What's your most cooked honour moment? Mine was Squidward taking every opportunity attack and edging on his chain lightning leaving my level 1 Gale to carry his worthless ass Tips & Tricks for Solo Honour: ruclips.net/video/f4Zgx2k_TjQ/видео.html Patch 7 Solo Walkthrough: ruclips.net/video/aaLKecF5COk/видео.html Honour Party Template: drive.google.com/file/d/1iqPT3rGJ6-YFtMNot5GGkIVCYUS_hMjf/view
Fighting Marcus at Last Light, killed him easily, and a couple of horrors, then got to watch as Isobel was so far down the turn order she got KO'd and kidnapped before she even had a chance to mess anything up. On that day I learned that the game WANTS her in the Myrkul fight and I should stop resisting.
Just one from a long list: Ignored the explosive mushroom at the "ladder" to the fish people because I'm an enhance leap + feather fall addict and I'm not stopping for that shit. didn't even get to see the explosion on my way out, just the game-over screen.
Mine was getting smited by vlaakith for trying and failing to detect her thoughts since I was curious what that interaction was ending my pretty good honour run there.
I lost my most recent Honour mode attempt in the Gauntlet of Shar when the Book you need to unlock the gate in the library where the Spear of night is hidden ended up glitching through the floor after getting hit by an explosion during the fight. Couldn't get the book or spear, tried to enter the Shadowveil anyways, Shart turned on the party and killed us all in one round (she had been respecced into a Tavern Brawler Monk).
An underrated part of barb thrower that I never see anyone talk about is how you can just throw a guy off a cliff consistently. Just run up, improv weapon move them to a ledge, and yeet them to an instakill.
dno if they changed it, but so many mobs just get tp'd back if they got knocked off. I bought the game when honour mode came out and did it blind and I almost died on the final stretch of the gauntlet cus a mindflayer got knocked off by a nautiloid bomb and tp'd back up right in front of me and stunned my entire party. My mates had talked alot about how fun it was to throw mobs off cliffs, so it took me a while of frustration before I googled and found out that hm puts restrictions on chasm kills.
I think it depends on the enemy... Unless something exists in HM (not played HM): mind flayers can fly so maybe that makes them immune. The fish beings can't be thrown into anything that has water as they pop back up...e.g. boaaal can die by throwing him off the ledge into the river below (what a song) but the fish people pop right back up 😅. Crafty Larian. @@MacGregor3
@@Tryingcounts havent actually looked it up, its defo honour mode only though based on teh tactician playthroughs ive done with mates after. In my experience it was anything with legendary abilities was 100% no chasm kills and felt like most "named" mobs had a chasm protection as well.
As someone who's put 3,000 Hrs into BG3, these builds 10000x are what she says they are. All of them are fantastic builds - can't go wrong. Great work!
Said it in live chat as well, but after struggling with Honour mode for literally months (I do not have much time to play) I was actually giving up and not find it worth trying again. Until I found your channel and your Tavern Brawler Monk gameplay..... Being a sucker for monks, I wanted to give it a go, because..... Worst thing that could happen, was me filing again, after all. But holy heck..... I made it through and I do not think there was one moment through the playthrough where I feared I'd die. The build is just top tier and really rewards you for playing it consistently as a monk. It felt so good!
I'm so glad you found something that resonated with you (no pun intended) and felt good to play. Congrats and thank you for sharing your experience. I was a snob on Monk for so long but when I gave it a go it's so much silly fun I adore it now 😊
ive always loved cold spells in this game but i never knew how to play it well so your ice sorcerer build was incredible for my honour runs, thank you for blessing us with these amazing builds
I'm allerigc to casters, so the Bardadin or Throwbarb take the Sorcerer's spot for me, but I can confirm these builds are fun to curbstomp Honour Mode with. They're strong individually, they're crazy strong together, and all really well presented here. Really enjoy it every time we get to hear your thought process, thank you for putting this together!
the angles on the throws drive me crazy sometimes, but throwing things (and people) is just way too much fun to give up. Smite ASMR do be activating all the neurons tho, I have to agree
wym? If it was a caster I'd break out in hives and die, I'm allergic. Those are bonk slots you're thinking of, they do look like spell slots on the UI tho, I see the confusion
I think that line about what matters most is game knowledge and adaptability is so spot on and actually a lesson I learned when I played Divinity Original Sin 2 with some friends years ago. There were so many fights that we got stuck on and it took hours of just retrying them to win. And then the actual winning attempt was laughably easy. All because we positioned our characters a little differently, or change how we focused enemies.
Love hearing your advice, because you’re an absolute killer. Digressive note for no reason: Running the D20 initiative mod makes the balance so much better, it really makes encounters exciting and unpredictable again, I will never go back to D4 initiative.
Been running true initiative before honour mode came out, it just feels so good. Granted, the Myrkul fight almost kicked my ass first time on honour mode, coz i didn't prepare for it properly, and the mind flayer won initiative over everyone, and stunned the whole party 🤣 Lessons learned tho, the hard way: preparation is king in honour mode.
I DM a "pack tactics" rule. Basically, any team that has been working together for at least 2 weeks, get 21 initiative per 2 members (+10 for 1). They assign the initiative and add their initiative bonus among all members in the pack. This allows them to decide which of them moves first or which of them move together. The downside is that the enemies follow the same rule. While the party can put their strikers up front in initiative, the enemies MOST CERTAINLY put their spell casters and leaders at initiative 15+ while keeping the mooks at 5-. That being said I typically have enemies initiative cascade. Take a group of 6. 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3. the 18 will be a wizard or cleric whereas the 3 will be a low level mook. BG3 method almost matched what I made, except BG3 made it very 1 sided towards the player. My method gives both sides a chance to do it.
I found a multiclass of 6 swords bard / 4 thief rogue / 2 fighter got me all the way through (picking half wood elf makes the early game easier due to the extra movement speed and shields) It brings both insane damage and useful utility with spells and with charisma and expertise you can work as an amazing face. With the build I beat Orin as urge without any effort in 1 round. With your hand crossbows, extra attack, 2 bonus actions, action surge, potion of speed and Slashing Flourish you abuse the action economy. You also bring useful spells like longstrider, enhanced ability, hold person and stinking cloud. Plus your AC can get crazy with Defensive Flourish and yanti scale mail or armour of agility. Song of rest is also just nice to have. Used it along with your Ice sorcerer build, a Paladin / warlock and light cleric / fighter to pick up my golden dice!
I love these pew-pew builds! 😂 Sword bard is my favorite subclass in BG 3 & I'm a bit bummed they didn't bring it into 5e like this in the new phb. My favorite build is very similar. I go Sword bard 6, Thief 3, battle master 3. Debating on if should try yours for the extra feat or asi, but having blade flourishes AND battle master maneuvers refresh on short rest makes every single attack unique & you have so much versatility & damage.
Thanks for this guide! it shows you tried hard to make it intelligible to dummies like me and it is! I also have 2000 hours in game but your ability to beat the game at level 1 solo and other strange builds, and your deep knowledge of the game makes me feel like in most of your videos that I am listening to a PhD level quantum mechanics lecture. Your command of this game is just amazing. Bravo!
The thing I love about this channel is that while I’ve beaten honor mode like 10 times, but used different builds, and this channel plus the mod community keeps giving me more fun options!
This video is incredibly validating! Currently playing my first honor mode run without looking up guides, super nice to find out I built 3 of the top 4 on the list. The one exception being that I'm using a fire sorcerer with fire acuity hat, which I believe deserves an honorable mention it's so freaking good lol. Great video!
I do not know if this is mentioned anywhere, but there is a cool micro which you can pull off if you are playing a ranged build. You can target an enemy for an attack, fire the arrow and as the arrow is flying enter turn based mode. If you failed a stealth check you would then enter combat with both your action and bonus action and if you are passed level 5 you would have also procced the bonus attack for free. Does not require dipping into assassin to work.
Watching you play gloomstalker, got me through my first HM completion last month! Tried the build out by getting to Act3, solo-tactician. After that, a careful HM attempt (remembering all that MM taught me) with 3 party members that were used for buffs and combat cleanup.
