You may want to adjust the Tool-Tip Delay and a few other settings to your liking. I tend to prefer a Delay of about half a second, so I don't have to wait a long time for each item or creature's name to show up. Also, you may want to go to the Sounds menu and turn on the Subtitles, as some of your party members may say things that are difficult to understand if you don't have a written copy. And turning on the Group Infravision option makes it a little easier to see on the dark, and some ToSC areas are very dark. Turning up the Brightness on your monitor will really help you out.

This is as close to a walkthrough as I'm going to get.

Notes for Baldur's Gate I:

Prologue/Chapter 1:

Telling Gorion that you're ready to leave will end the Prologue, perhaps before you're ready. Try to do everything you can (and collect anything that might be useful) in Candlekeep before you say you're all set to go.

Many buildings have their doorways facing North, and therefore invisible on your screen. Keep that mouse pointer moving�if it brushes over a doorway, it'll change to the 'Door here' pointer, and you can enter.

You will encounter fights where the enemies will drop notes. These notes are usually important, as they provide clues to the Main Plot. Keep them, or copy the important parts down somewhere.

Some Flaming Fist officers are more lawful than others.
Chapters 2/3:

In the Nashkel Barracks, there is a chest that can't be opened by any means. This is a bug.

The 'Fog of War' doesn't always work properly in areas with straight, right-angle walls. A lot of people have trouble seeing a particular passageway in the Ulcaster School, because the Fog obscures it when it's not supposed to. Send somebody to go stand in every corner of every room, and this will disperse the Fog.

Read the descriptions of items, or at least mouse-over them to see what they're called, before selling them. Some unique items use the exact same pictures as commonplace items.

An awful lot of people have trouble finding Dynaheir, even when they've searched the place thoroughly. Again, the Fog of War is at fault. When exploring the area, just looking there is not enough�you actually have to go there. If your mouse pointer says you can walk there, try walking there.

Unless you've Saved your game recently, don't use your PC to initiate conversation with Shoal the Nereid.

The Antichickenator spell seems to have a 50% failure rate, or maybe it's determined by some exterior factor. Anyway, if it's your first game, don't get discouraged if Antichickenator fails�it's probably not a result of anything you did wrong, just plain bad luck.

The Firewine Bridge Dungeon wins the award for Fastest Enemy Respawn�and Most Annoying Dungeon.

Do what the notes tell you to! And read your Journal.

The start of Chapter 4 is triggered in exactly the same way Chapter 3 was: By opening a chest and taking the important papers inside.
Chapter 4:

You must talk to Aldeth Sashenstar on your first trip through Cloakwood 1 if you want to talk to him at all. If you save him until later, he'll act like you were rude to him and refuse to have anything to do with you.

There is a particularly nasty Waylay here that annoys me every time�you're in a lousy starting position, and have about one second to position your men before your enemies are in your face. I get that particular Waylay about 95% of the time I go through Chapter 4, and have beaten it without anyone dying maybe, oh, 3% of the time. Eventually I got sick of fighting those bastards and just ran away every time.

Even if you completed Coran's quest properly, he'll still remind you that you haven't finished it yet. This was evidently a low-priority bug that they never got around to fixing. Don't worry, Coran won't leave your party because of it (provided you did it right, of course)�he'll just keep bugging you every few days or so. Ignore it.

At the end of Chapter 4 is an important person. The trigger for starting Chapter 5 is rather vague, but I find that fulfilling these 2 conditions always works: 1) Opening the important person's chests and looking for documents & letters inside them, and 2) Using the 'Key to River Plug.'
Chapter 5:

You can finally enter the city of Baldur's Gate. But you'll have to cross a bridge to do so, and halfway across you'll be stopped by a man named Scar, who'll ask if you were "responsible for the fiasco at the Nashkel Mines." I don't know why the designers had him use the word "fiasco," but the truthful answer is Yes, that was your party who was responsible.

