ULTIMATE POWER - BG3 Spells Tier List - Level 6

[@alliu6562]

Otto’s irresistible dance is clearly S tier bc it instantly makes any boss encounter 20x funnier

[@Cephalopocalypse]

very true!

[@wrath-2187]

Every time i cast irresistable dance, like when i fought raphael, i cast it twice and he never danced to his own song and it genuinely dissappointed me

[@AliceObscura]

Especially if you use perform the next turn for the LOLs 😂 dance puppets, dance! 🩰

[@TheRealCHIMShady]

This spell made sarevok go from a menace to a joke on my first playthrough

[@RaelagDidEverythingRight]

How do you beat a boogeyman? You make him boogey, man

[@ellowell8160]

An upcasted spell tierlist would be sick!

[@nuclearbirds]

Aid becomes S++++ tier

[@Obileo346]

Agreed.

[@tobiaskoran6787]

We all know that if true strike could be upcast 6th level true strike would be an instant win button

[@Fawstah]

I’d like it too, but then he’d be reviewing basically all spells at every level, which seems like a lot for one video, maybe if he broke it down level 2 upcast video, level 3 upcast video, but by level 6 he’d be reviewing all the spells again, so idk.

[@20dieux]

@@Fawstah A lot of spells don't have benefits when upcasted though.

[@Roonayy]

I think an important thing to consider is the spellcrux amulet. It lets you restore a single spell slot of any level, so you could have an entire additional level 6 spell slot. That means you could summon before a fight, restore the slot and still go into an encounter with a level 6 spell slot for your globe of invulnerability or whatever you might need, or you could even use both to summon from 2 different spells if that's the kind of playstyle you got. The same goes for other spell levels, but for level 6 it's way more important since a character only gets one per long rest.

[@ShannonFrailey]

With arcane battery from staff of spell power and the amulet you get 3. So lvl 6 aid + feast + summon or feast + summon + invulnerability are my favorite.

[@bachstrad1994]

What about scrolls? So many level 6 spell scrolls in act 3.

[@Nirob615]

@@ShannonFrailey Markoheshkir also has the arcane battery as well and you can swap to it to get a second arcane battery. Make sure you keep a secondary amulet on hand though because spellcrux is literally useless after it's ability is used up.

[@conscioushealthconnections5877]

@@Nirob615 Dual-wield feat so you can use Markoheshkir and Staff of Spell Power at the same time ;). When sorcerers were able to twin spell Chain Lightning, dual wielding these staff enabled 4 chain lightning casts in a turn. Twas glorious.

[@jguitar151]

Spellcrux amulet is OP. My shadow heart summons planar ally then I do all my other summons, then spellcrux, then heroes feast the whole squad. It’s like having two teams.

[@Zashtheman]

Chain lightning is easily still S-tier. Its still capable of absolutely demolishing everything in sight with simple item/effect combinations. Twinned spell was just making it hilariously over the top broken.

[@whisperingcrown591]

My sorcerer playthrough was so easy once I got it. Especially since I was dual wielding the 2 staves that allow a free cast of a spell. I used the amulet from the house of hope to give advantage on constitution saves, cast haste on myself and cast create water as a hastened spell. Next turn I could cast 3 chain lightnings and it was hilariously overkill

[@kevinschmidt8101]

You can actually still twinspell it

[@johnwallace5284]

Not really it is a 6th level spell slot and is only worth casting if you can hit 3 or more enemies against 1 or 2 enemies it is a waste of a cast considering you will have fighters and paladins who will be hitting for 150- 200 damage per turn by then.

[@ZanderKreegan]

@@kevinschmidt8101 sort of. You can twincast the version from Markoheshkir, but can’t twincast one cast from spell slots. Still, being able to twin it 1/short rest is very powerful

[@Feersumdjinn]

Personally I'd really love to see more of you playing the game, executing strategies etc. (Essentially more of your honour mode run!) Thanks for all the excellent content though, keep up the good work!

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks so much for the support! I'd love to do more gameplay videos - that honour mode run save is still waiting for me to come back to it, I just have to grind through all the quests in the grove to get to the next real fight :P

[@Feersumdjinn]

@@Cephalopocalypse Totally understand, you need to prioritise spending time on stuff that grows the channel as well. I'll be waiting patiently for gameplay content when you find the time :)

[@Rigel6747]

Flesh to stone would've been sick if it was just 3 saves 1st fail - restrained 2nd fail - paralyzed 3rd fail - dead

[@TheJinnobi]

I think factoring in 1) the Mummy can be cast via a Crypt Lord ring, 2) the Mummy can be cast for "free" using a charge of Staff of Cherished Necromancy, 3) the curse that it can apply with its autoattack disables enemies from healing (and gaining temp HP IIRC), and 4) the fear effect it has may be about a 50% chance to work, but it has no cooldown or resource cost... well, it's better in practice than on paper. Especially in Hardcore where every advantage is a good thing, and enemies are significantly more likely to have odd spells or effects that heal or manipulate HP totals.

[@JoshSweetvale]

It's also a cheap body for enemies to chew through, especially if you pre-cast it.

