Honour mode tips?

[Nox]

Hello y'all.
So I took it upon myself to finish the game on Honour mode for that sweet achivement and satisfaction.
Currently close to lvl 4 with (I think) decent party comp, and decided to hop in here and possibly ask for tips.

My current party
Me - Bard, College of Lore (dialogue, support / damage, lockpicking, disarming)

Laezel - Battle Master Fighter (damage, tank, support)

Gale - Abjuration (Mainly support with shield spells with occasional damage)

Shadowheart - (Support wirh heals and Aid, damage with guiding Bolt, eventually going for Spirit guardians)

Currently Im at the 1st location of the 1st act and a few run-ending fights are ahead.

Hag, Phase Spider Matriach, Shadows druids, Wood woads and mephits, Flynd and gnolls, Gobbo camp even maybe?

Any tips for the Long run? Some enemies to look out for etc..

[kbiz]

I would dump Gale and Shadowheart for Astarion and Karlach. Use high accuracy steel and barrels of boom during the first region.

[Cur]

Make sure to inspect every boss/mini boss for their unique honor mode legendary actions/resistances.

Make sure to keep invisibility potions/scrolls/abilities so you can run from combat if things go south.

Initiative. Initiative. Initiative. Alert feat, elixir of vigilance, initiative items are all very good. Especially in honor mode where you want to limit the opportunity for the enemy to have a string of rolls that take you out.

If you run a gloomstalker assassin you can delete plenty of bosses before they have a turn and can almost always take out the most threatening enemy in any engagement. That plus a bard for deception/persuasion/performance will get you through most of the game on easy mode.

Watch out for gith. The gith before mountain pass, clearing the creche, the ambush before baldurs gate can all be run enders if you aren't careful.

[Nox]

Originally posted by Cur:

Make sure to inspect every boss/mini boss for their unique honor mode legendary actions/resistances.

Make sure to keep invisibility potions/scrolls/abilities so you can run from combat if things go south.

Initiative. Initiative. Initiative. Alert feat, elixir of vigilance, initiative items are all very good. Especially in honor mode where you want to limit the opportunity for the enemy to have a string of rolls that take you out.

If you run a gloomstalker assassin you can delete plenty of bosses before they have a turn and can almost always take out the most threatening enemy in any engagement. That plus a bard for deception/persuasion/performance will get you through most of the game on easy mode.

Watch out for gith. The gith before mountain pass, clearing the creche, the ambush before baldurs gate can all be run enders if you aren't careful.

I remember the Gith patrol near the mountain pass legit hit 4 crits in a row, deleting my and mine friends group on Tactician.

I seriously hope I pass that deception check T_T

[Henry-NYC]

A few tips for you:

1) Hag: try not to use level 2+ spells at all. Use Magic Missiles and/or throwables and/or special arrows to guarantee one shot/attack kills at least one clone. There is also an item enabling you to create a shockwave via a jump action, which is good for killing 1+ clones in a small area. Be sure to use stealth to get your whole party in position, prior to triggering the battle.

2) Spider Queen: fight her from as far away as possible. It may be possible to kill her and everything near her without taking much damage at all. No special trick (fall damage etc.) needed.

3) Shadow druids: keep your whole party in/near water, make the nearby land a difficult terrain (grease, entangle, etc.) and set it on fire if you can. Focus on the "ancient" versions of mephits, which means 2 will be dead when you kill just 1. Stay away from their explosions by retreating to water if necessary.

4) Flynd: you may still be able to talk him into killing everything for you. If you approach from inside the cave, use the two Zhents as canon fodders. If you approach from outside, just keep a "safe" distance and use 1 of your characters as a bait to lure those knolls into the ambush of your party. You may be able to survive the battle without even the need for healing until everything is over.

5) Goblin camp? The majority of them are just canon fodders. If you are level 4 or under, use stealth if necessary, kill one group a time. If you are level 5+, just go in and kill everyone in your way.

[Cur]

Originally posted by BananaChumpus:

I seriously hope I pass that deception check T_T

Just close your eyes and wave your hand like you're using the force while the dice is rolling. It works every time I swear.

[Lily]

Respec everyone. Their starting stats are really bad. I'd also either change Lae'zel's class completely or make her ranged. Melee strats is are pretty lousy and get in the way of the most powerful spells.

Bard is a good choice, they have a few decent spells and good dialog options. Lore isn't a bad option. If you're looking to optimize I'd suggest running them as a half-elf or human for shields. A warlock Dip isn't a bad option for Eldritch blast but its not required.

