Baldur's Gate 3: 10 Best Builds For Honour Mode (2024)

So, you checked out Baldur's Gate 3's Honor Mode, and even in the face of a continuous, single save file that forces you to actually deal with the consequences of your actions, abysmal dice rolls, party permadeath, and reworked boss fights with legendary actions, you still want to give it a try.

While your ambition and courage are admirable, don't expect a quick or easy journey, unless you're somehow as good as speedrunner Chronos who beat Honor Mode in less than an hour. For the vast majority of players, taking advantage of as many in-game mechanics as possible, and methodical strategy will be the best tactics for achieving those swanky golden dice.

Updated July 9, 2024 by Jack Pierik: While the difficulty of Honour mode hasn't changed, that doesn't mean the BG3 community hasn't been hard at work testing different builds to find out the most effective combination of race, class, feats, and gear. If you're looking to add a character to your party that deals high burst damage, has an incredibly versatile toolkit, or is highly mobile and can deal critical hits regularly, or all of the above, you're in luck; this update adds exactly that. Feel free to experiment and mix in your own modifications if you think it will complement your party's composition.

10 Incineration 'Let The World Burn' Sorcerer

If you're someone who, at times, just wants to see the world burn, it's time to give a fire flinging Sorcerer a try. Sure, you'll have to depend on tanky party members to save you from lethal damage, but as long as you're safe in the backline, you'll be dealing incredible burst damage.

Pump practically all your levels into Sorcerer, maybe a point or two into Wizard or Warlock if you want, go into the Draconic Bloodline subclass, and take advantage of your high Charisma, Metamagic like Quickened and Twinned spells, Illithid powers, and blast enemies with powerful burst spells.

9 College Of Swords 'Bring Your Own Boss Music' Bard

See Also

Paths Diverged - Chapter 73 - anothvortex, Zira - Parahumans SeriesREDNECK VIKINGS FROM HELL (EN ESPAÑOL) - Æther Realm - LETRAS.COMJohn Gregory Dunne, the ‘Irish brawler’ who explored the nation’s soul

Believe it or not, Bards can do more than just play battle music, romance bartenders, or give buffs to your party members. By choosing the College of Swords subclass, and utilizing a little bit of multiclassing magic, you'll see just how overpowered Bards can get.

While the Bard class should get the most levels, at least six, all the way up to ten, good multiclass combinations include Rogue, Fighter, and Ranger. A huge reason for this is because Bards can take advantage of various mechanics, like Slashing Flourish to attack multiple enemies in one turn, even if it's a ranged attack. Just be careful; Bards tend to be squishy.

8 Shadow 'It's Ninja Time' Monk

The Shadow Monk subclass is perfect for those of you looking to dish out critical hits left and right, and have an incredible amount of mobility, with the ability to gap-close on high-threat enemies in a single turn across entire battlefields.

Coupled with the Rogue's Assassin subclass, a race of your choice that has inherent weapon proficiencies that you'd like to use, points allocated towards Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution, feats like Ability Improvement, Savage Attacker, or even Alert, proper gear, and using Shadow Step to close gaps, you'll be assassinating targets in no time.

7 Circle Of The Moon 'Top Rope' Druid

Subclassing into Circle of the Moon as a Druid is a fantastic way to turn a member of your party into an incredibly tanky, versatile asset, thanks to multiple Wild Shape charges that let you shapeshift into fearsome, high-health creatures, such as Bears or Owl Bears.

Speaking of Owl Bears, it isn't surprising that this Wild Shape is still pretty reliable, even in Honour Mode, since you can do anything from absorbing lots of hits and knocking enemies prone to making yourself the equivalent of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile by leaping onto groups of enemies from high elevations to deal massive damage.

6 Life Domain 'Dialogue And Healing' Cleric

With 'save scumming' no longer being an option, you're going to need a party member with high Wisdom that can give you the best odds of succeeding Wisdom-related checks, including Insight, Animal Handling, Medicine, Perception, and Survival, and dishing out plenty of powerful healing spells to allies in dire situations.

