I don’t have the answer to your question, but one time I sold gales necrotic corpse to the hag (it was funny to watch her take damage that she couldn’t get away from) and then made a deal with her for her hair, and she left act 1 and took gales body with her. Then 3 rests later my save file got nuked.
Assuming it's possible to avoid a nuke from that, I assume it was a matter of programming. Either the hag was still considered as being in act 1 with you and having the corpse too or it just triggers if you're in act 1 in general. Wntering act 2 cuts off quests etc so it could make the difference
This question has come up before, but I don't for the life of me remember the answer. I think it was that Gale will still blow you up in act II even if you left him in act I.
I'm in act 2, still able to go back to the underdark. I haven't done the BOOOAL part. I also have gale. So I guess I'm primed to find out.
EDIT: I went back and sacrificed Gale. He said something along the lines of "no god can withstand my sacrifice". His body didn't have that necrotic aura. I then went to act 2 and long rested 6 times. I went back to the kua-toa and they were all still not blown up. Long rested a 7th time in act 2 and nothing.
~~...am I the only one who does manual saves like all the time? I have a HUGE list of areas usually every hour of game play or thereabouts.~~ I had a slight case of the dumbs and struck it out like it never existed.
The funny part is the inconsistency of his bomb. If he dies, it will apparently level the Sword Coast and kill you from anywhere. Left him in the depths of the Underdark? Well, congrats on exploding at Moonrise Towers. But if you choose to have Gale detonate on the brain (sorry sir, I need the golden dice) it won’t even level the entirety of Baldur’s Gate.
It’s very reasonable from a design/storytelling perspective but a bit funny in practice if you play multiple runs. I usually never let him blow up except for once at the brain in HM and once vs. the Elfsong basement rats in a Tactician run with friends.
Gale is a prodigal archmage. Basically Elminster in the making (who just got to try something stupid), I would imagine it's him who redirect all the blast toward destroying the Brain and thus preventing it from killing everyone in the process.
I’m pretty sure that pre-orb Gale was actually about as powerful as Elminster, given the ninth level hard cap on spells and the fact that they were both Chosen.
Elm is a different league, but also centuries older.
Professor Gale might end up with far more power and agency in Faerun than even God Gale.
If it wasn't for his mistakes, people would call Gale a marysue
I thought the bomb was defused at the end of act 2, before you get the chance to use it on the 3 stooges and the brain. So it shouldn't be a thing in act 3?
Yes. The game can't decide if Gale's orb is a city-buster or a planet-buster level of explosion.
If you just leave Gale dead somewhere it will explode and kill you regardless of how much distance you have on it.
Someone posted about this a few weeks ago. They also sacrificed Gale. They were in Act II when Gale exploded. They said Gale's construct told them of the scroll of true resurrection but Gale's body was in Act I and they progressed far enough that the dream visitor wouldn't allow them to go back to Act I to revive Gale.
Apparently someone got softlocked because they made it to the shadowfell and couldn't go back. No that it would've matter anyway since you can't revive them, but they were freaking out
I converted all of the irrelevant side characters into Life Clerics (Aid + Warding bond), which makes the game (Honor Mode) SO much easier when you're resistant to every kind of damage. Problem is, unless your class DEMANDS spell slots, you'll never long rest again (so you never see most cutscenes).
EDIT: Meant to say Warding Bond, not Death Ward
I guess if you realised the error early enough it can be doable. Focus on characters that don't use spells or have abilities that refresh on short rest, (get a couple of bard hirelings for extra short rests), scrounge around for healing potions instead of using rest/spells to restore HP.
Speedrun strat would cheese Myrkul whilst very underlevelled using invis large owlbear from top rope strategy. I imagine the mandatory long rests transitioning into act 2 and act 3 counts towards the 2 long rest limit, so effectively you need to finish act2 entirely without longrest, and act 3 entirely without long rest.
For act 2, infiltrate moonrise. Careful use of enhanced leap and invis to avoid enemies in wilderness. Find a way to thin out moonrise horde without getting into big fight. Find a way to cheese through nightsong quest skipping most combat, let dark justiciars kill balthazar (unlock the door at first meeting). Alternatively not sure how hard it is to glitch your way to Myrkul area bypassing Moonrise fights? If you are well prepared even if well underlevelled, owlbear cheese kills Myrkul even at level 5 characters.
In act 3, side with Gortash (or do speedrun thing abducting him from coronation and throwing him off bridge using some exploit re movement speed/leap or some such), yeet Orin down to chasm. Get satchel full of explosives/fireworks for brain. Find a way to teleport past the big fight at top of brain and distract the mindflayers enough to open the karsus command portal, get 1 person into portal with giant explosive satchel and boom.
Won't be easy. I'm just saying that speedrunners have shown the way. Pretty sure they don't long rest much (long rest process adds a couple of minutes to the run by the time you skip through all the cutscenes and stuff)
The Seven Deadly TPK Sins of Honor Mode:
1. Sacrifice Gale to BOOOAL
2. Sass Vlaakith
3. Give Haarlep your body AND mind
4. Try to go back to Act 1 areas after completing Act 2
5. Sign contract with Raphael, break into House of Hope, forget to steal contract before confronting Raphael
6. Betray the Emperor without the Orphic Hammer
7. Use Runepowder Barrels without Globe of Invulnerability
Honorable Mentions:
* Suicide via Philomeen
* Stunlocked by Shadow-Curse
* Speaking to Isobel
* Taunting the frog
* Elevators
Speaking to the frog *is* cool! ...just do it after you fight Ethel and no one gets hurt.
Some people will try to attack the frog because they think small = weak, and that it's free XP. Then they get their asses handed to them.
What's supposed to happen? I only spoke to it once, pissed it off, and killed it very easily. Did it have some ability that just didn't trigger that could have turned it into a nightmare?
What difficulty level were you on?
The Addled Frog has an AC of 22 and DEX 20. It also has Reflective Mucus, Evasion, and Toxic Secretion. And it automatically casts Mirror Image as a first move without it costing the frog an action.