BEFORE you enter BG city, Save a separate copy of your game, and put it someplace where you won't delete or overwrite it. Inside the city, there's a very important quest that must be completed properly�if you mess it up, you will only

have 10 game days until your entire party DIES. Granted, it's possible to beat the rest of the game in 10 days, but not on your first game, which is why you want a backup save to rely on. If you need help with this quest, click here. �>

The entryway into Baldur's Gate itself is somewhat difficult to see. On the west edge of the map, there's a wall, with an invisible archway in it. March your party along the wall, and when you come to the archway, you'll be able to see the ground on the other side of the wall. Go there, and you're in.

In BG city is a recruitable NPC named Skie, who will NOT join you unless you already have Eldoth in your party, and maybe even in the room when you talk to her. She'll run off forever otherwise.

To save space in your computer's memory, some of the numerous shops in BG City share the same Inventory pool. This means that you can sell a unique item to one store, then walk across town and buy it back from another. This is helpful when you realize you actually shouldn't have sold that weapon�at least you don't have to go hunting through every single store to find it again.

Inside the Duchal Palace are four cupboards that cannot be opened by any means. This is a bug. Elsewhere in the building is a chest that cannot be opened in BG1, but yields to normal Lock Picking if you have ToSC installed.

In a house just north of the Duchal Palace are two more cupboards that cannot be opened by any means. Again, this is a bug. I seem to remember a house to the East of that one that also had an unopenable lock, but I'm not sure about that.

The door to the Merchant League headquarters cannot be picked or opened with a Knock spell, but this is not a bug�only officers of the Merchant League can open that door (presumably, they have secret keys).

If you use the greedy conversation options when talking to a man named Tremain Bel'Adair, your game will crash. Bug.

There so many sub-quests in BG City that your brain will attempt to use your left ear as an Emergency Exit. One of the most important quests is given to you by Duke Eltan. If you complete it correctly, he will give you a book and another quest. Don't leave anything important behind on this other quest, because once you leave that area, you can never go back to it. So try to have a fairly empty Inventory whenever you go to see Duke Eltan, in case you need to make room for loot.

When you return from Eltan's quest, for the love of God, LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE TELL YOU. If anybody directs you anywhere, go there�the worst that could happen is an ambush, right? I say this because there's a set of places you need to go, things you need to do, and items you need to collect, or you will NOT be able to finish the game, and you'll be wandering around BG city like a drunken roadrunner trying to figure out what the hell you're supposed to do next. Diary: Top floor of Iron Throne building. Invitation: On Slythe in the Undercellar.

Notes for Tales of the Sword Coast:

The gateway to the ToSC areas is the town of Ulgoth's Beard, where you'll find people who'll tell you about all the new quests. To get there, go to the Bridge Map ("Wyrm's Crossing" is the name of the bridge to BG City) and head North.

There are 2 Mages in Ulgoth's Beard who each want to send you to an island. I would advise against traveling to Shandalar's island until your party is at least Level 6-ish, or Mendas's island until you're about Level 7-ish. Both of the islands share the following characteristics: There are no shops, inns, or temples on either of them, and once you go there, you cannot return to the rest of the world until you've fully beaten the whole quest. This means two things: 1) If any party members die on the island, you'll have to beat the quest without them, and 2) If there's anything you'll need, you're going to have to carry it with you. May I suggest a buttload of Healing Potions?

On the island Mendas sends you to, there are a bunch of little quests given by the townsfolk, but the main quest is given by Kaishas. When you return, wrap up the sub-quests first, as the villagers will forget about them when you report back to Kaishas.

Technically, you actually can return to the islands once you've beaten them, simply by Traveling there on your map (Travel Time: 0 Hours, in fact). It's just that once you're there for the second time, you're stuck for good. Better Reload your Auto-Save. The fact that you can even return there at all is certainly an oversight.

