All new spells added by Larian! - BG3 5th Level Spell Tier List

[@ЗахарКоншин]

Magic missile does not actually require line of sight. It will go around corners and above obstacles as long as target is in range. Now I don't know how it interacts with wall of stone, perhaps it just doesn't count it as solid terrain and goes through but its not due to buggy los.

[@Specuh]

Flamestrike might not be that good, but it's such a cool spell imo.

[@ojo2337]

Frankly it's *the* spell for some situations. Like knocking a bunch of annoying unreachable assasins out of sanctuary

[@George_M_]

First playthrough I used it sometimes and it seemed to do basically nothing or kill almost everyone it hit. Now I'm too meta educated to bother with it. Ah, the innocence of a few months ago.

[@ericwisniewski2636]

@@George_M_meta educated 🤣

[@AKATensive]

Elementals and Myrmidons can not coexist. If you summon one, the other gets removed. I think you were mistaking them for conjure minor elemental.

[@andrewheavenridge7955]

Well that woulda been insane

[@ambiwar7915]

Important to note you can precast contagion without initiating combat. So you can sneak up and cast it, or a sorcerer can use distant spell to put it on before the fight starts. A tier at least.

[@zeez145]

Dude I really like your videos, I discovered your channel one week ago and I'm binging all your tierlists, I've learned so much about the game, thanks a lot.

[@Aestus_RPG]

Glad you like them!

[@finkrer]

Cloudkill can be repositioned, which essentially makes it an attack strategy like Call Lightning or Moonbeam. You get the ability to put a huge 5d8 damage cloud anywhere you want every turn for 10 turns for a single spellslot. It's situational, but there are definitely fights where you think, hey, keeping the enemies in a poison cloud for the entire fight is a good idea. B-tier, maybe. C-tier is those spells that technically do something but, like, why use them? With Cloudkill, I don't get this feeling.

[@welkingunther4298]

Probably very low B tier simply due to relatively low damage and the damage type being poison. Has its uses against mobs with sanctuary/spamming invisibility etc however more than say wall of fire in those very niche circumstances.

A fun tip for cloudkill: with heroes feast, your party is immune to poison. So you can stay in the cloud and bait ennemies in it. Something you can't do with fire wall.

[@welkingunther4298]

@ Good tip. While it does require a 5th +6th level spell and one of them concentration, I personally always have a druid or cleric in my party just because I find heroes feast that amazing if anything just for the advantage on wisdom saving throws & frighten immunity.

@@welkingunther4298 sure, but with a hireling or a party member that is just speced to buff you every morning before discarding him it doesn't really cost anything

[@welkingunther4298]

@ I don't discuss hireling strategies, beccause I personally find that unfun and completely unnecessarily trivializing for a combat system & difficulty already super easy.

[@mundanephysics521]

Planar binding created such a moment of comedy for me, I used it on Raphael and it apparently worked so well the battle straight up ended for those 10 turns LOL

[@rob3at896]

That's funny. I did the same with dominate person on Lorroakan.

[@Bad_Gazpacho]

I remember the days when Cloudkill would just kill you unless you were level 7 or above. Even then it was more of a monster spell rather than a player's.

[@exantiuse497]

Cloudkill is awesome in BG1/2. Not only does it kill anything below 7 (so almost everything in BG1 and still things like umberhulks in BG2), but the poison damage interrupts spellcasters (unless they're undead and hence immune). Definitely S tier in those games

[@Bad_Gazpacho]

@@exantiuse497 Yeah, but in BG1 there were only 2 scrolls of it in the base game and you need to use one to learn it. Plus you can only cast it once you're level 9, which means your party size would be limited to 4 to get to that level (damned xp cap). In BG2 it's all right.

[@IvanBelcov]

comment: 1. Cloudkill S if u play with the Feast of Heroes (your party are immune to poison) 2. Dethrone has an extremelly long cd (1per day) - C/RP 3. Deva 1love. In my "dream team": Deva, Jinny, devil, mephits and elemental of fecal I agree with the rest

[@anthonychase6906]

Aren't you just immune to poison condition and not poison damage with feast of heroes

[@IvanBelcov]

@@anthonychase6906 sure, 0 damage

[@ibs_haver]

Yea I don't know why he didn't mention the casting limits on the unique spells. Curriculum of Strategy's isn't too bad, but Dethrone only once per long rest is so ridiculous lmao.

[@admontblanc]

@@ibs_haver however it has insane range, these spells are definitely useful but they need preparation and care.

[@theAV8R]

The main draw of insect plague is the *guaranteed* halving of enemy's speed, including flying enemies, over a massive radius. It will usually cancel 1-2 of each enemies' rounds, including flyers, while applying enough damage to massively swing the action economy. Only Cazador's mist form is immune. The damage is just gravy

[@welkingunther4298]

Agreed. It's basically an upgraded spike growth, but can actually kill/massively wound enemies at this high level. Most of the hard fights are where there are plenty of enemies, massively boosting their action economy (Viconia). Insect plague, cone of cold, grease, etc can singlehandedly trivialize the encounter or at the very least make it doable if you aren't doing meta-gaming builds.

