spoiler...Throne of Baahl

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Throne of Bhaal Features List

On March 1, 2001, Black Isle Studios and Bioware announced an expansion pack for Baldur's Gate II called Throne of Bhaal. It is expected in summer 2001 and has the following features.

Features

The expansion concludes the Child of Bhaal saga which started in the original Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal takes players through an all-new storyline rich with intrigue and treachery as they unravel the mysteries of the six-story dungeon of Watcher's Keep and explore other new areas such as the City of Saradush, the Fortified Monastery of Amkethran, Sendai's Underdark Fortress and the player's own Abyssal Stronghold
Characters may reach up to level 40, made possible with a raised experience cap of 8 million points, quite possibly the highest level ever achieved by characters in any Advanced Dungeons & Dragons computer game
About 100 new items and weapons, including such that need to be put together from multiple pieces
You will have the ability to create and modify your own items and artifacts with the help of Cespenar, an imp weapon smith who will build you special creations and modify your existing weapons if you have specific components in your inventory when you visit him in your stronghold
Over 40 new powerful high-level spells and abilities: Whirlwind Attack, Greater Whirlwind Attack, Death Blow and War Cry for fighters, potion creating and more deadly traps for thieves, summoning celestials for clerics etc
New monsters like Solars, Fire Giants, Water Weird, Baatezu, Succubi, Undead Beholders and more Dragons
The Wild Mage character kit will also be included to the already extensive class list allowing gamers to create a powerful new character able to cast spells with very unpredictable results
A new male NPC who can join the party - Sarevok
New NPC dialog and interaction, including the continuation of romances
All mages now have the option of erasing spells from their spellbook
The player can now press TAB to highlight doors, containers, and ground piles, Ranger Tracking has been added and non-pausing world map is an option so players can watch their characters travel in the map screen
The expansion will add about 40-50 hours of gameplay
Known New Spells

Cleric:

Storm of Vengeance - a high-level cleric spell that summons forth a divine storm that slays all low-level creatures in the area instantly and severely injures all others with a catastrophic combination of fire, acid, and lightning.

Global Blitz - kind of like a kickass version of Blade Barrier. Not only can Global Blitz cut through a tin can and still slice a tomato razor-thin, but it can also chunkify a group of orcs in a matter of seconds.

Wizard:

Dragon's Breath conjures up the head of a Red Dragon and rolls out 20d10 worth of damage. The proper response for that spell is -- HOLY CRAP.

Globe of Blades will conjure a globe of razor sharp blades; just walk into your enemies and it's Cuisinart time. Be sure not to get too close to your friends though; razor blades don't discriminate.

Improved Alacrity allows a mage to cast more than one spell in a round. It only lasts for 10 seconds, but in those 10 seconds the mage can unleash hell on his enemies.

Comet spell - summons a celestial missile.

Energy Blades - throws a bevy of Tron-like glowing discs.

Other: Bigby's Hand, Wish


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Play Options

Throne of Bhaal is fully playable either while questing through the BG II adventure or after you have completed BG II. Players will explore the lands of Tethyr as an epic conflict wreaks devastation on a scale never before seen in the Forgotten Realms campaign world.

The expansion comes in two parts: an add-on and an add-in. The add-on picks up where the last game ended and concludes the child of Bhaal storyline once and for all. The add-in injects new content into Baldur's Gate II, much in the same way that Tales of the Sword Coast did.

A brief explanation of the Add-On and Add-In sections

The Add-In section is a massive dungeon complex called The Watcher's Keep. When you install Throne of Bhaal (TOB), the area is added to your existing Shadows of Amn (SOA) map. You can play it whenever you access to it although you should have an average party level of at least 10 to venture in. The Watcher's Keep makes up approximately half of the expansion and can be accessed from both Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. The area is on both maps.

The Add-On section continues the main story after the final confrontation in SOA. An Ill-wind sweeps across the Sword Coast and the party drives southward in an attempt to learn more about the Prophecy of Alaundo and to find his or her place (as a Child of Bhaal) in that prophecy. We give you an entire new WorldMap with tons of stuff to do. This new map is made up of Southern Tethyr and Northern Calimshan. Just like the transition from BG1 to BG2, everything is new.

