BG3 1st Level Spells Tier List (Part 1) **FLASHING LIGHT WARNING**

[@ApexusTime]

Featherfall is great outside of combat imo. i skipped all traps in the hag lair. i skipped half of moonrise towers by jumping down to the prison cells. i skipped half of the underdark combined with jump and many more. in fight... its usless as said.

[@exantiuse497]

This. It's not a mandatpry spell but it's super convenient, and since it's ritual it's zero opportunity cost if you have a wizard in the party or cast it from the item

[@thegraybeards2568]

I agree. It is just so widely available via other means that i almost never pick that spell with any of my characters. Well, wizards are something else ofc since they can learn all spells :D

[@DioDinero]

There’s two good use cases for feather fall I can think of. Hag den is one of them. The other is bypassing the entire wizard’s tower by jumping from the top. Having said that, I think if longstrider is a ritual spell, feather fall should’ve been too.

[@dreambiscuits]

I just don't see the fun in skipping half the content personally but if it makes you happy you do you

[@HW-ow9zp]

If you have a melee heavy comp, I'm not saying i would be casting it in combat but i could see solid value on any of the more vertical maps. There's definitely value to just being able jump down without risking the prone fall. And the only one who can safely do that otherwise would be like an eagle barb diving strike. Not saying huge value but technically speaking but useless in combat like some that are genuinely useless

[@Deabsy]

Your coverage of this game is top notch. I'm sure as the game gets older, these videos by you will still be the go-to for many people (myself included) when we need to brush up on knowledge or something before a new playthrough or even during one.

[@mrdoomman97]

Can confirm that fog cloud is still insanely broke for bonus action hide classes. I played a gloom stalker rogue multiclass and was basically only ever hit if something went before me in the turn order. The Ai will try to path into you as if you tried to hide normally, but they really dislike actually entering the cloud itself which makes it basically invincibility.

[@harchierplebbington9397]

It’s even worse if you are using the eversight ring to always attack with advantage inside the cloud

[@crazy-tommy]

My Tav did use Disguise Self throughout the whole game as the extra 1d4 on all checks from the Shapeshifter's Boon Ring (from killing the Strange Ox) that stacks with other stuff like Guidance etc. was invaluable. I disguised mostly as female gnome as I like their default look and it lets you use all the entrances that only work for small races. Btw. Create Water also seems to reveal invisible enemies. I used it on the Act 3 Hag fight to locate them.

[@mbra8228]

Omg what a champ move , I saw the ox but wouldn’t imagine it has such a good item ! :D

[@crazy-tommy]

@@mbra8228 I think you normally get the dialog option to kill the Strange Ox in act 2 or act 3, but you can actually do this already in act 1. If you oneshot him with an attack/spell like Inflict Wounds it does not aggro anyone at the druid camp. But only do this in act 1 if you don't need any act 2 items from Dammon or want to romance Karlach. As there is some interaction between the Strange Ox and Dammon in act 2, killing the Ox in act 1 causes Dammon to directly move to act 3 without him showing up in act 2. You can still buy the act 2 items in act 3 from Dammon, but the Karlach romance automatically fails if you didn't get the second upgrade for her in act 2, which requires Dammon.

[@roaringthunder8069]

​@@crazy-tommyif you kill the ox in act 1 after the tiefling party Dammon will be where he's supposed to be in act 2.

[@crazy-tommy]

@@roaringthunder8069 ah cool, thanks for this

[@roaringthunder8069]

@@crazy-tommy lmao I was about to call bullshit and then I realized the circumstances of what I did in my playthrough.

[@cooldes4593]

More tier list ideas! (After spells & feats) Transformation tier list (i.e. all the wildshapes, displacer beast form, dark urge transformation, mindflayer, etc) Summons tier list (i.e. animate dead, necromancer book spell, Us, guardian of faith, woodland being, etc)

[@antoineroca1690]

For bless there is an item that allows to bless on heal. Combine with any mass healing and your team is fully blessed no need for concentration nor supplementary spell slot.

[@Aestus_RPG]

For how long?

[@antoineroca1690]

@@Aestus_RPG I think 2 turns, like the blade ward effect. And it doesn't get upgraded by the staff of mystra.

[@Aestus_RPG]

@@antoineroca1690 Exactly. It doesn't replace Bless when its only two turns.

[@kalbarnes2494]

Phalar aluve (or whatever the act 1 singing sword is called) grants bless for 5 turns in a radius with no concentration once per short rest. It’s really good, but the shriek is better if you can get it in there. I haven’t tried this yet but plan to slap it on a cleric - get hasted, use action Phalar aluve shriek, cast spirit guardians, run around blending enemies up.

[@helios_is_my_name]

​@@Aestus_RPG it absolutely replaces or at least outclasses bless imo seeing as healing word/mass healing word is a bonus action and heals on top of giving the bless, as well as not needing the concentration, and being able to be used on more targets than what bless would allow. It just does more than what the bless spell offers in my experience.

[@leonlacroix2638]

Slight warning for disguise self: You can play the game with characters fully disguised however it will mess with there story events. For example: spoilers Shadowheart was disguised and killed nightsong. However after leaving the shadowfell she acted as tho she wasn't there, got mad and would leave the party. For gale, he will never ask for a item to consume, so after beating kethric he will also leave the party due to the orb being ignored.

[@jerryblue017]

They got way too deep into their disguise.

