I strongly disagree with this video (I’m 47 seconds in) because I have a sinking suspicion the “Ring of Being Really Invisible” won’t be on this list. Top tier item.
Not trying to glaze, but I just wanted to say you’ve quickly become my favorite BG3 RU-vidr. You never bullshit or engagement farm the way a lot of other BG3 “guide” channels do; your info is always easily digestible and you have a great tactfulness with your words- all to say many props and I hope your channel grows and grows and grows.
Funnily enough, I think the Adamantine armor and shield are undervalued, just because the way the critical hit immunity works is that it turns All critical HITS into critical MISSES, effectively giving you an additional ac, as it reduces the number the enemy can roll to hit you by one. I found this while using a light cleric, so if it's still in the game, you can confirm for yourself
@@nguyendi92 it probably isnt itended, but i guess they could have made it a normal hit, but with the armor and shield working the way it does, it means the scale mail is 17 ac, the splint is 19, and the shield is +3, if you dont stack the critical immunity effect, either way, it makes giving a single piece to each party member significantly stronger
I thought rank 1 would have been the bard's starting instrument, as picking the wrong one at character creation would instantly ruin your playthrough. With that joke out of the way, awesome ranking.
I feel like the Haste Helm being available THAT early and filling an item slot that takes a very long time to fill out 4 good useful ones makes it better. Crushers ring is great, but especially so for melee characters and they typically have other rings they really want as well. Ranged units dont care as much about it.
@@johanfredriksvendsen8482 You can get both crusher's ring and haste helm without combat roughly at the same point but your point is a good one, there are very few good helms in A1.
Ring has a lot of competition in act 1, where helmet really doesn't, and movement is most valuable in the first round of combat where you need it to reach melee contact (or get far enough away to kite). Crusher's Ring is still excellent though and I had it at number 21 on this list, just barely missed the cut
@@lendial but can you get it without combat and without sacrificing your dignity? In any case, I think the point about the helms goes both way because the ring space isn’t going to be tightly contested either. After Act 1, I think you’re much more likely to still be using the ring than the helm. I think that the haste helm does provide an additional 1.5 m on the first turn of combat (and 1.5 m less on the third turn, and no additional movement thereafter). The fact that it all goes away if you get knocked prone or become restrained though is a significant downside.
How the Smugglers Ring and Gloves of Belligerent Skies aren’t on this list is beyond me. Tho I suppose he’s not into stealth archery too much, or theft 😂
Well, it's a list of top 20. So, many items can't make the list without pushing something else off the list. There's also the risky ring which didn't make the cut, and that's pretty good for stealth archers.
He ranked both of those A tier, not S tier, so they were never going to make the cut. There’s a lot of competition for gloves and rings in Act 1. Of the 8 sets of gloves he rated S tier, only 2 appear in this list. 6 of the 8 rings made it though.
I don't like crafting chests from Grym anymore, because he is typically my very last stop in Act 1, so I'll be getting Yuanti Scale Mail basically 15 minutes after the fight is over. While it's true having a 2nd medium armor user could benefit from this, it's typically going to be a cleric wearing Luminous Armor. I've simplified my runs by just crafting double shields. I like the 4 shield user party for honor mode, and there just aren't enough good shields to go around until you reach act 3. Being able to freely move crit immunity around to half your party regardless of what type of armor they want to equip, makes it very easy to get crit immunity on 3 members of your party for the rest of the playthrough. You could technically have the whole party immune once you get the Helm of Balduran, but at that point my caster really wants the helm of the weave and ketheric's shield, so they usually bite the bullet and be the odd man out for crit immunity.
It is just depend of your build, man. Laezel wouldnt use it in place of a Gith sword. If you have a low Dex character, Splint armour is the best for a while
🐐🐐🐐 graceful cloth is the reason I have to make sure I have at least one very cool looking camp clothes set in every playthrough because holy heck that robe looks a bit silly
What about that Diadem of Arcane Synergy? Carried by one of the Inquisitors goons, gives you two stacks of Arcane Synergy? There's so many casting builds that mostly smack enemies with weapon attacks, Warlocks, Paladins, certain Clerics and such. Basically permanently adds your Spellcasting Modifier to your damage, as it's super easy to proc. Always felt hideously broken to me. I was SURE that was going to be first place. But maybe I'm overlooking something, or there's just that much better stuff in the slot?
