Act 1 - Obtaining better gear? Stuck with starter gear. (TL:DR at bottom)

[50K]

First time playing this game so far its been hard even though im on the easiest difficulty but i feel its also due to the fact that i am struggling to find good gear i am still using default armor and weapons for most of my companions. I managed to buy and find a couple of decent upgrades for weapons for karlach and shadowheart and i got the spellsparkler for my sorcerer and the phalar aluve sword but thats literally it. I have yet to find any cool looking armor upgrades for my sorcerer or my companions let alone better weapons or even a good bow or i do have a good heavy crossbow forgot the name. Is it supposed to be this difficult in obtaining better gear? Its the easiest difficulty so I dont need to worry about getting absolutely decimiated yet but I do not see myself lasting much longer with default gear near the end of act 1. Should i be playing evil to get better gear off npcs or stealing??? I am trying to run a hero character for my first run. Any help would be appreciated.

TL:DR; I am stuck with mostly starter gear except for a really good sword, crossbow, and quarterstaff for my sorc but cant find anything better or cool for armor or weapons for my companions still in act 1.

[glenn3e]

Have you done Grymforge?

[dieter-65]

get that everburning blade on the nautoloid - could be difficult, but it's a very good weapon.
(short before leaving the ship)

[50K]

I have not done this grymforge yet whats there?

[RamboRusina]

Grymforge has best heavy/medium armor and shield you can get in act 1. I guess helmets too if you run strength based group. Clothing for your mage given your staff.

Clearing northern areas of wilderness should net you good amount of different weapons including ranged ones(assuming you do quests and check traders).

I don't think act 1 has much for mages besides staff you already got. Underdark has some minor junk, but it really isn't gonna make or break your game in the least.

For healer I'd check merchants to find a ring or two and carefully loot the arcane tower thingy in underdark for staff.

[Kafik]

Check vendors? There's a lot of upgrades. If you're in starter gear at the end of act 1 you haven't visited any vendors.

[Morvana]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Sunny50D:

First time playing this game so far its been hard even though im on the easiest difficulty but i feel its also due to the fact that i am struggling to find good gear

How much did you play ? If you are around 5 hours of gameplay it's normal to have basic gears. If you are close to 20h that's different...

How much did you explore ? There is a lot of good equipments, but it's all around the map. If you just go from objective 1 to 2 you won't find much.

Finally I am sorry to say that if you encounter problems it's probably not because of your équipement. If you are prudent and decent in strategy games the start isn't a problem, even on the hardest difficulties.
It's not a problem, you will learn. But know that better gears won't solve this. You should probably think about your party composition/classes and do some adaptations to suit your playstyle.

[Mormacil]

Starter gear is grey, are you running stuff with blue and green borders? Because that's not starting gear.

[Cachat]

Vendor inventories will upgrade their selection when you level up. Robbing them blind is a quick way of gearing up. You should be able to get a +1 breastplate next to the smith in the grove, by level 4 you should be able to access a variety of +1 armours from vendors. The selune outpost in the underdark has a hidden area with the best armour for a cleric until act3.

There are two Zhentarim "traders" in act 1 that have nice stuff; ranged, melee and armour some nice gloves too.

[hermit0wl]

Did you explore the cellar in the Blighted Village? There's a hidden area where you can find bracers for +2 AC, very nice for a caster. Grymforge is also a good place to go, as others have said.
The gear you do have is not bad though, I'm still using Phalar Aluve in act 3 on my dual-wielding bard playthrough :) Sounds like you're doing fine, just keep exploring.

[Mike Garrison]

Non-armor: Takes a while to find good robes. There are lots of choices in Act 2, but not many in Act 1. Mainly what you are looking for are the +2 bracers (under the Blighted village), the +1 ring of protection (steal the druid's idol for Mol), etc.

Light armor: If you kill Minthara she's got a nice light armor option. Otherwise just buy +1 from the vendors.

