HONOR MODE - Good Run

[andy.pike]

I have finished the game on Tactition Mode so I'm working on my Honor Modes. Currently a couple of good Honor Mode runs that have ended poorly, to be expected.

My question is about what my rules should be. Yes, I know it's my game and I can play how I want but since I am on the fence I figured I would ask for some input.

I'm planning on 2 Honor Runs. 1st Honor Run - Good, all the way through, with MAYBE (you tell me) an illithid power or 2 max. NO hag's hair or Mark of the Absolute. Probably no illithid worms in the 2nd one since that's how I beat tactician mode. Min-maxing characters the way I want, but completing all of their quests as well as every side quest as a good guy.

This paves the way for the slightly harder V 2.0, which is all of the above flavors with the added joy of sticking to their original characters (builds) and quests.

I'm not planning on cheesing anything stupid beyond occasional powder barrel parties.

What would your rules be for these runs and how many weeks will this take me? Like I said, I beat the game on Tactician mode non-cheesing so I know basically what I'm doing, but any Honor-specific tips would be great.

[Kappa]

I played my first run on balanced and swapped on tactician on act 3 to get more challenge but got disappointed because me and my friends trampled on everything. Then we moved on honour mode games, but though we were excited, nothing really changed ( we almost wiped to one boss on our first honour run, but that was our fault ).

In my opinion, the most challenging part "might" be before lvl 5.
I suggest you to split your adventuring, leaving some encounters back for when you'll have hit lvl 5, if you want to be sure ( spider queen, spectator, grym, etc... Owlbear/s can be easily done by lvl 3, in my experience ).

I'd also consider not to take any tadpole power and, eventually, not to multiclass ( this would lower your powercreep on the run ).

Other tips might be to examine bosses to check on their legendary actions, and to consider bringing a scroll or potion of invisibility, just in case you need to withdraw from a fight. Getting your persuasion on a frontline would also help if persuasion checks fail.

ps: consider that the rarity of some items, as well as their priece, will increase on honour run ( for example, the acid ring will move from uncommon to very rare, increasing its cost by 1000% more or less ), but this won't be a big issue if you know what to buy.

[Dorian Gray]

Don't put yourself on a time limit. No reason for that.

I am doing my first Honor Mode run myself and have already been hit with issues.

I lost out on the Owlbear Cub because one of the "Absolute Idiots" went right for the cub and it got flagged as hostile before I could do anything about it.

Immediately switched over & killed those idiots, then the Mother / Dad, then knocked out the cub, hoping it would revert to non-hostile after I left the cave.... but no such luck. The Owlbear cub is gone. Never showed up in the goblin camp. Never showed up in my camp after purging the goblins.

I have accepted I just missed out on him this run.

Also screwed up on the Bugbear Assassin and went the wrong way around the hilltop... which prematurely activated the assassin, which killed the tiefling before I could get to her.

[Dorian Gray]

Originally posted by Kappa:

ps: consider that the rarity of some items, as well as their priece, will increase on honour run ( for example, the acid ring will move from uncommon to very rare, increasing its cost by 1000% more or less ), but this won't be a big issue if you know what to buy.

I discovered that myself, that Acid Ring is much more expensive. But I have mastered how to make money, so was not too much of an issue. So far, have only encountered a couple of other hyper-inflated items ...

There are a couple more once you start the Rosymorn Monastery region that seem unusually pricey.

[andy.pike]

Thank you guys! Just an FYI, I have tweaked builds to where tactician was not that hard. I didn't cheese other than Barrelmancy. Haven't hit my first Legendary Boss yet in this mode, so I might be crying to mommy soon, but I know how to prepare for those. I've built characters that can handle that madness with at least decent dice rolls. That being said, I am building for more than 'decent runs' now. I'm working on 'new' feats, like 'alert'. A million people have earned their golden dice by cheezing or glitching or working the system. All viable. I'm just going to try it being a good dude, which this being Honor Mode makes it that much harder, since I obviously have to make a skill-persuade-monkey as well as a damage dealer/cc/or any combat attributor.

