A Baldur's Gate 3 player managed to fail an Honour Mode run in the most cringe-inducing way possible.
17.12.2023 - 09:31 / screenrant.com / Honour Mode
Spells in offer potent buffs vital for survival in the new Honour Mode. This latest difficulty adds numerous challenges for players, including one save file and permadeath if all characters die. Luckily, there are multiple ways to make Honour Mode slightly easier with supportive spells. These can help mitigate the increased damage bosses deal with their new legendary actions.
Most classes in gain access to additional spells as they level. Players can experiment and try different combinations as the story progresses. However, these powerful effects are limited by spell slots. For example, a level three Cleric can only cast two second-level spells and four first-level spells. All spell slots are recovered after a Long Rest, while a few classes recover some on a Short Rest. Certain spells, such as Mage Armour, last an entire in-game day, leading players to designate a specific character to primarily buff allies.
Players must take every opportunity to gain an advantage in Honour Mode. This difficulty is brutal and can kill party members easily. The best way to fight back is by having spell slots available when in combat. Withers in is the answer to succeeding in these encounters. This undead NPC has three main uses for players.
Withers can revive allies, respec characters, and recruit hirelings. This last function allows for additional allies to be added to the camp at the cost of 100 gold. You do not need to bring hirelings into combat, yet they can still be instrumental. Hirelings can cast spells on the party, thus using their own spell slots and saving yours for later. This is also great for making a hireling a different class than what is currently in your party.
To survive Honour Mode, players will want to cast spells thatlast until a Long Rest on their party members. However, certain effects will override current buffs, such as gaining additional temporary hit points. Many spells last for this duration, but some are extremely potent in 's Honour Mode. One of the best ways to ensure that characters can continue a fight is by casting Death Ward. This spell prevents the targets from being reduced to zero hit points once, instead leaving them at one health.
Death Ward gives players a safety net in case they are ambushed or something unexpected happens. Another great spell to cast is Warding Bond. Characters gain a +1 bonus to their armor class, saving throws, and resistance to all damage. However, the caster takes the same amount of damage from each hit. Every spell that lasts until a Long Rest that can be cast on allies is listed below:
There are also race-specific spells and unique buffs in Baldur's Gate 3 that last until a Long Rest.
Spell
Effect
Armour of Agathys
Expeditious Retreat
Dash can be
A Baldur's Gate 3 player managed to fail an Honour Mode run in the most cringe-inducing way possible.
takes place in a troubled world, and there's no shortage of dark implications and grim fates that the game can conjure up. The triggers for some are particularly obvious, as making a choice that sacrifices innocent lives or urging a companion to turn their back on redemption are unlikely to proceed without consequences. In other cases, though, minor instances of neglect or basic decisions about what company to keep can end up having unforeseen ramifications that may not even be discovered without a bit of investigation.
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A Baldur's Gate 3 player somehow summoned 15 total characters to give Raphael the kicking he deserved.
The new Honour Mode in Baldur's Gate 3 is tough as nails. Only 0.1 percent of players have beaten it so far, as the rest flail about and die in the worst of ways. But Renilas' run-ending fight might just take the cake... or the ball.
Although Honour Mode in offers a unique challenge, the heightened difficulty also comes along with a single save slot, which can put much more focus on one of the game's biggest shortcomings. Added in the game's fifth major patch, Honour Mode is a difficulty setting that goes beyond even the previous hardest mode, Tactician, buffing enemy stats, changing their tactics, and giving bosses unique Legendary Actions to make them even more challenging. Along with the added in-game difficulty, though, Honour Mode also comes with the caveat of only allowing a single save, effectively eliminating save-scumming from the equation.
It's been three weeks since Baldur's Gate 3 added Honour Mode, a new difficulty more punishing than Tactician. Tougher bosses, smarter AI, and most importantly, one save file. Mess up a roll? Face the consequences. Die? Start over. It's gruelling, but pushing through earns you an achievement and some swanky golden dice.
Baldur's Gate 3 has you level up to become more powerful, which is pretty standard when it comes to video games these days. Leveling up gets you more health points and stat bonuses, as well as access to powerful spells you need to defeat tougher enemies. Not leveling up puts you at a massive disadvantage later in the game, but it's one that YouTuber Fracture was happy to burden.
Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian has said that Xbox players should manually update their consoles to combat instances where game crashes make save files disappear.
The most recent patch for adds two new gameplay settings, one of which is the ultra-difficult Honour Mode. It's one of two new modes added in Patch 5 of , in addition to the highly flexible Custom Mode. In many ways, it's similar to the hardest default difficulty setting in , 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.
Larian says half of one percent of Baldur's Gate 3 players have managed to finish the game without recruiting a single companion, and accounting for those possibilities is part of what made designing the game and writing its dialogue so challenging.
Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released on Xbox Series X tonight, Larian Studios announced Thursday at The Game Awards.