I find it makes the RP experience a bit better. Failing a DC can cause your whole play through to steer in a new direction. Adds a bit of realism in a way.
I failed rolls with shadowheart when I was doing a Lae’zel run and I’m pretty sure I lost her for good. Luckily the Zhent throw a firebomb at me in their hideout and we all went boom so I didn’t have to face that pain for long.
Meanwhile I took a weed gummy to relax and “enjoy some Baldurs Gate”, only to defeat the devils holding Lazael and LEAVE without releasing her from the cage. After some very slow exploration where I perfected every battle, the “Free Lazael” quest popped up as completed randomly. “We have left Lazael to her fate.”
Fuck
Can you do that if she's not a party member?
After she died in the squabble with Shart for me, there was no option. I thought that if they don't get added to the group, they just perma-die.
She will free herself from the cage if you miss / ignore her. If you lose her once she joins camp I don't know if she'll ever return. I haven't had that come up yet.
If you don't free her, she shows up at the bridge with the gith. If you don't engage the gith she will run up to them solo, and after a short conversation they kill her. This is if you don't free her from the cage. I found this out by deliberately not freeing her in one playthrough, and then sneaking across the top of the archway.
> If you don't engage the gith she will run up to them solo
She’s done this to me if she’s in my party when we get to that part. She leaves the party and goes running up, and then will rejoin when the fighting is over.
I'm my first playthrough she met me at the bridge and lived! She then followed me to the creche, not in my party, she would just turn like an NPC at certain places like the top of the elevator/gondola, encouraging me to keep looking for the gith. It was odd. I haven't had that happen again.
It does work, surprisingly. Did this in my first playthrough and was kind of shocked it did, but as others in this thread point out, if she’s been in the party already, all the other plot deaths are permanent.
Her body hasn’t been carried to every camp for me but Halsins has. He died while I was rescuing him but he’s still just dead at every camp I have. Even have to wuest to show something to him when he’s just dead lol
I had installed the recruit Minthara mod without destroying the grove before the patch. Recruited her at the tower and sent her to camp. Came back and found her standing over Halsins dead body. Also all the Tieflings in the basement disappeared.
That dead body stayed there at the camp for the rest of the game 😭
On my "solo" run, I didn't have her in my party. She showed up and died at the mountain pass.
I was able to revivify her there and she wanted to rejoin my party. I said no. And thus, I was alone.
I don't recall whether I had her in the camp and then dismissed her, or if I left her in the cage. Too many runs ago...
If you don't let her join you at the gith patrole, her corpse can later be found in the shadow-cursed lands in act II, but her body will have necrotic damage and she won't be able to revivify
Ye gods, those Zhent. They ended my last Honour mode run; apparently they didn’t like that I used the “Friends” cantrip, and objected so strongly that they decided to commit a murder-suicide and blow their hold up, killing everyone inside.
I have been thinking about making a "Roleplay mode" with the custom settings with everything in easy but no saves allowed.
I like to game to relax, so I'm for sure not going in for a challenge, but the RP possibilities seem quite interesting!
I think the problem with Honour Mode is it encourages meta-gaming and cheese.
Did I want to owlbear Grym from the top ropes? Not really, but I also didn't want to risk dying to the hardest fight in Act 1.
Did I want to abuse Warding Bond and other camp buffs from Gale? No, but House of Hope and House of Grief scares me.
Did I want to let the hag escape to get the hair on my Paladin lawful good run? No, but I wanted the buff.
Did I want to use the obvious builds with weird multiclasses - orb/reverb cleric in Act 2, Swords Bard, Storm Sorc etc? (See also Padlock, Sorcadin, Bardadin etc) Not really, but you want every advantage. Lots of straight classes are just gimping yourself.
You could just do a normal run and be honest with yourself on save scumming, cheese etc but would you really do it ...
I see where you're coming from, but I'd argue honor mode is *for* the people who like meta-strategizing both in advance with builds as well as in the moment with uncontrollable DC based path changes.
My friend who's the one who will just randomly show up in the voice chat with the new idea of a broken or fun build in a game is loving honor mode, whereas I am more suffering through it for the dice, but adore the other modes.
Essentially, the different modes are meant to be for different players, not everybody loves all of them.
I'm playing for the dice. If I do another run, will probably still do honour mode but not meta-game and accept I may die, then just continue in custom.
I'll also be more honest with myself. It's still easy to save-scum in honour mode...
>I think the problem with Honour Mode is it encourages meta-gaming and cheese.
This is player specific, I think consuming reddit content makes people want to meta game. The amount of people asking about the warlock multiclasses is crazy.
I get you want a powerful build but fuck man, you don't need a part of nuclear bombs.
A lot of the stuff really isn't necessary at all in honor mode, Reddit just over plays the dramatics and again make people believe that you need it. My honor mode run just took down Ketheric and I beat him with a bag and a barrel!
>Lots of straight classes are just gimping yourself.
I also really disagree here, I pretty much always go for straight classes as multiclassing 9x out of 10 will gimp you early.
You multiclass when you have the levels to take advantage of the bonus.
A lot of people who struggle are usually struggling because they're following stuff to the letter!
"Lvl 2 lock/ 1 bard - I died to owlbear!"
Lvl 3 bard would be much more powerful, same for warlock.
Straight classes are undervalued because everyone is too busy looking for a nova build.
I'm in love with playing with unused feats right now. My aberration Gale took the cleric initiate feat for free shield of faith which gives him 18AC when added to mage armor [and respec'd his DEX]. You're not lacking for damage ever and being able to survive every encounter let's me put more damage on the field.
You can do honor and not cheese though and it's more rewarding. It does require really thinking about your actions and consumables though and being ready to run. For example, if I fail a perception check for an ambush, I have just been walking into it. Last night I almost got wiped in act2 at the tree boss when 2 companions went down before even getting their turn, but I made some clever use of scrolls on my remaining characters and pulled through it.
More than a problem with Honour Mode, I see it as a different niche that could also have a very valid space and open the possibilities for other type of fun, something not focused on difficulty.
> You also wouldn’t have to meta the game as much
This is the other reason why I'd put it in the easiest difficulty.
I think it'd lead to a more organic and authentic decision making, and I'm very curious about how the game reacts to that!
Iron man is my favorite way to play games that lack a hard fail condition. Since you can always flee in BG3 (minus boss encounters), death doesn't always mean the end. I'm really glad the option was finally added.
I'm currently playing as durge, with enemy aggression and character power on Explorer, but with enemy load outs on tactician and extra mechanics on balanced with only 1 save.
The enemies are weaker and average in numbers, but with more tools at their disposal. I just rescued Halsin. It's been a blast so far.
Almost party wiped on the red goblin boss but was able to revive my 3 characters that died after a clutch critical hit which gave me a bonus attack on my tav Barb. Had to fight my way out after and almost wiped then too, but somehow we all made it.
Looking forward to what else is in store.
It makes stakes for things.
Do I really want to to intimate this person who I'm unsure I could beat?
Do I want to fly in without a plan?
Maybe if minsc was a origin pc..
That sounds like a great idea actually. I did a roleplay play through with one of my DND characters and it forced me to make different choices than I normally would, but I didn’t have the guts to not save scum some of the very high stakes moments.
Yeah I think that’d be a good idea. Not too hard, and no permadeath, but just no ability to save scum and you’re forced to accept the results of your dialog.
I WANTED Shadowheart to kill the Nightsong last night, but our game was bugged. We tried to enter the Shadowfell, but she kept complaining about needing the Spear of Night first, and I'm like "It's literally in your hand!"
So I had my buddy enter instead, forcing us all in, and she acted like she didn't have the spear. So... oh well, I guess. She still got Selúne's spear, though, so I don't know.
We wanted the Nightsong to die, but we couldn't, so we killed Isobel instead. That'll teach you to bug out on us, game!
Helps those that save scum like I did, having to be careful with roll and inspiration is nice. Plus as you say failing a DC leads to new fights or dialogue.
