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The Beginner's Guide to Baldur's Gate
I get a lot of e-mail asking questions about Baldur's Gate. It's odd that people never seem to assume I'm an expert on MGS and Halo (although I consider myself very knowledgeable on those subjects), but everyone does acknowledge my expertise on Baldur's Gate. I guess it has to do with the fact that most of them bought the game because of what I've said about it on my website. Well, if you did, thank you! I loved this game series, I still love it, and it still remains my favorite game series of all time. I remember when I first bought Baldur's Gate II, in fact. I was just a kid, and the Electronics Boutique (what has now become "EB Games") cashier that I was buying the game from said I might not like it since it was too complicated. He recommended that I just read the books. Pah! I'm sure his intentions were good, but he's clearly never read the Baldur's Gate novelizations (yes, novelizations - the games were not based on the books; the games came first... some people seem to have that confused). They are some of the worst game-to-novel books ever written. They have almost nothing to do with the games and here's a spoiler: almost EVERY character DIES. And anyway, since then I've spent more time playing BG2 than any other game, and it's still my favorite game of all time. So without further ado, here's the Beginner's Guide to Baldur's Gate! I think I'll call it the BGBG for short. Hehe... This guide is mainly for Baldur's Gate II, but a lot of the tips can be applied to the original game as well. Jump to a Section: Okay, before I even begin, let me give you some advice: go to www.gamefaqs.com, run a search for "Baldur's Gate," click on the FAQ link next to Baldur's Gate II (or Baldur's Gate) in the list, and then when you come to a list of FAQ's, find the ones by Dan Simpson at the top. Right-click the link that leads to his FAQ and click "Save Target As..." to save the .txt file somewhere for future reference. I can't stress enough how infinitely useful Dan Simpson's BG FAQ's are for both Baldur's Gate games. If there's anything you can't find on this page, it's probably in there. However, I still recommend reading this guide, of course, especially if you're a complete beginner... There. Now that that's done, install the game. Make sure you do a Full Install. Otherwise you'll be switching CD's a lot and have really slow load times. The first thing you MUST do after installing the game is go to BioWare's official website and download the latest patch. The game never runs properly on the latest version of Windows XP unless you have the patch. Here's a link directly to the patch so you can grab it if the link still works: Baldur's Gate: You probably don't need a patch for BG1. If you bought the game recently, you probably have the three-disk Original Saga version that includes the expansion pack and the latest patch. However, if you have an old version, here's the link: http://www.bioware.com/games/shadows_amn/support/patches Baldur's Gate II (no expansion): http://www.bioware.com/games/shadows_amn/support/patches/ Baldur's Gate II with Throne of Bhaal expansion: http://www.bioware.com/games/throne_bhaal/support/patches/ Okay then. Once you've installed the patch, your game will run a LOT better. The next step is to mess around with your configuration just a little. Go to Start - Programs - Black Isle and pick your Baldur's Gate game and then launch the Configuration or Config utility (BGConfig). It should look like this:
The current screen is the difficulty slider. I'd leave this on Core Rules for now. You can always change it on the fly in the game later. Next go to Hardware and pick your stuff. You should be able to max out all the sliders, since this is an old game and your PC is probably new enough to run it at its best. The one thing you have to think about is the "Use 3D Acceleration" box. The game supposedly does look a little better with 3-D Acceleration, but the changes are not really very noticeable... and 3-D Accel seems to glitch on a lot of computers. Even mine! So before you decide to use it, go to the Display tab under Graphics and click "Test." If your PC doesn't pass the test, don't turn it on. If it does pass the test but the game still looks funky, try turning it off. I usually just leave it off these days just in case. Next you can go through the Audio, Visual, Miscellaneous, etc. and pick some stuff if you want to. But I'd mainly just head for the Display section and make sure it's set to a 800x600 resolution. Baldur's Gate 1 only supports 640x480, but BG2 looks best on 800x600. You can use a higher resolution by unlocking those settings, but the game will not look good. So go with 640 for BG1 and 800 for BG2. Although my sister actually still plays BG2 at 640x480 because she likes it to seem "zoomed in" closer. Heh... WHEN YOU GET IN THE GAME, there's at least one more setting you need to change. Go to the in-game options menu and choose Sound. Now disable "Environmental Audio." If you leave this turned on, it makes the whole game echo in places that it really shouldn't. For example, in Waukeen's Promenade it sounds like your party is cramped up inside of an aluminum tunnel. So just turn that off. I don't know why, but it doesn't work at all.
Okay, enough with the technical stuff. If you have any technical problems that the patch and the config can't fix, go ask about it at the BioWare support forum. It's a very helpful place. Now, onto the game! A FEW NOTES FOR NEWFANGLED D&D PLAYERS: Before you start playing the game, there's a few
things you should note if you're used to newer versions of Dungeons &
Dragons (and its various ripoffs). In other words, if you're used to playing
something like Neverwinter Nights or Star Wars: Knights of the Old
Republic, or their sequels, then pay attention! First of all, all AC numbers are now
negative. That means, the more armor you wear, the LOWER your armor rating
gets. The worst armor ratings in the game are stuff like 6 and 8, or higher.
The BEST armor ratings in the game are things like -11 or -15! So go for the
negative numbers, the LOWER the better! Once you launch the game, click Single Player and choose New Game. First you have to create your main character. The game runs on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition rule set, but you DO NOT have to be familiar with D&D to start playing the game. I certainly wasn't! You'll get a little more familiar with it as you go, but you still won't really need to learn it.
[NOTE: f you've already played through Baldur's Gate 1, you can import your BG1 character here. You can find your BG1 character in the "characters" folder in the game's installation directory. It should have been auto-saved as "char1.chr" when you completed the game. Simply take this file and copy it into the BG2 "characters" folder. Now when you start a new game choose "Import" and select Char1.chr. Your items will not be imported with you in the beginning of a new BG2 game. You will, however, still have the increased stats you may have gotten by using the ability-increasing Tomes in the first game. Imported characters can be much more powerful than new ones.] GENDER: Not important. The only difference this makes is the appearance of your character and what romances you can choose from. Males can have a romance with Jaheira, Viconia, or Aerie, and females can have a romance with Anomen. There a few other very slight changes in some conversations and such, but nothing really major. Your character's skills are not affected at all. PORTRAIT: Also entirely superficial. If you
hate all of the game's automatic portraits or you
just don't want to look exactly like one of the NPC's that will later join
your party, then you can import a custom portrait. There are instructions on
how to import your own portraits (and sounds) in the readme.txt file in your
BG2 installation directory. But basically you just make a new sub-folder in
the installation folder called "Portraits" and then move in two BMP images:
one big one at 110x170 pixels with a filename ending in L, and a small one
at 38x60 with a filename ending in S. If you are having trouble making these
files, here are some of my own custom portrait files to go by. Once you have put them in the
folder, you can choose "Custom Portrait" in the game and select them.
