Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition – How to Survive Legacy of Bhaal Difficulty

Purpose of this guide

Legacy of Bhaal difficulty can be very challenging if you’re not prepared. That’s why I created this guide to explain the best ways to beat this mode.

Key Strategies

Enemies have additional levels and a substantial THAC0 bonus, meaning they’ll land their attacks almost every time and hit hard. They also have a large AC bonus and massive amounts of HP, so if you try to tank them with one of your characters they will almost certainly kill you before you kill them. Your summons however have many of the same bonuses that enemies do and will survive much longer against them, making them the best tanks for LoB difficulty.

Using the mage spells Chromatic orb, Web, بطيء, Hold, Greater Malison, Mislead; or priest spell Entangle will disable enemies if they don’t make a saving throw, meaning they can’t attack you and every attack will automatically hit them. This makes Free Action very useful since they will enable one character to walk into a Web and attack the disabled enemies without getting caught themselves.

The fewer characters in your party the more experience each party member gets. Thus for quests that don’t involve fighting the main character can quickly level by removing all the other party members. This also means a party of 4 may be more effective than one with 6 characters due to the more rapid levelling.

By having a character become invisible (magic, potion, hide in shadows) you can sneak around, locate the enemies, and bypass them if this party only has one member. If another mage summons monsters nearby the enemies will rush to attack these monsters, allowing the invisible character to attack the enemies from behind or summon more monsters to encircle them.

Unlike in BGI in BGII you get experience by learning mage spells, picking locks, and disarming traps. This will allow you to level safely in the early parts of this game. If your character isn’t a thief or mage I recommend recruiting Jan Jansen as your only part member and using him to help you gain experience.

Remember NPCs only become hostile it you open a chest, not if you disarm or unlock it.

Main character class

SorcererA strong class because they can summon monsters and don’t need to find spell scrolls to teach them new spells.

بركه: ConjurerA mage who specialises in summoning monsters and can learn a wider variety of spells than a sorcerer. Though you do need to find the relevant scrolls to summon the strongest monsters.

بركه: IllusionistA mage who specialises in summoning illusions and can learn a wider variety of spells than a sorcerer. Though you do need to find the relevant scrolls to summon the strongest monsters. Being a Gnome gives +1 to intelligence.

مقاتل: بيرسيركرA Berserker specialising in Scimitar, Flail, و 2 weapon fighting can use the best weapons in the game and do a large amount of damage. Being a Half-Orc gives +1 Strength and Constitution.

Bard: BladeThis Bard kit is like a fighter/mage but not as good as they have a lower THAC0 unless you give them a strength boosting item. Though they lack the temporary weakness caused by dualing a fighter and then having to level up their mage class to regain the fighter’s abilities. They also level up faster than a mage and gain the Rogue high level ability Use Any Item, which lets them wear any armour and use any weapon.

I recommend avoiding duel classing as you will have a very difficult time until you have enough experience to regain the abilities you lost.

مقاتلIf you wish to duel class I recommend the following:

Kensai / بركه

بيرسيركر / بركه

مقاتل / بركه

A gnome can duel class into the following:

مقاتل / Illusionist

Dual at level 9 أو 13. All will have a large number of spells and more durability than a normal mage.

RogueIf you want a character that is more of a Fighter/Mage/Thief than a Fighter/Mage then:

Swashbuckler / بركه

Dual them at level 9 أو 12. They have a large number of spells, thief abilities, and more durability than a normal mage.

Recommended Party

The best option is to create new characters during character creation that possess all the skills you need. I recommend several sorcerers that can constantly summon an army of monsters to attack enemies. If you wish to use the existing characters here are my recommendations.

They can summon monsters, which benefit from the increased abilities given to every creature in this game.

Edwin Odesseiron: as a pure mage he has more spell slots and access to higher level spells, which lets him summon heavy hitters far earlier than any other companions. Though he can only be recruited after doing a Shadow Guild quest.

Imoen/Nalia de’Arnise: both are thieves that duelled to a mage. Though they are weaker mages than Edwin they can become powerful. The problem is that you need to complete Nalia’s quest to recruit her and Imoen is absent for most of the game so will be underleveled and know few spells when you acquire her.

Jan Jansen: a multiclass mage/thief. Though he will always be a lower level mage that the other characters due to multiclassing he can easily be recruited in the Government district. He can also unlock chests and disarm traps for bonus experience.

Aerie: a multiclass mage/cleric. Though she will always be a lower level mage than the other characters due to multiclassing she can be fairly easily be recruited in the Circus Tent in the Promenade. She can also heal the party.

They can summon some monsters, which benefit from the increased abilities given to every creature in this game. They can also heal and ally buffs to the player AND these monsters.

Anomen: a fighter who duelled to a cleric allowing him to have a large range of cleric spells. He can also easily be recruited in the Copper Coronet (Slums District).

Viconia: a pure cleric who has a large number of cleric spells. She can also easily be recruited in the Government District (near jail) but doesn’t work well with Keldorn.

Jaheira: a multiclass Fighter/Druid. Though she will always be a lower level cleric than the other characters due to multiclassing she can be fairly easily be recruited in the Circus Tent in Irenicus’ Dungeon who can easily be recruited.

These characters can deal damage while the enemies are attacking a monster or otherwise incapacitated. A thief’s backstab is effective at dealing large amounts of damage if it hits.

Keldorn: a paladin who starts with armour that gives him free action (can move through web and grease without being affected) and can cast dispell magic. He can easily be recruited by going into the Sewers underneath Temple District.

Minsc: a ranger in Irenicus’ Dungeon who can easily be recruited. Unfortunately he doesn’t work well with Edwin.

Korgan: a dwarf berserker who can also easily be recruited in the Copper Coronet (Slums District). Unfortunately he doesn’t work well with Aerie.

Though there are other characters they are more difficult to recruit, cannot summon monsters, or are less useful than the ones mentioned.