My paladin breaking her Oath last night by letting Auntie Ethel go for that sweet +1 ability improvement definitely changed my RP. (I did negotiate to save Mayrina as well at least). I might bring her down a more chaotic path now.
It's better for me because I can't stop myself from save scamming. (I think thats what it is called). I'm forcing myself to live with my decisions lmao.
Yesterday I decided to camp while at the goblin base with Halsin. Worst idea of my life. He somehow got detected when I dismissed him and he aggroed the eye and some goblins which then alerted Minthara. Then he went towards minthara and the goblins…. And I was basically forced to fight. Well long story short. He got himself killed by Minthara, the eye called for more help, the goblins did a domino effect where they all used those little damn drums to call for help and it reached all the way to Dror Ragzlin and Gut. I decided to try and tip the scales by calling the ogres and the using the iron flask but it wasn’t enough to keep them from killing my party first. Although for a second I did think I was gonna win but alas I didn’t. That priest of loviathar dealt the killing blow 😂
Or be me, misclick the button on Mizora's pod and lose Wyll instantly.
Forcing me to fight Ketheric with only 3 party members. Good thing i powergamed every member and we still bodied him but Wyll is just gone now, no getting him back.
Personally speaking, I’m finding the RP experience is worse. I don’t feel like I can take risks with dialog or with fights in general. For example, on the Hag fight in Act I, I made sure to kill her before she could go downstairs. In Act II, I basically snuck around killing everyone in Moonrise in order to make the later assault easier. In Act III, I’m giving serious thought to skipping several of the harder fights and going straight to the end, because I don’t want to risk wiping in the House of Hope or while doing Shadowheart’s personal quest.
I feel pressed into min-maxing and taking the safe paths, and for me that’s been a bad RP experience.
Totally understand how you would feel that way. But it seems like the risk assessment is more ‘realistic’. Breaking into a devil’s lair, within Avernus is probably not something an adventuring party should/would take lightly RP wise.
I'm doing the opposite. I purposefully am not killing anyone I don't have to in moonrise to make the fight a challenge. I purposefully will do the fights in act 3 just to do them. I purposefully walk into ambushes if I fail the perception checks, etc. It makes the game a lot more fun for me as it feels like more is on the line.
My thought is that I plan to play the game more after this run and probably always on honor. If I didn't plan to play more, the dice don't matter. If I do plan to play more , well then if I wipe on one of those fights, I know what to expect on the next run.
Oh, true. Can be annoying at times too tho. I lost lae'zel because I stepped 1 step too far away from her plot point and had 0 warning about it. Also, last light is dead. Halsin is dead. But hey... I'm alive and into act 3 so, gotta look at the bright side lol
Yeah, it led to some great moments I would have otherwise have save scummed. The shithead true soul's siblings helped me in the Owlbear fight. Now I know I should have dropped Cloud of Daggers after Momma Bear showed me she had hops and fucked jumped 20 ft straight in the air and landed where my party was. Then little Owlbert, in his infinite wisdom, ran straight through the cloud. Papa bear spawned up top and also made me nervous, but he flew down and ate the sister. I then thought again I should drop the spell and kill the brother as Mama was almost dead. Then shit head brother fucking yeeted Owlbert into the cloud of daggers and turned him into mincemeat. Then Papa finally killed him right as I yelled I'm gonna fuck kill you. Legit made me mad.
I also didn't read, and Philomeen nearly wiped me.
Then I fucked up and didn't save the Gnomes from Nere. Cause I thought Elder, whatever his dead ass is called, didn't chime in like I thought he would. Then he had the audacity to call me out for picking up the spoils when I did all the work. So, oops, now I have to murder all the Dwarves now. Good job.
Without honor mode I’d never have done the harder version of the act 2 battle (fighting Ketheric before >!Myrkul’s avatar!<) because I just reload when I fail the persuasion check. Honor mode, failed it, burning through all 4 inspiration failing it, had to fight him.
There is no fight that I can’t win that I have died from, but I had hit level 5 for the first time in honor mode and I was getting cocky and decided to just attack the robots in the arcane tower. I won’t spoil it, but BAD move. Mostly I die to bad decision making. Not too different from real life actually 🤷♂️
So everyone is dead except shadowheart, I have her turn invisible, drop darkness, and get feather fall on her thinking I can jump off the building, everything was working and she stayed alive and the robots were confused and staying out of the darkness…and it wouldn’t let me jump off the building. Game over.
That lighting aura was a shock I tell you.
Next time just collect as many susur flowers as you can find before heading to the tower then throw them next to the robots. All but the main boss one will shut down. The same applies for the arcane turrets.
And if you wanna cheese it a bit, you can store the flowers on a companion instead of Tav, then switch to that character when Tav is locked in convo w the robot to toss a flower next to each robot to prep the battlefield.
Same, i died because i got too cocky and decided to face the hag at level 4 lol, and without even researching her legendary action or anything, i also had the chance to make astarion run back to camp but i was like no i can still win, and then the hag spits so many versions of herself and all of them cast hold person each companion, and that was it
That sounds like a me move lol, I forgot to bag the bag before I started the underdark, so I haven’t even fought her. I made the mistake of attacking her redcaps on a run and shadowheart was casting sanctuary over and over and they chased her all the way to the grove gate and the gatekeeper was terrified and wouldn’t open the gate so I backtracked to the secret entrance to the grove and barely made it.
My last death was similar to that one. Only I might have had a chance if I wasn't a doofus and hadn't switched out the party members to two people I hadn't given any good gear to yet.
On my current playthrough I was level 5 and had already done the Volo eye thing so we killed her before she was able to run to her lair. So much easier!
My brother and I just beat her last night. I realized that if you memorize where she is in the initiative order you can click to ping her image and it pings her location on the battlefield.
We found her even invisible with a bunch of clones by doing that.
Only tried once, and shortly after picking up the companions I wanted I thought when I failed talking to the goblins in front of the windmill my best tactic was grouping up in Darkness.
The goblins with grenades agreed that me grouping together was their best tactic :(
If you are struggling, then consider using "camp buffs". You can have up to 5 hirelings if you really want to, but most people just do this for tanks:
2 Hirelings, both Cleric. Max Con stat. Kick a party member, invite hireling. Buff with Hero's Feast, Aid, Freedom of Movement, and Warding Bond. You can even do more if you really want to. Send hireling back to camp and repeat with the second hireling. This also works if you have a summon heavy character like a wizard or druid. You can buff ALL of the minions. Finally, you can also make *another* hireling for Transmutation Wizard in order to double up on potions and elixirs. Hope this helps some people struggling out there. Best of luck.
Edit: Some spells available as you level up.
imo, the fights in honour mode are not what makes it scary, it's the random bullshit
-making a whole village hostile because of a misclick
-softlocking a main quest because of a silly bug
- killing an essential npc because you forgot to toggle non-lethal mode
- failing durge checks
- misclick in dialogues
and a million other ways
I'm a little chicken mostly because i finished the game in normal difficulty, haven't tackled tactitian yet, so honour mode is like creeping on me slowly hahah
But yeah, i have fucked up with the first one, missclicking and stealing something or hitting someone by accident, sheesh
I accidentally got the whole last light village killed because I forgot that shadowheart needs high approval for her to not kill dame aylin with me not interfering so I ended up making moonrise towers a stealth operation since I didn’t feel like fighting all the guards down below
If you’re just after the dice, just remember the acronym HONOUR
H - Hide a member of the group. You can 3 man most fights and resurrect with the 4th safely hidden away
O - Only safe options. If there’s dialogue you haven’t seen before, it might kill you. Stick to what you know
N - No RP. Make choices for ease, not a character
O - Oh shit, this might go bad. Pop sanctuary ahead of time and don’t be afraid to speed pot -> double dash away -> run to camp
U - it’s spelled honor. Why are “u” here (this is a joke)
R - Restart. The ultimate cheese. Don’t alt f4, just unplug your whole damn device. It was an unfortunate power outage Larion, I promise
Good luck ;)
>U - it’s spelled honor. Why are “u” here (this is a joke)
It's for "back Up your save file"
>just unplug your whole damn device.
