Want to play as a wizard that takes any source of elemental energy and turns it into a weapon? School of Evocation wizards in BG3 are master manipulators of elemental energy. They invoke their arcane abilities to protect themselves and their allies while dealing devastating AoE damage upon their enemies. Plus the Evocation build and subclass is a recommended build for Gale in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Despite having 8 distinct schools, our focus in this guide is only on School of Evocation wizard build in BG3. This build sacrifices defense to favor offense and is one of the most powerful wizards builds in the game. The following guide contains step by step explanation of everything you need to know about evocation sorcerer.
Starting abilities and skills for Wizard School of Evocation
Once you create your character, you are welcomed with a new screen to select some more attributes. This is where we decide our starting class and stats. Due to its nature of providing players with immense freedom, you can always respec your Evocation Wizard build later in BG3.
Race: Elf. Selecting Elf race for the evocation sorcerer build has numerous advantages. You gain additional movement speed, Eleven Weapon Training (increases proficiency with swords and bows), Darkvision (allows you to see up to 12m in the dark) and Fey Ancestry (allows you to avoid sleep magic spells and you have saving throw advantage against charmed).
Subrace: High Elf. This subrace grants the players with an additional evocation cantrip, Fire Bolt.
Spells and Cantrips: Evocation wizard has 4 starting cantrips and 6 spells they can learn. We recommend (Fire Bolt, Shocking Grasp, Minor Illusion and Mage Hand) for cantrips and (Ice Knife, Magic Missile, Thunderwave, Mage Armour, Shield and Grease) for spells.
Ability points distribution: 8 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 14 Constitution with +2 bonus, 15 Intelligence with +1 bonus, 10 Wisdom and 10 Charisma.
Skills: Insight, Religion, Arcana, History and Perception.
Prepared Spells: Magic Missile, Ice Knife, Thunderwave and Mage Armour.
Best Background
For the School of Evocation Wizard subclass in BG3, our selected background is Acolyte. This background originates from the wizards’ mastery in Insight and Religion. Any person with an Acolyte background gains inspiration from helping churches or religious cults. They are very adept at finding out the liars and have a keen knowledge of ancient symbols and rituals.
Best Feats for Wizard School of Evocation build
One of the coolest features in Baldur’s Gate 3 is also its hidden one. As you reach level 4 for the first time, you are greeted with something new called Feats. This special feature allows you to equip one unique passive perk that matches your build. This happens three times during a character run. At level 4, level 8 and level 12.
Level 4: Spell Sniper. This feat allows you to get one additional Cantrip (Eldritch Blast) and reduces your critical attack roll number by 1.
Level 8: Ability Improvement. Dump both ability points into Intelligence skill to bring it to 18.
Level 12: Ability Improvement. Use this opportunity to maximize Intelligence to 20.
Best Spells for Wizard School of Evocation build in BG3
We have listed the weapons that we prepare and use for the School of Evocation Wizard build in BG3.
Level 1: Some of the best level 1 spells include.
- Magic Missile: This evocation spell deals 3d4+3 force damage via 3 magical darts.
- Ice Knife: This conjuration spell deals 1d10 (piercing) +2d6 (cold) damage to the enemies.
- Thunderwave: This evocation spell deals 2d9 thunder damage to enemies.
- Mage Armour: This abjuration spell increases your AC to 13 + dex modifier.
- Grease: This conjuration spell covers the 4m terrain with grease. This slows down enemies and even trips them.
Level 2: For level 2 spells, you must choose the following ones.
- Shatter: This evocation spell 3d8 thunder damage to enemies and put their saving throws at a disadvantage.
- Scorching Ray: This evocation spell conjures three rays of fire each dealing 2-12 fire damage to enemies.
Level 3: We have carefully tested and selected the following level 3 spells for School of Evocation wizard in BG3.
- Fireball: This evocation spell shoots a fireball that explodes on impact and deals 8d6 fire damage.
- Lightning Bolt: This evocation spell conjures a bolt of lightning that damages everyone in its AoE and deals 8d6 lightning damage.
- Glyph of Warding: This abjuration spell creates glyphs on floor that hurt enemies who step inside them.
Level 4: Level 4 spells is the place where you finally bring out the big guns.
- Wall of Fire: This evocation spell creates a wall of fire around dealing 5d8 damage to an enemy who touches it.
- Ice Touch: This evocation spell creates a storm of hail and ice which deal 2d8 (bludgeoning) + 4d6 (ice) damage to any enemy in range.
- Fire Shield: This evocation spell covers your body in fire which protects you from both fire and cold attacks. Enemies take 2d8 fire + 2d8 ice damage if they touch you.
Level 5: A couple of level 5 spells that we recommend for evocation wizards are.
- Cloudkill: This conjuration spell creates a cloud of poison that deals 5d8 poison damage to enemies.
- Cone of Cold: This evocation spell creates a cone of ice that deals 8d8 cold damage to enemies.
Level 6: Due to their extremely high cost and limited available slots, we can only recommend one level 6 spell for now.
- Chain Lightning: This evocation spell hits an enemy with a lightning bolt that creates three more bolts. They hit 3 more enemies within 18m radius.
Best armor and weapons
Weapon: Markoheshkir. This quarterstaff (1d6 bludgeoning) adds +1 to your save rolls and magic attack rolls. It also allows to use one spell per long rest for free and grants a level 4 evocation spell (Kereska’s Favour) as a reward.
Rings: Tourmaline Ring (increases charisma to 20) and The Sparkswall (provides resistance to lightning damage).
Amulet: Ilmater’s Aid. This amulet allows your non cantrip spells to deal 1-4 force damage when you are below 50% HP.
Armor: Potent Robe. This robe allows you to deal more damage with your cantrips (equal to Charisma modifier) and increases your AC by +1.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard School of Evocation build level progression
This section tackles all the perks and bonuses that you get as you progress through each level of School of Evocation wizard in Baldur’s Gate 3. We have mentioned each level individually. However, as we have already mentioned the spells you will be needing, we refrained from mentioning them here again.
Level 1: This is the most basic level and the only thing that entices us here are the 4 slots that can accommodate level one spells.
Level 2: As soon as you reach level 2, you can select the BG3 School of Evocation subclass for your Wizard. You also get 1 more slot for your level one spells at this point. New subclass features that unlock are Evocation Savant (allows you to buy evocation scrolls for half the price) and Sculp Spells (this passive skill allows your allies to roll a successful saving throw against your evocation spells).
Level 3: At level 3 for School of Evocation wizard in Baldur’s Gate 3, 1 slot unlocks for level two spells.
Level 4: As soon as you get to character level 4 for evocation wizard, your first feat unlocks. You also get 1 more active spell slot for level two spells. Make sure to get Light cantrip also.
Level 5: 2 slots now unlock for level three magic spells at character level 5.
Level 6: This level unlocks a very important subclass feature, Potent Cantrip. This makes our cantrip attacks difficult to evade for enemies. 1 more slot for level three magic spells.
Level 7: At character level 7, you gain 1 slot for level four magic spells.
Level 8: You get your second feat for the School of Evocation Wizard in BG3 at level 8. 1 more slot for level four magic spells also unlocks.
Level 9: You get 1 slot for level four spells and 1 slot for newly unlocked level 5 spells.
Level 10: You gain an additional cantrip (Poison Spray) and a new subclass feature, Empowered Evocation (all evocation spells are now empowered. At 20 intelligence, damage rolls get a +5 modifier on each roll). 1 more slot for level five spells unlocks.
Level 11: At this level, you gain access to level six spells with 1 slot.
Level 12: You get your final feat slot at character level 12 for School of Evocation Wizard in BG3.
