Invisibility is not a spell you'd ever cast in combat, but it has FAR too much utility outside of combat to be C-tier. When you need it, you are REALLY glad to have it. Hiding is not a substitute because full light is auto-detection regardless of your Stealth skill. Invisibility is B-tier minimum, but more likely A.
I think this is one of the spells that I would love to have on a wizard so I can switch it in and out, but would regret taking on a spells known caster.
I think the problem with invisibility as a spell in that scenario is that it isn't a ritual spell, so using a second level spell slot for out of combat utility just feels bad when potions of invisibility exist, are not that rare, and easier to get more of than second level spell slots. Compare it to knock, where if you don't have any lockpicks or characters that are good at lockpicking, you have no way of opening locked doors. Knock is worth using an out of combat second level spell slot to, because in some situations it's your only option. For invisibility, you have other options.
Regarding Web, it's also worth noting that you take no fall damage if you land inside it. Additionally, it can be infinitely cast in druid spider form or by beast master spider companions, making it very useful if you don't have a source of slow fall.
Another use for Lesser Restoration (LR) is if your character is acting like a walking bloodbag for Astarion. Even though it doesn't say it in the description, LR will remove the Bloodless tag on your character. Interestingly, a Potion of Restoration will NOT remove that particular debuff. Thanks for the content! :)
How often are you getting bloodless-ed by Astarion. He only needs your blood once iirc. In my game I don't even get the option to give him my blood, and haven't had that option since he drank it once. I have exceptional approval with him.
@@common_undead No "need" to let him drink, but if you follow a certain path with him (it might be romance only, not sure) then a player may choose that dialogue option for RP reasons. Nothing more. You absolutely don't have to let him continue feeding on your MC, just RP content. Still found it interesting that LR worked on Bloodless, while Restoration Potion did not. ;)
@@common_undead I mean, you could let him feed on you if you really needed to min-max his rolls for certain checks and there’s no enemies nearby, especially if you have him as a lil rogue skill monkey
Asterion gets a buff for getting blood from intelligent beings which lasts until the next long rest. So letting him bite you each night can be useful, and then just use the amulet which lets you cast lesser restoration once per long rest to get rid of the debuff before heading out. To get the option to let him feed each night I think you need to tell him it felt good or at least didn't hurt after the first time or romance him.
Warding bond is a B to S tier but only if you build it right (no hirelings). Stacks with other damage reduction sources, reducing both damage taken. This means if your protected target has -3 damage taken, you'll take less damage too!! - It's actually possible to become 100% immune to non-magic melee weapons. +1 Armor for melee characters without concentration and only a lvl 2 spell is pretty good too! It's good used on tanks, surprisingly - Depends heavily on playstyle. If your cleric is in the thick of it, higher chance to lose them.
Heat metal is one of my favorite spells and you didn't mention the best part about it. If the enemy succeeds their saving throw and doesn't drop their weapon or is just wearing armor or drops their weapon and picks out back up, it gives disadvantage on all their attacks. This makes it a great spell to throw on a boss, especially one with legendary resistance, since even if they succeed their saving throw it at least gives disadvantage and does damage, while potentially burning through their legendary resistance so you can hit them with a hold person or hold monster. Then it only costs a bonus action to force another save each turn while you can still use your action on anything non- concentration. And if they drop their weapon that can be even more disabling than disadvantage. (Though some boss enemies cannot be disarmed). The only other spell I can think of that guarantees crippling an enemy who has ridiculously high bonuses to saving throws is otto's irresistible dance which you get only towards the end of the game.
In tabletop I absolutely trivialised an early encounter with a named enemy that was meant to be quite hard for the party and our GM refused to play RAW for heat metal after that;) changed it up to "yes they can shrug out of their armour in a round if they don't mind cutting all the straps".
Another use for calm emotions is that it ends barbarian rage, so you can use it to help burst down enemies like dror ragzlin who get resistances from their rage
I'm really glad to see Moonbeam pretty high. It was surprisingly very useful for me as I started as a druid. A main character being able to just move the beam without expending spell slots as well as guaranteed damage was really useful. It was probably my number one offensive spell for my druid
In real DnD, Phantasmal Force is a really cool spell that can create intricate illusions. The spell has been poorly translated into BG3, even though I know it is hard to convey certain illusion spells into a video game.
I used the Arcane Lock Scroll brillianty during my "visit" on Wyrm's Rock. I failed some checks and started combat in the hall near prison. Sealed the main door preventing Steel Watchers to join in. I dealt with everyone inside and then killed the rest outside.
Warding Bond is also broken if you have a character doing the Armor of Agathys Arcane Ward Shenanigans. I have my Lae’Zel in one play through built as a Wizard Tank. She is a Level 1 White Dragon Sorcerer for Armor of Agathys, Level 1 Tempest Cleric for Heavy Armor, and level 10 Abjuration Wizard. I cast Armor of Agathys at 6th level, and then use counterspell and Glyph of Warding to keep her ward at max. She has Heavy Armor Master and Armor of Persistence. I have my Shadowheart cast Warding Bond on her and reduce damage even more. Whenever Lae’zel gets hit she loses one stack of Arcane Ward and takes zero damage, so Shadowheart takes zero damage, and Armor of Agathys deals 30 cold damage to whoever hit her. That is usually doubled to 60 because Lae’zel throws around water and holds concentration on haste for my archer Tav. Everyone tries to hit her to break her concentration but deals no damage and kills themselves on her so she doesn’t even have to make Concentration saves. Absolutely busted spell when used correctly.
It's worth mentioning that there is one way to make someone vulnerable to thunder damage, i.e. freezing them solid. This is accomplished with chill+wet in either order. So if you're a caster who has picked up the Mourning Frost quarterstaff from the underdark, then it's quite possible to freeze enemies and then follow up with a shatter for double damage. The best use case I've found is a sorcerer with quickened spell, haste, help from an ally, etc. That being said, your assessment of it is otherwise 100% correct. Nice tier list!
I would like to say thank you for making these videos. There is plenty of Spell ranking videos out there but most people just sit on the tiermaker website and don't show off the spells or niche uses of it in game. I hope people will find your videos more often.
Arcane lock is one of my favorite spells. It makes me giggle anytime I lock someone out of a fight, an example being act 2 when preventing someone from getting kidnapped. Had my wizard in that room, locking the doors behind my other party members as they went out and then firing magic missiles out the balcony door.
@@CasualVeteranGamer It's a niche spell, but I'm over the moon anytime I find a use for it and it makes me feel smart. At the hag's house I was able to lock out the redcaps very briefly. They immediately broke down the door in the following round, but it was enough to cover my party's escape to the secret lair, bypassing the fight entirely. I also used it as I fought my way out of the Creche and those doors are a lot sturdier.
i used it on the saverok fight to prevent his guards from entering the room. felt great after the fight to have 3 free corpses to loot outside since they die when saverok dies
There’s another use for detect thoughts that make it better. Since it’s a free concentration spell you can basically ready concentrated blast for free before every combat
Guidance and Dancing Lights are my goto spells for that purpose Since they are cantrips you can use them even in combat to use the Blast every turn if you got the buff to use the powers as Bonus actions. Sure it's only 3d6, but no save and no attack roll makes it a good way to ensure you finish people off with Cull the Weak. Also, those in the Resonating Stone from Act 2, to inflict Vulnerability to Psychic
Aid is crazy too because you can use it to hit allied NPCs. I remember using it before going into Moonrise Towers and granting EVERYONE around me upwards of 200+ HP combined it was totally worth
Spike growth is so good! I know people can jump out of it, but I’ve seen a lot of AI just try and dash through it in tactician mode. They just kill themselves
@@sephikong8323 Spike Growth doesn’t stack with Web. You can use either Spike Growth, Web, or even Plant Growth and stack it with Hunger of Hagar, though. Very strong combos. The former are considered ground effects while the latter is considered a cloud effect
@@effusivemind You do not need to put both of them over the same space though, you can cover even more ground if you spread them out like this : first they have to get through the spike growth, then if they survive, you have Hunger of Hadar with Web below to potentially enweb them and force them to halt their progression right there. Set up like that you cover more ground to make into death land
I've just gotten Conjure Woodland Beings. The dryad being able to cast spike growth as many times as she likes is great! Entangle is more useful than I would expect, too. (Empowered shillelagh is also mental but it's best if she hangs back most of the time with that tiny HP pool) I'm sure it'll fall off as I get to higher levels but for now it is *very* fun. Spike growth is just such an enormous aoe, and having it on the dryad means that my Moon Druid doesn't have to worry about losing concentration in battle and being unable to recast. Also means that I could have it up twice, and just make sure that the dryad one is the more important of the two, since dryad doesn't take concentration and lasts until next long rest.
