Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion How has Honour mode affected your story?

- Mostly the same as normal run.
- Tried to recruit Minthara. Knock her out the wrong way and she didn't show up in Act 2 (I failed this in balance run with an arrow. Sigh!)
- Found lot of high ground in Underdark and Grymforge. Nice!!!
- Enter Mountain Pass too early, missed Voss first encounter. Can't steal his sword.
- Walked into Creche Y'llech Inquisitor's Chamber not knowing the fight. Only Lae'zel got away. Almost ending the run.

- Enter Yurgir area from the top, end up fighting for 20min with 9hp.
(I think Act 2 was the smoothest.)

- Paid for Anointed in Splendour for everyone.
- Walked into Orin fight not knowing that bs 12-unstoppable PER round. Wiped 2 times.
- Chose the wrong dialog option at Old Garlow's Place (Mayrina quest) for joke. End up permanent hostile. Ran away. Skipped all side quest onward. Getting too tire and too much stress.
- Skipped Lae'zel quest line because I didn't want to fight Raphael. It was a "Hope"less run. Had to fight Voss at the end. Sorry Lae'zel.
- Sent Karlech back to camp before helping Astarion accend. End up fighting Gru 2 vs 6.
- In Iron Throne, Tav and half the Gondians die. 4 turns just not enough.
- Failed to persuade Wulbren outside Steel Watcher Foundry. Had to killed him.
- Tried to persuade Gale to use orb. Failed.
- Dragon platform fight was so screwed up everyone died at least 2 times.

I was NOT prepared for the Inquisitor fight at the Creche.

I was using a Necromancer build, so I came into that fight with 4 skeletons to 'make it easier'.

This could not have backfired harder. We take down all of his friends with ease, but he does the mind link, INCLUDING on the skeletons, giving him a massive boost to his AC. And he's summoning swords for every attack that hits him.

People go down or die multiple times in the fight, and I have to resort to pure magic missile or AoE spells to get the job done. That was almost my run ender.

Inquisitor and Orin fights are the two can easily be the ending for honor mode if walked in blind.

Act 1

Everything starts off smoothly, save for some early boss fights. I'd never actually fought the owl bear before. I always left it alone and picked up the cub at the goblin camp. So to suddenly fight not one, but two at around level 3? Yiiiiikes. I had the two humans that were absolute followers to help me so they tanked a good few hits, but it was a close early fight.

I proceed to slowly decimate the local goblin and gnoll populations, trying to soak up every bit of XP I can. I'm going for a good character run, so I help out Karlach, prove to the grove Kargha is bad, save the tiefling kids, etc. I get to the goblin camp without much trouble and make my way inside. Now, my Tav (Burrall) is a wizard, which means his CHA stat is practically a dump stat. I try to use Illithid persuasion to get in, because that will be easiest.

Nat. Fucking. 1.

So now, before my subclass even kicks off, I've gotta do this the hard way of fighting almost everything at once. We manage by being tactical with higher ground, and leading the gobbos into aoe kill zones, or wherever they were more manageable. We get Halsin, free Volo, and slaughter every last gobbo and drow we see (sorry Minthara I did try to knock you out but I didn't do it right because I aggrod THE ENTIRE BUILDING).

The party goes great, everyone has a good time, and we make our way to clear the rest of Act 1 before moving on. Phase Spider? Not too bad and I get a really cool book for a Necromancer. Neat. Auntie Ethel was... well it was bad, because I'm a spellcaster who can't cast spells when I fight her, otherwise she summons clones. Again. Turns into a very boring but relatively safe fight with physical damage only. We make our way to the underdark, which honestly was uneventful until Grymforge of course.

