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Today we are traveling back in time to the year two thousand reading the manual to the game Baldur's gate two: Shadows of Amn. The Game is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Interplay Entertainment. It is the sequel to Baldur's Gate, 1998, and was released for Microsoft Windows in September 2000. Like Baldur's Gate, the game takes place in the Forgotten Realms—a fantasy campaign setting—and is based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules

Dedication to Daniel Walker

Dan Walker was the second employee of BioWare, having started work at the company In late B95. He passed away June 6, 1995 of natural causes related to a physical disability he had since birth.

We have dedicated Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn to Dan. It’s quite hard to find the words to describe how we all felt about him, but It has fallen upon me to try, so I’ll do my best.

Dan was a spiritual giant, who battled a severe physical Impediment since birth with patience and stoicism. I can’t recall him ever complaining about anything, though he certainly had more reason to do so than most.

Many times I felt humbled by his patience and his Zen way of looking at things. He was, and Is, an Inspiration to me and many others at BloWare. Dan was an artist In the purest meaning of the word. He enjoyed, more than anything, that people could see and take pleasure In the art he created.

And the art he created was very, very good.

He lived his life like It was a work of art. In retrospect. It Is clear that he was one of the seminal Influences around which BioWare has grown and blossomed. We miss him horribly.

Dr. Ray Muzyka

joint CEO , Bioware Corp.

Baldur's Gate II

INTRODUCTION

We started work on the original Baldur's Gate back in January 1996. Back then we didn't know a heck of a lot about how to develop a roleplaying game - we had to largely rely on our memories of what made playing the great games of the past fun - games like Wizardry the Ultima series, Ultima Underworld, System Shock, the Gold Box series, Bard's Tale, Betrayal at Krondor, and Wasteland, to name a few of our favorites.

We released Baldur's Gate to great commercial success and critical acclaim in December 1998. Baldur's Gate was truly a game that we poured our hearts and souls into; the development team of designers, QA Testers, artists and programmers at BioWare, and the QA testers, marketing, audio, sales and PR staff at our publisher. Black Isle Studios really put everything they had into making Baldur's Gate as good as it possibly could be. We were very proud of the result and as the producer of Baldur's Gate at BioWare I personally am thrilled and honored to know that more than a million fans have played and enjoyed the original BG.

But Baldur's Gate was the first roleplaying game that BioWare had ever developed, and frankly we learned a lot in the process. We have applied those lessons assiduously in developing the game that is now in your hands - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Throughout the development of Baldur's Gate II our focus has been on ensuring that Baldur's Gate II is significantly better than Baldur's Gate in every way possible, and to make it appeal not only to fans of the original game but also to make it accessible to new fans who never played the original game. I am even more proud of what the Baldur's Gate II team has accomplished this time around. We felt we owed it to you - our fans - to make BG II not only a good game, but a significant improvement on the original game.

We have been careful to not break what was not broken, but we have worked on many areas in the game. Some highlights include:

we improved the story in Baldur's Gate II to make it much more immersive: characters interact with their worlds and other characters to make the roleplaying aspects very compelling, and very satisfying, combat is more exciting than ever with the real-time strategy interface improved from the original game and the incorporation of dozens of new character classes, over a hundred new spells, to a total of more than 300 in Shadows of Amn, an experience point cap of 2.95 million XP, resulting in maximum A D&D character levels of 17-23 level, new weapon proficiencies such as dual-wielding, and hundreds of new powerful monsters and villains.

• turn-based fans can play the game in turn-based mode with new auto pause settings

• the scripting and design in Shadows of Amn represents the very best of what we learned in developing Baldur's Gate and its expansion pack, Tales of the Sword Coast.

• the art in Baldur's Gate II is uniformly beautiful and represents everything we learned during the development of Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast.

• the graphic user interface has been improved in many ways such as adding in 800x600 resolution, 3D support for spells and background effects, drop away side and bottom panels, a new color scheme, improved journal functionality, and map notes.

• the multiplayer experience is very solid in Baldur's Gate II, with non-pausing dialog in stores and non-critical dialog.

• you can start a brand new character or import your characters from Baldur's Gate or Tales of the Sword Coast; the tutorial included with the game shows new players how to get started.

We at BioWare and our publisher. Black Isle Studios, very much appreciate your support in purchasing Shadows of Amn, and hope that Baldur's Gate II brings you many, many hours of solid entertainment. I've been a huge fan of roleplaying games since the first time I booted my Apple II way back in 1980, so it gives me great pleasure to say that I truly believe that Baldur's Gate II is a great roleplaying game - one of the best that I personally have ever played.

Thank you very much for your support.

Dr. Ray Muzyka

joint CEO , BioWare Corp.