Hold Person is literally the basis of many of my parties' playstyle or at least a very important aspect of it. Since I really like crowd control and tend to have at least one if not 2 "Crit Fishing" characters that are the bread and butter of my offense, having a spell that can allow me to both incapacitate targets and create guaranteed crits (to trigger GWM and Smite notably) ...... it's just pretty nutty if I do say so myself. It's not new insight, I think it's pretty well known that this spell is really bonkers combat wise especially for being such a low level, but I think it could have been a level 3 spell and it would still have been a really good addition, even if the level 3 slots are more crowded and valuable than level 2, so the fact it's level 2 is kind of insane as I don't think there are very many level 2 spells that can compete with it in terms of pure combat utility, Cloak of Daggers and Darkness are the only ones that come to mind and even then, Hold Person is imo still above them by a big shot
Lesser restoration is pretty important to have, paralysis is too strong, and potions are not readily available in act one for example. We would have wiped on the beholder if we didn't have 2 lesser restorations slotted, and that's just one example. Occasionaly you may need to cast it on npc for a quest. Edit: typo
Don't forget how useful spell economy is. Even when you are a higher level caster, you have to ask yourself if you can get away with using a lower level spell, keeping the more powerful high level spells for when you really need them. Lower level spells still have their place when players are at higher levels. The same applies to certain scrolls where a lower level scroll used, costs no spell slot at all (besides which it may be just what you need mid-combat, when you need something specific that you haven't learned).
I love your tier lists for spells! I found an answer to a question I had about Non-casters using scrolls: When using a scroll, the Ability score that counts is defined by the class. And I learned that even non-spell-casting classes are assigned a "spell casting ability" -- that is stated in the bg3 wiki, in the "spell casting ability" entry in the Spells page. Fighters and Rogues use Intelligence, Barbarians use Charisma, Monks use Wisdom. It's something to keep in mind when having your characters use scrolls. If they have a low Spell Casting Ability score you could be wasting the scroll.
I gotta say that scorching ray is S tier. A fire dragon sorcerer can boost its damage and it can crit against paralysis. Upcasting this spell into a creatures face is devistating... Getting a second cast with quicken Spell is just amazing. It's the only spell I'm repeatedly upcasting at every opportunity. I can't say the same for any other level 2 damage spell.
The optimal use of Warding bond is, with a hireling, multiclassing cleric, sorcerer and abjuration wizard. Abjuration wizards reduce damage received up to the number of turns remaining (depending on the character level it can go up to 10); this number won't go down if the hireling is at camp so they will always receive close to no damage. Sorcerer allows for twin casting to 2 characters. You can just complete the set with other buffing until long rest abilities and that hireling will be making half of your party almost invulnerable to non-magic damage while receiving no damage at all.
C is being pretty harsh to gust of wind. You could knock multiple enemies from the high ground into a coordinated spike growth with it, won't break concentration. Instant death into pits if you don't care about loot. A strong shove alternative for spellcasters. The solution for not shoving your allies with it is often just having them move first because you happen to be in the same initiative or just positioning and planning better. Granted I haven't used it much later myself because create water is that good, but it is in the blind spot of second level spells that don't really interact with the wet condition.
I used Blindness to great effect on my sorcerer in act3 by casting it and flying to rooftops. you could also kite ranged enemies on ground with the spell which you cant do with darkness since its stationary. Blur is great to pre-cast from a scroll on a fighter on yourself, atleast in early game. You can scout a huge area with Invisibility in turn based, use dash every turn, if on a rogue 2-3 dashes. Its also a "oh shit" button to get out from combat, not triggering attack of opportunity, and for sure surviving until your next turn to attack with advantage
Great video! To answer your question, I believe there is a single constitution check at the Creche Zaith'isk (the big flesh machine that tries to remove your tadpole). I can't recall every seeing another one, though I'm sure there's another somewhere.
With the amount of verticality in this game, gust of wind should at least be A-tier imo. High enough ledges would deal upwards of 30 damage plus gaining a lot of distance between you and an enemy. Not to mention how many fights are close to chasms.
Fantastic video. Informative and erudite per usual. I completely agree with your rankings. I find the majority level 2 spells rather underwhelming, rarely worth the resource cost for a majority of the game, easily eclipsed by upcasted level 1 spells, and pale in comparison to the arcane awesomeness that are level 3 spells (the exceptions are misty step, aid, hold person, +/- spiritual weapon).
I have to say that the level 3 spells are some of my favourites compared to what we get at almost any other spell level. We do have a few nice and reliable spells in level 2 though as you pointed out.
i shut down balthazar, cazador, and act 3 ethel by putting them in the centre of the silence sphere and placing my sentinel paladin next to them. amazing spell for boss battles versus mages. sentinel maybe not the best feat but it’s a really fun cheese strat
So as I mainly play summoning spells party (still on 1st playthrough)....Flaming sphere early level had so much utility as flammables were everywhere! Also it's a source of light and it still provides an alternative. It can cover more distance than a Spiritual Weapon and it can jump and Ram (even more distance!). Easy A level 3-6 but falls to B for later levels for me and my army of Summons style. Great video as usual and i will refer to it in my own playthroughs.
I feel like arcane lock is just broken, and not in a fun way, in that it just doesn't do what it should do. You pointed out the goblin children, but I think I ran into a more egregious example; I tried using Arcane Lock on the guard tower in the Moonrise prison to try and keep the guards inside from seeing what I was doing and to keep the ones outside from sounding the alarm when I broke out the gnomes, but they just teleported through the door and bypassed it completely. They didn't even break it down, they just popped right through it while the spell was still active as if they had opened the door. It seems like if an NPC has a scripted interaction like this the arcane lock just straight-up doesn't work, and if they need to get through the door they'll do it anyway. It's really annoying because those are *the exact situations* you'd want to use arcane lock to get around in the first place, and it's one of the few places where the cracks in the illusion of freedom really show through and you can see the devs hands pulling the strings. It's similar to how NPCs treat being knocked out as if they're dead when the only reason you'd ever want to KO them in the first place is to *avoid* that.
I haven't tested it myself but apparently arcane lock can be used to prevent the hag from fleeing into her lair in act 1, allowing you to fight her in much more favorable circumstances and skipping most of the hard parts of her lair.
Darkness and Enhance Ability pair really well for robbing merchants blind, even in a crowded area. It can be useful regardless of alignment due the number of immoral/evil vendors that are in the game. You can also use the hireling with the Lucky racial trait and spec her as a rogue so that you will never crit-fail a pickpocketing roll.
I think Invisibility should be higher than C tier. 10 turns is limited for sure, but for any sneak-based quest (or just for pilfering pockets and the like) it's hard to go without. And even just for getting Surprise going it's invaluable and far more reliable than trying to sneak into position.
I believe enthrall is meant to be used on a non hostile creature to distract them with one character so that another can do something behind them without being caught
The problem is that we can also use minor illusion and have the same outcome pretty much, although minor illusion gets the attention of everyone nearby.
Warding bond is quite strong if you are prepared to leave your cleric in camp. Just add them as a party member, apply the warding bond, then have them stay in camp. BAM, free resistance to all without the downside of shared damage!
Just a heads up if your planning on having people bench protect you with Warding Bond at camp: Don't do this if you ever load into an area that **does not** have your camp (Iron Throne, Upper City), the game WILL CRASH when they take damage. I don't think Larian has fixed this yet, but still, this strat isn't viable for the final boss fight sadly.
52:08 I think you can make Moonbeam S tier if you use it with 1 lvl into Cleric. Moonbeam, for some reason, doesn't break Sanctuary. So at your turn, you can cast Moonbeam then use Bonus action to cast Sanctuary and be invulnerable (mostly) for the entire fight. You can do this as soon as lvl 4, 3 Druid lvls and 1 Cleric lvl.
Personally I do like Magic Weapon on my Paladin. I don't like spending the first turn of combat on Bless or another buff when I could go in swinging instead and chunk down an enemy with smites, so the fact that you can just walk around with Magic Weapon really ups its value to me. I don't think it's the best spell in the world or anything but it has value.
Aid gains way more value if you have multiple summons. I probably wouldn't use it in a party with zero summons though. Also if you want to use someone in camp to buff and then leave them behind just leave camp so you group up, cast and return to camp.
