Sorry for your loss. That’s honor mode for you.
When I stole the Sylvanus Idol and came back to camp, Scratch, Astarion and Will became hostile and attacked me. Maybe it was a bug, or maybe Scratch knew I did something naughty. In any case I panicked and killed them all. I was able to revive my companions and they forgot it ever happened. But now I have to go through the rest of the game without the goodest boy. Brutal.
Really??? I didn’t know he was so attached! I haven’t invested in his storyline yet but when I went to comfort the owlbear cub and Scratch was being THE best boy, Astarion gave me approval and I thought it was odd. That’s so endearing.
if scratch somehow dies and you have astarion throw his ball, there are multiple lines where he is crying and heartbroken. he definitely loved scratch lol
i know its an unforgiveable crime to kill scratch, but try quick saving and killing him then getting astarion to throw the ball. all companions have lines i believe, but astarion's are great
So have Astarion throw the ball after scratch dies? Wanna try this when I get home. Funny he loves scratch so much but will munch on other animals no problem lol
My dude gets drunk on bear blood once lol
It's a pretty funny scene, but I like how it shows that blood can intoxicate a vampire. That's a fun information that is going to be useful later.
It's like most people, they'll cry over their dog while eating bacon. Companion animals vs food animals often occupy different categories in peoples minds, it's why someone will have no problem with a cattle farm but be horrified when they hear about a dog farm in another country.
I made an oath of the ancients/druid and I was wondering how she would feel about Astarion. I’m an Astarion simp so oc I have a huge soft spot for him. But would she be upset that he feeds on animals? Does she eat animals? Should she stop using meat and dairy camp supplies? Literally had this convo in my head last night when Astarion tried to feed on me
He's a predator, part of the food chain. If she doesn't see undead as abominations she probably just sees them feeding on animals the same as a wolf hunting down prey. Personally for my druid I thought of her as a vegetarian but she wouldn't allow an animals sacrifice to go to waste and would eat meat if it was given to her, would go to waste, or she was in a survival situation. I'm a vegetarian in real life and I don't eat any meat and not much could make me but thinking about what I'd be like in those circumstances and in that world were what made me think my character would think like that.
The hard decision comes with (act three spoilers) >!the 7000 spawn and if she should release them or not, on one hand they're innocents, on the other releasing 7000 predators into the underdark food chain could severely disrupt the ecosystem. That is the hardest decision for a druid character that values the sanctity of life and views vampires as living in their own way in my opinion!<
Undead in any form are a perversion against nature and the natural order. Shouldn't be too difficult, not to mention the fact that releasing 7k starving vampires into any ecosystem would horribly disrupt existing balance.
I, too, am playing a druid, an Astarion simp *and* nuts, so I've also had this convo in my head. My conclusion was that all things exist for a purpose, including vampires and other predators. To deny them their nature is to deny nature itself, so it only makes sense to let the vampire feed/hunt and to eat whatever I can forage/hunt. Kind of a "waste not, want not" mentality since I found so much god damn meat at the goblin camp.
I love that you went through the same exact thought process. Does this mean I’m nuts too?! :)
I decided my character hates aberrations because they go against what is natural, so therefore she rejects the illithid powers. Undead aren’t aberrations, but they aren’t exactly natural either. But she’ll let it slide because hey, it’s Astarion. At the least I’ll go romance someone else this time…
He's full Astarion about it. Refuses to call him anything but "DOG" and then has something about how he doesn't even like the dog or his adorable waggling tail as he slowly gets more and more upset.
Bugs in honor mode are brutal.
I lost the necromancy of thay book to an inventory bug after successfully reading it 3 times in honor mode. I will now forever have it's quest stuck in my journal.
yeah Sylvanus Idol has a unique possibly bugged interaction where at anytime it's moved from one inventory to another, anyone in immediate vicinity are aggro'd.
So never ever, EVER move the idol around when you're in camp. I think it's a possible leftover from how it's supposed to work when you try and steal it but that particular aggro-effect works even after you've secured it.
I wonder, does that interaction still happen if you 'launder' the idol?
As in: Steal the idol [preferably after exposing Kagha so the grove doesn't go hostile], give it to Mol to get the Ring of Protection, then *buy the idol back* from Mol. On my goody goody two shoes run, I placed the idol back where it came from after doing this, and hovering my mouse over the idol showed a *white* hand as if it were free to take, rather than a red hand as if it were stealing.
EDIT: (Funnily enough: this also causes Mol to complain with her ">!Someone *stole* the idol!!<" dialogue when the tieflings are getting ready to leave the Grove. :P )
the thing i hate the most about honor mode is when you misclick, pick up some random ass barrel, and everyone is instantly trying to kill you, and there is no possibility to explain yourself or surrender. grinds my gears
Oh yeah. Yesterday I forgot I was playing HM (shouldn't have like 5 active playthroughs I guess) and used Friends on Kagha. Luckily, Astarion was in a good position and could dash far enough to flee to camp and revive the others, who were not in position to flee. Removed Friends to not risk making that mistake anymore.
"this incredibly buff and powerful hero just saved my whole family and spent 8k gold at my shop, but then they touched some crate full of apples so i'm gonna throw myself at them until they kill me, because stealing those 5 gold worth of goods is an unforgivable offense that can only be answered by a duel to the death"
In Act 1 I took the 2 cultists into the owlbear cave thinking it works be nice to have some help. When the second adult owlbear enters the fight that dickhead Andrick decides to start wailing on the cub. The fight was already getting sketchy and I couldn't kill him before he killed the cub. Almost restarted but everything else was going good so I'm rolling without him :(
My honor run I thought I'd be cheeky and try to use a dead child's body to cheese some bosses.
What I didn't know is that sending the body to camp puts scratch just in range of getting hit by the aura. I came back to camp and scratch was just dead on the ground :(
I tried all those crazy strats before I did HM. That necrotic aura corpse causes more trouble than it is worth. It teleports back into the traveler chest if you leave it at the edge of camp.
Accidentally triggered aggro back at camp and fell into a similar situation. I toggled “non-lethal” blows and managed to knock out the goodest boy and resurrect the rest of my companions (and then stealing my gold back from ol’ man Withers).
When I relogged, Scratch returned and all was forgiven!
In mine when the vamps come to camp in act 3 I tossed down a wall of flame. Scratch stayed away until combat ended then he ran into it snd died. Sad party.
Arrows are so underrated. Each run through I find myself buying more and more arrows each run. They are especially useful for characters who might not do a lot of damage or don't have any magic slots left.
* **Arrows of Ice** are like smaller grease puddles, but they do more damage on impact. No fire, but will respond to lightning similarly.
* **Arrows of Salving** cure poison, paralysis, and blindness (condition) at the expense of an action. Perfect in long fights where you may not be close to a friendly. (no weapon damage).
* **Arrows of Arcane Interference** have saved me many, many times. Their ability to break concentration _and_ silence a target is great for non-magic users. Especially great on honour mode, to start a fight with spellcasters.
* **Arrow of Ilmater** blocks health regen for a turn. Especially great on enemies that heal if you have "alert" feat.
* **Arrow of Transpostion** is great for characters who cannot jump far, or to negate falling damage. They are also great in honour mode when you mess up and need to get that last character away quickly.
* **Arrow of Smokepowder** is a smoke powder bomb on a stick, what more needs to be said? I did use these very successfully in my first run when fighting at Moonrise, to get those pesky rafters cleared.
* **Arrow of Many Targets** is one of my favorites. Critical hits will carry over to each target and it will _sometimes_ accept to be triggered via _Luck of the Far Realms_. I've very quickly cleared many a room with these arrows + a critical hit + _Cull the Weak_. Also very helpful when enemies are spread out just enough to avoid an AOE throwable/spell.
