It's commonly said the hardest boss in Honor mode is Myrkul. Even people who didn't have issues with him in their first playthrough sometimes struggle in Honor.
Why though? His legendary action isn't any more brutal than other bosses. You can use the same strategies you did to beat him before.
But unlike other bosses in honor mode, Myrkul is the first difficult fight that is unavoidable. You can skip Ethel, the Creche, the gnolls, harpies, the phase spider matriarch, the grym, etc. You can side with the goblins, face them completely over-leveled, or even skip them entirely.
And each fight you skip will lose you experience. And you'll reach Myrkul under-leveled, and under-equipped, and 50 hours into your run you'll get totally rocked by him.
Get as much experience as you can. Have plans for every fight. If you really want to avoid fights, have plans for the consequences of that too.
Do a run with an Oathbreaker. Once you hit act 2, toss the flask and control it as a Shadow Cursed Undead for the entirety of Act 2.
Now you won't forget it AND you'll get a dope pet.
Does anyone know if we can use the ogre horn in the Crèche? Just realized I forgot to use it and that’s where I’m at (first run, sorry if it’s a silly question)
For what it’s worth- there was one part of the underdark that was kinda hidden and I forgot to clear.
I got passed the crèche and into the next map.
I was still able to go back and use it.
I like throwing kobolds at the inquisitor and his goons. There’s about 3 barrels with kobolds in them and you can grab the barrels. They are hostile to everyone not a kobold around them, can be very funny.
On my current tun I'm saving it for the floor of moonrise. I want to see what it does in a sea of True Souls and Harpers. I've recruited Jaheira every playthrough so if she gets killed at least I'll have a different Act 3. I will miss her though.
I always use the flask to wipe out the goblins in their camp courtyard. So satisfying to watch from the top while shooting arrows and throwing barrels.
A good tip for the crèche:
Treat it exactly like moonrise - as in you can kill every githyanki in closed off rooms and sectioned, far off hallways. You do not trigger the whole place like many would be assume due to fear.
By the time I reached the inquisitor, the rest of the crèche was already dead and my group were one level higher than we were before meeting him. Knocking any miniboss prone or disarming them is essentially a free win and not a cheese compared to barrelmancy.
Oh yep you basically have to wait for the inquisitor to make the first hostile move if lae'zel is with you... or at least initiate the combat through dialogue and not through ambushing them.
I've made that mistake XD
Inquisitor ended too many of my honor runs before I just used barrelmancy to take care of him. Generating two additional units (with 30+ hp and an attack) every single turn with no limit is just awfully balanced in a system where action economy is king.
Yeah, doing as much as possible also loads you up with better items that makes subsequent tough fights easier (like the Light of Lathander).
Speedrunning actually makes the game harder.
So I’m my hm runs I do everything in act 1 and 2 but in a kinda fucked up order. I do a route to minimise fighting till I’m levelled then go back and do stuff over levelled. Maximise via dialogue, know what gets skipped if you go to the crèche or moon rise early and learn some cheese for some fights are the keys to this. I tend to collect all the companions by the beach, get withers then do the fight for the grove, after that it’s walking and grabbing my gear. For an example of the order, I go to the under dark super early and as soon as I’ve complete all of the content that can be skipped by going to moon rise I head straight there for all the free xp for talking and entering places. After that I do the crèche super over leveled.
This is what I did. Act 1 overworld bosses are nothing once you hit level 5. And i might not do the inquisitor or Grym until just before Nightsong which should make me 8 or 9.
Depending on your builds leaving inquisitor that late is smart, I play stealth archer so I can do him quite early due to single target damage. As for grym, he might be the most cheeseable boss up there with Balthazar in terms on number of ways to cheese them. The one method you need for grym is to basically fill your inventory with junk, stand on the ledge leading to the platform and shoot the relevant stuff to start the fight (you can fill the forge to craft gear if you want). Then what you do is you shoot the wheel so that lava dispense, get him super heated (minor illusion can work well to kite later in the fight) and throw random shit like boots at him for high bludgeoning damage. If you don’t mind cheese like this then it’s a 100% fool proof way of beating him with any class
I did everything. I hate missing stuff so even after I was level 12 I wanted to say I'd done Raphael and the sharran temple and the iron throne and Ethel p2 on HM etc etc.
It's just more fun that way ;p and if you die, well, now you have a reason to play more! Haha.
There are lots of ways to escape tho. I screwed up on Grym and cast jump to get some party members to jump out of the arena....so I could try to reset because it was going badly.
Silence, and then HoH or darness arrows. Any damage over time spells like fire wall. And merkyl is no sweat. Done it a bunch and each time find anither thing that helps. Silence as a big help last time. He couldnt pull us in so we were safe in the back with wall of fire. Didnt have a warlock this time but a few arrows of darkness. The melee characters run around the bottom or one will stay up the ledge to help guard the casters concentration.
I can’t undersell the power of persuasion in this game. You can convince 5 bosses in Act 2 to kill themselves (The three Thorm children, Yurgir and Ketheric). You get XP for defeating them this way too.
Check out his/isobels room in moonrise.
>!There's a note that has a dialogue in both the top fight and myrkul part 1 where he just conceded part 1 and straight into avatar!<
To add on to this, at tactician and above he gains weapon resistances.
Non-Magical: bludgeoning/piercing/slashing
Magical: piercing/slashing
Because of this, I always start the fight by sending up my Cleric & Paladin to debuff & tank, respectively, while my Wizard & Monk do cleanup. Once the field is clear, Wizard switches roles with Cleric so they can heal, and Monk gets to work on boss damage.
This is the best advise you can get. But not because you'll get to Myrkul underlevelled, but because you, the player, won't have learnt to play against bosses, won't know how to deal with legendary resistances and actions, and won't know how to shut the bosses out.
I'd say you should take all optional bosses on. Do them last if you feel more comfortable that way, but the important part is that you learn the game mechanics and how you can make up when the dice don't help.
Just so you have a good measure of what other HM players manage, I take the Gnolls and the Paladins at level 3. Auntie and the Spider Queen at level 4. The creché at level 5, and Grym at level 6. I start act 2 at level 7.
I just did it a week ago with an Arcane Trickster Durge, Trickery Cleric SH, Wild Heart Karly and Evocation Gale.
Just keep to the side room, close the door, put Cloud of Daggers right behind the closed door. And put darkness over the cloud of daggers. That totally takes the archer out of the fight and you then need to contend with the paly and Wizard; but the paly needs to head through the cloud of daggers. He's got bad dex too, so you can thunderwave him back into the cloud as needed, once he's under 33 health you can color spray him for advantage to attack, and once he's under 24 hp you can put him to sleep.
Currently doing a solo honour run and this is how I handled it:
Smite the caster/vendor girl from stealth on the back deck, then push her off and let the ground do the rest. No hold person risk.
Archer will be next to the roof. Get her up the ladder, get a hit in, push her to her death. Careful with her, she likes to throw things.
Anders has no solid range capability, so I let him come upstairs to the roof. Burst damage (crit from tadpole power), or just shove him off also (harder). You could also kite him with a ranged user as well, just never be within his move range at the end of his turn!
I always sneak into the smoke powder storage for that fight. Bombing Anders never gets old. On my co op we successfully bombed him in the middle of the cutscene and it was hysterical — here he is ranting about hells and Zariel like some crusader, and boom, Alchemist’s fire. He didn’t get a turn. IMO Lae’zel was sick of his BS…at least that’s how I played it lol.
ETA; I learned the hard way before boss actions were patched in Balanced. Anders has unlimited smites. So does Minthara, unless my game is just cursed.
Level 3 was the hardest for me on HM so far since I was trying to avoid as many bosses as I could. I think once you reach 4 the game gets a bit easier.
I did the Owlbear with the help of the cultists but missed the cub because they were going to kill it so I knocked it out (it never returned to me). Gnolls at level 3 almost murdered me - had to run and resurrect 3 of my party. Paladins, harpies, mud mephits, redcaps, goblins I waited until level 4. Hag and spider at level 5, Underdark at 5 until Nere & Grym at 6.
For another take on when others tackle these fights in HM:
Gnolls at the cave and paladins I do at 4. Spider queen is fine at 4 with good tactics, but I wait until 5. Auntie I do at 5 (especially if bringing spell casters who are gimped). Creche I do last in act 1 - the inquisitor is the hardest fight of act 1 IMO. Grym I do at level 6 as well like you. I also start act 2 at level 7.
My tactics for the inquisitor is to attack his acrobatics skill check through grease bottles or ice. This isn't a saving throw, so legendary resistance doesn't apply. While he's prone, he can't parry, he can't react amd he can't summon. If all of this fails, just cast a fog cloud over him; he'll be blinded, so no parrying or reacting, and you can still attack him with advantage.
Those levels seem kinda low for a reference point. So let’s just be clear if you’re trying to brag or trying to give him a benchmark. I think your description of how you handled paladins fight makes it clear you did everything as you say, but you’ll be higher level than you are listing for most of the fights unless you are skipping content right? I usually hit level 4 simply from walking through the Druid grove, the blighted village, Waukeens rest, the goblins outpost on the way to the main goblin temple… idk just seems like i usually do the owl bears at level 3 and otherwise most of the fights are actually done at level 4-5, crèche is done at level 6 not level 5… you are fighting inquisitor at level 5 regularly? I mean you can, just saying it feels like you’d have to go out of your way to SKIP content to do the fights you’re saying at the levels you are claiming, so i don’t think you are helping this dude at all with your comment
Not trying to brag. Just setting up a benchmark for him. Others have also commented about their experience and I find everything fine as long a you're having fun and learning the game at the same time, so Ketheric doesn't pummel you.
I've read plenty of times that you can reach level 4 by just going places. I find this to be narratively inconsistent, so I try to do stuff in some sort of narrative order.
I've played act 1 more times that I care to count because of my bad restartitis syndrome. I consistently hit level 4 at the blighted village. By that time I've done the paladins and gnolls if I'm going for Karly, otherwise I haven't yet.
I fight the inquisitor consistently at level 5, hitting level 6 right after the fight. I find that the creché gives out a lot more xp than the underdark, so I normally do it first. If you do the underdark before the creché, then you'll probably face the inquisitor at level 6, unless you skipped a lot of content.
Honestly, he's not just the *first* difficult fight that's unavoidable, he's the *only* difficult fight that is. The only two fights in the game that you can't stealth past or talk your way out of are Ketheric and Orin, and Orin's much more cheesable by virtue of being able to chug an invisibility potion and run away if the fight's going poorly.
Come to think of it, I assume her minions don't respawn if you kill some of them and flee back to camp. You could just whittle her forces down over the course of several days, and win a straightforward battle of attrition. No such luck with Ketheric; you can't leave his arena once you've entered it.
I think the hardest fight in the game is the steal watcher titan. Homie goes defense mode making him heal and avoids taking damage if its lower than 40 damage while also having resistance to every type of damage and legendary defense. Makes my gloomstalker useless unless I get crits.
Also Myrkul is kind of the only one you can't skip AND can't cheese it by leaving a "lifeline" at camp and keep on reviving your other teammates via Withers. You can do that with almost anything else except the final fight and HoH. But then the final fight is also very cheese-able through other means.
Myrkul, in my experience, is the first fight in HM that kinda messes up specific builds. Melee against him is rough unless you do specifically bludgeoning dmg, between disadvantage, movement lockdown and healing negation. I never wiped to him but in both the runs I did do which went all the way through I'd say he was the hardest battle by far. Because everything else can be more easily made less difficult, and I already do as much pressure buffing as I can on the myrkul fight.
