Baldur's Gate WalkThru v1.2

By CyberMouse

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://www.geocities.com/~johnnst

Alternate URL: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/8017

Note: This walkthru is for good aligned characters with the purpose of finishing the game in an early manner. Some of the subquests are included and how to finish them and more will be added depending on request. Wait for a more comprehensive version 1.3 coming sometime soon after Bioware releases the final patch update.

Also, I do not do tech support but sometimes will answer some anyway. Best place is to e-mail Bioware for questions.The only problems I had was with my SBLIVE where there drivers where in conflict with the game somehow. But still, the game did sound better with the EAX enable and the crashes were quite infrequent.

You can also download some screenshots in a file called bg_screen.zip when you find references to (refer to xxx.bmp). Added tons of subquests before Chapter 4. Some areas are might confuse you with the north-west south thing, so I've named the area according to what it's called. Just hit "L" and it will give you the name of the location in terms of numbers (eg Area AR XXXX).

New: More Subquests and new downloaded area maps available on my site.

Also check out this site for the next AD&D CRPG: http://www.planescape-torment.com

My machine stats:

- PII 300 MHz

- 128 MB PC66 SDRAM

- ABIT BH6

- MATROX MILLENIUM G200 8MB AGP

- SOUND BLASTER LIVE

- WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR 6.4GB HARD DRIVE

Most comfortable Baldur's Gate config:

- Cache: 240MB (default 140)

* I find loading places less frequent since I can now hold more areas in my BG cache allocation. However, to big a cache size tends to make clearing of game data take much longer.

- Speed: 40 (default 30), multiplayer 30

* The maximum speed is not recommended since it will make responsiveness to the monsters and NPCs in battle slightly harder unless you pause every nanosecond.

- Keys used on keyboard: I use the quick save key often and space bar. The hotkeys for the other stuff are pretty useless unless you intend to play the game totally real-time (good luck with harder NPCs and monsters). Also, if do a lot of Thieving, set Pick Locks to "Z" and the Stealth and Find Traps to suitable keys where you want to stealth and find traps at the same time (see strategy 15).

- AI script: The best has got to be custom, since they only attack with the weapon they have instead of doing all the other scripts which are pretty dumb. You should be playing the game, not the computer.

- Some tech stuff: If you have a UDMA hard drive, go to Device Manager and check and see if your hard drive has it's DMA enabled. I've noticed that if you enable it for your Hard Drive it really helps and I've had less crashes and better loading time. Also, if applicable, you can see if you can enable DMA for your CDROM drive. Ever since I've enabled that for my CDROM drive, I've had better loading time for movies and new area loading.

- Optional: Get a good mouse rest, you'll need it if you intend to play it for hours non-stop.

************************Strategies*********************************

1. Your party has to have a thief. In early stages of the game, you should not remove Imoen for she will get you out of rough spots and more free cool stuff. You need her or any thief to have at least 50% pick locks, 60% stealth, and 60% find traps before Chapter 6. Trust me on this one.

2. Group formations are important and knowing which one to use in each situation is also as important. If you travel narrow dungeons or subterranean levels, you should use the first formation since they don't tend to run all about. Selecting a group and using the right click to rotate the formation of your group should be a habit. Also, make your warriors stand in front of the group by shifting the character portrait up and down on the right hand side by left clicking on a portrait and dragging it to your desired slot. My favorite formation for this game in general is the 2nd formation since my group is well balanced.

3. When moving about the map, have a character with high stealth to scout the map first. Remember to off your AI because if the roll ever fails the character will immediately attack and attract attention. Then after you scout a region, you should move your group whichever way is safest. Or you could plan an attack on a group of unsuspecting Xvarts.

4. A good way to attack monsters that out match you is to have a wizard that was a web or stinking cloud spell. This spell should be quite available to you since it is only a level 2 spell.

- eg. Take off your AI enable and have the stealthiest group member find the target. Then check for head count. Have your wizard ready the stinking cloud or web spell and fire just near the closes enemy in the group. That way they can't see your wizard but you can see them due to the person that is hiding in shadows. You should save before doing this attempt since the NPCs or monsters could get lucky and pass their saving throws. Then have archers and magic users let them have it. Careful not to get too close to your own trap.

5. Skeletons and jellies tend to be annoying. Fireballs tend to wipe them clean, particularly skeletons. However, there are circumstances that disallow that and you should either use blunt or crushing weapons against them since all other types are quite ineffective. Some jellies or skeletons can only be hit by magical weapons and the term weapon ineffective pops up.

6. When you get too much stuff in your inventory and do not want to throw it away (like Gorion's scroll), here is the best way to do it. Go to Beregost, and into Jovial Inn. There a nice room at the end of the tavern upstairs. I feel Beregost is the best place in the game since it is quite close to most of the other locations and you can sell virtually anything there. Anyway, go to the two drawers in the room which are beside the bed. You will see that it is empty. You can keep quite a lot of stuff in those drawers which you can store to get later if you wish. I think I've personally have stored about 50+ potions from the adventures and used about 20+ of them in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.

7. Regarding saving and loading games. If you are frequent in loading games in an area high in monsters, you will probably notice that more monsters appear on the map, even those areas where you have killed many before. The thing is, Bioware is discouraging players from constant loading of games and everytime you kill a bunch of monsters in a certain area, they will respawn back after loading sometimes doubling the amount in certain areas. Use strategy 5 to avoid this constant loading habit and you should have a feel of how dangerous it is in the woods or subterraneon levels.

8. How to rest in peace? Simple, try not to rest in the area where there were monsters once or near it. A good place usually somewhere where there are no monsters about in a large radius. Even then you may still not be able to rest depending on the dice rolls.

