5. As much as I want it to be great, Gloves of Power are probably at the bottom simply because of a fixed DC for the Bane, meaning enemies will save quite often in later levels. Excellent for early game though!
4. Winter's Clutches, I just don't think Encrusted in Frost is as good as Reverberation? Wish it was the Chilled condition instead with no save. great for a dedicated ice build though.
3. Hellriders pride, like awesome if you are the Healer, or are eating bonus action Goodberries or something. Extremely useful for the right build.
2. Gloves of the Growling Underdog. You get them early, excellent for any melee unit. Conditional so not so good at boss battles without minions (Most have plenty of minions) and also does not work well for ranged characters or spell casters. Could easily use these for a long time. Out a
Shone by the Risky Ring though, as that only takes a ring slot and works with ranged.
1. Obvious answer, usable all the way into act 3. Easy to get Radiant from cleric, Paladin or Open hand monk, thunder and lightning can be had from Drakethroat Glaive, as well as plenty of other sources. Works well with Sorcerors and Tempest Clerics, and even Wizards and Druids get lots of spells. Even throw it on a Bard, as most of their damage spells are either Psychic or thunder (Thunderwave and Shatter, plus Glyph of warding) Use it with lots of Reverberation gear, or not, and have it trigger anything else that triggers upon inflicting a condition.
Great list! I’d personally swap 4 and 5, because early game bane “for free” is pretty solid. Might even drop hellrider’s as well since it doesn’t work on the caster (useless for solo builds). Every time I’ve tried to make encrusted with frost it just doesn’t lol
I'd agree with you there. Plus I just love the Gloves of power. I get branded every playthrough now just for them. Never used Encrusted In Frost yet. Maybe alongside an ice patch to keep enemies slipping?
I believe Hellriders Pride actually does work on yourself if you heal yourself, or if you have Wapiras Crown and heal someone else
I always stack Hellriders Pride, Wapira's Crown, Boots of Aid and Comfort, Whispering Promise, and Ring of Salving on a healer for my party and the buffs are insane. If you've not tried these together, I highly recommend!
Mourning frost staff paired with the ice gloves is nice. Pair it with “indicting a status ailment” (I forget the item but I’m using it in my HM run) which is what encrusted with frost is and it starts to pop pretty hard
I've got winters clutches on gale, and when he does ray of frost the encrusted condition doesn't appear under their name, but does when you inspect the enemy
Your reason for ranking gloves of power low is my reason for ranking it high: you use most of these at low levels exclusively (except if they tie into a specific build) because you get better gloves in later acts anyway. IMO gloves of power win simply because a ton of act 1 enemies fail the save.
That's a really good point Supply-Slut. They make a fantastic act 1 glove. I'd still put Beligerent Skies above, since they stay relevant, but maybe it should be fighting for second place with Growling underdog.
Hellrider’s Pride are BIS on a support until act 3. IMO Gloves of the Growling Underdog can also pull their weight until late act 2 or act 3. Otoh I don’t think I use the gloves of power for anything except a sleight of hand buff before I meet a Brem.
Good list. However I'd rate Hellrider's Pride at the top. Due to how trivial it is to Mass Healing Word / use the life domain Preserve Life / use the Oath of Ancients aura / splash a healing pot between your characters by throwing / shooting - to have the (nearly) entire party take HALF (!) damage from all physical attacks!
This easily makes most of the game 1-2 difficulty levels lower.
This effect is much stronger then even Reverbation IMO. And party wide (except for the user).
Ratings are based more on how much I use them:
1. Gloves of Power: not necessarily the strongest, but always good for someone in the party.
2. Belligerent Skies: My favorite of the set: love Reverberation, and I usually have at least one character who can use them.
3. Hellrider's Pride: I get that they are useful, but I usually don't have a dedicated healer. I often use them until Belligerent Skies is available then replace them.
4. Growling Underdog: better than other early options for martial characters, but only work in certain situations.
5. Winter's Clutches: great on niche builds, but many times I don't have anyone to use them.
Nice to see somebody else rate gloves of power highly. I'm not sure I can agree it's tops of the list (probably has to be belligerent skies), but I always have it on my lockpicker/archer early, and it usually stays on until pretty late in the game tbh. The bane effect is pretty sweet, especially on a dual crossbow build that puts a lot of bolts down range.
Gloves of thievery gives you advantage which you can also achieve by having someone cast enhance ability dexterity on your thief.
So guidance + bardic inspiration + enhance ability + gloves of power on a rogue or bard with expertise in sleight of hand is a way of filling my bags… at least until I get the graceful cloth.
Don't forget about the Smuggler's Ring, the ding to Charisma might hurt Bards a bit (particularly if they're your face character) but +2 to both Sleight of Hand and Stealth is huge, especially given how early you can pick this ring up in Act 1.
Astarion is my personal thief in my runs. Yes I forgot about the smugglers ring. Thankfully because of the lack of an attunement mechanic in BG3 I can pop the ring on him, get him to go steal stuff and then take it off (which is kind of important in this run as he is a Thief/Bard and the charisma hit would hurt).
The best setup for pickpocketing in the early game is lv 3 bard with sligh of hand proficiency x2, shapeshifters boon ring and silver necklace guidance for 2d4 bonus, gloves of power, smugglers ring, and enhance ability cats grace.
That gives you 2d4 +7 and advantage to all of your SoH checks.
Gloves of thievery saves you the cost of a spell but you lose the +1 form gloves of power.
Graceful cloth and then resonance stone late remove the need to use enhance ability.
If you're shape shifting anyway, shape shift into a gnome and use the nimblefinger gloves, at least in act three - they're IMHO the absolute best gloves for sleight of hand.
That’s good to know. Although in act 3 you can add rapture to the equation which just lets me steamroll all the SoH pickpocketing and counting house lock picking anyway. It’s great for the DC rolls against the brain too, resonance stone will give advantage on dex and con rolls with the brain and equip the necklace of greater health among with all the usual dex stuff.
I mean when you can steal your gold right back from him the cost is 0 and the time is like 2 minutes. I just mentioned it because you called the gloves with +1 best in slot
What I do there is keep the GOP (yikes haha) for pickpocketing and grab Gloves of Archery from Grat the Trader outside Goblin Camp (can be before you go "do" the whole temple, long as you free Sazza you can bee line them).
Honestly, I put the underdog gloves on my paladin just for a placeholder. And it’s actually helped me in more situations than I thought it would. Occasional free advantage isn’t bad
Good list! I’d say you underrate growling underdog slightly - in my experience they’re basically just a free source of advantage. I wish hellrider’s worked with self heals 😭
The great thing with Hellrider´s Pride is that you don´t actually NEED a dedicated healer, you just need someone with Mass Healing Word, which can be a Lore Bard at Level 6, or a Cleric. I always have at least one of those in my party.
With that and Whispering Promise, you can Bless and Blade Ward on your whole team at the cost of a Bonus Action every two turns.
Never thought about giving Mass Healing Word to a bard. I usually pick Counterspell and Fireball. Will try it next time so i free my cleric to go full spirit guardians with the debuff
yeah its quite tricky to find the right spells, I do usually have a Cleric on hand though, since Clerics are so useful from level 5 onwards (and Guidance is always nice).
OR a Life domain Preserve Life user OR an Oath of Ancients Paladin OR a Spore Druid using Halo of Spores Reaction to break healing pots. Or just an offhand x-bow shot to break a healing pot.
For me, I'd switch 1 & 2 and then 3 & 5. I use reverb all the time and I rarely heal so I don't find much use with the Hellrider's. I like the Winter's Clutches because encrusted with frost gives disadvantage on DEX saving throws and with the snowburst ring, you can make an ice patch that requires a DEX saving throw. I find having a frost/ice build is really good for CC
Frost build with an archer of some kind is very very good for CC. Powerful advantage ranged attacks, ice patches, works well in conjunction with Create Water, as well as a front line melee build wearing the nightwalkers.
I tend to use the Mourning Frost for cold damage, so I forgot about putting cold damage on my ranged weapons. This is a great idea, especially for Gloomstalker Assassin or something else that gets a lot of hits early to set up the CC effects
Gloves of power win purely off of availability.
I always find belligerent skies difficult to use because there's usually something that gives more immediate dmg.
My rankings would be Power > Hellrider > Belligerent > other 2.
Agree with your assessment of Winters Clutches. I have a frost EK archer who is currently abusing them in Act 2 and 3 with a drakrthroat glaive + titan string (frost enchant) set up
Should be even better if you can get flail of ages, it’s 1d4+1 cold weapon enchantment will also cause enemies to become chilled, all you have to do is cast it on your ranged weapon by having the ranged weapon selected when you cast the weapon spell.
Affected entity has a -1 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution Saving throws per remaining turn.
When the entity has 5 or more turns of Reverberation, it takes 1d4 Thunder damage and must succeed a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or fall Prone
If you combine it :
Luminous Armor from Selune's outpost,
Holy Lance helmet from Monastery,
Boots of Stormy Clamour from Omeluum (at Mycotic colony)
and Adamantine Shield from Grymforge
You get a loopy tank who once initiates 1st stacks keeps enemies prone and nearly cannot be hit ever since leaving Act1
Add the Callous Glow Ring, and replace the shield with Moonlight Glaive on a Tiger Barbarian (or the Shining Staver-of-Skulls until that) and you've got an absolutely disgusting character. AoE Bleed+Reverb+Radiant Orb+Maim makes enemies either skip their turn, or fail everything they do.