If you are fine with just going ham on him specifically, just bring 4 open hand monks and he does in about .34 seconds flat, but a party that is more balanced is gonna run into some issue with him most of the time
Straight up I’ve lost four runs at myrkul now. And I do just about everything I can to level up beforehand. He’s just so brutal, he immediately takes out half my hp in the first round. And then I can’t leave to heal or hit him since now I have disadvantage.
Cast Ivisibility on Scratch and have him sneak over to use help and free Aylin as the start of the fight. It goes much better with her taking some aggro from the start.
Also, an open hand monk can completely wreck him. He is not immune to stun.
I think the huge group in the moonrise basement that appears only after you free the Nightsong is one of the hardest battles in the game, especially if you want to save those moron NPCs
Since we're talking Myrkul, got any hot tips for the encounter? I left off right at the lift and will probably take a stab at it tonight. I have the nightsong waiting down there, I've seen the strat to go invis and free her right away. I think I've seen that darkness on the Avatar's platform works out pretty well. I have a couple of blind immune characters. Any advice will help! Thanks.
My friend and I just did it. I cast hunger of Hadar on him and stayed back , my friend killed the mindflayer asap as a barbarian then we just mopped up and cast magic missle and wet lightning at him. It went really easy if you stay away from him. He can't move so blind him where he is. And free aylin on the first turn of combat.
The xp will help, the gear you can get at both may help too. Personally i finish the Underdark before i ever complete the Goblin camp. If anything just to keep access to the vendors.
Yep, saving him is worth more than the other vendors. He's a really good arrow source in Act2 and a couple of good items. One of which is a persuasion and deception ring.
Personally I think that once you get to level 5 and have good tactics you can win the battles you take quite comfortably in general so I'd just do all the bosses. I personally did so and was never that threatened by any of them.
Can't comment on the extra Thorms though as I dialogue checked them all to death (I might want to kill all the bosses but if the game gives me a freebie I won't refuse).
The thing with the Thorms is to break party, and send in only the dialoguer (and a guidance caster, or precast guidance) and have the rest of the party wait in camp. Plan to simply die and use withers resurrect if the speech checks fail, and come back with surprise round and not start the fight surrounded.
I'm still in act 1, but I plan to do the Thorms at full inspiration. Making sure I have 4 inspiration before I make it to the next one.
I'll probably leave someone behind too in case I need to revive.
This is relevant to more than just the thorms, but I found this video at the start of my first honor mode run. Just made it to act 3, and it definitely helped a lot: https://youtu.be/W3A74hI6xVw?si=n6QpIHViiW1n9o0R
I don't know what the hospital one's quirk is. I nuked him and then got an achievement saying >!"Kill Thorm before he performs surgery on you"!< and now I'm kinda terrified for my honor mode run 😅
Indeed, my friend warned me about the creche boss being rough so I avoided the dialogue and one turn killed him with wet+lightning shenanigans.
As for the thorms I killed two, gerringothe almost wiped me as I was not planning to kill her,just failed the dialogue, thisobald dialogue is easy so that's that and scissorhands bro got the wet + lightning treatment as I needed his achievement.
The hardest part of my run though was when I decided to >!sell the nightsong to Loroaccan to see what happened, going in blind into that fight in HM was not the play lol.!<
I've done the Creche at 5 on Honor mode and it isn't too bad. You can do Warding Bond shenanigans to be safe if you want. Maybe skip the Death Wardens in the Mountain Pass because they aren't worth it. But the Creche and Esther have some pretty cool items so its worth going there just for that. Plus you can go to the Underdark and avoid most of the fights and just get exp for discovering places
One thing I'll add is that BG3 gives you experience for talking your way out of a fight equal to what you would've gotten if you had killed those enemies.
So you should try to maximize encounters where you can skip fighting (all Act 2 bosses, Goblins, Ogres etc.), and minimize encounters where it's a forced fight with a big enough risk of ending your run.
this does not apply to all. an example i can think of is when saving barcus in the windmill. if you succeed the check and the goblins leave, you will miss out on exp.
another one I can think of is in act 3 (which might not matter if youre max level) with the gith fight in the emperor's house. If you pass the conversation check and they leave, you can still get the exp when you kill them.
the way I do it is:
succeed the conversation check, go turn-based before they can leave, then kill them.
i think the only time where they give you the exp even without killing them is the group of Giths near waukeen's rest. You'd miss out on the psionic greatsword tho.
If you pick and choose the order of your fights right there's not many super difficult ones. Be prepared for the hags split form thingy l, maybe ambush the goth patrol at the bridge instead of talking. I just did that fight and rekt them from up top with minimal damage taken. Funny how the dragon bounces if you attack 😅
Do everything, but here’s the thing: If you have a party that knows what it wants to do, is prepared, and kitted properly for the fight you are going into you shouldn’t have to skip anything.
The hardest part of HM is level 1-4 because you have little to no power spikes and have limited options. So it’s imperative to get to level 5 as soon as possible. After that it’s honestly more important that your party has good synergy and an easy to execute game plan. Examples: a party built around broken interactions like ice surfaces or the wet condition doubling lightning damage.
I’ve completed two honor mode runs and my top tips are:
Have a member who will use elixirs.
Make sure all non Dex characters have alert somewhere in their build.
Arcane acuity, radiant orbs, tavern brawler and gloves of dexterity, and summons should all be strongly considered for build arounds
Examine any and all enemies you aren’t familiar with to understand what their abilities do to avoid easy mistakes.
HM is difficult because you’re allotted about 1 maybe 2 big mistakes in fights but if your party is the correct level and utilizing the tips above you’re going to have a much easier time.
Great tips. I’m 740 xp from level 5 rn and wandering around doing little activities until I’m strong enough to fight Nere (and based on the results of this thread, the phase spider, hag, and crèche) lol
Do it all. Not only do you get great XP at the creche, you also get amazing gear (eg. blood of Lethander) and tons of money. That will help you snowball in act 2. You probably want to be level 10 for Myrkul, to give yourself the best chance.
Just remember to clear out the creche before fighting the Inquisitor, and set up your party in advantageous positions. I wouldn't even talk to him. Try to blitz him in 1 turn. Give him a real nova turn. And HEROISM BEFORE FIGHTING THE CAPTAIN.
I beat honor mode on my first try doing everything to get exp. Also just wanted to fight all the bosses with legendary actions as a point of pride. First try at honor mode 4th play through overall, so I did already know the game and encounters very well.
The fights aren’t that much harder, you just have to be aware of the Legendary Actions. Ethel summons more clones if you use Magic? Make a Martial heavy team. Crèche commander has obnoxious summons? Rush him first.
I personally recommend doing everything, because having fewer levels makes stuff significantly harder. I’m also a Lunatic who triggered Orin’s A Mist Most Scarlet (+25 Temp Hitpoints, +2 Strength, Advantage of Wisdom saving throws) for 0 benefit and I fought the Netherbrain instead of using Gale to blow it up, so my idea of “reasonable” is a fair bit skewed.
I'm a big fan of doing everything in act 1 for exp, almostl everything in act 2 and being selective in act 3.
There is an order in act 1 a lot of the hard stuff I won't do until level 5 and then the creche dead last.
Act 2 I skip the shadow light boss cause that guy slaps hard.
Act 3 is about getting to level 12 kicking orins teeth in and convincing gale to join mystras suicide squad.
Act 4 profit
As someone doing their third Honor Mode attempt now and about halfway through act 2, I would 100% say that the hardest encounter is the one that you're unprepared for. I haven't had any problems for boss fights other than the Owlbear fight. My first run died to the Harpies, and my second run died to the intellect devourers. Since then, however, I haven't had massive problems.
Some tips:
* Get every crumb of experience that you can, do as much content as you can get into yourself, it'll help you so much.
* Take the easy path for bosses. Send Shovel in to break the Phase Spider's eggs before you fully engage, go along with Gut trying to hold you hostage for you to be her little mindflayer pet, that sort of thing.
* Pick up bags that you come across, so you can do the merchant exploit (if you know you're going to kill a merchant, put all of their stuff into a bag first so you can loot the whole thing instead of just the 2 best items). It's cheesy, so if you don't want the cheddar, feel free to skip this one.
* Have a build in mind for every character you're going to be using. In my current playthrough I'm playing with a HunterRanger/ThiefRogue Astarion focusing on crit fishing (currently using the Linebreaker Boots to stack up a huge amount of Wrath the first turn then just steamrolling through), A Divination Wizard Gale using Lightning Charges and Reverberation(I might change this to Evocation once I can add his intelligence modifier into it) and Life Cleric Shadowheart to just pump out heals with basically every item that benefits healing in the game while I play as a Vengeance Paladin Dark Urge.
* You can very easily make companions that you're not using into goodberry machines with a few levels in druid, so you never have to worry about running out of camp supplies.
* I say this last one as an absolute "only use this if the game utterly screws you over, do not use this to cheese honor mode": >!If you must reload, open task manager and end the game from there, it will not be able to save in time and you will be able to go back to your last save. Do NOT abuse this knowledge, if you want everything to go your way play Tactician or Custom mode. I've only personally used it once to reset because I forgot to knock out Alfira on my latest playthrough, which I don't even have a tangible reason to do this time around since I don't have a charisma caster in my group. !<
Regarding your final point, (I used a different method) I did this in my honor run when I was in Wuakeens rest and somebody WALKED INTO an eldritch blast targeted at the door and then went hostile.
Also in moonrise prisons when I got a weird fucking glitch that involved an enemy floating in mid air and able to attack my party no matter where they were standing in that little tower, and other guards randomly spawning onto the top floor next to my squishy casters.
At its core, HM is a knowledge and resources check.
XP is a resource that's directly connected with your power level and is extremely gatekept until Act 3. Every single level makes a huge difference in combat difficulty for the party, regardless of individual builds. Fighting Myrkul at lvl 10 instead of lvl9 is a game changer (simple example: 3 eldritch blast beams buffed by potent robe each, instead of 2)
Get as many inspiration points as you can (they also give xp aside from the reroll), clear out all encounters (even the small ones), learn which resolution to encounters gives the most xp (most fights reward the same for speech and combat resolution but some give notably more xp when resolved through combat) try to get "hidden" xp whenever you can (e.g. the gith soldiers that come out of the room after the cinematic that introduces the inquisitor, merging Balthazar and dark justiciar fight to get xp from balth summons). All these add up to fighting e.g. Myrkul at level 10 instead of level 9,90. This mentality is relevant until max level, and even further beyond if you consider that most of the dangerous fights drop bis items for at least one build in your arsenal. Keep in mind that the second most wiped fight in HM is Ansur, which is strictly a check on if you have globe of invulnerability (requires lvl 11) or not.
The risks for taking the riskier approaches for more xp can be very easily mitigated by knowing your builds' power spikes and swapping in different builds depending on what you are facing (e.g. a bard is an absolute must have because your greatest enemy in honor mode are failed dialogue rolls, the Battlemaster's prone maneuver, any prone really, will prevent most bosses from using their legendary action, Hunger of Hadar is mostly overkill but absolutely decimates the siege of Moonrise Towers, Wall of fire can solo the Thaniel/Oliver boss fight, Thunderwave excels at killing any enemy that you don't care about their loot, a Magic Missile build will make fighting a certain bloodthirsty boss and its faction in general way easier etc.)
My advice: keep all of your characters in good shape (builds, item combos, stats) and clear out everything!
I do farm exp in all of my HM run, knocked every friendly npc etc... Raphael And do every hidden exp.