[@Princess_Salami]

I think a way to make Disintegrate more valuable and reliable would be in a party with a Monk who has a decent save for their stunning strike, or a Githyanki wielding either the Souldbreaker Greatsword or the Silver Sword of the Astral Plance, which both have a Weapon Action that can stun an enemy. And stunned Enemies automatically fail Dex saves. Hold Person, and Hold Monster can also cause the "automatically fail Dex save" feature, and rely on an easier save to target than Dex or Con. So I guess Disintegrate is still rather situational and depends on the party, but the "save or suck" aspect of the spell can be mitigated in certain party compositions.

[@HereAndThere-o4j]

In 3.5e disintegrate could crit, and hit for 500+ damage. The trick to using it is stacking spell save d, and reducing enemy dex rolls through disadvantage and portent dice.

[@markbeatty368]

Never used eyebite. Feared vs frightened confusion. Gonna try it next time around. Thanks for the content

[@Cephalopocalypse]

One of the most fun spells in the game imo

[@miyukidawn9803]

It is really helpful when you are in critical condition. Being able to send an enemy to sleep is helpful

[@ryanmccarty8961]

BG3 is my first real taste of DND, and I can’t tell you how valuable your videos have been for me! I’ve watched each tier list you’ve made and feel much more confident with my decisions now. Thank you so much for all the effort, thought, and time you put into these!

[@mcmatt186]

37:34 "70 healing basically brings any character back to full" My 160hp barbarian: 🗿

[@jacobmorris6357]

I also have a 160 HP paladin, so I feel that. Thankfully he's rarely brought to low damage because he also has 28 AC

[@revthescatman137]

@@jacobmorris6357how did you get that high hp and ac?

[@jacobmorris6357]

@revthescatman137 20 constitution, tough feat, armor of persistence, defense fighting style, gloves of wonder, iron banded shield +1, evasive boots, protective cloak

[@KungFuHustling]

Could also get shield of faith (dunno if you’re sorcerer multicass or just use all your spell slots on smites) to get 30

[@d.altounian244]

Otto's irresistable dance was what won my the fight against Sarevok. I just find i hilarious that the nightmarish corpse maker of Baldur's Gate was made a corpse himself because he just couldn't stop dancing.

[@keslercolton1568]

I also did this lol it's the only time I used the spell

[@muscularclassrepresentativ5663]

I got him with dominate person 💀 immediately first turn sending him to slaughter his minions, crazy

[@platypus547]

One benefit of a spell like heroes feast not discussed is that it really doesn’t take your one spell slot a day with items. A good use of the spell slot restoration amulet is to cast heroes feast, restore the slot then put on a more useful amulet. This can all be done out of combat and is probably one of the best uses for the amulet charge.

[@Revan619]

you can use a cleric from withers in camp to cast it on the whole party for free

[@jasonandrade5996]

@platypus547 I was just doing this in an honor mode run with a friend, it was incredibly useful and I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought of it lol

[@Aci_yt]

@@Revan619 In that case your actual cleric doesnt get the buff, since they're not in the party during the time Heroe's Feast is cast and in most camps people are WAY too far away. Still a good idea, but it definitely has a downside.

[@Revan619]

@@Aci_yt nope. It is a hired hero. You leave him at camp

[@conantheterrible9475]

@@Aci_yt it may be possible to get around this using arcane battery on one of the two staffs in act 3 that give the arcane battery ability (I say may because I haven’t tried it yet)

[@TKDB13]

The design of Harm in 5e is so baffling. Traditionally, the tradeoff with Harm was that in exchange for not being able to kill the target, it deals *drastically* more single-target damage than any other spell of comparable level. That made it great for chunking down high-hp enemies, not dealing the killing blow but bringing that point much faster than otherwise. In 5e, they made it only marginally stronger than other 6th-level spells (including just an upcast Cause Wounds), and the factor apparently intended now to offset the "can't kill" caveat is the reduction in max HP. Even in tabletop, enemies that do enough healing to care about that are extremely rare.

[@Lardo137]

A lot of things in 5e design are baffling, tbh. WotC has no idea how to design a game other than $$$.

[@doggoTB]

I think black tentacles is actually pretty important because spells don't overwrite it. Coming into bg3 from dnd I had ideas about microwave strategies where you lock down enemies and then let aoe dmg cook them. In bg3 black tentacles is really the best / only way to do this. It's very effect in certain fights with choke points where you drop black tentacles plus wall of fire or cloudkill or hunger of Hadar. Add in the black hole power and it's very strong. I wouldn't cast black tentacles at lvl 6 but upcast wall of fire and roast those enemies as they get stuck. It's a fun option if you want to microwave enemies.

[@princealibaba]

“The jokes write themselves” you get a like for that one 😂

[@seeinred]

The best use for Level 6 spell slot is to upcast magic missile, while wearing gloves of reverberation (triggers on radiant, thunder, lightning damage), boots of reverb (triggers on applying status effects), callous glow ring (adds 2 radiant damage to each missile so long as there's light), ring of radiant orb (applies radiant orb on each status effect, ergo from every missile/reverb), while dual-wielding markoheshkir and Staff of Spellpower, as well as cloak and hat of the weave. Not robes tho, because style over substance. And that's how i've got my honour mode run, kids.

