How to Build a Wizard (Gale) for Beginners in Baldur's Gate 3

The Wizard: one of the pure spellcasters in Baldur's Gate 3 that uses Intelligence to cast transcribed spells from their spellbook. In this video, I'm going to give you a Beginners Guide to Wizard and how to build one out such as Gale in BG3

0:00 Intro & Summary
0:50 Race Selection
5:50 Origin & Background
7:19 Spells & Cantrips
11:05 Ability Points (Stat Allocation)
13:05 Subclass Options
20:24 Good Feat Choices
23:30 Wizard Progression
26:08 Wizard Multiclass Options

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System Specs:
Motherboard: MSI MPG z690
Processor: Intel i9-12900FK
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 8GB FTW Gaming ACX
Memory: Corsair Dominator LED 32GB DDR4-3600 Memory

#bg3 #guide #baldursgate3 #beginners

[italianspartacus]

Tomorrow, we cover the monk! Then next week, it's most of the Charisma classes :) Thanks so much for watching here today guys!

[kapitankapital]

I appreciate how the thumbnail acknowledges all wizards need a pointy hat...

[Aritikos]

“Don’t worry about min/maxing…” I believe that statement alone caused many insecure people to feel offended.

[MonkeezOnFire]

I can confirm that Longstrider on the wizard is also a ritual. It shows up in the game proper, just isn't listed as a ritual in the level up screen for some reason. Other ritual spells wizards have access to are Detect Thoughts, Disguise Self, Enhanced Leap, Feather Fall, Find Familiar. All are useful utility spells that won't cost you anything to cast. Though Find Familiar is a bit of an outlier, while it will not cost you a spell slot, you can only cast it once per long rest. This is to prevent you from sending an infinite line of cats to their death.

The other big wizard tip I have is that merchants will refresh the consumables in their inventory whenever any character you have levels up. So you can level up one character, check the merchant inventory, buy up their spell scrolls, and then level up the next person in your party and repeat. This way I've been able to learn most of the wizard spells in the game.

[andydragtstra]

I am not playing as a wizard but really like Gale as a companion. I am new to this and had a bit of a hard time leveling all my companions efficiently since I am mostly focused on my main character. This helps a lot, many thanks!

[Purple-----]

Even as someone whos GM D&D for 4yrs now Wizards spell options still overwhelm so thanks for the helpful refresher/guide!

[Smol_Eri]

Lol I love how he says “hypnotize gaze is your class action lawsuit”. I had to re-watch that part to make sure I heard it correctly

[Dervraka]

My first playthrough I got tired of Gale being so squishy, so I gave him 1 level of War Domain Cleric for heavy armor proficiency, then stuck him in a suit of Adamantium heavy armor. With buffs his AC was ungodly high for a Wizard. What is funny is AI seems to try and target the magic users over anybody else, it was funny to just watch Gale lumber into battle like a tank and start casting spells while entire rounds of attacks just missed.

[martincrowe]

As far as cantrips go, Shocking Grasp is worth a look too. Obviously, most wizards won't want to be in melee range, but that's the point -- shutting down an opponent's reaction allows you to reposition freely, and advantage on anyone wearing metal armour is frequently relevant to help make that attack roll. You can of course also use it to peel for others. Yes, using a bonus action on Misty Step and your main action on a bigger spell is going to be better most of the time, but Shocking Grasp doesn't cost any resources (besides time, of course) and there are many situations where it'll do the job well enough. I'd definitely take that before I consider something like Blade Ward or loading up on multiple damage-only cantrips.

[garyswift]

Thanks yet again. Great videos. I've been playing two player with my daughter, and there are a lot of interesting things about how multiplayer works. I like some of the features, but not all of them. I'm doing a half orc sorcerer with her, and it's fun to see the specific conversation choices I get as a half orc character. My single player game is a gith, and that is interesting as well, especially when I have Laezele in my party. One more thing... I like taking charm person for my wizard because it is great in conversation rolls.

[Dondi.DeOcampo]

I love playing the wizard. It is basically the reason why I enjoy D&D. Thank you for the insights … if you were to pick supporting cast which characters would you pick. I currently have shadowheart, Gaezel, and Astarion.

[FlyingFox]

I think something like Shield Dwarf (or Gith) would be interesting for Wizard, because when you have medium armor proficiency, you can get heavy armor proficiency with a feat. Seems like fun to play as a heavily armored Dwarf with a big hammer casting spells and hitting things that get too close.

Other than that, I like human for Wizard, because I can get proficiency in every single one of the intelligence based skills. You can also do that with Gith, of course.

[tobygrimes]

I feel you on the hair brother. Unfortunately I can't even grow a decent beard. That's why I always play an elf. They have great hair. I never create myself. I create who I'd like to be.

[charlesbryson]

I love Gith. I love their lord, their warrior culture, and their abilities. My Gith barbarian moves fast, huge leap, misty step from an item. I have so much battlefield movement, it’s insane. Full on barb, so lots of up, bear resistances, massive damage…I love it.

[mavespier]

at minute 18 you said class action lawsuit to hypnotic glase, nice one^^

[DrNiradino]

Transmutation is hands down the best wizard subclass. All three traits that you get out of it are great - extra potions are great because how broken bloodlust elixir and haste potion are (at least early on), transmutation stone gives you inbuilt advantage on constitution saving throws to preserve your concentrations and birb form is fantastic for out of combat exploration and has no cooldown.

[jonathanabgrall]

Transmutation is really nice to have on Gale, specially if you don't actively use him all the time. Its something i realized really late in my first playthrough, my main guy was a Sorlock so i barely ever used Gale. Now he's basically my potion crafting NPC in the camp lol. Just wish Companion management was smoother :/.

[mikeherzog]

Very detailed and well prepared. Thank you for the help.

[deckardbane]

its cool that you dont like Transmutaion specialist, but its worth mentioning the entirety of the subclass. plus its my favorite
Level 2 - Transmutation Savant (Subclass Feature)
Level 2 - Experimental Alchemy (Subclass Feature)
Level 6 - Transmuter's Stone (Action)
Level 10 - Shapechanger (Action)

Transmuter's Stone - gain the ability to create one stone with one of the following effects:
- Resistance to Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage
- Darkvision to 18m
- Movement increased by 3m
- Proficiency in Consitituion saving throws.

The ability can be targeted at yourself or a party member. The stone itself vanishes after a long rest and needs to be recast. the stone can be transferred from character to character granting them the effects.

Shapechanger - Transform into a blue jay, able to Fly.
If the blue jay's hit points drop to 0, the target reverts to its original form with its original hit points.
the duration is 5 turns. perfect for scouting and reaching higher places. i believe this ability can be used limitlessly

[fiveforbiting]

Tune in for Matt Walsh's new documentary, "What is a Wizard?"