The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom, he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos will be sown from their passing...
Alaundo's Prophecy
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal is a 2001 expansion pack for Baldur's Gate II, the second game of the Baldur's Gate series. Unlike the expansion pack for the first game, this one continues the saga's main storyline, bringing it to its grand conclusion. It's large enough that some people at BioWare joked that they might as well just call it "Baldur's Gate III".note
The expansion provides examples of the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Near the end of Chapter 8, the party is confronted by a large force of Tethyrian soldiers who reveal that the Player has been wrongly accused of being the one who sacked Saradush and that the Queen of Tethyr herself has placed a massive bounty on his head. This plot point is never brought up again afterwards.
- Affectionate Pickpocket: Played with: Imoen suddenly starts acting all love-struck and swooning around Keldorn, much to his horror (since he is Lawful Good, married, and old enough to be her father). After making him squirm for a bit, Imoen chuckles and gives him his ring back.
- Alignment-Based Endings: There are three endings: Good God, Evil God, and Mortal. Though in one sense the trope is avoided: it is not entirely based on your alignment, or a Last-Second Ending Choice (the choice between God and Mortal is, but not the alignment), but rather by having answered correctly to a series of questions you are asked by a Solar over the course of the expansion. Gave the right answers, you can become a Good God. Didn't give enough right answers, and even if you are a
Lawful Good Reputation 20 Paladin, becoming a god makes you an Evil God. On the other hand, even if you're a Chaotic Evil Blackguard with a Reputation of 1, giving all the right answers makes you a Good God should you choose that path. - Armor Is Useless: Both you and your enemies have so much THAC 0 that almost all attacks automatically hit anyway, doesn't matter if you are naked or wearing full-plate armor made of dragon scale, carrying tower shield and being protected by several spells increasing your AC. What's worse is this: remember that "Immunity to all weapons of +1 enchantment and less" innate bonus that you get from using the Tears of Bhaal on the Helldoor? Guess what enchantment nearly EVERY ENEMY'S WEAPON has in ToB? Yup, +2 at least, and usually +3. Now, considering that +3 weapons are supposed to be quite powerful, rare, and hard to make, why does nearly every shop sell them?
- Artifact Title: As with Shadows of Amn the party doesn't go anywhere near the city of Baldur's Gate at any point.
- Badass Family
- Player's party may become one if you have Imoen and Sarevok in your party. Add one of the eight possible love interests, who are all badass in their own right, and it becomes an extended family, complete with kids if you chose Aerie. By the end of Throne of Bhaal your party is ungodly powerful and takes on an Almost-Goddess Amelyssan. How much more badass can one get?
- The Turnabout mod takes this a step further, as it allows you to add either Gorion or the PC's mother Alianna (who was a priestess of Bhaal and a Deathbringer) to your party for the final battle. Not to mention that Ascension, which is a base component for Turnabout anyway, also lets a good-aligned player recruit Balthazar, adding yet another sibling to the mix.
- Beat Still, My Heart: You have to destroy one (in fact, two) in order to make an enemy vulnerable, allowing you to kill him; the Fire Giant Yaga-Shura has removed his own heart in a ritual cast by his foster mother Nyalee to make him invulnerable then stole her heart as well to keep her under his control.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Most of the bosses fought in Throne of Bhaal are the player character's siblings. They are dead set on murdering them and eventually each other.
- Bonus Dungeon: Watcher's Keep. It has nothing to do with the Bhaalspawn crisis and there's no quest that takes you there (although there is one when you get there), it's just on your map, go do it if you want.
- Breaking Speech: The Master Wraith outside Bhaal's Temple is a master of this. He first takes the form of Gorion and proceed to guilt trip Charname for various things. But that's nothing compared what he'll do to Charname's potential love interest. He will take the form of their lost or supposed lost loved ones and starts guilt tripping them. Even the evil companions are scarred of the experience and Aerie takes it particularly hard, she bursts out crying.
- Cain and Abel: In constrast to BG1, played with for all it's worth in this game, which is more like "Cain and Cain and Cain and Cain and Cain and Abel"... only with Abel murdering all the Cains. And going on to become God.... Maybe.
- Cassandra Truth: Gromnir, raving about how the do-gooder Melissan is really trying to get all the Bhaalspawn killed. If only you were given the opportunity to listen to him...
