10+ Most frustrating spells in Baldur's Gate 3

[@Jenna_Talia]

3:30 I did think it was odd that, despite having access to an already established wildshape system and a myriad of harmless/harmful animals, you couldn't transform an enemy or ally into something other than a sheep.

[@behemothbeastie]

Nah man, True Strike is bad in regular D&D too. Every experienced player avoids it like the plague.

[@biggiecheese2004]

It should do damage

[@lordalex027]

Big problem with it is that it's a cantrip. If you say buff it so that it gives advantage for the next two attacks that might be a bit strong for a cantrip. In BG3 it could've maybe been usable on chests/doors and maybe it lets you roll damage twice against them (taking the larger roll or something along those lines) instead of advantage, so that it has some usage outside of combat.. and in general. Still could just smack the chest/door over and over instead, so maybe it grants a bit of bonus damage? Who the heck knows.

[@Juniper_Rose]

It's even *worse* in TTD&D!

[@christopherbelanger6612]

I think it should reduce the number needed for crits or something. It still wouldn't be broken, but would at least be helpful. The only time I've used it in BG3 was one time when I True Strike my rogue to have him Sneak Attack, and that was a special case.

[@chaoticloot]

I mean, it does... Emotional damage, when you realize how bad it is

[@Zerum69]

There is only 1 use I could find for true strike and that's if you're a Rogue with the Two-Weapon Fighting STYLE (easily obtained by dipping 1 lvl into Fighter or 2 lvls into Ranger), Not to be confused with the Two-Weapon Fighting FEAT This way you can make it so instead of doing 2d6+10 with twin Shortswords, you can do 7d6+5 every turn In 5e you needed to use the Attack Action with your Main Hand so can you have the option of using your bonus action to attack with your off hand, but in BG3 you can make the bonus action attack regardless of if you take an attack action or not, so you can abuse true strike to guarantee a Sneak Attack every round Of course the whole thing falls off if instead of dipping a level or two into fighter you dip it into barbarian and use reckless attack every round

[@chaoticloot]

Isn't a sneak attack a separate action in bg3? You can't use it with bonus action 🤷 (or I'm missing something)

[@Zerum69]

@@chaoticloot if you press Tab to check your whole party's inventory, and then click on the top right of your Rouge, you can select the "Spellbook" then you click on "Reactions" and you can tell the game to ask you whenever you make an attack with advantage if you want to turn it into a Sneak Attack, It also gives you the option to only ask if the attack with advantage was also a crit I don't know why they made this mechanic so hard to access, I mean I guess it's a little intrusive every time you attack to get the pop up saying "you want this to be a sneak attack?" but It let's you combo your moves (and do the strategy of using your sneak attack with your bonus action attack) and get the full strength of your Rouge, I haven't played Paladin myself but I'm sure you'll likely see a similar toggle for your Divine Smite so you can use it better In this menu you can also toggle so opportunity attacks don't go off automatically, maybe you're surrounded by 3 enemies and all 3 want to run away, so you probably want to be a bit more tactical over who gets your 1 reaction instead of letting the game choose for you

[@chaoticloot]

@@Zerum69 thank you! This is insanely helpful!

[@davidmills1520]

Totally agree with all except: It may have been mentioned already, but expeditious retreat can be an absolutely amazing spell, specifically because of the boots that give you lightning charges when you dash, combined with the Titan bow (and possibly other similar effects), which gives you your str bonus to damage twice if you have lightning charges. Sure, haste is better while it lasts, and is better in plenty of cases, but it is also a 3rd lvl spell and goes away (with lethargy) in 10 rounds. Expeditious lasts until you cast guidance (heh heh). It especially shines in a solo tactician run, such as Eldritch Knight, Ranger 5/Wiz 1/X or a very nice build I made that was 1 cleric/1 wiz/6 bard/X. (That last build is incredible as it is also a full caster with full casting stat, so levels in rogue wouldn't fit, with also a zillion attacks because of slashing flourish.) You can use an elixer or the hill giant club for str, and either go dex, or go int with the dex gloves (which is what I did). Exp Retreat lets you run backwards far, get lightning charges and do over 30 damage per hit in total with the Titan Bow. I take for granted that you are playing a halfling so you don't lose concentration unless you roll 2 1's in a row. No serious player of BG3 would use any race but halfling (heh heh). Other races are far far worse, even the great half-elf, unless you are refusing to multi-class and need shield.

