In Rasaad’s ToB quest line, you get to visit a former dwarven stronghold.
In the kitchen you get to meet two dwarves - most likely brothers - with the names Killis and Fillis. Most likely a shout out to the Hobbit by Tolkien.
The list of cleric spheres in PnP AD&D actually distinguished between the Combat sphere and the War sphere. The War sphere was not concerned with buffing the cleric's fighting skill but with more big-picture effects which could affect the fighting skill of a whole army, but to a much lesser extent. For example, one spell in the War sphere was Morale, a 1st-level spell that merely boosted morale slightly (not enough to give complete immunity to fear), but could affect up to 200 creatures with a single cast. Since most Dungeons and Dragons video games have been about fighting armies of mooks with a small party rather than with an army of red shirts, these spells were left out.
The map below doesn't contain any spoilers from Candlekeep Mysteries - the newest 5E adventure. At least not from what I could see. But some may not wish to gaze upon it and despair over what has become of Candlekeep.
(my thoughts on this)
Candlekeep without Winthrop's Inn is but a shadow of itself.
I do not recognise anything compared to the original source material. It seems everything is in a different place, so maybe it is there, just not drawn where you think it should be.
The "House of Rest" on that map, in the outer "Court of Air", looks like an inn. Actually, most of the features in the Baldur's Gate game belong to that outer section.
The differences can mainly be boiled down to one key change - this 5E map has three main sections instead of two. Then, instead of having three concentric rings, the outermost section becomes a bead on one side of the fortress.
I can see the fortress evolving from one state to the other. The library collections grow, and more buildings are needed to house them - which squeezes out the other functions that had been in the outer ring. Then they need to build a new walled area for them, and there's only one place to put it.
Where is all the water coming from to feed the small river that appears to be pouring out of the keep? There is no way that a natural spring of that size could occur on that tiny 'island'. "Because, magic" doesn't work either because the underlying ground would be too sodden and waterlogged to build anything on, let alone a small fortress.
Where is all the water coming from to feed the small river that appears to be pouring out of the keep? There is no way that a natural spring of that size could occur on that tiny 'island'. "Because, magic" doesn't work either because the underlying ground would be too sodden and waterlogged to build anything on, let alone a small fortress.
Nostalgia is nice but 5E Candlekeep has cool waterfalls!
Think how London changed after the Great Fire, or much earlier after the Romans left. There are very few Roman remains left there now apart from at the Barbican. You don't need an earthquake to completely obliterate a city. All you need is a shortage of building stone. The new buildings will often incorporate the stones of a former building. The beautiful windows of this inn were once part of an abbey, probably the walls too.
That if you are wanting to slightly reduce your reputation in Baldur's Gate, killing Bheren is a good option. Why? Only a drop of 8, and in addition you get a cloak of protection +1 on his body. I thought that the rep drop might be lowish since Petrine says that he is mean. I also knew about the cloak as I have pickpocketted it in the past. I don't know whether or not you still can in the Enhanced Edition as I haven't tried it.
Killing an innocent is a variable drop, depending on what you start with. Lose 1 at rep 2-4, 2 at rep 5-8, and so on up to 10 at rep 19-20. Bheren is an innocent. For you to lose 8 there, you must have started at 17.
Firebead is also a good choice to kill if you are wanting to lose rep as he gives a substantial amount of experience and a robe. Not a great one, but worth a few hundred.
Apparently Descent into Avernus also actually has a picture of Candlekeep. So this would have been where they got their inspiration for Candlekeep Mysteries.
Nostalgia is nice but 5E Candlekeep has cool waterfalls!
Think how London changed after the Great Fire, or much earlier after the Romans left. There are very few Roman remains left there now apart from at the Barbican. You don't need an earthquake to completely obliterate a city. All you need is a shortage of building stone. The new buildings will often incorporate the stones of a former building. The beautiful windows of this inn were once part of an abbey, probably the walls too.
I bet if I entered that inn I'd be greeted with...
I suppose that I could use that photo as the backdrop for portrait. A genuine medieval inn!
I was working on it in preparation for it being spruced up. During the war POWs were billetted there and had left behind a lot of interesting junk. medical cards, prescriptions, false legs and the like. A treasure house of trivia of the period.
- Player: "Can you recall the reason IWD switched from BG1 style sprites/animations to BG2 style in a later patch? Was it viewed as an 'upgrade'? The older aren't mirrored, so I've always preferred them."
- Josh Sawyer: "I’m guessing here since it’s been 20 years, but I think it was for memory savings. Mirrored sprites are just smaller."
If you're playing solo and don't have the firepower to quickly kill xvarts to save Arabelle, you might try the necklace of missiles - if you manage not to kill Arabella by your fireball, her "hostile" status won't prevent you from finishing the quest.
