The BEST RINGS in Baldur's Gate 3 - Honor Mode Tier List and Guide - Act 1

[@toxicdolphin6297]

I haven’t seen a single ant ever since I equipped “the ring of resistance to ants”. Sounds like an S-tier ring to me

[@Cephalopocalypse]

How does an elephant hide in a cherry tree? By painting its toenails red. Ever seen an elephant hiding in a cherry tree? Works pretty well then, doesn't it!

[@vincent4805]

It's good insurance against ants - in-sewer-ants, that's where the ants are now hiding. (Terry Pratchett reference)

[@robertc.9503]

I have a Tiger Repelling rock. Works great. Never seen a tiger!

[@cannyvalley8522]

Valeria be taking notes

[@ovrsurge4689]

Came here looking for a comment saying this lol. Mattis rings don't lie.

[@rogervila7353]

Now you will only be missing the weapon tier list👀

[@travisretriever7473]

I'm also waiting with bated breath, Roger!

[@alex5623]

act 1 alone is going to be 2 hours

[@rogervila7353]

@@alex5623 I guess he should split it by weapon categories or something

[@kabo88]

​​@@rogervila7353 I would do a video for ranged weapons, one for heavy weapons, one for versatile, one for regular and one for light

[@sauromatae9728]

​@@kabo88 one for daggers, one for shortswords, pne for spears, etc

[@sofaking4779]

Ormelum: "In truth, the ring is priceless..." Cephalopocalypes: "D Tier".

[@eirh]

On my first playthrough (with no spoilers) I kept it equipped on my Tav for basically the whole game. I knew the effect kind of sucked, but with how hyped up it was when you got it I was convinced it might eventually pay off. Kind of a shame it never did.

[@benross9174]

Ceph really is the Lord of the Rings atm. Roleplaying as an evil halfling/Bilbo with the Durge Cloak as a Ring substitute is quite fun as well. Thief fits quite well thematically

[@serrekker9702]

One thing to look out for with The Whispering Promise, is that it overwrites preexisting bless buffs. That's probably usually not an issue, but it makes it possible to lose the "permanent" bless you can get in Act 3 until the next long rest.

[@annemowdy391]

I think one of us has a bug then. I only have that statue in 1 current Act3 run, and it stacks with other forms of Bless, including TWP. I wonder which way it was supposed to be? Did I finally get a lucky bug lol?

[@sundanser]

@@annemowdy391 i think the overwrite bug was fixed in patch 7. check the wiki just in case.

[@N1ghthavvk]

The Shapeshifter's Boon Ring is special. It is not required to keep it equipped after you receive its buff. You just have to stay disguised. This is incredibly strong, some might even say unintentionally so.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yeah - I tend not to suggest things that are obviously bugs, but that's definitely worth mentioning and I probably should have!

[@bigwig8657]

It's crazy how strong the early a1 rings are.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

No kidding!

[@SpookyGman]

Really? You don't know what Mattis's rings do? It's cool. See, my uncle works at Larian. You put the ring on and then shove the Strange Ox. If you do it right Alfira will join the party forever and she's a level 20 Artificer. The more you know.

[@ChannelMan434]

Is that before or after you unlock sonic?

[@phillosmaster393]

Can I have General Leo and Alfira in the party at the same time?

[@dez4three617]

@@ChannelMan434sonic? I thought it was knuckles. Rumour has it he starts as a level 1 with tavern brawler as his racial feature

[@matthewmiller3392]

Tavern Brawler breaks the concept of bounded accuracy on which the Sonic games were built...

[@LG-jn5fx]

Always learn something new from these tier lists. Great job buddy.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks!

[@sauromatae9728]

We need underwear tier list

[@ethanpeeples6187]

Was about to say that

[@JeremyAndersonBoise]

Editing that one will be hard. Well, at least semi-hard.

