It's been a long road, but here we are at last, the grand finale. The final showdown. Our date with destiny. A battle for the ages! And other cliched phrases.



For our final bonus of this Let's Play, we have the alternate endings of the game - the choices of becoming a benevolent god or a bigger force to be feared than Bhaal ever was.





Yeah, it's not really much to look at. Same video with slightly different voiceovers. But at least we get a pretty nice wrap-up for our story arc and for those of each of our allies (even if Viconia's ending is quite tragic).

And that concludes our look at Bioware's final great game before they got dragged down by the siren's call of dumbing down their gameplay and rehashing the same storyline time and again just so they could widen their profit margins. To say nothing of when EA got ahold of them and retooled their work to be about as childish and insulting as your average MTV "reality" show.

Fucking EA. I wonder what straight-to-bargain-bins turd they're going to shit out next week. Probably another garbage Dead Space game or their eighty millionth Sims 3 expansion pack. Or just the "real" ending to Mass Effect 3 that they stripped off the disc at the last minute and sold seperately as DLC to make a quick buck. Not that I give a shit about Mass Effect (most dull, overrated franchise in recent memory. Not to mention Bioware's active pandering to a fanbase that creeps me the fuck out), but that's still a pretty fucking low thing to do. They're the worst kind of money-scamming vultures, and you can feel free to quote me on that.

 

 

We finally take on the last (and possibly the least) of the five, Bastian Balthazar Bux, and then we go on to confront and defeat our most hated foe in all the realms. That's right - Saemon Havarian!

Oh, and the Big Metal Unit is completed at long last. Too bad it's so late in the game that we don't get to have more fun with it!



And as our penultimate bonus, we see an alternative method for killing Saemon that also happens to work on most any other enemy in the game. Just keep in mind that the "be anything I desire" wish is a one-time-only thing (although the level 9 spell "Shapechange" has the same effect).

 

 

We're on a mission, and the third installment in two days' time is proof of that! We venture to the shortest Bhaalspawn lair yet, but by no means the easiest, to take on Abazigal the dragon. And collect more cool upgradable items, of course (including the grand daddy of them all, which you shall see next time!).

 

 

My thirst for Baldur's Gate 2 is not yet sated this day as we go for a second session, this time venturing to the town of Amekethran (currently under a fascist regime of mercenaries and monks) and then set out to do battle with Rita Repulsa.. err, Sendai.

Oh, and Viconia's story arc finally panned out after about 45 hours of gameplay. Hooray!

 

 

I guess we should go sort out that whole rescuing Saradush and Yaga-Shura thing now that we've spent a good few days dicking around at Watcher's Keep. Let's do that.



The video above has a 15-minute or so gap where Fraps bugged out and froze the vide on a single frame. There is one scene vital to the plot, though, which I re-recorded into a seperate video:



Our bonus this time is a furthering of the Viconia romance, which continues into the expansion and can eventually lead her to an alignment change. Note that you must make camp at some point between confronting Viconia's ghost-brother and returning to Saradush to view the first scene of this video and ultimately lead this romance to its conclusion.

 

 

Wherein we attempt to complete the last of the Watcher's Keep sidequest and collect all the cool prizes within. Split into two parts due to an upload failure (and an overall length of 4 hours and 12 minutes!).

Part A



Part B



As a bonus this time, we take a look at the Weidu Underrepresented Items mod, which adds several pieces of equipment from Icewind Dale 2 to the game in an attempt to give some more viable options for weapon proficiencies. While not the best balanced mod (as you can see from the low prices and frequent +5 enchantments of many of these items), it is a nice idea.



Of course, we won't be using any of them for this playthrough, since we're aiming for a "vanilla" experience this time around. Maybe next time.

As a secondary bonus, here's a brief lesson on the Deck of Many Things, one of the most powerful (and dangerous!) artifacts in the D&D universe. As noted in the Part 22 video, you can only acquire it by killing Aesgareth in Watcher's Keep.



The possibilities for each draw are as follows. Positive effects are marked with an asterisk.

