Baldur's Gate

Not to be confused with the hack-n-slash spin-off "Dark Alliance" titles for the PS2 and Xbox, Baldur's Gate is a Role-Playing Game for the PC developed by BioWare. It is also probably my favorite game of all time. I could rave at you about how awesome it is, as just about the best RPG video game ever made, but if you want to read all that, you can always visit the Gaming section of this site and check the reviews. For now, let's move on to the minifigs...

To kick things off, this is Sarevok, the main villain of the original Baldur's Gate. He's a huge warrior wearing an outfit featuring copious quantities of skulls and spikes, as befitting any warrior villain in a medieval/fantasy setting. The comparison shot down there below the LEGO is from the game's opening cutscene.

Warning: the "teeth" decals on his helmet are a HUGE pain to cut out!

The skull emblem surrounded by tears on his chest is the holy symbol of Bhaal, the god of murder, who died a couple of years before the game started... but not before leaving behind a few mortal progeny...

Sarevok without his helmet. His face design is based as much on the photos of his cutscene model from the original game as it is on this, his portrait from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, in which he can actually come back from the dead and join your group!:

Random fact: Sarevok is voiced by Kevin M. Richardson, one of many voice actors who happen to have played in almost all of my favorite video games. In addition to Sarevok in Baldur's Gate, he also voiced Tartarus the Brute in Halo 2, Marine Commander Scott Dolph in Metal Gear Solid 2, and Jolee Bindo in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic!

When Sarevok joins your party in the game, he has some of the best stats of any character. Since he's a standard human fighter, you can even dual-class him to a thief or mage if you want to. But eh, who'd want to? He's much better as a fighter carrying a huge sword and unleashing death and destruction! He has a special move that gives him a small percent chance of unleashing devastating critical hits that sometimes go up to 200 damage or more!

Here he is in brown, for those of you who aren't still boycotting flesh-toned minifigs like me.

Before going any farther, let me introduce the protagonist of the series... me! Hey, you can make your own character, but in my case, the protagonist is Justyn the Sabre-Scorpion, and he is a Chaotic Good Human Male Ranger. He wears red dragon scale armor and fights with two curved swords or a bow. I drew this portrait image back in 2003 or 2004 specifically to use in Infinity Engine RPGs like Baldur's Gate.

So here's my LEGO version of it! He has the most detailed decals of any of the minifigs here. I know that a few things don't match the picture above, but that's because I changed them to match my preferences of today. After all, he's my character, so I change him all I want. By the way, the reason for his sword combination is because my favorite two swords in Baldur's Gate II are the Celestial Fury, a katana, and Angurvadal, a flaming long sword. And naturally, my favorite armor is the red dragon scale platemail.

Every game has a signature character. In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, that character is probably HK-47. He's in both games, on both game covers, and everywhere you see KOTOR, you see HK-47. For the Baldur's Gate series, the signature character is Minsc. Minsc is a chaotic good male human ranger who likes to use big swords and armor and slay evil wherever he finds it! He also has an animal companion hamster named Boo, who Minsc believes is actually a highly intelligent miniature giant space hamster. He often talks to it. "Something must be done, Justyn! We must find this evil wizard! All that is goodness cries out for this! Even little Boo, although he cannot cry out quite so loudly."

Here are Minsc and Boo in LEGO form! Boo here is a mutilated LEGO rat. I cut off its tail and painted it. Not the best paint job in the world, but you get the idea, I think. In this shot, Minsc is wearing "Full plate, and packing steel!". And he's using a sword, of course, because he loves swords. For example, if you give a beggar a piece of gold, then Minsc will say: "I would rather have given a sword. Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fight and he can chow down the meaty marrow of evil!"

Other Minsc quotes:
"Go for the eyes, Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!!! RAAAAGHH!!!"
"Make way, evil! I am armed to the teeth, and packing a hamster!"
"There is safety in numbers... and I am two or three at least!"
"Fool me once... shame on you. Fool me twice? Watch it! I'm huge!"
"What? My weapon has no effect? I need a bigger sword!"
"Magic is impressive... but now MINSC leads! Sword for EVERYONE!"