[@IanZero0]

I am... so mad. I'm not familiar with dnd so I went into bg3 blind. I beat the whole game without realizing how there are quite a few ritual spells. Like longstrider for example, never used it, ever. On the level up screen it just says it's a spell and so I thought, why in the hell would I expend a spell slot to cast a very small buff. WHY DOESN'T THE GAME TELL YOU ITS A RITUAL SPELL ON THE LEVEL UP SCREEN AHHHH.

[@Slayn25]

Good list and rationale. Only one I was surprised by was find familiar. Choose the Raven, give it Longstrider, then open with a blind attack from stealth. All attacks on target now have advantage. Once target is blinded or killed, back the bird up to avoid getting targeted. At worst, it saves you from a hit and didn't cost an action, bonus action, or spell slot. What's not to love?

[@Aestus_RPG]

I was probably unfair to Find Familiar. Its just a complicated spell and lately I've been finding it tedious (just my own bias), so the thought of spending 5 minutes going over it and giving it a fair treatment triggered me. My bad!

[@wintercast1337]

I feel like false life is meant to be used as a scroll before combat

[@MarcParisTV]

Create water is also the best spell to remove invisibility..:) Clearly best level 1 spell (with magic missile & shield..:))

[@Cyromantik]

I also like how it turns lightning spells into lasting field effects.

[@maxbuss970]

I kinda don't get it. I mean sure, it doubles the damage of an ice or lightning attack. But why not just use the spell slot to make a second attack?

[@Mojo1800]

@@maxbuss970 That assumes all attacks are created equal, and it also assumes that only one attack is being made with the doubled damage. Neither of which is true. That perspective also neglects the utility Create and Destroy Water can have as well. Imagine if a single cast of create water doubles two attacks in its duration, it doubling twice will have it more valuable than if you had just casted that spell again. Doubling the damage of any attack with a first level spell slot effectively scales that first level spell to the level of the casted spell. If create and destroy water doubles the damage of a cone of cold and adds 36 damage to it, you have effectively done 36 damage with a first level spell slot, which you simply cannot do with any 1st level damage spell. With the previous point in mind, we can imagine instances where we may scale up the number of cone of colds and create and destroy water will double all of them. Even if there were a 1st level spell that could match that damage (which clearly there is not), create and destrroy water will occasionally still win. AAAAAAND, Create and Destroy water has utility too. Revealing invisible creatures, creating an electric/ice surfaces or removing the burned condition, or for getting free fire resistance in some fights, and (for RP reasons) cleaning off your party from a bloody/dirty battle.

[@betasprite4239]

Charm Person can give you advantage on Persuasion dialogue options when Friends won't work. It's still not above a C, I'd say, but I used it a few times for that. Overall, great list and explanations. Edit: I've now watched a few of these, and I understand better how these are ranked. I fully agree with the placement of Charm Person now.

[@OakandIV]

Re-listened, which is a sign of how much fun these tier lists are. :-) I do get not liking Find Familiar as a combat spell. Not much raw damage. OTOH, the cat is excellent outside of combat for moving NPCs and grouping targets. The Raven can blind one target every round with a reasonable chance of success (more so in the early game). Enemies, even powerful enemies, often waste attacks on the familiar rather than your party. You get decent utility, low level attack and crowd control, and one hit worth of defense, all for a spell that doesn’t cost you a spell slot cast as a ritual. I’d say it’s a solid B tier. A tier for the imp or quasit.

[@Cyromantik]

Aggro is often prioritized by who has the lowest AC, so I think you're on to something here!

[@YoItsZoe9696]

If you run a cleric and have it out for aid, it will sometimes even live an extra hit. I ran a crab all game, that bleed goes insane. No save, 4d4 over 3 turns on one hit.

[@ThePteropterus]

Ilike to keep the warlock familiars invisible so they don't enter combat, then use them to cheap shot an enemy if i can't finish them off. if an enemy is concentrating on a spell, in cover, or i just barely can't kill them before they get a turn, I'll call in the imp sneak attack.

[@Polarthief]

Regarding Create Water: You can also cast it where you know/think Invisible enemies are and it will reveal them. As if the spell wasn't good enough when combined with Cold/Lightning damage. PS: There are a few points in the video where the video rapidly flashes purple; I assume a rendering issue, but yeah, just letting you know.

[@Aestus_RPG]

Yeah... something went wrong on the export and I noticed to late... I am very sorry, it won't happen again.

[@Polarthief]

@@Aestus_RPGOh no you're good, just pointing it out.

[@Hawksearcher]

@@Aestus_RPGyeah I thought my phone was bugging out for a second lol. But really, don’t worry about it! It takes a lot of time to put together these long videos. You can’t be expected to examine every second of your videos after you export :).

[@MidlifeCrisisJoe]

I decided to go with Arcane Trickster for Astarion because that's how his stats (and well, whole character really) were obviously designed and ended up with Animal Friendship on his level 1 spell list because after Shield, Disguise Self, and the Jump boost spell (all of which I could see as useful for Roguery - and they have been) not much else mattered to me. It's a kind of funny spell. Not totally useless, since there are a lot of animals to talk to in the game, but definitely mostly. Its shining moment came when at Waukeen's rest Astarion ended up off near the barn looking for more water to throw on the fire while I turn-based mode my other characters to rescue the actual people stuck inside, and because I had animal friend on him I also had given him a speak with animals potion that day, so when I ran into the terrified cow/ox in the barn, he was able to talk it down and prevent I think, a combat encounter that normally happens there. So, I guess all of that is to say, the spell DOES work, at least. It will prevent animals from attacking you when dialogue ends if they're normally inclined to. But considering animals are generally not the worst opponents in the game (except maybe those eagles, but even then) and considering a constant use of animal speaking is actually needed to facilitate this spell, yeah, you're talking extremely marginal use cases in the game. They ARE there though, even if rare.

