Summary
The Wizard is typically the arbiter of knowledge for their party and a treasure trove of magical abilities. The Wizard has compendiums of spells at their disposal, meaning it can be tricky to know which spells are great options, and which ones are best avoided. Wizards usually will be squishy members of the adventuring party, meaning some spells like Barkskin may be an attractive option at first, but further investigation will reveal that they fail to hold up andWizards might be better off picking a different spell to prepare.
It’s difficult to know which spells won’t hold their own when it comes to blows, but there are a few key options that should definitely be avoided when playing as a Wizard inBaldur’s Gate 3.
1Witch Bolt
Early Game Spell That Tapers Off Quickly
Witch Boltis a spell that feels great to use in the early game and works pretty well in terms of action economy. However, Witch Bolt quickly becomes a nearly useless spell as the game progresses. It allows a Wizard to cast a bolt of 1d12 lightning damage, which on a successful hit, attaches to an enemy and can be reactivated on subsequent turns without expending a spell slot.
The little damage offered by this spell is not too shabby in the early game, but as more spells become available, Witch Bolt’s effectiveness quickly wanes. Even if the spell is upcasted, the upcasted damage only applies the first round the spell is active and does not keep on dealing higher damage on subsequent turns, meaning that it’s hard to get good use out of this spell even with higher spell slots, and it’s even harder to justify burning higher level spell slots for such a meager return.
2Protection From Energy
Poor Planning Leads To Poor Action Economy
Protection from Energy, on the surface, is a fantastic spell that provides an excellent bonus to any recipient creature. Unfortunately, this spell rarely pays off in practice, and can often lead to a waste of a third-level spell slot. Protection From Energy grants resistance to any target to one of the following damage types: Cold, Fire, Acid, Thunder, or Lightning. If players know exactly what type of enemies they intend to face off against, Protection From Energy is not a bad option.
The problem with this spell is that if players don’t know exactly what they’re going to be up against, it can be difficult to prepare with this spell, meaning it needs to be used in combat, which makes for a pretty poor action economy. Players will often have to spend one turn to cast this spell when they could have attacked, and even then it is subjected to concentration, meaning a well-placed strike from an enemy can render this spell slot utterly wasted. This might be mitigated somewhatwith a Fighter/Wizard multiclassto allow a Wizard to use an action surge, though this scenario is quite niche!
3Hypnotic Pattern
An Iconic Dungeons And Dragons Spell Tweaked Into Redundancy
Hypnotic Patternis an iconic spell fromDungeons and Dragonsand ismost commonly used by Sorcerers and Wizards. It’s a great spell for crowd control, especially for characters with a particularly good Spell Save DC, and can quickly dispatch several enemies at once, for a good chunk of time.
This is, unfortunately, not the case inBaldur’s Gate 3, with Hypnotic Pattern being nerfed pretty considerably. It still has a pretty decent radius, and forces a Wisdom saving throw from any target unlucky enough to see it, but instead of lasting for ten turns, it lasts for just two. This means that any enemies who fail their saving throws will be able to return to combat pretty rapidly, making this spell less useful than one might hope.
4Arcane Lock
A Rarely Useful Spell That Wastes Slots
Arcane Lock is a spell that could be removed entirely fromBaldur’s Gate 3, and there would be very little overall impact on the game. It’s not very often that the situation the spell addresses is needed, and it’s even less often that this spell would bethe only solution available to the player.
This spell is a level two spell, which means there are plenty of other spells that are better choices both in and out of combat around this level. Arcane Lock does pretty much what it says on the tin, and closes and locks a container, and prevents them from being opened with a lockpick or the knock spell. This is a spell that is much better suited to the tabletop game, which has more options available for roleplay but fails to prove particularly useful inBaldur’s Gate 3.
5Seeming
Seldom Provides Significant Advantages
TheSeemingspell is a fifth-level spell, which is a spell level that offers plenty of powerful spells that would have enemies quaking in their boots, but assuredly, Seeming is not one of them. This spell is ridiculously underpowered for a fifth-level slot. It effectively allows the caster to disguise four of their party members, akin to a Disguise Self spell.
While this is no doubt quite useful and can be fantastic for helping to disguise non-spellcaster characters get into restricted areas, such asRogues, Barbarians, or Fighters, it is not useful enough to warrant taking up a fifth-level spell slot and pales in comparison to some of the other spells available at this level.
6Gaseous Form
Spell That Renders The Target Actionless
Gaseous Formcan be useful outside of combat to allow allied playersto get into hard-to-reach areas, especially those that might only typically be available to small creatures such as cats, or mice, and it would be a great spell if it could be used offensively, but the way the spell is worded makes it one that is hard to justify learning.
Gaseous Form allows the caster to transform themselves, or an allied character into a ball of gas. This third-level spell then grants advantage to Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength saving throws to the target, makes them much harder to attack, and allows them to fit in tiny spaces. However, it effectively renders the transformed character useless, and more or less removes them from combat.
7Flesh To Stone
A Potentially Powerful Spell That Rarely Comes To Fruition
TheFlesh to Stonespell, unfortunately, rarely sees the full extent of what it is capable of, as it is one of the most unique spells on offer inBaldur’s Gate 3. Arguably the epitome of stuck or save spells, Flesh to Stone has a distinct possibility of not fulfilling its main use, which is a lot of risk to run for a sixth-level spell slot.
After a target has this spell cast on them, they will become restrained and be forced to make constitution saving throws. If they fail these throws, they will become petrified and turn to stone. The problem with this spell is that targets have three opportunities to save against this spell, and its concentration too, so the caster must maintain concentration, and have the target fail all throws for this spell to come to fruition, which makes it a spell that’s difficult to get a lot of value from.
8Sleet Storm
A Spell That Frequently Causes More Problems Than It Solves
Sleet Stormhas a particularly powerful ability to stop enemies from concentrating on spells, but it is such an overwhelming spell that it often causes just as many problems as it solves, which makes it a hard spell tojustify spending a third-level spell slot.
Sleet Storm calls down a raging storm that can break the concentration of any spellcasters unlucky enough to be caught in the midst and can extinguish any flame within it. Moreover, it makes the surface difficult terrain, turning it to ice, for both allies and enemies alike. The problem is that it becomes very hard to capitalize on the disruption enemies suffer from this spell without falling victim to the difficult terrain, meaning it’s hard to see the value in this spell when it doesn’t even deal any damage on its own.