Despite the fact that he's a ranger, Minsc is actually more of a barbarian. He can even go into a berserker rage. And he naturally gets the ranger's skill at dual-wielding, so I sometimes make him dual-wield axes, swords, or even maces (since he starts out with a proficiency in maces). Anyway, here is a decal I made for him but decided not to use, because I think the plate mail fits him better. The decal is based on the armor he wears in his Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 portraits.

There is one character in Baldur's Gate that you meet at the VERY BEGINNING of the first game and will stick with you to the VERY END, and that character is Imoen, the female human thief/mage. Of course, she gets captured in the beginning of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, and you spend much of the game trying to save her, but after that she'll never leave your side unless ordered. She's pretty useful in both games, as a thief in BG1 and as a thief/mage in BG2. Not exactly my favorite character, but worth keeping around on your first play through the series.

Imoen's torso decal is based on her portrait more than anything else. I decided to make her wearing leather armor, even though it's best not to make her wear any armor in BG2 since her spell casting abilities are hindered by it. I think the pinkish cape and legs fit perfectly with the minifig, as does the Hermione head. Her hair color isn't quite right, but eh, it works.

Another one of the main characters who will stick with you through pretty much the whole series is Jaheira, a female half-elf fighter/druid who is a Harper agent. You first meet her in the Friendly Arm Inn in Baldur's Gate 1. She originally travels with her husband Khalid, but after his torture and death in the beginning of Baldur's Gate II, she will then romance the main character (you), if you choose to do so. She's haughty and a bit of a jerk, and her romance is the most complicated (although also the most rewarding) one in the game. It's actually quite glitchy, and despite trying several times, I've never gotten it to work all the way to the end of Shadows of Amn.

Here is my Jaheira minifig. I was originally going to go with leather for the torso, since it matches her portrait in Baldur's Gate 1 better and just seems more druid-ish, but it's much better to make her wear platemail since she's a fighter/druid and it doesn't hinder her spells any. So I made this decal based mostly on what she is wearing in her BG2 portrait.

This is Edwin, a male human mage (conjurer). I used his Baldur's Gate 1 portrait here instead of his Baldur's Gate II one because his BG2 one looks disgusting. As soon as I saw his BG2 portrait, I went into the game files and replaced it with his original portrait by saving them in the Override folder. Anyway, Edwin is a cocky, stuck-up, evil wizard that you meet in Baldur's Gate 1 in Nashkel and in Baldur's Gate II in the Athkatla Docks. He's a bit strange, and he acts sort of like an unsuccessful villain that just can't seem to be as good evil things as, say, Jon Irenicus. So he ends up coming off as more comical than evil. But despite his bumbling, he is by far the best mage character in the entire series!

"Greetings to you. I am Edwin Odesseiron, but you simians may refer to me merely as 'sir' for a less... syllable-intensive workout."
Here is my LEGO Edwin wearing the Robe of the Evil Archmagi. Edwin is a Red Wizard of Thay (despite the fact that he sort of left their group), so he always wears red and gold, their typical colors. I absolutely love the way his chest decal turned out. It looks so much like something you'd see in Baldur's Gate, especially with the necklace. The necklace is Edwin's special item, an amulet of Thay. It gives him extra spell slots, and you cannot remove it from his inventory.

Also, on Edwin's belt is the symbol of Mystra, used for the magic logo throughout the game. It's a moon and three stars. Edwin often talks to himself in parentheses, unaware of the fact that you can hear him. In BG1, he greets your character by saying "You! I require the services of your group! (Yes... they will do nicely)." Sometimes he will even reveal diabolical plans to people that he plans to betray (such as you) by doing this. But with his Conjuration spell school concentration, Amulet of Thay, and 18 Intelligence, he can memorize far more spells than any other wizard in your party (even your main character, if he/she is a mage, in most cases!).

Another popular character from the Baldur's Gate series is Viconia, the female dark elf cleric who has by far the best-looking portrait in the second game. Heh. She is also a romance interest, though if you continue your romance with her to the end, it doesn't end very happily. She's a tragic character, a dark elf who has been taught to be evil like the rest of her kind, but you can change her to be good if you try. But this doesn't really change the ending. Anyway, she's still one of my favorite characters, so here is the minifig of her...

