Can I Beat Baldurs Gate 3 [Honor Mode] with these 9 restrictions? | Ep 8

[@FarrinCW]

You got your javelin back because you threw a stick and so best boy Scratch brought it back. That was the treasure he went to get.

[@Melth]

Thanks, yeah, I just found out yesterday that he does that!

[@marklewis1457]

So what you are saying is that as long as I have Scratch I don't need to use the Returning Pike? Scratch based throw build OP!

[@Melth]

@@marklewis1457 Sadly, I think Scratch only does that maneuver outside of battle. It IS true in principle though that you could throw any weapon and then have allies fetch it for you mid-combat if their initiative lines up with yours. I think you can at least click+drag items when controlling Scratch on his turn, so he could bring it back to you that way as long as he has enough movement speed.

[@bigjalopy]

Been watching this series religiously. It's always fun watching someone play a game better than I ever could. Listening to you explain your choices and how they impact the game in the future is very interesting to :)

[@Melth]

Glad to hear it!

[@gabididilescu9855]

To cancel an issued command that includes movement, like how lae zel moved and missed at 37:05, you just need to right click. It works only with attacks/actions that require you to move first. The character will stop still

[@Melth]

Good to know, I've been trying other things like issuing a new command or hitting Esc or entering turn based mode but of course none of that worked

[@marcinbartlomiej5558]

30:10 That's so great! Scratch brought back Javelin undetected, because he thought he was playing with you. I didn't know about such a feature!

[@Melth]

@@marcinbartlomiej5558 it's a fun feature! Though it can be bad sometimes because Scratch can run into a dangerous area alone to retrieve a thrown item, thereby getting into combat alone and dying immediately

[@RoryDavidWatts]

This is the canonical playthrough of BG3. Thanks again!

[@Melth]

Except for that part where I had to knock out Alfira twice 😅

[@Healer1124]

If you want to wake up all the skeletons at once for a decent fight in the alchemist's basement, I'm pretty sure giving the wrong answers to the mirror does this.

[@Melth]

Interesting! I know that makes the mirror attack you with a flaming sphere. But I'd always killed the skeletons before talking to the mirror, so I have no idea what it does to the skeletons. One commenter suggested another idea which I can confirm works: Send in a summon or something to attack one coffin and just let it get killed as all the skeletons wake each other up. Then you can have the whole party go in to fight them once they're all ready. Too late for this run, but maybe I'll try that on my next Honour run.

[@dogstar9455]

Good stuff. I've never heard such blatant, absolute disdain for Goblins before on other playthroughs.

[@Melth]

If I was assembling an army of evil races, we would use goblins for target practice, because they certainly aren't useful enough to be trusted with any other assignment! Look how much Ketheric lost by relying on goblins for an important job!

[@alvinvelez1641]

Another day with a Melth video is gonna be a good day

[@Melth]

Thank you!

[@darthimperious1594]

@36:47 I agree with how you handled that. I had the exact same problem when I first went to that room, so now I just break each casket open and be done with it.

[@Melth]

@@darthimperious1594 an idea someone suggested after I made this is to send in something like a mage hand alone and have it trigger the ambush, allowing all the skeletons to come out and kill it. Then wait a couple of rounds and THEN have the party go in to fight properly with neither side having surprise. Seems impossible to explain in-character, but it COULD make for a balanced fight

[@darthimperious1594]

@Melth Huh. Might work. Is there any text that could alert the player to the undead? Or anything that could hint at a trap? Might be able to pass off a paranoid "Go and touch a bunch of stuff to try and find traps" order to the mage hand. Been a while since I paid that much attention to the text in that part of the game though.

[@carolinakettles9879]

me and my bf go "MELLLLLLTH" every time we see you've dropped a new video. just thought you should know.

[@Melth]

That's very cute! I'm glad you two enjoy the series. BG3 has been a ton of fun for my wife and me too. It was released at a perfect time for us since she'd just finished law school and suddenly had free time!

[@lucasjacare]

Great series. But man, you gotta release the videos more often because my anxiety can't handle waiting so long for this spectacular adventure. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@Melth]

Happy to hear you're enjoying it so much! Two videos a week is a pretty busy schedule for this series; they take more time to make than some other games I play. I don't think a faster pace would be sustainable for long

[@TheIronSeagull]

Gotta say, I'm ABSOLUTEly (I'm a dad, I can make these jokes 🤭) loving this series! Didn't think I'd ever play this game again after my honour mode run was ended by a bug 40+ hours in but I've gotten back into it after I started watching your videos. No honour mode this time, I've learned my lesson! Playing on balanced mode but doing a no save-scum solo run to keep things interesting. You're tips and tricks on action economy have really helped a lot... Having a great time! Thanks Melth! (Richard approves) 😁

[@Melth]

Happy to hear you're enjoying the series! And I certainly make puns like that all the time, without even the excuse for being a dad yet. Sorry to hear about your honor mode run. I'm certainly concerned about game-ruining bugs myself, so I think I'll back up my save every few episodes in case of something ridiculous happening. (One time, for example, I had Sovereign Glut use his reanimate ability to zombify the Duergar Gekh Cole... only for Zombie Cole to start talking like he's alive and say he'll kill us because we're working with Glut. At which point a fight started with my main character, Glut, and Zombie Cole on one side vs the entire rest of the party! Except they weren't even really hostile. They'd display as red on my turn, then become blue and controllable on their turn, so the battle never ended!)

