If you have any questions, comments, additions, subtractions, email me at: "gary@pottsland.com"

UPDATE: Now that I have completed Chapter 6, I can say that it is something you do in Chapter 6 that causes the Flaming Fist Enforcers to pursue you when you get back to BG in Chapter 7. You are NOT blamed for the death of Scar when you do the Duke Eltan quest in Chapter 5.

These characters also have an array of magic shields, rings of protection, and other sundry items to improve their armor classes and protection from magic which I have not listed.

I have lots of brute force fighters, and some Magic users (although a little light in the Mage category). Due to the game limit of 89,000 experience points, all of these characters are maxed out at their highest levels possible, in fact each has almost 89,000xp points as I enter the City. So I have a very formidable party, who, basically, has nothing to gain :). For me, this detracts from the game as getting to the next experience level and improving my character's abilities is a big part of the game excitement.

I always try to engage the enemy at range with arrows and bullets. This usually ends most fights without any melee combat. When infrequently forced to melee, I try to keep my two Rangers and my Fighter/Thief up front to protect the three magic users, although Branwen is good with her Warhammer +2 (but it is a pain to switch weapons during combat as she has only one ready weapon slot). If one of my front three fighters is not in melee contact, I switch back to ranged attack for him. I seldom use "backstab". I always try to optimize the ranged attacks and minimize melee attacks. I always, always, always try to knock out the enemy artillery first - you know, the ones with missile attacks, and especially the magic users.

When up against multiple ranged attackers, I always send out Branwen's Animate Dead Skeletons, and sometimes monsters from a Wand of Monsters. These summoned monsters are great at disrupting the enemy magic users, and once I discovered that summoned monsters and animated dead can apparently see invisible enemies and will attack them, I always use them against 'invisibles'. Animate Dead and summoned monsters can also track enemies that use Dimension Door.

Other than this, I don't use that much magic (I usually forget to try it, and when I do I am frustrated by giving my mage new orders before she has completed the spell she was trying to cast <sigh>. I sure wish the game gave you an indication of who was in the process of casting a spell - like coloring their picture blue until the spell has been cast). I have mostly used protective magic and magic for healing my battle weary troopers.

I do not do combat in real time!!

Using my party and these general tactics, I didn't have any problems with any of the battles in the city. Of course some party members got beat up a bit occasionally, but a few healing spells could usually fix this.

1. The Experience Limit: The limit is 89,000xp, so if your party is similar to mine, then all the experience you'll gain in Chapters 5 through 7 will be wasted. I would highly recommend that if you plan to play the add-on, Tales of Sword Coast (TOSC), you add it now before starting Chapter 5. TOSC raises the experience limit to 161,000. This will allow your characters to go up another level or 2 before they are again maxed out and you won't waste all that experience from Chapter 5. Since I don't intend to get TOSC, I pressed on into Chapter 5 knowing full well that the rewards would be minimal.
2. Poison Quest: There is a incident/quest in the city that results in your party being poisoned. If the multi-part quest is not solved in 10 days, your party will die. Although when I tested this, my party got ample warning messages about the impending doom, I read several posts of players being surprised when their party died. Because of this possibility, I decided to avoid that which triggers the poison quest until much later in the game. As it turns out, it is not as big a problem as I had assumed. Basically, if you go into Area-H (east of the wall), then later go into Area-I (around the tents), the poison quest may be triggered (see "CITY LOCATIONS" below for "Area" meanings). Because of not wanting to go into these areas too soon, I avoided the Thieves Guild quests available in Area-A. If you are concerned about this and want to read more, I suggest you read the quest entitled "The Party is Poisoned" which is near the end of the Major Quests section.
3. Scar's Murder: I read some posts and some email with regard to a quest that causes Scar to be murdered, the player to be blamed for the murder, and a resulting relentless pursuit by the Flaming Fist Enforcers. Based on these warnings, I left the quest that causes Scar to be murdered until the last. See "Chapter Ending Quest", the last one in the Major Quest section. For the record, I DO know that taking this quest causes Scar to disappear, but I couldn't determine if the Flaming Fist Enforcers do chase you after his murder. Since I wanted to complete this quest guide as best I could, I chose not to take the chance of being hounded by the Flaming Fist :).

MAJOR QUESTS - What I have done is list the major quests in the order I got them (not the order I completed them). After the title of each major quest is a number, in parenthesis, which indicates the order in which I solved the quest. So, for instance, the first listed quest, "Scar-1 (8)" was the first quest I received, but the 8th quest I solved. The second quest I received, "Zombie Farm (1)", was the first quest I solved. However, I am convinced that you can complete the quests in almost any order with very few exceptions.

As you go through the Major Quests list you will see that I explored the city clockwise starting with Area-A (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H), then did the center sector (I). There were however, a few exceptions to this path of exploration.

MINOR QUESTS - These are listed by city area, A through I. These will be very brief with little detail, and are provided just so you don't miss a chance for a fight. :)

NPC'S WHO WILL JOIN - These are listed in the order I encountered the NPC, there were only four.

Although visible on your map, if you have not already visited the Bridge sector, then you will not be able to 'jump' to it from the Cloakwood Mines, or any non-adjacent, sector. To enter the Bridge sector the first time, travel to the Ankheg Farm sector, exit the north edge, and enter the Bridge sector.

The # followed by a number, e.g. #60, refers to David's Baldur's Gate City map (also on our Map page). The legend for David's city map is also there. So when I say Area-C, #55 I am referring to the Harbor Master's Building (#55) in the South sector (Area-C) of the city. As you read through this guide it would help if you reference these maps.

GOOD THINGS

1. You should never run out of gold once you get to the city. Although gold was a problem for me during most of the first 4 chapters, once I started the city quests I've had more than I can spend. I now have all the best equipment, special weapons, special missiles, spells, etc. that money can buy.
2. There are lots of shops in the city so you can easily replenish your scrolls, potions, missiles, etc. The Sorcerous Sundries (Area-A, #37) can furnish you with all the scrolls, potions, improved missiles, and other things you need. And if they don't have it, there will be another shop that does.
3. Travel time between city sectors in 0 hours. So you don't have to worry about arriving with your party "fatigued". With so many Inns, there is always a place to rest after battle. And with so many shops, you can always easily replenish (no more running out of arrows or bullets or potions). And since it is so easy to replenish your supplies, you don't have to carry so much with you into battle. This allows you to free up more inventory slots for your after-battle plunder.
4. You will find, from battles and hiding places, special items here that you cannot get elsewhere.

BAD THINGS

1. There are many quests here that take a long time to solve.
2. There are many buildings to investigate, which takes an even longer time to complete.
3. And there are many NPC's to talk to which will take forever if you talk to all the Commoners, Nobelmen, Nobelwomen, etc.
4. If you try to do it all, it can be quite tedious (try doing everything and taking notes and making maps for a quest guide if you don't believe me). The exploring just seems to go on and on and on.