Monk was totally cracked. Stunning strike literally saved my run multiple times. Including a final battle I scuffed due to my irl low int. Thanks for providing the build!
Incredible structure and presentation as always, Evelyn! Thank you for continuing to share your expertise and love for this beautiful world of Baldur’s Gate!
Congrats on passing 69.420 subscribers You Stealth Archer build is what got me through Honor Mode the first time I tried. I'll definitely borrow some more of these builds for my next runs, I'm waiting for crossplay to be added to the game so I can do new runs with my friends who are on PC. Love your videos, hope you continue making them shadowfeet
Great video as usual! Its really cool to see so many hours of gameplay and accumalted knowloage about the game so well synthesized! I confess i was kinda of a sucker for spellcasters, but seeing your videos made me realize how much martials go hard af. Especially stealth archer! I played a lot of skyrim and I see this build as kind of a tribute to skyrim stealth archer, though i remember you mentioning this build was inspired by DO2 stealth archer. As a spellcaster enjoyer, your ice sorcerer build was a breath of fresh air to me, cause I never had thought about a sorcerer build that relied on cantrip casting and ice spells and always felt kinda stuck to storm sorcerer. It was really good to learn something new! Anyways, keep rocking ev ❤
Ice Sorc got me back into spell casting then it lead to my sorcadin hyper fixation haha. Glad to see you're being martial pilled by a smooth brain like me ❤️
Holy cheeks 16:18 sent my last surviving brain cell to the fugue plane and back. Really nice and cozy video and amazing showcase of the undoubtedly strongest classes in the game. I'm glad a lot of new players will be able to have access to the valuable information that you provide, honestly wish I had this information when I did my first honour run. Throwzerker and OH Monk have always been adored choices for my party and I rarely run without them, though as of late I catch myself adding a Stealth Archer more times than not because it's just so much fun to play. Definitely prefer martials over casters and if I had to choose a caster it would probably be an endgame support addition. To be fair casters aren't unfun overall for me, it's just incredibly annoying how long it takes for them to be even remotely relevant.
lmao omg lilly your comment made me snort im glad its a cozy video (and that you're trying the stealth archer meme) ❤ ive been trying to make casters a silly broken mess i'll get it eventually
I can't live without my darkness warlock/fighter build... i LOVE the darkness spell, the tricks you can do with vision, i love warlock as a class and love using everything i can to support that gameplay. love your builds!! keep up the good work!!
The stealth archer was the first character I played in an actual DND campaign some years back and I loved it. I had to use it for a solo honour run and the addition of the arrows really took it to the next level.
Stealth archer was insane ty so much for all the work you put in. I decided I wanted to be a bit fair in act 3 and still 1 turned ansur and Raph in turned based mode (with an opening attack out of combat).
Love the look of all four of these builds and I've played the stealth archer build myself it was the most fun I've would gladly play it again after testing out the ice sorcerer build first. My most cooked honour mode was when I forgot elevators don't work and I used the one in gauntlet of shar wiping 3 of my party members.
honestly 10 bard + 2 paladin literally carried me through honor mode, high charisma to decieve enemies with insane damage is op, great to see this build in the video, instant like
I appreciate this vid3o immensely and agree with what you said about understanding the game. It's thanks to you and other great creators that I started understanding the game truly for my honour run. Your tips have been invaluable, and the builds are so much fun!
Love your videos! I found the monk build especially fun in late game and will be attempting the stealth archer soon. I've found a full 12 lvl light cleric stacked with radiance gear to be extremely powerful, mobile, and an amazing support. It's not "flashy" as the high damage builds but in a party run it's a lot of fun watching enemies, not just undead, melt away by the power of light
My favourive Honour Mode group is my signing circus: 2 Cleric / 10 Lore Bard -> Controller/Healer 2 Paladin / 10 Swords Bard -> well Bardadin 5 Gloomstaker / 5 Swordsbard / 2 Fighter -> Archer ... you could also go 4 Fighter / 3 Bard for Maneuvers which probably would be stronger overall, but I do like my Font of Inspiration and Improved Bardic Performance 6 Warmaster / 5 Valor Bard / 1 War Cleric -> Rapier Duellist Fighter You get so many skillpoints, Bardic Inspirations and 4 extra short rests while not be to reliant on long rests its super fun ...and the best part: you can have your group of 4 stand around after a long fight and play as a Quartett ... I love it so much, that Larian thought about having more than one Bard in the Group and adds real symphonies according to the amount of instruments played
Swords Bard reverberation build with gear like Bow of the Banshee, Drakethroat Glaive and Boots of Stormy Clamour absolutely carried by first Honour Run playthrough. I learned about that build from this channel too! Best BG3 creator on RUclips imo :)
I recently did a run with the TB monk, BM fighter, and stealth archer in the party and they kept fighting over who was gonna end combat on turn 1. Thank you for the based content as always
I love this videos. It's awesome! There I go again, clearing characters that I don't use for recording videos to try these builds. Once again I'm not leaving Act 1. I love this video so much. Thanks for making this video for us.
2 Great Old One Warlock 10 Evocation Wizard has always been my favorite. Hex + Spellsparkler + Potent Robe + Agonizing Blast and I use the incandescent staff or Markoheskir is some crisp damage. The build comes online with the Spellsparkler and level 5 double eldritch blast but is very frail as I go 8 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 16 Int, 8 Wis, 17 Cha. Feats are War Caster (for concentration support) or spell sniper (for damage I prefer War Caster), but I make sure I have dual wield by level 10 (in act 3). Amazing dialogue, amazing damage, and versatility, and don’t forget, you’re a wizard but unfortunately no 6th level spells. I like using slow, hold person, counterspell, haste, misty step, shield, and evocation spells. I actually use a Titian String Swordsbard, Karlach Openhand Monk, and a spore druid with a singular level in wizard. The only thing I’m scared of is my 1v1 against Orin, I think sanctuary from a cleric should save me. Here is a damage roll summary, and it is a low roll: I’m level 10 fresh out of Act 2 against Chult Alioramus: Ac: 14 Attack roll: 5 (1d20)+4 Proficiency +1 (Doom Lobber: Daredevil Gloves) +1 (Lightning Charges) +4 (Cha modifier)=15 Damage Roll: 2 (1d10 Force) +4 (Cha modifier) (Agonizing Blast) +4 Cha modifier (Gregarious Caster)=10. Best you can do is 18 force damage. Hex allows 1d6 necrotic damage and lightning charges are lethal. Lowest roll is ~14 damage, the one I showed you. You can do 50-60+ damage (assuming if all 3 blasts land) per action, and you have haste. I did 10+3+1+18+5+1+16+5+5, 64 damage.
Would love to see a mechanical breakdown of your stealth archer build, as well as full runs of your other solo honour mode builds. Very helpful and entertaining.
I still haven't finished my first playthrough of the game, but my party already had an Ice Sorcerer, ThrowBarian, and Battle Master. Your builds might be just the inspiration I needed to pick that playthrough back up and make it to the end.
Great video, clear and straight to the point, presenting actual strong builds. Thanks The Stealth Archer is definitely my favourite. Not only did i enjoy watching your big series back in the day, which taught me so much about the game, but playing Stealth Archer also got me interested in testing the games limits, difficulties and ultimately different builds too. So my nearly 1k hours in this game are mostly due to this gem of a build.
You're welcome and yeah the stealth archer started my journey a year back oh my god it's been so quick. Glad I could inspire you to mess around with the game and enjoy it for all those hours 😊
I am currently doing a fighter build. I went to the Underdark and ran into God's gift to narcissism: Nere. He didn't like me and the feeling was mutual. My party members went down in about 3 turns but I didn't. I forgot I had a blood elixir, drank it, and went to work. I took out everyone and everything. Felt like a king. I will be doing a Dark Urge, stealth archer run for my next playthrough. Probably solo. Edit: Bringing Shadowheart with me for a semi-solo run.