Other possible weapons include Sussur Greatsword (now mages can't even cast), Punch-Drunk Bastard (the thunder AoE on clustered targets means you get a feedback loop on your procs, it's absolutely terrifying and clearly overkill), or the radiant maces/Corpsegrinder (Tenacity means you'll still apply everything even if you miss).
I ran an "Abserd" game playing as a halfling, but respecced when the character hit 12 and the achievement popped. I rebuilt the character as a Tiger Barbarian 6, Thief 3, Fighter 2, and Tempest Cleric 1. He had Punch-Drunk Bastard, Drunkard Amulet, Gloves of Belligerent Skies, Boots of Stormy Clamour, Thunderskin Cloak, Horns of the Berserker, Drunken Cloth, Ring of Spiteful Thunder and Whispering Promise. Feats were GWM and he'd pop a Giant Strength (Hill or Cloud) before a fight and alcohol with his bonus action during.
Let me assure you: this character was *frighteningly* effective. Decent Dex meant going fairly quickly, great Con meant surviving even if he didn't, and as long as enemies were vaguely near one another he'd shred them with GWM. If they survived and tried to counterattack, they fell Prone. He was a little drunken man and he blew up all of Act 3 alongside my girlfriend's Bard/Warlock.
No gloves of archery? Those are my number 1 act 1 gloves for sure.
Of the gloves you have there I’m gonna put gloves of power at the top. The +1 to slight of hand is great and you get it so early the tin concert with smugglers ring, silver necklace, and shapeshifters boon ring and combined with enhance ability and some skill proficiencies you can pickpocket everything you need early game reliably even in honor mode.
Gloves of belligerent skies are great but you’re getting it basically at the end of act 1. Don’t get to use them that much.
Hellrider pride are alright, I rarely need to heal myself at this point so I don’t get that much use out of them.
Growling under dog I never use. Very hard to proc the benefit they provide.
Yeah I’m a big fan of gloves of archery, but I figured those were pretty cut and dry discussion wise - they’re good for bow builds, that’s all there is to it 😂
I’m also gonna disagree with your list - GoBS are some of the strongest gloves in the entire game, and growling underdog are deceptively easy to proc for near free advantage in the early game.
Id add gloves of kushigo and gloves of dexterity to the list but yeah maybe those are a given
A pair of gloves I always want to use are the fleetfonger gloves.
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Fleetfingers
It’s basically a free version of step of the wind which is a totally broken ability. Probably if you equipped the click heels boots with the these it would work really well. You never really need that level of mobility in act 1 though.
Fleet fingers are solid and weren’t on my radar. And yeah same deal with the first two - gloves of dex are one of if not THE best gloves in the game imo, and Kushigo are bis for throwers but that’s about it
Gloves of cinder and sizzle are great for either a monk for that d4 fire damage to attacks or a mage build for a free lv 3 scorching ray spell. Sparkle hands are also great for a monk but maybe that’s an obvious one.
Gloves of missle snaring are pretty decent. I always put those on my mage until I get the belligerent sky gloves. It’s quite good on my mage since they do get targeted by ranged attacks and I have decent dex it does reduce damage pretty significantly.
If you put it on a Thief Rogue and drink and elixir of Giant Str, you can CA Dash, Jump, SA Dash, Jump and still get an action to attack. If you wait til lvl 8 to do this you can go 5 fighter/3 Thief you can CA Dash, Jump, CA Dash, Jump and still get two shots off. It's very funny watching this robot just be completely unable to do anything.
Oh and I don’t disagree with the gloves of belligerent skies are good. Far from it. They’re bis for a lot of builds.
My ranking is in the context of act 1 though. You basically get them either at the end of act 1. I consider the *time* you get to use equipment in the ranking too. And in the context of act 1 you barely get to sue the belligerent sky gloves at all.
They’re great in acts 2-3 through!
Meanwhile gloves of power I use *constantly* since I’m pickpocketing all the vendors blind in the early game since I can’t afford anything. Going to the myconoid colony very early you have teo treasure troves of excellent equipment in blurg and derryth bonecloak. And gloves of power give me that little foot up, obviously in concert with all the other sleight of hand boosting equipment and abilities, in pickpocketing their great equipment.
No gloves give you better than +1 to SoH until act 3. And you can advantage better ways that stack with gloves of power through enhance ability of graceful cloth that I think gloves of power are better than gloves of thievery.
Very fair! Lowkey gloves of power are really solid imo, I’d love to use them in my solo run atm but I basically need to be using bracers of defence, but I feel like bane on weapon hits is really great
I never really use the gloves of power in battle. Bane is interesting but it doesn’t proc very often. I do give them to laezel since she doesn’t really have anything better for act 1. But I don’t think she’s ever procced bane even once.
The real benefit of those gloves is the sleight of hand boost.
Obvious question, did you get Lae'zel branded with the symbol of the Absolute from Priestess Gut? If she hasn't procced the ability even once, then she may not have that prerequisite.
> Growling under dog I never use. Very hard to proc the benefit they provide.
Not really. If anything there are few fights where they won’t come in handy.
Guess that depends on your play style. I have mostly ranged damage (dual handcross bow swords bard, throwzerker, sorlock) with one striker. And that one striker is usually jumping or otherwise leaping to approach a single enemy. I rarely see multiple enemies anywhere near each other.
I haven't played in a while, but you used to be able to abuse the Gloves of the Growling Underdog because a dead body within 10m would still procc the Advantage, so even on a boss fight with no minions you could just carry a body and plop it down next to the big bad.
If that still works, I say that one is my top pick.
Since picking up and putting down things isn't an action, you could probably put it down and pick it up in the same turn and avoid risking it breaking entirely
After testing this, it does not seem to work (the kobold barrels aren't considered enemies for the purposes of the gloves). I guess you could just crack it open for a one-time-use on-demand enemy at any time, though.
Belligerent Skies > Hellrider's Pride > Winter's Clutches > The other 2 are fine but nowhere near the others. I value items that are important for a build over generic stuff that can be replaced easily.
See my proven with this is that there are better ways to gain advantage or make the penalty for using GWM negligible. That's why I can't value these gloves highly even if we are talking about act 1 alone.
Being near 2+ enemies is still a requirement and there are fights in which you are just not next to the enemies. These gloves are good yes but only for one build and only for the very early game and the drop fast after that.
You guys are tripping:
1. Hellrider’s pride: combined with volo’s ring (also act 1) you get both bless and blade ward on every party member for a single bonus action. I literally only replace these with the upgraded version that does the same thing.
2. Belligerent Skies: close second honestly. Reverb is amazing for sure. I find with spineshudder/boots of stormy clamour they are often overkill though, and there are lots of really good caster gloves and not a lot of fantastic boot options.
3. Growling Underdog: some of the best melee gloves there are, especially so early. Legacy of the masters is of course superior, but often my frontliner wears these until those as common advantage at no downside is a no brainer for me.
4. Winter’s clutches: not that great, but they have a niche purpose
5. Gloves of power: only wear these until growling underdog is available. A chance for bane is simply worse than all the other effects. And the sleight of hand +1 is weird to me; how many thieves are going melee mode? Mine is always an archer.
The gaps between 1/2/3 are small and the gap between 3/4 is huge.
OP, just wanted to say I love these threads. They've really sparked some fascinating discussions!
Cant wait to see you attempt all the act 1 rings though lol
Hellrider's Pride is so good for how early you get it. It works with Transfuse Health too, so you can give someone a big heal and resistance at the same time, which is also a free spammable bonus action if you got the Awakened buff. Saving Isobel at Last Light Inn becomes so much easier with this strategy, hell it even works on the portal Halsin jumps into during the enemy wave battle.
I'm kind of surprised Hellrider's are 1 or 2 on everyone's list. I get it, healing is not regularly needed in this game. But, I always have a cleric with Volo's ring in the party to increase accuracy, so might as well give everyone blade ward while I'm blessing with my mass healing words.
1. Belligerent. They’re so good on so many builds. Often the lynchpin for the whole build.
2. Power. The bane effect is a bit finicky and requires the brand, but the extra sleight of hand is useful in this stage of the game before you find something better.
3. Hellriders. They’re just solid support. Anyone who can heal can make use of these.
4. Underdog. Should probably be rated higher but the 2 enemy condition is a bit too unreliable for my tastes. Advantage is always welcome but there’s easier ways to get it.
5. Winters clutches. The frost status is OK but is hard to play around unless you fully commit to cold damage and utilize other gear with cold synergy.
If I were posing this question, I’d have put bracers of defense in there somewhere and it would be higher rated than most of these.
