The 20 BEST ITEMS in Act 3 - Baldur's Gate 3 Honour Mode Guide - Best In Slot Endgame Items!

[@phoenixwright3752]

you always post these when im going to bed in my timezone and im always thankful, i love long analysis videos about stuff I love to fall asleep to, and your BG3 content has been such a blessing.

[@Divaytfyrceltic]

Same here!

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks, glad to hear it!

[@N-Double-D]

same...except I always get bloody youtube ads that wake me up. LOL

[@NeoN-PeoN]

Man, it really sucks when Damon dies.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

No kidding!

[@ryudragon7]

It makes evil playthroughs insanely hard.

[@richcantgame]

I santuary Isabelle pre fight and then leave a character down by Damon incase any of the bad guys try to get to him

[@NeoN-PeoN]

@@richcantgame yeah, I have done that before, and forgot on my honor run.....

[@wldnrkls]

@@richcantgame this unfortunately only works if you can sanctuary soon after her turn bc she attacks almost every turn

[@courier6960]

The crazy part of the helm of balduran is that it’s actually easier to get than people think. You don’t even need to fight ansur to get it, you can just walk by ansurs corpse, pick up the helm, and leave (or fight ansur after you get it). This makes it easy to use this helmet early in act 3, less risky to get in honor mode, and viable for usage in the ansur fight itself

[@SuperBartolinio]

Thanks

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thank you so much for the support! I really appreciate it - it really means a lot!

[@wandererswanderingdaughter1756]

Hey i just want to thank you for all of your work! I'm not a gamer at all I started bg3 because some review video said it was like sims but with a story and hot people and I though 'hey that sounds manageable even for me!'. It wasn't. I died all the time even on the lowest difficulty setting. But then I got addicted to the game and thanks to your videos I play in tactition mode now and i don't even die anymore! So thanks again for helping a noob graduate!

[@JawsXXIV]

I'm actually playing an all archer party currently and now in the late game every fight goes like this: 1. Use the Black Hole Illithid ability to group all enemies together. 2. Walk with my Bhaalist Armor character in the middle of them. 3. Use the Hunter Ranger Volley ability on them. 4. Repeat (normally you don't have to repeat as every enemy is dead anyways).

[@formatomi]

PSA Helm of Balduran is still bugged and doesnt save you from Stunning Gaze from Bhaalist cultists, which there are tons in act 3

[@unishamaani]

14:13 The amulet is possible to get right at the beginning of act 3. You just go Raphael's place and steal it without touching the hammer of Orpheus and teleport back with no penalty at all.

[@mr_lemma]

What's wrong with touching the hammer of Orpheus tho?

[@ginar2339]

@@mr_lemmatriggers the battle with Raphael, if you don’t want to do that at the beginning of act 3

[@mr_lemma]

@@ginar2339 Oh yeah, I forgot that guy poses a threat. He didn't give me much trouble... But fairly speaking, I fought him with a party of 4 all broken so that any of them could probably solo entire game, not on honour - and also my Jaheira has a special ability "I'm not with those dumbos" which lets her run across battlefield as much as she wants to with not having rolled initiative. In this particular fight she even could take down pillars - not that it mattered much, but still.

[@unishamaani]

@@mr_lemma nothing, I meant to not take it, just touching is fine

[@harryfuller3881]

Always among my first stops in town

[@ryanernst4675]

In regards to the Amulet of Greater Health “doesn’t give you feats back” statement, you seem to have forgotten the War Caster feat. Spellcasters are especially likely to take War Caster and replacing that feat with an ASI or Alert is advantageous.

[@dimKiriyenko]

Came here to say this.

[@purplen33t17]

Plenty of armor pieces that give advantage on constitution saves. I rarely pick war caster for that reason. Like dj chest piece and the hat in act 3

[@Cephalopocalypse]

This is true! If you've taken War Caster, it's more valuable (and generally speaking if you're having trouble with concentration)

[@vincent4805]

Though by the time you have 23 CON, advantage to CON save is more like icing on a cake. I wish they gave the advantage to Con save property to a weaker item

[@sinicalsam00]

Man this is just in time. Just made it to act 3 in my first Honor Mode Run. Its been so fun Im so close to the golden dice i can taste it.

[@markopusic8258]

The worst is behind you, watch out for Ansur and the House of Grief but besides that Act3 should be a breeze. Now get that golden dice !

