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.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Transmutation spell available to Druids and Rangers. Turns a 6m patch of ground into hardened spikes: 2d4 Piercing damage for every 1.5m a creature moves through it, and its Movement Speed is halved. There is no save. In a game where enemies love to charge you, this is a punishment field.
Spell description: Shape a piece of ground into hard spikes. A creature walking on the spikes takes 2d4 Piercing damage for every 1.5m it moves. The spikes are difficult terrain, halving a creature’s Movement Speed.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Area: 6m (20ft)
- Duration: 100 turns
- Concentration spell
- Damage: 2d4 Piercing
- Conditions applied: Difficult terrain. Movement Speed is halved. Creatures take 2d4 Piercing damage for every 1.5m they move.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Spike Growth at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Spike Growth
- Druid at Class level 3
- Ranger at Class level 5
Source item: Scroll of Spike Growth
Shape a piece of ground into hard spikes. A creature walking on the spikes takes 2d4 Piercing damage for every 1.5m it moves. The spikes are difficult terrain, halving a creature’s Movement Speed.
Duration: 100 turns
AoE: 6m (20ft) Radius
Difficult Terrain. Movement Speed is halved. Creatures take 2d4 Piercing damage for every 1.5m they move through the area.
When to cast Spike Growth
Do the arithmetic and this stops looking like a Level 2. An enemy with 9m of movement crossing the field eats six ticks of 2d4, around thirty damage, no save, one slot. Halve their speed and it takes them two turns to cross, so they eat it twice.
Place it between you and them, not on top of them. Standing still in Spike Growth costs nothing. Walking through it is what hurts. Drop it across the corridor they have to use and let them come to you.
Then there is the combo everyone eventually finds. Anything that forces movement drags an enemy back and forth across the spikes for free damage every turn. Thorn Whip, Repelling Blast, Thunderwave, Gust of Wind. A Repelling Blast Warlock standing next to a Druid with Spike Growth up is one of the nastiest things you can do at low level.
The ground does not care whose side you are on. Your melee characters take exactly the same damage, and the AI will happily bait them in. Fight from range while it is up.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Illusion spell available to Bards, Clerics, and Rangers. A 6m sphere in which no sound exists. Nothing inside can cast a spell that needs speech, which is almost all of them, and nothing inside takes Thunder damage. It lasts 100 turns and it is a hard shutdown for enemy casters.
Spell description: Create a sound-proof sphere. All within are Silenced and Immune to Thunder damage.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Area: 6m (20ft)
- Duration: 100 turns
- Concentration spell
- Ritual spell
- Conditions applied: Silenced. Cannot cast spells that require speech. Immune to Thunder damage.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Silence at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Silence
- Bard, Cleric at Class level 3
- Ranger at Class level 5
Source item: Scroll of Silence
Create a sound-proof sphere. All within are Silenced and Immune to Thunder damage.
Duration: 100 turns
AoE: 6m (20ft) Radius
No sound can be created within or pass through the sphere.
- Cannot cast spells with a verbal component.
- Immune to Thunder damage.
- Cannot be heard, and cannot hear.
When to cast Silence
Drop it on the enemy caster and they are done. No Fireball, no Hold Person, no Counterspell, nothing with a verbal component, which in this game means nearly the whole list. A Silenced Wizard is a man in a robe holding a stick.
The enemy can walk out of it, of course, and the AI will, so pair it with something that stops them. Web or Spike Growth under the Silence, or a Fighter standing on the edge with a Reaction ready. Silence plus Hold Person on the same caster is one of the cleanest lockdowns in the game.
It is also a stealth tool. Cast Silence on the door you are about to force and nobody hears the lock break. Cast it on the guards and they cannot raise the alarm. Combat is the obvious use, but the sneaky one is more fun.
It is Concentration and it affects your side too. Do not drop it on your own Cleric.
Range: Self
Save: DEX save 
Disadvantage.
Advantage.
