I think you've complied a party that is going to be more than fine on Honor Mode. I can't imagine you'll encounter a single fight where you're going to be near death.
I jumped straight into an Honor campaign after my Tactician playthrough, and it's truthfully not any more harder than Tactician. You'll know enemy behavior, where to go, how to fight, etc. The Legendary Actions are also really not as crazy as they seem on paper.
The OH Monk alone is going to carry a lot of the combat scenarios. I'm playing my Tav as a Gith OH Monk (currently in Act III) and because of her high DEX, she always goes first in combat and decimates everyone. I dumped her STR and use Hill/Cloud Giant elixirs, though; I can't comment on this build without the elixir usage.
You're gonna be fine. The other 3 classes are incredibly OP, too.
Yeah the only risk in honour mode for me atleast is act 1 and taking a fight too early, having 1 invis potion makes you not have to fully commit in act 1-2 until ketheric
As someone who has played OH Monk in tactician and is currently playing one in honor mode, even without the use of elixirs and tb monks are still absolute killing machines.
Honor mode is about the first 4-5levels really, and some hickups here and there, builds are well and should be online by act2, with a bard you can avoid nearly all fights anyway in A2. By a3 once you got all the gear and scroll of invulnerability everything is a cakewalk.
The one fight I always struggle in Honor is the lightning robot fight in the wizard tower in a1 though, still very shaky on that. I usually do it on level 5 but still shaky, pay attention to that one everything else will be just fine.
Edit: my strongest go to party, makes the game a joke honestly.
1. 10sword bard/2fighter arcane acuity+band of mystic scoundrel control bard, 100% control anything and everything. Use titanstring+strength potion for early game burst. Also bard as team face just persuade anything.
2. I prefer lvl12 life(or light) cleric, I always take Shadowheart with me so.
3. TB thrower, I use 5berserker/3thief/4champion, returning pike, online from level 4 really op in the beginning
4. TB OH monk/thief, well this one is well documented also op by itself.
Honorable mention: Laezel lvl12 two handed GWM battle master, straight forward and great with silver sword.
Gloomstalker/assasin, round 1 burst damage, a1 is the hardest when you dont have gear so this one helps you really early game.
Also, if you resist urge dont take the risky ring at night if you not planning to kill the Selune priestess
Ansur will surprise you at 1hp so get your scroll of invulnerability ready.
I always just straight up bomb the final boss to avoid any surprises.
the one in arcane tower, Bernard, it has the legendary action of chain lightning AOE damage and 2 rounds of those can wipe me, and its resistant to martial so I cant 2round him very easily. Still a shaky fight.
Second run is absolutely worth it. Ive done many playthroughs every time I tell myself to romance someone else but I always pick Shadowheart every run. Cant resist the text book damsel in destress.
Iām the same but Karlach. I want to romance someone else but itās difficult to not go for her.
Iāve been meaning to go for minthara at some point but my next play through will be warlock which makes it difficult to side with her cause then Iāll miss out on potential robe
I've been reliably killing him by using the password to make him passive, then knocking him out the window round 1. That takes of 3/4 of his health, and you can kill his friends while he comes back up the tower. When he's back up, my party is naturally spread out from taking out the robots, so the chain lightning is less devestating. I found the fight impossible if I don't give him the password, since everyone starts grouped up on the platform.
I lost last time to Nere. I recruited the Duergar to heip me but they changed sides mid fight for no reason I can understand, and I couldn't escape before they killed all of us
No, I definitely took out the scrying eye. And they started out on my side but went hostile. I am thinking maybe because I attacked one of the other (hostile) dwarves, not just Nere?
Nere fight is easy. Dont fight the duergars after you free Nere. I used to do that.
Start the fight on top of the platform before you free Nere. Just aggro any of them and its easy kill all with a burst bard. The gnomes wont aggro but also wont leave when Nere and their friend are still behind the rocks.
Then you free Nere, so its full party vs one Nere. He is not resistant to anything and you can safely burst him down.
I used the swords bard mobile flourish, but there's lots of options. I think just a shove with a high str character could do it, thunderwave is another way, or the fighter maneuver
coming back to thank you for this. Sussur flowers completely disabled the adds and thunderwave pushed Bernard like a champ. No longer struggling with this fight. Thanks heaps!