Aha just fighter things. Good luck on your durge stealth archer run. It really fits the theme and it's the most fun I've had in BG3. Shadowcute is God's favorite princess so it's understandable 😊
I still haven't touched honor mode yet BUT on my current tactitian playthrough I m going ice sorcerer and by gods is it powerful. My jaw drops everytime with the power of the ray of frost cantrip! and that cone of cold shotgun is chef's kiss. Not even talking about the excellent action economy with the sorcery points! And there are so many items in the game that complement this playstyle so well! I didnt even know about the enemies freezing and totally by accident Cazador froze and before that he kept slipping on the ice, he never even touched me T_T. Made the fight so trivial! I fuckin love your guides!
I'm only on my second playthrough so I'm not quite honor mode ready but I'm playing an ice druid so I feel like I'm in the ballpark for #4! You're right though, it's about having fun!
I did my honour run with a very similiar set up as your top pick. The level 1 class pick was DB sorc for shield spell reaction for another 5 to AC. I also had a separate party member with assassin swapped with thief and dual hand crossbows, very good at clearing out weaker enemies or dealing dps on that almost never seen, second turn of combat.
My build that I always have in the party is 1 Drac W Soc 1 Tem Cler 10 Abj Wiz. The tankyness and overall spell flexibility make your survivability go way up. You have great retaliation damage, great spells, and you become very difficult to harm. Adds a lot to a party but is also a strong solo pick.
My go-to: Warlock 2/Wizard X (Abjuration) (Can also go Light Cleric 1/War 2/Wiz X for higher AC) At level 4, respec to Warlock for 2 levels to get Armor of Shadows invocation and Armor of Agathys. Then every level after in Wizard, taking Abjuration for the Arcane Ward feature. The free Mage Armor from Warlock is used to refresh Arcane Ward stacks between fights. Your max stacks are always 2x your Wizard level. To refresh them: Equip any armor (to clear the Mage Armor buff, if you have it) --> Equip your robes --> Cast Armor of Shadows: Mage Armor (gives you 1 stack) --> Equip armor to lose the MA buff but keep your stack -> repeat until full stacks. Each stack is a flat damage reduction off any attack, and at level 6 you can even use a reaction to put the ward on an ally for one attack. You can functionally do most of the work of the ice sorcerer build listed, but with greater survivability and the ability to save your teammates from fatal attacks. I spend most combats opening with a heavy cc spell like Web, Slow, Sleet Storm, Hypnotic Pattern, Any Wall spell, Hunger of Hadar and then continue the fight with ray of frost to keep enemies at bay. Add in items that inflict reverberation and it gets even better. Generally for race I like Duergar for starting fights with surprise by casting invisibility at will out of combat and starting the fight with an attack, but if that's too lame you can take Gold Dwarf for the +1 hp every level, since this build lacks HP. Really good feats: Alert Resilient Con (War Caster is also good but there are lots of items that give advantage on concentration) Dual Wielder (If you're in a 4-person game and can't glitch yourself into equipping two staves) Other playstyle - the wizard tank (thanks d4 D&D Deep Dive for this) If you respec at 5 to make your 1st level a Light Cleric, you'll get heavy armor proficiency immediately. Use your Mage Armor to generate stacks, but always keep the highest AC armor you can find + a shield. At Wizard 4, you can take Heavy Armor Master to reduce all nonmagical physical damage incoming by a flat amount of 3. The Admantine Splint will also reduce by 2. So with a ward of 8 stacks, and both the feat + Adamantine armor, enemies need to deal 14 damage to deal a single point of damage to you. And that's the build at Cleric 1/War 2/Wiz 4. You can keep Armor of Agathys on as a way of dealing return damage to any enemies that actually get in range of you and manage to hit you. You'll likely take 0 damage, and reflect cold damage back at them. AoA also stays active as long as you have the temp hp from it, so as long as your Ward stacks last, it'll keep dishing out damage. You MIGHT be able to cast AoA with higher wizard slots, but this might've been patched. For more damage: You can also slot in a Magic Missile build to use your 1st to 2nd level slots as good damage ammo (grab the Spellsparkler, Psychic Spark amulet, Ne'er Misser, Gloves of Belligerent Skies if you want, phalar aluve if you want to get in melee) as well as coruscation ring, callous glow ring for inflicting tons of radiating orb (just cast Light on yourself). This build is my favorite because accidents happen in honor mode, especially with friends who are inexperienced. I've saved a lot of runs because I was the only one who survived a massive aoe attack, and I either drank an invis or cast Expeditious Retreat to run from combat and revive everyone in camp. I prefer the versatility of Wizard over Sorcerer, and this build is now my go-to. If you like this build, and you're in Evelyn's discord, you can reach me for questions. I'm miniluv in there. Peace!
The classic reverberation eldritch blaster is one of my favourites. Excellent damage, especially after haste got nerfed for extra attack but not cantrips; some of the best CC around; and most of your levels free to do whatever. First time I used it was back in patch 3 when damage calculations were silly and it could easily do over 1500 dpr. Lately, i've been having a lot of fun with tiger heart barb with skinburster. You can become borderline immune to physical damage, especially if you have if you run an abjuration wizard with it, though it's definitely not mandatory. Tiger heart cleave stacks force conduit super fast and only cuts the base damage in half, GWM, wrath and pretty much every other damage buff does full damage to all (potentially) 3 targets.
Pure Sorcerer with a stockpile of scrolls and potions.... and metamagic like quicken spells. That or Stealth Archer, just like in Skyrim. Just keep another friendly character with sentinel or similar feat/ability to protect the sorcerer
I loved the Ice Spells and Ice mechanic in DOS:2. I played a run as an Ice Sorcerer, but really the downside is you cant learn „create water“ , needed to waste Skillpoints into Kleric or Druid or using weaker gear which ultimately brought me to the point that the Ice Sorcerer just look cool on youtube, but if you play it for like 60h its not really fun
Since I found your channel way back in the eary days of BG3, and your first video on Stealth Archer, I have one in ALL my parties :) (usaully Astarion) backup up by a tavern brawkler monk (Karlach). my tav is a Swords BArd 6 / Theif Rogue 3 / BM Fighter 3 wih twin hand crossbows. / I the fourth is changed a lot cos I like doing ALL of the companions stoylines. every run. Shart as War Cleric 1 / Lore Bard 6 / Theif Rogue 3 / Fighter 2 / Gale as Evo Wizard but that Ice Sorc looks very cool ;) / Lae'zel is my BM Fighter / Jaheira Moon Druid / Halsin Throw Barb / MInsc Drunk Build. I dont recruit Wyll anymore, I just don't like his storylione or the Warlock class in BG3. It also makes Act 3 harder.
If my current fourth Honour mode run fails, then I'm probably going to try any of these. Current try is a Storm Sorceror, prior try was a Wild Magic Sorceror.
First run loss was due to the inescapable insta-kill leap of faith puzzle in Shar's temple, second run loss was a soft-lock glitch, third run loss was a 3-man co-op against the Grymforge golem. I didn't know it resisted Force damage and my friend didn't know to use the 2H warhammer I gave him.
Personally my favorite honour team is an Ancients Paladin, Lore Bard, Abjuration Wizard, and Tempest Cleric. It's not a very flashy team (especially if you play like me and never long rest haha) and requires meticulous planning for every fight, but it's incredibly resistant to bad rng.
Not me at 7:18 having to do a double take if I had somehow started up darktide after hearing the OST, god damn, was perfect fit for the fighter build lol
great video and build guides. I am using your item ideas to refine my current party. I am level 6 and just starting the creche. TAV is Ice Sorceror, Shadowheart is a Tempest Cleric, Laze'l is an EK TB Thrower, and Astarion is a Swords Bard, TAV and Laze'l will likely stay mono class, Shart will be 1 white draconic, 5 tempest cleric, 6 abjuration wizard. She will be my only full time melee character, running around with spirit guardians, AOA, Arcane Ward, Phalar Aluve, Luminos armor just debuffing everyone. Astarion will either go 10 bard / 2 fighter if I need more control, or may go 6 sb / 4 assassin / 2 Fighter Shart wears the DNW boots so she can't slip on the ice. She also packs a mean magic missile with phalar aluve shriek and spellsparkler dual wield. Hoping that the Storm Scion's Hat arcane acuity procs from spirit guardians and shriek thunder damage so I can throw out some irresistable command spells. Shart enjoys getting everyone wet after they are chilled. Laze'l is addicted to strength elixirs and enjoys throwing anything and everyone. She also carries the titan string bow and the Silver Sword of the Astral plane if needed. She will wear the Hoarfrost boots to not slip on the ever present ice. Astarion is using the Bow of the Banshee so anyone that goes prone on the ice has a chance to also be frightened and skip their turn.
