One Baldur’s Gate 3 spell is a lot stronger than fans think it is

A Cantrip in Baldur’s Gate 3 is unfairly maligned by the fanbase, thanks to a UI glitch that displays incorrect information about its accuracy.

Cantrips in Baldur’s Gate 3 and D&D are weak spells that can be used unlimited times. The fact that low-level characters only get a few slots for stronger spells means you’ll be relying on your Cantrips to deal damage in most battles.

Unfortunately, Cantrips have earned a reputation for their poor accuracy. Sacred Flame might be the worst offender, especially when used by Shadowheart, as it’s notorious for always missing. It’s supposed to be a spell that conjures divine light, yet enemies are really good at dodging the wrath of the gods.

Users of the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit have discovered that there’s an error in the game that causes information about Sacred Flame to be displayed incorrectly.

The OP explained, “I’ve always hated SF in BG3 because of what I assumed was a coding issue: the tooltip states that your Spell Save DC is based on YOUR DEX modifier, rather than your spellcasting modifier (usually WIS).

The success chance even reflects this. However, if you check the combat log after casting, it shows that the calculation was in fact made with the right ability modifier.”

One user wrote, “Great find OP, I felt the tooltip was a bit sus during my play through but never thought too deep about them because my friends explained all the rules to me so I mostly ignored tooltips. I’m surprised that they still have this bug in their game.”

“This is a big deal and literally effects how people play the game. Larian really needs to fix it,” one user said, while another wrote, “This is why I use T to look at enemies stats and resistances. They should know about this highly misleading bug and fix it sooner than later but who knows?”

This isn’t to say that Sacred Flame is some incredible spell: it has the same issues as the other damage-dealing Cantrips. You just shouldn’t trust what the game is saying about it, especially as it’s an unlimited source of Radiant damage that you can be using against undead foes.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is set to receive more updates, as we’re still waiting for the Photo Mode. Hopefully, the UI issue with displaying spell save DCs will be fixed before Larian finally leaves the game behind, and Sacred Flame will be maligned no more.