Summary

• Choosing the best spells for your class in Baldur's Gate 3 is crucial for maximizing power early on.
• Some spells, like find familiar for wizards, offer unique benefits that make them must-have choices.
• On the other hand, spells like charm person for a warlock is outclassed by other spells.

​​​​​​Six of the 12 classes in Baldur's Gate 3 start out with the ability to cast spells. They each choose several options from a list of spells curated for them. But while spellcasting is incredibly powerful, some of these early options are much better than others. Especially at level one, when players have so few spell slots and can only choose a couple of options for what to cast, choosing correctly is important.

Some of the first-level spells that classes gain access to are great, versatile, and useful throughout the entire game. Others are either so niche that they never come up, or simply weaker than another option up for grabs. While each class does have its own list of available spells, there is still some overlap in the options they have available. And in some cases, a spell that is good for one class is terrible for another.

12 Best First-Level Wizard Spell: Find Familiar

Can also be acquired by Ranger, Eldritch Knight (Fighter), Arcane Trickster (Rogue) and Warlock with the Pact of the Chain Pact Boon

The wizard is the quintessential spellcaster in Baldur's Gate 3. All of their abilities are focused around their spellcasting, including the ability to learn new spells from scrolls. As such, this choice is a little less important for them than other classes, since they can eventually learn every level one spell on their list if they wish. Still, there is a clear choice for one spell that every wizard should learn at level one, and that is find familiar. This spell summons a small animal, like a cat or raven, to assist the player and participate in combat.

It is exclusive to the wizard list, and is rarely found on scrolls, meaning that wizards have the best chance of getting find familiar by just taking it at level one. This spell has several things going for it: it's a ritual spell, meaning it doesn't cost a spell slot when cast outside combat, it lasts until a long rest, doesn't require concentration, and it is always useful to have more allies on the field. Familiars benefit from spells like aid and longstrider which buff the party, and their tiny size makes them useful for exploration outside of combat.

11 Worst First-Level Wizard Spell: Witch Bolt

Can also be acquired by Sorcerer, Warlock, Arcane Trickster (Rogue) and Eldritch Knight (Fighter)

Choosing the worst wizard spell is harder, given how many they have access to, but the spot will have to go to witch bolt. It allows wizards to concentrate on a beam of lightning between themselves and an enemy, dealing lightning damage each turn. This may sound good, especially given how useful lightning damage can be, but this spell is a trap.

Firstly, witch bolt takes up a wizard's concentration, meaning they can't use it at the same time as more powerful spells like fog cloud or cloud of daggers. More importantly, it requires an action each turn to activate. Given how low its damage is, just 1d12, this will hardly ever outpace the damage a wizard can do by just using other spells and cantrips, especially once the party gets to higher levels. All in all, witch bolt is a spell that sounds better than it is and is almost immediately rendered useless in comparison to other options available.

10 Best First-Level Warlock Spell: Hex

Can only be acquired by Warlocks

At the opposite end of the spellcasting spectrum, warlocks get hardly any spell slots and learn only one spell at first level. As such, their choice is incredibly important to determining their early performance. Luckily, it is hard to go wrong with warlock spells at level one, since most of them are excellent. The best option at this level is hex.

Hex is a concentration spell, which works against it, but warlocks don't have a ton of concentration options to compete with it in the early levels. Plus, it lends a very helpful boost to damage: 1d6 extra Necrotic damage against a target from each of a warlock's attacks. This works famously with eldritch blast, another warlock exclusive, making this class a standout damage dealer in the early game.

Hex only works with attacks that use Attack Rolls, eg. Eldritch Blast, but not Magic Missile or Fireball.

Hex does have another part to it, giving a creature disadvantage on a given type of ability check, but this will rarely come up. The necrotic damage alone makes this spell great, though, even if it drops off at higher levels of play. That's where Baldur's Gate 3's ability to switch out spells comes in handy; once a warlock gets past sixth level or so, they can trade out hex for a better concentration spell. This way, they benefit from its power in Act One without being stuck with it the whole game.

9 Worst First-Level Warlock Spell: Charm Person

Can also be acquired by Bard, Cleric, Eldritch Knight (Fighter), Sorcerer, Wizard and Druid and some of their subclasses

The choice for worst warlock spell at level one is easy: BG3, losing its longer duration and some of its effects.

It has no use in Baldur's Gate outside of dialogue, and unfortunately, there is a cantrip which does the exact same thing as it without using a spell slot. Warlocks gain access to this cantrip, friends, at level one as well, meaning there is literally no benefit to taking charm person.