This is the way.

I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HATE the way.

[Lightseeker]

My first honour run took about 105 hrs ...did pretty much everything

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by andy.pike:

Thank you guys! Just an FYI, I have tweaked builds to where tactician was not that hard. I didn't cheese other than Barrelmancy. Haven't hit my first Legendary Boss yet in this mode, so I might be crying to mommy soon, but I know how to prepare for those. I've built characters that can handle that madness with at least decent dice rolls. That being said, I am building for more than 'decent runs' now. I'm working on 'new' feats, like 'alert'. A million people have earned their golden dice by cheezing or glitching or working the system. All viable. I'm just going to try it being a good dude, which this being Honor Mode makes it that much harder, since I obviously have to make a skill-persuade-monkey as well as a damage dealer/cc/or any combat attributor.

This is the way.

I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HATE the way.

You talk about not cheesing and glitching but here you are using barrels? a tactic that can kill most bosses in the game the second combat starts?

Also if you only gone use x2 illihid powers this pretty much makes paladin the best class by a mile that you can pick up.

All of the charisma classes are strong damage dealers in Honour Mode hence you do not need to separate anything. You can in fact build a team that dose not need proper CC to clear honour mode as well but this means stacking S tier damage dealers.

If you want a class that can do everything damage/CC/party face go for a bard I would highly recommend a half-orc bardadin as your Tav for honour mode. If you are willing to use more tadpoles I would say a 10/1/1 or 10/2 ranged bard would be the play otherwise for your Tav.

[Lokynet]

Yo Andy, I am in the middle of act 3 HM, and if you don't want to cheese (like preparing traps for bosses / using "barrelmancy" and etc) you must create a very well balanced party, so for example you can't have a mix of two melee hitters like a Barbarian and a Fighter, or a Paladin and Fighter, or two Mages, etc.

You need 1 big mobile melee hitter, 1 cleric for tankiness and support, Rogue/Ranger for sniping enemy casters and general stealth exploration and one mage for general AoE damage and extra support.

You can't have two characters doing the same or subpar jobs, you will need to min-max builds, this implicates in getting the hag hair for example (if you kill her in act1, she will still be alive in act 3 so in terms of outcome it's not bad to make a deal with her).

Also, I am interested in participating if you feel like sharing a run, we could play multiplayer honor mode and I will gladly join in as your Shadowheart cleric, Wizard or be your Barbarian / Monk

[lordmilier]

Originally posted by Lokynet:

Yo Andy, I am in the middle of act 3 HM, and if you don't want to cheese (like preparing traps for bosses / using "barrelmancy" and etc) you must create a very well balanced party, so for example you can't have a mix of two melee hitters like a Barbarian and a Fighter, or a Paladin and Fighter, or two Mages, etc.

You need 1 big mobile melee hitter, 1 cleric for tankiness and support, Rogue/Ranger for sniping enemy casters and general stealth exploration and one mage for general AoE damage and extra support.

You can't have two characters doing the same or subpar jobs, you will need to min-max builds, this implicates in getting the hag hair for example (if you kill her in act1, she will still be alive in act 3 so in terms of outcome it's not bad to make a deal with her).

Also, I am interested in participating if you feel like sharing a run, we could play multiplayer honor mode and I will gladly join in as your Shadowheart cleric, Wizard or be your Barbarian / Monk

I normally run 3 melee in my parties there is nothing wrong having more than 1 melee the thing you do no not want to be stacking is casters seeing as there is a lack of caster gear in act 1 to properly field more than 1 caster.

In fact if you run a paladin you want to run more melee and less ranged if not the aura or auras depending on build will only effect the paladin and no one else. While max stacking is not the smartest on some fights it is more or less down to if the damage dealt is AoE or not.

Think it is funny with what you mentioned as I have had a party with fighter/paladin/barb and monk mind you the barb was a throwbarb. And paladin was the party carry.