[@MsNathanv]

I'm currently doing a Trials of Tav run where I decided my 11 fighter should go 1 warlock specifically for expeditious retreat on SR. The only thing better than mobility is more actions.

[@JeStary]

Phantasmal force is amazing in TTD&D. My favourite on my bard❤

[@Sheamu5]

I hope they update polymorph to let you choose a few different forms.

[@exantiuse497]

I'm annoyed how most control spells are gimped in this game. Hypnotic pattern, confusion etc all have duration of 1 minute in tabletop, but in BG3 it's 2 or 3 turns. Also confusion seems to be bugged or really badly designed; the enemies get to save at the BEGINNING of their turn instead if at the end, meaning they effectively need to fail a save twice before the spell has any effect People have told me it's because the developers thought control spells are too strong. Okay, then why did they add ridiculous custom spells? E.g. black hole: large area party-friendly displacement ability that you can cast up to ten times i.e. you can cast it every round for that battle

[@daddybendover69]

Well to be fair confusion is a 4th level spell where as black hole is a racial ability you can't get unless you are near act 3 and choose a certain option, not that I dont think it would be fine for it to be like 5e, but im just saying I think Black Hole was designed to feel OP

[@B2M2948]

The only use I got out of mage hand in BG3 was using its action to shove enemies off ledges even then it had like a 30%-45% chance even on a optimal character

[@red2977]

Ive used it when I needed to push levers etc but my characters were in different part of room and also if I had no disarm kits I used it to disarm some traps. I wish it could be used as a distraction but havent had much luck using it that way

[@celestialowl8865]

Its definitely not in a perfect state, but it has a lot of weird sleeper functionality. It can hold and use amulets and weapons, it can drink potions like hillgiant to toss enemies, the arcane tricksters is exceptional even if just for free surprise rounds like shovel, its a free toss action (two with a speed pot) and placing things is free, it can extend place range between you and your mage so things like placing bombs into fire for infinite damage on a turn, or infinite healing on cloud of dagger edge is easier.. while invisible its first shove is 100%, you can buff it like any other summon (I.E aid, warding bond, ect), it fits in small places for scouting, can pull levers, is immune to any poisons, can disarm traps, even outside of combat while invisible it grants rouges sneak attack.. really I could go on. Its always something i just freely cast before combat and when it comes up its nice to have. Part of me wishes it could use scrolls

[@davidmills1520]

btw, true strike is even more silly because you literally always attack at advantage in bg3 when you initiate combat, since a character with 8 dex and plate mail can still sneak outside of visual range and get advantage. Mage hand seems to mysteriously disappear even before 10 rounds is up and even without failed conc, but that may just be me missing something. And, yeah, barkskin... wtf? At least have the dignity to remove the conc aspect of it. It would still be terrible, but at least it would mean a wild shape form got missed once in a blue moon.

[@darksavior1187]

Agree on all counts, but to be fair regarding true strike, that same issue persists in the tabletop where it sucks and for many of the same reasons there too.

[@IvanBelcov]

Expeditious Retreat must have for n1 damage in1target build - maggic missles (for Arcane Charge proc). Dimension Door - nice, for some situations.

[@hah-vj7hc]

My immediate thought was Witch Bolt. But I do agree with this list. And as a DnD game veteran, I haven't even used any of these once

[@chaoticloot]

I guess, Witch Bolt has some cool power fantasy. Unlimited powa!⚡ And in bg3 LOS doesn't break the spell, so that's a nice buff.

[@hah-vj7hc]

@@chaoticloot Then they have buffed/fixed it. I only tried it in EA and it would break off for no apparent reason

[@red2977]

I used it in early game but I was never super impressed with it. Its just I didn't know what I was doing so just started using it.

