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This section will give you some basic help and reminders so your adventuring will be a little easier and just a bit less perilous. We will give you some tips that we have found that will keep you from slapping your forehead and yelling "Doh!" when you forgot to do something, or there was something you didn't know that you should have done. Some of these tips are very basic, but all will help you along your way. Wear Helmets! Helmets protect you from critical hits, which can be quite damaging. Make sure that everyone in your party that can wear a helmet does. Do You Have a License for That? When you get to Athkatla, save up 5,000 gold pieces and get the license to cast magic in the city. This is well worth the cost and makes your life much easier later on when you are openly attacked by baddies. Get 5,000 gold pieces and talk to the mage in the government main office. Abracadabracalafragalisticexpialadocious... It takes a relatively long period of time for spellcasters (both yours and those of your enemies) to get their spells off successfully. As such, protect your characters while they cast and smack down enemies as they try to cast. Make sure your fighters have a fast weapon they are proficient with, be it a dagger or short sword. This will let them switch weapons if they are fighting a mage that must have his spells disrupted quickly. Don't get scared if an enemy starts casting fireball at you; hit him with some arrows, and he'll forget what he was just doing. Launch Your Missiles Long-range attacks are a necessity, not only for disrupting magic users, but for getting damage in on opponents before they reach your party. Do as much from afar as you can. Why go toe-to-toe when you can shoot your enemies and laugh as they pull arrows from their torsos? It saves a lot of downtime and the heartache of having to heal. Make sure that everyone in your group has some sort of missile weapon equipped at all times. When you can afford it, buy enhanced missiles, such as arrows +2 or arrows of fire; you can do a lot of damage before your enemies even get within melee range. Pets, Pets, Pets Need I say more? If you can summon minions to kill the monsters while you watch and collect the experience and money, why not? Use those elementals and servants. Cast that monster summoning III spell. If the creature you are fighting is really tough and wades through your pets, use the pets to slow it down while your mages weaken it with spells and your archers knock it down with arrows. Use your minions to keep monsters tied up while you use your spells and bows to knock them down. Doorways and bridges are great for this and can often turn the tide of battle or make impossible battles rather easy. Know What You're Doing Make sure you know the strengths and weaknesses of your enemies before engaging them. Don't cast ice storm on a group of cold wights. Fireball is much more effective. Refer to the enemies section of this guide for tips on beating individual enemies. Save Often Saving often may seem like an obvious precaution to save time if you die, however, there is more to it than that. Saving your game just before attempting to memorize a spell will let you reload until you successfully get it memorized. Saving before resting lets you keep trying until you get a peaceful night's rest, without pesky monsters waking you up. Of course, this can take away from the realism of the game, but the option is there if you need it. There's also an option (in the game options menu) to automagically give your characters the maximum hit point gain upon leveling up rather than rolling a die to see how much they get.
You must quest through some dark, dank, long stretches of dungeons in Baldur's Gate II, and in your travels, you'll acquire tons of little goodies, many of them quite valuable. It'll be a bit annoying to travel back to town whenever your inventory gets full, so be sure to use all your slots effectively. Put scrolls, potions, and the like in your quick item slots and put any missiles (arrows, bolts, bullets, and so on) in your missile slots, even if the character can't use them. They're there, so use them for extra storage. Most importantly, take advantage of the new bags; they make your effective inventory size much larger. Ask Questions First, Kill Later Attacking everyone you see may sound like a cool idea, but the game rewards peaceful resolutions more than it does bloody ones. In some cases, you can effectively halt yourself in the game by killing a vital character. Never attack until you're attacked.
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