by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Transmutation spell available to Bards, Druids, and Rangers. Weeds erupt across a 6m area and cut movement to a quarter. No damage, no save, not Concentration. It is a wall that nothing can walk through in a reasonable amount of time.
Spell description: Make weeds burst from the ground and smother the area. Creatures moving through the weeds have their Movement Speed quartered.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Area: 6m (20ft) radius
- Duration: 10 turns
- Conditions applied: Area: Plant Growth
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Plant Growth at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Plant Growth
- Bard, Druid at Class level 5
- Ranger at Class level 9
Source item: Armour of Landfall
Make weeds burst from the ground and smother the area. Creatures moving through the weeds have their Movement Speed quartered.
Duration: 10 turns
AoE: 6m (20ft) Radius
Creatures moving through the area have their Movement Speed quartered. There is no Saving Throw.
When to cast Plant Growth
Quartered movement with no save is a hard stop. An enemy that normally crosses the battlefield in one turn now needs four, and there is nothing they can roll to avoid it. For a ranged party, that is four free turns of shooting.
It is not Concentration, which is what separates it from Spike Growth and from every other control spell your Druid is holding. Cast it, keep concentrating on Call Lightning, and let the weeds do their job for free.
Layer it over Spike Growth. They stack. Anything crossing takes the spikes’ damage and is stuck in the field four times as long, which means four times the ticks. It is one of the nastiest combinations available to a Druid.
It does no damage at all, so it is a setup spell, not a solution. Pair it with something that punishes standing still, or with a party that can shoot.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Conjuration spell available to Warlocks. A 6m sphere of freezing darkness that Blinds everything inside, damages it twice a turn, and is Difficult Terrain so nothing can leave in a hurry. It is the best area control spell in the game at this level, and it is Warlock-only.
Spell description: Creatures within this black sphere are Blinded and take damage at the start and end of their turn. The area is Difficult Terrain.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Area: 6m (20ft) radius
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Save: DEX save
- Damage: 2d6 Cold + 2d6 Acid
- Conditions applied: Blinded; Difficult Terrain
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Hunger of Hadar at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Hunger of Hadar
Source item: Markoheshkir
Creatures within this black sphere are Blinded and take damage at the start and end of their turn. The area is Difficult Terrain.
When to cast Hunger of Hadar
It does everything at once. Damage twice a turn, Blindness on everything inside, and Difficult Terrain so they take two turns to crawl out while it is still hurting them. One slot, and an entire section of the battlefield stops functioning.
Drop it on the enemy backline, not the frontline. Blinded archers and blinded casters cannot do their jobs at all, and they are the ones who will happily stand in it because the AI is not clever about leaving.
It stacks obscenely with anything that stops them leaving. Web underneath it, or a Warlock with Repelling Blast pushing anything that manages to crawl to the edge straight back into the middle.
It is Concentration and your own party cannot see into it either, so do not drop it on top of your Barbarian. And it hurts anything inside, friend or otherwise. Place it where nobody of yours needs to walk.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Transmutation spell available to Sorcerers and Wizards. An extra Action every turn, +2 Armour Class, double movement, and Advantage on Dexterity saves. It is the strongest spell at this level and it is not remotely close. It also has a trap attached.
Spell description: Target yourself or an ally to become Hastened. The creature gains +2 Armour Class, Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws, doubled Movement Speed, and one additional Action per turn. When the condition ends, the creature becomes Lethargic.
Spell properties
- Range: 9m (30ft)
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Conditions applied: Hastened; Lethargic
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Haste at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Haste
- Sorcerer, Wizard at Class level 5
- College of Lore (Bard) at Class level 6 via Magical Secrets
- Bard at Class level 10 via Magical Secrets
Source item: Darkfire Shortbow
Target yourself or an ally to become Hastened. The creature gains +2 Armour Class, Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws, doubled Movement Speed, and one additional Action per turn. When the condition ends, the creature becomes Lethargic.
Duration: 10 turns
- One additional Action each turn.
- +2 bonus to Armour Class.
- Movement Speed is doubled.
Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws.
- Applied when Haste ends or Concentration is broken.
- The creature cannot move or act for a full turn.
When to cast Haste
An extra Action a turn is not a buff, it is a second character. Put it on whoever hits hardest, which is almost always the Fighter with Extra Attack, and watch them make four or six attacks a round instead of two or three.
Haste on a martial beats casting almost any damage spell yourself. Your Wizard’s turn is worth less than a Hasted Fighter’s extra turn, every single round, for ten rounds. This is the whole reason the spell is banned in half of the internet’s house rules.
Now the trap. It is Concentration, and when it breaks, the target becomes Lethargic and loses their entire next turn. So a Wizard who gets hit and drops Concentration has not just removed the buff, they have stunned their own Fighter in the middle of a boss fight.
