Ultimate Wizard Class Guide | Baldur's Gate 3

whether you're a professor at a university of magic teaching your students profound lessons in the arcane or grizzled battle mage hurling Fireballs across countless battlefields if the study and pursuit of magical knowledge is what drives you the mighty wizard is your perfect class welcome back Travelers I'm glad to see you made it I'm Colo and today we're going to take a look at the lore and abilities of the wizard class in Baldur's Gate 3. as well as a few comparisons to its DND 5th edition counterpart just for a bit of added fun Wizards are unique amongst the spell Casters in Baldur's Gate 3 and that their main casting ability is intelligence with the other Caster classes using either wisdom or Charisma to determine the accuracy and damage of their spells this is something you'll need to keep in mind for the purposes of curing as well as multi-classing should you decide to do so at 4th 8th and 12th level you'll be able to select a feat for your wizard ability Improvement is always a solid Choice as it will allow you to bump up your intelligence modifier even higher for higher damage rolls and higher spell save DC this will make your enemies have a harder time avoiding the effects of your spells there are a few Feats that are worth looking into however these include spell sniper which grants you access to another can trip and doubles your chance to land a critical hit with spells War caster which makes you much less likely to have your concentration broken during combat when you're concentrating on important spells and even dual wielder can be used for some interesting builds as it will allow you to use two staves at the same time gaining the bonuses of both as well as a plus one to your armor class just for dual wielding at first level your wizard will have access to only level 1 spells and every two wizard levels will gain access to spells that are one level higher as well as spell slots with which to cast them so when you reach wizard level 3 you'll unlock your level 2 spells at fifth wizard level you'll unlock your level 3 spells and so on 11th wizard level is the final spell level unlock granting you your level 6 spells these spells are extremely powerful and can easily turn the tides of battle in your favor if used correctly as your wizard gains levels you'll also be able to choose two spells per level from the Wizard's spell list alternatively as you explore and loot chess and bookshelves along your journey you will undoubtedly find Scrolls and books that contain magical spells Inked upon their pages any Adventurer can read these spells from the scroll and cast the associated spell but what if I told you there was a better way to utilize these Arcane Treasures what if you could permanently learn the spell from the scroll rather than consuming it for a single use this is where the Wizard's spell book comes in while you do still have the option to use the spell Scrolls as single-use items you can also open the Spellbook menu by clicking this button in the character skills menu this will show you a list of spells that your wizard doesn't currently know but that your party is currently carrying in scroll form by checking the box next to a desired spell you can pay a small amount of gold and permanently add the spell to your list of known spells you'll then be able to prepare and use the spell just as you would any other you've learned through leveling up while Sorcerers and warlocks may end up with the upper hand in raw damage numbers in bg3 there are none who can top the sheer magical utility of a wizard if you pay attention while adventuring and check your Spellbook page often you'll essentially be able to learn every spell in the Wizard's spell list through the use of these Scrolls not only that but you'll also be able to permanently learn a few very powerful spells that are only available in scroll form this means that you'll likely have a magical solution to almost any problem right at your fingertips once your wizard reaches second level you'll have a very important decision to make you'll be presented with eight subclasses each tied to Unique School of magic you'll have to decide which one of these eight schools you wish to pursue in this next section we're going to explore the subclasses individually and discuss the bonuses that they each provide before we get into these unique bonuses however I'm going to mention the Savant passive that every school will give you when you choose your subclass as a wizard you will become a savant in that school of magic which simply means it will only cost you half as much gold to learn spells from that specific school from Scrolls this is a nice bonus but it won't make enough of a difference to actually influence your choice of subclass just think of it as a small discount you'll receive and you basically won't think about it ever again after choosing your subclass right so let's get started with our look at the subclasses first up we have the ab duration wizard this school of magic is considered to be mostly protective in nature though there are certainly offensive uses or variations of some of the Spells spells that form barriers Shields or glyphs of warding generally fall under this school of ab duration as well as those that banish your foes from his very plane of existence removing them from the fight entirely until they return upon choosing the ab duration subclass you'll be granted the Arcane Ward ability this grants you a shield that will increase in power as you cast abduration spells upon completing a long rest he'll also be granted Arcane Ward Stacks equal to your current wizard level the maximum number of stacks you can have at any time is equal to two times your current wizard level so for a few examples if you never multi-class and get your wizard all the way to the maximum level which is 12th level in bg3 you'll be able to stack your Arcane Ward up to 24 total stacks alternatively if you only take two levels in Wizard