Baldur's Gate II: Shadows Of Amn - Introduction

Introduction

In Baldur's Gate, your character faced the harsh light of reality. Pushed violently out of your home after the death of your foster father, you had to discover the truth of his killing, and your own past. What you discovered was that you were the offspring of the deceased Lord of Murder, the dark god Bhaal. He had foreseen his own imminent demise and so had spread his seed across the land. You were one of those children. So too was the evil Sarevok, the murderer of Gorion. He sought to become the new Lord of Murder, and sought to start a war between Baldur's Gate and Amn. It would not matter who won this war... so long as people died by the thousands. Fortunately for the world you were there to stop Sarevok and end his schemes.

But the world doesn't stop for one heroic deed. Soon after your adventures around Baldur's Gate a mysterious force captures your adventuring party. Could this be another spawn of Bhaal? Or perhaps something worse...

Baldur's Gate II: The Shadows of Amn takes place just a few months after the events of Baldur's Gate. You have been captured and placed in a cage. All your equipment and money is gone. Your companions have been scattered. Who is behind this? And more importantly... why?

There are two "bonus" CD's out there, one people got with the Collector's Edition and another for Preordering (either from EBworld or from the Interplay Store). These add new shops and items. You can also download these files from http://www.sorcerers.net/index.shtml (you can also check out the Frequently Asked Questions for more information)

Collector's Disc: Aurora's Emporium in the Adventurer's Mart

Sells all manner of Torment related items, such as Dak'kon's Zerth Blade and Vhailor's Helm. Best yet, it has the almighty Robe of Vecna. Talk to Deidre in the back of the Adventurer's Mart.

Preorder Disc: Joluv in the Copper Coronet

Sells all manner of Icewind Dale related items, such as Hrothgar's Axe and the Defender of Easthaven.

You can just use the cheats to create the merchants (see the Cheats section if you don't know how to do it):

CLUAConsole:CreateCreature("wmart1")
CLUAConsole:CreateCreature("wmart2")

to make the two merchants appear in the current area. [from John Howard]

 

What's New in Baldur's Gate II

Here's a list of what's new in Baldur's Gate II (as compared to BG):

- Familiars. Mages can cast the first level spell "Find Familiar" to get themselves a little intelligent creature called a Familiar. Not only do you get a permanent little scout/thief/monster, but you get a bonus to your Mage's HP as well. If your Familiar has 24 HP, then you get +12 HP.

- Strongholds. Each class gets their own specific stronghold to call their own. A fighter gets a castle, a bard gets a playhouse and a thief gets a thieves' guild.

- New Playable Race: Half-Orc. Half-orcs get a bonus to their strength and constitution and a penalty to their intelligence and charisma.

- New Playable Classes: Monk, Barbarian and Sorcerer.

Monk. The Monk is one of the more interesting new classes. They are very skilled at fighting without weaponry, and as they go up in levels their fists grow in power. At the 14th level they start gaining Magic Resistance. They also have other special abilities, such as Lay on Hands faster movement and some thief skills. The drawback? They can't wear armor or use two-handed weaponry.

Barbarian. The Barbarian is a brute compared to the fighter. More vicious but less refined. He gets more HP, can berserk and moves faster. Drawbacks? Can't wear Full Plate or Plate Mail, and cannot gain more than Specialized in Proficiencies.

Sorcerer. Normal mages have to first learn a spell, then memorize it, then spend time to cast the spell. The Sorcerer does none of these. They simply get a set number of spells per level and can cast a number of spells. This works more like "mana" systems of other games.

- New sub-classes, called Kits. These represent different philosophies within each discipline. For example, the Wizard Slayer (Fighter) won't wear magic items, but gains a bonus magic resistance and can disrupt magic spells permanently. For more information see the Kits section in the Appendix.

- More thief skills, such as Set Trap, Detect Illusion and more.

- More spells, including Delayed Blast Fireball and Time Stop.

- Gem bags to hold gems and necklaces, Scroll cases to hold spells and parchments and Bags of Holding to hold everything else.

- Bigger, fiercer monsters, including Dragons, Beholders and Liches.

- Better resolution. The game officially supports up to 800x600, but unofficially it can go up much, much higher.

- Higher experience cap, set at 2.95 million experience points allowing your character to become as gods. (not quite, but that sure sounds good doesn't it?)

Throne of Bhaal Information

Throne of Bhaal is the official Expansion Pack to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. It has one area (Watcher's Keep) that can be reached in either game, and many other areas that take place after the events in BG2. ToB can be purchased in any store that sold BG2.

Once you enter the Expansion areas (with the exception of Watcher's Keep) you cannot return to the original game areas.

What's New in Throne of Bhaal:

- TAB key will now highlight doors, containers and items for you. (use it often!)

- Wild Mage kit. Just like a mage, but with one key difference, Wild Surges. These are near unpredictable alterations of the magic. It might just make you itchy (or your enemies itchy) or it could even change your gender. You just never know.

- New areas.

- Completes the Baldur's Gate saga.

- Experience Cap set much higher at 8,000,000. This allows most characters to get to level 40.

- Many new items, and more items that can be built from other items.

- More spells.

- You can now remove spells from your spellbook. This is intended to get rid of unwanted spells when you can't learn any more.

Tip: If you have duplicate Spell Scrolls, learn the spell once, then Erase it, then learn it again. This way you get the experience twice!

- New high level abilities (HLA) for level 20+ characters. These abilities are extremely strong and useful, such as Deathblow, Whirlwind attack and Summon Planetar.

