50 Fun Facts About Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

In Baldur's Gate II, the ranger Minsc takes advice from a pet hamster of what name?

Boo is, in Minsc's view, a miniature giant space hamster. Writer David Gaider said the pet has no abilities beyond those of a normal hamster.

Which voice of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger also plays the ranger Minsc in Baldur's Gate II?

Jim Cummings gave Minsc such a distinctive delivery that the writers rewrote some of the ranger's lines around his readings.

Which English actor from Tron and Titanic voices the mage Jon Irenicus in Baldur's Gate II?

David Warner made the arrogant mage one of the most memorable villains in role-playing games, and came back to voice him again in a 2016 expansion.

BioWare, the studio that developed Baldur's Gate II, is based in which Canadian city?

Edmonton, Alberta, is the studio's home. Its three founders were newly graduated medical doctors who turned to making role-playing games.

Which Belgian studio made Baldur's Gate 3, the 2023 sequel to Baldur's Gate II?

Larian Studios released the sequel 23 years after Shadows of Amn and brought back Minsc and Jaheira as companions.

What does the mage Jon Irenicus steal from the hero of Baldur's Gate II during a ritual?

Their soul is torn away in the ritual, and without it the hero starts transforming into a monstrous avatar of a dead god.

The hero of Baldur's Gate II is a child of Bhaal, the slain god of what?

Murder was Bhaal's domain. He foresaw his own destruction and left behind mortal children whose deaths were meant to fuel his rebirth.

Baldur's Gate II is set in which Dungeons & Dragons campaign world, home of the Sword Coast and Faerûn?

Forgotten Realms is a high fantasy setting that resembles a medieval Earth, and players and designers simply call it the Realms.

Which hero of R. A. Salvatore's fantasy novels makes a cameo in Baldur's Gate II and can aid the party?

Drizzt Do'Urden turns up with his companions, and he reacts badly if the player imports a hero who killed or robbed him in the first game.

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition reached PlayStation 4, Xbox One and which other console in 2019?

Nintendo Switch got the remaster through Skybound Games. An earlier Wii U version was cancelled after the developer's bad experience porting another game.

In Baldur's Gate II, the smuggler Saemon Havarian sails the party to which pirate-run island town?

Brynnlaw is a port town taken over by pirates, and the asylum the party is trying to reach stands on the north side of the same island.

Which voice of Johnny Bravo also plays the smuggler Saemon Havarian in Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal?

Jeff Bennett also voices Cespenar in the same expansion, the imp butler who forges weapons from the odds and ends the hero collects.

In Baldur's Gate II, which race hunts the party for carrying the sacred blade Saemon Havarian hands over?

Githyanki hold the blade sacred, so they attack the party's ship and later send warriors to demand that the hero surrender it.

After Saemon Havarian teleports off a stolen ship in Baldur's Gate II, which undersea people capture the party?

Sahuagin take the party to their underwater city, a detour that players miss entirely if they turn down the captain's offer of a voyage home.

In Throne of Bhaal, Saemon Havarian runs his smuggling from a cave beside which monastery village?

Amkethran is where he pins his own thefts on the hero, leaves the party to fight a band of angry mercenaries and teleports away.

In Baldur's Gate II, Saemon Havarian persuades the party to help seize a ship from which Pirate Lord?

Desharik rules the island's pirates, and one way into its asylum is to convince him to have the whole party committed as inmates.

In Throne of Bhaal, Saemon Havarian offers to sneak the party into the monastery of which Bhaalspawn monk?

Balthazar's monks expect the hero to arrive drugged, but the smuggler admits he skipped that step because he felt he owed the party one.

Which island asylum does Jon Irenicus seize control of in Baldur's Gate II?

Spellhold sits above a magical maze that was built, in rare cases, to test whether an inmate was sane enough to leave.

Bodhi, sister of Jon Irenicus in Baldur's Gate II, leads a rival guild of which undead creatures?

Vampires fill her coven. The story implies she chose undeath herself, as a way to survive after an elven punishment shortened her life.

Which order of mages arrests Jon Irenicus for unsanctioned spellcasting at the start of Baldur's Gate II?

Cowled Wizards regulate the use of magic in Amn, and after the street fight they teleport both the mage and the hero's friend away.

Much of Baldur's Gate II takes place in which capital of Amn, ruled by the anonymous Council of Six?

Athkatla was built by artists who had learned on the first game's city, and the art director said that made it far more diverse and interesting.

Which childhood friend of the hero is revealed in Baldur's Gate II to be a fellow child of Bhaal?

Imoen was a late addition to the first game and proved unexpectedly popular with players, and the sequel reveals her as the hero's half-sister.

Where does the hero wake at the very start of Baldur's Gate II, before a wizard begins his experiments?

In a cage is where the game opens, with a wizard who knows the hero's heritage experimenting on them until an attack on his lair draws him away.

Which monstrous avatar of Bhaal does the hero of Baldur's Gate II first turn into when confronting Bodhi?

The Slayer bursts out when Bodhi corners the party in a maze, and the sight startles her so much that she retreats to warn her brother.

In Baldur's Gate II, the party chases Jon Irenicus through which underground world of mind flayers?