[@lendial]

Insect plague gained some ranks in my mind after watching a solo no reload sorc playthrough where insect plague + blackhole trivialized some tough fights like the shar battle in A3.

[@The_Judge300]

Insect Plague is a great spell to use if done correctly and you set up the battlefield to your and the spell's advantage. It is clearly in the A tier and for some battles, it is even S tier. For solo Sorc, it is one of the go to spells for many fights in my opinion.

[@giorno4859]

I can't understand why contagion is on B tier even after explanation, 3 failures in a save just to stunlock a single enemy seems RP tier to me.

[@davidwagner3710]

Agreed

[@Aestus_RPG]

It seems like I weight boss fights very heavily whereas folks in my comments weight trash mobs very heavily. I think I'm right on this one. Stunlocking a boss is big. Stunlocking some random guy in House of Grief is not good.

[@welkingunther4298]

​@@Aestus_RPGI think because of action economy, I'm way more scared of 12+ spread out 100+ hp enemies rather than a boss with 600 hp and/or a few low hp goons. For example, I found Raphael, Ansur, etc extremely easy fights even without haste, elixirs, prebuffing, hireling abuse etc. But for Viconia, I felt like I pretty much just had to abuse their bad A.I with spike growth, grease, elemental walls/insect plague to kill them slowly while running away or I just pretty much lost by the 2nd turn. Same would have went for cazador when I took astarion with me, if I didn't cast heroes feast to prevent noxious fumes + daylight. Locking down a boss w/ attack disadvantage and saving throw disadvantage after 3 turns is nice, but honestly not anywhere near as fight deciding as a well placed aoe that shuts down swarms. Not to mention, by the 3rd turn, generally speaking the boss is pretty much almost doomed anyways, especially if you aren't me and utilize elixirs/haste. Honestly, if the game just added way more fights with more goons, I might have actually felt compelled to use haste/elixirs on my first run.

[@tiradegrandmarshal]

@@Aestus_RPG But that begs the question, then: why would you EVER cast Contagion over Hold Monster with the same-level slot, when Hold Monster lets you do the same thing in one failed save AND helps your strikers kill the boss much faster due to auto-crits? In fact, why would you cast Contagion at all, when your party at that point will be able to kill said boss well before it fails three saves for Contagion to kick in? And if it's a boss with underlings, better to CC the underlings out of commission, kill the boss, then mop up, no?

[@Aestus_RPG]

@tiradegrandmarshal It does not beg the question. Begging the question means assuming the conclusion in a premise, and I didn't do that. Hold Monster is better than Contagion, which is why I ranked it higher. Contagion doesn't take concentration, so it's not invalidated by Hold Monster entirely. A team composition may be better able to rush a boss down then use Contagion, but for other team comps that might not be true. B-tier is a fair ranking.

[@Thecurseofsanity]

Edit: A caster cannot have an elemental and a myrmidon cast at the same time. Just tested. The fact that all the myrmidons and elementals have Misty Step while also having really solid bulk and solid damage output is wild The fire myrmidon also has hasten

[@finkrer]

Yeah, it's actually very simple. One summon per spell, as in the spell you learn or prepare.

[@r_bear]

It can literally hasten itself as an action as many times as it wants per long rest! This is great as a Wild Shape where your moon Druid has triple attacks pre-haste!

[@Swagprince69]

The only time I use wall of stone is with a scroll during Halsin's portal defense quest. You can cordon off the long side of the encounter and completely prevent the majority of the enemies from getting to the portal or your party. Makes the whole thing super easy.

[@Xxxkiller101]

Still got the deva's mace in act 3. you need to go downstairs in the Tabernacle and get cursed by opening the chest. when you cure the curse, kill the deva and do a long rest and it will drop the mace where you killed it.

[@Aestus_RPG]

Yeah, I know about that methos. I was just asking about if you could still get it from the summon.

[@finkrer]

You can get another one by killing the cleric upstairs, it also curses you.

[@briankelly1240]

Curriculum of Strategy carried my party for 3 or 4 encounters in act 3, was so glad to stumble across it!

[@ytho3099]

Where did you find that?

[@golem5202]

@@ytho3099 Sorcerous Vault inside Sorcerous Sundries.

[@Fixti0n]

I like the dot effects, even if the majority of battles are solved in 3 turns, having some dot options are good for when you find yourself in a slugfest with no way out but the slow struggle for life.

[@Polarthief]

30:36 Why not just use Mass Healing Word which is a whole TWO LEVELS LOWER, AND on a bonus action if your strategy is the on-heal effects? Sure it's way less healing (1d4 + SpellMod vs 3d8 + SpellMod), but your primary reason for these spells isn't the pitiful amount of healing, it's the on-heal effects. The only reason you wouldn't do that is if you have so many summons that you have over 6 "party members" (that you can heal, since you can't heal undead/constructs), but honestly I'd prefer two 3rd-level spell slots and 2 bonus actions over a 5th-level spell slot and 1 action, personally if you really have *that* many minions that you want the buff on.

[@Aestus_RPG]

I don't use either. I prefer channel oath/divinity.