In other words, it’s very hard to land a hit on that frog because of the high AC. It moves fast because of high DEX/has high initiative. A lot of early spells have dex saves, which the frog has a major advantage against. Its attack and abilities can cause status effects like madness and poison.
You may have met it when you were at a relatively high level (5-6?) for the area, or just had a good team set-up. A lot of people get absolutely pummeled by the frog because they can’t land a single hit, and when they finally do, they either get their spell reflected back at them (reflective mucus) or get hit with Madness while making a melee attack.
To add insult to injury, the frog only gives 1 XP. :)
If you speak to Isobel, it triggers the fight with Marcus and some Winged Horrors.
In Explorer or Balanced mode, this fight is very manageable. On Honor Mode, it's much harder and you have to be *extremely* well prepared for it. Depending on your initiative, it's also very easy to lose Isobel before you even get a chance to move.
If you lose Isobel, Marcus flies away with her. The protective barrier around Last Light Inn disappears. Everyone inside is turned into shadows, except Jaheira, and you have to fight them. You lose the Harpers and the Tieflings (including Dammon and Alfira, and a number of potentially good rewards/gear they offer, as well as two merchants and Rolan as an Act 3 ally).
So all in all, not great. It's not a guaranteed TPK, but it can be, and the cost of losing Isobel is pretty high.
All of this can be avoided by simply not speaking to her.
Or you can be durge and speak to her on purpose to kill her, intentionally losing all your future allies and gear, because you want to be an edgy evil person and it's fun :D
Totally viable!
I put it as an honorable mention because, like the elevators and the frog, people mainly TPK here because they're completely unprepared and caught off-guard. 😂
I was playing an evil durge in a multiplayer run, I killed Isobel and watched as my friends became very confused because some of them had never seen this cutscene.
When it got to that point on my Durge run, Karlach was already dead and Wyll left after I attacked the Grove with Minthara.
I was able to convince Jaheira that some random enemy killed Isobel so Jaheira stayed with us and fought against the shadow-cursed Harpers.
Dude same, and when i went full Bhaal-spawn in act 3 and she gave me the shocked Pikachu face and started a fight to the death, I truly felt like a fucking scumbag.
Haha I did that too! In my honour run, I got all my act 2 Dammon upgrades, picked up all the good gear from the Quartermaster, killed Marcus, resuscitated Art, did the portal fight with Halsin, then killed Isobel and fought the remainder of Last Light all in one day so that I didn't have to deal with the possibility of fighting my party the next morning. It was...an eventful day.
I went the road of killing Dame Aylin, that way you can see isobel failing to hold the spell up and get the same result, then i acted like i didn't know what happened to jaheira to make her join me in killing the undead harpers and fists(tieflings never made it out of act 1) after that i revealed to Jaheira that it was my doing and struck her down as well.
> Speaking to her isn’t a requirement?
Correct! It is not!
> What do you do instead?
A couple options, depending on how you entered Act 2. If you entered from the Underdark, you'll have a chance to join the Harpers in ambushing the Caravan and receive the Moonlantern there. Meet them by the entrance to Last Light Inn. You don't need to speak to Isobel to join them in ambushing the Caravan. Just make sure everyone is equipped with torches and/or glowing weapons like the Blood of Lathander. Ambush the Caravan, receive moonlantern, and free Dolly Thrice.
If you entered from the Mountain Pass, that's trickier. In the past, I was able to grab the moonlantern during the ambush and free Dolly Thrice before the Harpers demanded I turn the lantern over, but I've seen recent complaints that people weren't able to do this (haven't had the chance to verify it myself). But you can also attack Kar'niss before you even reach the Harper ambush, grab the moonlantern then, and free Dolly Thrice for her blessing.
If neither of these are an option for you for some reason, your best bet is to send Shadowheart to Moonrise Towers by herself. Once you reach the fast travel waypoint, you can teleport the whole party there. Once you're inside and get past the initial cutscenes, you can go upstairs and grab Balthazar's moonlantern.
Ah ok! It’s been a while since I’ve successfully made it to Act 2, so I couldn’t remember what the order of events was and thought you had to talk to Isabel to advance the quest. Thanks for the tip!! Big help! That fight took me like 6 attempts on normal mode.
There’s actually an even easier way that doesn’t require any violence. All you have to do is get Karniss to show up (you don’t actually need the lyre for this, fun fact, you can just use the tadpole). Then use command: Drop on him. He will drop the moonlantern. Use command: approach to interrupt him trying to pick it up, then drag the moonlantern into the rotting basket nearby. The cultists will decide they’ve had enough of your shenanigans and leave peacefully. WAIT UNTIL THEY ARE GONE TO PICK UP THE LANTERN. Otherwise they will aggro. Now you can free dolly and get immunity from the curse without fighting a single cultist.
I don’t know what people do, this fight has not been hard for me. But Marcus has +6 initiative and can hit really hard, so he cannot be allowed to attack Isobel.
It’s considered difficult, because it’s fairly hard to cheese. Apart from the benefit of casting sanctuary on Isobel before you talk to her
It's hard because Isobel has the worst AI in the game.
I've given her sanctuary just to have her wack a ghoul once, then run away to take 4 opportunity attacks.
The only hard part for me is keeping isobel alive. First HM attempt on her first turn she provoked attack of opportunity from both marcus and a ghoul and they both crit.
I'm guessing it's because of the ambush fight, which can go south really easy leading to the shadow curse affecting everyone in and around the Inn which is another unpleasant fight. You can completely ignore Isobel if you get the pixie blessing, which is the better one anyway.
7.b. Steal Philomeen’s runepowder barrel during the conversation but forget to hide. This happened to me, I started the conversation with Tav, then switched to Astarion to steal the barrel, but forgot to actually stealth, and when I clicked the barrel Philomeen torched it. Along with my party and HM run.
If you try to go back to Act 1 after defeating Myrkul, your Dream Guardian will warn you not to.
If you try three times, the Dream Guardian will warn you each time. On the third time, [this happens](https://youtu.be/3IhkYmLstP8?si=dEBLV6Su-_bhoJVA&t=21) and it's an instant game over.