Something I would like to mention about Arcane Lock, I used it on the goblin camp with true soul Gut, she led my friend to the back of the castle and effectively isolated herself. I used Arcane lock and the goblins were to busy trying to shoot us from the hole nearby to actually break down the door. It definitely has its uses, and to note, I've seen people use Glyph of Warding to hurt enemies on the other side of the door so there's that.
I did not use aid much in my first playthrough but then i realised how powerful it is. Upcast it level 6, with freecast ilithid power. 4 party members + 2 summons you get free extra 150 hit points in total.
Flaming Sphere is my go to concentration spell for my Circle of the Moon druid. Cast it Turn 1 and then wildshape with a bonus action. It does damage. It moves with it's own action like a summon instead of caster action (like Moonbeam). Also it takes up physical space. That can be very helpful in some fights. Your comment about sight cones for Pass Without Trace is why Invisibility should be ranked higher. Very strong out of combat. Even in combat, it can be the only path to a sneak attack in some situations. There are quite a few fights where you fight several low hp mobs. Spiked Growth can be huge in those fights. A million 1hp rats you say? Cast Spiked Growth and wait for your XP to arrive.
A note about 5th editions pass without trace. It doesn't work like an aura extending from the caster either on top of the vision cones. You can't split the party apart to keep the bonus.
I would rate detect thoughts at a solid D-tier, but also agree with everything you said. The reason why is simple - potions of mind reading are everywhere, they are super cheap, and they do the exact same thing. Just keep a few of them on hand and you will always have the benefit of this spell no matter what class you are.
gust of wind is a counter spell for most stationary clouds. you can push/delete the AOE of the different spells like couldkill, fog, stinking cloud and I need to test it against hunger of hadar
Awesome list!! I learned a lot of information about quite a few spells. One thought on how to make it even better: I think it's worth considering the rarity of the saving throw of a spell. For instance, if you are building a control wizard, you want to have control spells covering a few different types of saves so you can attack your enemies weaknesses. For instance, hold person is an amazing effect with a wisdom saving throw. Blindness has a less amazing effect, but a constitution saving throw. On a control wizard you may want to have both prepared, so that you can use hold when an opponent has low wisdom and blindness when they have low constitution. Furthermore, there are many great control spells with wisdom saving throws (like confusion) but very few with constitution saving throws. Depending on your build, this could make blindness a better choice to prepare than hold person. E.G. you could have a control build where you prepare blindness (con save), glyph of warding (dex save), and confusion (wis save). This would give you lots of options to choose from, depending on the types of enemies you encounter.
Also Nock is S tier for me especially since I can skip a lot of nasty encounters like it works partly on locks you can’t even pick so yah awesome (only amazing out of combat ) saved me a lot of time also allowed me to scape some encounters
When I first played I didn't care much for knock, but it's convenience has won me over in some situations now, especially once level 2 spell slots become cheap!
I feel like spells like web, spikegrowth, entangle, grease are all pretty crap because one tiny candle on the ground instantly burns your spell. like any torches or anything just makes it so you just chucked a alchemist's fire.
I'm loving these spell videos because you actually show how they work in game. I really hope you're doing all the spell lvls! One question on Darkness, how does it compare to the lvl1 Fog Cloud? The differences aren't clear to me aside from Warlock potentially being able to see through it.
I've found fog very lackluster for protection, I'm pretty sure to really not be seen by ranged attackers outside you would need to stealth inside fog. Darkness is just an area of darkness that prevents almost all ranged attacks and targeted spells. It blocks vision as well so basically it is a much stronger variant of fog that blocks ranged attacks allowing you to kill melees while the ranged enemies are either doing nothing or dashing into melee range themselves
Since this comment section has become an Arcane Lock appreciation thread, I thought I'd post another use for it. If you want to kill Balthazar when you first meet him in his library/study, you can lock out the enemies outside his door. With a bit of planning you could probably even get the guy alone in there, but I didn't have the foresight to do so at the time. It definitely beats fighting him later on by a long shot. Another one: The room in the House of Hope with the soul pillars. Lock the door with the enemies outside and you have 10 turns to break them.
For arcane lock, I don't know of a particular fight but I'd say atleast of there is a metal door which is stronger then wood, then it'll be more useful for that. Still niche but may have its moments. Something to plan out rather then on the go though.
Turn Gale into a cleric and make him cast warding bond on everyone, he's considered an NPC when not in your direct party so he fully heals all damage after 5 seconds. Congrats now everyone has +1 to AC and resistance to all damage permanently.
There is a ring pair that lets any class cast warding bond in act 2, you can have a maxed con, tough feat barbarian do it as a hireling unequip the ring on the benefactor after cast. They won't die while at camp with such a massive hit point pool. You could do the same with clerics as they're also pretty healthy hit point wise for a casting class since no DCs are involved. So you can get all 4 party members you actively use with this spell every long rest doubling the HP pool along with an upcasted aid from a hireling cleric to up your hp along with everyone else. Very much an S tier spell used this way and the strongest spell in the game. Revivify scrolls are plentiful as well.
Eh, I'd say if a spell requires cheesing camp mechanics to be worthwhile, it isn't S tier. Hopefully they'll fix that silliness at some point, and the spells will poof when you leave camp.
I seem to recall seeing a video awhile back on Warding Bond, that showed both Gale & Karlach seem to spontaneously regenerate a small amount of hit points in camp. The suggesting was that having them cast Warding Bond, assuming your character didn't receive an overwhelmingly enormous amount of damage, would eventually recover.
I think Darkness belongs in S tier for sure, the few items that prevent blindness, and the warlock devil's sight both make it an absolute game changer for how you can handle encounters. Having permanent disadvantage on everyone trying to hit you in melee and permanent advantage on attacks makes ranged builds absolutely untouchable inside of it even with lower constitution for concentration saving throws. I have been using a ring that makes me immune to blind and just sitting inside of my own self cast darkness as a drow on a 3 thief/6 ranger build and you could easily give that to casters as well to make them nearly untouchable. Your haste twincast sorcerer can hang back and not lose concentration because nobody can get to them without moving into melee with disadvantage.
1. Warding Bond S spell if u cast it by any character without conc or if u your priest have a 15-20 con saving throws 2. Pass Without Trace for Greater Invisibility 10/10. 10-12-15 turns u attack in stealth - that's great, insane mechanic 3. Detect Throghs S? We have a potion without conc and spellslot, cmon. D, like a See Invisibility 4. Blindness nice, but don't needed. loal 5. Darkness D, but we have Arrow of Darkness without spellslot and conc
I don't want to assume that everyone always has access to consumables, plus I would wager a high portion of players don't use consumables because of the classic "I might need it later" mindset many players have. Also detect thoughts is a ritual, no spell slot is needed to cast it outside of combat.
Weird thing. You can use Arcane Lock on the stairs in the fireplace when you first start fighting Ethel and she can't go deeper into her lair. It locks you out of getting her hair, but for people that might just wanna bulldoze over her and move on, that's a neat way to do it. Also, something worth considering with detect thoughts is that there's a potion for it. No concentration, is available really early on and pretty regularly sold by merchants, and the ingredients for it are pretty easy to come across. Having it as a spell seems like a waste to me personally. Great effect, but there's just a much better way of applying it with the potion that the spell becomes essentially worthless imo.
I used arcane lock in the fight to protect isobel. it made it so that most of the flying ghouls couldn't get in. the first time i did the fight marcus and like 5 ghouls flew in and oneshot her after paralyzing some of my team. when i used the lock spell they didn't even try to break the door down they just attacked the flaming fist guys. i'd say that darkness is kinda op because it makes enemies stupid sometimes. like if your whole party is in darkness the enemies will just not attack you sometimes. they might have patched it though. i used it multiple times to just pop in and out of darkness to attack, then they would skip thier turn. Last time i used it though they still attacked me. maybe you have to cast it on just your party for the enemies to get stupid.
Regarding arcane lock: It can be used to prevent an npc from getting away from you. An example is the Balthazar fight in Shar Temple. It makes him easier to hit because he can't misty step as far.
I'm actually a big fan of knock. It's nice to swap into for those situation where you're up against a lock DC of like 25 without a rogue in the party. One level 2 spell slot feels better to spend than several lockpicks.