[@DwWarWolf]

*Contagion* is above Cloudkill. I'm honestly coming back around watching because of the absurdity. Jesus Christ. It's like the tier list is completely normal and makes sense but then the worse spell in the game makes it to B tier. It's 4 *saving throws* because they need to fail the cast of the spell for an extremely not worth its effect. Heat Metal even saved gives the contagion's best base effect for Disadvantage on weapon attack rolls. You're better off with literally any other control or even damage spell because Contagion is that bad. Absolutely deserves RP tier but got B because "I like the idea of it". My god.

[@Qwertype315]

Seems needlessly antagonistic, make a good case for some spells and the comments will figure it out

[@Aestus_RPG]

You are watching though!

[@admontblanc]

Cloudkill is definitely way better than what it was rated here, but it's completely dumb to even compare both. One is pure CC utility, the other is a boss killer, btw most of you probably don't know that Contagion can be casted without triggering a fight so you can actually use it to get rid of any annoying enemy that you know the location of before the fight starts, and once it does all you have to do is the 1 hit of MM per turn to keep your target quiet, you can even prepare the fight in this way and then use Cloudkill or whatever else is good that uses up concentration.

[@sephikong8323]

Cloudkill and Insect Plague aren't the strongest, but you truly haven't lived until you have made a comp of Casters that spam death areas where you try to stack as many as possible unto the battlefield, because ngl, these two make for some really funny finishing touch, and even though Cloudkill doesn't impede the enemies, the ability to change it's position to maximize the damage every turn is still nice. Those aren't the strongest options even in that regard, but they still are funny (one of my friends managed to proselytize this playstyle to me and I must admit that it is indeed very funny to see enemies die trying to reach you)

[@benross9174]

Cloud Kill is great with Necromancers (and with Monks lowkey) as they are immune to poison so they can fight inside it

[@oliorogue]

I hope yall who do the tierlists can try the 5e spells mod and rank those as well. I have a feeling you'll find more RP tier spells but it could still be fun.

[@moosiemoose1337]

Yeah, some of the 5e spells are fun to use outside of combat. Like the one that makes holy water from water you're carrying.

[@stephenhiggins9568]

Dethrone is once per long rest, even locks out when cast w/ the staff. Curriculum can be cast on multiple targets.

[@trengilly01]

There almost needs to be a Sorcerer specific Tier list for spells that can be Twinned. Pretty much anything that can be twinned moves up a tier for Sorcerers

[@LastExileGames]

The best use I ever had for wall of stone is that secret boss in the under city that does a screen wide AOE that you need to hide behind cover for. Of course that cover gets a bit damaged before that boss does the AOE, so sometimes hiding behind that cover is not great. With wall of stone you just create your own cover that is at full health before the spell goes off and you are totally safe.

[@victoru92]

The thing with Devas is you can wear the gloves that give resistance to summon to everything and they pass every single wisdom saving throw. (the gloves at the thieves)

[@rammune7260]

You can get Summon Deva as a level 5 spell (Normally level 6, reserved for level 11 Clerics only) - Need to be at least Wizard 1 to learn Scroll of Bestial Communion and have access to at least 1 level 5 spell slot.

[@vrandolperez3286]

You can still get the Deva mace by picking up the Deva so they are in your inventory, and you can go to your weapon and place it on that character. Make sure you are empty handed so that you don't swap your weapon and leave it in the Deva. I tried this two days ago on my main playthrough with the Deva that spawns once I cure the curse from stealing from the basement of the Temple/Church of the Gods near the Basilisk Gate.

[@N1ghthavvk]

It also works if you "summon" the Deva in your camp (by dispelling the curse), and then long rest after killing them. Then there'll be pouches on the ground with their Maces.

[@finkrer]

You can't get a lot of free casts of Dethrone. It's a once per Long Rest spell. The other two new spells are once per Short Rest.

[@bazangulon6791]

I might say wall of stone is situationally amazing because on certain combat encounters you can completely lock enemies out or cancel 2-3 turns by forcing them to go way out of the way

[@mroutcast8515]

You scared me quite a bit dropping Elemental into B-tier there for a moment. Like I disagreed a ton with you, especially in T3 list, but here for that split second - I was like: WTF is this guy smoking to put it in B, lol...

[@jeepersmcgee3466]

Wall of Stone made the escape from the House of Hope a cakewalk. The hellfire orbs just sit next to it confused, and the debtors have to run all the way around the house to get to you

[@Cheasle2]

I still dont understand the reason for mass cure wounds being in the game when mass healing word does the same thing on a bonus action..

[@boleeflang3876]

Late to this video but about Dominate Person: I am addicted to this spell lmao. People really underestimate some of the crazy targets you can hit with this. Quick example (SPOILERS): I used this on Z'rell on the first turn when we went to siege Moonrise. Not only did she use Shatter to AOE down her own troops, they promptly all turned on her and murdered her for me before she even broke free. Other potent targets that I've personally been able to dominate are people like Gortash and Sarevok.

[@doncagape5409]

Before the Spellmight gloves nerf, Artistry of War can deal like 300+ damage with as a Evocation Wizard

[@lolreplayupload6905]

regarding deva mace: last time i checked you could pick up the corpse with enough strength and then click on your weapon slot. this allowed me to chose the mace. from that point on it was a normal item. i think it was on patch 4 but im not sure.

