Game Terminology

Terminology used by the developers of Baldur's Gate and Dungeons and Dragons, and terminology from other games that is useful to be applied to the game.

A

AC

Armor Class. Dungeons and Dragons armor defends solely by reducing the chance to hit altogether. It has the somewhat confusing quality of being better as the number decreases. It can be increased with equippable items, such as rings and necklaces, and spells such as 'Armor' and 'Shield'. For the effects of armor in other games, see 'Armor', below.

AI

Artificial Intelligence. The code that governs game creature behavior, whether it be companions, neutral non-player characters or enemy monsters. This AI is handled by coded scripts of all sorts, and varying complexity.

Aggro or Aggression

has multiple meanings based on context.

• The code that directs monsters to pursue and attack targets, and choose which particular players or characters to attack first.
• Term used to just signify that an action may make a neutral NPC hostile.
• (slang) The act of having the attention of or drawing the attacks from an enemy. "I've got the demon's aggro."

AoE

Area of Effect. Also AE, Area Effect. An area, usually a circle of a given radius, usually centered on the target or user, with exception of ground targeted AoE, in which effects takes place, or game variables are in effect.

As of EE v2.3.673 and classic games, all radius stated in in-game description is actually diameter, and the given number is often not accurate. Refer to Range section below for measurement details.

Since EE v2.5.16.6, the AoE impact of spells can be shown before casting by editing the Baldur.lua file and switching the option "Show AOE" from 0 to 1.

Area

Usually, a location in the game. Also see Area of Effect, above.

Armor

In games, it can represent a wide variety of values. In D&D, it is represented by Armor Class, which makes the wearer harder to hit in a way that does damage, and Resistances, which reduces a portion of the damage taken.

APR

Attack(s) per round, the number of melee or ranged attack(s) in 6 second. 1/2 means 1 attack will happen over the next 2 rounds, eg. 5/2 means 5 attacks in 2 rounds. See the Attacks per round page for more details.

Avatar

See Model.

Axe

Weapon type. Slashing / edged damage.

B

Beta testing

A phase in the testing of software, usually prior to release, which is run by people not directly involved in the creation of the program. In the case of games, it is often open to a limited portion of the target audience, and may be simultaneously a form of advertising. This is in contrast to the preceding phase, called Alpha testing, which is usually performed by the program developers themselves.

BG

Baldur's Gate (1998)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate campaign. Baldur's Gate

BG: TotSC

Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast campaign. Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast

BG: EE

Baldur's Gate:
Enhanced Edition (2012)
This icon indicates content from the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition campaign. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

BG: SoD

Baldur's Gate:
Siege of Dragonspear (2016)
This icon indicates content from the Siege of Dragonspear campaign of the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear

BG II: SoA

Baldur's Gate II:
Shadows of Amn (2000)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn campaign. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

BG II: ToB

Baldur's Gate II:
Throne of Bhaal (2001)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal campaign. Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

BG II: EE

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition – Shadows of Amn (2013)
This icon indicates content from the Shadows of Amn campaign of the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition

Blades

A weapon type, usually characterized by a sharpened edge designed to slice, who's damage type is usually called Slashing. Edged weapons were the mainstay of fantasy warfare and common examples would be swords and axes.

Bottleneck, also Choke point

A narrowing of the path that can be used to tactical advantage. Small groups move into the narrow part of the bottleneck, in a line with its members to the left and right of each other, until they fill the entire width of the path. This forces the enemy to engage them along this narrow front with only a small part of its larger numbers. Larger groups can, with a similar rank, fill a larger portion, keeping the enemy in a relatively more confined position, and thus able to engage with relatively fewer units.

Tactical advantage: Asterisk (*) force. Tactical advantage: Plus sign (+) force.

     ____ _                                      ____ _
____/ *                                    _____/ *
__+_+ *                                     __+_* *
    \_*__ _                                     \_____ _

This works even better in real life than in games, because of the space required to swing a weapon, and undefended blows being killing blows rather than a loss of HP. It does not work at all in games where units cannot attack diagonally on the screen.

Buff

A slang term, meaning to apply a beneficial power, ability, or enhancement to a creature, such as casting a Blessing or boosting the party with a Haste effect. Often done in advance to prepare for some kind of conflict or challenge.

