Artistry of War is a level five Evocation spell in Baldur’s Gate 3 that is essentially Magic Missile but a lot better. Artistry of War isn’t a spell you can get through leveling up, you’ll need to swipe it from a Scroll.
Artistry of War is an amazing spell that deals 2d6 + 6 Force damage six times that, like Magic Missile, can’t be blocked. With Artistry of War, you can deal 48 to 108 damage across six projectiles that can be spread across six targets, applied solely to one target, or anything in between.
How to permanently unlock Artistry of War in Baldur’s Gate 3
The only way to permanently unlock the Artistry of War spell in Baldur’s Gate 3 is to learn it from a Scroll as a Wizard. Wizards are the only class that can permanently learn spells from Scrolls in BG3 if you are a high enough level and pay 50 gold.
Related: How to respec in Baldur’s Gate 3
There is only one Artistry of War Scroll in Baldur’s Gate 3 and it’s found in the Sorcerous Vault which is within Sorcerous Sundries in Act 3. This is the big building in the center of Baldur’s Gate. There are multiple ways into the Sorcerous Vault — a successful Persuasion Check on Tolna Tome-Monger, picklock the door, or jump in via Ramazith’s Tower nearby.
Once inside the Sorcerous Vault, you need to pass a DC 15 Perception Check to see a hidden button on the north wall. Press this button to find a book called The Red Knight’s Final Strategem. Reading The Red Knight’s Final Stratagem gives you the Artistry of War Scroll.
After testing it myself, you can’t become a Wizard, learn spells from Scrolls, and respec back into your regular build and keep the newly learned Wizard spells. Spells learned from Scrolls don’t survive respec, so if you want to keep Artistry of War, you need to keep at least one level in Wizard.
It makes sense. Respeccing to Wizard just to learn new spells and then going back to your actual build is a broken workaround that would undermine the Wizard’s unique feature. It’s still disappointing.
Artistry of War is one of the best damage spells in all of BG3, so it may be worth putting one level into Wizard to keep it. However, spells aren’t everything. Sometimes, you just need the perfect dye to complete your fashion.
