Black Isle Studios Board Update

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(Originally posted by Darien)

Here's another batch of comments from the Black Isle Studios message boards.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Charles Deenen, Director of Audio:

Audio update for Throne of Bhaal: Good news! All audio got completed early this week for this title, including all of it's movies. I hope you'll have fun playing it once it hits the stores ! Please shoot me an email if you feel we could have done something better (or worse), and if you like what we did.

Thank you for all your interest in this exciting title!

Kevin Martens, Lead Designer:

Wizard slayers: We've made 2 minor tweaks to Wizard Slayers that make a huge game play difference.

1) Magic resistance is significantly increased. At 40th level, a Wizard Slayer will had 84% MR. Yikes!
2) They can now use healing potions. Simple change, major difference.

Nope, Monks are capped lower to avoid ludicrous power levels. 120% MR? That's just too much. Wizard slayers have the best MR in the game.

Starting a new character: You can start a brand new character in TOB and gain access to all of the SOA characters almost immediately. All of the characters have new interactions.

If you want to try some different party setups without playing all the way through SOA again, I would suggest starting a new TOB game. Perhaps, after you've finished the game with your SOA party, try a completely different party makeup at the beginning of TOB.

Magical hammer: We have a very cool new, artifact level hammer. It starts off strong and can be upgraded with a missing piece to make it even stronger. Nuff said.

All in good time. I'll let a few teasers now and then. The hammer is called Runehammer. Let's cover all of the bases in one post. All weapon types have something new.

The Dradeel story: The whole sordid Dradeel story:

Relevant Parties:
1) Dradeel - Elven Mage, first met on the Werewolf Isle in TOSC
2) Golodon the Unmanned - mortal enemy of Dradeel and a former employer of Jan Jansen's
3) The Gibbering Twelve - mysterious brotherhood of mages, not affiliated with the Purple Brotherhood (Socerous Amin and Sorcerous Amon - they're brothers)
4) Buffy - Golodon's pet mastiff
5) Golodon's Wife - never named, excellent resistance to mandrake poison.

The tale - Dradeel and Golodon, as young mages, made a raid on the HQ of the Gibbering Twelve. They stole numerous powerful and valuable magic items. They got away with it but were hunted for years by the Gibbering Twelve and their agents. Eventually, Golodon betrayed Dradeel, black-jacked him, took the stuff, and left him in the then town of Baldur's Gate to get picked up by the agents of the Gibbering Twelve.

Dradeel, on the run, managed to convince the great hero, Balduran, to allow him on his ship which was about to set sale on a grand adventure in the western seas.

The ship never returned. When you reach the Werewolf Isle, you find Dradeel, the only crew member of Balduran's ill-fated ship to not get infected with Lycanthropy. He's gone mad out of paranoia over teh werewolves, wolfweres and the Gibbering Twelve. You help him escape, after hundreds of years of being trapped on the isle.

In the meantime, Golodon used the artifacts and became a very powerful mage. He got married and eventually had a falling out with his wife, a powerful mage in her own right.

A few centuries later, a young Jan Jansen was hired as a house gnome for Golodon. It was his job to clean up after Buffy and to take care of the daily attempts at poisoning Golodon's ex-wife. The wife also had Jan on her staff. He was to attempt to poison Golodon every morning as well. This was where Jan began to learn magic.

Later, long after Jan had departed, Dradeel returned to the mainland after being freed by the player. Quite mad, he immediately killed Golodon and was captured by the local authorities. He was then sentenced to a life of imprisonment in the Asylum, where the player finds him in SOA.

High level abilities for Thieves: We're releasing High Level Ability info pretty slowly but I'll give you something special here.

Evasion. A rogue's natural sense of preservation becomes heightened with the use of the Evasion ability. Evasion gives a bonus of 4 to AC and 2 to all saving throws. The effect lasts for 3 rounds.

This is one of the High Level Abilities in the Rogue Pool. Many of the High Level Abilities have more powerful versions, as well. Evasion is one of the base Abilities and has a more powerful form called Greater Evasion.

I think this is the most info that anyone has ever gotten out of me about a High Level Ability at one time.

Monk's cap for magic resistance: It slows down in Throne of Bhaal and caps in the 70s. As always, it can be altered by items.

Possible scenario: With a natural MR of 84%, you can sell all of those items and buy that super sword you've had your eye on. Or, you could give the items to other party members so that everyone has some sort of MR.

Yes, nothing will happen to existing characters. Monks slow down starting at the first level in TOB. It will not retroactively change any monks that have already leveled up.

Monks are still frickin' powerful.

Tracking ability for Rangers: It must be revelation day. Tracking is in.