and 10 levels and something else like cleric you'll only be able to build up to four stacks of Arcane Ward since your wizard level is only two having an Arcane war that can absorb 24 damage may seem very powerful and you'd be correct in that assumption but what if I told you that it was even better than you might be imagining upon first reading the ability you'd be forgiven for thinking that your Arcane Ward would simply act as a shield that absorbed a certain amount of damage and was depleted by the same amount of stacks but that isn't how it works your Arcane Ward Stacks will only decrease by one per hit that it absorbs so for example I have a situation here where my character was struck for 51 total fire damage and he had 20 stacks of Arcane Ward at the time the ward absorbed 20 damage and my character took the remaining 31 fire damage but if we look over here you can see that he still has 19 stacks of Arcane Ward remaining so if he were to get hit again the next hit would be reduced by 19 damage and his Ward would drop to 18 stacks the mitigation potential of this ability is insane at sixth level the abduration wizard obtains the projected Ward ability this is a reaction that you can choose to activate when a nearby Ally is about to take damage it will use your Arcane Ward to reduce the damage of that hit with any overflow damage still carrying over to the targeted Ally then as before your Arcane Ward will reduce by one stack this allows you to mitigate even more damage for your party should you choose to and can allow for some very clutch saves if the enemies are harassing a party member too much at 10th level the ab duration wizard will obtain the improved AB duration ability this will grant your Arcane Ward Stacks equal to your current wizard level whenever you complete a short rest you already gain Stacks equal to your wizard level on Long rests but now you can use short rests to stack your ward even higher the next subclass we're going to discuss will be the school of evocation wizard the spells in the school are generally of a more destructive nature such as hurling explosive Fireballs or calling down frigid ice storms to damage and destabilize your foes upon first choosing the evocation subclass you'll be granted the sculpt spells ability this allows the evoker to create pockets of safety within their evocation spells protecting their allies from the negative effects and damage of those spells this allows you to cast that fireball directly on top of your teammate in order to hit the enemy standing next to them without worrying about your ally being blown to bits as well upon reaching sixth level the evocation wizard will gain the potent cantrip ability this will cause enemies to take half damage from your cantribs even if they pass their saving throw when targeted [Music] the 10th level ability for the evoker is empowered evocation this will add your intelligence modifier to the damage role of any evocation spells you cast more damage is the name of the game when you delve into the school of evocation so you can't go wrong with this one our next subclass will be necromancy you probably have an image in your mind of the kinds of things the school focuses on and you're probably at least partially correct necromancers Focus their studies on the forces of Life death and undeath they specialize in spells that bestow curses animate dead bodies to serve them or steal the very life force from their targets upon first choosing the necromancy subclass you'll be granted the Grim Harvest ability this will allow you to regain hit points once per turn if you kill a creature with a spell on that turn the amount of HP regained will be equal to twice the spell slot level used or three times the spell slot level if the spell was a necromancy spell this ability does not work when you kill Undead creatures or constructs this allows you to passively turn your opponent's deaths into Life Energy for yourself at sixth level The Necromancer will obtain three separate Undead thrall's abilities these are Undead thralls anime dead which will grant you the anime dead spell if you don't already have it Undead thrall's additional Undead which will allow you to raise one additional corpse when you cast the animate dead spell and finally the undead thralls better summons ability which grants your animated dead extra hit points equal to your wizard level as well as adding your proficiency bonus to their damage all three of these bonuses are related to summoning multiple powerful minions who will Aid you in combat you can get even more minions than this and eventually can have quite the Army following you around doing your bidding at 10th level necromancy Wizards gain the inner to undeath ability this makes you permanently resistant to necrotic damage which will reduce any damage of that type You Take by half the ability also makes you immune to effects that would otherwise reduce your maximum hit points both of these can be very powerful under the right circumstances conjuration is the next subclass on our list this school of magic focuses on the summoning or Conjuring of creatures or objects seemingly out of thin air the Spells you'll specialize in will range from creating a fog Cloud to obscure your movements to summoning a powerful Celestial being to Aid you in combat the first ability you'll be granted when you choose this subclass is the minor conjuration create water ability this will grant you the create water spill as an always prepared spell and will allow you to cast it once per short rest without consuming a spell slot on its own this may not seem very powerful but there are plenty of uses for the create water spell you can use it to douse fires wash dirt and blood off your party or to cause a group of enemies and a patch of ground to be soaking wet water surfaces can be easily Frozen or electrified causing other spells to have an even even greater effect when cast into those areas and wet enemies will take double damage from both