Baldur's Gate 3 Cantrip Tier List
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- #baldursgate3 #bg3 #tierlist
Link to tierlist: tiermaker.com/create/baldurs-...
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My first tierlist for Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3) after the release of the game! It is for cantrips, all the cantrips, of which there are 24. As with all tierlists that I make for BG3, this are my own subjective views, with which you might/will disagree with. My main purpose is to inform and make you think about the cantrips, and what sorts of things will help you choose your cantrips.
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Acid Splash
03:07 Blade Ward
05:00 Bone Chill
07:22 Dancing Lights
08:57 Eldritch Blast
10:23 Fire Bolt
11:21 Friends
12:10 Guidance
12:59 Light
14:12 Mage Hand
15:35 Minor Illusion
17:19 Poison Spray
18:54 Produce Flame
20:19 Ray of Frost
21:30 Resistance
22:23 Sacred Flame
23:28 Shillelagh
25:38 Shocking Grasp
26:59 Thaumaturgy
27:45 Thorn Whip
28:45 True Strike
30:56 Vicious Mockery
Let me know what you think of the cantrips in Baldur's Gate 3 and how many you agree or disagree with.
If you enjoy Skyrim I have also streamed that in the past :
• CVG Let's Play: Skyrim...
I have also done a walkthrough/gameplay of the original dungeon keeper also:
• CVG Let's Play: Dungeo... - Ігри
OMG stop tier listing everything jesus
Firstly, I'm not Jesus.
Secondly, you're going to be sorely disappointed in the future.
@@CasualVeteranGamer haahhaha not the pin
I like them…
@@planetcx5316 The pin of shame.😁
This, my friends, is why God invented the comma.
One thing to note about guidance, if you have someone in your party with that cantrip, i promise you it will be the spell you use the most throughout the entire game bar none purely due to the skill checks
also u can get it from the necklace in act 1
@@coffeeknight2353 If you have no one in your party that gets Guidance naturally it's literally the best necklace in the game lol
Not really i hate talking to people most of the time i just end up murdering them on sight
@@Bigbootyhootyyou are in the vast minority of playstyles then..
@@alexanderrose1556Really? From what I've seen on the internet I thought murder hobo was the most popular playstyle to players and the bane of all DMs and role players.
You’re telling me there is more cantrips then Eldricht Blast?
Hah, apparently so!
are*
There is only eldricht blast and guidance
So anyways i started blasting
@@willem2099XD Showed him!
Vicious mockery will always be S-tier in my heart, for the simple reason that killing a big boss by calling him a rancid jelly is just *chefs kiss*
Vicious mockery is my favorite thing about my bard in my group playthrough. It always gives everyone in the party a chuckle.
S-tier for flair, utterly useless for anything else. I just wish they'd be easier to hear
@@Songfugel its very good for the early game, late game it really falls off as enemies attack 1-3 times and vicious mockery only affects one enemy, i wish i got to use it more
@@hgrenm The damage is too for how unreliable it is for an action. At lvl 1-2 when it might be useful, enemies are so weak a low chance disadvantage does nothing compared to 2d6+3-5 dam ~90% hit change weapon attack you could use instead that one shots enemies it hits.
Any enemy that could benefit from a disadvantage, will be almost immune to it due to high saves and multiple attacks. Not to mention many enemies at lvl 2 are completely immune to psychic damage
After lvl 3, losing and action for a wisdow save effect, you want either an AoE soft CC or a single target hard CC instead. Unlike in PnP, spellslots are very easy to come by either by leveling up/respeccing or the unlimited long rests, and spells have so much better and reliable CC. Even just throwing water is 10x better use of an action than mockery
As for damage cantrips, Ray of Frost does up to 2x 2d8 damage at lvl 2 (wet+twinned) and at lvl 10 up to 12d8+40 damage with wet+twin+ability bonus item+elemental bonus item, split to two targets
In my last D&D campaign I played in, I played a half elf bard. Whenever I cast the spell, I'd wait to come up with an insult until I knew if the spell succeeded or failed. If it succeeded, I'd come up with the sickest burn I could think of. If it failed, I'd come up with the most pathetic insult I could think of. It was lots of fun.
Don't forget that Bone Chill doesn't have a projectile so you can use it when your other spells can't find a path, and unlike its counterpart Sacred Flame it doesn't have the horrific save for 0 damage downside
Just don't let the extra abilities fool you into thinking its the go to cantrip to use against undead. Some types are resistant or entirely immune to Necrotic damage.
I need to constantly remind myself to examine enemies when I can. I have pumped an absurd amount of overall action points into attacks that give me the dreaded 0, instead of taking 5 seconds to check. 🤣
@@ActivelyVacantThis wasn't intended, they have recently fixed most of the accidentally immune to necrotic to the intended poison.
Sadly, the damage is still trash since it can't be easily boosted skyhigh like lightning grasp and ice ray, and even for its anti-healing properties the arrows of illmater that are available from act1 does the job better 😅
I mean it does 0 damage if it misses, which is the same as Sacred Flame. All cantrips will either do the damage they do or they will do 0 damage. Some are based on an attack roll and some are based on a saving throw, but they're all all or nothing
@@Setzer I think they didn't realize the half damage on fail is from "Potent Cantrip" that you can get at lvl 6 in some pure caster classes, and that they didn't start with that.
One redeeming factor for dancing lights, surprisingly, is that you can use it to block vent traps.
It can also set off traps
It can also proc buffs from things like the Strange Conduit Ring & Thorn Blade, so it's great if you're out of spell slots.
I've used it to distract enemies enough to sneak to higher ground before too
I've only used it to cancel it immediately with the tadpole Concentration Blast thing
WAT-! WHAT THE FU~
I find True Strike ridiculously expensive it needs to be a bonus action
The only class that I can see use it decently is Eldritch Knight but there are still better options.
