There are quite a few inconsistencies on timelines in both games. The original Baldur's Gate 1 manual has the current year at 1373 DR. While Sarevok's journal in the original says its 1370 DR. By the time Baldur's Gate 2 came out that game was retconned to take place in 1369 DR (with BG1 taking place the previous year).
A lot of books and some events in Baldur's Gate 1 for instance assume that it is later than 1368. For instance, Zhentil's Keep is not destroyed by giants until the very, very end of 1368 DR. So Bassilus believing his family was killed during the attack is actually about 7 months early.
At the same time there are events in BG2 that don't match up with the canon. For instance the uprising by Sothillis is mentioned in both games even though it doesn't take place until between 1370 and 1374 DR.
@elminster
Timelines in history books are often wrong even when using primary sources. I was trying to help my son with a project on renaissance artists which was to include dates of when paintings were painted. The dates varied ridiculously from book to book. Sometimes there was a good reason, such as the fact that the starting time and finishing time of a painting were sometimes greatly different, however sometimes there was no such reason. We should therefore not be too surprised if there are inconsistencies in dates in the Realms.
In this case it seems like the decision to set BG2 in 1369 was made later into that games development (after the in-game writing was done) and closer to when the BG2 SoA manual was finalized (because they got 1369 down there). Had Baldur's Gate 1 been set in 1370 and BG2 been set in 1371 I think these issues would have been avoided. I can't think of any issues doing so would cause (beyond a few later campaign setting books having the wrong dates) but they might exist.
Did you know that the view count on a thread vastly overestimates the number of different people who have viewed the thread?
First of all, a large view count can be the result of a relatively small number of people frequently checking the thread. If someone has viewed a thread page 50 times over the course of several months, that's 50 views for a single person.
But there's something else. A thread gains a view for each page viewed. When you go to another page, the thread gets another view. If you read through 4 pages of a thread, you just gave the thread 4 views in a single visit.
So the total number of different viewers = the view count / (average number of times people have visited the thread * average number of pages viewed per visit).
There was a book called "Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate 2" released back in 2000. As you can see from its table of contents, outside of maybe a few early references it actually has very little to do with the areas you visit in the game.
I assume its really more for DM's who want to set their game somewhere in the region (but not places seen in the game). But the name sort of suggests otherwise.
You can get any character in the entire city of Baldur's Gate to fight for you against the Ducal Palace doppelgangers, Sarevok, or any other fight anywhere in Baldur's Gate. Just charm them with the Nymph Cloak or Algernon's Cloak (the latter is near-mandatory for Tamoko and other characters who speak to you and walk away if not charmed), then order them to attack you while you're going from one area to the next, and they will follow you.
Ordinarily, you can't bring anyone from one section of the city to another--you can't walk Duke Eltan over to the Blushing Mermaid for a guy's night out, for example, since the area transition from the southwest section to the southeast section will only transport party members and familiars. However, you can smuggle charmed characters through the sewers and the Undercellars to transport them to a different section of the city. For example, you can charm Larze, take him into the Undercellars, leave the Undercellars from the south entrance, and then emerge from the sewers up to the area with Sorcerous Sundries. Take him into the Thieves' Guild and you can take him through the maze (he doesn't need to walk through the maze; you can order him to attack you from across the map right before you leave) all the way to the final fight with Sarevok.
The possibilities are endless. Charm Ithtyl the sorcerer barmaid and have her cast Chaos on the Ducal Palace doppelgangers, charm Larze and use him as a tank against Slythe's awful backstabs, or charm Halbazzer Drin and have him join the fight against Sarevok--and in SCS v32, Halbazzer Drin has a random selection of level 9 spells! Just bear in mind that the charm is dispellable, and if you accidentally harm one of your charmed allies, they will turn hostile.
Given enough time, you can marshal an entire army to stomp Sarevok into the ground or flood the Ducal Palace with a herd of peasants to serve as human shields protecting the Grand Dukes. The only limit is your imagination!
Did you know that Minsc and Dynaheir have good synergy? Dynaheir casts Webs with -4 to the save (because she's an invoker), and Minsc can go into the webs with Spider's Bane (which protects him from the webs) and kill everything.
Did you know that according to Tamoko, Eltan's healer (Rashad) reportedly leaves at night. Supposedly you can follow him, attack him, and find out that he is a doppleganger. However, unless Eltan sees it transform he won't believe you. They will also reportedly just send another one if you do this.
In any case this was never actually implemented. But I'll be implementing it for my Eve of War mod.
You can get any character in the entire city of Baldur's Gate to fight for you against the Ducal Palace doppelgangers, Sarevok, or any other fight anywhere in Baldur's Gate. Just charm them with the Nymph Cloak or Algernon's Cloak (the latter is near-mandatory for Tamoko and other characters who speak to you and walk away if not charmed), then order them to attack you while you're going from one area to the next, and they will follow you.