[@kkj-vb6mh]

Even for how good bless is, I stop putting it in spell slot after certain point of act 1 when you got that ring(or pendent) that will bless targets that receive healing from that character. It's so OP that by using 1 aoe healing spell(the best is lv 2 spell) and you can bless your entire party in one go I can't believe that item is just uncommon equipment.

[@youngsinatra1]

Omg what’s it called

[@kkj-vb6mh]

@@youngsinatra1 I can't remember but I think its a ring/amulet that you can buy from one of the merchant in act 1

[@Incognito.ryujin]

@@youngsinatra1whispering promise

[@motlagh]

Regarding the obscure and blind effects for fog cloud, you can do that without a spell slot on a bonus action, every turn, with rogue disengage and the Cloak of Cunning Brume. Feels like the most efficient way to proc those obscured effects (and also get small-AoE blind off).

[@choleraphd7702]

My favorite spell combo on trash mobs is Hunger of Hadar and Sleet Storm, mostly because trash mobs tend to fail saving throws on ice quite often, so Hunger of Hadar keeps them blind and taking insane damage, and the AI is forced to move because they’re blind, they slip and fall, waste their turns and take damage. I end up skipping my turns because I literally don’t have to lift a finger.

[@BSMaker]

37:00 It's also an evocation spell, so Sculpt Spells means a wizard(with a light cleric dip) can just toss it in the middle of combat and only hit enemies. A cleric dip for a wizard is just a good idea in general, so this is quite the amazing combo, imo.

[@ovbrook3057]

Being forced to cast it with wisdom isn't ideal though, but you can cheat that a bit with headband of intellect to have a +3 to both casting stats. Also worth noting is that drow and half drow can also do this if you prefer having higher charisma and not multiclassing

[@senexiratus973]

lol, still dead on. Fair enough on find familiar. Great wizard spell (if you upgrade later to Shovel). Replaceable ritual that can help rogue, and can also be used each short rest if it dies, meaning it took enemy action economy. Decent on ranger if you take it. Same reasons and always prepared. Quasit and or imp are also great, but probably not first level. Scratch help action is very good, but maybe not better than C, cause he's squishy and can't invis. Probably not worth managing. Upgraded is definitely better than C. Just commenting again for algorithm. Nice convo.

[@Golus1990]

I love your tier lists and all of your content on BG3. I disagree on some evaluations, but with so many different combinations it's impossible to have a same opinion on every aspect. About ensnaring strike - one thing that makes it IMHO an at least B spell. It uses bonus action and action, but (contrary to what was said in a video) it allows for extra attack, so it is worth casting past level 5. Add the Bounty Hunter disadvantage on saving throw making it a decent single target control on some enemies. You can also do a Ranger/Sorcerer multiclass and twin it, which would allow for 3 attacks at level 7 (Ranger 5/Sorcerer 2). Find Familiar is a ritual so it cost just one preparation on a wizard f.e. And raven has an attack that blinds on hit with no saving throw. C is way too low. Especially early game when you can cast 3 to 5 spells per long rest spending a preparation slot on Find Familiar is great.

[@MundaneThingsBackwards]

A tier at least. Putting any extra body in the fight is rediculously good. Add in aid and heroes feast late game even when your hit chance with blind is pretty terrible and you’ll often still be removing an entire turn from many enemies. Multiple if you bless and blade ward the entire party.

[@freezingpng18]

Round 2 boys, here we go!

[@Dutchbrother07]

RP tier for cure wounds? It’s better than healing word when a character heals themselves because it doesn’t need range and heals for more HP. Plus you can stack it with healing word on the same turn at any level. Also it’s a great way to top off healing characters out of combat because it’s, again, more healing per spell slot. Definitely more useful that a lot of these spells

[@lolmanmagee2785]

find familiar i think is worth considering. it is a ritual spell with a combat benefit, the benefit might be as small as dealing 1d6 and/or tanking a enemy attack, but hey. considering it costs 0 action economy and 0 spell slots it is kinda useful by definition. i havent experimented too much with the spell, but on my first playthrough i remember a crab i summoned finishing off a human and then getting 1 shot by a shadow which is technically S tier action economy as my actual wizard was just using cloud of daggers that turn and not having to expend any resources to get the effect. on a wizard that does not need to consider spell learned slots, this can easily be an auto prepare once you have enough int for all your combat spells. i would place it in A or S tier on theory alone personally.

[@arnaudbecheler8982]

Command : Grovel is also surprisingly the only counter I know to Globe of Invulnerability. Gale inside its Globe, invulnerable, will lose concentration if an enemy casts Command Grovel on him. Idk if it's a bug

[@HammerspaceCreature]

That's really clever and not even a bug. Being knocked prone always breaks concentration and the globe only protects against damage.

