The Genuinely Terrible Spells Of Baldur's Gate 3

[@NizarGG]

Are there any other bad spells I missed? Let me know! And as always, thanks for watching all. Subscribe and stay tuned for more bangers.

[@KatanaKamisama]

I think it's funny, that anyone who has ever played D&D, has known these are shit spells since 2014. But because BG3 just came out everyone is "discovering" old information.

[@BushSage]

Does Enthrall have any use?

[@YoItsAnton]

Hey are you planning on making a bard or paladin build?

[@BS-bd4xo]

​@@KatanaKamisamaBG3 has unironically been an amazing tool for getting to know D&D mechanics and spells.

[@quint3ssent1a]

Allow me to introduce my old friend, Flame Blade. 2nd lvl druid spell, concentration (of course), gives you a flaming scimitar which uses your casting ability (generally your wisdom, if you're a druid) as an attack and damage bonus. For all the cool flavour it has, it's so painfully bad. Fire damage is the second worst damage in the game, with so many things resistant to it. Spell scales awfully, with +1d8 damage for every 2 spell lvls above 2nd. Druid not being a real martial class with extra attack, so your awesome shiny fire sword doesn't accomplish much (1 attack per round... meh.) Being in close proximity to the enemy means you are more likely eat hits to the face and proc concentration checks. Druid already has Shillelagh as a cantrip, which does almost exactly that (1d8 attack with your casting ability as attack/damage) without concentration or a spellslot. It has it's own cool brother in Shadow blade (ow, edgy!). Almost exactly the same spell (2nd lvl, concentration), but... 1) it has additional upsides (advantage on attack in darkness or dim light.) 2) the blade is considered a thrown weapon, so in a pinch you could use that. 3) it's available for warlocks, who can be a quasi-martial class with bladepact. So, at least, you can do more than one attack per round. 4) it does psychic damage.

[@Punished_Pain]

Feign death is actually quite useful, but not for in combat. When you get a merchant to 100 attitude, you can cast Feign Death on them and steal everything you like from them, arguably one of the easiest way to steal from merchants without save scumming.

[@PandoShiro]

sooo good to steal from vendors in fog/darkness with thief+cat's grace, pretty much make them my ATM

[@darthkaijin1]

yup so good spell. they won't know they were robbed.

[@sashanation]

I thought they patched this

[@christianpihlhansen4820]

@@sashanation nope

[@Andriej69]

Ah, fellow patrician

[@jaw322]

I actually did find use for witch bolt. Had it cast on auntie Ethel during her first fight and the lightning bolt link between the caster and her would follow her when she would become invisible and spawn her clones making it super easy to dump ranged attacks at where she would be.

[@timothyjacksondrake4454]

It is how I survived minthara's assault on the grove. I got close enough to connect my witch bolt then ran away every turn behind total cover(had longstrider), and applied the measly damage. In 5e it breaks if you lose line of sight/30ft range.

[@breakingknuckles9]

I found a use as well from Witch Bolt. It's pretty great as a hit and run tactic, or a catch me if you can way of damage. I botched my Wisdom save on the down Mind Flayer (mc) and he knocked out my two (Shadowheart and La'zel) in one blast. Gale was left at a decent distance away so I applied Witch Bolt and jumped and ran his full distance directly away. It took the Mind Flayer a pretty good distance before he caught up to me. But I won that fight without any damage on me because he misses his one shot against Gale.

[@EbonyWolf.]

Yea its decent at low levels. I could link 2 targets as a sorcerer. Then I would just run back and keep damaging them without them being able to strike back.

[@Raymuss]

I had success using it with tempest cleric channel divinity, since it is an attack roll you can use the free illithid crit. Upcast at 6th level on a wet enemy is 6d12 or 72 damage x2 from crit x2 from wet for 288 damage.

[@markhutton6824]

Mind spike is a lower level spell and allows the same effect of identifying enemy that go invisible, it can also be cast like Battleships into an obscured area (dust/smoke) and then become effective if you hit. It also tracks the target is they turn to mist, as Vampires do you can still track them. Witch Bolt has never been used in a paper D&D game I have been involved in.

[@quinnbell2388]

So in defense of goodberry, its use case on the tabletop is that one goodberry gives one character all the nutrition they need for the day. So, in BG3, one goodberry should give 80 camp supplies, which would make it mildly useful. Understandably, Larian did not wish to keep that functionality, and so the spell is DoA

[@android19willpwn]

well, you've got more than 1 person camping so you'd need more than 1 goodberry to rest. But given that the party size is 4, a crop of 4 goodberries would make sense to give the full camp supplies. The problem being, of course, that long resting is way more powerful in BG3 than it is in tabletop because very few things in BG3 actually care about the passage of time.

[@SaHaRaSquad]

In BG3 your camp contains up to ~8 characters at a time, with some additional non-playable ones inbetween. So actually one goodberry should give around 10 camp supplies, perhaps half of that because on normal difficulty you need 40 supplies per long rest. I think that would still be more reasonable than a useless 1-4 heal.

[@arcticshocked]

@@SaHaRaSquad good berry can proc proodmothers revenge and/or whispering promise. give both to your fighter alongside a goodberry or two and your fighter has a 2 turn extra 1d6 damage and 1d4 to attack rolls with a single bonus action instead of having your cleric conc an upscaled bless. Your party now uses 2 level one spell slots to bless the entire party instead of a lvl 2 spell slot.

[@gipsymelody1268]

The spell already better than the healing outside of combat! Cause healing much more!

[@namelessnocebo]

Goodberry is great - you just have hirelings use all of their spell slots on it and then replace them with an actual character

[@willyguston407]

The worst part about phantasmal force is that in the the tabletop game it is crazy useful because what is causing the damage is an illusion that the target of the spell believes is real. One story I heard is that someone immobilized a dragon by using phantasmal force by making it think that it was chained to the ground. It's insane that they brought this spell into the game without bringing anything that resembles the main benefit of the spell. Also, grasping vine is great for grabbing people who fall off ledges in the tabletop game, and it's used as a reaction. I don't know why they they included this spell in the form that they did. Maybe it's a relic from some unimplented mechanics.

[@JohnQDarksoul]

Grasping vine is a bonus action, it cannot be used as a reaction in the tabletop unless readied (and even then I'm not sure you can actually ready a bonus action in the tabletop).

[@happyrogue768]

A phantasmal force illusion cant be bigger than a 10ft cube. so i dont know how whoever did that with the dragon acrually did it

[@majormissile5596]

​@@JohnQDarksoulRAW you cannot. They made it so you can't use a bonus action as what was called a standard action before for the specific reason that they wanted abilities that you couldn't use more than once per turn tied to bonus actions. This is why it’s fine for Misty Step to be a bonus action. Not being able to hold action bonus actions (as well as some of the changes to holding actions) is a consequence of this change. BG3 giving thief rouge two bonus actions breaks the hell out of it and that's specifically why it's so good here.

[@Mbk10298]

Afaik Phantasmal Force can't actually prevent the dragon from flying. It believes it's chained to the ground, but it can still try to take off, and because it's an illusion it will successfully do so. It will simply rationalize it by thinking "these chains were pretty weak" as soon as it flies off.

[@ANDELE3025]

Its still a illusion in a 10 ft cube, so most any interactions brick it.

[@manuelvasquez4144]

If True Strike was a bonus action, it would be great for the arcane trickster's sneak attack.

[@mechanicalsilence1]

If true strike was a bonus action it would be good in general, it would be similar to dual weilding without dual weilding.

[@alexandreandrade5365]

There's a small mod that does exactly this.

[@DjDoomtrain]

it can be :) but this noob dont know how so he would not add that in his vid ofcause, but just go ranger and watch the magic happen :)

[@Zelarith]

There is a weapon that let's you have it as a bonus action... Once per short rest. And that's an Act 3 legendary weapon (that is kinda meant to be used in a dual weapon build... So you're already using your bonus action to attack). I guess that it would have been too broken otherwise (Spoiler alert : no.)