[@sinicalsam00]

⁠@@markopusic8258that is comforting to hear. I definitely was sweating the Myrkul fight but it ended up not being to bad. Just going to take it slow in act 3 and enjoy the ride

[@KrucielBL]

@@markopusic8258 I think the Steel Armoury 2nd room fight was way more scary than the House of Grief, just because of how many of those enemies try to cast dominate person in the same round. Luckily, if you immediately fly up to the rafters, they tend to just target the Gondians on the ground with that ability, especially if your entire party has 20+ AC and some saving throw gear. Definitely don't waste your reactions on that fight though to make sure you have counterspells and illithid counterspells ready to use, especially if you let all the gondians die. That fight was really the only buttclench moment for me other than Ansur and the final battle itself. I think the house of grief is just too easy of an encounter if you start with a cast of sleet storm covering the middle entrance and automatically removing 50% of the enemies from the entire encounter because they just fall over every round.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Awesome, good luck with the run!

[@noah9942.]

@@sinicalsam00 myrkul is easily the hardest part of honor mode. There are harder fights, sure, but none are required.

[@primeministerofgreenteam1983]

I would like to see Ceph do a video on the best MAD multiclass builds. Specifically, what kind of messed up creations are possible using stat boosting items like gloves of dexterity, headband of intellect, etc.

[@johnwalker1322]

Thanks for the Valour Bard video. im a little late on the sending a thanks. I'm assuming my comment is what gave you the idea, or at least ill tell myself that anyway.hahaha.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks so much for the support! I really appreciate it! I'm working my way through the last few subclasses I haven't covered, but your comment probably reminded me about it!

[@Spragle]

One thing I’d like to see for content next would be mechanics/items/feats you’d ban to make the game more challenging. I breezed through honor with some OP throwing, Arcane Acuity, Radiating Orb & Abjuration Wizard shenanigans. Would be curious to see what you’d cut and how you’d change the OP mechanics to make them more balanced

[@justkaithings]

Been waiting for this one, just got back to Act 3 in a recent play through and ever so excited to hear your analysis

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Awesome, good luck with the run!

[@daviddavidsson6243]

For me the Helm of Balduran NEVER "revives" a downed character. What's going on with that! Great video BTW

[@Chris_the_Nerd]

Overall I've been in lockstep agreement with you on these lists, but I feel like you really undervalued the Armor of Agility as a defensive item. It's got a lot going for it offensively as well, only those benefits aren't written on the item itself. Being able to boost your AC that high and your saves will likely ensure you never go down or get CCd as often. That means you are more likely to stay in the fight and continue to sharpshooter down the enemies. In my runs, the archers that end up in this armor are my most reliable damage dealers in Act 3 (especially if they also get Viconia's shield).

[@r.s.819]

What's more offensive than keeping your characters from receiving the dead condition so they can give other characters the dead condition?

[@Chris_the_Nerd]

@ Exactly

[@JawsXXIV]

One thing I would mention in a Tier List like this: If your goal is solely to win Honour Mode, you probably won't even get to Items like the Helldusk Armor or the Helm of Balduran, because I actually think it is not worth going for these tricky boss fights only to get like 1 item out of it that may help you win the game. For me this is way too risky. When I finished Honour Mode for the first time, I skipped most of the bosses in Act 3 and went straight to the final fight.

[@courier6960]

@@JawsXXIV Helm of balduran is actually basically free, you don’t need to fight ansur to get it, instead of talking to his corpse when you first enter the room, just walk right by him and grab the helmet!

[@Rastaboulotte]

Considering he removed points for the Amulet of Greater Health because of it's poor accessibility and thus usefullness in clearing the game, the helldusk armor is even worst in that regard, it legit should be lower on the lisk despite how obviously great it is. The armor or persistence should be the highest ranked armor in act 3 with is relatively easy acessibility imo, and it's also better for characters that are proficient with heavy armour mostly.

[@peanuts7324]

i disagree. i think the helldusk armor is really just that good. fighting raphael is totally worth. also imo raphael is one of the easier fights in act 3 since he doesnt have any legendary resistance. hold monster is literally a win button for that fight

[@JoeHelias]

@@peanuts7324 One scroll of Ottos irresistable dance ends Raphael. If you have a bard with the Acuity helm and the mystic band you can also use Tasha's laughter or hold monster.

[@snakeman830]

Armor of Persistence is fantastic with a camp caster doing Warding Bond. Especially being worn by the person who casts the bond.