Pass without Trace can do a cute combo with Greater Invisbility. For example, a Swords Bard can learn pass without trace at level 10 through magical secrets or by wearing the Ring of Shadows. They can take expertise in stealth, the sharpshooter feat, and wear the graceful cloth armor for advantage on stealth checks. They can also get 22 dex from auntie ethel and the mirror of loss. Have the wizard cast greater invisibility and the cleric cast guidance on the swords bard before they trigger combat. They will have +24+1d4+advantage to their stealth checks. Swords bard goes into the combat solo, and can make a guaranteed 13 attacks without losing invisibility. So all their attacks have advantage and enemies cant even find them. Also, magic weapon is an interesting spell. Pretty useful late game if you’re playing a buffing character and you’re looking for a concentration spell, since a lot of the other good buff spells can be cast concentration free in the late game. Haste can be cast through the armour of the sporeskeeper, bless can be acquired through the offering chest at the bitch queen’s temple, and elemental weapon can be cast through the drakethroat glaive - all without concentration. Also, magic weapon can be twinned for maximum efficiency. Anyway, great video! Learned some new things. 👀
I love shatter for one specific reason: god damned scrying eyes at higher difficulties. I hold on to the spell until after I clear moonrise as it’s a high success rate way to delete scrying eyes from existence (construct + vulnerability) and keep them from aggroing the entire dungeon
I used arcane lock well once, in the crèche in the fight with the teachers and students there’s a big door that’s they can’t break. I put a fire wall in there and waited for them to burn while they tried to break the door.
Calm Emotion works actually on every creature, even on special abilitys from certan enemies. For exemple Gnolls have a exclusive Wrath ability, that allows them to shoot 3 times after 2 turns or Wrath of the Spider Queen that gives the Boss resistence to physical damage. Both of these get canceled with calm emotion. If you know the fights ths spell is usefull, Calm Emotion trivalises a lot of them. Early Game an S-Tier Spell for me. A strong secondary effect of darkvision is, ranged attacker with dark vision can attack enemies inside of fogclouds with advantage, if the enemy is within the range of the darkvision (the attacker must be outside of the cloud of cause). Getting Advantege for a turn on possibly multiple targets without attackroll or savingthrow at the cost of a 1st LV. spellslot is incedible. (+ one Time 2nd LV for Dark Vision if you haven't it already). Scorching Ray/Sharpshooter goes brrr...
Arcane lock does work on transition doors just not that singular scripted event because the goblin children exit point is well before the door. Arcane lock works wonderful when dealing with non destroyable doors. You can for instance arcane lock the hags door preventing her from running from the first fight. You can arcane lock the giant double doors in the moonrise tower fight splitting half the encounter to run around to get to the fight if ever (generally they just run up and try the door 100 times on there turn. Arcane lock does in fact work quite well its also very powerful when sneaking as you can lock patrols in rooms so they can't happen upon your sneaking team. You can use it every encounter however when you can use it it makes a huge difference such as casting it on one or two of the doors to the tavern fight in act 2. The gargoyles don't get to enter thus don't get to wtf eat the moonmaiden in 1 turn destroying the location. Its very powerful in very certain situations making it a B choice. If it was situational useful it would be a C but because it can greatly change or effect encounters on a massive scale it moves up to B.
The armor's that give enhance ability checks are very good, especially the one that gives cat's grace, but the spell itself I don't think is S tier. For a good few reasons. "Totem" barbarian can already carry double, and guidance already beats it out. You could have another caster cast it along with guidance from another, but you aren't going to exactly keep concentration on either of them. It's basically a wasted 2nd level spell slot, it'd put it at B since it is still useful. As lowly as 2nd level slots get later, they can be used to upcast 1st level spells like bless and be used for misty step instead with some subclasses.
On my first playthrough as a wizard, at higher lv I really liked Knock. It made things easier and, unlike the 3rd lv spells, I didn't find any other 2nd lv spell of wizard worthwhile.
Even if you are not a Warlock, you can blanket your position with Darkness, step into it for safety. On your turns, step out, attack, step back in. Like a coward, but it works. The AI is generally relucant to run in to attack you, and even if they do, they're probably binded too, so it works out as a neutral scenario, meanwhile their ranged pals are stood there unable to do anything to you. As for Darkvision, even if you have a bot who sits in camp casting it, I would not consider it S-tier, because the number of times it matters is actually quite limited. Most areas are at very least, dimly lit, and half the races have darkvision naturally. Other doors you can use Knock on but not lockpicks: The back door to the tunnels under the grove. The doors in the sundries basement. Lesser Restoration removes Hold Person.
I use warding bond from true love rings, Tav is 8 OH monk 4 Bearheart Barb, so he casts it on Wyll who is 5 Bladelock 7 Ancient Pala with HAMaster. Then SH who is 1 Def Fighter 1 Light Cleric 10 Lore Bard casts it on Lae'Zel who is a 6 EK 6 Wiz behemoth also running HAMaster. SH gets perma blade ward from ring/glove combo. Everyone is tanky af, specially if close together, quite happy with this composition. Wyll hastes himself via bow, Tav gets hasted by SH, and made LZ learn haste from a scroll so she can do the thing. Everyone has quite high CON to keep concentration, SH has lucky as feat, feels great :D
Cloud of daggers falls of a lot after you unlock lvl 3 spells. There is almost always a better spell you would rather use as a concentration. Haste, Hunger of Hadar, Hypnotic Pattern, Slow and many higher lvl spells are all better than cloud of daggers. All other spells from S tier in your list have a great useage through the whole game. Not sure if the few hours from lvl 3 to 5 are worth S tier.
flame build isn concentration btw and is auto equippped to the offhand if only weilding one weapon. For Jaheria i have her spellcasting weapn and mulitclass into fighter for Extra Attack and TWF. Fire adept feat for that restiance and then the hat that gives a extra bonus action if you do damge with a leveled fire spell, flame blade counts. This means 3 attacks after the first cast and because it can be upcasted its better than a lot of weapons. At least a A.
I think blindness deserves a tier as the fact that it requires 1 saving throw and no concentration is really powerful since this spell doesn't just give u advantage but it also gives them disadvantage so I believe its being underestimated here.
Concentration checks are constitution based and benefit from enhance ability. Pretty op I use a druid to cast longstrider, darkvision, aid, and enchance abilty and leave them at camp😂
Once the spell level tier lists are done, I think a concentration spells tier list would be neat
Absolutely 💯
second this 🙏
Haste
Invisibility is not a spell you'd ever cast in combat, but it has FAR too much utility outside of combat to be C-tier. When you need it, you are REALLY glad to have it. Hiding is not a substitute because full light is auto-detection regardless of your Stealth skill. Invisibility is B-tier minimum, but more likely A.
You'd only cast it in combat as GTFO-spell to live and fight another time
I think this is one of the spells that I would love to have on a wizard so I can switch it in and out, but would regret taking on a spells known caster.
I think the problem with invisibility as a spell in that scenario is that it isn't a ritual spell, so using a second level spell slot for out of combat utility just feels bad when potions of invisibility exist, are not that rare, and easier to get more of than second level spell slots. Compare it to knock, where if you don't have any lockpicks or characters that are good at lockpicking, you have no way of opening locked doors. Knock is worth using an out of combat second level spell slot to, because in some situations it's your only option. For invisibility, you have other options.
@@AzureKiteyeah I’ve never wanted to be invisible and not had any invis potions left
Invisibility is S tier outside of combat, you can use it to surprise enemies.
Regarding Web, it's also worth noting that you take no fall damage if you land inside it. Additionally, it can be infinitely cast in druid spider form or by beast master spider companions, making it very useful if you don't have a source of slow fall.
Another use for Lesser Restoration (LR) is if your character is acting like a walking bloodbag for Astarion. Even though it doesn't say it in the description, LR will remove the Bloodless tag on your character. Interestingly, a Potion of Restoration will NOT remove that particular debuff. Thanks for the content! :)
How often are you getting bloodless-ed by Astarion. He only needs your blood once iirc. In my game I don't even get the option to give him my blood, and haven't had that option since he drank it once. I have exceptional approval with him.
@@common_undead No "need" to let him drink, but if you follow a certain path with him (it might be romance only, not sure) then a player may choose that dialogue option for RP reasons. Nothing more. You absolutely don't have to let him continue feeding on your MC, just RP content. Still found it interesting that LR worked on Bloodless, while Restoration Potion did not. ;)
@@common_undead I mean, you could let him feed on you if you really needed to min-max his rolls for certain checks and there’s no enemies nearby, especially if you have him as a lil rogue skill monkey
Honestly, so far, that’s the only use I’ve made of Lesser Restoration, and Astarion’s only bitten my character once.
Asterion gets a buff for getting blood from intelligent beings which lasts until the next long rest. So letting him bite you each night can be useful, and then just use the amulet which lets you cast lesser restoration once per long rest to get rid of the debuff before heading out.
To get the option to let him feed each night I think you need to tell him it felt good or at least didn't hurt after the first time or romance him.
