Introduction

Hey everyone! The Magical Mythtress is back with a dive into a game that has honestly become a huge part of my personality: Baldur’s Gate 3.

 

But, before we dive into today’s topic, might I draw your attention to this conveniently located “hiring” sign? Yes, that’s right, Myths & Mischief is looking to welcome new faces to our crew of creatives. If you’re an artist, writer, social media maven, coding genius, or graphic designer who prefers to work remotely, we’d love to meet you!

 

 

Now, back to our topic!

 

If you’ve ever completed a campaign of Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ve probably looked at Honour Mode with equal parts excitement and dread. One save file. Stronger bosses. Legendary Actions. No undo button if you fail the roll to free Lae’zel without having to fight the tieflings guarding her, accidentally aggro the Emerald Grove, or forget to cast Feather Fall before jumping into the Underdark. It’s the ultimate test of everything you’ve learned while exploring the Sword Coast.

After finishing a few playthroughs, I knew I wanted to see if I had what it took to earn those coveted Golden Dice. What I didn’t expect was how much Honour Mode would change the way I approached the game. Every dialogue option suddenly mattered. Every trap became a legitimate threat. Even battles I’d won dozens of times demanded a completely different strategy.

The challenge isn’t simply that enemies hit harder—it’s that Honour Mode forces you to think like an adventurer rather than a player who can reload after every mistake. Preparation, patience, and adaptability become just as important as choosing the perfect class or powerful weapon. 

Whether you’re about to begin your very first Honour Mode run or are looking for ways to improve after a heartbreaking defeat, these tips should help you survive long enough to see the end credits—and claim those shiny Golden Dice for yourself.

Game Summary

For anyone unfamiliar with Baldur’s Gate 3, the game is a party-based role-playing game developed by Larian Studios and set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Players create their own character—or choose one of several Origin characters—and embark on an adventure after becoming infected with an illithid tadpole that threatens to transform them into a mind flayer.

Throughout the journey, you’ll recruit companions with their own stories, romances, and personal quests while making choices that shape the fate of the Forgotten Realms. Every decision matters, from seemingly insignificant conversations to choices with world-changing consequences.

Combat is turn-based and built upon the rules of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, encouraging creative problem-solving rather than simple hack-and-slash gameplay. Players can combine spells with environmental hazards, use elevation to gain advantages, shove enemies off cliffs, or even talk their way out of dangerous encounters entirely.

Honour Mode raises the stakes considerably. It builds on the difficulty of Tactician mode with a single-save system, stricter combat rules, and enhanced boss encounters featuring Legendary Actions. If your entire party falls in combat, you can continue the campaign in Custom mode, but your Honour Mode run ends. While you can continue playing that specific campaign , you’ll lose the opportunity to complete Honour Mode and earn its exclusive rewards.

Because of these changes, Honour Mode transforms Baldur’s Gate 3 into a careful exercise in strategy, where planning ahead often matters more than brute force.

My First Honour Mode

My first Honour Mode run was never really about experimenting with different builds or seeing how far I could get. I had a specific goal: Aelynthi was going to complete  Honour Mode.

Aelynthi is my drow bard, and by the time I decided to attempt Honour Mode with her, she was already a character I was attached to. So rather than creating a new Tav every time a run ended, I simply kept bringing Aelynthi back.

And back.

And back.

There were, in a sense, several Aelynthis—but not because Baldur’s Gate 3 had suddenly developed a cloning problem. Every time an Honour Mode run ended, I would return to character creation and make her again. Same drow. Same bard. Same determination to finally get her to the end.

My usual companion for these attempts was Astarion. I deliberately kept the party small, generally running with just the two of them for much of the game. Eventually, I added Halsin, Jaheira, and Minsc to the roster, but even then I generally stuck to a party of two or three characters.

It was definitely not the most forgiving way to approach Honour Mode.

A smaller party means fewer actions per round, fewer opportunities to recover from mistakes, and fewer characters available to compensate when something goes horribly wrong. On the other hand, it made the run feel much more personal. Aelynthi and Astarion became the core of the adventure, rather than simply two members of a rotating cast of adventurers.

Every failed run taught me something new.

An encounter that seemed manageable on a previous attempt could become a disaster when a critical hit landed at exactly the wrong moment. A decision I had barely thought about during a normal playthrough suddenly had consequences. And occasionally, I would reach a point where I realized that the problem wasn’t bad luck at all—I had simply made a bad decision.

That’s one of the strange things about Honour Mode: failure becomes part of the learning process.

When you can reload a save, it’s easy to treat a mistake as something temporary. You try again and erase the consequences. In Honour Mode, you have to live with the results. If Aelynthi died, that version of Aelynthi was finished.

So I made another one.

And another.

Each attempt became a little less about hoping I could survive and a little more about understanding why I had failed before. I learned which encounters deserved preparation, which risks weren’t worth taking, and when it was better to walk away rather than insist on winning a fight.

Eventually, the repeated Aelynthis became almost symbolic. They were all the same character, but each one represented another lesson learned.

My first Honour Mode experience wasn’t a single heroic journey from beginning to end. It was a collection of attempts, mistakes, restarts, and increasingly determined drow bards.

And eventually, I started to understand what Honour Mode was actually asking me to do.

It wasn’t asking me to be perfect.

It was asking me to learn.

What I Wish I’d Known

After creating Aelynthi more times than I care to admit, I accumulated quite a list of things I wish I’d known before starting my first Honour Mode attempt.

Some of them were complicated lessons about combat mechanics and encounter preparation.

Others were considerably more embarrassing.

For example: Cast Feather Fall on yourself before jumping into the Underdark.

This feels like the sort of advice that should not need to be written down. Baldur’s Gate 3 practically screams at you that you’re about to make a dramatic descent into the Underdark. The game gives you multiple ways to get there, and some of them involve a very substantial amount of falling.

And yet, in Honour Mode, remembering that you have Feather Fall is suddenly very important.

A spell that might feel like a minor convenience during a normal playthrough can become the difference between “that was a cool entrance” and “well, there goes Aelynthi again.”

That experience reinforced one of the biggest lessons I learned: utility matters.

It’s easy to concentrate on the spells and abilities that deal damage or keep your party alive during combat. But some of the most valuable abilities in Baldur’s Gate 3 are the ones that prevent dangerous situations from happening in the first place.

Feather Fall lets you explore safely. Misty Step gets you out of trouble. Longstrider improves mobility throughout the day. Invisibility can turn a potentially disastrous situation into an opportunity to reposition or escape.

Honour Mode rewards you for thinking about these tools before you need them.

I also wish I’d understood sooner that preparation isn’t optional. Before an important encounter, check your equipment. Restock your potions. Make sure your characters have useful spells prepared. Consider your positioning. Look at the environment. Think about how you’re going to get out if everything goes wrong.

That last part is particularly important.

Always have an escape plan.

Honour Mode isn’t a competition to see whether you can defeat every encounter exactly as intended. If a fight starts going catastrophically badly, getting one character out alive can be more valuable than stubbornly trying to save everyone.

And don’t be afraid to use your consumables.

I have spent far too much time in RPGs saving potions, scrolls, special arrows, and other useful items for a hypothetical future encounter. Honour Mode taught me that there is no point in finishing the game with a backpack full of things that could have kept you alive.

Use the potion.

Cast the scroll.

Throw the bomb.

Shoot the fancy arrow.

And, for the love of all things drow, cast Feather Fall before jumping into the Underdark.

Your future Honour Mode self will thank you.