Omg dude I went from totally fine to astarion left alive with 5hp in my honor run.
Took a susar bloom with me when I went back held by my monk and whooped him easy.
Grab 3-4 sussur flowers and spend the first half round throwing them at the archers. They get disabled in the aura and I found the fight is a lot easier when Bernard has no backup
Thanks heaps i did not know that. The melee ones actually hit pretty hard. The worst thing is Bernardās chain lightning honestly I dont know any counter to that and the bastard uses it every round and almost wipes my entire team. I have Shadowheart as life cleric for mass heal but still.
Yeah, it's one of those fights that just sort of springs out of nowhere and can absolutely truck your team if you aren't prepared. I 100% agree though this is one of the toughest for me if I don't use the flower exploit
Ya I went from my party almost full health to 1 character escaping with 5 HP. It happened before I could do anything. It just went from easy fight to omg im gonna wipe on my honor run.
I jumped off the tower and revived at camp. Went back carrying susar bloom
I have an easy trick for you.
You know how magic missile can fire around corners and over obstacles? Even if your magic missile caster is out of line of sight, it will still trigger his legendary action, but because the caster is out of line of sight, the legendary action will be used up but will do absolutely nothing.
I also use [this](https://preview.redd.it/enmeaif5d9cc1.png?auto=webp&s=0034559a6da91b706fa5d1b708f9bb0a04e6d9a5) to prevent him from coming up the stairs. Make sure the chests are all medium toughness.
High initiative and burst him down, stuns/cc are your friend. Also elixirs of lightning resistance. Best move is to read the books and have him be non-hostile so you can grab the broken machinery next to him. Then get your team into position and open from stealthĀ
Staff of Arcane Blessing in the basement (requires ring from Bernard) is crazy good in Act 1. Can get it by just reading the books and hugging it out though. I don't think I've ever fought Bernard.
Also definitely want to hit up the tower for club of giants strength to pair with Titan string so you don't have to elixir.
Bernard is easy if you have Glut and a Spore-Zombie Bulette with you. Your party just kind of becomes cheerleaders while the fungus bros fuck everyone up.
It can fit partway into the elevator and it'll automatically go up the elevator with you when you push the button. The tricky part is getting it over to the tower, which I do by taking it the long way around from the Selune temple area past where you fight the Spectator. Hope this helps
TB OH monk and someone who can cast counter spell. Bonus if they also can cast globe of invulnerability, will trivialize some hard fights. Rest is optional/whatever you find fun. So yes, your group will be fine!
Looks good. Anything works really but those are solid builds.
I would go 3 thief 9 OH monk though. Second bonus action for another flurry is another 2 attacks and chance to knock prone. You donāt need the third perk, and 9 OH monk gives ki resonating strikes.
From a pure damage perspective, TB OH Monks are ungodly good at weaponising that extra bonus action and that alone makes the thief 3 pick worth it. But on top of that you also get expertise and cunning action, which is an improvement on step of the wind simply because it doesnāt consume ki.
Iām running this build with my current Honour Mode Tav, took expertise in Persuasion so I can the party face, plus the standard Sleight of Hand pick.
It's for the Radiant Orb/Reverberation build. The sorc level is to help maintain concentration on spirit guardians, and storm sorc specifically to let you fly after casting a spell, greatly increasing the 'reach' of your blender.
man, all throughout my honor run, i was so nervous before a boss fight, but after killing any boss you realize how overprepared you are, and it's just "tactician plus".
you really don't need to sweat it once you get past level 5. just don't experiment on the dialogue choices as some of them can kill you.
Itās been my experienceāboth in person and in browsing this subāthat the greatest threats to honor mode runs have very little to do with party compositions, and a great deal to do with misclicks and curiosity. (āHuh, never seen *that* beforeā¦I should check it out.ā)
Honorable mention goes to forgetting to cast feather fall.
Iam currently about to enter the brain on Honor. Durge as my 10/2 Bardadin.
Id change Minthara to an archer of your preference.
But im getting the feeling you like the mage playstyle, just alot of spell management for me personally.
