User:Cement Plant

All of the following concerns Enhanced Edition version of the game unless otherwise noted. Beware spoilers.

Links
Dudleyville A thorough walkthrough of Baldur's Gate, especially notable for maps with all traps and spawn points highlighted making Baldur's Gate's oldschool dungeons significantly less painful. Based on vanilla game but still very relevant.

Play It Hardcore Absolutely packed with distilled information from both games, and fully up to date with EE.

Tweaks Anthology Dozens of minimods to enhance the experience, all in one executable.

LeFreut's Enhanced UI for all EE games, to fix Beamdog's crimes against User Interface.

BG:EE Pickpocket Targets by Area on this wiki

BG:EE Powergame-y Walkthrough on this wiki

Thievery Tips & Tricks
In Enhanced Edition, it is now possible to move between areas when stealthed, which you should (ab)use as much as you can. Aside from obvious backstab openings, it allows you to pre-position yourself before the fight and control where and when NPCs that hail you actually hail you.

Doorway/Stealth: (Preferably) Enter an area stealthed. Backstab the target. Run to the doorway, get to the other side, the enemy will follow you, so get through the doorway again. The enemy will keep chasing you. Eventually your Hide in Shadows will reset and you can hide in the short time when you're on the other side but they didn't follow yet. If they're slower than you(most enemies are) and have no ranged attacks/spells, you can wait out the hide in shadows timer by kiting instead. Sometimes, if you go back through the doorway immediately after entering and the transition point is close enough, you can get through so fast that the enemy will not even aggro you in the short time between when they arrive on your side and you leave.

From patch 2.0 onwards, Pick Pocket now works on a threshold-based system in addition to die-roll system, just like Find Traps and Open Locks. This means that with low Pick Pocket you won't be able to steal some items period, no matter how many times you try. In BG the optimal value seems to be 50; that's how much you need to steal from the target's inventory and is enough for all the important things like Algernon's Cloak without wasting too much of your skill points. For detailed values check the Play It Hardcore or Pickpocket Targets by Area.

Because quicksaving and quickloading in EE is almost instantenous, it's much faster to reload on a failed Hide in Shadows rather than waiting full round(6 seconds) for the icon to reset. (Quick)loading resets your round timers and has high potential for abuse in general.

(Quick)loading also resets movements of wandering NPCs. For example, you might wait until the NPC wanders behind a pillar to break the line of sight, quicksave and quickload to stop their movement, and then steal from a container unnoticed. This can also be combined with Doorway/Stealth tactic above - go through the doorway, and before the enemy follows quicksave and quickload and they'll lose aggro and stay on the other side.

In the world of Baldur's Gate thievery is a crime - but battery is not! If a container is in area you don't plan on revisiting again, and is watched only by a low-level NPC, you can simply unequip your weapon and punch them until they lose consciousness. Unconscious creatures have sight range of 0, so they won't see you stealing.

Not something new to EE, but the Detect Traps / Illusions skill will dispel any illusions of enemy mages when used. The chance of it happening is equal to the skill value in %. This means that with 100 Detect Illusion you only need to press that button for all the Blur, Mirror Images, (Greater) Invisibility, etc. to disappear. Note that you can activate Detect Traps / Illusions AFTER issuing an attack command and it will stick, so you don't have to choose between one or the other.

ThAC0 Notes
You need ThAC0 equal to enemy AC to hit them 95% of the time, with the remaining 5% always being a critical miss.

Most bosses or powerful creatures in BG2 and ToB have AC of around -10, often even less. For example Firkraag has base AC of -11, effective -12 with his 1 bonus from Dexterity. Mariliths have effective AC of -13. Kangaxx's second form has AC of -6. Even Drow Warriors have -7AC thanks to their ridiculous Full Plates +3 combined with 18 dexterity.

Martial classes' natural ThAC0 progression tops off at 0. So even after you get to that point, which in itself requires level 21, you're still hitting powerful enemies less than half the time. At this point you have three sources of ThAC0 left: strength bonus, weapon proficiency, and weapon enchantments.

Most characters will end up with Strength value of 19-20, which gives them -3 ThAC0 bonus. Grandmastery gives you another -3 bonus, Specialization only -1. And assuming a +5 weapon, that's another -5 bonus.

