Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Best armor and wear to get it (Warning, Spoilers)

So, going through the game, getting armor can be a real chore. This is really frustrating considering Larion seems to want to send absurd amounts of bad guys after you, many of which have multiple attacks per round. (I STILL can't beat the Gnolls without cheasing the hell out of them what with their situational three attacks a round)

So, for those that are wondering:
Fighters and Paladins start with the Medium armor: Scale mail (14 max dex bonus +2) which is okay, especially if you equip a shield to them. Paladins even have a cool special skin on theirs.

You can get a second set of scale mail early on by killing the Halfling bandit Fighter outside Jergal's Crypt. He has a wizard with him, and two dudes in leather armor (Leather is actually an upgrade for Asterion and Wyll's Padded armors as those provide penalties to stealth checks.) More sets of scale mail appear later on in the game, but I think this is the first set you can get for free (well, killing a bandit)

If you are a fighty type (Fighter/barbarian/ranger) and don't want to take Lae'Zel with you, you can take her on to your team and then trade out her medium armor half-plate for whatever you are wearing. Or you could give it to Shadowheart, this is the only half-plate you get for a while (15+max dex bonus 2)

In the Druid's grove, there is a tiefling working a forge. he sells +1 scale mail (15+max dex 2) but it is SUPER expensive and, considering you can get a lot of gith halfplate later that has similar stats, I don't recommend grabbing it. He sells some other armor as well but IMHO, none of it is worth your limited coin, considering what is avilable further down on the list.

At the inn that is on fire (Wakeen's Rest) there is a dead drow out front on the ground that has armor equivalent to studded leather just for the taking. It even has a cool skin. Best non-magical light armor in the game. Called Faded drow armor or something.

If you rescue the Zentium from the cave of gnolls (which is quite a feat, Damn 3 attacks a round when you are like, level 3!) then you can get access to a super secret merchant that can sell +1 studded leather armor (light armor, 13+5 max dex) which is the best light armor in the game from an AC perspective, though it is SUPER expensive.

Fast forward through a LOT of the game, and when you get INSIDE the goblin hideout, this is the first time you can buy some decent heavy armor, notably Chainmail, which is 16 (No bonus from dex). This is for sale by the Halfling Zentium, and no, she doesn’t drop it on death. This is actually just as good for Lae'zel as her half plate (total 16 ac before shield) and then you can swap out Lae'Zel's gith half-plate to Shadowheart or your PC if your PC has medium armor prof.

Also in the Goblin hideout, there is a Drow Cleric Matorn. Killing her (which is part of several quests) nets you Spidersilk Drow armor, which is just studded leather armor, but it gives you advantages on stealth checks and +1 to stealth. Also unique skin.

If you are able to beat the Gith Patrol (which is NOT easy, haven't tried them in Patch 9, but in patch 8 they were a nightmare without cheesing it) then you get several sets of Githyanki 1/2 plate, allowing you to equip your PC, shadowheart, and Lae'Zel.

In the underdark, in a drow deaddrop cache chest (after beating the spectator and following that path) you can get some Drow armor, which is like the Spidersilk armor but doesn't give advantages to stealth checks. Still, good for Wyll to wear!

Also, in the decrepit village, you can fight some nasty Duregar. It can be a tough fight. But at the end you can pick up some chainmail from one of the dwarves, if you missed buying it INSIDE the Goblin camp.

In the Underdark, if you go through the whole rigamaroll to get the forge working and kill the protector, then you can get Adamantine Splint Mail armor. This is actually just normal splint mail AC wise, though it has some cool properties if people hit you with it on in melee. It is still the best armor in the game without taking dex into acount (Base AC 17, AC can spike up to 21 if you are using the Sparkywall, that armor, and you have the armored fighting style, even if your dex is 10)

That's all the best armor that I know about. I have seen rumors about that patch 9 introduced a set of 'incomplete plate mail' for paladins, but I haven't seen it and don't know where it is.

For my taste there is too much (magical) Medium Armor, the game is missing 1-2 more Robes and Light Armor with some decent effects or as we all know Heavy Armor is still missing. The same goes for jewelry. I have never seen a belt. Helmets look totally ugly. I want Erama's hood, but like you said, you won't finally find some Light Drow Armor until relatively late in Act 1....

