How to Use Minor Illusion in Baldur’s Gate 3

Minor Illusion is one of the many spells that can be learned by your party members in Baldur’s Gate 3. However, its utility may not be immediately obvious to new players, especially if you charge into combat often.

What is Minor Illusion in Baldur’s Gate 3?

In Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, which Baldur’s Gate 3 is heavily based on, Minor Illusion is an illusion cantrip. Several magic classes like the Sorcerer have access to it, but there are many options for other classes to obtain it. In its original description, Minor Illusion is a spell that allows a player to conjure an illusory sound or image of their choice. Any creature in the illusion’s vicinity must carry out an Investigation check to determine if the illusion is real.

Due to the open-ended nature of the spell in the original tabletop game, Minor Illusion changed slightly for this game. Instead of summoning an image of the player’s choice, the cantrip now summons an illusory cat which meows. It does no damage and doesn’t cause any immediate status effect. In fact, it may initially appear to be completely useless.

How Do You Use Minor Illusion in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Minor Illusion is not useful in combat, but it does have use during stealth. If the party is trying to sneak through somewhere without being seen, it is an excellent way to distract enemies and get them to move their cone of vision. However, its duration is short, lasting for about a minute and then disappearing.

Minor Illusion is best used while using stealth in turn-based mode. Due to the way time slows down in this mode, it’s much easier to navigate around distracted enemies. If you can slip through the gaps in an enemy’s vision cone when they’re busy looking at the cat, you can slip through areas undetected.

This is especially useful in places such as the Arcane Tower in the Underdark, where the arcane turrets can be distracted by Minor Illusion to allow the party to sneak through unnoticed.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available now for PCs. A PS5 version will be released on September 6, 2023.