Baldur’s Gate 3 PSA: Ritual Spells are basically free and you should use them

Here’s something you should know about Ritual Spells

Baldur’s Gate 3 has a ton of options when it comes to magic spells, since it’s based on the 5th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG, and there is one particularly useful spell type that you should know about: Ritual Spells.

Ritual Spells, if cast outside of combat, do not require a Spell Slot to be used. In essence, they’re free to use while you’re not engaged in battle. In D&D they’d usually take several minutes to cast, but in Baldur’s Gate 3 you can cast them as quickly as any other spell. You still need to have the Ritual Spells you want to use prepared, taking up one of those slots, but this is a fantastic way to pre-buff all of your party members or have utility spells like Talk to Animals fired up without taking up valuable Spell Slots you might need in a fight.

Find Familiar is a classic example for a Ritual Spell / Larian Studios

In D&D, most Ritual Spells can only be active on a single character at a time, but in Baldur’s Gate 3 you can cast them on every party member without a problem, transforming these abilities into permanent buffs for the entire group. Say you have the Longstrider spell, which adds 3m to the movement speed of the character it’s cast on: Instead of only one person benefiting from this like in D&D, you can use this on your entire party in Baldur’s Gate 3, giving all characters a permanent movement buff as long as the spell is active – and it costs you nothing aside from one slot on your prepared spell list and some time for casting it on everybody as long as you do it outside of combat.

After leaving camp from your latest Long Rest, make sure to go through the spell lists of your magic wielders (hit the K button to do so quickly) and get the Ritual Spells you want to have prepared up and running – things like movement or resistance buffs can often be cast as Ritual Spells and are always handy to have active, if you can afford the space on your list of prepared spells.

One cool thing about Ritual Spells is that you can get access to some magic from other classes in this way. Upon reaching Level 4 you’re asked to choose a Feat for your character from an extensive list of options. One of these is the Ritual Caster, which allows you to choose a number of Level 1 spells from any magic class that you learn to cast as Ritual Spells.

While it can get tedious later in the game, when you have access to tons of spells, to cast Ritual Spells on your entire party at daybreak, it’s definitely worth the effort – and surely there will be a mod in no time allowing you to simplify this process.

For more Baldur’s Gate 3, check out our class tier list.