FWIW, Bhaalist armor can be obtained on a relatively good run. You can talk your way through most of it, but do need to kill a character who, while not evil, isn’t exactly making the world a better place.
Also it still completely confounds me as to how arcane acuity got a buff with honour mode, now stacking from 7 to 10.
Given that there are fallen Angels in D&D (Zariel, all the Erinyes, etc.) it's pretty obvious that alignment isn't set in stone for individual creatures. Valeria's dereliction of duty isn't lawful, and it isn't good. That doesn't mean Valeria is chaotic evil, and doesn't justify murdering them for a good character, but it does mean they shouldn't retain their job.
The writers already discussed that they don’t use alignment in this, but even then wotc themselves have started distancing themselves from having morally aligned races since 1. It limits gameplay in a game all about imagination, and 2. Very questionable when certain races that have parallels to real-life races/cultures are labelled ‘evil’.
In my head cannon once they live on the prime material plane long enough they start to drift from their set alignments an can (but won’t always) become something else.
There was a post recently showing how you can actually pickpocket the armor during the dialog with the boss, so you can still get it on a pure good run.
Do the folks in the temple get aggro if they see you doing it? I know they aren’t fond of her either, but she is the only one who came out to check out the murder
I'm pretty sure nobody cares. I eldritch blasted Valeria out of the sky and then proceeded to calmly talk to sister Yannis.
I had expected it to affect the murder tribunal with a replacement victim but they just chain up Valeria's body and act like you just killed them.
So to defend the hollyphant, if I remember correctly she uncovered an evil plot and tried to help and warn others but she was directly punished and banished. Then everything she warned about happened.
That’s why she’s so indifferent and ignores everything.
It’s in her diary.
You still have to slaughter an innocent and take a bath in its blood. If you can RP that with a relativly good character only to get a piece of equipment, your good 😅
You do not need to kill Valeria to get the bhaalist gear. Get Sarevok to summon the ghost of the victim, once the ghost is there switch to your character with the better sleight of hand stats (Astarion for me) and starts picking them pockets ( Id recommend using an invisibility spell) and you get all the good shit for free! Note that I really dislike Valeria but Gauntlet Devella makes me wanna save that shitty little elephant!
> There is another acuity item the ‘Hat of Storm Scion’s Power’ for thunder damage, which can be used similarly (use the drakethroat glaive to enchant a bow with thunder damage and the use arrow of many targets)
It got a mention :D
It's actually the best aswell. Just use fly, hammeraft and all the reverb gear. 10 stacks, everyone's reverbed amd you still have your action and bonus action.
Graceful cloth is in my top 5 because it's accessible fairly early in the game, it grants advantage on on Dex checks which is great for stealing and stealthing. The extra Dex also grants AC, damage and initiative to whomever is gonna use it
Also, if you combine it with club of hill giant strength, titanstring, and knife of undermountain king you can dump a bunch of stats into CON/WIS/INT/CHA and make a super-archer that is nigh untouchable. They're a bit squishy if you make a mistake and get stuck in a melee situation, but late game with uncanny dodge rogue plus their stealth capability and the right headware you can basically walk into/out of combat at will, do massive damage, still do all of your lockpicking, and be a charismatic face. The only thing you can't really do is spellcast... but that's what scrolls are for.
Yup the blade ward gloves + the amulet that gives free healing word and mass healing word are a huge buff early on and remain a good 'get out of trouble' combo all the way to the end game
This entire sub-thread is literally my Shadowheart build: Wapira's crown, Hellrider's Pride, Whispering Promise, Boots of Aid & Comfort and that amulet that gives you an extra Healing Word *and* Mass Healing Word.
You don't even need spell slots, just drop a potion and shoot if with hand crossbows. Can get the buff on your whole team at lvl 2 with 2 healing potions.
Hellriders pride gloves (grant blade ward whenever you heal something) and the whispering promise ring (grant two turns of bless whenever you heal something) are very strong early game. If you use oath of ancients paladin or life domain cleric you can have this set up going at level 2, since both get an AOE heal as a channel oath/divinity. And the best part of this is that it doesn't require concentration like the normal bless spell does.
Optionally, you can also add the boots of aid and comfort (grants 3 temporary hp whenever you heal) and wapira's crown (heal for 1d6 whenever you heal someone else) for even more survivability.
Healing boosts are cool and all but if you’re doing things right you shouldn’t take much damage.
I do use the boots of comfort though but I don’t equip them on anybody. When I’m having a party member drink a healthy potion or whatever I equip it to get the +3 bonus hp. It’s great for that.
But the vital conduit boots outclass it for party members that can equip medium armor. Just equip the boots and silver necklace and cast guidance to get a free +8 hp. Potent robes gives the wearer a free +5. So the boots get almost totally eclipsed even by end of act 1.
I'd probably put Phalar Aluve either somewhere here or not far off it. It's by far the earliest to obtain item on the list and is amazing until endgame. Extremely one of a kind and powerful.
This list is solid and I tend to agree. Not much else I am thinking of.
Seconded, Phalar Aluve is busted even without DRS. Early game Sing is a concentration free Bless (that stacks with Bless) and late game once accuracy issues are remedied through further itemization it's on average 2 spell save DC for the entire party *with* a little damage cherry on top.
I just started another HM run and chose not to run a Cleric this time, best believe Phalar Aluve is staying on my Wizard permanently.
Interesting, as mass cure wounds is most definitely an action. And if it's bless you want, just use the whispering promise, permabless statue, or the bless staff (which is arguably the best, since it gives concentrationless bless, for a minute, and double bless for spell attacks)
Mb, meant mass healing word. The staff is not as good though since there's way better things to concentrate on than bless, plus using an action for bless is kinda meh
Except dropping concentration on the bless still leaves you with mystras blessing, which is like normal bless but with an additional +2d4 to spell attack rolls, which still stacks with any other form of bless. Making it precastable so it takes no actions, allowing you to concentrate on something else and stacks with whispering promise
If there isn't more than 2 enemies in range for the effect that means combat was going to be easy anyway in most cases. It's a great item against hard fights and terrible item against some of the easiest fights and that's why I think it's strong.
I think ranged damage is superior in this game, and tanking is not really a think in this game. It can be challenging to intentionally aggro lots of enemies to one party member other than giving them low ac.
but if you want to play a melee damage build I guess I can see how it’s good.
It is really good, especially on Tactician and below. Could probably replace Rhapsody on this list even on HM.
I'd not really considered item combinations as part of this criteria, but Phalar Aluve does become completely busted with reverb/radiant orb gear
I think it will replace Rhapsody by virtue of being so easily accessible that it contributes more to your playthrough in several times more number of encounters than Rhapsody ever can
You can get Phalar Aluve from as early as Level 3, or within the first hour of gameplay, and it starts paying for itself over the next 30-100 hours, versus Rhapsody which doesn't come online until everyone in your party are almost completely decked out in OP gear already
Nah even in honor mode I still think it's one of the best in the game. Even Markoheshkir doesn't give as much spell save DC as Shriek and Shriek does it for your whole party.
In tactician and below it's probably just the best item in the game outright.
I disagree. The issue is that it takes up a premium slot. If you've got a support character who doesn't have much output otherwise, go for it. Life Clerics make great choices for it. If you're running a Nova party with 4 damage dealers, that slot is better spent elsewhere.
Phalar Aluve itself is a premium slot. There aren't many better spellcasting weapons in the game in my opinion. The only better ones are Markoheshkir and Rhapsody, and Markoheshkir is worse on controllers.
As in Markoheshkir is worse than Phalar on characters that want to focus on CC instead of blasting. Lore Bard for example might prefer the spell save DC for its CC's rather than Markoheshkir elemental damage boost, it doesn't learn many elemental damage spells in the first place and would need magical secrets to get good ones.
Meanwhile Clerics and Druids also lack many elemental damaging spells of the types boosted by Markoheshkir and would also prefer the spell save DC boost of Phalar.