I think you can get it as a bonus action through one of the items in the game
True shit. Advantage just mean you get the best of two rolls. But why spend a turn setting that up if you could just use both turns for attacks? Sure 2 50% attacks have lower odds of hitting than 1 75% attack. But I’d rather take the risk and potentially have 2 instances of damage delt instead of just 1. It should’ve been implemented similarly to hunters mark or hex. Both of which are amazing, but would be quite ass if they costed an action instead of a bonus action.
True strike is basically THE worst spell in 5e
@@shiranuishogunsaga8451there’s still no reason to use it on eldritch knight. You’re spending an action (two potential attacks), to get advantage on an attack using your bonus action. You’re rolling the same number of attack dice for half the potential damage.
Mage hand's real value is outside of combat. Turning levers to turn off traps. Throwing an item on a trapped stand away. That kind of a thing. It's great for that.
can it fit through the bars at the end of the trapped bridge in Grymforge?
Minor illusion can help you set up very good combat initiation situations, especially with cloud of daggers. Cast the illusion to bundle people up, then cast cloud, they take damage, are surprised for first turn of combat so you get a free turn and they stay inside the cloud, they’ll take damage again on their turn ending surprise, and then when they can finally act on the following turn they’ve take cloud damage 3x times, not to mention they’ve been bundled together for other Aoe effects in the meantime. For this, I’m think A tier honestly
I can dig it! I also find it fun to use. Everyone goes to check out the glowing kitty.
yeah i just used minos illusion into fireballs, great combo when you don't have access to black hole as a bonus action
I had a good time in the goblin camp by picklocking the spider pit, mage handing it open, and then minor illusioning the spiders into conflict with Dror Ragzlin's party. It wasn't that useful, as Ragzlin is level five and can basically double attack either of the spiders to death in one round, but the spiders can take out one or two level one or two enemies before going down, and it was fun to get to use a bunch of cantrips I don't normally bother with and watch the enemies kill each other for me.
Dang, 3x cloud of daggers ticks... that's just evil 😈😈😈😈
Ray of Frost is S tier for me. It doesn't just reduce speed and create icy surfaces, it also puts out fires and its damage is doubled against wet targets. I always have it on any character who can take it because it is so versatile. If it freezes a surface it can cause an enemy to fall prone which is great. But the movement speed isn't just 10 feet in that case its more like 25 feet movement speed reduction.
There are also a LOT of pieces of gear in the game that increase the effectiveness of cold damage. Making an ice mage is a lot of fun and very powerful. I agree that Ray of frost is S tier. It's probably my favorite cantrip in the game after vicious mockery
early game its so trash tho it regularly hits for 2-5
@@kaijiuiloop5872that's every cantrip, firebolt does 1 more damage on average, once you have the ice staff it's equal or better since it's more consistent
Wait it does extra to water???
@@thesnax9177targets that are wet receive extra damage from cold and lightning damage
TIP for Eldritch Blast: One of my favorite builds for end game is 2 Warlock/10 Wizard (Evocation). Take the appropriate Warlock Invocation that gives you Cha to Damage, level 10 Evocation Wizard will also add Intelligence to Evocation spells. So you'll have 3 rays of 1d10 + Intelligence + Charisma, and with items you can probably get one of your stats added again.
The "appropriate Warlock Evocation" they are speaking of is called Agonizing Blast for anyone who is wondering. 🫡
That means you have to max both of them for best damage?
Yes, although that isn’t too hard. You can dump STR and split Dex and Con. Spoilers below:
Alternatively you could dump CON and wear the end game armor from the House of Hope and get your COM boosted through that, bypassing any stat investment. You might want to respec lay game if that’s your goal, because it might be hard to play the whole game with low CON. If you are against respecs (like I have been on my playthroughs) you can still make it work with a low CON through careful strategy.
2 Warlock / 10 Sorc is also a very common build in BG3 called Sorlock. Can use EB for cantrip spam while still having access to more than 3 spells a day... and can still upcast spells to lvl 6. Both use Charisma for their casting stat and you also get Con proficiency when taking Sorc level 1.
Usually how it goes in-game is you go Sorc for the first 5 levels to get 3rd level spells, then go 2 in Warlock for the EB buffing invocations, before going back to Sorc levels.
I did it too but you lose the acceleration or dual spell that is really op for a full caster and a lot of other resources. And finally you won't up too much the damage with the extra +4 on Int.
Finally I preffer , 2 Warlock + 2 Wizard Evocation ( 2 wizard spell slots + your Int bonus, and Sculpt Evocation spells to protect allies ) + 2 Cleric of Storm ( Chanel Divinity that maximize the Electric damage and another allie with Guideance + Resistance and Create Water/Sanctuary ) + 6 Draconic Sorcerer of Electricy or Fire ( add +Cha to your elemental damage and 6 Sorcerer Points and +3 AC ).
Feat : 2 weapons. Markoheshkir and Lighting staff + Elemental Amulete it will upgrade the EldritchBlast damage.
For Vicious Mockery - Band of the Mystic Scoundrel can be found early in act 3 and it lets you use this cantrip as a bonus action; extremely good for melee bards and warlocks
being able to cast hypnotic pattern, hold person/monster, dissonant whispers, tasha's laughter, and otto's dance as a BONUS ACTION has been such a boon
Risky ring and Vicious Mockery are for the Ascendant Vampire Astarion RogueBardWarlock !!
It's amazing for a vampire to use any Enchantment ( command, charm, sleep, hold,.etc) or Ilusion spell ( Invisibility, hiptnoitic or fear ) as a bonus action.
I recommend to use the Helmet of Grit too, so you'll have 3 bonus Actions.
