Video Game / Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is the Spin-Off of the popular Baldur's Gate franchise. Besides the name, the only main element it shares with the originals is the setting. Unlike its namesakes, which are classic computer RPGs, Dark Alliance is an Action RPG Dungeon Crawler game with a heavy focus on combat and co-op gameplay, drawing heavily from the style of the Gauntlet and Diablo games and can feasibly be credited with paving the way for such games as Champions of Norrath, X-Men Legends, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and many other console games of the sixth generation.

The first game, by Snowblind Studios, released in December 2001, offers the player a choice of three characters:

• Vahn, Human Arcane Archer: archer with weapon-related magical abilities.
• Adrianna, Elven Sorceress: spell caster, limited to smaller weapon classes.
• Kromlech, Dwarven Fighter: strong melee fighter with limited melee magic.

The plot is simple: Once again something is amiss in the city of Baldur's Gate. A new Thieves' Guild has arrived and has declared war on the existing one — a troubling prospect as this new guild brought scores of monsters with it and has no problems with killing. Our heroes are tasked by a local agent of The Harpers to end this devastating gang war, only to discover that the new guild's agenda is larger than everyone thought...and that they are someone else's pawn.

The game is particularly noteworthy in its All-Star Cast. Practically every speaking character is voiced by a very recognizable industry veteran. Just in the first five minutes after the titles, you have Jennifer Hale, Tony Jay, with Michael Bell, Cam Clarke, Grey DeLisle and MANY others joining later.

Despite the genre shift, the game was well received and spawned a sequel in January 2004 by Black Isle Studios with new characters. Said characters are:

• Dorn the Human Barbarian, a powerful melee fighter who can evolve into a druid.
• Alessia the Human Cleric, a balanced character with healing and anti-undead magics. Can become a Paladin.
• Borador the Dwarven rogue, tricky warrior who is an expert with his crossbow. Can evolve into a Dwarven Hero
• Vhaidra the Drow Monk, a swift bare-handed fighter who can become an Assassin
• Ysuran the Elvish Necromancer, an amnesiac wizard who can become a Shadow Adept.

This time around the plot is a bit more complex. News of the Onyx Tower, the Big Bad's fortress from the first game, has spread across Faerun, thus inspiring a wave of heroes to home in on Baldur's Gate for a chance to bring it down and earn their own glory. Unfortunately, by the time they get there, it turns out they've Missed the Call since the Tower has already been destroyed and its owner defeated. However, the heroes responsible for saving the city disappeared shortly after.

There's still plenty to do in Baldur's Gate, ranging from yet another Thieves' Guild, to solving a series of grisly murders, random monster-killing sidequests, and eventually serving once again as an agent for the Harpers—who among other things wish to reconstruct the Onyx Tower for themselves in order to keep it out of the hands of the Zhentarim. What they don't know, of course, is that someone else wishes the Tower too, and is secretly manipulating them all...

Though it still has chapters (five instead of three), Baldur's Gate remains the player characters' home base rather than it shifting with each chapter, with each of the many quests, subquests, and sidequests allowing them to range all over the Western Heartlands through numerous multi-level dungeons—in many ways it is literally an expansion of the first game. The ability to customize weaponry, armor, and items with the incorporation of jewels has also been added.

Work on a Dark Alliance III was cancelled due to Black Isle's closure. The 2021 game Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is a In Name Only successor, an online coop brawler starring the cast of The Legend of Drizzt. To promote the game's release, both older Dark Alliance games received an Updated Re-release for modern platforms.

---

The game and its sequel contain examples of:

• Advancing Boss of Doom: In the sequel Lyran chases you through his mansion using his weak attacks until you find the room where his remains are to destroy them, at which point he switches to his stronger attacks.
• Always Night: The eponymous city of Baldur's Gate is Always Night (and always raining) in the first game. Ditto for Dragonspear Castle in the second game; this is most easily seen in the ruined outer courtyard.
• Amazon Brigade: Oddly, the Zhentarim and Karne in the sequel tend to use women for their purposes, including Luvia Bloodmire, Arogazia/Aizagora, The Red Queen and Illudria.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Ysuran has forgotten his past as a terrorist.
