Baldur’s Gate 3 Evocation School Wizard Build Guide

The Evocation School Wizard is a fun Build to play due to the various types of Wizard Spells they have at their disposal. Casting most of them from any range is even made possible because of how versatile these Spells are. Although, these Wizards are just as vulnerable to taking damage as the Sorcerer due to their Clothing Proficiency and lower-than-usual AC.

At Level 5, the Evocation School Wizard now gains access to Level 3 Spells, allowing them to experiment further with utility and offensive types to mess with the enemy’s plan and destroy them efficiently.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Evocation School Wizard Character Creation

In this section, we’ll take a look at how to set up your Wizard during Character Creation for the best results. You don’t have to follow this to the letter, and this will likely change at the game’s full launch. However, this will hold you in good stead during Early Access.

Background

For Background, choosing one that provides you with Intelligence Skills should be sufficient since this is your primary Ability to hit and damage enemies by casting Spells. Intelligence has Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion. Some Background examples are Sage, Noble, and Acolyte.

Race

Unlike in our previous Wizard Build Guide, Race will be an essential factor for this Class because you won’t be able to rely on the Warped Headband of Intellect to grant 18 Intelligence since it’ll only provide you with 17. This is crucial in encounters since you’re going to want to maximize Intelligence at 18 in Early Access to make sure that your Spells will land on enemies.

As such, you’ll want to select a Race, which will allow you to reach 16 Intelligence during Character Creation so you can then add 2 points to it at Level 4. The ones you should consider are the High Elf and Deep Gnome. It’s worth noting that both of them will provide the same Ability distribution but they’re going to differ in terms of the perks they offer.

For the High Elf, you gain 1 additional Cantrip, and for this, I suggest taking Fire Bolt. Fire Bolt will allow you to incinerate the ground as long as you cast Grease beforehand or you blast oil barrels in the area. In addition to the Fire Damage, affected targets also take burning damage over time. Next, you gain access to Darkvision, which lets you fare well in dark places, together with Keen Senses, thereby making you Proficient in Perception.

Comparatively, choosing the Deep Gnome will grant you an Advantage on Saving Throws for Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, as well as Stealth Checks. You also gain Superior Darkvision, increasing your sight range in the dark.

Skills

For Skills again it’s not super important, but you’ll have high Intelligence and Dexterity, so selecting Skills that fall under these Abilities is ideal. Dexterity has Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth, and I’ve already listed what Intelligence Skills there are.

Abilities

First and foremost, Wizards need a high Spellcasting Ability Modifier to boost the effectiveness of their Spells. Since you can no longer rely on the Warped Headband of Intellect for this, you’re going to have to raise Intelligence to 16 during Character Creation. Next, you’ll be increasing Dexterity to the same value to raise your AC. This is vital for Wizards since they’re only Proficient in wearing Clothing, making their AC lower compared to other Classes. And finally, you’ll be raising Constitution to as much as 14 to improve your max HP. Your Ability spread should look something like this:

Baldur’s Gate 3 Evocation School Wizard Level 1

During Character Creation you’ll be given many Spells, but you’ll have to choose which to “Prepare” in order to cast them. Every time you level up as a Wizard, you’ll be able to choose from a selection of Known Spells and Prepare more and more Spells.

Cantrips and Arcane Recovery

There are some excellent Wizard Cantrips to select during this stage. On top of Fire Bolt, I highly recommend taking Ray of Frost, Acid Splash, and either Dancing Lights or Chill Touch. Ray of Frost is another Ranged Attack Cantrip that potentially knocks the target Prone while temporarily reducing their Movement Speed.

Acid Splash has a small AoE effect, which is nice for hitting multiple enemies. Dancing Lights is great for creating light so allies who don’t have Darkvision can see and hit things more easily in dark places. And lastly, Chill Touch lets you deal Necrotic Damage while preventing the target from restoring their HP.

Arcane Recovery allows you to recover either 2 Level 1 Spell Slots or 1 Level 2 Spell Slot at the start. So use this when you need to cast another Spell or two before taking a Long Rest. Note that Arcane Recovery can only be used outside of Combat.

