Utility spells in Baldur’s Gate 3 see a lot of action and are perhaps much more important to have in a spellcaster’s arsenal than direct damage spells. Not only do they add different avenues in combat, giving players new options on how to approach encounters, but they see a lot of use outside of combat.
These spells affect everything from dialogue choices, rolls of dice, perception checks, and stealing, to things like terrain traversal. All spellcaster classes have access to utility spells of different natures, but Wizards and Bards have access to the most variety.
Updated by Hamza Haq on August 15, 2023: We've updated the list with five new utility spells that players will find extremely useful during their adventures in Baldur's Gate 3. New links have also been added to bring the article up to date with the latest in BG3.
15 Minor Illusion
If you appreciate a little bit of cheese here and there, Minor Illusion is a great spell to make difficult encounters trivial. This cantrip creates a small illusion that will attract enemies towards it to investigate.
The main use of this spell is to separate enemies from larger groups by casting it on the fringe of the battlefield and taking them out with a sneak attack. The best thing about it is that it's a cantrip, so it can be obtained easily by level 1.
14 Silence
A level 2 Illusion spell, Silence is a pretty useful tool in combat that can allow you to cut off spellcasters like Wizards and Warlocks from their spells in an area of effect. However, what most players fail to recognize is that Silence is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal outside of combat too.
When cast, Silence creates an area of effect with no sound. No sound escapes or enters this area. Sneaking past a guard, and he noticed you? Cast Silence, and now no one can hear him. Sneaking inside a castle and a door stands in your way? Cast Silence and then Fireball to destroy the door. With Silence, that means no one heard the door blown to smithereens.
13 Jump
A spell you’ll see in the game straight from the get-go, Jump is a level 1 Transmutation spell available to Druid, Eldritch Knight, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Wizard. Larian has done its best to incorporate verticality into Baldur’s Gate 3 as much as possible, giving players a true three-dimensional playground to mess around with.
Jump takes full advantage of this focus. With it, players can straight up ‘jump’ from one area to another without having to search for a ladder or ledge to hang on to. With Feather Fall activated, Jump becomes a truly powerful traversal spell you can use to fall down to explore deep pits.
12 Speak With Animals
The Speak With Animals spell is available to Druids, Bards, Rangers, Warlocks, Oath of the Ancient Paladins, Wildheart Barbarians, and Warlocks. Gnomes also gain access to this spell as part of their racial traits.
This spell is absolutely crucial to have in your party, especially on your first playthrough. Speak With Animals allows you to converse with any cow, mouse, squirrel, or owlbear you see anywhere in the game. Without it, you’d be locked out of interacting with these dialogues and miss out on a lot of content.
11 Enlarge/Reduce
If you've been exploring every corner of the map in search of hidden treasures and locked-away chests, then you've most likely come across small burrow holes that no character of yours can enter and explore.
Enlarge/Reduce not only has its uses in combat, but it also allows you to use Reduce in tandem with Disguise Self to make your character small enough to be able to enter these small burrow holes and discover what's within.
10 Speak With Dead
Like Speak With Animals, Speak With Dead gives players the option to talk to NPCs that they normally couldn’t talk to. In this case, the dead. You can revive anybody and talk to their dead body, gaining the ability to ask them five questions before they go back to being dead.
The dead are surprisingly talkative, given a chance, and will share a lot of important, relevant information with players that they don’t want to miss out on. Entire quests can be solved and mysteries uncovered by talking to the right dead person.
9 Disguise Self
Disguise Self is an iconic Dungeons & Dragons spell that allows players to change their appearance to anything they wish. A Tiefling character that would be discriminated against if they talked to a group of humans can use Disguise Self to appear as a Half-Elf to blend in and gain information without being suspected.
Disguise Self is also quite useful when using Speak With Dead to talk to enemies that the player character killed themselves. These murdered enemies will refuse to talk to their killer at any cost. But with Disguise Self, the player can fool the corpse into thinking it is talking to someone else. Useful indeed.
