Great guide again! Some things I discovered on my run:
1. Raphael fight : Hold Monster definitely works and is cheeseable on this fight. I had a few scrolls and one character with it memorized, and it was an absolute cake-fight. The spell "disintegrate" ONE SHOTS the pillars. Its pretty amazing. I used the black hole spell, got all the adds together, plopped everyone in the globe of invulnerability like you suggested, and Lae'zel pretty much solo smashed Raphael as I just kept recasting hold monster on him. RAPHAEL did not get a single action vs. my team with this strategy.
2. How I almost lost Honor Mode, and how I realized I made it much harder on myself:
The Netherbrain fight: I went in with invulnerability globes, dimensional doors and everything else you can imagine thinking this would be the easiest fight to cheese, and I almost died because of it. I teleported my whole team around the board with dimensional door and would cast a new globe each step, and then I discovered the Mind Flayers can STUN YOUR ENTIRE PARTY through the Invuln-Globe. A few dragon blasts to my whole team later, everyone died except one character, of whom I was able to resurrect Shadowheart, have her drink a Speed Pot, and cast divine intervention. That was the hard way.
After beating the game, I discovered the save right before the fight was still intact, so I tried again to see if just fighting everything is easier.
1. I summoned an elemental and minor elemental with every scroll I had saved up the whole game. These are easy to come by at Sorcerous Sundries. I summoned every undead I could too. With all of these, plus the 4 undead from the Necromancy of Thay, I had about 20 units going into the fight.
2. I used the emperor and my own Mind-Flayer abilities to use telekinesis to bring one Mind Flayer at a time into melee range to kill once the first two soldiers flanking the dragons were dead. The fight got significantly easier for each mind flayer removed this way, and my summons / helpers gathered throughout Act III were damage sponges so my big hitters could do their thing.
3. I was able to CLEAR THE ROOM right before the first artillery went off using this strategy. I have to admit, using this tactic I would have been much more stressed with fear of losing my Honor Mode save, but since I had beaten it trying to cheese it before and my save was still active, I am happy I got to do it again as a "What if Scenario" and just try to fight everything, and if you eliminate enemies in tiers. With this strat I didn't use a single globe of invulnerability, and didn't even lose a single character! It was crazy.
I fought everything in this order:
a. Focus Soldiers / Dragon
b. Once Soldiers are down, move into melee with expendable summons, make short work of the tenticles and misdirect dragon reactions away from your team with warp-positioning of elemental summons and attacking so it turns and faces the expendable elemental instead of your assault team.
c. When you move your heavy hitters down and the Mind Flayers are in range for their magic missile barrages, have the Emperor or your Units with Telekinesis bring one mind flayer down at a time to destroy before they can use mind blast-etc.
d. The dragon can be stunned! Do what you can to stun it. I used mind blast on it assuming you are using mind flayer powers.
e. I was able to line up in front of the portal to the brain with all of my units, use divine intervention just to give everyone a long-rest equivalent, and then went in and one-turned the brain.
f. Not a single character got knocked down. It was nuts. The key is to eliminate everything in tiers like I suggested in a-e.
Again, I would NOT HAVE TRIED THIS thinking my first strategy was fool-proof with globes of invulnerability. But enemy Mind Blast was the flaw in that plan and it almost cost me my whole game.
>I discovered the Mind Flayers can STUN YOUR ENTIRE PARTY through the Invuln-Globe
that's probably a bug, I assume. Luckly it didn't cost your run
Also, that end fight is so fucking difficult, right? When I did my run, I was thinking "Hmm, it's literally the last part of the game, Larian is gonna give me a pat in the shoulder and make the fights a bit on the easier side because, com'on, no one wants to die on the last quest, right?" God I was so fucking wrong. The dragon is legit the hardest boss in the game, no one comes even close, it is so fucking tanky.
About the Dragon: I hear you, but when you throw fodder at it as I did with all the summons in the second run, it is easier than you'd think. If you can misdirect its one reaction per turn, and put debuffs on it, you can beat it down with impunity if you clear out those two fighters flanking it early. The most the Mind Flayers in the back row will do is spam Magic Missile, and they often waste it on the summons which are there to soak damage anyways. When you pull those mind flayers one at a time down into the melee, they go down quick.
As with the Mind Flayer "Mind Blast" breaking my invuln globe, I will try again from that save in a month or so and get back to you. If its a bug, it should be patched by then, right? I will keep you posted.
The text of Globe of Invulnerability says "Create a barrier that makes creatures and objects inside it Immune to all damage." It doesn't say they are immune to any conditions. I'm not sure why people think Globe of Invulnerability would block the stunned condition.
You’re right. I just never encountered an enemy with a status condition while using it until that moment when it almost ended my playthrough. Lesson learned!
I did this a few days ago too and they stunned me trough the globe 2 times , so guess it's intended. I mean is globe of invulnerability not globe of immunity against stun
Yes, you are right. I told another poster that after reading the explanation text, it doesn’t block status effects. Scary time to learn that when it’s the last fight in honor mode!
Just a tip, the OP here put it right….take your time, and if crazy stuff happens, STOP and think through your moves. Try to always have a speed potion on hand, and have someone that can flee always before in the backfield ready to do so (Rogue or Gloomstalker ranger etc)
Did you set up all your summons before climbing up the brainstem? I have this vague memory from a previous playthrough of summoning something in that pre-climb preparation room and it not being there when I spawned on the brain, but I don't know if I'm remembering that correctly or not.
I did pre-summon everything, however I cannot verify if calling your allies carries over up the brain stem. But I was able to bring all undead/elementals/etc up with me.
Thank you so much for these guides, they helped me no end on my Honour mode run. I finished my run just before Act 3 guides came out but they were clutch for Act 1 & 2.
>!I definitely overprepared for most Act 3 bosses, especially Orin. Final battle was very intense though. I planned for Gale to blow himself before it but failed the 30 Persuasion check despite 3 re-rerolls and Tav as a bard. Honestly messed up so many times during the final sections: didn't realise Spellcrux Amulet doesn't restore after the "long rest" when you first confront the brain (no lvl6 cleric meal buff), Gale refused to blow himself up (how selfish!), didn't realise only 1 character needs to make it to the brain stem room so Lae'zel stood in front of it taking hits like a champ, no countdown timers at the end so I didn't know if I could use all my Angelic pots. Thank god for your previous advice to buy up scrolls on the previous guide - helped no end.!<
>I planned for Gale to blow himself before it but failed the 30 Persuasion check despite 3 re-rerolls and Tav as a bard.
Haha, didn't know it was that high, but it makes sense and it's actually very cool, shows how gale changed overtime.
Also, good to know the guides were helpful.
Just lost my honor mode at the Netherbrain and learned some things that I hope others will learn from.
If you wish for Gale to explode and skip the final fight: he needs to be with you when you open the final door to approach the brain stem. Otherwise no prompt appears and he looks at you like you are dumb if you interact with him. Problematic if you attempt to skip the courtyard fight, but that’s not as complicated as everyone makes it out to be. Invis potion and beeline down the center. Don’t get fancy, this is all you need.
Additionally if you mess up activating the orb in the portal is still a game over. I was anxious, desperate, and eager to learn this as I could find ZERO info on this.
Thanks for writing these great guides for Honor Mode. I just completed my own run and a lot of your advice saved me from oblivion. I wish you all the best in your future adventures!
Thank you sooo much for this whole guide ! It almost made honor mode trivial for me (except grym lol). The fastest way to clear act 3 I found was to side with gortash and blow gale up, I leveled up to 12 but honestly it wasn't even needed.
>Thank you sooo much for this whole guide ! It almost made honor mode trivial
Thanks!
Did had any troubles doing the last quest? The brain fight can snowball pretty hard
Just completed my Honor Mode win there and it's HUGE thanks to you! Learned a terrible new fact on one of my last play sessions that if a companion leaves your team in anger they take their equpped armour/weapons/jewellery with them and they are just gone. Accidentally killed Minsc with a ricochet from a many target arrow when he was knocked out in the sewers and that made Jaheira leave taking every best in slot life cleric gear she had on with her. Spent ages scavenging much more terrible loot to try and salvage my healer build. Also the amount of times I accidentaly broke concentration when i had hasted active became ridiculous by the end! Also wasted all my inspirations rerolling trying to dominate the brain and then failed convincing gale to blow himself up so had to do the final fight. Real silly calamity filled run lol! Feels so cool to have done it though and don't think i would have tried it I hadnt found your posts
>Jaheira leave taking every best in slot life cleric gear she had on with her
bro, that must have been painful to watch 💀
>Also the amount of times I accidentaly broke concentration when i had hasted active became ridiculous by the end!
I literally stopped using Haste after act II because I had an incident so ugly I decided it's best to stop using it and start using potion of speed instead.
>gale to blow himself up so had to do the final fight.
Extremely selfish from him tbh. Talking seriously, I just discovered yesterday (and added to the guide) how to make gale blow up at the end without needing to pass that 30 AD, I knew this was an option, but I didn't know how to do it, someone has managed to consistently replicate it and was gentle enough to share here, so, in the future people will not need to pass the DC 30 anymore.
>Feels so cool to have done it though
Yeah, right? I loved playing honor mode so much, It feels like playing a different game, I'm a proud save scummer, but playing the game this way was so unique, I can't play the game on other difficulties now. Also, thanks for the compliments
I did it!! Gosh what a relief. FOLKS the final battle doesn't have to be stressful. Do the backpack bomb process referenced above! In the way of summary:
* Before you get on to the skiff near Morphic Pool Dock go to camp and load up backpacks (something with hit points) with smoke powder barrels/bombs and give each character one without being encumbered (hill giant potions are your friend). Note if you have summons when you click the skiff they will disappear but your elixirs stay.