Co-Executive Producer, Baldur's Gate

Shadows of Amn

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN THE GAME MANUALS

In the first manual, The Game Guide, we delve into actually playing the game of Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn- creating a character, manipulating your characters in the game world, interpreting what you see, and playing with other players in multiplayer mode. The second manual, Volo’s Guide to Shadows of Amn, helps set the stage for the game story and goes into detail on the rules that define what happens in the game world. M any of these things are not absolutely essential to know in order to play but knowing them may help you to get more enjoyment out of the game. Unless specifically stated, everything that you read in either manual is applicable to both single player and multiplayer games. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn multiplayer allows you to adventure with up to five friends through the same storyline as in single player mode, with a group leader and the computer acting as the Dungeon Master.

MANUAL ITHE GAME GUIDE

HOWTO INSTALL AND START PLAYING

To install Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, first insert the CD-ROM labeled Baldur’s Gate II Disc into your CD-RO M drive and follow the onscreen instructions. If your Autorun is not enabled, click on the icon representing your CD-RO M Drive under 'M y Computer’. This will bring up a listing of the files on Baldur’s Gate II Disc 1 Find Baldur.exe and double click to launch the install application. After installing the game, other options will be available on the launching menu:

View Readme: The readme file contains last minute information and changes that could not be printed in this manual. Please take the time to view the readme file if you are having any problems with this product.

Register: Please take the time to register Baldur’s Gate II with Black Isle Studios. Your feedback is appreciated and will put you on the mailing list for special offers and game promotions.

Exit: Will close the launch window.

View Demos: Demos of other Black Isle Studios products have been included with Baldur’s Gate II. Please see the Readme file for descriptions and instructions on how to run them.

Configure: The hotkeys used while playing Baldur’s Gate II can be modified using this utility. Select the hotkey you would like to change and enter the new hotkey assignment. You can also change the resolution and configure your 3D card here as well.

Play: After you have everything set, click on the Play button to begin playing. After viewing the logo and introduction movies, select "Single Player" and "New Game" to go directly into Character Creation and begin your adventure in Amn! To start playing again later, select the Baldur’s Gate II application from the Black Isle audios program group in your start menu.

Uninstall: When you’re ready, the Uninstall option will remove the game files except your saved games.

How to get Help:

Interplay Entertainment Corp. Technical Support now offers troubleshooting guides with complete installation and setup instructions as well as information that will help you overcome the most common difficulties. If you have access to the World Wide Web, you can find these at our website, forward slash support. Here you will find troubleshooting information as well as information on regular system maintenance and performance.

For game specific information and additional troubleshooting, visit our website. If you have questions about the program, our Technical Support Department can help. Our web site contains up-to-date information on the most common difficulties with our products, and this information is the same as that used by our product support technicians. We keep the product support pages updated on a regular basis. If you are unable to find the information you need on our web site, please feel free to contact Technical Support via e-mail, phone, fax, or letter. Please be sure to include the following information in your e-mail message, fax, or letter:

Title of Game

Computer manufacturer

Operating system, Windows 95, DOS 6 point 22, excreta.

CPU type and speed in MHz

Amount of RAM

Sound card type and settings (address, IRQ, DMA)

Video card

CD-ROM

Mouse driver and version

Joystick and game card (if any)

A copy of the config dot sys and AUTO exec. Bat files from your hard drive

A description of the problem you're having

If you need to talk to someone immediately, call us Monday through Thursday between 8:00 AM - 5:45 PM and Friday between 8:00 AM - 4:45 PM, Pacific Standard Time with 24 hours, 7 days a week support available through the use of our automated wizard. Please have the above information ready when you call. This will help us answer your question in the shortest possible time. When you call you will initially be connected with our automated wizard. For information pertaining to your specific title, press 'Ton the main menu and listen carefully to all prompts. All titles are listed alphabetically. After you have selected your title, the most common difficulties will be listed. If the difficulty you are having is not listed or you need additional assistance, you may press Zero on your game’s main menu, and you will be transferred to a Technical Support Representative. No hints or codes are available from this line. You must call Interplay's HINT Line for hints, tips, or codes.

Configuration of the game.

To enable 3D support and to change your resolution or hot key assignments, you will need to run the Configuration Program.

1 You can do this by clicking on the Configure button on the Autorun or by running the BGConfig.exe from the Start Menu or from the root install directory. Running this program brings up a menu with three tabs: Basic, Advanced and Hot Keys.

2. The Basic tab should be used by those that want the game to automatically configure itself for optimal use on varying models of computers. For those that have more in-depth knowledge, of their systems, please feel free to adjust the options under the Advanced tab to manually configure your computer.

3. Under Advanced you will also find 3D Options and you can manually adjust your game resolution here as well. under the Hot Keys tab, you can customize your keyboard layout.

N OTE: A useful set of keyboard mappings are the options to hide the user interface panels. You can hide the panels using the default H, Y or U keys.

3D SUPPORT

Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn has support for 3D accelerator cards. Enabling 3D acceleration will allow for speed improvements on certain visual effects within the game. Further, you may notice visual improvements in some areas with 3D acceleration enabled.

