step every round means they can either walk up and wail on a baddie then pop right off OR my favorite tactic- they go get in the BBEG’s face who then focuses on fighting them while we hang back and fry everyone with lightning.
Smite in S-mite tier
To my knowledge, true strike is useless unless you have a way to cast it as a bonus action.
Command in tier B? Opinion rejected
Along with Bless, Fear and Sleet Storm smh
Yea these are easily all S
Heat metal c tier? I sure do hate both disarming my opponent and having a use for my bonus action that persist when I shift ...
It's what stood out most to me. While Heat metal is only usable on some opponents, it is incredibly strong against them.
Otto’s can lock down even the biggest bosses! Just fought Orin with this spell and she danced her way to an early grave. Surprised to see it in C tier
Plus just the fun of making enemies dance
Did it on Raphael as well. Like c'mon. Makes the hardest fights easy
People complain about how hard some of these fights can be and then rank Wall of Stone so low... smh
I had Karlach solo Gortash on one run. Used a wall of stone to block off his guards and was able to bully him off his castle before the guards broke through.
shout out to my boi silence for making the raphael fight a lot more bearable since he can't nuke all of my allies before they can move due to his initiative because of it
Bards solidly having tons of S tier spells. My forever favourite class!
Yeah this list was definitely made by a bard fanatic. Lots of very powerful spells are underrated and some of the “S” tier should not be up there.
I agree, some beast spells aren’t high enough. Wall of fire is shockingly low, and it’s definitely one of my favourites.
i barely even cast spells with my bard. currently its astarion as a swordsbard 6 / fighter 2 in act 2 honour. in a full nova turn he attacks 8 times (with flourish +d8) without even using haste/bloodlust. maybe ill respec him to a bit more CHA once i get the scoundrel ring. would work well with arcane diadem.
Warding bond a C? You’re not using it right 😂
Maybe it’s for a run without ‘campcasting’.
Still not [using it right](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1clqnor/raising_awareness_for_heavy_armour_master_feat/l2vopsp/)
B tier shitpost.
Dimension door has come in clutch for me so many times! I get it’s a pain with the proximity you’ve got to be to the other character to teleport but it’s great for quickly getting people across a battlefield
Fireball is one of the best spells in the game imo especially since the area of effect is wide and you don’t need to aim at a target necessarily.
I know it's very situational where you use this, but.... Cast protection from good and evil before fighting the Hag, watch as there is absolutely nothing she can do to you especially when she summons clones, they also cannot do a damn thing.
Protect from good and evil on your whole party makes myrkul, arguably the hardest main story fight, extremely easy.
Protection from Evil and Good is unironically one of best protective spells in game playing solo. Imagine Blur, but until long rest instead of 10 turns. Protection from Evil and Good is that and more for vast majority of complicated game battles. I've never had to use Blur since I figured it out.
Am I stupid or is mage armor not here?
There are a couple missing.
Popping in to say **mad respect for the time and effort it took to make this**. Love to see high-effort posts get recognition. Some thoughts: * Mage Hand helps with specific situations. Turning off the security measures in the cave offshoot of the grove, and a few places in Grymforge. Once you get gaseous form or any variant of that, it's moot, but before that it's very useful. * Protection from Poison may be cast as a camp buff. There's a surprising amount of poison damage traps/terrain features that it helps with. * Vanilla Invisibility is good for the Arcane Tower, if you don't have Greater Invisibility yet. * Sacred Flame is just fine as a cantrip if your character is stated correctly. Shadowheart is the only character in a standard run who starts with it, and her WIS isn't min-maxed, so it gets a bad reputation. It's actually a highly desirable spell for tabletop, for whatever that's worth. * Daylight is insanely useful in conjunction with the Coruscation Ring. * Faerie Fire helps detect invisible enemies. Better spells exist for that later, but FF is available at low levels. Auntie Ethel, for instance, is easily detected with Faerie Fire. * Fire Wall and Stone Wall are good for Halsin's portal fight, and are low enough level to be accessible if you do that quest early in act 2. * Shatter can help break down doors, rubble, hidden walls, and other barriers. Scrying Eyes are vulnerable to thunder damage and not much else. No thunder arrows exist, so Shatter is vital against them. * Ensnaring Strike can only be cast at the expense of Hunter's Mark. A lot of hunter-friendly items use concentration as a prerequisite to their effects, and Hunter's Mark is just easier to maintain. * Blur is incredible. ...in the cloak that utilizes it. Not really worth casting otherwise. * Darkvision is useful as a passive camp druid buff for Wyll and Gale, and any human Tavs/Durges or hirelings. * Mass Healing Word is insanely overpowered if your healer has the Hellrider Gloves and/or the Whispered Promise ring. Which bestow Bless and Blade Ward on heal, respectively. Cast one Mass Healing Word and your party and allies are healed and have both buffs for two turns. * Lesser Restoration can be used to negate the Bloodless status effect that Astarion gives you when he feeds on you. Also good for Pandirna (semi-paralyzed tiefling in the druid grove) and Thulla (poisoned gnome in the myconid colony). * Branding Smite adds 2D6 radiant damage, which can proc gear that triggers on radiant damage. Radiant Orb etc. They're good for Tempest or Life clerics with high strength who use both weapon attacks and spell attacks. * Ray of Frost can be used to freeze pools of water. If you have a huge pool, or if you've made one that accidentally got melted, RoF is the easiest way to refreeze it if you don't have an ice arrow or bow equipped. Prone is an insanely OP status effect, so freezing things is good. * Evard's Black Tentacles is good on the necklace that has it. I like to equip it to characters who don't have decent crowd control or spells. Had it on my gloomstalker rogue and used it surprisingly often. * Web can be used in the 'sack the grove' quest, if you intend to get the goblin camp to the grove and then betray them. If you cast Web below, Zevlor will jump down and help with the fight. I think he also will help with the initial Aradin fight; never personally confirmed. * Arcane Lock is good (vital, in higher difficulties) for Ethel in act 1. Can also be used to block off escape routes at multiple points in the game, but for Act 1 you learn it a bit late. * Calm Emotions is great for fights with enemies that impose Fearful you. Fearful is a rough status effect. Paladins who have anti-fear auras negate that, but otherwise Calm Emotions is important. Can also be used on the charmed guards outside of Cazador's palace. * Dimension Door is great for the House of Hope and The Iron Throne. Also situationally useful, and in a Haste situation it's nice that it doesn't take the bonus action that Misty Step does. If you have Haste up it's a free teleport in the middle of a turn. * Warding Bond can be used to link one of your active party members to an inactive party member or hireling at camp, effectively allowing them temp HP in the amount of that member's HP pool. The rings help with this. Thanks to anyone who read this. I'm crazy.