[@Crazygandelf1]

Just binge watched all the episodes today as I found your channel this morning looking for how to kill the cambions in the tutorial. I couldn’t stop watching after that, loving the explanation of everything you do and the reasoning behind your play through! All I want is more haha! Good luck and I hope you get through the whole game without dying!

[@Melth]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying the series

[@lukesandadordoceu4835]

in my honour mode playthrough I met Sazza after having killed Gut, the dialogue strangely remained the same. I was eager to telling her I had already gutted Gut

[@Melth]

Sad to hear that, I guess the writers overlooked that possibility!

[@justawarlord]

if you wanted the hardest possible way you send them to the goblin camp and fight them on with the other goblins while still having the owl bear fight by yourself

[@Melth]

Yeah, I would do that differently if I were replaying it. At the time, I didn't know that they would go to the Goblin Camp if spared. I don't think it would make a difference though; they'd just die in the first round of AoEs and spike growths in the goblin battle.

[@bycensus3628]

I am a new subscriber but I have to say you are the best at describing how and why to do things.

[@Melth]

Thanks! I always try to explain my strategic thought process. Sometimes that's not easy with a fun like this where I can't just re-record if I wasn't clear enough

[@mordecaiplatypus4300]

Loving this series!

[@Melth]

Nice to hear it!

[@IliumGaming]

on my solo tactician run I was playing assassin/gloomstalker and quickly realized they are by far the least rest-dependent class in the game. If it wasn’t for Brace on the Titanstring Bow I think I might have been able to do act 2 in a day.

[@Melth]

Yeah, assassin (or thief)/gloomstalker is very strong that way

[@smdb5874]

been waiting for this!

[@Melth]

Glad to hear other people are anticipating these videos! I look forward to making some more

[@MathieuMorissette]

Excellent video!!!

[@Melth]

Thank you!

[@AlexTheSkjegg]

I noticed you missed the little bag/pouch behind the storage room in the Grove. I have found some pretty nice items in there on some of my runs. Might have just been money or valuables in yours though!

[@Melth]

Oh I should check that if I'm in the area again. Which storage room do you mean?

[@AlexTheSkjegg]

The one with the paralyzed Tiefling in it. From the hag potion.@@Melth

[@AlexTheSkjegg]

It's right at the back of it, between the shack and the statue that is back there.@@Melth

[@_DaemonCleaner]

Lovely stuff - keep em coming. Merry xmas, and (soon) happy new year :)

[@Melth]

Thanks, and to you too!

[@CameronsVideo]

The only way I can think to have a fair fight with the skeleton crew is to destroy a box with a summon while you aren't in there and let the Skelton wake everyone then beat your summon to death. Then you can stroll in for the crew battle.

[@Melth]

That might work! Assuming the skeletons choose to keep opening all boxes, rather than any of them deciding to just destroy the summon

[@CameronsVideo]

Shovel can also negotiate with the ogres like scratch and get the horn into her inventory even though you can't regular access her inventory.

[@Melth]

Weird! Seems like an oversight they should definitely fix in a patch

[@Senorgoon]

@Melth would you be willing to make a video on sacking Troy without the Trojan Horse in AOM? You mentioned you might in your playthrough. Thanks!!

[@Melth]

I did try to make a video of that once, but I found the result to be quite boring. Probably not much fun to watch. It's not so much a hard fight as a slow fight. I might try it again though and see if I can speed it up

[@Senorgoon]

@@Melth Thanks for getting back to me, yeah that definitely makes sense. Either way, love the content man and keep up the good work!

[@Melth]

@@Senorgoon thank you!

[@gjack01]

You can get all the skeletons to spawn if you give the mirror the wrong answers

[@Melth]

Interesting, I've always dealt with them before getting to the mirror, so all a wrong answer ever did was unleash a flaming sphere

[@dodoking4]

Melth, are you worried you pc might not be able to run act 3 and the recording software? I've just noticed it's stuttering at certain moments. Even if you turn the graphics down to potato settings, I'll still be watching though, this is the best playthrough of any game I've seen in a long time.

[@Melth]

Yeah, I'm definitely worried about that. I didn't have any trouble with act 3 on my previous run, but now the game is lagging and stuttering even during what should be easy times and I can't find a solution. Changing the quality doesn't seem to help so far.

[@FluffiestWalrus]

Love the run! I’m wondering would you do anything differently without the restrictions against long rests or potions etc? I ask because while I really enjoy the series I probably won’t attempt this. Curious which party you would use without limits (e.g., would you use a sorcerer or wizard and spam spells every encounter?) Essentially, what is your most OP team comp without any self-imposed restrictions?

