Spells and Monsters

Abracadabra

As we mentioned before, characters can advance pretty far in levels, which opens up much more of AD&D's spells to the player. In total, 130 spells have been added over and above those from BG1, making a total of about 300 spells in Baldur's Gate 2. Bioware of course, will be giving all of these new spells a signature "spiffy animation," like we were used to seeing in BG1. Remember though that all of these new spells are usable by enemy spell casters too. Often times, they'll have them before you do. Bioware is conscious of the balance issues involved with having such powerful spells around. The last thing they want are "one shot" battles where fights end in the blink of an eye. That being the case, powerful spell caster enemies will take a more tactical approach to their battles. They'll pick your party apart piece by piece. For instance, they might start out by casting silence on your own spell casters, then disabling or taking advantage of your other characters' weaknesses before delivering any crushing blows. This way, you'll have more of a fighting chance and more entertaining battles.

Djinn

Air Elemental

What if?

Also new to Baldur's Gate 2 is the inclusion of contingency spells. Basically a contingency spell is a simple if/then script for your mages. Using contingency spells allows your mages to be more automated so your battles go more smoothly. During the hands on demo, Bioware staff showed us that there are a number of "if" conditions - these include "hitpoints reduced to 50%," "HP reduced to 25%," "hp reduced to 10%," "poisoned," "helpless," and more. Simply pick a contingency and when that condition is met, your mage will automatically cast the spell of your choice. If for example, he becomes poisoned, you can have him automatically cast a detoxifying spell on himself to clear the poison. If he gets low on HP (50, 25 or 10 percent) you can have him cast a healing spell on himself. How's that for convenience?

Fire Elemental

'GithYankiShip'

Monsters

The core of any good RPG is the quality of monsters. For these, Bioware went straight to the AD&D books to pick out 60 more monsters to add into the game. While the ogres, gnolls and slimes of the original game will be making a comeback, look for new enemies to torment you, like Iron Golems, Trolls, Mind Flayers, Beholders (floating eyeballs that cast spells), Otyugh, and Djinn. Monster animations have been enhanced and improved - the Djinn for instance, can either float or walk on two feet. There will be over 120 monsters in all in Baldur's Gate 2, and they seem to be larger onscreen than ever before.

Mindflayer

Sahaugin

Summoning

Speaking of monsters, look for summoning spells to take more of the limelight in Baldur's Gate 2. Unlike other games where summoning creatures to help you is a sure thing, BG2 sticks by AD&D rules where summoning powerful monsters results in a "battle of wills" between the spell caster and the monster. If the spell caster wins, the monster will be controllable by the player. If the monster wins, then it becomes unpredictable, and will even attack the player's party! Careful before calling up that demon! Also, summoning spells in BG2 will focus mainly on fewer, more powerful creatures, rather than numerous weak ones. In BG1, it was possible to call up tons of lesser monsters to just basically "run interference" for the player's party as they shot at the enemy from afar. No more "cheesy" wins this time, guys!

UmberHulk