[@tavastian3288]

Its good for Eldrich Knight who can cast cantrip and attack in the same turn

[@MacLachlan]

True Strike being a terrible spell is such a 'known fact' for D&D, I was kinda surprised Larian didn't try to tweak it someway

[@plormfingaround9962]

It actually is tweaked slightly. In BG3 it says "Gain advantage on your next attack roll" but in 5e it states, "On your next turn, you gain advantage on your first attack roll against the target". So BG3 at least makes it work in the same turn, meaning you could do something like quicken a spell or use a hasted action to use the advantage. Still shitty tho.

[@setcheck67]

In D&D 3rd edition true strike was broken af. It was just "You get +20 to hit for 1 round ON ALL ATTACKS and get no miss penalties from concealment(what is a turn in bg3)." This meant you could drop 1 level into wizard/sorc and turn your character into a combat master that can hit anything. So all you have to do is just build for maximum damage/AC/disable and ignore everything else for profit. I used this to get a maximum DC stunning fist monk who could stun gods and devils with 95% success chance pretty much every time. The DM started throwing immune to crits enemies at us and my monk just switched to using a heavy flail and true striked to hit a lot and HARD while the enemies struggled to get through my frankly ridiculous AC gained from high monk and high wisdom. Eventually the DM just begged me to make a different character as it was stupidly broken how the encounter needed to be party wipe strong just to beat my one character without pure luck.

[@joshuakim5240]

Imagine if True Strike was a bonus action spell instead. Instantly 10000x better...but still niche.

[@yeturs69420]

If its a bonus action, I'm casting it every opportunity. It becomes a non choice, just the other way.

[@coruscanta]

@@yeturs69420nah it still gets overshadowed by all the other bonus actions you’ll want to be using as you progress.

[@mateuszkubiak4434]

Circle of death is great if you play as wizard necromancer, with each kill from necromancy spell you heal yourself and your undead minions are immune to necrotic damage so could be way better then fireball.

[@sockbat25]

and if you get a certain Staff of Necro - you basically have infinite casts while your undead minions act as a pseudo wall of undead. That spell carried me through any mob battles and trivialised it

[@math9172]

@@sockbat25 Yeah for real this staff is the best thing in the game it's insane. I think it might be bugged cause I just have to "kill" a wooden crate to get 1 stack of the effect, and then it never goes away and I basically unlimitted spellslots of Necromancy spells. It's a bit of a shame that necromancy spells are kinda garbage, but even Circle of Death when it's a free action becomes quite worth it.

[@joshuakim5240]

The main issue with necrotic damage spells is that they all seem to be balanced around the Cherished Staff of Necromancy...in Act 3. Because pretty much every single offensive necromancy spell suddenly goes from dumpster tier to S++ godkiller tier due to being able to nonstop spam lvl6 versions of them for no cost. It's shocking how bad necromancy spells are before the staff and how broken they become with it, meaning that if they weren't garbage without the staff then they'd be nonsensically powerful with it. Circle of Death in particular is probably one of the better examples because it becomes a nonstop spammable lvl6 upcasted AOE spell that your undead summons can safely fight within as their intended role of frontline meatshields.

[@TheMrRoseboy]

Yeah I loved circle

[@Bos_Meong]

i think the spells here all have its niche uses except true strike 😂

[@Hackcam]

One thing with witch bolt is once you have it set up, the range on the recast is NINETY meters. NINETY. So you can have your caster run across the whole map where nothing can touch them and they can get zero risk damage in

[@HillBelichick]

It's also pretty nice at low levels. Sure it gets outclassed pretty quickly but it's not that bad in this game or in tabletop.

[@DemigodDuke]

not to mention it's one of the highest single target damage spells given it's high upcast damage when paired with tempest cleric, wet condition, AND as a single target spell, you can trigger Luck of the far realms with it. My Lv2/3 tempest wizard auto crit Ethal for 144 damage...at Lvl 5.

[@SecureBirch410]

​@@DemigodDukeyou can do the same with call lightning except that call lightning keeps the upcast damage and works better on groups

[@steven_th1303]

right, thats why I always have it on early game and replace it on act 2 or 3, its so good

[@steven_th1303]

@@SecureBirch410 yeah but call lightning is a lvl 3 spell while withbolt is 1, so there's nothing wrong with grabbing withbolt and replacing it later, its still very good and viable for early game

[@Wayfinder-22]

I feel like the redeeming quality of Barkskin is the fringe use it gets with Circle of the Moon Druids, as you can maintain concentration on it when you Wild Shape, and most Wild Shape forms have significantly less than 16 AC, and don't benefit from any armor you're wearing.

[@trishapellis]

Yeah, Barkskin is mainly useful for druids because they can't wear metal armor but don't get a penalty for using armor at all, and the "concentration spell + wildshape" combo is standard practice for druids, especially moon druids, in D&D. Grab an animal with high CON to prevent your concentration from being broken, or get the Warcaster feat, and you'll be able to keep a concentration spell up for a whole fight while tearing through enemies. That concentration spell could be Barkskin, but it could also be Sleet Storm to break the casters' concentration and their line of sight, or a wall, Entangle or Web to slow down at least a part of the enemies before they get to you... (I'm not entirely up to date on which of these exist in BG3 because I don't have the game yet, but this is in D&D... and I'm planning to have fun with this with Halsin)

[@Johuad]

It's not really useful for moon druids, though. It's concentration, and moon druids are usually melee fighters, which means they're getting hit, and means it's very likely that something will break their concentration.

[@Emma-se5wm]

I think it's most effective if the moon druid has the war caster feat! I like giving war caster to Jaheira and Halsin anyway just for lore and theming.

[@thelordchar1406]

@@Johuad Moon druid wild shapes have high constitution and barkskin increases the AC of the druid, both increasing the chance that they will succeed on the save and decreasing the chance they get hit in the first place.

[@Haosnir]

Or you can maintain concentration on something worth to be concentrating like Moonbeam, Call Lightining...

[@Rome3625]

I used Contagion on Gortash. He has only 10 constitution. While he was failing saving throws I dispatched the guards, and when he got the disease he was permanently blind, even after activating his super form.

[@yungseishin6295]

Gortash has a super form? damn, I murdered him so quickly he couldn't even fight back

[@benedictjajo]

Gortash has a super form? 😂 Damn, in my play through, he died from his own trap bombs.

[@connorh2215]

@@yungseishin6295you aren’t missing much, he just gets mildly bigger

[@jpaguilarl]

@@connorh2215 oh and he gets some damage chains... that you can prevent by just smashing him until he breaks concentration

[@JohnArktor]

Gortash is the easiest of the three chosen. So yeah, making the fight last longer is a boon I guess... Either you kill al the steel watchers and he is squishy, or you ally with him and he gest even squishier... Granted, it requires some preparation, but he is so easy.

[@dmoogle2006]

Bad spells are not for the players to use, usually. It's for the DM. Like Witchbolt, for example: Witchbolt on an enemy caster at levels 1-2 can absolutely be a threat that needs to be shut down(and there are three ways to do that in 5e!), but it's just not good enough for a PLAYER to take. After all, PLAYERS need to be able to adapt and overcome MANY obstacles, and most spellcasters have to take spells that maximize their chance of success in ALL situations, not just specifically the situation before them. The DM is simply creating obstacles for the players to overcome. So it's completely fine for an enemy spellcaster to have 'bad spells' because even 'bad spells' can be used effectively by a DM to make games interesting and fresh.

[@mz00956]

​@@drhouse6165 maybe those are there to prevent questions like. "What spell does this enemy use, why can't I use it"

[@drhouse6165]

While true, this just ain't the table top, and if they're going to be in the game, they can't be DM spells

[@bluegum6438]

I actually think figuring out what is and isn't good adds a lot of longevity to the game. You can be the same level with the same gear and be either broken or useless depending on how you build your character and how well you understand how to apply your tools.

