BG3 Cantrips Tier List 

The fatal issue with True Strike is that it requires concentration. Because of that, there's no reason it will ever take priority over another concentration spell.

I started this game almost completely unfamiliar with D&D, and ended up going Warlock. Suffice to say, I've been having a blast... AN ELDRITCH BLAST!

True strike almost feels like it was designed to be a bonus action and may even be pretty decent if it were one. Too bad we don't live in that universe

Poison robes, gloves, cloak can massively improve the poison cantrip… but don’t make up for the sheer number of enemies that resist or ignore poison damage.

Dancing Lights and Minor Illusion can both trigger Traps when spawned

Firebolt has to be at least A tier. It's nothing special, but that's exactly the point. It allows casting classes to actually contribute in the small battles in between the big ones where it's actually prudent to use spell slots. It's the workhorse that allows casters to use their other spells when it really matters while still contributing.

shocking grasp on tempest cleric will never not be satisfying, love seeing enemies fly

I also find prebuffing with things like resistance to be tedious, but resistance is very occasionally useful out of combat for a few quest type things like the zai’thisk and necromancy of thay.

I'm very glad to see Bone Chill getting some love. There are a surprising amount of undead in this game. More than any average D&D game that I've played.

Shocking Grasp is a d8, friend! Other than that, enjoyable and pretty close to what I think as well

Fun one! Very useful. Thaumaturgy gives advantage on Performance and Intimidation, not Deception.

Shillelagh adds the spell casting modifier to damage. Early game, Shillelagh on a torch is pretty solid. Example, a Druid with 16 WIS is going to deal 1D8 + 3 + 1D4 Fire for 5-15 damage, and more if enemy is weak to fire and/crit hitting.

Ray of frost with a couple pieces of equipment quickly becomes S tier. When every hit generates a 15 foot sheet of ice and the meleers in your party are immune to going prone.

Acid Splash is great for uncovering Hidden units with Sanctuary, if you don't want to spend any spell slots or don't have any grenades.

I think FIrebolt is way more useful than you're giving credit. It's quite invaluable for any Red/Gold/Bronze Draconic Sorcerer, because with gear like the Potent Robes, Amulet of Elemental Augmentation, Spellmight Gloves, and the lvl 6 Draconic Sorcerer feat, firebolt can do some ridiculous damage. At 12, I was routinely hitting for more than 50 damage with just a bolt

Sooo excited to see all the spell tier lists. I haven’t played sorcerer or bard where you actually have to make a selection vs just preparing - so this will be super helpful

I can't overstate how STOKED I felt when I see you drag Minor Illusion into S. I literally just used Minor Illusion the first time ever in my coop campaign with my friend yesterday and it was so good I just put it into its own Minor Illusion tier next to Eldritch Blast tier in my head's tier list. It was the Inquisitor fight in the Creche. The one place that gave me PTSD from the time I had to kill everyone there with 3 half-dead members because Lae'zel, being Lae'zel, betrayed me. So I just went in there with my lad (we're duoing genocide run), plop down Minor Illusion in the middle of the room and went to town. Needless to say, 6 Fireballs were enough.

Seeing Sacred Flame so low and in the same tier as Resistance is wild for a 5e TTG player. Seeing Light in top tier and hearing the take "I don't value darkvision because a free cantrip bypasses the negative effects of darkness." Is also mind-blowing. We're equating a passive benefit given to the majority of races, to a finite permanent cantrip slot that could have been used on so many better options just so you can see.

Love your videos! Super helpful. Just a quick pronunciation tip: a Shillelagh is an Irish walking stick, despite the spelling, they’re actually pronounced Shi-Lay-Lee. Just wanted to give you that info for potential future vids since you’ve been so helpful!

I do in fact disagree with you about placement of vicious mockery. Sir, It is s tier, simply for the reasoning of I get to insult whoever I'm fighting. And if that isn't the coolest thing ever, I don't know what is. The fact that it gives disadvantage on attack rolls is an added bonus.

Minor illusion is most powerful cantrip. SS tier. Trivialize massive amounts of fights. Lure one enemy to assassin. Lure all enemies to explosive barrel. Lure them close to chasm.

i was just reading ur article the other day! can't wait for the rest of these videos. i love ur analysis!

Dancing lights can be used to cover grease and poison traps. I think it can detonate explosive traps too.