[@farrex0]

You forgot the amulet that gives you an extra missile per cast, essentially making it a 7th level magic missile.

[@seeinred]

@@farrex0 Oh i didn't, really. It's just that in Act3 i swapped it for 23 CON necklace. Also the necklace that restors 1-3 slot per long rest and better one that restores 1-6 slot per long rest. Those were very useful.

[@elion4245]

Yep, gonna try magic missile artillery unit Gale soon. I did everything similar in terms of items, except, still used Spellsparkler in act 3 as dual wield with markoheshkir. So it's literally + charisma modifier + proficiency bonus (from staff if you use it's ability and select fire version) + 2 radiant + reverberation + 1d8 from spellmight (which is completely negated with arcane acuity) to each ray. You can cast 4 rays per turn. And that's exactly how viconia, ansur, cazador and especially orin (felt so bad only casting 2 rays in durge duel) were all over on turn 1. And for someone like Raphael (immune to fire) i took one level of warlock to extend command with ridiculous spell dcs thanks to arcane acuity. I think my record was 50 attack roll with +31 bonus. This thing as my MC destroyed everything on honor mode and if it couldn't destroy something, it would 100% hold monster it for the rest of a party. Gonna give magic missiles builds a try after critical hit eldritch blast sorlock one

[@noah9942.]

@@seeinred just swap the spell restoration amulet on between fights, use it, then swap back to the MM buffing amulet

[@rever6612]

> markoheshkir and Staff of Spellpower You mispelled Spellsparkler and Phalar Aluve. Markoheshkir and Staff of Spellpower dont increase Magic Missiles damage

[@astrayecho]

I feel like you vastly undervalued Sunbeam, especially in terms of it's usefulness in a radiating orb build. In that setup, you not only get a repeatable spell with dmg and possible blindness, but you're also essentially making a bunch of enemies miss future attacks, which pretty reliably means you can win an encounter based off of just that spell and then a bit of mop up dmg. Maybe not S tier but certainly A tier for me.

[@kingofgrim4761]

Very true. Sunbeam radiating orb is the only reason I beat house of grief

[@muscularclassrepresentativ5663]

This guy does love a radiant orb build, rates it extremely highly elsewhere, but probably is comparing it to just flying into enemies with spirit guardians or the other ways of orbing guys up pretty easily for cheap. Still love sun beam tho

[@mitsukisuruichi7030]

This is considered situational. Though I do agree that sunbeam in this build is monstrous. 😊

[@JoshSweetvale]

Just don't bring 'em to Raphael. The Devil tuned his 'house of Hope' to reject Radiant magic.

[@exantiuse497]

Globe of invulnerability is a horrendously overpowered effect that completely trivialises most hard bosses in the game. The enemy AI is completely incapable of playing around it, they will spend their damage spells and attacks on invulnerable characters, do not try to displace your characters from the globe and do not intentionally use your globe. And the messed up thing? Larian completely changed the spell from the tabletop. In TT it makes you immune to all SPELLS level 5 and lower, i.e. you won't suffer any effects from them instead of just being immune to the damage, but higher level spells and attacks still go through. Why did Larian change a spell so drastically, but not make sure the enemies attampt to play around it? I love abusing the globe but to be fair it shouldn't exist in the game. "I win" button isn't good game design

[@GAMER32231]

I’m still gonna use it when I hit level 12 tho

[@andrewsad1]

It really shouldn't exist in the state that it's in, but if you have a win button you may as well press it

[@XxThe_ExiledxX]

I'm looking forward to a very cool bard build one day. Seeing how you are the only person who is regularly putting out updated videos after the latest patches. Plus I've use some of them and they all work great

[@uncreativeperson8497]

Two things: the freezing sphere can be reverse pickpocketed into peoples inventories where it will explode after its remaining duration, basically acting as a time bomb. This is funny. Also heal has the ability to restore one memory each to shadowheart and the dark urge, which is cool and interesting.

[@muscularclassrepresentativ5663]

Oh wait that is so cool!

[@JoshSweetvale]

​@@muscularclassrepresentativ5663Yes. Very very very cool.

[@sawyerhackett1509]

Appreciate that you included how these lists are supposed to help you have fun not over analyze the game 😅

[@mxmadifae]

Yes to all the future vids! The whole series has been fun and looking forward to more to come!

[@pancakes4193]

Hell yeeeee, here we go. Been so sat for this entire series the past weeks.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Glad you're enjoying them! :D

[@Baseballman1224]

I really enjoyed the series! You are well spoken and i appreciate your various incites into all the spells

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks very much!

[@Martdogg3000]

Ah, the ol "infinitely putting yourself into cloud of daggers" trick. I should have known.

[@timothywilliams8530]

I’ll never forget my last playthrough. Wyll and friends were about to teach the mean land owner the error of his ways when gale lets off a desintigration right as the homeless man I’m trying to help casually runs directly in the path. I’ve never seen they as a mechanism but Alakablam and the squatter is dust

[@doglatine]

Hey man, love the channel! Longtime 5E and BG fan and I’ve been driving for work all month and listening to your tierlists has made it much more fun. Two quick thoughts - (1) your guides are all impressively spoiler-free but I’d love to hear some BG3 tierlists of more spoiler heavy stuff - eg a boss fight tierlist. (2) did you ever play BG1 and BG2? I’m a grognard who loves them and I’d love to hear your thoughts on them some time. Peace dude!

