Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

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Baldur's Gate Legacy of Bhaal Difficulty Guide
By PhilosophusRex
This is a detailed walkthrough for Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition on Legacy of Bhaal Difficulty. It contains a recommended party composition, recommended order of quests as well as video tutorials for the most challenging fights in the game.
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Character Creation and Party Management
I highly recommend playing Legacy of Bhaal Difficulty as a Human Berserker. Not only does this give you a very powerful tank throughout the game but if you intend to play the whole trilogy you can than dual class into a spellcaster for an extremely powerful late game character. I recommend building with the intention of dual classing into a Cleric in Baldur's Gate 2, as Imoen or Nalia are both fantastic choices for a mage in BG2, although Berserker into Mage is one of the best builds available to the Player Character.

My starter build is as follows:
Human Fighter (Berserker)
STR 18/80 - (the secondary strength stat is not necessary as you can get 19 by late game regardless)
DEX 18
CON 18
INT 16 (for defense from Mind Flayers in Baldur's Gate 2)
WIS 18
CHA 3
Proficiencies
Flail/Morningstar **
Two-Weapon Fighting **

For a recommended party composition you need the following, one tank, 3 archers, one divine caster, and one arcane caster. You'll also need at least one thief in the party to find traps. If you're playing a good-aligned party then the best tank is Khalid or Ajantis. The best archers are Coran, Kivan, and Khalid. Yeslick is a great Divine spellcaster. The best arcane caster is a bit difficult, Dynaheir is the strongest early-game mage because of her bonus to Web but she lacks access to the most important endgame spell Greater Malison. Xan lacks access to the critical spell Web so he can't fill the role. Neera is an option, but the wrong wild surge can completely end a battle so I don't recommend her either. For that reason, I suggest that Imoen is actually the best Mage since she has none of these disadvantages.

Two further things to consider. Firstly, you only get one pair of gauntlets of dexterity. This item is basically required to get the most out of Ajantis, Jaheria, Yeslick, and Minsc, so for optimization purposes, it's best not to have more than 1 of these 4 party members. Secondly, if you plan to play Siege of Dragonspear then there's a significant advantage to picking party members you can bring into Siege of Dragonspear so you can give them the ideal skills and proficiencies. For these two reasons I pick Jaheria as my divine spellcaster, since it allows me to level up Khalid's archery so he's as strong as possible in Siege of Dragonspear, and Safana as my arcane caster since Imeon is not an option in Siege of Dragonspear.

Suggested Party is
Player Character as Berserker as a Tank
Coran, Kivan, and Khalid as Archers
Jaheria as Divine Caster
Safana as Arcane Caster

For Skills and Proficiencies
Khalid - put all points into Longbows
Kivan - put remaining points into Two-Handed Swords, his high strength makes him a good wielder of Spiderbane, and can wade into the Webs
Coran - Max out Find Traps any remaining points into Open Lock
Jaheria - Slings and Daggers, equip her with Dagger of Venom
Safana - bring PIckPocket skill up to 60 and put the remaining points into Stealth. For weapons use Slings and Daggers.

Part 1: Getting Started
Once we finish the Candlekeep quests and begin Chapter 1. We first need to go to the Friendly Arm Inn to secure Khalid and Jaheria as your first party members. We'll need to bait the mage assassin at the entrance to the Inn away from the stairs to get access without combat. Next, we'll head to Neskhel to pick up the Ankheg Armor on the ground for your tank, before buying a scroll of stone to flesh and heading to the Carnival to secure Branwen. With Branwen, we go to the Valley of the Tombs and use the Sanctuary spell to allow her to get the Wand of Monster Summoning in the Tombs. Head to the Lighthouse to secure Safana as a party member and do Safana's Treasure hunt quest. Once we have your base party of Khalid, Jaheria, and Safana we can dismiss Branwen and complete the below quests.

