The Battle Master is one of the most complete Honour Mode packages available without multiclassing. At level 11, you have six attacks per round, four feats, and five superiority dice that refuel on short rests. You also have the best single tool for bypassing Legendary Actions — the prone-lock loop — without spending spell slots or concentration.
This guide ranks all 14 Battle Master maneuvers specifically for Honour Mode difficulty. The priority order is based on action economy math, not just generic “this is strong” reasoning. We also walk through the Trip Attack damage calculation so you understand exactly how much advantage is worth in a Great Weapon Master build.
Mechanics verified against BG3 Patch 7 (September 2024). Battle Master received no class changes in that update.
Quick Start Checklist
- Choose Fighter at character creation — Greatsword + heavy armour proficiency
- At level 3, pick Battle Master; select Trip Attack, Precision Attack, Riposte
- At level 4, take Great Weapon Master feat — toggle it ON for most fights
- At level 6, take +2 Strength (pushing toward 20)
- At level 7, add Disarming Attack and Goading Attack
- At level 8, take the Alert feat — critical specifically in Honour Mode
- At level 10–11, take Pushing Attack and one additional maneuver
- In Act 3, equip Balduran’s Giantslayer — doubles your Strength modifier to damage
Why Battle Master Leads Honour Mode Builds
In players’ experience, most Honour Mode losses come from resource depletion, not tactical mistakes. When your Wizard burns the last spell slot, your Paladin has no smites, and your Cleric used Revivify, the fight falls apart. The Battle Master doesn’t have that failure mode.
Action Surge and Second Wind recharge on short rests, not long rests. That means you start every Honour Mode encounter at full capacity, even after three back-to-back fights without a camp break. The pure Fighter path also delivers four feats (at levels 4, 6, 8, and 12) — more feat budget than any multiclass path at the same total level.
The critical Honour Mode advantage is consistency. Your damage doesn’t depend on which spells you prepared, which potions survived the last fight, or whether a concentration effect stayed active. Every round follows the same loop: Trip Attack to prone, follow-up attacks with advantage. That predictability makes planning around Legendary Actions far easier than builds relying on spell timing.
Superiority Dice — Your Core Resource
At level 3, you gain four superiority dice (d8s). At level 7, you gain a fifth. At level 10, every die upgrades from d8 to d10 via Improved Combat Superiority. The save DC for your maneuvers is calculated as: 8 + proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (whichever is higher).
At level 11 with Strength 20 and a +4 proficiency bonus, that’s a DC of 17. An enemy with a +2 Strength saving throw needs to roll a 15 or higher to resist your Trip Attack — a 30% pass rate, meaning prone lands roughly seven out of ten attempts.
All spent dice refresh after a short rest. This is the mechanical reason Battle Masters outperform long-rest-gated builds in Honour Mode: you can spend one superiority die per round across an entire dungeon without rationing. One tactical note worth knowing: Trip Attack only costs its die on a hit, not on a miss. You’re never burning a resource for zero return.
Maneuver Priority Tier for Honour Mode
Standard tier lists rank maneuvers by general usefulness. Honour Mode has different scoring criteria: does this maneuver help you end fights quickly, or does it counter the specific threat Legendary Actions create? Here’s how all 14 rank under that filter.
S-Tier — Pick These First
Trip Attack is the single highest-impact maneuver for this build. When a target fails the Strength save, they fall prone. Every melee ally within 3 metres attacks with advantage for the rest of the round. The prone condition also ends the target’s turn immediately if they haven’t acted yet — a tempo swing worth more than any flat damage bonus. Trip Attack’s superiority die is only spent on a hit, so you take no resource risk on a miss.
One restriction: Trip Attack cannot knock Huge or larger enemies prone. In practice, this covers nearly every boss in the game — Grym, the Phase Spider Matriarch, Ketheric Thorm, Raphael, and Orin are all Large or smaller. Gargantuan exceptions exist but are rare enough that Trip Attack remains a mandatory first pick.
Precision Attack is the enabler for everything else. You add the superiority die result to an attack roll before it resolves. This matters because Great Weapon Master’s −5 penalty — your primary damage feat — reduces your hit rate meaningfully against high-AC targets. Precision Attack ensures your best attack of the round connects. In Honour Mode, a missed 3-attack Action Surge round is a painful tempo loss. Precision Attack is damage insurance.
A-Tier — Pick These Second
Riposte costs zero action economy — it’s a reaction. When an enemy misses you, you immediately counter-attack for weapon damage plus your superiority die. In Honour Mode specifically, Legendary Actions often fire as reactions to your attacks. Riposte doesn’t compete with those — it fires when the enemy whiffs at you, stacking on top of your normal turn without any trade-off. The damage ceiling is high: a Greatsword Riposte with a d10 superiority die at level 11 averages around 19 damage.