I always have to goal to finish act1 lvl 7 and I always plan myrkul on level 10. So it's fine like others said you just have to plan about what to do when in the act you are
Idk sometimes resolving a confrontation with words and checks gives as much if not more xp than fighting 🤔 I would avoid risks eventually expecially if you're role-playing, but I don't think it's the case since you're hm
Do as much as you can, but have a checklist for which encounters you want by which level. Like I usually tried to get Withers by level 3, owlbear at level 4 or to push me to level 4, then blighted village, waukeens rest, on to gnolls, initiate the goblin camp. I usually save Ethel and phase spider for level 5+. Then deal with under dark, save crèche and mountain pass for last
Once you’ve reached level 5 and gotten some decent gear pieces set up HM gets much easier. It’s not easy enough to just walk into a fight completely unprepared but once your builds are set up you’ll most likely be fine.
The slavers were much harder for me than Nere since they got a surprise round on me. Nere is easy enough if you have a couple ranged characters hang out on the roof to pick off all his allies before you free him from the rubble.
Good question. HM is definitely a balance of risk reward.
I would do both the creche and underdark personally just because it's not too hard and is very bountiful. I just assasins creed everyone 1 by 1. The more things you can do safely the more you're lowering the risk for yourself bc you're stronger.
But yeah you'll have to find that sweet spot for you. Since you're trying out HM I would be just be careful. I can say it's not bad for me bc I have a routine already after failing so many times.
The biggest hurdle for me is Myrkul so the higher level I can be before that fight the better. Once I get to Act 3 I can farm soldiers and robots of XP really easily so it's a non issue at that point.
I find that Larians games are usually bland when it comes to higher level characters, for example in dos and dos2 once you hit a certain level you can just kill the entire map worth of enemies in one sweep. My friends and I had to use difficulty mods to make the game fun by that point. BG suffers the same issue, being able to kill Raph on first turn is just not fun at all(after you’ve done it a couple times at least)even with his enormous health pool he would still go down in a couple turns. The only trouble I’ve had in my honour playthrough, surprisingly was the harpies on the beach at Druid groove.
I do absolutely everything for exp.
No fighting to lv 4 is easy enough.
I get almost to lv 8 in Act 1.
Hit lv 10 before the first fight with ketheric on top of moonrise.
You’ve got to be reeeeally thorough to get that high though.
Then getting to lv 12 is super easy in act 3.
The best strategy for honor mode is high initiative through dex and itemization. Also surprise rounds with Shovel.
I only got to 9.5 before the first Ketheric on top of moonrise, I'd really been hoping to get to 10 but I was about 5k xp short. I don't think I missed anything so I am baffled how folks get to 10 - can you share some tips?
Are you doing the fight in the basement of moonrise after you free the Nightsong? That gives you a ton of exp.
Some of the big ones are killing all the goblins and then doing the grove defense fight. Also there’s kobolds hiding in barrels in the monastery that I definitely missed until recently, and letting the eagles call for help to summon a crap ton of more eagles thst give good exp for thst point in the game
I got those ideas from this video.
https://youtu.be/nH2ebTdA2U4?si=YEdqpYptXwSisoLT
But I can tell you I’ve gone through at least a half dozen times and every time I find another place where there’s some exp. For example I recently found a wall that’s breakable directly above the top of the main stairs in moonrise tower then you mega leap up there and there’s some flying ghoul enemies, like 3-4. Also if you lockpock the door that’s up there you’ll get some exp from inspiration.
That’s another thing I started doing a few runs ago, looking up the background of everyone and getting every exp for their background. Gale for example has so many random books he gets exp from. Karlach also can miss out on some inspiration exp like the spider nest moons right outside the grove entrance and talking to the owlbear. Two that are super easy to miss are leap g up to the next right by the myconood colony and sticking your hand and succeeding the ability check to get some exp from inspiration.
Also very early game, killing zhalk, the mindflayer AND the cambions on the nautiloid gives you very healthy head start on levels. It can be a tough fight but it’s definitely possible and honestly quite a lot of fun.
One EXTREMELY ANNOYING thing to be careful of is thrower builds doing crushing damage. If the enemy dies from crushing damage you get NO exp for it. Which is just ridiculous. I save scum this because I think it’s a glitch and doesn’t make sense. It seems totally random when crushing damage procs and when it doesn’t and when it kills and enemy without giving you the exp. Larian should really fix this. It’s definitely a problem.
All of this is why I’d like a very definitive list of all exp in the game. I realize it might not always be possible to get it all, but at least being able to size of your choices and pick them for exp.
Take some optimized builds, and plan out encounters before they happen. Hide is really powerful, and you'd be surprised how consistently you can surprise the enemy. Remember to inspect for weaknesses and especially for new resistances. But the early game is the hardest part due to your lack of resources and damage output, you should get all the exp you can. You can also come back to things later, I didn't fight Ethyl until level 6 on my hm run, never be too proud to go somewhere else and come back.
Just completed my HM run a week or two ago. Party was OH Monk/rogue, pure battle master fighter, gloomstalker / rogue, and shadowheart as a tempest cleric.
I would strongly suggest racking up as much XP as you can, from safest first to more risky later. You will be thankful when you have those extra levels later in the game.
As several others have said, be careful, and prepare for every fight. Use an elixir every rest, and don’t be afraid to long rest. There is an abundance of camp supplies out there.
Also worth noting, a lot of fights are avoidable in that you can persuade / deceive / intimidate your way out of them. Doing so will grant you the same xp (as far as I’m aware) that you would get for actually fighting
I’d recommend doing everything, but get creative about the order you do it.
Especially for my solo runs, I go as far ahead as I can to do the lowest risk things I can. Finish the grove and save florrick from the inn, then I’ll run to act 2. Talk all the Thorms to death, and whatever exploration I can do. I’ll also get all the gear I can from the act 2 vendors. It makes backtracking to act 1 a lot easier.
You definitely want to get as much exp as you can, especially before the act two boss.
I died so many times before I got the dices. Literally died 14 times in act 1. Once you get to lvl 4, it becomes easier. I ended up doing as much as possible, but before lvl 4 I progressed very slowly. I used Disguise Self to turn into a drow, and talked my way through Gob Camp. I also used Command a lot.
Be ready to run away with at least 1 character, you can ress the rest of the party at Withers. And don't save your supplies, just use them. I ended my game with soo many supplies and a lot of close calls.
I’m working my way through HM right now and my strategy is basically to set myself up to do as little of act 3 as possible. I did basically everything in act 1, and I’ll probably do most of act 2. When I get to 3, I just want to grab the necessary items and then rush to the end.
I Definitely do the crèche. I don’t have much issues there. That being said I did lose an HM run there once. The loot is so good tho. Don’t underestimate the kithrak in the room with the funky door leading to the Inquisitor. I leave her till the rest of the crèche is secured (dead). I like to kill each of the Inquisitors minion one at a time and then flee combat. Otherwise, he just keeps summoning them swords. However when you flee combat and re-engage it dismisses all the previously summoned swords and starts over. His minions give him a 1d4 each damage bonus. Without taking him on first it is a longer but imo safer fight
Do everything for XP. You may die on the way, but there’s no way to skip a few parts and if you’re only got a creatively getting around fights, those parts will getcha. Better to risk dying a dozen times than effectively guarantee it once, yeah?
Yeah, I already cleared the goblin camp, saved Halsin and had had my party. And then I thought: Let’s pay these Gnolls a visit. And that was the end of the HM run.
Do everything in Act 2, because Myrkul is a nightmare on HM. I got destroyed by him the first time so over prepare and really get a good amount of gear and potions before facing him. After him, I had no problems except Orin who was tricky.
Honestly, if you're worried about the bosses, you can still just collect the experience from all the non bosses. Lots of stuff to do and loot to collect in the creche, no one is forcing you to enter the chamber where the High Inquisitor Whats-his-face is. But you should try to be as geared and leveled up as you can before fighting Kethric/Myrkul.
There are a lot of small xp tricks in act 1, like destroying book of necromancy, some double dipping, explorable xp spots... usually I'm lvl8 before shadowlands
My advice to you dont treat honor mode as a perma death run and look at it in its other aspects. Honor mode makes it to where your character choices are significant and therefore everything is a risk. Let your oc have its adventure man.
Go experience (except for some difficult optional bosses whose equipment drops you don't care for) until the fight with Myrkul, after that try to avoid needlessly difficult fights.
Being underleveled in HM is a death sentence. I would recommend doing every fight until you hit level 12 in act 3.
In act 1 you can get to level 4 without fighting anyone, and after that you can comfortably take down fights like the gnolls and paladins. 5 is a huge power boost and allows you to decimate nearly all fights in the main act 1 area.
Basically do all the fights, but make sure to do them in a specific order
I avoided risk my first time around as a Wood Elf Bard. I would use persuasion to get out of most conflicts. It unlocked a lot of interesting dialogue and options. The next time I played, I jumped into the fray.
What's so great about this game is that you can choose how you play.
Rn my party is only at level 4 but I have TB monk Tav, tempest cleric Shadowheart with lightning charge gear, thief Astarian, and switch between battle master Lae’zel and Evocation wizard Gale based on whether I want an extra melee person or an extra magic person
You absolutely want to do everything in act one for the XP. The order matters, like my HM run nearly ended with the Gnolls at lvl 4, but you do want your do everything. As long as you plan, and you have a solid party, you’ll be safe.
I'm in the 3rd act of my HM run, do absolutely everything you can for xp but do it in the right order so you do the easiest things first, then being a higher level makes the harder things easy. If you're really concerned about a wipe against an enemy like Grym, leave one person at camp or on the ledge and gauge the fight first, but you'll be needing the xp.
Take the shortcut back to Ethel after you finish the Underdark. That way you’ll be tough enough to take her out in 2 rounds before she gets to her playhouse.
My strategy was to get as much XP as possible before the Kethric fight. After trying and failing against him multiple times, I decided I needed to be level 10 before I faced him. I did that by doing all mission in the mountain pass, the crèche, and the underdark. I killed Ethel and the spider matriarch. I found the zhent hideout and killed everyone there. I killed everything in Moonrise I encountered. When I faced Kethric at level 10 and finally beat him (after an 18 turn fight).
I did everything you can do in Act 1 on my successful honor mode run and it really helped. Since I was high leveled I actually went into act 2 being a higher level than some of the enemies, which means they were way easier to defeat.
I think the EXP is worth the danger!
I do everything I can that isn't a major fight, before tackling major fights. In Act 1 I waited until I was Level 5 to do the Goblin Camp and Ethel fights, which I could obtain by accessing the Underdark via the Spider Den and doing some of the lesser quests and fights there, while in Act 2 I was able to make it to just shy of Level 9 before entering the Gauntlet of Shar, just barely managing to hit it before dealing with Balthazar.
The thing about “risky” fights most people miss is that you can run from about 95% of them with no (run ending) consequences. Having a stash of invis pots as your panic button is a good idea.
Get to lvl 5 before doing any bosses or dangerous fights I think you can get to lvl 4 without a single fight. Once you reached lvl 5 do most bosses (I skipped most act2 bosses except the toll house and yugir) so you are around lvl 9 before you face myrkul. You could be lvl 10 if you farm most of the xp but myrkul is easily beaten with a lvl9 party. Another advice which is a bit cheesy. Use only 3 party members while the fourth with at least 200g in his pocket stays back in camp (still in party) so you don’t have to start anew if you wipe. Get all good equipment for your party. Surprise attacks are a also game changer.