Bug

Unintended flaws in a program, which range in effect to minor graphical glitches or failures of story to progress, all the way to complete shutdown of the program. Some Bugs discovered by players can lead to an Exploit. Identified Bugs may often be fixed by game developers with separate game updates, known as a Patch. Use of a Bug to gain an advantage in a multi-player game is a form of cheating, and may result in temporary or permanent ban. In contrast, the ethics of using Bugs in single-player games is often hotly debated for reasons beyond the scope of this entry.

Breakable

Some items/objects can break and leave behind a broken version in the user's inventory or an environmental object that can be destroyed.

C

Camp

To remain in one strategic place and repeatedly kill people or mobs.

Casting Time

Time spent chanting a spell before it can be cast, or time spent concentrating on an ability before it takes effect.

• 0 - instant, uninterruptible
• 1 - 10% time of a round
• 9 - slowest, 90% time of a round

Many innate abilities have a casting time of 0, which means they are cast without any delay, other than waiting for the creature to be ready to execute the action. The shortest casting time for most spells is 1, but spellcasters may reduce the casting time to 0 thanks to equipment such as the Ghostdreamers' Robe Baldur's Gate:
Siege of Dragonspear (2016)
This icon indicates content from the Siege of Dragonspear campaign of the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition., Wizzard Hat Baldur's Gate:
Siege of Dragonspear (2016)
This icon indicates content from the Siege of Dragonspear campaign of the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition., Robe of Vecna Baldur's Gate II:
Shadows of Amn (2000)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn campaign.^(SoA)Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition – Shadows of Amn (2013)
This icon indicates content from the Shadows of Amn campaign of the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.^(SoA) or Amulet of Power Baldur's Gate II:
Shadows of Amn (2000)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn campaign.^(SoA)Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition – Shadows of Amn (2013)
This icon indicates content from the Shadows of Amn campaign of the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.^(SoA).

Cheese

A slang term, often used when trying to describe an in-game tactic, action or strategy that some perceive to be unfair to the game. Doing something "Cheesy" is an action that the AI has no method to guard against or gives the player an advantage of varying degree. The term cheese is subjective. However, even so, the term is frequently used in discussion about a game action that some may call out as "Cheese", and others will say it isn't. In a single-player game, cheese is just an opinion, and does not rise to the threshold of an Exploit. One person's definition of cheese can be another's go-to strategy.

Choke point

See Bottleneck: A narrowing of the path that can be used to tactical advantage.

Chr

Charisma.

Club

Weapon type. Usually Crushing damage.

Collisions

This is the technical term for when programming checks are made to ensure two objects do not occupy the same space. This can be a source of so called "rubber-banding" where one object is able to pass partway through another in between checks, and is suddenly shifted back when the issue is detected. It is also a common target of various forms of cheating, because turning off collisions allows characters to pass through walls or floors.

Con

Constitution.

Concentration of Fire

Because enemies performs at full function until they die, spreading out damage will keep the number of targets alive and producing damage toward the PCs. Concentration of Fire is the practice of inflicting all damage to one target at a time, which is the fastest way to take out each target, and remove the damage they do. Known as Focus Fire in WoW.

Note: While computers could easily calculate a penalty to effectiveness based on remaining health, many games are based on real-world games where humans do the calculations by hand, and as a function of ease of play and speed, they do not usually include these sorts of rules (some exceptions exists).

Cooldown

The period of time before a skill can be used again.

Critical Hit

An attack which hits a vital spot and as a result, may do additional damage. See the main article for more details.

Critical Miss

An attack roll of 1 which will result in a miss, regardless of any attack bonuses.

Crowd Control (CC)

A slang term for spells or abilities that disable enemies, often used when outnumbered, and thus "controlling crowds."

Crushing, Bashing or Blunt

A type of weapon damage based on impact of a heavy weight. Due to tradition, in many games they are given weaker than average damage with the trade-off that more targets are more susceptible (such as Skeletons) or fewer targets are resistant. In general, this imbalance has been fading from use in more recent game systems.

D

D&D

Dungeons and Dragons

Damage over Time (DoT)

effects, e.g. 'Swarm Curse', that deal increments of damage; damage at intervals, repeatedly, and usually for a set duration.

Damage type

Slashing, Piercing, Crushing, Missile are physical damage types; the other types are Fire, Cold, Electricity, Acid, Poison and Magic damage.