8 Best First-Level Sorcerer Spell: Shield

Can also be acquired by Wizard and Eldritch Knight (Fighter)

Sorcerers are similar to wizards in how much they are focused on their spellcasting, though they don't get that many spells in comparison. Instead, they can use Metamagic to enhance the spells they have, and Sorcery Points to cast more spells. They don't get either of those abilities at level one, though, meaning they are a bit under-powered at the very start of the game. Thus, they need spells to help keep them alive, and shield is just the spell for the job.

Shield is an obvious choice for any spellcaster that can take it, to the point that a character is inherently less powerful if they don't have it. It does what the name implies, protecting players from damage, and it is good at its job. Sorcerers who grab shield early on will have a use for it throughout the entire game as a reaction to avoid damage, and it only gets better as they gain more spell slots. It might not be the most exciting option, but it is definitely the most useful.

7 Worst First-Level Sorcerer Spell: Colour Spray

Can also be acquired by Eldritch Knight (Fighter), Wizard and Arcane Trickster (Rogue)

Sorcerers also gain access to charm person and friends, making it tempting to include charm person as their worst option as well. But another spell available to sorcerers might actually be worse, and that is colour spray. This spell is not only underwhelming, but also a bit misleading.

Colour spray says that it can temporarily blind groups of enemies, which sounds useful. But that blindness only lasts for one turn, and won't even take effect against enemies with enough hit points. It is a rare case where giving a spell a saving throw component would probably make it better, but this spell only functions on low health enemies that players would probably be better off just taking attacks against.

6 Best First-Level Druid Spell: Speak With Animals

Can also be acquired by Bard, Ranger, Warlock (Beast Speech invocation), Wildheart (Barbarian), Oath of the Ancients (Paladin) and Nature Domain (Cleric)

Druid spells may not be as combat focused as those of sorcerers and wizards, but in Act One, they have some truly fantastic options for exploration and utility. The Emerald Grove near where the players start the game is a druid enclave, after all, so it's no surprise that druidic magic would be useful there. The most practical of their level-one spells is speak with animals, an unassuming spell that opens up whole new parts of the game.

Speak with animals allows druids to do exactly that, communicating with beasts in the world around them. This can provide useful information, lead to comedic conversations, and even open up avenues for new quests. So much content in Baldur's Gate 3 is available by talking to animals that it seems almost necessary to have a party member with this spell. What makes it even better is that it is a ritual spell, meaning it won't even take a spell slot to cast.

5 Worst First-Level Druid Spell: Animal Friendship

Can also be acquired by Bard, Ranger and Nature Domain (Cleric)

The worst spell available to druids is one that sounds similar but is in fact much less useful: animal friendship. Theoretically, this spell allows players to calm and even ally with dangerous beasts in the wild. The issue with the spell in practice is that there aren't that many hostile beasts in the game, much less those that would actually be helpful in combat.

Furthermore, the game often allows the player to use speak with animals to similar effect, giving them the ability to make dialogue checks to work with certain animals. Thus, animal friendship is both a less interesting and less effective version of the previous spell.

4 Best First-Level Cleric Spell: Sanctuary

Can also be acquired by Oath of Devotion (Paladin) and Bard (via Magical Secrets)

Across all six spell levels, clerics have the most powerful options, and it isn't even close. From fast healing options like mass healing word to high damage powerhouses like spirit guardians, every cleric can have some amazing options prepped at all times. This extends to their level-one options, and of those, the best is sanctuary.

Sanctuary doesn't deal any damage or provide any healing, but it is far and away the most effective protection spell in the game, and makes BG3's final battle very easy. For the low cost of a bonus action, clerics can cast this on themselves or an ally to make it impossible for enemies to target them with attacks. There isn't a save for this, and it doesn't even require concentration.

The following spells will break the Sanctuary condition:

Call Lightning

Evard's Black Tentacles

Polymorph

Hunger of Hadar

Fear

Ice Storm

Flesh to Stone

Divine Intervention

Hypnotic Pattern

Slow

Stinking Cloud

Banishment

Glyph of Warding

This may sound niche at first, and players may only think of using it to protect downed allies. But sanctuary becomes excellent when combined with a powerful concentration spell. Enemies will often target a spellcaster concentrating on a powerful damage spell, like cloudkill or spirit guardians, hoping to make them drop concentration. But with sanctuary, that caster is entirely safe and free to spend their turns concentrating. As long as they don't directly attack another creature, sanctuary will remain functional.

3 Worst First-Level Cleric Spell: Bane

Can also be acquired by Bard, Warlock (Thief of Five Fates Invocation) and Oath of Vengeance (Paladin)

Picking the worst level one cleric spell is hard because players can't really go wrong with any of their options. The worst choice they have available to them, bane, is only bad in comparison to other choices.

It can be an effective debuff on groups of enemies, but the fact that it requires a saving throw means it may not always work. Spells like sanctuary, healing word, and bless will always do exactly what they are supposed to do, making them more reliable options.