Importing

One of the strong points of the Baldur's Gate series is the ability to play as the same character through all three games: Baldur's Gate, Shadows of Amn, and Throne of Bhaal. This allows Gorion's Ward to play the saga properly.

How to Import
To import from Baldur's Gate to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, a player must open the Characters subfolder in their Baldur's Gate folder.

Once there, select the .CHR file that designates the character they wish to import; the default naming scheme is to refer to characters who have completed the events of Baldur's Gate as "Char#" - so the first character to complete Baldur's Gate would be Char1, the second Char2, etcetera.

Once selected, use the Copy function on the file.

Then paste the copied file into the Characters subfolder in the Shadows of Amn folder.

Once this has been done, by booting up Shadows of Amn and selecting the "New Game" option, a player may choose Import to select their desired character to import.

Importing from Shadows of Amn to Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal is much simpler. Upon completing the Final Battle in Bhaal's Domain, the game will automatically load the prologue of Throne of Bhaal, importing the party to it. Using New Game - Import will also allow the player to manually select a Shadows of Amn saved game to import to Throne of Bhaal.

Effects of Importing
Certain scripts and dialogues occur when using an imported character, but the biggest change is that a character begins play at the same level as their original game ended.

In a Baldur's Gate to Baldur's Gate II importing, the player may select a new Kit for a dual-classed character, but cannot apply the same to their secondary class. For example, a Fighter/Mage dual-class imported from Baldur's Gate might have originally been a Fighter/Necromancer, but will be limited to being a Fighter (Vanilla, Berserker, Kensai or Wizard Slayer)/Generalist Mage in Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. Only a character who dual-classes during the events of Baldur's Gate II can hope to combine kits or specialisations.

The same kind of importing also requires the player to rewrite their spellbook (for mages), and reassign their proficiency slots, due to the different spells and weapon proficiencies between the two games.

No character changes are required or allowed when importing from Shadows of Amn to Throne of Bhaal.

Importable Gear
When importing a character from the original Baldur's Gate to Shadows of Amn, certain items can be imported along with them.

Firstly, the Golden Pantaloons, if acquired in Baldur's Gate, are always brought over.

Secondly, one item from each of the two tables below is brought. However, only a single item is brought over; the higher on the list an item is, the more it takes precedence. For example, a character who has both the Helm of Balduran and the Claw of Kazgaroth in their inventory, will only have the Helm recovered.

An item tagged with "Default" is what is presented for the party to retrieve if the character either has none of the importable items, or if the player is using a version of Gorion's Ward created in Baldur's Gate II, rather than

Table #1: Table #2: In an imported game of Shadows of Amn to Throne of Bhaal, all items that the party originally had in their possession are imported.
 * Protector of the Second (Leather Armor +2)
 * Mail of the Dead (Chainmail +2) [Default]
 * Fallorain's Plate (Platemail +1)
 * Chainmail +3
 * Helm of Balduran [Default]
 * Claw of Kazgaroth
 * Horn of Kazgaroth
 * Koveras' Ring of Protection +1