In the two years since it came out, Baldur’s Gate 3 has become my absolute favorite video game. Even after six hundred hours of play, I can’t get enough of it! I’ve played it solo, with my brother, on my PC, on my PS5, and online with my friends. With mods, without party members, at level one, with cheat codes, I’ve experimented so much with this game I’ve practically got a degree!
Yet of all my many playthroughs, one stands head and shoulders above the others. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing with family and friends. But multiplayer did not solidify this RPG as my favorite game. It was my journey through Honor Mode.
Honor Mode is BG3’s ultimate challenge. Enemies are smarter, stronger, and ruthless. Bosses have Legendary Actions that completely change how they play. The ability to load a save is removed; every decision and mistake is carved in stone. Worst of all: if you die even once, you need to restart the entire game. Your only reward for beating it: a golden dice skin.
But gold is my favorite color, so that was more than enough for me!
I’ve tried a few Honor Mode runs in the past. Even got pretty far in a few of them. But something always went wrong and those adventures came to bloody, tragic ends. It was demoralizing, frustrating, and incredibly stressful. Yet even after losing sixty-plus hours of progress across three failed campaigns, I was still determined to win. I wanted those golden dice, dammit!
Until, finally, I managed it. After seventy hours of play, I emerged victorious. Which was a miracle, because this run was a disaster!
For this run, I chose to play a Tiefling Bard named Elya. A kind soul who loves animals, Elya always has a song on her lips and a blade in her hands. For an extra challenge (because my masochism knows no bounds) I chose to play as the Dark Urge. Our friendly heroine is cursed with an unquenchable bloodlust. Lacking any memories of her origins, Elya must cure herself before her Urge pens a tragedy in blood.
With my character created, ‘Down By the River‘ thoroughly enjoyed, and my nerves steeled: it was time to put a worm in my eye.
Act 1
Elya’s adventure got off to a rocky start. Within the Nautiloid, she failed to free Us and could not steal the Everburn Blade. Minor failings, but they set a grim tone for things to come. With Lae’zel and Shadowheart at her side, our Bard managed to safely escape Illithid clutches to land upon the Sword Coast.
Things went fairly smoothly for a while. Elya managed to recruit Gale without sawing off his hand, picked up Astarion without anyone getting stabbed, and freed Lae’zel without killing any innocent tieflings. Heading to the crypt, the party made quick work of the scavengers, annihilated some skeletons, and woke Withers from his tomb.
Once they reached the Druid’s Grove, things got a bit… messy. When Elya agreed to help him find Karlach, Wyll joined the party happily. At least, until a series of bad choices left some tieflings dead and got me in trouble with the law. Still, we managed to reach level three without any major catastrophes.
This is where I got access to my secret weapon: camp clerics. With Withers’ help, you can get up to three hirelings. By converting them to the Cleric class, you can use them to apply day-long buffs to your active party members. As you level up, you’ll get more of these buffs, and they’ll become increasingly more powerful. These include:
- Aid: increases maximum HP by 5 for each level
- Warding Bond: splits damage between caster and target, adds +1 to all skill checks, saving throws, and attacks
- Protection From Poison: lowers all poison damage by 50%
- Longstrider: increases movement speed
- Death Ward: resist death one time
- Freedom of Movement: difficult terrain no longer affects you
- Heroes’ Feast: increase maximum HP and creates food
Applying these buffs every day can certainly be tedious. However, without them, I wouldn’t have made it past act one. There are just too many enemies, and they hit way too hard. These are the tools I needed to even the playing field. And even these often weren’t enough; there are more close calls in this run than I could count.
Within the Grove, Elya met a kindred spirit in Alfira, another tiefling bard. Together, they composed a ballad in honor of Alfira’s late teacher. For her help, Alfira gave Elya a lute. So began a beautiful friendship. Much to the Urge’s disgust.
A horde of goblins stood between Elya and Baldur’s Gate, so the party left the Grove to deal with them. For a while, things went as well as I could hope for. Goblins were killed, owlbears subdued (non-lethally because I love that cub more than life itself) and Astarion’s vampiric hungers satiated without any stakes in hearts. Taking a detour northwards, the party recruited Karlach and, with many explosive barrels, slaughtered the false Paladins of Tyr. An act which earned Wyll some snazzy new horns.
Unfortunately, this is where I made some stupid mistakes. As I went to save Councilor Florick from the fire, I made a pit stop back at camp to collect Wyll. This was apparently a mistake, because when I got back, the fire was gone and the Councilor was dead.
Believe it or not, that wasn’t the dumbest mistake I made this playthrough.
My bad luck wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The party managed to recruit Lug and his band, but the horn elected to glitch out. No ogres came to my aid against the goblins, and no circlet of intellect was collected. We managed to collect the Necromancy of Thay book beneath the potion shop, but Astarion failed to draw out its power and I subsequently forgot about it.
As the party made camp, we were approached by Alfira, who wanted to join the adventure. Imagining all the duets they could perform, Elya recruited her happily. Only to wake in the middle of the night standing over her corpse, blood soaking her hands. In a panic, Elya hid her involvement and went back to bed. When the party found the body, she managed to avoid suspicion. Wracked with guilt and shame, she swore to conquer her Urge before she could kill again.
The next night, Elya had a surprise visitor: a horrible little demon butler. While he clearly recognized her as his ‘Lady’, our heroine had no memory of him. For her murdering Alfira, he gifted her a magic cloak, then disappeared. It seems the path of evil has a few benefits after all.
The bumpy road evened out when I turned southwards to the swamp. Here, I found key evidence that Kagha was involved in a plot with Shadow Druids to corrupt the Grove. Returning, Elya brought the scheme to light and persuaded Kagha to return to Sylvanus’s embrace. With her returned to good, the Shadow Druids were toppled without any issues.