I don't think you need to be a melee bard. Ranged attacks count as weapon attacks and should proc the band, and bards are pretty good at using bows/crossbows
Mage hand can fly to a lever and activate it by itself. It doesn't need to actually throw something at it. This is very useful to e.g. open a certain lava valve during a big fight near the end of Act 1 without having to have a character standing near / moving towards it whenever the lava needs to be replenished.
Yeah, that boss fight was a bitch.
This might be an unintended interaction, but there's actually a fantastic use for Dancing Lights that bumps it up multiple tiers in my opinion: you can use it to block vent traps! I always bring Komira's Locket to the Hag's lair and it makes navigating the gas so much easier.
Huh, I never even thought to try that before, thanks!
Thats hillarious! thank you, i will try that! xD
I looked for this comment as soon as I saw dancing lights in D tier
Minor Illusion can also block the vents in the hag lair. It doesn't block all vents in my experience
There’s a series of jumps you can do to avoid all the traps, you just want feather fall. So a scroll of feather fall or a few potions. Even with 8 strength.
There are few extra to the ray of frost: 1. It can extingish flames. 2. there is a whole set of items that benefits on frost damage and having cantrip to trigger its effects is amazing
I didn't recognize how huge 10 feet of movement was because it's not typically a significant amount in D&D, and you almost never encounter burning surfaces in D&D but they're *everywhere* in BG3, so my tabletop experience definitely colored my choices negatively in this game.
Ray of frost can clean fire surfaces and have double damage on wet enemies plus it has element of control, it should be on pair with fireball at least imho.
But fireball does 6d6 in a 30ft radius.
@@Proamjoe lmao. My bad I mean firebolt cantrip
Plus if you have the ring that immediately creates the ice surface, you can basically automatically prone anyone hit by your ray of frost. Add to that the extra cantrip damage item stacking... I've hit for over 120dmg with my rays of frost before. Not only that but I've twinned them with sorcerer.
Good decision by Larian to change the name of' Chill Touch' which is neither a touch spell or a cold-based spell (it is actually a ranged necrotic spell).
Beautifully detailed vid. I can always get something from CVGs videos, despite an absurd amount of time spent on the game. for example, the vid got me thinking why have I never used 'Minor Illusion' to distract the bear Volo is talking to in the grove to turn it around and remove its vision cone around Volo, so you get a little window of opportunity to get behind Volo and steal a nice ring from him. I'll also have to test its effect to steal the Idol of Silvanus. I have resolved to use Minor Illusion more, when I have the cantrip. I also want to start using this cantrip to cluster enemies in a group for an AOE spell - a good alternative for when you run out of void bulbs to use.
There probably aren't many players who are not sleeping on SOMETHING that could give them an edge, so this is a recommended video for players whether they have 1 hr in the game or 1,000 hrs.
I do love CVGs thoroughness in including a cantrips value both early and later in the game and even pointing out that using the Friends spell works a little differently in Tactician mode.
One cool thing about Shocking Grasp is that it triggers the Storm Sorcerer's Heart of the Storm, so you deal extra damage each time you cast it. Definitely a mandatory cantrip if you play thay class-subclass combo
I get mage hand as a bonus action due to an item.
The fact that you can drop endless potions without costing actions and use the mage hand as bonus heals/grandes for 10 turns is underrated.
Not to mention the fact that it can set up a fight area by moving barrels/grease bottles around before you commit. Tons of utility even if not ideal with its action point cost.
what item and where do you get it?
@@michaelleue7594 It's a boss reward from Act 2. They are called the "Hr'a'cknir Bracers" which you get after surviving a Gythyanki ambush on the West Side of the map, towards the road to Baldur's Gate. It gives both the spell Telekenesis as a spell and mage hand as a bonus spell.
The boss name is "Ch'r'ai Tska'an", she and a few others ambush you as you approach the edge of the map if you are being hunted by the Gythyanki for the relic (don't know if it works unless you follow Lae'Zel storyline but I did).
Location: Reithwin Town, Act 2. The way point "Road to Baldur's Gate" is just West of the bridged pathway where she attacks you from. If you find the Raithwin Town waypoint, you can travel directly West using the main road that runs straight through the center of town and you will find the ambush point/Baldur's waypoint right at the end.
I saw a guy who killed a act 3 boss with 1 level 1 character, he used mage hand to throw potions on him mid fight to reapply haste and invisibility.
Id never even thought of that!
One positive thing about Sacred Flame is that it doesn't require a direct line of sight, so you can actually put it to good use in messy situations and elevations.
I'd still rather dash if I'm in bad positioning than waste an action being in bad position for both this turn and next turn and *also* likely do no damage this turn anyway. Way too enemies have high CON to bother with Sacred Flame, imo. The only situation I would chance it is if the enemy was very low health and coming up soon in initiative in order to prevent them from getting another turn before a different party member had a chance to finish them.
@@QuesoCookies True, however, it's mostly on Shadowheart at this stage who is a Buff Tank, so you're only going to use it very rarely and Radiant is the 2nd least resisted damage type and con penalties are fairly easy to dish out, especially with hex and some items.
Im not saying it is the greatest, but it does have its uses and hits a lot more than some other cantrips.
@@OldManMokoNo it isn’t, even when optimised for stats Sacred Flame is ass.
@@MayHugger I have a 90% hit rate with it and for a cantrip, it does good, radiant damage, which it almost never resisted.
@@OldManMoko 1d8 is not good damage, it’s average, and considering how often enemies have decent dexterity and pretty high proficiency in it, it’s pretty likely it’ll fail at least half the time.
This is a great video, clear and concise, thank you for taking the time and effort to make it.👍
Dancing Lights can block a vent, for some reason, making it useful for some traps.
