Baldur’s Gate 3: Honour Mode made easy

This guide is not for the players who view their foes with any real respect. We will discuss cheese tactics, broken combos, barrelmancy, you name it. This is not “Honour Mode for masochists”; if you’re here it means that, to you, it’s not about how you play the game, but whether you win or lose that counts. Personally, I like when games don’t pull their punches, because it means that I don’t have to either! Turnabout is fair play.

Additionally, it wouldn’t be all that fun to just give you a bullette-point list of chores to do in order, so this will be mostly an act one walkthrough, with some other solid tips and tricks to make hard fights manageable.

With that said, let’s discuss…

While it ought to be true that one’s race doesn’t matter, we seldom live in the ideal world, and Faerun is no different. Not only does one’s race determine stats, but also how you are viewed by the characters you will meet. A drow, for instance, will have no trouble walking clean into goblin country, but will be met with hostility any time there’s been an attack *by* drow, because of racial profiling.

Generally, the races fall into three categories, in this regard: Drow, Gith, and everybody else. Additionally, the short races will be able to fit into tight squeeze shortcuts, but taller races will have faster movement and an easier time reaching things on high shelves. It is for this reason that I recommend acquiring, at least for the very early game, “Disguise self”, as this disguise allows you to alter the outcomes of social interactions and navigate the environment to your liking. The chameleon approach will simplify the early game drastically.

Adventurers below level 4 will have a MUCH harder time staying alive than those at and above, due to the lack of feats augmenting your damage output. The fewer fights it takes you to get to level 4, the better, because preparation can only do so much to sway the rolls of the dice and any fight can be your last. So, when choosing your class, be sure to have only one (no multiclassing) until at least level 4, preferably level 5 as this is where many classes gain “extra attack” and this has a similar effect.

With that said, let’s go over our options in descending order of what I would use:

RACE:
Gnome (any): Gnome Cunning is a passive so powerful that to replicate it, you need an epic quality necklace from act three, but by picking Gnome you get it free of charge. A great deal!

Githyanki: There are a handful of weapons and armour pieces in the game that specify a githyanki user for their extra effects, and the Githyanki race gets a good chunk of VERY useful spells like misty step, as well as their ancestral knowledge for proficiency on basically anything (very useful on a main character)

Drow (any): Sure, you’ll be the target of racism, but you’re the only race that gets hand crossbow proficiency for free, and with two of them, you always have a bonus action ranged attack option. Damage is the name of the game!

Human: Carry capacity bonus! Nice for an mc who uses their pockets to carry everything for everyone all of the time.

Half-Orc: If you die, you don’t, kinda! If you crit, you double crit, kinda! Yeah, it’s not a lot, but it can be used in a clever way if you’ve go a “go get ’em” attitude.

Wood Elf/Half Elf (Wood): Did somebody say slight movespeed buff? No? That isn’t actually that big of a deal at a certain point and is kind of just an early game thing? Oh. Okay then.

Elf (other): Oh? Okay, uh, sure, have a cantrip I guess? They’re not exactly hard to grab but being an elf is kinda nice in and of its-elf.

Halfling (any): You know why halfling is so low down? They just don’t really bring all that much to the table. Maybe if the table was shorter, idk.

Tiefling (any): You get a couple of spells, I guess? Not really that hard to get those some other way, though. Same with fire resistance.

Dragonborn (any): OOf. Getting into the stinkers down here. Listen, d-borns just ain’t that impressive. Nothing wrong with them, like, follow your heart and all that crap, but it’s more of an opportunity cost type thing, you know? Like, there are so many better options.

Dwarf (any): What has 4 feet, resistance to the most pitiful damage type, and proficiency in some weapons that broadly just kinda… exist? Who knows! I’ve never played a dwarf and I don’t know why anybody would, aside from role-playing purposes.

If I forgot any, it’s because they suck.

CLASS:

Monk (open hand): When you wanna get addicted to Old Aunty Ethel’s special giant juice and go brawl the tavern outta somebody, this class is the way to do it! Hand to hand means you get bonus action damage from the get-go, and early fights can be much easier when you can out number the enemy’s attack quantity, to say nothing of how much carnage you can wreck at later levels when you get into that dank cloud giant booze. The main disadvantage is that you’ll want to dump your rizz because Monks just don’t have the spread to have Wisdom AC, Dex AC, Con HP *and* a winning smile, so you’ll need somebody else to be the party face.