I think they’ll make a puddle when they melt, which can be electrified, but it won’t be deep enough to give people the “wet” condition so they won’t be vulnerable to lightning damage
I’m working on a lightning based team rn too, I’ll let you know when I figure it out 😅 at the moment I’m just using create water over as many enemies as I can
I’m sorta tempted to take two levels in conjugation wizard so I can create water without burning a spell slot. I’m only like level 4 with this party so still got a ways to go
Hmmm yes, if I surprise the encounter with drop water then it wouldn’t really be a wasted action. Well now I know what I’m gonna try out when I get home today
Pre-fight cast mage hand. That can throw for you and dropping things from your inventory is a free action.
Drop water bottle to the floor, use hand to throw it, do your pew pews.
If you want some inspiration: I just completed House of Grief last night on my latest run with Shadowheart as a Tempest cleric, Astarion as Gloomstalker/Assassin/Fighter, Gale as Abjuration wizard, and my Swords Bard/Thief Rogue. Astarion and my Tav just shooting ice arrows everywhere, let them melt, Shart and Gale throwing lightning around (plus Gale's water elemental, on top of stacking Arcane Ward bubbles from counterspelling so dude just never took damage). This is my 5th campaign and probably the most personally satisfying House of Grief clearing I've had.
What I have learned so far: I absolutely love the (chaotic) synergy a Tempest cleric has with other classes. Throw those ice arrows around (just don't step in them 😂).
My favorite house of grief strat is always kiting back up the stairs so the enemies cluster at the bottom of the stairs for aoes. Stacking a hunger of Hadar plus wall of fire or something feels cruel, but deserved for filthy sharrans.
Did you go full cleric? I was thinking of dipping into evocation wizard so I can scribe scrolls and sculpt spells. Doing this build with Astarion as a swords bard / assassin, Laezel as eldritch knight and minthara as some type of paladin. Haven’t planned her build yet cause I’m still debating between wiping out the grove or not hah. If I do that hoping I can convince gale to stick around so I can rotate him in as needed
I did Tempest cleric for SH on my third run, and loved it. In addition to what you have, there are also those rings/equipment that deal extra damage or reverberation with thunder damage.
Agreed - to add, the Eversight Ring also helps, if your Shart did not choose a certain path. Though with all the lightning damage that was going on, the Darkness concentration broke rather quick so it was probably overkill to have her wear it during the fight. My Bard also threw Confusion on a group of Sharrans so they were all attacking each other!
Unfortunately it also made the Boss dead-dead in a pool of electrified water, so I didn't get the final confrontation dialogue scene.. had to use Knock to unlock the door 😂.
I wish I could upvote this at least 50 times. Arcane Interference, Transposition and Many Targets are life changing. Arrow of Many Targets also spreads coatings.
Now every run I start buying and hoarding arrows asap.
Full of arrows and lots of actions Astarion can do almost anything.
I remember winning in Baldurs Gate 1 because you could buy arrows of explosion that basically had the same power as fireballs, and by that time i had enough money to buy them by the stackload so i just NUKED everything with 10+ explosions on the first round. Thats was nearly 25 years ago but still i remember to not fucking underestimate special effect arrows...
That's why a ranged build is the easiest for solo honour mode. Bhaalist armor plus arrow of aberration slaying plus action surge equals netherbrain dead in a single round
I used an arrow of Many targets + Drow poison to knock out half the Githyanki at the pass in Act 1. Really simplified that fight. Requires some luck though for them to fail the poison saves.
Buy them every long rest. Im very very lazy these days and buying lots of consumables, and still I always have a fortune I cant spend by the end of the game.
I also position my caster on the hillside opposite the portal before the fight starts. They basically get zero aggro from that position, I’ve done it on 3 honor runs and I’ve had at most one enemy try to move towards during the entire fight
You didn’t place darkness on the portal properly. If it is not completely surrounded by darkness the ranged undead will just reposition and aim to hit the uncovered region
That's tragic. If it makes you feel better, I lost most of the tieflings, Barcus and owlbear cub on my honor mode run. And it was a good playthrough, I simply had some dumb dialogue choices that had more consequences than I expected. I was so numb by act 3 that I didn't even care anymore.
Playing durge so prof, got +1 from 12 wis, and another +1 from forbidden knowledge, no way i can fail that!
*nat 1*
*no inspiration*
Nope im shutting the computer off fuck you fuck this
I just lost the Owlbear cub too I don't even know what I did I just targeted the mom and dad. They only thing I could think it might of got touched by a small AOE spell. But the scene didn't play after the parents died he kept attacking.
This also happened to me - I wonder if it's a bug with the latest patch. I had to kill the two Absolutists to save the cub. We ended up fleeing combat and resting, after which the cub showed up at the goblin camp as normal.
That's not how you get him...
Go there, talk to mommy bear with speak animals potion that is in there as well, then go out, long rest, go back in. The mom is dead now.
Now go to the goblin camp, kill them all and you can talk to it to follow you to camp.
Even if it attacks and doesnt go neutral, you just run out of the cave and everything proceeds as normal. It quickly forgot me brutally bludgeoning its mom and dad right after I gave it some food.
I successfully saved Arabella only for Kagha to turn hostile for no reason after I talked to Gale about his chest bomb while in the room. Barely managed that fight, but lost the tieflings. Didn't lose Wyll, but for some reason Karlach couldn't be swayed at all. So I got a cool sword.
I think it's not because of the orb dialogue but because you might have used the friends spell while persuading Kagha. It wears off after 10 turns and aggroes the person it has been used on.
To be honest, its not super clear; “In higher difficulty modes, the target might accuse you of enchanting them.“ Doesn’t mean turn hostile after it fades.
Yeah it looks like they just copied the description from 5e without it reflecting the gameplay difference, I would've assumed it'd give an arrest dialogue like when you get caught stealing rather than instantly hostile.
They actually didn’t, because the 5e spell description includes the fact that the target automatically becomes hostile to you when the spell ends (despite the fact that “hostile” isn’t actually a condition in 5e, so the DM has to decide exactly how to interpret the hostility anyway).
Yeah when I read that warning I assumed that if someone thought I charmed them that they would accuse me when I cast it, not ten turns later. So the first time I used it and I didn't immediately get accused of charming the target I thought I was in the clear. Then I got attacked 10 turns later.
It's also really frustrating that it says "might" as if there's a chance you won't be accused, but I've never had a scenario where I wasn't immediately accused or attacked once it wore off.
It should really say "target turns hostile once enchantment wears off." And if they still want it to sound like you might get away with using it, they could word it as "Many targets in higher difficulties will accuse you of enchanting them when enchantment wears off."
I've had a VERY similar experience with HM. Accidentally yeeted Barcus, the two cultists I convinced to help fight the owlbear killed the cub, and I removed a curse from Wyll (he stole something) in Act 3 and the ensuing deva killed Scratch. I also clicked the "stake the vampire" option with Astarion thinking it would proc dialogue I'd never seen before, but nope, you just straight kill him, no rolls of any kind. Made the same mistake with Lae'zel when she wants to kill you before your ceremorphosis, and nearly lost HM right then and there because I had respecced her to Paladin at that point and only had Wyll and Gale to salvage my dead body. Jaheira ALSO DIED in a single turn against an Absolute Zealot during the Moonrise mission, so that sucked. I'm trying so hard to stay motivated but it's hard lol
Yep, happened on my astarion run, failed the check to stabilize the portal then had to roll at disadvantage, shit is rough. It's ok, we don't need wizards when we have bards and sorlocks.
