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Spellcasting inBaldur’s Gate 3is an art that offers a wealth of versatility, but there are still boundaries on these magical arsenals. There are two types of spellcasting systems: “known spells,” where casters have a fixed set of spells always at the ready, and “prepared spells,” which permit casters to select a handful from a broader list for use in combat scenarios.
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Thankfully for casters, Baldur’s Gate 3 has eased up on the traditional tabletop constraints regarding prepared spellcasting — in this game, prepared casters have the luxury of modifying their list of prepared spells on-the-go, and this guide will teach you exactly how.
Known Spells Vs. Prepared Spells
Class Spell List
All spellcasting classes have aClass Spell List. These are the exhaustive list of spells that a spellcaster can learn (without racial features or feats), and are commonly associated with the class' theme.
For example,Bless, a spell which involvesholy blessings, is exclusively on theCleric and Paladin spell listdue to their association with the divine and righteousness.
On the other hand, a spell like “Entangle”, which involvesvines sprouting out of the groundto incapacitate foes, is exclusively on theDruid and Ranger spell listdue to their association with nature.
Known Spellcasting
Known Spellcasting classesdo not have access to their wholeClass Spell List,and must insteadchoose select spells from said list.
These spells, known asKnown Spells,stay with a character permanentlyduring their journey (unless you choose to respec them entirely), and are theonly spells available to the character.
One Known Spell can bechanged per level-up. Otherwise, Known Spellscannot be changed at all.
Prepared Spellcasting
On the other hand, Prepared Spellcasting classes canfreely change their available spellstoanythingon their Class Spell List, provided that they areout of combat. The process of choosing these spells is known asPreparing Spells.
Prepared Casters still have only a certain number of available Prepared Spells that they can cast at any given time, but they canfreely swap them out from their Class Spell List, whereas Known Spellcasters cannot.
Warlock
Special Case: Wizards
Wizards are technically Prepared Casters, as they do not have access to cast from all their available spellsat all times. They must choose alimited number of Prepared Spells, from a list of spells available to them.
However, Wizards differ from other Prepared Casters in that theycan’t prepareevery spell on their Class Spell List, but instead have a Spells Known list as well.
This limitation is balanced out by the fact that Wizardscan learn from any Spell Scrollitem they find in their journeys, making for an almost-infinitely expanding Spells Known list.
How To Prepare Spells
To swap out prepared spells for any Prepared Spellcaster:
Once you’ve set your choices, make sure todouble-check that the changes went throughbefore wading into battle!
Remember that you canadd more rows to the hotbar, by clicking the'+' signin the bottom right of the hotbar.
This can be especiallyuseful at higher levelswhen you have tons of actions and spells to choose from.