Then it was time for the first major boss of the campaign: Aunty Ethil. On a normal run, she’s not that hard; just use Magic Missle to destroy her clones and the rest is easy. But in Honor Mode, she uses your magic against you to create even more duplicates. Luckily, with Astarion, Karlach, and Lae’zel at her side, Elya brought the hag down, saving Mayrina and collecting a stat-boosting hair.
With Ethil eliminated and Kagha redeemed, Elya and the party journeyed to the Goblin Camp. Elya and the party rescued Halsin, Volo, and the owlbear cub without a hitch. With some careful planning, they wiped out the goblins outside, killed Ragzlin and Gut, and knocked out Minthara. With the threat eliminated, I cleared out the camp for valuables and returned to the Grove victorious.
It was here that my run nearly came to a catastrophic end. See, I got a little greedy. I wanted to steal the druid’s idol for Mol in exchange for a Ring of Protection. Unfortunately, my heist fell apart immediately when I forgot to cast Fog Cloud. Now all the druids that praised me as a hero turned to kill me as a thief. When it became clear I could not win, I made a quick retreat, barely escaping with my life. Luckily, they were only temporarily hostile, so we made up at the party that night.
During the festivities, Elya spent some quality one-on-one time with Shadowheart. Sharing a bottle of wine, they exchanged stories of their past. To comfort her companion, Elya made up tales that did not involve bloody murder. As the dawn drew closer, the pair shared their first kiss, then went back to the others.
Then they killed some Phase Spiders. Not a lot happened. There were spiders. Then there were not. Moving on.
With the first map cleared, the party turned their gaze to Moonrise Towers, home base of the Absolute. But which road did they take? Did they delve into the Underdark or risk the mountain pass? After some careful deliberation (and a lot of time spent reading the wiki) I decided to start with the Underdark.
Elya’s journey through the caves went without a hitch. Bulettes, Hook Horrors, and Spectators were slain, Myconids were avenged, and a wizard’s tower explored with no poetic robots murdered. The duegar made for easy prey, and the kuotoa were easily convinced that Elya was their god.
Things continued to go my way throughout the Grymforge. Using her silver tongue, Elya managed to incite a duegar civil war. In the chaos, she killed Nere will little issue. She even managed to talk the duegar into releasing the deep gnomes without further bloodshed. All according to plan.
Delving deeper into the caves, the party came to the Grymforge. Here, I could craft some powerful weapons and armor to assist me in the journey ahead. There was just one problem: Grym, guardian of the forge. This dude hits like a tank and can only be hurt when standing in lava. You can crush him using the forge for big damage, but even this has its risks.
Which is why I didn’t bother. See, tough as this fight is, it’s really easy to cheese it. All you need are some bows and spells and you can do the full fight safely from above. Boss fight is much easier when the boss can’t ever attack you.
Was this fun? No. But I was playing to win, dammit! And win I did!
With the Underdark cleared, the party back-tracked to take the mountain pass. Elya narrowly talked around Voss to prevent a fight with the Githyanki. Here, we learned a troubling fact: Vlaakith’s armies seek the Artefact. The same Artefact keeping us safe from the Absolute.
After killing some undead and tricking a supposed scholar into taking an owlbear egg instead of a githyanki one, the party made their way to the Creche. Here, Elya acquired a buff that completely changed the game. Normally, I allowed Lae’zel to destroy the Zaithysk. But I had recently learned that, if you succeed a few saving throws, you unlock a crucial upgrade to your Illithid powers: all of them become bonus actions rather than full actions. And with a few extremely lucky rolls, Elya acquired that exact buff. It’s no exaggeration to say this single buff more than tripled Elya’s combat efficiency.
Which was good, because the githyanki did not go easy on me. Normally, the creche fights are perfectly managable. But on Honor Mode, the boss has a super fun mechanic where he summons a metric fuckton of psychic swords. Very strong and deadly swords with their own place in initiative. Needless to say this fight was fucking psychotic and I barely managed to escape alive.
Elya’s reward: the Blood of Lathander, one of the best early game weapons you can get. Lae’zel was rewarded with exile and a death sentence. But at least Voss was friendly when he snuck into camp that night, so there’s that.
Having cleared both the Underdark and the mountains, it was finally time to head into act two. Up ’till now, the run has been messy but overall successful. Alas, Elya’s fortunes were about to take a dramatic plunge.
Act 2
After picking up a confused old man named Elminster, Elya’s party traveled to the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Here, the run faced a new challenge: the environment itself. If you brave the darkness without a light, you’ll face a swift and painful end. Luckily, the party had torches, and Shadowheart finally got some love from Shar, so we managed to get through safely.
Shortly after her arrival, Elya crossed paths with a patrol of Harpers. After helping them out of a scrape, our heroine found herself in the comforting glow of the Last Light Inn. Here, she met one of my favorite characters from Baldur’s Gate 1&2: Jaheira. She and Elya became fast friends. At least, after the Head Harper grilled her over tea laced with truth serum.
The party eagerly seized the chance to rest and restock. Karlach took the Infernal Iron we had stashed away to Damon and got her engine fixed. Astarion grilled Raphael for details on the scars Cazador left on his back. Shadowheart spat on a Selunite, Halsin picked up an important clue for breaking the shadow curse, and Wyll, Gale, and Lae’zel… existed.
I spent the time planning out my next moves. My previous Honor Mode run had ended in this act, and I was eager to avoid my past mistakes. After half an hour on the wiki, I had my path laid out. All I needed was the Blessing of Selune and I’d be set.
It’s here that I made the worst mistake of the entire run.
After Isobelle granted the party the necessary buff, Marcus appeared on behalf of Ketheric Thorm to kidnap her. Normally, this fight is perfectly manageable. All you have to do is protect Isobelle and kill some ghouls. Easy.
Unless you don’t prepare. Unless you don’t plan out your defense. Unless you’re just plain unlucky.