[@muscularclassrepresentativ5663]

Omg yes, my first run ever I had to raise the difficulty to tactician in act 3, before go out mode was a thing, and I still stomped every encounter just off of armor class maxing, didn’t even have alert, just wouldn’t take any damage before my turn. Armor of persistence and agility on two characters, warding bond on the barbarian with damage reduction armor, more damage reduction armor on the last character with the cloak that gives you blur for free, and all the armor items. Constitution necklace and dex gloves on the barb. Weakest armor rating was functionally untouchable plus damage reduction from multiple sources, it was so funny

[@formatomi]

Just respec Gale to use Bond, he heals himself when not in your group. Free resist all

[@courier6960]

Warding bond is such a broken spell. Crazy that it persists for those not in your party and that it’s available at level 3. It literally trivializes most of the reason to use the barbarian subclass, as well as a decent amount of spells, effects, and elixirs

[@snakeman830]

@@courier6960 Not exactly on the barbarian bit. Despite what your character sheets tell you, it doesn't give any damage resistance, just partial damage redirection. So, warding bond + damage resistance means the person who got hit takes 1/4 of the normal damage, and whoever cast warding bond takes 1/4 as well.

[@courier6960]

@@snakeman830 Oh wow, that changes everything! That basically makes barbarians practically invincible with the right set-up!

[@sinisterpuddle6655]

Finally made it far enough in one of my attempts to actually watch this video! Thank you for all your great advice

[@courier6960]

Another honorable mention: Dolor, and the bow that provides the same effect of adding +7 to crit damage. In practice that plus 7 is actually +14 to your critical hit damage, and the thing about dolor is that there’s actually TWO of them in the game and you can wield it with the bow as well. So anyone who wields this gets +42 to crit damage with weapon attacks. Combine this with the bhaalist armor and sneak attack and your rogue will deal about 200 damage in a SINGLE ATTACK! With assassin subclass and multi-classed champion this makes surprise rounds and luck of the far realms even more busted, combined with the amount of crit reducing threshold items in other slots you can have at this point, it procs quite consistently and can take down some of the hardest fights in the game in 2-3 rounds alone

[@CunningLingu1st]

Vicious Shortbow

[@travishartzler9155]

The Bhaalist Armor is great, but I prefer the alternate way of handling that encounter. There are so many other great armors that I don't feel like I'm missing out too much.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Story first in this game for sure! You never need to make story decisions for items, there's always plenty of power to be had

[@bradleyscott6304]

100% of my honor mode runs I do house of hope immediately so I can have the items for all of act 3. I don’t go to the coronation ceremony, I don’t talk to anyone, I don’t go to camp. I run straight to the house of hope and get all the awesome items right away, even if I’m only level 8

[@FelipeArthurferpa]

These videos were awesome, always deliverying pure gold

[@FlyingFox86]

Anyone else a little annoyed that such a great amulet for clerics is only obtainable by stealing it from the temple and receiving a curse from the gods themselves? Want this cleric item? Time to do something very unclericy! Though it depends on your deity I suppose.

[@jakobm.4183]

I have read you can avoid the curse by sending it to the camp. But yeah, for rp it sucks.

[@HiddenLink_clips]

Sure, but the only way to solve the Quest normally. Is by casting cure and that is a Cleric thing. So it makes sense

[@jimruthers4583]

The more to come content excites me and durge seems tempting. That is my next run. Maybe modded but probs not i want my golden dice!

[@oliorogue]

You're gonna do weapons awesome!

[@r.s.819]

Another good item that's worth considering for honorable mention is the hellrider longbow. You can grab it immediately in Act 3 (don't bring Shadowheart with you to Ferg) and gives the wielder a +3 to initiative regardless of whether or not you're proficient with it. For characters with low(er) dexterity who don't care about actually using it as a weapon, or characters who want to better ensure they can go first (there's an enemy in Act 3 with +11 initiative), it's a good boost to their initiative with no real downsides, and you can get it fairly easily and early. It's not horribly gamebreaking but it fills a nice utility.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

That will probably show up in the weapons list!

[@tharpin]

Good video as always. Thanks :)

[@emmabardsley6090]

during my evil run I put the Bhaalist armour on Astarion, who I had multiclassed with 3 levels of thief rogue and 9 levels of swords bard. I also built him around critical hits and gave him the deathstalker mantle which obviously increased the ease of making sneak attacks. having an extra attack from swords bard AND an extra bonus action from thief rogue, building him around critical hits and then also most of his targets being vulnerable to piercing damage made him LUDICROUSLY powerful in the endgame, shame the bhaalist armour is locked behind a story event most people aren't going to do, but it in my opinion makes doing an evil run feel absolutely worth it

[@JoeHelias]

No need to go evil. I entered the murder tribunal as a good character. I Killed the elephant guy giving me access to the vendor. Then I bought and equipped all the goodies and immediately turned around killed Saverok and the entire room of evil doers (close the big double doors first. It makes the fight alot easier). I slept with a clean conscience and a pure soul.

[@SpookyGman]

Great video!