- Safana's Treasure Hunt
- Farmer Brun's Missing Son (will need Relair's Mistake)
- Arcand the Mad
- The Tale of Captain Brage
- Oublek the Bounty Hunter
- Samuel and Lena
- Colquetle's Family Amulet
- Entar's Son
- Tamah Rescued
- Albert and His Dog
- Prisoner of the Gnolls
- Drienne's Cat
- Rescue Dynaheir (will need a Potion of Invisibility)

Before we begin combat we must make sure have the below items:
- Ankheg Armor on Main character (found in Neskel)
- Ring of Protection on Main character (found in Coast Way)
- Ring of Wizardry (Evermemory) found in Friendly Arm Inn on Dynaheir in case they save against Blindness you have extra spells
- Relair's Mistake found in Lighthouse which can be gotten without combat via Stealth or Sanctuary. This item makes Safana much more effective in combat
- Blindness Scroll for Dynaheir

Once we've secured all the items you need and have completed all the quests we can without combat we should be able to level up Safana to level 3. Put all her points into Hide in Shadows or Move Silently and go to the Gnoll Stronghold. Make sure Safana has a potion of Invisibility and then have her sneak up to Dynaheir to bring her on as a party member. Have Safana use stealth and Dynahier use a potion of invisibility to return to the remaining party members. Use the scroll of Blindness to have Dynaheir learn the spell and prepare for the first combat of the game. See the video below for a tactical guide to combat with the mobs on the bridge to secure the Gauntlets of Dexterity.

Part 2: The First Combat Encounters
Below is a list of quests which can be completed with minimal combat. Baiting each enemy one at a time and having our tank hold aggro and Dynaheir cast blind will be enough to defeat any of the enemies in these quests:

- The Fisherman and the Priestess
- Melicamp the Chicken
- Joia's Flamedance Ring
- Fahrington's Scroll
- Half Ogre's Near Beregost
- Mirianne's Husband
- Zhurlong's Missing Boots
- Perdue's Short Sword
- A Child in the Lighthouse

With all these quests completed, we have enough experience to bring Safana to level 4. Put all her points into Pickpocket to bring her to 45, and then equip her with the gauntlets of dexterity to bring her up to 50. With the necessary score of 50 ywe can steal Algernon's Cloak from the Feldepost's Inn in Beregost.

Algernon's Cloak is a key item in Legacy of Bhaal difficulty as it uses the enemy's strength against them. This item not only allows Safana to reach 20 Charisma, giving your party a huge discount on items, but also allows you to Charm an enemy to join your side. This item will allow you to navigate the first main dungeon of the game, the Nashkel Mines. Throughout the Nashkel mines you'll have to face groups of Kobolds, and the occasional spider, and using Algernon's Cloak will make these challenges much more manageable.

At the end of the dungeon is the first major boss of the game, Mulahey. To beat Mulahey we'll need to use both Algernon's Cloak as well as the Wand of Monster Summoning. Once you trigger the fight with Mulahey use Algernon's Cloak immediately and cancel the spell he tries to cast on your party. Then position Mulahey at the entrance to the chamber and block it with summons from the Wand. The summons won't last long enough to defeat all the enemies but they should do enough so that the rest of your party can clean up. Once all of Mulahey's summons are defeated kill him quickly with your party, as his spells should all be depleted you should be able to defeat him easily. Do not accept his surrender or he will summon another wave of minions. If this fight is too hard for you, skip to the end of the video for a cheesy way to avoid the summons.

Part 3: The Power of Web
After we defeated Mulahey in the Nashkel Mines and acquired Talos's Gift, boots which provide 50% electrical resistance. Using these boots we can complete the quest Bassilus the Murderer, as Bassilus uses a weapon with electricity damage. Jaheira should be level 3/3 by now and will have access to the Level 2 divine spell "Slow Poison" which will allow you to defeat the spiders in Beregost and complete the quest Landrin's Possessions.

Once completing all those quests you should have Dynaheir reach level 3, allowing her to learn the level 2 arcane spell web. Continue the main story until you get to the Bandit Camp, where you can find a Potion of Perception outside one of the tents. With the potion secured you can reach Ulgoth's Beard and use the potion on Safana to increase her pick pocking skill enough to steal from Dushai, the gnome just outside of the Inn. A successful pickpocket attempt yields Edventar's Gift, a unique ring which makers the user immune to hold effects. Equipping the ring on your tank allows you to use Web while your Tank is engaging the enemy to ensure the enemy stays within the webs. We can use this tactic to effectively complete three challenging quests with relative ease.