• Animated Armour: In the sequel Lyran has his own army of these, which seem to be ghosts, since they can be slain with Disruptive weapons or Turn Undead. The Halls of the Hammer are currently patrolled by Helmed Horrors.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: In the sequel we have Luvia Bloodmire, Arogazia Firewind and Mordoc.
• Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Averted, while arcane casters in both games must spend points to obtain the feat to wear heavy armor, they actually don't get any malus from it, just bonuses. The same goes for Vhaidra, Dorn and Borador, who all belong to classes who gets penalty for wearing heavy armor in the standard tabletop game but here suffers none.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Vhaidra in the sequel, being a monk Drow, a race known for racism and haughtiness.
• Ascended Extra:
  • "Lady" Alyth Elendara, the owner of the Elfsong Tavern, was a minor NPC in the original Baldur's Gate. She plays a substantially more prominent role in the first Dark Alliance, and her tavern is the main hub for the first third of the game. Alyth, along with the unlockable playable character and Forgotten Realms staple Drizzt Do'Urden (who made cameo appearances in the first two main installments) are two of the only characters that appeared in the main series to be carried over to the Dark Alliance sub-series.
  • The disembodied voice of the elven woman that haunts the Elfsong Tavern is inexplicably silent in the original Baldur's Gate, but is now heard in the tavern during Chapter I of the first Dark Alliance, and more of her backstory is revealed later on.
• The Atoner: Ysuran, in the sequel was previously involved in the Eldreth Veluuthra, an elven supremacy group that wants genocide against humans.
• Attack of the Killer Whatever: In Lyran's Hold you can get attacked by animated chairs, desks and even floating scrolls.
• The Berserker: Kromlech and Dorn. Both possess a rage skill allowing them to deal more damage at the cost of being unable to block.
• Big Bad: Eldrith in the first game, Mordoc in the second.
• Big Foot Sasquatch And Yeti: On the Sunset Mountains in the first game and in the Elemental Plane of Water (which is basically a flooded ice cave) in the second game.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Argesh, the grotesque.... creation from Luvia Bloodmire and leader of the Hands of Glory. Noticeably, he can use his katar/like blade to perform a slamming attack which briefly stuns the target.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The Spanish version, to the point that Baldur's Gate and any other English noun is directly translated into Spanish even if it was intended to be a proper noun.
• Body of Bodies: Several of Luvia's pets are either this or Flesh Golem. Argesh actually express disgust at the thought that incompetent, weak goblinoids were used to craft his current body.
• Body Horror: Luvia Bloodmire deals in this; her murder victims are horribly mutilated and her "pets" are disgusting, flesh-crafted monsters.
• Booby Trap: Many in the dungeons, including spikes, blades hidden in the walls and fireball throwers. Xantam's Guild is full of them, as is Lyran's Hold in the sequel. Luckily, the ones in the second game rarely involve extremely deadly damage (such as the death beams in certain traps of
• Boss-Arena Idiocy:
  • Lyran chases you through his mansion until you find the room which contains his remains, which when destroyed will destroy him.
  • The immediate next boss, Sleyvas is a Glass Cannon caster fighting in a very small area where he has next to nowhere to run.
• Boss Room: Picking out the boss rooms in this game tends to be rather easy. The Orb of the Undead for example has a wide open room (good because hit and run is important in this fight), is symmetrical, and force fields activate when you go through.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The characters you play as will only ever talk with their voice to you and never anybody else, such as when you try to use a spell in town or when you try to use a spell with no energy left, also when you activate a cheat code:
  • Vhaidra: Cheating? Well about time.
  • Also Dorn will threaten to disembowel the player if he doesn't act for too long.
• Call-Back: Several in the second game to the events of the first. In the original, it's established that the Elfsong Tavern is haunted by the spirit of a woman mourning her lost love; you meet the man himself at the climax, one of the ghosts trapped in the Onyx Tower.
• Casting a Shadow: Mordoc was very pissed when he found out that, as a Vampire, he no longer had a shadow, so he populated his castle with hordes of Living Shadow monsters. Aside from him, Ysuran and his quest-specific boss Kalak can both employ Shadow Weave magic.
• Checkpoint: In the first game, each chapter has its own—Bartley in Baldur's Gate, the dwarf merchant in the Sunset Mountains, and Sleyvas in the Marsh of Chelimber. Once the player has entered each new chapter, they are stuck with whatever supplies they do (or don't) have and no other means to restore health until they reach that checkpoint character.