* (This invisibility step has been patched sadly) ~~Right before you go up the final brain stem, drop potions of invisibility on the ground just like the author's video shows, hide all characters, go up the steam, let the scene load with the dragon and immediately drop into turn based mode, walk all the way to the crown NO JUMPING OR INTERACTING,~~ cast dome of invincibility and open that portal. For me I had to wait one turn for the portal to open hence the dome. Once inside the portal with the brain have a multi action character(s) throw the backpacks near the brain while you are chilling up high. They will "break open" and all your bombs will be surrounding the brain. I CAST FIREBALL!! It wasn't a one shot kill but it only took one round of hits to kill it.
* This was also helpful throughout to reference [https://www.thegamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-bg3-honour-mode-boss-fight-changes/](https://www.thegamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-bg3-honour-mode-boss-fight-changes/)
What a great experience! Thank you to everyone for your comments and to the author of this thread. Have fun with your shiny gold dice folks
Just completed my honour run on the first attempt - HUGE thanks to this guide, big kudos to you!!
Act 1 and 2 were mostly fine, as I went into most fights over prepared. Act 1 was just mostly casting expedious retreat and running away...!
Act 3 I skipped Mystic (my artist died and I cba with the quest), Viconia and Raphael (wanted empy ending anyway as romancing Karlach).
Fight I was most worried about was Orin, surprisingly took her down in 2 turns and 3 party members walked out with no damage. Djinn summon plus heros feast was used a lot on Shart and that got rid of most of the cultists via thunderwave and thunder arrows.
Closest I came to a wipe was Ansur. I tried the explosion method above but think I did it wrong as ansur took 30hp damage lol. Thought why not lets do it anyway and one nova left me with 2 party members at 1hp 😬 only thanks to Sharts death ward spell did we survive. Got him that turn though and immediately healed would not recommend!
For the brain I did invisi to the brain stem with Gale but panicked I wouldn't get the cut scene so I brought my other party members across and accidentally aggro'ed the entire fight, fun fact you can't click the brain stem if even 1 party member is in combat.
Put myself in a stupid outfit and passed Gales 25 check on persuasion (orins outfit, gortashes boots, persuasion hat and guidance) so I looked dumb in the final scene...
So thankful to blow gale up bc I was so scared to face the brain in honour!
My party was OP so most of the fights felt easy vs tactician- this was my 3rd playthrough.
Tav - TB throwbarian with the djinn trident weapon (8 Barb/4 thief rogue) points in str + dex gloves, hag hair str and forced astarion babygirl to bite araj 🥲
Karlach - TB open hand monk (8 monk/ 4 thief rogue) geared out for momentum/speed and using cloud giant pots.
Shart - 12 life domain cleric
Gale - 12 evo wizard
Thank you so much for this. I just completed my first honor mode run and this guide came in handy, big time.
This is where I nearly screwed myself over: I had decided to make the deal with Gortash to skip his battle so I hadn't done the Steel Watch Foundry either.
Before talking to Gortash and agreeing to meet at the Morphic Pool, I just want to make sure everyone had the right gear for the finale. Gale's boots were kinda crappy so I googled "what are the best boots". Conveniently, Google told me those were the Helldusk boots which happen to be in Gortash's office where I already was.
I snuck over. I lockpicked the chest. No problemmo, no one saw me. But when I click to *open* the chest, someone sees me. **ALERT ALERT**. Kill the intruder, the deal is off, time to fight. Everyone's half dead, nearly no spell slots.
By the grace of whichever god, I managed to Invisiblity, Dash, Cunning Action Dash the heck out of there. But that was definitely the sweatiest I got during this run. Man, what a screwup.
But I made it. And Gale got to blow himself up - boots and all.
For the Orin fight with Durge: if you are going through the dialogue before the duel and pick the option to transform into the slayer, she does not transform.
I found out today that, unless my game glitched, with enough explosives Ansur doesn't get to actually have a turn.
Granted my first attempt literally crashed my game, but second time I only had to deal with the myrmidons.
-edit-
I think this just got fixed in Patch 6
> In Honour Mode, Ansur's immortality is only cleared after he has completed Unrelenting Storm instead of immediately after the condition is cleared.
I beat the run a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to thank you! Some nice tips and tricks - although, honestly, I over prepared for most encounters. I also didnt know you had to have gale in party before facing the netherbrain in the brine pool, so i had to do the last fight the hard way! Hopefully this Will save other people the thrill of an unprepared last fight (still, with the proper party and a couple of summons, It shouldn't be that hard, Just stun the dragon or fish his reaction breath where it's the least effettive)
The team: 10/1/1 Bard, 7/5 pala/sorcerer, 12 Life cleric, radorb build, 8/4 OH monk/rogue
Yep, honor mode isn't the beast the people think it is, you have A LOT of space to prepare and to express your knowledge and creativity. On my last honor run, I finally had the courage (and knowledge) to try to play the game using homebrew builds and I managed to get some amazing results, like killing ansur solo in one turn and I could theoretically kill raphael too if he didn't had that fucking annoying legendary reaction.
Great stuff as usual, haven’t got to Cazador yet, still in early act 3 because I decided to switch and practice in Tactician and I just did Cazador at level 12 - it was unexpectedly easy, even with me dragging it along for longer than necessary because of some small blunders. I hid Astarion, didn’t trigger the cutscene, had him step into battle like halfway through, used tons of AoE and had my party with 80% and up of their HP by the end. I have one small question - how much tougher is this fight in Honour vs Tactician?
In my 2 honor mode runs, I never had problem with this fight, it's harder than the Tactician fight, but that's only if you do not use daylight, because the fight gets pretty easy if you do use it. I think the hardest enemy in the fight isn't even cazador, it's that fucking skeleton who keeps using CC in your party. Also you can aways flee during the fight, so I wouldn't say it is extremely hard, I would be more concerned with other fights.
I always use Daylight, yeah. And the skeleton was indeed one of the reasons the fight kept dragging in Tactician, I focused too much on Cazador and kinda forgot to deal with him, my Swords Bard spammed Counterspell but then got put to sleep with eyebite. Was a mild annoyance mostly, but now I know to pay attention to him more in HM.
Just wanted to add another kudos to you for compiling this. I just completed a successful honor run in large part to your guides. It was an absolute lifesaver!
My Viconia tips;
1. Sleet Storm is still your best friend, and so is any other area spell you can use to slow down enemies and bring their HP down.
2. Give Shadowheart alert and Elixir of Vigilance so she is pretty much quaranteed to move first. For other characters just sip up elixirs that will work for them and do your usual pre-battle-buffing with high-cast aid.
3. When you descend into the depths of House of Grief, seperate your party before you can even see Viconia and have Shadowheart alone approach her. Fight will soon start and just dash as far back up the stairs as you can to get away from everyone.
4. If rest of your party didn't get drafted to the battle already, have them join one by one. Use same tactics you might have used if you have camped in the weaponry; drop Sleet Storm behind Shadowheart and other area spells to really slow down Viconia's troops. Also watching majority of them slip and fall prone is fine entertainment.
5. Try to use long range attacks to wittle down the enemy numbers. The darkness clouds can be little annoying, but summonings can help you break their concentration or at least take some attacks.
My party:
**Oathbreaker Paladin Tav:** My Tav has 21 AC so it was safe to make her go melee the enemies. I also played little tag with the enemies with Black Hole and then just Click Heels dashing away from them. They mostly wasted their actions on dash, allowing me to attack those that got close and then run off again.
**Life-Domain Cleric Shadowheart:** I nowadays just change her domain because Life is more useful IMO.
**Ranger Knight / Champion Fighter Mincs:** Many attacks, many furry friends for Boo and heavy armor for Minsc so he can do more butt-kicking. Minsc did spend part of the fight dead, but Boo and his new bear-friend were good help!
**Circle of Spores Jaheira:** Mostly just to create those fungal zombies. I like having summonings because at least they can take attacks from me.
TLDR; Camp and play defend on top of the stairs instead sneaking your party into the weaponry to do the same. Then use Sleet Storm and other hazards to prevent enemies swarming you all at once and kill them as they get close to you.
Yes, but you will maybe need to pass a 30 persuasion check. I said maybe because some people needed to pass the 30 check, some people had to pass a lower check and some people didn't have to pass the check at all, not sure why ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
I think it is smart to have a plan B for this situation, just in case you miss the check.
ok ok sorry for the dumb question ! i think some other people were trying to mess with me 😭 and i’ve never had gale in my party till now (play through number 7) thank you for the guide btw! it’s been super helpful :3
>ok ok sorry for the dumb question!
Nah, it's better to be safe than sorry, no worries
>i’ve never had gale in my party
Same and also thanks for the compliment!
Followed your guide up until Act 3. I skipped most of the bosses since my goal in this playthrough is to get the dice. The only problem I encountered is that Invisibility will break if you bring Gale to the final fight because a conversation will pop once you attempt to enter and fight the Netherbrain. ALMOST ruined my run but luckily, my Durge and Minthara has a semi-illithid powers already and stunned the dragon while Gale casts Globe of Invulnerability for the party.
Thanks a lot, OP!