Bladeward is great for that specific Abjuration Wizard spec with Cleric 1/Sorcerer 1/ Wizard tanking. you pop it and run around, provoking attacks so they'll kill themselves on your Armor of Agathys
A very, VERY niche use for dancing lights is if your Tav has the passive trait from the Zaith'isk that allows you to use illithid powers as bonus actions, you get to use concentrated blast without a spell slot wasted.
Also, one thing not mentioned but Arcane Tricksters get a unique Mage Hand that's actually really good. You can still only cast it once per short rest but its invisible up until you take an action with it and doesn't go away in 10 turns so even in combat you can sneak it up to say an archer with a vantage point and shove them off their tower
Produce Flame has a feature that a lot of people do not talk about, perhaps even know about.
When a melee character has this cast on their hand, every time they crit they are capable of producing a double crit.
The weapon crit and the cantrip crit as well as setting the creature ablaze.
I've chunked huge damage off enemies, that don't just get one shot, from the double crit.
My melee users that can cast this don't leave camp without it cast.
mage hand is underrated for out of combat utility, it can pull levers fly and throw things. Early on there was a chest I couldn't jump to so I had mage hand fly over there and throw the chest my way.
The one in the druid grove? I did the same.😂
If only levers didn't get pulled by just shooting an arrow or another cantrip, but yeah throwing chests is good.
@Fridabina it can pull levers you can't see. Pretty sure in dnd you need line of sight, but in BG3 it's an independent flying creature. I couldn't figure out how to get into the creche building but there's a hallway almost entirely blocked by rubble, mage hand could fly in and open the door from the inside.
I can understand about dancing lights being placed at D since it does suck up your concentration slot for an effect that can be reproduced by two other cantrips as well as other more mundane equipment. However it does have some good synergy with Concentrated Blast. Allowing you to start pretty much each combat with that ability prepped for use. Its not like its the only spell that can do that but it is one of the easiest concentration cantrips to use since it offers 10 turns rather then the 2 a lot of other cantrip's offer and doesn't need to be aimed at a target like say friends.
I would say Mage hand is better then C since it allows your character to effectively get a healing bot for an entire combat. Dropping potions at your feet is free so aside from the initial action cost you have the potential for 10 rounds of healing you or your allies. in a pinch it can chuck things at enemies as well. Just drop some javelins or a few of the millions of daggers you find in the game to attack with it rather then use its horrible punch attack.
Ray of frost is so much an S tier spell. I won't rehash what others have said but will add that it works well with mage hand since water jugs are easy to get. Have your mage hand throw them at opponents to get them wet and freeze them with your ray of frost for double damage.
Ooh, I love this. I was wondering why water jugs were everywhere and was just not bothering with the throw mechanics almost at all, but this might make me change my mind.
Bladeward is very fun on an eldritch knight. The class becomes very tanky and at lv 7 you can doe a melee attack after casting a spell. So for an eldritch knight i think it might be a tier higher than for all the other classes. I do think you need to put in some effort to make it shine
As others have pointed out, Vicious Mockery is better in the game's later stages, because casting it becomes a bonus action. Actually, it is one of the best, since the damage difference between the cantrips, except for eldritch blast, doesn't make a difference in how many turns you need to kill an enemy.
Nevermind the fact that at later stages of the game you really don't need to use cantrips in any case (outside of Eldritch Blast Warlocks, naturally) due to having more spell slots.
Wait, then does it become bonus action? :O
@@oskarszymanski6529 Yes, it does.
@@RJWhitmore Yeah, most combat cantrips don't make much difference. Vicious Mockery, however, is an exception, for it imposes a disadvantage to the enemy's attack roll, as a 'bonus action'.
@@bopple4634 That makes sense, and probably more useful than bonus action handcrossbow.
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.
Firebolt can be enhanced like Eldritch blast, in bg3. There is a necklace of elemental augmentation that is basically agonizing blast for fire, cold, acid, and lightning cantrips.
The problem is 3d10+5 is less than 3d10+15. Because Agonizing blast is added to each ray, not just once. AND can be used to trigger on hit damage spells like Hex / Hunters Mark more times than Firebolt can. EB will always beat Firebolt. But for not Eldritch Blast builds, yes that necklace is quite good, and makes elemental cantrips substantially better than say.. Bone Chill.
@@KatanaKamisama I never claimed it was statistically equal or superior to agonizing blast.
Dancing lights is heavily nerfed from D&D. In the tebletopp game you can create up to four motes of light that move at will, or one more powerful one. You can change their colour and shape, and the fact that it moves basically makes it the self carrying torches for the whole party cantrip. It's still concentration so it's a contender with light, but the trade off makes me see them with roughly the same frequency as a DM, probably favoring dancing lights a little. In Bg3 I think just making the light source able to move and follow you like mage hand would be perfect, don't know why they chose not to make it like that.
The reason for uselessness of light spells in bg3 is that it does not happen at night and there is no day and night cycle. Also, for some reason, all dungeons, basements, and even Underdark are perfectly lit. I am not complaining, it makes the game more playable and shows the quality of design and graphics. But at the same time, it makes certain spells or cantrips not so useful that would otherwise be life-saving.
It's been paying off in the spooky forest in act 2.
They could at least let you recast it for free while concentrating on it in the vein of Moonbeam or Call Lightning. Except when you recast, it'd be a bonus action.
Dancing Lights is also just really flavorful and charming as a spell in D&D, whereas Light is just... light. It's also annoying that darkness and obscurity are hard elements to play correctly in D&D because it's hard to imagine not seeing things or remembering that you can't or that you need light sources in order to fight well, but that is not the case in a video game where everything is rendered and the benefits or detriments of vision are programmed in. Like, it's hard to remember you have dancing lights or light up and are therefore a beacon for everyone around to see clearly, so your attempt to sneak around should fail horrendously, but you can literally see the light in the game and know it's there and what consequences it has. It was a perfect opportunity for the lighting mechanics of D&D to actually see some good use, but they just didn't. The dungeons are lit, everyone has dark vision, and the gameplay only takes place during the daytime. Very disappointing.
