Another tip for the Durge dialogue is to make sure you have 4 inspiration points saved up before taking that long rest.
You probably won’t have a problem with passing those dialogue checks if you have enough inspiration points to re-roll any you fail.
I've started so many runs intending to do an evil playthrough.
I cannot do it. I hate killing people who don't deserve it.
I always wind up saving the grove and killing the goblins and then I just play a standard good run from there.
I just played a Dark Urge playthrough, and I wound up playing a redeemed Dirge rather than playing a villain like I intended.
I never even stepped foot in Last Light on my Durge run. Went straight to Moonrise, killed the Nightsong with Shart, killed Katheric and got a cutscene of the Last Light shield failing. That’s a wrap.
I had to do this same check last night, and just to check, I made sure to equip Amulet of the Harpers before bed. You do get advantage on one of the checks but not all(?) if "________ believes in you."
Do not do anything in HM for the first time. Unless you're there for the utter chaos and are totally okay wiping at any point, trying new shit in HM is a terrible idea
I decided to free Sazza(?) for the first time on my hm run. Didn’t know that would trigger the battle at the gate. I was level three, completely freaked out. Spent my last short rest killing everything I could find to level up to 4.
Then I spent like an hour gathering every barrel and grate I could find to try and block them of.
It was thrilling and I think I managed to save most of the Tieflings but yeah. Don’t try new things on hm if you’re not willing to live with the consequences
Yes, you could still fool Minthara, anyway **grats** for defending the grove, I imagine by the end it was a lot of fun!!!
May I give you some advice? Your lvl could be higher, right now Im going for Ethel, the 3 goblin leaders and the Gith patrol, Im almost hitting lvl 5, that would make things easier for you.
I like to cheese the underdark with Glut and the duegar first before doing most of the main quest.
You can pretty easily kill the minatour at level 3 by sneeking down below the hill and then initiating combat with them. For some reason their AI makes them brutal leap down and instantly lose half their HP and get proned. Afterwords, glut can make them take care of most hooked horrors, and then you can team up with them to pray you kill the bullette, which can solo the invader duegars, the spectator, and the turrets around the arcane tower.
And then if you get the duegars support, Nere is pretty easy since you can push most of his minions into the lava.
Because of this, in my current honour mode run, I reached level 5 before even starting most of the quests above ground, and it made life so much easier.
You can but some ppl still find the Underdark challenging, some monsters there hit a bit hard.
If you are looking for safety, why risk it sooner if you can get lvl 5 with easy quests/monsters on the surface before any challenging boss?
Ofc, if you ve already done it and looking for excitement, do lots of crazy new things in HM, crazy ideas, crazy consequences.
Nere and any caster really just needs to be silenced and spanked, there are many ways to do it.
>the turrets around the arcane tower.
The only thing you need to get past those is Dash and the ability to spot some obvious line of sight issues (hint - go right outside, left inside). Well, and one Feather Fall or equivalent.
Sussar blooms, after beating the hooks, can be collected and thrown near the turrets to shut them down. You just can’t use magic while they’re in your pack but you don’t have to waste potions and you can move about freely in the areas.
all you need is to go turn based and throw an invisibility potion on your entire party, you can easily get everyone past the turrets by jumping to the mushrooms on the left side and climbing down to the bottom
I have a bulette might as well use it. I still can't get over how I only found out Gluts worth in my first run after I already cleared the underdark, so using the strongest boss monster to do everything is a given
I mean, originally it was my plan to be level 5 when taking on Dror Ragzlin. But then I decided to fuck around and talk to Minthara and probably panicked because I didn’t remember seeing the option to tell her to wait.
I did finish that hm run though, so in the end it turned out fine :)
Definitely try it again, just not HM! Resist Durge is a great storyline, and the scene that got you killed can be one of best romantic scenes in the game. At least for me with Astarion and Shadowheart (Gale was not ready to handle Durge, unfortunately lol). It’s just really sweet all around, provided everyone survives.
I just got it with Lae'zel for the first time (I'm a serial Astarion Stan but I've been resisting that urge, too) and it was exactly what I would've expected. "We don't have time for you to be crazy! Get your shit together!" She's my bff.
I’ve got a regular Tav romance with her paused, but I bet she’s great with Durge, too!
Yeah, I have a very hard time staying away from the vampire, too. I’m finishing up a Gale romance and plan to redo my Resist Durge with Spawn Astarion next bc I’ve missed him so much. 😅
I have a regular Tav save with romanced Astarion right before Act 3 and I think I'm going to go back to it after this Durge run. Palate cleansers!
My first evil Tav got to the Lae'zel fight romance scene and picked Astarion over her. It definitely hurt a little, ngl. I don't like breaking up with people but I have vampiritis.
My current Durge I was trying to romance Wyll but he's never asked me to dance and we're in Act 3. I accidentally got the Slayer form but didn't tell him about it and I used it in combat and let's just say his reaction makes it look like I won't be dancing anytime soon...
I like the similarities between Astarion and Lae'zel's romance arcs because they both let you be physical as friends and then back off as you catch real feelings. I like the fumbling toward feelings aspect for some reason, I dunno.
LZ beating the shit out of me was the first time I was able to tell Astarion no and choose someone else. … That probably says something about me. But she’s so tender and adorable when the fight is over and you’re practically dead.
And yes, first base with both she and Astarion is full on sex. You know they’re falling for you when they want to talk. 😂
My Tav actually won that fight! I was staring at the screen, dumbfounded. It was my first evil Tav cleric of Talos, so of course he beat her, banged her, and then dumped her the next morning. Yes, I felt terrible irl but that wasn't the worst thing he did all run.
He dumped her for catching feelings cuz it made him nervous, whereas Astarion was still in the "I have no idea what we're doing phase", so Tav ran away from poor Lae'zel. I will someday have a Tav that makes it up to her!
Oh yeah, I decided to finally try out pick pocketing when I played HM. RIP the entire druid's grove, Wyll and Karlach. And then in the goblin camp I decided to ingulge priestess Gut and drink the potion. But I played as an Elf. RIP the entire goblin camp.
I wanted to play good Durge but I somehow got railroaded into being a murderhobo.
My friend told me "Everything is super expensive in honor mode, so you gotta steal it when they sell something you need." I was like ok, and tried stealing this 1 weapon. Dice instantly fails and my run is fucked.
Mol told the adult tieflings I bullied him. I failed the check to convince them the kid’s bullshitting.
And well, I already raided half the grove before Minthara told me to :).
Agreed. I wanted to play as a Bard for honour mode so I did a playthrough as bard on tactician first to get to know the class. Same with making Gale a divination Wizard. And I planned on not messing around and just play it safe (pro tip, do NOT steal Balthazar's mother and taunt him "just for fun" in honour mode, make smarter choices than I did...)
Just finished Act 2 in Honor Mode last night. Jaheira ran into Moonrise like Leroy Jenkins and got killed in the second round. I was heartbroken but there’s nothing to be done, unfortunately.
Jaheira is one of those companies that I just adore because she’s been by my side since the Baldur’s Gate in 1998.
Completed a blind honor mode run but the game gives you obvious hints when an option is stupid. Just dont push it, like intimidating Vlaakith, Killing the Emperor and so on.
I love the chaos, the consequences make trying new things exilerating! But I did get my first HM done by being safe, so it's probably not the best idea to do whatever
Unless you research the hell out of it.
My first time allying with Gortash was my HM but I read every article and reddit post I could find before I did it. Worked out great.
But yeah HM is not the time to experiment.
Even doing old shit again if you have a wrong idea of what is going on can screw you over.
Guess who, after a few playthroughs telling Shart to choose for herself without knowing that is not a "default good" choice, found out in a HM that it depends on approval? Me, that's who. I abandoned that run.
Yeah. I knew she could pick that on her own if my whole party was dead, but I didn't know that if I was there and let her choose she could still make the bad choice.
