Summary
Honour Mode is the ultimate test of power inBaldur’s Gate 3,with extreme challenges at every corner of the map, bosses being even more powerful than they usually are, a single save file, and a game over will result in having your save deleted (or continuing in dishonor, which doesn’t reward you with a trophy or golden dice).
That means you need to be careful with what character you’re making: from their class, which race matches the class well, what ability scores you’ll focus on, and which feats you should give your character and companions. We’ll focus on feats, which ones you should get along with, and which type of characters should have said feats.
8Lucky
Control Every Roll
Though not as powerful as its D&D counterpart, Lucky is a very effective tool in Honour Mode, giving you three luck points that recharge after a long rest. You can use them to give yourself an advantage in Attack Rolls, Saving Throws, or Ability Checks — basically any main roll in the game.
This can help you hit an attack you just missed, escape a Dominate Person you just failed at saving, or increase the chances of a conversation going smoothly — you can use this feat almost anywhere. You can also force an enemy to re-roll an attack that just hit you, even going as far as negating a critical hit you’re about to get.
7Alert
Be The First One To Strike
Alert is a rather simple feat that is fun for at least one character in your party. It grants a +5 bonus to initiative rolls, and the character can’t be surprised. Surprise immunity is nice but a bit niche, meaning it won’t come often.
The true hero here is the initiative bonus, as being one of the first characters to do anything in the fight can be game-changing. Combine that with a character with high Dexterity, and they’ll usually be the first ones to do anything. This feat can also help low-Dexterity characters, preventing them from always being the last person in the turn order.
6Great Weapon Master Or Sharpshooter
Cause More Pain
Great Weapon Master works for two-handed weapons, while Sharpshooter works for ranged weapons, and while they have unique traits, they share their core feature: You can give your Attack Rolls a -5 penalty to give your damage rolls an extra ten hit points of damage.
While the penalty can be annoying at first, you’ll eventually get enough bonuses to annul it, and you can also use an advantage to annul the penalty, making barbarian’s Reckless Attack or rogue’s constant hiding before shooting perfect here.
Great Weapon Master will also let you do an additional attack with your bonus action whenever you do a critical hit or kill someone. Sharpshooter, on the other hand, will remove the Attack Roll penalties you get when shooting at someone who is on a high ground.
5Polearm Master And Sentinel
They Work Well On The Same Character
Polearm weapons are quite useful thanks to their extended reach, letting you attack people who are ten feet away from you. With Polearm Master, enemies will trigger reaction attacks when entering this reach, and every time you attack, you can do a bonus action attack with your polearm — the damage roll will be a d4 plus your strength bonus, but it’s better than doing nothing with your bonus action.
Meanwhile, Sentinel gives you an advantage in opportunity attacks and lets you make an opportunity attack when an enemy within range attacks someone else. Plus, if you hit someone with an opportunity attack, they can’t move for the rest of their turn, which is perfect for ensuring enemies won’t chase your allies.
Mixing the opportunity attack you get from Polearm Master with zeroing someone’s movement with Sentinel, you get a powerful combo where enemies will fail to reach you.
Fighters and rogues get four opportunities to get a feat or increase an ability score, unlike most classes that only get three opportunities.
4Spell Sniper
More Cantrips
Saving spells for when it truly matters is important, but that means you’ll have to rely on cantrips more often. With Spell Sniper, you can get an extra cantrip that will function based on your spellcasting ability score, so you can pick whatever option fits best for you.
Our top recommendation here would beEldritch Blast, as it isone of the best cantrips in the game. Wearing it along with thePotent Robewill make you as deadly as a Warlock while still getting the perks of your class.
The feat also comes with the benefit of lowering the number you need to roll for a critical hit by one when using spell attacks — meaning your spells will have a ten percent chance of landing critical strikes rather than the usual five, and that stacks with items that increase your critical hit chance.
3Magic Initiate
More Spells
Another good way to increase your magical effectiveness is through the Magic Initiate feat, one that has a variation for each spellcasting class in the game (bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, and wizard).
You’ll learn two cantrips and a first-level spell from whatever class you chose, and you’re able to use the spell once per long rest without using spell slots. Just be mindful that the class you choose will determine the ability score. For example, getting sorcerer spells will make the cantrips rely on your charisma.
2War Caster
Don’t Lose Concentration
Some of the most powerful spells last for a long time, causing penalties over and over as the turns go but, to balance things out, they require concentration, which means that getting hit can end your amazing Spirit Guardians earlier than intended.
To circumvent that, War Caster is a big help. You’ll roll all your concentrationsaving throws at an advantage, increasing your chances of keeping your spell up. As a nice bonus, you’re able to useShocking Graspas an opportunity attack, so even Wizards will be able to cause damage in these situations. That said, you may want to save your reactions for Shield or Counterspell.
1Tavern Brawler
Punch Harder
Tavern Brawler adds your Strength bonus twice on improvised weapon attacks and unarmed strikes, and the same goes for their damage. Not many characters rely on unarmed strikes, but this feat can make them very overpowered.
The feat applies while in Wild Shape, meaning all your druid transformations will hurt more. While monks don’t tend to have high strength bonuses, you’re able to mix that with the potion of Hill Giant strength, and have both your Strength and your Dexterity on your attack and damage rolls. Monks became famous as one of the best damage dealers in the game, thanks to this trick.
Gettingability score improvementsis as good as getting feats. We recommend one feat per character, unless you’re a fighter or a rogue.
Still, you may use other methods of increasing ability scores, such as the Potion of Everlasting Strength, and get more feats to compensate.
