With the introduction of Patch #5,Baldur’s Gate 3adds a new difficulty with Honour Mode, offering a risky challenge that will either end in sweet victory or utter defeat. Because you only get one save file per Honour Mode run, the pressure is higher than ever.
With enough luck and experience, anyone can get to the very end after enough blood, sweat, and tears. But to make it without grinding your teeth to powder, there are small changes to your strategies that can make it almost a breeze.
Honour Mode is best if you have completed the game at least once. That way, you already know where traps and ambushing enemies are.
10Beware Of Stronger Enemies
One of the most notable additions with Honour Mode, among a handful of small changes, is increasing the difficulty of boss enemies by giving them Legendary Actions. These legendary actions can happen even when it’s not their turn, making them especially deadly.
An example of this is theOwlbear in Act One, which will use its legendary Action to summon its mate, essentially making the fight twice as hard. This goes for almost every boss enemy, so make sure you are prepared by examining their character and reading their actions.
9Rest Often
One of the best ways to make sure you are ready to win a fight is to have all of your class and item resources available. While this can be helped with short rests, you should snooze easily and often.
Having a bard with Song of Rest can help stack an additional short rest, but make sure you grab every piece of food you may find and send it straight to camp to use later. With enough, you can attempt a long rest after every couple of battles and ensure you don’t run dry of spell slots when you need them most.
In some situations, taking too many long rests at the wrong time can have an ill effect oncharacters in the world.
8Have A Tank In Your Party
In Honour Mode, you get one save file and can’t reload earlier saves, meaning if every member of your party dies in combat, your run is over. You can solve this by making sure at least one member makes it to the end of combat every time.
This can be achieved with a mix of high armor class and damage resistance either from Paladins or Barbarians,or even multiclassed into both. If you can reliably keep one party member alive, they can either use scrolls to revive the dead or pay Withers to do so.
7Send Scouts Ahead
Some areas of Baldur’s Gate 3 can be tricky when it comes to hidden traps and surprise ambushes from enemies. These kinds of unexpected challenges can happen during the worst moments and end your Honour run in the blink of an eye, especially if this is your introduction to the game.
The easiest way to get around this is to send a sacrifice ahead to scout for danger, preferably while hidden. If everything goes wrong, your entire party isn’t in danger, just Astarion. This is most important inside dungeons, and having one member standing outside can ensure your run even more.
6Ambush Enemies
A sure and easy way to create an advantage in combat is to kill or disable enemies before the fight even starts by having your party make the first move. An Assassin Rogue can achieve this consistently if you want to rely on this method.
If you want to play it cheesier, then have a stealthy character place smokepowder barrels, bombs, or satchels in strategic locations before shooting a Firebolt and watching the fireworks. Just make sure you pay attention to enemy sight cones, as you can’t reload a save if you get caught.
5Run Away From Deadly Fights
If you feel yourself losing a battle and flashbacks of the tutorial area start making you worry, run away from the battle. There is even a Flee button on the bottom right, given that you are at least a certain distance away from the nearest enemy.
This can even be done to lower the number of enemies in a fight, as they don’t respawn after you’ve already killed them. This means you can essentially pause a battle, flee to camp, heal, and then come back to finish them off.
4Summon Creatures
In the same vein as creating an advantage by picking off enemies, use summoning effects and spells to give your enemies more targets to spread attacks between and have more attacks on your side. A Beast Master Ranger, Circle of Spores Druid, and Conjuration Wizard can make this simple.
You’ll also want to hold onto allies as long as possible, such as Sovereign Glut, who aids you in defeating the duregar in the Underdark. However, you can bring him to any combat throughout the Underdark, waiting until only the duregar remain for you to get rid of him.
3Potions Potions Potions
Along with hoarding camp supplies, you should grab any and all alchemical supplies so you may craft one of Honour Mode’s most essential resources: potions and elixirs. Whether it’s a potion of Invisibility, Healing, Giant’s Strength, orPotion of Gaseous Form, there will always be a use.
This is especially important for healing potions, as you will want to hold onto spell slots as long as possible, and they can heal multiple characters at once by throwing them on the ground. you may also make Potions of Angelic Slumber for an emergency long rest during tough boss fights.
2Talk Your Way Out
A great number of combat encounters can be sidestepped or otherwise avoided by smooth-talking them into submission. Since you get the same amount of experience points either way, this can be an easy way to save up short rests and camp supplies with very little risk.
This is especially useful in Reithwin Town, as a few of Ketheric’s family members each have speech challenges that can cause them to be defeated without a single attack roll. This also leaves their items so you don’t miss out on crucial loot.
1Gather Every Ally
One of the most knee-shaking moments of Honour Mode is the dreaded final boss, where multiple mind flayers and even a red dragon await you. This is where you will want to expend every reinforcement you have to gain as much cannon fodder and attack actions as you may.
You should focus on this throughout your entire run, as essentialallies can be wonor lost as early as Act One. You’ll also want to use them sparingly in the courtyard before reaching the Elder Brain. Because if they die, they can’t be called upon again, except for Dame Aylin.