The torso decal is a combination of what she appears to be wearing her portrait... and plate mail armor. Because she's much better in some kind of armor besides just leather. Her default colors include purple, and I think it goes well with her as a Drow, so I gave her a purple cape and legs. I also gave her a mace and shield, though in the game, she is actually better off just using a sling and spells to fight, because of her abysmally low constitution. She has even less constitution than Aerie!

Speaking of Aerie... she is a lawful good female elf mage/cleric that you first meet in a circus tent in Waukeen's Promenade in BG2. She was supposedly once an Avariel, or winged elf, but when her wings became too weak to fly and got rotten and infected, the circus crew cut them off. This is the main thing that she cries about in the game. Many players have complained that she is an annoying, whiny character, but others like her, and some think that her romance (she is one of the three romances available for a male) is actually the most enjoyable. I probably agree with the latter group more, though her pregnancy and giving birth in Throne of Bhaal is a bit... awkward, to say the least. But the other NPC's make hilarious comments...

I based my Aerie minifig on both her portrait appearance and her in-game appearance, as I've done with most all of the minifigs here. In her portrait she appears to be wearing some kind of grey robes, but in the game her robes are tan and light orange by default. So I combined both of them here, giving her a grey cape and grey collar with a necklace to match the portrait, and making the rest of her robes tan and made to resemble the ones you see her wearing in the Inventory screen (including the one revealed leg). She also has a shield and mace, because, as a cleric/mage, she can wear mage robes AND a shield and helmet. Some have asked why I didn't include all that junk that she has dangling in her hair in her portrait. Well, that's because I've always thought all that junk looked stupid. So I left it out. I don't know why they felt compelled to make the Baldur's Gate II portraits so bizarre anyway. They seemed to try to put as much junk in everyone's hair as they possibly could, and as many rings as possible too. Yuck. That's why I often override the portraits. Heh.

Next in line is Jan Jansen. Jan is a crazy male gnome illusionist/thief that you find in the Government District in Athkatla. He's one of the funniest characters in the game, with extremely quirky habits, a love of building machines, potions, and other little tricks, his reminiscing about days gone by, his talk of his crazy relatives, and his love of turnips and fear of griffons.
"I think we make a fine partnership! Like Drizzt and Wulfgar! Elminster and Volo! Ha! We should go into the mobile vegetable peddling business together!"

I spent forever trying to decide on what head to give Jan Jansen. To be honest, probably the closest match to his appearance in his portrait is Count Dooku's head, but it looks way to gloomy for Jan Jansen. Also, I wanted to give him a bigger beard to make him look more gnomish. In the actual game, he has a long, pointed grey beard, so I gave him one in the LEGO as well. It's not a perfect, match, but I like the way it looks. Funny and gnomish. If you're wondering why I made his outfit such strange colors, purple and light blue... well, then you've obviously never seen what he looks like in the game...

There is Jan in the middle of this screenshot, standing next to Jaheira and Aerie. Notice his default clothing colors. Very strange, aren't they? Only he can have them too. If you change his clothing colors using the in-game options, you'll never get these bright ones back, ever.

Here he is with his crossbow, the Flasher Master Bruiser. It's so complicated (according to the item description) that only he can use it.
"I've had dangerous dealings with a wizard or two, myself. In fact, Golodon the Unmanned had the most dangerous breath this side of Rashemen. A casual conversation between him and Rozar the Unwilling almost started the Guild War of '42, you know. All those spells he cast, thinking he was cursed, and all he really needed was a good dentist. Of course, you show me a dentist whose willing to yank a rotten tooth out of the mouth of a cranky wizard and I'll show you a pig with wings! Big ones! They have them in the Moonshaes, you know. But enough about me."

Yoshimo here is a male human thief (bounty hunter to be precise) that you meet in the very beginning of Baldur's Gate II. Despite his friendly manner, you should never trust a bounty hunter. He's a pretty darn useful character though, being the only pure-class thief in the entire game. This makes him indispensable at first. It's also a good idea to keep him with you the first time you play through the game, because he's a bit important in the story.