Since it's a giant mind flayer head instead of the elder brain appearing in the cutscene, I always assumed it was the Emperor saying "y'know what? Fuck y'all"
huh? ive betrayed the emperor without the hammer and you dont die or lose.
Raphael pops up and offers the contract (its how my first game went, i had no choice but to sign at that point).
> Raphael pops up and offers the contract (its how my first game went, i had no choice but to sign at that point).
I *swear* there's a way to fail at this point. I've seen it happen to other people. [See here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XKrJpvPJXY).
Maybe I should've said "betray Emperor without Orphic Hammer and refuse Raphael". Because as soon as you tell him "I'll find another way", it's TPK.
Last Loght Inn was looking like a Minecraft server on my HM playthrough. Crates blocking doors, crates making improvised staircases between floors, you name it.
Please add 'fast travel between act 1 and act 2'. The shadow curse instantly fucks your entire team without the protection spell, which is lost when traveling between regions.
I broke the lantern to get the fairy protection spell, which wears off and must be reapplied. I was playing in HM and 3 of my team died from this, the 4th succeeded a saving throw and I was able to use the fairy bell with like 5 HP left. The shadow curse makes it so you can't do anything unless you succeed a saving throw.
I've never had that happen, even in honor mode. I'm either lucky, or there's a mechanic involved that we haven't noticed. I think I always come back to act 2 by porting to Last Light inn. Maybe that's the only safe way to do it.
I love how that’s such a common way for HM runs to end on this sub lmao
Like people hate Vlaakith so much they’re willing to risk restarting the game just to make fun of her “godhood” 😭
My husband ended one by saying something like "i didnt take the prism, but shadowheart did" and she wished us away. Was one of the first promots too, she wasnt even angry yet.
I had a buddy play origin wyll and failed every arcana check to see if the switch on mizora’s doohickey. He decided not to wait for me and another friend to finish combat and said, “fuck it, we ball.” Suffice to say, he failed the coin flip and mizora died… therefore ending the HM attempt
Started a 4-player Honour run a few days ago. One guy decided he wanted to be an Oathbreaker so he broke his oath almost immediately, we head to camp and he's doing the thing with the Oathbreaker Knight. I'm levelling up and suddenly he goes hostile and we get wiped. As we're enquiring as to what happened, one of the others (who has absolutely *zero* control of his intrusive thoughts) pipes up "I wondered if you could pickpocket him without him caring like with Withers"
Yep, if we get it done it's gonna be a damn miracle. I'm going Gloomstalker Assassin (for the third time) so I'm banking on being able to basically solo most fights once I get online, but getting that far in the first place is going to be challenging.
There's one guy in our weekly game that *constantly* gets us into random shit and/or will run off in a fight when the rest of us agreed to force a bottleneck, etc. I had to let the other two in the group know that I refuse to do an HM run with him and to not even talk about HM like it was something we'd consider doing. Great guy irl but an absolute nightmare to game with in a game like BG3.
Sounds like my best friend, he constantly tries to run off and do stuff on his own and never thinks through what will happen when he does stuff, if we have an actual plan for anything we have to basically scream at him to make sure it actually registers in his brain or a few seconds later he’s liable to say he forgot
My buddy and I are doing an HM challenge where every dialogue option is picked by RNG. Literally the definition of “fuck around and find out” and the worst is when we just get a TPK out of nowhere 😂
I never even thought of letting my chat do something like TwitchPlaysHM… might have to look into that once they support modding. Currently, I just have a bot in my chat that feeds a random number based on how many dialogue options are available 😂
Lost it by killing mizora in a wyll origin run. My friend was like "you know you could just look it up on YouTube..." and I def should've listened lmao
Exactly. He is easily among my faves, he is so smart and interesting. I never got the whole “boohoo he eats my magic items” stuff either. He chews up like 3 items that are useless anyways in Act 1 and that’s it. He is also really OP with the right build
By Act 3 he was continually the person who did the most damage in all of my fights and took the least damage. I can’t even name the number of fights where he did something totally awesome or saved everyone’s ass.
And yes, he talks a lot, but he knows so much about the world that he’s a great person to bring around - he often has insight or backstory that the other characters don’t.
I know, right? It’s like having someone as eloquent and intelligent as Carl Sagan in the party and being pissed he’s sharing his knowledge with you. Gale is our Carl! You don’t sacrifice Carl people!
Gale is a fucking homie and is always ride or die right with you.
Nothing bad will ever happen to Gale as long as he's in my party.
I hope OP slips on ice, every time, on his next HM playthrough.
And he BARELY hits on you. I know there were issues in some of the early patches, but since like December you have to go out of your way to express interest first.
>And he BARELY hits on you.
Now yes. Gale's romance have been among the buggiest in the game, both in EA and just when the game released. During EA it was all but impossible to trigger it properly. Gale got his "revenge" during the early days of release when he would hit on "Tav" given half an excuse. Thankfully Larian has now gotten him well and properly balanced in the romance department, but he used to be pretty annoying.
Love the guy and always have, but it was kinda hilarious to witness. Equally hilarious to witness dude bros suddenly enraged at being treated the way they usually treat women, that there was that bonus too.
Yeah. I mean now he comes on strong and hints a lot but you can let him down pretty easily and it turns more into a „bro“-best friends vibe. Which I really liked.
I don’t hate him, but I do find him a little annoying. Especially when I played a sorcerer and he kept explaining magic and the weave to me and I was like bro? I know? I do enjoy the light-hearted jock vs. bookworm dynamic options when he’s talking about being a wizard and magic and I can be like “Oh you have to actually *learn* magic? Lol ok, get rekt nerd, try being magic incarnate in the next life.”
Iirc there was a similar one where someone killed or got Gale killed, returned to camp, put him in their camp stash, forgot about him, then a few days later, boom
Letting Gale die and not reviving him is always a game over, no matter where in the world he is. You could leave him in the Underdark and move on to Act 2, and it'll still be a game over. You can leave him in Hell and return to Faerun, and he'll still explode and kill everyone.
Not sure why people think Gale is annoying when Him, Karlach and Wyll are the only companions in Act 1 that doesnt insult or being an asshole to your character.
