D&D: Major Updates In The Work For Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale

Both Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale’s Enhanced Editions are due for a major update soon. Get ready for a blast from your past, check it out!

Beamdog is the studio that has been shepherding the classic isometric games of D&D’s past, publishing the Enhanced Editions of both the original Baldur’s Gate series and Icewind Dale. But, recently, the studio announced it’s planning a major update with a “BIG 2.6 patch” in the works right now. There are a ton of different changes in the works, spanning a variety of things like “fixing the inn screen” to “French text localization” alongside a much-looked for pathfinding fix. There are fixes in the works for all three games.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition

• Fixed an issue in some circumstances, where killing Brage would not result in his body being dropped preventing the collection of his bounty in Nashkel.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing the player from entering a home near the Red Sheaf in Beregost.
• Fixed an effect message for Ethereal Retribution.
• Fixed an issue where the splitting slimes in the Black Pits could kill the party despite Story Mode being enabled.
• Fixed a crash when using Polymorph Self to become a brown bear if the record screen was opened.
• Fixed an issue for when the party attempted to replay the Black Pits battle with Llyrk (tier 1 battle 3), his Crumbling Skeletons would die immediately.
• Adoy’s Enclave is now accessible from the Gullykin to its north, on the world map.
• If you re-enter the area where Dorn gets ambushed, the map and fog of war will now reset, as they do in other random encounter areas.
• In Chapter 7 Husam will no longer appears and disappear repeatedly in the Elfsong Tavern.
• Fixed missing combat music in many waylay areas.
• Fixed several containers would display the “Someone has noticed you! You hear the guards being summoned” message, if you were caught thieving, but no guards were ever actually summoned.
• Fixed an issue where Tiax’s ‘Advanced AI’ script would not actually cause him to search for traps when the option was selected.
• Fixed an issue where you received a blank string instead of the correct “This item cannot be removed.” if you clicked on Baeloth’s non-removable ring in his inventory.
• Fixed an issue in the cutscene where the player and Gorion get ambushed, that the player’s familiar would not flee with the player.
• Removed a superfluous response dialogue option that would cause Gandolar’s dialogue to repeat.
• Fixed an issue when out of sight of Mutamin, one of his basilisks could be attacked and killed without it ever turning hostile and fighting back.
• Fixed an issue with the dopplegangers at the Seven Suns losing their (token) loot when they transformed out of their human disguise.
• Fixed missing weather on the Iron Throne roof.
• Fixed an issue where the player could stand close enough to activate the gnolls attacking Drizzt without activating Drizzt to fight back.
• Fixed an issue where if the player mods the game to allow the protagonist to die, the game would still end if Player1 is turned into a ghast via Aec’Letec’s death gaze.
• Fixed an issue during Rasaad’s quest where the party will encounter Gamaz but not ‘officially’ kill Gamaz, so he would never be added to the party stats (such as the ‘most powerful vanquished’).
• Fixed an issue where nearby goblins would sometimes attack and kill the bear in Adoy’s Enclave.
• Fixed an issue when Kagain finally sees the destroyed caravan, and the player interrupts his dialog, that the journal entry would never close.
• Fixed an issue where Dorn was too easily killed when you meet him in his initial ambush.
• Removed redundant combat feedback when successfully using Blinding Powder.
• Prevented Neera from starting her post-fight dialogue despite enemies still being present.
• If Edwin is killed before you even meet Dynaheir, she’ll still comment on his death when you first meet her.
• Stopped multiple copies of the unique Shield of the Falling Stars from being pickpocketed/looted/awarded from Varci and multiple dwarven rune stones from being pickpocketed from Ike.
• Reworked Tenya’s rewards when returning her bowl.
• Reworked Scar’s rewards for the completion of the investigation into the Seven Suns.
• Stopped Sarevok from becoming invincible if affected with confusion.
• Replaced the special arrows in Chapter 6 that Arkanis and Deder were carrying, with normal arrows.
• The elemental bullets introduced in BGEE – Bullets of Fire, Ice, and Electricity – now use unique icons to distinguish them from other bullets.
• Increased the price of elemental darts introduced by BGEE – Darts of Fire, Ice, and Electricity – due to their higher damage potential than +1 darts.
• Fixed an issue in the basement of Durlag’s Tower where the game could prematurely send you to the chessboard once the initial fission slime was killed.
• Melicamp’s journal entries were being filed as separate quests and have now been combined under one header.
• Basillus’ skeletons will now attack if Basilus attacks from any of the hostile dialogue options.
• Ramazith now returns inside if he finds himself coaxed outside his home during the completion of his quest.
• Aldeth will no longer object that you haven’t cleared out all of the dopplegangers at the Merchant’s League, even though you have.
• Bruel’s Retort now has strings for its unidentified name and description.
• The female monk in Rasaad’s quest is no longer using a male avatar and some male sounds.
• Death Ward now blocks the special version of Power Word: Kill used by the Death Knight.
• Fixed the missing footstep sounds in Adoy’s Enclave and Dark Moon Temple.
• Eldoth’s Poison Arrows are no longer doing 50% more damage than they should.
• Some hidden creatures in the city of Baldur’s Gate in Chapter 7 will no longer display a nonsensical string when they disappear.
• When approaching Kryll, Dorn will no longer jump to a new position before initiating dialogue.
• A handful of traps in Durlag’s Tower and the Dark Moon temple are no longer flagged as already discovered.
• When flooding the mines at Cloakwood, you will now receive the ‘Water, Water Everywhere’ achievement if you open the plug via dialogue with the miner.
• Fixed the script in Tenya’s area that prevented the ‘Fishermans Foe’ achievement from being awarded.
• The journal entries that are filed under ‘Rising Tensions with Amn’ will now close once chapter four is completed and you discover the true source of the conflict, instead of remaining unresolved.
• If the player fails to discover Gorion’s letter in Candlekeep, the journal entry for Dorn’s quest would not close. The journal (and quest) now close with the death of Simmeon, a more natural ending point.
• The ‘Tandem in Extremis’ journal entry had no closing condition, so it would always remain open. It will now close when you meet Winski at the end of the Thieves Maze.
• Several ‘Tazok and the Bandits’ journal entries are informational, and as such are separated from the quest-style entries moved to the Info section of the journal.
• Fixed an issue where Baeloth’s back-to-back dialogues after the Margarine of Evil fight could interrupt the party’s return from the arena, breaking the campaign.
• Dradeel should now remain dead if you kill him in his hut, and will no longer turn up later as you try to escape the island.
• The entrance to the Ducal Palace is now only available once the bars are open.
• If you preemptively attack Sarevok in the Ducal Palace and Liia and Belt die in the resulting combat, Sarevok’s “you failed” dialogue will now properly fire.
• Monsters summoned via wand will now behave the same as those summoned directly via wand.
• Drizzt will now properly acknowledge the player’s help in the gnoll ambush.
• If you join the bandits with Kivan in your party, you will no longer get trapped in a loop if you choose to attack Tazok in the Bandit Camp.
• If you complete the Prism quest before talking to Oublek, he will no longer list Prism as an outstanding bounty.
• Several notes from Rasaad’s side quest are now flagged as critical so they will no longer disappear from ground piles and prevent the completion of the quest.

Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition

• If Jaheira is removed from the party when she is cursed by Baron Ployer, she now uses the right rejoining dialogue if you finished the quest without killing Ployer.
• Sharran Guard Ovidiu and, later in Throne of Bhall, Yxtrazzal can no longer be killed during their cutscenes (e.g. with thief traps), leaving the game softlocked.
• Fixed a display bug where after casting Black Blade of Disaster, the record screen would not update your THAC0 until you made an attack.
• Prevented double text strings from sometimes displaying when clicking on the exit from the Sahuagin City to the Underdark.
• Prevented the crushing trap in the Spellhold Maze from killing characters in Story Mode.
• Fixed the granting of multiple unique items from the winch in Firkraag’s Lair and multiple Shrouds of the Unproven from Rabi’ah.
• Links have been added so that the player can travel directly between the Wild Forest and Watcher’s Keep.
• When being ambushed in Throne of Bhall, the party will no longer be moved into the area incompletely, causing the cutscene to hang.
• Removed duplicate gear from the arena floor when initiating the Black Pits II finale.
• You are no longer blocked from receiving a discharged copy of the Rift Device if you have Spell Shield active.
• Forced Mairyn to hang around and deliver needed dialogue instead of teleporting away and causing the ranger stronghold quests to stall.
• If loading from the Sulanesselarr auto-save, the chapter number will no longer get bumped to Chapter 8.
• Prevented a superfluous icon to appear in some game modes in Ust Natha Bar.
• The party can no longer leave Keldorn’s home before the opening cutscene begins, causing the game to soft lock.
• Removed an info trigger in the de’Arnise Keep basement.
• A visible barrier has been added to the Black Pits II where you approach the forbidden doughnut area.
• The character will no longer walk too far around the rock to access the small hidden cache container at the entrance to the Windpsear Hills.
• Moved the camera to fix some Black Pits II cutscenes that had some action happening offscreen.
• If you kill Dorn in the Temple district, he will no longer respawn after you gained more experience.
• Implosion will no longer bypass hold protections inappropriately.
• The entrance to the Radiant Heart is no longer on impassable terrain.
• Before being identified, Kuo-Toan and Paralytic Bolt now use the proper descriptions.
• Bolts +4 now give the proper +4 bonus instead of +3.
• The ‘Absolute Power’ achievement would sometimes not fire since it was keyed on Nalia’s rejoining dialogue. Nalia could sometimes use her generic rejoining dialogue instead of the one specifically for the completion of this quest.

