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

Obviously, spoilers ahead, but I know a lot of people try their best to get endings/cutscenes they want for their story, trying to make the best possible outcome for them, or something else specific. And in extreme cases, even 'save-scum' to try again, but honour mode can throw you some unexpected wrenches into those plans. So I'm curious, what thing have you caused due to dice rolls and the constant saving that have changed your game more than you intended?


So what's your story in honour mode that you would normally never accept or try to run with?

2 things that I probably would have save scummed in my current run if it wasn't for Honour mode:

Honour mode affected my run in that I realized how much I suck at combat, and that I need to go through and learn how to play on tactician first. So that cut my run about as short as being zapped to death by intellect devourers’ ranged attacks on the beach. I’m having a freakishly easy time on balanced mode now though, even though it used to be challenging, so I’ll try tactician next, and then hit honor mode with hopefully a bit more strategic prowess.

Seriously, that second point of yours is the thing I would be most scared of in HM. I am scared of that bit even when I can save scum, have 4 Inspiration and an ok charisma character. ^^;

Let's see.

1) I let Astarion bite Tav, figuring I need all the allies I need.
2) Almost got TPK'd by intellect devourers, so went all turtle conservative.
3) Paladin Tav is letting Astarion steal like crazy. Got potions and scrolls galore.
4) Threw everything into killing Ethel in her teahouse, wanted good ending without extra risk.
5) Over-caution got boring, so level 4 executed gnolls & Flind.
6) Stretching out day by making Wyll a support Bard and Karlach a support war-cleric.
7) Knocked out a yellow-outlined Minthara rather than enjoying gate assault 2.
8) Used all the sussar flowers to incapacitate animated armours so Bernard fight was easy.
9) Went mountain pass at level 5, almost TPK'd by death shepherds. Will prioritise crit-negating armours rather than preferred adamantine weapon.
10) Gone a bit evil because Shadowheart and Gale animate dead every morning, before daily buffs.
- 19b, everyone gets a daily elixir.
11) Bit shocked by Githyanki captain surprise, need to mitigate CC spellcasters early on with silence weapons.
12) Started breaking own rule by allowing anyone to cast any scroll. Normally I abide by TT restrictions.
13) Underdark skiff battle, used roaring thunder arrows with abandon to easily win, went back and looted bodies. More willing now to throw resources.

Guess I'm just overall being cautious for stretches, and then having lapses of 'stuff it, let's go!'

Personally I am very grateful for Honor Mode because it broke me away from always playing a compassionate Dark Urge Ranger trying to achieve a perfect good playthrough

So because the Ranger is bugged and there is only one save available, I instead ended up trying out a cold and uncaring Lolth-sworn War Cleric Dark Urge that makes all the wrong choices and I must say I am pleasantly surprised at how freaking fantastic Lolth's evil cleric lines are. It has been such an incredibly enjoyable roleplay and I honestly don't wish to play Rangers anymore. My next playthroughs are going to be an Elistraee War Cleric trying to achieve the perfect playthrough.

One thing however that made me extremely sad in Honour Mode and ruined my excitement to get to the end (because I am playing ACT 3 completely blind for the first time ever) is failing Dark Urge's personal quest. I wanted to dominate the entire world in a crimson dawn built on a pile of corpses, but... I failed to impress during the quest's pivotal moment so I can no longer achieve that plan.

So am considering now either deleting this playthrough or rushing it to the very end just for the golden dice. I really wanted to see Dark Urge's true evil ending

Main way it changed my story is that Jah Din's evil-er alter ego Nah Din now how has to do the endless groundhog's day again, but this time making all the opposite choices! lol