Day

Items:

The time between two rest periods. When items describe "uses per day", then it means they are recharged in the same way as memorized spells: when the party rests.

Journal and Quests:

Quests can be on timers which are measured in days (for example, Lothander mentions Gorion's Ward has ten days before the poison kills them). These are clock cycles and correspond to 24 game hours (2 hours real time if one were to stay in one place without resting, see time system.). Rest periods are eight hours; if the option "rest until healed" is activated, then the periods will be multiples of eight hours. Travel may also consume time, which is reported when one arrives at the (ambush) destination. The journal entries (and save game times) correspond to the time spent from the moment landed in Candlekeep up to that point.

Demi-human

These are the near-human "civilized" races, include Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half-Elves, Halflings, and depending on speaker and context, sometimes Half-Orcs.

Depreciation rate

A value used by stores that modifies the amount of gp a merchant is willing to pay when selling items to the store. It is a percentage, related to the basic value of the item and does not calculate any merchant's "buy markup". The minimum of gold a merchant is willing to pay for an item is 20% of its value, again regardless of any "buy markup". If the store has no single copy of the item when selling it first, the merchant will give gold for it by an amount that's calculated as value * "buy markup" % . For the next copy of the same item to be sold, the merchant will give gold by an amount of ( value * "buy markup" % ) - ( value * "depreciation rate" % ) . This depreciation is done as often as the possible amount of gold given has reached the minimum of 20% of the item value.

• Example 1 – buy markup=100%; depreciation rate=10%; item value=10000; no items in stock: 1^st item is sold for 10000, 2^nd item for 9000, 3^rd item for 8000, and so on until the 9^th item and all following are sold for 2000.
• Example 2 – buy markup=50%; depreciation rate=10%; item value=10000; no items in stock: 1^st item is sold for 5000, 2^nd item for 4000, 3^rd item for 3000, 4^th item and all following are sold for 2000.
• Example 3 – buy markup=100%; depreciation rate=20%; item value=10000; no items in stock: 1^st item is sold for 10000, 2^nd item for 8000, 3^rd item for 6000, 4^th item for 4000, 5^th item and all following are sold for 2000.
• Example 4 – buy markup=100%; depreciation rate=20%; item value=10000; 2 items in stock: 1^st item is sold for 6000, 2^nd item for 4000, 3^rd item and all following are sold for 2000.

The "depreciation rate" is taken into account every time the Sell button is pressed. Selling multiple items at once will yield the same amount of gold for all of them.

Depreciation does not affect e.g. gems, rings, amulets and necklaces.

Dex

Dexterity

DPS

Damage per Second, a formula for determining damage output in real time games. Baldur's Gate is pseudo-real time, with attacks that do damage a certain number of times per round, and thus weapon speed only affects killing blows or rounds in which character or monster break off combat for some reason. Every other round, everyone gets to attack, and so who attacked first is largely irrelevant.

Drop

synonym for Loot, or verb meaning the Spawning of Loot into the game environment.

Duration

A set period of time during which a game variable is true and active, e.g. the period during which the AC bonuses of the spells Armor and Shield exist, and the amount of time that Stealth remains active after it is 'broken' by interacting with doors or containers. Duration is given in in-game numbers, which runs 12 times faster than real-time (see time system).

E

Enhanced Edition

Baldur's Gate games as updated by Beamdog since 2012. Includes BG:EE and BG2:EE as well as Beamdog-made campaigns Siege of Dragonspear, The Black Pits and Gladiators of Thay. There are many differences between the original and Beamdog's editions.

Exp

Experience points, see XP.

Exp cap

Max experience points each playable character are allowed to gain.

Exploit

Strategy by the player that capitalizes on perceived or actual benefits of game construction limitations or lack of guardrails, usually ones not intended by the developers, or Bugs. Generally, though, an exploit is a leveraging of a game loophole that was discovered by a player. In computer games, numerous Patch files are released by developers to correct discovered exploits - as they are considered to be errors or omissions by the developers. This may also illicit disagreement by some players, who do not want those fixes, and wish the continuation of the exploit. Those players may refer to this action as a Nerf. The discussion and debate of what is or isn't an exploit is never one sided. In some instances, the exploit may be so popular with game fans and players, that the developers allow the exploit due to popular demand.

F

Fallout

The Fallout post-nuclear roleplaying game series, like PS:T, by Black Isle.

FF

Final Fantasy.