One of the concerns mentioned was that some people are concerned about accessing the stuff that they've stored in their stronghold or elsewhere in the SOA areas. We have several solutions for this:

1) You can import from your final save in SOA. Like BG1, this is just before the end encounter. All of the equipment that you've loaded yourself out with for the final battle will be imported over into TOB. Alternately, you can do the final battle and the game will flow directly in TOB from the end movie of SOA.

2) We have tons of importation options. You can import from any other SOA save games. If you left something behind or have not yet finished SOA, you can still import into TOB. You can also import any of your created characters into the game. Any characters that are below 2 million XP will be bumped up and be given a bag of holding full of appropriately powerful goodies. We insure that you will be at an appropriate level to be able to face the new challenges in the Add-On section regardless of where you've imported from.

3) You can start a new game in TOB - you can go through the character creation just like in SOA, including new options like the Wild Mage (also available from the start of SOA). You will build a 2 million XP character who will also be given tons of spells and items appropriate to his or her class and/or level.

4) All of these import or new game options give you access, in your new stronghold, to all of the Shadows of Amn characters who are not dead. There is also a new joinable-NPC who you meet in your new stronghold.

In short, you have options. Approximately half of the expansion takes place in SOA (although it is also accessible in TOB). So, anyone who's worried about items or tying up loose ends, should take some time there and gather up everything you want to take with you before moving on.
If you're not interested in this, we always make sure that you have enough good loot to make it through the game, regardless of what you have when you start the Add-On section.

New Content & Story

The new content is an exceedingly large dungeon called Watcher's Keep, described by the folks at BioWare as "the coolest dungeon we've ever made." There you'll encounter a variety of nasty monsters and a fairly large assortment of legendary artifacts from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. You'll also probably die a lot.
If you have already finished BioWare's latest epic, no problem - the Watcher's Keep dungeon also appears on the new map for the add-on story, so you can access it from there as well.

The new story starts in your own personal stronghold in the Abyss. From there, you'll learn a variety of new (and extremely potent) powers, each of which opens up new areas of your stronghold to explore. The first power you get is the ability to summon any character from Baldur's Gate II. To them, it seems as though you never left, and they will join your party immediately. You can also create or import a party of your own, if you prefer. The game will automatically bump any character you use to 2,000,000 experience points and outfit you with items appropriate to that level.

Next you'll travel to a variety of places, including the city of Saradush (in Tethyr), which is under siege. It seems that the children of Bhaal are at war with each other, and you have landed right in the thick of it. The city is teeming with huddled refugees, hot-tempered locals, decaying corpses, and disease. Catapults rain fire down on the city streets as you walk around. It's not a happy place.

It does show off some of the advanced scripting that BioWare has worked into the game, however. City inhabitants don't necessarily just stand around waiting for you to talk to them - they walk to the store, walk home, go to the local tavern, and just generally follow their daily routine. Tempers flare, brawls break out, and life in the city goes on around you. It's interesting just to walk around the town, even if you don't talk to anybody.

The Machine of Lum the Mad

Another new area of particular interest is a map that contains the Machine of Lum the Mad. As you probably know, the Machine of Lum the Mad is an artifact that creates a variety of random effects. You can choose from a variety of different levers, switches, and dials to poke, pull, or twist. Depending on the combination, you might get a stat boost or you might lose five levels... You just never know.

Deck of Many Things

One of the uber-cool new items is the Deck of Many Things. Each card in this deck is a metallic plate, each adorned with a distinct portrait of its own. The card shimmers with power, and while each Deck of Many Things is different, all legends agree that this kind of artifact holds great power and is not to be used lightly.

The exact contents and powers of the deck cannot be known unless the cards are drawn... but once drawn, the effect on the user is irreversible. Supposedly, a Deck of Many Things can only be used so many times until it disappears and moves elsewhere in the multiverse... for what reason, no one knows.