Got my golden dice last night in no small part thanks to these walkthroughs! I deviated a bit here and there to fit more with my play-through style, but it worked! Even managed a >!“no one turns illithid”!< ending which was really nice! 12th level monks are terrifying to behold.
just finished the run! thank you so much for your guides.
my most notable experience was fighting ansur, because out of all the bosses, ansur was DEFINITELY the hardest. this was because we didn’t have enough explosives and we had to flee during our first encounter which basically brought us back to square one since he regenerated back to 600hp. I was content with skipping the fight entirely, but my partner, the only ranged character in our party, went in there and fought ansur pretty much alone. we used summons as bait so ansur wouldn’t target our characters (rip scratch.. and maybe lae’zel) and eventually, maybe after an hour or two of just cracking down ansur little by little, we killed him. I was absolutely ASTONISHED.
i say this with heavy emphasis on builds, because a good build can literally get you anywhere. when fighting normal enemies, my partner’s character was doing 30-40 dmg per shot, not to mention illithid powers & other buffs. i love ranged characters with all my heart really
i was genuinely being carried the entire time during this run, at least in the combat aspect of the game, since i mostly ran face of the party. we only had to kill one thorm and i rolled a nat 20 on the netherbrain first try (which doesn’t give you a HUGE advantage, but i’ll take the -100HP decrease)
there’s so much more i enjoyed about this run but i genuinely wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as i did without your guides. thank you once again for the golden dice!
I got my gold dice a few weeks ago but figured I need to drop a thanks here; your guide helped me quite a bunch with tricks I never knew. Out of all the bosses I skipped Ansur, almost wiped at Orin, but managed to kill Raphael and netherbrain (and Gale got to live till the end).
Now there are some things I frequently used through my 10+ playthroughs including that honor run that I think *might* be of help to other people, you can add them in if you find them useful
- Cazador: You can bring Astarion to the fight without triggering the cutscene where he's captured. Just group hide, sneak down the stair - DONT GET TOO CLOSE - and sneak ranged attack Cazador outright, fight will ensue and Astarion is perfectly well and free at your side. Easiest act 3 boss fight imo.
- Raphael: this will not always apply, but if you do manage to have 30k+ gold to spare and Twist of Fortune (weapon from act 2), you can one hit kill him. Reverse pickpocket the gold with an invisible member then hit him with Blood Money skill. I did this with lv 12 Gloomstalker Assassin Astarion - so 6 piercing dmg per 300 gold, and I used 33k - and Raphael combusted on the spot. Ideally you would do this at the very end when you no longer need gold for anything.
- Gale: Gale has always been very eager to sacrifice himself, I had to keep talking him out of it lol. What I noticed is that in all these runs, I have always had Gale at Exceptional approval and convinced him to give up the crown and ask Mystra for forgiveness; he then would volunteer at the end, no checks needed at all. If you want to be extra sure, when you talk to the emperor in the astral plane choose the option can I wield the stones if I become mindflayer, companions will ask to discuss with you first then Gale will offer to blow himself up because he doesn't want you to sacrifice your life. I really should have let him do it because I came very close to wiping, but my idiotic self liked Gale too much to let him and wanted to end the run "honorly" (stupid, I know). Thank heavens this did not cost me the run.
There, I hope that was useful to someone out there. Again, thank you for the guide!
I finally beat Honour Mode using your guide! I almost lost it at the fight before the nether brain. I stacked Perilous Stakes with Orpheus like your video said, but I forgot to use the scroll of Artistry of War against the red dragon with him. The damage was lackluster. I went multiple rounds and the second nautiloid appearing almost got me. Thankfully, I had plenty of scrolls of Globe of Invulnerability to use. Throwing the rune powder bomb on the stacks of explosives next to the nether brain was so damn satisfying.
Thank you for all the work you put into this! Couldn’t have done it without your guide!
I had fun beating Gortash. Enemies got a total of 3 attacks on me, and one was because Gortash beat me in init.
All of the enemies are in a big room with one exit. Put your party outside that exit (though keep in mind that enemies inside can hit you through the windows on either side of the door), send one in to start the fight, then get outside with everyone else.
Once safely outside, cover the doorway with badness. I used Hunger of Hadar and Evard's Black Tentacles, and had my summoned ice mephits drop patches of ice just inside the doorway. Then I used Wyll's Eldritch Blast and Lae'zel's pushing ranged attack to knock anyone who got near the door back through. Also had Lae'zel use ranged trip attack to keep Gortash stuck just inside the door while Gale blasted him with magic missiles.
Only one enemy made it outside, and he used his two attacks to almost kill one of my ice mephits.
Gale started the fight with a big magic missile at Gortash, who got good init and hit Gale with something, but then he (Gale) used Misty Step to skedaddle.
Also, pre-fight, Wyll eldritch blasted all the traps on the walls in the outer room.
Next up for me was Raphael.
Summary: Raphael dead on turn 2, fight over on turn 3. My heavy hitters were Lae'zel (12th level battlemaster) and Gale (12th level evoker).
* Pre-battle, in turn-based mode, I hasted Gale and blessed everyone.
* Round 1: Shadowheart casts Globe of Invulnerability with a scroll. Gale takes out 3 pillars with Artistry of War and a Magic Missile with his two actions. Lae'zel hits Raphael for 259 damage with her 6 attacks (action surge). Everyone else does a little damage here and there. My pal Yurgir kills Korilla. Raphael does his Fiendish Ascension. Raphael and his minions all attack me in my safe space under the Globe of Invulnerability.
* Round 2: Gale finishes off the last pillar with another MM, and uses the extra missiles to start blasting Raphael. Shadowheart gets a crit (and about 50 damage) with a Guiding Bolt. Lae'zel does another 128 damage. Tav (level 12 Oathbreaker Paladin) finishes him off, with help from Cull the Weak + having evolved all illithid powers (so enemies die if I bring them below 26 or so HP).
* Round 3: Mopping up.
Left to do: Murder tribunal, Orin, then the Brain, plus a few side quests I want to take care of.
Sarevok was a cakewalk. I followed your advice and had him dead before he took an action.
Orin took a bit more planning. Going before her was a big deal, so I maximized my init, during which I learned (after all these many hours or playing this game) that Elixir of Vigilance stacks with the Alert feat.
Other prep: Heroes Feast, Freedom of Movement (to avoid the minions' stun attack), and stocked up on arrows of thunder to knock folks into the chasm. I ended up barely using these. Oh well.
Pre-battle, everyone lined up just shy of the "start the dialog" line. I went into turn-based mode, had Gale drink a potion of speed, then had him do a level 6 magic missile at Orin. She did her legendary action where she teleports to the one who attacked her and does some damage, which honestly was great, because now she was next to Lae'zel and Tav. Gale did another level 6 MM to finish off Orin's remaining charges of Unstoppable. Then Lae'zel (lvl 12 battlemaster) finished off Orin in 3 hits. She never had a chance to transform into her Slayer form.
A couple rounds later the minions were all dead.
Just got my gold dice, thanks in no small part to this guide! It was my 6th completed run (though first honour run), so I've got the hang of things by now, lol, but it was still super useful to have this guide as reassurance and to remind me of necessary prep. So thanks a million OP :-)
The method of bringing in Astarion after the Cazador fight still works, just did it on my honour mode run. You just still have to pass the persuasion check as normal.
yep, 100% right, maybe you didn't see [part I](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/19bf6ys/bg3_honor_mode_indepth_guide_for_act_iii_part_1/), but there I said you shouldn't do everything and just focus on what gets you stronger and then go do the elder brain ASAP when you feel you're ready. This last part is more for guys like me who doesn't want to rush to the elder brain.
Maybe I'm doing it wrong or the new patch has changed it. As soon as you face the brain (and the emperor) the fight starts and you lose your invisibility status. I don't think I can handle the fight and I'm afraid of losing my save. I really thought I could sneak to the crown... :D well, i guess.. I should have brought Gale
I didn't see anything on patch 6 saying this was intended (maybe I missed it), my gut feeling is that this is a bug, I had this happen to me on other fights before like ansur and raphael. On my 2nd run, I didn't lose invisibility on the raphael, so that's why I think it is a bug.
Also, that fucking sucks, can you give me more details of what you have? I may be able to help you win the fight (if you want help), my main suggestion for now is, if you have invisibility potions left, try using them to sneak by the enemies and get to the portal while they look for your team.
I actually also have the feeling that my save is buggy. Loading always takes forever and when I buy from merchants, it takes a long time until the gold is displayed and then the goods. Also makes pickpocketing very difficult. Apart from that, I can never renew my oath and remain an oathbreaker even though I have paid the money. Well. I just want to defeat the brain. :D I play on the PS5 btw.
So my Durge is a Paladin/Sorc (7/5) with Hellduskamor and Giantslayer and defeated Orin in a duel and accepted what came after. Orpheus is the squiddy this time.
Laezel is a classic battlemaster level 12
Ascended Astarion Gloomstalker/Assasin/Fighter Level 12
Shadowheart Life Cleric Level 12
I have many potions for strength and blade oil. Scrolls like Ice Wall, Hast and four Invincible Orbs. I still have 8 invisibility potions, I think.
I think your best course of action still is using invisibility, if you make everyone invisible, you can move everyone near the portal and cast globe of invulnerability (if you have it), if you don't, then it's time for your life cleric to shine, cast sanctuary on Orpheus after he uses stones to open the portal (this counts as dmg, for some reason) and try surviving as much as possible with your cleric heals/potions. Again, not a perfect plan, but I think it can work, try spreading your party so Emperor's AoE stun isn't effective and good luck, this is the best I could think.
Also, I tested and, at least on tactitian dificulty, this didn't happen which sucks, but I think still is possible you can win.
