Did you know? (Infinity Engine games' secrets)

[Antimatter]

Years pass by, but games like Baldur's Gate continue to reveal new hidden secrets. Let's combine them into this thread.

1. There is a secret "backup" ending for Shadows of Amn in the game files. According to u/EratonDoron from Reddit, it might have been presumably created in case the pre-rendered video couldn't get made or didn't arrive in time.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

You can revisit the Twisted Rune building in the Bridge District (BG2:EE) after leaving it.
You need another Rogue Stone for every time you want to enter, but it means you don't need to fight everyone at once if it's too difficult (which it often is, particularly if you care about no or minimal reload). You just need to kill Vaxall (the beholder) first and get his eye, so that you can activate the mechanism to leave.

(first mentioned by semiticgoddess on Beamdog Forum)

 

[Antimatter]

3. In the Enhanced Edition, bard songs stack if these are different songs. For example, an Enhanced Bard Song and a Skald song will stack for the following effects: +8 damage, -8 THAC0, -8 AC, 5% Magic Resistance and immunity to fear/stun/confusion/normal weapons on all your characters.

The Unkitted Bard song (up to +3 Luck) and the Blade song (+1 Luck) will also stack (but there is a current bug that the Unkitted Bard song doesn't affect summons).

 

[Chronicler]

This is an oldie, and I'm sure a lot of us already know it, but I'm pretty fond of it.

You can kill any cow in Candlekeep without repurcussion, except for that one guy's Prize Winning Cow, which will turn everybody hostile.

 

[Balrog99]

This is an oldie, and I'm sure a lot of us already know it, but I'm pretty fond of it.

You can kill any cow in Candlekeep without repurcussion, except for that one guy's Prize Winning Cow, which will turn everybody hostile.

You can kill the cows in Kuldahar in IWD without consequence as well. Why would you want to, you ask? Well if you're playing in Heart of Fury mode they're worth 2k experience each!

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

You can kill the cows in Kuldahar in IWD without consequence as well. Why would you want to, you ask? Well if you're playing in Heart of Fury mode they're worth 2k experience each!

What?!
For 2k XP each they'd better be Vampiric Dire Cows with fangs, poisonous breath attacks and +4 hooves...

 

[Balrog99]

What?!
For 2k XP each they'd better be Vampiric Dire Cows with fangs, poisonous breath attacks and +4 hooves...

Nope, they just stand there looking dumb, trying to make you feel guilty. They sometimes visit me in my dreams. They don't do anything, just stare at me with their big brown eyes, innocently chewing their cuds. Skewering them with arrows time and time again with nary a steak as reward seems to have left quite an impression on my subconscious psyche. Thankfully I never kill the cat during Reevor's rat quest or I'd probably be hopelessly mad by now...

 

[m7600]

Most of the the colors that are indexed in the Baldur's Gate series have technical sounding names, like "Pine Green" or "Light Royal Blue", but a few of them don't. For example, there's one called "Yet Another Brown", lol. These names even made their way to Siege of Dragonspear.

I know, it's not the most thrilling secret in the world, but I just found it funny

 

[Antimatter]

7. Keldorn's sword, the Hallowed Redeemer, can be used to quickly eliminate enemies with Fireshield, and its damage is Magic and bypasses Magic Resistance.

The sword deals 5 points of magical damage to anyone who damages Keldorn as long as he wields it, and every "tick" of the enemy's Fireshield "ticks" the sword's ability, which in turn "ticks" the enemy's Fireshield damage again, etc in one second. Very cool to use if you have 100% Fire/Cold resistance on Keldorn.

Found by u/Marinatedcheese on Reddit.

 

[O_Bruce]

I really didn't know the alternative cutscene at the end of Irenicus' final boss fight and I think it is really cool. The demons actually looks more imposing that in the ending cinematics. Speaking of them, does anyone know what they actually are?