- City of Adventure: Saradush, although it's a lot smaller than Baldur's Gate or Athkatla. It still features multiple quests to help out it's distressed people, such as a wrongfully convicted soldier and refugees needing shelter.
- Combat by Champion: Happens in one encounter with one of Sendai's drow minions. It's mediated by the Spectator Beholder Charname possibly met in the previous game, who casts a Geas to make sure everyone sticks to the rules and is hoping the drow will lose so he can leave.
- Darker and Edgier: This was already the case between the first and second games, but Throne of Bhaal takes it even further, with entire cities razed to the ground, genocide and more at stake than ever.
- Deconstructor Fleet: Of high or epic-level adventures. This is a high powered adventure where the stakes have never been higher, but the plot also focuses on how normal people would be helpless in this type of adventure as the people of Saradush can attest to. The protagonist has to contend with the fact they are becoming so strong that their humanity and mortality is not set in stone, and the story focuses around how becoming a very powerful player character can affect the people involved.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
- The battle against Demogorgon, the D&D multiverse's most powerful Demon Lord in a straight fight.
- Amelyssan also counts, seeing as how she was almost 99.99% the Goddess of Murder by the time you fought her.
- Considering that the remaining .01% of Murder God is the Player Character, any "normal" monster that manages to kill you might also qualify.
- Escaped from Hell: To quote Sarevok, "I swore I would scratch and crawl my way back into the world of the living, and I. HAVE. DONE IT!! HAHAHAHA!!!". Not mention getting killed TWICE before doing this.
- Eviler than Thou: A Villain Protagonist can make plans to ascend and take Bhaal's place as Lord/Lady of Murder, which most evil companions will encourage them to do (although Dorn and Sarevok have a vested interest in doing so, as they hope to attach themselves to their powerbase). To do this, they first have to take on the six most dangerous Bhaalspawn in Faerun — Illasera, Gromnir Il-Khan, Yaga-Shura, Sendai, Abazigal and Balthazar, including breaking through their armed forces. Finally, once all other Bhaalspawn in the world are either dead or don't want their essence anyway (Imoen), you go toe-to-toe with Amellysan, the treacherous high priestess of Bhaal, finally winning the last of your gathered essence and ascending to godhood.
- Evil Mentor: Nyalee for Yaga-Shura. She wasn't his biological mother (as a quick look at their relative sizes would make clear) but was a priestess of Bhaal and raised him, teaching him dark magic and a desire for power at all costs.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: For a Villain Protagonist, Alaundo's prophecy makes the Bhaalspawn crisis a downplayed version of this. Apparently, even if the Player Character was the worst Bhaalspawn to walk the earth, they would still cause less destruction than the Five would. So the PC's still prophesied to try to stop their plan, whether or not they agree with their goals and methods.
- Fighting a Shadow: Killing Demogorgon frees him from his prison, since he respawns on his home plane.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: The final fight occurs on a different plane.
- Foreshadowing: Although he initially seems like a madman spouting lies, Gromnir basically outlines, in his first and only moment on-screen no less, how Melissan is more than she appears and plotted the downfall of Saradush and his death from the start, among other things; this is because "Melissan" doesn't exist, being merely an alias for Amelyssan, the true Big Bad of ToB.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Until the Enhanced Edition at any rate. Clerics receive a holy symbol at level 25 that functions as a ring and allows them to cast more spells. These symbols are of Lathander, Helm or Talos, depending on alignment. In the player's case, it can be seen as a Pragmatic Adaptation, as you never specify your patron deity during character creation unless you pick a kit, and since the Forgotten Realms have literally hundreds of deities, implementing all of them in the game mechanics just wouldn't be feasible. But it becomes quite jarring when it happens to your party member clerics, who each have established patron deities. Aerie (a wizard/cleric of Baervan Wildwanderer) will receive a symbol of Lathander. Anomen (a fighter/cleric of Helm) will, if he has become Lawful Good, receive a symbol of Lathander instead (especially bad since he will receive a proper holy symbol of Helm if he remains Lawful Neutral). Viconia (a cleric of Shar) will receive either a symbol of Talos or Helm (the latter if her alignment has changed to Neutral) instead (the incredibly uptight and judgemental Helm is probably the last god Viconia would worship, but Talos might have a fighting chance due to his emphasis on chaos and evil). Mods aside, a later patch in the Enhanced Edition changed this to give NPC clerics symbols reflecting the gods they actually worship.