I feel like Arcane Synergy has issues because, ironically given its name, it has significant anti-synergy with other optimization choices. Feats like Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter compete with Ability Score Improvement. Using Ethel's Hair to give a +1 to a spellcasting ability means not giving a +1 to Dex, the best ability. You can't wear Birthright and Diadem simultaneously. And the competition of the Helmet of Arcane Acuity + Band of the Mystic Scoundrel combo is intimidating. There IS some synergy between Diadem and the actual best item, the Gloves of Dexterity, but then the Dex bonus to Initiative is capped at +4, causing Initiative items like Mask of Soul Perception to be attractive, competing with Diadem - either that or Alert, which also competes with ASI. Overall, I feel like the commitment to spellcasting ability, with real opportunity costs in other areas, makes it easier said than done to get more than +3 damage from the item. I think that can still be good enough, but it feels more like an A tier item to me than S tier.
See, that's actually funny because I toss that thing the instant I get it in every single run I do, because I simply never play any build that ever uses it. That diadem and the ring are the most "sounds like it should be good, but really isn't" in my runs.
@@dowfreak7 it's fun, try it. Put it on any blade warlock, heavy armor cleric, sword bard, especially paladin, or any other melee fighter that sometimes casts or inflicts status, and watch them go megaton
There are multiple consumable in Act 1 that have no action economy use that can trigger Broodmother's Revenge like raspberries and treacle tarts. Raspberries, in particular, are really easy to find around the Blighted Village.
And add in the periapt with those on characters that don't otherwise have a great necklace (or already used up the effect) and it's a great defensive tool as well.
It drops from Crusher, the goblin that is bragging to his entourage in the goblin camp. You can also suck it off his toe if you don't want to kill him.
If I had to guess, it's probably #21 and just barely doesn't make the list, because the ring slots are a lot more contested for melee characters than the helmet slot is. I think Crusher's Ring and Gloves of Belligerent Skies are two omissions that would probably make most people's top 20.
@@boopdabeep5300 wait fr? i mean i guess thats kind of expected but i just wanted to use some qol mods like easy longstrider and getting rid of the half illithid visuals.
I would personally replace the Adamantine Splint with the Gloves of Belligerent Skies. The issue with heavy armor in Honour Mode is that DEX is so valuable that even Fighters and Paladins will likely have enough for the +2 DEX cap of Medium Armor, and there are so many good Medium armors available that I hardly ever bother making the Adamantine Splint; Adamantine Scale and Adamantine Shield are so much better and I wouldn’t recommend making the Splint over either of those two.
You are absolutely right about most good builds building around 16 dex but splint has 2 distinct advantages, one additional damage reduction which gets crazy when combined with heavy armor master. -5 damage taken from physical hits is incredible. It really depends on your party comp and if you plan to take heavy armor master on one of your characters.
even with capped dex the only medium armors that compete are the yuan ti scale, which is better but you only have 1 of, and scale +2, trading defense for initiative but not needed for now if you have alert. depends on the armor proficiencies of your party. if you can fit it in over adamantine scale, you should.
Hey Cephalo with your valor bard build video the other day i think Wild Magic barbarian is the only character subclass you havent made a video on! Either that or i cant find it. Hope u make one soon.
Act I is the most difficult for Honor Mode? I just started my first Honor Mode game, having played two campaigns on Normal and one on Tactician, and I'm almost done with Act I. Just have Ethel, the Spider, and the Inquisitor remaining. I was expecting Ketheric to be the big scary opponent, and I'm planning to skip Raphael and Ansur and go straight for the brain. Closest I came to dying so far was when I got caught stealing Smokepowder barrels in the Zhentarim cave and the first d00d immidiately set off the other three, blowing up half the cave and him, and his buddy, and my party members, who fortunately all survived. But most runs are still won or lost that early? Am I really in the clear?
I just wanted to leave a comment that I got my golden dice today and the information and builds in your videos were extremely helpful, I basically breezed through most of the encounters including fights that are considered difficult (Myrkul, Raphael, Elder Brain) and I wanted to thank you for the great quality and amount of work you put into them! I had Swords Bard Tav, Lae'zel as an Eldrith Knight thrower, Shadowheart a Tempest Cleric and Gale as Abjuration Wizard.