Quests to do next:
- Bassilus the Murderer
- Landrin's Possessions
- A Rouge Ogre
- Jared and the Bear
- Dryad of Cloud Peaks
- The Silke Dilemma
- Ogre Hunting

Part 4: Maximize Damage
Now that we have have reliable means to disable enemies we can start to focus on increasing our damage. There are really just two ways to do high damage quickly in this game, using archers or using backstabs. Strangely enough, in BGEE the best backstabbers are all evil, Shar-Teel and Montaron, while the best archers, Coran, Kivan, Khalid are all good. Using a pure thief like Imoen or Safana as a backstabber isn't quiet effective due to low THAC0 and lack of weapon proficiency. Since we are good guys, we're going to maximize our damage by adding more archers to the party.

Shortbows and Lowbows are granted an additional attack per round, which will autohit on an enemy held by webs, providing high reliable damage to kill enemies. Kivan can be secured as early as Chapter 1 but requires that you defeat the bandit camp at the end of Chapter 3 within a certain time period. I suggest not recruiting him until you are ready to defeat the bandit camp. Kivan has the advantage of a high Strength score, allowing him to equip Composite Longbows so be sure to purchase the Composite Longbow +1 from Feldepost's Inn for him.

Now we can take on Raemon in the bandit camp. There is really just two key things that you need to do to win this fight. Firstly, you must disable the mage immediately before he can cast spells to disable your party. Use the Wand of Paralyzation to hold the mage, it may take more then one charge but don't overuse the wand as these charges are super valuable. Once the mage is held take it out quickly with your damage dealers. The second key thing is to charm the Gnoll and use it to hold Raemon's aggro, effectively neutralizing both of them. The rest of the fight can be won with tactics covered in previous videos.

This fight yields Kivan as a permanent party member, the best Longbow in the game "The Dead Shot", as well as "The Legacy of the Masters" gauntlets which increase damage and THAC0. We also get access to Cloakwood and can recruit Coran, the best archer in the game. Coran has 20 dexterity and 3 points in weapon mastery, which is actually illegal for a fighter/thief making Coran potentially even better then a player-made character. All of this greatly increases the damage of the party, which combined with web will allow us to take on groups of enemies at a time.

To showcase this damage, in the same area we can complete the Gurke's Cloak quest. Head to the South East of the same area of Cloakwood to find a group of Tasloi. Use Web to disable the group and make sure that your archers are focused on enemies that are held to ensure the damage autohits. Once the web expires use blindness on any remaining enemies, while Jaheria switches to a melee weapon to head to the front line and heal. Against large groups of enemies, one tank is likely not enough so use her as a secondary tank once the heals are exhausted. The archers should be able to do enough damage before either tank falls.

Quests:
- Kivan and Tazok
- Confronting Tranzig
- Gurke's Cloak

Part 5: Conquering Cloakwood
In order to secure Coran as a permanent party member we need to complete his quest "Coran the Wyvern Hunter." Wyverns are extremely challenging on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty, and the Wyvern you need to kill is a unique Wyvern with higher saving throws than a typical Wyvern. This means tactics like Web, Charm, and Blindness which worked for us earlier are not effective, so we must relay on gruella tactics to isolate the Wyvern in question. Firstly have an archer enter the cave and use Algernon's Cloak on the northern adult Wyvern, (the non-unique adult Wyvern) so the other Wyvern's kill it. Once that's done immediately retreat and exit the map and return from the south. When you get back to the cave you'll find the Wyverns outside allowing you to aggro them individually. Use your wand of Monster Summoning to take out the baby and the wand of Paralyzation to take out the adult. Once you take out the appropriate Wyvern you will trigger dialogue from Coran to return the Wyvern head and complete the quest, securing him as a permanent party member.