Feel free to use any of the portraits here, just please do not
distribute them yourself. If you want to show them to others, link them
back to this page. Thanks!
RACE: This is a bit more important. The various races have advantages and disadvantages you can read by clicking on them. Humans, the "standard" race, have the advantage of being able to choose ANY class, but the other races have the advantage of being able to choose a special multi-class. Some multi-classes are fantastic, as are some human dual-classes (though human dual-classing is complicated and I recommend avoiding it if this is your first time playing the game). Also, your race limits what romances you can choose. Humans and half-elves have access to every romance, and elves can have every romance except Viconia. Viconia will, however, also romance half-orcs. And I think Aerie will romance gnomes. Yes, gnomes. Dwarves and halflings are completely out of luck, sorry. CLASS: The most important choice you have to make. The best class for a new player is quite simply Fighter. Fighters are always useful, can use any weapon or armor they find, and are very easy to play. However, your class affects a lot of stuff... Different classes get different "strongholds" or bases that they can own (more on that later). Your class also determines what items you can use or spells you can cast. For example, a Cleric/Ranger multi-class can cast both Cleric and Druid spells, but not Mage spells. A Thief can only wear leather armor and can't use really big weapons. Clerics can't use blades or bows, only blunt weapons. You get the idea. The last thing you need to consider is what type of party you want. If you already know which characters you want to get (see my BG1 and BG2 character guides for details), then you should play a class that completes a balanced party for you (a balanced party has at least one melee fighter, one thief, one mage, and one cleric - see my Icewind Dale party guide for more on that). But BASICALLY, just start out with a Fighter, since they're the easiest (although definitely not the most fun). ALIGNMENT: Not very important. Though sometimes your alignment will affect the way the game plays out, the main "good/evil" things are determined by your choices while playing, not your pre-chosen alignment (and no, your choices do not affect your alignment - they only affect your "reputation"). So just choose the type of character you think you will play. Depending on your class, some choices may be unavailable. For example, Paladins can only be Lawful Good and Druids can only be True Neutral. There are also some items in the game that can only be used by people of a certain alignment, like certain weapons that are innately good or evil. ABILITIES: Very important. Your abilities determine who you are. Are you strong but stupid? Smart but weak? This is where you determine that. Let me explain further...
First, hit the minus sign next to all your stats and lower them all as low as they can go. It will pop up the number of free points you have at the top (next to where the pointer is in the screenshot). If you have a really low number, you can try clicking REROLL, which will roll the virtual dice again and give you some new numbers. You can click STORE to save a really good set of numbers, and then RECALL will bring back the numbers you have stored. Remember, once you have clicked DONE, you cannot edit these later. A few items and quests in the game will increase or decrease them either temporarily or permanently, but these do NOT increase with level ups like in most modern games. STRENGTH: This determines the maximum weight you can carry and how much damage you do with a melee weapon. It also affects your ability to use some ranged weapons, even though it does not increase their damage. For example, you can only use a Composite Longbow if you have 18 strength. If you're a melee fighter you should get 16-18 strength (19 if you're a half-orc), but every class should get at least 10 or 12 just for the carrying capacity. You may notice if you're playing a fighter-type class that when you max your strength to 18, it pops up a weird number like 18/73. To be honest, I don't know much about those "/" numbers. Just try to get one above 70 or 80 by rerolling and you should be okay. Note that 99 may look the highest, but 00 is actually "100" so it's really the highest, although 01 is still the lowest if I'm right. DEXTERITY: This determines your chance to hit an opponent with all weapons. It is thus important for both melee and ranged weapons, but more important for ranged. It also determines your character's ability to dodge by increasing their natural AC (Armor Class). This makes it important for ALL characters. Note that, unlike in 3rd Edition D&D, you will get your dexterity bonus to AC no matter what type of armor you are wearing, even plate mail! Finally, Dex also determines your Reflex Save versus some things like traps. If you're playing a thief (dex governs thief abilities) or an archer of any kind, you should increase this to 18 (19 if you're an elf), but ALL classes should have at least 12 on it. Preferably 14 to 16. CONSTITUTION: Every time you level up, the game randomly adds a certain number of hit points by rolling a virtual die with a certain number of sides. Tougher classes get a die with more sides, while weaker classes get a die with fewer sides. But after rolling the die, the game then adds a bit more to the resulting number based on your Constitution. Thus, Constitution gives you more hit points. It also determines your Fortitude Save versus things like diseases and poisons. All characters should have a relatively high constitution (stay above 10) for the hit points, but characters who plan to fight exclusively with melee weapons and no spells should max it out to 18 (19 for dwarves and half-orcs). Con isn't as essential as dexterity though. Speed is better than toughness. INTELLIGENCE: This determines your ability to use arcane spells (it does NOT affect a thief's skill points like in later editions of D&D). If you are a Mage or a Sorcerer, MAX this out to 18 (19 if you're a gnome)! Bards should also keep it high. But none of the other classes really need to worry about intelligence at all. I keep it at least 10 because I think it affects SOME dialogue choices and maybe some other things, but not many. WISDOM: First, this determines your ability to use divine spells. If you are a Cleric or Druid, MAX this out to 18. It also affects the spells of Paladins and Rangers, though their spells are pretty weak anyway, so it's not that big of a deal. Second, Wisdom also determines your Willpower Save versus things like mind-control spells. Third, Wisdom determines your Lore, so if you're a character like a Mage or Bard and you want to be able to identify magical items just by looking at them, make this high. Finally, Wisdom does affect some dialogue choices in the game. Wise people get smarter choices when they talk that are unavailable to other characters. So as you can see, Wisdom is pretty important. Although it's still not as important as in Planescape: Torment where it also affects how much XP you get per kill... but anyway... CHARISMA: The
least important ability in combat, but the most important ability when
talking. People with more charisma get people to respond to them better, are
better actors, get better prices in shops, and get their romance interests
to like them more. If you want to play a good-lookin' sort of character, get
at least 14 charisma. 10-12 is plain and won't get you much of an advantage.
