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For Siege of Dragonspear, see Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear. For the largely-unrelated third game, see Baldur's Gate III.


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    A to G 
  • Abandon Shipping: Any amorous ideas you may have had about Imoen in the first game are likely to get shot down in the sequel when it's revealed she is also a child of Bhaal. However, it is highly unlikely she and the player character are actually biologically related (the player character can be of a completely different species, after all), so it didn't stop everyone, and at least two Imoen romance mods were made.
  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: As unpopular as Khalid was with many players, most found his death between games a bit of a Player Punch.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Bodhi. Is she a simple-minded monster, tunnel-visioned on getting her next fix of blood and carnage, or a surprisingly lucid killer whose machinations are solely responsible for the systematic downfall of an underworld organization that dwarfs her own?
    • A budding theory on the forums is that the Solar from ToB was actually lying to the player about their past and the parts Gorion, their mother and Sarevok played in it, among other things, manipulating them towards a prearranged outcome.
    • On a similar note, a few players have raised eyebrows about the nobility of Gorion saving Charname and only Charname, especially when several Harpers are shown to violently dislike Bhaalspawn. The leading ACI is that he adopted the player out of pragmatism, as part of a Harper plan to track the progression of the Bhaalspawn Crisis, but came to genuinely love Charname as time went on.
    • Dorn. Sure, he's evil, but was he destined to be that way, or were there circumstances beyond his control that forced him into a corner? He's not treacherous and he's pretty honest about what he does. Certainly in the first game it's not tough to feel bad for him when his old companions are such jerks (and have some pretty good equipment too).
    • Irenicus' abrupt execution of two elven prisoners he'd planned to interrogate gets some of this. Was he that offended that one of them recognized who he was? Or was he trying to conceal his elven ancestry from his drow allies, who were watching the whole thing?
  • Aluminium Christmas Trees: Giant space hamsters actually are a thing that exists in the wider tabletop D&D. Maybe Minsc is not quite as loopy as he seems?
  • Angst? What Angst?:
    • Like most of the cast, Mazzy has quite a tragic backstory, but despite seeing her former adventuring companions turned into horrid undead monsters, and feeling responsible for their deaths, she's remarkably un-angsty about it.
    • Imoen. The girl goes through torture, losing her soul, and discovering the truth of her heritage, but seldom complains.
    • Charname, depending on how you play them. Faces the same stuff as Imoen, with the added bonus of turning into the Slayer at random times and being wanted dead by pretty much everyone, but they can be rather nonchalant about it.
  • Awesome Music: Plenty.
  • Base-Breaking Character: Many, many characters have incited this, with many people even changing their opinion of certain characters over the course of the game:
    • Jaheira, especially as of the second game. Is she an overly nosy woman who pries into other people's business even though she has no right to do so? Is she the Only sane person in Athkathla, trying to restore some sense of order and decency in a Wretched Hive? A tragic widow, who overworks herself in order to deal with and forget the loss of her husband (and, optionally, her attraction to the protagonist)? The fandom has very differing views on her.
    • Xan is a particularly divisive example. While many find his pessimistic attitude hilarious, there are also some who feel that it makes him rather pathetic as a character and bogs down the player's morale. There is also some segment of the fanbase that considers him a Low-Tier Letdown because due to being an Enchanter, he can't cast the popular Invocation spells Magic Missile and Fireball, among others. His Moonblade, while cool, also isn't particularly useful in his hands, because as a mage with miserable health, Xan is the party member that you'll want to keep away from the frontline.
    • Jan, naturally. Many players consider him the outstanding example of Crazy is Cool in the series, and his behavior funny beyond everything else. Others find his tall tales to be bizarre and irritating, and consider him an annoyance who needs to be permanently silenced with a Power Word.
    • Haer'Dalis: Although almost universally considered superior to Garrick and Eldoth from the previous game, some players don't think he fits his role as a Magic Knight as well as he should. He has neither the THAC0, attacks per round or hit points of a warrior, nor the higher level spells of a wizard, and his class-specific special abilities, while powerful in effect, only last for four rounds (24 seconds, i. e. too short to properly use them on more than one or two enemies, and sometimes even for that). Others argue that his wide array of defensive buffs, illegal extra point in short swords, and excellent Strength and Dexterity more than make up for those discrepancies, and that his special abilities and pickpocketing skills make him very versatile.
    • Aerie, whose intense hatred seems to primarily stem from a Vocal Minority. On the one hand, her romance arc does involve her being a little whiny, mostly because most of it was cut for time constraints, making her seem like something of a Broken Record and her detractors really do not feel like catering to her justified whining, pointing out that she was being insensitive to other party members or even the player character that have gone through similar or worse trauma for longer and able to deal with it silently. That said, most the players seem to like her just fine, and her romance seems to be rather popular, too. It helps that she receives a lot of character development over the course of the game and Takes a Level in Badass by the end of Shadows of Amn, or that they have more patience in her first bouts of whining and managing to find value in it once they got past it.
    • Minsc, the unofficial mascot of the series, is starting to reach this point as well. While many people still enjoy his boisterous personality, a great deal of others dislike how one-dimensional he is and having Bioware bring him back and shove him down their throats instead of some of the more interesting characters.
    • The Enhanced Edition characters. They all occupy niches that the original cast didn't, so none of them are really redundant, and they all have their own storylines to work through, none of which feel like rehashes of the original cast's personal quests. On the other hand, some people think that they are a bit overpowered — Dorn, Baeloth and Hexxat in particular — and there is debate about how memorable they are and how well they fit in with the rest of the cast. A particularly contentious point about the new characters is that some feel the writers tried too hard to make them sympathetic to the player.note 
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Some of the dungeons contain subareas that disconnect with the rest of the area. For instance, an entire illithid stronghold is found just beneath the Temple District sewers, which can only be opened by a key dropped from a boss far away in Windspear Hills. The purpose of the illithids is never mentioned in game.
  • Breather Boss: Winski's Cambion in the first game. After a dungeon full of Demonic Spiders and deathtraps, facing a boss whose only tactic is simply to charge into melee combat is surprisingly refreshing.