• Chest Monster: The sequel has these in the Halls of the Hammer, as well as a few other dungeons.
• Clock Punk: Ysuran's unique quest requires him to fight clockwork automatons.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: Ciraxis' boss fight.
• Color-Coded Elements: Nothing outstanding, Air is represented by both the color yellow, topazes and light blue/whiteish lightning, Earth is green and associated with jade, fire is red and orange through the jacinth gems (though most fire attacks are yellow) while Water (and cold) consist in different shades of blue and is represented by the aquamarine gem.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In battle, keep an eye on the color of the damage inflicted to enemies: white means it's dealing normal damage, yellow signifies a critical hit, gray means that the attack is not effective, blue means that the attack is very effective and green means that the attack is actually healing your foe or that the enemy is regenerating.
• Combat Tentacles: In the sequel during the battle against Illudria, she has a Kraken fight with her against you, which predictably attacks with its tentacles.
• Contractual Boss Immunity:
  • In the case of the player, there is a boss whose ability is mind control. You can see its victims and fight them, yet the best its abilities can do to the player is stun (and harm) them.
  • Also Borador is resilient to the Basilisk's gaze, though he'll take damage and get slowed down instead of being turned to stone right away.
  • In the second game, all the Undead bosses (Lyran, Captain Khoris, Mordoc etc) can be damaged by the Turn Undead skill of Allessia as usual, but won't lose control or run away from the player.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: The first boss in the first game (a Bugbear Chieftain) and the second boss in the sequel (a hobgoblin warrior).
• Dark Is Not Evil: Ysuran can drain the life out of his foes and summon skeletons, but he's one of the kindest guys in the series. Even after gaining control of his Shadow Magic he's still good.
• Dem Bones: Skeletons are enemies in the game, and Ysuran can summon them as allies as well.
• Death Equals Redemption: Eldrith
• Decapitated Army: As soon as the boss dies, all of the boss's minions that were fighting alongside the boss will drop dead instantly.
• Degraded Boss:
  • The very first boss encountered is a Bugbear Chieftain ruling a small gang of Kobolds. While Bugbears are far from being mere mooks, they still aren't that impressive later on.
  • In the sequel the first boss is a goblin riding a huge spider. These appear as enemies much later in the game, but are much easier to take out.
  • Also the second boss is a hobgoblin warrior: you will later slay them by the score, including variants armed with crossbows or polearms.
• Dirty Coward: Habdazar Doomwing, a gnome wizard hired by the Zhentarim in the Elemental Plane of Air. He's followed by a lot of Zhentarim, rides a huge Manticore, and runs away to Karne when he's defeated. Unsurprisingly, Karne runs him through with his sword, in a rather delicious instance of enforcing the Exact Words of an oath he had sworn to guard the Air Foundation with his life.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Xantam appears to be the root of all evils in the first game, but he's actually one of the many threats..
• Downer Ending: In the first you escape the Onyx Tower straight into more danger. In the sequel they can be found in a dungeon and can even be freed.
• Dual Boss: Luvia's lackeys from the sequel, two huge misshapen brutes resembling a more primitive version of Argesh.
• Dual Wielding: Dorn starts with this (but any character can do it) and later he can dual wield two-handed weapons with the right skill.
• The Dragon:
  • Karne, to Xantam. Subverted in that Karne is secretly a Zhentarim agent.
  • And in the sequel Xanhast to Mordoc, Argesh to Luvia and the Red Queen to Arogazia.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: With a few exceptions, any of the heroes can use any piece of equipment in the first game, while in the second, characters need to take proficiencies in certain feats to gain access to heavier armors and weaponry. This is especially notable in that Adrianna, the sorceress, can be fully decked out in plate armor and wielding a large sword and heavy shield. Even weirder since, while a spin-off, the original series took its gameplay from Dungeons & Dragons, which only allowed arcane spellcasters to wear armor IF they had proficiency for it, and they then had to contend with Arcane Spellcasting Failure (ie: should you wear anything more than robes, there is a % chance of your spell fizzling due to hindered movement, the percentage growing with heavier armor and/or wielding a shield).
• Elemental Embodiment: Elementals are frequently encountered as late-level enemies. In the second game you can meet Air Elementals (living tornadoes that will hurl stones at you), Earth Elementals (humanoids made of dirt and pointy rocks able to roll at you to attack) and Fire Elementals (humanoids made of magmatic rock and flames).