To enable 3D acceleration, run the Config program and click on the 3D Advanced Tab. Check the 3D options section and check the Use 3D Acceleration button. This will lead you through the initial setup.

Some 3D cards may not work or may not give improved performance. Through the configuration program you will be able to update your drivers. Attempt this first. On some cards you may have to run in 2D.

Character Generation:

When you are in the character creation section, follow the steps below; at any point in the process, you may press "Cancel" and will be prompted if you wish to return to the main game screen. To go back during character creation, press the "back" button at the bottom of the screen.

Importing characters and saved Games n Baldur’s Gate two you are able to import characters and saved games from Baldur’s Gate or from the expansion pack, Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast. Even if you have uninstalled Baldur’s Gate two. you will still be able to access your old save games and characters, unless you have manually deleted these files. There will also be pre-made characters that you can use if you do not want to go through character generation. These represent a broad selection of popular character types that the newcomer to the genre will enjoy playing.

The tutorial

There is a separate tutorial in Baldur’s Gate II. This can be accessed from the single player panel. The tutorial should be played by those who are new to Baldur’s Gate, or by those who need a refresher course.

GENDER

The gender of your character is decided first. You can select either male or female, and once selected press the "Done" button (as on every page).

Appearance.

Select a portrait for your character. To import a custom portrait, you must follow the instructions below:

The measurements for player portraits are 38 by 60 pixels for the small ones, 8-bit color only, and 70 pixels for the large ones. Create a directory called Portraits, including the capital "P", in the root directory where you installed the game . You will have to add an S to the end of the small portrait name and an L to the end of the large portrait. The names must be 17 letters long, maximum.

For multiplayer, each player must have a copy of the portraits, otherwise they will see a silhouette with a question mark where the other player’s custom portraits would be.

Race:

Select the race of your character. There are seven available character races. Choose between human, dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-ore or half-elf. Descriptions of each race are given in the area beneath the selection boxes.

Class:

The classes and class combinations that are available to the race you have chosen will be highlighted. Choose the class that you want from the list. Descriptions of each class are noted in the area near selection boxes.

Multiclassed characters are available to non-humans only and share the traits and restrictions of both classes. Human characters can choose to become dual class later in the game.

Dual-class characters start their adventuring life as one class and then later switch to a different class. When the character chooses to switch class, the abilities of the former class are unavailable until the character surpasses the level of their former class with the level of their new class. At that time, the abilities of both classes are available at their current level. The character can never advance further in the former class. Only humans can be dual-classed characters.

Kits:

Each class now has a subset of 'Kits’ that may be chosen. When you pick a class, you will be given a subset of kits to choose from. If you don’t wish to use a kit, then simply choose the default kit, named after the class. Kits give special advantages and disadvantages to the class that they are a subset of. For example: If you choose a ’Kensai’ kit, a fighter kit, your character deals out more damage with his weapon than any other class in the game. However, your character is unable to use armor or missile weapons. More about kits can be learned in Manual two,Volo’s Guide to Shadows of Amn, under ’character attributes.’

NOTE: Multi-classed and dual classed characters do NOT get to choose a kit.

ABILITY SCORES

You’ll see a screen with the abilities the computer has randomly determined for your character, calculated as if you rolled three 6-sided dice for each ability, adjusted for character race. Any class minimums will be automatically selected for the character for abilities that were too low, in other words. if the character needs a 17 charisma to be a paladin, and the computer rolled a 12, then the character will receive 17. You can subtract points from an ability to add to another; however, you cannot take points away from an ability if it will lower the ability below racial or class minimums. Each ability will have a caption describing it.

Reroll your abilities as many times as you like until you reach a combination you are happy with. You can save a roll and later recall it with the "save" and "recall" buttons

Alignments:

The player has a choice of alignments according to his class and race. Each alignment will have a caption describing it in detail. Your alignment determines how your character interacts with his environment. Read over each carefully before choosing. If you stray severely from your alignment during the game, there will be consequences - you may even suffer loss of some of your abilities!

PROFICIENCIES

AII characters receive weapon proficiencies. There will be a list of proficiencies available to the character and each proficiency will have a caption describing It. A character can often wield a weapon which they lack a proficiency for, but they will Incur a -1 penalty on all rolls with that weapon. Fighters, paladins, and rangers can become even more skilled with weapons by adding a second slot to any proficiency. This will give them an added bonus to their attack rolls and to the damage they Inflict. Only fighters and fighter kits can have more than 2 slots In a weapon proficiency.

Thief abilities:

If your character Is a thief, or a multi-classed character with thief abilities, you will allocate ability points to thief abilities. The thief has points to allocate at the beginning of the game, and he/ she also receives 20 points every level thereafter. Available skills are 0 pen Locks, Find Traps, Pick Pockets, Move Silently, Hide In Shadows, Detect Illusion, Set Traps. Each ability has a caption describing It. Note, Rangers also receive stealth at higher levels and must allocate points here as well.