  • Catharsis Factor: Right after you freed Nalia, you are given a short time frame to force-attack Isaea Roenall. If you are well prepared and quick enough, you can basically kill him or turn him into Ludicrous Gibs, with no Reputation penalty. Granted, if you take Nalia along and reach the end of Throne of Bhaal, it was revealed that the killing does not count since Nalia would be the one to bring him down 'by the book', but still, after his utterly smug and condescending attitude that insults bastards everywhere towards you, it's nice to break his skull without repercussion! There is absolutely no incentive or reward for doing this except that you just feel like it and annoyed at his asshole attitude.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
    • There is a strong tendency among players of Shadows of Amn to avoid certain class kits and dual-/multi-class combinations for their main character, even though said classes aren't Low Tier Letdowns at all, because the game provides the player with said classes in the form of NPCs who are of that class, or close enough to it. This is probably why Fighter/Druid (Jaheira already is one), Inquisitor (Keldorn already does a good job of it) or Thief/Mage (Imoen, Nalia and Jan already are of that class) Charnames are relatively rare. After all, why make your own Stalker when the game already gives you Valygar, who has pretty good stats, a great weapon selection and comes with an unique piece of armor that a Charname Stalker can't wear? This is especially noticeable in the case of the single-class mage which, although widely considered to be a very solid and also interesting and amusing class to play in both games, is avoided like the plague by some players, because they're convinced that they couldn't do anything as a mage which Edwin couldn't do just as well or better. Players who still wish to try out a wizard will thus instead opt either for the popular Fighter/Mage or a Sorcerer. The main reason to choose a class kit or combination that already has a dedicated NPC is to avoid the irreconcilable personality conflicts such characters often have and avoid being forced to choose certain quest paths or dialogue options those NPCs may force the player into (especially Keldorn, who can have up to five people he can't share the party with and several moments where he either forces the player onto certain paths or leaves the party for good if they don't choose others).
    • Try to find a player who ever made a Fighter/Mage. It'll always be a Kensai/Mage instead. By the same token, a Kensai who doesn't dual class, or dual classing into a cleric or druid, is almost unheard of.
    • Players who use Keldorn but don't use Carsomyr are also extremely rare. After all, the fact he's the only party member who can use it without the High-Level Ability Use Any Item is considered his biggest selling point. So much so, in fact, that the fact that he also happens to be the only NPC in the second game who starts out able to use Longswords, which are considered the most versatile weapon, is often not even mentioned!
    • Min-Maxing your character stats in both games. Some game guides even deem it outright necessary. This is because having high character stats grants nice bonuses, while the penalties bestowed by low stats are considered trivial or even non-existent, as those are not very important if you're traveling with a full party. While in theory having a Charisma score of 3 means that you are about as appealing as a Zombie, in practice most quests can still be completed, most people can still talked to, and your party can still be filled with companions, and in the few cases when the engine measures your Charisma stat, you can simply switch your party leader for a more charismatic person (in particular, the first person to join your party in both games, Imoen, has very good Charisma). It's even more popular in the second, because a dungeon that can be entered early on gives you a magic ring that immediately sets your Charisma to 18.
  • Complete Monster: See here.
  • Crazy is Cool:
    • Minsc, a heroic version of the Psychopathic Manchild who loves children, believes his pet hamster talks to him and instructs him on what to do, and relishes flying into berserker rages so he can chop people apart and imprint his bootprints to the buttocks of evildoers. FOR JUSTICE!!
    • Also Korgan. Especially in the epilogue, where he murders a dwarven clan-leader, seizes control of the clan by blaming it on the drow, and leads them to a bloody crusade that ends up with him committing suicide to crush an entire cavern's worth of drow.
    Epilogue: Korgan was last seen burying his axe in the gullet of a High Priestess of Lolth, laughing as he struck. Dwarwen legend immortalized the image, and his bloodlust is now called a crusade. History, it seems, finds more heroes than madmen.
  • Creepy Awesome: Bodhi and her vampire/zombie guild.
  • Cry for the Devil:
    • Sarevok inspires some of this when you realise that he and Charname could have easily ended up in swapped positions or even as siblings if Gorion had rescued him instead/as well. The player can be/is a hero because they had a loving, accommodating father figure in Gorion and a source of sibling love and friendship in Imoen; after his loving foster mother was murdered (in front of him, no less), Sarevok had no one like that in his life.
    • The Five inspire this as well, some members more than others, though to a much lesser extent. They all have a handful of Woobie-points because Bhaal hated them and wanted them dead just as much as the rest of his children, but it's harder to feel sorry for them than Sarevok (or any of the Jerkass Woobie characters listed below for that matter) since they don't, as a rule, have a context or backdrop for their evil deeds because we don't know about any personal hardships or struggles they may have faced before the events of Throne of Bhaal. However, there are moments — for example, if as a good-aligned player you plead with Balthazar that you're just a victim of circumstance and your unwanted heritage, he replies, "I know. So am I."
  • Demonic Spiders:
    • Beholders and Mind Flayers. They're both extremely dangerous as Beholders can bombard you with highly destructive spells and Mind Flayers can stun you and eat your brain (if your INT score reaches 0, you instantly die). To make matters worse, they're often in groups.
    • Umber Hulks also fit into this category, as despite having an easily exploited Weaksauce Weaknessnote ) they are exceedingly fast and their ability to stun targets at a distance can easily cripple a party if you're unlucky, low-level or ill-prepared.
    • Sirines who cast dire charm and cause chaos in the party. To make matters worse, they also shoot arrows of biting. Plus, they love to stick in groups with their Sirine Queen. Not fun at all.
    • Vampires. Especially those in Athkatla's streets if you haven't bought magic licence by the Cowled Wizards. They can level drain you unless you're protected by spells or items and can Mind Control you.
    • Vampiric Wolves are a rare yet dangerous type of wolf. They are immune to normal weapons, steal your health, and have a chance to paralyze you. If you encounter these without any magical weapons or powers, you're going to have a tough time.
    • Hell, any undead with the Level Drain ability. The status effect stacks and if you reach Level 0, you die.
    • Liches. They have a lot of protective spells at their disposal and can and will bombard you with spells.
    • For that matter, any sufficiently high-level mage, unless you manage to dispel his weapon protections quickly.
    • Drow. They often come in groups, has high magic resistance and and are difficult to hit, thanks to their AC. Their priestesses also cast Blade Shield and Confusion, making it literally a pain to take them head-on.
    • Adamantite Golems, who tower above all other types of Golem in their sheer ability to both deal and resist damage. They can only be hit with +3 or higher weapons, have 90% resistance to physical attacks and full resistance to magical attacks. This combination makes mages useless (unless you use spells to lower their magical resistance) while melee characters are at high risk of getting killed.
  • Die for Our Ship: Jaheira gets some of this in the fandom, as a large number of players prefer Aerie or Viconia to her both in terms of their personalities and gameplay, and that's if they don't just use a Game Mod for their personal Fan-Preferred Couple.
  • Draco in Leather Pants:
    • Edwin is the poster child for this trope in the BG community. A very popular and high-quality mod exists that features a romance.
    • Viconia's fanboys tend to forget or handwave her evil actions and attitude.
    • Dorn. Many like to push away the fact that he's a super evil blackguard and a mass murderer, as he's rather handsome for a half-orc and has a sympathetic backstory. Alternatively, some like him precisely because of his evilness.