And anything below 10 is plug ugly. I think Charisma has an effect on
bard songs, though I'm not sure about that. Either way, bards want to
keep this high. Note that unlike in later editions of D&D, Sorcerers in
BG2 get their spells via Intelligence, NOT Charisma. As you can see, you might need to reroll a few times until you get a good number of ability points. Okay, enough with the abilities! Now, moving along... SKILLS: If you are a thief, you get to pick your thieving skills here. They are Pick Pockets, Pick Locks, Move Silently, Detect Traps, Detect Illusions, Set Traps, etc. The most useful skills are Detect Traps and Pick Locks. There are a lot of traps in dungeons, so you want to be able to detect them. And since Pick Locks helps you be able to do just that AND disable traps, you NEED to get that one. Pick Locks can also be used on tons of locked chests in the game. There are some good items you can find with Pick Pockets, but not many (and it's dangerous, because if you fail, the creature might turn hostile). Hiding in the Shadows and Moving Silently is great for backstabbing if you're a thief who's good with melee weapons. Please note that "backstab" is different from the "sneak attack" ability in later D&D editions. Backstabbing can only be performed with a stabbing weapon like a dagger or short sword, and will only work if your character is hidden in the shadows when he/she attacks. Anyway, moving on... Set Traps is great in some battles, especially if you're a Bounty Hunter. As for detect illusions... I'm not entirely sure what that does. The other thing you get to pick in the "Skills" screen is your weapon proficiencies. As I said, certain classes can only use certain weapons, and you can clearly see which ones you can and cannot use here. If you're playing a fighter, paladin, ranger, or thief, I highly recommend maxing out your skill in Long Swords (called "Large Swords" in BG1). There are a ton of great Long Swords in the game and very few of the party members you'll pick up are really great with them, so you might as well leave that to your main character. Now, in BG2, if you scroll down to the very bottom of the weapon proficiency screen, you'll see this:
The four things at the bottom determine your skill using a particular fighting style. If you're using a two-handed type of weapon like Two-Handed Swords, Spears, or Halberds, then put some points on Two-Handed Weapon Style. If you plan to use a one-handed weapon (even if it's NOT a sword, like an axe or warhammer) with a shield, go with Sword and Shield Style. If you're a complete idiot, go with Single Weapon Style. Just kidding; NEVER go with Single Weapon Style. It's stupid to use a one-handed weapon and then waste your other hand by not using either a shield or another weapon! Although, Single Weapon Style WILL boost your AC when using a single weapon. I've only found it useful for characters who are mainly archers, so I can switch them to a one-handed weapon on the fly without having to enter their inventory and add a second weapon or shield. And finally, if you want to be "totally awesome" and use a one-handed weapon in each hand, go with Two Weapon Style (note that you can only do this in BG2, not BG1). Okay, despite how awesome Two Weapon Style is, it's actually better to go with Sword and Shield Style for that extra bit of defense in most cases. But since Rangers automatically have Two Weapon Style almost maxed out, if you're a Ranger, go with that. And finally, you finish up your character creation by choosing your Appearance and Name. These are entirely up to you and make no difference in the game whatsoever. There! We're finally done with character creation! Now we can move on to playing the game. We begin in the dungeon of Jon Irenicus, the main villain of Shadows of Amn...
EVERYONE HATES THIS PLACE. You know how every RPG game inevitably begins with a tutorial level you have to romp through? Well, Irenicus's Dungeon is like that, only longer, and with less tutorial. I mean, there are whole mods out there that simply remove this portion from the game (although there are ways to skip it without mods). Of course, you have to drag through it the first time you play since it introduces some very important storyline elements and contains some good loot that you'll need later. So go through it, and make sure you explore every nook and cranny for loot, since you won't be coming back. [HOT TIP: You can press the Tab (or is it Caps Lock? I always forget) key while playing to highlight all lootable containers in the area. This is VERY useful. Do it a LOT. Do it all the time! It's especially useful if, like me, you go into the Feedback settings and make them extremely low, to get rid of those circles that are always under everyone's feet.] You'll also want to pick up all of the party characters here: Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen, and eventually Yoshimo.
If you can make it all the way through Irenicus's Dungeon without giving up, then you have just made it through the worst part of the entire game. The game only gets better from here, and believe me, you won't regret it. Once you are out of the dungeon, save your game in a new slot, and never save over that slot again. In fact, name it something special like "FREEDOM" so you can find it easily. I'll get back to how you can use that slot to skip the dungeon later, in the "For Advanced Players" section. [HOT TIP: One of the game loading screens says "Save Often and in Different Slots." Good advice! These loading screens don't lie, so you should pay attention to them! Well, okay, there is at least one of them that does lie. It says "When you finish this adventure, you will be able to import your character into BioWare's upcoming RPG, Neverwinter Nights!" This feature of Neverwinter Nights was scrapped before the game's release when they cut Black Isle (BG's publisher) out of the team and replaced them with Atari (thanks a lot, Hasbro...). Also because they decided to run NWN on the 3rd Edition D&D ruleset, where BG runs in 2nd Edition. Also, you can ascend to like level 40 in BG2, but the level cap is 20 in NWN (though the Hordes of the Underdark expansion later raised it to 40). But anyway, NWN stinks, so don't worry about it. You've got the good stuff already.] Now, as you can see, the game started you out with a balanced party: a fighter (Minsc), a healer (Jaheira), a mage (Imoen), and a thief (Yoshimo). Unfortunately, you lose your mage at the end of the dungeon and need to go pick up a new one. There are three you can get immediately. There's Aerie, who is in the circus tent just ahead of where you exit the dungeon... and there's also Nalia in the Copper Coronet in the Slums, and Jan in the Government District. You NEED a mage, so get one of them. Unfortunately the best mage in the game, Edwin, can only be gotten by doing a long quest. Keep Yoshimo around, because he's the best thief (second best is Jan). Minsc, Keldorn, and Korgan are the best fighters. And finally, you need to keep a healer at all times. Luckily, ALL of the romance interests in the game are also the best healers! Aerie, Viconia, and Anomen are all Clerics, and Jaheira is a Druid with a special resurrection spell, making her just as useful as a Cleric. So keep at least one of those four with you as a healer. In short, make sure you always have a healer, a mage, a thief, and a tough fighter type. Everything else is up to you. You might want to go with more fighters, or throw in an archer to mix things up. For more information on party locations and such, see my BG2 character guide. Okay, now here's a map of where you start off:
This is the area where you start out. That place the hand is pointing to is the Adventurer's Mart, the main shop in the game. You'll be coming back there a LOT to buy and sell things, so remember it. One of the first things you should do is go there and buy some containers, like a Gem Bag, Scroll Case, etc. Also, there's the circus tent where you can pick up Aerie, and up in the upper-right corner is a Temple where you can buy healing services and resurrect party members who have died (if their portrait is still there and greyed out, they can be resurrected). Above that is an inn where you can rest for the night. [NOTE: The main shopkeeper in the Adventurer's Mart is Ribald, the elf behind the counter. But there's also a woman in the far back between some bookshelves that will sell you spells (even though they're considered illegal in Athkatla). If you have any official add-ons or user-made mods installed, they usually stick some new merchants in here as well.] Once you're done with this stuff, you must travel to the Slums, where you'll meet Gaelen Bayle, the guy who will help you continue the main storyline. "Coo!" Follow him to his house, where he finally reveals to you that you need to collect a huge heap of gold and bring it to him. Keep in mind where his house is in the Slums when you leave. There's a fence (that's a guy who buys and sells stolen goods) on the upper floor of his house who is a GREAT shop. He has fantastic prices and will identify magical items for less than normal. So come back to him when you need to sell or identify things. He's better than the Adventurer's Mart for that. Now, leave the house. [NOTE: Never cast spells in Athkatla! Not in the city streets, anyway. That's what Imoen got arrested for, if you recall. And if the Cowled Wizards catch you doing it again, they won't just arrest you - they'll kill you. They only give you one warning. You can get the ability to cast spells in the city by traveling to the Government District and speaking to the Cowled Wizard Representative in the main Government Building there. If you pay him a rather large fee, he'll give you a license to cast spells in the city streets as much as you like. Do this as soon as you can.] When you first exist Gaelen Bayle's house, you will be approached by a boy named Brus, who works for Bayle. He offers to lead you to either the Copper Coronet or the edge of town, and he gives you advice on where to go. Listen to his advice! What he says is determined by your class. This is because he's pointing you in the direction of the Stronghold Quest for your class. Complete the quest that he tells you about and you'll gain access to your own stronghold. They are as follows:
Fighter, Monk, or
Barbarian: Find Nalia in the Copper Coronet and complete the quest to save
the de'Arnise Hold. Accept Nalia's offer when she gives it to you, and you
gain control of the castle, your stronghold. [NOTE: To exit Athkatla, you first have to travel to the Gates district and exit through the main gates. After you do this once, you will never have to do it again, and you can just quick travel to and from any location on your map.] Also note that while you can only gain "ownership" of the stronghold related to your class, ALL of the major quests related to GETTING the strongholds are open to EVERY class. And all of them get you access to great XP and loot (and even some companions). So before moving on, you might want to do a couple of these. For example, I recommend saving Nalia's keep no matter what class you are, because if you search the place thoroughly you will find three flail heads, each a different color. Take these flail heads to the forge on the first level of the castle (it's in the far back) BEFORE finishing the whole quest, and you will be able to forge them into one of the most powerful weapons in the game: the Flail of Ages. Do this before you finish the quest or you'll lose your chance forever. And keep that flail around too. Note that you do NOT actually have to have Nalia in your party to complete this quest. Here's the location of the Keep:
Another one of the best stronghold-getting quests is the one in Trademeet involving the Druid Grove. There's a lot of stuff to do in Trademeet, and finishing all of the quests there can either get you an amazingly famous reputation and a group of statues built of your party... or can make you the most infamous and hated scumbag on the planet... but a very rich one. Anyway, most of these quests not only get you your stronghold, but they also get you enough money to pay off Gaelen Bayle. I'm sure you can figure out the rest of the game yourself, so you don't need me to hold your hand through all of it and ruin it for you. ;-) [NOTE: After you finally return to the surface from your... trip to Spellhold, don't forget to revisit Ribald at the Adventurer's Mart in the Promenade and ask to see his "special goods." A bunch of new high-level items will be available.] Oh, and here's something I'd better mention right now because the only place the game itself will tell you about it is in the loading screens, so it's easy to miss! If you thoroughly explored Irenicus's Dungeon, you should have picked up a blue gem, which, if you identified it, says it's a pommel gem to a sword called the Equalizer. You will be finding many weapon pieces like this throughout the game. If you get all of the pieces to any particular weapon, there is a dwarf who can forge them into the full item. This is how you can get some of the most powerful weapons in the entire game! So here's the big secret: how to find the dwarf. Well, he's right here...
Yep, Cromwell. That's the guy. He's right where the pointer is pointing, in the Docks District of Athkatla. One final location of note: The Watcher's Keep. If you have Throne of Bhaal installed, you may have noticed a strange keep near the very bottom of your map called the Watcher's Keep. This is a dungeon for high-level characters to enjoy. It's not for you yet! You still might want to go there though and at least loot the first one or two floors, if you think you can handle it. The main things you want to look for are the Case of Plenty (infinite +1 crossbow bolts), Quiver of Plenty (infinite +1 arrows), and Bag of Plenty (infinite +1 sling stones). Also keep any little notes you find lying around that say things like "square+red+orange+bla,bla,bla" because they are codes you can enter in a machine farther down the dungeon to permanently increase your stats! This is a great way to improve characters who have lousy ability scores... like Aerie. Well, hopefully now you know enough about the places you should go. Along the way, you may have run into some difficult fights. Now it's time for me to try to help you with those... My party (an evil party under the leadership of Tiax the Grand, my remake of an NPC from the original game) is about to make its way to the Den of the Seven Vales (pictured) to fight a group of thugs on the upper floor of the inn who have some nice loot. You might want to try this too, if you think you're up to it.
Okay, so whenever you're about to begin a fight, first try to find a way around it using dialogue. In this game, there is often (but not nearly always) a way to avoid a fight, sometimes just by talking your opponent out of it. In my case, I told Mencar Pebblecrusher, the leader of the thugs, that I would go run off. Now he remains neutral and gives me a chance to prepare my party for the fight. This extra time really helps. [NOTE: If you've decided to try this fight, don't let Korgan enter the room first, because he and Mencar have a history. Korgan will throw some insults at him and then the fight will begin immediately. It's entertaining, but it's not that safe unless you've already prepared yourself outside in the hallway.]
Now that everything's nice and peaceful, we're going to buff the party. "Buff" is the word RPG gamers use to refer to spells that protect them from damage or increase their combat power. Clerics and Druids and Mages have many such spells in their repertoire. Also try using potions, since there are many great buffing potions in the game. A few buff spells and potions can make ALL the difference in a fight, so use them well! It's a good idea to use the spell before the fight like I'm about to do now and drink the potions during the fight, since you can put potions into your character's quickslot and they are activated immediately. [NOTE: Having trouble using spells? Well, here's how it works: Mages and Bards memorize spells from scrolls, by right-clicking on a scroll and clicking "copy to mage book." All other classes learn spells automatically as they level up. You can memorize these spells for use in a fight by clicking on the Mage Book or Priest Scroll icons on the right side of the screen and selecting the appropriate character. Mage, Sorcerer, and Bard spells are written in the Mage Book, and Cleric, Paladin, Druid, and Ranger spells are written in the Priest Scroll. Just select the spells you'd like your character to prepare. Once all your slots are full, REST. Resting allows your character to re-memorize their spells for use in the next battle.]