I convinced some of the Duergar to take out Nere with me, making the fight a lot easier. Yes it was slow because of his new ability, but honestly a pretty safe fight. But GRYM? That's a whooooole other beast. See, if you're not in the know, Grym now has an ability when he gets attacked to get temporary hit points, and DOUBLE movement speed. So getting him to the hammer, is nearly impossible unless you have bait sitting on the hammer for him to go to. I did not plan for this ahead of time, as I liked going into the honour mode fights raw, for the most part. Karlach does allll the heavy lifting by beating him with a hammer, and the rest of the party + skeletons are just rage bait for him to attack because they hit him last. By some miracle I manage to get him onto the hammer, which I use to finish him off, then deal with the mephits after. Another close call, but we get some nice armour upgrades for our efforts.

Then came the mountain pass. You see, I got the fight between Lae'zel and Shadowheart some time ago. My CHA is shit. I have no inspiration. 8 on a 10 DC. And just like that, I lost the party's Gith. And since it's Honour mode, I decided to run with what that meant in character. Every gith, even the one I've hung out, have been cold blooded killers, who will likely execute me on sight. So what to do in that situation but fully enforce my all encompassing life philosophies on the neighboring populace? (Genocide. I'm talking about genocide.)

We cruise on in like we own the place and slowly clear out the creche via taking everyone out in their own enclosed areas without alerting the others. Then I walk into the inquisitors, fully rested, thinking 'this will be a breeze'. The inquistor was easily the closest to a run ender I'd had. Multiple people died multiple times, arming myself with skeletons helped HIM with his mind link effect. He was finished via AoE spells, the odd lucky skeleton shot, and magic missile.

Before heading to Act 2, I realize that coming across usable bodies, might be a problem, since not everything drops a usable corpse. So to stack up, I collect every usable corpse I can find in the creche and at the goblin camp, then throw them into my travelers chest and use it like an interdimensional meat locker. Keeps the bodies nice and fresh.

Act 2

I think Act 2 was actually he least impacted by any serious story decisions. Buuuut I did plan ahead a bit. The Thorm family was dealt with mostly through talking, save for the toll booth which was a fight. Isobel was kept safe and I didn't give into the urge. Thaniel was saved and reunited. We saved all the prisoners just fine. With one teeny tiny caveat. When we were at moonrise and got our orders from Zrell, I followed her to the room before Balthazars 'lab'. Where she was almost completely alone. Zrell has been a real problem for me in the past during the assault on the towers so I decided to remove her early. I think that's a bit of a pattern for me in this run. I tend to kill off as many people as I can assassination style before things really kick off, since I know who will be a problem where.

But Balthazar is where things got dicey again. See, I've never actually done his fight at the Nightsong. I always kill him when I meet him, and this was no exception. But his cloudkill spell really did a number on us and I couldn't keep up with his damage in that small room. People died, got ressed, and he eventually went down because of Astarion being an assassination rogue at the start.

Yurgir was easy since I was able to go into the room with Astarion, who I have persuasion expertise on, and got Yurgir to self-delete thankfully. The rest of the gauntlet was pretty typical. We saved Nightsong and started out assault.

Killing Zrell proved to be a major boon because of her lack of spells. With the fist and the harpers we made short work of it all. Even the fight with Ketheric went smoothly, and I did read his diary and messages in his room, so got some good dialogue/usage out of it later. We descend into the mind flayer colony and I am... nervous. See, I had previously done a tactician run and the colony was fine. But rejuvenation pods can be... funky. So I figured the one in here would be single use. I decide to clear everything that I can before I absolutely need to use it, which I did just before freeing Zevlor. Fine enough fight, only 1 spell slot used and 2 short rests to heal with.

Ketheric fight time. Little nerv-annnnnd I make the roll to get him to skip to phase 2. Neat! Avatar kills most of his minions, I free Aylin and it's a pretty simple fight. I use flying ghouls to keep the necromites that spawn on the ledge down and avoid excess healing, and it goes rather well with honestly, things REALLY looking up for act 3.