    • A lot of fans like to play up Irenicus' tragic backstory and feel more sympathetic towards him than to the elves he slaughtered. While he is sympathetic, he did mostly bring it upon himself.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Companions:
      • Imoen, in sort of an inversion of a Creator's Pet. The writers wrote her in at the last minute due to feedback about the early game of the first game being too challenging — in fact, she has no banter dialogue and all her voice barks are spliced together from another, cut NPC! The developers wanted to kill her off in the second game, but she was so popular with fans that they reconsidered.
      • Kagain was difficult to find back in the day but his extremely high Constitution and ability to wear the best armour made him best tank in the first game, which gave him lasting popularity. He's also just mildly evil, making him popular even to good aligned parties.
      • Paladins tend not to be particularly popular characters in these types of stories, being cartoonishly uptight, cardboard Knights In Shining Armor most of the time, but lots of players feel Keldorn's a well-written character who retains the essence of the character type while subverting the flatter and more stereotypical aspects of it. There are even mods making him a possible romance option!
      • Viconia because (1) she's the Ms. Fanservice and (2) she's the game's best healer.
      • For many, Edwin, who is amusingly over-the-top in his grumpiness and who, two games, two expansions and a revamped edition on, still reigns as the king of arcane spellcasting as he is virtually min-maxed out of the box to fling death spells with impunity.
      • Among the Enhanced Edition companions, Dorn seem to the most popular, because of his usefulness, largely averting half-orc stereotypes and having Evil Is Cool written all over him.
      • Clara, the woman you 'meet' as Hexxat, has garnered a surprising number of fans, thanks to her heartbreaking plea to be spared right before Hexxat kills her and the little information given about her backstory being plain depressing. Quite a few bemoan that you can't save her, and are hoping for a mod or DLC that makes her recruitable.
    • NPC's:
      • The Spectator Beholder. A non-evil Beholder is bound to get attention. It helps that he's cartoonishly snarky, flunks being an evil minion and even seems rather fond of the player.
      • Solaufein from the Underdark arc. He's well-liked for being a good-aligned Manipulative Bastard and many fans lamented that he wasn't a recruitable NPC, and a good-quality mod exists to make him just that.
      • Also another enemy, perhaps the Master Wraith deserves mention. By all means, his role in the game is something of a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere when you're trying to face off Yaga-Shura. However, he's such a master of Break Them by Talking that he brings gut-wrenching dialogues with your romance options that really make him stand out.
    • Misc:
      • Lilarcor isn't even an NPC. He's a flavor weapon that gained so much popularity that the fans treated him as a core party member and created mods which let him interact with the world around him. There's even a mod out for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind which lets you use him.
  • Even Better Sequel: For many, Baldur's Gate II is far and away one of the most uncontested examples of this trope. The game was not only smoother, but added features to make it easier to find things such as chests, centralized a lot of the character recruitment, and had a lot more interaction between characters.
  • Evil Is Cool: Sarevok and Irenicus are widely considered to be among the coolest characters in the series. Playable characters like Korgan and Xzar are pretty cool as well.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • "Charname"note  for the Bhaalspawn; kensage for a dual-classed kensai/mage; swashy for a swashbuckler.
    • "Abduh", for the novel protagonist Abdel Adrian. Emphasis on the "duh".
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Fans of the games are generally of the opinion that the novels don't exist. Mainly due to the novels making the plot more generic and the novel's characters being less interesting and far less likable than their game counterparts, which is compounded by the third book going out of its way to callously kill off any remaining party members. Another sore point is the protagonist of the novels, a generic male human fighter whom the fans see as a Designated Hero and all-around Jerkass.
  • Fashion-Victim Villain:
    • Irenicus and Bodhi. His outfit somehow manages to combine leather bondage harness, a high collar, and enough empty space to show off much of his muscled body. He looks so ridiculous that it's a good thing he's such a powerful spellcaster and Chessmaster, because otherwise he'd be impossible to take seriously. Her outfit looks fit for a dominatrix/sex fiend, which makes no sense because Bodhi is a sexless creature. Of course given that neither of them has a soul, you could argue that they've stopped caring about their appearance, especially since they have more pressing issues to deal with.
    • Fire giants in Throne of Bhaal, who look like big beardos in t-shirts, kilts and booties. It can be difficult to take them seriously with models like that.
  • Fountain of Memes: Almost every party member (and even some NPCs) has reached this status among the fanbase, but Minsc is the one who even people outside of the active fandom tend to be able to quote.
  • Game-Breaker: Has its own page.
  • Gateway Series: It was this to many people for western RPGs. Especially the second game.
  • Goddamned Bats:
    • Kobold commandoes have been the bane of low-level adventurers thanks to their arrows of fire. You meet them in the Firewine dungeon and they respawn constantly.
    • Myconids, in BG2. Stupidly annoying confusion spell.
  • Good Bad Bug:
    • The "talk-fight" bug. Keep trying to initiate dialogue with a non-hostile character without ever actually talking to them and they won't go hostile… even as the remaining five members of the party are tearing them a new one. Only works on some very specific characters, however. This bug can also be used on certain quest characters, allowing for multiple quest reward returns (mainly XP).
    • Another bug can have you have an absurd amount of gems. You can use this bug to sell the gems as early as Chapter 2, making you filthy rich.
    • Due to an oversight, multiclassed Ranger/Clerics receive all available Druid spells instead of just the ones Rangers are supposed to.
    • Striking enemies with the Rod of Terror a.k.a. "The Ugly Stick" has a chance to lower your charisma permanently by one and can kill you via charisma drain. However, if you don the Ring of Human Influence, which sets one's charisma to exactly 18, when your charisma is one and then lose another point it causes the charisma stat to wrap back around from 1 to 25. Upon removing the ring you're suddenly the most likable person in Faerun.
    • Because of an error in the way Dual-Classing was coded, Yoshimo is able to set an infinite number of traps without resting. Since traps were already overpowered to begin with, this makes him, needless to say, ridiculously powerful.
    • More than any other character, Haer'Dalis benefits from equipping the Ring of Free Action. Since powerful abilities that root the user to the spot (such as his defensive spin) were coded in the same way movement-restricting Status Effects were, he can move around while in defensive spin if he's wearing it.
    • Some shopkeepers might sell you items for less than they'd buy. You can thus buy and sell the same goods over and over until you're filthy rich.
    • It is possible to not only keep holding onto a weapon in your off-hand while polymorphed (as long as you equip the weapon before transforming), but you also receive no THAC0 penalties in that state! This is especially useful as it grants an extra attack per round. This Bug is particularly helpful for classes who may rely a lot on Shapeshifting (such as the Shapeshifter kit).