Which means Haste is a spell you cast from safety, on a caster who is not going to be touched, ideally with Warding Bond or Mirror Image up first. Cast it recklessly and it is a liability. Cast it properly and it wins fights on its own.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Transmutation spell available to Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards. Gives you or an ally the ability to Fly for ten turns. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game about verticality, and this is the spell that ignores all of it.
Spell description: Bestow the ability to Fly upon yourself or an ally.
Spell properties
- Range: Melee: 1.5m (5ft)
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Conditions applied: Flight
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Grant Flight at a higher level affects an additional target for each spell slot level above the 3rd.
How to obtain Grant Flight
- Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard at Class level 5
Source item: Scroll of Grant Flight
Bestow the ability to Fly upon yourself or an ally.
Duration: 10 turns
- The creature can Fly, ignoring terrain and obstacles.
- Movement no longer provokes ground-based hazards.
- Concentration. If it drops mid-air, the creature falls.
When to cast Grant Flight
High ground is worth Advantage on ranged attacks, and this puts your archer on top of anything they can see. In a game where the AI is frequently unable to path up to you, that is close to an exploit and nobody should feel bad about it.
It also skips terrain wholesale. Chasms, lava, spike traps, Spike Growth, ledges, the lot. Fly over the puzzle instead of solving it.
Upcast it to carry two or three of the party up, and you can position an entire team somewhere the enemy melee simply cannot reach. Some encounters do not recover from that.
It is Concentration, and if Concentration breaks while you are in the air, you come down. Landing a Wizard in the middle of the enemy line is a very expensive way to learn this.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Abjuration spell available to Bards, Clerics, and Wizards. A trap you draw on the floor that goes off when an enemy walks over it. Seven variants, it is not Concentration, and it sits there until it is triggered. This is the pre-combat spell.
Spell description: Inscribe a circle of arcane glyphs on the ground. When stepped on by an enemy, the selected magical effect will trigger.
Spell properties
- Range: 9m (30ft)
- Area: 4m (13ft) radius
- Duration: Until triggered or Long Rest
- Save: DEX save
- Damage: Varies by variant
- Conditions applied: Varies by variant
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
See each individual variant. Upcasting increases the damage of the elemental glyphs.
How to obtain Glyph of Warding
- Bard, Cleric, Wizard at Class level 5
Source item: Scroll of Glyph of Warding
Inscribe a circle of arcane glyphs on the ground. When stepped on by an enemy, the selected magical effect will trigger.
Glyph of Warding spell variants
You choose the glyph when you cast it. All seven trigger the same way, on an enemy stepping into the area, and all seven persist until triggered or until you Long Rest.
1. Glyph of Warding: Fire
The glyph erupts in Fire damage when an enemy steps on it. Creatures in the area must make a Dexterity Saving Throw.
On save: The creature takes half damage.
2. Glyph of Warding: Cold
The glyph erupts in Cold damage when an enemy steps on it. Creatures in the area must make a Dexterity Saving Throw.
On save: The creature takes half damage.
3. Glyph of Warding: Lightning
The glyph erupts in Lightning damage when an enemy steps on it. Creatures in the area must make a Dexterity Saving Throw.
On save: The creature takes half damage.
4. Glyph of Warding: Thunder
The glyph erupts in Thunder damage when an enemy steps on it. Creatures in the area must make a Dexterity Saving Throw.
On save: The creature takes half damage.
5. Glyph of Warding: Acid
The glyph erupts in Acid damage when an enemy steps on it. Creatures in the area must make a Dexterity Saving Throw.
On save: The creature takes half damage.
6. Glyph of Warding: Sleep
The glyph releases a cloud of soporific gas. Creatures caught in it fall asleep instead of taking damage.
7. Glyph of Warding: Explosion
The glyph detonates in a burst of Force damage, throwing creatures caught in the blast.
On save: The creature takes half damage.
When to cast Glyph of Warding
Cast it before the fight starts. That is the entire spell. It is not Concentration and it does not expire, so you can lay a glyph down, walk away, go and start a conversation somewhere else, and the trap is still armed when the conversation turns nasty.
Which makes it the best ambush tool in the game for any encounter you know is coming, and the game telegraphs those constantly. Lay the glyph on the floor between you and the person you are about to insult.
Sleep is the variant to take when you want the fight to be over rather than loud. An enemy that walks into a Sleep glyph is unconscious, and unconscious enemies take automatic critical hits from melee.
The elemental glyphs are for damage and the choice barely matters, so pick the type the enemy does not resist. The 4m radius is generous enough that a doorway glyph will catch two or three of them at once.
Range: 18m (60ft)
Save: DEX save 
Disadvantage.