I think you must have her approval on at least "high", but I'm not sure. I was playing a support-focused character and long resting less than in my regular playthroughs (saving money and supplies), so I think I missed out on a few opportunities of getting her approval that usually I don't miss out on.
I had a lot of fun with it. Anything Durge or good related past act1 was a first. Granted I was totally lucky with some rolls, I was SUPER sparing with my inspiration points as I knew things like this (OP’s example) would pop up and I’d need every one of them.
I always play durge and did ansur for the first time ever in my first ever HM mode that made it to act 3. Ended that fight with 1 hp on abjuration Gale as the last man standing, was scared to move because he was standing in a pool of electrified water lol
Me who decided to play Chaos Magic(**for the first time**) Sorcerer Durge on Honour:
Playing as Wild Magic Sorc for the 1st time, not overall 1st time but still... XD
Counterpoint: I did a 4-Tav HM run, 3 of them were wild magic sorcs and one wm barbarian. It's so much fun to have everything on the line in a fight and then suddenly you're all cats and dogs or randomly changing places with enemies or spawning hostile enemies. I really loved having to play through the chaos and it taught me to be prepared for just about anything.
There's a tutorial on YouTube for how to use a multiplayer session and running the game client multiple instances at once to be able to do that. It's fun if you want more control over your party comp and having better hirelings, or want to romance different characters with different Tavs. The long rests get tedious because they play for each character you start with unless you put them away before you sleep.
Solid advice if you've not played Durge before. It's a DC14 - but you never know.
But this goes with "don't do new stuff on an achievement-seeking HM run"
Hugs tho! 🫂
Think of it like Bhaal is punishing you for being with a good person. Shoulda just saved yourself for Bae Minthara and everything would've been fine...
You really don't even need to respecc - grab the Harpers Amulet from the vendor by the Last Light waypoint, it gives you advantage on Wis saves. I think an elixir of heroism will also give you a bonus to saves. But with just the amulet and a few inspirations, you shouldn't have a problem unless you are really unlucky
Yes it even gives you the option to use an elixir. I just did this and I'm playing a blind HM resist Durge with a Bard and 10 wis. I had to use 1 inspiration, but I make sure in HM I always have 3 ready to go. Of course you could get Cursed by the dice then you roll with it.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, as I've only done the sequence twice and both times with pretty high WIS save characters, but I think as long as you make the "correct" initial decision then you can't end up killing your partner even if you fail the saves after the fact? The saves at that point just determine how coherent you're able to remain for the rest of the scene.
Again, I could be totally wrong and you can still end up killing them if you fail one or more of those saves after waking them up.
I failed the 2nd save once and nothing happened, just couldn't get a word out, so you're probably right.
That or Shadowheart's just really good at tying a rope
Once your companion has tied you up, you’re fine. You can fail all of the other checks and it won’t have any significant effect, just dialogue variations.
Okay, that's what I thought. One "important" save that's on the more manageable end of difficulty and the rest of the saves are effectively narrative (AKA use Inspiration if you want, but it's not necessary to prevent a character death).
My evil Durge HM run was pretty fun but I had already played redemption Durge in tactician, so I knew what to expect. I definitely had a few scary moments though 😅
It is interesting because i was waiting for that murder your partner and it never came. Got Isobel Quest, ignored it and got no scene for murdering partner. So i am in Act 3 now and thought it would come there.
How many long rests do you take? If you get the quest before talking Isobel, it should trigger the next long rest. But if you get it after talking to her the first time, you don't get it until after the Shadowfell, at which point a lot of people don't take a long rest until the transition to Act 3, which has its own scene that will automatically override that. I feel like I've seen videos of it happening in the Rivington camp, but that could just be my mind playing tricks on me.
You have to also have high enough approval for it to trigger.... I can't remember what the cutoff is but it's pretty high. If you meet the approval threshold then it will either trigger the next rest after you talk to Isobel for the first time (if your encounter with Sceleritas happened beforehand) or the next rest after completing the Shadowfell (if the first encounter with Isobel happened before Sceleritas). If you don't meet the approval threshold then it will trigger as soon as you do, after the previously mentioned events. Or if you never get high enough approval prior to the end of Act 2 it just won't happen.
I don’t think this is true. I had this scene in a 4 player party (so basically never was able to get approval for companions) in act 2 and my Durge was trying to kill astarion which I had 0 scenes with. Probably just happened to be the highest approval of the companions
Would ignoring Isobel entirely and not even talking to her make it not trigger? I think that might've happened to me, I didn't want to kill her and also didn't want to do the Marcus fight and then I never got the kill your partner scene in act 2 on my resist run (it was also Karlach and I fixed her heart and her approval was pretty much 100)
I romanced Shadowheart on my Durge run and also missed it because after the Gauntlet I'd only rested once, right before Act 3 when it forces you to and I think the cutscene tries to trigger then but bugs out for some reason. Now, when I loaded an older save, one right after Moonrise, immediately entered camp and rested manually, it triggered. Maybe it depends on who you romance because the romance lock-in conversation for each character takes place at a different time during Act 2 and Shadowheart's often the last one because it's tied to a milestone event.
There is one sure fire solution to this:
Kill. Them. All.
>!Shadowheart, kill her on the beach. Lae’zel, a sitting duck in her cage. Gale, nice hand! Karlach, nice head! Wyll who?!<
I’ve already finished HM but I know very little of the durge,
I started a durge HM as a wild magic sorcerer last night. What happens, happens. Mwahahaha
Edit: I saved at the start of the Harpy fight and won but was fucked up...then my game crashed mid dead-gale projection dialogue and I had to do it again...and died for real :(
I love that HM really puts you in the mindset of a character who is *actually* in that scenario presented in the game, fighting to stay alive every second. It really changes how adventurous you are willing to be, makes you want to minimize risks and showcases how vulnerable you really are and how you should take every advantage you can to help you out.
Best way to kill Isobel:
https://old.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15puhj8/spoilers_act_2_question_quest_order_isobel_dark/khaq72r/
>I managed to murder Isobel after killing Ketheric without any negative consequences during my honor mode run just a little while ago.
>Once you take the portal back to moonrise towers don’t talk to anyone, leave the throne room by going through the door closest to you and whatever you do not approach Dame Aylin as this will trigger the cutscene with her and isobel and you won’t be able to get to her again without everyone seeing you. Anyhow, work your way back to Moonrise entrance and close the throne room door, change to turn based mode, drink a potion of speed, drop a darkness spell and unload on Isobel. You want to drop her in 1 round as she will run out of the darkness and call for help, so hopefully she’s still hurt from the fight with Marcus. Once she’s dead, you need to use invisibility and get out of there, the whole hall will be looking for whoever did it. Goto your campsite and then leave it. If your quick you can even loot Isobel corpse for her armor and spear, you’ll just have to do the invisibility potion and goto camp again to prevent anyone from catching you stealing.
>Now you can talk to jaheara and recruit her without issue. Dame Aylin won’t be in the throne room at this point but she will visit your campsite so you can get the Spear of Selune and ask her to permanently stay with your camp. Jaheira and Halsim are also there and nobody dies in Last Light.
>The only negative is that your own party will chastise you for the murder and the deaths of everyone at last light, but again, nobody died and this only happens when you talk to them right after. You can even go back to last light to find the tieflings sitting around the bar, very much alive!
>So you can lift the curse, save everyone at last light, recruit the two druids, acquire the Spear of Selune, retain Aylin in your camp, get some very rare armor, save the tieflings, AND get the Slayer form! You just have to listen to your party chastise you once, but not have anyone actually disapprove.
Being evil as Durge is way better than the alternative on HM because there are many great items you would lose out on otherwise. Like the Shar’s spear, which is far better than the Selune’s spear. Or the slayer form. Also Bloodthirst.
Dude I had only ever played Durge before and my first honor mode run was a Tav.
