Baldurs Gate 3 Best Spells | Best Magic in Early Access

Baldur’s Gate 3 has barely even begun it’s early access cycles, and there’s already a ridiculous number of spells! It can be kind of overwhelming for a new player to look at all of these spell lists and try to choose just a couple of them. Especially because Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t follow the exact same rules of 5E! But, if you’ve played the Divinity franchise or have been experimenting with the early access, you already know; there’s a few utility tools that you’ll learn to need if you want success. So, check out our Baldurs Gate 3 Best Spells guide to get a strong start.

Best Spells in Baldur’s Gate 3’s Early Access

These spells range across a few classes, and unfortunately are quite limited by the 6 classes of the alpha. Try your best to get as many of these on your spell list as possible, since they are quite potent! Larian Studios has a pretty particular way to solve puzzles, so these are nice for that.

10. Create Water

• Level: 1st
• List: Cleric

This is, by far, the weirdest inclusion of Create Water on any spell list. However, this spell is crazy good… for some reason! It basically causes a short rainstorm to fall in an area around you, snuffing out fires and dousing the environment.

If you’ve ever played Divinity, you know how useful causing rain can be. Putting out fires is basically a major plot point in Larian Studio’s games. If you have the ability to prepare this spell at will, then it is legitimately not a waste of time to spend a spell slot on just making it rain. However, it is much more useful to get scrolls of Create Water to deal with the problems as they appear. Once you get level 2 spells, this becomes a must-prepare.

9. Magic Missile

• Level: 1st
• List: Wizard

Firing darts for 1d4+1 might not sound exactly powerful, but these darts deal guaranteed damage. That’s huge! Since we can see how much health a creature has (by default), we can see if they have 1 or 2 health. If they do, we can spend exactly 1 dart from Magic Missile to just kill them. No more matrix-dodging from bosses so they get another turn, no more second chances to heal. Just guaranteed killing. If you’re a Wizard, preparing Magic Missile is important.

8. Protection from Evil and Good

• Level: 1st
• List: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard

Almost all of the casters in the game can use this spell. You spend an action, and suddenly six types of enemies are heavily debuffed when attacking your target. This can be crucial, since sending a Fighter to fight ghosts usually just means you’ll be fighting a possessed fighter soon. Not only does this protect from possession, but also from Charmed, Frightened, and accurate attack rolls. Ridiculously strong… but only if you know you’re about to fight those specific types of enemies.

7. Guiding Bolt

• Level: 1st
• List: Cleric

When it comes to aggressive spells, Cleric doesn’t get many efficient options. Guiding Bolt not only does an insane 4d6 Radiant damage, but also grants advantage on attack rolls against the target. This will shred early game bosses, and even in the late game, the advantage is huge. Your Fighter will land a ton of extra attacks, your Rogue gets free sneak attack. If your Wizard has Scorching Ray, then they’ll get even more damage! Best aggressive option that a Cleric has access to.

6. Grease

• Level: 1st
• List: Wizard

Spraying some grease on the ground means that enemies that cross the grease might just fall on their butt. This sounds pretty mediocre, but it really isn’t; this is huge crowd control, and against enemies that can’t keep their balance, this is going to mess them up! Since you can knock many enemies prone, you can bottleneck them into a situation where they have to risk falling prone. Then, your melee party members can beat them up easily.

5. Charm Person

• Level: 1st
• List: Trickery Domain, Warlock, Wizard

What is Charm Person doing all the way down here? Well, Charm Person has two amazing benefits. One, it applies Charmed. This is a great debuff, since it forces the enemy to ignore the charmer. For a squishy Wizard or Warlock, this can prevent a boss from completely crushing them.

It is also useful in conversations. You can use Charm Person against your conversation partner for advantage on Charisma checks. That’s really useful for some important Persuasion checks, and can guarantee that you get the best rewards or options for any dialogue tree.

4. Feather Fall

• Level: 1st
• List: Wizard

As a bonus action, you gain immunity to falling damage and slow your fall. This can lead to a ton of cheese, since falling damage can be such a massive pain. If you want to use your 1st level slots on repositioning (while only spending a Bonus Action, allowing you to cast a cantrip after), Feather Fall vastly improves your options. And, if you predict a trap is coming up – or reload a save after falling in – Feather Fall can negate it.

3. Hold Person

• Level: 2nd
• List: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard

If you’re fighting Humanoids, Hold Person quite literally ends a fight. You paralyze a humanoid, which they can attempt to escape out of each turn. This means that, if they have bad Wisdom or keep rolling poorly, your melee fighters can walk up and kill them before they can even flinch. An essential grab if you’re preparing to kill a humanoid boss, since the Hail-Mary Hold Person is just useful.

2. Web

• Level: 2nd
• List: Wizard

This is arguably the best offensive spell in the game. You shoot out a flammable webbing that Enwebs a target. Enweb is a brutal status effect, forcing characters to stop moving, gives advantage on attack rolls against them, and their attack rolls have disadvantage. A well-placed Enweb can stop melee fights in their tracks, and then your squad can just ranged-attack them to death. A brutal spell, if you have the chance to cast it before the fight even begins.

1. Healing Word

• Level: 1st
• List: Cleric

This… is a bit controversial, but hear me out. Healing Word is the best spell in Baldur’s Gate 3, because the game is brutal. Healing Word will turn a fight in your favor. By not having to walk up to an ally and spend your action to pick them up, you can focus on killing the enemy. In addition, your ally gets picked up with up to 7-8 health instead of 1, which can be enough to save them from getting downed instantly. The range, bonus action, and small burst of health is why this spell is so useful, and why we think it’s the best, most important spell to have in your party.

Of course, you don’t need any of these spells to do well in Baldur’s Gate 3. These are just the early access spells that I think work really, really well in a party. What’s your favorite spell that the Alpha build has brought us? And don’t forget to check out our Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Class Guide!