• Elemental Powers: It's possible to enchant weapons to have them deal fire, cold, electrical or acid damage. In the sequel gathering artifacts corresponding to the four elements is a plot point, as you have to use them to activate the four elemental foundations and summon the Onyx Tower.
• The End... Or Is It?: Twice. In the first game, our heroes defeated Eldrith and stopped the Onyx Tower.... only to be captured by Mordoc. In the sequel your heroes managed to slay Mordoc and destroy the dark soulstone in the Plane of Shadows and stop the Onyx Tower once again...... only to find out in The Stinger that now a mysterious man in a large sarcophagus inside a pyramid (presumably in Mulhorand) has heard of Mordoc's fall and now wants the tower for himself. Jeez......
• Enemy Mine: Near the end of II, Karne and the Harper's agent Jherek will ally with the player to storm Mordoc's Castle.
• Ethereal Choir: During the final boss music from the first game. And it is both epic and heartbreaking.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Played with in the sequel—if while in Firewind Manor you choose to hang back in an alcove and listen in to Arogazia chastising Karne instead of bursting in on her, the conversation is extended to provide more Exposition on the plot, all of which is accurate and important information. But then it turns into something of a Just Between You and Me moment...because after she finishes talking to Karne, Arogazia reveals she knew you were there the whole time, taunts you about being too late to stop her, reveals her true form, and escapes, leaving you in a burning, collapsing manor.
• Expy: The Halls of the Hammer are reminiscent of Moria.
• Eye Beam: The Basilisk's main form of attack, which will slowly turn Borador to stone.
• Fallen Hero: Eldrith.
• Fantastic Racism: Illvarra, the drow priestess in the Dwarven mines, is especially caustic if the player is controlling Adrianna the Elven sorceress, owing to the drow's deep hatred for your "sun-cursed race of traitors".
• Final Boss, New Dimension: To fight the final boss in the sequel you must enter the Plane of Shadow, depicted as a pitch-black void with a white stone platform where the battle takes place and the grotesque Heart of Onyx in the middle.
• Flaming Sword: Weapons with garnets inside will set ablaze near enemies. Also the weapons used by the monsters in the Halls of the Hammer.
• Flunky Boss:
  • The only "attack" the Orb of Undead has is to summon an army of skeletons.
  • In the sequel many bosses will have enemies supporting them. In the Third Chapter all bosses are escorted by a large number of Zhentarim mercenaries.
• Foreshadowing: In the first game, speaking to Olenna in the inn reveals that her lover left for the "Battle of Bones" to the north to retrieve an orb, revealed to be the Orb of Undead. In the second game, it's revealed that the Battle of Bones is the turf of Mordoc, the vampire lord behind the second game and maker of the orb.
• Giant Mook: Ogres, Ettins and Hill Giants. They are all very slow and healthy, but can hit like trucks.
• Giant Space Flea From No Where: Illudria and Habdazar Doomwing and their companions (a Kraken and a manticore), as well as the chimera in the Halls of the Hammer and Ulchalothe in the deepest dungeons of Dragonspear Castle.
• Giant Spider: Often encountered as enemies. In the second game, the first boss Bile-Tooth rides an humongous spider.
• Glass Cannon: Adrianna in the first game, Ysuran in the sequel, since both are spellcasters who can't rely too much on armor.
• Godhood Seeker: Luvia accuses the PCs of being 'heretics' who 'stand on her path to goddom' after they break into her manor and kill her favored servants.
• Golem: Especially inside the Onyx Tower: in the first game there's an Onyx Golem as a giant miniboss, while the second game features increasingly stronger iron golems on each of the three levels.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Twice over in the sequel—collect the four elemental artifacts, then use each of them to activate the four Elemental Foundations.
• Gravity Barrier: Averted. If the player accidentally comes too close to the edge of a deep hole, cliff, or other drop-off, they fall, and after a long pause you hear them "oof" as they land. Game Over. Some areas, particularly underground cavern dungeons, are designed precisely to make this a constant danger for the unwary (or accident-prone).
• Healing Factor: Trolls, especially in the second game, are constantly healing and even if they are "killed", they'll slowly regenerate health until they're able to stand up again to keep fighting. The only way to keep them down is to deal the coup de grace while they are already suffering from fire/acid damge, with said damage or to perform a fire/acid attack on them while they are down.
