Discover the best Monk Unarmed Weapons in Baldur’s Gate 3, equipping your class with the top 10 early and end-game gloves.
The Monk class in BG3 is a skilled and disciplined martial artist who harnesses their body’s inner energy to perform incredible feats of physical prowess. Monks are known for their unarmed combat, swift movement, and unique mystical abilities. Monks derive their damage with their fists with unarmed weapons. Unlike other classes, Monk’s Gloves are their “weapon” of choice, often influencing and increasing their unarmed damage. This Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Unarmed Weapons for Monk Class guide and ranking explains and lists the best unarmed weapons in BG3 for the Monk class and how to utilize them.
Best Unarmed Weapon for Monk Class in Baldur’s Gate 3
The best unarmed weapon for the Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3 is the Gloves of Soul Catching because it increases damage by 1d10, gives passive healing when attacking, and boosts your Constitution by 2. The Gloves of Soul Catching provide the most defensive and offensive benefit out of all the unarmed weapons in BG3 and should be your number one priority to obtain in Act 3.
Without a doubt, the top three unarmed weapons for the Monk class are Gloves of Soul Catching, Helldusk Gloves, and Servitor of the Black Hand Gloves.
The following list presents the best unarmed weapons for Monk Class in BG3:
- Gloves of Soul Catching
- Helldusk Gloves
- Servitor of the Black Hand Gloves
- Seraphic Pugilist Gloves
- Flawed Helldusk Gloves
- Gloves of Crushing
- Gloves of Cinder and Sizzle
- Gloves of Belligerent Skies
- Bracers of Defence
- The Sparkle Hands
10 The Sparkle Hands
The Sparkle Hands features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Rare
- Special Features: Conductive Strikes, Effective Transmitter
- Location: Chest in the Wilderness near Blighted Village X: 95 Y: 210 Act 1.
The Sparkle Hands are rare gloves in the Wilderness near the Blighted Village. These gloves provide the Conductive Strikes special features, granting two Lighting Charges on unarmed attacks. The Sparkle Hands gloves also give an Effective Transmitter while imbued with Lighting Charge. This gives you an Advantage when attacking metal constructs and foes wearing metal armour. Advantage gives you two d20 dice rolls and chooses the highest.
Combining this early-game item with The Protecy Sparkwall clothing chest piece makes it powerful. While imbued with Lighting Charges, the wear gains +1 AC and Saving Throws. The Monk is incentivized to use cloth, not armour, and combined with this clothing item, and you can get higher AC than medium armour users. This combination helps offensively and defensively in Act 1 and should be a priority early in the game.
9 Bracers of Defence
Bracers of Defence features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Rare
- Special Features: Become the Bulwark
- Location: Apothecary’s Celler below Blighted Village chest X: -656 Y: -370 Act 1.
The Bracers of Defence is a rare glove found in the Apothecary Cellar below Blighted Village in Act 1. These gloves provide Become the Bulkwark unique feature, which grants the wearer +2 AC if you’re not wearing armour or holding a shield. The Bracers of Defence is a robust defensive set that can increase your AC to 18 with just clothing and a high ability score.
When combined with other jewellery, accessories, and passives, the Monk can reach over 20 AC without any armour. The downside of the gloves is, that they provide no offensive power and can limit your Monk’s overall damage. In Act 2, you get many more offensive options, but consider the Bracers of Defence the best Act 1 gloves for your Monk.
8 Gloves of Belligerent Skies
Gloves of Belligerent Skies features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Special Feature: Thunderous Conversion
- Location: Chest inside Crèche Y’llek Inquisitor’s Chamber Act 2.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, the Gloves of Belligerent Skies is an uncommon clothing item fantastic for the Monk class. You can get them from early Act 2 inside the Crèche Y’llek Inquisitor’s Chamber. The gloves provide Thunder Conversion, which inflicts 2 turns of reverberation when damaging a target with elemental damage like Thunder, Lighting, and Radiant. The Way of the Open Hand Monk has a passive that adds elemental damage attacks, specifically Radiant, which can be toggled on and trigger the Thunderous Conversion passive.
The trick to using these gloves properly is to attack with a Flurry of Blows, which is two attacks per turn. You can get two stacks of Reverberation, which imposes a -1 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws per stack. When there are 5 or more stacks, the enemy takes 1d4 Thunder damage and must succeed a DC 10 Constitution Saving Throw or fall prone. Using your bonus action, Flurry of Blows, in conjunction with Unarmed attacks, can reach 5 stacks per turn, giving you extra damage and possibly a crowd control effect. The Gloves of Belligerent Skies are deceptively powerful glove that deals additional damage and a possible stun.
7 Gloves of Cinder and Sizzle
Gloves of Cinder and Sizzle features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Rare
- Special Features: Dragonfire Fist, Scorching Ray Spell
- Location: Sold by Lady Esther at Rosymorn Monastery Trail Act 2.
The Gloves of Cinder and Sizzle are rare gloves bought from Lady Esther on the Rosymorn Monastery Trail during Act 2. The Gloves provide a free cast of the Scorching Ray spell at the 3rd level once per Long Rest. This can help the Monk with some ranged damage using subclasses that do not have spell casting.
The Gloves of Cinder and Sizzle also provide 1d4 Fire damage on unarmed attacks. This extra damage can stack with additional Way of the Open passive like Manifestation of the Body, Mind, and Soul. You can obtain the Gloves of Cinder and Sizzle very early from a vendor when traveling to the Githyanki Creche, and they should give you an immediate boost to ranged damage and extra unarmed fire damage.
6 Gloves of Crushing
Gloves of Crushing features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Rare
- Special Features: Crushing Blow, +2 Bludgeoning damage
- Location: Sold by Roah Moonglow in Moonrise Towers during Act 2.
