Spells

Spells in Baldur’s Gate 3 come in seven tiers, cantrips and then levels 1 to 6, and every tier has a page here that picks the best few for each casting class. Read those six pages in order and something happens to the class roster: seven classes at level 1 and 2, six from level 3 upward. The one that drops out is the Arcane Trickster, the Rogue subclass that borrows Wizard spells but is locked out of level 3 for good. Paladins, Rangers and Eldritch Knights never appear at all, because their half-caster lists stop before the pages get interesting.

That ladder is the first half of this guide. The second half is the four pages that sit outside it: the cantrips that cost no slot, the nine rituals that cost no slot either, the Warlock’s invocations that stand in for a spell list, and the tier list that ranks across every level. Three single-spell pages, for Danse Macabre, Divine Intervention and Mage Hand, close it out, and each is there because the spell is either earned outside level-up or does far more than its tooltip says.

Level 1 and 2: seven classes

The level 1 page is the only one that explains the slot colour: a red level 1 slot means the class cannot prepare that tier yet, which is the Arcane Trickster’s situation until character level 3. Its picks split cleanly by role. The Enchantment and Illusion pair of Arcane Trickster and Bard share Charm Person, Sleep and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter; the Cleric gets Guiding Bolt, Command, Bane, Sanctuary and Shield of Faith; the Druid Faerie Fire, Thunderwave, Fog Cloud, Longstrider and Animal Friendship; the Sorcerer Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Burning Hands, Chromatic Orb and Ice Knife; the Warlock Armor of Agathys, Expeditious Retreat, Hellish Rebuke, Witch Bolt and Protection from Good and Evil; the Wizard Disguise Self, Grease, Burning Hands, Thunderwave and Find Familiar.

The level 2 page is where the lists start to converge. Hold Person is recommended for four of the seven classes, Mirror Image and Darkness for four, Cloud of Daggers for three, and the page’s own summary says nearly every class reaches level 2 spells but at a different character level. The Druid list is the odd one out, all its own: Moonbeam, Barkskin, Enhance Ability, Flame Blade, Spike Growth and Protection from Poison. The Arcane Trickster’s five, Blur, Hold Person, Invisibility, Mirror Image and Phantasmal Force, are the last the subclass ever gets.

Level 3 and 4: six classes, and the big picks

Level 3 is where our writers stop pretending the lists are balanced: Counterspell is on the Sorcerer, Warlock and Wizard lists, Fireball on the Warlock and Wizard ones, and the page opens by saying these spells are too good for the slots you have. The Bard gets Mass Healing Word, Hypnotic Pattern, Feign Death, Fear and Speak with Dead; the Cleric Revivify, Bestow Curse, Remove Curse and Spirit Guardians, with Bestow Curse behaving differently for Light, Life and Trickery domains; the Druid Plant Growth, Daylight, Gaseous Form and Hypnotic Pattern; the Sorcerer flight, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell and Call Lightning; the Wizard Haste, Glyph of Warding, Fireball and Counterspell.

Level 4 is the first tier described as changing the field rather than a target. Polymorph turns any creature into a sheep for five turns and undoes itself if the sheep is beaten to zero; Dimension Door moves you and one medium ally without concentration; Greater Invisibility gives advantage on every hit. The Cleric’s four are Guardian of Faith, Banishment, Freedom of Movement and Death Ward; the Druid’s are all summons and control, Conjure Minor Elemental, Dominate Beast, Conjure Woodland Beings and Grasping Vine; the Sorcerer takes Confusion, Polymorph, Stoneskin and Wall of Fire; the Warlock Evard’s Black Tentacles, Blight, Fire Shield and Greater Invisibility; the Wizard Ice Storm, Dimension Door, Fire Shield and Phantasmal Killer.

Level 5 and 6: the top of the ladder

The level 5 page calls its tier the second-highest and builds each class section around a table of spell, school and effect, so it doubles as a school reference: Animate Objects and Awaken are Transmutation, Dominate Person is Enchantment, Cloudkill is Conjuration, Creation is Illusion. Bard and Druid share Animate Objects, which animates ten objects at once.