    • Buffing spells were for gameplay purposes coded so as to bypass all spell protections and magic resistance. Now, but if said buffing spells bestow an effect on the target that harms rather than benefits it, you can essentially make your enemies hilariously weak with buffing spells: Have a nasty enemy with high magic resistance? Cast Magic Resistance (level 5 divine spell) on them, and their resistance will be set to 2 * your caster's level, i. e. maximally 40%, and you just saved a whole bunch of Lower Resistance spells. Staring down a Fire Giant, an Iron Golem or Red Dragon, and wish your warriors could fight it with less risk of being bludgeoned to death. Cast Strength (level 2 arcane spell) on it, and suddenly the enemy is no stronger than Kivan. Fighting a demon with ridiculously low AC, so your warriors can't even hit the enemy? Barkskin (level 2 divine spell) sets it's Armor class to a minimum of 1…
    • The infinite XP spot in northeast Saradush, where your ranged fighters can safely kill an unseen Fire Giant which instantly respawns. Arm them with weapons with unlimited ammo, and you can make over a million XP an hour.
  • Growing the Beard: The original Baldur's Gate was a decent game. But Shadows of Amn had: Extremely solid writing; less empty areas for the player to get lost in; an interface update to let the game run smoother and highlight treasure chests; central locations to send NPCs not currently in use; and, as normal for 2nd edition D&D, wasn't as randomly hard once the player had some levels under their belt.

    H to N 
  • He Really Can Act: Those who were still skeptical of Mark Meer's acting talent had those doubts put to rest after his genuinely strong performances as the conflicted Rasaad and very humorous Baeloth.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: When the party is inside underground levels, one of Aerie's random lines her people have a legend about Avariels living in a subterrean area, commenting it doesn't make sense (they're winged elves). At one point in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdarknote , you explore an Avariel city which has been transported in Underdark.
  • Ho Yay:
    • Particularly in the second game, there's a certain… subtext… to the things Xzar says about Montaron, despite his stated dislike for him.
    • There's oodles in the second game of this, such as between Keldorn and Minsc, or Keldorn and Korgan.
  • Iron Woobie: Mazzy, who loses her entire adventuring party to a shade, including her true love Patrick, but pauses only for a few moments to build a memorial to them before she dries her eyes and sets forth with the player to further adventure and excitement.
  • It Was His Sled: The fact that the Player Character is a child of the dead murder god Bhaal was a fairly major twist in the original game. In the sequel it is revealed right away in the intro, and since the sequel ended up being one of the most beloved games of all time it is now common knowledge even among people who haven't played the games.
    • The very first thing anybody who has played through Shadows of Amn will tell you about Yoshimo is that he is the resident Crutch Character and that he will die halfway through the story. Most character guides (and some sections on this very wiki) don't even bother to spoil it.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Viconia is a huge jerk towards encounters and companions alike (not to mention Aerie), but she's often harassed herself, mostly because she's a drow and not because of her attitude.
    • Dorn, overlapping with Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. Sure, he's a blackguard and a mass murderer, but all his life he's been on the receiving end of anti-half-orc prejudice. Even in-game, good characters attempting to criticize or denounce him always address or describe him by his race rather than his class kit, as if being a half-orc is somehow more evil than being a blackguard! Speaking of which, his initial motivation for becoming a blackguard in the first place was a betrayal by those he considered his friends, which leaves him constantly on guard and distrustful of everyone, and willing to call the player a fool if they're even a little less cynical than he is.
    • Jaheira. She is occasionally rude and/or condescending towards other party members, but it's largely because of losing Khalid, her husband and soulmate, and perhaps lingering memories of losing her friend Gorion, and she always apologizes after being exceptionally rude.
    • Tamoko. She wasn't exactly a good guy, but she just wanted the man she loved to give up trying to become a god and stay with her instead. Their relationship ended with him telling her to throw herself on Charname's sword.
    • Solaufein and Phaere. On one hand, Soluafein is an arrogant and rude jerk who often comes across as needlessly contrarian or argumentative, while Phaere is a cruel little bitch who treats the player like her own personal errand boy/girl and engages in a few minor but bizarrely spiteful and low-down acts; on the other hand, even before you learn that Solaufein is a deep-cover Eilistraeen drow who believes his people can be redeemed, the sheer amount of shit Solaufein has to put up with as a hapless male stuck in Lady Land inspires some pity, which is made worse when you realise he puts up with it all for the good of his mission, and when you learn that Phaere used to be a better person, not to mention a better girlfriend, until Lolth's handmaidens tortured her kindness and love out of her, leaving only cruelty and ambition, it's almost impossible not to take pity on her, and when you eventually have to kill her, even Solaufein's delicious dose of Laser-Guided Karma feels more like a Mercy Kill than anything else.
    • The silver dragon Adalon is very imperious and bitchy, and is pretty rude even if you are completely polite to her. She's still Lawful Good, and is pretty sympathetic when you know her story her husband died some time ago, her eggs have been stolen by the Drow, and her whole "job" is nearly impossible (keeping the drow and surface elves from fighting.)
  • Late Character Syndrome: Sarevok. Sure, he comes with the strength of an adult ogre, the agility of a demon, almost as much health as a Red Dragon, and more intelligence than some of your mages, a Critical Hit which automatically does 200 damage and on top of that he has no party member conflicts (unless you play the Enhanced Edition) and is the only companion who won't leave you, no matter your reputation. He also comes at a point in the story when you are very likely to have a full party which you have already grown attached to...
  • Les Yay:
    • Unexpectedly, Skie has some rather… interesting things to say to Shar-Teel if you have them in the same party.
    Skie: You're a good friend./I feel safe with you in the party./I think you're a beautiful person.
    Shar-Teel: Flattery will get you nowhere.
    • And in SoA, Aerie carries the stick for the women. Most of her conversations are with other women, she chuckles to a female Charname that it's nice to have a woman in charge since "men always steal the blankets" and she has a rather suspect line where she nervously tells Jaheira the light makes her hair look pretty.
    • Hexxat openly flirts with Viconia, even attempting to seduce her. Viconia gives as good as she gets for a while, but eventually makes it clear she's not interested.
  • Love to Hate: Sarevok and Irenicus. Players admire them for being serious badasses and brilliant schemers and feel sorry for them because of their fairly sympathetic backgrounds, but most acknowledge that they are both dangerous villains still and absolutely have to be stopped. Sarevok's popularity only increased in ToB, where he not only joins your party, but has the chance to redeem himself.
    • To a lesser extent, the Five. They have very little screen-time or characterisation, so most players remember them solely for the challenging boss fights they put up. In fact, the Ascension mod was created solely to make them all even tougher.
  • Low-Tier Letdown:
    • Druids are often seen as bad in the second game, as they are considered to be massively Overshadowed by Awesome compared to Clerics. Their level progression is massively slower, they get the shaft in selection of usable armor, shields, weapons and especially spells and their class-specific special ability of Voluntary Shapeshifting into a low-level animal a few times a day is pretty much useless compared to the Cleric's ability to Turn Undead whenever they like, which is very useful. The Druid's only advantage over the Cleric that is mostly acknowledged is the spells Summon Insects and its upgraded forms Insect Plague and Creeping Doom, which make enemies much easier to deal with through lowering their stats and shutting down spellcasting abilities, yet even then many suggest the player simply take Jaheira if they want to use it. A number of prominent Game Mods offer the ability to bring them more in line with clerics, offering improved shapeshifting and better spell progression.
