For honor

[Drosta]

I'd like to try honor mode but I don't possess alot of D&D 5e knowledge so I'm not sure what is available to me in terms of class and build choices. So I have a couple questions.

Should I aim for a balanced party composition? Ie a front liner, a magic dealer, a single target attacker and a CC type or healer? Or
I've played divinity and found that it was viable to think more in terms of synergy and focus on one damage type (like magic vs physical, not like fire vs lightning to be clear)

And just generally if you have some suggestions for good builds I'd like hearing them.

I know YT exists but it's kinda hard to weed through them all and let's be honest, most are click farmers and the builds are questionably viable at best.
Which makes it not easy to determine good from bad when you don't have alot of deep game knowledge.

Thanks.

[Kernest]

You want a balanced party outside of combat as well.

Typically you're the "face" of the party and want good Charisma and proficiencies in social skills like Persuasion. A Bard is an excellent class to play for this purpose but do consider Sorcerer or a Paladin also.

You also want a roguish type, like a Rogue, to stealth around and pick locks. A Swords Bard can do Charisma stuff and this as well!

As for combat, I'll just say that healing is rather unimportant in BG3, it's better to just end the combat quickly via murdering everyone.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Drosta:

For honor
I'd like to try honor mode but I don't possess alot of D&D 5e knowledge so I'm not sure what is available to me in terms of class and build choices. So I have a couple questions.

Should I aim for a balanced party composition? Ie a front liner, a magic dealer, a single target attacker and a CC type or healer? Or
I've played divinity and found that it was viable to think more in terms of synergy and focus on one damage type (like magic vs physical, not like fire vs lightning to be clear)

And just generally if you have some suggestions for good builds I'd like hearing them.

I know YT exists but it's kinda hard to weed through them all and let's be honest, most are click farmers and the builds are questionably viable at best.
Which makes it not easy to determine good from bad when you don't have alot of deep game knowledge.

Thanks.

Best to play Honour Mode after acquiring some basic game knowledge. Like Divinity Original Sin 2 there are a few instances where you can lose your entire Honour Mode run just for making the wrong decisions.

And most players tackle Honour Mode well knowing what challenges await them, because of that. Otherwise it is the typical RPG / adventure standard. A balanced party beats a specialised party.

With multiclassing combat becomes much easier, but it is possible to do without. For starters you can check here
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3114624793
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3124459563
With multiclassing you not only get balance into your party, but also balance / overpower for the individual character, if you come around with e.g. a spellcaster which can deal devastating area of effect spells while also wearing armour like a tank.

[Chaosolous]

Honestly, I get it, but with the number of stupid ways you can die in this game (bugs included), Honor Mode is just asking for frustration.

Play how you want though.

Gloomstalker Assassin Fighter Ranger Rogue is a good combo. With 4 of those the game difficulty is trivial regardless of setting (unless you royally screw up).

IMO though, Honor Mode just isn't worth the headache. I personally play Custom Mode, with cranked up settings (higher NPC health, AI combat tactics, more cost to full rest, etc) and enable Honor Mode Rules, then just play. If you don't want to save scum, literally just don't do it.

In Pure Honor Mode though, if you get a bug or a glitch, you're screwed. If you can just, you know, control the desire to save scum, then it's no different than a regular Honor Mode run sans the impossibility of reloading if something dumb happens. Sometimes, something dumb happens in this game. Either through a bug or other reasons.

Anyway, Fighters and GloomStalker Assassins (specifically) are very OP.

[Damphair]

Build your party around killing your opponents as quickly ass possible, and being able to disable high-threat targets. You can finish the game on honor mode with problably any build and composition, but killing targets quickly is the most efficient and ensures your party takes minimal damage. I usually go with shadowheart as healer, though I respec her inte life cleric for powerful heals, and she's the only one who has a supportive role while the rest focuses on rushing enemies as quickly as possible.

[Orpheus Telos]

I would suggest checking honor mode build guides, especially if you're new to DnD in general. The mode itself is not forgiving, so I would highly recommend picking a class that is easy to execute in fights and does not require a lot of levels or specific gear. For example, colleague of swords bard could be extremely powerful, but you need multiple items, a lot of levels and precise control to shine, while throw barbarian would require just a returning javelin from a1 goblin trader and a level 4.