- God's Hands Are Tied: One of the tests in your Pocket Plane has you facing an avatar of Cyric, Bhaal's murderer and the current Lord of Murder. He's there mainly to find out whether you intend to become The Rival for his portfolio. But he also mentions that Ao, the chief deity of the Realms, has taken an interest in the Bhaalspawn crisis, and has forbidden the other gods from interfering. Though the Solar is their agent, the gods only directly intervene once it's clear that Amelyssan is defeated.
- Grand Finale: Throne of Bhaal as a whole, acting as it does as the ending to the Bhaalspawn story with a pretty conclusive ending to the plot.
- Happy Ending Override: When all is said and done the game very much states that Bhaal is gone for good regardless of which ending you choose. Bhaal came back in 2015 with the 5th Edition, meaning that all the hard work you did throughout
the saga simply delayed his return with a few hundred years. (It seems Sendai in her death speech was correct!) All the quest served was to make sure you can have your normal life, but only if you cleanse yourself from the taint in the end and wash your hands off the Bhaalspawn business afterwards. - Hero Antagonist: Balthazar, unlike most of the Bhaalspawn who are trying to seize the former God of Murder's power, is actually trying to rid the world of Bhaal's taint by destroying all other Bhaalspawn and then committing ritual suicide. If you're playing an evil character, he's got a good point. Sadly, if you're good, you can't persuade him that you can handle Bhaal's power without turning evil and he attacks you anyway. Averted with the Ascension mod though, which lets you do precisely that.
- Hurt Foot Hop: Upon seeing the enchanted Rune Hammer, the imp Cespenar relates how his former boss Bhaal the Lord of Murder once dropped a warhammer on his foot and "jumped around and swore for days", kicking Cespenar "all the way to Baator". Cespenar remembers it as a very bad week, all in all.
- Hypocrite: You'll be intercepted by a band of mercenaries after the destruction of Saradush. Some of them are Lathander priests that summons skeletons. Anyone with moderate knowledge of Forgotten Realms deities will know that Lathander, the sun god, is diametrically opposed to undeath. This shouldn't even be possible, because D&D-clerics get their powers from their patron gods, unless they're dual/multiclassing with Mage, but they are wearing armor.Hypocritical Cleric of Lathander: You're an affront to everything I believe in!
- I'm a Humanitarian: Yaga-Shura. Though in fairness he wasn't eating his own species, he's a giant, he eats humanoids.
- Improbable Power Discrepancy: The Tethyrian and Calishite legions and mercenaries, whose rank-and-file footmen carry + 2 magical weapons. Everyone else too; a very minor villain has two wizards working for him who are high enough level to cast Time Stop. That makes them higher level than the legendary hero Drizzt Do'Urden in the last game.
- Instant Allegiance Artifact: The Helm of Opposite Alignment. As one might expect it flips the alignment of anyone that pits it on to the opposite of what it was, i.e. Chaotic Good to Lawful Evil. True Neutral characters are immune, as there isn't an opposite alignment to switch them to, they're in the dead centre of the axis.
- Item Crafting: Cespenar will create items for you if you bring the required components/pieces and enough money.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Besides the Superpowered Evil Side and lots of people who are suspicious of you, there's the fact that the prophecy forces Charname to confront the Five. In addition, some of your good-aligned party members will express concern about the prophecy's implication that, since you're one of the most powerful Bhaalspawn, you will cause massive destruction to the Sword Coast. (It turns out being the Chosen One in this case means exactly not that, though: even if you're evil, you're the lesser evil, and the destruction will only happen if you fail.)
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: This banter:Keldorn: No matter what path Charname chooses, I fear it will be a journey awash in blood.Haer'Dalis: Aye, we are but mere players in this tragedy, reading our lines from a grim and heavy script. Though I myself still hold out hope for a happy ending.
- Mook Horror Show: As Charname and company make their way through Sendai's base, we're treated to several cutscenes where Sendai tells a general that You Have Outlived Your Usefulness and reaches deep into her bag of tricks to find something to stop you.