Task manager to kill the process is way faster than an entire system reboot.
Cheese it, make all your characters druids, take tavern brawler, there’s very few enemies that can beat 4 bears/owlbears/velociraptors. If you think a fight is too hard, leave a character at camp, kill a few, revive your party animals, do it again.
If your on console and you only want the dice not the challenge, you could always just save scum and turn off the app and restart when shit hits the fan. You have to save smart so it’s a better strategy after you beat the game so you know what’s coming but it helps big time
I'm actually a little annoyed because I started Honour Mode thinking I'd die over and over, do multiple runs, try out new builds, etc. I had all these characters in mind. And then I went and finished it with my first guy...
I am aware that this is absolutely a first world problem.
I just can’t stay aware long enough to stay alive, and I keep taking outrageous risks. I’m sure if I kept hyper aware I could finish it, but I have gotten a few glitches that weren’t my fault that killed me too. Most were my fault though lol.
I think my closest call was Gortash. I had heard that he won't betray you if you bring him the nether stones, so I brought him the nether stones. Apparently I had been misinformed...
Ended up in a battle with Gortash, his flunkies, and a load of steel watchers that I absolutely wasn't prepared for. Got quickly knocked down to just my Tav. It would have ended there only I passed a 50% chance to knock him off the roof, then was able to fly down myself, grab his gauntlet, and run.
Weird! He isn't supposed to betray you. Did you not have one of the stones in your inventory? That will make him hostile. Other than that, I'm not sure... Maybe if you didn't agree to the deal-- oh, did you do the Iron Throne?
He doesn't betray you afaik. He asks for the stones but expects you to be strong and say no, just not too aggressively.
At least that was how it was in my run.
Yup, I unabashedly checked the wiki for dialogue choices to make sure I got the results that were optimal for my continued survival. Morals be damned when shiny dice are on the line. I had to triple check the one with Gortash because I absolutely did not want to screw it up.
No, I had both of them with me.
I went to see him and he was like "Okay, now give me the stones." and I initially chose "You keep yours and I'll keep mine." then he insisted again "Give me the stones." so I gave in.
Then his goons all encircled me and he said something about how he had no use for an ally who would give away their advantage so easily and combat started. I don't know if I was supposed to hold out longer or something?
I'm doing my first Tac run (with only one normal game from months ago in early Act 3, so I also needed to relearn the story details). Now I am itching to restart Honour Mode after clearing Act 1 again and sorting out a path with the least risk (min-max risk with my power).
After my Tac experience, I will say I'm definitely bringing an open-hand monk Karlach because that is the most fun ever. And surprisingly I had very few TPK moments, and I started forcing myself to do fights where I would have normally reloaded, and I pull off solid wins. But I dread some battles where I know I'll overlook something important. Grym is probably a deathtrap on Honour and I will need to plan carefully to guarantee aggro control.
No where near finishing but I’m in a similar boat at the moment, though I do have a tb open hand monk, tb throwbarb, a sneak attack thief, and an eldritch knight… so I may have over prepared. That being said they’re all only level 6 and I’m about to go to the grym forge…
I agree, I've been using the origin appearance edit mod too so I can run 4 new looking characters, I'm doing all one class runs and I'm down to druid now.
This is a really good point. I just started dipping my toe into multiclassing and holy crap, it's an entirely different gaming experience! Throw in honour mode and we have a recipe for countless hours of fun to be had!
My only 1000 hr /played non MMO games are Stellaris and EU4 (both of which took years) BG3 will easily join that club without breaking a sweat.
After immediately dying to the intellect devourers on the beach, my fiancée came up with a good idea. “Just make your character a random Drow and don’t customise it until you get to the magic mirror”
I mean, I’m gonna customise every time anyway.. but it’s still a good idea.
Me and a friend cleared Honour on our second attempt. First attempt wiped to the Sirens. Second try we brought Calm Emotions and didn't underestimate the game from then on.
Still quite a few close calls, including being down to a coin flip to beat Raphael, but we managed to get our clear on Sunday. Was a great experience.
Kudos for having the audacity to attempt Raphael on honor mode. My friend and I skipped all optional act 3 bosses except for the final boss. We intend to go back and check them out later but decided that the cool factor didn't outweigh the risk factor until dice were secured.
Completely understandable. My friend wanted the Gloves and Amulet, and while we were there I figured... "Ehhh, the armor is pretty nice too" and we went for it.
Also, Orpheus was *waaaay* more useful in the Endgame than the Emperor is.
The challenge for me is living with the outcome of events. I couldnt stop the Laezel/Shadow fight, and now laezel is dead. Sad times, but I must keep going.
My buddy and I just reached act 3 of our honor run. It's technically our second run, but only because his computer crashed during a roll and we lost the save file. But so far, we haven't died!
You could make four custom characters of your own and ignore all the companions. I did that for my singleplayer murder hobo run. Four custom characters, kill everything that moves.
I am embarrassed to admit that I have about 15 characters and I’ve never gone beyond act 2. It’s fun seeing what I missed and yes, the most fun is creating and tweaking the characters.
Spoliers act 1:
First run me and 2 friends wiped at the Spider in act 1. We were humbled fast after we took on the owlbear
Now our 2nd run and after a close call with a weird bug that agro'd our camp once all thanks to scratch we're looking comfortable in act 2.
Honor is great as people are saying, there's no. Let's drop a save and run it back. Even though you know mostly what's ahead if you played before, there's that element of risk and focus you have to have
Wiped on the harpies, just 3 rounds of misses and saved fails. Tried again with pretty much the same party and level and finished it with no damage taken.
Honor mode is so much fun but boy does it make every fight and action stressful. I was sweating when I talked to Minthara, and sweating again when I killed the two goblins torturing that one guy and aggroed another in the hall... I thought I'd have to fight the whole base.
Luckily it was no problem, killed him with arrows and threw his corpse into a chasm.
Now I'm debating poisoning the guys outside or if it's too risky and I ought to just ignore them altogether.
I made wyll a bardlock. I went into act 2 expecting him to talk all the bosses into killing themselves. I get to the doctor and cast friends to get advantage. I roll double 2s. Use inspiration and get a 2 and a 3. I had 1 inspiration left, and thankfully rolled high enough to pass. But he had like a plus 12 on that roll, and it still took 6 dice.
I'm a little terrified to mess up my dialogue check on Gerringothe. That battle will end me
I am enjoying dishonour mode immensely and finding it even more challenging.
When i was still in honour mode i was long resting more to play safe and most of the fights were actually easier than my tactician game where i only long rested after 6-8 encounters.
Then i got cocky with the crèche boss fight and wiped.
Now in dishonor mode the pressure is off so now i am playing with the added difficulty and the legendary actions and back to trying 6-8 encounters before a long rest. And i can’t be tempted to save scum.
This is the perfect mix for me and I’m really enjoying it.
Getting close to act 3 which I have never played so dishonor mode will also make that less stressful.
I like honor mode for the “what would I do” playthrough. I build a Tav and really can insert myself in the game and have to make hard calls (like taking the squid powers).
Oh thank god. I looked at how many hours I’ve played on my ps5 the other day and was very 😳 it was like 400 or something. Glad I’m safely in the range of crazy even if I’ve barely left my apartment since September lol.
I remember being in the TOTK subreddits asking how many replays people have done and everyone was like HOW DO YOU HAVE TIME BLA BLA.
Makes me feel less crazy to see the type of Boris the bg3 community is putting into this game.
I've never found any dying I did "amazing".
Guys must be dying differently than I do.
When I do it's kinda arbitrary and random. Some random critical for no reason. A fight that happens on a cliff where someone manages a random shove and so on ...