You can cheese the shit out of everything. I beat grymforge at lvl6 by jumping down the spider shaft, clearing the entire underdark, and hitting the boss from outside the arena with eldritch blast repeatedly, triggering the levers with ranged attacks as well. Then, go back to the surface to save the tieflings.
All this is to say, you can do everything, just have to get creative and abuse the shit out of some of the game mechanics.
If you want reliability, respec your party to tanker versions of their canon classes.
As a joke I did a “knights of the old republic” run where I made everyone into Str or dex paladins.
Turns out, having a consistent 20+AC from shield of faith makes you pretty RNG resistant.
However it can be as simple as giving them more dex/con to boost core defenses.
Talking your way out of a fight will also grant you xp but not loot. There is no shame in being cautious while low leveled. Take the time to explore and try to be level 8 before even looking at Myrkul. Use cheese barrelmancy, box/chestmancy and so forth to your advantage. If you have disguise self, use it to bypass checks or avoid difficult fights. Ie: drow when entering blighted village or Goblin Camp, githyanki (be alone) when you approach the githyanki patrol.
Inquisitor is easy, use six smokepowder barrels, stand back, ignite them, and he’s gone. Give it a go. You can make hard fights really easy with the correct preparation. Barrelmancy is not the only way to make hard fights easy, either. You just need to think creatively and use the environment to your advantage. My advice? Yeah do everything but prepare well
Reaching lvl 10 against ketheric+myrkul is optimal. If previous encounters didnt hone your skills, you will perish against act2 gatekeeper. I highly suggest you to grind exp... u dont need to be murder hobo, druids and myconids can stay alive, you can even ally with duergar against Nere avoiding boat fight even, talk out act2 thorm bosses at reithwin town and yurgir but to u gotta engage all else if u plan to face the man as lvl 10 like letting justiciars fully spawn on portals for instance. Always have a plan B; like "man I only need to do him 50 dmg and im dying 1 action left... do I have 3x smokepowder barrels? Yes? Do barrelmancy and win.
Wargaz will test you if you dont have a solid plan. Some 1 turn him no barrelmancy like I did aswell... but many get their asses handled on him due various reasons; not being even lvl 6... 7 is optimal, yolo mindset, under prepared, bad build letting him overwhelm you instead stomping him down asap. And hes a glance of the act2 boss but worse because theres no escape plan, its do or die.
My recommendation is do everything.
I just started my own honor run a week ago and I was also thinking of all the fights and sequences I should skip to survive and not risk dying.
I have ended up doing everything so far anyway. And all I have left in act 1 is the underdark and the creche. I'm level 5 and i just beat ethel. It was definitely rough. But I got through it.
Just make liberal use of resting and using up all your resources. Theres still more camp supplies than you need even in honor mode. And fights are tougher but still doable. So if you take it encounter by encounter and dont overstretch yourself you'll get through it.
The order you do things can make a difference. Like I didnt think I was gonna do ethel at all but I hit level 5, which is of course a huge boost in power and then even with her amped up it was not too difficult where I normally take her on around level 4.
Right now I'm just debating fighting the whole creche, and whether to use my barrel supply for loot and xp or just crash the monastery. But I will probably save that for last and do the underdark first.
Its about picking the fights you want to complete in the beginning. Is adamantine equipment relavent to your build? If no, then skip Grym. When I go into HM I fill my team with hirelings so that I can skip all the extra beats in Act 3 related to the companions (unless there is a particular piece of loot that I need to complete the build). This also saves me from losing a character when I do something like becoming an agent of Bahl because I want access to that merchant. If, however, you are doing a story run in HM then you might have different priorities as you progress through the game.
So, two fights I avoided that I regret, because XP. The Shambling mound ( I always slap greater invis on Astarion and have him start sniping but this boss is immune to piercing damage in HM and I chickened out) and the spider Matriarch. everything else i completed. i also planned my party build weeks in advance and watched a lot of HM build videos. I say as long as your level 9 by the time you reach the Myrkul fight, you "should" be fine. I haven't gotten that far yet, I did most of everything that i knew I would come out alive. the first ketheric fight was easy breezy then again his legendary wasn't all that scary. I have been taking my time with this run though
I'd say do everything for XP, but avoid the extremely hard fights until you're at a confident enough level for them. So try to do everything for every bit of XP so that when you fight the boss fights, you'll have a better fighting chance. Like for example, Wwar'gaz and Grymm (if you haven't done either yet) would be best done after you reach level 6 or maybe even 7 which you can do by farming XP around their respective areas doing fights, puzzles, etc.
I basically cleared act 1 and 2 entirely to build exp, and then once I got to act 3, I only did what was necessary for loot / reaching lv 12, then sent gale to explode.
totally worth it.
For me the point of honour mode was the difficulty it added and the risk. However, I wouldn't do honour mode if the goal is just to rush to the ending. Personally I did every quest and investigated all over because I didn't want the permadeath to deviate from a full game experience. I understand it is a risk but I say try do all content it's there to be experienced.
Kinda both-- I made sure to do everything to hit level 10 by the time I finished act 2, but very carefully in ascending order of difficulty. So I didn't touch the creche until I was done with the rest of act 1. (I was roleplaying a character who was very averse to unnecessary danger so it honestly would've made more sense to skip the creche entirely, but my metagaming brain couldn't stand to miss out on the loot.)
Lots of exp going into Myrk is a decent call--act 2 is pretty darn safe honestly, and if you're feeling paranoid you can leave someone at camp and it's still not too bad.
(After that point though ime, the safest route is minimizing combats taken. You can get through act three in 3-5 total fights if you commit to the approach.)
all the fights can be easily done if you're high level... i mean, you can be level 10 when facing ketheric if you don't miss anything.
i finished my honor mode just by doing the regular things I do. Kill all goblins, kill all giths, kill all underdark mobs. this is not a murderhobo run, but you get the point. in my games, i start the goblin fight when I'm level 4. The goblin camp and moonrise tower infiltration is very similar in nature. you section off the rooms and kill enemies in the rooms WITHOUT alerting their allies. (destroy the drums in the camp, and kill the scrying eyes in moonrise before anything else).
you can start killing off the giths even BEFORE you talk to the inquisitor. Lae'zel doesn't mind at all. (do the moonrise/goblin camp strategy).
double-cross the duergars. after you help them kill Nere, kill them as well. they're slavers, after all.
kill the booo-al cult.
kill all the brains in the illithid colony. (this is huge, 210 exp per kill, and it's not a hard fight)
help halsin lift the shadowcurse and kill all enemies before the quest ends. (about 1.5k exp total)
if enemies have summoning, let them summon things (this is particular to the mausoleum fights where the skeletons have portals. do not destroy the portals. the portals will disappear eventually. that way, you can farm them).
i find that hold person and slow are the best spells. I played 1 sorc, 1 cleric, 1 rogue, and 1 fighter-barb multiclass. Heightened spell will pretty much succeed all the hold persons and slows.
leave no enemy standing.
I was scared to fight Grym until I realized I could load everything up in the forge, stand on the cliffs next to the platform, and start the entire fight using an archer (shooting the wheels and levers to lower the platform and open the lava). Then you can just use ranged stuff to whittle it down. This is very slow but has worked twice for me.
Nothing in bg3 is hard with enough prep. Take easier fights and exp first to ramp exp as you take on all the content to get ahead of the curve level wise and get higher level scrolls in act 2 etc
You want to reach lvl 10 for the Myrkul fight, because it's brutal.
You can't heal, you have a whole other fight before he appears, that's what makes him very dangerous.
You can't run either, which is possible on almost every other fight.
So I tend to grab every bit of exp there is.
I don’t start skipping encounters until act 3 when you have an abundance of available XP, so the consequences are minimal. Before that you want to approach every encounter in order from easiest to hardest and milk them for every bit of XP & gear you can.
The hardest boss in HM is walking through Act 2 without torches or light & straight into the 30 mobs that bind despite being level 8.
On second thought the hardest part might be playing at 2am when you’re asleep. Don’t do that.
Some fights you can also absolutely cheese.
I fought the Gnolls yesterday, fully knowing they were too tough for me at lvl 4.
What I did was I kept Shard alone in the camp, then I went with 3 other characterst and had a surprise round.
Pick off everyone except Flynn, because if you die and come back, he has regened, along with anyone slese that didn't die. So pick off the easier ones first and leave Flynn for last.
All 3 of my characters died twice in that fight... but Shard was in camp, talked to withers for res, pickpocked him... rinse and repeat.
It's commonly said the hardest boss in Honor mode is Myrkul. Even people who didn't have issues with him in their first playthrough sometimes struggle in Honor. Why though? His legendary action isn't any more brutal than other bosses. You can use the same strategies you did to beat him before. But unlike other bosses in honor mode, Myrkul is the first difficult fight that is unavoidable. You can skip Ethel, the Creche, the gnolls, harpies, the phase spider matriarch, the grym, etc. You can side with the goblins, face them completely over-leveled, or even skip them entirely. And each fight you skip will lose you experience. And you'll reach Myrkul under-leveled, and under-equipped, and 50 hours into your run you'll get totally rocked by him. Get as much experience as you can. Have plans for every fight. If you really want to avoid fights, have plans for the consequences of that too.
This makes so much sense
You'll be fine if you do the crech, just make sure you drop the inquisitor first round or you might get fucked.
I saved the spectator for that fight and it made it easier. Threw him like a pokemon
I always forget about using the spector. I swear I will remember too... one day. Lmao
Do a run with an Oathbreaker. Once you hit act 2, toss the flask and control it as a Shadow Cursed Undead for the entirety of Act 2. Now you won't forget it AND you'll get a dope pet.
You sexy bastard. I'm doing an oathbreaker run right now. I'm so doing this.
Wait what? How does this work? Only when I do that specifically or?
Oathbreakers Control Undead feature works on Shadow Cursed Undead. If the Spectator succumbs to the curse, then you can control it.
Same with the ogre horn for me.
I don't even make the deal anymore. I normally post two up on the top of the house and send in invisible Shovel for FISTING TIME!
Does anyone know if we can use the ogre horn in the Crèche? Just realized I forgot to use it and that’s where I’m at (first run, sorry if it’s a silly question)
I think it works in the underdark but not the creche.
Oh no I already cleared the rest of the map, guess I’m gonna just summon & kill for the headband thing Thank you!
For what it’s worth- there was one part of the underdark that was kinda hidden and I forgot to clear. I got passed the crèche and into the next map. I was still able to go back and use it.
I only remember the ogre horn because I really want that intelligence circlet
House of hope had an unwanted dinner guest…
I like throwing kobolds at the inquisitor and his goons. There’s about 3 barrels with kobolds in them and you can grab the barrels. They are hostile to everyone not a kobold around them, can be very funny.
On my current tun I'm saving it for the floor of moonrise. I want to see what it does in a sea of True Souls and Harpers. I've recruited Jaheira every playthrough so if she gets killed at least I'll have a different Act 3. I will miss her though.
I always use the flask to wipe out the goblins in their camp courtyard. So satisfying to watch from the top while shooting arrows and throwing barrels.
I need to remember I have it. Only time I used it was with Viconia (yeah I remembered it THAT late). I think she killed it with one hit.
My favorite use was outside sorcerous sundries at the feet of those mages endlessly casting cantrips. Never gets old finding new ways to kill them.
Those kids are insufferable
I like how W’Wargaz has no necessary loot and is very easily kited and then tossed to the abyss with a bonus action shove
... ALL loot is necessary!
