Baldur’s Gate 3Patch 7 made Honour Mode harder than ever, but one change that can heavily punish parties also has the potential to save them in their time of greatest need. As the highest difficulty setting available inBaldur’s Gate 3, Honour Mode dials up the challenge and makes every party wipe into true permadeath that ends the campaign. It’s not for the faint of heart, but figuring out how to take advantage of every quirk can make the process of survival uniquely rewarding.

The biggest difference in Honour Mode gameplay might be theinclusion of Legendary Actions, which allow powerful enemies to interrupt the turn order with devastating maneuvers.The roster of Legendary Actions has been expanded with successive updates toBaldur’s Gate 3, and the recent Patch 7 both introduced them to foes that previously had none and doubled down in a few instances. One beneficiary of the upgrade was the Spectator, a one-eyed monster found in Act One that can cause a lot of trouble for parties that aren’t well-seasoned in combat.

A close-up on an item known as the Iron Flask in Baldur’s Gate 3 as it’s held in someone’s gloved hand. The iron of the flask has ornate engravings, and one side is covered in a pattern that looks like a glowering face, the eyes and mouth glowing bright red.

BG3’s Honour Mode Changes Make The Iron Flask Better

An Unusual Tool Unleashes An Enemy That’s More Powerful Than Ever

Compared to most troublesomeBaldur’s Gate 3enemies,the Spectator is a unique situation, as it’s actually possible to employ the assistance of oneif the party acquires the right item. While one of the game’s Spectators is found roaming the Underdark, where it’s best avoided by those who don’t feel confident in tackling the challenge, another is imprisoned inside an Iron Flask. The flask is part of a shipment meant for the city of Baldur’s Gate, but adventurers without scruples can steal the shipment and commandeer its contents for their own purposes.

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Opening the Iron Flaskunleashes a Spectator, which won’t hesitate to attack the party if that’s the closest target at hand. Used in the right scenario, however, that Spectator can be used to the party’s advantage and turned against other challenging enemies. Reddit userNeveroth021made a note of how powerful the Iron Flask is after the recent Honour Mode update, describing a scenario wherethey unleashed the Spectator during the assault on Moonrise Towers and “frightened and stunned the entire fortress,“making a gigantic encounter that can ruin Honour Mode campaigns into something significantly more manageable.

Two images of Zarys in Baldur’s Gate 3, on the left a close-up, and on the right a waist-up shot. In both, Zarys has long blonde hair, tied up except for a braid on either side in front of her ears. She carries a wooden bow on her back.

Using Baldur’s Gate 3’s Spectator Is Still A Risk

The Enemy Of An Enemy Might Not Be A Friend

The key to the Spectator’s newfound might is the Legendary Action “Ocular Nightmare,“which Spectators can use after being struck five times, a threshold that’s cleared quickly when an entire fortress is on the offensive. Ocular Nightmare flings the Spectator’s eye beams indiscriminately at enemies, providing a chance to Wound, Confuse, Paralyse, and Frighten targets. In tabletopDungeons & Dragons, the Spectator doesn’t even have a Legendary Action, and Ocular Nightmare is significantly more powerful than the Eye Ray Legendary Action that full-fledged Beholders possess.

Spectators are considered lesser Beholders, lacking the exceptional intelligence of their more powerful brethren and featuring a comparatively limited array of eye rays.

A white dragonborn Dark Urge character next to the tiefling bard Alfira from Baldur’s Gate 3.

The Iron Flask still isn’t a tool to use lightly inBaldur’s Gate 3’s Honour Mode, asthere’s no good way to guarantee the avoidance of collateral damage. If the party hides away before tossing the flask into a den of enemies, however, the odds are in their favor, and it could serve as an incredibly powerful tactic when other resources are running low. Even without the new Legendary Action, the creature’s eye rays are already worthy of fear, so the Iron Flask can still be worthwhile in a standard campaign.

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More than anything else, the newly enhanced Iron Flask is a great example of what makes Honour Mode so special. All the changes in Honour Mode make the experience brutally punishing, but unlike most games gunning for maximal difficulty, overcoming its trials isn’t reliant on precision gameplay or following a specifically optimized strategic playbook. By offering ways to turn around the same factors that make it so hard and use them to the party’s advantage,Baldur’s Gate 3recaptures a lot of the ingenuity found in tabletopDnDplay, and Patch 7 provides one additional way to do so.

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Source:Neveroth021/Reddit

Baldur’s Gate 3

Developed and published by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an upcoming role-playing game set to release in August of 2023. Players will create a character to embark on a large-scale journey and can do so solo or cooperatively with a friend. Combat is a turn-based style this time around.