[@benross9174]

Dye tier list would be cool too

[@sauromatae9728]

​@@JeremyAndersonBoise hard with one hand

[@martian_turtle4070]

The Caustic Band pairs incredibly well with the "Flail of Ages" found in Act 3. It has the Elemental weapon spell attached allowing for a 1d4 of Fire, Cold or Acid. Picking any damage type will also apply their corresponding effect to the damage (burning, chilled, and -2 ac for afid). However it will also apply the special effect to the acid damage done from the Caustic band, meaning you can have more than one Elemental effect active at once

[@PłaskiJakZiemia]

On my solo run once I got RIng of Protection I had it equipped for the rest of the game. It's insane how such a simple effect can be so strong.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep!

[@JeremyAndersonBoise]

This is deeply interesting to me, as my party waits in Rivington for patch 7 to roll out on PS5.

[@jrh63200]

Thanks, have been anxiously waiting for the ring tiers!

[@snakeman830]

You should do a video where you go through and do your corrections/adjustments on these tier videos.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

After we finish with rings I'll do some kind of grand summary video for the items

[@JirkaKunst]

@@Cephalopocalypse What are (in your opinion) the 3 most useless magical items of (early game) act 1 that can be fed to Gale without losing anything good? I usually give him Komira's locket, Selune's Dream and Ring of Colour Spray. However, there may or may not be better options.

[@noah9942.]

New Ceph video. I'm curious, have you thought of what games to branch out from, outside of BG3 and Brotato? Not that I don't love all these videos, just curious

[@Chandhoule]

The Light cantrip from Guiding Light actually stays on, even if you unequip the ring, so it doesn't even take a ring slot, you just put it on, cast the cantrip on whoever you want, and switch it for another ring. Should also mention that, even though the spell is greyed out upon use, if you take off the ring and put it back on, you can cast it again on someone else, and do that as many times as you want. The Light effect only works on one target at a time, though.

[@Nerazmus]

Yeah, but the cantrip is useless, so meh.

[@Chandhoule]

@@Nerazmus Useless in what sense? I use it all the time, if only to see better where I'm going. I could use Daylight, but it's accompanied by an annoying noise while active, and it's a bit too bright (kinda makes the environment look... quite different than it should).

[@Nerazmus]

@@Chandhoule It's useless in the sense that there is no area in the game that is considered "dark" for gameplay purposes. And I personally don't have trouble seeing stuff.

[@cannyvalley8522]

I like ring of elemental infusion on lightning lord build. This build is proficient with hand crossbows thanks to tempest cleric levels, so with 16 dex you have reasonable chance to make off hand shot on a turn when you don't want to spend sorcery points on quicken spell

[@continuechaos]

Your tier list videos have tought me so much about how items work. I'll definitely be using the ring of absolute force a lot more now that i know i dont need the brand

[@michaelnadler596]

Woo hoo! Now that you've completed your item list, time to start thinking about a let's-play to fill the video slots in your schedule. 😁

[@andrewklang809]

Love using the Caustic Band with hand crossbows. Every little bit that gets my little murder gnome closer to the Cull the Weak threshold.

[@iagomarques5998]

Hey Ceph, i don't know if you already know, but a unlisted change on the last patch was that Savage Attacker now properly works on Sneak Attack dice! In my opinion this is a great change and can help some builds get stronger. Maybe you could cook something with this! By the way, great video, as always!

[@Nerazmus]

Well that's a bug. Savage Attacker should only work on the weapon dice, not on any other bonus like Sneak Attack dice. Hopefully that will get fixed soon else rogue will become even more OP than it already is.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yeah, it's a great fix!

[@Thoth728]

the guiding light is much better than komiras locket because light is a much better spell than dancing lights. you can cast light on yourself to make your equipped weapon glow or on your armor by putting it on the ground first. that means you will be illuminated for the whole long rest unlike dancing lights which only last 10 rounds and then you need to cast the spell again. additionally you can unequip guiding light once you cast the cantrip and you will retain the light you cast, while if you equip the locket you drop concentration on dancing lights and the spell ends. overall B tier is fair for guiding light, as its very useful in act2 specifically, but komiras locket should be C tier

[@Nerazmus]

You don't need to put the weapon on the ground, you can just cast it on the character. And Dancing Lights is infinitely times better than Light, because it at least has the utility of being a sort of physical object, while Light does literally nothing.