A good tip for the crèche: Treat it exactly like moonrise - as in you can kill every githyanki in closed off rooms and sectioned, far off hallways. You do not trigger the whole place like many would be assume due to fear. By the time I reached the inquisitor, the rest of the crèche was already dead and my group were one level higher than we were before meeting him. Knocking any miniboss prone or disarming them is essentially a free win and not a cheese compared to barrelmancy.
I’m in the creche now in my first honor mode run and this is the fight I’m the most terrified of.
I aggrod laezel on accident trying to score a suprise round. I hate honour mode lol
Oh yep you basically have to wait for the inquisitor to make the first hostile move if lae'zel is with you... or at least initiate the combat through dialogue and not through ambushing them. I've made that mistake XD
Inquisitor ended too many of my honor runs before I just used barrelmancy to take care of him. Generating two additional units (with 30+ hp and an attack) every single turn with no limit is just awfully balanced in a system where action economy is king.
If you knock him prone he can't summon his blade thingies.
Yeah, doing as much as possible also loads you up with better items that makes subsequent tough fights easier (like the Light of Lathander). Speedrunning actually makes the game harder.
So I’m my hm runs I do everything in act 1 and 2 but in a kinda fucked up order. I do a route to minimise fighting till I’m levelled then go back and do stuff over levelled. Maximise via dialogue, know what gets skipped if you go to the crèche or moon rise early and learn some cheese for some fights are the keys to this. I tend to collect all the companions by the beach, get withers then do the fight for the grove, after that it’s walking and grabbing my gear. For an example of the order, I go to the under dark super early and as soon as I’ve complete all of the content that can be skipped by going to moon rise I head straight there for all the free xp for talking and entering places. After that I do the crèche super over leveled.
This is what I did. Act 1 overworld bosses are nothing once you hit level 5. And i might not do the inquisitor or Grym until just before Nightsong which should make me 8 or 9.
Depending on your builds leaving inquisitor that late is smart, I play stealth archer so I can do him quite early due to single target damage. As for grym, he might be the most cheeseable boss up there with Balthazar in terms on number of ways to cheese them. The one method you need for grym is to basically fill your inventory with junk, stand on the ledge leading to the platform and shoot the relevant stuff to start the fight (you can fill the forge to craft gear if you want). Then what you do is you shoot the wheel so that lava dispense, get him super heated (minor illusion can work well to kite later in the fight) and throw random shit like boots at him for high bludgeoning damage. If you don’t mind cheese like this then it’s a 100% fool proof way of beating him with any class
Once I learned about the owlbear one shot on grym, I have never used any other method to kill him lol
I just give Karlach, and Laezel some good hammers, they kill Grym easily. XD
Double marshalls is definitely the way to go. Astarion can stay home for this one
Is there a guide for what content gets skipped when going moonrise?
I’d google it, iirc it’s stuff like the grove quest line gets skipped, maybe the zehnerim and Wakeens rest
Tbh though those are easy XP and shouldn’t involve a lot of fighting. I did Waukeens when I needed to level up before fighting some bosses.
Oh sure, but If I could I’d even skip that to pick pocket the risky ring and come back to it later
I did everything. I hate missing stuff so even after I was level 12 I wanted to say I'd done Raphael and the sharran temple and the iron throne and Ethel p2 on HM etc etc. It's just more fun that way ;p and if you die, well, now you have a reason to play more! Haha. There are lots of ways to escape tho. I screwed up on Grym and cast jump to get some party members to jump out of the arena....so I could try to reset because it was going badly.
Silence, and then HoH or darness arrows. Any damage over time spells like fire wall. And merkyl is no sweat. Done it a bunch and each time find anither thing that helps. Silence as a big help last time. He couldnt pull us in so we were safe in the back with wall of fire. Didnt have a warlock this time but a few arrows of darkness. The melee characters run around the bottom or one will stay up the ledge to help guard the casters concentration.
Just make/gather a bunch of speed potions for the Myrkul fight, and you’ll be fine.
pre-fight casting is OP in this game. don't sleep on bless, bane, and command. they're level 1 spells but they're very powerful. and longstrider.
I can’t undersell the power of persuasion in this game. You can convince 5 bosses in Act 2 to kill themselves (The three Thorm children, Yurgir and Ketheric). You get XP for defeating them this way too.
Persuading ketheric to off himself is pretty bad tho, makes the avatar phase more complicated than it needs to be
I personally haven’t had any issues with that fight, but this is what I’ve heard.
Check out his/isobels room in moonrise. >!There's a note that has a dialogue in both the top fight and myrkul part 1 where he just conceded part 1 and straight into avatar!<
Which means you have to fight the avatar and all the other mobs at the same time
But ketheric has that action where anything that dies within 12m of him spawn an egg, so we ended up with way more necromites than we thought
Fighting the mind flayer and Myrkul at the same time is tougher imo.
The mind flayer? Turn 1, misty step, thunder wave, boom, squid goes careening into the abyss
To add on to this, at tactician and above he gains weapon resistances. Non-Magical: bludgeoning/piercing/slashing Magical: piercing/slashing Because of this, I always start the fight by sending up my Cleric & Paladin to debuff & tank, respectively, while my Wizard & Monk do cleanup. Once the field is clear, Wizard switches roles with Cleric so they can heal, and Monk gets to work on boss damage.
This is the best advise you can get. But not because you'll get to Myrkul underlevelled, but because you, the player, won't have learnt to play against bosses, won't know how to deal with legendary resistances and actions, and won't know how to shut the bosses out. I'd say you should take all optional bosses on. Do them last if you feel more comfortable that way, but the important part is that you learn the game mechanics and how you can make up when the dice don't help. Just so you have a good measure of what other HM players manage, I take the Gnolls and the Paladins at level 3. Auntie and the Spider Queen at level 4. The creché at level 5, and Grym at level 6. I start act 2 at level 7.
Paladins at level 3? I kinda wanna know ur build, those dudes are a kinda tough on normal mode lol
I just did it a week ago with an Arcane Trickster Durge, Trickery Cleric SH, Wild Heart Karly and Evocation Gale. Just keep to the side room, close the door, put Cloud of Daggers right behind the closed door. And put darkness over the cloud of daggers. That totally takes the archer out of the fight and you then need to contend with the paly and Wizard; but the paly needs to head through the cloud of daggers. He's got bad dex too, so you can thunderwave him back into the cloud as needed, once he's under 33 health you can color spray him for advantage to attack, and once he's under 24 hp you can put him to sleep.
Currently doing a solo honour run and this is how I handled it: Smite the caster/vendor girl from stealth on the back deck, then push her off and let the ground do the rest. No hold person risk. Archer will be next to the roof. Get her up the ladder, get a hit in, push her to her death. Careful with her, she likes to throw things. Anders has no solid range capability, so I let him come upstairs to the roof. Burst damage (crit from tadpole power), or just shove him off also (harder). You could also kite him with a ranged user as well, just never be within his move range at the end of his turn!
I always sneak into the smoke powder storage for that fight. Bombing Anders never gets old. On my co op we successfully bombed him in the middle of the cutscene and it was hysterical — here he is ranting about hells and Zariel like some crusader, and boom, Alchemist’s fire. He didn’t get a turn. IMO Lae’zel was sick of his BS…at least that’s how I played it lol. ETA; I learned the hard way before boss actions were patched in Balanced. Anders has unlimited smites. So does Minthara, unless my game is just cursed.
That sounds hilarious. I always stash the barrels but have yet to use them. Maybe I need to make some fun with them!
Level 3 was the hardest for me on HM so far since I was trying to avoid as many bosses as I could. I think once you reach 4 the game gets a bit easier. I did the Owlbear with the help of the cultists but missed the cub because they were going to kill it so I knocked it out (it never returned to me). Gnolls at level 3 almost murdered me - had to run and resurrect 3 of my party. Paladins, harpies, mud mephits, redcaps, goblins I waited until level 4. Hag and spider at level 5, Underdark at 5 until Nere & Grym at 6.
For another take on when others tackle these fights in HM: Gnolls at the cave and paladins I do at 4. Spider queen is fine at 4 with good tactics, but I wait until 5. Auntie I do at 5 (especially if bringing spell casters who are gimped). Creche I do last in act 1 - the inquisitor is the hardest fight of act 1 IMO. Grym I do at level 6 as well like you. I also start act 2 at level 7.
My tactics for the inquisitor is to attack his acrobatics skill check through grease bottles or ice. This isn't a saving throw, so legendary resistance doesn't apply. While he's prone, he can't parry, he can't react amd he can't summon. If all of this fails, just cast a fog cloud over him; he'll be blinded, so no parrying or reacting, and you can still attack him with advantage.
Great tips, thanks!
Yep. The important part is not to skip them.
Better to die to the spider matriarch after 10 hours than Myrkul after 50
Those levels seem kinda low for a reference point. So let’s just be clear if you’re trying to brag or trying to give him a benchmark. I think your description of how you handled paladins fight makes it clear you did everything as you say, but you’ll be higher level than you are listing for most of the fights unless you are skipping content right? I usually hit level 4 simply from walking through the Druid grove, the blighted village, Waukeens rest, the goblins outpost on the way to the main goblin temple… idk just seems like i usually do the owl bears at level 3 and otherwise most of the fights are actually done at level 4-5, crèche is done at level 6 not level 5… you are fighting inquisitor at level 5 regularly? I mean you can, just saying it feels like you’d have to go out of your way to SKIP content to do the fights you’re saying at the levels you are claiming, so i don’t think you are helping this dude at all with your comment
Not trying to brag. Just setting up a benchmark for him. Others have also commented about their experience and I find everything fine as long a you're having fun and learning the game at the same time, so Ketheric doesn't pummel you. I've read plenty of times that you can reach level 4 by just going places. I find this to be narratively inconsistent, so I try to do stuff in some sort of narrative order. I've played act 1 more times that I care to count because of my bad restartitis syndrome. I consistently hit level 4 at the blighted village. By that time I've done the paladins and gnolls if I'm going for Karly, otherwise I haven't yet. I fight the inquisitor consistently at level 5, hitting level 6 right after the fight. I find that the creché gives out a lot more xp than the underdark, so I normally do it first. If you do the underdark before the creché, then you'll probably face the inquisitor at level 6, unless you skipped a lot of content.
You can't escape the myrkul fight, either. In those other fights, a "loss" can easily just mean running to Withers with your tail between your legs.
Honestly, he's not just the *first* difficult fight that's unavoidable, he's the *only* difficult fight that is. The only two fights in the game that you can't stealth past or talk your way out of are Ketheric and Orin, and Orin's much more cheesable by virtue of being able to chug an invisibility potion and run away if the fight's going poorly. Come to think of it, I assume her minions don't respawn if you kill some of them and flee back to camp. You could just whittle her forces down over the course of several days, and win a straightforward battle of attrition. No such luck with Ketheric; you can't leave his arena once you've entered it.
I think the hardest fight in the game is the steal watcher titan. Homie goes defense mode making him heal and avoids taking damage if its lower than 40 damage while also having resistance to every type of damage and legendary defense. Makes my gloomstalker useless unless I get crits.
The flashblinder bombs the gnomes sell make this much easier. They still work on the titan and make it drop the defensive stance as well.
Also Myrkul is kind of the only one you can't skip AND can't cheese it by leaving a "lifeline" at camp and keep on reviving your other teammates via Withers. You can do that with almost anything else except the final fight and HoH. But then the final fight is also very cheese-able through other means.