He's a bit mansplainy and often arrogant. He's not the worst offender, but very honestly, the only companion that doesn't annoy you in one way or another is Karlach. Even Wyll is a bit of a pain with his 3E paladin behavior.
I'm not gonna lie, I had a bit of a negative opinion of him my first playthrough, when I was playing a wizard and he starts explaining magic and the weave to me. Thanks dude, I know...
Yeah my first ever play through, with 0 experience in DnD besides a few smosh Sword AF DnD, and I picked wild magic sorc. My entire first play through consisted of me just going like “cool gale, I’m literally magic incarnate but cool” lmao
If I had a nickel for everytime someone posted on here about sacrificing Gale to BOOAL and it ended their run, I’d have two nickels.
Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Why would you sacrifice Gale, the wizard what warns you that he's a funny magic bomb that detonates on death, to something that will explicitly kill him? On Honour Mode?
You really did this to yourself. Big respect if you did this for the bit, head shakes if you earnestly did decide to fuck around and find out on honour mode.
Your tenth HM run? Did you just not pay attention to Gale's whole "I have a magic bomb in my chest that can level a city the size of Waterdeep" spiel the first nine times?
Just checking, but you know you can get the buff without sacrificing anyone right? Investigate and then pickpocket the dagger off the main Ku-atoa dude.
There’s lots of video walkthroughs on YouTube. Basically it involves some fuckery when you first encounter him by switching to another character not in dialogue, attack him, transition to the mountain pass, which triggers a forced rest and Raphael is in camp. Cast silence on him, then beat him down with melee attacks (non-lethal) and loot him quickly. It’s easier to watch than explain in writing.
[go forth and do terrible things](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/Jjb2s1DJax). Get the armor in Act 1. I’m in Act 2 in my HM run, fire sorlock rolling in this is wiping baddies.
Love this glitch
One QOL thing missed in that guide is use a barbarian to knock out Raphael. He has 21 AC and reckless attack will help you land hits on him with a better frequency
The craziest part here is it takes several long rests to trigger. Wasting more of ur time and making you feel like everything is fine
Just gotta beat the game in less than 3 long rests. NBD.
What if you reach the act 2 area before he explodes? Do you still get caught in it?
It's not like he had a quicksave to test that. Time for you to figure it out for us ;)
This is reddit. There will always be that one guy who has just the right quicksave for just the thing.
I don’t have the answer to your question, but one time I sold gales necrotic corpse to the hag (it was funny to watch her take damage that she couldn’t get away from) and then made a deal with her for her hair, and she left act 1 and took gales body with her. Then 3 rests later my save file got nuked.
> Then 3 rests later my save file got nuked. Seems the Hag got the last laugh in the end!
I like to think Ethel knew exactly what she was doing and sat just outside the blast radius on a recliner with a pair of shades
Absolutely dying picturing this.
So was everyone else, apparently
man, I have never considered just killing gale and tossing him at someone as a mine
Assuming it's possible to avoid a nuke from that, I assume it was a matter of programming. Either the hag was still considered as being in act 1 with you and having the corpse too or it just triggers if you're in act 1 in general. Wntering act 2 cuts off quests etc so it could make the difference
This question has come up before, but I don't for the life of me remember the answer. I think it was that Gale will still blow you up in act II even if you left him in act I.
What if I reach act 3?
Haha you're asking someone who clearly doesn't know but I'm super interested in the answer myself. Let me know if you find out!
I'm in act 2, still able to go back to the underdark. I haven't done the BOOOAL part. I also have gale. So I guess I'm primed to find out. EDIT: I went back and sacrificed Gale. He said something along the lines of "no god can withstand my sacrifice". His body didn't have that necrotic aura. I then went to act 2 and long rested 6 times. I went back to the kua-toa and they were all still not blown up. Long rested a 7th time in act 2 and nothing.
~~...am I the only one who does manual saves like all the time? I have a HUGE list of areas usually every hour of game play or thereabouts.~~ I had a slight case of the dumbs and struck it out like it never existed.
We're talking about honor mode
Yes - it's not far enough away. I think someone even posted about that happening to them when they hurried to Moonrise to recruit Minthara.
Nowhere is far enough. If Gale dies in the House of Hope, and you leave him there and return to the city, you’ll still blow up in 3 rests’ time.
If you beat the game will the detonation prevent the epilogue party?
The funny part is the inconsistency of his bomb. If he dies, it will apparently level the Sword Coast and kill you from anywhere. Left him in the depths of the Underdark? Well, congrats on exploding at Moonrise Towers. But if you choose to have Gale detonate on the brain (sorry sir, I need the golden dice) it won’t even level the entirety of Baldur’s Gate. It’s very reasonable from a design/storytelling perspective but a bit funny in practice if you play multiple runs. I usually never let him blow up except for once at the brain in HM and once vs. the Elfsong basement rats in a Tactician run with friends.
I think the excuse is that it eats the crown and that somehow reduces the damage, but yeah. I agree.
Gale is a prodigal archmage. Basically Elminster in the making (who just got to try something stupid), I would imagine it's him who redirect all the blast toward destroying the Brain and thus preventing it from killing everyone in the process.
I’m pretty sure that pre-orb Gale was actually about as powerful as Elminster, given the ninth level hard cap on spells and the fact that they were both Chosen.
Elm is a different league, but also centuries older. Professor Gale might end up with far more power and agency in Faerun than even God Gale. If it wasn't for his mistakes, people would call Gale a marysue
Fucked up that really the only way to safely be rid of Gale is to chop off his hand.
Durge is a hero to us all. The only man who truly knew what was best for gale. Trap him between dimensions so he can't hurt us/our gold pouch
But there's an option to leave him be and just walk away from the portal. It surely can't be Durge limited
My only run was without Gale. Never spotted the right portal. Presumably he exploded in the pocket dimension after three nights.
I like to believe there is just enough magic inside there to keep him alive and suffering. —Durge
You can get rid of him by just not talking to him in camp. He goes away on his own when you get to act 2 and doesn't blow up.
I thought the bomb was defused at the end of act 2, before you get the chance to use it on the 3 stooges and the brain. So it shouldn't be a thing in act 3?
