10 Best Honour Mode Builds

Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t afraid of a tough challenge, especially with the release of Honour Mode, which is so difficult that only 10 percent of players have beaten it.

In gaming terms, it’s Ironman Mode — meaning that players have one shot on the hardest possible difficulties, and the save file is wiped upon a game over. Honour Mode grants the option to keep the file, but it would be a custom game from then-on.

Because of this, players have to be very resourceful in how they play the game. Every decision matters, both in and out of combat — with one wrong move having potentially devastating outcomes.

Perhaps one of the most important decisions, however, would be the party makeup and players’ individual builds. Thankfully, there are some builds that would provide excellent benefits and increase chances of success in Honour Mode.

10 Pyromancer

Fire Spell-Based Sorcerer or Wizard

A common joke among fans of Dungeons and Dragons is a simple sentence: “I don’t care how big the room is, I said I cast Fireball.”

Naturally, the sentiment is shared in Baldur’s Gate 3. Fire spells are some of the most powerful in the game, especially as the fire spreads to things in the environment, burning additional enemies.

Playing as a pyromancer is a classic way to have tons of fun while utilizing damage output. The best way to do this would be through the Draconic Bloodline subclass (specifically with a red, gold or bronze dragon) of Sorcerer, which increases fire spells’ damage and grants resistance to fire.

It is possible to build a pyromancer from a Wizard or Light Domain Cleric, but Sorcerers use Charisma as their spellcasting modifier. Having Charisma as the main stat would be ideal in Honour Mode, especially since save scumming isn’t an option for dialogue.

Plus, the inclusion of Metamagic breathes a whole new life into fire spells, and provides tons of new potential to combat.

9 Demander of Decay

Circle of Spores Druid

Perhaps one of the most underrated in the game, the Circle of Spores subclass for Druids is immensely powerful, and is a build on its own.

The entire class focuses on necromancy, which includes raising the dead — combine this with the Necromancy of Thay and, suddenly, the party is accompanied by an undead army.

Summons are a huge help in Honour Mode. Ideally, players want to outnumber the enemy or at least be even in numbers, the more allies the better. So, if that means raising the dead to make that happen, then use Fungal Infestation or cast Animate Dead.

Symbiotic Entity is also a very useful buff to this subclass, granting much needed temporary HP (that scales with leveling up) and increasing necrotic damage. Plus, it remains until all the temporary HP is gone (or until a long rest) — so, upon waking up from a long rest, activate it, and now there’s more of a cushion in case of combat.

8 One Man Army

Battle Master Fighter

A lot can happen in a combat round, despite it (bizarrely) taking place in six real-time seconds. It’s important to maximize the damage, defense, movement and environmental influence in each action and bonus action if players want to make it through Honour Mode.

Thankfully, that’s an easy feat for Battle Masters, a subclass of Fighter that turns players into, essentially, a one-man army.

With the inclusion of Superiority Dice, players are able to invoke a number of conditions in combat through Manoeuvres.

For example, Disarming Attack removes the enemy’s weapon if they fail the save, which would force their turn to deal significantly less damage (that is if it’s not just re-equipping the weapon). This extra time and extra damage avoided could be literally life or death in Honour Mode — and that’s just one Manoeuvre.

7 Banisher of Shadows

Light Domain Cleric

For the player that has asked themselves: “How can I completely no-diff Act Two?”, the answer is the Light Domain subclass for Cleric.

The Radiance of Dawn ability removes all darkness, magical or otherwise, within its radius, which is crucially helpful in the Shadow-Cursed Lands in Act Two. It would also be essential against Sharrans, in the House of Grief and in the Gauntlet of Shar.

So long as the enemy doesn’t have Radiant Retort (such as Raphael and other enemies in The House of Hope), Radiance of Dawn can be devastating. The entire subclass is centered, obviously, on light — which includes fire.

Combined with the healing spells Clerics have access to, and suddenly, the Light Cleric is almost unstoppable.

6 A Divine and Devilish Messenger

Paladin/Warlock Multiclass

Divine Smite is a Paladin‘s entire bread and butter, regardless of subclass. For Warlocks, Eldritch Blast is the meat and potatoes of the whole class. Multiclassing, however, spells out a recipe for disaster for enemies in Honour Mode.

Pact of the Blade works best for a build that embraces melee combat and is a half-caster, relying on magic to be assistance rather than artillery. Considering how Paladins are also half-casters that rely on melee combat, they would pair nicely.