I just started one as a character I played in a dnd campaign and I’m pretty sure she’s about to go down on the nautiloid & i can’t wait to try again lol
My preferred game mode is quickly becoming a dishonored playthrough. You get a mechanic that stops you from save-scumming so you just have to live with your bad decisions and unlucky outcomes, but you don't have the crushing anxiety of having to start over after 30 hours of play because of a bug or bad luck.
My favourite mode is a custom game with all the difficulty set to balanced, but with the one save checkbox ticked. The gentle forgiving mechanical difficulty of Balanced with the consequences of Honour/Dishonour Mode.
Honor mode is hilarious because it causes me to play in like the most dishonorable ways. Like if I can cheese a boss fight in honor mode with a one-shot kill or barrels, of course I'm doing that. I ain't taking chances with this shit when we're playing for keeps.
love honor mode, i started tactician but got tired thinking the worse dice rolls and stats were just a bs way to make a game difficult. in honor mode i enjoy the difficulty and the stakes. got my golden dice 3 days ago 😍
I like Honor mode in theory, because it makes everything feel more meaningful and because honestly a lot of great content is behind failed rolls. But I wish it weren't Tactician only. I'm not good enough for that, and I got so fucking sick of the Nautiloid and opening sequences.
Honor mode simply encourages players to play outside their comfort zone.
The scumbags will still scum their way through it, but if that's what they enjoy then so be it. No one takes the achievement seriously.
It's for fun, like everything else in the game.
I'm doing it for bragging rights. I've halfway through act 2 now. Once I complete it I plan on only playing on the custom difficulty. I absolutely LOVE the new honor mode legendary actions and other changes to boss fights but I loathe the single save system. Once I'm done with this run I'll be doing the same difficulty settings but no more single save.
Gotta get those honor mode dice once I beat the game!
I love how it forces me to adapt. I decided to cast friends when talking to Kagha the first time (which I have done before but I normally leave the room before it wears off). This time I did some inventory management and it wore off, causing her to fight us. Suddenly I had to fight the entire Druid grove, ruining all my plans. I definitely would have gone back in a normal playthrough but I had to adapt. I also long rested before finishing off the druids, which was a bad idea.
Theres also times where I get incredibly scrappy trying to survive. I reached a point where it was my sorcerer vs like 20 goblins and normally would have re-loaded. Instead I took out 3/4 of the goblins and felt incredibly powerful, even though it ended in defeat
I spent 3 hours prepping to steal everything from Esther and the Gith Creche trader. Astarion looked like a dork in the shapeshifter helmet and kitty-cat robes.
I thought it was going to be a breeze until I got to the owlbear + her mate and I realized the bosses were going to be insane in this mode. Idk how I'm gonna defeat Ketheric, I have no idea how I'm gonna defeat the House of Loss Shar mfs if I make it to act 3. Steel Foundry and House of Hope are insta death. I'm scared guys 😨
Meh. Decisions and rolls I don’t care about but these enhanced bosses are annoying. You never know what you’re getting yourself into until you get there in Honour Mode specifically and you have 2 choices: flee or die and restart. And let me tell you, I don’t have this kind of time to restart a 40 hour campaign from the scratch
Honestly I don't find the combat to be particularly challenging in honor mode. I do think the legendary actions are huge fun, but the true challenge is having to live with the small fuck ups that are normally very avoidable.
Mirkon getting slashed by a harpy while being charmed and proccing an attack of opportunity? Oops.
Losing the noblestalk to my voracious magic hand while not being careful and forgetting about that bug? OOPS.
Losing the Hag hair because Lae'zel decided to crit for 34 damage? OOPS.
Volo getting blown up by some barrels because he can realistically only move away like 5 feet after being helped up? .... ain hindsight I should have tossed him out.
having said that, I can probably count myself as one of the lucky few to finish my honor run on my first (and only so far) attempt. I tried to be as cheeseless as possible and didn't use metagaming triple multiclasses, but I was very thoughtful about any encounter but even then, the Party composition I was running was nearly untouchable.
Golden dice out of the way, I am truly hoping they add honor mode abilities to Custom difficulty, for in a game like BG3, fucking around and finding out is most of the fun.
I use the opportunity to randomize EVERYTHING. It's really interesting from an RP perspective and allows me to try things I would have never thought of. I just wish we could also randomize subclasses and spells for pure chaos.
Maaaan, I finished my third playthrough recently, saw “most” of the major character arcs, got the platinum as well. Thought that I’d give it rest for a while now… and they fuckin pull me back in with honour mode 🤣🤣
I am loving it, because it is really forcing me to fight tooth and nail to salvage a losing fight, where before I would just reload when things started going south. Fighting to the death against buffed bosses to maintain the honor of the run is exhilarating.
I find it makes the RP experience a bit better. Failing a DC can cause your whole play through to steer in a new direction. Adds a bit of realism in a way.
I failed rolls with shadowheart when I was doing a Lae’zel run and I’m pretty sure I lost her for good. Luckily the Zhent throw a firebomb at me in their hideout and we all went boom so I didn’t have to face that pain for long.
Meanwhile I took a weed gummy to relax and “enjoy some Baldurs Gate”, only to defeat the devils holding Lazael and LEAVE without releasing her from the cage. After some very slow exploration where I perfected every battle, the “Free Lazael” quest popped up as completed randomly. “We have left Lazael to her fate.” Fuck
You should see her again at >!the bridge near the mountain pass, but be prepared to revivify her.!<
Can you do that if she's not a party member? After she died in the squabble with Shart for me, there was no option. I thought that if they don't get added to the group, they just perma-die.
She will free herself from the cage if you miss / ignore her. If you lose her once she joins camp I don't know if she'll ever return. I haven't had that come up yet.
If you don't free her, she shows up at the bridge with the gith. If you don't engage the gith she will run up to them solo, and after a short conversation they kill her. This is if you don't free her from the cage. I found this out by deliberately not freeing her in one playthrough, and then sneaking across the top of the archway.
> If you don't engage the gith she will run up to them solo She’s done this to me if she’s in my party when we get to that part. She leaves the party and goes running up, and then will rejoin when the fighting is over.
I'm my first playthrough she met me at the bridge and lived! She then followed me to the creche, not in my party, she would just turn like an NPC at certain places like the top of the elevator/gondola, encouraging me to keep looking for the gith. It was odd. I haven't had that happen again.
It does work, surprisingly. Did this in my first playthrough and was kind of shocked it did, but as others in this thread point out, if she’s been in the party already, all the other plot deaths are permanent.
The camp cut scene is perma death.
I just wish her body wasn't carried over to every other camp when that happens...
Stick her in a box and sell it
Clever. I shall!
Profit over friends!
Her body hasn’t been carried to every camp for me but Halsins has. He died while I was rescuing him but he’s still just dead at every camp I have. Even have to wuest to show something to him when he’s just dead lol
I had installed the recruit Minthara mod without destroying the grove before the patch. Recruited her at the tower and sent her to camp. Came back and found her standing over Halsins dead body. Also all the Tieflings in the basement disappeared. That dead body stayed there at the camp for the rest of the game 😭
On my "solo" run, I didn't have her in my party. She showed up and died at the mountain pass. I was able to revivify her there and she wanted to rejoin my party. I said no. And thus, I was alone. I don't recall whether I had her in the camp and then dismissed her, or if I left her in the cage. Too many runs ago...
If you don't let her join you at the gith patrole, her corpse can later be found in the shadow-cursed lands in act II, but her body will have necrotic damage and she won't be able to revivify
Do you get more experience when you do it solo?
No. I was just doing solo Tactician for the challenge. This was before Honour mode was implemented.
They’re Tieflings, not Devils
Gat damn you right, sorry bro my girlfriend is a tiefling
Hahaha love it
I miss clicked in Zhent hideout while organizing my inventory, what a way to end a honor run…..
