by Claude Helper | Sep 9, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Abjuration spell available to Wizards. Seals a door or container with a magical lock that cannot be picked and cannot be opened with Knock. Mostly it is Knock in a mirror and just as situational, but it has one combat trick that is properly good.
Spell description: Close a door or container with a magical lock. It can no longer be lockpicked or opened with Knock.
Spell properties
- Range: Melee: 1.5m (5ft)
- Duration: 10 turns
- Conditions applied: Arcane Lock
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
- Grants: Dismiss Arcane Lock (free)
Spell upcasting
Casting Arcane Lock at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Arcane Lock
- Wizard at Class level 3
- College of Lore (Bard) at Class level 6 via Magical Secrets
- Eldritch Knight (Fighter) at Class level 7
- Arcane Trickster (Rogue) at Class level 8
- Bard at Class level 10 via Magical Secrets
Source item: Scroll of Arcane Lock
Close a door or container with a magical lock. It can no longer be lockpicked or opened with Knock.
Duration: 10 turns
- The door or container is locked through magical means.
- It cannot be lockpicked or opened with Knock.
- The caster can end it early with Dismiss Arcane Lock.
When to cast Arcane Lock
Lock the door the reinforcements are about to come through. Enemies cannot pick it and cannot Knock it, so the fight becomes you against whoever was already in the room. A couple of the game’s ambushes go from disaster to routine on the back of that one cast.
Outside combat it is a roleplaying tool. Seal a door behind you while you rob the place, or lock up something you would rather a companion did not open. Ten turns is not long, so it is holding nothing permanently.
It locks the door for everyone, including you. Dismiss Arcane Lock is free, but it still costs you a turn when you have sealed yourself in with the thing you were running from.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Enchantment spell available to Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards. Fails a Wisdom save and a creature spends three turns attacking whatever is closest to it, even its own friends, so long as that is not you. It is a mind control spell with a great many strings attached.
Spell description: Instill madness in a humanoid enemy, making them attack the creature closest to them (other than you), even if it’s allied.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Duration: 3 turns
- Concentration spell
- Save: WIS save
- Conditions applied: The enemy attacks the creature closest to them, other than you, even if it is allied.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Crown of Madness at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Crown of Madness
- Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard at Class level 3
Source item: Scroll of Crown of Madness
Instill madness in a humanoid enemy, making them attack the creature closest to them (other than you), even if it’s allied.
Duration: 3 turns
- On its turn the creature must attack the nearest creature other than the caster, including allies.
- The creature repeats the Wisdom Saving Throw at the end of each of its turns.
When to cast Crown of Madness
The dream is the big enemy brute turning round and clubbing his own mates for three turns. When it happens it is glorious. The reality is that it lasts three turns, it is Concentration, it is a Wisdom save, and the target attacks whoever is closest, which the AI will occasionally decide is your Rogue.
So positioning is everything. It only works if the target is standing in a crowd of its own side and nowhere near yours. A frontline brute in the middle of the enemy pack is the right target. An enemy already in your face is a wasted slot and a self-inflicted wound.
Compare it to Hold Person. Same save, same slot, same Concentration, and Hold Person removes the enemy from the fight entirely and hands out critical hits. Crown of Madness is the fun option. Hold Person is the correct one.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Abjuration spell available to Druids and Rangers. A flat +10 bonus to Stealth Checks for you and every companion nearby. Not Advantage. Ten points. It is the largest single modifier any spell in the game hands out, and it turns your whole party, plate armour and all, into a competent stealth team.
Spell description: Call forth a veil of shadows and silence that gives you and all nearby companions a +10 bonus to Stealth Checks.
Spell properties
- Range: Self
- Area: 9m (30ft)
- Duration: Long Rest
- Concentration spell
- Conditions applied: You and all nearby companions gain a +10 bonus to Stealth Checks.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Pass Without Trace at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Pass Without Trace
- Druid at Class level 3
- Ranger at Class level 5
Source items: Ring of Shadows, Scroll of Pass Without Trace
Call forth a veil of shadows and silence that gives you and all nearby companions a +10 bonus to Stealth Checks.
Duration: Until Long Rest
AoE: 9m (30ft) Radius
- +10 bonus to Stealth Checks.
- Applies to the caster and all companions within range.