There are also no capes yet. Ok it will be a premiere for the full release. But @ Larian please don't forget a fade in & fade out feature among other things because of shields:
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthread...elds+on+backs&Search=true#Post836194
I hope we can see shields on the back and I would prefer shields, weapons and bard instruments to be displayed above the capes.

I don't get the point of Robe of Summer. Is there even any cold damage from any enemies in EA? Like, what even is that? Total filler.

The game has 0 magical Heavy Armor until u get all the way to Grymforge and have to choose to make it. The mithral ore is a limited resource, so it doesn't feel like a reward totally.

Nicely explained, a good guide. It's EA and in the release there may be more to be seen, hopefully.

I don't feel under-equipped however, as most fights are relatively easy, except the Gith fight (with lvl 4 I lose almost ever, except being very lucky; with lvl 5 it's a guaranteed win, thankfully) and the first time Auntie Ethel fight. Your Gnolls I don't see as a big problem. As they are shown as hostile I'm allowed (house rules) to start the fight from stealth, that makes it easier. The mean 3-shot-attack can kill chars indeed, but I never lost a whole fight against them (in my formalized level path the Gnolls are at lvl 3, after the Blighted Village and before Anders).

My biggest complaint about armor is about the visuals, except Gith armor all look boring, but that's perhaps a DnD problem. I'm using Basket Full of Equipment mod (the only mod I use) to have more armor and clothing variants, especially because I don't like pants. My Barbarian for example is wearing a loincloth-like "armor" (showing a lot of skin, hehe) as the ingame barbarian stuff is (ugh), especially for males. All armors from the mod are robes with 13 AC and a squad heal spell attached, that's bad but in itself moddable. I removed the attached spell and changed all the armors I use to the normal ingame stats, so my loincloith has 10 AC.

Concerning the general armor stats, for me the DnD system is partly a big failure, heavy armor is too weak compared to medium armor, armor has not enough disadvantages and shields are much too weak, there is such a bias pro twohanded in the game, sad.

BTW a remark to Lae'zel and her armor, from the lore. For me it is impossible to take the armor from her and give it to others, especially not Shadowheart (both hate each other, I think). I think Lae'zel would not allow it, so you had to kill her. People who kill possible companions because of armor ...? I would not want to be near such persons and I don't think most companions would. So Shadowheart get's Gith armor after the Gith fight, she looks good in it.

(SNIP)

Understandable. That is, of course, your prerogative. However, after Lae'zel's Gith 'buddies' ignore their duty and attack you, I assume they would be dead to her (both metaphorically and literally) and she would have no issue having you wear THEIR stuff. After all, (and I can't remember the exact quote) she says basically that you are her 'thralls' and it is acceptable for you to do whatever you must to ensure that she lives, including telling you about the creche in the first place.

Anyway, this was a mechanical guide, not a lore/storytelling one. If it was a lore guide you could have her wear leather if you thought it serviced the story better.

Great guide OP. Might I recommenced highlighting armors of different tiers, so it's easier to quickly read through your post and identify the locations of specific types of armor?

The fight with the Gnolls isn’t hard if you take advantage of the terrain. There designers put a ledge right over them for a reason.

The fight with the Githyanki is a comparative cakewalk at level 5 too

I do love pushing those toads off the edge of the bridge. Just need to be careful because they like to do the same to me.

I dunno, I've tried to use the cliff and the archers still just murder me. 3 attacks/round, doesn't reallly matter what your AC is, they are gonna hit you.

I usually have Asterion hide and sniper a few with his sneak attack longbow until they get wise, then he cunning dashes away while shooting behind him until I train them all the way back to just outside Wakeen's rest where I can bottleneck them, problem is sometimes the game just glitches out and they teleport to the cave and kill the Zentium.

If you are getting hit by archers it’s a positioning problem. All you need to do is hang back a bit and the archers won’t be able to get an easy line of sight on you. Crowd control spells like web, grease, and spike growth are highly effective at helping control the battlefield. Then it’s a matter of isolating and focusing down the bigger melee threats as they come to you.

If you know how to use the terrain and have a decently synergized party, that fight can be pretty easy. Not trying to be a dick, sincerely, it just sounds like your tactics some refinement.

And Thunderwave, you're clearing the area, dealing the spell's damage, and dealing falling damage. It's very satisfying to do so many things in one turn.