You can go to Durlag's Tower even before you visit Ulgoth's Beard�it's just East of the Nashkel Fairgrounds. You can go there as early as Chapter 1, but I wouldn't advise it. You'll know it's too soon for Durlag's when you get chopped to pieces before you can even approach the entrance.

Once you're inside Durlag's, go upstairs first. If you think it's tough, you're not ready for the downstairs part.

On Durlag's -1 (meaning one floor below ground level), you will find 2 pieces of an item. To repair the item, you'll need to take the pieces to a forge and weld them back together. Finding the forge is the difficult bit; it took me 15 minutes of searching on my first game, because the "Use This Device" mouse pointer looks a lot like the "You Can't Walk Here" mouse pointer.

To enter Durlag's -2, you will need a specific Wardstone, dropped by one of the enemies on Durlag's -1. Search them thoroughly.

One reassuring note in Durlag's is that the challenges and puzzles (if any) of each floor can be completed on that floor, so you don't need to go running up & down staircases to see if this item or that item is what you need. (Exception: Someone on the top floor gives you a quest that you'll need to take the stairs to complete.) Also, things that you do on one floor will not affect any of the other floors.

Durlag's -5 is the most difficult level to finish, not because of challenging enemies or puzzling riddles, but because even if you know what to look for, it's very difficult to find. There is a certain door on that level that only a certain person can open�to get him to open it, you must go to a round room with 4 statues, 3 times. There are 3 things that can send you to that room (once each): You'll speak to one of them, and the other two are pieces of furniture�when you mouse over them, your mouse pointer will turn into the "Cast Spell Here" pointer.

There's a possible bug in Durlag's: I've heard of someone who worked his way down into the lower floors, then came back up to the ground floor to stash his loot and Rest. When he tried to go back down again, he found that the doors he had opened had shut themselves again�and wouldn't open when they were supposed to. Don't let this happen to you: Always try to Rest on the floor you're currently working on.

Notes for Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

Prologue/Chapter 1:

The game begins underground. When you emerge into open air, you cannot return to the underground area, so take everything of value with you�you'll need all the cash you can get.

The beginning part of the game, where you're underground, is boring, irksome, and annoying. This is compounded by the fact that you're going to have to get through it many, many times, once for each character you create. Don't worry�the game really picks up once you get out into the daylight. (Also, what some people do is Save their game as soon as they emerge, and then copy that Saved game into their Multiplayer directory. Then for their next game, they simply use the Multiplayer trick: They get the saved Multi game ready, roll a new Main Character, and start the game�with the result that they got all the equipment and EXP they earned in the Prologue, without the tedium of having to go through the Prologue again.)

A common bug that some people report is that whenever they try to talk to someone, they get the message, "You cannot initiate dialogue. (Creature's name) appears busy." This is due to a flawed DIALOG.TLK file�test to see if yours is corrupt by talking to a Sewage Golem, conveniently located close to where you start the game. If you are unable to initiate dialogue, you need to download and install the official patch.

The little "movies" where all you can do is watch people talk (with their words appearing above their heads) are plot-related. If 'good' or 'bad' things happen during them, it is not a result of anything you did�you will always get the same "movie," no matter what you do.

You will also not be able to re-visit Kalah's Palace.

In BG1, you got used to completely clearing out a map area before progressing to the next one. That strategy will not work here. Some fights are too difficult to beat on your first encounter, and some enemies won't even be there your first time through.
Chapter 2:

If an out-of-town map area is on your map, but greyed out, you cannot go there yet. You have to go to the City Gates map, and exit the city through the gates, to get out into the country. Realistic, but awkward.

There are some quests that, for certain classes of characters, will cause the map to change. I mention this because you could potentially lose items: If you store equipment in an area, and then the area changes, you can't get back to it�you stashed your stuff in the old area file, but the game will only send you to the new area file. For this reason; If your PC is a Fighter, Barbarian, or Monk, don't store your gear in the de'Arnise Keep�the whole map area. Rangers shouldn't stow equipment in the Ranger's Cabin in the Umar Hills, Bards should avoid the basement of the Five Flagons, Thieves shouldn't leave stuff in Mae'Var's Guildhouse, and Mages / Sorcerers shouldn't store important items in the Planar Sphere. Of course, all of these places become safe to use for storage again, after the map changes (or, if you complete the quest incorrectly, it won't ever change, and again is safe).

