Ultimate HONOUR Mode Guide In Baldurs Gate 3! - BG3 Honour Mode Tips And Tricks You Need To Know

[@norzza]

What class are you playing in Honor Mode? 🔔 Social Media 🔔 ► ►Twitter: twitter.com/NorZZaTV ► ►Instagram: instagram.com/NorZZaTV/ ► ►Twitch: www.twitch.tv/norzza ► ►Discord: discord.gg/S5ydpYm

[@Please_Stop_Me_Please_Kill_Me]

Paladin Veng half orc is a solid class for honor mode, and if you have a life domain cleric stay at camp you can put all their buffs including life ward and bond and leave them at camp. This Paladin is really hard to kill, basically has 2 revives and next to a life domain cleric with (cleric divine wish) mace and dual wielding it with lathander blood and all the healing gear that gives bless or etc. You pretty much will team revive anyone close on clerics turn.

[@williamreely3455]

EVERYONE should get Alert as their first feat at level 4. Not for the "cannot be surprised" benefit, but for the permanent +5 to initiative. Considering enemies in HM have higher average initiative rolls, having Alert on all your characters means you _always_ go first, which is basically a free turn in every fight. It means you get to set up on your enemies rather than the other way around. The exception is Dex-high classes that normally go first anyway.

[@Proximity94]

Facts. I marginalized that feat when first approaching BG3 on tactician because there were no stakes but I finally gave it a shot on my 5th honour mode attempt and it was a major factor I earned my golden dices two days ago. Nonetheless there were a few instances where enemies had higher initiative than me, mostly in act 3. Either way, take it, it's a must.

[@RandomPersonLol366]

Took it and no regrets

[@forbbiddenn]

wow

[@spiderincouch4345]

If you are berserker trhowing barbarian , you dont have to since in lvl 6 you get + initiate pluss cant be suprised

[@darbshiler3866]

Not just stealing from Withers…refuse Volvo eye surgery and he stays at camp and that means 3-400 gold and tons of camp supply packs and scrolls can be stolen from him with sleight of hand buffed rogue after every long rest and level up. If you fail he just runs off and then returns. Before you get the act 1 gloves of thievery you can use the barter screen to split his gold stack into smaller less than 100 portions to help early game,

[@lanceareadbhar]

It's really funny seeing tips like these as I was way too nice to the NPCs on my first run on Balanced Difficulty as it was the first time playing one of these games. I only pickpocketed a few people that wronged me.

[@cavalfou]

what even is the point to play higher difficulty if you are just abusing exploits ROFLMAO

[@darbshiler3866]

@@cavalfou because after 20-40 hours I stop liking the farming for monetary gain element. But I enjoy the significance of actions in a one save file only honor mode play through.

[@goreobsessed2308]

​@@cavalfouharder combats with legendary actions even if you are stealing all this stuff if you get bear down enough it wont matter

[@FemboiMars]

@@cavalfou if you think I’m not going to abuse exploits after getting my golden dice multiple times and sinking over 2k hours into a game then you’re an even bigger nerd than I am… and buddy, that’s not something to be proud of.

[@im_that_randomguy]

On the last 2 days ive made 4 honor mode runs and theyve ended like this - Entire groove came against me when i knocked out Alfira tryin to save her - Failed a saving throw with injured Mind Flayer and he wiped the remmaining party while they were running away - Died to the first 3 intellect devourers (Shadowheart misses all her attacks even with 90% advantage) - I made the terrible mistake of casting Friends on Khaga wich triggered the Groove fight and i hadnt even long rested once Still its been fun and after doing two balanced runs it feels good to have weight on my actions hopefully i make it further on the next one

[@Rick-cs3jt]

Did you finish it ?

[@LukeBergs]

Myrkul completely broke me. I was so confident in the run but this boss is just insanely hard on honour mode🤣

[@karga4871]

Yeah that one is a real bugger. There is one trick that can ease up the fight tho. The ring that is around has a blind spot where he wont do a opportunity attack on you while not having the anti-heal effect. other than that i use magic arrows to clear the skeleton eggs. Cull the weak comes in real handy with them.