Spells:

If your character Is a mage or sorcerer you will see a screen where you can choose your spells. These are spells the character will start the game with. Each spell has a caption describing It. There Is also a "pick for me" button you can use which will select spells for you. The spells you get by pushing this button are a good, varied selection that should get you through most situations.

Racial enemy:

Rangers will choose a racial enemy. The ranger will receive bonuses when fighting creatures of this type. Choose between carrion crawler, ettercap, ghoul, gibberling, gnoll, hobgoblin, kobold, ogre, skeleton, spider, slime, faerie, demonic/ fell, lycanthrope, beholder, mind flayer, vampire, otyugh, rakshasha, troll, umber hulk, sahuagi, koa-toa, imp, mephit, golem, elemental, dragon, genre, and lich.

Appearance:

You will be shown a model of your character. You can modify the colors of your hair, skin, major clothing color, and minor clothing color. You will also be able to modify your major and minor clothing colors in your inventory page after the adventure has begun. Click on the box showing the current color to bring up a selection box with other color choices for each category.

Name:

Last of all, you need to name your character. Click on the text box or start typing your name. When done, hit "Enter" or click on "Done".

Finishing your character:

Once you have completed all of the above steps, click "Accept" in the click on the "back" button at the bottom left to erase most recently entered data field.

Interface overview, how to play:

Baldur’s Gate II is a fun game and there are many facets to its interface. These are designed to make playing the game easier once you have mastered the basic controls. This section describes the different parts of the interface, including all windows and buttons, and discusses how each is controlled and its purpose. Most of the features are self-evident when you play, so you can either read this section after you have explored a bit in the game, or before you start.

Mouse Buttons and controls:

Left Click: Action

• Selects a character or selects a portrait, if a character or group was selected before, this character or group is unselected and the new character is selected instead.

• If the shift key is held down while Left Clicking on various characters on the field or on the portraits, multiple characters are selected.

• If the Control L key is held down while clicking on unselected characters, the characters will be added to the current character selection.

• Double click on a portrait centers the view on that character.

• Presses interface buttons, selects action for the character:

guard, talk, attack, click on weapon, etcetera.

• Casts spells and uses items once they have been selected.

• On terrain, walks selected character(s) to targeted location

note: use Right click to move and rotate in formation mode.

• Left Click and drag on terrain or portraits, selects multiple characters and creates draggable selection box.

• Picks up items with current selected character(s). If more than one character is selected, the top-most portrait, the leader, walks over to and picks up the item.

• Left Click and drag on a portrait moves that portrait in the group order - inserts into space between characters you move portrait to.

•On the clock: pauses and unpauses the game.

Right click: Information, Cancel Actions, and Formation

Movement control

• On a portrait: Brings up that character’s Inventory Screen.

• On an item or spell on main game area: Brings up the appropriate Item or Spell properties screen.

• Cancels current actions - cancels attacks or spell casting, also: escape key.

• On a monster or non-player character (NPC) or after clicking on a selected character: Plays selection sound for that character or monster. Often humorous

• On terrain - selected character walks there in formation mode (Right click and hold, and drag, rotates the formation if more than one character is selected).

•On Quick Weapons, Quick Spells, Quick Items, and Group Formations slots: Allows for the configuration of the slot type.

After Right clicking, the current options for that quick slot will appear. You can then select one for the slot by Left Clicking on it.

Mouse movement: Moves Viewport

The main game area will scroll up, down, left or right if you move the mouse to the edge of the screen, either in windowed or full screen mode. This also occurs if you use the number pad arrow keys.

Bottom Menu Buttons

9 group buttons shown here- will display 12 character buttons If a single character is selected

Hiding the main interface:

You are able to configure the main interface to match your play style, minimizing sections of the interface that you do not use often (or to which you have mastered the 'hot keys’). At the top right and left corners of the main screen, you will find buttons that minimize the panel to which they correspond. When the panel is minimized, a button appears at the bottom corner of the screen; this button will bring the panel back up. The default hot keys for minimizing, and resetting, the panels are 'y' for the left panel and 'u’ for the right panel.

You can also use the 'h’ key to hide all of the panels. When this is done, you can bring it back by either pausing the game or hitting 'h' again. When the 'h' key is used, you can play Baldur’s Gate II in full screen mode.

Pausing the game:

You can pause the game at any time by either hitting the space bar or pressing the clock on the bottom left of the screen. This is a very important part of game play, as combat will often become unmanageable in real time. When this happens, you can simply pause the game, assign orders to your characters, then un-pause and let the action unfold.

Auto Pausing:

You can set the game to pause automatically during game play. To access the auto-pause options, go to the options page, then the game play page and choose the auto-pause option. By adding auto-pausing you can make the game take on a more turn-based feel.