Fist

Non-lethal weapon. The weapon used when no weapon is equipped. It cannot be used to kill, but will do damage as long as the result after applying it would be greater than 0.

Fog of War

Parts of the map not yet explored are blackened; those explored but not currently observed by characters with Line of Sight are darkened.

Forgotten Realms

A rich, mysterious Medieval fantasy world Baldur's Gate game is set upon. See also the Forgotten Realms Wiki.

FPS (genre)

First person shooter; 3D game, looking through the character's eyes, with a gun.

FPS (computer)

Frames per second, the performance of image rendering.

Friendlies

Other party members or friendly players. What not to hit with Area Effect spells or Splash damage.

G

Gold

The game currency in the Baldur's gate series.

Grind (verb), Grinding (noun)

Performing/performance of repetitive tasks to further game progress.

H

Hammer

Weapon type. usually Crushing damage.

HD

Hit Dice, also High Definition.

Heal over Time (HoT)

healing effects, e.g. Regeneration, that heal at intervals, repeatedly, and usually for a set duration.

HLA

High-level class abilities, available once Baldur's Gate II:
Throne of Bhaal (2001)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal campaign. is installed.

Homebrew

Custom applications to run in conjunction with normal game files.

HP

Hit points. The number of points of health; damage decreases these and when they reach zero, the game character or enemy is dead, or knocked out.

HUD

Heads-up display.

I

Infravision

Elves, Half-Elves, and those magically enhanced, can see the heat emanating from bodies as infrared radiation; enemies and friends alike are illuminated when the character is selected. The player can turn on 'group infravision' in the game Menu.

Int

Intelligence.

K

Kiting

Originally in game parlance this term meant that a player had a conceptual invisible cord or string attached to an enemy (like a kite string), and through movement (circling, weaving and various maneuvers) is able to keep a distance between the enemy, and also elicit the enemy to stay in pursuit of the "Kite", while always keeping the enemy at sufficient range to avoid being attacked. The Kite character may be able to fire a ranged attack while still keeping out of range of the purser, or if there are allies present the player may use those companions to attack the pursuer. That way the enemy is focused only on chasing down the Kite, and eventually will fall to the tactic.

L

Lag

Time delay between sending a command to the game and your character actually performing the action. Frequently cursed when the time delay is longer than expected.

Line of Sight

Players may know the location of a target, but if it is obscured by Fog of War or obstructions, then they do not have line of sight to it. Required for the casting of spells and attacking with ranged weapons; in BG, the party AI will send characters forward to gain LoS even if that puts them in melee range of the enemy. The player can still see through the eyes of characters that have been charmed by Sirines and the like, and are no longer under control.

LoB

Legacy of Bhaal difficulty, similar to Heart of Fury mode in Icewind Dale, was introduced to Baldur's Gate:
Enhanced Edition (2012)
This icon indicates content from the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition campaign. and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition – Shadows of Amn (2013)
This icon indicates content from the Shadows of Amn campaign of the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. from v2.0+. It can only be selected at the start of the game and can’t be changed afterwards. All non-playable creatures receive:

• HP x3+80 (player summons/familiars get x2+20, double the damage taken option, if not disabled, doesn’t apply to them)
• +1 APR
• THAC0 -5 bonus
• -11 AC bonus
• Saving throws -5 bonus (note: this is bugged for creatures with base saving throws of 4 and under. LoB sets those specific saves to 20, instead of negative numbers)
• Levels are treated as level + 12 for some checks
• Non controlled sprites cannot fail morale checks
• 75  per pickup
• Player max rest encounters increases by 1

Loot

synonym for Drop, an item reward for killing a monster, or verb meaning to transfer Loot from the game environment into a character's inventory.

Lycanthrope

Despite being derived from the word "wolf", the word lycanthrope refers to any of the shifting man/beast creatures, both natural and due to curses. In addition to the well-known werewolf, there are werebears, wereboars, and a host of others. However, this does not include beast/man creatures, such as wolfweres, nor anthropomorphic beasts such as Minotaurs or Kuo-toa.

M

Mage

A class of character which is focused primarily on the use of magic.

Magic resistance

Percentage chance immunity against harmful (all Baldur's Gate (1998)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate campaign.Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast campaign.) magical effects from items or spells, some spells such as Greater Malison bypasses MR. MR is different from elemental physical and magic damage resistances, which are damage reductions, or heal on-hit for 100%+ values. Spells such as Lower Resistance lowers magic resistance while Protection From Energy spell raises magic damage resistance.

