Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Items you want to like but don't?

I was just playing and it occurred to me how much I don't like The Spectator Eyes amulet. It's considered "very rare" and does two things, both recharged after a long rest.

1. Ray of Fear: this is actually just the frightened condition if the target fails a save, and
2. Wounding Ray: it's supposed to be a third level spell, but all it does is 2d8 damage. If the target saves, half damage.

Both of these effects are useable once, only recharging after a long rest.

At first glance, I want to like this amulet. I'd love to use it and have it be useful. But it's just not useful. It's a terrible item, imo.

Are there any items you feel that way about? Things you'd like to use in theory but just find completely underwhelming?

Oh, there's plenty of stuff I've wanted to use... But it just isn't very good;

1) Literally all the "Heat" items. It sounds fun, set yourself on fire then use that fire to blast your opponents. But in practice it sucks completely because it only applies the damage once per spell... So for that gameplay you're literally better off just using Amulet of Elemental Torment and standing in some fire which will allow you to apply the fire surface's 1d4 damage onto every hit of a spell (Meaning when you pew pew with many Magic Missiles or Scorching Rays you get a bunch of extra damage)

2) Shadow Blade Ring. Conjuring up a shortsword made out of shadows and does Psychic damage is cool... But it takes Concentration to maintain and is per short rest so you'll often end up just using a regular weapon and concentrating on other spells when you inevitably fail a concentration check on the sword itself (Oh, and never mind the whole taking a standard action to re-equip a weapon when it does fail)

3) Broodmother's Revenge. Sounds cool and you can do silly things like use Derivation Cloak and Poisoner's Gloves to heal yourself and reapply the effect... But the effect is literally just a weapon coating. Not even a good one, a basic pleb one you get way better than by the time you get those synergy items. (It made even less sense before they patched out dipped coatings lasting until long rest, but even now it's like... Use your gloves, cloak and amulet slots... Or spend 1 bonus action at the start of combat)

4) Ichorous Gloves. Deal Acid damage, make someone stinky? Sounds great! Until you realise that 1) It will harm your party when they're in the effect and 2) It doesn't harm the creature it's originating from.

Watersparkers boots...I know there's a ring later on but by then I've found better stuff.

I also agree about the other items already mentioned.

Yeah, watersparker boots for me too. I thought they sounded really cool until Lae'zel was taking damage every round. I avoided all the heat items for the same reason.

Yeah, I have trouble understanding the items that cause you damage. I don't think I've ever seen anyone using the heat items.

I always save the watersparker boots, thinking I might use them, but I never really get around to it.

I shall be the odd one out, I really like the sparkly boots and the lightning set in general (the gloves are a little niche) but I wish, I liked the thunder and fire sets better, the same goes for the Shadow Blade Ring and most early game robes. The casters in my team are Gale and Wyll, who both can wear light armour, most of the early robes (unless you make poor Karlach suffer) don't offer any benefits that would justify picking them over the nicely padded armour from the vendor.

Maybe a bit off-topic but I now realize I also feel this way about every Paladin spell except for smite. When levelling up I always chose them carefully imagining the many clever ways I'll employ them to foil my enemies, but when I enter turn-based mode its always just smite, smite, and smite again.

There is a lot of headgear that I want to use ... Grym's helmet, thief hoods, etc., but I can't stand it when they obscure the character's face. I am not sure why I feel this way, but I just don't enjoy the game as much when their faces are covered.

Just to mention, you know that you can hide the helmets?

If you know and just don't want to, I get it. But in case you don't know, there's a small box over the helmet slot that you can click. One of the options there is to hide the helmet so you don't have to see it but you still get the benefits.

Headgear is really mostly ugly. But most capes are also annoying, my characters look like clothes racks. I would have preferred belts. The same applies to more aesthetic hoods and armor models.

https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/House_Dimir?file=Guilds_of_Ravnica_Dimir.jpg

https://www.celticwebmerchant.com/en/larp-armour-dragomir-bronzed.html

Mourning Frost as a scepter / club would have been cool if you could have chosen it or if you could only find two parts or something like that.

There could also be more "pact blades" and a scythe, at least for the warlock pact. But not as bulky as the Scythe of Myrkul.

Too bad you can't use the instruments as weapons e. g. Flute as blowpipe would have been nice.

I love helmets obscuring faces. But some are FUGLY, like the Justiciar Helmet. Saves me from seeing Shadowheart's mug but it looks like lady pants worn as a cheap Spiderman mask.

JandK ... I did not know that! You have to hover the mouse over the head slot in order to see that little icon pop up, which is probably why I never noticed it before. Wow, you even have the option to hide the helmet only during dialogs, which is the real issue, or all the time if you want. Gosh, I never knew that was there, thanks!

One more thing related to the topic, I was going to write something about familiars other than Shovel, but I recently discovered the crab. My goodness, I love my little Scupper. He has only 2 hp, but he is one fearless little warrior ... he puts his claws up in a fighting stance, and then, PINCH! So even though I did not get my chariot-riding clam, I did find the mighty crab to be a good substitute.

I first found the option to hide helmets in The Outer Worlds, where the helmets are quite realistically designed to completely cover your head but they also obscure all the personality of the characters. Same thing here in BG3, so it's nice to have the mechanics of a helmet but be able to see the faces. I usually leave Lae'zel's helmet visible because a warrior helmet suits her, but turn them off for the others.