- Move in the Frozen Time: several beings close to divinity are immune to the D&D Time Stop spell's effects, most notably Balthazar the monk and Amelyssan, the final boss of the expansion. This is justified by them having almost ascended to godhood by the time you meet them, given how full deities also ignore mere mortal magic like the Time Stop.
- Multiple Endings: For the PC, as some of the NPCs. The PC can either become a good or evil god (depending on their responses to the Solar's questions about their intentions or they can reject godhood and remain a mortal, free of the Bhaalspawn taint. Romancable party members can get different endings if they are romanced and some of the Enhanced Edition party members can get different endings based on if you complete their quests (and how you complete them).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The battle against Demogorgon, in which defeating him results in sending him back to his home plane of existence rather than re-sealing him in his prison. Whoops. Hey, at least he's not terrorizing the Material Plane, which is what would've happened if you didn't stop him.
- Old Save Bonus: The savefile from Shadows of Amn can be imported, allowing for a seamless transition of character level, abilities and any inventory that is carried over in a Bag of Holding. Completing Amn with certain character decisions is also reflected in the gameplay (for instance, if you romanced Aerie, her character model is changed to reflect her carrying around the player character's child!) and it is also the only way to hear certain companion NPC sounds that aren't present otherwise.
- Optional Boss: Demogorgon. Note that the Bonus Dungeon harboring him also features two bosses (a Demi-Lich and a dragon) who are totally optional inside the Bonus Dungeon.
- Peninsula of Power Leveling:
- The town surrounded by giants has a spot on the ramparts where unseen giants cannot harm you but can be auto-attacked by a character set with a ranged offensive action script. Equip all the infinite ranged ammo items you have, set those characters to auto-attack and go watch a movie. When you come back, you will have max experience on all characters.
- The slave tunnel in Sendai's Enclave. Infinite numbers of derros and orogs will attack you until you procedd to actually fight your way through the tunnel. Many yeilds 10 000 XP each and should be easy enough to take out at that point. Even better: Well placed Cloudkill and similar spells will kill large amound in short order, enough for you to reach multiple levels or maybe even max out.
- Permanently Missable Content: If you choose to play Watcher's Keep in Amn, collect enough rare components or weapons, stash them at your stronghold and fail to have them with you when the team is sucked down to Hell, you're never going to get them back, robbing you of potentially great weapons/armor like the Flail of Ages +5, White Dragon Scale, Wondrous Gloves or the Helm of the Rock.
- Philosophical Choice Endings: Once you've defeated the Final Boss, the ending you choose is based on whether you take Bhaal's essence or not. As noted under Alignment-Based Endings, the type of god you could become depends on how you answered the Solar's questions. While Good party members encourage you to stay mortal and Evil party members will do the opposite, you can just as easily ascend as a Good power — though it's left an open question on whether you'll stay that way, because Power Corrupts.
- Pixel Hunt: Softened from previous games: hold the "tab" key, and every item and hiding place on the screen will be highlighted. Then came the mod that allowed the first game to use the second game's engine...
- Porn Stash: A banter between Anomen and Imoen reveals that the Radiant Heart donated a book to Candlekeep that turned out to be this, and that Imoen sneaked a peek at it. Depending on whether and how you resolved Anomen's personal quest in the first game, he'll either take exception to this, or snark that the Prelate gave it as a present after being finished with it.
- Promoted to Playable: Sarevok, despite being killed in the first game. The player character cannot escape the Pocket Plane and he'll only do so if they or Imoen share a tiny part of their soul to allow him to come Back from the Dead. While no longer a Bhaalspawn himself so locked out of becoming the new god of murder he still wants to see how it all turns out so offers to join the party.
- Prophecy Twist: The Bhaalspawn are prophesied to bring great destruction to the Sword Coast...but, according to the Solar, that's only what will happen if Charname fails to stop the Five. A Good-aligned PC can express relief at this.
- Save Scumming: There's a spoof reload sequence when an NPC party charges at the player only for a fake reload to occur when the protagonist party butchers all of them, by which then they leave peacefully. Comically it's as if the creators acknowledged this element of the game of continual reloading.
- Schmuck Bait: By the docks in Saradush, your party can find a woman in black killing several people. Turns out she's another Bhaalspawn who can kill with a touch. When she sees you, she tells you that she can free you from your life of pain and suffering. You can select a dialogue option that eagerly accepts her offer... which promptly results in a Total Party Kill.
