10 Uncommon Items In Baldur’s Gate 3 That Outperform Their Rarer Rivals
Just as it is in Dungeons & Dragons, the magic items in Baldur's Gate 3 are organized into rarity levels to designate their strength, ranging from uncommon, to rare, to very rare, all the way up to legendary. Generally, an item's usefulness can be determined by comparing its rarity to another of the same type; for instance, a +2 rare longsword is a straightforward upgrade to a +1 uncommon variant.
But there are quite a few items for which that is not the case – items that work particularly well with a specific build or are otherwise strong enough to overshadow even those of higher rarities. These uncommon magic items are more powerful than their rarity gives them credit for, and hold up even against higher-level items of the same type.
10 The Strange Conduit Ring Is An Early, Powerful Damage Buff
A Strong Tool For A Spellblade
Found in the githyanki crèche during Act One, the Strange Conduit Ring is a good option for those that combine martial and magical might. It adds 1d4 psychic damage to the weapon attacks the wearer makes, as long as they are maintaining concentration on a spell while they do so. Warlocks can combine this with hex or rangers with hunter's mark to devastating effect, and eldritch knights and swords bards can get even more out of it, since they make more attacks per turn.
The Caustic Band is one of several items that have had their rarity changed since the initial release of the game. This ring used to be uncommon, but it's no longer.
It compares most directly to something like the Caustic Band, which adds two points of acid damage to weapon attacks. The Band is categorized as very rare, though the damage potential of the Strange Conduit Ring is technically greater, at the cost of requiring concentration. And generally, psychic damage is considered more useful than acid, given there are fewer creatures resistant to it. In the hands of the right character, this ring can be strong right up to the end of the game.
9 The Hat Of Fire Acuity Is A Good Option For Evocation Wizards
A Better Alternative To A Misleading Late-Game Option
Many of these powerful uncommon items rely on status effects and powers which only exist in Baldur's Gate 3, and the Hat of Fire Acuity is a great example of how these items work. This piece of apparel provides stacks of Arcane Acuity whenever the wearer deals fire damage. Arcane Acuity boosts one's spell attack and save DC, a power that is incredible for any caster.
As a bonus, fire is one of the most common types of elemental damage in the game, meaning the opportunities to activate this feature are frequent. This hat, which can be found on the body of the Strange Ox in Acts Two or Three, can take any fire-based mage to a higher level, and is much better than a late-game alternative in the very rare category, the Pyroquickness Hat. It also clearly markets itself towards fire casters, trading an extra bonus action for some light fire damage, but it is generally much less useful than a reliable source of Arcane Acuity.
8 The Coruscation And Callous Glow Rings Form A Powerful Combination
Creating Your Own Light
Both of these rings are actually quite powerful, especially for uncommon items, but can work wonders when in the same party's load out. The Coruscation Ring applies another strong status effect, Radiant Orb, to targets damaged by the wearer's spells. This reduces the target's attack roll bonus,making the ring a great defensive option.
The Callous Glow Ring, meanwhile, deals an extra two points of radiant damage to illuminated targets. Creatures with Radiant Orb applied to them glow, providing the very light source that enables this ring to work. A light cleric can make great use of both rings, especially in the undead-heavy second act of the game, using spells like
spirit guardians or their Channel Divinity, Radiance of the Dawn, to deal massive radiant damage and debuff enemies all around them.
7 The Gloves of the Growling Underdog Can Work For Almost Any Character
Just An All-Around Good Piece Of Gear
The Gloves of the Growling Underdog encourage players to get their characters surrounded by enemies, which would typically be a red flag for magic items in DnD. Being surrounded is not good for a number of reasons, and the advantage on attack rolls these gloves grant wouldn't typically be worth this strategic disadvantage.
These gloves do not count as armor, meaning barbarians and monks can make use of them without hindering their class abilities, which is a nice bonus.
But Baldur's Gate 3 offers some great options for mobility and escape for its characters, who can usedarkness spells or other methods of obfuscation to allow the character wearing these to run in, beat up a bunch of enemies, and escape all in the same turn. Any martial class can benefit from these early, but they remain great for mobile attackers like the rogue and monk for far longer, given both class's abilities to disengage as a bonus action.
6 The Cloak Of Protection Outshines Other Cloak Options
A Simple But Strong Piece Of Apparel
Cloaks are an entire category of magic item in Baldur's Gate 3, for which there are hardly any options to choose from until the mid-to-late second act. The Dark Urge Origin character gets a great option early on, but otherwise, many players' first cloak might be the Cloak of Protection. This cloak is a simple defensive item, which provides a +1 to AC and saving throws.