[@JJ-qo7th]

The deal with Witch Bolt is that you don't have to keep rolling to hit. If you expect to miss about 35-50% of the time in the early game, then if you land the Witch Bolt when you cast it the "cantrip damage" is like "cantrip damage times 1.5 to 2.0" because you're not worrying about missing your attacks anymore. Not an issue against weaker targets, could be good against tougher targets.

[@tofastninj9747]

Also enemies that go invisible (thinking of one act 1 fey boss) still are hit and will immediately exit invisibility making their power meaningless.

[@ShadeSlayer1911]

Problem is that you still have to hit them the first time. You could be wasting valuable slots, especially as a warlock. And it'd really only be useful on big enemies, because why waste it on weak enemies? And bigger enemies often have higher ACs that make them harder to hit.

[@JJ-qo7th]

@@ShadeSlayer1911 *That's the point.* You can waste multiple turns rolling hitting or missing, or you can spend one turn rolling with advantage (there being multiple ways to get it) and effectively milk that advantage over consecutive turns.

[@ShadeSlayer1911]

@@JJ-qo7th I suppose that could work. I just think it's too situational for it to be worth it. And at least where i'm at with my party composition, we're not exactly hurting for damage or ranged damage. I'd rather save my spell slots for Wyll to cast area denial spells, which have given me plenty of mileage. I can't imagine ever choosing to cast Witch Bolt over Hunger of Hadar or Fireball, especially as a Warlock with only two slots. And that's with Witch Bolt scaling. But if there's no other spell I'd rather pick up, then I might consider it for a boss fight or something.

[@you741sings]

It's spell slot efficient but spamming cantrips is more or less similar and won't use a spell slot. If I'm using a spell slot I want some more value out of it like crowd control or like magic missile which can't miss and synergies with a lot of bonuses. Witch bolt is only rly useful imo if you need Lightning damage xuz they're weak to it. Too sighational. Otherwise spamming cantrips is almost as good (and doesn't get interrupted by concentration) and doesn't need concentration so you can use other effects like cloud of blades

[@sheeftz]

Today I discovered the Grasping Vine. First reaction was - wait, I must be missing something. The second was - wait, there's defenitely I missed something. A Level 4 conjure spell, which requires concentration, for an Action point, with 6 hp, which can't move, and literally what it can do is just pull an enemy and die on the next turn... Right next to this spell on Level 4 there's Conjure Woodland Being. Which doesn't require concentration, the summoned create has a number of usefull spells, it can move, it has 22 hp, and can conjure yet another create, which has around 50hp and which is quite usefull too... How in the world these two spells are next to each other in the spell book? Barkskin is pretty useless even if it didn't require concentration.

[@delao7569]

barksin is great as an armor effect though early game

[@plumbum9688]

@@delao7569 it's really not, concentration kills it so bad, and it is completely outclassed by any other armor options. For characters who can use medium armor - just buy it, for dex characters just use mage armor, no concentration, all day, with +3 dex (something you can have at lvl 1) it's the same 16 ac, with no concentration, doesn't count as armor, can be used with a shield, can be used on all pets and summons, great spell overal, removes any need for barkskin forever

[@thatguythere6161]

I’m pretty sure barkskin is just useful for moon druids.

[@plumbum9688]

concentration is going to ruin even that... And you could've concentrated on something more useful. Idk it's a waste of space spell in DND and very little has changed in bg3, except now you can get them as potions, which makes the spell itself even less appealing

[@ANDELE3025]

Much like contagion, which is fucked by BG3 altering from the RAW version to the errata one which i haven't ever seen used on any serious table (the melee spell attack is already high requirement even if you are using it for the on damage stun option), Vine is fucked by giving it hp and then not letting it actually be a worthy amount as on tabletop its a legit cc tool for zone control parties.

[@Qulize]

Timestamps: 0:12 Witch Bolt 1:23 Phantasmal Force 2:35 Conjure Barrage 3:56 Contagion 4:51 Circle of Death 5:27 Barkskin 6:15 Goodberry 7:05 Charm Person, Protection from Energy, Feign Death 8:22 Grasping Vine 9:29 True Strike

[@Yes-qv3nr]

I actually had a use for feign death once, during act 3. Astarion was knocked prone and couldn't move out of the steel watch's self-destruct range. I had shadowheart cast feign death so he doesn't fall unconsious. Thankfully it worked.

[@Malakai2006]

So, True Strike back in the day (3.5) would give you a +20 bonus to your attack roll and would ignore penalties suffered from being blind or your opponent being blurred so it was quite useful. Why the spell has survived in its new form though, I question every day.

[@erikkennedy8725]

I convinced the DM to allow me a version that could be cast on a single piece of ranged ammo. We both thought nothing of it, didn't seem too overpowered... Until the wizard on a flying carpet started dropping alchemists fire on our boat, and I spotted the loaded ballista...

[@exantiuse497]

True strike is a leveled spell in 3.5, and a cantrip in 5 (and cantrips are unlimited use per day unlike in 3.5). That's why it is so much weaker now

[@Malakai2006]

@@exantiuse497 True, simple fix is make it a 1st level spell.

[@syzyphyz]

@@exantiuse497 it's still the worst cantrip

[@RottenHeretic]

I mean, advantage gives you a higher chance of a crit. I like it. :)

[@zero11010]

Goodberry - It's an out of combat spell. Just something for you to try ... this is an OLD pen and paper trick for 5E D&D. Make a life cleric. Take the magic initiate feat. Pick druid and learn goodberry. Each one of those berrries gets a bunch of modifiers from your life cleric subclass. In pen and paper D&D the berries each are worth 1 single hit point and it creates 10 of them. With life cleric this improve each berry to be worth 4 hit points (each heal is +2+spell level ... first level spell is 1 + 2 plus the 1 the berry original heals with). That is 40 total healing from a single first level spell slot. Mathematically, this is equal to roughly 11D6 healing .... from a single first level slot. This is a cheese combination that is frowned on. You can do it very early as a variant human who takes that feat at level 1. Baldur's Gate 3 has not implemented this combination. If they had ... it would look about like this: 1D4 (berry) +3(life cleric bonus to a first level spell) +3(life cleric heals self for healing another) +2 from ring +3 temp hit points (boots of aid and comfort) +bless from ring +blade ward from .... gloves I think 1D4 is an average of 2.5. So, a single berry would be worth 13.5 health (plus other effects) and you get 4 berries per first level spell slot. That would make this worth 54 healing with a single spell slot (plus the benefits of bless and blade ward). With the way this has been implemented ... this is an out of combat 4D4 heal (average 10) costing a single first level spell slot. That compares fairly well vs a 1D4 or 1D8 healing spell even when you add in the ability modifier. There are two problems with this spell in BG3: * The spell doesn't recognize healing gear from the caster, and other healing spells do. * Potions can be thrown out of combat and are free AOE heals. In the game this spell was designed for 5E pen and paper dungeons and dragons, the spell is perfectly reasonable.

[@ollllj]

because godberry is a bg3 ration, at high enough levels, you can cast enough godberry (and have spell slots left over) to sustain infinite amounts of long rests, plus some leftover berries.

[@zero11010]

@@ollllj how many rations? You need like 80 per long rest in tactician. That’s a WHOLE lot of berries that need to be cast. So. You need 20 first level spell slots. I guess you can always use hirelings to get access to more druids with the spell. In balanced difficulty the game is so easy … I think in my first play through I only needed 12 long rests to do pretty much every single thing worth doing in the game. In my second play through I’m at level 8 and I’ve only had 2 long rests so far. I just can’t imagine needing more food in game.

