Honour mode in BG3 ramps up the difficulty with perma death, single save files, and extra turns on monsters through Legendary Actions. To combat the brutality of this mode, we must build an equally brutal team. Here are our best Honour mode builds in Baldur’s Gate 3.
How to Make the Best Honour Mode Builds in Baldur’s Gate 3
To get the best BG3 Honour Mode builds, our team should consist of the most min-maxed classes and powerful team combinations. We want a strong frontline and a high-damage dealing backline that can also support. Therefore, we’ll just rely on a tried and true party composition Here are the best BG3 Honour Mode builds:
- A multi-attacking Battle Master Fighter with Reach control options.
- A multi-smiting Paladin with support spells and reach.
- A burst damage Sorcerer.
- And a tanky Cleric who mixes control, damage, revive and heal spells.
- (Optional) Feel free to switch any of these out with our min-maxed Gloom Stalker Ranger/Thief Rogue sniper build for incredible ranged damage.
All of these Honour Mode builds will be single-class, with the exception of the Ranger/Rogue. We want to maximize our Feat progression while reaching high-level abilities. This especially goes for the Fighter and Paladin for those three attacks and incredibly powerful defensive aura respectively. That said, high-level spells on our Sorcerer and Cleric are also crucial.
I’ll assume each of these BG3 Honour Mode builds is done through a companion, but feel free to replace one of them with your custom Tav. For example, the Sorcerer slot could be filled with your Tav, in which case I recommend the Shield Dwarf for that medium armor proficiency. Alternatively, you can replace the Fighter and Paladin and pick a Half-Orc for that “I don’t die” button through Relentless Endurance or Zariel Tiefling for some melee offensive spells. In retrospect, I would have your Tav be the Paladin of the party, as Minthara is tricky to recruit.
Best Honour Mode Build for Fighters in BG3
We can use Lae’Zel for this slot. Here’s the best BG3 Honour Mode build for a Fighter:
- Class: Battle Master Fighter (Focus on Strength/Con and wear Heavy Armor).
- Feats: Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master, then Sentinel.
- Weapons: Glaives and Halberds (Defense or GWF for your fighting style).
- Maneuvers: Trip Attack, Precision Attack (For GWM), Riposte, Menacing Attack, and Maneuvering Attack.
The goal here is to dive into the fray and create a large zone of attack alongside the Paladin with our Reach weapons, which will stop enemies from advancing on our backline. This is because the reaction attack from PAM will drop enemy movement to zero with Sentinel. Additionally, use Goading Attack to lock down key enemies along with Trip Attack to grant you Advantage on Great Weapon Master. Your Paladin will also enjoy the Advantage on attacks against prone enemies with his Divine Smites.
Our feat selection synergizes greatly since Great Weapon Master grants a +10 to damage on all our attacks, including the bonus action strike from Polearm Master. If this feat is a little buggy for you and doesn’t register the damage bonus, I highly recommend installing this mod, which fixes the issues. As for the penalty to attack rolls, the Precise Attack can remedy this greatly.
I’ve found great success with this Honour mode build. It not only outputs great damage with decent defenses but also applies lots of CC-like effects like the Prone or Frightened condition. Don’t be afraid to begin fights with an Action Surge and burst down key targets in combat. Lastly, make use of the bonus action Shove attack with your Athletics to knock enemies off of buildings when you can.
Best Honour Mode Build for Paladins in BG3
This can be a good spot to fit your custom Tav or use our best Minthara Honour mode build. Here’s the best BG3 Honour Mode build for a Paladin:
- Class: Oath of Vengeance Paladin (Focus on Strength/Charisma/Constitution and wear Heavy Armor).
- Feats: Polearm Master, Sentinel, then Great Weapon Master.
- Weapons: Switch between Glaive/Halberd and one-handed Spear plus Shield to suit the situation. (Defense or Protection for your Fighting Style)
- Spells: Bless, Compelled Duel, Shield of Faith, Revivify.
Similar to the Fighter, we want to drop down our Bless and move alongside them to expand our Reach weapon zone of attack. I don’t recommend moving right next to the fighter but creating some distance so that your Reach weapon attack zones don’t overlap.
Bless will boost the Fighter’s GWM attacks and you can always switch to Shield and Spear to prioritize Protection when needed, the Spear will still work with PAM and Sentinel. Either way, once your opportunity attack triggers from Polearm Master, Relentless Avenger will give you more movement for your next turn to reposition if needed.
Our main job is to multi-attack with our PAM bonus action on a boss and boost all three attacks with Divine Smite. This is massive burst damage that you can reset often with resting as resting doesn’t have any major consequences. Moreover, I would recommend dropping Vow of Enmity on bosses before Smites to boost your chances to hit and synergize greatly with Great Weapon Master later on. You can also activate Hunter’s Mark if your Cleric is concentrating on Bless for additional multi-attacking damage.