Btw for anyone wanting to be a goodie two shoes and get the bhaalist gear you can pickpocket the image you are judging for when you meet seravok. Then just attack Servok and get a surprise and go to town. Be aware if you fail it starts combat. But you can guarantee success with the +2 gnome dex gloves from the gnome trader (or the sleight of hand improvement gloves from the genie), act1 deception ring, expertise in sleight of hand, +2 leather armor, ring of shapeshifter, guidance, a disguise and rogues automatic 10 passive. Doesn't work solo though since you can't get out of the convo
I actually just started my first Honor Mode run (I will spell that the way I grew up, thank you very much, lol) and I actually have 3 of your 4 types of characters, lol
I ran a 6 pal 6 tempest cleric, super fun works well with ice sorcerer, just wet every one cast lighting spells and big single target thunder smite deals crazy damage with tempest ability.
My personal favorite party composition that doesn't require too much tweaking of your origin party members on Honor mode: 1) 10/1/1 Control Bard (Tav) 2) Spirit Guardians Cleric (Shart) 3) Throwbarian (Karlach) 4) Eldritch Blast 50-cal Sorlock (Wyll) or Magic Missile battle rifle Wizard (Gale) Works from very early and is pretty much unbeatable by endgame with Tav being able to solo Act 3 with very little problem.
I have a similar taste in builds, having played those 4 and the bardadin. For the stealth archer, I tend to build him the same, but respec at 12 to something like swords bard 6, hunter 4, fighter 2, or swap hunter for assassin. Another build I enjoy in act 1 is spore druid 2, warlock 1, then whatever. With dual crossbows and bloodlust elixir, you have very strong early solo combat so you can play the game instead of skipping and cheesing combat until lvl 5, which I tend to do with late-blooming builds. One build I tried to make work for a whilte is a kind of duelist, but feats and items don't match this playstyle, and it feels like a slog.
Shoutout to throw fighter. Best at level 11 but by then it is UNSTOPPABLE. Edrich knight lets you use a bound weapon. Anything that adds an extra damage dice. Even stronger if you attack from above. With haste: Trow 3 times, throw 3 times, action surge, throw 3 times. You can use the bonus action to reposition with something like misty step if high groind is available, or offhand attack if you have one of those (shoutout to the one that lowers the crit number). With tavern brawler and the right equipment, you easily avaerage over 40 per throw. Once you get a specific piece of act 3 equipment, you can also switch over to champion and stack crit reduction to do all this AND crit on a 14.
Your stealth archer build is addictive. Another build I really like is Swords Bard 6, Thief Rogue 4, Fighter 2 arcane acuity is still a broken mechanic. But it does rely on gear and scrolls to be most effective.
About the stealth archer build or for monks. Eversight ring and fog cloud/darkness are so sweet, well, just for any class. I love darkness builds. No enemy is capable of targeting you. Did it on the meenlocks under last light inn (at least having one party member casting protection from evil and good for fear immunity just in case) and then go for it. Any darkness build on cazador is just too good as well. he literally is unable to target you while you're standing in darkness as goes for the wolves, they just perfectly keep their distance. Only bats can target you, so just using some aoe scrolls or anything to kill the bats off.
I like wizard 2 / Sorc 10 Focus intelligence, and for sorc just reap metamagic and utility spells. Then wizard spellbook to prepare for virtually any battle imaginable
If we are talking about late game... 9 dragonic sorcerer/2 tempest cleric/1 wizard - absolute annihilator. Withour any additional buffs you can have three maxed-out chain lightening or a 300+ damage witch bolt. 8 open hand monk/4 thief rogue - consistent 2 stuns per action and 70-100 damage per bonus action 2 paladin/10 swords bard (or 6 bards 4 assassin rogue) - 300+ damage per crit. I one-shot Sarevok with this build on my honor mode run. These builds are basically no-brainers. You just walk right into the fight/cutscene, make a few clicks and it's done. No tricks or preparations needed. I'd add a 12 light cleric to the lineup merely to abuse the buffs given from The Whispering Promise and Hellrider's Prime/The Reviving Hands. Early game is more like how to get to lvl 5 before fighting the Act 1 bosses. Builds are not that crucial before hitting lvl 5. Still, barbarian throwers, battle master fighter and light cleric are solid picks before lvl 5.
Sword Bard Archer > Swords Bard Fighter (Silver Sword) > Swords Bard Controller (Helm Arcane Acuity) > Lore Bard Healer. 6 bard 4 assassin 2 fighter and 10 bard 2 life cleric. Alert and Great Weapon/Sharpshooter or dual wield and cha +2 6 short rests to restore double shots and action surge before needing to rest. 1 Long Rest to get through act 2. 1 archer to fully focus on bhallist armor 1 archer to build up stacks and bonus action enchant 1 melee to whack with a silver sword at level 5+ 1 complete and total face/knowledge halfling with aoe heal bonus actions and ice storms actions.
What's your most cooked honour moment?
Mine was Squidward taking every opportunity attack and edging on his chain lightning leaving my level 1 Gale to carry his worthless ass
Tips & Tricks for Solo Honour: ruclips.net/video/f4Zgx2k_TjQ/видео.html
Patch 7 Solo Walkthrough: ruclips.net/video/aaLKecF5COk/видео.html
Honour Party Template: drive.google.com/file/d/1iqPT3rGJ6-YFtMNot5GGkIVCYUS_hMjf/view
Fighting Marcus at Last Light, killed him easily, and a couple of horrors, then got to watch as Isobel was so far down the turn order she got KO'd and kidnapped before she even had a chance to mess anything up. On that day I learned that the game WANTS her in the Myrkul fight and I should stop resisting.
Isobel on stream today eating an opportunity attack to be paralyzed into a crit was on brand for her 😭
Just one from a long list: Ignored the explosive mushroom at the "ladder" to the fish people because I'm an enhance leap + feather fall addict and I'm not stopping for that shit. didn't even get to see the explosion on my way out, just the game-over screen.
Mine was getting smited by vlaakith for trying and failing to detect her thoughts since I was curious what that interaction was ending my pretty good honour run there.
I lost my most recent Honour mode attempt in the Gauntlet of Shar when the Book you need to unlock the gate in the library where the Spear of night is hidden ended up glitching through the floor after getting hit by an explosion during the fight. Couldn't get the book or spear, tried to enter the Shadowveil anyways, Shart turned on the party and killed us all in one round (she had been respecced into a Tavern Brawler Monk).
4 builds that actually work, no clickbait, straight to the point and well put together video, thank you for the edit
❤️
An underrated part of barb thrower that I never see anyone talk about is how you can just throw a guy off a cliff consistently. Just run up, improv weapon move them to a ledge, and yeet them to an instakill.
@@CallMeQueue gravity is the strongest magic school 😊
RIP gear (I'm such a loot gobblin).
dno if they changed it, but so many mobs just get tp'd back if they got knocked off. I bought the game when honour mode came out and did it blind and I almost died on the final stretch of the gauntlet cus a mindflayer got knocked off by a nautiloid bomb and tp'd back up right in front of me and stunned my entire party. My mates had talked alot about how fun it was to throw mobs off cliffs, so it took me a while of frustration before I googled and found out that hm puts restrictions on chasm kills.
I think it depends on the enemy... Unless something exists in HM (not played HM): mind flayers can fly so maybe that makes them immune. The fish beings can't be thrown into anything that has water as they pop back up...e.g. boaaal can die by throwing him off the ledge into the river below (what a song) but the fish people pop right back up 😅.
