{"id":17380,"date":"2026-03-04T19:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/?p=17380"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:02:19","slug":"what-i-learnt-by-failing-at-baldurs-gate-3s-honour-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/what-i-learnt-by-failing-at-baldurs-gate-3s-honour-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learnt by Failing at Baldur\u2019s Gate 3\u2019s Honour Mode"},"content":{"rendered":"

When my friend asked me if I wanted to try Baldur\u2019s Gate 3\u2019s (Larian Studios, 2023) Honour Mode with them, I immediately said no. I didn\u2019t have the time or the patience to challenge myself with what could lead to over a hundred hours spent in a turn-based roleplaying game, especially knowing that a single mistake could end the run and mean we had, essentially, wasted our time.<\/p>\n

In BG3\u2019s Honour Mode, which is also the game\u2019s hardest difficulty, the player only has access to a single save file. If the entire party dies or is knocked out, the player can choose to either delete the save or, if you are unable to let go, continue playing at a custom difficulty. In terms of honour, though, the idea is to be able to accept the end as it comes, and eventually that unplanned ending began to draw me in.<\/p>\n

I have never believed in the age-old idiom \u201cgamers have infinite lives\u201d. I can vividly remember one of my first ever experiences attempting to play a PC game, which led to me drowning in Half-Life\u2019s tutorial level (when I was far too young to play the game). I can still recall the feeling of disappointment as if I had somehow ruined the main character\u2019s story by leading him to his untimely death. To this day, whenever the player-character dies in a game, I feel that same feeling wash over me and repeat the deadpan line:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s how the story ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet there are always save files to go back to, and I\u2019ve been able to at least continue playing a game despite the sense of failure that often overtakes me. Out of fear that the disappointment might truly get the best of me, though, I have never thought to challenge myself with single save files, which is why I was surprised when something about the Honour Mode sparked my curiosity.<\/p>\n

I have only ever played Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 with my friend and with a heavy focus on roleplaying, where we play the characters and only make choices that match their motivations. That\u2019s what led me to ask my friend if they\u2019d be interested in roleplaying the Honour Mode, meaning we\u2019d have no intention of optimising the run or trying to metagame our decisions.<\/p>\n

If it made sense for our characters to do something brash, we\u2019d let it happen and live with (or die from) the consequences.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Unwilling heroes, destined for greatness?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We set off with a few guiding ideas: our characters would lean toward good or neutral choices, and my character Sebastian (a scared people pleaser) preferred to avoid trouble while my friend\u2019s Paladin Penelope focused on trying to protect Sebastian, their charge.<\/p>\n

Everything started out well enough. We cleared the tutorial and entered the first area of the game with little trouble, but the roleplay quickly led us down a path of unexpected situations we were surprised to survive. For example, who could have guessed that a Paladin, desperate to save a child, making the split-second decision to use the Friends<\/em> spell to influence a character\u2019s mood would cause an entire settlement to turn on us at the very start of the game? Not us, and least of all did we expect to survive the massacre that followed \u2013 by (so very honourably) sneaking out before anyone could catch us.<\/p>\n

The trauma of the event, and our characters blaming themselves for the deaths of the dozens of innocent people who were blamed for our transgressions, led us down a dangerous path of wanting to rescue any survivors we could find\u2026 And with far fewer options to earn experience and level up than we had intended, now that everyone hated our guts.<\/p>\n

So, what went wrong?<\/p>\n

Nine hours in, Sebastian wholeheartedly believed that Lae\u2019zel, a party member he felt drawn to due to the volatile nature of his upbringing, was the key to the party\u2019s survival. When Lae\u2019zel ran off to meet her people and ask them for guidance, Sebastian followed, only to immediately misspeak and turn them against the group. The end was swift.<\/p>\n

Lae\u2019zel was taken out in a single strike; the Paladin yelled at Sebastian to run before they, too, were taken out; and Sebastian, desperate to get away after witnessing everyone getting crushed due to his mistake, was caught in a Hold Person<\/em> spell before being surrounded by four people who struck him down in a flash.<\/p>\n

It was over in a single turn, and my friend and I couldn\u2019t stop laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we\u2019re deleting the save?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how the story ended. Or did it?<\/p>\n

\"Game<\/a>
An honourable ending, only nine hours and three levels in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After we deleted the save and said goodnight, I kept thinking about the consequences of our untimely ending late into the evening. My story, or Sebastian\u2019s, may have been cut short, but in my mind the world of the game moved on without us, and I imagined how our characters’ (inevitable) deaths could have inspired the few remaining party members to take over and finish the story in our absence.<\/p>\n

Even months later, I keep coming back to these characters, and I can\u2019t help but to chuckle every time I remember the chaos that our brief take on the Honour Mode had been. I think rather fondly of Sebastian\u2019s lost potential and the honourable Paladin Penelope who had followed him until the end: They may not have been the main characters of the game\u2019s narrative, but that made the experience and their impact no less valuable to me. And perhaps this experience will help alleviate my disappointment in the future, too, when I inevitably die in a game and, once again, begin to feel like I have somehow failed the characters and the worlds they inhabit.<\/p>\n

The overall experience is what I play games for, and a gruesome death can be just as memorable as a clean victory \u2013 and every now and then, it can be the failures that matter the most. I just need to remember that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Basic Information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Game <\/strong>Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/p>\n

Publisher and Developer <\/strong>Larian Studios<\/p>\n

Platforms <\/strong>Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X\/S<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/strong> August 3, 2023<\/p>\n

Genre <\/strong>Role-playing, Fantasy<\/p>\n

PEGI <\/strong>18<\/p>\n

Picture Credits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Screenshots from Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 (Larian Studios, 2023), taken by the author<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roleplaying (and losing at) Baldur\u2019s Gate 3\u2019s Honour Mode is an excellent way to help you get over your main character syndrome! #BaldursGate3 #LarianStudios #Permadeath<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":17381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[1847,1100,556,450,1340,245],"class_list":["post-17380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-baldursgate3","tag-co-op","tag-english","tag-experience","tag-hardcore","tag-rpg","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17464,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17380\/revisions\/17464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}