Baldur’s Gate 3’s Honour Mode May Force Players to Take Gortash’s Deal

This article contains some narrative spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3.

In Baldur’s Gate 3, there are dozens of quests where the ideal solution is one born of patience, creativity, or a perfectly timed spell. However, in Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Honour Mode, the game’s most punishing difficulty setting, even the most morally upstanding players may be forced to consider options they’d typically reject. This mode allows only one save file and removes second chances through save-scumming entirely, making every encounter a potential game-ending threat. And in a game mode where survival is not guaranteed, the most ethical outcome may not be the best one.

If players taking on Honour Mode make it past Act 2, the pressure is officially on to power through to the finish line. Players must do anything they can to ensure they do not waste a single hour of their playthrough to a sudden death. And the lengths players will go through to achieve a victory reach their peak when presented with one of the most controversial deals in Baldur’s Gate 3: an alliance with Lord Enver Gortash. Under normal circumstances, many players find this deal unpalatable due to their friendship or romance with Karlach. Gortash is a manipulative tyrant, and aligning with him in a good playthrough seems to go against everything the game’s heroic parties stand for. And in an evil playthrough, the alliance seems like giving up power. But Honour Mode is an unforgiving teacher, and one of its hardest lessons may be that rejecting Gortash’s deal is a luxury not every party can afford.

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Gortash’s Deal in Baldur’s Gate 3 Offers Stability in Chaos

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Honour Mode challenges more than just combat prowess. It tests character, values, and resolve. Accepting Gortash’s offer may feel like the easy and immoral way out, but in a mode where defeat lurks behind every door, it might be the only path forward. For those brave enough to step into this unforgiving version of the Forgotten Realms, Honour Mode proves that sometimes, the hardest decisions aren’t about whom to fight, but who to trust.

By the time the party reaches Act 3, the city of Baldur’s Gate is teetering on the edge of collapse. Absolute cultists, blood-crazed murderers, and political power players have made the city a powder keg. Gortash, a cunning strategist and a Chosen of Bane, extends an unexpected offer: ally with him to collect the Netherstones and eliminate Orin. In return, he promises protection against The Steel Watch and the opportunity to share in ruling the Netherbrain together.

The offer may appear treacherous, but the deal does grant one substantial benefit: a significant reduction in hostile forces within the city. The Steel Watch, Gortash’s personal mechanical enforcers, remain neutral toward the party if the alliance is accepted. This vastly reduces the number of unavoidable fights and allows the party to conserve valuable resources like spell slots, potions, and revivify scrolls. And simply put, this means that there will be fewer encounters where everything can go wrong, from missteps to bugs.

Gortash’s Charisma Makes the Choice Even More Complicated

It doesn’t help that Gortash, voiced brilliantly by Jason Isaacs, is one of the game’s most persuasive antagonists. With a silver tongue and carefully measured words, he presents his proposal as pragmatism rather than villainy. In a world teetering on the brink, he insists that order must come before justice. His argument, though ethically murky, is compelling for both the most vulnerable and powerful of Baldur’s Gate. Public opinion subconsciously weaves itself into making rejection all the more difficult.

In BG3’s Honour Mode, where consequences to choices are final and perfection is the bare minimum, Gortash’s brand of order may feel almost reasonable. Whether players like it or not, a game mode focusing on survival instead of second chances offers an implicit truth: the path of least resistance may be the one that leads through a devil’s handshake (not Raphael, though, who also has a compelling offer of his own).

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Honour Mode in Baldur’s Gate 3 Leaves Little Room for Idealism

In standard difficulty, rejecting Gortash’s offer will lead to a series of high-stakes battles. These fights are manageable for most parties, particularly if they’re well-prepared or inclined toward tactical experimentation. However, in Honour Mode, the same encounters become gauntlets that punish even minor mistakes. Enemies hit harder, survive longer, and punish every misstep, making each additional battle a risk few parties can take lightly, even at higher levels.

Even players committed to a noble roleplay path may find themselves cornered by logistics. Without access to long rest opportunities due to resource exhaustion or after suffering a devastating party wipe, some may find that accepting Gortash’s offer is the only viable way to continue the run. Otherwise, they’ll have to deal with Gortash as a boss fight that is not to be taken lightly. The deal becomes less about ideology and more about survival. For some, that’s a compromise. For others, it’s a betrayal. But for everyone in Honour Mode, it’s a calculated risk.

A Choice That Haunts Even the Victors

What makes Gortash’s deal particularly haunting is that, even if accepted, the player knows deep down that it doesn’t resolve the city’s deeper issues. His betrayal remains a possibility, and the moral weight of the choice lingers long after the Steel Watch boots stop echoing through the streets. Companions like Wyll and Karlach may raise objections, and the player’s alignment with Gortash could impact future encounters in subtle but painful ways.

In that sense, Honour Mode doesn’t just elevate the difficulty, it complicates the ethical stakes. The game still allows for multiple paths to success, but the margin for experimentation shrinks when the party’s death is truly a Game Over. Players are no longer afforded the luxury of trial and error; they must commit to decisions with incomplete information, and those decisions will shape the rest of their journey.