Summary
- Honour Mode in Baldur's Gate 3 eliminates save scumming and forces players to face the consequences of their actions.
- Bosses in Honour Mode have access to powerful Legendary Actions, making them even more challenging to defeat.
- Honour Mode introduces permadeath, so if the entire party falls in a fight, the game is over and players have to start from the beginning.
The most recent patch for default difficulty setting in BG3, Tactician Mode, but is far from a simple expansion thereof. In fact, it's so much harder, it includes a lengthy pop-up window warning about all the ways it can screw players over. It's less than ideal for a first playthrough, but could be interesting for a repeat or challenge run.
Now, most games that include extra-hard difficulty modes follow pretty much the same strategies. Give enemies more HP, make them harder to hit, and add more of them, all while making the player character wimpier. Occasionally, enemies get new moves, and loot may be shuffled around to avoid players finding overpowered items too early. But BG3 is a little different. Honour Mode is a whole new way to experience the game, and here’s why.
You Can Now Become A Level 30 God In Baldur's Gate 3
Baldur's Gate 3 has some basic limits in place that make all of the game's systems work in harmony, but limits are sometimes meant to be broken.
10 BG3's Honour Mode Prevents Save Scumming
There's Only One Save File, And Once It's Gone...
Life and death are determined by a roll of the dice in Baldur's Gate 3, but thankfully, in most game modes, save scumming can ensure an always-favorable outcome. But Baldur's Gate 3 completely cuts out save scumming in Honour Mode. There's only one save file available, and it's deleted as soon as it's loaded. It's an interesting conceit: things often don't go as planned, especially on the higher difficulty settings. In other game modes, it's always possible to reload a previous save and try, try again. But in Honour Mode, players are forced to play the hands they're dealt, for better or worse. Usually worse.
9 BG3's Bosses Have Legendary Actions In Honour Mode
Bosses Are Harder Than Ever Before
Another sweeping change in Honour Mode is that all the hardest bosses in Baldur's Gate 3 have access to an additional arsenal of Legendary Actions. These may sound like super-powerful moves, and they are, but there's one further wrinkle in how Legendary Actions work. Bosses can use Legendary Actions even on the player's turn, as soon as their unique triggers are activated. What each Legendary Action does is, of course, unique to the boss who can use it. They may deal damage, inflict nasty status effects, or summon allies - there'll be more on the specifics later.
8 In Honour Mode, Party Wipes Mean A Permanent End
BG3's Hardest Difficulty Adds Permadeath
But what happens if a player loads their single Honour Mode save file, walks into a fight, and immediately gets the entire party killed? Simply put, a party wipe in Honour Mode means game over, forever. While individual companions can be resurrected as long as someone survives, if the whole party falls, the run is over. Players will get a short status screen describing how far they made it, before returning to the title screen. That's one reason why Honour Mode isn't ideal for a first playthrough: imagine dying at the end of Act Two, and being forced to start the game over to see the ending.
7 Bosses Have Better Gear And More HP In Honour Mode
BG3's Hardest Difficulty Powers Up Its Enemies
Sometimes, the simplest changes can have the greatest impact. In Honour Mode, BG3 bosses have better gear (in essence, a higher Armor Class), and more HP than their Balanced Mode counterparts. This means that they're harder to hit, and they take more hits to go down. However, this is a positive as well as a negative. After defeating an Honour Mode boss, the party can help themselves to their gear, which will be much more powerful than in lesser difficulty settings. With the additional AC bonus, Honour Mode has some of the best armor in Baldur's Gate 3.
6 All Enemy Rolls Get An Extra Bonus In BG3's Honour Mode
...And All Player Character Rolls Are Generally Harder
In another simple change that can have wide-ranging effects, all enemy rolls in and out of combat get a handy little bonus in BG3's Honour Mode. It's only an extra two points, but they can add up, turning just about every near-miss into a guaranteed hit. In addition, the Difficulty Classes of most rolls outside combat are raised. That means having to hit a higher numerical threshold to succeed at dialogue options and Perception checks, which can lead to more unwanted fights, and in turn, permanent party wipes.
5 Everything Is More Expensive In BG3's Honour Mode
Except For What The Party Sells
Forget cheesing that tough boss with the best equipment money can buy: all purchased items have higher prices, and all sold items have lower prices in Honour Mode. This also makes it harder to afford sundries, which players may need more of, since Long Rests require 80 Camp Supplies instead of 40 in Honour Mode. Health potions are better off crafted, and Thieves' Tools are better off found, as all of the above will be more expensive even at the best Baldur's Gate 3 merchants. Finding and selling gems can still net the party a pretty penny, but they'll earn less bang for each buck.
4 BG3's Honour Mode Includes Action Economy Tweaks
Multiattacks Are Harder Near Endgame
In Baldur's Gate 3, everything characters can do in combat is governed by the action economy. Each character gets an action, a bonus action, a reaction, and a measure of movement speed per each of their turns. However, in the late game, the action economy becomes less of a concern: certain classes are able to strike multiple times per turn, and others gain so much movement speed they're practically teleporting around the battlefield. In the late game, BG3's Honour Mode nerfs the action economy, making its rules stricter to prevent Tav and their companions from constantly attacking.
3 BG3's Honour Mode Makes The Party Fight Two Owlbears Instead Of One
No, They're Not Seeing Double
If the party fails a dialogue encounter in the Owlbear Cave (which they're more likely to do in Honour Mode), they'll be thrust into a fight against an injured Owlbear. This is one of the toughest battles in Act One, especially if players are unprepared, but it only gets worse in Honour Mode: once the Owlbear's HP is low enough, she'll use a Legendary Action, Call Consort, to call in a second, full-HP Owlbear. This can be disastrous if the party is near the end of their rope with the first Owlbear. It can easily result in an early-game party wipe, putting an abrupt end to an Honour Mode run.
2 Gortash Has An Overpowered Legendary Action In Honour Mode
One Of BG3's Worst Villains Can Deal Hundreds Of Damage And Buff His Whole Team In One Move
Gortash also has a nasty little Legendary Move, and this one's a doozy. It's called Tyrannical Branding, and puts a marker on its target. The resulting status effect, Tyrannical Curse, doesn't appear to do anything at first. However, after two turns, the enormous, spectral Bane's Fist comes crashing down on the target and their nearby allies. It does up to 200 damage to the player and their party in a single blow, but if any of Gortash's allies are in the area of effect, they'll be buffed instead. Bane's Fist gives Gortash's buddies each an additional action and advantage on attacks for their next turns.
1 Orin Has An Instakill Legendary Action In Honour Mode
Orin Can End A BG3 Run In One Move
Orin's Legendary Action is absolutely devastating, and can easily put an end to an Honour Mode run if players aren't careful. Orin puts a status effect on one of the player's party , which doesn't do anything at first, but will instantly, irreversibly kill them in two turns. They won't just be downed, but fully dead, requiring a Scroll of Revivify or a visit to Withers to be resurrected. If they're the last character alive or the sole healer, that could mean a total party wipe and a permanent game over. Their only saving grace is to kill another character before their next turn arrives, but that's not always achievable.
Naturally, an Honour Mode playthrough doesn't go unrewarded. Those who complete the game in Honour Mode will receive a Golden d20, a shiny, new die skin to use in all their future playthroughs of BG3. While it may not be the ideal way to experience the game for the first time, even for thrill-seeking masochists, it can help keep Baldur's Gate 3 interesting as players challenge themselves to make it as far as possible in repeat Honour Mode runs.