Ordinarily, you can't bring anyone from one section of the city to another--you can't walk Duke Eltan over to the Blushing Mermaid for a guy's night out, for example, since the area transition from the southwest section to the southeast section will only transport party members and familiars. However, you can smuggle charmed characters through the sewers and the Undercellars to transport them to a different section of the city. For example, you can charm Larze, take him into the Undercellars, leave the Undercellars from the south entrance, and then emerge from the sewers up to the area with Sorcerous Sundries. Take him into the Thieves' Guild and you can take him through the maze (he doesn't need to walk through the maze; you can order him to attack you from across the map right before you leave) all the way to the final fight with Sarevok.
The possibilities are endless. Charm Ithtyl the sorcerer barmaid and have her cast Chaos on the Ducal Palace doppelgangers, charm Larze and use him as a tank against Slythe's awful backstabs, or charm Halbazzer Drin and have him join the fight against Sarevok--and in SCS v32, Halbazzer Drin has a random selection of level 9 spells! Just bear in mind that the charm is dispellable, and if you accidentally harm one of your charmed allies, they will turn hostile.
Given enough time, you can marshal an entire army to stomp Sarevok into the ground or flood the Ducal Palace with a herd of peasants to serve as human shields protecting the Grand Dukes. The only limit is your imagination!
This is ridiculous and I love it. This is the kind of thing I would have never thought of.
You can get any character in the entire city of Baldur's Gate to fight for you against the Ducal Palace doppelgangers, Sarevok, or any other fight anywhere in Baldur's Gate. Just charm them with the Nymph Cloak or Algernon's Cloak (the latter is near-mandatory for Tamoko and other characters who speak to you and walk away if not charmed), then order them to attack you while you're going from one area to the next, and they will follow you.
Ordinarily, you can't bring anyone from one section of the city to another--you can't walk Duke Eltan over to the Blushing Mermaid for a guy's night out, for example, since the area transition from the southwest section to the southeast section will only transport party members and familiars. However, you can smuggle charmed characters through the sewers and the Undercellars to transport them to a different section of the city. For example, you can charm Larze, take him into the Undercellars, leave the Undercellars from the south entrance, and then emerge from the sewers up to the area with Sorcerous Sundries. Take him into the Thieves' Guild and you can take him through the maze (he doesn't need to walk through the maze; you can order him to attack you from across the map right before you leave) all the way to the final fight with Sarevok.
The possibilities are endless. Charm Ithtyl the sorcerer barmaid and have her cast Chaos on the Ducal Palace doppelgangers, charm Larze and use him as a tank against Slythe's awful backstabs, or charm Halbazzer Drin and have him join the fight against Sarevok--and in SCS v32, Halbazzer Drin has a random selection of level 9 spells! Just bear in mind that the charm is dispellable, and if you accidentally harm one of your charmed allies, they will turn hostile.
Given enough time, you can marshal an entire army to stomp Sarevok into the ground or flood the Ducal Palace with a herd of peasants to serve as human shields protecting the Grand Dukes. The only limit is your imagination!
This is ridiculous and I love it. This is the kind of thing I would have never thought of.
Whilst not in the same league, this is what I have been doing in Candlekeep with an Enchanter named Xan:
I lured those two outside, but Mendas won't follow you outside.
I therefore used charm on a Watcher as per your idea, and got him to attack Mendas. When it became clear that the Watcher was losing the battle, Xan joined in, but it was the Watcher that landed the final blow. Perhaps I should have allowed the death of the Watcher in order to get his armour and used my second charm spell to bring another Watcher into the fray. The problem is getting the Watcher into the room without the Enchanter getting killed. Quite a dangerous procedure.
In my set-up an Enchanter wouldn't stand little chance against Mendas due to the fact that I have given the Candlekeep Assassins better weapons and armour.
@Wise_Grimwald: Does Charm Person turn the target hostile? I thought the charm cloaks were the only charm effects that didn't leave the target hostile after wearing off or if the target saved.
@Wise_Grimwald: Does Charm Person turn the target hostile? I thought the charm cloaks were the only charm effects that didn't leave the target hostile after wearing off or if the target saved.
Certainly charm person also makes the target hostile after the spell wears off in my set-up as can be seen in my third image. I don't know if a mod might have affected this.
[It wears off far too quickly for comfort when trying this out]
In the Iron Throne in Chapter 5, before you fight Zhalimar's team, Destus Gurn tells you there is a seventh person up on the top floor: "Mr. Lyle Espejo." Espejo is Spanish for mirror, and doppelgangers are sometimes referred to as mirrorkin, so it's possible they're talking about the doppelganger you meet on the top floor (who was taking the form of Emissary Tar).
You can ctrl+y kill everyone except important characters. Although you can ctrl+y them too, they just won't die. But apparently you can't even try to ctrl+y childs, as the game just wont allow it.
Did you know that it's possible to play a paladin that doesn't use two-handed swords?
Is that a giant turkey leg she's wielding there? Go two-weapon fighting with her and she could be a giant turkey leg drummer in a rock band. She may fall (or more likely die early) if she goes that route but think of the RP potential!