[@davidwagner3710]

Fog cloud allows you to rob merchants blind

[@dathunderman4]

Does it still? Tried it recently and made every NPC nearby hostile, even the ones that weren’t in the fog

[@davidwagner3710]

@@dathunderman4 they changed it in patch 6

[@quentonrivera9150]

Still works as long as the merchant or other npcs never enter fog. Just did it took everything and just went invis afterward

[@chi7818]

Create water is useless since you can throw water (the item) for the same effect. Disguise self before you pickpocket, go to camp and drop disguise, go back and they won’t suspect you. There is also a ring you get from the ox that’s shapeshifted that gives you a +1d4 to ability checks as long as you are disguised.

[@Jushiro90]

Thanks for the video! Love the content. For new players reading this, this list is pretty spot on and fair. However, DO use "Find Familiar" if this is your first playthrough. It is A/S Tier imo on first playthrough. You dont know anything, and this spell allows you to literally scout most areas you enter and find alternate routes to enter, surprise, avoid, or kill enemies. After the first playthrough, this spell is close to RP tier.

[@galax12370]

I never thought of armor of agathys that way. upcasting is one of the hardest mechanics to understand just because there is so many spells. I recently did a warlock run and upcasting is really important to understand there and I was pretty lost.

[@zzxp1]

imo the reason warlock gets the most out of it is because they upscale their spells based on their warlock level and because they can also melee. Otherwise Im still not comfortable spending a high level spell slot for something that only works when someone hits your caster on melee which should be very rare unless you are playing very poorly.

[@galax12370]

@@zzxp1 warlock is really misguided in terms of your spells. I think warlock needed more hex type spells to make the general pleb combats more interesting

[@galax12370]

@@zzxp1 but its hard too imagine hex but you actually do something. that crap would prob break the game pn its own

[@platypus547]

I agree with others. Feather Fall definitely being underrated. It's too good for exploration to rate on combat utility alone even though there is some and I have used it a few times in combat. It certainly has more combat utility than friends, which got S tier as a cantrip. It also has more combat use than Disguise self, which you are never casting while actually in combat (even though you might have during combat for githyanki weapons, but can also pre cast feather fall).

[@Aestus_RPG]

If Friends was a 1st level spell I would also rate it C-tier. I don't factor in exploration to my tier lists. Sometimes I mention it, but the rating always goes off of combat utility, either direct or indirect.

[@galax12370]

@@Aestus_RPG I think its a shame you rated friends so high just because you can "avoid combat" but featherfall which also avoids combat without the xp gain but can get you some sweet loot is not.

[@galax12370]

​@@Aestus_RPG tho the more I think about this spell the more confused i get so idk really maybe its properly rated however you wish to rate it. its def not rp tier tho

[@ovbrook3057]

​@@Aestus_RPG Feather fall allowing you to bypass traps and thus enter combat with more HP and resources is not negligible. Still, I can understand why you put that limitation in place, since things can get hard to rate when you start accounting for out of combat uses. Besides, a spell like feather fall rarely needs to be learned, since barring wizard and druid who can pull it out when it's handy at virtually no cost, you get enough scrolls of first level spells and feather fall potions that actually going out of your way to take it on other classes that get it like sorc and bard is just not good

[@ovrsurge4689]

I had a really funny moment with command: approach in a pf1e game. We were in an abandoned duergar fortress and a group of duergar looters at the end of a corridor noticed us, so we cast grease on the floor and the one guy who didn't get hit by the initial grease spell got commanded to walk right through it, triggering an attack of opportunity from an ally in a side room and then tripping on the grease. It can be an S tier spell in the right conditions, but outside of those it might lack reliability.

[@Cyromantik]

I like using grease to expand fire field effects without needing to waste an additional action on lighting another fire.

[@mbra8228]

I recently finished my first (but deep) playthrough and I thought I had a good grasp on what’s worth what already I didn’t realise some of these scale so good into late game as well! just never used them when I had higher spells 0.0

[@gotaplanstan]

Love the content, just have one suggestion going forward - For folks like me who aren't super familiar with the game, or dnd rules, seeing only the skill icons without names is very hard to process and understand. I saw another tier list video someone did for the game and they had the skill names on the icons and it helped A LOT

[@Tetragramix]

You learn them as you play. I knew nothing either, but after 100+ hours, I recognize them all.

[@gotaplanstan]

@@Tetragramix yeah except there's too many other games out right now too that have my attention. It'll be at least a month or two before I get the 100 hour mark on the game, and by the time I get back to it I'll have forgotten everything I may have learned before. There's no legitimate argument to be made against making content easier for all types of players to consume. Unless you wanna try to gatekeep guides and tier lists and stuff from more casual players

[@paladico]

Disguised self is kind of bugged in that it only registers when you are equipping a weapon, so if you have a githyanki sword and then cast it you don't get the benefits unless you unequip it and equip it again. However, the cool thing (if you dont like the look or the roleplaying aspect of being a githyanki) is that you can disguise self first, equip the weapon and then end the spell and you will retain the buffs. You drop the buffs if you reload a save or if you switch characters (I think because the game checks your race again when you select the character again or when you reload) so it is difficult to mantain. I use this trick in my lone wolf campaign where I don't need to switch between characters.

[@muscularclassrepresentativ5663]

Haha that’s so dope, now I may actually use the spell for that purpose knowing I don’t have to commit!

[@antonyfaulkner8649]

Only use for Feather Fall in whole game is a shortcut to the Underdark in Act 1. But, if you shortcut and decide to explore, you'll be met very swiftly by enemies that will slay you in one hit. Useful for one character scout (stealth) who can avoid the fights and grab the Phalar Aluve Sword at a low/early level. It's the ONLY time you need this.