[@spellandshield]

Lord Cephalopocalypse does it again!

[@benross9174]

I think Bhaalist armour being broken is fine; as its not something you passively encounter; you have to actively search it out and do some story decisions most players wont do. Also the flavour is good since Bhaal is pretty central to the plot - especially for Durge - and it buffs Melee dagger builds. (I know it doesnt have to be daggers but I will take any Rogue buffs I can get)

[@Thoth728]

it buffs archers too, the aura it gives is slightly larger than the threatened range of most enemies which means if you stand in the right spot you can get the buff and not suffer disadvantage. doubling the damage a sharpshooter shot does is increadibly high damage

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I tend to agree - I used strong language about it to talk about how good it is, but it's really not a design issue imo, coming so late in the game and behind a specific story. It's no arcane acuity or wet!

[@ChumblesMumbles]

#9 also has the benefit of being named after the baddest biatch from BG2 - Viconia, the Drow Cleric.

[@ProbeAway]

It’s called that because you loot it from her lol

[@4les]

Gloves of soul catching healing triggers on objects like barrels and doors, so inf healing

[@MayHugger]

So? You should also have hundreds of healing potions and thousands of camp supplies if you need to heal.

[@zhongwenfa]

I love your videos I listen to them on the way to work or when I am doing yard work etc

[@RubberGamesHD]

Hood of the Weave should be lower, because it makes Gale look totally bald

[@MajesticFerret]

The Druid Armours deserve to make it, and one of them is arguably flat out better than Hood of the Weave even for non-Druids. Armour of Landfall gives +1 DC and lacks the atk roll boost, but it provides Advantage on CON Saving Throws, which is way more important than a +1 atk roll. It also provodes a free Plant Growth per short rest, whicj is pretty solid too, especially considering this spell doesnt use up your concentration. Armour of the Sporekeeper lets you have a partywide Haste once per long rest, which isn't a concern once you have Heroes Feast, which basically gives you enough supplies for infinite long rests. I believe Haste Grenades are hard to create after you leave the Underdark, so having limitless Haste grenades once per combat encounter potentially is game breaking. The +1 DC is nice too. Armour of Moonbasking is the best in slot for a Moon Druid to the point it's the ONLY Armour that works with Wild Shape, which is huge.

[@BilliamTorpedo]

The rhythm of this algae goes hard

[@harryfuller3881]

Per turn damage like Helldusk gloves is diminished in honor mode Brain Battle. You will do one round of extra damage and then block your party from using that damage type.

[@shackledheart]

Hey, throwing weapons is also considered unarmed attack (i got this from your power build videos), which makes boots of uninhibited Kushigo and Gloves of soul catching viable for monks, eldritch knights and barbarian throwers, doesn’t it ?

[@predwin1998]

Great list. I agree with the majority, the only item I'm really missing here is Markoheskir. I feel like it outperforms some other items on this list even once you account for the staff slot being in strong competition. I'd go so far as to say I think the jump from almost any other staff into Markoheskir might be more impactful to casters than the jump from no cloak at all into Cloak of the Weave, just to keep the comparison within the same types of builds. And it's not locked behind any combat encounter (iirc), meaning you can safely rush it as soon as you can enter the lower city.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Markoheshkir is a weapon :D

[@predwin1998]

@@Cephalopocalypse Oh my, did I miss no-weapons? My bad. xD

[@Spragle]

48:31 sounds like an Ad read for the Amulet of the Devout 😂

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I remember thinking that as I said it and then being like... well, it kind of IS an ad read so I'll just go with it.

[@zorlix130]

I normally don't like the extremely overpowered items that are available in the game since they make every encounter trivial, but in this case I don't mind it that much. It comes very late in the act (or at least it usually does in my playthroughs), so it doesn't break too many encounters, and it makes sense that it's that OP. Given that many of the most amazing items in the game are locked behind the good path, this item is a nice enough "reward" for evil.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I tend to agree - I used strong language about it to talk about how good it is, but it's really not a design issue imo, coming so late in the game and behind a specific story. It's no arcane acuity or wet!

[@peanuts7324]

the bhaalist armor isnt really even locked to an evil path though. there are no prerequisites to killing valeria. you could do a playthrough where you choose all of the best morally good options, but then just kill valeria as an exception. and rp wise, valeria is kinda an asshole, so while its definitely not a good thing to do, you arent harming the world either.

[@vincent4805]

​@@peanuts7324yep, and you could still then kill Sarevok after getting the armor to keep RP the good path

[@osets2117]

Where to obtain said items would be appreciated

[@draka393]

Would you say that a swordsbard should get the armor of agility when available over the yuanti scale mail? Or is the Yuanti scale mail's init boost too good?