@@Cephalopocalypse I’m surprised you had them that high based on your gloves tier list! They were only A tier but 6 of your S tier gloves didn’t make the cut
Shouldn't Lae'zel's githyanki half-plate also be on this list? It's available the earliest by far, and it's as good as the honorable mention +1 breastplate that you get in the grove. Also, Losiir's armor that you only get in a Lae'zel playthrough, since character-specific gear is on this list. The ring that origin-Gale gets on his first long rest is also pretty good considering how early and easy it is to get it in his playthrough. You're supposed to eat it, but there are plenty of other items you can grab before you sleep for the first time.
Regarding stacking crit immunity, damage resistance and flat damage reduction. How strong would you rate a party with something like the following characters, all with Heavy armor mastery feat: 1) ? classes with adamantine splint armor #1(crit immunity #1) 2) ? classes with adamantine splint armor #2 (crit immunity #2) 3) ? classes with armor of persistence/emblazoned plate of the marshal/reaper's embrace and helldusk helmet (crit immunity #3) 4) cleric 12 warding bond maintainer, source of aid and heroes feast: helmet of balduran (crit immunity #4) helldusk armor (3 flat damage reduction, fire resistance) the reviving hands (apply bladeward (slash, pierce, bludgeoning resistance to self with heal) Varsh Ko'kuu's Boots (acid resistance) whispering promise (apply bless equivalent with heals) the sparkswall (lightning resistance) absolute's protector (1 flat magic damage reduction) dakrfire shortbow (fire and cold resist)
From the perspective of a normal playthrough, why are mountain pass items grouped as act 1 and not in the same place as items available in early act 2? You fail save the refugees the moment you enter the pass or take the elevator from grymforge to act 2, so the natural groupings seem to be to be "items you can get before failing the first major story quest" and "items you can get any time after goblin camp, but before the shadowfell." Especially for creche shop items, how are they differently placed than last light / moonlight towers merchant items?
Grove defense is kind of a joke with just a few grease bottles, smokepowder bombs, 1 bloodlust elixir, and 2 or 3 haste potions which you can get in a chest next to astarion right as you come off the ship lol. So easy infact that you can do it without much trouble solo. Really I think rating items based on how deep they are into any act is kind of moot given virtually no good item in the game is locked behind a meaningful amount of forced combat. Many examples where you can even steal overpowered items while ignoring combat like the 23 constitution necklace from the house of hope by simply using a darkness arrow.
@@cHaMp630 Sure, it's just a question of how to divide items into acts, if it's to be done at all. I feel like the two points of no return in the game mark the cleanest division.
@@missing_links completely agree! If you are in the creshe, you might as well shop around in Last Light and Moonrise. It makes no difference in story. Things you have to do to not fail them before Mountain Pass: goblin leaders, Barcus Windmill, Waukeens Rest. All of the rest of act 1 can be done before you enter the Shadowfell
No worries Ceph, so long as my obsession with BG3 persists (been 10 months now, cannot get myself to be interested in picking up a different game) I will be watching your videos. I’m trying to beat HM right now so this video in particular (among all the other videos) is very much needed for me. Keep up the great work!
Absolutely love these lists and greatly appreciate a summary (including the screenshots!). Thanks so much for all the consistently clear & helpful BG3 info!
Why I'm loving screenshots with descriptions even though I know what most of those items do... It satisfies worm in my brain I guess? Thank you for the another great video! I just left my 3rd run's first act but oh well. 4rd is bound to happen one day anyway
Despite this being very helpful, I would have loved if you mentioned where you actually find these items in act 1, rather than making us go back to the wiki you took the screenshots from and look it all up again. Maybe something to include in the next one
Would give some of the underdark items a boost since you can get them basically from the get go, especially if you run through goblin camp with drow up you dont even need checks. The mountain pass items you need to have resolved the Tiefling problem, and the related fights are some of the hardest honour mode fights for a more casual player. Especially the caustic ring +2 dam at lvl 3-4 without fighting any hard fights is massive value. The same with adamantine armor since its super easy to cheese that fight. Does require some odd pathing but is a massive boost to make the tiefling problem a joke
I appreciate using the wiki to show the actual item. I certainly know them. But, from a usability perspective, for anyone who doesn’t this is a WAY better way to do it.
hi i like the video, but i have a suggestion for a place swap the medium adamantine armmor is better then the heavy one in my oppinion, for the reason that you get the helmet anyways for your heavy armor user and the medium armor is much more generaly usable since medium armor proficiency is way easier to obtain then heavy armor proficiency but that might just be my bias
It's worth noting that you don't have to kill Strange Ox to get Shapeshifter's Boon. If you attack him and then run away from combat, you will be able to buy this ring from him for around 200 gold. The best way to run away is to go into Mol's hideout immediately after starting the combat.