So the totals are, at level 21, given best case scenario: 0 -3 -3 -5 = -11 ThAC0. What is the not the best case scenario? Paladins, Rangers and multiclassed martial classes lose Granmastery bonus, meaning they get a total ThAC0 of -9. But the real losers here are dual classes.

Most people recommend dualing from Fighter at level 13, since that's when "Fighters stop gaining anything of importance anyway", and some radicals even go as low as level 7 to "not waste XP from your second class/get your Fighter abilities back faster". Well, if you dual at level 13, then your base ThAC0 will forever remain at big fat 8(unless you dualed to a Cleric/Druid who gets to 6 eventually) making your effective endgame ThAC0 -3. With that ThAC0 you're missing Mariliths 50% of the time, and Firkraag 40% of the time. Even the Drow Warrriors will avoid your attacks 20% of the time(before you consider Full Plate's innate AC bonuses against slashing/piercing damage)

While multiclasses miss out on Grandmastery, unless you're playing a F/M/T or F/M/C you will get to 0 base ThAC0, giving you -9 total ThAC0. The triple-class multiclasses will get to -6 total with the XP cap.

It should be noted that there are very few ways to imrove your ThAC0 further. Bless and Luck both improve it by 1. Equipment-wise - other than the weapon - Legacy of the Masters and Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization both improve it by 1, as does the Helm of Balduran. By far the most reliable way to boost your ThAC0 is simply by increasing your Stength score - assuming 19 base Strength value, increasing your Strength to 25(either with Draw Upon Holy Might or Crom Faeyr) will result in a net gain of 4 ThAC0.

Finally, if you dual from a Kensai, by the time you're level 13 you will have -4 ThAC0 bonus from your kit bonuses.

Weapon Notes
Weapon damage range matters little. Compare the lowly dagger(1d4 damage) with the two-handed sword(1d10 damage) The average damage per hit for the dagger is 2.5, the average damage per hit of the two-handed sword is 5.5, or over twice as much.

Hovewer once you add bonus damage from Strength(+7 at 19 Strength) and weapon proficiency(+2 damage at Specialized) then the average damage jumps to 11.5 and 14.5 for the dagger and two-handed sword respectively. The 120% damage advantage in the favour of the two-handed sword at "level 0" became only 26% damage advantage once you actually include the bonuses. And that's not even the best case scenario. If we assume the same 19 Strength(+7 damage) but with Grandmastery(+5 damage) and a +5 echanted weapon(+5 damage) then the totals for dagger and two-handed sword become 19.5 and 22.5 respectively, dropping the damage advantage of the two-handed sword down to measly 15.4%.

Speed factor is also mostly meaningless. It's supposed to decide how fast into your round you can attack, but is "overriden" by your APR(the game has to "squeeze in" your APR's worth of attacks into the 6-second round, making the first attack come earlier the more APR you have) Even early in the game when your APR is pathetic you should have little problem interrupting enemy mages(the only thing speed factor is good for) because everyone has their own individual turn timers.

Damage type is of importance when you face enemies wearing any sort of armor, especially early in the saga, and against some "weird" enemies like Skeletons, Golems or Oozes. Generally speaking and from best to worst: crushing, piercing/missile, slashing.

Enchantment level is one of the most important features of a weapon, as it affects three things: damage, ThAC0, and the ability to damage an enemy at all. Baldur's Gate has its fair share of enemies immune to non-magical weapons, and in BG2/ToB some particularly tough cookies require +4 or better weapons to hit. That said, +3 is still enough to hit 99% of enemies in the saga; in fact you could simply turn into a Slayer whenever you face an enemy immune to +3 weapons and you'd still do fine.

Ranged weapons deserve some notes. First of all, unlike the melee weapons the base number of attacks varies between different ranged weapons:


 * 3 base for darts
 * 2 base for all bows and throwing daggers
 * 1 base for all crossbows, slings and throwing axes

Furthermore in Enhanced Edition all slings, throwing daggers and throwing axes receive damage bonus from Strength.