[@somedudewithakeyboard5388]

It was not, you just have to pick up the corpse and directly swap the mace into your weapon slot from the main hand weapon slot

[@Nealboy0]

I was able to do this on PS5 patch 4. ^^

[@difanxu8295]

Summon's weapons still can be accessed, there's an eye icon in the inventory menu, click it and the normal inventory will show up for like 0.5 sec, and then you'll need to pass a sleigh of hand check irl, drag the weapon out within that 0.5 sec and open your character's inventory and equip, lol!

[@danieljones4667]

Curriculum of Strategy is perhaps the only spell that is a justified S+ spell. It forms a core part of an act 3 wizard build (imo), especially evocation. It 100% procs 6 separate sources, each attracting their own damage riders/on hit effects, of damage in a fairly rare resistant/invulnerable damage type for an average of 108 damage by itself (by my math, with +5 proficiency bonus). The completely unavoidable missiles would make would make the US Air force blush: they don't need line of sight, they will navigate around interrupted paths, and will even hit targets in Darkness. Literally the only defense to the spell is to move out of its casting range. Completely bonkers. You can get vulnerability with the hard to proc Frozen which (probably bugged) does double the first two missiles damage. Enough to one-shot a lot of bosses.

[@ahmadkhalil6910]

In my own brief experience with dominate person is that melee based enemies tend to be more likely to be attacked by allies than casters/ranged enemies but I’m not 100% on this

[@trengilly01]

Agreed, I find that enemies do attack the dominated person. But they use the same rules about who to attack as they would normally. Ideally you want to dominate a melee character that has a lower AC value. It the dominated person has a high AC the enemy tends to ignore them in favor of easier targets.

[@anthonychase6906]

​@@trengilly01why would you want the dominated target to take more attacks by having lower AC, it keeps them dominated longer to avoid taking damage and they can fight for you the entire time. If you want their allies to attack them so it's like wasting their turns I can see why I suppose, but for killing the target id just use a different spell

[@trengilly01]

@@anthonychase6906 If your Spell DC is high then the dominated target keep failing its saving throws so it don't snap out of it when taking damage. So yeah, the enemy basically fights amongst themselves.

[@yonisdiriye123]

Recently found this channel, I like the content man keep it up!

[@mrzoonix6368]

Switch mass cure wounds with contagion, and I agree. Mass cure wounds on a life cleric can be great. Contagion is always garbage. You can get the Deva's weapon with a disarming spell/attack.

[@welkingunther4298]

Explain why you would waste an action on cleric healing/spreading buffs instead of doing that a bonus action? Even on my life cleric, I'd just use her channel divinity instead, and use her action on a scroll spell attack/disable. Only thing I can see f9or mass cure wounds is if you have a butt load of summons.

[@hobojoe9717]

Idk why you would ever waste a L5 spell slot on mass cure wounds. Especially when you could instead use that slot to upcast Aid before the fight, and overall get more HP on average than you would for using mass cure wounds in the middle of a fight. Hell, even just casting Aid in the middle of of a fight would still be better that mass cure wounds

[@samisaab9207]

Mass Cure Wounds being thrown into RP tier surprised me. That shit saved my ass on more than one occasion thanks to beacon of hope

[@ojo2337]

Perhaps. It's just more meta to use high tier spells to stun/erase enemies before they deal enough damage for you to consider healing outside of rests. Also it is almost always more beneficial to spend your action point attacking the enemy than healing yourself, especially on tactician difficulty, where the enemies hit like a truck

[@welkingunther4298]

The sad part is, if you just used better spells and didn't waste actions/turns/spell slots/concentration casting beacon of hope & mass cure wounds, you wouldn't need "Saving your ass".

[@Grumoth]

It's all about action economy in the end game and how your healer wastes their precious action at this one when enemies can be focus attacking for loads of damage per turn. At these levels you're starting to get two best healing potions 8d4+4 / 10d4+4 (bonus action once again) to make sure heavily damaged party members are not incapped. If you love to stack items that proc on healing (blade ward, bless) the mass healing word at 3rd level (5lvl upcast is 3d4+4 if you really need extra healing and want to waste 5lvl slot on this for some reason like one party member is wearing Periapt of Wound Closure) is so much better as it only takes your bonus action. So high level cleric for example could decide to hold monster (war domain) = pretty much instakill, or dominate/planar bind enemy to their side (easily hundred damage+ potential taken away from your ass to enemies ass), telekinesis to juggle enemies to their deaths/save allies or just tempest domain cleric smiting fools silly with desctructive wave. And now they can still cast (mass) healing word with their bonus action if they like for item procs / raising incapped friends / removing bleeding etc.

[@tiradegrandmarshal]

Casting Beacon of Hope in the first place tells me there's a skill issue involved.

[@yautjamerk9159]

A full telekinesis team is probably the most fun you can have on this game IMO. Every fight is a total disrespect, I love it.

[@ObscureGaruda]

Cloudkill + spike growth + hunger of hadar + insect plague or sleet storm is so fun though

[@MundaneThingsBackwards]

Note: You can NOT stack the level five and upcasted six elemental summons! It works this way with the level 3 and 5 zombies as well.