Oh thats great! thats something i didnt know, that i was curious about, but im definetly are! thank you!
I was waiting months for exactly this video. Thank you!
Mage Hand is great to cast before tough battles, you can drop flashbombs or healing potions as a free action for it to toss. It can also burn enemy actions or AoO reactions to protect your team. Plus it can reach some chests that are tucked away up high that would be annoying to reach and shove them for you. It's at least B-tier for the sheer versatility, only held back by the short rest limitation.
There is one notable use for Dancing Lights: you can cast it on traps to trigger them or block vents apparently
I've watched many bg3 tier lists but your tier lists are the best. Great work!
If you can prepare, mage hand is incredible. Drop a few healing pots/fire bombs in a high spot and you basically have artillery on call. Also, it can fit through small gaps so it makes an excellent scout, or block a hallway.
If you want guidance but dont want to bring shart or re-class anyone you can find a necklace with the cantrip at a Harper Stache in act 1, just near the entrance of the Grove. Just look it up on youtube but its in a guard tower, on a skeleton by a campfire.
I have somehow missed this necklace 3 times now.
mage hand is actually quite useful outside of combat, it can get through small holes so you can see whats on the other side and in some instance it can go through small hole to pull lever or push button to unlock door, and in grymforge where you have the lever puzzle where you normally have to leave people behind to operate levers, instead of leaving people behind, just use a mage hand to pull the levers.
It can also throw potions, and when potions are thrown they become AoE..... mage hand is basically free artillery
@@Johnny-rj9onIt deserves at least an A tier for sure. Although Larian really butchered Arcane Trickster's mage hand. Now there is almost no reason to play the subclass.
@@evrimenustun9548 i tried that spec not long ago, it says the hand is invisible, but I found it working just as the normal one, so after a couple of hrs I just changed class
@@DoffyDogg It's supposed to be able to pickpocket, pick locks and carry items due to having higher str than regular mage hand. Hopefully Larian will implement all of these later on so that Arcane Tricksters can return to their glorious state in 5e.
You don't actually have to leave anyone behind in the grymforge lever puzzles. You can just shoot the levers to use them. I just used Asterion to shoot it w arrows or Wyll to Eldritch blast them.
Took long enough, Thank you!
One thing to note with dancing lights is that, outside of combat, it can remotely activate traps which require stepping on-top of to activate, and also block vents if placed on-top. Outside of that, it still really sucks though.
I find Blade Ward pretty useful - but only when it gets auto-applied through healing. I think there are two sets of gauntlets in the game that will do this. Using it as an action in combat ... yeah... not so much. I usually don't use most of them at all unless my characters are out of spell-slots or if it would be stupid to waste a spell-slot that round because a cantrip will do - like for killing an enemy who is down to three or four HP or to set off a smokepowder trap I've prepared or something like that.
Vicious mockery works with the ring that lets you cast enchantment spells as a bonus action after making a weapon attack. It then becomes a nice little bit of bonus damage and debuff without taking your action.
thanks for actually writing the name of the spell on the icons! I do very much hate it when people do tier lists and its just a load of icons and you're looking at it wondering what half it is and having to look up a list of icons and names on a wiki or something to figure the damn thing out!
amazing video i love it!! new to this game first time ever playing a game like this and this video helped me a lot. W man stay blessed!
Friends became available shortly after I started playing EA, and was initially almost a must have for the Face of the party. Larian nerfed it, which I subsequently learned brought it into alignment with 5e, and I haven't used it since. I should probably get over my disappointment. As usual, well produced, and useful.
In tactician difficulty we still need to be careful with it i.e. run away promptly after using it, but otherwise it's back to its old ways!
Would you mind explaining how it functions currently?
@@benkelly7182 When you use it, the target may get upset, hense "run away". Just don't use it on anyone when you want to stick around, or care what their attitude is toward you.
It's still much better than in 5e since you don't get the luxury to just "run away" in regular Dnd most of the times. They also won't forget about the spell since they know you cast it.
If you’re playing as a circle of spores Druid Shillelagh is insanely OP cause you can use your symbiotic entity and add more damage to it. It’s crazy
OP is not the right word, but it is solid.
thorn whip can also be used to pull an enemy away from an allie so they can move without getting an attack made on them. Pulling archers out of the rafters or pulling a goblin into a pit is pure fun.
Thanks for the video, I'd agree with most of your list with the exception of Dancing light. IMO that isn't a combat spell, it's a spell I use a LOT just out in the world to help see in the dark. If your character doesn't have dark vision this spell helps a lot. I've never even thought of using it in combat.
Guidance is not available to sorcs, warlocks and wizards. It is available to clerics and druids though
Surprised there isn't more people pointing this out. I was like, huh? When that part of the video came on.
Thanks, I didn't realise that mistake while editing. I must have been reading from the wrong spell when recording that section!
Same!
@@CasualVeteranGamer Actually I just realized it IS available to Warlocks with the Pact of the Tome that nobody uses.
I like Blade ward, it’s incredible if you have item synergies that turn it on for free like with mass healing word, couple it with warding bond with your tank character and you’re almost unstoppable really early game.
Exactly, it's so much better in Bg3 compared to 5e. Not only is it upgraded to a 2 turn effect but a full on wizard tank can do some absurd things with it. It absolutely deserves a higher tier than acid splash which is the shittiest dmg cantrip in the game.