Disarming Attack is situationally S-tier. Several Act 2 and Act 3 bosses carry named weapons. When they fail the Strength save, the weapon drops to the ground and you can pick it up to keep them unarmed. Raphael in particular is notably more manageable without his contract-sealing blade. It ranks A-tier rather than S-tier because not all Honour Mode bosses are armed — its value is encounter-dependent.
B-Tier — Fill Slots With These
Pushing Attack forces movement — 15 feet on a failed Strength save. In most Honour Mode arenas, 15 feet is the distance to a cliff or a chasm. Auntie Ethel’s lair, the Grym forge, and several Act 3 locations have environmental hazards within easy reach. A pushed enemy that falls off a ledge dies instantly regardless of HP, bypassing Legendary Actions entirely.
Goading Attack gives the target Disadvantage on all attacks against anyone other than you. This functions as a controlled aggro tool: pull the boss’s attention to your high-AC Fighter while your casters operate freely. Many bosses have good Wisdom saves, so this is best reserved against humanoid enemies with low Wisdom rather than against end-game bosses.
C-Tier — Take These Late or Not at All
Menacing Attack causes Frightened — Disadvantage on attack rolls and prevents movement toward you. It uses the same Wisdom save as Goading Attack, and most late-game bosses have proficiency in Wisdom saves. Skip for boss-focused builds.
Sweeping Attack hits an adjacent enemy for your superiority die result. Useful for clearing grouped enemies, but that’s what Action Surge already handles more efficiently.
Feinting Attack is the clearest anti-pattern in the maneuver list — it consumes a standard action and a free action in one go. That’s the worst action economy trade available. Avoid it.
Evasive Footwork, Commander’s Strike, Rally, Distracting Strike, and Manoeuvring Attack all have utility in normal difficulty, but Honour Mode’s tight action economy makes set-up effects, defensive positioning, and movement buffs secondary to raw damage and control.
The Trip Attack + Prone DPS Math
Here’s what advantage actually means for your damage numbers.
Assume level 11, Strength 20 (+5 modifier), +4 proficiency bonus, and Great Weapon Master active. Your Greatsword attacks at +4 to hit (5 STR + 4 prof − 5 GWM) and deals 2d6 + 5 (STR) + 10 (GWM) = 27 average damage per hit.
Against a typical Honour Mode boss at AC 16, you need a roll of 12 or higher (1d20 + 4 vs 16). That’s a 45% base hit rate.
Expected damage per attack without prone: 27 × 0.45 = 12.15.
After Trip Attack lands, follow-up melee attacks within 3 metres roll with advantage — two dice, take the higher result. When you need a 12+:
P(hit with advantage) = 1 − P(both dice miss) = 1 − (0.55 × 0.55) = 69.75%
Expected damage per attack with advantage: 27 × 0.70 = 18.9.
That’s a +55% increase in expected damage per attack from advantage alone. On a standard 3-attack turn where Trip Attack opens and 2 follow-up attacks land with advantage:
| Scenario | Expected Damage |
|---|---|
| 3 attacks, no prone (45% hit rate) | 36.5 |
| Trip Attack + 2 advantage attacks | ~50 |
| Advantage uplift | +37% |
The crit rate also nearly doubles — from 5% to 9.75% per attack. Every crit with a Greatsword rolls 4d6 instead of 2d6, adding roughly 7 average damage per crit beyond the normal roll.
The practical takeaway: Trip Attack doesn’t just add 1d8 to your damage. It multiplies every subsequent attack in the round. At level 10, when the die upgrades to d10, the flat bonus from the trip itself increases to 5.5 average — but the advantage on follow-up attacks remains the main payoff. This is also why Precision Attack is inseparable from Great Weapon Master: fixing one missed attack at +4 roll is worth more than the +10 damage on a hit you would have landed anyway.
Feat Progression for Honour Mode
Level 4 — Great Weapon Master. Take this immediately. The −5/+10 toggle should be on for most fights. Toggle it OFF against enemies with AC 19+ or when you’re rolling at Disadvantage before your first Trip Attack. The math shows GWM is correct to run when your base hit rate is 40% or better — which describes nearly every fight from Act 1 onwards at Strength 17+.
Level 6 — +2 Strength (reaching 20). Resist the temptation to take a secondary feat here. Going from 18 to 20 raises your attack rolls, your damage modifier, and your maneuver save DC simultaneously. That total value exceeds Savage Attacker or Polearm Master at this level.
Level 8 — Alert (+5 initiative). This is the Honour Mode-specific choice. Going first in initiative means your Trip Attack lands before any Legendary Action can fire. Bosses with Legendary Actions cannot react to damage they haven’t taken yet — acting first is the cleanest way to secure a free prone turn.
Level 12 — Polearm Master or +2 Strength if not yet maxed. Polearm Master adds a bonus action attack and opportunity attack range, worth taking once Strength reaches 20.