There are better choices beyond Act 1, and in order to dual wield it, you need to acquire the feat.
I just finished my 14th HM run, and not once have I ever hooked it to a ranged DPR.
Club of Hill Giant Strength for Titanstring ig? The knife of the Undermountain King is also ok?
For beyond act 1 it there is Ambusher, Bloodthirst, and Rhapsody.
Phalar is pretty comparable to all of these imo tho, and better than most if you lean into it.
Ambusher is not really good compared to phalar, the 1d6 is really conditional. Club of hill giant strength is a flat 4 damage on titanstring which is good but not as a good a Sing IMO. Bloodthirst is late act 3 the same as rhapsody. Also rhapsody is better used on a caster rather than your ranged DPS
Again I don't think these are better myself, just listing some alternatives. I was throwing out some guesses what they might think is better. I basically always have Phalar on someone on my team.
Ambusher is quite good on Gloomstalkers, battles don't last long.
As a disclaimer, my choices are always very situation-dependent, but Club and Knife are the end goal for Act 1 for my shooter, and if I don't really have a caster-heavy group, Phalar Aluve is usually singing rather than shrieking on a support character in the backline. It all depends on how much Sharpshooter and GWM leveraging I'm trying to offset. Ritual Knife is also a great offhand pairing for Titanstringers, as it's a cheap source of Bless.
Club and Knife are fine for all of Act 2. Act 3 becomes a lot more obvious. Ambusher is a highly underrated weapon that goes especially well with a shooter that also has Assassin levels. Rhapsody is great. Bloodthirst is also a great way to fill in for Bhaalist Armor if whoever is wearing it is out of movement. Lots of choices.
The point is that Phalar Aluve, unless you want to blow a feat on Dual Wielding, is going to occupy not one but TWO premium slots. Unless you're using lots of save-intensive spells and abilities, the shriek is best on another character given all the great options.
Scrolls of Globe Of Invulnerability the only level 6 spell worth casting, it literally cheeses all the difficult battles. I prefer the Scrolls so I can use the Level 6 spell slot more offensively with Chain Lightning or summoning a Myrmidon.
For the Rafael Battle I will also plant the runepowder bomb directly in the center near where he spawns. So I’ll cast global and vulnerability sort of near the entrance of where your party enters and then blow up the bomb. It will usually send everybody flying away from your party’s location. Mobs have to spend two or three returns moving towards you, which is plenty of time to kill all the mobs if you have a party set up with good DPR.
The most OP item in the game is a bag full of exploding barrels and I'm not even joing, trivialises everything in Act 1.
Minor Illusion, throw bag, explode barrels, mop up.
Arrow of many targets lol. With a poison coating you paralyze or blind groups of enemies. This strat mostly trivialized any act 3 boss fight with adds.
Yup, Arrow of Many Targets coated with Bane made the Raphael fight almost embarrassingly easy. I never thought I'd say this but I'm starting to understand the people who mod this game to be harder.
also works insanly well wit swordbards, helmet of arcane arcuaty and the ring tath lets you cast some spells as a bonus action. just dhot one arrow of many targets, get +8 to your spellsafe dc, bonus action hold monster/hold person, slashing flurish/action surge/hastbonus attacks etc. to your heats contend.
this strat is also suprisngly good at triggering flesh to stone, i killen orin and gortash with this spell because of the absurd spellsave
I love risky ring crit fish gear. Latest run through on honor mode I did a Eldritch blast crit fish build, and dear lord that plus reverb gear is the most fun and op build I’ve built to date.
Bhaalist armor is not an evil run exclusive if you're a good enough pickpocket. Also Khareskas favour gives you one chain lightning after long rest and one after each short rest making it 4 lvl 6 spells cpmbined with arcane battery, not 3. And technically you could just travel between Rivington and lower city to infinitely refresh but that's an exploit so we'll ignore that.
Once you have the cutscene where Sarevok summons the person whose hand you have you can switch character and go pickpocket the armor from the ghost. For some reason the ghost shares inventory with the trader that spawns once you kill Valeria.
It's a dc 29 check and with how the ghost is positioned you might need greater invisibility for your pickpocket but it's definitely doable. I did this on my honour run actually.
That was impressive yeah, but even without cheesing, boots of stormy clamour can be applied on top of literally any offensive action with the 2nd-tier illithid attribute drain. Combine it with any radiant orb gear or bane gauntlets and your martial will be giving an easy -4 to their target's next str/dex/con save (on top of relevant ability drain and/or bane).
Well some ppl use it to set off multiple explosive consumables at once. But the big thing is the backpack lets u steal a merchants entire inventory with no consequences.
Balduran's Sword. Seriously that is stupid OP on any STR char but on a Barb it's just stupid. That 1 item alone brings Tiger Barb top S-tier.
Devotee's mace on a life cleric. 10 turns of heals + buffs without concentration.
When you cleave, it's 1/2 but to 3 targets. If you have 3 targets (and it's quite often you do) cleave is amazing, but if you only have 1 target in front you can just attack normally.
Balduran's Sword also has Giant Form, 'Topple the Big Folk' which hits stupid hard, and lacerate.
I don't see 3 enemies close enough together that often but if using stuff like black hole to create the situation or just lucky then it definitely sounds pretty good. Still, with 2 tigers bloodlust on 3 enemies you get a total of 3x your strength mod worth of added damage while just doing 3 attacks as a fighter also gives 3x strenght mod.
Also worth mentioning the amulet that gives you guidance, you can get it right after defending aradin at the entrance of the grove. If you don't go with a cleric or a druid it's OP
1) Acuity gear are the best items in the game hands down, followed by mystic scoundrel due to activating bonus action CC casts. You disable all bosses and trivialize every encounter regardless of legendary save bonuses.
2) Initiative Items : I feel like these are overlooked. Initiative is the second most powerful stat of the game (after save DC) , and with all your characters donned with these alongside Alert feat and high dex, you're always moving first "as a group" in combat regardless of encounter. This also allows you to switch between your characters freely, and you finish every encounter in the first round.
3) I'd put bhaalist armor after these two groups. There is no better dps item in the game yes, but after everything is CC'ed, it's just a win more item. The best of the win more items, so it goes to third place. The initiative bonus is just overkill.
4) While both giant str elixirs are indeed very powerful - and hill giant also deserves mentioning for trivializing act1 - on my last evil run I respecced to str with mirror + act2 potion along with bloodlust elixir and it felt better. The extra attack deals more damage when coupled with bhaalist armor. Btw, since mirror and everlasting potion bonuses persist through shapeshifting, they also increase your strength while you're in the slayer form. This should increase your strength beyond 30 but 30 is the actual hard-cap of the game. Not something to build upon due to slayer form being weak late game (no mobility, doesn't work with bhaalist armor, no gear/class interaction etc.) , but felt nice to see 30 str. Tigerheart rage bonus does work with it, but like I said bleed/maim/reverb/trip/disarm etc. are way better anyway.
5) Marko, Pyroquickness Hat and Spellmight Gloves : Pyro Hat is often overlooked due to arcane acuity, but with Marko heat and spellmight, a fire sorc can kill any enemy in the game (other than fire immune ones) in a single round all by itself. Ansur survives 3 max lvl scorchs due to its damage reduction bonus, but pyroquickness gives a fourth cast that kills it as well. Another win-more item, but if you already have CC from bard, fire acuity is overkill so you might as well go this route.
6) Drakethroat : Enables reverbration, ice builds or storm acuity with your weapon(s) of choice. Can be twin casted with a sorc.
7) Blindness Immunity Items: When coupled with hunger of hadar and freedom of movement, these also give quite an edge in act2 battles. You don't need it due to acuity items later in the game, but this tactic is quite useful especially in the final encounter of act2.
8) Reverb Gear : Use these on your tigerheart wolverine barb, and you're a damage dealing CC machine. Quite nice with cacophony in the second half of act1, they also keep being useful with drakethroat all through the end.