It all started back at the beach at lvl 2, when we decided to take a lvl in War Cleric of Tiamat after meeting Shadowheart. Now we're a Warcerer Sorcerer, because Sanctuary and Healing word with martial weapons and a shield with heavy armor were looking pretty coo. We'll be off the power curve by a level and down a feat, but then if there was a feat that had all that I'd probably take it I figured. Seems like an entertaining dip. Meta is Bad acid trip Dragonborn, instead of electric the polarity somehow got reversed, and instead of following Bae'zel to resist the Urge, Shadowbae stepped in, but the results have been so Toxic. Her hair remains black and it all goes super Durgey in Act II, even though we did many of the same things right in the first part. At somepoint cousin Bah Din will step in, doubtless to make an even crazier decision like becoming Swizard, or something ridiculous. But yeah War Cleric and Tempest Domains are both a lot of fun. Zombies turn into Life Clerics or Druids now, usually whoever died gets somehow recreated there as an amnesiac with a different name but a similar visual, if I can find one. Change class if I have the money, multiclass if I'm still broke, till I get something together. I invent the story to meet the meta, cause that's more fun, like trying to meet it where it's at. Good times!

I'm going more practical about stuff. Suddenly the deal with Raphael looks much more appealing (though I might do the House of Hope, don't get me wrong) and using all those stuff in my inventory seems like a really good idea.
My little charismatic gnome feylock/ sword bard has had some lucky roles, so she still has all the pets, Abdiraks blessing (which actually comes into play in honour mode) and managed to talk her way out of some stuff. The fights were ok so far too, despite me not being the most tactical person. I found out, that I can be tactical, if I have to.

Yup, same here. Well, I am not gonna take Raphael's deal, but err, using tadpoles (which I hate, and I really dislike the Emperor too) doesn't sound like THAT bad of an idea. So far have gotten by without absorbing any, but that soon may change. But um, so far the difficulty's not that bad. Had to make some decision making adjustments though, like - not letting Lae sit in the zaith'isk cause those super high checks to get her out before her brain gets too damaged, yeah, I nope'd out of that, plus if I change my mind on tadpoles, that awakened power might come in handy.

But so far my proudest moment is this:



Killed Ethel while she was running to her lair (so she wasn't attacking back), of course I wasn't planning on letting her live anyway, or intimidating her to give me her hair, either. But that also means losing out on some approval points with companions inside her house, but whatever. Never ever managed to pull this off. Got lucky!

Now I am hoping that knocked out Minthara will show up in Moonrise, so I can ditch Halsin for her. I, uh, had Sazza with me, so I may have started the dialogue with Minthy featuring Sazza, KO'd both of them in the actual fight, a couple of rests later I checked up on them, their KO'd butts are gone, so fingers crossed. I hear that apparently KO'd Minthara doesn't always show up in MT these days? We'll see. In worst case I will let Halsin hit on my MC yet again in act 3, only to reject him...

Anyway, once I had gotten the Luminous Armor, a lot of fights, especially the ones in the Creche have become somewhat trivial. Call me an item abuser, idc. Also, open hand SH kind of destroyed Bernard before he could do anything, and the rest of the robots kept on missing all the time. Dare I say, I went in a bit over prepared.

But the closest I was to a TPK - it was in Zhent's base. Was lvl 4, but I forgot that Zarys starts her dialogue the moment you climb that ladder, and I had persuaded Rugan that we should sell the cargo, cause I wanted to cleanse their base anyway. So, Zarys and her cronies open up with a bunch of fire arrows... I lost the initiative battle and let's say that MC and SH didn't survive that, so it was up to Astarion and Lae to finish the job (which they did). Poor Rugan died in the explosion (managed to free Oskar before the fight so small mercies).

Well in the Last 3 Times i Tried to Play in this New Mode..
Things were super Ok i was almost act 2 already.. then. i run into a Gameblocker.
then i again and Again..
so i Gave up.
Single Save its too frustrating when yu cant Roll Back to a previus Save to avoid this Kinda of Bugs..
And this Game its still not 100% free of Bugs.. so i Scrap the idea and will never Try again..
Becouse if i Get to act 3 and find a Gameblocker i wil never PLay this game again..
So its Better for me to Avoid this Mode untill they make this game Running Perfect.

BTW i enjoy a Hell lot more the Custom Game Mode..
Yu can Make the game Super ultra mega Hard without even Need the Single Save to avoid running into a Game blocker..
i Turn Evrything Off and even Make -1 in Skills to actually have a Hard time..
and my friend.. the game finally felt like SoulsBorne for me.