Now we are ready to flood the Cloakwood Mines and complete chapter 4. There is one challenging fight at the entrance to the dungeon involving a well balanced group of enemies. In order to defeat them, Charm their warrior Drasus and use him to tank. Keep your tank back while letting your archers take out the enemies attacking Drasus. Once all the other enemies are completed focus your attacks on the wounded Drasus to defeat him.

Finally, we have the boss of Chapter 4, Davaeorn. Davaeorn has Protection from Normal Missiles, the ability to teleport using Dimensional Door, and a powerful charm ability. Charm has little effect against a single party member, so equip your tank with the Paws of the Cheetah from the earlier fight with Drasus and have him chase Davaeorn. The speed of your tank will cause Davaeorn to use all his Dimensional Door spells up before using the charm ability. Simply wait out the charm and then join the rest of the party, switch everyone to melee weapons, and engage Davaeorn. Once all his spells are expired he isn't much of a threat but this fight takes a long time due to his many defensive spells.

Once Davaeorn is defeated we can flood the mine to free the slaves and get a large experience reward as well as advance the plot to Chapter 5. Now we can enter the titular city, Baldur's Gate!

Quests:
- Aldeth and Sinyad
- Coran and the Wyverns
- Gibberling Hordes
- Prism the Sculptor
- Xvart Raids
- Flooding the Cloakwood Mines

Part 6: Inside Baldur's Gate
Letting Dynaheir leave the party to be with Minsc opens up room for Safana to rejoin. By utilizing the Tome of Clear Thought, Safana can increase her intelligence to 17 and allow her to dual class into a mage and fill the vacant arcane caster role. I recommend dual classing Safana at level 5 as Thief level 5 grants THAC0, backstab and saving throws, while mage level 6 grants a point in weapon proficiency and saving throws making it the ideal level to dual class.

Regretfully single class thieves in Baldur's Gate are suboptimal as their low THAC0 makes them unreliable damage dealers. With this party set up we instead split the thief role into 2 multi-class thieves. Coran as a Fighter/Thief provides DPS, lockpicking and trap finding while Safana as a Mage/Thief provides arcane spells, stealth and pickpocket. Even Dual classing at Level 5, a thief will be able to reach the max level for a mage in Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (Level 9).

Unfortunately that means that Safana will lose access to her thief skills for several levels so in this video we're going to let her go a little wild and get it all out of her system. I'll showcase a number of thievery quests that can be completed without violence as well as some excellent gear that can be secured via Pickpocket. Finally, we'll secure the Tome of Clear Thought and unleash Safana's magical potential

Quests in Baldur's Gate
- Alatos and the Thieves
- Arkion and Nemphre
- A Bard’s Request
- A Corpse for Arkion
- A Ring for a Lady
- Petrine’s Cat
- Ghorak the Diseased
- Larceny at the Hall of Wonders
- Nadine and Euric
- Narlen's Heist
- The Captive Nymph
- Tremain's Son
- Basilisk on the Loose
- G'axir the seer
- A contract killing
- Laerta and Louise
- Quinn's Friend
- Investigate the Merchant’s League Estates
- Searching for Balduran's Helmet (don't return the helmet)
- The Seven Suns

Part 7: How to Kill Mages
Throughout the playthrough thus far we've been avoiding any quests that involve fighting Mages in close quarters. For example, in order to complete the Marek and Lothander quest we can use Charm to secure the antidote and avoid the fight with Marek entirely and secure the 10,000 xp reward.

Once Jaheira reaches Druid level 5 however, she gets a powerful spell in Summon Insects that can be used to effectively shut down mages. Previously, when leveling up Jaheira to Fighter Level 3 I took a point of weapon proficiency in Daggers and purchased the Dagger of Venom in Beregost for her to use. Dagger of Venom can potentially trigger a poison if the victim fails a saving throw which causes damage over time. The small repeating instances of damage from both the Dagger of Venom and Summon Insects trigger a possible spell failure from any mage under these effects. With these two tactics Jaheira can effectively prevent enemy mages from casting spells, rendering them virtually harmless.

In this video will take out the enemy mages in the quests Zordral's Witchhunt, the Firewine Ruins, as well as the Ogre Mage in the quest Missing Civilians. Ogre Mage in the Baldur's Gate sewers serves as the boss of Chapter 5, allowing us to progress the main story.