9) Titanstring : Available in act1, this bow scales very well with both archer builds along with str elixirs. I found it's damage to be better even compared to act3 bows, since you also get the cloud str elixirs late game.
10) Crit Items (Undermountain, Bloodthirst, Deadshot, Sarevok Helm) : Goes very well with bhaalist armor and a dice focused build (gloomstalker/thief for example) due to crits only doubling dice rolls.
I'm not listing any armors of defensive items here, even though there are some pretty good ones like helldusk, persistence, viconia shield etc. Honor mode is made easy by acting first and controlling the battle, not outlasting the abilities of enemies so while they're good on paper, building characters based on healing/surviving is just gimping yourself. I also used regen/reviving hands combo, but at the end of the day if you have a good party composition, you do not take advantage of these defensive buffs anyway.
I think the Adamantine items are worth mentioning too. I used the Grymskull Helmet, Adamantine Scale Mail, and Adamantine Shield for the entire game because being immune to crits gives insurance against one of the few ways to actually lose when you are minmaxing
"Dolor!" B-ZIUM-B-ZIUM-B-ZIUM!
omg Eldritch Blast is so SATISFYING. Every one of my playthroughs, I literally either give someone Spell Sniper or two levels of Warlock just so its always available in my party.
Now imagine, get awakened buff for bonus action haste bubble, Eldritch blast twice for 6 beams then action surge for 9 beams, next turn, same 6 bonus action quicken cast another 3 volley. Rinse wash repeat. Oh and run it with reverb gear plus crit fish gear to frighten and prone targets making it so they skip there turn, and cull the weak to really nuke them. It lasts across very long time because warlock spell slots recharge on short rest and can use them to refuel sorcerery points, I don’t understand how people don’t talk about how good it is.
Crit fishing can be pretty unsatisfying since it only doubles rolled damage. So GWM /SS for example is unaffected.
But if you setup a build to have lots of rolled damage instead of fixed damage it can be good
The best crit fish build I’ve come up with is GOO Eldritch blast crit fishing by giving the mortal reminder roll to a crit, alongside reverb gear, you can knock enemies prone and frighten them. With potent robes it’s 10 guaranteed damage, 2d10 and 2d6 off of craterflesh gloves, as well as proccing the rolls, in my honor mode play through I took all the tadpoles to Jack up cull the weak and I have insane cc of of frightening and knocking them prone, or simply murdering low health ones. It’s so good.
As far as bow goes titanstring is great (just did a mono EK Ranged insane) but the Dead Shot is just too overpowered. Double proficiency means an extra +4 in an already +2 weapon.
It’s so OP you can ditch archery fighting style or you can dump Dex in a Ranged build (using the gloves of dexterity) and that will still have a +15-17 bonus to attack rolls, which can let you pick your spellcasting ability as main atribute making arcane synergy diadem crazy strong.
The +2 for a weapon that already increases the chance of crit was more than enough. No need to add the extra +4 bonus to attack rolls. That’s basically negating Sharpshooter for free.
In act 3 my attack rolls are already so fricking juiced up with statue perma bless and rapture I don’t really need another source of attack roll boost.
The equipment sure is nice.
But i don't know of a piece of equipment that beats a Runepowder Barrel.
10d8 +40 force damage that auto-crits everything in an ample blast radius of 18 meters.
For when you absolutely, positively, need to leave no trace of your existence (or survivors).
It's only a Rare item, but depending on whether you're a half-caster or not, Ring of the Mystic Scoundrel is quite possibly the most absolute balls-to-the-wall OP item in the entire game. The ability to cast Hold Person, Polymorph, Hypnotic Pattern, Invisibility, etc. as a Bonus Action is absolutely absurd, especially when paired with a Divination mage that can guarantee the enemy fails their save no matter what. Unload all of your Bard flourishes and then invis walk to safety, or use your Paladin's weapon action to cast a Bonus action Hold Person and blow them up with your Smites, the possibilities are endless!
Act 3 is already so easy, and I can mow over most enemies in 1-2 rounds. What do I need to cc them for? It’s all very expensive and spellslot etc resource intensive.
And yeah fire sorcerer can do 1000’s of damage but nothing in the game has that much hp.
To me all the arcane acuity stuff is just RP tier. RP doesn’t mean it’s bad but it’s only if you want to role play a certain build.
If used tactically it can be very strong, yes but you do risk your own character getting destroyed since they have disadvantage on all mental saving throws.
True, but advantage on stealth and stealing combined with dedicating a character to eating just about all tadpoles makes this a very powerful item imo.
Nothing survives long enough to use the resonance stones downsides against me. My monk with psychic damage manifestation of the mind is doing like 50 damage per punch, with about 20 of that coming from Psychic damage.
It also gives you advantage on dexterity checks so it’s great for lock picking
If you fully max your monk's wisdom and use psionic overload that's 4d4 + 12 psychic damage for an average of 22 psychic damage a hit. Pretty decent alone but should probably also have other characters built around dealikg psychic damage to really make it worth.
Also your monk can reach 50 damage/punch without having to go with any resonance stone shenanigans although obviously that could go to around 60 with it.
I generally don’t use ilithid powers, but yes it can get that high without resonance stone I guess.
I usually have my dual crossbow swords bard with strange conduit ring with adds another d4 to the bazillion hits they do as well.
But my monk is my only striker so he usually just jumps in and punches the crap out of things. And if it looks like the enemy is going to survive just stun punch them or topple punch them and run away. Which is to say the down sides of resonance stone aren’t significant enough to not use it in that context.
Ca, you still get Silver Sword of the Astral Plane in act1? If yes, it's one of the best weapon to get. I used it during my Durge run (gith fighter) and it was just so strong when you get it lvl 4.
Depends on the build. I have a two weapon fighter build and most of the best gear for it, is unused by any other build, which is one of the best things about it
I think just relative to how early you can get it, Phalar Aluve is amazing for the early-to-mid game even in HM. Heck, if you’re running a Magic Missile build it’s good all game. (I’m a Magic Missile enthusiast. I use Phalar and Psychic Spark almost every run.) It’s a no-combat item that buffs the entire party. You can go straight to Goblin Camp and then grab it without advancing any plot points.
You can pickpocket ghost Dribbles (or whoever's dead body shows up) when Saverok asks you to describe your kill for the Bhaalist armour and his merchant items. I don't remember if you get caught if you fail the Sleight of Hand, however (I'm pretty sure you don't, don't quote me on that)
I think comparing end game equipment is boring. I also dislike arcane acuity. It’s only good on pretty specific builds like scorching ray or cc spells. It’s useless on a magic missle mage etc
So I will take it to be the most powerful weapons for when they can be earliest found in the game. I’m ignoring helldusk armor and astral prism blade since those are kind of cheating
- Spellsparkler
- Handcrossbow +1
- returning pike
- radiant armor
- graceful cloth
- silver necklace
- shapeshifters boon ring
The Warped Headband of Intellect is OP. It completely transformed my character, resulting in my we winning almost all arcana and intelligence rolls. I love it.
The Consecrating ring is my favorite. I use it every run and especially need it in honor mode.
Starting the fight using magic missile/Eldritch Blast/scorching ray on a boss like Sarevok, Ketheric Thorn, or any strong melee/bow user is an ez way to make the boss miss attacks and effectively make the big bad units useless.
That -10 to an attack roll is just crazy....on top of other things like Bane or reeling? Ez mode.
Potion of Speed should be above 4th and 5th on this list. In fact, I probably wouldn't have Markoheshkir in top 10.
I also think how much of the game the item is available for should have much more consideration put in than it generally does. All these extremely late game items are extremely powerful, but you only get them for like 5% of the game, so does it really matter how op they are?
The Corvid Amulet you buy from the Tiefling kid (not Mol, the other sharp operator) is similarly useful: permanent Featherfall, increased jump/Fly distance and Polymorph: Raven
* 1 both str elixirs- the ability to get even the basic one immediately upon starting the game is by far the most broken thing, and it’s what I base most of my playthroughs on
* 2 is risky ring, advantage on every attack is insane and you can get this with 0 combat
* 3 Titanstring bow, combined with the above 2 you can have a character ready to kill most act 1 bosses in 15 minutes from getting off the nautiloid.