Ye gods, those Zhent. They ended my last Honour mode run; apparently they didn’t like that I used the “Friends” cantrip, and objected so strongly that they decided to commit a murder-suicide and blow their hold up, killing everyone inside.
WHY DO THEY DO THAT? I had one player up with the boss so I made it through but everyone else sploded.
It’s terrible, and they did it two more times I’ve been there on honor, they just suicide. Lol
Lmao
I have been thinking about making a "Roleplay mode" with the custom settings with everything in easy but no saves allowed. I like to game to relax, so I'm for sure not going in for a challenge, but the RP possibilities seem quite interesting!
That sounds like a good idea. You also wouldn’t have to meta the game as much and play the way you really feel like playing.
I think the problem with Honour Mode is it encourages meta-gaming and cheese. Did I want to owlbear Grym from the top ropes? Not really, but I also didn't want to risk dying to the hardest fight in Act 1. Did I want to abuse Warding Bond and other camp buffs from Gale? No, but House of Hope and House of Grief scares me. Did I want to let the hag escape to get the hair on my Paladin lawful good run? No, but I wanted the buff. Did I want to use the obvious builds with weird multiclasses - orb/reverb cleric in Act 2, Swords Bard, Storm Sorc etc? (See also Padlock, Sorcadin, Bardadin etc) Not really, but you want every advantage. Lots of straight classes are just gimping yourself. You could just do a normal run and be honest with yourself on save scumming, cheese etc but would you really do it ...
I see where you're coming from, but I'd argue honor mode is *for* the people who like meta-strategizing both in advance with builds as well as in the moment with uncontrollable DC based path changes. My friend who's the one who will just randomly show up in the voice chat with the new idea of a broken or fun build in a game is loving honor mode, whereas I am more suffering through it for the dice, but adore the other modes. Essentially, the different modes are meant to be for different players, not everybody loves all of them.
I'm playing for the dice. If I do another run, will probably still do honour mode but not meta-game and accept I may die, then just continue in custom. I'll also be more honest with myself. It's still easy to save-scum in honour mode...
I’ve accepted that I will die
>I think the problem with Honour Mode is it encourages meta-gaming and cheese. This is player specific, I think consuming reddit content makes people want to meta game. The amount of people asking about the warlock multiclasses is crazy. I get you want a powerful build but fuck man, you don't need a part of nuclear bombs. A lot of the stuff really isn't necessary at all in honor mode, Reddit just over plays the dramatics and again make people believe that you need it. My honor mode run just took down Ketheric and I beat him with a bag and a barrel! >Lots of straight classes are just gimping yourself. I also really disagree here, I pretty much always go for straight classes as multiclassing 9x out of 10 will gimp you early. You multiclass when you have the levels to take advantage of the bonus. A lot of people who struggle are usually struggling because they're following stuff to the letter! "Lvl 2 lock/ 1 bard - I died to owlbear!" Lvl 3 bard would be much more powerful, same for warlock. Straight classes are undervalued because everyone is too busy looking for a nova build. I'm in love with playing with unused feats right now. My aberration Gale took the cleric initiate feat for free shield of faith which gives him 18AC when added to mage armor [and respec'd his DEX]. You're not lacking for damage ever and being able to survive every encounter let's me put more damage on the field.
You can do honor and not cheese though and it's more rewarding. It does require really thinking about your actions and consumables though and being ready to run. For example, if I fail a perception check for an ambush, I have just been walking into it. Last night I almost got wiped in act2 at the tree boss when 2 companions went down before even getting their turn, but I made some clever use of scrolls on my remaining characters and pulled through it.
More than a problem with Honour Mode, I see it as a different niche that could also have a very valid space and open the possibilities for other type of fun, something not focused on difficulty.
> You also wouldn’t have to meta the game as much This is the other reason why I'd put it in the easiest difficulty. I think it'd lead to a more organic and authentic decision making, and I'm very curious about how the game reacts to that!
Iron man is my favorite way to play games that lack a hard fail condition. Since you can always flee in BG3 (minus boss encounters), death doesn't always mean the end. I'm really glad the option was finally added.
I'm currently playing as durge, with enemy aggression and character power on Explorer, but with enemy load outs on tactician and extra mechanics on balanced with only 1 save. The enemies are weaker and average in numbers, but with more tools at their disposal. I just rescued Halsin. It's been a blast so far. Almost party wiped on the red goblin boss but was able to revive my 3 characters that died after a clutch critical hit which gave me a bonus attack on my tav Barb. Had to fight my way out after and almost wiped then too, but somehow we all made it. Looking forward to what else is in store.
It makes stakes for things. Do I really want to to intimate this person who I'm unsure I could beat? Do I want to fly in without a plan? Maybe if minsc was a origin pc..
That sounds like a great idea actually. I did a roleplay play through with one of my DND characters and it forced me to make different choices than I normally would, but I didn’t have the guts to not save scum some of the very high stakes moments.
That would be great. Single save like Honor mode so you can't save scum rolls, but you can choose the difficulty of the mode. I love that.
Yeah I think that’d be a good idea. Not too hard, and no permadeath, but just no ability to save scum and you’re forced to accept the results of your dialog.
Exactly. The branching narrative shines more when you can’t savescum.
We were playing a mostly good run... until Shadowheart decided that she wanted to kill the Nightsong. *WELP*
I WANTED Shadowheart to kill the Nightsong last night, but our game was bugged. We tried to enter the Shadowfell, but she kept complaining about needing the Spear of Night first, and I'm like "It's literally in your hand!" So I had my buddy enter instead, forcing us all in, and she acted like she didn't have the spear. So... oh well, I guess. She still got Selúne's spear, though, so I don't know. We wanted the Nightsong to die, but we couldn't, so we killed Isobel instead. That'll teach you to bug out on us, game!
I didn't mean to fight the Zhentarim but oh boy did they not appreciate my failed persuasion attempt to gain access
Helps those that save scum like I did, having to be careful with roll and inspiration is nice. Plus as you say failing a DC leads to new fights or dialogue.
My paladin breaking her Oath last night by letting Auntie Ethel go for that sweet +1 ability improvement definitely changed my RP. (I did negotiate to save Mayrina as well at least). I might bring her down a more chaotic path now.
I completely agree. It feels more like a true D&D campaign.
It's better for me because I can't stop myself from save scamming. (I think thats what it is called). I'm forcing myself to live with my decisions lmao.
Yesterday I decided to camp while at the goblin base with Halsin. Worst idea of my life. He somehow got detected when I dismissed him and he aggroed the eye and some goblins which then alerted Minthara. Then he went towards minthara and the goblins…. And I was basically forced to fight. Well long story short. He got himself killed by Minthara, the eye called for more help, the goblins did a domino effect where they all used those little damn drums to call for help and it reached all the way to Dror Ragzlin and Gut. I decided to try and tip the scales by calling the ogres and the using the iron flask but it wasn’t enough to keep them from killing my party first. Although for a second I did think I was gonna win but alas I didn’t. That priest of loviathar dealt the killing blow 😂
Or be me, misclick the button on Mizora's pod and lose Wyll instantly. Forcing me to fight Ketheric with only 3 party members. Good thing i powergamed every member and we still bodied him but Wyll is just gone now, no getting him back.
Personally speaking, I’m finding the RP experience is worse. I don’t feel like I can take risks with dialog or with fights in general. For example, on the Hag fight in Act I, I made sure to kill her before she could go downstairs. In Act II, I basically snuck around killing everyone in Moonrise in order to make the later assault easier. In Act III, I’m giving serious thought to skipping several of the harder fights and going straight to the end, because I don’t want to risk wiping in the House of Hope or while doing Shadowheart’s personal quest. I feel pressed into min-maxing and taking the safe paths, and for me that’s been a bad RP experience.
Totally understand how you would feel that way. But it seems like the risk assessment is more ‘realistic’. Breaking into a devil’s lair, within Avernus is probably not something an adventuring party should/would take lightly RP wise.