Quests
- Marek and Lothander
- Zordral's Witchhunt
- The Firewine Ruins
- Ghost Knights
- Ankheg Culling
- Missing Citizens

Part 8: Return to Candlekeep
Once we've completed all the quests in Baldur's Gate we must turn our attention to investigating the Iron Throne. Once we secure the documents on the top floor of the Iron Throne Headquarters, we'll learn that the leadership of the organization will soon be in our former home of Candlekeep. Returning said documents to Duke Eltan will progress the story to Chapter 6 and teleport the party to Candlekeep. Upon our return to Candlekeep, there are several clues that something is not right. Investigation may reveal that certain NPCs are actually Doppelgangers in disguise!

Making our way into the Library we'll meet Koveras, who claims to be a friend of Gorion, and he informs us that the leaders of the Iron Throne are nearby and encourages us to attack them. While that's certainly an option for the player if they want the loot and experience, I felt that Gorion wouldn't approve and let them live. Also in the Library is a letter addressed to the player character from Gorion informing him of his divine heritage. Continuing to the top floor will trigger an event where the party is arrested upon suspicion of killing the Iron Thone leadership and it becomes clear the party has been framed.

After a cutscene we begin the Candlekeep Catacombs dungeon, which serves as the final dungeon of the base game. In the initial level are some trapped tombs which contain tomes which can increase wisdom and strength. Using Coran and Safana to disable the traps and locks and use the tomes on the Player Character. The stats for the player character would than be 19 Str, 19 Dex, 19 Con, 16 Int, 20 Wis and 3 Cha.

Advancing through the dungeon to encounter more Doppelgangers disguised as your friends from Candlekeep. However Arkansis and Deder are real, and will offer to fight beside us. Upon speaking with the fake Gorion and Elminster we can learn that Sarevok has disguised himself as Koveras and is responsible for your arrest. Continued accusations that Gorion is a doppelganger will eventually cause them to transform and engage in battle.

In the final level of the dungeon is a group of enemies which are very powerful. Using stealth and Algernon's, use a thief or ranger to charm Bor and have him engage with Prat. Prat has extremely powerful spells such as Lightning Bolt but Bor is very tanky and will absorb them all. With good positioning Prat will also hit his companions and himself with his own spells, but this is difficult to execute consistently. Once Prat is down, the party members can advance and focus attacks on the remaining spell caster, Sakul. Sakul can be shut down with Jaheira and her summons insects spell as demonstrated in the previous video. Once both spellcasters have fallen the remaining weakened fighters should be easily defeated.

The final challenge of this dungeon is a pair of Greater Basilisks, but these are easily defeated with a protection from petrification spell cast on the tank before engaging. Upon escaping the dungeon we are awarded with some narration and we enter Chapter 7, the final chapter of Baldur's Gate 1.

Quests:
- Great Book of the Unknowing

Part 9: The hardest fights in base game Baldur's Gate
Before we're ready to defeat Sarevok we have to clear up all the side quests we've been putting off. Two of the most challenging fights in the base game of Baldur's Gate are the Vampiric Wolf in the Ulcaster school and the Spiders Nest in Cloakwood. Both Spiders and the Vampiric Wolf are immune to Web, our primary source of crowd control, so we need to adopt some new tactics.

The Vampiric Wolf is immune to normal weapons as well as most forms of crowd control, while also having the ability to regenerate health with its attacks. To counter it's HP regen, we need to increase our DPS as high as possible. After clearing Candlekeep Safana reached Mage level 5 and has access to level 3 arcane spells. Using Haste is very helpful here as it gives each party member an additional attack per round. Additional buffs such as Bless, Enrage and Draw Upon Holy Might further increase our damage. For Safana, most of her spells won't work against the Vampiric Wolf due to it's immunities but Blindness does provide some much need debuffing. For our archers, we can either use magic ammunition or have them use a magic melee weapon, archers using normal ammunition will have no effect. With all party members doing hasted attacks with the correct weapons the wolf will be damaged faster than it can heal and it will fall.