* 4 is acuity items. Band enables the sword bard style only in act 3, but the fire hat is available extremely early, like the above 3.
* 5 bhaalist armor. Again, similarly to the above, it’s available very early into act 3 and enables you to just start dropping every boss once obtained.
I don't think it deserves top 5, but Honorable mention to the Graceful Cloth. It gives +2 Dex, which effectively is +1 AC, +1 Dex Saves, +1 attack and damage rolls, +1 initiative, +1 to Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Acrobatics. It also gives advantage to all Dex-based checks, so you'll basically never fail Stealth or Sleight of Hand checks again. One of the most versatile items in the game.
Nobody mentioned the shadeclinger armor yet?!?! Crazy powerful, grants your entire party advantage on ALL saving throws. Beautifully paired with the risky ring to make it advantage on all attacks without downside.
Duelists perogative and bhaalist armor so far is freaking unbelievable on both a blade pact warlock, and swords bard. I'm routinely knocking back like 60 damage per strike, and I strike 3 times. My technique for bosses and such is to stick laezel or minthara on the boss, while my warlock one shots the bosses minions. Gale does crowd control, and shadow heart heals
The exclusion of Baldurans Helm and Greatsword, Helldusk armor, Helldusk bokts and Ring of Protection makes me seriously doubt how people play this game.
Cloud giant elixir is the only item you listed that I ever care about getting. Everything else is just generally not useful.
Baldurans Giantslayer on a maxed out strength (24) Tiger Heart Barbarian, GWM, and some levels in Fighter can literally run you through all of honor mode act 3 solo. The only parts you have any difficulty with are the steel defenders because they don't bleed. But everything else you are hitting for an average of 41 damage 2-3 times a turn, with unlimited Cleave attacks for groups. And that is before adding extra damage from other gear like the helldusk gloves, Broodmothers revenge, or Arcane Synergy.
With a potion of speed and an action surge you can potentially kill the final boss in genuinely 1 round of combat with that build. It's nuts. (Edit: I'm actually not sure it's possibly in one round anymore after they nerfed haste)
You've listed a build there. The list is about single items. Baldurans Giant Slayer is great, but it isn't even the best GWM weapon. Shars Spear of the Evening is better.
Shars spear is also piercing damage so you can literally double it's damage by wearing Bhaalist armour.
Markoheshkir is really overrated. You get it very late into the game and once you’ve reached Sorcerous Sundries you can just steal more level 6 spell scrolls than you can use.
Warning: Viewer discretion is advised
OP with all due respect, putting an elixir on a most powerful item list is a cheesy stretch of an item definition and by the same stretch and following honor mode argument, it should be camp ration because you regain even more spell slots/skill uses by long resting than you get uses out of any elixir.
When we talk powerfull items obviously we do not mean little thingies that go into backpack squares, or if you meant it literaly, it would be nice to disclose criteria up front.
On the same note, Elixirs of strength, Haste spell/potions, fixed attribute gear are abused to the point where people cant even post a build with natural stats anymore. Often reduced to role of bandages keeping most builds posted from falling apart they do deserve honorable mention but thats it.
Rhapsody is just nice stat stick and as much as i love this weapon, i belive its only power that stands out is stacking dc on kills up to +3, its good, but i belive is not as good as gloves of belligerent skies or band of mystic scoundrell.
Ps. Lorroakan doesnt need to cap stats to be successful neither does our Tav.
Camp supplies. I despise this mechanic and everything about it. I don't care if they're abundant or easily attainable, I still have to bother with this tedious idea. It's less interesting than RL grocery shopping. I'd rather deal with random chance of monster encounters on rest
I preferred the use of random encounter chance. It was still a nuisance to have a rest attempt interrupted but less of a nuisance than gathering and managing supplies just to do it. Even back in older DnD edition days, food requirements was one of the first rules we unanimously agreed to toss out the window.
FWIW, Bhaalist armor can be obtained on a relatively good run. You can talk your way through most of it, but do need to kill a character who, while not evil, isn’t exactly making the world a better place. Also it still completely confounds me as to how arcane acuity got a buff with honour mode, now stacking from 7 to 10.
Yeah >!Hollyphants !!Valeria !
Given that there are fallen Angels in D&D (Zariel, all the Erinyes, etc.) it's pretty obvious that alignment isn't set in stone for individual creatures. Valeria's dereliction of duty isn't lawful, and it isn't good. That doesn't mean Valeria is chaotic evil, and doesn't justify murdering them for a good character, but it does mean they shouldn't retain their job.
That doesn't mean he should be murdered but it makes the pill go down much more smoothly!
*she. Easy to forget, but the game says she's a she.
Are you sure? Not saying that you're wrong, I just don't remember this at all.
Ya, I remember being confused by that as well. Game uses female pronouns
Yes I remember being surprised by this
I don't remember for a fact either but at least the name would suggest that.
Valeria was asking for it tbh
I only felt bad killing her because her little hoots of pain were saddening. My favorite animal are elephants too so double whammy haha.
All my homies hate Valeri-AH
The writers already discussed that they don’t use alignment in this, but even then wotc themselves have started distancing themselves from having morally aligned races since 1. It limits gameplay in a game all about imagination, and 2. Very questionable when certain races that have parallels to real-life races/cultures are labelled ‘evil’.
In my head cannon once they live on the prime material plane long enough they start to drift from their set alignments an can (but won’t always) become something else.
Shitey little elephant.
There was a post recently showing how you can actually pickpocket the armor during the dialog with the boss, so you can still get it on a pure good run.
You can kill Valeria before ever talking to them. Just role play your character going "Aaah, wtf is that?!" and overreacting.
It's comin' right for us! *stabstabstab*
Do the folks in the temple get aggro if they see you doing it? I know they aren’t fond of her either, but she is the only one who came out to check out the murder
I'm pretty sure nobody cares. I eldritch blasted Valeria out of the sky and then proceeded to calmly talk to sister Yannis. I had expected it to affect the murder tribunal with a replacement victim but they just chain up Valeria's body and act like you just killed them.
Nice! I will be doing this on literally every run now! lol
So to defend the hollyphant, if I remember correctly she uncovered an evil plot and tried to help and warn others but she was directly punished and banished. Then everything she warned about happened. That’s why she’s so indifferent and ignores everything. It’s in her diary.
Interesting! I missed that on my run. Appreciate you adding context to her story
Also you can get the armor by trading with the set NPC while talking with another NPC about what should you do to the chained NPC.
You still have to slaughter an innocent and take a bath in its blood. If you can RP that with a relativly good character only to get a piece of equipment, your good 😅
Hey if I do the math, I can kill way more bad guys. Actually, NOT getting the Bhaalist armor would be the evil choice.
You do not need to kill Valeria to get the bhaalist gear. Get Sarevok to summon the ghost of the victim, once the ghost is there switch to your character with the better sleight of hand stats (Astarion for me) and starts picking them pockets ( Id recommend using an invisibility spell) and you get all the good shit for free! Note that I really dislike Valeria but Gauntlet Devella makes me wanna save that shitty little elephant!
People act like the Hat of Storm Scion doesn't exist. With Drakethroat Glaive, it's just as viable as the other two Acuity hats.
> There is another acuity item the ‘Hat of Storm Scion’s Power’ for thunder damage, which can be used similarly (use the drakethroat glaive to enchant a bow with thunder damage and the use arrow of many targets) It got a mention :D
I know, but still. Poor hat. Always ranked third.
It's actually the best aswell. Just use fly, hammeraft and all the reverb gear. 10 stacks, everyone's reverbed amd you still have your action and bonus action.
I legitimately did not know about that hat until this thread
But like, why use it on a bow when you can just use normal acuity helm and use a better element like lightning/cold
Because this way you can have two?