[@LukeBergs]

@@karga4871 thanks for this!! ;)

[@calvincuonz2740]

The Command spell can make him drop his weapon

[@ajlastname2669]

I thew water bottles at him, hasted ShadowHeart spec into Storm cleric and Sorcerer and thunder called him like 20 times. Works well but I had a lot of summons with my necro Gale who spawned a bunch of stuff that made it so Mryc used its attacks on them instead of the giant suck

[@thesoviet0ni0n53]

Be sure to remember that you can still save scum in honour mode. Just hard close the game and make sure to be mindful of where you place your save. As long as it doesn’t auto save you can reload and make more preparation before a big fight !!

[@BrianBoru78]

I´m on my first Honour Mode run since today, i completed the Nautoloid managed to get the Sword of the Gambion for Lazel and kill the Ilitith .. picked up Shadowheart Gale and Lazel moved on to the crypt where i killed the party outside and now move on inside ... my main char is a Halfwoodelf Bard. Quite sure i wont make it through the game in my first run but it´s allready so much more fun to really think over every turn before acting .... Greetings from Germany 🙂

[@budlo4216]

How's your campaign?

[@munireid77]

Und wie weit bist du gekommen

[@scarlettgarner3568]

I keep dying in the crypt haha

[@notsafekoala9857]

cephalopcalpyse build moment

[@Colm1800]

good tip for the spider boss, sneak in and alchemist fire 2-3 egg batches, the less baby spiders the less you have to fight the legendary action and less enemies is always good

[@Mah_kloompah]

Also if you use Wyll and he has repelling blast, you can just shoot the spider into the void

[@Colm1800]

@@Mah_kloompah you lose out on XP now if you do that, I prefer to hit the webs she stands on and take her out with fall DMG

[@HygorCarreiro]

@@Mah_kloompah Shes doenst fall into the void in HM

[@gimik2593]

This is more of a general tip rather than a mechanical one, but treat every major fight with respect. I was Act 3 with my honour run and even though there’s some bosses you don’t have to do I wanted the challenge of beating them all. After killing Orin in one round with a combo of magic missiles, and a very pissed Minsc and Karlach, I was feeling very confident going into the Cazador fight where I brought Astarion knowing full well he would be restrained, and I would have to spend round 1 freeing him. Cut to round 2 where Minsc has 10 hp, Karlach is dead, and my storm sorcerer is half hp where I can’t use my actions, and I realize how big a mistake I made. 97 hour playthrough down the drain.

[@FraterPerdurabo]

As another general tip, do not playing when pissed out of your head. I almost lost my run to the minotaurs in the Underdark last night. Fortunately, Gale was quick on his feet.

[@lanceareadbhar]

At least it was memorable and knowledge for the future. Finishing am Honour Mode Defeating all Bosses does sound like a fun challenge down the line, but so far I've only beaten Balanced Mode with a ton of saves and reloads.

[@Chugumbius]

The exact same happened to me with Orin on durge. I was over confident after previous triumphs and thinking that Orin will be the easiest boss in act 3. It later turned out that she is the strongest one if you go unprepared with enthusiastic approach.

[@Pidgen56]

Think I'm going to give cazador a miss on my run.

[@Dutchbrother07]

Hey I respect the hardcore attempt knowing it would be tough. The satisfaction would’ve been glorious

[@aaaaaa-il3yw]

We've just steamrolled the first half of the underdark (before the boat) First, arrive from the whole near the spider boss above, recruit Glut, revive the dead minotaur (the one that gets shot by turrets) With him, you'll go and kill the Bullette, and revive it. Now the bulette has a jump, and a damaging jump. The latter has no fall damage (except if it lands on your party, be careful when she follows you, move her first). With some parkour, you can bring her to the spectator fight, she'll fuck him up with ease. With some more parkour and flowers to shut off the magic turrets, you can being her to Bernard and the automatons (the flowers also shut down the small robots). She will demolish Bernard with ease. Now, finish off, the last two minotaurs with her and the weird bird looking things. You can either heal her with spells and potions. Then, if she's about to die, send her to the druegar camp, she'll trigger the ambush so you don't get surprised when you come back with a fresh minotaur to demolish the druegars. Be sure to finish off the minotaur before the end of the fight if you plan on turning on Glut because he will become hostile.

[@hitokun8260]

I am just starting my first run, this was super helpful!