Ignis, igNIS, iGGnis

Great video, some things I hadn't thought of too. I had a few thoughts: *Acid Splash* - I'd rate this slightly higher personally, probably B tier just behind firebolt. Save cantrips, while generally worse than attack cantrips, can be useful against high AC enemies. High AC also blocks all your martials so having an alternative damage cantrip can be useful. Still probably a later pick (and Sacred Flame is far better dex save cantrip) but worth taking imo. *Produce Flame* - I _hate_ this cantrip with a passion for one reason, _terrible UI_. For every other attack ability in the game you select the ability then aim it at the enemy where you can see your hit chance. Produce Flame on the other hand immediately uses up your action as soon as you select it unless you already had it running. It's easy to forget that and select it wanting to see the hit chance only to find you've used your action. After getting burned by this a few times on Shadowheart I just started ignoring it and will probably remove it next time I respec her. *Sacred Flame* - I'd rate this higher too, top of B tier or bottom of A tier. Radiant damage is just that good due to weaknesses and gear. Plus Clerics only options for damage cantrips are Sacred Flame and Produce Flame, making Sacred Flame an autopick for me.

Having not really played dnd before playing this game, I had heard memes about eldritch blast being the only thing a warlock needs, and after playing warlock in my first playthrough, I gotta say I understand now.

Ever since I took friends as a cantrip I’ve never looked back. It’s amazing as a sorcerer to basically never fail a persuasion or deception check.

You're the best bg3 lists advisor, in my opinion ...Thanks

Sacred Flame isn't that bad with a Radiant Orb build. The damage is not impressive, but the -6 to attack the enemy gets makes it a decent use of an action.

Another tier list, woooo! 🎉

Love it, can't wait for others

I feel its pretty accurate. I will definitively use more of some of them. Thank you

Vicious Mocking only affects the target’s next attack roll, not all of its attacks, which actually makes it worse and worse as you progress and fight enemies with more multiattacks.

I find Vicious Mockery works best on a weapon-user (e.g., sword bard) with the mystic scoundrel ring and the ring of arcane synergy, as your head slot will generally be taken by the helm of arcane acuity (and so you can't wear the diadem). Arcane acuity from weapon attack boosts your vicious mockery, then you use your vicious mockery bonus action to freely debuff an enemy and proc arcane synergy for yourself, then continue with weapon attacks.

Resistance isn't used for cb much but there are a few key character upgrades like the necronomicon, and the tadpole zapper that switches them to bonus actions that benefit from it. Plus clerics don't get much use from cantrips in my experience so you have the option to grab it on the first respec for no real loss.

great video as always! it’s also worth noting that, with the band of the mystic scoundrel on a swords bard, vicious mockery is also good for additional weapon damage from the ring of arcane synergy, especially in conjunction with slashing flourish (and haste)

Good analysis; I agree with the majority of your evaluations and I learned some stuff as well. One thing I'd add about Minor Illusion is that it has amazing out-of-combat utility for pickpockets as well. A lot of vendors are protected by their vision cones and those of surrounding NPCs, but you can force them all to face the same direction with Minor Illusion, then quickly enter turn-based mode and steal whatever you want during the distraction. As an aside, I've never heard anyone else pronounce "1d__" as "one die __" before!

Thank you for giving Friends the recognition it deserves. I slept on it hard and only recently discovered how good it is.

Great content man ❤

shillelagh can be used on torches…making torches a pretty strong damage AND consistently hitting attack weapon for druids and nature clerics, especially through Act 1.

Friends cantrip and Sorcerer/Warlock is just 👌 I won pretty much every single Persuasion/Deception/Intimidation so useful in dialogues it's unreal, plus Guidance. Also regarding Shocking Grasp, with Sorcerer you can extend range making it distant spell, or if you're surrounded by two enemies, you can make it multiple target, so much utility.

Friends is S-tier imo just so good.

I put Ray of Frost in S because of Snowburst Ring. That makes 4.5 meter area of ice around enemies everytime you hit them with the cantrip which further reduces their speed through difficult terrain and potentially knocks them prone. They often fall and end their turn before they get to take and action.

There’s many times where you get to roll saves, where resistance is a good cantrip. Granted, I’d not push it past high B, but I’d definitely put it at B. And ice bolt also makes pools of ice, knocking guys prone, and I believe that takes half movement to get up from..? That can be done on pools of blood too, as soon as you’ve done ANY damage to a creature that bleeds.. I use it for that more than for the damage.. it’s almost a “STOP RIGHT THERE MISTER!!!” Gather-water-freeze-watch them never get close…

Thanks! Actually never used light that much but this is going to change. Also totally didn't think of using bone chill in the elemental fight. Normally I just have tried to burst it down - praying for good rolls. Shocking grasp is very decent - the Warcaster feat made me aware that it actually had some potential damage wise.

