Orin Solo Honour Mode Guide

This guide will show you how to defeat Orin Solo in Honour Mode, both Durge and Tav variants of the fight, without using cheese or barrelmancy.

Introduction

This guide will show you how to defeat Orin the Red Solo in Honour Mode, without using any cheese, smokepowder, runepowder, speed potion bugs or anything else you use to defeat her that is... questionable.

You should check out our Definitive Guide for more in-depth information about Solo Honour Mode. This guide is an extension of our Definitive Guide but we've pulled the big fights out into separate, more in-depth guides because frankly, the Definitive Guide is already hefty.

We will cover four classes that we have completed a full, successful, solo, deathless Honour Mode with, break down what gear you need, what buffs & abilities you need, the strategy for the fight as well as providing videos so you can see it all in action.

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Here is our Definitive Guide.

Here is the Gloom Stalker fight.
We're working on the Monk fight.
We're working on the Paladin fight.
Here is the Bladesinger fight.

This is what we have found to work with equipment that is easily obtainable(ish); there is probably a way to optimise what we have here further and we invite you all to discuss these amendments below in the comments. We can verify that the strategies listed have been used and refined through many runs, both successful and unsuccessful. If you want to try something else out or go a different direction from some of our choices, by all means, but the moment you deviate from our recommendations your run is your hands and we can't/won't be held responsible. On your own head be it if you can't give up your precious backpacks full of smokepowder barrels!

Anyway, lets get started and congratulations on becoming lactose intolerant!

General Strategy

We'll give a quick overview of Orin and what she's capable of, as well as the main points you'll want to address while fighting her. Check out each individual build section for a play-by-play and more details. This section assumes you're doing the Tav fight; if you are Durge, DO NOT GET SLAYER FORM, accept the duel and just shoot her. Seriously. Video incoming.

Squishy Lady is Scary!

The first thing you'll need to be aware of is her Legendary Action: Sanguine Lash. This is a Reaction in her Slayer Form that does 8d8 damage, can cause Bleeding and knock you back 6ft in a 180-degree cone in front of her. You need to be aware of positioning because of this alone, as you can go skydiving if she sends you off the edge. This is triggered when you attack Orin within 4m of her. "Cool, I'll just not hit her within 4m" we hear some of you say. Well, if she doesn't use Sanguine Lash that turn and there's still some Reapers of Bhaal alive, Bhaal's Edict is placed on you which means you MUST kill something that turn or you die. Yeah. You die. Life snatched right out of you cos you didn't do what Bhaal Says. Death Ward can protect you from this but you'll lose all of your buffs; it's safer just to bring the pain to the Reapers. You can also kill the party member she abducted (if she abducted one) to remove Bhaal's Edict. Hey man, you wanna save Halsin or lose 40 hours of progress? We know what we choose.

If this wasn't gnarly enough, she also gets 12 (in Honour Mode) Unstoppable stacks every turn. This means every hit she takes is reduced to 1 damage, removes a stack and she can't be moved against her will. You need to take out the Reapers of Bhaal first to get rid of these stacks. You can brute-force it and hammer her with upcasted Magic Missile before dealing real damage but we don't recommend you do this: it is a waste of Actions and stacks will be refreshed every turn if any Reapers of Bhaal are still chanting. You want these Reapers removed from the fight as they are the source of two things that can end your run. They all have Sanctuary too but don't worry, we'll tell you the best ways to stop them for your class later.

In Humanoid form her weapons cause Vulnerability to Piercing Damage and deal an extra 1d4 Piercing below 50%HP. She has access to Unsettling Visage which can Fear you, which we don't don't want, and she has access to the same thing Sarevok gets called Murderous Retort. Another Reaction, this allows Orin to make a melee attack against someone who hit her. After landing 5 of these she gets Deathbringer's Assault which makes her attack 7 (!) times, each dealing 3d10 Piercing (!!) damage. For all you Durges out there, you want Orin to go Slayer Form, trust us.

In Slayer Form she has access to all of the Slayer abilities Durge gets. Read more about them here[bg3.wiki]but the main thing to note is she has way less lethality in this form and while it is technically a Wild Shape, it doesn't function the same way and she dies if her HP reaches 0 instead of reverting back to Human. Again, Durge players do not want the Slayer Form because if they have it, Orin doesn't. Honestly, it kinda sucks to use anyway beyond getting a big HP bar when you know you have to eat some hits.