Not even a full round into combat, Marcus and his ghouls managed to slay Isobelle. The protections around Last Light fell. Every NPC, from the Harpers to the tiefling refugees, were reduced to shadow-cursed zombies. Only my party and Jaheira managed to survive, fighting through a horde of their fallen allies. All those characters, with their quests and items, gone forever because of one stupid mistake.
This was my lowest point in the entire campaign. Morale was at an all-time low. Not just for the characters in the game, but for me the player. I nearly abandoned the run right there and then. If I had, I doubt I would have started another one.
But after a relaxing session of online co-op with my best buds, I got my shit together and returned to the run. The game wasn’t over yet. I still had a Death God to slay.
With Last Light in ruins, Jaheira took shelter in Elya’s camp to await her chance for vengeance. In dire need of merchants to sell to/ buy from, the party risked a visit to Moonrise. Luckily, Marcus had not broken our cover, so Elya was able to unload her garbage to buy new treasure.
Here, our heroine met the best villain in the game: General Ketheric Thorm. Or I should say she was reunited, for the Lord of Moonrise recognized her. Although Elya did not remember him, she did recognize the woman standing trial: Minthara.
After indulging the Urge to kill some goblins, Elya and the party descended to the dungeons to rescue Moonrise’s prisoners. First up: Minthara. After a rough fight with the torture masters, the party managed to recruit the paladin to their cause. An investment that would pay off in dividends for the rest of the campaign.
Most of act two passed without combat. Elya’s silver tongue proved far deadlier than her blade. She deceived the Keeper of Gold into retiring. Drank the Wretched Distiller to his grave. Tricked the Scalpel of Shar and his nurses to embrace oblivion. Finally, the embers of my confidence were burning hot again.
One of my biggest fears was that I could not complete Halsin’s plotline. Luckily, all I needed to get back on track was the Speak With Dead spell. But I needed to be careful; the two combat encounters tied to this quest are far from easy. Avoiding previous mistakes, I took time to plan my attacks. Mostly by planting explosive barrels all over the place. A few earth-shattering kabooms later and Oliver was restored. Now only one thing prevented the land from healing: Ketheric Thorm.
After wrapping up more side quests, Elya, Shadowheart, and the others made for the Temple of Shar in search of the Nightsong. This had me incredibly nervous; most of the trials are annoying, but some feature some dangerous mechanics that can end a run instantly if you’re not careful. The fight against the shadow duplicates in particular had me on edge. Luckily, my party managed to overcome the trials with nary a feather ruffled.
Elya also talked a devil into killing his friends. And his cat. Then himself. I’m not sure how the Urge felt about that, but I had a hearty laugh over it.
Reaching the bottom of the Gauntlet, the party faced Shadowheart’s final challenge: the Nightsong. Dame Aylin, an aasimar imprisoned to preserve Ketheric Thorm’s immortality. The only thing between them and her: the necromancer Balthazar.
Who died almost immediately. Not gonna lie, I got super lucky with this fight. Elya and Astarion absolutely cleaned his clock, Minthara turned his skull into powder, and Shadowheart evaporated most of his summons with the best Turn Undead I have ever seen.
With the obstacle removed, Shadowheart faced Shar’s final trial: to kill the Nightsong. In doing so, she would become the goddess’ tool forever. Elya tried to persuade her against it, but not even her silver tongue was sharp enough. Luckily, Shadowheart decided on her own not to kill the aasimar. Thus was the Nightsong freed, and Ketheric Thorm made mortal.
But Elya had a trial of her own to face. That night, as the party made camp, her horrible butler appeared with a new command: to murder her partner, Shadowheart, in cold blood. If she failed in resisting the Urge, the party would lose their most valuable cleric, and me my favorite character in the game. It took the last of my inspiration points, but our heroine managed to resist, and the night passed bloodlessly.
The time had come to attack Moonrise Towers. Just one problem: all of my allies were dead. Elya and the party had to face the entire cult of the Absolute with only Jaheira as backup. It was a long and grueling battle, but nothing our heroes couldn’t handle. One long rest later, and Elya sent Ketheric running into the Ilithid Colony with his tail between his legs.
By this point, I was getting really nervous. The Illithid Colony is full of dangerous encounters, all culminating in one of the game’s mightiest bosses: Myrkul, Lord of Bones, God of Death. The same boss which ended my previous Honor Mode attempt. To say I was afraid of this fleshy hellhole would be an understatement.
But I had come too far to back out now. Now was the time to avenge the fallen of Last Light. It was do or die.
Luckily, my party was absolutely bonkers. Minthara landed critical Divine Smites on practically every enemy. My throw-build Karlach (stolen from my good buddy) annihilated dozens of monsters without breaking a sweat. Shadowheart balanced healing and holy magic to trivialize the pre-boss encounters. Whatever gaps there were in support or offense, Elya filled with her sword and musical magic.
While exploring the Colony, the party came across a surprise prisoner: Wyll’s patron devil, Mizora. Freeing her earned us a snazzy rapier that summoned a powerful Cambion, a valuable ally for the boss ahead. But what grabbed Elya’s attention was the pod right next to the devil’s. The pod encrusted with blood.
Her blood. Elya had been here before. A fact cemented by the torture master in the next room. Pretending to be a dullard, our murderous bard tricked the woman into explaining all the horrendous tortures she subjected Elya to. But the question remains: why?
After restoring the party’s resources, it was time to confront Ketheric for the final time. Unfortunately, his boss room was nothing short of a death trap. On one platform stood a Mind Flayer, and on the other, a group of skeletons providing support fire. At the center stood Ketheric, a hypnotized Isobelle at his side. My best hope: an immortal angel bound in the far corner of the room.
But I had a secret weapon: a dog.