Ranged weapons with enchantment of +4 or higher: Sling of Everard using no ammo, Shortbow of Gesen using no ammo, bullets +4 from Erinne Sling, darts +5 from Cloak of the Stars.

Bonus attack is a feature on some weapons. In case of dual wielding, that attack is added to the main hand weapon, allowing up to 5 attacks per round(4 base, 1 offhand) Melee weapons with this feature are Belm, Kundane and Ninjatō of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Ranged weapons with extra attack are Tuigan Bow and The Army Scythe.

Considering Canon Party and CHARNAME
The canon party for Baldur's Gate is obvious from the way Baldur's Gate 2 begins. CHARNAME was captured along with Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc and Dynaheir. So this is the canon party for the first game in the seires, and pretty much set in stone.

The canon party for Baldur's Gate 2 is a bit more complicated. Obviously Imoen/Yoshimo, Minsc and Jaheira are in, as you gather them all in the Irenicus Dungeon. Yoshimo is an instant Thief replacement for Imoen and his "personal quest" requires him to follow you to Spellhold. So that's the core canon party in SoA.

A good case could be made for Aerie for several reasons. One, she joins in the Promenade, which is still technically before the game officially begins, and after what will likely be the first major quest in the game for most players. Two, she is an arcane caster replacement for Imoen. Three, she has a good chemistry with Minsc and bad chemistry with Jaheira(bad banter is good too) Four, she is a romance option that isn't like forty years older than you are.

Or you could argue that taking what amounts to a naive teen for a deadly mission to rescue your sister(whom she has no reason to care about) from a mysterious, powerful mage is silly. It's your call. (All the other NPCs have a reason to follow you: Yoshimo is forced, Jaheira and Minsc are old friends and lost loved ones to Irenicus, Imoen... is Imoen)

If you take Aerie, that still leaves one slot open and various theories were created as to who should be filling it. Personally, I think sixth slot should remain open for two reasons: One, it will allow you to do every "personal" NPC quest in BG2 without changing your core party composition(take in Korgan, do his quest, kick him out; take in Keldorn, do his quest, kick him out; etc.) and you already have all bases covered class-wise. Second, that position will be filled by Sarevok in ToB. I consider Sarevok in ToB canon-ish as well, as he is the only one with a personal quest - if it can even be called that - in that game.

So at the end of ToB, the "canon" party would be CHARNAME, Imoen, Jaheira, Minsc, (Aerie, optional) and Sarevok.

Now for the other variable: who is CHARNAME most likely to be?

Race would be limited to Human, Half-Orc, Half-Elf or Halfling. This is because the Prologue narration estabilishes CHARNAME at 20 years old, and these are the only races which reach maturity in that amount of time(Dwarves and Gnomes: 40, Elves: 110)

Alignment would be Good or at the very least Neutral. Obviously, the canon party in BG is Good, the projected "canon" party in BGII/ToB is also Good, and the games are heavily skewed towards being Good in general, with evil being almost an afterthought. Also the CHARNAME was brainwashed by Gorion to be a hero("raised on a thousand tales...")

Gender is open, though the "canon" BG2 party contains no romanceable males. Then again, with Anomen as an alternative, this is probably for the best.

Class. Here's where it gets really interesting:
 * Sorcerer is probably top tier pick; the very description of the class mentions "powerful bloodlines"(hey, that's us), Candlekeep is a place full of scholars and your foster father himself is a sage.
 * Mage is another great pick, for the same reasons except bloodline.
 * Fighter is good because man, there sure is a lot of those plate-mail wearing Watchers around.
 * Berserker is Fighter + Bhaal bloodline, so even better.
 * Paladin/Cavalier is Fighter + Gorion's brainwashing.
 * Thief? Well... Imoen is a Thief so at least it's possible, though she seems to slave away for innkeeper Winthrop, not learn under the sage Gorion.
 * Cleric is also not completely out of the question, though basically only because "Candlekeep is a scholary place". Before EE Gorion could cast Cure Light Wounds, so he could be considered a dual Cleric/Mage himself.
 * All the multiclass combinations of the above.
 * Dual classing to just about anything is legit, with extra points for a Cleric(learning to control your divine essence after you learn about your heritage or something)

Finally, we have the canon party class compositions to consider. BG's canon party has one front liner(Khalid, yuck), three second liners(Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen) and one third liner(Dynaheir). BG2's canon party has one frontliner(Jaheira, promotion thanks to Iron Skins), two second liners(Minsc, Imoen/Yoshimo) and one optional third liner(Aerie). In ToB another second liner appears(Sarevok). In other words, the canon parties in general lack a solid "tank" which would point towards CHARNAME himself being a martial class.