[@Matthewcmiel]

Another s tier video! Really excited for your ranking of 4, 5, and 6 level spells! Just an fyi, but there is some glitching in the video around ensnaring strike.

[@Matthewcmiel]

Oh and expeditiousretreat

[@MrTraucher]

arnour of agathys is great, because it is used mainly by warlocks and they always cast the highest level spells possible

[@travismantta5765]

Feather fall is ritual and can be combined with enhanced leap (also a ritual) to give party members a massive boost to mobility with no downsides of fall damage while jumping.

[@WadeAllen001]

The problem with hit-point based spells like Colour Spray and Sleep is that while they can be really strong at early levels, they become practically useless later because the additional hit-points from upcasting get rapidly outpaced by the amount of hit-points enemies get. At levels 1-4, you could affect like 3 enemies with Sleep. But at level 10 you can't even affect one unless you've already damaged it to half health.

[@thorusin]

You could add that you can freeze water, so you can create ice groud that enemy can slip on it falling prone and ending their turn. Terrain effect without concentration. Now thats crazy! This is also why Ray of Frost cantrip deserve S tier slot. Have big ammount of items synergy, I think even more than EB. Draconic Sorc can add +cha to dmg and can twin it. There goes also freezing water effect. I fought in moonrise prision with paladins that have aura and I also moded them, so they have higher saving throws and they were still falling like crazy on ice. Very powerfull.

[@musclegeek1991]

Gotta be careful with that in some set piece fights. I used it when storming the moonrise towers, and after the battle a bunch of Harpers slipped on the ice and they all aggroed on me

[@dorithegreat6155]

Disguise self has another use of being able to change yourself into a smaller race and enter various holes and other shortcuts. Additionally, if you also cast reduce on yourself, you can fit into even the tiniest ones. I used it recently to fit astarion through a tiny hole and pull off a heist on the wyrmrock fortress and steal the helldusk boots combat free

[@kimhalme9016]

Not sure if anyone mentioned but create water when cast from hiding does not use your action when the combat initiates since it is a non-damage spell which enables you for wild set-ups

[@lusalma5404]

Charm person/monster was so good back in 2nd edition and every edition since has nerfed it. I miss my winter wolf pet :)

[@dianabialaskahansen2972]

Disguise Self also allows you to Speak with Dead on those you killed. Or if you plan on stealing, disguise self allowed me change to look like I was not the criminal who they put in jail, and I then walked out without anyone interfering.

[@spyrochrisgaming]

Great tier list. Here's the only situation where I wish I had Featherfall in a fight: I'm playing Karlach as a Tavern Brawler monk and during the fight to defend the grove from Minthara and her goblin army, I had plenty of opportunities to just jump down and wreak havoc with my fists, but I was essentially locked into throwing spears and javelins from above. I've also used it to escape from the bulette in the Underdark effectively. Still a C tier spell in combat, but not entirely useless.

[@Morgan423Z]

False life is actually really good if you get it for free (like the warlock skill) and you're not doing a different source of temp HP. You enter every fight with a free damage reduction.

[@SleepyChloeFist]

44:20 this still works vs AI w/ fog, and darkness. They completely fall apart if you start using those spells and hiding. I used it during Solo Tactician, and it felt too cheap. Didn't wanna finish that run.

[@Hawksearcher]

I’m starting a solo run myself (on balanced). Any tips for a newbie solo runner?

[@Cyromantik]

You can also get Armor of Aegethes from a piece of gear. :) I like using Disguise Self with my entire party so we can slip away and do a little murdering without losing amenity with 3rd party factions we can find merchants in or are attempting to infiltrate.

[@lightsideluc]

You don't use feather fall to prevent enemies inflicting fall damage, you use it to jump down and finish the enemies you inflicted it onto. It also gives you HUGE jump range to freely reach backline enemies and avoid navigating around frontliners. 10 turns is more than long enough to finish most fights so it's perfectly fine to cast before the battle begins for free. Of course, I always have a wizard so it taking a spell learning slot isn't a big deal.

[@robingoodfellow8097]

Tbh as good as Create Water is, it's probably still an RP tier spell, you can achieve the same thing with just throwing bottles of water, you're never short of those. And the thing with throwing them is that they don't cost spell slots, plus if you have any sort of extra attack, you can throw multiple times, up to 3 times per actions as a fighter. Throwing is much more precise, whereas the spell can hit your own party and wash off your poison/coating

[@Bearshere]

I mean this is probably a glitch but if you just use the upcast prompt for create water it doesn't consume a spellslot. At least in my experience

[@robingoodfellow8097]

@@Bearshere there's an option to cast it basically as a cantrip that doesn't cost spell slot but the area is much smaller than even lvl 1. about the same as a water bottle but cost an entire action in combat

[@Bearshere]

@@robingoodfellow8097 ah so that's what it was. I always thought it was weird though cause it had the level 2 spellslot and upcast symbol, but never consumer anything. Frankly I have never casted create water any other way cause the first time I used it I had no level 1 slots

[@robingoodfellow8097]

@@Bearshere oof apparently it's just a bug that shouldn't be accessible to us. the cantrip version just got removed in patch 6

[@Bearshere]

@@robingoodfellow8097 heartbreaking. Oh well, Patch is still worth it for the kissing animations

[@conorduh]

Ive been binge watching most of ur vids since i found youre channel, theyre really helpful and overall great. Thanks loads :D Ive been waiting for this vid especially too lol

[@icecatti]

Been counting the days for this video release, can’t wait to dive in

[@Azrael178]

My problem with spells like bane, is that spells that weaken the enemies are competing with spells that buff you, and spells that prevent enemies from doing anything at all. And situations where weakening enemies is better than either of those options are few and far between.

