BG3 Honor Build: The Wizard

Author: Majin Evelyn

Versatility, overwhelming control, and staggering burst damage: this Wizard build has it all for Honor Mode in Baldur’s Gate 3!

Just like its 5e counterpart, the Wizard has a plethora of control effects and the widest spell list available to them. While other spellcasters can also get access to critical spells like darkness and sleet storm, Wizard has the best spell list in the game, the unique ability to learn spells from scrolls, as well as some excellent subclass features and item choices. In particular, the Conjuration School subclass has power early with Minor Conjuration, and late game can change its subclass to Evocation in order to employ similar magic missile strategies to our HexVoker build. Once obtained, the Snowburst Ring will provide even more at-will control when used with ray of frost, which can be overwhelming in combination with the many other items that can increase your Spell Save DC. Like many other casters, this build will enjoy the sturdiness benefits that come with a dip into Light Domain Cleric 1. This versatile build serves the role of control (frequently sleet storm and ray of frost) caster excellently. It fulfills many needs for any party, but its control power truly reaches critical mass when used in combination with our Fiend Warlock build.

Races/Origins

There are various choices for your race/origin that fit in nicely for this build. Here are some race options which can optionally be combined with The Dark Urge Origin:

Drow – Gaining hand crossbow proficiency, superior darkvision, perception proficiency and one free cast of darkness per day is very valuable for this build.

Wood Elf – Extra movement speed is always nice, and having both Stealth and Perception proficiency is valuable for any build.

Duergar – The invisibility available from level 5 is quite valuable. It’s usable every combat and out of combat, so you’ll almost always enter combat invisible, giving you unimpeded opportunities to set up control effects or cast ray of frost.

Human/Half-Elf – Either option gives you light armor and shield proficiency, which doesn’t supersede the usefulness of a level in Light Domain Cleric 1 (as you’ll still want medium armor, Warding Flare, and Cleric spells anyway). At level 12 you’ll likely be wearing Robes of the Weave, so you could choose to forgo the dip at that level to acquire an extra feat if you chose one of these races.

Ability Scores

8 Str, 14 Dex, 14+2 Con, 15+1 Int, 12 Wis, 8 Cha

Intelligence and Constitution are the most important ability scores for this build, and 14 Dexterity provides the minimum score required for AC with medium armor. If your Wizard is a Drow, you can swap your Dex and Con scores to give your hand crossbows slightly higher performance in Act 1.

Skills

Skill proficiencies come from your Background, Class, and Race choices. It’s ultimately unimportant to plan for skill proficiencies in Honor Mode, especially if the character in question isn’t your Avatar (the one directly controlled and made by the player, who will usually be active in conversations and making ability checks). Since the Wizard won’t be investing in any Charisma, this build doesn’t have high priority for being your Avatar character, and therefore your skill choices are even less important. Origin characters will have their Background choices locked, but if you’re making a custom character, you have some freedom. By starting with Wizard you can choose Arcana and Investigation proficiency, in combination with either the Folk Hero or Outlander backgrounds, which both grant Survival proficiency. Survival and Investigation sometimes come up outside of dialogue in the open world, and there are occasionally situations where Arcana checks are very obvious (a very magical book is on a desk!). If you select any (non-Half) Elf race, you’ll also get Perception proficiency, which is a very common skill check outside of dialogue.

Level Progression

Down below you can find a level progression that can be followed in your Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough. You may opt to respec less often or even more often to maximize your spell progression, though that is not necessary for this build to be very strong.

Wizard has a number of strong subclasses, but for the early game we will start with the School of Conjuration for its Minor Conjuration feature. Late game, we can take advantage of School of Evocation’s level 10 feature, Empowered Evocation to throw massive magic missile and artistry of war casts at Act 3’s bosses. At exactly level 12, if you have chosen Human or a Half-Elf race, you can respec your build again to Wizard 12, giving you an extra feat for another +2 to Intelligence.

Level 1: Wizard

Level 2: Cleric (Wizard 1/Cleric 1)

Subclass – Light Domain

Level 3: Wizard (Wizard 2/Cleric 1)

Subclass – School of Conjuration

Level 4: Wizard (Wizard 3/Cleric 1)

Level 5: Wizard (Wizard 4/Cleric 1)

Feat – Alert

Level 6: Wizard (Wizard 5/Cleric 1)

Level 7: Wizard (Wizard 6/Cleric 1)

Level 8: Wizard (Wizard 7/Cleric 1)

Level 9: Wizard (Wizard 8/Cleric 1)

Feat – War Caster

Level 10: Wizard (Wizard 9/Cleric 1)

Level 11: Wizard (Respec) (Wizard 10/Cleric 1)

Subclass – School of Evocation School of Conjuration
Feat – Intelligence +2 War Caster