Act 3

Things are going well, too well, so I fear I'm going to get over confident or this is where the game completely dicks me over. Sooooo I want insurance. The kind of insurance you can only find by stealing every rare book in the collection of Sorcerous Sundries. MEGA magic missile, I can now summon a deva, and with the Necromancy of Thay I can now summon 5 explosive ghouls. I also have SH constantly summon her deva/djinn/cambion at the start, and my own elemental with all of my arcane recovery + necklace that gives a free spell slot, to be a true summoner build. Action economy really is the only thing that matters, if you don't care about how long it will take for you to load up the actual Baldurs Gate area. The game has... difficulties with loading up the posse.

I'm doing every sidequest possible to level up before the final set of bosses, stalking up on summon elemental scrolls and other power house magics for emergencies. I decide to do 2 specific things last. Ansur, the House of Hope and Orin/Bhaal plot. We managed the Iron Throne really well with only 1 NPC death due to shitty pathing that left me trapped and unable to free him a turn earlier.

I started with Ansur. I stocked up on Dome of Invulnerability and set off. Took control of the myrmidons in the fight, had my minions pre-set up before it started, and we start a looooong drawn out fight of throwing everything at him all the time. Dome saves us from the first massive blast and then... I mess up.

See, I noticed that cold damage should work fine, so I thought 'Why not?' and did a ray of frost. Freezing nearly half the battlefield, as Ansur went up for his final breath attack at 1 hp. Try to get SH to me for the dome. She slips. That's fine, I can just misty step to her an- I slip. Fuck. Okay Karlach, Astarion one of you can use the Dome of-they don't have the spell scrolls. I didn't distribute them amongst the party. Karlach is bear totem so she's probably fine... right? Astarion you're on full HP AND have a potion of invulnerability/resistance to everything. Chug it and hope for the best.

The blast goes out, Burral and Shadowheart die instantly. Karlach? Almost dead. Astarion? Actually pretty fine, he was full before hand and isn't even at half yet. With one last shoooot, dead. Ansur down and panic attack avoided.

We can talk about the House of Hope next because... well in STARK contrast to Ansur, I over-prepared. I came rocking a summon elemental scroll for every person in the party, Us, 2 Devas. and intellect devourer bodies (they count as corpses usable with raise dead and what not). I brought out EVERYONE for that fight. I really wanted Yurgir, I really really did. Four sets of inspiration and needed a Nat 20. Five tries later and no cigar. So we do mambo. Burrall and Shadowheart are dominating the cambions for even more forces on our side, Hope is immediately kicking people out with her spell, and we decimate Yurgir in a solid turn and a half. All of my forces are still standing (save the exploding ghouls) and it's just Raphael. We knock down the soul pillars and put him down as he deserves.

And yet... the Bhaal plot was still a different story. First, the tribunal. We got in fine, no problems, but... I chose the wrong dialogue option because I didn't think it would be that bad. Sarevok attacks with his 3 ghosts.... AND 3 OATHBEAKER PALADIN GUARDS.

Fuck.

I quickly take out the healy ghost because it can undo FAAAAAR more than the occasional 20+hp a round. The others are casting slow which we gotta stop, and some minions are blocking the paladins from joining the frey. Then try to use Astarion to get a sneak attack on Sarevok, and hits... which Sarevok proceeds to then teleport into Astarions face, nearly one shotting him.

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.

Very little in that fight went our way, but we have to all focus nuke Sarevok, and we down him 1 turn after the paladins reach us, ending my undeserved heart attack. We proceed to the Bhaal temple (the Farslayer fight isn't bad when you have multiple teleports and flying minions). I'm a durge so this means my totally fair and unbiased duel, where I bring in an army of summons on my character.

And this... is where my run gets unequivocally fucked.

I get one turn of attacks of myself, thanks to a vigilance potion, and Orin jumps me and fears me... for three turns. Most of my minions too. So it's up to a few ghouls, a deva and a fire myrmidon to bring her down. And by golly gosh they almost di it. Except... I miskicked. The fire myrmidon, or ANY myrmidons hitbox is weirdly large. So I smite it instead of her at 35 health. Maybe the attack would have done enough. Maybe it wouldn't have. But Orin proceeds to rip me to shreds and wins the duel, before the rest of the Bhaal army steps in to kill the party. Res myself, magic missile Orin down and we clear the place out. And Bhaal is not happy.