    • Wizard Slayers are not exactly well liked. They can fight wizards well enough, but their severe item restriction makes them rather weak against anything else. And Inquisitors are often considered superior when it comes to the wizard slaying business.
    • Garrick and especially Eldoth are usually ignored by being pure Bards in a game filled with combat. While some players can get some usage from them if they are doing mageless runs, and Garrick's high Dexterity gives him utility in pickpocketing and ranged weapons, players find little use for them outside of unconventional party setups.
    • Quayle is often left out because of his poor stat distribution. He has the lowest total stats of any companion in the original games, and his low wisdom score of 10 in particular severely limits his spellcasting as a multi-class Cleric/Illusionist. Further harming his usefulness is how late you have to wait to recruit him (Chapter Five), as you will likely already have the party you intent to take through the rest of the game.
    • Nalia in BG2 is considered bad by many players mainly for being a copy of Imoen who trades Wisdom for Strength and has poorer thief skills, all of which makes her less useful as both a spellcaster and thief compared to Imoen or Jan Janson.
    • Cernd is widely regarded as the worst BG2 companion by far. He already has a strike against him for packing the Shapeshifter Druid kit, considered one of the most useless kits in the game due to its weak Werewolf form and restricts wearing any armor at all. His stat distribution is also exceedingly poor for his class. Being a fighting Druid, he is overall far worse at the job than Jaheira and will struggle to make an impact later in the game without using rebalance modifications that buff his kit.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Baldur's Gate II:
      • Jon Irenicus was once an elven sorcerer named Jonoleth who attempted to become a god. Cast out of elven society with his soul stripped from him, Irenicus forms plans to steal the soul of the heroic child of Bhaal and resume his plans. Manipulating the heroes and allowing his capture with the hero's half-sister Imoen, Irenicus directs the heroes' actions through his spy, Yoshimo, and takes over the entire prison he was sent to, just as he intended. Stealing Imoen and the player's souls and escaping, Irenicus manipulates the Drow into attacking his old home of Suldanessalar and is stopped just minutes away from draining its divine tree of its power to ascend to godhood.
      • Balthazar is one of The Five, a group of Bhaalspawn ostensibly seeking to revive their dread father. In truth conspiring against his kin, Balthazar throws in with Amelissan the Black-Hearted to hunt down and erase the other Bhaalspawn, assisting his siblings with their own schemes. Knowing of Amelissan's ruthlessness, Balthazar sees it necessary to even allow the entire city of Saradush to be destroyed while plotting to eventually betray and kill his siblings, including the hero. Once this is done, Balthazar intends to commit ritual suicide to destroy Bhaal's dark taint forever.
  • Memetic Badass: Keldorn, or, more accurately, his Infinity +1 Sword, Carsomyr. According to quite some fans, Keldorn with Carsomyr can beat the rest of the cast by himself with his eyes closed.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • "Go for the eyes, Boo!" And any other sufficiently Incoming Ham line.
    • "You must gather your party before venturing forth." This line became the subject of many shout outs ever since, both in games by the same developer and otherwise.
    • "My hotel is as clean as an elven arse." is a frequently-referenced line in any conversation about dumb video game lines or hotels (or both.)
  • Moe:
    • Aerie, who looks like a anime girl with those huge Innocent Blue Eyes, if you can get past her (W)Angst.
    • While not as obvious compared to Aerie, Imoen has been there since the first place, always chipper and upbeat and has the 'little sister' vibes to endear the audience (and she gets past her Angst phase way quicker). Remember: you can't spell Imoen without Moe.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Irenicus attempting to enter the elven pantheon is treated as this In-Universe, not so much because of the hubris involved but because of the collateral damage he caused seemingly without caring about it. What the elves did to punish him for it (stealing his soul) is pretty dark too.
    • Seemingly enforced in the final dungeon of the second game. If your character is good or neutral and you take any of the "evil" options, then you'll be automatically bumped down to evil with no way to undo your shift in alignment.
    • When your Reputation falls down to 1. Every non-evil companion will leave you, almost any shop will refuse to sell you goods, you run into city guards and bounty hunters on almost any map, and you are listed as Villain.
  • Most Wonderful Sound:
    • That sound when your reputation goes up by a point or two, followed by your good-aligned party members congratulating you in awe! Good Feels Good indeed!
    • The leveling up sound in the first game, which was also used when you gained new abilities from dreams.
    • "Vita! Mortis! Careo!" - unless a enemy spellcaster is casting a death spell on you.
  • Narm:
    • The way the new NPCs are introduced in the Enhanced Edition in the first game,
    • The (presumably) Bhaalspawn Paladin that Sarevok kills in the original opening cinematic in the first game. It's his voice and those ridiculously long horns on his helmet, making you wonder why it didn't get stuck in the door opening. He also has a hilariously goofy looking death face before Sarevok tosses his body off the tower, with his mouth and eyes wide open.
      • In addition, there's the fact that Sarevok felt the need to kill him then throw him from the huge tower, as though the fall wouldn't already have killed him.
    • Branwen's death cry. She sound more startled, as if you walked up on her.
    • The way normal sized characters walks makes them look like they're holding back a shit.
  • In a series full of over-the-top cheesy voice acting, Tranzig's monotone, low effort voices lines just stand out as awkward.
  • Nerf: the Enhanced Editions (and prior to these, various fixpacks) have reigned in some of the outrageous exploits - typically things that would never fly in a table top game - like killing "unkillable" NPCs, or repeatedly triggering dialogue which generates XP, or repeatedly triggering dialogue which generates XP, or repeatedly triggering dialogue which generates XP.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • Sarevok waged a war from the shadows that resulted in countless innocent deaths, all to cause enough havoc and chaos to become the new Lord of Murder, so it's not as though he wasn't totally evil anyway, but many players instead treat his killing of Gorion as his most visible crossing of the Moral Event Horizon. They may not realise that Sarevok didn't want to kill him, which should have been obvious when he offered to settle the matter of Charname's existence without violence. He killed Gorion because the old man wouldn't back down — for obvious reasons, but even then. As a result, Sarevok himself sees it as what had to be done in hindsight.
    • For some reason, Dorn's ending involves him being convicted of a single crime: the slaughter of Barrow. While it was probably his first truly evil deed, Dorn has a laundry list of other terrible deeds, including but not limited to killing the servants of Good-aligned gods and trafficking with demons, but apparently the only thing the courts care about is a single village massacre. And this wouldn't even be that strange if Dorn hadn't mentioned doing the same with other villages, whose names were not mentioned. Maybe only Barrow was important enough for them to prosecute him for?