Level 1 Spells

At Level 1, you’ll get to Prepare 4 Spells. The ones you should focus on in addition to Grease are Mage Armour, Magic Missile, and Thunderwave. Mage Armour is crucial to Wizards because it sets their default AC to 13 + their Dexterity Modifier, amounting to 16 in total so they won’t be too much of a glass cannon in combat. What’s more, is that the Spell also doesn’t require Concentration. You’ll only have to recast Mage Armour after taking a Long Rest.

Next is Magic Missile, which cannot be protected against, nor can it miss. With this, you can target up to 3 enemies at Level 1. Magic Missile is very useful when you need to finish off those with low HP but still hit your primary target, or when you cannot hit the enemy using another Spell that easily. And finally, there’s Thunderwave, which is an excellent AoE Spell that’ll allow you to push back foes who are approaching you, often to their deaths. Once you hit Level 2, you won’t damage allies caught in its blast either.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Evocation School Wizard Level 2

At Level 2, you’ll get to choose your Wizard’s Subclass and for this Build, you’re going to select the Evocation School. Doing so will grant Evocation Savant and Sculpt Spells. Evocation Savant reduces the gold you spend when learning new Evocation Spells from Scrolls whereas Sculpt Spells grants allies the benefit of automatically making successful Saving Throws from certain Evocation Spells, thereby taking no damage from them.

Additionally, you’ll get to Prepare another Level 1 Spell, and for this, I suggest taking Chromatic Orb. Chromatic Orb is a Ranged Spell whose element changes depending on the type of damage you want to inflict. So you can hurl a fireball at targets and create a burning surface or deal Lightning Damage and conjure an electrified surface. There are a lot of choices to be made with Chromatic Orb, making it a versatile Spell.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard Level 3

Spells

At Level 3, you’ll gain another Level 1 Spell Slot and 2 Level 2 Spell Slots. There are a lot of great Spells here such as Scorching Ray, Shatter, Cloud of Daggers, and Misty Step.

Scorching Ray deals 2-12 Fire Damage against multiple enemies or 6-36 damage to the same target, making it a must-have Level 2 Spell. Just remember that similar to Fire Bolt and Ray of Frost, getting on Higher Ground will improve the chances for Scorching Ray to hit your foes.

Shatter encompasses a larger AoE and it can also be cast from afar. This deals huge Thunder Damage against multiple adjacent enemies. Additionally, Shatter doesn’t need Concentration so you can cast a Concentration Spell without any problems.

Cloud of Daggers is an incredible Spell to have because although it requires Concentration, the daggers you conjure will continue to circle around and attack multiple adjacent enemies per round for up to 10 turns. It’s also more useful in chokepoints like doorways. But remember that Cloud of Daggers can also damage allies who are nearby so you need to be careful in terms of positioning it.

Misty Step lets you teleport to a location you can see, allowing you to get to High Ground easily to gain the +2 Attack Roll bonus when using Ranged Attacks like Scorching Ray. Since this is a Bonus Action, you can also perform an Action during the same turn. Alternatively, you can opt to get the Amulet of Misty Step from the Underdark instead to be able to gain Misty Step but you’re going to have to wait a while to do so.

Once you reach Level 3, you’ll also be able to cast some Level 1 Spells as Level 2 versions, using Level 2 Spell Slots instead of Level 1 Spell Slots. This works out tremendously for the Evocation School Wizard Build because it allows you to cast some of the better Level 1 Spells as more powerful versions. For instance, you can cast Thunderwave at Level 2 for an extra 1-8 damage. Or you can cast Magic Missile at Level 2 to shoot an extra dart.

Concentration

Some Cantrips and Spells have effects that are dependent on the Wizard’s Concentration to remain active. Concentration is broken if you cast another Cantrip or Spell that also requires Concentration. You can tell which these are because it will say so on the Spell itself. For example, if you cast Dancing Lights, but then you cast Cloud of Daggers, you would stop “Concentrating” on Dancing Lights and begin Concentrating on Cloud of Daggers.