[@acornheart465]

You can also just not talk to glut and you won’t have to turn on him Or fight the other myconids

[@Rob-uc8zr]

some friends and i are doing an origin character honor mode run lol. first honor mode attempt.

[@Ocelot435]

Make a tav open handed monk. Use hill giant strength elixirs. Enjoy. Make use of hirelings! We made a “kill yourself” hireling with high charisma specifically for talking our way out of a lot of the act 2 boss fights. Camp clerics for buffing/out of combat healing, and even alchemy hirelings are very useful for potions (and more hill giant strength elixirs). Also, save scumming IS still possible. If you quit the game it will force a save. But if you force close the game (on console at least) it won’t override your save. So if you screw up a major dialogue option, or a boss fight is looking grim, force close BEFORE its too late and you party wipe. When you get the game over screen, the run is dead. If you don’t want to abuse this though I totally get it.

[@Sam1878Henry]

Why play honour mode if you’re gonna save scum? 😂

[@Ocelot435]

@@Sam1878Henry I’m just letting people know that it’s still an option. Incase they don’t want to lose a 70-80 hour run because of bad RNG.

[@people2chronically-online]

@@Sam1878Henryfor the trophy and gold dice, cry more for how people play the game

[@kingofgrim4761]

Only reason I’ll save scum in my honor mode playthrough is when laezel switched sides in the crèche.

[@Kasiarzynka]

Camp clerics are also gold for Warding Bond. It gives you lots of resistances as long as they're alive (and I think some other perks too, like doesn't it up your AC?) but they also take the same amount of damage as you. Give them the Tough feat and as much constitution as you can, make 4 of them and Warding Bond your entire party. You can always revive them later and steal from Withers. Just be warned, your camp WILL be full of ponds of blood 🥲.

[@Dutchbrother07]

In my current honor run just getting to act 3, I went with tavern brawler berserker barbarian, sharpshooter hand crossbow gloomstalker ranger, life cleric, and wizard (with one level into storm cleric for heavy armor proficiency). I tried bards but just couldn’t get through act 1. Remember you can always start barbarian and stomp act 1 only to utilize withers to pivot onto whatever class you want late game

[@gabestaton9404]

Lost a few, but made it my farthest after doing everything in the underdark and then braving the crèche. The inquisitor was hard, but he didn’t wipe me. It was leaving the crèche that did. I am determined to finish honor mode in character more so than pure min maxing, which has been rewarding in a different way

[@Kahvinporo]

My big tip is USE SUMMONINGS! Have your party stay back in stealth mode (not super close to each other) and then use a summoning to initiate the fight. Once it's your summonings turn, one by one have the party sneak attack on the enemy. If you want to be safe, you could leave one squishy one out of combat as a back up. You can use these summonings to also lure enemies to more favorable area to fight. For example, I used familiar cat + flaming sphere to lure our Dror Ragzlin out of his room, used the sphere to kill the low HP mobs that followed and then lured him further to the main hall where I just ganged up on him without breaking a sweat. I also used familiar crow to destroy the phase spider eggs, and used other summonings and little "LEEROY JENKIIINS" crew to kill all the lesser enemies around the spider matriarch. I had one character out of the battle so there won't be a total party wipe, and once the queen was alone it was pretty easy to take her down. It's better to take a slow approach to fights. And if possible, take care of the other mobs before you tackle the boss. Like you can just leave Nere behind the rocks while you take care of the duergars and then he won't really pose an issue with his legendary actions. Preferably before honourmode, just figure out where you should take the fight or where your party should be standing so it's harder for the enemies to hit you.

[@Trickster-sy4rp]

Fyi long rest costs 80 in tactical too.

[@joaopedrobaker8841]

As said in the video, yes.

[@Geogak]

WHY IS SCRATCH DEAD! IDK if I can trust this guy, did he kill scratch? evil

[@salwajassem1398]

Killed ansur in Honor mode. Astarion somehow clutched the fight by himself and then died from lightning damage

[@lanceareadbhar]

I never understood the use of hirelings until watching this. I just my first run on Balanced Difficulty as it was my first time. Thanks for the tips.

[@darksemmel503]

Its also something for extremely evil playthroughs - on my Durge run I actually ran out of viable characters at one point...

