Warped Headband of Intellect.

[Ex-Mørtis]

So I see everywhere, everyone saying it jumps you straight to int 18. Every time I put it on my gish warrior build....his int is 17...every time, do I need a specific stat to have it give me 18 int? or am I hard locked to int 17 till lvl 4?

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

They changed it in the last patch. Now it gives you 17 Int.

[dolby]

lol why 17 may as well give 16 if that's the case 0or better yet they should just remove it altogether if they not gonna let it be semi usefull...

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

So, just like things that set your AC to something and don't stack with other effects that set it to an exact number, but do stack with items that give a bonus, if there is another item in the game that gives a bonus to Int (I'm not even sure what that would be...Ioun Stone maybe?) then you could raise it to 18, because the Headband sets it to 17 and then the +1 Int item gives you 18.

Putting points into ASI Int is pointless though, because it will set your base Int to 17 no matter what.

[dolby]

Items that increase stats like that with set function, just ♥♥♥♥ up your build for you first playthrough cos you don't know what you gonna get or where. One can't even plan your characters build properly.

it's whatever i guess, not a end of the world... don't really care either way it was fine for EA hoefully we can role for stats anyway...

i just think item should have use all the time not just in some niche rare case. Not fan of those same as with at 50% HP items just forces you to play with half hp...

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

I mean, as a caster you aren't building around it anyway - that would be dumb, as your ASI's would become worthless and you'd never get to 20.

It's generally only good for a MAD class that might use Int, like an Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster, where you'd rather put your points at character creation into other stats, and even then only if there's no other headpiece you want to wear. Remember, you have to devote an entire item slot just to maintain your Int, and then you have to search for other items if you ever want it higher than that.

The reason is that it lets you dump all points into other stats, potentially getting a character with much, much higher stats than other characters.

Like I said, it's perfect for characters like Arcane Tricksters and Eldritch Knights who want Int as an off-stat, and even then only if you are using point buy instead of rolling for stats.

Other than that, it's a pretty pointless item.

[Ex-Mørtis]

It's actually quite good for a Githyanki Gish wizard...Focus str and con, dumpstat int, have at least 14 dex, dumpstat cha (you arent the face of the group, and lets face it you're trying to play a Gish wiz/warrior, why would you care about social niceties?), snatch gith half plate off your ally, get the sword of justice (+1 great sword with AC bonuses), and the warped headband of intellect to make up for the dumpstat of int so you could be a warrior, you wind up with int 17, a truckload of strength, and AC to DIE for, and the ability to deal massive magickal damage while roaming the battlefeild like you own it, using githyanki psionic jump to roam it like the entire place belongs to you and only you, then tasha's your enemies, or sleep them in the face and drrop that greatsword for a truckload of "You're dead now" on their heads. You won't have the hp of a real warrior...but you really won't need it when you invis out of combat, gith jump up to your enemies and then tunderwave yeet them to the heavens.

[Ex-Mørtis]

And the best part is? As an evoker wizard you will worry much less about hitting your allies with aoe's.

[dolby]

Thats all good and well but like i said if you gonna be playing the first time you will have no clue if you gonna get this items or where and when...

So any build that relies on items like this is crap for first playthrough. And if you gonna powergame like that you may just as well modify save file stats cos you are cheating with metagaming anyway...

[Kryldost]

I liked gith wiz with those stats its just such a heavy sacrifice though, locks you to that headband. There are quite a few headband that gives a better edge along the way. Its fun though, swinging a 2h sword to mow down everything. Might do it again next patch :V

[Mosey]

It was an attempt to nerf the Gith Wizard Abjuration spec I guess, but it failed since you can still start with a 9 INT and get to 17 while using a greatsword that infinitely procs your huge HP shield. (Shield of Faith is an abjuration spell, LOL)

It SHOULD have been removed from the game entirely, but I guess they wanted to keep the Gith Abjuration spec as one of the most potent classes in the game.

A Gith Abjuration Wizard is an amazing Wizard, a good Warrior, a decent cleric, and an OK thief all in one class. It's absurd with the items and origins they have in the game right now.

And for the record, while there are 'better' headbands in the game none of them are such a huge swing in effectiveness and most of those come much later in the game.

[Ex-Mørtis]

Originally posted by dolby:

Thats all good and well but like i said if you gonna be playing the first time you will have no clue if you gonna get this items or where and when...

So any build that relies on items like this is crap for first playthrough. And if you gonna powergame like that you may just as well modify save file stats cos you are cheating with metagaming anyway...