[@Thoth728]

@@Nerazmus light is a light which is literally all it needs to do, theres very few times where dancing lights blocking vents is actually useful, and you can just ignore those times. also im aware you can cast it on the weapon by casting it on yourself, thats what i said.

[@cptlonesong3211]

Saves for ice surfaces, which as Gale you will be abusing, is a dex save. Pretty good

[@olavomendes8560]

Im in my 15th playthrough probably, and i didnt know the shovel/chest thing

[@garwynrosser8907]

Caustic band for two weapon styles.

[@BluntSteak]

Been looking forward to this one

[@michasokoowski6651]

Finally about the most important accessory to give to shadowheart :)

[@antlerman7644]

Im glad how at least for some items you can get some decent build tropes going early. Still fustrates me to no end that pearcing builds, and charisma spellcasters are locked behind specific story choices to get optimal builds. I wish there was secondary ways to access many of these items to "good" and "bad paths. Perhaps one choice gets the item sooner than another, but I don't think it should be mutually exclusive.

[@he-who-goobs1905]

Id honestly argue that the guiding light is A-tier. You can take it off the party member who casted it and the light effect stays so there's no opportunity cost attached to it. That and you can cast it on as many party members as you'd like.

[@Nerazmus]

The issue is that Light is completely and totally useless. Unless you like playing on super low brightness or something.

[@ProbeAway]

@@Nerazmus no it’s not. There are a couple of gear items that synergise with you or an enemy being illuminated. It also keeps you safe in the less deadly parts of the shadow cursed lands. It’s not a hard effect to get though

[@renyk4903]

big fan of rings because no matter what i do, ill miss half of ‘em in my playthrough because i forgot to check every box

[@brendanguymer3885]

You’ve got to do all the weapons now!

[@lendial]

The gap in power between S tier and everything else feels larger than usual but holy smokes S tier rings are strong.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yeah - rings have a really strong top end in act 1 but not a lot of depth - we get more options in later acts

[@cof1sro]

Will the ring of Arcane synergy work well with the Sorrow glaive? Seeing it lets you cast thorn whip as a bonus action per turn. Pull them closer for attack with the arcane synergy boost. Or if can cheese grate between moonbeam/ spike growth or some other area effect spell. Keeping them in the bad location attacking with extra reach when can. Now wonder will the bracing brand work if enemies are pulled towards you?

[@jash3881]

Yayy i waited for this thanks

[@thomasbarth3071]

At the risk of falling for "engagement bait" doesn't the tarnished first appear in act 3? Anyway great vid as always :)

[@c_vomitoria]

a little nitpick i have regarding survival checks is that youve often mentioned the possibility of doing playthroughs in which you deliberately ignore certain game mechanics you might deem abusive, in the context of things like strength elixirs or arcane acuity, and while this is nowhere near as gamebreaking or impactful i'd say theres still a similar case to be made for survival checks because it does strike me as a bit of a design oversight to have no real difference between a successful check and failed one for finding buried loot. there's also a custom mode setting to hide failed skill checks, which would make passing these survival checks actually necessary to find the chests unless youve just memorised all the locations. granted, this is probably way more effort than is warranted just to make survival seem like a remotely useful skill, and it still doesnt do all that much

[@Yokai-hv5zt]

Waiting for the torch/instrument tier list

[@ryanconstantine4842]

i use elemental infusion just because it looks cool

[@Nerazmus]

45:00 It's reference to Dark Souls/Elden Ring.

[@noah9942.]

I would still drop the dancing light amulet further down. Amulet skots are more valuable than ring slots, and dancing lights is such a bad spell. It really should be C tier at absolute best.

[@JasonBridgman-JAB]

It's very powerful! If you consider, "always feed to Gail" powerful so that you don't have to give him something potentially useful.

[@trengilly01]

I was so sad on my Honor run . . . I pushed Crusher off the bridge to get his ring . . . but his body fell in the river and was lost! Sadly my Halfling Tav had to go the rest of the Honor mode run without it 😞

[@kodyshaw6991]

Longstrider

[@Zero_Zone.]

It was mentioned that after the rings tier list, all equipment will be ranked. Is there not going to be a tier list for shields and weapons?