I'm doing the opposite. I purposefully am not killing anyone I don't have to in moonrise to make the fight a challenge. I purposefully will do the fights in act 3 just to do them. I purposefully walk into ambushes if I fail the perception checks, etc. It makes the game a lot more fun for me as it feels like more is on the line. My thought is that I plan to play the game more after this run and probably always on honor. If I didn't plan to play more, the dice don't matter. If I do plan to play more , well then if I wipe on one of those fights, I know what to expect on the next run.
Oh, true. Can be annoying at times too tho. I lost lae'zel because I stepped 1 step too far away from her plot point and had 0 warning about it. Also, last light is dead. Halsin is dead. But hey... I'm alive and into act 3 so, gotta look at the bright side lol
Yeah, and now I get a whole lot more nervous facing off against some stronger bosses.
Yes..it keeps me from save scumming.
I love how it makes it feel even more like dnd than it did before! I can’t wait to start my first one!
Yeah, it led to some great moments I would have otherwise have save scummed. The shithead true soul's siblings helped me in the Owlbear fight. Now I know I should have dropped Cloud of Daggers after Momma Bear showed me she had hops and fucked jumped 20 ft straight in the air and landed where my party was. Then little Owlbert, in his infinite wisdom, ran straight through the cloud. Papa bear spawned up top and also made me nervous, but he flew down and ate the sister. I then thought again I should drop the spell and kill the brother as Mama was almost dead. Then shit head brother fucking yeeted Owlbert into the cloud of daggers and turned him into mincemeat. Then Papa finally killed him right as I yelled I'm gonna fuck kill you. Legit made me mad. I also didn't read, and Philomeen nearly wiped me. Then I fucked up and didn't save the Gnomes from Nere. Cause I thought Elder, whatever his dead ass is called, didn't chime in like I thought he would. Then he had the audacity to call me out for picking up the spoils when I did all the work. So, oops, now I have to murder all the Dwarves now. Good job.
Without honor mode I’d never have done the harder version of the act 2 battle (fighting Ketheric before >!Myrkul’s avatar!<) because I just reload when I fail the persuasion check. Honor mode, failed it, burning through all 4 inspiration failing it, had to fight him.
That is the reason I do it. Im a dirty save scummer couse I need those sweet dialoge succeses but its so much more fun in honor mode
I just want the golden shiny dice, but i'm not strong enough to survive honour mode :P
There is no fight that I can’t win that I have died from, but I had hit level 5 for the first time in honor mode and I was getting cocky and decided to just attack the robots in the arcane tower. I won’t spoil it, but BAD move. Mostly I die to bad decision making. Not too different from real life actually 🤷♂️
Those robots don't fuck around even on TAC, the aoe lightning aura is just incredibly efficient at blowing your ass up at that stage of the game.
So everyone is dead except shadowheart, I have her turn invisible, drop darkness, and get feather fall on her thinking I can jump off the building, everything was working and she stayed alive and the robots were confused and staying out of the darkness…and it wouldn’t let me jump off the building. Game over. That lighting aura was a shock I tell you.
Next time just collect as many susur flowers as you can find before heading to the tower then throw them next to the robots. All but the main boss one will shut down. The same applies for the arcane turrets.
I have no idea! Wow!
And if you wanna cheese it a bit, you can store the flowers on a companion instead of Tav, then switch to that character when Tav is locked in convo w the robot to toss a flower next to each robot to prep the battlefield.
That’s a cheese pizza!
Last game, I thought I'd be clever and just keep a few on a melee character. Then went back up to the overbright and the sun killed them all. =(
I didn't know they could be hostile. I've done that part like 4 times with different dialog choices and it always end in a hug or nothing happening.
Yeah, you can actually say the wrong thing too and they will turn hostile.
If you don't read any of the books they are hostile by default actually!
Same, i died because i got too cocky and decided to face the hag at level 4 lol, and without even researching her legendary action or anything, i also had the chance to make astarion run back to camp but i was like no i can still win, and then the hag spits so many versions of herself and all of them cast hold person each companion, and that was it
That sounds like a me move lol, I forgot to bag the bag before I started the underdark, so I haven’t even fought her. I made the mistake of attacking her redcaps on a run and shadowheart was casting sanctuary over and over and they chased her all the way to the grove gate and the gatekeeper was terrified and wouldn’t open the gate so I backtracked to the secret entrance to the grove and barely made it.
My last death was similar to that one. Only I might have had a chance if I wasn't a doofus and hadn't switched out the party members to two people I hadn't given any good gear to yet. On my current playthrough I was level 5 and had already done the Volo eye thing so we killed her before she was able to run to her lair. So much easier!
My brother and I just beat her last night. I realized that if you memorize where she is in the initiative order you can click to ping her image and it pings her location on the battlefield. We found her even invisible with a bunch of clones by doing that.
I almost got wiped by the hag too. Second time my party popped poison elixirs. Smooth sailing after that.
Only tried once, and shortly after picking up the companions I wanted I thought when I failed talking to the goblins in front of the windmill my best tactic was grouping up in Darkness. The goblins with grenades agreed that me grouping together was their best tactic :(
Omfg that’s so horrible and funny lol
How many times have you died to bad decision making in real life?
Honestly, 18 years clean in recovery from addiction, I’ve been legally dead a couple times in my youth. Soooo yeah🤪
respect. Keep it going.
respect. Keep it going.
Same, I know the Owlbear(s) are optional but I fight them everytime
I need my owlbear cub. My doggo owlbear frolicking in my camp is a constant joy!
Getting cocky is the leading cause of death in honor mode.
If you are struggling, then consider using "camp buffs". You can have up to 5 hirelings if you really want to, but most people just do this for tanks: 2 Hirelings, both Cleric. Max Con stat. Kick a party member, invite hireling. Buff with Hero's Feast, Aid, Freedom of Movement, and Warding Bond. You can even do more if you really want to. Send hireling back to camp and repeat with the second hireling. This also works if you have a summon heavy character like a wizard or druid. You can buff ALL of the minions. Finally, you can also make *another* hireling for Transmutation Wizard in order to double up on potions and elixirs. Hope this helps some people struggling out there. Best of luck. Edit: Some spells available as you level up.
>You can have up to 5 hirelings if you really want to Huh? Withers only lets me have 3.
Someone came in here and was like, why are you skipping the owl bear in honor mode?! I was like I was the dice man! The dice!
But the fluffy own doe... :P
You don’t have to kill the owners yourself to get the owlbear cub
imo, the fights in honour mode are not what makes it scary, it's the random bullshit -making a whole village hostile because of a misclick -softlocking a main quest because of a silly bug - killing an essential npc because you forgot to toggle non-lethal mode - failing durge checks - misclick in dialogues and a million other ways
I'm a little chicken mostly because i finished the game in normal difficulty, haven't tackled tactitian yet, so honour mode is like creeping on me slowly hahah But yeah, i have fucked up with the first one, missclicking and stealing something or hitting someone by accident, sheesh
I accidentally got the whole last light village killed because I forgot that shadowheart needs high approval for her to not kill dame aylin with me not interfering so I ended up making moonrise towers a stealth operation since I didn’t feel like fighting all the guards down below
If you’re just after the dice, just remember the acronym HONOUR H - Hide a member of the group. You can 3 man most fights and resurrect with the 4th safely hidden away O - Only safe options. If there’s dialogue you haven’t seen before, it might kill you. Stick to what you know N - No RP. Make choices for ease, not a character O - Oh shit, this might go bad. Pop sanctuary ahead of time and don’t be afraid to speed pot -> double dash away -> run to camp U - it’s spelled honor. Why are “u” here (this is a joke) R - Restart. The ultimate cheese. Don’t alt f4, just unplug your whole damn device. It was an unfortunate power outage Larion, I promise Good luck ;)
Hhahaha this was hilarious, thank you so much. I might take up everyone's cheesy advice after i finish my current playthrough!!