Moreover, if you take damage while Concentrating on a Spell, you must make a Constitution Saving Throw, and if you fail, then the effect of that Spell ends. Should you succeed in your Saving Throw, you maintain your Concentration and the Spell continues. This is why it’s vital for Wizards to have average to high Constitution because of the Spells that require this Ability and is wasted if it’s constantly broken.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard Level 4

At Level 4, you’ll gain another Level 2 Spell Slot, Cantrip, and 2 more Spells. You can choose the ones you like best from the list of Spells I provided in the previous level. Additionally, you can select a Feat, and here you’ll be taking Ability Improvement to place 2 points into Intelligence. Doing so will boost your Spells’ effectiveness in combat.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard Level 5

At Level 5, you gain access to Level 3 Spells. There are several amazing Spells here that we’ll narrow down to 3, specifically Counterspell, Fireball, and Haste. Counterspell is a Reaction that can significantly foil your enemy’s plans as long as they’re located within 18m of you. Doing so will let you stop the corresponding Spell effects. But remember that since it consumes the Evocation School Wizard’s Spell Slots, you can only use this at most 2 times before taking a Long Rest.

Second is Fireball, which is a powerful Spell by default as it’ll let you deal 8-48 Fire Damage against multiple targets, even going so far as inflicting harm against allies who are near the AoE so be sure to carefully cast it. And finally, there’s Haste. Haste grants multiple benefits that greatly outweigh the disadvantage of briefly becoming Lethargic when the condition ends. Not only will your ally take one extra Action every turn, but they also gain +2 AC as well as an Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws. When used on a Martial Class like the Fighter who has Extra Attack at Level 5, they’ll be able to take a total of 6 Actions in a single turn with Action Surge, allowing them to slay multiple enemies.

Equipment

When it comes to the Evocation School Wizard’s Equipment, you can go for the Staff of Crones from Auntie Ethel if you intend to keep casting the Ray of Sickness Spell it grants. Here, Ray of Sickness doesn’t really act like a Spell since it won’t consume a Spell Slot so you effectively deal 2-16 Poison Damage from a ‘Cantrip’. But there’s a catch. As the Spellcaster, you take 2-8 damage every time. This can be reduced by wearing the Ring of Poison Resistance from the Shattered Sanctum near where Halsin is, thereby cutting the damage by half. I won’t recommend choosing the Strongheart Halfling for their natural Poison Resistance since they can’t reach 16 Intelligence during Character Creation.

For other Accessories, you’ll also be wearing the Psychic Spark. The Psychic Spark, which is bought from Blurg of the Ebonlake Grotto in the Underdark, is the updated version of The Sapphire Spark after Patch 9. Instead of dealing 12-36 damage against a single target at Level 2 of Magic Missile, you’ll only be able to inflict 10-25 Force Damage. Although the difference is high, you still gain the benefit of casting 1 extra dart as long as you’re wearing this necklace.

Final Tips

The Evocation School Wizard is a powerful damage dealer who not only has access to offensive Spells, which are cast from any distance but can also learn Evocation Spells from Scrolls quite easily. Unlike before, however, they no longer have the ability to learn Spells from other Classes like the Clerics’ Guiding Bolt.

Speaking of Spells, remember that not all of them make use of High Ground, and only those that operate as Ranged Attack do such as Scorching Ray and Ray of Frost. For Spells like Thunderwave and Burning Hands, which make use of Ability Saving Throws, you won’t gain any Attack Roll bonuses by situating yourself at a higher elevation than your targets. So keep this in mind to know when you should cast certain Spells.

Lastly, if you’re not going to cast Ray of Sickness frequently, you can equip The Spellsparkler as part of completing a portion of the Rescue the Grand Duke Quest. What this does is that every time you cast a Cantrip or Spell, you gain 2 Lightning Charges, which are then used to increase your Attack Roll and deal Lightning Damage. At 5 Charges, you’ll be able to inflict 1-8 Lightning Damage on your next cast!

Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content as we update the other Builds, and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. If you need something specific, check out our Baldur’s Gate 3 Wiki which is being worked on night and day!