This is a rather simple option, and other, rarer cloaks in the second act may sound more complex and powerful. But many of them simply can't hold up to the sheer strength of this cloak's abilities. The Derivation Cloak is hard to effectively make use of given poison's unreliability as a damage type, and the Cloak of Cunning Brume is extremely underwhelming. This cloak is an objective improvement for any character wearing it, since it is a passive buff rather than a new ability which may or may not be effective in any given situation.
5 Harnessing Storms With The Spineshudder Amulet, Gloves Of Belligerent Skies, And Boots Of Stormy Clamour
Three Uncommon Items That Work Best When Combined
These three uncommon magic items are all strong on their own, and completely busted when used together. They each allow caster characters to apply the Reverberation effect to enemies, which not only gives them a penalty to certain saving throws, but also can damage them and even cause them to go prone. Knocking enemies prone is especially powerful in BG3, since it can end turns early, cancel concentration, and limit movement.
Each piece of equipment works a little differently. The Spineshudder Amulet applies reverberation to enemies harmed by ranged spell attacks, the Gloves of Belligerent Skies apply it when an enemy takes thunder, lightning, or radiant damage, and the boots apply reverberation when another status effect is applied. Combining all of these into one spell, such as magic missile augmented with lightning charges, can apply Reverberation dozens of times to a single enemy in one turn.
4 Braindrain Gloves Make Psychic Damage Even Stronger
Good Gloves For A Tadpole-Wielding Tav
The Braindrain Gloves can be found within the Illithid Oubliette, and are the perfect gear to augment a player character using their tadpole abilities. They add a status effect to enemies whenever they take psychic damage: mental fatigue, which gives creatures a penalty to their intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saving throws. Not only do many of the illithid powers deal psychic damage, they also require those exact kinds of saves.
These gloves could go well with the Strange Conduit Ring, making them useful for martial characters even without weapons that inherently deal psychic damage.
Mental fatigue is an incredibly useful condition for casters to inflict, ensuring that enchantment and illusion spells won't be wasted. Combining mind flayer abilities with those sorts of spells can turn mental fatigue into a caster's ultimate weapon, especially when combined with stacks of arcane acuity.
3 The Skinburster Combines Offense And Defense
A Weapon Better Than Some Armor
The githyanki crèche holds many powerful magic items, including this uncommon halberd called The Skinburster. Most uncommon weapons don't make the cut as far as exceeding the capabilities of their rarer variants, but The Skinburster holds greater defensive potential than most other weapons in the game. Specifically, it grants the wielder a stack of force conduit each time they successfully hit an enemy.
Force conduit lessens the amount of physical damage a character takes by one for each stack they've got, meaning combining this weapon with heavy armor and the Heavy Armor Master feat, as well as abjuration wizard abilities, can make characters near immune to physical damage. This works much better as a defensive tool than, say, the Defender Flail or
Defender Greataxe, which each only provide a small bonus to AC and limited damage reduction.
2 The Ring Of Mental Inhibition Makes Spellcasters Unbeatable
A Massively Underappreciated Piece Of Gear
Much like the Braindrain Gloves, the Ring Of Mental Inhibition uses mental fatigue to help spellcasters' spells succeed. The difference is that it doesn't just work off of psychic damage, but inflicts the condition on any enemy that fails a saving throw against the wearer's spells. This not only lets casters afflict larger groups of enemies at once, but it also creates a recurring cycle of failure for those affected: the more they fail, the more penalties they'll take on to keep them from succeeding.
The ring of mental inhibition also benefits from being a ring, rather than gloves, since more rings can be worn at once. Baldur's Gate 3 includes a ton of great ring options, many of which fall into the rare and very rare categories, but this item tends to stick around in a character's build late into the game.
1 Crusher's Ring Outshines Its Humble Origins
Who Needs Momentum Anyway?
Finally, there's Crusher's Ring, a small band worn around the toe of an especially confident goblin. Crusher is essentially a joke character in Act One, and players can either steal this ring right off his toe or take him out while he's urinating to loot it off his corpse. Many players may not initially expect that this item is one of the best rings in the game.
Wearing Crusher's Ring grants characters an extra ten feet of movement per turn, the equivalent of the Mobile feat or two rounds of momentum. Wearing a ring is much less of a resource cost than taking an entire feat, and momentum goes down each turn a character has it. Certain items like the Haste Helm supply a healthy amount of momentum at the beginning of combat, but it fades as the battle drags on. Crusher's Ring is reliable and always handy, especially on Baldur's Gate 3 characters who can dash as a bonus action.
Source: Larian Studios/YouTube (1, 2)

Baldur's Gate 3

- Released
- August 3, 2023
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Larian Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Larian Studios
- Engine
- Divinity 4.0
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Full cross-platform play.
- Franchise
- Baldur's Gate
- Number of Players
- 1-4
- Split Screen Orientation
- Vertical Only
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, macOS
- Local Co-Op Support
- 1-2 Players
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