The Underdark is the party's only road back to the surface, where it emerges to find an elven army locked out of its own city.

Jon Irenicus, the villain of Baldur's Gate II, was once an elf exiled from which hidden city?

Suldanessellar cast him out when he was still known as Joneleth, the lover of its queen.

At the climax of Baldur's Gate II, Jon Irenicus drains the power of what sacred heart of the elven city?

The Tree of Life is his route to immortality, and draining it would doom the elven city that once threw him out.

In Baldur's Gate II, Gaelan Bayle offers the party the help of which guild for a huge sum of gold?

Shadow Thieves operate all along the Sword Coast from their base in Amn's capital, and they promise to find the hero's missing friend.

In Baldur's Gate II, Minsc swears to avenge which witch of Rashemen, killed while the party was held captive?

Dynaheir was the witch Minsc had sworn to protect on his rite of passage, so her death gives the comic ranger a real grief to carry.

Which Kara-Tur bounty hunter joins early in Baldur's Gate II and later betrays the party?

Yoshimo reveals that the villain bound him with a spell to obey or die, and he is the one companion who cannot return in the expansion.

Which companion in Baldur's Gate II is a winged elf who lost her wings after slavers sold her to a circus?

Aerie was nursed by the gnome Quayle after the circus tossed her aside, and the two are still living with the circus when the party meets her.

Which evil dwarf joins the party at the Copper Coronet in Baldur's Gate II to hunt for a lich's book?

Korgan belittles the gentlest member of the party so relentlessly that she eventually demands he be thrown out of the group.

Jaheira's loyalties in Baldur's Gate II are tested by which semi-secret organization she and Khalid serve?

The Harpers turn on Jaheira when a local faction decides the hero is too dangerous a Bhaalspawn to be left alone.

Viconia DeVir, a returning cleric in Baldur's Gate II, belongs to which subterranean elven race?

Drow like Viconia come from the city of Menzoberranzan, but she has abandoned the spider queen Lolth and now worships Shar.

Minsc's miniature giant space hamster in Baldur's Gate II is a creature from which Dungeons & Dragons setting?

Spelljammer describes giant hamsters bred to power flying ships, along with miniature varieties that look just like ordinary ones.

The hero of the Baldur's Gate saga grew up in which library fortress, watched over by the mage Gorion?

Candlekeep is also where the hero's closest friend was raised, long before either of them learned what their heritage was.

In Baldur's Gate II, which monsters have overrun the de'Arnise Keep, family home of Nalia?

Trolls broke into the keep with the help of burrowing monsters that have a mind-befuddling gaze, and Nalia recruits the party to win it back.

Which red dragon in Baldur's Gate II poses as a nobleman to lure the party to the Windspear Hills?

Firkraag holds a grudge against the hero's foster father, and he disguises a band of knights as monsters so that the party will cut them down.

Which enchanted two-handed sword in Baldur's Gate II talks to its wielder and can be asked for advice?

Lilarcor makes its wielder immune to charm and confusion, and its advice changes with the chapter until it falls silent in the expansion.

Which BioWare game engine, first planned for a never-released strategy game, powers Baldur's Gate II?

Infinity takes its name from Battleground: Infinity, the strategy prototype that was re-engineered into the first Baldur's Gate.

Baldur's Gate II, like the 1998 original, uses which edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules?

Second edition rules give the game its kits, optional specialisations such as the dragon-hunting cavalier, who cannot use missile weapons.

In Baldur's Gate II, what about the hero decides which stronghold they can join or take over?

Their class decides it: a fighter can take over a nobleman's keep, while a mage or sorcerer ends up owning a planar sphere.

Which combat system does Baldur's Gate II use, unlike its turn-based 2023 sequel Baldur's Gate 3?

Real-time with pause lets the player freeze the action to give orders, and the game can also be set to halt automatically at certain moments.

Which German composer, who once toured with Tangerine Dream, scored Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn?

Michael Hoenig also wrote the music for the first game, and he earned an Emmy nomination for the theme to the science fiction series Dark Skies.

Black Isle Studios, the Fallout label that published Baldur's Gate II, was a division of which company?

Interplay Entertainment saw the game take in $4 million in its first 14 days in North America, a sales record for one of its computer titles.

Which 1999 role-playing game set in the city of Sigil shares its engine with Baldur's Gate II?

Planescape: Torment casts the player as The Nameless One, an immortal man who forgets everything each time he is killed.

Which dungeon did Throne of Bhaal add, reachable from both Baldur's Gate II campaigns?

Watcher's Keep was built as a magical prison, and its guardian knights fear that the great evil sealed inside is slowly breaking free.

Which villain of the first Baldur's Gate, the hero's half-brother, can join the party in Throne of Bhaal?

Sarevok spent the first game trying to provoke a war that would make him a god, so recruiting him turns the old arch-enemy into an ally.

What kind of animal is Wilson, a companion added in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition?

A bear, specifically a grizzly, Wilson joined the remaster alongside Hexxat the thief as one of its two brand-new companions.

Throne of Bhaal moves the Baldur's Gate II saga to which land, torn by a war among the Bhaalspawn?

Tethyr is where a quintet of legendary Bhaalspawn known as the Five set about killing off all their own brethren.