Volothamp's
Comeuppance
A Comprehensive, Spoiler-Free Guide to

3rd Edition


Six of Spades's Guide to the Game of Baldur's Gate
(The whole series; from Baldur's Gate I through Throne of Bhaal)

          This website was created for the purpose of helping you, the player, understand and enjoy the Baldur's Gate series. True, there are already other online sites that achieve much the same purpose as mine, and if you own the game you should also own the manual(s) that came with it. Why, then, does this site exist? Here's why.
          1. The manuals are rather clunky, and if you have both BG1 and BG2 an awful lot of information gets repeated. Some information is even apocryphal, conflicting, or otherwise incorrect.
          2. I keep secrets from you, and for your own good. Way back when I was just an innocent newbie, I was reading about the game online when I accidentally stumbled upon the exact location of the best damn helmet in the entire BG saga. This helmet is the object of a very intense & challenging sidequest, and being able to find and keep said helmet is meant to be quite an achievement, and something of its own reward. I was denied that experience, forever: That website spoiled the entire quest for me, before I'd ever had a chance to solve it for myself. That's the main reason why Volothamp's Comeuppance was created: To be a SPOILER-FREE alternative to those other sites out there. If you want to know in advance exactly what enemies are to be found in each map area, and how much EXP and loot you'll gain for defeating them, and stuff like that, go and read the walkthroughs on some other site. I treat you like an adult here, I will not hold your hand or spoon-feed you the answers. Other sites were created for people who want to know the game—I want to help you understand it.

          This guide is valid for the entire Baldur's Gate saga, but you may find it helpful to know if what you're reading is actually pertinent to (the portion of) the game that you're currently playing. That's why this site is color-coded:
General data that's valid from BG1 (Baldur's Gate I) onward is in black.
Details pertinent only to TotSC (Tales of the Sword Coast, the expansion to BG1) is in yellow.
Information that first comes into play in BG2 (Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn) is in green.
And stuff that's only important for ToB (Throne of Bhaal, the expansion to BG2) is in blue.

          A few rules do change between BG1 & BG2, and even between plain SoA (the acronym for a game of BG2 without ToB) and full BG2 that also has ToB installed. When it's important, I will specify how the rule has different versions . . . but in general, I assume that if you have BG1 or BG2, you are also playing with their respective expansions installed. I also admit to a bias in favor of BG2's rules, mainly because more & more games of BG1 are being played on the BG2 engine. This guide is also written to be descriptive of a game of BG that has the appropriate patches and Fixpacks installed, but does not have any other modifications at all.

Anyway, that's enough blather. Here's the site's Table of Contents.

SECTION 1 — BEFORE YOU START
      Chapter 1: The Spirit of the Game
      Chapter 2: Glossary of Terms to Know
      Chapter 3: If this is Your First Game
SECTION 2 — GENERAL GAMEPLAY
      Chapter 4: Character Creation
      Chapter 5: Running a Party / Combat
      Chapter 6: Items
      Chapter 7: Spells
      Chapter 8: Enemies
      Chapter 9: Spoiler-Free "Walkthrough"
SECTION 3 — GETTING MORE INVOLVED
      Chapter 10: Roleplaying vs. Powergaming
      Chapter 11: Cheating & File manipulation
      Chapter 12: Mods and Modding
SECTION 4 — REFERENCES
      Appendix A: Tables
      Appendix B: Background Knowledge
      Appendix C: Links
      Appendix D: Credits

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