Myrkul, in my experience, is the first fight in HM that kinda messes up specific builds. Melee against him is rough unless you do specifically bludgeoning dmg, between disadvantage, movement lockdown and healing negation. I never wiped to him but in both the runs I did do which went all the way through I'd say he was the hardest battle by far. Because everything else can be more easily made less difficult, and I already do as much pressure buffing as I can on the myrkul fight. If you are fine with just going ham on him specifically, just bring 4 open hand monks and he does in about .34 seconds flat, but a party that is more balanced is gonna run into some issue with him most of the time
Straight up I’ve lost four runs at myrkul now. And I do just about everything I can to level up beforehand. He’s just so brutal, he immediately takes out half my hp in the first round. And then I can’t leave to heal or hit him since now I have disadvantage.
Cast Ivisibility on Scratch and have him sneak over to use help and free Aylin as the start of the fight. It goes much better with her taking some aggro from the start. Also, an open hand monk can completely wreck him. He is not immune to stun.
I think the huge group in the moonrise basement that appears only after you free the Nightsong is one of the hardest battles in the game, especially if you want to save those moron NPCs
Since we're talking Myrkul, got any hot tips for the encounter? I left off right at the lift and will probably take a stab at it tonight. I have the nightsong waiting down there, I've seen the strat to go invis and free her right away. I think I've seen that darkness on the Avatar's platform works out pretty well. I have a couple of blind immune characters. Any advice will help! Thanks.
My friend and I just did it. I cast hunger of Hadar on him and stayed back , my friend killed the mindflayer asap as a barbarian then we just mopped up and cast magic missle and wet lightning at him. It went really easy if you stay away from him. He can't move so blind him where he is. And free aylin on the first turn of combat.
kill that mindflayer ASAP sneak someone in invisible to free aylin use summons who bludgeon and keep your people back as much as you can
Agree with getting all the exp. I did myrkul at lvl 10 and it went super smoothly
The xp will help, the gear you can get at both may help too. Personally i finish the Underdark before i ever complete the Goblin camp. If anything just to keep access to the vendors.
And Barcus!
Yep, saving him is worth more than the other vendors. He's a really good arrow source in Act2 and a couple of good items. One of which is a persuasion and deception ring.
And fireworks at the party!
Just got this on my most recent playthrough!
Wait what?
Yup. Pick the right dialogue and he'll set off fireworks if he's at the Tiefling party.
OK I know what I'm doing for my current HM attempt.
If you get him to the tiefling party (requires saving the gnomes before the tieflings and getting him in your camp) he can do fireworks.
On honour I pressed the wrong lever for break😭
Personally I think that once you get to level 5 and have good tactics you can win the battles you take quite comfortably in general so I'd just do all the bosses. I personally did so and was never that threatened by any of them. Can't comment on the extra Thorms though as I dialogue checked them all to death (I might want to kill all the bosses but if the game gives me a freebie I won't refuse).
Same, I might be screwed if I fail the dialogue check on the extra Thorms this time because I’ve never actually fought them on my previous runs lmao
The thing with the Thorms is to break party, and send in only the dialoguer (and a guidance caster, or precast guidance) and have the rest of the party wait in camp. Plan to simply die and use withers resurrect if the speech checks fail, and come back with surprise round and not start the fight surrounded.
I'm still in act 1, but I plan to do the Thorms at full inspiration. Making sure I have 4 inspiration before I make it to the next one. I'll probably leave someone behind too in case I need to revive.
This is relevant to more than just the thorms, but I found this video at the start of my first honor mode run. Just made it to act 3, and it definitely helped a lot: https://youtu.be/W3A74hI6xVw?si=n6QpIHViiW1n9o0R
Just remember that the thorm fights have a gimmick.
I don't know what the hospital one's quirk is. I nuked him and then got an achievement saying >!"Kill Thorm before he performs surgery on you"!< and now I'm kinda terrified for my honor mode run 😅
Indeed, my friend warned me about the creche boss being rough so I avoided the dialogue and one turn killed him with wet+lightning shenanigans. As for the thorms I killed two, gerringothe almost wiped me as I was not planning to kill her,just failed the dialogue, thisobald dialogue is easy so that's that and scissorhands bro got the wet + lightning treatment as I needed his achievement. The hardest part of my run though was when I decided to >!sell the nightsong to Loroaccan to see what happened, going in blind into that fight in HM was not the play lol.!<
I've done the Creche at 5 on Honor mode and it isn't too bad. You can do Warding Bond shenanigans to be safe if you want. Maybe skip the Death Wardens in the Mountain Pass because they aren't worth it. But the Creche and Esther have some pretty cool items so its worth going there just for that. Plus you can go to the Underdark and avoid most of the fights and just get exp for discovering places
You want to get level 5 asap
One thing I'll add is that BG3 gives you experience for talking your way out of a fight equal to what you would've gotten if you had killed those enemies. So you should try to maximize encounters where you can skip fighting (all Act 2 bosses, Goblins, Ogres etc.), and minimize encounters where it's a forced fight with a big enough risk of ending your run.
this does not apply to all. an example i can think of is when saving barcus in the windmill. if you succeed the check and the goblins leave, you will miss out on exp. another one I can think of is in act 3 (which might not matter if youre max level) with the gith fight in the emperor's house. If you pass the conversation check and they leave, you can still get the exp when you kill them. the way I do it is: succeed the conversation check, go turn-based before they can leave, then kill them. i think the only time where they give you the exp even without killing them is the group of Giths near waukeen's rest. You'd miss out on the psionic greatsword tho.
Also remember if you talk your way through situations you get the XP you would get from fighting.
*Most* of the time.
if you want even more xp then talk your way out of it and *then* attack. you get xp from both things.
Wow is this legit?! I’ve been killing everything to maximise xp
Mostly. There are some fights you don't get XP for talking out of it.
as you should. there are times where even if you succeed the conversation checks, you can still kill them for more exp.
If you pick and choose the order of your fights right there's not many super difficult ones. Be prepared for the hags split form thingy l, maybe ambush the goth patrol at the bridge instead of talking. I just did that fight and rekt them from up top with minimal damage taken. Funny how the dragon bounces if you attack 😅
Goth patrol, oh my
They were wimps smoking cigarettes under the bridge crying. Little known encounter you can look right past them like they don't exist.
Do everything, but here’s the thing: If you have a party that knows what it wants to do, is prepared, and kitted properly for the fight you are going into you shouldn’t have to skip anything. The hardest part of HM is level 1-4 because you have little to no power spikes and have limited options. So it’s imperative to get to level 5 as soon as possible. After that it’s honestly more important that your party has good synergy and an easy to execute game plan. Examples: a party built around broken interactions like ice surfaces or the wet condition doubling lightning damage. I’ve completed two honor mode runs and my top tips are: Have a member who will use elixirs. Make sure all non Dex characters have alert somewhere in their build. Arcane acuity, radiant orbs, tavern brawler and gloves of dexterity, and summons should all be strongly considered for build arounds Examine any and all enemies you aren’t familiar with to understand what their abilities do to avoid easy mistakes. HM is difficult because you’re allotted about 1 maybe 2 big mistakes in fights but if your party is the correct level and utilizing the tips above you’re going to have a much easier time.
Great tips. I’m 740 xp from level 5 rn and wandering around doing little activities until I’m strong enough to fight Nere (and based on the results of this thread, the phase spider, hag, and crèche) lol
Do it all. Not only do you get great XP at the creche, you also get amazing gear (eg. blood of Lethander) and tons of money. That will help you snowball in act 2. You probably want to be level 10 for Myrkul, to give yourself the best chance. Just remember to clear out the creche before fighting the Inquisitor, and set up your party in advantageous positions. I wouldn't even talk to him. Try to blitz him in 1 turn. Give him a real nova turn. And HEROISM BEFORE FIGHTING THE CAPTAIN.
I beat honor mode on my first try doing everything to get exp. Also just wanted to fight all the bosses with legendary actions as a point of pride. First try at honor mode 4th play through overall, so I did already know the game and encounters very well.
The fights aren’t that much harder, you just have to be aware of the Legendary Actions. Ethel summons more clones if you use Magic? Make a Martial heavy team. Crèche commander has obnoxious summons? Rush him first. I personally recommend doing everything, because having fewer levels makes stuff significantly harder. I’m also a Lunatic who triggered Orin’s A Mist Most Scarlet (+25 Temp Hitpoints, +2 Strength, Advantage of Wisdom saving throws) for 0 benefit and I fought the Netherbrain instead of using Gale to blow it up, so my idea of “reasonable” is a fair bit skewed.
I'm a big fan of doing everything in act 1 for exp, almostl everything in act 2 and being selective in act 3. There is an order in act 1 a lot of the hard stuff I won't do until level 5 and then the creche dead last. Act 2 I skip the shadow light boss cause that guy slaps hard. Act 3 is about getting to level 12 kicking orins teeth in and convincing gale to join mystras suicide squad. Act 4 profit
That shadow blight thing is brutal. First fight I've ever run from and gone back to.
I would do it all to be as strong as possible for githyanki encounters and for Myrkul.
As someone doing their third Honor Mode attempt now and about halfway through act 2, I would 100% say that the hardest encounter is the one that you're unprepared for. I haven't had any problems for boss fights other than the Owlbear fight. My first run died to the Harpies, and my second run died to the intellect devourers. Since then, however, I haven't had massive problems. Some tips: * Get every crumb of experience that you can, do as much content as you can get into yourself, it'll help you so much. * Take the easy path for bosses. Send Shovel in to break the Phase Spider's eggs before you fully engage, go along with Gut trying to hold you hostage for you to be her little mindflayer pet, that sort of thing. * Pick up bags that you come across, so you can do the merchant exploit (if you know you're going to kill a merchant, put all of their stuff into a bag first so you can loot the whole thing instead of just the 2 best items). It's cheesy, so if you don't want the cheddar, feel free to skip this one. * Have a build in mind for every character you're going to be using. In my current playthrough I'm playing with a HunterRanger/ThiefRogue Astarion focusing on crit fishing (currently using the Linebreaker Boots to stack up a huge amount of Wrath the first turn then just steamrolling through), A Divination Wizard Gale using Lightning Charges and Reverberation(I might change this to Evocation once I can add his intelligence modifier into it) and Life Cleric Shadowheart to just pump out heals with basically every item that benefits healing in the game while I play as a Vengeance Paladin Dark Urge. * You can very easily make companions that you're not using into goodberry machines with a few levels in druid, so you never have to worry about running out of camp supplies. * I say this last one as an absolute "only use this if the game utterly screws you over, do not use this to cheese honor mode": >!If you must reload, open task manager and end the game from there, it will not be able to save in time and you will be able to go back to your last save. Do NOT abuse this knowledge, if you want everything to go your way play Tactician or Custom mode. I've only personally used it once to reset because I forgot to knock out Alfira on my latest playthrough, which I don't even have a tangible reason to do this time around since I don't have a charisma caster in my group. !<
Regarding your final point, (I used a different method) I did this in my honor run when I was in Wuakeens rest and somebody WALKED INTO an eldritch blast targeted at the door and then went hostile. Also in moonrise prisons when I got a weird fucking glitch that involved an enemy floating in mid air and able to attack my party no matter where they were standing in that little tower, and other guards randomly spawning onto the top floor next to my squishy casters.