Scratch is not generally good in combat. He’s the goodest boy in the world, but his HP is in the single-digits, and his damage is basically non-existent. But he has two abilities that I needed. First: he could drink potions. Second: he can use the Help action. So I gave him a Potion of Invisibility, sent him sneaking across the room, and had him rescue Aylin right away. With his work done, the best boy was sent safely back to camp, and the fight began in earnest.
Phase one of the fight went as well as I could have hoped. Minthara and Aylin kept the Thorms busy, Karlach and Elya took care of the Mind Flayer before it could even take a turn, and Shadowheart’s Spirit Guardians made quick work of the skeletons. My HP was still mostly full, my Spell Slots still in high supply, and my heart racing out of my chest.
Phase two was not so easy. Myrkul has a ton of health, which he can heal by consuming his infinitely respawning minions. All of his attacks deal huge damage, and he can hit anyone anywhere on the map. To top it all off, Honor Mode gives him a deathly aura that prevents anyone from healing if they remain too close. As soon as Dame Aylin went down, she was out of the fight for good.
And here I forgot my explosive barrels.
Karlach and Shadowheart dealt with the skeletons with javelines and Spirit Guardians respectively. Elya did double-duty healing and attacking. The summoned Cambion provided some much needed damage. But Minthara was the true MVP; she went balistic on Myrkul, critical hitting with every Smite she had left. It was a rough battle that left every member of the party on the brink of death. But this time, I conquered the God of Death. Finally, the path to Act 3 was open.
Then something interesting happened. See, in act 2, the Dark Urge is given a unique quest: kill Isobelle. If you don’t do this, you instead get the aformentioned event where you try to kill your partner. Problem is, Isobelle was kidnapped before I got the quest. Hence I got the event with Elya trying to kill Shadowheart. Yet since Last Light was destroyed and Isobelle was killed in the boss fight, the quest was marked as completed.
As such, Elya got a special reward from her father: the Slayer transformation. A horrific beast of claws and fangs, the mere sight of which left Elya’s entire party disgusted and horrified. And a cool reference to Baldur’s Gate 2.
A githyanki attack squad provided the perfect opportunity to test it out. Unfortunately, cool as the Slayer looks, it really isn’t all that effective in actual combat. You do a lot of stabbing and cutting, but not much else. After this test run, I never used it again. It only served as a grim reminder that the Urge was closer to consuming Elya than she had feared.
Act 2 was steeped in disaster, tragedy, and loss. But as the party departed for Baldur’s Gate, they enjoyed at least one victory. With Ketheric dead and Oliver restored, the curse upon the land was lifted. Flowers bloomed, trees flowered, and light shone upon Moonrise once again.
I could only hope the road ahead would be so bright.
Act 3
My spirits were high going into Act 3. If I could defeat the God of Death, then nothing could stand in my way! As Elya looked out towards the distant city of Baldur’s Gate, my mind ran rampant with plans for the days ahead. Spells to learn, gear to earn, and foes to slay.
Excitement rapidly turned to panic when the githyanki attacked that night. At the same time, the Elder Brain tried to seize control of the party’s tadpoles. I had three turns to reach a portal for the next encounter. The cherry on top: I lost all my daily buffs. Luckily, Karlach managed to reach the portal in one turn before anything got too crazy, so I went into the fight ahead at full capacity.
To my surprise, the fight inside the Astral Prism went without a hitch. The same cannot be said for my ensuing conversation with the Emperor. Lae’zel wanted to gut him there and then to free Orpheus, Prince of the Comet and rightful ruler of the Githyanki. But as his power was the only thing protecting them from the Elder Brain, Elya persuaded her to indulge the Emperor a little longer.
It’s at this point that you can access to ascended Illithid powers. These are some of the most busted abilities in the game. Flight alone makes traversal and combat a thousand times easier. Now, Elya could transform into a Displacer Beast, had a huge boost to all Charisma dialogue checks, and got amazing new crowd control attacks in Mind Blast and Black Hole. And thanks to her session with the zaithysk, she could use them all as bonus actions.
My bard was already powerful. Now? She was a monster. Every encounter outside of the city was a complete joke. My confidence quickly became arrogance. A fact that would soon come back to bite me.
The following day went as smooth as butter. Our party ousted a local lord for trying to bomb children, investigated a murder in the local church, and stopped a black market trade. Astarion agreed to help the Belmonts Gur find their missing children, Karlach cheated a legendary spear out of a cheating djinn, Elya and Shadowheart went on a date, and the party murdered a clown. There was some trouble with the guards at the crossing, but the Ironhand gnomes helped us out with some good ol’ fashioned terrorism.
That joke is gonna land me on at least five watch lists.
After making some errands, Elya and Jaheira went to rendezvous with some nearby Harpers. Unfortunately, only one remained. All the others had been slaughtered by doppelgangers looking to ambush Jaheira. With our list of allies growing rapidly thinner, the Head Harper urges Elya to meet up with the leader of the Thieves Guild, Nine-Fingers. Their goal: to find Minsc of Rashemen, a legendary hero, old friend of Jaheira, and my favorite character of Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2.
Elya, Jaheira, Wyll, and Karlach arrived at Wyrm’s Rock in time for a special event: the coronation of Enver Gortash. The man who ruined Karlach’s life and planted a mind flayer parasite in Wyll’s father. A man whom Elya once knew very, very well.
Here, at long last, Elya’s lost memories returned. With them comes a horrible truth. Elya is a Bhaalspawn, daughter of the God of Murder. Together with Gortash, she created the cult of the Absolute in a bid to dominate the world. Once, she was the main villain of this story. Then Orin, her sister, betrayed and attacked Elya, reducing her mind to an empty shell. All of the suffering and death left behind by both the Urge and the Absolute were because of my own player character.
A terrible truth which Gortash reveals to the rest of the party. Close as Elya had become to her friends, none were too pleased to learn of her heritage. None save one: Astarion. Being a slave to a terrible master of his own, the vampire spawn sympathizes with the plights of the Bhaalspawn. In that moment, the friendship between Elya and Astarion became unbreakable.