[@hah-vj7hc]

@@red2977 I tried to make it work, for example with Twinned Spell metamagic. Sadly, it blows. Some spells are sadly not good

[@Omni0404]

inb4 Arcane Lock

[@biggiecheese2004]

Yeah i literally don’t understand when you would ever use that

[@wldnrkls]

@@biggiecheese2004lock enemies in/out of a room

[@biggiecheese2004]

@@wldnrkls seems ridiculously niche to ever justify using

[@AgehaAtomori]

Arcane lock is niche but when you come to use it, it will do its job really well

[@Omni0404]

@@biggiecheese2004 Ikr? A door is already a good enough chokepoint and I spend rounds waiting for enemies to get to it. If I locked the door they wouldn't filter in piecemeal like they already do. If I want to deny the area from baddies I can just toss down a cloud of daggers, a wall of fire, guardian of the faith, etc.

[@flamesofhellstudio]

LOLWUT I was with you until you got to dimension door, that spell is hella useful. Also the reason it doesn't work exactly like it does in 5e is because how are you going to teleport to a place you can't see, you wouldn't be able to select it.

[@chaoticloot]

It works just fine in Pathfinder: WotR. You need to remember that fog of war is non existent for the game engine, it's just a limitation for a player. And often times BG3 (and Divinity) just shows you inside the room, your characters are not supposed to see. I still stand by my point of view - Dimension Door is badly nerfed in BG3. I still use it, because we don't have Thunder Step.

[@donateloh6894]

Thank you for this. I will avoid everything you mentioned here.

[@rogerwilco2]

True Strike is just as bad in theD&D itself.

[@chaoticloot]

They made the wording a little bit better in this game. On the next attack, not on the next turn. But then proceeded to screw the whole ambush aspect of it.

[@danzavitz3124]

I like mage hand it works

[@Mamotraxer21]

чому не державною? зрада?

[@AgehaAtomori]

Expedious retreat is amazing, 3 levels in rogue is a lot of commitment when you can just cast a spell that mind you, lasts until long rest, you will have double your mobility, so like compared to 3 levels in rogue you have way less of a commitment, especially since even if concentration breaks you can just cast it again, its a literal lv1 spell, stuff like longstrider doesn't provide this much mobility, even tho it is really good as well

[@chaoticloot]

Two levels, not three. There is a lot more useful stuff to use your concentration on. What build even *need* this spell?

[@AgehaAtomori]

@@chaoticloot first of all, no way you're gonna go 2 levels and not go the third for the full extra bonus action, no reason to get the main dish of rogue multiclassing and second, no build will actually go "i NEED AND CRAVE the bonus action dash" obviously, but it is by all means the kind of effect anything can benefit from, you use a concentration slot which is not even something most classes or builds will mind using to just get the rogue mobility experience. Like, you can say its not an insane spell, now puting it this low is ridiculous for such a good effect in general

[@chaoticloot]

Give me one example of the build or character idea, where having concentration on the Exp Retreat is better than Hex, Hunter's Mark, Bless or even just saving a spell slot for Shield.

[@AgehaAtomori]

@@chaoticloot a real lot of situations???? Its literal mobility, not even so much of a loss to use it when needed compared to 1d4 on attack rolls, hunters mark is valid but ranger literally does not have expeditious retreat on their spell list, and if they had i would have abused the shit out of it on my solo tactician run, act 1 and act 2 get so much easier when you can stack up thay rogue mobility to kite enemies, and about hex, i mean, both it and expeditious retreat already lose to the warlock spell slot system, i would rather just cast hold person. But anyway, hex is the only one truly competing here because sorcerer won't be casting bless, neither wizard, much less an eldritch knight, hunters mark is also out of their table, so like, it really just add to their mobility without even so much as compromissing their action

[@chaoticloot]

@@AgehaAtomori you can get Hunter's Mark from items. And for sorcerers not taking Warlock 2 is insane. For kiting surely precast Enchance Leap would be better. So I still can't see why *any* build would use this spell.

[@danzavitz3124]

Wrong wrong wrong