9. You should not adorn yourself with jewelry and should typical sell most items. The only jewelry you should adorn should be magical ones.

10.Use the character with the highest Charisma to buy stuff for the group, that way you can get them cheaper.

11.To make a NPC turn red without fighting them outright is to stealth and then send that character near them. They will talk to you as if they can see you and after the "friendly chat" they change from neutral to red. Then move that stealth character aside and plan an attack, this way you get the story and journal updates and yet get a relatively easier kill since you can attack them little at a time or use stinking cloud or web to pacify them. Note, this usually only works with lower level NPCs.

12.You can attack a group of monsters or NPCs one at a time if you do it right. Get the stealth character to locate just one or two of the opponent first, then fire an arrow and run back, only those you see will chase, not the whole group. Then let them have it. This way you can take large chunks of enemies bits at a time.

13.Thieves can hide in shadows, and they come particularly use in combat if they enter it that way and have a dagger or short sword in their hands. Turn off your AI enable to make this work smoothly. If your thief is still invisible to the NPCs or monsters, and the rest of your party is fighting, walk the thief up to a target

and backstab whomever you like, particularly spell casters trying to get their spells out. Wizards might die

from one stab due to their low hit points, or from following attacks.

14.Whenever you get the ability to cast Monster Summoning, use it well because it is one of the most useful spells in the game to beat tough NPCs or monsters. Cast them prior to attacking someone and use them as battle fodder while the real damage comes in the form of magical ranged attacks and offensive magic spells. That strategy makes the last battle in BG really easy because then I used a Wand of Monster Summoning to call about 20+ creatures to attack while magical arrows and bullets, and magic missiles attack the NPCs.

15.To stealth and find traps at the same time, you first hide in shadows then click on find traps. This way you get a few seconds of stealth. Then hit the hide in shadows again and hope that you succeed.

16.You cannot heal or cast spells on characters in stealth.

17.New NPCs who can join your party will follow the main characters level or XP points give and take a few. So, if I was level 7 and went back and talked to Montaron and Xzar for the first time, they would be somewhere in that level range.

18.When you finished a subquest and you are ready to talk to whomsoever involved, you can remove party members so that the XP shared is among those who you really need to level up. Say if you have 6 people in the party, 2000XP will only come to about 333XP per person. But if you remove 3 of them and have only 3 left, each person in the party will receive about 667XP each. That way, your main character will advance really quick since you can't remove him or her in single play and when you meet other new NPCs, they will join your group with roughly about the same level as your main character is.

19.You can knock people out without killing them by using your fist instead of your weapon. They will be unconscious for a while and your reputation won't be affected because you did resort to murder.

20.Regarding characters that have hit their level up XP values. After a tough long battle you've noticed that one, or more of your characters have hit the level up mark and you are ready to roll for their hit points. Problem is, you may get really bad rolls (as low as 30% of the maximum possible roll). And you may also noticed that when you hit the level up button many times after hitting the escape key to abort the changes, the dice rolls seem to have not changed. One easy way to have the dice roll change after you level up is save, and then load the game again and watch the dice really roll. A word of advise, getting rolls of 80% of the possible maximum is good enough because getting perfect maximum rolls for hit points sounds too good even for yourself to even play that character honestly. As a DM for example, I am very strict about hit point dice rolling and to make it fair for players who have had to earn a level up, I disallow rolls of 1,2,and 3 on a d10, etc. This way, they really have to pray for good dice rolls, yet not fall short and be disgruntled when a warrior class character rolls a 1 for hit points.

21.Sometimes, always getting attacked while resting can be a blessing in disguise. There was once where I wanted to rest and everytime a Sword Spider would attack the group (average level 4). However, the starting location for the spider was in range of my archers (all 6 of them were equiped with ranged weapons) and before the spider could even reach the first person in the group it just fell dead from all the arrows and bullets. And everytime I did that it earned me 2000XP and some treasure from the dead spider. So don't curse your luck when you get attacked everytime you rest because you might just curse back when you want them to attack you just for the XPs. (Sword Spider stats: AC 3, MV 6, Hit points 45 {estimate}, Thaco 15, #attacks 2, damage 2d4{bite}/2d6{leg}). A last note, when your character becomes extremely fatigued, this strategy is not advise because your Thaco will be severely hampered due from the lack of rest.

22. You can usually stack items of the same type together, up to the max for each item type. This way, you save space and have tons of stuff to use.

23. If you have a bard, or a multi class fighter/mage, you've noticed that you cannot cast spells when you are wearing armor. One particularly useful tactic is to carry around a spare armor in your inventory and use it if you know you are not going to use spells for that character until necessary. A good spell to help you get around this "armor = no spell" problem is to cast Armor spell if you don't want to carry a spare around. This is a first level spell and last up to 9 hours and has a base AC of 6. Or if you are in for a short battle with some tough NPCs and want to have both your spellcasting abilities and your fighting abilities, Ghost Armor is particularly useful because it has a base AC of 2 and last for 10 turns (I have not had a battle that last longer than that).

24. If you have a Paladin, you can use his or her Detect Evil ability to find evil aligned NPCs or monsters in an area. You can also notice that some have magic resistance which roughly gives you an idea what's in the area.

25. Bards of level 4 or higher are extremely useful when it come to identifying items because they gain 10 lore points per level. I had a 7th level Bard (Garrick) who can identify virtually anything because of his high lore rating. However, when an item cannot be identified by someone with a very high lore rating usually indicates that the item is cursed.

26. You can regain your reputation points by donating to a church or temple (by hundreds). However, there are certainly limitations to this rule as indicated in the book.