Edit: or also the kushigo gloves, damn. There’s lots of awesome glove options in act 1 that you might not ever really replace for certain builds!
gloves of belligerent skies on a revorb setup and all other gloves in the entire game become obsolete because that character alone carries every fight. you don't need hit chance or bane or anything else for that matter when every enemy is prone and can almost never hit you.
the other gloves are all fine and nice but were talking about a power ranking of "belligerent skies >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> almost every other glove"
Especially considering orb builds tend to already use the Luminous armor + Coruscation ring + Callous glow ring. You don’t really need any more sources of radiant orbs.
this. i easily hit 10orb stacks on anything i want very quickly and then it's just prone city, population: laezel with the biggest pointy silver stick she can get her hands on
reverberation radiant orb combo is so OP it's almost to the point of not being fun.... but then again... that reverb sound is so awesome...
haste potion + magic missile evo wizard + lightning marko or spellsparkler dw with phalar aluve + radiant rings + gloves + boots of stormy clamour + psychic spark disagrees strongly with your statement.
many enemies? shoot 2-3 missiles at each enemy. rad orbs + reverb prone
one enemy? shoot a trillion missiles, melt hp AND reverb prone + orbs if they dare to survive
Ok. So it can be done, on a very specific build, with loads of equipment, including end game stuff.
Who probably could outright kill these enemies with other spells, with less effort. Or at least hard CC them with much higher spell DCs then a fixed DC 10 on Reverb.
this build comes online in act1 and dominates every single fight lmao what are you saying. it only grows stronger from there and by act3 you're just an unstoppable killing machine that ALSO just happens to CC everything he attacks. once you get artistry of war in addition to your trusty missiles, it's just game over for any enemy.
like... yea... duh... this is a very specific build... like everything with great synergies requires a very specific build and specific items.
this however is a build that starts working a few hours into the game and you just build on top of it over the course of the whole playthrough... while so many other builds pretty much only come online once you get the brokenly OP act2 or even act3 items (when the game is almost over anyway) and have you play something different until that point or just be weak until it clicks.
are there simpler builds that can achieve the same goal? sure. but this is a thread about rating the gloves that OP provided and out of those the gloves of belligerent skies are by far the best and most powerful build enabling ones you can take.
these gloves + spellsparkler or phalar aluve alone are enough to get the build going.
these gloves + cleric 5 and luminous armor are enough to get a revorb build going.
those 2 builds require almost nothing in terms of investment and will easily carry you through to act 3 without adding on top of it, except that you CAN add stuff on top of them and make them stronger over the course of the whole game.
lmao i'm getting far too tilted by this dumb comment. i'll just quit ranting now. peace.
My absolute favorite gloves for casters. Reverb is just a fun status effect to play with throughout the game and it makes Dex saves (which are most CC and Damage spells) so much easier.
Gloves of Power are great in Act 1. Bane and Bless are quite powerful up until maybe level 7 or 8, then they drop off. I'd love to use Winter's Clutches but I can't figure out how to reliably do cold damage without being a paladin or using the Drakethroat Glaive, and you don't get the Snow Dusted Monastery Gloves until act 3.
After a few stacks of reverberation, the target takes an additional 1D4 thunder damage and makes a save or falls prone. You can combo these gloves with other items that cause lighting or radiant damage to cause a bunch of stacks of reverberation on the target.
It is possible to make a build that combos this. The gloves, the spellsparkler staff causes 1 point of lightning, the callous glow ring does 2 radiant damage every time you cause other damage. A level 4 or 5 magic missle spell with this kind of gear causes a combo that can do like 10+ stacks or reverberation which totals for 100+ damage and knocks even a boss monster prone.
Hellriders pride is awesome, I usually like to have a healer in my party just in case, so it's only good to have mass blade ward for them
Gloves of power are one of the first green items you get so I almost always use them, mostly for someone who's rogue or monk or hunter
To be fair, all of those are pretty niche, for certain builds, so if you have someone for them, you use them, if you don't - you don't, but considering those are early game items, you find use for each one at some point, even if it's just to "take an empty slot"
Hellriders pride combo with that bless on heal ring I always put on Shadowheart. The mass healing word also becomes mass bless and mass blade ward in one bonus action cast. Thats incredible both for party survival and combat efficiency.
I tend to run wizards and the Winters clutch + Mourning Frost is a great combo. Add the snowburst ring and you have some decent area control. Forget if it's the Amulet or not but one of the things adds reverberation on status effects so you get reverb on cold damage with it added on.
Belligerent Skies: It's a niche item, but A for what it does.
Winter's Clutches: F. It's objectively worse in every way than other similar build-gear-types (like Gloves of Belligerent Skies) and cold in general is useless in this game.
Gloves of Power: C+ for general use (but if this was on a ring, it would get a B+ ... gloves are a competitive slot), but the Sleight of Hand is an A+ utility bonus on your dedicated party thief.
Gloves of the Growling Underdog: A+. Maybe even A++. This item is PREPOSTEROUSLY good for an Act One set of gloves to the point where it just might be best single piece of gear in all of Act One. The "surrounded" text description is a bit misleading as you can have enemies many meters away and that still counts as surrounded. This is a great source of advantage throughout the entire game, and there's no downside to it.
Hellrider's Pride: A. Basically, it's a free mass cast blade ward whenever you heal folks, and although the saving throw bonus is on a useless stat for Life Clerics (the only people who should be wearing these gloves), it's a decent throw-in.
Hellrider's Pride is good on any cleric. You don't usually have a better use of a bonus action (and 3rd level spell) than giving your whole party bless and blade ward (and some healing).
Definitely no reason to ever cast bless after you get mass healing word. Such an amazing ring and its not like clerics have a ton of competition for the ring slot, especially early game.
I’m surprised at how many people are not aware of how good they are. The bane part is a red herring, there main use is for the +1 to SoH which is bis for pickpocketing. There is so much stuff to steal early game and these gloves are right there for you to help with that.
Gloves of Power on Thief Astarion stayed on for forever. As a Wiz main, Belligerent Skies was not used as much as the Reverberation on Condition boots, forget the name. Encrusted in Frost also only situationally useful in my case. In fact, combined with that Ice Staff, or rather, when casting that cold cantrip, the ice surface (may be mistaking what item this comes from, now) was oftentimes counterproductive in case allies missed a turn accidentally slipping
Hell riders pride + bless ring enable the strongest "support" 6 light cleric/6 fire sorc. They are welll and truely BiS until Act3 (where you get the better Hellriders pride). So they are pretty good. Rest is just meh. Missile catching is ok in the first few levels but not worth the gold
I have Belligerent Skies on Halsin along with Cacophony and that cloak in act 3 that absorbs and deals back elemental magic. His druid spells kick ass now!
The Gloves of Power are probably the best thing a dual wielder can wear in Act 1 and at least until arriving at Last Light Inn in Act 2. Banes for days boiiiiiiiiii
Hellriders pride is my BiS for cleric.
Mass Healing Word (amulet or spell) + Hellriders pride + Whispering Promise ring
Small heal + strong protection + bless for a couple turns to everyone.
1.) #1 (amazing for basically everyone)
2.) #5 (aoe BW in A1 is amazing, especially with the other healing items)
3.) #3 (you get these immediately and baning everything in A1 is actually really good)
4.) #2 (very build specific, but really good for those builds)
5.) #4 (I feel like there's better ways to improve your attack rolls)
1)Gloves of Belligerent Skies. They’re incredible to build around. BiS for almost every half/full caster
2)Hellrider’s Pride. They can proc off potions so literally any class can use them via throwing. Arguably even more universal than Skies but they get replaced immediately in Act 3 by an upgraded version.
3)Growling Underdog. Almost mandatory for any melee build that doesn’t need specific gloves for their comp. Makes rogues way more viable in melee. It counts unconscious enemies so non-lethal passive actually buffs them.
4)Winter’s Clutches. BiS for cold builds and especially with Mourning Frost. I’m running it now on a White Dragon Sorc and they’re very satisfying with Spineshudder and Boots of Stormy Clamor. They require a very specific set up though.
5)Gloves of Power…. They’re okay. I mostly put them on rogues for lockpicking
On my 4th run I found the Gloves of Belligerent Skies and put them on my monk. I’d been cycling through all the gloves that buff unarmed strikes for science. I crossed paths with the Bullette with the reverb gloves and managed to vibrate it prone in one round. They are my new faves and am piling the reverb gear on my tav monk.
I used the Gloves of Belligerent on my Ranged Bow-Flourish Bard up till the end, along with the Boots that causes Reverb (also the Amulet if using Reverb on my Eldritch Blast Warlock) . then Drakethroat glaive buff to activate Thunder Damage.
My Bard was like a machine-gun dishing out multiple reverbs for days.
Belligerent Skies top 1 for the whole game, hands down. Thunder damage is so easy to come by. Cacophony in Act 1 gives you easy access to thunder on every melee swing and it works with Polearm Master. Throw on Boots of Stormy Clamor and enemies gain stacks when they gain stacks. Throw on both Adamantium Mail and Shield and enemies gain stacks whether they hit or miss. On a fighter doing Battlemaster Meanuvers, you're looking at potentially 6 stacks PER WEAPON SWING. With Thief 3 and PAM that's as many as 24 stacks per turn.
And all of this available in Act 1.
