Just finished Honor Mode, a few tips for those making the attempt.

[Arctic]

As the title states, I feel obligated after finishing the game on Honor Mode to give some tips that I probably would not have been successful without. I won't go into depth, so if one or more tips are confusing, either ask me to elaborate or look it up (the BG3 Reddit has a lot of useful information).

1: A lone hireling failing a pickpocket will not effect the rest of the party in any way. Steal small items and send them to the rest of the party to sell back to the same merchant to clean him out of everything you want, keeping the gold for blood money later.

2: Respec companions that you WILL NOT use to be camp buffers. In my run I played as a sorcerer, effectively removing Gale from the game. I also never used Wyll or Lae'Zel, so along with my hirelings, I had two additional buffers. You get Jaheira, Halsin, Minsc and Minthara later as well.

3: Clear risky areas with a group of assassin rogues. They get effectively three turns with surprise attack before the enemy can react. This tactic wiped out the blighted village, goblin camp, and most other enemy rich environments in the game (the last of which was Wyrms Rock, so the tactic works right up until the end of the game).

4: Buff your party before big fights, saving you a turn or more before combat begins. Later in the game this becomes a requirement, not a suggestion. The last three fights I NEEDED elixirs, oils, and potions to get through. The Orin fight I was able to finish before she even made it to slayer form simply because of the advantages of the buffs I had from elixirs (she was dead in two turns).

5: Do EVERYTHING you can. Your biggest power spikes come from your levels, so getting the XP from all the side quests will put you on even footing with enemies. There is not a single part of this game that is not exempt from this rule, I even made sure to do Ansur which I was VERY hesitant about but I'm fairly certain I would not have been successful without the items he gives.

6: This is the biggest one, especially for the final boss. Take every source of smokepowder you can find. Barrelmancy remains the best way to one shot bosses, and the brain becomes immune to all damage types taken in the previous round, which means you effectively have 3 rounds to deal 450 damage. I was able to kill the brain in one round with all the smokepowder I had available. I also used barrelmancy on Balthazar and Myrkul.

7: Keep note of traders that are around for the whole game, because odds are you can give them less gold early in the game to get their attitude all the way up for a huge discount later. Dammon is the one that comes to mind, at the start of the game you only need to give him 400 gold to max out his attitude, but by act 3 this more than triples. It's also a much easier pickpocket when it's just 400 and not 11k right?

8: Make sure you pick up every permanent buff you can find. See invisibility makes some fights turn from a surprise into a normal stomp on your part, ethels hair can round off an odd numbered stat from character creation, the potion that gives 2 strength is worth Astarions unhappiness, etc.

All in all these tips are what ultimately won me my run, along with other general game knowledge (I did not include the fact that you can very easily rob the house of hope without needing to fight Raphael, for instance). I'm convinced that without doing all of these things I would not have finished Honor Mode, and while there are some easier cheese tactics out there (remember you can throw gortash off Wyrms rock without triggering combat during his coronation), I tried my best to avoid them, with the obvious exception of barrelmancy.

Edit: This is a huge thing I didn't say that I really want to, fighting the Githyanki in the Emperors hideout almost lost me my run. The only thing that ultimately saved me was escaping the area by running back upstairs and eventually landing lucky rolls whenever I went back in and surprised them. The three mini bosses down there all have alert so they can't be surprised, so take that into consideration, you're probably going to deal with the apps first then take the bosses down. Even then I'd be safe and keep someone away from the fight so they revive the party if they go down.

[northernwater]

Originally posted by Arctic:

2: Respec companions that you WILL NOT use to be camp buffers. In my run I played as a sorcerer, effectively removing Gale from the game. I also never used Wyll or Lae'Zel, so along with my hirelings, I had two additional buffers. You get Jaheira, Halsin, Minsc and Minthara later as well.

Isn't this the same as playing in an easier mode. Just play in story mode and skip the camp buffer hassle.

[kbiz]

Originally posted by Arctic:

Originally posted by kbiz:

I agree. A marginal difference. Not a difference one should seriously consider though.