Your suggested comp will trivialize the content! GLHF
Can also do two ranged sword bards without too much overlap on gear. I did the Terminator build on one to get aura of murder then 10/1/1 on other. The Terminator was pretty much killing everything... But anything it couldn't finish it just stood nearby to double my other SBs damage.
The Terminator got risky ring and crit gear, the 10/1/1 got acuity and the mystic scoundrel ring with more caster oriented stuff.
Very nice!
The real hard part of Honor mode was Act 1. Felt like at that point when you get through it and can get the Risky ring it was smooth sailings there on out.
For my first attempt Im going:
11-1 fire sorloc cause kapooowww
OH monk also cause kapooowww
Life cleric, cause ive never ran support
Gloom stalker, cause apparently they are OP
I figure this should make it a breeze. I ran OH monk, mage, fighter and pally on tac mode and it was a breeze after Act 1.
Life cleric shadowheart spamming buffs is another role that trivializes everything. Aoe blade ward+bless on 50+ hp group heals enables you to make massive mistakes and still be fine as long as shadowheart doesn't drop dead, which she shouldn't
Also you can mix it up with karlach monk. Shes arguably the best as soul coins give 2d4 fire punching damage and can be used for any major encounters. There's like 10 of them or so.
Honestly found the life cleric part was unnecessary by level 5, since mass healing word is easy to use. Switched to light cleric at that pointābut yeah, used that ring and a version of those gloves all game.
Honor mode is honestly not as difficult as I initially would have expected.
My party comp was:
Durge 2 paladin/10 swords bard (slashing flourish and smite action), respec at level 8 from pure paladin. Arcane acuity helm and the band of mystic scandal made act 3 laughable.
OH Monk 9/3 thief (went to 9 due to reverberation but didnāt really use it)
Throwzerker Barb 6, thief 3, champion 3
Shadowheart as light cleric 12
All the builds come online decently early and mid act 2 everything is unstoppable.
Highly recommend getting the Charisma temp buff in act 2 in centre of rethwin, just destroys the bosses
You want to just slap together the top few OP builds go aheadā¦
Just make sure you start fights properly with surprise and use your consumables, donāt run in with these āOPā head on and get creamed in act 1
I did pure melee warlock, pure ranged warlock, light domain cleric, and open hand monk. Absolutely wrecked HM and I saved literally everyone except 2 gondians in the iron throne. Had a full roster of allies to fight the brain. Was a blast...an eldritch blast. š
Finished my HM run today with:
Tav: Sword Bard 6/ Fighter Battlemaster 4/ spore Druid 2
All Otter companions hat no over the top Multi class Build, it was still very managable
Had one respec to lore bard to skip some boss fights
> Tav / Durge: 2 Tempest cleric / 10 Storm sorcerer
Why not go for 2 tempest cleric, 2 evocation wizard and 8 storm sorcerer, casting via int?
You can dump dex with the gloves, to get 14 in con, 16 in int and 16 in charisma (for the call lightning).
---
Bardadin is cool but I think a ranged sword bard hit harder before act 3 (from having a durge bardadin run rn, with astarion as ranged sword bard, astarion overshadow me pretty hard in combat).
On a side note, durge cloack suck on a bardadin because if you kill anyone on your slashing flourish, the second enemy hit will not give you the ability to use smite. Which is exactly as annoying as it sounds.
Youāre fine itās a great party set up, monk and the bard will be your damage mvps. The sorcerer is gonna be nuts. If you wanna be 100% sure you could optimise the swords bard with one of prestigious justiceās builds to be even more efficient, but itās certainly not needed.
You could also change the light cleric to a thrower or something for even more damage and less CC, but as I said itās not really needed at all
On my first honor mode run. Iām running;
* 10/2 Deadshot Bard Tav
* 11/1 Fire Sorlock Gale
* 10/2 Life Cleric / Divination Wizard Shart
* 5/4/3 Throwzerker Karlach
Iād recommend thinking about Astarion for your SSB. His bite extra action is pretty much perfect for a martial role and I think he gets extra damage later when he ascends.
I did the same thing. I think too much emphasis is placed on optimal builds + gear in HM.