Warding bond is a B to S tier but only if you build it right (no hirelings).
Stacks with other damage reduction sources, reducing both damage taken. This means if your protected target has -3 damage taken, you'll take less damage too!! - It's actually possible to become 100% immune to non-magic melee weapons.
+1 Armor for melee characters without concentration and only a lvl 2 spell is pretty good too!
It's good used on tanks, surprisingly - Depends heavily on playstyle. If your cleric is in the thick of it, higher chance to lose them.
Heat metal is one of my favorite spells and you didn't mention the best part about it. If the enemy succeeds their saving throw and doesn't drop their weapon or is just wearing armor or drops their weapon and picks out back up, it gives disadvantage on all their attacks.
This makes it a great spell to throw on a boss, especially one with legendary resistance, since even if they succeed their saving throw it at least gives disadvantage and does damage, while potentially burning through their legendary resistance so you can hit them with a hold person or hold monster. Then it only costs a bonus action to force another save each turn while you can still use your action on anything non- concentration. And if they drop their weapon that can be even more disabling than disadvantage. (Though some boss enemies cannot be disarmed).
The only other spell I can think of that guarantees crippling an enemy who has ridiculously high bonuses to saving throws is otto's irresistible dance which you get only towards the end of the game.
In tabletop I absolutely trivialised an early encounter with a named enemy that was meant to be quite hard for the party and our GM refused to play RAW for heat metal after that;) changed it up to "yes they can shrug out of their armour in a round if they don't mind cutting all the straps".
Another use for calm emotions is that it ends barbarian rage, so you can use it to help burst down enemies like dror ragzlin who get resistances from their rage
I'm really glad to see Moonbeam pretty high. It was surprisingly very useful for me as I started as a druid. A main character being able to just move the beam without expending spell slots as well as guaranteed damage was really useful. It was probably my number one offensive spell for my druid
In real DnD, Phantasmal Force is a really cool spell that can create intricate illusions. The spell has been poorly translated into BG3, even though I know it is hard to convey certain illusion spells into a video game.
Yeah, it feels like a big let down, even knowing the difficulty in implementing illusion spells.
I used the Arcane Lock Scroll brillianty during my "visit" on Wyrm's Rock. I failed some checks and started combat in the hall near prison. Sealed the main door preventing Steel Watchers to join in. I dealt with everyone inside and then killed the rest outside.
Thanks, I'm really enjoying all of these arcane lock suggestions!
Arcane lock helped me out at the Last Light Inn to single out Marcus upstairs and ensure the kill during Act 2.
you the one from Reddit who used Hunger of Hadar outside the door, right?
Warding Bond is also broken if you have a character doing the Armor of Agathys Arcane Ward Shenanigans.
I have my Lae’Zel in one play through built as a Wizard Tank. She is a Level 1 White Dragon Sorcerer for Armor of Agathys, Level 1 Tempest Cleric for Heavy Armor, and level 10 Abjuration Wizard. I cast Armor of Agathys at 6th level, and then use counterspell and Glyph of Warding to keep her ward at max. She has Heavy Armor Master and Armor of Persistence. I have my Shadowheart cast Warding Bond on her and reduce damage even more. Whenever Lae’zel gets hit she loses one stack of Arcane Ward and takes zero damage, so Shadowheart takes zero damage, and Armor of Agathys deals 30 cold damage to whoever hit her. That is usually doubled to 60 because Lae’zel throws around water and holds concentration on haste for my archer Tav. Everyone tries to hit her to break her concentration but deals no damage and kills themselves on her so she doesn’t even have to make Concentration saves. Absolutely busted spell when used correctly.
It's worth mentioning that there is one way to make someone vulnerable to thunder damage, i.e. freezing them solid. This is accomplished with chill+wet in either order.
So if you're a caster who has picked up the Mourning Frost quarterstaff from the underdark, then it's quite possible to freeze enemies and then follow up with a shatter for double damage. The best use case I've found is a sorcerer with quickened spell, haste, help from an ally, etc. That being said, your assessment of it is otherwise 100% correct. Nice tier list!
I would like to say thank you for making these videos. There is plenty of Spell ranking videos out there but most people just sit on the tiermaker website and don't show off the spells or niche uses of it in game. I hope people will find your videos more often.
Arcane lock is one of my favorite spells. It makes me giggle anytime I lock someone out of a fight, an example being act 2 when preventing someone from getting kidnapped. Had my wizard in that room, locking the doors behind my other party members as they went out and then firing magic missiles out the balcony door.
Ahhh, that's a good use of arcane lock indeed!
@@CasualVeteranGamer It's a niche spell, but I'm over the moon anytime I find a use for it and it makes me feel smart. At the hag's house I was able to lock out the redcaps very briefly. They immediately broke down the door in the following round, but it was enough to cover my party's escape to the secret lair, bypassing the fight entirely.
I also used it as I fought my way out of the Creche and those doors are a lot sturdier.
i used it on the saverok fight to prevent his guards from entering the room. felt great after the fight to have 3 free corpses to loot outside since they die when saverok dies
There’s another use for detect thoughts that make it better. Since it’s a free concentration spell you can basically ready concentrated blast for free before every combat
That’s actually really cool! 😮 I’ve been using it as an easy concentration spell to proc the Strange Conduit Ring’s extra damage.
that's what i use it for haha, means i start every fight with it
Guidance and Dancing Lights are my goto spells for that purpose
Since they are cantrips you can use them even in combat to use the Blast every turn if you got the buff to use the powers as Bonus actions.
Sure it's only 3d6, but no save and no attack roll makes it a good way to ensure you finish people off with Cull the Weak.
Also, those in the Resonating Stone from Act 2, to inflict Vulnerability to Psychic
Aid is crazy too because you can use it to hit allied NPCs. I remember using it before going into Moonrise Towers and granting EVERYONE around me upwards of 200+ HP combined it was totally worth
Spike growth is so good! I know people can jump out of it, but I’ve seen a lot of AI just try and dash through it in tactician mode. They just kill themselves
Spike Growth + Web + Hadar's Hunger goes brrt
They'll never escape the No Man's Land
@@sephikong8323 Spike Growth doesn’t stack with Web. You can use either Spike Growth, Web, or even Plant Growth and stack it with Hunger of Hagar, though. Very strong combos.
The former are considered ground effects while the latter is considered a cloud effect
@@effusivemind You do not need to put both of them over the same space though, you can cover even more ground if you spread them out like this : first they have to get through the spike growth, then if they survive, you have Hunger of Hadar with Web below to potentially enweb them and force them to halt their progression right there.
Set up like that you cover more ground to make into death land
I've just gotten Conjure Woodland Beings. The dryad being able to cast spike growth as many times as she likes is great! Entangle is more useful than I would expect, too. (Empowered shillelagh is also mental but it's best if she hangs back most of the time with that tiny HP pool)
I'm sure it'll fall off as I get to higher levels but for now it is *very* fun. Spike growth is just such an enormous aoe, and having it on the dryad means that my Moon Druid doesn't have to worry about losing concentration in battle and being unable to recast. Also means that I could have it up twice, and just make sure that the dryad one is the more important of the two, since dryad doesn't take concentration and lasts until next long rest.
Hold Person is literally the basis of many of my parties' playstyle or at least a very important aspect of it. Since I really like crowd control and tend to have at least one if not 2 "Crit Fishing" characters that are the bread and butter of my offense, having a spell that can allow me to both incapacitate targets and create guaranteed crits (to trigger GWM and Smite notably) ...... it's just pretty nutty if I do say so myself.
It's not new insight, I think it's pretty well known that this spell is really bonkers combat wise especially for being such a low level, but I think it could have been a level 3 spell and it would still have been a really good addition, even if the level 3 slots are more crowded and valuable than level 2, so the fact it's level 2 is kind of insane as I don't think there are very many level 2 spells that can compete with it in terms of pure combat utility, Cloak of Daggers and Darkness are the only ones that come to mind and even then, Hold Person is imo still above them by a big shot
Lesser restoration is pretty important to have, paralysis is too strong, and potions are not readily available in act one for example. We would have wiped on the beholder if we didn't have 2 lesser restorations slotted, and that's just one example. Occasionaly you may need to cast it on npc for a quest.
Edit: typo
Don't forget how useful spell economy is. Even when you are a higher level caster, you have to ask yourself if you can get away with using a lower level spell, keeping the more powerful high level spells for when you really need them. Lower level spells still have their place when players are at higher levels. The same applies to certain scrolls where a lower level scroll used, costs no spell slot at all (besides which it may be just what you need mid-combat, when you need something specific that you haven't learned).