8 Darkness
Creating a Dome of Absolute Darkness in an area of effect, Darkness is an incredible spell inside and outside of combat. It is a level 2 Evocation spell available to Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, and Paladin.
When cast on a group of enemies, Darkness blinds them, meaning they have to move out of the area to see again or swing inside blindly, severely hampering their ability to deal damage. Blind is a powerful debuff that renders archers and long-distance spellcasters essentially useless.
7 Longstrider
A level 1 Ritual spell, Longstrider increases your movement speed by 3 meters. It doesn't sound quite that powerful at first glance, but it's an incredible utility spell that will only benefit you with no downsides.
It can be cast on your entire party and lasts until the next long rest, making it a cast-and-forget type of spell. And most importantly, you don't even need to have the spellcaster in your party for the spell to retain its effects. Have a caster in your camp cast Longstrider on every party member you plan to adventure with. This way, you'll have an entire party buffed with Longstrider and no expended spell slots to sacrifice for it.
6 Mage Hand
Available to Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, and Eldritch Knight, Mage Hand is an iconic D&D spell Larian has spent a lot of effort getting right. Mage Hand is exactly as it sounds like, giving players an ethereal, disembodied hand that can do everything a regular hand can but at a distance.
In combat, you can use Mage Hand to throw items like explosives or knives at enemies to deal damage. Outside of combat, you can pull levers, push buttons, open chests, and shove people.
5 Detect Thoughts
Detect Thoughts is a quality-of-life spell that allows a player to unlock a hidden dialogue option when talking to anybody. If you or one of your party members has Detect Thoughts in their prepared spell list, you can cast it mid-dialogue to unlock the option to hear what the person you're talking to is thinking.
This unlocks a whole new branch of dialogue that you previously wouldn't have known about. Baldur's Gate 3 puts you in the shoes of a character, and if that character knows something, they can talk about it. New dialogue options, cutscenes, and encounters can all be discovered with just one spell.
4 Guidance
Guidance is perhaps the most useful cantrip in the game. Casting Guidance allows players to add a 1d4 roll to the ability of their choice. This will see a lot of use in conversation checks, like when you’re trying to convince someone of something using Charisma as the modifier.
The fact that Guidance is a cantrip available to Clerics and Druids means choosing one of those classes as your main character will allow you to gain an instant boost in the success rate of your rolls. Shadowheart also gains access to this cantrip.
3 Invisibility
One of the most powerful spells in the game is Invisibility (Level 2 Illusions Spell) which can be obtained by Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard classes. Stealth characters, in particular, enjoy Invisibility a lot since they have a much easier time sneaking and can land critical strikes with a much higher success rate than without this spell.
Outside of combat, Invisibility comes in handy for pickpocketing and stealing from locked chests. No thief build is complete without this spell, and having a spellcaster on your team with access to this spell can open up opening gambits in combat that set you up for success right from the start.
2 Haste
A level 3 Transmutation spell, Haste gives you an extra action every turn until it runs out. It gives you additional AC, Movement speed, and actions. You can try out the effects of Haste in the early game by using the Potion of Speed, a potion available during the tutorial.
In Baldur's Gate 3, Haste works with extra attacks obtained by martial classes at level 5. This means that a Hasted fighter can attack 6 times in one turn. Twice using their basic attack and extra attack, twice again by virtue of Haste and the resulting extra attack, and twice more by using Action Surge. Haste by itself is incredibly strong, but with the right synergy, it can make even the hardest encounters in the game trivial.
1 Fly
Fly does what it says on the tin. This level 3 Transmutation spell can be obtained by Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard. With Fly active, you can zip around the battlefield without paying any attention to terrain or obstacles.
Not only is this extremely useful in combat where maneuvering is everything, you can reach hard-to-access places outside of combat as well. As long as you can see where you need to go, it’s going to take you there. This is incredibly useful in the city areas in particular, where hidden alcoves and tight nooks are practically around every corner.