Baldur's Gate II Shadows of Amn Game Guides

last SG · 2002-08-27T00:39:36+00:00

Introduction With Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Bioware and Black Isle Studios hope to improve on the game widely whispered to have saved the RPG genre,...

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After your fight, tell the king that you will find and kill the rebels. Before you head off, though, go to the northeast and speak to the High Priestess. She'll ask you to betray the king and side with the rebels (which is the good characters' path through this area). Do so, and you'll receive the rebel orb.

For now, head south of the king's area, and you'll find yourself entering an area full of traps (guarded by a sahuagin that attempts to warn you off). Be sure to keep detect traps on and watch out for enemies, including sword spiders and ettercaps. You'll even come across a rare bone golem.

So why don't the sahuagin live underwater if they're so aquatic?
Once you reach the area with the imps, agree to play their game. First, have a thief detect and disable the five traps scattered around the platform. Then, talk to each character to learn what item he needs. The riddles are simple to solve if you pay attention. But if you can't figure them out, place the items in this order (clockwise from Elminster): pipe, staff, pendent, helmet, and scimitar. Now, head to the north (detect the slowing trap before the bridge) and talk to the spectator beholder. He's a rather amusing guy, so it'd be a shame if you had to kill him. You can keep selecting the first option in the context menus to persuade him to let you peek into the chest, if you like; this way, he'll just float off after you grab the item from the chest. (You'll get 15,000 experience this way, which is more than you would've gotten if you just killed the beholder.) The item in the chest is Sekolah's tooth, a key you'll need to visit the rebels.

Now, go back to the high priestess' station and proceed to the west from there. You'll eventually find yourself entering a room shaped like a fish's mouth; you'll be jumped by rebels, so save your game ahead of time. Kill them all and be sure to grab the cloak of mirroring from the priestess' body; it will reflect all spells cast upon the wearer back onto the caster.

You can fight against the sea zombies in the southern portion of the map if you wish; you don't have to, however. Head to the west when you want to speak to the rebels and look for a locked door. You must fight through a few rebel patrols, but they won't be too difficult. Once you make it through the western gauntlet, you'll be brought before the prince. Take the fake heart and head back to the king.

Hail to the king, baby.
You should be warned that the king will attack you as soon as you give him the false heart. You might want to summon a few creatures and chant or haste your party before beginning the fight, just to give you that added edge in the conflict. His minions are not difficult to beat, but he possesses a spear of impaling that can do massive damage when it strikes, so be careful.

Once the prince comes to power, he'll give you a magical rope that you can use to lower yourself into the Underdark. (The hole is located behind the prince's former location in the southeast corner of the city.) Chapter 5 will begin after you find yourself below.

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Chapter 5

So, you've always wanted to meet some drow, eh? You'll get your fill (and more) of them in this chapter.

Underdark

When you begin this chapter, you'll find yourself in the Underdark, a cavernous area populated by dwarves and drow. Walk to the east and interrogate the duergar. Buy the freedom spell from the merchant as well as any other scrolls that you may need, then walk to the north a bit. If you encounter elementals, run. They will continually be regenerated near their portals. (You can actually kill these guys in succession for a bunch of experience if you want, with rest stops near the duergar in between sessions.) Once you find the area with one passage heading east and three heading west, cast the freedom spell. A mage, Vithal, will appear. Accept his offer, and you'll be given the first mini-quest of the chapter.

Welcome to the Underdark.
Head north. Ignore the bizarre spherical structure for now and proceed east. Defeat the myconids and go north. The gnomes will let you into their city. Head up and around the passage, following the rails, until you reach the two doors leading into the rooms you circumvented. Speak to the mayor of the city to pick up another quest. Talk to the innkeeper to buy Vithal's spellbook. Finally, speak to the shopkeeper and tell him you'll rescue his son.

Now, head back to the northeast until you reach the gnome guarding the demon's door. He'll open it, letting you into the beast's lair. You can click on the ladder to summon a balor. They're quite tough, with limited magic resistance and quite a bit of resistance to normal weapons as well, but you'll beat him eventually. Use the stoneshape scroll and head back to Golander. He'll give you the item you need to head to Adalon's lair, but head back to the southern portions of the level first.