The Main Game Area:

• Left Click selects characters: also, a Left Click and Shift or Left Click and Control combination will select or select/ deselect multiple characters: also, a click and drag on the main game area causes a box to be drawn and any character inside will be selected (this may be used with the Shift key to add to the selected characters, or Control, to remove characters).

• Left Click does actions (see buttons above) by the selected character(s).

• Right click cancels an action and also does formation rotation and movement when a group is selected.

• Note that the cursor changes when moved over objects or characters or N P C’s to indicate the default action. The default action mode can be changed by Left Clicking on the buttons at the bottom of the screen.

The action cursors include the following:

Select: Indicates that you can select the character

Move: Indicates that the action mode is movement

Blocked Location: Indicates that no movement is possible

Travel: Indicates that if you move here you will leave the current map

Doors: Indicates that you will open/ close the highlighted door

Enter: Indicates walking through an entry or hallway, if a door is not highlighted

Stairs: Allows you to go up/ down staircases

Pick up Item: Allows you to pick up an item

Attack: Indicates that the individual or group action mode is attack

Locked: Indicates a chest or door that is locked and which you can attempt to unlock, either by hitting it or picking the lock with a thief, depending on who is currently selected

Remove Trap: Indicates you can attempt to remove a trap with your thief

Pickpocket: Indicates you can attempt to steal from the selected character or creature

Spell: Indicates that you are going to cast a spell

Manipulate: Allows you to operate switches, levers, buttons, etc. to change the state of an object nearby.

Note on cursors: If a given cursor is selected it may be changed by clicking on a different action button, by hitting "ESC" or by Left Clicking an area where the cursor has no effect, example: a non-object or the interface border. Casting spells is canceled by a Right click or escape key or finished by a Left Click on a creature or area, depending on the type of spell.

The fog-of-war: Characters see a certain distance away from them, using a direct line of sight. This means that they cannot see around a building until they move to the corner and that they cannot see through walls. Depending on the type of terrain that they are crossing, they will be able to see a certain distance - farther in open outdoors terrain, about 1 2 of the main game screen, a little less in mountainous terrain, about three thirds of the main game screen, and still less in dungeons, about One fourth of the main game screen).

Bottom Menu Buttons

Different sets of bottom buttons are displayed depending on if you select a single character, or a group of characters.

There are 12 Character Bottom Buttons: These change depending on which single character is selected. Use the F1F2 hotkeys to quickly select any of the following options:

Dialogue: This selects the Dialogue cursor which will initiate Dialogue if Left Clicked on any creature.

Quick Weapon: These slots correspond to the quick weapon slots on the inventory page. Load a weapon into these slots, Right click to choose that weapon, and it will appear in the Relevant slots here. Right click on any ranged quick weapon to select ammo type.

Character Specific Buttons, function three through function seven hotkeys

Find Traps: This is a mode that thieves can choose. If an action other than movement is selected for that character, this mode ends.

Thieving: This includes pick pockets and open locks, depending on the target chosen.

Quick Weapon: You can configure your quick weapon slots on your character’s inventory page.

Stealth: This is a blend of move silently and hide in shadows. Thieves can choose this mode and, if successful, they become nigh-invisible. Provided he/ she is behind the target, the next attack of the thief, if successful, is a backstab, and this will cause either double, triple, or quadruple damage depending on the level of the thief Moving into the light or launching an attack can cause the hide to fail.

Turn Undead: This is a mode that clerics can choose. the cleric persists in turning undead until an action other than movement is selected. Clerics in this mode will attempt to turn undead creatures, if successful the undead run away for a time or may be destroyed if the cleric is powerful enough. Evil clerics using this ability may actually be able to gain control over some undead creatures.

Cast Spells: This is possible by clerics and wizards. It pulls up the memorized spell list of the cleric or wizard and the cleric or wizard can cast a spell from this list.

Quick Spells: These are configured by Right clicking on the Quick Spell slot - this brings up a list of all currently memorized spells. Once configured, the spell is ready for use at the push of the appropriate button or by Left Clicking on that slot.

Bard Song: This is possible by Bards, the bard character will begin playing a song, which continues until any action other than movement is selected for that bard. While the song is playing, the party morale and luck is higher. The better the bard, higher level, the larger the morale and luck improvement for the party. Luck decreases attack rolls and damage caused by enemies.

Item buttons:

Use Item: If Left Clicked, allows you to use any item you hold in your personal inventory quick item slots or items with usable properties that you are wearing.

Quick Item: You may ready any item in the personal inventory for quick use by Right clicking on any of these three slots and selecting from all items held personally to configure that slot (much as per U se Item). This is the same as the usage of quick spells. If an item is used up or dropped or traded it must be removed from the quick item slot(s). If using an item causes a spell to be cast which must be used on a character or monster or terrain, the cursor will change accordingly, and you must Left Click on the target to use the item. Right clicking will cancel use. Weapons with magical powers can have their magic powers configured in the quick items slots, but not the quick weapons slots (only weapons with physical attacks go into the quick weapon slots).