[@MrAshtute]

The mace still works....kill deva take a long rest (take body with you put in on the ground) take your long rest and there will be a little pouch with the mace in it where the body used to be. Tried this 4 hours ago 👍

[@vizzzyy190]

ngl mass cure wounds has saved my ass several times, especially in some of the harder fights

[@edwardrhoads7283]

Flame Strike in Pathfinder is awesome. BG3 not so much. Been told Hold Monster is a great way to hose Raphael. However 3 or 4 tries at 56% all failed so... Yeah why use the 5th lvl spell to heal all when you can use the 3rd lvl. Giving everyone in your party resistance on a lvl 3 spell is nice. Lvl 5 nope.

[@thirdstrongestmole9504]

Really looking forward to the day my thief/spore druid reaches level 11 and I can cheese fights by casting contagion and hiding until slimy doom activates.

[@danieljones4667]

Insect Plague seems custom designed to be used by a Sorcerer with Careful Spell and a Rogue using Bloodlust, hide, and Sneak Attack. Does conjure a funny mental image of some poor sob struggling through a swarm of stinging locusts just being jabbed by things it can't see "ow ow ow damn bugs. OW! WTH what monstrous bug was tha...OW!"

[@dorithegreat6155]

The point of the really bad spells is that enemies will often have them and cast them and you can win against them more easily ;)

[@RosePostedThis]

Level 6 Water Myrmidon is so good. Cold damage, healing vapours that also put out fire and create water...

[@giorno4859]

I know that Dominate person will add +2 to your action economy in a battle, but wouldn't warding gliph sleep or just hipnotic pattern add potentially +10 or more depending on the situation? This is why i just never use dominate person, there are CC spells at lower levels that has a lot more value than this.

[@Aestus_RPG]

I agree 100%

[@welkingunther4298]

Yea, dominate is basically RP for me. I only use it thematically. It's not useless in combat like the other RP spells, but there are just better options objectively.

[@Kurdent1]

Dominate person is a slighty better version of charm person, not worth spending a 5th spell slot. Same with cone of cold being an upcast fireball.

[@giorno4859]

@@Kurdent1 in my recent experience, it's worth to use dominate person if you manage to land in the strongest enemy in a combat with multiple enemies. You will economy +2 actions (the enemy won't attack you and you will not attack him) and he will also deal good damage to the weaker enemies while you also focus on them. I think it's kind of a niche spell, it can be very good in certain situations, but you won't usually get this spell to hit on the strongest enemy in a battle because he will usually have high WIS and spell defense.

[@Kurdent1]

@@giorno4859 I prefer hypnotic pattern, it's one of the best CC in the game. Or hold person. Again, you can use charm person instead of dominate, no reason to waste your precious 5th spell slot for this CC.

[@sebachong5609]

Thanks for making this videos!

[@eliana_d]

first time i used Curriculum of Strategy my jaw dropped it was incredible

[@Skyblade12]

Now that Summon Deva is a sixth rank spell, it’s basically completely identical to the spell that already exists, except that it gives it to Wizards, I guess, instead of just Priests? But it seems much worse then.

[@wolfgangromine8341]

Dispel Evil and Good imo should be RP, solely because Protection From Evil and Good exists which is a level 1 spell and they both almost do the same thing.

[@Aestus_RPG]

Protection from Evil requires concentration, Dispel Evil does not.

[@cipocreep1050]

@@Aestus_RPG Come on man, why would you say that without even looking it up? That's blatantly untrue, dispel evil and good does require concentration.

[@Aestus_RPG]

@@cipocreep1050 Mistakes happen, my bad.

[@cipocreep1050]

@@Aestus_RPG (You're based and admittingfaultpilled, a real selfawarecel)

[@trengilly01]

Cloudkill is S-tier when used by the enemy against you! Damn, hate that spell!! 😉

[@jlau317]

Cant wait for feats tier list

[@ogito999]

Tbh insect plague with black hole is busted and can be used to auto win entire fights especially in places where you can force a lot of enemies through a choke, which happens quite a lot.

[@glitchparallax4215]

I'm building a Necromancer and I'm excited to start using Disintegrate lvl6 spell!!!

[@MarinoKadame1]

I wodner how balanced the new difficulty is since now enemies also get new attacks, and there's also custom difficulty.

[@benjaminjam666]