The effect is great, but the cantrip itself is still terrible. I would even say such items make it worse as a cantrip because why use it, if you can heal with bonus action in order to give it to everyone in your party.
@@michasokoowski6651
Try Hellriders pride gloves plus whispering promise ring, which gives all 3 of your party members blade word plus bless by using mass healing word as only a level 2 spell slot and all this as a bonus action. You get these two items near the beginning of the game and the combo is so good that you could easily use it for the entirety of the campaign.
Yeah blade ward is terrible if used as your main action and benefitting only one part member, but with the right items and spells you become practically invincible.
@@michasokoowski6651 Because a tank build deals dmg by not taking any in the first place. Warlock 2/ Abjuration Wizard X was already a popular build in regular DND and since Blade Ward lasts 2 turns in BG3, it's even better in the game. The plan is to max out your Arcane Wards prefight, casting Armor of Shadows on yourself thanks to Warlock 2 giving you the eldritch invocation for it. Then you just combine Armor of Agathys + Fire Shield + Hellish Rebuke + Blade Ward and you will literally kill people by triggering nonstop opportunity attacks. The effect is obviously moot if you have a cleric that can cast Warding Bond on you but not all party comps will have a cleric or they just wanna cast it on someone that really needs the protection. Blade Ward makes you a self contained wizard tank. Healing is a pointless argument because any 5e vet knows healing is a waste of an action unless you're playing a life cleric or can cast Healing Ward on a downed player.
@@evrimenustun9548 Any healing caster does will work with these gloves, so if you pair them with any item that would give you healing you can still use your turn accordingly while still getting benefit of blade ward.
Also with these gloves using bonus actions to heal solely in order to apply this buff to multiple people without need of using an action is pretty good.
As i said, blade ward is a really great effect, but cantrip is pretty meh, especially that you have a better source of it.
Ray of Frost also extinguishes fires. If you're being sneaky you can use it to take out light sources, and there's a few places in the game where a magical fire extinguisher comes in handy (the burning inn in Act 1 comes to mind...).
I hope you take this as a compliment. Your voice is nice to have on in the background. It's just nice to have around even if I'm not focusing on the video
Oh it's very much a compliment, and a big step up from comments such as "I can't understand your accent"! Thank you.
Druids get Guidance. And either Ray of Frost is too low, or Firebolt is too high. I would say it's better than Firebolt for multiple reasons. Neither is as good as Eldritch Blast though. The ability to split the spell puts it above all other damage cantrips by far. Otherwise, I would say your tier list is spot on.
Imagine a Cantrip that well Can Trip!! (pun intended) Frost Bolt is easily S tier. Let's Compare to Flame bolt. In BG3 making stuff wet is more useful than the Burning. Cold is resisted less by enemies in my experience so far (balanced difficulty). Testing shows they would walk more likely through an ice field than a fire field. Also any control aspect like slow at range beats damage over time especially when you trying to prevent your squishies from getting Melee-ed. Also a case for Vicious Mockery (I'm a Bard proponent!) The versatility and sheer amount of lines recorded easily gives this S+! it's teaching you the art of insults lol! Good Guide CVG as usual!
Quick note on dancing light. For what ever reason it has weight like a barrel or something and can be cast on top of gas vents and things to block the gas from coming out.
Not super useful all the time, but in cases where you have access to it, but dont want other spells for rp reasons, it comes in handy
Not only was the list interesting but I actually learned a few things that I wasn’t aware of or had never paid attention to. Thumbs up from me.
Friends is definitely S tier, even on Tactician. I think people really overstate the "dangers" of using it, because it's functionally a free Eagle's Splendor you can use for Advantage on /every/ Charisma check against an NPC, and the only downside is that you need to clear out before the spell wears off the target so they don't accuse you of a crime. It's the equivalent of having an on-demand Charm Person or Eagle's Splendor without using a spell slot, and is fantastic for your PC that might not always have someone (like Shadowheart) to toss an Eagle's Splendor on them. Used correctly, even on tactician, you will NEVER have NPCs go hostile from you using it. It's 2nd-circle power as a Cantrip and IMO is absolutely S tier. The single best out of combat cantrip.
Yeah, this is one thing that having played D&D before negatively affected my experience in BG3. My DMs are all too happy to create crazy consequences for charms, so I was hesitant to ever use them in the game, but, actually, they're just overpowered win buttons with no downsides in BG3. It's actually one of the areas that really disappoints me about the game. The interpersonal consequences of bad behavior in the game is either getting away with it scot-free or getting into deadly combat with no middle ground. I get that'd be pretty much impossible to program every possible scenario, but a little more attention to social dynamics would have been nice.
No way. Tiefling camp all turned on me even Halsin. It's dumb. Clear out before effect wears off seldom is an option. Like also in the underdark unless you want to just cheese the game and immediately port out to another waypoint. Screw that. Friends goes in the dumpster.
@@leonardceres9061 Then you're using it wrong. It is straight up free advantage for CHA checks. I use it constantly on Tactician+Ironman and I've never had a problem. No need to teleport away or use any cheese. You just need to not be near the NPC when it wears off.
Mage hand is S tier if you usually prepare to fight. You can throw 10 grenades/water bottles/haste/control which is huge especially in long fights. I often spend an action for throwing something anyway and with mage hand this is free. I planned to play tempest lightning sorcerer with mage hand and water bottles. But I gave up on this idea because the game is easy and it's much funnier to fight as it is without preparation.
I like this idea, ty.👍
Doesn't it all go to shit if it gets hit with an area of attack spell though? breaking all the potions?
@@keeganbate8935 with all the game mechanics there's exceptionally low chance that this situation happens if you won't intentionally create opportunity to it.
@@keeganbate8935 dropping items on the ground is free so you don't have to throw everything on the ground at once it does work best if the initiative is together though.
