Top 10 Best Baldur’s Gate 3 Magic Items That Increase Strength

Let’s dive into Conan the Barbarian’s favorite stat and explore the most optimal magic items that increase it. Some offer straight-up bonuses and some set your score to a specific value. Here are my top 10 best Baldur’s Gate 3 magic items that increase Strength.

Baldur’s Gate 3: Top 10 Best Magic Items That Increase Strength

Strength Elixirs

Both the Elixir of Hill Giant Strength and the Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength increase your Strength score until a Long Rest. To be more exact, they set your Strength to 21 and 27 respectively. Those values cannot be altered and don’t stack with other Strength-enhancing items. You can buy these from various merchants and I want to point out that drinking another Elixir with these active will nullify their effects as you can only have one Elixir active at a time.

Club of Hill Giant Strength

Now this is a weird one in the sense of how you get it. It’s very specific. First, you have to choose to go down into the Underdark, then explore the Arcane Tower and reach the highest floor with Bernard the Construct. You’ll then need to find the Stool of Hill Giant Strength underneath the thatched roof. Break it and you’ll get this magic club which is essentially a leg of a stool. Still, it’ll set your Strength to 19, making it a powerful weapon for a dual-wield Strength build.

Handmaiden’s Mace

On to a less comic relief weapon we have the Handmaiden’s Mace dropped by Viconia DeVir beneath the House of Grief in the Cloister. It’s a great weapon for a sword-and-board style defensive build as not only will it increase your Strength to 18 but it also deals an extra 1d6 Poison damage. I found it great to make my Cleric into a competent frontline warrior with a shield and some heavy armor. The mace allows you to dump Strength and pump Wisdom and Constitution up which is the benefit of many of the items on this list.

Auntie Ethel’s Hair

Ahh yes, the core of any optimized build, Auntie Ethel’s scalp. It’ll increase any Ability Score by +1, like Strength. The reason why this item is so great is because most characters start with a 17 in their primary stat and the scalp allows you to make it an even 18. This grants you a +4 to relevant attacks and freeing up Level 4 for a feat rather than a Stat Increase. You can get it by dropping Ethel to below 20% HP and sparing her or simply defeating her altogether.

Broken Promises

Speaking of Ethel, you can find this cursed elixir in her workshop after the boss fight. The reason I say “cursed,” is that it increases your overall Strength by 2 until a long rest, and then permanently decreases it by 1 after the rest. Throughout the game, this item is worthless unless you’re planning to equip an item from this list that sets your Strength to a specific value. However, it can be useful in the final fight of BG3 after you take your final long rest since you won’t feel the downside.

The Mighty Cloth

While it doesn’t grant any AC since it’s a Clothing item, the Mighty Cloth increases your Strength by +2 and affects you with a permanent Bull’s Strength spell. This means you’ll have Advantage on Strength checks and saving throws and double your carrying capacity. Furthermore, you’ll get the Bull Rush ability where you can charge forward and possibly knock your foes back. I would highly recommend it on Barbarians who don’t like wearing armor either way, since their Constitution takes care of AC. It can be bought from Talli at the Last Light Inn.

Harmonium Halberd

Also at the Last Light Inn, you can buy the Harmonium Halberd from Dammon. It’s a +1 Halberd with a unique effect that increases your Strength by +2, but decreases your Intelligence and Wisdom by -1. It’s a great trade-off item in the early to mid-game but its effect is arguably not the best later when a lot of spells target your mental stats. Still, I found it decent for my Pole Arm Master builds that scale with Strength because the effect stacks with other flat-number boosts to Strength.

Devilfoil Mask

You can find four of these bad boys scattered around Grymforge. They’re essentially demon masks with a secret effect called Infernal Legion. Each character wearing this mask gets a +1 Strength increase and -1 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma decrease for every nearby ally also wearing the mask. The range is 20 meters or 67 feet.

Essentially, if your entire party wears these masks, you’re getting a +3 Strength which reaches the 20 Strength cap if your character has the starting 17. That mental stat decrease is rough though so I would be careful approaching fights that target mental saving throws with these masks on.

Potion of Everlasting Vigour

One of the best straight-up Strength increases is from the Potion of Everlasting Vigour. Drinking it will permanently increase your Strength by +2 (Can raise above 20) with no downsides. All you have to do is convince Astarion to bite Araj Oblodra in Moonrise Towers.

Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength

The ultimate Strength increase in BG3 comes from the Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength. They set your Strength score to 23 and provide you with a +1 to the relevant saving throws. They’re located in the House of Hope and you can steal them without a fight if you disable the pedestal trap. Speaking of which, if you want these without a fight, then I wouldn’t recommend looting the Orphic Hammer and messing with Hope.

This concludes my list of the top 10 best Baldur’s Gate 3 magic items that increase Strength. For more BG3 guides, check out my best magic items, best shields, and heavy armor sets in the game.