The main difference is doing it in one shot. Bugs and all. Everyone already knows what to do - if doing it again.

There are plenty of fights (and indeed, outright changes) that aren't even close to marginal.

I didn't want to make the original post too lengthy so I didn't want to include all the behind the scenes changes and include the LAs that hurt the most, but just for starters here, a HUGE mechanical change is the honor mode exclusive DSR change. Most DSRs aren't in honor mode, and if they are they will probably be removed in an upcoming patch. This can easily remove several builds from the game on its own.

The fact that there is no longer regenerators in areas there used to be is a major difference. The one in the mind flayer colony can only be used once now, while there isn't one at all at the final fight.

The LAs aren't as trivial as you make them seem, not by a long shot. To mention one in particular that I already did in my original post, the brain becomes IMMUNE to all damage dealt to it the previous turn, halving the time you have to deal with it effectively (or at the very least using one of your actions to swap to a weapon you may or may not have for martial characters). Raphaels LA means your entire party gets charmed by him at once, meaning you MIGHT get one direct attack in from one character per round. Viconia has sanctuary as a reaction, nullifying an attack roll, and as another reaction she can deal 10d12 psychic damage to someone who attacks her allies. These are just a few examples of just how not trivial the LAs are.

It's true that the bulk of the game stays the same and that the main drawing point comes from the single save file, but if that was ALL you went in for, you can just add that on custom difficulty. There is a real, not marginal difference between honor mode and custom difficulty with single save mode turned on.

I didn't feel much difference between Tactician and Honor Mode. The action economy was the biggest difference for me - less bonus actions. If you can wipe enemies turn one on Tactician, you can do it in Honor Mode.

Those Owl Bears though... That was a surprise. I ran away. Had to. I was lvl 3! That was the only fight... Fine, the owl bears, the spider queen, and Grym were substantially harder. But late-game? C'mon.

[Trapmaker]

Eh i think the most important tip for doing honor mode is creating backup saves, Wether you use a mod or find some other way to do it.

[northernwater]

Originally posted by Arctic:

Edit: This is a huge thing I didn't say that I really want to, fighting the Githyanki in the Emperors hideout almost lost me my run. The only thing that ultimately saved me was escaping the area by running back upstairs and eventually landing lucky rolls whenever I went back in and surprised them. The three mini bosses down there all have alert so they can't be surprised, so take that into consideration, you're probably going to deal with the apps first then take the bosses down. Even then I'd be safe and keep someone away from the fight so they revive the party if they go down.

I used sneak but no surprise. They are not mini bosses. They are your typical Githyanki warriors.

1) Kill the portal holders quick.
2) Protect yourself from Wisdom Saving based spells. My main is a deep gnome. There are many other ways.
3) Make sure you have ways to break the enemy concentration.
4) Use CC on them. My fav is shart with Morning Frost and Snowburst Ring. There are several other ways.

Edit: Chilled+Water = Frozen

[northernwater]

Originally posted by Arctic:

8: Make sure you pick up every permanent buff you can find. See invisibility makes some fights turn from a surprise into a normal stomp on your part, ethels hair can round off an odd numbered stat from character creation, the potion that gives 2 strength is worth Astarions unhappiness, etc.

Ethel's hair is inconsequential in the long run. First, I repsec every character so I have no odd ability scores unless I plan to use Resilient which is much better because it gives you Proficiency in an ability you don't already have proficiency in.

[kbiz]

I think a key to Honor Mode is to give everyone the Alert feat. Always act first. And as a group. And always Surprise the enemy. Those two simple things go a long way.

[Aldween]

I'm halfway through act 3 with honour party. First playthrough and I didn't need to "cheat" using buffers at camp or buffing before a fight.

My party is min maxed (to some extent ofc, it's not 4 bards) but most fights are extremly easy, ending them in 1 turn.