She can also use Sanguine Animation in Slayer Form, which uses a corpse (not blood pools like the tooltip suggests) to make Bloodmarrow Skeletons, which are lil' bloodied Skellys that can hit you for 2d8 + 3 Bludgeoning Damage and cause Bleeding. This isn't as scary as you think it is, because you want these guys to pop up in order to have targets to shoot to remove Bhaal's Edict.

Squishy Lady is Scary?

She's not as scary as you think, we promise. Here's a few things you need to know.

Orin doesn't have any Resistances however she does have Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, +1 to Initiative Rolls, she can't be Surprised and has an extra Bonus Action, on top of all the stuff up there. Evasion & Uncanny Dodge mean she can and will make more saves on Dex Save things inflicted on her while also halving the HP damage from something as a Reaction, which means no Sanguine Lash that turn, which means Bhaal's Edict. Additionally, you do not want her to build up stacks of Murderous Retort but this is fairly manageable as long as you don't add stacks by carelessly using Psychic Backlash or clip her with Opportunity Attacks; she'll go Slayer Form after Turn 1 which is honestly what we want.

As well as her chanting homies, she has two other friends: The Deaths Head of Bhaal which can cast Stunning Gaze which is unavoidable Stun and The Invoker of Bhaal who casts Slow. Realistically, these guys need to die before anything else, specifically the Death's Head, because that is most likely a run-ender if she gets a Stunning Gaze off. Slow is also not fun.

The final thing to watch out for is Piercing Growl as this can cause you to become Fearful. This is NOT the same as Feared, as it will force you to run away from her and steal two of your turns. This basically means you are relying on your AC and Saving Throws with no input; this can also be a run-ender. Most sources of defence against Fear are Concentration or class-specific so you're just gonna have to keep her locked down or trust in your Saving Throws, unfortunately.

Squishy Lady ain't Scary...

If Orin isn't in her Slayer Form, The Surgeons Subjugation Amulet[bg3.wiki] will work against her and at this point you should have Luck of the Far Realms AND the Killer's Sweetheart, which will both guarantee the Crit therefore guaranteeing the Paralysis. If she's in Slayer Form, Crawler Mucus[bg3.wiki] or Karabasan's Poison[bg3.wiki] can also render her Paralysed, allowing you to deal with the Reapers of Bhaal unhindered. Hypnotic Pattern will also work against her and the Reapers, which will stop their chanting and consequently, her Unstoppable Stacks & Bhaal's Edict. You must understand, however, that she does have Legendary Resistances which can add +10 to a roll that will cause her to be immobilised; this is why we will attempt to stack multiple sources of immobilisation against her.

You NEED some form of AoE to deal with the Reapers and you must be careful with dealing damage to Orin in her Human Form to prevent her from hitting you with Deathbringer's Assault. We know we've mentioned this already but we're saying it twice because that thing hurts.
Any sources of Temp Health you can get will be beneficial but there isn't anything that specifically hard-counters any of her abilities. You'll also want to consider some forms of Crowd Control (CC) to keep Orin from Reacting to you, so Prone, Stun, Paralysis and Hold Person/Hold Monster are all good calls too. Fear and Silence also work on the Reapers but Silence can be moved out of and if you're gonna cast Fear, you may as well cast Hypnotic Pattern for the same result.

Keep reading to find out how your class of choice will overcome these hurdles in way more detail!

Gloom Stalker: Race and Stats

Ahh, Gloom Stalker. A personal favourite and an obvious fan-favourite build. It makes sense to cover this one first, as it will most likely be the most common use-case. This will be a hefty read.

Please Note: these videos are not part of a legit run; we have used the console to set up a repeatable situation where we can create videos for classes we complete the game with. You can see us completing runs legitimately on our Twitch Channel NautiloidEnjoyers.[www.twitch.tv]
After that shameless self-promo, lets get into it!

Race

Githyanki as it has the added bonus of Mage Hand that you can use to throw Haste Spores for free (more on strats later).