[@muscularclassrepresentativ5663]

@@zero11010you missed so many follower cutscenes lol. Why would you only rest twice on the way to level 8 when it’s a story thing…

[@zero11010]

@@muscularclassrepresentativ5663 it’s … a story thing. You’re LITERALLY in a race against time to accomplish things in the shortest time possible …..

[@quint3ssent1a]

In Solasta, I always had a ranger/druid/someone with Goodberry only for sake of not hauling around rations for long rests. I know people who swear by 10 goodberries at base lvl providing exactly 10 hp heal without overhealing, but I'm honestly not a big fan of that.

[@Pheeon]

I find Feign Death useful for Lonewolf, as you may find yourself in a situation where you cant escape a combat, feign death instantly ends the combat. Granted most situations you can stealth out of but its useful to have a scroll around.

[@zhongshuai7375]

Witch bolt's potential as a single target nuke for tempest cleric is underated. 1. Witch bolt has great upcasting growth and has 6d12 at 6th level. 2. It of course does lighting dmg which synergise with wet and tempest cleric. 3. Unlike lightning bolt or chain lightning, witch bolt is a attack roll which means IT CAN CRIT. This crit can be garenteed with illithid power. 6th level witch bolt + wet + tempest cleric + crit is 288 lightning dmg, which is way higher single target than lightning bolt (132) and chain lightning (160).

[@RPGLegacy997]

Yeah but Chain lightning can be twinned cast so hitting twice the same target with wet+tempest cleric you get 320 damage. Each target hit twice takes 320 damage... Chromatic orb can also be twinned cast. Chromatic orb 6th level + wet + tempest cleric + crit=224 damage to one target+112 to the second target. So witch bolt is not bad for single target if you do not have chain lightning and metamagic or do not have concentration slot taken.

[@SuperRoboPopoto]

Also it’s concentration attacks are autohit. So it situationally hits harder and then you get ten rounds of cantrip damage guaranteed. Which is way better than an entire turn of firebolt misses and sacred flame saves.

[@KazumaKenchi]

It also absolutely melts those steel watchers way better than any other lightning spell in my experience.

[@Juniper_Rose]

Counterpoint: I shouldn't have to waste a 6th level and 1st level spell slot, two turns, an illithid ability, and a Domain power to make something worth using once a day. And even if I assume someone ELSE uses Create Water...well, then I can just dump it on a group and Chain Lightning rips through all of them doing high damage.

[@Peatingtune]

This is why I've come to like playing as a Champion. Click attack, click the enemy. Repeat. Congratulations: you've just done about all that you can do. No more worrying about whether the spellbook is as efficient as it can be, or whether you're grating the maximum possible cheese onto every action. @@Juniper_Rose

[@KamiPain75]

Barskin is useful in Moondruids. Bear form has a base of 12 Armor. Barskin is one of the few spells that works with the animal forms and boost its defense to 16. Of course once you get the Owlbear it’s not necessary anymore.

[@CalculusDaddy]

One use of true strike is to proc concentrated blast over and over with advantage, kind of a cheesey strat, but strong for casters in the midgame with no slots.

[@QuangNguyen-ep6mx]

I believe you can apply that to basically any concentration cantrip and you could just use Resistance with actual benefit

[@Spahki]

The big draw of Contagion is that they don't get a saving throw against the Poison, you just have to touch them and they get disadvantage on Attack Rolls and Ability checks for 3-5 rounds. If they last long enough to fail 3 saves, they get that powerful debuff. It's primary use is to shut down big dudes while you deal with mobs. It's a niche, low B or C-tier spell, but hardly a "worst" spell.

[@floofzykitty5072]

A 5th level spell that targets only one creature needs to have some kind of incredible effect. "The best condition you can inflict is dead" is one of the reasons the spell is just not worth the slot. Something like Wall of Stone does the same job as Contagion (crowd control) and is more widely applicable to different situations. If you cast Cloudkill or Cone of Cold then all the mooks will be dead anyway, there's not many trash mobs that can survive a round or two after being hit by one of those two spells.

[@DrNiradino]

​@@floofzykitty5072and inflicting disadvantage on attacks to target without a saving throw is a fairly powerful effect.

[@ДимитърПоптолев]

@@DrNiradino Or you can just cast Darkness (a level 2 spell) while having one of the gajillion ways to block Blindness which will a) AoE b) give them disadvantage c) give you advantage (because you're heavily obscured) d) prevent them from targeting you with ranged attacks or spells Even after they fix the AI so it will bother getting into the area to attack you with melee, Darkness will still be the best concentration spell IMO, it buffs you, debuffs them, prevents them from attacking ...

[@DrNiradino]

@@ДимитърПоптолев "one of gajilions ways to block blindness" which are: Be a fiend warlock. Wear a ring from act 2. Wear a hat from Raphael. So, not exactly that many. Also, darkness blocks line of sight, can be walked out of and most importantly, requers a concentration which contagion doesn't.

[@ДимитърПоптолев]

@@DrNiradino If you're immune to blind you can simply sit in there and shoot at them. Blocking line of sight does jackshit to you in that case, it affects only them because they are outside of the AoE. If they are walking out it means they are not attacking you, which is and I shit you not - better than them having disadvantage on attacks. The concentration is a fair point. EDIT: I think Jhannyl's Gloves may also work (honestly I haven't tested it). There is also Steelwatcher Helmet which is another option for the helmet slot.

[@Inkabis]

The only use I can think of for True Strike at the moment is for Concentrated Blast, since it’s a bonus action that requires you to be concentrating on something in order to cast. But even then that’s super situational because sometimes I’d rather use my action and bonus action for something else

[@SeanHarper-rb5vf]

Damn! I never thought about this! I'm starting a grimsark game with some difficulty mods, so that will be an essential tool for me when I've run out of spellslots

[@bibbobella]

Isn't concentration blast a full action? Unless you gain that special ability from that weird alien machine that tries to remove the parasite from you.

[@riley2492]

Year later, but I used true strike a couple times with a warlock eldritch blast crit build to get more crits. Only used it 3 or 4 times, though, but it did get me some crits. I think the minimum I needed for a crit was 15 with eldritch blast

[@thekillerhjkhjk]

Circle of death is difficult to use strategically and safely I definitely agree. But if you set up for it, it is one of the best spells in the game for one reason: the staff mystic carrion carries. You get to cast it (and any other Necromancy spell, inflicting disadvantage on the saving throws too) if you have killed any creatures while holding the staff. Utterly broken, and definitely possible to build an entire lategame build around this. I suggest the alert feat so you almost always start battles at the top of initiative, and get one or two safe and free casts in while enemies are bunched up and haven't begun skirmishing with your party.

[@Korj666]

I agree, it's not a bad spell. It just shouldn’t be taken and used thoughtlessly.

[@mel-burnes]

helps if you still have a few void bulbs lying around

[@RazielTheUnborn]

@@mel-burnes Eh, Astral Tadpole into Black Hole. Ten turns of what Void Bulb does but also slows the enemies and if yanked off a high enough ledge, they take extra fall damage in the form on Psychic damage.

[@mel-burnes]

@@RazielTheUnborn yeah but that requires you to accept the tadpole

[@joshuakim5240]

It's pretty easy to use if you're going all-out as a summoner necro. Since undead summons have necrotic and poison immunity, you can safely spam Circle of Death within your undead hoard's fights against other things. This can also be done with Cloudkill as a neat way to combo with summons.

[@varietywiarrior]

Bro... BROOOOOO... My wife used Grasping Vine to absolutely _lethal_ effect in the 4-player co-op campaign she and I are playing with friends. In the goblin camp, we went up into the rafters to fight the hobgoblin and his crew, and every time they came up to attack us, she threw them directly onto the floor.