Act-by-Act Gear Milestones
Act 1. Any Greatsword with at least a +1 enchantment works. Prioritise heavy armour — Chain Mail to start, Splint Armour when available. The Duelist’s Prerogative from the Underdark vendor provides early enchantment damage if you find it. Your stats (Strength + heavy armour proficiency) are already in place at character creation; Act 1 is mostly about not upgrading them.
Act 2. Githyanki patrols carry solid weapons. The Moonrise Towers vendor sells Hellrider’s Pride gloves for bonus radiant damage on opportunity attacks. If you’re playing on a lower-end PC, our BG3 low-end PC settings guide covers keeping performance stable through the demanding Shadow-Cursed Lands environments.
Act 3. Two items define the endgame:
- Balduran’s Giantslayer (Wyrm’s Rock Fortress) — doubles your Strength modifier on attack rolls. At Strength 20, that’s +5 bonus per attack on top of your existing +5, adding 30 damage across six attacks in a standard Action Surge turn.
- Helldusk Armour (House of Hope) — grants flight, fire immunity, and heavy armour without a Strength requirement. This is your permanent armour slot once obtained.
The Gloves of Martial Exertion (Waning Moon trader in Act 2–3 transition) grant one extra bonus action attack per long rest — stack it on an Action Surge turn for maximum impact.
Legendary Actions and the Prone Loop
Honour Mode bosses gain Legendary Actions — special abilities that trigger on your turn, typically when they take damage. The Phase Spider Matriarch repositions, Raphael forces a saving throw, Sarevok heals — each designed to punish a specific playstyle.
The prone-lock loop is unusually resistant to most Legendary Actions because prone is a condition, not an attack. When you knock a boss prone via Trip Attack, they cannot react to that with most Legendary Actions — the prone is already applied. Your follow-up advantage attacks proceed normally.
What to watch for: some Legendary Actions spend the boss’s movement to reposition or teleport. If the boss exits melee range, prone becomes irrelevant because you need to be within 3 metres for melee advantage to apply. Against Raphael and Orin specifically, save your Trip Attack for after their Legendary Action fires in the previous round — use a normal attack first to bait the trigger, then open the prone loop while it’s spent.
The Alert feat at level 8 integrates directly with this. Going first in initiative means you can use Trip Attack before the Legendary Action system activates for that round at all.
For a comparison to spellcasting-based Legendary Action counter-play, our College of Lore Bard build guide covers Counterspell and Cutting Words as alternatives from the support side of the party.
Which Build Style Suits You?
| Player Type | Priority Maneuvers | Main Focus |
|---|---|---|
| New player | Trip Attack, Precision Attack, Riposte | Learn the prone loop; use Precision whenever GWM might miss |
| Casual player | Trip Attack, Precision Attack, Disarming Attack | Disarm bosses in Act 3; GWM on targets below AC 18 |
| Hardcore optimizer | Trip + Precision + Riposte + Disarming + Pushing | Maximize prone uptime; push enemies near hazards; chain Action Surge + Trip on round one |
| Completionist | All 7 maneuvers from S + A + B-tier | Map maneuver type to encounter type; carry Goading for multi-enemy pulls |
FAQ
Does Battle Master work without Great Weapon Master?
Yes, but you leave significant damage on the table. Without GWM, every follow-up attack after Trip Attack does less flat damage (no +10), and Precision Attack becomes less necessary when you’re not offsetting the −5 penalty. GWM-off runs are viable — just expect lower peak DPS.
Can Trip Attack prone large bosses?
Trip Attack is blocked only against Huge and Gargantuan creatures. The vast majority of named BG3 bosses — including Raphael, Orin, Sarevok, and Ketheric — are Large or smaller. Check the enemy tooltip for size classification if unsure.
Is Battle Master better multiclassed?
For Honour Mode specifically, no. Dipping Thief Rogue or Paladin is popular in Tactician difficulty, but those dips in Honour Mode cost you the level 11 Improved Extra Attack (upgrading from 2 to 3 attacks per Action) and reduce your feat count from four to three. The pure Fighter return is better.
What happens when superiority dice run out?
You become a normal Fighter with Great Weapon Master and 3 attacks per Action — still competitive DPS. The short rest recharge means this should happen at most once per fight. If you’re running dry mid-combat consistently, reserve Precision Attack for your guaranteed-best swing rather than using it on every attack, and prioritise Trip Attack as your primary die spend.
Does prone advantage stack with other Advantage sources?
Advantage doesn’t stack — two sources still mean only 2d20 take highest. What prone does is guarantee advantage for all melee attackers within 3 metres, including party members. If your Rogue already has an advantage source, prone doesn’t add extra dice to their roll, but it enables party members who had no other source to access advantage for free.
Sources
- Battle Master — bg3.wiki
- Trip Attack (Melee) — bg3.wiki
- Prone (Condition) — bg3.wiki
- Advantage — bg3.wiki
- Battle Master — Fextralife Wiki
- Ultimate BG3 Battle Master Build 2026 — Hack the Minotaur
- Legendary Actions — bg3.wiki
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