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks so much for the support! I really appreciate it :D I probably will come back to the more spoiler-heavy content at some point - especially later in the game's lifecycle, a lot of players will have already played the game. I did indeed play BG1 and 2 and loved them - I might do a retrospective on them (and maybe the neverwinter and planescape games as well) sometime!

[@doglatine]

@@Cephalopocalypse Awesome man, I'll be here for it! In general I love your style, it's a perfect mix of cozy and crunchy - no stress, no forced edginess, just good vibes and great insights into interesting rules mechanics. And as an active DM myself I love the analyses of how BG3 differs from 5E and breakdowns of subtle differences. Keep doing what you're doing!

[@doglatine]

@@Cephalopocalypse Oh and a final fan request, I'd love to see you do a Light Domain Cleric for your power builds series at some point! I think the Cleric of Selune is such a cool roleplaying choice given the events of the game, and I know you've rated the Light Cleric as almost *too* good, but afaik you haven't spelled out how to build it for maximum carnage. Just an idea for when you're looking for something fun to build!

[@Graysett]

Looking forward to the inevitable Class Actions tier list. Rage, Wildshape, Action Surge, Channel Divinity, Sorcery points, etc.

[@TheArmyKnifeNut]

I saw a crazy cheese strategy for Cazador using Arcane Gate. They used the throw cancel/carry exploit to carry Cazador through the gate into a storage room with a daylight spell inside that they also locked with Arcane Lock. Once the character that carried Cazador into the room leaves, the caster stops concentrating on the gate and Cazador will expire and be utterly powerless to do anything about it. Not bad for a D Tier spell that is "not very good".

[@eraserdusting1840]

Im so excited to use Wall Of Ice this patch combined with the Encrusted With Frost and Chilled gear set items! Being stuck with mid spells really sucked before.

[@kunalsingh4418]

Yeah I was looking this video up for the same. Kinda disappointed by freezing sphere but wall of ice blew the disappointment away lol. My Ice wizard Tav will finally have his own nuke!

[@robertbuchanan7609]

If you swap gear at the right times you can get 3 bonus 6 lvl spells. The 2 staffs with spell battery and the spell crux amulet.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep! That just goes to show how valuable a resource they are though - it's worth going way out of our way to get more!

[@juliansnow2885]

4 if you use the ilithid powers for free cast

[@garyco766]

Chainlightning was S tier for sure. I didn't know they nerfed it by making untwinnable (making up words here), but I'm not sure even that drops it to A tier. It will still flat out win you fights. A hasted sorc with Markoheskir can still potentially cast chainlightning 3 times in the first round of combat and just devastate enemy forces (quicken create water, chainlightning, hasted chainlightning from the staff, bloodlusted chainlightning using the freecast from the staff). I also think Disintegrate is slightly undervalued here. It ranks among the highest damage single target spells, especially without building specifically for fire or lightning damage. Yes, a fire sorc will get more damage out of upcast scorching ray, and a lightning mage will get more damage out of a maximized chainlightning on wet targets, but as a fallback spell for immune creatures, disintegrate is great, it can be twinned, and it's trivially easy to get your DC high enough that it doesn't fail. It's at least B tier, if not A. I used it fairly often on my solo honor run, and it averaged like 88 damage, which is pretty good!

[@galliumgames3962]

Disintegrate is D tier because it’s save or suck (Attack roles are so much better) and I can output significantly more damage per cast/attack with anyone, and my ice wizard + wet condition can get similar damage off ray of frost (Which can twin to average about 100 DMG). Definitely a lot more useful in D&D as it’s diet power word kill that helps make sure what your fighting stays dead, though this is never a concern in BG3.

[@amandajas6287]

I think Blade Barrier is much better than D-tier if you can hit multiple enemies. I've seen the enemy AI break with this spell rather often and refuse to move out of it in desperation to reach melee, ensuring 3 applications of damage. This usually happens when the path is drawn away/toward your party, rather than parallel to them, and 3 instances of damage application on 2 enemies not only does very high damage, the breaking AI causes them to lose their turn.

[@ItzGenesis]

Remember theres the ammulet that restores 6th level spells + markohekshir (or whatever its name is) that allows 1 free cast of any spell + 1 free cast of chain lightining with the eletric buff. Which could total to 3 casts of chain lightining a day. Thats not counting scrolls ofc. When you consider 3rd act fights with the robots, which are vulnerable to eletric, chain lightining goes crazy

[@bethany833]

cleric chores for every day in act 3, borrow the arcane battery staff from the wizard and cast heroes feast for free (:

[@the_og_alpha]

Chefdowheart build let's gooo

[@anthonymendenhall1776]

Globe of Invulnerability, if you can use it in your run, makes it easy to save Wyll's dad when defying Mizora. Totally worth it

[@Purrfect_Werecat]

that was how i did it xD

[@ProbeAway]