    • For extra silliness points, he wasn't even a blackguard when he carried it out — and in fact, it was the events of Barrow, along with the betrayal that followed, that led to Dorn becoming a blackguard in the first place.
  • No Yay:
    • Irenicus and Imoenugh! Irenicus and anybody, for that matter, if you remember those clones or Centeol from the first game…
    • This runs in the family. Bodhi/Charname's Love Interest is not a particularly comfortable thought either…

    O to W 
  • Once Original, Now Common:
    • By modern standards, Baldur's Gate is a Nintendo Hard game with a rather steep learning curve and some very unforgiving elements, most notably, the 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. At the time, it was praised for how user-friendly and accessible it was, being called an "RPG for a wide audience", in contrast to how ridiculously difficult older western RPGs tended to be. The sequel was more forgiving, thankfully, though no doubt owing partly to starting off with a more experienced party (not to mention a much higher level cap).
    • For all the praise Baldur's Gate 2 received for its depth in NPC and party member interactions, those same interactions now look thin in comparison to BioWare's later games such as Knights of the Old Republic and the Dragon Age series. Players who experienced those games first can be left wondering why Baldur's Gate 2 received this praise to begin with, but at the time it was ahead of the pack, with perhaps only Planescape: Torment able to compete in terms of NPC interactivity.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • The Master Wraith in Throne of Bhaal. You'll only meet this scumbag once, but what it does to Charname, their companions and especially their lovers is so atrocious that it leaves quite the impression, both in-game and in real life.
    • Kangaxx and Firkraag are quite prominent characters in comparison to their highly optional screentime.
  • Player Punch:
    • In Baldur's Gate II, Irenicus lands a barrage of Player Punches before you even escape the first dungeon — torturing both the PC and Imoen, killing former playable characters Khalid and Dynaheir off-screen, and abducting Imoen when you escape. Several more follow at intervals throughout the game, from both Irenicus himself and his lieutenant Bodhi. By the time the player finally has an opportunity to kill them, it's very satisfying to do so.
    • A large chunk of Throne of Bhaal centre around the besieged city of Saradush and no matter how hard you try, you can't prevent Yaga-Shura from razing the city and killing every single Bhaalspawn there. The same people you tried so hard to save.
    • The meeting with the aforementioned Master Wraith. No matter how whiny, douchy or evil your lover may be, seeing them broken is nothing short of a Player Punch.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
    • Say what folks will about Aerie in SoA, but they tend to be much more forgiving about her in ToB.
    • Many people feel resolution of Anomen's Knighthood quest does this for him.
    • Nalia's dialogue was changed in ToB, making her much more bearable.
    • Alora in Enhanced Edition. In the original game, her Lucky Rabbit's Foot did nothing for her outside of a small +2 luck bonus and simply meant she had one less ring slot than everyone else, and she came SO late in the game (Chapter 5 in Baldur's Gate, and you have to find her in a specific spot in the huge city and at night), which meant that like every other NPC, she was already auto-leveled to match yours, and all of her thieving skill points are simply wasted, effectively meaning she could never compete with the likes of Imoen or Safana. In EE, her Rabbit's Foot now gives her a +2 Luck Bonus, +2 to her AC, and a multitude of bonuses to her thieving skills, and companions who join later are simply given experience to match your party's level rather than auto-leveling them, allowing you to spend her skill points as you see fit and even max out her HP (which you're probably going to need with that 12 Constitution she has) if you so choose. Her Strength is sorely lacking and her Constitution is nothing special either, but her natural 19 Dexterity on top of being a single-classed Thief means she can make a damn good one now if you wanna take her along.
  • Sacred Cow: It's a golden rule among the BioWare fandom to never criticize Baldur's Gate …ever! Unless we're talking about the novels. In which case, it's the opposite.
  • The Scrappy: See here.
  • Scrappy Weapon: Spears. Try to find a player who uses them. They do less damage than Two-handed Swords and Halberds, require two hands to use (not good if you want to use a shield or another weapon in your off-hand), cannot be used to backstab (Rogues cannot make anything out of them), the enchanted spears you find do not offer any particularly remarkable special abilities, and in Shadows of Amn there is only one party member trained to make use of them (Valygar). At least the corresponding Infinity +1 Sword weapon (Ixil's Spike) gets a little love, being a +6 weapon which grants Free Action as a passive trait.
  • Slow-Paced Beginning: Mechanically, the entire first half of Baldur's Gate. Starting off at level 1 makes your character both very fragile and highly unreliable according to AD&D rules. There's a low level cap — about 7 in the base game, about 9 with the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion — which means that you have a limited amount of spells and abilities as you fight enemies of much higher level, who have abilities you can only dream of. This is especially the case if you play as a spellcaster because you can only cast very limited amounts of spells per day and healers are stuck with only Cure Minor wounds until level five, where Cure Serious Wounds is introduced.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: Michael Hoenig's composition "Attacked by Assassins" in the first game is almost identical to the main theme of Film/Lifeforce by Henry Mancini that it's a surprise why no lawyers were involved.
  • That One Boss:
    • Aec'Letec. While most bosses can be relatively easy if you know the proper strategies, the same can't be said about him. Not only does he deal shitloads in damage, he also targets your teammates with his Death Gaze frequently. If you don't cast Dispel your companion they will die, permanently, and casting dispel will nullify their buffs you likely cast beforehand. As if that wasn't enough you have to kill the ritualists before the Aec'Letec, otherwise the demon will possess them and you have to destroy him again. Unlike most boss fight, this one is pretty much luck based even with strategy.
    • Abazigal's son and literal Dragon Draconis, who's even harder to beat than Abazigal himself. As if a dragon fight isn't hard enough, he's also hasted (which he'll almost immediately recast if he's slowed down), regularly turns invisible, and summons hoardes of Invisible Stalkers. Fortunately, if you don't feel like playing fair, setting up a ton of traps in one spot before the fight and luring him into them finishes him off almost immediately.
    • The full Ascension mod for Throne of Bhaal, on top of turning the Final Boss into both That One Boss and Best Boss Ever, also jacks up the difficulty for the boss fights with Ilasara, Gromnir, Yaga-Shura, Abazigal and Demogorgon, turning them all into this. Yaga-Shura, for example, now loses his Nigh Invulnerability gradually over time instead of instantaneously, is accompanied by powerful lieutenants, can now chuck a plethora of nasty fire spells at will, and is surrounded by so many respawning Mooks that the fight becomes The War Sequence on top of everything else.
