Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Buff 12 Lackluster Spells

First, I wanted to start out by saying Baldur's Gate 3 is truly a masterpiece. With that said, I would like to share a few quick balance suggestions to improve several lackluster spells. Unfortunately, these spells felt underwhelming in most situations and there was always a better alternative. The list below is not intended to be exhaustive, but wanted to share this feedback nonetheless...

Dancing Lights
* Remove concentration requirement

True Strike
* Now reduces critical hit while attacking by 1

Colour Spray
* Increase duration from 1 turn to 2 turns

Find Familiar
* Now squeezes through and can enter small spaces
* Now carries a weight up to 3 lb (low carrying capacity)

Ray of Sickness
* Increase poison damage from 2d8 to 3d8
* On critical hit, target gets upset stomach condition

Witch Bolt
* Reactivation cost changed from action to bonus action

Bark Skin
* Now reduces bludgeoning and piercing damage by 1

Magic Weapon
* Now changed from action to bonus action

Phantasmal Force
* Increase psychic damage from 1d6 to 2d6

Ray of Enfeeblement
* Increase range from 18m to 32m
* Now casting this spell at a higher level allows an additional ray for each spell slot level above 2nd.

Vampiric Touch
* Increase necrotic damage from 3d6 to 4d6

Polymorph
* Instead of restricting to sheep, now adds additional creature options that scales with upcasting. By the very defintion, poly meaning “many,” so this change would make this spell multifaceted.

I think Polymorph is already good enough, but for the sake of fun, adding a few other creature types would be nice.

Stoneskin needs a decent upgrade too, it was a mandatory spell in BG2, now it is significantly weaker. Almost never worth casting.

Agree about Stoneskin. I wasn't sure what to propose to buff this level 4 spell to make it viable.

I like the idea for Witch Bolt - though I wouldn't say no to the reactivation remaining an action if it scaled with the level the original spell was cast with either.

Imagine if you could use polymorph on an ally to turn them into a minotaur, or an ogre. That would be cool. Gale smash!

I thought the same thing, but making the reactivation of Witch Bolt a Bonus Action allows for spell weaving with other spells, which feels thematic to me.


Agreed. I think a control spell such as Polymorph should offer many different possibilities to control the encounter as you see fit. Turn an enemy into a sheep or turn in ally into a beast (obviously needs to be balanced accordingly).