27. Wearing non-magical armor like Full Plate Armor compared to the supposed "magical" Ankegh Armor can sometimes be better because you can add more protection items like Ring of Protection +1 or Cloak of Protection +2. Plus, you get protection bonus to your saving throws. Weigh your options carefully.

*************************WalkThru**********************************

Prologue:

You start out in front of Winthrop's Inn. There you will have a little bit of cash and a quarterstaff. Go into the tavern and talk to Winthrop and he'll show you stuff you can buy. All you need is the weapon that you are proficient and a cheap armor like leather armor because later you will get better stuff in Chapter one from killing stuff. Then talk to Firebead Elvenhair, he will ask you to get the scroll from Tethoril. Tethoril is in the compound of the walls of the library. If you have a thief with pick lock greater than 30% go ahead and try the locked chests in the Inn.

If you talk to Phlydia, she seems to have misplaced her book, go talk to Dreppin. He will tell you that she left her book in the haystack. It's the hay on the left where the cow Nessa is at. Talk to Dreppin again and he will tell you that Nessie is sick and that he be needing an antidote. If that's the case go talk to Hull somewhere to the east of the map and he will say he needs his sword from the barracks, which is somewhere westward from Hull. There you will get the sword and the antidote.

Inside the barracks you talk to Fuller who will ask you to get him crossbow bolts for him where you can buy from Winthrop. You will get a dagger +1 from him, your first magical weapon.

There is also some money lying about some crates and barrels, you should check them out.

In Candlekeep, there are two places (Priest Quarters & Bunkhouse) where someone has send assasins to kill you. You should have no problem if you are not a wizard. If you are, try running around the room a little and cast magic missile or any offensive spell you have once you get your desired distance. Remember, spells have casting time and most level 1 spells only have a casting time of 1 which means it is executed quite early in the round.

To exit the Prologue, talk to Gorion and say you are ready for the adventure of your life.

Chapter One:

After Gorions death, you should meet with Imoen. You should take her into your group use her thieving skills to the max. If you decide to keep another thief later, make sure they both specialize in different thieving abilities as to maximize the groups effectiveness. If you watch the battle scene properly, Gorion left a couple of stuff on the floor upon death, along with the other dead baddies. You should do well to head there and collect the stuff.

You should meet Xxar and Montaron (evil aligned characters) if you follow the cobbled road. They want to go to Nashkel and need your assistance. However, you should head to the Friendly Arm Inn first and get Khalid and Jaheira were they will be your best allies yet. Have them tag along and you can remove them in Nashkel because if your reputation goes up, they will start whinning.

In the next area you will meet an old man with a red robe and hat and a staff. He is actually Elminster. After talking to him, head north east until you reach a small rounded sized rock. On top of it is a Ring of Protection +1 (refer to Ring Protection1.jpg & Ring Protection2.jpg).

Here, towards the east side of the map, there is an ogre with some stuff on him. Killing him should be tough but helps complete a subquests without going there a second time.

Once you reach the Friendly Arm Inn, there will be a bounty hunter waiting at the stairs of the Inn. He is a wizard that usually cast Horror to make you flee like chickens and then assault you using magic. The best way is to use Imoen's magic missile staff to disrupt his spell casting. But before that, you can head east along the southern sides until you see a pine tree (directly south of this map). Near the base of that pine tree you will find a Ring of Wizardry (refer to map Ring Wizardry.jpg).

Enter the Inn and Jaheira and Khalid should be near Bentley, the bartender. Bentley and Gelana owns the Friendly Arm Inn and Gelana can be found in the shrine. Inside, you might want to buy the Stone to Flesh scroll if you want a priest before heading to the Nashkel Mines.

In one of the houses near the big entrance of the outdoor compound of the Friendly Arm Inn, there is Joia who had her Flamedance ring stolen by a couple of Hobgoblins to the north of the map. You can retrieve it when you encounter a hobgoblin with a different color armor than the rest.

Inside the Inn, there is 2 subquests. One is about the stolen girdle and if you follow the prior advise, you just have to talk to the person twice. The second one is about a spider infestation in Beregost. She will hand you 6 antidotes incase you get bitten by them.

The best way to exit the Friendly Arm area is to go north and exit that way. This way you don't need to go through Friendly Arm Inn again if you want to go straight to the area above later on in the game.

Once you reach Beregest, you can kill the infestation of spiders in one of the houses in the southern part of the map. Put the antidotes into the quick item slot for those who you will use as front line men. After killing them take whatever is in the house and the body of the spider.

Go into the Feldpost Inn and you will see Marl, with a bit of a temper. If you talk to him nicely saying that his son was a find person and stuff you can earn a free 900XP. It's better than killing him. If you feel like doing it, you can knock him cold (see strategy 19).

Another freebie subquests is when you find Elven Firebead in one of the southern cluster of houses where he will ask to get the Book of the Fateful Coin. You can get it from the bartender at the Feldpost Inn for 2 gp.

You will also find Kaigan here, a lawful evil fighter.

You will also meet the town crier near the tall pillar that has Beregost written on it. He is only there usually

in the mornings. He will tell you that Bassilus is wanted and that there is a 5000 gp reward for his death.

Another subquest is when you meet Garrick in front of the Burning Wizard, he says that his mistress, Silke is in need of your assistance and requires your help. However, she is evil and is trying to trick you into killing innocent men. Killing her will gain you 900 XP and she is a wizard able to cast lightning bolt so using the wand of magic missiles to disrupt her magic is advised unless you are confident enough with your characters' THACO. You can also get Garrick, a chaotic neutral bard to join you after killing Silke. Garrick at level one has a pick pockets of 40% and that is quite a percentage if you want to pick important stuff in Beregost, as well as other places.