Crafty Larian. @@MacGregor3
@@Tryingcounts havent actually looked it up, its defo honour mode only though based on teh tactician playthroughs ive done with mates after. In my experience it was anything with legendary abilities was 100% no chasm kills and felt like most "named" mobs had a chasm protection as well.
As someone who's put 3,000 Hrs into BG3, these builds 10000x are what she says they are. All of them are fantastic builds - can't go wrong. Great work!
Said it in live chat as well, but after struggling with Honour mode for literally months (I do not have much time to play) I was actually giving up and not find it worth trying again. Until I found your channel and your Tavern Brawler Monk gameplay..... Being a sucker for monks, I wanted to give it a go, because..... Worst thing that could happen, was me filing again, after all.
But holy heck..... I made it through and I do not think there was one moment through the playthrough where I feared I'd die. The build is just top tier and really rewards you for playing it consistently as a monk. It felt so good!
I'm so glad you found something that resonated with you (no pun intended) and felt good to play. Congrats and thank you for sharing your experience. I was a snob on Monk for so long but when I gave it a go it's so much silly fun I adore it now 😊
ive always loved cold spells in this game but i never knew how to play it well so your ice sorcerer build was incredible for my honour runs, thank you for blessing us with these amazing builds
yeah it took me a while to figure out ice as well but i love the ice spells so much. glad i could share the joy with you 😊
I'm allerigc to casters, so the Bardadin or Throwbarb take the Sorcerer's spot for me, but I can confirm these builds are fun to curbstomp Honour Mode with. They're strong individually, they're crazy strong together, and all really well presented here.
Really enjoy it every time we get to hear your thought process, thank you for putting this together!
I kinda miss Throwbarb I might try it again sometime. But Bardadin is a perfect compromise for someone who prefers martials over spell casting (me)
the angles on the throws drive me crazy sometimes, but throwing things (and people) is just way too much fun to give up. Smite ASMR do be activating all the neurons tho, I have to agree
Bardadin is pure caster BTW. You just cast smite all game as your goto spell.
wym? If it was a caster I'd break out in hives and die, I'm allergic. Those are bonk slots you're thinking of, they do look like spell slots on the UI tho, I see the confusion
@@irontoof The toughest boss for a Throwbarb to beat is a door frame. I swear to god...
I think that line about what matters most is game knowledge and adaptability is so spot on and actually a lesson I learned when I played Divinity Original Sin 2 with some friends years ago. There were so many fights that we got stuck on and it took hours of just retrying them to win. And then the actual winning attempt was laughably easy. All because we positioned our characters a little differently, or change how we focused enemies.
Yep I got stuck at the Alice fight for a while until I thought about how to solve it. Love that about these games
Love hearing your advice, because you’re an absolute killer.
Digressive note for no reason: Running the D20 initiative mod makes the balance so much better, it really makes encounters exciting and unpredictable again, I will never go back to D4 initiative.
Been running true initiative before honour mode came out, it just feels so good. Granted, the Myrkul fight almost kicked my ass first time on honour mode, coz i didn't prepare for it properly, and the mind flayer won initiative over everyone, and stunned the whole party 🤣 Lessons learned tho, the hard way: preparation is king in honour mode.
I DM a "pack tactics" rule. Basically, any team that has been working together for at least 2 weeks, get 21 initiative per 2 members (+10 for 1). They assign the initiative and add their initiative bonus among all members in the pack. This allows them to decide which of them moves first or which of them move together.
The downside is that the enemies follow the same rule. While the party can put their strikers up front in initiative, the enemies MOST CERTAINLY put their spell casters and leaders at initiative 15+ while keeping the mooks at 5-. That being said I typically have enemies initiative cascade. Take a group of 6. 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3. the 18 will be a wizard or cleric whereas the 3 will be a low level mook.
BG3 method almost matched what I made, except BG3 made it very 1 sided towards the player. My method gives both sides a chance to do it.
I found a multiclass of 6 swords bard / 4 thief rogue / 2 fighter got me all the way through (picking half wood elf makes the early game easier due to the extra movement speed and shields)
It brings both insane damage and useful utility with spells and with charisma and expertise you can work as an amazing face. With the build I beat Orin as urge without any effort in 1 round. With your hand crossbows, extra attack, 2 bonus actions, action surge, potion of speed and Slashing Flourish you abuse the action economy. You also bring useful spells like longstrider, enhanced ability, hold person and stinking cloud. Plus your AC can get crazy with Defensive Flourish and yanti scale mail or armour of agility. Song of rest is also just nice to have.
Used it along with your Ice sorcerer build, a Paladin / warlock and light cleric / fighter to pick up my golden dice!
I love these pew-pew builds! 😂 Sword bard is my favorite subclass in BG 3 & I'm a bit bummed they didn't bring it into 5e like this in the new phb. My favorite build is very similar. I go Sword bard 6, Thief 3, battle master 3. Debating on if should try yours for the extra feat or asi, but having blade flourishes AND battle master maneuvers refresh on short rest makes every single attack unique & you have so much versatility & damage.
Thanks for this guide! it shows you tried hard to make it intelligible to dummies like me and it is! I also have 2000 hours in game but your ability to beat the game at level 1 solo and other strange builds, and your deep knowledge of the game makes me feel like in most of your videos that I am listening to a PhD level quantum mechanics lecture. Your command of this game is just amazing. Bravo!
I got my gold dice following your Dark Urge stealth archer run a few weeks ago. Thanks
You're more than welcome and I'm so happy to hear that 😊
The thing I love about this channel is that while I’ve beaten honor mode like 10 times, but used different builds, and this channel plus the mod community keeps giving me more fun options!
This video is incredibly validating! Currently playing my first honor mode run without looking up guides, super nice to find out I built 3 of the top 4 on the list. The one exception being that I'm using a fire sorcerer with fire acuity hat, which I believe deserves an honorable mention it's so freaking good lol. Great video!
I do not know if this is mentioned anywhere, but there is a cool micro which you can pull off if you are playing a ranged build. You can target an enemy for an attack, fire the arrow and as the arrow is flying enter turn based mode. If you failed a stealth check you would then enter combat with both your action and bonus action and if you are passed level 5 you would have also procced the bonus attack for free. Does not require dipping into assassin to work.
Watching you play gloomstalker, got me through my first HM completion last month!
Tried the build out by getting to Act3, solo-tactician. After that, a careful HM attempt (remembering all that MM taught me) with 3 party members that were used for buffs and combat cleanup.
Congrats on your HM completion. That's so awesome to hear that. I'm happy to be of some assistance 😊
Monk was totally cracked. Stunning strike literally saved my run multiple times. Including a final battle I scuffed due to my irl low int. Thanks for providing the build!
I was looking for some inspiration and man this video did not disappoint. Love the Stealth Archer. Perfect for my next evil playthrough
Incredible structure and presentation as always, Evelyn! Thank you for continuing to share your expertise and love for this beautiful world of Baldur’s Gate!
Congrats on passing 69.420 subscribers
You Stealth Archer build is what got me through Honor Mode the first time I tried. I'll definitely borrow some more of these builds for my next runs, I'm waiting for crossplay to be added to the game so I can do new runs with my friends who are on PC. Love your videos, hope you continue making them
shadowfeet
Great video as usual! Its really cool to see so many hours of gameplay and accumalted knowloage about the game so well synthesized!
I confess i was kinda of a sucker for spellcasters, but seeing your videos made me realize how much martials go hard af. Especially stealth archer! I played a lot of skyrim and I see this build as kind of a tribute to skyrim stealth archer, though i remember you mentioning this build was inspired by DO2 stealth archer.
As a spellcaster enjoyer, your ice sorcerer build was a breath of fresh air to me, cause I never had thought about a sorcerer build that relied on cantrip casting and ice spells and always felt kinda stuck to storm sorcerer. It was really good to learn something new!
Anyways, keep rocking ev ❤
Ice Sorc got me back into spell casting then it lead to my sorcadin hyper fixation haha. Glad to see you're being martial pilled by a smooth brain like me ❤️
I beat Honor run solo as an eldrich blast spam multiclass of warlock/sorcerer and thief. Safe to say it was a blast.