Also, that Keldorn tactic looks sweet.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

7. Keldorn's sword, the Hallowed Redeemer, can be used to quickly eliminate enemies with Fireshield, and its damage is Magic and bypasses Magic Resistance.

The sword deals 5 points of magical damage to anyone who damages Keldorn as long as he wields it, and every "tick" of the enemy's Fireshield "ticks" the sword's ability, which in turn "ticks" the enemy's Fireshield damage again, etc in one second. Very cool to use if you have 100% Fire/Cold resistance on Keldorn.

View attachment 359

Found by u/Marinatedcheese on Reddit.

That's cool, and useful to know. I have used Keldorn in almost every playthrough but never paid much attention to his sword, because I always replaced it with Lilarcor and later Carsomyr ASAP. Apparently it should always remain within reach, especially for enemies with high magic resistance.

 

[Antimatter]

Speaking of them, does anyone know what they actually are?

Irenicus is being thrown into a lava pool by a horde of demons. They are just demons, with no special names attached to them. I've always personally thought that is a reference to Faustus' wish to become a demon.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Irenicus is being thrown into a lava pool by a horde of demons. They are just demons, with no special names attached to them. I've always personally thought that is a reference to Faustus' wish to become a demon.

Oh those demons. I was so glad to see them. It was 20 years ago, but I remember it like yesterday. After the Tree of Life and then Hell, I saw Irenicus lying there, opening his eyes and freaked out like "Noooo are you kidding me?! AGAIN? You can't be serious!"
I don't think I've ever been happier to see a bunch of demons who looked like the Slayer brought his baby brothers.

 

[mlnevese]

You know things have been bad when you are actually happy to see a bunch of demons

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

8. When you talk to Nessie at the Friendly Arm Inn, you can ask her about the place and its owners and she will give you an interesting piece of information that you won't appreciate or understand the first time, but makes you wonder later how much of a coincidence it can really be that this is the first place Gorion sends you to...

 

[Chronicler]

Yeah, Bently and Gallana are interesting characters.

They were once pretty accomplished adventurers in their own right. They're a tenth level illusionist/thief and a tenth level cleric if I recall. They could probably get up and solve the Iron Crisis themselves if they wanted, but they've put those days behind them. Once they had enough riches from their adventures they decided to cash out and start up this inn, so they wouldn't have to do all the life and death stuff.

If I recall one of the sourcebooks says there's a rumor that all the barmaids at the inn are Powerful Golems placed under illusion magic by ol' Bently there. If that's true, he's gotta be raking in a lot of money just from tips too, since I can't imagine the golems would be keeping that for themselves.

 

[Antimatter]

9. Original BG2 has files for an unused Chapter 6 Dream and Slayer Trial: "A second Ellesime dream in Chapter 6, the area and encounter it leads you to, and the original, highly-detrimental Slayer Change which would have then been ameliorated by going through that encounter."

Found (again) by u/EratonDoron from Reddit.

 

[O_Bruce]

Wow. I wouldn't mind seeing those two sequences, providing these would be finished and there would be gameplay effect from those.

I think they're unfinished because they lack polish. Instead of a feeling of dread, I smirked when hearing upbeat music, as the avatar of the lord of murder casually chunks a character.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

This is an oldie, and I'm sure a lot of us already know it, but I'm pretty fond of it.

You can kill any cow in Candlekeep without repurcussion, except for that one guy's Prize Winning Cow, which will turn everybody hostile.

You can also kill cats without repercussions plus cows in the FAI. before the game was changed I would use the Ugly Staff to reduce my charisma to -1 (ie 25). The first time that I did that was a fortuitous accident. After the accident the staff was introduced to BG1. It is now back in BG2, but because of the "corrections" it is now useless apart from being a saleable item.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

In Tutu due to a mod you could send the group in the training room to an inn where you could recruit them again. I would like to play a game using them as the party but don't know how to set it up to make it possible.