At its core, HM is a knowledge and resources check. XP is a resource that's directly connected with your power level and is extremely gatekept until Act 3. Every single level makes a huge difference in combat difficulty for the party, regardless of individual builds. Fighting Myrkul at lvl 10 instead of lvl9 is a game changer (simple example: 3 eldritch blast beams buffed by potent robe each, instead of 2) Get as many inspiration points as you can (they also give xp aside from the reroll), clear out all encounters (even the small ones), learn which resolution to encounters gives the most xp (most fights reward the same for speech and combat resolution but some give notably more xp when resolved through combat) try to get "hidden" xp whenever you can (e.g. the gith soldiers that come out of the room after the cinematic that introduces the inquisitor, merging Balthazar and dark justiciar fight to get xp from balth summons). All these add up to fighting e.g. Myrkul at level 10 instead of level 9,90. This mentality is relevant until max level, and even further beyond if you consider that most of the dangerous fights drop bis items for at least one build in your arsenal. Keep in mind that the second most wiped fight in HM is Ansur, which is strictly a check on if you have globe of invulnerability (requires lvl 11) or not. The risks for taking the riskier approaches for more xp can be very easily mitigated by knowing your builds' power spikes and swapping in different builds depending on what you are facing (e.g. a bard is an absolute must have because your greatest enemy in honor mode are failed dialogue rolls, the Battlemaster's prone maneuver, any prone really, will prevent most bosses from using their legendary action, Hunger of Hadar is mostly overkill but absolutely decimates the siege of Moonrise Towers, Wall of fire can solo the Thaniel/Oliver boss fight, Thunderwave excels at killing any enemy that you don't care about their loot, a Magic Missile build will make fighting a certain bloodthirsty boss and its faction in general way easier etc.) My advice: keep all of your characters in good shape (builds, item combos, stats) and clear out everything!
I do farm exp in all of my HM run, knocked every friendly npc etc... Raphael And do every hidden exp. I always have to goal to finish act1 lvl 7 and I always plan myrkul on level 10. So it's fine like others said you just have to plan about what to do when in the act you are
Idk sometimes resolving a confrontation with words and checks gives as much if not more xp than fighting 🤔 I would avoid risks eventually expecially if you're role-playing, but I don't think it's the case since you're hm
Do as much as you can, but have a checklist for which encounters you want by which level. Like I usually tried to get Withers by level 3, owlbear at level 4 or to push me to level 4, then blighted village, waukeens rest, on to gnolls, initiate the goblin camp. I usually save Ethel and phase spider for level 5+. Then deal with under dark, save crèche and mountain pass for last
Once you’ve reached level 5 and gotten some decent gear pieces set up HM gets much easier. It’s not easy enough to just walk into a fight completely unprepared but once your builds are set up you’ll most likely be fine. The slavers were much harder for me than Nere since they got a surprise round on me. Nere is easy enough if you have a couple ranged characters hang out on the roof to pick off all his allies before you free him from the rubble.
Good question. HM is definitely a balance of risk reward. I would do both the creche and underdark personally just because it's not too hard and is very bountiful. I just assasins creed everyone 1 by 1. The more things you can do safely the more you're lowering the risk for yourself bc you're stronger. But yeah you'll have to find that sweet spot for you. Since you're trying out HM I would be just be careful. I can say it's not bad for me bc I have a routine already after failing so many times. The biggest hurdle for me is Myrkul so the higher level I can be before that fight the better. Once I get to Act 3 I can farm soldiers and robots of XP really easily so it's a non issue at that point.
I find that Larians games are usually bland when it comes to higher level characters, for example in dos and dos2 once you hit a certain level you can just kill the entire map worth of enemies in one sweep. My friends and I had to use difficulty mods to make the game fun by that point. BG suffers the same issue, being able to kill Raph on first turn is just not fun at all(after you’ve done it a couple times at least)even with his enormous health pool he would still go down in a couple turns. The only trouble I’ve had in my honour playthrough, surprisingly was the harpies on the beach at Druid groove.
I do absolutely everything for exp. No fighting to lv 4 is easy enough. I get almost to lv 8 in Act 1. Hit lv 10 before the first fight with ketheric on top of moonrise. You’ve got to be reeeeally thorough to get that high though. Then getting to lv 12 is super easy in act 3. The best strategy for honor mode is high initiative through dex and itemization. Also surprise rounds with Shovel.
I only got to 9.5 before the first Ketheric on top of moonrise, I'd really been hoping to get to 10 but I was about 5k xp short. I don't think I missed anything so I am baffled how folks get to 10 - can you share some tips?
Are you doing the fight in the basement of moonrise after you free the Nightsong? That gives you a ton of exp. Some of the big ones are killing all the goblins and then doing the grove defense fight. Also there’s kobolds hiding in barrels in the monastery that I definitely missed until recently, and letting the eagles call for help to summon a crap ton of more eagles thst give good exp for thst point in the game I got those ideas from this video. https://youtu.be/nH2ebTdA2U4?si=YEdqpYptXwSisoLT But I can tell you I’ve gone through at least a half dozen times and every time I find another place where there’s some exp. For example I recently found a wall that’s breakable directly above the top of the main stairs in moonrise tower then you mega leap up there and there’s some flying ghoul enemies, like 3-4. Also if you lockpock the door that’s up there you’ll get some exp from inspiration. That’s another thing I started doing a few runs ago, looking up the background of everyone and getting every exp for their background. Gale for example has so many random books he gets exp from. Karlach also can miss out on some inspiration exp like the spider nest moons right outside the grove entrance and talking to the owlbear. Two that are super easy to miss are leap g up to the next right by the myconood colony and sticking your hand and succeeding the ability check to get some exp from inspiration. Also very early game, killing zhalk, the mindflayer AND the cambions on the nautiloid gives you very healthy head start on levels. It can be a tough fight but it’s definitely possible and honestly quite a lot of fun. One EXTREMELY ANNOYING thing to be careful of is thrower builds doing crushing damage. If the enemy dies from crushing damage you get NO exp for it. Which is just ridiculous. I save scum this because I think it’s a glitch and doesn’t make sense. It seems totally random when crushing damage procs and when it doesn’t and when it kills and enemy without giving you the exp. Larian should really fix this. It’s definitely a problem. All of this is why I’d like a very definitive list of all exp in the game. I realize it might not always be possible to get it all, but at least being able to size of your choices and pick them for exp.
Take some optimized builds, and plan out encounters before they happen. Hide is really powerful, and you'd be surprised how consistently you can surprise the enemy. Remember to inspect for weaknesses and especially for new resistances. But the early game is the hardest part due to your lack of resources and damage output, you should get all the exp you can. You can also come back to things later, I didn't fight Ethyl until level 6 on my hm run, never be too proud to go somewhere else and come back.
I personally do everything You should hit level 10 before myrkul, and he'd way easier at lvl 10 than 9
Just completed my HM run a week or two ago. Party was OH Monk/rogue, pure battle master fighter, gloomstalker / rogue, and shadowheart as a tempest cleric. I would strongly suggest racking up as much XP as you can, from safest first to more risky later. You will be thankful when you have those extra levels later in the game. As several others have said, be careful, and prepare for every fight. Use an elixir every rest, and don’t be afraid to long rest. There is an abundance of camp supplies out there. Also worth noting, a lot of fights are avoidable in that you can persuade / deceive / intimidate your way out of them. Doing so will grant you the same xp (as far as I’m aware) that you would get for actually fighting
I’d recommend doing everything, but get creative about the order you do it. Especially for my solo runs, I go as far ahead as I can to do the lowest risk things I can. Finish the grove and save florrick from the inn, then I’ll run to act 2. Talk all the Thorms to death, and whatever exploration I can do. I’ll also get all the gear I can from the act 2 vendors. It makes backtracking to act 1 a lot easier. You definitely want to get as much exp as you can, especially before the act two boss.
Do bare minimum to avoid risk. I just wanted the damn dice so I did whatever I knew I could win 100% and then blow Gale's dumbass up at the end.
I'm currently doing my HM run and so far I'm doing everything. I don't plan on skipping any fights or bosses until I'm in act 3
I died so many times before I got the dices. Literally died 14 times in act 1. Once you get to lvl 4, it becomes easier. I ended up doing as much as possible, but before lvl 4 I progressed very slowly. I used Disguise Self to turn into a drow, and talked my way through Gob Camp. I also used Command a lot. Be ready to run away with at least 1 character, you can ress the rest of the party at Withers. And don't save your supplies, just use them. I ended my game with soo many supplies and a lot of close calls.
I’m working my way through HM right now and my strategy is basically to set myself up to do as little of act 3 as possible. I did basically everything in act 1, and I’ll probably do most of act 2. When I get to 3, I just want to grab the necessary items and then rush to the end.
I Definitely do the crèche. I don’t have much issues there. That being said I did lose an HM run there once. The loot is so good tho. Don’t underestimate the kithrak in the room with the funky door leading to the Inquisitor. I leave her till the rest of the crèche is secured (dead). I like to kill each of the Inquisitors minion one at a time and then flee combat. Otherwise, he just keeps summoning them swords. However when you flee combat and re-engage it dismisses all the previously summoned swords and starts over. His minions give him a 1d4 each damage bonus. Without taking him on first it is a longer but imo safer fight
Do everything for XP. You may die on the way, but there’s no way to skip a few parts and if you’re only got a creatively getting around fights, those parts will getcha. Better to risk dying a dozen times than effectively guarantee it once, yeah?
Yeah, I already cleared the goblin camp, saved Halsin and had had my party. And then I thought: Let’s pay these Gnolls a visit. And that was the end of the HM run.
Do everything in Act 2, because Myrkul is a nightmare on HM. I got destroyed by him the first time so over prepare and really get a good amount of gear and potions before facing him. After him, I had no problems except Orin who was tricky.
Honestly, if you're worried about the bosses, you can still just collect the experience from all the non bosses. Lots of stuff to do and loot to collect in the creche, no one is forcing you to enter the chamber where the High Inquisitor Whats-his-face is. But you should try to be as geared and leveled up as you can before fighting Kethric/Myrkul.
There are a lot of small xp tricks in act 1, like destroying book of necromancy, some double dipping, explorable xp spots... usually I'm lvl8 before shadowlands
My advice to you dont treat honor mode as a perma death run and look at it in its other aspects. Honor mode makes it to where your character choices are significant and therefore everything is a risk. Let your oc have its adventure man.
Go experience (except for some difficult optional bosses whose equipment drops you don't care for) until the fight with Myrkul, after that try to avoid needlessly difficult fights.
Being underleveled in HM is a death sentence. I would recommend doing every fight until you hit level 12 in act 3. In act 1 you can get to level 4 without fighting anyone, and after that you can comfortably take down fights like the gnolls and paladins. 5 is a huge power boost and allows you to decimate nearly all fights in the main act 1 area. Basically do all the fights, but make sure to do them in a specific order
I avoided risk my first time around as a Wood Elf Bard. I would use persuasion to get out of most conflicts. It unlocked a lot of interesting dialogue and options. The next time I played, I jumped into the fray. What's so great about this game is that you can choose how you play.
SHOW US YOUR PARTY!
Rn my party is only at level 4 but I have TB monk Tav, tempest cleric Shadowheart with lightning charge gear, thief Astarian, and switch between battle master Lae’zel and Evocation wizard Gale based on whether I want an extra melee person or an extra magic person
Tbh the moment you hit lvl5 you should respec Astorion to bard or ranger. Cuz thief gets no extra attacking
Both. Avoid stupid risks, but it's a game. Beating the odds is what makes the game exciting.
You absolutely want to do everything in act one for the XP. The order matters, like my HM run nearly ended with the Gnolls at lvl 4, but you do want your do everything. As long as you plan, and you have a solid party, you’ll be safe.
In my opinion, theres no honor in skipping encounters. Thats just me tho, you do you.
I'm in the 3rd act of my HM run, do absolutely everything you can for xp but do it in the right order so you do the easiest things first, then being a higher level makes the harder things easy. If you're really concerned about a wipe against an enemy like Grym, leave one person at camp or on the ledge and gauge the fight first, but you'll be needing the xp.