It gets worse for Harm because it's bugged (or at least, it was prior to patch 6, I don't know if they stealth fixed it). On a successful enemy save it acts normally - half damage, no disease. However, on a failed save there is no actual damage roll. The game just computes a hidden max HP reduction roll in the background and applies it. This is mostly fine if the enemy is at full health, since it has the effect of damaging them for the same amount. However, if they have already lost HP then the effective damage on a failed save is the max HP reduction roll *minus* the damage already lost. This can actually result in zero effective damage. But it gets *even worse*. Since there is no damage roll on a failed save, damage riders and on-cast/hit effects don't work. For example, you can't apply radiating orb to an enemy that fails their save against this spell, despite the fact you can apply it on a successful save. This really sucks because with the staff of cherished necromancy (even though it is now fixed and actually uses up life essence charges) I think Harm could be a solid resource-free, disadvantage-on-saving-throw damage option while concentrating on say, spirit guardians. Unfortunately even that specific use case isn't worthwhile due to the bug. I've reported it to Larian and they have acknowledged it, but no fix yet that I'm aware of. I guess they know it's such an infrequently used spell that no one is really hanging out for it. (Also, your description refers to level 5 spells, not level 6.)

[@fable23]

One nice thing about Freezing Sphere is that you can Twin it with Metamagic and hand out another to an ally... although since sorcerers don't get it naturally, you'd pretty much have to cast it from a scroll so that doesn't really boost its standing here, since this is a question of what to do with your sixth level spell slot.

[@mattduchan251]

The difference between the deva only and the mirmadons is that a wizard can have both a deva and the elementals cast at the same time. Giving your character extra summons for the day

[@AliceObscura]

I'm a tempest cleric in my playthrough with my friends. I always go Genie (since I'm tempest domain, I love that it has thunderwave which just works thematically with my character) and it has been so clutch in so many encounters, especially as a tank. I also aways bring along a skeleton archer, who shoots and then runs off for a good deal of damage as a level three, Us whose psychic attacks are way more power than a lot of people give them credit for, scratch for the loot hunting, and if any enemy wastes an attack on him, so be it, spiritual weapon for the free damage since it's cast with a bonus action, and shovel via our wizard. Our druid has summons too, as does our warlock. So, all in all, we have a huge pet party going 😂 unfortunately, we screwed up an animal handling check, so we don't have the owlbear with us. I also have a slightly worse version of Sunbeam from the blood of lathander, which is still fun to do. Kamehameha!

[@kylefields3951]

The Djinn is absurd and clearly outclasses the Cambion and Deva IMO. Great list of Spells, good Immunity Type, and has tremendous HP so will actually soak up the Damage necessary to help out the Team.

[@MrBulldog855]

Otilukes freezing sphere benefits greatly for the same reason as chain lighting does where getting the double damage from enemies that are wet is extremely powerful, but something I think you forgot as part of the set up is the fact that if a character is using Icey Metal, enemies get Chilled, and become Vulnerable to cold further doubling the damage ontop of the wet effect. If paired with the Encrusted effect, you are looking at a Cold Fire ball that does 3 times the damage, with the freezing property. I'd also add that it's as good if not a better spell than the chain lighting spell because it's a large AOE attack, meaning it does not require you to have to make a spell attack making this spell accessible to spell casters who lvl dip into wizard to obtain this spell without haveing to invest into intelligence to be able to effectively cast. (Perfect for Sorcerers who do not have access to this spell in the spell list) but also Clerics and Druids. Lastly if a spell caster does a 3 lvl dip into wizard and picks up the evocation school of magic, this spell can no longer hurt allies. I personally think this is one of the best lvl 6 spells for any ice build and much stronger than D tier.

[@Kailokel]

The future videos you mentioned sounds super interesting, including illithid powers. I'd also enjoy seeing some video that include gameplay. I don't have a great suggestion for the subject of those videos, and I know you have some let's play videos available. It would be nice to see some of your suggestions in action as you intended, though.

[@jotarokujo3603]

You mentioned the staff of cherished necromancy bugs. I believe they fixed that in patch 6. It was specifically mentioned, but I haven't personally tried it out.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

That's correct - this was recorded before patch 6

[@Jewgubu]

I think you underrated heal. You talked it up enough and made enough arguments for it that it should be C-tier.

[@Nick-rs5if]

BBEG: All big and scary and dangerous and menacing and so on, so forth. Otto's Irresistible Dance: *LOL*

[@notCalle]

Strangely enough, it feels like level 5 spell slots are a more scarce resource than the single level 6 slot, because there are so many ways to get one free max level spell slot every day.

[@MAKAKEVICH]

About the Wind Walk spell - the two time i really had to use it were The Bank Vault in Act III, where there are 5-6 safes hidden behind bars, and getting a friend out of jail peacefully (there also exists a quest to get Florrick out of jail). Certainly not worth the 6th lvl slot, bur if u can replace them freely as wizard - you probably should. The vault itself requires some preparation to raid, a skilled rogue with advantage on sleight of hand, or like, 15 knock spells.

[@FantastickACE]

Love Glove of Invulnerability. Saved me plenty of times, though watch out for Yurgir (as friend or foe) in House of Hope. That concussive blast almost cost me an honor mode run.

