Ways To Make A Baldur’s Gate 3 Playthrough As Hard As Possible

Summary

• Play in Honour Mode for the most challenging experience with bosses carrying legendary actions and permadeath.
• Control only a single character to test your skills and build strategy against waves of enemies.
• Avoid leveling up, refraining from using items, and experimenting with complex builds to increase game difficulty.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the most popular role-playing games ever, captivating fans worldwide and thrusting Larian Studios into the limelight in a way that no one could’ve expected. The game is rife with so much content that players can go through at least four playthroughs and witness many unique events every single time.

With enough experience, players will understand the best way to make the most of Baldur’s Gate 3‘s combat system and make things easier for themselves. Thankfully, the game gives ample opportunity for players to make the experience harder on them without it feeling too cheap.

8

Play In Honour Mode

Implements A Suite Of Changes That Make Baldur’s Gate 3 Harder Than Ever

Honour Mode is a difficulty that fans of Larian’s games are quite familiar with. So, they were perplexed to see that Baldur’s Gate 3 was notably easier than their previous games without featuring this difficulty mode at launch.

It turned out that the company was reserving this mode for a future update that would make it the most substantial implementation of Honour Mode in a Larian CRPG. Bosses have legendary actions, permadeath is enabled, and save-scumming is banned to make a player’s run more nail-biting than ever before.

7

Control Only A Single Character

A Solo Run Can Be Quite Challenging

The idea of controlling a single party member against the many foes that players can come across sounds like an exercise in futility. However, with the right build, a single party member is enough to go through the game as long as players know what they’re doing.

Of course, players need to put a lot of thought into their approach to a solo run and rely on summons to increase their squad’s body count in battle somehow. If even this is forbidden, then players must ensure that their lone party member is tanky enough to deal with a wave of enemies without succumbing to the relentless onslaught.

6

Don’t Level Up

Players Must Cheese The Game To Survive Encounters

Given that Baldur;s Gate 3 only has twelve character levels and a player’s strength can vary quite a bit based on their current level, it’s easy to see why leveling up and strengthening the game’s party is such a critical task. However, players who want to challenge themselves can choose to ignore this critical part of the progression curve altogether.

Avoiding damage and boasting abilities that enable a quick retreat are necessary tactics to survive in a playthrough where leveling up is forbidden. Players must have a deep understanding of the game’s mechanics to cheese the system and keep encounters manageable in the long run.

5

Refrain From Using Items

A Simple And Effective Way To Make The Game Harder

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game full of so many items that it can be downright overwhelming for players to keep track of everything in a character’s inventory. However, with this self-imposed challenge, where players are not allowed to use items of any kind, this worry will become a thing of the past.

This restriction prevents players from throwing potions for group heals or using high-level scrolls that can wipe the entire battlefield. It’s a major handicap that will change the way players approach combat in this game.

4

Experiment With Complex Builds

Makes The Game More Challenging And Encourages Players To Check Out Different Classes

A lot of people complain about Baldur’s Gate 3 being easy even though they stick to the safest builds and party makeups. Instead, what players looking for a challenge should do is try out builds that they would ignore otherwise to make combat more engaging without losing its difficulty.

Players must get used to an alternate playstyle if they don’t want to be wiped out by strong enemies over and over again. Becoming a battlemage or a bard may not be the most optimal build for a character, but it does make battles novel and interesting again as players have to figure out the best way to make the most of a weak character.

3

Disable Karmic Dice

This Difficulty Change Is Small Yet Substantial

Karmic Dice is a smart addition to Baldur’s Gate 3, ensuring that players won’t get frustrated if they fail skill checks over and over again. However, this has the added effect of making the game more forgiving for players.

So, the best course of action to take for hardcore players is to untick this option and rely on luck instead for every single skill check. It can be frustrating, but this is an organic way to increase the game’s difficulty that players can opt for.

2

Never Save Scum

Forces Players To Live With The Consequences Of Their Choices

Save-scumming is the bane of most games, eliminating a lot of the tension and challenge if players can just reload a save made a few seconds before a risky move. This is a tactic players use time and time again in Baldur’s Gate 3 to increase their odds of inflicting status effects in battle and to re-roll a set of dice if the result wasn’t in their favor.

Therefore, it’s only a given that players seeking a challenge should stick with their decisions instead of trying to get the best possible result. It may be an unfamiliar sensation for some players, but the wonders it does to gameplay are something that fans should be well aware of.

1

Kill Everyone On Sight

Implements A Suite Of Changes To Both The Narrative And Combat

Technically, most people recommend that players get into as many battles as possible to level up in most Larian games. However, since twelve is the max level that a player can reach in Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s not recommended to go for this course of action.

However, if players want to make the game as hard as possible for themselves, they should follow a self-imposed rule where they attack everyone, friend or foe, from the moment they are spotted. Not only does this let players fight tough enemies right from the start, but it also enables a chaotic playthrough where players can push the boundaries of the system and see how the story unfolds if they are killing everything in their path.