Returning to the Cloakwood we can take out the Spider's Nest and complete the quest here. Spiders are of course immune to Web so our traditional tactics from previous fights won't work. Instead have Safana use Horror in her level 2 spell slots and Slow in her Level 3 spell slot. Horror is a great way to provide Area of Effect Crowd Control while also not affecting your own team members, so we'll need that against the Spiders. Slow is like the opposite of Haste, it reduces the attacks per round of all enemies while also lowering their AC and THAC0 similar to the Blindness spell. Centoels main threats are her two Sword Spiders, so the best thing to do is isolate and neutralize them first. After the initial dialogue with Centoel you can retreat and the Sword Spider will follow. After defeating the first Sword Spider we can return to the nest to aggro the second Sword Spider. You won't be able to aggro just the Sword Spider so use Safana's spells to help neutralize some of the spiders to make the fight more manageable. Once the Sword Spiders are defeated make sure to rest up to refresh your spells before bringing the whole party into the nest to take on the remaining enemies. Again, use Horror and Slow to debuff the enemy and use Jaheria to ensure our tank is healthy and free of poison. This is a hard fight but with careful planning the minions will be defeated. Centoel herself is not much of a threat and falls easily once minions are defeated.

Quests;
- Tome of Magic
- Spiders in the Cloakwood

Part 10: Tales of the Sword Coast Content
Head to Ulgoth's Beard and do the retrieve Shandalar's Cloak quest, this should be easy enough with the tactics utilized when fighting other mages, once completed we make our way to Balduran's Island. On this Island we face the incredible difficult enemy - the Wolfwere. Wolfweres have high saves, magic resistance and immunity to normal ammunition and steel weapons. Only a select few Cold Iron weapons in the game can damage them, so be sure you have the Kondar Bastard sword from Aldeth which you get for Investigating the Merchants' League Estate in Chapter 5. You'll also need to stock up on Arrows +1 so your archers can contribute damage so grab a bunch before you set sail.

The first encounter with Wolfweres will be when Palin tries to trick you into an ambush. Simply ignore his cry for help so you can aggro the wolfweres individually. Make sure the Tank is using Kondar and the Archers have magic arrows equipped before engaging. Wolfweres are not immune to web but their high saving throws make it difficult to disable them. This can be remedied by using Jaheria to cast Doom and lower their saving throws and disable them. Using Bless and Web can help make sure your expensive arrows hit their targets. Take out the two western most Wolfweres one at a time before turning your attention to Palin.

Further north you'll find a cabin with a mage inside. Dialouge with Dradeel will give you a quest as well as a necklace which increases THAC0 and damage against the wolfweres. Equip the necklace on your tank before proceeding.

Once you get to the ship, have Safana go invisible than use Algernon's cloak to charm the single Wolfwere on the lowest level. Only the 2 Vampiric wolves can damage the wolfwere so it's a great way to tank and hold aggro for all the lower-level monsters. Make sure to cast Slow, as the two vampiric wolves can easily overwhelm your new charmed ally if you don't disable them with Slow and/or Blind. Once the Wolfwere has most of the enemy's attention you can buff and bring in the rest of your party. Focus on any monsters who are not attacking the Wolfwere before turning your attention to the Vampiric Wolves. Once the Vampiric Wolves are down the remaining monsters are no challenge.

Progressing up through the remaining levels with traditional combat won't work as there's no way to effectively deal with large groups of Wolfweres at once on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty. Instead, we will use Invisibility and the Wand of Monster Summoning to reposition the monsters and allow us to progress. Our final goal of this dungeon is to defeat the Greater Wolfwere at the top level, but the Greater Wolfwere has all the immunities to weapons the wolfwere does plus it's immune to magical arrows. We'll need additional Cold Iron Weapons before taking on such a difficult enemy. Repositing the enemy allows Coran to progress up the dungeon in stealth and secure the Warebane dagger on level 2 and the Sword of Balduran on level 4.

