by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Transmutation spell available to Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards. Turn yourself or an ally into a cloud of gas that cannot fall, fits through gaps, and cannot do anything else whatsoever. It is an exploration spell and it is quietly excellent at it.
Spell description: Transform yourself or an ally into a tiny gas cloud. It can’t fall, and fits through small openings. While transformed, the target can’t attack, cast spells, or talk.
Spell properties
- Range: Melee: 1.5m (5ft)
- Duration: Until Long Rest
- Concentration spell
- Conditions applied: Gaseous Form; Ethereal
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Gaseous Form at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Gaseous Form
- Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard at Class level 5
Source item: Scroll of Gaseous Form
Transform yourself or an ally into a tiny gas cloud. It can’t fall, and fits through small openings. While transformed, the target can’t attack, cast spells, or talk.
Duration: Until Long Rest
- The creature becomes a tiny cloud of gas.
- It cannot fall and fits through small openings.
- It cannot attack, cast spells, or talk.
- Damage taken is heavily reduced while in this form.
When to cast Gaseous Form
This is a key, not a weapon. There are a lot of gaps, grates, cracks, and sealed rooms in Baldur’s Gate 3, and a great many of them have loot behind them that you were not supposed to reach yet.
It cannot fall, which is the underrated half. Chasms, broken bridges, and long drops stop being obstacles entirely, and there is no fall damage to worry about on the way down.
In combat it does nothing at all, because you cannot attack or cast while you are gas. It is not an escape tool either, since you still have to survive getting out. Do not confuse it with Misty Step.
It is Concentration, so any damage snaps you back to solid form, which is an unpleasant surprise halfway through a wall.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Necromancy spell available to Bards, Clerics, Druids, and Wizards. Puts an ally into a coma where they are Resistant to everything except Psychic. They also cannot do anything at all. It is a strange spell and it has exactly two good uses.
Spell description: Put an ally in a protective coma. They become Resistant to all damage except Psychic. Disease and poison no longer have any effect.
Spell properties
- Range: 1.5m (5ft)
- Duration: 10 turns
- Conditions applied: Feigning Death
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Feign Death at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Feign Death
- Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard at Class level 5
Source item: Boots of Apparent Death
Put an ally in a protective coma. They become Resistant to all damage except Psychic. Disease and poison no longer have any effect.
Duration: 10 turns
- Resistance to all damage except Psychic.
- Immune to disease and poison.
- The creature is unconscious and cannot act, move, or be healed by most means.
When to cast Feign Death
Use one: end combat. A comatose party member reads as dead to the enemy AI, so Feign Death on your last standing character can drop you out of a fight you were about to lose. It is a very cheap escape from a very expensive mistake.
Use two: park someone who is about to die. Resistance to everything is an enormous defensive buff, and ten turns of it on an ally who is one hit from the floor buys you the fight. They will not thank you for it, because they cannot.
The cost is that they are gone. No Actions, no attacks, no reactions, no healing. You are trading a party member’s entire turn count for their survival, which is only ever worth it in the specific moment where the alternative is a corpse.
It is not Concentration, which is a nice detail, and the Boots of Apparent Death let you do it for free. Mostly, though, this is a spell you prepare for one encounter and then forget you own.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Transmutation spell available to Paladins. Adds +1 to Attack Rolls and 1d4 of an element you choose to a weapon, and it lasts until Long Rest. It is a permanent weapon upgrade for one slot, and you pick the damage type to suit the day.
Spell description: Imbue a weapon with elemental power. It receives a +1 bonus to Attack Rolls and deals an additional 1d4 damage of your choice.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Duration: Until Long Rest
- Concentration spell
- Damage: +1d4 of the chosen type (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder)
- Conditions applied: Elemental Weapon
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting with a Level 5 or 6 Spell Slot increases the Attack Roll bonus by 1 and adds an additional 1d4 damage of your choice.
How to obtain Elemental Weapon
Source items: Drakethroat Glaive, Flail of Ages
Imbue a weapon with elemental power. It receives a +1 bonus to Attack Rolls and deals an additional 1d4 damage of your choice.
Duration: Until Long Rest
- +1 bonus to Attack Rolls with the weapon.