Shocking grasp is a must have for me. It's never going to be your main so i suppose not s is fair, but it is really great for a spell caster to have that escape option or even to turn what would either be an opportunity attack hit in trying to flee or disadvantage because of close range into advantage, you dont have to disengage or try use firebolt at point blank

I'm surprised you didn't touch on the fact that Produce Flame is broken in this game and regularly fails to allow you to throw it the same turn you cast it. I had to re-spec my Light Cleric because of how often I was using an action to create a flame in my hand and not attack with it.

Crazy how many hours I've put into this game, yet there's still so many cantrips I've never/rarely used. Part of it is due to my very limited knowledge of D&D, so my imagination of how these abilities can be used aside from "does X damage" is equally limited. The other part is that I tend to stick with what works & don't try to branch out a lot when I become familiar with something. Like Chill Touch is one that never looked all that impressive to me, especially when you quickly gain higher tier, cool looking spells & aren't clever enough to see the potential (Mage Hand is another one that never works the way I want it) 😅

Light is really good on your fighter, it helps targeting with your ranged party members.

Resistance is actually a really good pickup for out of combat, they're are a ton of saving throws that happen in dialog an it can be used instead of bless or heroism in thoses situations

I would rank Resistance much higher. Saving throws are checked in many important dialogs and you can cast it similar to Guidance right from the dialog roll menu. Based on the availability I might even rank it higher than Guidance as you can get Guidance easily from a early game item. Ray of Frost has some added utility as it can extinguish fire. I used it to remove most fire sources in Waukeen's Rest to fully loot everything. I also used it to extinguish the fire on Mayrina's cage in the Hag's lair. I even used it on Karlach to cool her down to get a kiss from her. Blade Ward can be nice on a Draconic Sorcerer that gets Armour of Agathys from the bloodline as a sorcerer can use Metamagic: Extended Spell for one sorcery point to make it last four turns, which extends the lifetime of Armour of Agathys without having Blade Ward eat up your actions for recasting.

Minor Illusion is also a must-have spell for theives. A lot of merchants are in a crowd where stealth is impossible, and you can lure them out with this spell.

Resistance can be used as a bonus to all dialogue checks that require a save, such as Necromancy of Thay. While less common, the save checks are often some of the most impactful.

The Sorrowful Lash cantrip from the glaive from the grove’s vault is beast! Since it’s a bonus action my storm sorcerer (who I speced, mostly through equipment and elixirs, as a spell sword) uses it all the time. I couldn’t even tell you how many enemies I’ve finished off with it after a spell.

Great analysis, as always, Aestus! One thing to note about Shillelagh: it uses your spellcasting ability modifier, whatever that is, regardless of whether it is Wisdom. So if you grab it via magic initiate, you can get Intelligence or Charisma to attack rolls. I don't know if that's also true for multiclassing, though for scrolls and Illithid powers, the game picks your spellcasting ability modifier based on whichever class you leveled most recently, so maybe? I don't know if that is actually relevant for a real build... lol. But sort of interesting to think about given how many quarterstaves have good damage types for triggering other items (fire, thunder, cold).

Don't forget that minor illusion can set off traps and plug vents, so it's a good way to get around them without dealing with the hassle of disarming.

Vicious mockery only effects the next attack roll so if they attack multiple times in the next turn it only give disadvantage on one of those attacks (the first one)

I really underestimated minnor illusion on my first playthrough, shoving a guard into a pit because he was attracted by a fake cat is a simple pleasure. Like a good Fireball or Eldritch Blast (can be use for the push, cherry on top !) it somehow never gets old for me. Also light is very useful in the first steps on act 2 so you don't have to carry a torch or something else to reppel the curse. And even after since everything is dark it can serve as a nice QoL spell to just simply not miss anything. I would maybe up firebolt a rank, not for combat purposes but only because it's useful to burn vines and other stuff that can make the exploration more teddious. But since Shadowheart and Astation have it by default picking it for that purpose is most likely a waste anyway. Finally mage hand maybe my favorite. Classic from the table top yet really cool way to solve stuff with ease and creativness. But it's really the design of the spell that I love more than it's power.

Wooooo! Can we do feats tier list next? Feats apply to all characters while spells do not

nice review!

A note on Guidance: It IS useful in combat, but only for 3 possible situations. There are only 3 skills that have any interactions in combat, and they are Athletics, Acrobatics, and Stealth. I put guidance on my tank before fighting (from the ring, on a character that's not normally concentrating anyways, like the tank themselves), and this gives them 1d4 to Athletics, which is Shove checks. You could do the same on a character you suspect will GET shoved, and they will get 1d4 to Acrobatics, which is for resisting the above. Finally you could put it on a character you want to go into stealth during combat and they will have better rolls.