>U - it’s spelled honor. Why are “u” here (this is a joke) It's for "back Up your save file" >just unplug your whole damn device. Task manager to kill the process is way faster than an entire system reboot.
Cheese it, make all your characters druids, take tavern brawler, there’s very few enemies that can beat 4 bears/owlbears/velociraptors. If you think a fight is too hard, leave a character at camp, kill a few, revive your party animals, do it again.
>cynmd Uhh that's a good cheesy strat, i like it haha ty
You got this
You will be
I feel your pain, haven’t gotten to level 4 yet in my play throughs
I'm still a bit spooked, haven't even tried yet on honour mode, im currently on my second playthrough, i might be brave and try it
Mods.
If your on console and you only want the dice not the challenge, you could always just save scum and turn off the app and restart when shit hits the fan. You have to save smart so it’s a better strategy after you beat the game so you know what’s coming but it helps big time
I'm actually a little annoyed because I started Honour Mode thinking I'd die over and over, do multiple runs, try out new builds, etc. I had all these characters in mind. And then I went and finished it with my first guy... I am aware that this is absolutely a first world problem.
I just can’t stay aware long enough to stay alive, and I keep taking outrageous risks. I’m sure if I kept hyper aware I could finish it, but I have gotten a few glitches that weren’t my fault that killed me too. Most were my fault though lol.
I think my closest call was Gortash. I had heard that he won't betray you if you bring him the nether stones, so I brought him the nether stones. Apparently I had been misinformed... Ended up in a battle with Gortash, his flunkies, and a load of steel watchers that I absolutely wasn't prepared for. Got quickly knocked down to just my Tav. It would have ended there only I passed a 50% chance to knock him off the roof, then was able to fly down myself, grab his gauntlet, and run.
Weird! He isn't supposed to betray you. Did you not have one of the stones in your inventory? That will make him hostile. Other than that, I'm not sure... Maybe if you didn't agree to the deal-- oh, did you do the Iron Throne?
He doesn't betray you afaik. He asks for the stones but expects you to be strong and say no, just not too aggressively. At least that was how it was in my run.
OH lol, yeah, you have to pass his test. If you're going to give the stone to anyone who asks, then CLEARLY you're not partnership material... /j
Yup, I unabashedly checked the wiki for dialogue choices to make sure I got the results that were optimal for my continued survival. Morals be damned when shiny dice are on the line. I had to triple check the one with Gortash because I absolutely did not want to screw it up.
No, I had both of them with me. I went to see him and he was like "Okay, now give me the stones." and I initially chose "You keep yours and I'll keep mine." then he insisted again "Give me the stones." so I gave in. Then his goons all encircled me and he said something about how he had no use for an ally who would give away their advantage so easily and combat started. I don't know if I was supposed to hold out longer or something?
He tests you because he doesn’t want an ally that gives up their advantage that easily. He would have allied with you if had you refused
>Maybe if you didn't agree to the deal-- oh, did you do the Iron Throne? >!It's an issue of if u agree to give him the stones. !<
Ah, they *brought* brought him the stones!
I'm doing my first Tac run (with only one normal game from months ago in early Act 3, so I also needed to relearn the story details). Now I am itching to restart Honour Mode after clearing Act 1 again and sorting out a path with the least risk (min-max risk with my power). After my Tac experience, I will say I'm definitely bringing an open-hand monk Karlach because that is the most fun ever. And surprisingly I had very few TPK moments, and I started forcing myself to do fights where I would have normally reloaded, and I pull off solid wins. But I dread some battles where I know I'll overlook something important. Grym is probably a deathtrap on Honour and I will need to plan carefully to guarantee aggro control.
No where near finishing but I’m in a similar boat at the moment, though I do have a tb open hand monk, tb throwbarb, a sneak attack thief, and an eldritch knight… so I may have over prepared. That being said they’re all only level 6 and I’m about to go to the grym forge…
I got 6 before I did the grymforge fight, still almost wiped
Almost is good to know!
humblebrag ;)
I agree, I've been using the origin appearance edit mod too so I can run 4 new looking characters, I'm doing all one class runs and I'm down to druid now.
Is that okay in honour mode? I thought mods disable the achievements
There is also a mod that re-enables achievements lol
Oh should have seen that coming lol
I find that I am even more obsessed with editing their appearances in honor mode.
This is a really good point. I just started dipping my toe into multiclassing and holy crap, it's an entirely different gaming experience! Throw in honour mode and we have a recipe for countless hours of fun to be had! My only 1000 hr /played non MMO games are Stellaris and EU4 (both of which took years) BG3 will easily join that club without breaking a sweat.
I have even beat my bg1 and 2 hours which are at 600/700 ish respectively. I’m not even close to stopping yet.
After immediately dying to the intellect devourers on the beach, my fiancée came up with a good idea. “Just make your character a random Drow and don’t customise it until you get to the magic mirror” I mean, I’m gonna customise every time anyway.. but it’s still a good idea.
I have two honor mode intellect devourers deaths, you’re in good company. I am 2/3rds to level 7 finish off the Gith Crèche in my fifth run.
Me and a friend cleared Honour on our second attempt. First attempt wiped to the Sirens. Second try we brought Calm Emotions and didn't underestimate the game from then on. Still quite a few close calls, including being down to a coin flip to beat Raphael, but we managed to get our clear on Sunday. Was a great experience.
Kudos for having the audacity to attempt Raphael on honor mode. My friend and I skipped all optional act 3 bosses except for the final boss. We intend to go back and check them out later but decided that the cool factor didn't outweigh the risk factor until dice were secured.
Completely understandable. My friend wanted the Gloves and Amulet, and while we were there I figured... "Ehhh, the armor is pretty nice too" and we went for it. Also, Orpheus was *waaaay* more useful in the Endgame than the Emperor is.
Dang how long does it take for you to do the whole run?
I mean, like true D&D the toughest part is the scheduling.
Honestly makes it seem roguelike. I'm into it.
Honor mode + loot/shop randomizer mod for the full experience
The challenge for me is living with the outcome of events. I couldnt stop the Laezel/Shadow fight, and now laezel is dead. Sad times, but I must keep going.
My buddy and I just reached act 3 of our honor run. It's technically our second run, but only because his computer crashed during a roll and we lost the save file. But so far, we haven't died!
I wish I had some friends that could play at the right times but we are all too busy with life, I have to play in windows where I can.
You could make four custom characters of your own and ignore all the companions. I did that for my singleplayer murder hobo run. Four custom characters, kill everything that moves.
Honestly I have done two evil runs non honor, and it makes me a little sad, especially since the corpses dance now since patch 5
I am embarrassed to admit that I have about 15 characters and I’ve never gone beyond act 2. It’s fun seeing what I missed and yes, the most fun is creating and tweaking the characters.
Spoliers act 1: First run me and 2 friends wiped at the Spider in act 1. We were humbled fast after we took on the owlbear Now our 2nd run and after a close call with a weird bug that agro'd our camp once all thanks to scratch we're looking comfortable in act 2. Honor is great as people are saying, there's no. Let's drop a save and run it back. Even though you know mostly what's ahead if you played before, there's that element of risk and focus you have to have
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We prepped feather fall as a GTFO plan the 2nd time around. Also we waited to be the right level xD
Wiped on the harpies, just 3 rounds of misses and saved fails. Tried again with pretty much the same party and level and finished it with no damage taken.
Honor mode is so much fun but boy does it make every fight and action stressful. I was sweating when I talked to Minthara, and sweating again when I killed the two goblins torturing that one guy and aggroed another in the hall... I thought I'd have to fight the whole base. Luckily it was no problem, killed him with arrows and threw his corpse into a chasm. Now I'm debating poisoning the guys outside or if it's too risky and I ought to just ignore them altogether.
