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From summoning corpses to banishing enemies or launching massive fireballs, we rank Baldur’s Gate 3 best and worst Spell Schools.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, magic manifests through spells that channel mystical energies. Certain classes wield spells to damage enemies, support allies, or heal their party. Spells aren’t limited to combat; they can be used outside battle for various effects, such as lifting objects, illuminating dark areas, and more. While only some classes have spellcasting, all can cast spells with scrolls or magic items.
Every spell belongs to a category of spells called Schools of Magic. With eight schools, they have a general theme and some benefits to casting spells from the same school. For instance, the Evocation Wizard gains a subclass feature, Empowered Evocation, at level 10. This feature adds your Intelligence Intelligence Modifier to damage rolls with any Evocation spells. Therefore, your spell school and spell book are essential for determining the optimal spell to cast in a given scenario.
In this guide, we rank all eight spell schools in Baldur’s Gate 3, from best to worst, to give you an idea of which is the most powerful to use and why.
Spell Schools Ranked Best to Worst – Baldur’s Gate 3
The best spell schools in Baldur’s Gate 3 are Evocation, Conjuration, and Transmutation. Evocation is the best for area-based damage spells like Fireball, Ice Storm, and Sunbeam. Conjuration spell school is the most versatile, with spells like Misty Step, Heroes’ Feast, and Planar Ally. Meanwhile, for movement or manipulation, Transmutation is the best. While each spell school has pros and cons, you almost always use Evocation, Conjuration, and Transmutation spells.
Here are the best Spell Schools in Baldur’s Gate 3 from Best to Worst:
- Evocation: massive area-based damage spells and some utility.
- Conjuration: helpful for all parties with movement, crowd control, and limited damage spells.
- Transmutation: school for movement and physical object manipulation.
- Abjuration: best for protection, defense, and survivability.
- Necromancy: summoning undead and necrotic damage.
- Enchantment: dedicated to crowd control.
- Illusion: used for Invisibility and Mirror Illusion mostly.
- Divination: utility spells only, 6 in total.
Related:
1 Evocation
When you think of Evocation school, most players think of Fireball and offensive-minded area damage spells. What makes the Evocation school the best in Baldur’s Gate 3 is the variety of spells, and their usefulness throughout all three Acts in BG3. Even at level 1, gaining Guiding Bolt for a Cleric or Eldritch Blast for a Warlock makes you feel powerful immediately. Later, at the end of the game, your power shines with Chain Lighting, Fireball, and Ice Storm. You can build into a specific element and even heal with Cure Wounds and Heal!
Evocation spells school pros
- Damage: the most AOE (area) damage spells in the game with huge radius perfect for destroy many enemies at once.
- Utility: Evocation isn’t just for damage, you have healing, and some buffs as wells.
- Items: With legendary Quarterstaff Markoheshkir, anyone can use powerful Evocation spells.
Evocation spells school cons
- Crowd Control: the main downside to the spells school is the lack of crowd control or stuns.
- Buffs: While evocation school has some buffs, they are not as helpful as others.
Build Combinations with Evocation Spell School
Notable Spell Combinations and Builds with Evocation school spells:
Tempest Cleric & Destructive Wave: Focused on AOE damage, the Tempest Cleric can radiate out with thunder and radiation. Another benefit is that the spell can stun enemies with Prone and doesn’t affect allies. Moreover, you can equip Gloves of Belligerent Skies, which can debuff every enemy hit with Radiant and Thunder.
Evocation Wizard with Fireball: the prototypical AOE Wizard build that’s main benefit is no friendly fire. Therefore, you can lob huge fireballs at enemies without worrying about your companions taking damage. A fun way to play this build is using the heat condition, which causes you to take damage, but you can consume to increase the fire damage of your next spells. Items like Cinder Shoes, Fireheart necklace, Theromarcanic Gloves, and Ring of Self Immolation help you increase heat and do even more damage.