The Gloves of Crushing is a rare glove sold by Roah in Moonrise Tower during Act 2. The Crushing Blow feature gives you a +1 bonus to unarmed attacks. The Crush Blow passive also gives you 2 Bludgeoning damage as well. The combination of increased attack roll and passive 2 bludgeoning damage is a great way to add consistent damage to your build. These gloves are useful if you have high mobility using the Githyanki race with Misty Step and do not need a ranged spell or utility. Consider picking up the Gloves of Crushing from the vendor before progressing into Act 3.
5 Flawed Helldusk Gloves
Flawed Helldusk Gloves features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Special Feature: Lesser Infernal Touch, Strength Saving Throw
- Location: Crafted by Dammon in Last Light Inn Act 2 by given Infernal iron.
The Flawed Helldusk Gloves are a rare pair of gloves that grant unarmed attacks, deal an additional 1d4 Necrotic damage, and have a chance to inflict Bleeding. The extra Necrotic damage can stack with Manifestation of Body, and the Bleeding status effect is sneaky impactful. Bleeding creatures take an extra 2 damage at the start of each turn and have a disadvantage on saving throws. Just like Advantage, disadvantage has you rolling two d20s but selecting the lowest of the two.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, the Flawed Helldusk Gloves add increased necrotic damage and possibly passive slashing damage for your Monk class. The wear also gains +1 Strength Saving throws, which can be helpful when avoiding getting shoved, which hopefully isn’t off a ledge. The downside of these gloves is that Dammon crafts them in the Last Light with Infernal Iron. This is a limited resource that coincides with Karlach’s companion’s personal quest. It makes you prioritize the gloves, similar to how Adamantine Crafting works in Act 1.
4 Seraphic Pugilist Gloves
Seraphic Pugilist Gloves features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Special Feature: Angelclocker, Guiding Bolt spell
- Location: Chest in Open Hand Temple X:-90, Y:-7 Act 3.
Seraphic Pugilist Gloves are a rare set of gloves that give 1d4 Radiant damage to unarmed attacks and give the wear the ability to cast Guiding Bolt once per Long Rest. Like other gloves work with the Monk, the Radiant damage can stack with the Way of Open Hand Manifestation of Soul passive. The Guiding Bolt spell is a powerful ranged spell that not only does damage but gives the next attacker an Advantage on attacks. Consider making an early stop in Act 3 at the Monk Temple to pick up these gloves.
3 Servitor of the Black Hand Gloves
Servitor of the Black Hand Gloves features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Special Features: Enervating Suffusion, Fear Spell
- Location: Chest at the top floor of Wyrm’s Fortress Chest X: -32 Y: 198 Act 3.
The Servitor of the Black Hand Gloves are a rare pair of Gloves that give 1-4 Force damage to unarmed attacks and allow the wearer to cast the Fear spell once per Long Rest. The extra force damage is similar to other gloves on this list, but the Fear spell is where these gloves shine. Fear frightens enemies, making them drop everything, and they will be easier to hit, cannot move, and require multiple saving throws.
The strength of the Fear spell is that it’s a 9-meter cone spell that can hit multiple targets in one turn. This helps the Monk class with limited crowd control outside of unarmed control attacks. This will help the Monk solve their weakness, stunning or controlling multiple enemies with a single action. Look for the Servitor of the Black Hand Gloves at the top of Wyrm’s Fortress inside a Chest in Act 3.
2 Helldusk Gloves
Helldusk Gloves features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Special features: Infernal Acuity, Infernal Touch, Strenght Saving Throw, Rays of Fire Cantrip
- Location: Dropped by Haarlep in the House of Hope.
Helldusk Gloves are a very rare pair of Gloves that grant bonuses to unarmed attacks, spell attacks, spell saves, and extra cantrip spell. These gloves can be obtained from the House of Hope in late Act 3. The Infernal Touch special features give the wearer 1d6 fire damage which is the second highest out of all gloves. You also get a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls and spell save DC.
Another benefit of the gloves is the additional Rays of Fire spell which uses strength for its spell-casting ability. Many Monk builds use the Tavern Brawler feat which adds your strength modifier twice to your damage and attack rolls when making an unarmed attack. You can combine this feat with Elixir of Hill Giant Strength for 21 strength until a long rest, giving you a +5 strength modifier. Combine the increased strength with the Rays of Fire spell, which hurls 3 rays of fire each dealing 3d6 damage, for a great ranged damage spell in combination with melee unarmed attack damage. The Helldusk Gloves are a powerful unarmed weapon only outmatched by the Gloves of Soul Catching.
1 Gloves of Soul Catching
Gloves of Soul Catching features in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Armour Class (AC): None
- Type: Clothing
- Requirements: None
- Rarity: Legendary
- Special features: Soul Fist, Soul Catching, Constitution +2
- Location: Reward for Save Hope Quest.
The Gloves of Soul Catching is a legendary pair of Gloves with three unique features for the wearer. These gloves are rewarded for completing the Save Hope quest in Act 3. The most important feature is Soul Fist, giving you unarmed attacks an additional 1d10 force damage. This is the most damage added of any glove and unarmed weapon in Baldur’s Gate 3. You also can heal yourself for 10 hit points, each unarmed hit with the Soul Catching unique feature. This is especially helpful with multiple attacks per action and bonus action.
The Gloves of Soul Catching special features also allow you to forgo the healing and gain an Advantage on Attack Rolls and Saving Throws until the end of your next turns. This adds an offensive and defensive benefit if you are at maximum health and do not require healing.
If these bonuses weren’t enough, you also get an increase to your Constitution ability score of +2 up to 20. This boost to Constitution will increase your survivability passively and makes the gloves worthy of obtaining regardless of the offensive bonuses.
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