All seven of you shouldn't have much of a problem with these elementals.
First, head back to the strange globe you passed earlier. You'll notice six separate panels on the globe; you can click on a panel to release one of the inhabitants trapped inside. The fifth globe (from the left) is Therndle's son. Release him and head back to the inn to get your reward (bracers of defense with an armor class of 4). One through three contain regular (enemy) warriors; but the sixth contains a friendly adventurer who will give you information. Panel number four contains a lich you can take on if you feel lucky.

Now, head back to Vithal. Give him his book and tell him you're ready. You must fight a greater elemental from each of the three portals, so be sure to rest up before you begin his tasks. Once you've defeated all three elementals, he'll give you a small amount of experience and a rod of absorption. You can kill him if you wish to gain a few more items from his corpse, though he's monstrously difficult, with spells like time stop and disintegrate, giving him a good chance of killing one of your party permanently. If you don't want to fight him, you can ask for a bit more treasure to get a random scroll.

Ever wonder why the dragons in Baldur's Gate II like to live underground?
Once you're done with all these quests, go back to the globe area and proceed to the west. Eventually, you'll come across a cave. Enter it to speak to Aladon, a gigantic dragon. She'll ask you to retrieve her eggs from the drow that stole them and will offer to let you out of the Underdark to an area near where Irenicus is now. Accept her mission, and your party will be transformed into Drow warriors for the rest of the chapter.

There's plenty to do in the drow city.
Drow City

Now, proceed out of her lair and move northeast. You'll encounter a drow. Tell him that you are Veldrin, and you'll enter the drow city. You can look around for a bit; there are a few shops on the entrance platform. When you're ready to go, head northwest past two large structures until you reach the Male Fighter's Society. Solaufein will be nearby, ready to initiate you into drow culture. You must be careful not to make anyone upset here, or the city will become hostile to you, essentially ending the chapter. Talk to him, and he'll eventually tell you to meet him by the city entrance. Do so, and a matron mother will tell you to rescue a drow scout that has been taken captive by mind flayers. You must head to the mind flayer cave to rescue her.

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Go back to the main cave area and proceed south. You'll be attacked by a raiding party, so be careful. Once you reach the mind flayer cave, speak to Solaufein, and he'll draw the illithids from their astral wanderings. They are extremely tough, so you might want to summon a few helpers ahead of time. They like to hold your party, so if you have a ring of free action, the character wearing it should be near the middle of the action. You can have your spellcasters summon monsters, then retreat past the bridge to the west before the battle begins if you want to keep them out of harm's way. There will be a couple of mind flayers with a few umber hulks for company, so be very careful when they start to warp in.

Once the illithids are defeated, Phaere and Solaufein will head back to the city. You should do so as well. Once there, you'll learn that Phaere wants to speak to you in the tavern. Locate it on your map; it's just northwest of your position. She'll tell you to meet her by the platform again. You can meet the other inhabitants of the tavern or participate in a duel here if you wish. You probably should; you'll get 30,000 experience points for the first fight against a warrior with a huge amount of health. The second and tougher fight will yield just 12,000 experience points. The third fight will be mage versus mage. This fight will only yield 6,000 experience. There's only one fight after that, another mage versus mage affair.

Once you arrive at the entrance to the city, a duergar might ask you to speak to the tank near the slave's quarters. If you do so, an aboleth will ask you to kill a drow priestess and bring him her brain. You can do so if you wish, but good parties will likely want to skip the quest. Just keep telling him that you refuse the task, or you'll inform the rest of the city of his treachery, and he'll tell you to go away. You'll get 12,000 experience for doing nothing.

You might have to rest before Phaere will appear at the city gates. She'll assign you to a new task; she wants you to kill the beholder that is smuggling adamantine. So, head to the southeast docks of the city near Deirex's tower. Talk to Phaere, and a beholder will warp in. Kill it, and that's that.