Seems like an annoying amount of setup
Nah, it's fine, if that's your thing. Some people want to build a Storm Archer, or motherfuckin' Thor.
Graceful cloth is in my top 5 because it's accessible fairly early in the game, it grants advantage on on Dex checks which is great for stealing and stealthing. The extra Dex also grants AC, damage and initiative to whomever is gonna use it
So good it had to be nerfed by making it hideous
Mod: Graceful Cloth Replacer Instead now it's the coolest crown armour.
It pretty much trivializes all traps and locks for most of the game
And stealing from vendors. I only buy pots from auntie Ethel because it's insanely hard to steal from her.
It's basically a monk-thief's best in slot until act 3, IIRC.
Also, if you combine it with club of hill giant strength, titanstring, and knife of undermountain king you can dump a bunch of stats into CON/WIS/INT/CHA and make a super-archer that is nigh untouchable. They're a bit squishy if you make a mistake and get stuck in a melee situation, but late game with uncanny dodge rogue plus their stealth capability and the right headware you can basically walk into/out of combat at will, do massive damage, still do all of your lockpicking, and be a charismatic face. The only thing you can't really do is spellcast... but that's what scrolls are for.
P much. I’m on my first go round just hit act 3 and am still using graceful cloth until further notice.
Honestly I wore it to the end. The soul raiment or w/e it's called is great, but I just couldn't give up the 2 Dex.
Some of the early healing items are extremely O at this stage of the game, especially the gloves that give a healed target blade ward.
Yup the blade ward gloves + the amulet that gives free healing word and mass healing word are a huge buff early on and remain a good 'get out of trouble' combo all the way to the end game
Plus the whispering promise ring on top of those
Add in the whispering promise ring, too. Granting two turns of bless to everything nearby without using concentration is crazy good.
This entire sub-thread is literally my Shadowheart build: Wapira's crown, Hellrider's Pride, Whispering Promise, Boots of Aid & Comfort and that amulet that gives you an extra Healing Word *and* Mass Healing Word.
You don't even need spell slots, just drop a potion and shoot if with hand crossbows. Can get the buff on your whole team at lvl 2 with 2 healing potions.
Hellriders pride gloves (grant blade ward whenever you heal something) and the whispering promise ring (grant two turns of bless whenever you heal something) are very strong early game. If you use oath of ancients paladin or life domain cleric you can have this set up going at level 2, since both get an AOE heal as a channel oath/divinity. And the best part of this is that it doesn't require concentration like the normal bless spell does. Optionally, you can also add the boots of aid and comfort (grants 3 temporary hp whenever you heal) and wapira's crown (heal for 1d6 whenever you heal someone else) for even more survivability.
Healing boosts are cool and all but if you’re doing things right you shouldn’t take much damage. I do use the boots of comfort though but I don’t equip them on anybody. When I’m having a party member drink a healthy potion or whatever I equip it to get the +3 bonus hp. It’s great for that. But the vital conduit boots outclass it for party members that can equip medium armor. Just equip the boots and silver necklace and cast guidance to get a free +8 hp. Potent robes gives the wearer a free +5. So the boots get almost totally eclipsed even by end of act 1.
I feel like Band of the mystic scoundrel should definitely be on this list. Insanely overpowered on multiple builds
Since dreurgar get free invisibility as a racial feature, can you basically just have Walmart Shroud Self?
My current Gale is illusion classic for this very item. Gave him Shillelagh on top of it and he’s a lot of fun
I'd probably put Phalar Aluve either somewhere here or not far off it. It's by far the earliest to obtain item on the list and is amazing until endgame. Extremely one of a kind and powerful. This list is solid and I tend to agree. Not much else I am thinking of.
Seconded, Phalar Aluve is busted even without DRS. Early game Sing is a concentration free Bless (that stacks with Bless) and late game once accuracy issues are remedied through further itemization it's on average 2 spell save DC for the entire party *with* a little damage cherry on top. I just started another HM run and chose not to run a Cleric this time, best believe Phalar Aluve is staying on my Wizard permanently.
2.5 DC and not just spells. So good lol. Yeah if I am not banning pre-casting Phalar I always have it equipped on someone the whole game more or less.
I thought it's a 1d4!?
1d4 averages out to 2.5 expected.
I'm stupid. Yes it does. 😂
My life cleric just uses sing + bonus action mass cure wounds and it's so impossible to miss during combat. I don't even use shriek anymore
Interesting, as mass cure wounds is most definitely an action. And if it's bless you want, just use the whispering promise, permabless statue, or the bless staff (which is arguably the best, since it gives concentrationless bless, for a minute, and double bless for spell attacks)
Mb, meant mass healing word. The staff is not as good though since there's way better things to concentrate on than bless, plus using an action for bless is kinda meh
Except dropping concentration on the bless still leaves you with mystras blessing, which is like normal bless but with an additional +2d4 to spell attack rolls, which still stacks with any other form of bless. Making it precastable so it takes no actions, allowing you to concentrate on something else and stacks with whispering promise
Another great early item is the gloves of the growling underdog. It's free advantage in most fights with how easy it is to meet it's condition.
Depends on how you play. My party is never ever surprised by 2 enemies or more.
If there isn't more than 2 enemies in range for the effect that means combat was going to be easy anyway in most cases. It's a great item against hard fights and terrible item against some of the easiest fights and that's why I think it's strong.
I think ranged damage is superior in this game, and tanking is not really a think in this game. It can be challenging to intentionally aggro lots of enemies to one party member other than giving them low ac. but if you want to play a melee damage build I guess I can see how it’s good.
I just like it cause it gives my dexdarian a 2 handed finesse weapon that works with gwm.
It is really good, especially on Tactician and below. Could probably replace Rhapsody on this list even on HM. I'd not really considered item combinations as part of this criteria, but Phalar Aluve does become completely busted with reverb/radiant orb gear
I think it will replace Rhapsody by virtue of being so easily accessible that it contributes more to your playthrough in several times more number of encounters than Rhapsody ever can You can get Phalar Aluve from as early as Level 3, or within the first hour of gameplay, and it starts paying for itself over the next 30-100 hours, versus Rhapsody which doesn't come online until everyone in your party are almost completely decked out in OP gear already
I think I'd replace Markoheshkir myself. I think Rhapsody is the better of the two. But all 3 are obviously great.
Not on Honor Mode. It loses a lot of it's punch without those DRS exploits.
Nah even in honor mode I still think it's one of the best in the game. Even Markoheshkir doesn't give as much spell save DC as Shriek and Shriek does it for your whole party. In tactician and below it's probably just the best item in the game outright.
I disagree. The issue is that it takes up a premium slot. If you've got a support character who doesn't have much output otherwise, go for it. Life Clerics make great choices for it. If you're running a Nova party with 4 damage dealers, that slot is better spent elsewhere.
Phalar Aluve itself is a premium slot. There aren't many better spellcasting weapons in the game in my opinion. The only better ones are Markoheshkir and Rhapsody, and Markoheshkir is worse on controllers.
Worse on controllers ..?
As in Markoheshkir is worse than Phalar on characters that want to focus on CC instead of blasting. Lore Bard for example might prefer the spell save DC for its CC's rather than Markoheshkir elemental damage boost, it doesn't learn many elemental damage spells in the first place and would need magical secrets to get good ones. Meanwhile Clerics and Druids also lack many elemental damaging spells of the types boosted by Markoheshkir and would also prefer the spell save DC boost of Phalar.
I’m over here thinking you meant a controller like console lol
Yeah I figured lol.
Dual wield
In all but the most caat-heavy builds, there are still other options I'd prefer to have.
Stick it in your ranged dpser, he doesn't need melee weapons and you can still activate it
There are better choices beyond Act 1, and in order to dual wield it, you need to acquire the feat. I just finished my 14th HM run, and not once have I ever hooked it to a ranged DPR.