The level 6 page is honest about timing: by the time these unlock you are at or near the level cap, so the picks are about the last few fights. Eyebite, which sickens, frightens or sleeps a target by gaze, and Conjure Fey each appear on two lists. The Cleric gets Blade Barrier, Forbiddance, Heal and Heroes’ Feast; the Sorcerer Circle of Death, Disintegrate, Arcane Gate and Globe of Invulnerability; the Wizard Flesh to Stone, Wall of Ice, Otto’s Irresistible Dance, Magic Jar and Sunbeam; the Druid Conjure Fey, Move Earth, Transport via Plants and Wall of Thorns; the Bard Eyebite, Find the Path, Guards and Wards and Mass Suggestion; the Warlock True Seeing, Create Undead, Eyebite and Conjure Fey.

The four pages that ignore the ladder

Cantrips cost nothing and cast forever, and the page’s key fact is that they scale only at character levels 5 and 10: Ray of Frost goes from 1 to 8 cold damage to 2 to 16 and then 3 to 24. Its ranking runs from Shocking Grasp at ten, doubled against a wet target, to Eldritch Blast at one, with Bone Chill and Vicious Mockery just behind. Blade Ward halves weapon damage but only on the caster, and Dancing Lights is the Underdark cantrip, 18 metres of light for ten turns on concentration.

Ritual spells are the other free category: nine utility spells that cost no slot outside combat, listed with the classes that can cast each and their level. Detect Thoughts belongs to Bard, Druid and Wizard at level 2; Disguise Self to Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger and Wizard at level 1. Eldritch Invocations are what the Warlock has instead of a broad list: they unlock at level 2, then 5, 7, 9 and 12, can be swapped like spells, and the ranking puts Lifedrinker, Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast on top. Further down, Mask of Many Faces gives a free Disguise Self, Fiendish Vigor a False Life worth 7 to 12 hit points, Mire the Mind the Slow spell at level 5, and Minions of Chaos a Conjure Elemental once per short rest at level 9, on a class that has only two slots by then.

The tier list ranks across all of the above, cantrips included, from S to D, and its S tier is instructive because level has nothing to do with it: Eldritch Blast, Bone Chill and Guidance are cantrips, Misty Step, Invisibility and Mirror Image are level 2. Fire Bolt, Cure Wounds, False Life and Heat Metal sit in B, described as fine for surviving and useless against a boss.

Three spells with their own page

Danse Macabre is a level 5 Necromancy spell that no level-up grants. It comes from the Necromancy of Thay book found in the Blighted Village, which needs a Dark Amethyst to open, three checks to read, and the Tharchiate Codex from beneath Sorcerous Sundries in Act 3 to finish, and that lower level only opens once the Nightsong quest has moved on. The reward is five ghouls once per long rest, each able to paralyse on a bite until the target passes a DC 5 Constitution save.

Divine Intervention is a Cleric class feature at level 10, cast once, and the page treats it as a purchase: Arm Thy Servant gives the Devotee’s Mace, 4 to 9 bludgeoning plus Strength plus 1 to 8 radiant; Golden Generosity gives a haul of potions and camp supplies; Opulent Survival and Sunder the Heretical are the other two. Shadowheart at level 10 counts, so no party needs a Cleric main to use it.

Mage Hand is a cantrip for Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock and Wizard from level 1 and for Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster from 3, and the page lists eight jobs for its 18 metre reach that the tooltip never mentions: carrying objects, pulling levers, squeezing into tight spaces, disarming traps, shoving enemies, causing distractions, throwing potions at a cluster, and standing between you and an attack as a one-time shield.

Where the spells come from

Which list you draw from is decided at character creation, and the classes guide sets out when each class commits to a subclass and how many slots its Hit Die costs. The builds guide shows what a full caster actually prepares level by level, and the Wizard’s trick of learning any scroll for gold, which is why our beginner ranking puts it first, is explained on the Wizard class page. Spell slots return on a long rest, which the mechanics guide treats as the game’s only clock.