I can no longer free myself of the bhaalspawn curse and one day I will go absolutely mad.

THIS is where my story changes permanently. Because in character, I am absolutely fucked. After this, I'm gonna go mad and slaughter everyone I care about. Unless... maybe? Better than nothing.

The plan was simple. Bhaal can't control me if I'm no longer really me. So my good aligned necromancer, who hasn't touched a single extra tadpole, is now chugging them. We get to the final final bit and willingly becomes an Illithid while NOT EVEN FREEING ORPHEUS. WHY WOULD HE FREE ORPHEUS? HE HAS NO REASON TO THINK THE GITH WOULD EVER BE UNMURDEROUS. So while I have played this character with the same intention as almost all the rest of my characters save for class/race, instead of freeing orpheus, not touching a tadpole, and MAYBE sacrificing himself at the end with the Illithid bullet so the Gith can prosper via revolution, I have a character following the emperor and saying hell yeah to becoming Illithid.

We churn through the fights to the brain like butter, full summoner army in effect. Sure enough I was right, and there are NO rejuvenation pods here, so good thing I saved those long rest potions for until now.

We get to the top, and start the final fight with a lot of haste and summoning every recruit we can. But... there's a problem. A bug maybe? The turn count down for the Illithid ship to start firing is... missing.

Oh well, I know it's 4 turns.

We get into the actual brainscape to fight and... the final countdown, the last race against he clock with ALLLLL of the marbles. Is. Missing.


FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

I have no idea how much time I have, if there even IS time. All I can do is go full balls to the wall ASAP. But the brain has a quirky little legendary ability. Where it gets immunity to all damage types it received last round.

3 turns of juggling this and we make it. Big hooray I WIN HONOUR MODE. If... only it were that simple. Burrall, the character who made it this far was now a willing Illithid, something I desperately didn't want but there seemed like no way out. Except there really was no way out. Bhaal started to take control, even with the Illithid form. Burrall would still be a monster, and his soul might already have been lost because of the transformation. So I did the only thing I could do.

Die with my Honour intact.

As a Lolthsworn Dark Urge who later became Chosen, she schemed and manipulated all of the companions through false friendships and romances while using carnal pleasures as a tool to lead them down the wrong paths, turning them into religious zealots so they can conquer their own cloisters before ultimately surrendering them all over to her. Not even the Guardian sensed the betrayal that was in motion as they were being seduced and pleasured in the Astral.

She wasn't like this from the start though, she started just like any other with hopes and dreams of survival and a life... but this dog-eat-dog world quickly showed her its true colors after losing Alfira who she really wanted to travel with, realizing that the blood inside of her would never allow her to have a normal life. The traumatic pain slowly started to erase all traces of empathy over time until none was left as she knew she was a slave to her very own blood, so better to become an enslaved Queen than a rotting carcass.

In the end the small group of vagabonds which just wished to be free of the tadpoles ended up manipulated to realizing their full potential before getting dominated, becoming the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse that rode existence towards its very annihilation;

• Shadowheart the Chosen of Shar
• Lae'zel the Chosen of Vlaakith
• Minthara the Chosen of Dark Urge

All dominated to bathe the world in blood for their master... the Dark Urge. A cleric of Lolth, a Chosen of Bhooooal, THE Chosen of [Some sinister power prevents this corpse from speaking further]!

Overall the whole scheming and manipulation roleplay was fantastic as hell and I never would have tried this were it not for Honour Mode, but I will admit betraying my Guardian at the very end really disturbed me, made me sad as hell. Seeing how much they trusted me and then having nothing but pure shock and terror in their very eyes eyes as a knife slips between the ribs, realizing that the only person who they felt really connected to and to which they opened their heart, was a knife that only ever planned to pierce it. It was quite vile...