Killing him in act 1 is a big mistake, you lose the hat of fire acuity that drops from him in act 2, that's one of the strongest items in the entire game
One thing I like about BG3 is that you can sleep on many of the most powerful items and still have plenty of viable options available. I've never used that +1 breastplate, the broodmother's revenge, the adamantine shield, the protecty sparkswall, or the boots of stormy clamour. Rarely used hellrider's pride or whispering promise either. Still so many ways to beat Act 1, even in honor mode. But I always appreciate your take on the game, because you're clearly better at it than I am.
If you were to start Honour mode after a balanced playthrough today, is there one video or guide that you would recommend? I guess I'm looking for a walkthrough of a general route you could go. Maybe when making my Act 1 route, I could use this video and then reorder the items, and add in any gear pieces I need specifically for my build.
So personally my recommendation for a guide would be my party build "The best Party in Baldur's Gate 3." I myself wouldn't worry about a specific route or order - my advice would be to go in with strong builds and then you can play the game in whatever order you want! That said I think a few creators have done routing videos that can get you to level 4 or 5 without fighting, if you're looking for the strongest possible start
Deathstalker mantle is kind of invalidated by how easy invisibility potions are to amass from vendors via pickpocketing, exploits, etc right off the bat basically.
If it wasn’t clear in the video the boots of speed double your current move speed, meaning for a solo run if you desperately need to get out of an encounter you can dash once, and then click heels with the boots which effectively gives you 4x movespeed for that turn, and also doubles effects like haste, long strider and wood elf move speed
As always, awesome video, though, one nitpick.... Ring of Flinging is excellent, obviously. However, I'd replace it with Crusher's Ring. That's an extra 3 feet of Movement, which stacks with the Haste Helm. Moreover, *everyone* benefits hugely from increased movement, while additional damage to throwing is more specifically beneficial to ….well.. throwing builds. I totally agree re: The Gloves of Dexterity, Awesome item. They also, in addition to some rogue levels, allow my current barbarian to have social skills, so she can say something beyond, "Me Crush." Anyway, that aside, I just want to take the opportunity to say how much I enjoy your videos; they've become my go-to for reliable, well-researched BG3 info. So thank you for everything. Seriously! :)
How many times is Tavern Brawler actually supposed to apply? Because in my game it seems to behave differently every times it's used. From my understanding, it's supposed to do the 1d10 Piercing Damage of the Pike, +4 from 18 Strength, and then +4 again from Tavern Brawler. The Ring of Flinging should then just do 1d4 of damage without any bonuses. But like 75% of the time, it also triggers Tavern Brawler. And sometimes I get some mysterious extra damage on top of that. Like, at level 4 it's not uncommon for me to do with one throw of the Pike 15+11 points of damage.
It has to do with the way the game calculates damage riders and damage instances. A lot of things in the game count as separate damage instances which can reproc damage riders, so that multiplies the value of damage riders when you start getting more instances of damage in that one attack. From my research, Tavern Brawler acts as an additional instance of damage, and Ring of Flinging acts as a rider on top of that. So you get the initial damage from the attack, plus Ring of Flinging's 1d4 on the base damage, plus TB's 4 damage, plus Ring of Flinging's 1d4 on the TB additional damage. Naturally this gets even more ridiculous as you add on more things; besides TB + Ring of Flinging, another notorious combo is Titanstring Bow with elemental arrows, as well as Phalar Aluve with Shriek. iirc Honor Mode reworks this mechanic entirely so you aren't dealing a ridiculous amount of additional damage on every proc; it's just the flat additional damage per attack rather than per instance of damage.