• Hellhound: Luvia's mansion is filled with monstrous Flesh Hounds, grotesque dog-like horrors with long tails able to cast volleys of spikes. The boss fought in the laboratory is a larger, horrible two-headed canine beast called "Atrocious", capable of vomiting poison to attack. Finally, the dungeons under Dragonspear Castle have Hell Hounds in the form of pink furless canids that can spit fire.
• Holy Hand Grenade: Alessia's Turn Undead spell is really useful, and it can wipe out undead enemies on higher levels.
• Hub Under Attack: The city of Baldur's Gate serves as a safe haven for the player(s) throughout the first and second games, but is corrupted by Mordoc in the second game. Using the Onyx Tower, Mordoc turns the inhabitants of the city into the undead, forcing the player(s) to return to Baldur's Gate to fight through it. All the shops and friendly NPCs are gone, leaving only a dark version of the city behind to fight in.
• "Instant Death" Radius: On Hard, nearly every enemy in the game will kill Kromlech in two hits tops. Most will kill him before he can swing his weapon.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Twofold in the second game: completing each sidequest for the characters will net them a unique but very powerful piece of equipment (an amulet for Ysuran, throwing knives for Vhaidra, an axe for Borador, chainmail for Dorn and a bastard sword for Allessia). Later, in Mordoc's keep, depending on which hero you release first and with which character, you can get a powerful, enchanted version of a Shortbow, Staff or Great Axe).
• Infinity +1 Sword: Before the final boss there is a mini-boss who, once defeated, will drop the Onyx Sword: a powerful sword, making the next fight a bit easier.
• It's Personal: Later in the sequel your character can go on an optional quest that is unique to them. At the end of the quest they fight a boss which is almost always this trope, as they are a boss from the character's past or someone who has a great meaning to them, the process of fighting them enables vengeance for a great wrong, or the quest allows them to fulfill a personal oath (such as Borador repaying his clan's debt). Except for Dorn, who has to slay a Green Dragon for a druid priestess and has nothing personal against the beast.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Eldrith.
• Inescapable Ambush: Happens twice in the sequel, presumably to suggest verisimilitude, when the player gets randomly attacked on their way to a quest location. Downplayed in that you can use a Recall Potion to get away from danger, though you'll miss any experience and loot, as you can't revisit an ambush scenery.
• Invincible Minor Minion: In the sequel Illudria has a Kraken fight by her side. It is immune to all damage, but dies once Illudria is killed.
• Jack of All Stats: Vahn, who has average HP, the 2nd largest selection of weapons, and an average mix of melee and ranged skills.
• Jerkass: Vhaidra is quite the bitch and cares only for her revenge.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Borador, who's actually gathering money to pay a debt for his clan.
• Jiggle Physics:
  • Alyth the innkeeper, to the point of distraction. Illavarra the drow priestess as well, and Luvia Bloodmire in 2.
  • Averted with playable hero Alessia in the sequel, whose assets stay still despite their size. It must be the armor...
• Karma Houdini: Sleyvas in the first game (but you get to kill him in the sequel). Karne in the second game.
• Kill It with Fire: Arogazia Firewind, aka Aizagora the Red Death, a dragon, tries to pull this on the party leaving them to roast in her falling mansion. Fire weapons and spells are also the only sure-kill way to make trolls stay dead.
• King Mook: The first boss is just a strong version of the bugbears (strong brute creatures), a chieftain to be precise. Oddly despite being a chieftain of bugbears, he has kobolds (tiny lizard-like creatures) as his minions instead of the creatures he's chieftain of. Also later in the game, Sess'sth, who is king of the lizard men.
• Large Ham: Many of the characters engage in this in some fashion. The character models sometimes use rather expressive, sweeping gestures as they talk, though none are nearly as bad as Jherek, who gestures and puts enormous emphasis on a LOT of what he says. The second game toned some of this down...a little bit at least.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: In the second game, the "lava" in the Elemental Plane of Fire looks just like standard water, only colored dark orange and made opaque, with occasional fire sprouts. It will kill you, however, if you carelessly try to wade across.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: In the sequel, the first floor of the tower features sturdy but beatable bronze-colored Iron Golems, the next floor has stronger, dark gray Iron Golems and the final floor has even bigger, deadlier, trident-wielding black golems.