Sorcerer/Warlock (any): These two charisma classes are about equal in my estimation for early game player avatar use. Warlock is a little weaker than Sorcerer, but the main attraction is “being good at talking to people”, as the player’s avatar will be the one stuck doing most of the talking through the campaign, and you would rather have pluses than minuses. Pair with easy access to disguise self from earlier, as well as classic good spells like shield and/ or eldritch blast, and you’ll be competent at worst in a fight.

Rogue (thief): Thief rogue is the strongest because of how flipping powerful it is to just HAVE two bonus actions, all day, everyday, especially once level 4 hits and you can get the next best feat after TB: Sharpshooter. With dual wielded hand-crossbows you gain three attacks a turn where each of them has +10 damage for the price of -25% to hit; an easy price to pay when each hit is triple the normal damage. (just remember to use “off hand shoot” up before using main hand to spread them out properly and not waste your actions shooting a corpse) Pair with ranger for heavy armour proficiency at level 5, gloomstalker ambush at level 7, and extra attack at level 9, and you’re basically fantasy Ned Kelly, and best of all, you’ll be gaining the benefit of using a shield and whatever passives you can get from a melee weapon (Blood of lathander, defender’s flail, club of hill giant strength, etc)

Cleric (war): Heavy armour proficiency, full spell casting, and three charges of extra attack per long rest at level ONE? Yes please. This one falls off a little as you get more levels under your belt, but war cleric’s ability to turn a bonus action into an extra attack is one of few ways to get even more attacks on top of the normal Extra Attack, so dipping a level or two into this slept on sub-type later on can really level the playing field. If the enemy dies, they have zero attacks to spend, and so the best defence is having TONS of attacks in the chamber (but high ac doesn’t hurt either!)

Fighter (whatever you prefer): Ah, fighter. Good at fighting. Gets an extra feat at level 6. Action surge for more attacks. It’s a solid class to have in your build. Doesn’t have particularly many bells or whistles, but sometimes a reliable “guy with sword” is all you really need.

Wizard (divination): Luck not on your side? Tell luck to piss off! Wizards are mid, but Portent is just a nice thing to have on the battlefield in general.

Druid (moon): Owlbear at level six is where this class really starts to shine, but being able to go beast mode can be quite handy even so. Less impressive than other options, however.

Bard (whatever you prefer): Bardic Inspiration is just nice to have around, but I’m not all that fond of what else bard brings to the table. Song of Rest is overrated in my humble opinion.

Barbarian (any): OOf. These guys just aren’t very good for the player team. They’re more about reducing damage taken than increasing damage dealt, but the best way to reduce damage taken IS to increase damage dealt, so they’re kind of treating a symptom and not the actual problem.

Paladin (any): 1000 gold, then 2000 gold, then 10000 gold, and so on. That’s the price you have to pay to get the ability to reclass in the event that you make a choice that voided your oath. The freedom to act without fear is too steep a price to pay for auras and smites. Avoid at ALL COSTS on honour mode. It’s not worth the risk when you can’t load a save.

So, you’ve made your character! Hooray. Remember what you picked, because odds are good you’ll need to re-enter that information if you have a party wipe later. If you don’t know the nautaloid off by heart at this point, you’re not ready for honour mode anyway, so let’s start at the beach.

Travel north, looting as you go. Recruit Shadowheart if she’s there. When you get to the intellect devourers, take a right turn jumping up the cliff to skip past them to where Gale is, and nab him too. Circle around the ID’s to Astarion and pick him up as well, then warp back to the Gale sigil and head north for Laezel. NOW, here’s a solid piece of advice: if you talk the tieflings away, wait for the tieflings to despawn before shooting Laezel down. If you just go right for it, they WILL turn hostile.

North to the grove (we’ll return to Wither’s crib a little later when we’re at or near level 4) and fight the goblins. Head in to the grove and pick up Wyll, and buy three bottles of hill giant strength from Ethel if you’re planning on going Tavern Brawler. I’d advise against further shopping at this early stage, you’ll be looting plenty anyway and you don’t want to buy something you aren’t going to really, truly need, as prices are crazy on honour mode even with a solid negotiator.