There are actually three fights with gnolls, seemingly you especially refer to the third? Of course tacticts are related to your group. My party at that time (lvl 3) regularly consists of Shadowheart, Gale, Wyll, my PC is currently a ranged Fighter while normally I'm playing as Barbarian. If your PC is Priest, Sorcerer, Wizard or Warlock, it's equally easy, for the rest I don't have much experience (the first class I played after EA release was Ranger, I found him a bit weak).

The first fight you should try to avoid by killing the hyenas before the gnolls come out. If I fail, I make it a running battle back to the bridge, so that some chars always are in safe distance.

The second fight (4 gnolls on the hill) I start from stealth by using Grease spell. Stealth is quite broken, so you can fire with all chars at the poor gnolls. I have Shadowheart at the far distance, to be able to raise downed chars with the best spell in the game, Healing Word (she is the only one who can use it, as I never use scrolls). It's usually not even necessary to fire your good spells, I just use cantrips or crossbows for Shadowheart and Gale, except I'm very unlucky. So I don't have to long rest before the third gnoll encounter. BTW if you have a companion with a minion, use it to offer a target for the gnolls, they are dump as hell.

The third fight is the most demanding, but also not such a problem. I also start from stealth. I position Gale and Wyll on the rock on the left in front of the gnolls, Shadowheart on the right side, then I sneak to the boss gnoll and attack. You can fire with all chars because of stealth. The gnolls usually try to attack my PC who is near the boss gnoll and stand all near to each other. A perfect opportunity for Gale to use Shatter. If the archer gnoll on the high hill on the right side attacks from above (sometimes he comes down, the fool), I deal with him by shoving him/it away, either with Wyll's Eldritch Blast or with a Battlemaster die. If you are in the unlucky situation to have none of this available, you should sneak one of your chars up the hill before the fight. In the worst case you can Misty Step with Gale and blast the gnoll away with the blast wave spell.

The classes don't really matter, because you can kill or severely injure many of the Gnolls and Hyenas with 3-4 items if you play your cards right. Use Arrows of Darkness to force the Gnoll Archers to coming more close into your melee combat range or blast the melee Gnolls to their Archers via Thunderwave or a Void Buld. Then with luck there will be many of the Gnolls and Hyenas in one bunch. A very good target for a Smoke Powder Bomb and additional AoE-combos (Caustic Bulb /Acid Vial / Acid Arrow + (Grease) Bottle + Alchemist's Fire / Fire Arrow / any fire based spell + Create Water / Water Bottle + Lightning Arrow). If you start the fight from inside the cave cast Flame Sphere to block the way and and it will taunt the enemies into attacking it. Otherwise, I could not ensure the survival of the Zhentarim they are either onehit by the Flint or shot down by the Gnoll Archers.

I forgot to mention Thunderwave. I love that spell. Absolutely spectacular in this game.

By chance today I had a rather uncommon third gnoll fight. Because of my stupidity (trying to cast Bless after stealthy positioning) the fight started not from stealth, as the gnolls are dumb but not blind. The boss charged and took 80 % of Shadowheart's hp at start, and Bless was over too. During the fight i.a. Shadowheart got downed from a 3-shot, then Wyll from a melee gnoll, but could be both brought back. The fight was a bit difficult and exceptional for me insofar as I applied Shove one time with my Fighter, what I usually don't use.

That's the aftermath, I got lvl 4 with the last kill :

[img]https://imgur.com/a/vSRE0BZ[/img]

So you can win such a fight without stealth or special items or superior positioning, just by using the skills etc., I like that.

BTW my Fighter could shove the big boss gnoll quite far away (a Battlemaster skill failed before) although he has only 12 strength. It was not decisive as it did not injure the gnoll, but ...
I know it's not quite a witty idea but in my opinion Shove should become an action instead of a bonus action.

Back on topic, I edited my first post: made it more clear where you can buy the chainmail from, and where you can find a set in the dark lands.

To clarify, in the game files there is a passive designed for paladin armor (allows to restore one channel resource per long rest).
Only available with mods.

You could include shields, as they count as armor. Shields are weak and neclected in 5e/BG3 in my opinion, but anyway useful for some classes. F.E. there is a visually nice +1 shield easily obtained in the Grymforge.

Been thinking about doing a top weapons list. Anyone want that?