@@SunSun-sk4si Thanks for the answer! Strangely, this is happening to me on HM. Titanstring bow works just fine and as I'd expect it to. Tavern Brawler works as it should, but only sometimes. Often it still procs several times. In several different ways. Sometimes one attack more or less acts as two attacks, or at least two damage instances. But for some reason only against some enemies. Currently, I'm in the Creche. Most of the time everything is as you'd expect, normal damage, but the Inquisitor went down in three attack actions from my thrower because the first two triggered two damage instances and the third three damage instances.
Question! Since there are limited use of these items one obv have to prioritise who uses what. Disintegrating nightwalkers is one that is great for several of the builds I have currently in my honor run. I am doing a storm sorcery ice focused silver Dragonborn as my Tav, archer/gloomstalker Astarion, monk/thrower Lae’zel and paladin oath of vengeance Minthara. (This is an evil run). So, between these characters who would be most important to have the disengaging nightwalkers, and what would be good alternatives to make up the lack of them in others? (I have Shadowheart in my party too, but I’m having her be the healer with boots of aid and comfort)
I'd probably give it to the Dragonborn. He's a sorc, so he's gonna have the lowest AC of the party and the lowest number of hit points. So, having a panic button of being able to escape dangerous situation is important. Archer and thrower will both have higher AC and are purely ranged character, plus Eldritch Knight will have access to Misty Step later on (while also having access to it once per long rest as Gith). And Paladin is just pretty hard to kill in general. Though, if your sorc isn't using their second level spell slots too much, you might just want to take Misty Step as a spell, and then you'd probably give it to Minthara. As for alternative, there's an amulet with once per short rest misty in Act 1, too. It's in the goblin temple, in Gut's private rooms.
@@zorlix130 thank you for your lengthy reply! I was more thinking of the preventing the character from falling prone aspect than the misty step. What are your thoughts on that?
I've heard that the Idol of Silvanus's aura counts a inflicting a condition. Haven't tested this myself, but if true, that would be great together with the Boots of Stormy Clamour.
It does! Though I think that may not work in honour mode anymore - they fixed the threatened condition counting for those items so may have fixed some other edge cases
If you want to use ranged attacks, go with Dex over Str - same damage, but better chance to hit, more overall benefits. If you want to deal ranged damage with high Str, throw things and use the Ring of Flinging for more overall damage. If you want your Str and Dex to both be really high without the Elixirs or the Gloves of Dexterity, then you're neglecting other useful abilities like Wis and Con and getting little for it. Also, there are two good heavy crossbows available that can stand in for the Titanstring Bow. d8 + Str longbow isn't going to beat d10 + Dex crossbow, especially since the latter gets a hit bonus too, not just damage.
@@andrewklang809i see you dont know what you are talking about. Titanstring adds your Dex *and* your Str on each arrow. Twice on elemental arrows, meaning you get “free” sharpshooter +10 damage on each attack with Elixir. No bow comes even close to that. Its the best bow in the game
The Gloves are good, but bonus hit chance is better than bonus damage unless the damage boost is enormous. The Caustic Band can apply to melee as well as ranged, only takes a ring slot, perfect for characters who duel wield everything. However, I have used the Gloves with a Dex 20 Fighter-Thief Archer with the Caustic Band and Sharpshooter. At level 8, with two +1 Hand Crossbows, I was dealing out minimum 21 damage for each hit, and by level 9, I had four attacks per turn. That little Gnome could cut through anything, even solo'd Ketheric (with Aylin helping) for fun.
I'm also going to to preach about the Gloves of Belligerent Skies which later combined with ring of spiteful thunder creates one of the strongest item combos in the game.
Surprised the Sparkle Hands didn't make the list. Or get an honourable mention. For characters that like throwing things, these gloves do extra lightning damage (which can be doubled by tossing a water bottle at a group of enemies at the start of combat). These lightning charges stack and eventually discharge, dealing an extra 1d8 damage against an unfortunate enemy (or 2d8 damage if that unfortunate enemy happens to be wet). If you like turning wet enemies into dead enemies, theses gloves help you do that. On top of that, the wearer gains advantage against enemies wearing metal armour. Although there aren't a lot of enemies in metal armour in Act 1, those that have it are in some of the tougher fights at this part of the game--namely Bernard and friends at the top of the Arcane Tower in the under dark, the Death Shepards in the Mountain Pass, lots of Githyanki warriors in the creche, and the massive metal golem in Grymforge.
