Finally beat Honor Mode, time to reflect!
Newish player that bought the game earlier this year. This is my fourth run and first completed honor mode. Thought I would share some of the highlights of finishing my first honor mode as a reject bhaal but still evil Durge.
It felt like it took forever to get my builds online but by act 3 my overpowered party was so fun in combat.
1 - I did a white draconic sorceror Durge that ran cold and control until act 3 where once I had the goat spell staff and the staff or spell power I changed the gear away from frost to boost spell save DC. From there I was just blasting chain lightning with all the free casts I would get. Feats ASI, alert, dual wielder
2 - tempest cleric SH - create water then up charged lightning blast was crazy. This combined with my sorceror was just destroying everything. With twinned haste or mind sanctuary I would have a devastating opening round. Feats ASI, War caster, Alert
3 - Sorcadin Laezel with bhaalist armor and shar spear. I had never used shars spear before and oh man this was fun. Just dealing out huge damage left and right after the cleric and durge blasted everything. Feats GWM and savage attacker
4 Sword bard archer Astarion. With titanstring bow and strength elixirs this build shreds. In act 1 I used stat sticks of knife of undermountain king and hill giant club. So fun and then once you get helmet or arcane acuity and band of mystic scoundrel it was so OP. This build alone clutched out my biggest honor mode close call. Feats sharpshooter, ASI
Highlights / near misses
- Not much in act 1 and 2 besides build milestones, I was so scared to die that I went into most fights over leveled. Although I am proud to say I beat myrkul without cheesing - was super close fight tho.
- Orin. Boy did I underestimate her. I made the probably bad decision to use my first turn to clear all the other people in the area using aoe spells and arrows etc etc. she killed shadowheart in one turn. But the team was then able to take her down after I used magic missile to strip unstoppable. Then Astarion fired some arrows, hold monster, and laezel dealt massive crit damage to win.
- Raphael - close fight as well but I did place explosives beforehand to wipe the pillars, laid down icy terrain and beat up on his minions. But when Astarion used arrow of many targets into a hold monster, it was over!
- Steel watch foundry this was my biggest risk. I recklessly went in blasting, aggroing everything. I confidently strolled through the first room before nearly wiping in the lab level. It just turned into such a huge fight. By the time the steel watchers were down I only had astarion and an air elemental left to fight the banites and gondians. Their dominate person nearly ruined everything but Astarion saved it, then between flourishes and arrow of many targets built up arcane acuity to upcast hold person on the remaining enemies and see out the fight.
- the scale of the foundry fight totally messed me up and I think I destroyed the body of the gondian you need to disable the foundry. So this left watchers and flaming fist hostile throughout the city - which actually spiced up the game and made it quite fun.
- however it did make getting to gortash waaaay more difficult. The gortash fight was fine, but the absolute brawl in the coronation chamber with the steel watch still alive was crazy. I had to flee once revive my party and come back in blasting. Super fun.
-in hindsight I should have used more special arrows scrolls and potions. I thought I used these aggressively but still had a massive unused stockpile.
- didn’t love my ending since I failed my throws and got the resulting makeover!
I can’t believe I finished honor mode and I got the golden dice. I definitely need to take a break but I’m already thinking of the next run!