I did a book collection run once. Collect as many unique books as possible in a single run. I got about 94% of the books in the game, which is as many as I think you can get in a single run. The remaining 6% is locked behind story branches that would eat into the 94% I did get.

And honestly? It wasn't that fun. I had to scour rooftops, look around in vases, cross-reference the wiki, reload the game because I made a wrong choice that seemed like a nothing choice at the time... And all I got were some notes. And they weren't even much better than the ones you get in a normal run.

And this was just books. I had to skip Gale's content entirely just to collect an extra note. There is a robe you can only get if you kill Karlach. There's simply too many branches for you to get everything.

You can't get 100%. You might be able to get 95%, but it won't be fun. From now on, I'll just clear the map markers before moving on, and that'll be enough for me.

Ha! Yeah, I mean no discouragement but I don't think the devs designed you to do everything in one run. I mean, there are certain items that you can't get unless certain important characters die. If you really wanted to collect everything that could be collected (just usable items, not junk) I imagine you'd have to play through the whole game 6 or more times.

It’s not possible. I’ve got 1500 hours in this game and i was still finding random shit 1000 hours in. Just play a campaign knowing that you’ll need to play it at least three or four times to see most of the quests and outcomes. At least once as dark urge since that storyline is very different.

First, I want to say that everyone should enjoy games how they want. That out of the way I want to make the argument for just rolling with the dice in bg3. Are there things you will miss out on - certainly. Will you make bad choices or get unlucky sometimes - for sure. But that is part of what makes it great, every choice, error, or unlucky roll will still result in the story moving forward and it will be your story. If you follow a guide and save scum you'll miss out on the adventure (you can't have adventure without risk). You'll also spend a lot of time reading and watching guides instead of just playing. Anyway, at least consider just going for it.

I really wish honor and difficulty were separate toggles - honor mode is awesome because it forces you to roll with things but I would not recommend it for a first playthrough due to the increased difficulty. IMO honor mode (for the honor part) is the only way the game should be played.

I'll also acknowledge that I do have a couple of things I would save scum on if I thought I'd only play once. But my couple things aren't universal and if you start taking everyone's advice on those you'll end up needing to save scum nearly everything.

Good luck, have fun!

others already established that you don't do that

but you could look for build guides and look specifically for items mentioned there. so the stuff you do miss is not important for your goals

Do you guys collect barrels and chests?

There have been times where I go to camp and back to build towers to get to diffident areas.