Where the cold weapons at?

[Dark Wolf]

Was wanting to do a cold oriented build, always liked ice/cold elements in RPG games. This is a disappointing lack of cold damage weapons in this game, spells as well. Based off the wiki, there are only 2 or 3 weapons that actually deal cold damage on hit, all of which seem very situational or weak for how late you get them.

As for spells, you have a better array of options, but unless you want to play wizard you are still fairly limited. Still a bit of a shame that ice knife is a conjuration rather than evocation. I could see it being either, but still.

[Ubik Valis]

Originally posted by Dark Wolf:

Was wanting to do a cold oriented build, always liked ice/cold elements in RPG games. This is a disappointing lack of cold damage weapons in this game, spells as well. Based off the wiki, there are only 2 or 3 weapons that actually deal cold damage on hit, all of which seem very situational or weak for how late you get them.

As for spells, you have a better array of options, but unless you want to play wizard you are still fairly limited. Still a bit of a shame that ice knife is a conjuration rather than evocation. I could see it being either, but still.

Kind of like when I found out that all those gold/silver/bronze ingots are useless for crafting, and I thought that silver was supposed to have strong magical properties when fighting non-human enemies.... Or am I mixing up my fantasy universes?

[Eventide]

I agree that there's a lack of ice. Like you, I typically enjoy being water/ice oriented. Especially coming from their other games (Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2) where I absolutely loved how the water/ice spells were. I was hoping there'd be a decent amount here. I know it's all based on 5th edition D&D but it'd be nice to see more.

Also, when it comes to spells the only really useful ice spell is ice storm. The others like wall of ice are just kinda useless in my opinion. It has uses but it's too niche. Otiluke's Freezing Sphere is a 6th level spell and is just not great.. the only interesting thing about it is you can cast it then give it to a companion to launch. Why you'd ever want to do that I have no idea..

So honestly while spells have ice/water options not many of them are even useful. Even the create/destroy water spell isn't really that useful unless you're trying to kill the enemy purely through environmental effects.

I think the only cold thing I used fairly consistently is the ray of frost cantrip.. and even then it was only for the effect of halving the enemy's movement for a turn.

As you mentioned, with ice knife being conjuration, and aoe, it doesn't have many uses. The majority of time you'd want to use it your ally is nearby and would get hit.. since it's not evocation you can't even use the evocation subclass of wizard to prevent it from ally damage.

[Dark Wolf]

Originally posted by Ubik Valis:

I thought that silver was supposed to have strong magical properties when fighting non-human enemies.... Or am I mixing up my fantasy universes?

No, you are correct. Silvered weapons are a thing in D&D, generally as an early game option for fighting undead and necromancy-type enemies without magic weapons, or for enemies that have a silver vulnerability like werewolves. No extra damage, but it helps bypass damage resistances/immunities of the applicable creatures.

[Eventide]

Originally posted by Ubik Valis:

Originally posted by Dark Wolf:

Was wanting to do a cold oriented build, always liked ice/cold elements in RPG games. This is a disappointing lack of cold damage weapons in this game, spells as well. Based off the wiki, there are only 2 or 3 weapons that actually deal cold damage on hit, all of which seem very situational or weak for how late you get them.

As for spells, you have a better array of options, but unless you want to play wizard you are still fairly limited. Still a bit of a shame that ice knife is a conjuration rather than evocation. I could see it being either, but still.

Kind of like when I found out that all those gold/silver/bronze ingots are useless for crafting, and I thought that silver was supposed to have strong magical properties when fighting non-human enemies.... Or am I mixing up my fantasy universes?

Silver I don't think applies to 5e D&D (I don't play so I wouldn't really know). That's more like Witcher. I will agree it's really stupid the ingots have no use at all. Especially with the rumors that they'd be used to upgrade equipment and such. Then I found no such thing and regretted holding on to them.

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[Meowella]

Originally posted by Ubik Valis:

Originally posted by Dark Wolf:

Was wanting to do a cold oriented build, always liked ice/cold elements in RPG games. This is a disappointing lack of cold damage weapons in this game, spells as well. Based off the wiki, there are only 2 or 3 weapons that actually deal cold damage on hit, all of which seem very situational or weak for how late you get them.

As for spells, you have a better array of options, but unless you want to play wizard you are still fairly limited. Still a bit of a shame that ice knife is a conjuration rather than evocation. I could see it being either, but still.