There's a certain curse that can be put on one of the NPCs. After the curse has been broken, the party member tells you that they should be back to normal after a full night's rest. Actually, it's a full night's rest and the passing of 12 hours that finally does the trick. This may be a bug.

Remember to roleplay your Alignment, especially if you're Good. You could miss out on stuff if you don't.

If you find or discover something that the police should know about, try the Government District.

In the Government District, a man will have a conversation with his wife, and then ask for your advice. Save before this happens, as it seems that no matter what you suggest he do, he'll do the exact opposite.

Normally, when you show an item to Cromwell, he'll tell you if he can upgrade it or not. But there's a certain Mace that can be made very useful with the addition of a rare metal, and even if you have the Mace while Cromwell's rooting through your bags, he won't mention it at all�you need to have the metal in your possession for him to notice anything.

In the Temple Ruins, there is a statue of a woman with folded arms. If you examine it, you get the message "This statue appears to be waiting for something to be placed in her arms." You can, in fact, give her objects to hold�her arms are a container where you can put stuff�but a few people have said that the objects they put there promptly vanished, which is a real bummer if you needed those items to complete the Temple Ruins quests. So don't put anything there�unless you really want to, I suppose.

In your investigations of the Skinner murders, eventually your clues will lead you to a person or persons. When you confront the suspect(s), however, your road will come to a dead end�literally. This is not a bug, and you did not bungle the quest (probably). Just forget about it for now, as you've done all you can do in the way of apprehending criminals. By the way, the Mage who Dimension Doored away before you could get his autograph was named Vellin Dahn.

The town of Trademeet is actually suffering from two problems�save yourself some time & frustration by not trying to solve the first one until you've learned what the other one is.

The Unseeing Eye quest should be put off until at least Chapter 3. It is very difficult for a young party, and the Pit of the Faithless contains a small section where you cannot turn back�you have to force your way forward to get out.

The portal in the playhouse underneath the Five Flagons should also be left until you're in at least Chapter 3. Again, very difficult for a young party. The whole area is no-turning-back: You have to beat the whole quest before you can return to the rest of the game. Also, you can never go there again. And for a final stinger, once the portal appears, you have to go through it, ready or not: If you leave and come back, the portal will have closed, and you will never be able to do that quest. It's safe to go to the playhouse and hear about a quest, but if you go back there after you've completed that quest, it's Portal time.

The Book of Kaza quest and the Nether Scroll quest both make you fight through some nasty Undead that just love to Level Drain your weaker characters. You may want to leave this until Chapter 3.

If you take Lord Jierdan Firkraag's quest and go to the Windspear Hills, soon after you arrive you will meet a man named Garren, who encourages you to visit his home. I suggest you do so: The area has a plot to it, and if you don't enter Garren's house, you won't get the background story and you could get all muddled.

If a woman named Valen tells you her mistress wants to meet you, you only have three days (or two nights, actually) to go talk to her, before she calls it off. Also, when you meet her mistress, you will have to decide whether you want to accept her quest then and there�there is no "maybe" or "we'll get back to you on that" with this woman. Also, you will not be able to accept the mistress's quest if your PC is a Thief�she doesn't trust Thieves.
Chapter 3:

Now that you have found an employer who will help you progress to Chapter 4, remember this important rule: Don't piss them off. If anybody affiliated with your employer turns hostile to you, your party will be killed and you'll have to Reload. This is termed the "Arkanis Gath effect," and it exists because if you kill the people who'll get you to Chapter 4, you won't be able to finish the game. It is actually in effect in Chapter 2, as well, as a pre-emptive measure, but the section for Chapter 2 was too long anyway.