Storm Sorcery Sorcerer with Chain Lighting: the Storm Sorcerer deals extra damage for lighting and thunder, and you can combo this with Call Lighting and Chain Lighting. Moreover, look to cast or create water for extra damage each turn with status effect electrocute. Lighting Charges will also help deal more damage in Act 1.
Fiend Warlock with Eldritch Blast: one of the simplest builds in BG3; use Hex to debuff targets, then Eldritch Blast for damage. The Warlock Eldritch Blast gets more powerful as you progress, and if you multiclass into the Sorcerer, you can increase your spells and utility further. The Potent Robe is a must-have item in Act 2 to grab.
2 Conjuration
The Conjuration school is ranked second best on our list for Baldur’s Gate 3, due to the amount of utility and variety. The Conjuration line favors summoning creatures, moving objects, or teleporting. You gain spells like Mage Hand, Misty Step, Flaming Sphere, Conjure Elemental, and Heroes’ Feast. The downside of the skill line is that it lacks overall damage spells of the Evocation school, but it makes a great set of spells to help round out your party composition.
Conjurations spell school pros
- Utility: overall, the Conjuration spell school has utilities like Misty Step, Find Familiar, and Produce Flame, which are helpful in general combat and exploring.
- Movement: Misty Step is one of the best mobility skills, and having it on spellcaster or Amulet of Misty Step is a game changer.
- Crowd Control: You have tons of single target and AOE CC like Grease, Ensnaring Strike, Web, and Stinking Cloud.
Conjuration spells school pros
- Weak Damage: outside of Call Lighting and Sleet Storm, the damage is weak and reliant on summoning elementals and planar allies.
- Level 6 Spells: Your level 6 spell slots somewhat lack luster compared to other schools.
- Concentration: many skills in this school require concentration; thus, you can only use one at a time.
Overall, Conjuration Spell School is ranked high on the list because it’s helpful for every campaign. However, it’s held back by dependence on conjuration allies and lack of damage.
3 Transmutation
The Transmutation spell school is ranked third on our list for Baldur’s Gate 3 due to having high damage and movement spells. This spell school is mainly about manipulating objects and creatures but it has the awe-inspiring Disintegration spell, doing 50-100 damage at a time. This pairs very well with Draconic Sorcerer, who can twinned metamagic and attack two creatures with one spell slot. Moreover, you gain Haste, Longstrider, Darkvision, Hste, and Grant Flight. What holds the spells school back is later, levels 3 to 5 are weak compared to the others on this list.
Transmutation spells school pros
- Disintegrate: one of the best skills in the game, a single target killer making the Elder Brain fight a piece of cake.
- Movement: useful for ritual spells like Feather Fall, Longstrider, and Enhanced Leap, giving you movement spells without the use of a spell slot.
- Buffs: this line has tones of buffs, and Haste, one of the best in the game, gives you an extra action per turn.
Transmutation spells school pros
- Slow Start: the earlier spells aren’t that helpful outside of Longstrider, so not much at level 1.
- Weak Mid Game: spells from level 3-5 aren’t that helpful.
- 10 Turns: main spells only last 10 turns or require concentration.
Overall, Transmutation has powerful buffs, movement, and an amazing spell at the end game for single-target damage. What holds it back is the slow start and mainly utility focus spells school.
4 Abjuration
Regarding protection spells, Abjuration is the best spell school in Baldur’s Gate 3, and overall ranked fourth on our list. The strength of the spell school is a massive amount of protection spells like Mage Armour, Shield, Sanctuary, Aid, Counterspell, and Globe of Invulnerability. Moreover, you can use the level 1 spells at the start, which are helpful throughout the game. Sanctuary is overpowered, eliminating enemies attacking you, while Shield is triggered, boosting your AC. Counterspell can shut down enemy spellcasters, and Globe of Invulnerability is helpful in Act 3, some of the hardest fights in the game. The issue with the skill line is that it lacks damage, but it is helpful for pure survival.
Abjuration spells school pros
- Starting Spells: at level one, you gain access to useful defensive spells that carry your spellcaster survivability throughout BG3.