[@TheRedAzuki]

Give Otto's Dance to Sword Bard with helmet of arcane acuity & Mysterious Scoundrel and you just do double-attack to get (or 4 attacks) to get +8 spell DC. Then cast Otto to just guarantee another turn and then you can just attack also just stock up on Crawler Mucus on all your characters, so their weapon attacks just have high chance of causing para. Fighter + haste + Action Surge at lvl 11 = 9 Attacks after all... one of them will probably get below 13 con save... and if not, your fighter if using Battlemaster maneuvers can just bombard them with disarm/prone as well, to make sure that they spend all their legendary actions and then, if it's not dead by that point (like with bosses) then you can easily do hold monster with your Bard the turn after and then just get 100% para on the follow-up attacks.

[@pattyli7976]

After honor mode Heal feels like a seat belt, you're not gonna need it most of the times, you hope you won't need it, but when you do need it it's absolutely life saving

[@ElliottDent]

Maybe a magic weapon/equipment tierlist, maybe split into weapon types or something, to weed out any shiny-looking weapons which might just be traps. Feel like there's so many items in the game that that would give you plenty of lists to make

[@NightOfTheRavens]

There was ONE case where dimensional gate actually was really helpful to me. On the water prison, i needed to save Ravengard but i took Mizora's deal. By walking through the Dimensional gate he ignores being stunned and only spiders are spawned around him so he just needs enough HP to survive jumping one time from the gate exit to the ladder.

[@Johnjthin]

sunbeam+haste is very good (and other stuff plus the blinding) so I do not understand why it got a c. disintigrate is also good but only if you freeze them ;P

[@dimKiriyenko]

I once had a pure tempest cleric, who I have Markoheshir and just did a chain lightning each fight. I don't long rest after each battle, but I do short rest after almost each battle (and I tend to always have one song of rest in the party). Having one chain lighting per short rest without even having to be a sorc or wizard is actually so incredible that I feel like I will never use an actual learnable chain lightning. I mean, one chain lightning per battle is enough, given it's not the only thing you do and you have other party members.

[@peanuts7324]

its also important to mention that eyebite sleep doesnt apply “real sleep”, it applies a condition that “renders enemies unconscious”. this means it ignores immunities like fey ancestry, but also ghouls cant get their special attack from it. this may or may not be intentional, but imma assume it is, since their is some preexisting debate about the mechanics of eyebite sleep in 5e

[@MMORPGFreaky]

I feel like disintigrate is so good for destroying the enviroment, for example I insta killed all the pillars in raphaels fight with it, and destroyed the huge doors in the iron throne

[@THEMithrandir09]

I'd bumb sunbeam a tier because of how strong the items that give radiating orb are. Imposing a -1 (or more) to attack rolls on multiple enemies is quite powerful. Enemies more than 3 stacks of radiating orb are basically removed from combat if they rely on attacking.

[@andrewsad1]

That 6th level spell slot and the two arcane batteries are specifically reserved for when shit gets rough and I need to cast Globe of Invulnerability. Every single time it looks like my party could possibly wipe, that spell instantly wins us the fight. So far it's cheesed Raphael, the House of Grief, Sarevok, and Orin, and I look forward to the next chance I get to press The Button That Wins The Fight

[@petrisz]

4:03 so true. I do my first run at this time with a very sub-optimal party, But I rather long rest more often than go with a party that does not match the back story of my character that I have in mind :D

[@t-moneymayhem7386]

One thing to consider about blade barrier is that it blocks lines of sight, allowing you to divide fights up while dealing decent damage. I found it useful to protect my party from ranged attacks while allowing my front line to deal with rushing melee fighters, dealing decent damage in the process. This helps primarily in big fights in big arenas, which are some of the hard fights you need 6th spell slots for, like the fight against Rapheal.

[@markopusic8258]

Nah, the only thing you need against Raphael is to retreat in the hallway. A cowardly move no doubt, and it screws with Raphael's boss theme... but it's a free chokepoint to cheese all of those pesky cambions.

[@t-moneymayhem7386]

@@markopusic8258Correct, as with literally every fight in the game, there are lots of ways to approach the encounter. Insightful.

[@thomashightower7881]

I usually just Hunger of Hadar and then continually black hole/void bulb Raphael and all the cambions into the center of it while hitting him with ranged attacks. I don't even bother with the soul pillars, even on honor mode. Raphael, like most bosses, isn't all that scary when he's blinded, since he can't target you with spells or reactions while blinded.

[@ncamon]

I got an amulet that restores a spell slot per day, so Shadowheart gets another cast after the hero's feast. Minor add on to hero's feast it drops container full of food to long rest with. Not a major thing, but I stopped stealing food after I got this spell.

[@robouroboros4269]

People everywhere hate on Circle of Death, but I used it constantly with my Necromancer with the Staff of Cherished Necromancy and absolutely slayed. I killed multiple enemies every combat without expending 6th level spell slots. Just keep your party out of the AoE and it's awesome.

[@MyKingdomforAdRevenue]

The extra busted thing about heroes' feast is that you can just have a hireling cast it on your entire group at camp so it's completely free, no actual opportunity cost with other 6th levels

[@OldManYells]

Would definitely check in for an upcast or illithid tier list!