Inside the Red Sheaf Inn, you will meet a halfling named Perdue. He will tell you that he lost his sword short to a couple of gnolls and wants it back. Be careful how you talk to him or you might just close your opportunity for this subquest. However, there's not much a reward for doing this though.

If you enter the house on the east that has it's door facing east, you will find Mirianne and she will tell you

that her husband is traveling to Beregost and whether you can find out anything about him.

In the area just below Beregost, if you follow the cobbled road, you will certainly run into a couple of Ogrillons who has killed Mirianne's husband. You will find the scroll that you can return to her for more XPs and a Ring of Protection +1. And somewhere in the middle of this map, you will find a cave with a couple of Hobgoblins near the entrance. One of the Hobgoblins is wearing the Boots of Stealth. Inside the cave there is some money and 5 healing potions which should come in handy.

-Thieving section:

1. You can get a Medium Shield +1 when you pick pocket Bjornin. (Beregost)

2. Algernon's Cloak (+2 to Charisma) can be picked from a fat rude man upstairs in the Feldpost Inn. (Beregost)

Chapter Two:

You reach Nashkel and you should take a rest at the Inn nearby. However, before going in, there is another bounty hunter in there (another damn wizard) and be prepared. After that take a rest.

Go find Berrun Ghastkill and he will ask you to solve the mining problems at the mines. It seems that demons are in there (kobolds actually, so no need to intimidated unless they have a large number).

There is also a fat man named Oublek who has mistaken you for a guy named Greywolf and wants to give you Greywolf's reward money. The best answer is to tell Oublek that he has got the wrong person and your reputation will go up a point. Anyway, you can get that bounty too later when you are heading for the Nashkel mines.

Here, you will also meet Minsc, a neutral good ranger of exceptional strength, and if you turn him down to rescue a damsel who was captured by a bunch of gnolls, he will attack you. He will also update your map with the location of the Gnoll Fortress. If you really need a wizard, you best go and rescue her while earning XPs.

Another character whom you will meet is Edwin, another wizard near the bridge in Nashkel. However, he is evil in alignment and wants to kill Dynaheir (the captive in the Gnoll Fortress). You can refuse him and then later when you return to Nashkel, he will be near the bridge again and be prepared for another spell fight.

Before heading to the mines, you should equip yourself with healing potions because you are going to need it if you don't already have a priest. You can get one to join your team by going to the carnival where you find a statued lady and a runt trying to sell you a Stone to Flesh scroll for 500 gp. If you bought the scroll earlier in the Friendly Arm Inn's shrine, you should get it for less than half that price if your reputation and charisma are high enough.

Here in Nashkel, you can also find an Ankegh Armor and Pearl in the western most side of the map. It is just next to a pine tree which is near the western most farm plot. Finding it will be tough because it is rather camouflaged. You can check out the screenshot in my website to see the highlighted area (refer to Ankegh & Pearl.jpg).

In the north west overland area of the Nashkel mines, you can obtain a Wand of Frost (refer to Wand Frost1.jpg & Wand Frost2.jpg). And in the western area of this map, you will find Prism who is busy sculpting and you should do well to let him finish his sculptor. If you do, GreyWolf will appear and wants to take Prism into custody and killing GreyWolf will award you with 1400XP. Talk to Prism again and he will give you the Emeralds he stole only later to kill himself. You can take these emeralds to Nashkel and talk to a man named Oublek to get your reward for returning them.

The mines are filled with Kobolds and spiders, plus some traps here and there. You should do well to find traps with the thief in your party or use the priest to cast a find trap spell. Arrows are abundant here so no worries because most of the dead kobolds will carry them. Use strategy 3,4 and 12 to get through the mines.

When you get to the last level of the mines, you will meet Mulahey, the culprit in the mines. He will call upon some skeletons and kobold commandos. The best way to rid yourself of them is to cast a fireball in the upper part of the this area (there are three main areas in Mulahey's rat hole) because there is where they will spawn at. Use strategy 11 to get Mulahey to admit to his crimes without risking the whole team whilst you get the person back and eliminate the monsters first then Mulahey. In this area, you will meet Xan who has a special sword (only he can use it) which can only be obtained in Mulahey's chest. Personally, I think Xan is a big whiner and the sword really doesn't do much for the party since his Thaco is that of a wizard.

***

In the area just south of Nashkel walk towards the west, you will find a boy named Albert somewhere in the north west region of the map. He will ask you to find his pet dog and hands you a toy that the dog will recognize. The dog is somewhere east of where the boy is and it isn't too hard to find though. After returning the dog watch some oddity here.

Here also, somewhere south, you will meet two peculiar cutthroats who one of them claim to be the fastest dart thrower in the west. I have to admit, that person's dart throwing is pretty accurate and can hit someone with an AC of 0 easily. Use strategy 11 and 12 to take them down. The fastest dart thrower in the west will have the Bracers of Archery on him.

Another group of evil aligned characters, Delgod, Sendai and Alexander can be found somewhere in the middle of this map. You can avoid killing them by talking your way out of it or you can just toast them for their stuff and also gain XPs.

You can get the Cloud Kill scroll here, somewhere towards the northern part of this map (refer to Cloud_kill1.jpg & Cloud_kill2.jpg).

***

In the area north east of Nashkel (Area AR 4400), you will meet 3 bandits who will ask you to hand over your money, and you can dispose of them.

However, somewhere in the east of this map, there are Ogre Berserkers and Ogrillons who is next to a dead body. After killing them you can search the body for potions. Also, somewhere east but northward of the Ogre/Ogrillon band, there is Sarheda who will challenge you to fight the menacing Ogre band. Just talk twice to finish this subquest.

