Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback New “lightning” items

Just to mention, none of what I'm saying is meant to defend the odd conditional items. They were a misstep, in my opinion.

That said, your point about a limited number of items is well taken. I think that would work incredibly well for the first playthrough. Unfortunately, I don't think it has as much replayability. Once the players know, for instance, that the only magic weapon is Sorrow, then they start to build around that from the start.

Players will always build characters for items they know are there. The 8 Intelligence "Wizard" who beelines to murder Lump is the best example of this.

But once we have the full game, there will always be the next item and the worth of building a character around one particular item isn't so clear anymore. The "top dog" weapon or item to build around should ebb and flow as the game progresses. In Act I the best weapon can be a Glaive, which will fall behind a Sword in Act II, while in Act III it's all about an epic Maul. The worst thing Larian could do here is shower the player with everything, which they probably will do since it seems to be the kind of more=better approach from them with magic items.

Perhaps in Act II someone steals the Headband of Intellect from the power-built Wizard and you now get to actually play a 7th level Wizard with 8 Intelligence until you get it back. Reap what you sow? =)

Well said indeed. Restricting magic items is definitely a good thing at lower levels. It also makes the choice of offering certain items to Gale more meaningful.


I love that idea

Im really surprised that so far nobody complained about our new Bard items ...
True, there are only two of them (and i was unable to obtain one, since Volo is stuck in Goblin camp and refuses to talk with me ) but still!

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Blazer+of+Benevolence
When you inspire an ally using Bardic Inspiration, you gain 4 temporary hit points.

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Cap+of+Curing
When you inspire an ally using Bardic Inspiration, they also regain 1d6 hit points.

What happened with all that "how does such magic even work" or "what mage would create such item"?
Or do you find theese to be fine and fiting the franchise? O_o

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I must say i dont like this style ...
So far (almost) every item was able to work for anybody, even tho some combinations felt more natural and was potentialy more powerfull ... but theese?
You either are Bard, or they are completely useless. :-/

Wich isnt necesarily bad thing ... i know, but it still dont feel right. :-/

It feels a little like older classes are forgotten in order to focus to new one ... and even if they would wish to give something to everyone ... how could someone create an item only Fighter, Ranger, or Warlock can use?
Feel free to corect me, but it seems to me that they dont exactly have some super special class mechanic like Bardic Inspiration, Rage, Sorcery Points, Sneak Attack, or Channel Divinity.

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I believe this two items would work much better, if they werent tied to Bardic Inspiration only ... but to Beneficial Magic in general.
In other words, buffs ... prefferably non-cantrips ofc.

It’s a good point. There are definitely items that can’t be used by everyone, but nothing as limited as the hat or the vest.

The items that give healing buffs come close, though, as they work far better for a dedicated healer than a rando throwing healing potions. While that could technically be a bard or a wizard (yuck), many of those items are medium armor, which require proficiency as of patch 8. In my mind, those items are cleric only.

Well, technicaly you can use them as really weird druid ... since no metal armor rule was not applied by Larian.
Or really weird Paladin (once implemented) with REALLY low AC.

But it still *technicaly* can be used ...
Bardic items are just for that class specificaly, with no way around (not sure about Adept: Bard feat, if that is even a thing)

There are gloves that only the barbarian can use.

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These items don't bother me. I was hoping for more items, though. A drum that does Thunderwave or a Violin that can put someone to sleep. Things like that.

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I don't like the items that feel gamey, but that's hard to describe if you don't understand what's meant by gamey. The idea is that if the item is more about the mechanics than the in game flavor, then it's gamey.

These bard items don't feel gamey to me. They make reasonable sense. It's basically a buff to the inspiration, adding an additional benefit.

It also makes sense that someone would create the items in question. They're reasonably useful.

As opposed to, say, an axe that does increased damage if you're at half hit points. That's a limiter that feels more like it was put there by the DM than by the wizard who created the item.

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I'm not a fan of items that are underwhelming when compared to their presentation. For instance, Phalar Alluve. Additionally, all the adamantine weapons and armor.

I would be fine with those items if the story presented them in a different manner. If the game didn't tell me the adamantine items were the greatest items ever, then I wouldn't be disappointed to see them. If the game didn't present Phalar Alluve as being buried in stone and then levitating out after a blood ritual, I wouldn't be disappointed.

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Regarding items that hurt the wielder, I'm torn.

On one hand, I like the flavor. The Staff of Crones, as an example. The flavor makes sense. A hag's staff that both helps and hurts the user. Much like the hag herself.

Sorrow is another example. The harm it does to the user reflects the history of the item. It makes sense. It's good flavor.

Light of Creation. It's a great weapon with a major down side that makes sense considering it comes from the construct that was seemingly powered by some sort of electrical energy.

So. I like them. But I also hate them.

I hate them because there's not enough reason to enjoy their flavor in the game. The drawbacks are too much. I'm just not going to heavily use an item that hurts my character. Which means I end up missing out on the flavor.