Here's the list of classes I would consider for my first honor mode attempt:
1. Battlemaster fighter.
2. Throw barbarian.
3. Storm sorcerrer.
4. Open palm monk.
5. Eldritch blast warlock.
6. Gloomstalker ranger w/ multiclassing (5 ranger, 3 assassin rogue, 2 warrior).
7. Oath of the ancients paladin.

Luality has a video on her youtube channel with some easy builds for first time honor mode players, I highly recommend to check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvurleI9Z30

[seeker1]

Originally posted by Chaosolous:

Honestly, I get it, but with the number of stupid ways you can die in this game (bugs included), Honor Mode is just asking for frustration.

I've never used Honor Mode and never will for the same reasons you discuss, but really enjoy using the Honor mode setting for Custom Mode (combined with Tactician settings for everything else), because I'm finally getting to see the boss' Legendary Actions. This is the only way I play now.

I never used the "Last Azanti" or Ironman mode of WotR either. Not interested.

Interestingly, the author of "More Encounters" mod also seems to have given their custom made minibosses some of their own 'legendary' actions, too, again it's a nice change up for things.

[Drosta]

All good tips. Thanks. I would add here it's not my first time playing the game. So I know it can kill me with a bad decision or dice roll. But that's fine. My knowledge gap is in what is possible from the character builds standpoint. There are so many classes and subclasses and I don't really know of any good way to see what they all can do without rolling them sort of at random and that's not an honour mode way to go. Lol.

So yeah. In my last playthrough I had two gloomstalker fighters, my main and then Astarion because I didn't know he was basically meant to be one by default and yes it was very strong. Especially with my ice sorcerer with haste etc and a tempest cleric. But I'm doing it mostly for the achievement and the dice. I can control my own save scumming and bugs and such does worry me. But I'll try anyway.

So it seemed like a few people suggested what I'd been leaning toward myself, lean hard into damage is king. My Tav is going bard so I've got the face of the party covered and she will handle the utility situations. But the rest could be caster damage? I'd rather not go 3 gloom stalkers. I know it would work, 2 was enough to trivialize most content. But I don't want to be bored either.. lol. That aside, what about summoning? That was very strong in divinity. Is it good here? Would a necromancer or conjuration wizard be good? Which is better?

[Drosta]

Originally posted by Orpheus Telos:

I would suggest checking honor mode build guides, especially if you're new to DnD in general. The mode itself is not forgiving, so I would highly recommend picking a class that is easy to execute in fights and does not require a lot of levels or specific gear. For example, colleague of swords bard could be extremely powerful, but you need multiple items, a lot of levels and precise control to shine, while throw barbarian would require just a returning javelin from a1 goblin trader and a level 4.

Here's the list of classes I would consider for my first honor mode attempt:
1. Battlemaster fighter.
2. Throw barbarian.
3. Storm sorcerrer.
4. Open palm monk.
5. Eldritch blast warlock.
6. Gloomstalker ranger w/ multiclassing (5 ranger, 3 assassin rogue, 2 warrior).
7. Oath of the ancients paladin.

Luality has a video on her youtube channel with some easy builds for first time honor mode players, I highly recommend to check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvurleI9Z30

Thank you. I was considering Eldritch Blast warlock but wasn't sure how it would perform in honour mode. And I would like to try a paladin but am not sure how to avoid becoming the oath breaker version. And with a single save I think I'd F that up pretty quick lol.

[Chaosolous]

With your reply in mind, I would say, Doomstalker with crit focus x2 like last time, then utilize a class that can deal a lot of lightning damage and wetness to mop up with AoE mobs when you can. Maybe turn someone into a healer/support if you want.

Legendary actions (if you haven't seen them before) can be a pain in the ass so maybe give them a lookup beforehand. Grym in particular comes to mind.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Drosta:

So it seemed like a few people suggested what I'd been leaning toward myself, lean hard into damage is king. My Tav is going bard so I've got the face of the party covered and she will handle the utility situations. But the rest could be caster damage?