Meat shield

Tank or Pet that soaks up damage that would otherwise accrue to squishy Mages and the like.

Melee

From the word describing a chaotic or violent situation, the word that means, closeup combat with physical attacks. Non-ranged attacks.

Mez

Mezmerize. Form of Crowd Control that can be broken by attacks. Also, Sleep.

MMO, MMORPG

Massively Multiplayer Online, – Role Playing Game. Games where many players log in to a persistent game world and play the game together.

Mob

NPC monsters. Probably originally meant a group of monsters, judging by the name, although it is said it stands for "mobile", when electronic games first became sophisticated enough to display character movement.

Mod

Modifications to a game, unofficial, released by fans. Files created for a game to add functionality or change the trappings of a game, usually created by people not employed by the game developer.

Model

The 3D frame upon which Textures or texture maps are applied.

Mule

Character that the player is not currently 'using', whose inventory can be used to store items.

N

Near Level Death Experience

When a player nears an objective, a code is activated that alters the difficulty of the game. There is no telling where this code was first implemented, but it is widespread, indeed. Changing the rules halfway through a game is never a good idea, but in BG, this can actually be beneficial, as creatures that give higher experience can be spawned (beneficial assumes that the party can handle such creatures; a perfect example is the spawning of a Vampiric Wolf that gives high XP but can only be hit by magical melee weapons or magical ammunition). In other games it usually takes the form of increased Aggro rates, increased miss rates, critical damage by enemies, higher level spawns, and lag.

NPC

Non Player Character. Sometimes, party members. Usually, AI-controlled people or creatures. Over time the term NPC has been misused to mean a companion or party member, but the original definition implied that the NPC was not controllable by the player. Even the term NPC mod is technically wrong - and Companion mod is more correct.

Nerf

A slang term to describe the reduction in a game ability, spell, item or similar subject undertaken at a later time from the original. Often accomplished as part of a game update or patch by the game developers. If found to be "not as good" as the original - the term "nerf" or "nerfed" may be applied or inferred to that specific change. This term could be subjective, or even objective. Some game changes really do reduce or eliminate a feature, and in-fact are "nerfed" on purpose due to various reasons- such as poor game performance, game balance, inaccurate implementation or other reasons.

O

OP

Overpowered.

Opcode

A unique numeric identifier referring to a status effect.

Original edition

The original games made by BioWare around year 2000. Includes Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn as well as their add-ons Tales of the Sword Coast and Throne of Bhaal. There are many differences between the original and Beamdog's editions.

Overkill

In games with set HP values, Overkill is an amount of damage far exceeding what is necessary to kill the target. Can also be used to describe any other unnecessary measures, especially ones that are quantifiable, such as Overhealing.

P

Patch

Modifications to a game, official, released by developer. Files created for a game to add functionality or change the trappings of a game. Often used to correct errors, omissions or otherwise fix identified game issues, such as a Bug or Exploit.

PC

Player Character, as opposed to NPC. Also Personal Computer. Depends on the context.

Pet

Entity, often 'summoned' by a character, that that character controls. Pets are very powerful because they are a Meat shield between the character and death; if things are going badly, the character can run while the pet holds off the enemy. In games without an AI that handles it, the character can even Kite enemies while the pet is doing damage to the enemy.

Piercing

type of damage. Weapons such as rapiers and daggers can strike between plates of armor; the rise in their use, and the use of the piercing spike of polearms such as Halberds, and crossbows and early firearms, all of which could penetrate armor directly, led to the abandonment of full suits of heavy armor towards the end of the middle ages, although the use of helms and breastplates for protection of the head and torso continued.

Platform

Game type designation based on the hardware required to play the game. e.g. PC (Personal Computer), PS3, Wii, Xbox.

Platform game

Timing and spacial awareness are required to navigate these mazes of platforms, precipices, and moving obstacles.

Portal

In D&D, usually a spell that allows Mages to travel or escape. In PS:T, swirling vapour glowing blue and a shimmering fall of glowing white particles mark the disruption of matter by the highly energetic state of these interdimensional pathways that allow the party to Zone.

Power Mana, MP, Magic Points

Spells outside of D&D often have an MP cost with higher spells costing more points. Commonly used in RPGs.