Now, head back to the tavern and speak to Phaere again. She'll ask you to strike a little fear into the nearby gnomes. Head outside the city and walk west toward the gnomish city. If you're a good party, you can tell Solaufein you wish to handle the gnomes yourself, then head north and tell the party's leader why you need his helmet. When you have it, go back to the tavern and talk to Phaere. Tell her you'll meet her in her private quarters.

Go to the Female Fighter's Society and speak to Phaere. She'll ask you to kill Solaufein. Tell her you'll do so, then walk to the Male Fighter's Society. Tell Solaufein of the plan and ask for his cloak. He'll thank you for your mercy and leave. Head back to Phaere, and you'll be... congratulated. Hop into bed for a rest if you like.

Now, you'll be commanded to go outside the city and get the blood of one of three races: the kuo-toa, the beholders, or the mind flayers. These offer differing levels of challenge to a party. The kuo-toa are by far the easiest, being primarily a battle-oriented race, while the beholders and mind flayers will be more rounded enemies, with magic and mind control spells confusing the situation. You can choose one of these two if you wish, but the easiest path is through the kuo-toa tunnels. There's nothing preventing you from attempting the other missions, so if you want more experience later on, check your map for the entrances to the beholder or mind flayer caves and take a look around.

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Kuo-Toa Lair

The entrance to the kuo-toa lair is marked as the western tunnels on your map near the myconid cavern area. Quicksave once you enter and head to the east. You'll find yourself in a large cavern. There's a chamber to the northwest with a beholder and two gauths if you wish to try your luck there, but be careful: They're quite tough. To the northeast, there is a kuo-toa party, consisting of a few warriors and a priest.

Head west from the main cavern and bypass the northern corridor for now. There is a fiery passage here; it's trapped with a flamestrike spell. Send a character with high hit points or magic resistance through to trigger it, then send the rest of the party through. This room is a trap; summon an animal on the altar to warp in five demon knights. You can kill them for some great items, though, including a girdle of frost giant strength (it permanently sets one character's strength to 21).

If you can clog the narrow hallway, you can to deal with the Kuo-Toa forces more easily.
Now, head up the northern corridor. Defeat the kuo-toa and proceed northwest. This is going to be a tough battle, so be sure to save and heal your characters before you proceed. When you enter the small room to the northwest, you'll face off against a party of kuo-toa, including a captain and a wizard. Unfortunately, as the battle rages, other kuo-toa to the east and west will be alerted to your presence and rush in. You might want to try summoning creatures into the small room before heading in or sending a mage in to cast a lead off fireball or cloudkill spell in an attempt to lure the captain and his entourage out into the cavernous area. You'll be facing off against at least a dozen kuo-toans all told, with the wizards, captains, and the prince himself being the toughest of the bunch. The prince seems primarily a melee fighter, but he can take a ton of damage, and the monitors or priests can heal him. Once all the enemies are dead, search their bodies for treasure. The prince's body will have the blood you need as well as more than 4,500 gold.

That's one angry demon.
Now, head back to the drow city and talk to the matron mother. Phaere will want to speak to you in her quarters, so walk back to the Female Fighter's Society. Phaere wants you to exchange a set of fake dragon eggs for the real eggs that the matron mother has. As you walk to the Temple of Lolth, Solaufein will appear before the door and give you yet more fake eggs to give to Phaere. Accept his offer and head inside. Now, give Phaere's fake eggs to a thief that can cast hide in shadows or (preferably) a priest capable of casting sanctuary. You must make the exchange without the guards finding out about it, or you'll be dead. The egg chamber is to the west. Send your solo eggschanger (groan) over there and have him become invisible. Once the door to the chamber is opened, the egg guards will go hostile, so make sure the rest of your party is nowhere nearby. Once you make the exchange, the golems inside the chamber will become hostile as well, so be careful. Once you make the exchange, leave the chamber and head back to Phaere. Give her Solaufein's fake eggs.