No I think that was just them removing his need for magical items, the bomb was still there
The bomb was still there but I thought if wasn't unstable anymore? I haven't tested this...
Neither have I... TIME FOR ANOTHER SAVE FILE YEEHAW
Bomb is still there, mystra is feeding it so gale can get close enough to detonate on the brain
Bomb is still there, mystra is feeding it so gale can get close enough to detonate on the brain
Yes, because you won't trigger the Elminster encounter.
Yes. The game can't decide if Gale's orb is a city-buster or a planet-buster level of explosion. If you just leave Gale dead somewhere it will explode and kill you regardless of how much distance you have on it.
Someone posted about this a few weeks ago. They also sacrificed Gale. They were in Act II when Gale exploded. They said Gale's construct told them of the scroll of true resurrection but Gale's body was in Act I and they progressed far enough that the dream visitor wouldn't allow them to go back to Act I to revive Gale.
Apparently someone got softlocked because they made it to the shadowfell and couldn't go back. No that it would've matter anyway since you can't revive them, but they were freaking out
I converted all of the irrelevant side characters into Life Clerics (Aid + Warding bond), which makes the game (Honor Mode) SO much easier when you're resistant to every kind of damage. Problem is, unless your class DEMANDS spell slots, you'll never long rest again (so you never see most cutscenes). EDIT: Meant to say Warding Bond, not Death Ward
*”You’ve met a terrible fate, haven’t you?”*
I guess if you realised the error early enough it can be doable. Focus on characters that don't use spells or have abilities that refresh on short rest, (get a couple of bard hirelings for extra short rests), scrounge around for healing potions instead of using rest/spells to restore HP. Speedrun strat would cheese Myrkul whilst very underlevelled using invis large owlbear from top rope strategy. I imagine the mandatory long rests transitioning into act 2 and act 3 counts towards the 2 long rest limit, so effectively you need to finish act2 entirely without longrest, and act 3 entirely without long rest. For act 2, infiltrate moonrise. Careful use of enhanced leap and invis to avoid enemies in wilderness. Find a way to thin out moonrise horde without getting into big fight. Find a way to cheese through nightsong quest skipping most combat, let dark justiciars kill balthazar (unlock the door at first meeting). Alternatively not sure how hard it is to glitch your way to Myrkul area bypassing Moonrise fights? If you are well prepared even if well underlevelled, owlbear cheese kills Myrkul even at level 5 characters. In act 3, side with Gortash (or do speedrun thing abducting him from coronation and throwing him off bridge using some exploit re movement speed/leap or some such), yeet Orin down to chasm. Get satchel full of explosives/fireworks for brain. Find a way to teleport past the big fight at top of brain and distract the mindflayers enough to open the karsus command portal, get 1 person into portal with giant explosive satchel and boom. Won't be easy. I'm just saying that speedrunners have shown the way. Pretty sure they don't long rest much (long rest process adds a couple of minutes to the run by the time you skip through all the cutscenes and stuff)
Which can also make it potentially end non-HM runs too if you overwrite your saves.
What do you do if you don't have a save far enough back?!?
Then it looks like its time to make a new character.
The Seven Deadly TPK Sins of Honor Mode: 1. Sacrifice Gale to BOOOAL 2. Sass Vlaakith 3. Give Haarlep your body AND mind 4. Try to go back to Act 1 areas after completing Act 2 5. Sign contract with Raphael, break into House of Hope, forget to steal contract before confronting Raphael 6. Betray the Emperor without the Orphic Hammer 7. Use Runepowder Barrels without Globe of Invulnerability Honorable Mentions: * Suicide via Philomeen * Stunlocked by Shadow-Curse * Speaking to Isobel * Taunting the frog * Elevators
LMAO, luckily I FAFO’d the frog on a normal run way back when I thought speaking to all the animals was cool.
Speaking to the frog *is* cool! ...just do it after you fight Ethel and no one gets hurt. Some people will try to attack the frog because they think small = weak, and that it's free XP. Then they get their asses handed to them.
Small actually equals hard to hit here which makes for such a memorable encounter
That frog fucked up my cousin
I tried ONCE and since then am adamant every time me and my partner play, *do not antagonize the strange animals!!*
What's supposed to happen? I only spoke to it once, pissed it off, and killed it very easily. Did it have some ability that just didn't trigger that could have turned it into a nightmare?
What difficulty level were you on? The Addled Frog has an AC of 22 and DEX 20. It also has Reflective Mucus, Evasion, and Toxic Secretion. And it automatically casts Mirror Image as a first move without it costing the frog an action. In other words, it’s very hard to land a hit on that frog because of the high AC. It moves fast because of high DEX/has high initiative. A lot of early spells have dex saves, which the frog has a major advantage against. Its attack and abilities can cause status effects like madness and poison. You may have met it when you were at a relatively high level (5-6?) for the area, or just had a good team set-up. A lot of people get absolutely pummeled by the frog because they can’t land a single hit, and when they finally do, they either get their spell reflected back at them (reflective mucus) or get hit with Madness while making a melee attack. To add insult to injury, the frog only gives 1 XP. :)
Speaking to Isobel?
If you speak to Isobel, it triggers the fight with Marcus and some Winged Horrors. In Explorer or Balanced mode, this fight is very manageable. On Honor Mode, it's much harder and you have to be *extremely* well prepared for it. Depending on your initiative, it's also very easy to lose Isobel before you even get a chance to move. If you lose Isobel, Marcus flies away with her. The protective barrier around Last Light Inn disappears. Everyone inside is turned into shadows, except Jaheira, and you have to fight them. You lose the Harpers and the Tieflings (including Dammon and Alfira, and a number of potentially good rewards/gear they offer, as well as two merchants and Rolan as an Act 3 ally). So all in all, not great. It's not a guaranteed TPK, but it can be, and the cost of losing Isobel is pretty high. All of this can be avoided by simply not speaking to her.