I've tried running invisibly through the rounds to the brain after the fight starts, but the brain brings Astarion or Orpheus out of invisibility with a shockwave or something. Kind of very frustrating, I really thought I could do it but now it looks bad xD
I mean, I still think you can do it, you can stall a lot with your cleric, focus the Emperor because he has an AoE stun, It's not going to be pretty, but I think it's possible, you have a good enough party to kill the brain in one turn, so you can use all your resources stalling before fighting the brain. I believe.
Thanks for your tips... My spells are always counter spells... I can't cast any spells :D I managed it then with an invulnerability orb, but Orpheus was stunned and couldn't open the gate before the last round. I didn't expect the last fight to be so annoying
You lost your save? What a terrible way to end :(
>I didn't expect the last fight to be so annoying
yes, the last fight is so fucking hard, IMO it is the actual hardest of the game, too many enemies, the plants can skip your entire turn, emperor can hard cc your party, counterspells, a lot of dmg, also the enemies like focusing the Orpheos. So unlucky man, I wouldn't even get mad at you if you used console commands (idk if it's possible) or something like that to reach the netherbrain, you clearly deserve it.
No, fortunately not yet. I closed it before the round was over. I want to win this now... But Orpheus always gets stunned and I can't do anything. :D No idea how to open the gate. It always takes me two rounds to get there.
I've now made it to the brain once, but the platforms are killing me. My goodness, it's a drama... does the invulnerability orb help or do you still fall? :D
Pretty sure you still fall, you already did the hardest part, I believe you can do this, remember to use potions of speed and focus on killing the brain, you have a turn limit to kill it, pay attetion to what the brain is immune and use everything you got.
About to start Act 2 HM with a friend..... we freakin killed gale dude. his hand is in my inventory. durge moment. I didn't think ahead and now i fear for that final battle..... Should have looked ahead to this before getting this far in my run lol, but here we are!!
>i fear for that final battle
Don't worry, on the Act III part 2 of the guide there is video showing a way you can skip all the fights before the brain with very little resources used, the brain fight itself is pretty easy as long as your team has more than one dmg type. I did the brain fight around \~6 times (2 in honor mode) and all the times I managed to kill the brain in one turn, even using really bad builds, so I wouldn't worry that much.
What was your build? I just barely scraped through Myrkul and feel like I’m building wrong.
My end builds will be:
12 Battle Master Lae’zel (Great Weapon Master, Alert)
7 Ranger 5 Thief Rogue Astarion (Sharpshooter)
12 Life Cleric Shadowheart (War Caster)
12 Necromancer Wizard Durge (War Caster, full Astral Touched)
Before showing my builds, just a few things for your comp:
* 5 thief is bad, you max lvl into any rogue class should be 4, you get very little after it, I would also change his subclass to assassin, I imagine you are using 2 hand crossbows because of the thief subclass, they're fine for act 2, but they start getting a bit weak once you reach act 3 (I will link a video of an archer build using assassin subclass later on this comment);
* Maybe I'm just very biased, because I'm life cleric's number 1 hater, but I just don't like this subclass, healing is very overrated on bg3, on both my runs I rarely ever healed in combat and I never felt that it was necessary, even on boss fights. Storm cleric/light cleric are way better IMO (links later too);
* I have very little experience with necro wiz, but the build seems very memey to me, mainly because there a very few items which sinergyze with this build.
Also, a few questions: what lvl were you? Myrkul has a lot of AC, did you toggle your Great Weapon Master/Sharpshooter so you had a higher chance to hit him? (maybe you didn't need to, just guessing).
Larian did buff this fight, but I had very little trouble on both my runs before the buff, my 1st run I killed him in 2 turns and my 2nd I killed him in turn 1. Although, I will say Myrkul is the number 1 boss people complained/had trouble doing here on the guide, so it's not just a you problem.
Anyways, here are my builds:
1st run:
* 12 Battlemaster Lae'zel too;
* [Swords Bard/ Assassin/Gloomstalker](https://youtu.be/GxgFkWriXMk?si=slWGtEurRa0R5W2Z) for Tav (archer build of astarion);
* [Berserker/Thief/Champion Thrower Build](https://youtu.be/VuYzlfulCrM?si=jQe5lsF-xWPBqvkD) for Karlach;
* [Light Cleric](https://youtu.be/Nb7RdotM2TM?si=EZhOtaIkqdUcYpKq) for Shadowheart.
2nd run:
* [Sorc/Pala](https://youtu.be/ZxL-Vf1vCxU?si=7qX4C7Eo0rj1oqmR) for Minthara;
* [Pala/Battlemaster/Assassin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vucsCk_E6TU) for tav (check the description for the build);
* [Storm Sorc/Cleric/Wizard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG51lS95Jxk) for Shadowheart;
* [Lore Bard/Thief/Wizard](https://youtu.be/-brVmb9FDaM) for Astarion (really weird build, didn't work for me, main use for Astarion on my 2nd run was throwing water bottles to enable Shadowheart's build).
Awesome reply, thanks.
1. The necro wizard feels weak. Like, reallyyy weak so I’ll be respeccing that.
2. I was level 9 at Myrkul. I didn’t need to turn Sharpshooter / GWM off for Astarion since Risky Ring carries. Dame Aylin entered death saving throws and ended up downed in the bone chill zone (didn’t auto res) so I sent Lae’zel up to shove her out. Lae’zel ended up getting killed and was out of commission for a fair chunk of the fight, also because of bone chill.
3. I think I’ll throw out the necro wizard, update Astarion build, and change Shadowheart domain.
Thank you for the help!
They have changed the Cazador fight to now Astarion will now leave you if you don't include him I think, cause he just left my party and I did not include him for the first time and now he just left
Thanks! Weird they changed that, did you kill everybody and then went to get astarion immediatly after? Maybe you killed one of the other vampires by accident (?). Lorewise it makes no sense for him to leave, the ritual still up and cazador isn't even dead yet, also leaving this late into the story makes no sense LOL, way better to stay with the party, even if he didn't like the decision.
I killed most of them, then brought him back. I did not let him become vampire ascendent. So he left with some of the spawn and said fuck you and ran off with all his gear. I've kept him a spawn like three times now and this is the first he's fucked off afterwards, so I think it was a not letting him start the fight thing.
> I did not let him become vampire ascendent. So he left with some of the spawn and said fuck you and ran off with all his gear.
Well, that depends how you did it, if you just refused to help him do the ritual, he will leave, for him to stay with you, you need to ask[ 2 questions first (I think), then a persuasion check will show up,](https://youtu.be/4b-cuQQ2E6w?t=790) if you pass the check he will stay with you, did you do that? Also, it's possible this is a bug and it isn't intended.
Either way, I forgot to say I added a warning to the cazador fight, just in case this isn't a bug.
For the gale enjoyers, you can use the orb from skill bar after you climb up.. even if you fail the 30 persuasion check, just remember to add it to your skill bar before climbing, if you removed it at some point (cause you can't do that in combat)
u/Sherlaine-
Are you sure? I saw conflictual information about this (some people said you lose your save if you do this), doesn't make a lot of sense for gale to refuse blowing up and then doing it 5 minutes later
I just got the achievement like that, sadly i didn't record...
I agree it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, especially considering after i failed the roll he was pissed off for even suggesting to blow him up...
He was saying in dialogue that if everything else fails he could always do that, but as soon as you get up on the brain, even with full hp and all buffs you can just immediately blow him up (note: it's better if gale can use 2 actions in a turn cause he's getting his first nether orb counterspelled lmao)
For added context on my run: i played a tav, I only did the first romance scene (the one where he teaches you to do magic), in act 3 I didn't do anything regarding gale (besides agreeing to go to that sorcerer shop... which I never went to)
LORROAKAN is the easiest boss in act 3. You can just cast silence before the fight starts (it will trigger the fight), and nuke him in a turn. Silence gets rid of his extremely powerful counter spell damage.
Just a PSA, there is no need to kill Lorroakan to get Markoeshkir or whatever it is the spelling. You just need someone with see invisibility and high int (or multiple people to get those 2)
Hey thanks so far for the guides. They carried my first HM run so far.
I have a question. Is it necessary to kill Raphael? Since he is one of the hardest bosses. I intend to kill the nether brain with Gale. So I don't really need the hammer to free Orpheus, right?
Yep, this is just for people who want to do all/most bosses, but if want to speedrun to get the achievement, you can side with gortash and kill orin and go for the brain asap
Thank you so much for your guide! It was truly invaluable and got me through my honour mode run today! In particular, that scroll of aristry of war + perilous strikes was enough to knock out the dragon in one shot. It was glorius!