Another subquest with some XPs is in the middle of this map, and you will see a house nearby. There is a man named Hulrik who has one of his cows attacked by Xvarts. Dispose of them and you will get some XPs and a reputation point increase.

Somewhere in the northern part of the map, you will meet Arghain, a bandit Half Ogre wielding a magical two-handed sword with a couple of Ogrillons. Killing him will give quite some money and his sword, plus 520 XP. Nearby there is a cave, and inside there awaits an Ettercap. Use strategy 15 to remove the trap at the front of the entrance and disposing of the Ettercap will award you with 650 XP and some potions in the crate.

***

In the Carnival, you will meet a merchant in his tent somewhere in the southern part of the map. He will try to sell you two potions, for 50 gp each. Buy both because one will increase your Strength to 25 and the other will increase your Intelligence to 25, both of which are only temporary. Plus, they come with some nasty side effects so be careful when using.

In of the middle tents, you will meet a wizard who will try to kill a lady, Bentha using his magic words. Just call him a moron and he will attack you. His first spell will be Mirror Image and then Horror followed by Melf's Acid Arrows, finally using his staff when he is all drained of magic. After killing him, talk to Bentha.

***

In the pine forest area further south west of Nashkel (Area AR 5200), you will meet a gnoll somwhere to the west of this area who speaks of the gnoll fortress. He will only be hostile if you insult him. Travel southwards and once you hit the bottom edge of the map, go east and you will run into a waterfall. Search the waterfall and you find a dead cat inside it. Then, try to get up above the area of the waterfall and you will see a little girl named Drienne. She will give you a Protection from Undead scroll.

North of this area, you will also meet a couple of gnolls who will try to collect 50gp for trespassing in their area. Kill the whole lot and you will get at least 200gp.

In the middle of this map there is beautiful lake that is the source of the waterfall. On the eastern side of the lake, you will meet a Dryad of CloudPeaks who will ask you to help her from men (Krumm and Branwen) who are trying to chop down her magical tree. They will attack you if you do not help them chop the tree down and dispose of them. You will get a potion and 500XP.

Also, somewhere south east of this lake, you will see a cave entrance. Inside, there is crate with a magical Halberd.

***

Towards the west of Nashkel and north east of the Gnoll Fortress (Area AR 4700), you will stumble upon the a Xvart village in the middle of this area. Here, you will meet their leader and he will call upon a Brown Bear named Ursa to attack you. To the north east of the village, there is a cave with a cave bear inside. Kill it and check out the crate for potions and a Flail +1.

***

North of the Gnoll fortress (Area AR 4600) you will meet Neville (you only see him at first) and his henchmen of Hobgoblins in the middle of the map to the east side of the river across this map. Kill him and you will get a Long Sword +1.

Towards the south east of this map, you will meet a guy who begs you to get rid of the mountain bear across the wooden bridge. Killing the bear will award you 900XP and if you cross the bridge again to talk to the guy, he will give you the Boots of the North.

And in the north west region, you will meet Laurel who will ask you to hunt gibberlings with her. But be prepared if you accept her challenge because after you do, about a dozen gibberlings will appear near her and start attacking everyone they see. After killing everyone of those nasties, you can talk to her for your XP award.

***

Upon entering the Gnoll Fortress, you will be facing a bridge. And at the other end of this bridge, there are two Ogrillons, Hairtooth and Gnarl who will try to collect a 200gp toll from you. Either you pay or not, they will attack you. After disposing of them, you will get some potions, cash and the Gauntlets of Dexterity.

However, due to the complexity of this area, I shall only make reference to the screenshot of the area (refer to Gnoll Fort.jpg).

Tome of Charisma: Follow the yellow path to the circled cave entrance.

Dynaheir (Minsc's friend): Follow the light blue path and you will find her in the circled pit.

- Thieving Section

1. In the Carnival, you will meet a merchant in his tent somewhere in the southern part of the map. Inside there are 2 crates. The left crate can be easily picked and you get some potions. The right crate needs to have the trap on it removed first.

2. In on of the middle tents, you will have dealt with a wizard who was trying to kill Bentha with his magic words. You can pick Bentha for a Potion of Heroism.

3. In Nashkel, you can pick Berrun Ghastkill for a Healing Potion.

Chapter Three:

To exit the mines, you exit Mulahey's den and walk the other way to the exit to somewhere on the east of the

area before entering Mulahey's den. There you will meet a couple of jellies where you can easily take down with blunt or crushing weapons. Use magic if necessary.

You exit into an wasteland type area. However, you cannot turn back because the entrance has caved in. You should explore this map thoroughly , unless you want to get back to Nashkel and rest. Anyway, the area in the wasteland promises tons of cool items. There should be another 3 caverns (refer to nash_mine_exit.jpg) with stuff and really nasty undead. Purchasing a Protection from Undead scroll should be a good thing and will keep you from harm.

In the northern part of this map, there will be 4 lady bounty hunters, Maneira, Telka, Zeela and Lamalha who wants you dead, dispose of them and you will get the magical equipment on them.

In Nashkel, another bounty hunter is waiting there and that one is a real tough dude if your party are only level 2. He is a mage that will cast Horror to make most or all of your party run about. So you might want to head to Beregost instead to take a rest and risk the chance of getting ambushed on the way if you feel that the bounty hunter is too tough. Go talk to Berrun Ghastkel in the middle of this area and he will give you your reward.

And in Beregost, go find Tranzig in the Feldpost Inn. Make him tell you the location of the Bandit camp after defeating him and you should save prior to going into the inn. He is upstairs in one of the rooms. After he reveals the location, you should kill him for his crimes and get his scrolls and stuff.