• Let the Past Burn: In Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance II, a dragon torches Firewind Manor in a bid to kill your character. This coincidentally wraps up the sub-plot concerning the Ghost of House Felldane, who wished to see the Manor destroyed to hide the evidence of the depravity his descendants have succumbed to.
• Life Drain: Ysuran and Xanhast have this. Mordoc can perform such an attack but only in melee, using his rapier.
• Lightning Bruiser: Vhaidra is very fast and with her unarmed attack she can wipe out many enemies with ease.
• Living Shadow: Zarad and Mordoc both have an army of these. The latter can also call upon the mighty Nightcrawlers to protect his domain from intruders.
• Lizard Folk: These are common in the marsh. There are also several hostile troglodytes in the sequel. Sleyvas is a friendly aversion at first.
• Long Song, Short Scene: In the sequel, the final boss music from the first (it's a very epic song) returns but it can feel like a wasted song when The Dragon you fight before the final boss is the one who gets the song for his battle... yet the final boss has no boss music, so you end up feeling like the Final Boss should have had the music.
• MacGuffin Guardian: An unusual one in the Hammer Hall: the secret vault you can unlock contains a singular keeper: a sentient, moving giant pick-axe that will mercilessly attack anyone who steps into the room. What's more, it can't be killed, as it will always fly back up.
• Mad Scientist: From the sequel, Luvia Bloodmire.
• Magic Knight: Both Vahn and Adrianna fulfill this role easily in the first game as Vahn is an Arcane Archer and can magically imbue his arrows with various elements and effects. Adrianna, on the other hand, is a standard sorceress with multiple spells at her disposal and can wear full plate armor and wield swords and shields with the best of them, only being held back by being unable to wield greatswords, battle axes, hammers, and halberds. She is significantly more squishy than Vahn or Kromlech though.
• Make My Monster Grow: Eldrith more and more as she is damaged.
• The Man Behind the Man: Karne is under Xantam, who works for Eldrith.
• Mind Control: A boss from the sequel has this ability. Like the Basilisk example below, it can only stun you, but it's also highly damaging.
• Multishot: An ability of the Arcane Archer. Ysuran does the same with his magic bolts and Borador with crossbow bolts.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Up until chapter 5 of the second game, the heroes, Harpers and Zhents are all playing Unwitting Pawns in Mordoc's plans.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Goreth Vileblack, a Necromancer and cleric of Cyric who Alessia is tasked with killing in the second game.
• Not Quite Dead: Karne is pretty clearly killed off by the player characters during the first game, but pops up again in the second with barely a Hand Wave.
• Ominous Harpsichord: In Bloodmire Manor in the sequel, a Secret Passage to her laboratory is opened by playing a spooky melody on this out-of-tune instrument (after finding all the pages of the sheet music). Two pipe organs can be found and played in the Keep of Pale Night: the first will spawn temporary treasure chests and shadow enemies, the second one will spawn shadow enemies and no chests.
• One-Winged Angel: Once you defeat Luvia Bloodmire in the sequel she turns into a big black monster that pulls little monsters out of herself to throw them at you among other attacks.
• Optional Boss: In the sequel, at the end of each character's optional specific quest you fight a boss, unique to that character.
• Our Elves Are Different:
  • Adrianna is a high elf; the game also features Drow as enemies.
  • In the sequel you can play as Ysuran (a moon elf) and Vhaidra (a dark elf). The latter's unique quest has drow monks as enemies and their master as a boss.
• Our Orcs Are Different: Orcs are featured in the second game as enemies in the Halls of the Hammer and in most of Skull Gorge during act III. They appear as short, gray humanoids who mostly attack with melee weapons, javelins or sorceries, but overall are not a threat.
• Power Fist: You can enchant Vhaidra's fist attack by enchanting her gauntlets.
• Prestige Class: Vahn's class, Arcane Archer, is one in the tabletop game. In the second game Vhaidra can become an Assassin and Borador a Dwarven Hero.
• Puzzle Boss: In the sequel, Lyran, where you must destroy his remains. He's the only boss who requires a different way of damaging him besides just hacking away at him.
• Rat Stomp: Played perfectly straight.
• Recurring Boss Template: In the first game you fight an ice dragon; in the sequel you fight a green dragon, and later a red dragon. Each fight with a dragon tends to be quite similar.
