There I was, three hours into a fresh Baldur's Gate 3 campaign back in 2026, still grinning at the sheer depth of Larian's masterpiece. My party had just stumbled into the ruins near the beach, and as I leveled up my fledgling Arcane Trickster, a familiar icon caught my eye. True Strike. The name alone whispered promises of precision, of sword-tips guided by fate itself. I hovered over the tooltip, read 'Advantage on your next attack,' and thought, This is it. This is how I'll land every sneak attack without needing an ally nearby. The spell looked so perfect, I could already hear the critical hit sound effect echoing in my head.
I clicked it. Fast-forward a few dozen hours, and let me tell you \u2013 boy, was I wrong. That little cantrip turned out to be the biggest trap hiding in plain sight on my hotbar.
True Strike is a Divination Cantrip that promises the moon and delivers, well, a damp puddle. You spend your entire action casting it on yourself (yes, it's self-targeted), and in return, your next attack roll against a chosen target gets Advantage for up to two turns \u2013 provided you hold concentration like a monk gripping a soap bar. On paper, those words sound like a free ticket to Rogue heaven. Advantage means rolling two d20s and taking the higher one, practically a cheat code for triggering Sneak Attack. And because Larian Studios buffed the range compared to its tabletop Dungeons & Dragons counterpart, you can do it from farther away. I thought I had outsmarted the game entirely.
The first time I used it in a real fight, the setup felt cinematic. My rogue crouched behind a pillar, whispered the incantation, and a soft blue glow settled over his eyes. Next round, I stepped out, lined up a crossbow shot with Advantage, and\u2026 missed. Missing with Advantage is like tripping over a pebble during a victory lap, but it happens. What gnawed at me was the silence that followed. I had thrown away an entire turn for that single chance. Meanwhile, Lae\u2019zel was on the other side of the battlefield, swinging her silver sword twice, smashing a goblin into next week, and already eyeing her next victim. That\u2019s when the math whispered back to me: two attacks at normal odds almost always beat one attack at Advantage. I mean, come on \u2013 two attack rolls mean two opportunities to deal damage, two chances to crit, and zero wasted turns. True Strike asks you to trade a whole apple pie today for a single slice tomorrow. And the pie isn\u2019t even guaranteed to taste good.
I tried to make it work. I really did. I concocted elaborate ambush scenarios where that pre-combat buff could matter. If you cast True Strike right before initiating a surprise round, the first attack already has Advantage from being hidden, so the spell overlaps and does literally nothing. If you cast it mid-combat, you\u2019re signaling to every enemy that you\u2019ll be vulnerable for the next six seconds while concentrating \u2013 and any chip damage can break that concentration, flushing your turn down the drain. There\u2019s a flicker of utility for Arcane Tricksters who desperately need an enemy to be eligible for Sneak Attack, but you know what else gives you Advantage? Hiding as a bonus action, which rogues can do at level two. Flanking. High-ground bonuses. Having a buddy simply stand next to the target. The list goes on, and True Strike just\u2026 sits there, taking up mental real estate like a guest who won\u2019t leave.
Larian did try to polish this tiny, tarnished gem. Back at launch, the spell\u2019s range was already extended beyond the tabletop version, a nod to the studio\u2019s understanding that a melee-range setup would be suicide. Yet even with that bandage, the core wound remained unsutured. By 2026, through patches and hotfixes, True Strike still sits untouched in the cantrip list like a museum exhibit titled Bad Decisions. Some players on forums have built entire meme compilations around it, where characters cast True Strike and immediately get yeeted off cliffs by goblins. Every time I see someone recommend it in a newcomer\u2019s thread, I imagine the collective groan of thousands of veterans who\u2019ve learned that lesson the hard way.
Listen, I\u2019m all for a good setup. I love spells like Tasha\u2019s Hideous Laughter or Otto\u2019s Irresistible Dance because they give the whole party a turn of free hits while the boss does the floss. True Strike doesn\u2019t do that. It\u2019s a personal, selfish little glow that almost always works against you. Even Vicious Mockery, which deals a measly d4 of psychic damage, at least imposes disadvantage on the enemy\u2019s next attack \u2013 that\u2019s a tangible, immediate benefit that doesn\u2019t cost you a whole turn\u2019s worth of weapons swings.
These days, whenever I respec a character in camp, I scroll through the cantrip list and feel a pang of nostalgia. I remember that hopeful beginner who clicked True Strike on a beach near a nautiloid crash. Then I highlight Fire Bolt, Minor Illusion, or literally anything else, and I lock it in. The memory remains as a scar on my gamer pride, but the cantrip itself? It\u2019s been permanently retired to the box of \u2018what were they thinking?\u2019 If you\u2019re still holding onto True Strike, let me give you some friendly advice: open your spellbook, right-click that trap, and click Remove. Your turns \u2013 and your party \u2013 will thank you. Trust me on this one. I\u2019ve got the miss streaks to prove it.