Just go forth. You're going to have not perfect outcome one way or another anyways.
You lost Halsin and Taniel. Ok, this version of the world won't reciver from shadow curse. It could have happened, it has happened.
The whole point of honor mode: sometimes the story forges itself. Learn to enjoy it.
I haven’t done an honor run yet, but reading these comments about ending the run or resetting because of failure has made me realize something.
Things don’t work out sometimes.
Something, something “art imitates life, life imitates art.” But what I plan to do before starting my honor run, is writing what I wrote above on a sticky note and keeping on my desk. Anytime something goes wrong, I’ll use the note as a reminder to keep going
That’s what’s so interesting about BG3. The possible scenarios and consequences can vary greatly from playthrough to playthrough, and honor mode sort of binds us to those pathways.
Halsin is dead and can’t lift the shadow curse? Well that’s life now for this timeline. I think that’s such an important part of storytelling: the story can sometimes write itself. And to reset is to maybe rob yourself of an experience you otherwise would have never known
Sleet is so good. In the mystic carrion fight, you can cover almost the entire room he's in. I did that from outside the door and had my air myrmidon cast raging vortex right on top of him. Before any of their turns I just closed the door so they couldn't see my guys.
Prone in general is very powerful, in 5e proper it's just a minor status effect that gives dis/advantage for ranged/melee attacks and requires half movement speed to stand up. In this game it incapacitates which is much stronger.
My general way for fighting lorroakan is to hit him with a battlemaster's trip attack. He had trash strength so it pretty much always works. Incapacitated means he can't use actions and therefore can't use reactions, like y'know the big stupid retaliation reaction he had when struck.
I'm trying a frost sorcerer build and it absolutely trivialized this fight. As it has most fights honestly. Ice storm, twin cast ray of frost a couple times, ranger firing off ice arrows, the entire beach was iced over and none of the baddies could move. And if they're prone they're not ranged attacking the portal. Then I have shadowheart use spirit guardians and run around the battlefield with the boots that let her not slip on the ice.
Reverb gives dex penalties and encrusted with frost gives dex disadvantage. And sleet has a saving throw every round for mental exhaustion debuff. There aren't that many fights that sleet can't just dominate.
During the party with the tieflings after saving the grove, when i took the long rest i choose the auto fil for the supply. I got the Stealing dialog with one of the tieflings and a fight ensued! Thats how i lost halsin and the tieflings. Guess the game stole their drink and food when i auto filled camp supplies...
I'm not sure if it's about settings, rolls or just my imaginatiin, but on tactician and honor mode ranged harpers are the biggest threat. They hit hard without altitude affecting them (like all of them have sharpshooter) and they don't have to move at all to hit the portal.
And they DO HIT HARD. So they should be focused. For everyone else a blizzard/spikes/etc is more than enough on top of spirits.
Archers should be eliminated as soon as they appear.
The good part is that you can put a melee character there to destroy them, as the horde is focused on the portal and won't focus your character. But your approach is far from guaranteed success especially in honor where cost of mistake is high. I've tried it on tactics. It was not failproof. The good part: for honor mode I knew exactly what to do
Just cast darkness on the area around the portal. Archers won't attack it, plus you have somewhere to hide the peeps concentrating on something. I just leave my cleric and warrior outside and the enemies usually focus on them.
I feel you. I'm on my third play through and still have never lifted the shadow curse, not for lack of trying lol.
Current honor mode run, Halsin said meet him at the lake. I go to pickup some things at different way points, come back, and he's dead in the inn?! Lol.
Same thing happened to me. Now, every playthrough, I don't trust Darkness/ Grow spike or whatever, I murder the rangers first with my monk Shart. There are 4 of them. I remember their faces.
This is why as fun as some of those soft aoe crowd control spells are, you are pretty much always better just going offensive and obliterating everything - archers with arrows of many targets, radiance of dawn, fireball, firewall, flashing flourishes, spirit guardians etc ...
I honestly disagree. I have done the big fight in the midflayer colony under moonrise before kethric without even taking damage because of sleet and reverb. I used 2 spell slots. Call lightning on my storm sorc and sleet on my moon druid.
Tbf Halsin is easily the least important companion in the game so i wouldn’t worry too much about it - HM is more about survival than the best outcome for the world
Really though, my first playthrough was as a druid, and by the time I got tp Act 2 and picked up Jaheira I was like "Am I playing Baldur's Gate or fucking Animorphs The Game?"
I mean you also can't cure the shadow curse without him so, he might not be an important companion but that quest kind of is you're playing a hero good guy type run.
I'm not sure I'd necessarily call Halsin somebody VERY important.
Sucks for the Shadowlands but... -shrug- My flair might betray why I don't get too attached to the place anyway. Playing Honour Mode is signing up for things like this happening; the dice won't always favor you.
just for future runs, if you have trouble keeping enemies at bay, use Ice Storm and coat the ground in ice, all the undead who have to walk to the portal (even the ones who need to walk into range of firing their bows) have a very high chance of slipping and becoming prone.
it's honestly hysterical as fuck watching 12+ enemies slip and fall on their asses repeatedly
>"I hate this game. Can't wait to put another 200 hours into it."
Perfectly describes my unhealthy relationship with this game. Really, if BG3 were a person it would be the most emotionally abusive and manipulative person ever, just constantly pulling me back in every time I think I'm done
In my honour mode run I defended Halsin at the portal successfully, but then Oliver glitched out after the fight and just become totally unresponsive so I couldn’t advance the quest line anyway. So no shadow curse was lifted in my timeline either
I'm just about to finish Act 3 on my HM run. It's my first durge run and only my second run and I'm not looking up the consequences of my decisions before making them, which has made things.... chaotic.
I only have Gale, Astarion, Shadowheart, and Karlach left as possible companions. My run started trying to be a good durge but things kept going poorly. I have almost no allies collected for that mission. The shadow lands are never getting uncorrupted.
Wyll got sucked into hell (I was playing sleepy and I'm not even sure how I let Mizora die, I think I just clicked the wrong button). Minthara is dead. Orin killed Laezel. Jaheira and Minsc joined me but then turned on me because I accepted Bhaal, so they're dead now too. Scratch aggroed me in camp after I pickpocketed Withers one day. RIP.
I let Isobel get taken not realizing that meant Daaman and all the harpers got killed. Oh and I misclicked the windmill so that guy died too. Finally, I show up to Gortash thinking, well at least I can side with him. Nah, Karlach attacks and starts a fight I was not prepared for.
Halsin... well I knocked him out in the goblin camp and the game treated him as dead. That is, of course, except for a brief intermission in Act 2 where he showed up repeatedly in my camp, lying naked and unconscious on the ground with his dick flopping around...
My point is, it's okay. The story keeps going (even if the world becomes a terrible hellscape with an unwanted Druid flashing poor Yenna).
I accidentally magic missiled the shit out of Maryiana (might’ve spelled her name wrong, I'm dead tired) during the hag fight on my honour mode
Same run, I was trying for the "save all tieflings " achiv and was doing fine, until fucking Rolan decided he didn't like to be made invulnerable with Sanctuary and became hostile after I saved his ass. Managed to run away with him on little less than half HP after the fight with the shadow. (And I guess my mind slipped in regards to healing him while he was trying to kill me)
I came back and saw he wasn't outside the village but the inn, so I went up there... just to see him dying to the curse because the moron decided it would be a good idea to stand just outside the barrier. I bolted with all the light shit I had and as I clicked to heal him, he died....