Every time I've thought about using Chill Touch against undead, they are immune to necrotic damage. I suspect it's the case that all undead are immune to necrotic damage. In that case, Chill Touch doesn't seem worth using. As you said, very few foes heal in this game, and I can think or better uses of an action than to give one undead disadvantage.

Honorable mention to Sorrowful Lash, which is Thorn Whip as a bonus action. It's only available when you equip the Sorrow glaive but it's such a good spell that I have that glaive equipped on sorcerers/warlocks even if they don't have proficiency with the weapon. Combining it with Repelling Blast to push and pull enemies in the same turn is so much fun. Having that cantrip available as a bonus action bumps it up to S tier, easily.

I liked Mage Hand in the fight against Yurgir, because you could move the bombs away from your companies so they didn’t stay in the blast radius and than throw one bomb back as a free action.

While I understand your logic with firebolt, as a level 8 dragonborn file sorc with gear available through half of act 2 so far, twinned firebolt is my most casted spell and consistently hits for 30+ nearly every time. Though I will be dipping into warlock for 9 & 10 since eldritch becomes king then.

There is definitely some ways to get combat use for mage hand. You can drop any potions on the ground, no action required - and then the mage hand can pick up and throw it. If you precast it, it becomes is an action economy free, thrown potion every round of combat. That is actually fairly strong, but I avoid actually using it because it feels cheesy.

3/4 party members of mine had firebolt and 2/4 had ray of frost and shock. Through out act 1 i was barely casting spells, relying on those cantrips instead. Cleared out the goblin camp just using those. I cast maybe 3 or 4 actual spells during the fight with Drogh Ragzlin. Mostly used minor illusion and shoving most of his people into the spider pit and used hold person Drough himself to make it easy

Produce Flame top tier RP. You look cool runnin around with a blue flame glowing in your hand

True Strike should just be something like "Reaction, Long Rest". It works once and gives you a clean hit. Because rolling twice is almost always better than rolling once with twice the chance. That's always it's flaw, it's only a good spell OUT of combat to set up an ambush.

Good vid, but small note, you said shocking grasp was 1d10, but the spell is only 1d8 (or 2d8 at 5 and 3d8 at 10).

Mage hand is useful for battles you can prepare for. You can set bombs in a spot and summon the hand next to the bombs or throwables and use it to launch them from a distance. You can also fill backpacks full of bombs and throw them at a target for massive aoe damage. Making it one of the most powerful weapons in the game. Mage hand is S tier.

Were you able to find any good synergies for the lvl 7 Eldritch Knight ability (cast a cantrip then attack as bonus action)?

I like the videos, but it's hard to follow, can you add a sceeenshot of the spell/cantrip etc you are talking about at that moment? It would really help out. Thank you!

I feel like some cantrips are really situational, depending on the game acid cantrip can be invaluable just because you're up against trolls that are resistant to fire (like in Pathfinder: Kingmaker).

Being able to use True Strike after attacking an enemy in preparation for the next turn as astarion is great, i use it all the time. I believe this might be a weapon that does this

Honestly, just happy to see shocking grasp be good. Rubbish in TT, but I do love a good zap bitch slap.

I like resistance as a way to pre-buff for sure, the fact that it is concentration actually is what i like about it. It lets you use concentrated blast without really giving much up, it triggers the ring that adds psychic damage to weapon attacks, and it makes enemies twnt to target the caster since they like breaking concentration. This is in addition to its normal effects. I used it on a tanky spore druid build that had a one level dip into war cleric for the occasional extra attack and to cast inflict wounds in a pinch. The double damage on the spore cloud reaction thing triggers two separate damage rolls, so it triggers on hit effects twice. The callous glow ring, coroscation (spelling?) ring, and the radiant shockwave armor and gloves of belligerent skies lets you do both debuffing and standard tanking. You can apply a ridiculous amount of radiating orb and reverberation with a reaction. That being said its definitely pre-buff only.

Resistance is great in dialogs with resistance checks. Like guidance for resistance.

i think vicious mockery is pretty good early game, especially with spellsparkler bringing the damage up just a little, almost every damage cantrip is usually rolling low at that point of the game anyways but disadvantage is very useful

Firebolt is incredibly useful if you do it right. Putting explosive barrels or grease down first for example. It also tends to do the most damage by far (except for eldritch blast). The only real issue I have with it is that resistance or immunity to fire damage is one of the most common types of resistances/immunities in the game.