Finally, make sure to stand within three meters of your allies to boost their saving throws with Aura of Protection and heal them when necessary with Lay on Hands.
Best Honour Mode Build for Sorcerers in BG3
Gale fits this role well, but if you want to go custom, I recommend the Shield Dwarf for the medium armor proficiency, which can potentially turn into heavy armor with a feat. Here’s the best BG3 Honour Mode build for a Sorcerer:
- Class: Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer (Focus on Charisma/Constitution/Dexterity with no need of Mage Armor due to Draconic Resilience).
- Feats: War Caster (For advantage on Concentration checks), Dual Wielder (For Magic Staves late game).
- Gear: Aim for the Staff of Spellpower and the Markoheshkir in the late game with the Dual Wielder feat for dual wielding while picking up any powerful staves in the mid-game.
- Metamagic: Twinned Spell, Quicken Spell, Heightened Spell.
Our goal with the Sorcerer is to maintain concentration on important control spells while blasting enemies with powerful AoEs through Quicken Spell and single-target damage with Twin Spell. For twinning, Chromatic Orb and Enlarge can be a useful early game, with Enlarge greatly extending the zone of control for your Fighter’s and Paladin’s Reach weapons. Twin Haste is incredible in the mid to late game along with Banishment, Polymorph, and Dominate. For damage, twin Chain Lightning and Disintegrate in the late game, especially with the Arcane Battery free cast from your staves.
You can always drop a stray Fireball or Wall of Fire with your Quicken Spell when you notice enemies grouping up or cast lockdown AoEs like Web and Slow to halt their movement. For defensive purposes, focus on Shield, Mirror Image, and Misty Step as they don’t require concentration and won’t interfere with your damage output.
Best Honour Mode Build for Clerics in BG3
The Cleric is the backbone of the party and you can fill this role with Shadowheart through some respecing since Trickery isn’t the best in Honour mode. Here’s the best BG3 Honour Mode build for a Cleric:
- Class: Tempest Cleric (Focus on Wisdom/Constitution and wear Heavy Armor).
- Feats: War Caster (For advantage on Concentration checks).
- Spell: Focus on Spirit Guardians, For Destructive Wrath (Thunderwave, Shatter).
- Gear: Luminous Armor set.
Despite being Tempest Clerics, we don’t want to engage in melee attacks at all. We picked up Tempest for heavy armor, a weaponized reaction with Wrath of the Storm, and some burst damage potential with a Destructive Wrath-boosted Shatter.
Essentially, we want to focus on crowd control and support. Spirit Guardians will be our main spell, so we want to stand behind our melee allies projecting the damaging and slowing AoE aura of the spell. Upcasting it offers great value, as well. Spiritual Weapon doesn’t require concentration, so you have some stable damage coming in. Speaking of which, drop-down Shatters for maximum damage when enemies group up.
As for support, this is the reason why we’re going full Cleric. Cure Wounds is obvious but we’re here for other spells:
- Use the Healing Word on downed allies to get them back into the fight.
- Pop an upcasted Aid regularly to keep your party healthy.
- Prayer of Healing is excellent out of combat.
- Revivify downed players to prevent Honour mode perma-death.
- Speaking of death, Death Ward is excellent before a fight.
- Mass Cure Wounds and Heal to keep your party full during and out of combat.
There’s no reason to indulge in melee combat, leave that to the Paladin and Fighter. Simply damaging enemies with Spirit Guardians and Shatter while occasionally healing your allies makes this a powerful BG3 Honour mode build.
A Note on Party Comp Synergies
Your Paladin and Fighter will output great damage on the frontline and keep enemies at bay with Sentinel-boosted opportunity attacks and lockdown maneuvers. The Sorcerer and Cleric can then support them with massive AoE damage, crowd control spells, and healing. If any of these are sticking out to you then I would highly recommend replacing one with our OP Gloom Stalker/Thief multiclass ranged damage build I mentioned in the intro.
Just make sure to buff up before fights with Aid, Death Ward, and Bless while resting often to replenish your resources. Lastly, don’t forget to buy plenty of Health Potions and instead of drinking them, group up your party in one space using turn-based mode and then throw the potion on all of them for an AOE heal. Don’t be afraid to also utilize respecs from Withers for just 100 gold to test out different combinations or alter builds to suit your preference.
And that’s my best Honour mode builds in Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m confident that these Honour mode builds will work well for you the same way they have for me. Now, get out there and win that golden D20. You can find more of our BG3 guides right here, like our best races and best classes in the game.