• Repeatable Quest: In the sequel, the areas of Skull Gorge and the Wood of Sharp Teeth can be revisited in different chapters, fully restocked with new monsters and treasures but otherwise identical.
• Respawn Point: For both games, in a two-player game, if one player character dies they can be respawned by having the living character return to the nearest Save Point.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Crates, barrels, jars, etc. The sequel gets particularly creative about this, with chunks of ice in the Plane of Water, chunks of stone or gems in the Plane of Earth, and chunks of hardened magma in the Plane of Fire which can all be broken open.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Vhaidra is after the Dark Ravens, a guild of assassins who exterminated her clan.
• The Renfield: Xanhast, Mordoc's thrall and main enforcer.
• Royal Rapier: Mordoc wields one. Curiously, it's a unique weapon in the game.
• Schmuck Bait: In Mordoc's fortress in the second game, there is a treasure room where the chests magically spawn when you play an organ (enemies also spawn, but they're not that hard to beat). On the next level of the fortress there is a similar room, complete with playable organ. Well, it worked so well the first timOH CRAAAAP!!!
• Schrödinger's Player Character: A classic example, only the selected PCs ever appear.
• Secret Character:
  • If you finish the second game, you can play as Drizzt Do'Urden and Artemis Entreri!!
  • You can also unlock Drizzt in the first as well.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: In the sequel we have an interesting case with Alessia and Vhaidra. The former is probably the most virtuous and righteous of the playable characters, all her suits of armors are concealing and even without armors she wears a caste-looking tabard and shirt. Vhaidra is basically a Villain Protagonist and most of her armors are skimpier, baring her midriff and cleavage.
• Sequel Hook: Dark Alliance II ends with a servant taking to a pharaoh entombed inside a sarcophagus, discussing Murdoc's defeat and their "sacred mission". Sadly it ends up being a cliffhanger due to Black Isle's closure.
• Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: The animation for swinging the weapons is shared by all weapon types: it doesn't matter if you're holding a dagger, a scimitar or a spiked mace, the animation is the same.
• Spoiled by the Manual: The instruction booklet for the first gives away the backstory of Eldrith nearly word for word and confirms that she is the Big Bad.
• Stationary Boss: The Orb of Undead is sort of this. The only time it ever moves is to get out of your reach until you kill all of its minions, as it'd really rather stay away from you, but it can only summon minions while on the ground.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: The Orb of Undead is fully capable of staying in the air as long as it likes, and the player is incapable of aiming up to shoot it while it is only a few metres above the ground. The Orb of Undead can only summon minions while on the ground, but the player is sealed in its boss room because of the force fields that only disappear once the boss is dead, so the Orb Of Undead could probably wait for the player to get bored and exit the game. But then again, where's the fun in that?
• Taken for Granite: The Basilisk boss in the sequel keeps a lot of petrified statues in his lair. Despite its collection of various different statues, it is incapable of petrifying the player and can only stun him/her.
• Teleport Spam: Ilivarra does this.
• That Man Is Dead: Ysuran, after recovering from his Amnesiac Dissonance.
• Theme Naming: Because the Onyx Heart can only be activated by the four Elemental Foundations (with the heart itself associated with Shadow, naturally), the four artifacts needed to activate them are also elemental in name and nature—the Oceanic Urn, the Orb of Thunder, the Brazier of Eternal Flame, and the Jade Octahedron.
• Thieves' Guild: One in the first and one in the sequel. The latter specifically rose to fill in the vacuum left by the former guild.
• Tragic Monster: In the sequel you fight Randalla Brasshorn, who has been turned into a vampire by the The Dragon.
• Tragic Villain: Once you learn Eldrith's backstory, it is very hard not to feel sorry for her. Even the fact her scheme involves colluding with a beholder, a white dragon, and lizardfolk, as well as wiping out the entire population of Baldur's Gate all in Revenge for what the dukes of the city did to her doesn't completely mitigate this, especially when the final boss music is so heartbreakingly tragic. And after defeating her, Eldrith realizes the full magnitude of her fall from grace, repents, thanks the heroes, and urges them to escape. See also Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
  Eldrith: And so it has come to pass that I must die twice, and this time, shall be my last. I... The tower will not hold! You must leave this place! I ask your forgiveness. I let anger cloud my vision... I harmed those who had sworn to serve me... In all these things, great harm has been done. Let Baldur's Gate have its peace... I shall not rise again to challenge it, though it will doubtlessly need others such as you to defend it, from others who wish to do it harm. Now go. This tower shall be my tomb.