Korgan's speeches in the Book of Kaza quest have almost no relevance at all to what he wants you to do. This is most likely due to BioWare being too rushed to convert them into something more intelligible. I shall translate in their stead.
Korgan: "Thrice dancing I'll be over their graves, I swear! Stolen from under me! I do the work of ferreting out where the blasted Book will be, and those crackgnats take it away!"
Translation: "We should go to Pimlico's estate and intercept them, before they can get there to turn in the Book and collect the reward."
Korgan: "Too late we be! Ransacked she is, looted she was. Ye not be knowin' it from barkin' in the street, but inside be high times and Pimlico's noonmeats."
Translation: "Damn, they already left. Maybe we'll run into them at one of their various seedy hangouts."

In the Umar hills is an NPC who can join your party. Like most NPCs, he has a quest for you. You can get this NPC in Chapter 2, but by the time you can do his quest, you'll probably be in Chapter 3. Again, this quest is very difficult for a young party, and once you're committed, there's no turning back until you've beaten it. The quest contains a bit of a paradox that befuddles a lot of people: You can't go back to the rest of the world yet, but even though you're trapped in the quest, there's a point where you'll need to leave in order to progress further. Yes, I'm being cryptic�sorry. Take a look at the reflecting pool for another hint.

Before you embark onto Chapter 4, know that it's a very long journey, so be sure to pack wisely. Potions, ammo, spell scrolls, the works. Also, be warned that there are NO Temples at all in Chapter 5; pack accordingly.
Chapter 4:

You won't be able to leave Chapter 4 until you've beaten it�and once you do leave, you can never come back. Sound familiar?

The town of Brynnlaw has a small set of subquests. You don't have to do them, but if you leave town and then come back, the quests will be gone.

Outside Brynnlaw, there's a box that you can't get to, even though it's a container. Many players have gone nuts trying to find a way to get to that box without cheating ('cause you gotta know what's in it, right?), but it's impossible. Those who have cheated themselves over to it report that it contains nothing but a few gold pieces, or maybe a Silver Necklace. How exciting.

There is a part in Chapter 4 that's a kind of dream sequence: You can control your PC normally, but your other party members will just stand there like zombies, and you'll be cut off from them for a bit. I mention this because one person tried booting people from the party during this part, which was a bad thing to do, as he was unable to talk to them to get them back into the group. Ever. Ooops.

If you gave your character an INT of 18 (or 19, if you're a Gnome), here's your chance to roleplay it.

There's a vicious Trap here that WILL cause you to Reload at least once. You send your Thief to Disarm it, and the walls close in and crush your Thief instantly. You can't even retrieve their gear. How nice.

There's a room here which contains a few Kobolds which you'll have to kill. Once they're dead, a second group of them should appear, and you kill them too. I mention this because if you kill the first group too quickly, they do not summon the second group, which will cause you to be trapped there, because it's the death of the second set that allows you to pick up an item that is absolutely necessary to continue the game. If you didn't find a piece of rock and a piece of wood, Reload.
Chapter 5:

You still can't go home yet. I told you it was a long journey, didn't I? You can't return to any areas you went through in Chapter 4, but once you're in Chapter 5, every place you go can be revisited, with one exception: If you have a wardstone (It'll actually say "Wardstone" on it) to a place, the stone will only work once, and then disappear. It doesn't matter which doorway you use, they both go to exactly the same place.

The main map of Chapter 5 has markers denoting the "Eastern Tunnels" and the "Southern Tunnels." For some reason, the "Western Tunnels" are NOT marked�you'll have to find them and put the marker there yourself.

Those Eastern Tunnels are a real pain in the butt�and you can't leave until you've beaten them. Also, there are doors in there that say "Only a powerful mind or godly strength can force this door open." Note that you can find a way to open the doors using either of those 2 methods, but increasing your Strength to 25 (the maximum) will not work�the designers want you to be a little more creative than that.