lightning and cold while being immune to burning and resistant to fire damage When You Reach sixth level you'll gain the benign transposition ability this will allow you to teleport yourself up to 30 feet or swap places with an ally that is up to 30 feet away after you use this effect you will need to either complete a long rest or cast a Conjuration Spell of level 1 or higher before it can be used again this ability will allow you to have an insane amount of movement as well as being able to strategically position your allies in combat at 10th level The Conjurer will receive focused conjuration this ability will stop your concentration from being broken by damage if you're concentrating on a Conjuration Spell this can be a very powerful effect if you utilize it to its fullest capability and can even save you from needing the war Caster feat this opens you up to possibly take other Feats which might further improve your damage or health all in all the conjuration school has some very potent and Powerful concentration spells by making proper use of these you can single-handedly turn the tide of a battle by Conjuring an Arcane gate for your teammates to travel through or summoning a field of twisting black tentacles to grab and strangle your enemies just remember if you get caught in the tentacles yourself the damage isn't going to break your concentration at 10th level and above so you might just have to manually end the spell before it gets the better of you next up on our list is the enchantment subclass the Spells you'll study when you follow this path are those that involve manipulating the target's mind whether to make them more friendly to you or to issue commands to them which they'll have no choice but to follow this is also the school of magic that Gail obviously canonically belongs to and I won't hear any arguments to the contrary look at this freaking head of hair and listen to his Charming dialogue and tell me this man isn't an enchanter he seduced the goddess of magic herself for God's sake the man has us all under a spell the subclass bonus for enchanters is the hypnotic gaze ability once per long rest you'll be able to use an action to charm and incapacitate a non-ally creature for two turns you can then use further actions to extend the duration of this effect if desired the effect will end if the target takes damage however there are a few uses for this ability and I'm sure there are tons that I haven't considered but it definitely isn't as powerful as some of the other subclass abilities on this list at sixth level the enchanter will obtain the instinctive charm ability this will allow you to as a reaction charm an enemy who is attacking you the enemy must succeed a wisdom saving throw or they will have to choose a new Target for their attack if possible if they succeed on the saving throw you won't be able to use this ability against them again until after a long rest being able to force enemies to change targets can be pretty strong but it's also difficult to recommend this one over some of the other options you have available upon reaching 10th level enchantment Wizards will earn the split enchantment ability this will allow you to Target Two creatures with enchantment spells that normally only target one creature this ability right here can be incredibly powerful considering the enchantment School contains several of the game's best crowd control spells the ability to cast Autos irresistible dance on two Targets simultaneously should not be underestimated taking two Targets out of the fight even for a single turn is a very powerful ability to have at your disposal our sixth subclass will be the Divination wizard known as the binders the students of this school magic are known for their foresight their enhanced vision and their ability to detect the thoughts of their targets upon first choosing the subclass you'll gain the important ability this is arguably the most powerful of the subclass abilities depending on who you ask after you complete a long rest you'll be granted two important dice during that day you can use these portent dice to replace a dice roll that happens near your wizard character that sounds very confusing so let's go over a hypothetical example let's say you take your long rest and your important dice happen to roll as a one and a 20. now during that day you're attacked by a creature that rolls an 18 when it is attempting to perform a massive damaging spell against your team you can use your portent die to replace that 18 roll with a 1 forcing a critical Miss then your Barbarian is attempting to slam that enemy in the face with an ax but he happens to roll a Nat one on the attack you can use your other port and die to change his role to a 20 and he'll get a critical success instead the power to alter dice rolls as you see fit is insanely strong as you might imagine and as the subclass gains further levels you'll only get more and more options for changing fate at sixth level the diviner will get the expert divination ability this will provide you with a third important die per day but also will grant you prophecy Buffs when you take a short rest these prophecies will have objectives on them such as the old psychic damage to an enemy if you complete the prophecy you'll regain one of your spend portent die so with this six level ability you'll potentially have access to quite a few replace dice rolls per day and they'll always work in your favor at 10th level the Divination wizard will gain two abilities these are the third eye dark vision and third eye C invisibility skills the first will allow you to see up to 80 feet in non-magical darkness and the other will allow you to see invisible creatures unless they pass a saving throw to maintain their invisibility both of these abilities are useful but not nearly as powerful as a six level ability we got for divination this subclass can be argued to be the most powerful of all the wizard subclasses for sure absolutely worth looking into if the