That's a good point, especially at the higher levels a level 1 or 2 spell slot feel cheap to cast considering the other spell slots we get.
Loving the tier lists! Very helpful for someone who can’t commit too much time to learning the game
Glad you like them!
Enjoyed the Level 1 video! Looking forward to this!
Glad to hear it!
I love your tier lists for spells!
I found an answer to a question I had about Non-casters using scrolls: When using a scroll, the Ability score that counts is defined by the class. And I learned that even non-spell-casting classes are assigned a "spell casting ability" -- that is stated in the bg3 wiki, in the "spell casting ability" entry in the Spells page. Fighters and Rogues use Intelligence, Barbarians use Charisma, Monks use Wisdom.
It's something to keep in mind when having your characters use scrolls. If they have a low Spell Casting Ability score you could be wasting the scroll.
monks using wisdom makes so much sense lol
but I guess that's a good thing to remember, not to dump int on fighters or cha on barbs.
I gotta say that scorching ray is S tier. A fire dragon sorcerer can boost its damage and it can crit against paralysis. Upcasting this spell into a creatures face is devistating... Getting a second cast with quicken Spell is just amazing. It's the only spell I'm repeatedly upcasting at every opportunity. I can't say the same for any other level 2 damage spell.
I think the best use of enthrall is as a distraction tactic while you sneak/pickpocket/pick locks. It's not so much for combat.
The optimal use of Warding bond is, with a hireling, multiclassing cleric, sorcerer and abjuration wizard. Abjuration wizards reduce damage received up to the number of turns remaining (depending on the character level it can go up to 10); this number won't go down if the hireling is at camp so they will always receive close to no damage. Sorcerer allows for twin casting to 2 characters. You can just complete the set with other buffing until long rest abilities and that hireling will be making half of your party almost invulnerable to non-magic damage while receiving no damage at all.
C is being pretty harsh to gust of wind. You could knock multiple enemies from the high ground into a coordinated spike growth with it, won't break concentration. Instant death into pits if you don't care about loot. A strong shove alternative for spellcasters. The solution for not shoving your allies with it is often just having them move first because you happen to be in the same initiative or just positioning and planning better. Granted I haven't used it much later myself because create water is that good, but it is in the blind spot of second level spells that don't really interact with the wet condition.
It’s also good for clearing clouds like fog or poison gas.
@@joeracer302 I didn't bring that up because of how buggy it seems to be about it, but that is also a use.
My head is big as Megamind with the knowledge Im getting from this videos, take your time for the lv3 tier list, tha quality is amazing
Much appreciated!
I used Blindness to great effect on my sorcerer in act3 by casting it and flying to rooftops. you could also kite ranged enemies on ground with the spell which you cant do with darkness since its stationary.
Blur is great to pre-cast from a scroll on a fighter on yourself, atleast in early game.
You can scout a huge area with Invisibility in turn based, use dash every turn, if on a rogue 2-3 dashes. Its also a "oh shit" button to get out from combat, not triggering attack of opportunity, and for sure surviving until your next turn to attack with advantage
'atleast'?
Great video! To answer your question, I believe there is a single constitution check at the Creche Zaith'isk (the big flesh machine that tries to remove your tadpole). I can't recall every seeing another one, though I'm sure there's another somewhere.
Thanks for the info!
Pretty sure there’s a con save when drinking with the biggie ginormous thorm, but i usually sleight of hand anyways.
With the amount of verticality in this game, gust of wind should at least be A-tier imo. High enough ledges would deal upwards of 30 damage plus gaining a lot of distance between you and an enemy. Not to mention how many fights are close to chasms.
Fantastic video. Informative and erudite per usual. I completely agree with your rankings. I find the majority level 2 spells rather underwhelming, rarely worth the resource cost for a majority of the game, easily eclipsed by upcasted level 1 spells, and pale in comparison to the arcane awesomeness that are level 3 spells (the exceptions are misty step, aid, hold person, +/- spiritual weapon).
I have to say that the level 3 spells are some of my favourites compared to what we get at almost any other spell level. We do have a few nice and reliable spells in level 2 though as you pointed out.
i shut down balthazar, cazador, and act 3 ethel by putting them in the centre of the silence sphere and placing my sentinel paladin next to them. amazing spell for boss battles versus mages. sentinel maybe not the best feat but it’s a really fun cheese strat
I had my fighter use the sussur greatsword for those fights lol. The silence on hit effect is really broken against caster bosses.
So as I mainly play summoning spells party (still on 1st playthrough)....Flaming sphere early level had so much utility as flammables were everywhere! Also it's a source of light and it still provides an alternative. It can cover more distance than a Spiritual Weapon and it can jump and Ram (even more distance!). Easy A level 3-6 but falls to B for later levels for me and my army of Summons style. Great video as usual and i will refer to it in my own playthroughs.
Thanks for the input. It can be hard to give a single rating since some spells do really shine earlier but fall off later.
Hi CVG. I need a tier list of all your videos! Good work
I feel like arcane lock is just broken, and not in a fun way, in that it just doesn't do what it should do. You pointed out the goblin children, but I think I ran into a more egregious example; I tried using Arcane Lock on the guard tower in the Moonrise prison to try and keep the guards inside from seeing what I was doing and to keep the ones outside from sounding the alarm when I broke out the gnomes, but they just teleported through the door and bypassed it completely. They didn't even break it down, they just popped right through it while the spell was still active as if they had opened the door.
It seems like if an NPC has a scripted interaction like this the arcane lock just straight-up doesn't work, and if they need to get through the door they'll do it anyway. It's really annoying because those are *the exact situations* you'd want to use arcane lock to get around in the first place, and it's one of the few places where the cracks in the illusion of freedom really show through and you can see the devs hands pulling the strings. It's similar to how NPCs treat being knocked out as if they're dead when the only reason you'd ever want to KO them in the first place is to *avoid* that.
I used Arcane Lock before the Sarevok fight to lock the entrance door and the three dudes outside weren't able to join the fight lol
I haven't tested it myself but apparently arcane lock can be used to prevent the hag from fleeing into her lair in act 1, allowing you to fight her in much more favorable circumstances and skipping most of the hard parts of her lair.
YOOOO! Thats a great tip.
Have you tested it yet? I might do it myself soon, although I have my doubts since the lair is hidden by an illusion and not an actual door.
Darkness and Enhance Ability pair really well for robbing merchants blind, even in a crowded area. It can be useful regardless of alignment due the number of immoral/evil vendors that are in the game. You can also use the hireling with the Lucky racial trait and spec her as a rogue so that you will never crit-fail a pickpocketing roll.
I think Invisibility should be higher than C tier. 10 turns is limited for sure, but for any sneak-based quest (or just for pilfering pockets and the like) it's hard to go without. And even just for getting Surprise going it's invaluable and far more reliable than trying to sneak into position.
I believe enthrall is meant to be used on a non hostile creature to distract them with one character so that another can do something behind them without being caught
The problem is that we can also use minor illusion and have the same outcome pretty much, although minor illusion gets the attention of everyone nearby.
Warding bond is quite strong if you are prepared to leave your cleric in camp. Just add them as a party member, apply the warding bond, then have them stay in camp. BAM, free resistance to all without the downside of shared damage!
Just a heads up if your planning on having people bench protect you with Warding Bond at camp:
Don't do this if you ever load into an area that **does not** have your camp (Iron Throne, Upper City), the game WILL CRASH when they take damage.
I don't think Larian has fixed this yet, but still, this strat isn't viable for the final boss fight sadly.
Can confirm, Warding Bond, heavy armor, life cleric, with the Regen ring and blade ward gloves is incredible
52:08 I think you can make Moonbeam S tier if you use it with 1 lvl into Cleric. Moonbeam, for some reason, doesn't break Sanctuary. So at your turn, you can cast Moonbeam then use Bonus action to cast Sanctuary and be invulnerable (mostly) for the entire fight. You can do this as soon as lvl 4, 3 Druid lvls and 1 Cleric lvl.
I slained viconia with magic lock. I made my way to the armery and locked her away from her minions. When done on steady doors is quite a useful spell
Shatter needs to be so much higher, it’s insane from level 3 to 7 until casting fireball or other bigger AOE spells is still very expensive.
For me shatter is good because I’m tempest domain and occasionally just need to thin the herd and lower enemy action economy
Personally I do like Magic Weapon on my Paladin. I don't like spending the first turn of combat on Bless or another buff when I could go in swinging instead and chunk down an enemy with smites, so the fact that you can just walk around with Magic Weapon really ups its value to me.
