Summary
Baldur’s Gate 3offers its players a lot of spell options, which vary greatly in utility and power. Some are hard-hitting AOEs that can obliterate armies of foes, while others are geared towards buffing members of the party, and still others are useful for controlling elements of the environment. With so many options for spellcasters to choose from,there are near unlimited ways for players to creatively use these spells to their advantage.
Some of the most interesting uses for these spells deal with how they can work together.Casters can combine their spells to devastating effect, completely changing the tide of battle with just a couple of actions. Whether it be throwing down two control spells in the same area to subdue hordes of enemies, or layering up on defensive buffs to keep the party alive no matter what, spell combos yield some of the best offensive and defensive abilities in the game.
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10Thunderwave Enemies Into A Cloud Of Daggers For Massive Damage
Thuderwave: 1st-Level Evocation / Cloud Of Daggers: 2nd-Level Conjuration
Cloud of daggersis a great early-game damage spell available to bards, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards.It stands out for two reasons: one, it does not require any saving throw to deal damage; and two, it can damage the same enemy multiple times in one round. While it deals piercing damage and the output is rather low,cloud of daggersis great on its own for creating an area that hurts enemies whenever they pass through and when they start their turn inside it.
Cloud of daggersis a great spell for area denial, especially when placed at choke points, and has a duration of 10 turns, which is longer than most encounters.
Combining this with another early-game spell,thunderwave,allows players to force thecloud of daggersdamage twiceon an enemy without them ever having to move into it themselves.Thunderwaveis available to bards, druids, sorcerers, wizards, and someBaldur’s Gate 3subclasses, and if an enemy fails its saving throw, it pushes them ten feet away from the caster.
Careful positioning can allow casters to push enemies into thecloud of daggers, meaning they take the damage from both spells once, and then take the cloud damage again at the start of their own turn.This combo can be pulled off from as early as level three, it deals great damage for its spell slot cost, and the availability of both of these spells means that many different party class combinations can make use of it.
9Use Heroism To Negate The Negative Effects Of Warding Bond
Heroism: 1st-Level Enhcantment / Warding Bond: 2nd-Level Abjuration
Another early-game spell,warding bond,is only available to clerics, and effectively defends one party member at some cost to the caster. It raises one character’s AC by one and halves all damage done to them, but causes the caster to take the other half themselves.This can be abused by letting the caster stay at camp outside the party(since the spell lasts even if the caster is not present), but there is another way to avoid the downside ofwarding bondwhile keeping the caster present.
A first-level spell,heroism, can be learned by bards, clerics, and paladins, and it is not great on its own. It provides temporary hit points at the beginning of each turn and immunity to the frightened condition. The temp HP is not much, and is really only useful for negating chip damage at low levels.
Luckily, that is exactly what is required to makewarding bondexcel.Castingheroismon the character who castwarding bondmeans they have a small HP buffer at the beginning of each of their turns, somewhat negating the damage they take from the other affected character. This gives more survivability to the party cleric, and allows them to castwarding bondwithout as much worry about their own hit point supply.
8Amp Your Warlock’s Damage Output With Hex & Eldritch Blast
Hex: 1st-Level Enchantment / Eldritch Blast: Evocation Cantrip
This combo is hardly a secret, but it is too powerful to ignore.Warlocks gain access to the cantripeldritch blastat level one, and it is considered the best damage cantrip in the game. It deals force damage which is very rarely resisted, has a long range, and can be used to make multiple attacks at higher levels. That last factor means it is also a great cantrip to buff with abilities that increase damage per hit.
Eldritch blaststarts producing two beams at character level five, and three beams at level 10.
That is wherehexcomes in,a warlock-exclusive spell that adds extra necrotic damage to each attack. It can be cast as a bonus action, meaning it could be used during the same turn aseldritch blast. It deals necrotic damage, another rarely resisted damage type, and combining it with invocations like Agonizing Blast can turneldritch blastinto one of the best damage-dealing spells in the game for its resource cost.
