#also you can roll to convince laezel to stay without going to the creche- but she remains loyal to vlakkith

[separatist-apologist]

i'm not really concentrating on romance with honor mode. i'm not sure who will have a side quest that's easy to complete with honor mode. i think gale's is probably the least insane, but if i skip lae'zel she leaves by act 2 which i don't want. who did you romance? did you complete each companion side quest? were there companions you didn't pick up? i was thinking i might leave halsin behind and keep the shadow curse intact to avoid the oliver stuff. i just don't want to put a ton of hours in to die to that demon child lol. and i think i will skip astarian's side quest since it's not necessary to keep him around. same with shadowheart. i might even keep lae'zel still in with vlaakith since it would be easier when it comes to the emperor.

I love talking about my absolute batshit insane honor mode run because I did literally everything I could to both level to 12 as quickly as possible while fighting as few battles as possible.

This got really long so it's all under the cut

Some things I did:

I did a chaotic DUrge run. I knew I needed to be the Slayer so Orin couldn't be, because she gets a turn per arm, and that fucking thing has four arms. In a normal game, if she rolls first and I forget to cast sanctuary, she depletes my health in one turn (Monk will be really good for this. Get your initiative up and make sure you have stunning strike and just take her out as quick as possible).

I did save Halsin because oak father preserve me, he's too fine to let die and also I love the tieflings and Rolans tower comes in clutch for the final fight. You can still get it if you hand over Aelin, but Aelin will also provide support and I wanted her.

I often left either Gale or Shadowheart in camp for difficult fights in act 1 while working on leveling up. You can easily get yourself to lvl 6 in Act 1 if you explore the whole map, and there are relatively few killer fights. Ethel is the worst, imo, and I waited until after I did the underdark to come back for her because that +1 boon is helpful

I skipped a BUNCH of stuff in the underdark, partly because I just don't like this map. I did do the Booal quest because now they'll come to help you in the final fight (meat shields) + the cleric of mystras tower because a- i love hearing gale tell me about his misadventures in blackstaff and 2- easy XP

RIP gnomes but I sided with Nere in the grymforge because I wasn't fighting that fight. It was a hard call because the gnomes are also very useful in the final fight, but if you (spoiler) kill the Gondians for Wulbrun, he'll ally with you and that was fine. So that was another horrible decision I made.

For Last Light- I let Marcus take Isobel. SORRY but I read that if you kill her during the Myrkul fight, that still counts for Scelaritas and it DOES. The downside is if you long rest anytime between freeing Aelin/killing Isobel, you have to successfully roll not to kill your lover. I did not think about this, long rested, and it was only through the grace of Ao I didn't slaughter Gale. However, you get the slayer power which is pretty nice imo, without making anyone mad because Aelin had no idea I was the one who sold out Isobel. Yay me!

I also cleared out the tower BEFORE the shadowfell. It's difficult for sure, but easier to kind of work through specific areas, go back to camp and rest, and then hit the rest

Kill Balthazar immediately- you should always do this honestly because the fight in the shadowfell is a LOT harder than fighting four ghouls, his flesh dude, and then himself (have astarion pickpocket him BEFORE the fight though so he can't cast haste. What i do is i go in and start the dialogue, switch to astartion, drink a potion of invisibility then sneak over and rob him stupid before I have laezel hit him with stunning strike).

I did complete halsin's quest and im not gonna lie, it was brutal. I didn't leave anyone in camp for this fight either- shadowheart with spirit guardians activated in one corner by the water where the shadows appear takes out the lower level ones easy, and does constant radiant damage to the higher HP. Have Gale cast wall of fire from the opposite side where all the cursed harpers/githyanki come through, and then Laezel can pick off the ones who make it through the flames one by one while my archer stood by the portal and took down anyone capable of long range attacks.

I did go to the creche (HELL). My suggestion is to ally with Vlakkith and agree to kill the DG, go and handle that (I stabbed him lmao), come back and fight the inquisitor. It's still a hard fight BUT then you can slip off to the side door to the blood of lathander (I didn't bother with the mace), long rest, and get the hell out of dodge.

Equip Gale with knock so you can skip the trials of Shar- you do have to do the library fight but if you give Laezel the long leap or whatever it's called BEFORE you go through the barrier, she can jump down the stairs and take out the portal on her first turn and then everyone can use magic again.

Make sure your charisma is high enough to convince Yurgir to kill himself and spare yourself the fight- you need his purple orb. Gale will say not to lick the carcass but you should do it anyway. What does he know???

Then run straight to the shadowfell- use Yurgirs orb to get to the door, Gale casts knock and boom you're in.

Convince Kethric he can be redeemed to skip straight to the Myrkul fight. You still have to get him to like, half health on the roof, but then when you get to the mindflayer hive, you can remind him he was about to stand down and he will. You have to find the note from Melodia for this- its in a locked chest in his bedroom.

I rescued Zevlor because the hellriders are easily the best allies in the brain fight imo.

I did practically nothing in Rivington- I don't care about the fireworks quest and I certainly wasn't risking my run on a bunch of orphans (no offense to orphans in real life of course)

I allied myself with Gortash all the way to the end- I usually do this because I hate that final fight in the Grand Dukes chambers. To skip it, you'll need to kill Orin first, then double back and tell him you have it, complete the rolls convincing him you should still ally together, and then he goes down to the brain to wait for you. You COULD save the gondians, then- he won't blow up the Iron Throne, one of his minions will instead, and your alliance is still in tact.

For companion quests- Gales is the easiest because you only have to talk to Mystra and make a choice around the crown. Breaking into SS is easy, and there's very little down there that will kill you. I had high dex, so I disabled all the traps. I did romance Gale this run- I always do- which was difficult because I knew I might choose to blow him up if I was losing my brain fight

I chose to keep Shadowheart and kill the Sharrans which is always a difficult fight. Gale needs several spells- counterspell, obviously, and sleet storm which causes spellcasters to have to roll to keep their concentration- it works like, 95% of the time so when they're casting darkness all over the place, Gale can counter it and you're not taking damage/losing distance/unable to get a hit in while they utterly obliterate you. I had Tav and Shadowheart talk to Viconia while I sent Gale and Laezel to more strategic spots for killing.

Astarions fight nearly ended me if I had to do it again, I genuinely wouldn't even pick him up from the beach. He's not essential to the story and after act 1 I don't think he's even particularly needed in any party unless you just really like playing a rogue, like his character, or are re/multiclassing him. Laezel opened every door I asked her to in act 3 with her sword, and Gale had knock which unlocks simple locks. I dont know that Honor Mode is the right place to be exploring though. I skipped a LOT of side quests- like the carnival (RIP dribbles), for example, and that stupid bard in his haunted house.

I think the most important thing for an honor run is your allies. I used them all as meat shields while running to the brain. I had a boatload of arrows of like, abberation slaying etc etc to take out the mind flayers as we ran (orpheus was our mind flayer). I'd spend the first part of the turn calling for allies as a distraction and then just booking it. Everyone was holding like, 50 potions of health and as many potions of speed as I could craft. Just be careful because after 3 turns, you lose one, but at lvl 12, with action surge, laezel can make 12 hits for one turn which is so helpful against the brain.

I think once I realized that this is not an "honorable" game, it was helpful.