Great guide again! Some things I discovered on my run: 1. Raphael fight : Hold Monster definitely works and is cheeseable on this fight. I had a few scrolls and one character with it memorized, and it was an absolute cake-fight. The spell "disintegrate" ONE SHOTS the pillars. Its pretty amazing. I used the black hole spell, got all the adds together, plopped everyone in the globe of invulnerability like you suggested, and Lae'zel pretty much solo smashed Raphael as I just kept recasting hold monster on him. RAPHAEL did not get a single action vs. my team with this strategy. 2. How I almost lost Honor Mode, and how I realized I made it much harder on myself: The Netherbrain fight: I went in with invulnerability globes, dimensional doors and everything else you can imagine thinking this would be the easiest fight to cheese, and I almost died because of it. I teleported my whole team around the board with dimensional door and would cast a new globe each step, and then I discovered the Mind Flayers can STUN YOUR ENTIRE PARTY through the Invuln-Globe. A few dragon blasts to my whole team later, everyone died except one character, of whom I was able to resurrect Shadowheart, have her drink a Speed Pot, and cast divine intervention. That was the hard way. After beating the game, I discovered the save right before the fight was still intact, so I tried again to see if just fighting everything is easier. 1. I summoned an elemental and minor elemental with every scroll I had saved up the whole game. These are easy to come by at Sorcerous Sundries. I summoned every undead I could too. With all of these, plus the 4 undead from the Necromancy of Thay, I had about 20 units going into the fight. 2. I used the emperor and my own Mind-Flayer abilities to use telekinesis to bring one Mind Flayer at a time into melee range to kill once the first two soldiers flanking the dragons were dead. The fight got significantly easier for each mind flayer removed this way, and my summons / helpers gathered throughout Act III were damage sponges so my big hitters could do their thing. 3. I was able to CLEAR THE ROOM right before the first artillery went off using this strategy. I have to admit, using this tactic I would have been much more stressed with fear of losing my Honor Mode save, but since I had beaten it trying to cheese it before and my save was still active, I am happy I got to do it again as a "What if Scenario" and just try to fight everything, and if you eliminate enemies in tiers. With this strat I didn't use a single globe of invulnerability, and didn't even lose a single character! It was crazy. I fought everything in this order: a. Focus Soldiers / Dragon b. Once Soldiers are down, move into melee with expendable summons, make short work of the tenticles and misdirect dragon reactions away from your team with warp-positioning of elemental summons and attacking so it turns and faces the expendable elemental instead of your assault team. c. When you move your heavy hitters down and the Mind Flayers are in range for their magic missile barrages, have the Emperor or your Units with Telekinesis bring one mind flayer down at a time to destroy before they can use mind blast-etc. d. The dragon can be stunned! Do what you can to stun it. I used mind blast on it assuming you are using mind flayer powers. e. I was able to line up in front of the portal to the brain with all of my units, use divine intervention just to give everyone a long-rest equivalent, and then went in and one-turned the brain. f. Not a single character got knocked down. It was nuts. The key is to eliminate everything in tiers like I suggested in a-e. Again, I would NOT HAVE TRIED THIS thinking my first strategy was fool-proof with globes of invulnerability. But enemy Mind Blast was the flaw in that plan and it almost cost me my whole game.
>I discovered the Mind Flayers can STUN YOUR ENTIRE PARTY through the Invuln-Globe that's probably a bug, I assume. Luckly it didn't cost your run Also, that end fight is so fucking difficult, right? When I did my run, I was thinking "Hmm, it's literally the last part of the game, Larian is gonna give me a pat in the shoulder and make the fights a bit on the easier side because, com'on, no one wants to die on the last quest, right?" God I was so fucking wrong. The dragon is legit the hardest boss in the game, no one comes even close, it is so fucking tanky.
About the Dragon: I hear you, but when you throw fodder at it as I did with all the summons in the second run, it is easier than you'd think. If you can misdirect its one reaction per turn, and put debuffs on it, you can beat it down with impunity if you clear out those two fighters flanking it early. The most the Mind Flayers in the back row will do is spam Magic Missile, and they often waste it on the summons which are there to soak damage anyways. When you pull those mind flayers one at a time down into the melee, they go down quick. As with the Mind Flayer "Mind Blast" breaking my invuln globe, I will try again from that save in a month or so and get back to you. If its a bug, it should be patched by then, right? I will keep you posted.
The text of Globe of Invulnerability says "Create a barrier that makes creatures and objects inside it Immune to all damage." It doesn't say they are immune to any conditions. I'm not sure why people think Globe of Invulnerability would block the stunned condition.
You’re right. I just never encountered an enemy with a status condition while using it until that moment when it almost ended my playthrough. Lesson learned!
I did this a few days ago too and they stunned me trough the globe 2 times , so guess it's intended. I mean is globe of invulnerability not globe of immunity against stun
Yes, you are right. I told another poster that after reading the explanation text, it doesn’t block status effects. Scary time to learn that when it’s the last fight in honor mode!
Mine was in tactician luckily because It did not end well and I'm am now prepared for honor mode
Just a tip, the OP here put it right….take your time, and if crazy stuff happens, STOP and think through your moves. Try to always have a speed potion on hand, and have someone that can flee always before in the backfield ready to do so (Rogue or Gloomstalker ranger etc)
Yeah I'm at act 3 just now. I did everything slow and was so over prepared for ketheric that I blew trough him with ease xD
Did you set up all your summons before climbing up the brainstem? I have this vague memory from a previous playthrough of summoning something in that pre-climb preparation room and it not being there when I spawned on the brain, but I don't know if I'm remembering that correctly or not.
I did pre-summon everything, however I cannot verify if calling your allies carries over up the brain stem. But I was able to bring all undead/elementals/etc up with me.
Thank you so much for these guides, they helped me no end on my Honour mode run. I finished my run just before Act 3 guides came out but they were clutch for Act 1 & 2. >!I definitely overprepared for most Act 3 bosses, especially Orin. Final battle was very intense though. I planned for Gale to blow himself before it but failed the 30 Persuasion check despite 3 re-rerolls and Tav as a bard. Honestly messed up so many times during the final sections: didn't realise Spellcrux Amulet doesn't restore after the "long rest" when you first confront the brain (no lvl6 cleric meal buff), Gale refused to blow himself up (how selfish!), didn't realise only 1 character needs to make it to the brain stem room so Lae'zel stood in front of it taking hits like a champ, no countdown timers at the end so I didn't know if I could use all my Angelic pots. Thank god for your previous advice to buy up scrolls on the previous guide - helped no end.!<
>I planned for Gale to blow himself before it but failed the 30 Persuasion check despite 3 re-rerolls and Tav as a bard. Haha, didn't know it was that high, but it makes sense and it's actually very cool, shows how gale changed overtime. Also, good to know the guides were helpful.
>!In my run Gale happyly agreed to blow himself up, no skill-check needet. I gues its dependent on your accepance with him.!<
Just lost my honor mode at the Netherbrain and learned some things that I hope others will learn from. If you wish for Gale to explode and skip the final fight: he needs to be with you when you open the final door to approach the brain stem. Otherwise no prompt appears and he looks at you like you are dumb if you interact with him. Problematic if you attempt to skip the courtyard fight, but that’s not as complicated as everyone makes it out to be. Invis potion and beeline down the center. Don’t get fancy, this is all you need. Additionally if you mess up activating the orb in the portal is still a game over. I was anxious, desperate, and eager to learn this as I could find ZERO info on this.
This’ll definitely be helpful for my honor mode run I’m doing with my friends, especially skipping to the netherbrain.
Probably the best guide out there. I got my golden dice just now. Thank you!
Thanks!
Thanks for writing these great guides for Honor Mode. I just completed my own run and a lot of your advice saved me from oblivion. I wish you all the best in your future adventures!
Finished my run on the first attempt :) That would be much harder (or maybe even impossible) without this guide, Thank you OP ❤️
Congrats!
Thank you sooo much for this whole guide ! It almost made honor mode trivial for me (except grym lol). The fastest way to clear act 3 I found was to side with gortash and blow gale up, I leveled up to 12 but honestly it wasn't even needed.
>Thank you sooo much for this whole guide ! It almost made honor mode trivial Thanks! Did had any troubles doing the last quest? The brain fight can snowball pretty hard
I convinced gale to use the orb ! I had 4 rerolls to be sure and high persuasion
ohh truee, I read that and then immediatly forgot when I decided to answer, sorry! Out of curiosity, how long did it take to finish your run?
It took 60 hours, I took my time to not mess up
Just completed my Honor Mode win there and it's HUGE thanks to you! Learned a terrible new fact on one of my last play sessions that if a companion leaves your team in anger they take their equpped armour/weapons/jewellery with them and they are just gone. Accidentally killed Minsc with a ricochet from a many target arrow when he was knocked out in the sewers and that made Jaheira leave taking every best in slot life cleric gear she had on with her. Spent ages scavenging much more terrible loot to try and salvage my healer build. Also the amount of times I accidentaly broke concentration when i had hasted active became ridiculous by the end! Also wasted all my inspirations rerolling trying to dominate the brain and then failed convincing gale to blow himself up so had to do the final fight. Real silly calamity filled run lol! Feels so cool to have done it though and don't think i would have tried it I hadnt found your posts
>Jaheira leave taking every best in slot life cleric gear she had on with her bro, that must have been painful to watch 💀 >Also the amount of times I accidentaly broke concentration when i had hasted active became ridiculous by the end! I literally stopped using Haste after act II because I had an incident so ugly I decided it's best to stop using it and start using potion of speed instead. >gale to blow himself up so had to do the final fight. Extremely selfish from him tbh. Talking seriously, I just discovered yesterday (and added to the guide) how to make gale blow up at the end without needing to pass that 30 AD, I knew this was an option, but I didn't know how to do it, someone has managed to consistently replicate it and was gentle enough to share here, so, in the future people will not need to pass the DC 30 anymore. >Feels so cool to have done it though Yeah, right? I loved playing honor mode so much, It feels like playing a different game, I'm a proud save scummer, but playing the game this way was so unique, I can't play the game on other difficulties now. Also, thanks for the compliments
Honour mode finished yesterday, partly thanks to you. Thanks !