CloudKill would be SOOOOOO much better (kinda) if it was Acid damage. Poison damage is a joke, especially for a 5th LEVEL SPELL!!!! Why not simply upcast Fireball or Ice Storm or CoD's? Like Stoneskin in the lvl 4 range, Cloudkill has been given the high hat in 5E/BG3. It used to do this: This spell generates a bank of fog, similar to a fog cloud, except that its vapors are yellowish green and poisonous. These vapors automatically kill any living creature with 3 or fewer HD (no save). A living creature with 4 to 6 HD is slain unless it succeeds on a Fortitude (sic: Constitution save in 5E/BG3) save (in which case it takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage on your turn each round while in the cloud). A living creature with 6 or more HD takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage on your turn each round while in the cloud (a successful Fortitude save halves this damage). Holding one’s breath doesn’t help, but creatures immune to poison are unaffected by the spell. Unlike a fog cloud, the cloudkill moves away from you at 10 feet per round, rolling along the surface of the ground. Figure out the cloud’s new spread each round based on its new point of origin, which is 10 feet farther away from the point of origin where you cast the spell. Because the vapors are heavier than air, they sink to the lowest level of the land, even pouring down den or sinkhole openings. It cannot penetrate liquids, nor can it be cast underwater. Now it's like a mildly dangerous Fog Cloud spell. The Con damage is superior to HP damage and so just changing that ought to move it into B tier. If you want to roleplay a Lovecraftian mage and cast Cloudkill and Evard's in the same area you go girl but otherwise it's just a joke spell, IMO. Also, am I the only one that would like to see Gust of Wind gain a utility function of clearing away Cloud spells? Like...why can't it mang?

[@B1gLupu]

You missed a lot of stuff about Destructive Wave 1. It already knocks the target Prone, so there is no need to add Gloves of Belligerent Skies to it. 2. It's damage is 30+5d6 on a Tempest Cleric, which is much better than 10d6 3. It is an option between Radiant and Necrotic, so it works in House of Grief and in House of Hope. No need to worry about Radiant Retort It is very clearly S-Tier, at least for Tempest Clerics

[@guilhermeredtfox]

Nice video, good work!

[@HighDarkDragon]

Cloudkill definitely ranked a bit too low. It's A tier for sure due to the many interactions you can take advantage of. You can reposition it for free every turn, enemies get two instances of damage from it, and if you combine it with Hero's Feast, your allies become immune to it. It also heavily obscured as a bonus, meaning that you can use it kinda like Darkness in addition to your undead summons being immune to it straight up. If it wasn't poison damage it would probably be S tier, because you also get it late into act II, so most undead enemies are already out of the way. A very interesting and fun spell overall.

[@exantiuse497]

A couple points: Seeming does have a use: you can give a martial character with no access to disguise self a disguise, allowing them to use race specific items. It's kind of niche and specific but it is a use and imo worthy of C tier for that use Regarding domination and hold spells, I'm pretty sure enemies get to save every turn or every time they take damage to end the effect early. I've had enemies break out of these spells despite not losing concentration. Idk if that matters for the ranking if your DC is high they just fail again, just pointing it out Regarding the deva mace, you may still be able to obtain it by getting cursed for stealing from the temple, then killing the deva that spawns when you dispel it. That worked in my previous run where disarming the summoned deva didn't, worth trying out

[@Aestus_RPG]

Seeming absolutely has no use. There are other, better ways to get disguise self. Even if there weren't it's not worth the spell slot. For Hold Monster, enemies do get a save every round but NOT when they take damage.

[@welkingunther4298]

Everyone has access to disguise self by the time you get to 5th level spells... Disguise kits are cheap as well as scrolls of disguise self. Seeming is pretty awful considering it's a 5th level spell. It'd be fine for a 3rd level spell and it would still be RP tier. Disguise kits aren't available till then afaik and disguise self scrolls aren't that plentiful from my runs unless farmed specifically, so as a 3rd level spell, it would have RP uses. I haven't ever casted this in my runs even for roleplaying because eating a 5th level spell is just not worth it when other options exist.

[@tiradegrandmarshal]

You literally get free access to Disguise Self at the start of the game, lol. (Mask of the Shapeshifter.)

[@welkingunther4298]

@@tiradegrandmarshal Only digital deluxe payers get that lol. I wouldn't use that as a reason why Seeming is bad because even as a RP spell, it's 100% trash unless you ban disguise kits/scrolls in your runs.

[@Kro-RissaVirus]

Cloud kill is S tier…. At wiping MY party in that damn Act 2 necromancy fight

[@PaulRGauthier]

I appreciate that you mention the metric measurements as well as imperial. I play in metric and imperial is meaningless to me.

[@Aestus_RPG]

Metric is superior.

[@PaulRGauthier]

@@Aestus_RPG Well, yeah :)

[@tsunderemerc2963]

It really is strange Banishing smite is essentially a "secret" spell since paladins themselves won't get it despite it being a paladin spell

[@b44dsss]

remember @Aestus you are too good so using Hold Monster is forbidden for you ^^

[@hobojoe9717]

One thing I think you need to take into consideration is the classes that can learn each spell and what other spells they learn. For this reason Destructive Wave should be S-tier IMO. Compared to the other L5 spells that those two subclasses of cleric can learn, Destructive Wave is easily the best.

[@Aestus_RPG]

I don't agree. I think it's better to evaluate spells independent of class.

[@kingofgrim4761]

I’m shocked, they must’ve buffed mass cure wounds, that has been probably my most used spell in late game to save myself or allies, as it’s essentially a much better version of healing word/MHW. Could definitely heal for a little more id say, but it’s essentially a much better usage of a turn then throwing a potion at one or two targets. Especially like in the Gondian encounters

[@MundaneThingsBackwards]

#WulbrenWasRight

[@Lulink013]

Mass cure wound isn't that useless considering it's your best way to heal multiple allies in a turn on a bard. I noticed you tend to forget some spells aren't availlable to all casters, making others that are similar but worse your only option. I got some clutch use of this spell in the battle before Gortash (with the tons of ennemies making burst strategies less feasible) and the final battle (with many friendly AIs you will want to keep alive to buy you time.

