Baldur’s Gate 3gives you multiple ways to build your character outside the level-up menus with magical items draping your body head to toe. One of the more stylish options is cloaks, or capes, that can enhance or even entirely alter the way you play your character, all while looking stunning.
Not all cloaks, especially the rarest ones, can be obtained easily or even at all in some cases, but they are worth considering after being knocked out by the fifth Steel Watch Guardian in one day. Although the best cloaks in Baldur’s Gate 3 are definitely worth the trouble.
8Shade-Slayer Cloak
The Shade-Slayer Cloak is one of the few items in Baldur’s Gate 3 that reduces the number needed on an attack roll for it to be considered a critical hit. The normal number being a 20, with each item increasing the chance by five percent.
This is an essential item for crit-chance builds but can be useful for any character that can give themselves advantage onattack rolls, like Rogues, or to characters that have multiple attacks per turn, especially Monks or Fighters.
7Cloak Of The Weave
The Cloak Of The Weave is the best cloak for magic users simply for the bonus to spell save DC and attack rolls. Its Absorb Elements ability is just a bonus if you want to use it as a defense item, especially against elemental creatures or spellcasters.
Despite Absorb Elements being a spell inDungeons & Dragons, its only appearance in Baldur’s Gate 3 is as a passive ability, which means you shouldn’t rely on combo effects with spellcasting if you were expecting it to be implemented in the same way.
6Mantle Of The Holy Warrior
Sold by Vicar Humbletoes in the Stormshore Tabernacle, the Mantle of the Holy Warrior gives you access to the powerful third-level spell, Crusader’s Mantle, which is normally only available to Paladins, War Clerics, and Lore Bards.
Although you can only cast it once per long rest, Crusader’s Mantle gives all nearby allies an additional 1d4 radiant damage to weapon attacks, which is one of the few damage types with no resistances, other than from Deva, and can be applied to all summoned creatures and temporary allies simultaneously.
5The Deathstalker Mantle
The Deathstalker Mantle is a unique cloak in that it is only available to those who play theDark Urge origin characterand gifted by Sceleritas Fel after giving in to your more debased impulses. Although it is tempting due to the exceptionally strong effect of becoming invisible for two turns after killing an enemy.
This can be used to automatically gain advantage on your next attack, disengage without using an action or bonus action, and doesn’t have a limit on uses. This makes it one of the strongest magic items in the game, let alone out of just the cloaks.
4Cloak Of Displacement
The Cloak of Displacement is a defensive item that gives the wearer the effects of the Blur spell at the start of their turn and removes it after taking damage. This makes every attack that targets the wearer have a near-permanent disadvantage.
This is a cloak that you should prioritize for your lowest health party members to protect them or for your tankiest characters if you want them never to be hit again, especially if they have access to Taunt effects so that they focus fire on themselves and will likely have most if not all attacks miss.
3Vivacious Cloak
The Vivacious Cloak has the simple yet hard-to-trigger effect of granting seven temporary hit points after every casting of a spell within melee range of an enemy. While this seems situational at first glance, there are more than a handful of builds that can reliably trigger it.
Such as any Paladin after using any Smite spell, Arcane Trickster Rogues, War Clerics, Eldritch Knight Fighters, and College of Swords Bards. All of them are likely to cast spells while in melee, and getting seven temporary HP per turn can save you in long fights.
2Reverse Rain Cloak
The Reverse Rain Cloak is meant to be a prank item that is won randomly fromAkabi’s Wheel of Wonders. Ironically, it is an upgraded version of the Wavemother’s Cloak, which has the same effect of granting immunity to Burning and resistance to fire damage at the expense of vulnerability to cold and lightning damage but without it going away after getting hit.
While this sounds like a weak trade-off, you are more likely to encounter fire damage than all sources of lightning and cold damage combined, especially in the Third Act. You can even use it as a portable bath for when your character gets too grimy by applying the Wet condition and removing it right after.
1Cindermoth Cloak
The Cindermoth Cloak, as the name implies, inflicts the burning condition on any enemy that deals damage to the wearer if they are within seven feet. This trigger can be used infinitely and even includes area-of-effect spells and thrown items that don’t target the wearer.
This is an improvement over the Fleshmelter cloak, which is more likely to deal less damage and only counts for melee attacks targeting the wearer, making it have a smaller range and less likely to trigger. Unfortunately, it has to be looted from Aelis Siryasius, which is an optional fight with a handful of moral ambiguity.