[@gavinerickson9392]

Feign Death can be used on Green NPCs (allies) to steal from them for free and it is a Ritual so you can do it for without slots. Circle of Death is not bad with the Staff of Cherished Necromancy or with things like Careful Spell and it'll heal a fair bit on kill for a Necromancer. The really bad spells that were missed are the terrain spells like Web because they appear to have a fixed DC instead of your spell save DC, making them useless very quickly.

[@floofzykitty5072]

They fixed Web but it is still nerfed from 5e, but I don't see a point of actually casting the spell when you can get a spider familiar with infinite, no resource and concentration free web to just dominate every battle by making every inch difficult terrain. It's still good as a spell in BG3 but the surface interactions really hurt it, like attacking an enemy on a web and their blood surface overrides the web underneath them. Or the whole thing catching fire the second an ember so much as looks at it.

[@gavinerickson9392]

@@floofzykitty5072 That's stupid, at least they fixed Chill Touch by renaming it and not nerfing it to the ground.

[@AugmentedDictatorGames]

Circle of Death is good, especially when used with the Blackhole Illithid power and the Staff of Cherished Necromancy so it doesn't cost a spell slot.

[@Tuskor130]

True Strike would actually be really good if it was a bonus action, the fact that you use your Primary Action is honestly the sole reason it's so bad. I also think it would be cool if it was the next attack on a target from ANYONE, not just the caster. It would be like a World of Warcraft Hunter using Hunter's Mark on an enemy but it boosted *all* damage dealt to the target rather than just physical attacks.

[@Sarah-yh4sg]

Conjure Barrage can dish out quite decent damage with a good weapon equipped, since it uses your main hand weapon for damage calculation, this thing can be quite brutal

[@fooltheroyal8691]

Cope when next level you unlock volley

[@you741sings]

It's only useful if you're not a hunter I think, hunters will just get volley.

[@evrimenustun9548]

⁠Because every ranger subclass gets to use volley.. Quite the genius you are eh?

[@you741sings]

@@evrimenustun9548 only hunter gets volley

[@you741sings]

Also it's worth using at level 9 and then just switching it out at level 11 when you get volley. Not useless just outscaled

[@jayofalltrades8383]

Witch bolt was situationally good for fighting the hag in act 1 bc I used it to track her when she teleported and turned invisible

[@tiredbylife.5589]

That's what I did too.

[@floofzykitty5072]

there are a million other ways to track her. If you put any kind of condition on her you can find her because only the true hag will have the condition. Even making her wet will do since she will have the Wet condition on her.

[@itsdabees]

I noticed this as well, and it should also be noted its great for when you have the caster out of harms reach when fighting a boss, just keep shocking them and they'll die eventually while your tank ties them up

[@Romne]

​@itsdabees or you could just use a cantrip...

[@Rikoli]

I just cast water on her. She stays wet.

[@13thTemplar718]

If you dont invest in a rangers wisdom you have no right to complain about their spells being weak.

[@Johnwillson-n7v]

Of course you do. Because I'll be investing in Dex and Con. Its the same reason you dont heavily invest into paladin, EK, and AT casting stats. They arent primarily spell casters. They are (particularly in EK's case since its quite literal) fighters that can also do some cool light shows. vs higher level enemies, its not exactly guaranteed for even full casters who put everything into their casting stat and spell save DC to consistently get enemies to fail saves. Consistent, sure, but not guaranteed. So imagine someone who has, say, 14 in their casting stat instead of 20+ and isn't covered in gear to increase their spell save DC? every -1 compared to the full caster is a -5% chance of success. You're not really meant to pick spells that are heavily reliant on saves/spell attack rolls on gish characters. Unless the end result is bonkers, its just a waste of a spell slot/spell known/spell prep.

[@jorgeporras9262]

​@@Johnwillson-n7v not OP, but Wisdom is a great stat for the ranger fantasy, since it's the stat linked to perception, insight, medicine and animal handling, all stuff that the ranger fantasy benefits from. Con as a second strongest stat is a moot point anyway, because literally every class could benefit from it. So proposing that people SHOULD invest as in it a secondary stat is pretentious at best and obnoxious if we're being real.

[@Johnwillson-n7v]

@@jorgeporras9262 The point being while its not a dump stat, its not gonna be a stat you should heavily invest in. It will always be your 2nd or 3rd choice. Your spell save DC will ALWAYS be mediocre at best unless you're completely sacrificing your characters ability to make normal attacks. A ranger just isn't a true caster, and investing your points as if they were is just setting yourself up for disappointment, and the point made in the video is absolutely correct. OP is being ridiculous with that statement.

[@UneBouteilleDeGingerBeer]

Ikr, it's their spellcasting ability so it's just normal to put some points in it. Even if it feels like Ranger kinda sucks in general. I mean ... I don't get the concept, it's just like a Fighter but more specialised in range attacks and more proficiencies ?

[@mistakai4226]

There is a use for charm person. If losing concentration on another spell is kore costly than using a spell slot on charm person, it will be preferable to cast charm person in conversation.

[@niekesselbrugge1132]

You realize the Friends cantrip exists right? It does the same thing in dialogue.

[@mistakai4226]

@@niekesselbrugge1132 friends is a concentration spell. Charm person is not.

[@Barkit]

@@mistakai4226But friends is free since it’s a cantrip, charm uses a spell slot.

[@mistakai4226]

@@Barkit friends also costs a spell slot if using it breaks your concentration on something like hex.

[@johnforgrave7125]

In defense of Goodberry... You're right that it's a ridiculous way to waste YOUR limited spell slots for a minimal amount of healing or for camp supplies... but there's no reason not to have one of your hirelingsor companions couldn't use THEIR spell slots to create goodberries for you. This can be used to pretty great benefit, actually. You can decide to use those berries as your dedicated source of food for long rests and now you don't have to worry about weighing yourself down with food, booze, and supply packs. Or you can use them as healing between fights to top off HP which will allow you to save on spell slots and potions in the long run. If you have an abundance of healing potions, sell some of them for decent money. Along the same vein, there are a number of other non-concentration buffs that last until your next long rest which you can use hirelings or companions to apply to your active party. Aid, Longstrider, Protection from Poison, Mage Armor, Bardic Inspiration, etc.

[@alexneale]

Phantasmal Force is THE SINGLE BEST SPELL in tabletop D&D and it's not even a contest. Because BG3 is limited by its own coding, but the way the spell works on tabletop is you can make any illusion you want and the target will respond to it. There's unlimited creative freedom. You want to make your target think the floor underneath them opened into a big mouth with spiked teeth that bit them and is now holding them in place? they will not move and be very scared. Hell, as a bonus the illusion will even do a bit of damage. But in BG3 the damage became the only drawcard, when it's meant to just be the cherry on top.

[@Sens249]

except not really because it entirely depends on how much your DM chooses to use this line: "The target can use its action to examine the phantasm with an Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If the check succeeds, the target realizes that the phantasm is an illusion, and the spell ends." Nowhere does it say that the creature won't use the action to examine it. And logically examining something can be as simple as just looking at it. But different creatures could also respond differently. If you make something dangerous, some might try to flee, or fight, if you somehow make something that makes them feel trapped, or that arguably restricts the possibility of fleeing or fighting, then they would probably default to examining, by looking at their surroundings for a way out. The creature isn't just going to give up and die it's going to try to survive. And that means most of the time it's going to either move away, or try the investigation check until it makes it. If your DM is not making the investigation checks for this spell they're needlessly buffing its intended purpose. Same goes for things like minor illusion tech that people abuse

[@samqualls1339]

Barkskin is only good for one situation: Druid wildshapes. Because it sets your AC at 16, when you turn into a low defense animal (like a wolf that normally has an AC of around 13) it is one of the few ways to increase your AC. Yes the fact that it is concentration sucks, but it is not completely useless.

[@bobbackwards8481]

imagine if True Strike was a Bonus Action, the world would know peace...