Special Abilities button (FE)

For any characters with special abilities. For instance, special abilities for certain character classes or any special abilities that are gained by your characters during the course of the game, if you click on this button it brings up a page of special abilities for that character. Some of the more common include:

Holy Hands: This is possible by Paladins. They summon magical healing energies upon a target of their choice, and heal 2 hit points per level once per day.

Shape change: This is possible by high-level druids, level 7 or higher. Your characters may develop additional special abilities over the course of the game.

There are 9 Group Bottom Buttons: These come up when you have more than one character selected: Guard, Protect, Dialogue, and Attack are the same as the buttons for a single selected character.

Quick Formation buttons: Formations form in the same order as top down on the character portraits bar, top character is #lin formation, and down the list. If less than six characters are selected, they will form up to the number of characters selected, filling in the first, second, third, etc. formation slots until done. Formation movement is accomplished by Right clicking and holding (for rotation of the formation), or Left Clicking, both only when a group is selected. Quick formations work the same as quick spells, quick weapons or quick items. They allow for real-time tactical combat; pull your mage into the middle of your party, or advance your fighters to the front quickly by using the formations. The quick formation slots are configured via a Right click which brings up all available formations: Left Click selects one as the formation for that quick formation slot. Left Click subsequently on that button selects the current party formation. Movement into formations is then achieved by Left Clicking the terrain in the game, or by Right clicking and holding, to rotate the formation.

Right Menu Buttons:

Select all: Selects or unselects all six characters

A I on/ off: This turns the A I on/ off for a given character or number of characters. This will mean that characters with A I turned off will not react to anything in the environment unless manually controlled. They will not move or otherwise do anything unless dictated by their unmodifiable section of script, the portion that players are unable to change, representing the personality of that character.

Character portraits: The character portraits select that character if Left Clicked upon; if Right clicked upon they bring up the inventory page for that character. You can reorganize your party order by changing how the character portraits are organized. To do this, you simply left click and hold on one of the party portraits. You may now drag the portrait to the desired position.

Note on Character Portraits: Damage to the character is represented on the character portrait as a red bar, in other words, the portion of the portrait that is the normal color is the portion of hit points still remaining to the character. If you move your cursor over the portrait of a character, the hit point total and the name of that character will appear. Character portraits will also display status icons, if your character is Charmed, Held, etcetera, as well as the level-up icon if one of your characters can level-up.

Left Menu Buttons:

The buttons down the left side of the interface give you direct access to the various interface screens in the game.

Each of these buttons will take you directly to the interface screen for the character selected. If the entire party is selected, the appropriate screen for the party leader will come up.

Rest: From many of the interface screens, a Rest button will be available in place of the Select All and A I On/ Off buttons. When you select Rest and confirm, time will pass in the game and your characters will heal and regain their spells. When the party rests, characters that have healing spells memorized will cast them on the most injured party members automatically. In the options page, you will find a setting called 'Rest until healed’. If you turn this on, then when you rest, time will pass until your party is fully healed.

Be careful when you use this; if you have a time based quest, you might sleep right through it!

-END PODCAST

HELP WIZARD TOOLTIPS

These are the information windows that pop up whenever you leave your mouse cursor on any button for a period of time, determined in the options. Help Wizard Tool Tips will also pop up if you leave your

cursor on certain items in the game, characters, buildings, signs, excreta. To bring up the Tool Tips instantly, press the "Tab" button.

The Dialog Window:

Dialogue occurs with the selected character only; changing the character who is having the dialogue is not possible until dialogue is exited and restarted with a new character selected. If multiple characters are selected, the top-most selected character initiates the dialogue. Note: Regardless of who is having the dialogue, reaction adjustments will be based on the 'leader' of the group. The 'leader' is always the top-most character portrait of all the characters that are present in the area.

There are three available sizes to the dialogue window: a two-line size, small, which is the default in normal play and used to display system messages and game conditions, and a 15, medium, and 25, large line size which are used when dialogue is being displayed. The two line and 15 line sizes may be expanded to the 25 line size during game play by Left Clicking the small "up" button at the right side of the dialogue window or by hitting "Page up" or "Page down." There is a scroll bar at the right of the dialogue window that may be used to scroll up or down in the dialogue queue. Dialogue uses a menu based system where you Left Click on what you want to say from a list. What is available to be said varies according to the reaction adjustment and Charisma of the character who is speaking. When more text scrolls up in the window than can be read at once, or when dialogue is paused to give you a chance to read the text, you can Left Click anywhere in the dialogue window to view more text. The text that has been read can be reviewed with the scroll arrows on the right (up or down). During dialogue the character who is talking has his portrait highlighted and will flash in the main game area. The N PC being spoken to will also flash.