I accidentally did something that ticked off the tieflings in the grove. I don't even know what. But they ran up and started trying to hit me. The druids ignored me (and them)! I had just saved Arabella. They didn't do much damage, but I finally turned on non-lethal attacks and started knocking them unconscious. Figured it was better than killing them. Well Shadowheart summoned a weapon and apparently that sword's attacks stay lethal. And the one person it attacked was one of Arabella's parents. So ... she gone.

I bravely tried to kill off the dying hyenas, but the higher health led to me trying to fight off the gnolls, which quickly changed to a Monty Python sketch of all of us yelling run away! Tav got their first and fled. Withers just shook his head in pity at the request to revive all my companions.

But we went back! A little bit older. A little bit wiser. A bit more confused about life and death. Found our way to the back entrance, saw the Zhent's and figured "Yeah, revenge with the help of NPCs!" Long story short, Tav jumped the bridge in the back and hid and Shadowheart used invisibility, so we could head back and revive our friends. Withers was just downright embarrassed at us. Third time was the charm.

I tried to free the Gnomes, but somehow they died during releasing Nere. Why? Not sure. After he walked in, I got only one dialogue option "1. Continue" and they were all dead. Don't know if they got caught by the smokepowder or what. But my character took it in stride and vowed to keep his word to rescue his friend in Moonrise. You know, as long as it let me pick dialogue options.

Grym was a brand new type of experience. I don't read up the legendary skills, but it took me 5 different times fleeing combat that initially involved some brave (mostly involuntary) sacrifices of companions at one end of the platform while anyone else who could limp away did. Eventually it evolved into a strategy involving invisibility, so no one else had to be sacrificed, which made a few people who died earlier very disgruntled that Tav didn't think of this earlier. Tav also didn't know that Grym was quite so difficult.

I went into the mountain pass only to be flagged as an enemy of justice and immediately attacked by the vendor nearby, so needless to say I won't be selling the Society of Brilliance an owlbear egg. When I got into the Creche, they also flagged me as an enemy of justice. Not sure which person I harmed that angered both of those groups, but ... so be it I guess. I tried to get around it by leaving Tav in camp (since he had the debuff - figured he was the one at the scene of whatever crime). Turns out that's not enough so the entire entryway of the Creche got covered in blood. And ... everyone else inside was super fine with us. Little weird selling the Gith vendor Gith gear, but ... you know, they're kind of weird folks. Ended up having done so much before this point that the Inquisitor wasn't much of a challenge thankfully.

My entire party has a fear of heights from the elevator in Shar's temple. Glitched and sent folks plummeting to their deaths. Tav survived the initial escapade by getting to the landing. Tav revived everyone but when we returned, Tav was still alone on the landing, with everyone upstairs waiting to ride the elevator to hell. Died again, except for Shadowheart who somehow survived a fall and landed at the bottom of the map which still traumatizes her. There was nothing. She was so very alone. And still not close enough to get to teleport with Tav after heading back (though somehow Minthara was). So ... this time, everyone tried to die as close to Tav as possible. Which they did. Yay team!

Oh and I found out that approaching Yurgir from above makes him permanently hostile - so I didn't even get to talk to him and I'm guessing he won't be helping me with Raphael. Tav didn't know that was an option but Tav would've loved to tell Yurgir to kill himself. Especially AFTER the fight which consisted of multiple "run away" moments as bombs flew everywhere.

Rescued all the captives, though the Gnomes were very confused at Last Light and kept repeating themselves.

I talked all 3 Thorms into killing themselves (go me!) and talked Ketheric into skipping me into P2. All wins because Tav loves telling people to kill themselves. Unfortunately it led to a good ~30 minute fight because my comp was just not designed for that fight. Saved Aylin off the bat, murked the necromites, everything seemed great. It spiraled quickly out of control. Aylin got knocked unconscious by the avatar. I was just summoning things to take hits from the avatar, Karlach had been slaughtered up on that platform and was too afraid so she was handling some of the non-stop-necro spawn. Tav had another section. Jaheira was doing some spell damage until she ran out of spell slots. Shadowheart was basically focused on the summoning stuff. It wasn't good but we won.