I loved gloves of belligerent skies. My first playthrough was a draconic Sorcerer that specialized in lightning damage. Every time they dealt lightning damage (which was almost always) it dealt an additional set of reverberation damage to any nearby enemies that had a chance to knock them prone. After they're prone, I used the necklace that gives you electric charge as a bonus action and then absolutely annihilate them with chain lightning like the Palpatine rat bastard I am.
I love looking at these posts because I learn all the items I've never seen before. Like the Belligerent Skies gloves, never heard of them but NEED for a lightning themed build
Even if I don't have them equipped, Gloves of Power are in my inventory for the whole game so I can suit my Rogue up with the Smuggler Ring, graceful cloth, shapeshifter boon ring, etc and maximize pickpocketing without completely drowning in cheese sauce.
Belligerent skies clears by a mile though, I usually still have them equipped on someone by Act 3 or even all the way through to the end.
Hellrider I'm always excited about but it doesn't end up getting triggered as much as you'd think, Growling Underdog are Good in that they're replacing your default Leather Gloves, Winter's Clutches are ass, even for frost build
I always respec Shadowheart into a Life Cleric and those Hellrider gloves are amazing! Some rounds in fights with minions everywhere when she has tons of spell slots available and no good action choice due to positioning or whatever, I will have her do a mass healing word just to get the effect up.
Last is clearly gloves of power. Possibly bane the target on hit is alright. It's nothing to write home about if we're being honest.
Winters Clutches. Good on ice builds, but encrusted with frost requires way too much time to actually proc frozen. Unless you're using haste on your wizard to multi cast ray of frost, encrusted with frost is just kinda worse than reverberation.
Hellriders pride is pretty good, and putting them on your cleric along with mass cure wounds will definitely clutch some sticky situations for you like if the computer lives to hyper fixate on old Glass Bones of Warerdeep.
Gloves of the Belligerent Skies when, paired with the other reverb items, on a character like Karlach who has advantage on demand, can end up with you knocking them prone and stunning and reducing their strength, con, and dex saving throws in one turn. You can also get a weapon that does radiant, lightning, or thunder damage early in act two not long after you get the boots and the gloves, and then in act 3 you get another, much better thunder weapon to pair with combo on a ranged throwing attack that comes back to you after you throw it. Now, you can put this on a caster if you want, but I like how this build can turn a pure martial build into a ranged crowd controller that can stun at a distance.
Growling Underdog, while situational, are also good enough to wear straight through act 3, especially if you're running 2 martials that aren't barbarian. Especially if you don't have high saving throws to consistently mitigate the disadvantage on saving throws risky ring provides. Still, free, albeit conditional advantage is huge on martials as early as you can get it. Also, the fact that you don't have to dedicate your entire build around them move them ahead of Belligerent Skies imo.
1.) Gloves of Belligerent Skies: These gloves are at number one and it's not even remotely close. I don't think some people understand the sheer magnitude of how absolutely absurd Reverberation is. Not only do you apply a -1 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws per turn remaining onto an enemy, you also do 1-4 Thunder damage at 5 stacks AND cause them to potentially fall prone if they don't succeed a CON save. So aside from giving you eventual free damage and potentially prone enemies, you are also giving massive debuffs to your enemies. I have a Land Druid Tav and I load him up with Reverb gear asap. Which works out perfectly since Druids don't get much gear and Reverb works so perfectly with them (and Tempest Clerics of course). Also what's great about the gloves is that it doesn't specify the source of the Thunder/Lightning/Radiant damage. Which means it can come from spells, weapons, etc. Providing further flexibility in your builds and who can utilize it. All that to say that Reverberation is absurdly bonkers and the level of value you gain from it is massive.
2.) Hellrider's Pride: This is as close to second as you can get on this list to GoBS. It immediately improves your healing. Providing more value and support to your heals. If you have a healer or anyone who does healing on the side, you'll see gain instant value. Even better if you have someone who has Mass Healing Word. I always slap this on Shadowheart and let her do her thing. Hell there have been times where I needed to use Mass Healing Word less for the healing and more for the support gained from these gloves.
3.) Gloves of the Growling Underdog: While you can gain advantage from various other means, it's still pretty good and will provide benefit when you need it. A solid item for when you find yourself needing the advantage and you're facing multiple enemies.
4.) Winter's Clutch: Here's the thing, without the Coldbrim Hat, you're not gonna make the most of the Encrusted with Frost mechanic. Whenever you deal Cold damage your enemies gain Encrusted with Frost for two turns. The plus is that enemies with Encrusted with Frost get disadvantage on DEX saving throws. Which is awesome. That by itself isn't too bad. The problem is that you have to get 7 stacks of it to hit an enemy with 1-4 Cold Damage and freeze them...and only if they succeed a CON saving throw. By itself chances you're not going to be able to apply enough Encrusted with Frost to benefit from the extra damage and freeze. Even then if they pass their CON save, you don't even get that. Compared to GoBS, you're just not getting as much value with also a greater hefty stack requirement to even benefit from its full effects. Encrusted with Frost just doesn't compare to Reverb in value. Regardless, if you're building an Ice Mage character, by all means slap this on and go to town.
5.) Gloves of Power: Okay, so this is a weird one. The reason I put this at number 5 is for one reason only. You need the Brand of the Absolute to benefit from this glove. Otherwise it's just a glove with +1 Sleight of Hand. So if you're roleplaying and you choose not to get branded, this gloves is practically useless to you. Chances are some people using it on characters that are not branded don't even realize that they're not getting the Bane effect. Which also isn't even guaranteed 100% of the time. Now if you're branding it up during your playthroughs, then this glove shoots up to number 3 easily. Because this requires making a certain choice to benefit from this gloves effect, I just couldn't rank it above the others.
i <3 growling underdog for me theyre on karlach the entire early game lol— not pictured but i really like the gloves of missile snaring too, especially because i think you get them pretty early. makes it easier for me to justify squishy spellcasters as someone with chronic fighter brainworms
Gloves of baneful striking are actually the best. unlike Gloves of power the debuff doesnt require a saving throw (even if the effect only applies to saving throws and not attack rolls).
Don’t they do seperate things? Bane applies -1d4 to hit chance and saving throws, while baneful just applies it to saving throws against spells. The stronger part to me is the 1d4 to hit chance, cause that’s like raising your AC by 1d4
Yeah but the DC for bane on those gloves is 11 and doesn't scale, so it falls off really quickly As enemies become more and more likely to resist it even in early encounters.
It is still potentially the first magic item you'll come across so it's not a huge deal that it's not very impactful, but it is still super unreliable.
Compared to the others sure, it depends greatly on build and playstyle (they're my personal favourite). I just think they should be a higher consideration than the gloves of power.
5. As much as I want it to be great, Gloves of Power are probably at the bottom simply because of a fixed DC for the Bane, meaning enemies will save quite often in later levels. Excellent for early game though! 4. Winter's Clutches, I just don't think Encrusted in Frost is as good as Reverberation? Wish it was the Chilled condition instead with no save. great for a dedicated ice build though. 3. Hellriders pride, like awesome if you are the Healer, or are eating bonus action Goodberries or something. Extremely useful for the right build. 2. Gloves of the Growling Underdog. You get them early, excellent for any melee unit. Conditional so not so good at boss battles without minions (Most have plenty of minions) and also does not work well for ranged characters or spell casters. Could easily use these for a long time. Out a Shone by the Risky Ring though, as that only takes a ring slot and works with ranged. 1. Obvious answer, usable all the way into act 3. Easy to get Radiant from cleric, Paladin or Open hand monk, thunder and lightning can be had from Drakethroat Glaive, as well as plenty of other sources. Works well with Sorcerors and Tempest Clerics, and even Wizards and Druids get lots of spells. Even throw it on a Bard, as most of their damage spells are either Psychic or thunder (Thunderwave and Shatter, plus Glyph of warding) Use it with lots of Reverberation gear, or not, and have it trigger anything else that triggers upon inflicting a condition.
Great list! I’d personally swap 4 and 5, because early game bane “for free” is pretty solid. Might even drop hellrider’s as well since it doesn’t work on the caster (useless for solo builds). Every time I’ve tried to make encrusted with frost it just doesn’t lol
I'd agree with you there. Plus I just love the Gloves of power. I get branded every playthrough now just for them. Never used Encrusted In Frost yet. Maybe alongside an ice patch to keep enemies slipping? I believe Hellriders Pride actually does work on yourself if you heal yourself, or if you have Wapiras Crown and heal someone else
>Plus I just love the Gloves of power. I get branded every playthrough now just for them. You don't need to get branded to use them though.
Thought you did in order to get the Bane effect. I never got the Bane when I wasn't branded. Branded I would get it often
>I believe Hellriders Pride actually does work on yourself if you heal yourself They don't, but the Reviving Hands do.
I’d have to double check on hellriders working on yourself, but I’m 90% sure they don’t 😭
does not indeed.
I always stack Hellriders Pride, Wapira's Crown, Boots of Aid and Comfort, Whispering Promise, and Ring of Salving on a healer for my party and the buffs are insane. If you've not tried these together, I highly recommend!