- Defense: increase your AC with Shield and Mage Armour, or boost everyone’s HP with Aid, tons of defensive spells.
- Buff HP: Aid can be used to pre-buff allies using higher level spell slots and even reach over 130 HP at max level.
Abjuration spells school pros
- Damage: you lack almost any sort of useful damage skills from this school.
- Crowd Control: the best control skill is Banishment; outside of that, it quite weak.
- Concentration: heavy emphasis on concentration so you can’t cast multiple at once.
Don’t skip over the powerful defensive skills from Abjuration. After all, your party must survive, and this line is helpful in honour mode difficulty.
5 Necromancy
If you want to focus on undead spells, Necromancy is the best spell school for you. We ranked Necromancy as fifth best overall due to the power of undead spells. Whether you’re animating dead, single target damage with Blight, or huge AOE with Circle of Death, Necromancy has you covered. The major downside to this spell school is that necrotic damage does not affect undead and construct enemy types. This negates the spell school in certain fights.
However, a powerful combination in Act 3 revolves around the Cherished Staff of Necromancy. When you kill an enemy, it steals the life force, giving you free use of a Necromancy spell. Therefore, you can cast level 6 spell like Circle of Death or Blight for free after a kill! But this is a very specific focus at the end game. Otherwise, we’d rank it higher.
Necromancy spells school pros
- Awesome Damage: circle of death and blight are some of the best spells in BG3.
- Animate Dead: use corpses to your advantage by Animating Dead and bringing them to fights.
- Prevents Healing: some spells can prevent enemies from healing themselves.
Necromancy spells school pros
- Limited Spells: much less spells than other schools on this list.
- Undead: Necromancy spells won’t affect certain enemy types, thus lowering its ceiling.
- Start: your spells are weak at the start outside of Inflict Wounds.
6 Enchantment
If it weren’t for Bless and Command, we’d rank Enchantment Spells School as one of the worst in Baldur’s Gate 3. However, these two spells give you incredible utility at level 1, specifically on Paladin’s and Cleric’s. The Enchantment spell school fades in power the higher your level, and beyond limited use Crowd Control, your spells rarely get used. Confusions are great for large-scale fights and Hold Monster for Rapeal and other bosses, but it’s sometimes easier just to kill the enemy rather than stun them. Thus, we rank Enchantment spell school as six on our list.
Enchantment spells school pros
- Crowd Control: the best overall spell school for crowd control in BG3, but that’s about it.
- Level 1 Spells: Bless, Command, and Hex are powerhouse level 1 spells.
Enchantment spells school pros
- Later Game: the higher level spell slots become weaker than other spell schools.
- Damage: lack almost any sort of damage.
- Concentration: almost all spells require concentration, limiting usage.
7 Illusion
The Illusion spell school is ranked number 7 on our list and one of the worst in Baldur’s Gate 3 due to limited spell selection and use. The school’s best spells are Mirror Image and Invisibility. Mirror Image is helpful to radically boost your Armour Class and avoid attacks, while Invisibility helps sneak around and survive. The downside with Invisibility is that it’s much easier to just use a potion than a spell that requires concentration. Moreover, you don’t have a level 6 spell slot, which makes Illusion weaker.
Illusion spells school pros
- Mirror Image: amazing damage avoidance skill, though you can just use a spell scroll.
- Invisibility: great to use before attacking to trigger the surprise status effect.
Illusion spells school pros
- Damage: weak damage spells.
- Crowd Control: Fear is okay, but there are much better CC options even at level 1.
- Level 6 Spell: there is no level 6 powerful spell in this school.
8 Divination
The Divination Spell School is the worst in Baldur’s Gate 3 because it only has 6 spells, all minor utility spells. The best is Guidance, used throughout all BG3 campaigns to help with ability checks in dialogue. However, the Silver Pendant can be obtained in Act 1, giving you this spell while entirely avoiding the school. Maybe in Dungeons and Dragons, the spell school is fully fleshed out, but in BG3, it’s the weakest, and not much to recommend within it.
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