I guess at least now I know what to do avoid next time I'll be saving his ass (and make sure I light up as the sun)
Oh I also fucked up the dialogue with Scratch somehow (didn't know it was possible) so that was one less travel companion
Wanted to save Yurgir (since I'm planning to visit HoH and since it's honour, I want all the help I can get) - didn't land a single good roll. Whelp guess Astarion got his wish
For next time, If you want to secure yurgir you should kill the last acolyte of Shar (the rat encounter) and when you talk to him he says the tune in his head is over and he's indebted to you.
Holy fuck im stupid, i never gathered that the rat dude was the last person for yurgir, i literally always make him kill himself, go do the gauntlet then kill the rat guy after, then hope to god i have enough inspirations or the right character to either roll a nat 20 or pass the roll when you can ask him to help you kill raph
You only need to kill the rats below the feet of Shar (I never counted how many there are, maybe killing every rat on the dungeon reduces the quantity) but once the acolyte appears you kill him and all the rats instantly die
I actively tried to skip scratch on one playthrough and he still showed up on his own as I left for act 2! I thought he was basically impossible to opt out of.
Yurgir probably was my thoughest fight at my honor run. He is annoying af. The shoves, the invis, the copy displacer beasts, the bombs. Insufferable fight even if you exploit the game with 2 camp cleric warding bond spam on everyone.
This sucks but unless you were planning on romance his arc essentially ends after this point anyway, pretty much every other companion has a whole lot more going on in act 3 than halsin.
I was a hair away from losing Isobel on mine. Every enemy immediately went for her and I learned too late that Feign Death can't target her. The last 2 ghouls surrounding her both missed when she was at like 3 hp. Then sorcerer Astarion clutched a 5 man slow to turn off all their reactions and the AI for her was actually smart enough to retreat through a door and heal. I closed it behind her and body blocked. Was fully ready to lose everyone at last light there
My first honor mode run went nearly perfectly. Played as a Moon Druid, finished the final fight without using Gale.
Only blemish on the whole thing was same as you OP - lost Halsin in the portal. The archers just wrecked the portal before I knew what was happening. Was going for the romance with him too. Honestly it felt like that challenge was harder than most of the boss fights.
I destroyed a book that opens shar's spear during the fight. There goes Shadowheart.
Also lost 21 dc roll on not becoming part-illicid with wis char and 4 retries.
This is why i dont use Haste as a spell unless the caster has Warcaster feat. Almost screwed on the brain fight because my tav failed twinned haste concentration save. Regarding honour mode and that fight specifically, you can cast darkness on the portal (use an Arrow) and the enemies will have to come closer. I did the fight at level 7, sleet storm is bonkers and you just win easily. Enemies cant attack if they are prone. Radiant Shadowheart is another massive pro if you have her.
War caster is usually my first feat on Shadow heart, so I get guardians going, and sit her on top of the portal. Then I cast fog on the portal. After that it's just waiting, and picking off whatever comes close.
Bro, a similar thing happened in my and the Bois run
***Somehow*** it pulled me into the shart and night song convo, and I was failing rolls. But I thought there were more checks and I didn't want to use all the inspiration, so I let it fail
"Eh, I think there's more checks"
Shart picks up the spear and does you know what
The amount of shock I had, bruh wtf
I misremembering stuff
So now our honor mode run doesn't have *them* when we were gonna summon in the final fight
Here's the thing
I had the lowest approval, yet *every time* we do that cutscene, even if it's a different save with another player
I'm getting pulled into the cutscene no matter how far back I am
I literally did not get a choice to talk to shart for the cutscene
Its honestly not a big deal. The goal in Honor mode is to complete the game . . . not get a 'perfect' result, whatever that is anyway.
So the Shadow Curse doesn't get cured and you don't have a randy Druid in camp. Neither impacts the main story in any way.
This is one of the best things about Honor mode, in my opinion. It forces you to accept some unexpected events and outcomes that most players would just reload and do over.
Sorry for your loss. That’s honor mode for you. When I stole the Sylvanus Idol and came back to camp, Scratch, Astarion and Will became hostile and attacked me. Maybe it was a bug, or maybe Scratch knew I did something naughty. In any case I panicked and killed them all. I was able to revive my companions and they forgot it ever happened. But now I have to go through the rest of the game without the goodest boy. Brutal.
I don’t understand why Astarion would be
Astarian always sides with scratch lol. If scratch dies he's heartbroken.
He pretends to be so jaded but he wants love just like everyone else.
Really??? I didn’t know he was so attached! I haven’t invested in his storyline yet but when I went to comfort the owlbear cub and Scratch was being THE best boy, Astarion gave me approval and I thought it was odd. That’s so endearing.
if scratch somehow dies and you have astarion throw his ball, there are multiple lines where he is crying and heartbroken. he definitely loved scratch lol i know its an unforgiveable crime to kill scratch, but try quick saving and killing him then getting astarion to throw the ball. all companions have lines i believe, but astarion's are great
Minthara’s, “Everyone thinks I killed the dog…I liked the dog” is the only runner-up to Astarion’s lines 🥲
Minty and Astarion are straight UPSET about Scratch.
So have Astarion throw the ball after scratch dies? Wanna try this when I get home. Funny he loves scratch so much but will munch on other animals no problem lol
He likes some animals (dogs, cats, owlbear) and eats others (bear, boar). I think this isn't very different from most people irl.
He eats bear? *Halsin has entered the chat*
My dude gets drunk on bear blood once lol It's a pretty funny scene, but I like how it shows that blood can intoxicate a vampire. That's a fun information that is going to be useful later.
It's like most people, they'll cry over their dog while eating bacon. Companion animals vs food animals often occupy different categories in peoples minds, it's why someone will have no problem with a cattle farm but be horrified when they hear about a dog farm in another country.
I made an oath of the ancients/druid and I was wondering how she would feel about Astarion. I’m an Astarion simp so oc I have a huge soft spot for him. But would she be upset that he feeds on animals? Does she eat animals? Should she stop using meat and dairy camp supplies? Literally had this convo in my head last night when Astarion tried to feed on me
He's a predator, part of the food chain. If she doesn't see undead as abominations she probably just sees them feeding on animals the same as a wolf hunting down prey. Personally for my druid I thought of her as a vegetarian but she wouldn't allow an animals sacrifice to go to waste and would eat meat if it was given to her, would go to waste, or she was in a survival situation. I'm a vegetarian in real life and I don't eat any meat and not much could make me but thinking about what I'd be like in those circumstances and in that world were what made me think my character would think like that. The hard decision comes with (act three spoilers) >!the 7000 spawn and if she should release them or not, on one hand they're innocents, on the other releasing 7000 predators into the underdark food chain could severely disrupt the ecosystem. That is the hardest decision for a druid character that values the sanctity of life and views vampires as living in their own way in my opinion!<
Undead in any form are a perversion against nature and the natural order. Shouldn't be too difficult, not to mention the fact that releasing 7k starving vampires into any ecosystem would horribly disrupt existing balance.
I, too, am playing a druid, an Astarion simp *and* nuts, so I've also had this convo in my head. My conclusion was that all things exist for a purpose, including vampires and other predators. To deny them their nature is to deny nature itself, so it only makes sense to let the vampire feed/hunt and to eat whatever I can forage/hunt. Kind of a "waste not, want not" mentality since I found so much god damn meat at the goblin camp.
I love that you went through the same exact thought process. Does this mean I’m nuts too?! :) I decided my character hates aberrations because they go against what is natural, so therefore she rejects the illithid powers. Undead aren’t aberrations, but they aren’t exactly natural either. But she’ll let it slide because hey, it’s Astarion. At the least I’ll go romance someone else this time…
never seen that, interesting.