Level 12: Wizard (Wizard 11/Cleric 1)

Key Spells

Cantrips: ray of frost, fire bolt
1. enhance leap, longstrider, magic missile, shield
2. cloud of daggers, darkness, misty step
3. counterspell, fireball, sleet storm
4. conjure minor elementals, dimension door, phantasmal killer
5. artistry of war, conjure elemental (Upcast to 6th for myrmidons), hold monster, planar binding
6. chain lightning, globe of invulnerability, summon deva

Items

You always want to wear the best available medium armor and shield you can get your hands on. Early on, this will be Githyanki Half-Plate and a mundane shield. Spell save DC items will be very relevant for the Wizard through the whole game, but many more will start to become available in Act 3. The Snowburst Ring‘s ice surface generating effect along with sleet storm and the Wizard’s myriad of other control effects make stacking these Spell Save DC items very desirable.

The most impactful items (which will often optimally be equipped for the rest of the game once you acquire them) will be underlined.

Helmets

Diadem of Arcane Synergy (Act 1) – As with some rings mentioned later, casting ray of frost will increase the damage of your next weapon attack, which is quite useful if you are using hand crossbows.
The Shadespell Circlet (Act 1) – +1 to Spell Save DC when obscured in shadow.
Fistbreaker Helm (Act 2) – +1 to Spell Save DC and Initiative.
Hood of the Weave (Act 3) – +2 to Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls.

Amulets

Amulet of Misty Step (Act 1)
Necklace of Elemental Augmentation (Act 1) – Improves your at-will damage with ray of frost and fire bolt.
Psychic Spark (Act 1) – Makes magic missile shoot an additional dart, very useful if you’re making use of magic missile strategies in the late game with Empowered Evocation.
Spineshudder Amulet (Act 2) – Each ray of frost cast will inflict Reverberation, potentially causing Prone when it stacks high enough, even easier when used in combination with Boots of Stormy Clamour.
Amulet of the Devout (Act 3) – +2 to Spell Save DC.

Armor

Dark Justiciar Half-Plate (Act 2) – This medium armor provides the effect of the War Caster feat to help maintain your concentration, letting you take a different feat at level 9, such as Resilient: Constitution or +2 Intelligence.
Robe of the Weave (Act 3) – +1 to Spell Save DC and Spell attack rolls, +2 AC. These are robes, so you’ll want to cast mage armor on yourself and continue to equip a shield to keep your AC as high as you can.

Handwear

Daredevil Gloves (Act 1) – +1 to Spell Attack Rolls (plus a feature that negates disadvantage when ranged attacking adjacent creatures).
Gauntlet of the Tyrant (Act 3) – +1 to Spell Save DC, 3rd level command 1/Long Rest.
Helldusk Gloves (Act 3) – +1 to Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls, 1/Short Rest rays of fire cantrip.

Footwear

Boots of Stormy Clamour (Act 1) – Your ray of frost, sleet storm, and any other control spells will inflict Reverberation, hopefully leading to prone. Especially useful in combination with Spineshudder Amulet and/or Gloves of Belligerent Skies, furthering your capacity to inflict Reverberation and therefore prone.
Disintegrating Night Walkers (Act 1) – Very useful for mobility. There are a lot of other options for footwear that similarly have useful utility but do not increase damage.

Rings

Ring of Arcane Synergy (Act 1) – Dealing damage with a cantrip grants Arcane Synergy, increasing the damage of your next weapon attack. If you’re using hand crossbows, this will increase the damage of your typical at-will option of ray of frost into a bonus action hand crossbow shot..
Ring of Elemental Infusion (Act 1) – Same as the above ring, if you are using dual hand crossbows, your typical at-will option of ray of frost into bonus action hand crossbow shot will have its damage increased by this ring.
Callous Glow Ring (Act 2) – You will only want to equip this once you have reached level 11 and respec’d to Light 1/Evocation 10, to make use of Empowered Evocation in combination with magic missile. There are many ways to ensure illumination on targets and guarantee the 2 extra Radiant damage per magic missile, such as the light cantrip or using it in combination with the Coruscation Ring.
Coruscation Ring (Act 2) – An item likely better used by a Cleric, but this will make your spells apply Radiating Orb, which also lights up the target.
Snowburst Ring (Act 2) – An exceptionally powerful effect that you have at-will way to trigger through the ray of frost spell. This item creates an ice surface under targets you hit with ray of frost, and that ice uses your spell save DC for saves against being knocked prone. Very powerful especially as you get more spell save DC increasing items.

Cloak

Cloak of the Weave (Act 3) – +1 to Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls, and absorb elements once per short rest.