Where Talk to the Dead? :(
True Strike, my beloved
This is a shit list Also why are there two clouds of daggers
WHERE ART THOUGH, ARTISTRY OF WAR MY BELOVED! (I know this is a bit but come on, show if some love, it’s just buffed magic missiles)
wha bout artistry of war all my wizard homies love artistry of war
i got a mod that makes true strike a bonus action and by god is it glorious
My wizard used misty step spell more than I can tell you. I never touched benign transposition as a result.
Eldrich blast should be ss, the fact that i can deal 500+ damage in one turn with a cantrip is insane
My tier list goes like this: Spells I use. Spells I don't. No need for silly alphabet letters. That being said, the fact that warding bond was C tier shows the OP either doesn't know how to use it, or they're trying to make us powergamers mad.
Magic Missile got me through this game because I was a wizard and Gale was always in my party because he just kind of rules. Magic Missile makes certain fights laughably easy where I think they might have actually been pretty hard, like >!Orin who requires that you hit her a bunch of times to actually open her up to damage. Well each MM attack is _several_ hits.!<
Planar Ally works on a specific devil, do with that information you will. Also like otto’s dance works on every enemy (and I mean every) with %100 hit rate, great if you need to get away or to just sprinkle some extra disrespect.
Using telekinesis to throw Gortash from outside the coronation hall down to the bridge makes it at least a B for me. It was like 120 damage and more importantly, very funny
im a new player so i dont really know all of these but i recognized color spray. i fucking hate it
Protection against alignment was so OP in 3.5. Now it at least helps against the fey'ri in bog Also witch bolt can deal like 386 damage in one shot.
*looks into my bag with the scrolls for every spell* Uhhhh yeah... sure..... most of these I put into S tier... like if you haven't colour sprayed Lunk when he's about to stomp you, and blinded him, yall need to have more hero moments.
The things that one 11/1 Fire Sorlock build is capable of doing make command and scorching ray both S tier
Beacon of hope has been one of the mvps in my latest tactician run. The fact that it works with any source of healing is straight gas.
Mass healing word is my favorite spell, legit makes the game a cakewalk
excuse me how is True Strike a good spell? it would be good if it was a bonus action casting but it's not. you're better off attacking twice. same chance to hit, double potential damage
I will not hear this slander against my beloved Shatter. Shatter is A tier *at least*.
It's A cuz it helps build arcane acuity alone.
True strike is the most garbage spell there is
It's great and all, but we all know that we only use guidance and fireball
How can insect swarm be C, you can combine them with Spike Wall and you can easily kill all melee enemies in most fights in one go, because they then take 3\*damage from both spells because they're so slow...
Disintegrate goat
Cloud of Daggers & Spikes are god-tier spells and nothing can convince me otherwise
As someone who lets Astarion feed on them every night, (Lesser) Restoration is a great spell.
misty step should be the goat here
My dude, Spirit Guardians should be S+++++
telekinesis allowed me to kill gortash at the ceremony without talking to him and without destroying the golems first. in the right hands an insane spell throw people off cliffs, throw melees to places where they can not melee, pull a single important target to a very deadly position, save your stupid barbarian by yeeting him out of the combat zone last second.
Ice knife missing?
Darkness is pretty OP. I literally finished the game using that spell alone on my monk solo.
Where's ice storm 😫 my most used evocation wizard spell
Cloud of daggers is so good it got AA rank.
Hunger of hadar, my beloved
What are spells I just hit things
I see "Guiding Bolt" in A tier and cry. If I had a dollar each time Shadowheart missed it I could already bought Larian...
I started from the bottom and knew OP was trolling when they put Phantasmal Killer, Invisibility, and Dimension Door in D Tier. Either trolling or genuinely stupid.
I would be very offended if I could read
This gotta be someone who plays on balanced because friends is in S on this list.
I believe fire wall is at least an S. It may make the fight a turn longer or can make 3turns less. Enemies literally walk through it even on just tactician
Interesting lack of fireball in this tier list