1:33 that silent hill 2 soundtrack caught me off guard
I got forced into playing it for Halloween and it's left a lasting impression on me. I'm usually terrified of horror related stuff
I absolutely love all these builds guides and I'm definitely going to try them all, thank you so much for all your content !!
Holy cheeks 16:18 sent my last surviving brain cell to the fugue plane and back.
Really nice and cozy video and amazing showcase of the undoubtedly strongest classes in the game. I'm glad a lot of new players will be able to have access to the valuable information that you provide, honestly wish I had this information when I did my first honour run.
Throwzerker and OH Monk have always been adored choices for my party and I rarely run without them, though as of late I catch myself adding a Stealth Archer more times than not because it's just so much fun to play. Definitely prefer martials over casters and if I had to choose a caster it would probably be an endgame support addition. To be fair casters aren't unfun overall for me, it's just incredibly annoying how long it takes for them to be even remotely relevant.
lmao omg lilly your comment made me snort
im glad its a cozy video (and that you're trying the stealth archer meme) ❤
ive been trying to make casters a silly broken mess i'll get it eventually
If anyone has the knowledge and stubbornness to make casters broken it's you 🙌
I can't live without my darkness warlock/fighter build... i LOVE the darkness spell, the tricks you can do with vision, i love warlock as a class and love using everything i can to support that gameplay. love your builds!! keep up the good work!!
Your videos and builds are always a joy thank you very much! The stealth archer makes me feel like I am playing Skyrim again 😂
The stealth archer was the first character I played in an actual DND campaign some years back and I loved it. I had to use it for a solo honour run and the addition of the arrows really took it to the next level.
Your Bardadin and TB Monk are what helped me beat Honor Mode. Always posting top tier content Morgana 💯
Wooow!!! 2000+ hours?!! ❤❤❤
Even I don't have that much on Skyrim and BG3 combined 😂
Stealth archer was insane ty so much for all the work you put in. I decided I wanted to be a bit fair in act 3 and still 1 turned ansur and Raph in turned based mode (with an opening attack out of combat).
Super thorough video. Would love to see more on mechanical breakdown of how to play stealth archer build. Thanks!
Love the look of all four of these builds and I've played the stealth archer build myself it was the most fun I've would gladly play it again after testing out the ice sorcerer build first.
My most cooked honour mode was when I forgot elevators don't work and I used the one in gauntlet of shar wiping 3 of my party members.
I love how you focused on some item agnostic builds. Great stuff.
So entertaining and full of info! really love how short the video is compared to other build videos.
honestly 10 bard + 2 paladin literally carried me through honor mode, high charisma to decieve enemies with insane damage is op, great to see this build in the video, instant like
I finished honour mode thank you for your advice it helped a lot
I appreciate this vid3o immensely and agree with what you said about understanding the game. It's thanks to you and other great creators that I started understanding the game truly for my honour run. Your tips have been invaluable, and the builds are so much fun!
Love the video, And the strine! This is freaking thickest one I've ever heard, which makes in even more intriguing!
The stealth archer build is amazing, I used it and managed to complete my honour mode run, so thank you!!
You're so welcome and congrats on your win 😊
Stealth archer is probably the most entertaining gameplay i have ever seen in bg3
Absolute banger of a video, i really want to try all of these builds cause its so much fun to see you play these! Great video as always!
I’m taking your ice sorc build into honor mode with a friend of mine, really excited to see it in action!
It's gonna be so fun. Let me know how you go. A bit of a struggle early game but it's character building 😊
Love your videos! I found the monk build especially fun in late game and will be attempting the stealth archer soon. I've found a full 12 lvl light cleric stacked with radiance gear to be extremely powerful, mobile, and an amazing support. It's not "flashy" as the high damage builds but in a party run it's a lot of fun watching enemies, not just undead, melt away by the power of light
The holy lawnmower is awesome. I love the screams when they get fried by the light 😊
My favourive Honour Mode group is my signing circus:
2 Cleric / 10 Lore Bard -> Controller/Healer
2 Paladin / 10 Swords Bard -> well Bardadin
5 Gloomstaker / 5 Swordsbard / 2 Fighter -> Archer ... you could also go 4 Fighter / 3 Bard for Maneuvers which probably would be stronger overall, but I do like my Font of Inspiration and Improved Bardic Performance
6 Warmaster / 5 Valor Bard / 1 War Cleric -> Rapier Duellist Fighter
You get so many skillpoints, Bardic Inspirations and 4 extra short rests while not be to reliant on long rests its super fun ...and the best part: you can have your group of 4 stand around after a long fight and play as a Quartett ... I love it so much, that Larian thought about having more than one Bard in the Group and adds real symphonies according to the amount of instruments played
Swords Bard reverberation build with gear like Bow of the Banshee, Drakethroat Glaive and Boots of Stormy Clamour absolutely carried by first Honour Run playthrough.
I learned about that build from this channel too! Best BG3 creator on RUclips imo :)
Bow of the Banshee is so slept on it's so awesome 😊
@@MorganaEvelyn Agreed! It's probably my favourite ranged weapon in the game. Inflicting frightened is so useful
Appreciate the promise reprise in the background!
yet another amazing video! love it and love your content!
you're so kind and sweet thank you 😊
I recently did a run with the TB monk, BM fighter, and stealth archer in the party and they kept fighting over who was gonna end combat on turn 1. Thank you for the based content as always
I love this videos. It's awesome! There I go again, clearing characters that I don't use for recording videos to try these builds. Once again I'm not leaving Act 1. I love this video so much. Thanks for making this video for us.
2 Great Old One Warlock 10 Evocation Wizard has always been my favorite. Hex + Spellsparkler + Potent Robe + Agonizing Blast and I use the incandescent staff or Markoheskir is some crisp damage. The build comes online with the Spellsparkler and level 5 double eldritch blast but is very frail as I go 8 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 16 Int, 8 Wis, 17 Cha. Feats are War Caster (for concentration support) or spell sniper (for damage I prefer War Caster), but I make sure I have dual wield by level 10 (in act 3). Amazing dialogue, amazing damage, and versatility, and don’t forget, you’re a wizard but unfortunately no 6th level spells. I like using slow, hold person, counterspell, haste, misty step, shield, and evocation spells. I actually use a Titian String Swordsbard, Karlach Openhand Monk, and a spore druid with a singular level in wizard. The only thing I’m scared of is my 1v1 against Orin, I think sanctuary from a cleric should save me. Here is a damage roll summary, and it is a low roll:
I’m level 10 fresh out of Act 2 against
Chult Alioramus:
Ac: 14
Attack roll: 5 (1d20)+4 Proficiency +1 (Doom Lobber: Daredevil Gloves) +1 (Lightning Charges) +4 (Cha modifier)=15
Damage Roll: 2 (1d10 Force) +4 (Cha modifier) (Agonizing Blast) +4 Cha modifier (Gregarious Caster)=10. Best you can do is 18 force damage. Hex allows 1d6 necrotic damage and lightning charges are lethal. Lowest roll is ~14 damage, the one I showed you. You can do 50-60+ damage (assuming if all 3 blasts land) per action, and you have haste. I did 10+3+1+18+5+1+16+5+5, 64 damage.
Would love to see a mechanical breakdown of your stealth archer build, as well as full runs of your other solo honour mode builds. Very helpful and entertaining.
Throwing barb, but i'm throwing my enemies into the chasms :) love your vids!
I still haven't finished my first playthrough of the game, but my party already had an Ice Sorcerer, ThrowBarian, and Battle Master. Your builds might be just the inspiration I needed to pick that playthrough back up and make it to the end.
Really simple and compact vídeo. I knew those exists but I never search about it but it nice to know to be prepared to honour mode.
Great video, clear and straight to the point, presenting actual strong builds. Thanks
The Stealth Archer is definitely my favourite. Not only did i enjoy watching your big series back in the day, which taught me so much about the game, but playing Stealth Archer also got me interested in testing the games limits, difficulties and ultimately different builds too. So my nearly 1k hours in this game are mostly due to this gem of a build.
