After completing the game and playing almost all caster classes present, I have a lot of feedback about spells. Most of them are decently balanced as they can have a niche or cases where they are better than other same level analogues, but there is a list of spells that seem undertuned or not worth using - they could use some reasonable boosts. The list of these spells and suggestions for their improvements are below. Larian could also implement other improvements if they want, the main goal is just to make the spells more competitive.
Sorcerer / Wizard:
Cantrips: - True Strike is the elephant in the room for this list. You spend an action to get advantage on one hit and in most non-Rogue cases it is inferior to just attacking / casting a spell twice - with two attacks in worst case you get similar chances to hit as with True Strike and in best case you hit both times and deal double damage. It needs a boost. Suggestion: Make True Strike additionally increase damage of affected attack / spell attack by X%. The value should be reasonable enough to make it better than just attacking twice, but not too big, as it is still a cantrip. - Dancing Lights is just inferior to Light - it does not move like the latter (which is attached to weapon of a character who can move) and requires Concentration. Could use a boost. Suggestion: Remove requirement for Concentration. Its inability to move is already a downside enough.
Level 1: - Witch Bolt is inferior to most other single-target spells - it does damage over time, requires Concentration AND requires an action each round to keep dealing damage. Could use a decent boost. Suggestion: Make the link damage enemies passively each round it is active or at least require a bonus action instead of full action. - Chromatic Orb is useful at starting level, but then quickly loses value not only to higher level spells, but even to other level 1 spells and cantrips. At level 10+ - why would you use Fire Orb (2d8 damage + burning surface) over Fire Bolt (3d10 damage)? Or Ice Orb (2d8 damage + ice surface) over Ice Knife (1d10 single-target +2d6 AoE damage and same surface with similar radius)? It could use a boost. Suggestion: Make it deal 3d8 damage for all damage types AND create the current surface. That would make it more competitive at both higher levels with cantrips (since it would deal comparable damage and create a surface to justify spending a 1st level spell slot over free catrip) and at upcasting with spells like Scorching Rays. As for Thunder Orb, it could get additional minor knockback effect to get in line with other damage types for Chromatic Orb.
Level 2: - Phantasmal Force is quite odd. It is a damage over time effect with quite weak damage, still has a Save and requires Concentration. What is its benefit compared to simply blasting an enemy with any of single-target spells that deal their damage immediately? Could use a boost. Suggestion: Increase its damage to 2d4 or 2d6 and allow it to be upcasted with more damage or targets. - Ray of Enfeeblement is very niche and not that powerful - it spends Concentration to halve damage from exclusively strength based attacks, so pretty much mostly melee attacks and not even all of them. Hold Person looks at it with pity and Blade Ward that affects all physical damage and does not require Concentration for that just shrugs (BW lasts only 2 turns, but Ray of Enfeeblement triggers saves every round, so usually would last about same period of time) Suggestion: Make it affect all physical damage or both Strength and Dexterity based damage. If that would not be enough, it could additionally reduce attacker's melee attack rolls by 2 to make it both different from and stack with disadvantage. - Shatter is useful at character level 3 and 4 and then gets outshined entirely by Fireball, Glyph of Warding and other 3rd level spells. It could use a boost exclusively to upscaling to be more competitive in that department. Suggestion: Make it upscale to 5d8 at level 3 spell slot and then get standard +1d8 per level. That makes its damage at 3rd level spell slot equal to Glyph of Warding and gives it a usage case - if enemy is Fire resistant / immune (so no Fireball) you can use Shatter if they are far away or constructs and Glyph of Warding if they are closer (as Shatter has longer range and specific enemy type disadvantage and GoW allows to pick damage type and has larger radius, so both abilities would have pros and cons). That also still does not allow it to replace GoW entirely, as it is limited to one damage type and has lower radius, so rule of "higher level spell is usually better or at least not worse than upcasted low level spell" is preserved.
Level 4: - Stoneskin provides similar effect to Blade Ward, but with much higher cost and additionally requires Concentration. It could use a boost. Suggestion: Remove Concentration requirement, but limit it to 1 target maximum. That turns it into a spell that provides permanent Blade Ward like effect to one ally or self, but at the cost of 4th level spell slot. That seems like a decent trade and as comparable benefit to other non-Concentration 4th level buffs like Freedom of Movement, especially since there is an armor in the game that provides similar effect and with no cost.
Level 5: - Wall of Stone's health is undertuned. 30 HP is about one hit from one high level enemy and both he and other enemies can then just ignore the wall and pass through the breach to your party. That does not seem like a proper effect for both Concentration and 5th level slot. Suggestion: Increase its health.
Level 6: - Circle of Death seems undertuned compared to other 6th level spells. Its closest analogue is Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, which has similar radius, does more damage (10d6 vs 8d6 from Circle of Death), creates ice surface and does not require a target to radiate from. CoD could use a boost. Suggestion: At the very least increase its damage to 8d8 or 10d6.
Druid:
Level 2: - Barkskin quickly loses its benefit the higher level you get. AC 16 is equal to non-enchanted medium armor + 2 from Dexterity and starting from Act 2 even light and Mage Armour often exceeds it. It could use a boost to effect and scaling. Suggestion: Allow it to get benefit from Dexterity and remove Concentration requirement. That would make it just a stronger Mage Armour, but at least worth the cost, especially in Act 3, where even robes with Mage Armor can have 15 base AC + Dexterity modifier.
Level 4: - Grasping Vine is much weaker than other summons - it has very low health, can only pull and for some reason requires Concentration when most other summons don't. It could use a boost. Suggestion: Remove its Concentration requirement, increase health and make it pull action additionally deal some damage. That should make it more competitive.
Bonus: There are spells and metamagic options that can easily be added to the game, as they already exist there as item bonuses or can be based on existing mechanics. These include: - Absorb Elements - exists on two capes and can be just put as a spell available for learing. - Shadow Blade - exists on one ring and can be put as a learnable spell. - Seeking Spell - exists on gloves. However, 1 Sorcery Point per spell level is too expensive cost and should be toned down to just 1 or 2 SP cost for any spell (like in 5e). - Empowered Spell - an interesting option for its implementation could be making it the casters' Savage Attacker analogue - you roll damage dices for spell twice and use the higher result and spend 1 or 2 sorcery points for any spell to achieve that. - Transmuted Spell - since Phantasmal Force already provides damage type conversion, it seems possible to implement that as a Metamagic option. It should take into account bonuses like from Draconic Sorcerer's Elemental Affinity or Markoheshkir's affinity if transmuted to the according element though.