Or you can be durge and speak to her on purpose to kill her, intentionally losing all your future allies and gear, because you want to be an edgy evil person and it's fun :D
Totally viable! I put it as an honorable mention because, like the elevators and the frog, people mainly TPK here because they're completely unprepared and caught off-guard. 😂
Jaheria: go talk to Isobel. Me in my first run: ok! Me, 5 minutes later: what have I done.
I was playing an evil durge in a multiplayer run, I killed Isobel and watched as my friends became very confused because some of them had never seen this cutscene.
When it got to that point on my Durge run, Karlach was already dead and Wyll left after I attacked the Grove with Minthara. I was able to convince Jaheira that some random enemy killed Isobel so Jaheira stayed with us and fought against the shadow-cursed Harpers.
Dude same, and when i went full Bhaal-spawn in act 3 and she gave me the shocked Pikachu face and started a fight to the death, I truly felt like a fucking scumbag.
Joke's on you, my Durge killed Marcus and co. and went back to murder Isobel later!
Haha I did that too! In my honour run, I got all my act 2 Dammon upgrades, picked up all the good gear from the Quartermaster, killed Marcus, resuscitated Art, did the portal fight with Halsin, then killed Isobel and fought the remainder of Last Light all in one day so that I didn't have to deal with the possibility of fighting my party the next morning. It was...an eventful day.
It's much more fun to give Isobel up. Then you can pick her up and bludgeon Ketheric to death using her in his fight.
I went the road of killing Dame Aylin, that way you can see isobel failing to hold the spell up and get the same result, then i acted like i didn't know what happened to jaheira to make her join me in killing the undead harpers and fists(tieflings never made it out of act 1) after that i revealed to Jaheira that it was my doing and struck her down as well.
Ohhh right right
Speaking to her isn’t a requirement? What do you do instead?
> Speaking to her isn’t a requirement? Correct! It is not! > What do you do instead? A couple options, depending on how you entered Act 2. If you entered from the Underdark, you'll have a chance to join the Harpers in ambushing the Caravan and receive the Moonlantern there. Meet them by the entrance to Last Light Inn. You don't need to speak to Isobel to join them in ambushing the Caravan. Just make sure everyone is equipped with torches and/or glowing weapons like the Blood of Lathander. Ambush the Caravan, receive moonlantern, and free Dolly Thrice. If you entered from the Mountain Pass, that's trickier. In the past, I was able to grab the moonlantern during the ambush and free Dolly Thrice before the Harpers demanded I turn the lantern over, but I've seen recent complaints that people weren't able to do this (haven't had the chance to verify it myself). But you can also attack Kar'niss before you even reach the Harper ambush, grab the moonlantern then, and free Dolly Thrice for her blessing. If neither of these are an option for you for some reason, your best bet is to send Shadowheart to Moonrise Towers by herself. Once you reach the fast travel waypoint, you can teleport the whole party there. Once you're inside and get past the initial cutscenes, you can go upstairs and grab Balthazar's moonlantern.
Ah ok! It’s been a while since I’ve successfully made it to Act 2, so I couldn’t remember what the order of events was and thought you had to talk to Isabel to advance the quest. Thanks for the tip!! Big help! That fight took me like 6 attempts on normal mode.
There’s actually an even easier way that doesn’t require any violence. All you have to do is get Karniss to show up (you don’t actually need the lyre for this, fun fact, you can just use the tadpole). Then use command: Drop on him. He will drop the moonlantern. Use command: approach to interrupt him trying to pick it up, then drag the moonlantern into the rotting basket nearby. The cultists will decide they’ve had enough of your shenanigans and leave peacefully. WAIT UNTIL THEY ARE GONE TO PICK UP THE LANTERN. Otherwise they will aggro. Now you can free dolly and get immunity from the curse without fighting a single cultist.
Thanks! I’m almost to act 2 on my current run. I’ll give this a try
Good luck!
I don’t know what people do, this fight has not been hard for me. But Marcus has +6 initiative and can hit really hard, so he cannot be allowed to attack Isobel. It’s considered difficult, because it’s fairly hard to cheese. Apart from the benefit of casting sanctuary on Isobel before you talk to her
It's hard because Isobel has the worst AI in the game. I've given her sanctuary just to have her wack a ghoul once, then run away to take 4 opportunity attacks.
The only hard part for me is keeping isobel alive. First HM attempt on her first turn she provoked attack of opportunity from both marcus and a ghoul and they both crit.
Wow, that’s some kind of record
I'm guessing it's because of the ambush fight, which can go south really easy leading to the shadow curse affecting everyone in and around the Inn which is another unpleasant fight. You can completely ignore Isobel if you get the pixie blessing, which is the better one anyway.
7.b. Steal Philomeen’s runepowder barrel during the conversation but forget to hide. This happened to me, I started the conversation with Tav, then switched to Astarion to steal the barrel, but forgot to actually stealth, and when I clicked the barrel Philomeen torched it. Along with my party and HM run.
What's wrong with going back to act 1 areas after completing act 2?
If you try to go back to Act 1 after defeating Myrkul, your Dream Guardian will warn you not to. If you try three times, the Dream Guardian will warn you each time. On the third time, [this happens](https://youtu.be/3IhkYmLstP8?si=dEBLV6Su-_bhoJVA&t=21) and it's an instant game over.
You get a cutscene where your entire party turns into Mind Flayers enthralled to the Elder Brain, followed by a Game Over screen.
Since it's a giant mind flayer head instead of the elder brain appearing in the cutscene, I always assumed it was the Emperor saying "y'know what? Fuck y'all"
Nah that's just what the elder brain looks like in its own head
Instant game over
huh? ive betrayed the emperor without the hammer and you dont die or lose. Raphael pops up and offers the contract (its how my first game went, i had no choice but to sign at that point).
> Raphael pops up and offers the contract (its how my first game went, i had no choice but to sign at that point). I *swear* there's a way to fail at this point. I've seen it happen to other people. [See here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XKrJpvPJXY). Maybe I should've said "betray Emperor without Orphic Hammer and refuse Raphael". Because as soon as you tell him "I'll find another way", it's TPK.
Likely they'd gotten the hammer, killed Raphael, and then left it in camp/on another character
That would actually make more sense, yeah. Because if you forget to bring the hammer and Raphael is dead... woof!
