If you're struggling to get decent armor early on in Baldur's Gate 3, it turns out you can get one of the best pieces of kit as early as in Act 1 thanks to the return of a sneaky exploit.
Spoilers for Act 3 ahead.
"Today I found out you can knock out a certain character in the camp, and they will drop a very very OP late game item," Reddit user Hope_bringer writes in a thread. The character they're talking about is none other than Raphael, BG3's aspiring archdevil supreme, and the late-gate item in question is the incredible Helldusk Armour. "I remember that before there was an exploit to get 1400 EXP from knocking him out prior to patch 5, but all he dropped was his diary. Apparently, the Helldusk Armour drops instead now."
The Helldusk Armour set is normally not seen until you loot it off Raphael's corpse in the House of Hope. As your reward for completing a gruelling optional questline in Act 3, it's a beast of an item that boasts an armor class of 21, makes the wearer proficient with heavy armor, grants you immunity from fire damage, and gives you the Level 3 spell Fly among other perks. You need to break into Raphael's dwelling in Avernus to get it, something I wouldn't attempt until reaching Level 11 or above. It seems Hope_bringer has managed to get their hands on it way back in Act 1 with a little help from the non-lethal toggle.
Non-lethal attacks are great ways to avoid killing important characters if you want to loot them without taking them out of the story entirely. After being whittled down to 1HP, non-lethal melee attacks or unarmed strikes have NPCs simply pass out. This is also one way you can recruit Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3, if you don't fancy being a terrible person and raiding Emerald Grove alongside her.
Apparently, it can also give you the chance to loot the Helldusk Armour off a snoozing Raphael earlier than intended. A screenshot in the Reddit post shows the aftermath of Hope_bringer using non-lethal attacks on Raphael, presumably when he comes to introduce himself at camp should you fail to run into him at one of his many, many Act 1 spawn points. I've seen him appear at camp during the tiefling or goblin parties respectively, and also upon long resting before entering the Mountain Pass.
Before initiating dialogue with him, it seems Hope_bringer turned on their non-lethal toggle and started swinging. You might even be able to do this later on at Act 2's Last Light Inn. I'm not sure how Jaheira will take all that ruckus, though, so you'd best leave it for outside the Thorm Mausoleoum instead.
Personally, I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of Raphael that early on; who knows if he will become immediately hostile to Hope_bringer next time they have a run-in? Still, at least the Helldusk Armour will look great on their Tav – until the devil comes knocking, of course.
It might be optional and painfully difficult at first, but Raphael's is still the best boss fight in Baldur's Gate 3.