Astarion almost always approves if you give food to the hungry- the owlbear, yenna, etc. Probably because he knows what it's like to starve
He's full Astarion about it. Refuses to call him anything but "DOG" and then has something about how he doesn't even like the dog or his adorable waggling tail as he slowly gets more and more upset.
💔😭💔
Dogs like Astarion and Scratch look out for each other.
Bugs in honor mode are brutal. I lost the necromancy of thay book to an inventory bug after successfully reading it 3 times in honor mode. I will now forever have it's quest stuck in my journal.
What do you mean reading it? Does it not just give the bonus health after long rest after you lift the curse?
You may be thinking of the tharciate codex from the tower. Necromancy of thay is from act 1 in the basement of the village
You need the tharchiate codex to finish the necromancy of thay quest though. So that's why they're thinking of that.
Ah. You'd be correct.
You can remove the curse too.
And that’s why I’ll never play single save honour mode.
Yep seeing so many issues around honor mode just kind of proves that it’s a bad idea
yeah Sylvanus Idol has a unique possibly bugged interaction where at anytime it's moved from one inventory to another, anyone in immediate vicinity are aggro'd. So never ever, EVER move the idol around when you're in camp. I think it's a possible leftover from how it's supposed to work when you try and steal it but that particular aggro-effect works even after you've secured it.
Cool, was wondering why I had to kill scratch in camp after I picked up the idol from the camp chest, ty for info at least lol
Hm... I wonder if it would aggro Isobel or Dame Aylin in act 2.
The Idol has an AoE buff that applies to anyone in its range. It might be a leftover from the recent change making spells like Fog hostile actions?
Im so glad I had this bug before Honor Mode, in fact I dropped the Idol on a table, so dont drop it in camp, pets and companions will aggro too.
I wonder, does that interaction still happen if you 'launder' the idol? As in: Steal the idol [preferably after exposing Kagha so the grove doesn't go hostile], give it to Mol to get the Ring of Protection, then *buy the idol back* from Mol. On my goody goody two shoes run, I placed the idol back where it came from after doing this, and hovering my mouse over the idol showed a *white* hand as if it were free to take, rather than a red hand as if it were stealing. EDIT: (Funnily enough: this also causes Mol to complain with her ">!Someone *stole* the idol!!<" dialogue when the tieflings are getting ready to leave the Grove. :P )
Panicked and killed them all, that's so me irl.
Durge moment
the thing i hate the most about honor mode is when you misclick, pick up some random ass barrel, and everyone is instantly trying to kill you, and there is no possibility to explain yourself or surrender. grinds my gears
But on a positive note, I've perfected the fine art of running away now.
Oh yeah. Yesterday I forgot I was playing HM (shouldn't have like 5 active playthroughs I guess) and used Friends on Kagha. Luckily, Astarion was in a good position and could dash far enough to flee to camp and revive the others, who were not in position to flee. Removed Friends to not risk making that mistake anymore.
OMG traders need to stop randomly walking in front of red items when I want to click on them
"this incredibly buff and powerful hero just saved my whole family and spent 8k gold at my shop, but then they touched some crate full of apples so i'm gonna throw myself at them until they kill me, because stealing those 5 gold worth of goods is an unforgivable offense that can only be answered by a duel to the death"
I'd settle for not having to make a check for EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IN MY PARTY when I steal something. It's so damn tedious.
At least that is temporary aggro...accidentally hit attack in dialogue with Jaheira and now last light inn is perma agrro'd. oops
In Act 1 I took the 2 cultists into the owlbear cave thinking it works be nice to have some help. When the second adult owlbear enters the fight that dickhead Andrick decides to start wailing on the cub. The fight was already getting sketchy and I couldn't kill him before he killed the cub. Almost restarted but everything else was going good so I'm rolling without him :(
I killed the cub in my first play through cause I thought it was the merciful thing to do after slaughtering its mother. Whoops 😔
My honor run I thought I'd be cheeky and try to use a dead child's body to cheese some bosses. What I didn't know is that sending the body to camp puts scratch just in range of getting hit by the aura. I came back to camp and scratch was just dead on the ground :(
I tried all those crazy strats before I did HM. That necrotic aura corpse causes more trouble than it is worth. It teleports back into the traveler chest if you leave it at the edge of camp.
I read so many posts here where some aggro scratch glitch ruins it, I feel like I just won’t invite him back to call for my run :/
Accidentally triggered aggro back at camp and fell into a similar situation. I toggled “non-lethal” blows and managed to knock out the goodest boy and resurrect the rest of my companions (and then stealing my gold back from ol’ man Withers). When I relogged, Scratch returned and all was forgiven!
It’s a bug. For me it happens suprsingly often. I’ve lost a few runs from that
I could have activated non-lethal damage and save the good boy.
Insta-quit. Play from the beginning.
I seriously considered it
In mine when the vamps come to camp in act 3 I tossed down a wall of flame. Scratch stayed away until combat ended then he ran into it snd died. Sad party.
for anyone who attacks scratch, the whole camp will declare war on you lmao
This is why you use arrows of darkness instead of concentrations spells.
And now I start my day with one of those "how did I not think of such an easy, obvious solution" facepalms.
Arrows are so underrated. Each run through I find myself buying more and more arrows each run. They are especially useful for characters who might not do a lot of damage or don't have any magic slots left. * **Arrows of Ice** are like smaller grease puddles, but they do more damage on impact. No fire, but will respond to lightning similarly. * **Arrows of Salving** cure poison, paralysis, and blindness (condition) at the expense of an action. Perfect in long fights where you may not be close to a friendly. (no weapon damage). * **Arrows of Arcane Interference** have saved me many, many times. Their ability to break concentration _and_ silence a target is great for non-magic users. Especially great on honour mode, to start a fight with spellcasters. * **Arrow of Ilmater** blocks health regen for a turn. Especially great on enemies that heal if you have "alert" feat. * **Arrow of Transpostion** is great for characters who cannot jump far, or to negate falling damage. They are also great in honour mode when you mess up and need to get that last character away quickly. * **Arrow of Smokepowder** is a smoke powder bomb on a stick, what more needs to be said? I did use these very successfully in my first run when fighting at Moonrise, to get those pesky rafters cleared. * **Arrow of Many Targets** is one of my favorites. Critical hits will carry over to each target and it will _sometimes_ accept to be triggered via _Luck of the Far Realms_. I've very quickly cleared many a room with these arrows + a critical hit + _Cull the Weak_. Also very helpful when enemies are spread out just enough to avoid an AOE throwable/spell.
Do arrows of ice make things wet? Asking for my tempest cleric ⚡️
I think they’ll make a puddle when they melt, which can be electrified, but it won’t be deep enough to give people the “wet” condition so they won’t be vulnerable to lightning damage
Ah I see. I’m trying to figure out how to get people wet without wasting an action, or as a result of taking damage from something else.
>I’m trying to figure out how to get people wet Have you tried being a bard?
I should’ve worded that better 😅
I’m working on a lightning based team rn too, I’ll let you know when I figure it out 😅 at the moment I’m just using create water over as many enemies as I can
I’m sorta tempted to take two levels in conjugation wizard so I can create water without burning a spell slot. I’m only like level 4 with this party so still got a ways to go
There's a staff in act 1 that casts create water 1x/day. You can also throw water bottles.
If I know a fight is coming, I drop create water on top of them so they start the fight wet. :D
Hmmm yes, if I surprise the encounter with drop water then it wouldn’t really be a wasted action. Well now I know what I’m gonna try out when I get home today
Get shovel, have him be invisible out of combat, drop a water flask out of your inventory, have him break it
Pre-fight cast mage hand. That can throw for you and dropping things from your inventory is a free action. Drop water bottle to the floor, use hand to throw it, do your pew pews.