Proceed to the mother matron's lair in the Temple of Lolth. She'll begin a ritual to summon a powerful demon to help the drow in their battle with the surface elves. Once the ritual begins, the demon lord will appear and smite the matron mother for tempting him with false eggs. Phaere will bite the dust, as well, leaving you all alone with their corpses. Check the bodies for some interesting items, including gorgon plate +4 and a ring of spell turning. Get ready to fight: The city has finally turned hostile to you, and you must get the hell out of Dodge as quickly as possible.

Here are some of the last drow you'll be seeing in the game... enjoy.
The flight to the city gates probably isn't as bad as it could be. You might want to summon an aerial servant or other monster to act as your vanguard. You'll encounter a few drow, a wizard, and a bunch of commoners near the entrance. Once you head out to the cave area, go to Adalon's lair. She'll transform herself into a human and transport the party to a spot in the kuo-toa lair that leads to the surface. There are drow guarding it if you didn't kill them earlier, but she'll help out in their destruction. Once she teleports back, you'll get almost 80,000 experience for each party member.

Head through the door, but save your game first. You'll be ambushed by a party of drow, including spiders and a wizard. The wizard may summon an earth elemental, so watch out. Proceed to the north, where the drow apparently tunneled through to the elven quarters. You will encounter more drow, but there will be plenty of war elves to help take them out.

Once you reach the surface, Chapter 6 begins.

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Chapter 6

Upon your arrival on the surface, you'll be interrogated by the elven commander Elhan. Answer his questions respectfully (and truthfully) and be sure to ask for the stakes and holy water before you leave. Once you do leave, you can explore the two small forest areas that appeared on your overland map if you wish. When you head back to Athkatla, you'll be "waylaid by brigands;" really, it's Drizzt Do'Urden. You can ask him to help you in the fight against the vampires; he'll make the fight a lot easier, so it's recommended that you do so.

Don't head for the graveyard right off; go to the town gates and rest in the inn (you'll get fatigued from the long journey if you don't). Once you're well rested and stocked with spells (negative plane protection, false dawns, restorations, and the like will be helpful), head off to the graveyard. Bodhi will ambush you right away and sic a vampire or two on you. These are the real deal, not the fledgling vampires you encountered before, so be prepared.

Bodhi's Lair Redux

Once you reach Bodhi's lair, you'll find that everything is much as it was before, except for a few of the offshoot passages having been collapsed. You must enter through the doorway on the western side of the graveyard. There are lots of vampires on the first level, and they're not happy that you're there. Avoid the dining room area for now and head to the northwest toward the pool of blood with your main character only. (If you bring your whole party here, there's a risk that one will become confused and attack Drizzt, causing his party to abandon you.) Drizzt and company are there and will dispatch the vampires in the room. Click on the pool of blood and pour some of the elven holy water into it. All the vampires here will be weakened and slowed, which will make the upcoming fight much easier. Head back to the tombs to the south and stake all three for some experience.

Now, proceed slowly into the dining room area. You will be facing eight to ten vampires here, both fledgling and full-blown. If you can maneuver it correctly, you should have your fighters and summoned creatures block off the corridor, protected by negative plane protection, with your magic users doing nasty things like false dawn. Once the vampires are killed, you can check the pool of blood to the west for gauntlets of weapons expertise (+1 THACO and +2 damage) and another stake, but it's protected by vampiric mists. (Remember to thank Bodhi for leaving both a mace of disruption and stakes in her lair; she probably ran with scissors quite a bit as a child.)

Head downstairs when you've cleaned out the first floor. Disable the traps on the floor of the hallway and get ready for another fight. Again, have your front-line fighters protected from negative plane interference. Bodhi will call in eight of her closest friends to help in this battle, so be warned. Drizzt will be tagging along here, but if one of your characters gets dire charmed, he'll probably start attacking them, which isn't a fun situation, since he can deal so much damage. You might want to lead off with your strongest fighters, then have clerics or mages come in when the vampires have cleared out from the doorway. Again, a false dawn spell here will be quite helpful if you can get it off. Once Bodhi is dead, search the bodies and the antechambers for items. Stake Bodhi in her coffin to get experience, Bodhi's heart, and the rhynn lanthorn.