[@Aestus_RPG]

I prefer to judge spells independent of class spell list.

[@smaug7221]

Dude I love mass cure wounds! It’s like healing word but on multiple people!

[@Aestus_RPG]

I already hate it, you don't need to pile on more negatives.

[@tasin2776]

Earth elemental normal attack knocks enemies prone if it hits. There is no saving throw. Nothing in game mentions that you can prone enemies with melee so people might be under rating it. It's multi attack the first is normal physical and the second is magic physical (again nothing in game tells you that).

[@tiagonascimento4386]

It would improving your vids so much if you show us what every spell does exactly in combat. Just a quick demonstration in 1 or 2 scenario. Besides that another good videos, thx mate

[@Aestus_RPG]

That would be to much work for me, and my videos are already to long.

[@matthewbritt7485]

I feel like cloudkill is better than insect storm because you can reposition it each turn

[@ABadassDragon]

Am i the only one that makes their life unneceseraly harder by not casting spell and just using cantrips because "i might need it later" (no i dont, i never do). I have so many camp supplies i could take a long rest after every fight and not run out, but no, what if i need it later. I never need it later and yet i still do it. Worst thing? I play as sorcerer and i dont use spell slot and even less my sorcery points, just because im dumb. Im at level 8 and i am at Moonrise and i still do it. I also have dozens of scrolls and hundreds of potions for the same bloody reason. Once i reach Ketheric im unloading everything. Every spell, every scroll, every potion, every bomb, all of it

[@derekcapri8899]

can confirm that Ansur is immune to disease/poison effects!

[@Gwyn1stborn]

I don't even know what the Orin duel is like, thanks to Hold Monster she never moved

[@xxartemisxx1982]

How about an illithid power tier list? I'd imagine black hole would be up there

[@MasterNinjaXz]

TBH putting Banishing smite at A tier is kinda stupid. It ONLY WORKS basically if they have less than 50 hp, and most enemies that you're gonna use it on by the time you get 5th level spell slots have way more HP than that most the time. Meaning you'll have to damage them first, and then banish them, which at that point what's the point of even banishing them to aggro your entire squad. Just aggro him without having to use it and burn them down since you can probably do at least 50 damage in 1 turn if you have a decent Fighter, Monk, etc. No saving throw is decent but idk. Doesnt seem good. I mean maybe im completely wrong since the 5d10 damage will probably put any enemy at this level to 49 hp.

[@absenceofgravitas]

How do you not even mention that you you can use Telekinesis to throw enemies into chasms for insta-kills??

[@Aestus_RPG]

It's implied.

[@DummyFace123]

For mass cure wounds, to spread the blade ward and 2nd bless on the alpha rounds, you use the 3rd level spell which is a bonus action. Its goated for this reason alone The 5th level one isn't even a bonus action, its trash

[@IlRe720]

Artistry of war can only be cast once a short rest though, I mean it’s still fukn incredible…

[@danieljohnson270]

The fact that Cloudkill isn't good makes me a bit sad. I have nostalgia for it from BG2 -- it got me my first kill on Firkraag. :)

[@Aestus_RPG]

Yeah, I get irrationally upset when I can't spam the same spells I spammed in BG1-2.

[@b44dsss]

mr. gatekeeper master says that not using arcane overpowered acuity is "playing the game wrong" xD i can't .... at the same time telling everyone camp casting is broken ;-D just remember this -> if you are not using gale as a camp casting cleric -> you are playing the game wrong xD xD xD xD the duality forces me to put my fingers into my eyes xD xD xD

[@FluffiestWalrus]

When you said there are better persistent damage clouds than insect plague… what are the better persistent damage clouds?

[@Aestus_RPG]

Cloud of Daggers for one.

[@FluffiestWalrus]

@@Aestus_RPG hmm. Say I was interested in a large area denial persistent damage spell. That has to be plague right? Don’t, get me wrong love cloud of daggers, but area is very small

[@DwWarWolf]

​​@@FluffiestWalruscloud of daggers also can't be moved after its cast so it's even worse in that regard. But aoe bad. Only single target.

[@Aestus_RPG]

@@FluffiestWalrus If you wanted larger area I'd go Wall of Fire next.

[@Mebibit]

As a very mild criticism (as I think anyone deep enough into the BG3 hole likely has already completed the quest), but the ansur spoiler Spoilers below: does kinda spoil the big twist of it all.

[@gabbagoobus9158]

Contagion in B tier is really generous.

[@Aestus_RPG]

I honestly don't think so. I've gotten a lot of use out of this spell.

[@trengilly01]

Dispel Evil and Good to totally RP tier. Single character protection only , , , and just imposes attack disadvantage . . . many of these creatures are casting things that require save instead. Absolutely zero reason to waste a 5th level spell on this. Odd you ranked it B-tier when at the same time you dismiss party wide proc of Bless/Resistance from Mass Cure Wounds (or Mass Healing Word). Those effects are hugely superior!

