This Baldur’s Gate 3 weapon can turn nat 1s into 20s

One Baldur’s Gate 3 player has discovered a weapon that can turn all your natural ones into critical successes, and it’s mind-blowingly easy to get.

Along with Baldur’s Gate 3’s expansive world, beloved companions, and engaging quests, there are the epic battles you and your party get to take part in. Using the best spells, armor, and weapons you can find, you and the rest of the party can expertly take down massive Beholders and anything you come across.

Naturally, those items can be a little hard to find, and the most powerful are even trickier. However, one eagle-eyed player has found a weapon that undeniably trumps the likes of certain legendary items. It’s got the ability to turn the tide of those trickier battles, and it’s shockingly simple to find and get hold of.

This Baldur’s Gate 3 weapon can turn a nat 1 into a nat 20

Larian Studios

Sharing their discovery on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit, one user explained how an “Act 2 weapon breaks nat 1s and makes them into nat 20s.”

“Near the start of Act 2 you can purchase the defender greataxe from one of the merchants of the Last Light Inn” the player explained. Then going on to share how “this axe has the ability to reduce its enhancement bonus by 1 on the first attack made each round in exchange for increasing the wielder’s AC until the start of their next turn. So a 14 attack roll becomes a 13 and 19 AC becomes 20 AC.”

The weapon itself has a traditional bonus and a traditional negative along with it. “But what happens if you roll a 1 and reduce it? On critical successes and failures, no modifiers are added and the flat number is treated as an auto-success or auto-fail. And since there’s no zero on a d20, in Civ 1 Ghandi fashion, the counter rolls over to 20 and boom! Instant fail to instant success.” Meaning if you critically fail, then it’ll treat it like a natural 20.

Such a weapon design feels fantastically broken and gives a new reason to want a natural one in combat. However, what happens if you’re lucky enough to roll a natural 20? One commenter asked this question and the user responded: “You still crit like normal even if you reduce it to 19.”

You’ll be able to grab the Rare Defender Greataxe from Quartermaster Talli at the Last Light Inn just at the beginning of Act 2, so be sure to keep an eye out.

Naturally, this could be a bug or an intentional idea from Larian. In the same way, this weapon could not work like this for all players, as some are claiming they didn’t benefit from this, while others are claiming it works. Either way, for the ease of just purchasing the weapon, it’s always worth a try.