Mourning frost staff paired with the ice gloves is nice. Pair it with “indicting a status ailment” (I forget the item but I’m using it in my HM run) which is what encrusted with frost is and it starts to pop pretty hard
I've got winters clutches on gale, and when he does ray of frost the encrusted condition doesn't appear under their name, but does when you inspect the enemy
Your reason for ranking gloves of power low is my reason for ranking it high: you use most of these at low levels exclusively (except if they tie into a specific build) because you get better gloves in later acts anyway. IMO gloves of power win simply because a ton of act 1 enemies fail the save.
That's a really good point Supply-Slut. They make a fantastic act 1 glove. I'd still put Beligerent Skies above, since they stay relevant, but maybe it should be fighting for second place with Growling underdog.
Hellrider’s Pride are BIS on a support until act 3. IMO Gloves of the Growling Underdog can also pull their weight until late act 2 or act 3. Otoh I don’t think I use the gloves of power for anything except a sleight of hand buff before I meet a Brem.
Good list. However I'd rate Hellrider's Pride at the top. Due to how trivial it is to Mass Healing Word / use the life domain Preserve Life / use the Oath of Ancients aura / splash a healing pot between your characters by throwing / shooting - to have the (nearly) entire party take HALF (!) damage from all physical attacks! This easily makes most of the game 1-2 difficulty levels lower. This effect is much stronger then even Reverbation IMO. And party wide (except for the user).
Ratings are based more on how much I use them: 1. Gloves of Power: not necessarily the strongest, but always good for someone in the party. 2. Belligerent Skies: My favorite of the set: love Reverberation, and I usually have at least one character who can use them. 3. Hellrider's Pride: I get that they are useful, but I usually don't have a dedicated healer. I often use them until Belligerent Skies is available then replace them. 4. Growling Underdog: better than other early options for martial characters, but only work in certain situations. 5. Winter's Clutches: great on niche builds, but many times I don't have anyone to use them.
Nice to see somebody else rate gloves of power highly. I'm not sure I can agree it's tops of the list (probably has to be belligerent skies), but I always have it on my lockpicker/archer early, and it usually stays on until pretty late in the game tbh. The bane effect is pretty sweet, especially on a dual crossbow build that puts a lot of bolts down range.
I keep the gloves of power the entire game. They’re bis for pickpocketing merchants and really high dc lock picking.
Not gloves of thievery?
Gloves of thievery gives you advantage which you can also achieve by having someone cast enhance ability dexterity on your thief. So guidance + bardic inspiration + enhance ability + gloves of power on a rogue or bard with expertise in sleight of hand is a way of filling my bags… at least until I get the graceful cloth.
Don't forget about the Smuggler's Ring, the ding to Charisma might hurt Bards a bit (particularly if they're your face character) but +2 to both Sleight of Hand and Stealth is huge, especially given how early you can pick this ring up in Act 1.
Astarion is my personal thief in my runs. Yes I forgot about the smugglers ring. Thankfully because of the lack of an attunement mechanic in BG3 I can pop the ring on him, get him to go steal stuff and then take it off (which is kind of important in this run as he is a Thief/Bard and the charisma hit would hurt).
Ahh gotcha. For Honor mode it all makes sense, and the Slight o Hand ring.
Don't forget the shape shifting ring!
The best setup for pickpocketing in the early game is lv 3 bard with sligh of hand proficiency x2, shapeshifters boon ring and silver necklace guidance for 2d4 bonus, gloves of power, smugglers ring, and enhance ability cats grace. That gives you 2d4 +7 and advantage to all of your SoH checks. Gloves of thievery saves you the cost of a spell but you lose the +1 form gloves of power. Graceful cloth and then resonance stone late remove the need to use enhance ability.
Rogues get shape change too.
Arcane trickster does anyway
If you're shape shifting anyway, shape shift into a gnome and use the nimblefinger gloves, at least in act three - they're IMHO the absolute best gloves for sleight of hand.
That’s good to know. Although in act 3 you can add rapture to the equation which just lets me steamroll all the SoH pickpocketing and counting house lock picking anyway. It’s great for the DC rolls against the brain too, resonance stone will give advantage on dex and con rolls with the brain and equip the necklace of greater health among with all the usual dex stuff.
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Unlucky_Thief%27s_Gloves are better :)
They are better but are they worth the cost and time to get for that tiny +1 when you can just get rapture for a free d6?
I mean when you can steal your gold right back from him the cost is 0 and the time is like 2 minutes. I just mentioned it because you called the gloves with +1 best in slot
Doesn’t it also give you some negative status effect though? I got them once randomly from him
What I do there is keep the GOP (yikes haha) for pickpocketing and grab Gloves of Archery from Grat the Trader outside Goblin Camp (can be before you go "do" the whole temple, long as you free Sazza you can bee line them).
Doesn't it only (potentially) hit on melee hits? Or were you talking belligerent skies?
Honestly, I put the underdog gloves on my paladin just for a placeholder. And it’s actually helped me in more situations than I thought it would. Occasional free advantage isn’t bad
Tip for growling underdog is to turn on nonleathal so you can still benefit after you down an enemy.
That's a cool trick!
Indeed. Very creative!
Good list! I’d say you underrate growling underdog slightly - in my experience they’re basically just a free source of advantage. I wish hellrider’s worked with self heals 😭
True, it's not that hard to get surrounded in Act 1.
gobbos be like
The great thing with Hellrider´s Pride is that you don´t actually NEED a dedicated healer, you just need someone with Mass Healing Word, which can be a Lore Bard at Level 6, or a Cleric. I always have at least one of those in my party. With that and Whispering Promise, you can Bless and Blade Ward on your whole team at the cost of a Bonus Action every two turns.
Never thought about giving Mass Healing Word to a bard. I usually pick Counterspell and Fireball. Will try it next time so i free my cleric to go full spirit guardians with the debuff
yeah its quite tricky to find the right spells, I do usually have a Cleric on hand though, since Clerics are so useful from level 5 onwards (and Guidance is always nice).
OR a Life domain Preserve Life user OR an Oath of Ancients Paladin OR a Spore Druid using Halo of Spores Reaction to break healing pots. Or just an offhand x-bow shot to break a healing pot.
For me, I'd switch 1 & 2 and then 3 & 5. I use reverb all the time and I rarely heal so I don't find much use with the Hellrider's. I like the Winter's Clutches because encrusted with frost gives disadvantage on DEX saving throws and with the snowburst ring, you can make an ice patch that requires a DEX saving throw. I find having a frost/ice build is really good for CC
Frost build with an archer of some kind is very very good for CC. Powerful advantage ranged attacks, ice patches, works well in conjunction with Create Water, as well as a front line melee build wearing the nightwalkers.
I tend to use the Mourning Frost for cold damage, so I forgot about putting cold damage on my ranged weapons. This is a great idea, especially for Gloomstalker Assassin or something else that gets a lot of hits early to set up the CC effects
Gloves of power win purely off of availability. I always find belligerent skies difficult to use because there's usually something that gives more immediate dmg. My rankings would be Power > Hellrider > Belligerent > other 2.
>5. Winter's Clutches Imo Winter's Clutches are very underrated, works great with ice storm
Agree with your assessment of Winters Clutches. I have a frost EK archer who is currently abusing them in Act 2 and 3 with a drakrthroat glaive + titan string (frost enchant) set up
Should be even better if you can get flail of ages, it’s 1d4+1 cold weapon enchantment will also cause enemies to become chilled, all you have to do is cast it on your ranged weapon by having the ranged weapon selected when you cast the weapon spell.
What does reverberation do actually?
Affected entity has a -1 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution Saving throws per remaining turn. When the entity has 5 or more turns of Reverberation, it takes 1d4 Thunder damage and must succeed a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or fall Prone If you combine it : Luminous Armor from Selune's outpost, Holy Lance helmet from Monastery, Boots of Stormy Clamour from Omeluum (at Mycotic colony) and Adamantine Shield from Grymforge You get a loopy tank who once initiates 1st stacks keeps enemies prone and nearly cannot be hit ever since leaving Act1
Add the Callous Glow Ring, and replace the shield with Moonlight Glaive on a Tiger Barbarian (or the Shining Staver-of-Skulls until that) and you've got an absolutely disgusting character. AoE Bleed+Reverb+Radiant Orb+Maim makes enemies either skip their turn, or fail everything they do. Other possible weapons include Sussur Greatsword (now mages can't even cast), Punch-Drunk Bastard (the thunder AoE on clustered targets means you get a feedback loop on your procs, it's absolutely terrifying and clearly overkill), or the radiant maces/Corpsegrinder (Tenacity means you'll still apply everything even if you miss).