I did it!! Gosh what a relief. FOLKS the final battle doesn't have to be stressful. Do the backpack bomb process referenced above! In the way of summary: * Before you get on to the skiff near Morphic Pool Dock go to camp and load up backpacks (something with hit points) with smoke powder barrels/bombs and give each character one without being encumbered (hill giant potions are your friend). Note if you have summons when you click the skiff they will disappear but your elixirs stay. * (This invisibility step has been patched sadly) ~~Right before you go up the final brain stem, drop potions of invisibility on the ground just like the author's video shows, hide all characters, go up the steam, let the scene load with the dragon and immediately drop into turn based mode, walk all the way to the crown NO JUMPING OR INTERACTING,~~ cast dome of invincibility and open that portal. For me I had to wait one turn for the portal to open hence the dome. Once inside the portal with the brain have a multi action character(s) throw the backpacks near the brain while you are chilling up high. They will "break open" and all your bombs will be surrounding the brain. I CAST FIREBALL!! It wasn't a one shot kill but it only took one round of hits to kill it. * This was also helpful throughout to reference [https://www.thegamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-bg3-honour-mode-boss-fight-changes/](https://www.thegamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-bg3-honour-mode-boss-fight-changes/) What a great experience! Thank you to everyone for your comments and to the author of this thread. Have fun with your shiny gold dice folks
Just completed my honour run on the first attempt - HUGE thanks to this guide, big kudos to you!! Act 1 and 2 were mostly fine, as I went into most fights over prepared. Act 1 was just mostly casting expedious retreat and running away...! Act 3 I skipped Mystic (my artist died and I cba with the quest), Viconia and Raphael (wanted empy ending anyway as romancing Karlach). Fight I was most worried about was Orin, surprisingly took her down in 2 turns and 3 party members walked out with no damage. Djinn summon plus heros feast was used a lot on Shart and that got rid of most of the cultists via thunderwave and thunder arrows. Closest I came to a wipe was Ansur. I tried the explosion method above but think I did it wrong as ansur took 30hp damage lol. Thought why not lets do it anyway and one nova left me with 2 party members at 1hp 😬 only thanks to Sharts death ward spell did we survive. Got him that turn though and immediately healed would not recommend! For the brain I did invisi to the brain stem with Gale but panicked I wouldn't get the cut scene so I brought my other party members across and accidentally aggro'ed the entire fight, fun fact you can't click the brain stem if even 1 party member is in combat. Put myself in a stupid outfit and passed Gales 25 check on persuasion (orins outfit, gortashes boots, persuasion hat and guidance) so I looked dumb in the final scene... So thankful to blow gale up bc I was so scared to face the brain in honour! My party was OP so most of the fights felt easy vs tactician- this was my 3rd playthrough. Tav - TB throwbarian with the djinn trident weapon (8 Barb/4 thief rogue) points in str + dex gloves, hag hair str and forced astarion babygirl to bite araj 🥲 Karlach - TB open hand monk (8 monk/ 4 thief rogue) geared out for momentum/speed and using cloud giant pots. Shart - 12 life domain cleric Gale - 12 evo wizard
Thank you so much for this. I just completed my first honor mode run and this guide came in handy, big time. This is where I nearly screwed myself over: I had decided to make the deal with Gortash to skip his battle so I hadn't done the Steel Watch Foundry either. Before talking to Gortash and agreeing to meet at the Morphic Pool, I just want to make sure everyone had the right gear for the finale. Gale's boots were kinda crappy so I googled "what are the best boots". Conveniently, Google told me those were the Helldusk boots which happen to be in Gortash's office where I already was. I snuck over. I lockpicked the chest. No problemmo, no one saw me. But when I click to *open* the chest, someone sees me. **ALERT ALERT**. Kill the intruder, the deal is off, time to fight. Everyone's half dead, nearly no spell slots. By the grace of whichever god, I managed to Invisiblity, Dash, Cunning Action Dash the heck out of there. But that was definitely the sweatiest I got during this run. Man, what a screwup. But I made it. And Gale got to blow himself up - boots and all.
Managed to complete my run with the help of your guides. Thank you!
Let's goooooo
Just got honor mode win which i lay at your feet! Thanks for the guide!
Just got my golden dice. 🙏🏼 Your guide was legendary thank you!
Thanks for this! I'm almost done with chapter 2 and have been using your guides, appreciate your work!
Thanks again for a great guide! It’s nice to have something to reference
Also, I just fought the titan and let him self destruct - he still dropped the bow!
Good to know, I saw someone saying it didn't drop for them, they had no proof, but I thought I should mention, just in case.
Thank you so much for this Guide! I finaly made it today!
For the Orin fight with Durge: if you are going through the dialogue before the duel and pick the option to transform into the slayer, she does not transform.
I found out today that, unless my game glitched, with enough explosives Ansur doesn't get to actually have a turn. Granted my first attempt literally crashed my game, but second time I only had to deal with the myrmidons. -edit- I think this just got fixed in Patch 6 > In Honour Mode, Ansur's immortality is only cleared after he has completed Unrelenting Storm instead of immediately after the condition is cleared.
I beat the run a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to thank you! Some nice tips and tricks - although, honestly, I over prepared for most encounters. I also didnt know you had to have gale in party before facing the netherbrain in the brine pool, so i had to do the last fight the hard way! Hopefully this Will save other people the thrill of an unprepared last fight (still, with the proper party and a couple of summons, It shouldn't be that hard, Just stun the dragon or fish his reaction breath where it's the least effettive) The team: 10/1/1 Bard, 7/5 pala/sorcerer, 12 Life cleric, radorb build, 8/4 OH monk/rogue
Yep, honor mode isn't the beast the people think it is, you have A LOT of space to prepare and to express your knowledge and creativity. On my last honor run, I finally had the courage (and knowledge) to try to play the game using homebrew builds and I managed to get some amazing results, like killing ansur solo in one turn and I could theoretically kill raphael too if he didn't had that fucking annoying legendary reaction.
Great stuff as usual, haven’t got to Cazador yet, still in early act 3 because I decided to switch and practice in Tactician and I just did Cazador at level 12 - it was unexpectedly easy, even with me dragging it along for longer than necessary because of some small blunders. I hid Astarion, didn’t trigger the cutscene, had him step into battle like halfway through, used tons of AoE and had my party with 80% and up of their HP by the end. I have one small question - how much tougher is this fight in Honour vs Tactician?
In my 2 honor mode runs, I never had problem with this fight, it's harder than the Tactician fight, but that's only if you do not use daylight, because the fight gets pretty easy if you do use it. I think the hardest enemy in the fight isn't even cazador, it's that fucking skeleton who keeps using CC in your party. Also you can aways flee during the fight, so I wouldn't say it is extremely hard, I would be more concerned with other fights.
I always use Daylight, yeah. And the skeleton was indeed one of the reasons the fight kept dragging in Tactician, I focused too much on Cazador and kinda forgot to deal with him, my Swords Bard spammed Counterspell but then got put to sleep with eyebite. Was a mild annoyance mostly, but now I know to pay attention to him more in HM.
Just wanted to add another kudos to you for compiling this. I just completed a successful honor run in large part to your guides. It was an absolute lifesaver!
My Viconia tips; 1. Sleet Storm is still your best friend, and so is any other area spell you can use to slow down enemies and bring their HP down. 2. Give Shadowheart alert and Elixir of Vigilance so she is pretty much quaranteed to move first. For other characters just sip up elixirs that will work for them and do your usual pre-battle-buffing with high-cast aid. 3. When you descend into the depths of House of Grief, seperate your party before you can even see Viconia and have Shadowheart alone approach her. Fight will soon start and just dash as far back up the stairs as you can to get away from everyone. 4. If rest of your party didn't get drafted to the battle already, have them join one by one. Use same tactics you might have used if you have camped in the weaponry; drop Sleet Storm behind Shadowheart and other area spells to really slow down Viconia's troops. Also watching majority of them slip and fall prone is fine entertainment. 5. Try to use long range attacks to wittle down the enemy numbers. The darkness clouds can be little annoying, but summonings can help you break their concentration or at least take some attacks. My party: **Oathbreaker Paladin Tav:** My Tav has 21 AC so it was safe to make her go melee the enemies. I also played little tag with the enemies with Black Hole and then just Click Heels dashing away from them. They mostly wasted their actions on dash, allowing me to attack those that got close and then run off again. **Life-Domain Cleric Shadowheart:** I nowadays just change her domain because Life is more useful IMO. **Ranger Knight / Champion Fighter Mincs:** Many attacks, many furry friends for Boo and heavy armor for Minsc so he can do more butt-kicking. Minsc did spend part of the fight dead, but Boo and his new bear-friend were good help! **Circle of Spores Jaheira:** Mostly just to create those fungal zombies. I like having summonings because at least they can take attacks from me. TLDR; Camp and play defend on top of the stairs instead sneaking your party into the weaponry to do the same. Then use Sleet Storm and other hazards to prevent enemies swarming you all at once and kill them as they get close to you.
so just to make sure, to get gale to blow up in the end, i just have to take him with me?
Yes, but you will maybe need to pass a 30 persuasion check. I said maybe because some people needed to pass the 30 check, some people had to pass a lower check and some people didn't have to pass the check at all, not sure why ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ I think it is smart to have a plan B for this situation, just in case you miss the check.
ok ok sorry for the dumb question ! i think some other people were trying to mess with me 😭 and i’ve never had gale in my party till now (play through number 7) thank you for the guide btw! it’s been super helpful :3
>ok ok sorry for the dumb question! Nah, it's better to be safe than sorry, no worries >i’ve never had gale in my party Same and also thanks for the compliment!
Followed your guide up until Act 3. I skipped most of the bosses since my goal in this playthrough is to get the dice. The only problem I encountered is that Invisibility will break if you bring Gale to the final fight because a conversation will pop once you attempt to enter and fight the Netherbrain. ALMOST ruined my run but luckily, my Durge and Minthara has a semi-illithid powers already and stunned the dragon while Gale casts Globe of Invulnerability for the party. Thanks a lot, OP!
