Want Honour combat in Baldur's Gate 3? Choose your mode before the new run

Choose the experience before starting the campaign

Baldur's Gate 3 lets a new Custom Mode campaign use Honour Mode mechanics through the Ruleset dropdown. Larian documented that addition in Patch 7. This is a choice for a new playthrough, so make it while planning the campaign rather than assuming it is a conversion available for the save you already have.

First decide what you actually want from the run: different combat mechanics, adjustable difficulty, or an attempt at completing Honour Mode itself. Those goals can sound similar in a conversation with friends. Write down the mode you intend to start and the saving behavior you want before creating the character you plan to keep.

Custom with Honour mechanics remains Custom

The Honour ruleset does not rename a Custom campaign into a pure Honour campaign. Patch 7 explicitly addressed incorrect labels on Custom saves using that ruleset, and a Game Over message that wrongly presented a Custom game as an Honour Mode death. The distinction is part of Larian's own documentation, rather than a technicality inferred from the artwork.

Use the mode identity as your first check when reviewing the setup. A campaign can contain Honour mechanics and still be Custom. If a guide or discussion uses the word Honour loosely, ask whether it means the selected ruleset or the complete game mode. That question prevents two players from agreeing on a label while expecting different consequences.

Treat saving as its own decision

Larian's original Custom Mode illustration includes a separate Single Save option alongside other difficulty controls. Its description of Custom emphasizes choosing the experience, with options such as hiding enemy health or failed Perception checks. These are different decisions from selecting the Honour combat ruleset added later. The older screenshot does not show that later dropdown.

Review the actual settings on your current installation before committing to the campaign. Decide whether keeping multiple saves matters to you, and read the displayed choices rather than reproducing every value from an old screenshot. This article does not provide a tested combination of sliders or certify a Custom configuration as an exact duplicate of every Honour Mode restriction.

Keep a true Honour completion separate

Larian introduced Honour as a harder mode with additional boss behavior and Legendary Actions. Its launch explanation says that continuing an adventure after the documented Honour failure disables Honour Mode. It also ties the Golden D20 to completing the whole game with Honour enabled under its stated survival condition. Playing demanding encounters and completing that mode are separate aims.

If the completion reward is your reason for starting, choose an actual Honour campaign and read the current game's rules before proceeding. Do not rely on a Custom campaign's ruleset label as proof of reward eligibility. This is a mode-selection decision, not a promise that a particular save, mod configuration or eventual finish will receive an award.

Do not experiment with the campaign you want to preserve

Patch 6 allowed games started on a set difficulty to switch to Custom, with an explicit exception for games already in Honour Mode. Patch 7's Honour-ruleset addition is phrased around starting a new Custom playthrough. Neither statement documents a general method for injecting those mechanics into any existing campaign or freely moving between all modes.

Keep an existing campaign separate from a new ruleset experiment. If you want to continue your current story, this guide cannot promise a mid-campaign conversion or a route back after changing difficulty. If a menu does not offer the choice you expected, stop and identify the current mode, game version and whether you are starting a new run before considering instructions elsewhere.

Know what a successful setup actually establishes

For the Custom route, the immediate success state is modest: you have deliberately started a new Custom campaign with the desired ruleset and reviewed its separate saving choices. That does not establish a completed Honour run, a verified reward, a safe migration from another save, or a tested encounter strategy. Each would require evidence beyond a settings decision.

Check your save's mode identity before investing a long session, and revisit Larian's current support if labels or behavior disagree with the documentation. Report what the game shows and what you selected, rather than describing the problem only as Honour not working. We have not created a campaign, changed difficulty, tested a failure state or verified a completion reward for this article.

A practical way to choose is to name the outcome before the setting. If you want Honour combat rules with the saving options available in Custom, compare those two choices separately when starting a new Custom campaign. If you want to complete an Honour campaign, choose Honour rather than assuming an Honour Ruleset switch makes a Custom save equivalent. A harder encounter ruleset and a campaign's completion identity answer different questions. These are documentation-based examples, not results from a campaign we played.