Jaheira was not so sympathetic. Coming from Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, she knew very well the road a Bhaalspawn walks. She knows that heroes can rise from it as well as monsters. Having grown to trust Elya, she decides to give our heroine a chance to prove herself. Should she fail, the old Harper will be there to slay her. That night, Elya slept beneath the watchful gaze of a woman who would kill her without hesitation. Unable to do harm to anyone around her.
She had never slept so well in her life.
Once you reach the Lower City, Baldur’s Gate 3 completely lets go of your hand. There are over a dozen quests that you can tackle in any order you want. The only question was: where to start?
I decided to start small, tackling the easiest side quests first. To start, I went beneath the Elfsong to kill some rats, then some githyanki, and acquire some of the Emperor’s old equipment. Afterwards, I had a rematch with Auntie Ethil and saved a little girl, earning a legendary rapier in the process. Then I robbed Lorroakan, though I didn’t fight him; Dame Aylin’s side of the quest bugged out, so I decided not to bother. He didn’t even notice his magic items were missing.
Jaheira and Elya visited the Thieves Guild to find intel on Minsc’s whereabouts. Here, they learned about his new identity: the Stone Lord. Servant of the Absolute. With some digging, they learned that he was going to rob the city bank, and Nine-Fingers arranged a trap for him there.
Chasing Minsc from the vaults into the sewers, Elya managed to break the Absolute’s control over him. So it was that Minsc of Rashemen and his miniature-giant space hamster Boo joined the party. With him in tow, we returned to the Thieves Guild, stopped a Zentarim coup, and convinced the criminal network to assist us in the battle against the cult.
And made a very pretty profit doing it.
Things couldn’t have been going any better. The party reached max level, and they were becoming more powerfully armed by the day. After over fifty hours of struggling and many disasters, I felt confident that I could win.
My first major test came when Orin kidnapped Halsin. She gave Elya a simple ultimatum: kill Gortash, then face her in a duel to become Bhaal’s true Chosen. Fail to do so, and the druid would die.
The time had come for Elya to conquer her Urge once and for all. But first, the party had to find the Temple of Bhaal. So they thwarted a murderous dwarf, stole his collection of severed hands, and broke into the Murder Tribunal. Here, we confronted Orin’s grandfather: the main villain of Baldur’s Gate 1, Sarevok. He traded barbs with Jaheira and Minsc, then the battle began.
Sarevok is a monster of a boss fight. Man can deal hundreds of damage per turn, with long combo attacks or Power Word: Kill. On top of that, he has three servants that, when killed, give him a permanent buff to his damage and armor class. But as deadly as he is, he can only do so much when four level twelve characters are kicking him from all sides.
With Sarevok dead, it was time to raid the Temple of Bhaal. The only remaining obstacle was a test: kill an angry ghost. Fail to do so in five turns, and the party would be wiped out and the run would end instantly. Needless to say this fight gave me a fucking heart attack. But the party prevailed and entered the temple.
In a normal run, Orin is the easiest Chosen boss fight. She moves fast and applies a lot of frightened effects. The most difficult mechanic is Bhaal’s Blessing; during the fight, praying cultists give Orin several charges of Unstoppable, reducing that many hits to one damage. In Honor Mode, the fight is largely the same. But Orin hits way harder, and those cultists are completely invincible. Great for earning the First Blood achievement. Not so great for my prospects of survival.
Elya managed to convince Orin not to gut Halsin, and their one-on-one duel begin. Determined to refuse her father, Elya did not transform into the Slayer. Orin did not restrain herself the same way.
When it became clear that Elya could not defeat her sister alone, Astarion, Shadowheart, and Minthara intervened. Even with their help, I barely made it out of this fight alive. Orin hopped between party members faster than Sonic the Hedgehog, nearly dropping them each with one combo. But after a long and grueling battle, Minthara smote Bhaal’s Chosen into oblivion.
Despite the party’s intervention, Bhaal was more than pleased with Elya’s performance. Using her butler as a vessel, the Lord of Murder appeared before her. He would grant our heroine the power to take back control of the Absolute cult. All she had to do was surrender her will back to him.
But Elya was not the monster she once was. The Urge would control her no more. Knowing full well the consequences, she refused Bhaal’s offer. As punishment, her father unmade what he had created. Beneath the god’s vengeful wrath, Elya’s blood was spilled, and she died upon the floor of His temple.
Luckily, Elya had an ally Bhaal had not prepared for: Withers. With a wave of his skeletal hand, the mysterious scribe resurrected the bard. He went on to explain that Bhaal could only destroy that which he knew. But over the course of her adventures, Elya had become so much more. Now, she could live as her own person. Free of the Urge at last, she was the Daughter of None. And she still had work to do.
That night, as the party celebrated their victory, they were assaulted Astarion’s siblings. They were determined to bring him back to Cazador for hopes of a reward. But they were no match for Shadowheart’s Spirit Guardians and Minthara’s smites. Now my next target was clear. It was time to slay the vampire.
Cazador Szarr is one of the hardest fights in Honor Mode. All because of one simple spell: Thunderwave. If you don’t position yourself carefully, he’ll knock your party off a cliff and instantly kill them. Even if you exploit his weakness to sunlight, this dude is still a nightmare to deal with. To top it off, he’s accompanied by a whole gaggle of ghouls, bats, and werewolves.
Feeling bold, I raised held through his mansion without even a hint of fear. Elya and Astarion were best buds. He had supported her against the Urge; now it was time to repay the favor. Riding high, I charged the vampire lord directly.
But I had gotten too cocky. Too reckless. My plan was half-baked and fell apart immediately. Barely one round into the fight, I was scrambling to clean up the mess I had walked my characters into. I nearly managed it. Nearly managed to turn the tables.