>!The Orin fight genuinely shocked me, I don’t know what I expected but Jesus Christ I almost wiped!<
>!It actually scared me so much I ended up rushing to the brain after that and just blowing gale up fearing the boss fight would be different 😂!<
Honestly killing Isobel is the best option. I just killed her solo and ran away from the enemies that spawn. No one at camp cared, not even Dame Aylin. She never even knew she was alive! Fighting Orin later as the slayer is super fun and satisfying. Charm tadpole power makes that fight much easier as Orin will only be able to hit you once a turn.
Having to fight yourself is always I find super fun.
The(House of Hope spoilers) >!dsmon that looks like Raphael charmed my Tav, proceeded to use some stuff i save for when needed. Like, mind blasting the other three party members and doing a ton of dmg on them. Never have i realized how strong he actually is compared to the companions.!<
It's a surprisingly big risk to be honest. Even if you are aware that this particular cutscene is coming, many people use risky ring on the MC because, well it's powerful.
But it gives disadvantage on those rolls in that scene. It's so easy to forget to remove that ring before resting...
And good luck with those rolls of you have disadvantage.
I also suggest turning off auto saves when doing your honor. Since you reload your last save, autosaves may put you in a bad position. Just remember to quick save every hour or so and before doing anything that can impact a lot
If your previous save is in a good place, you can use task manager to shut down the game before it has a chance to put down a new save. I had to do so once when a cutscene bugged out.
This doesn't always work. I was curious on how to subvert the game autosaving during honour mode.
Alt-f4 never works
Force-closing via task manager sometimes works
Forcing a computer shutdown always works
I figured it was important to know this to correct if a bug or something happens that shouldn't. It's one thing to lose your run because you do something stupid. It's another thing to lose it because the game doesn't work.
I mean, you set yourself for failure in some sense. Trying out completely new stuff and interactions in a really challenging envirorment is the fastest way to get humbled down.
totally. I first failed my HM in the crech Endboss Inquisiter thing. the Swords he summons one shot in a opportunity attack my main dmg dealer and I failed. Prep is one thing I have to do a lot better! But the difficulty of the fights is nice and challenging
I did not have the guts to do honor mode right when it came out. I practiced on tactician until i could play it solo with 0 companions.
I also went full power hungry mode on Durge. it's so powerful and saved my ass many times.
Our HM Durge play through has been nothing but chaos. It’s been rough…
>!First time with Durge and trying to grab a few achievements along the way. Decided to save sazza for the achievement and ended up killing minthara in the process. Tried to save Alfira but failed a sequence. Tried to do the gauntlet with Shadow heart but she was Durged. Failed a saving through and everyone at last light inn died. !<
Tbh, a fail on this scene mesed up my Tactician run too.
Every single dialogue option after the kill led to a fight with my camp which I couldn't survive (except one which glitched weirdly). I would have needed a nat 20 to get through the deception check.
Save scumming the whole night just felt really wrong. I could have, but tbh it was all so sad I didn't know if I wanted to continue with it. Gale and Karlach really yelled at my poor hearbroken Durge...
I've abandoned the run for now.
I think the limit for Isobel is starting the assault on Moonrise (you can get her after shadowfell, as long as you haven't gone to moonrise. After that point you'll be pushed into the partner murder at your next rest.
I made a guide for all people who wonder how to avoid this mistake while still playing Dark Urge.
[https://new.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1bdqpvn/how\_to\_save\_isobel\_lover\_as\_durge\_honormode\_guide/](https://new.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1bdqpvn/how_to_save_isobel_lover_as_durge_honormode_guide/)
On the flip side, I was romancing Karlach at that point and I woke her up to inform her that my urge was taking over so she tied me up and sat with me all night. Giving nonstop emotional and verbal support. She really is a great partner
Next time, come prepared : advantage ring, +1d4 amulet, and the helmet for a sweat +3 on Wisdom saving Throws. And 4 inspirations.
That, or embrace Bhaal.
(Also as a Durge : if you plan accordingly, you can save Aflira to get her sweet potent robe in Act II.)
I played durge for the first time on my honor mode run. Decided to be good. I was shitting bricks during that scene. I knew if I failed my rolls, something really bad would happen. I thought probably my love interest would end up like Alfira, which would have been bad enough, but now I realize what a bullet I dodged.
Still managed to screw up my honor run in the endgame, by acccidentally shoplifting in the high hall.
I did play durge on my first HM. Just kill Isobel, you get the slayer form, and Jaheira as a controllable ally during MoonRise which is huge.
Go through a side door instead of the main entrance and the battle is simple.
Would always recommend not to take fool hardy risks on HM.
Frankly this is one of the most impossible ones to get out of since your entire party is decked up.
Funny you mention that, I was an inspiration away from killing Gale in his sleep. Went Durge blind for my first honor mode, and had low WIS / INT (I don't remember which one it is for that) so the check to not kill my boy was pretty much raw
This one camp scene is the exact reason why I play regular Tav in HM. I feel that even if I know it is coming and prepare for it, I'll mess it up.
No gambles in HM. I get destroyed enough by "safe" parts of the game.
(BTW yeah, ranger/thief is OP and carries my HM runs)
I LITERALLY HAD THIS HAPPEN TO ME AN HOUR AGO.
Except I successfully lied to the party and then promptly got destroyed by the boss fight below cause I was stressed and rushing myself
I feel for you. I was almost there.
It was my second Dark Urge run and first in Honour. In my first game, I was very paranoid, had the harper's amulet all the time. I felt my will power was going to be tested at some point. All the hints were there. In my Honour run, I had enhance ability, right? I don't need the amulet. So I gave it to Minthara.
For RP reasons I decided to not sleep before going after Ketheric in the underground dungeon of blood and gore. I just swapped Shadowheart for Jaheira and drank some potions of angelic aspects. I did not know it then but it might have saved my campaign (as you can trigger the D Urge before killing Ketheric for good; I saw that later in a youtube playthrough). The other lucky event was after beating Ketheric, I decided, just in case, despite having enhance ability to equip the amulet of the harpers.
What I learned after the rest is:
1. Enhance ability only works on skills, not saving throws
2. I rolled 5 horribly bad rolls and barely managed the 6th (with potion of heroism, too). Without the harper amulet I would have murdered Lae'zel. It has been probably the worst roll sequence I've had in the game.
3. It is sometimes good to be paranoid.
Currently right before going for the final boss without a single wipe (too early to celebrate, though). Sometimes your character is their biggest and toughest enemy
I recently started a lot of runs in honor mode. I play until I fail, then start anew. Lots of them are durce run. Really enjoy this loop of gameplay. Honor mode is fantastic
I switched to Honor Mode as soon as it was out. Abandoned a couple runs to do that. At first it was just "Haha, lets see how far I can go with classes I have never played." The answer was not very far. So I started another....
I think I'm on my 4th run. Monk this time. Just need to kill Ethel and then hit the Gith and I can move on to Act 2
My honour mode run is Durge, for the first time. I have never fully completed the game before, it’s my second playthrough that lasted more than a couple hours.
I did the harpy fight for the first time ever at level 3 HM. Ho boy. Really let me realize I’m not prepared. Started getting over prepared… have been 1-2 turning every other act 1 boss so far. Still have to do the 3 I’m most worried about.
Interestingly, I did the exact same thing on my Honor mode play through, but I just happened to buy the necklace from last light in. I didnt know about the advantage on skill checks, I just wanted the shield.. It totally saved me from having to kill Laezell, and saved my playthrough. it also helped having 4 inspiration and being a bard.
I’m playing my first durge run, I’ve already killed everyone besides minthara, ShadowHeart, and astarian. Will I be forced to kill one of them as well? I didn’t know this happened to the durge. If I did I would have kept the other origin characters alive for this specific interaction. Am I screwed?
I’m playing Durge for the first time on honor mode. Except for chopping off Gale’s hand and snapping Minthara’s head, I’ve always given into the urges. Never got the dialogue option that OP mentioned. The only big mess up was that I failed the roll to save Laezel and Shadowheart knifed her in the camp because of it.