Druids in the Expansion

Druids are getting an excellent overhaul. The druid XP table has been changed starting at 15 level and they will gain their first level immediately after the Shadows of Amn XP cap. They will then gain levels at a very quick pace and can choose a high level ability with each level gain.
An example would be Greater Elemental Summoning, which allows a druid to call on an actual Elemental Prince for assistance in battle. The Princes are extremely deadly. In addition to this, they also gain class specific abilities like total immunity to poison, different stages of immunity to environmental damage (cold, fire, etc.), expanded spell books (cleric pools) that allow them to cast six and then seven spells of each spell level and so on.

The individual kits have also received tweaks. For example, the Shapeshifter's Greater Werewolf form is more powerful and the druid can turn into that form more than once per day. The druids were definitely a concern of ours from the beginning, and we've spent a lot of time making sure that they have as much going for them as any other class.

Play Options & Summoning NPCs

There are several options when playing Throne of Bhaal:

1) Import your party from BGII - if they are below 2 million XP they will be bumped up. If you choose this option, you will not be given any items so you should probably be a fairly well equipped when you do this. We can't give you anything because you could be at any level of XP prior to 2 million and we don't want to create duplicate items.

2) Import a character file - Any character file can be imported. They will be given a fine selection of non-unique magical items and be bumped to 2 million XP if they are lower.

3) Start a new Expansion Pack game - You can choose all of the BGII options plus the Wild Mage Kit. You are set to 2 million XP and given a bag of holding with a variety of magical items according to your class. For example - a fighter would get different items than a mage. With this option you will only have to play alone for a short time (10-15 minutes) before being allowed to summon party members.

When you play the expansion part of the story, though, the original areas in BG2 are no longer accessible. Only Watcher's Keep is accessible throughout both BG2 and the expansion. So in order for you to still get the NPCs, the summoning feature of your Abyssal fortress was implemented.

The usefulness of the NPCs is the same in the expansion as it was in BG2. If you went through BG2 slaughtering all the NPCs you didn't want you won't have anyone to summon in the expansion... They're all dead. Your party make-up will be the same as you played with previously.

As to the summoning - the player can summon into his new stronghold, any BG2 NPCs that aren't dead and aren't currently in the party. I'll leave the details on why and how you can do this to the game. You'll find out when you play. The NPCs will all be more powerful than their previous versions and be outfitted accordingly.

Continuing Romances

There is an 'initial stage' in a romance during which if you kick them out of the party the romance will quickly be over. With Jaheira, it's over right away... For others it takes a day or two.

Once you're past this initial stage, you can kick them out and take them back in later, no problems. If this is the case and they aren't currently in your party, you can summon them as per normal and the romance will continue. Not, however, if you've already started a romance with someone else.

If you simply import a character and not a save game/final save, then there are no globals set and therefore no romance. If you import a save game and hadn't finished the romance plot inside of BG2, as long as you made it a good half-way it should pick up in the expansion as if it were completed.

We are definitely bringing the already-existing romance stories to a conclusion as the story concludes. They actually conclude in very different and perhaps unexpected ways, in fact...

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The above was taken from sorcerer's net!
Cool things I want to high light:
Sarevok is the new NPC!
Undead Beholders (as mentioned in the manual in BG1)
Solars (Memmnoch just wrote an amazing piece on it)

[ShadowUK]

I carn't wait for it to be released

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[Avatar]

release date 31st May!!! is this world wide.
Who will buy Neverwinter...will it come out before or after?

[Grand-Ranger]

Saverok!?! That should be intresting

I am defianlty ganan buy NWN,,and i am sure it iwll be out much later then TOB

[This message has been edited by Grand-Ranger (edited 05-10-2001).]

[Halbred]

I just started BGI NOOOOOOOOOO I need more time !!!

Then you better get playing Halbred

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[caleb]

Damn I wont have time to finish up my paladin game........wait am I actually complaining about TOB being released to early? SOMEBODY KICK MY ASS!!!!

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Welcome to hell.

[This message has been edited by caleb (edited 05-10-2001).]

Well Caleb if you play the game everyday you will

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[Elhardo]

NOOOOOOOOOO.....
I can't get it untill a while later because of my GCSE's!!!
AHHHHHH im gonna go mad during them..Well not really, but I dont wanna spoil my chances