[@KrucielBL]

Because they are dex based and also have alert, they typically don't need anything more than a +1 initiative on any slot to beat out every enemy in the game. So the real answer is just wear Bhaalist Armour and get the initiative and double damage to all attacks. If you don't have illithid powers to fly around freely, it will be noticeably harder to use, but still game breaking when you really need the damage. They can 1 round kill every single boss in the game with five bardic inpiration to spend on flourishes on honour mode with this armour equipped.

[@ProbeAway]

Armour of agility (unless you’re planning to get the bhaalist armour). You should have great initiative as a high Dex character anyway

[@H3llB1lly]

Ok Ceph it's time to roll out the weapons. You and I both know you will, so get on it. You make less people get yelled at by the end of my commute.

[@FinalOven_Mint]

The amulet of greater health replaces the need for resilient constitution or war caster or dipping into sorcerer

[@fluffygalaxy6]

One problem w amulet of greater health I had was that you can’t use it together with the spell slot restoration item well, I always cast the feast spell at the start of the day, swapped amulets to restore the spell slot and after swapping back you end up at like half health (I guess maybe if you remember to swap before long resting it might still work? I never tried that)

[@gonzalomedina7111]

Great video

[@missing_links]

Ah, somehow I had forgotten about the gloves of soul catching. For all of the discussion about best items in the game, that has to be the single best non-acuity item, even though it's limited in who can use it.

[@Halkye]

Have you considered unique tags that most of spell dc items use for its plus effects (in this list both Helm and Cloak of the Weave share "Arcane Enchantment" tag)? They do not stack and so compete with eachother much more than just for specific equipment slot.

[@alexandredevloo6577]

You say the amulet of greater healt is later in act 3 but if you really go for it you can get it (and any house of hope item that isn’t an enemy drop) without ever doing a single fight in all of act 3, same goes for everything in sorcerous sundry vault also the helldusk boot can be gotten too without fighting or talking to gortash by a good combination of fly and greater invisibility

[@zeroskaterjjr98]

Now you have to do a top 50 items in all of the game.

[@mrripper3780]

Glad to be here

[@vatsalpatel9628]

Well you can get get Bhaalist armor in normal play through too, you'll need a high enough Soh (30 minimum)

[@UbiquitousX1]

I think there's a 3 AC shield in moonrise too I'll have to check my camp chest

[@ProbeAway]

Yes but it doesn’t have a magical effect as well, it’s just a +1 shield

[@lendial]

its crazy how many of these you can get without any combat.

[@thorthvader]

The Crypt lord ring is very gangster sounding although not as much as any of the DJ gear.

[@renyk4903]

i paused at number 6 to try and guess the top 5 and was astounded how markoheshkir, balduran giant slayer and/or nyrulna didn’t crack the list. and then i remembered 😭

[@EmperorLionflame]

😂😂 I just vendored the Bhaalist armour when I had it. I had no appreciation for it because I had no piercing in my party. Oh well, didn't have trouble in act 3 but it's funny how not realizing the potential of an item or even giving it a thought can lead to you throwing away BiS equipment.

[@ProCreedify]

Could it be that the Bhaalist Armour is bugged? It seems that piercing damage isnt doubled. Maybe a mod messed that up or it is a bug right now?

[@noah9942.]

Wait, Bhaalist Armor works against immunities? I thought it just turned normal/resistance into vulnerability

[@jrh63200]

Thanks!!

[@doloresabernathy9809]

Great video as always. But I did not understand why the Amulet of Greater Health does not "save you a feat." If I can move points from Con into an ability that I would otherwise use ASI on, then I have saved a feat. In fact you mentioned that possibility. So really anything that gives a large bonus to any ability can save feats.

[@renyk4903]

while i don’t know his reasoning, i might argue that very few people are using ASI on constitution. idk about the other HP feats though :)

[@doloresabernathy9809]

@@renyk4903 yes but my point is if you can lower con to 8 you can use points on other abilities instead of using ASI. But maybe because your primary abilities should be maxed out when you spec in any case and you cannot spec above 17 then its unlikely that you would save an ASI on a primary ability. but someone might sometimes want to use ASI on a secondary ability if for example they also use strength elixirs but want higher dex or wisdom, and if you need no points in con or strength then you can max out more. I guess its a rare case

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yeah, I was basically thinking along the lines of your second comment! On a fairly standard character with let's say strr20 dex14 con16 int8 wis12 cha8, the amulet lets you respec to for example 20 16 23 8 14 12 - you still had to put 2 ASIs in strength to stay at 20. For that character, it was effectively +2 dex, +2 wisdom, +6 con (and +4 cha, which presumably doesn't matter for that character). Huge bonuses, but not gamebreaking the way the other stat replacement items are.

