Bestow Curse

Category: Baldur’s Gate Spells

Level 3 Necromancy spell available to Bards, Clerics, and Wizards. Touch a creature and pick your curse: cripple an ability, cripple its attacks, add damage to everything you throw at it, or simply take its turns away. Nine variants, one slot, and the last one is the reason you take it.

Spell description: Curse a creature with your touch. The curse either bestows Disadvantage on Ability Checks and Saving Throws, Disadvantage on Attack Rolls, lets you deal additional damage to the target, or robs it of its Actions.

Spell properties

  • Range: Melee: 1.5m (5ft)
  • Duration: 10 turns
  • Concentration spell
  • Save: WIS save
  • Conditions applied: Bestow Curse (varies by variant)
  • Cost: Action + Spell Slot
  • Recharge: Per action

Spell upcasting

Upcasting increases the duration: 20 turns at Level 4, 50 turns at Level 5, and 100 turns at Level 6. The effect itself does not change.

How to obtain Bestow Curse

  • Bard, Cleric, Wizard at Class level 5

Source item: Scroll of Bestow Curse

BESTOW CURSE

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

Curse a creature with your touch. The curse either bestows Disadvantage on Ability Checks and Saving Throws, Disadvantage on Attack Rolls, lets you deal additional damage to the target, or robs it of its Actions.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

Bestow Curse spell variants

You choose the curse when you cast. All nine cost the same slot and all nine last the same ten turns, so the only question is what you want the target to stop doing.

1. Bestow Curse: Strength

BESTOW CURSE: STRENGTH

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Strength Ability Checks and Strength Saving Throws.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

2. Bestow Curse: Dexterity

BESTOW CURSE: DEXTERITY

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Dexterity Ability Checks and Dexterity Saving Throws.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

3. Bestow Curse: Constitution

BESTOW CURSE: CONSTITUTION

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Constitution Ability Checks and Constitution Saving Throws.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

4. Bestow Curse: Intelligence

BESTOW CURSE: INTELLIGENCE

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Intelligence Ability Checks and Intelligence Saving Throws.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

5. Bestow Curse: Wisdom

BESTOW CURSE: WISDOM

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Wisdom Ability Checks and Wisdom Saving Throws.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

6. Bestow Curse: Charisma

BESTOW CURSE: CHARISMA

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Charisma Ability Checks and Charisma Saving Throws.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

7. Bestow Curse: Attack Rolls

BESTOW CURSE: ATTACK ROLLS

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Attack Rolls against you.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

8. Bestow Curse: Additional Damage

BESTOW CURSE: ADDITIONAL DAMAGE

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

You deal an additional 1d8 Necrotic damage to the cursed creature with every attack.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

9. Bestow Curse: Lose Action

BESTOW CURSE: LOSE ACTION

Level 3 Necromancy Spell

At the start of each of its turns, the cursed creature has a chance to lose its Action entirely.

Range: Melee (1.5m) Save: WIS save Duration: 10 turns
Action Level 3 Spell Slot

When to cast Bestow Curse

Take the Lose Action variant and stop reading. A boss that spends half its turns doing nothing is a boss that is not killing anyone, and there is no other Level 3 spell that shuts a single enemy down this hard for this long.

The additional damage variant is the one to pick when the target is going to die anyway and you just want it dead faster. 1d8 Necrotic on every attack from every source adds up over ten turns, especially with a party that all attacks twice.

The ability variants look weak and mostly are, with one exception: cursing a caster’s spellcasting ability wrecks their save DCs and their Concentration checks. Against an enemy Wizard that is a fight-ender.

The problem is the range. It is Touch, which means your Wizard has to walk into melee with the thing he is trying to disable, which is not what Wizards are for. Cast it from a Cleric who is already there, or accept the risk and bring Misty Step.

Looking for more spells? Check out our full sortable and filterable list of all BG3 spells in the database.

Browse all BG3 Spells →

Spell properties

Level
Level 3
School
Necromancy
Casting resource
Action + Spell Slot
Damage type
Necrotic
Range
Melee: 1.5m (5ft)
Duration
10 turns
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Notes & sources

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Spell mechanics, descriptions and values are based on Baldur’s Gate 3 version 4.1.1.7209685 and may change with future patches. Where applicable, sources are cited within each article.

Copyright disclaimer & licensing
Some or all of this work is © Larian Studios.
Some spell icons and game data are property of Larian Studios and used here under their fan content policy. Any fan-created works using content from Larian fall under: Larian Fan Content Policy and / or Baldur’s Gate 3 Fan Content Terms. Some of the icons used in these spell cards were downloaded from Sammy8932 on NexusMods.

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