My Yoshimo minifig is pretty simple, but I love the way his chest decal turned out. I based it on a certain type of leather armor you find in the game (I forget which) and I combined it with the appearance of his armor in his portrait. I also gave him a hood because thieves always wear hoods in the game, and his Katana +1 (+1 AC) that only he can use.

This very scarred up fellow is Keldorn, a human paladin that you meet in the sewers of Athkatla below the Temple District. Keldorn Firecam is one of the best characters in the entire game, especially if you fix his low dexterity with the Gauntlets of Dexterity and give him the best sword in the game, the paladin-only blade called Carsomyr, the Holy Avenger, which can be found in the belly of Firkraag, the red dragon. After that, he's an AWESOME tank.

Okay, here's the story behind this fig: I made the face decal a long time ago when I was first trying to make Keldorn, and I stuck it on a head and slid on the silvery helmet. Now it's... stuck. I can't get it out. Usually my decals don't get stuck if you just cut them out so that it's ONLY the face and it doesn't wrap all the way around the head. Unfortunately, this one did wrap all the way around the head, so it made the head much thicker and got stuck. I'm afraid to get it out the hard way because it would scratch up my silvery helmet. Ah well. The silver armor fits his paladin ness well. Also, even though it's hard to tell, he's holding a golden sword to represent Carsomyr.

This is Korgan Bloodaxe, the Chaotic Evil Male Dwarf Berserker. Exactly why the portrait artists gave Korgan pointed ears and an Amish-looking beard with no mustache... I have no idea. Certainly doesn't look very dwarf-like to me. But despite this, he's easily one of my favorite characters and one of the best characters in the game. He's a total jerk to everyone he meets, has a bad attitude, cusses a lot, hates everybody, and loves to kill stuff!
"Ha! This be a fine enough lot... Mayhap I won't be needin' to kill ye all anytime soon! HAha..."

Korgan in Leather Armor. I made this helmet long before the LEGO Vikings line came out and FINALLY introduced some official horned helmets. The reason he's wearing black and red is because those are his default colors in the game. I highly advise giving Korgan dual battleaxes, because he's awesome that way.
"Ye know, Mazzy... I have somethin' low and danglin' ye can feel free to fondle any time now... Ha! No need to stare like that girl! 'Twas mah axe I was referrin' to!"

And these two creepy looking beings are Jon Irenicus and his sister Bodhi. They are the main antagonists of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Both were elves once, but they betrayed their people to gain power, and thus were magically stripped of their elven immortality. To compensate for this, Bodhi turned herself into an immortal undead... a vampire. Her brother, Irenicus, simply sustains himself with magic, but he is trying to become immortal by taking the immortal, godly essence from a certain half-deity that he has heard so much about... This, by the way, would be you.

Not all party members will always agree with each other. One party conflict you'll run into is between Viconia and Keldorn. If you keep them together in the same party long enough, Viconia is sickened by Keldorn's disgusting Lawful Goodness, and Keldorn is offended by the presence of an unholy evil Drow in the party. Eventually they'll come to blows. It's likely in this case that Keldorn will win, but this conflict took me by surprise while I was in the Underdark portion of the game, and...

Well, Keldorn was already injured and Viconia was armed with the Flail of Ages (a super-powerful three-headed flail with each head doing a different type of damage), so Viconia won. It actually startled me. Suddenly they both shouted threats at each other, then left the party, then I watched as Viconia took out Keldorn, and finally she just walked up and asked if she could rejoin the group. Naturally I said yes, but then I loaded the game to prevent the permanent death of Keldorn.

In the first Baldur's Gate, one side-quest involves a witch named Dynaheir being held captive by a group of gnolls in a fortress to the west of Nashkel. There are two NPC's related to this quest. One is Minsc, who wants you to help him save Dynaheir, whom he has sworn to protect. The other is Edwin, who wants you to help him kill Dynaheir for reasons of his own. Despite this obvious conflict, you can actually get Minsc and Edwin to work together in both games... but not forever.