This multiclass, sometimes called the Palalock, is very flexible, and offers endless options for high damage output. It would just depend on how many levels in each class players ultimately choose to take. If they wanted, they could do an even six levels in each.

5 The Silver Tongue

College of Lore Bard

Charisma is crucial in Honour Mode, especially for players trying to avoid combat at all costs (which would be beneficial to do so in such a difficulty). The most notorious class for Charisma, without a doubt, is Bard, and the College of Lore subclass takes it one step further.

It takes the power of words, and speaks them into combat.

By using Cutting Words, players are able to force an enemy to re-roll an attack, potentially causing them to miss instead. Plus, as they level up, the Spell Save DC and the damage output for Vicious Mockery increases.

Lore Bards also are able to get access to spells that are normally exclusive to other classes through their Magical Secrets feature, starting at Level 6. This provides many helpful benefits for beating the game.

Plus, Bards are incredible for Honour Mode. Getting a 3rd Short Rest through Song of Rest, a bonus to all rolls through Jack of All Trades, expertise and other incredible feats, relieves many of the challenges that Honour Mode throws.

4 Olympian Rager

Berserker Barbarian

The Berserker subclass for Barbarian is infamous for its tanky, high damage build. The Berserker is on the front lines, the first to throw a punch, and the last to fall in combat.

The class provides the ability to attack and do damage as a bonus action after Raging, which can quickly turn the tide in any fight.

The only downside is when the enemy is flying, or in some other range that isn’t melee-range. Enter the Ring of Flinging and the Tavern Brawler feat, and suddenly, the barbarian is throwing javelins like it’s an Olympic sport.

Remembering to pick these weapons back up is crucial, so ammunition is always stocked. The last thing players need in Honour Mode is to lack resources in any fight.

3 The Healer

Life Domain Cleric

Enemies are going to hit incredibly hard in Honour Mode — at times, it will one-shot the player, depending on several different factors. Having a cleric or some other healer in the party is critical in order to make it through the game.

There is no better healer in Baldur’s Gate 3 than the Life Domain Cleric. When healing other players, the clerics themselves also heal, and they are given countless other perks and benefits to healing others.

The healing can easily be buffed with the inclusion of the Hellrider’s Pride (a set of gloves that casts Bless on individuals who are healed) which players can get from Zevlor after the Investigate Kagha quest.

The best way to prevent the Healer from being downed in a fight would be to cast Sanctuary in the first round.

From there, strictly heal or buff other party members without being attacked. Attacking would remove the protection that Sanctuary grants, which creates vulnerability (and the ability to break Concentration for spells that could buff healing, such as Beacon of Hope).

2 The Martial Artist

Way of the Open Hand Monk

The Monk class offers an extremely hot commodity for players in early levels of Honour Mode: a bonus action offhand attack.

Monks are an incredibly powerful class that does tons of damage with every hit, but the subclass with the highest damage output would easily be Way of the Open Hand. Weapons are useless for these monks.

As they level up, these monks are able to add elemental damage types (and can switch these damage types on the fly depending on an enemy’s resistance) to their already powerful unarmed attacks.

This, combined with Stunning Strike (which prevents the enemy from taking a turn at all), can be devastating on the battlefield. It’s important to be able to buy time in combat for whatever plan the player has cooked up, but a monk could prevent the need entirely — by beating away the enemy entirely.

1 Assassin

Assassin Rogue

Initiative Order can make or break a combat encounter — this is especially true in Honour Mode, where being first in the initiative order guarantees at least something working for the player in this encounter.

For the Assassin subclass for Rogues, Sneak Attack (which can have insane damage outputs and is more likely to be a Critical Hit if hidden) is guaranteed for someone behind in the initiative order.

Plus, if the Stealth Roll is successful and players are able to properly ambush the enemy, they’ll be able to get a Surprise Round. These rounds make the impossible task of Honour Mode combat into something doable, and already in the player’s favour.

Rogue is one of the best options for multiclassing as well, as Sneak Attack is able to be triggered from any attack (as can Divine Smite for Paladins).

For example, multiclassing into the Gloom Stalker subclass for Ranger (called the Gloomstalker Assassin) will amplify the ranged Sneak Attack, and dual-wielding will amplify the melee damage by offering a melee Sneak Attack option in the offhand.

Combined with the rogue’s ability to stealthily avoid combat, pick locks/disarm traps, and with their various other abilities, playing an Assassin might be one of the most effective ways to succeed in Honour Mode.