[@Melth]

Hm! Some of them would be the same or similar. My party is already caster-heavy and casters get even stronger if you can rest. I'd probably take more blast spells rather than only focusing on super-strong buffs/control. I might go pure bard instead of warlock 2/bard since I could rely on ultra spells to win every fight. Paladin and Fighter would become much more viable for burst damage when you can Smite or Action Surge whenever you want. To be honest, I think if you rest whenever you want, the game is pretty trivial and you can win with whatever though. I'd say go with whatever classes sound fun

[@FluffiestWalrus]

@@Melth yep! That makes sense! I’m trying to think up a rule set for myself that is challenging, only have completed 1 run on balanced (albeit with little effort,) but also doable for just a moderately skilled player. I’m sure something like x {3, 5, etc.} rests per act would be a reasonable starting point!

[@Melth]

@@FluffiestWalrus I'd say aim for 2 per act if you have a bard, 3 if not. That'd probably be a good starting point for a less experienced run I think

[@FluffiestWalrus]

@@Melth thanks! Planning to start a run once back from the holidays. You’ve convinced me to go bard for my playable character and will likely bring a sorcerer, monk, and ranger since I haven’t played these 4 classes yet!

[@christophpeukert4759]

Is there any challenge regarding keeping them all kind of happy? I really wasn't suprised as Karlach left me immediately after slaughtering the thieflings (after!), so from then on I separated all compagnions in good and evil and chose accordingly to my run.

[@Otherones5]

Companions leaving is always scripted (I think), so keeping karlach and wyll requires not participating in the slaughter. Obtaining halsin requires saving the grove, and obtaining minthara requires either betraying the grove or knocking her out.

[@Melth]

@@Otherones5 I think technically you CAN make companions angry enough that they'll leave prematurely, but you have to actively antagonize them by doing things like repeatedly casting Friends on them. Normally you're right and most companions only leave when there's a scripted reason to. Of course, some of those scripted reasons aren't super obvious, and some can only be avoided by difficult skill rolls.

[@Melth]

There is something of a balancing act when trying to keep certain characters happy in the same party. Generally speaking each character is either good or evil, and either enjoys violence or dislikes violence. But pretty much all companions like it when you do something nice for them, so it's at least possible to have two very different people both like you. Lae'Zel for example is evil-violent and Karlach is good-violent, so you can gain favor with both of them by doing violent things in general. Shadowheart is sort of... neutral nonviolent, but her moral compass feels like a roulette wheel with it being absolutely bizarre sometimes what actions she approves or disapproves.

[@bi_smth]

Btw do u also plan on recruiting the other 4 companions?

[@Melth]

Meaning Halsin, Minthara, Minsc, and Jaheira? Yes, and I even plan to put 1-2 of them in the party.

[@bi_smth]

​@@Melthglad to hear! I love them all esp Jaheira!

[@Melth]

@@bi_smth Jaheira is definitely one of my favorite characters. I probably won't put her in the party, but I'll certainly recruit her

[@Scourge24]

35:47 definitely misheard this as "panties"

[@Melth]

If they're worth more than 10x their weight in gold pieces, they're going in the wares pile!

[@Scourge24]

@@Melth I guess if they're mounted on the wall they're probably pretty precious!

[@marklewis1457]

How do you summon Scratch?

[@Melth]

I think I got the ability to do that in eps 5 and 6. After you meet him and give him your scent so he'll follow back to camp (Ep 5) you then rest a few times in camp and talk to him when he has an exclamation point. He'll have a ball in his mouth which you can use a skill check to get from him. Then throw the ball and he'll fetch it. Do that a time or two and you'll get the ability to summon him as long as you're not in camp.

[@jayrobitaille2402]

lol Scientologists. It would have been funny if they named the guy Tom Cruise or just Tom to make it more subtle.

[@Melth]

Yeah, they could have used all sorts of famous cultist names!

[@jayrobitaille2402]

@@Melth I remember hearing about this guy called Charles Manson that made a cult to get rid of people he did not like.

[@arccster]

I thought 1 of the rules were to fight all the fights somewhat hard mode and not cheesing

[@Melth]

Yeah that's why I exited stealth mode when the goblins didn't notice my first attack. And why I went up and talked to the cultists to initiate combat rather than just shooting them with everyone up on the high platform where they can't reach. And why I tried to aggro all the goblins at once rather than just kill them one by one when only one aggroed. But for the skeletons, if that's what you mean, there's no middle ground I was aware of at the time of recording this. There's no way to aggro them all at once for a fair fight without them getting a logic-defying surprise round. I mentioned in the video that I wished there was a way to do a fair fight. After I made the video, someone suggested a clever idea of having a summon open one of the coffins alone, so it gets killed, and then everyone can go in and fight the skeletons together at once. But at the time, I didn't know that would work.