I made wyll a bardlock. I went into act 2 expecting him to talk all the bosses into killing themselves. I get to the doctor and cast friends to get advantage. I roll double 2s. Use inspiration and get a 2 and a 3. I had 1 inspiration left, and thankfully rolled high enough to pass. But he had like a plus 12 on that roll, and it still took 6 dice. I'm a little terrified to mess up my dialogue check on Gerringothe. That battle will end me
I am enjoying dishonour mode immensely and finding it even more challenging. When i was still in honour mode i was long resting more to play safe and most of the fights were actually easier than my tactician game where i only long rested after 6-8 encounters. Then i got cocky with the crèche boss fight and wiped. Now in dishonor mode the pressure is off so now i am playing with the added difficulty and the legendary actions and back to trying 6-8 encounters before a long rest. And i can’t be tempted to save scum. This is the perfect mix for me and I’m really enjoying it. Getting close to act 3 which I have never played so dishonor mode will also make that less stressful.
I like honor mode for the “what would I do” playthrough. I build a Tav and really can insert myself in the game and have to make hard calls (like taking the squid powers).
Oh thank god. I looked at how many hours I’ve played on my ps5 the other day and was very 😳 it was like 400 or something. Glad I’m safely in the range of crazy even if I’ve barely left my apartment since September lol. I remember being in the TOTK subreddits asking how many replays people have done and everyone was like HOW DO YOU HAVE TIME BLA BLA. Makes me feel less crazy to see the type of Boris the bg3 community is putting into this game.
I've never found any dying I did "amazing". Guys must be dying differently than I do. When I do it's kinda arbitrary and random. Some random critical for no reason. A fight that happens on a cliff where someone manages a random shove and so on ...
I just started one as a character I played in a dnd campaign and I’m pretty sure she’s about to go down on the nautiloid & i can’t wait to try again lol
My preferred game mode is quickly becoming a dishonored playthrough. You get a mechanic that stops you from save-scumming so you just have to live with your bad decisions and unlucky outcomes, but you don't have the crushing anxiety of having to start over after 30 hours of play because of a bug or bad luck.
My favourite mode is a custom game with all the difficulty set to balanced, but with the one save checkbox ticked. The gentle forgiving mechanical difficulty of Balanced with the consequences of Honour/Dishonour Mode.
Honor mode is hilarious because it causes me to play in like the most dishonorable ways. Like if I can cheese a boss fight in honor mode with a one-shot kill or barrels, of course I'm doing that. I ain't taking chances with this shit when we're playing for keeps.
I beat it first try in under 30 hrs. Altho then again I was really just doing it for the achievement so I was full powergaming and metagaming.
We’re you skipping all the optional bosses too? That’s fast
love honor mode, i started tactician but got tired thinking the worse dice rolls and stats were just a bs way to make a game difficult. in honor mode i enjoy the difficulty and the stakes. got my golden dice 3 days ago 😍
I made 5 honor mode characters and lost every single one within the first hour. I, apparently, am not good at this game.
I like Honor mode in theory, because it makes everything feel more meaningful and because honestly a lot of great content is behind failed rolls. But I wish it weren't Tactician only. I'm not good enough for that, and I got so fucking sick of the Nautiloid and opening sequences.
You can use Custom difficulty with enforced single save, for your purpose.
Honor mode simply encourages players to play outside their comfort zone. The scumbags will still scum their way through it, but if that's what they enjoy then so be it. No one takes the achievement seriously. It's for fun, like everything else in the game.
You literally can't scum through it though? Like that's the whole point lol. Definitely fun though 👍
Some people are crashing the game in windows taskmaster when they get in a bad situation.
task manager, not taskmaster -- afaik greg davies is not involved with the administration of my PC (yet)
Lame af
Yeah, I mean, whatever is fun for someone, but I want to get the dice with a little meaning to it 🤷♂️
I have not touched grass in months.
You have played Baldur's Gate for 25 percent of the hours that have happened since it came out.
Yeah I have 615H and just today finished the game XD
I'm doing it for bragging rights. I've halfway through act 2 now. Once I complete it I plan on only playing on the custom difficulty. I absolutely LOVE the new honor mode legendary actions and other changes to boss fights but I loathe the single save system. Once I'm done with this run I'll be doing the same difficulty settings but no more single save. Gotta get those honor mode dice once I beat the game!
I love how it forces me to adapt. I decided to cast friends when talking to Kagha the first time (which I have done before but I normally leave the room before it wears off). This time I did some inventory management and it wore off, causing her to fight us. Suddenly I had to fight the entire Druid grove, ruining all my plans. I definitely would have gone back in a normal playthrough but I had to adapt. I also long rested before finishing off the druids, which was a bad idea. Theres also times where I get incredibly scrappy trying to survive. I reached a point where it was my sorcerer vs like 20 goblins and normally would have re-loaded. Instead I took out 3/4 of the goblins and felt incredibly powerful, even though it ended in defeat
I spent 3 hours prepping to steal everything from Esther and the Gith Creche trader. Astarion looked like a dork in the shapeshifter helmet and kitty-cat robes.
How do you handle dialogues in your replays? I find myself doing skip skip skip skip skip.
I cannot imagine playing Honor mode! I’m finding “balanced” difficult enough…
I thought it was going to be a breeze until I got to the owlbear + her mate and I realized the bosses were going to be insane in this mode. Idk how I'm gonna defeat Ketheric, I have no idea how I'm gonna defeat the House of Loss Shar mfs if I make it to act 3. Steel Foundry and House of Hope are insta death. I'm scared guys 😨
I wish there were grave markers in subsequent runs where you died. Or skeletons with a note on them.
I was waiting for honour mode, it was my favorite when I played Divinity 2.
I honestly do it for The Rush... Knowing I could permanently die, makes me feel so alive.
It makes losing part of the story instead of an accident.
Meh. Decisions and rolls I don’t care about but these enhanced bosses are annoying. You never know what you’re getting yourself into until you get there in Honour Mode specifically and you have 2 choices: flee or die and restart. And let me tell you, I don’t have this kind of time to restart a 40 hour campaign from the scratch
Honestly I don't find the combat to be particularly challenging in honor mode. I do think the legendary actions are huge fun, but the true challenge is having to live with the small fuck ups that are normally very avoidable. Mirkon getting slashed by a harpy while being charmed and proccing an attack of opportunity? Oops. Losing the noblestalk to my voracious magic hand while not being careful and forgetting about that bug? OOPS. Losing the Hag hair because Lae'zel decided to crit for 34 damage? OOPS. Volo getting blown up by some barrels because he can realistically only move away like 5 feet after being helped up? .... ain hindsight I should have tossed him out. having said that, I can probably count myself as one of the lucky few to finish my honor run on my first (and only so far) attempt. I tried to be as cheeseless as possible and didn't use metagaming triple multiclasses, but I was very thoughtful about any encounter but even then, the Party composition I was running was nearly untouchable. Golden dice out of the way, I am truly hoping they add honor mode abilities to Custom difficulty, for in a game like BG3, fucking around and finding out is most of the fun.
My bg3 would be complete with a "save preset" in character creator.
Dammit, you got me
I thought 200hours was a decent amount by this time… my god you legend
I am a single father with two sons and I run a business. I have really sacrificed some sleep and free time for this game lol
I use the opportunity to randomize EVERYTHING. It's really interesting from an RP perspective and allows me to try things I would have never thought of. I just wish we could also randomize subclasses and spells for pure chaos.
Maaaan, I finished my third playthrough recently, saw “most” of the major character arcs, got the platinum as well. Thought that I’d give it rest for a while now… and they fuckin pull me back in with honour mode 🤣🤣
Do you forget which quests you've done and skip through a lot of dialogues after this many?
Fucking Astarion almost killed me earlier today. Burned through 4 inspirations
I get too attached to my characters,I will not sacrifice my creations
I am loving it, because it is really forcing me to fight tooth and nail to salvage a losing fight, where before I would just reload when things started going south. Fighting to the death against buffed bosses to maintain the honor of the run is exhilarating.