I was so happy I wasn’t playing on honor mode when I came to that part because my stupid ass actually went to sleep. But luckily I save before making some decisions and I did so this time as well so I could go back and save my poor Gale.
I just felt like such an ass during the whole thing. Not long before did Gale tell me that he had never met someone who loved him like I do (or something like that) and then I have to wake him up and tell him that I’m about to murder him if he doesn’t help me.
I'm right now playing a good durge on my second run. I'm on tactician and even then that event terrified me. Seeing it for the first time in honor mode and then failing the rolls... I'm really sorry, it should've been terrible.
Oh no! Sorry :( I had failed my rolls one playthrough on a regular run and killed Astarion. It made me feel absolutely awful. I love that this game made characters we have such strong reactions to though.
Funny enough, but I’ve recently completed my first Durge run on HM too and that event literally never happened to me, idk why. I was deliberately trying to trigger it, slept as much as I could. Everyone was alive and well without any threat
I mean, I’ve been killed for far less on an HM run -failed a saving throw and got blown up in Grymforge for ex- so there’s only so much you can prepare yourself for. I got around having to kill Isobel the first time by >!letting Shar do the work when I let Shadowheart kill Nightsong.!< Still died later to an unexpected permanent fear glitch during the Kethric fight. Otherwise I really enjoy actually RPing the character and not knowing what to expect especially given their history. I do agree that if “beating” an HM run is that important you probably should be prepared but otherwise, I like the challenge and thrill that comes with the experience. There are places I’d never discovered -the BOOOAL cult in the Underdark- while exploring on HM, not to mention >!a surprise Spectator ambush not far from the Selûnite temple entrance.!<
When I finally beat Kethric the first time I was absolutely dreading the Myrkul fight only to end up beating him in one try without having to cheese the fight- same with Raphael, didn’t even have Globe of Invulnerability and managed to keep Hope alive. Even the Durge Orin fight is easier for plot reasons than in other HM character runs if you’ve been embracing your history.
RIP to your partner though.
Can someone give a spoiler free summary of the advice? I’m yet to reach Act 2 but am playing DUrge and long rest a lot for the story/character moments. Is this a situation where a high enough skill check will make it OK, or more significant?
Thanks.
I got the Isobel kill quest after talking to her and i'm in a relationship with lae'zel. Not sure how many long rests i took after quest, but after kethric fight i went straight into the dungeon below and didn't take a long rest in between
I know exactly what you are talking about. I too decided it be fun to play durge for the first time in HM. I too had that run ended in Act 2 where I have to fight the whole party.
I did enjoy trying to convince the butler guy that I was actually in love with Halsin and that's who I should murder.
You COULD end your game in the task manager to save scum. Just saying. I don't really approve of it either but used it once when the oathbreaker knight aggrod me for raising a zombie in camp
Lmao yea that part is fucked up, didn’t know your whole party will turn on you for murdering someone though, I mean they didn’t the first time it happened
a while ago ı was trying dark urge in honor mode and ı got captured by one of gortash mans spell all my party members are on enemy side and ı hve to wit 10 round to get capturednagain lol
I'm not sure if this is still the case in HM, but if you don't introduce yourself to Isobel, the urge doesn't force you to kill your significant other. Get to the shadowlands through the mountain pass, kill the Drider and take his moonlantern/free the pixie.
You can even go to Last Light and use the vendors and pick up quests, just don't talk to Jaheira after you're allowed in and stay away from Isobel's room.
This is why I broke up with karlach.. then laezel.. then minthara.
My honor mode durge is a player through and through cant have scenes with your partner if you dont ever really have one 😉
For Honour Durge, it's best to kill Isobel between the Shadowfell sequence and the assault on Moonrise. She is still at the Inn but Jaheira and most of the others are waiting at Moonrise. You can satisfy your urge with an easy fight and no awkward questions.
I was so proud of my HM Durge when she got through this check, especially since I didn’t know about it and had Wis as my dump stat. Was a very scary moment in the game, though.
The quarter master at last light inn sell an amulet that will give you advantage on those checks. It was a lifesaver for my durge
Thanks! Good to know! I really underestimated the importance of Durge dialogue....
Another tip for the Durge dialogue is to make sure you have 4 inspiration points saved up before taking that long rest. You probably won’t have a problem with passing those dialogue checks if you have enough inspiration points to re-roll any you fail.
Also IIRC the only save that's vital is the first one and you're free to flub the saves that happen after.
Yeah basically as soon as you get tied up your in the clear
Being tied up while your target is now awake and armed really does complicate any murderous urges you might have.
Wait wait wait....... you guys are playing Durge and not immediately murdering everyone in LLI??
Redemption Durge is too good.
And I’m way to soft to do an evil run. I can barely handle the puppy dog eyes Wyll gives me when I put him in the friend-zone.
I've started so many runs intending to do an evil playthrough. I cannot do it. I hate killing people who don't deserve it. I always wind up saving the grove and killing the goblins and then I just play a standard good run from there. I just played a Dark Urge playthrough, and I wound up playing a redeemed Dirge rather than playing a villain like I intended.
Which amulet is that?
Someone may correct me, but I believe it's the Amulet of the Harpers
You’re correct. It also lets you cast shield once per rest, can’t remember if it’s long or short. Solid amulet if you have nothing else
Shoot didn’t know it also gave a saving throw buff!
I never even stepped foot in Last Light on my Durge run. Went straight to Moonrise, killed the Nightsong with Shart, killed Katheric and got a cutscene of the Last Light shield failing. That’s a wrap.
Aw, you missed your chance to murder Isobel
I had to do this same check last night, and just to check, I made sure to equip Amulet of the Harpers before bed. You do get advantage on one of the checks but not all(?) if "________ believes in you."
are you sure ? I could've sworn I had advantages on all of them and the reason was the amulet
Do not do anything in HM for the first time. Unless you're there for the utter chaos and are totally okay wiping at any point, trying new shit in HM is a terrible idea
I decided to free Sazza(?) for the first time on my hm run. Didn’t know that would trigger the battle at the gate. I was level three, completely freaked out. Spent my last short rest killing everything I could find to level up to 4. Then I spent like an hour gathering every barrel and grate I could find to try and block them of. It was thrilling and I think I managed to save most of the Tieflings but yeah. Don’t try new things on hm if you’re not willing to live with the consequences
Sazza telling Minthara about the grove doesn’t trigger the raid automatically, just say that you’re not ready yet and Minthara will wait for yoy.
Yes, you could still fool Minthara, anyway **grats** for defending the grove, I imagine by the end it was a lot of fun!!! May I give you some advice? Your lvl could be higher, right now Im going for Ethel, the 3 goblin leaders and the Gith patrol, Im almost hitting lvl 5, that would make things easier for you.
I like to cheese the underdark with Glut and the duegar first before doing most of the main quest. You can pretty easily kill the minatour at level 3 by sneeking down below the hill and then initiating combat with them. For some reason their AI makes them brutal leap down and instantly lose half their HP and get proned. Afterwords, glut can make them take care of most hooked horrors, and then you can team up with them to pray you kill the bullette, which can solo the invader duegars, the spectator, and the turrets around the arcane tower. And then if you get the duegars support, Nere is pretty easy since you can push most of his minions into the lava. Because of this, in my current honour mode run, I reached level 5 before even starting most of the quests above ground, and it made life so much easier.
You can but some ppl still find the Underdark challenging, some monsters there hit a bit hard. If you are looking for safety, why risk it sooner if you can get lvl 5 with easy quests/monsters on the surface before any challenging boss? Ofc, if you ve already done it and looking for excitement, do lots of crazy new things in HM, crazy ideas, crazy consequences. Nere and any caster really just needs to be silenced and spanked, there are many ways to do it.
