Baldur's Gate 3: 10 Best Helmets In Chapter 1

Looking for the best helmet to equip in Baldur's Gate 3? Here is a list of the best ones you can find in Act 1.

Baldur's Gate 3 has tons of powerful Helmets to find as long as you are thorough with your exploration and look inside every chest, barrel, vase, and burlap sack. Leave no stone unturned, and you will be rewarded. That's a Larian promise.

Related: Baldur's Gate 3: Best Armors In Chapter 1

But not all helmets are going to be useful for every character, and knowing where to look to find the one that perfectly complements your build is useful knowledge to have. Here is a list of the best helmets you can find in Act 1.

The Shadespell Circlet is an inexpensive way to equip a character that doesn't have anything to wear as their helmet. It's most useful on ranged, squishy characters who can reposition themselves in low-light areas to activate the special effect.

All ranged spellcasters like Wizards, Sorcerers, and Land Druids appreciate having the option to increase their defenses by moving to a darkened area after hurling their spell at the enemy.

Dark Justiciar's Mask gives the wearer an automatic +1 to any intimidation check. This is particularly useful for Barbarian face characters who like to scare everyone into submission by choosing the Intimidation option every time.

Any face character, or the character you usually use to do the dialogue checks, will appreciate having this helmet to have a better chance at intimidation and look cool doing it.

If you have a Bard in the party, definitely make an effort to find the Cap of Curing to heal yourself while inspiring allies using your class's signature ability, Bardic Inspiration.

The +1d6 heal might not look like much, but when you factor in how many times per fight a Bard has a chance to use Bardic Inspiration, it all adds up. Make sure to bring use turn-based mode to unlock the chest to avoid being seen by anyone passing by.

Momentum is an interesting mechanic in BG3. When a character with Momentum starts a turn, they gain an extra 1.5 meters of movement speed on top of their base movement speed.

Related: Baldur's Gate 3: Tips For Inventory Management

If you're a Half-Elf with a base speed of 9 meters, with Momentum your movement goes up to 10.5 meters. It doesn't feel like much but at the early part of the game, before you get access to Misty Step, it's a good effect to have on basically any character.

A Paladin exclusive, the Helmet of Smiting allows your Paladin to heal himself while he's dishing out damage. Every time they use a Smite spell, they get extra HP based on their Charisma modifier. And since Paladin is a Charisma scaling class anyway, it's a win-win.

The +1 to every Constitution saving throw means that your Paladin can maintain his concentration spells better because they're less likely to fail that dice roll. This helmet will benefit your Paladin well into Act 2.

Barbarians like to jump into the middle of the battle, Rage, and wreak havoc everywhere. This usually means enemies often focus on them, and since they're rarely wearing armor, enemy hits land more often than not.

The result is a character who is often on the brink of death. Cap of Wrath is perfect for this as its special effect only activates if the character wearing it is low on health. It also does not classify as armor, so it allows your Barbarian to keep using their Unarmored Defense trait (+2 AC when not wearing armor) if they're going that route.

Both the Dark Justiciar Helm and the Shadespell Circlet require similar conditions to activate, but the helm is more universally useful than the circlet simply because of the fact that saving throws come into play much more often.

Related: Baldur's Gate 3: Best Sorcerer Spells, Ranked

Ranged characters who have the opportunity to dip into and out of combat benefit the most from this, but anyone who is clever with their positioning can use its special effects. Constitution saving throws are extremely useful for spellcasters who are maintaining concentration spells and need to avoid losing these saving throws to maintain the spell's effects.

Wearing this helmet grants the wearer access to the special spell "Shrouded in Shadow," which allows them to go invisible for two turns. Invisible characters receive advantage on attack rolls, and enemies have disadvantage when attacking them.

It's a powerful effect that can be used often in fights because it recharges on short rests, meaning it can be used three times before you need to long rest. Ranged martial characters like bow-wielding Rogues and Rangers benefit the most from this because they put the attack roll advantage to good use.

Healers in Baldur's Gate 3 often find themselves focused on keeping their tank or DPS alive to the detriment of their own health. Wapira's Crown fixes that problem.

By allowing your healer to heal themselves as a side effect of healing someone else, you basically double their spells' effects while saving on Actions and spell slots. It's an incredibly useful headgear to have, even if the character wearing it is not a dedicated healer.

The best helm in all of Act 1, Grymskull Helm, is an easy helmet to miss out on because it requires killing a powerful boss using a very specific strategy. When you try to activate the Adamantine Forge, a mechanical construct guardian called Grym will attack your party. Defeat this monster by pulling a lever on the platform and dropping the Adamantine forge hammer on top of him to land the killing blow. If you kill him using any other means, this helmet doesn't drop.

Grymskull Helm is the only helmet in the game that classifies as Heavy Armor, and you need to have a character with Heavy Armor proficiency to use it. Fighters and Paladins are both excellent classes for this, but the War Domain or Tempest Clerics are also strong contenders. Hunter's Mark is an excellent spell, and the immunity to Critical Hits is excellent, especially for this stage in the game.

Next: Baldur's Gate 3: Best Paladin Spells

Hamza Haq is a firm believer in Keyboard/Mouse supremacy and will play Tekken with WASD if you let him. As a List Writer at DualShockers, Dota 2, Pokémon, and Elden Ring is his gaming trifecta, but he’s never one to turn down a 3rd person action RPG if it catches his interest. When he’s not bent over a keyboard, he’s reading fantasy novels, discovering obscure podcasts, experimenting with home-brewed coffee concoctions, and trying to convince his dad that his career is, in fact, a real job.