[@milordas]

seems warding bond cleric buff should persist from hireling too :)

[@xAfterTomorrowx]

@@milordas wait what? game changer fs

[@DarkErrant]

Alwalys looking forward to your content, especially BG3 videos.

[@norzza]

Glad you like them!

[@saranonymous91]

I’m currently halfway through my first tactician run (after 5 balanced runs 😂) and I find it surprisingly easy but I don’t think I’d be able to do honor mode 😬😬

[@Venus_LuL]

Planning to 4 player run this mode thanks for the tips

[@norzza]

As in 4 custom characters or 4 player co op? Either way, good luck!!

[@Venus_LuL]

@@norzza coop for sure I'd kms tryna keep track of 3 other tavs 😂

[@Venus_LuL]

@@norzza also appreciate we'll see if we even get past act 1

[@norzza]

Co Op is a whole lot of chaos for Honor mode, I love it!

[@darbshiler3866]

Good luck

[@johnakey7687]

Thanks for the tips man been a big help one i been using alot is keeping one character at camp mostly gale only really use him as free lockpicks when i run out of them

[@11sims2fan]

I’ve started my first attempt today, decided to go with a half-orc because I read they can go back to having 1hp if they hit 0. Never had a chance to try half-orcs out so I figured now was as good a time as any. Also made them a paladin because I find their stats are the most balanced imo. Nearly went with fighter honestly, but I figured Lae’zel can have that class covered and I go for something else

[@domcaval5103]

i also started half orc pala yesterday, planning 2 pala 8 bard 2 fighter did you manage to finish your run?

[@11sims2fan]

@@domcaval5103 15 hours in, had pretty much covered what I wanted to do in act 1 and was ready to move on... But for some reason that I can't remember anymore, I went back to fight the gnolls and they absolutely demolished me. I was shocked and appalled, especially considering I took on the adamantine forge earlier and came out fine. Have not tried another run since, but I will eventually. Been having fun doing different runs in tactician, mainly to see how all the romances play out in both good and evil runs. I wish you luck on your run!

[@andrewh.8363]

My final fighter build for the honor mode playthrough I just finished allowed me to crit on a 15-20 and allowed me to deal upwards of 60 damage an attack with four attacks per turn (7 with action surge). (SPOILER ALERT) I had Sarevok’s helm, the Dead Shot bow, Duelist’s Prerogative rapier, unholy assassin of Bhaal armor, Craterflesh Gloves, and the ring that gives you advantage on all attacks. With all of those as well as elixirs of viciousness and the Champion subclass, I was hitting crits with at least 2 attacks a turn, and I could wipe out entire minion groups on my own or take out bosses in maybe 2 turns if they don’t have heavy defenses.

[@jojojojojojojojojojojojob]

Being familiar with the game, what to skip, what dialog options to go for,etc really helps a lot. I have no issues with combat in honor mode after my 3rd playthrough. Its the skill and ability checks that always gets me. Its annoying.

[@joshuabarber1448]

You can create a healer tank as a cleric bard. On the run I'm playing atm I'm carrying a team with heals and have a AC of 22/23/25 since cleric let's you have heavy armour and I never ran out of heals

[@xSeulgi]

hey guys can anyone recommend me how to build my honor mode party? im gonna be using the withers dudes so please let me know how i should build all 3 to best help my person with combat or checks or aynthing. my main person is a sorcerer, fighter, and wizard(i love shovel what can i say). i just broke halsin out of jail and minthara keeps slamming me please help

[@nachschub4836]

Failed the first Honor Mode run in the Grym Forge after 40 hrs. As a barde. Restarted as a Warlock and we are in the goblin Camp at the moment let's see how far we come 😅

[@d1vin1ty]

I look forward to potentially using buff potions and poisons in honor mode. I was ABSOLUTELY PISSED when a friend asked if she could tag along for my last half of Act3 on tactician and I saod sire. By this point I'd ised mayyyybe 5 or 6 healing potions? I had DOZENS. She blew them within 2 hours rather than just letting me short rest or heal poat fights with spells. It almost ended our gamer friendship ngl. "You can just make more". Some people just don't get how mucb pride us hoarders tale in completing games without using consumables and the massive stashes we build. Same with camp supplies. I didn't hoard nortj of 20,000 units+ of food because I forgot about em. I'm trying to save the irish from a famine one day.