[@persistentpally]

Find Familiar outside of Warlock Pact of the Chain is only useful for exploring areas. Raven is the best option here, and I've used it on my Ranger character. I can fly the Raven around areas and see what the area has to offer. Also the Blind attack is very useful. However, the Raven has 1HP, and while hard to hit, it can be killed by AOE spells. i wasn't impressed by the options, and I thought the mouse could go into the burrow holes, but it can't. What you can do is have Gale learn the Cheeky Quasit from Illyn Toth's laboratory. That is a familiar worth having just for the comic relief alone.

[@creedolala6918]

Going through these old videos so that I know what to do on my third playthrough. You should do a guinea pig reveal at 22k subscribers.

[@troublesome07]

Appreciate this vid. I am planning to start my first tactician playthrough after kinda breezing through my first playthrough on Balanced. I think I'm ready. But i'll need to learn to min/max a bit more.

[@HammerspaceCreature]

The major downside of Create Water for me is that water bottles and barrels exist. They aren't as common as they logically should be considering humans need water to live but you can stockpile quite a few of them making Create Water unnecessary in many encounters even if you are abusing the wet status.

[@KingChocobo]

Create water is C tier because you have the same effect, but better with just throwing a Carafe of Water and the water lasts longer and covers a larger area.

[@Tetragramix]

That's not the point.

[@KingChocobo]

@@TetragramixIt is the point, if the free and plentiful Carafes of water weren't in the game, then yes it would be S tier, but they are so there is no need to take the spell.

[@Ridingthewaves305]

Command is OP as hell at the very start of the game against the tiefling commander

[@mdcandronic]

No sick Gith gear will ever justify for me looking that ugly xD I don't agree about Ensnaring strike simply because in my experience it's the single spell worth casting as ranger besides hunter mark. Ranger can get a feature when they level up that makes the entangle last longer and the save throw have disadvantage so it's better than it looks. Not as good as hunter mark but i wouldn't call it C tier.

[@SanraiDalris]

Another big boon for bless is the staff that boosts the bonus up to 2d4 and 3d4 for spell attacks.

[@l.m.srensen4559]

Create water… I don’t think I’ve ever bothered to spend that extra action to get monsters wet, so I can deal a bit of extra damage next turn. They’re usually dead before I get to use that lightning spell on next round. But that’s propably just me, because I only ever use 1 caster… (Shadowheart) So to me it’s a wasted action. Although it does wash the blood and gore away between fights…

[@mbra8228]

I have the same problem with this. On paper it sounds like making target wet counts as extra damage from the other lightning/cold caster. But Rarely enemies are actually so grouped to make many of them wet, If not cast pre-fight, the water caster has to roll first initiative , (In my case also it was a Druid that was often already shapeshifted prefight and now can’t cast water) Your fighter has no business attacking these wet targets now as they are about to take double dmg from the caster soon, so you go around… It’s all so much labour to optimise..

[@ThriftySteve]

Yeah for some reason my Shadowheart always seems to have terrible initiative

[@alexandrvrnv304]

@@mbra8228 Black hole, create water (basicly just casting second lightning / cold cone), then hasted sorc double lightning, everything dead. But outside of modded enemy HP (doubled/tripled) its almost non-existent combo, because u have just too much damage in vanilla

[@ryanstewart2289]

Armor of Agathys is bonkers on an abjuration wizard. With enough stacks of Arcane Ward you can get a lot of triggers from your thorns effect.

[@tsunderemerc2963]

The only time I really found Feather Fall useful was for Rogues, but still very situational. It's useful when they're perched in a high place during a fight for their stealth attacks. They can easily regroup with it, or niche situations like the Nere battle where druegar can use roaring thunder arrows to shoot you off the upper catwalk, so you're safe if that happens (or they get the perfect angle and you hit the lava :P)

[@jrrrck]

gonna need a time stamp/chapter for guinea pig

[@teddyspaghetti2858]

Awesome video! About race specific weapons, there is one for dwarfs that I only got access go on a dwarf playthrough, I'm not sure if you need to be one tho. I won't spoil what it is just just for anyone who's interested it definitely favors martial classes.

[@anna45333]

Feather Fall was ultra useful for me against the Hag. Cause while entering her final chamber i had to just jump from a high place and without it my characters would drop very low in health or even killed. And it was normal difficulty.

[@burningknight7]

I mostly agree with you and your decisions are based on a lot of facts but feather fall is actually quite good. As someone else said, it straight up lets you skip whole sections of games just by jumping down. But one more reason why its actually pretty OP if the jump is even a teensy bit elevated , it let's you basically jump as much as your movement speed is which isn't how jump usually works. Thereby skipping many difficult terrains.

[@Aestus_RPG]

Idk, I've beaten this game so many times, and I never once felt like I needed Feather Fall.

[@Fakerv]

Great video! Have u decided when part 2 is coming out? Can't wait

[@Aestus_RPG]

Saturday morning!

[@Aestus_RPG]

Good luck at Worlds btw!

[@lougvar]

Great tier list! I like how you show and explain spells

[@MrGhosta5]

Charm person should be atleast c tier because it gives advantage on charisma checks in dialogue. You can use eagle's splendor but that takes up both a level 2 spell slot and you're concentration slot. If you're planning to do a big city trip then eagle's splendor is better but charm person is better for when you just need to pass one or two charisma checks.