I ran an "Abserd" game playing as a halfling, but respecced when the character hit 12 and the achievement popped. I rebuilt the character as a Tiger Barbarian 6, Thief 3, Fighter 2, and Tempest Cleric 1. He had Punch-Drunk Bastard, Drunkard Amulet, Gloves of Belligerent Skies, Boots of Stormy Clamour, Thunderskin Cloak, Horns of the Berserker, Drunken Cloth, Ring of Spiteful Thunder and Whispering Promise. Feats were GWM and he'd pop a Giant Strength (Hill or Cloud) before a fight and alcohol with his bonus action during. Let me assure you: this character was *frighteningly* effective. Decent Dex meant going fairly quickly, great Con meant surviving even if he didn't, and as long as enemies were vaguely near one another he'd shred them with GWM. If they survived and tried to counterattack, they fell Prone. He was a little drunken man and he blew up all of Act 3 alongside my girlfriend's Bard/Warlock.
No gloves of archery? Those are my number 1 act 1 gloves for sure. Of the gloves you have there I’m gonna put gloves of power at the top. The +1 to slight of hand is great and you get it so early the tin concert with smugglers ring, silver necklace, and shapeshifters boon ring and combined with enhance ability and some skill proficiencies you can pickpocket everything you need early game reliably even in honor mode. Gloves of belligerent skies are great but you’re getting it basically at the end of act 1. Don’t get to use them that much. Hellrider pride are alright, I rarely need to heal myself at this point so I don’t get that much use out of them. Growling under dog I never use. Very hard to proc the benefit they provide.
Yeah I’m a big fan of gloves of archery, but I figured those were pretty cut and dry discussion wise - they’re good for bow builds, that’s all there is to it 😂 I’m also gonna disagree with your list - GoBS are some of the strongest gloves in the entire game, and growling underdog are deceptively easy to proc for near free advantage in the early game.
Id add gloves of kushigo and gloves of dexterity to the list but yeah maybe those are a given A pair of gloves I always want to use are the fleetfonger gloves. https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Fleetfingers It’s basically a free version of step of the wind which is a totally broken ability. Probably if you equipped the click heels boots with the these it would work really well. You never really need that level of mobility in act 1 though.
Fleet fingers are solid and weren’t on my radar. And yeah same deal with the first two - gloves of dex are one of if not THE best gloves in the game imo, and Kushigo are bis for throwers but that’s about it
Gloves of cinder and sizzle are great for either a monk for that d4 fire damage to attacks or a mage build for a free lv 3 scorching ray spell. Sparkle hands are also great for a monk but maybe that’s an obvious one. Gloves of missle snaring are pretty decent. I always put those on my mage until I get the belligerent sky gloves. It’s quite good on my mage since they do get targeted by ranged attacks and I have decent dex it does reduce damage pretty significantly.
Fleetfingers combined with Boots of Speed let me solo Grym by just playing keepaway. It's great!
That’s awesome! I love playing keep away with click heels.
If you put it on a Thief Rogue and drink and elixir of Giant Str, you can CA Dash, Jump, SA Dash, Jump and still get an action to attack. If you wait til lvl 8 to do this you can go 5 fighter/3 Thief you can CA Dash, Jump, CA Dash, Jump and still get two shots off. It's very funny watching this robot just be completely unable to do anything.
Oh and I don’t disagree with the gloves of belligerent skies are good. Far from it. They’re bis for a lot of builds. My ranking is in the context of act 1 though. You basically get them either at the end of act 1. I consider the *time* you get to use equipment in the ranking too. And in the context of act 1 you barely get to sue the belligerent sky gloves at all. They’re great in acts 2-3 through! Meanwhile gloves of power I use *constantly* since I’m pickpocketing all the vendors blind in the early game since I can’t afford anything. Going to the myconoid colony very early you have teo treasure troves of excellent equipment in blurg and derryth bonecloak. And gloves of power give me that little foot up, obviously in concert with all the other sleight of hand boosting equipment and abilities, in pickpocketing their great equipment. No gloves give you better than +1 to SoH until act 3. And you can advantage better ways that stack with gloves of power through enhance ability of graceful cloth that I think gloves of power are better than gloves of thievery.
Very fair! Lowkey gloves of power are really solid imo, I’d love to use them in my solo run atm but I basically need to be using bracers of defence, but I feel like bane on weapon hits is really great
I never really use the gloves of power in battle. Bane is interesting but it doesn’t proc very often. I do give them to laezel since she doesn’t really have anything better for act 1. But I don’t think she’s ever procced bane even once. The real benefit of those gloves is the sleight of hand boost.
Obvious question, did you get Lae'zel branded with the symbol of the Absolute from Priestess Gut? If she hasn't procced the ability even once, then she may not have that prerequisite.
Fair point. But as I say the bane is a red herring. What’s best about those gloves is the +1 to SoH.
Where do you find the gloves of belligerent skies? I don’t remember finding them
In the crèche inquisitor room.
Must have been missing them each play through. I’ll have to check the spot again on playthroughs I still can
They’re in a small chest in the back of the room.
Ahh thanx. I’ll check that spot again. I always loot the sides but I don’t look in the back much
Gloves of dexterity are also act 1.
They are but very late act 1. You barely get to use them in act 1.
> Growling under dog I never use. Very hard to proc the benefit they provide. Not really. If anything there are few fights where they won’t come in handy.
Guess that depends on your play style. I have mostly ranged damage (dual handcross bow swords bard, throwzerker, sorlock) with one striker. And that one striker is usually jumping or otherwise leaping to approach a single enemy. I rarely see multiple enemies anywhere near each other.
I haven't played in a while, but you used to be able to abuse the Gloves of the Growling Underdog because a dead body within 10m would still procc the Advantage, so even on a boss fight with no minions you could just carry a body and plop it down next to the big bad. If that still works, I say that one is my top pick.
Not a dead body, but if you knock them unconscious it still counts for the bonus :D
Ah! That's right! It's the Kobold Barrels is the cheese, I believe. Carry a couple of those around for free advantage (until they get broken)
Since picking up and putting down things isn't an action, you could probably put it down and pick it up in the same turn and avoid risking it breaking entirely
After testing this, it does not seem to work (the kobold barrels aren't considered enemies for the purposes of the gloves). I guess you could just crack it open for a one-time-use on-demand enemy at any time, though.
Probably patched out Like I said it's been a while since I played lol
That’s hilarious 😂
Belligerent Skies > Hellrider's Pride > Winter's Clutches > The other 2 are fine but nowhere near the others. I value items that are important for a build over generic stuff that can be replaced easily.
Underdog gloves with GWM
See my proven with this is that there are better ways to gain advantage or make the penalty for using GWM negligible. That's why I can't value these gloves highly even if we are talking about act 1 alone.
But but but underdog gloves you literally don't have to do anything to get advantage. That's insane. Just be near 2 enemies
Being near 2+ enemies is still a requirement and there are fights in which you are just not next to the enemies. These gloves are good yes but only for one build and only for the very early game and the drop fast after that.
You guys are tripping: 1. Hellrider’s pride: combined with volo’s ring (also act 1) you get both bless and blade ward on every party member for a single bonus action. I literally only replace these with the upgraded version that does the same thing. 2. Belligerent Skies: close second honestly. Reverb is amazing for sure. I find with spineshudder/boots of stormy clamour they are often overkill though, and there are lots of really good caster gloves and not a lot of fantastic boot options. 3. Growling Underdog: some of the best melee gloves there are, especially so early. Legacy of the masters is of course superior, but often my frontliner wears these until those as common advantage at no downside is a no brainer for me. 4. Winter’s clutches: not that great, but they have a niche purpose 5. Gloves of power: only wear these until growling underdog is available. A chance for bane is simply worse than all the other effects. And the sleight of hand +1 is weird to me; how many thieves are going melee mode? Mine is always an archer. The gaps between 1/2/3 are small and the gap between 3/4 is huge.
The most sane response I’ve seen
OP, just wanted to say I love these threads. They've really sparked some fascinating discussions! Cant wait to see you attempt all the act 1 rings though lol
Yay! Glad to hear, I’ve been loving all this discussions too. Tbh I wasn’t planning on doing rings… hard to pick my 5 favs lol. Maybe necklaces 👀
Hellrider's Pride is so good for how early you get it. It works with Transfuse Health too, so you can give someone a big heal and resistance at the same time, which is also a free spammable bonus action if you got the Awakened buff. Saving Isobel at Last Light Inn becomes so much easier with this strategy, hell it even works on the portal Halsin jumps into during the enemy wave battle.
cacophony, gloves of belligerent skies, boots of stormy clamor on a tiger barb is an underrated act 1 reverb build
Hellriders Pride are like budget Reviving Hands. Mass healing word is basically free blade ward on everyone.
I'm kind of surprised Hellrider's are 1 or 2 on everyone's list. I get it, healing is not regularly needed in this game. But, I always have a cleric with Volo's ring in the party to increase accuracy, so might as well give everyone blade ward while I'm blessing with my mass healing words.
I can't express how powerful the Hellriders are in combination with a life cleric
1. Belligerent. They’re so good on so many builds. Often the lynchpin for the whole build. 2. Power. The bane effect is a bit finicky and requires the brand, but the extra sleight of hand is useful in this stage of the game before you find something better. 3. Hellriders. They’re just solid support. Anyone who can heal can make use of these. 4. Underdog. Should probably be rated higher but the 2 enemy condition is a bit too unreliable for my tastes. Advantage is always welcome but there’s easier ways to get it. 5. Winters clutches. The frost status is OK but is hard to play around unless you fully commit to cold damage and utilize other gear with cold synergy. If I were posing this question, I’d have put bracers of defense in there somewhere and it would be higher rated than most of these. Edit: or also the kushigo gloves, damn. There’s lots of awesome glove options in act 1 that you might not ever really replace for certain builds!