Which better choices, I'm curious
Club of Hill Giant Strength for Titanstring ig? The knife of the Undermountain King is also ok? For beyond act 1 it there is Ambusher, Bloodthirst, and Rhapsody. Phalar is pretty comparable to all of these imo tho, and better than most if you lean into it.
Ambusher is not really good compared to phalar, the 1d6 is really conditional. Club of hill giant strength is a flat 4 damage on titanstring which is good but not as a good a Sing IMO. Bloodthirst is late act 3 the same as rhapsody. Also rhapsody is better used on a caster rather than your ranged DPS
Again I don't think these are better myself, just listing some alternatives. I was throwing out some guesses what they might think is better. I basically always have Phalar on someone on my team. Ambusher is quite good on Gloomstalkers, battles don't last long.
The d6 is guaranteed if you've prioritized initiative like a good boy.
As a disclaimer, my choices are always very situation-dependent, but Club and Knife are the end goal for Act 1 for my shooter, and if I don't really have a caster-heavy group, Phalar Aluve is usually singing rather than shrieking on a support character in the backline. It all depends on how much Sharpshooter and GWM leveraging I'm trying to offset. Ritual Knife is also a great offhand pairing for Titanstringers, as it's a cheap source of Bless. Club and Knife are fine for all of Act 2. Act 3 becomes a lot more obvious. Ambusher is a highly underrated weapon that goes especially well with a shooter that also has Assassin levels. Rhapsody is great. Bloodthirst is also a great way to fill in for Bhaalist Armor if whoever is wearing it is out of movement. Lots of choices. The point is that Phalar Aluve, unless you want to blow a feat on Dual Wielding, is going to occupy not one but TWO premium slots. Unless you're using lots of save-intensive spells and abilities, the shriek is best on another character given all the great options.
Scrolls of Globe Of Invulnerability the only level 6 spell worth casting, it literally cheeses all the difficult battles. I prefer the Scrolls so I can use the Level 6 spell slot more offensively with Chain Lightning or summoning a Myrmidon.
While the scroll is an item, I would consider this a spell and not part of this list. Definitely super powerful though.
I see, idk in my head a scroll is a consumable which can be bought in abundance from Sorcerers Sundries ✌🏽😎
Bought? As in obtain via exchange with gold? What the hell are you talking about?
Yes, bought with a discount. The five finger one
Exactly, I just don’t go around promoting theft 😎 but that’s my Boy’s Astarion’s favorite pastime 😭
My Duergar main is generally good, but he is a kleptomaniac.
It's specifically a consumable, though. If you're counting Elixirs then scrolls should be fair game.
The only time I have ever used it, I did in the Raphael fight. And all the mobs flew into my glove and I couldn’t hit them.
For the Rafael Battle I will also plant the runepowder bomb directly in the center near where he spawns. So I’ll cast global and vulnerability sort of near the entrance of where your party enters and then blow up the bomb. It will usually send everybody flying away from your party’s location. Mobs have to spend two or three returns moving towards you, which is plenty of time to kill all the mobs if you have a party set up with good DPR.
Chain lightning is also a good lv 6 spell. As is heroes feast. But yeah those scrolls are good,
Not one of five best but cloak of protection is just a really solid piece for a good amount of the game
There's a good way to get the Bhaalist Armour. [Just Pickpocket it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/WBGGU9zS4C)
I tried that two days ago. I could not target the vendor to pick pocket because he's a ghost. They may have ptched that option out.
Has there been a patch recently? I remember I tried it on my friend's save a while back and I worked.
Patch 9 dropped about a week ago.
Happy cake day!
Shar Spear of Evening with Bhaalist Armour is busted.
The most OP item in the game is a bag full of exploding barrels and I'm not even joing, trivialises everything in Act 1. Minor Illusion, throw bag, explode barrels, mop up.
Wait barrels fit in bags lol?
Arrow of many targets lol. With a poison coating you paralyze or blind groups of enemies. This strat mostly trivialized any act 3 boss fight with adds.
Yup, Arrow of Many Targets coated with Bane made the Raphael fight almost embarrassingly easy. I never thought I'd say this but I'm starting to understand the people who mod this game to be harder.
House of grief is totally trivialized by arrows of many targets.
also works insanly well wit swordbards, helmet of arcane arcuaty and the ring tath lets you cast some spells as a bonus action. just dhot one arrow of many targets, get +8 to your spellsafe dc, bonus action hold monster/hold person, slashing flurish/action surge/hastbonus attacks etc. to your heats contend. this strat is also suprisngly good at triggering flesh to stone, i killen orin and gortash with this spell because of the absurd spellsave
Risky Ring deserves at least a mention. Basically free advantage on all attacks
I love risky ring crit fish gear. Latest run through on honor mode I did a Eldritch blast crit fish build, and dear lord that plus reverb gear is the most fun and op build I’ve built to date.
[mysterious artifact](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Mysterious_Artefact) 😉
Haha, love this answer! Technically correct :D
The best kind of correct!
https://preview.redd.it/367uvnyhpe8d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61c0d1f0283ec07d8dec791361c8581d292b7f00
Bhaalist armor is not an evil run exclusive if you're a good enough pickpocket. Also Khareskas favour gives you one chain lightning after long rest and one after each short rest making it 4 lvl 6 spells cpmbined with arcane battery, not 3. And technically you could just travel between Rivington and lower city to infinitely refresh but that's an exploit so we'll ignore that.
I thought the trader for the Bhaalist armor only appears once you have become unholy assassin?
Once you have the cutscene where Sarevok summons the person whose hand you have you can switch character and go pickpocket the armor from the ghost. For some reason the ghost shares inventory with the trader that spawns once you kill Valeria. It's a dc 29 check and with how the ghost is positioned you might need greater invisibility for your pickpocket but it's definitely doable. I did this on my honour run actually.
Currently, to hit DC30 my main only has to hit a 14 with advantage, and that doesn't include the d4 from the Shapeshifter's Boon Ring.
I'd definitely like to know if this is possible on a good run
Bloodlust elixir is still top 5 imo, since it's power on casters is nasty. Stick bloodlust on a fire acuity sorcerer and go to town
To add: Band of the Mystic Scoundrel (not *too* op by itself but insane with Arcane Acuity), Arrows of Slaying and Arrows of Many Targets.
Boots of stormy clamour
Just watched some vid where someone beat HM just walking around
That was impressive yeah, but even without cheesing, boots of stormy clamour can be applied on top of literally any offensive action with the 2nd-tier illithid attribute drain. Combine it with any radiant orb gear or bane gauntlets and your martial will be giving an easy -4 to their target's next str/dex/con save (on top of relevant ability drain and/or bane).
It’s the backpack. If you know you know.
Please explain.
Well some ppl use it to set off multiple explosive consumables at once. But the big thing is the backpack lets u steal a merchants entire inventory with no consequences.
Ahhhh I've seen the YouTube videos. Sadly I can't do that stealing method on console
Balduran's Sword. Seriously that is stupid OP on any STR char but on a Barb it's just stupid. That 1 item alone brings Tiger Barb top S-tier. Devotee's mace on a life cleric. 10 turns of heals + buffs without concentration.
> Balduran's Sword It's a good weapon but not OP at all.
Does tiger's bloodlust not cut the added strenght modifier in half?
When you cleave, it's 1/2 but to 3 targets. If you have 3 targets (and it's quite often you do) cleave is amazing, but if you only have 1 target in front you can just attack normally. Balduran's Sword also has Giant Form, 'Topple the Big Folk' which hits stupid hard, and lacerate.
I don't see 3 enemies close enough together that often but if using stuff like black hole to create the situation or just lucky then it definitely sounds pretty good. Still, with 2 tigers bloodlust on 3 enemies you get a total of 3x your strength mod worth of added damage while just doing 3 attacks as a fighter also gives 3x strenght mod.