As far as buffing goes, a mage's best friends are Mirror Image and Stoneskin. When combined, these spells will protect your wizards against most mundane weapons for quite a while. Globe of Invulnerability and Fire Shield are nice spells too. Clerics have a ton to choose from and they're all pretty useful, so just pick the ones you like the best. Clerics also get spells that will affect your whole party, like Bless, Chant, and Defensive Harmony. Notice that as you buff your characters, the icons for each buff spell appear under their portrait to the left. When the spells wear off, the icons disappear. Icons will also appear for negative effects like daze or confusion. You can read more about them by looking at the Character screen (that little head button on the left), which explains what each icon stands for. Now that everyone is buffed and situated in somewhat defensive positions (I put the mages in the middle to protect them), I talk to Mencar again while Korgan is in the room. Alternatively, you can just attack him with the sword button in the corner of your screen. You can use this to attack anyone you darn well please, even random civilians. Ain't RPGs great?
The insults fly, and the fight begins! Watch as your enemies' circles turn red and they start to attack. [NOTE: You may have noticed the circles are not visible on my screen. That's because I turned them off in the Feedback Options. I recommend doing that, since it makes the game more immersive. The circles will still appear when you scroll over a character or pause the game.]
PAUSE! Yes, I said PAUSE. Get ready, because this is the most important thing you are going to learn about combat in Baldur's Gate: you can pause the game at any time by hitting the space bar or by clicking the little clock in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. What's the use of pausing the game, you ask? To issue orders to your party members, my friend. While the game is paused you can tell each of your party members to perform a different task. Tell this guy to cast a spell at that guy, tell this melee fighter to go there and fight that guy, tell this person to switch weapons, tell this person to drink a potion... and then when you unpause, all of your commands will be carried out. This is how you will do most of the strategic combat control in the game. The only fights where you don't really need to pause are the really easy ones, like against groups of goblins. But in any fight where strategy is involved (sending fighters after wizards, telling your party to cast specific spells, etc.), PAUSE THE GAME FIRST. And over and over again. In fact, you can actually set the game to auto-pause at certain times in the options menu. It might be a good idea, unless you find it annoying, to set your game to auto-pause when a hostile is spotted, when a character is critically injured, when a character dies, and when a weapon is ineffective. While you're in the options menu, another good thing to do is find the Feedback settings and check off the option to show attack rolls. They're good to see, if you ask me. Speaking of ineffective weapons, do you see Pooky down there on that screenshot? You know, the imp with the big purple shield over him? Well, as it says in the chat menu at the bottom, he is now Protected from Normal Missiles by a buffing spell. He also has cast stoneskin on himself. This means normal arrows and weapons will be of no use against him. You can break through these spells with a counter-spell like Breach or Pierce Magic, or by using a different type of damage. In some cases monsters are completely immune to certain types of attacks like Normal Weapons or Magical Damage. In these cases you'll need to find a different way to fight them, such as with an elemental attack (frost, fire, or acid) or with pure magic (magic missile almost always works). [strange NOTE: Pooky is one of a handful of characters (or at least names) from BG2 that did appear in Neverwinter Nights. I think there was also a reference to Jan Jansen in the game, and something else like that. I can't remember all of them... There are also references to Baldur's Gate in Icewind Dale, a reference to Neverwinter Nights in Baldur's Gate 1, and a reference to Planescape Torment in BG2. Man I love BioWare and Black Isle games...]
Anomen is getting a bit hurt! See the potion of healing I'm scrolling over? It's a good idea to use those. In BG2 the small potions of healing usually are almost useless, so you'll want to use the big ones. However, one mistake a lot of new players make is trying to use healing potions for every injury all the time. No! Save your healing potions for quick healing during battles, and only use spells and resting to heal your party between battles. Also, if you can possibly make it out of a battle without using a healing potion, try to do so. It's better to save them. Those things are expensive, and they aren't as common as they are in hack-n-slash action-RPGs. A good strategy when in battle is to take down an enemy's spellcasters as quickly as possible, because they are usually weak in health points but can cause a lot of damage. You'll learn to spot spellcasters by their unique look (sorcerers usually wear robes, priests use blunts and wear slightly different looking armor than fighters, etc.), or else by their obvious names, such as "Orc Shaman" or in this case "Sorcerous Amon."
As I said, magic missile almost always works.
Ha! Look at that! Now Sorcerous Amon is already out of the fight. See his circle turned yellow? That means he's panicking from fear or a spell. He's out of control and is no more use as an ally or as an enemy until his fear wears off. You can always tell a character's current situation by their circle color. Blue is neutral, green is ally, yellow is afraid or out of control, and red is hostile. Grey is... well, dead. There are a few spells such as Chaos and Terror that can cause your enemies' circles to turn yellow. They will either panic and run away or they'll start attacking their own allies. In fact, while I'm on the subject, I might as well talk about scouting. Big-damage spells like Fireball are no use when your whole team is fighting with the enemy and could be injured or killed by your own fireball. So a good idea is to use a scout (either hidden in the shadows or invisible with a spell) to go look ahead into a room and find the enemy's location. Then chuck a big powerful area-of-attack spell into the room like Cloudkill before sending your guys in. Or else cast Web on the enemy to hold them in place and THEN chuck in a Cloudkill. Works GREAT, see?
But anyway, back to the battle at hand. It looks like Pooky has cast Confusion into the middle of our party!
See the little birdies and stars above Edwin and Jan Jansen's heads? This means they are confused and out of our control. A new icon has been added to their portraits to reflect this as well. This is bad. You can remove this effect or protect against it with spells like Chaotic Commands. Also, if you make your berserker like Minsc or Korgan go into a berserk rage, they are immune to most confusion or fear spells like this.
Psst! Don't forget that if a fight gets TOO hard, you can crank down the difficulty slider at any time in the Gameplay options. You can crank it down for a fight and then crank it back up afterward. [HOT TIP: Have you tried to memorize a spell scroll and had the game tell you "you failed to copy the scroll into your mage book"? Isn't that annoying? You lose a whole spell and don't get anything out of it! No spell, no XP, no gold! Well, just crank the difficulty slider all the way down while memorizing your scrolls and voila! When the game is set to easy, you NEVER fail to memorize spells. Just remember to set it back up when you're done.]