[@cannyvalley8522]

In my experience, Bhaalist armour didn't override piercing immunity.

[@1337Maju]

If you are using the gloves of dexterity, is the Armor of Agility better than the Adamantine medium armor? Or rather: is +3 AC better than Crit immunity? Thanks in advance!

[@DemonOfMyMind]

Something you said about Barbarian isn't correct. Barbarians get good Initiative in act 2. You're probably multiclassing out of them by this point, but their level 7 ability Feral Instinct is almost as good as alert. 2 points lower. So on average a Barbarian not counting equipment would have +5 at level 7. Which is pretty good. I'd never take Alert on a barbarian. If you're pushing the multiclass like 5 barbarian, 3 thief rogue, 4 fighter you'd miss it for sure.

[@doncagape5409]

Did you use to play LoL, your pfp is the old ward item

[@Cephalopocalypse]

yep - that's what this channel was originally for, uhhh..... 13 years ago

[@GAMER32231]

how much damage could be done by a gloomstalker ranger wielding the titanstring bow and the club of hill giant strength with the gloves of dexterity?

[@MayHugger]

Why bother with the club when you can just drink an elixir of hill/cloud giant strength?

[@GAMER32231]

@@MayHugger because potions cost gold, and you would have to remember to drink one after every long rest which is annoying and the club costs no money and you just have to have it in the melee weapon slot to apply the effects and you don't have to reapply it every time you long rest. TL;DR: it's cheaper and more convenient so it's worth getting less strength than you would from the elixirs.

[@MayHugger]

@@GAMER32231 Gold is really not an issue whatsoever, even in Honour Mode, and I’ve never had an issue with remembering my daily buffs, try writing a note down?

[@MayHugger]

@@GAMER32231 Cause, it’s like a minute at most for extra strength. If you’re in Honour Mode, you should be taking the extra small amount of time to prepare properly. And we’re on a video talking about what’s best, not what’s most convenient or most fun.

[@GAMER32231]

@@MayHugger it's an issue when you don't want to have to loot every single goblin corpse and pickpocket every single merchant in the whole game

[@antlerman7644]

57:05 you can pickpocket it from one of the shadows!

[@proxy2149]

It's hard to find guide for very good dagger/mele build for honor mod to make use of the bhaalist armor

[@mephiztophelezemephiztophe31]

3 or 4 Warlock Pact of the Blade. Rest into Battlemaster Fighter (RIPOSTE!). Use Duellists Prerogative rapier and Diadem of Arcane Synergy from Act 1. Hits like an absolute truck.

[@Wolferys]

You can just go battlemaster fighter with Nyrulna. 3 attacks+gwm+action surge

[@formatomi]

Is this a troll? Haha, there are loads

[@proxy2149]

@@formatomi Well, most if not all the assassin/rogue builds are using a bow as primary weapon. I'm having trouble finding really strong dual-dagger mele focus builds for Honor mode

[@Zero_Zone.]

If you're looking for a dagger build specifically then you probably won't find many. Daggers are a suboptimal choice as they do 1d4 as damage and, imo, there are not any good magical daggers until Act 3. You probably have better luck finding builds that use scimitars and/or short swords, but these would probably still be considered suboptimal compared to the bow builds. Edit: Since you want to use weapons with Bhaalist armor, scimitars won't be good since they do slashing damage. If you really want daggers the best daggers, imo, are Rhapsody and Bloodthirst. Use Bloodthirst an offhand weapon since the armor already gives vulnerability to piercing.

[@gradysheppard5194]

39 sec in I’m calling band of mystic scoundrel #1

[@EmmetSchlesinger]

weapons next!

[@aazevedo225]

Got to the last one disappointed because he never said Bhaalist Armor, and its my favorite. And then super surprised you had it as your #1 gear slot, because you always just gloss over it on your build videos!!

[@ShiNoNaiHasu]

Yeah... Just lost my first ever HM run to the Creche... This is just salt on the wound D=

[@alexmashkin863]

I lost my first honor run to an owlbear :-)) You're doing good 👍

[@ironbar2009]

No rhapsody?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

that's a weapon!

[@ironbar2009]

@@Cephalopocalypse ur right lmfao. I’ve never used it to swing so I forgot. Looking forward to the weapon tier list!

[@chuckchan4127]

So how good is a Ranged Swords Bard with all of the top items?

[@ryoujiarisato7308]

pretty bad because the game gets boring after a couple of encounters lol

[@davidwagner3710]

Yes, the answer is yes

[@PłaskiJakZiemia]

If enemy is paralyzed, then you can deal around 300 damage per slashing flourish.