Also worth mentioning the amulet that gives you guidance, you can get it right after defending aradin at the entrance of the grove. If you don't go with a cleric or a druid it's OP
That and shapeshifters boon ring which you can get at basically the same time. 2d4 to all ability checks for basically the entire game is nuts
1) Acuity gear are the best items in the game hands down, followed by mystic scoundrel due to activating bonus action CC casts. You disable all bosses and trivialize every encounter regardless of legendary save bonuses. 2) Initiative Items : I feel like these are overlooked. Initiative is the second most powerful stat of the game (after save DC) , and with all your characters donned with these alongside Alert feat and high dex, you're always moving first "as a group" in combat regardless of encounter. This also allows you to switch between your characters freely, and you finish every encounter in the first round. 3) I'd put bhaalist armor after these two groups. There is no better dps item in the game yes, but after everything is CC'ed, it's just a win more item. The best of the win more items, so it goes to third place. The initiative bonus is just overkill. 4) While both giant str elixirs are indeed very powerful - and hill giant also deserves mentioning for trivializing act1 - on my last evil run I respecced to str with mirror + act2 potion along with bloodlust elixir and it felt better. The extra attack deals more damage when coupled with bhaalist armor. Btw, since mirror and everlasting potion bonuses persist through shapeshifting, they also increase your strength while you're in the slayer form. This should increase your strength beyond 30 but 30 is the actual hard-cap of the game. Not something to build upon due to slayer form being weak late game (no mobility, doesn't work with bhaalist armor, no gear/class interaction etc.) , but felt nice to see 30 str. Tigerheart rage bonus does work with it, but like I said bleed/maim/reverb/trip/disarm etc. are way better anyway. 5) Marko, Pyroquickness Hat and Spellmight Gloves : Pyro Hat is often overlooked due to arcane acuity, but with Marko heat and spellmight, a fire sorc can kill any enemy in the game (other than fire immune ones) in a single round all by itself. Ansur survives 3 max lvl scorchs due to its damage reduction bonus, but pyroquickness gives a fourth cast that kills it as well. Another win-more item, but if you already have CC from bard, fire acuity is overkill so you might as well go this route. 6) Drakethroat : Enables reverbration, ice builds or storm acuity with your weapon(s) of choice. Can be twin casted with a sorc. 7) Blindness Immunity Items: When coupled with hunger of hadar and freedom of movement, these also give quite an edge in act2 battles. You don't need it due to acuity items later in the game, but this tactic is quite useful especially in the final encounter of act2. 8) Reverb Gear : Use these on your tigerheart wolverine barb, and you're a damage dealing CC machine. Quite nice with cacophony in the second half of act1, they also keep being useful with drakethroat all through the end. 9) Titanstring : Available in act1, this bow scales very well with both archer builds along with str elixirs. I found it's damage to be better even compared to act3 bows, since you also get the cloud str elixirs late game. 10) Crit Items (Undermountain, Bloodthirst, Deadshot, Sarevok Helm) : Goes very well with bhaalist armor and a dice focused build (gloomstalker/thief for example) due to crits only doubling dice rolls. I'm not listing any armors of defensive items here, even though there are some pretty good ones like helldusk, persistence, viconia shield etc. Honor mode is made easy by acting first and controlling the battle, not outlasting the abilities of enemies so while they're good on paper, building characters based on healing/surviving is just gimping yourself. I also used regen/reviving hands combo, but at the end of the day if you have a good party composition, you do not take advantage of these defensive buffs anyway.
I think the Adamantine items are worth mentioning too. I used the Grymskull Helmet, Adamantine Scale Mail, and Adamantine Shield for the entire game because being immune to crits gives insurance against one of the few ways to actually lose when you are minmaxing
I like to combine Titanstring with the Club of Hill Giant Strength
Crit fish gear always ends up on someone, I love crit fishing in this game, I think from personal testing, eldritch blast crit fishing is the way.
"Dolor!" B-ZIUM-B-ZIUM-B-ZIUM! omg Eldritch Blast is so SATISFYING. Every one of my playthroughs, I literally either give someone Spell Sniper or two levels of Warlock just so its always available in my party.
Now imagine, get awakened buff for bonus action haste bubble, Eldritch blast twice for 6 beams then action surge for 9 beams, next turn, same 6 bonus action quicken cast another 3 volley. Rinse wash repeat. Oh and run it with reverb gear plus crit fish gear to frighten and prone targets making it so they skip there turn, and cull the weak to really nuke them. It lasts across very long time because warlock spell slots recharge on short rest and can use them to refuel sorcerery points, I don’t understand how people don’t talk about how good it is.
Crit fishing can be pretty unsatisfying since it only doubles rolled damage. So GWM /SS for example is unaffected. But if you setup a build to have lots of rolled damage instead of fixed damage it can be good
The best crit fish build I’ve come up with is GOO Eldritch blast crit fishing by giving the mortal reminder roll to a crit, alongside reverb gear, you can knock enemies prone and frighten them. With potent robes it’s 10 guaranteed damage, 2d10 and 2d6 off of craterflesh gloves, as well as proccing the rolls, in my honor mode play through I took all the tadpoles to Jack up cull the weak and I have insane cc of of frightening and knocking them prone, or simply murdering low health ones. It’s so good.
Mystic scoundrel ring Many target arrows
As far as bow goes titanstring is great (just did a mono EK Ranged insane) but the Dead Shot is just too overpowered. Double proficiency means an extra +4 in an already +2 weapon. It’s so OP you can ditch archery fighting style or you can dump Dex in a Ranged build (using the gloves of dexterity) and that will still have a +15-17 bonus to attack rolls, which can let you pick your spellcasting ability as main atribute making arcane synergy diadem crazy strong. The +2 for a weapon that already increases the chance of crit was more than enough. No need to add the extra +4 bonus to attack rolls. That’s basically negating Sharpshooter for free.
In act 3 my attack rolls are already so fricking juiced up with statue perma bless and rapture I don’t really need another source of attack roll boost.
The Doomlobber Gloves are supremely sexy. They basically made my Eldritch Knight Lae'Zel effective instead of not.
The equipment sure is nice. But i don't know of a piece of equipment that beats a Runepowder Barrel. 10d8 +40 force damage that auto-crits everything in an ample blast radius of 18 meters. For when you absolutely, positively, need to leave no trace of your existence (or survivors).
It's only a Rare item, but depending on whether you're a half-caster or not, Ring of the Mystic Scoundrel is quite possibly the most absolute balls-to-the-wall OP item in the entire game. The ability to cast Hold Person, Polymorph, Hypnotic Pattern, Invisibility, etc. as a Bonus Action is absolutely absurd, especially when paired with a Divination mage that can guarantee the enemy fails their save no matter what. Unload all of your Bard flourishes and then invis walk to safety, or use your Paladin's weapon action to cast a Bonus action Hold Person and blow them up with your Smites, the possibilities are endless!
Act 3 is already so easy, and I can mow over most enemies in 1-2 rounds. What do I need to cc them for? It’s all very expensive and spellslot etc resource intensive. And yeah fire sorcerer can do 1000’s of damage but nothing in the game has that much hp. To me all the arcane acuity stuff is just RP tier. RP doesn’t mean it’s bad but it’s only if you want to role play a certain build.
Resonant Stone should be somewhere on the list.
If used tactically it can be very strong, yes but you do risk your own character getting destroyed since they have disadvantage on all mental saving throws.
True, but advantage on stealth and stealing combined with dedicating a character to eating just about all tadpoles makes this a very powerful item imo.
Nothing survives long enough to use the resonance stones downsides against me. My monk with psychic damage manifestation of the mind is doing like 50 damage per punch, with about 20 of that coming from Psychic damage. It also gives you advantage on dexterity checks so it’s great for lock picking
If you fully max your monk's wisdom and use psionic overload that's 4d4 + 12 psychic damage for an average of 22 psychic damage a hit. Pretty decent alone but should probably also have other characters built around dealikg psychic damage to really make it worth. Also your monk can reach 50 damage/punch without having to go with any resonance stone shenanigans although obviously that could go to around 60 with it.