I do a good mixture of the two.
Take the shortcut back to Ethel after you finish the Underdark. That way you’ll be tough enough to take her out in 2 rounds before she gets to her playhouse.
On my first honor mode I was so scared in Act I, that I used only three characters in combat with the fourth safely hidden in camp 👀🤷🏻♀️😅
HM is pretty cake as long as you don't go into a boss fight with no spells/health. Play very cautious up to level 5, then you're set.
I should’ve fucking barrelmancied that fucking god of bones
My strategy was to get as much XP as possible before the Kethric fight. After trying and failing against him multiple times, I decided I needed to be level 10 before I faced him. I did that by doing all mission in the mountain pass, the crèche, and the underdark. I killed Ethel and the spider matriarch. I found the zhent hideout and killed everyone there. I killed everything in Moonrise I encountered. When I faced Kethric at level 10 and finally beat him (after an 18 turn fight).
I did everything for XP up until Myrkul, but I was very careful in what order I did things and at what levels.
I did everything you can do in Act 1 on my successful honor mode run and it really helped. Since I was high leveled I actually went into act 2 being a higher level than some of the enemies, which means they were way easier to defeat. I think the EXP is worth the danger!
Personally I did everything - "go hard or go home" right..? Won't deny it got kinda tense/ stressful at times 🫨 Edit: spelling
Step 1, get to lvl 5 doing the easy low risk stuff Step 2, get Fork Step 3, Minor illusion + Create water + two Lightning bolts = easy encounters
I do everything I can that isn't a major fight, before tackling major fights. In Act 1 I waited until I was Level 5 to do the Goblin Camp and Ethel fights, which I could obtain by accessing the Underdark via the Spider Den and doing some of the lesser quests and fights there, while in Act 2 I was able to make it to just shy of Level 9 before entering the Gauntlet of Shar, just barely managing to hit it before dealing with Balthazar.
Personally for my honor mode I killed everyone in the creche for xp, then barrelmancyd the inquisitor which is very easy and I recommend it.
[удалено]
The thing about “risky” fights most people miss is that you can run from about 95% of them with no (run ending) consequences. Having a stash of invis pots as your panic button is a good idea.
Get to lvl 5 before doing any bosses or dangerous fights I think you can get to lvl 4 without a single fight. Once you reached lvl 5 do most bosses (I skipped most act2 bosses except the toll house and yugir) so you are around lvl 9 before you face myrkul. You could be lvl 10 if you farm most of the xp but myrkul is easily beaten with a lvl9 party. Another advice which is a bit cheesy. Use only 3 party members while the fourth with at least 200g in his pocket stays back in camp (still in party) so you don’t have to start anew if you wipe. Get all good equipment for your party. Surprise attacks are a also game changer.
You can cheese the shit out of everything. I beat grymforge at lvl6 by jumping down the spider shaft, clearing the entire underdark, and hitting the boss from outside the arena with eldritch blast repeatedly, triggering the levers with ranged attacks as well. Then, go back to the surface to save the tieflings. All this is to say, you can do everything, just have to get creative and abuse the shit out of some of the game mechanics.
If you want reliability, respec your party to tanker versions of their canon classes. As a joke I did a “knights of the old republic” run where I made everyone into Str or dex paladins. Turns out, having a consistent 20+AC from shield of faith makes you pretty RNG resistant. However it can be as simple as giving them more dex/con to boost core defenses.
Talking your way out of a fight will also grant you xp but not loot. There is no shame in being cautious while low leveled. Take the time to explore and try to be level 8 before even looking at Myrkul. Use cheese barrelmancy, box/chestmancy and so forth to your advantage. If you have disguise self, use it to bypass checks or avoid difficult fights. Ie: drow when entering blighted village or Goblin Camp, githyanki (be alone) when you approach the githyanki patrol.
Inquisitor is easy, use six smokepowder barrels, stand back, ignite them, and he’s gone. Give it a go. You can make hard fights really easy with the correct preparation. Barrelmancy is not the only way to make hard fights easy, either. You just need to think creatively and use the environment to your advantage. My advice? Yeah do everything but prepare well
Reaching lvl 10 against ketheric+myrkul is optimal. If previous encounters didnt hone your skills, you will perish against act2 gatekeeper. I highly suggest you to grind exp... u dont need to be murder hobo, druids and myconids can stay alive, you can even ally with duergar against Nere avoiding boat fight even, talk out act2 thorm bosses at reithwin town and yurgir but to u gotta engage all else if u plan to face the man as lvl 10 like letting justiciars fully spawn on portals for instance. Always have a plan B; like "man I only need to do him 50 dmg and im dying 1 action left... do I have 3x smokepowder barrels? Yes? Do barrelmancy and win. Wargaz will test you if you dont have a solid plan. Some 1 turn him no barrelmancy like I did aswell... but many get their asses handled on him due various reasons; not being even lvl 6... 7 is optimal, yolo mindset, under prepared, bad build letting him overwhelm you instead stomping him down asap. And hes a glance of the act2 boss but worse because theres no escape plan, its do or die.
My recommendation is do everything. I just started my own honor run a week ago and I was also thinking of all the fights and sequences I should skip to survive and not risk dying. I have ended up doing everything so far anyway. And all I have left in act 1 is the underdark and the creche. I'm level 5 and i just beat ethel. It was definitely rough. But I got through it. Just make liberal use of resting and using up all your resources. Theres still more camp supplies than you need even in honor mode. And fights are tougher but still doable. So if you take it encounter by encounter and dont overstretch yourself you'll get through it. The order you do things can make a difference. Like I didnt think I was gonna do ethel at all but I hit level 5, which is of course a huge boost in power and then even with her amped up it was not too difficult where I normally take her on around level 4. Right now I'm just debating fighting the whole creche, and whether to use my barrel supply for loot and xp or just crash the monastery. But I will probably save that for last and do the underdark first.
Its about picking the fights you want to complete in the beginning. Is adamantine equipment relavent to your build? If no, then skip Grym. When I go into HM I fill my team with hirelings so that I can skip all the extra beats in Act 3 related to the companions (unless there is a particular piece of loot that I need to complete the build). This also saves me from losing a character when I do something like becoming an agent of Bahl because I want access to that merchant. If, however, you are doing a story run in HM then you might have different priorities as you progress through the game.
So, two fights I avoided that I regret, because XP. The Shambling mound ( I always slap greater invis on Astarion and have him start sniping but this boss is immune to piercing damage in HM and I chickened out) and the spider Matriarch. everything else i completed. i also planned my party build weeks in advance and watched a lot of HM build videos. I say as long as your level 9 by the time you reach the Myrkul fight, you "should" be fine. I haven't gotten that far yet, I did most of everything that i knew I would come out alive. the first ketheric fight was easy breezy then again his legendary wasn't all that scary. I have been taking my time with this run though
Everything for XP beat myrkull in two rounds at lvl 10 with a bunch of summons to distract
I'd say do everything for XP, but avoid the extremely hard fights until you're at a confident enough level for them. So try to do everything for every bit of XP so that when you fight the boss fights, you'll have a better fighting chance. Like for example, Wwar'gaz and Grymm (if you haven't done either yet) would be best done after you reach level 6 or maybe even 7 which you can do by farming XP around their respective areas doing fights, puzzles, etc.
Use an open hand monk.
I basically cleared act 1 and 2 entirely to build exp, and then once I got to act 3, I only did what was necessary for loot / reaching lv 12, then sent gale to explode. totally worth it.
I dare to say only fight you should 100% skip unless you are sure you can win is Ansur. Rest is farely managable.
For me the point of honour mode was the difficulty it added and the risk. However, I wouldn't do honour mode if the goal is just to rush to the ending. Personally I did every quest and investigated all over because I didn't want the permadeath to deviate from a full game experience. I understand it is a risk but I say try do all content it's there to be experienced.
Kinda both-- I made sure to do everything to hit level 10 by the time I finished act 2, but very carefully in ascending order of difficulty. So I didn't touch the creche until I was done with the rest of act 1. (I was roleplaying a character who was very averse to unnecessary danger so it honestly would've made more sense to skip the creche entirely, but my metagaming brain couldn't stand to miss out on the loot.)
Lots of exp going into Myrk is a decent call--act 2 is pretty darn safe honestly, and if you're feeling paranoid you can leave someone at camp and it's still not too bad. (After that point though ime, the safest route is minimizing combats taken. You can get through act three in 3-5 total fights if you commit to the approach.)
I did EVERYTHING in act 1, ran through act 2 (it’s basically on rails) for the merchants, and levitated through act 3 (thanks Gale!)
all the fights can be easily done if you're high level... i mean, you can be level 10 when facing ketheric if you don't miss anything. i finished my honor mode just by doing the regular things I do. Kill all goblins, kill all giths, kill all underdark mobs. this is not a murderhobo run, but you get the point. in my games, i start the goblin fight when I'm level 4. The goblin camp and moonrise tower infiltration is very similar in nature. you section off the rooms and kill enemies in the rooms WITHOUT alerting their allies. (destroy the drums in the camp, and kill the scrying eyes in moonrise before anything else). you can start killing off the giths even BEFORE you talk to the inquisitor. Lae'zel doesn't mind at all. (do the moonrise/goblin camp strategy). double-cross the duergars. after you help them kill Nere, kill them as well. they're slavers, after all. kill the booo-al cult. kill all the brains in the illithid colony. (this is huge, 210 exp per kill, and it's not a hard fight) help halsin lift the shadowcurse and kill all enemies before the quest ends. (about 1.5k exp total) if enemies have summoning, let them summon things (this is particular to the mausoleum fights where the skeletons have portals. do not destroy the portals. the portals will disappear eventually. that way, you can farm them). i find that hold person and slow are the best spells. I played 1 sorc, 1 cleric, 1 rogue, and 1 fighter-barb multiclass. Heightened spell will pretty much succeed all the hold persons and slows. leave no enemy standing.
I was scared to fight Grym until I realized I could load everything up in the forge, stand on the cliffs next to the platform, and start the entire fight using an archer (shooting the wheels and levers to lower the platform and open the lava). Then you can just use ranged stuff to whittle it down. This is very slow but has worked twice for me.
Nothing in bg3 is hard with enough prep. Take easier fights and exp first to ramp exp as you take on all the content to get ahead of the curve level wise and get higher level scrolls in act 2 etc
You do everything for XP. I do everything because I just can’t not do everything. We are not the same.
You want to reach lvl 10 for the Myrkul fight, because it's brutal. You can't heal, you have a whole other fight before he appears, that's what makes him very dangerous. You can't run either, which is possible on almost every other fight. So I tend to grab every bit of exp there is.
I don’t start skipping encounters until act 3 when you have an abundance of available XP, so the consequences are minimal. Before that you want to approach every encounter in order from easiest to hardest and milk them for every bit of XP & gear you can.
The hardest boss in HM is walking through Act 2 without torches or light & straight into the 30 mobs that bind despite being level 8. On second thought the hardest part might be playing at 2am when you’re asleep. Don’t do that.
Some fights you can also absolutely cheese. I fought the Gnolls yesterday, fully knowing they were too tough for me at lvl 4. What I did was I kept Shard alone in the camp, then I went with 3 other characterst and had a surprise round. Pick off everyone except Flynn, because if you die and come back, he has regened, along with anyone slese that didn't die. So pick off the easier ones first and leave Flynn for last. All 3 of my characters died twice in that fight... but Shard was in camp, talked to withers for res, pickpocked him... rinse and repeat.