You're welcome and yeah the stealth archer started my journey a year back oh my god it's been so quick. Glad I could inspire you to mess around with the game and enjoy it for all those hours 😊
Without your videos, I probably wouldn't have beat my honor mode run. Love all the build ideas!
Hey I only gave inspiration you did all the work. Congrats ❤️
Actual banger builds, had a lot of fun with those, thank you for your amazing content
Glad to hear that, you're so very welcome 😊
I am currently doing a fighter build. I went to the Underdark and ran into God's gift to narcissism: Nere. He didn't like me and the feeling was mutual. My party members went down in about 3 turns but I didn't. I forgot I had a blood elixir, drank it, and went to work. I took out everyone and everything. Felt like a king. I will be doing a Dark Urge, stealth archer run for my next playthrough. Probably solo. Edit: Bringing Shadowheart with me for a semi-solo run.
Aha just fighter things. Good luck on your durge stealth archer run. It really fits the theme and it's the most fun I've had in BG3. Shadowcute is God's favorite princess so it's understandable 😊
I still haven't touched honor mode yet BUT on my current tactitian playthrough I m going ice sorcerer and by gods is it powerful. My jaw drops everytime with the power of the ray of frost cantrip! and that cone of cold shotgun is chef's kiss. Not even talking about the excellent action economy with the sorcery points! And there are so many items in the game that complement this playstyle so well! I didnt even know about the enemies freezing and totally by accident Cazador froze and before that he kept slipping on the ice, he never even touched me T_T. Made the fight so trivial! I fuckin love your guides!
As a huge dnd fan and ranger main hearing there’s a broken ranger build makes my day
You're "Unless..." at the end made me laugh for an entire minute straight!
I'm only on my second playthrough so I'm not quite honor mode ready but I'm playing an ice druid so I feel like I'm in the ballpark for #4! You're right though, it's about having fun!
I did my honour run with a very similiar set up as your top pick. The level 1 class pick was DB sorc for shield spell reaction for another 5 to AC. I also had a separate party member with assassin swapped with thief and dual hand crossbows, very good at clearing out weaker enemies or dealing dps on that almost never seen, second turn of combat.
I love my swords bard (10 Bard / 2 Fighter) to delete any fight and also be able to talk my way out of halve of the really bad situations in the game
My build that I always have in the party is 1 Drac W Soc 1 Tem Cler 10 Abj Wiz. The tankyness and overall spell flexibility make your survivability go way up. You have great retaliation damage, great spells, and you become very difficult to harm. Adds a lot to a party but is also a strong solo pick.
My go-to: Warlock 2/Wizard X (Abjuration) (Can also go Light Cleric 1/War 2/Wiz X for higher AC)
At level 4, respec to Warlock for 2 levels to get Armor of Shadows invocation and Armor of Agathys. Then every level after in Wizard, taking Abjuration for the Arcane Ward feature.
The free Mage Armor from Warlock is used to refresh Arcane Ward stacks between fights. Your max stacks are always 2x your Wizard level.
To refresh them: Equip any armor (to clear the Mage Armor buff, if you have it) --> Equip your robes --> Cast Armor of Shadows: Mage Armor (gives you 1 stack) --> Equip armor to lose the MA buff but keep your stack -> repeat until full stacks.
Each stack is a flat damage reduction off any attack, and at level 6 you can even use a reaction to put the ward on an ally for one attack. You can functionally do most of the work of the ice sorcerer build listed, but with greater survivability and the ability to save your teammates from fatal attacks. I spend most combats opening with a heavy cc spell like Web, Slow, Sleet Storm, Hypnotic Pattern, Any Wall spell, Hunger of Hadar and then continue the fight with ray of frost to keep enemies at bay. Add in items that inflict reverberation and it gets even better.
Generally for race I like Duergar for starting fights with surprise by casting invisibility at will out of combat and starting the fight with an attack, but if that's too lame you can take Gold Dwarf for the +1 hp every level, since this build lacks HP.
Really good feats:
Alert
Resilient Con (War Caster is also good but there are lots of items that give advantage on concentration)
Dual Wielder (If you're in a 4-person game and can't glitch yourself into equipping two staves)
Other playstyle - the wizard tank (thanks d4 D&D Deep Dive for this)
If you respec at 5 to make your 1st level a Light Cleric, you'll get heavy armor proficiency immediately. Use your Mage Armor to generate stacks, but always keep the highest AC armor you can find + a shield. At Wizard 4, you can take Heavy Armor Master to reduce all nonmagical physical damage incoming by a flat amount of 3. The Admantine Splint will also reduce by 2. So with a ward of 8 stacks, and both the feat + Adamantine armor, enemies need to deal 14 damage to deal a single point of damage to you. And that's the build at Cleric 1/War 2/Wiz 4.
You can keep Armor of Agathys on as a way of dealing return damage to any enemies that actually get in range of you and manage to hit you. You'll likely take 0 damage, and reflect cold damage back at them. AoA also stays active as long as you have the temp hp from it, so as long as your Ward stacks last, it'll keep dishing out damage. You MIGHT be able to cast AoA with higher wizard slots, but this might've been patched.
For more damage:
You can also slot in a Magic Missile build to use your 1st to 2nd level slots as good damage ammo (grab the Spellsparkler, Psychic Spark amulet, Ne'er Misser, Gloves of Belligerent Skies if you want, phalar aluve if you want to get in melee) as well as coruscation ring, callous glow ring for inflicting tons of radiating orb (just cast Light on yourself).
This build is my favorite because accidents happen in honor mode, especially with friends who are inexperienced. I've saved a lot of runs because I was the only one who survived a massive aoe attack, and I either drank an invis or cast Expeditious Retreat to run from combat and revive everyone in camp. I prefer the versatility of Wizard over Sorcerer, and this build is now my go-to.
If you like this build, and you're in Evelyn's discord, you can reach me for questions. I'm miniluv in there. Peace!
The classic reverberation eldritch blaster is one of my favourites. Excellent damage, especially after haste got nerfed for extra attack but not cantrips; some of the best CC around; and most of your levels free to do whatever. First time I used it was back in patch 3 when damage calculations were silly and it could easily do over 1500 dpr.
Lately, i've been having a lot of fun with tiger heart barb with skinburster. You can become borderline immune to physical damage, especially if you have if you run an abjuration wizard with it, though it's definitely not mandatory. Tiger heart cleave stacks force conduit super fast and only cuts the base damage in half, GWM, wrath and pretty much every other damage buff does full damage to all (potentially) 3 targets.
Ooo sounds fun. I'll try it out. I really miss the old eblast assassin shenanigans and I'm yet to play a tiger barb
This video is so helpful for my honor run!
It is what it is, the most troll, fun and informative bg3 channel!! Great work!
Pure Sorcerer with a stockpile of scrolls and potions.... and metamagic like quicken spells. That or Stealth Archer, just like in Skyrim. Just keep another friendly character with sentinel or similar feat/ability to protect the sorcerer
I loved the Ice Spells and Ice mechanic in DOS:2. I played a run as an Ice Sorcerer, but really the downside is you cant learn „create water“ , needed to waste Skillpoints into Kleric or Druid or using weaker gear which ultimately brought me to the point that the Ice Sorcerer just look cool on youtube, but if you play it for like 60h its not really fun
This video is fantastic! I loved everything about it! Thank you!
Since I found your channel way back in the eary days of BG3, and your first video on Stealth Archer, I have one in ALL my parties :) (usaully Astarion) backup up by a tavern brawkler monk (Karlach). my tav is a Swords BArd 6 / Theif Rogue 3 / BM Fighter 3 wih twin hand crossbows. / I the fourth is changed a lot cos I like doing ALL of the companions stoylines. every run. Shart as War Cleric 1 / Lore Bard 6 / Theif Rogue 3 / Fighter 2 / Gale as Evo Wizard but that Ice Sorc looks very cool ;) / Lae'zel is my BM Fighter / Jaheira Moon Druid / Halsin Throw Barb / MInsc Drunk Build.