Projectile Specs

Projectile specs, usually about projectile travelling speed, is seen in Near Infinity as units (pixels) per tick (1/15th second), horizontally. Like distance, its vertical value is also 3/4 of its horizontal value. Details about unit to inch conversion see Range section below.

PS:T

Planescape:Torment.

Pull

A form of Crowd control that uses movement and range of vision to bring less characters than the entire group to the party, which then finishes them off.

R

Ranged

Attacks that can be launched from a distance. The counterpart to Melee.

Range

The actual casting range is governed by creature’s visual range, which is 448 units (pixels) radius by default, as per opcode (.EFF) 262. The unit numbers can be seen by using IE source browsers such as Near Infinity, also be measured in-game by subtracting the horizontal differences between x-coordinate numbers (y-coordinate is ¾ of the x), units can be converted to inch by a denominator of 16, eg, 448/16=28 ft radius is all creatures’ default visual range, and the 40 ft casting range of the Fireball spell wouldn’t be possible to achieve without increasing caster’s visual range through the opcode, up to a maximum of 48 ft radius.
Melee weapon reach is 1 ft for one-handed weapons, 2 ft for two-handed weapons (and a Monk's unarmed attacks). This means two-handed weapons can attack from longer distances, they can also be used to melee attack over somebody else's shoulder. Non-monk unarmed attacks have a reach of 0 ft.
Both weapon and spell casting range, with the exception of sequencers/contingencies, are also given an extra 2 to 3 ft (exact number varies depending on undefined situations), the distance is normally calculated from center-points of the two creatures, sometimes from the nearest rims of the two selection circles, or friendly alliance creatures will just bump the other (Baldur's Gate II:
Shadows of Amn (2000)
This icon indicates content from the original Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn campaign. and later) to shorten the distance if the combined range is still too short for effects to take place. Due to sequencers/contingencies not gaining the extra range, any touch spells stored in them will almost always fail.

Personal / Caster

area of effect is centered on the caster

Touch

1 ft, same as the reach of one-handed weapons

Short

1/3 of visual range of caster

Medium

2/3 of visual range of caster

Long - visual range of caster (28 ft radius)

Regeneration, regenerate

Heal over Time; incremental healing.

Resistance

Values that absorb a percentage of incoming damage in D&D set for each Damage type. For Resistance in D&D, BG and other games, see Armor and Damage avoidance.

Rest

Resting in D&D regains spells as well as hit points, and always takes eight game hours. Resting in Inns can regain more HP.

RL

Real life.

Round

A maximum of 10 APR are allowed within one round, but only one spell or item use is permitted per round. There're spells like Improved Alacrity, Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, Spell Immunity to bypass such limits. One may also combine physical attacks with spell/item uses to make most out of the one round frame. See also time system.

1 round = 6 seconds realtime
1 turn = 10 rounds = 60 seconds realtime
1 hour in-game = 5 Turns = 50 rounds = 300 seconds realtime
1 day in-game = 24 Hour in-game = 120 turns = 1200 rounds = 7200 seconds realtime

RPG

Role-playing game.

RTS

Real-time strategy, e.g. Starcraft.

S

Save

Saving the game, obviously, but more usefully, saving cannot take place while within roughly a screen width's distance of enemies, whether they are visible on the screen or not.

Save Scumming

A slang term for excessive reloading from a saved game marker to avoid consequences or an outcome not desired by the player. Doing this over and over again can undermine the game's built-in risk/reward design features and remove any consequences for perceived failure. The game is not meant to have zero risk or consequences - except perhaps on the lowest difficulty setting - Story Mode. Instead of reloading to avoid an outcome, perhaps reload and try a different tactic, approach or other stratagem. For example - reloading just because the dragon opponent made their saving throw against feeblemind should be accepted by the player - and instead of reloading over and over until the dragon misses the saving throw - instead apply additional effort to overcome the dragon in another manner or change tactics. There is little challenge if the player never accepts a non-optimal result.

Scales from

Some spells behave differently depending on the caster's level. For example a spell's duration may become longer or it's damage increases. This has a minimum level: if the spell is cast by a caster below this level (via scroll), then it will behave as this minimum level.

Scales up to

Some spells behave differently depending on the caster's level. For example a spell's duration may become longer or it's damage increases. This can have a maximum level at which the spell stops changing.

Sim

Short for simulation.