• Unexplained Recovery: Karne. And thankfully Randalla when you slay Xanhast. Judging from her words, destroying the core of the Tower hit the Reset Button for all the transformed and slain citizens.
• Villainous Breakdown: Luvia has a brief one when you slay her two creations.
• Villainous Friendship: Mordoc and Xanhast, the Big Bad and The Dragon of the second game, are a pair of vampires who have this dynamic. A comment made by Mordoc implies that he was the one who turned Xanhast.
• Vocal Dissonance: In the Italian dub of the game, some voices sound very unfitting for certain characters, especially in contrast with the original voice. Very noticeable with Allessia (who sounds like a teenager rather than an adult woman) and Lyran, who has a ridiculous high-pitched voice more befitting a comedic portrayal of a eunuch.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Eldrith, at least at the start.
• Wicked Cultured:
  • Xantam. This should surprise no one, considering who provides his voice. Also appropriate considering the nature of his species.
  • Also Luvia Bloodmire and Arogazia Firewind. And maybe Mordoc.
• Why Won't You Die?: According to Mordoc, Karne is known for being "extremely difficult to kill".
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Eldrith, at least of Baldur's Gate.
• World of Buxom: More like "Developer of Buxom". From Dark Alliance, its sequel, Champions of Norrath, and its sequel, there isn't a single adult female character or NPC that has anything smaller than C-Cups... And all of them jiggle to some extent.
• You All Meet in an Inn:
  • To be precise, you all go to an inn (the famous Elfsong Tavern) after being mugged in the streets. You're even asked to clear the giant rats out of the cellar. The player also meets lots of NPCs of various trustworthiness who give them their quests here.
  • The second game inverts it—the player character(s) is/are traveling to Baldur's Gate in order to deal with the villains from the first game (not yet having gotten the memo they were defeated already), only to encounter merchant Randalla Brasshorn along the way and save her from goblins working for the new Thieves' Guild. In gratitude Randalla asks to be escorted to the city and once there, will meet with the hero(es) at the Purple Wyrm Inn, which is where she will give out quests (though she isn't the only one in the city who will do so). So the hero meets their benefactor elsewhere (and if it's a group of heroes, they already met on the road while coming to deal with the villains), and only meet her at an inn afterward.
• You Have Failed Me: In the sequel there are three times when a boss retreats after being beaten, but the first time this happens that boss reports back to her master, only to be choked to death and be called a coward. The second time a boss retreats he is impaled by his master.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Repeatedly in both games.
  • In the first one, after what feels like the Very Definitely Final Dungeon infiltrating Xantam's Guild, evading countless traps and mooks, taking out Karne, and finally Xantam, you discover he was only part of a sinister scheme of triumvirate villains you must also take out. In the Sunset Mountains what seems to be a drow plot isn't the true enemy, it's the white dragon on the mountain top. And in the Marsh of Chelimber, taking out the king of the lizard men simply opens the way to a temple where there is an entrance via the Plane of Water into the true final dungeon. Lampshaded by the drow priestess boss, who's a bit surprised that you've followed the breadcrumbs as well as you have despite not knowing who the real villain is.
  Illivara: Can it be you've come all this way without knowing your enemy? Then it is ignorance that has made you brave.
  • In the sequel, Argesh and the Red Queen of the Hands of Glory turn out to merely be fronts for Aizagora; the Zhentarim are made out to be the enemy when in fact it is Mordoc (and as soon as you recover all the elemental artifacts, in fact, Jherek "discovers" that the Onyx Tower the Harpers were trying to raise to keep it out of the Zhentarim's hands has been taken control of by Mordoc); and one quest, for the Oceanic Urn, has this happen twice—you defeat the pirates only to discover the Urn has been taken into the Sea Temple, and then after you recover it and head back to Baldur's Gate one of the men with you turns out to be The Mole for the Zhentarim and steals it so you must chase him down in Hill's Edge to recover it.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Mordoc causes this in Baldur's Gate when he summons the Onyx Tower in the town. Fortunately, destroying the core of the tower that absorbed all the souls of the people return the whole place back to normal.

---