- Sequel Hook: Averted in the vanilla game, but can be incorporated through mods. The standard BG series storyline is a perfect example of how to wrap up a plot so completely that there is practically no way to continue it without feeling forced. But David Gaider's Ascension mod, in addition to its gameplay changes, restores epilogue text that was written but not implemented in game. The romance endings all indicate that CHARNAME's offspring with their chosen love interest (including Jaheira, who doesn't have children in the vanilla ending) grow up to become adventurers as prolific as their parents are. This was probably scrapped when Bioware realized how corny that would be as a basis for a sequel.
- Shapeshifting Squick: The sheer range of creatures which show up claiming to be Bhaalspawn is... well, it raises some interesting questions about what the God of murder was doing while "walking the earth". Everything from humans to dragons to werechinchillas. Considering that he foresaw his death while walking the earth and decided the best thing to do is sire as many kids as possible, to use their essence as a springboard back to life, it makes perfect sense.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Parodied with the three rookie adventurers you can run into, who convince themselves they're good enough to slaughter you for your awesome treasure. One (cut scene) Slayer change and about five seconds later, they're dead (only to then "reload" and try just talking to you).
- Take That!: Cespenar makes an off-hand comment about running out of recipes and needing to find "Martha
", who's somewhere around in Hell. - Teleport Interdiction: The siege of Saradush is complemented by a magic field that blocks teleportation out of the city. Certain special means bypass this, including the Player Character's ability to shift to another plane. But even the player's party is limited by this, because they can only shift back to the Material Plane inside Saradush or at a considerable distance from it; the time it takes for them to approach it from the outside becomes a plot point.
- There Can Be Only One: Essentially, the climactic scene of Throne of Bhaal. Many of the Bhaalspawn want to seize the titular Throne of Bhaal and become a god but they can only do so once every other Bhaalspawn is either dead or has found a way to remove their Bhaalspawn taint.
- To Be Lawful or Good: A minor example with Marlowe's quest in Amkethran. He begs you to stop a lich from stealing his daughter Malla's soul, but, as it turns out, the lich took Malla's soul because Marlowe owes his own. You can either choose to let Marlowe give his soul to the lich, or double-cross the lich and kill him after he gives you Malla's soul. While the first choice is Lawful, the second is Good (and you get more XP for it). You could also take Malla's soul for yourself and use it as a powerful ioun stone, but the game makes you feel like a heel for doing this, and the item is only useful for Neutral or Evil characters anyway.
- Ultimate Blacksmith: The imp Cespenar, a former servant of Bhaal, can turn already legendary items into even stronger versions.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Even in the midst of hunting down Bhaalspawn, you can still do plenty of good deeds for random townspeople, making the city of Amkethran in particular a better place.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential:
- Now you can abuse everything from chinchillas to Solars!
- Of course, there's ample opportunity for this during the romances, all the way up to kicking Aerie to the curb after you've knocked her up.
- The game allows you to summon characters to the party that didn't travel with you from Shadows of Amn; they get a set of slightly better equipment and are upgraded to 2,500,000 XP. This is handwaved by your ability to touch the fates of others connected to you, especially potential party members. Of course, once you summon them, many of them are none too thrilled that you've yanked them away from whatever they've been doing. And once you've summoned them, you can insult many of them and make it very clear that you've got them over a barrel.
- Vocal Evolution: Some characters don't sound quite the same in Throne of Bhaal.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: You can't stop Yaga-Shura from razing Saradush, nor can you stop Melissan's plan to kill all the Bhaalspawn until it's only you and (possibly) Imoen left.)
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Once the Pocket Plane is destroyed at the start of the endgame, the Solar states that she will return any companion(s) left there back to where they were before, but unlike those in your party they won't be given an epilogue. There's a mod that allows you to watch the left behind character's epilogue right before you choose your ending, however.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Balthazar. His methods of preventing Bhaal's resurrection are questionable, which he admits if you call him out. He also wants you killed because you're a Bhaalspawn and you won't be able to convince him that you want the same as him, even if you're Lawful Good with 20 reputation, unless you play with the Ascension Mod. He will, however, admit that you're as much as a victim in this conflict as he is.