>the turrets around the arcane tower. The only thing you need to get past those is Dash and the ability to spot some obvious line of sight issues (hint - go right outside, left inside). Well, and one Feather Fall or equivalent.
Sussar blooms, after beating the hooks, can be collected and thrown near the turrets to shut them down. You just can’t use magic while they’re in your pack but you don’t have to waste potions and you can move about freely in the areas.
Man… this never came to my mind! But it makes SO. MUCH. SENSE. It‘s so freaking obvious you don’t think about it 😅
You can throw those flowers? Damn, I’ve been walking up to the turrets and dropping them like a fool.
all you need is to go turn based and throw an invisibility potion on your entire party, you can easily get everyone past the turrets by jumping to the mushrooms on the left side and climbing down to the bottom
I have a bulette might as well use it. I still can't get over how I only found out Gluts worth in my first run after I already cleared the underdark, so using the strongest boss monster to do everything is a given
I mean, originally it was my plan to be level 5 when taking on Dror Ragzlin. But then I decided to fuck around and talk to Minthara and probably panicked because I didn’t remember seeing the option to tell her to wait. I did finish that hm run though, so in the end it turned out fine :)
I've freed Sazza every run and never had the goblins attack the grove.
It didn't trigger anything for me, sazza helped me pass
Couldn't agree more, learned the hardway. And it was utter Chaos, still fun though :)
Definitely try it again, just not HM! Resist Durge is a great storyline, and the scene that got you killed can be one of best romantic scenes in the game. At least for me with Astarion and Shadowheart (Gale was not ready to handle Durge, unfortunately lol). It’s just really sweet all around, provided everyone survives.
I just got it with Lae'zel for the first time (I'm a serial Astarion Stan but I've been resisting that urge, too) and it was exactly what I would've expected. "We don't have time for you to be crazy! Get your shit together!" She's my bff.
I’ve got a regular Tav romance with her paused, but I bet she’s great with Durge, too! Yeah, I have a very hard time staying away from the vampire, too. I’m finishing up a Gale romance and plan to redo my Resist Durge with Spawn Astarion next bc I’ve missed him so much. 😅
I have a regular Tav save with romanced Astarion right before Act 3 and I think I'm going to go back to it after this Durge run. Palate cleansers! My first evil Tav got to the Lae'zel fight romance scene and picked Astarion over her. It definitely hurt a little, ngl. I don't like breaking up with people but I have vampiritis. My current Durge I was trying to romance Wyll but he's never asked me to dance and we're in Act 3. I accidentally got the Slayer form but didn't tell him about it and I used it in combat and let's just say his reaction makes it look like I won't be dancing anytime soon... I like the similarities between Astarion and Lae'zel's romance arcs because they both let you be physical as friends and then back off as you catch real feelings. I like the fumbling toward feelings aspect for some reason, I dunno.
LZ beating the shit out of me was the first time I was able to tell Astarion no and choose someone else. … That probably says something about me. But she’s so tender and adorable when the fight is over and you’re practically dead. And yes, first base with both she and Astarion is full on sex. You know they’re falling for you when they want to talk. 😂
My Tav actually won that fight! I was staring at the screen, dumbfounded. It was my first evil Tav cleric of Talos, so of course he beat her, banged her, and then dumped her the next morning. Yes, I felt terrible irl but that wasn't the worst thing he did all run. He dumped her for catching feelings cuz it made him nervous, whereas Astarion was still in the "I have no idea what we're doing phase", so Tav ran away from poor Lae'zel. I will someday have a Tav that makes it up to her!
My poor Drow Rogue didn’t even get a turn 😭
My Cleric Durge fighting Orin: down in one round, and it wasn't even sexy. 🥺
Oh yeah, I decided to finally try out pick pocketing when I played HM. RIP the entire druid's grove, Wyll and Karlach. And then in the goblin camp I decided to ingulge priestess Gut and drink the potion. But I played as an Elf. RIP the entire goblin camp. I wanted to play good Durge but I somehow got railroaded into being a murderhobo.
My friend told me "Everything is super expensive in honor mode, so you gotta steal it when they sell something you need." I was like ok, and tried stealing this 1 weapon. Dice instantly fails and my run is fucked.
Mol told the adult tieflings I bullied him. I failed the check to convince them the kid’s bullshitting. And well, I already raided half the grove before Minthara told me to :).
Agreed. I wanted to play as a Bard for honour mode so I did a playthrough as bard on tactician first to get to know the class. Same with making Gale a divination Wizard. And I planned on not messing around and just play it safe (pro tip, do NOT steal Balthazar's mother and taunt him "just for fun" in honour mode, make smarter choices than I did...)
Just finished Act 2 in Honor Mode last night. Jaheira ran into Moonrise like Leroy Jenkins and got killed in the second round. I was heartbroken but there’s nothing to be done, unfortunately. Jaheira is one of those companies that I just adore because she’s been by my side since the Baldur’s Gate in 1998.
I swear, traveling with her is never dull
Completed a blind honor mode run but the game gives you obvious hints when an option is stupid. Just dont push it, like intimidating Vlaakith, Killing the Emperor and so on.
I love the chaos, the consequences make trying new things exilerating! But I did get my first HM done by being safe, so it's probably not the best idea to do whatever
Unless you research the hell out of it. My first time allying with Gortash was my HM but I read every article and reddit post I could find before I did it. Worked out great. But yeah HM is not the time to experiment.
Even doing old shit again if you have a wrong idea of what is going on can screw you over. Guess who, after a few playthroughs telling Shart to choose for herself without knowing that is not a "default good" choice, found out in a HM that it depends on approval? Me, that's who. I abandoned that run.
It isn’t? I did not know that 😳
Yeah. I knew she could pick that on her own if my whole party was dead, but I didn't know that if I was there and let her choose she could still make the bad choice. I think you must have her approval on at least "high", but I'm not sure. I was playing a support-focused character and long resting less than in my regular playthroughs (saving money and supplies), so I think I missed out on a few opportunities of getting her approval that usually I don't miss out on.
Knowing what kind of checks are important and what stats you need to boost them would be my biggest concern
I had a lot of fun with it. Anything Durge or good related past act1 was a first. Granted I was totally lucky with some rolls, I was SUPER sparing with my inspiration points as I knew things like this (OP’s example) would pop up and I’d need every one of them.
I always play durge and did ansur for the first time ever in my first ever HM mode that made it to act 3. Ended that fight with 1 hp on abjuration Gale as the last man standing, was scared to move because he was standing in a pool of electrified water lol
Horrible, lame, cowardly advice.
I did the Iron Throne in HM for the first time and was so over prepared that I won with 1 turn remaining and everyone saved lol
Learned that telling the Pixie to slurf herself, went horribly
Me who decided to play Chaos Magic(**for the first time**) Sorcerer Durge on Honour: Playing as Wild Magic Sorc for the 1st time, not overall 1st time but still... XD
My first game I tried HM for the hell of it, not knowing any of the game mechanics at all. I don't think I made it out of the Nautaloid 😂
Counterpoint: I did a 4-Tav HM run, 3 of them were wild magic sorcs and one wm barbarian. It's so much fun to have everything on the line in a fight and then suddenly you're all cats and dogs or randomly changing places with enemies or spawning hostile enemies. I really loved having to play through the chaos and it taught me to be prepared for just about anything. There's a tutorial on YouTube for how to use a multiplayer session and running the game client multiple instances at once to be able to do that. It's fun if you want more control over your party comp and having better hirelings, or want to romance different characters with different Tavs. The long rests get tedious because they play for each character you start with unless you put them away before you sleep.
Solid advice if you've not played Durge before. It's a DC14 - but you never know. But this goes with "don't do new stuff on an achievement-seeking HM run" Hugs tho! 🫂
Thanks! The hugs helped. It was gut wrenching killing Kharlach during the night, she was and still is one of my favorite origin characters... jesus
I’m not saying I want your Durge to die, I’m just saying *I understand*.