[@rorymkirk]

Haven’t tested the chain lightning nerf yet BUT - the range was busted. You could chain lightning the titan watcher and it’d hit all the watchers in that arena. Such a cheat.

[@minhocho5487]

Wish it was still like that since it is a 6th level spell. I kinda want all 6th level spells to be busted af

[@Cephalopocalypse]

So it's supposed to arc within 30 feet of the main target if they used the tabletop distance, but it's also supposed to have 150 range - they've shrunk the combat ranges a lot in BG3, so it makes sense that they reduced the arc range, but I'd still rather it just hit everything.

[@rorymkirk]

@@Cephalopocalypse btw that glyph of warding thing I mentioned a while back - seems to be an inconsistent bug with any spell cast from hidden, have had it with shadowheart and game a few times now. haven’t seen if it’s still happening with new patch

[@Evildaddy911]

I remember seeing somebody drop Circle of Death in a big epic battle with tons of minions. Dealing hundreds, if not thousands, of damage total and turning the battle from heavily outnumbered and outgunned to barely squeaking through. Naturally, I tried the same thing in bg3. That was quite the letdown. Straight to withers to swap it out so I didn't accidentally cast it again

[@himetex]

The Djini has teleport as a BA and it can cast it while being hiden without losing its hiding state. Djini is OP and normaly my Shadowheart is carrying one out of the camp every long rest

[@Tyberes]

Worth mentioning that while you cannot twin-cast Chain Lightning anymore normally, you *CAN* still twin cast the free lightning bolt that Markoheshkir provides. This is as of Patch #7 anyways.

[@WiiSportsTwo]

This might be cannibalized by the upcasting tier list, but a summons tier list might be nice or for wizard/necromancer specifically. I would also enjoy a deep dive into wild shapes, perhaps as a tier list to clarify their use cases and quirks. Might also be cool to make a difficulty tier list for legendary actions on bosses or something, though that might have less draw for people that want to avoid spoilers

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Good ideas! I'll definitely consider a wildshapes list.

[@jasonandrade5996]

Disintegrate will always be considered S tier in my eyes, 3 casts of it in one turn nearly soloed the nether brain and saved my honor run lol

[@Sultan-cf5wf]

43:51 you can find a spell scroll for this in the astral plane world in act 1. i kept it to learn for later.

[@makiiavely]

i could see some use for arcane gate if you were rocking a summons-heavy comp but even then I'd say it's niche and many summons already have great mobility with them being able to fly or straight up having their own version of misty step without any spell slots being used edit: also disintegrate is an atrocious spell to have equipped but as a scroll it's amazing. I like to hoard disintegrate scrolls and have gale (who by then has a spell DC of like 25 and even bosses have a hard time avoiding his spells) blasting the final boss with them, even if there are more effective ways of beating it

[@chichirocket]

Arcane Gate was integral in saving everyone within the time limit in the Iron Throne. Beyond that extremely specific situation, I'm not sure I'd want it over any other 6th level spell.

[@sparrowjanitor1272]

Disintegrate was amazing in the Raphael fight cause it can one shot the pillars every cast. It with the amulet that gives a spell back meant Gale 1 tapped 3 of them.

[@ElevenBricks]

Not sure if its relevant, but when I used Heroes feast each long rest(it was free since id use the amulet that replenishes a spell slot then switch to a more useful amulet as a part of my after long rest routine) it would give more camp supplies than is needed for a long rest, so essentially infinite money.

[@RansomMemoryAccess]

A tier list for the 5e Spells mod would be great. Those spells are generally completely unknown to most, so would be helpful with a short guide to the best spells.

[@F3rox66]

my personal favorite from the list, is blade wall, i once used it in conjunction with spike growth, insect swarm, and a wall of thorns to completely bully the steel watcher titan and it children, it moved half into the wall, then stopped and started skipping its turn, im not sure if i reduced its movement to 0 or if i broke its ai, but it was certainly funny to bombard them with ranged attacks through the wall as they got mutilated by the combo i lovingly call "australia"

[@bachstrad1994]

Something I always think about with these tier lists is the availability of scrolls. Disintegrate sucks for a level 6 spell slot, but if I've stolen 4 scrolls of Disintegrate from Sorcerous Sundries, it feels pretty good to cast. Same with the freezing sphere.

[@Sylancewillfall]

Nothing quite like a 1 level dip into wizard to learn all spells that you want or need. Combined with the headband of intellect from lump its quite potent

[@ArteriusSaren]

Want to revalue my "bad" take on Chain lightning thanks to guys in the comment pointing out that you can no longer twinned spell Chain lightning after patch 6. You still can twinned spell Chain lightning on Kereska's Favour like all caster it's should be your go to equipment by default. But the thing is, you can have as much as 6 chain lightnings (you don't need the same amount for Globe of Invulnerability) in a single encounter or through the whole day of an adventure. 2 (1 twinned) from Markoheshkir, 2 from batteries, 1 from regular spell and 1 from Spellcrux Amulet. It's meant to be played combining it with water and obliterate anything with that combo, unless an enemy is immune to lightning damage and you can pull out it easily in solo on honor mode even if create water is no longer a cantrip. And yes I do heavily invest it in my playthrough because casting it 6 times with initial twnned version from Markoheshkir + Destructive wind, let me decide any encounter besides Ansur in honor mode. In a party it's definitely lagging behind Heroes' Feast, but you can cast it with a druid while you can focus on lightning. And druid is another point I strongly disagree with Ceph about which Myrmidon is strongest. But it's ok.