I wouldn't do full caster party, partially because there's a set amount of loot in the game, and you're abandoning a massive portion of it going full caster.

You're not going to find 8 great rings for 4 casters, for example.

[Drosta]

Originally posted by Kernest:

Originally posted by Drosta:

So it seemed like a few people suggested what I'd been leaning toward myself, lean hard into damage is king. My Tav is going bard so I've got the face of the party covered and she will handle the utility situations. But the rest could be caster damage?

I wouldn't do full caster party, partially because there's a set amount of loot in the game, and you're abandoning a massive portion of it going full caster.

You're not going to find 8 great rings for 4 casters, for example.

Yeah that's reasonable. I don't have any plans to repurpose my Tav who is already going college of swords Bard. So that's 1 down. I was thinking perhaps 2 casters but then I'm not sure about the 4th slot. And I don't know if this matters much but since the bard will be the charisma focused face of the party I was thinking the caster(s) could go more intelligence based?

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Drosta:

Yeah that's reasonable. I don't have any plans to repurpose my Tav who is already going college of swords Bard. So that's 1 down. I was thinking perhaps 2 casters but then I'm not sure about the 4th slot. And I don't know if this matters much but since the bard will be the charisma focused face of the party I was thinking the caster(s) could go more intelligence based?

Bards, even College of Swords, are still technically full casters. They'll be able to deal more damage with a well placed Shatter than they could ever hope to with melee, so it's best to keep that in mind when gearing them.

The only intelligence based (full) caster is the Wizard, so with two of them there'd be quite a bit of overlap.

Go for Wisdom for one certainly.

A Cleric doesn't have to just heal, or pick a Druid whose shapeshift provides great utility even if they're otherwise geared as a spellcaster.

[Fitness Lauch]

Did a run recently on honor mode with a mod which heavily increased opponents (they gain 200-500% bonus hp, higher AC, higher spell save dc, higher attack rolls, more dmg and bosses got an additional action + bonus action - Inquisitor in the Creche had above 500 hp for example). I've also restricted myself to not use consumeables.
What worked very well was Tav as swordsbard, Gale as abju wizard, Shart als Life Cleric and the last spot is kinda a free spot but imo the best class for that spot is TB monk (at level 4-6 I had Karlach als Throw barb but respecced to monk at level 7). In act 3 archer builds become better than monk IF you spam a lot of special arrows but act 3 shouldn't really be a problem anyways - imo the game ends when you beat Apostle (swordsbard and wizard/sorc completely stomp act 3 with that mystic scoundrel ring and globe of invulnerability).
The party has 0 gear crossovers, is very tanky with a life cleric and abju wizard and has enough single target and aoe damage to finish most encounters in 1-2 turns in normal honor mode.

Cleric and abju wizard play around create water and aoe lightning/cold damage (glyph of warding), bard does either aoe damage with spells (also glyph of warding) or single target damage with ranged flurry and stunlocks opponents and monk does single target dps.

[LemonM3lon]

Honor mode is winnable with pretty much every composition so while builds do matter, having good combat awareness/positioning is much more important. Some advice i can give are:

- Examine your enemies pre or during combat (and especially bosses) for their resistances/immunities/vulnerabilities and read the description of their legendary actions if they have one (most bosses have this). It doesn't cost you an action or anything, and it will make the fights much easier. And don't only read their vulnerabilities, check for special conditions they might have.

- Look out for other special consitions enemies might have such as Radiant Retort where they reflect double damage to their attacker if struck with radiant damage even though they are vulnerable to radiant damage (so the attacker takes 4x damage which can one shot you). There are some other similar conditions (although not many) so look out for them.

- Try to make use of surprise mechanics as it will essentially give you a free turn if you manage to surprise an enemy. You can achieve this by starting the combat by attacking an enemy while invisible. There are some other methods as well you can learn from the bg3 wiki. For invisibility you can use invisibility potions/scrolls or play as a duergar to cast invisibility as a cantrip.

- If you are losing a fight, don't forget that you can just flee the combat and return later. Misty step, dash action, boots of speed, cunning actions etc. can all help you with this.