Wood Elf or Wood Half-Elf are probably the next best and overall optimum pick for the entire run, due to the increased movement speed and the Stealth Proficiency. Weapon + Shield proficiencies are redundant due to Ranger Knight, War Cleric & Fighter all covering pretty much everything.

Stat Spread

Strength is base 8 and buffed to 27 from an Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength. Hill Giant Strength will also work but the Titanstring passives extra dmg will be reduced from +8 to +5.

Dexterity is base 17 and is buffed to 18 after you defeat Auntie Ethel in Act 1 and bargain for her hair (If a guide for her is requested, we may write that too).

Constitution is base 16.

Intelligence is base 8. We don't need smarts.

Wisdom is base 14.

Charisma is base 10.

Gloom Stalker: Build and Gear

You should be lvl 12 before committing to fighting Orin. Your Build will look like this:

Gloom Stalker 5/Assassin 3/War Cleric 1/Fighter 3

For Gloom Stalker spells, you will want to take Longstrider, Enhanced Leap, Misty Step and then your last two are up to you. We personally use Hunters' Mark for extra situational dps in our playthrough and Fog Cloud for situational Line of Sight (LoS) blocking and thieving from people.

For Assassin, we recommend Perception & Insight as your expertise, the rest is up to you. Assassin is fairly crucial for that big first turn Advantage (we don't want to miss here) and Sneak Attack is nice.

For War Cleric, you will want to take Guidance, Resistance & Thaumaturgy with Protection from Evil and Good, as you'll already have Blade War (more on that in a moment). Resistance doesn't have much impact on this fight per se, but is handy for the overall playthrough. However, the War Cleric ability War Priest is why we take this class in our build; it allows you to make 3 additional attacks per Long Rest using your bonus action.
Please Note: this can be buggy. The abridged version of this bug is don't use a Speed Potion when you have a Bonus Action remaining and a War Priest Charge. The game will eat your bonus action but still try to use your War Priest Charge, effectively making your new Action from Haste unavailable.

For Fighter, you want to take the Defence style for +1 AC, Battle Master for the Evasive Footwork, Precision Strike and Tripping Attack, as it has a Ranged Version and can serve as a backup in case you don't have another means to keep Orin from hitting you.

You can take 4 Battle Master/Assassin instead of a level in War Cleric & grab a Dex ASI if you so desire, the choice is up to you. We prefer the Extra Attacks though.

Is there another way?

Yes. An objectively better one. Check out our Definitive Guide and hit up the Bonus Build: The Not Gloom Stalker section. That build is objectively better than this one due to Flourishes but it isn't technically a Gloom Stalker build, it's a Swords Bard build. You can still use this build very effectively though, so we leave it up to you. If you choose this route, switch your Wisdom and Charisma stats around.

Equipment Loadout

Ranged Weapon: Titanstring Bow[bg3.wiki] - this goes without saying. It is the best bow in the game for raw damage output and second place isn't even close.

Melee Main Hand Weapon: Dolor Amarus[bg3.wiki] - +7 Damage on a Crit. You want this to combine with Craterflesh Gloves to make your two guaranteed Crits in this fight as meaty as they can be. You'll also probably proc some naturally but trust us, you WANT those Crits to hurt as much as possible.

Melee Off-Hand Weapon: Adamantine Shield[bg3.wiki] - While Viconia's Walking Fortress[bg3.wiki] is nice, you need Crit Immunity and the ability to cast AoE's for damage and CC. It's what it is.

Helmet: Helmet of Arcane Acuity[bg3.wiki] - Arcane Acuity will help you land the spells you need to nullify the Reapers and Orin. Works best with the Not Gloom Stalker build but regular Gloom can use it for spells just fine.

Cloak: Cloak of Protection[bg3.wiki] - +1 AC and +1 to Saving Throws.

Chest Piece: Armour of Persistence[bg3.wiki] - Heavy Armour that has 20AC, gives Blade Ward & Resistance and reduces incoming damage by 2. Blade Ward will really help you if Orin gets a Deathbringer's Assault proc on you. If you didn't manage to save Dammon you can grab the Elven Chain[bg3.wiki]. You can also use the Bhaalist Armour[bg3.wiki] if you want to drop Orin quickly but be aware you are now majorly glassy and we doubt you'll survive a Deathbringer proc.