Though some people have found a way to work around Minsc and Edwin's hostility toward one another, they will normally come to blows. And unless you have Edwin VERY buffed up with spells, with lots of good items on, and with lots of good spells memorized... he'll usually get his arse kicked.

Dynaheir dies no matter what in the beginning of Baldur's Gate II (she is tortured to death by Jon Irenicus), so Minsc has failed his mission and has nothing to work for but revenge. However, if you have Aerie in the party, Minsc will take her up as his new witch and find new purpose in life. Watch out though, because after he does this, if Aerie gets killed during a fight, Minsc will fly into a berserker rage. Aerie has another interesting reaction like this with a bard character (whom I didn't make in LEGO form) named Haer'Dalis. He sort of falls in love with her, forming the game's only love triangle if you are also romancing her. And like Minsc, he will go nuts if she dies. I know this because, at one point in the game, I sent her to open a certain door in the Bridge District that happened to have a trap on it. She got killed, and then BANG! Both Minsc and Haer'Dalis shouted cries of anguish and started attacking fellow party members! Soon my party was down to less than half strength, with only me and one other member surviving. Youch. Take care of Aerie.

Some of the best party interactions come from Korgan. Korgan hates EVERYBODY. The only people he has respect for are tough fighters without any goody-goody philosophy. Mainly Valygar. Oh, and he likes Mazzy, the female halfling, for some reason. But all he does is berate everyone else. He drives Anomen crazy, pisses off Jaheira and Minsc, and makes Aerie cry (in fact, she will demand that you boot him out of the party... though I'm not actually sure if booting one of them out is an absolute requirement after that point or not).

One place that your party ends up going to a LOT in Baldur's Gate II is the Crypts in the Graveyard District of Athkatla. This district is where Bodhi tells you to meet her, where you work with her, and where you eventually kill her. Many other quests also take place here, including one for Korgan (retrieve the Book of Kaza) and one for Edwin (retrieve the Nether Scroll).

Since I like having Korgan in my party and you have to do his quest pretty quickly or he'll leave, I find myself retrieving the Book of Kaza pretty early in-game. And believe me, some of the undead down in the crypts can be pretty hard that early in game. Watch out for traps, and be careful of that one minor vampire that's down there. He can level drain your party members. Man, I hate level drain...

Not only is it Korgan's starting quest, but when you enter the Graveyard District with him for the first time, Edwin will also ask you to enter the crypts. When you find what he's looking for, the Nether Scroll, he keeps it to himself (it doesn't even show up in the inventory screen) and begins decoding it. He thinks it will give him immeasurable power. After a LONG time, he will decode half of it and get some bonus XP. Then after another long period of time, he will decode the rest of it and cast a special spell, thinking it will turn him into a being of immense power.

Actually, it just turns him into a woman. He gets a whole new voice set, and his comments are hilarious! His interaction with the NPC's is also hilarious. They start calling him Lady Edwina. Some of them will offer to fix his hair. Yoshimo will offer to modify his robes since he now has so much more "bulk in the upper chest area." Some of these comments really tick Edwin off and he'll start flipping out. Eventually, you can get Edwin turned back into a man though. For more info on that, read my Baldur's Gate II Character Guide.

After leaving the Underdark and heading out to fight the final fight with Bodhi, you will be "waylaid by enemies" on your road. But these "enemies" are actually Drizzt Do'Urden and friends, the characters from R. A. Salvatore's long-running series of Forgotten Realms novels. Here are my half-hearted minifig versions of them. They are, from left to right: Wulfgar, Catti-Brie (or is it Cattie-Brie? Oh well, stupid name anyway), Drizzt, Regis, and Bruenor. I say "half-hearted," but I think I got most of the details right. Yes, Bruenor is supposed to have only one horn on his helmet. And yes, the weapons are accurate, even though a halfling thief with a mace seems a bit strange to me too.

Upon meeting Drizzt's party, you have two choices. You can either enlist their aid in the fight against Bodhi, or you can fight them. I know what you're thinking: WHAT? Fight Drizzt's party? Are you nuts? Well, it's definitely not easy, but it IS possible. And some party members will jump at the opportunity to do so, including Viconia, who apparently finds Drizzt offensive (though I think she secretly admires him, if her end-game story is any indication).