[@marjase9172]

Want to get through honor mode is use a tavern brawler monk with a tavern brawler throwing barbarian lol makes honor mode a cake walk

[@norzza]

Amazing builds, good luck out there!

[@SmokeLezduit]

I just bought the game today and already want to try an honour run

[@josephgries4683]

You are wrong on healing. Life cleric is incredible for HM. Being able to heal everyone and give them bless and blade ward will win you fights.

[@ohapplesauce]

Does using Gale’s orb in Act 2 count as finishing honor mode or do you have to make it to Act 3? Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question 😅

[@FigurativelyAnimated]

It doesn't count

[@mandalf2717]

It counts in act 3 but not 2

[@FraterPerdurabo]

Crikey, your Bard looks exactly the same as mine. Female, Lolth-sworn Drow Bard with the same hair style.

[@norzza]

Great taste! :)

[@user-ct7ug2tt6f]

Lost my First Run as a bard in the grymforge after 40 hrs. Second one as a Warlock is still ongoing Just finished the goblincamp let's Hope WE Go all the way

[@EkunA78]

I would sat that if you use high quality builds, with exception of some Boss rights (like Ansur) act1 is the most difficult. Plan your way thru IT and skip some rights until you are lvl 4 or 5. Vendors refresh also when you lvl up. Use the BUFF from Mykonids (+d6 to ALL Rolls) for gith crash. Helps a lot.

[@Doazic]

What’s the ideal act 1 order

[@EkunA78]

@@Doazic Do all until grove (so the old temple do as well) in there skip the harpies fight only and ofc the idel stealing skip as well. Then do all the easy fights and quests around the map. Skip gnoll boss, spider queen, ogres are doable with several explosive barrels but you can wait for lvl 4 to be safe. Oh and skip owlbear until lvl4 as well. Once you are lvl 4 you can do the quest with shadow druids (swamp fight + fight with these guys in the grove) and after that you can do the idol stealing, after that goblin camp. You should have lvl5 (oh btw gnoll boss doable quite easy lvl4 which you need to get access to nice eq from zentharims hideout). Once you have lvl5 just do all other stuff (aunt ethel, spider queen) and go to underdark. Btw for easy fight with the forge boss, if you dont have archer with titanstreng bow, make one and shoot the boss from above. You can solo him in 5min like that. And that build is nice as it actually hurts him a little bit.

[@Doazic]

@@EkunA78 I’ve failed a lot of runs to the harpies and couldn’t seem to find a trick to it.

[@EkunA78]

@@Doazic I did 2 honor mode runs (1st one I died during the Ansur fight, second I've completed) + I've started a new one and harpies werent that huge of a problem as I was doind them at lvl4, but I know that you can even do them earlier and quite easily if you place "silence" spell well - make the place where the 1st harpy which sings a center of that silence.

[@xalenthas]

​@Doazic cast Protection from Good and Evil on characters. Makes them immune to charm! Helps to keep the caster out of the fray to ensure concentration not broken.

[@reloader004]

Running a sorlock-fighter dirge dragon-born w Astarion ranger rogue Shadowheart as cleric...maybe oathbreaker??? And Karlach action surge barb. Thinking about switching out for Laezel as warlock paladin, but we will see. Running my first playthrough now. Side note: 3 min in video is pretty chill. Keep up the content. Much love.

[@reloader004]

Update: got literally fkd on by gith boss

[@diskuslars7527]

Healing worthless .. Not with the right build. Bard/cleric is awesome with the right items you get in Act 1 ..where it is Not Bout the Numbers of Healing but applying Blade Ward and Bless every Heal without needing to Concentrate on made Honour Mode a Cakewalk. You need to be Careful the first 4-5 Levels...after that you are nearly unkillable

[@laytonhagee4959]

I will beat this on honor mode first. Here goes attempt 7. I haven’t beaten the game yet either.

