Weaponsupporting

Moonlight Glaive

The Moonlight Glaive is a rare +2 glaive in Baldur's Gate 3 that adds Radiant damage, surrounds its wielder with light, and grants the Moonlight Butterflies action.

Importance

supporting

Baldur's Gate 3 · weapon

Key Takeaways

Moonlight Glaive is an Act 2 rare glaive that combines a +2 enchantment with radiant-themed utility rather than relying only on its weapon damage.

Radiant-enhanced glaive

Its +2 enchantment is supplemented by additional Radiant damage, giving it a distinct damage profile among ordinary glaives.

Persistent illumination

The glaive emits a permanent light radius around its wielder, which can matter when visibility and positioning are relevant.

Moonlight Butterflies

Its unique Moonlight Butterflies action grants advantage on attacks against nearby enemies, making close engagement central to the weapon’s special effect.

Act 2 availability

Moonlight Glaive is obtained as an Act 2 reward, so it is not part of the early-game glaive pool.

A proximity-dependent strength

The weapon’s strongest combat benefit is conditional: Moonlight Butterflies helps against nearby targets rather than universally improving every attack.

Polearm Master synergy

Players often associate Moonlight Glaive with Polearm Master builds, although that pairing reflects a build preference rather than a requirement to use the weapon.

A specialized glaive choice

Compared with a conventional glaive, Moonlight Glaive trades a more ordinary profile for Radiant damage, persistent light, and a unique advantage-granting action.

Overview

Moonlight Glaive is a rare glaive in Baldur’s Gate 3, distinguished by radiant power, a persistent light effect, and a weapon action that improves the wielder’s attacks against nearby enemies.

Moonlight Glaive occupies the space between a conventional reach weapon and a utility-focused named reward. Its identity comes less from an unusual weapon category than from the package of effects attached to it: the glaive deals additional Radiant damage, produces a permanent light radius around its wielder, and provides the unique Moonlight Butterflies action. These features give it a clear thematic and mechanical identity without making it a separate weapon class.

The weapon’s light is useful beyond presentation. A persistent illumination effect can help a character operate in dark areas without relying on a spell, consumable, or another party member’s light source. Its Radiant damage and Moonlight Butterflies action reinforce the same close-range role: the wielder is encouraged to fight from within the weapon’s effective melee space rather than treating the glaive as a purely defensive reach option.

Moonlight Butterflies is the glaive’s most defining distinction from ordinary glaives. The action allows the wielder to gain Advantage on attacks against nearby enemies, so the weapon can reward deliberate positioning and sustained engagement. That makes it relevant to characters who want to combine a polearm’s reach with more reliable attack rolls, including builds that make use of Polearm Master, although the weapon does not replace the need to evaluate proficiency, feat choices, and the rest of the character’s equipment.

Moonlight Glaive is obtained during the events of Act 2, placing it within the game’s mid-to-late progression rather than the opening equipment pool. Its association with Dame Aylin and her radiant goddess gives the reward a strong narrative context, while the weapon remains useful as a practical combat option after acquisition. This page treats it as the Baldur’s Gate 3 item rather than as a variant shared with another mode or DLC release.

Statistics

This game publishes dice damage rather than 0–100 bars, so the verified damage, enchantment, weight and value are listed instead. Taken from the project's verified weapons database, not from generated text.

Base Damage
1d10+2
Damage Type
Slashing
Extra Damage
1d4 Radiant
Enchantment
+2
Rarity
Rare
Weight
2.7 kg
Value
380 gp
Entry Type
Named / special

Figures verified against Consolidated Game Weapons Database.

Compared to similar slashing weapons

Weapon	Base Damage	Damage Type	Enchantment	Weight	Value
Moonlight Glaive	1d10+2	Slashing	+2	2.7 kg	380 gp
Everburn Blade	2d6	Slashing	—	2.7 kg	130 gp
Sorrow	1d10+1	Slashing	+1	2.7 kg	380 gp
Balduran's Giantslayer	2d6+3	Slashing	+3	2.7 kg	1300 gp
Silver Sword of the Astral Plane	2d6+3	Slashing	+3	2.7 kg	1300 gp

Damage is the dice expression; weight and value are the game’s own figures. From Consolidated Game Weapons Database.

How to Obtain

Before you start

Baldur's Gate 3 Act 2 access.
Access to Quartermaster Talli's vendor inventory at Last Light Inn.
The Last Light Inn and Quartermaster Talli must remain available; the weapon is missable if that vendor route is lost.

01Reach Last Light Inn in Act 2 and speak with Quartermaster Talli, the Harper quartermaster stationed at the inn. Her vendor inventory includes the Moonlight Glaive as a direct purchase; it is not obtained from a boss drop or a mission-completion reward.
02Buy the Moonlight Glaive from Talli while her shop remains accessible. The glaive is a fixed item in her Act 2 inventory rather than a random enemy drop, but the purchase requires the vendor to remain available.
03Secure the Last Light Inn before advancing events that can remove its residents or make the sanctuary inaccessible. If Talli is lost or her shop can no longer be accessed, no separate guaranteed recovery route is established for this weapon.