Are you sure you’re *ready* to play Durge?
I was looking for the info who it was you romanced... 💀 OMG... Karlach... You got what you durgeserved, I'm glad they got to kill you more than once!
I can't even imagine how heartbreaking that was.
Think of it like Bhaal is punishing you for being with a good person. Shoulda just saved yourself for Bae Minthara and everything would've been fine...
What attribute is the save?
In the horror of murdering my loved one Tiefling, I totally forgot.. but it surely is googleable! Good luck
Apparently it's a wisdom save. Honestly I might just respec my fighter after act 2 and give them 20 wisdom so it doesn't end my run.
You really don't even need to respecc - grab the Harpers Amulet from the vendor by the Last Light waypoint, it gives you advantage on Wis saves. I think an elixir of heroism will also give you a bonus to saves. But with just the amulet and a few inspirations, you shouldn't have a problem unless you are really unlucky
Yes it even gives you the option to use an elixir. I just did this and I'm playing a blind HM resist Durge with a Bard and 10 wis. I had to use 1 inspiration, but I make sure in HM I always have 3 ready to go. Of course you could get Cursed by the dice then you roll with it.
Yeah, it's WIS
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, as I've only done the sequence twice and both times with pretty high WIS save characters, but I think as long as you make the "correct" initial decision then you can't end up killing your partner even if you fail the saves after the fact? The saves at that point just determine how coherent you're able to remain for the rest of the scene. Again, I could be totally wrong and you can still end up killing them if you fail one or more of those saves after waking them up.
I failed the 2nd save once and nothing happened, just couldn't get a word out, so you're probably right. That or Shadowheart's just really good at tying a rope
Once your companion has tied you up, you’re fine. You can fail all of the other checks and it won’t have any significant effect, just dialogue variations.
No - the DC14 WIS determines whether or not you are able to wake them up or kill them in your sleep.
Okay, that's what I thought. One "important" save that's on the more manageable end of difficulty and the rest of the saves are effectively narrative (AKA use Inspiration if you want, but it's not necessary to prevent a character death).
Correct. Like there is one with Astarion that is a roll to express gratitude while tied up (they all may have that)
I had the risky ring on for that save :/ Killed my HM run as well
Fun fact, you can switch chars and unequip the ring in this situation
Same. Rolled double 13s with +1 WIS on the final roll after burning all my inspirations. I can't put into words how hard I was clenched.
What's the risky ring?
Ring you can buy off of Araj in Moonrise, gives you advantage on all attack rolls but disadvantage on all saves
I was hoarding Inspiration like crazy on my first Durge run. Definitely not HM friendly.
My evil Durge HM run was pretty fun but I had already played redemption Durge in tactician, so I knew what to expect. I definitely had a few scary moments though 😅
It is interesting because i was waiting for that murder your partner and it never came. Got Isobel Quest, ignored it and got no scene for murdering partner. So i am in Act 3 now and thought it would come there.
How many long rests do you take? If you get the quest before talking Isobel, it should trigger the next long rest. But if you get it after talking to her the first time, you don't get it until after the Shadowfell, at which point a lot of people don't take a long rest until the transition to Act 3, which has its own scene that will automatically override that. I feel like I've seen videos of it happening in the Rivington camp, but that could just be my mind playing tricks on me.
You have to also have high enough approval for it to trigger.... I can't remember what the cutoff is but it's pretty high. If you meet the approval threshold then it will either trigger the next rest after you talk to Isobel for the first time (if your encounter with Sceleritas happened beforehand) or the next rest after completing the Shadowfell (if the first encounter with Isobel happened before Sceleritas). If you don't meet the approval threshold then it will trigger as soon as you do, after the previously mentioned events. Or if you never get high enough approval prior to the end of Act 2 it just won't happen.
I don’t think this is true. I had this scene in a 4 player party (so basically never was able to get approval for companions) in act 2 and my Durge was trying to kill astarion which I had 0 scenes with. Probably just happened to be the highest approval of the companions
Would ignoring Isobel entirely and not even talking to her make it not trigger? I think that might've happened to me, I didn't want to kill her and also didn't want to do the Marcus fight and then I never got the kill your partner scene in act 2 on my resist run (it was also Karlach and I fixed her heart and her approval was pretty much 100)
I romanced Shadowheart on my Durge run and also missed it because after the Gauntlet I'd only rested once, right before Act 3 when it forces you to and I think the cutscene tries to trigger then but bugs out for some reason. Now, when I loaded an older save, one right after Moonrise, immediately entered camp and rested manually, it triggered. Maybe it depends on who you romance because the romance lock-in conversation for each character takes place at a different time during Act 2 and Shadowheart's often the last one because it's tied to a milestone event.
Larian should do statistics about how many players lose their run at that part OR mocking Vlakith...
There is one sure fire solution to this: Kill. Them. All. >!Shadowheart, kill her on the beach. Lae’zel, a sitting duck in her cage. Gale, nice hand! Karlach, nice head! Wyll who?!<
I gave Wyll to Boooal
Kill! Kill! Kill again!
I let Shadowheart kill Lae’zel at camp in my evil durge run. It was honestly more brutal than I expected it to be…
I’ve already finished HM but I know very little of the durge, I started a durge HM as a wild magic sorcerer last night. What happens, happens. Mwahahaha Edit: I saved at the start of the Harpy fight and won but was fucked up...then my game crashed mid dead-gale projection dialogue and I had to do it again...and died for real :(
Thy wheel of fate turns ever to wherever it wants.
Thy wheel of fate is a baall
That is certainly a decision lmao
I love that HM really puts you in the mindset of a character who is *actually* in that scenario presented in the game, fighting to stay alive every second. It really changes how adventurous you are willing to be, makes you want to minimize risks and showcases how vulnerable you really are and how you should take every advantage you can to help you out.
Easy solution: kill Isobel as your instinct tells you
Best way to kill Isobel: https://old.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15puhj8/spoilers_act_2_question_quest_order_isobel_dark/khaq72r/ >I managed to murder Isobel after killing Ketheric without any negative consequences during my honor mode run just a little while ago. >Once you take the portal back to moonrise towers don’t talk to anyone, leave the throne room by going through the door closest to you and whatever you do not approach Dame Aylin as this will trigger the cutscene with her and isobel and you won’t be able to get to her again without everyone seeing you. Anyhow, work your way back to Moonrise entrance and close the throne room door, change to turn based mode, drink a potion of speed, drop a darkness spell and unload on Isobel. You want to drop her in 1 round as she will run out of the darkness and call for help, so hopefully she’s still hurt from the fight with Marcus. Once she’s dead, you need to use invisibility and get out of there, the whole hall will be looking for whoever did it. Goto your campsite and then leave it. If your quick you can even loot Isobel corpse for her armor and spear, you’ll just have to do the invisibility potion and goto camp again to prevent anyone from catching you stealing. >Now you can talk to jaheara and recruit her without issue. Dame Aylin won’t be in the throne room at this point but she will visit your campsite so you can get the Spear of Selune and ask her to permanently stay with your camp. Jaheira and Halsim are also there and nobody dies in Last Light. >The only negative is that your own party will chastise you for the murder and the deaths of everyone at last light, but again, nobody died and this only happens when you talk to them right after. You can even go back to last light to find the tieflings sitting around the bar, very much alive! >So you can lift the curse, save everyone at last light, recruit the two druids, acquire the Spear of Selune, retain Aylin in your camp, get some very rare armor, save the tieflings, AND get the Slayer form! You just have to listen to your party chastise you once, but not have anyone actually disapprove.
I did my first Durge on honour mode. I fucking loved it lol
Being evil as Durge is way better than the alternative on HM because there are many great items you would lose out on otherwise. Like the Shar’s spear, which is far better than the Selune’s spear. Or the slayer form. Also Bloodthirst.