[@saigethemage3392]

Currently at the end of act 2 on my second attempt, im quaking in my boots trying to muster up the courage to face down Ketheric lmao

[@mandalf2717]

Look up as many guides as you can for that fight specifically

[@visualstv4077]

Bro I just lost my honor run last night to Orin😭

[@bobrkurbatherealone]

just started an honour mode game got cooked by the 3 little brains at the beginning

[@LordSauron666]

Thanks!

[@jessiescruggs1510]

you can partial rest to refresh merchants and use no supplies

[@wafflesarelove5801]

I died after going after the owl bear because i didnt know there were 2 in HM 😔

[@RJhobbs99]

Just so people know, larian is making honor mode... MORE DIFFICULT 😂😂😂 like wtf?!? I've done a few so far and the furthest I've made it is level 5 and I thought, "I'm level 5 now, I can go fight the spider queen." Oh ho ho, how wrong I was...

[@yssablackwood5412]

Save inspiration for big rolls, like the gnolls. Barrelmancy on goblin leaders, gith leader at creche without talking to him, balthazar, z'rell, and the Warden. Elixir of collosus on owlbear then dive bomb the grymforge guardian.

[@Ticklethapicklealil]

F dat - 100% on honour mode or nuthin 💪🏽

[@corysorenson1808]

Honor mode is killing me 8 runs have not made it past lvl 4

[@chaoshydras2056]

I'm not allowing myself to cheese combat by leaving a party member in camp. It wouldn't feel like a successful honor mode run.

[@Proximity94]

not gonna use exploits either

[@vasalbur]

Yeah me neither....hey uh Astarion can you just stay here, thanks man

[@Victor-kh5rh]

What’s the point of honor mode if the goal is cheese as much as possible? Having a camp mule is exactly that.

[@Life-qo2uj]

My best advice if you are going to do honor mode is to do a dishonored run. Why? BUGS Theres not a lot of bugs in the game but the ones that do exist can ruin you. Opportunity Attacks from enemies even thow its showing up when youre about to move your player, being targeted by an arrow while you have sanctuary up because Larian forgot to make this enemy respect sanctuary, Examining an enemy for legendary attacks and it not showing itself and you find out later that its a flipping 100m nuke 1 of my personal favorites is jumping over a gap and the game randomly pauses and then cancels your jump so you fall to your death l. I like a challenge but i have a low tolerance for high punishments due to unfairness, if you are the same type of player, learn the games bugs be4 honor run. And dont update your game when larian releases updates too. Had to learn the hard way while i was at the end of act 2 that them patches are a freaking mess. There was bug where a simple crash will hiddenly set your honor run to custom, you can only figure it out by looking at difficulty settings in game Dishonored run a must, feel the frustrations there first

[@joemartins5041]

Gold is irrelevant with the Pouch interaction tho...

[@christophertan8416]

Why is Scratch Dead!?!?!!?

[@thetruth9952]

10:33 lol get good

[@Artemis_Gray]

I'm surprised karmic dice is even a thing in honour mode. The whole point of it is to have as close to a genuine d&d experience as possible-- how does rigging the dice fit into that? 😂

[@danielc1002]

Bro that is such a wild take about healing in honor mode. Life cleric is by far considered the absolute best class for honor mode.

[@TheNefari]

You do not trick in honor mode 😊

[@MrHildebrand]

Are we just going to ignore that scratch is lying in a pool of blood?

[@DubbleLime]

Their stats make sense for their characters. It only doesn't make sense if you don't respec them.

[@Fairy-Uvinq]

This mode is brutal. Doesn't help I'm apparently making my life harder on every turn for story reasons lol

[@Animefan1803]

People that use Hirelings to boost their party are weak. Their bloodline is weak and Bhaal demands their sacrifice. The best decision i made so far was simply starting Durge in an honor run. I like pain.

[@jrr3787]

This game is ridiculously easy. I'm playing on honor mode and I'm almost through with Act I. I just need to do the swamp and the forge and I think I've had to long rest twice so far.

[@SimoneS86]

Troll

[@DanPlayingGames]

Honestly it does become fairly straightforward if you've played through the game 2-3 times already, and you have a solid squad. Just make sure you plan the order of the battles you take on.

[@FlyingKlutchKick]

Here’s the only real tip. If you’re losing, hard boot your PC and it won’t save and you won’t fail the run

[@ryandavidson2502]

What's the point of playing honor mode, just play tactical and save scum