Then head north to the area just above the Friendly Arm Inn. There will be lots of Ankhegs around the ground and you should do well to scout ahead with stealth. You need a character with high strength to carry the Ankhegs carapace because they weigh about 100 pounds each. You also earn 975 XP for killing them too. Anyway, after exploring this map, and finishing most of the easy subquests here, you should head back to Beregost with the Ankegh carapace you have and talk to the smithy. Don't sell him the carapace, and he will tell you that it can be made into an armor for 4000 gp. Personally, I think it is worth it since it is light weight and gives you an armor class of 1 unlike the very heavy full plate mail with the same armor class. It will take tendays (a week in Faerunian calendar is ten days) so jot down the time and date you gave it to him. Also, you can store away the excess stuff you are unwilling to sell in the room inside the Jovial Inn.

Also, in the Jovial Inn, there is a Flaming Fist captain that will buy your bandit scalps for 50 gp each which is quite a good deal than selling it in the shops for 25gp. Now you know why Beregost is my favorite location. Almost everything to do with selling and getting stuff comes from Beregost and it is not too far away from many places.

Head to the areas towards the north east and you will find lots of bandits. You should particularly be on the look out for talking bandits because you need to join the bandits in order to complete Chapter 3. I can't stress enough that many people failed to enter Chapter 4 because they went on a galavanting bandit killing spree. You should use the character with high charisma to do the talking, although I am not sure whether it will affect their decision for you to join them. Some talking bandits will attack you even if you want to join them and some will let you in.

After the cutscene where you get shoved into the bandit camp, you will meet Tazok, the leader of the bandits in these areas. You will have to fight him to prove to him that you are capable bandits. Explore the bandit camp and be prepared to get attacked sometimes. The bandits outside will let you roam free and picking the chest all about should be profitable. When you get to Tazok's tent, make sure that your party is ready for a nasty fight because inside you shall be attacked no matter what you say. There is a wizard you should deal with first by means of magic or ranged attacks. Make sure he dies first then take care of the rest. Try using strategy 13 to take out the wizard.

***

In the area west of the Nashkel Mines, you will meet a Flaming Fist Officer somewhere in the western area of this map. He will inform you that there are bandits about and that the Flaming Fist is looking for a man named Samuel who you will find on this map.

North west of this area you will meet Hafiz, and if role play correctly, he will hand you a Protection from Magic scroll. And in the middle of this map, you will find Liera who will ask you to help carry Samuel (the man who the Flaming Fist was looking for to Gellana at the Temple in the Friendly Arm Inn. You should bring him there immediately or he die.

Somewhere south (refer to Ring_Fire.jpg), you will find a Ring of Fire Resistance, Iol gem and a Starphire Gem (worth 1000gp).

***

The south area from the High Hedge (AR 3700), you will find a chicken named Mellicamp in the north east of this area. He will ask you to bring him to his master in the High Hedge to remove the curse upon him.

Also, in the middle of this map, you will find Zargal and his hobgoblin bandits. After disposing of them you can search Zargal for a Short Sword +2.

Bassilus is towards the south east of this area, but be warned, he is surrounded by undead. Upon searching him you will find his holy symbol of which you can go to the Temple to claim your reward and XP. You can get rid of the undead around him easily if you role play correctly, and he will dispel them out of fury and attack you.

***

Towards the west of Beregost, you can find the High Hedge where the wizard Thalantyr resides in a buidling in the middle of this area. Inside that building there are 2 Flesh Golems who will attack you if you haven't had a chance to talk to Thalantyr. Here is where you give Mellicamp the chicken to the wizard who will later ask if you can go get a skull for his incantation to restore Mellicamp's original body. You can find the skull outside by skilling anyone of the skeletons in this area. Remember, to save before giving him the skull because there is chance that the incantation might fail and thus you don't get your XP reward.

Outside of this building, on the north east side, you can find Kivan a ranger out for revenge. He will join your party if you are willing to hunt down Tazok with him.

***

The area east of Beregost is where the Temple is at. Towards the north west of this area is where the actual temple resides and inside you can find the priest to show Bassilus holy symbol too to claim your reward.

Somewhere south of this area you will meet Cattack, a hobgoblin bandit who you can dipose.

***

On the east area (AR 3500) of the Temple, there are quite a lot of Basilisks in the area which can turn you to stone with their gaze. So bringing a couple of Stone to Flesh scrolls might come in handy. In the nothern part of this area, you will come across a mad gnome, Mutamin who has somehow got the Basilisks in this area under his control. Disposing of him will be tough and because of the Basilisks near him.

Somewhere in the middle of this map, you will find a couple of show offs (evil in alignment) who will insult you with downright rudeness. Killing them will give you XPs and you can accumulate quite a lot of magical stuff from this group, like the Golden Girdle, Long Sword +1, Bracers of Defence AC7, Morning Star +1.

***

Ulcaster is located south east of the Temple. You can find Ulcaster School on the north east plateau inside the simple maze of ruins. You will encounter a undead knight who is out for your blood in the southern part of this ruins. Somewhere in the ruins, there is a ghostly figure named Ulcaster that haunts this place but talking to him a couple of times will reveal that he wants a tome of some sort inside Ulcaster.

Also, you will meet Furret, towards the north east part and he will try to sell you a gem of true seeing for 1000gp. However, the gem he is selling is fake and cost way less than what you paid.

In the middle of this map, you will find a group of hobgoblins patrolling that part of the map. On of them has a Boots of Stealth and you should do well to kil most of them to find the boots if you have more than one character who can stealth.

- Inside Ulcaster School:

After descending from the surface you will encounter a maze like area. Due to the complexity of giving instructions, I've taken a screenshot and edited it to show specific locations (refer to Ulcaster.jpg).