If you explore the Western Tunnels, you may find a statue. Examine it, and read the inscription, "Place an animal sacrifice before the great Demogorgon to awaken his children from their long sleep." I fiddled around with this for ages until I found that the word "Place" was misleading: Items will not work.

If you're in an area marked on your map as a "Bazaar," talk to people�3 of them are merchants. Annoyingly, they're not labeled "Merchant," so I missed them on my first game. Haven't they ever heard of advertising?

Chapter 5 is a roleplayer's dream: Just about every conversation lets you make a moral decision, or make�or break�an alliance. Cool. I know of at least 5 different ways to leave the area and start Chapter 6.
Chapter 6:

You can finally go back to the areas from Chapters 2-3. But first you have to have a long talk with a guy named Elhan. He'll ask you a bunch of questions, and won't tell you why. He won't give you any answers, and won't tell you why. He'll order you to go on a quest for him, and won't tell you why. It's too bad you can't kill him, even if you're roleplaying Evil: If Elhan or any of his followers turn hostile to you, they ALL turn hostile, and they'll keep respawning infinitely. Besides, you need him for the plot.

After talking with Elhan, 3 new areas will be added to your map. I don't know why they were restricted earlier in the game; they certainly don't give away any of the Main Plot or harm any of the subplots. One of the new map areas, the Forest of Tethir, is a genuine bitch to walk around in: Sometimes the fallen trees block your path, sometimes the fallen trees ARE the path. Oh, and here's a laugh: Here you are in Chapter 6, and you're being attacked by Goblins. Oh, help. Spare me, killer.

Now you can wrap up any quests you left hanging when you went off to Brynnlaw, but remember that the most important one is the one Elhan gave you.

Remember how in Chapter 12, I talked about how the Nalia MOD ties up a few of the loose ends with the various unfinished quests? One of the changes it made was this: One of the Slavers in the Guarded Compound is a member of the Twisted Rune. He carries on his person a special Rogue Stone, which cannot be sold. The Stone's description mentions something about the Bridge District.

You've almost certainly fought Liches by now, but what about Demi-Liches? Those are some nasty S.O.B.s, let me tell you: They are completely immune to all spells in Levels 1-9, except those spells that create weapons�and even then, the only things that can hit a Demi-Lich must strike as a +4 weapon or better. Dayum.

Here's another bug: Remember the Arkanis Gath effect, that was intended to keep you from killing the very people you needed to reach Chapter 4? Well, even though it's Chapter 6 now, the Arkanis Gath effect is still in full force (provided he's still alive, that is). But for those of you who want to roleplay Lawful Good, know this: There is a spell that can protect you from (most of the damage caused by) his attacks. You still won't be able to kill him (or Imprison, or Polymorph, or Petrify, or Feeblemind, etc.), but at least you can stay alive long enough to trap him behind a door, or something along those lines. Is that a cheesy tactic? Yes, but it's justified: The fact that Arkanis doesn't even know it's Chapter Six is pretty cheesy too.

The quest that Elhan gave you is going to involve a certain amount of, well, violence. I hope you've no objections to that sort of thing....anyway, after the fighting's over, you may find that one of your party members didn't survive the encounter, and there's nothing you can do to resurrect them. Don't lose hope�the effect is reversible. I suggest you hearken back to your days among the tomes in Candlekeep, and seek your answers through study. Use your brain. This problem takes precedence over Elhan's quest, by the way.

Notes for Throne of Bhaal:

Watcher's Keep:

You can rush there as early as Chapter 2 of SoA, or you can hold out until right before the final battle of ToB. Some people have said that postponing the Keep until later means that the enemies in the Keep are tougher (since they're geared to match your level), and therefore you earn more EXP for them. Also, one person mentioned that going to the first level of the Keep when you're very low-level could be disastrous: Tougher enemies don't appear for low-level parties, and one of the tougher enemies on the 1st level has one of the best weapons of ToB, and ToB has some incredible weapons that you do not want to be screwed out of.