My first honour mode went smooth. Very smooth, a near perfect run, imo. I was playing a sorcerer which made a lot of the persuasion checks easier.

*

Just started my second playthrough in honour mode. Doing a two weapon fighting dark urge this time. Haven't gotten very far yet, but I've already failed to get the Everburn blade from the nautiloid. For the first time in a long time I didn't kill the commander or get the sword. Feels good.

I'm looking forward to a harder run because of my low charisma.

I'm also jumping off a cliff so that I can up the difficulty of camping supplies, rolls, etc... while maintaining the honour difficulty and one save ruleset.

*

Oh yeah, just to mention, I love the new gold d20. It makes me feel good every time I see it pop up on screen.

Currently not much. I do the playthrough as if I do not know what happens. I'm more fearful and choose the safe options, for example I did not insist to get the chest from the Zhent because it is obvious that a fight could erupt.

The safe mode nearly led to a wipe because I took the two siblings with me to the owlbear fight, where they first hindered my proper placement and then turned hostile to me during the fight (had to run away, cost me all my money). The otherwise normal gameplay nearly led to a wipe in the Gith fight, where I did the dialogue and after it 4 of the 4 Gith won the initiative (had to run away, cost me 600 gold).

The main effect till now is that I care more for minmaxing chars and forming them to my taste, in some confines. I changed Shadowheart to Thunder domain immediately and not only after her "change" in Act 2, I made Gale a Sorcerer (fits to his story at least a bit, I think, from what he tells about his relation to magic) and made Astarion a Barbarian/Thief. The latter is mostly because I want to see Astarions story (he was never in my party till now) and also want Gale and Shadowheart in the group, for whom my female main has certain interests, while at the same time not liking Rogue gameplay at all.

What makes me the most uncomfortable with Honour mode is the bad game design (in my opinion) of some very important situations or decisions, foremost the Isobel affair. I fear that I will not play further after a bad outcome.

??, double post

I'm about 25hours into Honour Mode and I just cleared goblin camp and reached the Underdark 8'D

So far, Honor mode has screwed me in the following ways:

• Went to fight the harpies. Had Tav and Astarion on the cliff. Karlach and Shadowheart by the water. Turn 1, Tav and Astarion get lured. Harpies fly over and downs Tav. Another harpie hits Shadowheart and downs her in 1 hit. I take Karlach, throw a healing potion on Shadowheart to resurrect her, cast sanctuary (because honor mode), proceeded to kill all the harpies with just Karlach.
• Went to goblin camp. Set up smokepowder barrels by Minthara and Dror Ragzlin. Went to the Worg Pen to free Halsin. Decided to clear the three goblins, thinking "Oh, I'll just clear them first." Cast silence around them, killed the first two... Failed to see the WAR DRUM in the corner. Third goblin runs to the drum, AGGROES THE ENTIRE GOBLIN CAMP. And yes, both MINTHARA and RAGZLIN came running xD

I'm still alive... SOMEHOW 8'D Lord knows I would have save scummed if it wasn't honor mode.

Well, I kind of forgot about a disguise mechanic thing and I cleaved a pregnant woman in two, breaking my Oath..

I had never brought Astarion to deal with his Act 3 Quest, as I don't like him and he always sits in camp after getting my potion. For once, I wanted to see how it played out and I didn't quite understand the mechanics of that, so Astarion didn't exactly live through that.

I once failed a check to lie about why I let the Goblins go against the orders of the Axct 2 villain, and the whole of the Act 2 Tower place turned on me. No prep, no harpers, not rested since I left the Underdark - nothing - I lasted for a good seven turns, and that, as they say, was that.

I *specifically* left Gale in camp and attacked his friend right before moving from one place to another. I was just wondering how that would play out. Turns out, the guy was a Simulacurum, so no biggie. Gale didn't even mention it, after. Sweet! Until you finish Act 2, he tells you 'his condition was worsening, and he needed to go an llook for a solution, and that he had so much fun with the gang, but now it was time to leave.' And he did, with all the best wizard gear in tow.