I was too slow by one turn. Cazador captured Astarion. None of my party were in position to stop him. I could do nothing but scream as Cazador completed his ritual, becoming the unkillable Vampire Ascendant and reducing Astarion to a bloody pile.
All of my confidence in the run came crashing down in an instant. I barely managed to collect Astarion’s equipment and escape before Cazador could deliver my game over. Monstrously powerful as he was, I could not kill him anymore. I had no choice but to abandon that effort completely.
This caused a rather unnerving glitch. While Elya mourned the death of her friend, the rest of the party were completely unaffected. None of them even remembered Astarion. I felt as though I’d walked into a nightmare. Astarion wasn’t just dead; the game now treated him like he had never even existed. The only proof left of his existence was a lump of gore on Cazador’s floor.
Losing Astarion absolutely gutted me. Just as when Last Light Inn fell, I nearly gave up on the campaign then and there. If I couldn’t beat Cazador, what hope did I have against the other, more dangerous bosses?
But it was too late to give up now. I needed another victory. Something to rekindle the dying embers of my hope.
And I knew just where to go.
The House of Hope. Domicile of the devil Raphael. One of the best – and hardest – boss fights in Baldur’s Gate 3. If I could defeat him, then surely I could finish this disgraced run. If not, I could think of no better place for the campaign to end. So, mustering what little courage I had left, I sent Elya, Karlach, Lae’zel, and Gale into the Hells.
Once we broke into Raphael’s crib, the party met the lovely Hope. A prisoner tortured by Raphael into near insanity. Being a hero in need of redeeming, Elya swore to set her free.
At least, that’s the character reason. My reason was a desperate need for another cleric to fight Raphael. Trust me, the investment was more than worth it.
But first, I had to steal the Orphic Hammer. That was surprisingly easy. Elya and the party killed Raphael’s sex mirror (after asking about his impotence in bed) and learned the password to the weapon’s barrier. Unfortunately, this upset the servants of the House, so the party had to fight their way through them. As well as the Spectators downstairs guarding Hope’s prison.
With Hope freed, it was finally time to face Raphael. Between listening to the best music track in the game, I was having a panic attack. Not only does the devil have the highest HP pool in the game, but he is surrounded by powerful servants and can deal massive fire damage. Right from the first round, it was clear I was fighting an uphill battle.
A battle I was losing. I managed to destroy the Soul Pillars and his servants, but Raphael himself was giving every member of my team a swirlie. In my desperation, I sent a near-dead Lae’zel running towards the sauna. But of course, the healing water was disabled.
Yet this single-handedly saved my campaign. See, Raphael chased Lae’zel away, giving Hope room to resurrect a dead Gale. With the devil having left his own boss room, Gale came back to life outside of the initiative order. Giving him free reign to blast Raphael in the back with his strongest 6th level spell. This massive hit brought Raphael down low enough for Elya, Karlach, Lae’zel, and Hope to deal the killing blow.
Raphael’s death was my most monumental victory in the run. My shattered confidence was reforged yet again, stronger than ever before and tempered with humility and experience. As an extra bonus, I got the best armor in the game, raising Elya’s AC from a measly 16 to a titanic 25.
With the Orphic Hammer in hand, the parth made a pitstop in the sewers to check in with Voss. In doing so, we earned Lae’zel a silver sword, her most powerful weapon. Now we could only wait for an opportunity to free Orpheus.
With Lae’zel’s questline mostly complete, I figured it was time to take care of Shadowheart’s. I was especially nervous for this one. Viconia and the Sharans have given me no end of trouble in previous playthroughs. They love spamming Bone Chill and Darkness, making healing and seeing impossible. If you’re not careful, you can quickly get overwhelmed.
Unless you have a level twelve Minthara on your team. One equipped with gear that lets her see in magical darkness. Who lands a critical hit max level Divine Smite on Viconia the instant she was vulnerable.
I was worried this fight would be a nightmare. It turned out to be a joke. Elya and the party wiped the Sharans off the map and saved Shadowheart’s parents from Shar. Not to sound arrogant, but it was so easy I felt disappointed. Luckily, I had a far more dangerous enemy in the pipeline.
It was time to go dragon hunting.
Buried beneath Wyrm’s Rock, past trials of wit and might, rests the great dragon Ansur. The Heart of the Gate. Wyll believed he would be a great ally in the battle to come. So the party delved into the dungeons to find him.
The trials were easy to solve. Namely because I’ve done them four times now and had their solutions memorized. Only the torch trial gave me any stress, purely because of how relentless the myrmidons can be. But my worries were all for naught.
Until I met Ansur himself. Being the dragon in this Dungeons & Dragons game, Ansur does not fuck around. He hits hard, flies all around the arena, and comes packaged with devastating lightning abilities. Luckily, my six Globe of Invulnerability spell scrolls protected the party from most of it. Most being the operative word.
Once again, the party managed to squeak out a victory. Barely; all four of my characters were in single-digit HP range when Ansur was slain. But the rewards were well worth it. The Helm of Balduran provides free healing, and Balduran’s Giantslayer is one of the best swords in the game.
With every other major boss defeated, it was time to assassinate the archduke. Gortash was the last major boss standing between me and the Elder Brain. And the only thing between me and him was a castle loaded with traps, killer robots, and insane priests of Bane. Just another Tuesday.
Step one: eliminate the Steel Watch. The factory is run by captive Gondian gnomes. My options: blow them all up, or risk the run on an incredibly dangerous encounter to save their captive loved ones. Having made the mistake of having a heart, I chose the latter. Which meant stealing a submarine and breaking into the Iron Throne, an underwater gulag.
One that Gortash set to self-destruct the moment Elya arrived.
This is my favorite encounter in the game. I had just five turns to save the hostages and steal as much loot as possible. Down one path is Omeluum the Mind Flayer of the Society of Brilliance. In the other, Duke Ravengard, Wyll’s father. Finally, there was the loot chamber. Scattered all throughout the facility: the captive Gondians. All guarded by an army of Sahuagin and a rising water level.