You can head down to see Nettie now if you want to, but I recommend teleporting to the grove environs sigil and heading west to the harper stash for the amulet of guidance and the oil barrel (send the barrel to camp, easier than carrying it around), then heading to the dying true soul. Ask what happened, lock eyes, send them after the owlbear momma, loot the parasite and the foods, and now’s where you need to either be a drow, or look like one.

This is important: walk into the blighted village via the main entrance by the bridge. Say “I see you”, and then “don’t let it happen again”, and head north to Barcus on the windmill. “Give me the prisoner”, followed by an easy dc 5 intimidation check as you wordlessly stare down this snivelling coward. Wait till his cohort leave, then free Barcus with “break” and not “reverse break” (you’ll need him later), and head further west to the next pack of goblins. These ones see that you’re drow and just wave you through, no checks, no dialogue, nothing! Exp for free. Head to the goblin camp and walk first to the sigil (just for easy access later) and then in to see “Minthara” (we’re actually here to see Gut but the guards don’t need to know that).

Waltz on in and get that brand, then DON’T take up Gut’s offer and instead walk to the area near her quarters. There’s a locked door, which you’ll ignore, because you can just jump into her room through the giant hole in the wall. Sneak all, lockpick the sanctum door at the back, and de-group the player character from the other three. Send your three other party members of choice to another location. (I use EGE) This one is a solo mission, for now. Enter the sanctum, and wait for the guard to turn around. Turn based mode to freeze time, dash for extra move, sneak past her into the corridor leading to the underdark.

Once you’re out of sight, drop the drow disguise (if it’s a disguise, that is) and if you have the ability to, disguise/revert to a short race to travel into the optional shortcut to steal the explosive barrels right under the Zentarim’s noses. (send them back to camp once they’re in your pockets) With that done, crawl back through the tunnel and perform the tile switching puzzle to unlock the door to the selunite outpost down under.

All of this exp can be acquired freely without any fighting.

Walk up to the gate of the selunite outpost, then DON’T OPEN IT. Just wait for the Minotaur to walk up and get blasted by the statues. Then, shoot the crystal powering them to shut them off, and walk to the side to nab the sigil location for later. Loot the area, send any flammable barrels to camp, then head to the side exit when the petrified statues can be seen, but DON’T leave the confines of the outpost. Instead, fire a single shot at any statue you can hit from your vantage point to trigger the spectator’s intro cutscene.

Wait for surprise to wear off, move well out of the spectator’s line of sight, then get ready to sneak jump down to the little rocky outcropping to make your way down to the wizard’s sanctum. If the spectator spots you, GUN IT to the wizard tower and run from the fight as soon as you can, then sneak and use the leave camp button to teleport back to where you were when you ran away.

You will encounter the Bullette along the way; sneak and stay out of sight (in either order, depending on whether or not it saw you) until it burrows back underground, and proceed to the wizard tower. Enter turn based mode and move from the entrance to the rock, to the side rocks that are like a staircase (but not the staircase itself), then to behind the statue from the turret’s POV, then to the side window that’s broken. Jump in and duck behind the pillar, then move to the pillar on the other side, then move through the door (close it behind you and exit turn based mode) to the chest of the mundane and take everything inside.

Equip the boots and move back to the door, turn on turn based one last time, navigate back the way you came except this time take the door on the opposite side, and pull the same trick to leave the turrets in the dust. Use the feather fall effect of the boots and jump down to the very bottom of the beach, grab a sussar flower, walk to the back door and lockpick it. (Guidance from the necklace can be used but you will need to move the sussar flower out of range to be able to cast spells, pick it back up once the door is open).

Flower in the tower’s power to make the turrets cower. Loot as you move up, free from harrassment. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE BOOKS. If it’s a book, if it even has words on it, read it, (and when I say read, I mean open it and then close it immediately) as this will allow you to pacify the tower steward boss AND get the unique ring by talking about darkness. (equip it and move back to the lift for easy basement access)

Break the stool of hill giant strength found at the top of the tower behind one of the animated armours, and grab the broken chair leg. Congrats, you have one of the best passive weapons in the game and the last thing you fought was the goblins at the grove door. Loot the tower up and down with impunity, and then fast travel back to the selunite outpost.