---------------
First Draw
---------------

Donjon (Imprisons user, saving throw made at -4)
Euryale (User gets a permanent -1 to all saving throws)
Flames (Summons a hostile Balor and 4 Fire Elementals)
*Gem (Get a rogue stone, king's tear, sapphire, diamond, ruby and emerald)
*Jester (User gets 50,000 exp)
Ruin (Party loses ALL gold)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second Draw (if you got a Negative effect on the first draw)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Key (Get a Ring of Protection +3)
Rogue (User is permanently Dire Charmed, can only be removed by death)
*Star (Get +1 to the user's primary stat (+1 STR for Fighters, +1 DEX for Rogues, +1 WIS for Clerics, +1 INT for Mages)
*Sun (Party gains 300,000 exp**)
*Vizier (User gets a Mantle effect (Immunity to +2 weapons and lower) that lasts 24 hours)
Void (Disintegrates user, saving throw made at -4)

**In a full party, this works out to 50,000 per person. Of course, you could just be greedy, boot everyone else from your party temporarily and keep it all for yourself.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second Draw (if you got a Positive effect on the first draw)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magician (User permanently polymorphed into a rabbit. Use Remove Curse to cure)
Knight (Summons 4 Demon Knights to attack your party)
Rogue (User is permanently Dire Charmed, can only be removed by death)
Sun* (Party gains 300,000 exp**)
Vizier (User gets a Mantle spell (Immunity to +2 weapons and lower) that lasts 24 hours)
Void* (Disintegrates user, saving throw made at -4)

**In a full party, this works out to 50,000 per person. Of course, you could just be greedy, boot everyone else from your party temporarily and keep it all for yourself.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third Draw (If you HAVE gotten a negative effect on the first or second draw)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fool (Lowers user's Wisdom to 3 and give a permanent Confusion effect. Remove Curse fixes Wisdom, Dispel Magic fixes confusion)
*Moon (User gets permanent +10 to Maximum HP)
Skull (Summons a Death Shade that will only attack the user and leaves when they die)
*Throne (Party gains 1,000,000 experience!**)

**In a full party, that works out to 166,666 per person. Of course, you could just be greedy, boot everyone else from your party temporarily and keep it all for yourself to gain a quick 3-4 levels.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third Draw (If you HAVE NOT gotten a negative effect on the first or second draw)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Comet (User gets a permanent +5% to fire resistance)
*Erinyes (User gets +1 to all stats for 24 hours)
Fool (Lowers user's Wisdom to 3 and give a permanent Confusion effect. Remove Curse fixes Wisdom, Dispel Magic fixes confusion)
*Moon (User gets permanent +10 to Maximum HP)
Skull (Summons a Death Shade that will only attack the user and leaves when they die)
Talons (Permanent Blind effect on user, Remove Curse fixes it)

The Fourth draw will ALWAYS be "Balance", which causes the deck to vanish.

Thanks to Gamebanshee for all of this info!

 

 

In this entry, we defeat Gromnir Il-Khan, escape from Saradush and immediately make our way to Watcher's Keep, where all manner of awesome prizes (and very annoying puzzles) await us.



It also seems Cespenar is a bit buggy, and may not notice if you have all of the components of an item if you keep them in the Bag of Holding. So if you know you have all the pieces to something, just empty them out into your backpack first.

 

 

Wherein the remaining Bhaalspawn decide to recreate the movie "Highlander", slaying one another left and right until only one remains. We get dragged into their schemes once again, but that's okay - the road to be the last Bhaalspawn standing is full of fun rewards.

First we get acquainted with the Pocket Plane and our faithful servent Cespenar, and then we're off to Saradush, a city under siege by fire giants. I just start off with a few side-quests because long week, tired, stressed out, massive headache, etc.



But in the meantime, here's a small bonus in the form of a trick you can use to rack up infinite experience.



Just stand on this corner of the battlements, set your characters' scripts to "Aggressive", and shoot down defenseless Fire Giants for hours. Just remember to check back once in a while to allocate any levels you gain and keep your characters rested up. As long as you stay relatively still, you won't get hammered with the random fireballs that pelt the city.

Obviously, weapons with infinite ammo (Tansheron's Bow, Bow of Gesen, Firetooth Crossbow, Sling of Everard) work best for this trick.

 

 

It's time to settle the score with Irenicus once and for all. But first, we have to get to him.

Seriously, I forgot how much of a meat grinder Suldanesselar was.



Next time, we finally step into the expansion areas. Starting with Watcher's Keep and the lots and lots of awesome loot within.

 

 

It's high time we took out Bodhi and wrapped up that play house side quest, methinks. Also, the first batch of high-level abilities rolls in, and it is glorious.



Oh, and I also did one more thing off camera: I went back and bought the Scarlet Ninja-to +3 from the bonus shop. Why would I buy a sword that's only usable by Monks? You shall see next time!