Availability

Story mode — Act 2Act 2 reward

Requires Act 2 progression

The Moonlight Glaive is associated with an Act 2 reward event. No separate DLC, difficulty, NG+, or alternate price context is established.

Mechanics and Handling

The Moonlight Glaive keeps the standard handling of a glaive: it is a two-handed polearm whose reach lets its wielder attack from farther away than ordinary close-range weapons. That spacing is useful for controlling the area immediately around the wielder, although it still requires the character to commit to melee attack positioning rather than functioning as a ranged option.

Reach, spacing, and attack commitment

Its reach changes how the weapon approaches engagement. The wielder can begin attacks without standing directly beside the target, which helps maintain distance from creatures that punish close contact. The glaive remains a committed melee weapon, however; its advantage comes from where attacks can be made, not from avoiding melee entirely. As with other glaives, its heavy two-handed handling also makes it a poor fit for a character who needs a free off-hand for a shield or another weapon.

Moonlight Butterflies creates an advantage window

Moonlight Butterflies is the Moonlight Glaive’s defining combat action. It surrounds the wielder with distracting moonlit butterflies and allows attacks against nearby enemies to be made with Advantage. The benefit is conditional on the enemies being near the wielder, so the action rewards entering or holding the glaive’s close fighting space rather than attacking from a distant position. It is especially relevant when the wielder expects to make several attacks against targets gathered around them, but it does not turn every attack made anywhere on the battlefield into an advantaged attack.

Radiant presence and visibility

The weapon emits a permanent light radius around its wielder. This is an always-on property rather than a separate attack sequence, so it can affect how the character is seen and how dark areas are illuminated while the glaive is equipped. Its additional Radiant damage is part of the weapon’s normal offensive profile and should be kept distinct from the Advantage supplied by Moonlight Butterflies: one adds damage of a different type, while the other changes the attack roll conditions.

Strengths, Weaknesses and Best Uses

Strengths

Its +2 enchantment supports reliable attack rolls and weapon damage throughout Act 2 and beyond.
The additional Radiant damage gives ordinary weapon hits a damage component beyond the glaive’s base physical damage.
Moonlight Butterflies can grant advantage against nearby enemies, improving accuracy when the wielder commits to close engagement.
The permanent light radius is useful for fighting in dark areas without relying on a separate light source.
As a glaive, it fits Polearm Master-oriented builds that want a reach weapon and feat-based follow-up attacks.

Weaknesses

Moonlight Butterflies is most relevant only when enemies are nearby, so it offers less value when the wielder cannot safely close distance.
Using the advantage-granting action carries an action-economy cost and may compete with attacks, spells, or other combat actions.
Its Radiant damage is less dependable against enemies that resist or ignore Radiant damage.
The weapon’s benefits are concentrated in melee positioning and therefore do not help a character whose plan is primarily ranged or spell-based.

Best uses

A front-line martial character who can remain close to enemies and use Moonlight Butterflies to improve attack reliability.
Polearm Master builds seeking a named glaive with a +2 enchantment, extra Radiant damage, and a combat-oriented unique action.
Act 2 encounters where the wielder benefits from carrying a built-in light source while fighting at close range.

Compared With Similar Weapons

Compared With Similar Weapons
Weapon	Type and enchantment	Distinctive effect	Best fit
Moonlight Glaive	Additional Radiant damage; permanent light radius; Moonlight Butterflies grants advantage on attacks against nearby enemies	Close-range polearm users who value reliable attacks and radiant utility	—
Drakethroat Glaive	Draconic Elemental Weapon adds an elemental damage effect to a weapon	Characters supporting a weapon-focused ally with elemental damage	—
Dancing Breeze	Finesse property and a distinctive sweeping weapon action	Dexterity-based glaive users and builds prioritising finesse polearm attacks	—

Lore and Design

Spoiler: The Moonlight Glaive’s identity is closely tied to Dame Aylin and the radiant divine imagery surrounding her. Its moonlit presentation, additional Radiant damage, and persistent illumination reinforce that association, making it read as a weapon of celestial symbolism rather than an ordinary military glaive. The available documentation supports this thematic relationship, but does not establish a separate creator, historical origin, or developer-confirmed real-world inspiration for the weapon.

Trivia

The Moonlight Glaive’s weapon-specific action is named “Moonlight Butterflies,” giving it a distinctive Selûnite identity rather than relying only on the glaive’s standard weapon actions.
Its moonlight imagery is thematically associated with Dame Aylin and Selûne, linking the weapon to Act 2’s celestial and radiant themes.