Hehe... it looks like Mencar's pet thief, Brennan Risling, is trying to run away in the middle of the fight. This is BG2 after all, so characters make their own decisions like this at times. But we we want the XP and loot for killing Brennan, so we've already trapped him between two of our characters. No one escapes the will of Tiax!
Well, we killed Brennan, but Korgan just died. When a character dies, their portrait will turn grey. It's okay, you can still resurrect them later at a Temple or resurrect them yourself if you have a Cleric in your party who can cast Raise Dead or Resurrect. As long as his portrait is still there, he's okay. If, however, his portrait disappears completely after death, then he's gone forever, and you'd better load your game. This only happens in a few situations. For example, if your character is hit by a critical blow and immediately drops WAY into the negative hitpoints, he will be blown into bloody chunks of meat (literally, they bounce around all over the screen), and he's gone forever. Also, if a character is frozen or petrified, he will be blow into ice or stone pieces, or if he is burned to a crisp and his corpse turns black. In all of these cases, he's gone forever.
Speaking of "bloody chunks of meat," it looks like Edwin managed to "chunk" Sorcerous Amon just now! Ha! BOOM! So much for the enemy mage (except for Pooky, of course). In fact, let's just wrap this up. Okay, we've killed all of the enemies now.
Once the fight is over, NEVER forget to grab your enemy's loot by clicking on the piles of stuff they drop. First I'll go back out into the Promenade and sell the loot I don't care about to Ribald in the good old Mart. Then I'll stop by the Temple of Ilmater.
And now we can go resurrect Korgan.
Here's the resurrection spell. Expensive, isn't it? That's a good reason not to let people die in battles. When you first enter the Temple screen, you'll notice it takes you to a donation plate where you can donate money. Why bother with that, you ask? Well, for every good thing you do in Baldur's Gate, you gain good Reputation points (up to 20). Getting a high rep gives you better prices in all stores (which is why it's a good idea to install a mod that lets evil people get this discount as well), but getting over 18 reputation will cause any evil members in your party to get disgusted and leave. Likewise, when you do something evil, you lose reputation. Getting a reputation like 2 will cause any good members in your party to leave. It will also cause the forces of law and order to hound your every step. And they are TOUGH! So to counter this affect, you can donate money to a church. Donate JUST enough to gain a reputation point. Any less and your money will be completely wasted. Any more and the money you spend over the required amount will also be wasted. You can only gain one point per donation. I can't ever remember the exact amount you have to donate so you'll just have to play around until you find it. Was it 600? 1200? Bah. One last combat tip: SUMMON MONSTERS! Sending in summoned monsters before your real party members can be a great protection. And don't forget that you can buff your summons too. Sometimes you can summon creatures that have a particular immunity that is good against the attack of whatever you are facing. There are a lot of items out there that can summon good allies, such as a book that will summon a golem and a horn that will summon berserkers. Both of those items I just mentioned can even be improved later if you know where to go. A Few Creature-Specific Combat Tips & Tricks Trolls: There's only one big secret to fighting trolls, and the loading screens throw this at you every now and then, so it's hard to miss: Once you "kill" a troll, they will fall on the ground unconscious. They look dead, but their red circle is still visible, and you have not been awarded the XP for your kill. In order to finish them permanently, just use fire or acid damage on them to seal their wounds. ANY fire or acid will work... fire or acid arrows, spells, weapons, etc. After that, they're finished.
There's also a way to avoid their spells entirely, if you don't mind abusing the game system a bit. In some cases, you can enter a room where a wizard is and then leave while he is still casting his spell. When you come back, he will have stopped casting the spell, thus wasting it. Keep leaving and re-entering until he has used up all of his spells this way, and you will be able to attack him melee. Without any spells left, he's defenseless. This doesn't always work though, and it's a bit like cheating. Monster hunting? You can find some of the toughest Liches in the game by doing the Kangaxx quest. Travel to the Docks District and enter the house between MaeVar's Guild and the Sea's Bounty tavern. Be sure to watch for traps! Eventually you'll find a tomb. Double-click the coffin and out pops Kangaxx the Lich. He will ask you to find the parts of his body for him. The first group of parts is in a tomb behind a secret door in the Temple District sewers. Look for it while you're doing the Cult of the Eyeless quests and you can't miss it. The other part of him is in a little house with a trapped door in the lower part of the Bridge District. Both parts are guarded by tough Liches. When you bring them back to Kangaxx, be ready for one HELL of a fight! And be sure to bring your best possible armaments: +4 weapons or better! [Item Note: If you have completed the Planar Sphere quest, you should have gotten a ring called the Ring of the Ram, which causes a big bang of damaged when used on the enemy. Although it's not that incredible, it has one awesome power... it bashes right through almost all spell protections. So get up close to a Lich, click on that backpack at the bottom of your screen, choose the Ring of the Ram, and then click on the Lich. BAM! A good deal of damage right there. Sometimes it's enough to kill them.] Assassins: Thieves and assassins that attack you in the game will often gulp a potion of invisibility before attacking. You can dispel this by casting Dispel Invisibility or True Seeing. Just don't let them hit you in the back, because their backstabs are deadly. Be sure to protect your mages with Stoneskin! Or else just keep them out of the room. Monster Hunting? When you first go to the Bridge District you'll be approached by a guard asking about a murderer. If you continue with this quest you'll eventually find out that the murderer is the hide tanner. In the basement of his house are a couple of Rune Assassins, some of the toughest assassins out there, so be prepared. Each one gives a good deal of XP.