With that said, an early trip to Watcher's Keep can be a good thing�I would say Chapter 3 of SoA would be safe to go visit the 1st level without risking losing the weapon mentioned above. And you don't even have to enter the 1st level: WK boasts the finest rooftop shopping in the whole series. Buy two very good weapons and a good space-saving item here, as early as Chapter 2.

You'll never be trapped in Watcher's Keep. You can't progress to the next level down until you've beaten your current level, and there are some near-impossible fights in there, but at the very beginning of each level is a gateway to the outside.

The Portal Maze level is a lot more frustrating than it sounds. Make a map. I mean it.

The level after the Portal Maze will drive you insane. Stay focused: Find some oil and light some torches, and you'll get to kill things again. (Don't worry; you can't run out of oil.)

If you do any part of Watcher's Keep while you're still in SoA, remember this: All weapons found in Watcher's Keep are potentially extremely valuable, even if you'll never use them. The same is true for bizarre, random items that don't seem to have any purpose. Don't sell them, and don't leave them in some SoA area that you can't get back to once you enter ToB. Either carry them on your person, or stash them in Watcher's Keep itself.

ToB (Main Plot):

There are two ways to start ToB: You can either Import your character from the Final-Save of SoA, or win the final battle of SoA and progress smoothly into ToB. The latter path is vastly preferable, as if you Import from your Final-Save, you won't get the benefits of the Tears.

The party members who were with you in your Final-Save or when you beat SoA are still in your party, and soon you'll gain the ability to recruit any of the other NPCs, too, even if you left them in some SoA area. You can only do this with NPCs who were still alive when you left them, though.

There is an all-new NPC available to you very soon after the beginning of ToB�right after the first fight, in fact.

Your party members will no longer leave the party through conflicts with other members, or over Reputation issues, no matter what their Alignment is.

You may notice that some of your party members sound different in ToB. My theory for this is that the voice actors wanted BioWare to pay them more $ to use their voices again, and BioWare refused.

The city of Saradush has a very hostile atmosphere, and moving your party through the streets can be a real chore a times. But don't be in a hurry to leave just yet�there's some good EXP to be gleaned, and superficially useless items to be found, in the various sidequests. If you can't figure out the Lazarus quest (Is that name used in every fantasy game series?), don't worry too much, as you'll see him again�eventually. You can leave Saradush and come back, but only for a while: Once you go a bit further in the plot, Saradush will be barred to you again.

This is what I don't like about ToB: Your characters gain new abilities and become obscenely powerful, and to compensate, the boss enemies have their own ridiculously powerful abilities. In short, the game stops pretending to be fair. Bear witness to the first boss enemy: He has an infinite number of henchmen, and yes I mean that literally. As long as bossy-boy is alive, they will continually respawn, and usually right where you don't want them to. And unless you've been doing your quests right, the big mean boss-man cannot be killed.

Pretty soon, you'll come to the part of ToB where you get to choose which of 2 map areas to attack first: North or South. To the North: It only seems logical that the whiniest, most annoying, unplug-your-speakers-just-to-shut-her-up enemy in the whole game (so far) is the very person it takes the longest to kill. "Twists onyx ring," my ass. To the South: Your actual target is somewhere safe underground, probably hiding from you. Don't be worried about him�it's his SON that's gonna kick your ass about twenty Reloads in a row. I never got past him in my first ToB effort, but managed to beat him in the second. And an Empty Potion Bottle finally gets used for something! (Don't worry about keeping the ones from SoA�your hosts kindly provide you with a free one.)

Despite the way that the boss enemies seem to be able to do whatever the hell they want, I kept a lid on myself and avoided munchkin tactics for a good long time on my second trip through ToB: I played fair right up until the final battle. Then I finally got fed up with it and beat the game using the cheapest, cheesiest, most munchkin tricks I could think of. And you know what? Nobody got anything that they didn't richly deserve. Don't overwrite your Final-Save; You'll need it once you discover a certain 'limitation' that the Abyssal Fortress puts on you (but not your enemies, of course not, of course not).