- There are many powerful equipment in the game, some of which have builds that are centered around them such as Titanstring bow, helmet of arcane acuity, hat of fire acuity, etc. Make use of them if they have synergy with your builds.

- Have a party face character with high charisma for dialogues.

- You can use elixirs and higher level scrolls if you don't mind using consumables but not everyone likes to keep checking vendor inventories, so its optional and up to you. For elixirs, Elixir of bloodlust, giant strength elixirs, elixir of battlemage's power are all very good.

Regarding builds, the builds people mentioned above are all powerful. For reference, you can check prestigious_juice341's party building templates on reddit. Admittedly I haven't used their guides before but I know their compositions/builds are good as I tried similar compositions. You can also check Morgana Evelyn or Luality on youtube for builds.

Good Luck!

[jonnin]

Lets look at that...
-> there is no tanking really. Your best bet for 'tanking' is to have summoned critters (elementals, maybe undead) who obstruct and soak hits for you. So 'front liner' just means melee dps. Melee dps means chasing stuff, potential turns where you can't get to the enemy, so everyone in honor mode really needs to be excellent at ranged with melee as an option. Fortunately thrown weapons using strength are very powerful, so you can be good at both with either dex (bows and light weapons) or str (heavy weapons and throwing) type of front liner.

healing *in combat* is also not a good use of your actions. You should try to muddle through combat with at little healing as possible, and then out of combat use swap-in items (eg there is a hat that heals the wearer when the wearer heals someone else, and a ring that adds +2 to all healing, and a necklace where the wearer gets 100% max healing possible from any source..) and throw potions (group up and you can heal 4 characters per potion when thrown on the ground) to top off after a battle. There are also short rests (50% heal) (a bard adds 1 more per long rest, a key ability) and a special magic power that transfers 50% of one character's health to another (so 100% untouched guy heals badly hurt guy then splash potions on both for twice the real healing done..). In combat, you throw emergency heals if needed to get someone up from about to die state, but try to avoid that. There is a spell that heals everyone a tiny amount and one per day copy of it on a necklace that you get early can get your team back up, but again, you want to focus on not being hit that hard to begin with.

Single target dps is a weird idea. You have actions (attacks) and if you kill someone, you can try to hit someone else with a second .. 4th+ attacks that were left over. The only true single target dps is a wizard/sorcerer type who focuses on the all or nothing spells, and that is not generally wise.

balanced party is a must, but not so linear. A lot of builds revolved around multiclassing.
first, know that you can respec anyone at any time to try stuff out or redo from a leveling build to an endgame build etc.
some multiclassing key concepts and other key concepts for a very, very short starting point:

anyone can open a lock with slight of hand proficiency (available as background, or to ranger, rogue, bard, a type of cleric (knowledge), any gith (racial). You don't have to have a rogue.

3 levels of rogue-> thief gets a second bonus action (2 offhand attacks or lots of dash type activities, great for dual crossbows, dual weapons)

1 level of monk gets an offhand attack, good for early game cleric or various others.
3 levels of barbarian-> frenzy gets a third attack in rage mode very early (2 attacks at 3rd level, 3 at 5th).
sorcerer metamagic lets you cast 2 spells per turn (one as a bonus action) or 3 with speed(extra action per turn) buffs.
tavern brawler feat on a strong character is very overpowered. It gives thrown weapons and unarmed attacks a very high chance to hit.

this version of D&D does not penalize armor much. Barbarians in heavy have a penalty, but little else is done to you. So a race armor sorcerer/wizard/monk etc (human, half elf get light and shield, gith and one dwarf type get medium armor no shield) can be very useful.

hard mode is front loaded in difficulty. A quick example is that the 3 braindogs you fight first thing on the beach gain a nasty attack and can wreck you in short order if you didn't expect it coming in from normal difficulty where they lack that ability. At the low levels, with low hit points and few spells and such it is pretty brutal. If you can get to 5th level, most of the rest of it is reasonable and increases in difficulty as expected, but those first few encounters are dangerous. I recommend playing most of act 1 (to level 5, for example) on the default difficulty one time before trying hard mode.