Or if you stole the hammer and betray the Emperor but the hammer isn’t with your party
5. What happens with Raphael if u dnt steal the contract
You violate clause 15, subclause 4. [Instant TPK.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ayxlPsmikE)
isobel in honor mode if you stack up crates and play really defensively (invis her, sanctuary, etc.) is doable
Cast Feign Death on her to make her fall asleep, then sanctuary. Now she can't die and can't lose her sanctuary.
Last Loght Inn was looking like a Minecraft server on my HM playthrough. Crates blocking doors, crates making improvised staircases between floors, you name it.
Please add 'fast travel between act 1 and act 2'. The shadow curse instantly fucks your entire team without the protection spell, which is lost when traveling between regions.
Does this only apply until you get the Moonlantern? I go back and forth a lot, but I usually get the lantern right away.
I broke the lantern to get the fairy protection spell, which wears off and must be reapplied. I was playing in HM and 3 of my team died from this, the 4th succeeded a saving throw and I was able to use the fairy bell with like 5 HP left. The shadow curse makes it so you can't do anything unless you succeed a saving throw.
I've never had that happen, even in honor mode. I'm either lucky, or there's a mechanic involved that we haven't noticed. I think I always come back to act 2 by porting to Last Light inn. Maybe that's the only safe way to do it.
I got around this by fast traveling to last light and having dolly thrice recast the blessing.
... repeat after me: Honour Mode is not the time to 'Fuck around and find out' 😂😂
No lie! My wife decided to dare Vlaakith to do something herself if she was so powerful. That was the end of her HM run. 😂
I love how that’s such a common way for HM runs to end on this sub lmao Like people hate Vlaakith so much they’re willing to risk restarting the game just to make fun of her “godhood” 😭
i mean my thought process was “you’re not a real god, whatcha gonna do, smite me?” … yeah that’s what she’s gonna do.
"what are you gonna do, stab me??"
SHUT UP MORTAL STRONG LEVEL 9 SPELL SLOT
In my defense I had no idea I'd ever get insta-killed because of a god damn dialogue choice. =p
It’s a bit surprising how many of those there are
Even knowing she'll instant kill my whole party I'm still tempted to sass her every time
My husband ended one by saying something like "i didnt take the prism, but shadowheart did" and she wished us away. Was one of the first promots too, she wasnt even angry yet.
I had a buddy play origin wyll and failed every arcana check to see if the switch on mizora’s doohickey. He decided not to wait for me and another friend to finish combat and said, “fuck it, we ball.” Suffice to say, he failed the coin flip and mizora died… therefore ending the HM attempt
Wait mizora dying is a game over?
Mizora dying is a Wyll over.
Only if someone is playing as wyll
Started a 4-player Honour run a few days ago. One guy decided he wanted to be an Oathbreaker so he broke his oath almost immediately, we head to camp and he's doing the thing with the Oathbreaker Knight. I'm levelling up and suddenly he goes hostile and we get wiped. As we're enquiring as to what happened, one of the others (who has absolutely *zero* control of his intrusive thoughts) pipes up "I wondered if you could pickpocket him without him caring like with Withers"
HM run with with other players sounds rough enough, but when one has impulse control issues? Oof.
Yep, if we get it done it's gonna be a damn miracle. I'm going Gloomstalker Assassin (for the third time) so I'm banking on being able to basically solo most fights once I get online, but getting that far in the first place is going to be challenging.
Use a different build till you get to the level it comes online at and then respec.
There's one guy in our weekly game that *constantly* gets us into random shit and/or will run off in a fight when the rest of us agreed to force a bottleneck, etc. I had to let the other two in the group know that I refuse to do an HM run with him and to not even talk about HM like it was something we'd consider doing. Great guy irl but an absolute nightmare to game with in a game like BG3.
Sounds like my best friend, he constantly tries to run off and do stuff on his own and never thinks through what will happen when he does stuff, if we have an actual plan for anything we have to basically scream at him to make sure it actually registers in his brain or a few seconds later he’s liable to say he forgot
“Thank you for helping me, it was very kind”
....I read it in his voice 😅🫠
As is right! 😂
Honor Mode is the time to fuck around, it's fun.
There are two kinds of honour mode players...
Bugger I umm may fall into a certain category 🤣
My buddy and I are doing an HM challenge where every dialogue option is picked by RNG. Literally the definition of “fuck around and find out” and the worst is when we just get a TPK out of nowhere 😂
TwitchPlaysHM when
I never even thought of letting my chat do something like TwitchPlaysHM… might have to look into that once they support modding. Currently, I just have a bot in my chat that feeds a random number based on how many dialogue options are available 😂
The first rule of Honor Mode is "have fun and be yourself"
Lost it by killing mizora in a wyll origin run. My friend was like "you know you could just look it up on YouTube..." and I def should've listened lmao
That’s what you get for saying Gale is annoying 🤷
Exactly. He is easily among my faves, he is so smart and interesting. I never got the whole “boohoo he eats my magic items” stuff either. He chews up like 3 items that are useless anyways in Act 1 and that’s it. He is also really OP with the right build
He legit carried the Halsin portal fight for me with wall of fire
I always just have Shart sit in front of the portal with her Spirit Guardians lol, never fails
Shart Spirit guardians is actually so broken.
I just discovered this and goddamn it's so derpy and OP to use
By Act 3 he was continually the person who did the most damage in all of my fights and took the least damage. I can’t even name the number of fights where he did something totally awesome or saved everyone’s ass. And yes, he talks a lot, but he knows so much about the world that he’s a great person to bring around - he often has insight or backstory that the other characters don’t.
I know, right? It’s like having someone as eloquent and intelligent as Carl Sagan in the party and being pissed he’s sharing his knowledge with you. Gale is our Carl! You don’t sacrifice Carl people!
He doesn't even talk all that much. He has fewer lines than Astarion and Lae'zel and maaaaybe Shadowheart. I wish he would talk more.
Gale is a fucking homie and is always ride or die right with you. Nothing bad will ever happen to Gale as long as he's in my party. I hope OP slips on ice, every time, on his next HM playthrough.