[@joshhobbs4862]

🐐🐐🐐

[@purplen33t17]

Honestly bhaalist armor being broken is only fair. Being evil in this game punishes you with losing so much content and gear and even the companion that was supposed to be evil exclusive was switched to be available for everyone. Finally evil runs have something going for them.

[@invertedpolarity6890]

Stop saying everything breaks the game. You really say that WAY too much.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

nah

[@mysecretavatar]

Thank you yet again for a helpful BG3 video. But I have to disagree with some of your choices. Monk items and Bhaalist armor are just too high on the list. Monk is the least played class in the game by a wide margin. Ranking monk items higher than similar items that are useful to virtually all classes is a strange choice (gloves of soul catching vs helldusk gloves, for example). Bhaalist armor is extremely powerful but it is only available to players that follow a very narrow storyline choice and most players don’t follow that choice in their first few play throughs. So choosing this as the top item in Act 3 is strange. To me, Mask of Soul Perception, Amulet of Devout, Band of Mystic Scoundrel, Hood of the Weave and Armor of Persistence would all have been better choices. Each of these items can be obtained as soon as you get to Act 3 and each can be used by more players pursuing more commonly chosen storylines. Finally, I am shocked that Hellrider Longbow is not on the list. You are (correctly) constantly trumpeting how great initiative and advantage on attack rolls are. This item gives +3 to initiative (this is almost as good as alert and it is virtually identical to the Barbarian feral instinct and Gloom stalker Dread Ambusher that you always gush over) and free advantage from faerie fire.

[@MayHugger]

How commonly people choose something has no bearing on how good an item is.

[@MoltarKaio]

“Monk is the least played class by a wide margin” Where are you getting that stat from? The stats came out two months ago and it wasn’t the lowest. You could say lowest class a companion doesn’t fill, but then we’re making a caveat that we don’t know how much it affects player choices and still wouldn’t provide evidence on this “wide margin” I think Bhaalist armour is just that good, the storyline choice is a 50/50 choice, but yes depending on if you bring Jaheira or Minsc there could be consequences. That’s up for debate on where that should rank

[@mysecretavatar]

@@MayHuggerThat’s true but I am using the criteria that he has used for most of his tier lists. He has consistently penalized items that are great but has narrow application because only some builds can use or particular storylines must be followed.

[@MayHugger]

@@mysecretavatar That’s fair.

[@mysecretavatar]

@@MoltarKaiothe polls change over time of course but it is usually competing for the bottom three. And I don’t think storyline choice for this item is 50-50 unless you really want a dark urge run because the overall storyline is tilted against this choice. I do agree that it’s a matter of personal choice at the end of the day.

[@stevencollins8348]

Because I'm lame. First

[@joeracer302]

You were second. So, extra lame.

[@KotaWebb]

@@joeracer302no he wasn’t, so your comment is extremely lame

[@Bigredhound]

Ceph, love your work. But I gotta push back on something here… this is NOT tabletop DnD. I get that you’re a tabletop player so obviously your perspective will be coloured by that, but this is a completely separate and different thing from tabletop and is designed and balanced differently because of that reason. In fact, this is not DnD at all, it’s Baldur’s Gate 3. Made by Larian. *They* decide what is and isn’t allowed in this game, not you or me or anyone else. While I don’t have a problem with you comparing and contrasting, your rhetoric around things that are “busted” seems almost condescending at times. Camp casting, elixirs, tavern brawler, certain items… these are all things *intended* by Larian. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in the game. You keep saying “breaks the intended design of the game” but this IS the intended design of the game. Because this is Baldur’s Gate 3, not tabletop DnD! Video games are a completely different medium and so need to be designed and balanced differently. Who are any of us to say what is and isn’t breaking intended design, other than the devs themselves?! You’ve alluded to the fact that you feel you shouldn’t tell people how to play, that you want people to get creative and find their own solutions. However, the constant negging of certain mechanics flies directly in the face of that. By talking the way you do, you instil a certain elitism (one you may be guilty of from time to time) in your viewers. I come from a video game perspective, as may seem obvious. None of those things you seem to label as “exploits” are even remotely close to what most of us in the gamer community consider to be so. This is why it’s vaguely arrogant sounding when you go off on a small rant about these mechanics. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion and this is your channel after all but it just really rubs me the wrong way when you go from such informative and well thought out commentary into this sort of elitist nonsense. Anyway, I really do love your work and this truly is meant to be good faith criticism. I apologize if it seems like I went hard, I didn’t mean to sound like a prick lol but suspect I did anyway.