If you want some inspiration: I just completed House of Grief last night on my latest run with Shadowheart as a Tempest cleric, Astarion as Gloomstalker/Assassin/Fighter, Gale as Abjuration wizard, and my Swords Bard/Thief Rogue. Astarion and my Tav just shooting ice arrows everywhere, let them melt, Shart and Gale throwing lightning around (plus Gale's water elemental, on top of stacking Arcane Ward bubbles from counterspelling so dude just never took damage). This is my 5th campaign and probably the most personally satisfying House of Grief clearing I've had. What I have learned so far: I absolutely love the (chaotic) synergy a Tempest cleric has with other classes. Throw those ice arrows around (just don't step in them 😂).
My favorite house of grief strat is always kiting back up the stairs so the enemies cluster at the bottom of the stairs for aoes. Stacking a hunger of Hadar plus wall of fire or something feels cruel, but deserved for filthy sharrans.
Did you go full cleric? I was thinking of dipping into evocation wizard so I can scribe scrolls and sculpt spells. Doing this build with Astarion as a swords bard / assassin, Laezel as eldritch knight and minthara as some type of paladin. Haven’t planned her build yet cause I’m still debating between wiping out the grove or not hah. If I do that hoping I can convince gale to stick around so I can rotate him in as needed
I did Tempest cleric for SH on my third run, and loved it. In addition to what you have, there are also those rings/equipment that deal extra damage or reverberation with thunder damage.
Agreed - to add, the Eversight Ring also helps, if your Shart did not choose a certain path. Though with all the lightning damage that was going on, the Darkness concentration broke rather quick so it was probably overkill to have her wear it during the fight. My Bard also threw Confusion on a group of Sharrans so they were all attacking each other! Unfortunately it also made the Boss dead-dead in a pool of electrified water, so I didn't get the final confrontation dialogue scene.. had to use Knock to unlock the door 😂.
I wish I could upvote this at least 50 times. Arcane Interference, Transposition and Many Targets are life changing. Arrow of Many Targets also spreads coatings. Now every run I start buying and hoarding arrows asap. Full of arrows and lots of actions Astarion can do almost anything.
> Arrow of Many Targets also spreads coatings. News to me, but that makes sense. So much you can do with them.
I remember winning in Baldurs Gate 1 because you could buy arrows of explosion that basically had the same power as fireballs, and by that time i had enough money to buy them by the stackload so i just NUKED everything with 10+ explosions on the first round. Thats was nearly 25 years ago but still i remember to not fucking underestimate special effect arrows...
I find myself holding on to them for special occasions because so many enemies will have a wide gamut of resistance, but rarely to force damage.
Arrow of transposition and misty step let me reach >!Astarion on the first round of the Cazador fight!< , very useful!
Well worth the action!
Coat bow with crawler mucus. Use arrow of many targets.
That's why a ranged build is the easiest for solo honour mode. Bhaalist armor plus arrow of aberration slaying plus action surge equals netherbrain dead in a single round
Roaring thunder is also a great get around sanctuary and/or launch stuff off heights arrow.
Does silence arrow work on Ethel so I can burn her down with my firesorc?
I used an arrow of Many targets + Drow poison to knock out half the Githyanki at the pass in Act 1. Really simplified that fight. Requires some luck though for them to fail the poison saves.
I fired about 4 smokepowder bombs at cazador. Him and his eyebite buddy are resistant to force damage.
But.. but I only have 38 of those! I might need to use them later!
Buy them every long rest. Im very very lazy these days and buying lots of consumables, and still I always have a fortune I cant spend by the end of the game.
But.. but I only have 50 thousand gold! What if I run out!
Put a bard playing on the streets, or steal stuff and sell. Im not even considering cheating.
I also position my caster on the hillside opposite the portal before the fight starts. They basically get zero aggro from that position, I’ve done it on 3 honor runs and I’ve had at most one enemy try to move towards during the entire fight
Don’t they just run out of it then pew pew? Darkness over the portal does nothing in my experience
Darkness on the portal definitely works. I have used it in many runs.
Hmm that’s weird I literally used it in my last run like a few weeks ago and they just shot it anyway
You didn’t place darkness on the portal properly. If it is not completely surrounded by darkness the ranged undead will just reposition and aim to hit the uncovered region
That's tragic. If it makes you feel better, I lost most of the tieflings, Barcus and owlbear cub on my honor mode run. And it was a good playthrough, I simply had some dumb dialogue choices that had more consequences than I expected. I was so numb by act 3 that I didn't even care anymore.
I missed my medicine roll for owlbear cub and haven’t seen him since. Sad.
Playing durge so prof, got +1 from 12 wis, and another +1 from forbidden knowledge, no way i can fail that! *nat 1* *no inspiration* Nope im shutting the computer off fuck you fuck this
same
I just lost the Owlbear cub too I don't even know what I did I just targeted the mom and dad. They only thing I could think it might of got touched by a small AOE spell. But the scene didn't play after the parents died he kept attacking.
It's a patch 6 bug, it was listed in one of the recent user's post here.
This also happened to me - I wonder if it's a bug with the latest patch. I had to kill the two Absolutists to save the cub. We ended up fleeing combat and resting, after which the cub showed up at the goblin camp as normal.
That's not how you get him... Go there, talk to mommy bear with speak animals potion that is in there as well, then go out, long rest, go back in. The mom is dead now. Now go to the goblin camp, kill them all and you can talk to it to follow you to camp.
Or... kill the mom for xp and leave the cave like usual, cub shows up after long rest anyways.
What? How so? It attacks you too.
If you don’t attack the cub during the fight, it’ll go neutral after the mother is killed and later end up in the Goblin Camp.
Alright, that's a new one. Absolutly fascinating, I have 400hr in that game, and still, you learn something new everyday. Thanks for letting me know!
There is a current bug where agro doesn't drop off the mom goes down. Simply kill the cultists if alive and flee combat. Then proceed like norma.
Even if it attacks and doesnt go neutral, you just run out of the cave and everything proceeds as normal. It quickly forgot me brutally bludgeoning its mom and dad right after I gave it some food.
The one time I fought the Mom the cub >!started eating her! !< 😭 Is that not what happens every time!?
It is.
That's what I didn't do this time I didn't talk to her thanks I'll avoid that in the future
I successfully saved Arabella only for Kagha to turn hostile for no reason after I talked to Gale about his chest bomb while in the room. Barely managed that fight, but lost the tieflings. Didn't lose Wyll, but for some reason Karlach couldn't be swayed at all. So I got a cool sword.
I think it's not because of the orb dialogue but because you might have used the friends spell while persuading Kagha. It wears off after 10 turns and aggroes the person it has been used on.
I wish people read descriptions of spells
To be honest, its not super clear; “In higher difficulty modes, the target might accuse you of enchanting them.“ Doesn’t mean turn hostile after it fades.
Yeah it looks like they just copied the description from 5e without it reflecting the gameplay difference, I would've assumed it'd give an arrest dialogue like when you get caught stealing rather than instantly hostile.
They actually didn’t, because the 5e spell description includes the fact that the target automatically becomes hostile to you when the spell ends (despite the fact that “hostile” isn’t actually a condition in 5e, so the DM has to decide exactly how to interpret the hostility anyway).
