Baldurs Gate 3 Wizard Guide

The Wizard. By far the most diverse class from 5E makes another appearance in Baldur’s Gate 3. As a Wizard, you’ve studied for far too long to simply allow mere bugs and beetles to take you down. You are a master of the arcane arts, passed down from the Dragons. You are an integral tool to fight Mind Flayers and hordes of undead alike. Or, you might be working with a different school, specializing in mind control or illusions, and thus are great at solving problems. Learn your best choices for your Wizard in our Baldurs Gate 3 Wizard guide.

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Baldurs Gate 3 Wizard Guide

The Wizard is a ranged damage dealer and problem solver. With a wide suite of spells and spell slots, your Wizard can choose to take on whatever role they want. No matter what, your Wizard should be capable of damaging multiple enemies at the same time, and solve a few major problems with their spell slots. Consider what your party can do with skills when you take spells, because your need to fill in some gaps with your spells!

Best Races

Before considering your spells, you must consider your race! Getting some Intelligence is essential for making a good Wizard… And right now, your options are limited!

If we believe that the best Wizards get a +1 to Intelligence by race, then we have a few choices; High Elf, Human, Githyanki, Half-Elf, and Tiefling. Human and Tiefling are both not amazing for the role; Humans give too many stats to things that don’t matter, and Tiefling is better as a Warlock or frontliner role.

Half-Elves are better, but not perfect. They get some cantrips, or some stealth skills, but their dedication to Charisma brings them down quite a bit. They’re like slightly better Tieflings, when it comes to being a Wizard.

Githyanki are great, because you get Medium Armor proficiency for free. You can theoretically become a Heavy Armor Wizard! More importantly, you don’t need to spend a spell slot on Mage armor, effectively giving you 1 extra spell slot! That’s not bad at all, even if you don’t care about Mage Hand!

However, even with the Githyanki Armor, the High Elf is probably just a tiny bit better. Keen Senses and Fey Ancestry, on top of Darkvision, might just be a bit more useful. In addition, you get to choose your cantrip, rather than just sticking with Mage Hand. That’s just a ton of extra utility.

See Our Baldur’s Gate 3 Fighter Guide

Best Spells

Spells are the reason to grab Wizard, and they’re all ridiculously powerful. However, there are a few choices that we highly recommend. If you wish to better connect to 5E, then check out our Best Wizard Spell list for some inspiration (or our Cantrip List for the early game!). However, for Baldur’s Gate, things change just a smidge.

Cantrips

One/Two Damage Cantrip: You only get three cantrips, so one or two should be dedicated to damage-dealing. Fire Bolt does the most damage by a good amount, but fire damage is commonly resisted. Ray of Frost is a good debuff, Chill Touch is great for boss shredding, Acid Splash has some Area of Effect… Any of these are really good! I’d suggest Fire Bolt and one other option.
Light: If you don’t want to hold a Torch, sticking Light on a Fighter’s sword is much better for your party. Make sure your Cleric or other party member can’t do it any better!
Mage Hand: Great utility option. Being able to grab something a good distance away will save your life in a Larian game!

Spells

There are a ridiculous number of spells to learn in 5E, and a few less in Baldur’s Gate. As a Wizard, you have a few fairly powerful options.

Burning Hands/Thunderwave (1st): An area of effect option is great for dealing with hordes of enemies… But, these aren’t incredible, just good. For the super early game, these will do the job.
Find Familiar (1st): If you don’t have a better option, familiars have great scouting ability, and have an in-combat buff to help you get a numbers advantage. Heck, you even get some utility! I’d suggest going Cat, Spider, or Raven. They are all good scouts, but Raven is the best.
Feather Fall (1st): Prepare this, just in case you walk into a pitfall and are about to break your legs!
Grease (1st): This is fantastic area denial, and can both keep you safe and give your melee allies Advantage on attacks. A more creative version of Area of Effect.
Mage Armor (1st): If you’re worried about your ability to dodge hits, Mage Armor boosts your AC by a ton! Do remember that this spends a spell slot, so you’ll burn ½ of your magic right away (until level 2).
Magic Missile (1st): You don’t get many damage options at level 1. Magic Missile is guaranteed chip damage to just barely knock someone out. You’ll love this spell, every time that you leave a creature at 6 or so health.
Detect Thoughts (2nd): A creature might be hiding, but it has to think! This is a great way to check for invisible or hidden creatures, and might have some bonuses for dialogue trees. Really fun option!
Invisibility (2nd): Your best tool to keep yourself safe. Using Invisibility to hide from something, and then back away. Remember, if you use a hostile spell, you’ll no longer be invisible! Consider using buffs or summoning magic instead.
Misty Step (2nd): Like Invisibility, this spell is great defense. However, this is reactive; spend a reaction to teleport a really large distance away!
Melf’s Acid Arrow/Scorching Ray (2nd): Great single-target damage options, either over time or up front. I personally prefer Scorching Ray, but both have their reasons for going onto a build.
Web (2nd): Like Grease, this is ridiculous area denial that can turn a fight 100% in your favor! Take this if you can.

What is the Best Wizard Class in Baldur’s Gate 3

The Wizard subclasses are piled onto here, and there are a ton to choose from! The “special” subclasses, like Bladesinger or War Mage, aren’t on this list. However, most of what we say in our Wizard 5E Subclasses list applies here.

Divination is great for guaranteeing good results.
Abjuration keeps you alive for a lot longer
Evocation lets you burn everything without hurting allies
Illusion is fantastic for problem solving. You use your illusion magic to trick or confuse your enemies, like with creating imaginary foes for your enemies to attack.
Necromancy is good for summoning and keeping yourself alive.
Conjuration allows you to spawn objects and even creatures to assist you.
Enchantment magic lets you distract or confuse your enemies. When you charm a creature, they cannot attack you.
Transmutation is the magic of changing one thing to another. In Baldur’s Gate 3, you are a master of Experimental Alchemy and can brew potions.

Best Feats for the Wizard in Baldur’s Gate 3

We highly recommend taking Ability Score Improvement. Yes, it’s boring, but it’s also extremely useful for a Wizard to keep boosting Intelligence. If you’re looking for weird builds, a Githyanki with okay Strength can take Heavily Armored to ignore Dexterity, or Moderately Armoured to get shield proficiency. Otherwise, there aren’t many feats to help you grow right now, as a Wizard.

See Also: Baldur’s Gate 3 Rogue Guide

Conclusions – Baldurs Gate 3 Wizard

That wraps up our Baldurs Gate 3 Wizard Guide. Wizards are ridiculous problem-solving machines! Use cantrips wisely, and you’ll be a force to be reckoned with in Baldur’s Gate. Just make sure you have party members that can take a hit, standing in front of you!