[@wawho9645]

Thanks for doing all this, it’s been very useful 👍 Sad about not being able to able to twin-spell Chain Lightning though, right in the middle of my honor run 😢 I’m the type that does in with an army of summons, all with upcasted aid and heroes feast, bond ward, 4 stay at home clerics, etc. So pretty much obliterate everything in the first couple of rounds-never saw the need for heal with Shadowheart as Storm Cleric. I mean she’ll cast mass healing word but that’s to buff party with blade ward and bless. Destroy the enemy before I need to heal. That’s my motto.

[@ianwinter514]

with the staff of cherished necromancy or the spellcrux amulet or other arcane battery in the fight against cazador if he ascents harm can be nice to decrease his 100 hp healing every round in the rare case you dont have bonechill with you

[@dianabialaskahansen2972]

I used Daylight spell in sphere form before entering combat, which covers all of the battlefield, damaging him every turn and makes it impossible for him to regenerate.

[@heyhoojoe]

Disintegrate suffers even more from its abysmally short 30ft range, because you can probably not even target the kind of enemies - namely spellcasters - that would be threatened by its mediocre damage while also not having great Dex. I would honestly not ever consider using it in BG3, even though I love this kind of spell from a class fantasy point of view.

[@CRAIGMASTER2]

Upcasting conjure elemental for air myrmidon, heros feast, and planar ally deva are the best uses of a lvl 6 slot

[@Aci_yt]

"I think thats a very unusual way to play" I long rest basically after every fight and have done so for all my 5 playthroughs 😭

[@MrSvinota]

Circle of Death is a spell that you must cast with a sorcerer safe metamagic on melee allies surrounded by many enemies. In that case it does greate regular damage if you use it with a Staff of Cherished Necromancy many times per battle.

[@Renostat_]

me watching this to know what i should expect further into the game

[@alessandrogarofalo9951]

Even with the nerf, chain lightining is still busted, expecially if you consider it comes for free with Kereska's favor. Easy S I mean, a sorcerer with haste and blood elixirs can cast up to 4 chain lightning (1 from kereska, 2 from arcane battery from double sceptre, 1 from a lvl. 6 slot) in a single turn. Pair it with create water from a cleric and it's IMPOSSIBLE something is still standing against you in the battlefield. Otiluke ice sphere is very strong too against wet enemies, not at chain lightning level, but easily a B.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

That's exactly the thing though! *Any* 6th level spell cast 4 times over will win an encounter. The question is which ones don't need to be.

[@harrisondunn5376]

Otto’s irresistible dance gets even better on an enchantment wizard cause at level 10 they get split enchantment. Letting you cast this on 2 ENEMIES AT ONCE!!

[@Honeyist]

Otto’s Irresistible Dance felt like an instant-win button for many Act 3 bosses. I don’t think any bosses that were hit by it ever broke out of it before they were killed before ever getting their turn. It’s my personal S-tier choice (and Heroes Feast is S+ if we count camp casters)

[@aratakeneikawa6589]

I think eyebite is very underrated by everyone. For me, it is at least A tier. Literally turns a fight to a joke.

[@daytonbenson1203]

Dimension door and arcane gate are awesome for getting your party to the elder brain past the dragon at the end

[@TheEquestrianGallade]

Circle of Death exists so that you can use a scroll of it to clear that cellar of rats in Act 3 with a single action. That's its one use case in BG3.

[@alish1895]

Arcane Gate is incredibly useful in a certain Act 3 mission when you need to save a lot of NPCs with bad movement speed. It’s useless otherwise, but that mission is enough to move it to C imo.

[@VGModelling]

You can twin spell Chain lightning from Kereska's favor Bolts of doom ;)

[@Cephalopocalypse]

That's very funny - that's almost certainly the most common way in game to actually use chain lightning, so it's kind of hilarious they missed that

[@VGModelling]

@@CephalopocalypseMaybe they will patch it, but for now works :)

[@davidsalts]

huhh...thanks for a super good review, love it, but I wish you would change one premise. This is the following, If there are two games that in essence do the same thing and are available to everyone who has access to the other, where one is always better, then the other should have in F tire. I'm thinking of the congure mermadon spell. But ... what each cult wanted was if many versions, some better and some worse had existed on scrolls. For example fatherfall is something that I often rely on to find scroller to cover. If some scrollers had side effects, but I had to make do with the ones I find.

[@brendonfernandez]

Thanks for this series! Coming to BG3 from tabletop, a lot of the spells don’t work the way I expected. So detailed explanations of how they work in game is super useful! Would love a discussion of spell or ability combos. eg. You mentioned stacking Wall of Fire over spells that restrain enemies - any more combos like that? Thanks again!

[@wafflenaught9151]

When you use the orb as an item and pickpocket it into another npcs inventory. They continue to wander and when it explodes if you are around it wont start combat for you as nobody know you set them up the bomb