Dancing lights is useful for blocking vents and is useful out of combat when you're exploring darker places and concentration isn't a thing to worry about but then again I only have it cuz I have a half drow character lol
Minor illusion can also be used to locate invisible creatures as they also need to make investiagtion checks and the pop up above their head still triggers showing you where they are
Ray of Frost is easily S tier imo. If you run either Create Water or Water Elementals you'll be dealing double damage.
Something that could push Dancing Lights up a bit, another video showed that it can be used to block trap vents.
the more you know. thx
When I was playing warlock, the only spell I used for several levels was Eldritch Blast. I eventually went Pact of the Tome with Thorn Whip and cloud of daggers and used this combo as a cheese grinder. I keep thinking Cantrips aren't that good until I apply them.
Mage Hand can come in clutch when you need to pull levers and even distract people. Plus throw can be coupled with grenades, which makes the mage hand a mini catapult.
Something you missed about acid splash is that (I think) it also inflicts acid status effect, which lowers ac by 2.
It doesn't do that. Arrows of acid leave behind a surface that will inflict the acid condition, but the cantrip only does the damage.
@@CasualVeteranGamer Good point. I do think it would be great if Acid Splash DID lower A/C by 2 for a short while, giving it that 'something extra' that make certain cantrips worthwhile.
@@CasualVeteranGamer I think I was thinking of Acid chromatic orb (clearly the better spell here)
Dancing lights is incredibly useful for act 2 tactician.
You have to tell us why, lmao, you can't just say "it's incredibly useful" and leave it like that. I am assuming you are referring to the shadow monsters and the curse itself, but Light is better, it does the same job but follows you around and does not cost any concentration. hell, even Daylight is great in act 2.
One for Mage Hand that is a bonus.. outside of combat you can use it to explore "small" areas like cracks in the wall or small holes, it can get in and you can drive it around, open doors from within a castle or whatever.
Light is also great for some romg setups that activate their bonuses while you are illuminated, A is definitely a good place for it to sit.
Blade ward should be A or S tier. When you have a turn when you can’t hit something, you can blade ward instead of just skipping turn. This ensures you don’t take much damage. Incredible actually.
Shillelagh gives that weapon a 1d8 of damage while still using it versatile with a shield, off setting the trade off of using a shield to increase AC.
One thing to remember about Vicious Laughter and Minor Illusion is that they are Enchantment and Illusion spells. There is a ring you can find on the Chult map where the Djinn sends you to that allows you to cast those as a bonus action after a weapon attack. Pretty useful to Paladins for example. Might be worth to take a feat like Spell Sniper or Magic Initiate: Bard just to get it. Actually took the latter for my completely Charisma based Paladin/Warlock hybrid. Picked Friend as the second cantrip and healing word as spell to res downed party members with a bonus action. Felt pretty worth it all in all
Im only partway through, but just a quick thing to point out - you say about firebolt that it can't be enhanced, but it can. Specifically, Draconic sorcerors, if they pick a fire based dragon type, get to add there Charisma to the damage roll from level 6, and Evocation Wizards can add their Int to the damage roll from level 10 (only once though, not up to 3 times like with EB and Agonizing Blast) and there is a Feat, Elemental Adept - Fire, that ignores enemy resistance to fire damage, and rerolls 1s on the damage dice which does apply to firebolt. You wouldn't pick up that feat specifically for firebolt, but you could absolutely consider picking it up for more reliability and less resistance issues on fireball, and it still applies to firebolt when you dont want to use a spell slot
I used Mage Hand a lot to go into small holes or through gates and grab items or activate buttons and things.
Minor illusion is about right but one thing I'd like to add is that it's really helpful with the right setup. My character is an illusion wizard, meaning you get to cast it as a bonus action. With a 3 level dip into thief you can illusion, sneak, and get a sneak attack each turn
Thorn whip in general is quite bad, but there are some situations where it can shine so I think it's still worth having in the mix.
The few times when you're low ground and the enemy is high ground and you can pull them down to your level really make up for it. Even better if you're at opposite ends of a chasm and you can pull them in.
You can also combine it with AoE hazards and pull them in or keep them in if they're trying to escape. But positioning can be tricky in that case.
word on the street is that dancing lights can be used to block trap vents. i guess you can only block one at a time, but sometimes you don't have a barrel or something handy
A helpful video, thx!☺
16:53 the most useful use of minor illusion in combat that I have found is to turn enemies focus away from your rouge, allowing them to perform a sneak attack without passing a stealth check.
A note about produce flame, the light on your hand persists into wildshape, so for moon druid it has some merit for act 2 where you need some persistent light for a portion of it. Can't throw it while wildshaped though lol
Blade Ward has an interesting use for Warlocks/hybrids. With Armor of Agathys and the warlock fire/cold shield you can cast this and then just run through wetted enemies, take low damage, and return a ton of cold damage through their oppertunity attacks.
Dancing lights blocks vent traps making it A tier. Really good in the Hag quest and other instances where poison vents are active. Also, you don't have to waste a cantrip slot on it because you get the amulet early on and can carry it in your inventory until you need it. Definitely A Tier.
Nice little feature of vicious mockery is that it can be used as a reaction which could make the difference in a tight spot.
you can use minor illusion to mov enemies for5 aoe spell. its really useful.