Other characters, however, will not agree with fighting Drizzt and will simply walk away. One of these is Jaheira. So before you fight Drizzt, make sure you have a party that will agree with this action, or you'll end up fighting him at half-strength. Remember, you have one more party member than Drizzt does, if your party is full!

My advice is to take out Cattie-Brie and Drizzt first, since they are by far the biggest threats. Next go after Bruenor and Wulfgar. Finally you can finish off Regis, who is really not that much of a problem. Come well-prepared, and expect many of your party members to die. When it's done you've proven that you're one foul, evil, loathsome cockroach, but hey, you still get...

Drizzt's awesome stuff! Some of the other characters have some really good items too, but none are as good as Drizzt's two scimitars and his armor. Be warned, however: if you take Drizzt's items, a weird mage will eventually pop up out of nowhere and ask you to give them back to him. You can fight the mage for a WHILE, but eventually he will be too powerful and totally destroy you unless you give the swords and armor back. So the use of these items is limited. Use them wisely.

If you enlist Drizzt's aid instead of killing him, then he will help you fight Bodhi's vampires. Be sure to bring plenty of wooden stakes! He will actually not help you fight Bodhi herself though. You have to do that on your own. And she's pretty darn tough, let me tell you. You'll probably end up with several dead party members an half of what's left level-drained to almost nothing. Be prepared to buy lots of Restoration spells from the local priest.

Before winding this long page up, here are two characters I made that are NOT from Baldur's Gate... First of all: This is Aribeth, a character from the original Neverwinter Nights. You could say the main character, since, unlike in Baldur's Gate II, she practically takes the leading role in the storyline instead of you (which was one of the things that irked me about NWN). Nevertheless, I sort of liked her character, even if the existence of an elven paladin made me frown disapprovingly (like most bizarre 3rd Edition combinations do). Aribeth introduces herself as "Lady Aribeth de Tylmerande, Paladin of Tyr and Right Hand to Lord Nasher Alagondar."

Aribeth is haughty and holier-than-thou, but her attitude gets shattered over the course of the game. Her story is definitely a tragedy, and the happiest ending available in NWN1 is her turning herself in to the law to await possible execution at the hands of Lord Nasher. However, if you get the Hordes of the Underdark expansion pack, you can lead her to a more happy ending. I have a lot of complaints about that though (such as the fact that your character in HotU is not supposed to be the hero that you played as in NWN... a fact that made me royally pissed). Anyway, I seem to be rambling. Forgive me. I could complain about Neverwinter Nights all day. Not my favorite game. In fact, the only game BioWare has ever made that actually disappointed me.

Second from the non-BG2 characters... This is Arwyn, the main character of a series of comic books called Sojourn, by Crossgen, a company that unfortunately went out of business a while back. This sure was disappointing for me, since Sojourn is the only series of comic books I've been interested enough in to read from issue number 1. Sure, the story wasn't much, but it was alright, and the artwork was spectactular! I bought all four graphic novel compilations of the comic books (though the fourth one was a real pain in the butt to get my hands on), but then suddenly it all stopped. It's sad that fantasy comics don't do well but stupid corny super-heroes in tights continue to sell. I've never much cared for super-hero comics... bah!
UPDATE: Hey, I guess some other company finally got the rights to publish the next graphic novel, and now there's a Volume 5 coming out. I ordered mine from Amazon (the LAST one they had) - I just hope I'll actually get it...

Here is my minifig version of Arwyn. She is not extremely detailed, but I was just making her for fun. I think the torso decal turned out great. I really wish she had some longer hair though. But the only longer blond hair I have is the blond Dumbledore hair from the newest Lucius Malfoy minifig. that just doesn't fit. What LEGO really needs to make is some blond Hermione hair. That would be very useful to me. I'd buy at least ten!

Well, that's all for now folks. Hope you enjoyed this long page. Now I think I'll go play Baldur's Gate some more. You should too.