[@zac9933]

Why wouldn't a ranger have high wisdom? They're a wisdom based caster. It should be one of their highest stats.

[@derekwinchester9176]

Phantasmal force is one of the BEST OP level 2 spells in DND 5e though. It creates a 10 foot cube illusion that encases target. While encased, you can shape the illusion so that the target does not move outside of the 10-foot cube. The target also uses an ACTION to make an int save against the spell, which is amazing. In general, you waste at least one action of your enemy and possibly prevents it from moving out of a 10-foot cube. Similar goes for phantasmal killer, I am so surprised and upset that these spells are nerfed af in the game.

[@rossdiggle]

As a DM in tabletop I make true strike a bonus action.

[@cinder4181]

As it frigging should be.

[@DavidAllen_0]

There's a nexus mod that does exactly this

[@stefenleung]

to be fair, Circle of Death have its use. It's a Necromancy spell, meaning you can use it with Staff of Necromancy to harvest Life essence. You can get the staff at act3 by killing the Necromancer (or do the quest? I don't know). When you kill a "hostile enemies" with necro spell, you gain a life essence which give you free cast of any necro spell on a turn. the sweet part is 1) you can use the life essence even you're not equipping the staff, you just can't get more essence with necro spell kill. 2) it say "hostile enemies" but it actually for any kills. if you farm like 10 charges, your next 10 Eyesbit, Blight(lv6 upcast), Circle of death, deaththone (once per day if you care to use) will be free. so after a long rest, you kill your magic hand with Bone Chill (cantrip free cast) to gain a charge. then goto the city plaza and kill tons of citizens with that big AoE ....

[@ezioauditore2848]

Balthazar approves.

[@stefenleung]

@ezioauditore2848 that's my dark urge run and I'm trying to be as evil as possible. (but I didmt find much diff to my normal run ....)

[@kyuumann500]

Why not just use the legendary staff from larrokins tower?

[@stefenleung]

You can. You just equip the necro staff to get life essence. The life essence charge won't disappear and you still can use it whenever you want to. In fact, that's exactly why you need to harvest charges first so you have enough charge to last you thru day without equip the necro staff. there also another benefit for the necro staff like advantage on necro spell but it doesnt matter as every casters are using the shield from house of grief and it already cover the spell attack and saving advantage. @@kyuumann500

[@nonnolento]

Circle of death with a good con save, a mace able to give you necrotic damage resistence, and the staff of good necromancy, are litterally a mass destruction weapon. You are a sorcerer? You have haste/potion of speed? Ok, you are ready for cast this bad guy four 3 times for round whiteout limit (and even twin 2 times in the same round for a total of 5 circle of death in a single round) Pretty funny for transforming Baldur’s Gate city in a wasteland. And if you are a necromancy wizard you recover 18hp every time you kill something.

[@carlosdarkknight]

That’s what I’m saying i haste my necro wizard and drop 2 circles of deaths for free every turn after I got souls

[@mariomario-dy1kc]

That might be useful to a sorcerer, if you spam long rests, because 3 lvl 6 spell slots is insane. And even then, you're probably better off doing 3 fireballs, which is upcasted to the same level have more damage dice. A necromancer wizard would wonder why did he waste a lvl 6 spell slot on circle of death instead of summoning his superior undead horde and then using a lvl5 spell slot to cast cloudkill.

[@carlosdarkknight]

@@mariomario-dy1kc staff of cherished necromancy is op every kill is a free 6 level spell I drop circle of death for breakfast constantly

[@mariomario-dy1kc]

@@carlosdarkknight Except, not for melting bosses, or if you actually need to output a lot of dps that one turn in a zone. It takes a stupid good item just to be below the actual top damage spells.

[@carlosdarkknight]

@@mariomario-dy1kc yeah but it’s fun I like it not everything has to obliterate lots of things have uses.

[@DustTheOtter]

Goodberry has uses outside of combat. If you have the gold, turn all the companions you don't want to use into Druids and then get 3 Druid Hirelings. Get them all to cast goodberry and use it as rations for long rests. Great for Tactician and Honor playthroughs where it can be hard to maintain enough food

[@PineappleLiar]

True Strike is almost a gauntlet thrown on the table for people to figure out how to make it good. A meme build waiting to happen. Thinking on it you could run a Blade Sorc-lock, allowing you to Quicken spell spam the cantrip as a bonus action. Part of the challenge is that it is so over cost for what it gives you; everyone can at least attenpt to hide for the same effect and cost, while rogues get it cheaper and thus don’t need a more expensive alternative. You could also use Reckless attack (free barring the damage risk), use Stunning Strike (bonus action and save with the added up side of potentially removing the enemy’s turn), or use the Devilsight/Darkness combo for said Sor-lock (takes a spell, but provides advantage on all attacks).

[@mycenaeangal9312]

okay hear me out. we somehow make true strike not an action and not even a bonus action, but a free action. I feel like at this point it's worth taking. :p

[@AbstractTraitorHero]

@@mycenaeangal9312 I mean the spear in the start of the game auto casts true strike whenever you hit an enemy & so your next attack has advantage.

[@jiantly4044]

Witch bolt is good for tracking invisible foes. If you cast it before they go invisible you have a giant electric arrow pointer.

[@Sens249]

Goodberry isn't amazing but on a ranger it can be nice. Rangers in my experience don't use that many spell slots. They might throw out a spike growth, or if you have the right buff maybe ensnaring strikes, but for me its often just hunter's mark recasting, and I end the day with spell slots. Turning un-used spell slots into hp healing for the next day is just... free hitpoints, and even if its just for current healing, its also better than cure wounds. It's an efficient spell when it comes to spell slots. You will never end the day with spell slots you aren't using. Same idea with a druid who can just swap out their spells at will. Ended the day with slots left? Liquify them into goodberries and then stow them away for later

[@jm329]

Sounds like this guy has never played D&D. Looking at his channel, it seems like he becomes an “expert” on whatever popular game is out. Almost every comment is saying how he is wrong.

[@emmywolf1313]

Grasping Vine must have been buffed. It creates magical vines around itself that make enemies ensnared, and it only costs a bonus action to cast. Really fun putting one in the middle of cloudkill (it’s immune to poison) and dragging enemies in to get stuck and unable to escape

[@Avyrsoul]

The only circumstance i ever used true strike was when the character with it could not get in range of the enemies without using dash, but was in range of my party members, so i gave it to a party member who was in range so they would have an easier time making a hit. That's the only reason to use it. Especially when you know said party member within range would be disadvantaged.

[@nikephoros9297]

It could also be used in turn based mode bedore entering combat for a small boost in round 1. It's very situational, and even then doesn't provide much, but it has some minor uses here and there.

[@arjanm37]

im gonna be honest ive found circle of death really useful, probably becuase of how i play but ive found its massive aoe to be super helpful and just biting a chunk out of most mobs in battles making it much easier on the rest of the party

[@1Psyblade1]

In DnD 5e, here's a use for True Strike: If your DM uses a critical fail fumble table, you can use True Strike to make it as unlikely as possible to roll a fumble. :^)

[@vykrien3749]

If your DM uses a critical fail fumble table , you have two choices : • Making a group of Halflings • Making a group of stumbling Clowns

[@senexiratus973]

Dude, I bookmarked this. I just run it real quick in the background so I can laugh about ancient Egyptian curses and stuff. Dude. The production level on your videos is fantastic. Your narration is fantastic. Great channel.

[@TheBenirons]

lack of ground targetability is a big bummer for circle of death, however, dont forget about the necro staff in act 3 that lets u cast it for free, there is also a pretty good light armour that increases DC and gives a whopping +1 necro dmg :P

[@corylance1054]

I just use the robes and clothing that charge my fire damage when i have heat. combined with that staff and twin spell to double cast overcharged aoe fire spells. Sorcerer for the win.

[@V3x0r]

There's always Globe of Invulnerability to just prevent all that damage you might take.