I don't think it's the best spell in the world or anything but it has value.
Aid gains way more value if you have multiple summons. I probably wouldn't use it in a party with zero summons though.
Also if you want to use someone in camp to buff and then leave them behind just leave camp so you group up, cast and return to camp.
Something I would like to mention about Arcane Lock, I used it on the goblin camp with true soul Gut, she led my friend to the back of the castle and effectively isolated herself. I used Arcane lock and the goblins were to busy trying to shoot us from the hole nearby to actually break down the door. It definitely has its uses, and to note, I've seen people use Glyph of Warding to hurt enemies on the other side of the door so there's that.
I did not use aid much in my first playthrough but then i realised how powerful it is. Upcast it level 6, with freecast ilithid power. 4 party members + 2 summons you get free extra 150 hit points in total.
Flaming Sphere is my go to concentration spell for my Circle of the Moon druid. Cast it Turn 1 and then wildshape with a bonus action. It does damage. It moves with it's own action like a summon instead of caster action (like Moonbeam). Also it takes up physical space. That can be very helpful in some fights.
Your comment about sight cones for Pass Without Trace is why Invisibility should be ranked higher. Very strong out of combat. Even in combat, it can be the only path to a sneak attack in some situations.
There are quite a few fights where you fight several low hp mobs. Spiked Growth can be huge in those fights. A million 1hp rats you say? Cast Spiked Growth and wait for your XP to arrive.
A note about 5th editions pass without trace. It doesn't work like an aura extending from the caster either on top of the vision cones. You can't split the party apart to keep the bonus.
I would rate detect thoughts at a solid D-tier, but also agree with everything you said. The reason why is simple - potions of mind reading are everywhere, they are super cheap, and they do the exact same thing. Just keep a few of them on hand and you will always have the benefit of this spell no matter what class you are.
gust of wind is a counter spell for most stationary clouds. you can push/delete the AOE of the different spells like couldkill, fog, stinking cloud and I need to test it against hunger of hadar
Ahhhh, yes, I forgot about that use, thanks for pointing it out.
Awesome list!! I learned a lot of information about quite a few spells.
One thought on how to make it even better: I think it's worth considering the rarity of the saving throw of a spell.
For instance, if you are building a control wizard, you want to have control spells covering a few different types of saves so you can attack your enemies weaknesses. For instance, hold person is an amazing effect with a wisdom saving throw. Blindness has a less amazing effect, but a constitution saving throw. On a control wizard you may want to have both prepared, so that you can use hold when an opponent has low wisdom and blindness when they have low constitution.
Furthermore, there are many great control spells with wisdom saving throws (like confusion) but very few with constitution saving throws. Depending on your build, this could make blindness a better choice to prepare than hold person. E.G. you could have a control build where you prepare blindness (con save), glyph of warding (dex save), and confusion (wis save). This would give you lots of options to choose from, depending on the types of enemies you encounter.
Arcane Lock helped me with the Sarevok fight by removing the 3 undead knights that had like 200 HP each.
Ah yes, thanks for the tip!
Cloud of daggers + upcasted command: halt!
Cloud of daggers + void bulbs :)
Or approach/flee depending on where the enemies are!
Aif is amazing especially if you are necromancy wizard since your maximum HP can’t be reduced so increasing it has some interesting advantages
Also Nock is S tier for me especially since I can skip a lot of nasty encounters like it works partly on locks you can’t even pick so yah awesome (only amazing out of combat ) saved me a lot of time also allowed me to scape some encounters
Aid is amazing for sure, especially with summons!
When I first played I didn't care much for knock, but it's convenience has won me over in some situations now, especially once level 2 spell slots become cheap!
@@CasualVeteranGamer yah act 2-3 it is very good you can skip some nasty things
I feel like spells like web, spikegrowth, entangle, grease are all pretty crap because one tiny candle on the ground instantly burns your spell. like any torches or anything just makes it so you just chucked a alchemist's fire.
I'm loving these spell videos because you actually show how they work in game. I really hope you're doing all the spell lvls!
One question on Darkness, how does it compare to the lvl1 Fog Cloud? The differences aren't clear to me aside from Warlock potentially being able to see through it.
I've found fog very lackluster for protection, I'm pretty sure to really not be seen by ranged attackers outside you would need to stealth inside fog. Darkness is just an area of darkness that prevents almost all ranged attacks and targeted spells. It blocks vision as well so basically it is a much stronger variant of fog that blocks ranged attacks allowing you to kill melees while the ranged enemies are either doing nothing or dashing into melee range themselves
I'm loving these analysis videos
Thanks!
Since this comment section has become an Arcane Lock appreciation thread, I thought I'd post another use for it. If you want to kill Balthazar when you first meet him in his library/study, you can lock out the enemies outside his door. With a bit of planning you could probably even get the guy alone in there, but I didn't have the foresight to do so at the time. It definitely beats fighting him later on by a long shot.
Another one: The room in the House of Hope with the soul pillars. Lock the door with the enemies outside and you have 10 turns to break them.
Your tier lists are so much better than the others
For arcane lock, I don't know of a particular fight but I'd say atleast of there is a metal door which is stronger then wood, then it'll be more useful for that. Still niche but may have its moments. Something to plan out rather then on the go though.
Turn Gale into a cleric and make him cast warding bond on everyone, he's considered an NPC when not in your direct party so he fully heals all damage after 5 seconds. Congrats now everyone has +1 to AC and resistance to all damage permanently.
There is a ring pair that lets any class cast warding bond in act 2, you can have a maxed con, tough feat barbarian do it as a hireling unequip the ring on the benefactor after cast. They won't die while at camp with such a massive hit point pool. You could do the same with clerics as they're also pretty healthy hit point wise for a casting class since no DCs are involved. So you can get all 4 party members you actively use with this spell every long rest doubling the HP pool along with an upcasted aid from a hireling cleric to up your hp along with everyone else. Very much an S tier spell used this way and the strongest spell in the game. Revivify scrolls are plentiful as well.
Eh, I'd say if a spell requires cheesing camp mechanics to be worthwhile, it isn't S tier.
Hopefully they'll fix that silliness at some point, and the spells will poof when you leave camp.
@@Axterix13 Honestly I was surprised when the range limit wasn't left to 60 feet and it lasted for more than an hour.
I seem to recall seeing a video awhile back on Warding Bond, that showed both Gale & Karlach seem to spontaneously regenerate a small amount of hit points in camp.
The suggesting was that having them cast Warding Bond, assuming your character didn't receive an overwhelmingly enormous amount of damage, would eventually recover.
I think Darkness belongs in S tier for sure, the few items that prevent blindness, and the warlock devil's sight both make it an absolute game changer for how you can handle encounters. Having permanent disadvantage on everyone trying to hit you in melee and permanent advantage on attacks makes ranged builds absolutely untouchable inside of it even with lower constitution for concentration saving throws. I have been using a ring that makes me immune to blind and just sitting inside of my own self cast darkness as a drow on a 3 thief/6 ranger build and you could easily give that to casters as well to make them nearly untouchable. Your haste twincast sorcerer can hang back and not lose concentration because nobody can get to them without moving into melee with disadvantage.
1. Warding Bond S spell if u cast it by any character without conc or if u your priest have a 15-20 con saving throws
2. Pass Without Trace for Greater Invisibility 10/10. 10-12-15 turns u attack in stealth - that's great, insane mechanic
3. Detect Throghs S? We have a potion without conc and spellslot, cmon. D, like a See Invisibility
4. Blindness nice, but don't needed. loal
5. Darkness D, but we have Arrow of Darkness without spellslot and conc
I don't want to assume that everyone always has access to consumables, plus I would wager a high portion of players don't use consumables because of the classic "I might need it later" mindset many players have.
Also detect thoughts is a ritual, no spell slot is needed to cast it outside of combat.
Weird thing. You can use Arcane Lock on the stairs in the fireplace when you first start fighting Ethel and she can't go deeper into her lair. It locks you out of getting her hair, but for people that might just wanna bulldoze over her and move on, that's a neat way to do it.
Also, something worth considering with detect thoughts is that there's a potion for it. No concentration, is available really early on and pretty regularly sold by merchants, and the ingredients for it are pretty easy to come across. Having it as a spell seems like a waste to me personally. Great effect, but there's just a much better way of applying it with the potion that the spell becomes essentially worthless imo.