I mean, looking up where things are, is a youtube link away. But I mean sure, but a newbie on a first playthrough trying a build like this without looking things up, seems a little....off to me? What newbie would make such a dependant build without having looked up where things are???

Originally posted by Mosey:

It was an attempt to nerf the Gith Wizard Abjuration spec I guess, but it failed since you can still start with a 9 INT and get to 17 while using a greatsword that infinitely procs your huge HP shield. (Shield of Faith is an abjuration spell, LOL)

It SHOULD have been removed from the game entirely, but I guess they wanted to keep the Gith Abjuration spec as one of the most potent classes in the game.

A Gith Abjuration Wizard is an amazing Wizard, a good Warrior, a decent cleric, and an OK thief all in one class. It's absurd with the items and origins they have in the game right now.

I'd not considered trying this, I just went evoker to be a tanky wizard that bounces aroun and blows things up with short aoe spells and smacks things....real hard.

[Mosey]

Originally posted by Ex-Mortis:

I'd not considered trying this, I just went evoker to be a tanky wizard that bounces aroun and blows things up with short aoe spells and smacks things....real hard.

The evocation wizard is a trap, the only thing it can do is protect team mates from your AOE which you can also do simply by not being stupid with character placements. The GP discount on learning evocation spells is a joke.

Getting a huge temp HP buff you can recycle after every combat for FREE is a much bigger deal, making the abjuration wizard the only real choice there is once you know what items are in the game.

Not trying to be edgy or crap on people that want to play evocation, but I also know which one is more useful for 95% of the content in the game.

The sad thing about all this is that it makes the Eldritch Knight 100% a joke class since literally a Gith Wizard does everything the EK does only way, way better. Not even sure why EK is in the game since NO ONE plays it in multiplayer for literally this reason.

I bet some people play it in single player, but I'd also wager they don't know what items are in the game thus were not aware that their entire class is obsolete with just two or three items that are all super easy to get shortly after the crash.

[WeenerTuck813]

Originally posted by Ex-Mortis:

I'd not considered trying this, I just went evoker to be a tanky wizard that bounces aroun and blows things up with short aoe spells and smacks things....real hard.

Oh, buddy - you’re in for a treat.

Listen, here’s the kicker for the combo:

Keep checking the gnome vendor in the Druid grove until he has a Scroll of Armor of Agathis and learn it.

It’s Abjuration. The temp HP stacks with Arcane Ward. And it does 10 cold damage returned to attackers that hit you. And the sick part? Well, it doesn’t even take concentration.

At level 4, you’ll get a 21 temp HP shield on that Wizard Warrior that’s refreshable with the sword as long as it doesn’t fall to 0 (at which point you’ll have to cast Armor of Agathis again to refresh it all the way to 21) and every time you’re hit it does 10 cold damage to attacker.

You wind up with like 26 HP + 21 Temp HP which is actually more HP than your actual warrior classes.

This is the real awesome part of the build in conjunction with that you’ve already mentioned: a 19 AC Plate wearing 2H sword wielding warrior who moonlights as a full Wizard.

[Shadowfox]

you can literally respect yourself at any time for 100 g which i did when i got this cause int was never getting past 15 since im a bard so ♥♥♥♥ int that all went into dex and wis cause no matter what im keeping my weak as ♥♥♥♥ constitution cause i always forgo constitution and im not stopping now

[Samgn]

I believe there's more beauty in this headband than any of us first expected. I think at first we all typically want to use it to spend those intellect ability points elsewhere. But I might suggest that the loveliness of it comes when you use it on your main character (forefront/conversational) -- who never had any points in intellect and never planned on using intellect spells -- and then benefits from a massive increase to all intellect skill checks in the game for which your particular character build would never have excelled at.

In example:
Your 8 INT dump stat (-1 modifier) becomes a 17 (+3 modifier) with the headband.
- a difference of +4


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suddenly your staunch fighter becomes astute to the mechanisms of the arcane, grasping and pondering the otherworldly workings of marvelous wild.

Your brutish barbarian now squints at the notions of the ethereal; his mind ravaged with excellence; with betterment; with ambition.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


But in practice, your Intellect skill checks in the game (of which there are many) will benefit from that increase of +4, possibly allowing you to even succeed on some of the harder ones with some help. Here are the skill checks which benefit from Intellect:

Arcana
History
Investigation
Nature
Religion

And remember, while you cannot increase that 17 Intellect, you can still increase your skill bonuses and give advantage to checks which use that Intelligence. One thing I love about this game is that so many things, and builds and ideas seem worthless or impossible until you give them enough thought. <3