[Item Note: If you travel to the City Gates District and enter the tavern there, walk to the wall near the back with the pictures hanging on it. Tell your thief to detect traps, that might help. Eventually you'll spot a hidden door. Open it and go inside, but BE CAREFUL. There's a super-tough Lich in here who will kick your arse BIGTIME. But if you can make it past him, there's also a longsword called Daystar that will cast Sunray once per day. It's a great anti-vampire tool.] Golems: Golems can be very, very frustrating. There are tricks to fighting each one. I heard that Stone Golems are vulnerable to Piercing damage which doesn't make much sense to me, but there you go. But Stone Golems are actually the easiest of the three main golem types, and they can typically be eliminated by a strong group of fighters with good weapons. The harder version of a Stone Golem is the Clay Golem. The most important thing to remember about Clay Golems is that only BLUDGEONING weapons can hurt them! So don't even try swords; they are no good. Unless they do elemental damage, since that's another thing Clay Golems are susceptible to. The biggest golems are Iron Golems. They can only be hit by +3 weapons or higher, and they are tough and strong. Don't even try to fight them up close if you can help it. And you usually can prevent having to face them up close by getting them stuck in a small opening. Nearly every Iron Golem or Adamantite Golem in the game can be stuck in a small passageway for easy elimination by archers and/or summoned creatures (such as higher-level skeleton warriors). Heck, even a fighter with a long-range melee weapon like a two-handed sword or a halberd can hit them while they're stuck and still be out of range of their fist attacks (but watch out for their gas attack). [Item Note: The Flail of Ages, which can be constructed in the De'Arnise Hold and later upgraded two more times by Cespenar in ToB, is the ultimate anti-golem machine. It does bludgeoning damage and elemental damage, so it's great against clay golems.] Mind Flayers: When I first met these guys they nearly drove me crazy. As soon as you SEE a Mind Flayer, they will cast spells at you that will hypnotize your party members, and then they will advance and suck out the brains of anyone who is left. There's an easy trick to defeating them though, and it's really pretty simple. First, get a fighter with the highest AC possible. You can achieve a higher armor rating by using various buffing spells and potions, and of course armor and shields. Also be sure to wear a helmet. The Mind Flayers only achieve a successful "brain drain" on a critical hit, and helmets protect against those. So does a high AC in general. And the brain drains are the ones that really get you, because they lower your Intelligence (not permanently, but long enough for the fight). Once you hit 0 Intelligence, you die... even if you're at full hit points. So it's better if you have a good amount of Intelligence... hopefully your character has at least 10. Now, before sending your high-AC fighter into battle, protect them from being charmed by either: equipping them with an item that will protect them, such as the Helm of Charm Protection, casting a spell that will protect them such as Chaotic Commands, or making them go berserk, which will usually protect them from such effects. Once you've done all this, just send in the fighter and let him destroy the flayers. Here are a few hints and tips and things to look for if you're already pretty experienced with the game or have played through it at least once. Even if you haven't, you still might want to read these... Skipping Irenicus's Dungeon: If you've been through this miserable place, dubbed "Chateau Irenicus" by fans of the game, once... then there's no reason for you to ever want to drag your miserable corpse through it again. And you don't have to. Remember game I TOLD you to save when you got out of the dungeon? Well, I hope you still haven't saved over it! First, go find what that game was called. Okay, now surf into your game's installation folder and open up the folder called "save." All of the savegames are located in here, each in a separate folder. Find the one where you just got out of Chateau Irenicus and grab it. Now, copy it into the other folder called "mpsave." If you don't have an "mpsave" folder in your installation directory, make one! Once your save game is under "mpsave," re-launch the game and click "multiplayer." Start up a multiplayer game and load the save game you moved. As soon as you're in the game, go to your inventory and DROP all the loot on your main character. Now save the game again under a different slot, with a name like STARTING POINT. Before loading this game again, go to your character sheet and write down your number of XP. Okay, now go to the character edit screen. Click "modify characters" and then delete your main character. Now you can do this any time you want to start a new game; just load that game, delete your main character, and make a new one. Once you've started with your new char, just cheat for the amount of XP you wrote down, and then pick up your items. Congrats! You have skipped Chateau Irenicus! There is only one minor glitch here, that I know of. I've noticed that if I've already started a romance with Jaheira as a male human character or something, then it will carry over even if the new character you make is something totally incompatible... like a female dwarf. Scary, huh? Well, just something to think about... After you've created your new character, you might want to move them back into Single Player since the load times are shorter and there seem to be some character interactions that don't pop up in multiplayer. To do this, just save a new game and move the savegame folder from the "mpsave" folder to the "save" folder. Now it should appear under the single player saves. Creating Your Own Party: After you've played through the game a couple of times like me, you might want to have a little variety by creating everyone in your party yourself, like in the Icewind Dale games. This takes away considerably from the appeal of Baldur's Gate, since one of the best things about the game is the interesting characters and your interaction with them. But if you really want to try it, here's how: Just use the same method for moving your save game that I explained above, in "Skipping Irenicus's Dungeon." Just start a multiplayer game, create all of your characters, save the game in a new slot, and then move the folder back into the single player "save" folder. Any time you want to edit your characters, you can just move it back to mpsave and edit away, then cheat to get your old XP amount back. Take note, however, that in addition to making the game simpler and somewhat less fun, making your own party can also make the game considerably more easy. Because your own characters will probably have better stats than the ones you pick up in the game. So you might want to try going with a harder difficulty mode when you play it this way... or else try not making your characters so ridiculously good. I mean, come on: 18 strength, dexterity, AND constitution? Are you nuts?
Standing Alone: If you want to try something HARDER instead of easier, then you might want to try playing ALONE instead of with a full party. It's not as much fun in my opinion, but it can be very challenging even to the experienced player. Due to the class-based system of BG, it's better to have a variety of characters with different skills and abilities, so it can be hard to pick a single class to play alone through the game with. Fighters are strong and tough, so they can take more damage... but what about those traps you need to disarm and locks you need to pick? What about all those wizards you'll need to fight with spells? What about all the healing you're going to need along the way? As you can see, it can be a tough choice. Personally, I recommend going with some kind of mutli-classed thief, because IMO, you NEED all those thief skills! My personal choice was Cleric/Thief, since Clerics can cast a variety of extremely useful spells while wearing any kind of armor, and you still get the abilities of the thief (although you'll have to switch armors to use them). In fact, my character was a re-make of Tiax, the crazy gnome cleric/thief you meet in Baldur's Gate. I exported and re-made his sound-set, used his portrait, and pumped up his stats a LOT. The biggest drawback to this class I ran into was the fact that you can't backstab with a bludgeoning weapon, and clerics can only use bludgeons. Luckily the cleric spell Flame Blade that gives you a flaming sword seemed to help. Anyway, it can be a fun and challenging way to play... although I've only tried it in BG1, never in BG2...