[@OppiusBrutus]

a weakness of faerie fire is it hits all creatures, not just enemies. it's good but because of that I would knock it down to B tier personally

[@Tanduras]

Always enjoy the uploads, was a big fan of Davaeorn's tier lists and I'll be sure to be checking out all of these! It highly preferential, and it might just be because I'm a little stupid and forget some of the rationale, but I always like a quick little recap/intro about what each tier meant. It helps clear up any confusion about why certain things were placed in certain categories, especially as you get a bit later on in the series. Needing to go back to the cantrip list to see some of the base reasoning for why each spell gets a certain ranking is just a slight annoyance, and might help clear up some of the confusion and prevent you from feeling like you have to explain the reasoning to all the "But X spell is only strong because of Y or only gets good with Z" types of comments. Even if it was quite literally just the little intro copy pasted with fill-in-the-blank splice or something silly, I think it makes the series as a whole flow a bit better / make them easier to jump into. But it's a very minor nitpick, and I'll keep enjoying the videos either way!

[@Aestus_RPG]

I'll try a quick recap next time.

[@ya.viene.el.guanaco]

"making targets wet is just as good in BG3 as it is in real life" bro what hahaha

[@ZachBerg-ys8tl]

Searched for this comment lol

[@СырКолбасный]

I finished the game as ranger and I think you are wrong about ensnaring strike, its actually nice. 1) ranger can make extra attack after ensnaring strike 2) ensnaring usually works on immun guys, like bosses, steel guards e.t.c 3) it has very nice chance of proc 4) it provides adnvantage for attackers and disadvantage on saves because of rangers bounty hunter The only disadvantage is concentration requirement, so you have to choose between ensaring and hunter's mark

[@Otaman_Warhammer]

False life is a great spell. Just add character that you are not going to use until long rest to you party, buff 3 others for the whole day and replace it with another one who needs that extra hp less than others. I would say you can use it as A tier

[@yaboiloopy9078]

Hi Aestus, can you pls put a flashing lights/epilepsy warning on this, cause some ppl might be forced into irl unexpected death saving throws if u dont

[@Aestus_RPG]

I did, but maybe it isn't clear enough.

[@SleepyChloeFist]

26:16 I disguised Councellor Florrick in Act 3 and we all just walked out of prison. Technically not "Disguise Self", but it worked beautifully.

[@alexandrvrnv304]

Its a bug, because you can do it without disguise at all (just kill everyone in the prison itself, in the rooms above nobody cares)

[@memekaze9736]

Yeah I just walked out of there with Florrick and nobody gave a damn 🤣

[@Jeff-uu9vo]

It's funny how many of the rp tier abilities and spells are featured in the speed run

[@mrsamiam7872]

I really think you are missing the value cure wounds provides. While mostly useless in combat compared to healing word out of combat it can provide decent value as a low level single target heal. If you have one character that got downed in a fight or took a lot of damage and don't have any short rests left casting a cure wounds multiple times or upcasting cure wounds can actually be good. Still pretty niche so C tier but it definitely has a use. tldr: Cure wounds is a decent low tier single target out of combat heal C tier

[@Aestus_RPG]

I just disagree. Not enough value for the spell slot.

[@Transplantuwu]

So i never use fog cloud for some reason, but i use darkness the same way. The AI for that spell at least is pretty annoying. The steel watchers are already good vs the strategy with their aoe melee, but sometimes the archers will randomly maim someone with their crossbow inside the fog cloud somehow. Then you literally cannot escape and are effectively removed frpm combat. If fog cloud functions this way id allow it in runs, because its not an instawin button in every encounter passed maybe early act 2? Edit: positioning not near the edges of obscurement seem to help prevent this

[@nayber2352]

Expeditious retreat is a tier if you are using lightning charges, and c tier otherwise I would say. IF you are using the lightning boots it's super strong early game, but if you just want speed, there are bonus action dash boots in the game that do the same thing but better

[@philgrazi]

There's a robe that gives you armor of agathys too, so technically anyone can get it

[@ThatGuyKazz]

There are a few things I disagree with here. 1st: is I think disguise self is A tier not S tier simply because it requires a lot of forethought if not actual meta knowledge to actually utilize it as social utility spell and if you have that meta knowledge there are likely other things you can do that are just as effective. 2nd: Divine Favor is B tier Yes you can build around it to make to good but no ability to up cast + concentration means that there is almost certainly something better you can be doing with either your action, the spell slot, and/or concentration once you hit mid game and especially late game. 3rd: Expeditious Retreat is NEVER what you want the classes who get this actually want to be casting with maybe the exception of a Eldritch Knight Fighter or some other primarily melee focused multiclass build. But If a sorcerer, warlock, or wizard are casting this they've already fucked up and there is a very good chance someone has gotten into melee with them. If this prevented attacks of opportunity or even just gave them disadvantage it would be great for that but it doesn't so this is an example of building for failure which is never a good strategy. You could argue that being able to dash as a bonus action could help stay out of melee in the first place but for that you could just use long strider and not use an spell slot or concentration and as long as your positioning is good that should be more than enough to keep you out of sticky situations. 4th: I find Feather Fall is actually pretty consistently decent because it is a ritual cast and can be used to by pass a lot of traps and opens up a lot of different traversal options on the map you wouldn't otherwise have access too. It can also be used to great effect as a set up spell that allows your whole party to set up on the high ground before a fight and then your melee fighters can jump down without taking damage or falling prone so in that way it has some of the same combat utility as the minor illusion cantrip. 5th: fog cloud is not S tier. Yes you can build around it and abuse it but I don't think being abusable is grounds for S tier because unless you're specifically building around abusing that spell it isn't actually very good and I'd argue that you're actually FORCED to do things like that to get any substantial value out of it at all. So I'd say B tier and I'd only really put it into A tier if there was some way to reliably take advantage of fog cloud such as the Blind Fighting feat from the table top.