[@welkingunther4298]

Mass healing word is superior because it's a bonus action AND only lv 3. Wasting your action and 1/2 of your 5th spell slots for a relatively unimpressive heal is not good. If you really want to heal as cleric, go life cleric and preserve healing at least doesn't waste one of two lv 5 spell slots. If you don't care who heals and just need healing bad... you can do that as a lv 11 fighter. 3 throw commands for 3 supreme healing pots. Clerics have fight determining spells that I wouldn't waste their action healing instead of debuffing or blowing up the mass of enemies.

[@trengilly01]

Oh I agree Mass Cure Wounds is bad. I'm fine with Mass Healing Word . . . even if there are better ways to do party wide buffs, at least mass healing word doesn't require any special subclass/build, it can be available as an option for any party (I like his B ranking). My issue was with Dispel Evil and Good . . . its pointless and RP tier.@@welkingunther4298

[@tiradegrandmarshal]

Yeah, Dispel Evil and Good is literally no better than a 1st-level Protection from Evil and Good. Absolutely absurd that it was rated any higher than RP-tier.

[@Aestus_RPG]

Its much stronger than the first level variant, since it doesn't require concentration, which means you can stack it with other buffs.

[@tiradegrandmarshal]

@@Aestus_RPG is it worth 4 slots higher, though? I think not.

[@choleraphd7702]

I took Cloudkill because I was traumatised by the Balthazar boss fight and I thought it was the hottest shit ever, turns out it's damn worthless 😬

[@rulrich45]

I noticed that all thjese tier lists by different look similar, even between different content creators. Is there a specific program you use for this?

[@Aestus_RPG]

Yes, TierMaker.

[@HieuNguyen-nb2cm]

Hold Monster doesnt work on undeads btw

[@momqabt]

First problem: Banishing smite: 50+ HP can't happen. If they have up to 50 hp a paladin can just smite it. Don't spend magical secrets on this F tier

[@momqabt]

Cloud kill...yeah Coc...yeah Conjure elemental: it's better compared to the tt version so yes, summons are great in bg3. God tier Second problem: Contagion, 3-6 turn melee range save or suck spell. F tier. If you didn't kill it in 3-6 turns, it's a boss, so it has good con save.

[@momqabt]

Curriculum, wow that's op as fuck! Yeah, pretty kuch God tier. Destructive wave, yeah pretty much. Dethrone nah brav, you shouldn't count on items when talking about the effectiveness of a spell. Low damage for a 5th level spell (upcast fireball), necrotic, con save. F tier

[@momqabt]

Dispell evil and good...aside from the updated roster of enemies, you get this at lv1, protection from evil and good (why they change it from good and evil idk it rolls of the tongue much easier). Sadly there is no upcast benefit for protection, if there were, casting it on 5 targets would be Hella OP and much better than DEnG. Even at lv1 is still a better thing to spend your slot on, compared to lv5 slot. F tier.

[@momqabt]

Dominate, yeah if it lands its great..but it has to land. Pretty much A tier in bg3, in tt it's a c or d tier Flame strike is pretty much D tier. Dex save, low damage, small area, here it should also be D tier. Greater resto is very situational, D to F tier. Hold monster, save or suck, twin it. God tier.

[@momqabt]

Insect plague...con save, the added difficult terrain is good but you have lower level spells for that. F tier. Mass cure wounds...with a life cleric is very good to save your ass, on it its C tier, everyone else, D to F tier. Planar binding, yes, A tier in game, C to D in tt. Seaming, God tier in TT, rp in bg3. Sights, unique spell. No complaints, A tier. Telekinesis, A tier to YEAT! enemies off into chasms. You have better 5lv spells, but it's still pretty good. Wall of stone great zoning, in TT it can save your ass, but otherwise it's a bit situational. There are better spells. B to C tier.

[@MarekFischer854]

can you please do a weapon tierlist? :)

[@Aestus_RPG]

I already done two top 10 lists for weapons in Act 1 and 2.

[@hyperfreeze2714]

quick question, why do you call them die 8's or die 6's, instead of just saying d8 or d6?

[@Aestus_RPG]

It's just the way I've always said it. "D" stands for die.

[@juliendrainville7131]

They nerfed Wall of Stone so hard... and disappeared Wall of Force 😢

[@Jel_lim]

please do companions teir list

[@scotter]

It's "5 Dee 8", not "5 die 8". Everywhere we read this, including where you were just reading from, it reads like "5d8".

[@Aestus_RPG]

The 'd' is short for 'die." Some people read it as "dee" and some people read it as "die." Both are correct.

[@scotter]

@@Aestus_RPG correct. The "d" is short for die. You can choose to use short version or long. You are choosing long. I do see one way that is useful: beginners would be more likely to understand.

[@Aestus_RPG]

@@scotter They are both the same length: one syllable.

[@scotter]

@@Aestus_RPG and yet one is pronounced like the "d" you see and one is not.

[@Aestus_RPG]

@@scotter It makes sense to shorten it when written form but they are the same length in verbal form, so there isn't any reason to say it one way or another. Its really just preference.