Well done

Bone chill is my fav, as a circle of spores Druid i basically always spammed it 😅

Hey Aestus, since you said you were gonna do more spell vids I thought I'd tell you that people usually pronounce shillelagh like 'she lay lee', though the etymological ancestor is closer to the way you pronounced it and some do use that pronunciation.

true strike actually has a few use cases. it does not trigger agro, so you can use it before a fight to essentially get the benefits of hiding which is good if its impossible to hide for a unusual reason. secondly it is a cantrip that has concentration so it can be used to proc that one illithid power that requires concentration and then eats it. definitely still the worst cantrip, but i have cast it like twice and it ended up being a correct decision by allowing me to prepare for losing a skill check to avoid a fight and then another time when there was difficult terrain causing me to miss a action and i just cast it on a ally so next turn i could use conc blast and heal off the enemies concentration.

Firebolt also has lighting light sources utility that, unlike light, can be done on more than one thing and from a distance.

Once I got found that poison robe in the underdark, I was like, "Sweet, lets see what cantrip we can use it with." Yeah I was underwhelmed, a lot of enemies were strong against it. I really wanted it to work though so I feel you man.

I think this ranking is quite fair. I really like "friends" if playing diplomacy. It just let's you breeze through difficult convincing convos early game, though you do have to make sure you're outa there by the time it wears off.

Is Light still useful for a race with Darkvision? Question: What you think about using ray of Frost instead of Fire Bolt for a Cold Draconic Sorcerer? (I will pick Warlock at level 6)

You speak well Also, understand the META very well

u post a video? imma be there (love your work man)

I used true strike ONCE so far, it was only because I was entangled and that was the most value I could possibly get on that turn

All spellcasting classes benefit from eldritch blast. Spell sniper can grant eldritch blast using the relevant spellcasting modifier of the class + actually applying thebspell attack crits at 19 because its been fixed.

I'd move fire bolt to S tier keep ray of frost at A, because I really hate to not hate AT LEAST one char capable of cast those in my party at all times. Having a way to ignite of freeze surfaces at will cannot be undestated. Fire bolt is more important because of flamable surfaces, light candles and other light sources near enemies and exploding barrels, of course, but forcing a whole group of enemies to roll resist or fall down with a cantrip isn't too shabby either.´The caveat here is that you only need ONE character with fire bolt, and considering 3 of the origin companions have it, including the most played (Shadowheart) makes people not feel what it's like not having it. I'd also move resistance to A. IF you have it in a character who isn't the same casting guidance and bless it makes some dialogue resist rolls really easy (like the Omelum potion and the Necromancy of Thay in act 1).

Acid Splash I’ve found useful against Etherl because if she goes invisible you can still hit her, as long as she doesn’t move. Very situational but pretty good in that situation

I think simply because of item synergy and the context of it being a cleric cantrip, Sacred Flame should be in A. I am not sure whether this warrants moving any of the cantrips up a tier but concentration cantrips are often bad because, well you gotta concentrate on them, its also sometimes good because you have to concentrate on them. It enables items the on hit effect items in the game that require concentration so it allows a class like rogue to precast dancing lights/minor illusion and enable those items bonuses

Resistance was a life saver during certain act2 saving throw conversion checks because I hadn't built for it beforehand and SH had it stock. Haven't used it other than that however

LMAO I took shocking grasp just cause I wanted to do lightning blade, didn't think it was that good, just badass looking

One thing I’ve heard about dancing lights (haven’t tested it myself) is that it can apparently block vents if it’s can’t right on top of it. Pretty much the only reason I’d take it though

Ray of Frost also has tons of support items in the game. There is the ice staff that creates ice surface every time you hit someone with ice spell. In other words enemy has to save roll every time you use ray of frost otherwise it will go prone.

For poison spray: you can boost the damage pretty decently with the potent robe or poisoners robe (either + charisma or +1d4 poison damage, potent is better but gotten later), the poisoners ring (give vulnerability to poison to 3 targets once per long rest) and the poisoners gloves (inflict poisoned condition on poison damage. Poisoned is great, giving disadvantage on attack rolls, but both the ring and gloves have a fixed dc (14 and 13 constitution). one last big boost is that its a single target cantrip, so it can be dual cast with 1 sorcery point for a max total of x2 3d12+5+poisoned, possibly against vulnerability for double damage. So you can kinda build around it, but it's honestly just not as good as many other cantrip builds like EB or ray of frost