Go back to Elhan and speak to him. He'll tell you a bit more about Irenicus and Bodhi, then take you to the entrance of the elven city. He'll head in, and you'll gain yet more experience. If you level up, you might want to rest here and learn new spells; you should probably make a permanent save as well. This is a perfect opportunity to go back and complete some of those side quests if you've been neglecting them. (You can't continue with your characters after you beat the game, so it might be helpful to get the experience now.) Go into the entrance to begin the seventh and final chapter.

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Chapter 7

It's time for the final portion of Baldur's Gate II. Moving right along from the drow elf areas, the rest of the game will take place in regular elfland, beginning in Suldanesslar.

Suldanesslar

Elhan will ask you to find Ellesime or Demin to find out what's going on in the city. There are plenty of monsters around, including rakshasas, golems, and trolls, so be careful. First, head to the north and search the house there. You'll encounter two stone golems and a clay golem, so be careful. Take the cloak of elvenkind and the stone horn from the receptacles and head back to Elhan. Now, proceed west to the area marked "House of the Talisman" on your map. Above it are the priest's quarters. Head up to the priest's house and take the elven priest stone from the desk. Now, go to the house of the talisman and click on the puzzle above the fireplace-type device. You'll be faced with a puzzle, the answer to which is on the priest stone you just got. (The sequence is corellan, rillifane, water, and tree.) You'll receive the talisman of rillifane when the box opens. Don't miss the narrow ledge on the bookcase in the north end of this room; it'll contain a high-level scroll.

Unfortunately, the elves won't be a big help here.
Now, leave the room and proceed west toward Demin's house. Destroy the skeleton warriors that are attacking the elves. Save your game before heading further to the west; you're about to face a nasty spellcasting drow. Raamilat has a pet nabassu that will attack you when you get close enough. If you send a scout character up there, you can lure the nabassu away and kill it. Once you get closer, Raamilat will cast time stop, with meteor swarm, protection from evil, and gate (to summon a pit fiend) during the pause. Your best bet might be to select a character with high fire resistance to act as a punching bag here, triggering the time stop, then running away before the meteor swarm really gets going. Despite his protection from evil, the pit fiend will probably attack Raamilat right away. You can jump off-screen to let them fight, though Raamilat will probably kill it fairly quickly with a disintegrate or horrible wilting spell. Be careful fighting Raamilat; he can maze your characters, which will take them out of the action for a bit.

When you play with fire...
When Raamilat is dead, head into Demin's house. She's being attacked by three rakshasas. Kill them, with the focus being on the Adsaan, the spellcaster of the bunch. Speak to Demin for a while to learn exactly what Irenicus' original crime was, and you'll learn that you must find three artifacts to summon the avatar of the leaflord. You already have one; the talisman of Rillifane, but you need the other two: a golden cup and the moonblade.

Walk southeast where you fought the skeleton warriors. From there, proceed northeast toward the House of the Moon. Enter it, and you'll witness an encounter between the city's chosen warrior and a balor, after which they'll both die. Pick up the moonblade from the warrior and head to the northwest. Stop by the harpist's house and get the stone harp, then go to the forest clearing. Save your game; you're going to be fighting a dragon pretty soon.

Nizidramanii'yt (say that three times fast) is a black dragon that guards the golden goblet of life in the forest clearing. You have two options: Give him all your possessions for the goblet or take it from him by force. You can drop all your items on the ground and get around him that way, though you'll still lose gold, and it will be quite a hassle dropping every single thing you have on all six characters.

Imoen and Aerie bravely attempt to take out a dragon by themselves. What's not shown is their gruesome deaths.
Fighting him is also fairly difficult, though. He's tough, obviously, and he can cast an insect swarm that will do massive damage to your party over time. (It seems to be around two or three damage a second in real-time.) This will prevent them from casting any spells while the spell is in effect, so you'll want to cast any offensive spells before he manages to swarm you. Horrid wilting is an excellent choice if you have any scrolls or are of a high enough level to actually cast it. In any case, once he's cast the swarm, he'll probably revert to one-on-one melee attacks, with occasional breath or wing buffets thrown in to the mix. When he falls, take the goblet of life and rest in this relatively safe area.