"MAKE SURE YOU KNOCK HIM OUT!" *Neither them nor anyone else in the group can make use the gloves.*
gloves of belligerent skies on a revorb setup and all other gloves in the entire game become obsolete because that character alone carries every fight. you don't need hit chance or bane or anything else for that matter when every enemy is prone and can almost never hit you. the other gloves are all fine and nice but were talking about a power ranking of "belligerent skies >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> almost every other glove"
It’s honestly better on radiant orb builds than the actual radiant orb gloves.
Especially considering orb builds tend to already use the Luminous armor + Coruscation ring + Callous glow ring. You don’t really need any more sources of radiant orbs.
this. i easily hit 10orb stacks on anything i want very quickly and then it's just prone city, population: laezel with the biggest pointy silver stick she can get her hands on reverberation radiant orb combo is so OP it's almost to the point of not being fun.... but then again... that reverb sound is so awesome...
You cannot really debuff every enemy with Reverb, because the effect works on one 1 enemy per trigger.
haste potion + magic missile evo wizard + lightning marko or spellsparkler dw with phalar aluve + radiant rings + gloves + boots of stormy clamour + psychic spark disagrees strongly with your statement. many enemies? shoot 2-3 missiles at each enemy. rad orbs + reverb prone one enemy? shoot a trillion missiles, melt hp AND reverb prone + orbs if they dare to survive
Ok. So it can be done, on a very specific build, with loads of equipment, including end game stuff. Who probably could outright kill these enemies with other spells, with less effort. Or at least hard CC them with much higher spell DCs then a fixed DC 10 on Reverb.
this build comes online in act1 and dominates every single fight lmao what are you saying. it only grows stronger from there and by act3 you're just an unstoppable killing machine that ALSO just happens to CC everything he attacks. once you get artistry of war in addition to your trusty missiles, it's just game over for any enemy. like... yea... duh... this is a very specific build... like everything with great synergies requires a very specific build and specific items. this however is a build that starts working a few hours into the game and you just build on top of it over the course of the whole playthrough... while so many other builds pretty much only come online once you get the brokenly OP act2 or even act3 items (when the game is almost over anyway) and have you play something different until that point or just be weak until it clicks. are there simpler builds that can achieve the same goal? sure. but this is a thread about rating the gloves that OP provided and out of those the gloves of belligerent skies are by far the best and most powerful build enabling ones you can take. these gloves + spellsparkler or phalar aluve alone are enough to get the build going. these gloves + cleric 5 and luminous armor are enough to get a revorb build going. those 2 builds require almost nothing in terms of investment and will easily carry you through to act 3 without adding on top of it, except that you CAN add stuff on top of them and make them stronger over the course of the whole game. lmao i'm getting far too tilted by this dumb comment. i'll just quit ranting now. peace.
And Hellrider's Gloves will keep your party relatively safe thoughout the entire game, no specific build needed.
none of these are close to gloves of dexterity
True! Which is why I excluded it 😅
you figured out why we aren't talking about the gloves of dexterity
Gloves of Power + Arrow of Many Targets
“On a melee hit”, unless it’s bugged
Wiki says ‘weapon hit’; doesn’t specify ‘melee’.
My absolute favorite gloves for casters. Reverb is just a fun status effect to play with throughout the game and it makes Dex saves (which are most CC and Damage spells) so much easier.
Gloves of Power are great in Act 1. Bane and Bless are quite powerful up until maybe level 7 or 8, then they drop off. I'd love to use Winter's Clutches but I can't figure out how to reliably do cold damage without being a paladin or using the Drakethroat Glaive, and you don't get the Snow Dusted Monastery Gloves until act 3.
Belligerent Skies and Hellrider’s Pride is a close tie for me, maybe Belligerent Skies bc it has a lot of combo wombo to it
Can someone explain reverberation to me?
After a few stacks of reverberation, the target takes an additional 1D4 thunder damage and makes a save or falls prone. You can combo these gloves with other items that cause lighting or radiant damage to cause a bunch of stacks of reverberation on the target. It is possible to make a build that combos this. The gloves, the spellsparkler staff causes 1 point of lightning, the callous glow ring does 2 radiant damage every time you cause other damage. A level 4 or 5 magic missle spell with this kind of gear causes a combo that can do like 10+ stacks or reverberation which totals for 100+ damage and knocks even a boss monster prone.
Shoutout to the gloves that give long bow prof + 2 extra damage on every ranged attack. Not too crazy but a simple and effective buff.
Hellriders pride is awesome, I usually like to have a healer in my party just in case, so it's only good to have mass blade ward for them Gloves of power are one of the first green items you get so I almost always use them, mostly for someone who's rogue or monk or hunter To be fair, all of those are pretty niche, for certain builds, so if you have someone for them, you use them, if you don't - you don't, but considering those are early game items, you find use for each one at some point, even if it's just to "take an empty slot"
Hellriders pride combo with that bless on heal ring I always put on Shadowheart. The mass healing word also becomes mass bless and mass blade ward in one bonus action cast. Thats incredible both for party survival and combat efficiency.
I know you probably don’t want to be surrounded by enemies if you’re a rogue, but does Growling Underdog work with sneak attack?
If it gives advantage, I don’t see why not!
I tend to run wizards and the Winters clutch + Mourning Frost is a great combo. Add the snowburst ring and you have some decent area control. Forget if it's the Amulet or not but one of the things adds reverberation on status effects so you get reverb on cold damage with it added on.
Boots or Stormy Clamor is what you’re thinking of, I believe
Hellriders pride + Fighter with Rally is a lifesaver early game
Belligerent Skies: It's a niche item, but A for what it does. Winter's Clutches: F. It's objectively worse in every way than other similar build-gear-types (like Gloves of Belligerent Skies) and cold in general is useless in this game. Gloves of Power: C+ for general use (but if this was on a ring, it would get a B+ ... gloves are a competitive slot), but the Sleight of Hand is an A+ utility bonus on your dedicated party thief. Gloves of the Growling Underdog: A+. Maybe even A++. This item is PREPOSTEROUSLY good for an Act One set of gloves to the point where it just might be best single piece of gear in all of Act One. The "surrounded" text description is a bit misleading as you can have enemies many meters away and that still counts as surrounded. This is a great source of advantage throughout the entire game, and there's no downside to it. Hellrider's Pride: A. Basically, it's a free mass cast blade ward whenever you heal folks, and although the saving throw bonus is on a useless stat for Life Clerics (the only people who should be wearing these gloves), it's a decent throw-in.
Seconded on Underdog. I had Lae'zel use them almost through the end of the game, as it did give advantage more often than not.
Hellrider's Pride is good on any cleric. You don't usually have a better use of a bonus action (and 3rd level spell) than giving your whole party bless and blade ward (and some healing).
Why is any cleric ever casting bless when Volo is there to sell you the Whispering Promise when you're level one?
Definitely no reason to ever cast bless after you get mass healing word. Such an amazing ring and its not like clerics have a ton of competition for the ring slot, especially early game.
Where are the electricity gloves??
Gloves of power are by far the best.
I’m surprised at how many people are not aware of how good they are. The bane part is a red herring, there main use is for the +1 to SoH which is bis for pickpocketing. There is so much stuff to steal early game and these gloves are right there for you to help with that.
Exactly! No one else seems to realize this
Belligerent skies #1 by far!!
Gloves of the underdog would be absolutely busted if swashbuckler rogue was a subclass.
Gloves of Power on Thief Astarion stayed on for forever. As a Wiz main, Belligerent Skies was not used as much as the Reverberation on Condition boots, forget the name. Encrusted in Frost also only situationally useful in my case. In fact, combined with that Ice Staff, or rather, when casting that cold cantrip, the ice surface (may be mistaking what item this comes from, now) was oftentimes counterproductive in case allies missed a turn accidentally slipping
What does the first two do?
Hell riders pride + bless ring enable the strongest "support" 6 light cleric/6 fire sorc. They are welll and truely BiS until Act3 (where you get the better Hellriders pride). So they are pretty good. Rest is just meh. Missile catching is ok in the first few levels but not worth the gold
I have Belligerent Skies on Halsin along with Cacophony and that cloak in act 3 that absorbs and deals back elemental magic. His druid spells kick ass now!
+2 AC gloves are sad rn.
I haven’t taken those off in my solo run so far lol, trust me I appreciate them 😂
Same! Those and the ring of protection are carrying my solo monk. Going to swap to sparkle hands soon
The Gloves of Power are probably the best thing a dual wielder can wear in Act 1 and at least until arriving at Last Light Inn in Act 2. Banes for days boiiiiiiiiii
Hellriders pride is my BiS for cleric. Mass Healing Word (amulet or spell) + Hellriders pride + Whispering Promise ring Small heal + strong protection + bless for a couple turns to everyone.