Gloves: Craterflesh Gloves[bg3.wiki] - Activate an ability that gives you Advantage on your To Hit rolls for 10 turns. You want these to keep up the consistency of damage downrange. Misses are painful in any situation but in this fight, you want to minimise those misses as much as possible.

Boots: Boots of Persistence[bg3.wiki] - Freedom of Movement, +1 to Dex Saving Throws and Longstrider. Sanguine Lash is a Dex Save and FoM will stop Fear from keeping you stationary. You can also use the Evasive Shoes[bg3.wiki] if you didn't save Dammon.

Ring 1: Ring of Protection[bg3.wiki]- +1 AC and +1 to Saving Throws. Enough said.

Ring 2: Killer's Sweetheart[bg3.wiki] to get another guaranteed Critical Hit alongside your Luck of the Far Realms. This can be useful for proccing the Surgeons Subjugation Amulet[bg3.wiki] if you want to use it as Orin can't be Surprised so Assassin isn't gonna help us overmuch with that one. Remember to charge it!

Amulet: Periapt of Wound Closure[bg3.wiki] - when you heal, restore the full amount of health available. This is big as it means with a Superior Health Potion you are guaranteed to heal 40 HP. That's half your health at this stage. You [ii]could[/i] go with the Amulet of Greater Health for more constitution and more Charisma but we like the healing guarantee. As we mentioned, you can use the Surgeons Subjugation Amulet for a guaranteed Paralyse on Orin but we go with Karabasan's or Crawler Mucus as we'll be casting spells with Arcane Acuity to stop Orin from moving or doing anything gnarly.

If you check out our Definitive Guide we have Equipment Loadouts for Act 3; any of those setups will be absolutely fine for this fight too!

Gloom Stalker: Mandatory Abilities, Scrolls, Items and Buffs

Some of your class choices have been covered above; you can, as we mentioned, deviate from this guide but here are the abilities, scrolls, items and buffs you will need to make this guide work for you. We will list the mandatory ones first and then optional ones.

Shield of Thralls - Nice Illithid power that gives you +10 Temp HP and, when that disappears, explodes in an AoE around you that can stun things caught in the blast. You're wanting this for the extra HP and if Orin manages to get an attack off as she's Resisted your Poison, there's a high chance she'll be Stunned by this which will allow you to continue business as usual.

Luck of the Far Realms - Another sweet Illithid power that guarantees a crit. You pretty much need this to do guaranteed Big Damage.

Charm Illithid Power - You should have this by now and it is very handy to stop Orin hitting you with multiple things. We recommend keeping it just for her which also means we recommend keeping your Reaction for it.

Rapture - +1d6 to everything but mainly adds 15% to your To Hit chance. With Sweet Stone Features, this completely negates your Sharpshooter penalty. Speaking of...

Sharpshooter Feat - Your only feat needs to be Sharpshooter. This is +10 dmg and why we are using as much as we can to offset the -5 To Hit chance. As a rule in your run up, anything less than a 70% chance to hit and you should turn Sharpshooter off. In this fight, you shouldn't need to at all with Bless, Rapture and your Dex.

Arrows of Many Targets - Hit 3 targets near to your initial target for half damage. We'll be opening up with some of these to proc our Arcane Acuity stacks. 10 is probably enough for this fight but we recommend having as many as possible on you at all times.

Arrows of Humanoid Slaying - Double Damage to Humanoid enemies. These are to guarantee kills against the Reapers of Bhaal to get rid of Bhaal's Edict, should it land on you. You'll want at least 10.

Arrows of Monstrosity Slaying - Same as above but for Monstrosity-type enemies. Orin is a Monstrosity in her Slayer Form; once Unstoppable Stacks are down, the idea is to plant as many of these in her as possible. Use these in conjunction with your Luck of the Far Realms & Killer's Sweetheart for maximum damage. Once you've cleared the board and can start focusing on her, you'll only realistically need about 3 of these but 8-10 is a good number to have.

Command: Grovel - You should have this from your War Cleric dip. You'll have other options but as Orin isn't an Undead, you can Grovel her (which sends her Prone) in either of her forms to keep her under control.