Fun with Dual-Classing: There are plenty of fun classes to try on your other plays through the game, especially with BG2's special subclasses. But if you want to try something a bit more complicated, there's something only Humans can do called Dual-Classing. With dual-classing, you level up to a certain point in your first class and then choose a second class by clicking the "dual-class" button in the character screen. The only classes that will appear are the ones you meet certain requirements for. For example, you can't dual-class a Fighter to a Fighter/Mage if you only have 3 Intelligence. Since this can be a bit tricky, you may have to try a few times to find out what each class needs. Once you have dual-classed, you will ONLY level up in the second class you picked - you can NEVER again level up in your original class! You also will be unable to use the special abilities of your original class until your new class is the same level as your old one. For this reason, you should never try to go "half and half" by dual-classing at something like level 20, or else your character will pretty much suck for a LONG time. Some characters in the game are already dual-classed when they join your party. Nalia and Imoen are both thieves that dual-classed to mages at a certain level. So now you're probably thinking: This just sounds like a crappier version of the multi-classing that other races get! In a way that's true, since other races can continue leveling up in both classes. However, their choices are a lot more limited. For example, they can't combine a special BG2 sub-class (like the Thief sub-class "Assassin") with another class. This is the most important difference, and it leads to some of the best dual-classing options. Here are a few:
Kensai/Mage: One of the best options
available to the dual-classing human is the Kensai, the special sub-class of
Fighter. Kensai are amazing with swords, move really fast, and hit really
hard. The drawback to these "sword saints" is that they cannot wear armor of
any kind. But this can actually be a big advantage to a dual-classing mage!
After all, if you play as a fighter/mage, you can't wear armor (except Elven
Chain) and still be
able to cast spells anyway! So you might as well get the Kensai advantages.
To do this, start a game out as a Kensai and level up until you get full points on your favorite
sword type and fighting style. Make sure you have a lot of Intelligence.
Then just dual-class to a mage! If you're wondering, some of the best levels
to dual-class at are 9 and 13. Ranger/Cleric: Even though this is better as a multi-class for half-elves and the like, I just had to mention it here because it rocks. A ranger/cleric gets all the benefits of a ranger (fighter hitpoints, fighter combat skill, three points on two-weapon fighting, hide in shadows ability, etc.) combined with the benefits of a cleric (wide array of extremely useful spells, turn undead ability, etc.)... and when combined, since both ranger and cleric spells are memorized in the SAME spell book (the "priest scroll"), you basically have access to almost all of the Druid AND Cleric spells in ONE character! It's hard to go wrong with a skilled fighter who is also such a diverse spellcaster. Give them good wisdom for all those spells, and good fighting stats for combat... and charisma might not be a bad idea either, for Turn Undead and maybe Charm Animal. Your only "dump stat" here is Intelligence. The biggest downside to this class, however, is that they can use only blunt weapons. Bummer. Ahhh, mods. They can add replay value to a game, or they can completely ruin it. Some are awesome, some are stupid. Some are well-made, some are crappy. Some change way too much, others change... well, actually I don't think there's such a thing as "too little." Just "too much." I recommend playing through Baldur's Gate II with NO MODS the first time you play it. That way you can enjoy the original experience that the game designers intended, without some weird mod messing things up. However, if you are playing back through the game and would like a little more variety than the game already offers, here are my favorite mods. Note that NPC mods that add new characters for your party will not be listed here. Why? Because I have never, ever seen a good, well-rounded, fleshed-out new NPC that was actually worth having in the party. Sure, they may be useful, but most of them have major drawbacks... such as no real voice set, poorly written dialogue, a goofy portrait, etc. In general I think most of them are cheap, cheesy, and not worth downloading. The same goes for "new romance" mods. Romancing Edwin? Scary. The mod websites will be listed first in large italic font followed by my picks of the best mods available there below them.
Sorcerer's Place
WeiDu Infinity Engine Utilities and Mods THESE ARE THE BEST MODS FOR THE INFINITY ENGINE GAMES! Yes, that's right, THE BEST. WeiDu is actually this weird installer thing that makes the mods really easy to install and uninstall. You just run a program to install, and you can run it again to uninstall. Simple as that. Due to their simplicity and the fact that they are all high-quality and not too intrusive, I recommend all of the WeiDu mods (except maybe the two NPC ones... Valen and Sola). Here's a quick list of the best of the best:
Ascension: I have actually not yet tried
this mod, but it was written by one of the original game designers, David
Gaider, and I have heard only positively raving comments about it, so it
must be pretty awesome. It extends the Throne of Bhaal storyline a bit, so
you must have this expansion pack to run it:
Ease-of-Use: Ever wished that you could
stack more arrows than just 20 or 40 at a time? Ever wished you could wear
magic armor AND those Rings of Protection? Ever wished your Bags of Holding
could hold infinite stuff? Well, if you've ever wished any of those things,
then this is the mod for you. It has a whole slew of components, and you can
choose which ones you want to install. Some of them make the game *very*
unbalanced, while others just make things easier. It's up to you which ones
you use:
Item Upgrade: Remember that dwarf in the
Docks District I told you about named Cromwell? Well, this mod adds a load
of new item upgrade options to both him and Cespenar, the imp in Throne of
Bhaal. That's right, just item customizations, and item customizations only.
Nothing too intrusive, just use it if you want to. I love that kind of mod.
Pocket Plane Group
BG1TuTu: If you're one of those weird
people who can't stand playing through Baldur's Gate 1 with its 640x480
resolution and outdated graphics, then this is the mod for you. It converts
everything in Baldur's Gate 1 to the Baldur's Gate II engine, thus allowing
for more fluid avatars and animations, and of course the 800x600
resolution... not to mention all the new classes and abilities, such as
dual-wielding. You must, of course, own both games (BG1 and BG2... and
preferably Tales of the Sword Coast and Throne of Bhaal as well) in order to
use this. I'd give you a link right to the Pocket Plane page, but this is
really the page where you download the mod (EasyTuTu):
TuTu Tweaks: This is a page with a bunch
of add-on mods for BG1Tutu. Most of them aren't that great, but the first
one in the list is INDISPENSABLE. GET IT NOW. It quite simply converts the
ugly BG2 graphic user interface for TuTu back to the good old BG1 interface.
Much better, much more like BG1. Heck, after you install this, you can
hardly tell that you're not just playing BG1 with a higher resolution! Which
in fact you are. Sort of.
Spellhold Studios
1 Pixel Productions: Don't let the weird
name fool you; this is actually a cool mod. If you're like me, then you
thought the inventory images for your characters in Baldur's Gate II were
HIDEOUS compared to the nice sleek attractive ones in Baldur's Gate 1. Well,
if you thought so... then this is the mod for you. You can install this on
Baldur's Gate II or BG1TuTu (see above) to return the inventory "paper
dolls" to their old Baldur's Gate 1 look. Ahh, so much better. The only
downside is that it ALSO changes the appearance of some items. For example,
Carsomyr the Holy Avenger now looks like the Spider's Bane for some dumb
reason. So I recommend this mod more for BG1TuTu than for BG2 itself. Still
worth a try either way though:
Baldurdash
The Gibberlings Three
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