[@jhon1406]

Question about DC because I see conflicting info online compared to in-game. Let’s take Gale using Thunderwave. It’s a CON save. The game says my DC is 12=8+2 from CON+2 from proficiency. Isn’t the +2 from CON supposed to be Gale’s +3 from INT stat which is 17? Or am I misunderstanding still? Playing on Steam deck btw.

[@stefenleung]

Yes, you don't understand familiar. It's not about the damage of the Raven(most commonly used), even not about its blind abilities(it miss too often to be useful). Having a party member, that include the summon next to the enemies allow your rogue to do sneak attack. Self-disguise as a spell itself isn't that useful. It's only useful b'cos it can cast with item, aka p2w premium Mask of the shapeshifter. Class specific items, like the silver sword for Githyanki, Dwarfish hammet for dwarf, are likely only useful for someone who can't cast self-disguises or can't cast spell at all.

[@Tetragramix]

I don't think the term "p2w" really applies to a story driven single player rpg...

[@stefenleung]

then why nerf it on the patch#4?@@Tetragramix

[@blackfalcon1324]

Why is cure wounds RP? It heals more than the other healing spell, and you can cast both in the same turn because one is an action and one is a bonus action. I do so much clutch healing by using both spells on the same turn.

[@Crabdoodles]

i have never seen the wood woad fight he mentioned. this game is huge

[@joselocombi6127]

Destroy water create mist that can still work with Thunder spell creating a surface call "electric mist"

[@thisguyknowsball]

I used to look at burning hands and ice knife and think magic missile was so bad

[@stepanivanov2573]

Good video. Thanks you for your tier lists

[@Skyblade12]

You missed one of the most powerful synergies for Armor of Agathys: Arcane Ward. It's an Abjuration spell. And until the Arcane Ward is broken, you only do the retaliation damage without losing any hit points. For an Abjuration Wizard, it is absolutely worth taking a single level in Warlock JUST to get that spell.

[@Aestus_RPG]

In early access I was best known for my Armor of Agathys + Arcane Ward wizard build. I have content covering this synergy going back to 2021. So I can't remember what I said in this video, but I am certain I didn't overlook it.

[@Skyblade12]

@@Aestus_RPGFair enough. I think it's probably just because you don't really go into multiclassing on these tier lists. Really enjoying it, though. (And I only just found your channel, so it will be a while before I make it back to 2021 videos)

[@Aestus_RPG]

@@Skyblade12Back in 2021 I wasn't making videos. I posted articles on my website, and they are all outdated now.

[@janna4330]

I love your videos! Can you redo the revisited class videos now that we are post-release? Love these

[@Aestus_RPG]

I'm researching for that very thing! Hopefully it won't be long.

[@MyanRiller]

No divine smite? That's the only spell my pally uses 😂

[@chawakornchaichanawirote1196]

There's some flickering going on in the video

[@Aestus_RPG]

Yes, near the end. Something went wrong while exporting and I didn't notice until it was to late. Sorry! It won't happen again!

[@chawakornchaichanawirote1196]

@@Aestus_RPG saw u address it in part 2, thank you!

[@srmay]

For a second i thought my videocard was dying :O Loved your video Aestus_RPG @@Aestus_RPG

[@topgun1613]

How can u cast dissonant whispers as a bonus action?

[@Zoroasterisk]

Band of the Mystic Scoundrel in Act 3 is a ring that lets you cast illusion or enhancement spells as a bonus action after landing a weapon attack

[@user-cm4op2kz3y]

I have Arms of Hadar as a backup spell in case multiple enemies manage to surround me

[@МаксимКамзычаков]

That's a really weird rating on the feather fall... IMO it's an easy S tier just for the amout of additional pathfs it opens . It's nearly useless in combat, (although if you're expecting non instakill shoves nothing resally stops you from casting it before turn based mode starts), but if you were to try and use it for navigation purposes it's hard to ever stop, Even if it doesn't opens new paths it still saves you IRL time backtracking by just yeeting your ground from the elevation. But when it does opens a new path for you oh boy it is a good time Remember how you said earlier that you can infiltrate goblin camp with disguise self? I did the same with feather fall by dropping off the side road onto upper grounds with drunken sleeping goblins.

[@memekaze9736]

That's so funny me and my friend did the exact same thing on our playthrough but we just tanked the fall damage, healed, and massacred the entire goblin camp from highground. We just assumed they were bad and didn't even realize there was a main entrance to the camp.

[@shenthekinkoumaster3369]

isn't create water effect redundant since you can do the same by throwing bottle of water?

[@milat9287]

Why would you waste a spell slot on Create Water when carafes of water are so common though? What do you gain from it that the carafe doesn't provide that's significant enough to warrant a spell slot?

[@Aestus_RPG]

You gain ALOT more area of effect. Its 100% worth it.