(Scrolls of) Hypnotic Pattern - Enemies can't move or take Actions for 2 turns. You'll use this after your first round onslaught to get everyone, including Orin, pacified so you can get to work. Remember that whatever you hit that is Hypnotised will immediately become un-Hypnotised after you hit it and it's a Concentration Spell. Orin does have her Legendary Resistance but this is more to stop the chanting; if she gets Hypnotised, cool.

Black Hole Illithid Power - Really really good for bringing everyone together to be Hypnotised or maximise Arrows of Many Targets potential. You can also use Cloudkill in combination with this to bring the pain and drop some Unstoppable stacks.

Drakethroat Glaive[bg3.wiki] - This basically turns your Titanstring Bow into a +2 bow and gives you a cheeky 1d4 Thunder Damage. Spicy, right? We recommend Thunder as your go-to damage element due to it being the least resisted in the game bar a few exceptions.

Haste Spore Grenade[bg3.wiki] - Use your Gith Mage Hand to throw these for you without using an action, otherwise throw them on the ground and get that sweet Haste for one turn without going Lethargic, for three turns before the cloud disappears. Your War Priest charges/Action Surge can account for losing your initial action, as in Honour Mode Haste actions do not trigger Extra Attack. Remember to move about inside the cloud each turn to proc the Haste!

Karabasan's Gift/Crawler Mucus - gives your shots a chance to Paralyse targets you shoot. We opt for this over the Surgeons Subjugation and Diluted Oil of Sharpness as we intend to layer CC effects over one another to complete this fight smoothly.

Scrolls of Misty Step - You have this as a spell, if you followed our advice above, but having a few of these in your back pocket is always a good thing. You'll mainly want to use this to get yourself away from Orin/Bloodmarrow Skellys safely without triggering Opportunity Attacks.

Gloom Stalker: Optional Abilities, Scrolls, Items and Buffs

Zaith'isk Ability (Awakened) - This isn't strictly necessary but it's very handy. It allows you to cast Illithid Powers as a Bonus Action instead of an Action. While this may conflict with your War Priest Charges, it is undeniably helpful when you have Haste Spores up as you can recast Shield of Thralls or Mind Blast in a pinch while still sending arrows downrange to sustain your DPS. You'll mainly use this to Black Hole everything to Hypnotic Pattern them easier.

Scroll of Mirror Image - As this is not a concentration spell, you can stack it with your Hypnotic Pattern without breaking either. With the amount of damage and CC you will be sending downrange, you may not even lose any of your replicas.

Potion of Speed - Haste Spores probably have you covered, but you can sup a Speed Pot instead if you want. There is a bug where you drink another one on your last turn of Haste to mitigate the Lethargic effect and re-apply Haste next turn, but this is cheesy and we are lactose intolerant. You can use it if you want, but relying on it is a mistake that will become apparent if/when this bug is fixed. If you want to use a Speed Pot legit, we recommend popping it when Orin is around 40% health to seal the deal quicker.

Scrolls of Chain Lightning - Arrows of Many Targets will clip things protected by Sanctuary but the intial hit can't be made on them. If you don't have anything to shoot and don't want to proc Orin's abilities by aiming at her, you can use these instead, as they will hit targets with Sanctuary. It will also clip things that are Invisible, as some of the Reapers of Bhaal like to do, whereas Many Targets are finicky.

Scroll of Magic Missile - Useful for taking away Orin's Unstoppable Stacks, as each missile counts as one hit.

Volo's Eye - No reason not to get this really as it will allow you to see Invisible Enemies but it's not mandatory.

Battle Master: Evasive Footwork - +4 AC for free but it uses your Superiority Die. With our Gear and Build setup, you'll be sitting at 25 AC and once this pops, you'll be at 29. Deathbringer's Assault isn't looking so scary now!

Battle Master: Precision Strike - Adds your Superiority Die amount to your To Hit chance. Nice when you really need a shot to land but be aware, this will cut into your Evasive Footwork uses.

Sweet Stone Features - You can buy a statue from the Mephit in the Circus that gives you Bless every Long Rest for free. If you don't get the naked version of yourself, are you really playing BG3?

The Whispering Promise - If you don't want/can't afford the Statue, you can opt for TWP instead of Ring of Protection to have 1d4 on your Attack Rolls and Saving Throws. We would recommned keeping Killer's Sweetheart on though, as two Crits with Craterflesh and Monstrosity Slaying Arrows will be enough to end the fight or at least put Orin in a position where one or two more regular shots will kill her. Up to you though!