The red lines and blue lines show you the locations to some significant treasure. By following the red lines you will find the book Ulcaster is looking for. You can return it to him if you make it back to the surface.

Chapter Four:

After defeating the goons in Tazok's tent, you will get some documents in their chest telling you of their plans. You can talk to the person in the black cloak and he will reveal to you the location of Cloakwood forest. Take whatever you can from the room and leave for Cloakwood forest when you are ready.

There is three locations of Cloakwood forest before the reaching the mines which is the end of this chapter.

One subquest worth looking into is when you meet a guy where his brother went to look for the Spider's Bane, which is a really powerful two-handed sword. Use strategy 14 to beat the creature with the exception that you will have to cast the Monster Summoning inside the Cavern. Make sure the characters that are in front carry Antidotes and healing Potions in their quick slots because sometimes the poison will kill you faster than the spider bites.

Upon reaching the mines area, the only way to the mines is through the last house (there are two houses in this area fenced with high wooden logs). You will meet another group of NPCs that has a wizard in it. Use strategy 4 and 11 to beat them.

Here, you will also get the Boots of Speed which should go with any character that doesn't have the Spider's Bane or (in the future) the Ring of Free Action. This is because the Free Action ability will negate the boot's property, but will work on anyone without those items in combination.

Once you get in the mines, you will meet one of the prisoners there and he will ask you for 100 gp to help free the rest of the prisoners. You can trust him. There you will also meet a dwarf who is in for revenge and you can add him to your team if you are in need of another character.

Try to find the best path to get to the lowest level where the evil wizard is located. This is because killing all

of the monsters does not help your XP a lot and slows you down since there are too many of them. You are welcomed to try though. Also, there is a temple of Bhaal where you can get some neat potions in the vases in the small shrine.

Once you reach the final level, you meet a really nasty wizard. Use strategy 14 and if you have dispel magic, try to get rid of the wizard's defenses. After killing the wizard, go down another tunnel where you will get some expensive jewelry and some scrolls. There is also the wizard's apprentice and you may do what you want with him (I let him off because I am lawful good, although killing him doesn't change your alignment).

You can exit the level via a passage way that will directly lead up to the first level of the mines. Remember, to

have the key at hand and go find the huge valve. There, you will talk to a person next to it and you can flood the mines if you already released the prisoners earlier.

Chapter Five:

After flooding the mines, you can go to Baldur's Gate at last. There, you will meet Scar (you can trust his words). He will ask you to investigate the Seven Sun which in fact infested with dopplegangers. It's quite a simple guess if you've been a DM as long as I have.

Anyway, inside you will meet another character who will join your cause. His name is Quayle the Cleric/Illusionist.

Also, upon entering Baldur's Gate you will meet Elminster for the third time, if you did meet him in Beregost

telling you where to go to investigate the bandits. Bla bla bla here...

Anyway, you'll meet a shop which pretty well sell cursed stuff, I really laughed at this point. Also, when you enter the houses and some dude walks up to you and ask for a password, it's "Fafhrd". It's the password for the thieves' guild here in Baldur's Gate. Try not to make enemies with them because they are pretty neat actually and there is a thief in there that sells Potions of Thievery which will really come in handy picking those rich folks or completing certain subquests. Also, you will meet a person who tells you that some people are looking for you and gives the same password in this area.

Also, there is a really peculiar place that looks like a big colorful onions and in there they sell magic stuff.

Inside, you will find a stairway upstairs. Upon going upstairs, you would have interrupted a bunch of wizards casting a spell which you have so kindly interrupted. They are really rude and don't feel hesitant killing them if they attack you, you won't get a reputation decrease unless you attack them while they are still neutral.

Here's the trick to finishing chapter five. Go to the Iron Throne Mansion (at the North West corner of the docks in Baldur's Gate) and kill the baddies at the top level. Pretty tough bunch and strategy 13 and 14 are best here. Then you will get documents saying of their plan.

Then go to the area just west of the docks and somewhere south, you will meet a merchant who claims that his partners in trade have turned weird all of a sudden. This subquests should be taken for you will get a neat sword that has a +3 vs shapeshifters which you will meet a lot later on. Remember to have the documents of the dopplegangers involvement on the character when he is talking to the person in charge.

After disposing of those nasties, you head over to the Seven Suns which should be close by. There, you will also meet a couple of hungry dopplegangers which wants your flesh (by the way, dopplegangers uses ESP to get your thoughts then shapeshift into your body hape which later they eat you afterwards, gross isn't it?). Go upstairs and get rid of them. Then in this same area, go to the Flaming Fist headquarters which is huge Garrison and tell Scar about the dopplegangers. Then he will ask you to clean the infestation. Say you will do it and talk to him again, and he will give you your reward and you gain a freebie XP. Later he ask you to go find out what is making people missing and you should head to the sewers. That is pretty easy to solve though. Anyway, if you want to finish this, tell Scar you have to time for that and he will lead to you to Eltan the duke of Baldur's Gate. Make sure your character's inventory is not filled up for he will give you the Tome of Great Value for which you need to be allowed into CandleKeep again.

There is a good subquest in here which is relatively easy if you have 2000 gp. You head to the area North West of Baldur's Gate where the Hall of Wonders are located. Somewhere north of this great white buildings, a kid will approach you with a problem. Tell the kid you accept the quest and he will show you the house to go to. There you will see a Priest of Tymora who will ask you to get his dead son back from the temple of Umberlee. The Temple is just is in the same area as the docks so getting there should be that bad. Talk to the person who greets you upon entering the temple and ask for Priestess in charge. Give her a large donation and she will meet with you. Then pay the priestess 2000 gp for the body and immediately head back to return the son to the Priest. You will get a Shield of Missile Deflection.