Head to the Temple of Rillifane on the west side of your map. Be careful when approaching: There are Rakshasa guarding the entrance. Send a sacrificial monster or animal to suffer the cloudkill spell that the spellcasting rakshasa will throw down (which, by the way, will probably take out a couple of his teammates as well), then follow up with the rest of your characters.

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Once you enter the temple, you'll be facing off against a number of enemies. You can take them all out for the experience, or you can turn your party AI off, then place the goblet, moonblade, and talisman of Rillifane on the table to summon the avatar, who will disintegrate everything in the room. When he opens the gates, you can finally enter the palace to the north.

Once you reach the palace, click on the tree inside until you get all the nuts from it that you can. There are two types here: four inedible nuts that will serve a use in the next section of the game and four edible nuts that will act as healing potions when used. You should have your main character place these in one of his quick-slots, as they're even more powerful than extra healing potions. Proceed through the door, then click on the two statues to stop the flow of water, revealing a staircase.

Oh, the humanity!
The Tree of Life

You're now on the lower level of the tree of life. You must find the three parasites that Ellesime tells you of and destroy them. They're scattered about the level; you can see their positions on the map. When you click on them, two normal elementals will appear to guard them. You shouldn't have much trouble with a simple enemy like this at this stage of the game. Once you manage to destroy all three parasites, you'll immediately be warped to fight Irenicus, so be sure to heal or rest before you destroy the third creature and certainly save your game.

It's clobberin' time! Except you're the one that's going to get clobbered.
Fighting Irenicus is about as tough as you'd imagine it would be. Any summoned creatures disappear when you're warped to his location, so don't bother attempting to summon reinforcements beforehand. Irenicus is a high-level spellcaster with a penchant for time stops, horrid wiltings, mazes, wails of the banshee, and what appear to be sunfires. For defense, he has pretty much every anti-offense spell in the book, with absolute immunity being one of the first spells he casts, along with spell trap. He'll also cast fire shield (red) on himself, which by itself can whittle down your AI-controlled fighters. He'll generally become invisible fairly soon as well, so be sure to have something to dispel that. All in all, this is certainly the toughest fight in the game (so far). After a long while, he might eventually start physically attacking you, in which case you might survive by turning off your AI and simply running away from him when he tries to strike you. Eventually, his protection spells will wear off, and you can kill him. Keep healing potions on your main character to ward off death. Once he's dead, you'll find yourself in the final area of the game: hell.

Hell

Hell is an area that contains five different tests that you must undergo before heading to the final battle. Walk west to the test of wrath first. You must fight Sarevok, but you can choose to either give in to your anger or not. Assuming your character is good, choose not to (generally the first choice in the conversation menus). Sarevok is probably the toughest melee fighter you'll see in the game, possessing many hundreds of hit points, but he won't use any spells at all, so use that to your advantage by having your mages sit back and pelt him with spells. When he dies, you'll get the first tear of Bhaal. You can rest in the main area of this level without fear of being disturbed.

South of wrath is the test of greed. This is a fairly simple one for good characters. Take the blackrazor from the demon and give it to the djinni to earn the second tear of Bhaal and 20,000 experience points.

To the south of the main area of hell is the test of selfishness. This is one of the more frustrating tests; when you head through the left door (which is the good path), your character will lose two hit points (permanently), one point of dexterity, and experience. On the other hand, proceeding through the evil path results in the trapped character's death, so you must suck it up and take the loss. Nobody said being a good guy was going to be easy.

The southeastern test is the test of fear. You're given the choice between accepting the cloak of bravery or attempting to pass through the cavern on your own. Reject the offer and cast resist fear on yourself. Head through the lower portion of the cave and pick up the tear of Bhaal. If you head to the northern end of the cave, the elder orbs and gauths will kill you, so be careful.

The final test to the east is the test of pride. Keep questioning the demon and be sure to refuse killing a creature simply because it is "in your way." You can avoid the fight this way, and a dragon will give you the final tear of Bhaal.

