Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

131 Pages·2015·0.489 MB·English

by  Baumann, Ken;Bell, Matt;Durham, Gabe;Robinson, Adam

Baldur’s Gate II:
Shadows of Amn
Baldur’s Gate II:
Shadows of Amn
Matt Bell
Boss Fight Books
Los Angeles, CA
bossfightbooks.com
Copyright © 2015 Matt Bell
All rights reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-940535-08-1
First Printing: 2015
Second Printing: 2017
Series Editor: Gabe Durham
Book Design by Ken Baumann
Page Design by Adam Robinson
for my brothers and sisters,
my brave fellow adventurers
C O N T E N T S
1 Part I
25 Part II
40 Part III
70 Part IV
93 Part V
118 Notes
120 Acknowledgements
“Go for the eyes Boo, GO FOR THE EYES!!
RrraaaAAGHGHH!!!”
—Minsc
A N OT E A B O U T G A M E
V E R S I O N S
Developed by BioWare and published by Black Isle
Studios and Interplay Entertainment, Baldur’s Gate
was released for Windows PCs on November 30,
1998. Its sequel Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn was
released on September 24, 2000, with an expansion
pack titled Throne of Bhaal following on June 21,
2001 to complete the Baldur’s Gate saga. In late 2012,
an Enhanced Edition of Baldur’s Gate was released,
developed by Overhaul Games and Beamdog and
published by Atari, the current holders of the Dungeons
& Dragons license. The Enhanced Edition of Baldur’s
Gate II followed in late 2013, complete with the Throne
of Bhaal expansion. For the purposes of writing this
book, I played these Enhanced Editions because they
ran better on my modern iMac than the original PC
versions I repurchased from Good Old Games, which
then required some kind of PC emulation, and because
the original Mac version I owned of Baldur’s Gate II was
xi
no longer compatible with modern Intel-based Macs.
The day before I finished playing, Good Old Games
released Mac compatible versions of the original games,
which I imported my saved games into for comparison’s
sake. But unless otherwise noted, all of the gameplay
descriptions in this book should be understood to
be from the Enhanced Editions of the game, which
do differ in various ways from the originals, with
widescreen support for modern resolutions and some
minor changes to gameplay, including porting certain
advancements from the later games into the earlier ones.
baldur’s gate ii
I
“Will you help me? We must join together once more, and
our fury will be such that bards will run their quills dry!
Yes, ink will be scarce where e’er we go.”
—Minsc
In a role-playing game , you start life already a hero.
Or at least a hero in the making, guaranteed only to
improve. Every scenario is designed and structured with
your eventual success in mind, every storyline shaped
to match your character arc. Everywhere you go there
are obstacles but they are all intended to be overcome.
None of your failures will be permanent, and unlimited
second chances are always only a reload away.
The hero you play throughout the Baldur’s Gate saga
is known generically as Gorion’s Ward, named for his
or her—and therefore your—adopted father Gorion,
the wizard who raised you in the library-fortress of
Candlekeep on the Sword Coast of Faerûn, part of a
world better known as the Forgotten Realms, the most
famous campaign setting in Dungeons & Dragons.
Unlike most of the other characters who will join your
party, you begin Baldur’s Gate as a 1st level character,
a fragile and barely skilled neophyte in whatever class
you’ve chosen. If you play as a fighter, then by the
baldur’s gate ii