Poor cow, but she'll recover. At least she's saved.
If you're playing solo and don't have the firepower to quickly kill xvarts to save Arabelle, you might try the necklace of missiles - if you manage not to kill Arabella by your fireball, her "hostile" status won't prevent you from finishing the quest.
Poor cow, but she'll recover. At least she's saved.
I find the Wand of Sleep to be invaluable for that encounter myself. It's less lethal to poor Arabell too!
Stats on the cow: 60 HP, AC 5 but no weapon. She also has kobolds (including xvarts) as a racial enemy and an irrelevant 50% slashing resistance. The attacking xvarts have 7 HP each and save on a 17. For that 6d6 blast, saving for half ... that's a 99.3% chance to kill any given xvart. And even a high damage roll won't deal more than half of the cow's HP bar.
So, if you're going for this plan, do it early.
The wand of sleep is a 75% chance to knock out any given xvart; you're very likely to have some slip through, so you need to follow up with attacks quickly if you do that.
Perhaps earlier in the game's development, xvarts used slashing weapons (their animations show slashing attacks) but when they were changed to use piercing weapons, the devs forgot to update Arabelle to have piercing resistance instead.
Perhaps earlier in the game's development, xvarts used slashing weapons (their animations show slashing attacks) but when they were changed to use piercing weapons, the devs forgot to update Arabelle to have piercing resistance instead.
They may have decided that it isn't THAT difficult a quest even the way it now is.
There is an alternate location to import games from.
BG2 will also look for BG1 games in an "importsave" folder (or "importbpsave" for Black Pits) in the BG2 save location (ex Documents\Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition\importsave). So a player can make that folder and copy individual saves there. It should work on all platforms, including Macs.
In Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, you encounter enemies called Beholder Mages. Their description says:
Beholder mages have sacrificed the use of their eye-stalks in favor of more traditional (but just as deadly) magical spells.
Hmm... a beholder that cannot use its eye-stalks but can cast powerful spells to make up for it... that sounds familiar. I've seen one of those before in another game.
Comments
In the kitchen you get to meet two dwarves - most likely brothers - with the names Killis and Fillis. Most likely a shout out to the Hobbit by Tolkien.
Source: https://regalgoblins.com/spells.php?sphere=War
The map below doesn't contain any spoilers from Candlekeep Mysteries - the newest 5E adventure. At least not from what I could see. But some may not wish to gaze upon it and despair over what has become of Candlekeep.
(my thoughts on this)
The differences can mainly be boiled down to one key change - this 5E map has three main sections instead of two. Then, instead of having three concentric rings, the outermost section becomes a bead on one side of the fortress.
I can see the fortress evolving from one state to the other. The library collections grow, and more buildings are needed to house them - which squeezes out the other functions that had been in the outer ring. Then they need to build a new walled area for them, and there's only one place to put it.
I'd say it goes beyond one key change.
Like for instance the center walls in the 5e image are actually showing a big change in elevation.
Drainage system perhaps?
Think how London changed after the Great Fire, or much earlier after the Romans left. There are very few Roman remains left there now apart from at the Barbican. You don't need an earthquake to completely obliterate a city. All you need is a shortage of building stone. The new buildings will often incorporate the stones of a former building. The beautiful windows of this inn were once part of an abbey, probably the walls too.
I bet if I entered that inn I'd be greeted with...
I was working on it in preparation for it being spruced up. During the war POWs were billetted there and had left behind a lot of interesting junk. medical cards, prescriptions, false legs and the like. A treasure house of trivia of the period.
- Josh Sawyer: "I’m guessing here since it’s been 20 years, but I think it was for memory savings. Mirrored sprites are just smaller."
Source.
Poor cow, but she'll recover. At least she's saved.
I find the Wand of Sleep to be invaluable for that encounter myself. It's less lethal to poor Arabell too!
So, if you're going for this plan, do it early.
The wand of sleep is a 75% chance to knock out any given xvart; you're very likely to have some slip through, so you need to follow up with attacks quickly if you do that.
Perhaps earlier in the game's development, xvarts used slashing weapons (their animations show slashing attacks) but when they were changed to use piercing weapons, the devs forgot to update Arabelle to have piercing resistance instead.
They may have decided that it isn't THAT difficult a quest even the way it now is.
BG2 will also look for BG1 games in an "importsave" folder (or "importbpsave" for Black Pits) in the BG2 save location (ex Documents\Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition\importsave). So a player can make that folder and copy individual saves there. It should work on all platforms, including Macs.
Hmm... a beholder that cannot use its eye-stalks but can cast powerful spells to make up for it... that sounds familiar. I've seen one of those before in another game.
Apparently 7 years of bad luck takes too long. This way it's 7 seconds of VERY bad luck!