Portland dice mechanic sounds interesting to you at all next up is the illusion wizard this school of magic focuses on spells that make your targets see things that aren't there or to overlook things that are these include things like fear which will show your enemies a terrifying illusion and cause them to flee in horror or invisibility which will hide you from sight allowing you to sneak into places where you don't belong the first illusion subclass bonus is the improved minor illusion ability this allows you to cast the minor illusion can trip as a bonus action this may not sound that good and it definitely isn't as powerful as some of the other subclass abilities we've discussed but there are certainly a ton of uses for this being able to distract your enemies in combat by using a bonus action can be very useful for using hide or triggering backstab critical hits for certain classes being able to alter your opponent's line of sight can be a very powerful tool if you have the creativity to take advantage of it the six level Illusionist will be granted the C invisibility spell as an always prepared spell that can be cast without using a spell slot once per short rest this can be useful but it's nothing groundbreaking at 10th level you'll obtain the illusory self ability this will allow you to form an illusory duplicate of yourself as a reaction when you're attacked the duplicate will be positioned between you and the attacker and will cause the attack to automatically miss this can be triggered once per short rest being able to force enemy attacks to miss is very powerful but this ability doesn't hold up when you compare it to the Divination Wizard's ability to cause multiple misses or hits at will per day in our final subclass choice is the transmutation wizard transmutation is a school that is defined by changing one thing into another the Spells you'll learn will include things such as haste which will double the target's actions and movement per turn while you maintain concentration or spells like fly enhanced leap and feather fall which Grant your targets the ability to fly jump fast distances and ignore fall damage respectively this school of magic has some spells that are considered must-haves by a lot of players myself included there's most certainly something here for everyone upon choosing the subclass you'll gain the experimental Alchemy ability this will allow you to brew two alchemical solutions instead of one when you combine extracts as long as you can succeed a dc-15 medicine check this is an ability that could either be very useful or completely useless to you depending on how often you interact with the game's Alchemy mechanics if you're constantly brewing and using potions poisons and bombs this ability could save you a ton of gold in the long run but I wouldn't Focus the whole build around it at six level the transmutation wizard will gain the transmuter's stone ability this one's unique it allows you to create a physical stone that will be held in your inventory and will grant the holder a permanent buff until the stone is either removed from their inventory or Until you long rest the stone can grant the holder one buff from a choice of eight these include 60 feet of dark vision proficiency and Constitution saving throws movement speed increase of 10 feet or resistance to acid cold fire lightning or thunder damage you can hand this Stone to any member of your party and they will gain the effects until it is either traded away or another stone is created or a long rest is completed you can't create more than one stone at a time there is apparently a way to use the camp stash to create multiple stones at once but I've never tested this and I wouldn't build around it because it's likely a bug and it may end up getting fixed but something to look into if you're interested the 10th level ability for transmutation is the shape changer ability this allows you to turn into a blue jay which has the ability to fly this is one of the single most disappointing 10th level abilities out of every subclass on this list the distance you can fly is not even that far the transmutation school already has the fly spell within it depending on the story choices you make in the game you may also Gain No benefit from this spell but I'm not going to get into those spoilers in this video just know that by the time you unlock this ability in the transmutation subclass you'll likely have no use for it turning into a bird is kind of cool though I guess I spoke earlier of the utility of having a wizard in your party over either a warlock or a sorcerer why is that exactly well as Sorcerers and warlocks level up they get to choose less spells to learn than the wizard and they don't learn and prepare spells in the same way that Wizards do it can be very difficult to justify learning a spell like feather fall as a sorcerer or a warlock with their very limited number of known spells but a wizard can simply prepare the spell at any time outside of combat use it as needed and then swap it back out for something that may be more useful in a combat situation you basically always have all of the wizard spells available to you at all times except for in combat where you can't swap out your prepared spells the limit of your utility really is your imagination that's all for this video Travelers thank you very much for watching and if you learned anything leave me a like and don't forget to subscribe to the channel so you don't miss out on more videos like this one if you wish to support the channel further check out my patreon which I've Linked In the video description below are you playing a wizard in bg3 leave me a comment below and let me know which subclass is your favorite once again Travelers I thank you for watching I'm glad you got to see me and do your best to stay alive until next time see ya [Music] 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Length: 27min 19sec (1639 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 11 2023