In the Iron Throne in Chapter 5, before you fight Zhalimar's team, Destus Gurn tells you there is a seventh person up on the top floor: "Mr. Lyle Espejo." Espejo is Spanish for mirror, and doppelgangers are sometimes referred to as mirrorkin, so it's possible they're talking about the doppelganger you meet on the top floor (who was taking the form of Emissary Tar).
According to varying sources, Baldur's Gate has vastly changed in population over the years. The City of Baldur's Gate went from having 86,000 - 115,000 people in 1358 DR to 42,103 in 1372 DR to 120,000 - 140,000 in 1479 DR.
Comments
A lot of books and some events in Baldur's Gate 1 for instance assume that it is later than 1368. For instance, Zhentil's Keep is not destroyed by giants until the very, very end of 1368 DR. So Bassilus believing his family was killed during the attack is actually about 7 months early.
At the same time there are events in BG2 that don't match up with the canon. For instance the uprising by Sothillis is mentioned in both games even though it doesn't take place until between 1370 and 1374 DR.
Timelines in history books are often wrong even when using primary sources. I was trying to help my son with a project on renaissance artists which was to include dates of when paintings were painted. The dates varied ridiculously from book to book. Sometimes there was a good reason, such as the fact that the starting time and finishing time of a painting were sometimes greatly different, however sometimes there was no such reason. We should therefore not be too surprised if there are inconsistencies in dates in the Realms.
First of all, a large view count can be the result of a relatively small number of people frequently checking the thread. If someone has viewed a thread page 50 times over the course of several months, that's 50 views for a single person.
But there's something else. A thread gains a view for each page viewed. When you go to another page, the thread gets another view. If you read through 4 pages of a thread, you just gave the thread 4 views in a single visit.
So the total number of different viewers = the view count / (average number of times people have visited the thread * average number of pages viewed per visit).
I assume its really more for DM's who want to set their game somewhere in the region (but not places seen in the game). But the name sort of suggests otherwise.
Ordinarily, you can't bring anyone from one section of the city to another--you can't walk Duke Eltan over to the Blushing Mermaid for a guy's night out, for example, since the area transition from the southwest section to the southeast section will only transport party members and familiars. However, you can smuggle charmed characters through the sewers and the Undercellars to transport them to a different section of the city. For example, you can charm Larze, take him into the Undercellars, leave the Undercellars from the south entrance, and then emerge from the sewers up to the area with Sorcerous Sundries. Take him into the Thieves' Guild and you can take him through the maze (he doesn't need to walk through the maze; you can order him to attack you from across the map right before you leave) all the way to the final fight with Sarevok.
The possibilities are endless. Charm Ithtyl the sorcerer barmaid and have her cast Chaos on the Ducal Palace doppelgangers, charm Larze and use him as a tank against Slythe's awful backstabs, or charm Halbazzer Drin and have him join the fight against Sarevok--and in SCS v32, Halbazzer Drin has a random selection of level 9 spells! Just bear in mind that the charm is dispellable, and if you accidentally harm one of your charmed allies, they will turn hostile.
Given enough time, you can marshal an entire army to stomp Sarevok into the ground or flood the Ducal Palace with a herd of peasants to serve as human shields protecting the Grand Dukes. The only limit is your imagination!
In any case this was never actually implemented. But I'll be implementing it for my Eve of War mod.
Does he mean a tarrasque corpse that's been stuffed in the style of taxidermy? Or just a little Tarrasque Plush Doll?
This is ridiculous and I love it. This is the kind of thing I would have never thought of.
Whilst not in the same league, this is what I have been doing in Candlekeep with an Enchanter named Xan:
I lured those two outside, but Mendas won't follow you outside.
I therefore used charm on a Watcher as per your idea, and got him to attack Mendas. When it became clear that the Watcher was losing the battle, Xan joined in, but it was the Watcher that landed the final blow. Perhaps I should have allowed the death of the Watcher in order to get his armour and used my second charm spell to bring another Watcher into the fray. The problem is getting the Watcher into the room without the Enchanter getting killed. Quite a dangerous procedure.
In my set-up an Enchanter wouldn't stand little chance against Mendas due to the fact that I have given the Candlekeep Assassins better weapons and armour.
Certainly charm person also makes the target hostile after the spell wears off in my set-up as can be seen in my third image. I don't know if a mod might have affected this.
[It wears off far too quickly for comfort when trying this out]
Hmmmm, maybe they only attack rats when tavern wenches are around...
Similarly Perdue's name is a pun on the French word meaning lost.
Of course! You could play the Icewind Dale games, where the holy avengers are long swords rather than two-handed swords.
Blasphemy!
Uhh yea. A paladin can use Shield of Egons (especially an undead hunter).
Edit: Apparently this is one of the SoD introduced items that isn't available in BG2
Is that a giant turkey leg she's wielding there? Go two-weapon fighting with her and she could be a giant turkey leg drummer in a rock band. She may fall (or more likely die early) if she goes that route but think of the RP potential!
How insightful!