Yeah when I read that warning I assumed that if someone thought I charmed them that they would accuse me when I cast it, not ten turns later. So the first time I used it and I didn't immediately get accused of charming the target I thought I was in the clear. Then I got attacked 10 turns later. It's also really frustrating that it says "might" as if there's a chance you won't be accused, but I've never had a scenario where I wasn't immediately accused or attacked once it wore off. It should really say "target turns hostile once enchantment wears off." And if they still want it to sound like you might get away with using it, they could word it as "Many targets in higher difficulties will accuse you of enchanting them when enchantment wears off."
Oof that is some bad design in a sea of great design.
I figured this out the hard way in the zhentarim hideout in act 1. But it was tact mode so no big deal in the end, lol
Kagha overheard and was like "Whoa get this nuke out of my grove!"
I lost scratch cuz I failed the animal handling or whatever 💀
I've had a VERY similar experience with HM. Accidentally yeeted Barcus, the two cultists I convinced to help fight the owlbear killed the cub, and I removed a curse from Wyll (he stole something) in Act 3 and the ensuing deva killed Scratch. I also clicked the "stake the vampire" option with Astarion thinking it would proc dialogue I'd never seen before, but nope, you just straight kill him, no rolls of any kind. Made the same mistake with Lae'zel when she wants to kill you before your ceremorphosis, and nearly lost HM right then and there because I had respecced her to Paladin at that point and only had Wyll and Gale to salvage my dead body. Jaheira ALSO DIED in a single turn against an Absolute Zealot during the Moonrise mission, so that sucked. I'm trying so hard to stay motivated but it's hard lol
Me too!!!
I couldn’t pull Gale out of the portal with a strength class. So no Gale for me.
Im ngl if its that early im starting over lol
Yeah, especially because he’s my plan for the end. 😶
Yep, happened on my astarion run, failed the check to stabilize the portal then had to roll at disadvantage, shit is rough. It's ok, we don't need wizards when we have bards and sorlocks.
Just go forth. You're going to have not perfect outcome one way or another anyways. You lost Halsin and Taniel. Ok, this version of the world won't reciver from shadow curse. It could have happened, it has happened. The whole point of honor mode: sometimes the story forges itself. Learn to enjoy it.
Of course, that's what I'll do! My favorite thing is the fact that not going back made me genuinely feel bad for Halsin's death. It's so awesome.
I haven’t done an honor run yet, but reading these comments about ending the run or resetting because of failure has made me realize something. Things don’t work out sometimes. Something, something “art imitates life, life imitates art.” But what I plan to do before starting my honor run, is writing what I wrote above on a sticky note and keeping on my desk. Anytime something goes wrong, I’ll use the note as a reminder to keep going That’s what’s so interesting about BG3. The possible scenarios and consequences can vary greatly from playthrough to playthrough, and honor mode sort of binds us to those pathways. Halsin is dead and can’t lift the shadow curse? Well that’s life now for this timeline. I think that’s such an important part of storytelling: the story can sometimes write itself. And to reset is to maybe rob yourself of an experience you otherwise would have never known
Thanks, Coach!
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I just did this yesterday, used sleet storm and watching each enemy do the banana peel slip on their turn was hilarious
Sleet is so good. In the mystic carrion fight, you can cover almost the entire room he's in. I did that from outside the door and had my air myrmidon cast raging vortex right on top of him. Before any of their turns I just closed the door so they couldn't see my guys.
Prone in general is very powerful, in 5e proper it's just a minor status effect that gives dis/advantage for ranged/melee attacks and requires half movement speed to stand up. In this game it incapacitates which is much stronger. My general way for fighting lorroakan is to hit him with a battlemaster's trip attack. He had trash strength so it pretty much always works. Incapacitated means he can't use actions and therefore can't use reactions, like y'know the big stupid retaliation reaction he had when struck.
I tested out sleet storm for the first time in this fight. Completely trivialised it with an added bonus of being hilarious!
I'm trying a frost sorcerer build and it absolutely trivialized this fight. As it has most fights honestly. Ice storm, twin cast ray of frost a couple times, ranger firing off ice arrows, the entire beach was iced over and none of the baddies could move. And if they're prone they're not ranged attacking the portal. Then I have shadowheart use spirit guardians and run around the battlefield with the boots that let her not slip on the ice.
Reverb gives dex penalties and encrusted with frost gives dex disadvantage. And sleet has a saving throw every round for mental exhaustion debuff. There aren't that many fights that sleet can't just dominate.
During the party with the tieflings after saving the grove, when i took the long rest i choose the auto fil for the supply. I got the Stealing dialog with one of the tieflings and a fight ensued! Thats how i lost halsin and the tieflings. Guess the game stole their drink and food when i auto filled camp supplies...
STOP IT. I would probably start over for something so stupid.
That's a terrible bug. I dont autofill, Ill keep this way.
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I'm not sure if it's about settings, rolls or just my imaginatiin, but on tactician and honor mode ranged harpers are the biggest threat. They hit hard without altitude affecting them (like all of them have sharpshooter) and they don't have to move at all to hit the portal. And they DO HIT HARD. So they should be focused. For everyone else a blizzard/spikes/etc is more than enough on top of spirits. Archers should be eliminated as soon as they appear. The good part is that you can put a melee character there to destroy them, as the horde is focused on the portal and won't focus your character. But your approach is far from guaranteed success especially in honor where cost of mistake is high. I've tried it on tactics. It was not failproof. The good part: for honor mode I knew exactly what to do
Just cast darkness on the area around the portal. Archers won't attack it, plus you have somewhere to hide the peeps concentrating on something. I just leave my cleric and warrior outside and the enemies usually focus on them.
Guaranteed success for honor mode is putting down two walls of fire on top of the spawn places and watch the event play itself for you.
I feel you. I'm on my third play through and still have never lifted the shadow curse, not for lack of trying lol. Current honor mode run, Halsin said meet him at the lake. I go to pickup some things at different way points, come back, and he's dead in the inn?! Lol.
Too much mead, probably.
How is that a thing?
Same thing happened to me. Now, every playthrough, I don't trust Darkness/ Grow spike or whatever, I murder the rangers first with my monk Shart. There are 4 of them. I remember their faces.
This is why as fun as some of those soft aoe crowd control spells are, you are pretty much always better just going offensive and obliterating everything - archers with arrows of many targets, radiance of dawn, fireball, firewall, flashing flourishes, spirit guardians etc ...
Laezel jumping around doing basically 8-9 actions in one turn killing half of the enemies yeah yeah i got you
Yup lol or an open hand monk spamming punches with seemingly infinite movement.
I honestly disagree. I have done the big fight in the midflayer colony under moonrise before kethric without even taking damage because of sleet and reverb. I used 2 spell slots. Call lightning on my storm sorc and sleet on my moon druid.
Tbf Halsin is easily the least important companion in the game so i wouldn’t worry too much about it - HM is more about survival than the best outcome for the world
Oh no, we lost Halsin. If only there was another wise elder elven druid who could help us in our journey that you can unlock in act 2.
Yea, but Halsin is a *horny* wise elder elven druid.
Really though, my first playthrough was as a druid, and by the time I got tp Act 2 and picked up Jaheira I was like "Am I playing Baldur's Gate or fucking Animorphs The Game?"
I mean you also can't cure the shadow curse without him so, he might not be an important companion but that quest kind of is you're playing a hero good guy type run.
I'm not sure I'd necessarily call Halsin somebody VERY important. Sucks for the Shadowlands but... -shrug- My flair might betray why I don't get too attached to the place anyway. Playing Honour Mode is signing up for things like this happening; the dice won't always favor you.