Have Safana use invisibility on herself, Jaheria and the Tank before resting and replenishing her spells. Make sure she has lots of magic missiles prepared as well as Invisibility Spells and the Haste Spell. Once invisible and rested, bring up the 3 invisible characters to the top level and hide in the captains’ quarters. Then have Coran and Kivan use stealth to join them. Equip your Tank, Coran and Kivan with Cold Iron weapons before carefully aggroing the Greater Wolfwere.

The Woflwere has high magic resistance and health regeneration, so we need to be careful and do as much damage as possible in a short period of time. Use the Wand of Paralyzation and Doom to disable the Wolfwere and use Haste and Bless to increase the parties DPS. Magic Missile allows Safana to contribute damage, don't use other wands as the magic resistance lowers their damage and magic missile is more consistent. Focus all your damage and you'll take it out. Then use Safana's remaining invisibility spells to escape.

Quests:
- A curious Business Proposal
- Balduran's Final Voyage
- Dradeel's Spell book
- Evalt's Missing Brother
- Farthing's Dolly
- Flowers for Delainy/Durlyle's Task (depending on gender)
- Jondal's Murder
- Karoug and the Wolfweres
- Maralee's Child
- Palin adn the Monsters
- Tretrieve Shandalar's Cloak
- Returning Dradeel's Spellbook
- The Mysterious Island
- The Sea Charts
- Therella's Missing Son

Part 11: Endgame tactics and the hardest fights in the game
In this final section we'll explore some endgame tactics as well as the hardest fights in the game. After clearing Baldur's Island we'll head to Durlag's tower. There's plenty of puzzles and challenging encounters in the tower but the tactics used previously will be enough to see you through to the bottom and the fight with the Demon Knight.

As you progress through the tower, you should get plenty of opportunity to get experience and bring Safana up to Mage level 7, so she can unlock the incredibly powerful spell Greater Malison. Greater Malison is an AoE spell which lowers the saving throws of enemies, making them more vulnerable to other crowd control and disabling spells. Before engaging the Demon Knight, Safana can cast Greater Malison to make it more vulnerable to a charge from the Wand of Paralysation. The Demon Knight has high magic resistance so you may need to reload a few times before successfully paralyzing it. Once paralyzed, the party can rush in and take it out before it has the chance to cast any spells.

Continuing with the Tales of the Sword Coast content, we have the battle with the Tanar’ri. When you first face the cultists, you can quickly retreat upstairs, and Tracea Carol will follow you, allowing you to defeat her easily. The Tanar’ri can reincarnate itself using the Cult Guards, so we need to defeat them first. Have a stealthy character equipped with Algernon’s Cloak, go down and charm one of the Cult Guards and use it to defeat the other cult guards. Once only the charmed guard remains, have your stealth characters defeat him, this is easy enough as the Cult Guards won’t fight back. Once all the Cult Guards are defeated and the Tanar’ri is alone, Safana can use the same tactic as the Demon Knight and use Greater Malison to lower its resistance. Paralysation won’t work like before due to it’s Immunity so instead we will use the Wand of Polymorphing instead. The Tanar’ri also has magic resistance so it may take a few attempts, but once successful a Wand of Polymorphing will reduce the Tanar’ri to 1 HP, allowing you to kill it with a single attack.
With all the sidequests and bonus content completed, we finally draw our attention to Sarevok. In the first encounter with Sarevok, we must defeat all the Greater Doppelgangers and protect the Grand Dukes. Prepare for the fight with your most powerful buff spells such as Bless, Haste, Draw Upon Holy Might, and Defensive Harmony before having your Tank advance and trigger the encounter. Once the Doppelgangers transform, use Safana to cast Greater Malison once again to lower their resistance before using Slow and Horror to disable the enemies and protect the two Dukes. Once all the enemies are defeated, Sarevok will retreat to the Undercity. You catch up to Sarevok in the Temple of Bhaal and from there we have the true final battle. This fight is relatively easy as a simple Web spell is enough to disable Sarevok as well as his companions. However, be sure to avoid the many traps on the temple floor. Bait Sarevok with your tank into Safana’s Web spell, and once disabled, have your whole party focus all their fire on him. Once Sarevok falls the encounter ends and we are treated to the final cutscene.