Medium armor: You can get +1 scale from vendors in the grove, which is pretty much the best you can get before Grymforge. There is a medium armor that you can get (from the underdark selunite entrance) which is the same AC but also has a radiant effect. I like that armor for Act 2 because it's useful against the shadows.

Heavy armor: Grymforge is the first really good heavy armor you can get. Dammon can also make you some in Act 2.

Any shield gives you +2 AC. Magic ones add things like saving throw bonuses. But not everybody can use a shield, and obviously it means not using a 2-handed weapon.

At Grymforge you can make yourself two pieces of armor and also pick up a heavy armor helmet. But which two to make?

The heavy armor is arguably the best heavy armor you can get all the way until Act 3, though the set you can get from Dammon in Act 2 is almost as good. The medium armor is arguably the best medium armor you can get in the entire game. But the shield is the most flexible choice, because you can give it to more characters.

The reason the Grymforge stuff is so nice is because it eliminates critical hits. (It also has some other benefits.)

If you have two heavy armor users, one can get the helmet and the other one can get the heavy armor. But if you only have one heavy armor user, I would suggest just using the helmet and taking either shields or medium armor from Grymforge. That way you cam make three party members immune to crits.

[Gob]

As others have said, the vendors have a lot of 'green' and some 'blue' gear later that will easily get you through Act 1.

Are you perhaps out of money? If so, make sure you collect everything from every single box, crate, bag and - especially - corpse. Sell this stuff to the vendors in the Emerald Grove. Also don't go in guns-a-blazing at the goblin camp and you'll find two more vendors there.

You can easily rescue Volo at the goblin camp without a fight (boo him off the stage and then find him down below) and you'll then have you own personal vendor in your camp - just don't progress his eye-surgery dialogue or you can lose him for a long time.

[Cachat]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gob:

As others have said, the vendors have a lot of 'green' and some 'blue' gear later that will easily get you through Act 1.

Are you perhaps out of money? If so, make sure you collect everything from every single box, crate, bag and - especially - corpse. Sell this stuff to the vendors in the Emerald Grove. Also don't go in guns-a-blazing at the goblin camp and you'll find two more vendors there.

You can easily rescue Volo at the goblin camp without a fight (boo him off the stage and then find him down below) and you'll then have you own personal vendor in your camp - just don't progress his eye-surgery dialogue or you can lose him for a long time.

Volo btw has a nice ring for sale, applies a bless effect on healing for two rounds and no concentration.

[rdsilvia]

Ursprungligen skrivet av dieter-65:

get that everburning blade on the nautoloid - could be difficult, but it's a very good weapon.
(short before leaving the ship)

Easiest method I have found to get the Everburn blade is to have Shadowheart use "command drop weapon" on the boss when you get in melee range. then steal it off the ground.

Shadowheart does not have that spell in the default ready spell list, so you need to change it out before opening the door.

[Brian_the_Brute]

Ursprungligen skrivet av dieter-65:

get that everburning blade on the nautoloid - could be difficult, but it's a very good weapon.
(short before leaving the ship)

Getting the flaming sword is easy... immediately change Shart's spells to include COMMAND. You can then just tell the cambion to DROP the sword and you can just run away with it and activate the helm controls. That will be your best weapon for quite awhile into the game.

You don't get most of the cool looking gear and no decent looking clothes until ACT 3. One of my main hates about BG3 is all the crap looking gear you have to frankenstein your characters with for a big chunk of the game. There's no well stocked traders and no decent settlement to buy enough non magical things that just look nice to build your character's appearance.

[JayPAC]

Act 1 doesn't give you much in terms of robes. There is I believe two green robes, none improve AC and their effects are minor at best.

As for other weapons, you can get a +1 greatsword doing Karlach's quest, a +1 greataxe is in the cellar below where you had to do her quest. Same building. If your spellcasters can wear shields like gale can, just give them a shield and they should be good in the armor department until act 2 when they start to get real upgrades.

Without knowing your group's composition, I can't really give you any advice on gear in act 1.