I used arcane lock in the fight to protect isobel. it made it so that most of the flying ghouls couldn't get in. the first time i did the fight marcus and like 5 ghouls flew in and oneshot her after paralyzing some of my team. when i used the lock spell they didn't even try to break the door down they just attacked the flaming fist guys.
i'd say that darkness is kinda op because it makes enemies stupid sometimes. like if your whole party is in darkness the enemies will just not attack you sometimes. they might have patched it though. i used it multiple times to just pop in and out of darkness to attack, then they would skip thier turn. Last time i used it though they still attacked me. maybe you have to cast it on just your party for the enemies to get stupid.
you got for gust of wind, for things like cloudkill or other type of gas spells it actually blows it away
Regarding arcane lock: It can be used to prevent an npc from getting away from you. An example is the Balthazar fight in Shar Temple. It makes him easier to hit because he can't misty step as far.
Great video as always!
I'm actually a big fan of knock. It's nice to swap into for those situation where you're up against a lock DC of like 25 without a rogue in the party. One level 2 spell slot feels better to spend than several lockpicks.
I must add that it's nice to just know it will work, it somehow feels cleaner
Lesser restoration also clears up the bloodless debuff, for those that are romancing astarion
Pass without Trace can do a cute combo with Greater Invisbility.
For example, a Swords Bard can learn pass without trace at level 10 through magical secrets or by wearing the Ring of Shadows. They can take expertise in stealth, the sharpshooter feat, and wear the graceful cloth armor for advantage on stealth checks. They can also get 22 dex from auntie ethel and the mirror of loss. Have the wizard cast greater invisibility and the cleric cast guidance on the swords bard before they trigger combat. They will have +24+1d4+advantage to their stealth checks. Swords bard goes into the combat solo, and can make a guaranteed 13 attacks without losing invisibility. So all their attacks have advantage and enemies cant even find them.
Also, magic weapon is an interesting spell. Pretty useful late game if you’re playing a buffing character and you’re looking for a concentration spell, since a lot of the other good buff spells can be cast concentration free in the late game. Haste can be cast through the armour of the sporeskeeper, bless can be acquired through the offering chest at the bitch queen’s temple, and elemental weapon can be cast through the drakethroat glaive - all without concentration. Also, magic weapon can be twinned for maximum efficiency.
Anyway, great video! Learned some new things. 👀
I love shatter for one specific reason: god damned scrying eyes at higher difficulties.
I hold on to the spell until after I clear moonrise as it’s a high success rate way to delete scrying eyes from existence (construct + vulnerability) and keep them from aggroing the entire dungeon
I used arcane lock well once, in the crèche in the fight with the teachers and students there’s a big door that’s they can’t break. I put a fire wall in there and waited for them to burn while they tried to break the door.
That sounds pretty intense!
Scorching Ray was my sorcerer's one-turn kill bosses spell. Scales amazingly with items, perks, etc. I wound up using it more than fireball.
Darkness is s tier for the ranged attack mitigation alone
Calm Emotion works actually on every creature, even on special abilitys from certan enemies. For exemple Gnolls have a exclusive Wrath ability, that allows them to shoot 3 times after 2 turns or Wrath of the Spider Queen that gives the Boss resistence to physical damage. Both of these get canceled with calm emotion. If you know the fights ths spell is usefull, Calm Emotion trivalises a lot of them. Early Game an S-Tier Spell for me.
A strong secondary effect of darkvision is, ranged attacker with dark vision can attack enemies inside of fogclouds with advantage, if the enemy is within the range of the darkvision (the attacker must be outside of the cloud of cause).
Getting Advantege for a turn on possibly multiple targets without attackroll or savingthrow at the cost of a 1st LV. spellslot is incedible. (+ one Time 2nd LV for Dark Vision if you haven't it already).
Scorching Ray/Sharpshooter goes brrr...
Arcane lock does work on transition doors just not that singular scripted event because the goblin children exit point is well before the door. Arcane lock works wonderful when dealing with non destroyable doors. You can for instance arcane lock the hags door preventing her from running from the first fight. You can arcane lock the giant double doors in the moonrise tower fight splitting half the encounter to run around to get to the fight if ever (generally they just run up and try the door 100 times on there turn. Arcane lock does in fact work quite well its also very powerful when sneaking as you can lock patrols in rooms so they can't happen upon your sneaking team. You can use it every encounter however when you can use it it makes a huge difference such as casting it on one or two of the doors to the tavern fight in act 2. The gargoyles don't get to enter thus don't get to wtf eat the moonmaiden in 1 turn destroying the location. Its very powerful in very certain situations making it a B choice. If it was situational useful it would be a C but because it can greatly change or effect encounters on a massive scale it moves up to B.
Great stuff, Level 3 next let’s go!
The armor's that give enhance ability checks are very good, especially the one that gives cat's grace, but the spell itself I don't think is S tier. For a good few reasons.
"Totem" barbarian can already carry double, and guidance already beats it out. You could have another caster cast it along with guidance from another, but you aren't going to exactly keep concentration on either of them. It's basically a wasted 2nd level spell slot, it'd put it at B since it is still useful. As lowly as 2nd level slots get later, they can be used to upcast 1st level spells like bless and be used for misty step instead with some subclasses.
It's a b until you use it on a halfling to steal everything with no chance of failure. Then it's an s.
I'd agree the spell isn't S tier, but it is handy to have available for various conversations. Like, say, when playing with the machine in the creche.
For arcane lock you want to follow up with silence to assassinate npcs in rooms like the flaming fist
Makes sense, perhaps with casting silence before combat we could even save a spell slot.
Still works. I just make sure I tap the trigger occasionally while I'm sitting watching baldurs gate videos.
On my first playthrough as a wizard, at higher lv I really liked Knock. It made things easier and, unlike the 3rd lv spells, I didn't find any other 2nd lv spell of wizard worthwhile.
35:16 i first understood "old person is next", and i thought "heh, funny name for 'ray of enfeebelment' "
So far the only place I've found Arcane Lock to be useful is locking the door while I beat Ragzlin like a drum.
arcane lock is abjuration so you can use it to fuel your abjuration tank wizard .
Even if you are not a Warlock, you can blanket your position with Darkness, step into it for safety. On your turns, step out, attack, step back in. Like a coward, but it works. The AI is generally relucant to run in to attack you, and even if they do, they're probably binded too, so it works out as a neutral scenario, meanwhile their ranged pals are stood there unable to do anything to you.
As for Darkvision, even if you have a bot who sits in camp casting it, I would not consider it S-tier, because the number of times it matters is actually quite limited. Most areas are at very least, dimly lit, and half the races have darkvision naturally.
Other doors you can use Knock on but not lockpicks: The back door to the tunnels under the grove. The doors in the sundries basement.
Lesser Restoration removes Hold Person.
I use warding bond from true love rings, Tav is 8 OH monk 4 Bearheart Barb, so he casts it on Wyll who is 5 Bladelock 7 Ancient Pala with HAMaster.
Then SH who is 1 Def Fighter 1 Light Cleric 10 Lore Bard casts it on Lae'Zel who is a 6 EK 6 Wiz behemoth also running HAMaster. SH gets perma blade ward from ring/glove combo.
Everyone is tanky af, specially if close together, quite happy with this composition. Wyll hastes himself via bow, Tav gets hasted by SH, and made LZ learn haste from a scroll so she can do the thing. Everyone has quite high CON to keep concentration, SH has lucky as feat, feels great :D
Cloud of daggers falls of a lot after you unlock lvl 3 spells. There is almost always a better spell you would rather use as a concentration. Haste, Hunger of Hadar, Hypnotic Pattern, Slow and many higher lvl spells are all better than cloud of daggers. All other spells from S tier in your list have a great useage through the whole game. Not sure if the few hours from lvl 3 to 5 are worth S tier.
flame build isn concentration btw and is auto equippped to the offhand if only weilding one weapon. For Jaheria i have her spellcasting weapn and mulitclass into fighter for Extra Attack and TWF. Fire adept feat for that restiance and then the hat that gives a extra bonus action if you do damge with a leveled fire spell, flame blade counts. This means 3 attacks after the first cast and because it can be upcasted its better than a lot of weapons. At least a A.
I think blindness deserves a tier as the fact that it requires 1 saving throw and no concentration is really powerful since this spell doesn't just give u advantage but it also gives them disadvantage so I believe its being underestimated here.
note that weapon attacks are different from attacks with weapons. It just means any attack that isn't a spell attack.
Concentration checks are constitution based and benefit from enhance ability. Pretty op I use a druid to cast longstrider, darkvision, aid, and enchance abilty and leave them at camp😂
Idk blindness has been one of my best opener spells in big fights, max rank up cast blind 3-4things. Made the Rath fight so much ezr.
I've started to use it a bit more after making the video myself.