Gale needs to be respeced. 14 dex if you want to wear medium armor, 16 if you plan on using robes. 14 con and 16 Int. Put the remaining points into Wisdom. If you're going with the feat Moderately armored, you can get away with 13 Dex since the feat will bring you up to 14. Up your con to 16 for better concentration checks.

Shadowheart doesn't need 13 strength and 13 dex. Respec as well, pick your favorite subclass. Light is my personal choice going with a radiant orb build which works out pretty well. So 12 strength and 14 dex with 16 con and 16 Wis. Phalar Aluv is a good sword to pick up, the special ability is great for extra damage.

Lae'zel as a fighter is fine but I wouldn't recommend it. Sure there are some nice Gith greatswords which have some powerful bonuses but Range isn't just stronger than melee, even after hand crossbows were nerfed they still far outpace anything melee can do. Bard does have the short rest mechanic so Battlemaster is a bit better, but it'll shine more with elemental arrows. I personally would change her to a ranger. Either beast master or Gloomstalker. Beast master gives you free web which is very powerful. Combine that with grease from gale and you'll be able to control the field pretty well. Gloomstalker gives bonus to initiative rolls and an extra attack on the first turn plus movement. Multiclass with Gloomstalker for a very powerful nova character. 2 levels in fighter and 3 levels in rogue for thief. Then its a choice if you want to get the subclass of fighter or not. Battlemaster is nice since it stacks more damage. Take longstrider on the ranger and increase your entire party's movement speed.

Currently I'm in act 2. My team is a Pure Great Old One Warlock Half Drow, Light Cleric Shart, Gloomstalker/Fighter/rogue Astarion, and a Land Druid Karlack. Once I get to Act 3 I will be dropping Shart for Divination Wizard Gale though. Light Cleric is especially strong in act 2 so she's good for not.

[Henry-NYC]

Originally posted by BananaChumpus:

Originally posted by Cur:

Make sure to inspect every boss/mini boss for their unique honor mode legendary actions/resistances.

Make sure to keep invisibility potions/scrolls/abilities so you can run from combat if things go south.

Initiative. Initiative. Initiative. Alert feat, elixir of vigilance, initiative items are all very good. Especially in honor mode where you want to limit the opportunity for the enemy to have a string of rolls that take you out.

If you run a gloomstalker assassin you can delete plenty of bosses before they have a turn and can almost always take out the most threatening enemy in any engagement. That plus a bard for deception/persuasion/performance will get you through most of the game on easy mode.

Watch out for gith. The gith before mountain pass, clearing the creche, the ambush before baldurs gate can all be run enders if you aren't careful.

I remember the Gith patrol near the mountain pass legit hit 4 crits in a row, deleting my and mine friends group on Tactician.

I seriously hope I pass that deception check T_T

My worse battle and also my most unforgettable in BG3 so far happens here.

I changed my mind mid-conversation. So I was totally unprepared for combat. During the first round, the Gith killed my Karlach twice! Yes, she was killed (Revivify scroll had to be used to get her back up) and then downed again. Unbelievable! Fortunately, my Karlach party was even more violent than the Gith patrol. Also during the first round, Karlach was was brough back to life twice - by Laz'zel and then by Shadowheart. Again during the first round, Shadowheart successfully disarmed two of the Gith warriors, including their leader. Shadowheart died in the 3rd round in order to keep Karlach alive without using healing. Karlach and her party finished off the entire Gith patrol at the start of the 5th round.


Tips for this avoidable, but otherwise very challenging battle with the game's 1st Gith patrol:

1) Take Lae'zel with you. It's just a single Persuasion check to pass. Not too difficult. if you pass, Astarion will be inspired.

2) Don't get there until level 5+. This way, it'll be much easier to take down this patrol if the above check fails. Lae'zel will be inspired.

3) For the best result, you should fight the patrol to get their weapon and gear, which is about the best you can get at this stage of the game.

Good luck!

[Nox]

Originally posted by Cur:

Originally posted by BananaChumpus:

I seriously hope I pass that deception check T_T

Just close your eyes and wave your hand like you're using the force while the dice is rolling. It works every time I swear.

I shall do this.

[kbiz]

Start with Lae'zel, Karlach, and Astarion, Done.