So I made every DM’s nightmare come true: I split the party. Accompanied by a Storm Myrmidon, Elya went to save Omeluum. Karlach and Wyll moved to save Ravengard. Meanwhile, Shadowheart played crowd control with her Spiritual Guardians and Guardians of Faith, ensuring no fish got too near the exit. Everything was going so well.
Until Mizora summoned living grenades around the Duke. My plan had been to cast Sanctuary on Ravengard to protect him. Which was a mistake. Apparently divine protection didn’t account for explosions. But at least he got to see his son again two seconds before dying horribly.
After that, things went downhill fast. I managed to save a handful of Gondians, but the rest decided it would be more fun to fight than flee. In the end, I had no choice but to retreat. If they wanted to die horribly beneath the sea, so be it. At least I got my squid friend out. Call me cold, but he was the only one I really cared about.
Wyll was understandably upset about all this. His dad was dead, the city’s guardian dragon was dead, and Mizora was still giving Elya suggestive looks at camp. But after a quick pep talk, he decided on his new course in life: to become the Blade of Avernus and wreak havoc in the Hells.
Can’t say that’s what I would have done, but we all handle grief in our own ways.
Before Wyll could become a wannabe Doom Slayer, we had to save the remaining Gondians. At least, that was my intent. By the time I arrived at the factory, most of them were already dead. I tried to preserve the survivors, but they were just as suicidal as their family in the Iron Throne. Total gnomes saved today: maybe three.
Having completely failed in all her heroic endeavors, a frustrated Elya decided to bomb the damn place and be done with it. Unfortunately, there was a giant robot tank in the way. Luckily, I came prepared with lightning arrows and spells aplenty. It was a close fight, but once again, our heroes proved triumphant.
Normally, this is the part where the deep gnomes show up to be racist against the Gondians. But with the Gondians already being dead, they kinda just patted Elya on the back for being racist. Our heroine corrected their mistake by drowning them all in the harbor. She was a Bhaalspawn no more, but dear old Dad’s lessons weren’t so easily forgotten.
On the subject of drowning, there was also a dwarf guarding the sub Elya took to the Iron Throne. I gave him over to the priestesses of the Bitch Queen. After the Iron Throne disaster, I did not have the energy to defend one vaguely reasonable jailer.
With the Steel Watch disabled, it was finally time to confront Gortash. Luckily, the aforementioned castle of traps and minions proved no match for Elya, Karlach, Minthara, and Shadowheart. The four of them carved a bloody path to the top of Wyrm’s Rock to confront the Archduke of Baldur’s Gate.
I figured this fight was going to be way harder than it ended up being. Gortash is a god damn Monk that multi-classed into Artificer; as such, he has as many defensive options as he does high-damage ranged and melee attacks. His various shields protect him from ranged and magical damage. Get him down low enough and he’ll transform into a self-healing giant. One that hits like a semi-truck strapped to a rocket. Not to mention his room is full of minions casting buffs. And traps. Oh so, so many traps. I fully expected this to be the fight of my life.
But Karlach went absolutely ballistic. Wielding Balduran’s Giantslayer, she gave Gortash the thrashing of a lifetime. Shadowheart healed the Barbarian, while Elya and Minthara cleared the disposables. Once they were gone, it was just a matter of dog-pilling the boss until he was dead.
Whereas Wyll got none of what he wanted, Karlach got everything. The ability to touch others. Revenge on the man who ruined her life. But she was no happier than the warlock. Victory and vengeance were sweet treats indeed. Yet they could not wash out the bitter taste of her impending doom.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Gale got a surprise summons from Mystra. Who told him once again to blow himself up. Ever the kind and caring friend, Elya encouraged him against it. Whatever was coming, they would face it together.
That’s what the character was thinking. I, the player, was much less certain. After so many catastrophes, close calls, and fuck-ups, I was more rattled than a maraca. Did I risk the run to save one party member? What would Astarion say to that?
The mood at camp was grim that night. On the morrow, all was to be decided. Would Elya and the party save Baldur’s Gate? Or was I doomed to return once more to the Nautiloid and Act One?
After a solid hour of deliberating (no joke), I put together my final party.
- Elya: 12th Level Bard, Jack of All Trades
- Karlach: 6th Level Barbarian, 3rd Level Rogue, 3rd Level Fighter, Ms. Rip and Tear Until It Is Done
- Minthara: 12th Level Paladin, Nuke-In-A-Box
- Gale: 6th Level Wizard, 6th Level Sorcerer, Master of Magic & Emergency Bomb
There was no turning back. It was time to confront the Elder Brain.
Unfortunately, the party’s first encounter didn’t go their way. Even with the three Netherstones, the Brain could not be controlled. It bursts free, evolving into a Nether Brain and unleashing a Mind Flayer fleet upon the city.
Of course, that’s all scripted. I got screwed over in a completely different way. See, when the Emperor saves you from the brain, you get a free full rest. But in my case, all that did was remove my daily buffs and elixirs. No more Aid. No more Warding Bond. No more Death Ward. The game had stolen my safety blanket.
But there was no time to deal with that. A choice laid before Elya: save Orpheus, the Prince of the Comet, or side with the Emperor. Not wishing to wake up with Lae’zel’s sword in her gut, she decided to save the githyanki. Alas, the Emperor is a petty bitch and decided to join the Nether Brain.
That lead to an even more difficult choice. In order to subdue the brain, one member of the party needed to become an Illithid. Question was: who?
Most people would make Orpheus do it. But I didn’t want to risk the future of the Githyanki. That passed the ball to Elya herself. A noble and unfair sacrifice for our Bhaalspawn turned heroine.
Then I remembered: Karlach could do it too. My gut immediately rejected the idea. But logic won the day. Karlach’s only choices were to die or return to the Hells. Maybe this third option would be better.