7Casting Fog Cloud Can Create A Safe Space Within A Cloudkill
Fog Cloud: 1st-Level Conjuration / Cloudkill: 5th-Level Conjuration
It is a strange thing when a first-level spell can negate a fifth-level spell, but that is the case withfog cloudandcloudkill.Cloudkillcreates an area of poison damagethat can be moved each turn as an action, whilefog cloudgenerates a heavily-obscured area that stays in place. Oddly, when put in the same or overlapping area,fog cloudwill overridecloudkilland keep it from affecting its given space.
This means thatfog cloudcan be used defensively against enemies that try to usecloudkill, such as in thefight against the necromancer Balthazar. It can make a safe area that thecloudkillcannot touch. This same thing can actually be done withdarknessto similar effect, butfog cloudis a lower-level spell available to more classes, making it more applicable.
Forcing the enemies to stand in it while the party stays safe.
Interestingly, this also opens up another use for the spells:having the party castcloudkilland thenfog cloudto make a safe area for themselves. Have the party front-liners stay at the edges of thefog cloudarea while thecloudkillsits in front of and around them, forcing the enemies to stand in it while the party stays safe. This will give the front-liners' attacks disadvantage unless they have blindsight, but it will force enemies to take high poison damage at the start of each turn while they struggle to hit the players.
6Buff Your Familiars & Other Summons With Aid & Longstrider
Aid: 2nd-Level Abjuration / Longstrider: 1st-Level Transmutation
Creating an army of summonsto join the party in combat is a common strategy for overwhelming tough enemies. But sometimesasummon’s small health pool or slow movement speed can be their downfall. Especially for smaller summons like Shovel the familiar, they can go down quickly in dangerous fights.
Luckily,there are some easy-to-access buff spells that can affect the whole party, summons included.Aidandlongstriderare the two most common of those options, with each being available to a relatively large number of caster classes.Aidraises the party’s maximum hit points, whilelongstriderraises their walking speed. Both spells can last all day, meaning the party can summon what they want and cast these buffs right after their long rest to get the most out of them.
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Not only that, butlongstrideris a ritual spell, meaning it can be cast out of combat without using a spell slot. There is no resource cost to casting it as many times as possible on as many characters as possible. And spells likeaidcan be upcast while affecting any number of creatures, meaning with a high-level slot, players could raise the whole party’s HP maximum by up to 30 points each, a truly massive boost.
5Keep Groups Of Enemies In Place With Plant Growth & Sleet Storm
Plant Growth: 3rd-Level Transmutation / Sleet Storm: 3rd-Level Conjuration
Both of these mid-game spells,plant growthandsleet storm, are incredibly useful for controlling the battlefield.They specifically make an area more difficult to traverse or escape, meaning they are great for keeping enemies in one place. When cast together, they make a nearly-inescapable zone for enemies that can trivialize combat.
Plant growthis available to bards, druids, rangers, and some warlocks and paladins, andcuts the speed of all creatures in its affected area down to one quarterof their usual movement.Sleet storm, meanwhile, makes an area of icy terrain that is both difficult to cross and may cause enemies to slip and go prone, losing their turns in the process. While the difficult terrain of these spells does not stack, they still make an area that is both very slow to get out of and will likely cause enemies to spend their turns falling over.
A great way to subdue spellcasters for a whole fight.
Not only that, butsleet stormhas the added benefit of canceling and preventing enemies from concentrating on spells, meaning this can be a great way to subdue spellcasters for a whole fight. This combo is brutal, especially against groups of melee enemies that can do little but trip and run around in the zone. And, if someone should ruin theplant growthby lighting it on fire, the sleet storm ice underneath will melt into a substantial puddle, setting it up for another spell combo just as devastating.
4Make An Invincible Guardian Of Faith By Casting Globe Of Invulnerability
Guardian Of Faith: 4th-Level Conjuration / Globe Of Invulnerability: 6th-Level Abjuration
This combo is only available at high levels, but it is a fun way to take advantage of a spell’s effect to essentially get free damage out of another spell. Theguardian of faithspell can be learned by clerics andcreates a stationary warrior of light who strikes any hostile creature that enters their range. This guardian deals impressive radiant damage, at the cost of damaging itself each time it hits. Luckily, one late-game spell can eliminate this downside completely.