Icewind Dale

• Miscast Magic will now affect divine spellcasting.
• Invisibility Purge and Detect Invisibility will now interact with magic resistance and spell protections correctly.
• The Thief Evasion ability will now cover area-of-effect spells and abilities properly, such as Delayed Blast Fireball, Meteor Swarm, and Spike Stones.
• When first entering the Great Forge, the message about the freezing cold will now display as general informative text and not as if it’s coming from a party member.
• Enchanted Weapon now behaves as it does in other EE games.
• Death Ward now covers all instant-death spells and its visuals have also been updated to be more in IWD’s style.
• Favor of Ilmater no longer plays its graphics on the caster when cast on an ineligible target.
• Fixed a small error where making your save against Beltyn’s Burning Blood would stop the spell effects at the wrong time.
• Contagion no longer bypasses magic resistance.
• Additional portrait icons have been added and applied to spells as appropriate.
• Mind Blank now uses a custom portrait icon (as it did in IWD) and had its casting and expiry times fixed.
• Fixed an issue where poison was affecting a few creatures who should have been immune to its effects, and the message displayed as feedback for immune creatures has been standardized.
• Animal Rage is now restricted to allies and received a few cosmetic fixes.
• Removed multiple lines of redundant feedback when Antimagic Shell was cast and now properly checks dispellability of deafness and blindness.
• Removed a small delay between Mordenkainen’s Force Missiles striking their target and then inflicting their secondary concussive damage.
• Magic Missiles spell will now play their sounds and visuals when damaging a target in spite of magic resistance. The spell is now using the proper IWD visuals. Magic Missiles via wand were working as intended.
• Power World, Sleep will only play combat feedback and visuals if the target is affected by the sleep effect itself.
• Flame Arrow will not play visuals and other effects when blocked by magic resistance.
• Knock will no longer play its audio and visual cues when targeted on a creature.
• Horror was playing the wrong feedback message when cast on unnatural creatures such as golems.
• Fixed the icon on one of the chests in the bottom level of Dragon’s Eye which was using a body icon instead of a chest.
• Fixed the incorrect cursor used on the info regions in the Tiers of the Dead, and the garden and second floor of the Order of the Kraken mansion.
• Familiars no longer block progression of the game if they are sent up the eastern stairs in Anauroch Castle.
• After years of prayer and introspection, the Priests of Tempus are now receiving their innate Holy Power ability.
• You can now target Spiritual Wrath by selecting a location when casting. It also uses a new unique projectile.
• Wand of the Heavens can now target a location instead of forcing the user to target a creature.
• Wand of Ice now uses a single-target projectile.
• Free Action no longer blocks Ghoul Touch.
• Fixed some visual and effect issues with Wild Surges.
• The multiplayer chat box no longer blocks the transition area to the third level in the Temple of the Forgotten God.
• One of the giants in Ilmadia’s area should turn hostile when provoked via dialogue.
• Fixed some flickering when entering Arundel’s home during the cutscene.
• The final achievement will be properly awarded upon defeating Belhifet.
• The Eye of the Sword can no longer be dissipated by the damage from berserker rage.
• Primary targets of Vitriolic Sphere will no longer take splash damage as the splash damage is already calculated into the damage.
• Lich Touch now properly paralyzes its targets.

Happy Adventuring!

Author: J.R. Zambrano

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]