This time, head CAREFULLY towards the myconoid colony. This area can summon the Bullette, and the minotaurs can catch you if you’re not careful, but you can thread the needle and feather fall jump down into the area with the torchstalks (after you’ve shot them to blow them up, obviously) without getting the attention of either pack of beasties.

Tell the mushrooms you’re just looking for a good time and walk in to the colony. Hit the sigil and now you can teleport the rest of your party in, (yes, *this* is the end of the solo mission) talk to Blurg, tell him about the parasite, trust Omeluum, give him the ingredients you nicked from the tower, drink the potion, buy the ring, (or don’t, just asking to buy will let you trade with Omeluum permanently) give the sick deep gnome any old antidote and receive the second best boots in act 1, promise to kill the duegar, ignore the displaced leader, (for the time being) trade with mrs bonecloak the dwarf, and finally, teleport out and back up to the blighted village.

If all has gone according to plan, you should be near level 4. You can clean out the alchemist basement in the blighted village and head back to wither’s crib if you need to nab a little more exp. Once level four hits, chat with the good boy scratch to get him to join your camp, and recruit Karlach if you’re not a murderous monster. Long rest to resolve the conflict between Wyll and Karlach. (peacefully, I’d advise)

Not bad for a first day, am I right?

From here, the game is yours to do as you see fit. I don’t want to tell you to do *everything* I do, (it’s neither fun for you, nor expedient for me) but there’s something you’ll want to do, and that is recruiting three hirelings. (the cleric, the barbarian, and the paladin, I advise) Rename them 1, 2, and 3 for easy menu navigation later, and reclass them ALL into cleric (any) with maxed out constitution. (other stats don’t matter in the least) Withers don’t give a crap if you pickpocket him, so hiring and class switching is basically free as long as you steal back the money before it becomes un-stealably heavy.

These hirelings shall be the buff-bearers. The following are buffs that you want on everyone you’re using, which persist even after switching your clerics out of your party, in order of importance:
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT – Stun effects are the leading cause of failed runs due to their proclivity for taking actions away from the player for long enough to tip the scales. With FOM on everybody, stuns are a thing of the past.
WARDING BOND – The reason we gave them so much constitution; if the cleric dies the buff drops so the bigger they are the longer it will last.
AID, UPCASTED – +5 minimum, +25 maximum extra max hp for all your party members AND your camp clerics will benefit both your warding bond durability and your general survival.
DEATH WARD – What needs to be said? A free second chance is never a bad thing to have up your sleeve.
LONGSTRIDER – While not required to be cast *by* your clerics, (they don’t get this naturally so you’d have to multiclass, or heaven forbid waste a feat) this is still just a solid thing to have in your pocket, because it’s free to do, as Longstrider is a ritual.
HEROES’S FEAST – This one’s at the bottom not because it’s bad but because you’ll have it for all of 10 minutes right at the very end of a successful run, and at that point it’s basically already a victory lap.

Additionally, at level ten each camp cleric can call up their god to order pizza, nabbing you some extra potions. (cloud giant strength is one of the ones you can get this way)

Stay careful!

Use sneak attacks when you can to get surprise rounds. (you want to NOT KILL the target you attack for the surprise round to activate properly)

If you’re worried, then have one person stay at camp to avoid a full party wipe. (revivals from withers are free thanks to pick-pocketing)

Raise the dead bullette with mister mushroom and use it’s deadly leap to get the drop on Gehk Coal from way up high. (it’s a one hit kill and totally trivialises the fight)

Steal the runepowder barrel by using a potion of invisibility and the smokepower barrels in the zentarim base by getting in on good terms, picking your moment, and turn-based sneak stealing them all when nobody is looking.

Throw the duegar into the lava (can be done with 21 strength and throw) before you free Nere for an easy two part fight.

Make sure you finish up the grove quest before you visit rosymorn monastery (it autoresolves if you didn’t do it beforehand)

Use barrels to take out the Githyanki Inquisitor, Avatar of Mrkul, and anybody else who gives you grief. (I killed Cazador with 3 runepowder barrels and the final boss with a wall of smokepowder barrels)

If all is done well, you should win with relative ease. If you do die, don’t lose heart. I’ve died to Grym, Avatar of Mrkul, and bloody CAZADOR on honour mode. It taught me to be patient, careful, and merciless. Persistence is your greatest weapon against the forces of the absolute.

Good luck!