[Nox]

Originally posted by Lily:

Respec everyone. Their starting stats are really bad. I'd also either change Lae'zel's class completely or make her ranged. Melee strats is are pretty lousy and get in the way of the most powerful spells.

Bard is a good choice, they have a few decent spells and good dialog options. Lore isn't a bad option. If you're looking to optimize I'd suggest running them as a half-elf or human for shields. A warlock Dip isn't a bad option for Eldritch blast but its not required.

Gale needs to be respeced. 14 dex if you want to wear medium armor, 16 if you plan on using robes. 14 con and 16 Int. Put the remaining points into Wisdom. If you're going with the feat Moderately armored, you can get away with 13 Dex since the feat will bring you up to 14. Up your con to 16 for better concentration checks.

Shadowheart doesn't need 13 strength and 13 dex. Respec as well, pick your favorite subclass. Light is my personal choice going with a radiant orb build which works out pretty well. So 12 strength and 14 dex with 16 con and 16 Wis. Phalar Aluv is a good sword to pick up, the special ability is great for extra damage.

Lae'zel as a fighter is fine but I wouldn't recommend it. Sure there are some nice Gith greatswords which have some powerful bonuses but Range isn't just stronger than melee, even after hand crossbows were nerfed they still far outpace anything melee can do. Bard does have the short rest mechanic so Battlemaster is a bit better, but it'll shine more with elemental arrows. I personally would change her to a ranger. Either beast master or Gloomstalker. Beast master gives you free web which is very powerful. Combine that with grease from gale and you'll be able to control the field pretty well. Gloomstalker gives bonus to initiative rolls and an extra attack on the first turn plus movement. Multiclass with Gloomstalker for a very powerful nova character. 2 levels in fighter and 3 levels in rogue for thief. Then its a choice if you want to get the subclass of fighter or not. Battlemaster is nice since it stacks more damage. Take longstrider on the ranger and increase your entire party's movement speed.

Currently I'm in act 2. My team is a Pure Great Old One Warlock Half Drow, Light Cleric Shart, Gloomstalker/Fighter/rogue Astarion, and a Land Druid Karlack. Once I get to Act 3 I will be dropping Shart for Divination Wizard Gale though. Light Cleric is especially strong in act 2 so she's good for not.

Definitely appreciate the stat tips.

As for respeccing Laezel. I am quite tempted to respec her into ranger. On the other hand BM has the special moves... So much to do.

As for multiclassing, I never tried that in my 500hrs. Always felt weird, but I might give it a shot now

[Moldy_Lunchbox321]

Had a few attempts go south, but it feels like I'm past the hard part (level 1-5). Gnolls gave me some trouble since I forgot to rest and unlock the powers, Gale had to run/fly to save the team, but we recovered. Level 6 and heading into the forge right now. I've been running a swords bard with shadowheart as a healer cleric, laezel as a fighter with goad/reposte, and Gale as a wizard/sorc. Bard CCs enemies with sleep, hold person, and bane while Lazeal and Gale wreck stuff. Shart has definitely saved the day with some last second heals and spirit guardians too. Haven't bothered changing that team at all, although I might respec Laezel into a fighter/monk while utilizing tavernbrawler. I also had a great run with a draconic fire sorcerer that was ruined only by some terrible dice rolls in conversations, but that was definitely the easiest experience I've had so far. Astarion was also a thief/fighter and solo'd the spider.

[Player 2]

leave 1 guy behind at the camp, revive dying squad by wither, send them back to combat in full health, repeat.

abjurer might be near immortal. but ♥♥♥♥ happen, better safe than sorry

[Kittybass]

I just finished my HM run. I got kind of lucky with the spider matriarch. I managed to sneakily burn all her eggs before starting the fight. Her legendary move is she'll put you in this cocoon thing and if it doesn't get burned off within 1 turn, you die. It gets activated when you attack her offspring, and that includes the two smaller spiders. Get rid of the eggs before fighting her, get rid of her next, then finish off the 2 little ones.

There wasn't anything really different about Ethel. I silenced her and she was pretty easy to fight.

I did have to flee to camp quite a few times during the early levels. Even as I leveled up I always thought I was one misclick away from dying. I had fun though. Not sure if I'll play on it again because I dislike the one save file thing. I'll probably stick to Tactician or try out the Custom settings.

[Nox]

What about Illithid powers?
I suppose its a no brainer and I should use them.

There isnt any consequence to it right? :D

[Kittybass]

No, there's no consequence to using them.