Gloom Stalker: Strategy

So, you're equipped, buffed and ready to eat Orin. Here's how you do it! Again, shameless promotion, here is a link to our YouTube Channel with a video on all of the above in action, and to our Twitch Channel[www.twitch.tv]where you can see us doing live challenge runs.

Assuming you haven't initiated Dialogue, make your way to the stairs down to Orin's Arena. Here's your order of actions:

• Cast Shield of Thralls if you haven't already
  
• Coat your weapon in Crawler Mucus
  
• Shoot Orin with an Arrow. We used Many Targets but sometimes it doesn't go to other targets on a hit outside of combat, but it's whatever. Just don't waste a Humanoid Slaying Arrow!
  
• This will start combat and everyone should be Surprised but her. If Crawler Mucus gets her, great, if not, don't worry, that's probably a Legendary Resistance Stack down. Either or is good.
  
• Shoot her with (another) Arrow of Many Targets. This will proc her Dread Pursuit and she'll teleport to you and start attacking you. You'll also clip the Death's Head and the Invoker this way; again, they might get Stricken, they might not. They're not going to be alive much longer anyway.
  
• Move (or Misty Step) away from Orin towards the Altar. You'll want to move to the side opposite the stairs where you entered. Depending on how much she hit you will depend on whether you wanna use a Misty Step or not: Orin Dual-Wields so her Opportunity Attacks are two hits. If these two hits will trigger Deathbringer's Assault (if her hits will put her Murderous Strikes stacks to 5) then we recommend a Misty Step as you'll only be losing out on an Extra Attack from War Cleric.
  
• Start blastin' with Arrows of Many Targets on either the Death's Head or Invoker of Bhaal, whichever has the highest stacks of Unstoppable. The reason we want one of them to survive past the Surprise round is we can't guarantee you'll clip all of the Invokers so if you get an Edict and have gone first in the Turn Order, we also can't guarantee there will be any Bloodmarrow Skellys for you to kill either. This will be a variable we can't control for you, but this should start killing the Evokers nicely and getting your stacks of Arcane Acuity up to 10
  
• Use Action Surge
  
• Cast Hypnotic Pattern on Orin and any of the Invokers left. They should only be alive near the stairs you entered from where Orin currently is so group them together. If she Saves against it, don't worry
  
• End your turn. Orin will go Slayer Form now which will consume her turn and everyone left alive should be Surprised. Happy days
  
• Throw Haste Spores down where you have decided to move and fire more Many Target Arrows at the Death's Head or Invoker, whichever is alive. You should be able to proc hits on any remaining Invokers, even if they are close to the entrance stairway
  
• At this point, dice willing, you should have cleared the board without Orin's Unstoppable Stacks refreshing as the Invokers were Hypnotised or dead and killed the Death's Head and Evoker. If you haven't, we recommend using Command: Grovel on the Death's Head or Evoker if they're alive. Don't worry, it's not a Concentration Spell so if there's anyone alive under Hypnosis it won't break it!
  
• Move away from your Haste Spores so you don't give them to Orin or Skellys by Accident and pop Evasive Footwork
  
• End your Turn
  
• If you listened to us and moved away far enough, Orin should Dash and then cast Sanguine Animation. Don't Panic! This is why we used Evasive Footwork! If she doesn't and just tries to attack you, again, you have 29 AC and access to Charm. You'll be ok!
  
• Once it's your turn again, Misty Step back into your Haste Spores and start pinging Arrows of Many Targets into the Skellys. Use one of your actions to either Hypnotic Pattern Orin and Skellys or Command: Grovel Orin if they're all already dead.
  
• If Orin isn't immobilised don't worry but you will have to eat some attacks now, so pop another Evasive Footwork if need be, move away from your Haste Spores and end your Turn. Hit her with Charm after she hits you and this can also completely nullify anything else she wanted to do to you that turn. If everything is Hypnotised or Grovelling, stay where you are but don't forget to move around a little inside your Haste Spores next turn to get your Action!
  