  • That One Level:
    • From the first game:
      • Nashkel Mines in Chapter 2. Though not an especially difficult dungeon, it does serve as the point where a) your entire party needs to have attained at least level 2 by now (if not level 3) and b) have gotten a pretty firm grasp of the game's mechanics, such as keeping everyone together in enclosed spaces, being on regular lookout for traps, and not putting your squishier mages in harm's way of the Kobold Archers and especially the Commandos, who can easily destroy a level 1 party. Thankfully, there's plenty for the player to do in terms of sidequests that would allow them to quickly prepare and surpass the dangers the mines presents.
      • The Cloakwood Forest of Chapter 4. The entire place is about 4 locations in total, plus the Cloakwood Mines at the end, and each area is filled to the brim with Demonic Spiders of all shapes and sizes (sometimes literally, as in the case of Cloakwood Area 2). Even a sufficiently leveled party will have to be careful here as the challenges can still rip them apart.
      • The Catacombs below Candlekeep in Chapter 6. Not only are you unable to return to Candlekeep at all by the time you enter, meaning you're unable to prepare for it otherwise if you're ill-equipped or under leveled, but the multiple floors are filled with difficult enemies and riddled with traps. Without a Thief with sufficient points in Find Traps you can easily find yourself having to tank every trap in there.
      • Thieves' Maze from Chapter 7. While it's effectively the final dungeon before the very end of the game, it's an enormous maze filled with Skeletal Champions, who can easily destroy even high level characters despite wielding only +1 two-handed swords. Like most of the other major dungeons, there are deadly traps everywhere. Also, being a maze means the hallways are very cramped and confusing for your characters to navigate, let alone actually try fighting in.
      • From the expansion, there's Werewolf Isle. While a pretty cool location overall that contains some overall nifty lore for the founder of Baldur's Gate, the monsters there will decimate an underleveled party and heavily trip up one that's still on par with the challenges. What's worse is towards the end of the overall quest where your party is infected with lycanthropy, and you're effectively on an in-game timer to complete the area and deal with a boss back in Ulgoth's Beard before your party is instantly destroyed, meaning that resting only brings you closer and closer to your imminent demise.
      • Durlag's Tower, as would be expected of the game's major Bonus Dungeon. Traps everywhere, puzzles that tread a very thin line sometimes between being practical and logical, or outright Moon Logic Puzzle design at worst, and some of the most powerful enemies the Sword Coast has to offer. While there's some very good loot to be had, you will work for every bit of it.
    • From the second game:
      • The tutorial dungeon of Baldur's Gate II. The first time you play it, you'll be creeped out by Irenicus's various experiments and hit hard by the succession of Player Punches. Every subsequent time you play it, you'll be frustrated by the repetitive combat, how little it offers in terms of roleplay or lore, and most of all, how tediously long it is. It's so long that 2 minutes and 35 seconds, or more than ten percent, of Eli Chase's 23:06 speedrun of the game was spent in that dungeon. Irenicus's chateau is so despised that the two mods made to skip it, while still getting all its items, experience, gold, and NPCs, are wildly popular.
      • If you're following Aran Linvail's route, then the Vampire Lair below the Graveyard District is a substantial jump in difficulty for one major reason: vampires can level drain you. Take too many hits of level drain, your character permanently dies. Have a Lesser Restoration memorized or in scroll form? Good, but the spell trashes your cleric and leaves them fatigued, meaning they now take heavy penalties in combat. You'll either be resting a lot to compensate...or doing a LOT of Save Scumming whenever someone is level drained. Oh and once you defeat a vampire, they're not dead until you find said vampire's coffin and stake them, lest they come for you again, and you have to do this with all the vampires before Bodhi appears for the final battle. Have fun!
      • The Underdark is a very cool section of the game, given that you will find yourself dealing with some of the most iconic creatures in D&D in the form of Beholders, Mind Flayers, and Drow, but it can still be a trial and a half to get through. Assuming you take on the silver dragon, Adalon's, quest to find her missing eggs, you'll be infiltrating Ust Natha in Drow disguise, where the slightest misstep will blow your cover and leave you standing toe to toe with the whole freakin city out for your blood (ignoring Adalon or just killing her results in the same). Trying to keep up your disguise is what makes the segment so difficult, especially at the point where you must get an item from either the Kuo-Toa, the Beholders, or the Mind Flayers and are on a very strict time limit to do so, else you'll be figured out, and all three options are their own brand of hell if you're not prepared for them.
  • That One Puzzle: The chessboard fight at the end of the third basement floor in Durlag's Tower. Your party of one-to-six adventurers can only move like certain chess pieces lest they trip infinite, invisible deadly traps, but it's not clear who represents what piece, and the AI will stupidly run all over the board if given half a chance. The opposing AI force has a full compliment of 16 pieces, a deadly assortment of high-level melee fighters, spellcasters and archers, unrestricted movement, and will immediately charge as a giant mob the second one of your characters moves a step forward. The end result is being stuck with a party you can't reliably move while a giant army of end-game enemies stampedes towards you. It is possible to win the encounter by attacking with area of effect spells from outside enemy line of sight, but it entirely sidesteps the presented challenge and can be unsatisfying.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • Bodhi's official character artwork received an update for the Enhanced Edition; general consensus is that her old look (which she still uses in the game proper) was better.
    • In the first dungeon, you fight and kill a maddened clone that uses a nondescript elf female model. It's an odd encounter on the surface but the woman she was based on will be obvious upon replays. In the Enhanced Edition, the clone outright uses Ellesime's proper character model, with her distinctive clothing and sound bytes, which is a bit on the nose.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • This is a criticism sometimes leveled against the first game's cast, especially when compared to the second game. As while it does have some fairly memorable characters, at the same time, their whole personalities and most of their interactions with others are contained on just their voice lines, which by the mid-game, the player will already have heard it all. And the banters that have become characteristic of the second game are so rare that the player might only see one of them on an entire playthrough. And we're not even getting on how the characters will have no reaction at all to any of the events of the plot, even things that should warrant a reaction to them (such as CHARNAME numerous murder attempts, which not even Imoen seems to be concerned). It speaks for itself that an entire mod was made to add more banter and character reactions to the events of the plot.
    • While justified in that the transition from the more quantity-driven first game to the far more intricate storytelling of the second would result in several familiar characters being cut — and not to mention the implausibility of the entire cast moving south to Amn — several popular and interesting party members from the first game were left out of BG2 with nary a reference given to them.
      • Kivan is a prime example. He was a memorable character and arguably the best archer in the game, with a distinct, gruff personality and some interesting racial (and moral) conflict with Viconia. His Arch-Enemy Tazok even survived the first game, reappearing as a minor villain in the second. Kivan himself was neither seen nor heard of in the second game.
      • Xan too. One of the most iconic Baldur's Gate characters for his bleak, laughably nihilistic outlook and unique quirks (that awesome moonblade, anyone?), he was Demoted to Extra in the second, not appearing outside of the tutorial.