[@ProbeAway]

He’s already done a shield tier list. Hoping for weapons too though!

[@Zero_Zone.]

@@ProbeAway Really? I must have missed that one. Thanks for the info now I need to go back through the playlist and watch it.

[@ChannelMan434]

I’m American and I’ve literally never heard anyone say “savving”

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I think it's slightly archaic and more common in the midwest and south

[@ChannelMan434]

@@Cephalopocalypse definitely interesting, I’m from the South and have family in deep Appalachia, so I would think I’d have heard it, but must be pretty specific to certain areas

[@LordAryu]

I just shove enemies for the sake of it with characters like Lae'zel or Karlach. It may not do any damage but, it is very funny to watch them fall down and get up

[@andrewklang809]

"What? It was either shove Lae'zel or waste my bonus action."

[@helios_is_my_name]

Was wondering, have you considered making these tier lists publicly available for us to use to? Would be nice to make one myself/ourselves, and save us the tedium of going through and creating the template lol.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I'd like to but irritatingly tiermaker only lets you save a tier list if you sign in, but only lets you sign in using your twitter account (I don't have one) or google account (extremely unsecure to share with a random website), so these are created as temporary lists and not saved anywhere.

[@helios_is_my_name]

@@Cephalopocalypse ahhh, unfortunate but understandable. Thank you for the tier lists and videos anyway, they're great! ^^

[@dorithegreat6155]

I always imagined that the reason why you can only equip two rings despite having ten fingers is that the rings interfere with each other when put too close, like compasses where if you put them right next to each other neither of them shows north

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep! That's the actual explanation given in the DMG in tabletop D&D

[@ProbeAway]

Sounds like an unfair disadvantage for 2H weapon wielders!

[@kodyshaw6991]

Then I should be able to put 2 rings on my toes and 1 on my groin (if my Tav has a pp) Larian gypping us out of 3 ring slots lol

[@ProbeAway]

@@kodyshaw6991 exactly!

[@jeko32]

A "fetish" can also be an item of worship or a symbol of faith.

[@Foostini]

Re: Ring of Elemental Infusion, i can see it being useful on quite a few spellsword builds tbh. I'm working on a War Cleric/Draconic Fire Sorc frontliner build and hitting with something like Burning Hands and then expending a War Priest charge, going with War Caster for the Shocking Grasp reaction combined with Draconic Bronze/Blue, Storm Sorcery, Tempest Cleric, i'll reckon it works off Armor of Agathys, both Fire Shields etc but i'd have to test, any build leaning into Acid for Acid Splash, Thunder Waving someone then bonking them, these are just off the top of my head without "building an entire character around." As broadly useful as, say, Caustic Bands constant +2? No, but i think C tier is criminally low and narrow minded about the possibilities.

[@Vladfarina]

Hey, I’ve got a weaker PC and Baldur’s Gate III is a bit too demanding for my setup. Would you consider doing a review on cloud gaming services like Boosteroid? It’d be awesome to see how well it handles the gameplay for those of us who can’t run it natively. I think it could really help a lot of people in a similar situation!

[@NoamFirestone]

Does the shapeshifter's boon ring affect the skillcheck from using a counterspell against a high level spell? Thanks for the video!

[@georgeprentice9830]

I know this is probably waaaaaay too late but your videos would improve if for each item you showed the item description as well as showcase their effect through gameplay clips. That would drastically increase production time true, but would be considerably easier to absorb the information I find 🤷‍♂️

[@alias-yv2ro]

Do you have any tips for an all bard party, and which companions to respect as the various bard types? I'm thinking of making a party of like, 4 characters with different flavours of bard multiclasses

[@Greg-mw2pn]

Should have a Gale food tier

[@Nerazmus]

This tier list, but upside down.

[@zeroskaterjjr98]

Does the bracing band work with tavern brawler throw?

[@potatosoups]

is it possible for you to put an image of the item description on the right to let us viewers see as you rate it?

[@daesonhow]

She said yes

[@TheVaultDescendant]

Does bracing band work with black hole?