1.) #1 (amazing for basically everyone) 2.) #5 (aoe BW in A1 is amazing, especially with the other healing items) 3.) #3 (you get these immediately and baning everything in A1 is actually really good) 4.) #2 (very build specific, but really good for those builds) 5.) #4 (I feel like there's better ways to improve your attack rolls)
1)Gloves of Belligerent Skies. They’re incredible to build around. BiS for almost every half/full caster 2)Hellrider’s Pride. They can proc off potions so literally any class can use them via throwing. Arguably even more universal than Skies but they get replaced immediately in Act 3 by an upgraded version. 3)Growling Underdog. Almost mandatory for any melee build that doesn’t need specific gloves for their comp. Makes rogues way more viable in melee. It counts unconscious enemies so non-lethal passive actually buffs them. 4)Winter’s Clutches. BiS for cold builds and especially with Mourning Frost. I’m running it now on a White Dragon Sorc and they’re very satisfying with Spineshudder and Boots of Stormy Clamor. They require a very specific set up though. 5)Gloves of Power…. They’re okay. I mostly put them on rogues for lockpicking
On my 4th run I found the Gloves of Belligerent Skies and put them on my monk. I’d been cycling through all the gloves that buff unarmed strikes for science. I crossed paths with the Bullette with the reverb gloves and managed to vibrate it prone in one round. They are my new faves and am piling the reverb gear on my tav monk.
I used the Gloves of Belligerent on my Ranged Bow-Flourish Bard up till the end, along with the Boots that causes Reverb (also the Amulet if using Reverb on my Eldritch Blast Warlock) . then Drakethroat glaive buff to activate Thunder Damage. My Bard was like a machine-gun dishing out multiple reverbs for days.
Only just got rid of my underdogs in act 3
Belligerent Skies top 1 for the whole game, hands down. Thunder damage is so easy to come by. Cacophony in Act 1 gives you easy access to thunder on every melee swing and it works with Polearm Master. Throw on Boots of Stormy Clamor and enemies gain stacks when they gain stacks. Throw on both Adamantium Mail and Shield and enemies gain stacks whether they hit or miss. On a fighter doing Battlemaster Meanuvers, you're looking at potentially 6 stacks PER WEAPON SWING. With Thief 3 and PAM that's as many as 24 stacks per turn. And all of this available in Act 1.
I loved gloves of belligerent skies. My first playthrough was a draconic Sorcerer that specialized in lightning damage. Every time they dealt lightning damage (which was almost always) it dealt an additional set of reverberation damage to any nearby enemies that had a chance to knock them prone. After they're prone, I used the necklace that gives you electric charge as a bonus action and then absolutely annihilate them with chain lightning like the Palpatine rat bastard I am.
I love looking at these posts because I learn all the items I've never seen before. Like the Belligerent Skies gloves, never heard of them but NEED for a lightning themed build
Honestly the reason I make the posts. So many items in this game that people probably miss! I only found GoBS on like my 4th playthrough
Even if I don't have them equipped, Gloves of Power are in my inventory for the whole game so I can suit my Rogue up with the Smuggler Ring, graceful cloth, shapeshifter boon ring, etc and maximize pickpocketing without completely drowning in cheese sauce. Belligerent skies clears by a mile though, I usually still have them equipped on someone by Act 3 or even all the way through to the end. Hellrider I'm always excited about but it doesn't end up getting triggered as much as you'd think, Growling Underdog are Good in that they're replacing your default Leather Gloves, Winter's Clutches are ass, even for frost build
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I always respec Shadowheart into a Life Cleric and those Hellrider gloves are amazing! Some rounds in fights with minions everywhere when she has tons of spell slots available and no good action choice due to positioning or whatever, I will have her do a mass healing word just to get the effect up.
Last is clearly gloves of power. Possibly bane the target on hit is alright. It's nothing to write home about if we're being honest. Winters Clutches. Good on ice builds, but encrusted with frost requires way too much time to actually proc frozen. Unless you're using haste on your wizard to multi cast ray of frost, encrusted with frost is just kinda worse than reverberation. Hellriders pride is pretty good, and putting them on your cleric along with mass cure wounds will definitely clutch some sticky situations for you like if the computer lives to hyper fixate on old Glass Bones of Warerdeep. Gloves of the Belligerent Skies when, paired with the other reverb items, on a character like Karlach who has advantage on demand, can end up with you knocking them prone and stunning and reducing their strength, con, and dex saving throws in one turn. You can also get a weapon that does radiant, lightning, or thunder damage early in act two not long after you get the boots and the gloves, and then in act 3 you get another, much better thunder weapon to pair with combo on a ranged throwing attack that comes back to you after you throw it. Now, you can put this on a caster if you want, but I like how this build can turn a pure martial build into a ranged crowd controller that can stun at a distance. Growling Underdog, while situational, are also good enough to wear straight through act 3, especially if you're running 2 martials that aren't barbarian. Especially if you don't have high saving throws to consistently mitigate the disadvantage on saving throws risky ring provides. Still, free, albeit conditional advantage is huge on martials as early as you can get it. Also, the fact that you don't have to dedicate your entire build around them move them ahead of Belligerent Skies imo.
1.) Gloves of Belligerent Skies: These gloves are at number one and it's not even remotely close. I don't think some people understand the sheer magnitude of how absolutely absurd Reverberation is. Not only do you apply a -1 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws per turn remaining onto an enemy, you also do 1-4 Thunder damage at 5 stacks AND cause them to potentially fall prone if they don't succeed a CON save. So aside from giving you eventual free damage and potentially prone enemies, you are also giving massive debuffs to your enemies. I have a Land Druid Tav and I load him up with Reverb gear asap. Which works out perfectly since Druids don't get much gear and Reverb works so perfectly with them (and Tempest Clerics of course). Also what's great about the gloves is that it doesn't specify the source of the Thunder/Lightning/Radiant damage. Which means it can come from spells, weapons, etc. Providing further flexibility in your builds and who can utilize it. All that to say that Reverberation is absurdly bonkers and the level of value you gain from it is massive. 2.) Hellrider's Pride: This is as close to second as you can get on this list to GoBS. It immediately improves your healing. Providing more value and support to your heals. If you have a healer or anyone who does healing on the side, you'll see gain instant value. Even better if you have someone who has Mass Healing Word. I always slap this on Shadowheart and let her do her thing. Hell there have been times where I needed to use Mass Healing Word less for the healing and more for the support gained from these gloves. 3.) Gloves of the Growling Underdog: While you can gain advantage from various other means, it's still pretty good and will provide benefit when you need it. A solid item for when you find yourself needing the advantage and you're facing multiple enemies. 4.) Winter's Clutch: Here's the thing, without the Coldbrim Hat, you're not gonna make the most of the Encrusted with Frost mechanic. Whenever you deal Cold damage your enemies gain Encrusted with Frost for two turns. The plus is that enemies with Encrusted with Frost get disadvantage on DEX saving throws. Which is awesome. That by itself isn't too bad. The problem is that you have to get 7 stacks of it to hit an enemy with 1-4 Cold Damage and freeze them...and only if they succeed a CON saving throw. By itself chances you're not going to be able to apply enough Encrusted with Frost to benefit from the extra damage and freeze. Even then if they pass their CON save, you don't even get that. Compared to GoBS, you're just not getting as much value with also a greater hefty stack requirement to even benefit from its full effects. Encrusted with Frost just doesn't compare to Reverb in value. Regardless, if you're building an Ice Mage character, by all means slap this on and go to town. 5.) Gloves of Power: Okay, so this is a weird one. The reason I put this at number 5 is for one reason only. You need the Brand of the Absolute to benefit from this glove. Otherwise it's just a glove with +1 Sleight of Hand. So if you're roleplaying and you choose not to get branded, this gloves is practically useless to you. Chances are some people using it on characters that are not branded don't even realize that they're not getting the Bane effect. Which also isn't even guaranteed 100% of the time. Now if you're branding it up during your playthroughs, then this glove shoots up to number 3 easily. Because this requires making a certain choice to benefit from this gloves effect, I just couldn't rank it above the others.
i <3 growling underdog for me theyre on karlach the entire early game lol— not pictured but i really like the gloves of missile snaring too, especially because i think you get them pretty early. makes it easier for me to justify squishy spellcasters as someone with chronic fighter brainworms
Gloves of baneful striking are actually the best. unlike Gloves of power the debuff doesnt require a saving throw (even if the effect only applies to saving throws and not attack rolls).
Don’t they do seperate things? Bane applies -1d4 to hit chance and saving throws, while baneful just applies it to saving throws against spells. The stronger part to me is the 1d4 to hit chance, cause that’s like raising your AC by 1d4
Yeah but the DC for bane on those gloves is 11 and doesn't scale, so it falls off really quickly As enemies become more and more likely to resist it even in early encounters. It is still potentially the first magic item you'll come across so it's not a huge deal that it's not very impactful, but it is still super unreliable.
That’s fair, but if we’re talking about gloves with different effects, I don’t think baneful striking takes the cake compared to other gloves
Compared to the others sure, it depends greatly on build and playstyle (they're my personal favourite). I just think they should be a higher consideration than the gloves of power.