Quests:
- A Tour of Durlag's Tower
- Therella's Missing Son
- Recovering "Soultaker"
- Searching for Balduran's Helmet (get helmet back after finishing quest)
- Noralee's Gauntlets
- Steal Algernon's Cloak

17 Comments
ripfleset 12 Mar @ 1:21pm 
Great cheese guide.

How about getting Sword Coast Stratagems and play against the actual game mechanics, using buffs and pots, instead of abusing every blindspot in the AI.
Albeoris 10 Jan @ 3:57pm 
The build is fully functional when soloing, but you will have to kill Algernon to get his cloak.

A significant part of the gameplay will be based on using the cloak and luring out enemies one by one.

DO NOT Sail to Werewolf Island without knowing how you will kill the Great Werewolf. Slow spell, paralysis wand, polymorph wand, something else. In any case, think through the tactics. This devil has an incredible regeneration, which is impossible to kill solo on the LoB difficulty level without preparation. In any case, save BEFORE sailing to the island so as not to accidentally ruin your game.

Belt of Antipode will allow you to get several levels on the Ice Island. Mages can be fed to a controlled bear or Ankhegs.

BG1 has Flail+2 and Morningstar+1 (cursed doesn't count), while there are many more nice weapons, from +3 enchants to interesting effects like 10% chance to stun an enemy. Only in Siege of Dragonspear you will find a better Flail/Morningstar, like the Hydra.
Albeoris 10 Jan @ 3:57pm 
The XP cap without mods is 161k, so you will end the game as a level 8 Berserker without dual-classing.

If you remove the XP cap, you will end the game as a Mage 10/Berserker 9.

If you play Siege of Dragonspear without the level cap, you will get access to level 6 spells soon after the start, but BG1 does not have scrolls for such spells, and you cannot dual-class a sorcerer. At the same time, if you choose a cleric as a dual class, you will get access to all 6th level spells automatically. In BG2, they also are not lying around everywhere. Therefore, starting with Siege of Dragonspear, playing solo as a Berserker/Mage makes no sense, you simply will not be able to get new spells, and you will not have useful buffs from a bard/cleric.
Albeoris 10 Jan @ 3:56pm 
As for the final battle with Sarevok - protection from magic and invisibility will allow you to activate traps with webs and gas with impunity, which will lead to Sarevok not coming out of a paralyzed state. Therefore, you can climb right up to his throne and finish him off there. Waves of fire will break through your defense and reduce your health, but here the cursed cup from the Tower of Dulrag will come to the rescue. Fury will protect you from negative consequences, and one sip is enough to restore all health and reduce the number of contenders for daddy's throne.
PhilosophusRex  [author] 2 May, 2024 @ 5:44pm 
@Doodlelarry, it's likely because your reputation or charisma is low, try putting a higher Charisma character in the party leader position, the top spot on the right side of the screen. If that doesn't work you can come back after increasing your reputation.
Doodlelarry 1 May, 2024 @ 11:28am 
I can't get the Arcand the mad quest at all
Scripidi Torlet 28 Mar, 2024 @ 12:37am 
Thanks you guys, I will try it that way!
Dr von Supervillain 27 Mar, 2024 @ 10:09pm 
@Scriptor of Torave Minoris
I can confirm it is helpful. You may need to save scum, as the bugs are not always going to ignore the fast running wolf, but I threw Relair's Mistake onto the berserker CHARNAME and pulled everything out.
PhilosophusRex  [author] 27 Mar, 2024 @ 4:04pm 
@Scriptor of Torva Minoris
Ah sorry about that, you need it to get Farmer Brun's body from the Ankheg pit. You use Safana or your thief to stealth in, but the body is too heavy for a thief to carry out, so you use Relair's Mistake to transform and run away.
Scripidi Torlet 27 Mar, 2024 @ 10:54am 
I dont really understand how Relair's Mistake helps with completing Farmer Brun's quest. Isnt this supposed to be a quest without combat? And even with combat these enemies kill me almost instantly, because I dont have Dynaheir yet. Can you clarify?