Go ahead and respec Shadowheart, or whoever you like, into a Life Domain Cleric, prioritizing Wisdom, Constitution, and Dexterity for the added initiative, in that order. Also, the higher your Armor Class, the better, because the last thing you want is a dead healer mid-combat. In terms of spells, you should at least grab:

• Healing Word
• Prayer of Healing
• Mass Healing Word
• Whichever damage-dealing or status effect-inflicting spells that compliment your party the most.

5 Storm Sorcery 'Did Someone Say Lightning Bolts?' Sorcerer

If you like the idea of a party member that can sweet talk NPCs with their high Charisma stat to increase your odds of passing persuasion checks and getting better deals with merchants, but is also capable of dealing high Lightning damage, it's time to get acquainted with a Storm Sorcerery and Tempest subclasses.

For maximum damage, you can't go wrong with a Blue Dragonborn for Lightning Breath. Otherwise, choose whatever race you want, and dump stat points into primarily Charisma, but Consitution, Intelligence, and Dexterity are all helpful as well.

Ultimately, you're shooting for at least nine levels in Storm Sorcery, two levels in Tempest Domain Cleric for added DPS through the Cleric class' Channel Divinity action on damage rolls, and whatever you'd like for level 12.

4 Dwarven 'Mad Thrower' Barbarian

While you don't have to, picking a Duergar Dwarf is the best option for a Barbarian-Fighter that wants to Enlarge themselves and throw things with maximum damage. With this build, Strength is your best friend, followed closely by Constitution, and ideally Dexterity as the last stat to focus on.

What ties this build together is Enraged Throw from the Barbarian's Berserker subclass for extra throws on your turn, the Tavern Brawler feat to add your Strength modifier to attack rolls twice, and three levels into Fighter for the Champion subclass' Improved Critical Hit passive. Otherwise, go for strength-enhancing gear, and the legendary trident Nyrulna as your main, throwable weapon.

3 Way Of The Open Hand 'The Bar Is My Temple' Monk

Monks that subclass into Way of the Open Hand are versatile, highly mobile fighters capable of dishing out tons of single-target damage, deflecting arrows, and bullying enemies with your bonus actions thanks to Flurry of Blows.

Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom are the main attributes you want to prioritize. If you prefer Strength-based Monks, please do yourself a favor and grab the Tavern Brawler feat. You should stick to Monk for most of your levels, but if you want, you can put some points into Rogue for even more bonus actions. Also, gear that enhances your unarmed damage is a big plus.

2 Oath Of Vengeance 'Lockadin'

It'd be hard to leave out some of the strongest classes in the game: Paladins and Warlocks. To get the best of both worlds, you can pump four levels into an Oath of Vengeance Paladin for Vow of Enmity's bonus to attack rolls, and the rest into a Great Old One Warlock, since that gets you fourth level spells that are renewed from short rests.

While you could use some Paladin abilities, like Divine Smite, this multiclass build is heavily Charisma dependent, so you should stick to ranged spell casting, although you could use Lay on Hands for healing if needed. Otherwise, choose gear and feats that compliment this build's strongsuit: DPS and as many crits as possible to capitalize on Mortal Reminder, which Fears enemies.

1 Gloom Stalker 'Sneak Attack' Assassin

Combining the Ranger and Rogue classes, specifically the Gloom Stalker and Assassin subclasses respectively, result in a particularly lethal, ranged party member that can sneak around, pick locks, attack with advantage thanks to sneak attacks, and lay on the hurt with massive critical hits.

Of course, Dexterity is the main attribute you want to prioritize. A fun playstyle is choosing Two-Weapon Fighting to dual-wield hand crossbows, making use of the Hide bonus action and frontline party member placement for repeated sneak attacks, and investing in feats that improve your ranged weaponry in some way. When played correctly, this party member becomes a DPS machine.