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As a note, the benefits for doing things the "good" way are somewhat substantial. If you chose the evil path on even a single test, your main character's alignment is immediately switched to evil (resulting in instant death for a paladin). The benefits you obtain as you open the five seals on the door are also different for good and evil characters. There were some other negative aspects to the evil paths of the specific tests; feel free to load up a game and see what happens if choose the other path through a test.

It's too bad you'll only have these bonuses for the five minutes it'll take you to beat Irenicus.
Before you approach the final door, get ready for the final incarnation of Jon Irenicus. He's really not extremely tough, though he does summon two glabrezus and two balors as soon as the fight begins, so a protection from evil spell would be wise to cast beforehand. If you're powerful enough, you can probably just lure them to the southern end of the level and kill them; Irenicus doesn't seem to do much when you're not around, though he will mislead himself, so be careful. He's actually not really Irenicus when you fight him; he'll become the slayer creature that you've morphed into on occasion since your soul was stolen. Weirdly enough, he seems to have fewer protections against melee weapons than when you fought him at the tree of life, or those that he does cast will run out before the demons are dead, so surrounding him and pounding might work in this instance for parties with powerful melee warriors. He does cast death spells on occasion, though, so if you can get out of his line of sight and send a few summoned animals or elementals toward him, he might throw away a few of his more advanced spells before you must advance.

Elementals and other summoned creatures are surprisingly effective against the slayer.
One trick that you might use to your advantage is that the slayer simply isn't very aggressive. He'll chase you, but if you throw a couple of summoned creatures in the way, he'll generally stop to deal with them and then stop where he is if he can't see you. So, you can simply wait for a while a screen or so away from the slayer, heal up, wait for any mazes to wear off, and when you come back to the slayer, most of his spell and weapon protection spells will have worn off. He does regenerate at a fearsome rate, though, so you'll probably be facing him at full strength this way, but he'll be easier to hit with your weapons and have fewer spells at his disposal. In the end, brawn defeats brains, so surround him and apply a beatdown to end all beatdowns for the win.

As we noted previously, there is unfortunately no way to continue the game with the same characters after you defeat Irenicus for the final time. If you want to keep on playing, you can always load up an earlier game or import your characters into the forthcoming Neverwinter Nights game.

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Appendix: Cheat Codes

For those of you out there that just can't get by with out them, here they are. These will give you more items, pass more levels, and just plain make some parts of the game easier, more difficult, or more fun. The thing about the Baldur's Gate II cheats is that you must edit a primary .INI file that could completely mess up the game if you don't follow these directions to the letter, so do this at your own risk and be sure that you type them all in correctly.

First, you must edit the .INI file in the Baldur's Gate II directory, so let's get to that directory. Open the drive on which you installed the game (Windows key + E), then open the Baldur's Gate II directory by double-clicking on it. In there, you will see a pad of paper with a yellow gear in the lower right corner with the name "BALDUR". Double-click this, and under the line that reads "[rogram Options]", type the following:

Debug Mode=1

Now, all you must do is start the game. When the game is running, hit the Ctrl and space bar keys at the same time, and you can type in the field below your characters' command lines. It is in here that you will be typing your cheat codes. Below is a list of the codes and a brief description on what they do. Type these exactly as shown, or they will not work.

CLUAConsole:TheGreatGonzo()

This will summon some chickens that will attack your enemies.

CLUAConsole:FirstAid()

This will give you five healing potions, one stone to flesh scroll, and five neutralize poison potions.

CLUAConsole:Midas()

This will give you some extra money (500 gold pieces).

CLUAConsole Very Happy rizztAttacks()

Creates Drizzt Do'Urden, but he will attack you. It's fun to practice on, though.

CLUAConsolerizztDefends()

Creates a Drizzt that will not attack.

CLUAConsole:CriticalItems()

Did you drop an item that you now need and its gone? Use this to have all critical items come back into the game.

CLUAConsole:ExploreArea()

This will clear away all the black on the map.

CLUAConsole:AddGold(amount of gold)

This will give you some extra money for your travels.

CLUAConsole:SetCurrentXP(amount of exp)

This will give you some experience to help you gain some more levels.

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