When to cast Pass Without Trace
+10 in a d20 system is ridiculous. It is worth roughly double what Advantage gives you, and it applies to every companion in range, including the Barbarian whose heavy armour has him on a 5 point Stealth penalty and who normally functions as a walking alarm. With this running he is stealthier than an unbuffed Rogue.
That is the point of the spell. It does not make your sneaky character sneakier. It makes your whole party viable at stealth, which unlocks an entire way of playing Baldur’s Gate 3 that most people never touch. Ambushes from hiding, Sneak Attack on the opening round with every character, whole encounters skipped, guards walked straight past.
It lasts until a Long Rest, so cast it and forget about it, but it is Concentration, and one solid hit on the Druid drops it for everyone at once. Keep the caster out of harm’s way and re-cast after every fight.
The most reliable opener in the game: Pass Without Trace, split the party, everyone hides, then all four attack from stealth in the same round. Most encounters do not survive that.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Conjuration spell available to Sorcerers and Wizards. Covers a 4m radius in sticky webbing: Difficult Terrain that halves movement, and anything that fails a Dexterity save is Enwebbed and cannot move at all. It is also flammable. That second sentence is the reason to take it.
Spell description: Cover an area in thick, flammable webbing that can Enweb creatures within. An ally can use its Help action to try and tear away the webs.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Area: 4m (13ft) radius
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Save: DEX save
- Conditions applied: Enwebbed. Creates a Web surface: Difficult Terrain that halves Movement Speed and is flammable.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Web at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Web
- Sorcerer, Wizard at Class level 3
Source item: Scroll of Web
Cover an area in thick, flammable webbing that can Enweb creatures within. An ally can use its Help action to try and tear away the webs.
When to cast Web
Web is the Wizard’s best control spell at this level and it competes with Hold Person for the best in the tier. The area is big, the save is Dexterity so it catches the heavy armoured brutes, and an Enwebbed enemy is stuck, Disadvantaged on attacks, and taking Advantage from everyone hitting it. Everything that walks into it afterwards rolls the save again.
Then you set it on fire. Web is a flammable surface, and a Fire Bolt or a Firebolt from your Sorcerer’s off-hand torches the whole thing for 1d4 to everything inside and burns the web away. Or you leave it up and let your archers work. Both are fine. The fire option is faster.
It works on everything: undead, constructs, beasts, the lot. When Hold Person bounces off the ghouls, Web does not. Lay it in the doorway before the fight starts and the entire enemy approach becomes a slow crawl through a sticky mess under fire.
It is Concentration, your own party cannot cross it any better than the enemy can, and if you are standing in it when someone lights it, that was your fault.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Abjuration spell available to Clerics. You bind yourself to an ally: they get Resistance to all damage and a +1 bonus to Armour Class and Saving Throws, and every point of damage they take is dealt to you as well. No Concentration, lasts until a Long Rest. Read that second half again before you cast it.
Spell description: Ward an ally. They gain Resistance to all damage, and a +1 bonus to their Armour Class and Saving Throws.
Spell properties
- Range: Melee: 1.5m (5ft)
- Duration: Long Rest
- Conditions applied: Warding Bond (Target): +1 Armour Class and Saving Throws, Resistance to all damage. Warding Bond (Caster): takes the same damage the warded ally takes.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Warding Bond at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Warding Bond
Source items: Viconia’s Walking Fortress, True Love’s Embrace
Ward an ally. They gain Resistance to all damage, and a +1 bonus to their Armour Class and Saving Throws.
Duration: Until Long Rest
- +1 bonus to Armour Class and Saving Throws.
- Resistance to all damage.
- Takes the same damage the warded ally takes.
- Ends if the two move more than 18m apart.
When to cast Warding Bond
The maths is not what you think it is. The ally takes half damage thanks to Resistance. You take the full original amount. A 20-damage hit becomes 10 on your Paladin and 20 on you. Cast this carelessly and you have not protected the party, you have booked your Cleric a funeral.
So it is not damage reduction, it is damage relocation. What you are buying is where the damage lands: off the fragile body that keeps getting focused, and onto a Cleric with the armour and the HP to absorb it. That is a good trade in a boss fight and a terrible one everywhere else.
Which means it goes on the squishy companion the boss keeps picking on, cast by a Cleric who is standing at the back and staying there. Do not put it on the character who is about to walk into a Fireball, and do not leave it running while your own HP quietly drains. It lasts until Long Rest, so it is very easy to forget it is on.
Range: Melee (1.5m)
Save: WIS save 
Disadvantage.
Advantage.