Gameplay wise, it certainly was. Karlach may have lost the Infernal Engine. But instant access to every Tadpole ability more than made up for it. She was already a monster, but with this transformation, she became the strongest member of my party.
Just in time, because I was screwed. Having lost my daily buffs, I had to rely on passives granted by my allies. Just one problem: I barely had any allies! Most of them died back in the Last Light Inn, and my many fuck-ups in the city itself only made it worse. I had almost nothing to work with!
The following combat encounter was the most hectic of the entire run. Like any good RPG, the game throws just about every enemy type it has at you in one final gauntlet. Mind Flayers, Spectators, goblins, ogres, assassins of Bhaal, clerics of Bane, ghouls and skeletons, the works. All I had were my four party members, a handful of Harpers, Flaming Fists, a one-time use dragon, and Dame Aylin.
Turns out, I needed none of that. Throw-build Barbarian Illithid Karlach absolutely steam-rolled everything. Spears flew like birds, and monsters died by the dozen. Her flying made the next encounter a complete joke. Normally, you need to climb a crumbling tower while a Nautiloid lays down fire on you. Or you can just fly straight up to the Nether Brain’s stem and end it in one turn.
At last, I had arrived. The final boss. All that stood between me and my golden dice skin was the Emperor, half a dozen Mind Flayers, an army of tentacles, a red dragon, four Dream Guardians, and the Nether Brain. Easy, right?
Standing at the brain stem, I came to a cold realization: I couldn’t win. With the resources I had available to me, I wouldn’t be able to beat the dragon, much less the Nether Brain. If I lost, I would have to repeat the entire. Game. Again.
Maybe I was wrong. Perhaps I could have won. Problem was: I was exhausted. Between this run and the failures that came before it, I had spent over a hundred hours trying to beat this stupid challenge. I didn’t have the spirit left in me to lose another one.
But there was a second option. The Orb of Karsus. By sacrificing Gale, I could skip the entire final battle. There was no need to worry. I had won already. All it would cost me is one more party member.
No joke, I was debating with myself for half an hour over this. My pride urged me to tackle the challenge, come what may. The part of me that’s an adult with limited free time argued fiercely against it. I already lost Astarion; what was one more dead friend? It was only fitting, given how cursed this whole run had been.
After much deliberating, I came to my decision. If it was between losing my wizard or the entire run, then there was only one choice. You may call me a coward. But I did what I had to do.
With a heavy heart, Elya spoke with Gale one last time. The two shared one final hug, then the Wizard of Waterdeep urged her away. Climbing the stem alone, Gale confronted the Nether Brain. With one last joke, Mystra’s Chosen detonated the Orb of Karsus. In a flash of magic, the Absolute was destroyed. Baldur’s Gate was saved.
The party regrouped on the docks. Despite their victory, the mood was somber as everyone mourned Gale’s sacrifice. Not long after, Orpheus departed to wage war upon Vlakith, taking Lae’zel with him. So it was that Elya parted ways with her friends. The adventure was over.
So, remember how Elya accidentally failed and succeeded the Dark Urge quest back in Act 2? Well, this caused an interesting glitch come the end of Act 3. Apparently, Elya did not save Shadowheart from herself. Now freed of her Urge, she can do nothing but regret having killed the woman she loved.
Except not really. Shadowheart was fine. Elya married her and the two went to live happily on a farm with flowers and animals. That entire last scene was just a nightmare. One final petty jibe from Bhaal.
Epilogue & Conclusion
Months later, Withers gathered everyone around for a reunion party. Elya gave Shadowheart a kiss, then went to catch up with the others. Minsc was working to enforce ethics within the Thieve’s Guild in his own Minscy way. Jaheira went back to leading the Harpers with an iron fist. Wyll has been having the time of his life slaying devils as the Blade of Avernus. Lae’zel was busy leading a diplomatic mission with the Githzerai. Minthara returned to the Underdark to wage war on her homeland.
The mood took a turn for the tragic when Elya spoke with Karlach. In the days since the Absolute fell, she’s taken up work in a hospital. When a patient grows weary of life with no hope of recovery, she devours their brains. In doing so, they become part of a hive of souls held within her mind. It’s noble. It’s grotesque. And it’s warped Karlach so badly that nothing of who she was remains. Seeing that, Elya had to wonder: maybe death wasn’t such a bad fate after all.
But it was seeing Gale that got my waterworks running. In the event of his death, he left a mirror image behind to deliver a final message. A letter for Elya. Reading the note, our heroine was moved to tears. Unable to help herself, she hugged Gale’s double tight. To which the duplicate remarks that the real him must have been very lucky indeed to have a friend like her.
Wiping away tears, Elya spoke with Withers one final time. Gathering everyone around, the old Scribe of the Dead raised his glass in a toast. With one last cheer for Baldur’s Gate, the party drank, and the credits rolled.
My run was complete. My golden dice earned. Heaving a sigh of relief, I sat back in my chair and stared at the credits rolling by. Trying to appreciate each and every name there for their work on this incredible game. A game I now knew, without a shadow of doubt, was going to be my favorite for a long, long time.
Thus ended my disastrous journey through Baldur’s Gate 3. It was a catastrophe, but that’s part of what made it so damn memorable for me. I couldn’t just reload my mistakes. I had to live with them and adapt. Every roll of the dice had my heart racing. Because of my failures, I had to make decisions I normally never would. The story that took shape was more intense, tragic, and engaging than in any of my other playthroughs. I’ve never had an experience like it in any other game.
If you enjoyed what you read, consider giving Honor Mode a shot. It can be brutal and frustrating, but it was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had with a game. You certainly can’t do any worse than I did.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you very much for reading. This project quickly expanded beyond my original plans, and I loved every second of it. Even if it came out *checks calendar* two months later than I originally planned. Better late than never, am I right?
Maybe I should stop writing blog articles like they’re novellas…
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