      • Several BG1 characters who did appear in the second game were treated to somewhat ignominious fates. While done very well with some characters (Faldorn, for example, was a much better-characterized individual in the second game, despite becoming a ruthless villain in the doing; even Tiax, while never a particularly serious character, actually had a fitting role to play in BG2, and even had an ill-fated showdown with the Big Bad), others reappeared simply to give the odd quest, shrug off any questions about their current status, and to die in short order. Safana, Montaron, Xar, Ajantis (whom you're actually responsible for killing, despite not knowing it), etc. Some of it evokes quite a bit of pity and feels rather well done, adding to the Anyone Can Die mechanics, though some felt it became excessive and predictable, especially if you had prior knowledge of who exactly the BG2 party members would be.
      • Coran could also be added to the list of ignominious fates, because he can be killed off very easily in the ensuing battle when you finally find him. Players quickly discovered that casting a spell (Minor Globe of Invulnerability) on him would cause him to survive, but it's fairly clear the devs really wanted him to be killed off because his health is set rather low. (Rumor has it that it was to "flip the bird" at a very obnoxious board visitor who wanted Coran in the game and who used the name "Lanfear" as her handle.
      • Outside of a few plot moments in BG2, Imoen has virtually no post-Spellhold content or banters, which is jarring considering how the first third of the main plot revolves around reaching Spellhold to rescue hernote . Throne of Bhaal isn't much better, only giving her a handful of lines and glossing over the implications of her Bhaalspawn nature in favor of Charname and The Five. Many fans consider it a waste to not have explored the effects of her torture at the hands on Irenicus, her sibling connection to Charname, or her potential powers as a Bhaalspawn. The missed potential resulted in several mods (including one that adds a romance plotline) created solely for fleshing her character out.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • The entirety of Throne of Bhaal is a waste. The idea of fighting your most powerful Bhaalspawn siblings and standing against the clergy of Bhaal is not a bad idea; the execution, however, is poor. The Five are flat, generic evil jackasses who are primarily remembered for their boss battles, and Amellysan, high priest of Bhaal, is so thoroughly over the top that she sounds and acts very narmy. Its storyline is too short to be an expansion pack, and it relies on hordes of recycled enemies and MacGuffin spam to pad the length of its dungeons. Even the NPC interactions and banter, one of the staples of the series, get very little exploration. And as usual, the line between playing Good/Neutral and playing Evil is pencil-thin.
    • In fact, most players agree that the most interesting thing story-wise from the ToB expansion are the party interactions with (and potential Heel–Face Turn) of Sarevok. Otherwise it is little more than a Grand Finale in which they tried to top their intricate storyline from the previous game with hordes of vampires, werewolves, giants, dragons and insane wizards with something that had even more glamour, which actually worked out fine.
    • Cernd's personal storyline and Character Development reek of neglect and cop-out. He also has surprisingly little to say to fellow druid Jaheira, given that she admires and looks up to him as a higher-ranking druid.
    • The questline involving Rejiek the murderous skinner is wrapped up after extensive sidequest completion with him skinning people in order to turn them into "skinless dancers", which is well and good, but the people who enabled and hired him are never confronted. In this case, they actually had a plan to avoid this trope: a hidden cabal of evil mages would be revealed as the masterminds of this and several other small questlines, but that portion of the game was left unfinished. The Unfinished Business mod restores it.
    • While his relationship with Aerie gets high praise, some question why Minsc can't adopt a female, spellcaster CHARNAME as his new witch. Depending on your choices, they may have been adventuring together since the first game, so it seems like an odd thing to exclude. Ditto for Imoen not being an option.
  • Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Arguably the Garrick/Skie/Eldoth Love Triangle in the first game, where two parties hold the Idiot Ball and the third is unsympathetic to the core — especially since it never gets resolved in an unmodded game (although thankfully Skie comes to her senses in Siege of Dragonspear, but that required her to get dumped by Eldoth right in the face the moment he found a juicier target: a random harlot). Also in the sequel where you have to choose in the guild war in Athkatha who to support between the Shadow Thieves and Bodhi's Vampire cult.
  • Too Cool to Live: Gorion, of course. Also, depending on your interpretation, Yoshimo.
  • Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
    • Aerie (and to a lesser degree, Jaheira) has been known to induce this in some players, probably because of those disproportionately huge eyes, which are bigger than her nose and mouth combined. All the more eerie when compared to Korgan, who has eyes only about half the size of the ones belonging to the human characters, but instead an enormous nose, and still looks more realistic.
    • The battle animations for BG2 can fit this as well. The animators must not have realized they were over-exaggerating the movement. The battle sprites will lean too far back before a strike (back perpendicular to the legs), and then lunge so far forward (front also perpendicular to the legs) that you'd have to wonder how they keep their balance. It's the most obvious on taller characters. It makes the characters look like they either have spines of rubber or no spines at all; humans just aren't capable of that kind of movement!
  • Unfortunate Character Design: The golems' loinclothes look… disturbing if you don't know what they are.
  • Unpopular Popular Character:
  • The Un-Twist: We see Irenicus offing the Cowled Wizards in Spellhold during a cut-scene. When you enter the stronghold much later, you're welcomed by a "Cowled Wizard" played by David Warner. You're just following him, knowing that he will turn on you at any moment.
  • Values Dissonance: A very Downplayed example with the Girdle of Masculinity/Feminity, which changes your sex when you put it on and can only be removed with a Remove Curse spell. This is treated in universe as an entirely negative thing, and to be fair to most people it is, but with growing awareness of Transgender people in recent years an object that causes an Easy Sex Change might not be entirely negative to some.
  • Wangst: Aerie is the only-sometimes-disputed queen of it among major characters in this series.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: In the first game, right after you meet Elminster for the first time, you get to a crossroad. To heed Gorion's advice and reach Khalid and Jaheira you have to go up towards the Friendly Arm Inn. Xzar and Montaron whom you met shortly before, on the other hand, want you to go straight down to Nashkel. Bonus points if you're familiar with the story of the adolescent Heracles at the Crossroads.
  • The Woobie: Several.
    • Imoen ends up suffering quite a lot in the story.
    • It's hard to deny that the world hates Aerie.
    • As foolish and naive as Skie is, the girl ends up suffering so much that your pity for her will go beyond contempt, and you'll probably end up feeling genuinely sorry for her. Oh wait, she seems to develop for better in Siege of Dragonspear! Then she's unceremoniously killed. Ouch. Adding insult to the injury is that the reason she developed was because the man she 'loved', Eldoth, dumped her for a random harlot he saw and him being dumped thanks to Skie's own Character Development saved his hide, he continued on living while making other women fell victim to his extortions much like Skie before, while Skie herself was killed.
    • Rasaad's entire life is a "Shaggy Dog" Story that will probably end in his death at the hands of a man he was trying to kill.

Alternative Title(s): Baldurs Gate II, Baldurs Gate II Throne Of Bhaal

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