Slashing

See Blades.

Sleep

Similar to Mez. A form of Crowd Control

SoA

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

SoD

Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear

Spawn

A game entity, usually NPC, being rendered into the game world, or PC being rendered and gaining their interface with the game world.

Spawn point

position at which an entity spawns, sometimes fixed to a particular location.

Speed Factor

Determines when (not how often) attacks occur within an actor's round, with smaller values occurring before larger. See the main article for additional information. For information on how often an actor attacks, see APR.

Splash damage

An AE type of damage, usually in addition to normal damage, which surrounds the point at which the normal damage originates, and can usually harm Friendly units.

Spread Specs

Spread specs, usually about how fast the AoE reaches its fullest, is seen in Near Infinity as units (pixels) per tick (1/15th second), horizontally. Like distance, its vertical value is also 3/4 of its horizontal value. Details about unit to inch conversion see Range section above.

ST

Saving throw.

Stealth or hide

ability which renders its user invisible or near invisible and unable to be attacked until the user attacks. Usually a prerequisite for special attacks that automatically do high amounts of damage and/or an increased chance of critical hits.

Store markup or sell markup

is the percentage applied to the item's value in order for a store to make profit. By default stores sell an item at 1 1/2 times it's value or 150%.

Strafe

Originally, in warfare, firing bullets/cannon shells from an aircraft attacking ground targets - eventually co-opted to mean shooting while moving, then in First Person Shooters, moving sideways while shooting, has come to mean moving sideways in MMOs et al.

T

Tank

Character, usually, with more HP and/or armor than normal. Part of the damage control strategy, tank character classes are usually given Taunts to augment the Aggro their damage causes

Taunts

Abilities that keep monsters attacking the user instead of characters with less damage protection.

Teleport

A transition between locations, see Zone. Mages obtain various spells that teleport within Zones. Only NPC mages have the ability to teleport themselves or others to other zones, such as Cowled Wizards and Shandalar.

THAC0

To Hit Armor Class zero. If you roll a 20-faced die and subtract the result from your thac0, you can successfully hit any AC greater than or equal to that number. (Provided you didn't roll a 1, which is always a miss, just like a 20 is always a hit.)

ToB

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

TotSC

Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast

Transition

Similar to Zone, except that it can carry additional meaning, where a character might be e.g. changing from one state to another (from a flying form, perhaps, to walking form) rather than merely travelling. Thus it describes better the zoning in Baldur's Gate, where the characters walk on one type of map, and when they click on and get to its edges, they do not automatically go to an adjacent zone, but instead the screen changes to the world map, where they can choose the zone to go to next. In other games, transitioning may be effected by colored or highlighted zoning polygons, or interacting with objects or NPCs that teleport the player directly to a destination.

Turn

a unit of time. 1 turn is the same as 60 seconds in real-life. 1 turn consists of 10 rounds, which are 6 seconds each. See time system.

W

Wild Surge

random effects which may happen whenever a Wild Mage casts a spell. Can also occur whenever any spell is cast in a Wild Magic zone.

Wis

Wisdom.

Wolfwere

These are the offspring of werewolves and wolves. Rather than being people who can become beasts, they are beasts who can become people. Generally no less intelligent than the werewolves that were their ancestors, they tend to be more savage and retain strong influences of their wolf heritage.
The equivalent of other lycanthropes are referred to in a similar manner, such as "bearweres."

World Map

The world map in a given edition of the game shows all areas known to the character. Areas may become visible through exploration or interaction with NPCs

X

XP

Experience Points, a crucial way of quantifying progress within the game. Killing enemies and completing quests will usually provide XP. Once a certain amount of XP has been reached, the character will advance to a higher level, with more HP and often new abilities. See also Exp.

Z

Zone, zoning

Game Area or sub-area, and a verb meaning, to travel between Zones, either with zone transition areas (over which the cursor will transform from the normal circle of inward-pointing 'arrowhead' sections into a wheel with an arrow on the top left corner. In some games, such as early Fallouts, the zone transition may be colored. A Zone Wall is the outside edge of a map; in some games, there is no transition zone on some of the edges of the area; in Baldur's Gate, this is true of the walls on the edge of the World Map or edges that do not have another map adjacent to them, e.g., the eastern and northern edges of the Spider Wood map.

External links

• Baldur's Gate Encyclopedia
• Role-playing game terminology