I dont recruit Wyll anymore, I just don't like his storylione or the Warlock class in BG3. It also makes Act 3 harder.
If my current fourth Honour mode run fails, then I'm probably going to try any of these. Current try is a Storm Sorceror, prior try was a Wild Magic Sorceror.
you got this I believe in you💪
First run loss was due to the inescapable insta-kill leap of faith puzzle in Shar's temple, second run loss was a soft-lock glitch, third run loss was a 3-man co-op against the Grymforge golem. I didn't know it resisted Force damage and my friend didn't know to use the 2H warhammer I gave him.
I love your gloom stalker archer - it's SO much fun!
I'm so glad to hear that 😊
thanks morgana you are making guides so much better than most of they guys
Personally my favorite honour team is an Ancients Paladin, Lore Bard, Abjuration Wizard, and Tempest Cleric.
It's not a very flashy team (especially if you play like me and never long rest haha) and requires meticulous planning for every fight, but it's incredibly resistant to bad rng.
Best content creator for baldurs gate 3 here on RUclips IMHO.
So many useful informations!
Every second packed w content & info, and so fun.
I love the silent hill background music!
Not me at 7:18 having to do a double take if I had somehow started up darktide after hearing the OST, god damn, was perfect fit for the fighter build lol
great video and build guides. I am using your item ideas to refine my current party. I am level 6 and just starting the creche. TAV is Ice Sorceror, Shadowheart is a Tempest Cleric, Laze'l is an EK TB Thrower, and Astarion is a Swords Bard,
TAV and Laze'l will likely stay mono class, Shart will be 1 white draconic, 5 tempest cleric, 6 abjuration wizard. She will be my only full time melee character, running around with spirit guardians, AOA, Arcane Ward, Phalar Aluve, Luminos armor just debuffing everyone. Astarion will either go 10 bard / 2 fighter if I need more control, or may go 6 sb / 4 assassin / 2 Fighter
Shart wears the DNW boots so she can't slip on the ice. She also packs a mean magic missile with phalar aluve shriek and spellsparkler dual wield. Hoping that the Storm Scion's Hat arcane acuity procs from spirit guardians and shriek thunder damage so I can throw out some irresistable command spells. Shart enjoys getting everyone wet after they are chilled.
Laze'l is addicted to strength elixirs and enjoys throwing anything and everyone. She also carries the titan string bow and the Silver Sword of the Astral plane if needed. She will wear the Hoarfrost boots to not slip on the ever present ice.
Astarion is using the Bow of the Banshee so anyone that goes prone on the ice has a chance to also be frightened and skip their turn.
Btw for anyone wanting to be a goodie two shoes and get the bhaalist gear you can pickpocket the image you are judging for when you meet seravok. Then just attack Servok and get a surprise and go to town.
Be aware if you fail it starts combat. But you can guarantee success with the +2 gnome dex gloves from the gnome trader (or the sleight of hand improvement gloves from the genie), act1 deception ring, expertise in sleight of hand, +2 leather armor, ring of shapeshifter, guidance, a disguise and rogues automatic 10 passive. Doesn't work solo though since you can't get out of the convo
@@kaylee42900 they might have patched this - I tried on my last run and he was invalid target for pickpocketing
@jimliu9936 I just did it last week. I don't think there has been a hotfix
I actually just started my first Honor Mode run (I will spell that the way I grew up, thank you very much, lol) and I actually have 3 of your 4 types of characters, lol
That ice build seems like SO much fun 😩
It's super fun y'all gotta try it 😊
I ran a 6 pal 6 tempest cleric, super fun works well with ice sorcerer, just wet every one cast lighting spells and big single target thunder smite deals crazy damage with tempest ability.
Ooo would be fun to see a few different element sorcs in the same party but the ice/lightning/thunder rotation sounds peak 😊
My personal favorite party composition that doesn't require too much tweaking of your origin party members on Honor mode:
1) 10/1/1 Control Bard (Tav)
2) Spirit Guardians Cleric (Shart)
3) Throwbarian (Karlach)
4) Eldritch Blast 50-cal Sorlock (Wyll) or Magic Missile battle rifle Wizard (Gale)
Works from very early and is pretty much unbeatable by endgame with Tav being able to solo Act 3 with very little problem.
I have a similar taste in builds, having played those 4 and the bardadin.
For the stealth archer, I tend to build him the same, but respec at 12 to something like swords bard 6, hunter 4, fighter 2, or swap hunter for assassin.
Another build I enjoy in act 1 is spore druid 2, warlock 1, then whatever. With dual crossbows and bloodlust elixir, you have very strong early solo combat so you can play the game instead of skipping and cheesing combat until lvl 5, which I tend to do with late-blooming builds.
One build I tried to make work for a whilte is a kind of duelist, but feats and items don't match this playstyle, and it feels like a slog.
Shoutout to throw fighter. Best at level 11 but by then it is UNSTOPPABLE. Edrich knight lets you use a bound weapon. Anything that adds an extra damage dice. Even stronger if you attack from above.
With haste: Trow 3 times, throw 3 times, action surge, throw 3 times. You can use the bonus action to reposition with something like misty step if high groind is available, or offhand attack if you have one of those (shoutout to the one that lowers the crit number). With tavern brawler and the right equipment, you easily avaerage over 40 per throw. Once you get a specific piece of act 3 equipment, you can also switch over to champion and stack crit reduction to do all this AND crit on a 14.
Your stealth archer build is addictive. Another build I really like is Swords Bard 6, Thief Rogue 4, Fighter 2 arcane acuity is still a broken mechanic. But it does rely on gear and scrolls to be most effective.
About the stealth archer build or for monks. Eversight ring and fog cloud/darkness are so sweet, well, just for any class. I love darkness builds. No enemy is capable of targeting you. Did it on the meenlocks under last light inn (at least having one party member casting protection from evil and good for fear immunity just in case) and then go for it. Any darkness build on cazador is just too good as well. he literally is unable to target you while you're standing in darkness as goes for the wolves, they just perfectly keep their distance. Only bats can target you, so just using some aoe scrolls or anything to kill the bats off.
I like wizard 2 / Sorc 10
Focus intelligence, and for sorc just reap metamagic and utility spells. Then wizard spellbook to prepare for virtually any battle imaginable
My fave honour party builds are abjuration, bardadin, berserker and the thief monk.
If we are talking about late game...
9 dragonic sorcerer/2 tempest cleric/1 wizard - absolute annihilator. Withour any additional buffs you can have three maxed-out chain lightening or a 300+ damage witch bolt.
8 open hand monk/4 thief rogue - consistent 2 stuns per action and 70-100 damage per bonus action
2 paladin/10 swords bard (or 6 bards 4 assassin rogue) - 300+ damage per crit. I one-shot Sarevok with this build on my honor mode run.
These builds are basically no-brainers. You just walk right into the fight/cutscene, make a few clicks and it's done. No tricks or preparations needed. I'd add a 12 light cleric to the lineup merely to abuse the buffs given from The Whispering Promise and Hellrider's Prime/The Reviving Hands.
Early game is more like how to get to lvl 5 before fighting the Act 1 bosses. Builds are not that crucial before hitting lvl 5. Still, barbarian throwers, battle master fighter and light cleric are solid picks before lvl 5.
Awesome channel to stumble across.
very kind of you to say so thank you
This video should be nominated for the best video game award.
Great way to start the morning 🙏🏽🖤
Sword Bard Archer > Swords Bard Fighter (Silver Sword) > Swords Bard Controller (Helm Arcane Acuity) > Lore Bard Healer.
6 bard 4 assassin 2 fighter and 10 bard 2 life cleric. Alert and Great Weapon/Sharpshooter or dual wield and cha +2
6 short rests to restore double shots and action surge before needing to rest. 1 Long Rest to get through act 2.
1 archer to fully focus on bhallist armor
1 archer to build up stacks and bonus action enchant
1 melee to whack with a silver sword at level 5+
1 complete and total face/knowledge halfling with aoe heal bonus actions and ice storms actions.
thanks for a great and informative showcase!