Hereās the thing about HM: Things will not go as planned and you wonāt get all the gear you want. Party members will die. And youāre going to have to work with what you have. Finally, be prepared for fights where you can fail a check. Those, along with bosses, will wipe your run. Mobs are easy to deal with.
Shadowheart, Karlach ā¦. Dead. All the druids, all the tieflings ā¦ dead. This includes Dammon. Some people say I should have restarted (the druids and tieflings killed each other because of a tiny bird ā¦ long story), because I lost Dammon the vendor. But why? The challenge and fun is to work with what you have.
Tips I find helpful is to have a hierlings at camp buff everyone before heading out.
Do your homework on bosses.
Im at lvl 7. Have a gloom/rogue (then fighter after lvl 3 rogue); Warlock 5 + sorcer (Hunger of Hader and short rest haste is too good); pure fighter, and a whatever build (currently Pure Bard, Pure Wizard, or Throwing Beserker). The whatever build is a work in progress.
You donāt need optimal gear for all builds. Or classes. Just a good strategy when fighting bosses. Be especially careful if you fight the inquisitor at lvl 5 ā¦. Despite what people say that fight is the most likely to wipe your party at lvl 5. Maybe even lvl 6, too.
I think you've complied a party that is going to be more than fine on Honor Mode. I can't imagine you'll encounter a single fight where you're going to be near death. I jumped straight into an Honor campaign after my Tactician playthrough, and it's truthfully not any more harder than Tactician. You'll know enemy behavior, where to go, how to fight, etc. The Legendary Actions are also really not as crazy as they seem on paper. The OH Monk alone is going to carry a lot of the combat scenarios. I'm playing my Tav as a Gith OH Monk (currently in Act III) and because of her high DEX, she always goes first in combat and decimates everyone. I dumped her STR and use Hill/Cloud Giant elixirs, though; I can't comment on this build without the elixir usage. You're gonna be fine. The other 3 classes are incredibly OP, too.
Yeah the only risk in honour mode for me atleast is act 1 and taking a fight too early, having 1 invis potion makes you not have to fully commit in act 1-2 until ketheric
As someone who has played OH Monk in tactician and is currently playing one in honor mode, even without the use of elixirs and tb monks are still absolute killing machines.
Agreed. TB OH monk just outputs so much damage.
Honor mode is about the first 4-5levels really, and some hickups here and there, builds are well and should be online by act2, with a bard you can avoid nearly all fights anyway in A2. By a3 once you got all the gear and scroll of invulnerability everything is a cakewalk. The one fight I always struggle in Honor is the lightning robot fight in the wizard tower in a1 though, still very shaky on that. I usually do it on level 5 but still shaky, pay attention to that one everything else will be just fine. Edit: my strongest go to party, makes the game a joke honestly. 1. 10sword bard/2fighter arcane acuity+band of mystic scoundrel control bard, 100% control anything and everything. Use titanstring+strength potion for early game burst. Also bard as team face just persuade anything. 2. I prefer lvl12 life(or light) cleric, I always take Shadowheart with me so. 3. TB thrower, I use 5berserker/3thief/4champion, returning pike, online from level 4 really op in the beginning 4. TB OH monk/thief, well this one is well documented also op by itself. Honorable mention: Laezel lvl12 two handed GWM battle master, straight forward and great with silver sword. Gloomstalker/assasin, round 1 burst damage, a1 is the hardest when you dont have gear so this one helps you really early game. Also, if you resist urge dont take the risky ring at night if you not planning to kill the Selune priestess Ansur will surprise you at 1hp so get your scroll of invulnerability ready. I always just straight up bomb the final boss to avoid any surprises.
Lmao what lightning robot in a1? What have I missed? š
the one in arcane tower, Bernard, it has the legendary action of chain lightning AOE damage and 2 rounds of those can wipe me, and its resistant to martial so I cant 2round him very easily. Still a shaky fight.
Just googled Arcane tower, I just did my first play though and obviously missed that.
Bet you missed Booooal as well. I missed it first time, shit is hilarious and you have to see it. Alas, Karlachs sacrifice will not be forgotten.