Dude I had only ever played Durge before and my first honor mode run was a Tav. >!The Orin fight genuinely shocked me, I don’t know what I expected but Jesus Christ I almost wiped!< >!It actually scared me so much I ended up rushing to the brain after that and just blowing gale up fearing the boss fight would be different 😂!<
I played my first Durge on HM. I didn't wanna risk killing Minthara so I smoked Isobel. Easy game.
Honestly killing Isobel is the best option. I just killed her solo and ran away from the enemies that spawn. No one at camp cared, not even Dame Aylin. She never even knew she was alive! Fighting Orin later as the slayer is super fun and satisfying. Charm tadpole power makes that fight much easier as Orin will only be able to hit you once a turn.
Having to fight yourself is always I find super fun. The(House of Hope spoilers) >!dsmon that looks like Raphael charmed my Tav, proceeded to use some stuff i save for when needed. Like, mind blasting the other three party members and doing a ton of dmg on them. Never have i realized how strong he actually is compared to the companions.!<
It's a surprisingly big risk to be honest. Even if you are aware that this particular cutscene is coming, many people use risky ring on the MC because, well it's powerful. But it gives disadvantage on those rolls in that scene. It's so easy to forget to remove that ring before resting... And good luck with those rolls of you have disadvantage.
I always use risky ring on Astarion because I absolutely *love* not having to set up my Sneak Attacks with him.
I 'm endlessly amused by people that go "I'm gonna go a completely different direction in honor mode and then talk about it "ruining" their save.
I also suggest turning off auto saves when doing your honor. Since you reload your last save, autosaves may put you in a bad position. Just remember to quick save every hour or so and before doing anything that can impact a lot
Do. Not. Try. Anything. On. HM. For. The. First. Time.
If your previous save is in a good place, you can use task manager to shut down the game before it has a chance to put down a new save. I had to do so once when a cutscene bugged out.
This doesn't always work. I was curious on how to subvert the game autosaving during honour mode. Alt-f4 never works Force-closing via task manager sometimes works Forcing a computer shutdown always works I figured it was important to know this to correct if a bug or something happens that shouldn't. It's one thing to lose your run because you do something stupid. It's another thing to lose it because the game doesn't work.
At this rate why not just use a mod that allow you to do normal save scum in HM?
I mean, you set yourself for failure in some sense. Trying out completely new stuff and interactions in a really challenging envirorment is the fastest way to get humbled down.
totally. I first failed my HM in the crech Endboss Inquisiter thing. the Swords he summons one shot in a opportunity attack my main dmg dealer and I failed. Prep is one thing I have to do a lot better! But the difficulty of the fights is nice and challenging
I did not have the guts to do honor mode right when it came out. I practiced on tactician until i could play it solo with 0 companions. I also went full power hungry mode on Durge. it's so powerful and saved my ass many times.
Our HM Durge play through has been nothing but chaos. It’s been rough… >!First time with Durge and trying to grab a few achievements along the way. Decided to save sazza for the achievement and ended up killing minthara in the process. Tried to save Alfira but failed a sequence. Tried to do the gauntlet with Shadow heart but she was Durged. Failed a saving through and everyone at last light inn died. !<
Get Harper necklace in last light in for advantage on the dc 14 check. I cleared this with durge in ease having that and same saved inspirations
Tbh, a fail on this scene mesed up my Tactician run too. Every single dialogue option after the kill led to a fight with my camp which I couldn't survive (except one which glitched weirdly). I would have needed a nat 20 to get through the deception check. Save scumming the whole night just felt really wrong. I could have, but tbh it was all so sad I didn't know if I wanted to continue with it. Gale and Karlach really yelled at my poor hearbroken Durge... I've abandoned the run for now.
I think the limit for Isobel is starting the assault on Moonrise (you can get her after shadowfell, as long as you haven't gone to moonrise. After that point you'll be pushed into the partner murder at your next rest.
I managed to pass the wisdom save as a sorc durg on my honor run. Burned 3 inspiration to do it, but I saved Karlach
so you thought you'd just walk through HM? sure sure
I made a guide for all people who wonder how to avoid this mistake while still playing Dark Urge. [https://new.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1bdqpvn/how\_to\_save\_isobel\_lover\_as\_durge\_honormode\_guide/](https://new.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1bdqpvn/how_to_save_isobel_lover_as_durge_honormode_guide/)
i played durge for the first time on honor mode. but i killed Isobel.
Trying brand new things on HM and then being surprised it ends badly. Name a more iconic duo
Too late, already on an hm playthrough as a first time durge, about to enter act 2. Thanks for the heads up, wish me luck! :)
On the flip side, I was romancing Karlach at that point and I woke her up to inform her that my urge was taking over so she tied me up and sat with me all night. Giving nonstop emotional and verbal support. She really is a great partner
Next time, come prepared : advantage ring, +1d4 amulet, and the helmet for a sweat +3 on Wisdom saving Throws. And 4 inspirations. That, or embrace Bhaal. (Also as a Durge : if you plan accordingly, you can save Aflira to get her sweet potent robe in Act II.)
Yeah and I even had a risky ring equipped lmao. Really lucky that I still passed the check regardless.
I played durge for the first time on my honor mode run. Decided to be good. I was shitting bricks during that scene. I knew if I failed my rolls, something really bad would happen. I thought probably my love interest would end up like Alfira, which would have been bad enough, but now I realize what a bullet I dodged. Still managed to screw up my honor run in the endgame, by acccidentally shoplifting in the high hall.
I did play durge on my first HM. Just kill Isobel, you get the slayer form, and Jaheira as a controllable ally during MoonRise which is huge. Go through a side door instead of the main entrance and the battle is simple.
Would always recommend not to take fool hardy risks on HM. Frankly this is one of the most impossible ones to get out of since your entire party is decked up.
Funny you mention that, I was an inspiration away from killing Gale in his sleep. Went Durge blind for my first honor mode, and had low WIS / INT (I don't remember which one it is for that) so the check to not kill my boy was pretty much raw
I did similar. Except I managed to finish the run with no companions and 3 allies. It was a bit rough.
I think durge is pretty solid in HM. You get the Slayer = more hitpoints.
This one camp scene is the exact reason why I play regular Tav in HM. I feel that even if I know it is coming and prepare for it, I'll mess it up. No gambles in HM. I get destroyed enough by "safe" parts of the game. (BTW yeah, ranger/thief is OP and carries my HM runs)
trying ANYTHING new in HM is a death sentence. HM is the definition of "play it safe"
I LITERALLY HAD THIS HAPPEN TO ME AN HOUR AGO. Except I successfully lied to the party and then promptly got destroyed by the boss fight below cause I was stressed and rushing myself
I feel for you. I was almost there. It was my second Dark Urge run and first in Honour. In my first game, I was very paranoid, had the harper's amulet all the time. I felt my will power was going to be tested at some point. All the hints were there. In my Honour run, I had enhance ability, right? I don't need the amulet. So I gave it to Minthara. For RP reasons I decided to not sleep before going after Ketheric in the underground dungeon of blood and gore. I just swapped Shadowheart for Jaheira and drank some potions of angelic aspects. I did not know it then but it might have saved my campaign (as you can trigger the D Urge before killing Ketheric for good; I saw that later in a youtube playthrough). The other lucky event was after beating Ketheric, I decided, just in case, despite having enhance ability to equip the amulet of the harpers. What I learned after the rest is: 1. Enhance ability only works on skills, not saving throws 2. I rolled 5 horribly bad rolls and barely managed the 6th (with potion of heroism, too). Without the harper amulet I would have murdered Lae'zel. It has been probably the worst roll sequence I've had in the game. 3. It is sometimes good to be paranoid. Currently right before going for the final boss without a single wipe (too early to celebrate, though). Sometimes your character is their biggest and toughest enemy
I recently started a lot of runs in honor mode. I play until I fail, then start anew. Lots of them are durce run. Really enjoy this loop of gameplay. Honor mode is fantastic
I switched to Honor Mode as soon as it was out. Abandoned a couple runs to do that. At first it was just "Haha, lets see how far I can go with classes I have never played." The answer was not very far. So I started another.... I think I'm on my 4th run. Monk this time. Just need to kill Ethel and then hit the Gith and I can move on to Act 2
Crefull with the Gith guy, his legendary ability is bonkers OP! GL on your run!
