Although Baldur’s Gate 3’s Honour Mode might sound like a more virtuous way to play the game, I have actually found the opposite to be true. Each of my Honour Mode defeats or close calls has only served to make my approach to combat encounters more underhanded to avoid having to start all over again. That said, the less “honorable” my approach to combat becomes, the more I start to appreciate the depth of the game’s combat system and just how creative it allows me to be.

I’ve played a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3, but I’ll admit I wasn’t too creative in my early runs through the game. My experience definitely led me to be overconfident the first time I started up an Honour Mode playthrough, and I was quickly shown the error of my ways when trying to beat Commander Zhalk delivered me to an embarrassingly early grave. The more I played, the more I realized I needed to seriously change my approach.

Honour Mode Showed Me My Normal Approach Wouldn’t Work

I Approached Fights Head On In Balanced Mode

When playing Baldur’s Gate 3 in Balanced mode, my approach to combat encounters was relatively straightforward. Although I would occasionally use a stealthy approach with my Rogue Tav and any other quiet party members to set up a nice starting point for the battle, once the fighting started I rarely got too creative. I typically just focused on gaining the advantage on action economy by taking out the enemies with the lowest health first, then focused on tanky enemies.

This basic approach largely served me well through Balanced mode. As someone who likes to explore each region thoroughly, I would typically get to a point where I was slightly over-leveled later in the game. I would also always do both the Underdark and Mountain Pass sections of the game to ensure I was farming all available XP. Although that specific aspect of my playstyle hasn’t changed in Honour mode, the way I approach combat has.

Although I figured some fights like Balthazar in the Shadowfell or the House of Grief would give me trouble, I was surprised at the numerous early game fights that were suddenly much more deadly in Honour Mode. After dying in the Goblin Camp several hours into my second or third playthrough, I decided I needed to rethink my straightforward approach to combat. This led me to look for potential advantages that I had overlooked when playing on lower difficulties.

Honour Mode Taught Me How To Use My Items More Effectively

Honour Mode Showed Me How To Utilize Environmental Factors And Tools

Custom Image by Katarina Cimbaljevic. 

One of the first things I did when trying to find a new way to succeed in Honour Mode was to start looking through my inventory. This was less of a strategic decision, and a more spur-of-the-moment one, as I found myself in the middle of a fight that had started to go south, and I needed a way out. A few specialty arrows, a spell scroll, and one well-placed bomb later, I had managed to scrape out a victory.

I would try to find ways to chain barrel explosions together to start combat with a bang and a big advantage.

It’s not like I hadn’t known these items existed or how they worked, but that I rarely felt I needed them in my Balanced Mode playthrough. By the time I’d reached Act Three on lower difficulties, I’d typically have an inventory full of unused spell scrolls, arrows, and other combat items that I’d been hoarding. Thanks to Honour Mode’s permadeath, I stopped seeing these items as potential resources for future fights, and instead ways to ensure I would actually live to see future fights.

Honour Mode also got me to start using items that I never would have before. For example, I’d always make sure to grab Smokepowder barrels or Firewine barrels when I could carry them. Before certain encounters, and often with the help of an Invisibility spell or scroll, I would place these barrels around the area to lay traps for my enemies. Taking inspiration from one of my favorite League of Legends champions, Gangplank, I would try to find ways to chain barrel explosions together to start combat with a bang and a big advantage.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Includes A Lot Of Ways To Play Dirty

There Are More Ways To Defeat An Enemy Than Just Attacking Them Head On

One of my favorite elements of Baldur’s Gate 3 is how free it allows me to be. Rarely do I have an idea for a strategy that the game won’t at least let me try out. While these aren’t all necessarily successful, this flexibility is a lot of fun. The game’s freedom also means there are a lot of ways to creatively approach combat scenarios and get the upper hand on your enemies.

Now, some options for fighting dirty are built directly into the game. For example, you can poison the Goblin Camp and make the fight easier. There are also some enemies that you can convince to turn on one another through persuasion checks, or even convince to take their own lives so you can avoid having to fight them. These less-than-honorable approaches to combat encounters can be a real lifesaver in Honour Mode, and I found myself using them far more often when I knew each combat could be my last.

Understanding how combat and the game’s environment work also helped me cheese quite a few encounters that typically gave me trouble. For instance, in the House of Grief, I held my party back behind a large door at the end of a narrow hallway. I had my Thief Rogue Tav initiate combat, knowing he would likely go early in the turn order. When my turn came, I used my boots that allowed me to Misty Step as well as my action and extra bonus action to double dash behind the door and close it.

Enemies can’t attack through doors, so I had my party open the door, do spell and ranged attacks, then close it again. I also threw down an Evard’s Black Tentacles to slow enemies down as they approached and used a Cloudkill spell scroll on the hallway for good measure. Wyll’s Eldritch Blast and Gale’s Thunderwave helped push any enemies back away from the door if they tried to open it. I may not have felt like an honorable hero fighting this way, but it kept me, my party, and my Honour Mode playthrough alive.

Knowing how fights work ahead of time can also help you play a little dirty on a Baldur’s Gate 3 Honour Mode run. For instance, I knew that Balthazar summons the many undead monsters that make the fight against him hard. So, by inflicting Silence on him before the fight starts, you can make the fight a four-on-one, giving yourself a huge advantage. You can also use Counterspell to try and stop his summon, but since he uses a level six spell, it won’t always work.

My Secret Weapon In Honour Mode Surprised Me

For The Game’s Many Tactics, Simply Pushing People Works Wonders

The further I got into my Honour Mode playthrough, the more I was surprised and entertained to find what one of my go-to strategies had become: pushing people off high places. See, part of my initial lack of creativity in my Baldur’s Gate 3 combat style stemmed from me looking at it like a digital version of D&D, and most DMs try not to build too many endless pits into their worlds. In contrast, Baldur’s Gate 3 has a lot of places where you can push enemies in and be sure they won’t come back out.

Pushing people into pits doesn’t necessarily need to kill them, so long as it limits their ability to get back out. For example, if you throw Dror Ragzlin into the Goblin Camp’s spider pit, he usually won’t try to run around to the entrance. Typically, he stands around at the bottom of the pit near where he fell, and you can just fire spells and arrows at him without him being able to fight back.

I found it very funny that my secret weapon in an epic fantasy adventure like Baldur’s Gate 3 was simply pushing people into holes. That said, it’s important to know this strategy does have limitations. Some enemies like the Phase Spiders or Balthazar will teleport themselves out of pits. Still, if you find yourself struggling against bosses like Auntie Ethel, don’t forget that Thunderwave, bombs, and shoving can be your friend.