STORES, IN NS, TAVERN SAND TEMPLES

Throughout the course of the game there are many non-player characters in the world who will offer goods or services. These N PC’s all use a similar interface for the buying, selling, trading of information, goods and services. When these N PC’s are spoken to, a panel will replace the bottom portion of the screen with buttons for the various services offered.

Rent Rooms: Inns usually have four different types of rooms that the player can use to rest at night. The various accommodations vary from Peasant rooms to Deluxe lodgings. The more expensive the room, the more comfortable your stay and the more you will heal while you rest. Some inns are limited in the quality of rooms they can provide.

Buying and Selling: This screen is broken into a Buy window and a Sell window. Items that the store offers are shown in the Buy windows, items from the character’s inventory are shown in the Sell window. To select items to purchase, Left Click on them in the Buy window. The item icon will become highlighted, but will not be purchased until you Left Click "Buy" at the bottom of the window. You may select multiple items and the current total for all items is shown next to the "Buy" button. The Sell window works in the same fashion, although the store owner may have no interest in buying the items in your inventory, in which case the item will be "dimmed". Items that are unusable by the character currently selected are shaded red. While these items are unusable, they can still be purchased for future use or for other party members.

Drinks and Rumors: Some locations will have a friendly bartender or innkeeper tending bar. The items offered at the bar vary from expensive liquors to cheap ales. Either way, upon ordering a drink, the proprietor may decide to share rumors that he has heard lately. Be careful however, as your characters can become intoxicated if they drink too much.

Steal: Thieves may have the option of attempting to steal items out of a shop’s inventory. The Steal screen works the same as Buying and Selling, except that no gold is exchanged. When an item is selected to be stolen, the thief’s skills are checked - if successful, the item is added to the thief’s inventory; if unsuccessful, the guards will be called (or worse!).

Donate: You can donate money at a temple by selecting this option. When you donate, you may hear a rumor from the priest and the party’s reputation may be increased depending on the amount of gold donated. It is very helpful to donate gold if the party’s reputation is suffering.

Healing: Temples usually offer healing services for a price. A menu will appear showing the services offered and the price. Select the service you wish to receive and select the character who is to receive the healing.

Identify: Shops and Temples can usually identify a much larger variety of items than your characters will be able to. The cost to have an item identified is BO gold. If you cannot select the item from the list, then the proprietor does not have the ability to identify the item.

Container, chests, tables, and boxes:

Certain items and containers will be able to be picked up or opened in the game. When you move the cursor over them, they will become highlighted in blue. Left Click to access the item or container. When you access the item or container, the Container panel will come up at the bottom of the screen. The left side of the panel shows the items that are on the ground or in the container and the right side is a small portion of the selected character’s inventory. Clicking on items on the left side of the panel moves the items from the ground or container into the character’s inventory. If the character’s inventory is full, the item will not be transferred. Note that this process can be reversed, and items can also be moved from a character’s inventory into a container or onto the ground by Left Clicking on them in the right side of this panel.

Using Buttons and Triggers:

When playing Baldur’s Gate II, you will come across several buttons, levers and similar instruments. When you place your cursor over these instruments, it will switch to a new cursor type. To use these instruments you must be standing close to them, otherwise a message will pop up telling you that your character is too far away.

MAP

Area Map: Left Clicking the map button will bring up the map that the selected character(s) are currently on. Areas that have been visited are lit, areas that haven’t are dark. This map may be an interior dungeon or an outdoor terrain. The character(s) current position(s) are indicated on the map by dots.

NOTE: On your map there will be location icons marking important locations within the area. When you place your cursor over the flag, the name of the location will come up a the top of the map screen. You can add your own map notes by right clicking anywhere in the map

World Map: When the World button on the A rea Map is clicked the World M ap comes up and the area that the character(s) are on will be marked by a shield standard. The areas visited thus far on the world map will be shown as well as the areas for which you have been told locations. Note that you cannot travel between areas unless you have traveled to the edge of the current area and brought up the world map with the "Travel" icon. To move to another area, highlight the area and click on it.

Journal:

Quests are entered in the journal as well as major occurrences in the game world. The journal page has 4 sections:

Quest: This journal section records all of your current quests. This section is organized alphabetically or by date.

Done Quests: When you finish a quest, all related quest entries will be placed in this section and the old entries will be erased from the Quest section. Quests are organized by date in this section or alphabetically.

journal: This section lists major events in your character’s adventure. This section is organized by date or alphabetically.

User: This section is for your own journal entries. You can add journal entries here by pressing the button 'Add.' All entries are organized by date or alphabetically.