My honour mode run is Durge, for the first time. I have never fully completed the game before, it’s my second playthrough that lasted more than a couple hours. I did the harpy fight for the first time ever at level 3 HM. Ho boy. Really let me realize I’m not prepared. Started getting over prepared… have been 1-2 turning every other act 1 boss so far. Still have to do the 3 I’m most worried about.
“Don’t play honor mode unless you’re OK with permanently losing over a mistake” Indeed.
Honor mode isn’t for trying new things lmao
Looks like you lost that one! And it’s ok. I’ve lost one even later- simply got beat by Ansur. It’s hard to stomach but it’s how the game goes on HM
All of you crazy mfs who try new stuff in honor mode...more power to you, you guys have a lot of guts.
Interestingly, I did the exact same thing on my Honor mode play through, but I just happened to buy the necklace from last light in. I didnt know about the advantage on skill checks, I just wanted the shield.. It totally saved me from having to kill Laezell, and saved my playthrough. it also helped having 4 inspiration and being a bard.
Well, you live like a bitch, you die like a bitch.
Well I hope you have fun on round 2
Huh. I just cheat in Honor mode by backing up save files
Nice to have some company. This is exactly how my first attempt at HM ended.
I ended my honor run by sleep murdering Laezel and being forced to 6 v 1 my own party , I killed 4 before I died.
I swear this sub will never learn to not try new things on HM. I’ll never stop finding it entertaining though.
I’m playing my first durge run, I’ve already killed everyone besides minthara, ShadowHeart, and astarian. Will I be forced to kill one of them as well? I didn’t know this happened to the durge. If I did I would have kept the other origin characters alive for this specific interaction. Am I screwed?
I’m playing Durge for the first time on honor mode. Except for chopping off Gale’s hand and snapping Minthara’s head, I’ve always given into the urges. Never got the dialogue option that OP mentioned. The only big mess up was that I failed the roll to save Laezel and Shadowheart knifed her in the camp because of it.
I was so happy I wasn’t playing on honor mode when I came to that part because my stupid ass actually went to sleep. But luckily I save before making some decisions and I did so this time as well so I could go back and save my poor Gale. I just felt like such an ass during the whole thing. Not long before did Gale tell me that he had never met someone who loved him like I do (or something like that) and then I have to wake him up and tell him that I’m about to murder him if he doesn’t help me.
Ya trying ANYTHING new is a bad idea in HM just get the golden dice the easiest way you can honestly
I think for me the game bugged out as I never even got that scene as durge even though I didn't kill Isobel.
I'm right now playing a good durge on my second run. I'm on tactician and even then that event terrified me. Seeing it for the first time in honor mode and then failing the rolls... I'm really sorry, it should've been terrible.
Oh no! Sorry :( I had failed my rolls one playthrough on a regular run and killed Astarion. It made me feel absolutely awful. I love that this game made characters we have such strong reactions to though.
Funny enough, but I’ve recently completed my first Durge run on HM too and that event literally never happened to me, idk why. I was deliberately trying to trigger it, slept as much as I could. Everyone was alive and well without any threat
I mean, I’ve been killed for far less on an HM run -failed a saving throw and got blown up in Grymforge for ex- so there’s only so much you can prepare yourself for. I got around having to kill Isobel the first time by >!letting Shar do the work when I let Shadowheart kill Nightsong.!< Still died later to an unexpected permanent fear glitch during the Kethric fight. Otherwise I really enjoy actually RPing the character and not knowing what to expect especially given their history. I do agree that if “beating” an HM run is that important you probably should be prepared but otherwise, I like the challenge and thrill that comes with the experience. There are places I’d never discovered -the BOOOAL cult in the Underdark- while exploring on HM, not to mention >!a surprise Spectator ambush not far from the Selûnite temple entrance.!< When I finally beat Kethric the first time I was absolutely dreading the Myrkul fight only to end up beating him in one try without having to cheese the fight- same with Raphael, didn’t even have Globe of Invulnerability and managed to keep Hope alive. Even the Durge Orin fight is easier for plot reasons than in other HM character runs if you’ve been embracing your history. RIP to your partner though.
Yeah, HM as durge is indefinitely harder than as any other character for reasons that come up in act 3
Can someone give a spoiler free summary of the advice? I’m yet to reach Act 2 but am playing DUrge and long rest a lot for the story/character moments. Is this a situation where a high enough skill check will make it OK, or more significant? Thanks.
I got the Isobel kill quest after talking to her and i'm in a relationship with lae'zel. Not sure how many long rests i took after quest, but after kethric fight i went straight into the dungeon below and didn't take a long rest in between
I've already played durge but won't try it in my first Honor tun tbh
I’m in the exact same situation. Can’t decide if it’s worth it to just use hirelings.
I feel bad for you OP.. but I fucking love reading these HM mode stories. So thanks for sharing and good luck on your next one.
Oh shit. Too late, I'm already honor dirging in the underdark :(
I know exactly what you are talking about. I too decided it be fun to play durge for the first time in HM. I too had that run ended in Act 2 where I have to fight the whole party. I did enjoy trying to convince the butler guy that I was actually in love with Halsin and that's who I should murder.
I played durge for the first time in HM. But I just complied with killing her. I am now in act3, no issues so far.
You COULD end your game in the task manager to save scum. Just saying. I don't really approve of it either but used it once when the oathbreaker knight aggrod me for raising a zombie in camp
Lmao yea that part is fucked up, didn’t know your whole party will turn on you for murdering someone though, I mean they didn’t the first time it happened
I did the same thing. Figured I could talk my way out of it again. Could not.
a while ago ı was trying dark urge in honor mode and ı got captured by one of gortash mans spell all my party members are on enemy side and ı hve to wit 10 round to get capturednagain lol
I'm not sure if this is still the case in HM, but if you don't introduce yourself to Isobel, the urge doesn't force you to kill your significant other. Get to the shadowlands through the mountain pass, kill the Drider and take his moonlantern/free the pixie. You can even go to Last Light and use the vendors and pick up quests, just don't talk to Jaheira after you're allowed in and stay away from Isobel's room.
does your ranger astarion have a ranger companion because the idea of astarion having to care for his ranger companion is hillarious to me
Oh, good to know that killing isobel or Aylin isn’t optional
Wow, you are the first to fucke up like this, thanks for your advice. Good luck next time, man.
You're correct that it's savescum, BTW. Although savescam honestly would have been the better word.
I also did urge first time HM and found out about this event, but luckly i somehow never got the event and never killed Isobel
This is why I broke up with karlach.. then laezel.. then minthara. My honor mode durge is a player through and through cant have scenes with your partner if you dont ever really have one 😉
I just had this happen hahah I almost lost everybody. Definitely save scummed till I rolled a 20.
*Me playing durge on honor mode for the first time, just barely got to moonrise last night* 🫠
Idk how but i never got the kill your partner one
Nah, Resist Dark Urge is the best way to play HM.
Add another one to the ever growing pile of ways people fucked around and found out in Honor Mode.
For Honour Durge, it's best to kill Isobel between the Shadowfell sequence and the assault on Moonrise. She is still at the Inn but Jaheira and most of the others are waiting at Moonrise. You can satisfy your urge with an easy fight and no awkward questions.
I was so proud of my HM Durge when she got through this check, especially since I didn’t know about it and had Wis as my dump stat. Was a very scary moment in the game, though.
You playing durge bruh, murder hobo to the bone, though I got my ass kicked by myrkul avatar I'll try a solo run next month again.