Black Isle Studios Board Update

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(Originally posted by Darien)

Here are a few more bits of news from the Black Isle Studios message boards.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Kevin Martens, Lead Designer:

Add-On and Add-In sections: To start - here's a brief explanation...

The Add-In section is a massive dungeon complex called The Watcher's Keep. When you install Throne of Bhaal (TOB), the area is added to your existing Shadows of Amn (SOA) map. You can play it whenever you have access to it (Chapter 2,3,6) although you should have an average party level of at least 10 to venture in. The Watcher's Keep makes up approximately half of the expansion and can be accessed from both Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. The area is on both maps.

The Add-On section continues the main story after the final confrontation in SOA. An Ill-wind sweeps across the Sword Coast and the party drives southward in an attempt to learn more about the Prophecy of Alaundo and to find his or her place (as a Child of Bhaal) in that prophecy. We give you an entire new WorldMap with tons of stuff to do. This new map is made up of Southern Tethyr and Northern Calimshan. Just like the transition from BG1 to BG2, everything is new.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

J.E. Sawyer, Designer

Spell disruption: Some creatures "force cast," meaning they can't be disrupted. Reason: none of the spellcasters in the game would ever get spells off if this was not the case. Magic Missiles would pretty much ruin any caster's chance of doing anything. The only alternative would be to have every caster use Shield or Minor Globe of Invulnerability before battle. Even then, people just wipe the floor with them. It's the same reason why the Lower Dorn's Deep thieves auto-backstab you and cannot be revealed by Detect Invisibility. After the first time you fall for it, the entire point of the encounter is lost. Thankfully, those two problems (spell disruption and backstabbing criteria) are "better" in 3E. In 3E, it can be downright difficult to prevent casters from getting spells off. Also, rogues can sneak attack any time their opponent is denied their dex bonus (or they flank them).

A possible side-quest left out for Edion? No, it wasn't left out. Edion wasn't interested in prolonging his life. He just wanted to be left alone, more or less, in his final days. I did talk to Steve at one point about the possibility of including Edion in the Host Tower Battle Royal. Basically, when Alpheus and the others show up, Edion pops in to help Kieran, saying something like, "Why can't you just leave us alone?! All we wanted to do was live in peace. You can't even let us do that, can you?" BLAMMO!

David Hendee, Designer

Expansion pack distribution: Don't know yet but we'll try to get it spread around to make it as painless as possible when the flood gates open.

The current "plan" is to have one big version for the people with high speed connections that can download the whole thing in one shot. Then we'll have another version that'll be around 7 to 10 segments that can be downloaded individually.

If you don't have a high speed connection I'd strongly recommend getting one of those download managing software programs that allow you to pick up your download where you left off should you lose connection.

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer

Playing the free expansion after finishing Heart of Winter: Since you already beat the Expansion, one thing you might want to consider is to start an "Expansion Only" game. You can import your high level characters then go immediately to the Whistling Gallows to access the downloadable dungeon pack when it is released.