In a moment of Honor Mode panic, one ice-cold Baldur's Gate 3 player unlocks an achievement in a way that would make most RPG fans recoil in horror

Baldur's Gate 3 mother owlbear in Act 1
(Image credit: Larian)

One Baldur's Gate 3 fan has managed to pop the Kill Two Birds with One Gnome achievement in the most despicable way possible.

The shocking confession comes from Reddit user swords_again, who took to the game's discussion board in a post titled, "My most shameful achievement yet." The post itself is brief, consisting of nothing but a single screenshot of the achievement in question and one harrowing 10-word sentence beneath it:

"My barbarian threw the baby owlbear at the mama owlbear."

My most shameful achievement so far from r/BaldursGate3

As its name might indicate, players can earn Kill Two Birds with One Gnome by using one enemy as an improvized melee weapon – for this achievement, not by using the literal "Throw" action – to kill another. Characters need to succeed Strength minimums and Athletics checks in order to pick up and throw assailants at each other, even the shorter ones like gnomes and dwarves. With Barbarians known for their high Strength values, it seems swords_again used their Tav's innate abilities to their full advantage.

To their credit, they never intended to commit such horrors. But upon entering the owlbears den in Act One, they had no other choice. "I'm playing Honor Mode and failed my intimidation check, lol," they commented. "It was at that moment I knew who I really was." With every decision made in BG3's single-save Honor Mode being irreversible, it seems swords_again really was forced to dispatch the would-be companion after getting locked into combat. But to do so by throwing him at his mother...? Is that you, Cazador?

The brutal slaying of the owlbear cub and his protective mother is near unforgivable, especially to those of us fond of the You've Got Two Hands For a Reason achievement that unlocks when you pet both the owlbear cub and campfire mascot Scratch at the same time later on. I'm prepared to forgive swords_again just this once, especially given how brutally difficult Honor Mode can be. Also, the fact that they had the stones to admit it in public is admirable. That being said, I do hope they're sitting quietly on a stool somewhere in the Elfsong Tavern having a long, hard think about their actions.

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Jasmine Gould-Wilson
Staff Writer, GamesRadar+

Jasmine is a staff writer at GamesRadar+. Raised in Hong Kong and having graduated with an English Literature degree from Queen Mary, University of London in 2017, her passion for entertainment writing has taken her from reviewing underground concerts to blogging about the intersection between horror movies and browser games. Having made the career jump from TV broadcast operations to video games journalism during the pandemic, she cut her teeth as a freelance writer with TheGamer, Gamezo, and Tech Radar Gaming before accepting a full-time role here at GamesRadar. Whether Jasmine is researching the latest in gaming litigation for a news piece, writing how-to guides for The Sims 4, or extolling the necessity of a Resident Evil: CODE Veronica remake, you'll probably find her listening to metalcore at the same time.