• Clean up the rest of the Skellys if there's any alive and, depending on how many stacks of Unstoppable Orin has left, shoot regular shots into her or use a Scroll of Magic Missile. Use Command: Grovel again to keep her Prone
  
• Rinse and repeat the above steps until her Unstoppable is gone. Now the fun begins!
  
• Unload as many Arrows of Humanoid Slaying as it takes to kill Orin. This is where you want to use your Luck of the Far Realms and your Killer's Sweetheart abilities for those juicy, health-deleting Crits.
  
• We would say "rinse and repeat" again but honestly, this should be enough to kill her. If it isn't, use another Haste Spore grenade or Speed Potion to keep hitting her and using Hypnotic Pattern/Grovel/Trip Attack to keep her subdued while you shoot her repeatedly in the face. Remember to move away from your Haste Spore clouds so you don't Haste Orin and always be aware of where you are relative to the edge of the arena, as Sanguine Lash is still a thing!

If you are Feared or Hypnosis/Grovel doesn't go your way, use your Evasive Footwork and re-cast Shield of Thralls if need be. Remember to use Charm too! If you follow our Build and Class guide above, you should be fine but as always, this is a Dice game and sometimes it won't go the way you want it to. If worst comes to worst, Invisibility is an option to reset the fight, in which case you're on your own!

Congratulations, you just bodied probably the most technical boss in the game without using any cheese, glitches or otherwise underhanded methods!

Monk: Race and Stats

Monk: Build and Gear

Monk: Mandatory Abilities, Scrolls, Items and Buffs

Monk: Optional Abilities, Scrolls, Items and Buffs

Monk: Strategy

Paladin: Race and Stats

Paladin: Build and Gear

Paladin: Mandatory Abilities, Scrolls, Items and Buffs

Paladin: Optional Abilities, Scrolls, Items and Buffs

Paladin: Strategy

Bladesinger: Race and Stats

Bladesinger: Build and Gear

Bladesinger: Mandatory Abilities, Scrolls, Items and Buffs

Bladesinger: Optional Abilities, Scrolls, Items and Buffs

Bladesinger: Strategy

FAQ

Here we will answer some commonly asked questions about the run, our decision-making and the game in general.

Who the hell are you guys?

We're the Nautiloid Enjoyers. We specialise in solo Honour Mode runs and challenge runs. Between the two of us, we have roughly 7 completions under our belts with no cheese, no underhanded strategies and no companions. This means we don't use barrelmancy or strategies that we feel cross the line into cheese, e.g. speed potion exploit, Stormshore Tabernacle money bug, using certain spots on Myrkuls platform for heals, you get the picture.

What's with the name?

When we died on a run, after we raged and pulled our beards out we would calm down and say "Oh well, back to the Nautiloid." Obviously, we have failed so much we have returned to the Nautiloid a lot, so much so that to an outside spectator we must just enjoy playing the beginning of the game over and over again.

What makes you guys qualified to tell me what to do?

Nothing, but we have almost 2k hours between us and 90% of that time has been doing Honour Mode, and probably 70% of it has been doing solo runs. We don't know everything, but we're pretty clued in, if we do say so ourselves!

I keep missing my attacks, what's going on?

This is a dice game. Sometimes you can do everything right, stack the odds in your favour and still get quadruple 1s. That's just how it be.

Why are you saying it's up to me to choose things?

We want to give you the data, the reasoning and the strategies to then allow you to form your own way, to avoid being stuck in a rigid framework that has no variation. For some reason, lots of Solo runs look the same, with no fights until lvl 4 and running ahead to the Grymforge, etc. We hope that we can help you create new routes by showing you how to become powerful without cheese and encouraging you to play the game, so you're more confident to try new things. Plus, we don't like being told what to do so we won't tell you what to do. If it sounds like we are, well, maybe there's less wiggle-room in that decision but you can always choose not to take our advice and that's cool too. If you die because you didn't listen, though, that's on you.

Do you guys have any other guides?

Yes we do! We have the Definitive Solo Honour Mode Guide which covers Gloom Stalker in waaay more detail, with Solo tips, tricks & rules for survival. We're also in the process of adding more class guides.
You can find this guide here.
We also have a Myrkul Solo Honour Mode Guide which you can find here.

That's all from us, thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope to see you in the stream!

FAQ - Gloom Stalker

Why are you using War Cleric?