- The weapon deals an additional 1d4 damage of the chosen type.
- Choose from Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder.
- Concentration, despite lasting until Long Rest.
When to cast Elemental Weapon
The Drakethroat Glaive does this without a spell slot, and you can cast it on somebody else’s weapon. That is the actual headline here, and it is why this effect turns up in far more builds than the Paladin spell list would suggest.
Pick the element to match the fight. Cold on a Wet enemy, Fire on almost anything organic, Thunder where nothing resists it. A 1d4 you chose beats a 1d4 you were given.
Until Long Rest sounds permanent, and it nearly is, except that it is Concentration. One good hit on the caster and the buff evaporates for the whole day. That is a genuinely irritating design and worth knowing before you rely on it.
Upcast at Level 5 or 6 for +2 and 2d4, which on a Paladin who is swinging twice a turn is a real damage increase, though it is a lot of slot for a buff.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Evocation spell available to Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers, Rangers, and Paladins. A 6m sphere of real sunlight that lasts until Long Rest and destroys magical Darkness. It is a utility spell right up until Act 2, at which point it becomes essential.
Spell description: Enchant an item to shine like the sun, or summon a sphere of sunlight that dispels all darkness around it.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Area: 6m (20ft) radius
- Duration: Until Long Rest
- Conditions applied: Daylight
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Daylight at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Daylight
- Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer at Class level 5
- Ranger, Paladin at Class level 9
Source item: Scroll of Daylight
Enchant an item to shine like the sun, or summon a sphere of sunlight that dispels all darkness around it.
Duration: Until Long Rest
AoE: 6m (20ft) Radius
- Creates a sphere of bright sunlight.
- Dispels magical Darkness within the area, including the Darkness spell.
- Can be cast on an item, so it travels with whoever is carrying it.
When to cast Daylight
Cast it on an item and hand the item to someone. That is the version of this spell that matters. Now your party carries a permanent bubble of sunlight around with them and the Shadow Curse stops being a resource drain.
It hard-counters the Darkness spell, which enemy casters will absolutely drop on you, and it lights up anything hiding in the dark. If the enemy strategy is to make you blind, this ends the strategy for a single slot.
Until Long Rest is a very generous duration and it is not Concentration. Cast it once in the morning in Act 2 and forget about it.
It does not damage anything and it is not a combat spell. Do not expect it to do work in a fight that is not specifically about darkness.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Illusion spell available to Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards. A 9m cone that makes enemies drop their weapons and run. Disarming half an encounter for one slot is not a subtle effect, and it is one of the most underrated spells at this level.
Spell description: Hostile targets drop everything and become Fearful: they have Disadvantage on Ability Checks and Attack Rolls.
Spell properties
- Range: Self
- Area: 9m (30ft) cone
- Duration: 2 turns
- Concentration spell
- Save: WIS save
- Conditions applied: Fearful; Weapon Dropped
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Fear at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Fear
- Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard at Class level 5
Source item: Servitor of the Black Hand Gloves
Hostile targets drop everything and become Fearful: they have Disadvantage on Ability Checks and Attack Rolls.
On save: The creature is not Frightened and keeps its weapon.
Duration: 2 turns
WIS Save
- The creature must move away from the caster and cannot approach.
- Its Attack Rolls have
Disadvantage.
- Its Ability Checks have Disadvantage.
- The creature drops its weapon on the ground where it stood.
- It must spend an Action to pick the weapon back up.
When to cast Fear
The weapon drop is the part people miss. A Frightened enemy does not just run, it throws its sword on the floor, and it has to spend an Action picking it up again afterwards. Two turns of Fear is often three or four turns of an enemy doing nothing useful.
Then steal the weapon. Fear a group, walk over, and pick their swords up off the ground while they are running. They come back unarmed. It is deeply unsporting and it works.
The cone comes out of you, which for a squishy caster means walking towards the people you are afraid of. Position first, cast second, and remember the cone is wide enough to catch a whole approaching line.
Two turns is short and it is a Wisdom save, so it fails against the disciplined enemies you most want it to land on. It is a crowd tool, not a boss tool.
Range: Melee (1.5m)
Save: WIS save 