- Evil clerics can Turn Paladins along with Undead. (which adds an interesting conflict when you have Viconia and Keldorn in the same party)

- Cloak of Mirroring no longer reflects spells back to their caster, merely blocks the spells.

David Gaider (one of the senior designers of ToB) has released a few minor additions to Throne of Bhaal, which you can find at Baldurdash:

http://www.baldurdash.org/ToB/TOBtweaksandcheats.html

They include new Bhaalspawn abilities, and tougher Demogorgon and Balthazar battles.

Baldurdash: http://www.baldurdash.org/

The Wish Spell

The WISH Spell is much like its lesser brother, the Limited Wish, but a whole lot more powerful. As such it is very tricky to use. The Djinn you summon is pretty much out to get you, so having a good WISDOM is essential. 18 or more will get you the best responses, 9 or worse will get you some pretty awful responses. However, which wishes you get is also partly random. He then picks from a list of wishes that you can get (not all will be what you want), and if you have really bad wisdom, you'll be picking from a list of nothing but bad choices! Here is a list of all the wishes, sorted from the really bad to the sorta awful to the surprisingly good:

'Improved Haste' on all enemies in the area.
Level Drain two levels from each party member.
Bring a 'Meteor Swarm' down upon the caster.
Temporarily remove half of the caster's HP.
Caster loses all memorized spells.
Party loses 10,000 gp.
Temporarily reduce the Strength of all party members to 3.
Temporarily reduce the Dexterity of all party members to 3.
Temporarily reduce the Constitution of all party members to 3.
Temporarily reduce the Wisdom of all party members to 3.
Temporarily reduce the Intelligence of all party members to 3.
Temporarily reduce the Charisma of all party members to 3.
Heal all enemies in the area.
Temporarily remove 15% of all party members' HPs.
Summon an extra hostile monster into the area.
Everyone in the area, both party members and enemies, become intoxicated.
'Breach' on everyone in the area, including the party.
Blow all people, including party members, away from the caster.
Heal everyone, party members and enemies included.
Temporarily set Strength to 18 for everyone in the area, including enemies.
'Miscast Magic' on everyone in the area, including party members.
'Magic Resistance' on everyone in the area, including enemies.
'Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting' on everyone in the area, including the party.
Incur bad luck on everyone in the area, including party members.
'Silence' on everyone in the area, including party members.
'Haste' everyone in the area, including enemies.
'Improved Haste' on all party members.
'Breach' on all enemies in the area.
'Restoration' on all party members.
Raise all party members' characteristics to 25 for 4 rounds.
'Resurrection' on all dead party members.
All party members gain the temporary ability 'Greater Deathblow'.
All party members gain the temporary ability 'Hardiness'.
Create a random wand in caster's inventory.
Create a random potion in the caster's inventory.
Make it as if the entire party has just rested a full night and re-memorized all their spells.
Cast a double-length 'Time Stop' and 'Improved Alacrity' on the caster.

Upgraded Familiars:

Familiars are upgraded when you complete the regular game by beating Irenicus.

You can now "feed" the familiars to heal them. You can also ask them for advice.

If you want to see the old BG2 familiar list, it is in the Gameplay Strategies section below.

Alignment Familiar AC HP	Abilities
Lawful Good Pseudo Dragon 0 48	35% magic resistance, renders victims unconscious, casts Blur, Ghost Armor, Detect Illusion, 2 attacks per round
Neutral Good Pseudo Dragon 0 48	(same as above)
Chaotic Good Fairy Dragon 0 24	45% magic res., casts Invisibility 10' Radius, Imp. Invisibility & Mirror Image 1/day
Lawful Neutral Ferret -4 48	65% magic res., 95% Pickpocket, 60% Stealth, 60% Detect Traps
True Neutral Rabbit 1 48	85% Detect Traps, 60% Stealth, 65 magic res., 50% detect illusion always haste
Chaotic Neutral Cat -4 48	Pickpocket, 99% Stealth, 65% magic res, 60% Find Traps.
Lawful Evil Imp -2 48	Polymorphs, 35% magic res., poison attack, regenerates 1 HP/second
Neutral Evil Dust Mephit 3 48	Casts Glitterdust 2/day, 25% magic res., Prismatic Spray, Stoneskin, 60% damage resistant, immune to fire
Chaotic Evil Quasit -2 48	Casts Horror, 35% magic resist., immune to fire, cold and elec., regenerates 1 Hp/second, 3 attacks per round, attack reduces target DEX

Romances in Throne of Bhaal:

Yep, they all are continued, even if you ended them (such as Aerie saying at the end that you should just be friends).

SPOILERS

Viconia > You can convince her to change her alignment (you simply have to say "good" things, like killing is wrong, etc.)
Aerie > You can have a child with her
Anomen > Asks to marry you
Jaheira > n/a

Viconia's alignment switch: When she offers to sleep with you again, turn her down because the "time isn't right", then when she asks what you think of her, be very very nice. When she asks you what it's like having the blood of Bhaal in your veins, tell her that you don't like the killing.

Between meeting her wraith-brother and the destruction of Saradush (I told you there were Spoilers in here), you need to have at least ONE romance talk occur. If you skip this, you can't get her to switch alignments.

When she sees the battle, tell her that you don't like it. Then when she asks if you want her to change, say yes.

Notes

If you're having any sort of technical problem with the game, there are some patches you should consider getting:

BG2: http://www.bioware.com/games/shadows_amn/support/patches/ ToB: http://www.bioware.com/games/throne_bhaal/support/patches/
Please patch your game. The duplicated NPC bug when you go down the stairs is fixed in the patch. Please stop emailing me about it.

There has been some fan made work in fixing the game, which you can find here:

http://www.gibberlings3.net/