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General Notes:

Game crashes: If your game consistently crashes each time you try to enter a certain map area, that means the *.BIF file for that map area is almost certainly corrupt. You'll probably have to uninstall & reinstall the game, to replace the file with the (hopefully) intact copy on the CD. If the copy on your CD is corrupt as well (which can happen if the disk got scratched), you'll need to borrow that disk from somebody else. If your game crashes during a movie, first double-check which CD is in your drive. Each movie is only on one CD, and if that CD isn't in your CD-ROM when the game wants to play that movie, Baldur's Gate tends to crash. If you've got the right disk in there, that means the movie itself is corrupted. You can either follow the procedure above (for the BIF files) or simply skip the movie altogether by cheating yourself to the map area that's after the movie.

In ToB and maybe even very late SoA, you may find that certain boss enemies are immune to Time Stop. I found this out the hard way once: When a Wizard casts Time Stop, the rest of the world is supposed to stop for 3 rounds, while the Wizard is free to walk around or cast more spells�even another Time Stop. I cast it against a certain ToB enemy, to allow my Mage to weaken the enemy's defenses while he was frozen in time. Except that he wasn't frozen, he just kept right on goin' and proceeded to kick the snot out of my PC (who was frozen in time), with only my poor Mage to try to stop him. Crap. Reload.

The Baldur's Gate series can teach you some amazing things: I never knew that a 7-foot-long Halberd and a 0.25-carat Emerald both take up exactly the same amount of space in my Backpack.

I would love to see a 4-foot-tall Halfling Fighter try to draw a 6-foot-tall Composite Longbow. Yessir, I certainly would.

For another cheap laugh, have your biggest, burliest Human Fighter or Half-Orc Barbarian remove their best suit of armor and toss it to your Halfling or Gnome. It'll fit perfectly. Not only that, but ToB brings us Fire Giants, which look to be about 25-30 feet tall. Yep, Halflings can wear their armor, too.

You're the all-powerful Wizard. You're the one that sits there, quiet and demure, and suddenly unleashes a horrific barrage of arcane energies that'll make your enemies wither where they stand. You can summon up your opponent's worst nightmares, call down fiery meteors from the heavens, seal your enemies within the center of the earth and even stop Time itself�but you can't manage to pick up an Axe or squeeze your head into a helmet.

There are certain times in the game where people have to speak to you�these dialogues are critical in that they advance the plot. Some people have had problems with these dialogues: They've done everything right, but the person who's supposed to talk won't say a word. This is usually caused by the PC being Invisible or in Stealth at the moment the dialogue is supposed to take place, because if they can't see you, they can't talk to you. Reload, do something that'll make you visible, and try again.

Biff the Understudy: During the entire BG series, there are tons of conversations between NPCs. On rare occasions, one (or more) of the NPCs supposed to partake in the dialogue is, unfortunately, dead. Well, to prevent any awkward lapses in the conversation (because everybody hates those), the game will warp in Biff the Understudy to read the dead person's lines! Yay!

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indent You may have found this guide too long-winded, taking up space with wordy explanations, and unneccesary, rambling discussions of Gaming Ethics. You may find that my deliberately not providing Walkthroughs prevents you from beating the tougher parts of the games, such as Durlag's Tower and Watcher's Keep. (Actually, *I* didn't prevent you; *You* prevented you. The best challenge is the one you overcame by yourself, and if you didn't beat it, you didn't beat it! Just accept that, and try again next game. I am not going to spoon-feed you all the answers, as if you were a little baby.)
indentYou may prefer other online Guides, that tell you what you want to know in less time�and with prettier pictures, too. I have only this to say in my defense: The other guides that I've seen were written for people who want to know the game. I wrote mine for those who wish to understand it.

Enjoy your game.

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