[@rezthemediaruler3768]

Circle of Death trivialized so many Fights for me! As a Necromancer, you are already hiding behind your Ghouls, Zombies and Skeletons. They hold of your Enemies and lower their HP and they are completely expandable. Circle of Death destroys huge Groups of Enemies. Use it against Viconia De‘Vir and the other Sharites. It becomes so easy, it isn’t even funny anymore.

[@osculim]

Just no circle of death is fantastic. Targeting is no problem. Place your party better and get necromantic resistance. Run into a group and cast it on yourself simple. You can be wherever you want to be. You will be wasting at least 4 fireballs to cover the same area eventually. Where you could have ended a fight first round. It is always in my spell list. The only issue I have with it is basically the problem I have with any necromantic damage spelll is that it destroys the corpses meaning I can't animate anything.

[@gavinerickson9392]

Really a dumb oversight that the necromancer's main damage, necrotic, fire, and lighting destroys bodies. The Act 2 corpse pile is a godsend.

[@namethefifth7315]

Im sorry a 6th lv aoe with 3rd lv fireball dmg, with small range but a super big aoe that can only target monsters. And it uses one of the most common damage types to ve resisted too. Wow that is horrible

[@charlottearanea7507]

The worst part of Witch Bolt is that you can't even use Twinned Spell as a sorcerer to let you reapply damage to multiple targets. It only concentrates on one. It would have at least some mild early-game utility if you could do this :(

[@kaycheung3749]

For true strike , I always thought it is meant to be used when you can’t get into melee range with enemies so you are to prepare for your next turn atk

[@phantommercenary8650]

Prot from Energy is a great spell for Abjuration Wizards beefing up Arcane Ward. Witchbolt is a good economy spell, and its activation hits at 100% and doesn't require Line of Sight on the Target. Good for solo runs and evading the target after casting

[@you741sings]

maybe witchbolt's useful until level 5 but after that it's completely outscaled by just cantrip spamming since cantrips gain an extra die at level 5.

[@iplayonatoaster5406]

Circle of death would be so much more versatile if you were just able to cast it anywhere. I don't understand why they made it where you have to target a specific enemy.

[@theonlyintruder]

I found a scenario for my Ranger where conjure barrage was useful - Dealing with enemies that are protected with Sanctuary as it allowed for AOE damage rather than being a targeted attack but otherwise, volley is generally better.

[@georgehancock652]

They really ruined phantasmal force in BG3, I think there are better ways they could have implemented some of its 5e effects like giving it optional illusions like the command spell has different commands. Cone spells definitley had their range nerfed a bit too much, cone of colds aoe is so tiny while the main reason you use it in 5e is because you can blast enemies in a aoe far in front of you. Still a great game though.

[@modisp]

Ok right away. Witch bolt is STRONGEST spell in game. And it can be one over whole game since you get it. 1. It has best upcast potential. 1d12!!! So Level 5 Witch Bolt does 5d12 = 5 - 60 damage. 2. Its lightning so any wet target gets x2 damage 3. Its attack spell. So it can crit. SO x2 damage again. 4. It can be twined!!! So storm sorcerer can make it do max damage and there are several ways to guarantee a crit hit. This make is huge ass nuke skill. Oh and forget about its concentration effect. Its garbage indeed.

[@Johnwillson-n7v]

"Witch bolt is STRONGEST spell in game" pfftahahahahahahahaha

[@BlaZay]

I suppose there might be a point in Witch Bolt if, when twinned, it strikes both targets at each activation, or the same person twice. Might require some testing.

[@charlesmwolf]

they didnt do a lot of illusion spells correct. dissident whispers and phantasmal force come to mind, as the way they modified them nerfed them from 5e to the ground

[@BinxyBrown]

Good berries is like the best out of combat heal in the game, its a level 1 spell slot for a 4d6 heal. Its not necessary between short and long rests but if you like to limit your long rests its not that bad. All the other spells are super spot on though

[@you741sings]

it's a 4d4 heal, average healing of 10. It's a bit better than cure wounds. But if you have spells that buff healing then it is worse. I do like it though cuz i just have my halsin in my camp spam goodberries and i can use it for my main 4 party members

[@MC-gj8fg]

True strike is used for the surprise round of combat, almost ensuring a hit without wasting a combat round. The value is admittedly limited, but there is more of a use case for this cantrip than a couple of the other spells you mentioned.

[@creativemindslikeus]

You do such great builds and you're funny as hell. Would love a Pally build that feels like a pally. I'm running 3 of your builds but am thinking a re-roll on my main and I like pallys.

[@YiaMdj]

I have used protection from energy quite a few times. Notably against the annoying wizard guy in the tower

[@SouPNaZi316]

You are so wrong about circle of death. It's strong as fuck. Get the staff off of Mystic carrion and you can cast level 6 spells all day if they're Necromancer spells for free as long as you killed someone

[@TeaTimeTable]

Pretty much everything else he's right about Circle of death is so strong late game

[@ryanjones4686]

"True strike can't be that bad, right?" I say, before immediately reflecting on the fact that each of my bg3 characters who had it never used it even once.

[@jnosnk]

I used witch bolt only on Ethel so I know where the real one is and then never again. I used feint death on that wyrm challenge with the elementals once too, but never again

[@isaz2425]

for Ethel , magic missile, 1 on each target works very well too.

[@Fitzgery1]

The camera follows the real one when she does her split. And if you make it to where she turned invisible, create water will reveal her. Magic missle is fantastic for getting rid of the clones

[@Axterix13]

You can just examine the clones. The real one has an ability the clones don't. And examining will also clue you when she does the swap with her prisoner... the very reason Ethel wants her will make it clear which is which.

[@Halinspark]

@@Axterix13 Also, the first thing many of us do is douse Mayrina in water to put out the fire. So she's wet and Ethel isn't. So many people playing 5D chess, and it's just, you know, look at them.

[@Johnwillson-n7v]

@@Halinspark Thats always the problem with WB and TS in general. People jumping through hoops with these 5head giga brain master plans to make them useful and its like...you know, you can just do something else thats simpler

[@bonk6244]

I used to think that the tadpole skill that lets you sacrifice half of your health to an ally was useless, but it saved my ass in the boss battle against (!!! SPOILER !!!) Orin's grandfather. That one single move where my mc sacrificed half of his health to bring back gale when he was downed, so I could cast disintegrate on the boss saved my ass and let me win the battle. So, depending on the situation, even the most seemingly useless moves/spells can be a life saver.

[@RyanP319]

Its almost impressive how many bad takes you can fit in a video

[@Theheadless1858]

I know. Not sure if he genuinely misunderstood the use of some of these or if he is just being baity.

[@ericsalisbury3583]

Which of these spells do you think are good?

[@jenni5104]

There's literally only 2 I disagree with.

[@occupationalhazard]

True Strike is pretty bad, but it can be used in two circumstances. 1: The turn before you get into combat. Having advantage your first turn can be great. Some classes already have features like this though (Gloomstalker). For other classes, you can use this tactic nearly every combat. 2: If you have no viable target on your turn due to them being out of range or invisible, etc. Sometimes the target is viable next turn. This is a niche case, but it does happen.

[@zero11010]

Phantasmal Force - I've never used this. Do you need to do any thing to maintain the damage round after round? Is this just a free 1D6 damage every round? The biggest problem with this is that on balanced difficulty the game is so easy that the fights just don't last very long. It would take too long for these 1D6 damage per round increments to surpass what you get from a scorching blast. And, I don't know many instances when I would want to use this over flaming sphere. I think that has more to do with the difficulty issues with the game.

[@Dyomaeth]

100% agreed, I play on Balanced and I ranked Phantasmal Force early on. Found practically no use for it bar one, maybe two boss fights where I didn't use it anyway because at that point I had better sources of damage each turn.

