Summary
Despite what most of us expected from our D&D knowledge, monks are actually a mighty class inBaldur’s Gate 3. Aside from a few changes to the class, this power also comes from the weapons available in the game and gloves you’re able to wear, which will boost the efficiency of your unarmed strikes — something you’ll be using a lot even if you are holding a weapon.
By default, you can wield any simple weapon and shortswords, which gives you a nice set of weapons to choose from. Which of these are excellent choices for a monk, however? Let’s find out.
Updated on July 05, 2025 by Britt Poteet:With various patches and updates to Baldur’s Gate 3 in the past year, we wanted to make sure this article was as up-to-date as possible. With an additional item, this list will give you the best equipment for your monk playthrough.
15Vision Of The Absolute
Blind Your Targets
Spears are viable monk weapons, having the same damage die compared to quarterstaves (d6 with one hand, d8 with two) but with piercing damage instead.
That said,Vision Of The Absoluteis a curious pick because it may blind enemies once you hit them, increasing the chances of hitting them again and decreasing their chances of hitting you. Your friends will have an easier time striking the target, too. It also has the unique feature of causing 2d6 extra damage to creatures with multiple sets of eyes, like spiders or Beholders.
14Shar’s Spear Of Evening Or Selûne’s Spear Of Night
You Can’t Have Both
Shar’s spear can evolve into one of these two options depending on how youdeal with the Nightsong.Both versions have a +3 bonus on their attack and damage rolls. If you kill her, you’ll get Shar’s spear, which gives you an advantage in saving throws if you are obscured and lets you cause an extra d6 of damage when the opponent is obscured.
You can also cast Darkness, and you can’t be blinded, meaning you would have an advantage against all enemies in the Darkness area, and you’d cause extra damage because they’d be obscured. If you spare her, you’ll get Selûne’s spear, which gives you an advantage on Wisdom saving throws and Perception rolls, Darkvision, and lets you cast Moonbeam and Moonmote, giving you some options with radiant damage. Overall, Shar’s spear is the better one, but the consequences of getting it are also greater, so tread carefully.
13Gold Wyrmling Staff And Cacophony
Secondary Damage Types Are Always Good
Sadly, most quarterstaves in the game are great options for spellcasters, but you won’t cast spells — unless you are a Way of the Four Elements monk. Still, both of these +1 staves are worth mentioning because you can get them early, and they will increase your melee damage.
Gold Wyrmling Staffwill cause an extra d4 fire damage per strike, and it’ll let you cast Fire Bolt at will. As for Cacophony, you get an extra d4 thunder damage, and you may cast Thunderous Smite once per short rest. We recommend Cacophony, as fewer creatures resist thunder damage, but the other one comes early, so you can just swap once Cacophony is available.
12Bigboy’s Chew Toy
For Big Monks
This simple +1 quarterstaff isn’t as powerful as others, but depending on which route you’re going for, you can get this one early, making it a fun option to play around. Essentially, this staff lets you enlarge yourself.
When enlarged, you’ll cause extra damage on your attacks, making you a bigger threat - literally - on the battlefield. There’s also the fun factor of just becoming a big monster during a fight.
11Corellon’s Grace
Punch Harder
Another good example of a staff that isn’t the best, but it appears quite early, being a fun option while you get better gear. First, it gives you a +2 to Saving Throws if you are not wearing armor, something you shouldn’t do as a monk anyway, so it’s all good here.
Then, it gives you a +1 to your attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes - essentially, the kick you’ll give as a bonus action or the Flurry of Blows. While the staff doesn’t hit any harder than a regular one, the bonus to unarmed strikes comes in handy.
10Sword Of Life Stealing
Kill And Heal
Shortswords are a fun option for monks, too, even if the average shortsword doesn’t cause as much damage as the averageQuarterstaff. Still, this blade is a +2 shortsword, increasing the chances of hitting and causing a bit more damage.
Along with that, the blade will cause an extra ten necrotic damage everytime you deal a critical hit, and you’ll also recover ten hit points, which is useful since monks don’t tend to have a lot of health. A perfect combo with the Dead Shot, which we’ll talk about soon, along with other items that increasethe chance of a critical hit.
9Handmaiden’s Mace
For Better Strength
By the time you reach Act 3, you probably won’t be wielding any weapons and will be hitting people with unarmed strikes while wearing one of the many gloves and gauntlets we’ll cover soon. However, you may want to consider this mace.
Equipping this item will set your strength to 18. While strength isn’t useful to monks at first if you get the feat Tavern Brawler, your unarmed strikes will receive your strength bonus to damage, which will stack with the default dexterity bonus monks have on their unarmed strikes already.
TheClub Of Hill Giant Strengthdoes the same thing and appears in Act 1, but this mace is a+2 and has extra poison damage, meaning it’s a good replacement in the long run. You can also rely onElixirs of Hill Giant Strengthto set your strength to 21 and leaving yourself unarmed all the time.
8Gauntlet Of The Tyrant
Additional Force for Unarmed Damage
Monks are always searching for ways to make their unarmed attacks deal more damage. The Gauntlets worn by Gortash in Act 3 pack a powerful punch, giving the wearer additional Force damage for unarmed strikes.
Additionally, these gloves provide the Command spell and +1 Spell Save DC, giving your Monk an upper hand on the battlefield. It’s a strong late-game option, though there are stronger options down the list.
7Darkfire Shortbow
A Resistance Of Ice And Fire
We won’t focus much on ranged damage, as that’s not the monk’s objective in a party, but since ammo is not relevant for ranged weapons, it’s always good to have one equipped just in case.Darkfire Shortbowis a fantastic choice, even if you won’t use it.
First, this +2 shortbow gives you resistance to both fire and cold damage, significantly increasing your survivability, as monks' health bars tend to be low. Then, it’ll let you cast the spell Haste once per rest, giving you two more attacks per turn, or you can give it to someone else. You could potentially do six strikes per turn with this spell on.
More Criticals Coming Your Way
We have a few more bows to discuss here, and one of the options isThe Dead Shot. This +2 longbow will decrease your chance of landing a critical hit by one, and that applies to all attacks, meaning that this bow is effective even if you don’t use it.
Still, this bow also has the perk of being easy to hit enemies with because your proficiency bonus on the attack rolls is doubled when wielding it. Just keep in mind that monks are not proficient with longbows, so you’ll have to circumvent that through feats or your race — Wood Elf is a good pick here.
