Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Has Anyone Else Taken Full Advantage of the 18 Int Circlet Yet?

Created a wizard, dropped her intelligence down to 8 - which coming from 3.5e was odd since you cannot cast spells with less than 10 intelligence - and redistributed the stats to max out her dexterity and boost strength. Once it was time, we rolled on in to the three ogres and took the circlet, raising the intelligence from 8 to 18. I now feel like I have a wizard that isn't a pushover.

Am I alone in this or is this a common thing?

I've seen a few discussions of this item before. Imo a much better deal for the Eldritch knight though for 2 reasons:

1) You don't gimp your Fighter at all when you start with negative intelligence, as you are playing for the first two levels as a regular fighter. But as soon as you get it and spec into Eldritch knight you can have a spellcasting mod equal to a full wizard.

2) If you think further ahead and plan a build for the full game release, your Wizard will eventually want 20 INT, and will be gimped if you will continue having 18, while the Eldritch knight does not mind having 18 INT as much, which is in fact always better than the amount you would normally invest in INT on said class anyway.

I sort of did this with a plain-jane Fighter. Dropped INT low to boost DEX & WIS. Got the Circlet and now I have a character that I can put out front for most encounters. I still use Wyll for trades with his high CHR, but high INT and a decent WIS serve most of the role play stuff.

Good call there. I haven' tried the Eldritch Knight build yet. Seems like a perfect match.

Good idea for future builds - but we are losing this character before we can get 20 INT anyways so it isn't problematic yet.

Don't personally like items like this in game... are they going to have one for every stat?... making build specific items that prop up or boost certain builds over others usually take more away from a game than add to it imo...

Hmm, I think overall bonkers powerful items are fun, the game doesn't have to be super balanced, original BG games never were.

It kinda has that magic feeling the first time you find it, I think it only takes away from the game if you meta game and already know where everything is. Perhaps that could be solved by randomizing such loot, so you couldn't reliably get it? I'm not sure.

Super balanced no, i agree...

Trash items(as i see them ;D) like this allow a few builds using int an almost immediate free 18... effectively handing them a slew of additional build points to work with... not the end of the world to me, just a little cheesy...

Stand by my "they take away more than they add"...

Yeah, but you have to agree its only cheesy if you meta game. If you're going for your first run and have no clue, you won't gimp stats that your build needs, so it's up to you to cheese or not.

Well, then don't use it. Problem solved.

There is even a nice way to not use it - recruit the Ogres instead of killing and looting them.

There were like 200 videos and character creation guides leveraging the existence of the circlet barely days after the first EA released, so I guess no, you are not alone.

If I put this on Astarion will he stop being a dumb bitch? <3
Because if he does, I will sell it

I try to build my characters so they aren't dependent on it. Even for a eldritch knight, during a fight it's better to have a helmet to avoid crits. I know I'll forget to switch out.

It's basically gauntlets of ogre power, for intelligence. Those gauntlets (or even better) are common to most D&D games, and most folks plan for them at least to some extent - one or another strength challenged characters will eventually use them - it's one way to make a dual class character more effective, or ensure your heavy armor, high wisdom cleric can eventually hold his/her own in melee combat as well ( see Viconia or halfling fighter Mazzy in BG 2).

I expect that when a full version of BG3 is released, there will be the usual panoply of stat 18 items - .

I'm more bothered by the itemization of weapons and armor thus far. Other than the standard +1/+2 gear, most everything else has a fairly severe downside - as if all magic carries a curse these days. I presume that might be the explained as an effect of the warping and twisting of magic in recent Faerun history, but I do not recall any such overarching effect being claimed to date in current game lore and material. Examples of "flametongue" or "envenomed" weapon equivalents should still exist - hopefully such normal items without negative characteristics will come later.

Is there attunement in this game? I haven't seen any but so far there hasn't been so many magic items to worry about it. But attunement has to exist. 5e D&D is balanced around the idea that you can't outfit yourself full of powerful magic items all at once.

My "problem" with this item (which, in the grand scheme of things that are currently wrong with the game, is immensely minor), is not so much that it's cheesy or metagamey. I can easily abstain from making a build around it. I just find that, from a reward design perspective, it's very uneven.

If you have made a smart build at character creation (or are using Gale as Mage), and plan for your wizard to have 20 INT by the end of the game, this circlet is meh. You're level 3 when you find it and by level 4 you have 18 INT on your own. But for your clueless friend whose Mage has 14 INT, it's the best thing in the world. It's very useless or supremely good. And it feels like it's rewarding suboptimal play.

One thing I was happy to discover in the 5E rules, compared to the 2E-based rules of BG1-2, is that you don't need to specialise your Fighter one type of weapon. No longer will your axe specialist be disappointed when you find, yet again, a magical long sword. You are not made to regret your early choices.

I would have preferred the Intelligence-boost to be +1 or +2. It still allows you to roleplay a Dwarf or Half-orc Mage, it makes the item somewhat interesting for every party, it makes the item less obsolete in late game, and it allows you to try out a cool Feat instead of taking Ability Score Increase at both levels 4 and 8.

Guys, this is a roleplaying game, okay. It's not a powergaming game. You can powergame if you want, no problem, but what if I want to roleplay a dumb mage? That's what this item is for.

As a side not, I admit, I enjoy the RP-ish thought of someone talking off the circlet and just feeling themselves getting stupider, and it being a damn unpleasant feeling. Then having them bitch about it afterwards. Especially if they're an int 8 character.

I did once, with a Shield Dwarf Wizard. It was too cheesy though, and I didn't finish.