Inventory:

The inventory page can either be accessed by Left Clicking the Inventory button on the left of the screen or by Right clicking a Character Portrait. Some of the screen is taken up by the "Paper Doll" representation of the character. Along the bottom of the screen is the character’s personal inventory and the encumbrance of the character. Items can be dragged and dropped to be equipped on the Paper Doll or dragged and dropped to other characters’ portraits to give the item to the other character. Stackable items can be unstacked by double Left Clicking on the item. Unstacked items can be stacked by dragging and dropping them on top of each other. Items placed in the "Ground" slots will be dropped at the character’s feet and can be picked up from the main game area. The group pool of gold is shown on this page as well.

Blue Shaded items are magical and unidentified. Red Shaded items are not usable by that character.

Encumbrance: Each character has a maximum weight they can carry. The weight currently carried by the character is shown next to the Personal Inventory. Maximum weight carried is determined by the Strength attribute of a character. If this weight is exceeded, the character will slow or completely stop depending on how overloaded the character is.

The Paper Doll Inventory: There are £ distinct areas In the equipped Items section: Helm, armor, bracers, cloak, amulet, Left ring, Right ring, gauntlets, boots, up to 4 weapons, Right hand, from which the quick attacks are chosen, the quiver, of up to 3 sets of ammunition, and the shield slot, Left hand.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You can also place weapons In your shield slot. Your character will then wield two weapons. However, If he Is not proficient In two weapon fighting style, then he will Incur severe penalties to his T H A C 0.

Quick Weapon Slots: The weapons put Into the quick weapon slots determine the quick attacks that are available, these slots are like a bandolier of weapons available - for a mage, this could hold a dagger, for a fighter It could be a crushing weapon to use against undead, a bow for distant encounters and a sharp edged weapon for close combat. When a new weapon Is put Into the weapon slots on the Inventory page. It generates a default quick attack In the quick attack button for this character at the bottom of the main Interface screen.

Only one bow or crossbow may be equipped at a time. Both bolts and arrows may be In the quiver but only those usable by the currently equipped weapon appear as quick attack choices on the main Interface screen. A shield may be equipped only If no 2-handed weapons are present In the weapon slots. If a 2-handed weapon Is In one of these slots, the shield Is not equipable and a message to this effect appears In the Inventory message line: "Cannot equip, 2 handed weapon In use." A similar message Is displayed If a shield Is equipped and the player tries to move a 2-handed weapon Into one of the 4 weapon slots: "Cannot equip, shield In use."

Quick Item Slots: These are slots available to each player that represent miscellaneous Items that are kept at the ready, potions, for example. These Items can be accessed easily during combat, similar to "Quick Weapons" above.

Personal Inventory: Considered your "backpack," you can only carry different Items or stacks of Items, regardless of your encumbrance.

Items Property Page: If an Item Is Right clicked, the view changes to the Items Property page. This page contains the Item’s Icon, description and picture. Characters with high "Lore" abilities will automatically be able to Identify certain magical Items. If the Item Is currently unidentified, there will be a button to allow you to try to magically Identify It. Potions may be consumed from this page. If the Item Is a scroll, wizards will have the opportunity to try to "Write Magic" and add the scroll spell to their spell book. Certain magical Items may even have special "Abilities" that can be accessed from this page - Including the ability to configure the Item’s magical powers.

Character Appearance: Clicking on the colored boxes will allow you to pick from a palette of colors for your character to use for clothing colors.

Rest: Left Click on this button to rest your characters. Some areas are better suited for resting than others, so select your campsite carefully.

GEM BAGSAND SCROLL CASES

Gem bags and scroll cases can be bought In stores, or found while adventuring. These Items are used to store multiple gems and scrolls, and thus free up Inventory space. To use these bags and cases, simply Right click on the Item. N ow press the button 'open container’ to move to the next screen. From this screen you can move your gems or scrolls from the right hand column to the left hand column. This will move these Items Into you gem bag or scroll case. You can also drag a gem or scroll to the appropriate container and release the Left-Mouse button over top of It to deposit It In the bag case.

Character Record and associated Screens:

Character Record: The character record screen shows all of the vital statistics and abilities of the currently selected character.

Dual-Class: This page Is available to human characters only - after 2nd level you can convert a character to dual-class. When the player chooses dual-class, a dual-class Interface screen will come up from which he will choose the new class for the selected character. Characters not allowed dual-class status Include paladins, rangers, and druids. The character must meet the minimum requirements for the new class In all areas. The dual-class page Is very similar to the character generation page - and. In fact, making a character dual classed can be seen as essentially starting a character over. As a new dual-classed character, he starts with only the M-level abilities and restrictions of his new class, though he retains his hit point total from his prior class. After a character becomes dual-classed, he can only use the abilities of his new class until he surpasses the level of his original class, at which point he can freely use the abilities of either class. No further advancement Is ever allowed In the first class, all further development Is In the new class. J

Note: You are only allowed to have one kit In Baldur’s Gate II. When you first create your character, you choose his kit. When you dual class your character, you do not get to choose a new kit.