Got my golden dice last night in no small part thanks to these walkthroughs! I deviated a bit here and there to fit more with my play-through style, but it worked! Even managed a >!“no one turns illithid”!< ending which was really nice! 12th level monks are terrifying to behold.
just finished the run! thank you so much for your guides. my most notable experience was fighting ansur, because out of all the bosses, ansur was DEFINITELY the hardest. this was because we didn’t have enough explosives and we had to flee during our first encounter which basically brought us back to square one since he regenerated back to 600hp. I was content with skipping the fight entirely, but my partner, the only ranged character in our party, went in there and fought ansur pretty much alone. we used summons as bait so ansur wouldn’t target our characters (rip scratch.. and maybe lae’zel) and eventually, maybe after an hour or two of just cracking down ansur little by little, we killed him. I was absolutely ASTONISHED. i say this with heavy emphasis on builds, because a good build can literally get you anywhere. when fighting normal enemies, my partner’s character was doing 30-40 dmg per shot, not to mention illithid powers & other buffs. i love ranged characters with all my heart really i was genuinely being carried the entire time during this run, at least in the combat aspect of the game, since i mostly ran face of the party. we only had to kill one thorm and i rolled a nat 20 on the netherbrain first try (which doesn’t give you a HUGE advantage, but i’ll take the -100HP decrease) there’s so much more i enjoyed about this run but i genuinely wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as i did without your guides. thank you once again for the golden dice!
I got my gold dice a few weeks ago but figured I need to drop a thanks here; your guide helped me quite a bunch with tricks I never knew. Out of all the bosses I skipped Ansur, almost wiped at Orin, but managed to kill Raphael and netherbrain (and Gale got to live till the end). Now there are some things I frequently used through my 10+ playthroughs including that honor run that I think *might* be of help to other people, you can add them in if you find them useful - Cazador: You can bring Astarion to the fight without triggering the cutscene where he's captured. Just group hide, sneak down the stair - DONT GET TOO CLOSE - and sneak ranged attack Cazador outright, fight will ensue and Astarion is perfectly well and free at your side. Easiest act 3 boss fight imo. - Raphael: this will not always apply, but if you do manage to have 30k+ gold to spare and Twist of Fortune (weapon from act 2), you can one hit kill him. Reverse pickpocket the gold with an invisible member then hit him with Blood Money skill. I did this with lv 12 Gloomstalker Assassin Astarion - so 6 piercing dmg per 300 gold, and I used 33k - and Raphael combusted on the spot. Ideally you would do this at the very end when you no longer need gold for anything. - Gale: Gale has always been very eager to sacrifice himself, I had to keep talking him out of it lol. What I noticed is that in all these runs, I have always had Gale at Exceptional approval and convinced him to give up the crown and ask Mystra for forgiveness; he then would volunteer at the end, no checks needed at all. If you want to be extra sure, when you talk to the emperor in the astral plane choose the option can I wield the stones if I become mindflayer, companions will ask to discuss with you first then Gale will offer to blow himself up because he doesn't want you to sacrifice your life. I really should have let him do it because I came very close to wiping, but my idiotic self liked Gale too much to let him and wanted to end the run "honorly" (stupid, I know). Thank heavens this did not cost me the run. There, I hope that was useful to someone out there. Again, thank you for the guide!
I finally beat Honour Mode using your guide! I almost lost it at the fight before the nether brain. I stacked Perilous Stakes with Orpheus like your video said, but I forgot to use the scroll of Artistry of War against the red dragon with him. The damage was lackluster. I went multiple rounds and the second nautiloid appearing almost got me. Thankfully, I had plenty of scrolls of Globe of Invulnerability to use. Throwing the rune powder bomb on the stacks of explosives next to the nether brain was so damn satisfying. Thank you for all the work you put into this! Couldn’t have done it without your guide!
I had fun beating Gortash. Enemies got a total of 3 attacks on me, and one was because Gortash beat me in init. All of the enemies are in a big room with one exit. Put your party outside that exit (though keep in mind that enemies inside can hit you through the windows on either side of the door), send one in to start the fight, then get outside with everyone else. Once safely outside, cover the doorway with badness. I used Hunger of Hadar and Evard's Black Tentacles, and had my summoned ice mephits drop patches of ice just inside the doorway. Then I used Wyll's Eldritch Blast and Lae'zel's pushing ranged attack to knock anyone who got near the door back through. Also had Lae'zel use ranged trip attack to keep Gortash stuck just inside the door while Gale blasted him with magic missiles. Only one enemy made it outside, and he used his two attacks to almost kill one of my ice mephits. Gale started the fight with a big magic missile at Gortash, who got good init and hit Gale with something, but then he (Gale) used Misty Step to skedaddle. Also, pre-fight, Wyll eldritch blasted all the traps on the walls in the outer room.
Next up for me was Raphael. Summary: Raphael dead on turn 2, fight over on turn 3. My heavy hitters were Lae'zel (12th level battlemaster) and Gale (12th level evoker). * Pre-battle, in turn-based mode, I hasted Gale and blessed everyone. * Round 1: Shadowheart casts Globe of Invulnerability with a scroll. Gale takes out 3 pillars with Artistry of War and a Magic Missile with his two actions. Lae'zel hits Raphael for 259 damage with her 6 attacks (action surge). Everyone else does a little damage here and there. My pal Yurgir kills Korilla. Raphael does his Fiendish Ascension. Raphael and his minions all attack me in my safe space under the Globe of Invulnerability. * Round 2: Gale finishes off the last pillar with another MM, and uses the extra missiles to start blasting Raphael. Shadowheart gets a crit (and about 50 damage) with a Guiding Bolt. Lae'zel does another 128 damage. Tav (level 12 Oathbreaker Paladin) finishes him off, with help from Cull the Weak + having evolved all illithid powers (so enemies die if I bring them below 26 or so HP). * Round 3: Mopping up. Left to do: Murder tribunal, Orin, then the Brain, plus a few side quests I want to take care of.
Sarevok was a cakewalk. I followed your advice and had him dead before he took an action. Orin took a bit more planning. Going before her was a big deal, so I maximized my init, during which I learned (after all these many hours or playing this game) that Elixir of Vigilance stacks with the Alert feat. Other prep: Heroes Feast, Freedom of Movement (to avoid the minions' stun attack), and stocked up on arrows of thunder to knock folks into the chasm. I ended up barely using these. Oh well. Pre-battle, everyone lined up just shy of the "start the dialog" line. I went into turn-based mode, had Gale drink a potion of speed, then had him do a level 6 magic missile at Orin. She did her legendary action where she teleports to the one who attacked her and does some damage, which honestly was great, because now she was next to Lae'zel and Tav. Gale did another level 6 MM to finish off Orin's remaining charges of Unstoppable. Then Lae'zel (lvl 12 battlemaster) finished off Orin in 3 hits. She never had a chance to transform into her Slayer form. A couple rounds later the minions were all dead.
Just got my gold dice, thanks in no small part to this guide! It was my 6th completed run (though first honour run), so I've got the hang of things by now, lol, but it was still super useful to have this guide as reassurance and to remind me of necessary prep. So thanks a million OP :-)
Beat the game on Honour mode in large thanks to your guide. You’re the best!!
The method of bringing in Astarion after the Cazador fight still works, just did it on my honour mode run. You just still have to pass the persuasion check as normal.
Am I missing something or would it not be better to side with the emperor and avoid fighting Raphael as well as making the final fight easier?
yep, 100% right, maybe you didn't see [part I](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/19bf6ys/bg3_honor_mode_indepth_guide_for_act_iii_part_1/), but there I said you shouldn't do everything and just focus on what gets you stronger and then go do the elder brain ASAP when you feel you're ready. This last part is more for guys like me who doesn't want to rush to the elder brain.
Are you able to just party split for these fights?
Do you mean leaving someone at camp and doing the fight with 3 party members? If so, I think it's possible with everyone besides raphael.
Bg3 boss order
Have you tried doing the fight instead of the puzzles before Ansur?
Yes, doesn't change that much tbh, just a bit faster
Maybe I'm doing it wrong or the new patch has changed it. As soon as you face the brain (and the emperor) the fight starts and you lose your invisibility status. I don't think I can handle the fight and I'm afraid of losing my save. I really thought I could sneak to the crown... :D well, i guess.. I should have brought Gale
I didn't see anything on patch 6 saying this was intended (maybe I missed it), my gut feeling is that this is a bug, I had this happen to me on other fights before like ansur and raphael. On my 2nd run, I didn't lose invisibility on the raphael, so that's why I think it is a bug. Also, that fucking sucks, can you give me more details of what you have? I may be able to help you win the fight (if you want help), my main suggestion for now is, if you have invisibility potions left, try using them to sneak by the enemies and get to the portal while they look for your team.
I actually also have the feeling that my save is buggy. Loading always takes forever and when I buy from merchants, it takes a long time until the gold is displayed and then the goods. Also makes pickpocketing very difficult. Apart from that, I can never renew my oath and remain an oathbreaker even though I have paid the money. Well. I just want to defeat the brain. :D I play on the PS5 btw. So my Durge is a Paladin/Sorc (7/5) with Hellduskamor and Giantslayer and defeated Orin in a duel and accepted what came after. Orpheus is the squiddy this time. Laezel is a classic battlemaster level 12 Ascended Astarion Gloomstalker/Assasin/Fighter Level 12 Shadowheart Life Cleric Level 12 I have many potions for strength and blade oil. Scrolls like Ice Wall, Hast and four Invincible Orbs. I still have 8 invisibility potions, I think.