Globe of invulnerabilitymakes a dome on the map that prevents anything inside from taking damage. This dome can be abused if characters stand on its edge, giving them invulnerability while still getting to deal damage to creatures outside of it. Summoning aguardian of faithon the spell’s edge also grants it this benefit, allowing the guardian to strike enemies and take no damage itself. This is arguably an exploitative way to use these spells, but it is effective nevertheless.
3Charge Up Your Call Lightning Attacks With A Casting Of Create Or Destroy Water
Create Or Destroy Water: 1st-Level Transmutation
The “wet” condition introduced inBaldur’s Gate 3causes creatures to take half damage from fire and double damage from lightning. As such, sources of lightning damage in the game have become the most powerful methods for dealing damage when using this condition to a player’s advantage. One spell,create or destroy water, allows players toeasily set up this high damage combo with nothing but a first-level spell slot.
The best time to use this combo is against Hellfire Steel Watchers in the foundry in Act Three.
Create or destroy watercan make a momentary cloud of rain and a puddle on the ground, both of which can make enemies wet. There is no saving throw for this condition, meaning this will work every time, and it can be followed up by spells likeshocking grasp,call lightning, or evenchain lightningat higher levels. This is wheresleet stormcan also come in handy, when it melts and creates a wet surface of its own.
The best time to use this combo is against Hellfire Steel Watchers in the foundry in Act Three. These enemies deal massive fire damage, which can be lessened if the player is also wet, and the constructs are already vulnerable to lightning damage. This meansgetting them wet could cause them to take four times as much damage from lightning spells, decimating them in just a couple of turns.
2Trap & Chip Away At Enemies With Hunger Of Hadar & Spike Growth
Hunger Of Hadar: 3rd-Level Conjuration / Spike Growth: 2nd-Level Transmutation
Combining two more of the game’s best control spells creates a truly destructive area that is difficult for any creature to survive in.Spike Growth, which is available to druids, rangers, and some subclasses, makes an area of difficult terrain that also deals piercing damage whenever a creature moves through it.Hunger of Hadar, meanwhile, is a warlock-exclusive spell that creates difficult terrain, darkness, and deals both cold and acid damage to enemies in its area.
Combining these spells does not stack their difficult terrain, but what it does do iscreate an area capable of dealing dozens of points of damage each turn to each creature within it, outperforming spells likeice stormandfireballwithin just a turn or two. On top of that, the darkness in the area can often cause enemies to get lost and have a hard time getting out, leading them to stay inside the area for longer than expected.
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Plus, the area affected by each of these spells is huge, meaningthis combo can trap large groups of enemies and blind them while dealing continuous chip damage. The multiple types of damage this deals can also counter damage resistances some enemies in those groups might have. Try this during the fight against Z’rell and her minions in Moonrise Towers; it will not disappoint.
1Make A Support Powerhouse With Bless & Sanctuary
Bless: 1st-Level Enchantment / Sanctuary: 1st-Level Abjuration
This combo becomes available to clerics and paladins as early as first level, and can prove useful throughout the entirety of the game.Blessgrants a 1d4 bonus to attack rolls and saving throws, and can be upcast to affect an entire party. It makes for a great buff, and despite requiring concentration, is powerful enough to justify its use even when competing with higher-level options. However, concentrating on a buff spell like this can cause enemies to target the caster in an attempt to shut it down.
Sanctuarycan prevent that. Clerics and paladins can cast this spell to make it impossible for enemies to target the affected character with attack rolls. That is, as long as the affected character doesn’t take offensive actions in return.Blessworks wonderfully in this case, as it is not directly damaging, yet boosts the entire party’s offensive and defensive abilities for up to ten rounds.
A lone cleric can set this combo up on themselves in one turn, since sanctuary is not concentration and is cast as a bonus action. Clerics also get tons of healing spells inBaldur’s Gate 3, meaning they can use their actions each turn to dash around and heal their allies while staying safe and passively buffing everyone in the party. It is a powerful combination that lays the foundation for other cleric spell combos at later levels, combiningsanctuarywith options likeBanishmentandHold Person.
Sources:NorZZa/YouTube,The Lost Noob/YouTube,Archie Cooper/YouTube
Baldur’s Gate 3
Developed and published by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an upcoming role-playing game set to release in August of 2023. Players will create a character to embark on a large-scale journey and can do so solo or cooperatively with a friend. Combat is a turn-based style this time around.