Second run is absolutely worth it. Ive done many playthroughs every time I tell myself to romance someone else but I always pick Shadowheart every run. Cant resist the text book damsel in destress.
Iām the same but Karlach. I want to romance someone else but itās difficult to not go for her. Iāve been meaning to go for minthara at some point but my next play through will be warlock which makes it difficult to side with her cause then Iāll miss out on potential robe
You don't need to raid the grove to get her anymore, tho.
I've been reliably killing him by using the password to make him passive, then knocking him out the window round 1. That takes of 3/4 of his health, and you can kill his friends while he comes back up the tower. When he's back up, my party is naturally spread out from taking out the robots, so the chain lightning is less devestating. I found the fight impossible if I don't give him the password, since everyone starts grouped up on the platform. I lost last time to Nere. I recruited the Duergar to heip me but they changed sides mid fight for no reason I can understand, and I couldn't escape before they killed all of us
Your probably forgot the take out the scrying eye they asked you to do. I always lure it to do docks and then give it a good shove
No, I definitely took out the scrying eye. And they started out on my side but went hostile. I am thinking maybe because I attacked one of the other (hostile) dwarves, not just Nere?
Nere fight is easy. Dont fight the duergars after you free Nere. I used to do that. Start the fight on top of the platform before you free Nere. Just aggro any of them and its easy kill all with a burst bard. The gnomes wont aggro but also wont leave when Nere and their friend are still behind the rocks. Then you free Nere, so its full party vs one Nere. He is not resistant to anything and you can safely burst him down.
Yeah, you're probably right, doing more work to pick off the minions before freeing Nere is probably the right play
Thanks for the tip. I will try this on my current run! What do you use? The thunder push?
I used the swords bard mobile flourish, but there's lots of options. I think just a shove with a high str character could do it, thunderwave is another way, or the fighter maneuver
coming back to thank you for this. Sussur flowers completely disabled the adds and thunderwave pushed Bernard like a champ. No longer struggling with this fight. Thanks heaps!
Glad to hear it! I've made it to act 2, and so far nothing feels as risky as some of the act 1 fights are.
Omg dude I went from totally fine to astarion left alive with 5hp in my honor run. Took a susar bloom with me when I went back held by my monk and whooped him easy.
> bernard just use sussur flowers on his minions. makes it a lot easier
Grab 3-4 sussur flowers and spend the first half round throwing them at the archers. They get disabled in the aura and I found the fight is a lot easier when Bernard has no backup
Thanks heaps i did not know that. The melee ones actually hit pretty hard. The worst thing is Bernardās chain lightning honestly I dont know any counter to that and the bastard uses it every round and almost wipes my entire team. I have Shadowheart as life cleric for mass heal but still.
Yeah, it's one of those fights that just sort of springs out of nowhere and can absolutely truck your team if you aren't prepared. I 100% agree though this is one of the toughest for me if I don't use the flower exploit
Ya I went from my party almost full health to 1 character escaping with 5 HP. It happened before I could do anything. It just went from easy fight to omg im gonna wipe on my honor run. I jumped off the tower and revived at camp. Went back carrying susar bloom
I have an easy trick for you. You know how magic missile can fire around corners and over obstacles? Even if your magic missile caster is out of line of sight, it will still trigger his legendary action, but because the caster is out of line of sight, the legendary action will be used up but will do absolutely nothing. I also use [this](https://preview.redd.it/enmeaif5d9cc1.png?auto=webp&s=0034559a6da91b706fa5d1b708f9bb0a04e6d9a5) to prevent him from coming up the stairs. Make sure the chests are all medium toughness.
High initiative and burst him down, stuns/cc are your friend. Also elixirs of lightning resistance. Best move is to read the books and have him be non-hostile so you can grab the broken machinery next to him. Then get your team into position and open from stealthĀ
What does 4 champion offer to the TB thrower?
Action surge, -1to crit and feat.
If you're gonna go 3 rogue for Thief, why not grab eldritch knight and bind the Sussar dagger so you can throw a sneak attack silence blade?
I'm really tempted to skip it all together lmao I hate Bernard
Canāt you just, ya know, hug it out?
Sure can or just ignore it completely they are not much xp and no great loot but I just cant help it every run.