The Harpies won Initiative, and went straight for the kid, one-shotting him. On that same run. I failed to save Arabella. That was actually kind of fun in a gruesome way, but I haven't seen that play out since Eearly Access. But Mol didn't exactly like, me at that point.

For all characters you can do their quest thing without them present. Turns out, that's not the case with Shadowheart. At least, you can do it, but not without consequence.

I've had numerous calls to make and decide between Shart and Lae'Zel. I tend to not play charismatic characters, so that sort of thing kills me.

I commanded Voss to drop his Relic of Holies in Act 1 with 9% chance of succes. And it worked. LOL Lae'Zel actually has a line something like; 'It's the car I always wanted and now I have it! I RULE!' - That is SUCH an OP thing to have at level 4.

On a similar note, there's this instance when you're faced with the big bad where you [don't really] have to roll ridiculous things, like a 99? Well I rolled a nat 20 there. That was fun.

For the final, final battle - I popped down a Globe of Invulnerability and had my Tempest Cleric gulp my last long-rest-potion as he was all out of spells. But, I had allies around. They have a script that, when an ally is sleeping, they push him. And so one of the harpers pushed him out of the globe, interrupting the potion and the Big Bad nuked him to death. That didn't affect the story much, as the big bad turned out to be immune to Lightning and Thunder, rendering him useless anyway.

For (1), there is a possible "second chance"/"alternative"

I'm on my second honour mode run right now.

I failed to pull Gale out of the portal. Two botched rolls in a row. Leaves me without a wizard.

Killed all the Moonrise prison guards but bungled rescuing the deep gnomes; broke the tiefling wall but opened the gnome prison door. Guess the gnomes ran off into the shadowcurse?

Paladin Tav freed Yurgir, falling from grace, infuriating Astarion and skipping a tough but fun fight with good loot.

Tried to steal back gold from Dark paladin, but fell from grace again plus got 'enemy of justice' mark.

Romancing Minthara in a 'good-guy' run. Planning to disappoint her by not grabbing power; cure is the ultimate goal.

I'm in my first Honour Mode playthrough, 50 hours in, now in Act 2. The battles I thought would be challenging, like Ethyl or Grym, took me less than 5 minutes. Instead, it's EVERYTHING ELSE that's trying to kill me 8'D

SO MANY THINGS have gone wrong:

• Tried to bandage owlbear's paw, Failed medicine check. No owlbear for me.
• Went to the Kua-Toa thinking this would be easy XP for Makloompah... Shadowheart triggered the cutscene, failed Persuasion check (with her flimsy 8 Charisma). Had to kill them all.
• Went to arcane tower, clicked the wrong poem, aggroed and killed Bernard + friends.
• During Nere battle, Legendary Action: Psionic Visage backlash killed Gale. He was "downed" but could not be helped. Throwing potions/healing him did not work. Used a revival scroll and had necrotic aura Gale during battle.
• Went to get Mythril ore. Had Magma Mephits cast "Heat Metal" on Astarion. Made him drop both his weapons, including Sussur Dagger... Turns out there is a bug, where if you throw or drop a sussur dagger, you can no longer pick it up.
• Tried to get Shadowheart her Shar idol at grymforge. Went to camp to grab Karlach so she could bludgeon the iron gate. When she spawned in, she somehow triggered the traps--even though she was one level below and I already had Astarion disarm them. When she crawled up the ladder, she was knocked prone by the gargoyle flamethrower, got her head stuck in the ladder, and FIRE killed her.
• Went to Creche Y'llech. Aggroed the entire right side of the creche.

I'm exhausted.

I failed to intimidate Crusher, so I had to fight him and the three other goblins. Right when Crusher surrendered, I clicked accept on "sneak attack" damage. Because I did that extra damage to Crusher after he surrendered, the entire goblin camp went aggro.

Wasn't prepared at all for that fight, but I pulled it out and it was super fun.