What are you really gaining from a feat that is better than getting Guidance, Resistance, Thaumaturgy, 3 extra attacks per Long Rest and Heavy Armour Proficiency?

The answer is nothing.

You can take our word for it or try it yourself, you may disagree, but here’s a few examples:
ASI is +1 Dex. While this is nice, the impact it has on this fight itself is minimal compared to 3 extra attacks. You'll also get 20 Dex at the Mirror of Loss later on anyway.
Alert is overkill for your Initiative as Gloom Stalker gets +4 and you’ve got 18 Dex already.
Lucky is nice but you’d probably waste those on Speech checks anyway as your Attack Rolls and AC are going to be very high.
You get the picture.
None of those feats are bad, they just do not give you the equivalent impact on your build as the War Cleric dip does for this fight.

For Gloom Stalker, why the Titanstring Bow? Isn't that just a +1 from Act 1

It is the best bow in the game for this build at putting out raw damage, because it is one of the few things in Honour Mode that has Damage Riders As A Source. We invite you to check out this page on DRs[bg3.wiki] as there is already a lot of info available there that is explained better than we can explain it.

To sum it up here real quick, on average the Titanstring is doing +8 damage more than every other bow per shot, which adds up when you use Special Arrows as this +8 is applied to Acid and Fire Arrow elemental damage. Using those types of Special Arrows, you're on an extra 16 damage per shot. Chunky.

Are there any other bows I can use?

Yes, as a matter of fact there is.

Gontr Mael[bg3.wiki] is a +3 bow that can cast Guiding Bolt on targets, gives you the Celestial Haste ability and Bolt of Celestial Light, which can Frighten targets and adds 1d4 Radiant to your shots for 10 turns. Please note that the Guiding Bolt isn't the spell that does damage, it's the effect that causes Advantage that is named the same. This is a nice bow and the Celestial Haste is really tidy, as it's 5-turn Haste without Lethargic.

The Dead Shot[bg3.wiki] is a +2 bow that reduces the amount you need to Crit by 1 and doubles your Proficiency Bonus when rolling To Hit unless you have Disadvantage. If you really don't like missing, this bow is for you. We'd also recommend taking Champion over Battle Master here to stack Crit Reduction.

The reason we advocate for the Titanstring, even though it's only a +1 (+2 with Drakethroat Glaive buff), is purely because of Titan Weapon and its' synergy with Special Arrows. We wrote this guide for people attempting to Solo for the first time or those struggling with getting a Deathless run; using the Titanstring for the whole game is a little boring, yes, but it's familiar and it's easy to get used to. You will notice the damage dropoff when you switch it up but it is up to you what you use.

Are there any other builds I can use?

If you want to experiment with Gloom Stalker, you can switch Assassin to Thief to get two Bonus Actions and then run Dual Hand Crossbows. We recommend the Ne'er Misser[bg3.wiki] and the Hellfire Hand Crossbow.[bg3.wiki], or just some regular old +2 Hand Crossbows. Unfortunately this is less damage than Assassin (we crunched these numbers) and your Bonus Attack isn't always gonna get used due to needing it for utility.

If you decide to run Dual Hand Crossbows with this build, Act 3 is the only time you're going to consistently out-damage the Titanstring. You need Double Dolor Amarus and the Craterflesh Gloves to bring the Handy-C's up to par, and then you're only out-damaging the Titanstring within the first round of combat when you land your off-hand shots.
"Well why don't we go Thief inst-" No.
You want Assassin over Thief because the guaranteed crits are what makes your damage skyrocket. You will not catch up to the same damage output of the Titanstring with Thief, never mind your Dual Handy-C's. We did the maths, we promise. We did it so you don't have to. Let's not forget: Hand Crossbows have less range, less base damage, no Titan Weapon and unless you take Dual-Wielder, less damage on your off-hand shot to begin with. It is only the extra off-hand shot that allows you to pull ahead and that's what War Cleric is for. Additionally, the utility of your Bonus Action, especially if you get Awakened, is far more valuable in our opinion than an extra shot. You do you but to reiterate, we did the maths for you and that's what we found.

You can check out our Definitive Guide for some build variations; we leave it to you to find one you like based on our suggestions.

FAQ - Monk

FAQ - Paladin

FAQ - Bladesinger