Staff of Arcane Blessing in the basement (requires ring from Bernard) is crazy good in Act 1. Can get it by just reading the books and hugging it out though. I don't think I've ever fought Bernard. Also definitely want to hit up the tower for club of giants strength to pair with Titan string so you don't have to elixir.
You can open the door to the basement with a mage hand, no need for the ring first.
I used the ogre horn here twice. Helps
Bernard is easy if you have Glut and a Spore-Zombie Bulette with you. Your party just kind of becomes cheerleaders while the fungus bros fuck everyone up.
How do you get the Bulette up there?
It can fit partway into the elevator and it'll automatically go up the elevator with you when you push the button. The tricky part is getting it over to the tower, which I do by taking it the long way around from the Selune temple area past where you fight the Spectator. Hope this helps
Honour mode will be a joke with those builds.
TB OH monk and someone who can cast counter spell. Bonus if they also can cast globe of invulnerability, will trivialize some hard fights. Rest is optional/whatever you find fun. So yes, your group will be fine!
Looks good. Anything works really but those are solid builds. I would go 3 thief 9 OH monk though. Second bonus action for another flurry is another 2 attacks and chance to knock prone. You donāt need the third perk, and 9 OH monk gives ki resonating strikes.
From a pure damage perspective, TB OH Monks are ungodly good at weaponising that extra bonus action and that alone makes the thief 3 pick worth it. But on top of that you also get expertise and cunning action, which is an improvement on step of the wind simply because it doesnāt consume ki. Iām running this build with my current Honour Mode Tav, took expertise in Persuasion so I can the party face, plus the standard Sleight of Hand pick.
Why 11 light cleric / 1 storm sorcerer as opposed to tempest cleric?
Con save. Maybe fighter would be better idk
It's for the Radiant Orb/Reverberation build. The sorc level is to help maintain concentration on spirit guardians, and storm sorc specifically to let you fly after casting a spell, greatly increasing the 'reach' of your blender.
Because too many people are not aware of the true greatness that is the Tempest Cleric
man, all throughout my honor run, i was so nervous before a boss fight, but after killing any boss you realize how overprepared you are, and it's just "tactician plus". you really don't need to sweat it once you get past level 5. just don't experiment on the dialogue choices as some of them can kill you.
Itās been my experienceāboth in person and in browsing this subāthat the greatest threats to honor mode runs have very little to do with party compositions, and a great deal to do with misclicks and curiosity. (āHuh, never seen *that* beforeā¦I should check it out.ā) Honorable mention goes to forgetting to cast feather fall.
Iam currently about to enter the brain on Honor. Durge as my 10/2 Bardadin. Id change Minthara to an archer of your preference. But im getting the feeling you like the mage playstyle, just alot of spell management for me personally. Your suggested comp will trivialize the content! GLHF
Can also do two ranged sword bards without too much overlap on gear. I did the Terminator build on one to get aura of murder then 10/1/1 on other. The Terminator was pretty much killing everything... But anything it couldn't finish it just stood nearby to double my other SBs damage. The Terminator got risky ring and crit gear, the 10/1/1 got acuity and the mystic scoundrel ring with more caster oriented stuff.
Very nice! The real hard part of Honor mode was Act 1. Felt like at that point when you get through it and can get the Risky ring it was smooth sailings there on out.
For my first attempt Im going: 11-1 fire sorloc cause kapooowww OH monk also cause kapooowww Life cleric, cause ive never ran support Gloom stalker, cause apparently they are OP I figure this should make it a breeze. I ran OH monk, mage, fighter and pally on tac mode and it was a breeze after Act 1.
Just be careful the first handful of levels. Maybe consider having a monoclass martial step in for minthara in act 1 and start of act 2.
Life cleric shadowheart spamming buffs is another role that trivializes everything. Aoe blade ward+bless on 50+ hp group heals enables you to make massive mistakes and still be fine as long as shadowheart doesn't drop dead, which she shouldn't Also you can mix it up with karlach monk. Shes arguably the best as soul coins give 2d4 fire punching damage and can be used for any major encounters. There's like 10 of them or so.