[Miya]

I fell into the forge fighting the fire golem, I hit the "crucible" and my characters got buggy. I can't move them or anything, it seems like they're in a "story" or "incapacitated" but really I'm in my camp in the cold without being able to do anything at all. It only lets me get the torch from the icons under the weapons.

[TheRiseOfCharlie]

Originally posted by kbiz:

There is no difference between Tactician mode and Honor Mode. The difference is only you gots one shot. That is if you accept the rules.

The difficultly modes don't matter. Understanding which variables (combat) matter.

No,, legendary actions on bosses and less restoration points aswell.

[shatov72]

Originally posted by zero:

that warding bond feels especially like an exploit, but if it works it works, thanks for the info

In act 2, there is reference to the Warding Bond being used very much in that way - a sad story of someone being used without their knowledge, but it does demonstrate the use of that spell at a significant distance.

I'm not keen on the tactic, though, unless you use it with one of your 4 party members, otherwise it feels like a way to make use of an extra character (even if it is just their HP) while you are fighting, rather than pre-fight buffs.

[Chris37599]

Originally posted by Arctic:

Warding Bond: Another cleric spell, this can only be placed on one other creature at a time but it still does not require concentration. The effected creature is resistant to ALL damage, but the caster suffers the same damage dealt to them. The effected creature also has +1 to AC. Since your buffers are at camp, they are not in any danger from this spell, so your party has resistance to everything starting at level 3 (it's a second level spell).

...As a warning: Don't do this on maps where there is no camp to go to -- i.e. Iron Throne, Upper City, House of Hope -- If a character has Warding Bond from a character that is in camp and there is no camp area, the game will crash if that Warding Bonded character is hit.

Originally posted by Arctic:

If you give everyone in the party invisibility before you climb the brain stem, you won't immediately be in combat after the climb. You can enter Turn Based mode and avoid being spotted by taking the side steps avoiding all of the enemies. I gave the Emperor Greater Invisibility so he could also cast the stones while still being invisible, and everything worked out fine from there. Still needed to deal with the brain which, as I said, I used barrels on to one shot, but if I didn't have the barrels it might have been a toss up.

You could also purchase and/or steal a large amount of fireworks from the fireworks shop in Baldur's Gate to use for your barrelmancy needs -- Pretty sure that's the reason the last split for speedrunning Honor Mode is called "Fourth of July" :P

[dorkus_malorcus]

Originally posted by Arctic:

Edit: This is a huge thing I didn't say that I really want to, fighting the Githyanki in the Emperors hideout almost lost me my run. The only thing that ultimately saved me was escaping the area by running back upstairs and eventually landing lucky rolls whenever I went back in and surprised them.

Just last night I defeated these Githyanki in Honor Mode, but did it without taking any damage (at least not my party members). What I did was approach the room with the Gith from the Emperor's hideout, hiding my party in the room just prior to it. I then had Astarion cast Minor Illusion to draw the closest Gith to the door of the room and had him sneak-attack the Gith with an Arrow of Darkness. This blocked the door with shroud of Darkenss that effectively prevents using ranged attacks or spells through the doorway. I then had Wyll cast Cloud of Daggers on the doorway and positioned previously summoned Air Elemental and Cambion at the edge of the dagger cloud as a blockade. I also had Karlak on hand to attack and push the Gith back into the cloud should any manage to get past the Cambion. Finally, I hid Wyll in another room because as soon as the Gith hit the dagger cloud, they will agro against him and use ranged attacks to break his concentration.

Now something weird happens with the Gith at this point, they will run up to but stop at the edge of the Darkness and sit there for several turns, with one making a mad dash through the cloud maybe every 2 or 5 turns or so. This allowed me to hammer on a single Gith at a time, with most never making it past the Cambion. Only 4 additional Gith will teleport through the portals into the other room, but they were low level and didn't make it through the dagger cloud. It was a real meat grinder for them. The only drawback with this approach is that it was very slow because the Gith will hesitate for many turns before trying to pass through the Darkness and dagger cloud, and you will have to occasionally renew the Darkness with an arrow or spell.