@@ProbeAway I think the Sparkle Hands are actually best in slot for a throwing builds. When you factor in the average damage per hit with both items, the Gloves of Uninhibited Kushigo gets you a tiny bit more, about 0.5 damage more per hit against dry targets. But getting an additional half a hit point of damage per throw comes at the cost of giving up gaining advantage against all enemies with metal armour (like all the guards and True Soul Paladins in Moonrise Towers or Shar's undead or Constructs like the Steel Watch). But if you are consistently throwing things at wet targets, you'll be doing double damage with the Sparkle Hands, 2 lighting damage per throw plus a 2d8 burst on every 4th toss, for an average damage output that is close to +4 damage per hit. Berserker Barbarians wearing the Sparkle Hands that hit emeries standing in a puddle of water with their bonus action rage toss can knock them prone in that water and create an electrified surface that will then apply the shocked and electrocuted conditions (for an additional 1d4 lightning damage the next turn). Other enemies that move across that surface can become shocked or electrocuted too. So this one subclass can use the Sparkle Hands for some occasional crowd control tactics. Anyway, against dry targets, both gloves do comparable damage. Against wet targets, the Sparkle Hands outclass the Gloves of Uninhibited Kushigo.
@@wfdmount I mean if you want to go to the effort of getting targets wet consistently then sure. Otherwise, advantage is pretty easy to get for a thrower anyway (especially a barb). And while the dry target damage might be similar over the course of several attacks, it’s generally better to to more consistent damage per attack. Knowing all attacks will do the 1d4 is going to be more appealing to most players than keeping track of whether an attack will do +1 or +1d8. It’s not me you need to convince though, it’s Ceph! ;)
The wiki has all the locations! It's mostly not that big a deal for act 1, but for act 2 and 3 I didn't want to include the locations since they often come with major story spoilers
@Cephalopocalypse I lost my first, a 15hr playthrough, to a save bug and I was trying "find all the things and do all the things right" trying a build that doesn't come online until level 5 etc etc and I was way too stressed. so when I rolled my replacement I made a halfling warlock named Pew'ter, I had high charisma and no nat 1's, no save scum, & just letting things happens I am having a ton more fun! I'll sweat the details on my 3rd playthrough 🤷 the videos are great all the same
I strongly disagree with ranking Hellrider's Pride above the Whispering Promise. Offense > defense. Also I know that you don't like camp casting, but Warding Bond makes them completely irrelevant.
@@Cephalopocalypse I actually edited my comment before I read your reply. But you have a point, I was a little bit too triggered. I still disagree strongly though.
Sorry but I don't think I would say that the Luminous Armour shows up "relatively early". Late is what I would say. Also can you PLEASE note where these things can be found?
It CAN be grabbed very early, go to the grove, free sazaa, go to the goblins, solve the little moon puzzle, and bam you're there. You can rush there super quickly
as soon as ur in the goblin camp u can go to the underdark and get the armour. its always one of the first things i do just for this armour. shart usually has it equipped by lvl 3.
@@pangeae_200 I usually don't go into the goblin camp until I hit level four. Then I come back later after I've been in the creche and go to the underdark. Perhaps I should say you have the ability to get it midway through Act 1 but it doesn't make sense to do it until later.
@@Cyberlucyi usually disguise myself as drow so i get in without a fight and ill grab phalar aluve and the armour. the armour stays on shar throughout the whole game (if she’s a light cleric) and since its ac 15 it is really nice to have it early on even tho there arent too many radiant dmg spells yet. (esp on honor mode where money‘s tight im happy about any free gear 🤣)
Is it just me or is the Caustic Band showing (in-game) as a very rare item now? Not sure when it changed (on console so not patch 7) but I noticed it on my most recent run & everywhere still has it listed as a green uncommon but mine is definitely a red very rare. Is this a glitch or did they change it & the wikis just haven't been updated yet? PS I know it does not make any functional change but it still bothers my OCD brain ETA: TIL: this is a Honor Mode change that lists it as very rare in HM only
Yeah a few items were moved to higher rarity in honour mode (presumably because they wanted you to have to choose which to buy, but in practice it just means picking up more brooms to sell)