[@pagingdoctorsideburns]

Barkskin should really either be 18 AC or 16, but without taking concentration. That said, the reason Druids get it is because if you cast it on yourself and then wild shape, you don't have to deal with having the abysmal ACs of the animal forms.

[@Myronn8]

Yup! Pretty good spell for moon druids for wildshaping. That is pretty much its only use though haha

[@funkyskibo]

Excellent video as always. You always have good humor in your videos but this one took it to the next level. The part about Santa had me rolling. Keep up the great work, Sir.

[@urktheturtle2988]

Baldurs Gate 3 players discovering things about D&D we have complained about for years is my favorite genre.

[@zero11010]

Just throwing this out there man .... the fact that a thing isn't THE BEST doesn't mean it's automatically terrible. When you spoke about circle of death you said fireball is better, and that was pretty much your biggest point. That's fair. Fireball was INTENTIONALLY designed to be one of the best spells in the whole game. It is an over powered spell. That was by design. It's generally not a world where one thing is the best and EVERYTHING else is terrible ... right? Your channel isn't THE BEST KZbin channel. It is pretty good. Would you say that your channel is terrible because it isn't THE BEST channel on KZbin? What makes circle of death useful? It's necrotic damage. In standard D&D the most commonly resisted/immune damage type in the game is poison. The second most would be fire. Having a big spell option that doesn't do fire damage is a pretty good idea. In BG3 there happen to be a lot of things late game that are immune to necrotic damage. That has to do with the design of BG3 and the enemies they selected for it. It doesn't have to do with the spell or the core D&D rules/balance. The extremely large AOE is obviously wonderful. And, with evocation wizards it's less of an issue if your allies are in the area. But, this is the intended balance of AOE spells. This spell will average 28 damage per target for a 6th level slot (D6 average is 3.5. 8 * 3.5 === 28). In fights with lots of enemies this one spell can readily do hundreds of damage in a single turn. That's not terrible. It's not a perfect spell. I get it.

[@SecureBirch410]

True strike can work for a rogue, such as if you cant trigger sneak attack you could use true strike and follow up with an off hand attack

[@quincybriley4113]

Witch Bolt is just as bad in 5E. in addition taking your action AND concentration to do worse than cantrip damage, You also have to stay within 30 feet of the target, leaving you open to assault. And if they ever get full cover, or you lose line of sight, the spell ends instantly. It's truly one of the worst spells in the game

[@Johnwillson-n7v]

Its worse in 5e 5e has no surface mechanic. I think officially nothing really happens to a wet enemy hit with lightning spells. You can houserule otherwise, my table certainly does. I'm just talking about official by the book stuff. Also the range in 5e is 30 feet, not 60 feet like in BG3. So even if you cast witchbolt in melee range, 99% of enemies can just...walk out of range, breaking the chain instantly so all you got was your cantrip of damage. Where as 60 feet is a good chunk of the overall environment you'll be fighting in most cases in BG3. Big enough to where an enemy walking out of range is effectively taking them out of combat for a round. Which is why I think they never do it and prefer to either ignore it, or attack the caster. I still dont like witchbolt and have absolutely no reservations shitting on it in BG3, but I'm not gonna lie to myself and others and say that its not leagues better here than in tabletop. In BG3, I think it belongs...somewhere on this list. In 5e, I'd put it above even true strike because at least true strike doesn't waste my spell slot. Not that I'd ever use either one of them.

[@quincybriley4113]

@@Johnwillson-n7v true strike in the "5.5" playtests has changed in interesting ways.

[@jefferydavidson5347]

Barkskin is great for spellcasters in general who don’t get armor, that’s like the whole point of the spell

[@FilmColossus]

Bro we need more build videos. Please, hurry.

[@mechanicalsilence1]

Bro what 💀

[@FilmColossus]

@@mechanicalsilence1 do you not want build videos?

[@mechanicalsilence1]

​@@FilmColossus im not against it but it's not like i would die if he didnt upload or something

[@gii7851]

He made a 20 minute build video a week ago. Let the man do some variety in between builds man tf. It’s free content, just chill 😂

[@FilmColossus]

@@gii7851I just prefer his builds over others and there’s only so much game to play.

[@tyberiousTem]

I remember feign death being kind of good for protecting important characters in fights such as isobel at last light

[@doole2134]

Basically every Ranger spell 😂 (except spike growth xd)

[@snakeman830]

Nah. Rangers get some good spells. Virtually none of the good ones are Ranger exclusive, but they do get some good ones.

[@Rito20]

Witchbolt helped me my first time fighting the Hag. Had Gale use it on her and she teleported/went invisible and he still had lock on and recasted to knock he out of it.

[@DavismTXAG98]

One very situational use for Feign Death is to cast it on Isobel during the attack at the Inn - this will keep her from running around trying as hard as possible to get captured. Even better if you can slip Sanctuary on right after. But yeah, its really, really bad.

[@kevinmiller7408]

Just a little devils advocate here, but Witch Bolt is getting kind of a bad wrap. Granted it would take 10 turns to max it's damage but for a level 1 spell to be able to do 120 damage is not the worst thing in the world. (honestly I don't use it, so no idea if individual "attacks" can crit, I'm guessing no since it's an auto-hit, not sure if the initial one can crit and what that would do either). I was really trying to come up with something for true strike but some mountains are just too high.

[@FilmGrouch]

Just started playing BG3 - and I have come across a lot of helpful vides, but this one is helpful and HILARIOUS! Thank ye, kindly, Nizar!

[@scottforsythe37]

Witch Bolt is wonderful if you stick it to an enemy who spams invisibility

[@thiagososinho1478]

Goodberry in Solasta Is quite useful when you do a long rest. No longer needing a Ration for long resting. In BG3 is not so good because of the variety and the low weight of the food is.

[@lordRW]

you use true strike before combat in the round before you attack (it last 2 rounds), meaning you get advantage on the first attack, its extreamly powerful since its a cantrip, you can use it to get a better chance for a crit on your strongest mele fighter possibly killing the strongest mob on the first strike and if you are playing really hardcore (no loading), it can negate a instant critical fumble (A natural 1) since the chance of a 1 is 1 in 400 with advantage, which might be the difference between a wipe and a easy victory. also you can make another character to buff your party to avoid using your spell slots which means the "rest" of his spells can be used to make good-berries.

[@TheKapateze]

Best use I had for Witch Bolt was early game when fighting the hag. I cast it on her before she went invisible and then recast it next turn, automatically hitting her and breaking her invisibility.

[@deptusmechanikus7362]

I find witchbolt useful early on on beefier enemies, because you can cast it once and then hide your squishy spellcaster, avoiding getting shot as, while still doing some damage

[@unknown7040]

The one and only time I used feign death actually saved me from getting a game over. I was fighting ansur and couldn’t make it behind cover in time, knowing it would one shot me. I used feign death and survived since I took half damage from his ultimate move

[@cosmicspacething3474]

Isn’t the point of True strike to use it on an ally, and not yourself??? If you use it on another party member, and they use a special skill like lacerate, it’s more likely to hit and cause bleeding.

[@enso8379]

"Skip your turn and be miserable" ... I'm dying

[@guy6169]

This is hilarious man , great video ! Loved the disclaimer on grasping vine 😂

[@eliaskrebs9444]

At the tabletop, Contagion sees play because of how oppressive a mechanic Legendary Resistance is. It's a way to apply the Poisoned condition for three turns at minimum and potentially to burn multiple Legendary Resistance charges with a single casting, and you can expect to rarely if ever actually see the second effect take hold. In BG3, with Legendary Resistance functioning differently, none of that really matters; it's not that hard to inflict debilitating conditions even on boss enemies, so a guaranteed poison really doesn't bring the heat.

[@coolfish420]

Feign death is a lifesaver if you need to keep an ally character immobile and safe (cough cough Isobel)