Ranged Weapons

Bow of Awareness (Act 1) – Just here for the +1 bonus to Initiative, not to attack with.
Hand Crossbow (Act 1) – Available very early, this and the below Hand Crossbows will provide you with a bonus action attack when dual wielded with another hand crossbow, without the need to attack with the main hand. Especially useful if your Wizard is a Drow, as they have innate hand crossbow proficiency. While this attack doesn’t do a lot of damage, it can also be used to hit objects such as barrels and potions next to allies, essentially turning the option to throw a potion from an action into a bonus action (as placing items onto the ground costs no actions).
Hand Crossbow +1 (Act 1)
Hellfire Hand Crossbow (Act 2)
Hand Crossbow +2 (Act 3)
Hellrider Longbow (Act 3) – Upgrades the Bow of Awareness’ +1 bonus to Initiative to a +3.

Melee Weapons

Phalar Aluve (Act 1) – Once per short rest, this sword lets you activate a helpful (bless-like effect) or harmful aura. The helpful aura stacks with the bless spell for even more attack and saving throw bonus, making it very powerful for someone to have in the party. Late game, the bane aura can also add more damage to your magic missile nova options. At this point though, it may be more beneficial to give this weapon to a different party member to apply the aura for you.
Staff of Arcane Blessing (Act 1) – Makes your bless boost the to-hit for your and your party members’ cantrips even further than normal. The description is a bit deceptive, but the extra 1d4 only applies to spell attacks for a total of 2d4.
Melf’s First Staff (Act 1) – +1 to Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls.
Markoheshkir (Act 3) – +1 to Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls, 1/Long Rest free cast of any leveled spell, along with a variety of elemental buffs, including one that grants Lightning Charges along with some free casts of chain lightning and lightning bolt.

Shields

Story Spoiler Name (Act 2) – +1 to Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls.
Shield +1 (Act 2) – Extra AC over the above option, but without the spell save DC increase.

Consumables

Elixir of Battlemage’s Power (Act 2-3) – Grants 3 permanent stacks of Arcane Acuity until your next Long Rest which effectively increases your Spell Save DC and Spell Attack bonus by 3. Can be found in limited quantities in Act 2, but becomes purchasable in Act 3 directly as an elixir or through purchasing its ingredients.
Elixir of Peerless Focus (Act 1-3) – Provides advantage on concentration saving throws, in addition to some other minor effects. This essentially replaces the War Caster feat at the cost of your Elixir for the day, which could be useful, especially on days where you don’t want to expend the powerful but more limited Elixirs of Battlemage’s Power in Act 2.
Potion of Speed (Act 1-3) – Drink as a bonus action to grant all the good benefits from haste for 3 turns, but without the need for concentration. Many encounters can be ended within this time frame, and they become especially useful for the magic missile strategies that open up in late Act 3. Can be purchased and found frequently from very early on in the game.

Strategy

Some players will note that Wizard control spells seem to be nerfed from 5e, but in actuality the good control effects just look different than they do in 5e. Darkness and sleet storm (especially in combination with hunger of Hadar) are exceptionally powerful early on. In Act 3 once you attain a few spell save DC increasing items, phantasmal killer, dominate person, hold monster, and planar binding become very reliable, on top of making sleet storm even more of a shutdown spell.

At levels 1-3, you can buff your party with the enhance leap spell just before combat to increase their mobility, in combination with longstrider which lasts all day. From your Cleric dip, you’ll also have access to bless, which works well when upcast to level 2. Level 3 grants you a free cast of create water every short rest, which can be very powerful at early levels in conjunction with your ray of frost.

At level 4, you get access to darkness, which creates mobile cover that blocks all ranged attacks into it for your party, similar to how 5e rope trick functions. Cast it on top of your party and have everyone walk out of it to shoot the enemy, then walk back into the darkness to end their turns. This functionally turns off ranged enemies and makes melee enemies attack you at disadvantage.

Once you reach level 6, you can add sleet storm to your repertoire of control spells. This will solve many, many combats for the rest of the game, and is extremely powerful in combination with a Warlock or Lore Bard casting hunger of Hadar on top of the sleet storm. Even if your concentration on sleet storm breaks, casting ray of frost will re-freeze the leftover water for much the same effect.

Moving into Act 3, many items that increase your spell save DC will become available, and therefore your control spells will become extremely reliable at shutting down combats. Sleet storm continues to stand out, but the plethora of single target control effects previously mentioned will become more desirable than before.

Later into Act 3, Evocation wizard’s Level 10 feature, Empowered Invocation, opens a new problem solving (boss killing) strategy with magic missile, akin to our HexVoker 5e build. The combination of Callous Glow Ring, Markoheshkir with the Bolts of Doom buff, Phalar Aluve (with the Shriek aura applied by another party member), and Psychic Spark with Empowered Invocation will result in some extremely high damage magic missiles. Instead of completely disabling the bosses, you can simply overwhelm them with very straightforward damage that can’t miss.