In my opinion, the drawbacks should still be there, but it would help if there were some way to mitigate the hurt. For instance, maybe the Light of Creation doesn't hurt the user if the user is wearing the ring that protects against being shocked.

Maybe the hag's staff doesn't hurt the user if the user has the Hag's Eye condition.

That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. It would enhance the flavor and allow the player to better experience these really great items.

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Anyway. I could talk forever about these items and what I think of them, but I've already written a wall of text, so I'll stop here.

This reminds me of all the monk items they added into the original games, both in Throne of Bhaal and in the enhanced edition. Unless you're playing a monk, completely useless. But better to have than not, I suppose.

Those two items sucks but at this point... complaining is useless.

They're probably thinking that bards are all healer and/or that healing badly because you have a super hat is "fun".
As usual they created gamey items rather than items that enhance the classes or OUR choices (rather than theirs...)

In exemple +1 bardic die or advantage when you inspire someone would have been a lot better for bards only items...

You're welcome

as i said:
-_-

The problem is that any drum you have "does Thunderwave" since Bard is casting through his instrument. :-/

And excuse me ... but everyone know that the only instrument that put others to sleep is Harp!
Allways was, allways will be. :P Sometimes even in reality.

Really? O_o

You fiddle so hard so your friend gets inspired by your preformance and makes one better attack, or defensive move, or he manages to pick some extremely coplex lock ... but only one of those.
And if you fiddle as hard with this hat on your head ... he is so inspired so his wounds start closing themselves ... and if you also wear this armor, your own wounds are so inspired by that so they start closing aswell.

Something like that "dont feel gamey"?
We have different definitions friend.

I gues this depends hardly on one imagination ...

I for one can imagine Necromancer who theorizes, that blood contains energy, and when wearer of some magical artefact inevidably gets hurt in combat, that energy is wasted ... so in order to test his theory, he created this enchantment that gather energy from wounds ... and once it gather enough, it expells it.
What a coincindence that required amount of energy equals 50% of some imaginary number that have no relation to your actual health or injury.

But cant really imagine any Wizard thinking about creating item that will heal other people and the artist when they feel "inspired" by beautifull music.

Some time ago i suggested "fix" for Adamantine ...
Since that one bothers me aswell ...
In my suggestion, i wanted Larian to simply add some journal that would explain that this is actualy NOT Adamantine, but only some weaker material that can "seem" like one, at first sight ... but even tho it never reach Adamantine quality, its still good enough for both weapons and armors, so the forgemaster decided to take this secret to his grave and continue in his work ...

Simmilar as when you put side by side proper "Damask Steel" ... and so called "Tin Steel Damascus" (even tho there is HUGE difference in quality in this example) ... on first sight, you would never guess the difference (unless you know what to look for) ... but when would you start comparing them, you would find really quicly that one is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar better than the other.

As for Phalar ... im still convinced that finding +1 Longsword in exchange for single diceroll (and not even hard one) is appropriate reward.

Ehm ...
Light of creation dont "hurt" its wielder, it have chance to stun him.

And Hag's Staff gives only 1d4 Poison damage, wich can be easily mitigated to half by potion, being a Dwarf or Halfling i believe (but not sure), or by simply wearing Poison Resistance ring ... and personaly i would never trade 1d4/2 damage per attack for change to strike crittical damage with this staff.
(Not sure if you remember ... inability to cause critical strikes is one of effects of Hag's Eye ... and that shit is PERMANENT ... pretty serious stuff. :-/ )

I dunno ... seems weird, i just cant help the feeling that items should either be universal, or there should be something specific for everyone ...
Make special items (no matter how shitty) just for your own favourite class, and let others work with generic loot smells elitary. :-/

I played my last game with Momentum/Lighting bard ... and while it was kinda fun, i felt like my Momentum/Lightning Rogue. :-/

Agreed ...

Or make that hat to strenghten your Temp. HP spells ...
Like i dunno when you give Temp. HP to your aly, give them 1HP more per spell level used ... may seem useless, since 1 HP is nothing ... but Bard and his Heroism would trully benefit from this MUCH more than other classes.

Wow, so many posters with such strong opinions! I'm gonna add my own 2 cents, haha!

1. For low levels, I'd love to see more 'staple DnD' items rather than another 30 rare magical items when paladin, monk, etc come out.
If I can find it in one of my adventure modules/short campaigns (all I have are ones for lvl 1 to 6 max), I'd like to see it here. They are magical enough to make you feel rewarded but the bulk of the work is still on the players to make use of their skills, abilities, creativity, and tactical thinking.

2. If Gale doesn't want to eat it, don't tell me it's some sort of rare magical item! If the Gale-hole knows it's just filler, Tav knows it too, okay?
Gale, dear heart, I'm encumbered by these eight blue items, why tf do you NEED my Drow hood?! Eat a few lightning enchants, chow down on some other hats and stfu!
Sidenote: If they are super awesome rare items, then let them get eaten. That way, I'll be super excited when finding them all over the place.