[@GAMER32231]

yes, you *did* sound like a prick.

[@purplen33t17]

Even in video games, there are items that are deemed op or stuff that break game balance. Given that this is a single player game and one could impose self restrictions, it is not as much of a problem as multiplayer games. But it is still a valid complaint. Tavern brawler making your attacks never miss from level 4 breaks game balance when compared to other build that have to balance damage and accuracy.

[@Bigredhound]

@@purplen33t17 do you think the devs didn’t consider that? Balancing happens all over the place, not just when it comes to attacks. I don’t have the inside scoop but these are pros who have been making excellent games for years. I trust that they’ve considered these things and made executive decisions regarding them. Maybe not all, no one is perfect. But assuming they didn’t at all is infantilizing and somewhat disrespectful, don’t you think?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

You're fine, no worries! (though I'll say it's pretty funny to say "we in the gamer community" to a guy who runs a video game channel and played video games professionally for decades :P) The thing that I think is worth keeping in mind here is that Larian wasn't really interested in creating a balanced game - and they shouldn't have been! It's a single-player game, so game balance just isn't really an important concern for them. I'm not saying it's a failure that these items fall outside the range of game balance - just that it's a fact. That's what makes them so powerful. As you say, they're in the game for a reason, so you should use them if you want! Also worth noting that honour mode players are a tiny, tiny fraction of players. The median BG3 player played through act 1 on explorer over a couple weekends after seeing memes about karlach's muscles on tiktok (and that's awesome, that's exactly the kind of player games like this should be made for!). If we as optimizers want to approach the game from our perspective, that means considering the balance decisions they made from that angle. In general, people get very sensitive about being told something they're using is overpowered because they have a strong emotional connection to their decisions (again, good! Games are for fun). However, I think it's a good idea to take a step back from the initial emotional reaction and see if it's actually warranted, or if you're reading in more condescension than is there because you have such a strong investment in the subject.

[@Bigredhound]

@@Cephalopocalypse here’s the thing: this isn’t an emotional response to something I’m heavily invested in. I’ve dabbled in some of these mechanics, sure, but generally speaking I’m like you (although that is an assumption on my part, forgive me if I’m misreading you on this). A min maxxer who likes to get the absolute most out of an adventuring day on as little as possible. I love the challenge! Also, I’ve been watching you for months now, this is hardly a reactionary take. I’ve thought long and hard about this but only just now commented about it. If it’s the length and passion with which I wrote that makes you think it’s an emotional thing, you should know I’m autistic and thusly quite verbose. And passionate about things. It’s kinda hard coded in me lol. Also, I am generally pretty anti-authority so you’re not wrong in the sense that I don’t like being told not to do a thing. Even if it’s not something I usually do, I accept no one’s authority on these matters but my own. Why it’s comes off vaguely condescending is that you’re making judgements, it seems, from a mostly tabletop perspective. Now I should say I’ve only just found your channel a few months ago so I was not aware of your previous history with video games. So maybe I’m way off base saying that your perspective is mainly tabletop, and if so… ok I stand corrected. That’s fair. And maybe I am hearing more than there truly is, as far as condescension is concerned. Doesn’t change the rhetoric though. My point essentially boils down to this. We as outsiders cannot possibly make declarations about what is and isn’t intended game design. That’s the part that really sticks in my craw. I should note, I do agree that these mechanics are all overpowered. Every last one. However, they’re in the game. A game that’s had a year’s worth of loving care from the devs. If these things weren’t intended (like the backpack money thing), they’d have patched it out. Does this make sense? I hope so. I’m not trying to tell you how to make your videos or run your channel, I hope that’s clear. Social niceties are hard for me so I sometimes don’t see when I’m being hurtful. I guess the only reason I’m even saying all this is because I really like your work and I care, and hope to see my own perspective better reflected in the work I admire so much. 🤷‍♂️

[@screwbigtechsanti-sciencem9438]

Algorithm 😏

[@dachssi]

Hi! Just throwing in a Question... Since Mods are now available on Consoles too, is there any chance that you would potentially start doing Build Guides with Modded Classes too? For an example, the Mystic Class. Its extremely Versatile and there are Multiple ways to build strong Builds by either starting or Multiclassing into Mystic, making some Builds even stronger or more fun to Play. Its just hard to find any Person on here that does SUCH a good work on Build Guides. You go fully into detail, which and what is berter, what to pick under specific circumstances and also what to do if you plan on doing a slightly different playstyle. And therefore its hard for a Player like me to actually find a good build that includes Taking the Mystic Class... Sooo i thought you could yk, kinda help out? Maybe?🥲