Dancing lights can be used to cover vents, giving it a niche but powerful utility in some areas. Still not gonna choose it as its easy to get on a necklace very early and in a way that most runs wont miss unless you are evil
6:47 "cantrips can do some damage, but they will never be the most damaging"... 10 sorc/2 warlock with agonizing+repelling blast, haste, 24 cha, potent robe (+cha bonus to spell dmg), the +2 dmg ring combo and Kereska's Favour (Lightning) from Markoheshkir and you're (realistically) looking at close to 200dmg per round just from Eldritch Blast, that additionally pushes mobs over half the map and cripples a target with up to minus 7 to attack rolls (Coruscation Ring caps at 7)... bonus points if you have Hex up on the mob... extra 9d6 dmg. Or go the extra brutal route with 2warlock/3rogue-thief/2fighter/5sorc for 15 rays of Eldritch Blast in one round... for a theoretical maximum of 2430 damage if everything max damage crits against a vulnerable target that is hexed. If you have any other cantrips in S-Tier (except maybe Guidance), then Eldritch Blast deserves its own God Tier. Yes, it's that much better than all other cantrips and any warlock that doesn't pick this cantrip should seriously think about switching classes. :) There is a reason some builds just revolve around this cantrip.
Blade Ward: I use that as my default if I’m stuck somewhere and can’t get within range of any enemies. It’s kind of a back up so you’re doing something useful with your action economy in those situations.
Minor illusion works nice in combat versus Incoming guards, i have had the adds stop at it causing them to stop and giving me an extra turn to prepair for the newcommers and even stacking them up for me, but that only works with a illusion wizzard since you ger the minor ilusion to be cast as a Bonus action
Don’t forget draconic sorcerers that take either fire or ice ancestry get elemental affinity at level 6. This is the equivalent of adding agonizing blast eldritch blast in that it also adds the charisma modifier. There’s also the necklace that adds the modifier again if you use an elemental cantrip. This puts fire bolt up quite high, doing even more damage. It still won’t out damage eldritch blast on warlocks because the 3 different beams not only have more versatility but higher damage potential. But it’s strong enough that you won’t have to waste two levels into warlock to get a very strong cantrip on a non-warlock build.
7:34 talking about dancing lights as the character at the bottom right does a little dance, lol
I noticed that Light didn't last till Long Rest. It was pretty short acting. I was thinking that it was a great way to get around the Shadow Curse Lands but it just didn't seem to work all that well.
You can also minor illusion to get a scary enemy to walk near a ledge and sneak around to push them off
First of all, great video!
There are quite a few ways to make cantrip focused builds pretty great, apart from the obvious eldrich blast ofc, by focusing on the plethora of cantrip boosting and hastening items and talents.
Sadly the DEX based cantrips, like spells, are usually bottom tier since enemies who aren't damage sponges (aka non-tanks) tend to scale to nutty high DEX and more importantly, tend to have full evasion to damage if they succeeded a DEX saving throw. Which is why Chain lightning is much better on paper than in action
And it doesn't help that all notable bosses have +10 to saving throws, making a failed save almost impossible, resulting in 0 damage with evasion (like Orin for example)
Dancing lights seems utterly trash at first, then it seems even worse when you notice it is concentration... However, there is that 1d4 psychic dam ring and those boots that make you immune to prone IF you are concentrating on a spell, you can also use it to detonate that certain illithid power at full power
Also bonus action based classes like thief don't mind using action on things like this, since they have one attack from main anyway, and with AK /certain items they get extra attack or to use these action cantrips as bonus actions
Not only that, the fact that dancing lights can be cast at a range, makes it far better than light against shadows and other ranged targets that get ridiculous buffs if they are concealed. You could always bust out daylight, but using a cantrip instead on a char that doesn't have any con spells running anyway can be pretty good situationally, especially if combined with the afore mentioned stuff
Blade ward is also great with that sorc and hybrids that specialize on cantrips and get attacks/bonus actions from casting it
Eldrich blast is usually most damaging, but only 3d10+30-36 at max ish without crits. cold ray can be 2x (6d8 + 20)without crits with wet+twinned and +the cantrip items, so if there are two targets, cold ray can be more damaging even without dragon sorc
Not to mention if the enemies are close to each other, shocking grasp can be even more devastating since it can be bloosted by lightning sorc, wet, tempest cleric and can be twinned ad well
True strike is indeed one of the worst cantrips in the game, but it also has its uses. An offhand focused xbow/dual-wield rogue who doesn't get extra attack with main, can guarantee a backstab, which is limited to one use per turn anyway, with it
although im not sure if its enough to bup it up it should be noted that dancing lights can be put over trap vents to stop them from emitting anything. so not combat useful but has maybe one use case lmao
Shillelagh also has a bonus if you cast it on an ironwood club which halsin comes with. even though it doesn't tell you that anywhere but check the combat log and you'll see it's adding damage
I really liked the control of ray of frost. The (staff or ring, I forget which) that causes ice surfaces when you use ice spells is fantastic with ray of frost. The slow, plus a hazardous surface paired with a fighter that has boots that nullify those surface effects really tilts battles. I was able to do a lot more fire dmg when specced and equipped into fire, but I found that ice is really where it’s at lol I used an elemental monk for control through most of the mid game, which is far from optimal but was a ton of fun
8:41 hey, there. You’re wrong about this one. It’s definitely A or B tier seeing as you put acid splash in b tier for sheer utility and damage. DL can trigger traps and hazards, so you’ll want to use this in dungeons to scout areas that might have an ambush or heavily booby trapped pathways. This is why it can be used in stealth and while silenced.
Mage hand can sneak into those tight spaces and pull lever from inside to let you in
i have found that the absolute best use for true strike is to combo it with concentrated strike--as concentrated strike can only be cast while concentrating, true strike is amazing to use concentration without having to expend a spell slot. if you stack this with the "Awakened" condition (which makes all illithid powers only take a bonus action), it becomes an automatic hit attack in one turn, because for some reason concentrated strike doesn't require an attack roll. it just always hits
Afaik Eldrich blasts 3 rays can trigger damage effects (such as Hex and similar) for each ray.
So you get the full bonus of such effects for every ray fired on the afflicted target.