Kind of like when I found out that all those gold/silver/bronze ingots are useless for crafting, and I thought that silver was supposed to have strong magical properties when fighting non-human enemies.... Or am I mixing up my fantasy universes?

You're right, but a few decades late.

In 5th edition if your weapon is magical, you can overcome pretty much any resistance/immunity as they all word it in a way of 'resistance to nonmagical physical damage not from a silver weapon' to state that a silver weapon would overcome it OR any magical weapon.

So essentially, with BG3 offering magical weapons from the start, it'd be pointless to worry about material types for weapons.

[Sevati]

There is an ice staff you can assemble in underdark (act 1) that grants the ice cantrip, along with other gear found early it can be extremely powerful with the cantrip alone or adding the other ice spells or some elemental monk. I turned Shadowheart into an ice magic beast, changed her attributes and made her a light cleric.

My touch of frost's cantrips hit for about 30 to 60 and apply ground effects and status debuffs. Best used with haste potion, or perhaps a sorc build to get even more out of it.

[Noctoculus]

I think an ice wizard/sorceror is the only real choice atm. You get a neat staff and some extra bits to add conditions and CC.

[Kryldost]

Theres some items that can change your weapon element if you meet certain criteria. I can find it later when I get home

[Eventide]

Originally posted by Sevati:

There is an ice staff you can assemble in underdark (act 1) that grants the ice cantrip, along with other gear found early it can be extremely powerful with the cantrip alone or adding the other ice spells or some elemental monk. I turned Shadowheart into an ice magic beast, changed her attributes and made her a light cleric.

The thing here is that saying there's a single ice staff and a single cantrip that makes it powerful doesn't make an argument. There's tons of things for all elements - especially a lot of lightning. Other elements get barely anything. I bet most people barely know Force exists since it's barely ever used. Cold is rarely ever used as well. The most common element in terms of equipment is lightning. The most common in terms of combat is probably fire.

[Dark Wolf]

Originally posted by Sevati:

There is an ice staff you can assemble in underdark (act 1) that grants the ice cantrip, along with other gear found early it can be extremely powerful with the cantrip alone

I wouldnt really consider this a cold weapon so much as a cold spellcasting focus. You dont get any cold bonuses to bonking with this.

[Noctoculus]

Originally posted by Eventide:

Originally posted by Sevati:

There is an ice staff you can assemble in underdark (act 1) that grants the ice cantrip, along with other gear found early it can be extremely powerful with the cantrip alone or adding the other ice spells or some elemental monk. I turned Shadowheart into an ice magic beast, changed her attributes and made her a light cleric.

The thing here is that saying there's a single ice staff and a single cantrip that makes it powerful doesn't make an argument. There's tons of things for all elements - especially a lot of lightning. Other elements get barely anything. I bet most people barely know Force exists since it's barely ever used. Cold is rarely ever used as well. The most common element in terms of equipment is lightning. The most common in terms of combat is probably fire.

Well that's not really the case with that staff. You do get some options. The staff makes any cold damage you deal inflict a condition that doubles cold damage. The cantrip is just a resource-cheap way of applying it.

[Eventide]

Originally posted by Noctoculus:

Originally posted by Eventide:

The thing here is that saying there's a single ice staff and a single cantrip that makes it powerful doesn't make an argument. There's tons of things for all elements - especially a lot of lightning. Other elements get barely anything. I bet most people barely know Force exists since it's barely ever used. Cold is rarely ever used as well. The most common element in terms of equipment is lightning. The most common in terms of combat is probably fire.

Well that's not really the case with that staff. You do get some options. The staff makes any cold damage you deal inflict a condition that doubles cold damage. The cantrip is just a resource-cheap way of applying it.

Congrats you completely missed the point still.

[Ponyeater]

What about Weapon Enchantments? In D&D you can normally have a wizard / sorcerer with the ability to enchant any weapon.

[x_equals_speed]

I had a pretty good cold build going for a lot of my last game. The key piece you might not have spotted is that the bugbear mechant in act2 sells a glaive that can be used to enchant another character's main weapon to do damage of an element of your choice until the next long rest. You can then unequip the glaive and have that character wield something else.

This meant I could have someone dual wielding cold weapons and stacking enough encrusted with frost to get someone from 0 to frozen in a round of attacks without expending resources (No haste, action surge etc. required).