Patch 5 for BG3 introduced a perma-death monster-empowering difficulty setting with Honour Mode. Beating it requires extracting the maximum value from the most optimal classes in terms of damage, defense, and support. Here are our best classes to survive Honour mode in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Which Classes Should You Pick to Survive Honour Mode in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Cleric
Clerics are arguably a must for your party in Honour mode due to their vast supportive abilities. You can instantly get an ally back into the fight from death using a saving throw with a healing word, heal out of combat with Prayer of Healing, boost party HP with Aid, and protect allies from death with Death Ward. Furthermore, if death does happen, Revivify is right there. And that’s not mentioning the massive heals in the late game from spells like Cure Mass Wounds and Heal.
But this is just the surface. With the right subclass choices, Clerics can further specialize into secondary damage dealers or tanks with the Tempest or War domains. Overall, they’re a highly flexible class that will keep your team alive, which is crucial when you consider the perma-death mechanic in Honour mode.
Paladin
Similar to Clerics, Paladins also bring their own repertoire of supportive abilities to the team. They have a large healing pool with Lay on Hands, cast Bless, and boost the party’s saving throws with Aura of Protection. That’s why it’s so important to have high Charisma; saving throws are crucial in Honour mode, especially with all the monster Legendary Actions going off every round.
That said, Paladins are also heavy hitters on a timer. Pick up Polearm Master, and you’re getting three attacks per round. You can boost all three with Divine Smites. That’s an incredibly powerful burst combo that you can do a couple of times per rest. That leads me to an important tip: rest as often as you can to reset resources as there’s no major consequence to spamming rests.
Sorcerer
Speaking of damage, Sorcerers are your best bet as they excel at AoE spells. The reason I listed them over Wizards is just the raw damage potential they’re able to put out faster than Wizards. Oftentimes, taking out key enemies in a fight is better than having more resources and flexibility as those enemies lose their turns. This swings the action economy in your favor.
Sorcerers are able to do this by applying Twin Spell to powerful spells like Chain Lightning and Disintegrate or simply Quickening Fireball and dropping a cantrip. I’ve blown past many of the mid-game encounters in Honour mode with Twinned Haste on my Paladin and Fighter.
Fighter
Whether it’s a frontliner with Great Weapon Master outputting massive damage, a shielded Protection-based Goading attack tank, or a Sharpshooter Archery build that snipes key foes, Fighters are always useful for any team composition. While not tanky like Barbarians, they can output the same amount of damage with the benefit of crowd-control abilities.
I’m talking, of course, about the Battle Master subclass, which should be your go-to. Here, you can pick up the ever-important Goading Attack to impose Disadvantage on all attacks against your allies. Furthermore, Tripping Attack locks down your foes, Menacing Attack applies a nice debuff, and Disarming Attack can save you in certain situations against weapon wielders.
Bard
Team utility is something Bards also do quite well. They get some of the valuable support spells — like Aid — from Clerics. However, where they excel is Bardic Inspiration. You can boost your allies in both offensive and defensive ways. I’ve found great success with the Lore Bard and debuffing enemies with Cutting Words. Furthermore, Lore Bards can take powerful spells from other classes at Level 6. Great examples include Revivify and Spirit Guardians.
Barbarian
Lastly, if you want a heavy hitter who’s almost impossible to kill, then Barbarians are the ol’ reliable due to the damage resistance from Rage. The Berserker is quite strong along with the Tiger option from Wild Heart if damage is your focus. Pick up the Bear for some incredible tanking potential. Druids can be incredibly hard to kill as well due to Wildshape, but Barbarians simply out-damage them. After all, taking out a key target in combat fast and removing their turns from the initiative is a better defensive option than simply surviving.
And that’s my breakdown of the best classes to use if you want to survive Honour mode in Baldur’s Gate 3. For more guides like best races or best builds for Honour mode, click the links or check out our utterly massive BG3 guides hub.
