Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Numbers over spell icon meaning?

Has anyone figured this out yet? Some features/spells have a number to the right of their image icon. For example Witch Bolt has a 2, Mage Armor has a -1, Hold Person has a 10, and Action Surge has a 1.

At first I thought this had to do with where they were on the hot bar, but no, obviously not (and I'm looking at them in the Spell Book menu). Then I was like maybe it's their level??? But no, those are noted with roman numerals, and doesn't make sense. Then I thought how long they last? But that doesn't line up for any of them. So does anyone know what they're actually referring to?

I think you can cast 1st level spells as 2nd level spells with beefed up effect. 1 here means it is 1st level. you can have both 1 and 2 level on the toolbar

That is incorrect. Mage armor says -1, not 1 and the level you are casting it at is noted by the Roman numeral at the bottom.

Those icons refer to the duration.
-1 means it lasts forever (until you long rest).
1 means it lasts the current turn
2 means it lasts this turn and the turn after.
3 means it lasts one turn longer than 2.
And so on.

Thanks fishworshipper!

The roman numerals at the bottom tell you which level you'll cast this spell at. In this case you'd use a first ( I ) level spell slot to cast Mage Armour. A second level spell would be depicted as ( II ) and so on... You'll notice this once you unlock 2nd level spell slots, because then you can cast Mage Armour at higher levels in case you run out of 1st level spell slots.

Took a moment during my first session to figure out the differences as well.