Highlights
- A Baldur’s Gate 3 player faces a catastrophic end to their Honor Mode playthrough due to the Risky Ring.
- The player’s decision to equip the ring results in the death of a key companion and the collapse of their entire game.
- This incident highlights the dangers of using high-risk items in challenging game modes.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, the world is much more deeply immersive and alive than players usually expect, and every choice matters—more than the players expect.
So dynamic that sometimes the smallest decision has incredible, overwhelming effects. One player simply made a realization in a playthrough due to a single item: the Risky Ring.
A Risky Ring: Baldur’s Gate 3 Player’s Honor Mode Nightmare
The Temptation of the Risky Ring
The Risky Ring of Baldur’s Gate 3 is a double-edged sword. The perk of this item, on the other hand, to have the advantage on Attack Rolls, seems pretty nice and one that a character would want to have to up their level of effectiveness combat-wise.
While doing that, they all overlook the fact that it more than makes up for this power by imposing a disadvantage on saving throws.
One player could not resist the temptation that this ring provided and was soon to be sent to the series of events that cut short his run in Honor Mode.
The Dark Urge: A Choice of Fate
While traveling, the player character, succumbing to the Dark Urge, donned the Risky Ring just before a lengthy rest. What they could not have been aware of is that this small decision would prove to be one of such far-reaching consequences.
The very night of that rest, Gale—one of their complementary companions—was marked for death. This con in the ring wouldn’t allow the player to resist their Dark Urge and essentially made them kill Gale. This was the first of several unlucky mishaps that would ultimately pave their downfall.
The Downward Spiral
The trouble for the player didn’t stand at that, after the rather unfortunate death of a chanced follower, Gale.
The player then tried to dupe the remaining players in their camp to avoid experiencing the indirect consequences of their actions.
Again, the disadvantage of Saving Throws did them in by failing a Deception roll by which they would have gotten out of the fix.
Now, that one failure dooms the whole camp to turn on the player, literally putting everything squarely in their face.
Unable to bounce back from this catastrophic chain of events, this Honor Mode run—an unforgiving game mode that requires a strict set of morally correct decisions or else reap the consequences—was blown to pieces. So the player, without a choice, deleted the save file and dropped it.
A Cautionary Tale to Adventurers
This player’s story has been touted as a cautionary tale for all parties adventuring into the perils of Baldur’s Gate 3.
While the reward might be there, this Risky Ring brings with it great risks that are simply not worth it, particularly for players who have turned on some of the game’s more punishing options, such as Honor Mode.
Other players went so far as to find other ways to warn other gamers from equipping this same ring, posting similar threads like these: “Some say equipping the risky ring is worth it.
I say it is not.”. Some even recommended that you stay away from having it on your main characters at all, but would be okay to equip it to companions who may better handle the risks involved.
This incident only cements that players must carefully weigh out the pros and cons of a decision before making a move in the game.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game in which strategy and foresight are the keys to staying alive, and one bad step can lead to catastrophe.
Before equipping any item, especially one as volatile as the Risky Ring, the player ought to be very thoughtful about the possible consequences.
It’s quite a poignant ending, with a great lesson to be learned for all adventurers in Baldur’s Gate 3. In such a game world, where every choice passed gets pretty serious, one must consider every step as they pass.
The Risky Ring may have its tempting positives, but, as this story shows, the risks may finish up so much higher than the advantages.
It was a harsh reminder to those new in the world of Baldur’s Gate 3: mind what you equip, because it might just end your adventure.