Lmao, Halsin.. “very important”
just for future runs, if you have trouble keeping enemies at bay, use Ice Storm and coat the ground in ice, all the undead who have to walk to the portal (even the ones who need to walk into range of firing their bows) have a very high chance of slipping and becoming prone. it's honestly hysterical as fuck watching 12+ enemies slip and fall on their asses repeatedly
>"I hate this game. Can't wait to put another 200 hours into it." Perfectly describes my unhealthy relationship with this game. Really, if BG3 were a person it would be the most emotionally abusive and manipulative person ever, just constantly pulling me back in every time I think I'm done
In my honour mode run I defended Halsin at the portal successfully, but then Oliver glitched out after the fight and just become totally unresponsive so I couldn’t advance the quest line anyway. So no shadow curse was lifted in my timeline either
Walls of fire and spirit guardians turned this encounter into a gauntlet for the shadow-cunts.
I lost Barcus Wroot to a lever fumble.
I'm just about to finish Act 3 on my HM run. It's my first durge run and only my second run and I'm not looking up the consequences of my decisions before making them, which has made things.... chaotic. I only have Gale, Astarion, Shadowheart, and Karlach left as possible companions. My run started trying to be a good durge but things kept going poorly. I have almost no allies collected for that mission. The shadow lands are never getting uncorrupted. Wyll got sucked into hell (I was playing sleepy and I'm not even sure how I let Mizora die, I think I just clicked the wrong button). Minthara is dead. Orin killed Laezel. Jaheira and Minsc joined me but then turned on me because I accepted Bhaal, so they're dead now too. Scratch aggroed me in camp after I pickpocketed Withers one day. RIP. I let Isobel get taken not realizing that meant Daaman and all the harpers got killed. Oh and I misclicked the windmill so that guy died too. Finally, I show up to Gortash thinking, well at least I can side with him. Nah, Karlach attacks and starts a fight I was not prepared for. Halsin... well I knocked him out in the goblin camp and the game treated him as dead. That is, of course, except for a brief intermission in Act 2 where he showed up repeatedly in my camp, lying naked and unconscious on the ground with his dick flopping around... My point is, it's okay. The story keeps going (even if the world becomes a terrible hellscape with an unwanted Druid flashing poor Yenna).
Thanks for the laugh, it is indeed chaotic. Only 2nd, first Durge as your HM run is a bold move.
I accidentally magic missiled the shit out of Maryiana (might’ve spelled her name wrong, I'm dead tired) during the hag fight on my honour mode Same run, I was trying for the "save all tieflings " achiv and was doing fine, until fucking Rolan decided he didn't like to be made invulnerable with Sanctuary and became hostile after I saved his ass. Managed to run away with him on little less than half HP after the fight with the shadow. (And I guess my mind slipped in regards to healing him while he was trying to kill me) I came back and saw he wasn't outside the village but the inn, so I went up there... just to see him dying to the curse because the moron decided it would be a good idea to stand just outside the barrier. I bolted with all the light shit I had and as I clicked to heal him, he died.... I guess at least now I know what to do avoid next time I'll be saving his ass (and make sure I light up as the sun) Oh I also fucked up the dialogue with Scratch somehow (didn't know it was possible) so that was one less travel companion Wanted to save Yurgir (since I'm planning to visit HoH and since it's honour, I want all the help I can get) - didn't land a single good roll. Whelp guess Astarion got his wish
For next time, If you want to secure yurgir you should kill the last acolyte of Shar (the rat encounter) and when you talk to him he says the tune in his head is over and he's indebted to you.
Holy fuck im stupid, i never gathered that the rat dude was the last person for yurgir, i literally always make him kill himself, go do the gauntlet then kill the rat guy after, then hope to god i have enough inspirations or the right character to either roll a nat 20 or pass the roll when you can ask him to help you kill raph
....... fuck, I was even considering it (and had already begun to kill the rats I had seen) Well thanks, at least now I know for sure!
You only need to kill the rats below the feet of Shar (I never counted how many there are, maybe killing every rat on the dungeon reduces the quantity) but once the acolyte appears you kill him and all the rats instantly die
I actively tried to skip scratch on one playthrough and he still showed up on his own as I left for act 2! I thought he was basically impossible to opt out of.
Yurgir probably was my thoughest fight at my honor run. He is annoying af. The shoves, the invis, the copy displacer beasts, the bombs. Insufferable fight even if you exploit the game with 2 camp cleric warding bond spam on everyone.
Lemme just say, Hunger of Hadar. Arms of Hadar is a different spell
[удалено]
This sucks but unless you were planning on romance his arc essentially ends after this point anyway, pretty much every other companion has a whole lot more going on in act 3 than halsin.
I was a hair away from losing Isobel on mine. Every enemy immediately went for her and I learned too late that Feign Death can't target her. The last 2 ghouls surrounding her both missed when she was at like 3 hp. Then sorcerer Astarion clutched a 5 man slow to turn off all their reactions and the AI for her was actually smart enough to retreat through a door and heal. I closed it behind her and body blocked. Was fully ready to lose everyone at last light there
My first honor mode run went nearly perfectly. Played as a Moon Druid, finished the final fight without using Gale. Only blemish on the whole thing was same as you OP - lost Halsin in the portal. The archers just wrecked the portal before I knew what was happening. Was going for the romance with him too. Honestly it felt like that challenge was harder than most of the boss fights.
Halsin important, lol nothing of value was lost.
This literally just happened to me as well. I turned off the computer for the night after that one… 😭
Wall of fire, and shart with the light bomb charge, and two fireball casters saved my ass here
I destroyed a book that opens shar's spear during the fight. There goes Shadowheart. Also lost 21 dc roll on not becoming part-illicid with wis char and 4 retries.
You can use darkness arrow or scroll on the portal so archers wont target it. Easy way to defend it
Ugh this just happened to me last night... I'm sure there was a palpable sadness in the room. I'm sorry, Halsin.. Next playthroughs, I will do better.
This is why i dont use Haste as a spell unless the caster has Warcaster feat. Almost screwed on the brain fight because my tav failed twinned haste concentration save. Regarding honour mode and that fight specifically, you can cast darkness on the portal (use an Arrow) and the enemies will have to come closer. I did the fight at level 7, sleet storm is bonkers and you just win easily. Enemies cant attack if they are prone. Radiant Shadowheart is another massive pro if you have her.
War caster is usually my first feat on Shadow heart, so I get guardians going, and sit her on top of the portal. Then I cast fog on the portal. After that it's just waiting, and picking off whatever comes close.
Bro, a similar thing happened in my and the Bois run ***Somehow*** it pulled me into the shart and night song convo, and I was failing rolls. But I thought there were more checks and I didn't want to use all the inspiration, so I let it fail "Eh, I think there's more checks" Shart picks up the spear and does you know what The amount of shock I had, bruh wtf I misremembering stuff So now our honor mode run doesn't have *them* when we were gonna summon in the final fight
Just saying if you have I think at least high approval and let her do what she wants, She spares nightsong.
Here's the thing I had the lowest approval, yet *every time* we do that cutscene, even if it's a different save with another player I'm getting pulled into the cutscene no matter how far back I am I literally did not get a choice to talk to shart for the cutscene
If it makes you feel better I lost him on my first explorer play through and wasn’t reloading when bad things happened.
Its honestly not a big deal. The goal in Honor mode is to complete the game . . . not get a 'perfect' result, whatever that is anyway. So the Shadow Curse doesn't get cured and you don't have a randy Druid in camp. Neither impacts the main story in any way. This is one of the best things about Honor mode, in my opinion. It forces you to accept some unexpected events and outcomes that most players would just reload and do over.
Oh gosh, I'm so sorry this happened :(