Chapter Six:

You will be automatically transported to Candlekeep. There you will hand the Tome to the guard and he will let you in. Inside, everyone is glad to see you and you should head to the Priest's Quarters. There you will see a priest examining a dead cat. He is actually a doppleganger and you should interrogate him until he changes his form (he was having that cat for lunch).

Even Phyldia has been eaten by the dopplegangers and you can't do anything for you will meet her or it again later. Those bastards.

Before you proceed any further, you might want to equip your characters with enough magical potions and stuff for later you might not be able to exit Candlekeep until you escape.

Anyway, you will enter Candlekeep and you talk about with the people approaching you. You will find out that many people in Candlekeep have seem to have changed. As you move up, there will be someone you know who doens't recognize you and you should interrogate him until he changes.

You will also meet Kevoras (who is actually the last boss, Sarevok) and he will hand you Gorion's Ring of Protection which isn't cursed. So don't worry.

Anyway, you will meet Reiltar and his henchmen and you should not kill them. Tell them that it is not over. On the other hand, you could kill them if you want to, but they have nothing unique on them anyhow.

Later upstairs, you will be wrongly (or correctly) accused of murder and they throw you in the cell, do not fight them. Then you will appear in a jail cell with some odd people sleeping nearby. Anyway, Ulraunt will approach you and inform you that you will be sent to Baldur's Gate to be executed. Then he leaves, and a few seconds afterwards Tethtoril appears and teleports you to the level below Candlekeep.

Once you reach there you are in a small room facing a passage way. Go in and you will appear in the tombs. There you will meet Phlydia blabbering about her book and changes into a doppleganger. Here you can get two important things, the Tome of Wisdom and Tome of Strength each in trap laddened rooms and sealed and trapped inside the stone coffins. Find traps and remove traps will greatly help and if you fail to pick locks, use the Potion of Thievery.

As you move along the areas, you will meet Elminster (this old man is getting annoying) and Gorion! I'll let you guess this one.

Chapter Seven:

Anyway, once you make your way out of the tombs, remember to fully equip your characters with lots of stuff. Unless you want to make multiple travels that's fine too. Try to avoid any Flaming Fist guards because they want to arrest you and bring you in. What I did was sneak all the way to the Iron Throne without even being detected. Head to the Iron Throne and you will see people fleeing the building. Make your way to the top floor where you had a big battle before and prepare yourself for another. Ready the dispel magic and purge invisibilty if you want to detect the invisible wizard.

After you have defeated her and her minions, do not let her live. She has the evidence you need to spoil Sarevok's plan. Just keep Sarevok's diary, you will need it later. In one of the scrolls, you will read of this Undercellar place. It's really close by and you can get there through this building. Make your way down again and find the basement down below. Inside, you can enter the sewers through an entrance between the two rows of barrels.

In the sewers, you will probably meet a couple of ghast or ghouls, whichever spawns there. Just kill them and you don't have to travel far to get to the Undercellar. Just exit the nearest exit near the entrance you came from which should be right below you.

There you will meet a person which is the owner of a prostitution establishment. You can't use fireballs here

because there are innocent prostitutes around. Strategy 11 and 14 works best here because you really don't want to meet both of them together. Try dragging you the ghostly warrior first and then kill the spell user with magic missiles disrupting her spell casting. You will get an invitation to the coronation of the new Grand Duke, SAREVOK.

Head to the palace and show your invitation. You should not use strategy 11 because you have to protect two very important people inside. Fireball is not an option here too. Kill all the dopplegangers that are trying to kill Belt and his lady friend. Strategy 14 should be used with caution because you don't want to over cluster the small coronation room. Anyway, Sarevok will just stand there.

After the fight, Sarevok will accuse you of murder and that you should be punished. Show Belt the diary and Sarevok will in the end turn red. However, do not waste your energy on him that much because he can't be killed and will flee with the help of his magician.

Belt will later locate Sarevok and teleport you to the Thieves' Guild. There you can get the potions and other stuff you need from the lady in the room.

You can exit the guild to rest and get ready because down the stairs of the Thieves' Guild there are Skeleton

Warriors inside which have 90% magic resistance, very low Thaco and high Hit Points. Even with the Armor Class of -7, I still get Minsc's ass whooped like a pansy. Strategy 14 should be used although you also need to get your warriors in to really cause damage. Have a priest behind healing all the time. Anyway, once inside you will also meet jellies. There are lots of traps in here that shoot lightning bolts, fireballs and magic missiles. So scout ahead and find the safest path to the exit.

There you will meet the magician that helped Sarevok escape the Palace. You can do what you wish of him.

Final showdown:

You have now reached the UnderCity under Baldur's Gate. There you will meet some men you are after Sarevok but isn't hesitant to kill you also for a handsome reward. They are quite a powerful bunch and I used strategy 4 and 11 but in strategy 4, I had my Invoker cast Stinking Cloud and then used the Wand of Fireballs until all are dead. I had 4 Wands of Fireball and 3 Wand of Monster Summoning at this stage as well as some other wands.

Here, try to avoid the skeleton warriors and make it to Sarevok's home to the North West of the map.

Inside, use strategy 11 and get the wizards and Sarevok's goons out first to your group. Before that, remove

the traps around you near the entrance. However, you cannot remove those on the Symbol of Bhaal so just remember not to step on it.

Using strategy 14, Sarevok should be taken down relatively easy.

***************************THE END************************************

I hope this walkthru and strategy guide has been helpful. If you need to know about other subquest I'll include it in my next version.