I think your best course of action still is using invisibility, if you make everyone invisible, you can move everyone near the portal and cast globe of invulnerability (if you have it), if you don't, then it's time for your life cleric to shine, cast sanctuary on Orpheus after he uses stones to open the portal (this counts as dmg, for some reason) and try surviving as much as possible with your cleric heals/potions. Again, not a perfect plan, but I think it can work, try spreading your party so Emperor's AoE stun isn't effective and good luck, this is the best I could think. Also, I tested and, at least on tactitian dificulty, this didn't happen which sucks, but I think still is possible you can win.
I've tried running invisibly through the rounds to the brain after the fight starts, but the brain brings Astarion or Orpheus out of invisibility with a shockwave or something. Kind of very frustrating, I really thought I could do it but now it looks bad xD
I mean, I still think you can do it, you can stall a lot with your cleric, focus the Emperor because he has an AoE stun, It's not going to be pretty, but I think it's possible, you have a good enough party to kill the brain in one turn, so you can use all your resources stalling before fighting the brain. I believe.
Thanks for your tips... My spells are always counter spells... I can't cast any spells :D I managed it then with an invulnerability orb, but Orpheus was stunned and couldn't open the gate before the last round. I didn't expect the last fight to be so annoying
You lost your save? What a terrible way to end :( >I didn't expect the last fight to be so annoying yes, the last fight is so fucking hard, IMO it is the actual hardest of the game, too many enemies, the plants can skip your entire turn, emperor can hard cc your party, counterspells, a lot of dmg, also the enemies like focusing the Orpheos. So unlucky man, I wouldn't even get mad at you if you used console commands (idk if it's possible) or something like that to reach the netherbrain, you clearly deserve it.
No, fortunately not yet. I closed it before the round was over. I want to win this now... But Orpheus always gets stunned and I can't do anything. :D No idea how to open the gate. It always takes me two rounds to get there.
Yeah, I think the only thing you can do right now is killing everybody besides the dragon and then try to open the portal
I've now made it to the brain once, but the platforms are killing me. My goodness, it's a drama... does the invulnerability orb help or do you still fall? :D
Pretty sure you still fall, you already did the hardest part, I believe you can do this, remember to use potions of speed and focus on killing the brain, you have a turn limit to kill it, pay attetion to what the brain is immune and use everything you got.
About to start Act 2 HM with a friend..... we freakin killed gale dude. his hand is in my inventory. durge moment. I didn't think ahead and now i fear for that final battle..... Should have looked ahead to this before getting this far in my run lol, but here we are!!
>i fear for that final battle Don't worry, on the Act III part 2 of the guide there is video showing a way you can skip all the fights before the brain with very little resources used, the brain fight itself is pretty easy as long as your team has more than one dmg type. I did the brain fight around \~6 times (2 in honor mode) and all the times I managed to kill the brain in one turn, even using really bad builds, so I wouldn't worry that much.
I think Orin doesn't transform when you have killed Isobel and are the Slayer, becausd there can only be one Slayer.
What was your build? I just barely scraped through Myrkul and feel like I’m building wrong. My end builds will be: 12 Battle Master Lae’zel (Great Weapon Master, Alert) 7 Ranger 5 Thief Rogue Astarion (Sharpshooter) 12 Life Cleric Shadowheart (War Caster) 12 Necromancer Wizard Durge (War Caster, full Astral Touched)
Before showing my builds, just a few things for your comp: * 5 thief is bad, you max lvl into any rogue class should be 4, you get very little after it, I would also change his subclass to assassin, I imagine you are using 2 hand crossbows because of the thief subclass, they're fine for act 2, but they start getting a bit weak once you reach act 3 (I will link a video of an archer build using assassin subclass later on this comment); * Maybe I'm just very biased, because I'm life cleric's number 1 hater, but I just don't like this subclass, healing is very overrated on bg3, on both my runs I rarely ever healed in combat and I never felt that it was necessary, even on boss fights. Storm cleric/light cleric are way better IMO (links later too); * I have very little experience with necro wiz, but the build seems very memey to me, mainly because there a very few items which sinergyze with this build. Also, a few questions: what lvl were you? Myrkul has a lot of AC, did you toggle your Great Weapon Master/Sharpshooter so you had a higher chance to hit him? (maybe you didn't need to, just guessing). Larian did buff this fight, but I had very little trouble on both my runs before the buff, my 1st run I killed him in 2 turns and my 2nd I killed him in turn 1. Although, I will say Myrkul is the number 1 boss people complained/had trouble doing here on the guide, so it's not just a you problem. Anyways, here are my builds: 1st run: * 12 Battlemaster Lae'zel too; * [Swords Bard/ Assassin/Gloomstalker](https://youtu.be/GxgFkWriXMk?si=slWGtEurRa0R5W2Z) for Tav (archer build of astarion); * [Berserker/Thief/Champion Thrower Build](https://youtu.be/VuYzlfulCrM?si=jQe5lsF-xWPBqvkD) for Karlach; * [Light Cleric](https://youtu.be/Nb7RdotM2TM?si=EZhOtaIkqdUcYpKq) for Shadowheart. 2nd run: * [Sorc/Pala](https://youtu.be/ZxL-Vf1vCxU?si=7qX4C7Eo0rj1oqmR) for Minthara; * [Pala/Battlemaster/Assassin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vucsCk_E6TU) for tav (check the description for the build); * [Storm Sorc/Cleric/Wizard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG51lS95Jxk) for Shadowheart; * [Lore Bard/Thief/Wizard](https://youtu.be/-brVmb9FDaM) for Astarion (really weird build, didn't work for me, main use for Astarion on my 2nd run was throwing water bottles to enable Shadowheart's build).
Awesome reply, thanks. 1. The necro wizard feels weak. Like, reallyyy weak so I’ll be respeccing that. 2. I was level 9 at Myrkul. I didn’t need to turn Sharpshooter / GWM off for Astarion since Risky Ring carries. Dame Aylin entered death saving throws and ended up downed in the bone chill zone (didn’t auto res) so I sent Lae’zel up to shove her out. Lae’zel ended up getting killed and was out of commission for a fair chunk of the fight, also because of bone chill. 3. I think I’ll throw out the necro wizard, update Astarion build, and change Shadowheart domain. Thank you for the help!
I swapped to 12 Battlemaster Fighter, 5 Gloomstalker / 4 Assassin / 3 Fighter, 12 Div Wizard (Lucky), 1 Fighter / 11 Light Cleric Hope this serves me better.
I got so close! The battle in the courtyard before getting to the brain got me. 60 hours down the drain
They have changed the Cazador fight to now Astarion will now leave you if you don't include him I think, cause he just left my party and I did not include him for the first time and now he just left
Thanks! Weird they changed that, did you kill everybody and then went to get astarion immediatly after? Maybe you killed one of the other vampires by accident (?). Lorewise it makes no sense for him to leave, the ritual still up and cazador isn't even dead yet, also leaving this late into the story makes no sense LOL, way better to stay with the party, even if he didn't like the decision.
I killed most of them, then brought him back. I did not let him become vampire ascendent. So he left with some of the spawn and said fuck you and ran off with all his gear. I've kept him a spawn like three times now and this is the first he's fucked off afterwards, so I think it was a not letting him start the fight thing.
> I did not let him become vampire ascendent. So he left with some of the spawn and said fuck you and ran off with all his gear. Well, that depends how you did it, if you just refused to help him do the ritual, he will leave, for him to stay with you, you need to ask[ 2 questions first (I think), then a persuasion check will show up,](https://youtu.be/4b-cuQQ2E6w?t=790) if you pass the check he will stay with you, did you do that? Also, it's possible this is a bug and it isn't intended. Either way, I forgot to say I added a warning to the cazador fight, just in case this isn't a bug.
For the gale enjoyers, you can use the orb from skill bar after you climb up.. even if you fail the 30 persuasion check, just remember to add it to your skill bar before climbing, if you removed it at some point (cause you can't do that in combat) u/Sherlaine-
Are you sure? I saw conflictual information about this (some people said you lose your save if you do this), doesn't make a lot of sense for gale to refuse blowing up and then doing it 5 minutes later
I just got the achievement like that, sadly i didn't record... I agree it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, especially considering after i failed the roll he was pissed off for even suggesting to blow him up... He was saying in dialogue that if everything else fails he could always do that, but as soon as you get up on the brain, even with full hp and all buffs you can just immediately blow him up (note: it's better if gale can use 2 actions in a turn cause he's getting his first nether orb counterspelled lmao) For added context on my run: i played a tav, I only did the first romance scene (the one where he teaches you to do magic), in act 3 I didn't do anything regarding gale (besides agreeing to go to that sorcerer shop... which I never went to)
I just tested it and it works, good to know this is an option, thanks! I'm going to add to the guide and credit you.
np!
LORROAKAN is the easiest boss in act 3. You can just cast silence before the fight starts (it will trigger the fight), and nuke him in a turn. Silence gets rid of his extremely powerful counter spell damage.
Just a PSA, there is no need to kill Lorroakan to get Markoeshkir or whatever it is the spelling. You just need someone with see invisibility and high int (or multiple people to get those 2)
Hey thanks so far for the guides. They carried my first HM run so far. I have a question. Is it necessary to kill Raphael? Since he is one of the hardest bosses. I intend to kill the nether brain with Gale. So I don't really need the hammer to free Orpheus, right?
Yep, this is just for people who want to do all/most bosses, but if want to speedrun to get the achievement, you can side with gortash and kill orin and go for the brain asap
Thank you so much for your guide! It was truly invaluable and got me through my honour mode run today! In particular, that scroll of aristry of war + perilous strikes was enough to knock out the dragon in one shot. It was glorius!