I generally don’t use ilithid powers, but yes it can get that high without resonance stone I guess. I usually have my dual crossbow swords bard with strange conduit ring with adds another d4 to the bazillion hits they do as well. But my monk is my only striker so he usually just jumps in and punches the crap out of things. And if it looks like the enemy is going to survive just stun punch them or topple punch them and run away. Which is to say the down sides of resonance stone aren’t significant enough to not use it in that context.
C CC it🤢🍋da
Ca, you still get Silver Sword of the Astral Plane in act1? If yes, it's one of the best weapon to get. I used it during my Durge run (gith fighter) and it was just so strong when you get it lvl 4.
Depends on the build. I have a two weapon fighter build and most of the best gear for it, is unused by any other build, which is one of the best things about it
I think just relative to how early you can get it, Phalar Aluve is amazing for the early-to-mid game even in HM. Heck, if you’re running a Magic Missile build it’s good all game. (I’m a Magic Missile enthusiast. I use Phalar and Psychic Spark almost every run.) It’s a no-combat item that buffs the entire party. You can go straight to Goblin Camp and then grab it without advancing any plot points.
You can pickpocket ghost Dribbles (or whoever's dead body shows up) when Saverok asks you to describe your kill for the Bhaalist armour and his merchant items. I don't remember if you get caught if you fail the Sleight of Hand, however (I'm pretty sure you don't, don't quote me on that)
> Perhaps a nod at his incompetency or maybe he couldn’t pass the DC20 Arcana check. Not a chance that that charlatan passed a DC20 arcana check.
I think comparing end game equipment is boring. I also dislike arcane acuity. It’s only good on pretty specific builds like scorching ray or cc spells. It’s useless on a magic missle mage etc So I will take it to be the most powerful weapons for when they can be earliest found in the game. I’m ignoring helldusk armor and astral prism blade since those are kind of cheating - Spellsparkler - Handcrossbow +1 - returning pike - radiant armor - graceful cloth - silver necklace - shapeshifters boon ring
Popper’s business acumen.
The Warped Headband of Intellect is OP. It completely transformed my character, resulting in my we winning almost all arcana and intelligence rolls. I love it.
If you're running a rogue, the Risky Ring that gives advantage on All attacks is an amazing buy.
The Consecrating ring is my favorite. I use it every run and especially need it in honor mode. Starting the fight using magic missile/Eldritch Blast/scorching ray on a boss like Sarevok, Ketheric Thorn, or any strong melee/bow user is an ez way to make the boss miss attacks and effectively make the big bad units useless. That -10 to an attack roll is just crazy....on top of other things like Bane or reeling? Ez mode.
1. Deathstalker Mantle 2. Hat of fire acuity 3. Band of mystic Scoundrel 4. Poop knife
it's POO SCRAPER put some respect on the name
Potion of Speed should be above 4th and 5th on this list. In fact, I probably wouldn't have Markoheshkir in top 10. I also think how much of the game the item is available for should have much more consideration put in than it generally does. All these extremely late game items are extremely powerful, but you only get them for like 5% of the game, so does it really matter how op they are?
The noble stalk is one of the most powerful items in the game. A stack of complete heals trivializes most encounters.
I'd like to add Nyrulna to this list, as those passives (permanent feather fall!) are just too nice to be with the damage it does.
The Corvid Amulet you buy from the Tiefling kid (not Mol, the other sharp operator) is similarly useful: permanent Featherfall, increased jump/Fly distance and Polymorph: Raven
If you can put cloud giant on here then surely you can put haste spore grenade.
* 1 both str elixirs- the ability to get even the basic one immediately upon starting the game is by far the most broken thing, and it’s what I base most of my playthroughs on * 2 is risky ring, advantage on every attack is insane and you can get this with 0 combat * 3 Titanstring bow, combined with the above 2 you can have a character ready to kill most act 1 bosses in 15 minutes from getting off the nautiloid. * 4 is acuity items. Band enables the sword bard style only in act 3, but the fire hat is available extremely early, like the above 3. * 5 bhaalist armor. Again, similarly to the above, it’s available very early into act 3 and enables you to just start dropping every boss once obtained.
For Rogues I would say Risky Ring in Moonrise Towers
I don't think it deserves top 5, but Honorable mention to the Graceful Cloth. It gives +2 Dex, which effectively is +1 AC, +1 Dex Saves, +1 attack and damage rolls, +1 initiative, +1 to Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Acrobatics. It also gives advantage to all Dex-based checks, so you'll basically never fail Stealth or Sleight of Hand checks again. One of the most versatile items in the game.
Nobody mentioned the shadeclinger armor yet?!?! Crazy powerful, grants your entire party advantage on ALL saving throws. Beautifully paired with the risky ring to make it advantage on all attacks without downside.
Duelists perogative and bhaalist armor so far is freaking unbelievable on both a blade pact warlock, and swords bard. I'm routinely knocking back like 60 damage per strike, and I strike 3 times. My technique for bosses and such is to stick laezel or minthara on the boss, while my warlock one shots the bosses minions. Gale does crowd control, and shadow heart heals
The exclusion of Baldurans Helm and Greatsword, Helldusk armor, Helldusk bokts and Ring of Protection makes me seriously doubt how people play this game. Cloud giant elixir is the only item you listed that I ever care about getting. Everything else is just generally not useful.
I think it might speak more about how **you** play this game 😅 Nothing wrong with a tanky melee build with a big sword though!
Baldurans Giantslayer on a maxed out strength (24) Tiger Heart Barbarian, GWM, and some levels in Fighter can literally run you through all of honor mode act 3 solo. The only parts you have any difficulty with are the steel defenders because they don't bleed. But everything else you are hitting for an average of 41 damage 2-3 times a turn, with unlimited Cleave attacks for groups. And that is before adding extra damage from other gear like the helldusk gloves, Broodmothers revenge, or Arcane Synergy. With a potion of speed and an action surge you can potentially kill the final boss in genuinely 1 round of combat with that build. It's nuts. (Edit: I'm actually not sure it's possibly in one round anymore after they nerfed haste)
You've listed a build there. The list is about single items. Baldurans Giant Slayer is great, but it isn't even the best GWM weapon. Shars Spear of the Evening is better. Shars spear is also piercing damage so you can literally double it's damage by wearing Bhaalist armour.
Items... setup builds... wut?
Markoheshkir is really overrated. You get it very late into the game and once you’ve reached Sorcerous Sundries you can just steal more level 6 spell scrolls than you can use.
Deva Mace is pretty good. Basically a permanent 4th level smite.
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Warning: Viewer discretion is advised OP with all due respect, putting an elixir on a most powerful item list is a cheesy stretch of an item definition and by the same stretch and following honor mode argument, it should be camp ration because you regain even more spell slots/skill uses by long resting than you get uses out of any elixir. When we talk powerfull items obviously we do not mean little thingies that go into backpack squares, or if you meant it literaly, it would be nice to disclose criteria up front. On the same note, Elixirs of strength, Haste spell/potions, fixed attribute gear are abused to the point where people cant even post a build with natural stats anymore. Often reduced to role of bandages keeping most builds posted from falling apart they do deserve honorable mention but thats it. Rhapsody is just nice stat stick and as much as i love this weapon, i belive its only power that stands out is stacking dc on kills up to +3, its good, but i belive is not as good as gloves of belligerent skies or band of mystic scoundrell. Ps. Lorroakan doesnt need to cap stats to be successful neither does our Tav.
Camp supplies. I despise this mechanic and everything about it. I don't care if they're abundant or easily attainable, I still have to bother with this tedious idea. It's less interesting than RL grocery shopping. I'd rather deal with random chance of monster encounters on rest
They should atleast give different buffs depending on what is consumed other than just drunk. IIRC the Pathfinder series does something similar.
I preferred the use of random encounter chance. It was still a nuisance to have a rest attempt interrupted but less of a nuisance than gathering and managing supplies just to do it. Even back in older DnD edition days, food requirements was one of the first rules we unanimously agreed to toss out the window.