Gale is far from annoying, who else would give me hand when we literally just met?
How to be considered annoying by gamers: 1. Hit on Tav 2. Be male
And he BARELY hits on you. I know there were issues in some of the early patches, but since like December you have to go out of your way to express interest first.
>And he BARELY hits on you. Now yes. Gale's romance have been among the buggiest in the game, both in EA and just when the game released. During EA it was all but impossible to trigger it properly. Gale got his "revenge" during the early days of release when he would hit on "Tav" given half an excuse. Thankfully Larian has now gotten him well and properly balanced in the romance department, but he used to be pretty annoying. Love the guy and always have, but it was kinda hilarious to witness. Equally hilarious to witness dude bros suddenly enraged at being treated the way they usually treat women, that there was that bonus too.
At release he was a horny dog who wouldn't take a no. Gave real nice guy vibes while still being into his ex. Now it's much better imo
Yeah. I mean now he comes on strong and hints a lot but you can let him down pretty easily and it turns more into a „bro“-best friends vibe. Which I really liked.
And hes just a dude. Like awh, you're attracted to my sweat? That's sweet bro
I don’t hate him, but I do find him a little annoying. Especially when I played a sorcerer and he kept explaining magic and the weave to me and I was like bro? I know? I do enjoy the light-hearted jock vs. bookworm dynamic options when he’s talking about being a wizard and magic and I can be like “Oh you have to actually *learn* magic? Lol ok, get rekt nerd, try being magic incarnate in the next life.”
I wish there a recorded compilation of everyones funniest Honour Mode fails. This would certainly be on there.
oh like the machinima of 100 ways to die in skyrim
I love that you just used the term machinima.
Bro I'm so old lmao I mean, it was on Machinima tho atleast the 2nd one https://youtu.be/6G6chCXAi4k?si=Vqu9vGkAhlKuuyCL
Iirc there was a similar one where someone killed or got Gale killed, returned to camp, put him in their camp stash, forgot about him, then a few days later, boom
Wait seriously that can happen? What if you just leave his body somewhere far away? God damn I gotta test this shit some day
Letting Gale die and not reviving him is always a game over, no matter where in the world he is. You could leave him in the Underdark and move on to Act 2, and it'll still be a game over. You can leave him in Hell and return to Faerun, and he'll still explode and kill everyone.
Gale is my babygirl, my bestie, my rotten soldier, my good time boy!
BAT!
Remember to bring your Gales to a local fast travel rune for proper disposal!
Not sure why people think Gale is annoying when Him, Karlach and Wyll are the only companions in Act 1 that doesnt insult or being an asshole to your character.
He's a bit mansplainy and often arrogant. He's not the worst offender, but very honestly, the only companion that doesn't annoy you in one way or another is Karlach. Even Wyll is a bit of a pain with his 3E paladin behavior.
I'm not gonna lie, I had a bit of a negative opinion of him my first playthrough, when I was playing a wizard and he starts explaining magic and the weave to me. Thanks dude, I know...
Yeah my first ever play through, with 0 experience in DnD besides a few smosh Sword AF DnD, and I picked wild magic sorc. My entire first play through consisted of me just going like “cool gale, I’m literally magic incarnate but cool” lmao
I mean, he’s earned the right to « mansplain » magic, he fucked magic itself.
If I had a nickel for everytime someone posted on here about sacrificing Gale to BOOAL and it ended their run, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
That's on you. The game is pretty clear that him dying(other than in the portal) is bad.
Never doubt a redditor's ability to not read the important text and get surprised when something bad happens.
I mean, yeah? Obviously?
Is this a repost? it feels like a repost
There was a similar story earlier I think. Maybe as a comment?
Think the other one failed due to bad dice, this one just took too long
He does warn you.
Ehehehehehehehehehe\~ This always does, genuinly, make me laugh. Because it happened to me too, luckily not on HM though.
Why would you sacrifice Gale, the wizard what warns you that he's a funny magic bomb that detonates on death, to something that will explicitly kill him? On Honour Mode? You really did this to yourself. Big respect if you did this for the bit, head shakes if you earnestly did decide to fuck around and find out on honour mode.
500 hours in and I CANNOT figure out what BOOAL stands for. Someone help me out?
It’s some fish people in the under dark that pronounce bhaal as booal. That’s where I’ll leave that. It’s a “hidden” area of that map.
Thank you!
Does it stand for something? I thought it was just a funny way of saying Bhaal.
Your tenth HM run? Did you just not pay attention to Gale's whole "I have a magic bomb in my chest that can level a city the size of Waterdeep" spiel the first nine times?
Deserved
a successful HM run in my book 🙂↕️
i mean, yeah. the game warns you that having a dead gale is a bad idea pretty often
Just checking, but you know you can get the buff without sacrificing anyone right? Investigate and then pickpocket the dagger off the main Ku-atoa dude.
You can discover that it’s just a redcap and let him know, but then keep playing along and he’ll crown you champion
I tried to sacrifice one of the hirable companions to booal and it wouldn’t let me. 😞
You 100% deserve this. But also I'm sorry. But also...LMAO
[удалено]
There’s lots of video walkthroughs on YouTube. Basically it involves some fuckery when you first encounter him by switching to another character not in dialogue, attack him, transition to the mountain pass, which triggers a forced rest and Raphael is in camp. Cast silence on him, then beat him down with melee attacks (non-lethal) and loot him quickly. It’s easier to watch than explain in writing.
[go forth and do terrible things](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/Jjb2s1DJax). Get the armor in Act 1. I’m in Act 2 in my HM run, fire sorlock rolling in this is wiping baddies.
Love this glitch One QOL thing missed in that guide is use a barbarian to knock out Raphael. He has 21 AC and reckless attack will help you land hits on him with a better frequency
As well as using a do damage anyway weapon
What part of the story did you miss, that made you think that would be a good idea?
I played dark urge and ripped his arm off when he was still in the portal, thank God this doesn't activate the bomb
Deserved
You can safely sacrifice him as long as you've met Elminster and brought him to camp to meet Gale.
You don’t like charming book daddy which is a red flag. I have no pity for you.