[@KyleHead]

I feel like I need to make a mod to give the Tarnished Ring some kind of effect. Maybe something Elden Ring inspired (a heal per short rest like it’s a flask?). Any suggestions?

[@Nerazmus]

Guiding Light is D tier since Light doesn't do anything.

[@kodyshaw6991]

Yeah, this guy's tier list advice is hit or miss. He also put the Ring of Resistance to Ants in D tier (S tier item in my experience)

[@dustinwhite3800]

Yea weapons their list next??

[@zegreatpumpkinani9161]

Anyone playing with 5e Spells know if the "resistance to ants" ring affects Infestation :P

[@annemowdy391]

Kinda off topic, but I'm doing my first evil run...how do you handle the goblin camp, especially getting Crusher's ring? I don't know who to kill and who to let keep breathing for the best rewards.

[@Nerazmus]

Unless it was changed in Patch 7; talk to Minthara to get the Raid quest, wait for her to leave (despawn), then you can kill the whole camp.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

you can also steal his ring if you kiss his foot (it's a toe ring, apparently)

[@annemowdy391]

@@Nerazmus Oooh yes! That's what I was hoping for but wasn't sure was possible. I've always played as good as possible, so this time I'm pushing past the discomfort to slay them all...In Bhaal's name! /Cackle

[@Nerazmus]

@@Cephalopocalypse Weird thing is you don't acquire the ring when you... acquire the toe.

[@wesmantooth32]

@@Cephalopocalypse which is why it gives increased movespeed.

[@sirioghiringhellidia9193]

arcane synergy work on paladin?

[@xxxsnippzzxxx9355]

Yep Oathbreaker with aura of hate, pact of the blade and arcane synergy gives 3x charisma MOD to damage. I believe with mirror and ‘Birthright’ you can 24 to CHA. 21 flat damage to each attack.

[@braddalrymple8615]

I only started playing not long ago I'm like 30odd hours into act 1 ( after losing a 15hr run to a save bug) and I think I'm almost done most of everything that can be done but "enhanced leap" always took a spell slot and was not a ritual I believe unless I'm doing something wrong?

[@cannyvalley8522]

Should be cast outside turn based mode otherwise it costs a spell slot. Also githyanki racial enhanced leap is once per day.

[@braddalrymple8615]

@@cannyvalley8522 thank you! I guess I've been going into turn-based before using it to not waste turns

[@Sunny-gj6mh]

Do any of these have some secret effects? Like, the Ring of Mind Shielding from Omeluum? No? Nothing at all?!

[@UngodlyFreak]

I think the Ring of Mind Shielding was originally supposed to have a more significant effect on your tadpole powers like Omeluum alludes, but it never got developed.

[@Nerazmus]

Nope. It used to be interesting in Beta when it actually gave you decently good psychic resistances, but prevented you from using Tadpole powers. But I guess that was deemed too complex for casual gamers to handle. Or maybe they didn't want to write special dialogue for certain places in case you were wearing it.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yeah, several of these were changed in beta but still have misleading descriptions based on their old effect - the ring that gives you +2 healing used to pull healed targets towards you (way cooler imo, not sure why they changed it), which is why its flavour text references that

[@coldhj5443]

Best romance tier list hmmmm...?

[@travisretriever7473]

Okay, THIS is what we're all waiting for!

[@Nerazmus]

1.Lightheart 2. Shadowheart 3. The secret romance 4. Karl 5. Gale 6. The cooler Gale 7. Lazeel 8. Mizora 9. Halsin 10. William 23. Minthara (unless it got actually fixed in Patch 7)

[@kodyshaw6991]

​​@@NerazmusThe fact that you put Minthara in last means we can't be friends. As non friends, I hope you stub your toe and repent for your sins.

[@Martin-sp1nj]

Might have missed it but not doing weapons?

[@kabo88]

He most likely will, but not yet

[@kodyshaw6991]

Weapons aren't equipment. They're weapons.

[@kodyshaw6991]

I hit dislike and do not recommend channel the moment you put the Ring of Resistance to Ants in D tier. The amount of disrespect for the best ring in the game 💀

[@joshhobbs4862]

🔥🔥🔥🔥