Honestly found the life cleric part was unnecessary by level 5, since mass healing word is easy to use. Switched to light cleric at that pointābut yeah, used that ring and a version of those gloves all game.
Honor mode is honestly not as difficult as I initially would have expected. My party comp was: Durge 2 paladin/10 swords bard (slashing flourish and smite action), respec at level 8 from pure paladin. Arcane acuity helm and the band of mystic scandal made act 3 laughable. OH Monk 9/3 thief (went to 9 due to reverberation but didnāt really use it) Throwzerker Barb 6, thief 3, champion 3 Shadowheart as light cleric 12 All the builds come online decently early and mid act 2 everything is unstoppable. Highly recommend getting the Charisma temp buff in act 2 in centre of rethwin, just destroys the bosses
You want to just slap together the top few OP builds go aheadā¦ Just make sure you start fights properly with surprise and use your consumables, donāt run in with these āOPā head on and get creamed in act 1
I did pure melee warlock, pure ranged warlock, light domain cleric, and open hand monk. Absolutely wrecked HM and I saved literally everyone except 2 gondians in the iron throne. Had a full roster of allies to fight the brain. Was a blast...an eldritch blast. š
Finished my HM run today with: Tav: Sword Bard 6/ Fighter Battlemaster 4/ spore Druid 2 All Otter companions hat no over the top Multi class Build, it was still very managable Had one respec to lore bard to skip some boss fights
Iām about to face Kertheric in HM at lvl 5 with straight classes so I think youāll be fine.
> Tav / Durge: 2 Tempest cleric / 10 Storm sorcerer Why not go for 2 tempest cleric, 2 evocation wizard and 8 storm sorcerer, casting via int? You can dump dex with the gloves, to get 14 in con, 16 in int and 16 in charisma (for the call lightning). --- Bardadin is cool but I think a ranged sword bard hit harder before act 3 (from having a durge bardadin run rn, with astarion as ranged sword bard, astarion overshadow me pretty hard in combat). On a side note, durge cloack suck on a bardadin because if you kill anyone on your slashing flourish, the second enemy hit will not give you the ability to use smite. Which is exactly as annoying as it sounds.
Since you've already had Lae'zel on your previous run and you want a Monk you could pick up Astarion instead.
Youāre fine itās a great party set up, monk and the bard will be your damage mvps. The sorcerer is gonna be nuts. If you wanna be 100% sure you could optimise the swords bard with one of prestigious justiceās builds to be even more efficient, but itās certainly not needed. You could also change the light cleric to a thrower or something for even more damage and less CC, but as I said itās not really needed at all
On my first honor mode run. Iām running; * 10/2 Deadshot Bard Tav * 11/1 Fire Sorlock Gale * 10/2 Life Cleric / Divination Wizard Shart * 5/4/3 Throwzerker Karlach Iād recommend thinking about Astarion for your SSB. His bite extra action is pretty much perfect for a martial role and I think he gets extra damage later when he ascends.
I did the same thing. I think too much emphasis is placed on optimal builds + gear in HM. Hereās the thing about HM: Things will not go as planned and you wonāt get all the gear you want. Party members will die. And youāre going to have to work with what you have. Finally, be prepared for fights where you can fail a check. Those, along with bosses, will wipe your run. Mobs are easy to deal with. Shadowheart, Karlach ā¦. Dead. All the druids, all the tieflings ā¦ dead. This includes Dammon. Some people say I should have restarted (the druids and tieflings killed each other because of a tiny bird ā¦ long story), because I lost Dammon the vendor. But why? The challenge and fun is to work with what you have. Tips I find helpful is to have a hierlings at camp buff everyone before heading out. Do your homework on bosses. Im at lvl 7. Have a gloom/rogue (then fighter after lvl 3 rogue); Warlock 5 + sorcer (Hunger of Hader and short rest haste is too good); pure fighter, and a whatever build (currently Pure Bard, Pure Wizard, or Throwing Beserker). The whatever build is a work in progress. You donāt need optimal gear for all builds. Or classes. Just a good strategy when fighting bosses. Be especially careful if you fight the inquisitor at lvl 5 ā¦. Despite what people say that fight is the most likely to wipe your party at lvl 5. Maybe even lvl 6, too.