Wisdom
Through the saga, you will get a lot of Wisdom points. There are three in Baldur's Gate/TotSC, one at the end of SoA(Good pick during Test of Wrath), and one/two in ToB(Machine of Lum the Mad, picking Star card from Deck of Many Things if you're a Cleric or Druid) That's +5-6 total in the games.

What good is high Wisdom score, hovewer?


 * Extra spell slots. Clerics and Druids get extra spell slots from high Wisdom score. 24 Wisdom(18 base + 6) will net you a total of three extra level 1 spells, three extra level 2 spells, two extra level 3 spells, four extra level 4 spells, four extra level 5 spells and two extra level 6 spells. Casting for days.
 * Wish spell. Mages need high Wisdom to get best results from Wish; specifically, they need 18 Wisdom to get all the good options. All these tomes will let you save a lot of rerolling during character creation - if you start with 13 Wisdom, you'll get 17 by the end of SoA and 18 in early ToB. It's not like you'll get to spell level 9 earlier anyways.
 * Ascension, the "semi-official" mod altering the ending of Throne of Bhaal. To convince Balthazar to join you, you'll need a combination of Alignment(good or neutral), Wisdom(at least 15), and Charisma(at least 15). Higher values help and make it easier to convince him. Evil characters can convince him to kill himself instead. It's kind of weak, but at least it's something for all the other classes to use their Wisdom for.

So to get the most out of all that extra Wisdom, do any of the following: play a Cleric/Druid or any derivative; play a Mage or any derivative; play with the Ascension mod as a non-evil character.

Temp BG2 notes

 * Why can't you disable critical hit screen shake in the options and have to edit the .lua
 * The Mephits spawned by electrical machine in Irenicus 1 eventually stop spawning. They only spawn when you're in the room.
 * The imported weapon appeared in the locked chest next to Sewage Golem. Malaaq doesn't appear at all, sound plays but nothing happens, cannot start his quest
 * Sewage Golem cannot be killed, even after it opened the doors
 * The imps in the first room on Irenicus 2 never seem to stop spawning and could potentially be farmed with Cloudkill as they die instantly to it and portals are immune; more testing needed
 * There is over 20k gold in Waukeen Promenade alone, even if you don't spread your sales
 * AC is not low enough, get Ring of Regeneration from Ribald or you're going to have a Bad Time(55 pickpocket not enough)
 * GET DAYSTAR ASAP. BG2:EE doesn't seem to have party size spawn scaling and high level undead will make you hate life
 * In Copper Coronet the two Ruffians can be killed, actually a lot of random people around the city can be killed - any Ruffians, Sailors, fences, etc
 * In Lower Tombs, the "welcome message" repeats every time you re-enter or load the game, even inside Pai'Na's Spider Lair
 * Lucette(Xzar's quest) can be killed
 * Impossible to avoid encounter with Neera
 * Chaotic Neutral character was assigned the Temple of Talos for some reason to destroy the Cult of Eyeless and the subsequent quests
 * There are no new EE movies in BG2:EE, even rest movies are the same
 * Map tag for Mae'Var's Guildhall not removed when it's transferred to you
 * Gaal does not capitalize pronouns when talking about the Unseeing Eye
 * "Stand" dream: you don't actually start lying down...
 * Ring of Gaxx's Invisibility/Imp. Haste still broken
 * Game crashes when polymorphing into a Flind. Lost some stuff from here because I write it as I go. Great.
 * Once you open the gate, all the de'Arnise guards that "attack" can be murdered, it doesn't change anything.
 * Seek Out and Investigate the Fallen Paladins quest still borked. You get the 7500XP for trying to join and Reynald NOT leaving.
 * After you fight Neb, you're automatically hit with Lesser Restoration which Fatigues you. THANKS.